Hiring the right people and managing them well is essential to the success of any business. Despite the awareness, a new study found that developing “Next Gen” leaders and failure to attract and retain top talents were rated as the key challenge by HR leaders in India, which indicates that ‘people strategies’ is the biggest concern for most organizations.
The study titled: Global Leadership Forecast 2018: 24 Research Insights to Fuel Your People Strategy – a three-way collaboration with Development Dimensions International (DDI), The Conference Board, and EY. The survey, on the current state of leadership and leadership practices globally, is in its eighth year now highlighted in its India report that recession, global competition, or labor relations or even cyber-security comes secondary to their concern on people strategies, as developing “Next Gen” leaders and failure to attract / regain top talent were rated as key challenges by 68 percent and 64 percent, respectively and leaders clearly indicated that top talent and effective leaders will be needed to address the myriad current challenges and to position their organization for future success..
According to the report, organizations with digitally savvy leaders, the pioneers, are outperforming those organizations with less digitally capable leaders, the laggards. A common question that every company is asking today “What do we need to do to enable our leaders to meet the digital challenge?” They are comparing themselves to the new age startups firms who have been in business for few years yet have been able to achieve revenues and Market capitalization upwards of few billion USD in no time. As our work world becomes increasingly digital, that performance gap will only grow.
Globally, organizations spend more money developing high potentials than any other group of leaders, including the senior team. High-potential leaders also spend more hours per year in formal leadership training than any other leadership group. In India, companies annually spend an average of $3,628 and 38 hours per high-potential leader, said the survey. Given the money and time expended, how can organizations ensure that they’re reaping benefits of cultivating these would-be high performers, remains a question marks.
The report further said that in India, 11 percent of leadership roles are currently occupied by women. Our global research reveals that companies that have reached an above-average level of gender diversity overall (at least 30 percent) and at the senior-level (more than 20 percent), outperform diversity laggards in key leadership and business outcomes
The report challenges notions of where learning can and should come from. For example, when organizations use peer and employee coaching, leaders are more likely to feel strongly engaged and accountable to the company and their team than when there is no coaching.
Commenting on the India findings, Amogh Deshmukh, Managing Director, DDI India said, “This research integrates data from leaders and HR professionals with a diverse industry spread. Not only are these perspectives numerous, but they are also diverse and highly representative of the business context facing global enterprises. I am confident these results will provide new insights for India’s leadership practices and hope the report will stimulate your own ideas about how to enhance your organization’s leadership capabilities.”
The study conveyed, too often there’s a weak link between strategic and HR planning. In fact, only 28 percent of global HR respondents feel that this connection is tight and starts early in the planning process. Throughout Global Leadership Forecast 2018, we’ve highlighted the importance of predictive analytics, which are the Anticipator’s lifeblood. And, for the first time, the technology is in place to better advance analytics. Analytics are essential to maximizing your investments toward improving leadership quality and supply.