Those talent dilemmas- and others - are increasingly at the core of “specific business problems” that clients face today, 13 years after a McKinsey report exposed the “war for talent” as a strategic business challenge, according to Roger Philby, chief executive and founder of talent consultancy Chemistry Group.

“Right now, the world’s on fire,” Philby recently told a London audience of HR professionals at an evening event called ’Bridging the Gap’. “People are waking up to the fact that people really are the No. 1 asset.”

More organisations are becoming more rigorous in examining who they hire and how they hire, with both external and internal assessment processes increasing in use, Philby said. “Six years ago, 80% of our business was recruitment. Today it’s less than 5%. More organisations are developing the people they have rather than recruiting others in.”

One of the key realisations Philby is seeing among organisations is that skills training is not enough to drive staff to perform to desired performance and activity results. “There is a genuine belief that training is not enough - there’s no change in performance. A lot of organisations are talking about behaviours and ’how do we change behaviour’,” Philby said.

Another facet of the overall talent dilemma is, organisations scrutinising their management and leadership are being forced to admit, “’Oh my god, they’re just not good enough’,” he said.

But those identified as “high potentials” within their organisations may not be living up to this tag either. Problems are emerging as a result of attempts to give employees greater breadth of corporate experience by moving them around throughout their organisation without providing the necessary depth of experience.

“People are being caught short because they were moved around and not developed enough. We’re doing a lot of work with ex-high potentials who are trying to find their mojo again,” he said.

People are being caught short because they were moved around and not developed enough. We’re doing a lot of work with ex-high potentials who are trying to find their mojo again

He emphasised that organisations must identify what ’good’ looks like for the business and what do the right people look like. Nevertheless, he added, “the vast majority of people (hired) are the ’right’ people - they just need to be led a bit differently”.