ManpowerGroup Offers Borderless Workforce Solutions to World's Talent Mismatch Dilemma

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Key findings from ManpowerGroup's Borderless Solutions paper follow:

• One in four employers worldwide seeks solutions to skills shortages by looking to foreign talent in particular job categories. Engineers and workers in skilled manual trades are in high demand and these roles are most often filled by foreign talent.
• China, India, the United States and United Kingdom are the countries employers most associate with talent supply. But a shift in demographics and economics has altered the line-up of largest talent pools by region. Compared to the United Kingdom, Poland offers three times the number of job candidates.
• Employers worldwide continue to encounter obstacles in recruiting abroad, typically with understanding visa and legal requirements and/or overcoming language barriers.
• One in three employers is concerned about the impact of talent leaving their home market. These employers feel that businesses and governments should stem outward migration and build up workers in key categories back home.
• Today, expatriates still play a key role at the management level. Employers in the Americas are most likely to have expat leaders.

The world's borderless workforce – the migration of talent across and within national boundaries – is growing rapidly in size. Employers who take a sophisticated approach to managing their talent supply and demand challenges by including a talent mobility strategy in their overall plan to combat skills shortages will position themselves to win the escalating war for talents.  Employers today must collaborate with governments and educators to create more dynamic sourcing opportunities, at least regionally.  More work opportunities are surfacing across more global markets, but labor laws and educational opportunities have traditionally been local – retaining workers with the same skills in their own countries or regions. In effect, employers target "talent corridors" when seeking specific skill sets.

"Identifying and recruiting talent across and within borders requires extremely intricate strategies that enable an employer to execute a business plan, while driving and sustaining a region's overall economic growth," said Jeff Joerres, ManpowerGroup, Chairman and CEO. "For example, India is focused on scaling its workforce, with a complex recruiting strategy, to meet demand for a massive infrastructure buildout that will fortify its economic centers and help build new ones."

Thorough skills development in India is challenged by unique internal demographics and the rapid diversification of its economy. Even after four years of dire economics and high unemployment, both India's talent supply and demand for it are escalating. But this balanced equation is not reason enough for locals to stay put.

"As native-born Indians migrate to other countries, it's clear that India must provide more relevant work opportunities and fight against a talent drain," said Sanjay Pandit, ManpowerGroup Managing Director-India. "Businesses in India are globalizing incredibly fast and strategically, while our education and vocational training systems have failed to keep up with demand."

"There are costs and gains of moving across and within borders and it takes collective thinking, resources and expert strategists for an employer to map a smart and sustainable workforce strategy that factors every single cost and gain," said Darryl Green, ManpowerGroup President - Asia Pacific and Middle East. "Wage inflation cannot be an employer's only driver in deciding where to base an operation or whom to hire."

ManpowerGroup's two new Insight papers can be found here: www.Manpowergroup.com/research/research.cfm. The papers offer employers, governments and educators the real-time context needed to locate talent with skills in demand – while overcoming regulatory and economic challenges in the process.  

About ManpowerGroup

ManpowerGroup™ (NYSE: MAN), the world leader in innovative workforce solutions, creates and delivers high-impact solutions that enable our clients to achieve their business goals and enhance their competitiveness. With over 60 years of experience, our $22 billion company creates unique time to value through a comprehensive suite of innovative solutions that help clients win in the Human Age. These solutions cover an entire range of talent-driven needs from recruitment and assessment, training and development, and career management, to outsourcing and workforce consulting. ManpowerGroup maintains the world's largest and industry-leading network of nearly 3,900 offices in over 80 countries and territories, generating a dynamic mix of an unmatched global footprint with valuable insight and local expertise to meet the needs of its 400,000 clients per year, across all industry sectors, small and medium-sized enterprises, local, multinational and global companies. By connecting our deep understanding of human potential to the ambitions of clients, ManpowerGroup helps the organizations and individuals we serve achieve more than they imagined – because their success leads to our success. And by creating these powerful connections, we create power that drives organizations forward, accelerates personal success and builds more sustainable communities. We help power the world of work. The ManpowerGroup suite of solutions is offered through ManpowerGroup™ Solutions, Manpower®, Experis™ and Right Management®. Learn more about how the ManpowerGroup can help you win in the Human Age at www.manpowergroup.com.

ManpowerGroup is the most trusted brand in the industry, being the only company in our industry to be named to the Ethisphere Institute's 2011 World's Most Ethical Companies list for our proven commitment to ethical business practices, including an outstanding commitment to ethical leadership, compliance practices and corporate social responsibility. In addition, ManpowerGroup has also been recognized as the industry leader by Fortune magazine, who named the company in first place on its 2011 list of the Most Admired Companies in the temporary help sector.

In January 2011, at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland, ManpowerGroup announced the world has entered the Human Age, where talent has replaced capital as the key competitive differentiator. Learn more about this new age at www.manpowergroup.com/humanage

Gain access to ManpowerGroup's extensive thought leadership papers, annual Talent Shortage surveys and the Manpower Employment Outlook Survey, one of the most trusted indices of employment activity in the world, via the ManpowerGroup World of Work Insight iPad application. This thought leadership app explores the challenges faced by employers navigating the changing world of work and provides in-depth commentary, analysis, insight and advice on strategies for success.  

Follow ManpowerGroup Chairman and CEO Jeff Joerres on Twitter: twitter.com/manpowergroupjj. Joerres is one of only six Fortune 500 CEOs who leverages a Twitter account to get his message out.

SOURCE ManpowerGroup