The current economic and technological climate is making employees uneasy about their professional future. Giants like Morgan Stanley, Shopify, Gap and Amazon have already announced layoffs in 2023, and the emergence of automation technology like ChatGPT is causing palpable apprehension about job security. 

AI and automation are increasingly replacing roles that were once considered the exclusive domain of human expertise. According to McKinsey, an estimated 400-800 million workers worldwide could be displaced due to automation by 2030. Another analysis suggests that two-thirds of current jobs are exposed to some degree of AI automation. 

Alongside automation, the pandemic-induced remote-working revolution has also widened the talent pool, increasing competition in the job market. According to Upwork, 94 per cent of managers already, to some degree, prefer hiring offshore talent, further intensifying job insecurity concerns.

Work-from-anywhere provides employees with flexibility and reduced commute time, but it also exposes them to the risk of reduced visibility and communication. This makes it challenging for employees to showcase their talents and maintain their professional network. Already, close to 50 per cent of professionals are troubled by perceived job insecurity due to their absence from the office environment.

What lies at the end of the tunnel?

The rise of automation has caused employees to question how to stay competitive in the workforce frantically. The truth is they should start focusing on developing the skills to work with—rather than against— artificial intelligence, namely creative thinking, decision-making and adaptability. 

No-code platforms serve as an interesting example of a symbiotic relationship with automation technology. It gives professionals the opportunity to create their own applications without programming knowledge. Employees can use automated features to create a custom platform with a variety of functions, such as smart databases and workflow trackers.

Also Read: The secret sauce of getting started with ‘no-code’

Through no-code, teams and individual workers are able to create the tools they need to work more efficiently. All the time saved on inputting and searching for information can instead be focused on more value-driven tasks. 

No-code platforms also help improve the remote work experience. When communication is centralised and shared on a single platform, all employees know exactly what’s going on and can stay in the loop, regardless of where and when they’re working. In addition, the organisation’s communication history and decision-making processes are preserved, making it much easier to onboard new employees, collaborate across departments, and launch cross-functional projects. 

No-code offers a preview of what working with more automated technology will look like fewer repetitive tasks, more time for strategic planning, and more room to brainstorm new ideas. Employees feel a greater sense of autonomy and control over their workflows. When used well, automation technologies offer greater efficiency and purpose, not job loss. 

Automation is here to stay

Gartner predicts that 70 per cent of organisations will be using some form of structured automation by 2025. Leaps in efficiency have happened before, with every invention from Alexander Graham Bell’s telephone to ChatGPT. Each time we’ve seen challenges and changes but also opportunities and an increase in overall quality of life. 

Although the impact of AI on the labour market has proven to be significant, Goldman Sachs has also reported that ‘most jobs and industries are only partially exposed to automation and are more likely to be complemented rather than completely substituted by AI’.

In fact, the adoption of AI and automation will likely direct employees toward a more productive use of their time. If used correctly, automation can help us all focus on the aspects of our work we find the most rewarding.

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In the ever-evolving professional landscape, it’s not uncommon to observe that some large organisations manage to coast on mediocrity. This may be due to the challenges of closely scrutinising performance within expansive teams.

In today’s unpredictable world, with frequent stories of layoffs in prominent corporations, it becomes increasingly critical to keep a watchful eye on both your company’s performance and your individual contributions.

Failing to do so could place you at risk of becoming the next employee laid off, or witnessing your entire company being acquired or merged, leading to inevitable challenges and adjustments.

To stay relevant and proactive in such a dynamic environment, consider adopting these strategies to enhance your adaptability and resilience.

Keep your skills updated

Regularly invest in professional development, whether by attending workshops, enrolling in courses, or obtaining certifications. Staying current in your field and learning new skills will make you more marketable and better prepared for potential career changes.

Maintain a robust professional network

Cultivate relationships with colleagues, industry peers, and advisors both within and outside of your organisation. A strong professional network can be a valuable resource for identifying job opportunities, gathering insights, and receiving support during times of transition.

Also Read: A tech worker’s 2023 recession game plan

Actively seeking a job when not in dire need

I personally recommend this as one of the best strategies. It fosters a proactive mindset, enabling personal and professional growth. This approach promotes skill development, expands networking opportunities, strengthens negotiation power, encourages career exploration, boosts confidence, and future-proofs your career. Ultimately, it enhances adaptability and resilience, preparing you for success in an ever-changing job market.

