Well, okay. So maybe every high-performing global leader doesn’t really need to have aced that university differential equations course. But the essence of differential calculus—the pursuit of understanding of how things change—IS critical for today’s leading corporate executive. Whether in a for-profit company or not, the financial services or the airline industry, if you aren’t anticipating how the quantities that affect your business are (or might be) changing, you are likely to find yourself chasing the curve, not preparing to ride the next, oncoming wave. Today’s global recruiting and business leaders share a related, if monumental, challenge: how to not just manage—but strategically anticipate—their organization’s fast-moving talent requirements that sit as the dynamic intersection of

Call center candidates’ previous work experience is a poor predictor of attrition, a recent Evolv study asserts. You can’t predict how long a hire will stay based on whether he or she job-hopped or was unemployed in the past. The study does show that personality, aptitude, work style, and skills are much better predictors of tenure, and even on-the-job performance. Our research into win-win selection decisions also finds that past work experience alone does not predict future performance. The hard part is implementing a selection process that assesses things like aptitude and skills effectively. Where most companies go wrong is asking candidates to describe, rather than demostrate, their skills and work style. In many cases,

Our Talent Advisor model for recruiter capabilities states the importance of recruiters developing expertise about the labor markets they operate in. Simply having labor market knowledge can improve recruiters’ quality of shortlist by 46% and their business influence by 42%. However, less than a third of recruiters have broader knowledge of their labor market competitors! Members, view our Quarterly Global Labor Market Briefing: Q1 2012 for the latest data on global and regional labor market conditions and shifts. Stay tuned for the labor market highlights from Q1 in an upcoming post.