Human Resources Singapore, December 2015

December 2015

The smart HR professional’s blueprint for workforce strategy

humanresourcesonline.net

S$7.90 INC GST

Marriott’s regional CHRO stands for growi ng talent from wi thi n − and proves why this works

OFC_COVER_DEC15_sub.indd 1

7/12/2015 6:56:10 PM

December 2015 « CONTENTS

COVER STORY 14 Q&A Regan Taikitsadaporn, CHRO for Asia Pacific at Marriott International, reveals why the hotel believes in developing and promoting employees from within, and the significance of having a solid, yet flexible, working culture.

Features 18 The best of digital recruitment in Singapore By analysing three award-winning case studies from this year’s Asia Recruitment Awards, Jerene Ang unveils the most innovative practices.

24 Singapore’s top engagement programmes Akankasha Dewan sheds light into the engagement strategies that have generated ROI in Yahoo, NEA, National Kidney Foundation and SABIC.

Opinion 32 People Issues When rolling out policies for parental benefits, Michael Yeong, SVP of group HR at Cerebos, affirms the importance of incorporating parents’ needs.

18

34 Unconventional Wisdom Chua Pek Kim, director of HR at KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital, explains how this round-the-clock hospital enables work-life balance.

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

36 Upwardly Mobile From change management training to recruiting, Caroline Walters, MIMS’ regional people and culture director, reveals the journey HR undertook to make the once print-heavy firm become more digital.

24

32

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

Regulars 3 Ed’s note 4 In the news 6 Suite talk 8 Spacial awareness

34

9 Snapshot 10 HR by numbers 38 Personal development 39 Shelf life

36

Any suggestions or tip-offs for Human Resources?

Email aditis@humanresourcesonline.net

December 2015 « Human Resources «

1_Contents_DEC15_sub.indd 1

1

9/12/2015 5:04:22 PM

Working_PMET Ad Dec Issue_210x280mm_20151105.indd 1

11/6/2015 9:21:46 AM

EDITOR’S NOTE

regional editor senior journalist journalist editor, Hong Kong sub editor contributors

regional art director senior designer web designer circulation executive regional head of advertising & sponsorship regional directors

regional marketing manager regional production lead

regional producers

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

Aditi Sharma Kalra Akankasha Dewan Jerene Ang Anthony Wong James Foster Chua Pek Kim Regina Koh Caroline Walters Michael Yeong Shahrom Kamarulzaman Fauzie Rasid Sherlyn Yap Deborah Quek Naomi Cranswick Karen Boh Yogesh Chandiramani Jaclyn Chua Keiko Ko Zoe Lau Isabel Ho Jenilyn Rabino Sarah Kee Sharissa Chan Nikita Erpini Shivon Aaria Gunalan Sanna Lun Kenneth Neo Evon Yew Gabriella Yu Yeo Wei Qi Evelyn Wong Tony Kelly Justin Randles

Human Resources is published 12 times per year by Lighthouse Independent Media Pte Ltd. Printed in Singapore on CTP process by Sun Rise Printing & Supplies Pte Ltd, 10 Admiralty Street, #06-20 North Link Building, Singapore 757695. Tel: (65) 6383 5290. MICA (P) 178/08/2010. Subscription rates are available on request, contact the Circulation Manager by telephone: (65) 6423 0329 or by email to: subscriptions@humanresourcesonline.net COPYRIGHTS AND REPRINTS. All material printed in Human Resources is protected under the copyright act. All rights reserved. No material may be reproduced in part or in whole without the prior written consent of the publisher and the copyright holder.

Permission may be requested through the Singapore office.

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

Singapore: Lighthouse Independent Media Pte Ltd 100C Pasir Panjang Road, #05-01, See Hoy Chan Hub, 118519 Tel: +65 6423 0329 Fax: +65 6423 0117 Hong Kong: Lighthouse Independent Media Ltd 1F Wui Tat Centre, 55 Connaught Road West, Sheung Wan, Hong Kong Tel: 852-2861-1882 Fax: 852-2861-1336

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

Celebrating 2015’s successes As the sun sets on 2015, the Human Resources team cannot help but look back and celebrate the year that was.

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

In sharing our successes for the year, we present this edition of the magazine, featuring a compilation of nine real-life case studies of organisations that demonstrate the return on investment that is to be had from their extensive campaigns on digital recruitment and employee engagement, respectively.

A majority of these stories are award-winning cases that impressed a jury of regional HR directors enough to claim victories in the Asia Recruitment Awards, as well as the HR Excellence Awards, held earlier this year.

In the feature on digital recruitment, you will find out how the IDA achieved an employer brand reach even greater than many of its private sector peers, through its “Influence Tomorrow” campaign – in the process, exceeding the application target for its technology associate programme by 11%.

In other cases on the topic, we hear from GroupM, Cargill and Amcor Flexibles – with each firm basing success on metrics, such as reduction in time taken and costs of recruitment. This is on page 18.

This month’s second feature, on employee engagement, features an equally compelling HR agenda.

The National Environment Agency reveals just how its engagement campaigns led to a 95% employee retention rate in the past three years, while the National Kidney Foundation exhibits how it boosted its employee engagement index from 4.85 in 2013 to 5.09 in 2015.

This feature on page 25 also offers insights from Yahoo, SABIC and Johnson & Johnson.

Meanwhile, on the cover this month, we

introduce you to Regan Taikitsadaporn, chief human resources officer for Asia Pacific at Marriott International.

Taikitsadaporn and his HR team are no strangers to external recognition of HR campaigns, having won at least 19 workplace excellence awards, within four months, across the Asia Pacific region.

Here is a company that filled two-thirds of its management positions through internal hires and promotions across Asia in 2014; and provided an average of 36 hours of training and 78 hours of professional development to develop each associate into a manager in the same year.

Taikitsadaporn takes centre stage in this exclusive interview, breaking down exactly how Marriott’s training programmes created the impact the business was looking for - to create an organisation where culture truly becomes a source of competitive advantage.

And with that, we sign off for this year. The team at Human Resources wishes you happiness and success for the festive season, and the year ahead. Enjoy the issue.

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

HumanResources

Aditi Sharma Kalra Regional editor December 2015 « Human Resources «

3_Ed'sNote_DEC15_sub.indd 3

3

9/12/2015 9:39:00 AM

hrbulletin

News from humanresourcesonline.net

MANAGERS NOT TAKING OWNERSHIP? COACHING HELPS Engaged employees are good, but engaged employees who feel accountable to their work are even better. A new white paper by The Forum Corporation found the relationship between engagement and accountability is the lowest among middle managers today, across all levels.

First-line leaders are doing better at a “moderate” level of the relationship, while executives are close to the “high” end of the relationship scale.

As a result, middle managers may find themselves caught between the need to translate goals into action and the shifts in priorities that occur after such plans are in motion – calling it a “rock and a hard place predicament”.

Managing performance more closely may help to close such a gap, as indicated by 45% of respondents, while 30% also recommended coaching.

Under individual performance, the three most important elements were clarifying expectations (80%), admitting mistakes despite the risks involved (70%), and getting support for the required abilities and resources (65%).

HR PROFESSIONALS IN SINGAPORE CONTINUE TO BE IN ‘HIGH DEMAND’ Good news for HR professionals in Singapore – they need not worry about “future-proofing” their careers.

According to the latest Hays Quarterly Report, the demand for their skills is so high that they can be confident there will be job opportunities for them in the future.

“The job market for HR professionals is picking up especially within financial services which is generating steady demand for HR talent across all areas of the sector,” the report stated.

“Global tech players are also increasing their regional talent acquisition teams to manage hiring campaigns across the Asia Pacific.”

The report stated HR business partners at all levels are especially in high demand.

“Candidates in the highest demand are those with strong influencing and advisory skills gained in a business-driven environment,” it stated.

The study highlighted roles that require the core element of a strategic HR skill set to help the business achieve its objectives are also on the rise.

“We are seeing continued demand for learning and development and talent management for regional and global candidates to assist organisations develop, engage and retain top talent in a candidate-short market.”

IS REMOTE AND FLEXIBLE WORK REALLY THAT BENEFICIAL? Other than being good for work-life balance, is remote and flexible work really beneficial?

A new study by George Mason University and Boston College, published in the Academy of Management Discoveries, found that increased levels of off-site work can, in fact, have a highly negative and contagious effect on the office environment.

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

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

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

“What defines this tipping point is the lack of enough physically present co-workers too motivate individuals to come to the office.”

WHY HR IS (STILL) NOT ASKING THE RIGHT QUESTIONS Despite HR being continually focused on boosting talent retention and attraction rates, it looks like there is some time to go before it’s able to truly make significant progress in the area. A study by Saba and WorkplaceTrends.com found that 41% of employees said they would leave their company for better career options – with 31% stating that skills and talent from their background were not being recognised.

Despite employees being willing to share more context about themselves for better career advancement in their current companies – ironically, they aren’t been given the right opportunity to do so.

About one third (31%) of employees polled stated they would be happy to share their goals, background talent and what motivates them to ensure more accurate workforce placement.

The survey added, however, “the right questions are not often being asked”.

As a result, 15% of HR managers said that having an up-to-date risk assessment of losing high potentials would be the “most impactful” insight for their business.

Despite this, only 12% said that “workforce analytics” and “planning” were their companies’ best functions.

Ready Software Ready Claim Ready Email Ready Timesheet

Ready Pay

Ready Leave

Ready Staff

Ready PayAdvice

Ready Asset-Audit

Ready Form

Ready Asset Ready Notice Board

Ready Software Pte Ltd, Tel: 68723287 Fax: 68725243 Email: sales@ready-software.com Website: www.ready-software.com

4

» Human Resources » December 2015

4-5_News_DEC15_sub.indd 4

7/12/2015 6:47:49 PM

THE THREE SKILLS CHIEFF HR OFFICERS MUST HAVE TODAY TO ODAY When asked whether the HR function today deserves a seat at the C-suitee table, it might be tempting to answer with a resounding “yes” – but do HR lleaders d ttoday d really ll hhave th kill required i d tto make k a valuable l bl contribution t ib ti tto the skills the business? A study by Aon Hewitt recorded insights from 45 chief human resources officers (CHROs) at leading global organisations on what skills would make them more efficient. It reported that for future CHROs to be successful they would need several key skills.

First, CHROs and aspiring CHROs should be able to make decisions based on data and analytics. They should place a focus not just on giving the right answers, but also asking the right questions to solve the problem.

Second, CHROs have to be able to ensure their company’s culture is shifting in the right direction by making sure the styles of the firm’s business leaders are aligned with the organisation’s cultural goals.

Last, CHROs have to be able to proactively map out the capabilities an organisation needs for its future strategies. They have to examine the gaps between the current capabilities the organisation has and the ones it needs in the future, and then map a plan to bridge those.

WHY IS THE NATION STILL SUFFERING FROM A TALENT SHORTAGE? In the second quarter (Q2) of 2015, employers in Singapore saw a decrease in the number of job vacancies and an increase in the unemployment rate. But does this mean employers will no longer face a talent shortage?

