Human Resources Singapore, June 2015

June 2015

The smart HR professional’s blueprint for workforce strategy

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5 - 6 AUGUST 2015 CONNEXION@NEXUS, MALAYSIA 19 - 20 AUGUST 2015 SHANGRI-LA SINGAPORE 1 - 2 SEPTEMBER 2015 THE MIRA, HONG KONG

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KEY DISCUSSION TOPICS 1. Salary & Bonus Closely tied to employee motivation & the bottom line, there has been much debates over the implementation of fixed versus variable pay as well as performance based versus one-time bonuses. How do you get it right?

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2. Flexible Benefits Despite the increased interest in flexible benefits plan, employers are still hesitant to implement due to cost, complexity and administrative concerns.

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And how can you tell when to re-invest, regroup or cut?

4. Healthcare & Wellbeing What’s the best way to offer competitive healthcare benefits that attract and retain talent but also make sense to the company’s bottom line?

5. Non-cash Rewards & Recognition Programmes There is a growing trend towards non-cash approaches. Find out how smart companies use non-cash rewards as an integral part of their talent attraction & retention strategy.

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June 2015 « CONTENTS

COVER STORY 14 Q&A Toyohiro Matsuda, head of HRD for Asia at Mitsubishi Corporation, reveals how the company has restructured its HR policies to encourage a global mindset among its employees.

Features 18 Re-looking at recruitment Jerene Ang explores the various ways in which recruitment has evolved to meet the needs of the new generation of Millennial talent.

26 Appraising the performance appraisal With staff appraisals coming under fire, Akankasha Dewan explores ways of enhancing the process to suit current corporate climates.

Opinion 36 Learning & Development Caroline Palmstedt, talent management lead for Asia Pacific at Monsanto, shares the neuroscience behind why organisational change can fail.

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38 People Issues When communication styles collide, learning from the way that children communicate may work, says Roy Chew, corporate L&D manager at Singapore Technologies Aerospace.

40 Unconventional Wisdom Evangeline Chua, Citi Singapore’s HR head, writes about the campus engagement strategy that has benefited close to 600 students.

42 Upwardly Mobile

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36

Julia Gabriel Education’s Chin Ai Li highlights how government funding schemes can help implement wellness programmes.

48 Last Word Aditi Sharma Kalra tries to find ways to banish negativity from a team culture.

Regulars

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

10 HR by numbers 11 Snapshot 44 Personal growth 46 Shelf life

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Email aditis@humanresourcesonline.net June 2015 « Human Resources «

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Time to shift focus Workplaces are evolving, as is the way we work within, or outside of, them. Just last month, the Human Resources team had the pleasure of hosting 50 of the region’s most senior heads of HR at a gorgeous beachside resort in Phuket at the HR Leaders’ Summit.

There’s a reason why this in-residence HR retreat, now in its second year, was held in Phuket – whisking these top HR folks away from the daily routine of their offices really helped to optimise the time together.

As a group, one of the themes that emerged was the management of a workforce with shifting demographics.

Everyone across the HR spectrum – be it talent acquisition, learning and development, or total rewards professionals – believes in the need to customise part of their strategies in managing generations more effectively.

In our monthly feature, we focus on recruiting Millennials. Dion Groeneweg, Mercer’s region lead for HR transformation and workforce planning and analytics, is of the opinion that technology is the biggest disruptor in this space, supported by mobile, digital and predictive tools.

Generation X as well as Generation Y want to be able to apply for a job on their smartphones, he explained. Asking them to fill out a form as their first touchpoint with the company may not be a great idea.

Another issue was the time taken up by recruiting. Companies that have up to eight rounds of interviews before making a decision may end up losing the candidate to a competitor with a shorter recruiting cycle, one of our interviewees pointed out.

However, there are some that start interacting with potential employees even earlier than the beginning of the recruitment process, and one of those is our columnist from Citi Singapore, Evangeline Chua.

She takes us on a case study of the company’s campus engagement strategy, given the tendency of Generation Y to start planning their careers early in life.

Launched in 2013, the programmes have benefited nearly 600 students so far, and make interesting reading for others looking to make that early connection.

Another company going down the employer branding path is Mitsubishi, which is working hard to transform from a Japan-led company to a more ‘glocal’ organisation.

Toyohiro Matsuda, who leads HR for Mitsubishi Asia, spoke to Human Resources candidly about the challenges in communicating with and adapting to a culture outside of the headquarters.

On the change agenda is a new system of meritocracy, a non-HQ driven approach to managing regionally, and the identification of ‘strategic officers’ who can develop tomorrow’s leaders.

Meanwhile, on the cover, we share the story of performance appraisals.

HR in many organisations is perhaps most visible during the performance review process, yet are we utilising its potential in driving culture?

Interviews with HR experts from Sanofi, Unilever, and Evonik helped identify how managers can optimise these events beyond the cursory status check.

It has been an eventful month, packed with learning and trend spotting, and it is a privilege to bring these to you. 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 June 2015 « Human Resources «

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News from humanresourcesonline.net

THE HIGHEST PAYING INDUSTRIES THIS YEAR

THE MOST DESIRABLE COMPANIES IN SINGAPORE

Good news for professionals in the banking and finance industry – developments in the sector have made it one of the highest paying industries in Singapore today. That was the key finding of Kelly Services’ 2015 Singapore Salary Guide.

Oil and gas, pharmaceuticals, information technology and semiconductors, were also found to be the top paying sectors in the country.

“In the banking and financial sector, changes in the financial regulatory environment prompted banks and financial institutions to strengthen their compliance and risk management functions in Singapore, resulting in a demand for compliance and risk management personnel,” the report stated.

“New players entering the country’s banking sector have also resulted in an increased demand for relationshipp managers.” g Positions such as application onsultants, supply development consultants, rs, financial chain managers, accountants, network/systems etwork/systems engineers and compliance managers weree the most sought after in Singapore this year – all with an average monthly onthly salary of S$10,000 ,000 to S$12,500.

Students in Singapore admit they view Google as the most attractive company to work for – echoing their counterparts from the rest of the world.

That was one of the key findings from Universum’s “Singapore Top 100 IDEAL Employers” student survey, which polled more than 9,300 students from SMU, SIM, NTU and NUS. Both business and engineering students ranked Google as their most preferred employer in 2015.

While Singapore Airlines came in second place for business students, it was ranked third by those in the engineering faculty – beaten by A*STAR. The big four accounting and auditing firms continued to have a pull for Singapore’s business students – namely, PwC, EY, KPMG and Deloitte – coming in fifth, sixth, seventh and 11th respectively.

Regardless of their field of study, local students emphasised the need for a friendly work environment in companies, deeming it as the most attractive quality in their potential employer in Singapore.

WANT TO EARN MORE? HAVE MORE SEX

LOCAL MANAGING DIRECTOR JAILED The managing director of Sheng Yu Construction Builders, Sheng Jianzhong, kickbacks and assaulting a Ministry of was found guilty of collecting kickb (MOM) officer, and was sentenced to three Manpower (M imprisonment in the State Courts. weeks’ impris revealed that from September 2012 to MOM rev January 2013 2013, 24 workers hired by him were each pay Sheng a sum of $7,200 as a condition required to pa employment. for employme “Arising ffrom a complaint by one of the workers, 2013, MOM raided the construction site off in February 20 Jalan Legundi (Sembawang Road),” the report stated.

“During tthe raid, when a MOM investigation officer tried to ccollect documentary evidence for investigaSheng grabbed the officer’s left arm and tions, Sh thumb to prevent him from doing so. The officer su suffered injuries as a result of the scuffle.” th Sheng got 38 charges of receiving kickbacks from 24 foreign workers, and one kickb both under the Employment of Foreign charge of obstruction of justice bot Manpower Act (Chapter 91A).

A little more activity in the bedroom may just make you one of the highest-earning members in the boardroom.

That was what Dr Nick Drydakis, of Anglia Ruskin University, found in a new study after analysing data from 7,500 respondents.

He concluded people who had sex two or three times a week, regardless of their physical or mental health, earned 4.5% higher wages than people who had sex less often.

“Maslow’s Need Hierarchy Theory claims that the happier and more fulfilled individuals are in their lives, the more productive and successful they will be in their work, translating to higher wages,” he said in a press release.

Echoing the direct co-relation between sex and wages, the report added that sexually active employees who were health-impaired earned 1.5% more money than people with similar symptoms who were not sexually active.

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» Human Resources » June 2015

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HOW TO AVOID HIRING TOXIC EMPLOYEES

HR PROFESSIONALS SET FOR PAY RISE

Next time a potential job candidate boasts about his or her technical skills in an interview, you may want to sit up and listen. Chances are that candidate is likely to indulge in toxic behaviour when hired.

That’s according to research from Cornerstone OnDemand, which looked at a data set of 63,000 employees to identify those who were terminated for reasons related to toxic behaviour.

The report found individuals who were notably overconfident about their technical proficiencies were 43% more likely to engage in toxic behaviour.

It defined “toxic behaviour” as policy violations such as workplace violence, drug or alcohol abuse, sexual harassment, falsification of documents and fraud.

Another way to identify potentially unpleasant employees was to question their inclination to follow rules.

Individuals who claimed to be rule followers were, in fact, 33% more likely to break the rules.

The study highlighted the exact cost of hiring a single toxic employee onto a team of 20 workers was about $12,800.

Experienced HR professionals in Singapore are likely to see a salary hike this year. That was one of the key findings of ZW HR Consulting’s 2015 HR salary guide, which stated those in HR generalist positions should see 5% to 10% wage increases in 2015.

It also found HR directors with more than 15 years of experience are likely to earn up to $300,000, while senior HR managers could possibly get an annual pay package of $100,000 over the next 12 months.

Regional compensation and benefits managers were identified as the top HR job in the country, given their impact on salary benchmarking, employee benefits solutions and talent retention.

They were followed by talent acquisition professionals for their role in mapping a pool of competent external candidates, in addition to internal succession plans.

In third place were HR business partners, followed by HRIS leaders, and talent management and organisation development heads to round off the top five HR jobs in Singapore.

WANT TO HIRE LOCALS? FOCUS ON SALARY AND BENEFITS

Restructuring within firms in Singapore has led to more professionals being laid off in the country.

According to a report by the Ministry of Manpower, 12,930 workers in Singapore were laid off last year, higher than the 11,560 professionals laid off in 2013.

The rise in redundancies was mainly from non-residents, resulting in a fall in the residents’ share of redundancies, with firms citing restructuring and reorganisation as top reasons for the layoffs.

Fewer residents were reported to have been laid off in 2014 – from 7,520 in 2013 to 7,240 last year. The bulk of the layoffs came from the services and construction sectors.

A majority of the residents laid off, however, re-entered into jobs quickly. More than two-thirds (68%) of residents laid off in the first nine months who re-entered employment by the end of 2014, however, secured new jobs in an industry different from which they were laid off.

PMETs formed a smaller portion of the layoffs, decreasing from 56% in 2013 to 51% in 2014.

If you’re looking to boost your team with local hires this year, then monetary compensation is best.

Hudson’s new research found that a higher salary was the top priority for Singapore job seekers in 2015, voted by three-quarters of respondents. Better benefits feature right after that at 67%.

Surveying 519 professionals and hiring managers across Singapore, the report found that work-life balance, including flexible work arrangements, featured only fourth in job seekers’ list of priorities (64%).

“With 92% of prof professionals open to being approached about a new job, 881% with an up-to-date resume and 63% with an uup-to-date LinkedIn profile, hiring managers need to understand where to find the bes best talent and how to attract them,” said Hudson Singapore’s regional director Emmanuel White.

Other trends include a growing dependence on psychometric ttesting as part of the recruitment pprocess (46%), and a majority of lo local hiring managers (88%) using kkeywords in their job ads.

MORE WORKERS LAID OFF LAST YEAR

June 2015 « Human Resources «

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WORK LIFE » People GET INTO THE BOSS’S HEAD

James Lim President for Greater Asia BD

Having grown up in Malaysia, why did you move to Singapore?