Update your personal brand

Ensure your resume, LinkedIn profile, and other professional materials are up to date and effectively communicate your unique value proposition. Regularly share your accomplishments, engage with your network, and showcase your expertise to increase your visibility in the job market.

Stay informed about industry trends and opportunities

Keep a pulse on the market and be aware of potential job openings or industry shifts. Monitor job boards, attend industry events, and engage in online communities relevant to your field to stay ahead of the curve.

Develop a financial safety net

In case of job loss or transition, having a financial buffer can provide peace of mind and allow you to focus on finding the right opportunity rather than settling for the first job that comes along. Aim to have a reserve of 6 months’ worth of living expenses saved up.

I hope these strategies will prepare you for success in a dynamic job market.

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The World Health Organisation defines burnout as “A syndrome conceptualised as resulting from chronic stress that has not been successfully managed.”  Improving employee well-being has also become a central focus for many workplace leaders, as the issue of burnout negatively affects productivity, engagement and talent retention.

Harvard Business Review has estimated that burnout-related healthcare spending “cost an estimated US$125 billion to US$190 billion a year in healthcare spending in the US”. Gallup has also projected a US$47.6 billion per year from the dip in productivity due to missed workdays in the US workforce alone.

People’s ability to deal with pressure seems to be variable across generations. For instance, baby boomers seem to be dealing with it better, with only 31 per cent reporting burnout compared to 59 per cent of Millennials, 58 per cent of Generation Z and 54 per cent of Gen X, according to the Business Health Institute.

While the reasons why each generation responds differently to pressure vary, one thing is clear. For the majority of the working class today, burnout is a severe threat that needs to be addressed. Everyone in the ecosystem, leaders, employers and individuals, can do something about it together.

The reality is burnout does not happen overnight, so picking up the signs early and examining your habits and mindset will go a long way to help you become anti-burnout.

Watching out for early signs of burnout

One of the issues I have observed among working professionals is their tendency to ignore or overlook their emotions. Conditioned to suppress emotions, especially negative ones, for they believe these are either temporary or unprofessional, prevents people from paying attention to the signals and doing something about them. 

This becomes an issue as the earliest signs of burnout are often emotional, like feeling negative, pessimistic and irritable constantly. Some major symptoms might include fatigue, isolation, and declining performance. When chronic stress is left unchecked, it could escalate into severe cases of burnout, leading to depression and anxiety, according to research.

Also Read: 5 signs of burnout you might be missing

Ignoring emotions is ineffective. So is the second category of leaders who grow to accept that undesirable reality as the norm. To thrive under pressure and become anti-burnout, there are strategies all leaders can take to improve the situation, making challenging work both meaningful and energising.

Developing an anti-burnout mindset and skillset

While it’s easy to point the finger at external factors like bad managers, hostile cultures, and overwhelming workload, in my opinion, it is far more productive and constructive to focus on matters within our locus of control.

This is aligned with one of the habits in Stephen Covey’s book, 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Focusing on matters within your locus of control will help you achieve better results over time. 

Although you have no control over the external variables, growing a mindset that is resilient and agile will determine how you respond to pressure and keep burnout at bay.

Here are four strategies to help you become anti-burnout:

Pause for high performance 

A cluttered mind cannot think strategically. When people are stressed, they tend to catastrophise—compounded over time, performance and total well-being dip. 

To encourage strategic thinking and thrive under pressure, you need small pockets of space and time to decompress. Think of these as pit stops to refuel and reevaluate. While the idea of a pause is simple, it is anything but simple. This might have to do with one of the self-limiting beliefs I have seen among leaders: associating activity with productivity. By trapping themselves in activity, they often fail to realise they have gone off track, resulting in even greater levels of stress as they desperately attempt to correct the course.

So, invest your time wisely instead of filling all your time with activity. 

Build a high-performance habit or routine that is repeatable and sustainable, whether it is taking a five-minute break in between meetings, walking, adequate rest, eating well, maintaining mental quality, or timeboxing your week’s involvements. Pressure is always present, and the more you catch the stressors, the more you can respond to and manage them successfully.

