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Many organisations are pivoting their talent strategies from 'acquiring' talent, to 'accessing’ talent. In other words, firms are looking to alternative ways to access ready talent apart from hiring.
Future talent strategies across organisations in Malaysia must seek to empower the workforce; preserve a strong focus on sustainable standards; and create greater agility to meet changing business and employee needs.
In her speech at the 24th World Conference of Banking Institutes, Deputy Governor of Bank Negara Malaysia Datuk Jessica Chew Cheng Lian shared more on the current workforce trends shaping the landscape.
Referencing the latest Future of Jobs Report by The World Economic Forum last month, she highlighted that over 80% of organisations surveyed identify higher adoption of frontier technologies, broadening digital access and the application of environmental, social and governance (ESG) standards as key trends most likely to drive workforce transformation.
In line with the conference's theme of “Building a workforce fit for the future”, Chew highlighted two matters:
- The future of work is not one that we can predict with precision. There may be chance to get the general direction of travel right, but how forces shaping life and work in the foreseeable future unfolds are not always clear or predictable.
- Cultural aspects of the future workforce matter and there is a need to pay closer attention to how we identify, capture and express culture factors in our workforce strategies.
Therefore, beyond the specific consideration of how to build future skills, Chew emphasised three areas of focus for a sustainable and future-ready workforce.
Empowering the workforce
The World Economic Forum estimates that half of all employees will need reskilling by 2025. For those in existing roles, more than 40% of their skills will need to change to remain relevant.
This trend reflects a similar set of challenges in Malaysia — as Chew shared, 85% of companies surveyed by the Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation acknowledge the need to reskill their employees.
"We have an important role and responsibility to help employees adapt to and thrive in roles that are constantly being re-defined. And how we do this needs to evolve from a narrow focus on providing just-in-time training to get jobs done, to one which helps individuals acquire new knowledge, skills and capabilities on a continuous basis to meet business and professional goals."
Against this backdrop, it is key to work to develop a Future Skills Framework (FSF) for the financial sector, which serves as a single point of reference on future skills and career development pathways for those working or aspiring to work in financial services. As Chew explained, the FSF should serve to foster a culture of lifelong learning and skills development within the financial sector workforce in the longer run.
The FSF also serves as a risk management strategy for financial institutions that are already facing growing legal and reputational challenges associated with redundancies by supporting the reskilling and upskilling of individuals whose roles may be at risk of displacement.
"Financial institutions will have a key role to play in realising the vision for the FSF by helping shape the framework into something that will be beneficial and relevant to institutions and individuals in the financial sector."
Preserving a strong focus on professional standards
According to Chew, future talent strategies must also not lose sight of the critical importance of preserving a strong focus on professional standards to regulate conduct and behaviour.
"Over the last decade, Malaysia’s banking industry has made important strides in raising standards of professionalism. This is evident from the number of accredited banking professionals that has more than tripled over the last four years.
"Customers expect banks to stand with them through the good and bad times. The economy relies on resilient banks performing a critical intermediation function through economic cycles. The standards applied to professional bankers must therefore also stand the test of time."
This would mean preserving high ethical standards that underpin the character of bankers, while expanding standards on professional skills and competencies expected of bankers to respond to a fast-changing landscape.
In Malaysia, efforts by professional development bodies can be observed, to raise the bar through initiatives to refresh the Chartered Banker programme and the development of the Certificate in Climate Risk (CICR).
Chew also pointed out that the industry will need to be more deliberate about integrating a sound risk culture into standards adopted for banking education and professionals. Such a culture begins with financial institutions leaders who consistently demonstrate and model risk-aware behaviours, as well as with employees at all levels who are equipped with the knowledge and tools to identify, assess and manage risks effectively in a fast-changing and complex operating environment.
Creating greater agility to meet changing business and employee needs
Lastly, future talent strategies will need to create greater agility for institutions and individuals to respond to changing needs by embracing new norms of talent mobility and encouraging diversity in the workforce.
As the workforce shapes up to become significantly more fluid and mobile following the pandemic, many organisations are pivoting their talent strategies from 'acquiring' talent, to 'accessing’ talent. In other words, firms are looking to alternative ways to access ready talent apart from hiring.
The ability to tap into external and more diverse talent pools to meet specific skill gaps is becoming a more important part of talent strategies of firms including financial institutions. This also reflects the rise of a segment of the workforce associated with the gig economy and professional experts that are not affiliated to any single organisation.
Such fluid arrangements are also being leveraged to build internal capacity building and support transition, which will have important implications for how we build the future workforce from without rather than within. These strategies provide greater flexibility for organisations to respond to changing business needs, but also call for a fundamental re-thinking of pre-existing organisational and cultural norms.
"As we move forward, deepening employee engagements will become more important to enable firms to better anticipate shifting trends and inform approaches to building a future-fit workforce.
"It is not uncommon today to find up to four different generations coexisting in many workplaces, each with different perspectives on leadership, learning and workplace culture. Recognising these differences within talent strategies will be important to successfully cultivate a future-ready workforce."
ALSO READ: Roles projected to have the highest number of jobs created and displaced by 2027: WEF report
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