Human Resources, December 2014

December 2014

The smart HR professional’s fessional’s blueprint for workforce strategy

humanresourcesonline.net

Meet the HR leader protecting Maersk Line’s rich culture through all the elements.

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December 2014 « CONTENTS

COVER STORY 12 Q&A Rupert Brown, head of HR at Maersk Line Asia Pacific, explains the ins and outs of navigating succession at a company with a rich and long history.

Features 16 Rewarding it right Although staff appreciate non-cash rewards, they still actively demand cash.

How can C&B professionals get the balance right? Akankasha Dewan speaks with HR leaders about the most powerful motivators to drive behaviour.

24 Plugging the holes in your talent pipeline Do you have a tight seal on succession? Aditi Sharma Kalra talks to HR professionals about the leadership development necessary to stop a leaking talent pipeline.

Opinion 30 Learning & Development

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Don’t pander to the over generalised “whims and fancies” of the younger generation to boost employer branding, warns Wan Ezrin Sazli Bin Wan Zahari, group head of leadership and talent development at AirAsia.

32 People Issues Thanking a team member is one of the simplest things to do, but is also often the most forgotten action. C.K. Mohan, senior director of HR at Yum Restaurants, reminds us of the niceties that make for a fun workplace.

33 Unconventional Wisdom

ON THE COVER: Art direction: Shahrom Kamarulzaman; Photography: Stefanus Elliot Lee – www.elliotly.com

Work-life integration all comes down to understanding needs, building a culture of trust and giving staff the right tools, says Lim Ying Chia, country HR director at IBM Singapore.

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34 Upwardly Mobile Nora Mahbob, HR director at L’Oréal Malaysia, explains the four cornerstones of caring for and protecting employees.

40 Last Word In what has become somewhat of a tradition, Rebecca Lewis outlines trends she’s picked up on in the past year.

Regulars

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3 4 6 7 8

Ed’s note In the news Suite talk Spacial awareness HR by numbers

9 Snapshot 10 White paper 38 Up the ranks 39 Shelf life

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EDITOR’S NOTE

editor senior journalist journalist contributors

regional art director senior designer regional marketing executive regional directors

Rebecca Lewis Aditi Sharma Kalra Akankasha Dewan Corinna Cheang Lim Ying Chia C.K. Mohan Wan Ezrin Sazli Bin Wan Zahari Shahrom Kamarulzaman Fauzie Rasid June Tan Yogesh Chandiranani Jaclyn Chua Naomi Cranswick Karen Boh

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Yang Kai Lin

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Nikita Erpini Kenneth Neo Jen Rabino

regional head of event services regional finance director group editorial director group managing director

Yeo Wei Qi Evelyn Wong Tony Kelly Justin Randles

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And yet another year flies by Have I been editing this magazine for three years already?

When I first stepped into this role in January 2012, I knew very little about HR. And yet, over the past few years, I’ve transformed my understanding and seen first-hand just how beneficial and impactful truly strategic HR can be to a company.

I’ve also seen how external market factors and changing legislation can create additional pressures for the people who take charge.

Thankfully, I am only tasked with writing about it, but I can now truly appreciate the effort that goes into the key business ingredient we call “talent”.

2014 has been an absolute year of change, and I believe 2015 is going to be even more so.

Whatever happens, there are a few solid truths that have come out of the past year, and that will dictate how well HR leaders perform next year.

is much harder to do, and it’s a conundrum that’s going to continue in 2015.

Engagement is key But it’s lacking, pretty much everywhere.

Disengaged workers are a disease for a company, and organisations who still treat careers like jobs rather than “experiences” aren’t going to be able to cure their problems.

Because of these things and more, 2015 is going to be an even bigger challenge than this year. But is that such a bad thing?

New challenges means new opportunities, and the need to stay ahead will force organisations to innovate and reevaluate their own processes But first, we all need a break! I hope you have a wonderful year-end holiday, and return in 2015 ready to tackle the new year!

Talent won the talent war Yep, the employees are in charge. The power has slowly shifted and high-performing employees exert control, thanks to virtually no unemployment allowing staff to leave one job and pick up another easily. They’re seeking career growth, but also leadership. They want work that’s fun and meaningful, but they want to get paid more.

It’s a constant struggle, but if you can’t adapt and innovate, you’ll lose out.

Social, gamification and data reign I think this year is the first time companies in Asia have started to take this seriously. Next year we will undoubtedly see some big changes and realisations in these arenas.

Whether to engage employees, develop leaders or recruit more effectively, this growing understanding of data and HR tech is going to completely evolve the function. If you haven’t already dipped your toes in the HR technology pool, then 2015 is the year you have to. Otherwise you will have missed your opportunity to get ahead of the game.

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

HumanResources

Firms need local, but talent must be global Key skills are scarce in Singapore, and so talent who possess them have an edge. Recruiters and hiring managers used to look globally, but now this

Rebecca Lewis Editor December 2014 « Human Resources «

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News from humanresourcesonline.net

SINGAPORE’S TOP FIVE PUBLIC EMPLOYERS OF CHOICE

THE CHEAPEST PLACE ACE TO HIRE TALENT IS …

The Ministry of Education (MOE) is the most desirable public sector employer for Singapore’s fresh graduates.

Rising from seventh place last yea year, the MOE climbs into the number one spot for graduates and uundergraduates as the place they most want to work, ahead of the Sin Singapore Tourism Board (STB) in second place and the National UUniversity of Singapore (NUS) in third. STB has risen from sixth plac place in 2013, while NUS stays put at number three.

Roundin Rounding out the top five is the Economic Development Board in fourth place an and the Health Promotion Board.

Job JobsCentral, who conducted the rankings, also asked fresh graduates about the vvalues they sought in their ideal private se sector jobs, with the top answer being “good relations with colleagu colleagues” and “good relations with management”.

This differs somewhat from the their ideal values in private companies, which are “advancement opportunities” and “salary”.

If you wish to employ staff at the lowest possible cost, you may want to search for talent from Ukraine, Turkey ey or Vietnam. According to the Global Cost of Talent Index dex by Universum, undergrads in th those three countries have the lowest salary expectationss in the world world.

The survey, which polled students from 33 countries, found the average salary expectation of students in Ukraine was US$521 per month. Turkey and Vietnam followed with an average of US$6,566 and US$7,119.

Switzerland, Norway and Denmark are the top three countries with the highest expectations with US$7,423 per month, US$71,325 and US$68,225 respectively. In comparison, undergraduates in Singapore expect US$31,979. In Hong Kong, respondents expect US$26,806, while in Malaysia they want US$12,275.

The report also delved intoo the differences between average salaries of women and men, finding that men on average age earn 13% more than women globally.

DEC MICROSOFT CEO APOLOGISES FOR SEXIST ANSWER WER

30% % OF NEW W STAFF DISAPPOINTED APPOINTED D AFTER ER SIX MONTHS After six months into a new job, nearly a third of employees wish they’d done a bit more research about the role. In fact, 31% of staff feel “disappointed” once the honeymoon period is over – which is hardly surprising given 55% of new hires didn’t even bother to look at their employer’s website before starting.

According to a study by Glassdoor, 78% of hires also fail to check the profitability of the business, and 80% don’t explore company reviews shared by employees. Overall, the research 22% of employees said they didn’t have enough information to make an informed decision about whether to take a job or not.

Because of this, 23% wish they had asked more questions during the interview – a figure that rises to 32% for those who have been in their job for less than six months.

It was a serious case of foot-in-mouth -mouth for Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella inn September, who was forced to backtrack onn a statement that was identified as sexist andd out of touch.

At the Grace Hopper Celebration bration of Women in Computing, he was asked for or his advice to women who are looking to advance their careers, but are uncomfortablee about asking for a raise. His response?

“It’s not really about asking ng for the raise, but about knowing and having faithh that the system will give you the right raises when you go along.

That might be one of the additional onal superpowers that women who don’t ask for a raise have.”

Much to his detriment, he went on to say: “That’s good karma – becausee somebody is going to know that that’s the kind of person that I want to trust and give more responsibility lity to.”

He soon realised the folly of his strange advice, and made a clarification on hiss Twitter account and sent out an email to Microsoft staff apologising for his comments.

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GEN Y’S LEADERSHIP SKILLS NEED WORK NEW PERKS FOR APPLE’S EMPLOYEES A range of new perks have been made available to Apple staff, including extended parental leave, education reimbursements, and donations from Apple matching for hours of non-profit work.

Denise Young Smith, Apple’s head of HR, revealed the perks in a memo to employees in a move to showcase the company’s employee offerings to potential talent in the job market.

These changes include educational assistance for all full-time employees and part-time retail employees, which will cover courses related to any job at Apple, including English language courses. A student loan refinancing programme will also be available to help ease existing loan burdens and cover new expenses for employees’ college-aged children.

Soon-to-be parents will also benefit, with new mums being able to take fully paid leave for up to four weeks before their due date, and up to 12 to 14 weeks after the baby is born. Other new parents will receive full pay for up to six weeks.

EMPLOYMENT RISES IN SINGAPORE, AMID LOWER PRODUCTIVITY The first half of 2014 saw the local share of employment in Singapore rise to a high of 73%, while the growth of the foreign workforce fell sharply in a tight labour market. The overall and resident unemployment rates stayed low at 2% and 2.8% respectively.

The macroeconomic review, released twice a year by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), noted domestic economic activity had been sluggish over the past sixx months, slowed by the domestic-oriented sectors and uneven recovery in the global economy. Overall, employment in Singapore expanded, albeit at a slower wer pace. The two rounds of increases in the Employment Pass minimum um qualifying salary led to a slowdown in the rise of Employment Pass Holders.

The foreign workforce rce now w makes up 27% of employment gains, compared pared with w 39% last year.

The country’s domestic-oriented estic-ooriented sectors drove overall job creationn in H11 2014. This was supported by the construction nstrucction sector, which added 9,100 00 new w workers, for projects such ch as expansion works at Changi ngi Airport, and Stage 2 of the he Downtown MRT Line.

Generation Y employees score significantly lower than other generations on traditional leadership traits such as decisiveness, persuasion and strategic thinking. However, they bring an entirely different set of skills to the workplace relevant to today’s business needs.

These differences in the way Generations X, Y, and the baby boomers think, act and lead were featured in Hudson’s new report, based on 28,000 psychometric assessments.

Generation Y, born between 1980 and 1994, do not prioritise forceful leadership g and a vision,, and and persuasion; instead they prefer to lead by providingg insights by being a role model. They have been profiled as 32% more ambitious and 27% more people-oriented thann baby boomers.

Generation X, on the other hand, speaks the languages of both baby boomers and Generation Y – by educating upwards and innovating downwards. Theyy are also more socially progressive, change-oriented and culturally sensitive. They are marginally more strategic in their approach than the following generation.

