Human Resources magazine Malaysia Q1 2014

The smart HR professional’s blueprint for workforce strategy

humanresourcesonline.net

The business of equality Why workforce diversity is the key to success Page 20

Charity begins at work How HR can use CSR to engage employees Page 24

Sugunah Verumandy on how GE finds and retains the best talent while developing leaders Page 14

Opinions Where will HR be in five years?

Seven tips to help you prepare for the future RM12 / Q1 2014

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Q1 2014 « CONTENTS

COVER STORY 14 Q&A Sugunah Verumandy, human resources director at GE Malaysia/Brunei, shares the conglomerate’s success in attracting and retaining the best talent, while developing leaders for today and tomorrow.

Features 20 The business of equality Workforce diversity is widely accepted as the key to business success, but ignoring the need to enhance inclusion is a “classic diversity mistake”.

Sabrina Zolkifi talks to leaders who have grasped the true business power of diversity.

24 Charity begins at work Corporate social responsibility is no longer a trendy buzzword, with a new generation of employees demanding the companies they work for make an impact. Tan Lee Kuen looks at CSR as an employee engagement tool.

28 Event preview Compensation and benefits consultant and trainer Sandrine Bardot shares her C&B experiences and expertise ahead of her training session in February.

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Opinion 32 People Issues Can marketing’s “magic price point” be applied to HR in encouraging employees to communicate, engage and perform better? Amor C. Villalon, regional vice-president of human resources at Fujitsu Asia, tries to communicate the magic.

ON THE COVER: Art direction: Khairul Hasbullah; Photography: Azhar Ariff – www.fotomomo.com

33 Upwardly Mobile

28

30

Rich Atkinson, HR director (APAC) of global operations at PayPal, gives seven insightful pointers to help you prepare for the next five years.

Regulars 3 4 6 8 9

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Ed’s Note In the news Hot Topic Suite Talk Spacial Awareness

10 11 12 34 35

HR by Numbers Snapshot White Paper Up the Ranks Shelf Life

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Any suggestions or tip-offs for Human Resources?

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“Salary, bonus may be affected by minimum wage policy, retirement age limit, and power tariff hike.�

- Malaysian Employers Federation, 30 Dec 2013 on the forecast for 2014

To register, Please visit www.regonline.sg/hr-cb2014 If you need further information, please contact Manuel Almira at manuela@humanresourcesonline.net Yang, Kai Lin at kailiny@humanresourcesonline.net

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EDITOR’S NOTE

editor Rebecca Lewis

Change isn’t always bad

deputy editor Sabrina Zolkifi

Liz Dowling regional art director Shahrom Kamarulzaman senior designer Fauzie Rasid regional marketing executive June Tan

senior event producer Ang Yoke Han head of event services Yeo Wei Qi senior executive – event services Renee Phua senior account manager Karen Boh account managers Ben DeRegt Dilip Rajandran audience managers Manuel Almira Yang Kai Lin

publisher Mike Parsons regional finance director Evelyn Wong group editorial director Tony Kelly group managing director Justin Randles

SCAN TO SUBSCRIBE

Human Resources Malaysia is published quarterly by Lighthouse Independent Media Pte Ltd. (KDN PP 17051/09/2012 (030949). Printed in Malaysia on CTP process by Atlas Cetak (M) Sdn Bhd No. 2 Persiaran Industri, Bandar Sri Damansara, 52200 Wilayah Persekutuan Kuala Lumpur Tel: 03-6273-3333. Subscription rates are available on request, contact the Circulation Manager by telephone: +603 2072 0355 or by email to: subscriptions@humanresourcesonline.net COPYRIGHTS AND REPRINTS. All material printed in Human Resources is protected under the copyright act. All rights reserved. No material may be reproduced in part or in whole without the prior written consent of the publisher and the copyright holder. Permission may be requested through the Singapore office.

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

Change is never far away, so you shouldn’t ever get too comfortable.

That was something my father said to me back when I was a fresh graduate starting my very first job, and it has stuck with me for the entirety of my working life.

So, when I learned the parent company of this magazine, Lighthouse Independent Media, was making some changes which meant the operations of Human Resources magazine in Malaysia would fall back into my hands, I was ready to adjust.

Obviously, change is never really easy for anyone, but it’s often necessary if you want to remain a market leader and competitive in your industry. For us, this is certainly the case, but thankfully these changes won’t affect you – our loyal readers.

We’re happy to say that Human Resources Malaysia is staying put, in the form of four quarterly publications every year.

We are also continuing to provide you with some of the best and most informative conferences, awards and other events specific to Malaysia’s issues, interests and trends in the local human resources function.

The first one – a training session on Compensation & Benefits – is taking place on 2930 April. Also, keep your eyes peeled later in the year for information about our hugely successful Human Resources Excellence Awards 2014.

Personally, I am looking forward to playing a much bigger role in incorporating Malaysia into our regional plans, which means providing even more high quality products for you.

Speaking of change, I do think this is something Malaysian talent has had to become quite used to over the years. Other than numerous changes to policies and regulations regarding things like minimum wage and the retirement age, HR leaders have had to change their focus from looking outward for the best talent to delving inward into Malaysia’s talent pool – not to mention standing by government agencies as they work to attract Malaysian talent back from overseas.

This month’s cover star, Sugunah Verumandy, human resources director of GE Malaysia/Brunei, talks openly with us about the struggles and lessons learned in attracting and retaining talent whom the company can develop into strong local leaders.

She references the slogan, “To remain competitive, you have to run fast”, saying that as our work environments continue to change, it requires us to stay ahead of the game and keep our mind focused on the end goal.

I couldn’t agree more.

I hope you enjoy the issue, and I look forward to connecting with many of you over the coming months.

Photography: Stefanus Elliot Lee – www.elliotly.com; Hair & makeup: Vanida Yam Yen – vanidamakeover.blogspot.com

journalist Akankasha Dewan contributors Ashwani Dahiya

Singapore: Lighthouse Independent Media Pte Ltd 100C Pasir Panjang Road, #05-01 See Hoy Chan Hub Singapore 118519 Tel: +65 6423 0329 Fax: +65 6423 0117 Hong Kong: Lighthouse Independent Media Ltd Unit A, 7/F, Wah Kit Commercial Centre, 302 Des Voeux Road Central, Sheung Wan, Hong Kong Tel: +852 2861 1882 Fax: +852 2861 1336

To subscribe call: (65) 6423 0329 or go to: subscriptions@humanresourcesonline.net

Rebecca Lewis editor Q1 2014 « HumanResources Malaysia «

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hrbulletin

News from humanresourcesonline.net

MALAYSIANS STRESSED AT WORK Malaysia – A majority of Malaysians are suffering from more stress-related illnesses because of problems at work. A Regus survey found 70% of Malaysian employees were afflicted with diseases that stemmed from rising stress levels at work.

Thirty three per cent of respondents were worried about losing their jobs and 53% reported their family and friends had noticed they were stressed with work. The survey cited difficult economic times in the West and an unprecedented ted rate of growth in emerging economies es as significant factors in forming these ese high levels of stress.

“It’s not surprising work-related elated worries and the sleepless nights ts they cause are taking their toll on employees’ personal lives. Theirir health is at stake as stress is a known catalyst for a number of seriouss illnesses,” said John Henderson, n, regional director of Regus APAC. C. Because 77% of respondents ents identified flexible working as critical to ease work stress, thee report suggested encouraging flexible working arrangements to help address this problem.

RECRUITMENT TRENDS

LACK OF RETIREMENT PLANNING Malaysia – Retirement planning ranks poorly on the list of Malaysians’ financial priorities.

The 2013 Manulife Investor Sentiment Index in Asia found less than half of Malaysians have started planning for retirement and fewer than one in five consider such planning either their first or second financial priority. It is the lowest percentage in all the Asian markets surveyed, including Hong Kong, China, a, Japan and Indonesia.

The top reason given by respondents ents for not planning for retirement earlier is they are “still young”, particularly those se aged 25-39, followed by supporting children’s education and expectationss from children. In Malaysia, 42% of those aged ged ren for above 48 expect to rely on their children financial support in retirement, as compared mpared to the average of 18% in the region.

The study warned these figures point ding to a possible five-year retirement funding gap because of Malaysia having one of the longest retirement periods in the region.

JAN-MAR

Asia – Here are four leading recruitment trends that will help you create and nurture your dream team: Using data for recruiting Making recruitment decisions based on data, rather than on instinct, is an immensely popular trend in Asia. In India, 52% of recruitment decisions are data-driven, as opposed to the US (22%) and the UK (15%).

Social media recruitment According to Spark Hire, 94% of recruiters plan to use social media to recruit talent. In Southeast Asia, professional social networks were ranked the second top source for finding quality hires, just behind recruitment agencies.

Mobile recruiting LinkedIn reported 59% of candidates use mobile to source for new opportunities and 52% use it to apply pp pp y for jjobs.

Positive candidate experience Effective communication strategies and increasingly innovative recruitm recruitment tactics have established themselves as standard procedures for a better bette recruitment process.

THINGS YOUR BOSS KNOWS BUT WON’T TELL YOU Global – There are a few unspoken things in most offices, but none are as interesting as the things the bosses know, but won’t tell you they know.

That you’re faking an MC According to a Accountemps survey, a quarter of bosses believe their employees are faking sick days; 30% said they have checked in on an employee to make sure they’re actually sick.

They play favourites A study from Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business found 84% of senior executives agree there is favouritism at their organisation – only 23% would admit to practising it themselves.

You’re hired because they think you’re fun In an American sociological review journal, bosses admitted they were more likely to hire people with similar interests and hobbies to them.

You appreciate it when they go the extra mile The best bosses in the world know exactly how they can make you smile – and that little things count.

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MULTITASKING: IMPOSSIBLE WORKERS WANT CRITICAL ILLNESS COVERAGE COVERAAGE Malaysia – Employees in Asian countries, including Malaysia, single out critical illness coverage as the most desirable element to have in their employee benefits schemes, after hospitalisation cover.

According to the AIA report, four in five employees cite the rising cost of medical care as a top concern, followed by the financial position of their family if they cannot work because of serious illness.

However, less than 10% of employers offer critical illness as part of their benefits packages, citing cost as the most significant constraint to adding on the coverage. A majority believe it will add 38% to their premiums, whereas in reality it may add less than 10% to their overall premium, said AIA in a press statement.

