Economic Slowdown Time To Revisit Fundamentals, Say HRM Analysts

Economic Slowdown Time To Revisit Fundamentals, Say HRM Analysts

By Izham Shuhaimi Ahmad

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 4 (Bernama) -- Despite the economic slowdown plaguing the Asian-Pacific region, most companies intend to retain talented and skilled workers in the next three years, say Human Resource Management analysts say.Though the analysts see Asia-Pacific will remain the growth engine for the world economy, the key to weather the slowdown is to strike a balance between human resource priorities for short-term imperatives against long-term opportunities.A recent survey on the "Impact on Human Capital Strategy" in the region by Watson Wyatt Worldwide, a global consulting firm on people and financial issues, contain some recommendations for human resource professionals to consider to avoid redundancy and irrelevancy among employees and companies in an uncertain economic environment.In a media briefing today, Vivek Nath, Watson Wyatt Country Manager Malaysia, said the survey findings are for companies to assess the impact of the current economic and business environment on the people and workers' perception and to execute appropriate strategies and tactics to "weather the storm."In quoting the data, sourced from the Economic Intelligence Unit, as of November 2008, Vivek said the GDP growth of the Asia-Pacific countries, excluding Japan, registered 8.3 per cent in 2007, is projected to be at 6.5 per cent in 2008 and is forecast to be at five per cent in 2009.Japan's GDP growth in 2007 was 2.1 per cent and is envisaged at 0.4 per cent and forecast to be at 0.0 per cent in 2009, while China will be 11.9 per cent (2007), 9.6 per cent (2008) and 8.0 per cent (2009)."This shows Asia-Pacific (minus Japan) remains the growth engine for the world economy," he said.With most companies in the Asia-Pacific (except Japan), having a growth agenda, reflects the region's economic dynamism, he said, adding that employers are expected to retain their workforce over the next three years."Nevertheless, companies will have to balance on cost control, maintain employees' strength and prepare for future staffing challenges," he said.Vivek said one of the challenges is to balance between attracting and retaining talented and critical skilled staff against the rising cost of managing human capital."What Watson Wyatt would recommend among strategies to address this issue of retaining workers is to revisit the fundamentals of human resource practices," he said.These include subscribing to a total reward philosophy, rewarding meritorious performance and to redefine "Employee Value Proposition", a workers' perspective to find meaning to stay and work for a company.Meanwhile, Ho Chee Seng, Asean Practice Leader of Benefits Consulting Practice for Watson Wyatt Malaysia, told reporters at the briefing that one of the tactical solutions to stay ahead under current circumstances is for CEOs to regularly and honestly communicate with employees by updating about business prospects."Flexibility is important in the sense that top management should also review incentive and bonus plans and re-allocate right people in the right place," he said.In this context, Ho said companies are recommended to introduce special recognition programmes for employees who made a difference in generating revenue.From the survey findings on the "Impact of Economic Crisis in Asia-Pacific and Malaysia", both the analyst and consultant agreed that all companies would have to respond and deal with the present concerns in every employees' mind - Will I have a job tomorrow? Will the company survive tomorrow?"-- BERNAMA