The ‘war for talent’ may not be a comfortable phrase in the current economic conditions, yet with only 16% of private businesses* believing they have the right people with the right skills in place throughout the business, the challenge of finding, retaining and developing top leadership talent clearly remains more crucial than ever.

Combine this skills gap with financial constraints and a sense of ‘battle weariness’ among managers, and it is small wonder that many HR professionals are left needing to find their own new and innovative strategies and solutions to the thorny issue of talent management.

This frustration with the apparent lack of new thinking in talent management was one of the key themes emerging from the first of Awbery Management Centre’s Talent Forums, which welcomed HR professionals from a diversity of industries, including banking, retail, distribution, media and design, healthcare, hospitality, financial services, and education.

Led by Jane Rawden, Awbery Management Centre’s head of HR Services and facilitated by BASF Global Director Dr Geoff Mackey, the Talent Forum gave guests a platform to debate best practice methods for finding, retaining and developing talented individuals.

Commenting on the Talent Forum, Jane Rawden said:

“We covered an enormous amount of ground during the two hour debate, from establishing a definition of ‘talent’ through to discussing how best to find and retain it. The group shared excellent ideas around innovative recruitment and development strategies and some very honest and open acknowledgement that many of our ‘battle-weary’ middle and front-line managers need more support in identifying and developing talent individuals.

“From my perspective as a leadership and management development professional, I was delighted to see a clear consensus that talent development programmes should be clearly linked to the strategic goals, values and direction of the business.”

The full report is available to download here.

*PwC 2011 Enterprising UK Survey