Human Resources, Malaysia - Q1 Jan-Mar 2015

The smart HR professional’s blueprint for workforce strategy

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Raiha Azni Abd Rahman, senior VP of group HRM at PETRONAS, advocates the role of internal talent development in growing the organisation

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Q1 2015 « CONTENTS

COVER STORY 12 Q&A Raiha Azni Abd Rahman, senior vice president of group HRM at PETRONAS, talks about internal talent development as the foundation for managing business cycles.

Features 16 Getting the blend just right Corporate learning works best with a blend of outsourced and in-house training. How can HR combine the unique characteristics of each to ensure staff gets the best mix of training? Akankasha Dewan finds out.

24 Balancing the bling and the bucks With the spotlight on the rewards team to craft strategies to match both costs and workforce needs, Aditi Sharma Kalra uncovers the compensation outlook for 2015.

32 Relocation done right As corporations become more globalised, how can HR and mobility managers overcome the complications arising from moving large volumes and different types of talent? Akankasha Dewan finds out.

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Opinion 38 Learning & Development G. Thiyagarajan, regional HR director for Danfoss APA, shares how his organisation leveraged technology to improve the effectiveness of its talent management processes.

40 People Issues

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Pay for performance will only work if employees understand the rationale for differentiation, explains Prakash Satagopan, business compensation manager for APJ at Hewlett-Packard.

41 Unconventional Wisdom Andrew Murray, executive vice president of human resources at Lazada Group, recounts how leveraging on the company’s culture and attractive perks has paid off in the long run.

45 Upwardly Mobile

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A part-time cabin crew programme helped to attract and retain experienced staff back into the workforce, shares Corinna Cheang, Jetstar’s head of people.

48 Last Word Aditi Sharma Kalra finds out the key to managing people and deadlines – managing herself.

Any suggestions or tip-offs for Human Resources?

Email aditis@humanresourcesonline.net Q1 2015 « HumanResources Malaysia «

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EDITOR’S NOTE

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Are you ready to lead change?

What makes a company great? Is it the size or legacy, the maturity of its people systems or its ability to perform across geographies?

A combination of all three would be ideal, but what would really tie them together would be the organisation’s view towards change.

Change is all around us, and the more progressive organisations in Malaysia and globally are proactively managing what they believe will be its implications for their employees and business.

In a world where competition no longer is restricted to national borders, or even similar business lines, this ability to navigate change is becoming the point of differentiation between great and good companies.

Petroliam Nasional Berhad, better known as PETRONAS, is one such example. Founded more than 40 years ago, the state-owned firm has seen the crests and troughs of many business cycles, yet has managed to stay resilient through most.

To kick-start this year’s edition of Human Resources Malaysia, we spoke to Raiha Azni, who heads HR across the breadth of PETRONAS, and has been with it for more than 30 years.

She has seen its early days when it was a domestic player with 5,000 employees.

Today, with 30,000 staff members, and operations across the world, PETRONAS represents Malaysia in the global list of Fortune 500 companies, and one of the reasons for that is its agility in responding to change.

Raiha acknowledges the company has seen testing times – its first foray into international markets, where it was less than ready to handle diversity in its ranks, or the cycle of recession when it lost a lot of business to the Middle East.

But one of the things that has helped it stand steadfast is its willingness to invest in capability development. This has helped the company focus on developing leaders as early as 30 years ago through scholarship programmes.

The reward, in such an organisation, is not necessarily in “dollars and cents” as she calls it, but in the values and experiences the employees develop as part of the company.

This thought doesn’t just resonate in long-established firms, but the relatively newer start-ups as well. Andrew Murray, who heads HR at Lazada Group, writes about employees valuing autonomy over their schedules – greater responsibility, and the opportunity to shape culture as their main reasons for joining a start-up.

What employees want from their employers, in monetary and non-monetary terms, remains a hotly debated topic globally, but in Malaysia we do see a trend emerging towards the latter.

This is something the HR function is perfectly poised to deliver, be it in terms of more training and skill development opportunities, newer ways of empowerment, or starting small with simple ways of everyday recognition.

However, it will take more than just a single initiative or a handful. It requires a sustained effort, reinforced every day by each and every line manager, over a period of time.

Think about it: what can you do differently tomorrow to help your employees achieve what they value most? Change is never easy, but our commitment to it today can go a long way in ensuring that Malaysia truly shines on the global stage in terms of people practices.

Photography: Stefanus Elliot Lee using Nikon D810 – www.elliotly.com; Makeup & Hair: Michmakeover using Make Up For Ever & hair using Sebastian Professional – www.michmakeover.com

HumanResources

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Aditi Sharma Kalra Regional editor Q1 2015 « HumanResources Malaysia «

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News from humanresourcesonline.net

THE TOP FIVE COMPANIES MALAYSIANS WANT TO WORK FOR

THREE HREE WORK TRENDS FOR 2015 (AND AND THE NEXT 15 YEARS)

PETRONAS has emerged as the number one company for Malaysian job seekers, followed by Shell and Google Malaysia. Maybank and Sime Darby round off the list of the top five employers, according to a survey by Jobstreet.com.

Both experienced professionals and graduates listed salary as their main consideration when deciding their favourites. Besides salary, both groups wanted good benefits and incentives, quality of leadership and management, and a solid work environment or culture.

The only variation was their second most-wanted criterion in a top company, with graduates looking for support for training and L&D, while experienced staff was more concerned with the company’s reputation.

However, optimism about landing their dream job wasn’t high – 46% of them didn’t have time to apply or had heard nothing from the company after expressing interest.

Even so, if an opportunity pportunity arose, 88% would resign esign from their current company.

A big reason forr wanting to resign was salary. Despite a better performance and having worked for or a company for s, most respondents more than two years, were not rewarded with increments.

Other reasons for f r dissatisfaction fo were a poor workingg environment and culture, lack of bonuses uses and incentives, rowth. and lack of career growth.

According to “Fast Forward 2030: The Future of Work and the Workplace”

by CBRE, which uses Microsoft, Unilever, Credit Suisse and Google as case studies, the coming years will see “an awakening of human spirit and a belief that work in the future should be joyous and more fulfilling”.

In fact, 78% of those interviewed said their happiness was as important as financial success.

Young employees’ ideal future workplace is like “a shopping mall” where they choose to do things that represent what kind of person they are.

The study also pinpointed three major trends to look out for in 2015, all the way to 2030.

First, traditional workplaces will be the minority, as 77% of interviewees believe in the importance of the workplace environment and more of them want activity based workplaces instead of dull traditional workplaces.

Second, every company will need a chief of work. The general view is that existing roles such as HR can help with implementation, but an in-charge is exis needed for work experience at the C-suite level. nee Roles such as chief of work are highlighted as necessary in the corporations of 2030. corp Third, technology is expected to take over and become more commonplace in the workplace, as 50% of respondents predicted that today’s com occupations will no longer exist by 2025. But this does not mean losing jobs, occu just requires a change in what people do. Respondents added the biggest it ju wildcard in the future would be smaller companies who have what it takes to wild take on their much larger, direct competitors and do the job better.

MALAYSIA RISES AS AN EXPENSIVE CITY FOR EXPATS Malaysian locations have risen notably in the global list of the most expensive cities, with Kuala Lumpur climbing 29 places to 176th position in the annual survey by ECA International.

Singapore is ranked the 26th most expensive city in the world for expatriates, five places higher than its 31st ranking last year.

This now puts the city-state as more expensive than Hong Kong, Stockholm and Melbourne in the global list, while it sits in ninth place in the Asia Pacific rankings.

Seoul has overtaken Tokyo to take top spot in the Asia Pacific region, followed by Shanghai, Beijing and Yokohama.

In Hong Kong, despite a 4.5% increase in prices of items in ECA’s shopping basket, its regional and global (28th) position remained steady. The study compares a basket of like-for-like consumer goods and services commonly purchased by expatriate assignees in more than th 440 locations worldwide.

It also found the price of items in ECA’s shopping basket in China rose in the region. faster this year than last, despite slower growth gro Topping the global ranking for a second year is Caracas, in Venezuela, which has become the world’s most expensive and the w cheapest city for expatriates, depending on the exchange rate r used.

In I second place is Luanda in Angola, followed by Norway’s Oslo.

Ang Switzerland, however, dominates the Swi top 110, featuring Zurich, Geneva, Bern and BBasel as some of the world’s most expensive expens locations for expatriates.

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JAN-MAR WHY WE SHOULD OULD ALL START WORK K AATT 110AM 0A M One in six workers are so tired redd they they can’t can an’t’t help hel elpp but but fall fall asleep at their desks occasionally. ionally.

A study from the American rican Academy of Sleep Medicine Mediccin inee looked loook oked ed into int n o whyy maain reason rea easo sonn was work. we’re sacrificing our sleep and across the board, the main Starting work earlier and ending later, sleepers who slept six hours or less ended up working more hours on weekdays (1.55) and weekends (1.86) than “average” sleepers.

Short sleepers also travel more for work having to wake up earlier to commute to their jobs.

The solution? To overhaul the culture of work to ensure we start working later in the day.

The study shows that around 20 minutes of sleep time is gained for every hour later that work starts.

On average, respondents sleep six hours when starting work at or before 6am compared with 7.29 hours slept when starting between 9am and 10am.

Self-employed respondents and private sector employees are 17% less likely to be short sleepers due to flexible work times.

Allowing employees to start later in the day or finish earlier can be a difficult shift in mindset for some employers – but there are plenty of workplaces that have already realised the necessity of sleep for more engaged, creative and innovative employees.

» Hum HumanResources H anResources Malaysia Ma ays Mal y ia » Q1 20 2015

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SEVEN LEADERSHIP SKILLS FOR FINANCIAL SUCCESS IN 2015

THE HOTTEST JOB SKILLS FOR 2015

Companies in the top 20% of financial performance exhibit seven leadership practices that contribute to their success, according to research by DDI and The Conference Board.

First, they demonstrate leadership skills specific to VUCA challenges – volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous. These are defined by four skills – introducing and managing change; building consensus and commitment; inspiring others toward a challenging future vision; and leading across generations.

Second, they have effective programmes to develop high-potentials.

Third, such organisations are two times more likely to place value on developing interaction skills over managerial skills, which gives them highly engaged leaders, who are also ready to fill critical roles.

Fourth, they incorporate learning journeys with planned sequences, on-the-job and formal learning opportunities. Fifth, these organisations are six alytics to predict future leadership talent needs. times more likely to use analytics ons are four times as likely to have in place a strong Sixth, these organisations pipeline of ready now leaders. ers.

Last, they are 12 timess more likely to have gender balance in their leadership ranks, with at least 30% of leadership roles held by women. This trend holds true ue for high-potential women leaders as well.

Analytics is expected to be the most sought-after ht-after skill by employers in 2015, as companies want their employees to not only make sense nse of all the information available to them, butt to use it to make smarter business decisions.

For human resources professionals, an important skill to possess is “people analytics”, found a new report by CTPartners.

It also established a leading role for a “chief digital officer” nctions.

(CDO) to partner across the company’s functions.

The CDO is expected to play a big rolee in harnessing all the data, and using it to measure various aspects of HR performance.

The report attributed this rise in demand and for analytical skills to a proliferation of new job descriptions, bornee out of the influence of big data.

In the operations function, companiess can expect “business data analytics” to be the most valuable skill, ill, with them looking to synthesise the data from customer interactions, ctions, supply chain feedback, and other sources.

Skills for “digital risk analysis” toppedd the area of risk management while “personalisation skills” emerged as the most important in the field of customer relationship management.

“The challenge for companies in Asiaa is to continue to fast-track digital innovation and have business leaders ers with skills and savvy to pull together all the data being generated, in a way that helps their companies remain competitive in this digital age,” saidd Kathryn Yap, managing director at CTPartners.

TOP 10 PLACES TO WORK IN 2015 Based on the rankings from employees, career community Glassdoor has released its seventh annual list of the best companies to work for. Google came in first place, with a rating of 4.5, followed by Bain & Company and Nestlé Purina PetCare with ratings of 4.4 each. F5 Networks and Boston Consulting Group rounded up the top five with ratings of 4.3 each.

The companies from sixth to 10th place all had a rating of 4.2 – namely Chevron, HEB, In-N-Out Burger, McKinsey & Company and Mayo Clinic.

The Employees’ Choice Awards honour the best places to work across the US, determined solely by employees’ feedback, via the company’s review survey.

Employees were asked to use a scale to rate their satisfaction at the company they work in, including how they feel their CEO is leading the business and other key factors such as compensation and benefits, career opportunities, culture and values and work-life balance.

Staff were also asked whether they would recommend the company they work for to a friend, and to give their opinion on how they felt the company would succeed in the next six months.

HR’S BIGGEST PRODUCTIVITY DUCTIVITY KILLERS As the role of HR continues to evolve, it’s clear HR managers want a more strategic role. That was the key finding of a new study by BambooHR, which polled more than 1,300 HR professionals to gauge how they spend their time versus how they think they should be spending their time.

The biggest perceived threat (29%) to an HR professional’s productivity was employee management, which included answering questions, resolving issues, employee recognition and discipline. pline. Seventy one per cent of HR professionals stated they spend a lot or mostt of their time on employee management issues.

This was followed by spending nding time on company compliance issues (54%), and recruiting (42%). Workforce ce planning plan pl anni ning ng (40%) (40 40%) %) was the number one task these HR respondents would like ke m more ore training on, on followed follllow fo owed ed by by professional prof pr ofes essi sion onal al development (34%) and managing developm ginng and overseeing company comppan anyy culture cultltur cu uree (32%).

(32% (3 2%).).

Generally Gene though, HR professionals esssionals are getting gettitng a fair fair bit bit of training tra rain inin ingg – 82% 8 % of 82 respondents have attended HRR training responden traaining in the past year, year ye ar,, and and 67% have spent an hour or more ore educating themselves thems msel elve vess updates weekly. on HR upd The ssurvey repeatedly stressed esssed the need to overcome overcom the gap between what whhat a the HR functio function is perceived to be, and annd what it wa wants to become.

Sixty five per cent and 82% % felt that of HR professionals prof management, not HR, should be managem responsible for employees’ job responsibl satisfactio satisfaction and productivity respectively. respective

Q1 2015 « HumanResources Malaysia «

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WORK LIFE » People GET INTO THE BOSS’S HEAD

Alois Hofbauer Managing director Nestlé (Malaysia)

Having started your career with Nestlé, tell us about your journey here.

I grew up in the skiing town of Innsbruck, Austria, where my family used to run a small hotel. I was exposed to my family’s business from a young age and learned how to run a business, as well as the basics of good food and healthy nutrition.

This experience was conducive when I joined Nestlé, where I started my career in December 1990, after graduating from the University of Innsbruck. I started in sales before moving onto marketing. In the mid-1990s, I moved to Hong Kong, the first of several assignments in the region.