“Employers think highly of EB schemes as an incentive to attract and retain talent, but far overestimate the actual cost implication,” said Bill Lisle, CEO of AIA Bhd.

R

Singapore – Did you know that multitasking is not only impossible, but it is actually highly wer? detrimental to your productivity and brain power?

According to numerous experts, what we’re doing when we think we’re multitaskingg isn’t multiple things at the same time, it’s contextswitching. This means our brains are constantly swapping back and forth between various things. We actually spend less time on each task as our brain tries to do two things at once.

So why do it? A study from Ohio State University found that while multitasking might hurt cognitive functions, it makes people feel good.

“There’s this myth among some people that multitasking makes them more productive,” said Zheng Wang, lead author of the study and assistant professor of communication at Ohio State University.

“But theyy are not beingg more productive – theyy just p j feel more emotionallyy satisfi sati sa tisfi sfieed ed fr from om ttheir heir work.”

LESS THAN 50% OF MALAYSIAN WOMEN WORK Malaysia – Malaysia has the lowest female labour force participation in ASEAN. At 49.5%, it falls behind countries such as Laos (82%), Myanmar (71%) and Singapore (60%) for working-aged female workforce participation.

The figures, which come from a flexible work-life workshop conducted by the Malaysian Employers Federation (MEF) and TalentCorp, also found the top three reasons women leave the workforce are to raise a family, because of a lack of work-life balance, and to care for a family member.

Because of this, 67% of Malaysian women want better support from their employers for flexible work arrangements to tackle this female shortage.

However, commenting on the workshop, MEF’s executive director Shamsuddin Bardan, said many employers in Malaysia were “not ready” or “not interested” in implementing more flexible working arrangements.

A change of mindset was needed from both employers and employees, he added.

MALAYSIA TURNS TO SOCIAL MEDIA FOR JOB HUNTING Malaysia – A majority of Malaysians turn to social media when looking for new jobs, making them the third highest in the world to do so behind Thailand and Indonesia.

The 2013 Kelly Global Workforce Index found 67% of Malaysians prefer searching for jobs using social media over traditional methods such as newspaper advertisements, online job boards or recruitment companies.

“Online recruitment and social media have transformed recruitment and provided an exponential increase in the volume of job information in circulation,” the survey reported. “People not only search for jobs online, but engage in conversations and swap information about jobs, careers and prospective employers.”

This trend seems to be more pronounced in the Asian region with the Western hemisphere remaining wedded to more traditional means of eliciting news about jobs.

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WORK LIFE » Hot topic

Looking ahead As we prepare for the new year, we got together three key HR directors and TalentCorp’s CEO Johan Mahmood Merican and asked them what is trending on their radar for 2014.

■ Adzhar bin Ibrahim Group head of people AirAsia Social media will become even more critical as a tool for branding and recruitment. We have gone for a year without signing on any executive search assignments, and yet in the same period have directly hired lots of people, including a CEO and other C-level ones, through targeted internal recruitment.

Savings have been enormous, both in terms of money and time. This is a huge positive for a high growth company like the AirAsia Group.

Helping to create the right culture remains the biggest challenge as we grow. Growth is good for business, but tough for creating a strong culture.

We try to do more with less for economic reasons, but also to challenge ourselves about what is truly important. In spite of what we HR professionals think, we are just as capable as anybody else of becoming big, bureaucratic and 6

irrelevant. We must always challenge ourselves or we’ll be left behind. People, the organisation and culture are important – the HR department not necessarily so.

■ Darrel Lourdes Human resource director Shell Malaysia Going into 2014, I foresee the competitive global business landscape getting more intense resulting in continued focus on cost reduction and the need to improve organisational performance. Talent management will continue to be a key area of focus especially in the oil and gas sector with the growth we are seeing as a result of the government’s Economic Transformation Programme.

There is a stronger call for HR to improve its ability to partner the business and go beyond offering transactional support. This necessitates a shift in the calibre of HR professionals; we need

individuals who can step back, look at the business challenges with data and offer creative long-term solutions to the organisation.

Also, there will be a greater demand for HR professionals to be good in using information technology (IT) in doing their job. IT will help with connectivity, employee engagement and real-time management information for decision making. It will also help with data-driven insights that will strengthen business partnering.

■ Andrew Yeo Head of HR, Malaysia – Singapore Area, marketing and sales British American Tobacco The demand for a strategic HR partnership continues to grow.

As companies brace for leaner structures and longer-term sustainability, HR professionals will be increasingly expected to provide a strategic partnership in organisational design, critical

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Hot topic WORK LIFE capability building and shaping the culture initiatives. This is a steep curve from two angles – HR’s own capabilities to support this needs to be rapidly upskilled, plus, the supply of HR professionals in developing markets continues to fall short of demand. It should be an exciting year on the talent sourcing front.

Managing diversity Companies will need to integrate and foster the right culture to motivate and retain. With Malaysia’s retirement age rising to 60 and Gen Y managers in the mix, the art of managing diversity is expected to be key for longer term success.

Gen Y are motivated by learning and retained by opportunity – HR’s role in partnering the business to develop a strong succession pool will be undoubtedly in demand.

Technology will shape and change workplace behaviour Employers must recognise the way talent looks for a job, collates insights on future employers, etc, is very different from even just a few years ago. Public forums, social media, virtual interviews and on-line learning solutions are becoming extremely important to maintain a competitive edge.

Hence, the ability to shift investment focus and

mobilise resources effectively to respond to a very dynamic labour market is important and HR needs to influence and manage change effectively.

■ Johan Mahmood Merican CEO TalentCorp Malaysia Berhad Globally, talent shortage will continue to be a key issue facing HR leaders in the year ahead, especially in emerging markets which are seeing robust economic growth. This issue also continues to be a key discussion topic among HR leaders in Malaysia. One of the reasons for the shortage is the mismatch of talents’ needs.

HR leaders play a key role to influence their organisations to invest more in retraining and reskilling. An open dialogue and partnerships with educational institutions and government agencies on curriculum development and upskilling programmes will help in efforts to build industry relevant talent pipelines.

With the increase in mobility of talents across borders, there’s a greater need to have a strong value proposition for talents to choose Malaysia as a preferred place to work. The value proposition doesn’t necessarily need to be anchored on money, a key proposition for Malaysia and leading Malaysian employers is professional growth.

For example, Maybank has coined its proposition “Go Ahead. Grow” to reflect its commitment to invest in professional development and a career with an organisation transforming as a regional champion.

We see HR leaders come together to partner with TalentCorp on various initiatives to raise the awareness of career opportunities in their sectors and to promote Malaysia as a preferred talent destination. Some employers have come up with innovative programmes which provide talents with the opportunity to work on stretched assignments and gain experience regionally and even in other organisations (such as the CIMB Fusion programme).

There’s a growing interest in the HR community to raise the standards of the HR profession in Malaysia and we often enter into a discussion about the need to have HR leaders “sit at the table” and take on the role of a business partner. One of the ways to elevate the status of the profession is to encourage HR practitioners to go through a HR certification programme.

We often come across job advertisements which define having a professional qualification as one of the criteria in recruiting accountants, IT professionals or legal advisors, but it’s uncommon for Malaysian organisations to expect their HR leaders to have a professional HR qualification.

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WORK LIFE » People

suitetalk

Get into the boss’s head

Lee Meng Tat

CEO Wildlife Reserves Singapore HOW HAVE YOU SEEN THE HR FUNCTION GROW IN YOUR COMPANY? I’ve only been with the company for one and a half years, but I can already see HR moving towards becoming more business driven, with a better understanding of the organisation and an ability to influence key decisions and policies.

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When everyone plays their part, you can feel the energy and the sense of achievement.

WHAT QUESTIONS DO YOU ASK JOB CANDIDATES? I like to hear candidates describe in detail their role in a particular project. The key is to understand the person – how they think and what is important to him or her. I also try to find out if they have a career plan, in terms of what they want and what he or she is doing to reach that goal.

HOW CAN AN HR PRACTITIONER BECOME A CEO? Because the role of an HR practitioner is centred more on people and their issues, they would have to immerse themselves in other areas of the business such as operations, sales and marketing, and finance to have a more holistic view of the organisation.

HOW DO YOU HEAR AND UNDERSTAND THE NEEDS OF YOUR EMPLOYEES? I strongly advocate listening to the pulse of the organisation through its people. I walk the ground daily to experience operations first-hand and stop and chat with colleagues to understand their work and challenges. I also make time for lunches and conduct business meetings with specific groups of staff regularly. Town halls are organised quarterly to share the progress and developments, and my door is always open to staff.

WHAT IS ONE MOTTO YOU LIVE BY? Always think and plan ahead.

WHAT IS THE SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT TASK OF A LEADER? To lead by example.

WHAT DO YOU ENJOY MOST ABOUT YOUR WORK? I enjoy working with a committed team to achieve our goals. We jointly identify issues, work out the possible solutions and then ensure the agreed measures are implemented properly.

TO GET A JOB IN MY COMPANY … you must have the right attitude, want to learn and to contribute to the team to ensure Wildlife Reserves Singapore continues to value all its stakeholders, especially our guests, our staff and our animals.

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People WORK LIFE

SpacialAwareness

FUN AT WORK Google’s unconventional and inspiring culture is reflected in its office space.

The technology giant encourages innovative work environments designed for inspiration and creativity, as well as to foster communication.

Anchored on this spirit and culture, the design of Google’s Malaysian office is based on focus group chats among the local team. The result is a quirky and vibrant space with a rainforest-like setting, unfinished DIY touches such as exposed pipes and, of course, Google’s signature bright colours.

“Working at Google is fun, so we wanted to inject that fun into the office environment,” said Zeffri Yusof, head of communications and public affairs for Malaysia, Pakistan and Bangladesh. The Google Malaysia office’s primary focus is on sales and marketing.

Open and flexible, the common areas are designed to encourage communication and collaboration. The mini amphitheatre has extendable walls for presentations and daily Google updates, outfitted with oversized beanbags.

Employees can enjoy time out in the recreational room, equipped with an arcade machine, Sony Xbox terminal and a dartboard. Its canteen Gerai Gugel is

decorated like a garden, complete with swing chairs and patchwork quilted chairs, is where staff go for their meals and to often hold meetings.

