On Monday I was speaking at the annual conference for the UK Association of Graduate Recruiters (AGR). It reinforced my impression that a strange thing is happening in the economy. Everyone in business seems to be talking about recession, yet employers are still forecasting severe skills shortages, and recruitment professionals are busy!
Unfortunately as we look around the world we find that most employers’ reflex response to the skills shortage is ‘more of the same’: Search harder in the limited talent pool, and compete by paying more. In India, China and Russia, executives said their #1 challenge was “inability to meet salary expectations”. What’s needed? In our view, a complete re-think:
1. First we need to re-think what we mean by talent, and therefore how we build effective organisations. Is talent held by an individual, or by a community? Are we looking for the right things? What happened to all that rhetoric of “hire for will, train for skill”? And what kind of talent will best support the growth of organisations that contribute both to the economies and to the wider societies in which they operate?
2. Secondly we need to re-think where we look for talent. Some employers are discovering niches of talent in unusual places: India’s largest private-sector bank, for example, discovered that by moving its focus away from the top universities and business schools, they could tap into a large pool of talent from India’s ‘second-tier’ cities. It required a totally different approach, but in a nation where annual staff turnover rates can be as high as 90% they say they believe they can make themselves “attrition proof”.
Together, Tomorrow’s Company, Career Innovation and Heidrick & Struggles, working closely with Caroline Waters (Director of People and Policy at BT) and other leading thinkers and practitioners, will be taking forward this agenda in a new programme which builds on Tomorrow’s Global Company: challenges and choices – Tomorrow’s Global Talent.
We look forward to keeping you up to date and to seek your engagement as we take the programme forwards
Jonathan Winter is the Director and Founder of the Career Innovation Group