Over 70% of respondents surveyed by Deloitte’s Human Capital practice confirmed they were experiencing or expected to experience, a shortage of white-collar workers.

According to Deloitte, impending baby boomer retirements, a widening skills gap and outdated approaches to talent management are combining forces to produce a “perfect storm” which may threaten long-term business performance.

Sixty-nine per cent of the HR respondents quizzed said that attracting new talent poses the greatest threat to competitiveness, followed by the inability to retain key talent (66%) and incoming workers with inadequate skills (34%).

But only 13% identified approaching baby boomer retirement as a concern, despite say Deloitte evidence which suggests this will result in a large exodus of experienced staff from the labour market within the next three to five years.

Ashley Unwin, a partner in consulting at Deloitte said: “Retirement legislation is under review in some countries but the current situation sees skilled workers continuing to leave their profession or trade around late middle age and too few people are joining the workforce to fill their place.

“Governments are able to partially alleviate the depth of talent pools through policies on immigration, taxation and education but their impact is likely to be superficial in the face of global working population forecasts.”

Fifty-four per cent believe talent management issues will impact their overall organisational productivity and 40% say it affects the firm’s ability to innovate. Thirty-three per cent acknowledge it will limit their ability to meet production requirements and fulfil customer demand.