And, of course, there is Google’s legendary staff meals. On the day of the visit, it was a buffet spread of beef Wellington, turkey roll, lamb shank and pumpkin puree with chocolate cake and fruit cake to finish. The hot food buffet is available for breakfast and lunch, but the sandwiches, cookies, fruit and drinks are stocked all day. “As food is a natural fuel to keep the mind and body going, it does seem a good reason to make it an available benefit for the employees,” Yusof said.

“We also encourage our staff to hold their meetings here, and data has shown us this can save us time and money.”

Google must have hit the nail on the head with its office environment. In its yearly employee survey called the Googlegeist, office space always rank high in employee satisfaction.

“It’s helpful when people start the day the right way, from décor to general office environment. Some have tried to copy the décor, but it’s not enough to just follow the design. You need the right spirit and culture to make it work.”

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WORK LIFE » HR by numbers

Social media: to use or not to use

70%

of Malaysian users will look up a brand’s social media presence before making a decision – whether it’s to make a purchase or to take up a job offer.

Malaysians are avid social media users, outnumbering users around the world in consumption and time spent online. Studies have found that 13 million of them are on Facebook, with an average of seven-plus hours a day spent online.

Despite this, according to PwC’s survey, Getting Social: Social Media in Business, Malaysian businesses are not yet social media savvy.

A majority of them are early converts to social media, with a basic or no strategy in place to fully utilise this tool.

69%

of Malaysian businesses are fairly active on social media.

57%

of them don’t track social media impact on their performance.

59%

do not have a social media budget yet.

Source: PwC.com

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People WORK LIFE

snapshot

15 minutes with ...

Sean Ng, vice-president,

Human resource and compliance, Asia Assistance Network (M) Sdn Bhd HOW DID YOU GET INTO THE INDUSTRY? WHY DID YOU CHOOSE HR? I took on the HR portfolio of my company in early 2012 because it was operationally spiralling out of control.

My task was to stabilise it and put together a team to manage the day-today operations.

By then I had had three years of experience in general management and more than 10 years in operations planning, so I was ready to try out HR. IF NOT HR, WHAT WOULD YOU BE DOING? I believe it would be something related to process improvement.

WHICH HR FUNCTION DO YOU LIKE BEST? I notice that in HR I need to balance the interest of the employer and employee … being a mediator is not easy at all. The situations normally have to do with conflict of opinions, expectations mismatch or miscommunication. However, I am most satisfied when we are able to reach a win-win outcome so mediation/facilitation is certainly my favourite function.

WHAT DO YOU THINK IS THE MOST INTERESTING ISSUE IN HR RIGHT NOW? Employer branding. I think this is the direction to attract the right people to work for us. Branding helps us identify with the employer. If there is a matched understanding between employer and employee in values and goals, I believe the working relationship will be satisfactory and fruitful for both parties.

WHAT WILL THE ROLE OF HR BE IN FIVE YEARS? I think this pretty much depends on how individual employers choose to evolve with the changing business environment. HR will have to play whatever role the business owners want it to.

WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE VIRTUE IN AN EMPLOYEE? Good stewardship.

WHAT’S YOUR MORNING ROUTINE? I like to get up early at 6am, take my time to get ready and do some reading – I am currently re-reading Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren.

I also have a good breakfast of wheatmeal bread with butter, honey lemon, fresh fruit and vegetable juice, and soya milk with oat bran.

HOW DO YOU UNWIND AFTER A LONG DAY? At the moment, I watch MasterChef Australia. It is very relaxing.

I CAN’T WORK WITHOUT …

Hot delicious coffee.

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WHITE PAPER » Leadership

DRIVING EFFECTIVE LEARNING IN ASIA

Asia – As a strategic business process crucial to the growth and sustainability of any organisation, effective learning and development initiatives should encompass real learning impact and measurable return on investment.

Organisations today find it a challenge to achieve the right balance between learners’ needs, programme costs and generating a measurable business impact.

The Learning and Development Trends in Asia Pacific report by Skillsoft identified emerging trends in leading learning organisations in the region, focusing on the three key areas employers can look into to ensure learning effectiveness.

Data from the report was based on a survey of 250 learners and decision-makers from more than 150 businesses and 20 industry sectors.

Drivers of learning and engagement While 80% of learners said they valued learning programmes and find time to make use of available resources, time constraints was one of the biggest challenges identified by 46% of them.

The report recommended organisations consider offering “smaller, bite-sized” learning resources or e-learning courses to provide more flexibility to learners.

Up to 87% of organisations said they provided learners with both classroom and online learning as they identified the range of delivery as a critical aspect of learning success. While 82% of learners revealed they preferred access to learning on their mobile devices, only 44% of organisations provided such services.

The report revealed most learners (57%), who preferred e-learning, valued its flexibility, mobility and convenience the most. Interaction with instructors and other learners, on the other hand, was the most valuable for 53% of learners who preferred classroom learning.

Making budgets work As employers invest in L&D programmes to build their talent, it was budget and resource limitation that was revealed to be a challenge for 18% of them.

However, the study found it might be worth Most pressing challenges for learners Time constraints

46%

Low applicability for work purposes

15%

Limited selection of courses

7%

Source: Skillsoft’s Learning and Development Trends in Asia Pacific report

investing in online learning because a majority (69%) of organisations said they were satisfied with the diversity of resources it provided.

“As organisations strive to achieve greater learning impact with their budgets, investing in technology becomes critical to a more cost-effective and scalable learning solution,” the report said.

More than half of organisations in both developed (60%) and emerging (54%) markets in Asia Pacific spent an estimated US$50 to US$200 per learner on e-learning.

Evaluating effectiveness Referencing a survey in 2011 by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, organisations with a clear success criteria to measure outcomes were “10 times more likely to conduct effective talent management activities”.

A majority (72%) of learners, from organisations that gather feedback, found learning programmes provided them with the necessary skills for their roles. However, only 34% from organisations that didn’t gather feedback felt the same way. The survey revealed 70% of organisations conducted post-course evaluations, however, only 36% of them actively made adjustments to current learning initiatives.

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Leadership « WHITE PAPER

SINGAPORE COMPETITIVE WITH THE VERY BEST Singapore – As well as being the second most competitive nation in the world, behind Switzerland, Singapore is the only Asian country in the top 10 rankings in the Global Talent Competitiveness Index (GTCI).

The study, released by INSEAD and based on research by the Human Capital Leadership Institute of Singapore and Adecco Group, covered 103 countries. Switzerland achieved the highest score of 74.83, while Singapore scored 70.34. The other top nations included Denmark (68.93), Sweden (68.86), Luxembourg (68.70) and the Netherlands (68.16).

The United States was the only other non-European nation in the top 10, coming in at ninth place.

The index ranked the competitiveness based on 48 indicators under six main “pillars”, split into an input (enablers, attract, growth, and retain) and output (vocational and global knowledge skills) sub-index.

Switzerland was ranked first for both its input and output sub-index, and also on both its vocational and global knowledge skills. Singapore, on the other hand, came in third place on enablers because it “features a high inflow of international students”. The nation excelled in formal education (eighth) and higher level skills (second), but didn’t have as much talent impact (25th) and entrepreneurial activity (45th). There is also room for improvement in internal openness (27th), access to growth opportunities (30th) and employable skills (20th).

Singapore’s strength lies in both its input (second) and output (sixth) subindices, particularly in the area of global knowledge skills.

“The growing importance of talent comes at a time when the global labour market is suffering from high unemployment in many (countries), especially European, economies,” said Patrick De Maeseneire, CEO of Adecco Group.

Emphasising the need to understand talent he added: “Governments and companies need to work together to create labour markets that are based on an understanding of what employers need and the skills required to meet those needs in an efficient labour market.”

ARE YOUR ‘BEST PRACTICES’ REALLY THAT GREAT?

Global – Companies can spend millions of dollars on diversity training, only to find these programmes have little or no impact at all.

According to the Talent Practices for High-Growth Markets report

by Organisation Solutions, “not everything called a best practice is a best practice”. The report revealed best practices should not be blindly adopted for high-growth markets because they face their own unique set of challenges from established markets.

As the main challenges of high-growth markets revolve around “having enough talent to exploit the opportunities that are available”, the development may not have as large an impact as investment in attraction and retention would.

A majority (70%) of HR departments were in fact “reactive” rather than “strategic”, spending more time “fighting fires and delivering day-to-day operational work,” rather than focusing on future business needs.

Top performing companies, identified as “talent growers”, were also found to be more proactive in areas such as university relations, use of management trainees, key talent development programmes, coaching for managers, career paths and movement, and on-boarding.

Practices that correlate with readiness for growth Ranking

The top 10 most competitive countries 1

Switzerland

2

Singapore

3

Denmark

4

Sweden

5

Luxembourg

6

Netherlands

7

UK

8

Finland

9

US

10

Iceland

Practice

Correlation score

1

Attraction

0.47

2

Compensation and retention

0.47

3

Selection

0.38

4

Development

0.33

5

Talent management

0.32

Source: Organisation Solutions’s Talent Practices for High-Growth Markets report

But being a talent grower doesn’t mean implementing best practices blindly. Instead, it requires knowledge on which investments to make based on the organisation’s current situation.

“Moving up the maturity curve requires a vision of an HR function that is a partner in driving growth,” the report said.

For high-growth markets, proactive practices in attraction and C&B were found to have the most impact. In fact, proactive attraction would only work with a more flexible and adaptable compensation practice.

Although talent development was an important factor, attraction practices were more important to meet the demands for talent in these fast growing companies.

Source: The Global Talent Competitiveness Index 2013 Q1 2014 « HumanResources Malaysia « 13

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PROFILE » Sugunah Verumandy

Sugunah Verumandy Human resource director GE Malaysia/Brunei Present Future Pipeline

By TAN LEE KUEN

Q As a conglomerate, GE recruits a diverse pool of talent? What strategies do you use?

We deploy multiple strategies in order to attract a diverse workforce into the organisation. We have found that social media has been pretty effective in attracting workforce, especially among fresh graduates and early entrants to the career. We also have a word of mouth programme called Who Do You Know (WDYK). We rely a lot on referrals to bring the right talent into the organisation.

Art direction: Khairul Hasbullah; Photography: Azhar Ariff – www.fotomomo.com; Makeup: Liza Badaruddin – lizatouch.blogspot.sg

Q Has it been a challenge trying to deploy such a broad range of strategies to attract this diverse workforce?

