By Justyn Sturrock

Today, more than ever, organisations worldwide are focusing their time and attention on maximising the value of their workforces.

As organisations become more globally integrated, and as traditional geographic and competitive boundaries disappear, the need to identify, develop and connect talent has never been more critical.

Every two years IBM conducts a global CEO Study where we go out and talk to over 1,000 CEOs, and each time we do this, the people agenda is always top of mind.

In 2004, when we asked CEOs what their greatest concern was for their organisation, three primary themes emerged: growth, responsiveness and agility.

And CEOs were almost unanimous in their belief that the greatest hurdle to addressing these themes was the capability within their organisations.

In 2006, when we spoke to CEOs, we saw that growth responsiveness and agility had morphed into innovation; whether it be business model innovation or product innovation.

And again the people theme emerged as rapid innovation was seen as being intrinsically linked to the degree that an organisation can adapt its workforce to meet shifting demands and these demands are varied:

• Market Volatility - highlighted by the US Sub prime
• Changing Demographics
• Threats to Global Security
• Global environmental Pressures such as Global Warming
• Changing business models

In response to the CEOs' agenda, IBM's 2008 Global Human Capital Study [1] further confirms the importance of an Adaptable Workforce.

The study was based on 400 organisations in 40 countries around the world. Upon analysis, our study revealed four themes:

1. We believe that an Adaptable Workforce is the precursor for future organizational success. However, only 14% of organisations in our study believe that their workforce is capable of adapting to rapid change.

2. No organisation can transform itself without great leaders, yet 75% of study participants felt that their inability to develop future leaders was a critical issue.

3. Cracking the code for Talent. We believe that those organisations that can effectively develop future business scenarios that identify future talent requirements will gain competitive advantage

4. Driving Growth through more robust Workforce Analytics - Supporting Strategic planning and execution with real and robust analytics around workforce supply and demand.

Transforming a Workforce involves a host of players and is therefore a C suite agenda, and cannot be abdicated solely to HR as the latest fad or trend.

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Justyn Sturrock is Human Capital Management Lead, IBM Global Business Services, IBM Australia delivered this address as part of a cross-industry discussion hosted by the Committee for Economic Development of Australia (http://ceda.org.au [2]). Sponsored by IBM the discussion was part of a series of CEDA panels focused on what Australian governments, educational institutions and businesses need to do now to ensure we have the right kind of workforce one that is capable of responding to the impacts of globalisation .