The top emerging risk for organisations is accessing enough of the right talent to grow their businesses. Companies are experiencing the challenges of the most competitive candidate market in history accelerated by the three forces of globalisation, demographics and pipelines. The pace of globalisation is faster than any of us have experienced and this is impacting a change in the global workforce. This includes companies in developing markets such as China, India and Brazil which are also vying for the best talent.
Demographics are having a huge impact on the nature of the workforce. The sweet spot for appointing a senior executive is the pool of leaders who are in their 30s and 40s. This age bracket is diminishing. At the upper end of the age bracket are those baby boomers who are approaching and entering retirement age and leaving big gaps in workforce experience and capability.
The pace of business change presents huge challenges in identifying the new talent required to address top business issues such as digitalisation. This means a need for companies to be smarter at how they develop pipelines of future leaders. The following three approaches will assist with developing pipelines of future talent.
- Hire for Potential.
- Invest in the top performers –superior talent is significantly more productive than average performers.
- Develop risk mitigation plans for the most talent critical areas
Organisations which learn how to identify, hire, engage and retain high performing leaders who are equipped to succeed in fast changing and dynamic environments will gain competitive advantage.
