Marc Burrage is Regional Managing Director for Hays Asia, where he leads the business across multiple markets, driving sustainable growth, strengthening strategic alignment, and positioning Hays as a leading advisor to organisations on workforce strategy, talent transformation, and evolving skills demands in an increasingly complex world of work.
Hays has built a strong presence across Asia. How would you describe your strategic priorities for the region, and how is Hays evolving to support clients in today’s rapidly changing world of work?
Marc Burrage: Asia is one of the most dynamic and complex talent markets globally. The strategic priority has always been the same: help organisations navigate that complexity with clarity and confidence, and enable them to secure and develop the right people to drive business transformation.
What’s changed is how we do that. The talent market has evolved from transactional recruitment to strategic partnership. Organisations now need a partner who combines deep local expertise with regional scale—someone who understands not just today’s hiring needs, but also the skills, capabilities, and workforce models they’ll need in three to five years.
At Hays, we’ve invested heavily in advisory and transformation capabilities. Clients are moving beyond “please fill this role” to “help us navigate a workforce transformation” or “what should our talent strategy look like as we digitalise?” That shift reflects broader organisational maturity—leadership is thinking strategically about talent, not just tactically.
The strategic priority is to act as a trusted advisor on workforce strategy. It’s that transition from operational delivery to strategic counsel that I believe adds the most value, both for clients and for the market.
The talent market across Asia has seemingly gathered strong momentum over the past year. What are the most significant talent trends you’re seeing across Asia today, and how are these shaping hiring strategies in key Asian markets?
Marc Burrage: Three major trends are reshaping how organisations hire and build talent strategies across Asia.
First, persistent skills mismatch—particularly in digital, technology, and specialised professional roles. This creates genuine supply-demand imbalance and forces organisations to think differently about skills development, not just hiring. The Learning piece is critical to understand how people can master the skills required.
Second, the normalisation of flexible workforce models. Organisations are moving beyond permanent roles to a blended approach: permanent, contractor, project-based, outsourced. This flexibility isn’t just a response to uncertainty; it’s now a deliberate strategy for agility. Organisations that master this blend will compete more effectively.
Third, and most importantly, evolving candidate expectations. Talent today evaluates organisations not just on compensation, but on purpose, career development, leadership quality, and flexibility. This is a fundamental shift in how labour markets operate.
The organisations succeeding are those taking a truly strategic approach. They’re investing in workforce planning, building compelling employer value propositions, and thinking holistically about retention and development—not just attraction. It’s the difference between hiring for a role and building a strategic talent ecosystem.
With ongoing industrial shifts and tech-driven changes across Asia, which sectors have the biggest talent demand right now? And what are the biggest challenges employers face when trying to secure the right skills? How can business stay competitive?
Marc Burrage: Demand is persistently strong in technology, digital transformation, financial services, engineering and life sciences. Those sectors remain the growth engines across most Asian markets.
But here’s what’s really happening beneath the headline: the challenge isn’t demand; it’s access to the right skills, combined with speed. In most markets, there simply aren’t enough qualified professionals to meet business needs. At the same time, many hiring processes are still too slow or too rigid, which means organisations risk losing top talent to more agile competitors.
I think the most critical competitive advantage is strategic workforce planning—really understanding what skills you need now, what you’ll need in two to three years, and how you’ll build that capability. Then you can act proactively rather than reactively.
The businesses winning are those that are:
• Investing in their own talent development and upskilling programmes and taking time to understand how their people learn to enable then to maximize their potential
• Broadening their talent pools (not just looking for perfect matches)
• Building strategic partnerships with providers who understand both the market and their business
• Thinking about workforce as a source of competitive differentiation, not just cost
It’s a sophisticated, long-term view. Those who adopt it will outcompete those playing the short-term hiring game.
You’ve recently been recognised as “Distinguished Executive of the Year”. What leadership principles or decisions do you believe have been most critical in driving strong performance across the diverse markets you’ve led?
Marc Burrage: This recognition reflects a consistent belief: sustainable business performance is inseparable from people and culture. That’s not sentimental; it’s strategic.
Across every market I’ve led across the UK, Europe, ANZ and Asia—the strongest financial and operational results came from organisations with the highest engagement and the clearest sense of purpose. When people understand why their work matters and feel genuinely supported to succeed, performance follows naturally.
Three principles are fundamental:
First, clarity. People need to understand the strategic direction, their role in it, and how they’ll be measured. This is especially critical in complex, multi-market organisations.
Second, empowering local leadership. Asia is extraordinarily diverse. Success requires regional alignment on strategy coupled with strong local accountability and decision-making authority. That tension, managed well, drives both consistency and adaptability.
Third, long-term thinking and resilience. The ability to stay focused on sustainable, strategic growth while navigating short-term challenges is what separates leaders who build lasting organisations from those who just manage volatility.
