Economic downturn transforms talent management, leadership, and development, shows Deloitte survey series

"Based on Deloitte's research, many executives are planning to use their pre-recession playbooks to manage their talent programs," said Rana Ghandour Salhab, talent partner at Deloitte in the Middle East. "However, relying on old methods to address entirely new talent challenges may prove detrimental in today's global economy that is desperate for innovation, refreshed leadership programs, and new demographic and skill gap challenges."

Ghassan Turqieh, Human Capital consulting partner at Deloitte in the Middle East, added, "In pre-recession times, the Middle East and the Gulf countries in particular used to be an "employee's market" where talents chose from what was being offered. The trend has changed throughout the recession period, and the employment pace slowed down in many ME cities turning the job market into an employer's market. In the anticipated recovery period, some changes have started showing in the Middle East region, and as the survey results point out, effective talent strategies and plans are important for gaining an edge in an increasingly competitive market. The guideposts in the Deloitte study are as important to the national workforce as to the expatriates in the Middle East. The additional challenge for companies having many expatriates is that the eventual recovery in their home countries might push them to go back home."

Since January 2009, Deloitte has been conducting a longitudinal survey to gauge how senior executives and talent managers have positioned their workforces. The series surveyed more than 350 employees and collected over1,600 responses from top executives and talent managers, from companies with representing industries across the world's five economic regions (the Americas; Asia Pacific; and Europe, the Middle East, and Africa). In this report, the last in the series, Deloitte presents the following key research findings and corresponding guidance for senior executives and talent managers to consider as the downturn morphs in to the recovery:

1. The problem may look familiar, but the solutions are not

• Only 39% of executives surveyed have a talent plan aimed at driving innovation.
• Two out of three executives surveyed acknowledge that workforce planning is not being integrated at both the corporate and business unit levels.
• While the recession may have put retention planning on hold, 20% of executives surveyed acknowledge their companies have not updated their retention plans to take into account a changing economy.

2. There is a paradox of scarcity amidst plenty

• Among the executives surveyed in part three of the research series, 65% expressed concern about losing high potential employees and critical talent to competitors in the year following the recession.
• Nearly half (46%) of those surveyed recall that voluntary turnover increased following the 2001-2002 recession. Nevertheless, only 35% have an updated retention plan in place to keep hold of talent as the recovery strengthens.

3. Companies using the economic downturn as their retention strategy are taking a big risk

• Among employees surveyed, nearly one-in-three (30%) are actively working the job market and nearly half (49%) are at least considering leaving their current jobs.
• Only 37% of Generation X and 44% of Generation Y employees surveyed plan to remain with their current employers.
• More than three out of four surveyed employees (76%) who intend to leave their current jobs cited lower morale at their companies.

4. Understanding your people is as critical as understanding your customers

• In ranking the top three retention tactics, in every instance employees surveyed chose different and non-financial incentives compared to executives.
• While 62% of surveyed employees cited a lack of communication from executives during the recession, only 35% of surveyed executives felt the need to increase the frequency of employee communication.

5. Show me the money — but show me the love, too!

• Among reasons for leaving current employers, surveyed employees ranked two non-financial factors among the top three: job security (36%), lack of career progress (27%) and lack of compensation increases (27%).
• More than one-third of surveyed employees (34%) reported that new opportunities in the market could prompt them to leave their current job, closely followed by a lack of compensation increases (33%) and a lack of career progress (24%).

6. Follow the market leaders

• Companies surveyed that described their leadership programs as "world class" are constantly searching the market for the best talent available, with 69% reporting plans to step up recruitment of critical talent.
• Companies surveyed that lead the pack on leadership are experiencing higher morale: 59% report an increase in morale compared to 21% at competing firms. Trust and confidence in corporate leadership is also rising faster 53% to 21%.