New HR Report Shatters Senior Management Hiring Myths in Asia Pacific
Submitted by: Cazar
2013-09-17 00:01:06
The region's most extensive senior management study of 350,174 candidates clears misconceptions, and breaks some myths about social media, recruitment, head hunters, recruitment agencies, time-to-hire and provides a new perspective.
(OPENPRESS) Hong Kong, 09, 16, 2013 -- Cazar has just published a study on how companies in Asia Pacific region, hire their senior management. After an extensive analysis of 619 senior hires and 350,174 applicants, Cazar's study breaks some myths and clears some misconceptions about recruitment channels of senior management.
The report (download link below) took into account more than 30 medium & large companies over a 15-month period between June 2012 to September 2013, across diverse sectors including retail, construction, banking, transport, IT, broadcast media and telecom. Vacancies for CxO job titles such as Chief Executive Officer, Chief Operating Officer, CIO, CFO, CSO; senior roles such as Director of Marketing, Financial Controller, Head of IT and similar job functions across departments were analyzed.
It is important to note that Asia Pacific is an extremely large, diverse, heterogeneous market, which is also fairly complex and fragmented comprising of more than 50 countries - each with its own work culture, languages, business practices, economies and regulations. Despite this, the findings on top-level management hires were surprisingly consistent across these countries.
The common belief is that recruiting senior management cannot be done online. On the contrary, Cazar's study shows that senior candidates actually prefer to engage directly with employers online - much more than entry level or middle management candidates. Quality senior applicants also shied away from sending their CV to a generic application form, free job boards, public email address and preferred to engage with the employer directly via their career website.
While some may think that senior roles require executive talent recruitment agencies, Cazar's study suggests that employers have become very proficient at finding top candidates online themselves. These companies present had a clear online recruitment strategy and the right tools. For example, companies with content rich corporate career websites alone, contributed to biggest source of senior hires at 38%. Similarly, candidates who applied to senior roles through professional networking, which is often done online, had a 37% chance of getting hired.
Highlights of the report:
-Senior candidates look for work online — more so than anyone else.
-Amongst companies with a good online strategy, an average vacancy generated an average of 274 applicants, while a senior job vacancy produced 566 applicants.
-The companies analysed got 98% of their applicants through an online channel.
-Recruiting from the corporate talent pool took 24 days on average, also the quickest and most cost effective while agencies took 71 days.
Building a talent pool is essential for employers looking to hire for senior positions. For instance, companies with a quality talent pool of previously qualified applicants hired 22% of their new senior recruits through it. A talent pool is also the quickest (24 days on average) and most cost-effective way of finding senior hires.
Companies in the study all had a comprehensive online recruitment strategy, a well designed, content-rich career website and an application process with role-relevant questions.
"There is a big shortage of senior professionals in Asia. The competition for talent is intensifying. It is not surprising that a significant number of candidates are now sourced online - it is the quickest and most effective method. In Singapore for example, many employers have a talent acquisition strategy that includes a career website, social media and other new candidate channels. Without it, hiring top local and expat talent efficiently would not be possible," explains Stefan Sawh, Regional Director Asia Pacific, Cazar.
Cazar believes that with the huge growth in Asia, employers need to be even more effective with recruitment, especially for senior roles. For example, in Indonesia, thanks to overall economic growth, the outlook is good for local jobseekers, but a challenge for recruiters. The emergence of a new middle class in Indonesia is driving the luxury goods, retail and property sectors, which in turn has created a big boom in employment opportunities. The difficulty for local firms is to hire the people they need in time for opening.
