The Asian Talent Conference kicked off at 9 am this morning with three pre-conference workshops. The conference will span the next 3 days, ending on Friday afternoon.
Although we had hoped this would be a regional conference and attract people from Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines and elsewhere; most attendees are from Singapore.
Changes in the nature of employment in Singapore are fueling change. Manufacturing has given way to financial services, sales, banking, 
and biotech. Each is challenged to find the right people. People development has become of growing interest and focus as many types of special skills just don’t exist. Shally Steckerl is doing his magic teaching Internet search techniques, and helping recruiters find those who do exist.
It seems clear that employee development will grow in importance over the next decade and that emphasis will be placed on retention as a major HR challenge.
Choon Seng Ng, a Singapore-based Action Learning guru, is conducting a session on how to use Action Learning in the workplace to more rapidly develop talent. Action learning is particularly useful for experienced adults to share and reflect on mutual experiences. It’s a tool for transferring knowledge and for deepening understanding.
Annie Brown of Matrixone in New Zealand is offering her wisdom and 
experiences for retaining the right people. Keeping the right people means being able to identify those who have the skills and competencies needed but another key component of successful retention is being able to move the poorly performing out. No one wants to work with people who are not able or willing to perform and keeping such people lowers employee engagement.
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