Human Resources Magazine, Malaysia Jan-March 2016

Developing professional capability, sustained organisation performance and shaping the future of HR and L&D

CIPD in Asia We’re the CIPD — the professional body for HR and people development. We are the voice of a worldwide community of 140,000 members committed to championing better work and working lives.

Visit cipd.asia to see: • how we can support your organisational performance and professionalise your HR function • the latest research and thought leadership to provide you with insights and industry trends • our full calendar of HR and L&D events and networking opportunities you can attend.

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Q1 2016 « CONTENTS

COVER STORY 16 The HR director’s guide to team building Implementing team building programmes in today’s fast-paced business environment is easier said than done. Follow these case studies from companies like foodpanda and IKEA, compiled by Jerene Ang.

Features 12 Q&A Regan Taikitsadaporn, CHRO for Asia Pacific at Marriott International, reveals why the hotel believes in developing and promoting employees from within, and the significance of having a solid, yet flexible, working culture.

20 The secrets behind the region’s top corporate training programmes Akankasha Dewan explores the award-winning secrets of firms that have demonstrated solid ROI from their corporate training programmes.

24 The art of corporate relocation With multiple generations of staff relocating today, HR leaders have to manage multiple needs and expectations. Akankasha Dewan explores how best to dabble in the art of corporate relocation.

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Opinion 30 Learning & Development Ben Whitter (organisation and people development manager at University of Nottingham Ningbo China and Foo Chek Wee, (ZALORA Group’s HR director) carve out alternatives you can implement to rejuvenate the performance management process.

32 People Issues

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Chinmay Sharma, head of HR for Hong Kong, Macau and Asia HQ at Philip Morris International, gives tips on how HR can become a problem solver.

34 Unconventional Wisdom Vodafone’s JPS Choudhary, talks about how embracing diversity is essential for any global business to compete in today’s market.

36 Upwardly Mobile Recounting how hiring has evolved in the current talent climate, Vandna Ramchandani, regional head of recruitment of Bloomberg, talks about the company’s recruitment philosophy.

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40 Last Word On the lighter side, Aditi Sharma Kalra sums up four key lessons she learned from analysing the year’s top stories.

Any suggestions or tip-offs for Human Resources?

Email aditis@humanresourcesonline.net Q1 2016 « HumanResources Malaysia «

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Training for endurance As the sun rises on 2016, the Human Resources team cannot help but look back on and celebrate the successes of 2015.

A year that saw us affirming our position as Asia’s only regional HR media and events brand – with the launch of a bilingual edition of the Human Resources magazine in Hong Kong to add to our Singapore and Malaysia editions; five brand new bespoke events for the HR community in Asia, inclusive of two awards and three conferences; and all of this, in turn, led to an immense amount of learning and growth for the expanding team behind this brand.

This year, there has already been plenty of action to keep HR professionals on their toes.

The global economy is shaky and the chances of growth are uncertain, even in the typically robust “emerging” markets.

The clouds of this tentative business outlook have driven many decision-makers back into the realm of cautiousness.

A number of companies in the region have announced steps to cut staff or salary increases, with layoffs being led by employers with a large regional presence such as Yahoo and Barclays.

HSBC, which first announced a global pay freeze, revised its decision following an employee backlash, and will now fund pay rises from the 2016 variable bonus pool.

But not all is doom and gloom – companies are trying to keep morale high by investing time and effort into team building, and those examples from IKEA, Singapore Airlines and more, constitute this edition’s cover story on page 16.

In the Q&A on page 12, we introduce you to Regan Taikitsadaporn, CHRO for Asia Pacific at Marriott International. Here is a company that filled two-thirds of its management positions through internal hires and promotions across Asia in 2014; and provided an average of 36 hours of training and 78 hours of professional development to develop each associate into a manager in the same year. Taikitsadaporn breaks down exactly

how Marriott’s training programmes created the impact the business was looking for.

And with that look at best practices, we have our signature Talent Management Asia conference coming up, the region’s biggest and most respected conference dedicated to best practice human capital management.

Now in its fourth year, what strengthens this year’s conference more than ever is the centre stage action will be complemented by parallel tracks focused on specialised themes such as recruitment and retention, technology in HR, and learning and development.

No New Year’s celebration is complete without a resolution – ours is to continue to serve the regional HR community with our monthly magazines, daily email newsletters, and suite of targeted awards and conferences.

As always, we’re excited to get this year started and we look forward to seeing you and your teams at Talent Management Asia. Keep writing to us with your feedback or just tweet us at @Mag_HR. Enjoy the issue.

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

HumanResources

DISCLAIMER: The views and opinions expressed in Human Resources are not necessarily the views of the publisher.

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Aditi Sharma Kalra Regional editor Q1 2016 « HumanResources Malaysia «

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News from humanresourcesonline.net

WHY WORKING FROM HOME CAN HAVE A NEGATIVE IMPACT

The landscape has been buzzing with research on the benefits of remote and flexible work. But have you ever wondered what this does to everyone back at the office? A new study by George Mason University and Boston College, published in the Academy of Management Discoveries, found that increased levels of off-site work can, in fact, have a highly negative and contagious effect on the office environment.

The study’s key finding was that when fewer people work in the office, people who actually go in don’t get the social or productivity benefits they expect from being around friends, close colleagues and managers.

When no one’s around consistently, the problem gets contagious – staff who once preferred working in the office end up joining colleagues who spend some or all of their time working elsewhere, compounding the problem.

Working off-site “can spread through the organisation [until] the nature of the organisational facility changes from having distributed individuals and groups to having a distributed workforce,” according to the study’s authors.

The researchers did admit, however, that they found their results surprising because most literature suggests that individuals choose to work off-site primarily p y for better work-life balance.

THREE REASONS ASONS WHY EMPLOYEES LOYEES QUIT

With the concern of employee mployee retention prevalent among industries today, researchers at TINYpulse lse got down to what really drives employee attrition, attrition surveying 400 full-time employees across the US to uncover the three key drivers that really egg staff on to think about quitting.

1. Supervisors make or break retention Employees with managers that respect their work and ideas are 32% less likely to think about looking for a new job. Between that, transparency and the ability to communicate expectations, managers play significant roles in an employee’s likelihood to stay or leave their company.

2. Colleagues have a lot of power Who you hire has a huge impact on retention. Employees with low levels of peer respect are 10% less likely to stay on board. Adding fuel to the fire: employees who don’t receive peer recognition are 11% less likely to stay put.

3. Think culture is fluffy? Think again. Culture matters – a lot.

Employees that give their workplace culture low marks are 15% more likely to think about a new job than their counterparts. Thankfully, the report’s findings show that an effort towards sponsored company activities and team building can mitigate this trend.

THE PAY RISES STAFF IN ASIAN COUNTRIES CAN EXPECT IN 2016

The highest pay increases in three years – plus historically low inflation rates – mean employees across the world can anticipate average salary increases of 2.5% in 2016, net of inflation. Asia, however, surpasses the global average, where real wages are expected to rise by 4.2% – the highest globally, according to Korn Ferry Hay Group’s annual salary forecast.

Within the region, Vietnam leads the way with the largest real wage increase forecast at 7.3%. China and Thailand are not too far behind at 6.3% and 6.1%, despite China’s economic slowdown, plummeting stock markets and reduced exports. Seeing the benefits of being part of the fastest growing major economy, Indian workers are forecast to see the highest real wage increase in the past three years, at 4.7% compared with 2.1% last year.

Malaysia, Singapore and Hong Kong feature much lower down the order, with forecast increases of 3.9%, 3.7% and 1.4% respectively, net of inflation.

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HOW BOSSES CAN BOOST STAFFF ENGAGEMENT

It’s perhaps a great thing that HR is increasingly focusing on developing leaders – solid leadership is, in fact, the top driver of employee engagement ment today. That is, at least, according to a new report by PricewaterhouseCoopers, oopers, which canvassed a total of 7,396 full-time employees over the age of 18, 8, working in organisations with 200 or more workers globally.

The report found that leadership vision is the top driver of engagement ment globally. Workers who stated they are confident in how their bosses are leading the company have significantly higher levels of engagement (86%) than those who are less likely to have such confidence (28%). “Leadership vision can an also be viewed in terms of job security and stability,” the report stated.

Trustworthiness of leadership featured next. Employees, who were able to trust their leaders, were again more engaged (86%), than those who feltt they were not able to trust their leaders (30%).

The report also advised leaders to clearly communicate strategies to employees – especially with 87% of employees whose bosses have communicated a vision that motivates them are engaged. On the other hand, those workers whose bosses weren’t good at this were less engaged (30%) 0%)

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H HOW TO TELL IF YOU OU AARE A BAD BOSS

N only can bad bosses cause massive Not resignations, they also cause sufficient re damage to their employer brands, and bring ng down morale of staff in general.

Despite this, nearly 90% of workers today report having had a bad boss, according to a survey by LaSalle Network.. In addition, 51% of respondents stated they had quit a company because of a bad boss.

When asked what qualities do, in fact,t, makee up a bad boss, 27% of employees stated a blatant blatannt nt refusal by bosses to take the blame, alongg with being the first to take credit. Other undesirable behaviour by bosses included taking notice of only the negatives, not positives (26%), uncaring (18%), not acknowledging hard work (16%) and not willing to help workers advance and learn (15%).

Despite nearly everyone having had a bad boss, 55% of workers never complain about it.

“Employees don’t speak up because they’re scared,” said Tom Gimbel, CEO of LaSalle Network. “They are worried that if they try going above their boss boss’ss head, they fear they’ll they ll be judged or cut from fro their role,” he told TIMEE magazine.

EMPLOYEES IN MALAYSIA SET S FOR 5.8% SALARY S INCREMENT

Beating GDP projections of o 4.5% in 2016, Aon Hewitt’s new salary surve survey forecasts stable salary increases for employees in i Malaysia at 5.8% in 2016 – up from 5.6% in 2015.

2015 saw performan performance-related bonuses increase slightly to about two to three months of the annual base salary salary, and are projected to remain stable in 2016.

Projected salary increases incr were highest in the telecommunications ssector at 6.6%, followed by transportation as well as construction, pegged at 6.2%.

Hi-tech and hospitality hospitali sectors are gearing up for the lowest sectoral inc increments at 5.2%. pa rises, Malaysia Despite the stable pay Asia’s second highest recorded Southeast Asia’ involuntary turnover at 6%, 6% and the third highest voluntary turnover at 9.5%.

9.5% The report found three thre factors that could be attributed to voluntary em employee attrition: better studies, and workexternal opportunities, further fu life balance.

Similarly, the three m most popular measures to retain employees were: were pay above market, improved work-life balance, balanc and timely and meaningful feedback from managers.

BULLY BULLYING MORE COMMON THAN WE THINK T

In today’s workplace, w almost everything can be considered as bullying, even unfriending a colleague on Facebook. While most may think workplace bullying only occurs once in a blue moon, it is actually more common than we think.

According Accord to research from OfficeTeam, while only 27% of HR managers interviewed said they thought workplace bullying happens somewhat often at their compa company, about one in three (35%) workers surveyed admitted they have had a bully in their office.

So how do these victims of workplace bullying usually deal with the situation? Interestingly, In 32% would respond to the bully by confronting the person. Almost three out of 10 (27%) revealed they would inform their manager about ab it, while surprisingly, 17% did nothing. “Workplace bullying the radar because employees tolerate or fail to report it,” said often flies under u Robert Hosking, executive director of OfficeTeam.

“Managers and staff alike should be supported in addressing bullying issues.

“This includes not giving anyone a pass for negative behaviour, no matter how valued that person may be.”

Bullying has actually been found to drive 20% of employees to quit their jobs e – a nightmare for HR m managers in today’s situation of talent shortage. Hence, it is a must to deal with workplace bu bullying promptly and effectively.

