© Acertitude 2016

The c-suite’s guide to winning the war for talent

FEBRUARY 2016

executiveresults

Elevating

acert itude.comCopyright © 201 6

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INTRODUCTION

Do your talent strategies give you acompetitive advantage in one of themost dynamic global labor marketsin history?

Despite widespread acknowledgement that talent is key to organizational competitiveness, the process for successfully hiring, integrating, and retaining the very best executives continues to elude many of today’s top business leaders.

of CEOs say they recognize the need to change their talent strategies.1

93%

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THE ISSUE

Organizations face increasing risks in executive hiring and selection. Globalization, changes in workforce demographics, and shifting attitudes toward workplace engagement all play a role.

72% CEOs concerned about geo-political uncertainty.2

63% CEOs concerned about availability of leadership talent1

US workforce reaching retirement age by 2020335%

HOW CAN YOUR TALENT

STRATEGY DRIVE SUCCESS?

What can organizations and their retained executive search partners do to address the shortcomings of historical search models, adapt to a quickly changing global landscape, and chart their course for success in the pursuit of top-tier executive talent?

Learn 8 action steps that are key elements of an effective talent management strategy to transform results.8

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1.

KNOWYOURBENCH

An ongoing executive evaluation process is the cornerstone of leveraging talent to advance organizational goals. The key in today’s environment is to evolve beyond succession planning to fluid concepts of “work needing to be done.”

To link strategy, structure, and talent, ask:

• Where are we going as a business?

• How do we need to organize resources to pursue our strategy?

• What skills or competencies are required to win?

• Do we have the capability in our “talent pool” to fill the required

roles?

Then address the gaps.

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2.

PROACTIVELYSOURCETALENT

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As competition for talent increases, engaging passive candidates will be critical to securing the best leadership for your organization.

• Think beyond collecting LinkedIn profiles to proactively mapping the best talent in your industry.

• Engage employees to refer like-minded stars from their networks.

• Employ social media campaigns to establish two-way conversations with your talent market.

• Join online forums where your ideal candidates are active.

• Connect through meaningful occasions, information, and events.

3.

AGGRESSIVELYMANAGE YOURTALENT BRAND

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The most important audience for your brand may be internal! Employees ultimately deliver your brand and live its values.

Talent brand by definition is the: a) highly social, totally public version of your employer brand

incorporating what talent thinks, feels, and shares about your company as a place to work and

b) a significant asset or Achilles' heel for hiring/retaining great talent and promoting your corporate image to the market.”4

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How can you strengthen your talent brand?

Candidates today are not looking for a

career… they’re lookingfor an experience.5

• Nurture a great candidate experience. Think like retention begins in the recruiting process.

• Up the ante on integration. Foster positive transitions into your company and culture.

• Audit career community sites.Glassdoor reviews may help you see strengths and opportunities

• Focus on drivers of employee engagement.Meaningful work, opportunity for growth, ongoing training and development, engaging with transparency, and fostering trust in leadership.

• Give employees the tools to amplify your story. Star employees are your best brand ambassadors!

• Invite employees behind the curtain. Employee input s a sincere platform and widespread behavioral commitment.

4.

DRIVEDIGITALTRANSFORMATION

Few question digital acumen as a standard for success in today’s business climate. How does this new paradigm impact talent strategy?

74%

15%

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of business executives say their company has a digital strategy. 6

feel they have the skills and capabilities to execute it.6

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• Explore partnering opportunities. If acquiring other firms or hiring senior digital executives to drive business value is out of scope, partnering may be the answer.

47%

Companies that annually invest $1,500 for training per employee see an average profit margin 24% higher than those that don’t.10

24%

• Develop essential skills. Increase digital fluency through executive training programs.

• Embrace new ways to engage with top-tier candidates and high-performing executives.

of CEOs say access to new technologies is a top-three reason for partnering.2

• Adopt new and emerging roles to transform how business is done, among them chief digital officer and chief experience officer.

• Acquire new skill sets. Deep-pocketed giants like Walmart have acquired several mobile, social, and technology firms.9

– McDonalds’ partnered with beacon solution provider Piper7

– P&G has an employee exchange program with Google8

Gamification techniques can enhance learning ability by as much as 40% .11

L’Oréal gamified its recruitment process.12

40%

Online videos, which account for 50% of mobile traffic, will begin to dominate recruiting messaging.1350%

5.

