Business

Monday June 30, 2008

The dynamics of brain gain

By DANNY YAP and DALJIT DHESI


MALAYSIA'S economic competitiveness could be greatly improved if the Government is able to attract world-class experts to mentor local talents in developing higher skills and knowledge in key industries.

Human resources consultants say this approach to brain gain could propel Malaysia into a knowledge based-economy faster.

ICC Consultant Centre Sdn Bhd managing director Dr Abdul Farouk Ahmed said the enticement of individuals with great potential or special skills and knowledge, especially foreigners, was practiced by many developed and developing countries.

“The United States, Britain and many European countries have been snatching talents for many years to develop their economies,” he said, adding that Singapore was also very proactive in attracting foreigners with value-added skills to work and reside in its country, including Malaysians.

Workers manning a machine at a wafer fabrication facility in Kulim Hi-Tech Park. Malaysia is a goldmine to tap qualified and skilled and knowledge workers

Abdul Farouk said unfortunately, Malaysia was still slow in providing sufficient incentives to attract large numbers of high-calibre individuals to contribute to nation building, particularly in the area of mentoring.

“Mentoring can spawn talent to develop a critical mass of knowledge workers to support growth in targeted industries where Malaysia has a comparative advantage,” he said.

Abdul Farouk said to attract and retain these experts, the Government must first develop clear and transparent policies that encouraged them to come over.

He said these policies must be implemented and enforced to ensure the experts were well taken care of and there should also be a one-stop-centre to address their personal and family needs.

Going beyond salaries

“It's not just about a better pay package because these individuals are probably very well-paid. It's more about recognising their talent, providing them with the comforts they and their families are accustomed to, and giving them the motivation to work here such as a challenge that excites them,” he said.

Abdul Farouk also said it was unfortunate that many bright Malaysian knowledge workers were either working in or had migrated to countries that offered them better prospects.

“Surprisingly, even countries like Vietnam and China can afford to employ them,” he said, adding that the wage structure in Malaysia was undermined by cheap foreign labour.

Abdul Farouk said this (cheap foreign labour) would not help improve Malaysia's competitiveness in the long run.

He also said it was unfortunate that many local companies and government bodies were not prepared to provide sufficient incentives for Malaysian workers to remain in their organisations, despite them being competent and productive.

“Better pay is one issue. Many Malaysians employed locally also feel there is no clear career path for them in the company.

“In one of our HR studies, we found that generally, employees in private and public sectors could be motivated to increase their productivity by another 100% if their wages were increased by only 25%,” he said.

Targeting bright students

HR Consultant Professional and Organisation Development Sdn Bhd managing director Thomas Chow concurred with Abdul Farouk that attracting foreign experts to the country would greatly help to nurture and develop a larger pool of talent in the various industries in Malaysia.

“But we don't see sufficient measures taken by the authorities or the private sector to attract these experts or bright students to continue residing here,” he said.

However, he said, in the case of Singapore, the government had an extremely aggressive human capital development and management programme to ensure a vibrant workforce.

“For instance, there are talent scouts assigned by the government to identify bright students (foreign or local) studying at universities in Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and even Malaysia.

“They would offer them work opportunities in the republic with attractive remuneration packages that include good pay and other perks like residency after a certain period of employment, among other things.”

Chow said while Malaysia had progressed to become a “centre of education excellence” in the region with many foreign students from abroad studying in local institutions, there were still no deliberate steps taken by the authorities to identify and encourage bright and talented foreign students to work here.

Faster learning curve

Another local HR consultant said brain gain via attracting world-class experts to spawn the growth of local talent through mentoring was necessary if Malaysia was serious in human capital development and in being globally competitive.

“Developing expertise organically would take too long and be costly (in terms of research and development). For instance, to have an oil and gas deep-sea exploration local expert, it would probably take over 50 years to develop the necessary skills and experience,” he noted.

The HR expert also said specific skills were often gained from international exposure in collaboration with other experts in the industry.

He said in the mentoring process, it was important that foreign experts help Malaysians to develop higher skills in targeted key growth sectors which had the potential to put the country on a global map.

“Malaysia needs to be recognised by institutional investors for its excellence in specific sectors as in the case of Singapore, which is an international shipping port and financial centre, or India, known for its pool of IT experts,” he said.

A Singapore-based HR consultant said Malaysia was a goldmine to tap qualified and skilled and knowledge workers.

“We are just happy to have access to such a large pool of relatively high skilled workers to recommend to our clients, who are mainly multinationals with operations around the region and globally,” he said.

The foreign HR consultant said Malaysian workers were in very high demand because of their professional skills, adaptability and language skills.

DATUK HASSAN KAMIL

Group Managing Director

Syarikat Takaful Malaysia Bhd

IN my view, having an actuarial background, I believe the “engine room” of any insurance company is the team of actuaries. You also need talented sales and marketing persons to help position and sell the products.

In Malaysia, we are lacking good qualified actuaries and finance personnel.

In the takaful industry, we have a bigger challenge attracting non-Muslims to work in takaful companies. Thus the pool of people we can hire is severely limited. Most people still have the perception that you have to be a Muslim to work for a takaful company.

