Singapore and Hong Kong rank as two of the lowest risk cities in Asia-Pacific to recruit, employ and redeploy talent. According to Aon Hewitt, this year’s results see Singapore move to second place globally behind New York City. That was due to strong government policies and world-class talent development facilities leading to a pool of qualified and experienced talent.

The Asia-Pacific region retained two cities in the top ten lowest risk cities globally; Hong Kong saw a decrease in its people risk, moving from 9th to 7th place in the global rankings.

“Asia-Pacific is a rich source of talent, not only in Singapore and Hong Kong,” said Rick Payne, Regional Talent and Rewards Practice Leader for Asia Pacific. “Continued investment in education and talent development has increased the availability of talent regionally, though we are beginning to see an impact on labour costs.

The 10 lowest risk cities in Asia-Pacific are: Singapore, Hong Kong, Melbourne, Sydney, Perth, Taipei, Auckland, Tokyo, Osaka, and Seoul.

The Asia-Pacific cities making up the top 10 highest risk cities include Chongqing, Jaipur, Colombo, Hanoi, Almaty, Ulaanbaatar, Phnom Penh, Dhaka, Karachi and Port Moresby. In general, the lack of political stability continues to be an obstacle to implement and enforce business-friendly employment practices in these cities. In addition, the lack of government investment in developing and improving the education and talent development infrastructure increases companies’ risk in finding skilled talent as the current infrastructure is unable to support their workforce demands.

“Asia-Pacific will continue to be an attractive location for business,” added Payne. “However, the region has the widest variance in risks related to recruitment, employment and redeployment of any region worldwide. Companies must carefully assess the risks they face in individual locations and identify the specific steps they need to take to address those risks.”

Theo HRM