Employers Worried by Lack of Future Leaders

Companies need to invest in leadership to be strategic

Employers continue to worry about the lack of future leaders in their organization ranks, according to a survey of more than 2,000 senior human resource executives in 14 countries by Right Management, the talent and career management experts within ManpowerGroup.

For the third year in a row, lack of high-potential leaders was the most pressing concern for U.S. HR executives, 32 percent of whom put it at the top of their list.

Globally, lack of future leaders was also cited as the foremost concern by an average of 25 percent of employers, evidence that a lack of high potentials is a widespread concern in leading industrialized nations.

What do you expect to be the most pressing HR challenge faced by your organization in 2013? (U.S. respondents)

	2012	2011	2010
Lack of high-potential leaders in the organization.	32%	31%	30%
Shortage of talent at all levels.	32%	23%	18%
Low engagement and lagging productivity.	19%	26%	22%
Loss of top talent to other organizations.	17%	19%	30%

The year-to-year consistency in our findings tells us that future leadership or lack thereof is top of mind for organizations nearly everywhere, says Gerald Purgay, senior vice president of Right Management and president of ManpowerGroup Specialty Brands. “According to our data, companies are focused on talent as never before. It’s no surprise that organizations are now investing in growing their talent as development initiatives have now become a high priority.”

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