Human Resources Director Singapore 2.02

HUMAN RESOURCES DIRECTOR HRDMAG.COM.SG ISSUE 2.2

BEST OF THE BEST Singapore’s top HR teams

WHY PUBLIC HUMILIATION FEELS SO GOOD Schadenfreude in the workplace

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SURFING THE ‘SILVER TSUNAMI’ Managing Singapore’s ageing workforce

L&D SPECIAL REPORT From coaching to MBAs: your essential guide

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EDITORIAL www.hrdmag.com.sg ISSUE 2.02 EDITORIAL

SALES & MARKETING

Editor Iain Hopkins

Marketing & Communications Manager Lisa Narroway

Journalists Ben Abbott Miklos Bolza

Commercial Manager - Asia Gareth Scott

Production Editor Roslyn Meredith

CORPORATE ART & PRODUCTION Design Manager Daniel Williams Designer Marla Morelos Traffic Coordinator Lou Gonzales

Chief Executive Officer Mike Shipley Chief Operating Officer George Walmsley Managing Director Justin Kennedy Chief Information Officer Colin Chan Human Resources Manager Julia Bookallil

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RESILIENCE: GOOD FOR EMPLOYEES, GOOD FOR BUSINESS CONVERGENCE, COMPETITION and commotion. Those were three themes to emerge from IBM’s recent white paper, Insights from the Global C-suite Study: The CHRO Perspective.

To demonstrate these themes, the study cited examples of where the boundaries and barriers between previously separate industries are collapsing, as companies in one sector apply their expertise to others. These examples included electric car manufacturer Tesla, which is entering the power sector with a new line of zero-carbon batteries for homes, businesses and utilities. Another example was online retailer Alibaba, which is moving into video streaming.

While IBM’s study focused primarily on technological upheaval as a key element of disruption, in truth we’re all coping with disruption on global, organisational and individual levels.

And while it’s commonplace to talk about the impact that disruption has on organisations and society as a whole, less focus is placed on

While it’s commonplace to talk about the impact that disruption has on organisations and society as a whole, less focus is placed on individuals individuals. Imagine your business is being disrupted. What impact is that disruption having on employee health and wellbeing? Do employees feel pressure to perform despite dwindling resources?

Do they feel they are fighting an uphill – or possibly losing – battle?

More organisations today are tackling disruption at the individual employee level by offering training in resilience. From law firms to travel companies, organisations are designing and implementing dedicated programs to help employees cope with unrelenting change and the invariable pressure this change produces.

No longer a nice-to-have, astute business leaders today realise such initiatives are good for business. Perhaps it’s time to consider something similar in your organisation?

Iain Hopkins, editor

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ISSUE 2.2 - JUNE 2016

CONNECT WITH US Got a story, suggestion or just want to find out some more information?

CONTENTS 33

HRDMagSG +HrdmagSg HRDSingapore

UPFRONT 01 Editorial

Resilience training is slowly being accepted in the corporate world – for obvious reasons

04 The data

What is global best practice in health and wellbeing benefits?

SPECIAL REPORT

L&D

20 COVER STORY

TOP HR TEAMS

What does it take to be one of Singapore’s top HR teams?

In HRD’s Top HR Teams list, we answer that question by profiling 18 of Singapore’s best teams

PEOPLE

PUTTING THE CSR INTO HR

Pauline Chua of Fuji Xerox reveals how CSR initiatives are helping to boost staff engagement, increase retention levels and attract new talent to the firm

16 2

HRD presents your guide to corporate L&D. From MBAs to short executive courses, coaching and the rise of MOOCs, read about the latest insights here

06 News analysis

How employers can tap into the rapidly expanding ageing workforce

08 Upfront: Employment law

Extended parental leave has been introduced. What do you need to know?

10 Upfront: L&D

Why it’s OK to laugh while you learn

12 Upfront: Technology

44 FEATURES

BEST PRACTICE INTERNSHIPS

HR director Graeme Smith outlines how tobacco giant Philip Morris International attracts young talent

50

How Singapore is preparing for the ICT jobs explosion

14 Head to head

Has HR been too slow to adapt to a digital world?

PEOPLE 56 Other Life

Taking peak performance literally, Renata Janini Dohmen has completed some of the world’s most spectacular treks

FEATURES

WHY PUBLIC HUMILIATION FEELS SO GOOD

Schadenfreude might offer short-term satisfaction, but it can have long-term ramifications for employees

HRDMAG.COM.SG CHECK IT OUT ONLINE

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UPFRONT

STATISTICS

HEALTH & WELLBEING What are the global challenges and priorities for employee health and wellness benefits?

THE LINK between an employee’s wellbeing and workplace performance is well established. Increasingly, organisations are looking to build healthy, engaged workers as a key to improving organisational productivity and financial performance. To cite just one example of the research done in this area, the 2016 Employee Health and Business Success Survey by Willis Towers Watson indicates that nine in 10 Asia-Pacific employers feel that improving their organisation’s health and productivity (H&P) program is a core

57%

percentage of Asia-Pacific employers with no H&P strategy; they instead rely on ad hoc health and wellbeing programs

67%

percentage of employees in Asia-Pacific who agree that managing their own health is a top life priority

component of their organisation’s overall HR strategy. In addition, the majority of employers in the region expect their commitment to H&P to increase in the next three years.

However, there are obstacles to overcome – not least of which are ad hoc approaches to health and wellbeing. In addition, lifestyle risks such as stress, lack of physical exercise, obesity, poor nutrition and tobacco use are among the toughest workplace challenges faced by employers.

74%

percentage of global employers listing ‘improve productivity’ as their top priority for their H&P strategy

THE INITIATIVES OFFERED BY MY EMPLOYER HAVE ENCOURAGED ME TO LIVE A HEALTHIER LIFESTYLE Despite a strong commitment from employers, employees have not connected to employer-driven initiatives.

US

33%

9 out of 10

number of organisations looking to reassess their incentive designs in the next three years

Source: Willis Towers Watson: 2016 Employee Health and Business Success Survey

LINKS TO ABSENCE AND ENGAGEMENT What is the business impact of poor health and stress? Research from Willis Towers Watson confirms that higher levels of workplace stress result in higher absenteeism.

Global US Canada Latin America Europe Asia-Pacific

Low workplace stress 2.6 1.9 2.8 1.5 3.8 3.0

Moderate workplace stress 2.9 2.4 2.6 2.4 4.4 2.8

High workplace stress 4.1 3.3 4.1 2.6 6.2 3.8

Good health status 37% 38% 36% 39% 33% 39%

Very good health status 50% 42% 47% 57% 43% 56%

(FYE days lost to absence)

In addition, healthy employees are more engaged.

Global US Canada Latin America Europe Asia-Pacific (% highly engaged)

4

Poor health status 24% 25% 40% 31% 25% 23%

Source: Willis Towers Watson: 2015/2016 Global Benefits Survey

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Canada

25%

Asia-Pacific

36%

GLOBAL HEALTH CONCERNS To what extent are each of the following an issue for your workforce? (Asia-Pacific percentage in brackets) Stress

64% (44%)

Europe

19%

Lack of physical activity

53% (52%)

Overweight/obesity

45% (32%) Poor nutrition

31% (-)

Latin America

33%

Lack of sleep

30% (30%) Source: Willis Towers Watson: 2016 Employee Health and Business Success Survey

Source: Willis Towers Watson: 2015/2016 Global Benefits Survey

REDESIGNING TOTAL REWARDS – WITH A FOCUS ON HEALTH

HOW HIGH-PERFORMING COMPANIES SUCCEED

In 2014, Deloitte asked employers to identify the actions they had taken to redesign overall total rewards strategies/programs within the past 12 months, or expected to undertake over the coming 12 months. Increasing health and wellbeing was identified as the number one action across all regions.

Research from Willis Towers Watson indicates that high performers: 1 Offer prevention programs aimed at keeping employees healthy 2 Provide personal support to employees with specific health needs 3 Build and sustain a culture of health at the workplace 4 Align their H&P strategy with their employee value proposition 5 Provide a range of program choices informed by regular evaluation of their effectiveness 6 Use the latest technology (including wearables and apps) 7 Target communication to reach employees in ways they prefer

43%

Increasing health and wellbeing initiatives

50%

27%

Definition, mix of components, and/or redesign of overall benefits strategy Alignment with organisation strategy and brand Differentiation by employee group (workforce segmentation) Differentiation by business unit

38% 34% 32% 21%

40%

37%

23% 27%

Global Americas EMEAP

14% 14% 14% 8% 7%

Significantly reducing total rewards investment

10%

None of the above – we have not undertaken any redesign of our total rewards strategy

18% 18%

0

44%

10

20%

20

30

40

50

Source: Deloitte 2014 Global Top Five Rewards Priorities Survey

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UPFRONT

NEWS ANALYSIS

SURFING THE SILVER TSUNAMI Singapore has joined the Asian economic giants with its rapidly ageing population. Miklos Bolza delves into the statistics, labour policies and employment viewpoints behind this very real issue AS SINGAPORE’S baby boomers start to reach retirement age, both government and businesses are trying to prepare for what has been dubbed the ‘Silver Tsunami’ – a swelling ageing population smashing up against the country’s shrinking citizen workforce.

This issue seems to be shared among developed Asian economies, with Singapore joining the ranks of other economic power­

witnessed,” Frederic Neumann, co-head of Asian economics research at HSBC, states.

“Over the next half-century, hundreds of millions of Asians will become senior citizens while the contingent of working-age adults thins, raising dependency ratios.”

Staving off ‘Dad’s Army’ According to the UN, there will be over 1.3

“Contrary to common stereotypes, older workers add a great deal of value to a company due to their extensive work experience and indispensable life skills” Jaya Dass houses such as Japan, South Korea and Taiwan.

Declining birth rates and longer periods of higher education are reducing the number of youth entering the workforce, which is not growing fast enough to compensate for the number of retirees leaving the workforce.

“Asia is ageing at an unprecedented rate – arguably the fastest the world has ever

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million Singaporeans aged 65 years and older in 2050. At this point in time, the country’s age-dependency ratio – the number of those aged 65 years or older as a proportion of those aged between 15 and 64 years – will be 58%.

In other words, there will be 1.7 workers for every elderly person.

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has talked

about the problems Singapore could face if the Silver Tsunami is left unchecked. “Who will pay the taxes, to spend on whom? How do we keep [the economy] prosperous, vibrant and forward-looking? Who will man the Singapore Armed Forces and defend us? We can’t be the Dad’s Army,” he said at the seventh annual Ho Rih Hwa lecture.

However, Singapore is at an advantage since it can learn from Japan’s current situation. As the country with one of the fastest-growing ageing populations, Japan’s age-dependency ratio is expected to hit 70% by 2050.

Work life past 65 To combat the Silver Tsunami, the govern­ ment has talked about again raising the re-employment age, which was already increased from 62 to 65 in 2012.

In his National Day Rally speech last year, the prime minister mentioned that 65 may be too early to retire for some people. For those willing to continue working, he said the re-employment age would again be increased to 67 in 2017, and this was would give employers time to adjust their hiring policies and workplace set-ups to accommodate these older workers.

The requirement for increased employer contributions to the Central Provident Fund (CPF) also came into effect on 1 January this year (see Table 1) after recommendations from the CPF Advisory Board. These changes affect employees earning more than $750 per month, and the additional money goes into the employee’s Special Account.

Finally, the government has implemented a number of other initiatives aimed at either helping older workers learn new skills or assisting employers financially when they are hiring them. These new strategies include: • The NTUC Education and Training Fund: a $200m fund to train and support mid-career workers, including professionals, managers, executives and technicians (PMEs) • Additional Special Employment Credit: an extra 3% wage offset for employers

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who voluntarily re-employ Singaporeans aged 65 and above • A Career Support Programme: Wage support for employers hiring mature-age workers who have been unemployed for six months or less (see Table 2)

Preventing the inevitable The government has called upon businesses to help stem the tide and stop Singapore from becoming the next Japan with regard to its greying population.

“With an ageing population, our local workforce will grow much slower in future,” Manpower Minister Lim Swee Say said in his May Day speech. “Manpower could become the bottleneck of our future growth, unless we speed up efforts to become a more manpower-lean economy and a more productive workforce.”

The Silver Tsunami is therefore one of the reasons behind the nationwide push for greater use of technology in the workplace.

The government is encouraging businesses to bring in more advanced solutions that boost productivity without the need for additional workers.

As Neumann wrote, while changing participation and workforce numbers alone

will not halt the growing ageing population, it will allow more time to build policies that successfully tackle this issue.

Missing the mark Despite the government’s financial initiatives and calls to hire mature-age workers, there is still a certain stigma around the older

“Manpower could become the bottleneck of our future growth, unless we speed up efforts to become a more manpower-lean economy” Lim Swee Say demographic, says Jaya Dass, country director of Randstad Singapore. She adds that this viewpoint is completely incorrect.

“Contrary to common stereotypes, older workers add a great deal of value to a company due to their extensive work experience and indispensable life skills. They can be engaged to mentor new employees, fill part-time or seasonal positions, or provide specialist expertise,” Dass says.

Research also backs up this sentiment.

and are role models for others in the business.

If they are not stimulated and engaged at work, the knock-on effect on the motivation levels of others could be enormous,” said Carina Paine-Schofield, research fellow at Ashridge.

While focusing on the development of Generation Y and the millennials is undoubtedly important, firms should be offering the same opportunities to older workers.

TABLE 2: CAREER SUPPORT PROGRAMME FOR PMES*

TABLE 1: CPF CONTRIBUTIONS BY EMPLOYERS 20% 17%

One study by Ashridge Executive Education found that HR misses the mark when it comes to meeting the needs of baby boomers.

In particular, only 1% of all HR professionals feel that workers aged 50 years or above need career development. This failing can be highly detrimental to a firm, researchers warned.

“Baby boomers are often in senior positions

17%

17%

16%

15%

Period employed

Wage support (employee between 40 and 50 years)

Wage support (employee aged 50 years and older)

1st six months

20% of gross monthly salary (capped at $1,400/month)

40% of gross monthly salary (capped at $2,800/month)

2nd six months

10% of gross monthly salary (capped at $700/month)

20% of gross monthly salary (capped at $1,400/month)

13% 12%

10%

9% 8.5%

7.5% 7.5%

5%

50 and below

Above 50–55

Contributions before 1 Jan 2016*

Above 55–60

Above 60–65

Contributions after 1 Jan 2016*

Above 65 *All contributions as a percentage of employee wages

*For professionals, managers and executives (PMEs) hired after less than six months’ unemployment

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UPFRONT

EMPLOYMENT LAW UPDATE NEWS BRIEFS MOM drops charges in injury claim case

In a rare occurrence, the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) has withdrawn charges made against a foreign worker, ending a two-year injury compensation case.

Safety supervisor Shahidulla Md Anser Ali first went to MOM in 2014 to report being physically assaulted by his superior – an incident that he claimed had injured his back. He was accused of lying about his injuries and making a false claim under the Work Injury Compensation Act. The charges were withdrawn in May as a new witness who could not be located during the initial investigations verified Shahidulla’s version of events.

Court reverses $600k payment to dismissed employee

The Singapore subsidiary of IT firm Hewlett-Packard has successfully appealed a court decision that forced it to pay an award of over $600,000 to a retrenched sales specialist.

HP and the employee, Corinna Chin Shu Hwa, were in a contractual dispute over sales incentives that hinged on the definition of “new end user customer”.

The crux of the matter was whether the term applied to a client Chin had persuaded to return to the firm after leaving for a competitor.

While the courts initially sided with Chin, ordering HP to cover the sales incentives owed, the Court of Appeals then overturned this decision.

Mentally incapacitated worker allowed to sue

Rodney Tan, the brother of a mentally incapacitated engineer, Tan Yun Yeow, has been allowed to sue for damages on his sibling’s behalf.