I held many senior positions across business units in the region, before taking on my first MD role in 2004 at Nestlé Taiwan. I then moved to become MD of Nestlé Sri Lanka. In February 2013 I became the MD in Nestlé Malaysia, and am also leading Nestlé Singapore and Brunei.

How has your leadership style evolved?

I try to have a transformational impact on the

organisation. I am a firm believer of “hands-on management”, walking the talk and inspiring passion, high commitment and professionalism among my teams.

conditions for success in their teams. With this in mind, wouldn’t you say that HR is indeed a critical business function to drive a company’s success now and in the future?

What have you enjoyed most about your work with the company?

I view helming Nestlé Malaysia as an exciting and formidable task given the company’s firmly entrenched position in the country. I love Malaysia, its cultural diversity and its great food. I embrace the excitement and challenges that my role undoubtedly brings. It is a joy to work with such an exceptional group of professionals.

We agree. Going forward, how can HR better its value addition?

At Nestlé, we don’t only talk about our employees being our most valuable assets, but we try to prove it to them.

One of the biggest challenges for any business is attracting and retaining the right talent. A recent survey revealed that 58% of employees intended to look for a new job within the next year.

In addition, we face a challenge in not only finding talent with the right skills and competencies, but also talent with the right cultural fit. Nestlé’s culture is unique and attractive due to our multicultural attitudes and our Swiss roots, emphasising top-notch quality and professional drive throughout the organisation. Most of our team members choose to stay with us for a lifetime because of the values we impart.

Hence, we believe it is our talent pool that defines our long-term competitive edge, and we are committed to investing in and developing our team members.

How do you unwind when you’re having a tough day at the office?

I am an outdoor person. I enjoy cycling, running and skiing. I also make it a point to allocate time for family vacations, usually short, but interesting experiences. Of late, we have spent our holidays at Malaysia’s picturesque island retreats and last Christmas we went diving in Kota Kinabalu.

What’s your tip for engaging team members?

Having been in this company for close to 25 years, I have learnt a lot in terms of handling the stress we all go through, being a part of a big organisation.

There will definitely be times when work is difficult, but I believe it is important to embrace a positive attitude, no matter how difficult things get.

It is important to enjoy what you do and be committed to give your all at work. If you have purpose, you can endure almost everything.

Throughout my career with Nestlé, I had many opportunities and challenges, and I embraced them head-on and have therefore been able to move further. I believe this positive attitude is a musthave, especially when one faces difficult obstacles and challenges. It is how you deal with adversity that teaches you the most. Passion and built-on purpose are the most important things to have in order to overcome difficult times and struggles.

What is your view of human resources’ contribution to the business?

Human resources is a business function that supports the business in several areas, which contributes directly to the success of a business.

As a strong example, our Nestlé employer brand proposition tells a very compelling story. It is the combination of what potential employees perceive about working for Nestlé and what actual employees experience and say about working at Nestlé. It determines how attractive we are to the talent and how effectively we convert general interest in Nestlé into active top candidates.

Also, the function provides business leaders with insights for what constitutes a high-performing organisation, and supports them to create the

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In light of this, do you think HR can make it to the C-suite?

Values and principles such as openness, honesty, integrity, trust, respect, commitment and involvement are vital for any leader to make it to CEO level. Besides these basics, an HR leader also needs to possess a strong business IQ in order to move into a general management function.

A successful business is always a result of the perfect combination between “soft skills” and “hard skills”, which is one’s business acumen.

As such, I believe HR leaders definitely have strong potential to make it to a CEO level, as their experience in dealing with employees would have given them an excellent foundation on how to run a successful business.

However, they will need to acquire the commercial skills and their business acumen on the way towards the top. Human resource is of course the primary asset of any business, especially in a global company like Nestlé, which is present worldwide and is quite decentralised.

What has been your most memorable moment with Nestlé?

Being a part of this company for almost 25 years, I cannot limit my memorable moment to just one.

However, let me share with you a valuable piece of advice given to me by one of my bosses while I was a relatively junior leader. I still follow those wise words to this very day. He said: “Take care of your people and in return, they will take care of you.”

» HumanResources Malaysia » Q1 2015

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People WORK LIFE

SpacialAwareness

HOW NUFFNANG’S STAFF HELPED TO DESIGN THIR IDEAL OFFICE At Nuffnang, a global blog advertising community, HR knows that to get the best out of people, employees must work in an environment that encourages relaxation, breathing space and places to unwind.

Michelle Tay, regional HR, said the starting point of an innovative workplace in both Malaysia [pictured] and Singapore was an open and welcoming culture.

“Basically, we have a very open culture, to the extent that staff aren’t just co-workers but friends,” she said. “We encourage two-way feedback and are open to sharing thoughts, ideas and opinions.”

Like many offices, this means it doesn’t have cubicles and instead focuses on face-to-face interaction around large tables or in spaces which encourage collaboration and communication.

“In the Singapore office, we recently revamped an outdoor area into a garden-like area floored with carpet grass. We realised staff enjoy this part of the office greatly.”

For visual stimulation and to involve local staff in the look and feel of the office, employees also attended an “art jamming” session where they painted five canvas pieces, which are now displayed in the offices.

Tay is also aware of the need to allow staff decent and relaxing break spaces and the offices allow for this.

“When staff spend long hours in the office, it is inevitable that at some point or another, they will experience weariness. Having an engaging office space allows staff to take a breather and take their minds off work for short periods of time,” she said.

“Allowing them to engage in relaxing activities or even catching 40 winks enables them to recharge and continue with their work with refreshed mindsets.”

The company has staff lounges for this purpose, filled with beanbags, cushions and sofas as well as a TV and Wii and PlayStation consoles.

“The walls in our offices are also painted with bright colours with the aim of brightening the workplace, making it livelier,” she said.

“Singapore’s office is painted a cool shade of blue, promoting calmness, while Malaysia’s office is painted in hues of bold orange, which is rather stimulating.

“An engaging work space also allows staff to connect and generate innovative solutions which is key to a more efficient workforce.”

When looking into how your workspace could be redesigned to work better for employees, she suggested getting their feedback and involvement throughout the entire process – from the initial brainstorming to the decor and final execution.

“After all, they will be spending long hours in the office and have more definite ideas on their ideal office space.

“In addition, by giving staff the opportunity to participate in this, employees’ voices are heard and staff are made aware the company values their input, thereby boosting staff morale. After all, a team effort beats a ‘management decision’!”

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WORK LIFE » HR by numbers

Trending in 2015 High performers will be much sought after and are expected to command multiple job opportunities and counter offers in Malaysia’s “candidate-driven” market in 2015.

With a growing number of MNCs looking to set base here, combined with a limited pool of candidates, Robert Walters’ annual report anticipates pay hikes of 10% to 20% for job hoppers.

“Malaysia has enjoyed healthy growth due to expansion within the shared services industry and the entrance of multinational hubs. This was largely attributed to the government’s policies which allow ease in setting up business operations,” said Sally Raj, country manager of Robert Walters Malaysia.

52.8%

are the best paid talent within the HR function. choose to respond to emails while travelling.

10%-20%

is the average range of salary hikes that job hoppers in Malaysia can expect in 2015.

296,000

is the annual expected compensation of HR directors in Malaysia with 10 years of experience, going up to RM 485,000.

C&B

professionals are expected to be in demand as companies seek to retain talent by improving their remuneration structure in 2015.

Source: Robert Walters Malaysia

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» HumanResources Malaysia » Q1 2015

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People WORK LIFE

snapshot

15 minutes with ...

Andrew Ng

HR director Sanofi TELL US ABOUT YOUR EXPERIENCE LEADING HR AT SANOFI. I have worked in several industries in local and regional roles, and this is my first experience in the pharmaceutical and healthcare industry. Here, I lead the full spectrum of the HR function in Sanofi Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei. In these markets, we are more of a sales and marketing organisation, as opposed to our branches in other countries which house mainly R&D and manufacturing facilities. In the countries under my care, 75% of the employees are in sales and marketing roles. In such a structure, a different dynamic comes into play as far as the workforce and its needs and challenges are concerned.

WHAT IS DIFFERENT ABOUT THAT DYNAMIC? Working in this industry has been a great new learning experience for me. For instance, people are moving around mostly within the same industry. So sometimes we don’t have to conduct employment reference checks for new employees, we can simply ask employees in our office who have come from the same organisation (as the new employee). So even though the industry is big, people know each other pretty well.

WERE YOU ALWAYS INTERESTED IN HR AS A PROFESSION? It was a pretty conscious decision. My interest in human resources management developed when I was in university and I did my final year thesis related to industrial disputes.

In those days, HR was mainly an administrative, operational and a policing role, dependent on a lot of manual paperwork. My first job title was actually a “personnel executive”.

HOW HAVE YOU SEEN THE HR FUNCTION EVOLVE? HR has been expected to support the business in recruiting, developing and retaining talent. While these components are still relevant, we need to be innovative and aware of the changes in organisational needs and the environment. This requires us to review the HR service delivery model to best suits the organisation to provide the right solutions.

Another critical element is engaging employees not only on a head-to-head basis, but also on a heart-to-heart level. Understanding the demographic of our organisation both in terms of gender mix as well as the different generation needs will have an impact in our design of people policies as well as our rewards and recognition mechanisms.

In engaging employees, the competencies of people managers have increasingly become more important, particularly their coaching skills.

In attracting and retaining talent, there are also times where we bring jobs to talent, instead of purely bringing talent to jobs. So there are times where we are fine-tuning our role to fit into the competencies of that specific talent.

IN THIS, WHAT'S YOUR TAKE ON DEVELOPING TALENT? In the past 10 years, the topic of talent development has gained priority

due to the shrinking pool of available talent. Multinational organisations are encouraging employees to take charge of their learning and development.

Learning is a continuous process and a self-initiated process, with employees taking ownership of their learning in line with their individual development plans.

Individually, I always believed that anything that we initiate has to create value to the people and organisation. So value creation and valueadding is a key thing that I have also prioritised.

HOW CAN HR AS A FUNCTION ADD MORE VALUE TO THE BUSINESS? While HR has to be a strategic adviser as well as the enabler, we have to first ask ourselves what we can bring to the executive table.

To do this, HR has to understand the business dynamics, the external business environment, the business challenges and the future strategies.

Then we have to ask ourselves, “how do we align our HR goals with the business goals, and proactively engage the business leaders in formulating our HR solutions?”

Whenever people discuss ways to help HR perform its role better, I always adopt a different perspective and instead focus on how HR could add value to the management agenda. We can always request for senior HR executives to have a seat at the table, but if we don’t understand how HR can support the business, we’ll have a seat without a strong voice.

WHAT DO YOU ENJOY MOST ABOUT YOUR WORK? My passion lies in human capital development. I would like to leave my legacy behind in any organisation which I work for in the future. Not just in terms of systems and processes, but also in terms of the right structure to support the business and how we are able to develop people and push them and see how that benefits the organisation.

Presently, this includes a couple of HR initiatives which we are putting in place, particularly with regards to learning and development, employee wellness and C&B. I always think C&B is a core area, and this is a topic which is very close to our people. It goes beyond payroll and administrative services, where pay philosophy, remuneration designs, rewards and recognition mechanisms are essential ingredients to promote the culture of pay for performance.

WHAT IMPROVEMENTS WOULD YOU RECOMMEND TO THE WAY THE HR FUNCTION IS RUN TODAY? I often see there is a tendency in some of the HR practitioners to follow structures, systems and work processes. I think that while that is good, we have to realise that all these structures are providing a framework as to how we work. However, we should not be too rigid about them and instead be able to exercise a certain degree of flexibility with regards to this framework.

The new generation of workforce, including Millennials, is also very different in terms of the way they work and interact in the work environment, and this also impacts the way we lead them. What HR can do to improve this is to ensure constant communication between employees and their line managers.

Training can also be given to the line managers on how they can lead the team in a collaborative manner and coach them through a consultative approach. The issue of how people view organisational support has also been becoming increasingly important – especially at different stages of their work life.

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WHITE PAPER » Leadership

THE MOST VALUABLE SOURCES FOR FINDING TALENT

Southeast Asia – As hiring increases, social professional networks are becoming the most preferred tool for recruiters in Southeast Asia.

Sixty-six per cent of respondents chose social professional networks as their most loved recruitment tool, according to LinkedIn’s 2015 Southeast Asia Staffing Trends Report.

More than half continued to use internet job boards (51%), followed by more than one-third using employee referral programmes (38%) and their internal candidate database (36%).

Large agencies were found to prefer internet resume databases (32%) to place high quality talent with their clients, as opposed to smaller agencies (14%).

However, 54% of global staffing leaders

admitted they were not doing a good enough job tracking return on investment on sources of hire.

While the number of placements made was ranked as the most valuable hiring metric (33%), client satisfaction (24%) and quality of placement (18%) were also deemed as important to evaluating hiring performance.

“As the gap between hiring volume and budgets widens, it’s time to invest in and optimise the sources that return both the best quality and quantity of candidates,” noted the study.

Availability of quality talent was the number one hindrance that Southeast Asian companies faced in attracting top talent (57%), outstripping competition (49%).

“Offers made by clients is also viewed as a

threat to more large than small firms, although the difference is less significant.”

More firms also prioritised the need to build their brand reputation, with 77% of respondents saying their brand will significantly impact their ability to “engage great talent”.

The most important sources for hiring quality talent Social professional networks

66%

Internet job boards

51%

Employee referral programmes

38%

Internal candidate database

36%

Source: LinkedIn’s 2015 Southeast Asia Staffing Trends Report

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Leadership « WHITE PAPER

MALAYSIA TOPS ASIA IN GENDER DIVERSITY

Malaysia – Malaysia has topped the Asia Pacific region in supporting gender diversity at senior levels in the workplace.

According to a regional report by Kelly Services, the country was identified as having 28% of female senior managers in the workforce.

Hong Kong followed at 23%, Singapore 21.5% and China 21%. India stood in fifth place at 9%, while Japan was sixth with 8%.

Commenting on the report, Natalia Shuman,

Kelly Services’ senior vice-president and general manager for EMEA and APAC, said: “The findings that Malaysia is the regional leader in gender diversity at senior levels compared to other leading APAC economies are highly significant as there is clear evidence that gender diversity delivers measurable and positive performance outcomes for businesses.”

The report pointed to a finding by McKinsey which highlighted that companies with gender diversity in leadership experienced higher returns on equity, operating profits and stock price.

It also highlighted another survey by McKinsey which concluded that increasing the participation of women in the workforce could potentially increase Malaysia’s gross domestic product between RM6 billion to RM9 billion.

“For markets experiencing strong growth and a limited talent pool, such as Malaysia, these issues require particular and deliberate focus by hiring managers. For top performing

companies, gender diversity is about business competitiveness, productivity and performance,” she said.