The great thing is that GE has a lot of visibility in the country, so getting the numbers is not a challenge. The question then is how do we take the quantity and bring in the quality and the potentials.

That is an area that we pay a lot of attention to. We have our own talent acquisition team, trained to look for the right talents for the organisation. It’s not just about hiring in GE, it is about producing leaders for today and tomorrow in order to solve world’s toughest challenges and we are very particular about that. These hires then go through further development once they join GE. Q What is your hiring philosophy?

We believe in fair employment practices.

We make hiring decisions based on job qualifications such as education, prior experience and merit. Merit includes an individual’s skills, performance, values ,

leadership and other job related criteria.

We make decisions without regard to a person’s race, colour, religion, gender, age or disability. In terms of hiring candidates , it is not only about what they can bring but how they do it as well.

The performance and the values are very important to us. We have five key growth values in GE: external focus, imagination & courage, clear thinker, inclusiveness and expertise.

Q With finding the right talent an issue, is it difficult to find candidates that fit all five categories?

I know that we have great talent in this country, it is about finding and attracting them. For us at GE, it is very important that they demonstrate all five values. Obviously they would be stronger in some than others but the baseline is that they demonstrate these values.

GE leaders stay on for a long time in the organisation. In cases where they leave, they then take on bigger positions in other organisations. So we believe that these values are a long term benefit for everyone.

Q Development of a sustainable talent pipeline is one of GE’s key concerns. How is GE addressing this concern in Malaysia?

One of the key things we realise in Malaysia is that great talent tend to consider leaving the country. There have been multiple efforts at addressing this issue and TalentCorp is doing a great

VITAL STATS Sugunah Verumandy has more than 16 years of experience under her belt. She has dealt with HR issues for a wide range of industries from telecommunications to pharmaceuticals, and now a conglomerate.

She has been the human resource director of GE Malaysia/Brunei for three and a half years.

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PROFILE » Sugunah Verumandy

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Sugunah Verumandy « PROFILE job at this, whether it is bringing talent back into the country or developing talent from within. GE has been partnering with TalentCorp to look at how we can attract, retain and nurture talents and make Malaysia more attractive as a talent hub.

One other key gap that we have identified is women talent. More than 60% of graduates in Malaysia are female, but only about 11% are sitting at a decision-making level in organisations.

Therefore one of our joint efforts with TalentCorp is to increase women participation in the workforce and increase number of women at decisionmaking levels. We believe that the more diversity we have, the better it is for our corporate financial performance.

Q What incentives or programmes do you have in place to attract more women into the workforce?

We have the GE women’s network, a platform where we foster professional women’s growth within the organisation.

Through the network, we aim to increase the visibility and opportunities for women employees by providing leadership, advancement and career-broadening development tools. GE women’s network has dedicated training for women to prepare them to take on higher positions, programmes to help them juggle multiply priorities, and also look at life in a holistic way. The women in GE spend a considerable time in corporate citizenship programmes.

We were one of the first few companies in the country to adopt three-month maternity leave for women.

A majority of women in Malaysia who go on a career break don’t re-enter the workforce; but in GE, our statistics in the last three years show that 100% of

our women who go on maternity leave do come back to work. We believe our culture and support for women workforce makes GE a great place to work.

Q You talked about grooming leaders for the future, which is part of your ‘Global New Directions’ initiatives, can you tell us more about this?

This programme brought together 21 employees from around the world and throughout the company for three months to help us find ways to ramp up GE’s potential to attract, develop and inspire talent in the future.

The team came up with great recommendations that we have narrowed down to a handful that GE will be championing as we go forward. They are career navigation, that is developing an even more comprehensive feedback and career management technology platform; programmes and accelerators to meet employees’ changing expectations of the workplace; flexible benefits for increased personalisation and choice; and brand for success, that is incorporating gaming technologies as a channel to tell our story both internally and externally.

Q Can you tell us more about

“It’s not just about hiring in GE, it is about producing leaders for today and tomorrow in order to solve world’s toughest challenges and we are very particular about that.”

your flexible benefits programme for employees?

It is a holistic benefits programme to support personalisation and choice for our employees. It is made up of prescriptive benefits such as insurance and medical, which are key in protecting the employees and dependents, and a pocket of flexible benefits, such as fitness, optical or dental, which an employee can choose to suit their demographics and lifestyle. We also have salary advance programmes that can be used to purchase a car or house, or to invest in children’s education needs. It is all about giving the flexibility to employees to pick and choose what is relevant to their needs.

We have the Health Ahead programme to create a health-focused culture in the organisation for employees and their families. It consists of key elements such as wellness, education & prevention, nutrition, physical activity and stress management. If you come to our meetings, you won’t find junk food but fresh fruits and nuts. We do a lot of physical exercises and games to increase fitness levels of employees. Our flagship activity is the GE Mount Kinabalu Q1 2014 « HumanResources Malaysia « 17

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PROFILE » Sugunah Verumandy expedition. It’s not just about the climb, it is also about the team formation and engagement during the preparatory sessions which gives multiple benefits to both employer and employee.

Q With all these programmes in place, how successful has GE been in retaining employees?

Our attrition rate is single digit.

Q What are GE’s corporate and employee training programmes?

GE was the first company to have a corporate university, Crotonville in the United States back in 1956. The good news is that some of the Crotonville programmes are now available in-house in Malaysia. In terms of training and development, our philosophy is very simple. In GE , we use a guideline of 80% on the job development and 20% formal training. On the job constitutes providing talents with challenging job assignments, stretch opportunities, visibility and accountability underpinned by candid assessment and feedback. On the other hand, formal training involves leadership programme, functional training and business skills.

Q Can you give me an examples of GE’s recent focus area?

As we grow bigger, operations become increasingly complex. We believe that we can do a better job by being simpler.

Our GE strategy for growth focuses on technology, globalisation and customers. Today simplification is critical to our success in all these areas, therefore we are adding it is a key strategy for growth. Simplification is about employees working together for what matters most and against the things that don’t. It’s about simplifying GE, making jobs easier, and focusing on things that make a difference.

Simplification means many things to different people. In general, it means a leaner organisation and a strong customer focus. It means using speed and technology to our advantage.

From our recent internal opinion survey, our employees gave us feedback that we have work to do. It is a challenge to change a company with a history that dates back to more than 130 years.

But with our employees helping us, we will make the change to become simpler and better.

Q How is HR involved in this projects?

From a HR perspective, we have made numerous advancements in simplifications; our hiring process cycle time has been reduced just by reducing the number of interviews and automating offer letters. Another example would be having a flexible benefit programme so employees can pick and choose the benefit that best fits their needs.

Q What are the some of changes you have seen within the HR role in recent years?

I am seeing numerous changes. One key change I see is that in the past, HR people will wait with notebook and pen for instructions on goals and objectives from the business leaders. But it doesn’t work that way anymore. At GE, our HR team have a seat at the table, they do lead conversations with business leaders.

Q Has it been difficult to adjust to the changes?

I think it depends on the individual. I like

this slogan, ‘To remain in competition, you have to run fast.’ The work environment keeps evolving at all time, HR practitioners need to be ahead of the game.

Q And as we enter a new year, what are the key HR trends or HR issues for GE? GE is poised to shape some of the external environment in the country.

We are looking at how we can work even more closely with our customers, and with the key stakeholders in the country in developing HR capabilities at a national level. We believe that we have certain best practices that have been successful for us and we look forward to sharing them. We also look forward to learning from other successful organisations so that we can improve too. The other key initiative is constantly looking at how we can attract, retain and develop our workforce in order to produce leaders for today and tomorrow.

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The scope of HR is rapidly changing. What are the changes and trends you can expect for 2014 and beyond? And what can HR professionals do today to ensure their businesses are ahead tomorrow?

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6/3/2014 12:19:13 PM

FEATURE » Diversity

Workforce diversity is widely accepted as the key to business success, but ignoring the need to enhance inclusion is a “classic diversity mistake”. Sabrina Zolkifi talks to leaders who have grasped the true business power of diversity. or years, corporate and human resources circles have been buzzing with research findings which suggest a more diverse organisation – be it from the perspective of gender, race, generational or sexual orientation, among others – raises productivity, morale and profit levels in companies.

This is great news for businesses that have strong diversity policies and programmes. But what many organisations are starting to realise is it’s one thing to have diversity, and another altogether to ensure there is inclusion.

“Diversity is getting the mix together, while inclusion is getting that mix to work together,” says Leona Tan, executive director, community affairs and diversity adviser for UBS Asia Pacific.

Companies which only focus on diversity and not inclusion are also putting themselves at a disadvantage because that approach can result in the exact opposite of the intended goal: positive discrimination. This was a concern Alex Morris, a member of Arup’s office diversity committee, had to address when he relocated to the Singapore office three years ago.

“Quite a few of the professional LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) networks that I am aware of, including ones here in

Singapore, are very much focused on the LGBT community,” he says.

“That is, of course, important, because it is about building support networks and providing people with a safe space to grow their confidence in a professional setting, but that doesn’t create a more inclusive workplace.

“In a way, it creates a less inclusive workplace because you end up creating cliques. It’s incredibly important to complement any event that is very LGBT-focused with one that is more inclusive of the straight allies.”

This need to include those outside the minority – whatever that minority could be – is highly critical in creating a truly diverse and inclusive workforce.

Engaging differences Companies which focus solely on getting the right mix of employees without realising why they’re doing it, or how a multifarious workforce can contribute to the organisation, are making a “classic diversity mistake”, says Todd Sears, founder of Out on the Street, a forum aimed at engaging discussions among gay and straight leaders within the financial sector.

“That’s what I call diversity 1.0, where you’re just managing diversity,” Sears says.

“What companies should be doing is engaging

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Diversity « FEATURE

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FEATURE » Diversity differences. That difference could be anything from race, gender, sexual orientation to national origin.

Your goal should be to create diversity of thought and perspective, not just race and gender; only then can you achieve inclusion.”

He says by focusing on the minority, companies are sending two very incorrect messages into the workforce.

“One, you’re telling the men that you don’t value them because there are too many of them, and two, you’re telling the women you only value them because of their gender. Neither of those messages creates inclusion.”

This is something Tan agrees with, and adds UBS encourages employees to share their diverse viewpoints at work.

“When you walk into the office, you walk in with that difference, and we embrace and capitalise on that difference,” she says, adding it is that diversity that allows organisations to see problems and opportunities from different perspectives.

