When the recession fades — as it eventually must — is your company going to be able to find the people you need? It’s a question that makes a lot of HR managers nervous.
A new survey from Towers Watson indicates that companies’ ability to attract and retain key talent could throttle their efforts to thrive in the post-recession world.
More than half of the survey respondents worldwide (51%) cited the loss of talent in key skill areas as a workforce challenge that could hinder growth. Slightly fewer (49%) cited the lack of succession planning as a top challenge, while 38% noted concerns about attracting necessary talent.
Everybody’s concerned, but their worries vary from region to region.
North American companies are less concerned about loss of key talent than their counterparts in other regions, but are more concerned about levels of disengagement among employees.
In Asia Pacific, disengagement is not a major issue, but the inability to pay workers competitively is, reflecting the region’s fairly young and mobile workers, who are willing to change jobs frequently to advance their careers and raise their paychecks.
Respondents in Europe are more worried about the talent drain’s impact on management succession planning.
Have you started to chart a course for recruiting after the recession clouds lift? Tell us in the Comments section below.