Advancing my concept of 'Globalization of Talent"

I had coined the phrase 'Globalization of Talent" to reflect the search for talent, no matter where it resides in the world.

Manpower CEO: U.S. Hiring Is on the Upswing - Yahoo! Finance: "here's another reason companies have been slow to hire. Joerres has identified a shift toward what he calls 'talentism' — the notion "that every single talent in the company really matters." Previously, he says, companies felt that all they needed was a good chief financial officer, or a good operations manager. But in today's skinny organizations, every position really counts. Much has been made of the fact that, even with a high unemployment rate, there are a huge number of apparently unfilled job openings. In November, for example, there were 3.2 million job openings in the U.S., according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, up 30 percent from November 2009. (Some of those openings are at Google, which received 75,000 job applications last week.) Joerres explains this strange paradox as follows: It could be that companies can't find workers with the skills they need. Or, more likely, companies have become very good at understanding precisely what they need and are being extremely picky about finding the perfect candidate. Since demand isn't booming, they figure they can wait an extra 30 or 60 days to find the just-right candidate. Joerres says that Johnson Controls, which specializes in building services and energy efficiency, will need to hire 16,000 sustainability consultants and engineers over the next several years. "But they're not being produced by universities and they're not growing on trees," says Joerres. As a result, "they're going to be very disciplined about where to place their bets on new hires."

What areas are doing well? The Manpower survey finds that sectors with the strongest prospects for hiring in the first quarter of 2011 are leisure and hospitality, information, business and professional services, and retail and wholesale trade. Joerres says that last year, Manpower's business helping manufacturing and light industrial companies find staffers grew rapidly.

Joerres dispenses the same advice to those who have jobs as he does to those who are actively seeking new positions: "You have to be insatiable about learning." In this rapidly changing environment, much of the onus on career development and training falls on workers, not on employers. As a result, people have to advance themselves through college, online courses and training. "Unless you're in some unique, highly skilled positions, you can't rest," he says. "Don't be complacent."