A report on the Asia-Pacific market by professional recruitment firm Robert Walters highlights the importance of offering a long-term career flightpath when it comes to drawing the best talent.

In a major Asia-Pacific study that has clear relevance for wealth management recruitment practices, employment candidates put great stress on progressing their careers when considering a job.

The Focus Asia whitepaper study was carried out by professional recruitment consultant Robert Walters, entitled Using Career Progression To Recruit The Best Professionals.

Some 74 per cent of professionals surveyed said career progression was “very important”, 25 per cent said “somewhat important”, and only 1 per cent said that it was “not important” at all. More than half of professionals surveyed (63 per cent), actively sought job advertisements that clearly promoted career progression, while 85 per cent asked specifically about career progression during the interview process.

The report suggests that a clear flightpath for a career, rather than just short-term remuneration, is an important objective for people entering the workforce. 

“Our focus on career progression originated from the strong interest from companies in attracting top talent. The results reveal that a clearly defined career path is a strong advantage in attracting and retaining the industry’s best professionals,” said Mark Ellwood, managing director at Robert Walters, Southeast Asia.

The report surveyed more than 1,300 professionals and hiring managers across China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam. The study examined career progression topics, and offers recommendations on how an organisation can use career progression to hire top talent.

Organisations also rated career progression highly, as 86 per cent of hiring managers said that they thought it was “very important” to professionals, while the remaining 14 per cent said it was “somewhat important”.

When asked if they believed career progression was a major draw in job advertisements for professionals, 96 per cent said yes. However, only 47 per cent actively addressed career progression in their job advertisements.

What counts

The whitepaper revealed that types of career progression initiatives valued most highly were “expanded portfolio and work experience” (34 per cent), “internal mobility” (26 per cent), “education and training” (23 per cent), and 18 per cent said “set pathway to promotion”.

Similarly, hiring managers most commonly offered expanded portfolio and work experience in their career progression initiatives, at 32 per cent. Internal mobility was also offered by 29 per cent, 26 per cent offered education and training and 13 per cent provided a set pathway to promotion.

Meanwhile, when asked what would entice them to stay if no further progression was available, 36 per cent of professionals said increased pay, 24 per cent for additional benefits, 20 per cent cited international relocation, while 19 per cent indicated internal mobility to other departments would retain them.

The whitepaper showed that more than half of professionals surveyed (55 per cent) said they believe organisations “mostly” followed through with the career progression they advertised for the role, while 10 per cent said “always” and 36 per cent did not believe organisations followed through at all.

When hiring managers were asked if they believed their organisations followed through with providing career progression, 71 per cent said “mostly”, 10 per cent said “always” and 19 per cent did not believe that their company followed through at all. However, 51 per cent of organisations believed the progression they offered was of a good standard and on par with other organisations, while 36 per cent believed they could improve, and 13 per cent believed it was very good and better than others in their industry.

Robert Walters has a network of 53 offices spanning 24 countries, including the UK, Ireland, Continental Europe, the US, Australia, New Zealand, Asia, South Africa and Brazil.