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TEN RECRUITMENT TRENDS TO KEEP AN EYE ON IN 2023
United States – iHire recently surveyed 3,668 jobseekers and 539 employers in the US to take a look at how employers are recruiting and retaining top talent amid the talent shortage, and what jobseekers are on the lookout for.
While the survey was conducted in the US, HRO believes the content remains relevant to our readers in Asia. Priya Sunil compiles 10 trends derived from the survey findings, which employers and HR leaders can keep an eye on in the coming year.
#1 Employers are anticipating a continued talent shortage For the fourth straight year, employers surveyed cited finding qualified candidates among their top hiring challenges. In 2022, nearly seven in 10 said they receive too few applicants, and a similar percentage said the applicants they receive are unqualified.
#2 A gap between the skills employers desire and the ones candidates actually possess While companies said they cannot easily find qualified talent, 38.5% of jobseekers believe employers have unrealistic or overly specific requirements. Additionally, a group of candidates said they have recently applied for a job even though they didn’t meet the requirements.
#3 The Great Resignation isn’t slowing down More than half (57.3%) of the candidates in the survey were employed and seeking a job actively or passively, suggesting the Great Resignation may persist.
#4 Economic uncertainties will impact hiring As a possible recession looms and inflation rises, candidates and employers said economic uncertainty will impact their ability to find work and hire, respectively. Nearly seven in 10 jobseekers said they would be more likely to apply for a job if the ad included the position’s salary range.
#5 Job boards will remain a key tool in recruitment About six in 10 employers said they have increased their reliance on job boards in the past year, with a significant number using them for either “most” or “all of their hiring. Among jobseekers, 66.3% said they would go to a job board if they needed to find work immediately. #6 Both jobseekers and employers fear “ghosting” A little over half of the employers in the survey said they were frustrated by unresponsive applicants, while at the same time, just over four in 10 jobseekers said getting ghosted by employers was their chief job search challenge. Evidently, there is a need for clearer communication between both parties.
#7 Candidates still want remote work, but say it is getting harder to find Jobseekers are struggling to find remote work, and employers are anticipating that candidates’ preference for remote work will continue to hinder their ability to hire in the next year, per the survey.
#8 Time will be of the essence to snag top talent A number of candidates said they would be more likely to apply for a job if the employer shortened the time it takes to complete an application. Moreover, nearly 20% mentioned “long application processes” as a top job search challenge, and 26% want optional cover letters.
#9 Candidates’ reasons for searching for work will vary dramatically General unhappiness with one’s current role was the main reason for searching for a new job, but one in five respondents selected “other” and wrote in their response. Reasons under “other” included searching for a second or part-time job, returning to the workforce after taking care of children or elderly family members, coming out of retirement, leaving a business that is closing, and needing more flexibility.
#10 Retirees are re-entering the workforce About 7.5% of jobseekers said they were retired and looking for a job – a 2.9% year-over-year increase. This underscores the upward trend of “unretirement” due to declining retirement funds and the increasing cost of living, the survey noted.
WHY INNOVATION NEVER STOPS AT CITIC TELECOM CPC, FOR STAFF AND CUSTOMERS
中信國際電訊CPC如何貫徹「創新‧不斷」
With incentives being created to support healthy behaviours, it is CPC’s top priority to encourage staff to shift from sedentary behaviours to an active lifestyle. 通過創新的健康活動挑戰，中信國際電訊CPC鼓勵員工改變久坐不動的 習慣，轉向積極的生活方式。
Telecom providers around the world are moving into a more digital mindset – for CITIC Telecom International CPC (CPC), this has always been the guiding mantra. With a motto of ‘Innovation Never Stops’, CPC maintains its status as a leading ICT provider, embracing AI, AR, big data, IoT, and other disruptive technologies. All focus on technologies doesn’t mean that the ‘human’ element is forgotten. On the contrary, CPC believes that staff is the greatest asset. Catherine Lo, Executive Vice President, Human Resources & Administration, said: “We are committed to creating an ideal working environment that is happy, healthy, and caring.”
The focus on staff has intensified in the last three years, where as a result of the pandemic, heightened stress and anxiety was observed among the workforce. To tackle that, a series of staff wellness activities was rolled out.
Lo explained: “Given the impact caused by COVID-19, it is our top priority to encourage staff to shift from sedentary behaviours to an active lifestyle. The ‘14-Day At-Home ACTIVE Challenge’ was a virtual activity encouraging positive interaction among staff all over the world as they were asked to form a team of four and to achieve as many steps as possible to win the match.”
The 14-Day At-Home ACTIVE Challenge programme was planned and implemented under the considerations of language and literacy, family demands, culture, and health across CPC’s offices in all regions including APAC, Europe, and Russia. This was to ensure the wellness programme could be accessible to all staff, thus promoting inclusion. As a bonus, the ‘Best Photo Award’ was added in which participants shared their best workout photos for the rest of the company to vote for. Further, even the senior management participated to role-model the right behaviours.
“A stronger sense of belonging and team morale was built during this difficult time as staff was asked to team up across regions/departments,” Lo affirmed.
The focus on wellbeing extends beyond physical into mental wellness. Living in a fast-paced city sure takes its toll. Lo shared: “One in seven people in Hong Kong are experiencing a common mental disorder. As such, we organised a series of activities in our ‘Mental Health Month’ to raise staff’s awareness.” These activities include a ‘Leather Card Holder Workshop’, ‘Archery Fun Day’, ‘Mental Health Corner’, and online platform sharing.
Evidently, CPC puts people first. The workforce is always encouraged to voice their opinions and speak their minds to boost transparency and tailor the company’s programmes to meet their needs. A culture of people development is fostered where staff receives all-round training to optimise their performance. To close the loop on giving back to the community, CPC team works closely with NGOs to organise various kinds of CSR activities, e.g. ‘Tree Planting Day’ and ‘Mosaic Bottle Workshop’.
Lo concluded with a forward-facing outlook: “In the future, we will look for more technological breakthroughs to align with our motto ‘Innovation Never Stops’.”