I had a dream to become a mechanical engineer. Even when I was young, I used to tinker with things. So when the opportunity to study engineering came my way, I jumped at it.

Coming from a small town in Malaysia, and knowing the high standards of education in Singapore, primarily in English, it was a difficult choice to make for a native Malay speaker like me.

However, I always encourage young people to pursue their interests, no matter what.

Financially it was tight back home, and I had younger siblings to support. So after my course I decided to start working.

I spent six years at Seagate where I learnt the most. It was one of the top industries in Singapore at the time, with only about 23 such companies in the country.

Then, an interesting story about how I got the opportunity to join the medical industry.

Someone working for me in Seagate left to join BD, and after his boss there resigned, he called me up and asked if I wanted to apply for the opening and become his boss again.

He said the culture was like “heaven” so I went for the interview and got the job. And that guy is still here, also called James.

The lesson in this story is about the difference you make in people’s lives. After 26 years of working, you look back and realise how such defining moments shaped what you intended to seek.

After doing an operations role in BD for the first 20 years, how was the transition to running the business?

The transition was a question of three things, and this applies to anyone moving to a new role: whether it is of interest to you, whether there is motivation to be successful in it, and what your learning agility is.

I look at learning agility, that is, how people learn, in three ways.

Most people learn well through reading, especially Asians as we are studious.

The second way of learning is by observing – 6

how people work, what they do and the power of observation.

And the third is to seek experts in that subject, those who have knowledge as well as experience.

Many people lack this aspect, they feel they can do it all on their own. But learning accelerates a lot if you have mentors.

Having been in BD for more than two decades, what’s been your most memorable moment?

When I look back, the most fond memories are the friendships and memories that you share with the people you work with.

It’s not like I have dinner with them every night, but to see them achieve their fullest potential gives me a huge amount of satisfaction.

How do you groom your team to take up senior leadership roles?

A good HR practice is to spend 50% of your time with people. But I think it goes deeper than that.

Spending time with your associates is one thing. But spending time to know about their purpose in life is the most important thing – building trust to a level where they share their personal motivation with you.

A lot of bosses just talk about the monthly results and pointing out issues, but if you keep it at the superficial level of work, then where is the human factor?

Maybe because I am an Asian leader, I put a lot of emphasis on relationships.

I also think it is important for the associates to nt and for us to come up with their career blueprint coach them towards that.

If we are lucky, it becomes a culture and that is how it is in BD.

don’t translate into the same meaning. I call it the husband-wife factor.

With all of this going on, when do you spend time with your family?

My wife, also a mechanical engineer and an NTU graduate, gave up her career to take care of our two boys, who are now 15 and 17. I think that was very brave of her. I wouldn’t have done the work I have done in my career, if not for her.

For any regional leader, the regret will always be that we try very much to integrate work and life, but I am not one of those who can balance this perfectly.

I am a lousy husband. On a scale of 1 to 10, I would rate myself a three.

The children are big now, they need a father figure, so I need to balance a bit more. I think the next phase in my life will be learning to focus on the ability to communicate and plan for retirement.

How does HR play a role in helping lping you as a business leader?

Their first role is to advise and provide o ide feedback to ov the leader. mined and focused, Most leaders are very determined he sunset without but sometimes they ride off into the m. realising nobody is following them.

So the first task for any goodd HR leader C O and is to have a partnership with the CE CEO feedback finance controller, to give honest feedback eling, and about what the organisation is feeling, your own behaviour.

Second, they have to truly eans understand the business. That means spending time with customers, e y, eg understanding the business strategy, and working with the leaders to translate that into HR strategies. h s? hi So where is the problem in this?

A lot of times, even though the HRR and business are speaking the same language, the messages

» Human Resources » June 2015

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People WORK LIFE

SpacialAwareness DIVERSITY DRIVES P&G WORKSPACE

While designing the new office space at the Metropolis in Singapore, the Procter & Gamble (P&G) team placed diversity and inclusion at the top of its list.

In Singapore, the company is represented by 45 nationalities, with their diverse thinking styles, cultures and backgrounds. This focus on diversity has brought out an array of working spaces in the office’s six floors.

“We believe in bringing together individuals from different backgrounds, cultures, working and thinking styles to drive our innovation,” said Damon Jones, P&G’s Asia communications director.

“With such a diverse workforce, we recognised the importance of providing our employees with the freedom and flexibility to be where they need to get the type of work done at their best.”

The working environment includes open collaboration areas for maximising creativity and teamwork to numerous quiet areas for individual focus.

With a sweeping view of the city skyline, the office also features outdoor working spaces along with sky gardens on two floors.

Another unique feature of P&G’s office is the various amenities incorporated into its design to enable inclusion throughout the workforce.

“For instance, we now have a dedicated mothers’ nursing rooms on every floor and multi-faith prayer rooms to respect and help meet the needs of various employees,” Jones said.

While designing its office, P&G took into account that flexible work arrangements and work-life balance are priorities for many employees, especially the Millennials, so it created a space that allows staff to enjoy flexibility and to promote overall wellness.

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“An inspiring engaging work environment has a direct link to productivity.

P&G people are our company’s most important asset and we wanted to create a work environment that will motivate peak performance of our employees,” Jones explains.

“We believe that an engaging atmosphere, culture, connectivity and flexibility are key to increasing overall productivity. This is why the P&G Singapore office features many amenities that we believe will help our employees enhance their creativity and increase productivity.”

To enable connectivity, all six floors are fitted with 100% wireless internet coverage, meeting the needs of its mobile workforce. Video conference rooms also aid virtual collaboration.

“Overall, we are extremely proud to say that we have created a home for inspiration to inspire and harness creativity, while celebrating our unique Asian heritage that fosters teamwork and collaboration, and a space that unleashes the full potential of our people to enable stronger collaboration and greater value creation.”

A piece of advice Jones has for other companies planning to redecorate their office is to involve employees during the process of planning and designing.

To create a P&G workspace to enable employees to work however and wherever they wanted, the company conducted an internal survey to find out what employees wanted and needed in their ideal workplace.

“We worked with a group of internal and external experts in design, engineering, and technology, among others, to design a work environment that maximises our employees’ unique strengths and work styles.”

» Human Resources » June 2015

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GIVE MID-CAREER EMPLOYEES THE SKILLS REQUIRED TO THRIVE Here are two amazing success stories from professionals who have attended WDA’s design Professional Conversion Programme (PCP), and how that has helped them enhance their strengths to work better in their fields.

The PCP seeks to build a pool of competent professionals for high demand jobs with good career prospects, so that job seekers and mid-career switchers can be re-skilled to obtain the necessary knowledge and competencies for redeployment.

Such programmes are usually designed with a work attachment component to help individuals acquire real experience in the field.

In particular, WDA has developed a PCP for furniture designers with the SFIC Institute, a subsidiary of the Singapore Furniture Industries Council. Titled “Project Creation”, the programme is designed to equip new hires with the skills and knowledge to create aesthetically pleasing, manufacturable and cost-efficient products within an interior environment. Forty six career switchers have successfully been hired with more than 30 interior and furniture companies.

Vincent Tan, a designer at Harvest Link, was sent for the course and said it had equipped him with more relevant skills to perform his job better.

“I was very happy there is such a programme and I enjoyed attending the courses. It helped me to upgrade myself and keep updated on the latest information on furniture design. I would definitely recommend other candidates to go for the course if given the opportunity.”

Esther Lim, trainee furniture designer from Gallery 278, also attended the programme and said it had helped her become more confident in her job, and in speaking and presenting to clients.

– Marilyn Tan, HR manager at Harvest Link International

For more information on the Design PCP, please call 6883 5885 or visit WDA’s website at http://www.wda.gov.sg/content/wdawebsite/ programmes_and_initiatives/L701E-ProfConversionProgramme. html

“It has been very useful and encouraging and I truly enjoyed the learning experience of the sessions I attended in the course.

These included the design immersion “This programme was especially useful. seminar, design immersion workshop and Many students have great ideas in design WSQ implement design thinking.” and we believe with proper coaching, – Esther Lim, trainee furniture designer from Gallery 278 grooming and nurturing, and plenty of encouragement, we are able Under the programme, employers can enjoy up to 70% of subsidies in course fees and up to 90% of salary support capped at to produce good quality designers.” $3,000 per month for six months.

Felicia Koh, director of Gallery 278, adds that a core key skill required to be a good designer today is the ability to deal with customers.

“There are a lot of new graduates who may have the right skills to perform the design works, but with a serious lack of experience to deal with clients demanding needs, or lack the EQ to relate well with our clients,” she says.

Both Harvest Link International and Gallery 278 recently sent their employees to pursue the Design PCP. “As Singapore evolves into a cosmopolitan society and grows more affluent, aesthetic perceptions are also changing, driving up the demand for good designs and quality, said Dominic Ng, general manager of SFIC Institute.

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WORK LIFE » HR by numbers

Anxiety grips Gen Y Next time you are about to give your young employees a hard time at work, think again.

Millennials are the most anxious group of employees in the workplace today – more so than Generation X and the Baby Boomers.

According to a study by Bensinger, DuPont & Associates, 30% of Millennials were found to be more likely to miss work because of anxiety.

This percentage seemed to decline with age, with only 26% of Generation X and 25% of Baby Boomers stating the same.

30%

of Millennials stated they were anxious at work, and were more inclined to call in sick than other generations.

Gen X

employees were relatively less anxious at work, with just over a quarter reporting stress.

60%

of employees said the phenomenon of presenteeism was the biggest impact of anxiety in their work performance.

Baby Boomers

were least likely to skip work owing to anxiety, as being visible in the office matters to them.

Source: Bensinger, DuPont & Associates

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People WORK LIFE

snapshot

15 minutes with ...

Celestina Lee

Head of partner resource Starbucks WHAT DO YOU ENJOY MOST ABOUT MANAGING HR AT STARBUCKS? I have been working at Starbucks for 10 months and I particularly love how it is so committed to its partners (employees).

We are passionate about how we work with people and, more importantly, deeply invested in the development of each individual. We live and breathe the belief that everyone is a strategic partner to the business.

What you notice about Starbucks is also the infectious energy that every partner carries in their day-to-day. It is the mutual love for our work that drives us to do our best at the workplace.

WHY DID YOU DECIDE TO PURSUE HR AS A PROFESSION? I started as a trainer in the retail industry and realised that if I wanted to make an organisation a better place for myself and my colleagues, it takes more than a training plan!

It’s about working with individuals through proactive engagement, a strong organisational culture, employing talent with the right fit to the organisation, managing performance fairly and implementing attractive compensation strategies.

There is always a challenge in finding the right balance to achieve employee happiness and that, in my opinion, seems tougher than business success. I thrive on challenges and this is one of the driving forces that made me choose a career in HR. HOW HAS THE HR FUNCTION EVOLVED OVER TIME? The HR function has always been seen as the backbone of a company and it always will be. What has evolved is the way employers/HR practitioners listen and speak to employees.

As the workforce becomes increasingly perceptive to employment options in the industry – mobility, remuneration and welfare – it is faced with the challenge of retaining and attracting the right talent. I believe HR needs to be adept at managing expectations of both management executives and employees to protect the company's interests.

WHAT ARE SOME OF STARBUCKS’ MOST PRESSING HR CHALLENGES? Like all companies, Starbucks faces the challenge of retaining and attracting new talent.

The HR function can help with ensuring a suite of talent development programmes so our partners can grow in their careers and feel empowered. Starbucks does this very well.

Beyond hands-on training, mentorship and skills certification, our partners also have access to opportunities to pursue their interests. For example, we have a coffee master programme where they can be experts in all things coffee.

We are always exploring how we can give our partners the opportunity to fulfil their desire to take on more interesting job scopes and new skills.

We offer post-graduate internships to final year student part-timers, so they can discover other aspects of the business, for example, marketing, HR or supply chain.

In addition, all our partners are also eligible to take part in the talent exchange programmes, where they get an opportunity to be transferred to other Starbucks markets, and learn from other partners in the region.

Additionally, partners who wish to upgrade their educational qualifications can apply for education sponsorships.