According to a report by the Ministry of Manpower’s Manpower Research and Statistics Department, over the quarter, Singapore saw a decrease in the seasonally adjusted number of job vacancies by 4.5% to 62,400 in Q2 2015.

These job openings were seen across all skill levels, with 51% (32,100) of the vacancies for PMETs (professionals, managers, executives and technicians) and the remaining 49% (30,800) for non-PMETs. Of the non-PMETs vacancies, 17,400 (or 28%) were for clerical, sales and service workers and 13,500 (or 21%) for production and transport operators, cleaners and labourers. However, despite this fall in the number of vacancies, the number of job openings still outnumbered job seekers – with a ratio of 121 openings per 100 seekers in June 2015. This ratio has edged down slightly compared with March, which saw 143 openings per 100 seekers, partly due to the increase in the overall unemployment from 1.8% in March 2015 to 2.0% in June 2015.

2015’S MOST ABSURD EXCUSESS FOR CALLING IN SICK The reasons for claiming a day off have been getting more and more creative over the years. ers and 3,321 Polling 2,326 hiring and HR managers employees, a survey by CareerBuilder gathered thered the year’s most ridiculous excuses for calling in sick.

The report found 38% of employees have called into work sick when they are actually feeling well in 2015, up from 28% in 2014.

Echoing this trend, the study highlighted there was also an increase in bosses checking to see if their employees were actually sick on the day they had taken off.

In 2015, 33% have checked to see if an employee was telling the truth after calling in sick, compared with 31% last year.

Of these employers, 67% asked to see a doctor’s note, 49% called the employee and 32% checked the employee’s social media posts.

Some of the most memorable excuses for workplace absences employers have heard included an “employee claimed his grandmother poisoned him with ham”, an “employee was stuck under the bed”, an “employee broke his arm reaching to grab a falling sandwich”, an “employee said the universe was telling him to take a day off” and an “employee said his wife put all his underwear in the washer”.

LOCAL IT PROFESSIONALS CAN EXPECT SALARIES TO INCREASE BY 10% TO 15% With technology driving many aspects of business, the demand for IT professionals is expected to increase in Singapore. However, with a shortage of IT talent, employers can anticipate paying more to hire such talent.

According to ZW HR Consulting’s Singapore IT Salary Guide for 2015/16, Singapore is a “candidate favoured market”, currently driven by the over saturation of IT firms and positions, leading to a scramble to find top talent.

Demand is particularly high for mid-level IT professionals, especially for sectors such as banking and financial services, end-user commerce and consulting.

As a result, based on actual transactions between employers and employees in Singapore, candidates are seen to be receiving a 10% to 15% increase in salaries.

Those with additional in-demand skills such as languages spoken, leadership capabilities and on-the-job experience can receive up to 20% growth in salary.

“The average salary ranges for professionals are up by 10% to 15% for 2015/16 as compared to the 2014/15 figures; hiring is still strong in many areas such as mobile applications, data analytics, business intelligence and cloud computing,” said Mervin Chui, MD of ZW HR Consulting Singapore.

December 2015 « Human Resources «

4-5_News_DEC15_sub.indd 5

5

7/12/2015 6:48:00 PM

WORK LIFE » People GET INTO THE BOSS’S HEAD

Raj Rana CEO of South Asia Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group Asia Pacific

Any decision I take has to pass through the filter of uncompromised ethics.

What would you say is the key difference between the Asian style of leadership, and how does that benefit us?

Relationships are important all over the world, but they have greater prominence in Asia where the ability to earn trust is so much more critical than ink on paper agreements.

Patience and perseverance are key attributes for long-term success in Asia, as is respecting the cultural diversity and socio-business norms.

How did you get to where you are today? How were the early years of your hotel career?

I started my hotel career in India in 1984. My professional journey has given me opportunities to work in developed and mature markets such as the US and Canada as well as in emerging markets such as Russia and Latin America.

Have you had a mentor in your career? What is the top advice he/she gave you?

I have been fortunate to benefit from many good leaders. From my upbringing days, some early lessons were from my father who was a great mentor. His lesson was simple – that education is a great foundation for hard work to build on.

You have been with Carlson Rezidor for almost 25 years now. What keeps you motivated to be part of this company?

What keeps me motivated is the abundant opportunities that Carlson provides, be it for its investors or employees. It is a company that lives its values defined in the Carlson credo, which include integrity, empowerment, customer focus, courage and perseverance.

I also enjoy being part of Carlson’s tremendous growth story. Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group currently has more than 1,370 hotels in operation and under development, with a total footprint spanning 110 countries and territories across the world, and a 85,000-strong workforce.

We are very proud to be the number one international hospitality operator in India, with over 117 Carlson Rezidor hotels in operation and under development across 45 cities, including 14 state capitals.

What is your view of the human resources function, and how far it has progressed in South Asia?

With various industry reports anticipating a dearth of skilled manpower in the hospitality industry, the function of human resources has become ever so more important.

Carlson Rezidor Hotel group is committed to not only building a pipeline of its hotels, but also a robust talent pipeline to service our hotels.

We have a solid employee value proposition to attract the right talent, including our management training programme through which we have groomed 120 future leaders in the past few years.

Promotion from within and giving employees opportunities to fulfil their career aspirations is core to our approach.

In your organisation, what can HR do better to contribute to the business?

Human resources plays an integral role by keeping human talent engaged in a productive manner.

The function of human resources today is not to be just a service provider, but to be a business partner that influences optimisation of profit margins by ensuring a business has the “right fit” for employees and ideal manning ratios.

What is your secret to de-stressing? What do you enjoy in your free time?

I always start my day with 30 minutes of meditation, which helps me remain calm throughout the day.

I follow that with a good workout to boost my energy level. In my free time I love to spend time with my family.

You’ve had a rich career in this industry.

What is the one value you have held close throughout?

Hospitality is not about bricks and mortar, it is a people business. Genuinely caring for guests, hotel owners and employees is a value I cherish closely.

I am also committed to Carlson Rezidor’s “Yes I Can!” service philosophy and our commitment to the “100% satisfaction guarantee”.

How would you define your typical management style?

I am collaborative in my approach and like to give people their space, trusting them to make good decisions.

I do not like to shy away from seeking or seizing an opportunity, but prefer taking balanced risks.

6

» Human Resources » December 2015

6_Suitetalk_DEC15_sub.indd 6

7/12/2015 6:47:10 PM

ADVERTORIAL

FAR EAST HOSPITALITY’S VILLAGE RESIDENCE ROBERTSON QUAY THE TRUE SINGAPORE EXPERIENCE IN THE COMFORT OF HOME

host of entertainment and leisure options. They can enjoy a walk along

In today’s world, an employee mobility programme is essential for

the Singapore River to explore the rich heritage and its significant role

organisations to fulfil business and career development needs of their

in the country’s history. The serviced residence even provides a handy

staff. However, with research showing the inability of a candidate’s

village walking guide featuring the various sights, sounds and tastes in

family to adjust to their new surroundings as the second top reason of

the precinct, as well as a schedule of interesting activities happening

assignment failure, it is crucial that when employees are relocated, their

every month.

families are able to feel at home in their new country.

As such, it is of paramount importance that employees and their families are provided the right accommodation.

At the same time, the friendly and knowledgeable front office staff are always ready to share the many quirks of the city to help relocated residents fit in like a Singaporean.

Here’s where Far East Hospitality’s Village Residence Robertson Quay

Truly deserving of its TripAdvisor certificate of excellence, the

comes in, helping recently relocated families adapt to Singapore’s culture

professional team behind Village Residence Robertson Quay always goes

by bringing out the best experiences the Lion City has to offer.

the extra mile to take care of its residents, offering an array of services

Living up to its top three ranking on TripAdvisor for specialty lodging in Singapore, the residence provides a homely atmosphere. With three

to cater to the busiest of professionals – all within the comfort of their new home.

apartment sizes to choose from – studio apartment, two-bedroom suite

Residents can request for household support such as housekeeping

and three-bedroom suite – it caters not only to single residents, but also

services, dry cleaning and laundry, and babysitting services for parents

families of all sizes.

Each of the 71 fully furnished units comes complete with a fully equipped kitchen and a spacious living room. Additionally, apartments at

with young ones, all with minimal effort. A complimentary breakfast also allows professionals and their families to treat themselves to a variety of local favourites in an exclusive lounge.

Village Residence Robertson Quay are equipped with thoughtful amenities

Apart from its great location in the city, the residence has plenty of

such as free Wi-Fi and a 42” LED TV with a variety of cable TV channels,

amenities for residents to relax and refresh themselves if they don’t feel

ranging from local to global channels of different genres.

like stepping out. With the swimming pool, jacuzzi, gymnasium, barbecue

Conveniently located at the edge of Singapore’s central business

pit and children’s playground located on the same floor, parents can be in

district, getting to work on time will never be a problem for the relocated

close proximity to their children while they each take part in the activity

employee. After all, the short five-minute stroll to Clarke Quay Mass Rapid

of their choice.

Transit (MRT) station will enable residents to reach their offices easily.

For residents who want to travel in comfort, Village Residence Robertson Quay provides free shuttle services on weekday mornings to focal business districts such as Raffles Place and Mapletree Business City, from as early as 8am.

With such facilities, it is safe to say residents at Far East Hospitality’s Village Residence Robertson Quay have everything they need to have an enjoyable stay in Singapore.

As a home-grown brand with one of the largest selections of serviced residences in Singapore, Far East Hospitality provides authentic local

Work aside, sitting along the Singapore River in the heart of

experiences, making it the go-to serviced residence for a newly relocated

Robertson Quay – one of the island’s liveliest dining and drinking spots

expatriate. Book your stay with Far East Hospitality on StayFarEast.com

– Village Residence Robertson Quay also allows residents to explore a

and enjoy instant confirmation with a best rate guarantee.

7_FEH Advertorial_DEC15_sub.indd 1

7/12/2015 6:46:53 PM

People WORK LIFE »

SpacialAwareness A WORKSPACE GEARED FOR DISRUPTIVE THINKING

TBWA is known for creating some of the most iconic advertising on the planet – breaking rules, shattering conventions and making brands famous. What is the company’s secret to such success in today’s competitive advertising industry?

Liz Ho, HR manager at TBWA\Group Singapore, sheds some light.

“At TBWA, we have one special way of thinking that allows us to create some of the most iconic advertising on the planet – a methodology called Disruption®. Collaboration, connectivity and creativity are the lifeblood of this process. Having a workplace that enhances these three factors is essential.”

With such importance of giving employees every opportunity to be disruptive in their work, TBWA believes in having no boundaries – and has minimum enclosures with open concept spaces to create a workplace where everyone can communicate freely and bounce knowledge and ideas off one another.

“Employees are the most valuable assets for our business. Their creativity is critical in generating disruptive ideas, so we want to encourage them to interact more, and bring their creative minds together to spark off truly impactful work.”