DATUK HASSAN KAMIL

Monetary incentive is primary when attracting good talent. Personally, I do not mind paying a higher than normal salary as long as the person can perform and add value to the company.

Malaysia is capable to embark on massive talent program. We must be prepared to pay to attract talent, especially persons who are teaching at the universities and local colleges. This is where the moulding starts to breed good talent. We need good teachers to produce talented students. Good salary will also attract Malaysians to return from overseas.

The misconception most people have is that the cost of living in Malaysia is low and thus we don't need to pay high salary. This cannot continue because cost of living is not cheap anymore, especially today with the escalating price of fuel.

ALEXANDER ANKEL

Chief Executive Officer

Allianz Malaysia Bhd and Allianz Life Insurance (M) Bhd

GOOD talent with the correct attitude will play an instrumental role in creating a conducive and positive working environment that will determine the success of a company.

The group places much emphasis on talent management and over the years, had developed numerous local talents, which were recruited and posted to other Allianz companies all over the world.

Our local Allianz talents are either now working with us here in Malaysia or attached to countries such as Taiwan and Germany.

In Allianz Malaysia, we will try our utmost best to source for local talents and only in very rare circumstances will we look into sourcing internally within the group. This is mainly due to the high quality of people we have here in Malaysia – our local talents are greatly sought after due to their language skills and high aptitude.

We believe that a company can perform better not because it has many overseas talents but because it believes in recruiting and developing talents with the right attitude.

There is a shortage of talent in the industry, especially in niche positions where the supply is scarce. This is where we need to have some edge in attracting and retaining talent strategies as all companies will be targeting the same sample of talents.

DAVID NG

Chief Investment Officer

HwangDBS Investment Management Bhd

AS a company, we have been seeing a general brain drain from the industry, especially in fund management and product development.

The workforce is becoming increasingly mobile and countries, especially like Singapore and Hong Kong, have already had a head start in terms of positioning themselves as attractive professional career destinations with the necessary policies and incentives to woo the best talents – both the fresh graduates and experienced professionals, Malaysians and non-Malaysians alike.

Talent is a vital factor, apart from other factors, that will determine a fund manager's decision to invest in a particular sector/company.

A company with a sound and talented management and workforce is more likely to survive and thrive in tough market conditions.

MOHD SYUKRI AHMAD SUDARI

Senior Vice-President and Head Of Human Resources

AXA Affin General Insurance Bhd

IN AXA, both local and regional talents are identified from various entities, companies and divisions. The identified talents are given the opportunity to work on various important and high profile projects that have significant impact on AXA.

For AXA, talents are recruited under two schemes – graduate trainee and management trainee schemes.

The group has its own way of managing good talents within the organisation. Best practices and sharing of “brains” are something that we have implemented in developing our talents within AXA that has benefited our people and AXA as a company.

AXA in lesser-developed markets can take advantage of learning from developed markets and we have stronger teams because we combine our efforts in all countries within the region.

Recruiting talented staff is an on-going affair. If we find someone with good potential, we will consider them to be posted to any country. This will benefit all AXA entities within the matrix structure.

For example, AXA Hong Kong recruits a good actuary. Since the person is an expert in the subject matter, he will lead the actuarial functions in all entities.

JULIAN WYNTER

Managing Director and CEO

Standard Chartered Bank Malaysia Bhd

TALENT is an industry-wide challenge. We all face many of the same challenges surrounding execution and implementation, people development and management, and customer service.

Local banks have natural advantages of branch network and market access. Their size may mean that they face more people challenges, example more branches mean more front line branch teams. A robust frontline and customer base naturally mean more back-end capacity as well and the talent challenge resides here to.

I firmly believe that the conversation on talent is more on quality. Take as an example Islamic banking, where I think this is especially true as we continue to build on the maturity and robustness of this sunrise business.

JULIAN WYNTER

In Malaysia where Islamic banking is considered more mature on the global scale, not only do we have a finite talent pool but “brain drain” has already begun. If Malaysia is to continue to realise its potential as a hub for Islamic banking, the focus needs to be on people – attracting, retaining and developing talent.

Malaysia has and will continue on the talent journey. For Standard Chartered, Malaysia is a key market source for talent within our global network.

As the oldest bank in Malaysia, it follows that we are the talent incubator for the industry. I take pride in knowing that today, we are still a talent source not only for the country but also for our global network.

FAUZIAH YACOB

Director, Group Human Resources

AmBank Group

WE are planning to attract more talent, but are not confining ourselves to attracting from abroad.

Hiring foreign talent brings with it its own sets of complexities. We do want, however, to attract Malaysians who have studied abroad to come work for us.

The group also recognises that we have good talent locally. Even in our organisation today, it is a question of how well we can identify, retain, develop, motivate and reward them to perform to their best.

Whilst a remuneration package will attract talent in the onset, it is that, plus career and personal development opportunities, mobility, recognition and work-life balance that will ensure talent retention.

Our board of directors is fully engaged and we have senior management’s commitment and support for our talent programmes.

  • E-mail this story
  • Print this story