Talent Hunt: Getting the People You Need, When You Need Them

Ask any CEO or senior level executive what his or her biggest challenge is, and the answer is almost always finding and keeping good people. Yet most executives fail to manage their company's needs in a way that recognizes the unpredictability of the global marketplace. In a book titled, Talent on Demand: Managing Talent in an Age of Uncertainty, Peter Cappelli, director of Wharton's Center for Human Resources, proposes a new approach to this issue based on applying the principles of supply chain management to people. He and Joyce Bradley, senior vice president and general manager, Delaware Valley region, of Lee Hecht Harrison, spoke with Knowledge@Wharton about talent management, including the challenges of managing employees in a recessionary economy.