Recruiting Top Talent at the Top of CEO Agendas

 There's innovation, which is what you think it is—change, paradigm shifts, modernization, all that. Then there's Innovation, which I think is something more akin to an ethos or spirit. It's this all-encompassing notion of innovation that's on the minds of CEOs this year. And how do they plan on achieving total Innovation? By finding and developing top talent. Which is why recruitment and retention lies at the top of most CEO agendas, according to a new report by PricewaterhouseCoopers. 

A global survey of 1201 CEOs in 69 countries found that CEOs fear that there is a dearth of creative and skilled people out there who understand the fast-growing emerging markets well enough to compete there successfully. The learning curve is steep, after all, and given the poor job market the last few years, it will be difficult to recruit and retain top talent as recovery progresses and the war for talent begins. More worrisome for CEOs is that the future best and brightest will necessarily be young, of a different worldview, more "mercurial," and thus harder to capture and retain.   

"Generation Y expects to work in communities of mutual interest and passion—not structured hierarchies," according to the report. "Consequently, people management strategies will have to change so they look more like Facebook and less like the pyramid structures that we are used to."

But back to the shortage of talent equipped to work in emerging markets (China, Asian and Latin America, mostly). Who will be valuable to them? Those with experience in more than one country, obviously, but perhaps only in the short term, according to the report. Long term, CEOs know they will have to develop talent locally, as only locals can grasp the foreign culture easily and manage their employees with the level of independence needed to flourish.

Which sectors have the most demand for new hires this year? That would be chemicals, followed by technology, automotive, then industrial manufacturing, according to the report. The sector with the least anticipated growth is entertainment and media.

What the PwC report shows is that globally CEO confidence is back up to pre-recession levels, and with China leading the growth, company priorities are shifting towards talent management.  For job seekers or future MBA students, understanding the global skills gaps and knowing which sectors are planning to hire are in the next few years, these are very useful sources of information.  

[Global CEO Survey]

Related:

Do You Know What Innovation Means?

PwC: CEOs Confident, Eager for Talent