West targets Asia's young talent pool

30% Asians in global workforce by 2015: experts

With most developed countries likely to face an emerging workforce shortage, human resources consultants feel that Asians will constitute more than 30 per cent of the global workforce in next 10-15 years.

"Globally, companies would look at internal re-deployment and will source workforce from developing countries in Asia in next 10-15 years," Richard Pinola, CEO of Right Management Consultants said.

Developed countries like the US and Japan and some European countries like France, Italy and the UK are likely to face a skill shortage due to ageing population and the resultant social security crisis.

"Particularly Japan, France and the US will have more than half of their population above the age of 50, while countries like India, China and the Philippines will have one-third of the population below 35. This will lead to more nations seeing Asia as a potential workforce pool. They are reeling under the pressure of social security system and are looking at other options for workforce," Pinola said.

Also, to meet the requirement of skilled employees, companies have beefed up their internal re-employment and re-deployment measures. "Most companies in the US and UK are now into skill assessment instead of retrenchment," he said.

Even as there is severe political opposition on labour sourcing in certain countries, we will see the softening of stand in the next few years when the shortage becomes more palpable," he added.

As per reports, companies worldwide are spending around 15 per cent of their internal resources on skill assessment, development and re-deployment.

This is also the reason why HR companies like Manpower Inc, Right Management and Kelly Services are making a beeline to India with big expansion plans. They are seeing a more relaxed regulatory environment in India and more corporate spending on HR skill development leading to a proper ground for such firms.

"The reasons like strong workforce and open economy with less regulations, that are generating more interest among such services companies. We see a huge demand for such structural roles by HR firms in India," Pinola said.