“Everyone has a different way of looking at things, and everyone has a place at the table to speak and be heard.”

However, managing that balance between diversity and inclusion can be tricky.

“What companies should be doing is engaging differences.

That difference could be anything from race, gender, sexual orientation to national origin.”

of HR at UBS, believes it might be better for companies to set aspirational targets instead.

“We definitely don’t do quotas, but we have key performance indicators and measures of what we think is acceptable within a certain range, but it is not as straightforward as setting a percentage rate,” Roberts says.

Morris echoes her sentiments, adding: “As soon as you start imposing quotas, there are going to be a lot of people who will rightly be quite resentful of that, and asking if a person who is not as good at their job only got the promotion because he was gay or she was a woman.”

To make sure diversity targets being set are in the best interests of both the employees and the organisation, having feedback and employee data is key.

“We would look at statistics, both historical and moving forward, and see if they are at acceptable levels and intervening as needed,” Roberts says.

Tan adds: “As an example, every few months I will look at the number of returning mothers.

When it went up a couple years ago, we increased the number of nursing rooms.

“Or looking at age diversity and the different generations we have – a baby boomer who is raising a Gen Y child at home will treat a Gen Y employee very differently,” she says.

This is where educating managers comes in handy, Roberts says, as well as the need to re-evaluate the workforce, looking at the company’s population and addressing the issues accordingly. The method of delivering diversity programmes can also be the difference between success and failure.

Tailoring to diversity demands Todd Sears, founder of Out on the Street

Quotas versus targets To many, one solution to solving the challenge of diversity in the office is imposing quotas.

Beginning 2016, German companies are expected to have 30% of positions on their supervisory boards to be reserved for women, similar to Malaysia’s 2011 call for companies to have 30% female representation in decisionmaking roles. India’s Ministry of Corporate Affairs also proposed organisations with five or more independent board directors have at least one woman.

However, the implementation of quotas hasn’t gone down well with many other companies and countries, and Moira Roberts, managing director

Joe Tofield, head of diversity at the British Council, says before he joined the company last year, the organisation’s diversity efforts were not as engaged as they are now.

“In the past few years, we were doing things such as encouraging staff to bring food from their home countries or wearing their cultural outfits,” Tofield says.

“Since I joined, I’ve moved more towards doing talks with staff and bringing speakers in – things that will be more interesting for staff which may also help them in their actual day-to-day life as well.”

Jolene Huang, the British Council’s regional HR manager, adds: “The British Council is committed to the diversity agenda, and that has given us the opportunity to drive it to another

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Diversity « FEATURE level, and bring it to a point where it’s embedded into the way we do things.”

Tofield adds he was also very conscious about not “saying to staff ‘This is how you should think’”, especially when it came to an event the British Council hosted with Pink Dot, a non-profit organisation which supports LGBT rights in Singapore.

“I pitched it as an event where staff can learn about why Pink Dot is here, know more about them and make their own decisions.”

Another example of a diversity event Tofield hosted was a two-hour seminar conducted by those who are hearing impaired.

“They shared about the types of hearing loss, and because we do have students who are hearing impaired, a few of our teaching staff who attended the event were able to learn more about that,” he says.

“It ticks that box on diversity, but it also helps staff with their daily work.”

As with UBS, the diversity committee at the British Council sits outside HR, a move both companies believe is beneficial to the cause.

“HR keeps in touch with what is going on, although I’m not part of the diversity team,” Huang says. “But we do make sure diversity is embedded in our processes.”

One way this is done is through ensuring the company’s hiring practices are fair.

“There are three parts to the recruitment form.

Part one is on personal particulars, part two is the resume, and part three includes some of the other questions we ask,” Huang says. “Part two is the only portion we give the hiring managers, so they only hire based on qualifications and experience.”

Thinking outside the box UBS’s Tan says one of the biggest advantage of having a diversity and inclusion function within the chief operating office is the ability to fully focus on her role.

“We have 2,300 full-time employees in Singapore so the diversity and inclusion function does need collaborators and partners, and even though diversity and inclusion is an HR tool, it’s executed into the business through people like me.”

Tofield says leaders keen on building stronger diversity and inclusion efforts within their companies should consider getting in contact with those who are already active within the area.

“If you work in a bank or a technology

company, there are a lot of things already happening that you can get involved in,” he says.

“Talk to your peers and see how they did it within their organisations.”

Tan says companies must also realise a lot of diversity and inclusion efforts will take time, with Roberts adding leaders must be as aware of external situations as they are of what’s going on internally within the organisation.

“You have to look at the internal environment and where you want to aspire to, versus what’s going on externally, so sometimes the best laid plans won’t work even if you had all the will in the world. There has to be recognition that some plans will take longer,” Roberts says.

The biggest advice Sears says he would give leaders looking at either building or reviewing their D&I strategies would be to not approach it as a problem, but rather as an opportunity.

“The second thing I would say is to engage differences and not just manage diversity and thirdly, they have to understand that your true goal is to create diversity of thought and perspective.

“If that is really your end goal, you will absolutely have to have diversity, including that of race and gender, but that is the end result, not the starting point.”

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FEATURE » Corporate Social Responsibility

Corporate social responsibility is no longer just a trendy buzzword, with a new generation of employees demanding the companies they work for make an impact. Tan Lee Kuen looks at CSR’s importance as an engagement and strategy tool.

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Corporate Social Responsibility « FEATURE ompanies are no longer expected to give lip service to corporate social responsibility; they are expected to run programmes that have a real and meaningful impact on the society and environment in which they operate in.

Over the years, CSR has shifted from just corporate philanthropy and a marketing exercise to a strategic investment for the company.

As CSR is increasingly being used as a means to manage reputation, it is important that they be aligned to a company’s business.

In a 2012 Centre of Advanced Human Resources report called HR in the C-suite, it notes that CSR efforts that are strategically built around a company’s business seem to be more effective than those that appear not to be aligned to its strategic objectives.

Therefore, HR has a key role in making CSR work.

The HR department is well-placed across organisations and departments to play a significant role in fostering a CSR ethic and culture within the company.

One of the biggest benefits of a successful CSR initiative is it increases attractiveness to potential and existing employees.

To satisfy, attract and engage with top talent, companies need to demonstrate their commitment to CSR because employees are increasingly looking for employers whose values match their own.

Tool of attraction and retention According to a recent OfficeTeam survey, four in 10 professionals surveyed in the United States said that a company’s participation in charitable activities was one factor in their decision to work there.

As such, philanthropy programmes can be a key selling point when recruiting candidates and helping to improve employee retention.

Companies that align with causes are increasingly resonating with staff.

From Astro’s point of view, its award-winning CSR programmes are a selling point in recruiting the right talent.

“We’ve noticed that CSR supports Astro’s branding with prospective employees and enhances our recruitment efforts. We find that employees favour working for organisations that provide opportunities to give back to society while carving out a career,” says Andrew Chong, director of human capital at Astro.

Not only is CSR crucial to recruiting the right

employees, it’s also a great way to maintain the engagement of the existing workforce.

“We find from our employee engagement survey results that CSR continues to be a key employee driver that helps to boost morale and engagement levels while leaving a positive perception on Astro as a whole,” Chong says.

CSR consultant and book author Elaine Cohen agrees: “CSR is one of the most important drivers of attraction and retention. It is a business approach that considers the needs of employees and helps respond, and engage and motivate them.

“There are many good specific examples of HR engagement in CSR-enabled processes, though a few examples of overall HR leadership to responsible business.

“Most HR departments do it in different ways, placing emphasis on what’s different and relevant to their specific company,” says Cohen, who authored the book CSR for HR: A Necessary Partnership for Advancing Responsible Business Practices.

“We find from our employee engagement survey results that CSR continues to be a key employee driver that helps to boost morale and engagement levels while leaving a positive perception on Astro as a whole.”

Andrew Chong, director of human capital, Astro

“Companies such as Intel have very comprehensive employee engagement programmes which include aspects of CSR, supported by an entire approach to being a responsible employer.”

Another company she cites is UPS in the US, which she says has delivered massive cost and environmental benefits for the company and for society through engaging employees in green teams.

Green teams in UPS are volunteer groups of employees focused on reducing the environmental footprint, creating awareness and education, and improving overall operations.

Efforts include habitat builds and park clean-ups.

A UPS engagement survey showed that

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FEATURE » Corporate Social Responsibility employees who volunteer on these green teams were less likely to look for a job elsewhere.

The Millennials are coming With socially conscious Millennials about to flood the workforce, a large percentage of them are concerned with their prospective employer’s CSR practices.

In a 2012 survey by Net Impact on what workers want, 53% of employees said that “a job where I can make an impact” was an important life goal, with a whopping 72% of students about to enter the workforce agreeing. This ranks only below financial security and marriage, and takes precedence over wealth and a prestigious career.

What’s more, 45% of the student population would take a 15% pay cut for “a job that makes a social or environmental impact”.

“CSR is not just about giving charity or supporting social causes.

It’s about making a positive difference through the business that you do.”

Elaine Cohen, CSR consultant and book author

This has not gone unnoticed. In a 2011 report by Forbes Insight, 60% of companies surveyed agreed that “philanthropy and volunteering are critical for recruiting younger qualified employees”.

Therefore, companies would be remiss not to have meaningful CSR programmes in place to attract this future workforce.

“In our engagements with students and university graduates, they talk about how they are engaged in CSR activities and how they wanted to be involved, ” Chong says.

“In our management associate programme for undergraduates, part of the programme includes spending three months on a CSR project as part of their two-year programme, which has made a difference in our attraction for new graduates.”

Employee engagement and feedback is also crucial in ensuring the CSR practices work, and young recruits are more than willing to provide them.

At GE Malaysia, human resource director Sugunah Verumandy notes that Gen Y are particularly interested in the company’s CSR programmes.

“As much as they have passion at work, they also have a lot of passion for working with the community,” she says “We have GE volunteers, where we serve the community around us, and a lot of the Gen Ys in GE are driving these activities.”

Their efforts paid off handsomely as GE Malaysia won the Prime Minister’s CSR award in 2011. The awards are in recognition of companies that help further social development in the country.

Embedding CSR However, to make CSR a true and meaningful success, it needs to be embedded in an organisation’s culture and have the support of the leaders.

“CSR is not just about giving charity or supporting social causes. It’s about making a positive difference through the business that you do,” Cohen says.

