Dive Brief:
- "People problems" are causing CEOs to lose sleep, according to a new report by The Predictive Index (PI). The 156 company chiefs, presidents and chairpersons surveyed for the Annual CEO Benchmarking Report 2019 cited talent optimization and strategy development as their top-ranking challenges.
- Four of the CEOs' five biggest challenges relate to talent optimization, the report revealed. Almost two-thirds of CEOs said that employee-related expenses account for at least half of their overall costs. Nearly 70% of CEOs said they need help with talent-related strategies, like developing leaders, worker performance and pre-hire selection. Respondents said their biggest weaknesses were holding employees accountable and firing employees who underperform.
- Respondents said their top talent optimization challenges are finding the right talent, aligning workers with talent strategy, getting the maximum performance out of people and creating a positive work environment.
Dive Insight:
CEOs in The Predictive Index report aren't the only ones tossing and turning over talent optimization problems: company heads in a global Conference Board survey said that attracting and retaining talent, along with a possible recession, are their biggest worries for 2019. An XpertHR poll named finding high-quality talent HR's biggest challenge for 2019. Gartner's Emerging Risks Survey goes so far as identifying the talent shortage as a top emerging business risk. The research is telling; talent optimization may be employers' biggest pain point in 2019.
HR leaders already recognize the challenges they face in recruiting, hiring and retaining quality candidates, which can be a first step toward resolving the talent shortage. HR leaders also know that the traditional ways of finding talent no longer work. Employers are addressing the problem in a number of ways, including expanding their talent pools to consider candidates they might have overlooked before, hiring contract or temporary workers, offering flexible schedules and work options, providing career development opportunities, and offering benefits that applicants value.