Baby boomers come out on top in traditional leadership traits. They were listed as 28% more decisive than Generation Y and 21% more persuasive. ve.

‘HUGE’ DISCONNECT BETWEEN HR AND STAFF The disconnect between HR and employees is “as great as ever”, according to in-depth new research on the function. In fact, information compiled by ADP found HR and senior leadership are significantly out of touch with employees’ general attitudes and perceptions.

The white paper summarised these findings from three global studies – one among employees, one among HR decision-makers and one among senior leadership (excluding HR) – to help gain a better understanding of the similarities and differences of employee and employer attitudes.

Overall, employees have a much more negative perception of how well their organisations are managing them when compared with what employers think – particularly with regards to compensation, work-life balance, career opportunities and the effectiveness of senior leadership.

Senior executives and HR leaders were also significantly more satisfied than Se employees employ yees with the processes they have in place for getting employees’ answers to their questions questio ons regarding HR and benefits.

Th The he study showed little has come out of efforts to improve communication and relationships leaders relation nships between HR, lead adeers ad rrss an aandd employees.

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WORK LIFE » People GET INTO THE BOSS’S HEAD

Ng Ling Ling Managing director Community Chest

Tell us about your journey to working with Community Chest?

I joined the National Council of Social Service (NCSS) in 2001, after taking a leap of faith to switch from the financial industry to an area that I have had a passion for since I was young.

Over these 13 years, I have had the pleasure of experiencing different aspects of social service sector work, from setting up charity board governance standards; pioneering the training school under the Social Service Institute; administering over $300 million of public and private funding to charities; to strategic planning for NCSS. Since last year, I’ve been leading the fundraising, community outreach, and engagement efforts under Community Chest to connect more companies and people to contribute to the less privileged in our community.

How would you define your leadership style?

While I am generally a more task-oriented and objective-driven leader, I have learnt from

“While I am generally a more task-oriented and objective-driven leader, I have learnt from many humbling experiences to put people first.” many humbling experiences to put people first.

When people are motivated and cared for, I have seen them perform way above their expected potential.

I joke with friends that the sector has transformed me to a gentler social worker at heart, though my accountancy and financial background will always keep my head focused on goals, outcomes, and numbers.

What do you enjoy most about your work?

Through the years, be it developing partnerships to mount training programmes for the upskilling of the social service sector’s capabilities, crunching numbers to ensure optimal allocation and accountability of funds for charities, or trying to touch hearts and encourage involvement from donors and volunteers in the lives of the disadvantaged, the vision that propels me to press on is that everything is done to bring the best out of the human spirit, be it from the ones rendering help or the ones receiving help.

What is the toughest decision you’ve had to make as a boss, and what did you learn from it?

I feel it is when I defend or keep the job for a coworker who is unable to perform at his or her best under circumstances where their lives have taken a toll on them, yet I need to be fair to the rest of the team who is carrying a heavier workload.

In this sector, we encounter co-workers who are talented and competent, but may be facing difficult circumstances – be it caring for an aged parent with dementia, or a child with special needs, or struggling with single-parenthood. I guess that is why they join us in the first place – because they can relate to the causes and people we are serving.

I learnt that we must first care for those around us, before we can extend to care for others.

When you’re struggling with stress or a bad day, how do you unwind?

I switch my mind to focus on what has longer term value, like family and health, and re-tune my mind to see the temporal nature of stress.

Talking to or reading a children’s book with my seven-year-old boy also helps me remember simple jjoys in life and puts my priorities in perspective. A hearty meal or a romantic comedy often does quick healing on a bad day.

How do you engage and motivate staff when they are struggling with work?

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I try to pace down first to ease the pressure the staff feel. Speaking in a gentler tone, I will try to help the staff see that it is not the end of the world when something cannot be done or work gets very complex. I like to share stories of how I overcome challenges through my experiences, but I often find a listening ear and willingness to support are what the staff needs at such instances. I also find it a responsibility as a leader to find resources and seek solutions where I can walk the talk of rendering practical support to the staff.

What is your view of HR as a function, and how it contribute better to organisational goals?

I have high regard for HR management and respect for HR professionals. I see effective HRM as the cornerstone for any successful organisation today – the ability to identify potential, develop people, motivate, and sustain their energy and contributions to deliver results while feeling cared for by the organisation should be paramount in every leader’s personal development priorities.

So, in your opinion, can HR leaders rise to the C-suite level?

If an HR leader is able to understand and be very familiar with the work of the organisation and is willing to continually learn, be humble yet courageous to take bold and creative steps to contribute towards the organisation’s strategy formulation and execution, he or she will certainly be able to rise up to be a good CEO. What was your most memorable moment working at Community Chest?

I have been privileged to be given several opportunities to pioneer new work and acquire new knowledge about the non-profit sector locally and internationally over the years. I learnt how to bridge and connect people with common goals to improve lives for those we can extend a helping hand to.

As the fund-raising and engagement arm of NCSS, Community Chest started spearheading a national care & share movement since late last year to rally more donations and volunteerism, with the aim of ushering in the 50th year of independence for Singapore in 2015 in a meaningful way for the disadvantaged in our midst. I find it significant to be able to contribute this way in a historical moment of our nation and community building. I know the experience of leading this national movement will be an indelible memory for me.

» Hum Human Hu H um u ma an nR Resources Re Res eesso our ou urrces u cceeess » Decem De D December ece ccem eem mbbe ber eerr 220 2014 014 14

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People WORK LIFE

SpacialAwareness

NOTHING GREY ABOUT THIS WORKPLACE As one of the largest global communications companies, Grey Group has a very team-oriented culture where everyone is welcomed as part of the “Grey family”.

“Awesome employees with a strong company culture makes for success in every avenue,” said Huma Qureshi, PR director for Grey Group APAC. “Productivity, creativity and office morale are driven by an engaging workspace.”

Grey’s new office allows its staff to “interact as much as they would like to in a fun and relaxed atmosphere and in an encouraging environment for creativity and award-winning ideas”.

At the same time, when it comes down to serious business or confidential discussions,

employees have access to glass enclosed meeting rooms, giving an adequate amount of privacy without completely being cut off from the main office floor.

“Each meeting room has different styles of furniture and therefore each has a character of its own.”

When it comes to renovating an office space, Qureshi said having a good understanding of the company culture and employee needs was imperative.

“Renovating an office breathes new life into an existing space. The changes are welcomed and excitement builds up because there is usually a story behind the choices of furniture and decor,” she said.

Greeting you as you enter the office, the “red man statue” is the common feature that connects the

spaces in Grey’s office, she added, and employees normally see it as the “welcome” statue.

And, as for the fun stuff, Grey has a pantry area with an espresso machine set aside for an energy boost, as well as a breakfast counter for its employees’ weekly get-togethers.

Additionally, the leisure area allows staff to bond and have fun together.

A table tennis table and a pool table are also available to play on, but they can be used as meeting tables from time to time.

“But if pool isn’t your game, then we do cut our monthly birthday cake on this table for those employees celebrating that particular month. We celebrate with them in style.”

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WORK LIFE » HR by numbers

Senior staff like to shop at work The holiday season is upon us, which often means lower productivity, but who knew your senior employees would be the ones leading the Christmas cool-down?

According to a CareerBuilder survey, CEOs, company presidents and vice-presidents are most likely to waste time at work shopping online.

They’re also likely to spend at least an hour (58%) or between one and three hours (30%) killing time by buying gifts during the work day.

46% of junior staff also shop online during work hours.

53%

of senior management shop online during work.

6%

spend three to five hours online shopping at work.

25%

of managers have fired staff for non-work related internet use.

Source: Careerbuilder

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People WORK LIFE

snapshot

15 minutes with ...

Evangeline Chua

Head of of human resources Citi Singapore TELL US ABOUT YOUR EXPERIENCE AT CITI SINGAPORE TO DATE. It has been a very good journey for me. I rejoined Citi Singapore in July 2010 and every year here there has been a change in my work scope. In most HR functions you either do a specialist or generalist role. In my first year, I was given a hybrid role, managing the learning aspect as well as risk and control. In addition, I was also working as a generalist supporting various businesses. It was in my second year that I was given a specialist function. I landed in my current role in my third year.

and transactional work. As it evolved in the late 90s, it became ‘human resources’. That’s when we started talking about human capital.

Since then, processes have become more sophisticated, more automated and more structured. This is because we’re dealing with four generations in the workforce that have different needs and desires, and their own out-of-norm demands. So we really have to put structured policies and practices in place to act as a guide, especially considering that Citi is such a big organisation.

WHAT DOES THE FUTURE HOLD FOR HR? Right now, as we speak, we’re again going through another phase of transformation. The HR function is going to be very specialised.

Historically, the function has been very reactive – whenever employees have any queries, the function addresses to their needs.

But what we’re advocating right now is that HR rightfully should be employees’ advocacy. And we should be out there to represent the views of the employees and to play a more advisory role to the businesses. So the function is becoming more advisory and strategic.

WHY DID YOU DECIDE TO PURSUE HR AS A PROFESSION? It was a conscious decision. I am passionate about dealing with people, and even when I was picking out my major I knew I wanted to be either in HR or public relations.

WHAT DO YOU ENJOY MOST ABOUT WORK? At Citi, it’s all about talent. I work with very passionate people – be it from corporate affairs or the product people. I truly enjoy this passion, because you need passion to drive any organisation.

HOW HAVE YOU NOTICED THE HR FUNCTION EVOLVING? When I first started work in the 1990s, the function was called ‘personnel management’, which tended to relate more to administrative

WHAT IMPROVEMENTS NEED TO BE MADE WITHIN HR? From a general perspective, I think talent development is still key because it is closely tied with the motivation and retention of any employee.

On the ground, in the know With more than 200 locations, Crown has the local presence and experience to support your teams, where and when you need it.

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WHITE PAPER » Leadership

EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT ON THE RISE IN APAC

Global – Not only are more employees striving too en work harder in their jobs, but there has also been an increase in the number of staff willing to stayy in their companies and speak well about its culturee and processes. port Combining the above factors together, a report

by Aon Hewitt has found employee engagement levels in the region were higher in 2013 compared with 2012.

Surveying 2.42 million employees across nearly 3,000 companies in the region, the report found nine out of 12 countries saw an increase in engagement levels in 2013, and the region’s overall employee engagement score increased by three percentage points to 61%, the same as the global engagement score.

Of the nine countries that showed improvements in engagement in 2013, Singapore saw the highest increase with a gain of seven percentage points (to 64% in 2013 from 57% in 2012), surpassing the 2013 APAC average of 61%.

“All of Singapore’s top engagement drivers of 2012 saw improvements in perception in 2013, resulting in some movement in the top drivers,” the report stated. “While career opportunities, innovation and work tasks consistently remain as the top drivers of employee engagement, managing performance and communication became top drivers for the first time in 2013.

