A look at a list of bestselling business books suggests that we are a nation obsessed with leaders – be they heroic ones, authentic ones or ones that resonate. Maybe it’s a simple case of wanting what we can’t have, because the single biggest finding to come from research into talent management by the Management Consultancies Association and HayGroup is that companies don’t think they will have enough leaders in the future.

Most of those surveyed for the report, Tomorrow’s People: Managing Talent in a Diverse World, were agreed on what is likely to impact on business in the next ten years – collaborative working, multina-tional projects and flexible working. They are also clear that successful companies will need to be agile (able to respond quickly to changing needs), customer focused and innovative. However, just 13 per cent think that talent management will be the single most important characteristic of a successful organisation in the future and only 36 per cent say that their organisation has a formal talent management process in place.

The survey of more than 150 HR, talent and diversity managers found that 70 per cent think that they will have to manage talent and diversity differently if they are going to be effective in an increasingly competitive labour market and 61 per cent think that talent management is integral to their organisation’s long-term survival. Yet when presented with the statement “I am confident that our current talent management processes will deliver the leaders we need in the future,” only 23 per cent agree. This is perhaps because in many organisations there is some confusion over the identity of the high performers – only half know who their high performers are. This despite being reasonably confident about their ability to hire and develop staff.

Fiona Czerniawska, the research author, says: “It isn’t so much attracting people that is the problem, companies think they’re getting good at that, it is more about how they progress people. They are having to throw the net more widely to pull in potential leaders from different parts of the business and different population groups – ethnic minorities and women with children, for instance. At the same time they are . . . taking more stringent views on what they require. They want people who can work with ambiguity and collaboratively across functions and countries.”

Czerniawska says that one thing is abundantly clear: one talent management process doesn’t fit all. Companies need to bring talent and diversity management closer together. They need to balance exclusive talent management – pulling in people from across the organisation – with inclusive diversity – targeting and tailoring recruitment and development towards certain groups of people.

The low-down

36 per cent of companies have a formal talent management process in place

37 per cent don’t think that the process will yield leaders

50 per cent say that talent management isn’t taken as seriously as budgeting

70 per cent say that their companies will need to manage talent and diversity differently to succeed in the future

Most think that more leaders will be promoted internally and fewer hired externally in future

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