Left unable to move or speak after a 2009 workplace explosion, Yun Yeow was awarded $225,000 in damages in 2010 – the maximum

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amount payable under the Work Injury Compensation Act. Rodney filed a $3m High Court suit against the former employer in 2013, claiming that Yun Yeow had never had the mental capacity to file for compensation. Although the courts initially deemed the compensation valid, the Commissioner for Labour changed his views in 2014 and ruled in favour of the Tan brothers.

MOM steps up WSH enforcement efforts

Responding to the 28 workplace fatalities this year, the Ministry of Manpower has announced stricter enforcement policies designed to reduce the number of future accidents.

The minimum period for Stop-Work Orders (SWOs) will be increased from two to three weeks. Additional conditions such as mandatory safety audits and refresher training for staff must also be met before the SWO can be lifted.

Firms issued with an SWO will be placed into the Business Under Surveillance program, which entails Last Minute Risk Assessment training and a Continual Improvement Plan. Foreign work pass privileges may also be suspended until all safety issues are addressed.

Ten-day jail sentence for abusive manager

The manager of a local IT firm, Lee Yew Nam, was sentenced to a short detention order of 10 days. He was convicted of four charges of causing hurt after physically abusing one of his interns in 2013.

After another employee secretly filmed Lee hitting his employee, the video was posted online and quickly went viral.

When handing out the penalty, District Judge Lim Tse Haw took into account Lee’s clean record, his initial guilty plea, his $5,000 voluntary compensation, and his battle with a depressive disorder.

Lee completed his sentence in April, serving his time in prison but gaining no permanent criminal record.

EXTENDED PARENTAL LEAVE INTRODUCED The government has announced a slew of new measures to support working mothers and fathers The Singapore Government’s focus on halting the decline of the country’s birth rate has had real effects on HR, with the introduction of extended parental leave packages.

In his National Day Rally speech last year, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong announced that he would bring in an extra week of paternity leave for working fathers. Initially, this second week will be offered voluntarily by employers.

“We will implement this on a voluntary basis to give the companies, to give employers time to adjust, and then after a few years we will look at the position again,” the prime minister said.

Steps towards this goal were made in May, with amendments to the Child Development Co-Savings Act. Effectively, employers are allowed to seek government reimbursement for the second week of leave from 1 July.

Reimbursements can be applied retroactively for working fathers who have taken the additional week of leave from 24 August 2015.

While the second week is not yet mandatory, further changes to the Act are expected later this year. The move has the support of MPs across the board.

“If we’re able to fulfil this aspiration of employees to achieve better work-life balance, to meet their requirement of having more flexible work arrangements, then we stand a better chance of getting more talented employees, and that is good for business,” Senior Minister of State Josephine Teo said.

The government will also allow working mothers to share up to four weeks of paid maternity leave with their husbands from July

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2017. This shared leave will be government funded and will replace the current model in which wives can only share one week with their husbands.

Adoptive parents are also beneficiaries of the government’s new initiatives. Mothers of adopted children are now entitled to 12 weeks of paid leave to look after their children. For the first two children the government will fund eight weeks, while the employer covers the remaining four. For any further children, the government will fund the full 12 weeks of leave.

Adoptive fathers will also be able to share up to four weeks of the extended 12-week leave

“If we’re able to fulfil this aspiration of employees to achieve better work-life balance … then we stand a better chance of getting more talented employees, and that is good for business” period with their wives. These changes will apply to the parents of children adopted from 1 July 2017 onwards.

Finally, single women or those in a de facto relationship will also have their maternity leave extended to 16 weeks, matching that offered to married women.

“Unwed mothers will benefit from government-paid maternity leave. We will equalise it,” Minister for Social and Family Development Tan Chuan-Jin said.

Q&A

Caroline Berube

AN AGEING SINGAPORE

Managing partner HJM ASIA LAW & CO.

Fast fact While presently Singaporean employers are legally obligated to offer re-employment to eligible employees aged between 62 (the official retirement age) and 65 years, the government has announced it will raise the re-employment age to 67 on 1 July 2017.

With Singapore’s rapidly ageing workforce, what are the biggest legal challenges for HR? According to the applicable regulations, including the Retirement and Re-Employment Act (RRA)1, the official retirement age is 62 unless otherwise stated by contract of service or collective agreement. But taking into consideration Singapore’s lower birth rate, rapid ageing of the workforce, life expectancy getting higher and labour legislation (including the ratio between the local and foreign workforce), employers need to make a place for people aged 62 and above.

How can HR avoid any age-related legal issues?

HR should endeavour to see older employers as a source of quality manpower, and recognise the value of making the workplace age-friendly. That being said, for Singapore citizens or permanent residents who attain the age of 62 – or the specified retirement age – up to 65, HR is required to offer re-employment in accordance with the RRA. In other words, eligible employees must be given the opportunity to continue their employment in the organisation up until the age of 65. Moreover, HR should proactively employ older employees aged 65 and above in suitable jobs with reasonable terms and conditions.

To encourage and support HR to voluntarily re-employ employees between 65 and 67, the Special Employment Credit (SEC) was put into place a few years ago by the Singapore Government. Since 2015, employers have received an additional wage offset of up to 3% of an employee’s monthly wages. The Tripartite Guidelines on Fair Employment Practices2 and, more specifically, the Tripartite Guidelines on the Re-employment of Older Employees3 will provide more guidance and recommendations to HR for negotiating a re-employment contract, salary, new responsibilities, schedule, etc.

What about age discrimination? Are there any laws that HR should be aware of in this area?

The main laws against age discrimination are the Constitution of Singapore4 and the RRA. According to the Constitution, everyone is equal before the law and should be entitled to equal protection.

The RRA provides that “no employer shall dismiss on the ground of age any employee who is below 62 years of age”. HR should be aware that, if an employee has been unlawfully dismissed because of his age, remedies such as reinstatement or compensation are prescribed by the RRA. Also, the guiding principles stated in the Tripartite Guidelines on Fair Employment Practices set out recommended practices for adoption by employers. These guidelines not only help prevent discrimination in the workplace, but they also encourage the adoption of progressive HR practices that benefit both employers and employees.

Retirement and Re-Employment Act (Chapter 274A), Revised Edition 2012

1

Tripartite Guidelines on Fair Employment Practices, formulated by Tripartite Alliance for Fair and

2

Progressive Employment Practices on March 2014

Tripartite Guidelines on the Re-Employment of Older Employees (Released on 11 January 2011)

3

4

Constitution of the Republic of Singapore

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UPFRONT

L&D UPDATE NEWS BRIEFS $200m training fund for mid-career workers

The National Trades Union Congress (NTUC), together with the government, has announced the NTUC Education and Training Fund (NTEF) to provide professional development for mid-career workers.

The NTUC will attempt to raise $50m for the scheme. For every dollar raised, the government will match it with $3, up to a total of $150m, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said in his May Day speech.

Initially, the NTEF will partner with Nanyang Technological University in teaching students through distance programs using online materials, videos and interactive media. Other courses and educational institutions will be added over time.

Can digital skills help narrow the gender gap?

Women who are using digital technologies to become more knowledgeable, connected and effective are playing a key role in narrowing the workplace gender gap, according to new research by Accenture. Indeed, the report provides empirical evidence that women are using digital skills to gain an edge in preparing for work, finding work and advancing at work.

The report found that if governments and businesses can double the pace at which women become digitally fluent, gender equality could be achieved in 25 years in developed nations, compared to 50 years at the current pace.

Airbus opens high-tech training centre

The Airbus Asia Training Centre opened in April – a joint venture between Airbus and Singapore Airlines which is expected to handle around 10,000 trainees annually.

The centre currently contains three full-flight simulators, with an additional six to be installed by 2019. Experienced instructors with over 10,000 flying hours will run classes, including entry-level

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training, refresher courses, command courses, and instructor and examiner programs.

The AATC will take in trainees from across the region. Seventeen airlines, including Singapore Airlines, Qatar Airways and Japan Airlines, have chosen the centre for their flight training.

‘Deep reinforcement learning’ helps robots learn

Japanese company Fanuc has invented a robot that will spend the night working out how to complete a task – a departure from typical industrial robots which usually need to be programmed to do something like grab an object.

The technique, called ‘deep reinforcement learning’, allows the robot to accurately train itself without the help of an expert. This might work by the robot picking up objects while capturing video footage of the process. Every time it gets the task right or wrong, it remembers how the object looked. This then becomes knowledge that is used to create a deep learning model that controls its actions.

New HR certification scheme introduced

Teo Ser Luck, Minister of State for Manpower, unveiled a new National HR Professional Certification Framework during the Committee for Supply Debate. The aim is to develop the core capabilities of Singapore’s HR professionals through a progressive learning ladder.

The framework will focus on five key areas: behavioural competencies, technical competencies, HR knowledge, professional code, and HR work experience. It aims to keep those in the profession regularly updated about the latest HR policies, legal requirements and best practices.

The government plans to release more information through a joint tripartite announcement later on this year. The framework itself is expected to be launched some time in the third quarter.

NEED TO LEARN? IT’S OK TO LOL An L&D expert tells John Hilton that laughter really is the best medicine when it comes to learning “If you don’t like the jokes today there are six ways out of this aeroplane. Feel free to use them.”

“Now, folks. Please, this is a life vest, not a toilet seat cover.”

“If I can pretend to have your attention for just a few moments, my ex-husband, my new boyfriend and their divorce attorney are going to show you the safety features aboard this 737-800 series.”

The above quotes are just a taste of the wisecracks used by flight attendants at the major US airline Southwest Airlines.

Indeed, it’s a technique the carrier uses to effectively engage an audience likely to zone out from the standard monotonous and repetitive safety instructions.

In fact, generating laughs is part of the official corporate motto at Southwest Airlines. They also test for humour as part of the recruitment process.

Humour is one tool leaders can use in all interactions with staff, but especially in learning situations, says Yamini Naidu, director of Yamini Naidu Consulting and author of the new book, Power Play.

“Humour power is about using humour skil fully,

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purposefully and appropriately to influence,” she tells HRD. “I believe in the world of influence humour is the new frontier. And as leaders we are often afraid to use storytelling and humour because we think it might be unprofessional or it might be unsuited to the work context. But both of these are skills that can be taught and learned.”

Naidu also quoted a 2014 article by Alison Beard of the Harvard Business Review, which said that laughter “relieves stress and boredom, boosts engagement and well-being, and spurs not only creativity and collaboration but also analytic precision and productivity”.

‘‘Humour power is about using humour skilfully, purposefully and appropriately to influence” The article also stated that on average babies laugh 400 times a day, yet for people over 35 the figure was just 15. This was in addition to a Gallup survey which showed people laugh much more on weekends than they do on weekdays when they’re at work.

“Humour is the Trojan horse of influence, and it allows leaders, for their difficult messages, to bypass the audiences’ defences,” says Naidu.

Q&A

Anna Britton Assistant director, professional development centre BRITISH COUNCIL SINGAPORE

Fast fact English instructors now have more vocabulary to use when teaching ESL learners in Singapore.

The Oxford English Dictionary has recently added 19 Singlish words to its comprehensive list, including ang moh, char siu, killer litter, lepak, shiok, sabo, satong and wah.

THE LANGUAGE OF WORKPLACE ENGLISH CLASSES What is the best method of teaching foreign employees English in the workplace?

Actually, the most important thing is to teach the students and not strictly follow a methodology. In this day and age, we talk about being in a post-methodology era – we use different methodologies for different types of classes and students. Some students react better to one type of methodology than others. It really depends what you’re teaching them. A good teacher will literally weave different methodologies in so it works for that particular class. What you find as a teacher is that no two classes react the same way to your lesson plan. When you’ve planned something, you run it with one class and it works a treat and you run it with another class and it doesn’t work as well.

What unique challenges does Singapore present when it comes to teaching English?

Singapore’s an interesting place because there’s a mixture of different languages. If you are teaching English here, when the students go outside of the classroom they’re going to come across different types of English, including Singlish. They might find that quite challenging. They might be learning a very pure form of English with the correct grammar in the classroom. Then when they go out into the street, they don’t hear that; they hear something quite different. Then of course it’s mixed with the other official languages. I think that can be quite challenging for students.

How can English classes be tailored to each employee and position?

This is where it’s important to do a needs analysis to make it workplace applicable. The teacher would do this analysis first, take samples of the work they’re likely to be doing and then incorporate that into the teaching materials. Similarly, if you’re doing work on speaking, get students to think about an upcoming presentation and work on that so that it’s instantly applicable.

You can also teach generic skills and get students to apply them in their own writing. We run a course where we work through being correct, concise, complete, courteous, etc, and then afterwards make students apply these principles in their own samples of writing. They then get instant feedback from each other and from the trainer so it’s applicable straight away.

How can HR encourage better English communication within the workplace itself?

First of all, it’s important that HR makes sure that everybody is a good model of language. We work with some organisations that send out staff messages with writing tips. Training is one part. They also hold competitions where people go around the island and look for examples of incorrect English. They take a photo, send it in and write the correction, and there are prizes for that. Make it fun and raise awareness that other people are doing it. If you check your noticeboards and your emails and you make sure that everything is correct, then you’re not modelling poor language.

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UPFRONT

TECHNOLOGY UPDATE

SINGAPORE PREPARES FOR ICT JOBS EXPLOSION A $120m fund has been unveiled to help train entry and mid-level professionals in the ICT industry

The government has put $120m towards a fund that aims to promote tech as a career. Unveiled in Parliament on 11 April, the fund will grow the talent pool in areas such as software development, data analytics and cybersecurity.

According to the Infocomm Development Authority, an additional 30,000 positions will need to be filled in the information and communications technology (ICT) sector by 2020. The fund hopes to meet this demand through a three-pronged approach: 1. Convincing existing ICT students to develop

NEWS BRIEFS

their careers within the industry 2. Assisting existing professionals in ICT in further developing their skills 3. Encouraging workers from other fields to switch over to the ICT sector “We must do our best to support our Singaporeans to be highly skilled so that they can compete with global talent,” said Yaacob Ibrahim, Minister for Communications and Information, in the debate sparked by his Ministry’s budget.

The $120m fund will work through a number

Government unveils automation support

In his 2016 Budget Speech, Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat announced a new Automation Support Package worth over $400m to help companies automate and increase productivity.

“We will provide a grant to support the roll-out or scaling up of automation projects. We will fund these projects at up to 50% of project cost, with a maximum grant of $1m,” Heng said.

For qualifying projects, a 100% Investment Allowance will be provided for automation equipment, while IE Singapore and SPRING help businesses scale and internationalise through large-scale projects.

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of accelerated professional development programs so that current ICT sector workers can renew their skills.

The Company-Led Training Programme will offer structured on-the-job training as well as local and overseas job attachments through industry partners. Those eligible will be fresh or mid-career professionals with a degree in ICT or a science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) discipline. The program will be expanded to train an additional 900 new entrants and up to 1,050 mid-level workers over the next three years.

The Critical Infocomm Technology Resource Programme Plus will also be scaled up to take in around 5,600 workers per year for the next three years. Short courses, continuous and proactive training will be offered to entry-level professionals.

Finally, the Tech Immersion and Placement Programme will reach over 1,000 workers with STEM and tech backgrounds looking to change to an ICT career. These short yet intensive courses will be conducted by industry professionals.

Yaacob has stressed the need for further development in the ICT field at other events as well, reiterating how this objective will be tackled to benefit Singapore in the long run.

“We believe that the development of a skilled workforce will be best achieved through workplace-based training where people can work on real-world projects, gain in-depth exposure and relevant experience,” Yaacob said at the Singapore Computer Society’s Gala Dinner.

Tech advances leaving staff behind

Eighty-nine per cent of employees in Singapore feel that they need additional training to keep up with the speed of technology adoption in the workplace, according to the Randstad Workmonitor 2016 – Q1 report.

