The War Is On: Talent Trends 2017

Mercer Talent Trends 2017 Global Study: “Empowerment in a disrupted world” is an insightful handbook for everyone who will be working or designing workplace practices a few years from now

- Manav Seth

Organizations all over the world are in the midst of a talent war and it is only set to intensify. HR expects a dearth of quality talent due to workplace disruption in the next two years.

These and many other findings can be found in the Mercer Talent Trends 2017 Global Study: “Empowerment in a disrupted world”, which provides three unique perspectives into the future of work and makes for an insightful reading. The study is a culmination of responses and acumen of over 400 business executives, 1700 HR professionals and 5400 employees from 37 countries spread across 20 industries. The respondents were quizzed on diverse topics like industry disrupters, HR perspective on job change, in-demand skills, desirable workplaces and future plans. The result is a list of trends to look out for in 2017, advice on how to stay agile and an attempt to comprehend what all these things mean for HR.

It notes that while the gap between supply and demand (of talent) affects all industries, geographies and functions, it is predicted to be especially acute in leadership, core operations, sales and marketing, and IT. Furthermore, it states that in areas with oversupply, competition for jobs will increase and there is potential for job displacement. However, it also mentions that for organizations that are able to move people to jobs, or jobs to people, this can be a great world-sourcing opportunity. While customer services and IT is expected to be in oversupply in India, in the USA, it will be core operations, and in Italy, Marketing and Logistics.

Trends to look out for in 2017