Joy Koh , Regional Head of Growth and Advisory , AMS
With a youthful population , a swift pandemic response and a strong focus on local talent , how is the Asia-Pacific region adapting to new ways of working ? Joy Koh , AMS Head of Growth and Advisory , provides insights .
In South East Asia , half of the population is below 30 years of age .
Young people have grown up surrounded by technology , so both candidates and employees now expect workplace technology to emulate consumer-centric technology . This means that digital transformation strategies are front of mind , with organisations investing in technology to attract and engage applicants and employees .
For those working in the volume space , and highly competitive industries , it has become important to have artificial intelligencesourcing and stack-ranking tools in place . Not only does this increase efficiency , it ensures you are getting the right candidate at the right time . The pace of change means that talent pools can quickly become stale , so it ’ s important to evaluate them constantly .
Companies are focusing on improving retention and upskilling their workforce to prepare them for roles of the future . As organisations face constant change and evolution , businesses need to be able to identify candidates and employees who have high learning agility and change agility . We are increasingly seeing the use of assessment tools to assess employees , as well as candidates .
Candidates and employees now expect workplace technology to emulate consumer-centric technology
Accelerating digital transformation
A lot of this has been accelerated by the pandemic . Our region was the first to experience COVID-19 , and the strong pivot towards internal mobility has been a challenge . The tap of overseas talent has been turned off , so organisations have had to upskill local workforces . This has been aided by government funding and programmes , with heavy investment in reskilling , including a big push on digital-skills training . This will be a long-term change , with most countries in the APAC region now placing local talent first , and some even making changes to employment law .
Digital transformation strategies are successful when created with workforce personas at the centre of design . The type of candidate and employee experience the organisation wants to create should drive the decisions regarding the selection of tools .
There are three ways I see technology transforming the world of work over the next year :
Digital onboarding We know that a poor onboarding experience leads to higher attrition , so how does an organisation create a seamless transition when people can ’ t meet face to face during this pandemic ? It ’ s important to remember that onboarding doesn ’ t start on day one , but once the employee signs the offer letter . Digital onboarding tools can enable early engagement by sending them information about the company , introducing them to their line manager and allowing them to communicate with their new colleagues . Organisations doing this well ensure that relevant and authentic contact is made at every stage .
Video Video content drives the most engagement on social media , and the same principle applies to candidate attraction . While Zoom and Teams calls count as video , it also includes providing candidates with authentic information about your organisation , and delivering your training and induction programmes , through video content .
D & I Diversity has been a big topic in North America and Europe recently ; in the APAC region , the focus is on implementing tools and technology that support more inclusive processes – particularly around gender . Increasingly , we ’ re seeing organisations use sourcing tools that anonymise candidate information which could cause bias ( such as gender and educational institutions ), create diversity-targeted career microsites , and remove biased language from job descriptions .