Employers in developed markets do not understand the needs of employees compared to those in fast-growing markets
When it comes to attracting and retaining talent, employers in fast-growing markets in Asia are better poised than their counterparts in the region’s developed markets to tackle future challenges.
According to the Towers Watson Global Talent Management and Rewards Survey, employers in developed markets do not understand the needs of employees compared to those in fast-growing markets.
In fast-growing markets, base pay is ranked as the top driver by employers when it comes to attracting talent, whereas for developed markets, based pay is ranked in the eighth position. For developed markets, the top driver is challenging work.
“This variance throws up a worrying trend – employers in developed markets do not understand the needs and preference of their employees compared to fast-growing markets. Our Towers Watson Global Workforce Studies shows that base pay is a top driver of attraction for employees in Asia Pacific, and this clearly shows a mismatch,” said Siddharth Mehta, Director, Talent and Rewards, Singapore at Towers Watson.
For developed markets, the top three drivers of attraction are challenging work, career advancement followed by job security.
In terms of retention drivers, both developed and fast-growing markets share the same top three drivers of base pay, career advancement and relationship with supervisor/manager.
The survey also found that 82% of employers in fast-growing markets have identified top-performing employees, compared to only 52% in developed markets. For critical-skill employees, it is 70% and 50%, and for high-potential employees it is 65% and 54% for fast-growing markets and developed markets respectively.
Fast-growing markets also seem to have better infrastructure in place to manage talent mobility compared to developed markets. 62% of employers in fast-growing markets have cross cultural teams in place compared to 49% for developed markets. A big difference also exists in the availability of programmes to train managers to manage cross-cultural teams, with 51% in fast-growing markets and only 40% in developed markets.