Percentag Percentage of engaged employees 2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

Global

60%

56%

58%

60%

61%

North America

67%

64%

64%

63%

65%

Europe

55%

51%

52%

57%

57%

Asia Pacific

59%

55%

58%

58%

61%

Latin America

71%

72%

71%

74%

70%

Source: 2014 Trends in Asia Pacific Employee Engagement, Aon Hewitt

“Recognition, organisational reputation and innovation made significant gains in perception scores in 2013, while communication saw a decrease of 5%.”

Malaysia was also highlighted in the survey among countries with substantial increases in employee engagement levels (6%). The report credited the rise to the country’s new political stability, along with increased spending on people-related programmes, for Malaysia’s positive engagement levels.

“We believe that increasing the retirement age has had a positive impact on overall engagement due to the significantly higher engagement levels among the baby boomers generation.”

While Hong Kong’s overall engagement levels were on the rise, the report warned, however, the

percentage of highly engaged employees in Hong Kong was still far below the Asia Pacific average of 21%. Low levels of retention in organisations and poor communication between employers and staff were cited as possible underlying reasons for the country’s under-performance.

“Engagement drivers differ substantially by country,” said Gabriela Domicelj, regional engagement practice leader for Asia Pacific at Aon Hewitt. “Operating in this complex environment presents a challenge for leaders trying to drive high levels of employee engagement.

“Organisations that invest in understanding and managing the key drivers of employee engagement across their multiple constituencies will be able to drive performance in more efficient and effective ways.”

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Leadership « WHITE PAPER

MILLENNIALS PROVING TO BE ‘MISUNDERSTOOD’ STOOD D’ Global – You may be relying on the stereotypes of the Millennial generation to enhance creativity and productivity levels, but how much do you really know about the youngest members of your workforce? Apparently, not much.

Debunking several common myths about Millennials, the largest global research ever conducted on this generation – a combined study

by INSEAD Emerging Markets Institute (EMI), the HEAD Foundation and Universum – identified they are independent, do want leadership roles, and don’t feel entitled enough to demand a high salary, but would rather have excellent work-life balance.

Contrary to popular belief, family and friends are not key influencers on their careers – with the exception of Asia Pacific employees, who do value the opinion of friends. In fact, globally only 5% said they took friends’ opinions about their careers seriously.

“This highlights a disconnect between the notion of ‘helicopter parents’, who hover over their children guiding their choices, and the impact they actually have on their children’s career decisions.

The Millennial generation is more independent than first thought,” the report stated.

Similarly, of the 16,000 global respondents,

73% chose work-life balance over a higher salary and 82% value work-life balance over their position in a company. Unlike generations before them, they would rather have no job than one they hate.

Despite wanting better work-life balance and often failing to demonstrate leadership skills, 41% confirm becoming a leader or manager is a key career driver.

However, the primary drivers for becoming leaders are rather “selfish”, with money (35%), influence (31%) and the opportunity to have a strategic role (31%) playing the biggest part.

“This demonstrates that for Millennials, the driver to become a leader is inward-focused, not related to the traditional leadership role of managing and coaching other employees,” stated the report.

Added Petter Nylander, CEO of Universum: Reasons Millennials want to lead Money

35%

Influence

31%

Opportunity for a strategic role

31%

Source: The Millennial Series, Universum with INSEAD Emerging Markets Institute and the HEAD Foundation.

“Millennials will constitute the majority of the workforce in just five to six years from now.

“From an employer branding perspective, companies that cater to the needs of Millennials will lead in attracting, recruiting and retaining them. The scope and depth of the research has identified regional and national differences, confirming that a granular approach to managing and communicating to this generation is necessary for success.”

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Rupert Brown « PROFILE

Rupert Brown

Head of HR, Asia Pacific Maersk Line Navigating succession and culture

By AKANKASHA DEWAN

Q What are you currently working on?

Maersk Line?

It’s been just over one year and the experience has been fantastic. My background is not within this industry. I come from a predominantly consumer goods background, coming previously from Procter & Gamble. I was familiar with Asia and regional HR roles, but I didn’t know this industry very well.

Talent management is a central theme in my role. I shoulder a vast range of HR responsibilities – from working to develop our pipeline of future leaders to ensuring we have the systems and processes to hire the right talent for the future.

Recently I was in Malaysia for this year’s batch of Maersk Line Graduate Programme (MLGP) trainees. We are in partnership with several universities globally that are strong in supply chain management for this programme. This is the first out of the four international seminars the trainees will get to participate in during their two-year MLGP programme.

They are all new hires and are Master’s degree holders with two years of work experience. But like me, they are not from the industry. So they go through two job rotations and four seminars to get industry perspective.

Q What did you do to familiarise yourself with the industry?

In many ways, Maersk Line is to the shipping industry what P&G is to the consumer goods industry. They are both globally recognised, long-standing market leaders, with a strong reputation for developing talent in their industry.

What I did have to get used to was understanding what’s unique about the company, and some of it had to do with its heritage and its culture in Denmark.

Maersk Line has a very unique culture, and while it was one of the things which attracted me to the company, it was also one of the things which I had to spend time on so I could better understand it.

One of the first things I did was put myself onto one of our container ships to go on a seven-day voyage from Singapore to Hong Kong. Although I am responsible for shore-based employees, I needed to see the industry first-hand to get a feel for it. And there’s no better way than to spend a week at sea on one of our vessels, understanding just exactly what the crew goes through, and seeing the loading and unloading of containers up-close.

VITAL STATS Rupert Brown leads the HR division at Maersk Line for the Asia Pacific region. He joined the company in September 2013, and has had 16 years of regional HR and business partner experience across Asia and Europe.

Q How would you define Maersk Line’s culture?

It takes time to really understand the finer nuances of culture, especially in a company with such a long history. What I have seen so far is a strong, yet humble organisation, that really should feel proud about the role it has played at the heart of global trade expansion.

However, Maersk is not a company to rest on its laurels. We are always keeping one eye on the horizon and planning accordingly. This sense is equally strong with our crew members at sea, who are always looking out for the quality of our vessels. Within my first year, I have had

a number of experiences where I felt that leaders were making values-based decisions even when no one was watching.

That for me is the definition of culture.

Q How do you maintain this culture?

Primarily through focusing constantly on our company values and having our management lead by example. We’re fortunate to have a very strong heritage, thanks to the long-standing traditions of the Møller family. Our values represent something people can relate with, and they are unique. They include constant care, humbleness, uprightness, upholding the family name and our people.

Using simple language when we talk about these values is important, otherwise the message might get lost.

In recent years, we have launched an initiative called “cultural amplifiers” which is an overview to the values and talks about “focus, simplicity and teamwork”.

We had workshops to launch this to staff and also stories and internal articles on how our people globally exemplify these “cultural amplifiers” in their daily work.

Q How does HR support this culture?

HR is at the heart of many initiatives to help us evolve to changing market conditions. Historically, our company has grown rapidly through international expansion, opening up offices along all the important trade routes and locations around the world. This year we opened up our own agency in Myanmar.

We’re at the point where we operate just about everywhere, and have been

Art direction: Shahrom Kamarulzaman; Photography : Stefanus Elliot Lee – www.elliotly.com

Q How would you describe working at

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PROFILE » Rupert p Brown

7,000 crew at sea, how do you ensure roles and responsibilities are well structured and managed?

There are a lot of things we’re doing to ensure a consistent look and feel throughout our functions. It starts with having a vision for what the function does, and consistently having that throughout all of its locations. For HR, it’s about having a global policy and process and in supporting that, we’ve got consistent development programmes.

For example, if you take HR, our focus recently has been to pilot a programme where we develop talent-led business partners focusing on the skills necessary to raise their level of contribution to the business. We often take inspiration for these programmes externally, but then develop and lead them in-house.

launched one that focused on helping our leaders be teachers at the right time.

We have developed six short programmes to support our performance management process, which covers subjects such as objective setting, giving feedback, having challenging conversations, career coaching, etc.

But the key is that these are delivered in a short, engaging, 90-minute way by internal faculty, at times when leaders need to be reminded about these issues the most. This is something we’re piloting right now to see if it has any future application, but it looks pretty promising.

We also have a newly launched Maersk Learning Library, which offers development tools for all employees globally. This is an online database with different developmental tools covering a wide range of different topics. It features videos, books, articles and developmental roadmaps covering topics such as leadership, developing and managing people, operations management, and change.

Q Tell us about your leadership

Q What is the core philosophy behind

development programmes.

I was fortunate recently to attend a programme called The Bridge. The name comes from the bridge of the ship, from where the captain and crew can see the horizon, plan and navigate the route.

It is a programme designed for the top 300 leaders, with the aim to become more aligned and trained to carry out the company strategy. They work together and understand the strategy behind the business and how it came to be.

A substantial part of the programme is based on leadership development, including how to communicate and drive and lead change. I went for The Bridge programme in May this year and I really enjoyed it as it gave me a clearer understanding of why we are on the journey we are on.

your succession planning programme?

We look at performance and potential to identify talent. We spend a lot of time focusing on succession planning and really distilling what potential really means.

A lot of the time we focus on “potential for what?” and remain clear we don’t want theoretical succession plans for jobs we do not have. We want them based on critical positions we have in the company and on a definite time frame, so succession planning becomes an actionable plan and we can move people accordingly.

What I’ve seen in other companies is that you have a lot of “what would you do if?” discussions. But when something actually happens, that discussion is a waste of time. So we’re getting much more specific about what this potential is actually for and looking at its indicators.

Q What about training programmes

Q Does this philosophy work for all

for other employees?

Once people are on-boarded and have the relevant knowledge, we believe in the 70:20:10 model of learning. While we invest a lot of time and energy into talent management, employees still own their careers and you will see people who have had cross-functional career paths across the Maersk Group.

We have a number of programmes to help people build their skills. Recently we

levels of talent?

The talent identification process and the philosophy is the same. If you’ve got a first level manager and you think they’ve got the potential to be promoted one level up within two years, you see qualities like leadership skills, maturity or passion that might be applicable at a more senior level.

Of course, the jumps between levels and the associated challenges and risks get larger as you go up the organisation.

compensation and benefits to ensure we are sharing ideas, talents and staying aligned as one global organisation.

Q With 25,000 land-based staff and

in places such as Bangkok and Jakarta for around 60 years. But looking ahead, the opportunity we have at hand now is to leverage this great scale we have by operating as one company, and developing the next generation of talent who can work collaboratively across regions and functions. To build a sustainable business in the long term, we need leaders who are collaborative as well as commercially minded and technically skilled.

Q How closely do you work with headquarters of these other regions?

I report to the regional CEO for Asia Pacific (Lars Mikael Jensen) and I have a dotted line to the chief HR officer in Copenhagen.

