Report calls for urgent leadership, HR development

Companies around the world, including those in Southeast Asia, face an urgent need to develop leaders at all levels – from bringing younger leaders online faster to developing leaders globally to keeping senior leaders relevant and engaged longer.

Leadership remains the No 1 talent issue facing organisations globally, with 74 per cent of global respondents and 76 per cent in Southeast Asia acknowledging that it is of top importance in their organisations.

Fewer than half, 38 per cent, of the respondents in Southeast Asia feel that they are high in readiness in terms of the leadership roles within their organisations. This means there is a 38-per-cent gap between importance and readiness, similar to the global gap of 34 per cent.

Nicky Wakefield, Southeast Asia human-capital leader at Deloitte Consulting, said 21st-century leadership is different from in the past. 

“Companies face new leadership challenges, including developing millennials and multiple generations of leaders, meeting the demand for leaders with global fluency and flexibility, building the ability to innovate and inspire others to perform, and acquiring new levels of understanding of rapidly changing technologies and new disciplines and fields.”

These results are outlined in the Southeast Asia version of Deloitte’s “Global Human Capital Trends 2014” report. It summarises key trends and priorities that are driving human-capital decisions across Southeast Asia. The region was well represented, with 54 respondents.

In addition, re-skilling of the HR function stands out in Southeast Asia as almost equally important as leadership, coming in at 75 per cent. This is compared with 67 per cent of global respondents.

According to the report, even though HR re-skilling has been recognised as a high priority, only about one-third, 30 per cent, of Southeast Asian respondents feel that their HR function is ready to meet the challenges of today’s business environment. This means there is a 45-per-cent gap between importance and readiness, almost double the gap of global respondents, 23 per cent. 

“This is reflective of the changing expectations that businesses have of their HR functions,” Wakefield said.

“HR teams need to move away from their historical role of being mainly operational. Today’s business environment requires HR strategies and operations to keep pace and align with business imperatives, and today’s HR professionals should understand new practices, technologies, [and] workforce changes along with the differences in culture, language and regulations in order to add value.”

Another top concern among organisations in Southeast Asia is in the area of building workforce capability. Some 74 per cent of Southeast Asian respondents identified it as a challenge over the next 12 to 18 months, making it the top human-capital challenge for the region. Workforce capability is the No 3 challenge globally at 57 per cent. 

“Industries in the region are undergoing rapid technological, demographic and regulatory changes, and organisations now have to change their game from one of simply finding and building skills to one of deep specialisation,” Wakefield said.

“Today’s HR professionals need to rethink their techniques for managing talent and ensure the current and future capability needs are aligned with the strategic objectives of their organisation. Talent management should be looked at in unique and innovative ways so that the employment brand is kept relevant, valued and authentic, with the ability to grow with the organisation as it continues to transform itself to remain competitive in the region.”