Not wanting employees to be glued to their desks, the company has focused

8

on creating a more engaging workspace. Ho explains that the 30,000-plus sq ft of office space was reconfigured so that cross-category teams could spark off each other, creating breakthrough disruptive thinking.

Whether working together in their interactive meeting spaces or discussing ideas over freshly brewed coffee at the breakout area, Ho revealed: “Our employees are always welcome to leave their desks and work where they’re most comfortable, and therefore, most productive. Creativity is enhanced when people are more active and move around the office.

“Having short breaks also ensures they aren’t cooped up in their work, and allows them to be more relaxed to generate more disruptive ideas.”

As such, the workspace sports a table tennis and billiards table for employees to “refresh their creative minds over short breaks and come back to their work reinvigorated”.

Apart from that, connectivity also plays a part in TBWA’s success. The company is constantly enhancing its information technology capabilities with new innovative systems allowing it to better organise its work. This ensures it is always on, always connected to culture, and always creating relevant content.

“We recently introduced ‘Disruption® LIVE’ as the engine to drive the future, and invested heavily in data and analytics tools to provide more accurate, relevant, real-time intelligence.

“We’ve built new meeting spaces inside our agencies with bespoke ‘tech stacks’ of data and listening tools on large screens, allowing us to respond to the changing market dynamics and the needs of today’s connected consumers.”

Additionally, diversity also plays an important role in TBWA’s workforce.

“With employees of different backgrounds, it is vital to keep them engaged in conversations even more to spark off positive relationships among the employees, teams and managers, and encouraging them to work better as a collaborative team.”

While reconfiguring the office, three things TBWA took into consideration were comfort, relaxation and the organisation of its work space – something Ho suggested for other companies to do as well.

“Taking into consideration the employees’ needs and ensuring they are comfortable at the workplace is a key to boosting productivity.

“Creating a relaxing and interactive atmosphere helps to reduce stress and allows employees to build better relationships and work in harmony.

“A well-organised and connected workplace allows for better co-ordination between colleagues and teams, which helps everyone work more efficiently.”

» Human Resources » December 2015

8_SpacialAwareness_DEC15_sub.indd 8

7/12/2015 6:45:03 PM

People WORK LIFE »

snapshot

15 minutes with ...

Ahmad Fauzi Yahya Regional HR head of Asia, Oceania, Middle East and Africa Nestlé Professional WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST HR JOB AND WHY DID YOU CHOOSE HR? I already knew during my days at university that I wanted to be involved in people management. I therefore chose HR as my major. Growing up, I understood that you need to have a collaborative and engaged team to win. They have to be motivated, committed and sharing similar common values. With my experience, I thought this it would be my area of strength and I could succeed in this field. The rest was history.

WHAT DO YOU ENJOY MOST ABOUT YOUR WORK? As I progressed in my career, I found the role becoming more complex, challenging and interesting. The demand on HR as a function has evolved since the turn of the new millennium, as digital technology has taken the world to a totally new level. We need to go back to the drawing board to re-hatch our game plans on how to win this new game which requires a new mindset and skills set to compete effectively.

The role of HR will be to drive this change in the ways of working, while building a new culture to attract, retain the right talent and building

future leaders for the new, refreshed organisation. To deliver this requires clear vision, passion and commitment on the part of HR. Our role has now been recognised as an intrinsic part of the business and has earned itself a seat at the table. It is now up to us HR professionals to deliver expectations as the people custodians.

CAN YOU DESCRIBE A REGULAR WORKDAY AT YOUR COMPANY? Thanks to technology, regional roles like mine are able to function as efficiently and effectively as possible. My typical day would involve teleconferences, business update meetings and discussions and coaching sessions mainly through Skype and mostly involving country business managers in the various markets.

WHAT IS THE BEST CAREER ADVICE YOU HAVE RECEIVED? Just three key phrases: “Follow your passion, have pride in what you do and be proud of who you are.” This advice helped me to value and prioritise what is important in developing myself as a talent.

HOW DO YOU THINK HR WILL EVOLVE IN THE NEXT FIVE YEARS? HR is expected to go deeper into people motivations, their learning agility, belief systems and values. This is the essence of human beings. They thrive when they have a purpose in life. As leaders, we need to understand what makes people tick to gain peak performance from them as individuals and as a team. We also need to better understand how to win the hearts and minds of our people to optimise and sustain growth.

THANK YOU! “We would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to our clients and business partners for the utmost support and trust with Kelly Singapore.

Winning these awards is testament of our continual dedication to be the trusted talent solutions partner, with best-in-class expertise and service excellence.”

Mr Foo See Yang, Acting Country Manager of Kelly Singapore

Kelly wins 3 accolades at HR Vendors of the Year 2015 U iÃÌ "ÛiÀ> ,iVÀÕ Ì i Ì À ­ `® U iÃÌ ,iVÀÕ Ì i Ì À q -i À > >}i i Ì , ià ­ À âi® U iÃÌ ,iVÀÕ Ì i Ì À q ` > >}i i Ì , ià ­ À âi®

December 2015 « Human Resources «

9_Snapshot_DEC15_sub.indd 9

9

7/12/2015 6:44:46 PM

WORK LIFE » HR by numbers

HR by numbers « WORK LIFE

Long work hours prevent family time Did you know that long working hours is the top reason preventing Singaporeans from spending time with their families? This year, the figure saw a 12% increase as compared with last year. Overall, 55% of respondents stated they were not content with the amount of quality time spent with their family, an increase from 54% last year.

This was despite the fact that more Singaporeans were, in fact, spending time at home with their loved ones.

The report highlighted a majority were spending six to 12 hours on average per week with their families, a rise from only two to six hours last year.

55%

of staff are not satisfied with the amount of quality time spent with their family because of the hours they and their spouses spend at work.

71%

of Singaporeans stated spending time with their family gives them the most happiness.

54%

were dissatisfied with the number of hours spent with their families due to hours spent on household chores and errands.

Source: Poll conducted by Families for Life Council (FFL)

10 » Human Resources » December 2015

10_HRByNumbers_DEC15_sub.indd 10

8/12/2015 7:17:15 PM

SPONSORED RECRUIT ADVICE HOW TO THIS ARTICLE WAS BROUGHT TO YOU BY POWER2MOTIVATE

BORN TO CLICK: REWARDS SOLUTIONS FOR TODAY’S TECHNO-EMPLOYEES How technology is the key to unlocking the potential of Millennials Defined as Generation Y, Millennials are a technically savvy group of screen-swipers born in the late 1980s to early 2000s.

Growing up in the fast-paced digital age, they live and breathe via an array of smartphones and tablets where interaction, engagement and knowledge must be at their fingertips 24/7.

So when it comes to the workplace, how should HR adapt their employee benefit schemes to this new breed of “techno-employees” in order to tap into its potential as a motivated workforce?

Workplace satisfaction matters more to Millennials than monetary compensation, and work-life balance is often considered essential. They are less likely than previous generations to put up with an unpleasant work environment and much more likely to use social networking to broadcast their concerns.

On the other hand, satisfied Millennials are often employee advocates for the organisations they work for, providing honest, free and convincing public relations.”

Given the clear need to keep this growing employee sector happy, many companies are looking to utilise a similarly smart and savvy rewards and recognition platform that will appeal to the Millennials’ thirst for technology.

Versatile platform Online rewards solutions have been used by HR for many years to engage and motivate staff, and reward areas such as sales targets, long service, and even personal development and training.

So while they are not a new concept to consider, the key is to find the right platform that uses the power of technology to attract Millennials. Furthermore, it should be simple and effective for HR to both use and manage, deliver healthy ROI, and ultimately, keep the workforce engaged, motivated and happy.

This may sound adaptable to any existing platform, but as any good Millennial will tell you, the proof is in the digital pudding.

Attract, reward, retain In the fierce world of recruitment, the best candidates will be searching for companies with attractive and compelling offers.

As Millennials are increasingly driven by appreciation and benefits rather than monetary rewards, in order to attract them to the workplace, the key lies in technology where an innovative and well-designed solution will entice them to your company, deliver the motivation to drive performance, encourage them to engage and stay long term and ultimately sing your praises to others.

The reward options available are also fundamental to the success of any rewards structure, particularly for Millennials.

The advantage of such options is that this provides Millennials with the freedom to pick and choose their rewards at a click of a button. This is appealing not only for technological reasons, but as a trait; Millennials want to feel valued for who they are on a personal level so the opportunity to explore the gallery and freedom to redeem exactly what they want is a massive plus.

Taking that one step further is social sharing and “peer to peer” recognition.

Millennials not only want technological freedom, but they love the ability to share with their peers and to make them envious when highlighting the chosen reward was the latest wearable tech. This will be sure to tick their virtual box.

The digital road to riches Having such an online rewards solution is every HR manager’s dream. From regional sales and customer service teams, to a global workforce in 50 or even 100 countries, being able to create, implement and utilise a flexible rewards platform to manage Millennials across every level from office junior to CEO, will deliver dramatic time and cost savings across the business.

There’s little doubt that the Millennials’ tech knowledge and unwavering urge to swipe almost anything that moves has brought about necessary changes in how employee benefit providers use this love of technology to create and implement rewards solutions; from the range of digital items available through to the method of communication. And when it’s delivered by a company as part of the overall incentive to recruit and retain, it can be worth its weight in gold.

Millennials may perhaps be more demanding than the previous generation, but create the perfect balance between workplace motivation and a technology focused rewards solution, and they could very well become the most highly prized category of employees: long-term and motivated company advocates.

This article is contributed by Mark Robinson, executive general manager for Power2Motivate

Power2Motivate is the global leader of all things performance improvement.

We develop and manage some of the worlds biggest and best customer loyalty and employee recognition programmes. We have offices covering all four corners of the globe!

Our programmes are available across 150 countries and in 17 languages, with over 750 clients, in excess of 2.5 million users and we’re still growing.

For more information, visit www.power2motivate.asia.

December 2015 « Human Resources « 11

11_BrandedContent_Power2motivate_DEC15_sub.indd 11

7/12/2015 7:02:24 PM

WHITE PAPER » Leadership

FOUR UNIQUE FACTS ABOUT MILLENNIALS AT WORK

Global – Not only do Millennials suffer from anxiety at work, but they are also insecure about their own skills as professionals – especially when it comes to communicating and writing.

That was the key finding from Leadership IQ, which recently conducted a study involving more than 3,000 employees from several industries.

“According to this data, Millennials are not generally walking around narcissistically crowing about their skills (especially when compared to the other generations),” said Mark Murphy, founder of Leadership IQ, in a Forbes article.

Percentage of people who truly know whether their performance is where it should be 18-30

33%

31-40

38%

41-50

49%

51-60

45%

61 or older

49%

Source: Leadership IQ

Indeed, far from being narcissistic, the report found various areas where Millennials identified room for improvement in their performance – more so than any other generation.