In our HR division, we follow an Ulrichtype model with centres of expertise, as well as a shared service centre and business partners. The regional centres of expertise report to me, but of course they have strong dotted lines to their global counterparts.

This is important because increasingly, we are working in a global, virtual world.

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Rupert Brown « PROFILE Q What particular characteristics or traits do you look for when identifying high-potentials?

A big focus of the company right now is not just looking at tangible results, but going beyond the “what” to look at the “how”.

Increasingly, I think what we’re focusing on is the legacy you leave afterwards. So, it’s more about developing the talent to succeed yourself and leaving behind an organisation that is stronger than the one you found.

Often companies just focus on the metrics on the scorecard. Performance is an important part, and the past is the best predictor of the future, but in Maersk Line we want to look at the “how” and the “what” together. Because if we take people on a journey to a bigger role, how they lead when they get there is really important.

Q How do you facilitate a diverse environment and pipeline?

I think we need to do more in this aspect, especially because our teams are getting more diverse, international and virtual. The nature of our business is it’s a globally networked business. If you go to our head office in Copenhagen, or here in Singapore,

there are a lot of nationalities working together on complex global trades. It’s important we are conscious of both the global nature of our business as well as the different needs of our diverse organisation.

Q But how do you establish diversity of thought in the organisation?

I think diversity is a belief – it’s a belief that the most diverse teams will generate the best business results, and the best leaders love to lead and build diverse teams.

Nothing brings this to life better than a leader who walks the talk on this.

Q Everything you’ve talked about boils down to engagement. How do you measure this?

We have an employee engagement survey, which we run throughout the entire group, and participation is at about 90%. The idea of getting a collective view is important, and our employees know we want them to be heard. Our engagement levels are pretty good too, around 75%, but we want to be better. We’re aware of certain areas we want to focus on, and are working on getting a better understanding of how

performance management works in order to secure the link between performance and pay.

One of the things we’ve done recently is to align ourselves along one global incentive plan, which includes sales people and non-sales people. One of the things which was getting in the way of understanding this was how the formula worked, and the correlation between how I perform and how much variable pay I receive as a sales person. So, it was a bit of a black box before, but being honest and transparent about how it works, and what works enables people to see the link between performance and pay.

Q What will be the top HR challenges for Maersk Line in the future?

I think the culture journey continues ahead of us. We are a successful, global organisation that has grown very rapidly. Our industry and our company are maturing. Now, the focus is more on global systems and processes and on the collaboration skills needed from leaders.

That’s going to be our challenge, but I think it will be one at which we’re going to be very successful in overcoming.

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FEATURE » C&B

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C&B « FEATURE

Cash is a powerful motivator to drive behaviour, but it’s definitely not the only one. Akankasha Dewan speaks with senior HR leaders about the growing reliance on non-cash rewards to attract and retain talent, and what this means for future C&B practices. apidly changing corporate directives, fewer resources and a smaller workforce are a challenge for most corporate initiatives these days, and is something that can pose difficulties for one of the greatest forces driving corporate performance – an effective rewards strategy.

“With the way life is today and its demands, businesses are tougher and cycles are shorter,” says Joon Tan, vice-president of talent management, global supply chain, at Schneider Electric.

“Therefore, your budget is constrained, and the business risk and volatility is high. So you need to get creative around how you package your offering together. In that sense, the total rewards strategy is important. You can’t just tap on cash rewards to retain and attract talent.”

Increasing value of non-cash rewards Tan’s comments point to a fundamental alteration in today’s HR motivational toolbox – an increasing reliance on non-cash rewards.

These include elements such as flexible working hours, gifts, recognition from superiors, travel allowances and more.

Various studies demonstrate the increasing popularity of such non-cash incentives. A 2013 report by Aberdeen found best-in-class companies (i.e. those with the highest financial and operational results) were more than twice as likely to provide non-cash incentives. The

study also highlighted 21% of high-performing organisations utilise these non-cash rewards, as opposed to 10% of all other companies.

But the effectiveness of non-cash rewards is marred by an interesting conundrum surrounding the selection of employee benefits today: even though employees enjoy and appreciate non-cash rewards more than monetary compensation, they still actively demand cash rewards from their companies.

A study by Wichita State University revealed when given a choice between cash, or a cruise or a TV worth the same amount, respondents chose cash 63% of the time. However, when the same research team asked respondents to rate how happy or satisfied they would be to get either the cash, the TV or the cruise, the TV and cruise consistently outscored cash.

The results implied employees were more excited by and would actually enjoy non-cash rewards more because of the fun and emotional properties they possessed. From a preliminary reading then, non-cash rewards are a more effective tool in generating greater motivation and driving performance. But when given a choice between a tangible reward and cash, the utility of the cash would lead many to make a less satisfying, practical decision.

The utility value of cash rewards This study highlighted one of the most baffling

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FEATURE » C&B contradictions in the C&B industry today.

Amid the assortment of incentives offered, which type of rewards should C&B professionals focus on if they wish to cater to their employees’ demands, while not compromising on their motivational levels?

Neha Pareek, business and technical talent leader at IBM global business services for Asia Pacific, GCG and MEA, suggests the focus on non-cash rewards is only recommended once an effective compensation strategy is in place.

“In a nutshell, compensation professionals need to play multiple roles to be effective. They need to be financial analysts, psychologists, coaches, trusted advisors and problem solvers.”

- Neha Pareek, business and technical talent leader, IBM global business services

“If you pick up any study on compensation or read up any article, you will see a common trend – extrinsic motivators such as money, titles or rewards have, at most, a short-term effect on desired behaviour. Employees are also motivated and driven by the work content, not just the reward,” she says.

“Having said that, if compensation systems are perceived to be unfair, extrinsic rewards can be powerful de-motivators. So it’s important to maintain a balance and also ensure employees are paid fair to begin with.”

Tan agrees, and adds that salary structures need to essentially fulfil basic needs of employees before anything else. “Pay, at the minimum, has to be competitive to be able to afford someone a decent standard of living.”

Interestingly, this desire for a basic standard of living becomes apparent in the 1999 Wirthlin Worldwide survey as when granted a cash reward, most employees would still use it on necessities rather than luxurious wants.

According to the Wirthlin survey, more than 1,000 people were asked how they spent their last cash reward, cash incentive or cash bonus.

Almost 30% said they spent it on bills compared with 9% who used their cash award on a “special personal treat”.

Understanding geographical and generational preferences Tiffany See, executive director of human resources for APJ at Dell, explains the importance of cash and non-cash offerings also varies depending on the geographical location of the employees in question, and the market in which they work.

“If markets and their inflation levels are stable, compensation ranks third. Our employees tell us having a flexible work schedule that fits with their life ranks first. Second is their desire to learn new things. Compensation follows,” she says.

“Where I see compensation as higher in that stack would be in countries like China because they are still growing pretty quickly. Similarly in India, employees can jump to local companies rather than multinational corporations and get increases in pay. After that, they want to talk about development and learning opportunities.

This also holds true for any Southeast Asia market such as Vietnam, Bangladesh, Thailand and Pakistan.”

All three leaders also point out the reward preferences of the employees in question can be determined by looking at their age and seniority level.

“Typically at the more senior level, especially in technical functions such as research and development, having a role where you’re constantly challenged from an intellectual and business standpoint is a big plus for executives,” Tan says.

“For entry level professionals or mid-level, a number of factors come into play, such as your personal motivation – whether you need cash to either settle down or you’re starting a family. All of that becomes important.”

Pareek agrees, and stresses the importance of catering for such demands.

“Trends indicate Gen Y has higher career expectations for pay and promotion than all previous generations,” she says. “They do not want to be hired, they want to be courted.

“Hiring them is harder and retaining them requires more effort than just the pay package.

Employees value being valued, and are motivated when their organisations are going the extra mile.

All these factors need to be considered when an organisation is deciding on its non-cash rewards package.

“I would say that HR’s role in crafting a benefits strategy is very significant. The key is

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FEATURE » C&B to look at the entire organisation’s culture and opportunity.”

The changing role of the C&B professional But fulfilling such a role has, over time, become increasingly difficult. Given the demands of the market, the C&B professional has taken on a wider breadth of responsibilities to remain effective.

“I think it has become a lot more business focused,” observes Alison Crick, director, sales compensation, APJ at Dell.

“You have to get the right balance between understanding the external market as well as your business requirements, i.e. what are the areas you need to focus on. One size no longer fits all – so there’s a lot of differentiation even within an organisation on how you manage your compensation.”

She explains that within its business, different internal organisations have different needs, that is, how you pay a hardware person may be different from how you pay a software person.

Dell has adopted a differentiated approach to its programmes to be more reflective of the market.

“However the underlying pay philosophy or culture aspect remains consistent across all business units – Dell has and always will be a meritocracy and each business unit compensation decision supports this,” Crick says.

Pareek reiterates the need for today’s C&B leaders to be business-focused, adding this need is even more critical considering the added range of responsibilities leaders have to shoulder.

“In a nutshell, compensation professionals need to play multiple roles to be effective. They need to be financial analysts, psychologists, coaches, trusted advisors and problem solvers,” she says.

“To accomplish this, they need to immerse themselves in the company’s business – understanding its strategies, products and services, markets, revenue streams, critical business factors and, of course, employees’ impact on the business, as well as their needs and wants.”

Training for a more holistic role With C&B professionals playing a bigger role in the business, it becomes natural they rapidly acquire various new skills to provide better control support to their organisations.

“In C&B today, you are expected to be

conversant about the business, market dynamics and competitive landscape because you play an important role from a design standpoint, including salary structure, bonus or incentive structure or benefits design. It is a strategic function, if well tapped. No longer are you just the controller or policy marker of the guy who sets the salary range,” Tan says.

She observes, however, there is still room for improvement. While their functional expertise remains in-depth, a C&B professional sometimes lacks the business knowledge required to make a more holistic decision.

“I think C&B professionals in the Asia Pacific region are still fairly tactical. They are good, but sometimes they are not as mature and sophisticated as their Western counterparts in North America or Europe,” she says.

“I think the biggest challenge is they are too inward-looking. A lot of the C&B people I have come across are too focused on the numbers.

And they forget compensation surveys are but one tool and one source of the data.”

At the end of the day, she says, decisions must be made on a broader set of data, including the health of your business, where you stand, industry trends and economic dynamics.

“That’s most lacking. And therefore they are not equipped to speak to business leaders in a way that is compelling to them. Because all you talk about is from your own handbook, and don’t relate to business decisions and contexts back to the business and the employees.”

Leveraging on data to craft C&B structures The opportunities to learn and grow are, however, readily available. With unlimited access to data, C&B professionals are free to use it to their advantage and leverage on such information to make intelligent decisions. See explains that using data to make decisions is a core element of Dell’s C&B strategy.