世界各地的電訊服務
供應商正邁向更數碼 化的思維模式，這正 是中信國際電訊CPC 一直以來的發展方 針。以「創新‧不斷」 為宗旨，中信國際電 訊CPC善用人工智能、擴增實境、大數據、物聯網和其他革命性科 技，保持其領先通訊科技供應商的地位。 除了重視科技，中信國際電訊CPC認為員工是公司最重要的資 產，其人力資源及行政部副總裁盧苑琦（Catherine）表示：「我們 致力建立一個快樂、健康和關愛的工作環境。」 近年疫情肆虐，加劇了員工的壓力和焦慮，因此中信國際電訊 CPC推出一系列活動，加強照顧員工的身心健康。 Catherine表示：「新冠疫情改變了我們的生活方式，因此我 們鼓勵員工改變久坐不動的習慣，轉向積極的生活方式。『14天在 家活動挑戰』是一項跨地域的虛擬活動，邀請世界各地的員工組隊 參與，累積最多步數的隊伍為勝，以鼓勵他們積極互動及增加公司 的凝聚力。」 中信國際電訊CPC周詳考慮到其亞太、歐洲和俄羅斯等辦事 處的員工，規劃並實施為期14天的在家活動挑戰計劃，確保所有員 工均可參與，從而達至共融。活動增設「最佳照片獎」作為額外獎 勵，由全公司同事投選得獎作品。此外，管理層也親身參與其中，以 樹立榜樣，鼓勵公司上下積極參與活動。 Catherine堅定表示：「活動要求不同地區和部門的員工組隊， 使我們更能在這個艱難時期提高歸屬感和團隊士氣。」 除身體健康外，精神健康也是另一大關注。Catherine分享道： 「生活於節奏急速的城市裡，難免會有不同程度的精神壓力，因此 我們在『精神健康月』組織一系列活動，以提高員工的意識。」這 些活動包括「皮革卡套工作坊」、「射箭同樂日」、「精神健康角」和 網上平台分享。 中信國際電訊CPC以人為本，經常鼓勵員工表達意見和想法， 以提高透明度。公司亦致力培養員工全面發展，提供多元的培訓以 提升他們的績效。回饋社會方面，中信國際電訊CPC與社福機構緊 密合作，組織各類企業社會責任活動，例如「植樹日」和「馬賽克 瓶工作坊」等。 Catherine以公司未來願景作總結道：「展望未來，我們會尋 求更多突破，以秉承我們『創新‧不斷』的理念。」
HOW A CROSS-INDUSTRY INTERNSHIP IS HELPING UNIVERSITY STUDENTS GAIN REAL-WORLD EXPERIENCE
In a unique initiative, Hyatt, Manulife, and Herbert Smith Freehills, came together to create more equitable career opportunities for minority communities. Aditi Sharma Kalra finds out about the programme’s impact in a chat with Hyatt’s Senior Vice President of Human Resources, Asia Pacific, Katie Carter.
Among several progressive industry initiatives which took place in Hong Kong this year was the Diversity Champion Internship Programme (DCIP), a cross-industry endeavour to help local university students from minority communities gain real-world experience. Leading the charge for the second annual edition were three employers – Hyatt, Manulife, and Herbert Smith Freehills – who covered three sectors between them. This year’s project concluded successfully in August 2022, benefiting eight students from diverse backgrounds. Through extensive job rotations at each company, they gained exposure to the legal, hospitality, and financial services industries, as well as building relationships with business leaders who reflect their own identity. The programme witnessed a 90% increase in applications over the inaugural edition. Because of its success, Hyatt is looking to replicate the programme in other Asia markets.
HRO’s Aditi Sharma Kalra had the opportunity to catch up with Katie Carter, Senior Vice President of Human Resources, Asia Pacific, Hyatt, to learn about her experience and insights on the programme.
Congratulations on the success of the initiative. Could you share some highlights from the second annual DCIP? We are very proud to have developed this exciting programme in partnership with Manulife and Herbert Smith Freehills, united by a shared belief that a new, more targeted approach to attracting diverse talent to our sector and to enhancing our culture of inclusion. This is particularly critical for the hospitality industry at a time when we continue to grow while facing a shortage of talent.
After the first year, we knew we had successfully established a unique initiative that resonated with diverse young talent. Last year’s participants had highlighted the lack of role models in their work lives, and there was a clear desire for opportunities to acquire hands-on experience and learn from business leaders. Therefore, this year we sought to deepen those opportunities through a combination of role shadowing, networking, interactive workshops, and a group project assignment.
We saw a 90% increase in applications this year, which really speaks to the appetite for such schemes. Because of this huge interest and the feedback we have received, we are looking forward to expanding this even further, and offering the programme in other Asia markets.
How do you identify the potential internship candidates from the minority communities? The programme is open to all university students, and really aims to harness talent from a range of diverse backgrounds, including those from minority ethnic and LGBTQ+ communities, as well as those with disabilities. A total of eight positions were available, so selecting the final participants from the significant number of applications was challenging!
The key criteria we focus on is a positive, enthusiastic, and motivated attitude, a sense of innovation, and a genuine passion for diversity and inclusion. Among these applicants, we have seen a generation that is passionate about causes and achieving real change, so it is clear companies need to demonstrate a tangible commitment to an inclusive approach to hiring diverse talent.
Did you face challenges in getting internal stakeholders to give up their time in working with these interns? Hyatt’s purpose – to care for people so they can be their best — guides everything we do. It is rooted in empathy and allows us to see to our vision of a world of understanding and care.
We are deeply committed to creating a culture where every single colleague and guest feels welcome, cared for, and like they belong. This means creating a culture that embraces and values everyone for who they are. We believe the more globally inclusive we are in terms of culture, race, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, ability, perspectives, and styles of thinking, the stronger we are as a company and as a Hyatt family.
We’re proud to say that our senior management team has been supportive of the DCIP from the outset. For example, our president of Growth and Operations for Asia Pacific, Stephen Ho, hosted this year’s closing ceremony, and other members of our senior leadership team participated in workshops and fireside chats with programme participants.
We feel it’s important to integrate and show support throughout the organisation, and work with our teams to offer participants special opportunities to network as well as learn directly from industry leaders.
What challenges have you faced in the roll-out of this initiative, and how did you overcome them? In the early stages of discussion, we recognised that each of our sectors is facing similar challenges when it comes to engaging and attracting diverse talent, and that there has been a significant gap in traditional internship programmes.
Students from minority backgrounds often lack opportunities or exposure in a range of areas, not only in gaining hands-on experience, but also to network, to learn from positive role models, and to collaborate with peers. Therefore, by reassessing our approach and broadening our thinking to find commonalities, we were able to unlock new opportunities that may otherwise have never surfaced.
Looking forward, why will diversity be important in the hospitality industry? The last three years have presented significant challenges to the hospitality industry, with our sector being among the most heavily affected by the pandemic and associated travel restrictions. This has led to a visible shortage of talent and now, as the travel sector begins to show signs of recovery, demand is outstripping supply.
That is why we’re so passionate to ensure we’re opening new pathways to bring talent into the industry through initiatives like DCIP. Hyatt operates in many parts of the world, engaging with diverse customers, owners, and communities.
Being inclusive is therefore one of our core values and an expectation from our colleagues. We believe that seeking to understand different perspectives and incorporating them into our business decisions makes us stronger.
That is why we have set a range of key goals to achieve by 2025 covering three areas: who we employ, who we support, and who we buy from and work with.
In each area we have set clear targets such as doubling our representation for women at the VP+ level in our Asia Pacific hubs as well as among our hotel general managers across the region. We also aim to achieve 10,000 hires across APAC for RiseHY, our programme targeting opportunity youth.
Personally, what led you to a career in hospitality? It was the industry’s diverse experiences, global presence, and the passion of the people that drew me to hospitality. Being born and raised in West Africa to Dutch parents, I have always sought out environments where I can learn and understand various perspectives.
