HR Magazine Awards 2020 | Special Supplement

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Foreword 2020 was a year that challenged most organisations. The pandemic became a catalyst for change, Foreword

which necessitated incredible flexibility and innovation across HR functions. The HR Magazine Awards 2020 celebrate HR success stories and the teams leveraging organisational agility to thrive in the new now.

Two ways to read your HR Magazine Awards Supplement: 1.

Celebrate HR success stories (see featured organisations index)

2.

Source winning HR initiatives that your teams can leverage (see HR initiatives index)

Featured organisations (alphabetical)

HR Magazine Awards

Pages

Atrium HR Consulting

G

33

BIPO Service Ltd.

G

28 – 29

BPP Education Group

G+G

2, 36

Carrefour Global Sourcing

G

9

Chorev Consulting International

S

38

Elabram

B

25

EY

G

16

First Advantage

S

26

GoodNotes

S+B

18, 22

Hasbro

G

23

HKBN Group

S+S+B+B

3, 10, 12, 24

Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing Ltd.

S

11

Paul Arkwright

IHS Markit

B

5

Publisher & Editor-in-Chief

JobsDB Hong Kong Ltd.

G

27

HR Magazine

KAS Group Asia

S+S

3, 9 – 10

Mattel

B+B

13

PERSOLKELLY Consulting Greater China

B

40

Ramco

G

32

SAP

G+S

20 – 21, 30 – 31

Societe Generale

G+G+S

8, 14, 17

State of Mind.ai

B

34

The Clorox Company

B

15, 19

Total Loyalty Company

S

35

HR Initiatives

Pages

COVID-19

2–4

Employee wellness

5 –8, 33 – 35

Recruitment

9 – 11, 25 – 28

L&D

12 – 14, 36 – 39

D&I

15 – 17

Workspace

18 – 21

Work-life integration

22 – 24

HRIS

28 – 31

BPO

32

The HR Magazine Awards 2020 celebrate HR success stories and the teams leveraging organisational agility to thrive in the new now.

1

Best COVID-19 HR initiative HR Award Categories

Best Covid-19 HR initiative

And delivered a range of activities across the following subjects:

BPP Education Group

•

Stronger Together Campaign

•

Physical Health: Online yoga classes, podcast on health and safety and the 10,000 Step Challenge.

Mental Health: Live webinars on how to manage mental wellbeing, self-compassion and mindfulness. Podcasts on how to manage sleep, stress and emotions and mental health during Mental Health Awareness Week

Originally, BPP wanted to place its employees at the heart of the organisation and recognise the invaluable role they play in driving

•

Employee Development: Live webinar on how to get the most out

and maintaining ambitious growth targets. As such in late 2019,

of Microsoft Teams. There was also new online content added to

BPP’s HR team created an enhanced wellbeing strategy, based on

the employee development portal which covered a range of subjects

seven principles of wellbeing: Physical Health, Mental Health,

such as time management, dealing with change, communication and resilience.

Working Environment, Diversity, Employee Voice, Employee Development and Financial Wellbeing. This was due to be launched

•

increased wellbeing throughout the Covid-19 pandemic.

Employee Voice: Live panel events on Work/Life Balance and Working Families were scheduled

in early 2020 however, was accelerated due to the identified need of •

Line Manager Content: As line managers play a key part in supporting the wellbeing of their staff, the campaign also provided

Within a two-week period, where BPP closed its offices and

targeted interventions such as regular webinars with HR and other

transitioned to remote work, the HR team quickly identified the

learning such as Embodied Resilience and adapting leadership

need to revise the support strategy of employee wellbeing. The

styles during a crisis.

objective of the initiative shifted to create an effective and agile wellbeing programme that would demonstrate that BPP values its

The benefits of this campaign show an increase in employee engagement.

workforce and empowers employees to take ownership for their

Statistics demonstrate that:

own wellbeing.

•

Over 50% of the workforce have attended a live webinar

The initiative launched on the 24th March and was branded as the

•

Over 3,000 views of vlogs from members of the Executive Team

Stronger Together Campaign. The aim of it was simple – BPP wanted

•

Over 2,000 views of online articles and guides created for the campaign

to keep everyone connected, motivated and informed during this

•

Over 1,000 combined listeners to the podcasts

uncertain time.

•

A total of 300 employees signed up to the 10,000 Step Challenge

The Stronger Together Campaign was created as a collaborative project by the HR and Marketing teams and approved by the Director of Legal and HR. It was important at a time of crisis for employees to receive regular communications from the Executive Team, to reinforce BPP’s commitment to staff wellbeing.

The project team ensured there were a variety of different subjects, which linked directly to the seven principles of wellbeing.

Communication was also vital to ensure BPP employees felt connected. In summary, from 23 March – 02 November we have collectively issued:

22

This initiative has really brought our BPP Values to life and enabled us to support a wide variety of employee needs throughout the very challenging Covid-19 pandemic. Our values were new to the organisation in 2019 but they now feel very real and BPP feels like a family.

•

28 all employee comms (culture, pension, HR updates)

•

18 Covid-19 business wide updates ( this includes pulse checks)

•

16 People Manager updates

Mandy Lagan

•

27 Stronger Together emails (wellbeing)

Group HR Director, BPP

•

12 vlogs from a member of the exec

Best Covid-19 HR initiative

HKBN Group

their current salaries paid by the company. Similarly, in line with HKBN's Core Purpose of 'Make our Home a Better Place to Live' wherever they operate, the company has also given similar business subsidies received from the governments in Singapore, Malaysia, Mainland China and the Macau SAR as a one-time financial subsidy

Under the COVID-19 pandemic, HKBN offered its Talents much

to all eligible Talents in those locations.

2020, when the pandemic first began, they exercised vigilance by

Since

encouraging office and back-end support Talents in Hong Kong to

responsibilities to society and customers—introducing various

February

2020,

the

company

also

embraced

its

work flexibly from home. They also prioritised all frontline and core

#ToughTimesTogether initiatives. These initiatives have included

operational Talents' safety with the supply of protective necessities

a one-month service fee waiver to residential fixed-line and

like face masks and hand sanitisers.

enterprise solutions customers, free remote office solutions for enterprise customers, free two-year broadband service for 10,000 disadvantaged families, free data smartphones for care home

during COVID, the company also provided free Remote Office

residents, and three-month employment with on-the-job training

Solutions to help enterprise customers and their HR teams better

and mentorship for 100 university graduates.

adjust employees to the "new normal". Helping minimise business disruption and safeguard employees against infection, HKBN's free

HKBN says, "Despite COVID, HKBN has not only continued to

solutions included the use of Business Continuity Service (BCS)

grow, but we have taken on much greater responsibility to support

centres as an office backup facility, mobile conferencing service and

our Talents, our customers and our communities. We are in an

secure remote access service. Altogether, HKBN's free Remote Office

exceptional position whereby we can do good and do well."

Best COVID-19 HR initiative

Besides initiating numerous measures to look out for HKBN Talents

HR Award Categories

greater flexibility for work and personal life. As far back as January

Solutions played a critical role, at a crucial period during the pandemic (February 2020), in enabling their enterprise customers—and their employees—to maintain productivity by working from anywhere and access their company's data and systems with end-to-end services that included free use of laptops, software licences and installation, system configuration and deployment, as well as mobile connectivity.

Due to COVID's unprecedented economic fallout, many HKBN's Talents have seen their overall family incomes adversely affected.

Despite COVID, HKBN has not only continued to grow, but we have taken on much greater responsibility to support our Talents, our customers and our communities.

The organisation embraced a financial relief initiative by passing on Talent-related pay-out funds received from the Hong Kong SAR Government to all eligible Talents in Hong Kong, without reducing

3

Best COVID-19 HR initiative HR Award Categories

Amazing Products at Unbeatable Value We are a team of highly experienced retail sourcing professionals who thrive to bring globally compelling low cost, on-trend products to our customers in Australia and New Zealand. We follow the highest standards to source ethically, adhering to fair practices and measuring up to global industry standards. With a clear focus on sustainability, we ensure that none of our operations are detrimental to the welfare of our planet and our people.

About KAS Group Asia and The Kmart Group KAS Group Asia (KGA) is the exclusive direct sourcing arm of the Kmart Group Australia that operates the iconic retail brands Kmart Australia, Target Australia and Catch.

KGA’s operations span the largest sourcing markets across Asia including China, India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Cambodia, Indonesia and Vietnam.

Connect with us

Best Covid-19 HR initiative

KAS Group Asia

flexible work schedule to ensure team avoid

A crisis management team (CMT) was

crowds to facilitate social distancing. This

constituted for each location with representatives

was very challenging at the start, especially

from all functions to continue monitoring

during CNY when team members were on

the situation providing on-time local advice.

holiday during the outbreak, immediate health At the beginning of February 2020, the world

declaration forms were needed to be in place to

The Result

was starting to experience the impacts of

find out about team members' whereabouts and

KAS Group Asia People & the Capability

COVID-19 on their lives and workplace.

health situation within a tight turnaround time,

Team was shortlisted as one of the four

KAS Group Asia (KGA) adapted very quickly

with constant follow up on a safe return to the

finalists among thousands of nominations

to evaluate the situation, designed and

workplace and what assistance was required.

across The Kmart Group, our parent company headquartered in Australia. The team was

implemented a robust risk mitigation plan to ensure their team members are safe and

Site Management

nominated for the "Take Care" Award, in

empowered to expedite their duties in a stress-

A "Return to Office Deck" was put together

recognition of all the initiatives put in place,

free and comfortable work environment.

showing detailed sanitisation and disinfection

which were widely appreciated.

introduced in the office to help ensure a riskHealth and Safety

free workplace and educate team members

A COVID-19 engagement pulse check survey

Ensuring team members' health and safety

about all new office entry protocols, a COVID-19

was conducted, and KAS Group Asia received

has always been a top priority for KGA

notice board was set up to reassure all staff that

a score of 94% for "Company confidence"

People & Capability (P&C) team. For such

workplace hygiene is kept at the highest standard.

and 96% for "My company is supporting employees during the COVID-19 Pandemic".

an unprecedented situation, bringing a level

44

of safety awareness to all team members has

Covid SOP was drawn up to direct each site for

A true testament of their relentless efforts

become critical as the 'potential health impact'

when a team member has a fever with covid

and undiluted focus to employee wellbeing.

is rapidly changing on a daily basis. The risk

symptoms and what needs to be done. To

mitigation plan included travel restriction,

mitigate any risk, KGA trace down close office

A video was initiated by the Shanghai business

COVID-19 FAQs, information on globally

contact list, ask team members to work from

to showcase the great office preparations put in

recognised health practices, newly introduced

home and ensure deep cleaning is done for the

place when Shanghai was the first office to open

work policies including work from home,

office immediately.

back in March 2020, after the initial breakout.

Best employee wellness programme

IHS Markit

own words. With 2020 being such a challenging year for everyone, IHS Markit felt it was the right time to double-down on this sort of recognition. It is noteworthy that the company focused 100% on pure recognition—the stories themselves and what they say about the company culture—and that the programme was launched

IHS Markit is the leading source of information and insight in critical

without any financial component.

in business, finance and government make decisions with wide-

This programme was launched with the following goals in mind:

ranging implications. These leaders need to see the interconnected factors that impact their organisations. This knowledge allows

1.

them to make the best choices and achieve their business goals. IHS

Increase employees' general awareness of their six company values and show real-life stories of how they look in action.

Markit calls this the ‘New Intelligence’.

2.

Enable a culture of recognition where employees of all levels

take a systemic and forward-looking view of employee recognition within their firm. It makes perfect sense that they would seek to empower their 15,000+ employees across the globe to participate

3.

Streamline the data collection process for shortlisting stories/ nominations for existing awards programmes

first-hand in the process and that they would look to leverage this network to drive new connections and unlock value.