Be honest about your preferences and strengths

Develop wisdom and better allocate your time, energy, and effort to endeavours that are truly meaningful and energising to you. This can be done by observing what drains you, so you will be able to tap on existing resources, find complementary partners, or delegate appropriately.

Also Read: How Noodle Factory addresses educator burnout with its AI-powered teaching assistants

As you allocate most of your effort to projects that are meaningful and energising, you will naturally fill your inner resource of energy and positivity, keeping burnout at bay.

To start off, you can explore taking the Gallup CliftonStrengths assessment and discover your greatest talents.

Fail Forward

Many people I support have high self-expectations. But we all know that resources are finite while our targets always rise.

It is easy to beat yourself up or feel deflated when you constantly hold yourself against unrealistic yardsticks. While many people regard work as highly important, overdoing can result in unnecessary stress. 

So, adopt a “learning for the future” approach to assessing your results and learnings when things go wrong. Some questions that could help:

• Which matters are within your control? Which ones are out of your control?
• What lessons can you learn and do better next time?
• What issues can you address immediately? What can be addressed later?

Develop resilience

The idea about preventing burnout is not to take away pressure but how to thrive and increase joy.

Increasing your resilience is then your best insurance in the fast-paced environment. When facing difficult situations, you want to develop the ability to be calm and thoughtful, evaluate your options, and then formulate the way forward.

Achieving a state of high resilience ensures you are not overwhelmed by unexpected circumstances, as you are mentally prepared for uncertainties and equipped with skills that will support you through challenges. The process, however, is not overnight and takes discipline and dedication. The good news is you can start building the skills and mindset that lead to resilience starting today.

Some areas you can consider:

• Develop an understanding of emerging trends in your field
• Pick some areas to go deep and learn about based on your interest and future career plans
• Set yourself up for success by regularly aligning your actions with your future goals
• Build a network of allies to expand perspectives, overcome challenges and find solutions

As we will constantly experience pressure in the hectic world, it is important to develop the mindset and skillset needed to continuously find joy in our work and lives. Everyone is susceptible to burnout at the end of the day; nobody is exempted.

The good news is there is something each one of us can start doing. These small steps, whether in the form of high-performance habits, learning something new, or being more in touch with our emotions, would go a long way in making you anti-burnout and constantly high-performing.

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Technology is reshaping Malaysia’s job market. Some roles are being automated while new ones are emerging. It’s the great wheel of progress turning once again. These changes have greatly affected the job market — for both job seekers and employers. 

According to Malaysia’s Ministry of Finance (MOF), the downward trend of the unemployment rate in Malaysia will continue. As competition for talent increases, employers need more than competitive pay to acquire and retain talent.

That’s where people analytics comes in. By collecting and analysing employee data — surveys, reviews, exit interviews, and performance records — you can uncover insights to improve hiring, retention, development, and the employee experience. 

Challenges of staying afloat in a competitive market

The pandemic has surely catalysed the drastic changes in talent expectations. These include increasing expectations for skills development amid evolving job demands, the growing importance of diversity, equity and inclusivity, as well as demands for more flexible work arrangements.

Randstad Malaysia found that 60 per cent of Malaysian employees claimed better work-life balance when working remotely. Hence, there needs to be a way for managers to better understand their workforce.

Think of people analytics like a treasure hunt. You sift through all the HR data collecting dust across your systems to find the golden nuggets — the root causes of turnover, skills gaps separated by department, and the company’s demographic trends.

The human data that statistical models overlook but are often needed for managers to make better decisions — to take targeted actions, develop skills that matter, and craft an environment where people thrive. Without it, it remains difficult for companies to take action due to gaps in internal data collection. 

However, there remains a significant challenge: not all companies are gathering high-quality, usable data that can be analysed into cohesive insights. Data quality issues impact the potential of analytics, causing an inability to make decisions and take further action.

Also Read: 15 times the Malaysian startup ecosystem catches our eyes in 2023

Additionally, as most available data sits in silos — often caused by disconnected systems across departments — issues as the people impact gap can occur, causing a further rift between the HR department and leaders of other departments. 

In order to improve on both ends, organisations need to improve their data architecture and close the gap between their HR metrics and their business metrics.

Surveys have shown that high-performing organisations are able to accomplish more when they practise a data-driven culture with a more robust and modern data architecture that can organise and consolidate information for and relate them to their business decision-makers.