HOW EMPLOYERS DEALT WITH MEDICAL LEAVE EXCUSES IN 2015

Polling 2,326 hiring and HR managers and 3,321 employees, a survey by CareerBuilder gathered the year’s most ridiculous excuses for calling in sick.

The report found 38% of employees called into work sick when they were actually feeling well in 2015, up from 28% in 2014. Echoing this trend, the study highlighted there was also an increase in bosses checking to see if their employees were actually sick on the day they had taken off.

In 2015, it stated one inn three employers (33%) had checked to see iff an employee was telling the truth after calling alling in sick, compared with 31% in 2014.

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Of these employers, asking king to see a doctor’s note was the most popular way to find out if the absence was based on truth (67%), followed by calling the he employee (49%) and checking the employee’s ployee’s social media posts (32%).

“Whether it’s to finish bingewatching their latest Netflix obsession, take care of personal sonal errands or simply needing a day off, many workers aren’t above taking a sick day despite having a clean ean bill of health,” the report stated.

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WORK LIFE » People GET INTO THE BOSS’S HEAD

Sang Beng Ng CEO and executive director Aemulus Corporation

What inspired you to turn entrepreneur and establish Aemulus in 2004?

Working for an MNC has its stability and benefits, but lacks the most important trait to success – freedom. To be specific, freedom to explore further due to work specialisation and many channels of red tape. Eventually, confined creativity led to stagnant growth.

In addition, red tape rooted from abhorrent office politics is the most unbearable road block.

Were you ever concerned that your age (under 30 at the time) would prove a barrier for you?

Like gender discrimination at work, age barrier is a societal stereotype. It was truly tough initially for a young man to convince seasoned decisions makers in the industry. However, my determination did not waver even once and the rest is history.

What did you learn at your previous job that you could bring over to Aemulus?

Before Aemulus, I took on a project which led to a record-breaking promotion then as the youngest junior manager. The experience reinforced my work motto: be exceptional, don’t replicate.

“The best gift from a manager is trust. I trust my employees to fully utilise any resources to make sound decisions and execute plans.” team of “Avengers” successfully recruited in a span of six months. These “superheroes” were young, talented and in good positions with MNCs. What spurred them to foray into the unknown? Passion.

During a tough period, how do you tackle stress or demotivation among employees?

The best gift from a manager is trust. I trust my employees to fully utilise any resources to make sound decisions and execute plans. I encourage my employees to just own up – be accountable and greater gratification will pay off.

What is the scope of the HR function at Aemulus? How does it assist you?

On top of the common HR functions such as hiring, compensation and benefits, training and development, appraisals, etc, Aemulus’ HR team plays a vital role in imbuing our working expectations, approach and, most importantly, our culture to all employees, especially new hires.

What differentiates us from many companies is that we value individual growth and we do not penalise mistakes. Appraisals are individual and growth-based which does away with peer pressure and unhealthy competition among peers.

With that, employees within and across departments live in harmony and constantly help each other out. The collateral benefit of this policy is that office politics is reduced massively.

On the other hand, mistakes are viewed positively because they can provide an invaluable

lesson or a chance of accidental creativity. After all, Thomas Edison failed many times to illuminate our world!

Last, but not the least, internal functions such as the annual dinner, sports competitions, monthly gatherings, corporate social responsibility and more are under HR’s care as well.

What is your aspiration for the HR function?

Most siblings in a huge family grow apart with age. Relationships between colleagues of many departments may face a similar situation with the rapid growth of the company. Therefore, sustaining our culture throughout the journey will be HR’s greatest task. The adage from Mahatma Gandhi: “A nation’s culture resides in the hearts and in the soul of its people.”

How do you define a typical day at work?

I chat with my employees, as simple as that. I manage my time well to have the opportunity to chat with them, be it work-related, life-sharing or about their latest fun getaway. You will be surprised what you can learn from 94 employees.

On top of that, I do swing some ping pong bat with employees to keep the energy going at work!

What is your favourite way to spend time outside of work?

Time-freeze moments of my kids through photography – capturing emotions that are momentarily oblivious to us.

At which stage of the Aemulus growth story did you decide to focus on building an HR team to help scale the people operations?

The element of HR has been there since day one.

Employees are the soul of a company, having said that, it is vital to have the right talent pooled together for greater success.

I have a knack at people-telling, not like a fortune teller, it is more of knowing a person better based on behavioural observation. With that, I had a great start with a bunch of creatively motivated engineers and today we are publicly listed.

If you take a look at my company website, it mirrors the core concepts of Aemulus’s culture.

We seek aggressive adventurers and creative rule benders who have zero tolerance towards office politics.

What has been your most memorable moment with the firm so far?

My “Nick Fury” moment! Aemulus started with a 6

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People WORK LIFE

SpacialAwareness WHAT THE GREEN HOP LEAF MOTIF MEANS TO CARLSBERG MALAYSIA

The culture of innovation has been strongly ingrained in Carlsberg’s employees of Carlsberg – and this rings true with the workplace design as well. Taking a cue from its corporate identity, the hop leaf motif and green colour is infused in every part of Carlsberg Malaysia’s office, within its sprawling 20-acre grounds nuzzled within lush greenery. The hop leaf, an integral ingredient in its products, creates a strong sense of pride while the green is a balanced, calming and reassuring colour, in a nod to Carlsberg’s culture of work-life balance.

Facilities such as a bar-cum-lounge cultivate interaction between colleagues, and help create a fun environment. “Our pride and joy is most definitely our visitor’s lounge where Carlsbergians socialise after working hours over fresh ice-cold Carlsberg brand beers on the house,” says Felicia Teh, HR director of Carlsberg Malaysia. This versatile space has a beer garden adjacent to it, which can comfortably accommodate up to 180 people, hence, perfectly designed to cater to employee town halls and brewery visits by trade partners.

Those who need to brush up on the knowledge of Carlsberg can head over to the visitor’s gallery, a museum of sorts, where one can view the evolution of Carlsberg, the brewing process and the accolades the firm has garnered.

In line with Carlsberg’s policy on diversity and inclusion, female-friendly facilities were introduced. Due to the sheer size of the brewery, two rooms were created for working mothers.

The premises also house tennis and basketball courts, an on-site clinic and a fully fledged canteen. Employees who prefer other games reminiscent of their college days can find a foosball table. Other sporting and wellbeing activities on-site such as yoga, basketball and tennis help lower stress levels, boost optimism, increase motivation and improve concentration and perseverance.

Adds Teh: “Carlsberg Malaysia’s office space is designed to promote increased collaboration and foster banter and communication. Our workstations are arranged to offer a balance of privacy and fluid communication between people and departments. Idea boards are situated in various parts of the building to stimulate creativity and inclusion within our teams.”

“These activities, coupled with informal meet-ups during happy hours, allow creative ideas to flow more freely and drives a more engaged workforce.”

To companies planning to redecorate their offices, Teh reminds us: “Your office space can be a good platform to engage your team. You have to give your employees the sense of ownership of their workspace and make them proud of working in the company.”

She suggests the company may like to showcase its mission statement and values in a creative way. “It is vital to consider the little things that will bring the company culture to life. For instance, we decorated our stairs with the Carlsberg anthem, and used barrels and pallets as furniture.”

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WORK LIFE » HR by numbers

Employers unimpressed with fresh graduates Malaysia’s fresh graduates have some catching up to do as 70% of employers called their quality standards just “average”. About a quarter (24%) said the standards of graduates were “bad”, while just 6% said they were “good”, according to a new JobStreet.com survey. Employers attributed the poor ratings not to academic qualifications, but rather attitudes and communication skills shown during interviews or at work. But the number one reason for the disappointment? Unrealistic salary expectations – as listed by more than two-thirds of employers (68%).

3 in 5

employers said graduates were being too choosy about the job or company.

RM 3.5-6.5k

is the monthly salary a majority of fresh graduates expect, while employers can only afford to shell out in the range of RM2,100 to RM2,500.

39%

of Malaysian employers said students who have held leadership positions at university level will have better chances of employment.

Source: JobStreet.com survey of 472 managers in Malaysia.

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People « WORK LIFE

snapshot

15 minutes with ...

Chloe Gan

Associate director of HR arvato Systems WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST JOB, AND WHY DID YOU CHOOSE HR? I have more than 13 years of a generalist background in diversified industries, including retail, pharmaceutical and IT. My first HR generalist role was with Levi Strauss Malaysia.

The reason I chose HR as a profession is because I enjoy working with people and I find satisfaction in helping others.

I personally think HR is the backbone of the company and it is an important value driver for a successful business operation.

HR is involved right from the moment any candidate steps into the company – from interviewing, hiring, onboarding, training, learning, performance management, exit management, etc.

WHAT DO YOU ENJOY MOST ABOUT YOUR CURRENT ROLE AT ARVATO SYSTEMS? At arvato Systems Malaysia, we value the authenticity and diversity that every employee brings to the business.

It is our commitment to provide a supportive and empowering workplace – a working environment that is positive, open and flexible.

To generate this inspiring culture, our HR function undertakes a wide range of initiatives to engender a dynamic and enjoyable working environment, staffed by people who care about doing the best for their team and this is what I enjoy the most.

I think in the next five years, HR professionals will continue to embrace technology which will enable them to drive the HR function more effectively and become more commercially relevant to the company.

The concept of the HR business partner is nothing new. It has been known to HR professionals for some time now.

The transformation into an HR business partner model is motivated firmly by the conviction that HR departments should contribute significantly to the company’s success.

I think in the next five years, HR professionals will continue to embrace technology which will enable them to drive the HR function more effectively and become more commercially relevant to the company.

IS THERE ANYTHING YOU FEEL HR CAN DO BETTER TO PLAY A BIGGER ROLE IN ORGANISATIONS? There is a rising demand for HR professionals to add value to the growth of the business.

Companies now view human resources as a strategic partner and not just a supporting function.

At the same time, they are also recognising the importance of building their HR function’s capabilities to contribute to the business success.

Hence, I think the priority for HR now is to build its value proposition for its key stakeholders, employees, customers and investors.

HR should also move from a bottom-up perspective to a top-down perspective by understanding the business and its key objectives.

CAN YOU DESCRIBE A REGULAR WORKDAY AT ARVATO? Honestly, I don’t have a regular workday – this is why I love working in the HR department so much.

I feel that HR professionals should aim to proactively engage stakeholders, as well as establish ways to attract and retain talent, manage diversity in the workforce.

Every day, we have different tasks and ad hoc requests from various parties at our firm, making our work life very interesting and challenging at the same time.

They should also leverage on technology in their daily work, and manage organisational change and transformation.

HOW DO YOU THINK THE HR FUNCTION WILL EVOLVE IN THE NEXT FIVE YEARS?

WHAT IS THE BEST CAREER ADVICE YOU HAVE RECEIVED? I have learnt that success is not something that can be accomplished overnight. It takes a lot of hard work, effort, time and dedication.

YES, we recruit there.

Your single point of contact for all of your hiring needs globally

www.npaworldwideworks.com Q1 2016 « HumanResources Malaysia «

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WHITE PAPER » Leadership

DISRUPTIVE HR TECH TRENDS TO LOOK FOR IN 2016 Global – Increasingly, firms are addressing their HR priorities – such as creating a strong company brand, attracting the brightest talent and competitively paying staff – by investing in technology. Bersin by Deloitte has unveiled a new report noting seven big disruptions on the horizon of HR technology.

1. Consumerised HR technology Instead of designing HR software and applications solely to make the jobs of HR professionals easier, many applications are now designed with the end user in mind – employees – enabling them to learn and collaborate, share feedback, set goals, steer their own careers and even manage other people more effectively.

2. Mobile is the new platform With more than 2.1 billion smartphone users on the planet, some breakthrough areas for HR in the coming year are likely to include engagement and feedback systems.

