Asian firms going global must highlight expansion prospects

TALENT attraction and retention is critical to the international expansion of Asian companies, but the keys to making such talent feel welcome is offering competitive compensation, a clear program of career development, and opportunities to participate in company expansion, recruitment consultancy Robert Walters said, citing the results of a study.
The firm also found that Asian companies significantly prefer using personal and professional networks to find such candidates over Western firms, at 27% to 7%, although both types of employers’ number one option was headhunters.
In a statement, Robert Walters said its study findings, presented in a white paper called “How to attract and retain the right talent to grow your business internationally,” indicate that 70% of Asian companies plan to expand their global operations in the next three years.
It added that more than half of candidates with international experience are open to working for an Asian company.
“The challenge is how to motivate these passive candidates to become active ones,” it said.
The study found that 68% of potential candidates consider pay and benefits to be their top consideration while the company’s growth potential was their next-biggest concern.
It recommended that during the job search employers make it clear that compensation will be competitive and that it lay out its strategies for expansion in the next five to 10 years, and the potential for international postings if possible.
The study found that 56% of international talents left an Asian company because of absence of opportunities for career progression.
In terms of retention, Robert Walters also found that company culture was cited by 62% of international talents working for an Asian business. They also perceive Asian companies as better equipped “to foster and maintain close relationships between staff at all levels than multinationals.”
Robert Walters’ Philippine office specializes in placing candidates in the fields of accountancy, finance, banking, financial services, human resources, information technology and sales and marketing.
The white paper was based on a survey and interviews of more than 5,000 HR professionals, hiring managers and candidates working in Asian and Western companies across China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, the Philippines and Vietnam.