Since launching just three months ago, IHS Markit has had over 5,000 individual stories submitted by employees from all over the

IHS Markit launched their new global employee recognition

globe. They have also been able to pull valuable insights from the

programme in October 2020, with the project design and

data, which tell not only of engagement with the new platform but

management led out of Hong Kong, with in-house technical

also provide novel insights into collaboration. The company, for

development by their teams in the US, UK and India. The

example, can track the number of times an employee recognises a

foundation of this programme is something very simple: authentic

colleague from a different region or business division rather than

stories submitted by colleagues in their own words. Each story is

from their own, revealing insights into overall organisational health

an example of organic peer-to-peer recognition, highlighting one

and agility.

Best employee wellness programme

and locations feel included and visible.

Against this backdrop, it makes perfect sense that IHS Markit would

HR Award Categories

areas that shape today's business landscape. Every day, people

of their six company values. Each of these stories is immediately made visible to all employees on a public online wall, with

This has been a wildly successful initiative and has already been very

automatic notifications to the employee and their manager. To

well received in the first few months since its launch. During the

make the experience as streamlined and transparent as possible,

current pandemic, when employee wellness is critical, as is maintaining

no approval process was required—and what employees see on the

employee connection across the firm, IHS Markit felt that investing in

public wall is all authentic and from the heart, in their colleagues'

this type of non-monetary recognition platform was a no-brainer.

This new recognition programme is completely owned by our 15,000+ employees worldwide—the stories are in their own words. It's meant to help everyone feel included, visible and connected to our firm and values.

Cassady Winston Executive Director, Human Resources APAC, IHS Markit

5

Best employee wellness programme

KAS Group Asia

Best employee wellness programme

employee health and well-being at the core of their business strategy. Recognising

HR Award Categories

KAS Group Asia (KGA) is one of the increasing number of organisations that places

converted the usual in-office wellness week into a six-week wellness programme

that a healthy, happy and committed workforce is vital to business success. As an organisation with offices located across Asia, the pandemic posed a tough challenge—keeping the morale and wellness quotient high for team members working across geographies. Government-imposed travel restrictions and lockdown measures implemented in most countries meant that team members were working in isolation with little or no in-person engagement. The risk of mental and physical burn out looked real.

The People & Capability team at KGA was quick to respond to these challenges and which was launched across the region and to help ensure the mental and physical wellness of all the team members.

The challenges: •

Connect team members across 10 offices spread across Asia.

•

Engage team members in a non-work fun environment.

•

Ensure there is work-life balance while team members are working from home.

•

Remind team members that their personal well-being is important.

•

Remind team members that involving their family in-office fun activities is natural.

•

Remind team members to ensure they have ‘me time’ and ‘sharing time’.

The wellness programme comprised a mix of initiatives aimed at stimulating the body and the mind with lots of fun sprinkled all through the week.

•

Monday | COOK A STORM—team members shared photos of dishes they have cooked over the weekend. There were over 200 photos and videos shared

•

Tuesday | VIRTUAL FITNESS KEEP MOVING—every week, at a dedicated time, team members were invited to virtually join an exercise session—with everyone following a fitness video live-streamed online

•

Wednesday | VIRTUAL MINDFULNESS—team members took a few minutes to be mindful of their mind, well-being and surroundings. It is all about taking some quiet time

•

Thursday | 10,000 STEPS CHALLENGE—team members proudly showed off the number of steps they achieved during three consecutive days. With the steps achieved collectively over six weeks, one could probably walk from Bengaluru (Bangalore) to Delhi!

•

Friday | PAY IT FORWARD—team members passed a virtual flag around. On any day, the one with the virtual flag would do a good deed for their community, family, friends and eventhemselves.Weekafterweek,heart-warmingstoriesemergedfromteammembers.

A COVID-19 engagement pulse check survey was conducted, and KAS Group Asia received a score of 94% for ‘Company confidence’ and 96% for ‘My company is supporting employees during the COVID-19 Pandemic’. A true testament of their relentless efforts and undiluted focus to employee well-being.

66

The wellness program sent out a strong reminder to the team that nurturing a strong physical and mental health is vital at all times and it is important to continue to eat well and keep fit for a healthy lifestyle.

Lavina Mehta Head of People & Capability and Facility Management KAS Group Asia

About KGA and The Kmart Group KAS Group Asia (KGA) is the exclusive direct sourcing arm of the Kmart Group Australia. The Kmart Group, comprising Kmart and Target, operates 520 stores across Australia and New Zealand and employs more than 46,000 team members with $8.7 Bn in revenues. The Kmart Group is one of Australia’s largest and fastest growing retailers who provide great value and on-trend products across apparel and general merchandise. In 2019, the group acquired Catch, one of Australia’s largest online retailers with close to 400 staff, over 45 thousand square metres of warehouse space shipping over 10,000 orders per day.

About KAS Group Asia and The Kmart Group KAS Group Asia (KGA) is the exclusive direct sourcing arm of the Kmart Group Australia that operates the iconic retail brands Kmart Australia, Target Australia and Catch. KGA’s operations span the largest sourcing markets across Asia including China, India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Cambodia, Indonesia and Vietnam.

Sourcing from the best for unbeatable value We are a team of highly experienced retail sourcing professionals who thrive to bring globally compelling low cost, on-trend products to our customers in Australia and New Zealand. We follow the highest standards to source ethically, adhering to fair practices and measuring up to global industry standards.

With a clear focus on sustainability, we ensure that none of our operations are detrimental to the welfare of our planet and our people.

Connect with us

Best employee wellness programme HR Award Categories

Best employee wellness programme

it, upgrading systems and tools to support

For example, in 2020, to better support

flexible working, the introduction of flex

staff in working from home, the Bank

days, staggered working hours, forming a

subsidised staff in purchasing a larger

staff engagement committee to take care of

screen for their workstations at home. In

extra-curricular activities aimed at health and

terms of supporting parental transitions,

Societe Generale believes that employees'

well-being of employees, organising health

on top of the 20-week maternity leave and

quality of life in the workplace, together with

and wellness months, bonding activities,

15-day paternity & partner leave, the Bank

health and well-being of its employees, are

and providing work-life coaching through an

also provides individual coaching and

the key factors for efficiency, effectiveness,

external provider.

awareness sessions for parents-to-be and

Societe Generale

line managers to help support parental

and sustainable performance. To achieve the ambition, they believe employees are

In addition to attracting and retaining the best

transitions with the staff, the managers

the Group's most significant assets—and if

talent, the Bank has designed a holistic benefits

and the teams. During COVID situations,

they were not motivated and energised, the

plan to support them at different stages of

the Bank has also strengthened its delivery

Group would not be able to achieve its goals.

their lives, whether with health and wellness,

of mental health support to staff through

The leadership model is based on the above

medical benefits, family-friendly leave, or their

a professional vendor. Employees facing

ambition and is directly linked to the values

general well-being at work.

questions or concerns in these areas, as well as their family members, can receive free

of the Group—Team Spirit, Commitment, Innovation and Responsibility all aiming to

The Health & Wellness Event has the key

advice and support from experienced and

work towards empowering employees, to

objectives of fostering a community spirit

professionally trained counsellors.

create a relationship-focused bank and achieve

within the Bank and promoting Health and

Societe Generale's objectives with a "win-win"

Wellbeing as part of the Bank's People Value

mindset for employees and the Bank.

Proposition. Health Topics help ensure the Bank can better assess employees' health risks

In 2015, Societe Generale launched the Life at

and provide sufficient information to raise

Work programme to continue and share the

awareness on this topic. Wellness Topics aim

initiatives undertaken throughout the Group,

to demonstrate the Bank's CARE philosophy in

while fostering the creation of new initiatives. In

that Societe Generale cares for its employees.

Hong Kong, along with the global direction, the

The above topics have also been successfully

Group has embraced many initiatives to enhance

integrated into the "Life at work Programme".

"workplace well-being" for all employees. The

and professional lives is the key factor for the sustainable performance of our Bank.

programme is fully supported by the senior

The Life at Work programme focuses on

Mukta Arya

management of the Bank who review it regularly

several pillars:

Regional Head of Human Resources, Asia Pacific

with HR, to ensure proper business alignment.

88

Well-being in our staff's personal

Societe Generale •

Work from home and new ways of working

To achieve the above goals, Societe Generale

•

Working environment

has worked consistently towards enhancing

•

Key life events and benefits

the regular HR benefits like different kinds of

•

Health and safety

leave, introducing "work from home" policy

•

Individual and collective efficiency

for departments that can accommodate

•

Management

Best recruitment campaign

efficiency and afford a better candidate

Carrefour Global Sourcing

experience in their interview process. The organisation has found that the platform saves around 70 days per year (20% of work time) solely by eliminating the arrangement and conduct of pre-screening interviews.

HR Award Categories

The digital recruitment platform helps: 1. speed up pre-screening process—where candidates answer a pre-set of interview questions via recorded video interview, text writing, or multiple-choice questions;

its customers' daily lives across its network

2. assess

hard

and

soft

skills

Best recruitment campaign

Carrefour Global Sourcing continues to enhance

with

assessment tests;

comprising over 11,900 stores in countries worldwide, including France, Spain, Belgium, Italy, Brazil and Argentina. With 500 collaborators

3. candidate-scoring

using

Artificial

Intelligence (AI); and

from 20 different nationalities operating from 9 office locations globally: Shanghai, Hong

4. automate time-consuming tasks (e.g.,

Kong, Ho Chi Minh, Phnom Penh, Dhaka, Delhi,

arranging interviews and sending emails

Istanbul, Massy/Paris and Sao Paulo; recruiting is

to invite or decline candidates).

a crucial part of their daily HR activities.

Picture (top): Scoring by hiring team according to Now, hiring managers can view candidates'

various competencies aligned with the questions set

The Carrefour Global Sourcing HR team spends a

videos and review the pre-recorded interviews

in the pre-screening interview.

lot of time arranging and conducting first-round

anytime, anywhere by laptop or phone APP.

interview screenings. Some of the common

Hiring managers can also view the quality of

Picture (bottom): Courtesy of Easyrecue: Example

challenges faced include:

candidates out there in the market versus their

of AI scoring of candidates.

expectations and budget availability.

• Conflicting work schedules and global time zone differences to interview with

Better candidate experience—reduce candidate

candidates.

biases, increase employer branding!

The digital recruitment platform also allows

• Limitations in arranging only a small number

the organisation to reduce unconscious

of interviews due to resource constraints.

biases and improve hiring diversity. In Carrefour Global Sourcing, hiring for the right

• Asking the same repetitive questions during

personality and potential is more important

first-round interview screenings which is

than experience—to avoid missing out on any

very time-consuming.

great potential candidates.

As an employer branding initiative, candidates

first-round interview but later discovered

can also first read the company profile, which

that their profiles and personalities differ

is available in the platform, to understand

from their CVs/ resumes. The time spent

Carrefour Global Sourcing better. After this,

in these interviews can be put to better

candidates can complete the pre-recorded

use instead.

interviews

their

convenience.

with AI technology will be the future of recruitment, as more people now work from home.

Using AI and big data can also

• Sometimes, candidates were invited for a

at

Digital pre-screening interviews

Upon

help us to be more efficient and better evaluate candidates in our recruitment processes.

completion, they will be scored by both the • Candidates do not understand the company

hiring team (manually) and the Artificial

them

Intelligence (AI) system (automated) which

Kristy LAM

misunderstood Carrefour Global Sourcing as

assesses candidates' non-verbal language and

Regional HR Manager

the Carrefour hypermarket retail store, but

verbal content for each question.

Carrefour Global Sourcing

profile

and

business.

Most

of

these are 2 different entities.

