The one thing that today ties all global and growing companies alike is their hunt for talented and skilled people to staff their offices. Be it global recession or economic boom, numerous reports and surveys over the last three years have established the fact that talent plays such a crucial role in the success of any enterprise that it can actually make it or break it both financially, as well as in principle.

However, the biggest burden in this aspect is faced by SMEs.Nowhere is this risk more acute than in the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) of the world. Despite their established strategic importance in generating employment, aiding economic growth and boosting their country’s respective export performance, SMEs stand disadvantaged at numerous levels. Out of these, the two most obvious disadvantages suffered by SMEs globally are that they lack the financial might and the ‘Brand’ value of MNCs, to which most talented and ambitious candidates are attracted.

India is a case in point. According to the 2011-2012 Annual Report of the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, it is estimated that in terms of value, the MSME sector which today employs about 595 lakh persons in over 261 lakh enterprises throughout the country, accounts for about 45 per cent of the manufacturing output and 40 per cent of the total exports of India. Together these enterprises produce over 6,000 products ranging from traditional to high-tech items.

Yet, this sector is perhaps the hardest hit by India’s on going talent famine. This fact was brought to light in 2009 when the Grant Thornton ‘India Market Retention and Attrition Study’, noted that a shocking 85 per cent of organisations face shortage of talent with the desired levels of skills required to fulfil certain roles and responsibilities.

However, simply being unable to attract talent due to lack of branding or monetary muscle, need not necessarily spell doom for your growing business. The report aims to inform leading CEO’s of the prevailing talent crunch existing, not just in the country but in the world, and to introduce them to innovative HR strategies used by other successful companies to tide over it. Second, the report aims to inspire and encourage CEOs and their respective HR- Heads to create customised and practical HR policies to attract talentand retain it.

You can read the full report here.