A panel discussion on “Entering the Human Age” at the World Economic Forum in Davos last week provided fascinating insights on the challenges corporations face in leveraging human potential.
Jeffrey A Joerres, Manpower Chairman and CEO, calls it “Talentism”. In the past, Joerres says, companies needed access to capital to move ahead and grow their businesses; as this process evolves, we will see talent and human potential replace available capital as the new dominant resource. In shifting ideological tectonics, capitalism is evolving into “talentism”, and so we will see power and choice shifting firmly towards the hands of the talent-filled individual.
Before the discussion, Manpower announced that the company has identified that the world is now entering the Human Age, where employers will be awakened to the power of humans as future drivers of economic growth. While previous areas were defined by the materials that transformed them – stone, iron and bronze, then by ever-evolving technology – industry, space and information, in the Human Age access to key talent will become the key competitive differentiator. It will matter less if countries and companies can access capital, and more if they can attract and retain the talent they need to win.
“Those individuals with the skills and the talent are actually changing the swagger in their step,” says Joerres. “When there is so much global competition, every person has to be very good. Employers need to work with their people to unleash their full spectrum of skills, engaging them on a human level and retaining those high-quality people to succeed in the new age.”
The point may seem dramatic, but it is indeed the new reality. Rapid change in emerging economies and the breakneck pace of technological evolution means that skills are quickly becoming outdated. In many countries around the world, including most Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries and China, an ageing population and disengaged youth are putting a further squeeze on available talent now and will do so in future.
For example, from 2011, 10,000 baby-boomers will turn 65 every day for the next 19 years. According to Manpower’s most recent Talent Shortage survey of more than 35,000 employers across 36 countries, almost a third are struggling to fill jobs they desperately need to in order to succeed.
Joerres says as the global economy shifts into recovery, we are seeing huge growth centred on developing economies, meaning the demand for specific skills and behaviour is outstripping supply. Unfortunately, this exact talent is becoming increasingly difficult to find, creating a mismatch between the talent that is available and that needed by employers. That is why the apparent paradox of high levels of unemployment and job vacancies can co-exist.
With the Human Age accentuated by demographic shifts such as ageing workforces, worsening talent mismatches, the collaborative power of fast-evolving technologies and the need for companies to do more with less, the panelists agreed that having an adequate talent pipeline is as challenging as it is critical.
The panel also focused on the problem of long-term unemployment, which is adding to the imbalance between the talent needed and the talent available because skills deteriorate when a person is out of work for an extended period of time. Collaboration is the key to tackling this problem, but individuals must ensure they commit to lifelong learning to get ahead in the Human Age. “It’s the biggest challenge ever to put unemployed people back to work,” says Sharan Burrow, General Secretary of the International Confederation of Trade Unions. “We’ve got to invest in jobs and investment in jobs needs to be blended with investment in skills.”
Frank Brown, Dean of INSEAD, says the so-called “industry migrants” – workers who are moving to a different industry – are one key to solving the skills mismatch but they need adequate transition support from employers. “This is about transitioning from one industry to another,” he says.
Don Tapscott, chairman of Moxie Insight, says that protectionist attitudes to immigration would exacerbate the talent mismatch because it will make it difficult for individuals with the required skills to relocate to where they are needed. He also added that more entrepreneurs need to be assisted to create more jobs. “We should be encouraging entrepreneurship because most 80 per cent of new jobs come from companies that are five years old,” he says.
Kris Gopalakrishnan, CEO of Infosys, says the velocity of change in the Human Age also poses massive challenges for the individual. “The nature of work and the areas in which work is being done are changing. Today, a person will probably change jobs five or six times. If an employee doesn’t have the skills, they’re at a disadvantage.”
The need for “talentism”, it seems, has never been so desperate.
