December 13, 2006

Recruitment and Retention are Top Challenges in Christmas Survey of UK HR Leaders

London – 13 December 2006 – Over two thirds of senior HR managers surveyed in the UK see either recruitment or retention as the biggest challenge for next year, according to a new survey from Taleo, the leading provider of on demand talent management solutions. The results are from a survey entitled “2007: The Challenges for HR”, that shows that 37% of respondents see employee retention as the biggest challenge moving into 2007, whereas the concerns of 29% lie in hiring the best talent.

The findings reflect a recent report in The Economist, which highlighted the increasing skills shortages in both established and new economies. Consequently, talent is becoming more difficult to attract and retain. This trend poses particular challenges when HR budgets are constrained. 79% of those surveyed said that their budgets would either remain the same or be reduced in 2007. Better visibility of employees’ skills (37%), and better measurement of HR processes (31%) were seen as the most valuable ways to improve HR effectiveness.

The study from Taleo, questioned 150 senior HR managers in the United Kingdom on what they perceived to be their biggest challenges going into 2007 and which factors would help them perform better in the New Year. Key findings indicate:

Finding and hiring – 29% of senior HR managers saw hiring the best talent in the market place as the biggest challenge, whilst attracting good quality candidates followed closely behind, with 52% of directors selecting this as one of their top three challenges

Retention – 37% viewed employee retention as their main challenge, whilst 59% had viewed it as one of their top three challenges.

Employee visibility – Over a third (37%) believed that better visibility of employee skills would help them perform their job better in 2007

Measurement – Nearly a third (31%) felt that the main factor in improving their performance would be better measurement of the effectiveness of HR processes such as recruitment

Legal compliance – With 79% of employers being unprepared for the new UK Age Legislation before it came into act in October1, over 41% viewed complying with the legislation as one of their top three challenges.

Chris Phillips, senior director, international marketing for Taleo comments, “It is clear that the battle for talent in the UK is hotting up. But with HR budgets constrained organisations need to look for more cost effective ways to improve key talent management processes like recruitment and internal mobility. On demand technology can play a key role by providing improved visibility and measurement, as well as increased control over talent management processes. Talent management best practices such as automated skills-based matching of candidates to roles and the proactive recruitment from an organisation’s own talent pool rely on best-of-breed (talent management) technology.”

NOTES TO EDITORS:

About Taleo
Taleo (NASDAQ: TLEO) delivers on demand talent management solutions that enable organizations of all sizes, around the world, to assess, acquire, develop, and align their workforce for improved business performance. More than 720 organizations use Taleo to recruit and retain top talent with 750,000 users processing 50 million candidates from 100 countries. Requiring no capital investment, software as a service and on demand delivery offer 99.9% availability and 100% accountability.

For further information please contact:
Joanna Masson / Lorna Thompson
Octopus Communications for Taleo Corporation
+44 (0)845 370 0655
taleo@octopuscomms.net

Press Contacts:
Krista Canfield
Tel: 415.905.4011
e-mail: kcanfield@horngroup.com

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