Hyatt was and is a place where I felt I belonged, and a company whose purpose and values aligned with my own. Plus, there is always the opportunity to see different places, try new cuisines, and take part in exciting events – it is really an industry where you can never be bored.
Priscilla Chau
Director – HR CLP Power Hong Kong
BY ADITI SHARMA KALRA
As the major power utility provider in Hong Kong, serving more than 80% of the population, CLP Power Hong Kong (CLP) is currently transforming to become the ‘Utility of the Future’ to stay ahead of the challenges brought by climate change, and rapidly evolving technologies.
The HR team, led by our interviewee Priscilla Chau, works on manpower planning to support this strategy.
The Hong Kong Power business is supported by over 50 colleagues in the HR function, covering more than 4,000 full-time and part-time employees. Overall, CLP Group had more than 8,000 full-time and part-time employees as of 30 June 2022, of which about 5,400 staff were engaged in CLP’s businesses in Hong Kong and Mainland China, and 2,700 in the businesses in Australia, India, Southeast Asia, and Taiwan.
The leadership at CLP aims to instil a workplace culture that encourages creativity, experimentation, and taking responsibility.
“With changing customer needs and business environment, we would like to cultivate a group of employees who are adaptive to the changes and challenges with a creative and flexible mindset,” Chau tells us.
To this mission, CLP has had its ‘Design Thinking Programme’ in place since 2019 to equip employees with the ability and tools to innovate better ways of working. More than 4,000 employees have been trained and over 100 projects have been initiated by employees.
“We are excited to see our employees being empowered to drive transformation that varies from small processes to big ideas, which all contribute to the success of CLP,” Chau shares.
CLP is also striving to increase the involvement of employees in shaping the company culture, as such ‘Cultural Jam’ has been organised, a three-day group-wide forum for all employees to express their opinions and ideas on what an ideal company should look like.
In this interview, Aditi Sharma Kalra speaks to Chau to find out about the plans for workforce transformation, challenges faced in this sector, milestones achieved in business partnering, and more.
VITAL STATS
Priscilla Chau is a senior HR leader with over 20 years of experience in a variety of Asia Pacific HR roles, including business partnering, talent development, and HR process improvement. Having taken on her current role in 2021, she leads the operations of people-related programmes to support the growth of CLP’s Hong Kong subsidiary, as well as playing a critical role in the continuous development of the HR function. Before CLP, she most recently spent 15 years with multinational industrial leader BASF in a variety of regional roles based at its Asia Pacific headquarters in Hong Kong.
Q What are the talent challenges you face as part of this role and sector? Firstly, the power industry is traditionally male dominated, and a major change in the female ratio is a long-term challenge given the relatively limited supply of women with technical and engineering skills. As such, CLP has set gender diversity as a group-wide priority to ensure a diverse workforce.
We have set up a dedicated task force for a holistic review of gender diversity, where one of its major tasks is to formulate strategies to attract, recruit, and retain female staff.
We believe that a diverse workforce and an inclusive culture is important to our sustainable growth and innovation capability. New ideas and perspectives are needed to transform our business into a ‘Utility of the Future’. Energy transition, digital evolution, and increasing social and political uncertainties, as well as expectations in CLP’s markets, are driving the need for greater organisational agility – the ability to adapt and succeed in a rapidly changing environment.
CLP continues to strengthen efforts to resource for energy transition and growth, and attracting and retaining talent to support our business needs, in addition to enhancing the technical and digital capabilities of the workforce, amid accelerating changes in the industry.
Upskilling and empowering employees to respond rapidly to changing customer needs and drive breakthrough improvements, providing physical and virtual work environments that facilitate collaboration, and equipping employees to leverage new technologies, remain as our priorities.
CLP is also striving to instil a workplace culture that encourages creativity, experimentation, and taking responsibility. As the energy transition unfolds, CLP is committed to supporting its people to thrive in change, and promoting wellbeing and resilience.
Q CLP has been consistently rated as among Hong Kong’s most coveted employers. Could you share the most impactful HR campaigns you and your team have implemented? As a brand with over 120 years of history, CLP has maintained its reputation as a desirable employer in HK under an ever-changing employment environment, proving that we are heading in the right direction and should continue embracing a flexible mindset.
We believe that good employer branding comes from effective strategies such as our health and wellbeing programmes, work-life balance initiatives, and our enhanced family-friendly policies, with an emphasis on mental health and our recent introduction of more flexible working modes.
CLP has positioned its employee health and wellbeing strategy as ‘Boost’. This strategy aims to help employees in four key areas: physical health, mental wellness, social health, and financial wellbeing.
Under the ‘Boost’ wellbeing programme, we have introduced Virgin Pulse, a health and wellbeing digital platform and app, that provides a personal wellbeing journey – for example, more exercise, less stress, better eating, and healthy competition among our employees via team and company-wide challenges that make wellbeing fun.
We have appointed ‘Boost Wellness Champions’, a group of colleagues who are passionate about supporting fellow CLP colleagues to develop healthy habits and thrive at work and in their personal lives. A recent example of their work includes healthy recipes via internal videos.
Beyond the work-life, we encourage employees to plan for a joyful retirement through pre-retirement workshops on mental and financial preparation, as well as our ‘CLP Retiree Recreation Club’ where retirees are welcome to continue to participate in CLP’s social, recreation, and sports activities, as well as volunteering services.
Under mental health support, our ‘Employee Assistance Programme’ has been made available since the early 1990s to assist individuals, and their immediate family members, who may encounter work or personal issues and need professional support. Services are provided by registered social workers and clinical psychologists and kept in strict confidence. Alongside, we provide access to mindfulness webinars, meditation workshops, and more.
In this space, we have further enhanced the people management capability of our people leaders, for which a series of mental health training courses were organised such as mental health first aid training. More than 250 midlevel managers in Hong Kong participated in the programme, equipping themselves with the knowledge to identify and address early signs of mental health issues.
Since then, a road map has been developed to embed psychological health in CLP’s policies and systems, and to plan for the objective of attaining the ISO 45003 certification for psychological health and safety at work from the International Organization for Standardization.
The mental health support ties into our work-life balance initiatives, wherein CLP’s social, recreation, and sports programme, offers activities, including Thai boxing, dance, yoga,
tai chi classes, ball games, and the opportunity to sign up for corporate sports teams.
During the pandemic, more virtual fitness programmes were organised by adopting different technology such as Teams, Facebook, MS Stream, etc., allowing staff members to stay engaged and maintain their physical wellness. To increase awareness about the importance of good health and a healthy work-life balance, CLP Power has made October its ‘Work-Life Balance Month’, with a calendar of events, activities, and workshops, on subjects such as vegetarianism and diabetes.
