More than two-thirds of global employers view the lack of key talent and uncertain economic growth (68 per cent for both) as the top threats to their businesses, according to a survey by Russell Reynolds Associates.
The survey, which polled more than 2,500 global board directors, C-suite leaders and next-generation leaders, found 62 per cent of company leaders said they’d be likely or very likely to consider a career move beyond their current employer.
Read: Labour shortages, employee retention among SMEs’ top business concerns for 2024: survey
Respondents also cited threats such as changing technology change (51 per cent), increased regulation (41 per cent), changes in consumer behaviour (39 per cent), geopolitical uncertainty (37 per cent), cyber threats (29 per cent), commodity price volatility (28 per cent), policy uncertainty (26 per cent) and climate/environmental change (23 per cent).
Less than half of respondents said they feel their leadership team is prepared to handle talent attraction issues (48 per cent) and economic growth uncertainty (47 per cent). While more than half (55 per cent) said they feel prepared to face technological change, just a third (33 per cent) said the same about addressing geopolitical uncertainty.
Notably, leaders’ readiness to face economic uncertainty dropped by 10 percentage points to 48 per cent over the last six months. As well, during this period, the percentage of respondents who cited cyber threat among their top five threats increased six percentage points to 68 per cent. And since 2021, leadership preparedness to address the threat of technological change dropped more than eight percentage points to 51 per cent.
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