Re-Orientation: A Survival Guide for APAC Recruitment

In helping employers across the APAC region address their talent needs, I’ve seen how companies struggle to meet expectations of growth and success amid a highly challenging environment for acquiring talent.

Two main issues will continue to shape the way companies work across the region. They include the intense pressure on the talent supply and the sheer diversity of countries, populations, and cultures across the area.

Companies recognize the issues and are taking new approaches to address them.

 Challenges: Tight Supply, Heavy Demand, and Limited Mobility

 APAC countries face a shortage of skilled and experienced talent, particularly in technology-related fields. The demand far outstrips supply partly because of the departure of highly skilled workers to better opportunities in Europe and the United States. At the same time, companies in those regions still rely on APAC labor for labor arbitrage.

 Adding to the challenge are issues of movement in a widely diverse region. Differences in cultures and languages can make it difficult to bring workers into a needed location.

For example, in Australia, India, Singapore, Malaysia, and Hong Kong, English is in common use as a first or second language, whereas its use in China and Japan is less prevalent. Conversely, the supply of talent outside the country who speak Mandarin, Cantonese, and Japanese is limited.

Employers Embrace New Priorities

 Spurred by workforce supply challenges, employers in the region are compelled to embrace priorities that they may not have emphasized in the past. First, a growing portion of the corporate population is now comprised of contract or non-permanent labor.

The second notable push is the effort by companies to develop their own talent. Instead of trying to poach others’ workers, many companies are implementing return-to-work and other diversity-led strategies to increase their access to the labor pool, as well as investing more heavily in training and upskilling their existing workers.

The Role of the Talent Solutions Partner

 When it comes to engaging a talent solutions partner, employers in the APAC region often need more than just transactional support to fill individual roles. Instead, companies are looking for a talent partner to help find quality candidates for the right jobs in the right labor engagement model, as well as a sense of predictability in a chaotic market through talent pooling.

 Talent availability changes. New demands for skills arise, and economic and geopolitical factors continue to influence the movement of talent.

An effective talent partner needs to provide market insight on these trends and into the business’ hiring patterns, as well as the advice on how to address these challenges effectively to remain competitive.

That’s why the role of a talent advisor is not just important to hiring and engaging talent but also to the survival and growth of the business itself.

(The following is an excerpt from Allegis Group’s research report, “Global Workforce Trends,” which is available for immediate, free download.)