Rising Up Through the Ranks in Thailand – A Trend for Human Resource Management pros to Watch

There isn’t much data on the topic of ‘Rising up thought the ranks’ in terms of Thai organizations, but for nearly ten years now we’ve worked closely with many Human Resource Management professionals here in Thailand and there are definite trends we see in internal career advancement for employees. 

Thai Human Resource Managers should look to promoting a culture of internal career advancement for employees, as a means to reduce turnover

For example, it’s fair to say that for the majority of recent graduates and mid-level employees, the most opted for path for career advancement is to switch companies for better compensation, career advancement and increased job satisfaction. This is attributable to the low unemployment rate and a general ‘turn-over’ culture, especially here in Bangkok.

From an organizational standpoint, companies are hungry for experienced, highly-skilled candidates, and are offering generous bonus packages and salaries to attract talent. However, once they bring new recruits on board, arguably, they aren’t doing enough to retain and promote from within. This is one area where HR is crucially important.

Are the days of loyal employees over in Thailand?

Yes and no. The corporate culture in Thailand, unlike  in other countries ( Japan, for example), has never evolved a notion of a ‘company man’ – employees who expect and desire a life-long career with a single company. Even in places like the United States, when HR departments are evaluating potential hires, if they see a CV in which a candidate has changed jobs frequently throughout their career it raises a ‘red flag.’ Here in Thailand though, this is actually quite common.

HRMs must ask, “Is the chance for advancement in the organization still a job benefit?”

At CloudForce HR, we feel very strongly it is. Incentivizing employees, providing clear advancement paths, offering mentoring and training, will all reduce turnover rates and increase retention.

There is a great deal of chatter in HR circles about ‘Gen Y’ers’ being a generation that lacks loyalty to a single company, but we’re of the opinion that it might not be a product of the ‘new generation.’ Instead, maybe organizations are not doing enough to help employees move up through the ranks. We’ve come to this conclusion because we’ve been working with a number of HR professionals who have realized amazing success in keeping and promoting top-talent. They’ve done so by working closely with top-performers to develop the leadership skills required to take them to the next level.

These HRMs know the benefit to the organization – they’re saving vast amounts of time and money on recruitment, and more importantly, they’re preventing institutional knowledge hemorrhaging away due to key employees leaving.

Start thinking long-term

It’s time for organizations to start looking at their employees as assets they want to keep around for a long time. There are lots of resources available providing tangible programs for cultivating and promoting talented individuals. At PeopleServe, we’ve seen 180 degree turnarounds at some of the companies we’ve worked with and it’s amazing! We’d be happy to share what we’ve discovered.

You CAN and SHOULD retain employees, keep them loyal, and positively impact the bottom line, by providing clear paths for career advancement!

Related Posts

• No related posts.