I also believe in developing the next generation of leaders, providing opportunities for them to grow and creating pathways for the high-potential individuals. That’s been critical to sustainable growth in every organisation I’ve led.
This award really reflects the teams I’ve had the privilege to work with and the collective impact we’ve delivered together. Leadership is never individual; it’s about creating the environment where others can perform at their best.
You’ve led businesses across Asia and Europe. What key lessons have shaped your leadership approach, particularly when managing across different cultures and markets?
Marc Burrage: The biggest lesson is that the fundamentals of leadership are universal—clarity of vision, strong governance, accountability, and an unwavering focus on people. But the application must be culturally intelligent and locally grounded.
Leading in Asia taught me that success often requires deeper listening, greater cultural awareness, and more patience with consensus-building than leadership in Western markets. That’s not weakness; it’s sophistication. The leaders who fail in Asia are often those who try to impose a single leadership model across diverse markets.
I’ve also learned that governance matters as much as growth. As organisations scale across multiple countries, the discipline of strong governance structures, clear decision-making frameworks, and transparent accountability becomes essential. That’s board-level thinking, and it should apply at every level.
Another critical lesson: long-term relationships matter far more than short-term transactions. In Asia especially, trust and reputation are currencies that can’t be rebuilt quickly once damaged. So we have prioritised building lasting relationships with clients, partners, and teams.
Finally, I’ve learned to be genuinely curious about how other markets and leaders solve problems differently. Some of the best strategies I’ve implemented came from being open to how other regions approached challenges. That intellectual humility and openness to learning is underrated in leadership.
Looking ahead, how do you see the future of work evolving in Asia, and what role will Hays—or forward-thinking organisations—play in helping organisations and professionals adapt?
Marc Burrage: The future of work in Asia will be shaped by four interconnected forces: skills transformation, workforce flexibility, technology integration, and reimagined organisational structures.
First, skills transformation. We’ll see rapid, continuous shifts in the capabilities organisations need, driven by digitalisation, AI, and changes in customer behaviour. The half-life of skills will continue to shorten. This means organisations and individuals both need to be in constant learning mode. Once you have the what and why then key is to figure out how your people learn to optimize your upskilling and ultimately productivity.
Second, workforce flexibility. The future won’t be dominated by permanent employment. Instead, organisations will operate with a blended workforce: core permanent teams combined with specialist contractors, project-based talent, and outsourced capabilities. The ability to assemble and reconfigure talent will be a core organisational competency.
Third, technology will enable both speed and personalisation in how organisations attract, develop, and retain talent. But technology is never the total answer; it’s a tool. The human elements—mentorship, culture, purpose—will become even more valuable precisely because technology can’t replicate them.
Fourth, organisational structures will flatten. More senior leaders will operate in advisory, portfolio, and governance capacities rather than purely operational roles. That shift creates new possibilities for leaders who have built expertise across multiple markets and industries.
The role of forward-thinking organisations will be to act as strategic partners in that transition—helping clients anticipate change, build the right organisational and talent strategies, and navigate the human side of transformation.
There’s also a responsibility to help professionals understand and prepare for these shifts—through market insights, career guidance, and real access to opportunity. The future of work is both exciting and unsettling for many people. Organisations that help them navigate that with genuine support will earn loyalty and trust.
Hays is known for its people-first culture. How do you build high-performing teams while maintaining strong engagement across multiple markets?
Marc Burrage: This is really the heart of what I believe. High performance and engagement aren’t separate goals; they’re symbiotic. You cannot sustain high performance without engagement, and engagement without clear expectation of excellence becomes mediocre.
It starts with creating genuine clarity of purpose. People need to understand not just what they’re doing, but why it matters—both to the organisation and to clients. That becomes increasingly important as organisations grow and become more complex.
Second, investment in leadership at every level. The quality of leadership—especially mid-level and first-line leadership—has more direct impact on engagement and performance than almost any other factor. I’ve always prioritised identifying, developing, and supporting leaders, because they’re ultimately the custodians of culture.
Third, create tangible pathways for growth and development. People want to know there’s a future for them. Whether that’s moving into management, developing specialist expertise, or transitioning into advisory or governance roles, the organisation that helps people see their trajectory will win the best people.
Fourth, lead with transparency and accountability. When leadership is transparent about decisions, challenges, and results—and holds itself and others accountable—people respect that. Trust builds quickly when you do what you say.
Finally, distinguish between high performance and unsustainable pressure. The best organisations achieve results by creating an environment where people are stretched but supported, challenged but not exhausted. That balance is leadership.
The multiplier effect is real: strong engagement drives better service delivery, which drives client satisfaction and growth, which creates more opportunity for people. It’s a virtuous cycle when it works well.