An objective assessment will thus be sent via Better work efficiency—work more with less!

email to hiring managers to view and select

Tholmas SIM

Carrefour Global Sourcing decided to engage

their preferred candidates for the second-

China HR & Global Talent Manager

a digital recruitment platform to increase

round interviews.

Carrefour Global Sourcing

9

Best recruitment campaign HR Award Categories

Best recruitment campaign

HKBN Group

recruit new Talents for the company. After programme completion, HKBN offered full-time employment to 25 participants—double their regular annual intake. And for those who did not remain with HKBN, the three-month practical work experience in a specialised function area was still extremely useful and would likely increase

HKBN recognised that, under the COVID threat and a prolonged

their chances of landing a job in the future.

economic downturn, new graduates face unprecedented challenges in job hunting. In doing their part to offer much-needed support,

HKBN says, “The true meaning behind our #ToughTimesTogether

the company launched their “#ToughTimesTogether—Career

campaign is that we hope to inspire more companies to step

Kickstarter for Graduates” programme and hired around 100

forward and extend a helping hand by being flexible or by doing

university graduates for three months.

more. Collective action makes all the difference.”

Focused on steering young professionals for a future of success, the jam-packed Kickstarter programme delivered heaps of practical work experience along with inspiring mentorships. Participants could choose the area of focus they wish to gain broader exposure in. To help kickstart their careers, HKBN matched each placement with three months of on-the-job training and mentorship from their top 1% executives. Even under normal circumstances, the gap between university and the practical working world is vast, and the pandemic has only widened this gap further. In the three months, HKBN provided participants with a place to learn and fail, build a two-way mentoring relationship with their top executives and be inspired by their professional achievements.

This programme was conceived as a stepping stone for aspiring young people to develop and grow even in tough times, rather than

The true meaning behind our #ToughTimesTogether campaign is that we hope to inspire more companies to step forward and extend a helping hand by being flexible or by doing more. Collective action makes all the difference.

1010

Best recruitment campaign

Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited

reporting, system support, sustainability programmes, community outreach, and communications and administration.

Paul Choi, Group Head of HR (Acting), noted, “We know that today’s young people are looking for more than just a job. What’s important to them is different from what was important to previous generations. Our dedicated GO BEYOND website pages and social media campaign on LinkedIn, YouTube, Twitter and Weibo aim to inspire potential talent with a clear sense of who we are as a company,

The world of work beyond COVID-19 is going to be very different. New

our culture and what makes us unique. We are proud to be nurturing

working practices have become a reality, industries are being radically

the talent of tomorrow and to building Hong Kong’s future.”

reshaped, and businesses are seizing fresh opportunities. Everyone is just beginning to understand the possibilities that lie beyond.

Graduates will be assigned to work on projects that are interesting young people with the chance to gain valuable work experience,

challenging, and at HKEX, the team knows that it is especially

develop their skills and to work for one of Hong Kong’s most vibrant

hard when young people are just starting out. In its GO BEYOND

companies in the beating heart of Asian financial markets.

with HKEX graduate internship programme, up to fifty graduates will receive an insight into life at work at HKEX, the global markets leader in the Asian time zone, while gaining practical on-the-job experience. Whether they are considering a long-term career within the financial services industry or not—the posting provides graduates with rich experiences, new connections and

We know that today’s young people are looking for more than just a job. What’s important to them is different from

fascinating insights.

what was important to previous generations. Our dedicated

Calvin Tai, Interim Chief Executive, HKEX, said, “Through GO

GO BEYOND website pages and social media campaigns …

BEYOND, we are focused on contributing not only to the development of our own talent pool but to Hong Kong’s continuing role as a leading global international financial centre, helping to support the prosperity of all.”

The new six-month internship programme kicks-off in March 2021 and

Best recruitment campaign

and relevant to their skills and interest. The scheme will provide Looking ahead after a period of unprecedented change can be

HR Award Categories

GO BEYOND with HKEX—new six-month graduate internship programme

aim to inspire potential talent with a clear sense of who we are as a company, our culture and what makes us unique.

continues through to August 2021. HKEX is committed to offering job

Paul Choi

opportunities in policy research, financial data and statistical analysis,

Group Head of HR (Acting)

information management, data input and programming, drafting,

Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited

11

Best L&D programme

HKBN Group

Best L&D programme

this by routinely organising talks, webinars and workshops

HR Award Categories

HKBN firmly believes in growth through learning and supports

share reflections and come up with resolutions—through these

which inspire their Talents to discover something new, shift their viewpoints or even explore new possibilities. Whenever learning opportunities arise, each HKBN Talent is expected to serve as the "eyes and ears" for all 6,000 HKBNers. After each learning opportunity, it is common practice that Talents collective actions learning and growing as a company.

"HKBN Inspires" was recently launched—a one-stop learning calendar platform which gives Talents and external guests easy access to all kinds of knowledge sharing and learning sessions by fellow Talents and guest speakers. The platform improves Talents' learning by enabling them to revisit past events and plan their learning schedule with greater flexibility.

HKBN Inspires has not only benefitted Talents' development, but it also empowers Talents to deepen their engagement with business partners/customers through sharing access to HKBN's learning resources and has thus helped bolster and take HKBN's long term win-win relationships to new heights.

To meet the learning and development needs from their expanded operations in the Hong Kong SAR, Singapore, Malaysia, Mainland China and the Macau SAR, HKBN has also established a brand-new digital platform, WisCafé, bringing together knowledge, inspiration, best practices and experience sharing via one easy-to-access resource that enables its Talents to learn and develop remotely in the post-COVID "new normal".

In 2020, different virtual sessions were held, delivering over 2,500 total hours of learning for Talents across APAC. Through hosting various virtual WisCafé events, HKBN has also summarised the many lessons and experiences learned in the transition from in-person to virtual L&D in a best-practice guide (via WisCafe sharing sessions) to help NGOs, local charities and their business partners better adapt and navigate through their own digitalisation journeys.

Both HKBN Inspires and WisCafé have reduced information silos across different departments and regions, increasing transparency and access for knowledge sharing and retention: Talents from different regions are encouraged to host their own training sessions and share insightful knowledge with

learning opportunities and evolve our L&D practices to benefit our Talents' career growth and crowd-share

fellow Talents and external guests.

knowledge with our community to Make our Home a

HKBN says, "Beyond the near-term actions, we will continue to

Better Place to Live.

deliver learning opportunities and evolve our L&D practices to benefit our Talents' career growth and crowd-share knowledge with our community to Make our Home a Better Place to Live."

1212

Beyond the near-term actions, we will continue to deliver

Best L&D programme

•

Learning through play: to fill skills gaps, the talent team also provided learning

Mattel

opportunities for employees. Learning through play has been proven to be an effective way to reinforce learning

"How We Lead" Campaign

goals while creating a fun environment and innovation. This being the case,

to transform from a toy brand into an IP-

the talent team introduce a unique

driven franchise business. The goal of their

game-based learning platform from

"How We Lead" campaign is to unlock our

Spain,

people's curiosity towards Mattel's new

conventional

business model and enhance their capabilities

games. Participants were able to

to innovate and collaborate.

develop their leadership skills by

Gamelearn,

that

training

HR Award Categories

steeped in exploration, collaboration Mattel is undergoing a multi-year turnaround

converts

into

video

Best L&D programme

joining a survival adventure that This campaign is a co-ownership programme

challenged them to escape with a

run between business units and Human

team from a desert island using their

Resources, who have worked together to

ability to manage and motivate them.

define, prioritise and design a series of sharing

Employees were also able to develop

sessions, stimulation activities and employee

time management skills by playing a

engagement events. These activities are

history professor's role with a mission

designed to engage talent and build resourceful

to unveil the greatest secret, The

mindsets while inspiring and motivating them

Order of Wisdom, before time ran out.

to be part of "ONE Team" with shared values

Some photos from the "#Franchisearoundus" •

and common goals.

Collaborative competition: finally,

to

photo contest

strengthen learning and engagement, the •

Live Chats with leaders: to ensure the

talent team hosted a"#Franchisearoundus"

campaign is aligned with its overall

photo contest, where people across the

strategic goals, Mattel first engaged

company could compete in teams or as

the senior management team to

individuals to showcase their creativity

firmly embed the right behaviours and

with our franchise products. This allowed

mindsets through a series of live "Coffee

employees to collaborate on as many

Chats"

technology

ideas as possible in a fun and casual way.

to connect its people with leaders

The photo contest received over 3,000

across APAC. To ensure engaging

views and 400 likes in just five days on

conversations, these casual and fun

Mattel's internal social platform.

sessions,

using

sessions were designed to create an employees

Hundreds of employees across the region

to listen to company leadership and

participated in the myriad of programme

encourage them to ask questions and

activities yielding a 95% response rate in the

share perspectives. Over 100 employees

2020 engagement survey. An average 5-point

participated in each session—25% of

score increased compared to 2019. This

"Coffee Chats" sessions with Mattel's senior

Mattel's entire Hong Kong population.

campaign received an 80% recommendation

management team

open

environment

for

rating, which bears testament to the benefit •

Peer-to-Peer learning betwork: building

it brought employees—with 90% of staff

upon the valuable insights garnered

saying the programme was practical and

from senior management; the talent

applicable. The high participation rates and

team created a "Peer-to-Peer Learning

positive feedback confirming the popularity

Network" by inviting talented employees

of an inclusive, innovative, collaborative

as the facilitator of bite-sized lessons with

learning and development campaign. This all

interactive activities to share knowledge

helped instil a deep sense of internal pride

and best practices across regions. These

among the team through active participation

first-hand, practical and relevant lessons

in the company's transformation process

have helped foster a learning culture that

based around unlocking curiosity, cultivating

Joyce Fong

encourages entrepreneurship, curiosity

collaboration, building creativity and having

Talent Development Manager

and knowledge sharing.

everyone #KeepPlaying.

APAC, Mattel

Unlock Curiosity, cultivate collaboration, build creativity and #KeepPlaying.

13

Best L&D programme HR Award Categories

Best L&D programme

Societe Generale

Understanding that there is no "One size fits all" learning offering that could cater to every department/team/staff needs. It was emphasised that department/team-specific needs can always be discussed, designed and rolled out during the year. Employees can also consider external public courses if they are not currently

In a world of unprecedented changes and continuous transformation,

available internally.

learning and development are also changing shape. Keeping the above context in mind and the fact that Societe Generale staff all

COVID-19 has impacted working arrangements in the Bank to

have different learning styles in how they absorb and consume

different extents in office locations across APAC. Inevitably, some

information, different levels of access to information, different

training plans were interrupted, e.g., classroom training was put

motivations to learn, the Bank's learning offerings 2020 for APAC

on hold as part of the Bank's social distancing measures.

have been designed to address these diverse needs and styles.

Yet, with the diversity and agility of the 2020 learning offerings, Learning is not only "training". The Bank has also provided other

the Bank has maintained momentum in its learning activities—

development tools and programmes that enhance learning and

with broader geographical coverage and most importantly, at

development goals. With learning methods like MOOCs, live

lower costs. Even before the COVID-19 situation arose, the

webinars, mobile learning, self-paced workshops, on-demand

Bank had already reduced its reliance on classroom training and

workshops, internal and external coaches, experiential workshops,

attempted to focus on digital learning and other digital means.

professional certification, lunch and learns and bite-sized learning

This preparedness meant that the Bank's L&D programmes were

modules, the aim is to continue the Bank's journey to be an advanced

less "interrupted" by COVID-19 and the Bank was, in fact, able to

"learning organisation".

leverage the situation to further promote digital learning to all staff.