She recounts an example when the company was contemplating a car allowance in a mature market for one of its sales employees. However, because her team could not find a significant percentage of companies in the market who were providing car allowances to their sales divisions, she did not go ahead with the decision.

“We have a detailed and structured benchmarking process when crafting our C&B needs every year. We use several salary surveys to basically collate data on what’s happening with

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C&B « FEATURE

Eye on the prize: It’s not easy getting the C&B balance right.

the economic indicators of those countries. We match our jobs with comparable jobs in the market and then we look at the salary survey data to triangulate all of this,” she explains.

“Then we come up with a minimum, maximum and midpoint for every single job. And if we find a new job develops, we may have to modify our own compensation structure to include these new jobs that have emerged for Dell. They might have existed in the industry, but not at Dell.

“As Dell has become more focused on solutions, we have had to be flexible and identify these new roles in our internal systems, then leverage all the industry benchmarking data to make sure we’ve got the right salary range for these jobs, too.”

The future of C&B Looking to the future, she adds it will become more integral for the C&B professional to articulate and communicate C&B philosophies into effective and profitable returns on investment.

However, Pareek warns that too much focus on measuring the effectiveness of such programmes can be detrimental, especially if it takes away focus on providing a balanced rewards offering.

“You cannot over-engineer these things. You cannot overengineer ROI on these investments. Every time you make an investment on a non-cash reward, you cannot keep on calculating the return on investment on that,” she says.

“I think the focus should be on providing both cash and non-cash rewards to employees as opposed to computing how much of returns a particular non-cash reward is providing. It’s important to maintain a balance between fair cash and noncash rewards.”

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FEATURE » C&B

CASE STUDY: SCHNEIDER ELECTRIC Joon Tan, vice-president of talent management, global supply chain, at Schneider Electric, talks to Akankasha Dewan on how to leverage on non-cash motivators to engage talent.

As the corporate landscape gives way to a younger and more career-oriented workforce, the old paradigm that cash is the most reliable employee motivator has now come under scrutiny. Recent research suggests non-cash rewards, in the right circumstances and in the right combinations, can be a more effective motivator than money alone.

“Non-cash rewards have become very important today,” says Joon Tan, vice-president of talent management, global supply chain, at Schneider Electric. “I think in today’s world the need to find balance between work and life is key. So the ability for companies to enable that is increasingly important.”

She adds that besides a good work-life balance, employees value things such as job security and career development opportunities, especially the younger generation.

“The ability to learn continually is really important for Millennials. Job security is less of an issue for them. Instead, their mentality is more along the lines of: ‘I’d rather do meaningful work than stupid work.’ They’re prepared to quit if they think they can’t evolve or if the work doesn’t challenge them.”

The Marco Polo programme Providing employees opportunities to grow their careers is a strong focus within Schneider Electric. Company sponsored programmes are offered to staff who have proven their competencies in the firm to enable them to expand the breadth of their experience.

“The leadership sees the importance of giving employees a well-rounded experience. We have a programme called the Marco Polo programme that’s available for relatively junior, young talent in the company who have been in the company for one year.

“It’s a short-term international assignment of one to two years. If selected, employees perform that role in that assigned location for a specific period of time. If they like the role and the region, then they localise there. They can belong from any function, like finance or logistics.”

Entrants are put through an online interview process, where they can do a virtual interview in order to describe themselves and what they’re good at. The prospective hiring manager can then view their profile online and set up a personal interview, if they wish.

employees, the company is aiming to be more systematic about offering these opportunities for its senior employees.

However, this isn’t without its challenges.

“In real life, the timing of the job openings and the availability of the individual may not always work a hundred per cent. We’re working through these issues to see how we can better structure the programme,” she says.

Measuring the effectiveness and returns on investment on these non-tangible programmes is an additional challenge.

“Things like employee development are difficult to quantify. But you can, if you think about things like ‘how much does it cost for me to put you through an executive development programme’, then you start thinking in quantitative terms,” she says. “Engagement surveys can also be used to measure non-tangible things like work-life balance.”

Being transparent For these rewards to have the most impact on influencing employee performance, clear and honest communication between companies’ benefit providers and employees is integral.

When employees understand the connection between their reward and their performance, they will be motivated to perform optimally in the future.

“Increasingly, in the new generation, they appreciate transparency,” she says.

“If you go out and implement policies without sharing the rationale behind them, or how you arrived at them, then I think your ability to engage your employees will be challenged.”

Making the programme more systematic While the programme is more targeted towards younger

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FEATURE » Succession Planning

Do you have a tight seal on succession?

Aditi Sharma Kalra asks how HR leaders are nurturing their people and identifying leaders to prevent a leaking pipeline.

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Succession Planning « FEATURE for ASEAN/MENA at Fonterra. “It is therefore imperative we keep a healthy pipeline of leaders.”

Wolfgang Lirk, director of human resources for Asia Pacific at Waters China, agrees.

“In Asia, where you have a shortage of talent, you have no other way, but to develop the pipeline. There is a lot of talent in the market, but it is a matter of a lack of experience. I believe in building up your own people.”

Who takes the lead?

he average tenure of a manager has shrunk to less than four years. Companies forced to replace key personnel so often can lead to a drain on the senior team’s time and financial resources to fill vacancies. But these costs – be they monetary or non-monetary – are avoidable.

Both line and HR managers can nip the problem in the bud with a strong succession structure around identifying and developing talent. Investing in the pipeline of middle managers and grooming them for future leadership positions is cited as the number one concern of HR heads. A Hay Group study on Next Generation HR listed “developing future leaders” as the top priority for HR leaders for the next five years.

“Developing our leadership pipeline remains one of HR’s critical risks; the revolving door keeps spinning and the competition for the best talent is only getting more intense,” says Mohd Fauzi Bin Wahab, director of human resources

But here lies the catch. Developing leaders is not just HR’s priority. Another study by Right Management found across 24 industries, both business and HR leaders echo the same talent management challenge – “having a lack of skilled talent for key positions”.

“The first thing in career path development is it has to start from the top. If the top management is not clear about their own career path, they would not have any natural interest in grooming somebody else,” says Debashish Chatterjee, director of HR at Bombardier Transportation Singapore.

At Bombardier it’s the management’s role to groom successors, so much so that it’s a parameter of their own evaluation.

“It is a top-down process in which they have to create the bottom part of the pyramid, as part of the talent review process. On the organisation chart for each manager, there is a timeline-based evaluation. It will be very difficult for a manager to say that none of their people will be ready to take over their job even in five years.”

It’s this area of leadership commitment that often proves to be the hole in many organisations, leading to a leaky pipeline. This also often trickles over to functional heads and line managers as well.

Start at the source The reasons for these holes could be many, but not having a strong development framework is something Lirk identifies as an issue.

“The process needs to be stringent and solid, and it starts right from hiring. That is the source of screening talent for the entire organisation,” he says. “Managers tend to hire for the current job.

They want someone who can do it right away.

They are not trained to assess potential, and they also lack the motivation to do it.

“Companies have to train their line managers to be able to identify and assess talent, and build strong development plans for them.”

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FEATURE » Succession Planning The identification of high potential talent should go beyond current job performance.

“High potential managers are defined as those who have showed consistent high performance history, as well as the potential to succeed in increasingly demanding roles,” Bin Wahab adds.

Bring in the experts This is where HR can step up to deliver solutions.

“Everyone knows they need to have talent management, but to really push the organisation and tell the management that it’s part of their job performance – that’s HR’s role,” Lirk says.

HR needs to do a good job of selling the criticality of the process, and make it clear how important talent development is. In addition to being a salesperson, Chatterjee says HR is the supplier of talent.

“For every project, the choice is between internal and external talent. HR’s job is to provide systems and processes to groom internal talent and, at the same time, acquire external talent,” he says. “If a company has 50 expatriates, and HR is able to replace them with competent local talent, then the function can create a direct impact on the bottom line.”

In fact, developing internal talent has moved in the direction of becoming a regulatory requirement recently. The Singaporean government, for example, has put in place policies to encourage the hiring of locals, such as the national Jobs Bank and the Fair Consideration Framework.

The many forms of development However, internal talent development does not only imply an upward rise in the pyramid or a promotion with a new pay package. Chatterjee explains horizontal or lateral movement can be equally effective.

This may entail a change of responsibilities, function, department or geography; but is not necessarily tied to the conventional style of the up-the-ranks promotion. However, a lateral move does not always ome with the same perks.

“Compensation and salaries in most companies are fixed by grade, so in the case of a lateral movement, they don’t change, since the employee has not moved up a grade,” he says.

“What they miss out on is the additional effort that an employee has to put in, while ramping up in the new domain, and the fact the company now has one additional person with that kind of

expertise. It is enrichment for the individual.”

Bombardier has a very open policy in terms of internal movement. It is mandatory for jobs to be published internally and beyond a certain level external hiring is scrutinised. This outlook defines its commitment to talent development.

Additionally, Chatterjee suggests lateral movements be rewarded, which could take the shape of professional support, alignment with a mentor, a change in salary, a bonus linked to the new deliverables or performance share awards.

The rewards of development The ability of rewards to motivate can also be leveraged in enabling managers to develop the pipeline, an area Waters China is exploring.

“We are working on how we can make it attractive for line managers to bring in people who have the upward potential, and not only hire for the current job,” Lirk says.

Bombardier, which conducts twice-a-year performance evaluations, also has a system in place to recognise efforts of high-potential talent.

“After every performance cycle, there is a centralised talent review process that goes bottom-up. It is not only about the performance appraisal, but we also have a rewards mechanism for someone identified as a high-potential,” Chatterjee says.

Bin Wahab says Fonterra has a multitude of avenues for its staff to continue to develop.

“From the learning central portal on our intranet, to providing a future leaders programme for our high-performing managers to step up to the next level – at every stage of their development, we encourage all staff to participate in the available programmes.”

He refers to an example with the recent appointment of the general manager of Fonterra Brands Malaysia and Singapore, Jose Miguel Porraz Lando, who started his career in 2003 at the HQ in New Zealand.

He was given the chance to rotate across a variety of roles, and was then offered an opportunity as the general manager of Fonterra’s branded business in Vietnam, leading a team of 100 direct and 800 indirect employees. Then, in August this year, he took on his current role, leading a team of 500 people.

“By providing our staff with development opportunities across a range of markets and roles, we aim to teach them something different, provide opportunities to grow and ultimately be a part of our leadership team.”

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10/12/2014 2:30:40 PM

SPONSORED RECRUIT ADVICE HOW TO THIS ARTICLE WAS BROUGHT TO YOU BY FIRST ADVANTAGE

THE RISE OF FAKE DEGREES: PASS OR FAIL? Education is considered central to human development. It is seen as a tool in eradicating poverty and promoting inclusive and equitable economic growth.

