Leadership pool drying up in Asia

Global - More than 75% of human resources executives worldwide are concerned about lacking ability to develop future leaders.
 

Companies operating in Asia Pacific and organisations within the industrial sector are particularly vulnerable to growth constraints resulting from a lack of leadership.
 

This leadership deficiency in the global industrial sector leads to the struggle to expand into new markets. An aging workforce and insufficient succession planning are believed to be related to the sector’s lack of leadership capability.
 

 “For Asia Pacific, we keep looking for talent to bring over from the U.S., but the talent pool of individuals willing to relocate dries up. We still have leadership shortages in Asia Pacific and Japan,” the vice president of corporate HR from a Canadian insurance company says.

The inability to rotate top leadership talent was also cited as an important issue. Some of the companies surveyed are addressing this problem by action learning programmes and job rotation. Almost 50% find job rotation as an efficient and beneficial way of providing development experiences and a pragmatic method for evaluating future talent. “Job rotations have really helped us with succession planning. We make sure our employees are gaining the knowledge and experiences required by moving them to jobs that may not be in their background.” a manufacturing firm’s vice president of HR commented in the study.

The study observed that companies who invest leadership development and succession planning activities also need to consider factors such as the number, location, transferability and proficiency of leaders from around the globe to effectively support their growth plans.

 

Source: IBM Global Human Capital Study 2008, Unlocking the DNA of the adaptable workforce.

 

 

Work attitude matters more than education

Singapore – When it comes to job evaluations, education and work experience are becoming less valued in Singapore.

Half (50%) of the respondents in a recent survey by Kelly Services think that attitude and personality is the most important factor to determine a person’s job suitability. Work experience comes next at 34%. Level of education (5%), interview performance (5%) and reference checks (3%) were ranked low by respondents. 

Dhirendra Shantilal, senior vice president of Kelly Services, Pacific Asia explains, “Job seekers here have come to understand that a high education with a poor work attitude does not add up to being a good performer.” He adds that younger jobseekers without much work experience realised that having a “can do” mindset can make up for their inexperience.

While the CV is one of the most important first steps in the job recruitment process, 43%, that’s more than a third, of jobseekers are unsure if their CV represents them in the best way. Candidates who are younger than 20 are more likely to lack confidence in their CVs than candidates other age groups. Women are also less confident than men when it comes to how their CV represents them.

“Candidates often only get a brief chance to sell themselves to a potential employer so they need to make the most of every opportunity,” says Shantilal. The CV is one of the key tools candidates have to help them sell themselves and their skills. He explains that it is important for candidates to have a well-crafted CV as it can tell the employer about their strengths. “It also helps if candidates can gather some detail about the organisation before an interview to identify how their particular experience and background can add value to the prospective employer.”

 

Source: Kelly Services Inc.

 

Shave 20% off your corporate travel budget

A study by corporate travel company, Carson Wagonlit Travel (CWT), found that companies can improve their travel policy and traveller compliance while shaving 20% off their total travel expenditure.

The results show that saving opportunities are spread over four key travel rules – advance air booking, restricted airfares, preferred suppliers and class/category of travel. This can also include preferred booking channels.

“By booking two to three weeks in advance, travellers can obtain significantly lower fares as discounts can exceed 50% of the ticket price, especially on highly competitive routes or in economy class,” says Christophe Renard, senior director, CWT Travel Management Institute. “Using restricted airfares can also help the company save money as the upfront discounts generally outweigh the cost of changes or cancellations made by travellers.”

These typically represent 20% to 40% of all air bookings thus companies can save on average 24% of fully flexible ticket prices.

Companies that require their employees to use preferred suppliers while booking can save an estimated 16% on hotel rates and 18% on airfares. “It is more cost effective to require travellers to systematically use a preferred airline rather than take a ‘best buy’ approach such as choosing the lowest available airfare with any airline on the day,” said Renard.