Added Kelly Services (Malaysia)’s managing director, Melissa Norman: “The report’s data delivers a compelling message for Malaysia’s hiring managers: gender diversity has direct consequences on a company’s bottom-line.

“Where there are significant gender inequities in workforces, productivity and innovation lag and a company’s bottom-line is negatively impacted.

With gender equity, workforce, productivity and innovation thrives.”

Countries with the most number of female senior managers Malaysia

28%

Hong Kong

23%

Singapore

21.5%

China

21%

India

9%

Japan

8%

Source: Making the business case for gender equity,

by Kelly Services.

GEN Y FAILS TO IMPRESS WITH TRADITIONAL LEADERSHIP SKILLS Global – Generation Y employees score significantly lower than other generations on traditional leadership traits such as decisiveness, persuasion and strategic thinking. However, they bring an entirely different set of skills to the workplace that are relevant to today’s business needs.

This understanding of the psychological differences in the way that generations X, Y, and the Baby Boomers think, act and lead have been featured in Hudson’s new report, based on 28,000 psychometric assessments.

Generation Y, born between 1980 and 1994, are shaping up entirely differently at leadership than its predecessors. Forceful leadership and Traits typical to each generation 1.

Baby Boomers are 28% more decisive than Generation Y.

2.

Generation X are 13% more ambitious than Baby Boomers.

3.

Generation Y are 27% more peopleoriented than Baby Boomers.

Source: The Great Generational Shift, by Hudson

persuasion are not their priorities; instead they prefer to lead by providing insights and a vision, and by being a role model.

They have been profiled as 32% more ambitious and 27% more people-oriented than Baby Boomers.

Generation X, on the other hand, have emerged as a diplomat – speaking the languages of both the Baby Boomers and Generation Y – by educating upwards and innovating downwards.

They are also more socially progressive, change-oriented, and culturally sensitive. They are marginally more strategic in their approach than the following generation.

Baby Boomers come out top in traditional leadership traits – 28% more decisive than Generation Y, and 21% more persuasive.

This generalist overseeing approach provides them a much-needed competency, and the report advises they should be given opportunities to share, teach and mentor before they exit the workforce completely in 20 years.

“Generation Y is no longer the baby, Generation X no longer the middle child, and

boomers no longer the parent. The leadership implications will need to be reckoned with,” said Simon Moylan, executive general manager of talent management for Hudson.

“Organisations need to understand what motivates their employees and connect the dots between the motivational drivers of those in different ages and stages.”

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Raiha Azni Abd Rahman « PROFILE

Raiha Azni Abd Rahman Senior vice president of group HR management Petroliam Nasional Berhad (PETRONAS) Drilling for international success

By ADITI SHARMA KALRA

Q Having been with the company for

The unique thing about PETRONAS is that we are willing to spend on capability development. It has always been the strategy of building your own timber.

The fact that I was probably one of the first few batches back then showed that PETRONAS had decided that sponsoring students with a better education was the only way to go, and that this responsibility cannot just come from the government.

nearly three decades, what has kept you going?

I was sponsored by PETRONAS to pursue my studies at Syracuse University in the US, and I joined the company after I returned in 1984. My degree was in marketing, but they didn’t have an open position at that time, so they put me in the personnel department.

I began to love the job because I have a genuine interest in seeing people develop and grow in their career.

Q This must have helped build talent

Q How has the company changed since?

When I came in, we had just 4000 to 5000 staff compared with the 30,000 today. We knew most people in the building, and we were just a domestic player back then.

The best part is having our forefathers, the leaders of yesterday, starting with one million ringgit and 18 people, bringing this company to a global level and part of the Fortune 500.

Q Did you have any inkling of the kind of growth that was to come?

No, and we have gone through various stages, including the cycle of recession, where we lost a lot of business to the Middle East, to get to where we are today.

Along the way, we crafted strategies to go with the times, built relationships, networked with service providers, and learnt from those better than us.

Q You are now a benchmark for employers around the country. What has guided your HR philosophy?

VITAL STATS Raiha Azni Abd Rahman joined the company in 1984, and has held numerous positions across HRM functions and businesses.

Passionate about education, she was the skill advisor for PETRONAS HRM Skill Group Fraternity.

internally, especially with the way the company has grown.

Our business grew very suddenly when we decided to venture aboard in the 1990s. We may have been ready on the business side of things, but were we ready to have diversity in our human capital development? Perhaps not.

When we say we are ready to go out of Malaysia, it has to be in tandem with our ability to get non-Malaysians to understand what PETRONAS is. We faced language issues and had a low understanding of cultural differences.

As a result, we developed programmes for us to understand diversity, cultures and the dos and don’ts of doing business abroad. Similarly, we developed material for the non-Malaysians to understand the country’s culture and the procedures of PETRONAS. After that, PETRONAS became bigger which required a similar change in our capability development.

Q What kind of changes are you talking about?

It was about ensuring all employees

were on the same page no matter their nationality, skin colour or gender. This could only be done if everyone had the same level of capability. At the end of the day, being in the oil and gas industry, safety comes first.

Driven to operate safely, in 2007 we developed “accelerated capability development”, which meant that all employees in every country of operation had a checklist of things they needed to know – be it in engineering, finance or human resources.

This is very structured and talks about how each person can ensure their safety, know their role in the bigger picture, and have autonomy in making the right decisions.

Q Does this help to build the base for them to progress within the company?

While we focus on the functional capabilities, this has to be coupled with soft skills such as leadership. We are fortunate that our forefathers have created the base for us in the form of facilities.

We have our own corporate university, the PETRONAS Leadership Centre in Bangi, and also the Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, which has been around for about 18 years.

The centre provides programmes on functional capability to ensure wholesome development of talent – at times when they are about to become a manager – by developing their soft skills, having a performance review conversation or any other gap. There’s a programme for every step of the career ladder.

We have also developed MBA

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PROFILE » Raiha Azni Abd Rahman programmes with the University of Melbourne and Duke University, among others, for in-house senior management development.

Another thing we are proud of is that our top leaders come in to teach at the centre – we call this LDL or Leaders Develop Leaders. Who else can teach your own people best?

This was launched about one-and-ahalf years ago, and it’s going very strong.

Can you imagine, in the presence of top leaders, we have a group of our 30-yearolds about to become managers, learning from their experiences, what mistakes they made, and how their first day at the job was? It is a powerful tool and the feedback so far has been very promising and positive.

Q That means they are able to apply the skills they learn on the job right away?

They need a lot of experience doing that before they can start teaching. We expect general managers and above to teach at the centre and to do that, they must acquire years of experience, tacit knowledge, functional knowledge and a rich experience in terms of failures and the subject matter itself.

Q Does HR own this initiative or are you working closely with other functions?

We are partnering with the line managers as that has always been our strategy – to become a partner with and to the business. In whatever we do, we consult the line manager.

Q What kind of results have you seen on these initiatives so far?

At the end of the day, for any business, delivering results is key. We do that by getting all of our staff to perform well. We have created a high-performance culture going back to what we learnt from the early 1990s.

It took us a long time to perfect it, and I am not saying we are perfect now, but in the last four years, HR does not do any more mitigating or policing, but rather helps to manage performance.

Q What has helped you make that transition?

The foundation lies in creating a highperformance culture so that you can differentiate your best talent. That allows

you to invest in succession planning, manage them differently, and understand if they are fit for the next-level job in an unbiased way.

For them to assume a higher position, we must make sure they are given enough exposure. Suffice to say, if any of our vice presidents exit tomorrow, we have two to three successors identified.

Along the way, we also opened our doors to external talent. Our remuneration package has to be marked to the market. We’ve created an employee value proposition, which is a promise for employees that once they come in, they will gain trust, growth and reward.

We trust them to perform well, and as they grow, they can decide which path they want to take, and we promise to give them the training and capabilities they need.

The reward for them is not necessarily in terms of dollars and cents. It is coupled with the values we have in the company.

If you are looking for dollars and cents, this is not the company to be in.

This company gives opportunities to work on the most challenging assignments, in remote areas, and that is part of the reward.

Q When do you look at external hiring?

There have been times that has happened, such as when we grew beyond the domestic environment. Along the way, we made some mistakes, such as not investing in the continuity of recruitment, especially during times of recession.

When we decided to open our gates to external candidates, it was a message to staff about meritocracy. Seniority does not count, instead we look at performance and potential. It took us a long time before they accepted that. At this juncture, almost 20% of our employee population is non-Malaysian.

We have come to accept that we are no longer just a “Malaysian” company, we are a Fortune 500 company. However, we remain a performance-based company, so only the best will move up the ladder.

Q What are one or two big things you are focusing on this year?

It is not a pretty sight in the oil and gas industry currently. Oil prices have plunged and we are no longer living in the glory of the past. But we in PETRONAS have been trained to be robust enough to change because we have gone through this cycle a

“If you are looking for dollars and cents, this is not the company to be in.” few times. We are more prepared for what is likely to be the new normal.

We need our best talent to be with us because this is the survival of the fittest.

Whether it is about managing costs or implementing the latest technology, how we manage human capital development, if the oil prices are going to be like this for the next five years, is what keeps us busy.

Q Does that mean HR is involved in business-scenario planning?

Very much, especially compared to the personnel department of yesteryears. HR and the business have come a long way and we are all in this together to come up with a solution. We do what is required from a strategic point of view, be it tweaking our global talent strategies or the redeployment of people.

Q Where do you think the main challenges lie for PETRONAS currently?

At the moment, it is about growth. How do we perform well with the current oil prices, how do we manage our revenue and profits, and how do we manage our assets and liabilities.

Q Being a state-owned entity, how closely do you work with the government?

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Raiha Azni Abd Rahman « PROFILE them, because they are not part and parcel of this family if they don’t subscribe to these values.

Q How do you impart these values every time you acquire a new company or spread to a new country?

It is a challenge, but we have our onboarding programme that applies to every level and country. It talks about the shared values, the employee value proposition, the business, the vision and mission of this company.

The shared values have to be instituted and embraced. Employees have to see their leaders be exemplary, and it has to reflect in their performance. The high performance culture is not just about the delivery, but how leaders deliver it, and how they behave.

Q Diversity has many aspects,

We are a national oil company, but on a day-to-day basis, we operate like any other private entity. We monitor our performance, growth, revenue, and we understand that we are contributing to the nation.

We have never failed to work closely with the government, especially with the ministries of education and human resources, and the state governments. Because we sponsor so many students, not just at the university level, but even at the primary and secondary school level, it has become part of our CSR. We work with the corporate strategic communications team, in terms of sponsoring education, and helping young engineers contribute back to the community by giving free tuition classes.

We are currently working with the state government and the Ministry of Education to make this more reachable. We continue to sponsor equipment in some of the training colleges and polytechnics. Almost every weekend, we get a group of young people going to schools to promote a career in oil and gas.

We also participate a lot in career fairs and continue to provide scholarships for students in Malaysia, at our university, or abroad. Lately, we have been topping the

best employer category in the oil and gas industry in Malaysia.

But in the next phase, we would like to be more impactful in terms of providing an opportunity to the lesser privileged. It is not necessary that they come and work at PETRONAS, but they could help the state government as well.

Q What would you say is the secret to the company’s success?

The main thing that has brought the people together in PETRONAS is our shared values. Because it is not just about delivering results or about an employee value proposition, but in whatever we do, we are guided by the shared values that have brought us together.

These values are loyalty, cohesiveness, professionalism and integrity. Being loyal to the company means to protect PETRONAS’ interests wherever employees are, be it in Malaysia or Turkmenistan.

Cohesiveness is the ability to work as a team and to have a win-win situation for the company. Professionalism is reflected in our conduct, being respectful and consistent.

Finally, we are very serious about integrity. It is not just about having a nogift policy, but if employees do anything to dishonour that, PETRONAS will denounce

but one angle most companies are struggling with is to have more women take up leadership roles. Are you working on this?

We have never differentiated between male and female employees as it has always been a meritocracy.

But in an industry like ours, we do have difficulties getting women to work in offshore drilling rigs, although we provide facilities for them, such as separate living quarters, even though it costs more.

We promise our women employees that when they come in they will feel comfortable. We have recently announced a third month of maternity leave at half pay. We also provide them half-day leave where they can settle their household errands.

We have flexible working hours where employees can make arrangements with their bosses if required. We give more compassionate leave if their child or spouse is in the hospital.

We also have a returning mothers programme where new mothers are welcomed back even after two to three years, subject to business assessment.

I remember in 1984, no more than 2% of our workforce was female. Today, a quarter of our workforce, soon going to be one-third, are women. Ten years ago, we did not have even one woman in a vicepresident or above position, but today we have four out of 25.

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FEATURE » Corporatee Training Training

How can HR leaders use the best ingredients of both outsourced and in-house training to ensure the learning lasts a lifetime?

Akankasha Dewan finds out.

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Corporate Training « FEATURE onducting training in-house or outsourcing it elsewhere is no longer an either/or decision. Human resources professionals have long searched for creative solutions to come up with the best training strategies for their staff, and more often than not, many find an integrated approach works best.

Why? Because it gets the blend just right.

In fact, the 2014 Kelly Global Workforce Index found a blend of training – comprising employerprovided training (48%), mentoring (39%) and outsourced training (23%) – are the most popular resources in Singapore when preparing for career development and advancement opportunities.

“This is not an either/or question,” says Amy Kong, regional director of learning and people development at MSLGROUP Asia.

“What we should look at is the desired outcome based on training needs analysis and discussions with the business leader, then look at whether the best source or training or content can be found internally or externally, or both.

“Our people – and our training programmes that help them to thrive – cannot be complacent and must transform alongside the business in order for us to succeed.”

Indeed, the broad capabilities of today’s hybrid trainings ensure the unique challenges that arise as budgets tighten and demands increase can be overcome – but they must be adopted while keeping in mind the strengths and weaknesses of each type of training in line with your own learning philosophy.

“Employees have to approach their jobs and careers with the perspective that learning, informal or formal, is a continual ongoing endeavour,” Kong says.

“Companies can facilitate that by designing training and other development initiatives to encourage that mindset.

“It is about lifetime employability and not lifetime employment.”

What works for your needs?

One of the first elements to take into consideration when designing an effective hybrid training strategy is analysing the type of corporate environment the employees are working in and its specific requirements.

“About three years ago, we did an analysis and we found that 66% of people who join us leave us in their first year,” says Carol Yong, human resources director at Dairy Farm South Asia.

“The main reason for that is that this environment is not an easy environment to stay in. At Dairy Farm, most roles are multi-tasked and fast-paced, so it’s very natural for new joiners to find their first years quite challenging.”

She adds that supervisors and managers, specifically, have to upscale their capabilities at a rapid pace upon joining the industry.

“In retail, the person who manages a team has a lot of responsibility on his or her hands.

