Since business leaders know that talent is valuable and scarce, you might assume that they would know how to find it. Not so, 82 percent of companies don’t believe they recruit highly talented people, despite internal talent teams, HR and “post and pray” recruitment agencies. For companies that do, only 7 percent think they can keep it.* Superior talent is up to eight times more productive. It’s remarkable how much of a productivity kicker an organization gets from top talent. Studies of businesses not only show that high performers are 400 percent more productive than average ones but also reveal that the gap rises with a job’s complexity. In highly complex occupations—the information- and interaction-intensive work of managers, software developers, and the like—high performers are an astounding 800 percent more productive*Suppose your business strategy involves cross-functional initiatives that would take three years to complete. If you took 20 percent of the average talent working on the project and replaced it with great talent, how soon would you achieve the desired impact? If these people were 400 percent more productive, it would take less than two years; if they were 800 percent more productive, it would take less than one. If a competitor used 20 percent more great talent in similar efforts, it would beat you to market even if it started a year or two later.The need to attract and retain talent in a competitive labour market will continue to intensify regardless of technological innovations through AI and automation. Developing a distinct employment brand and fostering a strong culture to attract and retain talent isn’t new, but it’s never been more critical.Oliver Wyman recently interviewed 25 CEOs of billion-dollar companies with sales forces and heard a consistent theme: that sales force effectiveness is one of their highest priority issues, and that they are frustrated. Many have made substantial investments in a broad range of sales enablers such as sales force automation platforms, solution selling, challenger training, or in some cases large-scale ERP replatforming programmes. Yet an inconvenient truth remains…few companies have managed to ignite a profitable sales growth engine. Indeed, many CEOs said their sales productivity metrics have remained largely unchanged for years. Furthermore, now more than ever, they see the need for real improvement to offset slow market growth and to out-sell their competitors, including new online players.* Leading Organizations, McKinsey