Retaining talent as big a business challenge as cyber crime says new study by Worldcom Public Relations

 26th April 2018    PR News 
 Paarul Chand

Business leaders should expect to face a battle for talent in 2018 according to a new report issued by The Worldcom Public Relations Group., a group of indepenent PR firms The report, based on  585 responses from business leaders in America, Asia and EMEA, indicates that 43% more organizations are planning to give greater attention to employees in 2018 . This heightened focus on employees seems to be driven by what CEOs and CMOs see as the top three threats to achieving their organization’s plans. The first is government and legislative changes; the second is the lack of available talent and, the third is cyber crime.

The report, entitled, the Worldcom Confidence Index (CI) explores the issues global CEOs and CMOs believe will most influence business success in 2018. The leap in attention for employeesmay also be a response to very low confidence levels when it comes to the ability to attract and retain the best talent.

Employees have a crucial role to play in ensuring compliance with regulations and with essential cyber protection practices. As a result, the report’s findings are a clear signal that leaders see employees as a vital ingredient for success. In fact, attracting the best talent ranked highest as the criteria that will have the most influence on success in 2018 – just ahead of the strength of the global economy. It was three times higher than disruptive competition, which declined to almost half its 2017 level.

Reflecting on the Worldcom Confidence Index Global report, Aman Gupta, managing partner of S.P.A.G. Asia, remarked, “I second the findings of the report. It has become the imminent need to lay more focus on empowering employees, along with honing their talent and transforming them into excellent brand advocates. That is the way forward to take organizations several notches higher where the benefits stretch beyond pure profit.”

Todd Lynch, managing director of Worldcom, added: “When you look at the data, you start to see some very interesting contradictions and inconsistencies which could cause serious issues for some organizations. For example, leaders are very confident in their ability to satisfy customers. But if organizations struggle to retain their best talent, as the responses suggest, it will be hard to sustain a good customer experience?.The combination of issues uncovered places the employee front and center for global businesses like never before. It is for this reason we believe 2018 will be the year of the employee.”

The report also flags off intersting trends such as "Asian Hesitation: Organizations headquartered in Asia are at the bottom of the Confidence Index with an overall score of 19.1" and "Generation Gap: Confidence in the ability to both attract and keep the best talent declines significantly as leaders age."

The report is available for download. More details can be found here.