3. The emergence of ERP vendors Vendors are quickly catching up as credible and effective providers of comprehensive talent management technologies to support processes such as recruiting, learning and a range of peoplemanagement tools.

Top 10 trends in HR tech 1. Consumerised HR technology: think employee tools, not HR tools 2. The “appification” of everything: mobile apps as a new HR platform 3. Emergence of ERP providers in expanding the talent management segment 4. Built-for-the-cloud providers redefine HR functions 5. New software categories: feedback, engagement and culture management 6. The reinvention of performance and goal management with feedback and check-ins 7. Learning experience middleware: integrating content from everywhere 8. Growth of predictive analytics: the value from new vendors and solutions 9. Technology services continue, despite escalation of cloud computing 10. Pace of innovation accelerating, but engagement still critical Source: Bersin by Deloitte, report “HR Technology for 2016: 10 big disruptions on the horizon”

4. Redefining HR functions with built-for-thecloud providers This “third wave” of talent solution providers come with consumer-like products, built for mobile and the cloud.

5. Feedback and culture management as new software categories Bringing together the world of performance management with feedback, employee check-ins and development planning, solution providers are expected to release feedback apps that could make meetings and conference calls more useful and productive.

6. The new way of managing employee performance and goals As organisations do away with ratings and simplify their performance management processes, gaps in user needs left by traditional performance management software are filled by making use of feedback and check-ins.

7. Integrated content from everywhere With the growing need for skills development and expanding the training marketplace, learning experience middleware is expected to bring various content together into an integrated learning experience.

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Leadership « WHITE PAPER

PEERS, NOT BOSSES, ARE THE TOP DRIVERS OF EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT

Europe – The people most likely to make employees feel engaged at work are not their managers, rather their colleagues.

In fact, the HR team is the least likeliest to have a positive impact on engagement levels, says a new Oracle study, “Simply Talent”.

Polling 1,511 employees at large European businesses, 42% of respondents said their peers had the biggest role to play in how engaged they felt at work, well ahead of line managers (21%) and business unit managers (7%).

Worryingly, only 3% of respondents said the HR team has the biggest positive impact on their levels of engagement.

Conversely, nearly one in five employees (19%) pointed to the senior leadership team for negatively affecting the levels of employee engagement, while 11% said line managers were the most responsible for this.

Loïc Le Guisquet, Oracle’s president for EMEA and APAC, said: “These findings should be of concern to human resources teams as they indicate that HR does not ‘own’ engagement in the eyes of employees.

“Employees feel engaged by their peers and the HR team can help encourage this by providing

access to sharing and collaboration platforms and social tools.”

With only about a third of employees (35%) feeling engaged most of the time, the study pointed to the benefits of an engaged workforce – increased productivity (56%), a reduced likelihood of switching jobs (37%), and an increased ability to provide creative ideas (35%).

In the study, employees provided ideas on how their HR teams and line managers can get them to feel more engaged.

The top suggestion by more than half of the respondents (53%) was to recognise their achievements, by making this the biggest priority for management.

This was followed by helping employees

understand their contribution to the company (35%) and giving them the opportunity to work on exciting projects (34%).

Employees under the Millennials’ age group were the most keen on more regular discussions with their line managers about their career path (79%), although this group also had the highest percentage of employees (44%) who already receive this.

Currently, only 29% of employees believe their company is proactive at engaging with them, compared with 42% who state their employer typically waits for them to bring up issues.

Only 11% said their employer communicates with them via regular engagement surveys (once a month or more).

Top stats • 42% of employees believe their peers have the most positive impact on how engaged they feel at work, well ahead of line managers (21%) and business unit managers (7%).

• Worryingly, only 3% of the 1,511 respondents say that the HR team has the biggest positive impact on their levels of engagement.

• When it comes to negatively affecting employee engagement, employees believe the senior leadership team (19%) and line managers (11%) are the most responsible.

Source: Simply Talent study by Oracle Q1 2016 « HumanResources Malaysia « 11

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PROFILE » Regan Taikitsadaporn

Regan Taikitsadaporn Chief human resources officer, Asia Pacific Marriott International The value of people serving people

By AKANKASHA DEWAN

Q How has the experience of being Marriott’s CHRO since 2013 been?

It’s been great. I love my job, I love my company, I love the people I work for. That makes it a lot more easier to wake up every morning and go to work. The beauty of the hospitality industry is that people are the key drivers. So talent strategies are critical to business success. That makes working in HR in this industry even more exciting and rewarding.

Art Direction: Shahrom Kamarulzaman; Photography: Stefanus Elliot Lee using Nikon D810 – www.elliotly.com

Q Why is there such a shortage of talent in this industry at the moment?

The industry is growing very fast, and there are a lot of developments. All of us are attracting candidates from a similar talent pool. Not only that, the Asian economy has probably been one of the fastest growing in the world. Hence, we find ourselves competing not only with the other hotel companies, but also other multinationals and local companies. A combination of such factors is creating the talent shortage.

Q Marriott is planning to more than double the number of its hotels in APAC. What’s your talent strategy here?

It all boils down to how we attract, retain and develop talent, primarily how to attract the next generation, Millennials specifically. The other focus is developing talent from within. We want our leaders to understand our culture, policies, practices and brands and that is going to help us be more successful, especially when we move into markets where we don’t have presence. We have programmes from graduates to leaders to help develop this trait. A big part of our culture is people

first, so we want to keep them engaged and take care of them.

Q How do you alter your recruitment strategies to reach out to Millennials?

Technology. Having a good attractive recruitment website is one thing, but we also let candidates apply for jobs using their mobile phones – and launched the mobile-plus two years ago.

Q In your experience, what do Millennials look for in their careers?

They look for opportunities and choices.

We have a graduate programme called Voyage which puts college students through 18 months in a discipline of their choice and prepares them to take on supervisor or entry management roles.

Participants get to work on projects and attend webinars with senior leaders.

In Asia Pacific, we get around 70-80 participants for this every year.

Q How would you define the workplace culture at Marriott?

It’s about people taking care of people and that’s what we want in the hospitality industry. We want people to take care of our guests, but we also want them to have a desire to take care of each other, help out their colleagues. There are five parts to our company culture – people first, pursue excellence, embrace change, act with integrity and serve the world.

Q The average tenure for a GM at Marriott is about 25 years, and some 10,600 people have been with Marriott for more than 20 years. What makes employees stay on for so long?

VITAL STATS In his position as chief human resources officer for Asia Pacific, Regan Taikitsadaporn leads the human resources function for one of Marriott International’s fastest growing regions. His responsibilities include developing, formulating and implementing human resources strategies to support Asia Pacific’s current priorities and future growth.

He has more than 20 years of experience in HR, with the past 15 at Marriott International.

We are a company that is constantly growing. There are peaks and valleys, but overall, we have always been growthoriented and focused on growing talent from within. It’s a great culture that makes you want to stay, while giving opportunity to grow. I’m in my 16th year here, through which time I have been in eight roles, and worked in four cities across two continents. It feels like I get to change jobs every few years while staying with a company I love – akin to getting the best of both worlds.

Q Having worked across geographies, do you see any differences in HR practices in Asia versus the west?

Marriott has a lot of HR programmes that transcend the company. For example, we use similar assessment tools and the same performance review tools. Our recruitment website is the same. We have these common platforms around the world, but the priorities are going to be very different around the world, even within Asia Pacific.

Within Marriott, we have this great toolbox filled with tools. It is just a matter of what your priorities are and which tools you will be using to address these priorities in the different markets.

Q You mentioned in a previous interview that in 2014 two thirds of management positions were internal hires across Asia. Why is Marriott such a big fan of internal recruitment?

If you have talent who understands your culture and lives and breathes it, they can empower that philosophy to the next generation of associates. We believe

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PROFILE » Regan Taikitsadaporn

our culture is one of our competitive advantages – we talk, live and breathe our culture. So that is one of the reasons for focusing on that.

Another one is around retention. If you look at research on the top three drivers of retention, career opportunities is going to be one of those.

We believe by helping people grow their careers, we’re helping them make more money, hence, allowing them to take care of themselves. For example, we have a programme called Essential Skills to help rank and file staff to become a supervisor or firsttime manager. This is a 15-module programme – allowing participants to learn a range of skills such as basic

communication, interview and time management skills.

Q You’ve also talked about how associates in Marriott took an average of 36 hours of training and 78 hours of professional development to become managers in 2014. How do you measure the ROI of all this?

Measuring ROI for the programmes is hard because there are a lot of factors involved.

But our metrics, for example, our guest engagement or satisfaction scores, have been rising over the years.

Our stock performance has been very well, and our retention rates have also gone up since 2011.

Another factor is our ability to grow

talent from within. Occasionally, we have to go outside to bring in talent for some of our leadership positions. We do bring in GMs from outside at times, but that’s only when we really have to. We do find it takes a length of time to acclimatise and run the hotel and learn about the company. If you were to put a value on productivity there, the fact we generally promote people from within really helps increase productivity and leadership effectiveness.

Q How does Marriott conduct its performance review process?

We have mid-year and year-end discussions, but we encourage leaders to have regular meetings with their folks. So, for example, I have regular meetings with

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Regan Taikitsadaporn « PROFILE my direct reports once a month. In those, we talk about their development plans, and the day-to-day operational processes that they need help on, so when I do the mid-year and year-end review, nothing is going to be a surprise for me or for them.

Q Marriott has many brands and the HR team works closely with the different teams, but how do you ensure the employer brand is consistent?

We work very closely with our brand team and our operations team. Our global employer branding is “find your world”, and it aligns with our company’s purpose which is “world of opportunities”.

The “find your world” tag line is about finding your passion and being able to live it with us. It’s interesting how many people have started in other roles and ended up as general managers.

From a brand perspective, the tag line is around attracting the right talent to deliver that brand’s experience. The talent we need for the Ritz-Carlton hotel is very different from that of our lifestyle brand, Renaissance. Because the customers are different, and so are our expectations.

Even the orientation and training programmes will vary.

Q Do you have employees moving across the different brands?

We do encourage it, but they would have to have a brand fit, especially for certain brands that identify key leadership positions as being critical to their success.

Q Marriott is also a big fan of women empowerment and leadership. How do you foster an environment that encourages gender diversity?

A big part of our culture is inclusion – making sure we create an environment where everybody is treated well, regardless of race, gender and sexual orientation, etc, and we give everybody equal opportunity to grow. Each year, we have a women in leadership conference, giving women leaders the opportunities to network. Male executives also attend as they need to understand perspectives on aspirations, things they struggle with, and their fears. We’re a company that provides opportunities, so we’ll help them when it comes to the barriers, but we also like to encourage our staff to have a dream.

Q Is that what you do to encourage diverse teams to work together?

It’s just the whole culture of putting people first. It’s all about teamwork and respecting people’s differences. And the legal requirements, such as harassment policies and fair treatment of staff. But the more important thing is to create the culture of valuing diversity and making everybody feel included. In Australia, our housekeeping departments have people from 20 nationalities. They probably have the best teamwork – when everybody recognises and respects their differences and celebrates that. I remember one of our executive housekeepers would have her housekeepers share about their culture. They would bring little snacks or talk about holidays important to their culture or country, so that really nurtured their appreciation and respect of different cultures and backgrounds.

The other big part is senior leaders being role models. We have leaders with culturally diverse backgrounds who are role models in teamwork, and that really helps as well.

I work with a fantastic team, both my peers and the people who report to me, I couldn’t ask for a better team. Their diverse abilities and skills and knowledge, and backgrounds. We don’t always agree, but we get the work done and we work together well. I get asked a lot, when I attend meetings with my peers, and they talk about some of the challenges of trying to get the HR agenda across their peers in other disciplines. I’m very fortunate in that talent is such a high priority for my peers that they’re always looking for advice on what more they can do and how they can help to roll out the voyage programme.

Q I’d normally ask what HR can do to be at the executive table, but it looks like Marriott is already there.

