Good people are still hard to find: ManpowerGroup

Source: ManpowerGroup infographic.

Globally, the top five talents that rarest are skilled trade positions (especially chefs, bakers, butchers, mechanics and electricians), sales representatives, engineers (mechanical, electrical and civil), technicians and drivers (particularly of heavy vehicles), says the US-based workforce expert ManpowerGroup.

In Singapore, the picture is quite different. With the exception of engineers which are also in the top five positions that are toughest to fill, the others are: accounting and finance talent, sales representatives, secretaries (including receptionists and administrative assistants), and marketing, public relations and communications specialists.

The findings are part of ManpowerGroup's annual Talent Shortage Survey (TSS), for which 41,700 hiring managers in 42 countries and territories were surveyed. Linda Teo, ManpowerGroup Singapore’s Country Manager says that of the 234 respondents in Singapore, 40% said that these are the positions hardest to fill. She attributed the shortage to “widespread restructuring that is sending tremors across sectors, with shocks being added from a tightening labour market”.

"At the same time, employers do not seem to show an urgency to put into place strategies not just to tackle the talent shortage but to stay ahead of the curve to find individuals to meet their business needs,” Teo said.

“Today, merely recruiting and placing candidates will not yield results. Employers need to encourage a learning culture among their employees and to get them to chart their own careers.”

Employers also need to explore untapped talent pools such as youth and older workers, and look to enhancing benefits, she said.

According to the TSS, key reasons for organisations’ difficulty in filling jobs include:

• Lack of available applicants – 35%
• Lack of technical competencies (hard skills) – 34%
• Lack of experience – 22% 
• Lack of workplace competencies (soft skills) – 17%, and 
• Looking for more pay than is offered – 13% 

The most likely consequences of a talent shortage are a reduced ability to serve clients (42%) and reduced competitiveness and productivity (42%). In addition, 30% expect an increase in employee turnover and 26% anticipate lower employee engagement and morale.

In Asia Pacific, nearly half of all employers report talent shortages (48%). Apart from Japan, where 83% of employers are facing challenges, lack of talent is also a concern in Hong Kong (65%) and Taiwan (57%). However, talent inadequacies are least likely to be a concern for mainland Chinese employers (24%) given the country’s huge population.

Source: ManpowerGroup infographic.

On the flipside, a global career survey of employees released in April by Right Management, the global career experts within the ManpowerGroup, signal a disconnect between employee aspirations and the performance demands of employers worldwide.

The Global Career Aspiration Survey finds that only one in 10 of employees defines career success as high performance and productivity. Nearly half - 45% - of respondents rank work-life balance as their No.1 career aspiration, and the top definition of workplace success is "enjoyment and happiness".

Teo said: “Understanding employee career motivations and aspirations is key to creating a high performance culture that motivates individuals to do their best work. When people have ongoing career conversations with their managers, they experience effective career development and are more likely to be engaged, motivated and ready to take on new challenges.”

The Global Career Aspiration Survey was commissioned by Right Management in Q4 2014 to better understand career motivations and how perceptions are shifting in the workplace. The survey included results from 1,225 respondents in countries such as Canada, the US, Australia, India and Singapore.

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LinkedIn offers advice on minimising talent mismatch

A global study by PwC commissioned by LinkedIn, the world’s largest professional network on the Internet, has included recommendations for professionals, employers, educators and government on poor talent adaptability – the inability for people to retrain for new skills or switch industries.

The study, Adapt to Survive, analyses interactions from LinkedIn’s network of 277 million professionals and information on 2,600 employers from PwC’s Saratoga database, a resource for people and performance metrics, to establish how 11 markets align talent with opportunity.

According to LinkedIn, professionals, employers, educators and governments can position themselves to minimise the possibility of talent mismatches. 
 
Professionals

The rise of social media and an increasingly connected global workforce means it’s never been easier for people to identify new opportunities, plan to develop the skills, and create a network that will allow them to transition into new roles. This could be as simple as staying up-to-speed with companies that might be hiring in your area, or identifying emerging sectors around the world that could present an opportunity for a dramatic career change.

Employers

Talent is the number one factor in competitive success for business, and businesses need to move faster to adapt to new market forces. An existing mismatch of talent in the wrong roles creates a window of opportunity for employers able to identify and attract the right talent to their organisation. 

Social media has made it possible to identify all the relevant candidates – both active and passive – many of whom may not be doing the jobs they want. Employers should use talent analytics to identify the hard and soft skills that are central to the business strategy today and in the future, allowing them to hire strategically.

Educators

Education never stops, and educators should be looking at what skills are in growing demand and which jobs are emerging in the global workforce. They should then adapt curricula so students are equipped with relevant skills when they leave formal education.

Governments

Governments should play an active role in shaping a national mindset that values, nurtures and rewards adaptability. They need to use the levers at their disposal such as employment and immigration laws, as well as proactively shaping education and training systems.

