Shortage of Talent Management: Workers in Asia are growing increasingly
restless, sparking rising turnover that suggests the continent no longer is a
“low-cost utopia with abundance” of available talent. Global talent management
firm Step Stone, in its Total Talent Report 2008, cites four major obstacles to
retention and recruitment in Asia: rising wages, lack of suitable candidates,
perceived lack of career opportunities and perceptions that better pay and
benefits could he had elsewhere.
Awareness of potential talent deficits is not yet dampening leaders’ optimism
about the Asia-Pacific economy, however. Nearly half the business leaders
surveyed globally say the Pacific Rim affords the most promising venue for new
revenue growth, while 87 percent expect either “slight or significant
improvement” in their company’s fortunes over a three-year stretch. But firms
need to “ramp up pay and offer improved working conditions” to exploit Asia’s
booming market economies. For example, the report predicts that average wages
for Chinese workers in 2010 will be 3½ times what they were in 2002.
Job-hopping is a prevalent worry for all global companies, not just those in
Asia. Thirty-seven percent of global organizations surveyed cite the “increasing
expectation of employees to move jobs or change careers” as the chief reason
behind lingering talent shortages.
Although keenly aware of this, only one-quarter of organizations have formal
strategies to recruit, develop and retain top talent--and 16 percent lack any
strategy for countering the growing attrition.
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