Building a winning workforce: Insights from CEOs

The results from the survey supports the common understanding that the labour and skills shortage is becoming a growing concern for our economy. The migration of skilled workers to the gig economy limits the supply of skilled employees. And the trend is unlikely to disengage any time soon as employees continue to look for roles with more flexibility and better work-life balance.

While the primary focus for CEOs and CHROs during the pandemic's peak was job security as well as health and safety measures, there has been a shift of focus to attracting and retaining talent, hybrid work arrangements, tackling burnout and mental health issues, as well as digital upskilling. These factors have become critical for companies to address to maintain their competitive edge in adapting to the evolving business environment.

Moving forward, organisational leaders will need to consider a multi-layer approach to proactively respond to the needs of the future of work.

1. Focus on higher-value strategic work, which may entail outsourcing lower-value, operational work as well as embracing the use of technology to perform low-skilled tasks.

2. Support the higher focus on automation with the upskilling of employees across all levels. 

3. Improve the overall employer value proposition to reflect changing employee needs. This includes a ‘total wellness’ rewards package, applicable to employees at different phases of their lives and careers. 

4. Employ a blended talent strategy that looks beyond just flexible options of employment. For example, retired employees could be retained for skilled mentorship opportunities.

A learning culture precedes an empowering culture, and learning happens where people are able to make mistakes and, especially, learn from their failures. Without the enabling ecosystem for such learning to occur, the acceptance of empowerment and the inculcation of courage in leaders may appear more as a lip service than an actual realisation.

This is further accentuated by the fact that the current Malaysian cultural norms are already embedded with pronounced power distance, visible not just at the organisational level but also at the public, private and societal levels. Power distance reflects an environment where, as defined by Hofstede Insights, “…the less powerful members of society accept and expect that power is distributed unequally,” which would have been nurtured at various levels of the society, e.g., education, family, and interpersonal relationships.

To break away from the cultural norms of power distance in Malaysia and its negative implications, it will require: 

• Highly concerted efforts in Malaysian organisations from the next generation of leaders.

  • There is a need to counter the power distance that would have been ingrained in them from outside of the organisational context. 

• HR practitioners to work closely with leaders at all levels to ensure that there are pillars in place within the organisation to support a more inclusive, empowering, and learning environment. These could come in the form of workshops to address unconscious bias, as well as formalised practices in key areas.

  • The outcome of these initiatives should be integrated together with the rest of the talent management and development strategies to ensure an effective cascading of practices throughout the organisation.

The advancement of automation and digitalisation as aligned with The Fourth Industrial Revolution (IR 4.0) provides an opportunity for the workforce to be equipped with specific skills to improve productivity and efficiency, potentially offsetting the worry of jobs being replaced. Automation will have a lesser effect, especially, on jobs that involve managing people, applying expertise, and requiring social interactions. 

Our recent report Upskilling for shared prosperity in Southeast Asia: Fostering sustainable growth estimates that upskilling could grow Southeast Asia’s GDP by 4% by 2030—a cumulative boost valued at US$250 billion—and unlock up to 676,000 new jobs. These economic benefits will be especially felt in four key sectors: manufacturing, agriculture, energy and utilities, and financial services. The report also highlights that across industries, the benefits of upskilling and reskilling will not be realised in the same way. The sectors that stand to gain the most from upskilling are those that face the biggest risks of labour displacement due to automation or the net zero transition.

Supported by better access to learning methods and skills enhancement powered by edutech, Malaysians will be able to not only land well-paying jobs but also compete with their regional, if not, global peers. These opportunities could also extend to the rural areas through social enterprises and help bridge the rural-urban digital gap.

Leaders could facilitate this process within their organisation through: 

• Effective identification of relevant areas and roles most affected by digitalisation and automation, and implement relevant development strategies to prepare the affected employees for the inevitable transition.

• Taking on the pivotal role of managing employees’ anxieties and concerns, a vital process to enable change to happen effectively.