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NEXT GENE
CONCLUSION: WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR
HR IN ASIA?
The future of HR in Asia
As we said at the beginning, the function that was described to us in Asia is in a state of
flux. In many places, it is still developing and emerging.
‘HR in Asia when I arrived was very transactional, admin based, lots of paper, lots of
checking and re-checking and sign off…’
‘The HR profession in China is in its infancy…. The majority are unlikely to have five years’
experience and little experience in different businesses.’
‘The HR team has 47 people, but almost no people with an HR background.’
Professionally, the situation is mixed. There are some well-established professional institutes
in Asia, whereas other countries treat HR as a business discipline rather than a profession
that requires a professional qualification.
And yet, as we’ve described within this dynamic and fast-changing context, we’ve
experienced some truly remarkable HR leaders and some highly innovative HR practices.
And it strikes us that HR in the region faces a choice.
It will be easy for HR in Asia to follow the Western development path and adopt many of the
‘best practice’ models currently abounding in the literature. In many ways, there is nothing
wrong with this.
But this report outlines a different, perhaps more exciting alternative. We’ve called this the
growth option (Figure 6).
Figure 6: The growth option
Developing
or emergent
profession
Implement
international
best practice
The growth
option
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