WHAT DO YOU THINK THE FUTURE HOLDS FOR HR? As HR managers are expected to be business partners now more than ever, future HR leaders will need to look at how they can shift the direction of the organisation so that all employees take on responsibilities of a HR partner as well.

Employees can play an active role and be on the lookout for talent for the organisation and they need to share feedback on what’s working and what isn’t.

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WHITE PAPER » Leadership

IS HR A FEMALE-SKEWED INDUSTRY? APAC – The HR function may be actively advocating diversity at the workplace, but how diverse is the function itself?

Not so much, according to a survey by Elliott Scott, which found the HR function is predominantly female.

The survey highlighted that the HR industry in Asia Pacific only consists of 2.5% of men in entry level positions.

Polling hundreds of HR professionals across Singapore, Hong Kong and China, it found the percentage of men in the function increases to 6.3% in mid-level positions, 19% in senior-level positions and 31.6% when it comes to HR heads.

“These results demonstrate that HR in APAC still has a long way to go in practising what it preaches,” the report stated.

“The HR profession in Asia should take time to Percentage of men in HR roles Entry level positions

2.5%

Mid-level positions

6.3%

Senior-level positions

19%

HR heads

31.6%

Source: Elliott Scott

reflect on its own diversity and inclusion strategy and practices, alongside reviewing data to really understand the current make-up of the team.”

The report advised that HR functions would benefit from looking at strategies that would engage and develop existing talent within their organisation, and to consider whether they were currently overlooking star talent to fill senior-level positions in their firms.

Such a strategy is especially crucial, the survey added, considering almost two-thirds of organisations lack a diversity and inclusion strategy specifically within the HR function.

This was also reflected in the division’s preference to promote HR professionals based on their race and ethnicity.

The survey also found that expatriates are 37% more likely to hold a senior position compared with locals.

However, when coming to the entry level positions that number drops to only 9%.

“How HR functions are tackling diversity and inclusion is predominately through diversity hiring programmes, family friendly policies and flexible working hours. However, this may not be enough to make an impact, as 69% of respondents believe that diversity and inclusion is an ongoing

challenge,” the survey stated.

With such skewed statistics within the HR function, it was perhaps not surprising to find that 25% of companies lacked an HR seat at their executive table.

Additionally, nearly two-thirds of respondents stated their corporate role models belong not from within the HR function, but from outside it.

“HR professionals are not just looking up to their seniors with years of experience. They are now looking broader to their peers and how they interact and engage with their fellow colleagues, and to the young, who are bringing with them valuable new perspectives,” the report observed.

MOST MANAGERS ARE MISCAST IN THEIR ROLES Global – Managers are key to the workforce in their ability to lead talent. But what happens if most of them are not capable to handle this?

According to Gallup’s The State of the American Manager: Analytics and Advice for Leaders report, companies miss the mark on identifying managerial talent in 82% of their hiring decisions. Based on more than four decades, the report polled 2.5 million managerled teams in 195 countries, and measured the engagement of 27 million employees.

It found only 10% of employees today possess the talent needed to manage others.

The study attributed the inability of companies to hire good managers to a lack of science or research before recruiting them.

Defining talent as the “natural capacity for excellence”, the report added it was integral for companies to choose managers with the right talent, given the significant impact that talent quality has on engagement levels.

Managers with high talent were found to be more likely to be engaged than their peers.

More than half (54%) of managers with high talent were engaged, compared with 39%

Engagement levels of managers according to talent levels High talent

(54%)

Functioning talent

(39%)

Limited talent

(27%)

Source: Gallup’s The State of the American Manager: Analytics and Advice for Leaders report

of managers with functioning talent and 27% of managers with limited talent. Interestingly, female managers were more likely to be engaged than male managers (41% to 35%, respectively).

“Most CEOs I know honestly don’t care about employees or take an interest in human resources.

Sure, they know who their stars are and love them – but it ends there,” said Jim Clifton, chairman and CEO of Gallup.

“Since CEOs don’t care, they put little to no pressure on their HR departments to get their cultures right, which allows HR to unwittingly implement all kinds of development and succession strategies that don’t work.”

The report stressed it was key for firms to judge managerial engagement levels given its impact on employee engagement.

Employees who were supervised by highly engaged managers were 59% more likely to be engaged than those supervised by actively disengaged managers. One in two employees had, in fact, left their job to get away from their manager at some point in their careers.

Individuals who worked for a female manager were, however, six percentage points more engaged, on average, than those who worked for a male manager.

“Companies that use predictive analytics and intense development techniques will have a profound advantage in the all-out war for the best customers,” Clifton said.

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PROFILE » Toyohiro Matsuda

Toyohiro Matsuda Head, HRD, Asia Mitsubishi Corporation A culture with multiple hues

By AKANKASHA DEWAN

Q The forces of globalisation have forced Mitsubishi Corporation (MC) to become more international. What is the HR team currently focused on?

At MC, we trade with approximately 10,000 companies worldwide. We have 200 offices around the world, and about 40,000 people in Japan and 30,000 overseas. These 30,000 people are very important at the moment, because the business is growing outside of Japan.

We are looking at how to manage our staff better, especially the diversity. We are also working towards ensuring they have the global competencies required. Our focus is on regional and national human capital development, especially in MC Group companies.

Lastly, our teams are targeted towards aligning our global and regional recruiting processes with business transformation.

Q Why is MC managing diversity?

Until 2000, we were concentrated mainly in Japan. and on business originated in Japan. But since then, we have started focusing at our employees in other countries, especially those in our group companies overseas. We discovered an unconscious bias between Japanese and non-Japanese staff. Our Japanese staff work via a tacit understanding of the Japanese corporate culture. They prefer reading between the lines rather than direct communication.

The reason for this is that Japan is a very homogeneous country. Professionals don’t need or have to communicate with so many words and phrases.

But when working in multi and crosscultural environments, they have to try to communicate and express themselves – and that hasn’t become an integral part of the culture.

Communication is also a problem while working across borders now because very few companies in Japan do business in English. Staff today need to have bilingual competency. That is precisely why room for improvement in developing these competencies still exists among our Japanese staff, especially those working at our headquarters.

We are now witnessing changes as a Japanese-run company which has been struggling to globalise. I believe our history will be a lesson for other Japanese companies who are struggling to work effectively overseas.

Q What are you doing to overcome these difference in culture?

We are concentrating on how to transform the behaviour of our expats. The younger generation is different. Their mindsets are evolving as they gain global experiences.

But we can’t expect all the generations to change simultaneously and quickly, as the older you are the more difficult it is to change mindsets.

So while we wait for this shift in mindset, we need to look at organisational development. We are working to bring in a common, universal philosophy that will apply to everyone in the firm. My agenda has been on developing new methodology which preserves the way of the Japanese.

We also want to develop a new way

VITAL STATS Toyohiro Matsuda oversees design and implemention of regional HR policies for Mitsubishi Corporation, as well as provides HRD consulting services to the company’s joint ventures and overseas offices.

of meritocracy, as well as a process to manage training.

We want to work from a more regional perspective, rather than from the headquarters’ point of view. It is very difficult to control the world while viewing it only from the headquarters’ perspective.

One of the things I did to support this was initiate an Asian regional meeting when I was in Hong Kong. After my transfer back to Tokyo, I initiated the global HRD conference, with regional HRD managers coming in to Japan every year. Today, 100 of them come together annually.

I found I had more autonomy when I moved to Singapore in 2009, in terms of regional vision, methodology, professional staff, and a strong network. My dream is to make Singapore the global HQ, which would reduce dependence on Japanese people and knowledge.

Alongside regional management, we are working on succession planning, with a view that these managers will go on to become change leaders, and eventually, strategic business partners.

We haven’t been fully successful, but we know what we have to do. Each manager must learn more about the business & its strategy, and be an interface between the business and their own function’s strategy.

Q What are some issues in the overseas offices not present in the HQ? Staff there have highlighted a lack of transparency, especially in career progression, performance management and feedback. Also, a lack of

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“Communication is also a problem while working across borders now because very few companies in Japan do business in English. Staff today need to have bilingual competency.�

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PROFILE » Toyohiro Matsuda communication between national and regional staff. Much more needs to be done to overcome the lack of proprietary information in English.

Q How will you implement the shift to a more English-friendly culture?

For a start, we aim to provide English information on management strategy, internal announcements, senior management changes, and internal rules.

We also have come up with a monthly booklet titled “Ryowa” which includes all corporate-wide information in English and Japanese.

In my personal view, bilingual competencies are key to the successful globalisation of Japanese corporations.

The enhancement of regional as well as national intelligence is a clear imperative.

Q Is there any training in the pipeline?

Yes, we have a sophisticated grade-based management development system, fairly aligned with the HQ’s training programmes, bringing together participants from both the headquarters and regional offices.

Q What kind of employees are you recruiting to handle such changes?

In many companies, staff hired locally are able to lead in regional roles – but that isn’t happening in MC at the moment.

Therefore, it is more about changing the mindsets and skills of Japanese employees, in line with our goal of doubling our resource and non-resource profit by 2020.

As such, we need to recruit, nurture and retain people who can create and maintain the business. We’re creating a new generation of non-Japanese people who can’t be called local or national staff anymore. We are looking to create more strategic managers, to become strategic officers, who can create glocal strategies as well as nurture the next generation.

We studied the regional recruiting systems to identify who we should recruit now and in the future - what we call a strategic manager, who when promoted become strategic officers.

Q Who, in fact, is a strategic officer?

A strategic officer is an entirely new grade of our highest performing employees, who underpin MC’s future business strategy.

They are fully accountable for achieving the group’s targets as agreed with the top management. They are part of the

management team and contribute to formulating group strategic plans. They execute complex high-level tasks that require deep professional knowledge and have a worldwide network, both internally and externally.

That raises another thought – we can nurture some of the existing people with potential, but we need to do that more intentionally. So that they can manage a small organisation initially, and expand it into a larger one in the longer term.

For such talent, we need to be most attentive to their rapidly-growing job size with a focus on tangible achievements, as well as their quicker career clock and career aspirations.

Q Is it a good idea for MC to transform locally-recruited trainees into high level international managers?

Well, yes and no.

In some parts in Asia, members of our top management have nurtured a significant number of strategic officers and managers.

But in some ASEAN countries, there has been a significant shortage. There, we need to pay more attention to our corporate and employer branding issues first, and then try recruiting for strategic managerial potential.

For us, it turned out to be rather difficult to change the mindsets of locally-hired staff into the said regional professionals who can conduct cross-border business or who can successfully manage multi-localisation strategies in 2 or more countries or consumer markets.

Unless we recruit employees who have potential to become regional professionals, it will be rather difficult to just turn them into this.

Q What are the biggest problems you’ve encountered while recruiting in Japan and overseas?

In Japan, we are among the top 10 companies, so it is easy to hire the best of people.

We recruit about 150-170 new graduates in Japan every year, given our strong employer branding.

But the population of Japan is decreasing, and so are the number of students available. The economy is shrinking, with a birth rate of 1.4%.

We are therefore now very serious about the quality of our employees.

They are good, but we need people from other countries as well.

In order to hire the best talent for the future, we need to enhance our corporate branding all across.

Q How do you enhance your employer branding in countries outside of Japan?

It is very difficult because first of all people aren’t even sure of what we are actually doing. People still think Mitsubishi Corporation is about Mitsubishi Electric or Mitsubishi Motors.

But MC is not only doing trading, but also focusing on business investment.

Students get more interested when we tell them we are looking for entrepreneurial and business mindsets.

To enhance employer branding, we are increasing our direct contact with universities in Singapore, Thailand etc.

One of the biggest elements of our employee value proposition is that we offer opportunities for employees to run their business within the company, under the name of Mitsubishi.

Because we are looking for people with glocal skills, we try to send each new hire out all over the world, to get some global experience.

This requires a tremendous amount of mindset change.

We have also developed a new system for recruiting which has made the process easier. We now make it very clear that upon hiring, staff can be sent abroad within two years, for training or to attend some conferences.

We make this information very transparent to them. After every seminar, we ask them to review what they have learnt and how they will action it.

