The Funny thing is, despite the economic downturn which some people say lead to loss of jobs, companies continue to find it hard to find good qualified people in the Philippines. There is a tough competition for talent and experience. Mostly the latter than the former.
Many companies prefer to hire people with the right exposure, the right experience in the business they are in, the kind of clients they handle and the technology they are using. This is understandable. It is quite expensive to develop people to have all these and much riskier if the people they are hiring are managers. There is of course the risk of losing an employee after painstakingly training them because other companies who are unwilling to train, are more willing to part with their big bucks eating the cake that another company baked.
In a grander scheme of things, I am of the opinion that this situation is hampering productivity and profitability on a national level. Why? Because the war for talent is jacking up the market rate of hard to find jobs and causing some companies not to afford them. The war metaphor clearly indicates that there are winners and losers here. The price losers pay in the war for talent is stunted growth and mediocre performance. On the other hand, we have an over abundance of talents with no training (and college education, don’t get me started with that!) and experience who are left to get whatever work is available. This is why we have business majors who are sweeping floors, engineering graduates working as data entry operators and other jobs that leave them with very little return on their college investment and very little purchasing power to buy the products and services that the industries are churning out. No wonder the economy is bad.
I think both government and industries need and must focus on human resource development. Companies must put up a human resource development plan of their own that will address the competency needs of their businesses. They should be able to hire younger, less experienced people and hone them well enough to succeed incumbent highly skilled people when they move on. Companies should develop their own career development and succession planning program. The Philippine government must look into giving more tax incentives to ALL companies who invest heavily on human resource development. This should ease the burden of finding qualified people and increase the opportunities of young professionals for career growth. I believe in the end, everybody will win.