Here are four such areas: First, Millennials don’t really know if their performance is good enough. Only 33% of Millennials say they know their performance is really where it should be compared with 49% of those aged between 41 to 50.

“I regularly hear managers complain that Millennials don’t know that they need to improve.

Well, this data clearly shows that it’s not that Millennials are willfully obstinate or narcissistic, but that they really don’t know,” Murphy stated.

“And frankly, how can we expect people to improve if they have no idea whether their performance is where it should be?”

Second, Millennials aren’t very comfortable discussing compensation. Only 23% of Millennials are very comfortable discussing their long-term compensation goals with their leaders, compared with 32% of people in their forties and 42% of people in their fifties.

“That’s a huge difference. And perhaps some of the Millennials’ reticence stems from the fact they don’t really know if their performance is where it should be,” Murphy said.

Third, Millennials aren’t that confident in their communication skills. Only 28% of Millennials surveyed thought their communications skills were better than their peers.

But people 10 years older (thirty somethings) felt much more confident (37%).

This, Murphy added, might be “one of the biggest indicators about the size of the generation gap (and some of the generational discord that exists in our workplaces)”.

Last, when surveyed about their writing skills, only 35% of Millennials believed their writing skills were better than their counterparts – the lowest among all generations surveyed.

“I know that working with different generations can sometimes be challenging. But hopefully by looking at some hard data, we can move past the hyperbole and myth and engage in a deep discussion about how to maximise everyone’s potential,” Murphy said.

12 » Human Resources » December 2015

12-13_WhitePaper_DEC15_sub.indd 12

7/12/2015 7:35:39 PM

Leadership « WHITE PAPER

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

The biggest drivers of staff engagement Peers

42%

Line managers

21%

Business unit manager

7%

HR

3%

Source: Simply Talent study by Oracle

Global – The people most likely to make employees feel engaged at work are not their managers, rather their colleagues. In fact, the HR team is the least likely to have a positive impact on engagement levels, says a new Oracle study, “Simply Talent”.

Polling 1,511 employees at large European businesses, 42% of respondents said their peers had the biggest role to play in how engaged they felt at work, well ahead of line managers (21%) and business unit managers (7%). Worryingly, only 3% of respondents said HR has the biggest positive impact on their levels of engagement.

Conversely, nearly one in five employees (19%) pointed to the senior leadership team for negatively

affecting employee engagement, while 11% said line managers were the most responsible for this.

Loïc Le Guisquet, Oracle’s president for EMEA and APAC, said: “Employees feel engaged by their peers and HR can help encourage this by providing access to sharing and collaboration platforms and social tools.”

With only about a third of employees (35%) feeling engaged most of the time, the study pointed to the benefits of an engaged workforce – increased productivity (56%), a reduced likelihood of switching jobs (37%), and an increased ability to provide creative ideas (35%). At the same time, 30% of employees revealed they would be more inclined

to serve customers better if they feel engaged.

Employees also provided ideas on how HR and line managers can get them to feel more engaged.

The top suggestion by more than half of the respondents (53%) was to recognise their achievements. This was followed by helping employees understand their contribution to the company (35%) and giving them the opportunity to work on exciting projects (34%).

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

Currently, only 29% of employees believe their company is proactive at engaging with them, compared with 42% who state their employer typically waits for them to bring up issues. Only 11% said their employer communicates with them via regular engagement surveys (monthly or more).

Everyone gets 50 years’ experience However long the assignment, your people always benefit from a lifetime of relocations expertise In fifty years we’ve learned a lot about what makes relocations more successful for everyone.

With experienced and knowledgeable people on the ground in more than 60 countries we support your program and take good care of your people: s s s s s

#OMPLETE SERVICE TO INTEGRATE WITH YOUR (2 STRATEGY 2ELOCATION POLICY SUPPORT AND BENCHMARKING !CTIVE RELOCATION MANAGEMENT 0ERSONAL SUPPORT FOR ASSIGNEES THROUGHOUT THE PROCESS ! PERSONAL SERVICE AT ORIGIN AND COMPLETE SUPPORT TO AID SETTLING IN AT DESTINATION

Tel: +65 6861 6818 singapore@crownrelo.com

Go knowing www.crownrelo.com/singapore

December 2015 « Human Resources « 13

12-13_WhitePaper_DEC15_sub.indd 13

7/12/2015 7:36:11 PM

PROFILE » Regan Taikitsadaporn

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

By AKANKASHA DEWAN

Q How has the experience of being

Q How do you alter your recruitment

Marriott’s CHRO since 2013 been?

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

strategies to reach out to Millennials?

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

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

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

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

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

It all boils down to how we attract, retain and develop talent, primarily how to attract the next generation, Millennials specifically.

The other focus is developing talent from within. We want our leaders to understand our culture, policies, practices and brands and that is going to help us be more successful, especially when we move into markets where we don’t have presence.

We have programmes from graduates to leaders to help develop this trait. A big part of our culture is people first, so we want to keep them engaged and take care of them.

overall, we have always been growthoriented and focused on growing talent from within. It’s a great culture that makes you want to stay, while giving opportunity to grow. I’m in my 16th year here, through which time I have been in eight roles, and worked in four cities across two continents.

It feels like I get to change jobs every few years while staying with a company I love – akin to getting the best of both worlds.

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

They look for opportunities and choices.

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

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

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

Q How would you define the workplace culture at Marriott?

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

Q I’ve read the average tenure for a GM at Marriott is about 25 years while elsewhere it’s much lower, and some 10,600 people have been with Marriott for more than 20 years. What makes employees stay on for so long?

We are company that is constantly growing. There are peaks and valleys, but

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

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

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

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

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

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

If you have talent who understands your culture and lives and breathes it, they can empower that philosophy to the next generation of associates. We believe our culture is one of our competitive advantages – we talk, live and breathe our culture. So that is one of the reasons for focusing on that.

14 » Human Resources » December 2015

14-17_Q&A_DEC15_sub.indd 14

7/12/2015 7:01:23 PM

14-17_Q&A_DEC15_sub.indd 15

7/12/2015 7:01:32 PM

PROFILE » Regan Taikitsadaporn line is around attracting the right talent to deliver that brand’s experience. The talent we need for the Ritz-Carlton hotel is very different from that of our lifestyle brand, Renaissance. Because the customers are different, and so are our expectations. Even the orientation and training programmes will vary.

Q Do you have employees moving across the different brands?

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

Q Marriott is also a big fan of women

Another one is around retention. If you look at research on the top three drivers of retention, career opportunities is going to be one of those. We believe by helping people grow their careers, we’re helping them make more money, hence, allowing them to take care of themselves. For example, we have a programme called Essential Skills to help rank and file staff to become a supervisor or first-time manager. This is a 15-module programme – allowing participants to learn a range of skills such as basic communication, interview and time management skills.

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

Measuring ROI for the programmes is hard because there are a lot of factors involved. But our metrics, for example, our guest engagement or satisfaction scores, have been rising over the years.

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

Another factor is our ability to grow talent from within. Occasionally, we have to go outside to bring in talent for some of our leadership positions. We do bring in GMs from outside at times, but that’s only when we really have to. We do find

it takes a length of time to acclimatise and run the hotel and learn about the company.

If you were to put a value on productivity there, the fact we generally promote people from within really helps increase productivity and leadership effectiveness.

Q How does Marriott conduct its performance review process?

We have mid-year and year-end discussions, but we encourage leaders to have regular meetings with their folks. So, for example, I have regular meetings with my direct reports once a month. In those, we talk about their development plans, and the day-to-day operational processes that they need help on, so when I do the midyear and year-end review, nothing is going to be a surprise for me or for them.

Q Marriott has many brands and the HR team works closely with the different brand strategy teams to come up with the employer brand. How do you ensure the message is consistent?

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

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

From a brand perspective, the tag

empowerment and leadership. How do you foster an environment that encourages gender diversity?

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

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

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

The other big part is senior leaders being role models. We have leaders with

16 » Human Resources » December 2015

14-17_Q&A_DEC15_sub.indd 16

7/12/2015 7:01:35 PM

Regan Taikitsadaporn « PROFILE culturally diverse backgrounds who are role models in teamwork, and that really helps as well.

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

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

We’re there, but it doesn’t mean we can stop thinking. From my perspective, we have to always think from a business lens and from a consumer lens, and make sure we help address those issues, trends and priorities that the business has. It may be the same programmes that we use to

address those (issues), and maybe we just have to do a better job telling our story as to why we’re doing certain things.

If I just go, “we need to roll out assessments”, people will go “why do we have to waste our time on assessments?” as opposed to telling them “our focus is to improve customer preferences and guest engagements in our lifestyle brands, so from a HR perspective, these are the few things that we can do to help you achieve those results”. I think that approach will definitely help you get to the table.

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

I think HR should ask the right questions, because you’re not going to know everything when you become a senior leader, so asking the right questions is a

skill that good HR leaders generally have.

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

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

The function’s prevalence will become even more important and I think it’s a great opportunity for HR professionals. This is the time where you’re either going to make it or break it.

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

I think the next five to 10 years will be an exciting time for HR professionals and for those who are able to be good partners, be think strategically and tell the story. From the business perspective, those leaders who will find an important seat at the table. I think every CEO or president deserves to have a good HR business partner – a need perhaps as crucial as to having a strong financial partner.

December 2015 « Human Resources « 17

14-17_Q&A_DEC15_sub.indd 17

7/12/2015 7:01:40 PM

FEATURE » Employee engagement

While making use of digital media to recruit talent can be a new way of working for most organisations, it is not impossible. Follow these case studies of award-winning programmes from this year’s Asia Recruitment Awards to find out how it’s done, uncovered by Jerene Ang.

18 » Human Resources » December 2015

18-22_Feature_Digital Recruitment_DEC15_sub.indd 18

7/12/2015 7:03:01 PM

Digital recruitment « FEATURE t is well known the younger generations are highly connected, always online and can’t live without their smartphones. So how does this relate to recruitment?

As more members of the younger generations enter the workforce, many companies are incorporating digital platforms into their recruitment strategies to cater to this tech-savvy group while promoting their employer brand.

Cazar’s 2014 Top Candidate Sources report found online channels make up 99% of the channels where candidates search for jobs.

The latest job vacancy statistics released

by Singapore’s Ministry of Manpower found that job openings still outnumber job seekers with a ratio of 121 openings per 100 seekers – a situation echoed by many countries across APAC. As such, it has become increasingly important that companies have a solid recruitment strategy to get the talent they need.

However, with technology evolving at a faster rate than ever, it can be difficult to keep up with the changes while creating a strategy around digital recruiting. To aid HR leaders designing their recruitment strategies for next year, we dedicate this feature as a guide to best practices in recruiting talent digitally. All case studies in this feature are from award-winning programmes from this year’s edition of Human Resources Asia Recruitment Awards.

