The top talent challenges faced by HR in APAC in 2019

Finding, retaining and developing talent - this has been identified as a top business challenge of 2019 among APAC organisations.

According to HireRight's latest 2019 APAC Employment Screening Benchmark Report, more than one-third (34%) of HR professionals surveyed in APAC cited this as one of their top three challenges, while maintaining a competitive edge (21%) and growing revenues (19%) came in as second and third respectively.

From a talent acquisition point of view, the number one common challenge identified was creating an employment brand that attracts talent (25%), ahead of finding qualified job candidates (20%) and reducing employee turnover (19%).

This falls in line with rising sentiments that employee headcounts will increase in the next one year - in fact a majority of respondents (83%) do expect to see a growth in their workforce in the coming 12 months, with close to half estimating an increase by at least 6%.

How candidate discrepancies play out across Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, and more

Apart from the above findings, the report also identified one key issue that is still a prevalent 'headache' for HR professionals - candidate discrepancies.

Although the majority of respondents (67%) felt that candidates rarely misrepresented information on their resumes (less than 10% of the time), two in three (61%) admitted that they had uncovered issues through screening candidates that would otherwise have gone unnoticed.

Further, across the board, the most common discrepancies were uncovered during employment checks (86%), and education verifications (59%), an increase from 74% and 48% respectively the previous year.

Following an increase in background checks, APAC countries involved in the survey all observed a drop in candidate discrepancies.

Specifically in Malaysia, a drop from 2017 (18%) to 2018 (15%) was observed. Similarly, Singapore also saw a slight drop, from 20.1% in 2017 to 18.3% in 2018, while Hong Kong saw a drop from 21.4% in 2017, to 14.5% in 2018.

Looking ahead: HR investments to come

With the findings above, HR professionals are constantly kept on their feet and seeking new ways to adapt to the ever evolving digital landscape of today.

In fact, based on the HR professionals in APAC surveyed, the  top initiative they planned to invest in for 2019 was to make HR processes more efficient (60%), as compared to global HR professionals who prioritised reducing turnover.

Additionally, half of those in APAC (50%) are looking to invest in new HR technologies in the next six months, versus just 21% globally.

Lead image and infographics / provided