Attract and grow talent and expertise, enhance soft skills and urge urgent simplification and de-bureaucratisation measures. These are the priorities for the Lombard managers of ALDAI Federmanager. A goal that goes to enter the growth of the region, which will also benefit from the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics. This is confirmed by a research that the Lombard association, which represents almost 15,000 industrial managers, commissioned from the AstraRicerche institute.
Research
In the research of AstraRicerche in fact, three keywords emerge. The first is “talents”. When asked what are the three current priorities for a company that wants to grow on the market, process innovation (44.9%) and product innovation (53.1%) take the podium, but first position (61.6%, even 68 % for under 50s) concerns talents: how to attract them, train them and keep them in the company. And to encourage their development and integration into the world of work, for 64.2% it is a question of creating greater links between the university and the professional world.
In this process, executives carve out an active role in technical training courses for young people (41.1%), in the onboarding of recent graduates in the company or in training courses on soft skills (37.7%, 47% under 50s). Then there is consensus on rewarding merit also through company scholarships to support the training course (47.9%), while only 11.7% say that communication campaigns are needed to promote STEM disciplines (women indicate them twice as much : 24%).
The skills required
In a fast-changing world that has challenged business executives, it’s no surprise that it ranks of the skills most in demand for managers in the coming years the long-term vision (59.7%), flexibility and the spirit of adaptation (51.2%, 64% for the under 50s), the predisposition to problem solving (47.9%) are in the first places.
The ability to do team building follows with 43.3%, while some ‘evergreen’ skills now seem less in demand (37.7% leadership aptitude, but 47% among the under 50s). Always present technical-scientific knowledge (26.5%), relational and commercial (21.3%), while the specialization on “green” does not exceed one sixth of the indications (15.9%, perhaps because it is considered typical of specialized figures) as well as legal/regulatory skills (23.2%) and social reporting/ESG (19.2 %, 32% for the under 50s).
The role of government
And what can the government do? Asking to choose up to three urgent measures, targeted and effective interventions for simplification and red tape (74.7%) clearly outperform all the other proposals, while in second place is the promotion of a long-term plan term of energy and environmental sustainability (50%) and the involvement of managers in management policies to guide industrial policies (46%). The issue of excessive bureaucracy in relations with the PA emerges as a priority also in the answers to the question on the responsibilities of the delays in the execution of the PNRR, in which the managers indicate in first place the excessive bureaucracy and the complexity of the implementing rules (75.5%, a good three out of four managers), the lack of by local authorities (71.5%) and the inadequacy of ministerial technicians 69.8%).
“In an economy at the regional level that has been expressing itself for a few months at top speed – commented the president of ALDAI Federmanager Manuela Biti –with a 6.3% growth in industrial production in 2022 compared to the previous year and a peak of 24.5% in clothing, and with a forecast of 1.5 million new hires in the May-July period alone, according to forecasts by Unioncamere, it is not surprising that the search for and development of talent is in first place, as is the importance of soft skills, in particular long-term vision, flexibility and predisposition to problem solving”.
With an alarm on young people, also in light of the recent events Report of the Observatory on innovation and digital in which it is also underlined how the brain drain is a problem for 9 out of 10 young people. “The phenomenon can have enormous consequences on businesses – continues the president -. Do you think that the loss of human capital costs Italy about 1% of GDP. We need to be able to exploit talent, skills and passion, because these are what lead the country to growth. And as far as young people are concerned, we must work to create even greater links between universities and the professional world“.
With attention to the selection, also passing, where necessary, through the head hunters. “Companies that don’t do it yet should trust these structures more, which have the capabilities and the skills to identify the most suitable professional figures. And, if necessary, redesign a training course that aims to enhance the skills of managers and more”, concludes Biti.