September 20168 HOW TO USE TECHNOLOGY TO OVERCOME INTERNATIONAL TALENT MANAGEMENT CHALLENGESBy Tal Rotbart, CTO, PageUpIN MY VIEWEstablished in 1997, the Australian based PageUp, unifies Recruiting, Performance, Compensation, Learning, Career Path Planning, Succession Management and Workforce Analytics. Headquartered in Melbourne, Australia, PageUp has branched out its office locations in Sydney, Singapore, Hong Kong, Philippines, New York and London.Business opportunities abound for organisations looking to enter into the market or expand their existing business in the Asia-Pacific region. After all, according to global consulting firm McKinsey, 63 percent of the world's 440 fastest emerging cities are in Asia, adding a billion new consumers and a total purchasing power of more than $10 trillion into the global economy. By 2050, Asia will boast one of the youngest and largest labor markets ­ almost 3 billion individuals in an estimate from Deloitte ­ which will represent more than half of the global workforce. The business possibilities in this region are abundant, if not endless. With such a vibrant workforce and prosperous projections for the future, how can multinational corporations (MNCs) possibly go wrong? Well, despite its rich diversity and resilient financial growth in the face of recent global financial crises, the Asia Pacific region still suffers from a severe talent shortage and a dearth of leadership capabilities. These talent management challenges threaten to derail even the most opportunistic of MNCs. In South-East Asia, in particular, finding and retaining high performers in the face of a growing skills shortage is especially concerning. Some researchers estimate that the talent shortfall is as high as 61 percent on average in the APAC region, compared to 45 percent in the Americas and 31 percent in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Developing future leaders is a particular challenge for companies in this region, as one of the traditional avenues to such development requires an existing pool from which to mentor and grow the next generation. Due to the very young age of the workforce in these markets ­ almost half of Southeast Asia's population will be below 30 by 2020, according to Accenture ­ a robust pipeline of quality leaders simply does not exist to meet the demand.Ensuring that organisations can take advantage of the current and future opportunities available to them in this emerging market requires that the talent management practices of old be set aside. As employees become more used to a world with 24/7 Internet access, always-on telecommunications and an uber-connected workplace, it behooves MNCs to rethink, reframe and reinvigorate talent management in order to successfully implement organizational business plans and maintain a competitive place in the market. When managing large and geo-graphically dispersed workforces,
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