Talking about our familyfriendly policies, we have introduced flexible working hours; a work-from-home policy launched in 2022; an enhanced part-time working policy that provides more part-time pattern options; as well as an unpaid leave policy with a flexibility of up to three months. All of the leave we provide is more than what the law requires – for example, five days of marriage leave, 16 weeks of maternity leave, 10 days of paternity leave as well as adoption leave, three days of compassionate leave, and one day of wellbeing leave (newly introduced in 2022).
Q Earlier this year, CLP Power was acknowledged as among the most inclusive employers in APAC. What affirmative action are you taking to ensure inclusion and diversity thrive to create an environment of belongingness? At CLP, our ‘Value Framework’ has guiding principles to ensure we respect diversity, and we trust and treat our employees fairly, regardless of gender, race or other attributes. Moreover, we respect all internationally recognised human rights relevant to our operations, and require our business partners and suppliers to do the same. CLP is also committed to providing safe, healthy, and secure work environments, free of discrimination or harassment on the basis of gender, physical or mental state, race, nationality, religion, age, family status or sexual orientation; or any other attribute recognised by the laws of the country in which we operate.
Among the affirmative action being taken at CLP, we started out with comprehensive and well-communicated policies and guidelines to foster a diverse and inclusive workplace. These cover equal opportunity policies on recruitment, promotion, etc.
We do have a multinational workforce made up of talent of different races and from different disciplines, age, race, academic backgrounds, and qualifications. We also enforce a harassment-free workplace policy.
In addition, we have well-established targets and initiatives to encourage more women to join the workforce through our ‘Women In Leadership’ and ‘Woman In Engineering’ initiatives, both of which have seen female percentages on an upward trend.
To not only attract, but also retain women talent, we provide a working environment and HR policies to take care of their needs, such as the aforementioned family-friendly policies, as well as networking support for female engineers.
Earlier in the pipeline, we have initiatives to inspire the younger generation’s interest in engineering, especially young female students so that they will consider engineering as a future career option.
CLP has launched various public education programmes from kindergarten to secondary schools to nurture and attract female students. In the ‘POWER YOU Kindergarten Visitation Programme’, our female graduate trainees and young female engineers visit kindergartens to introduce the power generation journey, safe use of electricity, and EE&C tips. They also introduce engineering as a profession to the students.
‘Engineer in School’ is a programme where we send young engineers to secondary schools to host seminars on interesting topics such as climate change and energy efficiency. The goal is to arouse students’ interest in science so that more of them will develop a strong foundation in STEM subjects and will be prepared for advanced studies at universities.
At the higher education level, CLP has partnered with the Hong Kong Association of Careers Masters and Guidance Masters to facilitate career teachers’ knowledge about power engineering as a career of choice.
To further demonstrate CLP’s commitment to DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) and to foster the culture of having these values in mind in every employees’ daily work, we conducted a ‘Business Practice Review’. This is a mandatory training programme for all staff through live discussion in the training workshops, not only to refresh their understanding of the key principles in our ‘Code of Conduct’, but also to facilitate a better application of these principles in their daily work.
Q Let’s talk about some challenges you’ve faced now – how easy or how difficult has it been to pivot and change for all these new programmes? CLP is a great company. Our more than 120 years of success is built on our commitment to society, our solid technical foundation, as well as the way we work as a team in CLP.
With the rapid changes in the environment, it calls for us to be transformed ourselves into the ‘Utility of the Future’ with our decarbonisation, digitalisation, and customer-centricity programmes. Some of these areas are not only new to us, but also to the industry. It thus requires our colleagues to learn and adapt very quickly.
As part of the transformation, we also need to adopt a new way of doing things by rebuilding our culture. Therefore, what is important is preserving our strengths and bringing in new elements to prepare ourselves for the future.
In this journey of change, it is important to bring our colleagues along. We make use of town hall communications, workshops, and internal
social media, to explain to our colleagues our vision and approach to drive changes. We also organise learning sessions on key change topics, for example, how to use Power BI or design thinking to facilitate changes.
So far, we have received very positive feedback from colleagues via our pulse check tools. We are looking at enriching our learning curriculum to equip the organisation with future skills as our next milestone in the journey.
Q It is time to shift the focus to the future – which lies in cleaner fuels and greater energy efficiency. What impact do these game-changing developments have on your workforce – in terms of introducing automation, upskilling the workers, and ensuring harmony between the old and the new way of doing things? CLP is building a workforce for a future shaped by structural shifts, including energy transition, demographic changes, and evolving regional market priorities. This drives the need for greater organisational agility – the ability to adapt and succeed in a rapidly changing environment.
One of the examples is that more than 4,000 Hong Kong employees have participated in our design thinking training. This programme is intended to nurture a people-centric innovation culture in the company, providing practical problem-solving frameworks for product and service development with users’ needs in mind.
Also, over the last few years, several of our employees have gained professional accreditation in data analytics skills, building their capability to leverage technology and data in new and insightful ways to enhance the customer experience and operation excellence.
CLP’s ‘Executive Development Programme’ for senior managers was held during the year, focusing on developing skills required to lead transformation. The programme combined leadership, energy transition, and business simulation elements, and was conducted virtually in partnership with various international institutes.
We also have a range of staff development programmes for colleagues at different career stages, mentioned previously, to meet future managerial engineering needs.
CLP puts particular emphasis on people development and skills transfer from one generation to the next, thus our CLP Power Learning Institute provides systematic and practical training to uplift the standard of customer services, and capabilities of our staff in the energy retail industry.
Q CLP has come a long way since it was founded in 1901. How does the leadership team ensure that legacy does not get in the way of adapting to new trends and innovations? Personally, how do you convince stakeholders of being open to change? CLP has a deep-rooted ‘Value Framework’, first introduced in 2003, which reflects the time-honoured principles and commitments that have been integral to CLP’s success for 120 years.
This framework includes our long-standing ‘Code of Conduct’ which provides the guiding principles for all company employees to do what is right, behave with integrity and honesty, treat people fairly, respect diversity, obey all laws, accept accountability, communicate openly, and always behave in a way that is beyond reproach.
The company expects all employees to observe and apply these principles in the conduct of the company’s business. We care how results are obtained, not just that they are obtained.
Besides our ‘Value Framework’ and ‘Code of Conduct’, we also have a set of competencies for CLP leaders as a compass to guide our leadership behaviours to reinforce our values while keeping ourselves up to date with the changes in the business and operation environment. As much as we value the wellbeing of our employees, we also look at creating an inclusive environment for everyone to thrive and openly share their ideas. This is our idea of making CLP a safe environment to cradle innovative ideas.
Q Looking to a post-pandemic road map, what’s on your HR checklist to ensure that CLP’s employee experience remains personalised, purposeful, and timely? On top of the list is taking care of our colleagues’ individual needs. Besides their wellbeing, we aim to provide a space for them to learn and develop a career with CLP. In CLP’s transformation, there are a lot of opportunities for colleagues to take part in projects that are meaningful for the future and everyone is welcome to be part of it.
