1  2  3  4 

The war for talent: Fact or fiction? - Talent management challenges

PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) has its finger on the pulse of talent management challenges through a variety of research and benchmarking tools.

The PwC Annual Global CEO survey of April 2007 indicated the following:

• 70 percent of business leaders are concerned that they lack the right talent to execute business strategies.
• 50 percent of CEOs leave within two years of appointment and globally between 40 percent and 70 percent of all senior executives will be eligible for retirement within the next five years.
• There is a decrease in the Key Leader Age group (35 to 44) by 15 percent.
• In the Lietch skills review, published in December 2006, PwC presented, amongst others the following results:
  • by 2020, 1 million people in the UK will lack functional literacy skills;
  • by 2010, six million people in the UK will lack functional numeracy skills; and
  • by 2010, 11 percent of people over 25 years old will lack the equivalent of a basic school leaving qualification.

Such challenges could be worse in Africa where there is inadequate infrastructure to develop and support the growth of skills. Availability and development of skills continue to be on the national and private sector agenda in South Africa. Skills are needed for various reasons, ranging from the fulfilment of immediate capacitating of business, to implementation of long term projects. The situation is made worse with economists having negative sentiments on the future of the South African economy, and challenges leading up to the 2010 World Cup.

Talent management has become one of the key risks of managing business in a world that is now localised in most aspects, yet continues to keep its geographic location. This calls for a new breed of successful HR practitioners who will ensure that talent is managed in a holistic manner supporting of business objectives without sacrificing the personal aspirations of employees.

PwC’s approach to talent management is that of an integrated solution that starts from the business strategy and incorporates all aspects of the integrated HR solutions. The approach to talent management should be integrated together with Organisational Design, Organisational Development and other HR support interventions and its success measured through the organisational score card. PricewaterhouseCoopers uses Saratoga to measure and benchmark a variety of human capital metrics, including talent management.

1  2  3  4