Keeping Societe Generale's visions and the insights from their training

In 2020, Societe Generale recorded an increase of 4.2% in their

needs analysis in mind, the Bank launched a diversified portfolio of

non-mandatory training activities per staff. More significantly,

learning offerings at the beginning of 2020. In terms of classroom

it managed to keep and even increase the volume of training

training, the Bank offers 105 internal classroom training courses in

activities—with lower training costs. Compared to 2019, 2020

eight categories, and 49% of them are new this year. All these offerings

has seen the Bank able to reduce training costs by half. These cost

are designed to help our staff keep abreast of market trends, thereby

savings have not only justified the Bank's investment in digital

upskilling them for the ongoing transformation within the Bank and

learning but also created more resources to sharpen learning

the banking industry.

offerings further.

On top of classroom training, the Bank has also made extensive investment and brought 14 external digital learning platforms onboard to its portfolios. For example, introducing "Coursera", a worldwide online learning platform specialising in massive open online courses (MOOC).

Variety in learning is our key to cater for diversity in our staff's needs and the constraints that arose in 2020.

Under the Bank's sponsorship, staff could take as many courses as they wanted from the HR-curated catalogue within their license period.

1414

These learning platforms have collectively covered the full spectrum

Mukta Arya

of skills, ranging from banking & financial knowledge, communication

Regional Head of Human Resources, Asia Pacific

skills, digital and technology skills to leadership and managerial skills.

Societe Generale

Best D&I initiative

These groups:

The Clorox Company

1.

Development team to create an Inclusive Leadership programme.

create a more consistent I&D experience Managers received regular emails with tips and

provide clarity of functional and enterprise

videos to help them fine-tune their inclusive

Clorox's purpose is to champion people to be well

I&D roles and responsibilities through a

leadership behaviours. These skills are reinforced

and thrive every single day. The company focuses

standard framework; and

in weekly manager emails, a Learn & Lead year-

create and highlight best practices &

long manager training programme and manager

opportunities for cross-collaboration.

guides that support key people processes.

on creating an inclusive place where each employee can be their best selves, develop their professional

3.

and leadership skills, encourage others and make Racial Equity Efforts

Global Mentoring Programme

makes it a point to work with business partners

Clorox has zero tolerance for racism or

Clorox's Global Mentoring Programme is

whose values and practices reflect their own.

discrimination of any kind, reflected in its

designed to help participants reach their full

Code of Conduct and mirrored in its Business

potential across levels, functions, and locations.

Today's global marketplace requires inclusive

Partner Code of Conduct. These codes outline

Throughout the organisation, functions and

thinking and diverse, everyday leadership. At

our expectation that all employees, board

ERGs have also established different mentoring

Clorox, this means creating a culture where

directors and business partners live by Clorox

programmes to cater to their populations'

every employee feels a sense of belonging. This

values and follow ethical and legal standards in

specific needs.

means building a workplace where every person

their behaviours and business practices.

Best D&I initiative\

the world a better place. The organisation also

HR Award Categories

for all Clorox employees; 2.

Pay Equity

feels respected and valued for their unique world view, experiences and thought processes.

Unconscious Bias Training

Clorox is committed to ensuring equitable

It means fostering inclusive leaders that lead

Clorox started unconscious bias training in

pay for the workforce by conducting annual

by example, at every level within the company

2018. This programme was designed to help

equity analyses, improving people processes

and encouraging each other to share ideas for

the organisation drive culture change and

and helping to address the systemic societal

winning in a multicultural environment. It means

mitigate biases to improve outcomes for both

inequality that continues to impact people of

actively building a diverse workforce that mirrors

employees and the business.

colour and women.

As Clorox continues this journey, in 2021,

Measurement Metrics

they will launch Breaking Bias: Courageous

Each

are

Conversations. This aims to equip employees

representation numbers for women and

designed to help drive inclusion and diversity

with practical tools to use daily to have

minorities working in the US in its integrated

within the organisation. With more than 3,000

difficult conversations and manage conflict

annual report for employees and external

members and allies, ERGs aim to foster a

while building trust and putting people at the

stakeholders. These numbers are regularly

greater understanding of different perspectives

centre of everything the organisation does.

shared with the board of directors, who review

our communities around the world.

Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) Clorox's

employee

resource

groups

year,

the

organisation

publishes

progress throughout the year.

and backgrounds through cultural events and panel discussions. The groups are an important

Inclusive Leadership Manager Training

forum for career mentorship and development

Clorox wants every person to feel respected

Clorox also has a systematic process internally to

and support local communities through regular

and valued and achieves this by fostering

review progress—not just at a company level, but

volunteer activities.

inclusive

The

within functions. Each enterprise team has goals

organisation also recognises the importance

that require progress on inclusion and diversity,

The organisation's ERGs also help drive the

of having inclusive, empathetic leaders who

which are held accountable for results through

business by serving as vital internal focus groups,

value differences and mitigate personal

the annual performance evaluation process and

inspiring product innovations, accelerating

biases. I&D partnered with the Learning &

annual compensation awards.

leadership

behaviours.

product placement plans and deepening the understanding of multicultural consumers.

Most ERGs began more than a decade ago, but

Change starts with us. That's why we continue to build an inclusive

new groups have formed over the years based on employee and business demand.

and diverse team who will best represent our millions of consumers …

Enterprise I&D Taskforces and International I&D

and it's a journey, not an arrival—we're better able to live our purpose,

Committees Clorox's Enterprise I&D Taskforces and

which is to champion people to be well and thrive every single day.

International I&D Committees amplify and supplement I&D efforts at targeted levels throughout the organisation, i.e., functional,

Germaine Hunter

geographic and business.

Vice President of Inclusion & Diversity, Clorox

15

Best D&I initiative

EY

HR Award Categories

Best D&I initiative

EY, one of the ‘Big 4’ global professional services networks, has a presence in over 700 cities across more than 150 countries.

It comes as no surprise that their workforce is highly diversified, especially in major global financial hubs like Hong Kong. Cochairs of the newly established EY Hong Kong & Macau Cultural Diversity Network (CDN), Jovy Wong and Sangeeth Aiyappa, and EY Hong Kong & Macau D&I Leader, Alex Lai share some of their D&I initiatives.

we are as people on the inside—our traditions,

Fostering community engagement

our experiences and our beliefs. We all have

EY is the first among the Big 4 to sign the Equal

Building a culturally diverse workforce

our personal stories and come from different

Opportunity Commission’s Racial Diversity

Jovy Wong, Asia-Pacific Talent Development

backgrounds, but our common ground is

& Inclusion Charter, and they are working

Leader, EY shared, “I believe diversity makes

our human connection that underpins that.

closely with the EOC on specific initiatives and

our place a more interesting one to work

Through that common ground, we hope that

activities. Since 2019, EY has collaborated with

in and live in. We hope to build a culture

we can bring our people closer together—

the Zubin Foundation, a think tank and charity

that embraces and empowers the ethnically

to work towards a culture that prioritises

that works to improve the lives of Hong Kong’s

diversified workforce; our people can respect

collaboration and one that appreciates and

marginalised ethnic minorities, on creating

the different ‘ways of being’ that might not

actively

opportunities for the younger generation of

incorporates

cultural

diversity.”

ethnic minorities in Hong Kong. They are also

necessarily resemble our own, valuing what other cultures offer, and celebrating instead

D&I brings many benefits to businesses and

in discussions with a local secondary school—

of tolerating the differences so that everyone

Aiyappa noted, “By leveraging the combined

with more than 50% of its students being

can achieve their best self.” ‘Exceptional and

skillsets and diverse perspectives of each

from ethnic minorities—to roll out a career

diverse people’ is one of the four major strategic

teammate, we can minimise blind spots and

development and mentorship programme.

pillars of EY’s NextWave Strategy. Wong and

encourage truly innovative thinking.”

her teammates in the CDN are working to

runs organisation-wide cultural events to

Lai said, “We hope that we could give the

increase the diversity of their talent pipeline,

bring the awareness of cultural difference

students a sense of how the business world is

creating equal opportunities for lateral and

to their staff, and they are building multi-

running and inspire their thinking when choosing

upward movement of their ethnic minority

faith rooms for ethnic minority employees in

their future career. If any of them are interested

workforce as well as serving as the sounding

their new office in Quarry Bay, opening this

in the accounting and consulting industry, we

board for EY Hong Kong on critical race,

May 2021, which represents a considerable

may also offer opportunities to let them try their

cultural and ethnic minority inclusion matters.

investment in their workforce given the

hand at it. We believe that this is a win-win-win

price tag of office space in Hong Kong.

for the students, for EY and society as a whole.”

EY

Empower and Embrace cultural diversity Sangeeth Aiyappa, Director, International Tax and Transaction Services, Ernst and Young Tax Services Limited said, “Our network is aimed at recognising, respecting and taking conscious steps towards valuing diversity—particularly in the context of cultural backgrounds. Culture is about who

Diversity makes our place a more interesting one to work in and live in.

We hope to build a culture that embraces and empowers the ethnically diversified workforce; our people can respect the different ‘ways of being’ that might not necessarily resemble our own, valuing what other cultures offer, and celebrating instead of tolerating the differences so that everyone can achieve their best self.

Jovy Wong Asia-Pacific Talent Development Leader, EY

1616

HR Award Categories

Societe Generale

lockdowns have forced the organisation to look at how they have traditionally done things. This process has allowed talent and the Group to realise that they can achieve so much, just in different ways!

All the Networks continue to work hard to maintain awareness while

Best D&I initiative

Best D&I initiative

keeping employees engaged and continue striving to ensure the firm Societe Generale firmly believes that diversity is one of the most

is one where all employees feel comfortable and happy, regardless of

valuable propositions they provide to their clients, shareholders

their diverse backgrounds.

and staff. The Asia Pacific Diversity & Inclusion Charter is aligned to the Group's mission to be a diverse workforce in an inclusive

One of the new initiatives launched in 2020/2021, is targeted towards

workplace, with opportunities for all talents to create value, deliver

Gender as well as Culture Diversity. In terms of sponsorship, this

an outstanding client experience and develop innovative solutions.

programme is being made available to female talent and local talent.

In line with their core values, Societe Generale strives to ensure that

The four goals of this year-long programme are to accelerate the

employees—regardless of their background and situation—work and

development of sponsored high-potential employees, increase

develop themselves within the organisation with equal opportunities.

the number of women and locals in Managing Director positions, increase the level of leadership effectiveness of both sponsor and

The Group's Diversity & Inclusion (D&I) Council and respective

sponsored employees and increase executive visibility to these

Networks were formed in 2015, focusing on four pillars: Culture,

sponsored employees.

Differently Abled, Gender and LGBT+. The D&I Steerco is made up of senior leadership executives, and they are also the Sponsors for each of

The programme is designed to support the interactions between

the streams. With this constitution, employees immediately recognise

senior people with authority and power (Management Executive

this is a cause that the leaders believe in and are committed to.

Committee) and high potential employees, females and/or local.

The senior people using their personal influence to advocate and

Employees themselves run all Diversity Networks. Each Network is

place more junior persons in key roles. The various degrees of

sponsored by an Executive Committee (Exco) member and chaired

support include:

by a Regional Chairperson (nominated by the Networks themselves).

There are then champions and volunteers at country level. HR oversees

•

Sharing inside information about advancing in their careers

all the Networks to ensure their yearly objectives align with the firm's

•

Making introductions to influential people

strategy and that budgets are under control. The Networks decide on

•

Providing high-visibility opportunities

the action plan as well as all activities and carry these out themselves

•

Publicly advocating for promotions

accordingly. At the base of the overall D&I strategy lies the Global Diversity and Inclusion Benchmarks (GDIB) Model, which helps organisations determine strategy and measure progress in managing diversity and fostering inclusion. Societe Generale looks to this from the point where they were conceptualising, through to the current action phase—to help them see where they want to be, where they are at all points in time, and effectively identify where the gaps are.

Everyone is a valuable member to Societe Generale, and an inclusive workplace empowers all to contribute their full potential.