This includes managing not only people, but also products, inventory and housekeeping. So they need to be pretty strong as a manager.

“In the areas of leadership development, negotiation and executive coaching, we will leverage on external resources. Outsourcing also helps overcome the tight labour situation, and the time gap needed in recruiting competent people who are able to train well.

“Time is also saved in building the infrastructure required to conduct training exercises. Outsourced professional experts are also likely to deliver high standards of service and meet all KPIs.” While Wong Wai Meng, head of capability development and human resources at Goodrich Global, similarly acknowledges the benefits of relying on external sources, he adds certain aspects of industries are too technical to outsource completely.

“Almost 80% of our training is outsourced, but we can’t outsource the other 20% because we are unique in our industry and we have our own syllabus,” Wong says.

“We have certain instances where we find there’s no available service provider who can cover topics, such as some core proprietary knowledge, which is not commonly available within the public training syllabus.”

This is something which resonates with Eileen Keng, vice president of leadership and senior talent at Credit Suisse, who adds outsourced providers need to be well established, especially in the topic which they are being engaged for.

“If you are a subject matter expert in terms of having many years of research and experience in a particular topic, then you will be the type of provider we would go for,” she says.

“The downside of this arrangement is, of course, the lack of organisational context.

This means the learning and development team has to make sure the external training providers are aligned with the organisational

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FEATURE » Corporate Training needs and learning culture through a very close partnership.”

The need for alignment and communication But such an alignment between companies and their external training vendors is precisely what is lacking in the corporate landscape today.

A study by GP Strategies in 2009 found only 41% of survey participants had a strong alignment with their learning service providers.

Additionally, while three in four companies are aligned at the beginning of an engagement, less than half remain strongly aligned throughout the engagement.

Shedding light into the root causes of this alignment drop-off, the survey found poor communication, a lack of clearly defined goals and provider flexibility were among the chief factors impacting alignment and performance.

Keng stresses these factors are integral if HR departments wish to establish a good working relationship with their outsourced providers.

“For those programmes which we outsource, we work very closely with our partners, right from the content design stage,” she says. “We ensure their key messages are aligned very closely to what we’re looking out for. We use consistent briefs or outlines when we go out and source for a partner.

“This outline is consistent globally to ensure we send the same messages and teach the same topics to our employees worldwide, even if the providers we are using are different in different places.”

Brewing the best: Mix and match to find the best learning programmes for you.

But merely attempting to align expectations and goals with providers is but the first step – the process is complete only when providers themselves are able to give companies the quality and level of services which are expected of them.

“Provider inflexibility is a big obstacle to achieving alignment,” the GP Strategies survey stated. It added that respondents believed providers’ inadaptability had a negative impact on alignment, and the number one reason they would replace a provider was a lack of flexible or responsive service.

Finding the right facilitator Often, such a lack of flexible services include the lack of a good facilitator who is able to change and adapt course content and delivery to suit the type of employees on hand.

“The challenge is identifying and finding a suitable faculty who has the right level of gravitas and who can speak to the seniority of those employees whom the content is targeted at,” Keng says. “So if it’s a very senior audience, we need a faculty member who can match their level of extensive knowledge.”

She adds another challenge is the inability for external facilitators and programme providers to actively use and appreciate the corporate language that is used within Credit Suisse.

Using such language will aid in helping employees to relate with the examples and contexts employed by the trainer.

With such challenges in place, all leaders admit HR divisions need to put in effort and time before choosing the right training provider and facilitator to work with.

“If it’s a new training programme, we would have to assess the quality of the training provider,” Wong says. “It does take some trial and error in finding the right trainer. We ask around, we do research on the providers.”

Keng agrees and adds that throughout the training period, her organisation diligently keeps track of the learning provider’s performance.

“We are very careful in the way we select who comes in to deliver the programme and we monitor the feedback that our employees give the facilitator very closely,” she says.

“We communicate our expectations very clearly upfront to them and we have very clear standards for them to meet. If the feedback which we receive about them is not very positive, we do take actions to remove them from our faculty.”

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FEATURE » Corporate Training She adds the large-scale presence of the bank mandates her L&D department has a very comprehensive learning system in place globally.

“We have a standard set of questions that we collect feedback on, on all programmes and on all trainers. Because all our programmes are coded in the same way, we can key in some key words for a particular programme and we can pull out a report showing all the feedback across all regions for the same programme. We can then do a comparison across regions.”

Enhancing in-house learning However, Yong reminds us that even with such measures in place to overcome the disadvantages of using external vendors for training, outsourcing training does pose a few risks.

“When companies do outsource training, they are likely to face an increase in costs, or a year-on-year increase in service fees. There is also the risk of below expected delivery standards

“Business leaders typically want to cram as much as possible into a training programme. Avoid the situation where you cover everything and participants learn nothing.”

– Amy Kong, regional director of learning and people development, MSLGROUP Asia

sometimes, and companies might also suffer from a potential loss of confidentiality, such as data related to payroll,” she says.

Such reasons are precisely why there is a strong need to simultaneously build internal learning and development teams which can not only conduct training sessions for employees, but also manage external training vendors diligently.

“Our L&D team leads programmes such as POS (point-of-sale) cashier training and proprietary fresh programmes,” Yong says. “They also work on service and campaign training and lead engagement platforms. This team also analyses the type of external programmes that are suitable to meet our needs. They are involved in management trainee assessment, talent management, and in a lot of group programmes.

“A dedicated training department needs to be present, so they take full responsibility and accountability for training employees.”

Kong adds that such teams also aid in ensuring that the employees are learning at optimal levels.

“Business leaders typically want to cram as much as possible into a training programme to maximise the employees’ time away from work, but there is a limit to how much knowledge an employee can retain. Avoid the situation where you cover everything and participants learn nothing.

“The job of the L&D function is to work with the business leader to strike a balance between maximising the training time and retention of learning.”

Wong echoes this, and highlights such an approach is especially useful to small and medium-sized enterprises, such as Goodrich, which has limited resources and budgets for learning programmes.

“For us, cost-effectiveness is very important – we may not be able to afford a high-end trainer.”

Invoking leadership participation Keng further elaborates on how Credit Suisse’s internal learning strategy relies quite heavily on the participation of senior leaders.

“Running in-house programmes allows for the content to be highly customised to fit the organisational context and issues. It is also highly effective if we can identify internal subject matter expertise of experienced leaders to deliver the training,” she says.

“Leaders teaching leaders is a very established and well-received delivery format in Credit Suisse. Our high potential leaders have a responsibility to be a part of our learning faculty and they are all very committed to the development of other colleagues in the firm.

“Colleagues, on the other hand, appreciate hearing from leaders so they can contextualise the learning in real-work situations.”

All interviewees unanimously agree that invoking management support is key.

“Often, HR and L&D teams organise a lot of programmes, but the senior management often does not know why you’re doing what you’re doing,” Yong says.

“They don’t know exactly what needs you are fulfilling. It is very important for them to understand these needs, endorse the approach you have adopted, and be involved in the training programme. They can give motivational talks, and be subject matter experts.”

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THIS ARTICLE WAS BROUGHT TO YOU BY WENTWORTH PEOPLE SINGAPORE

LEADER LED LEARNING – THE NEW FACE OF CORPORATE TRAINING A new era of learning is dawning; an era marked by tight budgets and slashed classroom learning hours, coupled with calls for a new breed of people-centric leaders. The ambition is that such managers will build an engaged workforce and achieve a high performing (perhaps even “sexy”) business that top talent clamours to work for. But why have only a handful of these leaders emerged? Could it be that just being high achievers in their areas of expertise is not sufficient to create true leaders?

Today’s volatile global business environment requires leaders to connect with, engage and learn together with their staff. This is the basic premise of leader led learning, which delivers a punch two ways: increasing engagement and reducing external facilitating expenses.

A REFRESHING CHANGE Team benefits: • Bite-size learning, supported by those closest to the team, totally relevant and hitting the mark, each time, all the time.

Leader benefits: • Recognition as the best in class to their teams, showcasing leadership capabilities • Personal growth and learning new ways to doing things, then sharing this with others • Increase team performance through collaborative learning and sharing

Case study: International Publisher Professional Services This company had been rolling out an annual sales training programme across Asia for years. Feedback scores were great, but did not translate into changed behaviors and downstream results.

Taking our advice, the Client switched their approach to leader-led learning. First, we equipped their leaders to become great facilitators. Second, we provided them with all the content. Third, they practiced with a Wentworth consultant in coaching sessions before they delivered to their teams.

The impact? Aligned to their regular weekly meetings and integrated into business as usual, ideas generated by the teams as a result of these sessions boosted their performance with immediate measurable results. By passing the programme over to the local leaders, they took ownership with our support.

7. Discover your tipping point - Review and finesse your process after an initial pilot to find out what works best for your company culture.

ALREADY HAVE A CULTURE OF SHARING AND OPENNESS? Let’s take it to the next level. Learning driven by dialogue and stories is proven to be the most powerful way of engaging learners, such as sharing stories to illustrate learning points(i.e. a golden nugget during meetings) or a tip of the day. This can be done in newsletters, emails or other written communication channels.

3 Top Tips to remember 1. Not every leader will be a natural teacher, so equip them to facilitate and coach.

2. Allow the team to practice and learn from honest, constructive feedback. Aim for incremental improvements; praise often and reward.

3. Make it safe for people to make mistakes and improve. This is essential to a building a learning culture.

Ask us how to implement Leader Led Learning in your business, and shift your training budget to a sustainable, learning culture that your leaders and employees can own and enjoy.

7 STEPS TO CREATING A SUCCESSFUL CULTURE 1. Champion this new approach - Introduce the approach to the business at all levels, and drive it from the top to ensure line managers take this up.

2. Forge great teachers - Identify leaders who will facilitate the leader led learning sessions and equip them with the right skills.

3. Deliver content with ease - Create core learning materials that can be used across the entire business, so your leaders can deliver with confidence.

4. Integration into Business-As-Usual - Decide frequency and fit it into your regular team meeting sessions.

5. Follow through engagement - Use existing business / social media platforms to continue conversations and collaboration online. Gamification is a great way to keep things going!

6. Money talk - Decide how to make the learning measurable in terms of business gains

This article was contributed by Anna Tan, Managing Director, Wentworth People Asia

Find out more at www.wentworthpeople.com.sg or write to anna.tan@wentworthpeople.com

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FEATURE » Corporate Training

CASE STUDY: MSLGROUP ASIA Akankasha Dewan speaks with Amy Kong, regional director of learning and people development at MSLGROUP Asia, on the best practices to create a high-impact learning organisation.

Today, corporate training has assumed predominant importance in the corporate landscape. Employers and employees alike have realised that training improves the potency of professionals and ultimately helps the company to zip ahead on the corporate path.

In fact, according to the Q2 2014 Employment Confidence Survey by Glassdoor, 72% of employees stated they believed specialised training to acquire specific skills is more valuable than a degree.

Additionally, 63% of employees surveyed said learning new skills or receiving special training is more important than a big paycheck.

“The national conversation about the value of higher education and gainful employment is a topic alive within companies,” Rusty Rueff, career and workplace expert, Glassdoor said.

However, any corporate training programme, conducted in-house or outsourced, makes the biggest impact only when employees are willing to learn and undergo the shift in mindset that is required of them as they gain new knowledge.

Such a mindset can be inculcated with the help of a dynamic learning culture, says Amy Kong, regional director of learning and people development at MSLGROUP Asia.

“In this age of convergence and consumer empowerment, businesses now have to be more agile than ever to capitalise on emerging opportunities to stay ahead of the competition,” Kong says.

“Training is a development tool, but what is more critical for companies is to help employees build a growth mindset and create a learning culture. For example, at MSLGROUP in Asia, our entire learning and people development (L&PD) strategy is designed to encourage a learning culture.”

She highlights five unique ways her company’s L&PD team uses to build a learning culture to enhance the impact of its outsourced and internal training processes.

Designing easily accessible training programmes which empower thinking The fi rst includes choosing and designing training programmes which aim to empower thinking, instead of merely providing answers.

“They are designed to teach thinking frameworks, applied to real-life situations that help our employees develop critical thinking abilities that allow them to fi nd their own answers. It empowers them to be independent thinkers and it helps them to gain confidence when in a situation that they have not faced before,” Kong explains.

Second, the company surrounds its employees with learning avenues at different touch-points, offering different types of learning.

“When our employees want to learn, learning options are available. We have formal professional skills training in the form of workshops and regional summits, and a training library – called the Asia Agency Enrichment Collection – containing ready made training materials that supervisors can take to train their own teams.”

The company also has informal learning avenues, including ongoing knowledge-sharing emails, which are delivered into inboxes on a bi-weekly basis, email groups set up to share trends and knowledge across the network, and rotating subscriptions to professional e-learning libraries that employees can request for access for personal learning.

“We have two strong mobility programmes – the Asia Mobility Experience, a short-term work mobility

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Corporate Training « FEATURE

programme that allows employees to work at any office in Asia from two days to three weeks, and the Together Work’s Better programme that sends employees to any destination across our global network to spend one week visiting the office and understanding another culture.

“We also have Grow! – our mentoring programme that pairs our top 100 executives across our network with emerging young talent across the world.”

Making learning clear and exciting The third step to building an encouraging learning culture is to ensure all programmes, internal or external, are based on voluntary participation, as the programmes are not mandatory for everyone, beyond certain compulsory programmes.

“Learning has to be self-motivated, and forcing employees to meet a training hour quota is not going to encourage a positive mindset or personal ownership of one’s own development. Th is also ensures the L&PD function produces quality programmes that are relevant to employees and teams,” she says.

“We want to create a situation where our employees put their hands up in excitement when they hear of a training programme being offered, because when they step into the classroom or enter the programme, they are ready to learn. And when they leave, they should feel so enriched by the programme that they start recommending it to their colleagues, who will in turn volunteer to attend the programme. Th is then creates a virtuous cycle that in the long term helps to create a learning culture.”

The company also doesn’t believe in maintaining legacy programmes or training programmes which are being conducted only because they have been in place for a long time.

“If it doesn’t work, we trash it. And because many of our programmes are based on voluntary participation, we know quickly whether or not a programme is valued by our employees.”

And fi nally, another important practice the company follows is to actively communicate the need for learning.

Kong elaborates the organisation’s emphasis on learning is a constant drumbeat, and the L&PD team actively communicates to keep the importance of learning and training programmes it has available at the forefront of staff ’s minds.

“We update our senior leaders in Asia regularly on L&PD programmes and the results achieved. We have quarterly updates sent to all employees in Asia to update them on the L&PD activities conducted and which of their

colleagues have successfully completed programmes.”

