Asian employers continue to face issues such as talent attraction and retention, said Mercer recently when releasing results of its 2022 Global Talent Trends Study.
The study collected responses from nearly 11,000 C-suite executives, HR leaders and employees globally.
Survey highlights
- Despite 85% of employees in Asia feeling satisfied in their current role, nearly two in five still plan to leave in the next six to 12 months, reflecting that organisations have yet to keep up with evolving employee expectations of work and the workplace.
- One in two employees across Asia say the future of work is about balance – fitting work around life and no longer life around work.
- Compared to 2020, employees today say they are more likely to stay with their employer due to “life” related factors, such as flexibility and time off, compared to “work” related factors, such as career progression and development.
- One in three employees in Asia are willing to forgo pay increases to be able to work flexibly, closely followed by well-being benefits.
- Nearly seven in 10 employees say not being able to work remotely or hybrid permanently is a deal breaker when considering whether to join or stay with an organisation.
- However, executives in Asia are concerned about the impact of permanent hybrid and remote working, especially the ability to build and maintain colleague relationships (89%).
- Seven in 10 also believe fundamentally that work gets done in an office, not remotely.
- With 48% organisations in Asia saying they are struggling with scaling up and sustaining hybrid work, there is significant work to be done in evolving their flexible work culture.
- The pandemic supercharged companies’ race to reskill, with organisations globally investing more than US$2,800 per learner in reskilling last year, up from US$1,400 in 2020.
- However, it is unclear if the investment is paying off. Nearly all (95%) employees in Asia reported recently learning a new skill, yet a staggering 97% of companies report significant skill gaps in their organisation.
- While providing opportunities to reskill and upskill is top of the people agenda of organisations in Asia in 2022, barriers remain.
- Lack of time aside (36%), one in four employees said they are not sure which skills to focus on as well as where to go to learn a new skill for work. HR leaders, too, have their reservations. They find it difficult to keep up with the pace of change and emerging skill needs (37%), identify employees with the most potential to effectively leverage new skills (36%) and are concerned that upskilled talent will leave the firm (35%).
- Addressing skill gaps is more pressing than ever for organisations to realise their strategy, meet evolving business needs and ensure the employability of their talent well into the future.
- The good news is HR leaders in Asia are looking to build skills internally rather than acquiring talent, a significant shift from pre-pandemic.
- They are also seeing the greatest impact from targeted learning investments (42%) and experiential learning through internal rotations (42%).
- Eight in 10 employees in Asia also feel at risk of burnout. With nearly all (98%) organisations planning significant transformation this year, the collective fatigue could put these plans at risk.
- Yet only one in four Asian employers view employee exhaustion as a threat to transformation or driver for attrition.
