Top 3 talent risks in Asia

According to our HR transformation study the top talent risks faced by organizations in the Asian region include: alignment with pace of innovation, critical skills shortage and lack of adequate leadership pipeline.

Critical skills shortage and leadership pipeline are issues symptomatic to organizations that are planning for rapid growth in Asia. For large organizations, the risk of managing employee expectations in a multi-generational workforce stood out due to the diverse talent segments in the workforce. It is noted that rising people costs is high on the list for China and smaller organizations.

Rising people costs as a top talent risk for smaller organizations is a reflection that some of them are hardest hit by the pandemic. Below a overview of risk per region and company size:

Greater China

• Inability to attract talent
• Rising people costs
• Inability to keep pace with adoption of digital/business models

India

• Managing employee expectations and aspirations in a multi-generational workforce
• Inability to retain talent
• Inadequate leadership pipeline

Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) 

• Managing employee expectations and aspirations in a multi-generational workforce
• Inability to keep pace with adoption of digital/business models
• Inability to address critical skills shortage

Japan

• Low capability internally for critical roles
• Managing employee expectations and aspirations in a multi-generational workforce
• Shortfall in ability to align/shape culture of the organization

>10,000 employees

• Managing employee expectations and aspirations in a multi-generational workforce
• Inability to keep pace with adoption of digital/business models
• Inability to attract talent

5,000-10,000 employees

• Inability to keep pace with adoption of digital/business models
• Inadequate leadership pipeline
• Inability to address critical skills shortage

< 5000 employees

• Inability to keep pace with adoption of digital/business models
• Rising people costs
• Managing employee expectations and aspirations in a multi-generational workforce

Talent risks and their variations across industries

Across the industries, prevalent risks observed include people costs and alignment with pace of innovation impacting or driven by businesses. This misalignment with the pace of change in business reflects in the acute shortage of critical skills faced by industries. Most of the mature industries face difficulties in managing expectations of a multi-generational workforce and attracting talent. Subsequent sections of the report will outline how HR function is getting itself ready to address the risks and prepare for the future.