OVERCOMING BARRIERS REPORT - APAC - Alpha Development
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OVERCOMING
BARRIERS
to shape graduate attraction & retention
APAC
REPORT
2021
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Alpha Development’s Purpose, which we believe we
share with our clients, is to help those starting their career
in Financial Services & FinTech to experience a
meritocracy of opportunity – regardless of their personal
background, prior education, or learning /
communication style.
The events of 2020 challenged this Purpose in new ways.
At the time of writing, many of our clients’ 2020 graduate
hires have yet to meet their colleagues in-person or work
anywhere other than from home. The vast majority of
2020’s summer interns never stepped foot in an office. As
a global organisation, we had to find solutions to a wide
range of challenges in training and engaging these CONTENTS
groups – from poor internet connectivity in rural Asia &
Africa, to crowded NYC flat-shares causing confidentiality
issues. We (mostly) succeeded – and learned plenty
along the way. Key Challenges
2021 will be different. A ‘new normal’ is emerging – and
with it, more questions to be answered and decisions to
be made. But the goal we share with our clients remains
the same – to support the success and growth of each A Desired Future
graduate and intern, as they learn, work, and thrive in this
new environment.
State
Virtual learning brings specific challenges, particularly
around engagement. Finding the right “balance” (across
a wide range of factors) in getting graduates up to speed Finding The Right
and developing training programmes to accommodate
the ‘new normal’ are the two most common challenges
Balance
for Early Careers L&D professionals for the year ahead,
according to our research.
In February 2021, we ran three Human-Centered Design
(HCD) workshops with 29 L&D professionals from some of
Closing The Gap
the biggest banks across Asia, to discuss these challenges
in more detail.
Although this report doesn’t have all the answers, it
summarises the common themes discussed in the
Development
workshops, together with research and our own data to Strategies
allow you to be better equipped for learning and
development in 2021 and beyond. We hope you find it
useful.
Paul Monk
The Future of
Managing Director
Learning
KEY CHALLENGES
Participants identified the top three challenges they wanted to
discuss from nine options relating to Early Career development.
22% of all respondents said that the biggest challenge
22% is finding the right mix of skills training from technical
training, professional, and leadership skills.1
17%
17% of respondents have a strong interest in evolving
the structure and content of development programmes.1
Using development programmes as an attraction
11%
tool, establishing the graduate persona for 2021, and
staying competitive in the graduate space, are
equally shared concerns with 11% of respondents
selecting each of these topics.1
Source:
1Alpha Development Design Thinking
Workshops – APAC, February 2021A DESIRED FUTURE STATE
“WE WANT AN EMBEDDED LEARNING CULTURE”2
The key desired Future State for the HR and L&D professionals who
participated in the workshops was to provide an effective learning
experience for graduates and interns that enables them to excel in their
roles and within the business.
The participation of Leaders and Managers from the business was
universally considered to be vital – to adopt learning into their business
culture and emphasise the long-term effects of training.
The following barriers to the Future State arose continuously throughout
the workshops:
1
There’s a lack of understanding that professional skills are
equally important as technical skills training. “Those who work
with the graduates want them to know all the technical skills
so they can be desk ready,”2 however management
feedback states that these learners lack in professional skills.
2
100% of participants agreed that direct managers need to
invest into the training programme from the beginning.
Managers are failing to release employees for training
despite being aware that the interns and graduates are
lacking in certain skills.
3
There’s a reality vs expectation gap for both managers and
those within their early careers. Whilst managers need to
understand that their interns and graduates need training,
candidates need to own their learning.
“We need to help the learners to ‘think outside the box.’”2
Source:
Throughout the three discussions, these factors remained as
Alpha Development Design Thinking
some of the biggest barriers to providing a successful
2
Workshops – APAC, February 2021
learning and development experience for interns and
graduates, which we discuss more detail throughout this
report.FINDING THE RIGHT BALANCE
HARD SKILLS VS SOFT SKILLS
There is a strong divide between the importance of hard and soft skills.
