Leaders need to source talent more strategically

A study by management consultancy Accenture has found more than two-thirds of executives are deeply worried about the threat of not being able to recruit and retain the best talent.

The survey of more than 850 top executives from the US, UK, Italy, France, Germany, Spain, Japan and China found worries about talent management were growing, with 67 per cent this year putting it second only behind competition as the key threat, up from six out of 10 last year.

Nearly half of British executives were worried about the effect of low employee morale, with nearly a third pointing to another talent management issue, instability at the top, as a major concern.

Just under half of the UK sample were concerned about their ability to maintain a corporate culture, with 46 per cent worried about managing remote staff efficiently.

Globally, nearly two-thirds of those polled put competition at the top of their list of five key threats. The health of the global economy and an inability to attract and retain the best talent came joint second, followed by company reputation (62 per cent) and the inability to develop new products and services (just over half).

“In today’s multi-polar world – where economic power is distributed among multiple centres of economic and business activity – the war for talent has gone global,” said Mark Foster, Accenture’s group chief executive, management consulting and integrated markets.

“Additionally, new technologies are transforming the nature of work, the skills demanded, the manner in which work is sourced globally and the ways in which people collaborate.

“Leading organisations must build capabilities to understand and source talent more strategically, based on clear definitions of skills gaps and needs for the future,” he added.