Johannesburg – SHL announces SHL Leadership Index(C) for South Africa
February 22, 2012
Johannesburg – SHL, the global leader in talent measurement solutions, today reveals that South Africa’s business leadership potential is ahead of that in other countries in the BRICS grouping (Brazil, Russia, India and China) but lags leadership levels in the developed G8 nations and is slightly below the global average.
These statistics come from SHL, the world’s leading authority on the science of people in the workplace with over 15 years’ of experience in the South African market, and its global database of talent and leadership assessments in top businesses in more than 160 countries. The Leadership Index will become an annual index for SHL South Africa, showing how South African business people compare to their peers in other countries, and where leadership potential is strongest in South Africa.
“There is a global war for talent, and every company we work with wants us to help them identify the people with true leadership potential,” said SHL’s Chief Science & Analytics Officer, Eugene Burke, who produced the index based on 1 million assessments of leadership potential.
“Organisations want to improve the odds that they will acquire and employ people with the potential to be an effective leader. They want to know what investment they need to make to realise leadership potential, and to identify and retain top performers.”
SHL, which conducts some 25 million assessments annually and has developed the world’s largest talent analytics database with some 80 million data points, has conducted a global comparison of those going into a graduate, managerial or specialist professional positions.
This has enabled them to establish a global average of a company’s chances of finding someone with true leadership potential. SHL’s global intelligence database shows that around 1 in 15 people (about 7%) have what it takes to be a truly effective leader. The top developed nations in the G8 group of countries are way ahead of this, with a leadership factor of around 1 in 10.
South Africa is in a good position among developing countries, with a leadership factor of 1 in 17. This is slightly behind the global average but ahead of the BRICS countries, where the average leadership factor is 1 in 19.
“The BRICS countries are seen as the emerging economic powerhouses in the global economy. We believe their leadership potential will improve as those economies grow in the maturity of their talent management programmes. South Africa is already a long way towards that maturity in talent best practices,” Burke said.
Burke comments that, as in all economies, there is variation across industry sectors in the success in capturing leadership potential. Looking at South Africa in more detail, leadership potential is strongest in the oil and gas and in the materials sector (chemicals, industrial metals and mining) when compared with South Africa in general.
Sectors that come in around the South African average include telecoms, healthcare and customer services such as retail, media and travel and leisure.
Those sectors where the leadership challenge is highest include industrials (construction and industrial engineering) and consumer goods (automobile industry, food and beverage producers and producers of personal goods).
Nadene Venter, MD of SHL South Africa, said that drilling into SHL’s people intelligence database shows that the talent in South Africa has clear leadership strengths when benchmarked globally.
“South Africans have the energy to achieve, the talent to analyse issues and come up with solutions, as well as the capacity to translate ideas into effective plans and deliverables.
“If South African businesses want to step up as powerhouses in the global economy there are two key areas they need to address to meet the leadership challenge:
“Firstly, identify those with the ability not merely to cope with change but to engage proactively and effectively with the rapid change that is happening in South Africa and globally. As leaders, they must support others in how they engage with the rapid pace of change.
“Secondly, identify those who will take people with them in the way they articulate their plans and goals to others, and engage others with those ideas. While there is clear strength in the capacity to analyse and unpack issues, knowing what needs to be done is only one step in making things happen which will often be down to the actions of others, and their buy-in to the ideas pitched to them.”
The global comparisons of leadership potential are an example of the power of SHL Talent Analytics, which uses SHL’s database to enable organisations to benchmark their people by industry, business function and job level across the geographies that they operate in. Talent Analytics(™) will be launched to the South African market in Johannesburg on Thursday.
About SHL - People intelligence. Business results.
SHL is the leader in talent measurement solutions, driving better business results for clients through superior people intelligence and decisions - from hiring and recruiting, to employee development and succession planning. With a presence in over 50 countries, SHL delivers more than 25 million assessments annually in over 30 languages - allowing over 10,000 business customers to benefit from both global expertise and local insight. Along with its world-class consulting practices and 24-hour support center, SHL clients can access over 1,000 assessments through an easy-to-use technology platform. Headquartered in London, UK, the company has offices in North and South America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia and Australia/New Zealand. For more information, visit www.shl.com.
For more information, please contact:
Nadene Venter, MD, SHL South Africa, 012 425 0100
Hugo van Zyl, Business Development Director, SHL South Africa, 012 425 0100
Michael Acott, Baird’s Renaissance, 011 504 4000 or 082 821 5656
