2023 Global Hiring Trends in Asia

2023 hiring trends in asia
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Global Hiring Trends have changed rapidly. For those of us who have worked from home during the past two years, "work from home" (WFH) is a well-known term.  Heading back to normalcy, what are the upcoming global hiring patterns in Asia that will continue to happen?

As the term implies, global hiring trends would change from time to time. For recruitment efforts to have good results, a company has to find ways to stay on top of hiring trends and hire the best talents in the market.

So, what are the changing new Human Hiring Trends in Asia now? Let's take a look.

1. Strong Demand for Digitally Competent Staff

We've all experienced WFH for the past two to three years. Digital competency skills are no longer just a good-to-have factor from an employer’s perspective.  Employers today have no choice but to embrace the digital revolution and improve their digital skills to capitalise on the possible financial benefits it may bring to their business.

As a case study, we would like to highlight the lost Indonesia has faced due to the lack of digital competence.

Indonesia has lost approximately 442 billion USD and this has caused a detrimental effect, stopping economic growth by 19% 1.

The fundamental cause of this crisis is the labour shortage digitally competent staff. 17.2 million Indonesians are aware of their deficiencies and request digital-related training.

As a result, the Greater Industry 4.0 adoption is one of the crucial government initiatives to accelerate digital growth in Indonesia to train more than 400,000 workers to support digital transformation.  This initiative is expected to increase company productivity by 40 to 70 per cent, generate 20 million new jobs, and add $120 billion in revenue1 to the country’s annual productivity.

The question remains, why is Indonesia’s economy so severely affected? Generally, there are 63 million MSMEs (micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises) in Indonesia that account for 60 per cent of the country’s GDP and 97 per cent of the employment.  However, if we look at the digital readiness of the country, Indonesia has implemented only 21 per cent of industry 4.0 technologies compared with 40% in Japan and 56% in China.

2. Increasing Need to Hire Cybersecurity Professionals

Cyber security is perhaps one of the foremost considerations of organisations and companies out there, given the important demand for digital change,

Research from Trend Micro revealed that 62% of C-suites would only take action to look into the company’s cyber risk if the organization has suffered from a breach2, 61% will do so if their customers demand enhanced security.

According to a study by KPMG, there are over 10,000 cyber security incidents reported in Malaysia in the year 2021 2.

Companies will be at a higher risk of being targeted by hackers if they continue to respond reactively rather than proactively.  While business expansion and customer acquisition are important, not investing in cyber security can cause devastating losses to your company, and it is considered a major business risk rather than an IT problem.

If cyber security is a future focus, we will foresee an increased demand for security experts such as security analysts, cyber threat intelligence analysts, security architects, and cyber threat analysts.

In fact, Malaysia targets to employ 20,000 cyber security professionals by the year 2025 3 to meet the rising demand for artificial intelligence, big data, and online transactions.

Most cyber security employees working in large enterprises across South East Asia are from India or China. Therefore, there is a need to look for more local talent, especially when global competition for this group of talent is fierce.  You can use Emplyer of Record China to hire talent in China.

3. Freelancing and Flexible Work Arrangements   

We know that the impact of China on the world is undeniable, especially in dominating the global supply chain. However, many companies from Asia have started to pivot locally due to supply line shortages caused by China's Zero COVID policy.

China's zero COVID policy has caused an economic slowdown and reduction in recruitment budgets, which has further reduced job opportunities. This has contributed to the rise of the gig economy and remote workers in the China's working population. With more than 10.76 million graduates graduating this year, this will add further pressure to China's job market outlook.

In contrast, India, a country with high technological innovation, has created up to 90 million gig opportunities for workers who wish to earn extra from part-time jobs.

What we see observe from this trend is that workers prefer flexible job options, such as hybrid workplaces instead of comfortable office spaces with a positive work environment.  To further enhance job satisfaction, HR leaders should consider how the importance of flexible working schedules and work life balance far outweigh other HR benefits.

4. The Future of Remote Work

In our opinion, remote work is certainly the working model of the future. Despite the weakening economy and a gloomy job market, the younger generation in China is more in favour of freelancing jobs to gain more autonomy and enjoy the perks of working from anywhere they want.

The younger generation would rather find a job with flexible work hours, doing things they love than trade their lives for money.

As such, the term “lying flat”, which in Chinese refers to doing something with the least amount of effort and spending the least amount of resources has gained huge attention and captured numerous headlines this year.  Hence, organisations should rethink flexible working benefits if they which to continue to stay competitive in the current job market.

The growth of China's e-commerce market was driven primarily by remote work which offers the younger population a much better job alternative. This is an important message for traditional companies that do not allow a hybrid working option.

With minimalism and the “lying flat” concept gaining popularity, organisations ought to review their job benefits and offer more flexible work schedules, especially to compete with the e-commerce industry.

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How can AYP help with these hiring trends in Asia?

  • We are a data-driven HR technology company.  By collaborating with us, we will assist you to attract digitally competent staff.
  • We have an HR solution for you to mitigate your risk of suffering cyber-attacks.
  • We support remote work in Asia.  Our main vision is to help clients to hire anyone from anywhere even without setting up an entity in the targeted country.
  • Get access to global talents and enable them to work remotely, improve diversity and inclusion through cross-country collaboration with our help. 
  • Assist your HR departments to achieve cost-effective hiring and expand to new markets quickly!

This is where having a workforce management solutions partner like AYP will help. AYP Global Pay is a single digital platform that offers both Professional Employer Organization (PEO) and Employer of Record (EOR) solutions.

With a single dashboard, you can easily collect data, access all of the HR features, and track your HR metrics for your business needs. Most importantly, identify hiring trends in the Asia Pacific.  Schedule a demonstration section with us to learn more today!

Featured Content

1. How to hire remote employees from Southeast Asia

2. The Top HR Challenges in Southeast Asia 2023

3. Tax Facts For Hiring Overseas

References

  1. Labour shortage across key industries predicted in Indonesia
  2. Organizations need to be more proactive to better mitigate and anticipate new cyber threats
  3. Increase in Demand for Cyber Security Graduates in Malaysia Because of Acute Talent Shortage
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