“As such, CSR programmes should not be one-off interventions, but part of an entire strategy which links to business and social and environmental needs.

“If a business works to a sustainable business strategy, then HR must partner with this strategy.

This means that HR must understand the implications of CSR and sustainability on the way it runs processes in the company.”

She gives the example of diversity in recruitment and talent development as two areas in which HR can take a leading role in “contributing to improve the talent base in the company while supporting social needs for equal opportunity and development”.

Through HR, CSR can be aligned with how a business is run, and integrated into processes such as the employer brand, recruitment, retention, motivation, rewards and training, among other things.

At Astro, it is slowly, but surely embedding CSR into its company culture by encouraging its executive team to incorporate CSR into its teambuilding activities as well as in their personal lives.

“We have a personal target for each of our employees to complete a minimum of four hours of CSR annually,” Chong says “This is not only for activities we engage in at the corporate level, but also on a personal level.

“By incorporating CSR, employee activities become aligned to the values that Astro stands for, which further deepens the culture transformation of Go Beyond.”

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Corporate Social Responsibility « FEATURE

CASE STUDY: ASTRO Andrew Chong and David Yap talk about their award-winning Astro Kasih programmes and how they help attract and engage talent.

Giving a helping hand: Astro embarks on a number of CSR initiatives which not only help the community, but also boost employee engagement.

Astro has been very successful with Astro Kasih, its CSR arm.

It has led the company and its employees to focus on giving back to the community and beautifying the environment, says David Yap, vice-president of community affairs at Astro.

“At Astro, we have an active employee volunteer programme to encourage our staff to contribute their time and talents in the four main CSR pillars, which include lifelong learning, community development, sports and wellness and the environment,” Yap says.

Astro’s community affairs division works closely with the HR department on the various CSR projects. Together they will pinpoint various issues and areas of social or environmental engagement the company can plan for and initiate throughout the year, based on the company’s four main CSR pillars.

Since its inception, Astro Kasih has participated in a wide range of community related programmes, contributing a total of more than 69,000 man hours spread out over 760 activities, says Yap. Astro’s wide-ranging and diverse CSR programmes include the award-winning “Beautiful Malaysia: Longest Underwater Clean-Up” initiative, which is part of its ongoing commitment in promoting ecotourism among Malaysians and to help beautify Malaysia. The marine conservation campaign broke a Guinness World Record while scooping up three Stevie Awards at the 2013 International Business Awards for its CSR efforts.

The conservation project, which had Malaysian and international divers, involved 1,120 clean-up dives, 224 dive locations, 168 consecutive hours, or seven days, to collect and recycle more than three tonnes of marine debris.

This particular project was initialised in 2011, when Astro

Kasih’s Beautiful Malaysia CSR programme transplanted 777 individual corals in Tun Sakaran Marine Park in Sabah. It broke the Malaysia Book of Records for the most individual corals being transplanted.

Astro and its employees have been involved in various CSR efforts in Sabah since 2009. Part of their activities included building school hostels for students in Kota Marudu and helping to implement intensive UPSR revision programmes for students in SK Magandai.

They have also helped to repair living amenities and infrastructures on Nunuyan Laut Island and equipped underprivileged centres for the children.

Under its sports and wellness CSR initiative, Astro supports and develops young athletes through the 1MCC – Astro Kem BOLA and Kem Badminton Astro. In 2013, it sent young Malaysian talents to Cardiff City Football Club and the Nippon Badminton Association for training and exposure.

The programmes provided a common sense of purpose which allowed Astro employees to come together for a greater cause, while strengthening the team’s experience, says Andrew Chong, director of human capital at Astro.

Besides providing for the community, helping to create a sustainable environment, and enforcing a good reputation, Astro has noticed its CSR initiatives have had a positive impact on its employee engagement.

“From our employee engagement survey which we have undertaken since 2009, we find that CSR always comes up at the top in maintaining high employee engagement results,” Chong says.

“We are noticing a significant decrease in employee turnover and a higher engagement level which are interdependent of each other.”

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14/3/2014 4:01:36 PM

EVENT PREVIEW » Compensation & Benefits

FAIR REWARDS Compensating people accurately and fairly has crept higher up HR leaders’ agendas as companies strive to remain competitive. We have a chat with trainer and C&B expert Sandrine Bardot ahead of the Compensation & Benefits training event in April.

What are the key considerations while formulating a compensation and benefits plan, and what are the challenges?

One very important aspect of a plan design is to never forget the cardinal rule: the simpler, the better. Every rule or caveat that you add to a plan makes it exponentially more complex to understand. You should aim to design a plan that a 10-year-old child could explain. Remember a plan or compensation programme cannot cover all situations. Make sure you cover 80% to 90% of the cases, and create a set of rules, policies or a committee to manage exceptions or one-off cases.

In light of price hikes and GST implementation in Malaysia, what are some of the nonmonetary benefits that employers can give their staff?

I honestly believe the majority of employees will be expecting their employers to compensate in a financial manner.

These reductions in the subsidisation of essential items hit consumers, and therefore employees, directly in their wallet – and they will want their employers to help them through these more demanding times.

However, if you consider implementing non-monetary benefits, just be aware employees will probably not make a direct link in their mind with compensation for rising cost of living, so the psychological and motivational impact will probably not be “high enough” to compensate the perceived loss of spending power.

If you go down the route of non-monetary benefits, I suggest asking your employees what they value most (give them a list). For example, you could consider increasing your training budget or guaranteeing a certain number of days of education per year, or guarantee worklife balance by offering the opportunity to work

from home, which also helps employees reduce their costs as they don’t have to pay for transportation on these days. Or maybe you can offer other benefits such as free food, childcare vouchers or extra days off.

Can you tell us about your experiences with C&B in the Middle East?

Before the global crisis, the GCC region, which includes Saudi Arabia, UAE, Oman, Qatar, Kuwait and Bahrain, was booming. Petrodollars were flooding the economy, fuelling a massive growth in infrastructure developments, as well as construction – Dubai, in particular, was in the spotlight.

The GCC countries are very special because their local native populations, with the exception of Saudi Arabia, are small, and so they are heavily reliant on expatriates for their workforce needs.

chance the subsidies on electricity, gas and other items will be reinstated because the government is under pressure to improve the state’s finances. So the increase in cost of living is most probably going to be permanent. If companies want to keep employees satisfied, they won’t be able to ignore these facts for very long. Losing employees and having to replace them costs a lot of money, not mentioning the lost productivity of employees who are not engaged any longer.

So, what would you recommend?

I’d recommend implementing cost of living allowances or salary rises to cover at least a significant portion of the increased costs for employees. But don’t forget to keep a portion of your budget to reward your top performers with meaningful individual, merit-based increases and bonuses. The identification of your true best employees (by performance or in critical roles) is going to play a massive role in keeping these most important members of staff productive.

“ONE VERY IMPORTANT ASPECT OF A PLAN DESIGN IS TO NEVER FORGET THE CARDINAL RULE: THE SIMPLER, THE BETTER. YOU SHOULD AIM TO DESIGN A PLAN THAT A 10-YEAR-OLD CHILD COULD EXPLAIN.” Candidates, especially in managerial or highly specialised roles, were fewer than the number of opportunities available.

The whole system spiralled up, with higher housing as well as education costs. So salaries and allowances had to follow. Massive salary increases were not uncommon. Then the bubble burst, real estate costs went down by as much as 50%, layoffs took place, salaries went down again for new hires, but most allowances remained unchanged for existing employees.

How are these experiences applicable to Malaysia’s situation?

The main difference I see in Malaysia is there is little

How has C&B changed over the years?

C&B grows in waves. When an organisation starts to really look into these topics, the most immediate concerns are around direct pay – how do we compare with our competitors? Then, attention shifts towards incentives and pay-for-performance – are we spending our salary dollars in the right way to get the most return through rewarding the employees that have the most positive impact on the bottom line?

The more refined wave is on the issues of retention of key talent and alignment of executives to the long-term goals of the organisation, as well as cost control of insured benefits (health insurance, life, pension) and the introduction of customisation to cater to the needs of multiple generations working together. This process usually takes place at the company level, as well as in the marketplace as a whole.

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21/3/2014 11:12:13 AM

Compensation & Benefits « EVENT PREVIEW

What do these changes mean for HR leaders?

The divisions that existed between the different areas of HR are starting to fade. With the focus on the concept of employee value proposition, which is a holistic approach to addressing employee expectations and targeting high engagement, total rewards professionals now work even more closely with their colleagues from talent management

Start doing it: Transfer to the rewards team within your organisation and start learning on the job. If that is not possible, then volunteer for C&B projects and see where this takes you.

Formalise your theoretical learning. Attend trainings like the one I will deliver in February. Read books and blogs, watch webinars and network with other people interested in the topic.

Sandrine Bardot is an experienced compensation and benefits consultant and trainer, based in Dubai.

She has been with the HR industry for more than 20 years, and has worked with Philips, France Telecom, Apple, Microsoft and the Fiat Group. She has worked and travelled extensively in Europe, Africa and the Middle East. Her goal is to reach out and educate as many organisations as possible on exemplary compensation and benefits.

and learning and development. This means that performance and rewards professionals must focus on their communication, teamwork and project management skills. Without these, as well as their technical expertise, they will not be able to sustain their career progression to the executive level. C&B is no longer the role of a lonely geek spitting out spreadsheet after spreadsheet.

What are some of the topics you will touch on at the training session?

Over a two-day period, we will touch on all the building blocks of compensation. We will start from job descriptions and evaluations, to building salary structures, to performing salary reviews, to performance management and incentives to engagement and retention. We will finish by going through some advice on designing and implementing compensation programmes.

Along the way, I will share experiences and real-life situations I have encountered in my 20-year career. It will also be a great opportunity to ask questions and exchange with people from other companies and industries.

Find out more about compensation and benefits at our special training session with Sandrine Bardot.

Date: 29 & 30 April ala Lumpur Venue: Renaissance Hotel Kuala For more information, contact Manuel Almira on manuela@humanresourcesonline.net cesonline.net or call us at +65 6423 0329

There is an increasing demand for HR professionals with valuable C&B experience.

How do you specialise in this field?

Nowadays, if you want to specialise in C&B, I would recommend the combination of two things:

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21/3/2014 11:12:23 AM

OPINION » Learning & development

What’s the point of training?

