When it comes to relinquishing control of employee decentralizing work arrangements, Indonesian companies are well ahead of the global average, according to Mercer's 2021 Global Talent Trends report. The Indonesia findings, released earlier this week, show that 86 percent of companies feel that COVID-19 lockdowns have allowed them to “relinquish central control” of employee behaviors and instead move toward more “unsupervised” work arrangements—above the global average of 77 percent.

At the same time, 52 percent are either working on aligning their processes to better cater to remote and flexible working, or have already done so, well above 34 percent globally. 45 percent are prioritizing workforce restructuring. And the survey results suggest that by the end of 2021, over 82 percent of companies will have made it easier to share talent internally as a way of adapting to COVID-19.

Isdar Andre Marwan, Mercer's Director of Career Services for Indonesia, said: “Companies in Indonesia are seeing the benefits of adopting a more flexible business model and are investing in transforming their workforce for the new world economy. Looking at work and people through a skills lens will be critical going forward as it allows them to act quickly and flexibly in the face of disruption.”

However, he pointed out that despite their openness to changing their work and business models, Indonesian companies are likely to have difficulty on the skills front. Most of them do not even keep track of what skills their employees have—the survey found that only 40 percent collect information on their workforce's existing skills, a number that has not increased over the years. An even greater obstacle to skilling is the lack of incentive, with 91 percent of companies offering no reward for skill acquisition.

“For skills-based talent strategies to work, employees need to see that learning new skills leads to tangible rewards, recognition or promotion yet only one in ten employers have a program to reward skills in place. Getting employees on board with new ways to quantify their value and build capability will be necessary for skills-based talent strategies to work,” Marwan observed.

On the bright side, the Mercer report also found that 41 percent of companies are prioritizing active skilling this year, and 74 percent are focusing on targeted upskilling for their critical talent. 52 percent of HR leaders are also planning to use AI to support learning and skills acquisition.