Develop existing talents, Talent Corp told

Wednesday October 6, 2010

Do not ignore talented professionals still in Malaysia, say industry observers

By EUGENE MAHALINGAM eugenicz@thestar.com.my

Develop existing talents, Talent Corp told

PETALING JAYA: The Malaysian Talent Corp, which is aimed at attracting local professionals abroad to go back to Malaysia, should also place equal emphasis on retaining and developing existing talents in the country, said industry observers.

Malaysian Institute of Management general council member Zul Baharom said the Talent Corp should not ignore the talents that are still in Malaysia.

“The Talent Corp shouldn’t just look outwards. It should also have programmes to nurture and retain professionals that we already have in the country. If we don’t do this, we could experience another exodus of talents leaving,” he told StarBiz.

Zul Baharom ... ‘The Talent Corp shouldn’t just look outwards.’

Zul said the Talent Corp would be successful if it could implement what it intended to do “on paper.”

“The plan (by Talent Corp) looks good. It looks comprehensive on paper but good plans need to be enforced with the right enforcement strategies,” he said.

Malaysian Employers Federation executive director Shamsudin Bardan also said retaining local talents was just as important as wooing back those abroad, adding that a better salary should not be the only incentive.

“It should not just be about the salary, but the entire working environment. A lot of talents overseas continue to work there because they enjoy better working flexibility.

“Why not allow an environment that allows an employee to work from home? By creating a much more flexible working environment, we won’t just be wooing our own talents but would also attract foreign talents into the country.”

The setting up of Talent Corp was announced during the tabling of the 10th Malaysia plan. It is scheduled to begin operations in January and the Government is said to already be in the midst of hiring key personnel to headhunt Malaysians to return and work in the country. In a report in July, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Tan Sri Nor Mohamed Yakcop said the Govern ment was working to woo back more than 70,000 Malaysians now working overseas by reducing bureaucracy and offering better perks.

Malaysian Medical Association president Dr David Quek said the implementation of Talent Corp was a good move, but added that attracting foreign talent back would prove difficult given Malaysia’s low remuneration base, especially when it came to medical practitioners.

“Our professional fees are quite low when compared to the region. It will be a tall order for Talent Corp to get back our local medical profession (from abroad),” he said.

Quek said the fees charged by a local cardiologist to perform an angiogram was RM1,170 but added that a similar procedure cost S$2,000 in Singapore. Similarly, he said angioplasty procedures in Malaysia cost RM3,145 but started from S$5,000 in Singapore. Quek also said a general practitioner in Malaysia charged RM10 to RM30 for consultation fees but in Australia, a similar procedure would cost A$57.

“Our income base needs to increase but we also need to become more productive by working harder and smarter. We should establish a minimum wage level. That’s the only way to go up.”

Quek said offering better salaries to woo back local professionals from abroad was not a sound solution.

“It will create tension among local talents (in the same field of work) that have a fixed level of income.”

Malaysian Institute of Human Resource Management president Ramley Razalli believes it would be hard for Malaysia to match the better salaries and advanced working environment overseas.

“(At most), if we can’t get them (local talents abroad) to come back for good, we could perhaps attract them on short-term basis and tap their expertise.

“For a short-term deal, it would be easier to offer a higher salary like for contractual expatriates. To offer a high salary to woo them on a long-term basis may not be sustainable,” he said.

SMR Group chairman and chief executive officer Dr R. Palan lauded the implementation of the Talent Corp as it would help curb the “brain haemorrhage,” namely Malaysia’s talents leaving for other countries.

“To make it work, we have to get the implementation and execution right. Also, if we can improve on the environment and the working culture here, why would they leave?”

A representative from Singapore-based recruiting firm SG Recruiters Group Pte Ltd meanwhile said the number of Malaysians applying for jobs in Singapore had decreased this year versus 2009.

“We have seen a drop in applications through recruitment agencies. It could be because they are going out to apply for (local) jobs themselves,” she said.

A representative from local recruitment firm JobsDB Sdn Bhd said while she did not have the statistics, felt that applications by Malaysians for jobs within the Asia Pacific region had been consistent in the past five years.