Employer branding is the first step The objective of a good employer brand is usually to attract the right kind of talent to the organisation. Though easier said than done, companies with successful employer branding strategies have reaped great benefits from their strong employer brand with one such example being the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA).

How IDA influences tomorrow’s talent In 2014, IDA set the stage for Singapore to be the world’s fi rst “Smart Nation”, taking the central role as the technology leader to transform the vision into reality through three key pillars – build, govern and deliver.

IDA found the “build” and “deliver” roles were often overshadowed by its “govern” role, and that there was a general perception the organisation was only a regulatory outfit.

After identifying the areas to address in

its employer branding, IDA reviewed and redefi ned its employee proposition with the aim to brand itself beyond its “govern” role, correct the stereotype, and attract tech talent to it.

When IDA embarked on a mission to “influence tomorrow”, through a recruitment campaign aimed at tech-sector talent, it spiked the company’s talent brand index to 24%, ahead of its public and private sector peers.

The result? Winning gold at the inaugural Asia Recruitment Awards in Singapore in the category of Best Employer Brand Development.

Influence tomorrow became an umbrella brand for IDA’s employer branding activities, starting with a series of creative advertisements for fresh graduates, mid-careerists and specialists in data analytics, software development and design, and cyber security.

Online innovation was one of the key drivers in the execution, with the company being one of the early adopters of social media recruiting in the public sector.

Engaging the public via social media helped IDA to correct any misperception of being a “bureaucratic civil service outfit”, and also allowed its target audience to learn more about its “build” and “deliver” roles beyond “govern”.

Online marketing also got a boost given the time-bound need to create awareness and drive applications for the inaugural technology associate programme (TAP) in 2014. A one-month online marketing campaign was conducted via search engine marketing and display ads via key digital platforms, strengthened by targeted text and display ads for the specific audience of fresh graduates.

Experiential marketing was another area of focus, with initiatives such as informal lunches for interns and e-newsletter for scholars.

Th rough its “influence tomorrow”, IDA maximised its touch-points with its target audience, leveraging on a platter of media and activities to elevate its employer brand.

Th is successfully helped correct public misperceptions about its branding.

IDA now has more than 50,000 followers on LinkedIn, up enormously from 2,000 in 2013, achieving a brand reach greater than some of its private peers. Th is buzz saw real conversion – with the application target for TAP exceeding by 11%, and almost two in every three employees looking to recommend IDA to a friend.

Lau Yin Cheng, IDA’s chief of HR and OD, spoke about the campaign’s success.

December 2015 « Human Resources « 19

18-22_Feature_Digital Recruitment_DEC15_sub.indd 19

7/12/2015 8:34:12 PM

FEATURE » Digital recruitment

Planning for the unplanned: HR must anticipate challenges in rollouts and identify solutions in advance.

“Th rough our ‘influence tomorrow’ campaign, we were able to elevate our employer brand and attract the right talent in joining us to help us realise our ‘Smart Nation’ dream.

“Being real was key to our success as we were focused on sharing our people stories with different groups of audiences.”

Other than being real, a key success factor of the campaign hinged on collaboration – internally across departments as well as externally with creative and media agencies.

Having the right recruitment technology After establishing a solid employer brand, how should organisations deal with the number of applications that will come flooding in? The solution is in having the right recruitment technology to standardise the process.

When GroupM perfected recruitment Across its portfolio, GroupM recruits up to 2,500 new hires in a single year.

Before 2014, GroupM’s regional recruitment was done traditionally with candidates sending in resumes via email, and recruiters struggling to arrange for and conduct interviews in the most time and cost-effective way. With everything done manually, efficiency of time and resources was at its lowest.

Additionally, security concerns meant cloud services could not be used, hindering

communication and record keeping. Th is severely slowed down the recruitment process and resulted in a poor and long-winded candidate experience.

Something needed to change, and fast, for recruiters to manage the process in the most time and cost-effective way.

The solution? Jobvite. A recruiting platform designed for the social web that saw the number of job applications shooting to about 100 for every vacancy, earning GroupM Asia Pacific the gold award for Best Recruitment Technology at the Asia Recruitment Awards, Singapore.

The spark behind the idea came when GroupM’s regional recruiters, who are based in Singapore but supporting hiring efforts over 14 markets, were bogged down by manual work.

The objective of Jobvite was to bring in all resumes digitally, while enabling recruiters to schedule interviews through the system, and cut down on time spent per candidate.

The implementation set its sights on improving the candidate experience – making sure they could access authentic, accurate and relevant information about the fi rm and role.

Once Jobvite went live in Singapore, two training programmes were carried out – for hiring managers and employees. Hiring managers were trained on how to navigate the system, while employees were taught how to set up their accounts so they could instantly share open positions on their personal social media pages such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Collaboration was key, with the HR and talent acquisition team working closely with the IT team, which provided on-the-ground backend support, while HR worked on getting buy-in from agency leads, and ensuring employees and hiring managers attended the training sessions.

Did the implementation go according to plan? Of course not, with every change, there’s bound to be some resistance. However, GroupM already anticipated this challenge, and intentionally staggered the implementation to minimise resistance, and help identify gaps or training needs. Doing so, it managed to make sure each consecutive market experienced a smoother and more effective implementation.

Jobvite’s implementation saw a strong increase in hires, an increase in Facebook engagement (more than 300,000 total page likes), impressive offer-to-acceptance percentage ratios – with 93% accepting the offer and significant recruitment savings.

20 » Human Resources » December 2015

18-22_Feature_Digital Recruitment_DEC15_sub.indd 20

7/12/2015 7:03:01 PM

Digital recruitment « FEATURE Today, just a handful of jobs are hired outside of Jobvite, as more employees continue to activate their Jobvite accounts, pointing to the success of this recruitment technology.

Michael Wright, head of talent acquisition for GroupM APAC, praised the efforts of his team in the achievement.

“We’ve been very smart in investing in the right processes and systems to help us further and strengthen our recruitment efforts in Asia.

But that said, I also need to recognise the efforts of our IT, HR and talent teams, who tirelessly helped roll out the systems in their individual markets – no easy feat in a region as diverse as Asia,” he noted.

How Cargill standardised its process Before 2011, Cargill, that provides agriculture, food, fi nancial and industrial products and services, had a decentralised and fragmented recruitment process in Singapore and Asia Pacific. It was not aligned across businesses nor standardised at a global or regional level. The function faced challenges delivering on three of its key measurements – client satisfaction, service effectiveness and cost efficiency.

The team took on the challenge to ensure: client satisfaction through a stronger sourcing capability; clarity with the recruitment structure and local and regional connectivity; service effectiveness with the adoption of technology for process alignment and efficiency; and (d) cost efficiency with the development of candidate pools.

In 2011, a global project team comprising leads from four regions and stakeholders from the businesses was set up. Cargill’s Singapore office took a leading role for the APAC region.

They developed a new global process, introduced clear governance and reporting and adopted CEB’s talent advisor model to enhance their recruiters’ ability to be strategic business partners. A stronger candidate pool was available through an enhanced in-house sourcing capability. New roles such as talent sourcing and researchers were also identified to hone sourcing expertise.

Taleo, a key technology enabler, was also implemented. The well-planned execution exercise ensured a successful launch in Singapore and subsequent introduction to the rest of APAC in 2014.

December 2015 « Human Resources « 21

18-22_Feature_Digital Recruitment_DEC15_sub.indd 21

7/12/2015 7:03:01 PM

FEATURE » Digital recruitment A proper support structure with Taleo super-users, who conducted regular calls, was implemented. Th is was done along with a hypercare period after the programme went live to suit all time zones.

Country specific meetings were hosted prior to in-person training to understand the current processes and identify gaps. Clear communication reinforced the importance of the project and aligned it with the overall recruitment strategy for the smooth and seamless introduction.

To deal with the challenges such as slow internet connection in some countries such as Vietnam and Indonesia, other infrastructure teams were engaged to upgrade the network.

Within eight months, the project was a success.

The teams had all the systems in place for an enhanced recruitment process. More importantly, they used 17% less budget and the project was completed on time.

“The ability of the HR team to understand and meet their clients’ needs, strategise and

“There is a real war on talent out there and we need to be on our toes to identify and recruit the right people that fit the right profile, culture and skills.”

– Manish Verma, HR leader of Cargill Asia Pacific

devise the most effective solutions has always been critical to an organisation. There is a real war on talent out there and we need to be on our toes to identify and recruit the right people that fit the right profi le, culture and skills,” said Manish Verma, Cargill Asia Pacific’s HR leader.

The increased collaboration with the business, a better understanding of needs, the adoption of the best possible channels to recruit the most suited candidates, along with technology, brought about improved results.

Cargill can now track key metrics of its recruitment efforts, via data-driven discussions at a strategic level with stakeholders, hiring managers and business HR leaders.

At the same time, the new strategy helped improve the fi rm’s client satisfaction, reduce the median time taken to fi ll a position (from 48 days in 2013/14 to the current YTD 44 days in 2015/16) and reduce significant hiring costs. On

top of that, the new strategy also helped Cargill bag the silver award for Best Recruitment Technology as well as the gold award for Best Regional Recruitment Programme (In-House) at the Asia Recruitment Awards, Singapore.

“Th rough Taleo we have significantly improved our recruitment process standardisation and achieved more visibility into our hiring metrics, resulting in an increased hiring manager satisfaction score,” said Tai-Kit Hua, Cargill Asia Pacific’s talent recruitment lead.

“In the future, there will be opportunities to develop an integration strategy and implementation plan on Taleo’s integration to our data management system as well as other applications. These efforts can help us provide significant long-term value to our stakeholders.”

A quick recap After looking at these best practices in recruiting talent digitally, here’s a step-by-step recap on making use of technology and digital media to effectively recruit the right talent.

First, make sure a clear employer branding strategy is established. Seeing as today’s workforce is getting more digitally inclined, be sure to make use of digital platforms and social media to broadcast your employer branding.

Second, simply having access to technology is not enough, organisations have to be able to know how to use the technology on hand to obtain the desired results.

In order to do so, a clear objective – for example, automating the recruitment process to increase efficiency – has to be set up for the implementation and use of technology.

Th ird, anticipate and overcome challenges.

With every change comes a challenge and organisations must be able to predict what these challenges are and fi nd a way to overcome them. For example, it is a good idea to stagger the implementation of a new technology to overcome resistance.

Fourth, know how to measure ROI – it can be as straightforward as tracking a follower count over time or the days taken to fi ll a role.

Last, but not least, no matter what is being implemented – be it a new employer branding strategy or technology/platform – collaboration is key. Once an objective has been set, the HR team has to collaborate closely with other departments such as marketing and IT for the project to be successful.

22 » Human Resources » December 2015

18-22_Feature_Digital Recruitment_DEC15_sub.indd 22

7/12/2015 7:03:01 PM

Digital recruitment « FEATURE

CASE STUDY: AMCOR FLEXIBLES ASIA PACIFIC Leigh Stewart, vice-president of human resources at Amcor Flexibles Asia Pacific, explains how the firm successfully adopted digital media platforms for a career programme, thus boosting the number of followers as well as improving search efficiency.