We’re there, but it doesn’t mean we can stop thinking. From my perspective, we have to always think from a business lens and from a consumer lens, and make sure we help address those issues, trends and priorities that the business has. It may be the same programmes that we use to address those (issues), and maybe we just have to do a better job telling our story as to why we’re doing certain things.

If I just go, “we need to roll out assessments”, people will go “why do we have to waste our time on assessments?” as opposed to telling them “our focus is to improve customer preferences and guest engagements

in our lifestyle brands, so from a HR perspective, these are the few things that we can do to help you achieve those results”. I think that approach will definitely help you get to the table.

Q Do you think HR leaders today have what it takes to become CEOs? I think to a certain extent, yes. Because HR is one function where we can dabble in every discipline. We have the presence, especially since every discipline has a talent strategy or need, so we’re at the table for every different function. You really learn about the business, the priorities, the functions and areas that you work at.

I think HR should ask the right questions, because you’re not going to know everything when you become a senior leader, so asking the right questions is a skill that good HR leaders generally have.

Those big questions, thought provoking questions, and leadership might help.

“We want our leaders to understand our culture, policies, practices and brands and that is going to help us be more successful, especially when we move into markets where we don’t have presence.”

Q In the next five to 10 years, where do you see the function heading?

The function’s prevalence will become even more important and I think it’s a great opportunity for HR professionals.

This is the time where you’re either going to make it or break it.

If you look at the challenges many businesses face, it’s really around having the right talent to match growth or talent shortage – how to hire better talent than the competitors, and then you have the Millennials who want to change jobs every year and want to grow faster, so how do you make them grow faster?

I think the next five to 10 years will be an exciting time for HR professionals and for those who are able to be good partners, be think strategically and tell the story. From the business perspective, those leaders who will find an important seat at the table.

I think every CEO or president deserves to have a good HR business partner – a need perhaps as crucial as to having a strong financial partner.

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FEATURE » Team Building

The scale of operations in businesses today makes it necessary for people to work in teams, across geographies and functions. However, implementing team building programmes in today’s fast-paced business environment is easier said than done. Follow these case studies from IKEA, foodpanda, Singapore Airlines, SCIEX and Grey Group for an effective model of team building, revealed in interviews by Jerene Ang. he scale of operations in businesses today makes it necessary for people to work in teams, across geographies and functions. But according to a study by Dr Michael Housman and Dylan Minor, if productivity and profitability are what businesses are aiming for, merely working together is not good enough - it is also necessary that close bonds are fostered among employees.

In this feature, we’ve put together a guide

to implementing effective team building programmes, and tips on choosing a provider.

Case 1: foodpanda Organisations with people and technology at the core of everything they do need to actively promote an efficient workforce. At foodpanda, leaders do this by ensuring strong links are being formed between teams at different levels.

“When we focus on our people, it benefits all other aspects of our business. Th is has played a

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Team Building « FEATURE

part in how we have managed to get our average delivery timings down to just 30 minutes, which was a key business goal for us,” says Madeeha Arain, head of people and talent acquisition at foodpanda, Singapore.

To achieve this, foodpanda focuses on three aspects – mental wellbeing, physical health, and rewards for hard work. Under wellbeing, it organises a regular team activities such as football games and gym passes. It also hosts delivery rider barbecues at East Coast Park, which help connect riders with foodpanda employees, who might not frequently cross paths and could risk feeling disconnected.

Often running late into the night ensures that everyone is able to join, even after a late shift.

For rewards, foodpanda holds Tasty Thursdays, where employees can order from their favourite vendors to the office for free. The company also holds a weekly “Beer O’Clock” unwind session on Friday.

All new programmes have their challenges – for foodpanda, these lay in measuring the effectiveness of these programmes.

“To ensure we are gaining a solid ROI, we plan to implement more structure into how we organise these activities. Some activities are for fun, but others can play a bigger part in overall performance and identifying, systems and skills that need to be developed,” Arain says.

Foodpanda plans to use gap analysis to prioritise the objectives of team building, as well as plans to survey employees on them.

Case 2: Grey Group Employees at Grey are always working in teams – whether it is the huddles over Friday breakfasts or the Monday morning new pitch briefi ngs. Even the company’s breakout areas

are designed to be conducive to idea sharing.

“Being a large, diverse and global organisation, we have a strong need for team building as it encourages open communication.

Th is improves working relationships and in turn, the quality of work,” says Rumki Fernandes, regional director of talent and HR at Grey Group Asia Pacific.

Emerging from a business need of more data accuracy, Grey Group implemented a global identity management tool that helps to reduce manual intervention, develops clearer processes, facilitates communication and provides an audit trail. Th is was led by Grey’s head office in New York, but required collaboration from a number of stakeholders.

“It was a huge team building exercise that involved people from different offices, functions and regions to work collaboratively as a single unit,” Fernandes says. “Working on the programme was challenging as it involved inputs from people belonging to diverse functions, geographies and time zones.

We overcame the barriers through constant dialogue, a disciplined approach to timelines and teamwork.”

By effectively directing the team’s efforts, the company gained higher data accuracy, and became more cost efficient.

Case 3: IKEA With togetherness as an integral cultural value, IKEA uses a co-worker welfare budget for various formal and informal team building activities, such as department/management outings (up to three times a year), social and family day outings, learning and development activities as well as business plan kick-off meetings which include a fun activity.

These programmes fall under the general co-worker welfare framework, owned by the rewards team in HR. It becomes the responsibility for the management of each business unit to integrate into their teams.

“A happy, friendly and cohesive workforce naturally translates to better business results and customer experience on the sales floor,” says Lydia Song, HR director for IKEA Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand.

The most recent addition to these activities was the social day outing by the sustainability team, that brought together co-workers for causes such as building furniture for an orphanage and cleaning up coastal areas.

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FEATURE » Team Building Since these activities are generally appreciated by the management, the challenge lies more in getting everyone together at the same time due to the nature of the retail business environment. As such, IKEA tries to work around the business operations and at times, splits the outings into two sessions.

As a result of these programmes, staff are happier, operations smoother and there is less miscommunication, along with better sales, happier customers and lower staff turnover. To quantify staff satisfaction, IKEA uses an annual VOICE survey. Informally, it looks at elements like how often staff go for lunch together.

“A happy, friendly and cohesive workforce naturally translates to better business results and customer experience on the sales floor. Hence, we provide a platform for building team collaboration and togetherness.”

– Lydia Song, HR director for IKEA Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand

Case 4: SCIEX “Team building to us is more than just an activity. It is an overall look into everything employees do - including things built into the employee’s performance and into the company’s objectives,” says Lim Teng Teng, regional director of HR at SCIEX. SCIEX holds an annual kick-off meeting by region – China, Japan, India and the rest of Asia which includes Singapore and Malaysia – to set the direction for the year. “We also hear from the employees about their queries,” Lim says.

The kick-off meeting includes a number of team building activities, wherein its behavioural competency programme called the Leadership Anchors was rolled out. SCIEX holds a quarterly all-hands meeting, physicaly or virtually, during which other than the usual business updates, some countries will have half a day of team building exercises.

To ensure that teamwork continues thereafter, SCIEX sets individual, department as well as company objectives. Additionally, incentives such as bonuses are measured on company goals on top of the individual goals.

To avoid the challenge of low participation

rates, most activities are held during office hours. However, Lim notes, planning in advance is very important, and one must notify employees at least a few weeks in advance. Since employees fi nd the events truly benefit them, in ways like understanding the business direction, they become more willing to attend.

“Then, even when we have the events out of office hours (for example, our regional service meeting is on Sunday), because of all the positive feedback they have heard, employees are willing to attend them,” Lim says.

To SCIEX, a good way of measuring the success of these events is through employee engagement surveys. For example, the manufacturing plant in Singapore saw a doubledigit improvement in the engagement survey.

Case 5: Singapore Airlines “The emphasis of team building in our company is evident as all employees are encouraged to exemplify it from the moment they join us,” says Casey Ow Yong, VP of talent management and development at Singapore Airlines (SIA).

SIA has embedded the team building element in many of its learning and development programmes, its flagship programme being FUS3ION. FUS3ION has been designed to promote integrated safety, security and service excellence (denoted by the “3” in FUS3ION), for staff from the four key operational areas – technical crew (pilots), cabin crew, ground services and engineering.

It is managed by SIA’s HR team’s corporate learning centre which works closely with the programme facilitators from each of the four operational units who will roster staff from their respective areas for each run. It aims to develop participants to be members of highperforming, cross-functional teams who share common goals and accept each other as internal customers deserving of a high level of service.

Participants become champions of FUS3ION and propagate the message among colleagues.

“Th rough FUS3ION, we hope to bridge the invisible barriers that might hamper effective cross-functional co-operation in any situation,” Ow Yong says.

No programme is without its challenges. For FUS3ION, it was to get staff out of their “comfort zones” to share the challenges they face with one another. To overcome this and encourage staff to contribute in the discussions, SIA places an emphasis on the sharing of past success

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Team Building « FEATURE stories as well as some ice-breaker activities and role plays to improve communication.

As a result of FUS3ION, SIA’s employees have a deeper appreciation of the challenges faced by their colleagues in other operational areas, resulting in them working better as a team.

“We have received consistent high ratings and favourable feedback from the participants.

Success stories and learning points are often used as case studies in the programme itself to enhance learning,” Ow Yong says.

Onward we march: Remember to build teamwork into the culture.

Implement your team building strategy 1. Hold activities during office hours. Th is is especially for organisations that are just starting to roll out team building activities.

Holding them during office hours will give employees less reasons not to attend, increasing the participation rate. Once employees see the usefulness, timing is less likely to be a reason to not attend.

2. Stretch out the duration of social gatherings. Th is is especially for organisations in the retail or service sectors where shift work is common and it is difficult for front line employees to leave their positions without affecting business operations. By stretching out the duration, employees will be able to attend before or after their shifts.

3. Remember to build teamwork into the company culture. One-off events are easily forgotten. Hence, the best way to encourage better teamwork is to build it into the daily activities around the workplace.

1. The resources of the team building company. Where does the team builder operate? What activities do they suggest?

Who will deliver the programme? Can they accommodate your numbers and needs?

2. How efficiently is your initial enquiry responded to? Are they efficient? Are they personable? Do they respond to your needs in the way that you would like your team to respond to the needs of your clients? Do you feel a good chemistry? Can they adjust their programme to accommodate your needs?

3. The proof is in the experience. Before reaching a decision, check out the experience of other organisations who have used their services. Any team builder worth their salt will have a long list of happy customers who have enjoyed working with them, and they should be keen to share those contact details with you. In addition, ask your friends in other companies who they used and what they thought of them.

Tips on how to choose a good vendor

Should the organisation have more complex team building needs, the abilities of providers can be quickly assessed by asking them more penetrating questions.

“Your investment in a programme is likely to be substantial, so ask the provider to visit you.

Give them a detailed brief on the issues that your team encounter and need to solve, and ask them how they would approach the problem,” Blyth says.

“Beyond an understanding of your needs, they will need to know how much time and money you are prepared to invest, and most importantly, what the most accurate and meaningful measure of a successful outcome is for you. You can then map out the project journey and fi nal objectives, with both parties clear on mutual expectations.”

Most of the team building examples shared here have been implemented in-house, but there’s always the option to outsource the planning or implementing to a team building provider. For this, we spoke to Alex Blyth, founder and MD of MegaAdventure, for some tips on choosing a good team building provider.

Before selecting a team building provider, it is recommended HR leaders have a clear goal of what the organisation is trying to achieve.

“The better you can defi ne and articulate your needs as an organisation, the more likely you are to identify the right supplier,” he says.

“The more basic your needs, the easier the task.”

For organisations that are just looking for a half day or day of bonding fun, here are three things to look out for when sourcing a provider:

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FEATURE Âť Corporate Training

Companies today devote time, effort and money into corporate training, but such training can drive a competitive advantage only if done effectively.

