Firms 'struggle to find and keep right talent'

COMPANIES worldwide are struggling to recruit and keep the right people.

In a survey conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers this year, nearly 1,300 CEOs in 60 countries were asked about their priorities and how they are preparing for the future.

Talent emerged as one of the biggest issues facing the boardroom.

In South Africa in-depth interviews were held with 32 CEOs from leading listed and privately-owned companies.

More than half of South African CEOs confirmed that it was becoming more difficult to recruit workers in their industries, citing the supply of skilled candidates, changing skills needs and compensation expectations as the leading reasons for this.

A significant percentage of CEOs see the lack of skills as a major challenge to the growth of their businesses, with only a minority "very confident" that they will have access to the talent that they need over the next three years.

Gerald Seegers, director for human resources PwC Southern Africa, said CEOs were facing "talent crunch".

"It is a unique challenge - companies are struggling to find and keep the right talent when there are more educated people than ever before and a worldwide talent pool is available to them," he said.

Despite these challenges, 72% of South African and 85% of global CEOs remain confident that they will be able to access the talent they require to execute their companies' strategies in the next three years.

CEOs across all industries said it had become more difficult to find the skills they need, even industries within which retrenchments had taken place.

Globally, CEOs say they will change their strategies for managing talent.

However, only a handful has the intention of relocating operations to take account of the availability of talent.