This is much higher than the global average of 69%, a discrepancy which may be explained by Singapore’s high exposure to new digital processes and tools.

While 80% of millennials (aged 18–24) felt they needed additional tech training, this jumped up to 94% for workers aged 35–44, the report found.

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Q&A

Henrik Petersen Director, sales and marketing DESKERA

Fast fact Singapore has placed third on Dell’s 50 Future-Ready Economies list – ranking so highly because of its ability to attract talent and ideas, provide access to emerging markets in Asia and build future-readiness through a number of initiatives to build the world’s first Smart Nation.

MANAGING CONTINGENT WORKERS Can you outline some of the challenges that HR faces when engaging with contingent (casual, contract) workers?

The first challenge is how companies deal with the new freelance economy. Online platforms for freelancers such as Upwork.com have made it easy for employers to find freelancers for both short- and long-term projects. However, companies often engage freelancers without considering the necessary HR policies.

The second challenge is tracking the cost of contingent staff as many firms may lack software systems to track and correctly allocate contingent staff costs.

The third challenge is mitigating risk. Without proper HR policies and processes in place, the company may expose themselves to increased levels of risk. For example, firms may be giving contingent staff access to sensitive customer data or not following their health and safety regulations.

The fourth challenge is the increased workload that comes with hiring freelancers. Because many traditional firms still rely on paper-based processes and manual tabulation to track contingent staff records, contracts, permits and payroll, the increased workload can severely impact HR service levels.

How involved is HR typically with vendor management?

In the past, the issue of contingent staff was considered

Policing social media is worth it, survey reports

While some employers have taken a more relaxed approach to social media use at work in recent years, a new survey may force a rethink. Officebroker.com surveyed 1,150 workers and found that 72% of respondents admitted to checking their Facebook while at work and 81% said they tried to hide their unproductive online activity from others.

The survey also found that 35% of employees confessed to spending over an hour of every workday on Facebook. On average, employees visited the Facebook app or website 13.8 times during the workday, for two minutes and 22 seconds each time.

to be a procurement problem that was often managed through external staffing companies. This set-up is rapidly changing and traditional contract staff are now considered to be a part of the workforce that needs to be managed by HR. The new challenge these days is the freelance or gig economy, in which employees are often hired without the involvement of HR. Freelancers are hired through services like Upwork.com without considering HR policies, company culture or the correct tracking of costs.

Can technology help with the management of contingent workers?

HR teams are often spending a large part of their daily routines on manual processes such as updating staff records, leave management and HR policies.

HR software can help reduce the manual workload by automating a great many HR processes. This will help free up your HR team to focus on implementing new strategies for managing freelancers and contingent staff. Business compliance can also be improved with automated approval workflows, record-keeping and email alerts.

HR software can track freelance profiles based on their skills, cost and reviews to help build a talent pool for future recruitment needs. As the new on-demand workforce is integrated with traditional HR operations, HR software can help companies segment, track and manage the new hybrid workforce more effectively.

Future of work revealed

A research paper by tech consultant Cognizant indicates that people, not just machines, will power digital innovation.

For example, insurance companies will need to employ augmented reality designers as drone technologies force a redesign of the claims management process. Retailers will seek out avatar programmers or ‘fusionists’ who combine art, engineering, and science.

Offices will also become more reactive to the people sitting in them. Desks and seating will move to encourage collaboration, while lighting will adjust to reflect moods.

Get ready for ‘digital humanism’

The newest wave of technology will focus on the integration of hardware and software into everyday life. Betsy Burton, vice president of the global research company Gartner, said the focus was on “digital humanism”. “This is the notion that people are the central focus in the manifestation of digital businesses and digital workplaces,” she said.

Other major 2016 trends include automation and the digitisation of the HR industry. Meanwhile, 2015’s hot markets – wearables and cloud – will continue to expand as the industries develop. www.hrdmag.com.sg

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PEOPLE

HEAD TO HEAD

GOT AN OPINION THAT COUNTS? Email hrd_editor@keymedia.com.au

Has HR been too slow to adapt to a digital world?

Kris Duggan

Theresa Phua

Michelle Phipps

CEO BetterWorks

Singapore head of HR DBS Bank

HR director, ANZSEA/North Asia Brown-Forman

Technological change in the digital age is happening at an astonishing rate, driven by the demand from employees and employers for a better way of working. People are changing, and the nature of work is requiring more cross-functional collaboration.

In recent months we’ve experienced a quickened pace of adaptation to the digital world of work. HR software has traditionally been based on the org chart, with the idea that your manager can see your progress but you can’t see others’.

Similarly, annual reviews have been the primary format for offering employee feedback.

We’ve recently experienced an uptick in the number of HR leaders who are choosing to move quickly on the performance development front, to make sure employees get the regular feedback, coaching and transparency they need to collaborate effectively and understand how their work fits into the big picture.

For DBS Bank, HR has been steadily reimagining its role and working with the leadership team to bring employees along on our digital journey. Using the latest technology and embedding our values in gamifying recruitment, all while working with a behaviour scientist, we are improving the quality of new hires that we bring in. We have also introduced an app that provides information to staff and helps them connect socially.

In terms of training, our digital curriculum is based on both blended and experiential learning through hackathons, masterclasses, and online courses. Digital thought leaders within the bank will be developed, starting this year. DBS also gives $500 of DBS SkillsFlex Credit to all eligible employees in the Singapore workforce to attend customised courses. Many of these are digital-oriented while others are SkillsFuture programs.

The question is not just around HR. Have businesses been a little bit slow to enable the organisation to change, adapt and generally do things better? I think technology often comes out of necessity in the HR arena. I don’t know many HR budgets that include HR technology innovation. The workforce is changing. The design of workforces is changing, so we’re going to need more technology, hot-desking, and remote employees – I think right now the remote element dominates most businesses, rather than the other way round.

The biggest challenge is this: no platform will be effective if the line managers and team members aren’t going to use it. It will fail.

We have Chatter, which is like Yammer. It’s not successful all the time. To some it’s great; to others it’s less effective. The tools need to be appropriate for the job at hand, and sometimes we forget that in the rush to launch the latest technology.

WHY HR FAILS IN MOBILE RECRUITMENT According to the PageUp white paper, Mobilise Now Southeast Asia, 90% of the region’s biggest firms have failed to mobile-optimise their websites. This is despite the fact that 70% of those in Singapore and Malaysia own a smartphone. This creates a serious barrier to candidates who wish to apply for work through their smartphones. Additionally, only 10% of firms use social referrals to reach out to candidates, while 6% allow potential applicants to receive job alerts straight to their devices. Since one in four jobseekers won’t even begin the application process if the ad is not mobile-optimised, this means many firms are missing out on some of the region’s most talented individuals.

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PROFILE

PAULINE CHUA

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PUTTING THE CSR INTO HR While organising charity football matches may not be the norm for HR, Fuji Xerox Singapore’s Pauline Chua talks to Miklos Bolza about how these types of CSR initiatives help boost staff engagement, increase retention levels and attract new talent to the firm

PLAYING FOOTBALL with disadvantaged kids, building houses in Indonesia – these are typical activities for employees at Fuji Xerox Singapore, a company that truly stands out for its CSR initiatives.

The driving force behind these unique programs is Pauline Chua, the company’s general manager of human capital and CSR, who works alongside her CSR team and the senior management team. With a dual focus, she has managed to combine both HR and CSR – putting more back into the community while boosting attraction, retention and employee engagement at the same time.

“I definitely think CSR is the way to go for every organisation, not just for HR,” Chua says. Today, in most corporations’ annual reports, they’re not just looking at financial numbers; they’re looking at other factors in terms of giving back to the community.”

Turning the tables Graduating with a degree in psychology and education, Chua began her career as a headhunter and remained in the role for over eight years.

“I started out thinking that it would be wonderful to be able to provide new opportunities for people so that they could truly reach their full potential.”

Chua never expected to move into HR but made the decision after a chance encounter while working as a headhunter.

“I was trying to fill a position looking for a regional HR director. I stumbled upon a lady who had moved from investment banking into the leisure and services industry,” she says. “She turned the tables on me and asked whether I’d like to join her instead.”

Chua spent 10 years in this industry, working in two roles – firstly with Sentosa Leisure Group and later on with Wildlife Reserves Singapore – before she was again headhunted into her current position at Fuji Xerox Singapore. She has been with the company for five years.

The feel-good factor One reason why Chua was attracted to Fuji Xerox Singapore from the beginning was that her role extended into CSR as well as HR. As well as contributing to the development of a sustainable world, this extended focus came with a host of HR-related benefits for staff and the firm.

“It’s a great way to engage employees not just on the work front but while we’re making a difference out there in the community through our green initiatives or by positively impacting the less privileged.”

WORK-LIFE INTEGRATION WITH FUJI XEROX SINGAPORE Fuji Xerox Singapore offers employee benefits beyond those required in the Employment Act. As well as paternity leave and compassionate leave, the firm supports new parents with its on-site lactation room. Employees are also allowed to bring children to work during school holidays and the festive season.

In FY2015, 285 male and 148 female employees were entitled to maternity and paternity leave. Four female employees took maternity leave, while eight male employees took paternity leave. All returned to work at the end of their leave. The retention rate for employees who took parental leave in FY2015 was 100% for both women and men.

Fuji Xerox Singapore also promotes flexible work arrangements through options such as the flexi-work scheme, the ability to be re-hired into a part-time role, and staggered working hours.

As well as engaging employees, CSR is a great way to bond teams and promote the feel-good factor at work, she adds.

“At the end of the day, we spend so many hours at work so CSR is really bringing it to

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grand copthorne waterfront hotel singapore PROFILE

PAULINE CHUA

the next level by putting meaning back into the workplace.”

Singapore also offers volunteer leave so those who participate over the weekend can take additional time off.

FUJI XEROX SINGAPORE FAST FACTS

Reaching out to the community Chua and her team have helped organise a range of CSR initiatives at Fuji Xerox Singapore, partnering with charities such as Habitat for Humanity, the Singapore Children’s Society and Beyond Social Services. The latter is a charity that helps disadvantaged youths living in public rental homes with their families.

“A lot of effort has gone into supporting their educational achievements, recognising youths who also give back to the community and distributing food to their families,” Chua says.

Fuji Xerox Singapore also arranges an annual football match between management and the children from Beyond Social Services.

“Of course the children won hands down!”

CSR activities with an HR impact Fuji Xerox Singapore has seen an increase in the take-up rate of these activities, Chua adds proudly. In 2015, 30% of the firm’s 828-strong workforce volunteered for these CSR initiatives.

This is growth of at least 1.4% from the previous year’s figures – and the firm is hoping to boost this by a further 5% in the coming year.

“At the end of the day, it’s an extension of our company values of care and concern that’s not limited to employees at Fuji Xerox Singapore but beyond that into the community.”

This focus is also a great pull factor for those thinking of working for the firm, especially when it comes to attracting Generation Y, who

“At the end of the day, we spend so many hours at work, so CSR is really bringing it to the next level by putting meaning back into the workplace” Chua says when talking about the latest game.

“They love it because they don’t just win trophies. They get a new jersey which they’re really proud of.”

While many may tackle CSR by providing financial help to the less fortunate, it is more impactful to offer your time and effort, Chua says. Fuji Xerox follows through with this by organising a range of community-related and green initiatives, including building homes in Batam. Employees can volunteer for this if interested.

“We take our employees across by ferry to build houses for a day. It really opens their eyes. It’s back-breaking work laying bricks and digging trenches, but when they come back, they know they have made a profound difference to the families.”

While these programs are typically organised during working hours, Fuji Xerox

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appreciate these types of values.

“They want to see what else they can get out of their work experience besides growth, development and wage factors. This is truly an opportunity to make a difference out there.”

This interest among the younger generation of workers was seen at a recent career fair where Fuji Xerox Singapore advertised its value propositions – one of which was its strong CSR focus.

“It gives potential candidates and employees an insight into our organisation – what we believe in and what’s important,” Chua says. “It attracts potential employees and makes them curious about our culture.”

With a lot of interest from applicants at all levels, Chua says that when Fuji Xerox goes to universities and other educational institutions, the CSR approach is highly effective.

“Young people these days are very much

828

Number of staff in the Singapore workforce

38%

females in the workforce

5%

females holding managerial positions

8%

males holding managerial positions

22%

staff under 30 years old

62%

staff between 30 and 50 years old

18%

staff over 50 years old into that, so it speaks their language.”

Chua believes that CSR also impacts on retention within Fuji Xerox Singapore. This can be seen through the average attrition rate of 1.6%, which is low for a firm in the tech industry.

“It keeps the spirits up in a way,” Chua says.

“It’s another outlet for employees to de-stress when they’re involved in these activities. They know they’re still making a difference.”

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2/06/2016 2:47:57 PM

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COVER STORY

TOP HR TEAMS

AIMING FOR EXCELLENCE SINGAPORE’S TOP HR TEAMS What does it take to be one of Singapore’s top HR teams? In HRD’s inaugural list, we answer that question by profiling 18 of Singapore’s best teams. Want to know what makes an HR team in Singapore a true master of talent management? Read on 20

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IT’S NEVER been more challenging to work in HR than today, but HRD has unearthed 18 top HR teams that are making best practice look easy.

Despite leaner economic times, technology-driven disruption, the rise of millennials, and a desperate need for leaders, the top HR teams showcased on these pages are embracing change to put their organisations in winning positions. From managing organisational transformation projects to ennobling the lowliest of employees, and from growing new leaders with in-house universities and hackathons to achieving hard-won attrition rate reductions, today’s top HR teams are showing their dedication and willingness to innovate, and in a way that is gaining them management respect.

HRD’s Top HR Teams list gives some of Singapore’s best HR practitioners important recognition for the hard work they have done and the results they have achieved. But it also allows them to share some of their secrets with the rest of the HR community so that other organisations can gain insight into what works, and what doesn’t.

What makes an HR team in Singapore a master of talent management? Read on. >>

METHODOLOGY HRD readers were asked to submit 500-word entries on what they thought made their HR team one of the region’s best. Submissions were judged by HRD’s team, based on the team’s business impact and embrace of best practice.

Eighteen HR teams have been selected and six of these are ‘spotlighted’ in greater detail over the following pages.

All teams, except one, are based in Singapore.

INDEX TEAM

PAGE

American Express

22

Aon Hewitt

23

Boehringer Ingelheim

24

Carl Zeiss

23

Certis CISCO Security

23

DBS Bank

28

IBM

27

Indosat Ooredoo

26

Marina Bay Sands

29

National Environment Agency

25

National Kidney Foundation

31

PKF-CAP

30

Rakuten Asia

29

SAP Asia

27

The Ritz-Carlton, Millenia

27

UBS AG

31

Unilever Asia

31

Wiley

27

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COVER STORY

TOP HR TEAMS

AMERICAN EXPRESS INTERNATIONAL Doing more with less has been the theme of 2016 for the HR team at American Express, who have had to creatively rethink strategy to meet growth and revenue priorities. With a ‘OneHR’ approach and a commitment to having the right leadership, people and structures in place to support growth, Amex Singapore has been testing new ideas in the hope of delivering business stakeholders more value with more limited resources.

Sales community Built on top of the rigorous training provided by individual business lines, a new ‘sales community’ allows Singapore sales talent to share knowledge and experiences among themselves and with senior leaders, to enhance results and boost a whole-of-team

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approach. HR has designed the program so that it helps build internal networks for increased talent mobility, which it hopes in turn will help it retain top sales talent.

Strategic taskforce HR is engaging top employees in projects that actually impact on the business at a country level as part of a new ‘strategic taskforce’. In doing so, HR is simultaneously getting a cross-functional team’s input on a live business case that could help the company while providing visibility of top talent within the organisation in a forum environment.

