HR Leader of the Fortnight - Mr. Justin D

The War for Talents

McKinsey Co., conducted survey in the Global market in the year 2007 and found that there will be heavy fight between corporate across the globe for Talent. This corporate warfare is expected to continue for 20 more years.

It is also found that by 2015 all other developed countries will have demand for Young and Fresh talents to fulfill their Manpower Requirement. The reason:  most of the developed countries & the present Talent Rich countries account for high percentage of ageing population. They would reach their retirement age and create a vacuum / demand for fresh talents. Certain studies have analyzed these situations and suggested to implement and practice Employee Engagements / Employee Empowerments / Talent Enhancements.

Demographers expect India's population to surpass the population of China by 2030 and be the number one population. At that time, India is expected to have a population of more than 1.53 billion while China's population is forecast to be at its peak of 1.46 billion. At present nearly 40 percent of Indians are below the age of 15 years old. By 2015, India will have youthful Talents with adequate literacy, work experience and focused trade / subject matter expertise.

The need of the hour for the Corporate world is to acclimatize initiatives to Retain available Top 20% Talents, Provide opportunity to 2^nd in-line / mid-level profiles, optimize Training and Development initiatives to all talents to enhance their skills to meet the imminent challenges, help employees to foresee opportunities to grow and communicate to employees on their futuristic approaches to achieve the Organisational goals. 

Who are these Talented Resources or Top 20% Talents? What is that the Corporate World expects out of them? What does India have in store for the Global Job Market? These are the questions which would give us an insight into what the Leaders / Professionals / Educationalists / Industrialists, expected to do to these raw talents.

Talented Resource are those who have the right kind of culture, out-of-the-box thinkers, who can think on their feet, problem solvers, have better ideas, execute those ideas better, and even help develop other people better. These Talent augmentation demands a greater attention, focus and some special behaviors from Senior Leaders like, Professionals / Educationalists / Industrialists.

What lies ahead for India? If what we learn and hear is true, India will possess the highest Young Talents in the World by 2015. India is certain and expected to have the energy and power by way of manpower / workforce to fuel the global economy.

Considering this, will we be able to gather Young Talent energies and powers and market them in the Global Job Market? Will we be able to produce the right professionals for the foreseen demand? Do we have the capability to produce right person for the right job? Can we turn these Young Talent’s energy and ambitions into employable / engage able manpower / workforce?  Looking at the scenario, we will have the quantity; will they possess the expected quality / skills / capabilities to cater to the Global needs or World sourcing?

We have a big picture in our front. A high demand for Manpower / Workforce that is effective thinkers, innovative, energetic, ambitious, committed, hard working, givers and help their peers, colleagues, teams, Organisations and its stakeholders to achieve its objectives.

Let us look at the ground reality of challenges faced by the Global Market in finding workforce at early 2000s. In China it was Tough to get Middle Managers. As mentioned earlier, Ageing Population has occupied the top bracket of the corporate ladder. There were less of young talents in the market and corporate world was deprived of inducting fresh / young / youthful talents into their teams.

In Europe, the challenge was not about their youth population but on the youth’s choices towards education and vocational training. There was less number of educated and trained manpower. The employed population was found committed, dedicated and hard working. Employers had to hire the available resources and spend time, money and energy in enriching their talent pool.

India though had a different challenge all together. Employers were given less option and time to play with the available workforce. Were forced to face high percentage of Attrition and get adapted to the situation. Employers were alarmed and had to adhere to guerrilla warfare tactics to maintain their talent pool, deliver and satisfy customers globally. Employees were on high demand, with high cost and in addition, relegate supply of relevant talent. This paved way for employers to strategize their talent hunt and be innovative in approach to the employee needs and demands. Employees on the other hand became competitive in talents / skills / competencies. They realized their need to enhance their capabilities to invite better opportunities with heavy pay packets.

The question which comes across my mind is How to make Raw Talents from school-to-work capable?

• Student’s ability to network with Professionals visiting their Institutes / Campuses. This has the key for the Students to learn and understand their Employability Proportion.
• Providing adequate opportunities for the students to understand the market reality.
• Higher Campus Corporate relationships.
• Counseling and mentoring the students in goal setting and aspiration management.
• Training programs to inhabit the corporate best practices and global culture to avoid cultural shocks and habituated at school to the corporate behaviors.  
• Platform to showcase their talents to the corporate world.
• Imbibe the corporate needs in the course curriculum.
• Nurture healthy competitiveness at campus.
• Encourage value added programs / subjects / courses for the students to have options and better their career chances. 

 
 
 

Mr. Justin. D

Senior Manager – HR

Intergraph Consulting Private Limited