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Now seen as growth enablers and innovators, these leaders constantly need to evaluate their workforce planning to find the best-fit talent, and to engage and retain them.
With the future of work being a top-of-mind topic on the minds of many, one thing has become clear: to drive it successfully does not just fall on HR – it is equally the responsibility of other business leaders too.
After all, while the rise of remote and hybrid work has brought about more flexibility in hiring, it has also come with its own set of challenges, and the need for clearer understanding, guidelines, and regulations. For example, HR teams will need to have an understanding of the culture, work practices, and labour laws in the markets where they are looking to hire.
In that vein, a new infobrief titled Bridging the Talent Gap: The Future of Hiring in the Asia/Pacific Region, published by IDC and sponsored by Remote, notes that today, the remote/hybrid work model defined in the future of work has evolved the role of business leaders across all departments, including chief information officers (CIOs) or chief technology officers (CTOs), chief human resources officers (CHROs), chief finance officers (CFOs), and heads of legal departments into growth enablers and innovators.
Thus, comes the need for these roles to collaborate and form the backbone of the organisation's future-of-work strategies. In particular, these leaders will have to be well connected and work together on human resource investment and workforce planning, implementing technologies to hire and manage employees (in terms of onboarding, payroll, and retention strategies), and complying with labour laws and regulations across geographies.
This is especially true for companies looking for cost-effective workforce options in other regions, who want their business to go international with a strong employer brand, it was highlighted.
According to the infobrief, these leaders will form the 'future of work dream team':
- The CHRO/HR leader: Developing strategies for workforce planning, considering fast-changing technology, demographics, and economic conditions while sourcing talent from overseas.
- The CFO/head of finance: Allocating budgets for the acquisition of new technologies, upskilling and reskilling programmes, and creating compensation and benefits packages to attract top talent, regardless of where they are located.
- The CTO/CIO/head of technology: Investing in the right technologies to source and manage talent (example: sourcing, onboarding, payroll, and administration).
- The head of legal: Ensuring compliance with labour laws and regulations, and data privacy laws that are unique to each geography.
5 actions to take in embracing the future of work
Keeping the above in mind, leaders can consider the following action plan in moving towards a successful future-of-work environment for the workforce:
#1 Strategy
With the growing adoption of global hiring practices, comes the need to update workplace policies and strategies for HR, finance, legal, and technology leaders. Specifically, this would involve in-depth reviews of the local laws, security and privacy of data, financial aspects, and legal requirements in the different geographies they are looking to hire in, while restructuring the global workforce.
Therefore, business leaders will have to ensure the right investments in ensuring the success and sustainability of the hiring model.
#2 Goals
Line-of-business executives must work hand-in-hand with other C-suite executives to clearly define the goals of the organisation's future-of-work initiatives – for example, by identifying the qualities of desired workers, workforce distribution plans, and hiring plans.
These goals should align with the digitalisation journey of the company and its evolution over time.
#3 Culture
This involves working together to design change strategies. Leaders must provide guidance and change strategies throughout the company to prepare workers to adapt to new behaviours and ways of working.
To support the next-generation work environment, functional leaders must understand the culture of different geographies and empathize with the concerns of remote workers.
#4 Compliance
To comply with local labour laws and workforce regulations, especially while hiring remote employees globally, legal and finance heads, and HR leaders must work together to understand rules related to data privacy, employee safety, and labour laws around health and safety, hourly wage, and employee privacy.
Alongside this, finance heads or CFOs should identify cost-saving opportunities through automation, and the legal team should manage risks such as tax laws, contract disputes, and employment-related issues to comply with new regulations related to remote work.
#5 Technology
The emergence of digital technologies and changing workforce demographics will need business leaders, such as HR and legal heads, and technology leaders to work together to drive change. Together, they must create a technology roadmap that invests in technologies to target the right talent, engage and retain them, and consider their wellbeing, while automating operational tasks.
On their end, legal heads must manage the risks associated with new technologies, such as data privacy and compliance risks.
The IDC AP SMB and Mid-Market Hiring Trends 2023 study surveyed respondents from SMBs and mid-market companies in Australia, India, New Zealand, and Singapore at the end of 2022, with the aim of understanding international hiring trends in the region.
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