Soft skills, like practical and leadership skills are vital especially in an
environment of change and uncertainty. Yet, technical skills are
predominantly preferred by management.3
91% of talent professionals agree that soft skills are important to the
future of recruiting and HR.4 But only 44% of employers seek candidates
with soft skills.6
“Our graduate programme is full of technical training.”3
“We need to change it. We need to break the cycle.”3
Traditional skills no longer align with the future and banks need multi-
talented individuals “instead of really specialist people.” 3
As the current working environment develops and factors such as ESG
begin to evolve the way we do business, job roles are expected to
evolve.
Lack of training and professional development has been highlighted Source:
as being one of the main causes of skill shortages6. More needs to be 3Alpha Development Design Thinking
done to ensure employees can evolve and adapt under new Workshops – APAC, February 2021
regulations and change. 4 2019 Global Talent Trends report,
LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/linkedin-
2019-talent-trends-soft-skills-transparency-
trust-bersin/
5 Alpha Development, Class of 2020
62%
Skills shortages have had research
a negative impact on
6 2020The Hays Asia Salary Guide (on the
Singapore, Mainland China, Hong Kong,
the productivity of 62% of
Japan, and Malaysia job markets)
organisations.6
“Some assessments might be too technical focussed
and not EQ focussed.”3MOULD AND GROW GRADUATES
THROUGH SOFT SKILLS
Our findings from the workshops align with research by Hays which
states that 56% of employers in Asia still seek candidates with strong
technical skills to those with soft skills.7 When these skills were broken
down further, 83% of those surveyed said that problem solving is the
most important soft skill they look for when recruiting new employees,
compared to 58% opting for project management as the most
important hard skill.
The breakdown, identified in the chart below, shows that despite a high
demand for hard skills, problem solving, team-working and verbal
communication skills are just as, if not more, important to businesses.
Problem Solving Team-Working Verbal Communication
SOFT SKILLS
83% 75% 70%
Statistical analysis and
Project Management data mining Computer Skills
HARD SKILLS
58% 55% 38% 7
“
Feedback from rotation managers is that
[graduate] professional skills are lacking.8
Source:
There is an opportunity for banks and institutions to mould and
grow their graduates, interns and those within their early 2020 The Hays Asia Salary Guide (on the
7
Singapore, Mainland China, Hong Kong,
careers, through soft skills like problem solving and working in a Japan, and Malaysia job markets)
team, especially as challenges continue to arise. 8Alpha Development Design Thinking
Workshops – APAC, February 2021CLOSING THE GAP
EXPECTATIONS VS REALITY
It’s not just a question of hard skills vs soft skills. There’s a bigger gap, a
misconception between direct managers and graduates/interns about
the realities of early career development through working and learning.9
63% of graduates and interns we trained in 2020 accounted for non-
financial hires with no prior financial experience.10 That’s 63% of learners
who could be expected to be ‘desk ready’ by their direct managers but
require both hard and soft skill training to excel in their roles.
HR and L&D professionals lack support from learners’ direct managers.
Direct managers must meet targets that aren’t aligned to that of
graduates and interns, and an automatic conflict of interest places new
starters under the risk entering an organisation without the ability to
achieve. They pull out of learning or fail to complete training related
tasks because they have “too much work,”9 and as a result, a poor
graduate experience.
“Graduates need to do all these tasks. Development
becomes secondary animation and on-the-job experience
is considered ‘more important and more critical’ to
performance. Soft skills are left in the background.”9
With a lack of importance over the coaching culture across businesses, a
shift in the mindset of managers is desired amongst HR and L&D
professionals to ensure overall candidate success.
Although managers understand certain skill training is required for graduate
and interns, their workloads and deadlines mean they are not willing to
release employees from their desks. Learning expectations aren’t being
met and the gap widens as learners also fail to own their learning. 9
“It is important for learners to understand that
everything isn’t going to be taught in the classroom.
70% of the learning should happen on the job.
