The War for Talent has been talked about since the early 2000's but with the recession and slow growth, many industries didn't even perceive it, but heading into 2020, I think most will agree it is pervasive and real.
Causes include a combination of several factors including the following:
- Cultural factors which lead many away from STEM careers,
- The precipitous decline, over the last few decades, in the quality of education especially secondary education dropping from the best to below most developed countries,
- The accelerated retirements of baby boomers and
- Other demographic issues.
Newer technology which enable better choices in talent management help but they don’t' fix the supply problem. Having said that, there is a new realization occurring at many organizations we deal with, that there needs to be more aggressive strategies and tactics to deal with the what will be an ongoing supply challenge for quality labor whether it's senior management or the lowest levels in the organization.
As managers adjust to this new reality, we see a new mentality developing to focus on each stage of the employee lifecycle with more effective metrics, with more purposeful processes, with tighter more valuable relationships and networks and certainly with more management attention. This includes the initial selection decision and the process of onboarding the employee on through to the exiting process and providing better understanding of the employee journey for continuous performance improvement.
For some creative ways companies are responding, click here for this WSJ article (subscription required to see entire article)
One of the most difficult challenges managers face is choosing the right people and understanding how to get them to perform at their best. During the last 12 years of our experience, we have found no other tool except the Harrison Assessment that enables this kind of capability with incredible accuracy and insight.
