Transforming talent: Making Indonesia’s talent globally competitive

„Our talent must be global talent – speak and think like global talent and be competitive in the market. HR must promote their talent externally,” noted a speaker at HRO’s introductory conference in Jakarta, Transform Talent Indonesia.

Indonesia’s current business climate highlights shortcomings in labor strategy and barriers to competing globally. The most important hurdle faced is attracting, developing and retaining talented employees. Additionally, with high unemployment rates and a reported skills mismatch among recent graduates, the pool of talent available to businesses is shrinking.

Despite these challenges, business confidence is high, and most industries are growing. Digital transformation is underway, and employers are eager to scale the capabilities of their products, people and processes to compete on global benchmarks.

Recognizing the importance of future-proofing Indonesia’s talent pool and elevating talent strategies that showcase regional excellence, HRO is pleased to launch our first conference in Indonesia –Change skillsOn October 25, 2023, in Jakarta, more than 130 HR leaders and employers from across Indonesia will come together to exchange insights and improve their people strategies.

Highlights and key learnings from some of the sessions are shared below:

There was a session that day Making Indonesia’s talents compete on the world stage. Our speaker who took us through this session reaffirmed the role of HR in making this happen, as ambassadors for employees.

“Our competition is not only with Indonesia; We (our organization) do not need to be the champion of the Indonesian landscape, but bring our talents to the world stage and make Indonesia compete globally.

„Our talent needs to be global talent – ​​talk and think like global talent and be competitive in the market. HR needs to promote their talent there,” he added. For example, when a global project opens up, this is where HR raises their hand and their local Talents can be proposed to be a part of this project.

That aside, the chairman also acknowledged the benefits of having foreigners in the workforce, noting the knowledge we can learn from them. „But what’s important is that we know how to develop them and provide enough opportunities to our local talent to ensure our talent is competitive,” he highlighted.

Over the course of the day, some interesting takeaways were made:

Quick Tips on How to Build a Positive EX:

One of the panel discussions of the day was championing workplace experience. As part of the conversation, our panelists shared some things leaders can consider in creating a positive experience for employees:

• Create a 'Customer First’ Mindset — If you can’t delight your internal 'customers’, how will you do it for your external customers?
• Psychological Safety: Foster an environment where your people feel safe and belong to the organization.
• Make sure you gain an understanding of the local culture, especially in a country as diverse as Indonesia.
• A positive company culture is the key to creating a positive EX – it takes a village, but it can help engage and retain people.
• The important thing is to understand what is important to your people and, more importantly, what is important to the business, and to balance the two to get the best of both worlds.

In that sense, what do our leaders think constitutes a desirable workplace experience? For one, it may involve a workplace where employees and leaders can collaborate on a shared mission to achieve the organization’s goals. The key is to create constant communication to ensure we are all on the same page and see how we can work together.

It is also important to make the workplace trustworthy, friendly, accessible (in terms of people) and transparency in communication is practiced.

Re-evaluating performance and talent management practices

In a case study session, according to our speaker, one question leaders should ask when looking at succession performance and talent management practices is: Does everyone in my organization have the ability to have conversations about performance?

As he notes, winners on this journey focus on results, not boxes and lines: Today, are successful businesses organized for innovation and speed?

They rely on a continuous bite-sized performance cadence; Finally, they look holistically at learning and development. Regarding how leaders can increase the prevalence and quality of performance conversations during the employee lifecycle, he shared:

• Onboarding Stage – Increase the prevalence of such conversations
• Performance Level – Improving the quality of performance conversations
• Retention level – increases the effect on a person throughout life

Finally, they look at learning and development holistically, factoring in experiences, exposure, and education.

When it comes to promotions, today’s conversation isn’t about [job] Position – It’s now all about the skills that talent can bring to the table, our speaker on this topic pointed out.

Then, the rank comes based on the skills acquired by the talent. Here are some examples of steps leaders can take in approaching this:

Step 1: Ask yourself: Where does your fulfillment meet your purpose?
Step 2: Ask questions to discover your personal purpose
Step 3: Check-ins & feedback with line manager anytime
Step 4: Your Career Profile – Make yourself visible
Step 5: An Opportunity Board – This helps you, your decision, and regular check-ins with your line manager.
Step 6: Continuous learning

In addition to the above, some memorable food for thought shared by one of the speakers: In all of this, we as leaders have to do. Of course for everyone [in our workforce] They understand what success looks like so they are motivated to work towards it. Make sure everyone in the organization knows the picture of success and what it looks like, not just management. It’s HR’s job to communicate this effectively – be prepared to communicate the message at least eight times before it gets through to everyone.

A quote from another leader sums it all up perfectly: „Before we can help our employees grow, we have to help them grow.”

Human Resources Online would like to thank all the speakers, moderators, panellists and delegates who were valuable contributors to this event.

We would like to express our gratitude to our sponsors and partners who made this conference possible:

Gold Sponsor: working day

Silver Sponsors:
Luminaire consultation
Mesh

Photo: HRO