If you’re struggling to get staff motivated about training programmes, it’s likely your strategy is p g missing key engagement elements which prove the need for upskilling.

SABRINA ZOLKIFI Deputy editor Human Resources

Get motivated: Don’t allow your employees to become complacent about training programmes, but instead give them a reason to better their skills.

Over the past few months, an image has been making its rounds on LinkedIn, carrying an imagined conversation between two C-suite executives: CFO to CEO: What if we train an employee and he leaves?

CEO to CFO: What if we don’t and he stays?

While there are obvious advantages to sending employees for continued upskilling, are you making sure the programmes your employees are attending are the most effective? How do you address the issue so you can manage the concerns of our imaginary CEO and CFO above?

One of the biggest stumbling blocks I’ve heard from HR leaders when it comes to training or learning opportunities is time management. I’ll be the first to raise my hand and admit I’m guilty of it myself.

When it comes to attending a training session, be it something off-site or in the boardroom 10 metres away, it can be common for employees to want to wriggle their way out of it until the absolute last minute.

The reason for this is not likely to be that they don’t want to become better employees, but a heavy workload, looming deadlines and back-to-back meetings can take precedence over training, which many assume can simply be rescheduled.

Here are some common loopholes in L&D or training programmes you should keep an eye out for to make sure your employees’ response to another training session is not: “What’s the point?”

Online training This is where online or blended training comes in – and why it has become so popular as a training method in recent years – because it helps to cater to employees who are either reluctant to be away from their desks long enough to learn the basics of a new skill, or to adapt to the changing business dynamics where a trainer and trainee may not be in the same location.

However, one of the biggest disadvantages of online or blended training is the lack of personalisation. Yes, it’s convenient, often user-friendly and can be rolled out to thousands of employees or even offi ces with the click of a button, but there’s something not quite right about learning from a machine.

One way HR can mitigate this issue is to ensure that while online learning materials and programmes are always made available to employees, a trainer or subject expert is always on hand to clarify or help employees who might be struggling.

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Learning & development « OPINION

Lack of an objective Even in this day and age, there are unfortunately still pockets of companies who send employees for training if only to tick a box or fill a budget requirement.

These are usually the same culprits who fail to follow up with employees or line managers post-training to make sure the new knowledge is being properly applied to the workplace.

Sending employees for training is a great starting point, but doing this without a clear objective or goal may be doing more harm than good for both the employee and organisation.

Be it internal or external talent development programmes, make sure the training is aligned to a particular business need or is designed to plug a specifi c competency gap.

This will also make it easier to convince employees of why they need to attend the training. Once the learning programme is completed, hold employees and their line managers accountable for applying what they have learnt into their daily work routine.

This will ensure a win-win situation – employees learn something new, become more satisfied once they see how applying that new skill can help their productivity, and it proves our hypothetical CEO’s point.

Disparity in employee competencies Unless we’re talking about the tip of your talent pyramid, it is unrealistic to expect to be able to provide one-on-one training to every employee in your organisation.

“Sending employees for training is a great starting point, but doing this without a clear objective or goal may be doing more harm than good for both the employee and organisation.”

But even in a small group of 10, not everyone in that training room is going to have the same level of aptitude or attitude.

Like many things with the function, there is never a be-all and end-all solution to this issue, though it might be better managed if employees sent for training are grouped as closely as possible to their skill sets, levels of competencies, or the reason they’re being sent for training.

This will narrow the gap for the training provider and ensure no-one in the group feels left behind or under-valued.

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18/3/2014 10:00:15 AM

OPINION » People issues

Communicating the magic In marketing, a “magic price point” helps attract more customers. Why can’t the same principle be applied when encouraging employees to communicate, engage and perform better? employee town halls, bulletin boards and more – and use free social networking tools. HR can also leverage informal leaders and pass the news through them. Informal leaders are people who are not in leadership positions, but their opinions are believable and their credibility among their peers is high.

These are people who always look at changes positively, while recognising challenges and positively influencing people around them. Find your informal leaders by sitting in the cafeteria or pantry and observing who others listen to or individuals whose voice prevails over others.

AMOR C. VILLALON Regional vice-president, human resources, Fujitsu Asia Pte Ltd

Main aim: The key to successful HR initiatives or programmes is communication.

In marketing, the concept of a magic price point is well known. Basically, it is the exact point where the product appears to be the most appealing to buyers. Instead of $20, pricing a product at $19.95 will, most likely, attract more customers. Capturing customers’ attention and communicating with them is, fundamentally, the main notion behind effective product pricing.

Similarly, the key to every successful HR initiative or programme is communication; the need to determine what resonates with employees is essential.

It is important to determine what appropriate message should go out to appropriate employee groups, as not all that is announced by the president gets read by all employees, and not all announcements published, even on the most popular internet sites, are read by a wider audience. So, how can HR help improve this communication situation? How can HR get people to read email announcements, participate in focus group discussions, actively join team planning, and keep the high potential employees excited and performing at their best?

Building the right foundation and programmes are the straight-forward answers, but improved internal communication is the thing that will make it work best.

Through the years, I have observed one of the differentiating factors between a good HR function and a less effective one is the ability to articulate ideas and translate them into understandable languages, targeted at the different audiences in the organisation. Often, the HR function does a lot of things and still ends up unappreciated. Experience tells me it is not because HR practitioners are incapable – the function just fails to communicate.

How then, can HR help breathe life and excitement into everything it does?

Begin by creating awareness Tell the whole company what is happening by email blasts,

Deep dive into the details of what you have announced One of the effective ways this can be done is via a focus group or round table discussion. These forums are meant to provide a way for employees to give feedback, express their thoughts and clarify what was announced or communicated to them.

Gain employees’ support Describe how the announcement can benefit them and how they can contribute to making things better at work. Most of all, define the benefits for them, personally and professionally. Start with a few employees who can be advocates of the programme – the multiplier effect of this can be phenomenal.

Give people the chance to be involved In the case of implementing something such as an employee club to gain support, empower it by defining its role in driving a positive employee experience. HR can transition from support to involvement in a form of brainstorming or team discussion where everyone gets to share what is on their minds.

Great inventions were not developed overnight – inventors went through a series of trials and errors, and because they were not discouraged, they became successful.

Develop a culture of accountability and commitment The behavioural manifestations of accountability and commitment include stable and sustainable performance outcomes, consistent behaviour, personal leadership, and a lot more that contribute to company’s short and long-term success.

HR can take this a step further by helping leaders create an environment that strengthens emotional commitment more than rational commitment, as this can be up to four times more effective. Questions to ask to build emotional commitment: Is this an organisation where people feel involved? Do they feel part of a good team? Do people have a voice in the company?

In summary, an impactful communication plan does not start and end with one memo or email – it has to be followed up with activities that will reinforce what people have read.

Are you ready to create the best HR communication “magic price point” and bring HR to a higher level of performance?

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14/3/2014 4:04:37 PM

Upwardly mobile « OPINION

Where will HR be in five years?

RICH ATKINSON HR director (APAC) for global operations PayPal

It is almost impossible to predict what the future will hold for the HR function, but here are seven pointers to help you prepare for the next five years.

“He asked where I see myself in five years time?” a friend complained after an uninspiring career coaching discussion. “Do people still ask that? Is HR stuck in the 1990s?”

I didn’t have an answer, though being stuck in the decade of Nirvana, beanie babies and The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air doesn’t sound too bad. But it did leave me asking how HR might answer that same question and get upwardly mobile in five years time?

Many successful businesses reinvent their core products every five years and HR needs to do the same. The “products” that make HR effective today will only be “the commoditised basics” in five years. So it’s important to plan for what will be the new differentiator as we race towards the future.

The HR profit centre We have a great opportunity to generate revenue streams through the employee base and its extended networks. Would this mean taking advantage of our employees? I guess only if you take advantage of your customers. HR should be looking at how we engage our employees more with our products and services or identify referrals that drive revenue.

The HR marketer HR will need to adapt to attract and engage a new generation of employee and, at the same time, raise the grey ceiling to retain an ageing employee base. With the learnings from Gen Y, hopefully we now move faster in evolving our talent and career management, work tools, benefits and engagement planning to reflect the changing nature of the workforce.

To do this effectively, HR will become the chief (employee) marketing officer. We will be able to segment the employee base and then build the employer brand, HR products and strategic internal communications accordingly.

The HR geek One of HR’s key roles will be to provide data analysis and insights to the business; we will become a performance consultant for the organisation. Recruitment will move from “identifying the best available” to “identifying the best” as external talent becomes measurable. HR will become slick at applying hard data and metrics to manage and mobilise talent. Some businesses are already starting to adopt this approach.

We will more consistently measure “manager quality” and hold leaders accountable to leadership metrics. For example, leaders who hire good talent will be tracked. Companies will invest in identifying and leveraging their best “talent scouts” and holding their weaker talent selectors accountable. In 2018 we will be hiring and firing people based on their “leadership index”.

Looking ahead: HR leaders will need to be entrepreneurial and creative.

The HR techie I expect to see technology, which has impacted in other spheres, applied to HR. Brand and marketing tools will become the employer brand and internal communication tools. Social and collaboration media will become team tools, and so forth.

The core HR processes will not be a source of differentiation in five years – running simple, efficient and consistent recruitment, onboarding, talent and salary processes – will be the minimum expected.

The “beyond” HR practitioner HR will recognise a company’s “human resources” are not just employees. They are contractors, consultants, franchisees and vendors who speak with our customers, design our products and hold critical company IP. HR will expand its remit to support and/ or influence this more widely drawn pool of HR. The HR entrepreneur In 2013 the pace and adoption of ideas in HR lags behind other functions. It’s time to bring an entrepreneurial and creative vision to the function. In the future, the highest paid person on your team may be the HR product manager.

The HR linguist Finally, HR will speak the language of the business. It will be talking to technology leaders about the “resiliency” of their succession plans and talent management’s “supply chain”.

This reinvention will require HR to think and act differently. The pace of change will continue to accelerate and HR can look to a future where it demonstrates its value.

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14/3/2014 4:05:04 PM

CAREERS » Personal development

uptheranks Tracking HR’s industry moves Who: Gaurav Hirey From: GroupM To: GroupM GroupM promoted Gaurav Hirey from regional HR director for APAC to chief talent officer for South Asia.

Previously based in Singapore, he relocated to Mumbai at the start of this year.