The increased affluence in Asia Pacific (APAC) has coincided with the rise of education in this region over the past three decades. About 60% of the world’s youth population, or 750 million young persons aged 15 to 24 years, reside in this region, and many hunger for the elusive degree certification.

The global slowdown, on the other hand, has taken a toll on jobs and undoubtedly the youth are not immune to this. According to the International Labour Organisation, youth unemployment in APAC rose to more than 10% in 2013. Competition for the best jobs is rife and some will do whatever it takes to beat the competition.

Bogus universities – the truth behind them Academic credentials are essential to any candidate as they open the doors to a wide range of career opportunities. But there could be a range of reasons why someone was unable to pursue their respective educational choices. For those who cannot afford a degree or diploma, they may be tempted to turn to the “degree mill”.

One example is China, emerging as an economic powerhouse in APAC. The country alone has more than 100 phony universities offering fake degrees or diplomas. Many of them have websites and use names similar to those of real colleges. With about seven million eager students passing out of colleges every year, the competition to land a decent job is getting tougher.

A candidate can get a Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in half an hour by submitting a photograph, some personal details and about 200-300 yuan ($44-66). They can pay more or less depending on the “standing” of the university and the quality of the seal that is reproduced on the forgery. What’s more, this package includes report cards too. But China is just the tip of the iceberg.

Of late, there has also been a rising prevalence of cases where students are misrepresenting their credentials. In February 2014, the Ministry of Manpower in Singapore charged 25 foreign employees for submitting forged academic certificates to obtain work passes to work in the country. All of them – nationals of Myanmar, India and Philippines – pleaded guilty and were sentenced to 10-12 weeks of imprisonment. This is the largest number of foreign employees prosecuted for this offence this year in Singapore.

In another high-profile case, Dr Shankar, a former assistant professor of the National University of Singapore (NUS), was allegedly caught red-handed for submitting fake degrees. It is believed he misrepresented his credentials to obtain a position at the prestigious West Virginia University in the United States. The “fakedoctor”’ did not possess a Master’s degree in epidemiology from the University of North Carolina, nor an Indian medical degree from Kottayam Medical College as he had claimed.

These cases are not unique to socially and economically developed countries alone. In countries such Malaysia and the Philippines, the fake degree trend is also rampant. In the Philippines, there are designated one-stop shops which cater not only to students, but to anyone in need of a fake document, such as a driver’s licence or thesis paper.

According to the First Advantage APAC Trends Report, one in 22 job applicants in APAC has unconfirmed degrees, meaning these candidates either did not complete their degrees or obtained a fake certification. Another one in 51 applicants claimed to have degrees from specific universities but upon checking, there were no records of these candidates found.

A better solution Screening a candidate’s qualification is an extremely time-consuming process, and the best option is to get a set of trained hands to do the work. Employment screening and background checking are the most effective ways to bring the right employee to any organisation.

According to the same trends report, 18.9% of the discrepancies in APAC are related to education of employees. The report also reveals there has been an overall increase in discrepancy rates (5.8%) compared with Q1 2013. All these disturbing figures indicate there is a growing need for reliable hands to help weed out forgers and fraudsters.

The increase in the use of pre-employment tests is an emerging trend. A reliable background screening company helps the employers to protect the integrity of their hires. These companies are seen to take an international perspective, and as different industries are continuing to emerge, pre-employment screening is becoming a major tool for workforce planning.

The recent surge in education fraud has drawn the attention of the employers and more are engaging background screenings services providers. It is crucial for the employers to do a thorough background verification to ensure they employ the right talent.

This article cle is contributed ed by Matthew Glasner, antage First Advantage managing director, South Asia ficc Pacifi

Matthew Glasner is the managing director of South Asia Pacific for First Advantage, the largest provider of employment background screening services in the Asia Pacific region.

First Advantage conducts more than 23 million background checks annually, offering comprehensive screening solutions and industry best practices for coverage, legal regulations and processes.

For more information, visit www.fadvasia.com

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FEATURE » Succession Planning

CASE STUDY: DBS BANK DBS is an organisation that aspires to be the university of banking talent. Theresa Phua, managing director, Singapore head of human resources, speaks to Aditi Sharma Kalra about the processes behind investing in people.

DBS Bank is a staunch supporter of developing its own talent to build an internal succession pipeline – right from entry level hires to senior management. The need for able leaders to helm the bank has further intensified in recent years thanks to an increasingly complex and challenging business environment.

Because of this, DBS’ approach to developing talent is the belief that strong leadership continuity is the key to ensuring stability.

“We aspire to be the university of banking talent and believe in investing in our people,” Phua says.

“Our group CEO Piyush Gupta has made a commitment to leadership, making it a priority of the management team, to identify our most promising talent, and provide them with the opportunities to lead and broaden their experiences.”

The process starts with an assessment of the areas in which the company needs to invest strategically.

At DBS, building leaders starts right from the beginning, with an early approach through talent development programmes for younger and less experienced employees, which helps to strengthen its leadership core and ensure leaders build other leaders.

“We have a thorough understanding of the correlation between business strategies and talent needs, and this enables us to understand the experiential and capability gaps in the organisation. This, in turn, allows us to prepare our top talent to take on senior leadership roles.”

An integrated approach is taken for developing high potential talent at all levels, she says. The talent framework helps the bank build a critical pool of talent necessary for continued and sustained growth.

But at its foundation lies a need to put the right person in the right role, while engaging them to buy into the bank’s strategy to which management’s commitment is a must.

“Our CEO meets unit and country heads to discuss hiring and talent development strategies, succession plans and top talent in our annual talent process,” she says.

This is strengthened through the company’s triple E approach of leadership development – experience, exposure and education.

“Through experiential learning such as job rotations and work-based projects; exposure in the form of observing, coaching, mentoring and networking sessions with leaders; and education from workshops and training courses, our talent is able to make great leaps in their growth and development.”

Mentors are deployed to guide these high potentials in their careers and provide insights into new roles. Managers are also involved, giving them time to participate in the 3Es and engaging them one-on-one in career development discussions.

In an organisation where 58% of the workforce is made up of women, diversity is also viewed as a source of strength in its talent pipeline.

“We firmly believe it is important for the bank’s collective skill sets to be well-mapped against the group’s strategy and businesses.”

She points out that gender diversity is only one facet of corporate diversity though, which also encompasses DBS’ employees from a range of disciplines, including the arts, engineering or the sciences, besides finance graduates.

“Having employees from different backgrounds and disciplines helps ensure that as an organisation, we have a multiplicity of views and perspectives, which is helpful in preventing groupthink.”

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Succession Planning « FEATURE

CASE STUDY: SABIC Becoming the world’s most preferred chemicals provider requires a world-class workforce. Eduardo Pérez Cejuela, senior director of HR for Asia Pacific at SABIC, speaks to Aditi Sharma Kalra about building capacity and capability.

The SABIC senior leadership team recognises how critical talent development is to achieving success, making it one of its four key elements to its long-term growth strategy.

However, it’s also aware employees at different stages in their careers will have different development needs.

“Our employment value proposition is developed for three broad audience bands – employees at the start of their careers, middle managers and senior managers,” says senior director of HR Eduardo Pérez Cejuela.

Each band has its own customised curriculum focusing on change management, change leadership, coaching and training. What remains common regardless of levels is the relevant action plans carried out for employee development.

“It is our belief a wide, yet deep-reaching approach is vital to ensure operations’ continuity, and also to futureproof our business,” he says.

He takes the example of middle managers being groomed as successors for senior leadership roles, using the talent review process. This spans business units and functions, helping the team to identify talent, reward and reinforce top performance, as well as evaluate organisational effectiveness and functional excellence.

“It provides us with a common language, tool and approach to mobilise talent across businesses, and build a conducive environment and a thriving culture for high performers across the company.”

This approach equips managers with the qualities common to strong senior leaders such as strategic focus, solid business acumen and a keen interest in mentorship.

“There is more demand for leaders with a truly multinational and multicultural perspective, and who can move seamlessly between different markets and time zones, and appreciate the social nuances of each.”

Given SABIC’s wide geographical reach, feeding this demand comes naturally.

“Intercultural adaptability, global team-building, global strategic thinking, and the ability to lead cross-national teams made up of individuals from different cultures, are some capabilities that can only be honed through global assignments," he says. “We have a long-standing policy of assigning our top talent to different parts of the world to give them the opportunity to develop such skills and prepare them for senior leadership roles.”

This kind of perspective towards development not only furthers employees’ careers, but creates a pool of internal talent for the organisation to tap into.

“We are also prepared to look outside and acquire good talent who can strengthen the value-creating capability of our organisation.”

A training foundation Behind any talent management strategy is a strong training foundation, and this is also the case at SABIC. The company’s learning and development curriculum is kept up to date and robust based on feedback from employees and the senior leadership team.

“Assessment of employee development forms a key part of our talent management process, where relevant training is matched to development needs.”

Complementing this is the SABIC Academy, a repository of the organisation’s collective innovation and knowledge that helps to train people to imbibe the SABIC mindset and culture.

“It is more than just a facility that conducts training programmes. It is where our employees can experience challenging dialogue with colleagues from different cultures. It's designed to be an eye-opening transformation making them more effective as SABIC expands globally.”

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OPINION » Learning & development

Trashing the myths about Millennials WAN EZRIN SAZLI BIN WAN ZAHARI Group head of leadership & talent development AirAsia

Don’t pander to the over generalised “whims and fancies” of the younger generation to boost employer branding.

Don’t get brainwashed: Forget what you’ve been told about the younger generation being “lazy” and “entitled”. It’ just not true.

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Learning & development « OPINION I’m writing this the day after it was announced AirAsia had risen to the top three of the nation’s most popular graduate employers in a ranking survey.

I was amused, first, because we never “bribed” the sponsor nor graduates for votes, and second because when I go to conferences, talks and career fairs, I preach the extreme opposite of what most employer branding people say when they want to attract the younger generation – that being, we must be accepting how different (or weird) they are, and how we must accommodate their desires and fancies to stay relevant.

Indeed, there is plenty of rubbish written about the Gen Ys and Millennials.

Here are just a handful: They are lazy, narcissistic, yet selfish and demanding; they leave work at 6pm sharp; they have unrealistic expectations for their career; they only want to communicate online; they don’t take on much responsibility, but think they should be paid more; they have an over inflated sense of ability; they are motivated by perks and high pay; they appear distracted at work; they want interesting and exciting work, but cannot deliver; they don’t take criticism well and could resign immediately.

All of the above are sweeping statements. They are unfair to Gen Ys and Millennials and even worse, they are dangerous for employers who blindly believe in them.

In 401 BC (that’s like 2,415 years ago!), the Greek philosopher, Socrates said: “The youth today are insolent upstarts – they do not know their place; and have little regard for tradition, manners or their elders.”