Continual careers HR’s previous approach to careers may

have been well received by employees, but it was also expensive and time-consuming.

HR has restructured what was an intensive, week-long careers festival into a year-long, flexible program. Rather than tying staff up for long periods, it is now more flexible and ensures careers have a continual focus.

The HR team’s ability to adapt to new market realities creatively shouldn’t be a surprise. With an aim to be a global employer of choice while remaining relevant to the VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous) world it works within, HR has had to ensure that it maintains its own strategic capabilities at the highest level. The HR team constantly seeks out best practice through external speakers, industry events, lunch-and-learn

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EMPLOYER OF CHOICE

American Express has been named Best Employer, Singapore, by Aon Hewitt three years in a row, and one of Singapore’s Most Attractive Employers in 2016 by brand engagement agency Universum.

Reflecting its desire to be known as a global employer of choice, increased internship applicant numbers show the company’s popularity among millennials.

1/3 of all positions are filled internally, thanks to an internal careers fair, a job shadow program, frequent talent conversations and leader career coaching support.

1/2 of employees on the company’s HIPO programs have experienced career movement.

90%+ of the company’s workforce elect to participate in an annual engagement survey. sessions, and leadership days. The team has also embedded an entrepreneurial approach. It is encouraged to embrace a growth mindset, test and learn, and speak up if a plan is not working, enabling the business to adapt and change course as required.

As a result, HR at Amex Singapore is a valued business partner. Programs have received strong sponsorship from the country leadership team, and the team is frequently invited to share best practice with other organisations in the region. It plans to continue with its comprehensive market employee plan so that the business can deliver on its priorities of driving growth, increasing efficiency and delivering superior service to customers.

AON HEWITT Aon Hewitt knows engaged employees drive better business results, and engaged managers play a core role in this outcome. The HR team, led by HRD Hot List professional Noora Alsagoff (see HRD issue 2.1), has put this insight into action by encouraging employee empowerment and learning from the manager level down. For managers this has meant building strong leadership capabilities, and empowering leaders to take actions that increase the engagement of their teams.

HR has focused particularly on helping managers undertake effective performance management and career development planning for teams that foster successful and satisfying career paths. For employees, Aon Hewitt has put transparency at the forefront, giving access to an online portal with all the tools and information needed for career development, and engaging in constant communication to encourage best practice and networking. Learning also plays a central role in engagement: Aon Hewitt recently succeeded in organising a 25-week learning challenge that built employee learning agility and had an 89% participation rate.

CARL ZEISS The four-strong HR team at Carl Zeiss may only be responsible for 350 employees in Southeast Asia, but a decision to embrace and champion modern, digitised HR approaches has had an impact on the company’s HR approach globally. Rolling out a new one-stop-shop HRIS for the region, the team was able to achieve increased process efficiency, which resulted in the optoelectronics pioneer implementing a similar HR system for its 25,000 employees in more than 45 countries, modelled on Southeast Asia. The local team has embraced technology-inspired innovation in all HR areas.

For example, it has established a fully digitised recruitment process or e-recruiting module, which tracks hires from time of application and shortlisting right through to confirmation. This is followed up by a digitised 180-day onboarding plan, which has been instrumental in building strong intercultural competence and awareness. The team is supporting the expansion strategy of the company with new, upbeat development programs through the ZEISS Academy, using tools and processes to measure and track performance, productivity and efficiency gains.

CERTIS CISCO SECURITY If there’s an HR team that has won respect for getting the total, end-to-end HR solution right, it’s Certis CISCO Security’s team of 30 HR staff. Priding itself highly on the ability to partner with the various elements of the business necessary to deliver ongoing win-win solutions, the team has been able to refine HR service delivery in a way that has won it strong internal support from the C-suite. Handling a diverse workforce of 16,000 in Singapore, and another 10,000 in the region, HR has become a central pillar relied on to drive strategy, lead thinking and conceptualise new and cost-effective HR solutions that allow it to re-engineer, restructure and sustain growth. This frequently includes managing HR issues through business acquisitions or the addition of new verticals, involving comprehensive due dilligence and post-integration work. The Certis CISCO Security HR team is called on to make pivotal assessments at a senior level, with the C-suite and SVP recently requesting HR representation be seconded to Hong Kong, China and Malaysia for short-term assignments in order to be closer to the business. Its success internally has come down to the team’s mental model and simple framing of why HR exists, how it can be better, and how it can more effectively partner with the business.

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COVER STORY

TOP HR TEAMS

BOEHRINGER INGELHEIM If you could build an entire regional HR operation from scratch, how would you do it? That is the question that faced the HR contingent of pharmaceutical giant Boehringer Ingelheim’s newly established regional operating unit for Southeast Asia and South Korea. With an entirely new entity set up to combine operations across seven countries, HR was faced with its first principal task of orchestrating deep transformational change right across the organisation in tandem with management, and creating a regional people strategy.

Participating in the initial core workstream for the new organisation’s set-up, HR’s contribution expanded to include harmonising seven different approaches to compensation and benefits across the region, building a regional award and recognition program that fostered and encouraged a desired ‘winning team spirit’ culture, and building a whole-of-region L&D road map, including a standard curriculum and competencies, which are now available to employees across the region.

The size of the challenge is evident in a look at one area: talent acquisition. Before the new operating unit was created, seven different countries had their own processes, including templates, responsibilities, assessment, and interview models. HR had to come up with an entirely new regional talent acquisition vision and recruiting process – ‘Engage, Attract and Win Talent’ – which propagated a single style of voice from the organisation. To complement this, a new state-of-the-art technology system was rolled out to meet the requirements of the business and make recruiting processes more efficient.

Similar challenges existed for leaders. With a mess of inconsistent tools and information on a range of leader tasks, from performance management to compensation planning, HR devised a bespoke ‘Do It Your Self’ Leader’s Toolkit aimed at growing leaders’ capability to manage people. A future-leader development program was also established in early 2016 to meet the needs of the operational region, focused on identifying high-potential talent and offering practical and experience-based learning opportunities.

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A WHOLE NEW WORLD

Boehringer Ingelheim’s operating unit for Southeast Asia and South Korea is brand new, and so are all of its HR initatives. Here are just a few of their achievements: 200 employees out of a total of 2,000 have the opportunity to be recognised every year by a new Regional Award and Recognition Program. It is designed to promote a ‘Winning Team Spirit’ at country and regional level, reinforce behaviours and provide role models.

33 L&D courses are available in each country, all of which are now regionally unified. They cover a curriculum of training programs at each level, from individual contributors to managers of others, managers of managers, country function heads, and regional heads.

400 managers have already been trained in a brand-new ‘Do It Your Self’ Leader’s Toolkit, which homogenises the capabilities and processes required of leaders across the region.

10 leaders from seven countries will meet each year as part of a brand-new SEASK Leader Development Program, which allows fresh outstanding leadership talent to run a project while sitting through a three-month in-class program.

800 applicants from all over the world have now gone through the company’s new regional talent acquisition ‘one recruiting’ process, which makes use of a central online system.

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A POSITIVE ENVIRONMENT

NATIONAL ENVIRONMENT AGENCY The National Environment Agency (NEA) needs to be strategic about HR. That’s because it needs to ensure the agency continues to have strong and sustainable manpower capabilities to carry out both the short- and long-term plans Singapore has for its environment, which are set out in Singapore’s Sustainable Blueprint for 2030.

NEA’s HR team has developed a structured process to project future workforce needs in tandem with evolving talent trends for the areas of environmental protection, public health and meteorological services. To do this, it coordinates plans with departments on the right size, skills and structure required in the long term.

In an agency that is both specialised and diverse, this approach helps departments find synergies with other business units and raise competencies of operational departments in manpower planning.

There are other elements to the strategy.

One important part is developing effective and dynamic leadership through targeted leadership programs at different levels, and opportunities for secondment. This has developed deep bench strength, with 100% of key positions having at least two competent successors for the next one to three years. The NEA also sets aside 4% of its annual budget for staff training and sponsorships as part of its desire to create a competent and engaged workforce.

The NEA embraces flexible work arrangements, a comprehensive range of wellbeing activities, and phone counselling services to build staff engagement. Part of HR’s remit is also meeting the challenge of Singapore’s ageing population. The NEA has been a pioneer of innovation in the area of successfully tapping Singapore’s ‘silver’ workforce. It practises age-neutral recruitment and offers various training opportunities, pre-retirement planning, re-employment, job redesign and healthy living initiatives.

The NEA’s attrition rate was only 4.7% in 2015.

The agency has won a total of 19 HR awards for best practice, including a UK award for Best HR Strategy (Overseas). Most recently, the agency won the TAFEP Exemplary Employer Award 2016 for engaging, developing and caring for employees.

9 out of 10 new hires give favourable scores for overall HR services.

7 out of 10 managers give favourable scores for recruitment and performance management.

8 out of 9 – An independent study found the NEA’s HR function competency was higher than Singapore norms in 8 out of 9 areas, when measured by Dave Ulrich’s HR model.

3 out of 4 graduate new hires have honours and postgraduate degrees.

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COVER STORY

TOP HR TEAMS INDOSAT OOREDOO Indonesian telecommunications company Indosat Ooredoo has been on a radical transformation journey since 2012, evolving from a state-owned legacy towards a modern multinational company. For HR, this has meant a completely new approach to engaging employees, and planting the seeds of a bourgeoning corporate culture that is much more innovative and agile.

Starting with the building blocks – a new vision, corporate values, and leadership and technical competencies – the HR team have progressively built a new HR approach, including installing a robust performance management and reward scheme and a new talent management program to develop internal talent. It has utilised the reach of 130 managers or ‘change agents’ to cultivate the new culture, and spread the word through town hall meetings and roadshows, where the company’s chiefs travelled to Indosat’s regional offices, as well as through newly introduced enterprise social media.

The journey entered a new phase in 2015 when the company launched new products and corporate branding, which HR saw as an opportunity to transform the way employees thought about the company and the way they did their work. HR is building the organisation’s ‘digital DNA’, and has transformed workspaces from walled rooms and cubicles to open-plan hot-desk seating, which has encouraged a new paradigm of agile interaction and decision-making and a more dymanic corporate environment.

Being the first company to launch satellites for Indonesia, set up undersea cables, and offer the first pre-paid SIM card for customers didn’t save Indosat from serious digital disruption, with the likes of WhatsApp wiping out SMS revenue. However, HR has helped the company bounce back through its people, with the holistic organisational transformation propelling business results up above corporate targets.

TRANSFORMATION JOURNEY

Indosat Ooredoo embarked on a transformation journey in 2013. Over the years since then, the HR team has successfully managed to achieve a number of key outcomes.

Attracting young talent

A high-performing culture

2013

IDR 24 trillion

2014

Then

0

5

10

15 Revenue

20

Now

28%

IDR26 trillion

2015

26

Rising engagement

25

30

32% Gen Y workforce

78

2014

82 85

2015 0

20

40 60 Engagement index

80

100

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THE RITZ-CARLTON, MILLENIA The employees – or ‘ladies and gentlemen’ – of The Ritz-Carlton, Millenia in Singapore have as their allies an HR team with a talent management approach that ‘ennobles’ them in their quest to provide care and comfort to guests. HR does this with initiatives designed to enhance a connection with this higher purpose, in ways that make employees feel like they are truly making a difference, and are valued and appreciated. This in turn enhances innovation and service excellence.

Engaged employees are encouraged to be active participants and contributors to an evolution in service, rather than passive spectators, and employees are more likely to embrace an annual personal development plan that keeps them up to date and relevant with new skills as well as providing stimulation. The HR strategy includes acknowledgement and reward for employees for even the smallest contribution, to ensure they feel appreciated for their efforts.

SAP ASIA SAP Asia’s HR team acts as a stabilising influence on the company, which is undergoing rapid change along with the rest of the technology-driven world.

Responsible for managing the strategic aspects of HR related to organisational design, HR also has a strong emphasis on growing talent, simplifying the organisation and building leadership capabiltiies. For example, the team has successfully increased efficiency with a talent plan that has actively attracted and pipelined candidates for particular skills and job functions, and has put in place an integrated leadership framework that manages the complete leadership life cycle. The Asia-Pacific and Japan team recently won plaudits with the radical simplification of a learning project, which led to the highest adoption rates for the business anywhere in the world. With 10 companies acquired over the last five years, workforce integration will continue to be a critical function for this team.

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN

Sharing the vision The Ritz-Carlton wants all employees to share its vision. It helps them connect with this purpose through ‘Gold Standards’, and enlivens the mission with a ‘daily line-up’.

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Giving appreciation ‘Ladies and gentlemen’ are made out to be the most important resource available in the service commitment to guests, and are regularly praised by leaders.

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Encouraging innovation A platform referred to as ‘Lions Share’ acts as a repository of ideas for improvement

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WILEY Change management is never easy, but the HR team at publishing house Wiley have managed to gain internal recognition for professionalism while helping to engineer a company-wide transition from traditional publisher to lifelong learning company. HR overcame a range of challenges such as the restructuring of jobs, reskilling of existing talent for new roles, extra recruitment, and managing the necessary compliance activities. They were able to meet each new challenge through dedication, enthusiasm, and a passion and care for people that is seen as truly outstanding within the company. Over the last 18 months the team has been heavily involved in the global roll-out of a new talent management and HR system, which has included providing input and testing to ensure the system is robust and user-friendly. The end result is expected to provide more insights and analytics for HR, which will go on to inform Wiley’s ongoing business strategy.

and innovation from all Ritz-Carlton hotels around the world.

Offering learning The Ritz-Carlton stimulates employees through training that includes onboarding, mentoring, lateral service, crosstraining, and online and in-person courses.

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Celebrating success Handwritten ‘First Class’ cards – or thank-you notes – are given to employees or groups of employees to celebrate contributions. They are often displayed by employees.

5

IBM SINGAPORE IBM Singapore’s HR team is bringing the company’s tech prowess into the HR arena by using the latest tools and technology to innovate and meet business needs.

For example, through analytics and agile working the team has managed to achieve process improvements while gaining better analysis and recommendations for business decisions. Meanwhile, tech-enabled engagement surveys have allowed HR to devise individualised approaches to engagement, including stretch projects to empower managers and leadership programs for top future talent. The collaborative team – made up of HR business partners, compensation and hiring partners as well as talent and learning partners – have recently been charged with helping IBM transform itself into a ‘Cognitive and Cloud Platform Solutions Company’, a company-wide initiative that requires new employer branding, new offerings and solutions in the market, and a range of new skills from employees and leaders.

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COVER STORY

TOP HR TEAMS

DBS BANK Innovation is at the core of DBS Bank’s approach to HR, with the embrace of technology, data and HR ‘science’ fostering a culture of meritocracy, growth and engagement.

This begins at the recruitment stage.

HR is utilising customised selection processes for various roles and leverages selection tools such as predictive indexes to shortlist candidates for interviews and boost recruitment productivity.

Gamification has entered the bank’s graduate program, with an application process named ‘Joyful Journey’ assessing how closely new candidate behaviour and capabilities fit the bank.

In the area of benefits and rewards, the bank has refocused programs

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towards ensuring a healthy employee lifestyle, with employees encouraged through technology to adopt sustainable behavioural change. This has included the launch of a health management portal – iHealth@DBS – which connects seamlessly to mobile devices and wearables to provide employees with deep insight into their own wellbeing.

Innovation permeates all of the bank’s HR efforts. For example, DBS provides resources on digital platforms with a range of tools to support career growth, and has launched an exclusive app for employees – DBS Power Up – to help with HR delivery. It even uses hackathons as a sandbox for high-potentials to experiment with being in a start-up, complete

with lean start-up methodologies and human-centred design. Much of the approach is about future-proofing employees and cultivating a digital mindset. To this end, learning centre DBS Academy was launched in 2015, delivering courses such as scenariobased leadership development programs and digital masterclasses.