“My key responsibilities are going to be leading the people transformation initiative for GroupM South Asia across India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Pakistan,” he said. “The role is an expanded role right from talent acquisition, retention, engagement, communication, learning, development and succession planning.”

Because the industry was undergoing a lot of change and movement, he said GroupM was working on several initiatives to integrate technology and digital media into the organisation’s talent management programmes.

“We hope to continue focusing on our businesses and designing and implementing talent initiatives relevant to the current business needs as against doing ‘feel-good’ initiatives with no business results.”

Who: Urvi Jobalia From: Barclays Technology Centre, Singapore To: Ericsson Singapore Urvi Jobalia joined Ericsson in September as the head of HR for Singapore and the HR business partner for marketing, communications and finance for Southeast Asia and Oceania.

Her key responsibility is to partner with the various stakeholders and colleagues in defining and implementing the company’s people strategy to attract and retain the best talent. However, each of her three portfolios have unique challenges and require different regional and country lenses to drive the people agenda.

She hopes her focus on organisation capability, leadership and employee engagement will lead to a strong talent pipeline. She wants to create an environment that demonstrates strong leadership, is highly engaging, inspires innovation and customer orientation and provides growth and development opportunities.

“After all, you can’t have happy customers without happy employees.”

personalgrowth RULES FOR BECOMING A BETTER BOSS Take a long, hard look at yourself. Do you like what you see of yourself as a boss? If not, follow these tips to become a more effective leader in 2014. By Rebecca Lewis.

No one’s work life is perfect. The sooner you recognise there’s always room for improvement, the sooner you’ll see increased happiness and productivity in yourself and your employees.

With that in mind, here are a few ways you can improve yourself as a leader in 2014: 1. Don’t be too nice. This doesn’t mean you should be a tyrant, but beware of diluting your leader status by doing these “nice” things for your employees.

2. Have real conversations with your staff – not just ones which involve telling them what to do, or lambasting them for doing something wrong.

3. Be sincerely honest. You will be amazed at how much more of a connection you’ll make with your peers and employees.

4. Understand that you don’t know everything. You probably never will.

5. If you don’t already, give better exit interviews.

6. Remember the small things such as people’s birthdays and other important occasions. Celebrate them with your staff.

7. Want better, more productive employees? Then hire people who will also help you to become a better boss. Success in an organisation is a two-way street.

8. Make sure you reward the people who really deserve some recognition. Don’t let another year go past without doing this.

9. Act successful. A positive attitude can be read in your stature, the way you speak and the tone of your voice. Your employees will trust and respect you faster if you are confident.

10. Find a mentor, if you don’t have one. Just because you’re the boss doesn’t mean you don’t have anyone else to look up to.

Read up: It’s time for you to take an active role in becoming a better leader.

11. Then help your key employees find solid and effective mentors. (Hopefully, it’s you).

12. Work smarter, not harder.

13. Don’t overwork yourself. Becoming a workaholic is not a positive thing, and most people can’t maintain that level of commitment.

14. Don’t overwork your staff. Take it easy. Whatever you do, don’t push them to the brink of burnout.

15. You might be the boss, but you’re also just one piece of a bigger puzzle.

Recognise this.

16. Invest in continuous learning for you and your high potential employees. Then, make sure you figure out how to translate what you’ve all learned to your workplace.

17. Go above and beyond for your employees, where possible. Sometimes it’s just a small gesture that speaks volumes about your commitment and belief in your staff.

18. Don’t keep people waiting for you. You are not more important in this world than anyone else.

19. Be a team player. Get involved in the team-building activities, help arrange social activities and use words such as “we” when discussing problems, not “you”.

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14/3/2014 4:06:09 PM

Good reads to improve your business life

Th Enthusiastic The E th i ti Employee David Sirota & Douglas A. Klein Pearson RM161.00 We all know the impact a toxic employee can have, but have you ever considered the cost of this?

Based on years of research, David Sirota and Douglas A. Klein have uncovered the secret to engaging employees and creating the enthusiastic workforce we all dream of.

Both authors believe the first step is to really understand what employees want by asking the right questions and then giving people what they want.

The book, republished to suit the Millennial generation, outlines the steps

Everything you wish to ask a headhunter Steven Pang & Adrian Tann hingg Candid Creation Publishing RM39.00 Despite being in HR, or maybe because of that very fact, there are some recruitment questions you’ve always wanted to ask, but have never found the courage to. Perhaps you were afraid it would come across as amateurish or your question is something you’re already expected to know.

Steven Pang and Adrian Tan have put together a book that aims to help you answer all those pressing questions. Having worked for some of the largest recruitment firms in the region, both authors tap on their combined expertise to answer nearly 60 recruitment-

oorganisations and their lleaders le e can take to create a stro stronger and more productive workforc Broken up into five workforce. broad parts, the authors lay out a framework leaders can apply in any type of business and geography.

Aside from being chock-full of data, the book also includes case studies from companies such as Alcoa, Toyota and Mayo Clinic, providing great insights to problems and solutions some of the biggest organisations have faced.

The authors also break down the different aspects of talent management such as feedback, rewards, communication, job enablement and the culture of partnership, and explain how these pillars of HR have a very direct and strong impact towards creating enthusiastic employees.

Bookmark this!

Give recognition as soon as possible after the desired behaviour. By and large, the greater the interval between the completion of a behaviour and the delivery of a reinforcing consequence, the less effective is the reinforcement. This advice is wonderfully summarised in the phrase “catch them at being good”. Catching people in the act, as it were, is usually reserved for misdeeds, but applying the same principle to good performance is exactly what managers should do – page 337.

related questions, ranging from the straightforward resume mi mistakes to avoid, to how to fire someone.

The qu uesti questions are answered thoroughly and caandid with the authors often providing candidly, bbulle bullet-point responses which are easy to uund understand, and quick to follow.

The bite-sized pieces of advice ap to both HR practitioners and job apply c candidates, making for a good read, no matter where you might be in your career journey.

Bookmark this!

Motivating our people in management positions to perform at their best and collectively deliver stellar performances is ultimately the yardstick every manager is measured against. To do so consistently, the retention of key people is vital. In today’s market, employees with skills and talent are highly sought after and, hence, the freedom to choose whether to follow you or move to another better option – page 140.

Talent Accelerator Justin Allen & Dave Ulrich The RBL Group Press RM65.00

Justin Allen and Dave Ulrich have reunited in their latest publication together, which focuses on driving business growth in Asia.

It is no secret the Asian region has been driving a lot of the global economic growth over the past few years, but with organisations growing so rapidly are their talent capabilities in check to cope with the surge?

Based on research commissioned by Singapore’s Ministry of Manpower, this book pulls together talent data from 570 businesses in Singapore, China and India to showcase some of the region’s best talent practices.

Touching on topics such as understanding your organisation’s entire talent flow, to how to best attract, retain and nurture talent in this part of the world, Allen and Ulrich have put together a comprehensive guide to understanding HR in Asia.

The book is a good read for seasoned HR practitioners looking for another perspective of the Asian talent pool or those new to the region hoping to get a better understanding on the working culture.

Bookmark this!

When looking across a wide variety of companies’ written employee value propositions (EVPs), there are often so many similarities it is difficult to differentiate from one company to the next. Although even the best companies have EVPs that contain 60% to 75% crossover with companies competing for the same talent, the very best companies focus on the 25% to 40% that differentiates them – page 87.

Photography: Fauzie Rasid

Pick of the month

shelflife

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14/3/2014 4:06:43 PM

LAST WORD

All I want from my work space is …

Tan Lee Kuen constructs a wish list for the ultimate dream office.

For the desk-bound among us, we spend more than half of our waking hours in the office. For 40 hours from Mondays to Fridays, the office is our home away from home. So why then are office spaces generally sterile and uninspiring?

Space and natural light should be the essentials, but it is the extras that can make the workplace experience into a great one. Without reaching for the sky, here are the basics that all offices should have when drawing up the office plan.

Free food Following a certain company’s footsteps, we would love that all offices offered healthy and nutritious meals cooked by professional chefs. It saves us time and energy having to think what to have for lunch every day, as well as provide us with much needed nutrients to get through the day.

An espresso machine Workers say they are energised and productive after a cup of coffee, so why not get them started with good coffee? We prefer single estate coffee beans from a farmer in the depths of Peru.

A forty winks room It’s 3pm, and you’re desperate for a lie-down after that nasi lemak lunch and tiresome report. Fluffy slippers are optional.

A gym Exercising can make you smarter, more focused and more productive, according to research. When stuck for an idea, hitting the gym for a 30-minute exercise break can help clear the fogged-up brain and increase mental and energy levels.

Aromatherapy Remember the time you had a whiff of a fragrance and it perked up your day? Aromatherapy can help improve your health and general wellbeing, and research has shown it can help improve productivity.

We are mad for Diptyque candles.

Well-designed, ergonomic furniture We work at our tables every day. It is about time

we had high-quality furniture that looks, feels and is good.

State-of-the-art technology This applies to our computers, printers, scanners and any other electronic device we use to get things done better and more efficiently.

Reading room A comfortable room with sofas or lounge chairs, and a well-stocked library for conventional reference.

In-house masseur Since this is a wish list, a professional on the job for that stiff neck and shoulders would be awesome.

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how to keep them loyal

John - Australia v 55 years old v a premium customer of AUS Financial, which manages 70% of his investment

?

find full answers in Epsilon’s 2013 Consumer Loyalty Study

Shireen - India v 23 years old v shops 2-3 times a month v often listens to friends’ recommendations

Epsilon’s 2013 Consumer Loyalty Study An analysis of customer engagement that enriches loyalty

Wei - China

Misako - Japan

v 34 years old v a member of MaxMiles for 7 years v enjoys being treated like a valued customer

v 41 years old v a housewife with 2 children v always opens emails from her preferred grocery store for relevant offers

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January 2013

January 2013

January

Read more about other consumer attitudes and views about loyalty in a series of reports from Epsilon.

Alliance Data FHC, Inc., trading as Epsilon International

EpsilonIntl_A4_Loyalty_Print_29-01-2013.indd 1

October

2013

DOWNLOAD THE REPORTS AT www.epsilon.com/loyalty2013

Contact us +852 3589 6300 epsilon.com apac-info@epsilon.com

Connect with us Follow us @EpsilonAPAC Join our group Epsilon Asia Pacific 关注Epsilon艾司隆

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