With the growing number of users on digital media platforms, Amcor knew that a presence on these platforms is an effective way of engaging a larger pool of people.

Leigh Stewart, vice-president of human resources at Amcor Flexibles Asia Pacific, explains: “At Amcor, we place a strong focus on talent. We recognise that the leaders of today and tomorrow are tech-savvy and are well connected on digital platforms and they want information in real time.”

As such, Amcor decided to adopt digital platforms – those most commonly used today, including LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter, which are desktop and mobilefriendly – while recruiting talent.

“With the increasing number of digitally savvy users globally, Amcor adopted the utilisation of digital platforms as a way to engage stakeholders. Building a strong brand to establish a robust employee value proposition is one of the ways of attracting, retaining and motivating the talent we require,” Stewart said.

One of the ways it used platforms was in the launch of a career programme known as the Amcor “accelerated career development programme” (ACDP) in May 2015.

“The ACDP is a three-year programme that provides a permanent opportunity for ambitious and commercially savvy talented people to take on roles in various business functions within Amcor.

“During the campaign, the ACDP utilised LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Google Display and a dedicated web page on the Amcor corporate website (Accelerate.amcor. com) to publicise and advertise the programme globally.”

By adopting digital media, Amcor aims to provide leaders with greater insights to its business, culture, values and the way it operates.

“As a leader in the packaging industry, digital media is a great way to share Amcor’s expertise in innovation, our sustainability efforts and our brand story.”

With many in the workforce already digitally savvy, this adoption shouldn’t be much of a challenge. That said, companies must be aware of the challenge of keeping up to speed with its pace of development.

“There are new platforms that are emerging all the time and businesses need to fi nd a way to keep their use of digital media current.”

Not long ago, the primary way organisations used digital media was through online job advertising sites or job boards to display their available roles, today, it is more common to see job ads on LinkedIn and Twitter.

Taking note of these challenges, and making use of the right platforms, Amcor’s ACDP garnered positive results on all the digital platforms used to promote it.

One of the ways in which Amcor measures its ROI is to track the increase in social media followers.

“LinkedIn had a 10% increase in the number of followers while Facebook had over 40,000 fans by the end of the ACDP campaign; on the ACDP web page, it garnered over 53,000 unique hits,” Stewart said.

Th is campaign successfully showcased the importance for Amcor to harness the power of digital media to connect with its stakeholders.

“With job opportunities being published on the Amcor digital media platforms, it attracts a group of candidates who are digital-media savvy, hence, increasing the efficiency of searching for candidates to fi ll vacant roles within the organisation.

In addition to its presence on digital platforms, the careers page on the Amcor corporate website also shows detailed content on the business and roles available for potential candidates to refer to.

“Digital media has delivered positive results for us and has created a growing community of people who are connected to our organisation and are engaged with the happenings of the business,” Stewart concluded.

December 2015 « Human Resources « 23

23_CS_AMCOR_DEC15_sub.indd 23

7/12/2015 7:01:58 PM

FEATURE » Employee engagement

Despite continuous focus, a number of firms still encounter difficulty crafting a successful engagement strategy.

At Human Resources’ HR Excellence Awards 2015, however, winners in employee engagement proved it is possible to launch initiatives with a proven impact on staff.

Akankasha Dewan reveals their winning engagement secrets.

he most conventional, and perhaps, desirable defi nition of employee engagement is a Utopian scene, where smiling employees work harmoniously and collaborate as productivity skyrockets.

But the sobering truth is creating true employee engagement within fi rms is a painful process that is often messy and difficult.

Per a recent report from WeSpire, only 27% of fi rms have an official employee engagement policy, despite 76% of employees under the age of 30 wanting to see their employer do more.

“Employee engagement and corporate culture have become top-level business priorities for senior management, as there is no arguing that an engaged workforce is a higher

performing one. But the disconnect between intent and execution is widespread,” says Susan Hunt Stevens, founder and CEO at WeSpire.

What are the reasons for the disconnect?

A report by Altimeter Group attributed the lack of a coherent approach to employee engagement to a lack of co-ordination between HR and other functions, such as marketing.

While the HR function was highlighted as leading employee engagement initiatives at 41% of companies, marketing led these efforts at only 11% of companies. However, marketing was found to be more involved (47%) than HR (39%) in actual employee engagement efforts.

“Many organisations don’t know how to tackle the problem of engagement, and are

24 » Human Resources » December 2015

24-26_Feature_EmployeeEngagement_DEC15_sub.indd 24

7/12/2015 7:03:41 PM

Employee engagement « FEATURE often unaware of how technology and internal advocates can champion the effort,” it stated.

That is precisely why in the HR Excellence Awards 2015, a jury of HR leaders from the region’s top employers, lauded fi rms who crafted an employee engagement strategy that made a difference to business performance.

To highlight the practices in their awardwinning employee engagement initiatives, the winners of this year’s Excellence in Employee Engagement category have shared with us their success stories.

Case one: Yahoo Yahoo Singapore was awarded the gold award for Excellence in Employee Engagement – and for good reason. The company takes pride in focusing on employees’ wellness, while creating an innovative and family oriented environment, integrating collaboration across departments.

It organises fun events to engage not only employees, but also their family members.

(Family day, where Yahoos bring their families to the office, is an example.)

Wellbeing programmes for employees include stress management workshops, health talks, screenings and free flu shots.

Yahoo’s VP for HR in APAC, Vineet Gambhir, believes all engagement programmes should be built on the basis of respect.

“Engagement initiatives are like the different rooms of the house – some initiatives target a specific audience and different initiatives have different objectives and end outcomes,” he says.

“Respect on the other hand is universal – it applies to everyone. Everyone deserves, wants and is motivated by respect. The job title change, salary change, responsibilities, are all manifestations of a need for respect.”

The fi rm has a core team called the Singapore catalysts which helps drive new initiatives in the office. These include anything around office improvements, such as getting new facilities and creating new spaces to arranging a fitness week with a local gym. The HR HR team worked closely with SG catalysts in 2015 to plan its bowling event, “Th is is how we roll”, and the family day at the zoo, “Zoomanji”.

The deep engagement and sense of solidarity was reflected in Yahoo Singapore’s high engagement scores in the company’s global internal engagement survey for 2014.

“Respect your ex and prospective employees the same way as your current employees.

Respect your new employee the same way as your longest tenured employee,” Gambhir says.

“Respect your bottom performer the same way as your top employee. Respect your employee regardless of grade level or title.

Respect does not have boundaries. It must be part of the DNA. True boundary less respect is what employee engagement is all about.”

Moving forward, the SG HR team plans to create an APAC-wide engagement framework to align Yahoos in all its APAC locations. Th is will allow APAC employees to have a common engagement experience as they continue to work on cross functional and border projects.

Case two: National Environment Agency The bronze award winner for Excellence in Employee Engagement was awarded to The National Environment Agency (NEA). It believes when staff are able to reach their full potential, they are more likely to stay committed.

“In NEA, employee engagement means engaging the mind and connecting with the heart of every employee. Keeping our officers engaged, motivated and feeling that they belong to one NEA builds a dedicated workforce that goes the extra mile to serve our nation,” says Gloria Chin, HR director of NEA. NEA’s employee engagement framework, therefore, focuses on delivering an authentic and compelling experience to its employees, and has been ramped up over the years. In particular, targeted engagement sessions have been organised to ensure the management team hears views from different staff segments.

Tea sessions with different groups of officers and HR roadshows, during which key HR policies are shared, are opportunities for HR and senior management to gain a better understanding of the concerns faced by staff.

Over the past 12 months, 23 tea sessions and 17 roadshows were conducted.

Engagement starts at the top, Chin reveals.

“Employee engagement initiatives are not driven solely by the HR team. Commitment to employee engagement is present at every level of leadership, from the CEO down to every immediate supervisor.”

There has also been a focus on building pride among employees and giving them a sense of achievement for work well done, leading to the launch of initiatives such as “Behind the Scenes”, “Shine a Light” and “Together”. These are e-publications where the organisation December 2015 « Human Resources « 25

24-26_Feature_EmployeeEngagement_DEC15_sub.indd 25

7/12/2015 8:35:06 PM

FEATURE » Employee engagement profi les its officers and the work they do in NEA. As a result of these engagement efforts, NEA has sustained a healthy 95% retention rate for its workforce in the past three years.

Case 3: National Kidney Foundation Singapore’s National Kidney Foundation (NKF) has also excelled in employee engagement. It believes in engaging each employee to build an inclusive workplace culture together – one that is built on fairness, merit and respect to help employees perform to their full potential.

In line with that aim, a specialised employee engagement programme – the 5Cs – was introduced in 2009 to amplify its objectives.

the organisation climate survey (OCS) which is conducted once every two years.

The fi rm’s employee engagement efforts have borne fruit. OCS 2015 showed employees demonstrating significantly higher commitment towards NKF with its employee engagement index increasing from 4.85 in 2013 to 5.09 in 2015. In October 2014, an employee pulse survey was conducted as well to understand employees’ perception on the impact of its initiatives. Almost all (90%) of employees rated six and above on the happiness scale (10 being the happiest), while 75% of employees responded “Yes, I am proud of NKF”.

Case four: SABIC

“Employee engagement initiatives are not driven solely by the HR team.

Commitment to employee engagement is present at every level of leadership, from the CEO down to every immediate supervisor.”

– Gloria Chin, HR director of National Environment Agency

The 5Cs are the guiding principles which steer employees in their interactions with patients, colleagues and stakeholders – collaboration, commitment, communication, compassion and consistency.

Now these principles are at the heart of the NKF culture and are consistently reinforced to create a sustainable workplace. Such activities include anniversary celebrations and compulsory induction programmes. Many health activities are also organised such as the staff health day, the inter-zone basketball tournament, a bowling competition, the “Bond Upon a Walk”, and many more. Employees are also given time off to participate in “Healthy Mondays” for team building exercises.

Each engagement initiative is led by the CEO, leaders and the HR team to boost efforts in motivating talent, increasing productivity, fostering bonds among peers and strengthening NKF’s position as an employer of choice.

Since 2011, the 5Cs have been integrated as part of all employees’ appraisals under the qualitative measurement section. Questions on 5Cs and engagement were also included in

While SABIC was not an awardee, its “Lights of Our Future” is a unique CSR programme worthy of mention, and a part of SABIC’s global sustainability strategy for its vision 2025. It was developed in line with two of SABIC’s CSR priority areas: science and technology education, and environmental protection.

Th rough this, the company seeks a lasting impact by heightening the future generation’s awareness of sustainability.

Lights of Our Future was piloted in late 2014 and expanded in 2015 to China and Singapore, with plans to extend to other Asia markets in the next few years. In Singapore, Lights of Our Future partnered with an NGO, Junior Achievement, in a community outreach programme to young students. It aims to instil the principle of environmental protection in children aged 11 years, through an interactive curriculum created by SABIC volunteers.

