Boston study finds talent management the prime future challenge

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Bangalore, Jun 19 : Indian companies would juggle between solving manpower shortage and offering work-life balance to its employees in the next five years, according to a study by management consulting firm Boston Consulting Group.

Addressing the media, BCG partner and director Vikram Bhalla said that India would require an additional workforce of 100 million people in its non-agricultural sectors by 2013, to sustain the current growth. "Eighty per cent of our talent pool consists of school drop-outs. Future growth would require at least 50% of this pool to at least complete schooling."

Bhalla said that currently, the country employed a pool of 500 million, of which 300 million people were involved in agriculture. Industries such as software and back office outsourcing employed only 2 million people.

Future employment in India would continue to be driven by services, and sectors such as construction and transportation would also emerge to become top employers.

Bhalla said that while companies were trying to solve manpower issues individually, a concerted effort to match education to job requirements would be more effective. Finding good human resource managers were issues worrying companies in the technology sector, he said.

In India, companies were also focused on offering employees better 'work-life balance', an issue that was becoming starker across sectors in the country currently. "By 2015, 56% of the executives expect their companies to be offering sabbaticals, while 48% expect them to offer flexibility of tele-working," BCG said.

Bhalla cited global sourcing of manpower by Indian companies as a best practice pioneered by the BPO sector.

BCG said that India and China faced similar challenges in persuading senior managers to locate to smaller cities where local businesses were growing.

Talent management was likely to be the prime future challenge for companies worldwide, by 2015.