cover story The fear factor
The filter effect
Like most HR professionals, Lai believes that in addition to keeping employees happy and engaged, innovation and change are essential components to attracting new talent, particularly in today’s competitive job market with its diminishing talent pools and ever-rising candidate expectations. Whilst as many as 74% of HR professionals globally admit that their organisation should be doing more to encourage innovation in their recruitment and talent management practices, a staggering 64% of employees who are happy in their current role would consider leaving if they were offered innovative benefits by another company3.
Convincing organisations to say no to the status-quo can be a tall order for HR, particularly when faced with a lack of buy-in from the C-Suite. Ivy Lau, Director—Talent Engagement, Co-owner, HKBN explained, “For innovation to really work within an organisation, it must filter from the top down. Those in senior management roles must be willing to embrace new methods to ensure employees are the very best they can be and can develop in line with expectations. This is something we are aspiring to achieve by embracing innovation at every level within our organisation, from the C-Suite down to junior executives. Our experiential trips are testament to our success in doing just that.”
This is serious news for HR, yet despite the clear demand for organisations to do things differently and ‘think outside the box’, many are reluctant to do so. So what is preventing organisations from embracing change? According to Lai, the answer is fear. He explained, “I believe you have to give up the past in order to create the future, but many companies are afraid to do this because they are living on their past success. What they don’t realise, however, is that change is essential to the survival of any organisation and without it you cannot be competitive and you will die financially. Not only that, but by resisting change, companies could also be driving away existing and potential talent. We don’t like the status-quo, we won’t accept it and neither should others.”
1, 3 & 4 2
The Innovation Imperative, Futurestep, June 2013
2013 Trends in Asia Pacific Employee Engagement Aon Hewitt
18 | HR Magazine
Lau stressed the need for companies to be bold with innovation and to think like the Googles and the Apples of the world, which are as much admired for their continuous innovation to office environments as for their products and services. And it certainly seems that when it comes to embracing change, fear is not a word HKBN is familiar with. Such initiatives as the annual experiential trip enable the company to ‘live and breathe’ the very essence of what many professionals define as innovation: ‘being brave enough to do things differently and continually improve’. And whilst the company is adamant not to promote the expeditions as reward trips, it is keen to promote them as part of its commitment to helping develop its people, allowing them to be the very best they can be, whilst kicking the status-quo firmly out the window.