Take a look at the current hiring trend

In Singapore and across the rest of Asia, a rapidly growing middle class has resulted in a booming demand for products and services that support an urban lifestyle. Sectors as diverse as financial services, hospitality, construction, manufacturing, telecommunications and fast moving consumer goods are benefiting from this growing class of effluent consumers, despite an uncertain global outlook.

Many of these industries also face widespread and growing skills shortages as they strive to keep pace with demand.

This year’s Randstad World of Work Report indicates that attracting new talent for the next phase of growth is the biggest human capital challenge across the region, but it’s a more pressing concern for the faster growing nations like China, Hong Kong and Malaysia where around a third of employers rate it as their number one challenge.

While the Industrial Revolution in the late 18th century was driven primarily by the development of coal and steam power, today, there are multiple forces at work that will fundamentally change our current perceptions of employees, work and organisations.

These five key forces are: rapid advances in technology, increasing globalisation, the needs of a low-carbon economy, profound changes in longevity and demography, and deep societal changes.

For example, the connectivity and virtual knowledge like that in Singapore today, will mean the death of the classic hierarchy. In its place will emerge a more peer-to-peer way of working and an understanding that collective intelligence can play a profound role in the world.

Shaping consumer preferences and perpetuating the globalisation trends are the emerging markets of China and India. Since the Cultural Revolution in China and the liberalisation of markets in India, both countries have experienced massive growth – fueled by a joint domestic market of over two billion consumers, and the capacity to be the ‘back office’ and ‘factory’ of the world. With rising levels of education in these two nations, China and India are also becoming key to the talent pool of the world, especially in the fields of engineering and science.

Despite the differences between them, all nations have common challenges – the need to attract and retain talent, boost productivity and develop talented leaders. Whether organisations are based in the region, whether they are large or small, one message is very clear – it's time to lead.

Prof. Lynda Gratton, Professor of Management Practice, London Business School and Deb Loveridge, Managing Director, Asia Pacific, Randstad, spoke at the Singapore Human Capital Summit last 28 and 29 September 2011.