The global war for talent

Thailand has been slow to join the global war for talent, but it will not be long until it feels a significant impact from the phenomenon, executives of Accenture, an international management consulting and IT services company, said.

Peter Cheese, global managing partner for the human performance service line at Accenture, said people have talked about the war for talent for some time, but the difference is that it is now a global war.

"This week, I have been to Singapore and Malaysia. They are concerned that multinational companies [MNCs] will create new competition for talent," he said.

Malaysia is also very concerned about the loss of its students who study overseas and go to work in Singapore, the Middle East or other countries to earn more money.

In Singapore, many MNCs set up regional hubs and bring in foreign workers. The number of foreign workers in Singapore is now close to 1 million. Last year alone, 250,000 people applied for work permits, Cheese said.

Globalisation is creating a new demand for talent. One reason MNCs invest in Asia is to recruit workers with skills that are rare in the West.

Accenture's research has estimated 97 per cent of the 438 million

people who will be added to the

global workforce by 2050 will come from developing countries because of lower birth rates in developed nations.

Making talent management even more difficult is the ever-growing demand for new skills, partly due to the rapid pace of technological

development.

And for the first time in history, four generations are in the workforce - the Silent Generation, the Baby Boomers, Generation X and Generation Y. 

It becomes a challenge for companies to have them work together especially Generation Y, who demand a lot more from their managers and companies.

"Most managers are baby boomers, who think a lot about what they can contribute to the organisation, but generation Y employees tend to ask what they will get in terms of opportunities and career advancement," said Accenture Thailand country managing director Orapong Thien-Ngern.

To meet these challenges, talent management tops agendas of companies worldwide.

Cheese said many countries have realised how much talent management will affect future success and economic growth.

Orapong said the global war for talent has not made a significant impact in Thailand yet, because of the language issue and a lack of

consistency in government policy to advocate skills development.

"In Singapore and Malaysia,

the governments have a very clear policy of developing the abilities of their human resources, especially in hi-tech industries. But in Thailand, it's getting quieter day by day," he said.

Orapong said the war for talent would inevitably have an impact in Thailand because of the huge demand for skilled labour.

"The migration of highly skilled workers is beginning. We have begun to see it in some areas. Telecom  workers, for example, get paid five to ten times more in the Middle East," Orapong said.

Thai companies are aware of the challenges. On April 25, Accenture organised a talent management workshop with more than 60

executives from various companies and found the session drew more questions and interaction from

participants than any other session the company had held previously, he said.

The executives seemed to be most interested in how to manage multiple generations in the workforce, Orapong said.

Cheese said human-capital strategy must be an intrinsic part of any business strategy. To fight the talent war, companies also need to upgrade their HR foundations.

"We historically have not invested enough in HR," he said.

Cheese was speaking at an event in Bangkok to present the book "The Talent Powered Organisation", which he co-authored with Robert J Thomas and Elizabeth Craig.