Financial Times

A company's leadership and its ability to develop its employees are the two most important factors in engaging the company's talent pool and retaining it, an international survey has revealed.

The findings of the survey were disclosed by Edmund Siah, Regional Director of International Survey Research (a worldwide survey organisation) at the 11th HR Congress held in Singapore last week. The World HR Congress which was ceremonially opened by the Prime Minister of Singapore Lee Hsien Loong saw one of the largest gatherings of HR professionals in recent times with over 2000 delegates from 60 countries across the globe participating in the mega event.

According to ISR's research, leadership and career development came up as the top two key drivers for talent management in the Asia Pacific. The talent pool of a company would typically be its top 10 percent of employees.

"If you want to drive talent and you want your talent to believe in your company, to work hard and achieve for your company, leadership is paramount. This shows up in all the countries," Siah said. It's no surprise that the research also showed that the Asia Pacific management style plays a significant role in retaining talented employees. The group of employees identified as "talent-at-risk" is those who are looking to switch jobs.

About 40 percent of the "talent" employees in Singapore are in this talent-at-risk group, according to ISR. This is higher than the proportion in Australia, New Zealand, China or Thailand but lower than in Malaysia.

These employees want senior management that can inspire confidence and can set a vision for the company and lead it in the right direction. "They want to work for a winner, they want to work for a company they want to feel excited about. And if they don’t see that, they are very much tempted to look elsewhere," revealed Siah.

It's often the traditional aspects of leadership that matters more to them-things like staff well-being and fairness. But the top talent want a leadership that allows them to be innovators to bring forth new ideas and execute these.
Career development also matters to talented employees. "Where am I in my career? Am I going somewhere with my organisation? Is this organisation helping me fulfill my career aspirations? These are the questions talented employees want answered, the study found.

Siah also insisted that company leaders should communicate company goals and objectives clearly and discuss how these relate to anticipation of future market conditions. They should also get feedback from their hired-in-talent.

Company leaders should also 'stretch' these employees by assigning them projects which will utilise their skills fully. Management should also discuss with them their career development paths and expectations, stressed Siah.

The 11th World HR Congress is held every two years under the auspices of the World Federation of Personnel Management Associations.

This year’s congress attracted some of the world’s top HR and Management Professionals which also included over 40 CEO's of leading companies around the globe.