Source page: McKinsey & Company
Commentary
Look inward, not outward
Talent | Jobs
February 25, 2022 – More companies are building talent internally rather than externally. Over 50 percent of executives believe that developing the skills of their existing workforce is the most useful approach to address capability gaps—rather than hiring new workers, redeploying talent, and contracting in skilled workers.
To read the blog post, see “Winning the war for talent in product development,” February 3, 2022.
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Visual form
Action-priority comparison chart.
Layout / body structure
The chart is a compact single-page comparison of four actions companies can take to close capability gaps. Reader starts with the dominant left-side action and then scans the smaller alternatives to the right and below it.
What is being compared
The chart compares the top action executives say they will take in the next year to close capability gaps: building skills, external hiring, redeploying people, and contracting workers. It is a strategy-choice comparison rather than a time or trend chart.
Measurement system
The measure is percent of respondents, shown directly on the chart beside each action label. The percentages provide the rank order and the size gap between the leading choice and the three trailing alternatives.
Visible structure inside the graphic
The page gives the strongest visual emphasis to building skills, with its larger 53 percent label placed prominently on the left. The remaining options are arranged separately with much smaller percentages, making the chart read as one clear leader followed by a second tier of alternatives rather than a tightly packed race.
Main takeaway from the visual
Executives clearly prefer building talent internally over hiring or contracting their way out of capability gaps. The visual weight of the 53 percent figure makes internal skill building the unmistakable centerpiece of the page, while the other three options cluster much lower.
Key standout values or extremes
Building skills leads at 53 percent, while external hiring sits at 21 percent and redeploying people at 20 percent. Contracting workers is the lowest of the named responses, which leaves internal skill development as the only option with majority-level support.
Controls / sequence, when applicable
This is a static chart image with no in-chart controls to operate.
Companion media, when applicable
There is no separate companion audio or video; the chart image is the full visual on this page.