Collaboration in talent mobility is key to job creation – WEF

A new report published by the World Economic Forum (WEF) has said collaboration in talent mobility among stakeholders on all sides of the employment equation are most effective in addressing labour market failures and enhancing job creation.

The report, released January 5, 2012 and titled “Talent Mobility Good Practices – Collaboration at the Core of Driving Economic Growth,” finds that while there are several examples of good practices that can be adopted to help rebalance global talent markets, “talent mobility is not achieving its full potential.

According to the WEF, the report pointed out that talent markets are impeded by four key problems – widespread unemployability, skills gaps, information gaps, and private and public constraints on mobility.

“These issues are pervasive and daunting, with many countries and regions struggling with high unemployment and untapped labour pools and while many industry sectors and employers face talent shortages and skills gaps,” said the report based on 55 case studies from around the world.

But among the case studies, according to the Swiss-based Forum, the featured solutions to these problems are varied, ranging from shaping academic curricula to better meet an industry’s talent needs to training underskilled workers for employment; nearly all of the solutions exhibit different forms of collaboration among multiple stakeholders.

It shows concrete actions that organizations – including companies, governments, academic institutions, and non-profit entities – have implemented to address talent challenges, the report added.

The report therefore gave recommendations on how individual stakeholders can advance successful collaborative talent mobility practices.

“…sharing access to labour market information, using measurement and modeling tools combined with workforce and performance data to estimate the business impact of talent mobility, and developing fact-based cases for multiple stakeholder collaboration,” it recommended.

“The findings demonstrate that despite the challenges, a variety of scalable and practical solutions already exist in practice to address talent shortages and lead to job creation and ultimately economic growth.” said Patricia A. Milligan, a senior official at Mercer who contributed to the report.

“Our research clearly shows that a broader view of talent mobility – beyond traditional international assignments – is necessary to grow businesses, industries and economies. Bringing together diverse stakeholders with common interests produces effective multidimensional solutions that have the greatest impact on tackling talent market challenges and stimulating economic growth,” said Piers A. Cumberlege, Head of Partnership at WEF in a statement.

By Ekow Quandzie