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The recent 2007 Talent Shortage Survey published by Manpower has concluded that 41 percent of employers are finding it difficult to fill specific roles within their organisations. |
The study, which includes 37,000 employers in 27 countries, identifies similarities and differences between labour trends across the world. It concludes that sales representatives, skilled manual trade people and technicians were among the most difficult roles to fill. While sales representatives topped the list in 8 countries, including
New Zealand
and the
United States
, skilled manual labourers were highest in demand in
Europe
and
Australia
.
Other shortages varied between countries, for example teachers were only listed among the top ten most difficult roles to fill in the
United States.
Of course, this information should not be taken lightly. The shortages are having significant effects in some industries and geographies, with rising salaries in some job groups and increasing movement of workers across borders. Conversely, they also present opportunities for smart employers to better differentiate themselves in these tight markets, and hence to gain relative advantage over their employment competitors.
Talent shortages are one of the imperatives driving employers to think differently about their workforce, and to introduce strategic planning techniques - not the only influence, but an important one, and the Manpower study may have interesting facts and figures for your industry and geography for you to use in your workforce plans. Feel free to contact us if you'd like more information on how to use skill shortage information in workforce planning.
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Riding the Waves of Culture | | |
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In a recent conversation about the future workforce with the VP of Europe, Middle East and Africa for a large global employer, he told us that he has all of his managers read Riding the Waves of Culture: Understanding Diversity in Global Business, so that they will get an insight into how management varies from country to country - and this is important information for people planning global workforces. |
It draws on substantial research on several different ways in which people in different cultures behave differently (such as in time management, the according of status, group/individual attitudes, etc) and compares them in a great deal of detail. Interestingly, one of the stories used to illustrate the issues is a "total pay" strategy being rolled out globally...and the book discusses the issues raised in various countries by such a strategy. It's a very clear example for HR practitioners. Even more interestingly for HR, there is an appendix which includes the same survey on which the entire book is based, done on members of the Society of Human Resource Management - so you can see what the "culture" of HR is compared to the rest of the world!
This is not a new book, nor is it groundbreaking, but there is a lot of very useful, thoroughly researched information here that can help us to understand why some attraction and retention strategies work better in some countries than others. If you are building global workforce plans, it's definitely worth a read.
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"New opinions are always suspected, and usually opposed, without any other reason but because they are not already common."
John Locke
English Philosopher
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Don Tapscott's new book pushes for collaboration
US Companies not responding to changing demographics of ageing workforce
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