Issue link: http://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/94708
Technicalities Talent in the Driver's Seat Organisations must leverage their brightest to keep pace with business transformation. By Tony Filippone, Phil Fersht, Diane Youden, and Kevin Pennington Behind the product design and technological innovations that catapult organisations into well-respected industry leaders are managements' investments in the assets that create tomorrow: people. People are the force behind Google's rapid growth from search engine leader to software and service giant, with products like AdWords, Android, Gmail, and Chrome. Apple's award-winning design genius is overshadowed by its supply chain management discipline, which enables the company to produce discretely and ship millions of newly-launched products to 35 countries within days of their announcement. Today, talent truly differentiates firms, and our research shows that firms are pressured by the combination of shifting global economics and changing talent requirements. As companies embrace globalisation, technology, and competitive pressures (see sidebar), local labor markets are rapidly evolving and Figure 1: Factors Affecting the Global Workforce changing—and the skill shortages are pushing human resources into the frontlines of acquiring, developing, and retaining talent. HfS Research surveyed 436 human resources executives to understand the factors affecting companies' workforces (see Figure 1), and findings confirmed that worker collaboration and new technologies skills were ranked as the most important factors (both 58 per cent), followed by skill and talent shortages (56 per cent). These factors carry several implications. Global business dynamics have stretched the availability of talent, particularly in developing countries. As talent markets tighten, costs have increased, and limited availability has impacted the effectiveness of corporate strategies. In PwC's 15th Annual Global CEO Survey, 43 per cent of respondents felt talent costs had accelerated faster than anticipated (see Figure 2). More importantly, the survey also found that 31 per [40] HRO TODAY GLOBAL | FALL 2012