How HR Can Help Drive Future Business Success in the ASEAN Environment Through Improved Focus on Cultural Diversity

As the Asian emerging markets of Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam and the Philippines continue to expand and outperform their European and American counterparts, multinational organisations are beginning to understand the key people drivers in the region. They are also learning how incredibly important these markets are for global business as they begin to genuinely engage and focus on local HR talent across these ASEAN nations as a key driver to their long term sustainable success. Importantly they are including local HR leaders in decision making at a regional and, significantly, at the global level.

Despite this important and relatively recent shift in approach, Western multinationals are still facing numerous challenges in their desire to attract, motivate and retain local HR talent across the Asian emerging markets. Local employees tend to have several key reservations in joining multinationals, over local national companies, predominantly pertaining to personal career progression opportunities and complex cultural concerns.Some of the key considerations to success for multinationals across the emerging markets lie in their people decisions and policies. It will be imperative for them to demonstrate clear career progression for the high potential HR talent they are seeking to attract. They need to ‘walk the talk’ and be a true ‘global business’, employing and subsequently empowering, a diverse range of talent via genuine career progression into key regional and global level roles. 

Companies will need to focus on cultural diversity as a critical success factor and maximize the benefits that people from different backgrounds can bring to their organisation. Not only will they offer new ideas and problem solving skills critical to the markets that they inherently understand, but they will offer the business a genuine empathetic insight into the local market, bringing it closer to its customers and partners and ultimately providing a competitive advantage.

Some important ways to nurture ASEAN leadership include becoming more culturally sensitive to the markets in which they operate. Examples include creating more inclusive work environments for Asian employees, facilitating cross-cultural competency of all staff globally and finding unique ways to bring out the best in local talent within each market.

Those businesses currently experiencing success in these particular markets have several common traits. Namely, they are taking culture seriously and engaging employees locally, as opposed to sweeping cultural and diversity issues under the carpet. Indeed this can involve numerous complexities and sensitivities as culture is a broad issue with varying considerations by nation which must be respected and understood. 

Sadly, many local employees would find it easier to resign as opposed to adapt and confront foreign leadership particularly if the company fails to demonstrate adequate insight and understanding into the local market. It is therefore imperative that businesses take the time to engage and work closely with employees in each respective country in order to genuinely understand the cultural issues at play, together with the challenges and solutions employees require. 

Supporting and mentoring local HR talent will not only enhance their opportunity to be heard and to share their views, but will enable them to benefit immensely from feeling understood and appreciated. Such processes will help multinationals gradually move away from the ‘Western Lens’ and open up to broader business styles and processes. If there is going to be an improved diverse representation of business leaders in ASEAN, multinational companies need to take steps now to build a solid pipeline of local HR talent. This will be important to their future success and requires identifying and harnessing a broad network of leaders from diverse backgrounds and cultures. It is about creating the optimum environment to foster bringing out the best of the ASEAN experience to produce future global success.