Another important vision that we have is to make HR services accessible to our colleagues. We are in the midst of driving digitalisation in HR so that colleagues can access various online platforms. The first area we started is in e-learning – from micro-learning to online learning platform, colleagues can enrich their own knowledge and skills at their own pace anywhere.
Q What are your personal start/stop/continue goals as you set your resolutions for the year ahead? I enjoy every moment working in CLP and have learned enormously from the great team around me. One thing I have benefited a lot from personally in my career so far is creating an environment whereby all are encouraged to give open feedback in a non-hierarchical way. To me, this is essential for being innovative.
We have different transformational initiatives and there are two things I remind myself from time to time. First thing is to never stop improving, and always be bold enough to challenge assumptions. What got us here might not be able to get us there; therefore, be open to change.
Another thing I personally see as very important is that we should have fun at work. I wish for both myself and the team in CLP that we work together not because we have to, but because we love to. That’s my motto of life.
CITIC PACIFIC’S LANDMARK FIVE-YEAR CAREER DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME HAS HELPED REJUVENATE THE TALENT PIPELINE
中信泰富透過為期五年的具里程碑意義的事業發展培 訓計劃促進人才梯隊年青化的建設工作
Here’s how CITIC Pacific is fulfilling its HR vision of “building a workforce with professionalism and sustainability through effective partnership with businesses”. 中信泰富透過以下方式，實踐其「通過與業務夥伴高效合作，打造一支專 業並支持企業持續發展的人才隊伍」的人力資源願景。
CITIC Pacific is a diversified business platform with operations in special steel, property, energy, health, consumer products distribution and other industries. As the largest non-financial platform of CITIC Group, one of China’s largest conglomerates, CITIC Pacific has over 30 years of history with operations in 13 markets and over 40,000 employees. Distinguished by its foundation in Mainland China and headquarters in the international business hub of Hong Kong, the company invests in and operates a unique portfolio of businesses with global perspective and a pioneering spirit.
Launched in 2020, the Future Business Leader Trainee (FBLT) Programme is an extensive five-year initiative that includes three concentrated phases of development: competency and business training, head office (HO) function attachment, and business unit (BU) visits (12 months); middle-management training along with specialised business expertise (30 -36 months); and business leadership across industries (12 months). It begins with a campus marketing campaign across over 120 universities. After a rigorous selection process, the trainees are supported by a range of in-house and external resources during the familiarisation stage, such as a branding platform that serves as a gamified onboarding website, a psychometric-based competency gap analysis to identify future development needs, and an intensive engagement plan that includes meetings and discussions with the Chairman and the senior leadership team.
This holistic programme is one of the few in the industry that is truly expansive, offering trainees exposure across a wide range of businesses. The five-year horizon requires commitment on behalf of both the company and the trainees, and is designed to be especially rewarding for high-potential talents who can accelerate their careers into a management role by the fourth year, and into a business consultancy role by the fifth year.
The results to date have been promising and demonstrate the value of the time and resources invested. In addition to the 100% offer acceptance rate from candidates, the FBLT programme pipeline has helped to address workforce planning needs, which is especially critical in today’s competitive talent market.
Following the success of the FBLT programme, CITIC Pacific also launched the ‘Enterprise Talent Programme’, which targets promising internal staff at the beginning of their careers, and serves to balance the external and internal pipeline of young talents.
Two years after inception, these programmes have already positively impacted the organisation, developing new competencies and preparing future leaders – a message reinforced by Zeng Chen, Chairman and President of CITIC Pacific. “The programmes we crafted not only offer mentorship and direct exposure to our many industries, but more importantly cultivate cultural dexterity and effective communication. Our future leaders will have strategic acumen and executive adaptability, ensuring they are well equipped to steer the company forward in an increasingly complex world.”
中信泰富是一家多元化業務公司，在特鋼、房地産、能源、健康、消
費品分銷等行業開展業務。作為中國最大綜合性企業集團之一的 中信集團旗下最大的非金融子公司，中信泰富擁有30多年的豐富 經驗，業務遍佈13個市場，員工超過40,000人。憑藉在內地的厚實 基礎，並以國際商業中心香港為總部，中信泰富以全球視野和開拓 精神投資和經營多元獨特的業務。 未來商業領導培訓生計劃於2020年推出，為期五年，分為三個 階段進行：勝任力培訓、業務培訓、總部部門跟崗和業務板塊實地 培訓（12個月）；關鍵中層管理崗位的勝任力與專業知識培訓（30 至36個月）；以及跨行業商業領導力培訓（12個月）。中信泰富透 過全球招聘，積極聯繫超過 120間大學，宣傳及挖掘目 標學生，經嚴格甄選後，最 後選拔出涵蓋不同學習背 景的培訓生，以內部及外部 資源支持培訓生融入中信泰 富的企業文化，如透過遊戲化電子平台學習體驗入職導向以加強 對公司品牌的認知、運用科學化心理智能測評識別勝任力差距並 制定培養計劃、通過與董事長會面及高管交流加強凝聚力。 這項計劃內容全面，為培訓生提供廣泛接觸不同業務的機會， 實屬業內少見。為期五年的計劃需要公司與培訓生的共同投入，旨 在令具高潛力的人才在第四年迅速晉升至關鍵中層管理崗位，並在 第五年挑戰跨部門顧問任務。 計劃迄今為止取得的成果令人鼓舞，證明投入的時間和資源 物有所值。除了百分百延聘接受率外，未來商業領導培訓生計劃亦 有助支持中信泰富全系統人才規劃工作，這在現今競爭激烈的人才 市場尤為重要。 繼未來商業領導培訓生計劃取得成功後，中信泰富亦推出「優 秀人才計劃」，旨在培養公司内部處於職業生涯初期、具高潛力的 優秀青年員工，構建中信泰富系統人才發展雙循環機制。 培養計劃推行兩年以來，已為公司帶來正面影響，重設新的 勝任力，並培養未來領導。中信泰富董事長兼總裁曾晨強調：「我 們精心設計的計劃不僅為培訓生提供全方位指導，及讓他們親身 接觸我們旗下的眾多行業，更重要的是培養對不同文化的靈敏度 和有效溝通的能力。我們的未來領導將具備敏銳的戰略性思維和 靈活的執行能力，確保他們有能力在日益複雜的世界中帶領公司 向前邁進。」
ON THE ROAD TO 2023
Hello, crystal ball, what will the world look like in the future? Rather than taking an illusionary perspective, seven senior HR leaders, across industries and regions, based on their solid experience and industry acumen, share with Tracy Chan their thoughts on the future of HR in the coming year.
It’s been a roller-coaster year – the flip-flop epidemic situation, the reopening of borders, the revival of international travel, and the uncertain macroeconomic outlook – all prompting HR professionals to be more forward-thinking, agile, and adaptable to navigate the fast-evolving world of work.
As we enter 2023, what should HR professionals expect and prepare for moving forward? We reached out to seven senior HR leaders representing Standard Chartered Bank (Hong Kong), Reckitt, MasterCard, SevenRooms, Bloom & Grow, ACAMS and DNEG, to hear their views about the HR trends and challenges in the year to come.