Over the last few years, Societe Generale has successfully increased awareness of their D&I streams and initiatives that the Networks are involved in. While they continue to raise awareness, they also enter

Mukta Arya

the action phase. This year has been challenging for all firms, not

Regional Head of Human Resources, Asia Pacific

just Societe Generale. Things such as cost, travel restrictions and

Societe Generale

17

Best workspace

GoodNotes

HR Award Categories

Best workspace

GoodNotes first rolled out their 'GoodOffice' policy in December 2019, with several goals in mind to: •

Foster team bonding over lunch in the office.

•

Create a comfortable, spacious and productive workspace.

•

Make the office space more social for employees—encouraging, even more, sharing between them and encouraging them to invite close family and friends to pay a visit.

The ROI from the policy has been seen on many levels. Thanks to grade-A office equipment, including ergonomic chairs, electric height-adjustable desks and the latest Apple computers, employees feel a lot more productive and comfortable in the office. This has manifest in less than one sick leave per employee annually.

GoodNotes also created a commercial-grade kitchen in the office and hired three chefs who had freshly graduates from the Culinary Academy to prepare daily lunches and occasional snacks for the team. The menu changes twice a week and always offers three choices, including at least one vegetarian option. As a result, 90% of employees stay in-house for the company's daily lunch and sit with their colleagues from other teams.

The 'Weekly Wednesday' event in the office, was arranged by the employees themselves and allows them the chance to enjoy a free dinner, board games and movies along with their significant others in the office.

A music stage, with various instruments, has been set up for weekly jamming sessions on Tuesday nights, as well as occasional impromptu lunchtime jams.

A barista space has been set up with professional-grade coffee equipment.

This not only saves money for staff but also encourages them to stay in the office for a great coffee, rather than having to go down and queue at the local coffee shop.

Rather than clusters, the new office has purposefully separated the different work and play spaces with large aquariums to maintain an open style and minimise noise between areas. Plus, pets are always relaxing.

1818

Best workspace

Organising variety of staff activities to demonstrate appreciation to colleagues, despite

Mattel

pandemic

Mattel People Strategy—the Best Place to PLAY!

•

Pride in Mattel: a series of activities are organised regularly for employees to back to the community through NGOs

develop and engage its employees. The aim is

like the Children’s Heart Association,

to provide a thriving environment and work-

Hong Chi and the Special Olympics.

life balance to all Mattel Family members—

These allow employees to engage in

making it the best place to work and PLAY.

volunteer opportunities. Activities have

The company facilitates a fruitful employment

included toy and safety kit distribution,

experience for their committed workforce

blood donation, virtual letter writing

through comprehensive staff benefits, diverse

to

learning opportunities, development activities

environmental activities in Green Month.

underprivileged

children,

and Fostering work-life balance environment for

and staff engagement events.

•

Employee wellness activities: employees

everyone

are provided with free subscriptions to Headspace, access to an Employee

•

•

Office and employee safety: throughout

Assistance Programme, quarterly staff

the pandemic, Mattel placed employee

purchase special offers, hobby workshops

safety as their top priority—healthy kits,

and sponsorship of staff sports clubs.

including hand sanitisers and face masks

Fun events, including Halloween fancy

were put together and distributed to

dress parties and Mid-Autumn Festival

colleagues. The organisation also has an

celebrations, are also organised for

EHS Committee in place to ensure office

colleagues to enjoy together.

and employee safety.

Christmas and year-end surprises: to

•

Improved workplace flexibility: employees

Value and support employee growth via different

celebrate Mattel’s 75th Anniversary

were offered flexible work arrangement

development programmes

in 2020, they gave out gifts to show

during pandemic periods and regular

appreciation to colleagues.

flexible working schedules, including

•

Best L&D programme

participate in so they can give something

create a great and engaging workplace to attract,

HR Award Categories

A key goal of the Mattel People Strategy is to

Employee Communication: regular global

daily flexi-working hours and half-days

and regional townhall meetings are

off every month.

organised to ensure employees receive updates on company performance and

With their People Strategy, Mattel has

goals, and provide opportunities to

achieved high employee engagement and

interact with business leaders.

internal pride—reflected in their annual engagement survey score and the high

•

Reviews

participation rates of the employee activities.

Programme—a global online recognition

The scores increased by an average of 3 – 5

point-award system is available to make

points in all areas from 2019, during this

employee recognition quick and easy for

challenging period in which colleagues

both managers and peers to promote the

have valued Mattel’s caring policies. The

culture of appreciation and to celebrate

organisation has also witnessed low single-

service anniversary throughout Mattel.

digit turnover rates—particularly with top

Employee Recognition: Rave

talents. As they say at Mattel, “We collaborate, •

Learning & Development Programmes: to

we innovate, and we execute to make Mattel

promote continuous learning, Mattel

the best place of PLAY!”

provides a guest speaker series on various topics including leadership, problem-

We Collaborate, We Innovate & We Execute to

solving and communication skills for all

make Mattel the best place of PLAY!

employees. Furthermore, the organisation also leverages projects and technology

Claudia Chor

such as GameLearn and Mattel University

Talent Acquisition Manager,

to further enhance employee learning.

APAC, Mattel

19

Best workspace

SAP

In addition, having supported Hong Kong companies for more than a quarter of a century, the new SAP Hong Kong was designed to reflect their roots in, and commitment to, their city. Thus, it features all that is uniquely Hong Kong, including accents of the Star Ferry-green on areas; five art wall pieces depicting the Hong Kong skyline, old Hong

Best workspace

Square workplace to enhance employee experience through a more

Kong street scenes and a pair of koi fish—to represent ambition,

agile, activity-based workplace and enable employees to work towards

perseverance and success; and Hong Kong-themed meeting rooms

greater customer success. The project achieved three key workplace

named after local streets.

HR Award Categories

panelling and traditional floor tiling in the pantries and common SAP Hong Kong launched a 10-month project to upgrade its Times

This workspace revamp facilitated employees to work at the best through:

goals: flexibility in work settings, employee well-being and sustainability.

Margaret Chen, Vice President, Human Resources, SAP Greater China, summarised, "Building a great employee experience is our top priority at our new workplace. It gives us an agility that facilitates employees 1.

Collaboration—improving areas to brainstorm, co-create, and

working at their best for our customers."

problem solve, e.g., team-designated neighbourhood zones and open meeting spaces.

2.

3.

Communication—creating areas for employees to share, present

Building a great employee experience is our top priority

and inform.

at our new workplace. It gives us an agility that facilitates

Concentration—ensuring employees have access to quiet work

employees working at their best for our customers.

areas for uninterrupted solo work, with privacy booths (phone booths), wellness room, ergonomic sit-stand desks and individual fixed/unassigned desks.

Margaret Chen Vice President, Human Resources

4.

Community—facilitating social hubs for everyone to come together, build a sense of community and areas with buzz.

2020

SAP Greater China

86% 2,046 1

OF EMPLOYEES WANT TO LEARN NEW SKILLS TAILORED LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES

CIO WANTS AN ANALYTICS SOLUTION THAT MEETS EVERYONE’S NEEDS

SAP® SuccessFactors® HXM Suite helps your business deliver what employees need to grow, stay engaged, and be productive. Now, and always.

TOGETHER

WE GOT THIS © 2021 SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved.

sap.com/hk

Best work-life integration

GoodNotes

HR Award Categories

Best work-life integration

GoodNotes launched the ‘Work Smarter, Not Harder’ initiative in August 2018. The key goals of the initiative were to: •

Encourage the team to work smart and get things done— instead of only working harder and longer hours.

•

Ensure that the team can maintain an excellent worklife balance

•

Hokkaido annual trip with GoodNotes families

Create greater workforce sustainability with an excellent work-life balance

•

Create a family-friendly work environment

•

Encouraged employees to pursue their own side projects

In terms of ROI, the initiative has brought numerous tangible benefits to GoodNotes employees, their families and the organisation as a whole, including: •

Reasonable working hours—with a 35-hour workweek and the focus on productivity.

•

Allowing the team to shift hours, if they need, to take care of personal and family issues.

•

The option of working from home on Thursdays and Fridays.

•

A budget of HKD30,000 for work-from-home, renewed every two years to ensure all employees’ homes are comfortable, safe and conducive to productive work.

•

Wednesday social night—a family-friendly initiative that encourages social gatherings including children and significant others at the office.

•

Children and significant others have been included in the fully-funded annual company offsite trip.

•

Employees showcase some of their side-projects

Provision for one month to be worked remotely from any country in the world—with sufficient time zone overlap.

•

A monthly HKD300 learning budget helps employees learn things that are work or non-work related— encouraging the team to explore new hobbies.

•

Tuesday jam sessions after lunch—allow the team to relax a bit and try out a range of instruments from bass guitar to piano.

•

The company has numerous board games so that families and friends can come over to play outside of work hours (and social distancing periods).

•

Monday yoga helps ensure the team stays healthy.

•

A monthly HKD1,000 gym subsidy is provided to all staff.

These initiatives resulted in: •

100% offer acceptance rate for 2020

•

High employee retention rate with only 3% turnover in 2020

•

Lower sick leave usage with an average of less than one sick leave per person annually

2222

Weekly yoga session helps employees keeping a better posture

Best work-life integration

Hasbro

Without location constraints, the company has been able to onboard new joiners as scheduled regardless of their current physical location or travel ban by any countries. Hasbro has also revamped their induction program to be virtual whilst maintaining a social and interactive component of this important employee milestone. This virtual experience also allows the new employee an enhanced onboarding experience as they have

that fosters collaboration, innovation, creativity, accountability

better control and planning on their first 90 days in the company.

and inclusion. Flexible work arrangements provide employees with the ability to manage their time and workplace that meets

To support the launch of flexible work arrangement, HR has collaborated

their individual needs whilst delivering their job responsibilities.

closely with the IT and Legal departments. The IT team has done a great

This policy eliminates the constraints on employees' physical

job on equipment and software enhancement to support the potentially

location and allows them to work in a way which balances their job

large number of remote working employees. They are also extremely

requirements and other commitments.

responsive to tackle any technical issues under remote working launched successfully without the Legal team's support, who play an

professional and personal life. This is not a work-from-home

essential role in risk assessment on potential people issues in labour law,

policy. Employees had previously benefited from a Friday WFH

insurance and taxation.

arrangement but Hasbro has now rolled out the most significant extension to date regarding flexibility on working time and place.

The challenge of rolling out this policy is the expectation management of both managers and employees. Often a challenge for the team to

By allowing employees to align with their managers on their

balance the work-life flexibility, work efficiency and team morale, Hasbro

working time and place, Hasbro believes they are more effective

provides guidelines for employees on how they can plan work hours as

in managing their individual needs, e.g., family, study, exams,

required and set up their workplace and advice for managers on how

celebrations etc and are enhancing the overall employee

they can best manage their team remotely. They have also instigated

experience. From a recent in-house survey, with close to 600

a number of virtual wellness activities including health talks and yoga

responses, employees believed they are more effective by working

sessions to both increase emloyees knowledge and also have a sense of

remotely while coming back to the office 1-2 times a week.

team as they join these events.

This initiative is not a result of the COVID-19 outbreak but in

Hasbro foresees that the next opportunity will be whether the company

fact, is one of the key HR objectives in 2020. With the impact

should accept completely flexible work locations, which means

of COVID-19, Hasbro has genuinely experienced this policy's

employees could be hired for work typically carried out in Hong Kong yet

positive use over the traditional way of WFH arrangement. No

stationed outside Hong Kong on a full-time basis.

Best work-life integration

conditions. The flexible work arrangements also could not have been Hasbro provides a policy that allows employees to balance their

HR Award Categories

Hasbro recognizes the need to create a flexible work environment

longer passively reliant on the pandemic situation to determine the best time to work from home, the organisation understands the impact on each individual and family is different. Likewise, "home" may not always be the best workplace for some employees because of their own job nature (client-facing), family situation, availability of tools and internet connections—the Hasbro office is always open for them.