Talent mismatch costs global economy US$150 billion

A global study by PwC commissioned by LinkedIn, the world’s largest professional network on the Internet, reveals that poor talent adaptability – the inability for people to retrain for new skills or switch industries – is costing the global economy billions of dollars in lost productivity and leads to businesses wasting huge sums on avoidable recruitment costs.

The study, Adapt to Survive, analyses interactions from LinkedIn’s network of 277 million professionals and information on 2,600 employers from PwC’s Saratoga database, a resource for people and performance metrics, to understand which of 11 markets are better at aligning talent with opportunity.

The research found a strong correlation between the adaptability of the talent in a particular country and the performance of its companies. If markets were better at matching talent with the right opportunities, this could unlock as much as US$130 billion* of productivity in the markets studied, including US$65.6 billion in China. 

This lack of access to the right talent is driving up the cost of recruitment for employers today. The extended time taken to find the right candidates, and the increased likelihood of mismatched talent leaving prematurely are costing companies a further US$19.8 billion** in avoidable recruitment costs.
 
Each market is assigned a Talent Adaptability Score*** based on five key behavioural factors, and provides an indicator of a market’s ability to respond to future shifts in demand, rather than being a snapshot of current economic performance. Scores vary significantly by country (see table), with the Netherlands’ multilingual workforce and international business base placing it first in the ranking.

Emerging markets India and China have lower scores due to the existence of fewer mature sectors and their geographic size, which limits talent mobility.

Commenting on the findings, Michael Rendell, Partner, Global Head of HR Services practice at PwC, said: “Worldwide unemployment continues to rise while jobs remain unfilled, and CEOs are worried about a growing skills gap. The better employers and employees are at adapting to changing circumstances and aligning their skills with the available opportunities, the more productive organisations will become."

David Cohen, Senior Director of Sales, EMEA, added: “Countries increasingly differentiate themselves in the global marketplace via their human capital. Up until now, it’s been challenging for them to assess the skills, knowledge and experience of their workforces due to the dearth of professional data. We’re hopeful that countries will leverage the insights uncovered in Adapt to Survive to maximise the efficacy of their human capital and create more opportunities for their workforces.”


Country by country findings

Rank	Country	Talent Adaptability Score**	Lost Productivity Opportunity*	Avoidable Recruitment Costs*	Size of the prize*
1	Netherlands	85	-	-	-
2	UK	67	1.44 billion	0.43 billion	1.87
3	Canada	61	1.86 billion	0.11 billion	1.98
4	Singapore	57	0.22 billion	0.06 billion	0.29
5	US	57	29.34 billion	2.37 billion	31.71
6	Australia	52	3.65 billion	0.37 billion	4.02
7	France	41	3.23 billion	n/a billion	3.23
8	Germany	39	4.92 billion	n/a billion	4.92
9	Brazil	36	11.71 billion	0.07 billion	11.77
10	India	34	8.61 billion	0.38 billion	8.99
11	China	23	65.58 billion	16.02 billion	81.61
	TOTAL	-	130.56	19.81	150.38

*all figures US$
**scores are relative (a score of 100 would mean a #1 rank in each of five variables)

Read the full report here.

 *PwC first created a benchmark for adaptability based on five key variables - the Talent Adaptability Score - and then cross-referenced this score with the stated productivity of employers in each of the 11 markets through PwC’s Saratoga database of 2,600 employers. This allowed PwC to equate improvements in adaptability of each market’s workforce with increases in productivity. PwC have taken a conservative approach by asking “what productivity could be unlocked if everyone was as adaptable as the Netherlands? If you apply their adaptability to each of the 11 markets in this study, there is approximately US$130 billion of potential productivity to be gained.

**PwC's Saratoga database captures information on the amount of resignations that occur for people with less than one year of service. This is widely regarded as unwanted, and often avoidable turnover, indicative of a mistake during the recruiting process resulting in a poorly matched employee. Through the Saratoga database, PwC were able to estimate the number of new hires made in a country in one year, and then determine how many of these resigned within 12 months. PwC were also able to estimate how many hires would have resigned in the first year if they were performing as well as the Netherlands (4.8% first year resignation rate). By taking the difference between the actual number currently happening, and the better performing number, then PwC could calculate the number of 'excess' hires in a given year. Combining this with the cost per hire allows PwC to calculate the savings potential in the 11 markets analysed of US$19.8 billion.

***The Talent Adaptability Score used LinkedIn profiles and metrics from PwC Saratoga to assess each country in five areas:

1. The promotion rate (scaled to take account of growth in the home market) – which indicates the reward offered by employers as the value of talent increases
2. The market vacancy rate – the lower the vacancy rate, the better the fit of talent to available jobs
3. Average number of profile positions – the number of positions that professionals list on their LinkedIn profile, which is an indication of the liquidity within the given market
4. Average number of employers – the average number of employers each individual has had, in any sector, which is a proxy for liquidity of opportunity
5. The industry switching rate – the rate at which professionals switch between different sectors, which shows their willingness to apply their skills to different areas.