The curriculum includes identifying real environmental problems, realising current efforts to alleviate them and the role of science.

The programme also serves as a platform for cross-function collaboration among employees and for knowledge transfer on sustainability.

More than 1000 students and 150 SABIC employees in Asia engaged in the programme over 15 months as of November 2015, devoting more than 1,800 hours of volunteer time, exceeding the original target of reaching more than 700 students by the end of 2015.

In Singapore, teachers found inspiration in this alternative teaching method. Unity Primary School teacher Elizabeth Ng said: “It greatly enhanced students’ knowledge on environmental challenges in addition to promoting values to sustainable living.”

26 » Human Resources » December 2015

24-26_Feature_EmployeeEngagement_DEC15_sub.indd 26

7/12/2015 7:03:41 PM

The Engaging Leader Report gives you a picture of your underlying motives and values and how these influence your behaviour at work. You’ll see what your team thinks about working for you – and how engaged they feel as a result. Engagement drives performance, so the more engaged and effective your team feels, the better their performance will be.

To learn how to make your leaders more engaging visit us at www.theengagingleader.com.

FEATURE » Employee engagement

CASE STUDY: JOHNSON & JOHNSON Engaging employees is tough in itself, but perhaps made even tougher when a company undergoes a shift in structure and ways of working. Carmen Chan, HR director at ONE J&J Southeast Asia, recounts the steps Johnson & Johnson undertook to help its employees adapt to an entirely new business model.

As more and more fi rms acknowledge that staff are the greatest asset and capital for a company, they are coming up with more creative ways to proactively engage them.

especially crucial task for J&J when the fi rm underwent a complete change in its business model, requiring a mindset shift for all of its staff.

Johnson & Johnson’s engagement strategy “At Johnson & Johnson, employee engagement means, fi rstly, a strong connection with the company direction, strategy and business models, along with providing staff an opportunity to thrive both professionally and personally,” said Carmen Chan, HR director at ONE Johnson & Johnson Southeast Asia (J&J).

She added the fi rm engages employees mainly through its “Credo” values.

The formation of ONE J&J “Over one year ago, J&J combined its consumer, medical devices and pharmaceuticals businesses in Southeast Asia to form one of the most comprehensive healthcare companies operating in this region,” Chan said.

Th is was done with a single-minded objective of making the greatest difference to the lives of the people in these emerging markets that have huge unmet healthcare and medical needs.

“The ONE J&J business model is a fi rst in the history of Johnson & Johnson across the world. We are in a unique position to meet the evolving and unmet healthcare needs of consumers, patients, healthcare practitioners, governments and NGOs.” Chan recounted for employees to adjust to the new business model, the company’s management was focused on engaging its people to believe in this new structure.

“Over the last one year, we have focused on helping our people understand the value of this structure, not only for our customers, the patients that we serve, our government and NGO partners, but also for our employees as we strongly believe in its potential for talent development,” she said.

“Now, more than ever, we have been able to provide more diverse career paths – rather than growing in one sector or function, our employees have the opportunity to take on cross-franchise, cross-function and cross-channel roles.”

“Now, more than ever, we have been able to provide more diverse career paths – rather than growing in one sector or function, our employees have the opportunity to take on cross-franchise, cross-function and cross-channel roles.”

“We put the needs and wellbeing of the people we serve fi rst and employees believe deeply in our ‘Credo’ values as a means for business success. It is our compass in terms of decision-making, the way to do business and the way we engage with our employees.”

Every year, the fi rm conducts its Credo survey to take questions from its employees on important topics such as business strategy, talent development, job satisfaction, innovation, collaboration and customer alignment, etc.

Meaningful action plans are then created to work on employees’ feedback.

“We use employee engagement as a way to re-recruit our talents and it’s a great form of employee retention. One of our most engaging strategies is to involve employees in giving back to the community we live in. Employees are deeply connected with the company purpose, how our products transform lives and their ability to be part of it.”

Engaging employees, however, turned out to be an

Connecting with employees For example, Chan explained a product specialist in the pharmaceutical business can now make a career move to the fi rm’s surgery business (cross franchise) while a sales leader may expand his or her portfolio by taking on a focused territory of hospitals and conducting strategic consultations with hospital management beyond just products.

“Overall, we have enlarged our talent pool, our people have experienced enhanced learning agility and have taken on new and challenging assignments without having to relocate.

“Th is required a consistent communications

28 » Human Resources » December 2015

28-29_CS_Johnson_DEC15_sub.indd 28

7/12/2015 7:03:23 PM

Employee engagement « FEATURE

“Overall, we have enlarged our talent pool, our people have experienced enhanced learning agility and have taken on new and challenging assignments without having to relocate.” approach by the regional and the country leadership teams through platforms such as town halls, small group meetings, feedback sessions and regular business updates leveraging our internal communications channels such as the intranet, newsletters, etc.”

She added the journey in communicating with and engaging employees had been a major collaborative effort.

Th is involved combining inputs from the company’s global and regional business leaders and teams, with different functions across the board.

The fi rm has also introduced a new initiative called “Let’s Connect” to encourage employees to reach out and connect with one another. Th is initiative aims to help employees in operating as one organisation, rather than representing different sectors.

“All employees were given carabiners, a life-saving tool used in activities such as mountaineering, as a symbolic representation of the programme,” Chan said.

“At Johnson & Johnson, the change represented the start of a new journey and new peaks that we had to conquer. Hence, the carabiners have been used as a reminder for employees to show their appreciation towards other colleagues who have helped them in this journey and enabled them to scale new heights in terms of their development.”

for rewarding employees according to job performance, giving real opportunities to improve skills in the company and providing encouragement and support to operate in new ways.

In addition, “markets like Singapore and Vietnam registered double-digit growth in scores across all three categories – a testament of employees embracing the new model and seeing the value it is bringing for our stakeholders and for their own development”.

Chan revealed that creating opportunities for community involvement also helped the company in fostering teamwork among its employees.

“The month of July is volunteer month at Johnson & Johnson and our colleagues across SEA came together to contribute significantly towards supporting local charities and raising funds for our global/regional initiatives,” she said.

She added 2516 employees from Southeast Asia volunteered in 46 activities this year, with a participation rate of 72%, up from 61% in 2014. Nineteen charities were supported in total by the company.

“ONE J&J Southeast Asia also actively supports the Making Smiles, Changing Lives programme as part of our commitment to help transform the lives of those children and young adults born with a cleft lip and palate.

“We support Operation Smile, a worldwide children’s medical charity in this endeavour. In 2015, we’ve raised over 1500 smiles through fundraising events across APAC with Southeast Asia being a major contributor to the programme,” she concluded.

Measuring the effectiveness of engagement programmes To give all employees an opportunity to share their feedback and thoughts around its commitments and initiatives, J&J analysed the scores of its Global Credo survey.

The 2015 survey focused on three key categories – talent development, collaboration and innovation.

“In Southeast Asia, we achieved a 98% participation rate for the survey with favourable and consistent scores across all three categories and in line or above enterprise scores over the previous year,” Chan revealed.

Survey respondents also commended the company

December 2015 « Human Resources « 29

28-29_CS_Johnson_DEC15_sub.indd 29

7/12/2015 8:27:26 PM

OPINION » People issues

Dad’s now the word at Cerebos The importance of incorporating both parents’ needs when rolling out policies for parental benefits to create a family-friendly working environment.

MICHAEL YEONG Senior vice-president of group human resources Cerebos

Parenting is a team effort: Privileges include up to S$5,000 in maternity benefits for pregnant employees or for male employees with pregnant spouses.

A recent survey by Families for Life found that

seven in 10 respondents were at their happiest when spending time with their families. This was more important to them than other factors such as achieving financial goals or having adequate personal time. The lesson from the survey is clear – we need to foster family-friendly work environments to build a happy workforce.

At Cerebos, we have initiated several quality work-life programmes targeted at the needs of different employees at different stages of life. Our staff have responded positively to these programmes. We have also actively sought feedback, and adapted the programmes constantly so they continue to benefit both the staff and the organisation.

Don’t leave out the dads Parenting is a team effort between mums and dads.

When introducing quality work-life initiatives, it is important not to forget the working fathers, who also need to fulfil their responsibilities at home. In recognition of this, Cerebos offers benefits for both working mothers and fathers.

In addition to maternity and paternity leave, other privileges include up to S$5,000 in maternity benefits for pregnant employees or for male employees with pregnant spouses for all pregnancies. Further, all female employees, regardless of nationality, are entitled to four months of paid maternity leave to spend time with their children.

New mothers and fathers also receive gifts such as health supplements and vouchers. This is our way of celebrating the important moments of life with them.

Different strokes for different folks A diverse workforce comprises people at different stages of their lives with varying needs and pursuits.

How can these employees then benefit from the company’s quality work-life programmes? The answer is to provide flexibility in the policies that we implement.

At Cerebos, we empower our staff with a flexible benefits scheme which allows them to claim up to S$450 for activities of their choice. Ranging from personal grooming, to vacations and outings with their family, to children’s enrichment lessons, the flexibility in our benefits scheme means there is something for everyone across our diverse workforce.

It’s not all about play Quality work-life policies need to be anchored in support from the senior management. One of the ways to present a strong case is to demonstrate the direct correlation of such policies to business results. Since the extension of benefits to all Cerebos’ employees in 2002, the company has seen strong growth to reach the billion-dollar company it is today. Our employee engagement surveys show a favourable increase in engagement, with staff indicating they have achieved better work-life harmony.

In recognition of our policies, Cerebos won the SG50 Special “Best Company for Mums” award, jointly presented by the Tripartite Alliance for Fair and Progressive Employment Practices (TAFEP) and the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) Women’s Development Secretariat (WDS). We are also a signatory of the Employers’ Pledge of Fair Employment Practices, which underlines our commitment to be a progressive employer.

Employers need to progress with time. Retaining talent will be more challenging as parenting roles and family structures evolve. Rather than react to the emerging needs of the workforce, we must start to explore innovative work-life programmes to keep our staff engaged. We believe putting employees at the centre of work-life policies is the major factor for any company to become an employer of choice.

32 » Human Resources » December 2015

32_PeopleIssues_DEC15_sub.indd 32

7/12/2015 7:47:52 PM

HumanResources Mag Full Page 280mm x 210mm - FA.pdf

1

23/7/15

1:51 PM

SAA GLOBAL EDUCATION

C RPORATE TR AINING SAA Global Education extends its 30 years of experience in providing working adults with professional courses to maximise its expertise to corporate clients in areas of Leadership Excellence, Professional Development Excellence and Technical Excellence.