Developing a relevant learning roadmap “We develop overviews of the entire L&PD programme for the year that are distributed to employees to help facilitate their development conversations during performance appraisals. When any L&PD team member travels to offices in the region, we conduct in-person briefi ngs to employees on the L&PD roadmap for the year.”

Kong adds having a good development roadmap is also the fi rst step to consider when designing an effective employee training programme – both for leaders and employees. Th is step is integral as it enables training to remain relevant – something which is often lacking in organisations.

A Cegos Asia Pacific survey on major learning trends across the region recently found “a lack of dialogue in some organisations between professionals and the learning community” and concluded that some training provided may be “considered irrelevant, out-of-date, or simply not required.”

“Th is is particularly true in our survey of participants from India and, surprisingly, Singapore,” the report stated.

Such presence of irrelevancy between training programmes and the needs of the professionals being trained in question is precisely why Kong stresses on the need to identify what the aims of training are.

“First, it has to be clear how the training is going to ladder up to meet the business strategy. Time and resources are limited, and if your business leader doesn’t see how the training programme is going to help meet the business strategy, he/she won’t see your value or support the programme.”

Kong explains it’s also integral for target employees to know how the training will impact them directly.

“We are now in an on-demand environment, where people only seek information when they need it. So, immediate relevance to the employee’s job or career, timing of the programme, whether employees are in the right environment and have the right tools to apply the lessons of the training are factors that need to be considered.”

To ensure such training remains relevant for the employees in question, Kong suggests incorporating reallife situations or case studies in learning programmes.

Customising learning helps participants link their learning to their daily jobs.

“Finally, what training follow-up should be planned to ensure that employees apply the learning from a training programme into their daily work,” she says.

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FEATURE » Compensation & Benefits

It’s that time of the year when most organisations are in the midst of performance cycles. With the spotlight on the rewards team to craft strategies to match both cost and workforce needs, Aditi Sharma Kalra uncovers the compensation outlook for 2015.

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Compensation & Benefits « FEATURE one are the days where companies had the luxury of tossing up money at the problems they faced. The world before the financial meltdown of 2008-09 was one characterised by excess, while the era since has been often classified as the new normal.

Low hanging fruit is harder to come by for organisations, which now have to go the extra mile in most geographies, product lines, or targeting consumer groups. Innovation – be it in the form of newer solutions or newer ways of doing things – is repeatedly proving to be the key source of competitive advantage.

The impact of all these developments has not been lost on those in charge of devising the best ways to attract, reward and retain an organisation’s critical talent. HR teams, and their compensation and benefits professionals, have been party to a sea change in their job descriptions.

Hay Group’s research on “The Changing Face of Rewards” identified managing costs as the top business challenge in 2010. This theme spilled over as a top driver of rewards as well, which the study identified as external benchmarks, performance management and cost management.

Is it about costs versus compensation?

Rather than being at opposing ends of the spectrum, costs and compensation have emerged as complementary. What that means for C&B professionals in 2015 is a continuing focus on defining what performance and productivity mean to the organisation.

Sai Yew Yeoh, AirAsia’s group head of rewards and people services, speaks of the environment in Malaysia, as well as across the region.

“With the currency deficit and the drop in oil prices, the market outlook is quite uncertain.

Most companies are re-looking at their strategies and trying to minimise costs. Where possible, nice-to-have expenses will have to be worked on,” he says.

At the airline, performance of the off-ground staff is measured simply in terms of the number of flying hours.

“Our packages are exercised based on productivity. The reason is because our industry is quite volatile, so we try to minimise fixed costs as much as possible.”

That entails a greater focus on variable compensation, so that “the more they work, the more they get”. In fact, about two-thirds of the

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FEATURE » Compensation & Benefits pay for cabin crew and pilots is made up of the variable of flying hours.

However, this framework is not without its own share of complexity. With statutory requirements different across countries, each definition of performance varies slightly.

Sai Yew takes the example of medical leave, which has various country specific implications impacting productivity. The policy is straightforward in Malaysia and Singapore, where employees are entitled to a certain number of sick days in a year which they cannot exceed, dependent upon producing a doctor’s note.

However, Indonesia’s law provides for unlimited sick leave, while in Japan, it is unusual for employees to take sick leave at all. As a result, what defines and incentivises productivity has to be tweaked not just per statutes, but also the culture in each country.

“For markets with more entry to junior-level professionals, there should be a greater emphasis on the cash component. In markets which hire a more mature workforce, we see C&B strategies more focused on the benefits component such as setting up a pension fund or health insurance.”

– Joanne Chua, account director at Robert Walters Singapore

Optimising the rewards spend The “nice-to-have expenses” Sai Yew talks about implies that a better use of rewards spend is a priority for companies in 2015. And the first step to that is identifying what employees really want.

Over at Alstom Asia, the team has been looking at making better use of its benefits money.

Says Joanne S.Y. Chan, the company’s compensation and benefits director for East Asia Pacific: “Medical and insurance costs are going up by 10% to 20% in some of our own countries of operations, like Singapore and Malaysia.

“So we were working to get a better handle of what employees really want in terms of benefits.

We were looking at ways to collect data from them through focus groups and such.”

The feedback it got was that while employees were satisfied with their own coverage levels, they wanted any additional benefits outlay to help them with better and higher coverage for dependents.

“We recognise that medical costs will go up, but it’s a matter of getting a better return on the money that we are spending.”

Joanne Chua, account director at Robert Walters Singapore, helps to decode employees’ needs further.

“For markets with more entry to junior-level professionals, there should be a greater emphasis on the cash component. In markets which hire a more mature workforce, we see C&B strategies more focused on the benefits component such as setting up a pension fund or health insurance.”

Perhaps this consideration towards going back to what employees want most will minimise the element of risk, and make for a more responsible way to determine returns on reward spend.

What employees want most At the end of the day (or year), all signs point to money as the reigning monarch to rule employees’ minds. The extent of financial compensation, be it though base pay, bonus or monetary incentives, is expected to be at the forefront of attraction as well as retention strategies in 2015.

Take Singapore, where more than two-thirds of employees are either quite or very likely to leave their current role this year, as reported in a new Michael Page survey. An increase in salary was cited as the second biggest reason for wanting to change roles, beaten off by career progression as the top reason, by close to a quarter of local staff.

The issue was sparked by rising costs of living, which more than half said was a big concern for them. In turn, if offered financial rewards, almost a third of respondents admitted they would remain in their current job.

Fifty-five per cent also said they were planning to ask their employers for higher compensation within the next 12 months.

In fact, signs point to compensation playing a key role in attracting overseas locals back to their home countries, in talent-short countries such as Singapore and Malaysia.

Another study, this one by Hays, found that almost half (49%) of Singaporeans currently either studying or working overseas will consider

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FEATURE » Compensation & Benefits

Tracing the rewards path: The first step lies in identifying what employees really want.

returning to the nation only if they can increase their salary.

Singaporeans are not the only ones motivated by increased salaries, as one-third of returning Chinese and 38% of returning Malaysians agree on this count, suggesting salary is a key motivator.

“Singaporeans looking to return are wary of the high cost of living and housing. For families with children, international schooling is cited as an attractive inclusion in a salary package,” noted the report.

Explains Nicholas Fernandez, HR manager at Robert Walters Malaysia: “From our experience, some companies are open to offering ‘expat packages’ to returning Malaysians. Companies who offer local packages in some form or way may also have additional benefits such as positioning the candidate at a higher end of the salary band or relocation allowances.”

Adds Chua: “Compensation will be pegged to

the level of the role. Hiring managers also need to be mindful that the tax rate in Singapore is lower than most developed countries. Hence, candidates should also not assume they will earn more than their local counterparts upon return.”

In such regions where skilled local talent has been hard to come by, the government has intervened with measures to make it easier to tap into the local workforce, such as Malaysia’s Returning Expat Programme, and Singapore’s Fair Consideration Framework.

Increasingly, compensation and benefits professionals, not just in large more established companies, are seeing their role evolving from that of a support system to a real enabler in tapping into the pulse of happy employees at all levels.

The best rewards practitioners will likely keep one eye on long-term business strategies, and the other on employees’ needs, for a delicate balance between the bling and the bucks.

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SPONSORED RECRUIT CONTENT HOW TO THIS ARTICLE WAS BROUGHT TO YOU BY ALEX SWARBRICK, ROFFEY PARK

WHEN IT’S VUCA, WHO DO YOU CALL? VUCA - Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity - is everywhere at the moment. Both the acronym and the phenomena seem inescapable.

Maybe that’s because it’s a fairly new concept. Or maybe the world’s always been that way, but we’ve stopped pretending otherwise.

Issues which once called for analysis, speed of response, operational problem solving and elimination of uncertainty have been superseded by dilemmas which require sense-making, patience, collaboration, and engagement with uncertainty.

The traditional view suggests that managers objectively and rationally consider a challenge and select the most appropriate approach.

What actually happens isn’t so objective, rational, scientific or absolute. Grint (illustration) argues that how managers construe an issue, and how they choose to represent it to others, legitimises the use of the type of power that they have available and choose to apply to the problem.

And if you think of strategic HR as pursuing long-term organisational advantage through its people in the context of the organisation’s wider environment, it starts to sound a lot like OD. Where OD and HR can converge is in the mindset required to address Wicked problems, It’s a mindset which is systemic, which pays attention to the wider environment within which a specific project or task is located, which attends to the interconnections across the organisation, and to the dynamics of how things work as well as the tasks to be accomplished.

Many organisations and their HR / OD functions are choosing leadership development as a strategy to cope with VUCA, and when they do, our advice is: 1. Have the whole organisation in mind. This means asking a series of strategic and systemic questions at the very outset, such as: • What’s the rationale for developing leadership within the business strategy?

• What kind of culture are we seeking to model in how this is delivered?

• What motivates leaders and their followers in the organisation?

• Does the organisational structure help or hinder the leadership behaviours we are seeking to develop?

2. Make it participative. This is about asking what is possible to enable leaders to shape and create the programme for themselves.

3. Be curious and inquiring. This is an orientation towards gathering information and making sense of what is going on, rather than an orientation towards controlling and fixing problems.

4. Take account of the power dynamics of the organisation. This is about noticing dynamics such as who in the system is being heard loud and clear, who is not. Who makes decisions?

In the same way, an HR professional facing a clear breach of employment law, is likely to see it as Critical, and respond accordingly. There is no uncertainty of solution, and HR has been used to seeing the world in that way.

‘Tame’ problems, those which we see as necessitating the application of a procedure, policy or precedent, is operational HR territory. We’ve seen the problem before and will have experience and precedent to draw on.

Grint’s typology would categorise VUCA as a ‘Wicked’ problem. The solution is uncertain.

Addressing the issue requires collaboration, multiple perspectives; there is ambiguity surrounding the risks and benefits of alternative approaches, all of which may have a connection to the business’s vision and strategy, culture, style of leadership, values, structure, and management practices.

So who do you call? HR or OD? Or both?

The worlds of OD and HR If you describe OD as looking at an organisation in its entirety, at the interdependence between its external environment and its internal complex human systems, and seeking to develop organisational effectiveness, then it starts to sound bit like strategic HR.

So when it’s VUCA, who do you call?

In a VUCA world, increasingly dominated by ‘Wicked’ problems, our experience is that organisations are more and more seeking to cultivate a mindset which combines the human focus, big picture philosophy of OD with the strategic grasp of the people implications of Strategic HR. And if still in doubt, call both and see who answers.

Roffey Park is a leading international leadership institute and centre of excellence in OD based in the UK and Singapore.

For more information about Roffey Park Institute, please go to www.roffeypark.com

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FEATURE » Compensation & Benefits

CASE STUDY: MASTERCARD When MasterCard was looking to implement a new incentives programme for its salespersons globally, it made sure to bring each stakeholder on board, Mike McCarthy, the company’s group head of HR for APMEA, tells Aditi Sharma Kalra.

The learning organisation expert, Peter Senge, once said: “People don’t resist change. They resist being changed!”

So when MasterCard was looking to implement a new incentives programme last year for its salespersons, slated to impact about a quarter of the regional workforce, it made sure to bring each stakeholder on board along on every step of the way.

Mike McCarthy, group head of HR for MasterCard in Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa, explains the need for the new programme. “Our incentive programme for salespeople had been in place for a number of years.

People were comfortable with it, and they could work out what was coming their way.”

But internal and external changes encouraged the organisation to re-look at the way it rewards performance.

Rewinding the clock, MasterCard was created by a group of banks to allow money transfers. For the largest part of its history, it was an association, with members, not customers. As a result, the eye was not always on profits.

“Since we became publicly listed, there is much more focus on growing the business. Our customer base has become more diverse to include consumer groups, merchants, technology companies, and governments.

“We wanted the change in the customer base and focus to be reflected in how we were measuring people.

“For example, a lot of the work we do with the governments is about how we can drive fi nancial inclusion. It’s not where we make money, but it’s a very important part of our business.”

As a result, there was a need for a new scheme – one that reflected not just “what” sales teams were achieving, but “how” they were achieving that, and the effort put in.

For example, a salesperson in one country may have an apple fall from the tree into their arms, while in another, someone may be working their fi ngers to their bone, but end up with very little to show for it.

“Another thing is our HR business partners in this region have very good relationships with the business heads and line managers, so they got them to sign up.”

And for the “hard core miscreants”? A little bit of motivation, strong arming, and lots of communication.

“Once it was rolled out, it was communicated. Once people had to set their target, we had another round of training. We reviewed the objectives during the year,” chimes in Patricia Goh, APAC head of C&B. Adds McCarthy: “A lot of HR teams feel the need to introduce a programme as a surprise and that’s the absolute worst (thing) you can do. You need to have the business inputs from the start, go out and test those.

“We didn’t just pack our friends on board. We got some of the more vocal members who will ask questions.”

The feedback received is that the scheme now better reflects what the sales teams are doing out in the market.

“From an HR perspective, you want to have reward schemes that are recognised by those doing the job as appropriate, and being an incentive that makes them want to do lots more of the stuff that makes money, that builds relationships and drives fi nancial inclusion.

“In any function, if you are not adding to the bottom line, if you are not adding to profit, if you are not reducing risk, if you are not enhancing brand and reputation, then do g what at you aaree do g why are you doing doing?”

Countering resistance As with all changes, the team saw some initial pushback.

“But the way we did this project, which is quite typical of MasterCard, is that all key stakeholders were involved.

Not every individual had a say, but every group, geography and business area was represented.”

Equally important was the training of line managers and country heads, he adds. After some resistance, they came on board once they understood the concept, which was key to the implementation.

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SPONSORED RECRUIT CONTENT HOW TO THIS ARTICLE WAS BROUGHT TO YOU BY PAGEUP

HOW WILL YOU ACHIEVE YOUR HR GOALS IN 2015?

An attractive global launch pad for multinational corporations (MNCs), Southeast Asia has a lot going for it – a large and young workforce, a resilient GDP with growth rates in the 5% to 8% range, and rich natural resources, to name just a few.