That is why the Human Resources Excellence Awards 2015 lauded those ďŹ rms who have demonstated measurable results which prove the effectiveness of their learning campaigns. Akankasha Dewan reveals their award-winning initiatives.

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Corporate Training « FEATURE he 2015 Emerging Workforce Study commissioned by Spherion Staffi ng found that 77% of employers had put more training and career development opportunities in place in 2015 compared with 2014. But solely increasing the number of training sessions will be inadequate if bosses don’t adjust their learning priorities per today’s climate.

That is exactly what the winners and fi nalists of the Human Resources’ Excellence Awards (HREA) did, in the category of training, learning and development. We highlight the practices in their award-winning L&D initiatives.

Case 1: Unilever Asia Having been titled as the best training, learning and development team in Asia at HREA 2015, Unilever’s vision is to double the size of the company by 2020 while reducing its environmental impact and improving its social impact. To achieve this, Unilever’s HR strategy, defi ned as “winning with people”, was captured in the fi rm’s roadmap for the future – also known as “the compass”.

“The learning strategy of Unilever is about helping people to develop and grow to become the best versions of themselves. The best part is, everyone has access to learning opportunities, anytime, anywhere, and the senior leadership is leading by example,” says Tricia Duran, HR director, Unilever Asia.

Unilever’s L&D framework is fully integrated within its “Four Acres leadership curriculum”, the Unilever future leaders programme (UFLP) and the newly launched learning hub. Between Four Acres and UFLP, Unilever is developing a new generation of leaders who embrace the future with principles, purpose and direction in achieving an ambitious Compass vision, and continuously home-growing graduates into business leaders for the future.

Delivering in London and Singapore, Four Acres designs leadership development programmes to accelerate the development of high potentials (for all work levels) and to increase the exposure of fast-track employee “listers”. These are activated globally to ensure the highest quality is delivered in scale. In 2013, it delivered nearly 200 programme sessions touching almost 4,000 executives globally.

To ensure the inflow of the best “raw” talent, the company implemented the Unilever

future leaders programme (UFLP) across its offices, globally. Those selected to participate in the UFLP are known as Unilever future leaders.

Th is is a fast-tracked leadership development programme that balances the developmental rotations with real jobs and real responsibilities from day one. The trainees undergo a one-week induction programme and are quickly brought up to speed on business operations and are expected to quickly learn and deliver.

More recently, with the launch of its new learning hubsystem (available online or as an app for learning anytime, anywhere), the company is also enabling employees to take charge of their own development and career through more engaging learning experiences.

With more than 5,000 learning programmes available, development can be tailor-made into an employee’s learning preferences. In 2014 alone, 4000 employees in Southeast Asia and Australasia took training and leadership development programmes in Four Acres Singapore. Additionally, with the introduction of the new learning hub in June, the fi rm has since (as at 1 July) seen: 36,400 unique hits on the website; 18,400 users (49% returning visitors; 51% new visitors); 19,300 e-books downloaded; and 189 videos watched.

Additionally, with the introduction of the UFLP, there has been a natural change in mindsets to grow leaders from within Unilever.

All future leaders have access to mentors and line managers who provide them the necessary tools to flourish in the organisation. More recently, this has been formalised in the form of the trainee development group, which provides a network of committed functional mentors.

Under the programme, there were about 250 promotions globally of UFLPs into more senior managerial roles in 2014 and nearly 160 promotions (as at end of June) in 2015.

Case 2: ANZ Retail Bank Winning the bronze award in the category, ANZ Retail Bank Singapore’s (ARBS) vision is to be the best connected and most respected bank across the region.

While the retail banking business remains core to ANZ’s super regional strategy, the local business environment in which ARBS operates in is extremely regulated and competitive. First, there is stiff competition from the rise of “local” banks, the emergence of “regional” banks, as well as the established presence of “global

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FEATURE » Corporate Training

It takes a team: A critical success factor of an L&D initiative is strong endorsement by the management team.

banks”, not only for customers, but also for talent. Second, on the customer front, increased urbanisation and mobility have become a trend and customers are more comfortable having multiple banking relationships instead of being loyal to one. Asian customers are also becoming more fi nancially competent and technologically savvy, with access to a myriad fi nancial information and tools online.

Th ird, the bank is facing an ever tightening regulatory landscape in the retail banking industry post the global fi nancial crisis.

Th is growing consumer “protectionism” means increasing eligibility controls on the development and distribution of retail investment, insurance and credit products.

Such challenges demanded a robust learning system. “We at ANZ Retail Banking Singapore encourage continuous learning as this is essential in today’s world. Th is allows our folks to see things with a wider lens and the result is our folks can be more productive and relevant to our customers,” says Philip Lim, ANZ’s head of retail banking in Singapore.

In a bid to cater to these needs, the retail academy was established in October 2013, reporting to business assurance, one of the seven major business units within ARBS. Its fi rst task was to establish quality standards around learning processes, policies and frameworks.

The next phase was to implement an intensive and relevant new hire training curriculum for each unit.

To minimise the time taken for a new hire to become productive, the retail academy partnered hiring managers along ANZ’s 7020-10 pedagogy. To ensure learners achieve a meaningful transfer of knowledge, skills and mindset, they must pass multiple-choice question assessments after each module.

A fi nal two-hour role-play accreditation assessment is conducted jointly by the assessor

and line manager to ensure the employee is ready to serve the bank’s customers.

The last phase is to support the business with a suite of tailored learning interventions to elevate staff competencies along the levers of knowledge, business skills and mindset.

All these efforts to train employees certainly seemed to have paid off. One indicator of this was the ARBS 2015 employee engagement survey result last August, where Retail Banking Singapore scored 80% for overall employee engagement in 2015, up from 71% in 2014 and 62% in 2011.

The number of service-related training has grown in tandem with 23 new courses.

Using customer surveys as an indication of customer satisfaction, the bank has stayed ahead of its targets despite a more demanding clientele. “It comes as no surprise that Retail Banking Singapore has done well in terms of their staff engagement scores and positive business results, with their strong emphasis on employee development,” says John Augustine Ong, Singapore learning lead at ANZ. “A critical success factor is the visible leadership and strong endorsement of people development by their management team, which is evident through their presence during and co-facilitation of training workshops, coaching conversations with their team or giving time off for staff to attend the relevant programmes.”

Case 3: SATS With a staff strength of more than 15,000, SATS is Asia’s leading food solutions and gateway services company, with an annual turnover of about S$1.8 billion.

The company’s vision for the human capital (HC) department is to engage and develop employees in an open environment of learning and sharing, with managers who lead by example. To deliver this strategy, SATS has established a people development system, comprising its learning principles, learning centre, training framework, learning roadmap, learning management system, and more.

An employee engagement survey was conducted in 2012, which identified two areas SATS needed to work on – strengthening the company identity, and enhancing communication. The senior management thus concluded that employees’ sense of belonging to the company needed to be enhanced, and leadership at all levels to be strengthened.

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Corporate Training « FEATURE New programmes for leaders at critical turning points in their leadership development were implemented, called the SATS Connect Series. These aim to get SATS leaders to reevaluate their own leadership styles, in order to help improve communication and bring visibility to the brand identity, represented by the brand promise “passion to delight”.

Another prong was to nurture in all employees an understanding of SATS’ core values and its service standards. Since 2013, the SATS Ambassador Programme has served to heighten the awareness of the SATS philosophy among its employees. The goal was for it to become a learning carnival. To translate SATS’ core values to actionable behavioural statements and service standards, HC worked with the corporate communications team to study ways to help employees more easily relate to the core values. A set of behavioural statements were established and endorsed by the senior management team.

The programme has certainly delivered results. An engagement survey in November 2015 showed the overall score had improved from 40% in 2012 to 72% in 2015. Specifically amongst the engagement drivers, the score for brand identity improved from 37% in 2012 to 83% in 2015. The score for communication rose from 32% in 2012 to 76% (intra-department) and 61% (inter-department) in 2015.

Case 4: SMRT The role of L&D at SMRT has evolved over the past few years, beyond the traditional delivery of training courses. It now takes a long-term view towards L&D – from the perspectives of both the company and its employees, and integrates its L&D and HR strategies into a coherent and mutually reinforcing one.

The challenges SMRT faces in the operating landscape are numerous - doubling of the rail network by 2030, heightened regulatory standards, increasing ridership and commuter expectations, alongside an ageing infrastructure and workforce. As such, the fi rm took deliberate steps to professionalise its railway workforce, especially in the domain of railway engineering.

One key L&D initiative was to establish strategic academia-industry partnerships to grow the rail engineering workforce pipeline.

The fi rm has established Memorandums of Understanding and co-launched courses with

the Institute of Technical Education, Republic Polytechnic, Singapore Polytechnic, and Singapore Institute of Technology. The parties co-design the course curriculum, exchange instructional services, and create industrial attachment opportunities for students.

SMRT has also been enhancing the overall professional roadmaps and training programmes for employees. In May 2015, it launched the SMRT train engineer professionalisation (STEP) roadmap, which provides opportunities for staff to gain internationally recognised accreditation. SMRT has also made significant L&D progress for its bus professionals, by leveraging technology.

In July 2015, it launched its bus training and evaluation centre – Singapore’s fi rst team-based bus training centre.

Besides strengthening its L&D capabilities to develop staff ’s functional competencies, SMRT also bolstered its L&D capabilities to develop staff ’s leadership competencies and facilitate a company wide culture revolution.

In the aftermath of the 2011 rail disruptions and 2012 illegal bus strike, SMRT embarked on a “service excellence” campaign to re-engage its staff and rebuild trust with all stakeholders. Key to this culture-shaping campaign was SMRT’s service excellence training programme, codeveloped by SMRT, NTUC Learning Hub and Disney Institute, and attended by all staff.

Service excellence and other SMRT core values were further weaved into its other L&D programmes to catalyse the culture change.

The staff ’s leadership development roadmap and programmes were also refreshed to develop leaders with the agility and leadership competencies to transform and grow SMRT in the new operating landscape.

As a result of these initiatives, the company’s headcount grew by 30% despite a tight labour market. In addition, voluntary attrition rates halved to reach a low of 5.5% in 2015.

Employee engagement scores are currently at best-in-class levels, with nine in 10 staff being proud to serve in SMRT, and 86% of staff being sustainably engaged – a noteworthy increase from 82% in 2013, placing the company way above the Singapore norm of 80%.

Moving forward, the company will build upon its strong learning and development foundation to groom Singapore’s rail and bus professionals so as to enhance reliability and the commuters’ travel experience.

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Executive Relocation « FEATURE

With the need to meet multi-generational employee expectations, while simultaneously fulfilling business needs, corporate mobility has now become a canvas of experimentation for HR leaders trying to formulate a solid relocation strategy. Akankasha Dewan explores how best to master the art of corporate relocation today. orldwide, mobility programmes are increasingly being included in attracting, recruiting and engaging talent. Such programmes also allow companies to take advantage of emerging opportunities and markets and cope with macro-economic events flexibly, while controlling costs.

“There seems to be an increase in the ‘internationalisation’ of business with increased trade and travel, in technology providing new opportunities and in the world generally becoming a smaller place,” says Stephen Park, global mobility manager of Fonterra.

The art of corporate relocation In line with such trends, companies today are stepping up efforts to ensure relocated employees are being taken care of optimally.

“In the past, corporate relocation involved sending a business leader from the company’s headquarters as a representative or figure head to keep a watchful eye on the local subsidiary and ensure the local subsidiary repatriated profits home,” Park says.

Now, he adds, an “industry” has been “developed for high-touch services to support this art of corporate relocation”.

Echoing his views, Tarun Gulrajani, the head

of human resources at REHAU, says fi rms who don’t focus on supporting relocated staff may lose out on the global war for talent.

