Retaining staff a big challenge for companies in several Asia-Pacific countries

Tuesday February 20, 2007


Study: Retaining staff a big challenge for companies

NEW YORK: A study on attitudes and engagement of employees in several
Asia-Pacific countries, including Malaysia, reveals that nearly half
of Malaysia's managerial workers would like to leave their present
employers.

The results of the study were recently released by ISR, a global
employee research and consulting firm with offices in a number of
countries.

The study concludes that companies in this region would face enormous
challenges retaining talented employees, attributing this trend to
rigid management styles that are prevalent among companies in the
region.

Five major economies of the Asia-Pacific - Australia, China, Malaysia,
Singapore and Thailand - were included in the study, involving more
than 3,000 employees categorised as "top talent" from 120 companies
across a broad spectrum of industries and job classifications.

Survey respondents included managers, supervisory staff and team
members across professional, technical and administrative functions,
with a majority of them aged 24-44.

The study revealed that the region is full of what it describes as
"talent-at-risk" staff - the euphemism for employees wanting or
striving to leave their present jobs.

It shows that Malaysia serves as home to the largest proportion of
employees who define themselves as either disillusioned or actively
disengaged, with 47% of the country's most talented staff indicating
they are "mere steps" away from considering leaving their companies.

In contrast, 40% of Singaporeans were disillusioned or actively
disengaged, whereas this group accounted for about 30% of talented
staff in Australia, China and Thailand.

"The majority of 'talent-at-risk' staff in the Asia-Pacific region
reported that they would leave as soon as they have an acceptable new
job offer," said ISR global research director Patrick Kulesa.

"This means that the risk to current employers is immediate and must
be addressed," he added.

"Talent-at-risk" employees were more likely to describe the management
style in their company as reactive, rather than proactive; risk
avoidance as opposed to open to calculated risk; directive instead of
participative; and short-term and not long-term oriented. - Bernama

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