Q With your offices spread out all over the world, how do you establish a common working culture across MC’s businesses?

Our working culture is focused on three corporate principles, which have been in place since 1934. That’s 80 years of sticking to this kind of culture.

We believe they are the DNA of the organisation. They are only three, but they are profound, and imply exactly what we have to do when we are conducting business. These include corporate responsibility to society, integrity and fairness, and a global understanding through business.

CSR was officially advocated about 10

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Toyohiro Matsuda  PROFILE years ago, since when we we have been trying much harder to contribute to society – Japan first, and then Asia.

We are also working on penetrating into each employee, from fresh graduates right up to when they become retirees.

We have been doing this for 15 years already – putting the DNA into each person in the organisation.

We are maintaining principles of transparency and openness in conducting business with integrity and fairness.

Finally, developing a global understanding through business is our third corporate principle and is very important to us.

While the extreme diversity in business around the world necessitates complex strategic direction, with a variety of implementation plans, these three corporate principles can be applied to any business on Earth.

Q What is the philosophy behind your global talent attraction and retention strategies?

We have two major HRD principles.

The first is hiring the right person for the right position at the right timing.

14-17_Q&A_JUN15_sub.indd 17

The second is to provide the right training for the right person at the right career development stage.

To ensure their continued implementation, the transformation of HQ staff is the absolute must.

To guarantee this continuous transformation, it is inevitable for the region as well as headquarters to collaborate on change leadership.

This is, in the strict sense of the word, a never-ending story for every globalising organisation today.

Q Is the Singapore HR landscape conducive to Japanese companies?

Yes and no.

The advantages are the enormous variety of economic, industrial and tax benefits for foreign enterprises.

The disadvantages are, although Japan had been a developmental model for Singapore decades, Singapore has superseded Japan in terms of GDP per capita, and other material standards.

In addition to that, the significant number of regional headquarters and global headquarters of European and American global companies in Singapore

has overshadowed the traditional charms of the slow but steady kind of Japanese corporate culture.

In other words, the younger generations of Singaporeans have grown in an affluent society, whose keen interest is a clearer result-based leadership based on the meritocracy or pay-for-performance principles.

Q Looking to the future, what will be the biggest HR challenges Mitsubishi will be facing in the next 5-10 years and will you re-focus your agenda?

The answer to this question is rather simple, but difficult to realise.

The biggest challenge is in executive resources development.

After having created a pool of strategic managers and officers in GM levels, we need to tackle the quality of directors of Group companies.

So the focal point will be how on balancing the nurturing of strategic directors, from the current lot of strategic officers, or headhunting new blood.

Needless to say, this balance will be significantly affected by our corporate and employer branding in the region.

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FEATURE » Recruitment

As the Millennials become the majority in the workforce this year, companies are adapting their recruitment strategies to hire this generation more effectively.

Jerene Ang looks at how hiring strategies have evolved and the challenges recruiters are facing as they seek out the desired skill sets.

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Recruitment « FEATURE

ith the nature of businesses and organisation structures becoming more complex, and the generational shift bringing in a new dominant generation to the workforce, to remain relevant in changing times, the recruitment landscape also has to continue to change.

It is predicted by the US Bureau of Labour Statistics that by this year, Millennials will make up the majority of the workforce. With each generation being slightly different from its predecessors, it is essential to note that recruitment strategies are being tweaked to cater to this generational shift.

Karen Tok, CEO of ScienTec Consulting in Asia, says: “To attract Millennials, it is critical to embrace their traits of high energy, techsavviness, outspokenness, impatience for change and growth – and channel them into the right job functions.”

New trends in recruitment Recruiters are embracing the new generation’s tech-savviness. According to LinkedIn’s 2015 edition of the Global Recruiting Trends Report, more of them are turning to social media to promote their talent brand.

Dion Groeneweg, Mercer’s region lead for HR transformation and workforce planning and analytics, is of the opinion the biggest disruptor today is, in fact, technology.

“The biggest change for organisations is in the way they interact with Millennials. The use of social media is on the rise and there are a lot of companies using LinkedIn to drive their recruitment. Some tech companies are building games to assess people’s capabilities in certain technical areas,” he says.

Shai Ganu, Mercer’s market business leader for talent consulting in Asia, agrees, adding that predictive hiring is catching on in companies.

“A trend we’re seeing at the progressive companies is predictive hiring – that is, looking at gamification concepts or social media presence to try and get a sense of whether the person would work out in the organisation.

“This also involves correlations and models about potential candidates, what behaviours and competencies they tend to exhibit, and different assessments to predict if they will be successful in your organisation.”

Other than these trends, Shalini Bhateja, Schneider Electric’s director of talent management for Asia Pacific and the Middle East, also points out that as organisations become more matrixed, there is an increase in the number of stakeholders in the recruitment process, especially when recruiting for more senior roles.

“In that sort of matrixed set-up, I think what has majorly shifted in recruitment is the number of people and decision makers involved in the recruitment process,” she says.

“I think the stakeholders who are doing recruitment have gone up because people work with multiple stakeholders and then everybody needs to be consulted before someone is recruited for a mid to senior-level position.”

Challenges in recruitment Witnessing these new trends is interesting, but so are the new challenges that have emerged.

According to Glassdoor’s Recruiting Outlook Survey, 48% of hiring decision makers feel that there is a shortage of qualified candidates for open positions.

Bhateja agrees that it can be difficult to find someone with the right qualifications. Especially when hiring for senior roles, it is common to over-hire when one is trying to hire for the future and build a pipeline for tomorrow.

“In such cases the first challenge is to find the right profile. The second challenge is to convince them to be hired for the future,” she says.

Another challenge she points out is the ability to make the right decisions as well as to follow a structured process when hiring.

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FEATURE » Recruitment “A challenge which is always in recruitment is making the right decisions. This means we have to be very careful, there have to be assessments and a foolproof structured methodology drilled down to what actually is done,” she says.

Yet another challenge is to be sure of the competencies needed to successfully carry out a role as well as to know what type of candidate you want to hire.

“The other thing is that first, you have to be sure of what you are looking for. The second question is, how much of each aspect is needed to be effective in the role?

“For example, you define some competencies that the person would need, but at that level, how much of that and what level of proficiency would be needed?

“I think that hiring is a very scientific process, so you have to prepare well before going into the hiring discussion. Sometimes I feel the preparation part doesn’t get done well.”

“A challenge which is always in recruitment is making the right decisions.

This means we have to be very careful, there have to be assessments and a foolproof structured methodology drilled down to what actually is done.”

– Shalini Bhateja, Schneider Electric’s director of talent management for Asia Pacific and the Middle East

With a shift in workforce demographics, catering to the needs of each generation, and not just Generation Y, is another challenge that is faced by recruiters.

Despite feeling that Millennials are not that different from other generations, May Lo, group human resources director at Grace International, notes there are some traits of Millennials that set them apart.

“In my opinion, Millennials are generally not so different from the other generations. Things like job security and to be challenged at work, to work for a good company, all of them apply across the generations.

“However, we also take note of certain traits of Millennials and we try to cater to those.

Obviously, I don’t want to change the policies

because of them. That doesn’t make sense because then it will mean that I’m just catering to one group of people, but we will acknowledge they have certain traits.”

Additionally, Groeneweg notes the onboarding process for Millennials can pose a challenge as this workforce generally has higher expectations.

“Millennials’ expectations are much higher, they expect everything to be ready and working from day one when they arrive at the office.

“But the onboarding process needs to start even before the first day at work. Companies need to prepare their touch-points to keep their candidates warm throughout the process, given that it can take up to two months from when they are selected to when they join.”

Godelieve van Dooren, Mercer’s market business leader for ASEAN for information solutions, agrees and adds: “These are not unreasonable requests as it’s what this generation is used to.”

She is also of the opinion organisations have to speed up their decision-making process in order not to lose the best candidates.

“There’s also a lot of discussion around the number of rounds that candidates need to go through to get hired. I think there are too many!

“One of the larger internet companies has eight rounds of interviews before a candidate is hired. However, the best candidates might be snatched away by the competition in that time.” van Dooren also feels that companies, especially those in competitive markets, have to be in contact with candidates throughout the recruitment process so as not to lose the connection with the candidate.

“Malaysia is madness when it comes to hiring.

It is a very competitive market and you find that between rounds of interviews, companies complain about their candidates being snatched or even worse, people not showing up on their first day.

“That is why companies need to be in contact throughout because if the process is too long they will lose that connection.”

The sought-after skills With so many new trends in recruiting, what are the skills companies seek that make it worth overcoming these challenges?

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Recruitment « FEATURE Lo points out she looks for technical skills.

“Because this is very operational-based, there will be skills that are a given – you must have the technical knowledge,” she says.

However, acknowledging that attracting candidates is not an easy feat, she says the company is willing to train candidates, bringing them to the next skill she looks for – adaptability.

“But having said that, even if you don’t have the technical knowledge, because we acknowledge that it is not easy to attract candidates, we are willing to train.

“We always prep the person joining – we say that if it’s a new industry, you need to have a change of mindset, you need to be adaptable because this is definitely not going to be what you are used to.”

Agreeing that adaptability is an essential skill in today’s world, Bhateja adds: “We are now in a VUCA environment and it’s very unpredictable. Business models are changing fast and to be successful in that kind of environment, the first thing you need is learning agility.”

In addition to that, she sums up three other important skills while recruiting – role fit, leadership fit and culture fit.

“These are three things to look at not just for the Millennial generation, but across generations.

You absolutely have to look at all three.” van Dooren also notes that more organisations are seeking candidates who have potential in the area of global mobility.

“Apart from great candidates with soft skills

and technical skills, increasingly organisations say candidates need to have worked in different locations. So that is the ideal candidate in this connected, multicultural world.

“They want someone to lead a multicultural team, be able to move around easily, not only within Asia itself, but also to communicate with the headquarters, which may have different cultural perspectives.”

Recruitment methods Pointing out a good way for testing a candidate’s cultural fit, Groeneweg says: “One organisation I know about brings together people from all levels and makes the candidates present to them in order to test their skills. They usually get 20 minutes to solve a problem and 10 minutes to present the solution.”

A lot of this fit also relies on the candidate’s personality. With regards to recruiting based on personality, Bhateja observes there is an increase in the use of psychometric testing.

“Psychometric testing was previously used for development, but now it is also being used for recruitment.

“Basically, there are various tools available in the market nowadays for personality assessment.

Using those, a person will take a computergenerated test, which then provides a report on their personality.”

However, she notes that those cannot be solely relied on to ascertain a candidate’s fit and they have to be used in conjunction with other tools of assessment.

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FEATURE » Recruitment

Finding the chosen one: What has majorly shifted in recruitment is the number of people and decision makers involved in the process.

“You have to match it up with the structured interviews that have been done, and putting the two together, you can use that for recruitment and many organisations are doing that today.”

She suggests a good time to use psychometric testing is in the middle of a series of interviews.

“For example, you might typically have six interviews for any role. After the first short-list, and after the second or third interview, we can introduce a psychometric assessment.

“There will be areas that will help the next set of interviewers to pick up from the questions

and clarify areas in the report and, hence, you are able to judge the person better.

“I think that’s something good to do when making critical recruitment decisions.”

When it comes to recruiting based on personality, here’s another frequently asked question – active recruiting or passive recruiting?

In Lo’s opinion, it is a mixture of both with active recruitment being a little easier.

Her reason being: “The person is already looking so they will know what to expect.

Technically, personality doesn’t come in as much

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Recruitment « FEATURE there because they already have the skill sets and they know what to expect.”

She notes that passive recruiting may be more challenging as the person may not be willing to move from their job.

She says to attract a passive candidate, “HR needs to know the job description well because only then can you tell that person, ‘these are your job demands and duties and these are your skills’ and then identify the skill gaps that they would receive training in. Only then can you point out what they will gain from joining us”.

Adding that, “if the person does not have the knowledge of this job or industry, we can only rely on personality because if they are able to change and adapt their mindset, then it can work”.