“Companies now want to ensure that employees have the best experience in every aspect of their work life, and this goes without saying, is addressed towards corporate relocation as well,” he says.

In essence, the delivery of the relocation experience – and its implications for a future relationship – is more critical than ever before.

The pressure on HR departments to justify expenditures, manage programme costs and support mobility decisions will only increase.

To stay ahead of this trend, HR departments should consider setting up specialised centres and dedicated units to incorporate solid relocation models. Th is is exactly what Siemens has done, according to Rahima Ibrahim, senior vice-president of human resources.

Because of the massive relocation of employees worldwide, Siemens has created several regional hubs to manage specific country legal and tax laws.

“The delivery centre and personnel in each country are well trained to be specialists and experts in handling all relocations, and in meeting country specific requirements. The speed and the quality of services are measured

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FEATURE » Executive Relocation to ensure effective and efficient services are provided and business needs are met.”

She adds that corporate relocation or, as Siemens calls it, “international delegation” is essential to supporting the company’s strategy because it helps in “placing competent managers and experts where they are needed”.

Multi-generational complexities The inherent problem in doing this, however, is that placing and developing the right talent at the right place involves dealing with employees of all ages and skill levels.

“Implementing an effective strategy for corporate relocation enables the teams performing or supporting business activities to have the right skills set at the right time to deliver business results with the least amount of distraction.”

– Stephen Park, global mobility manager at Fonterra

“Currently, it seems corporate relocation has moved down the organisation. For example, companies are relocating armies instead of just sending their captains overseas. Th is means that employees even in their early careers are being expatriated to more diverse home locations than in the past,” Park explains.

Indeed, as the mobility industry has grown, it has attracted Baby Boomers, Gen X and now Millennials, on par with industry demands.

“The biggest differences we see among the generations is the balance between technology and personal interaction,” says T.J. Spencer, vice president sales, Oakwood Worldwide.

“The Baby Boomers use technology, but tend to prefer to have a person guide them through the relocation process. Generation X is a bit of a hybrid, comfortable with both technology and personal interaction. Millennials, to no one’s surprise, are very immersed in technology and prefer to communicate virtually and expect information immediately.”

Because of this, all interviewees agree that mobility strategies will need to evolve to meet more sophisticated demands, while managing the very different needs and expectations of the new multi-generational workforce.

“Implementing an effective strategy for corporate relocation enables the teams performing/supporting business activities to have the right skills set at the right time to deliver business results with the least amount of distraction,” Park says.

“However, one of the fundamental points for corporate relocation to include is the human touch and being able to develop individuals, family units, teams, clients and other networks in person in real time.”

Essentially, multiple stakeholders are involved in the process, and to develop all of them, it becomes important for HR professionals to understand generational profi les and differences.

Of course, there are always candidates that don’t fall into neat categories based on age.

But when relocation managers understand the needs, desires and expectations of each generation, it is easier to create a relocation offer that aligns with those needs.

“It is about setting realistic expectations at the HR policy level, coaching the business about managing their own expectations of relocation along with their employees’, being transparent and consistent so there are no surprises, and creating a sense of trust as relocating is a huge commitment,” Park says.

The Millennial conundrum But this is easier said than done, with today’s well-informed and inter-connected workforce.

“People are well read, well travelled, some of them have even had early experiences living in another country for a few months either through an exchange programme in a school or later in life through short project assignments to other countries. Employees have no qualms moving to a new location with family in tow, as they feel they gain a lot more from new work experiences, new collaborations with team members and spending some time developing expertise outside their home turf,” Gulrajani says.

Because of the possibility of such previous experiences in travelling, he adds HR needs to be extra careful in not making promises regarding relocation policies and benefits that cannot be sustained.

“On the same token, it also hurts HR’s reputation when relocation companies over promise and under deliver. I have moved countries a couple of times and it is never an easy thing to do, too many factors are at play

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Executive Relocation « FEATURE and it does not help when the relocation does not go well,” he says.

Th is is especially important for Millennials, who seem to be fast dominating the relocated population. While those aged 50-59 are currently the largest group of assignees, the 2014 Brookfield Global Relocation Trends Survey found the fastest growing age group within the mobility sector is 30-39 at an overall 33%.

Indeed, the report adds that as Baby Boomers start to retire, the Millennial employee is advancing in an increasingly connected global marketplace. More complex mobility patterns are emerging across the region, both intra-regional and west to east.

Th is complexity is, however, made more prevalent because Millennials seem to bring with them new and sometimes contradicting perspectives regarding relocation.

According to PricewaterhouseCoopers’ “Millennials at Work: Reshaping the Workplace” report, 70% of Millennials want or expect an overseas assignment at some point in their careers. And with 1.8 billion Millennials globally predicted to make up 50% of the workforce by 2020, employers need to ensure their relocation programmes are attractive to this generation – a feat which is not devoid of its own challenges.

Gulrajani believes Millennials are “easier to relocate” than other generations because they are “fresh off the block” and are willing to take on challenges and new experiences.

Th is is echoed by Park, who says that at “the moment we can generalise and say they are at the early stages of their careers”.

“They are at a phase where they are developing their skills and capabilities and our concept of co-investing in their career is very relevant. They typically have no children or have infants so they are more mobile and able to relocate and their partner (if they have one) is able to be mobile as well.”

Interestingly, while admitting Millennials are easy to relocate because they are “keen to learn and want international exposure for their career development”, Ibrahim warns that being “ambitious”, the young generation can sometimes get “impatient” and companies need to fast-track their careers and provide them with challenging assignments.

formulate fi xed and solid relocation policies for each generation.

However, the issue at hand, Park explains, doesn’t remain at whether a particular generation is easier to relocate, but how to maintain the delicate balance between standardising relocation practices and meeting the specific situational requirements of relocating each employee.

“The biggest challenge is managing expectations when you have a duty of care to two parties (business versus employee),” he says. He adds that in the process of relocating, employees talk among themselves and compare themselves to other organisations and do their own informal benchmarking.

“The danger is that perceptions are generated based on incomplete information and you have challenging discussions as to what is right,” he says.

Park suggests it is precisely due to the erratic nature of relocating employees that HR leaders need to be able to fi rstly analyse the needs of all the stakeholders involved. h relocation has competing drivers “Each and theree is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all h. You have to think who is involved approach. h corporate relocation and there’s with each nterested people: the employee, the a lot of interested

Maintaining a delicate balance In such a situation, it becomes difficult to

Box clever: 70% of Millennials want or expect an overseas assignment at some point in their careers.

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FEATURE » Executive Relocation

“The biggest disservice HR can do is trying to focus on everything instead of letting the experts deal with it.

This also helps in neutrality as you are taking yourself out of the equation. “ – Tarun Gulrajani, head of human resources at REHAU

hiring manager in the home location, the hiring manager in the host location, HR in the home location, HR in the host location, fi nance, etc,” he says.

He explains: “I think you have to quickly identify parties who are decision makers, who are supportive, who provide challenges and juggle the competing drivers to come up with a business decision. It’s an art, you will always receive different interpretations from the interested people.”

Spencer adds that the duty of care, “which as a result of recent well-publicised incidents and international security concerns, has jumped to the top of the agenda for many organisations when reviewing their in-house travel and risk procedures for employees”.

“Increasingly therefore organisations are looking to their global housing providers to provide a level of care for their employees.”

Gulrajani warns, however, of the dangers of catering to everyone’s demands, adding that HR should also not hesitate to take help from experts where necessary.

“Don’t look at pleasing everyone because you won’t. And don’t try to do everything yourself,” he advises.

“The biggest disservice HR can do is trying to focus on everything instead of letting the experts deal with it. Th is also helps in neutrality as you are taking yourself out of the equation.”

He cites an example of maintaining such a balance between catering towards employee demands and fulfi lling business needs – in the area of relocation pay packages.

“One option that I implemented in my previous company was to completely transform relocation benefits to a relocation cost. So instead of offering employees ‘X’ number of relocation benefits, we started given them a relocation amount. We told them they now have ‘Y’ dollars to play with, and they get to decide how to use that amount.

He added the company’s policy was to not take back any unused dollars and employees got to keep savings, if there were any.

“That was a win-win as there were fewer complaints as the onus was on their employees to ‘manage their fi nance. From an administrative perspective it was a lot easier on HR as our relocation costs table was created based on job levels and the host country costs.

Th is made it fair for everyone,” he says.

Similarly, Park elaborates on the philosophy Fonterra has adopted to structure relocation employees of different age groups.

“For international assignments, we are moving towards balancing the employee’s needs for support while on assignment versus business requirements for the assignment.

“The key thing is to understand if there is a need to have a connection to the home country whether it is for legal requirements, duty of care for the employee (immigration/tax/healthcare/ pension/social security), talent requirements for the employee to remain globally mobile, etc.

If so, then we look at providing the home-based approach to compensation structures.”

He adds the company generally does not try and differentiate employees’ pay packages based on age.

Instead, the organisation looks at “the personal circumstances relative to their level of seniority within the organisation and benchmarks constantly”.

“For example, the housing budget for a single person is generally smaller than the budget for a family of five, and the housing budget for a person in their early career is generally smaller in dollar terms than a person in the senior career category (maybe in absolute terms only, but percentage of housing allowance to relative income may be the other way around).”

Such an approach is, undoubtedly, in line with the fi rm’s efforts to maintain the balance between flexibility and consistency when it comes to relocation. Though far from achieving “global mobility nirvana”, as Park terms it, this approach is a step towards attaining it.

In essence, shaping a corporate relocation programme to fully enhance and support multigenerational needs and business goals is one of the most effective ways that organisations can meet the challenges of the future. The winners now and in the years to come will be those companies that adjust their relocation strategies now to address these requirements.

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OPINION » Learning & Development

Redemption of the performance appraisal BEN WHITTER Organisation and people development manager, University of Nottingham Ningbo China

Not every company can just go ahead and dump the annual performance review process. Here's what you can try instead.

FOO CHEK WEE HR director, ZALORA Group

Do you measure up? Build the new approach to performance management with your people, not for them.

In a stunning development, Accenture has dumped the performance review. CEO Pierre Nanterme described the move simply as, “we’re done with that”.

These four words may prove to have a major impact across business and HR teams in the months ahead.

If you can’t feel it yet, get ready. A movement is underway.

In research by CEB, 6% of the world’s top companies are making similar changes to the ways they manage performance.

Microsoft, Adobe, Gap and a host of others have already ditched their review processes, including General Electric, which has been a huge advocate of it for years.

If you don’t think 6% is a lot, then examine the populations involved, and the fact that they are iconic businesses, meaning others are about to follow the same path quickly.

Most HR people will not be surprised by this. Ninety-five

per cent of managers, according to CEB, are dissatisfied with performance reviews, and nearly 90% of HR people are seriously questioning the accuracy of the performance information that comes out of the process.

At a time when companies such as Zappos are abolishing management altogether (and managers for that matter) in favour of self-organisation via holacracy, a simple change to eliminate performance reviews within a company is not very groundbreaking, surely?

It is and I’m pretty sure you know why. The annual performance appraisal has for the longest period been a source of much conversation for all of us, as managers and employees.

Currently, organisations are doing everything, nothing and something about it – a huge mix of practices to say the least.

Google, which is constantly referenced for its people

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Learning & Development « OPINION approach, has eliminated a quarterly 41-point scale in 2013 (yes, 41 points) to rate their people; instead opting for a simpler five-point scale.

While its process is still a work in progress, recent industry views show it is still committed to the review. Microsoft, not so much. Reviews went out of the window two years ago, which led others to follow suit.

In one session several years ago with a private-sector client, co-author Whitter recalls a conversation about the success of a values-based system across 10,000 employees.

This HR-owned process was an interesting sell to the business. One attendee said candidly that he didn’t even have the discussion about the company’s values with his large team and nor did any of his direct reports – though that conversation was meant to be the core part of the process.