Our team is committed to make Hasbro the best place you have ever worked.

23

Best work-life integration

HKBN Group

Best work-life integration

HKBN strives to ensure everyone in the team can work and

HR Award Categories

With Talents playing a decisive role in its overall success—

leave benefits that include: a five-day workweek, shortened 9

enjoy happy, fulfilled lives. Advocating a “LIFE-work Priority” instead of work-life balance, as a principle, HKBN maintains that personal wellbeing and family should always come first.

When Talents can spend quality time with friends and family, HKBN believes they come to work better motivated to perform.

For these practical reasons, Talents are offered a broad array of – 5 working hours, 17-day public holiday entitlement, flexible working hours, half-day off on Friday once-a-month, halfday leave during important festive occasions, examination leave—not only for Talents’ development but also to help Talents’ children study, volunteer leave, family care leave, birthday leave, anniversary leave, bonus leave, adoption leave, upgraded maternity leave, paternity leave, grandparenthood leave, adoption leave and much more. Overall, the company’s entitlement policies provide the equivalent of about 39 additional days off annually for each Talent.

To encourage Talents to live healthier, active and more rewarding lifestyles, HKBN continues to organise an expansive range of year-round wellness activities, events and talks. From seminars about healthy eating to character-building sports challenges and workshops to enhance Talents’ financial/investment knowledge, the focus has been in four core areas: physical health, mental health, financial health and social health.

By embracing LIFE-work Priority, the HKBN team works smart, rather than long hours, and judge themselves based on a longterm sustainable pursuit of “purpose + profit” rather than on the number of hours worked. All HKBN Talents are encouraged to embrace LIFE-work Priority, and enjoy LIFE with their families because they “work to LIVE, not live to work”.

HKBN says, “At HKBN, ‘we work to LIVE, rather the live to work’ and it’s the reason we embrace LIFE-work Priority so passionately.”

At HKBN, ‘we work to LIVE, rather the live to work’ and it’s the reason we embrace LIFEwork Priority so passionately.

2424

There are opportunities during this crisis, and we want to serve people in winning back their hopes and careers.

Group Managing Director, Elabram

source the best talent and ensure that their skill sets match the JD, to ensure the right talent is matched with the right opportunities.

Elabram

Ensuring this perfect fit also facilitates continued business growth.

Best HR vendor (recruitment)

Best HR vendor (recruitment)

HR Award Categories

Mikel Yaw

HR Outsourcing With a more than 20-year heritage and core competencies in human

HR Outsourcing is a comprehensive service to meet HR and

resources and telecommunication consultancy, Elabram Group has

employee needs, including finding potential candidates, recruiting,

successfully placed more than 83,000 talents and served over 118 clients

managing employee contracts and payroll. Elabram's service offers

worldwide. In its four business divisions, the Group is continually

HR support to analyse the best methodology for execution to meet

expanding its capability and innovation to align to customer needs.

mission-critical KPIs.

As one of the Group's core business divisions, Elabram HR Solution

Payroll Services

focuses on human resources solutions. The company covers multiple HR

The Group handles all payroll related activities to help reduce operating

needs including workforce/temporary staff and payroll services via its HR

costs and save time processing related payroll transactions.

ROP Ad

Outsourcing Solution; provision of permanent staff, expatriate providers, executive search; and digital human resources administration systems via

Expatriate Services

its Workforce Management System (WMS).

To improve productivity and cost-effectiveness, Elabram offers expatriate services by assigning expatriate staff to lead the development of new

Mikel Yaw, Group Managing Director, Elabram Group said, "It is an honour

overseas capacities and opportunities. The Group manages recruiting,

for us to be nominated for this award because we are looking forward to

working visa application processing, flight reservations, accommodation,

creating brand awareness in the region. Winning this award would mean a

transportation, contracts, payroll, insurance and taxes—ensuring

lot, not just for the company but also for all our people. It belongs to all our

compliance with relevant local country policies.

resources—our staff, our consultants, our partners, our clients who believe in us, trust us, and have used our services in the long term. Without them,

HR Consulting

we would not have the opportunity to be nominated for this award, and we

The Group also provides consultative support and high-level input to help

would not be where we are today." He added, "With this nomination, we

with strategic HR planning. General administrative support can also be

also hope to gain more trust and opportunities to reach out to more clients

provided, if required, including drawing up reimbursement and benefit

and hopefully we can continue to expand into new markets in 2021."

plans. The Group also provides input to help transform how the workplace works—ensuring engaged employees and improved productivity.

Executive Search More widely known as 'head-hunter services', this function helps HR

HR Restructuring

pursue appropriate candidates to fill their business roles. Experts help

Elabram provides HR restructuring management services to support HR

prospective employers identify middle and top-class or expert applicants

with immediate and long-term employee management needs.

across various industries and non-profit organisations leveraging an extensive network and decades of know-how.

Workforce Management System The WMS is a system created explicitly by Elabram to simplify HR

Recruitment

processes and support an organisation's productivity. The WMS comes

Recruitment services help clients find and hire the best-qualified

in the form of a mobile app that is simple to install and easily accessible

candidates for permanent or contract staff. The Group's recruiters

anytime and anywhere.

25

Best HR vendor (recruitment) HR Award Vendor Categories

Best HR vendor (recruitment)

First Advantage

With access to criminal record searches, education, employment, professional license verifications, global sanction searches, credit checks and more, First Advantage currently supports over 35,000 clients worldwide. With 26 offices throughout North America, Europe, India and Asia, the company conducts over 71 million international background

Today's workplace is becoming more competitive with the increasing

screens annually, spanning more than 200 countries and territories.

globalisation and growing mobility of workforces. Employers are challenged with identifying qualified applicants, and applicants are

The First Advantage Customer Promise delivers the following:

seeking to differentiate themselves.

1.

Enabling fastest time to hire

Comprehensive background checks are imperative for HR to identify and

2.

Best applicant experience

secure the best talent for their organisations, and ensure the safety of their

3.

Largest global screening capabilities

workplaces and business globally. Securing the services of a reputable

4.

Leading technology and analytics

screening provider is the first step in achieving this and in undertaking the due diligence required to implement an effective hiring process.

First Advantage is uniquely qualified to support the global background screening requirements of hiring companies. Unlike other background

Background screening helps guard against financial loss and

screening organisations that may purport to be global, First Advantage

reputational damage from wrong hires. When HR teams include

has a physical global infrastructure—including a data centre in

background screening to their onboarding process, they can avoid

Amsterdam—and does not outsource this business-critical function to

the potential costs of a bad hire, including recruitment and training

third-party vendors. The company also integrates with industry-leading

investments, revenue losses, and the potential loss of loyalty and trust

Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) to provide clients and candidates

of their customers and employees.

with a seamless user experience. The company delivers comprehensive background check solutions and insights that enable employers to

The First Advantage 2020 Trends Report revealed the top five reasons why

make confident choices, reduce risk and maintain compliance. Whether

employers are screening now—which focus more heavily than ever on

your business is large, small, local, global, a few months old or has been

protecting the company brand, employees and patrons:

operating for decades, First Advantage can create a plan to fit specific client needs—both today and as the organisation grows.

1.

Minimising the risk of future criminal activity

2.

Fulfilling regulatory compliance

Scott Staples, CEO, First Advantage summarised the company's

3.

Protecting the brand and reputation

aspirations in their Vision Statement, "Delivering innovative solutions

4.

Ensuring candidates have the right qualifications

and insights that help our clients manage risk and hire the best talent."

5.

Protecting children involved with the business

With 20 years' experience, First Advantage is the world's most trusted background check provider—producing easy-to-understand background check results. Offering an advanced global technology

Delivering innovative solutions and insights that help our clients manage risk and hire the best talent.

platform, superior customer service and compliance expertise delivered by local staff who understand local markets, First Advantage

2626

helps clients worldwide build fully scalable, configurable screening

Scott Staples

programmes that meet their unique needs.

CEO, First Advantage

Best HR vendor (recruitment)

•

Video Interview tool—JobsDB strives to help employers recruit suitable talents efficiently and make recruitment progress

Jobs DB Hong Kong Limited

even under COVID-19 social distancing. To realise this goal, they introduced their ‘Video Interview’ tool which helps streamline the interview process for both hirers and candidates—enabling them to conduct job interviews anytime,

part of SEEK Group's global family, JobsDB further leverages

anywhere, using any device (computer, tablet or mobile

resources to enrich its portfolio of products and services to

phone). Practical features such as sharing and collaborative

maintain the recruitment market momentum. According to the

shortlisting also help hiring managers to enhance efficiency

latest surveys conducted in 2020 by the external agency, Research

throughout the recruitment process. By replacing 30-minute

Ink, JobsDB is the most used and effective recruitment platform

phone interviews with a one-way 6 – 7 minute video

in Hong Kong which:

interview—reducing typical candidate screening times by up to 70%. This innovative tool has been extremely well received among hirers across different industries and company sizes.

Accesses over 2.1 million talents across industries and job functions citywide

•

Is the first choice among hirers and jobseekers

•

Has the highest job placement rate among market players

•

Market insights—keeping both hirers and candidates updated with the latest information and advice on job market-related research amidst COVID-19, such as the Salary Survey, Hiring,

Dedicated to “improving lives through better careers”, JobsDB is

Compensation and Benefits Survey, as well as COVID-19

well known for effective hirer-candidate matching and is constantly

job market trends. While these data inform hirers of the

striving to enhance its solutions to address hirers’ needs. This

recruitment landscape dynamics and recruitment insights,

year, JobsDB established a series of initiatives to further support

another series of coronavirus articles was also produced to

employment during COVID-19:

help employees better manage the new challenges triggered

Best HR vendor (recruitment)

•

HR Award Categories

Having grown from a popular job portal in Hong Kong to being

by the coronavirus outbreak, such as work-from-home tips, •

Recruitment Support campaign in challenging times—to

job hunting during the pandemic, how to overcome financial

stabilise the workforce supply, JobsDB offered complimentary

challenges, and dealing with labour law issues.

job postings for selected sectors.

Over the years, JobsDB has accomplished thousands of successful •

Candidates Support/Assistant during the COVID’s mass layoff—

job matching cases in Hong Kong, empowering talents from fresh

provided jobseekers with flexible solutions to look for part-

graduates at the starting point of their careers to senior management

time or temporary job opportunities as supplementary income

seeking career progression. In the future, they are on a mission to

sources, helping the community through the challenges.

continue to develop HR services and products in response to the

Besides, we have a set of comprehensive steps to provide to

new era.

support the unemployed to navigate an uncertain and highly disrupted labor market, including lining up hirers to extend

Isaac Shao, CEO, JobsDB HK, summarised, “We don’t just help people

openings to candidates from affected industries, dedicated

climb the career ladder, we improve lives and businesses through

support hotline and career advices sections.

better careers.”

We don’t just help people climb the career ladder, we improve lives and businesses through better careers.

Isaac Shao CEO, JobsDB HK

27

Best HR vendor (HRIS) HR Award Categories

Best HR vendor (HRIS)

BIPO Service Limited

the need for updated information about the continually evolving COVID-19 situation. BIPO quickly addressed this by releasing a series of COVID-19 articles from Business Continuity Plans to guidelines on the resumption of work activities. These information updates also included a series of webinars touching on HR issues for Hong Kong,

BIPO's all-in-one cloud and mobile-based HRMS platform help

e.g., 713 calculation and updates on Macau's labour law.

businesses transform the employee experience, from hire to retire through digital HR solutions. The solutions improve workplace

To facilitate better workforce planning, especially in essential services

productivity, streamline HR processes, minimise manual tasks and

like F&B and logistics—and eventually, sectors heavily reliant on

ensure compliance with relevant labour regulations.

labour like retail and hospitality—BIPO enhanced its Roster function, enabling clients to simply input the start and end times of the shift

BIPO's uniqueness lies in the ability to provide the HR community

directly onto the roster screen. This has been extremely beneficial to

with the following tools to solve HR pain points on a single, secure

the F&B, Logistics and Retail industries that manage multiple roster

platform that can perform multiple tasks:

patterns, especially so due to the changing COVID-19 situation. This useful feature was very well-received in the Hong Kong market and is

•

An integrated, one-stop solution allows users to manage core

available across all 15 countries/regions that BIPO operates in.

