This was the stark warning by Sylvia Ann Hewlett, director of the Hidden Brain Drain taskforce, as she spoke to HRDs at the launch of her latest book - Top Talent: Keeping Performance Up When Business is Down.
The first part of the book reveals the results of the taskforce's two-year-long research into the plight of managers. She revealed top talent was working an average of nine more hours a week in 2009 than two years ago - bringing their working week up to 82 hours.
She said: "Any semblance of flex at work is now gone. There has been a doubling in their perception of stress in just two years, but these same people have doubled the negative ways of coping with it - such as turning to drinking - rather than using positive ways, such as exercise."
Also at the event, Helen Wyatt, HR strategy leader at Unilever, says business is guilty of letting too many talented people - especially women - go. "Some 55% of our own graduate intake are women, but with each level of advancement there is a huge drop-off, such that only 30% of senior managers are women." She said Unilever now has a target for 50% of managers to by women by 2012.
HRDs warned not to ignore top talent
A third of top talent who have survived the recession will not stay with their company in the next 12 months.
