‘Managing talent’ identified as top global challenge by the largest ever study on talent management conducted by The Boston Consulting Group
Global Survey of 4,741 Executives in 83 Countries, Conducted by The Boston Consulting Group and the World Federation of Personnel Management Associations, Identifies four critical issues in India and China: managing talent, improving leadership development, becoming a learning organization and managing work-life balance
Bengaluru, June 19, 2008: Managing talent is the most critical human resources (HR) challenge worldwide and will remain at or near the top of executive agendas in every region and industry for the foreseeable future, according to a new global study conducted by The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and the World Federation of Personnel Management Associations (WFPMA).
The report Creating People Advantage: How to Address HR Challenges Worldwide Through 2015, which is based on a global survey of 4,741 executives in 83 countries, found that managers also rated improving leadership development and managing work-life balance as urgent priorities. The report provides rankings and analyses of 17 HR challenges in seven major regions of the world and suggests specific actions to address those issues.
This is the largest study of its kind ever conducted by a consultancy firm. In India The Boston Consulting Group partnered with Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) to conduct the survey. India was the third largest response group with 174 responses.
“India is no different than other countries in some challenges such as the need to manage talent and developing leadership. However India does not face the problems of demographics like many other countries. What is also different in India to some extent is the confidence of companies in being able to deal with most of these issues, possibly coming from our experience in managing talent in IT and other industries. However you look at it, the issue to people advantage is going to be the most critical one to address locally and globally for continued growth and success”, says Vikram Bhalla, Partner & Director, The Boston Consulting Group.
Managing talent ranked as the most important HR challenge in 9 of 17 countries analyzed in depth, including the United States, Australia, Singapore, Japan, and the United Kingdom, and was at least in the top three in 14 of the 17 countries—a reflection of increasing globalization and competition. To help address this challenge, executives from all regions expect their companies to boost global sourcing of talented employees. Although few companies today are moving businesses to new locations to access people, executives expect this to be the most rapidly growing HR trend through 2015.
Other Challenges: Improving Leadership and Work-Life Balance
Improving leadership also ranked as a top three HR challenge in 10 of the 17 focus countries, including developed nations such as the United States and Japan as well as emerging markets such as China and India.
Managing work-life balance was rated a key future challenge in every region except the Pacific Region and a top-three priority in Argentina and Chile, Brazil, Canada, India, Italy,
Singapore, and South Africa. Flexible work arrangements were the cornerstone of almost all work-life balance initiatives. Worldwide, more than 60 percent of executives said that their companies already offered flexible working hours, and nearly 80 percent said that they
planned to do so by 2015. Offering part-time work emerged as the second-most popular future action by employers.
Disparate Views on Demographic Risks
While some issues were nearly universally important, others varied widely across geographic locations. Managing demographics, for example, was the fourth-highest priority overall, but executives in different countries offered strongly varying assessments of its importance. Those in the United States, Canada, Australia, and much of Europe (particularly Germany, France, and Italy) rated it a pressing issue. By contrast, Japanese executives, who have been grappling with the effects of an aging work force for years, did not rank it as a key HR priority.
About the Methodology of the Study
BCG and the European Association for Personnel Management (EAPM) conducted the Web survey in Europe through January 2007, receiving 1,355 responses from HR and other executives in 27 European countries. In conjunction with that survey, during May 2007, we interviewed 102 senior executives in Europe. Between September and November 2007, a global Web survey was conducted in cooperation with the WFPMA, eliciting an additional 3,386 responses from participants in 56 countries. This survey was rounded out with 118 interviews with executives from those countries. In all, the two Web surveys elicited 4,741 responses from 83 countries, and BCG conducted 220 interviews with senior executives.
