Executives expect global economic crisis to hurt

Executives expect global economic crisis to hurt

Keywords Business strategy, Economic conditions, Employees, Human resources, Surveys

Senior executives expect their companies to be significantly hit over the next year by the global economic crisis, according to a poll of top human resources executives released by The Conference Board.

The survey, covering 155 HR executives from a broad cross-section of industry, was conducted last October in New York. The executives were attending The Conference Board's 1998 Human Resources Conference.

Some 43 per cent expect the world economic crisis to have a significant impact on their firms, with 47 per cent anticipating a moderate impact. Only 10 per cent say it will not matter.

Companies continue to have problems attracting and holding critical employees and are struggling to get both their employees and managers to understand their firms' overall business strategy. More than 17 per cent say their firms are having problems throughout their company in attracting and retaining top talent, with 76 per cent facing difficulties in key areas of their business. Only 7 per cent say they are having no employment problems.

Only 5 per cent say their employees understand the company's business strategy and this figure rises to only 17 per cent for managers. Nearly two-thirds say that HR in their companies is "sometimes, rarely or never" a major part of their companies' strategic process.

"With consumer confidence slipping over the last month, it's not surprising that the confidence of HR executives has slipped as well", says Brian Hackett, an HR specialist at The Conference Board. "With large numbers looking for the worldwide economic crisis to have an impact on their companies and virtually all reporting recruitment problems, it will be interesting to see if the current war for talent subsides as businesses pull back on their growth plans."

Other major findings in The Conference Board survey: about 27 per cent of the executives report their employees are "resentful" of their firms' executive compensation practices, with the remainder saying their employees are either generally satisfied or unconcerned.

Asked what field they would choose if they could change careers, only 16 per cent said they would stay in human resources. About a quarter said they would become teachers. About 20 per cent say they would make radical shifts in their careers ­ becoming landscape architects, executive recruiters, travel agents, musicians and chefs. Only 2 per cent would become CEOs.