After a day of speaking today about the lack of talent found in retailers and service businesses around the United States, this article from the Financial Times caught my eye. Knowledge Infusion works with organizations to put in place strategies to attract, assess, develop and deploy talent; but is there enough? A few exerpts from the article I found interesting:
- Over the coming years, baby-boomers departing from the labour force will have better educational qualifications than the younger workers replacing them. If the ultimate source of an economy's ability to grow and prosper is its human capital, the US is in trouble.
- Broadly speaking, educational quality has topped out - and on at least one measure, it is actually deteriorating. In 2006, Americans aged 55-59 collectively possessed more masters degrees, professional degrees and doctorates than Americans aged 30-34. This impending loss of educational capital is entirely outside the country's experience.
- If the US is unable to mend its failing school system, and unwilling to open its doors wider to skilled immigrants, then much of the current gloom about its longer-term economic prospects may, for once, turn out to be justified.
For anyone who does not believe that talent management will be a key component of business in the US and Global economies for the next twenty years, all one has to do is read this article. HR departments will be hard-pressed to meet the demands of their business counterparts based on the supply that will be available to them. Talent management is not a HR function, but is a growing, desperately seeking an owner part of every organization worldwide.
Link to Financial Times article
Another infusion of knowledge...
