A greater emphasis on workforce development correlates with better financial results, according to findings from Workforce2020, a global study from SAP and Oxford Economics.
Examining high and low-performing companies worldwide, including the A/NZ across Asia Pacific, the study researched correlations between workforce priority and financial success, documenting several key characteristics of high-performing companies regarding their use of talent to drive bottom-line growth.
The gist? Higher-growth companies are better at attracting quality talent.
Findings show that sixty-four percent of high-performing Asia Pacific firms are satisfied with the quality of job candidates, compared to 56 percent of firms with below-average profit margin.
In addition, one third of low-performing Asia Pacific companies say that difficulty recruiting employees with base-level skills is impacting their workforce strategies.
“Companies in Asia Pacific are undoubtedly growth-driven and Workforce2020 is a reminder that growth is tied to strong workforce development,” says Jairo Fernandez, Senior Vice President, Human Resources, SAP Asia Pacific Japan (APJ).
“Key to managing human resources well is finding, supporting and driving the right talent.
“Technology can help HR managers monitor and identify areas of opportunity to strengthen a company’s most valuable assets that ultimately lead to better business performance."
High performers
High performers in Asia Pacific are significantly more likely to say that increasing contingent and consultant employees are impacting workforce strategy, while low performers tend to say changing demographics are impacting their strategies.
Almost half of higher-revenue companies in the region are increasingly using contingent employees, compared to only a third of low performers.
Meanwhile, top-performing organisations prioritise workforce issues at a far higher level than those that are lower-performing.
Seventy-seven percent of executives at high revenue growth companies in Asia Pacific say workforce issues are already driving strategy at the board level, versus 64 percent among under-performers.
However, more than a third of executives at high performing companies in the region said HR will have no voice in decision-making in three years.
Investment
Surprisingly, 40 percent of low performers say they have ample budget and resources dedicated to developing talent, compared to only 23 percent of high performers.
More low profit-margin companies in Asia Pacific also offer supplemental training (73 percent versus 56 percent), formal mentoring (69 percent versus 61 percent) and incentives for pursuing further education (40 percent versus 22 percent).
In terms of skill continuity, 35 percent of low performers say that when a person with key skills leaves, they tend to fill the role from within the organisation, against only 23 percent of high performers, who more often recruit externally.
Findings also show that executives at high-revenue growth companies in Asia Pacific say these technology skills are well-represented at their organisation, outperforming low growth firms: analytics (62 percent versus 55 percent); office productivity software (58 percent versus 49 percent); and digital media (36 percent versus 27 percent).
