In a recent post, I explored my journey from feature sales back to customer pain points. Like Marty, I went Back to the Future and felt one installment wasn’t enough. Why? Because the vulnerability these leaders showed deserves a platform. It lifts the curtain on working culture in Malaysia with some hard data to substantiate (or counter)… Sorry if “this is heavy”.
As I’ve been speaking with leaders across various industries in Malaysia, several common themes emerged about their workforce challenges:
Reliability and commitment issues
“I just found out [my staff] has been marking accounts as ‘promise to pay’ even when customers didn’t reply… Oh, my God, I asked for 10 random cases with evidence… maybe one from 10 [had actual evidence].”
– Country Manager at lending company
Data shows Malaysian employee engagement has decreased from 80% to 67%, impacting productivity (NST Business Report). Additionally, studies show that Malaysian workers often put in longer hours (average 15 hours above weekly requirement), but with lower productivity compared to other countries in ASEAN (Disprz.ai). This could reflect misaligned expectations rather than negligence – 73% of Malaysian employees self-identify as ambitious (Randstad Malaysia 2024 WorkMonitor), suggesting a disconnect between self-perception and employer views.
Attendance and accountability
“Every day, my staff send me messages ‘I do not feel well can I work from home’… Also there are a lot of holidays here.”
– Chief of Staff at Leasing company
According to the data Malaysian workers actually show “moderately high” organizational commitment levels, but high workloads and workplace stress negatively affects their productivity (Source: Study on work ethics in Klang Valley). The tradition of hierarchical focus with collectivist values translates to indirect communication styles, influences perceived accountability. Workers score 2.0 on assertiveness (1-5 scale), emphasizing harmony over confrontation. That being said, the lower level of assertiveness might also be part of a general trend towards work-life balance (HRM Asia Report). This could make the need to be assertive or maximize performance in the office a lower priority by choice.
Hiring and retention
“35% average annual turnover in A/R teams… 60-80% real utilization rate of staff… 3-4 months to hire and train new staff… When you add everything up, in the first year I’m paying 1.5x to 2x their salary.“
– Head of Collections at Financial service company
Filling an open position in Malaysia takes 41 days on average (Employment Hero Report), significantly longer than many other markets. This timeline combined with high turnover creates genuine challenges for managers. My own experience with Malaysian labor law has shown me these difficulties firsthand. In one case, an ex-employee whom I let go during probation later had his government-funded lawyer contact my team to “propose” 6 months of belated severance pay for mental damage caused. When asked directly what caused these damages, the disgruntled employee couldn’t explain and uttered the words “…and my lawyer told me I can also get 12 months.” These experiences inevitably shape how managers approach hiring, though similar patterns are emerging across the ASEAN region, suggesting this isn’t uniquely Malaysian.
These staffing challenges create a complex dynamic as AI adoption accelerates. To quote Doc Brown, perhaps “your staffing future is whatever you make it.” But this raises questions: If hiring managers have persistent struggles with human staff, can we blame them for turning to AI? And does this create a vicious cycle where less investment goes into developing human talent, leading to less capable staff?
DISCLAIMER: The author acknowledges there are two sides to the story, and managers can often play a role in perpetuating negative HR situations.
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