Overall, HR at DBS aims to build a healthier, more diverse and future-ready workforce that can help spearhead the transformation of banking in a fastchanging environment. Thanks to its ability to push boundaries and explore new ways to improve effectiveness, it has managed to achieve retention rates that are better than the industry average.

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MARINA BAY SANDS The Marina Bay Sands has received awards for being one of Singapore’s most attractive employers in hospitality, and there are clear reasons why. With a deep, 73-strong HR bench led by nine HR leaders across four teams, including HRD’s 2016 Hot List member Chan Yit Foon, the HR function’s combined collaborative and consultative approach has managed to deliver human capital initiatives for 10,000 employees that have succeeded in boosting and maintaining engagement. For example, the HR team has introduced a number of innovative team member engagement programs, such as a five-year service appreciation program, an annual exclusive ‘Bazaar’ with a ‘firesale’ of resort assets to employees for charity, six sports clubs, and regular local festival celebrations. These sit alongside attractive market-based salary and leave schemes, a robust performance appraisal framework, and a talent development program that includes 360-degree feedack for its top 500 people managers. Marina Bay Sands has also invested in a total of 10,000 learning days annually, giving staff personal and management effectiveness training. Through this, the Marina Bay Sands has achieved a low attrition rate relative to the industry.

A MATTER OF PRIDE

The HR team at DBS expects employees to have pride in their work, but not just the normal kind. At DBS, PRIDE! stands for the core values employees live in their work.

P urpose-driven (Create impact beyond banking) R elationship-led (Collaborate to win for DBS) I nnovative (Embrace change) D ecisive (Think. Act. Own.) E! (Everything fun!)

RAKUTEN ASIA The three-person HR team at Rakuten Asia have had a formidable challenge on their hands. With a plan to bring all employees of Rakuten’s diverse group of Singapore sister companies (including Rakuten Travel, VIKI, Kinko.com and Ebates) under one roof at an office named ‘Crimson House’, the team has had to devise and execute a range of complex strategies that allow employees to come together, while at the same time preserving the essence of individual company culture and infrastructure. The challenge – which has involved a heavy reliance on employee communication to build cultural bridges among corporate cultures and 20 different nationalities – has involved techniques such as weekly and monthly town hall meetings, happy hours and cultural-themed parties at which employees can mingle, a playroom with table tennis and foosball, interest groups like bread banking and yoga, and monthly CEO birthday parties so employees can meet different leaders. The HR team has also had to roll out some common policies, such as a Badge ID system and a weekly cleaning session.

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COVER STORY

TOP HR TEAMS

HR partner Eng Kian Lee (far left), with other PKF-CAP partners

PKF-CAP LLP Accounting firm PKF’s HR strategy falls into three baskets: ‘recruitment’, ‘retention’ and ‘growing people’. The firm has an overarching goal of training and building up strong mid to senior talent, while vastly reducing attrition at lower levels of the firm. The strategy has been a growing success. With many initiatives rolled out in 2012 and 2013, the firm has managed to cultivate a batch of audit seniors with positive attitudes and an ongoing strong commitment to the firm, to the point where there is now seldom a need to hire mid-level talent. Overall staff turnover rates have also improved to 33%, and the firm expects to see continued positive trends in its ability to retain talent.

PKF has a strong commitment to training as part of its retention and talent cultivation strategy. It keeps employees growing through a training curriculum, with one of the firm’s partners responsible for delivering technical and soft-skill expertise.

The firm makes other resources and activities available, including an in-house library, digital knowledge databases,

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information-sharing sessions, and email updates. Training is complemented by other processes. PKF uses annual, transparent roundtables combined with one-to-one sessions with partners to appraise and give constructive feedback to employees, while a buddy system operates in the firm to allow new hires to be paired up with seniors who can help them with difficulties.

Partners serve as active role models by communicating their achievements in the industry, and job assignments are allocated based on existing employee experience and skills, which can provide relevant assignments and challenging work for better job satisfaction.

PKF works hard to build an attractive team culture at the firm, with team bonding activities at the heart of these efforts.

For example, the firm undertook trips to Bintan and Kuching in 2012 and 2013, has an annual Dinner & Dance event, and hosts various company dinners, movie nights, and friendly sports matches with other CPA firms. It has a well-received family focus following the introduction of

flexi-hour programs that allow employees to come to work early and leave early, easing the burden on working mothers. Much of its success is put down to an open-door policy for partners, which has enhanced communication and helped to engage staff with the firm’s team.

GROWING PEOPLE

• 2016 Finalist for HRM SME Employer of the Year Award • A SPRING Singapore approved employer under the SPRING SME Talent Programme, recruiting graduates from local universities, namely NTU, SMU, NUS, UniSIM, and SIT • Currently a big supporter of the SkillsFuture (Earn and Learn) Programme for polytechnic graduates and ITE graduates.

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NATIONAL KIDNEY FOUNDATION

UBS AG

The National Kidney Foundation may be going through a period of unprecedented growth – adding three new dialysis centres in 2015 and another five in 2016 – but its HR team have handled this while achieving levels of engagement that are the pride of the health and social services sector in Singapore. NKF’s management has long believed in building a safe and inclusive environment where differences are valued, abilities are recognised and potential is developed, and the HR team has championed the cause. Recent employee initiatives include the ‘three flexs’ – flexible leave, flexible benefits and flexible work arrangements, including employing new talent on a job-sharing basis – and a Community Hearts Programme, which gives employees time off to contribute to the cause of their preferred welfare organisation. At a higher level, HR has launched the Leadership Competency Framework to align leaders’ behaviour with NKF’s vision and mission, and launched a management development mentorship program that is targeting emerging leaders and young executives with high potential for future senior management positions. The combined efforts resulted in an independent Organisational Climate Survey finding that employee engagement has increased from 4.85 in 2013 to 5.09 in 2016, on a scale of 1 to 6.

With the launch of its own flagship university (UBS Business University) in Singapore’s Command House in 2010, UBS declared its deep commitment to employee learning and development – an approach that continues to expand in 2016. With the broad aim of supporting the developmental journey of every employee while supporting the strategic business objectives of the bank, UBS has instituted development programs at three different levels – for graduates, key mid-level talent, and senior executive directors. In 2015 it piloted new training programs to add to this, including a managing director and executive director promotion transition program.

The Business University – accessible globally and with satellite campuses in Hong Kong and Shanghai, provides learning opportunities to employees, such as through an eLearning intra-site, with more than 1,000 learning courses available. It also provides its employees with certifications that are externally recognised, such as a diploma in wealth management. HR continually refines its L&D programs through collaboration with leaders and various functions, and is quick to eliminate elements that do not add value, or add complexity.

A GREAT PLACE TO WORK Are employees happy to work at NKF?

90% 2014

96%

% Yes

2015

Are employees proud of the NKF?

75% 2014

99%

% Yes

2015

How has the monthly attrition rate improved?

1.26% 0.91% 2014 2015 % Improved

KNOW YOUR ROI

UNILEVER ASIA Unilever sees its employees as its competitive advantage, and for HR this has meant delivering on the need for a strong, future-focused company culture. With a goal to double its business while reducing its environmental footprint and having a positive social impact, HR has built a cultural matrix that has so far allowed it to deliver consistent, profitable and responsible growth for seven years, while ensuring it has been the number one employer of choice for FMCG graduates for three years. Core to its culture has been a sense of place, with Unilever launching initatives such as diversity and inclusion campaigns, agile-working initiatives, a ‘One Hub, One Heart, One Singapore’ campaign and a ‘Thrive’ program supporting and promoting employee wellbeing. It has backed this up with a strong focus on performance and incentive programs, which have enhanced engagement and motivation by helping employees better understand their full reward structure though gamification and total reward e-statements. The business also launched an employee share plan, called ‘SHARES’. HR is helping Unilever develop ‘future-ready’ talent through a ‘Four Aces’ leadership development facility, and practises what it preaches by training its own team at HR Learning Week.

ROI for L&D initiatives can be difficult to measure. However, UBS supports all of its training initatives with detailed metrics, from training hours, budgets and resources used to the impact on retention rate, as well as quantitative and qualitative feedback.

As a result, the bank is able to say with confidence that its training ROI is strong.

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L&D SPECIAL REPORT

MAXIMISING EMPLOYEE POTENTIAL

DEVELOPING EFFECTIVE leaders is a top priority for HR practitioners in Southeast Asia. Deloitte’s annual survey on human capital trends, titled The New Organisation: Different by Design, revealed that 97% of business and HR leaders identified leadership as the most crucial talent issue this year.

However, most organisations said they were unprepared to deal with it, as the research showed a 60% capability gap, up 19% from 41% in 2015. This capability gap is defined as the difference between the importance of a trend and the perceived readiness of an organisation to handle it.

So how can organisations close this gap? HRD has chatted to the experts and presents our inaugural L&D Special Report. Over the following pages, read about:

34 MBAS

38 DIGITAL LEARNING

36 COACHING

40 EXECUTIVE EDUCATION

How the world’s leading MBAs are changing fast to keep up with the global marketplace

Despite being embraced overseas, executive coaching has an image problem in Singapore. How can this perception be changed?

From MOOCs to ‘swarming’, there is a brave new world of corporate learning waiting to be explored

Courses designed specifically for executives are increasingly focused on providing real-world insights that students can use immediately

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1:13 PM

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L&D SPECIAL REPORT

MBAs

NEW HORIZONS Leading MBAs are changing fast in their efforts to remain in sync with the global marketplace.

However, as INSEAD’s Graham Hastie tells HRD, they still contain the basics that today’s top executive talent require to become the exciting business leaders of tomorrow GRAHAM HASTIE did an MBA at leading global business school INSEAD 21 years ago.

However, when he returned two years ago as assistant dean of degree programs, he barely recognised the list of employers taking in current MBA graduates.

“The big change was the number of technology companies. Obviously, I knew some of the bigger tech company names, but many of the other companies were new.”

It’s a symptom of just how fast the world is changing for MBA graduates. While 21 years ago the list of employers would have been populated by management consultancies and investment banks, today management consultancies sit alongside the tech giants of Silicon Valley, or even alluring early-stage start-ups.

“The financial services industry isn’t hiring as many people as it used to – and it has lost some of its gloss, I think. So while that’s true of the big investment banks, there are still a lot of graduates interested in private equity and venture capital firms,” Hastie says.

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However, Hastie makes it clear that MBAs are just as important today as ever. “An MBA prepared people for the business world 21 years ago when I did it, and it continues to do that now. An MBA is a comprehensive study of the business basics – it’s the toolkit you need to succeed in business – and employers, though they may have changed, are still coming to the best MBA schools to hire,” he says.

Getting personal The biggest change in MBA programs offered to the current generation of students around the world, including in Singapore, is towards personalisation. Rather than standardised learning, students are increasingly offered tailored learning experiences and flexible options that suit their own personal business ambitions.

“We have already introduced a personal career adviser for every student. That helps them from the day they arrive to the day they get a job, and I believe we are the first school to do that, because it’s quite expensive and

time-consuming,” Hastie says. “And while it’s still to be confirmed, we have reviewed our curriculum and are introducing a personal leadership program. So we are very focused on the individual student and on their individual journey through the program,” he says.

In line with this trend, INSEAD also takes students on bespoke, academic-led ‘field trips’ and career-focused ‘treks’, where students can go to a part of the world they want to work in to meet directly with companies they want to work for. “They might go to New York to meet the banks, or London to meet the private equity and venture capital firms, or to the Netherlands to meet the energy companies,” Hastie says.

Content is also getting more personal.

Students still get the foundational basics but have a growing universe of elective choices. “They still need things like accounting, finance, strategy, statistics, and oragnisational behaviour – and in my view they always will. But our elective portfolio can be more market-driven and responsive

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ON THE GLOBAL STAGE INSEAD, the business school with campuses in France, Singapore and Abu Dhabi, topped the Financial Times’ Global MBA Rankings in 2016 – the first time the elite business school has topped the rankings since they were introduced in 1999, and the first time an MBA with a significant Asian presence has taken the top spot. It’s also the first time a one-year MBA has won this accolade.

In second place was Harvard Business School, followed by London Business School and the University of Pennsylvania, Wharton.

“An MBA is a comprehensive study of the business basics – it’s the toolkit you need to succeed in business – and employers, though they may have changed, are still coming to the best MBA schools to hire” Graham Hastie, INSEAD – for example, we have electives on big data, which teaches them how to cope with and assimilate the sheer volume of data available, we have an elective on storytelling, and we also have lots of leadership electives, which has always been important.”

Hastie adds that course delivery is also evolving thanks to technology. INSEAD, for example, is already introducing some of the tech elements it has used in its executive education courses into its MBAs. “We are really just starting out with this, but we are now doing some delivery of course elements

before students arrive – for example, we ask students to create a CV, and we then run that through a machine-scoring system and give them feedback, which has been very popular,” he says.

Taking on the world Every year, the Graduate Management Admission Council provides an update on how many students sit the GMAT exam in each global region. The statistics demonstrate a clear trend towards embracing MBAs in Singapore and Asia. “There are clear signs of

growth in the Asia-Pacific, and that’s a good thing for us,” Hastie says.

Statistics also continue to support undertaking an MBA program. Forbes, which measures MBA return on investment, finds the exact dollar value return on MBAs as a whole to be US$171,000 over five years.

“There is an immediate payback,” Hastie says.

As a result, Singapore and Asia generally are now just as likely to supply the next generation of global business leaders as anywhere else. In fact, as a symptom of that globalisation of leadership, INSEAD does not treat its Singapore MBA program any differently. All students enter into a global program that is run out of its Fontainebleau campus in France, Singapore and, since this year, a new Abu Dhabi campus. “For the first time this year, we allowed our MBA students to go to Abu Dhabi to study in our new campus there. It was hugely oversubscribed, by a ratio of three to one.”

That means Singapore’s MBA graduates will continue to be sought after by some of today’s popular employers. “There are many opportunities being offered to students that are more entrepreneurial or start-up in nature, at places like Uber or Amazon.

That’s amazingly attractive to young men and women today, because they can often find the challenges and joys of launching an entrepreneurial business and having skin in the game, while having the backing of a strong, growing company.”

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L&D SPECIAL REPORT

COACHING

DISRUPTIVE THINKING Despite being embraced overseas, executive coaching has an image problem in Singapore. However, CoachingGoWhere’s Anna Tan says HR professionals now realise coaching’s ‘golden nuggets’ can create some of the most innovative thinkers EXECUTIVE COACHING in the US and Europe has long been an accepted mode of propelling individuals further towards career goals and leadership ambitions. “It’s a mature industry. Often in these markets, it’s seen as a badge of honour if you’re worth this type of development, because very often it’s not cheap at all,” says Anna Tan, CEO of new online coaching platform CoachingGoWhere.

Not so in Asia. In markets like Singapore, the need for executive coaching has often been seen as more of an embarrassment, rather than an enabler. “Across Asia it’s seen to be a stick, like you are not good enough or there’s something wrong with you and you have to fix it, so they are giving you a coach,” Tan says.

However, the situation is changing fast.

Singapore-based individuals and HR teams are starting to realise that, if positioned in the right way, ROI for coaching can actually be higher than traditional pathways like MBAs. Tan says coaching can also unleash more creative business thinkers.

“Loads of industries are being disrupted, but established leaders often still operate in old-world paradigms. They think what will work before will continue to work in the

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future, but that’s no longer the case. Leaders these days need to think differently, and a coach can help break your current way of thinking.”

Personal nuggets Tan began her career as a sports coach, before reinventing herself a few times over.

out through life and you think, ‘I’m glad someone showed me that’,” she says.

Personal Coaches work with and focus on individuals.

