In this piece for Talent Management Magazine, Accenture’s Walter Gossage and Davin Lee look at how organizations can excel at change.
Talent Management Magazine, April 2011
With growth back on the agenda, companies now need to consider whether they have the talent they need to fuel growth. In this article, Catherine Farley and David Gartside, both managing directors in Accenture’s Talent and Organization Performance service line, argue that many companies may in fact lack certain key skills.
They cite the Accenture High Performance Workforce Study (conducted at the beginning of 2010) which indicates that many companies are likely to encounter major skills challenges that could affect their ability to implement growth plans. For example, while a majority said that sales was their most important workforce, 29 percent said they lacked skills needed in the sales organization, while a further 24 percent needed skills to be updated.
The recession undoubtedly disrupted workforces in a number of ways. Today’s challenges, however, present an opportunity to revisit outdated human capital strategies, and make sure they include the talent required to achieve high performance.