Peter Hatt, Head, HR, Asia, Standard Chartered Bank (Hong Kong) Limited
Developing people capabilities It’s definitely all about skills and how employment is likely to change in the future.
There is much debate around the future of jobs and clearly, we are facing a competition for skills globally and as the local talent pool shrinks from factors such as emigration and an aging population, reskilling and upskilling to enable talent retention and succession planning are at the forefront of employers’ minds.
As a result, HR has a critical role to play over the next 12 to 18 months and HR leaders need to arrive at new, innovative ways to address this challenge. Organisations are starting to determine what skills are in demand for the future, understand key skills required for what roles, and identify skills that are transferable.
We’re seeing more opportunities to upskill (employees are taught additional skills or their existing skills are improved to help them bring more value and expertise to their position), reskill (learning new skills to transition into a completely new role), and even cross-skilling (learning of new skills that can be lent to different areas to improve collaboration and support). This massively helps to retain our talented employees, prepare for organisation’s growth, and also results in positive outcomes for the company.
We need to create an environment in which people can do their best work. That’s why many organisations are seeking to create a frictionless learning experience for them.
However, therein lies our challenge. Organisations need to continue to strive towards the adoption of innovative and employee-centred solutions, so that training is focused on the individual needs of each employee, and that it fits seamlessly with their work schedules. We also need to transform the learning experience from traditional classroom settings to a digital experience with a human touch. We need to continue to engage learners through immersive experiences in this hybrid working environment.
And this is far from simple. A key question that organisations will continue to ask - How can learning programmes be developed to hold the learner’s attention?
Accessing training remotely may be convenient, however these experiences are in direct competition for the learner’s attention from constant distractions. We need to continue to spark curiosity and play to a learner’s motivation for learning.
This can be driven in several ways. Short, bite-sized modules, interactivity, and the gamification of learning can all contribute to successful learning outcomes. We will see a lot more focus on offering brief, focused lessons that center on one learning outcome that can prove to be beneficial to a learner, eliminating wandering attention and irrelevant material. Minimising the length and complexity of individual training sessions can also help learners retain information more effectively.
Wellbeing A key trend that we will continue to see flourish and evolve is the investment towards mental health.
Mindfulness, a meditative practice, is gaining immense momentum as a key trend that will evolve next year, and personally one I’m very excited about. In a nutshell, mindfulness is about being mindful about our decisions for our wellness and every living moment, such as the choice of diet and its effect on our planet. Employees are reinterpreting all their decisions and behaviours based on mindful awareness.
Mindfulness can help individuals develop greater awareness of organisational needs and challenges. It can also help people to develop leadership skills and feel less reactive in the face of change. I truly believe that it will foster workplace wellness by helping increase flexibility, improving empathy, and improving resilience in the longer term.
Workplace stress has exacerbated over the years during the pandemic and now with new hybrid working environments, we’re witnessing
Tras Wong Head of HR, Hong Kong & Taiwan Reckitt
employees unable to draw clear boundaries between their work and personal lives. Many employees are unable to dedicate time to their mental and overall wellbeing due to inflexible work hours, high workload, job insecurity and inability to share concerns openly.
It has become extremely critical for leaders to spot the signs of stressedout employees such as incomplete work, decreased productivity, lower quality of work, and mistakes. We also need to individually as leaders and collectively as an organisation, identify potential stressors in the workplace and take active steps in reducing them.
I personally try to role model behaviours that I would want to see in my team as it’s important that I can demonstrate and provide a stress-free environment for my colleagues to work in, and still be productive.
Compensation and benefits (C&B) When it comes to people’s ideal working approach, there are individual differences, as well as varying trends, but the desire for flexibility is consistent. At Reckitt, we launched different initiatives to put employee wellbeing the top priority.
People are more aware of personal wellbeing nowadays—they are looking for compensation and benefits that are flexible and personalised. However, this demands a higher people cost for the customisation, wherein companies should strive for good balance.
Recruitment and staffing With the local workforce shrinking by 140,000 over the past two years, talent acquisition has become more challenging. Moreover, young talents are more interested in being slashers than sticking to one permanent position. Thus, companies need to respond quickly with agile workforce planning.
Since the pandemic hit, we have been putting the safety of our people first by adapting flexible approaches to our working model to empower work-life integration. We recognise the importance of people also being able to reconnect with family and friends or recharging their batteries, while maximising the benefit from travel time.
Reckitt enhanced the hybrid working arrangement to allow more flexibility at work through the working-from-anywhere policy which enables colleagues to work from different locations globally, wherever it is legally permitted and adhering to the company’s guidelines.
Learning and development (L&D) We implement the 50:40:10 model for learning and development globally to enhance employees’ competency. The comprehensive training programme allows colleagues to broaden their exposure and improve their learning curve through job rotations and coaching.
A global e-learning portal, including learning hubs for personal, leadership and functional development, is also available for colleagues to sharpen their skill set and develop a competitive edge.
Mobility Hong Kong talents are looking for more international mobility. At the same time, Hong Kong has become less favourable for expatriates by remaining the world’s most expensive city for expatriates to live in for three consecutive years.
Our employees have the freedom to succeed in owning the career development conversation. Working in a multinational company provides the opportunity to work with colleagues from other markets and gain exposure at the global level. We also have an internal job board where employees can easily assess overseas opportunities.
Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) DE&I conversations in Hong Kong are employer-driven and education-based. In line with our ‘Compass’ approach of putting people first, we are looking to adopt a more employee-driven approach at Reckitt.
Recently, we launched the ‘Greater China Inclusion Board’ to start an inclusive platform where everyone can participate and realise their full potential. The board promotes diversity and inclusion through various activities based on the uniqueness of the local market, giving colleagues a sense of belonging. With this, we hope each person can truly become themselves, realise their value, and bring more innovation and vitality to Reckitt.
Environmental, social and governance (ESG), corporate social responsibility (CSR), and sustainability Sustainability is central to Reckitt’s purpose and runs through everything we do in pursuit of a cleaner and healthier world. We have a global employee-driven initiative, ‘Give Time’ programme, allowing employees to volunteer two days a year.
On a local level, we continue to work closely with our NGO partners to support the community through Dettol product donations, hygiene education, and volunteering throughout the year. Hygiene is the foundation of public health, and access to the highest quality hygiene, wellness and nourishment is a right, not a privilege.
Employee wellbeing It is essential to prioritise the wellbeing of our colleagues as they are an invaluable asset to the company. Employee wellbeing should be dynamic and all-rounded. It is not just about better work-life balance but better life across different components—physical, mental, financial, nutrition, etc.
Wellbeing is at the core of Reckitt. Our approach is centred in a model where all content, tools and resources are aligned within seven components that cover both physical and mental health. We have launched a six-month ‘WellBeingWell’ programme for Hong Kong and Taiwan markets to enable healthier, happier people and places across the company. It is not just about a better work-life balance, but a better life.
