More than nine in ten employers in Asia are facing difficulties recruiting and retaining talent and an inability to match candidates’ salary expectations is the top reason firms in the region struggle to fill roles. That’s according to a survey of more than 1,000 employers across Hong Kong, China, South Korea, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan, released today for the first time at the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD)’s Annual Conference.

The survey, Talent resourcing and retention in Asia, is the second of a two part research programme produced by the CIPD in partnership with the Hong Kong Institute of Human Resource Management. It also found that, despite the increasing challenges associated with recruitment and retention, and 48% of organisations expecting to need to increase staff levels in the next 12 months, resourcing budgets in Asia remain flat.

When it comes to retention strategies, which nine in ten organisations have in place, the survey found that increased pay and benefits topped the list of activities Asian employers are engaging in. Less than a third, however, cited that they use learning and development opportunities as a way to keep staff engaged and build internal talent pipelines to support future growth.

Claire McCartney, Research Adviser at the CIPD, said: “As Asia continues to experience growth despite the global slowdown, it’s perhaps not surprising to learn that employers in the region are engaged in a war for the best talent to fuel their growth. However, it’s important to avoid getting into an unsustainable bidding war on salaries. Instead, employers should get better at communicating a broader package of incentives to prospective employees – including, for example, the learning and development opportunities they can offer. It’s also important for firms to develop stronger employer brands around a sense of meaning and shared purpose. Our previous research in the region, Next Generation HR Asia, show cased some great examples of employers for whom this was crucial in attracting and retaining new recruits.”

While recruitment and retention difficulties were common across all six countries in the survey, some challenges were more pronounced in certain countries than in others. For example, recruitment difficulties are most accute in China and Hong Kong, and organisations in China, Malaysia and South Korea are most likely to predict an increase in funding for resourcing over the next 12 months. The table below shows eight key indicators for each country surveyed.

Claire McCartney will discuss some of the report’s key findings on the conference platform this afternoon. She will be chairing a discussion on Effective management of the new global talent realities (K1, 2:00pm), based on case studies from Dilek Kizilcik, Global Talent Adviser at Shell, and Lorraine Taylor, Head of HR for Corporate Affairs, Human Resources and Strategy at Standard Chartered Bank.