“HR needs to know the job description well because only then can you tell that person, ‘these are your job demands and duties and these are your skills’ and then identify the skill gaps that they would receive training in. Only then can you point out what they will gain from joining us.”

Help Your

First-Time

Leaders

Survive and

Thrive!

– May Lo, group human resources director at Grace International

Bhateja agrees that both passive and active recruiting are effective depending on the role. However, she feels that neither are the best recruitment method. In her opinion, the best method is proactive recruitment.

“Even if you don’t have a role open, as a business leader, I’m not saying only HR, but also as a business leader, you should know people outside the company so that if a role opens, these could be some people who we could approach.

“I think that passive and active, people would use it as and when needed. The more important one is proactive recruitment, what we call talent mapping.

“You should have mapped the market and know who are the people in the market who could fit into these roles if needed. I think that is most effective.”

Another query that comes to mind is whether to engage an agency or do it in-house.

To this question, Lo answers: “We do it in-house firstly because the department heads have more ownership.

“On top of that, they are able to then compare an external candidate against what we would call an internal candidate,

www.YourFirstLeadershipJob.com #YourFirstLeadershipJob

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FEATURE » Recruitment

Too many steps? One of the larger internet companies has eight rounds of interviews, but the best candidates might be snatched away by then.

meaning an existing staff who you might want to promote for career progression and career growth.”

Bhateja says that at Schneider Electric, it uses a mix of both in-house recruiting and engaging recruitment agencies and notes that each has its own pros and cons.

“I think for in-house, the positive thing is that the people doing the recruitment understand the company better and are able to explain about the company.

“But the problem with in-house is scale.

How much can you scale? How many resources will you have? What kind of expertise do you have?

“If you look at recruitment agencies, they can scale their experts, the downside is that you pay them a lot and they might or might not be able to understand your business.”

The future of recruiting After discussing the different trends, challenges and ways of recruitment in the VUCA environment today, we can be sure there will be more new trends to come in the near future.

One of the trends is the shift to mobile, as expected by respondents of the Glassdoor

Recruiting Outlook Survey, where in the next one to two years, an average of 26% of job applicants will come through mobile devices.

Feeling the same way, Groeneweg says: “I think it’s about being mobile-friendly. Gen X and Gen Y want to be able to apply for a job on their smartphones. They don’t want to fill up big forms, instead they want something quick and fast. It’s the mobile-first generation.”

According to Ganu, another trend is “thinking about your talent pool a bit more differently”.

“That includes things like referrals and secondments,” he says.

This means to let employees accept offers to work for competitors instead of fighting them, allowing employees to gain more experiences and skills which would be an asset should they come back to the company.

“It’s also good to have a structured alumni network because that tends to be a pool that might come back and if they don’t come back, then at least they are likely to recommend who to hire,” he says. van Dooren agrees and adds: “We call them boomerangs. If you throw a boomerang well, which means if you’re a good employer, they will come back.”

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FEATURE » Learning & Development

Performance evaluations have been a significant element of measuring progress of employees in most organisations. But are they as credible now as they were in the past?

Akankasha Dewan speaks to HR leaders to discuss how appraisals have evolved and what can be done to improve their effectiveness.

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Learning & Development « FEATURE very workplace has its idiosyncratic seasonal events, and HR is perhaps most visible during the annual performance appraisal. Why? Not merely because performance appraisals are simply paramount to the effectiveness of organisations, but mainly because performance appraisals are one of the most frequently criticised talent management practices today.

The impossibility of doing away with performance evaluations A comprehensive performance appraisal involves gathering information about how well individuals perform their jobs, what their skills and knowledge are and their responsibilities and performance goals for the future.

Needless to say, such types of data are fundamental to the effective management of the talent of any organisation.

According to a 2009 study by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, 87% of employers use some form of individual annual appraisals, 27% do them twice a year and 10% more often than that. Some use them when projects come to an end.

“Employee appraisals or performance evaluations are important as they provide a structured process which can be part of an annual process to discuss employees’ strengths and development,” says Eunice Kong, regional human resources director for Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand, at Evonik.

For Tricia Duran, HR director, Unilever Asia, the value of performance evaluations also lies in their ability to achieve business targets and boost growth for companies.

“Unilever has a vision to double our business while halving our environmental impact and increasing our social impact. As such, we need purpose-driven leaders across all levels of our organisation,” she says.

“This will require us not only to hire the best in the market, but also to accelerate their development ahead of the business growth to ensure our vision is met.”

She adds it is precisely in the development of these purpose-driven employees that performance appraisals play a key role.

“Our performance management system is the primary channel through which we ensure our employees have visibility of how their contribution impacts the business goals. It also serves as our key starting point for individual

development planning, in identifying key areas of strengths as well as agreeing on priorities for development.

“These conversations ensure that employees grow from strength to strength, and if done well, remain energised and fulfilled.”

She explains rewards in her company are fully aligned to performance and every employee is assessed not just on what was delivered, but also on the standards of leadership in which it was delivered against.

The inherent flaws in performance evaluations Despite such impressive advantages of an employee appraisal system, there has been a tsunami of interest among HR managers in recent years to revamp, redesign or eliminate the performance appraisal process.

The Deloitte 2013 Human Capital Trends research discovered that a third of all global organisations wanted to revamp their performance management process in the next year and two-thirds within the next three years.

In fact, the research showed that fewer than 30% of all organisations feel their existing process drives any level of performance or engagement at all. Rather, it simply helps evaluate people for compensation and promotion.

The reality is that the traditional performance appraisal process is fundamentally flawed and seemingly incongruent with the current valuesbased, vision-driven as well as collaborative work environments.

“Performance evaluations have not changed and are still important, but as compared to the past, they have gotten more complex,” says Arthur Lam, director of organisation development for Southeast Asia, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Australia and New Zealand & Korea at Sanofi.

He adds two factors have contributed to this increase in complexity.

Firstly, an increase in employees’ breadth of work which leads to secondly, complex matrix reporting lines.

“In the past you had specialised roles. You had four people each doing individual roles. Now you have a single person doing four different things,” he says.

“Essentially, now you have a flat hierarchy in organisations, instead of having multiple hierarchies down the line.

“So when we spoke about performance

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FEATURE » Learning & Development reviews – they were very simple in the past. There was only a single manager and employee. The relation would simply be: ‘I rate my staff and that’s it’.

“But during performance reviews today, managers have to ask other functional managers as well for their opinions on how the employee in question is performing.”

Echoing Lam, Kong also spots differences between how performance appraisals were viewed and conducted in the past versus how they function today.

She adds a key contributor affecting the evolution of performance evaluations lies within what the employees themselves want out of such processes.

“Expectations of employees have changed over the years,” she says.

“In the past, employees mainly expected to be rewarded based on their performance. Today, employees also expect to jointly develop their career path so they know which career steps to take next. Employees want to know if a company is willing to provide professional growth and advancement opportunities.”

The effect of such increased complexity is precisely why the effectiveness of performance reviews today has come under fire.

The importance of having the right appraisal structure To make things worse, compelling new research is emerging every day showing performance reviews don’t improve performance, but may actually cause a decline in performance.

The varying criticisms of performance reviews range from them being an enormous waste of time and effort, to them having a destructive impact on the relationship between managers and their subordinates.

Recent research from Rice University cited a variety of problems that annual reviews inherently present, including a fear of providing negative feedback.

According to the paper, managers are legitimately concerned about demotivating or disengaging employees when they rate employees poorly.

As a consequence, providing ratings that are clustered at the high end of the rating scale is quite common across organisations.

“Organisations by nature are large social environments, and we cannot forget that context when making use of performance-rating data,”

said Jisoo Ock, lead author and Rice doctoral candidate in psychology.

Lam admits to seeing such fear of demotivating employees while providing negative feedback.

“This (fear) is quite common across organisations in general, and Sanofi is not an exception.

“It is always very easy focusing on the strengths of the person. But when it comes to talking about the weaknesses of the person, things get awkward.”

Duran warns, however, about the need to include both strengths and weaknesses in a good coaching conversation, highlighting it becomes ineffective with only one of them.

“A good performance discussion is always balanced – strengths vs areas for improvement: what was delivered vs how it was delivered, company expectations vs personal wishes, etc,” she says.

“With this, the conversation becomes factual and objective, yet personal and tailored to the employees needs, hence, resulting in bringing out the best in each individual.”

Training managers to conduct performance evaluations more effectively To get past the awkwardness involved in providing staff criticism, Lam suggests employing positive words during the appraisal process even while pointing out areas of weaknesses in staff.

“Rather than using the word ‘weaknesses’ we use the words ‘areas of development’ – that helps in motivating employees better. Weakness is quite a negative term. Everybody needs to be developed, it just depends on which areas they need to be developed.”

He observes, however, that more can be done to educate managers about the usage of such methods to enhance the effectiveness of performance reviews.

“The critical conversation is something which managers aren’t really well versed in. There is a variation of competency levels regarding this across Sanofi.”

Lam’s observation raises an interesting point regarding the importance of effective managerial skills in conducting such performance reviews.

If managers themselves aren’t sure what the metrics of an employee evaluation process are, how will they evaluate the employee in the first place?

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FEATURE » Learning & Development Such training has, in fact, become essential today, considering bosses currently clearly aren’t living up to what is required of them in an appraisal session.

The Cornerstone OnDemand/Harris 2012 US employee report (employee performance management study) found that less than half (45%) of employees said the feedback that they received was a fair and accurate representation of their performance.

In addition, only a quarter (25%) indicated they were given specific examples of their work to support the feedback they received.

“We take it for granted that most managers know how to do performance evaluations.

But we are not truly aware who lacks those competencies. And once you have inconsistency, it creates a ripple effect,” Lam says.

“People start saying, ‘the other team manager is rating everybody highly, and you’re being strict’. Employees will start comparing their evaluations with each other and this will lead to a very uncomfortable and dissatisfied group of professionals.”

To avoid this, he adds that standardisation should be done across functions to ensure managers are rating employees in a fair and consistent manner.

“Various leaders of the same level should sit down together and present their appraisals and share the ways they have rated them so other managers can have a look at their process and agree and/or disagree,” he advises.

“This is where training of these managers comes in place. You train them better so they will train them better.”

Measuring the effectiveness of employee appraisals Kong similarly identifies a need to step up training processes of managers who are conducting employee appraisals.

“The effectiveness of managers conducting performance evaluations can be improved by creating an open and respectful atmosphere based on mutual trust,” she says.

“Managers should be trained to be better mentors and coaches, to build their employees’ motivation while at the same time, enable them to identify their own development needs and to openly share these with their managers.

An increased frequency of reviews helps to closely follow-up on the employee’s individual development plan.”

Up in arms: Employees aren’t convinced about the feedback they receive during appraisals.

Duran shares a few policies Unilever has adopted to ensure managers have the right skills to lead and conduct performance appraisals in the most optimal way possible.

“To be an effective line manager, we provide ‘licence to operate’ programmes composed of training and communications guidelines that aim to ensure that every line manager has at least a working knowledge around how to conduct performance management programmes.

“These are not only meant to help them build and practise their skills, but also increase their confidence and inspirational leadership to their teams.”

She adds the company measures how well their staff ’s performance evaluations work by analysing how organisational growth figures are impacted after the appraisal process.

“In Unilever, the only measure of the effectiveness of our performance management programme is if it delivers the individual and collective results required by the business, and

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Learning & Development « FEATURE at the same time, enables us to retain, grow and energise our key talent.

“To date, Unilever results are on track towards our growth ambition, our attrition is below the industry benchmark and engagement scores are at par with global benchmarks. So you can conclude that our performance management system is effective.”

Having an end goal in mind Lam highlights another good way of measuring the effectiveness of performance evaluations is to always envision the ultimate aim of conducting these appraisals.

“Many people take performance evaluations and appraisals as backward-looking sessions.

They should also be able to point out the direction ahead and areas of improvement.

“It is not just about me knowing what the employee has done, but about me having the skills of asking the right questions – and giving the right feedback at the right time and really motivating the employees in what they should do in the following year.”

