By Elvin Tan, Regional Director – Head of Operations APAC, PERSOLKELLY
As Asia-Pacific economies recover from the impact of Covid-19, with growth predicted to reach 7.2% in 2021, companies are repositioning. They are seeking to leverage emerging opportunities and capitalise on market conditions by expanding locally, regionally or beyond. But sourcing and retaining Talents to drive growth remain an imposing challenge for most. Competition for the best Talents is increasingly intense.
Simultaneously, companies are reviewing the transformation of everyday work caused by the pandemic. After more than a year and a half, many companies are still finding their footing managing and building their workforce.
To help better understand the magnitude of the concerns and challenges of businesses in this fluid situation, PERSOLKELLY and YouGov recently surveyed more than 1,500 hiring decision-makers from various industries across Asia Pacific.
The 2021 APAC Workforce Insights Report spans 12 markets which include Australia, China, India, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam. The findings highlight persistent, outsized issues in human resources and workforce management triggered or exacerbated by the pandemic. The report also illuminates current hiring challenges and workforce management strategies beyond COVID-19.
Understanding the Challenges
While every company has unique challenges building a workforce, there are common issues in the broader environment. From the survey, the top three concerns are constraints on global mobility due to the pandemic, a lack of Talents available locally, and a high drop-out rate in certain segments.
Lack of Talents Available Locally
Individuals with the most qualified skills to support business expansion may not reside in a company’s home country. Some emerging technologies are advancing faster overseas, leaving local Talent out of step and without the latest skills. These skills also take time to pick up, and countries can’t churn out acceptable graduates at the rate needed. This scenario forces businesses to recruit elsewhere. Consequently, the right Talent and skills often must be gathered abroad.
Constraints on Global Mobility Due to the Pandemic
The pandemic has restricted both domestic and international travel. Not surprisingly, survey respondents in all the markets said global mobility constraints (the capacity to relocate Talents abroad) are a primary challenge to building a workforce.
Before the pandemic, overseas recruiting was slightly cumbersome but doable. Now, with government travel restrictions to contain the spread of the coronavirus, importing Talents is severely limited or impractical. The tightened control threatens to stunt businesses’ growth potential.
High Drop-out Rate
Another critical issue in all the surveyed markets (except Australia and New Zealand) is the high drop-out rate of workers in certain segments or with specific skill sets. Employees are leaving jobs for various reasons. Some seek better career opportunities elsewhere when demand in their sector is high. Many people are disconnected by the isolation and “Zoom fatigue” faced during COVID-19 work from home arrangements, while others simply want a fresh start.
Retention takes on greater importance given the competition to hire the best people, the lack of Talents available locally, and cross-border travel restrictions.
Considerations to Refine Workforce Strategies
While Asia-Pacific companies are refining their workforce strategies to deal with these challenges, the survey reveals their primary considerations as follows:
The availability of Talent
The cost of hiring
Ensuring retention
Determining the essential skills for future roles and responsibilities
With Technology, companies are not restricted to hiring locally but can explore overseas Talent with the right skills. This strategy may or may not result in lower costs than the rising costs of employment due to the “war for Talent”. In addition to hiring, companies are looking at new ways to retain and upskill existing employees to meet the demands for the future.
Demand is High for Talents in Sales and Technology
Two areas of skills lead the demand for Talents, as reflected in the survey results. Firstly, in today’s highly competitive landscape, a business with the best salesforce will most likely gain the upper hand and biggest market share. All industries in Asia Pacific are embracing digital transformation to streamline operations and reach out to digital-savvy consumers. For example, since the pandemic began, 70 million people age 15 and above in Southeast Asia have become new digital consumers, according to a report by Facebook and Bain & Company. These developments are driving demand for next-generation sales professionals who can harness the power of analytics, digital tools, and agile processes.
Secondly, having the Technology to provide an excellent online payment experience is especially important amid the disruptions from Covid-19. Agile companies eager to leverage the rapidly evolving digital marketplace must have a reliable, fast online platform to engage their target markets, clients and consumers. As companies continually pursue growth, these developments will lead them to seek Talents in Technology, Business Development, Digital Marketing and E-commerce.
Businesses Consider Hybrid and Remote Work
In many ways, the pandemic has normalised remote work. Companies are starting to realise that it is easier to recruit and retain employees who prefer those work arrangements. Location flexibility also opens up the possibility for recruiters to manage oversea Talents without bringing them in to the country where the company is based.
Half of the companies surveyed are open to hybrid arrangements – a mixture of home and office. There are challenges but companies adopting hybrid work may be more attractive for recruitment and retention. Companies in China and Vietnam have the highest preference for a work-from-office arrangement.
Alongside companies’ openness to hybrid working is a growing desire to explore remote work arrangements. More than 40% of Asia-Pacific businesses in our survey reported that they are open to hiring and managing remote Talents abroad to achieve the best possible workforce. However, they may require help in this case. The top challenges listed by survey respondents were:
Performance management
Language and culture
Working across time zones
Next Steps
Asia Pacific remains a vibrant market with excellent opportunities as companies continue to seek future expansion. Winning in this landscape means gaining the best Talent to take advantage of opportunities to scale rapidly. Speed of Talent acquisition is essential. PERSOLKELLY has delivered Regional Talent Solutions to support our clients in rethinking their workforce strategies across APAC to ensure their organisations are resilient, flexible and competitive.