By The Pollack Group
A new report from The Worldcom Public Relations Group, the world’s leading partnership of independently owned public relations firms, reveals that global CEOs and CMOs are expecting a battle for talent in 2018. Driven by concerns over government and legislative changes, cybercrime and a lack of available talent, employers the survey revealed an increased focus on attracting, retaining and energizing employees in 2018.
The comprehensive survey of business leaders uncovered what they see as their biggest threats to achieving their plans. It also revealed a 43% increase in the number of business leaders planning to give employees the most attention in 2018 than did so in 2017.
This leap in attention for employees – the only audience to see an increase – seems to be driven by concerns over three main threats: government or legislative changes (#1 threat), lack of available talent (#2 threat) and cyber crime (#3 threat). It may also be a response to very low confidence levels when it comes to their ability to attract (2nd lowest CI Score) and retain (4thlowest CI Score) the best talent.
Employees have a crucial role 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 score.
The Worldcom Confidence Index also highlights key issues and trends, and uncovers interesting differences in the confidence levels of respondents across 18 demographic categories, including business roles, ages, gender, business size, geographic presence and more. Highlights of the 2018 Confidence Index include:
- Cyber Crime Concerns: Overall, business leaders are least confident in their ability to protect their organization from cyber crime, and at least 50% more American companies than those in the other regions, see cyber crime as the biggest threat.
- American Confidence: Organizations headquartered in America sit atop the Confidence Index with an overall score of 34.9/100 almost nine points above the average and almost two and a half times the confidence score for Japan.
- Asian Hesitation: Organizations headquartered in Asia are at the bottom of the Confidence Index with an overall score of 19.1
- Generation Gap: Confidence in the ability to both attract and keep the best talent declines significantly as leaders age.
- Brand Power: When compared to larger organizations, 71% more of smaller organizations think the ability to attract talent because of the quality of their Employer Brand will have the most influence on their success in 2018.
- Unknown Course: Nearly one in 12 of all business leaders see global instability as the biggest threat to achieving their plans.
- Political Positivity: More than double the number of organizations from America (28%) than EMEA (13%) think the style of political leader communications has a positive impact on their optimism about their growth potential.
- Mid-Market Squeeze: Midsize organizations are the least confident (along with smaller sized organizations) about their ability to protect their brand in the event of a crisis.
Available in its entirety at https://worldcomgroup.com/confidence-index, the report also includes an analysis of the issues and key recommendations that business leaders can implement to increase their probability of success in 2018.