The one-to-one model means they address each person’s different strengths and challenges with bespoke advice, questions,

“It’s hard to think differently without someone coming in to challenge you with a different formula, with a different question, which can spark different thoughts and different ideas” Anna Tan, CoachingGoWhere Now she’s a specialist in large-scale change management programs, and the ‘EQ’ component that can either facilitate them or hold them up.

Tan says it has taught her the value of ‘golden nuggets’ during a career, which can open minds and enhance potential.

“There are all these little things you find

or strategies to expedite personal progress.

“Sometimes someone needs to ask you the right question to have the right ‘Aha!’ moment,” Tan says.

For example, Tan says a mid- to seniorlevel executive may wish to increase their gravitas or influence but may be challenged by the lack confidence to speak out, or ability

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to speak at a different level of authority and impact. A coach will be able to help that person drill down, looking at everything from how they are presenting themselves to how they can bring more authenticity to the meeting table.

“The coaching model creates a safe environment for people to be vulnerable, which results in more breakthroughs, and the learning then becomes more substantial because you have generated that insight for yourself,” Tan says.

Actionable Much of coaching’s value is in the ability it gives executives to take learnings and apply them immediately to what they do.

While MBAs often contain ‘action learning’ projects, these projects may not be tied as closely to a specific day job.

“Because you get specific things to use straight away, you are more likely to do it,” Tan says. “Because it’s a safe environment, people can then tell you either it didn’t work, or actually they didn’t even try it. You can then drill down into what their resistance was to it; what patterns of behaviour they are observing in themselves that stop them from trying. It actually helps people elevate their performance very quickly, and it’s very noticeably on a week-by-week basis.”

Tan says the best way to learn anything is by doing it. “Each person will have different challenges each week, fortnight or month.

They will come with specific ideas on what they want from a session, and they will go away with things that they think will help them in their job as soon as they leave.”

Fundamental Coaches can help executives on a much deeper, more fundamental level, argues Tan. With experience in social psychology and behaviour change, she says coaches are able to address often-unconscious barriers that can be as deep as someone’s beliefs and core values. “Beliefs actually drive behaviour,”

WHO MAKES A GREAT COACH? Padraig O’Sullivan, managing partner at executive coaching firm O’SullivanField, has witnessed many HR professionals undertaking coaching courses in his role as honorary fellow at Sydney Business School.

Most are hoping coaching skills will help them in their current role, and others view it as the next career step when they leave the industry. Those who coach well, he says, demonstrate the following traits: Listen – and listen deeply. “It’s fine to listen to what the client is saying, but you must also listen to what they’re not saying or doing. That’s almost more important.”

Business nous. “Really understand the business. I think a lot of executive coaches understand coaching but they don’t necessarily understand what the business is trying to achieve. It’s important, if you’re going to work at this level, that you understand what the business is she says. “Then you also have to understand what drives your beliefs, your core values and your sense of identity. If you can have a conversation at that level, it is easier to change behaviours.”

Coaching can also deal with the real complexity of the work environment. “It helps with understanding why you would do something different – like why would I opt for guerilla marketing, for example. It is understanding the why and having the ability to change and almost the permission and courage to do something different to what you have been taught in a more structured manner.”

More cake, or pizza?

Tan says doing something new – like baking a pizza, when all you know how to make is cake – is challenging for executives at any level. However, that’s just what the hyperdisruptive business world is demanding for them to achieve future success.

“It’s hard to shift your thinking when

trying to achieve, then understand the role the person will be fulfilling. Finally, understand what the person is trying to achieve. A lot of work cultures go the opposite way: they start with the person and forget to go higher.”

Understand each of the client’s stakeholders. “For me an executive is successful as per their stakeholder’s view, so aim to learn something about the six or seven key stakeholders who regularly interact with the executive.”

Technical know-how. “Understand how teams work. How are high-performing teams coached? Understand complexity.

This is really important – to help the client navigate through complexity. Understand self-management, self-leadership. Look at resilience and coping strategies. Ultimately what you’re trying to do is help the leader manage themselves.” your whole life and experience has been about becoming an expert in one thing. It’s hard to think differently without someone coming in to challenge you with a different formula, with a different question, which can spark different thoughts and different ideas,” Tan says.

Likewise, getting over the initial hurdle of trying a new approach can be the most difficult task, because it requires more effort and often experimentation. If it’s too hard, Tan says that often executives are quick to slip back into old habits.

“A lot of people give up. They think, ‘Well, I tried to make a pizza, but it didn’t turn out right, something didn’t go right, so now I’m just going to bake a cake again because it’s too much bloody effort,” she says.

With a coach, Tan says executives are more likely to be able to think differently, and execute that consistently. “In the new world everything is being disrupted, and you have to be more agile and adaptive and innovative with your thinking.”

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L&D SPECIAL REPORT

DIGITAL LEARNING

L&D: NEW CHALLENGES, NEW APPROACHES From MOOCs to ‘swarming’, Gary Taylor explores the brave new world of corporate learning A CIPD research report from the UK caught my attention recently because of its wide referencing of literature related to the role of L&D in helping organisations deal with business challenges in the second half of this decade.

The training departments of yesteryear were stereotyped as offering mundane skills training or courses taught by eager L&D professionals experimenting with the latest leadership development theories. Within the broader HR division, it was the OD people who owned the portfolio of change management, but we are seeing an exciting value-add role for L&D in delivering change capability.

Keeping up with the changing world For many organisations, the external environment can be characterised by the acronym VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous).

With increased connectivity, L&D depart­ ments might well be able to offer programs that include the staff of suppliers, clients and even competitors (when organisations decide to embark on ‘coopetition’ with the competition).

For instance, L&D professionals are now facilitating sessions to promote the concept that Gartner terms ‘swarming’. This is a work style characterised by feverish collective activity by a temporary group of people – anyone who can add value. Swarms

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allow the irregular multidisciplinary group to form quickly in order to attack a problem or opportunity, and then dissipate as quickly when the task is accomplished. This is a different model to traditional teams, which usually comprise individuals who know each other and work for the same boss; and a different L&D approach needed.

The top L&D departments are looking to

adapting existing competencies within LEGO to take hold of the opportunities that have flowed from the film medium. Instead of merchandise flowing from the movie, this was an example of merchandise driving the movie.

Similarly, Disney’s animated film-makers originally hired creative artists to draw thousands of cartoons on acetate sheets, and then hired photographers to take thousands of

Embedded commercial acumen is essential to forge an affecting and aligned L&D unit, in which staff play different roles help their organisations develop the capacity they need to cope in a VUCA environment.

Research indicates that organisations need to be: • Adaptive: Attuned to the external environ­ ment in such a way as to sense and recognise change and its implications. It is not enough to know only that ‘change is a-comin’; institutions also need to recognise the type or patterns of change and then make sense of them. This requires a high absorptive capacity in order to internalise the change.

• Agile: Have the dynamism to be able to shift strategies in response to opportunities as well as threats and then develop new organisational competencies. This might entail the integration of new ways of working, which has all kinds of L&D implications.

• Ambidextrous: Able to balance change and stability (both at the same time). Being organisationally ambidextrous entails exploiting present capabilities while still being open to breaking with the past.

Theory into practice We have witnessed some exciting examples of this. Just think how the new young management team at LEGO conceived the idea of The LEGO Movie as a means of re-energising their brand among children.

This entailed partnering with those who had the competency to make it happen, and then

still photos and splice them together to create the illusion of a moving character. Pixar films have no cameramen but took to hiring postgraduate mathematicians to construct the algorithms necessary to create the patterns for movement on the fur of a monster, and for his shadow to follow him correctly. It’s a case of a graphic artist working side-by-side with a mathematician in a fascinating inter­disciplinary effort. Disney bought Pixar in order to stay ahead of the game.

The implications for L&D The new breed of L&D professionals needs to be more context-savvy when tailoring content to their organisations. Off-the-shelf training programs cannot just be adapted to the organisational context after one focus group, to gain relevant illustrations.

Embedded commercial acumen is essential to forge an affecting and aligned L&D unit, in which staff play different roles. The L&D function must be both strategic and operational if it is to make a meaningful impact, and this means getting your hands dirty.

We hear of L&D departments engaging with MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses), which are accessible to anyone and allow unlimited participants. Variants of this approach include xMOOC, an online version of the traditional class, and cMOOC, which is connectivist and encourages collaborative learning rather than mass broadcast.

ALL ABOUT MOOC The MOOC market has exploded for consumers as well as employers. According to Forbes research, more than 70% of employers are interested in exploring the use of MOOCs for corporate training, and 31% have some plans to leverage MOOCs for corporate training. Coursera, Udacity, Udemy and edX are all starting to license courses and their platforms to businesses and for-profit education companies, a trend that will continue to grow.

Yahoo is already reimbursing employees for the cost of verified course-completion certificates from Coursera. Online retailer 1-800-Flowers announced it would create an online education portal on the Udemy platform for its network of independent florists. The portal offers a mix of general business courses and custom-developed courses on topics specific to the floral industry. Tenaris, a US$10bn manufacturer of steel pipes, has licensed edX’s software platform and course materials for its employee learning.

The World Bank, the IMF, GE, and several major government ministries are licensing MOOC content and technologies for their constituents.

To create organisational capability in the skills listed above, experiential learning seems to be the approach of choice. Simulation games have been seen to enhance cognitive gains and teamwork, and stimulate positive reactions among learners. These games are complex and require skilled design, as they are intended to be cognitively demanding.

Simulation games mimic reality in that the use of technology gives learners more control of their environment. The learning space is immersive – participants are fully absorbed – and stretches learners out of their competency comfort zone.

The L&D professional can no longer just be a broker of knowledge; they need to also be a facilitator of connections across the organisation.

Gary Taylor is an HR director who has worked for Australian, South African and British multinationals on two continents, including the Middle East. He is registered as a Master HR Practitioner with the South African Board for People Practice, and served as vice president of the Institute of People Management.

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L&D SPECIAL REPORT

EXECUTIVE EDUCATION

THE REAL DEAL Executive education is increasingly focused on providing real-world insights students can use immediately, and as the Human Capital Leadership Institute’s Catherine McKenzie says, it’s just what Asia’s leaders need if they are to rise up and take on the world THE HUMAN Capital Leadership Institute (HCLI) was set up six years ago to help develop leaders in Asia so they could take on bigger leadership roles in their organisations locally and around the globe. During that time, head of client engagement Catherine McKenzie says the HCLI has helped shape a lot of great leaders – and seen a paradox in their L&D offerings.

“One of the things we hear is that leaders can’t afford to be out of the office for too long.

People often ask, for example, if something really needs to be a four-day course, and can we make it into a three-day course instead.

Senior leaders can usually only manage a maximum of three days out of the office,” McKenzie says. “On the other hand, by the time they get to the top, they almost need to be taken away and locked up so they can have time to reflect away from the office and synthesise their experiences and learning.”

It’s the market that executive education is designed for. Providing shorter courses that

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are more focused around areas of skill or need, companies hope their executives will gain the knowledge and perspective they require to grow in their organisations more quickly, without having to take extensive amounts of time off. And as McKenzie explains, there are other problems that choosing an executive education course can solve.

with the real world. The HCLI includes elements like site visits, for example, where students may get the chance to see another company’s innovation centre. “It’s about expanding your mindset by seeing what’s being done in other companies and industries, and seeing what you can learn to bring back to your own leadership and business development.”

Getting real Market demand in executive education is shifting away from more traditional academic-style learning towards more networked, experiential learning, in line with these types of programs being designed for professionals who need immediate, usable insights.

Real world While executives were once content to explore theory in the classroom, McKenzie says students are now demanding more practical learning that connects more closely

Peer-to-peer Learners are now much more interested in hearing from other successful business leaders, rather than an academic faculty. “People like to hear the personal leadership stories of other leaders,” McKenzie says. “They want to hear about real failures and successes and real challenges, and enjoy the candid sharing of other senior leaders.”

Actionable Students want to be able to apply what they are learning when they go back to work.

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and add to existing skills on an ongoing basis.

The HCLI is innovating in this area, with the development of a ‘personal board’ for senior leaders, a peer mentor and coaching product that helps alumni keep learning and benefiting from their network.

Ecosystem exposure

“It’s about expanding your mindset by seeing what’s being done in other companies and industries, and seeing what you can learn to bring back to your own leadership and business development” Catherine McKenzie, Human Capital Leadership Institute Not only does this assist with embedding learning, but it also helps companies justify return on investment. “When we develop a course that has more than one module, we may put an action-learning program in between two modules. That way they are able to go away and work out how to apply those learnings in the workplace themselves.”

Blended Blended learning is increasingly a part of executive education, now that the

technology exists to deliver some courses online. McKenzie says some companies are seeking efficiencies by having courses partially delivered in this way, particularly larger clients rolling out courses to larger numbers of executives, perhaps at the mid level.

Continuous McKenzie says Singapore’s focus on the continuous learning journey of all employees suits executive education, which has always been packaged as a way to refine

Large organisations in the region have increasingly been opening their own corporate universities and learning centres – sometimes even with a physical building attached – as they embrace executive education on a company level. However, McKenzie says they need to ensure they don’t become overly myopic in the way they view the world.

“Executive education can provide powerful external perspectives and a cross-industry learning approach. Companies focusing internally on their own ways of doing things is important, but it’s also beneficial to get external experience and stimulation,” she says.

This is especially critical in an Asian context. McKenzie says companies are looking for education specifically designed to assist local leaders to rise in their organisations.

“We work with a lot of providers that are global names, and global brands, but there is an acknowledgement that some things are different in Asia,” she explains.

The HCLI has been encouraged by the demand from companies looking to boost the capabilities of their future leaders, rather than just current senior leaders. “From a company’s perspective, they are wondering how they can develop more of their junior people, because they know they won’t have enough people in a couple of years.”

She says that if HR is thinking of the future, they should resist cutting education budgets.

“As we know, leadership development is often one of the first things to get cut in tough times, but many companies deliberately don’t cut that because they know it’s a really important differentiator for their oganisations in the uncertain world we live in.”

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FEATURES

PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT

BRAIN-FRIENDLY PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT Caroline Palmstedt suggests it’s time to view performance management through a different lens by shifting towards a non-rated performance framework IS YOUR performance management framework supporting your business with the talent competencies required for business success? Is your performance and potential matrix model optimal for driving talent development and succession planning? Is a faster-moving business environment requiring new innovations and the addition of new products or services in order to drive customer value?

If the answers to the above are ‘no’, ‘no’ and ‘yes’, it might be time to look at your performance management with a different lens.

Post-dated performance management Organisations with well-established processes for performance management commonly use a rated ‘performance and potential’ framework to enable talent to reach its full potential. Yet some organisations are moving away from performance appraisals based on ratings and are instead adopting a more holistic performance management approach with frequent development conversations that build on forward-thinking discussions.

There are several implications that stem from current frameworks of performance management – and these implications can

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negatively impact on talent development.

Firstly, the commonly used ‘9 Box Model’ involves viewing the previous year’s average performance rather than taking a ‘feedforward’ approach. Secondly, talent potential is rated in a matrix model to navigate the investments of developing talent for future roles. Thirdly, organisations and their leaders

Conducting calibration reviews is helpful for managing a fair and consistent performance assessment, yet it is far from satisfactory in offering objective and validated assessment across the entire talent board. The wellestablished ‘9 Box Model’ performance management process could in fact potentially create a U-turn for talent within your

The anticipation of the annual talent review can be more damaging to performance and retention than the actual feedback must spend a significant amount of time managing the performance review processes.

organisation as it moves in one end and out the other.

The 9 Box U-Turn

Talent assessment in the emerging markets

The ‘9 Box Model’ is commonly used to assess and identify the high performers and future leaders for critical roles. The fact that it is retro-focused, while business priorities may have changed, means this approach is often ineffective. Further, the reliability of ‘9 Box Model’ assessment criteria by leaders assessing their talent is practically impossible to validate.