He adds it is difficult to generalise whether managers actually do have these skills because

“everything is a work in progress. Every single manager or leader in an organisation has different levels of competency”.

Therefore, keeping in mind the essential goal of the process helps significantly in knowing whether companies really are providing effective feedback via staff appraisals.

“In my view, the end-point of performance evaluations should be that you have a highly motivated employee who is headed towards the right direction.

“It should be a summary for what they have done in the year, the strengths and areas of development based on the observation of the manager, and their future role and what they ought to be doing.”

Kong agrees with such a view of employee appraisals, but also suggests employers can be aided by the right technology to make the process more smoother.

“Technology provides a means for managers to create more transparency in the performance management. With technology, managers can better document and track their employee’s performance progression over the years, thus strengthening their performance,” she says.

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FEATURE » Learning & Development

CASE STUDY: SANOFI Subjective ratings of skills and non-homogeneous regional cultures are some of the reasons why performance evaluations aren’t as effective today. Akankasha Dewan speaks with Arthur Lam, director of organisation development for SEA, HK, TW, ANZ and KR at Sanofi, to find out how the company has streamlined its staff appraisal process.

Performance appraisals today are akin to a rite of passage in the world of work. The policy of holding people accountable for goals and assessing them on their strengths and areas of development has long been practised by organisations all over the world.

Now, however, the credibility of the employee review process is increasingly being questioned.

The consulting fi rm People IQ, in a 2005 survey, found 87% of employees and managers felt performance reviews were neither useful nor effective.

Additionally, in an article published in The Psychological Bulletin, psychologists completed a metaanalysis of 607 studies of performance evaluations.

They concluded at least 30% of the performance reviews ended up, ironically, decreasing employee performance – the opposite of what they set out to do.

“We included an official performance evaluation at the end of the year because we need it to consolidate the year’s performance and summarise and evaluate performance for compensation and reward decisions.”

The problem with rating employees across countries, skills and functions Arthur Lam, director of organisation development for SEA, HK, TW, ANZ and KR at Sanofi, explains this may be because of an increase in the complexities involved in developing and managing talent today – fi rstly due to companies becoming more global.

“In terms of developing talent, different countries have different cultures and different leadership styles and approach,” he says.

“Some countries tend to be a little more conservative, while others tend to believe in leveraging on experience.”

“To create a culture across different countries where everybody has the same level of understanding of practice is not as easy as we think.”

He adds the process is made even more complicated when it comes to evaluating soft skills of employees.

“Every appraisal is divided into two parts: the taskoriented section and that of behaviour,” he says.

“When we are talking about measuring tasks, it is very clear. You measure employees’ performance by seeing if they hit targets or not.

“The challenge comes when assessing the competencies of the individual, such as striving for results, customer-orientation, etc.

“Behaviour is quite subjective, and that’s why ratings vary by managers. More has been done in terms of behavioural evaluation because now we’re moving to that stage where people are doing multiple tasks.”

He explains the problem of subjective ratings is exacerbated by the fact that evaluations today are done not just by line managers, but also by various functional managers. Th is leads to the possibility of inconsistent ratings across all parties.

“Everybody rates their own people, but you wouldn’t know if they are rating them correctly.

“To minimise discrepancies in ratings, there must be a calibration by the management committees by countries, regions and global.”

Sanofi’s performance evaluation system While explaining how a multinational company such as Sanofi performs its appraisal process, Lam reveals it has an employee evaluation system rolled across all countries, with a fi nal review in December.

“Managers and employees communicate objectives, review performance, give feedback, agree on areas of development, and performance review results, with inputs from functional managers. Th is information is entered and stored in Workday,” he explains.

Th is web-based HR tool, he says, empowers managers by providing access to all employee information such as employee CV data, aspirations, mobility records, etc, all in one place.

He highlights that the system streamlines the process by making information related to employees available to all managers.

He adds that now managers have access to all the information, it is more convenient for them as they don’t have to rely repeatedly on HR personnel to use such data.

“Managers do not need to go to HR like they did in the

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FEATURE » Learning & Development

past to get this information. Now they have access to this information 24/7 on laptops, tablets and mobile,” he says.

Making the process more transparent Interestingly, employees also have access to this information, albeit, limited in what they can see.

He adds the rationale behind making the system accessible to employees is to ensure the employee evaluation process is conducted fairly.

“To ensure consistency in practice, when we conduct workshops for performance management, we train not only managers, but employees as well. We tell them what we are teaching managers, so they are aware of what managers should be doing,” he says.

“The whole performance management process becomes much more transparent and not something which is behind closed doors.

"It is like a 360 watch over what the managers do instead of on just the employees.”

But who exactly remains responsible for planning and executing the process?

Is it mainly an HR-driven initiative?

“A few years into the programme, the head of the global operations felt it should be the ownership of the managers and he mandated that all managers in Sanofi would complete performance evaluations and development plans for their employees, and that it shouldn’t be driven from HR, but from business leaders.”

is much more likely to create real-time alterations in employees’ job performance behaviours.

But the question remains if such added face-time between employees and bosses leads to bosses being overburdened.

“It is additional work, but if you incorporate it as a habit, it does not seem to be an added chore,” Lam observes.

“People resist when they suddenly have to do lots of stuff. But if you do it on a regular basis, in fact, it is easier for managers rather than doing it at the yearend evaluation. Then they don’t have to struggle with collecting information and gathering feedback about the individual.”

Making the process more frequent and regular Besides making the process a more business-driven initiative, another change the company has implemented is making mid-year reviews optional.

“Mid-year performance reviews are no longer compulsory as they should be in continuum and an ongoing discussion rather than being fi xed around a certain period of time in the year.

“We included an official performance evaluation at the end of the year because we need it to consolidate the year’s performance and summarise and evaluate performance for compensation and reward decisions.”

When we launched performance management globally, it felt like an HR initiative and managers had to do it because it was part of their reviews.

Sanofi’s method of providing regular, instead of only fi xed feedback, is backed by the fact that more frequent manager-employee interaction helps to improve performance of staff.

As various studies have shown, continuous feedback that occurs on a day-to-day basis in such an environment

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OPINION » Learning & development

Can you change with the times?

Reasons why organisational change can impact employee engagement and retention negatively.

CAAROLIINE PALM PA LM MSTED STEDTT Talent management lead for Asia Pacific Monsanto

Address the 1% challenge: Less than 1% of all managers have the ability to deliver goals and address people’s needs at the same time.

While most change projects focus on structural and process orientated strategies, few invest in the human side of change and its potential impact on employee engagement. To leaders and HR practitioners, low engagement ratings are inevitably expected as a result of change.

To companies focusing on the employee impact of change, at its launch, there are gains to win. Neuroscience is offering insights of how the brain’s response to change can help employees accept organisational change faster, with higher engagement, impacting business results and retention positively.

According to a study by Corporate Executive Board, CEB (2013), there are three areas for concern in managing change: 1. Employee performance during change 2. The disengaged stay 3. High potentials more likely to quit CEB found that disengaged employees are 36% more likely to stay during periods of change, while 25% of high potentials are more likely to quit. This is alarming to change projects requiring

high performing talent. Moreover, organisational change negatively impacts commitment. It is not hard to understand the challenges HR practitioners face in managing this.

Anticipation of change does more harm than good CEB’s analysis in 2013 found that the mere anticipation of change impacted performance and retention more than the actual change did. In other words, expectation of change is more damaging than change itself. This calls for actions and attention to talent performance and retention strategies.

Change craving talent development During pressure to deliver change results, most change leaders tend to focus on result optimisation rather than coaching and developing their teams to manage as well as contribute to the success of change. Leaders who coach talent for development and recognise employees who need to cope with change, will undoubtedly be more successful in achieving change goals as well as building a culture of recognition and development.

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Learning & development « OPINION

The 1% challenge The Management Research Group investigated managers’ ability to deliver goals and address people needs at the same time. They found that less than 1% of managers (0.7%) demonstrated both capabilities at the same time. A resounding 99% of managers lacked the combination of simultaneously demonstrating people skills and goal-focus skills.

Neuroscience explains part of the 1% challenge; when the brain focuses on the goal, brain regions for people focus are switched off. In other words, the more we focus on the goal, the weaker our people skills are likely to be. This is important for change leaders helping employees - making time for the people aspect of change seems a worthwhile investment.

However, the brain is capable of doing both in the right contexts (Spreng & Schacter, 2011) by activating its reward centre. Helping leaders help their brains to manage both goals and people simultaneously, is a key leadership development area, creating an opportunity for HR practitioners to add value.

Brain response to change Neuroscience research shows that commonly the brain perceives change, big or small, as a threat. Subconsciously, it is evaluating each piece of information as either a threat or a reward – up to five times per second! (Gordon, 2008).

In a threat state employees become disengaged, inward looking and potentially defensive. They focus on problems rather than solutions, perception is decreased and the ability to listen to others is reduced. A threat response impacts decision-making hurts collaboration and decreases the ability for someone to evaluate feedback in a positive way (Dixon, Rock & Ochsner, 2010; Rock 2008).

In a reward state, employees become engaged, collaborative and solution focused. They will try out new behaviours, and if successful, the brain’s reward centres fire off, re-enforcing new behaviours. Further, a reward state enables innovation and creativity, frequently required during change.

One of the most common triggers to brain threat response is uncertainty. Crucial to managing change with employee engagement and retention is to provide certainty at all times, requiring transparent communication throughout change.

People asset is the hidden asset Leaders managing change create additional value to their organisation by paying attention to the hidden asset on the balance sheet, the people asset.

By focusing on employees’ journey of coping with change, and continuous efforts made on talent development, the positive impact to change outcomes can be considerable.

Natalie, Senior Consultant, Strategy Consulting Firm

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OPINION » People issues

A kindergarten lesson in communication The pitfalls of daily communication styles in the workplace – and the one style that can work.

ROY CHEW Corporate learning and development manager Singapore Technologies Aerospace

Communication is one of the key skills in today’s workplace, yet it appears to be one of the most elusive. Any function with a form of human interaction requires communication, more so for people managers and HR professionals. Even if you work all day tightening screws in a factory, you will still need to communicate, if not with words, then through memos, emails, SMS, or even Morse code.

Most people can expound on workplace communication, but few are doing it right. It is often one-way, half-way, three (or multiple) ways, or no way – rather than both ways.

Surprisingly, children are the experts in this field. You need go no further, but to ask a parent whether a baby’s cry means a call for milk, diaper change or attention. When a child wants an answer, questions will be asked. And believe me, kids have many devices to communicate their intentions to you.

Let’s take a step back to glean lessons from the little ones.

One-way, half-way, three-way or no way One-way is straightforward and self-explanatory. Instructions flow from the top to the bottom, much like how water cascades down a waterfall. The manager speaks and the employee executes. When deliverables are not met, more instructions flow down. This can continue in a vicious cycle, eventually resulting in information overload, more confusion and flooding of the river banks.

The simplest way to check this would be to ask questions and listen with an open mind, just like curious kids do.

Half-way could be even worse. The parties speak in riddles, leaving everyone befuddled. Direction is unclear. Where should the ship steer? Everyone does what they think is right, going about their own mission. What are the odds that results align?

Communicators need to be sure of what they want and get their points across, just like how kids have a way of letting their parents know what they want for birthdays and Christmas.

I see three-way miscommunication in three ways. The first is when everyone talks and nobody listens. It’s a case of too many cooks spoiling the broth.

The second is when an alpha employee dominates the communication, and everybody follows. Rather similar to the herd mentality concept.

The third is when nobody talks and nobody listens. No communication. Total breakdown. For times like these, probably a teacher would need to step in to maintain and enforce order.

The aboriginal talking stick could aid in this process, where everyone can figuratively or literally take turns to hold the stick and air their views.

Everyone will have to listen quietly when the one holding the stick is speaking. Learn how kids always get their point across.

All about talk: Communication skills remain elusive in many workplaces.

Finally, the no-way style is much like one-way, just more forceful down one’s throat. This approach may get things done in the short-term, but in the longer run it can be very debilitating to relationships and motivation.

