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HRO Today Forum APAC experience to be successful in the APAC region. Bottom line: The talent situation in Asia somewhat dire. As Cerullo said, "That mismatch between supply and demand is going to worsen over the next 10 years." Some of the problem may stem from the failure of Asian companies to look for talent outside their own borders. Cerullo stated that only 8 per cent of HR managers in APAC were searching for talent outside their own country or region. This is quite the dichotomy considering that of the 500 overseas Asians, about 90 per cent were willing or wanted to return to Asia, mostly to be nearer to their families. The main stumbling block, the survey found, was the lack of knowledge about opportunities and career potential in Asia. Many of those surveys said that they had trouble finding information from Asian companies and that organisations did little to nothing to reach out to Asians abroad. Martin Cerullo of Alexander Mann Solutions provides insight into Asia's talent market. Talent Crisis in Asia Martin Cerullo, managing director of development for APAC at Alexander Mann Solutions (AMS), was next to the stage to present a joint AMS/ HRO Today Institute study on the talent shortage being experienced by companies in the Asia Pacific region. He began with a simple yet important truth. "As a continent, we're a net loser of talent," he remarked. Numerous Asian nationals have headed overseas to pursue their education or job opportunities. The research asked 500 of these migrants about their reasons for leaving Asia as well as the possibility that they would return. According to an Oxford Economics study, emerging markets in Asia will have the greatest demand for talent over the next five to 10 years, whilst developed markets in Asia will have demand on par with other developed regions. Those facts—combined with what a Boston Consulting Group report calls the "employability challenge" in Asia— create difficulties in finding candidates who are either internationally educated or have adequate international [32] HRO TODAY GLOBAL | SUMMER 2013 Recruitment is another barrier to finding talent. Of those surveyed, more than 85 per cent were on Facebook, which is far greater than the 59 per cent of Singaporeans who use the social media site (the Asian market with the highest Facebook usage). Similarly, 65 per cent of the survey respondents had a profile on LinkedIn, compared to just 21 per cent in Singapore. Cerullo sees this as a major problem for Asian companies. "I think social has to be the core to this," he said. He detailed other ways in which companies could harness the power of social media to find talent, such as using creative criteria such as language skills or international education to search LinkedIn, which does not organise users by nationality. Whilst Cerullo was realistic about the inadequate usage of social media in Asia, he was optimistic. "We are, as a region, absolutely behind the U.S. in using social media," he said, "although we're catching up very quickly and I think we can push that much further." Getting into these social networks is only part of the battle, however. Cerullo also stressed the need for companies to use compelling messaging to clearly define the opportunities that will entice Asians abroad to return home. He said, "It's about addressing some of those perceptions—sometimes misperceptions, sometimes accurate—and it's about selling the proposition and bringing it to life to those potential audiences." In addition, he urged organisations to "think different about the way that you structure your recruitment team" by taking such actions as moving recruiters to time zones that are more compatible with the talent they are seeking.