What Should the Candidate Experience Look Like in Asia Pacific?

Normally, given the title of the site (!), we don’t talk about the rest of the world – however, APAC as a talent hub is widely recognised as increasingly important to multi nationals. In this blog post, Heather Travis, Armstrong Craven’s Singapore based Director, explores some of the nuances of the APAC talent landscape and provides some key pointers for talent acquisition.  Many themes are also relevant in the UK.

What is important to top talent in Asia?

Our research with leading client organisations in Asia Pacific shows that whilst core values are similar, there are some factors that carry more weight in this region than elsewhere:
• Organisational core values and culture
• Leadership
• Employer reputation
• Work-life balance
• Training and development opportunities
• Company brand and its public image
• Company products
• Current and future projects
• Opportunity for promotion

In Asia particularly, we find that corporate reputation is something very important to people. Companies that have been through a difficult time in terms of reputation may experience negative short term consequences but, we find that they can maintain their status as a great employer if they have made a long term commitment to, and investment in a market.
Working with a major life sciences company moving into Asia, we conducted some research on the best employers in the sector, and people told us they want to know they are helping people to live better and live longer. This association of doing something positive for society and making a difference carries a lot of weight in terms of what makes a great employer in APAC.

Approaching talent

In making approaches and cultivating a talent pipeline, it is important for talent professionals to incorporate these key influencers into career conversations. Positive candidate experience is critical and affects client brand and reputation.

I am still surprised about the client naivety with regard to candidate management. People do speak to each other regarding their experiences. Online candidates, via Glassdoor, can now publically voice their opinions – and they do!

Below is an interesting chart that demonstrates what is important to candidates when being approached about an opportunity – via Terry Starr @HRSocialStarr

Build a Talent Community

Thinking about the candidate experience with a longer timescale, establishing a talent community, that means creating a solid candidate pipeline focused on quality rather than quantity, works well with our clients in APAC.

Through the talent community, brand and brand experience is built over time and ahead of need. The success of a talent community depends on how well it is sustained, building relationships is the key.

Building a talent community is a high engagement activity that takes bandwidth within the talent acquisition team and commitment to cultivate the group through regular interaction. It needs to have a structured approach and will without doubt need additional resource and buy-in from line management. It can take time before results are seen but it is certainly worth the wait.

Check out this video outlining “How Intel Leverages Talent Communities in Asia”

What do talent acquisition professionals need to do in Asia to attract the best talent?

It is critical that robust HR and talent management strategies are developed in order to help achieve business objectives, build the bottom line and deliver sustainable growth.
Talent practitioners need to split their thinking into: new hires, optimistic demand (next 6-12 months) and future demand (up to 24 months out). Outsourcing talent generation and talent pipelining alleviates the recruiting headaches such as lack of resources, time and operational costs; enabling talent leaders to focus on core business practices and on generating revenue.

Heather Travis is Director, Asia Pacific at Armstrong Craven and is based in Singapore. She can be contacted at heather.travis@armstrongcraven.com or follow her @SingaporeAC on Twitter where she Tweets about the Asia Pacific talent landscape.