For companies across Southeast Asia caught in the eye of the storm of rapid change, the demand for better productivity is seen by many as the central driver of growth. So much so that in the SHRPA State of HR Industry Report— Southeast Asia Insights, 9 in 10 HR and business leaders said that tackling employee productivity is essential to business and has the greatest impact potential.

Southeast Asia is at the heart of the APAC’s growth story, its economical, technological, and demographic landscape today influenced by macro trends like globalisation, growth in consumer spending, business innovation, and labour market shifts. These shifts have reshaped the skills that the workforce in the region needs to be productive, raising the demands for upskilling programs across the region. For employers it mandates a more robust focus on finding and skilling the right people to script their growth story. And productivity emerges as the central theme that drives the need to overcome the challenges of

An Evolving Journey of Productivity

Productivity is taking on newer dimensions. Across SEA—and the world— automation and agentic AI is freeing employees from the mundane to take on more transformational and strategic work. While adoption and implementation of tech solutions that augments,and accelerates employee productivity is different across a region as diverse as Southeast Asia, the decentralised and easy to access solutions play an important role in creating a region wide efficiencies.

Combined with newer generations entering the workforce, ease of labour flow across the regions and the sustained demand for remote work, HR leaders are no longer facing a situation where productivity depends on a single factor. Skills, experience, org culture and purpose, alignment with business objectives, and tech maturity all play a critical role in influencing Southeast Asia’s productivity landscape. And that makes raising employee productivity an even tougher challenge for HR leaders in 2025.

The Skills Challenge

From the evolution of existing jobs to the emergence of new ones, upskilling remains the cornerstone of raising productivity in the region. Upskilling will empower many individual workers in informal labour sectors to move into more formal and sustainable roles.

Driven by rising digitalisation and changing business processes, it's not surprising that skilling is a national agenda for countries like Singapore, Indonesia and the Philippines. The focus on skills has led to the rise of skills based organisations in the region, with many looking at talent development as a strategic business priority.  PwC’s Annual Global CEO Survey - Asia Pacific confirms that 73% of CEOs in the Asia-Pacific region have made investment in upskilling the No. 1 priority in the next year.

As a result companies are investing heavily in upskilling and talent development initiatives, with the advent of GenAI and experience focused learning solutions further raising the investment appetite among companies to address skills gap and create a future ready workforce.



The SHRPA report for Southeast Asia found that talent development remains the top focus area for tech investments in the region. Aligned with innovations from the tech solutions side, solving the need for skills across a region with different demographic challenges and expectations is a major focus area that will see further progress in 2025.

Harnessing Tech Impact

The next key consideration in assessing HR’s preparedness to level up workforce productivity is its ability to leverage tech solutions like AI, analytics, and automation. And by the looks of it improving their ability to leverage technology better is necessary to ensure technology investments create the right impact.

Looking at different change execution parameters, HR leaders remain highly dissatisfied with their ability to enhance productivity through AI and analytics.





Leaders suggest that to effectively leverage AI, HR must build its own competencies in this technology.  This involves establishing the right structures, data, workflows, and processes to enhance productivity.  Furthermore, aligning AI strategy with business objectives and customer needs is crucial for impactful AI usage and setting appropriate targets.  Finally, companies should integrate AI into their learning initiatives to upskill employees and maintain efficiency.

Prioritising Experience

The final critical piece to improving productivity and ensuring employees are future-ready is to focus on a robust, digital-first EX strategy. While tools and solutions like

A recent research study showed that when organisations invest heavily in employee experience (EX), they see substantial benefits in multiple areas, including customer satisfaction, employee outlook, recognition, and productivity.

Additionally, McKinsey's research highlights that unmotivated and dissatisfied employees can erode productivity and increase attrition rates. Conversely, employees who are engaged and satisfied tend to elevate overall performance and morale. This dynamic suggests that prioritizing employee experience is not merely a human resources initiative but a strategic imperative that can lead to measurable improvements in productivity and organizational success.

In addition to having the right tools and solutions that empower employees to break down complex org structures, enable self-service, and collaborate freely it’s important not to forget the role of managers and leaders. They are the crucial linchpin on whom the EX depends. It’s critical for HR leaders to burden managers with another checklist, but to provide them with the necessary resources and autonomy to address experience gaps. Managers, like their teams, are also navigating these changes and require support from senior leadership to effectively design a positive employee experience.