“Why should I when my manager doesn’t even take our values seriously?” he asked. Meaning is garnered from everything and across everywhere within a business.

What happens in HR, stays in HR So if reviews are out, what’s in? A focus on the individual.

Accenture explains this involves more regular support for staff, timely feedback on progress all-year round and a commitment to select the best people in the first place.

Once selected, trust them and give them freedom to operate to their full potential. With two-thirds of Accenture’s workforce comprising Millennials, traditional approaches just don’t cut it anymore in this context.

Why? Because the meaningfulness score of performance management is very high. That implies, it has to mean something to your people, be a solid part of the employee experience, and ultimately help deliver superior performance.

The great news is we already know the best thing to do, and Accenture’s Nanterme perhaps favours this approach after taking advice from Ellyn Shook, his CHRO, and that is very simply this: Build the new approach to performance management with your people, not for them.

But until you’re in a position to rethink your entire performance review process, what can you, as a people manager, do to achieve meaningful performance sessions?

The seeds of an idea Performance is often a one-sided boss-administered/employeereceived performance review. We know this leads to employee disengagement.

In response, Samuel A. Culbert, in his book Get Rid of the Performance Review!, proposed replacing the traditional performance review with performance preview, a two-sided, reciprocally accountable dialogue aimed at eliciting what both boss and employee will do to achieve agreed goals together.

This approach essentially entails three steps. First, to agree on unit or team performance goals used as a yardstick in measuring not the employee, but the unit or team (i.e. manager and employee).

Second, involve the skip-level manager (i.e. boss of the manager) to monitor the progress of the manager/employee

“The great news is we already know the best thing to do: Build the new approach to performance management with your people, not for them.” team, ensuring the unit is achieving the goals it has set.

Third, conduct regular performance previews by having the manager ask three questions: What are you getting from me (manager) that you find helpful and would like me to continue doing? What are you getting from me (manager) that impedes your effectiveness and would like me to stop doing? And, what are you not getting from me (manager) that you think will enhance your effectiveness, and tell me what you would like me to start doing?

So what now? The above progressive notion of a performance preview is of high leverage and impact for an organisation. It requires a mindset and organisational change on how the traditional performance review is to be done.

However, not all organisations are ready for such a progressive approach.

As people managers, we do not have to wait for a sea change to start having constructive feedback sessions with our own people.

We can execute the continue-stop-start feedback technique immediately and we’ll be amazed how such a simple approach can bring positive change as a part of your performance session. Here are some pointers you may want to consider as you execute this feedback technique: • Give a heads up. Prior to the review session, pre-empt your direct reports on how the session will be done and ask them to think through the areas he/she would like to highlight during the review session.

• Preparation. Prepare for it by drawing a three by three grid on a piece of paper, with continue, stop, and start as row headers and the employee and your names as column headers. It will be helpful for you to pen your initial thoughts on the grids with specific examples or incidents.

• Be candid, constructive and complete. The purpose of this 45-minute session is to allow your direct reports to learn your expectations from them. Equally important, do allow time for your direct reports to give you their candid feedback on what they want you to continue, stop, and start to support them better. To encourage your direct report to come forth with candid feedback, lead by example by analysing your own behaviours and staying constructive throughout.

• Follow through. At the end of the session, both parties would have touched on several key issues. Agree on action steps, commit to resolving issues resolved, and book a time for you and your direct report to review the committed actions.

Inevitably, more organisations will follow Accenture, but until that day comes, people managers can achieve similar results within their current system by simply focusing on delivering a more meaningful feedback experience for their team.

Let’s not wait. Let’s engage our people now.

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OPINION » People issues

How HR can focus both on the business and the people CHINMAY SHARMA Head of human resources Hong Kong, Macau and Asia HQ Philip Morris International

In the quest to be viewed as more strategic, how do HR professionals bridge the gap between their aspirations and their actual role?

In my work experience so far, there was a specific case where HR, together with the CEO, charged its senior management team personally accountable for talent development of top professionals across the company. That required them to take a step back and assess the business’ most significant talent indicators, which turned out to be not available or poorly reflected in its HR information systems.

The company is now building an infrastructure to capture those results and make the “performers with potential” more visible. HR alone would not have been able to commit the company to new performance standards and gain the resources to update systems, but collaboration with the business gave the effort the required “teeth” to do so.

Bridging the gap: Managers often think their key deliverable is financial results.

Time and again HR professionals (myself

included) have debated the appropriate role of the function.

Many companies view it as process-oriented, with little or no strategic impact. HR leaders disagree with this perception and regularly seek ways to have a seat at the business table. In the quest to be viewed as more strategic, a gap between HR’s aspirations and its actual role persists.

I believe the gap arises from two inter-linked causes. First, managers often think their key deliverable is to get financial results rather than manage people. Second, when managers neglect people management, HR tends to take upon managers’ responsibilities on their own shoulders. On the surface, this seems to work with management moving away from areas it views as less important or uncomfortable. Simultaneously, the HR function gets a false sense of importance. However, in the long term, this approach does more damage to the company.

I have seen HR struggling with the balance of being a problem-solving function (or say, operational) or a “proactive” strategic function, but I believe it’s possible to correct the balance without going too far on either side. Being more strategic and efficient problem solvers are two keys. However, as the function stands today, the balance seems to be tilted towards being an efficient problem solver rather than strategic.

I believe the journey towards a strategic function will require a fundamental shift in how we operate as an HR function.

Business rationale a must When business rationale for HR processes is lost in a race to copy “best practices”, large firms end up with a supersized HR infrastructure in the form of multiple HR systems, questionnaires and templates, resulting in an oversized HR department.

Talent advisors enabled with data analytics It’s easy to say, “HR needs to enable and empower”. But granting unlimited freedom to managers in making people decisions can generate inconsistencies, potential liability risks, and cost escalation.

Having the access and ability to generate data-oriented people insight, HR needs to enable managers with the right checks and balances. High quality, timely information about talent pools and gaps that HR is uniquely positioned to provide is a significant competitive advantage in large corporations where talent can move smoothly across the globe.

HR can help with the critical connections, thus enabling line managers to seize opportunities. A strategic HR function also offers a perspective on emerging gaps. For example, a particular skill that is expected to become more critical to business can be prioritised both from a recruitment and development standpoint.

Leadership development Research has proved time and again that the quality of leadership (not just the leader, but the next level) has a big impact on shareholder value, but the reality is that many leadership development efforts don’t achieve their goals.

This is mainly because they ignore the business context and offer insufficient or irrelevant solutions.

An assertive and strategic HR department clarifies objectives and expectations for leadership development across the company, provides a backbone of proven tools and methodologies, and calls out ways to adapt them to the needs of businesses and individuals.

Managers are expected to lead and HR must help them to do so. At all events, HR has the opportunities to assert its expertise and strategic thinking in a non-intrusive way.

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OPINION » Unconventional Wisdom

Why Vodafone is making mums the centre of attention JPS CHOUDHARY Regional HR head, Vodafone Asia, Africa, Middle East and Asia Pacific

The biggest challenges in building a diverse and inclusive work environment, for which the solution lies in a new global diversity policy.

If you only hire or support one particular type of individual, you severely limit the performance and innovation potential of your business. Embracing diversity is the only way to bring in the breadth of perspectives, experience and skills that any global business needs to compete in today’s market.

Companies also need to respect and align with the diversity of their customers if they are to meet their needs. In other words, diversity is a business imperative, not just a “feel-good”.

Ignoring the needs of these diverse individuals can be costly, especially in the case of women in the workforce.

The ever-present gender gaps The main reason why gender gaps still exist in firms today is that companies don’t make it as easy for women to balance their family and career goals as much as they could. In Asia, we tend to see more women leaving the workforce when they have a child because traditional working patterns – fixed hours, a tendency towards overtime – are perhaps more ingrained in corporate culture than in other places.

In Italy, for example, reduced working weeks are relatively common and socially acceptable for new mothers. I suspect the persistence of gender inequality, particularly at the higher levels, has to do with the fact that most working policies were designed many years ago with men, and not women, in mind.

At Vodafone, our approach to this is to make these policies more flexible and personal. Apart from our mandatory maternity leave allowance and reduced post-maternity working weeks, we empower our managers to define individualised flexible working arrangements for their employees based on their circumstances.

When you create workplace policies that explicitly support uniquely personal circumstances, you have a far greater chance of retaining more women than simply enforcing quotas or other “top-down” systems. As business leaders, we also need to be role models for this and show greater openness about how we work according to our own personal situations – and extend that same flexibility to those whom we lead.

Many women do not return after maternity leave or, if they do, they find it difficult to return to the workplace after the changes that come with being a new mother. Businesses should not simply stop at maternity leave allowances: they need to provide greater flexibility in that critical post-leave period to support women’s transition back into the workforce.

Vodafone’s global maternity policy Vodafone recently became one of the first organisations worldwide to implement a mandatory minimum global maternity

Why gender gaps still exist: Companies don’t make it easy for women to balance their family and career goals.

policy. By the end of 2015, women working across all levels at Vodafone are offered at least 16 weeks of fully paid maternity leave, in addition to full pay for a 30-hour week for the first six months after their return to work.

The impetus for the policy came from research we commissioned with KPMG, which found that applying these policies globally could firstly, save US$19 billion in recruiting and training costs. Secondly, it could also eliminate US$14 billion in child care expenses. Finally, it give back 608 million days to mothers to spend with their newborns.

This new policy was introduced across 30 countries in the Middle East, the Asia Pacific region, Africa, the US and Europe, benefiting more than 1,000 women a year. In many of these countries, there is little or no legislative requirement to provide maternity support.

We designed this policy by assessing retention rates of women returning from maternity leave in offices from each of the 30 countries where we operate. The design process was informed by several “outliers” with high retention rates, such as Italy where these women were working shorter days, but for full pay immediately after returning from maternity leave.

Our employees have been extremely excited and supportive of this policy. However, we cannot afford to take this for granted – there is still a lot that global business leaders need to do, particularly in areas such as wage equality. We also need to be mindful of cultural differences across different countries as we roll out policies designed to provide women with an optimal working experience. These differences shouldn’t stop our efforts, but instead drive them towards greater effectiveness.

A “one-size-fits-all” approach will meet far more friction than basic principles within which countries have autonomy.

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2/3/2016 10:47:40 AM

OPINION » Upwardly Mobile

Why this firm hires for hunger and aptitude VANDNA RAMCHANDANI Regional head of recruitment, Bloomberg

Innovation and collaboration are traits which stem not only from the most educated candidates, but also from those with the right drive and passion for their roles.

Our employer value proposition is an ever evolving one. We like to convey that diversity is important to us. But also, because we are high-tech, high-finance, we have a culture of innovation.

That is why the candidate experience and perception is such a critical part of the whole recruitment process – even if you don’t end up hiring the candidate.

The rat race: If you have diverse people, then you are more revenue-driven.

Within Bloomberg, there has been an evolution of the recruitment process in the last three to five years. We have grown our team dramatically, both in Asia and globally. Instead of being a recruitment team, it is more of a business partnership. Everybody has their own processes to evaluate much like a business, to see a return on investment.

In Asia, where there’s a critical need for good talent, HR leaders need to engage potential employees, because a lot of them are passive job-seekers. In today’s world of social media, people are also more discerning – they do a lot of homework before joining an organisation. As such, companies need to have the right presence on all the relevant social media platforms.

In the past, we used to say that first impressions go a long way and candidates only have one chance to impress employers.

But today, it also applies to employers. During recruitment, we don’t place emphasis on the education or degree alone. We do have a target list of universities, but we don’t limit ourselves to certain majors, because we a diverse pool of candidates.

We truly believe that if you have the aptitude, the hunger, and you’re innovative and collaborative, you will get stuff done.

Sending out the right message At Bloomberg, we believe it’s very important to be authentic.

