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Market Outlook Talent Forecast How top performers will call the shots in 2013. By Byrne Mulrooney Along with 15 members of our company's leadership team from across the globe, we have debated the changing talent scene and collabourated to forecast the landscape for the coming year, based on the trends, developments, and challenges faced in 2012 as the industry has continued to evolve. We see trends that will shape the recruitment and talent management industry globally in 2013. 1. Building the internal business case. Companies are already asking the insource versus outsource question more than they have historically, in order to make more sense of what outsourcing can mean for them and to build an internal business case to present to the key decision makers and executive boards. As budgets continue to be scrutinised during 2013, organisations will increasingly ask for assistance to make outsourcing work for them in their specific situation, thinking more broadly about the bigger picture rather than concentrating on the detail of each individual tactic. 2. Balancing short-term challenges with long-term positioning. An on-going trend that will become more acute in 2013 is the need for companies to balance shorter-term financial challenges with longer-term strategic needs. One such example includes the imperative to build a brand that can attract talent over the long term. Most companies are facing immediate financial pressures sustained by the global economic conditions. The United States has been experiencing significant challenges since the recession began in earnest in 2008 and many countries in Europe are suffering severe financial stress. Even hyper-growth countries such as Brazil, Russia, India, and China are not growing nearly as fast as they were three or five years ago. Many companies are finding it hard to dedicate the time, resources, and budget necessary to develop and execute a talent strategy that will continue to attract colleagues in the short and long term. But in the next 12 months we will see organisations starting to put strategies in place to overcome this as their focus shifts to recovery and growth. 3. Global complexity in workforce planning. The globalisation of workforce planning is a trend we will see more of in 2013 as organisations start to—through desire and necessity—think [34] HRO TODAY GLOBAL | SPRING 2013 about their talent more globally. Most organisations have locations where they have very mature operations (the U.S. and Western Europe). But as companies expand internationally, and different markets present more attractive business opportunities, they have to think about their workforce and talent in this way too. Emerging markets such as India, China, and Latin America are driven by different trends and each has their own talent issues, which will add a layer of complexity for businesses addressing workforce planning on a global scale. This complexity needs to be supported by the right tools and strategies if businesses are going to succeed. 4. Consumer-grade employer branding. More and more businesses will start to treat candidates like true consumers, drawing on the practiced arts of product-orientated companies to attract and engage talent globally. It is consumerism that will underpin the most successful employer branding strategies in 2013 and beyond. Smart employers are recognising that many of the strategies and tactics used by consumer brands to attract and maintain a relationship with customers can be applied to the candidate experience. 5. The new talent battlefields. The war for talent, which was once ferocious and dominant, will become more subtle and focused in 2013. Businesses will not hire the volume of talent they once did, but against the current economic backdrop and the drive for growth, they will be focused on hiring critical talent. Therefore, in the on-going war for talent, we will see the emergence of some new, fiercely fought battlefields in 2013. One such battlefield is the fight for talent in tier two and three cities within emerging markets. Organisations are looking to expand into smaller cities, but getting talent to relocate—or finding it in the area before a competitor snaps them up—is a significant hurdle. For some businesses, the success of their longterm business strategy rests on winning this battle. The key will be enticing people with a good career framework by beginning their career in the tier two and three cities, then moving them to the tier one cities as they mature. Right now in the emerging markets, the war for talent is so fierce that it's the candidates and employees that have all the options—and organisations will need to be smart in how the target them.