Compensation and benefits (C&B) Under the COVID-19 era, employees still want a higher salary and seem to have lost loyalty to their employers. We will see flexible staff benefits become the biggest trend, and candidates demand higher pay, more leave, etc. Traditional HR professionals need to open their minds to understand individual staff/candidates’ needs on different benefits rather than providing one-sizefits-all solutions. Recruitment and staffing Online interviews will be the biggest trend.
Meanwhile, it will be hard for recruiters as candidates have high salary expectations. Many job seekers will choose a larger company, because they are worried that a small company will easily go bankrupt under COVID-19. This also makes it difficult for small companies to recruit people.
On the other hand, many candidates who have signed a new employment contract may decide not to join the new employer a few days before they are due to be on board. This will cause a waste of time in preparing all for new staff and losing a month of recruiting time!
Learning & development (L&D) and mobility We will see more virtual distance interventions and more work-from-home requests.
Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) HR professionals need to open hearts and minds in a traditional-thinking workforce across Asia.
ESG, CSR, sustainability and employee wellbeing The biggest challenge is to find time to introduce, promote, and arrange such interventions. And HR needs to deal with the increased costs.
Compensation and benefits (C&B) It is widely acknowledged that the employer-employee relationship has evolved during the pandemic. As such, supporting employees’ physical, emotional, financial, and social wellbeing, especially in times of crisis, is today recognised as an integral element of an organisation’s offering.
As the corporate emphasis on supporting employee needs increases, leaders will have to address the widening scope of expectations. To that end, flexible and customised rewards will likely become mainstream in future. Organisations should aim to offer a wider array of benefits and allow employees to choose the benefits that are most relevant to them.
Recruitment and staffing The war on talent is fiercer than ever. Organisations have to consistently review and re-define their approach to onboarding new employees to ensure that the journey from interview to day one and beyond is firmly aligned with the company’s brand and culture.
As competition for talent increases, it is essential to firmly engage the attention of the new joiner even before the job officially begins. This is where robust pre-onboarding and on-boarding execution matters. We have a dedicated shared services team that keeps in regular touch with pre-joiners to assist them with completing various activities, along with personalised touch points to keep potential new hires engaged.
Learning and development (L&D) Our global return-to-work programme has been designed to enable experienced mid-career professionals to return after a career break of two or more years. It provides returners with a range of resources to support them every step of the way and help them integrate into the organisation.
From the start, they are given opportunities to work on key projects and initiatives, enabling them to expand on their skills and prior experience. They receive on-the-job training, coaching, and opportunities to learn about our business, while developing new and existing skills. Upon completion of the programme, based on their performance, participants may be considered for full-time employment. Employee wellbeing Moving to work-life harmonisation rather than focusing on work-life balance is one of the biggest employee wellbeing challenges. Even though benefits that promote wellbeing, including the flexibility to determine when and where an individual works, have significantly increased in the past two years, employees report experiencing higher levels of burnout and deteriorating work-life balance.
Managers need to be the stewards of this cultural shift and work with employees to understand their individual expectations and needs, as well as identify potential areas of burnout or disengagement. This will empower employees to design a work mode that is best suited to their unique circumstances and schedule.
Organisations, on the other hand, have a unique opportunity to focus on wellbeing metrics as a leading indicator of their employees’ engagement and productivity. They should start tracking these metrics using engagement scores, wellbeing surveys, utilisation reports, absenteeism, and more, to understand if the working environment allows talent to perform at its best. Tracking these metrics will also create more direct organisational accountability for employee wellbeing, reinforcing the idea that wellbeing is valued throughout the organisation.
Paul McCarthy, Chief People Officer, SevenRooms
Compensation & benefits / employee wellbeing Living and working through a global pandemic created challenges for every person on our planet. While it’s unlikely that 2023 will pose greater
Delna Dhamodiwala Global Head of HR DNEG
Paul McCarthy Chief People Officer SevenRooms
challenges than those we’ve experienced over the last few years, it does offer the promise of more certainty and stability since the pandemic began. There is a real opportunity for HR and People teams to think more holistically and longterm about employee wellness going forward.
The last two years brought more open conversations around mental health and social wellbeing at work than ever before. I foresee a continued emphasis on ensuring that both businesses and their wellbeing policies, in addition to compensation and benefits, will be personalised and provide genuine value for employees. Specifically, how can businesses move away from one-size-fits-all compensation, benefits and employee wellbeing programmes, and tailor their offerings to the needs of each and every individual team member?
In 2023, to have maximum impact, companies must further their personalisation of benefits for employees to provide something genuinely relevant and useful for everyone. For example, you might provide fantastic fertility or parental leave benefits, but they’re only going to be beneficial to the handful of people who are having a baby.
So how can you provide something of equivalent value to the remainder of the company? One way to circumnavigate that, and ensure that every benefit is tailored to the needs and desires of an individual employee, is through stipends. We offer our employees a monthly stipend that can be used for anything from student loans to travel to fitness. If you can give people optionality and allow them to make those choices themselves, you’re ensuring your business works for them, not vice versa.
The pandemic has been a period of immense reflection for employers and employees alike, and one of the biggest takeaways for us has been the importance of time. Time is our most precious resource as humans, whether you earn it or give it away. And how we spend our time is perhaps the single most important decision leaders and employees can be making right now.
Our jobs are an important part of our lives, but they don’t define us. Every member of our team has a life outside of work - whether that’s children, caring for a relative or just personal passions - and no job should diminish their commitment to their families or the pursuit of their passions.
So whether that’s flexible remote work policies, or something else entirely, employees want freedom first and foremost, and their employers should be the ones championing that decision and providing support to make that a consistent reality.
At SevenRooms, for example, we have introduced a policy in which every single new hire spends their first two weeks of employment on paid leave. All employees are also required to schedule a minimum of five consecutive days of paid leave during the first half and second half of the year, with a minimum of 10 days required for those with five or more years of tenure.
This is in addition to our monthly recharge days, which enable our employees to take one day a month to refresh and recharge away from their computers, outside of their regular PTO. We want people to be able to take the time they need to rest and recharge before embarking on a new journey with us and continue to find time to step away and reset once onboard. It’s about more than all the additional leave, it’s about continuously proving that our employees’ time is meaningful to us.
Delna Dhamodiwala, Global Head of HR, DNEG
In 2020, the world was hit by the global pandemic. Since then, the dynamics of work and the employee ecosystem have changed drastically.
Before the pandemic, the concept of working from home was preposterous. It was even more so unimaginable for companies dealing with confidential data and projects. However, the pandemic challenged the idea of what working looks like and turned work-from-home and hybridworking culture into the new normal.
Post the pandemic, employees want to continue having flexibility and want to maintain a work-life balance. While the concept itself has a lot of pros, there are also areas where we are missing important aspects of our working lives: employee connection, camaraderie, visibility, collaboration, and building trust all require employees to meet and mix at regular intervals, but the concepts of work from home and hybrid culture pose some challenges in achieving this.
