Mercer Global Talent Trends Survey 2017

Mercer Global Talent Trends Survey 2017

November 7, 2018

Talentnet is the proud partner of Mercer, and we would like to present the key findings from the Global Talent Trends Survey 2017 which was presented…

Mercer talent trends 2017: Key findings

Growth By Design

93% of Senior Executives are looking to redesign their organizations to take into account of digitalization that is disrupting business models. The Internet of Things has introduced new ways of working and work/life integration is not just an idea, but becoming an expectation. Machine learning is creating added-value through multiple AI applications – with people getting used to chatbots and digital assistants.

During the pre-survey event, we asked our Vietnamese clients what their reality is today. Here’s what they told us:

  • A semiconductor manufacturer has already automated 70% of their plant in this low-cost labor market #automation
  • An eCommerce logistics company only hires one-third of its drivers as full-timers. The rests are freelancers and contractors. #gigeconomy
  • A well-known beer company has installed robots to brew our beer…how cool is that! #robotics

How will jobs change?  Well, HR practitioners globally predict that:

  • Jobs in the next three years will focus more on design and innovation
  • Management will have to broaden spans of control
  • There will be more focus on sales & delivery and less on management, while the salaried workforce will mainly be in management roles (in part this may be due to increased leverage of the fluid workforce)

A shift in what we value

A Shift in What We Value

In 2017 employees clearly shifted their focus to pay and opportunity for promotion; with less emphasis on learning – which was the key focus for 2016. What’s clear is that:

  1. People want to understand how rewards are being calculated, not only for their own role, but also for roles they might be interested to move into
  2. They want to be recognized and rewarded for a wider range of contributions, not just financial results or activity metrics

Participants in the Talentnet-Mercer pre-survey events in Vietnam agreed with the results: that there is still more emphasis on pay and promotion. However, the desire to learn and grow professionally is also gaining importance with the younger employees in the workforce.

A workplace for me

A Workplace for Me

While job responsibilities, pay, and promotion are fundamentals, there is another workplace revolution going on and this is related to HOW we work:

  • Employees are seeking out more flexible and personalized work arrangements. (56% globally, 59% AMEA and slightly lower in Pacific 50%)
  • Globalization and technology are making the world smaller and they are shaping employees’ expectations of when and how they want to work and what is of most value to them

When asked how their workplace will evolve in the next few years, employees told us:

  • That they expect there will be more focus on health and wellbeing in the workplace (this was number 1)
  • Secondly, there will be more flexibility in terms of when and where you work
  • Thirdly, that work would be more team-based
  • And 1 in 4 predict that work will get more PERSONALIZED (i.e., tailored to their unique preferences).

The quest for insight

The Quest for Insight

Finally, it is clear that companies believe analytics will be a key player in winning the war for talent.

Yet despite an increase in the volume and quality of talent data, many are struggling to derive meaningful insights to inform decision making. New technologies and the democratization of data are helping to move the needle, but companies are making slow progress in using analytics to drive decision making.

The most popular areas talent data is being used effectively is in personality, cognitive/ability and culture fit assessments.

The use of talent data is still in its infancy in Vietnam, with only a handful of multinationals and large local conglomerates having access to talent data. However, with new easy-to-use tools like Emergenetics making inroads into this market, more companies can make use of data-driven approaches to optimize their employee’s talent.

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