In PWC’s “14th Annual Global CEO Survey” last month, we were given a glimpse into why organisations are working hard to shift Talent and Resourcing strategies from being based on skills to being based on Values.

Since the global recession began and with globalisation picking up speed we have seen unprecedented levels of business transformation in the past couple of years. Indeed, 84% of CEOs stated that they had changed business strategy over the past 2 years and one third of CEOs said the strategic change had been “fundamental”. With levels of change like this, it doesn’t take a genius to work out that a well-structured workforce could be largely obsolete 2 years later. And so with this in mind, what are organisations doing to ensure a chasm doesn’t open up between its strategy and its people?

83% of the CEOs surveyed said they planned to change their strategies for Talent Management and Ochre House has seen plenty of first-hand evidence that this is due to such change in business strategies, simply exacerbated by the declining European population and worsening skill shortage. 66% of CEOs said that the biggest of the major challenges facing them was the limited availability of candidates with the right skills – not a surprising statistic when you consider that demand for new skills is so high.

What all this has resulted in is that businesses know they need to compete hard to attract and keep the best talent, but they don’t know necessarily what that talent may be asked to do for the organisation in the mid to long term. And therefore in leading organisations, how they define “best talent” has shifted dramatically towards values and behaviours, where the organisation themselves will be investing in giving them the skills as they progress and move through the organisation to meet the flexing business needs. The result is fantastic for the employee community as the relationship with their employer becomes one of genuine mutual benefit with shared cultural values.