Therefore, one of the most important focus areas for companies in 2023 is to strategise and implement policies and practices to find the right working balance for both employers and employees.
Employee engagement / centricity We believe that 2023 will witness renewed focus on engagement and employee retention. Listening to employees and addressing their concerns is critical for designing a relevant and meaningful retention strategy.
Providing meaningful work; competitive remuneration; improved and customised benefits and perks; increased recognition; more connection and collaboration; and creating a healthy and fun work environment, will be a few key engagement themes that will be adopted across various sectors in the next year.
Employee mental health and holistic wellbeing One of the biggest factors affecting the employee ecosystem is the need to maintain good mental health.
Holistic wellbeing involves focusing on mental, physical, and financial wellbeing. When an employee can take care of themselves on these levels, they are more productive and happier at work.
Within this year, many companies across all sectors have been conducting various events and seminars to help promote holistic health. We too have taken significant steps and tied up with various experts who help with generating awareness, educating employees on physical and mental health, and providing support with one-on-one counselling. We believe there is still work to be done within this area and it will remain a major focus in 2023.
Winning the war for talent The VFX and film industry is dependent on excellent talent, and the talent pool is rather limited compared to the demand for content post-pandemic, which has been on an all-time high.
As companies have expanded globally to cater to this increase in demand, the war for talent acquisition has become more intense. Owing to this, rethinking the hiring process, and prioritising recruitment strategies will have to be one of the key focus areas for 2023.
Learning and development (L&D) While talent acquisition and employee retention will be in focus, upskilling employees will help tackle the issue of limited talent pool. Training the leadership & managerial teams will help companies thrive in the post-pandemic changing work dynamics. Identifying, developing and equipping the future leaders while investment in upskilling employees, managers and leaders shall be a key focus area in 2023.
However, unlike previous years, L&D will have a different approach and direction in the coming years. There will be a balanced mix of technical, functional, and behavioural skills as well as a focus on analytical and critical thinking. L&D will be more strategic with a strong focus on training employees on acquiring and honing skills that are aligned with organisational requirements.
Along with this there will be a focus on coaching, mentoring, talent rotation, and onthe-job immersive experiences to strengthen the capabilities of employees and sustain competitiveness. The focus in 2023 will be to leverage technology so as to make learning ondemand, self-paced, accessible, and futuristic.
DE&I The focus of DEI ecosystem has shifted to looking at the entire employee lifecycle through the DEI lens and including every aspect of the employee experience.
Measures like setting up a DEI steering group, diversity audit, awareness sessions, workshops, expert talks, DEI training, mentorship for underrepresented groups, more engagement and involvement, creating opportunities for growth and inclusion, employee networks, strengthening DEI policies, and partnering with organisations who help further the DEI cause are amongst some of the initiatives that organisations shall be focusing on in 2023 and beyond.
For DNEG, in 2023, DEI will continue to be a key focus area in our talent strategy, with the goal to create a safe and inclusive workplace culture that helps to differentiate us from our competitors.
From my perspective the biggest challenges and trends in HR in 2023 will be the result of a combination of few events: the new way of working for office employees (remote or hybrid rather than physically in an office), the ongoing competition for talent, and the rising cost of living.
Work effectiveness and engagement How to make sure that employees, individually and as teams, are effective in a remote/hybrid environment, and focused on the real goal of their role/team? Do we need to organise work differently? How do culture and purpose happen remotely? How do we ensure equality in the remote world?
Compensation & benefits How to find the balance between meeting company’s financial goals and competing for talent (external and internal) with the current rise in cost of living? Are there creative ways of approaching benefits? How far should company’s care for employees go: is financial education, childcare support, or energy bills covered?
This is thanks to blending an organisational approach (of identifying risk vs ambition) with an individual approach (of identifying talents who most nourish the company, i.e., ‘key people’).
It was the union of four Parisian ateliers that led to the birth of SMCP, which comprises ready-to-wear brands, Sandro, Maje, Claudie Pierlot, and Fursac. With a global presence in 43 countries, more than 1,684 points of sales, and more than 6,000 employees, SMCP Group has the ambition to be the global leader in accessible luxury, with the mission to inspire Parisian elegance around the world.
Accessibility isn’t, however, only restricted to its business model – it is the essence of the company’s philosophy around managing talent and enabling learning for its teams across Hong Kong, Shanghai, New York, and Paris. Led by its CEO Stephane Ledru, SMCP Asia believes in blending an organisational approach (of identifying risk vs ambition) with an individual approach (of identifying talents who most nourish the company, i.e., ‘key people’). This has not only allowed the company to take better decisions at a BU-level, but also roll out a united SMCP talent culture which shares the same language, identifies the key people, and makes them stand out in front of the management.
A ‘9-Box People Talent Review’ awaits those individuals identified as the company’s key talent. This entails using a strategic platform to distinguish them based on their potential (motivation, capabilities, learning agility), and performance. Based on where they stand, they could be classified as rising stars, solid contributors, trusted specialists, and more. This classification guides their training into management leaders, as well as feeds into a cross-functional talent review.
As a result of this approach, SMCP achieved better company connection across all departments and regions, as well as saw reduced employee turnover. Not only did the programme foster healthy competition and support inclusion, but stakeholders said it also helped to build strategic thinking in the organisation. In fact, in 2022, SMCP Asia achieved 20% of internal mobility or promotion in Asia markets, with seven nationalities and 87% percent of women within the group.
While this programme focuses on key people, the rest of the organisation is equally cared for – and this is through ‘My Learning’, a new digital learning platform specifically designed to make staff onboarding a success and enrich the employee experience. This easily accessible, selfservice portal focuses on both product training and personal development, and is supported by the leadership team who leads by example in launching the portal in Asia and engaging in activities such as ‘Digital Conference’. Evidently, SMCP has been investing significantly in MyLearning, where training is aimed to be 100% accessible to its employees worldwide, anytime, anywhere. This was a key success factor especially during the pandemic lockdown, where the team had the flexibility to control individual learning pace, resulting in higher learning efficiency and positive employee feedback.
Indeed, with 24/7 online coaching at their beck and call, employees have become the owners of their career journey at SMCP, learning through videos, interactive resources, quizzes, idea boxes, and more.
As a result, the portal has been positively received by all stakeholders. It is being credited as not only spurring administrative efficiency, but also overcoming space-time constraints, and achieving its goal of making people grow, with them having spent an average three hours of learning.
As the SMCP HR team prepares its people innovation strategy for the year to come, SMCP’s CEO Asia, Stephane Ledru has a special message: “Hiring the right talents in an ever-changing environment and company is a real challenge (and a real talent also). This is why our HR team needs to be entrepreneurial and understand perfectly the difficulties that operational teams are facing.
“They need to dare, take risk, fight for their conviction, and give all the support that individuals but also business partners need in their daily life to achieve our ambitious goals.”