How can talent development accelerate, in particular in emerging markets where identifying talent with the right competencies and experiences is critical to continuous business growth? Take, for instance, the Asian market, where talent turnover is among the highest in the world and the demands of continuous

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performance and engagement as a result of an inefficient culture?

Perceptions of performance management The anticipation of the annual talent review can be more damaging to performance and retention than the actual feedback; then factor in the impact of the outcome of rated performance management. Typically, following the talent review, leaders have conversations with their talent to guide and provide feedback on overall performance and development in regard to the last year’s performance and development needs.

Whether the talent perceives this conversation in a constructive and open-minded way depends on a number of factors. HR practitioners and business leaders can draw on neuroscience to understand the human brain and its sensitivity to ratings and feedback.

business growth require a more accurate and timely talent development process.

There are two specific talent competencies that stand out in the Asian market in particular: innovation and creativity. HR practitioners should consider how well the established performance management frameworks assess these competencies, and whether a redesigned performance management framework might be more effective.

In Asia, the global challenge of building a resilient, competitive and differentiated work culture to attract and retain the desired talent is an enduring task, due to three region-specific factors. Organisations in Asia are typically:  Entering more new and culturally diverse markets  Evolving and undergoing frequent organisational change as a driver for business growth  Enduring higher employee turnover and faster workforces than other regions According to a 2015 study by Corporate Executive Board, only 10% of Asia-based organisations have an effective culture as a result of the above factors. What are the hidden costs of work efficiency and productivity or low

Brain-friendly performance management What’s the alternative? There are gains to be made for business leaders and HR practitioners who draw from neuroscience and the knowledge of what creates a highly motivated and innovative workforce. Here are some ideas to encourage brain-friendly performance and talent management:  Minimise threat responses by asking employees for their feedback on their performance – before you offer insightful feedback for development  Provide autonomy to the employee. Let them decide where, when and how the performance review feedback should be provided  Address the fairness factor – even when fairness cannot be achieved  Acknowledge the need to deliver results as much as you acknowledge L&D opportunities  Build strong social connections with your talent by maximising openness and a commitment to act on feedback. The brain benefits from experiencing social relatedness with a higher sense of trust as a result

BRAIN RESPONSES TO PERFORMANCE REVIEW FEEDBACK Feedback triggers threat response.

The human brain is programmed to evaluate every piece of information as either a threat or reward. Subconsciously the brain is evaluating threat or reward up to five times per second, making the performance review feedback conversation a minefield for potential threat responses.

Threat responses impacting perception. In a threat response we typically encounter selective listening and our cognitive capabilities are limited. In other words, we may not understand the feedback and interpretations may be limited. Our ability to receive and act on feedback constructively is lowered and we may become defensive.

Fairness is paramount to the brain.

Perceptions of fairness significantly impact on brain performance. In a state of perceived unfair treatment the brain responds with threat traits. Talent who perceive unfair performance ratings potentially respond with a threat response, negatively impacting on engagement and motivation.

Brain prioritises survival. The brains of all human beings are programmed for survival. They have a fundamental developed mechanism to detect errors in the environment and react to these with a fight or flight response. A well-conducted performance review feedback conversation is crucial to keep talent in a ‘safe’ survival mode; it should avoid triggering threat. responses at all costs.

There are gains to be made in revamping performance management by addressing the development and career path needs of employees. This can be achieved by deploying a framework of real-time development and performance conversations – all of which can impact on business results.

Caroline Palmstedt is Monsanto’s talent management lead, Asia Pacific.

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FEATURES

PHILIP MORRIS

RECRUITING FOR THE TOUGHEST OF INDUSTRIES Think you’ve got it tough when attempting to attract the brightest talent? Graeme Smith, director of HR at Philip Morris Limited, outlines how his company – operating in one of the toughest markets imaginable – is attracting interns PHILIP MORRIS INTERNATIONAL (PMI) is a global tobacco company selling products in more than 180 markets. As a Fortune 100 company with worldwide career opportunities, the sales pitch to join our company might sound easy. However, recruiting high-calibre talent for a tobacco company is not without its challenges.

Like all companies we want the best new talent graduating from university to join our business. To do that, we’ve had to develop a completely new way of attracting graduates.

An internship program with a twist INKOMPASS is PMI’s global internship program. We offer university students the opportunity to gain work experience in a multinational company and potentially a job offer before they graduate.

This program is not just an ordinary internship; rather it’s a journey of learning through self-discovery. Developed in

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collaboration with all departments within our business and HR, the program has a unique two-cycle structure, placing interns in multiple departments and conducting real projects that impact on the day-to-day

INKOMPASS interns learn the ropes at Philip Morris

are executing a project to implement our ‘paperless office’ program, which will remove a business expense as well as helping the environment. In addition to costing, this has included redesigning processes as well as

Recruiting high-calibre talent for a tobacco company is not without its challenges. Like all companies we want the best new talent graduating from university to join our business.

To do that we had to develop a completely new way of attracting graduates operations at PMI by contributing to the real needs of the business.

Interns are trusted to deliver against tangible business objectives. For example, this year a pair of interns working in procurement

a change in management plan.

We wanted INKOMPASS to not be a sideshow but to demonstrate to interns what it’s really like to work at PMI. However, this was only 50% of the solution.

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Philip Morris HR director Graeme Smith (centre) with two recent interns

While we have a great program we still faced the challenge of connecting with the best new talent. The solution to recruiting the best talent was to roll up our sleeves, get into the weeds and find them ourselves.

A recruitment tool INKOMPASS is targeted at Generation Y students, and the best way to reach this audience is through a new and different style of engagement. Our bold campaign, interactive website and two-way communication using social media connects with the social and cultural appetites that Gen Y are renowned for. Primarily through online platforms and a highly interactive assessment process, we are able to identify talent that is the best fit for PMI. Throughout the internship we develop interns through continuous personalised feedback, as well as giving them individual project supervisors to mentor them through

the process. We also assign project ‘buddies’ to help coach interns about the professional workplace and how to get the best results from their projects.

As part of our two-cycle structure, interns who are successful in reaching the second cycle will be given the opportunity to delve deeper into a specific department or functional area. They will work on a project that will allow them to discover a particular function’s challenges, opportunities, processes and systems. Following this, top performers receive a job offer from PMI.

International focus Throwing the net broader and leveraging PMI’s international business, INKOMPASS is not just offered to local interns but also to eligible international students. As a global company, with products sold in more than 180 countries around the world, harnessing diversity through international talent is not

only crucial but also satisfies the desire of those who want to live and work abroad.

Our capacity to understand, operate and succeed in today’s complex and multicultural world hinges entirely on our ability to attract, develop and retain a workforce whose people, skills and ideas fully reflect the diverse needs and demands of an evolving market.

INKOMPASS, as our global internship brand, amplifies our voice in the talent market. We are now building a strong talent pipeline at the entry level, which gives us a competitive edge when recruiting the next generation of leaders for PMI. While it’s difficult for companies to recruit great young talent, our experience is showing that dedicated, engaging programs pitched where your target audience gathers is beginning to yield promising results.

For more information, visit our website at inkompass.global.

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FEATURES

HIGH PERFORMANCE

WHEN IS A TEAM NOT A TEAM? It’s the goal of just about every leader, but unfortunately simply naming a group of people a ‘team’ does not cut it – let alone when your objective is to create a high-performing executive team. Justin Peckett explains IN EVERY organisation, you will find that work functions require teams. We have sales teams, marketing teams, IT teams – the list goes on.

The leaders at the top are usually referred to as the executive or leadership team.

Should we consider them a team just because they work together?

On the surface level, perhaps. They may have shared objectives, such as market dominance and profit margin. When these KPIs are met does that mean we have a highperforming team in the room, or even a team to begin with?

While being on target for bottom-line business results gives us a reason to believe everyone is working well towards a common goal, the reality can be very different. Key executives typically lead a particular function within the company and therefore might not have the same views on the strategic purpose of the firm as the next member of the team.

In our experience, high-performing teams at any level share three common traits: high expectations, high accountability and high-demand leadership. Most functional executive teams demonstrate facets of these traits. High expectations translate to having a clear understanding of individual roles and responsibilities, as well as living up to the

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culture and expected behaviours within the company. High accountability occurs when everyone is and can be held to account for individual performance and conduct.

High-demand leadership is recognised as leaders stepping up to the challenge, initiating genuine conversations and a healthy demand that people meet expectations. It is only when these qualities are manifested at an outstanding level that the executive

our trademark?). A clear mandate on a shared purpose and interdependencies will prompt teamwork. Accepting differences and diversity is encouraged and should not hinder the process.

It is crucial that every member knows what the team stands for and is aligned in terms of their framework and code of conduct.

When guiding principles are set, the team is then able to make decisions and choices based on their understanding of both

When trust is built, healthy conflict – conflict with a commitment to action and resolution – is accepted, expected and embraced team become role models for the expected behaviours within the organisation.

Diagnosis is the first step Executive teams should begin with selfreflection and review collective and individual performance as an initial health check. We encourage teams we work with to agree and define their collective purpose (why do we exist as a team?), their team ‘trademark’ (how do we want to be described as a team?) and agreed behaviours (how should we behave to achieve

expected individual and group behaviour.

With a coordinated and structured action plan, alongside metrics to determine buy-in, progress can be measured and evaluated over a period of time and an environment for genuine conversations is created. Recognition of the framework against which the team will be measured allows for high levels of accountability.

Secret to high performance One of the key differences we notice between

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HIGH-PERFORMANCE HURDLES What do you need to watch out for when attempting to create a high-performing team?

high-performing and lesser teams is the presence of strong professional relationships.

This goes beyond footy talk or Friday evening drinks. A strong professional relationship translates to knowing your work environment is safe enough to allow sincere conversations and dialogue. We see this as the ability to provide ongoing support to colleagues, to offer feedback, and to challenge poor behaviour and reward positive outcomes with the desire for both executive-level and individual improvement.

Strong professional relationships lead to a higher tendency to collaborate, share information and come together to find ways to overcome setbacks. They allow teams to address individual or shared challenges and display empathy, developing a mature understanding of colleagues. As a leader, a higher level of awareness and a commitment to seeking resolutions will also propel your team towards high performance.

Carrying it with candour Voicing professional opinions sounds extremely straightforward, but we often find when we start working at an organisation that the office culture is in fact not a safe environment for open and honest professional dialogue. Often, people are

engaged only in self-centred monologues: voicing opinions with no consideration for others and no interest in solutions or compromise. Either that, or they choose to vent and complain outside office walls. This lack of resolve for problem-solving is counterproductive to high performance.

When trust is built, healthy conflict – conflict with a commitment to action and resolution – is accepted, expected and embraced. For the executive team, where decision-making can involve higher risks or uncertainty, productive conflict and debate underpinned by strong professional relationships and using the agreed behaviours as a reference point can reveal more possibilities and lead to better outcomes for the team, the individual and the organisation.

High-performance elements In today’s business environment, a highperforming team is more important than ever to shape business performance. Dealing with ever-changing customer demands, disruptive digital technology and economic uncertainty, an organisation requires a nimble and flexible executive team comprised of complementary skill sets and personalities to jointly solve and overcome business challenges.

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Leaders who don’t believe in the value of instituting cultural change – and the investment required to achieve it.

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Leaders who fear that added rigour and accountability will expose them to scrutiny of their own performance.

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The team has a deep-seated lack of self-belief that they can become high-performing.

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Leaders are unwilling or unable to exit team members who don’t meet cultural expectations.

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The team fails to own the new direction and doesn’t self-regulate their agreed behaviours.

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Leaders don’t believe in the value of instituting cultural change – and the investment required to achieve it.

Diagnosing the underlying reasons for underperformance or wanting to bring the team to the next level requires a systematic approach to evaluate what is hindering and what supports team performance.

To drive impactful change there is a need to ensure that the team’s mandate, processes and culture are aligned. No one factor is the sole reason for dysfunction.

Recognising the factors that shape team performance, including influences within the organisation and the broader business landscape, will help leaders make adjustments and constantly fine-tune their management approach to maintain a highperforming team.

Justin Peckett is a facilitator at Leading Teams. Since joining Leading Teams in 1996 as an athlete facilitator, Justin has worked with clients including Nike, Mercedes Benz and Mattel.

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TECHNOLOGY

ENTERPRISE SOCIAL NETWORKS

GLOBAL TRAVELLER From a commitment to promoting from within to a brand-new enterprise social network, HRD gets a behind-the-scenes look at global hospitality company Club Med’s HR practices hospitality. We’re seeing more and more people interested in a career in hospitality, and more and more specialised schools are being created to cater to that need. On the other hand, this dynamism generates a high level of demand in the work market – the war for talent is indeed a reality.”

The company has taken steps to ensure it’s victorious in this war.

For one thing, promoting from within is commonplace. Retaining staff for extended periods – in an industry that many would perceive as being more about the contingent workers than career-dedicated professionals – has become a key focus.

Bianconi is quick to reel off a list of the benefits of working for a global hospitality company. “We have a lot to offer to the new generation: travelling the world, working with different nationalities, learning new languages, taking on new jobs, as well as Marina Bianconi, VP human resources ESAP (East South Asia Pacific), Club Med

WHAT DO the words ‘Club Med’ conjure up for you? If you think of pristine beaches, crystal-blue resort-style swimming pools and fun, action-packed activities, you wouldn’t be alone. With some 66 resorts around the world, the hospitality giant has become a byword for luxury holidays.

As always, there’s a hard-working team behind the scenes to ensure that each guest enjoys themselves. The total global staff

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count is over 13,000 and there are 320 people working in HR alone.

Marina Bianconi, VP human resources ESAP (East South Asia Pacific), looks after just a small chunk of the organisation’s global HR function – but it’s a critical part.

“Hospitality is booming, especially in Asia,” says Bianconi. “On one hand this is very good news, as it’s offering a lot of opportunities for people to work in

ESNS: NOT A COMMUNICATION PANACEA According to a 2013 Deloitte survey, more than 90% of Fortune 500 companies have either a partially or fully implemented enterprise social network (ESN) – a 70% increase over 2011. However, Deloitte also found that 20–30% of employees won’t sign up for an ESN if registration is required. Of those who register, only a third will read content once a week or more, and just 40% will make an ESN post in the average month.

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career acceleration – our managers in resorts are promoted at around 25 years old on average, and our general managers at 32,” she says.

Bianconi herself walks the talk. She started her studies in finance but quickly switched to HR “once I realised I was closer to people than numbers”, she laughs. She then joined Club Med as an intern. “It was the beginning of a long and exciting journey. I really found that with Club Med my ideal of a company that develops talent was a reality.”

She initially worked at the Club Med headquarters in Paris in the HRSI depart­ ment, managing projects (evaluations, budget process, recruitment, training) and working with IT to implement internal HR processes.

Then her career switched to a more operational role and she moved into the Europe-Africa business unit. Following this, she held the position of recruitment director within that same unit, handling the recruitment of over 5,000 new employees per year. In 2012, Club Med offered Bianconi the chance to move to Singapore to head up HR for the South East Asia and Pacific Business Unit.

“Twenty years ago, HR was not so central in company strategy and remained at an administrative level, and I’m so delighted to see that nowadays HR is increasingly considered as a pillar in company strategy,” she says, reflecting on her career path.

All about communication In 2016, Club Med became the first global tourism company to launch ‘Facebook at Work’, a version of Facebook intended to help businesses transform employee communications. The platform is one of several with a similar objective, including Microsoft’s Yammer, Slack, Convo and Socialcast.

