Questions Companies Need to Ask About Critical Jobs and Talent

Anticipating waves of retirements from baby boomers and skills gaps in the workforce, Deloitte Research predicts that critical talent will become scarcer. To ensure their organizations have an adequate supply of high-performing talent for important jobs, Deloitte says CEOs should ask company human resources leaders the following questions:

4Which segments of the workforce create the value for which we are most rewarded in the marketplace?

4Which areas of our business will be most impacted by impending waves of retirement? What are we doing to prepare successors? What impact will anticipated retirement have on the skills and productivity necessary to meet future demand?

4In what areas is the talent market heating up (i.e., demand will outpace supply)? Which segments of our workforce will be most impacted? What are the potential top-line and bottom-line implications?

4What skills will we need over the next five years that we don’t currently possess? How will we create that capacity? What happens to our business if we don’t?

4What is our turnover within critical areas? How much is it costing us? In customers? In productivity? In innovation? In quality? What are we doing to resolve the root cause?

4Are we actively developing talent portfolios or workforce plans that will help us to understand and communicate the financial consequences of talent decisions on our business?

Source: It’s 2008: Do You Know Where Your Talent Is? Copyright 2004 Deloitte Development

Workforce Management, December 12, 2005, p. 14 — Subscribe Now!