Businesses live and die by their leaders, so it is not surprising that leadership ranks as the most urgent business trend of 2014 in a recent study.
Leadership, retention and engagement are areas marked as highly urgent in the “Global Human Capital Trends 2014” report by Deloitte University Press.
Over 2,500 managers, human resources departments and other business leaders took the survey during the end of 2013.
Businesses are looking for better leadership across all departments at every employment level, according to the report, with 86 percent of respondents saying it is a matter of high importance.
Developing the talent of Millennial employees is an area where 66 percent of companies rated themselves as weak.
Leadership has become such an important topic that influential business leaders like Tony Hsieh of Zappos and Richard Branson of the Virgin Group have become celebrities in their own right.
“I think of myself less as a leader, and more of being almost an architect of an environment that enables employees to come up with their own ideas, and where employees can grow the culture and evolve it over time,” Hsieh told The New York Times in 2010.
Being able to meet evolving business needs is one of the areas the report said is a struggle for many of today’s leaders. Since some skills only last from two and a half to five years, developing leaders needs to be an ongoing priority to keep up with technological advances.
Retention and engagement are also problem areas, according to the survey. Forty percent of companies said they are “weak” at helping employees with work/life balance.
Getting the interest of Millennials is a major issue, since Millennials account for about 34 percent of today’s workforce. Projections show that by 2025, they will likely make up 75 percent of the workforce, so keeping them engaged is important for retention.
The survey offered some insight into what Millennial employees are looking for in a company.
“Millennials… want to work for organizations that provide flexibility and that are purpose-driven, tackling broad societal challenges such as resource scarcity, climate change and income equality,” said the report.
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