HR functions (payroll, time attendance, leave management) across multiple countries all on a single, secure platform,

BIPO’s agile cloud solutions enables HR teams working from home

compliant with multi-statutory regulations. A built-in payroll

to process payroll efficiently on a secure platform from just about

calculation engine reduces manual tasks and errors, enabling

anywhere. Daily attendance and pre-onboarding are easily supported

HR teams to focus on strategic functions.

using BIPO’s mobile app, improving the employee experience while significantly reducing down-time.

•

BIPO mobile app available on iOS and Android is handy for managers leading large teams. It allows tasks and approvals

The need to free up HR to take on a more strategic role is vital to any

to be completed while "on the go"—the perfect solution WFH

organisation, especially during COVID-19. Developments in some of

situations, enabling employees to focus on critical tasks.

its existing core modules and functions are just some of the on-going enhancements BIPO has made to further support the HR community.

•

Easy-to-use HR dashboards allow access to BI tools, real-time data

These enhanced features and functions enable HR to play a more

for accurate workforce and resource planning.

significant role in business continuity planning, by ensuring HR processes are kept simple, accessible to all employees via an easy-to-

•

2828

ISO-27001 certified, ensuring data integrity across BIPO's platform.

use interface for greater employee self-service.

At the onset of COVID-19 BIPO actively engaged the Hong Kong

Using BIPO’s HRMS platform, users can easily manage the HR and payroll

business community to identify HR challenges, one of which was

functions across 15 countries and regions on a single, secure platform.

These are fully compliant with local statutory regulations, e.g., MPF (Hong Kong), Social Security (Mainland China), EPF and LHDN approved vendor (Malaysia), CPF and IR As Auto-Inclusion Scheme (Singapore). This means that users can perform multiple country payroll and HR functions with ease and convenience. Key features include: 1.

Salary Computation—built-in standard calculations that support multiple salary types. Salary calculation formula can be easily configured/amended.

2.

Provident Fund & Taxes—multi-country compliance that supports provident fund contributions and income tax computations in accordance with local labour regulations.

3.

Online Salary Review and Approval—salary reviews completed through an online process. Approvals based on review of data to complement payroll functions.

4.

Retrospective Salary Calculations—based on the needs of individual organisations, e.g., attendance records, provident fund contributions. More complex computations are also automatically and accurately calculated by the system.

Based on a recent Customer Satisfaction Survey conducted by BIPO, one of the most significant impact its solutions has on businesses is the 15% increase in productivity. This directly correlates to cost savings and improved operational processes within businesses and is a strong indication from the market that BIPO's HRMS platform has a proven, positive effect on business efficiency.

Ensuring that the Hong Kong HR community's needs are aligned with Industry 4.0, BIPO's HRMS platform includes BI (Business Intelligence) tools with an easy-to-use HR Dashboard and is easily accessible on multi-devices with the convenience of a mobile app that ensures 24/7 access even when working from home.

These translate to minimal, and in most cases, virtually no disruption to HR services, even when users work remotely from home, ensuring no "down time" to business processes.

Digital transformation is a key driver for businesses today, especially in a post-COVID environment. Cloud-based solutions that are made for mobility help organisations stay agile, enabling them to respond swiftly to changes in the new digital economy.

Florence Mok Managing Director, North Asia, BIPO

Best HR vendor (HRIS) HR Award Categories

Best HR vendor (HRIS)

SAP

organisation, and how fast it takes to get to full productivity for new hires—and why those things are happening.

SAP SuccessFactors has a robust partner ecosystem that allows companies to augment their existing capabilities and easily tap into

As a world-leading human experience suite (proven with 120+ million

the latest innovations through partners. These apps include AI-

users across 200+ countries, processing 1 billion + transactions daily),

powered recruitment coordination and interview scheduling; peer-to-

SAP SuccessFactors enables organizations to focus on engagement

peer employee recognition and rewards options; and financial well-

and experience. SuccessFactors supports organisations to go beyond

being solutions to reduce employee stress and increase engagement.

facilitating transactions to creating meaningful, individualised end-toend experiences—for candidates, new hires, employees, managers or

HR operations and workflows are usually bottlenecked by a short-

HR leaders.

sighted strategy. SAP SuccessFactors enables companies to address and solve short-term pain points such as payroll and talent management,

SAP SuccessFactors is developed on the foundation of intelligent

while the embedded intelligent technologies give companies business

technologies that can help organizations create personalised

intelligence on how to nurture and retain the workforce. It alerts

experiences with guidance and “nudges,” so employees discover

companies of upcoming HR issues before those get out of control.

new opportunities to learn and grow. Employees can complete tasks

SAP SuccessFactors can be integrated with other SAP or non-SAP

quickly, using conversational artificial intelligence (AI) to resolve

enterprise resource planning systems so that companies’ entire

questions with chatbots and robotic process automation to remove

workforce can access one single truth of the operations.

non-value tasks. It includes powerful experience management

3030

capabilities that combine rich “people data” and transactional HR

Fabian Padilla Crisol, Managing Director, SAP Hong Kong summarised,

data (O-data) with valuable experience data (X-data). Companies

“As business transformation accelerates, SAP SuccessFactors supports

can learn what is happening with the workforce—such as how many

companies with innovation and agility to modernise HR operations

candidates accept or reject offers, which employees are leaving the

that put employees at the centre of work.”

86% 2,046 1

OF EMPLOYEES WANT TO LEARN NEW SKILLS TAILORED LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES

CIO WANTS AN ANALYTICS SOLUTION THAT MEETS EVERYONE’S NEEDS

SAP® SuccessFactors® HXM Suite helps your business deliver what employees need to grow, stay engaged, and be productive. Now, and always.

TOGETHER

WE GOT THIS © 2021 SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved.

sap.com/hk

Best HR vendor (BPO)

Ramco

Key benefits include: •

Payroll compliance—systematically updated to incorporate the latest tax and regulatory changes, unlike an aggregator model that depends on multiple in-country providers.

HR Vendor Award Categories

Best HR vendor (BPO)

Ramco Systems, part of the USD 1 billion Ramco Group, offers

•

Payroll automation—error-free and accurate payroll processing with

next-gen payroll solutions and services to over 500 significant

AI-enabled, automated payroll solution aids data validation, anomaly

enterprises and Fortune 500 companies. The organisation has

detection and a reasoning engine that shares reasons for variation.

successfully managed payroll for its clients throughout 2020 amid multiple lockdowns.

•

Frictionless employee experience & helpdesk—AI-enabled technology platforms including chatbot, mobile App and mail IT to answer up

As a part of their forward-thinking strategy to create a cognitive,

to 70% of all payroll queries freeing up HR teams from transactional

touchless experience for clients, Ramco anticipated the need for

tasks to focus on more strategically essential aspects.

truly digitising the payroll processes to handle it remotely. Earlier business contingency plans (BCP) were centre-specific; however,

•

GET-SET-GO—perennial problem in payroll outsourcing is providing

this unique BCP plan of remote working was identified as cost-

data in vendor format. Ramco users can GET their own formats, SET

effective with no loss of knowledge, control or data confidentiality.

the mapping, and GO on with the data upload. A flexible framework for a smooth transition and ongoing ad hoc data uploads.

Ramco empowered several teams to operate on virtual desktops infrastructure (VDI) using thin clients. With all its solutions hosted

•

Scalability & flexibility—with a unified payroll product, available in

on the cloud and all necessary client approvals, Ramco was 2020

Chinese, English, Japanese, Vietnamese, Bahasa Indonesia, French,

ready. Ramco has pioneered this initiative of offering a completely

Spanish and Arabic, the similarity of processes across countries

secure remote payroll processing. And amid multiple lockdowns

ensures that clients based in multiple jurisdictions can act as a

around the world, Ramco’s Digital Managed Payroll Services did

backup—ensuring business continuity and timely processing.

not miss out on a single payslip despite the disruption. It was a smooth transition within 24 hours, and the team did a stellar job

•

Analytics & reporting—a single multi-country platform allows a real-

in processing 0.43 million payslips for 64 managed services clients,

time consolidated global view for payroll managers and enables

covering over 220 entities, across 46 countries accurately and on

powerful insights from employee data.

time in March 2020.

As a socially responsible organisation, Ramco’s Pandemic Control Ramco’s organically grown HR & payroll system, with coverage

System (PCS) also bears testament to its innovation speed and its focus

of over 50 countries, bears testimony to its investment towards

on employee-centric services. Quickly responding to the pandemic, the

building a robust digital system enabled by AI and Machine Learning

Ramco Innovation Lab unveiled PCS, including a facial recognition-

as the backbone for its services.

based attendance system combined with a thermal imaging device for temperature measurement and other associated software to help

Ramco’s Global delivery model with more than 24 on-ground

ensure employee screening, safe social distancing and facilitate contact

offices, remote work teams, automated chatbots, anomaly engine

tracing. This system has helped ensure a safe return to work amid

and reasoning engine helps organisations reap benefits of shared

the current pandemic. Ramco hopes to redefine the HR and Payroll

services solutions and improve efficiencies, letting them focus on

industry with intelligent features, and a customer-focused managed

their core business objectives.

service model, keeping employee as the pivot to success.

Ramco Chia—the digital extension to the Ramco team providing 24-7 support to global clients in their local language.

3232

HR Vendor Award Categories Best HR vendor (wellness)

Best HR vendor (wellness)

Atrium HR Consulting Atrium has helped put up multiple wellness 'safety fences' to help prevent employees from going over the edge, in addition to the support 'ambulances' traditionally provided at the bottom of the 'cliff'.

With only 24% of companies in Hong Kong currently having an EAP in place, Atrium has had its work cut out to help organisations enhance and protect their employee well-being. But this has only been half the battle as there is growing evidence that other wellness services are also required to enhance existing EAP programmes. With EAP as a foundation, Atrium helps HR do more to prevent their employees from going over the edge. This assistance has taken the form of 'global wellness', which provides HR professionals with a battle plan and tips on fostering better employee well-being and promoting a wellness culture for talents across their organisations. A few of the wellness support programmes provided include Mental Health Awareness Training, Wellness Coaching, Tele-Physiotherapy, Nutrition and Fitness Services.

33

Best HR vendor (wellness)

State of Mind.ai

HR Vendor Award Categories

Best HR vendor (wellness)

Though COVID-19 is temporary, the new ways of working that companies are adopting will stay permanently. Remote and hybrid working environments require organisations to continuously listen to employees' voices to understand their emotional and functional needs—a must-have insight for action-planning to build and manage a motivated, engaged, and productive workforce.

State of Mind is an AI-powered continuous listening HRTech that captures employee sentiments at hundreds of different moments across the employee journey, producing analytics that equip managers and HR to get the needed visibility of employees' evolving needs and design day-to-day experiences that truly matter.

With a conversational platform, an organisation can: •

better capture experiences at critical milestones of employee experience (EX) journey from hireto-retire.

•

Empower employees to initiate a feedback conversation anytime, anywhere.

•

Listen continuously to employees about their work experiences and wellbeing effortlessly.

•

Help leaders better engage employees in an effective conversation during all company meetings.

•

Generate EX analytics for managers, HR, and leadership teams; and equip each employee with self-insights to better manage their wellbeing.

