Koo: LinkedIn will continue to partner Malaysian businesses and professionals to stay ahead of labour market trends and thrive in a skills-first future.
KUALA LUMPUR: Amid an era of massive change, leaders are grappling with the urgent challenge of future-proofing their organisations.
They are re-examining business strategies, workforce models, values and culture and answering employees’ calls for growth and purpose.
The key to navigate this lies in skills-building. This is a critical time for companies to integrate learning and development (L&D) into their workforces.
In Malaysia, LinkedIn research shows top skills for a particular job have changed by an average of 27% since 2015, with the pace of change accelerating during the pandemic.
At this pace, the core skills set to be competitive in a job role could change by close to 50% by 2025.
For business leaders, by understanding the skills their employees have today and the skills the company needs in the future, they can hire or redeploy talent into growth areas to capture opportunities.
Investing in L&D will build agile workforces that can respond faster to changing market conditions.
There are positive signs that Malaysia is moving in the right direction.
Some of Malaysia’s most respected employers are already investing in large-scale upskilling and reskilling with the help of LinkedIn, the world’s largest professional platform, including Petroliam Nasional Bhd and Axiata Group Bhd
.
These companies recognise that people are their most important resource and utilise LinkedIn Learning to support their continuous learning and career progression.
LinkedIn Learning is an online resource of over 18,000 expertly-produced and regularly-updated courses to help learners build business, technology and creative skills.
Professionals are also taking it upon themselves to pick up hard and soft skills to stay competitive.
Some of the most popular courses Malaysian professionals consumed in 2022 are Project Management Foundations and Strategic Thinking.
This focus on L&D by businesses and professionals will contribute to narrowing the country’s long-standing skills gap issue.
It takes an entire ecosystem and a nationwide skilling initiative is also underway.
Since two months ago, HRD Corp entered into a collaboration with LinkedIn to allow approximately 80,000 employers and over 4.3 million talents across key industries, including manufacturing, transportation and professional services, access to the most in-demand courses globally.
Under the partnership, HRD Corp will be offering LinkedIn Learning courses to registered employers to empower their workforce to stay agile and competitive.
LinkedIn will also offer periodic insights on hiring and job trends in Malaysia to HRD Corp, based on its unique Economic Graph insights to help steer businesses, economy and society through a changing world of work.
It is a digital representation of the global economy of over 900 million members, 39,000 skills, 59 million companies and 129,000 schools.
Through mapping every member, company, job and school, LinkedIn is able to spot trends like talent migration, hiring rates and in-demand skills in Malaysia and globally.
“HRD Corp’s pivot towards digitalisation is aimed at improving operational efficiency while empowering our stakeholders to continue skilling efforts through multiple pathways.
“This includes our expanded focus on virtual and online learning, through our digital platform, e-LATiH.
“Our partnership with LinkedIn enables us to democratise access to learning and development, empowering more individuals to learn at their own pace, anytime, anywhere,” said HRD Corp chief executive Datuk Shahul Dawood.
According to Deloitte Malaysia chief executive officer Yee Wing Peng, organisations should focus on talent engagement.
“The organisations that will win in this context are those that can define new fundamentals in the way they engage with talent.
“This will require leaders to co-create with talent to experiment and innovate, and design new ways to elevate human impact in all that they do,” he said.
Traditional mindsets on talent must change, said LinkedIn head of Asia, talent and learning solutions, Frank Koo.
There is a pressing need for companies to hire based on skills, instead of educational certifications and years of experience.
LinkedIn data shows that this increases the overall talent pool by nearly 10 times, which will allow businesses access to broader talent pools to meet skills needs.
“Economic recovery and growth is a shared responsibility – between governments, employers and employees – and we must not leave anyone behind.
“LinkedIn will continue to partner Malaysian businesses and professionals to stay ahead of labour market trends and thrive in a skills-first future,” he said.
To assist companies in charting effective talent management strategies, LinkedIn, Shahul, Yee and edotco Group chief people officer Ramon Chelva will share insights in a panel on Feb 21, 2023.
Information and registration here: https://events.thestar.com.my/event/the-talent-magnet-how-to-build-a-thriving-workforce/
