The research, the fourth annual High Performance Workforce Study, is based on interviews with 244 senior executives in the United States, Europe and Australia. Its goal was to identify trends and other factors that are currently affecting the performance of workforces and businesses.

Forty-one percent of respondents said the war for talent will have an impact on their companies in the next 12 months, compared with 23 percent who said the war for talent is currently affecting their organizations. Despite this, most respondents said their organizations do not have the skills and capabilities that they view as critical to addressing marketplace challenges.

For instance, while 65 percent cited "developing an effective leadership capability" and 49 percent cited "creating an organization and culture that adapt effectively to change" as very important organizational capabilities, only eight percent in each case said their organizations are performing very well in these areas. Just 17 percent of respondents described the overall skill level of their entire workforce as industry-leading.

Survey findings also indicate that executives are shifting their focus from cost control to growth:

• Thirty-two percent of respondents said their primary focus today is on cost control;
• Twenty-seven percent said their primary focus today is on growth;
• While 42 percent of respondents said their companies will focus primarily on growth in the coming year, 18 percent said they plan to focus primarily on cost control during that time.

"The recent focus on cost-cutting has led many companies to lose marketplace momentum. Now, as they ramp up investment in growth-oriented activities to achieve higher levels of performance, they need to regain their competitive edge in terms of recruiting, retaining and developing high-caliber employees," said Peter Cheese, managing partner of Accenture's Human Performance service line. "The way forward involves a more strategic approach in human resources. Organizations should understand how to effectively engage employees, focusing on learning and performance management and aligning both to business strategy."

The research found that shortcomings in the respondent organizations' human resources and training practices account for the lack of solid workforce performance. Just 18 percent said they were very satisfied with the overall performance of their HR function, and only 16 percent said they were very satisfied with the overall performance of their training function.

Interestingly, the survey also found that, in virtually every case, the mean satisfaction rating with the HR and training functions is higher among respondents who outsource all of a particular training or HR activity, such as recruiting, payroll, training content development or training delivery, than among those who outsource none of that activity.