According to a March 2013 report by global company Korn/Ferry, talent management ranked as the top strategic corporate concern for 45 percent of global executives between February and March 2013. It was more often sighted as the primary concern than marketing, financial management and capitalization, which were ranked as most important 23, 21 and 7 percent of the time, respectively.
For all the reported enthusiasm for talent management, however, corporate leaders do not express wide confidence in their management teams. Among surveyed executives, 43 percent do not believe they have the right management team for the company for the next 12 months. The picture is more grim over the long term, as 53 percent of respondents did not believe they would have the right management team in five years.
"Our survey indicates that even when top executives say that a strategic approach to determining human capital needs such as recruiting, hiring and retention is one of the highest priorities on their agenda, many companies' talent management practices lag behind the minimum accepted standards," said Ana Dutra, CEO of Korn/Ferry Leadership and Talent Consulting.
Talent development programs have suffered during the recession and recovery, according to the Project Management Institute's (PMI) March 2013 Pulse of the Profession report. The study found that over half the companies polled had scaled back their talent development programs in response to economic conditions.