War for talent
Definition
The war for talent is a term coined by Steven Hankin of McKinsey & Company in 1997, and a book by Ed Michaels, Helen Handfield-Jones, and Beth Axelrod, Harvard Business Press, 2001 ISBN 1578514592, ISBN 9781578514595. The war for talent refers to an increasingly competitive landscape for recruiting and retaining talented employees. In the book, Michaels, et al, describe not a set of superior Human Resources processes, but a mindset that emphasizes the importance of talent to the success of organizations.
Demographics
The war for talent is intensified by demographic shifts (primarily in the United States and Europe). This is characterized by increasing demand along with decreasing supply (demographically). There are simply fewer post-baby-boom workers to replace the baby-boom retirement in the US and Europe (though this is not the case in most of East Asia, Southeast Asia. Central Asia Central America, South America, or the Middle East, though Eastern Europe tends to have similar demographics, namely an aging and/or shrinking labor force.
Knowledge Work
While talent is vague or ill-defined, the underlying assumption is that for knowledge-intensive industries, the knowledge worker (a term coined by Peter Drucker) is the key competitive resource (see the Resource-based view of the firm). Knowledge-based theories of organizations consistently place knowledge workers as a primary, competitive resource.
Definition of Talent
Relevance during Economic Downturn
The 'War for talent is seen by various sources as becoming irrelevant during economic downturns. However, there have been highly visible talent poaching by solvent firms of others who have economic hardship (e.g., JP Morgan was raided by a European firm in March, 2009).
See also
References
External links
 | This article includes a list of references, related reading, or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. (April 2009) |
- The War for Talent, by Ed Michaels, Helen Handfield-Jones, and Beth Axelrod, Harvard Business Press, 2001 ISBN 1578514592, 9781578514595
- The Battle for Brainpower, The Economist, October 5, 2006
- The Global War for Talent, BBC News, 30 January 2007
- The War for Talent is Back, Robert Sutton, April 23, 2007
- The War for Talent, Fast Company, December 18, 2007
- The War for Talent II: 7 Ways to Win, Fast Company, December 19, 2007
- The Axeman Cometh, The Economist, November 4, 2008
- The War for Talent Placed on Hold, Hotels Magazine, March 1, 2009
- Cease Fire in the War for Talent, Chief Learning Officer, March 2009
- The War for Talent is First Casualty of the Crisis, Financial Times, April 13, 2009