OPTIMIZE PEOPLEANALYTICS

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Leverage the opportunity for data and other predictive analytics to focus on talent as a growth engine for your business.

• Apply state-of-the-art assessment technologies to identify A-players and measure cultural fit.

• Integrate HR and business data to inform business strategy and organizational design.

• Practice social listening to collect candidate data from external social platforms.

• Crowdsource employee performance data from internal social platforms to enhance accuracy.

of HR professionals feel that crowdsourced recognition data is an important source of information for performance reviews.14

78%

The opportunity to access diverse talent across markets, geographies, and demographics will continue to drive critical advantage. With growing concerns over global instability, there will be greater focus on geopolitical expertise in boardrooms and across executive leadership. Leaders need to be adept at managing:

6.

THINKGLOBAL

The Atlantic reports, “An increasing number of corporations are hiring political scientists, starting their board meetings with geopolitical briefings, and seeking the advice of former diplomats, spymasters, and military leaders,” noting the example of Private Equity firm KKR’s high-profile appointment of retired general and CIA Director David Petraeus as the chairman of its global institute. 15 12

• Distributed workforces

• Complex operations

• Real-time supply chains

• Variable international tax

• Government regulations

7.

GET OUTSIDETHE OFFICE

Supporting virtual employees and flexible work styles can be a meaningful talent brand differentiator.

Make remote experiences as rich as possible to build community and drive innovation. The ideal is to create a virtual workplace where employees feel personally connected to their teams, leaders, and the social and cultural fabric of the company.13

74% of millennials want flexible work schedules17

1 9% of millennials already hold a leadership role18

76% of global labor pool will be millennials in 2025 16

7.

REIMAGINE YOUREXECUTIVE PARTNERSHIPS

• Genuinely passionate about your business goals and vision

• Forward-thinking about the strategic issues and mega-trends impacting the executive talent market

• Drive measurable success and high client satisfaction through its professional practices

As the fight for top executive candidates becomes more competitive, enlisting the right outside executive recruiting partner and understanding the return on your investment will be more important than ever. Find executive search partners who are:

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THE CASE FOR GETTING IT RIGHTWith numerous studies demonstrating the value of effective talent strategies, it is clear that attracting and keeping the right people yields strong competitive advantage.

3.5x / 2.0xCompanies adept at recruiting enjoy 3.5x the revenue growth and 2x the profit margin of their less capable peers.19

Companies capable at Onboarding new hires and retention outperform the least capable companies, experiencing 2.5x revenue growth and 1.9x greater profit margin.20

2.5x / 1.9x

Organizations with a formal onboarding process saw a 60% greater annual improvement in revenue per full-time employee and a 63% greater annual improvement in customer satisfaction.21

60% / 63% 50% / 28%A strong talent brand is associated with up to 50% savings in cost per hire and 28% reduction in employee turnover.22

“People Companies” (definedas making “Fortune’s 100 BestCompanies to Work For” listat least 3 times in the past 10years) outperform the marketaverage growth in shareprice 8 out of 10 years andcumulatively beat the S&P 500by 99 percentage points. 23

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SUMMARYThe issues facing organizations in their search for executivetalent, and the trends described in this report, are changing theway leading organizations are approaching executive searchand engagement. With an improved business outlook, executive mobility is forecasted to rise.

1. KNOW YOUR BENCH

2. PROACTIVELY SOURCE TALENT

3. AGGRESSIVELY MANAGE YOURTALENT BRAND

4. DRIVE DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

5. OPTIMIZE PEOPLE ANALYTICS

6. THINK GLOBAL

7. GET OUTSIDE THE OFFICE

8. REIMAGINE YOUR EXECUTIVERECRUITING PARTNERSHIPS

Is it time to raise the performance of your talent strategy?

of executives plannedto at least look fora new executiveopportunity in 2015.18

87%

reported being morewilling to make acareer move in 2014and 2013.18

74%

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About AcertitudeAcertitude is a global executive search firm and talentsolutions consultancy focused on transforming standardindustry recruitment models to address the increasing riskorganizations face in their search for top executive talent. With the new digital economy creating significant disruption and opportunities, our team pairs a deep understanding of the nuances that impact today’s talent needs with data-driven selection methods to powerfully impact our clients’ businesses.

