Why do you say that Asian talent shortages are “even worse than they appear?”
Companies have taken talent acquisition and management for granted for a long time. Even talent availability has also been taken for granted. That is why talent management must remain as top priority in the list of to-dos for such global businesses. Managers and executives in Asia assume that skilled talent will grow with the times as more and more people make it to tertiary education in this part of the world. That is indeed true. But when it comes to the crux of the matter, we are not talking about the millions of new university graduates each year who seek employment. The irony is that China and India are known to be the world’s most populous countries. Yet, they now face an acute talent shortage because we are talking about the right skills and right talent that fit the hiring requirements of organizations. It is a simple matter of quantity versus quality. Of course, Asia has not anticipated the pace at which its own economy is booming. No one has anticipated the imbalance between the supply and demand of the right talent for the Asian economy to continue to prosper. Worst of all, Asia has been too dependent on its Western counterparts to supply the right talent. Asia has been too reliant on talent imports versus growing its own talent.