There’s a lot of effort and expense that goes into hiring an individual, so you really want to create a good fit and that means that you want to allow people to decide for themselves if their personal goals or beliefs align with the company.

Using data effectively Saying that, however, I think recruitment is still a challenge, not only for us, but for most organisations – especially when it comes to putting together all the data and culling it to make better strategic decisions. I think that’s work in progress because we haven’t really had the technology, not only at Bloomberg, but overall, to really build people analytics. This is because you get a lot of data about employees from the sources that you hire from, but there’s a lot more to attain. For instance, what skill sets they came in with, what did you do to develop them, and where did their career paths take them?

From the Bloomberg perspective, we tend to have a good amalgamation of skills needed to use and interpret this data to make meaningful business decisions. A lot of our leaders in HR are from the business side, and we have sent HR leaders from our department into the business. If we have both partners at the table they are able to have a more robust discussion about how they are going to interpret the data.

Ultimately, we have a business to run – everything else is a means to make it better and more wholesome.

Implementing a cutting-edge working culture As a global organisation, and we like to think all our policies are cutting-edge. For example, our parental leave policy entails 18 weeks of paid leave for the primary caregiver and four weeks of paid leave for the secondary caregiver. But while we function in a framework globally like this one, we will always defer to the local laws and fine-tune them based on the local culture.

When you go into any Bloomberg office, you tend to get a very constant feel in terms of the open spaces and the pantry.

But the way they are designed will take some tenets of the local culture into it so. In our Singapore office, we have plastered the names and faces of a lot of our employees over the wall, as part of our anniversary celebrations. We’ve also featured employees who belonged to our pioneer group, who were with us in 1991 and willingly talk about why they have stayed for so long.

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CAREERS » Personal development

uptheranks Tracking HR’s industry moves Who: Nicholas Dhillon From: Head of talent acquisition for Malaysia and Singapore; and HR NCE champion, Nestlé To: HR business partner for commercial businesses in Malaysia and Singapore; and HR NCE champion, Nestlé Nestlé has promoted Nicholas Dhillon to the role of HR business partner for commercial businesses in the Malaysia and Singapore market, effective January 2016.

He continues to be based in Malaysia and will report to Uzma Qaiser Butt, the HR director at Nestlé Malaysia and Singapore. He was previously the head of talent acquisition for the market since February 2014, responsible for recruitment, employer branding and graduate and internship programmes.

In the new role, he continues to wear the dual hat of being the HR NCE champion (NCE stands for Nestlé Continuous Excellence), where his mission is to find more efficient ways of work, and plug those practices back to achieve business excellence.

Apart from this, in his new role as HRBP, he is responsible for driving the people agenda by working with the respective heads of the commercial businesses in meeting business goals.

“That is precisely how I look at HR – ways of rewarding people, how to select talent both internally and externally, and how to develop performance,” he told Human Resources.

Who: Yeoh Sai Yew From: Group head of rewards, AirAsia To: Head of the people department, AirAsia X AirAsia’s Yeoh Sai Yew has moved up from his previous role as group head of rewards for AirAsia to become the head of the people department for AirAsia X, effective 1 January, 2016. He will continue to be based in Malaysia.

Speaking to Human Resources, he confirmed he would manage the overall HR function, and his current priority was to “re look into staff productivity to ensure optimum output”. He added that another agenda item was “to map and maintain the talent profile, especially for the top management”.

On the overall HR scenario in Malaysia, he explained that competition for the most talented members of the workforce remained the key challenge.

personalgrowth THREE NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS FOR YOUR STAFF TO MAKE Won’t 2016 be great if staff didn’t just promise, but actually cleaned up the pantry after using it, asks Akankasha Dewan.

With 2016 getting off to a dynamic start, you may have thought of a New Year’s resolution or two.

Which had me thinking – wouldn’t it be great if I could make resolutions for other people in the office that they would keep?

You should explain why you couldn’t hold up your end of the work, rather than blame everyone else for your failures.

Stepping up and admitting that you messed up will not only increase my respect for you, but will also help us focus on solutions to fix the situation.

Here’s my wish list: 1. Proper communication Having great staff camaraderie is one thing – but actively communicating about work issues is another.

Imagine the time that could be saved in rectifying situations if bosses voiced exactly what they required from colleagues instead of making assumptions or being vague in their instructions.

Spelling out who, what, where, when and why in office meetings might take more effort, but at least it would ensure work would be done more effectively.

3. Maintaining good hygiene (especially in the office pantry) We know all too well of the value of having a fully stocked pantry. But why make the process of using the office kitchen unpleasant for everyone?

Instead, it would be great if staff respected this shared space by keeping it clean and washing their dishes after use.

And please, stop using the microwave to cook stinky food. If you must heat something that spatters, clean up after your lunch explosion.

Most of all, I beg, stop using the office kitchen to store three bottles of salad dressing, two flavours of mustard, a cheese assortment or any other pantry staples.

Nobody wants to watch any science projects blossom in the communal space.

2. Taking accountability for actions When things go wrong, passing on responsibility is possibly one of the most indecent things to do as a team member.

All said and done, the office won’t be as fun a place to work in without my colleagues – with or without them making these resolutions. Here’s wishing all my colleagues, and yours, and an even more fun 2016!

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2/3/2016 12:28:45 PM

Good reads to improve your business life

shelflife

Mindfulness Pocketbook: Little Exercises for a Calmer Life

The Experience: The 5 Principles of Disney Service and Relationship Excellence Bruce Loeffler, Brian Church Wiley $34.80

No business can exist without its customers.

Regardless of the industry, size of business or part of the world it is present in, customers are the lifeblood of businesses.

In the good old days, a great product was enough to keep customers happy and coming back for more. However, in today’s world, that alone isn’t enough.

Today, everyone is looking for an “experience”, especially so when businesses are becoming more service-oriented. Even candidates are looking for an “experience” when they apply for jobs.

So how does one transform their business to keep customers happy? The Experience is just the book for leaders looking to take their businesses through this transformation journey.

Based on principles em employed by the renowned lea in customer service leader exp experience, The Walt Disney Com Company, this book serves as a un unique guide to mastering the aart of customer service and rela service relationships.

Having spent 10 years at Disney World overseeing service ex excellence, co-author Bruce partnere with Brian Church in Loeffler has partnered The Experience, to he help leaders bring the Di Disney-level of customer experience to their organisations with insider guidance.

Based on the I. C.A.R.E. model, the five principles in the book – impression, connection, attitude, response and exceptionals – give leaders a solid framework to raise the level of customer experience in their businesses.

Divided into three parts and nine chapters, through this book, leaders will learn how to identify customer service issues and what level of experience their organisation is currently offering in order to improve.

Describing what it takes to achieve a high level of experience, the book shows readers how any organisation can do it with the right strategy and attention to detail.

Bookmark this!

“Does everyone in your organisation own the ‘experience’? Is it an option for them not to take ownership of the deliverable or service offering? Do you ever hear the words “That’s not my job” or “I didn’t do it”? We all know that creating an extraordinary experience for others is a team effort. The question – and the quest – involves figuring out how to get everyone attitudinally united and involved in making it a reality” – page 166.

As an HR professional, being able to manage the demands of your employees is critical to business success. But how does one get better in managing the demands of others in today’s increasingly fast-paced and complex world?

The key to doing so might just be as easy as living in the moment by developing mindfulness skills. This technique has been recognised by experts as an effective way to improve performance, reduce stress, enhance emotional intelligence, increase life satisfaction, and develop leadership skills.

Mindful people are known to consciously bring awareness to the present moment with openness, interest and receptiveness.

One might, however, think of developing mindfulness as a tedious and time-consuming process. However, author Gill Hasson makes it easy. The book is the perfect take-withyou guide to receptive, constructive thinking.

Packed with over 100 quick exercises which deal with different situations, the Mindfulness Pocketbook is bound to help busy professionals feel calm, collected and balanced.

Through the book, professionals can expect to develop mindful ways of thinking which can benefit them in a wide range of situations ranging from personal, social to their work life.

The book is divided neatly into 54 chapters, each on – from “finding addressing a different situation a way to forgive” to “taking control of anger” and “meeting deadlines”.

Bookmark this!

“Mindful awareness simply requires you to choose (something) to notice. Once you do that, mindful awareness will follow. If, for example, you were asked to look out for anything blue, anything that colour will stand out” – page 32.

Book photography: Fauzie Rasid

Pick of the month

Gill Hasson Wiley $22.25

Q1 2016 « HumanResources Malaysia « 39

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2/3/2016 11:23:50 AM

LAST WORD

From understanding how to eliminate antiquated performance reviews to dealing with big egos, here’s a roundup of the year,

by Aditi Sharma Kalra.

12 months I have learnt more than possibly in my entire working life. From taking on a new role, to managing a team, and being part of a business expansion, it has been a busy year. And all of these milestones have a way of keeping one engaged in a way that you don’t realise how fast time flies.

However, some of the most interesting things that my team and I have learnt in the past year have been reflected in the most popular stories we’ve all written on our website: www. humanresourcesonline.net. From understanding how to eliminate antiquated performance reviews to dealing with big egos, the cool thing about being a journalist is learning something new every day.

So to bring in the New Year, I decided to compile some of our top stories of the year into one quick takeaway, as we usher in 2016.

Lesson one: Working in HR is making us fat If you’ve found yourself weighing just a little bit more every month, perhaps you’ll find consolation in the fact that you’re in good company. According to a survey by JobsCentral, 62% of employees in Singapore, which included HR workers, claimed to have gained weight since starting work, gaining an average of 3kg for each year of work.

While it’s better I don’t comment on the amount of weight I’ve put on since I started working eight years ago, suffice to say I spent a lot of my Christmas break in the gym.

Lesson two: Despite the weight gain, it pays to be in HR C&B directors, as well as heads of organisational development (OD), are pulling in the highest salaries within the HR function in Singapore. A report by FocusCore identified C&B specialists at the director level earn on average $240,000 per year, while OD directors, and HR generalists and HRBPs, receive make about $220,000.

At a senior executive level, HRIS specialists earn the highest ($90,000), while organisational development and C&B professionals at the management level were found to receive $150,000, the highest in the category.

Lesson three: If there’s one perk employees love, it’s another day of leave Adding to the 11 public holidays in Singapore last year, president Tony Tan declared 7 August, 2015 as a public holiday, in honour of the SG50 celebrations, making for a four-day jubilee weekend. Additionally, the long-awaited elections in the city-state called for yet another public holiday on 11 September, leading to a long weekend – and we couldn’t rejoice enough.

A recent study by Robert Half Singapore confirmed our suspicions – if employees in Singapore could have just one wish granted, 36% would ask for more annual leave. In fact, perks such as childcare, laundry and fitness facilities all ranked lowest on the list, proving that nothing beats sleeping in for an extra day each year.

Lesson four: Mark Zuckerberg’s secret to hiring top talent makes perfect sense Want the best people to work for you? Then get ready to hire only those who you would be willing to work for. This, Mark Zuckerberg said, is the secret to sifting out top talent during recruitment.

In a town hall during the Facebook founder and CEO’s trip to Barcelona early last year, he was asked about how he recruits.

“I would only hire someone to work directly for me if I would work for that person,” was Zuckerberg’s response.

“This rule has served me pretty well. I think as long as you have that as your rule for picking the people you work with, you’re not going to go wrong.”

Working with a great bunch of people isn’t just a driver for recruitment, but for retention as well.

The most number of employees (42%) in an Oracle survey, say their peers have the biggest role to play in how engaged they feel at work, well ahead of line managers (21%) and business unit managers (7%). Makes perfect sense, right?

On that note, I wish you all a wonderful set of colleagues, a better work-life balance, and much professional success in the year 2016. Have a happy New Year! aditis@humanresourcesonline.net

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

Lessons from 2015

What a year it has been. In the past

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