WWW.SAAGE.EDU.SG

CORPORATE TRAINING COURSES PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT EXCELLENCE C

M

Y

CM

MY

CY

CMY

+ Excellence in Decision Making - Incorporating Critical Thinking and Situation analysis + The Art and Power of Facilitation Skills

LEADERSHIP EXCELLENCE + Employee Motivation and Engagement

K

+ Managing Change and Diversity

TECHNICAL EXCELLENCE + Boardroom Finance for Senior Management + Internal Controls in Preventing and Detecting Fraud + Procurement Fraud: The Solution Toolkit

For more info contact us at:

)

* enquiry@saage.edu.sg 6733 5731 (Ext. 865/816)

The Education Arm of Institute of Singapore Chartered Accountants 111 Somerset Road #06-01/02 TripleOne Somerset, Singapore 238164 ERF Registration No. : 201001206N • ERF Validity: 20/05/2014 to 19/05/2018

W: www.saage.edu.sg • T: +65 6733 5731 • E: enquiry@saage.edu.sg

Social Networks:

SAA GLOBAL EDUCATION

@SAA_GE

OPINION » Unconventional wisdom

Nursing employees to a healthy work-life balance How this round-the-clock hospital enables work-life balance for employees despite the hours.

CHUA PEK KIM, Director of human resources KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital,

Back on their feet: Flexible working arrangements such as a compressed work week and job sharing enabled employees to contribute their best.

The demand for healthcare professionals in Singapore has been growing over the years.

It will continue to rise because of reasons such as the ageing population and the growth in medical tourism.

However, nurses were one of the toughest positions to be filled by locals last year, according to a workforce survey by the Ministry of Manpower.

Despite these tough manpower challenges, KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital (KKH) has managed to build a stable and engaged workforce.

What does it take to create a great place to work at? The answer lies in the DNA. Doing what matters for our people Implementing work-life arrangements may seem daunting at

first, but it’s an important step towards building a balanced and fulfilled workforce.

As a healthcare organisation that operates round-the-clock, KKH recognises work-life arrangements as a sustainable route to meeting the needs of the organisation and our employees.

We implemented our structured work-life harmony strategy as early as 1997, with dedicated personnel tasked to develop a wide range of benefits for our employees.

Putting the needs of our employees at the core of the worklife policies was the first thing we needed to pay attention to.

Some of the initiatives we introduced in this area included flexible work arrangements (FWAs) such as a compressed work week and job sharing.

We also introduced facilities such as the workplace child care centre, a fully equipped lactation room and a fitness centre.

34 » Human Resources » December 2015

34-35_UnWisdom_DEC15_sub.indd 34

7/12/2015 7:47:23 PM

Unconventional wisdom OPINION »

Employees can also opt for permanent shifts instead of rotating shifts, in order to manage their time better.

These initiatives were implemented after considering the needs of different groups of employees, and are constantly reviewed as our employees enter new life stages.

The need to treat all employees fairly A common challenge faced by employees on work-life arrangements is the perception that they are less dedicated than their peers.

At KKH, however, we recognise employees on FWAs are as committed, capable and productive as their peers.

When the initiative was first implemented, we actively worked to manage peers’ and line managers’ perceptions of employees on such schemes.

We also assured those who were on FWAs that they would be given equal opportunities for training and promotions.

We employ more than 5,000 employees and over 85% of them are female. Many of these women are on some form of FWAs. Some have also acknowledged they would not have been able to continue working without these initiatives in place.

Attaining support from management The importance of senior management support cannot be emphasised enough in delivering success on such initiatives.

Besides formalising policies and processes, the senior

Tel: +65 6323 7911

I

management team also has to walk the talk as champions for work-life arrangements. To achieve this, we conducted training for line managers to secure their buy-in for the programme.

By helping everyone to understand the benefits of such arranements, we are facilitating the success and sustainability of these initiatives.

Today, line managers are empowered to approve requests from employees for FWAs. This demonstrates KKH’s strong support for FWAs at all levels.

With new developments in technology, an evolving work environment and changing employee expectations, it is inevitable the way we work will continue to transform.

These initiatives have helped us to attract and retain talent amid a tight labour market.

In fact, KKH was presented with the SG50 Special Award at this year’s “Best Companies for Mums” contest, organised by the Tripartite Alliance for Fair and Progressive Employment Practices (TAFEP) and the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) Women’s Development Secretariat (WDS), in recognition of our efforts.

Additionally, to signal our commitment to be a fair and progressive employer, we have signed the Employers’ Pledge of Fair Employment Practices.

More importantly, we need to remember that no matter how small the initiative or change is, it makes a real difference to the lives of our employees.

Website: www.comat.com.sg

I

Email: trainme_comat@comat.com.sg

December 2015 « Human Resources « 35

34-35_UnWisdom_DEC15_sub.indd 35

8/12/2015 7:19:57 PM

OPINION » Upwardly mobile

How this HR team helped to rebrand an established brand CAROLINE WALTERS Regional people and culture director MIMS

From change management training to recruiting, here's the journey this HR team undertook to make the once print-heavy firm more digital in line with today's business needs.

We all hear over and over that the world of print is dead in this digital age. This has serious implications for a predominantly print company like ours, making it imperative for HR to play a role in helping the firm adapt to a changing world.

Our journey in doing so started at the beginning of 2014 and the conclusion was rolled out across the region 14 months later.

We started discussing about how the future was presenting different business challenges to our traditional model and questioned each other on the easiest way to make this transition and position ourselves correctly. We have 12 offices across the Asia Pacific region and we wanted to ensure our employee base was onboard with this process of change from the start.

Thus, we began with a regional “vision and values project”.

This involved hosting fun workshops in each country to look at our current vision and value statements and reflecting on how these had served a historical purpose. We then asked our employees to think about the company’s future. What did this look like (the vision)? Then second, what behaviour (values) do we need to embody as part of our culture to ensure our vision of the company’s future becomes a reality?

To ensure our employees were 100% involved and accountable for our vision and values, we provided them the opportunity to be fully involved in the creation of the company’s infrastructure and identity.

To support this project, our company’s HR department also ensured its change management theory was included in two ways in this project.

Change management training was conducted for our management teams across the region so that our managers felt empowered and could adequately support their teams as they acclimatised to the change ahead.

The second part of this journey involved hiring branding consultants, as we decided to expand the focus of the project.

Thus, we decided to address our branding collateral and corporate architecture within the remit of the project. It made business sense to review these concepts at the same time.

To help the branding consultants begin this colossal task, we gave them 10 pages of our collated vision and values statements collected from throughout our regional offices. This helped our consultants get an instant insight into the minds of employees and how they perceived MIMS both internally and externally. They then started working on defining our company’s brand identity, brand promise and brand collateral.

As a management team, we went through a very interesting journey with the branding consultants, assessing and identifying what kind of company we were and what we looked like in the market place. Questions were asked to ascertain our company’s

A new way of working: Special attention should be paid to employee concerns.

personality, and words we would use to describe the culture associated with this personality profile.

As time progressed we moved on to qualifying this process of analysis and how these words and associations would influence our many iterations of our new brand logo and new brand architecture. This was all being guided by our new vision and value statements, which would direct this change.

Our new brand values were finally announced: “Engaging, insightful, progressive.”

We understood that HR needed to be part of the whole journey of change and brand positioning. By doing so, it can own the company’s branding strategies both internally and externally on social media platforms, for example, when recruiting.

We identified and communicated “brand champions” for each country, who were assigned to work with the regional HR team to continue the branding change journey.

A programme of events was mapped out by the HR team for the year to ensure the message around the new company’s vision and value statements was continuously reiterated and reinforced.

Amid all these changes, however, our HR directors paid special attention to address concerns from employees, especially those who had been in the firm for long periods of time. Such concerns included the relevance of their skills in an increasingly digitally focused business.

As such, we ensured the HR team was clear on the skills the business required in order to fulfil its new brand promise.

36 » Human Resources » December 2015

36_Upward_DEC15_sub.indd 36

7/12/2015 7:42:24 PM

CAREERS » Personal development

uptheranks Tracking HR’s industry moves Who: Oliver Grohmann From: Mercedes-Benz To: LG Electronics LG Electronics appointed Oliver Grohmann as its corporate vice-president of global human resources.

“LG Electronics is a great company with fantastic products, cutting-edge technology and a long history,” he told Human Resources.

“I am excited about the innovation power of the company, and the highly committed and motivated people. I am sure we will further build our global footprint and that we will continue to enter new business areas.”

He is now based in Seoul, Korea, at the LG headquarters, and is responsible for all of LG’s international HR operations outside of Korea, spanning more than 80 countries.

Previously, he was the senior vice-president of human resources for Mercedes-Benz’s sales and marketing overseas, undertaking responsibility for HR operations across 22 markets, including Asia Pacific, Middle East, Africa, Central Europe and Middle/South America, He aspires to use LG’s strong consumer and product brand to build a strong employer brand.

Who: Gaurav Hirey From: GroupM To: Millward Brown Millward Brown appointed Gaurav Hirey as chief human resource officer for its Africa, Middle East and Asia Pacific markets, effective 1 November 2015, a role based in Singapore.

He brings more than 20 years of HR leadership experience to Millward Brown with his most recent role being executive board member and chief talent officer for South Asia at WPP’s GroupM. Commenting on his appointment, he said: “These are interesting and transformational times for the brand and the communications industry. I am honoured to join a hugely credible organisation with an equally inspiring and passionate leadership team.”

Adrian Gonzalez, CEO of Millward Brown Africa, Middle East and Asia Pacific, added: “He has a superb talent leadership pedigree with WPP and will add greatly to our development as we support our clients through a period of immense change.”

Hirey is passionate about helping children and was the chief sponsor for GroupM India’s CSR initiative, “Lighting the Sparks”.

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

With the end of 2015 finally in sight, you may have thought of a New Year’s resolution or two.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Stepping up and admitting that you messed up will not only increase

my respect for you, but will also help us focus on solutions to fix the situation.

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

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

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

Most of all, I beg, stop using the office kitchen to store three bottles of salad dressing, two flavours of mustard, a cheese assortment or any other staples. Nobody wants to watch any science projects blossom in the communal space.

All said and done, the office won’t be as fun a place to work in without my colleagues – with or without them making these resolutions.

Here’s wishing all my colleagues, and yours, a very happy New Year and an even more fun 2016 to come!

38 » Human Resources » December 2015

38_Uptheranks_PG_DEC15_sub.indd 38

7/12/2015 8:30:24 PM

Good reads to improve your business life

shelflife

Mindfulness Pocketbook: Little Exercises for a Calmer Life

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

No business can exist without its customers.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Bookmark this!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Bookmark this!

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

Book photography: Fauzie Rasid

Pick of the month

Gill Hasson Wiley $22.25

December 2015 « Human Resources « 39

39_Shelflife_DEC_sub.indd 39

7/12/2015 7:41:38 PM

LAST WORD

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

by Aditi Sharma Kalra.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Lessons from 2015

What a year it has been. In the past

40 » Human Resources » December 2015

40_DailyGrime_DEC15_sub.indd 40

8/12/2015 9:50:58 AM

MAG-210x280mm-FA-CV.indd 1

10/15/15 11:35 AM