Doesn’t that sound like what we’re all complaining about today? Do we actually think these Gen Ys and Millennials will behave the way they behave today when they are 40, 50 or 60 years old?

What many HR people have failed to realise is that change in behaviour, attitude and motivation is not generational, but evolutionary.

Certainly we have differences between us, but that doesn’t mean Gen Ys and Millennials have mutated into monsters and demons. They are our children. We created them; they grew up with us. So it makes more sense to focus on similarities and things in common than go berserk poking on petty differences.

Those who still disagree may ask: “OK Ezrin, what’s your proof that what you’re saying is correct?”

My proof is simple. My proof is in the overwhelming success of AirAsia. I have hundreds of examples, but for the brevity of this article, I’ll give three: The CEO of AirAsia India was 32 years old when he got the post, our group head of business development is only 26 and our branding guy is just 28.

So let’s try not to compartmentalise people and stereotype them. Make your organisation inclusive for all: Millennials, Gen-Y, Gen-X, and Baby Boomers. Please don’t drive employer branding by accommodating the whims and fancies of the younger generation. Don’t spoil them, and don’t destroy the company by making it weak and diluted.

Instead, focus on making the organisation a better place. Make things transparent, remove hierarchy, keep the organisation as flat as possible, encourage free-flowing communication without barriers, encourage passion, grit and determination. Have a great vision – work hard and work smart towards it. Celebrate successes (and even failures, especially after everyone has worked so hard). Celebrate resilience, celebrate capacity to deliver, celebrate multi-tasking. And most importantly – be sincere and have fun doing the job.

What you don’t want to do is “bribe” ranking organisers, and have round after round of promos in colleges, so that you can ask students to vote for you because you are giving them freebies and false promises about how exciting your organisation is.

Stay authentic and sincere. You’ll be successful.

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OPINION » People issues

All you need is a little appreciation C.K. MOHAN Senior director of HR Yum! Restaurants

Thanking a team member is one of the simplest things to do, but is also often the most forgotten action.

Everyone likes to feel appreciated. But is it not strange that something so easy to do – thanking a subordinate, co-worker or an associate – is often the most forgotten action in organisations today? People are so caught up in a rat race to move ahead that basic niceties are frequently forgotten.

Recognition may be a formal process of appreciating others, but at its core it is a way of telling employees you care, and what they do matters to you.

When people are recognised, they feel good about themselves and the work they do. It is one of the most simple and powerful tools of culture that exist today for organisations to create a fun workplace.

Recognition, when executed well, can have a snowball effect, creating an environment brimming with positive energy.

Our employees at Yum! have an opportunity to make a difference to the millions of customers they serve every day.

Having operated restaurants for years, we know that our customers’ experiences will never exceed that of our employees For this reason, our “dynasty model” starts with our people.

We know that people don’t just play a “role” in our success – they are the reason for our success. Therefore, when Yum! Brands was created, David Novak, our chairman and CEO, talked about building a new type of culture – a recognition culture.

While the practice of saying thank you and recognising good work was not new to us, he wanted it to be the central pillar of our unique culture called “how we win together”. Recognition at Yum! is about finding ways to celebrate the achievements of others and having lots of fun doing it. We celebrate things big and small and our famous recognition culture means that everyone counts.

Culture can only be created when it is leader-led. Novak personally models a recognition culture in a light-hearted way with his own Yum! Award – a set of chomping dentures with legs, presented to all those who “walk the talk” of leadership.

All leaders in the company are encouraged to have their personal recognition awards to be given out liberally. Following my passion for basketball, my award is called the “Most Valuable Player,” which is given to people who make a difference in the workplace.

At the beginning, it was not easy. Not everyone was comfortable standing in front of others or at large office gatherings to recognise a colleague. Others wondered why someone should be recognised simply for doing their job. We also realised that it was frowned upon in some cultures.

But with our leaders walking the talk and recognising employees at every opportunity, it started to gather momentum.

To make it stick, our values and recognition became an integral

Give yourselves a hand: A little thank you can go a long way.

part of our people capability process, where leaders received annual feedback through the 360-degree process on how they were faring on our core values.

Our franchise partners loved the positive energy all of this was creating in their teams and they embraced it wholeheartedly.

“Catching people doing things right” became our mantra and is now part of the Yum! DNA. To us, recognition is all in the presentation. Let me share some ideas with you.

1.

Make it a big deal: Gather people around and choose a time that is free of job conflicts.

1.

Be personal and sincere: Plan your comments ahead of time. Tell people what the employee has done and how this action helped you or your business.

1.

Create fanfare: Make it fun. Bring a cake, camera, anything that will make it into a celebration.

Today at Yum!, there is no official event, office gathering or team event without some form of recognition, and the most rewarding thing for me is seeing even junior employees who were once shy, now standing up and recognising their colleagues in front of others.

What is amazing is that recognition does not have to be a big award. A heartfelt thank you can go a long way in making a colleague feel great and pave the way for building a lasting relationship. Let’s embrace this culture and make a difference in people’s lives.

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»

Unconventional wisdom OPINION

3 tips to create a work-life integration programme It comes down to understanding needs, building a culture of trust and empowering staff.

LIM YING CHIA Country human resources director IBM Singapore

The concept of work-life 65% of respondents feel obligated to balance is one that is simple to grasp in work longer hours, which suggests theory, but difficult in practice. staff are not using time productively.

A survey by the Groningen Growth Some managers share concerns that and Development Centre revealed productivity will be impacted if staff are Singaporeans work some of the longest given the freedom to choose when and hours in the world’s most developed where they wish to work. countries, with an average of 2,287 The goal of the organisation should hours a year. It should, therefore, be be to help managers disassociate the no surprise 82% of professionals in notion of the “ideal worker” with face Singapore feel they are working beyond time in the office. Instead, they should Finding the balance: There’s no ‘right’ answer. their official working hours. learn how to be more result-oriented so With ever-changing needs and employees can learn how to work smart. challenges at different points in life, how can companies help We encourage managers to stay focused on the results employees strike a balance with their work and personal lives? by setting clear performance targets for employees, and First, we need to keep in mind that employees are people measuring their performance by these targets. We always strive too, and a company is only as good as its people. Next, we need to cultivate a supportive and trusting environment so employees to start looking at work and personal life as separate domains. can feel at ease making use of flexible working arrangements.

The key should be to strive for work-life integration, not This is why the question “where are you?” is seldom heard in balance. IBM Singapore recently won the Work-Life Sustained our office.

Excellence Award by the Tripartite Committee on Work-Life To show our commitment to this, we start with our Strategy for consistently demonstrating outstanding success in executives and managers. We have a Global Work-Life work-life strategies.

Integration Council which meets regularly to review whether our Here are three best practices on how you can implement a company strategy is meeting business and employee needs. successful work-life integration programme in your organisation.

At the end of the day, the value of trust and personal responsibility should be a joint effort of the organisation, 1. Recognise and understand that every employee has managers and employees. Implemented well, job flexibility and different work-life needs outcome-based performance management can act as powerful The reality is a work-life strategy is not a one-size-fits-all tools to improving employee productivity. approach. Every employee has different work-life needs.

A key aspect of planning work-life initiatives (and planning 3. Empower employees with the right tools and technology them well) is first to recognise the degree to which one Last, but not least, organisations need to provide the tools for manages family interrupting work or work interrupting family. employees to work wherever and whenever.

This can take many forms and range from flexible work With rapid advancements in technology, working-on-the-go arrangements to family care leave to having on site child has become easier than ever before. care facilities.

We have made it so easy for our employees to work off-site If your organisation is large, taking into account the needs of that as many as 70% of our employees in IBM Singapore are all your employees can certainly be challenging. mobile. We use innovative tools such as Lotus Connections To circumvent this, consider conducting a company wide and Sametime for live files sharing, and video conferencing survey regularly. You will be surprised at how much such surveys technology such as BigBlueButton. can provide in valuable insights to help us shape existing For those who like to work off their mobiles, we have also strategies and programmes, and implement new and more introduced the Lotus Traveller, an internal email system built relevant ones for employees. for mobile use, Sametime Connect messaging, and Expertise Locator.

2. Build a culture of trust and personal responsibility Through these best practices, we have found that The next step to building a successful work-life programme is telecommuting, along with flexible working arrangements, have to promote a supportive environment. significantly helped and continue to make IBM an attractive According to the Morgan McKinley Working Hours Survey, place to work at for employees.

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OPINION » Upwardly mobile

Being a responsible employer The four cornerstones of protecting and caring for employees under the company’s Share & Care programme.

NORA MAHBOB HR director L’Oréal Malaysia

Pass it forward: Boost business success by giving a hand to your employees.

People have always been at the centre of L’Oréal – so providing the most innovative programmes for talent acquisition, talent development and social protection is deeply rooted in the tradition of the company.

Because economic success and corporate social responsibility go hand-in-hand, L’Oréal’s HR policy is a key element of the CSR strategy, placing employee welfare at the core of the HR vision. This is why in 2013, we launched our global social protection programme, L’Oréal share and care.

The share and care goal is to provide the best possible environment where employees can work with peace of mind, knowing their social needs are taken care of. The programme covers four key domains for our employees – social protection, health, parenting and quality of working life.

Before designing the programme, we conducted a comprehensive survey in all 65 countries to assess the existing situation. The results of the survey were very surprising – L’Oréal already offered good social standards on social protection, healthcare, parenthood and wellbeing at work.

Thus, our ambition became to gradually take this further, ensuring all employees were provided at least the same minimum standard treatments, while at the same time, making sure our practices were everywhere at a level of the top performing companies.

We truly believe this strong commitment will also help us to be more creative and innovative, to ensure we are always one step ahead in this challenging domain.

In Malaysia, we highlighted parenthood as a priority because more than 70% of our workforce is female. It is important for our female employees to find balance with their family life and being engaged at work.

With this in mind, we introduced 14 weeks of maternity leave, provided maternity allowance, and a dedicated “Wow Mom” room for mothers to nurse with privacy.

Second, we recognise quality of working life is an important aspect and we want to create an environment which allows staff to enjoy and enhance their motivation and engagement with the company. To do this, we created an internal working committee called WeConnect to introduce fun and engaging events – from organising thematic festive celebrations, family days, CSR events, movie nights and free lunches for all employees every Tuesday and Thursday.

We also introduced a coffee break corner on all floors for employees to enjoy during work hours. This is managed by our hearing and speech impaired employees as part of the company’s commitment to CSR and promoting diversity.

Finally, we are committed to taking care of employee health and wellbeing. We wanted to go beyond a reimbursement of medical treatment and encourage preventative initiatives and awareness training. We increased our health protection insurance and now provide health screening subsidies for all employees.

