Dive Brief:

• When attracting talent, leadership quality matters, according to a recent global survey by the McQuaig Institute, a talent management assessment provider. Unfortunately, the 2016 McQuaig Global Talent Recruitment Report found that employers with very effective leaders are in the clear minority.
• Employers with effective leadership are more likely to provide new managers with leadership training (79%) and interview training (53%), and more likely to have a succession management program (73%). The bad news? Only 25% of HR professionals surveyed believe their leaders are “very effective.”
• Online job boards were the most used channel for finding candidates, but employers with effective leaders were more likely to use employee referrals and social networking sites, according to the survey.

Dive Insight:

The survey, which polled 438 global HR professionals online regarding their recruiting activities and the state of the talent market, also found HR leaders reported finding better quality candidates from referrals and networking versus job board postings.

The results seem to indicate that effective leadership has a meaningful impact on a company's ability to attract and retain talent. But the majority of HR professionals don't feel their leaders are much more than adequate, says Ian Cameron, managing director at The McQuaig Institute.

“Succession management, leadership development and hiring practices are the paths to fixing this crisis,” Cameron says.