The talent wars could be the best thing that ever happened to advance diversity in the executive ranks.
Nearly 10, years ago corporations starting beating the talent-war drums. Management consulting firms such as McKinsey & Co. started to issue reports about the looming talent crisis. “Corporations were just starting to get it then,” says Dr. Monica McGrath, a professor at Wharton Business School and chief executive officer of Resources for Leadership, an executive coaching firm in Philadelphia, Penn.
But life happens. There was the dot-com bust, a recession and other distractions, so who had time to worry about talent wars? Now they have to, says McGrath. An estimated 80 million baby boomers are expected to retire over the next two decades; the first wave of boomers will turn 62 next year. She doesn’t think all who are ready for retirement will swap nine-to-five for the golden years, but many will, leaving corporations in the lurch.
Corporations are finally coming to the realization that there will be a scarcity of talent, says Nancy M. Mellard, executive vice president and general counsel of CBIZ Benefits & Insurance Services. This realization isn’t necessarily bad, she adds. It could force corporations to tap into an underused resource—women and minorities. “It’s an economic reality—let’s be honest. Economics is driving [diversity], but I’m okay with that.”
About a year and a half ago, CBIZ’s chairman and CEO, Steven L. Gerard, asked Mellard to create a national women’s program to develop employee skills and help women advance, also moving them into leadership positions. Mellard stays away from using the word “initiative” because initiatives seem to fizzle or fade once the enthusiasm is gone, she says.
Mellard, who apologizes for going on about the potential of the network, says she wants this program to be “strong and sustainable.” A commitment from the CEO is the only way it will work, no matter how much grassroots support you’ve got, she adds.
Each year, Gerard makes a to-do list, which he laminates and hands out to his senior team. Mellard’s project is third on the list—impressive considering the many other issues corporations deal with. “We have women coming out of college and they ask us, ‘What does your company do for women?’”
With no program in place, they’ll leave for greener pastures several years down the road, Mellard says.
But too few corporations embrace diversity, says Thomas Fuller, director of the Americas and general managing partner at Epsen Fuller/IMD, an international search and consulting firm in New York. Fuller just returned from a meeting in Paris, where international executive search firms from 25 countries convened to discuss the senior-level talent shortage crisis.