We live in an experience economy where we return to those

The ROI can be seen through key business and HR

brands and companies that focus on building relationships based

metrics such as: •

the ability to meet sales targets faster;

•

reduced talent wellness and attrition cost, reduced

•

workforce brings the same expectation to the workplace—

workplace conflict; and

memorable experiences at all interactions in a personalised and

increased employee productivity by integrating

continuous manner and wants to help the organisation co-create

new joiners faster.

StateofMind.ai is here to help organisations continuously listen to employees and go big on the EX journey in an effortless and informed manner to build a thriving organisation in an uncertain and changing world.

3434

on deeply personalised experiences. The new generation hybrid

these experiences by sharing feedback.

Best HR vendor (wellness)

Total Loyalty Company

wellness programmes, even with extremely

hard-to-source items like hand sanitisers and

limited resources, localising global wellness

face masks; to developing fortnightly virtual

plans to develop and implement them locally,

wellness activities to keep employees up to

enabling relevancy.

date on all things wellness. A highlight is their “virtual annual dinner” which involved the latest online technology for innovative

wellness vendor in Hong Kong, unique in that

quick fix achieved using one event. So, TLC uses

gamification and virtual lucky draws—all

they act as an HR partner with their corporate

a combination of quarterly themes, wellbeing

empowering clients to still have happy year-

clients to design and implement year-round

campaigns with key outcomes, wellness

end celebrations despite all the stress and

wellness programmes. Working with many

marketplaces, seminars and workshops to help

challenges of the year.

MNCs in Hong Kong, especially investment

organisations raise awareness and engagement

banks and law firms, their goal is to help their

within their employees. TLC’s strength is their

TLC sets the benchmark for what an effective

clients’ develop a strong commitment to a

ability to bring together the top experts and

corporate wellness programme is all about. This

happy and healthy workplace culture.

innovators in corporate wellness to provide

is evidenced in the range of blue-chip customers

stand out programmes for their clients, which

that have continued to use their services over

are far from “just another yoga class”.

the last 10 years in Hong Kong.

to create and curate year-round wellness

Whilst 2020 was a challenging year for many

To be truly a year round HR wellness partner for

programs, especially compared to some of their

suppliers, TLC again showed their agility to

our clients is our key to success, enabling us to

international counterparts in the US and UK. To

successfully pivot to virtual wellness activities

deliver meaningful solutions to raise the bar on

meet this demand, TLC delivers a solution using

for their clients in 2020 and help them come

corporate wellness culture

their broad base of experts to bring industry best

up with innovative wellness solutions. These

practices and ideas to each client. This enables

ranged from sourcing and delivering care

Sam Lau

companies to create consistent, year round

packs at the start of the pandemic—including

CEO, Total Loyalty Company

TLC recognises that many HR teams in Hong Kong do not typically have the capacity

Best HR vendor (wellness)

Wellness is more than just physical and is not a

HR Vendor Award Categories

Total Loyalty Company (TLC) is a leading total

CORPORATE WELLNESS Discover how we can be your one-stop partner to create, design and implement wellness programs that are sustainable and fun.

Contact Sam Lau at TLC at sam@totalloyalty.hk or (852) 2545 2190 for more information.

www.totalloyalty.asia

35

Best HR vendor (L&D) HR Vendor Award Categories

Best HR vendor (L&D)

Typical business challenges BPP supports include:

BPP Education Group

•

Identification and priority agenda for a future skills framework

•

Tailored programmes to address identified skills gaps

•

End to end capability analysis

BPP Asia Pacific brings BPP Education Group Award Winning Learning & Development programmes to the Asia Pacific region.

BPP's client success stories are not limited to industry or job

With offices in Hong Kong, Malaysia and now also in Singapore,

function. From insurance, to accountancy, education and law,

BPP’s L&D programmes are underpinned by their Capability+

the consultancy BPP provides gives clients a wealth of skills data

consultancy to ensure learning that is tailored, relevant and future

on their people, arming L&D professionals with the business case

focussed. BPP combines thought-leadership and research with

needed to accelerate the adoption of new programmes, as well as

organisational capability analysis to deliver upskilling roadmaps

mechanisms to attribute ROI for the training they deploy.

that have proven to deliver significant return on investment. BPP’s unique approach, along with their professional education heritage makes them an outstanding L&D partner among leading global firms across the region.

As a trusted partner and advisor to their clients, BPP provides client-centric consultation services to assist in the development

BPP creates innovative learning programmes through consultancy-led partnerships to help organisations close skills gaps and reimagine their workforce for the future.

and delivery of their future people and talent strategy, while offering a portfolio of customised programmes to help address

3636

skills gaps. BPP does this by working in partnership with

Vicky Knight

their clients to truly understand their objectives and future

Associate Dean, International Programmes

workforce needs.

BPP Education Group, Singapore

Annual Annual membership membership packages packages Annual Annualmembership membershippackages packages Choose membership membership package package ticktick oneone Step Step 1. 1.Choose one Step Choosemembership membershippackage package ticktick one Step1.1. Choose

L&D L&D L&D L&D HRHRPACKAGE PACKAGE

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HKD HKD HKD HKD

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Post Post HRHR HR jobjob job vacancies vacancies onon on Post vacancies Post HR jobwebsite vacancies on HRHR Magazine’s Magazine’s website forfor for free free free HR Magazine’s website for free Member Member rates forfor listings listings rates listings rates for listings HKD in HR inMember HR Classifieds Classifieds HKD HKD in HR Classifieds HKD

7,200 7,200 7,200

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Best HR vendor (L&D)

into a 1.5-hour Zoom call. Moreover, experiential learning and roleplays are also quite challenging to conduct via Zoom. Yet, even if you

Chorev Consulting International

switch to traditional self-paced e-learning platforms, motivation for participants to complete modules is relatively low." HR departments

HR Award Vendor Categories

Best HR vendor (L&D)

have invested in off-the-shelf L&D solutions only to find they are met Chorev might just have 'cracked the code' in terms of the mixology

with relatively low uptake. Ma compared, "Many LMSs end up like

required when it comes to today's L&D in combining face-to-face

Netflix, where users click on stuff, have a look at it for one or two

workshops, real-time virtual workshops, self-pace microlearning,

minutes, then ditch it and click on the next thing that catches their

project-based learning and all-group coaching. This cost-effective,

eye. They end up never sticking with one option, and so never really

high impact, blended approach is creating next-gen talent

realising the full learning potential of any model." He added, "Even

development programmes that help talent adapt to VUCA and adapt

the 18 minutes originally allowed for TedTalks is now considered

to each other.

too long. So, there's a move to microlearning, in many cases nano learning—keeping content short, sweet and relevant to the users."

February 2020, and the onset of COVID-19 all but shut down coaching and training for organisations across Hong Kong, while they hit the

Looking to ease these three key HR pain points, Chorev has designed

pause button and figured out the best way forward. Dr. Andrew Ma,

a blended 'Lego’ approach to L&D. To make this a reality, the team

Founder, Chorev Consulting, noted, "Our entire team was already

have turned their conference room into a mini studio, and they

facilitating design thinking programmes, so, it was a natural

focus materials on real-life cases that they encounter to ensure

next step to put this into practice in our own organisation." The

content is relevant to Hong Kong. Training is broken down into bite-

organisation surveyed HR Directors and L&D Managers across Hong

sized chunks, with participants acquiring skills to handle everyday

Kong to find their main training and development pain points amid

challenges in just ten minutes per day. Ma noted, “This nano-size

the pandemic. The results revealed three vital L&D requirements:

e-learning makes the programmes much more attractive to users.

We’ve gone one step further to increase interaction and relevance

1.

Greater flexibility—requiring a rapid switch to online learning

to users in promoting the use of ‘Forum Boards’ in the office pantry.

models such as Zoom, microlearning and small-group

Here we encourage participants to share constructive feedback on

coaching for the VUCA world.

what they learn from the class and messages of appreciation for colleagues on Post-it® notes, which has been surprisingly successful

2.

Cost-effectiveness—with training budgets dramatically affected

in helping remove barriers and enhance collegiality.”

by the economic downturn, necessitating the need for supremely cost-effective programmes, that can demonstrate ROI. 3.

Contextualised to Hong Kong—many heavily

in

e-learning

platforms,

but

in

HR

Learning knowledge and models can be conveyed invested

materials

were

not localised into Cantonese, and the examples and context were not immediately relevant to APAC and Hong Kong, and so had limited uptake or impact.

through Zoom, but wisdom only comes with learning together, practising together and having real-life interactions

When organisations moved away from the traditional workshop model, many jumped into Zoom and similar online platforms.

3838

However, participants quickly began to suffer from "Zoom fatigue".

Dr. Andrew Ma

Ma explained, "You can't simply cram everything from a workshop

Founder, Chorev Consulting

Virtual learning Face-to-face learning Self-paced learning

Real-time learning

L&D Lego evolution

Ma noted, “People are now pretty much "toilet-trained" on using Zoom,

Chorev’s ‘flipped’ L&D approach uses a blend of learning techniques

but people are often a bit lazy when it comes to learning how to use a

including micro-learning, face-to-face workshops and off-line small-group

new tool. So online learning is now widely available and has a lot more

learning exercise—all of which are Lego®-ised into manageable blocks.

uptake. However, until VR interactions allow you to smell people’s sweat, reach out and give colleagues high-fives—which is still a few years

Today’s most popular training programmes

down the road yet—face-to-face interactions remain irreplaceable.”

Change management—changing talent mindsets and skillsets to help

Ma concluded, “Learning knowledge and models can be conveyed

them do more with less.

through Zoom, but wisdom only comes with learning together, practising

•

Growth mindset— as part of leadership training.

together and having real-life interactions. The flipped learning approach

•

Adaptive leadership—not just about being the best leader, but about

allows building wisdom through in-depth facilitation, role plays and

being adaptive in terms of skills, mindset, and collaboration, to best

practise together, while information and knowledge transfer can be

leverage senior management team skills. Allowing talent to adapt to

conducted via zoom and online learning.”

•

external environments and adapt to each other.

Best HR vendor (L&D) HR Vendor Award Categories

Best HR vendor (L&D)

PERSOLKELLY Consulting Greater China When COVID-19 hit, PERSOLKELLY Consulting were quick to support HR teams across Hong Kong during these unprecedented times. The outbreak meant that HR strategies developed in 2019—including learning plans—were no longer suitable or came under pressure from

PERSOLKELLY Consulting also started offering free Career Transformation sessions to support staff who had been laid off or experienced significant changes to their work. The programme offers help through three phases: emotional fitness, career design and planning, and career search.

Lastly, a social community platform, YOU Hub, was launched to facilitate the transformation of young professionals at the start of their career into 'intrapreneurs'. Intrapreneurs are purposeful individuals who never stop seeking opportunities to exercise their creativity, to sharpen their company's competitive edge.

reduced budgets. With this in mind, the Group rapidly developed its world-class learning and development solution in 2020.

Despite the undoubtedly challenging economic climate, PERSOLKELLY Consulting believes that learning and development should continue as companies look to boost staff engagement during these tough times.

They developed various initiatives under its Creating Shared Value initiative (CSVi) to support this aim.

The Learn-from-Home (LFH) programme was launched in April 2020, to help HR support their staff to deal with the new norm and adjust to working from home. This included bite-size interactive courses on highly relevant topics such as problem-solving during market

PERSOLKELLY Consulting remains proud to have been a driving force behind the transformation of learning behaviour in Hong Kong. Their L&D initiatives underline the Group's commitment to establishing a culture of learning and the use of technology in learning, which is set to stay.

turbulence and remote performance management.

With companies adjusting to the new norm in learning and development, PERSOLKELLY Consulting then launched their Digital Learning Course in June. This took a similar bite-sized approach as LFH and was offered at a competitive cost. This meant that HR was saving costs, yet still able to reskill and upskill their staff.

4040

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