News You Can Use: Employers put skilled talent on holiday wish lists

In a recent Watson Wyatt Workforce Planning Survey, almost two thirds (71%) of employers cite scarcity of talent as the biggest challenge impeding their business strategy. Other major concerns include restructuring (42%) and layoffs or hiring freezes (20%).

For employers who are most worried about bringing in new talent, 50% plan to continue replacing talent in all positions, while 33% will scale-back talent replacement across the organization and 21% will hire replacements only for critical jobs. Three percent of employers will not be replacing talent in the near future.

On the other side of the spectrum, attracting talent is equally difficult as 77% of employers report challenges in enticing critical-skill employees and 60% named top performers as a hard commodity to obtain. In terms of retaining their employees, less than half (49%) were having trouble keeping critical-skill employees within the company and 34% had the same problem retaining top performers.

Watson Wyatt’s Workforce Planning Survey was conducted in October 2008 and compiles responses from 129 North America-based employers across a variety of industries.
--Kathleen Koster