Winter 2008 Issue > The Hunt for Talent in Asia
The Hunt for Talent in Asia
Insights from Debbie Mannas - Regional Manager, Human Resource Development & Strategy, Asia-Pacific
Debbie Mannas is the regional manager of human resource development & strategy for Crown Worldwide Asia-Pacific. Debbie holds a bachelor’s degree in Psychology & Sociology and a Master’s degree in Training & Human Resource Management. She has over 13 years of HRD experience and has spent the last five in a senior role at Crown. We asked Debbie to share her expertise on the challenges Western HR Managers are facing while recruiting in Asia. In Part I of this two part series, Debbie discusses merging western HR strategies with Asian cultural competencies.
Asia is thriving! Multinationals (MNCs) are setting up shop in unprecedented numbers and shifting the focus of the world to the developing nations of Asia. Singapore continues to serve as the regional headquarters for many MNCs, while Hong Kong, touted as the financial centre of Asia, serves as the gateway to Greater China. Meanwhile, service centres are being established across Southeast and Southern Asia, from the mature centres across India to the rapidly growing shared service centres across Kuala Lumpur and Manila.
The Unenviable Position of Finding the “Right” Local Staff
This buzz of business activity in Asia has put HR professionals of MNCs based in the west in the unenviable position of having to find suitable staff for their operations thousands of miles away, to suit their businesses’ cultural, technical and client-facing needs. In theory one could expect local HR Managers to meet all recruitment needs, but in most cases only junior level hiring decisions are made locally, whilst those of middle to senior level staff are made either regionally or at MNC Headquarter level.
It has only been in the very recent past that we have seen competency expectations of Asia HR Managers begin to evolve from the transactional level to the strategic; nonetheless, most local or even regional HR Managers of MNCs have not yet evolved to the level that is required to formulate strategies for recruiting, developing and sustaining suitable staff to drive their businesses. That leaves Western HR professionals dealing with challenges they have never experienced before: language and communication differences, labour laws, compensation issues, not to mention time differences–-and critically, huge differences in competency expectations.
Merging Western Strategies with Cultural Competencies
Beyond these logistical challenges lies an even bigger hurdle for the Western-based HR Manager–figuring out how to merge the HRD practices that have proven successful in the West with the very different skill sets available in the East. While hiring staff, strategic HR Managers will have already outlined the key result areas for each job and prepared a clear picture of the essential and desirable skills required both from a technical and behavioural perspective, i.e., the so called “hard” and “soft” skills or competencies. What they may not know are the critical competencies (or lack thereof) available in the hiring country, how they have evolved and how this will affect the outcome of the management and communication styles of their expatriate assignees.
Education plays a major role in driving competencies, and the local educational systems in Asia are quite different from Western educational systems. In addition, education systems are borne of political, economical and cultural values and norms which have taken decades to evolve, and are not about to change overnight. Understanding these differences would not only help support HR recruitment efforts but would also help them to formulate strategies to develop the other skills prized by MNCs over a period of time.
Uncovering “Soft Competencies” in Asia
Historically, the selection of employees has largely been based on technical skills, and reliance on exam grades and scores to assess a candidate’s suitability, followed by interviews which were based largely on whether interviewers “liked” their candidates or not. These days, MNCs and most Western companies in general have assessment centres to ascertain whether or not candidates have It can be argued that the inhibition of this open communication and questioning has long-term implications on the competencies MNCs hold in high regard, i.e., open communication, initiative, innovation and creativity, which is honed by being encouraged certain other skills in addition to exam results, and now place more emphasis on assessing “soft competencies” such as communication skills, adaptability, innovation, creativity and interpersonal skills.
Nonetheless, we still see traditional methods of hiring being practiced in many companies in Asia where exam grades are critically important and much of the teaching is geared towards ensuring students pass exams. Rote learning is the gold standard, with extra curricular activities playing a distant second fiddle. Exacerbating the issue is the fact that, for a variety of reasons, not least of which is the importance of hierarchy, face saving, large class sizes and the need to maintain order, etc., students tend not to ask questions or volunteer opinions in the classroom and follow instructions to the letter.
It can be argued that the inhibition of this open communication and questioning has long-term implications on the competencies MNCs hold in high regard, i.e., open communication, initiative, innovation and creativity, which is honed by being encouraged to share ideas and opinions and seek clarification on issues before making decisions. Certainly we can see that cultural norms and expectations in Asia actually inhibit some critical soft competencies that Western companies seek in their managers.
Parents are acutely aware of the fact that for their children to compete for jobs in MNCs, a local education is not enough–and those who can afford it send their children to schools abroad or “international schools” in their home country, where the critical soft skills that MNCs seek are given greater attention and more value is placed on thinking rather than memorising.
The Hunt for Talent in Asia
The dearth in critical management skills is another reason why MNCs have historically turned to expatriate staff to fill their senior level staff positions overseas. Yet, we are slowly seeing this landscape changing as the effect of cultural differences comes to be more deeply appreciated. It is now known that cultural assimilation or lack thereof can make or break an assignment, with huge costs to the MNC. Thus there is a much higher demand for managers with home country competencies but local country expertise, which new expatriate staff are lacking.
To address this situation, we are seeing a general trend for companies to hire “overseas Returning Asians” because they seem to have it all--the detail and diligence borne of studying hard for exams and to satisfy family expectations, the language abilities, creativity and communication skills honed overseas plus their local knowledge and language skills, an unbeatable combination that both expatriates and their Asian-educated counterparts lack.