But, along with these encouraging factors come talent management challenges that even the most sophisticated organisations find themselves struggling to overcome.

during and after learning. In addition, support action-based learning by combining traditional assessments and formal training with experiential learning as well as coaching and mentoring.

Employing these best practices across your talent management functions will allow you to be both responsive at a local level while still taking advantage of global efficiencies facilitated through today’s sophisticated technology solutions.

Top 3 HR goals of 2015 To tackle these challenges, HR professionals are focusing their efforts in several targeted areas in 2015. The top three – according to the recent HR Trends Survey conducted by Human Resources magazine – include improving recruitment, retaining top talent and developing current talent. There are a number of ways that you can address these business critical areas if they are also on your company’s priority list for 2015.

1. How to improve talent recruitment How can you best manage your proactive and reactive recruitment needs in a way that is both cost-effective and localised to reach better quality hires? The right talent acquisition system can ensure that you can connect with the best talent while streamlining the overall recruitment process.

State-of-the-art systems that are built for today’s mobile and social world provide innovative methods to create engaging, localised career websites. The sophisticated technology available now allows companies to create a stronger connection with candidates through language and style adaptations that speak directly to candidates’ cultures and interests. Real-time communication capabilities also enable a more efficient recruitment process that results in improvements in time to hire.

2. How to retain top talent Although talent retention is considered business-critical for most MNCs, less than one-third feel that their talent retention strategies are adequate, according to a PageUp research study of businesses in Southeast Asia.

While there are multiple reasons why an employee intends to stay or leave, MNCs can use diverse HR policies and practices to minimise the risk of losing top talent, including: • Using a dynamic process to identify future leaders, as well as recognising and rewarding high-performing employees.

• Conducting regular reviews to identify individual development needs.

• Aligning individual development plans with business priorities.

• Conducting employee engagement surveys annually and as-needed.

• Creating opportunities to develop strong personal connections with the organisation.

3. How to train and develop your workforce The high ratio of unskilled-to-skilled labor in Southeast Asia creates a significant demand for multinationals to give their employees the workplace competencies they need to develop faster. By developing the capabilities of the existing talent pool, MNCs can build on the talent acquisition investments that they have already made.

To ensure that you have a ready supply of skilled talent, use an engaging learning management system that supports your organisation’s specific business needs and also encourages online interaction and social networking before,

This article is contributed by Karen Cariss, PageUp Founder & CEO

Since 1997, PageUp has helped employers worldwide attract, hire, develop, retain, and improve employee performance. Our Unified Talent Management technology helps you optimise your multinational workforce strategy, maximise business impact and continuously improve the return on your human capital investment.

Find out more at http://www.pageuppeople.com or write to karenc@pageuppeople.com

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FEATURE » Executive Relocation

As corporations become more globalised, relocating employees successfully has become a key tenet of business growth. But how can HR and mobility managers overcome complications arising from moving large volumes and different types of talent?

Akankasha Dewan finds out.

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Executive Relocation « FEATURE oday, relocation has become one of the key watchwords in businesses worldwide.

Rather than relying solely on bringing someone new to boost growth, companies are focusing on putting the right talent in the right places – all in order to achieve optimal amounts of growth in the fastest amount of time.

According to the 2014 “Global Mobility Policy and Practices” survey by Cartus, while the majority of companies indicated their mobility activity was “status quo” over the past two years, 50% of companies expected to see their mobility volume increase for the following two years.

The survey, which polled 172 mobility managers, also highlighted that 38% of respondents said their global mobility programme was critically important to achieving short-term business goals (up 13 percentage points from 2012), and 63% said global mobility was critically important to strategic global expansion (up 12 percentage points from 2012).

Expressing her personal opinions on the issue, Sheila Teyu, senior advisor for global mobility at Dell, says there are many invaluable things that one can learn from working in a different country.

“Firstly, you learn to be more culturally sensitive, and learn survival skills you thought you never had.

“From a business standpoint, I think relocation opportunities also enable us to become better team members and business partners by learning to work in different group dynamics, grow our networks, and build stronger and more effective communication skills.

Providing relocation opportunities is also a way for the business to attract talent.”

The evolution of relocation With more companies relocating large volumes and different strata of talent for a range of purposes, managing international assignments for assignees has become more complex. This has raised a need for the international HR leader to provide a quality experience for relocating employees and their families.

According to a report from Brookfield Global Relocation Services, these assignments not only create new challenges, but add some twists to existing assumptions held by mobility managers.

“Current trends are showing an increase in assignments from developing locations,” said Scott Sullivan, executive vice president of Brookfield Global Relocation Services.

“Recognising the changing international environment, it can no longer be business as usual. It will require more flexibility in a company’s approach and assignment policies in order to ensure an assignee is successful in a new location as well as avoiding costly errors often at times associated with this type of assignment.”

Sean Collins, founder of Talent Mobility Asia, acknowledges a shift in relocation priorities and motivations, adding a mobility manager today has to shoulder a vast range of responsibilities to relocate employees successfully.

“If you look at mobility now, it is very different from what it was 10 or 20 years ago,” he says.

“In the past, it was very much multinational – mainly involving sending senior people overseas to help start up companies in international locations and it was a very one-sizefits-all-expats kind of package.

“Now, because we’re all so global, and talent pools have been globalised, we’re getting all different segments of talent moving around.

“So companies have to build flexible policies to support all these different talent types – from those who have just started their careers and want some more exposure to the middle and senior management. We have got that whole range now, and companies need to segment that talent and build policies to support each kind.”

Teyu agrees, and adds she has seen an evolution in the process by which relocation packages are approached today.

The increasing reliance on flexible relocation packages “Over time, companies have adapted different strategies to accommodate them. Because there is so much focus on compliance and cost-control now, it is not as easy as before,” she explains.

“I know more and more companies are adopting a more flexible policy approach nowadays, which means relocation packages are no longer all standard or fixed. ‘Non-standard’ relocation packages are a new standard now, as this gives the business discretion in providing benefits which are not really mandatory (e.g. language lessons, spouse assistance, etc).”

She adds such flexible policies are useful because they help cut down overall costs (not sacrificing compliance) which then enables them to still provide good relocation opportunities.

Employees, in turn, are happy when they see their concerns addressed through the package.

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FEATURE » Executive Relocation Collins agrees with such an increased amount of evaluation in crafting employee relocation packages, and adds the country to which the employee is relocated plays an important role in customising these packages.

“Companies are looking at the type of packages they are giving to people. They are still using a typical expat package, but they have reserved these packages now mainly for principal talent, and those which showcase a lot of potential for development,” he says.

Collins explains companies are creating other low-cost alternatives today, such as local plus and local lite.

“In fact, there are lots of different packages that are being created now to try and fit specific needs. Local plus programmes can be country specific, for example, in Singapore.

“Singapore is an attractive place for people to move to, so companies in the past would have

“Essentially you have a way to track and highlight potential tax and legal risks, and that’s very important. It is about really just leveraging expertise that’s out there in the industry to come and help support them in their role.”

– Sean Collins, founder of Talent Mobility Asia

provided significant support for housing and education and other aliments on local plus. Now, they’re re-looking at where support is needed.”

He adds support is generally needed in elements such as education because it’s difficult to fit an international child into local schools.

Factors such as housing allowances, however, are being re-evaluated to see if they can be reduced.

“Housing is a personal choice – you can choose to live in a very expensive central area or you could choose to live a little outside the centre of Singapore and get more value for your money. So, companies are kind of reassessing and addressing expectations of their transferees and assignees.”

Overcoming challenges Such flexible packages have also helped in overcoming some of the biggest challenges typically associated with mobility programmes.

According to the Cartus survey, mobility managers worldwide stated the three biggest challenges causing them to lose sleep were controlling costs (77% of respondents), housing (47%) and compliance-related issues (45%).

“A lot of companies are doing the surveys and the ‘voice of the customer’ as they call it, to find out which benefits and allowances are most valued to employees,” Collins says.

“That way, they can re-adjust and concentrate on the support that provides the most value and the most impact. Sometimes, the most valuable types of supports are not the most costly.

“For example, spouse support is a very low cost item, but can add huge impact to the family.

So, companies are trying to re-look at their packages. Things like mobility premiums are being reduced, and cost of living and housing allowances are being revised after looking at more efficient indexes.”

Teyu also admits that while cost containment is not a new challenge for global mobility managers, she believes they face constant pressure from the business to cut down on programme costs.

She adds managers, however, need to ensure they do not cut costs by sacrificing compliance.

“Compliance is definitely one of the biggest challenges. With each country having different tax and immigration laws, I think global mobility managers have a need to be always on the forefront of these regulations to ensure their mobility programmes will meet the necessary compliance requirements for each destination they have moves in,” she says.

She explains that in her experience, another challenge is explaining to the business the compliance issues present in international relocations, even on business trips.

“All the business tends to see is that this employee has a visa to go, so it must surely be all right to go.

“They don’t realise until too late that a business/tourist visa is not always the right type of visa for the work they are doing in that country, and there may be potential tax liabilities under certain countries’ tax laws when they cross over a certain number of days.”

Having enough knowledge about the complications involved in overcoming compliance and cost-related issues is therefore, integral, if mobility managers wish to minimise the risks of relocating employees overseas.

“Next, I think one of the biggest challenges

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FEATURE » Executive Relocation for global mobility managers out there is also educating the business and making them aware of these compliance risks so we can catch them before they actually leave the country,” she says.

“It’s important for HR business partners to actively communicate with global mobility managers when doing any long or short-term international moves to assess any compliance concerns,” she adds.

Outsourcing relocation programmes versus designing them in-house But do companies generally have such in-house resources and knowledge necessary to craft optimal relocation packages?

“Well, the larger companies would typically have a mobility expert in-house,” Collins says.

“But small or medium-sized companies may not have the volume to justify a full-time person dedicated to mobility.

“Mobility is a very technical area, and you have got very complex kind of mobility situations to deal with every day, such as tax and legal compliance, so it’s a very specialised part of HR,” he says.

“For companies who do not have the volume to justify a full-time mobility person or a function, then it typically falls to HR to do the job.

“That is precisely when issues can arise because the expertise simply isn’t there.”

“The HR manager or director would be busy with other parts of their role, so they may not have the time to dedicate to learning about the latest regulations or spending enough time on developing policies or strategising business.”

In such situations, Collins advises companies should engage with external vendors to craft the most relevant and strategic relocation packages.

“If companies don’t have the in-house expertise or manpower to manage their assignment programmes, there are vendors out there they can source.

“Those vendors can help bring in some of the expertise to manage the administration of the assignment programme,” he says.

He adds hiring external vendors to successfully relocate employees is a good investment by a company to get some solid policies in place.

Such policies will also ensure a consistent approach globally throughout the company and get some systems in place for compliance.

“Essentially you have a way to track and highlight potential tax and legal risks, and that’s

very important. It is about really just leveraging expertise that’s out there in the industry to come and help support them in their role.”

Crafting in-house relocation programmes For those companies who do not have the resources to engage external vendors, Teyu suggests crafting an internal relocation package that strikes a perfect balance between three key elements.

This includes, first, a package which meets compliance requirements in the host location, including governable and local employment law requirements.

Second, the company and business itself must be agreeable to the costs and contents of said package.

The last element involves a mindful and active role by the company to provide the best support to relocating employees.

“As a company, we do believe in providing a ‘duty of care’ to assignees, so while the business can keep pressuring us to cut costs, as global mobility managers, we do have to be mindful of the employee’s best interests and experience too,” Teyu says.

Collins adds crafting an internal mobility package should also be done keeping in mind the requirements and motivations of the company and the type of employee being transferred.

“When we look at an intern, for example, they’re bound to have a completely different package compared to a senior leader.

“It also really depends on the culture of the company,” he points out.

Some companies are typically very generous – they do a lot of hand-holding.

Other companies are more laid back and promote mobility and expect their people to put up their hand and grasp opportunities and largely invest themselves in the experience.

“The key elements of support are making sure the right visas are in place and making sure the family gets settled in.

“The core kinds of support you see in most packages are things like the flight allowance, the shipment allowance and some temporary housing so you at least get the family settled.

“Then, you will see some optional but, obviously, quite valuable things like intercultural training, spouse support, and language training if they go into a country which doesn’t speak English or their first language.”

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Executive Relocation « FEATURE

CASE STUDY: ALSTOM ASIA Labour and workforce issues often lead to companies relocating staff to different locations. But how can HR ensure that expectations of expatriates are in line with company provisions? Akankasha Dewan speaks with Joanne S.Y. Chan, compensation and benefits director for East Asia Pacific at Alstom Asia, to find out.

Managing international assignments for assignees has, over time, become more complex, as it requires HR managers to adhere to the needs of each assignee.

Such was the problem Joanne S.Y. Chan, compensation and benefits director for East Asia Pacific at Alstom Asia, faced when the company required international talent to fulfi l its growth aspirations.

“Alstom has been in the country for twenty years. Eight years ago, we started construction of the Circle Line MRT, when the company was growing rapidly,” she says.

“At the time, the nation did not have adequate rail expertise. We had no choice, but to get talent from somewhere else. We were buying and borrowing, more than building, when it came to skills. We didn’t have time to build the expertise we needed, owing to rapid growth.”

Chan recounts how different packages were being used for different employees, depending on the negotiation and the demand for their expertise.

“As a result, we soon had many different pay practices in place, and there was a need for internal equity.”

Streamlining the process For a more methodical approach towards crafting expatriate packages, Chan’s team put in place a local-plus policy in 2009. It was aimed towards standardising the terms and conditions of expats’ employment contracts - a way to control costs as well as maintain internal equity.

“The basic principle was they could come to Singapore without getting the full-fledged expats’ bells and whistles.

Most MNCs, including us, offer these bells and whistles to the senior-most layer,” Chan says.

“But here we had a way to provide mobility to our middle and lower level staff, without a full package, but by helping them through co-sharing of costs for a certain period of time.

“We offered to co-share their housing and schooling costs for four years after they moved, on a decreasing schedule. Over four years, the benefits would go away.”

A key strength of the package was the pay scales for employees relocating to Singapore were similar to their home countries.

“We are lucky that pay levels in Singapore are comparable to the developed world, and it also has a lower tax regime. Despite the currency exchange, net-to-net basis, we hardly had any issues matching pay.”

Overcoming loopholes Chan says the policy is still in place.

“We refreshed it last year. We had some feedback on loopholes or where things were not clear. So we tightened them, reviewed some amounts to make sure they are still reasonable, but the basic principles remain the same.”

The loopholes were mainly administrative in nature, such as the usage of different terminology in different contracts. To ensure clarity for all employees, Chan’s team is now putting in place a standard template for all staff.