Would anyone want to work for Adolf Hitler, if he was still alive, or Fred Goodwin, the autocratic ex-CEO from the Royal Bank of Scotland, who nearly bankrupted the bank?

Always look for alternative ways to get your points across.

There is often a “third alternative”, as Stephen Covey puts it, where common interests can dovetail if you are open to communicate.

Think about how kids use subterfuge to get what they want, how they often coax their parents to let them put off doing their work for another five minutes to watch television or play.

Communication, both ways Communication is reciprocating by implication, with a mutual exchange of information to reach a common understanding so aligned actions can be taken.

Even if agreement cannot be reached, we can always agree to disagree. This is a different story, but at least there is recognition and awareness of differences.

In that case, actions can be taken to move things forward for consensus, either through consultation with a higher authority, or through the provision of more definitive supporting evidence.

With work processes getting more complex and technology more advanced, we need to tap increasingly on collective intelligence by communicating with others.

With the generational shift as Gen Y begins to dominate the workforce, communication modes and preferences have become even more diversified.

The points I made are not new. But just as how feedback and exchange of ideas are critical to communication, so are patience and reminders just like this one.

38 » Human Resources » June 2015

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

LATEST STUDY FROM FIRST ADVANTAGE REVEALS EMPLOYMENT SCREENING TRENDS IN ASIA PACIFIC Globalisation and technological advancements have transformed the world into a small place. Multinational companies have leveraged this to optimally expand their footprints across the globe.

Most of them are looking at developing across countries because of the available pool of young, educated candidates. Job seekers are also moving across borders in search of more sophisticated roles and greater opportunities.

While the benefits to employers are clear, this trend is not without its shortcomings.

Companies have to become more cautious due to the recent surge in crime and fraud. First Advantage has found that to avoid any unwarranted and compromising situations, more companies in Asia Pacific are now screening their employees.

Even though the concept of background screening is relatively new in the region, it is picking up rapidly. Accepting it as a best practice, more employers are making background screening an integral part of their recruitment process.

Unlike reference checks, background screening is a complex process that involves multiple stakeholders, including education institutes and former employers.

Other challenges include local, national and international legislation around anticorruption, data privacy and consumer protection.

These can quickly muddle the screening process, making it a challenge to efficiently perform a background check, especially if the candidate has lived or worked in several countries.

In Asia Pacific, most employers conducted an average of five checks as part of every background screening request to First Advantage.

In 2014, more than 67% of all candidates were subjected to five checks, as compared with 42% in 2013.

This trend was particularly prevalent in Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia and New Zealand where more than 50% of all candidates were subjected to six or more checks. Compare this to just 30% of candidates in China and Malaysia.

With the rise in crime, screening for criminal data has become a priority for many employers, although employment and education checks continue to top the list. Financial-related checks are also gaining popularity.

Launch of the 2015 APAC Background Screening Trends Report With the objective of helping employers better manage recruitment risk, First Advantage, a leader in background reporting in Asia Pacific, has developed the 2015 APAC Background Screening Trends Report to share employment screening trends in the region.

First Advantage offers comprehensive screening programmes to more than 2,000 companies throughout Asia Pacific.

We have deployed state-of-the-art technology to ensure accuracy and reduce the time needed for these background checks. Our customer base includes the world’s largest financial services organisations, retailers, IT companies, BPO, manufacturing, pharmaceutical companies, and many others.

To help companies better understand what is happening at the macro and micro level within this prolific region, this report compiles our deep understanding of localised cultures and compliance requirements with detailed screening statistics

gathered from our vast Asian customer base. It highlights fresh trends that employers can use to fine-tune their existing screening practices and benchmark their current programme results against others in the region.

The report covers Japan, Korea, China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand.

We continue to encourage our users to review this report as a background screening health check and a useful guide to make better hiring decisions.

You can receive a complimentary copy of the 2015 APAC Background Screening Trends Report when you email us at weichong.chin@fadv.com.

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

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

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

For more information, visit www.fadvasia.com *The report was officially launched in May 2015. If you are interested to receive a copy, please feel free to write to Chin Wei Chong at weichong.chin@fadv.com.

June 2015 « Human Resources « 39

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OPINION » Unconventional wisdom

Building your employer brand with the Millennials EVANGELINE CHUA Head of human resources Citi Singapore

With the Millennials’ tendency to start planning their careers early in life, read how this campus engagement strategy has benefited nearly 600 students in the past two years.

Scanning the horizon: Engaging graduates early can boost the employer brand.

Engaging the future workforce is a key building block for tomorrow’s success. At Citi, we believe the Millennials or students in tertiary institutions today must be empowered with knowledge to make informed career choices This belief forms the pivot of Citi’s campus engagement strategy.

As the largest banking sector employer with some 10,000 individuals, Citi is committed to nurturing talent for Singapore.

To better understand the needs and aspirations of the Millennials, Citi actively engages with the students and career services offices of various local universities. Through ongoing dialogue, we learnt the Millennials tend to start their career planning early, and want to gain first-hand insights into an industry or a company before making their career decisions.

Even though their school curriculum covers banking and finance, there seems to be a lack of appreciation of the financial industry and the full spectrum of services and products it offers.

Additionally, we realised there is a gap in the engagement between employers, and the first and second-year students in local universities, as most employers only start engaging undergraduates in their penultimate and final years of education.

To address the evolving needs and growing number of Millennials entering the workforce, Citi affected a paradigm shift in the way we engaged with university students. The way forward is to start engaging and attracting talent early in their tertiary education to be their preferred employer brand.

With that in mind, we reviewed our graduate recruitment strategy and launched two new programmes to address the

needs of the under-served first and second-year students – the Citi student mentoring programme and the Citi banking 101 foundational programme.

The Citi student mentoring programme, modelled after Citi’s own internal career development mentorship programmes, enables student mentees to gain access to senior Citi bankers.

They can provide them with career guidance (not necessarily on the banking sector), identification of skill gaps, and open doors to different networking opportunities. Some of them even arrange for job shadowing for their mentees.

Our mentors find this programme very refreshing and some even benefited from the reverse mentoring.

For the Citi banking 101 foundational programme, through our conversations with undergraduates, it was evident that not many had a clear understanding of a bank’s functions. We also found there was no existing comprehensive programme in the industry to address the knowledge gap among students. With this in mind, the idea for this programme was conceptualised.

Held over two weeks during the summer break each year, participants have the opportunity to take part in intensive seminars, where 16 banking modules are taught by experienced Citi bankers. At the end of two weeks, participants are required to present their team project to Citi senior executives.

Both programmes have received a lot of positive feedback since their launch two years ago.

One key factor to their success is having the full support of Citi’s senior management team, who participated as mentors, speakers and attended the various networking sessions.

Another is the close collaboration between the HR team and various departments across the franchise.

This was done in many ways, be it getting Citi volunteers to give their time to mentor the aspiring students or getting subject matter experts to develop and teach content for the student audience.

Many Citi bankers willingly give their time to be involved in these meaningful initiatives.

Today, Citi is proud to share that these programmes have started to reap rewards, not only in terms of brand-building, but also in terms of recruitment metrics, where nearly 600 students have benefited from both programmes since the launch in 2013.

Our recent win at the Asia Recruitment Awards 2015 is again a testament of Citi’s recruitment efforts and strategy heading in the right direction.

With the entrance of the Millennials into the workspace, it is essential for employers to start engaging with them at campuses to better understand their needs and preferences so as to ensure their successful assimilation into the workplace.

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THIS ARTICLE WAS BROUGHT TO YOU BY ANNA TAN, WENTWORTH PEOPLE, ASIA

REALISING YOUR AMBITIONS A key leadership capability is the ability to network and grow your personal brand successfully.

It is neither what you know, nor who you know. In the new world, it’s who knows of you. Who will recommend and point to you when there is a new project or an initiative to be led?

Set yourself up as the expert – a sought after advisor/mentor. Make your reputation precede you.

If you are ambitious and want to succeed, personal branding is a requirement, not an option. Stay above the competition by finding new and creative ways to differentiate yourself from your peers.

Here’s how: Step 1 – Who are you?

• Audit where you are now and define your ambition – where do you want to be in two to four years time?

• What does your LinkedIn profile say about you? This is your main personal marketing page.

• Your profile should highlight your core experience and support your next step – your ambition.

Step 2 – Positioning tips • Write articles and blogs to share your point of view. You will be judged by these so make sure they are top quality. It’s self-defeating to be associated with poorly written articles. Think quality instead of quantity.

• Give talks and presentations on your subject matter expertise. However, get training to make sure your presentation skills are top notch, otherwise it will reflect poorly on your image.

• Frequently send friends, colleagues and contacts the latest articles, nuggets of wisdom or trends in your area of expertise. After 12 times, they will begin to associate you with that topic and knowledge and you will likely be the first person they will approach for a solution.

•

•

Treat everyone like a lost friend, and a genuine smile will easily follow. Create a strong connection by looking them in the eyes, and get curious about who they are and what they do.

Share your business card later rather than sooner – establish a rapport first.

Step 4 – Are you being consistent?

• We live in a world where the degrees of separations are shrinking as new technology allows us to connect and stay in touch with people from all four corners of the world.

• People will talk about you – consider how do you wish to be known. Friendly?

Approachable? Smart? Go-getter? Or a snob? Arrogant? A pain …?

• Match your actions, your words, and your interactions with who you wish to “be”, how you wish to be remembered.

• Ask for feedback – do a mini 360-degree feedback on yourself with your friends, your peers, colleagues, boss, etc. Do what they say about you match how you wish to be regarded?

Step 5 – Development tips • Create your personal development plan.

• Instead of watching TV or playing games on the mobile phone, expand your knowledge and experience. Look online or try www.coursera.org for free lectures.

• Find mentors and role models. Talk to them to broaden your perspective.

“Lastly, do not be limited by what others say you are able to achieve.

You can become much more and realise that ambition is only limited by your imagination and belief in yourself.

Where there is a will, there is a way.”

Step 3 – Networking tips • Go out and get known. Volunteer to host and attend events.

• At networking events, go with the mindset of making new friends. If you are shy, go with a friend, then set a target to talk to X number of people together.

Afterwards, debrief and learn from what went well and how to do it better next time.

• Create a persona or recall someone you wish to emulate as a great networker – then put yourself in that role and take action.

• Do not judge people by what they do now. You don’t know where their next role will take them, or indeed who they know!

• Confidence + interest + active listening = great social skills.

This article was contributed by Anna Tan, managing director, Wentworth People Asia

Find out more at www.wentworthpeople.com or write to anna.tan@wentworthpeople.com

June 2015 « Human Resources « 41

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OPINION » Upwardly mobile

Working well through wellness policies How to make use of funding to help implement wellness programmes for a better team environment.

CHIN AI LI HR and people development manager Julia Gabriel Education

life. Thus at the HR level, we are constantly looking at appropriate training for our employees.

All thumbs up: Activities with colleagues' families can support team bonding.

Our HR department looks after the welfare of staff in all of our three brands and we believe whatever we implement at the HR policy level is for their benefit.

Studies have shown that the total cost of turnover can be as high as 90% to 200% of an employee’s annual salary, including the cost of recruitment and new hire training. High turnover can affect the reputation of an organisation as well as the morale of the existing employees. This is especially true in education where customers develop a strong bond with teaching staff.

With our unique teaching methodology, that of inspiring learning within a positive, engaging and enjoyable environment, we have an intensive on-the-job training scheme across our seven centres.

I see successful employee retention as an indication of how happy my employees are; the happier they are, the longer they will stay in the organisation.

Current business and HR scenarios We pride ourselves in having a high retention rate as the policies we implement relate closely to our company values – respect, relationships, passion and excellence.

For example, our company places a high importance on nurturing relationships. We listen, take time to care and build positive relationships with our employees. We look into their needs to the best of our abilities.

With the workforce comprising mainly women, they may request for arrangements such as part-time or working from home at different stages of their lives. We try our best to accommodate their requests. This in turn helps to achieve worklife balance that they value.

Being educators, we are inspired by progression. We are constantly learning and evolving to become better educators, parents and people in general.