People analytics are one of the tools that can help bridge departmental gaps and integrate HR data to improve internal processes, encouraging collaboration and more data-driven decisions. 

The role of people analytics in modern HR 

With the abundance of data in the 21st century, making guesses in workforce management without statistical evidence is ineffective. While traditional strategies may be tempting, 40 per cent of workers globally are still planning to leave their jobs in the near future despite the looming threats of a poor economic outlook. In addition to this, generalising theories will also risk expenditure. People analytics can help employers understand employees’ needs to take targeted retention actions.

People analytics have become an essential tool to help companies show empathy and understanding of what their employees need. It operates by helping employers identify what their organisation needs by first asking the right questions to pinpoint the right data required and provide insights to tailor an effective solution.

These analytics solutions measure productivity and workforce impact. On top of that, they provide insights and foresight into workforce and job market trends to equip the HR department for drastic changes. People analytics enables data-driven decisions that enhance employee experience, engagement and performance. It fosters a culture of learning, innovation and agility for continuous improvement.

Also Read: Are you a human resource?

A great example of the application of people analytics is the LEGO Group. In its recent digital transformation effort, the company has adopted Visier’s people analytics solution to equip its HR functions.

This step has enabled its People Analytics and Insights Team to identify priority skills gaps and align its learning and development investments with the company’s core business needs. As a result, the LEGO Group was able to accelerate the acquisition of critical skills to drive the company’s growth and innovation.

The future of Malaysia’s job market

The future is data-driven but also distinctly human. People analytics, when applied with care and vision, can guide organisations to smarter decisions and targeted people solutions. But unlocking the potential of people’s data takes work.

You have to know which questions to ask and be open to what the analysis reveals, even if it upends assumptions. With the right analytical tools and curious mindset, you can extract genuine workforce insights from the data exhaust that organisations generate. 

Visier strives to help companies see their people clearly — across all their complexities. When you understand what makes your people tick, it opens up new vistas for insight-led, empathy-driven people management.

Visier looks forward to establishing an R&D centre in Singapore to serve the APAC market and give companies the localised data they need to take aim and continuously develop their workforce that’s good for business, great for employees, and even better for Malaysia.

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In an era of economic, political, and social uncertainty, a new generation of CEOs is reshaping the way leadership and personal wellbeing intersect.

A recent study by One Strategy Group reveals that pre-IPO founders are placing a strong emphasis on sleep, mental health, and exercise—challenging the long-held notion that relentless work is the only path to success. This shift may signal a broader transformation in how leadership is approached in today’s fast-paced world.

Ultimately, the next generation of CEOs is redefining leadership by prioritising physical and mental health, signalling a potential shift towards healthier corporate cultures.

Sleep as a leadership strategy

Historically, CEOs have worn sleep deprivation as a badge of honour. However, the report found that 72 per cent of next-gen CEOs now get at least seven hours of sleep per night—a stark contrast to past norms.

Experts like Dr. Scott Kutscher emphasise that prioritising sleep isn’t just good for individuals; it’s a step toward dismantling the toxic “always-on” culture. Yet, the question remains: Are these CEOs extending their wellness priorities to their teams?

A growing focus on mental health

Leading a startup comes with immense pressure, and while stress can be a motivator, unchecked levels lead to burnout. Kathy Pike, CEO of One Mind, warns that an overabundance of stimulation and pressure can quickly push leaders into unhealthy stress levels.

The report highlights the importance of setting a “North Star” to focus on priorities, helping CEOs avoid constant reactive decision-making that drains long-term energy and focus.

Also Read: Work-life balance in the startup world: Myth or achievable goal?

Fitness as the new work-life balance

Another striking trend is how CEOs are integrating exercise into their lives. Nearly two-thirds of next-gen CEOs exercise at least three times per week, treating fitness as a tool for improving focus, mood, and resilience.

Former Crescent Health founder Josh Collin sees this as a sign that successful founders recognise the long-term value of fitness—not just for physical health but also for sustaining high performance in demanding roles.

A culture shift in the making?

This movement toward health-conscious leadership presents an important question: Are these changes limited to CEOs, or will they inspire broader shifts in workplace culture?

If the habits of next-gen founders become embedded in company structures, we could see a future where wellbeing is prioritised at all levels of an organisation—not just at the top.

Read the full report here.

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