Positioned to hire, business leaders struggle to find good talent.
SHERMAN OAKS, Calif., March 15, 2007 — It's like searching for a needle in a haystack – that's exactly how many of today's top CEOs describe the quest to find talented, quality hires. In fact, "on-boarding," the trendy term used for recruiting and training staff, is such a problematic plight for business leaders that they recently selected it as the #1 challenge in today's workplace, according to the 2007 Management Action Programs (MAP) Quarterly CEO Survey conducted by Vantage Research.
Despite feeling confident in their companies' future performance and growth, more than 20 percent of the executives report that "hiring talented employees" is their biggest business-development roadblock. Some say it's because the best employees already work for someone else. But others fall to prey to reactive, rather than proactive, recruitment tactics, leaving them scrambling to find great hires. With these shortcomings, however, approximately half of the CEOs plan to spend more, and embark on expansion via increased products and services.
"CEOs appear very confident about their prospects over the next 12 months, but with what appears to be an 'undercurrent' of caution," says Allan Hauptfeld, principal of the Valencia-Calif.-based Vantage Research & Consulting (Email). "For example, the CEOs interviewed want to boost capital expenditures but are simultaneously concerned over rising interest rates. In addition, they want to increase their company headcount, but are apprehensive about hiring high-quality, dependable employees."
Lee Froschheiser, president/CEO of MAP, a veteran business-consulting firm that has accelerated sustained growth for over 12,000 companies and 150,000 executives since 1960, says this "undercurrent of caution" should be addressed with an effective on-boarding process. The first step is recognizing that company growth and a stable, productive workforce go hand in hand. Next, CEOs need to align their strategies and resources to support this priority.
"The 2007 MAP Quarterly CEO Survey is a new effort to track business leaders' professional perspectives and behaviors," Froschheiser says. "As documented, hiring top talent in organizations is a very hot issue for our clients. We'll continue to offer programs and services that align to this issue and support our clients' goals to have the right people on their teams. Using the survey's data, we're able to fine-tune our mission to better meet their needs."
In addition, the survey unveiled that CEOs stay current with world events yet are wary regarding how those events affect business. Top concerns:
— the recently weaker residential home market;
— rising interest rates; and
— the Iraq war and uneasiness surrounding terrorism/homeland security.
CEOs planning for business growth don't feel external factors will greatly impact their ability to achieve their goals.
About MAP
MAP offers business leadership training and consulting services to organizations nationwide through its Western U.S. offices. MAP has an active alumni network, providing its supporters online seminars and value-added communications. For more information, contact Email or 888-834-3040, or visit http://www.mapconsulting.com.
Interviews are available with Lee Froschheiser of Management Action Programs (MAP).
Contact: John Manning, 949.752.1606×339, Email