Clear messaging about the details of the policy is also essential, since it is communicated on a case-to-case basis for those who fit the profi le of what the company is looking for.

Chan admits when her team fi rst implemented this policy, there was a fear employees would resign once their benefits expired after four years. But thankfully, this proved not to be the case. In fact, the programme has helped in boosting the company’s retention rates.

“Where our employee population was earlier only focused on the trains business, we have got more people who are coming in for other types of businesses and career movement,” she says.

“It has also helped us control costs, while putting a signal out that we encourage career mobility and we want to help our employees to do that. In that sense it has been successful. It was then used as a model for other countries to build their own local-plus policies, such as in Malaysia, China and Switzerland.”

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OPINION » Learning & development

Using technology to enhance talent management G. Thiyagarajan, regional HR director for Danfoss APA, writes how the company used technology to improve the effectiveness of its talent management processes.

Click to connect: The power of social media helped the company reduce the average cycle time for recruitment to about 50 days.

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Learning & development « OPINION The continuous innovation in information communication technologies (ICT) has brought complex challenges and opportunities for HR practitioners.

Realising the opportunities brought by the developments in ICT, Danfoss APA’s regional HR team has embraced changes with a positive mindset to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of its services. The results have been fascinating.

Talent acquisition In 2012, Danfoss APA spent almost one million Danish Kroner (DKK) on executive searches, and the average cycle time to close a position was very long. The cost was halved to DKK 444,000 in 2013 and we have also seen an improvement in cycle time.

In 2014, the cost was reduced to DKK 270,000; meaning the cost had been reduced by 70% in just two years and the average cycle time for 2014 was 50 days. It is important to note we did greater recruitment in numbers and seniority in 2014 compared with the previous years.

These results were because of our approach of posting all our open positions on social media such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and others. We encourage our employees to do the same in their social media accounts. We used the power of networking to reach our targeted talent.

Speak your mind through technology Attracting good talent is only the first battle in winning the war for talent.

It is commonly observed that even good employees have differences in opinion and conflict. Not all differences in opinion or conflict are bad. Conflict may help the team to see obstacles in different angles and contribute to innovation.

Danfoss is aware it is important to provide an avenue for employees to share their views without fear or favour.

We have created a website called WOYM – short for “What’s On Your Mind”.

This is a platform for employees to express their views or post any questions for management without revealing their identity. The management guarantees a reply within 48 hours.

It is good for management to know the barometer of the organisation and take any necessary actions.

Danfoss also uses technology to carry out two other surveys: 1. Survey on performance management.

2. Employee perceptions survey (EPS).

The first survey is carried out twice a year and depicts the employees’ perception of their immediate manager in the areas of leadership: clarity of direction, clear targets and accountability, regular review process, performance feedback and rewards.

The second survey is carried out once every other year. It measures employees’ engagement levels.

Both surveys have been outsourced to external vendors who ensure anonymity. The vendor only reveals the results if the team consists of a minimum of four employees.

As a result of such initiatives, the rate of voluntary resignation in the APA region has dropped from 19% in 2010 to below 10% in 2014. Additionally, the participation rate of the EPS survey has increased from 76% in 2011 to 78% in 2013.

The next survey will be carried out this year.

Talent development Danfoss’ competency assessment tool is a web-based tool that comes in handy for people managers to map the competencies needed for each position in their team.

It has a user-friendly drop-down menu that is very descriptive and provides the employee’s current mastery levels on the scale of 1-6.

This information can be used by people managers to plan the development actions for their subordinates.

Technology has helped Danfoss offer more than 1,100 training programmes as part of online learning. Additionally, we use technology to manage the process – from registering for training (internal and external) to conducting training as well as maintaining records.

At least 20% of our talent needs have been fulfilled via internal promotions.

This journey has been very exciting and fulfilling. We are committed to using technology more actively to support our employees and business to achieve greater heights.

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OPINION » People issues

Get prepared to pay for performance Pay for performance will work only if employees understand the rationale for differentiation.

PRAKASH SATAGOPAN Business compensation manager, APJ Hewlett-Packard

Pay for performance is one of the most discussed topics in HR circles, but the devil of this generally accepted pay philosophy lies in the details. How do we execute it effectively and ensure employees understand its rationale?

This is where HR managers need to dive in and understand the perspectives that can get it right.

Before we talk “pay”, let’s talk “performance”. To measure performance, it’s critical every employee and team are clear about: How their performance objectives are set; how their performance is measured, and how they get paid for this.

Setting performance objectives is about alignment of the organisational goals with the goals of each function. Function leaders have to determine how their team will contribute towards the overall goal, and communicate this effectively.

Many times, this activity has to be delivered against a timeline, which in my view, dilutes its essence. However, preparing ahead of time and planning a good communication strategy will ensure all employees understand their performance goals and sign up to them.

Be smart about measuring performance With the objectives set, it is equally important to be clear on how to measure performance against them, using the “whats” and the “hows”.

I categorise the “whats” as goals to accomplish, and while we set goals, we all need to set in motion the levers or metrics that will be used to measure performance in each role. For this, I suggest the SMART philosophy – specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-based.

On the other hand, I relate the “hows” to behaviours – how employees go about achieving their goals. This may be demonstrated by aspects such as collaboration, teamwork, leadership and execution. These often cannot be purely measured purely by metrics, and this is where interaction, discussion and gathering feedback become critical.

Calibrating performance With this done, every manager needs to spend time calibrating performance levels of each individual. Each job is unique and so is the person performing it. It becomes essential for managers to have consistent and clear expectations on both fronts.

This is where transparency, organisational framework and policies come into play to help managers differentiate performance. A bell curve approach is essential, but in practice there are challenges in implementing it, especially if the team size is small and performance is high. In this case, peer calibration, which involves relative comparison, may be useful.

Ready, set, pay: Start strong when educating staff on pay.

Communication Next comes a key driver of performance – communication, such as how effectively employees use one-on-one discussions with their managers and team members. A structured and regular one-on-one session is essential to ensure an employee is moving in the right direction. Discussions on challenges, progress and updates are critical, and performance results should not come as a shock or surprise to employees.

Equitable, not equal As compensation managers, we have a fixed budget. The objective is to pay equitable, but not equal. HR plays a critical role in educating managers and employees on how this works.

I have realised that even during a difficult year, a difficult performance decision can be executed well if the communication is clear, crisp and honest. Such decisions are driven by differentiation in performance, made by using pay bands and ratios. It is an important step, given that it shows how strongly the company believes in the philosophy. It has to be done with as much transparency as possible.

With that done, the right levers (base pay increase, bonuses, stock and other benefits) can be used to show that not only is the organisation equitable, but it also understands employee needs.

To take an example: employees often get confused when high performers at a high pay band receive a lower increase, while low performers at a low pay band receive a higher increase. We must ensure it doesn’t look like we want to pay everyone the same – it’s about how equitably we want to pay.

It’s clear employees need to be educated about the compensation philosophy - it can’t be avoided. Many firms do this only when it is due, but it really needs to be looked at as a constant evolving journey to educate.

Often, a perception is the reality. When employees are educated on the pay philosophy in a transparent way, the trust factor builds up and noise levels go down.

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»

Unconventional wisdom OPINION

What attracts talent to a startup (and makes them stay) Leveraging on the company’s corporate culture and attractive perks pays off in the long run.

ANDREW MURRAY Executive vice president of human resources, Lazada Group

Talent magnet: Autonomy over work schedules attracts talent to start-ups.

Before the global financial crisis hit in 2008, jobs in the financial sector were highly sought after by top performing graduates. Drawn by promises of hefty pay checks, it became a ritual for high flying graduates worldwide to join the ranks of large investment banks and financial institutions.

The prestige of a career in banking, however, has been dwindling. Following the crisis, which led to large job losses and tarnished reputations of major banks, there is now a trend towards ambitious graduates pursuing jobs that provide them with a greater sense of meaning and a better work-life balance.

Technology has subsequently become a more attractive industry to work in. Record numbers of university graduates and business school graduates are now choosing jobs in the technology industry, ahead of a career in finance.

There is now a strong entrepreneurial culture in Asia and cities such as Singapore have a fast growing start-up scene.

Singapore is a location that offers a favourable tax regime, stable political conditions, a growing pool of venture capital investors and a talented workforce, making it a very attractive location for both entrepreneurs and tech start-ups.

Moving away from convention Lazada is one of the companies that has benefited from Singapore’s favourable environment. However, its management team represents only a small percentage of an increasing number of finance and other high flying individuals leaving their corporate careers behind for the technology industry.

One such example is Sing Kwan Ng, a Malaysian national who Lazada hired from one of the top management consulting firms in Malaysia, two years after he graduated. He was fed up with consultancy life and looking for a new challenge.

He initially ran Lamido, an online marketplace owned by Lazada Group, in Malaysia. He immediately took on a huge amount of responsibility, including setting up the team and then building up the whole business in that market. He has now moved into a substantial regional role, based in Bangkok.

To attract more such individuals to join the technology sector, Lazada strives to maintain a relatively relaxed and informal culture and offers perks such as flexible working hours, which appeal to young graduates and professionals.

Indeed, this exciting and fast moving industry has attracted both professionals and graduates from a variety of different disciplines. From fashion to logistics, human resources, business development, marketing, and data analytics, the e-commerce industry has a role for everyone from all backgrounds.

This talented pool of employees remains the bedrock of Lazada’s success and the company has been effective in attracting and retaining the best talent in the region.

What makes talent stay Professionals that have moved to Lazada from leading consultancy firms and banks have cited the autonomy over their schedules, greater responsibility, and the opportunity to see results first-hand and the chance to shape the culture, instead of stepping into a predetermined culture with existing practices, as key factors that persuaded them to leave their jobs for a start-up.

Young professionals at Lazada enjoy a rapid career trajectory that comes with greater ownership and responsibility, which can be rare in other more hierarchical industries. Lazada’s employees are often given highly challenging and pioneering roles which provide them with the opportunity to help break new ground.

They are also given the opportunity to pursue crossfunctional roles. Young professionals value the opportunity for personal growth, multi-discipline learning and job diversity as they are exposed to a number of different parts of the business.

With Asia Pacific’s e-commerce sector projected to grow dramatically, and the attraction of Singapore as a strong regional hub for IT and technology professionals, hiring in the technology industry is likely to continue apace.

Lazada will continue to grow its talent pool this year, with a particular focus on mobile-related disciplines as mobile e-commerce continues its rapid growth in the region.

Additionally, recent high-profile data breaches and hacking incidents continue to fuel the need for data security professionals and business intelligence analysts that can help mitigate IT risks.

Technology is set to remain one of the major industries of choice for both young graduates and corporate professionals looking to capitalise off the huge opportunities this fast growing, dynamic sector offers.

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The HRDF Conference and Exhibition attracts an increasing number of local and international participants from across various industries.

Pembangunan Sumber Manusia Berhad (PSMB) is organising the HRDF Conference & Exhibition 2015 that will be held at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre in Malaysia from December 8-9 this year. This conference is comprehensive and demand-led, designed to reflect current needs and themes specially selected from extensive industry research from like-minded professionals; and, to gather, network, learn, debate and share best practices in a highly stimulating environment.

The HRDF Conference & Exhibition annual event is a convergence of forwardthinking HR professionals, academics and consultants who are committed to establishing effective HR business strategies today that will address the complex issues organisations will face tomorrow and in the near future.

As Malaysia takes lead of the Chairmanship of ASEAN 2015, economic integration will remain a strong pillar for the country to participate with other nations while emerging as a major force within the global economy.

The dynamism of the ASEAN, offering resilience, cross-border opportunities and synergies will lead to smarter and more intelligent partnerships that will open up more possibilities and growth opportunities.

Under the theme, “People, Prowess, Progress,” this annual event is a strategic platform that allows HR practitioners, specialists as well as experts to discuss and shape human capital potential in Malaysia and within the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC).

Values and Focus Issues The theme emphasises three key issues (People, Prowess, Progress) representing

the power and potential of the people, prowess to contribute to the Malaysian economy, and progress towards universal economic growth.

The conference will present different perspectives on human capital development by well-known speakers from various industries.

Among the focused issues that will be discussed during the conference include harnessing people potential, talent management, and talent mobility.

The Malaysian talent issue is a challenging hurdle to the country’s economic growth. It affects the country’s ability to deliver the talent needed to achieve a highincome nation. With much of the local talent getting attracted to companies abroad, this has resulted in a decreased availability of talent within the country.

The HRDF Conference & Exhibition 2015 is unique because it provides an serious interface between leading players of the industry and key personalities with decision makers in HR space. This will further encourages a meeting of minds to better understand human capital development in Malaysia and to exchange talent and resource ideas. The conference itself brings to surface specific business, people and talent investment opportunities.

With new challenges from market volatility, sub-prime losses, tightening credit and unemployment, participants will have the opportunity to engage in developing ideas and strategies to refine the country’s existing pool of talent.

They will also have the chance to learn to identify human resource development challenges and other related issues while creating opportunities and exposure for local talent.

Talent management is also a top priority for many businesses to remain

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During the two-day event, participants may also attend the parallel sessions that focus on specialised topics.

These sessions include “Talent Mobility – Helping with the Workforce Planning Disconnect”, “Collaboration Issues – Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) in Perspective”, “Cutting-Edge Solutions for Global Competitiveness”, “Emerging HR Technologies, Marketing Precepts, Innovation, Solutions”, “The Next Gen Leaders – Who and Where do we start” , “Generation Initiative - New Generation Bringing Innovation into the Workforce” and more.

History of HRDF Conference and Exhibition The HRDF Conference and Exhibition is currently in its 15th year and steadily drawing more participants every year, both local and international, from various industries.

HR professionals regard HRDF Conference and Exhibition as one of the “must-attend” HR conferences of the year. The event allows delegates the unique opportunity to reconnect, engage with, and explore future trends and best practices in the world of HR in this two-day, energy-packed event with renowned leading HR leaders.

The event regularly attracts numerous business professionals, HR practitioners and talent gurus. As a focal point for various HR related issues, it presents different perspectives on human capital development for discussions.

For HR professionals and experts, it provides an opportunity to expand their networks, enabling a bridge between leading players of the industry with key figures and decision makers in the HR field. These interactions encourage a meeting of minds to foster better understanding of human capital development while exchanging talent and resource ideas.

Furthermore, the event opens new prospects in surfacing specific businesses, people and talent investment opportunities.

The conferences’ rosters of speakers have brought together locally recognised experts and foreign presenters, including speakers from Australia, United Kingdom and US, in addition to neighbouring countries such as Singapore, Philippines and Indonesia from various industries, such as, construction, financial institutions, media, entertainment, and academics.

The delegates will also experience an opportunity to visit the exhibition booths which will provide an abundance of useful information on human resources training and development as well as learning modules that would suit their business needs.