Also, from a stakeholder’s perspective, they should
understand that candidates have the basic
Source:
technical skills, and it’s up to the stakeholder to be 9Alpha Development Design Thinking
able to nourish their development. “9 Workshops – APAC, February 2021
10Alpha Development, Class of 2020
researchINFORMING DEVELOPMENT STRATEGIES
USING LESSONS FROM 2020
There is a need to better equip future employees with an experience
that adds value to candidates and makes them future ready.
2020 posed both positive and negative effects towards graduate
programme delivery across all institutions and the need for change
has elevated to ensure candidates are future ready.
Whilst virtual onboarding opened the doors
for a global reach and diversity, some banks
are challenged with increasing rates of
candidates dropping out due to travel
requirements.
Almost all banks are concerned about the
effects of virtual onboarding on graduate
experience, alongside concerns around
mental well-being and virtual fatigue.
Virtual onboarding and assessing learners
have proven to be a challenge amongst
some businesses with a lack of face-to-face
interaction being the most common
challenge to support managing the
expectations of joiners.
The need for hybrid programme delivery remains as another step towards
an improved learning experience. The lack of personal experience for
graduates and interns raises concerns around areas where businesses
struggle to embed their culture into learners, or assess whether the learner is
dedicated to the training session.
Source:
Alpha Development Design Thinking
11
Workshops – APAC, February 2021THE FUTURE OF LEARNING
EVOLVING DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMMES
There is still a strong desire from L&D professionals for face-to-face training,
and as COVID-19 continues to change the way learners learn, training
needs to be more targeted, focused and engaging.
Learning design is important, especially for longer graduate programmes
and it’s not a matter of moving classroom to virtual.
Learners struggle to engage the more learning sessions they have in a day.
Looking at data from our global graduate and intern programmes in 2020,
Zoom was the platform that enabled the highest level of engagement, with
figures falling as learners receive more training sessions per day.
12
100%
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
1 S/D 2 S/D 3 S/D 4 S/D
Adobe Connect Saba Meeting WebEx Zoom Blue Jeans
Zoom was also the most preferred programme across our faculty, with the
programme being voted as the most preferred platform for graduate
development.
Looking at data like this allows us to maximise learner engagement, and as
more research and data become accessible, learning and development
programmes will adapt.
Source:
12Alpha Development, Class of 2020
researchLEARNING METHODS
L&D professionals want targeted learning programmes that are
flexible, focused and agile. They want personalised programmes that
support the learner to develop their skills and behaviour to align with
the company’s vision.13
75% of our delivery last year was virtual with clients choosing from a
range of online methods to support learning.14
% of portfolio who
leveraged a range 81% SIMULATIONS 69% TEAM ACTIVITIES
of tools to support
remote orientation.14
56% DAILY TESTS 38% CAPSTONE EVENTS
63% END OF WEEK TESTS 13% GAMIFICATION
Capstone events and gamification were popular but less commonly
used due to late confirmations.
Late confirmations often mean that learners may not receive the full
benefit of programmes offered. The time taken for our clients to
confirm their graduate or intern programmes dropped in 2020 to an
average of less than 2 months compared to 4-6 months in previous
years.
Source:
Whilst research has proven that virtual learning
and training is effective, broader choices of Alpha Development Design Thinking
13
Workshops – APAC, February 2021
teaching methods are anticipated to improve 14Alpha Development, Class of 2020
engagement through tailored training. Approvals research
may speed up as a result.
Workshop discussions and our research has found
that the key ingredients to graduates and interns
success are:
- An internal culture that supports and
understands the importance of learning and
development,
- Flexible programmes that enable learners to
be future ready,
- Bite-sized learning of both technical and
professional skills through a range of
learning methods.BOOK YOUR
PERSONALISED
DEBRIEF
Let’s talk ‘solutions’
Book a personalised debrief where together, we
can discuss your challenges and discover how
we can help to support your Early Careers
development strategy.
To book your one-to-one discussion with a
member of our APAC team, email
info@alphadevelopment.com.
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