Improving Club Med’s guest experience and customer service is the ultimate goal and motivation behind offering Facebook at Work to Club Med’s staff. The platform will promote collaboration and innovation among employees, who have the ability to contact one another in any time zone and language. All employees of the company will be connected,

ENTERPRISE SOCIAL NETWORK ENGAGEMENT TIPS 1. Benchmark against previous internal collaboration tools. Executives should assess what levels of engagement were achieved by previous tools, and how an enterprise social network (ESN) might be better.

They can then decide on the goals for an ESN, such as registration, reading posts, or making posts.

2. Challenge age-related assumptions. Based on Deloitte’s survey findings (see box p48), ESN administrators shouldn’t assume that enrolling younger employees will be easy, or that older workers will be resistant. It might be expected that ESNs, as a relatively new technology, would primarily appeal to younger employees. In fact, the survey found that, compared with 20–29-year-olds, 40–49-year-olds were more than 40% more likely to have registered – and 100% are more likely to post more than four times per month.

3. Utilise global best practice. Rates of registration and content consumption and creation vary by country, which suggests there are local best practices for encouraging productive use of ESNs. For example, in Deloitte’s survey, the number of users who posted less often than once a month ranged from a low of 41% in one country to a high of 72% in another.

4. Communication and training are essential. Employees will likely need to be encouraged and taught how to make the most of the ESN. Showing ‘how and why’ appears to be critical. Companies should clearly demonstrate the benefits of using the network, such as by showing that employees receive faster and higher-quality responses to information requests if they use an ESN instead of email.

5. Make ESNs part of existing workflows and business processes. Making these networks part of everyday communicating, collaborating, and creating seems likely to be the tipping point in building engagement and utility.

“Our recruitment tagline is: ‘I could have had just a job … Club Med is more than just a job; it’s a life experience’ from ‘Gentle Organisers’ to members of the general management committee, in the four corners of the world.

The platform has been created for mobile use and has similar features to the standard Facebook application, such as the ability to ‘like’ and ‘chat’, as well as use its translation tool.

“At Club Med we have 13,000 employees in over 40 countries – not to mention over 66 resorts around the world. As you can imagine, our inboxes fill up very quickly and it can be difficult to stay connected to other countries and villages on the go,” says Bianconi.

“Facebook at Work is an excellent tool to connect us to what is happening in our different offices, be it promoting new business ideas, sharing daily office life, or creating

surveys and polls between employees.

Ultimately, it helps increase cooperation and idea sharing between employees, and allows us to be more connected in a fluid way.”

The employer of choice quest While enterprise social networks such as Facebook at Work are not a panacea for corporate communication (see box above), and are certainly no guarantee of employer of choice status, Bianconi says the company is aiming for just such an accolade.

“The fact that our product and culture is very unique helps, as does the opportunity to develop personal and interpersonal qualities much faster than in other experiences. Our recruitment tagline is: ‘I could have had just a job … Club Med is more than just a job; it’s a life experience’.”

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FEATURES

WORKPLACE PSYCHOLOGY

Why public humiliation feels so good Why do we take pleasure in seeing others feel bad?

Walden University’s Barbara Benoliel outlines schadenfreude in the workplace and how HR can minimise its impact SCHADENFREUDE – loosely translated as taking covert pleasure in the discomfort of others – is a complex concept. It is the kind of feeling you get when you see, for example, your manager’s nephew, who recently made VP, not appear at a very important meeting with a key client because he overslept. It is a feeling of just desserts combined with the discomfort of seeing

public humiliation a form of entertainment, which has brought our secret pleasure into the public domain and lowered the bar on the idea of what civility is in our society and the workplace. What we used to keep to ourselves, gloating privately, we now share via Twitter. This can’t be good for morale.

While there has been a philosophical

Applied in the workplace, schadenfreude is a short-term means of providing employees an emotional lift Barbara Benoliel , Walden University another human being shown up for their human weakness in public.

Schadenfreude differs from irony or empathy in that it is a visceral feeling of pleasure in observing someone else’s debasement in public. Over the past few hundred years – in fact up until recently – public humiliation or public shaming was considered uncivil, and our secret emotional pleasure response to seeing someone in a compromising position was in fact just that – secret.

Then reality TV came along and made

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interest in the idea of taking pleasure in the distress of others, only recently has the study of the feeling been done scientifically.

Some have equated the feeling to a sign of being evil; others have said it is a signal of a corrupt society. More recent research seems to confirm it is only human nature.

Embarrassment as entertainment There is a history of setting others up for a fall in entertainment, going back almost to the start of TV. The first Candid Camera show in the late

1940s set up hidden cameras to catch unsuspecting individuals in compromising situations, which were then revealed to them, and we observed their response and embarrassment, and felt the uncomfortable – yet somehow satisfying – squirming sensation in observing others in that kind of distress. The additional emotional value of schadenfreude is the overwhelming sense of safety and survival it provides: you have personally escaped. It reaffirms our sense of identity and community.

Schadenfreude specifically centred in the workplace as part of entertainment is a more recent phenomenon. One of the best examples of the practice is The Apprentice TV series, in which viewers can watch an individual be publicly fired for some judgment of their poor performance.

Applied in the workplace, schadenfreude is a short-term means of providing employees with an emotional lift: if I can’t get a pay

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SCHADENFREUDE AT WORK How does schadenfreude flourish in the workplace?

There are many ways managers can both consciously and unconsciously contribute to it: xCalling x out employees’ errors in front of others xAllowing x gossip that is undermining someone to go unchecked in the company ‘grapevine’ xHaving x ‘in groups’ and ‘out groups’ in the workplace xPositioning x closer to some employees than others xCompetitive x evaluations where selected employees are ‘chopped’ or, alternatively, rewarded for performance that demonstrates competitive advantage to others in the company xProviding x employees with public performance appraisals xMaking x a big show of performance ‘stars’ who take advantage of others or are less cooperative in their work to reach that elevated status xMaking x employees compete for limited resources, so some are winners while others watch

rise, a rise in self-esteem in a positive comparative analysis to my diminished co-workers will substitute.

The schadenfreude effect is universal in the workplace, as it deals with status and workplace justice – power and positioning that exist in every organisation. But workplace environments where there is a highly competitive internal culture are more susceptible to higher levels of schadenfreude, and as a result employees may experience higher levels of anxiety and stress related to their feelings about internal operations than to the competition in the market itself.

All of these are examples of environments that invite employees to differentiate and identify others as worthy of potential public shaming. Some actually view schadenfreude as a means of distributive justice that serves a perverse, quasi-beneficial purpose of bringing employees together – for example,

hard-working employees joining together to share their satisfaction when a co-worker who they feel is not worthy of a promotion is getting ‘what they deserve’ when they subsequently fail publicly.

Schadenfreude can allow employees to bond by sharing their experience of relief and pleasure, but it should also be a concern when it makes employees worried about their own safety.

’Distributive justice’ It is important to keep in mind that the emotional relief and positive value of schadenfreude is shortlived and quickly replaced with a sense of narrow escape, personal discomfort and underlying fear.

Think about how you internally squirm in the presence of someone being publicly humiliated.

The need to escape from the discomfort in the environment can trigger a sense of helplessness and distress in the long term.

Organisations looking to minimise the negative effects of schadenfreude should pay attention to their internal distributive justice: • Ensure promotions are for legitimate and transparent reasons • Provide rewards that are justified, clearly defined and attainable by all who meet the criteria • Ensure there is shared support and recognition for contributions by employees working towards the same goal For the sake of the long-term health and wellbeing of employees, schadenfreude doesn’t belong at the table, and is best kept on our list of secret human vices – or at least limited to late-night TV. Barbara Benoliel is the academic program coordinator at Walden University’s Barbara Solomon School of Social Work and Human Services. Her research interests include human and social services, criminal justice, and health services. Benoliel is also a professional mediator and president of the company Preferred Solutions Conflict Resolution, where she specialises in conflict management systems and alternative dispute resolution in organisations.

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GLOBAL HR PROFILE

DIANE GHERSON

FOLLOWING A PASSION She oversees over 380,000 employees in more than 170 countries. IBM’s Diane Gherson takes time out to chat with Iain Hopkins about her enduring love of workplace technology and how the tech pioneer is reinventing itself ASK JUST about any successful business person for their number-one piece of advice and invariably the answer comes back: do something you love and you’ll never have to work a day in your life. Diane Gherson, senior vice president of human resources at International Business Machines (more commonly known as IBM), may balk slightly at the never-work-a-day part of that maxim, given the long hours she works, but there might just be something in it.

Gherson has an enduring love of and fascination with technology, especially the impact it has on work.

It’s therefore fortuitous that she has ended up in the most senior global HR role at IBM. She was fortunate to be at the MIT Lab for Computer Science in the early 1980s, “when all the great thinkers on technology, organisation and change had converged there – along with the hackers”.

“We were using the ARPANET – later called the internet – and Emacs text editor, the first version of word processing,” she recalls. “Now, at IBM, all these years later, I’m again at the forefront of technology change, building cognitive computing into the way we hire and how we match employee skills and interests to open roles.”

However, with predictive analytics still in its infancy, Gherson is currently most excited by the use of social and mobile technologies to engage people in how the company is run: crowdsourcing ideas, testing new program concepts and continuously engaging in dialogue with

the firm’s top minds. “Gone are the days of rolling out a new HR program and waiting a year to revise it based on feedback,” she says. “Employees can be actively involved throughout design, and then make it better through iterative releases. Through participation, employees feel a stronger sense of ownership and connection with the company. They are less like consumers and more like co-creators of HR programs.”

“Analytics is not rocket science, but it is more important than ever for HR professionals to have some background in statistics”

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A focus on big data

Not surprisingly, Gherson is also passionate about the possibilities presented by big data. She suggests HR is “perfect” for big-data analytics, simply because “we have so much unstructured data”.

IBM uses analytics in just about everything it does – for example, proactive retention of employees likely to leave, managing skills, and assessing workforce climate.

“Early on, we used analytics to identify propensity to leave, and these algorithms have yielded a selffunded program over the last five years, with net savings of almost US$300m,” Gherson says. “Because skills are so important in our industry, and because they are so dynamic, we are using analytics to infer skills in the workforce based on LinkedIn and other résumés, public blogs, project goals, sales pipelines and other unstructured data available in our internal social business platform [called IBM Connections].”

IBM also analyses (internal) social chatter to take a pulse on the level of employee engagement.

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A SYSTEM THAT CAN LEARN Given that 80% of all data today is ‘unstructured’ (news articles, research reports, social media posts, photographs and enterprise system data), IBM has developed Watson, a cognitive technology platform. Watson uses natural language processing and machine learning to reveal insights from large amounts of unstructured data. In the business world, Watson can: • answer your customers’ most pressing questions • quickly extract key information from all documents • reveal insights, patterns and relationships across data Gherson is on record as saying Watson plays an important role within IBM, acting like a talent magnet for people with a certain entrepreneurial mindset: “ … For people with big data and cognitive science skills, Watson is a place that feels a lot more like you’re going to a start-up.”

Gherson urges HR professionals to upskill so they can make the most of this ‘unstructured data’. “Analytics is not rocket science, but it is more important than ever for HR professionals to have some background in statistics,” she says.

Tough times and new challenges According to Bloomberg, IBM’s employee count shrank 12% in 2014 as the 103-year-old technology giant reinvented itself as a more nimble competitor. IBM divested parts of its portfolios and associated operations.

As other tech pioneers are finding, reinvention as a cloud competitor requires a different mindset.

Gherson’s biggest HR challenge for 2016 is technology-dependent: a new, company-wide performance management system. IBM is co-creating the system with employees. More than 100,000 people have participated in its development.

“We ended up with a system without a single performance rating – a radical change for us. The real focus of the new system is feedback, and my challenge is to ensure we create the conditions for great feedback.”

Downtime Gherson has 12 to 14 meetings a day, sometimes including formal meetings with her peers and her CEO. She typically doesn’t get to read her emails until the workday is over. So how does she relax?

“I’m pretty disciplined about not looking at my mobile on Saturdays,” she laughs. “That’s my day to catch up with the family, bike, shop, cook or read a good book.”

But come Monday morning – or perhaps even Sunday morning – duty calls.

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PEOPLE

CAREER PATH

OWNING THE CHANGE

Currently group head of HR for JF Hillebrand Group, Norbert Modla has worked his way from management consulting through a number of HR roles in a career spanning Europe and Asia

1996

A FIRST STEP ON THE LADDER

1997 GRADUATION At Corvinus University of Budapest, Modla graduated with a degree in economics and business. He also gained his first practical leadership experience as national president for Hungary at global student organisation AIESEC.

2004

PRACTICAL EXPERIENCE AND AN MBA As part of his MBA, Modla undertook consulting work for firms such as Marakon, and for the London Business School, conducting projects locally as well as in India and China, where he gained his first taste of working in Asia.

“After working for seven years, it was time for me to go back to school and see how my experience really compared to the thought leaders of the world.”

2005

MASTER OF CHANGE In January 2005, Modla was asked to move to Hungary where he became HR director at Philip Morris. Here, he drew on his consulting experience in bringing the company through major transformations within its supply chain, business models and manufacturing.

2014

BUILDING A GLOBAL HR ORGANISATION Modla joined the Singapore office of logistics company JF Hillebrand Group in April 2014 with the goal of taking its local country-based HR teams and forming a completely global HR function from the ground up.

“My mission was to start up a global HR organisation reporting directly to the CEO. I found that to be a unique opportunity to actually start building this from a blank piece of paper. It was an interesting mission that was very exciting to lead.”

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Starting off as a management consultant at customer experience experts TMI, Modla worked his way up the ranks, eventually becoming managing director in Budapest. During this time, the main client focus was on business transformation as Central Europe prepared to become part of the EU and the global economy.

“This was also my first actual managerial experience of running a business. I found myself at a reasonably early age being in charge, generating P&L and so on. It was a good learning opportunity” 2004

A MOVE INTO HR After graduating with his MBA, Modla was offered a job as manager of HR for the CEEMA region at Philip Morris’s global operations centre in Switzerland. “When they offered me the job, they said to me, ‘You’ve been in consulting so much. Can you actually do it?’ That resonated with me as a challenge to work in a large company and own the change from inside.”

2008

LEADERSHIP WITHIN AN ASIAN ORGANISATION Transferring to Hong Kong was a major career step for Modla as he was appointed regional director of talent management and organisational development at Philip Morris, overseeing 14 Asian countries. After four years in Hong Kong, he was then asked to move to Thailand as director of HR and commercial organisation development.

“Thailand was a very unique business for the company as there were a lot of special projects. I was also in charge of organisational development besides HR, which made it very interesting.”

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PEOPLE

OTHER LIFE

CLIMB EVERY MOUNTAIN Taking peak performance literally, Renata Janini Dohmen has completed some of the world’s most spectacular treks RENATA JANINI DOHMEN, vice president of HR at SAP Southeast Asia, was introduced to the world of trekking back in 2011 when she first moved over to Asia from South America.

Her first trekking experience was climbing Japan’s iconic Mount Fuji during a corporate teambuilding event when she learned how this exciting activity could positively affect the body and mind.

“I also learned about the importance of having proper hiking gear: hiking shoes to protect the ankles, protective clothing against low temperatures and strong winds, a headlamp to allow hands-free movement, and much more – including the need for a brave, adventurous spirit and determination.”

Since her magical adventure in Japan, Dohmen has completed the Salkantay Trek in Peru – a route which passes through the Andes, reaching its highest point of 4,650m at the Salkantay Pass. The trek ends at the ancient Incan city of Machu Picchu. She also recently completed a trek around Jebel Shams, the highest mountain in the Sultanate of Oman, in an experience she describes as breathtaking.

“Singapore also offers magnificent hiking opportunities and places, with MacRitchie Nature Trail being one of my favourites,” Dohmen says.

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litres of liquid per day climb (minimum) 56

½ a box of plasters per day climb

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personal list of resolutions or lessons learned per day climb

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