NEWS
Aon Hewitt Survey Shows Gap in Leadership Effectiveness and Lack of Confidence to Drive Change
Hiring trends on the rise for the majority of organisations
11 May 2011

CHICAGO | The 2011 Talent Survey released on May 3rd by Aon Hewitt finds a significant capability gap in leaders, as most organizations focus on growth in today's post-recession environment.

Aon Hewitt surveyed 1,328 employers nationwide and found that leaders play a vital role in meeting business goals (56 percent), meeting profitability targets (56 percent), delivering service (56 percent) and retaining talent (44 percent). However, only 12 percent of respondents say their leaders are extremely effective at meeting business goals. What's more, just 14 percent believe their leaders are extremely effective at meeting profitability targets, 17 percent say the same holds true for delivering service and 7 percent believe their leaders are extremely effective at retaining talent.

"As we emerge from one of the worst recessions in history, company executives must develop new leadership skills in order to improve workforce productivity and stimulate engagement," said Amy Mills, vice president with Aon Hewitt. "They also must invest in developing middle managers who can bridge the gap between leadership strategy and employee actions, and are best positioned to effect change. In fact, our survey shows a crisis in confidence that corporate leaders will be able to reposition their companies for profitable growth and create an engaging work environment."

According to Aon Hewitt, leaders must be more creative in this post-recession environment. Other key capabilities include:

Hiring Trends
In addition, this survey revealed that 45 percent of respondents are planning to hire more employees in 2011 than they did in 2010, and only 16 percent expect to hire fewer employees this year than they did last year. However, just 28 percent of organizations believe they are very or extremely effective at hiring quality employees. Approximately half of these employers (51 percent) say they are effective at securing quality hires and 21 percent think they are only somewhat effective or not at all effective at hiring quality workers.

According to Aon Hewitt, many HR departments lack recruiting resources to process and screen the large number of candidates applying for positions.

"As employers begin ramping up the number of hires, this is a great opportunity to significantly improve the hiring process," said Jason Krumwiede, vice president with Aon Hewitt. "We are seeing clients focus on improving the candidate experience, upgrading selection and assessment approaches that will yield increased performance from new hires, and redesigning the on-boarding process."

Additional findings from the 2011 Talent Survey: