Nearly half of Canadian companies (43%) are expecting a shortage of executives within their organization within the next five to 10 years, according to a Leger Marketing report released today.
The report, commissioned by executive search firm Odgers Berndtston, found that 17% of Canadian firms expect to lose more than 50% of their senior executives by 2016.
Ken Werker, managing partner of Odgers Berndtson's Vancouver office, said that the trend is being driven by:
- demographics, as a smaller generation of workers is set to replace the large Boomer generation;
- economic expansion, even during the economic downturn; and
- growing competition with the developing world for executives.
Werker said the pool for executive talent is already shrinking.
“It is becoming harder and harder to fill those higher, more specialized openings that we have here [in Canada],” he said.
The survey found that outgoing executives are predominantly between the ages of 40 and 54 and will be replaced by a younger cohort aged 35 to 49.
More than half of respondent companies (53%) anticipating a wave of younger executives said they will be forced to pay higher salaries for a shrinking pool of executive talent.
Werker said the survey found B.C. was “probably slightly ahead” of Canadian norms for starting to strategize about succession.
“We could say that we’re a bit more progressive here than the rest of the country.”
But Werker noted that to compete for executive talent going forward, companies will need to focus on both attraction and retention strategies.
Jenny Wagler
@JennyWagler_BIV