Organisations are not making adequate use of their employees' skills, according to a new survey by IBM and the Human Capital Institute (HCI).

The study on Integrated Talent Management found many managers do not engage their current employees effectively and would not be able to give an estimate of the skills missing from their current workforce.

The technology sector, along with electronics and professional services firms, were most likely to apply good talent management practices; the public sector was least likely to make full use of its workers' skillsets.

“The challenge laid out for IBM’s clients is to treat their most valuable asset – their people – as their most competitive edge,” said Tim Ringo, IBM Human Capital Management vice president.

The study was conducted with 1,900 individuals from more than 1,000 public and private sector organisations around the world. HCI worked with IBM on the survey as a global network that advises its members on how to gain talent advantages.

From the organisations surveyed, only 40 per cent were found to accurately forecast skill needs while 46 per cent of the organisations failed to deploy staff into the right roles and 62 per cent of managers failed in their ability to develop employees in a “timely and effective manner”.