Some changes in the traveller’s comfort such as seating classes or hotel categories can also have a significant impact on savings. Depending on a company’s travel pattern, the savings can reach up to 30% and 20% of air and hotel expenditure respectively.

The study also indicated that 40% of potential savings can be realised through improvements to policy and 60% through increased compliance. Currently, travel policies such as advance airfare booking, use of restricted fares, preferred suppliers and travel class/category vary widely in terms of coverage.

Non-compliance is another problem across the traveller population, although the majority of cases are linked to a small minority of frequent travellers. 25% of all frequent travellers make up 60% of all late bookings.

Non-compliance can be linked to travellers who want to exploit a frequent flyer programme or have the freedom to choose their hotel. But the travellers surveyed say that practicality and pricing come first. This implies a problem of perception for both parties and a poor fit between travellers’ needs and the travel policy.

Renard suggested that options to maximise the company’s savings can include ensuring all employees are well-informed of the company’s travel policy, conduct compulsory training for them, implementing a booking process that promotes compliance and lastly fine-tuning the pre-trip approval and post trip control procedures.

 

Estimated levels of compliance with travel rules

	Three years ago	Today
Advance booking	46%	66%
Online booking	39%	51%
Travel class	75%	88%
Lowest fare	59%	71%
Preferred suppliers	67%	76%
Preferred hotels	54%	69%

Source: CWT Travel Management Institute

 

 

 

Glass ceiling still exists

 

Female executives around the world still face an uphill battle to reach the top of the corporate ladder according to the new study The Anatomy of the Glass Ceiling by Accenture.

 

There are far fewer women at the highest rungs of the corporate ladder although they advance in their careers more rapidly than their male counterparts at a younger age. Family commitments and persisting male networks in the corporate world are two often-cited explanations for this disparity.

In both Scandinavia and Britain, more than one-third of all corporate managers are women. However, they are still underrepresented when it comes to top leadership jobs. “The key factors,” said Kedrick D. Adkins, chief diversity officer, Accenture, “are a lack of support for integrating family needs into the work day, differences in educational orientations, and the persistence of old boy networks.”

Female executives surveyed no longer see their gender as a disadvantage to the progression of their careers as women in some countries believe that their gender actually helps them advance up the ladder. Thirty-five percent of female respondents said that gender had no effect on their career opportunities and 25% were neutral on this point, while 20% said that their gender actually facilitated their careers. Only 20% said that their gender limited their career advancement.

Men in the other countries, except Australia, tended to believe more strongly than their female counterparts that gender influences career potential. Adkins said, “Perhaps an indication that men increasingly perceive women as real competitors.”

A lack of the right kind of support within companies is also key to why only a few women reach the top. 84% of female executives surveyed identified personal ambition as one of the main sources of success and 82% said that assertiveness was a key success factor. Only 31% of female respondents said that existing mentoring programs within their companies play a role in female advancement. In fact, 25% of female executives in Switzerland didn’t even know whether their companies had mentoring programs.

Companies and other organisations can promote the advancement of women by raising the profile and effectiveness of mentoring and coaching by tailoring and customising such programs to the needs of individuals.

Adkins suggested that companies need to provide their senior executives with incentives such as tying a portion of their compensation to participate in mentoring programs. He added, “Identify the most successful mentoring programs and make them widely available to successful young women executives, many of whom are not even aware of the existence of such programs.”

 

Does personal ambition play a part in this?

	United Kingdom	Australia	Switzerland	Philippines	Germany	Austria
% females who rate gender on career development as no influence	68%	68%	65%	62%	57%	53%
% males who rate gender on career development as no influence	74%	64%	76%	52%	64%	61%
% females who rate personal ambition as "career-advancing factor"	51%	50%	65%	57%	76%	69%
% males who rate personal ambition as "career-advancing factor"	69%	49%	59%	44%	58%	55%

Source: Accenture Anatomy of the Glass Ceiling Research Report