And building on that PWC talent acquisition concern… that same PWC survey shows 50% of responding businesses are planning layoffs in the coming months, including technology, media, and telecom companies. From Channel Futures:
Executives now see the distinction between merely having people and having people with the right skills. Therefore, one-half of all respondents are reducing their overall headcount. Furthermore, 46% are dropping or reducing signing bonuses, and 44% are rescinding offers.
Finding the right talent continues to be a challenge for business leaders, according to PwC. Talent acquisition came in second as a risk behind cyber, with 38% of respondents citing it as a serious risk.
Although, with all that, 83% of executives are focusing their business strategy on growth, according to the PwC survey. Business leaders are feeling cautiously optimistic about their ability to navigate future economic, social, and geopolitical uncertainty.
Why do we care?
There’s such a weird tension here. These companies are focusing on growth, acknowledging they probably hired the wrong people and weren’t very good at keeping focused.
Or, said another way, they were actively bad at their jobs. Executives, this is literally your job. And this data speaks to being actively bad at it.
The reason to focus here is to be dismissive of this noise for small companies, which generally hire deliberately. The subtle observation is that this isn’t necessarily a skill in SMB; it should be because focusing on being a good team builder will pay off.