For exhibitors, the HRDF Conference and Exhibition is the most anticipated event to showcase their products and services to participants attending the conference. This has fostered more opportunities for them to connect with a wide network as well as provided publicity for sharing useful information in regards to human resource training and development.

Venue Highlights The HRDF Conference & Exhibition 2015 will be organised at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre, allowing participants to enjoy the charms of Malaysia’s capital city after the conference and exhibition.

Located in Kuala Lumpur’s Golden Triangle area, it is also the city’s main shopping and nightlife district. Participants can visit the numerous shopping malls and pavilions located around Jalan P. Ramlee and Bukit Bintang. Foreign visitors may even use the opportunity to experience and sample some of Malaysia’s popular local dishes.

Other places of interest include the Aquaria KLCC located under the convention centre, Petrosains and the Petronas Twin Towers.

PSMB at a glance Pembangunan Sumber Manusia Berhad (PSMB) as an agency under the Ministry of Human Resources, was established in 1993 with the aim of developing quality human capital and a world-class workforce, to achieve the nation’s aspiration of attaining a developed country status by 2020, with a high-income economy based on knowledge and innovation.

The organisation since has embarked on a mission to enhance its workforce knowledge, skills and capabilities through effective management of its funds.

Being the most prestigious annual event in the HR world, HRDF Conference & Exhibition is organised by PSMB with the aim to educate and encourage employers to up skill their workforce. At the same time, it acts as the source for human resources expertise and professional connections, leveraging synergies and nurturing new skills that will optimise human resources.

Contact and Information Further information on the HRDF Conference and Exhibition is available at the PSMB website www.hrdf.com.my and various road shows. The event is now open to the public, and interested parties may contact the PSMB Contact Centre at 1800-884800 or via e-mail at azrulsyafiq@hrdf.com.my, mnaqmal@hrdf.com.my, khairul. effandi@hrdf.com.my or mohdkhairizal@hrdf.com.my

This article was written and contributed by Pembangunan Sumber Manusia Berhad, an agency under Malaysia’s Ministry of Human Resources to encourage employers covered under the Pembangunan Sumber Manusia Berhad Act 2001 to retrain and upgrade their workforce.

For more information, visit the Pembangunan Sumber Manusia Berhad website at www.hrdf.com.my and www.nhrc.com.my or call PSMB’s contact centre via 1-800-4800.

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Upwardly mobile « OPINION

Making room for part-timers in the workplace CORINNA CHEANG,

Find out how Jetstar's part-time cabin crew programme has helped to attract and retain experienced staff back into the workforce.

Head of people Jetstar Asia Airways

Serving up flexibility: Jetstar's programme has helped mothers re-enter the workplace.

When the Jetstar Asia part-time cabin crew programme was first introduced in the year 2009, it was considered an innovative and bold move in the aviation circles in Singapore. At the time, we were the only local airline in Singapore offering customer service pioneers in the industry a part-time work option.

The objectives behind the programme were three-fold – we wanted to foster a family friendly environment, welcome mothers back into the workplace and allow greater flexibility in the customer service team to support flights.

When the programme was first introduced, the reception was positive, as the airline was able to entice experienced flight attendants from world-class airlines to join us. In that first year, Jetstar Asia had 20 part-timers, most of them mothers.

The age group of the part-time cabin crew was between 30 to 60, and these cabin crew employees were passionate about flying and committed to the highest standards of service.

They were genuinely caring and aimed to put a smile on their passengers face every time they travelled.

They were also keen mentors, always ready to raise up the next generation of cabin crew teams to the service standard they were accustomed to.

Since then, the programme has continued to make Jetstar Asia a magnet for experienced cabin crew, who are looking for opportunities to rejoin the workforce and put their skills in customer service and people management to good use.

The flexibility offers part-time cabin crew the autonomy to manage their work schedules and strive for work-life balance.

The flying roster afforded back-to-work mothers predictability in

their schedules and also met the airline’s need to scale support for flights accordingly.

As a result of the programme, we have also further enhanced our work culture to be more inclusive of our parttime cabin crew. Part-time crews have structured medical and insurance programmes and are involved in our employee wellness programmes and staff recognition schemes.

We also developed a career progression programme for part-time crew as they continue to work with us.

The supportive work environment, fair compensation and job stability offered by the programme, has also stood the test of time and demonstrated relevance and resilience, as our part-time crew have the highest levels of engagement, are fiercely loyal and committed to delivering the highest levels of customer service.

Over the course of this year, the Jetstar people team has taken inspiration from the programme and has built into its recruitment and retention strategy the importance of promoting diversity at work. Across Asia, the people team at Jetstar has also refined our company values to “Celebrate Jetstar”.

Due in part to this, in the past 10 years, Jetstar Asia has earned itself a reputation in the fiercely competitive commercial aviation business as the top-ranking Singapore-based lowcost carrier in Singapore by Skytrax for many years, as well as the AsiaOne’s People’s Choice Award for low-cost carriers in Singapore in 2012 and 2013.

Our efforts to promote greater work-life balance and flexibility at work will continue because we believe a happy and engaged workforce makes happy customers.

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CAREERS » Personal development

uptheranks Tracking HR’s industry moves Who: Selina Chean To: P1 Networks Sdn Bhd (part of Telekom Malaysia) Selina Chean has been named chief human capital officer of Packet One Networks (P1) which was recently acquired by Telekom Malaysia.

In this role, she heads the departments of HR and organisation, learning and organisational development, recruitment centre, HR business partner, and facilities and administration.

She has 18 years of work experience in both regional as well as multicultural environments.

Her appointment was announced as part of the acquisition’s new management line-up. This includes Tan Sri Dato’ Zamzamzairani Mohd Isa, group CEO of TM, who will serve as P1’s chairman, and Puan Chan Cheong, CEO and managing director of P1, among others.

“The new P1 board and the rigorously selected management line-up of capable executives from TM, Green Packet, SK Telecom and P1 form a strong organisation that is expected to fully capitalise on partnership synergies and execute P1’s future business strategies and entry into the mobile LTE space,” a release stated.

Who: Datuk Wan Zulkiflee Wan Ariffin From: Petroliam Nasional Bhd (PETRONAS) To: PETRONAS Malaysia’s Prime Minister has named Datuk Wan Zulkiflee Wan Ariffin the new CEO and president of stateowned oil company PETRONAS. Presently the company’s chief operating officer and executive vice-president for downstream, his appointment will be effective 1 April 2015, for a period of three years, due to end on 31 March 2018.

He joined the company in 1983 as a process engineer and has since held various positions within the group. He is also a member of the company’s board, the executive committee and management committee.

He is replacing Tan Sri Shamsul Azhar Abbas, whose contract expired early in 2015, but has been extended to 31 March.

personalgrowth THE POWER OF APPRECIATION Besides the most productive employees, HR leaders can use the power of appreciation to single out those who contribute in meaningful ways towards organisational culture, believes Akankasha Dewan.

Most HR leaders know the value of appreciating everyone in the office. Not only do your staff feel inspired to put in more effort at work, they also feel supported and encouraged knowing there are people who are actively noticing and commending their work.

There are some employees who make the office a better one to work in – in ways which go beyond bringing in the biggest amount of revenue.

Surely, they deserve an equally loud round of thanks from everyone in the office?

Here are some examples to consider.

1. The most positive worker Job dissatisfaction, rumours and backstabbing are the most popular themes of hush-hush office conversations. In such scenarios, an optimistic and smiling team member does wonders to lift spirits and encourage camaraderie, making for a more enjoyable experience.

2. The most helpful worker Busy schedules, piling to-do lists and a lack of time are challenges which almost all leaders encounter. In such situations, a team member taking time out from their own schedule to help others is a rarity.

It’s wise to acknowledge such employees’ efforts – not only do they help your team complete its targets on time, but they also serve as a brilliant example of teamwork.

3. The most creative worker Highlight those team members who have attempted to do something out-ofthe-box, be it in their work or even helping to fix the water cooler in an easy and cost-effective way.

Admittedly not everyone’s “creative” tricks will be successful, but acknowledging their attempts is the first step to creating an innovation culture.

The best thing about appreciating such team members is that it gives you a chance to reinforce the types of behaviours that are conducive to the culture you want to create.

By singling out the above people for their positive workplace behaviours, you can utilise the full potential of workplace appreciation – by not only thanking your star performers, but also those who have helped enhance the office environment in several other ways.

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Good reads to improve your business life

T Naked CEO: The The Truth You Need to Build a Big Life Alex Malley Wiley S$27.88 Even a suspended schoolboy can become a CEO. That’s the message from Alex Malley’s truthful, powerful and inspirational book about daring to dream, self-awareness and leadership.

At the front of the novel, Malley shares a letter written from his school principal to

Inside the Crystal Ball: How to Make and Use Forecasts Maury Harris Wiley S$47.03 No future is certain, but some people are certainly better than others at being able to forecast and predict future outcomes.

In this book, Maury Harris, who has had a successful career in economic forecasting, takes readers on a journey to understand how forecasters succeed (and fail) and how they get to a point where they can make long-range business and investment decisions.

Examining the elements of successful and failed forecasts in depth, this book illustrates how “forecasting is about honing judgment of the underlying drivers than about the proficiency in pure quantitative analysis” – in other words, everyone can do it.

hi father, informing him of Malley’s his s suspension from school in 1978. On th opposite side of the page, and the ffast-forwarding fas a 36 years, Malley has pprinted rinte a letter from the same principal congratula congratulating him on a TV appearance as the CEO of CPA Australia (but also lecturing him on a grammatic grammatical error in his speech, proving you’re never too acc accomplished to learn something!)

This perso personal journey is played out in this book through intriguing in stories, real advice and inspirational lessons less of mistakes made throughout life – prof professional and otherwise. Focusing on topics such as “creating your own universe” and “be the best person you can be”, the book helps readers – whether students, job seekers or management-level professionals – gain insight into the journey of a successful career from a “naked” CEO laying everything out on the line.

Bookmark this!

Insight does not always come from someone in a senior position, someone with more experience, someone you would expect. Keep an open ear and mind when it comes to the people you listen to. The more you listen to all of those around you, the better you will become at filtering through the noise to find those nuggets of gold that you can learn from. It comes down to developing a feeling for the environment around you – this is one of the skills you have to develop in your life – page 28.

Through chapters ab best practices, about ju judgment, everyday f forecasting issues, t credibility the of government statistics and analysis and more, mor his book brings analysis, to life his own experiences to offer his best advice about the future, and how to understand it.

Bookmark this!

Reputations are often based on an entrepreneur, marketer or forecaster “being really right when it counted most”. Our society lauds and rewards such individuals. They may attain guru status with hordes of people seeking and following their advice after their “home run”. However, an impressive body of research suggests that these one-hit wonders are usually unreliable sources of advice and forecasts. In other words, they strike out a lot – page 17.

Bringing Strategy Back: How Strategic Shock Absorbers Make Planning Relevant in a World of Constant Change Jeffrey L. Sampler Jossey-Bass S$36.55 When the world continues to change as quickly as it does, it’s not hard to see why strategy falls to the bottom of the management agenda. In this book, author Jeffrey L. Sampler rummages through the noise to really help leaders understand ly “strategy” – especially at a time when five-month plans can fall through in a blink of eye, not to mention fiveyear plans.

As a strategy expert, he explains how it all comes down to resilience – shrugging off obsolete notions of strategy to reorientate their approach and absorb the shocks they feel to their system during change. Only then, he says, can strategic planning reliably play its part.

Suggesting four new “strategic shock absorbers” – accuracy, agility, momentum and foresight – this book outlines how leaders can withstand even the worst bumps in the road and ensure they remain proactive, rather than reactive, when planning for the future.

Bookmark this!

Imagine you are idling at a busy intersection in Mumbai, waiting for an opening to inch out into the chaotic rush of traffic. When do you move? In this environment, you need a rule to guide your actions. This is what a decision trigger is – a rule that dictates actions and decisions. In this case, the decision trigger may be: When you spot a small opening in the line of traffic, move quickly to seize it before it is too late. You would not pause to ask your passengers if they agree. By the time the question can be asked, the window of opportunity will be shut tight – page 27.

Photography: Fauzie Rasid

Pick of the month

shelflife

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LAST WORD

In her new role as a manager, Aditi Sharma Kalra looks for ways to manage time better.

Managing tasks and their deadlines is hard. Managing people is harder. But managing myself and my time is the hardest, but it is the key to managing both people and deadlines.

This was my biggest learning during my first month in my new role as a manager at Human Resources.

The reality is we all have 24 hours in a day, out of which we spend about eight to nine hours at our office desks. On a tough day, this could go up to 10 to 12 hours. But not only is that unhealthy for staff in every way, but it may also be indicative of a need to manage one’s time more effectively.

In the past month, I’ve often found myself looking for ways to check things off my task list faster and more efficiently. Here’s what I learnt, and I hope some of it is a useful reminder for you as well.

1. Invest 20 minutes in planning your day Instead of starting each day in a whirl, I found it helpful to slow down my pace after running into the office, and taking some time to structure my day.

This helped me gain a one-up before the clock got the better of me, and list out my priorities for each day.

I also realised it was futile to put more than three to four big items on my daily to-do list. While making the list, it may help to write the items out in the order of what’s most important to you and your team.

2. Start your day with the most time-intensive activity Starting your morning with the hardest or most time-intensive activity is a good idea, especially if that’s when you’re at your best (which I am).

Coming in nice and early with a fresh mind was the perfect setup to solve my hardest problems of the day, or work on the task that needed the most time and effort from me.

An early start meant I was able to tick off such tasks early in the day, without feeling like I was

“A routine is great when it works, but it’s even more fun when it needs to be reworked to suit your goals better.” running out of time to achieve everything else that I had planned.

3. Routines are meant to be broken A routine is great when it works, but it’s even more fun when it needs to be reworked to suit your goals better. In the past week, I’ve had to play around with the way I have managed my work in the AM and PM and realised that a new routine may be in order.

I’ll be honest, I haven’t quite grasped what my new routine is yet. It can be overwhelming to step out of your comfort zone away from the tried-andtested work habits that have worked so well for you in the past.

But a new year, a new role and a new team are all great reasons to break the monotony and figure out how you can keep doing more of what makes you good at your job, and slowly season it with habits that will make you great at it.

In addition to all of this, with a crazy amount of technology available at our fingertips, and most of it for free, there is nothing stopping us from making the most of it. Tools available to us on a daily basis, such as the Google Calendar or Skype, can be helpful in more ways than to just keep a tab of our meetings.

These are just some of my thoughts over the past month, but I’d love to hear some tips from you. aditis@humanresourcesonline.net

Photography: Stefanus Elliot Lee using Nikon D810 – www.elliotly.com; Makeup & Hair: Michmakeover using Make Up For Ever & hair using Sebastian Professional – www.michmakeover.com

What I learnt in my first month as a manager

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