We also organise regular wellbeing days where we invite healthcare professionals to provide awareness talks to encourage employees to stay healthy.

I feel that in HR, we are in a profession where our purpose is to contribute to the wellbeing of a person. I’m deeply passionate about this, as I am convinced there is a direct relationship between feeling good and doing well.

A company in the 21st century cannot develop in a sustainable manner without taking into account all the societal dimensions that constitute it. The human and social dimension is, in my eyes, what will make the difference.

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CAREERS » Personal development

uptheranks Tracking HR’s industry moves Who: Jason Ho From: OCBC To: OCBC Cynthia Tan, head of group human resources at OCBC Bank for the past 15 years, will retire on 30 June next year, the company has announced. Jason Ho, presently the bank’s head of asset and liability management, has been announced as her successor with effect from 1 July 2015.

Ho will be appointed the deputy head of group human resources on 1 January 2015 to “ensure a smooth transition” before he takes up the role’s full responsibility.

Ho has been involved in HR initiatives over his two-year tenure, such as the bank’s mentoring programme as well as during the setting up of its leadership programme for senior leaders.

“I am pleased that our succession planning framework has continued to bear fruit. As part of this framework, we identify talent with the abilities to fill senior positions across divisions,” said Samuel Tsien, group CEO of OCBC Bank.

“Jason, though he does not come from a HR background, is one such talent. With his business background, his strong people leadership skills and proven management capabilities, I am confident he is well-qualified to assume this important role.”

personalgrowth

WHAT’S STOPPING HR FROM BEING PRODUCTIVE? HR professionals feeling stuck in the roles need to close the gap between themselves and the business, says Rebecca Lewis.

As the traditional role of HR continues to evolve, one thing is clear – HR wants a more strategic role directly related to the business. And yet, so many of you feel as though you’re not getting that opportunity.

In fact, when asked about where HR professionals spend most of their time, 71% said in employee management, 54% said on compliance issues and 42% said on recruiting, according to a recent survey by BambooHR. This is a problem because the same group of people said they would actually rather be focusing on professional development (54%), conducting trainings (47%) and managing and overseeing company culture (37%).

Who: Madan Nagaldinne From: Facebook To: Facebook Facebook’s Asia Pacific head of HR is leaving Singapore to take up a role in New York City. Madan Nagaldinne, who joined Facebook in 2011, will be the HR leader for the fast-growing New York office, and also the HR leader for the global sales organisation. This is effective 31 December 2014.

“Facebook is phenomenal at growing careers of their employees and this is an opportunity for me to partner with Carolyn Everson, our global head of sales, and her organisation, to attract, retain and grow our talent,” he told Human Resources.

Who: CM Vignaesvaran From: Pembangunan Sumber Manusia Berhad (PSMB) To: Pembangunan Sumber Manusia Berhad (PSMB) Pembangunan Sumber Manusia Berhad (PSMB) – the body which controls and administers Malaysia’s Human Resources Development Fund (HRDF) has announced CM Vignaesvaran as its new chief executive officer. He stepped into this role in an official capacity on 1 November.

Better known as “Vicks” – he has 17 years of experience in various positions and industries in the corporate world, ranging across the construction industry, and the power, telecommunications and manufacturing sectors, a release stated.

He first joined PSMB in 2010 as the general manager of the Training Grant Division, and in 2012 stepped up as the deputy chief executive (operations), before being appointed CEO.

This disconnect is important because while HR professionals feel as though they deserve to be taking a bigger role in culture and workforce planning, they’re stuck hiring, firing, resolving issues and disciplining.

How can you as a senior HR leader overcome this gap between what the HR function is perceived to be, and what it actually wants or needs to become? It all starts with communication.

From this survey, HR professionals overwhelmingly feel it is the management’s responsibility to make sure employees are happy in their jobs (65%) and that they are being productive (82%). They also want more HR-related training (even though two thirds spend at least an hour or more per week educating themselves on HR updates).

Whatever the case may be at your organisation, the key to fixing the disconnect is improved communication – between yourself and the C-suite, as well as line managers.

If you feel as though you need improved competencies such as business knowledge, it’s up to you as an HR professional to skill yourself up and then approach business leaders with your thought-out ideas and vision for growth and success.

To change the business’ perception of HR, you need a performance plan which outlines the business strategies – and the HR strategies which will support each one. Show you can add value and that your time is better spent elsewhere than managing the day-to-day activities of employees.

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Good reads to improve your business life G

Actionable Intelligence: A Guide to Delivering Business Results with Big Data Fast!

Keith B. Carter Wiley S$68.43 Big data is supposed to be the answer to our business woes. It’s supposed to make our lives easier and help us create actionable plans to improve business outcomes – but what happens when, as the book puts it, “big data means a big headache”?

In Keith Carter’s book, he describes what can happen when teams have usable,

How Great Leaders ders rt Think: The Art of Reframing Lee G. Bolman and Terrence E. Deal Jossey-Bass Better thinking is the key to better leadership. This book explains the best leaders can reframe and capture a sharper image of what’s going on around them.

The book uses modern examples to show how complex thinking helps leadership, illustrated by an influential four-frame model.

This model offers leaders an accessible means to understand structure, people, politics and culture, that is, the four dimensions of organisational life.

Using examples such as Howard Schultz, Steve Jobs and Tony Hsieh, the authors help readers develop their own leadership with

acccura and reliable information at accurate hand to t leverage big data properly hand and n develop de and an analytical ecosystem to mana to manage internal and external iinformation. inform n mation So many organisations organ have been sucked into the hyp hype of big data, spending a lot of mo money with relatively little return on their investment, as they try tto navigate data without really understanding its potential and tthe best way to manage it. But Carter’s main point is that big data is only useful when it provide actionable intelligence – hence the book’s title – that guides our responses and helps us make informed decisions.

Through in-depth chapters, case studies and notes, this book provides a roadmap through a forest of data to help you unveil the true potential of the information at your fingertips.

Bookmark this!

When gathering data, the main thing to keep in mind is what the data will be used for. By constantly asking that question you can be assured that you will not do unnecessary work when creating the foundation on which to build your successes. Ask yourself where the data will fit in the big picture. This will also let you make sure that you can answer your strategic business questions – page 51.

lessons le essons on how to build morale a motivate m and people, how to ddeve a leadership story develop and how to map the political ter terrain and build a power base “t navigate the partisan “to s struggles in organisations”.

Bookmark this!

Th human resource The le frame expands leaders’ thinking beyond the rational nuts and bolts of narrow structural thinking to an understanding of how to create conditions that foster high levels of motivation, energy and effort. Leaders who commit themselves to key practices of effective people leadership – developing a philosophy for managing people, hiring the right people, keeping employees and investing in their future, empowering them and promoting diversity – have repeatedly built businesses that thrive on the strength of employee talent, energy and creativity – page 62.

Become the Real Deal: The Proven Path to Influence and Executive Presence Connie Dieken ns John Wiley & Sons S$29.91 Want to be the leader you always thought you could be?

All you need to do is become thee is “real deal”. In this wn book, well-known executive coach Connie Dieken explains that to der become the leader you’re meant to be in your organisation, you need to be someone who can effectively influence other people to take action. By enabling others to action, you will see unprecedented dividends for leaders at all level – which the author calls Return on Influence or ROI – and discover your own centres of influence.

Through her chapters, readers will learn things such as how to push past things like narcissism and anxiety and pinpoint exactly what it takes to be a genuine leader.

In her experience as America’s foremost Fortune 500 communications coach, she helps readers discover their three layers of presence – inner presence, verbal presence and outer presence.

Once you understand these layers and the root causes of why some leaders can influence, while others struggle, you can begin to see yourself as the “real deal”.

Bookmark this!

If you’re a leader, you’re on the receiving end of relentless and often conflicting advice about how to present yourself to the world.

Perhaps you’re urged to be active on social media in order to stay visible and engage others. But what if you’re naturally private?

Maybe you’ve been prodded to display your vulnerable side in the conference room so your staff will find you relatable. But what if you feel that exposing your personal experiences leaves you susceptible to careerlimiting rumours – or even a leadership coup? “Just be yourself” is well-meaning, but inadequate guidance – page 2.

Photography: Fauzie Rasid

Pick of the month

shelflife

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LAST WORD

What I learnt in 2014 In what has become somewhat of a tradition, Even though it can feel like not a changes year-on-year, when you take the time Rebecca Lewis outlines lot to stop and reflect on the previous 12 months, you’ll what she’s picked up on surprise yourself with how much you’ve actually in the past year. learnt.Some of the broader things I’ve learnt this year are around my own leadership skills and work ethic, and I’ve also picked up a few smaller tips for life outside the office (such as the best way to get my husband to agree to things is to ask him when he’s drunk. Just kidding ...)

But seriously, every year I constantly pick up new advice and lessons from some of the top stories we run on www.humanresourcesonline.net.

As always, here are a few of my favourites.

1. Don’t be like Anton Casey Every year at least one person locally makes the news because they made a fool of themselves online. This year, it was the British banker’s turn, after he was shamed publicly and lost his job from posting insensitive and racist remarks on his Facebook page. When will we learn?!

2. Offering cool perks will get you noticed It might not always be affordable, but you can’t deny some of the companies that got the most attention this year did it by publicising their employee rewards. From Facebook and Apple’s egg freezing for female staff, to Netflix’s and Virgin’s unlimited vacations, 2014 was the Year of the Employee Perk.

3. Women need to ask for more One of my favourite interviews this year was with Allergan’s Rebecca Port, who spoke about gender discrimination and unconscious bias. Among many insightful things, she highlighted the reason men typically get more than women (opportunities, money, etc) is because they’re programmed to ask,

while women typically wait to be asked. Right from childhood, women are told fairytales about being rescued or asked to the ball, and this mentality has been drilled into us for decades.

4. Flexible working is so hot right now 2014 was really the year companies (in Singapore, anyway) started getting behind flexible arrangements. It has been difficult in Asia to enforce this, but thanks to encouragement from the government, firms have started to realise the benefits of flexible working, and are beginning to try to make this work for them.

5. Sometimes, CEOs really should just shut up ’Twas the year of foot-in-mouth. American Apparel’s Dov Charney got in a whole heap of trouble for things he said/did; Microsoft’s Satya Nadella backtracked on a pretty sexist comment; and Stephen Elop from Microsoft (again) essentially fired 12,500 by email. Sigh.

6. Stopping the unhappiness is really hard No matter what companies do, employees in Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong and everywhere in between are still unhappy. Over the year we’ve reported on decreasing engagement levels, dissatisfaction with pay and plenty of grumbling over working long hours at a desk. How can we turn their frowns upside down? Isn’t that the question of the year!

Whatever you’ve learned this year, I hope you’ve had a great 2014. Here’s to a great year-end holiday and an excellent 2015.

rebeccal@humanresourcesonline.net

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