NEWS
Winning the Talent War
ACCA-KPMG Report outlines key fundamentals to counter rapidly escalating diaspora
26 May 2011

Kuala Lumpur | The training, development and retention of the finance function is crucial to the success of an organisation, especially in the current economic climate, asserts a new report from ACCA (the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) and KPMG entitled Maximizing People Power: Effective talent management in finance.

The timely report comes in the wake of the World Bank Report’s findings that unless Malaysia manages to prevent ‘brain drain’ – the massive exodus of talent across borders – its aspiration towards becoming a high-income nation will be jeopardised.

As of 2010, the total Malaysian diaspora was estimated at 1 million people, with the figure for skilled migration having quadrupled just over the last three decades.

Asserts Mohamad Raslan Abdul Raslan, Managing Partner, KPMG in Malaysia, “Now more than ever before, there is an urgent cry for talent management within the country – attracting, developing and retaining skilled professionals”.


HELEN BRAND, ACCA CHIEF EXECUTIVE. IMAGE COURTESY ACCA.

Helen Brand, ACCA Chief Executive elaborates, “Some 20% of our graduates have migrated to or sought employment in another country, adversely impacting the quality of local human capital stock. Our profession has not been spared and the accountancy sector’s growth has also been stymied by a shortage of talent, with audit being the worst hit”.

Brand adds, “Last year, we found that only 20 per cent of organisations had a talent strategy for their finance team. We found that most talent management strategies weren’t strategic at all – they were informal, sometimes run in isolation of other departments and not part of a wider integrated plan. This cannot continue”.

In view of this, the timely joint report, which adopts a deliberately fundamental approach, outlines eight key components towards addressing talent management needs comprising the following:

· Define talent
· Identify recruitment and talent needs
· Define the competencies needed
· Target development
· Offer comprehensive learning
· Structure career paths
· Use performance management and reward
· Review regularly

Raslan observes that the report is very much in line with the government’s efforts to encourage more Malaysian professionals working abroad to return, so as to meet the needs of the Economic Transformation Program (ETP) and to boost the number of skilled finance and accounting professionals, of which Malaysia currently has a meagre 83,000. It is hoped that with the introduction of a systematic national talent management program, the country will be able to retain its skilled workforce and prevent further brain drain.

Maximizing People Power also states that the responsibility lies with CFOs to establish and maintain great talent practices, underscoring the importance of including a talent management plan that addresses the skills, capabilities and experience levels that are needed.

The report notes that there is an increased demand for the relatively new role of the Finance Business Partner (FBP) – the highly commercial accountant who applies their core technical knowledge to business issues and provides the much needed finance lens on organizational decision making.

Raslan submits: “Finance Business Partnering is crucial to the whole business. It helps raise standards, takes a forward looking approach and has a strong commercial view. However, the Finance Business Partner needs to be free from the distractions of core finance work to offer this level of support.”

Brand concludes: “Talent management is broader than the individual; it is about managing aspirations and bringing a diverse range of talents together across the organization for the benefit of the business; it is about boosting the finance function’s credibility both internally and externally. There are tremendous opportunities ahead of us, and our experience tells us that those organizations who put talent at the heart of their finance function gain competitive advantage.”.

Source : ACCA