Cielo’s Asia Pacific (APAC) Talent Acquisition Summit, where HR and talent leaders share and learn the latest trends, challenges and best practices in talent acquisition, recently took place in Singapore. This serves as a forum to help leaders inform their organisations’ talent strategy and ensures the talent solutions Cielo provides consider the realities of the market.
Grant Rawlinson speaks about building resilient TA teams.
The event kicked off with Grant 'Axe' Rawlinson, a human-powered explorer and founder of Powerful Humans, which supports leaders in developing highly aligned, empowered and resilient teams. Rawlinson engaged participants from the word go, provoking everyone to think about what it takes to deliver a high-performing talent acquisition function and the right team to deliver it.
Doug Terry (left) and Kumar Bhaya present an overview of recent TA challenges and trends, including what to expect in 2023.
Next up: Kumar Bhaya, Vice President – Client Solutions, APAC, and Doug Terry Vice President – Client Services, APAC, presented “Balancing the present and the future: Current talent acquisition trends and future outlook.” They gave an insightful overview of the TA industry globally and within the APAC region – from pre-pandemic 2019 to what’s ahead for 2023.
Some key talent acquisition challenges and trends include:
- 2019: TA was the top priority, with employer branding a top investment for companies.
- 2020: Many companies downsized, laid off employees, and made budget cuts for TA teams.
- 2021: There were many job openings, the “great resignation” took place, and TA teams were stretched to the limit due to a lack of workforce and surge in demand for jobs. TA teams needed to rebuild and outsource TA services to Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) and recruitment agencies.
- 2022: There’s a gap in expectations between employers and employees, for instance in areas like embracing hybrid/remote work models. While organisations continue to rebuild their TA capability, they’re also facing the dilemma presented by macroeconomic and geopolitical uncertainty.
- 2023: TA teams will need to better utilise technology to deliver an enhanced, differentiated candidate experience and focus on employer reputation, especially coming out of the pandemic, to win the hearts and minds of potential talent with an authentic narrative.
Luke Parry, Director – Employer Brand & Technology Consulting, spoke further about candidate experience and how putting together the employer brand and technology can yield positive outcomes. He highlighted the top three values APAC candidates and employees are seeking: leadership, sense of purpose, and company culture and values.
Parry also revealed insights from Cielo’s Remote Working report, which include:
- 81% of Gen Z employees could potentially resign
- 70% of APAC employees were thinking about a move in 2023
- 65% would sacrifice their salary for culture and wellbeing
A group of panellists provide tips and strategies on how to balance the present and future during times of change.
Following this session was the expert panel discussion “Using change to heighten your TA service,” featuring Annie Lim, Vice President of HR at Hummingbird Bioscience; Agnes Goh, Vice President of Talent Acquisition SAPMENA at L’Oréal; Wendy Xia, Chief Human Resources Officer at DB Schenker; and Sameer Karayi, Talent Acquisition Lead - Corporate at NTUC Enterprise; moderated by Lakshmi Murlidharan – Director Client Solutions APAC. The panellists shared personal experiences in hiring people for their organisations, providing tips and strategies on how to balance the present and future during change.
Key takeaways from the panellist discussion:
- Having foresight: One panellist shared that when her company wanted to reduce TA budgets, she boldly held her ground. In the end, this enabled her organisation to quickly restart the hiring process when there was a demand for jobs again.
- Buying TA services vs building the TA team: This depends on the TA teams’ needs, such as support in volatile markets, headcount, expertise available within the team, and business case for engaging an external partner.
- Inclusion and diversity: How behaviour and caring for colleagues in the workplace contribute to employees gaining a sense of belonging in an organisation.
Ending the event was an engaging and colourful dance performance.
The summit concluded with the subject matter experts encouraging the TA teams to rethink legacy systems and processes in order to retain, engage, and attract new talent. The Asia Pacific Talent Acquisition Summit 2022 ended with an engaging and colourful dance performance showcasing Cielo’s commitment to cultural diversity and inclusivity.