Our firm replaces traditional approaches to consultantcompensation with a unique system that ties consultantrewards to client satisfaction. Offering market expertise in consumer, healthcare & life sciences, industrial, private equity, professional services, technology, telecommunications & media, and nonprofit & foundations, we specialize in helping organizations discover, engage, and empower Brilliant People at Work®.

Find out more at: acertitude.com

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SOURCES1. PwC (2014). 17th Annual Global CEO Survey: The Talent Challenge.

2. PwC (2015). 18th Annual Global CEO Survey: A Marketplace without boundaries?

Responding to disruption.

3. Baird Capital (2014, March). “The Global Talent Search: Baird Capital’s experts examine

recent recruiting trends.” Retrieved from: http://www.rwbaird.com/news/global-talentsearch

4. LinkedIn Confidential© (2012). 5 Reasons for Investing in Your Talent Brand.

http://www.slideshare.net/linkedin-talentsolutions/5-reasons-for-investing-in-your-

talent-brand-v3

5. Bersin, J. (2015). Ten Disruptions in HR Technology for 2015: Ignore at Your Peril.

6. Forrester Research, 2014

7. Bohannon, C. (2014, December 19). Mobile Commerce Daily: “McDonald’s Beacons

Reap 18K Offer Redemptions.”Retrieved from:

http://www.mobilecommercedaily.com/mcdonald-follows-consumer-behavior-to-

mobile-withbeacon-deployment

8. Buvat, J. (2014, October). Wired: “The War for Digital Talent Has Begun.”

9. Capgemini (2013, October). The War for Talent Has Gone Digital.

10. Huffington Post (2014, August 30). “Not Investing in Employee Training is Risky

Business.”

11. pgemini Consulting (2013). Digitizing HR: Connecting the Workforce.

12. CaCapgemini Consulting (2013). The Digital Talent Gap. Retrieved from:

http://www.slideshare.net/capgemini/digitaltalent-gap-27698726/

13. Sullivan, J., M.D. (2015, January 12). The Top 10 ‘Bleeding Edge’ Recruiting Trends to

Watch in 2015. Retrieved from: http://www.ere.net/2015/01/12/the-top-10-bleeding-

edgerecruiting-trends-to-watch-in-2015/

14. Capgemini Consulting (2013). Using Digital Tools to Unlock HR’s True Potential.

15. Freeland, C., (2015, May). The Atlantic: “Globalization Bites Back.”

16. Workforce (2015, May 1). Creating a ‘Generation Connected’ Workplace.

17. Ashgar, Rob (2014, January). Forbes: “What Millennials Want In the Workplace (And Why

You should Start Giving It To Them).

18. The 2016 Deloitte Millennial Survey. (2016). Retrieved from Deloitte.:

http://www2.deloitte.com/global/en/pages/about-deloitte/articles/millennialsurvey.html

19. Strack, R., Cay, J.M., von der Linden, C. & Hoen, P. (2012, August 2). Realizing the Value of

People Management. Retrieved from BCG Perspectives by THE BOSTON CONSULTING

GROUP.

https://www.bcgperspectives.com/content/articles/people_management_human_resources

_leadership_from_capability_to_profitability/?chapter=2

20. Ibid.

21. Nolinske, T. P. (2014). Onboarding is Critical to Business Success. Retrieved from National

Business Research Institute: http://www.nbrii.com/employee-survey-

whitepapers/onboarding-is-critical-to-business-success/

22. Gultekin, E. (2011). LinkedIn© What’s the Value of Your Employment Brand?

23. Strack, R., Cay, J.M., von der Linden, C. & Hoen, P. (2012,August 2). Realizing the Value of

People Management. Retrieved from BCG Perspectives by THE BOSTON CONSULTING

GROUP.

https://www.bcgperspectives.com/content/articles/people_management_human_resources

_leadership_from_capability_to_profitability/?chapter=2 30. Blue Steps (2014). The 2014

Blue Steps Global Executive Outlook.

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