We do not strive for perfection, but rather pursue excellence.

We want to empower every learner to succeed in school and in

A recent case study Recently, we won a bronze award at the Singapore HEALTH Award 2014. This recognised our efforts in promoting workplace health in one of the initiatives we implemented two years ago.

Our aim was to take care of employees’ wellbeing by encouraging them to lead a healthier lifestyle so they will enjoy a better quality of life.

This initiative was implemented upon hearing our employees’ needs and feedback. They expressed an interest in group activities to promote bonding with colleagues, which could be extended to their families.

Keeping that in mind I started exploring the possibilities. It was a challenge trying to meet employees’ needs while being mindful of feasible budgets.

It was then I chanced upon the Workplace Health Promotion (WHP) grant, offered by the Health Promotion Board (HPB), providing financial support to help organisations start and sustain workplace health programmes.

For a start, we planned a series of health-related lunch talks and fitness exercise classes such as Zumba and yoga.

Not only did the weekly classes promote a healthy lifestyle, but at the same time provided time for colleagues to bond through exercise.

Thereafter we organised a family day where all employees and their family members came together to enjoy a day of bowling together.

We received positive feedback after the event that it strengthened our employees’ relationships and helped those from different departments get to know each other better.

On top of the weekly classes and the new company wide events, we also planned departmental team-building activities, which provided the opportunity for employees to learn how to improve their productivity and motivation as a team.

These activities included drumming, ice skating, paintball, belly dancing, painting, ukulele and cookery. These proved to be useful, especially for new hires.

Executing all the activities was not as easy as I initially thought. A lot of time was spent on co-ordination – getting people to sign up and attend, and getting them to put in the effort to exercise.

Having said that, I was fortunate to have the support of my HR team together with the heads of departments in the implementation of these initiatives.

Because of our shared values that are a strong part of our company culture, our staff helped in making all this possible.

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CAREERS » Personal development

uptheranks Tracking HR’s industry moves Who: Subbaraju Alluri From: Grey Group To: Grey Group Subbaraju Alluri has been promoted by Grey Group Singapore to area director and CEO of Grey Group Singapore and Grey Group Thailand.

He joined Grey Group Indonesia after stints at JWT and Rapp Collins. He then moved to Grey Group Singapore in 2005 where he transformed the agency into the country’s fastest-growing creative outfit in the span of a year, leading the team to win major accounts such as Sentosa and the Ministry of Manpower.

“Raju’s aptitude and contribution has been invaluable. I am sure with his leadership and vision, he will transform Grey Group Thailand into becoming the agency of choice,” said Nirvik Singh, chairman and CEO of Grey Group Asia Pacific.

Commenting on his promotion, he said “It is truly an honour to be given the opportunity to lead the Thailand team, as well. I am looking forward to taking the agency to new and greater heights.”

Who: Ng Wai Choong From: Ministry of Finance To: Singapore’s Energy Market Authority (EMA) Singapore’s Energy Market Authority appointed Ng Wai Choong, previously the deputy secretary (policy) at the Ministry of Finance, as the new chief executive with effect from 1 April 2015.

In his previous role, he was responsible for developing several fiscal initiatives, including the Resilience Package and Pioneer Generation Package.

“Wai Choong’s experience in various leadership roles in the civil service has equipped him well to lead and drive EMA in developing a dynamic energy sector in Singapore,” said Ow Foong Pheng, permanent secretary for MTI, when welcoming Ng to his new role.

personalgrowth HOW TO TURN A VACANCY INTO A DREAM JOB Akankasha Dewan inks out recruiting strategies that go beyond the job description to create propositions aimed at happiness.

Ah, the dream job.

Just like finding that one great love, it’s a goal that virtually everyone has. After all, over the course of our lifetimes, we’ll work approximately 90,000 hours – and that’s a lot of time to waste on something you’re not passionate about.

With the talent war showing no signs of coming to an end, it won’t hurt for bosses to spruce up their employment contracts to make sure they appear as desirable as possible.

Of course, exaggerating the perks of the job and lying about them are a big no-no. That would only lead to higher turnover rates and losses after staff discover they are mismatched for the job.

Instead, altering your job package to suit the desires of the desired staff will definitely help in attracting such talent.

Who: Andrew Hogg From: Qantas Airways To: Tourism Australia Andrew Hogg has moved from his position as general manager of Qantas Airways in China to Tourism Australia, where he joined as regional general manager of Greater China, based in Shanghai.

Commenting on his appointment, Tourism Australia’s managing director John O’Sullivan said: “This is a key position for us, and I’m delighted we’ve secured someone of Andrew’s calibre to lead our China and Hong Kong teams.

“Andrew has a deep knowledge of the market and is well connected in the region, both commercially and politically.”

Acknowledging that he was looking forward to his new role, he said: “Last year around 100 million Chinese travelled internationally, with numbers expected to increase to 200 million in the next five years.

“This presents an unprecedented opportunity for Australian tourism and an exciting time to be joining Tourism Australia’s China team.”

For example, according to students and early professionals in Singapore, the top two attributes of a dream job are money (49%) and a good working relationship with colleagues (44%).

Senior professionals, however, chose money as the most important consideration in a job.

That’s the interesting thing about the concept of happiness – it constantly evolves according to our priorities and life stage. Maybe once I begin a family of my own, I would prioritise earning a higher income than worry about my work family.

In such a situation, knowing the age-group and seniority of your desired candidate helps.

This will evolve over time, and if you want to maintain the attractiveness of the position you’re offering, be ready to also evolve your benefits packages.

Once you do have the right rewards and offerings in place, get cracking on ensuring your corporate branding strategies are in place.

Clear and consistent messages to what the job will offer, and the company’s culture helps to hire dream talent.

Simplicity is, ultimately, the true form of beauty, and that may just be the thing to consider when formulating job descriptions.

Utilise tools such as social media and career websites to enhance your corporate image. Vibrant, dynamic and professional messaging helps to display an energetic, yet focused working environment.

Remember, your advertised job will only be as attractive as you make it.

44 » Human Resources » June 2015

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Good reads to improve your business life

shelflife

The Conflict Paradox: Seven Dilemmas at the Core of Disputes Bernard ernard Mayer iley Wiley 67.45 45 $67.45

Headstrong Performance Marcel Daane BBPC Headstrong Performance provides readers with innovative ways to improve the mental performance of leaders through the pillars of neuroscience, exercise and nutrition.

Author Marcel Daane neatly divides the book into four main sections. These include stress and resilience, optimising sustained attention, boosting creativity and insight, and creating change.

In a short prefix to the book, “how to read this book”, he highlights the crux of his commentary rests on informing readers why health is intricately linked to performance.

He incorporates his personal experiences in the book, including lessons taught to him by his mother, and marries them with scientific data to show how healthy practices can be incorporated into the busiest of lifestyles.

Daane begins each chapter with a quote, and enhances his views with charts, informative cartoons and sub-sections which succinctly summarise the views at hand.

He includes practical case studies, and easy to implement strategies throughout

the various chapters of his book. These are backed by useful and credible scientific data that is explained in easy to understand, simple and everyday language, without compromising on scientific credibility.

Useful and informative, his book is an excellent read for those interested in effectively improving their performance by leveraging on the advantages of fuelling the brain and developing the capacity of improved performance.

Bookmark This!

What if there was a “stimulator” where an executive could spend time learning manoeuvres and behaviours that would help overcome “battles” over the competition and minimise damage in the workplace and operational costs?

Surely, such a “stimulator” would offer an extremely high return on investment.

Here’s the great news: there is, in effect, such a stimulator. It’s exercise and the practice of healthy nutrition. Neuroscience is teaching us that this is the way in which exercise and nutrition may offer the greatest benefit of performance. – page 236.

Wee alll now know at that aving having onflict confl in today’ss orkplacee workplace inevitablee. is inevitable. owever, con onflict However, confl is not entirelyy bad.

The Confli Conflflict ict Paradox erves as a gui ide to get to the serves guide heart of a conflict, turning it into produ something more productive than we think it is.

Posing seven dilemmas that we consider when thinking about conflict, author Bernard Mayer uses case studies from several different contexts, such as family, organisational and interpersonal, to illustrate each of the paradoxes in action as well as how a simple change of perspectives can help us move forward in a more productive way.

Neatly divided into chapters, the paradoxes presented include competition and co-operation, optimism and realism, avoidance and engagement, principle and compromise, emotions and logic, neutrality, and advocacy and community and autonomy.

In the preface to the book, Mayer highlights that when we realise that we do not have to choose between the stark alternatives present in the paradoxes when considering conflict, we grow and help others grow in our ability to handle conflict.

Bookmark this!

We must seek the truth that encompasses both sides of these polarities (remember that genuine optimism must be realistic).

When we truly grasp that what we perceive to be polarities and mutually contradictory choices are not that at all – but are, in fact, paradoxically essential aspects of the same reality – then we can begin to make a difference in how we approach a conflict. page 8.

Photography: Fauzie Rasid

Pick of the month

46 » Human Resources » June 2015

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LAST WORD

Negativity can be toxic to your team culture and productivity.

Aditi Sharma Kalra identifies ways to bring a smile to the resident Negative Nancy.

starts raining when you step out of home, you miss the bus while evading puddles, and your desktop refuses to start when you finally make it to work.

Starting the day off on the wrong foot can ensure my grumpiness meter is at its peak for the rest of the day.

But in some cases, what looks like a one-off case may be a deeper sign of a disengaged employee, and if not addressed, the negativity they generate could be toxic to the entire team’s culture and productivity.

Recent research by the Association of Accounting Technicians in Britain found 23 signs of what makes an unhappy employee in the workplace. Gestures that may otherwise seem innocuous made it to the list – constantly looking at the clock, regularly making up excuses to not attend work-related events or even no longer worrying about turning up looking smart.

While these could be taken with a pinch of salt, there are other more verbal cues for managers to identify discontentment – such as someone who tends to complain about why something can’t be done before trying it, or an inclination to place blame on external factors all too frequently.

So what can managers do to help ease the feelings of negativity from their teams?

The dependable dialogue In managing people, I have come to realise there is no such thing as over-communication. Much of what you share will be retained, while some of it will go in one ear and right out the other.

But the point is, it’s good to keep your employees informed, whether you have good or bad news. Two-way dialogue helps teams build a stronger relationship by the simple discussion of ideas and solutions.

Often, timely communication can serve as an early warning system, providing feedback that can help you go back and plug loopholes in a new policy rollout, for example.

Many organisations have newsletters, e-bulletin boards or internal social networks to push out information that employees can read and

comment on at their own convenience.

The more informal way to do it would be over lunches or company events. In our organisation, the Friday beer o’clock is a good place to chat with colleagues across teams and get their views.

However, when communicating informally, it may be a good idea to ensure that one person is singled out as a point of contact for those who want more information. Rumours are an inevitable part of working life, but at least employees will know who to get information from before the grapevine sets in.

How we speak, what we speak Despite all the communication, as managers, we can tweak the way we speak to convey a more optimistic message.

Often, we’re guilty of saying things such as, “this is impossible” or “I don’t think it can be done” – but that does no good for those working with you. For us, calling something “impossible” is a figure of speech, but to someone listening it can make a world of difference to the effort they put in.

Replacing phrases such as that with a “Let’s give this our best shot” or “It needs hard work, but I think we can do this” completely changes the outlook you portray. Agreed, the task at hand may be tough, but it will never help to start off claiming that you can’t achieve it! My team and I have scaled some pretty uphill tasks, most of them successfully, and we never once said (or believed) we couldn’t do them in the first place.

Despite all our efforts, and hard as it sounds, it would be wise to acknowledge that we cannot banish all frowns away forever, much as we would like to. What’s most important is to identify the “why” behind it – have a sit down, try some coaching, and more importantly, let the employee know that you are committed to helping solve the issues they raise.

Our time spent in erasing those frowns can be well worth the effort – not only does a smiling workforce get much more done, but is also a big part of building an organisation culture you can be proud of. 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

Can you turn those frowns upside down?

We’ve all had that kind of day – it

48 » Human Resources » June 2015

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