Back in 1998, McKinsey & Co. reported on the "The War for Talent" and for a long while now there's been a lot of talk about the talent shortage on the horizon. Stemming from the demographic information on an aging population without new entries into the workforce, the statistics have been reported and repeated by recruitment advertising agencies for the past 7 years with little or no interest from the field.

My guess is because there is enormous response to every poorly written job posting on the job boards, and recruiters have confused candidates with talent.

But true talent, the perfect mix of experience, energy and enthusiasm ideally suited for the corporate culture- is almost an accident to find. And if you do get lucky enough to find and hire a talented person, you have to worry about keeping them!

What reminded me of this was an article I read in ERE on the talent shortage-- though now, instead of a War, it's become a Race-- a word change I find much more pleasing since I'm a Dove.

The article goes on to discuss things that should be done to get ready. They include defining the following:

• What makes your organization so special?
• Why would anyone want to give up another job for the one you have?
• What are you prepared to offer for someone to make a move?

Once you nail that down, you need to communicate it to the right people. The talented people. And talented people usually know other talented people and before you know it, your winning the race!

You can read the whole article here.