Human Resources - November 2014

November 2014

The smart HR professional’s blueprint for workforce strategy

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November 2014 « CONTENTS

COVER STORY 12 Q&A In this exclusive interview, Pat Wadors, LinkedIn’s CHRO and vice-president of global talent, discusses increased transparency around diversity and leveraging on the creative nature of Millennials to drive change.

Features 16 Of migration, mobility and expat management Cost-effective mobility and migration becomes a priority when work isn’t limited to one place. Aditi Sharma Kalra talks to HR leaders about their best expatriation practices.

26 Enhancing the educational experience Learning never stops, but it certainly takes a whole new dimension in the workplace. Akankasha Dewan asks what HR leaders can do to ensure staff leverage on both their academic qualifications and corporate experiences.

Opinion

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34 Learning & Development Don’t leave all your career development up to the company says Chew Han Guan, L&D manager at Singapore Technologies Aerospace.

Because who knows what you want better than you?

36 People Issues Enough has been said about HR’s need to become a business partner, but Madan Nagaldinne, head of HR for APAC at Facebook, provides an answer to the “how”.

39 Unconventional Wisdom

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Can you quantify the impact of creativity? Jaleel Abdul, senior director of HR for Asia at Adobe, says companies can foster a creative culture by placing trust in their staff.

40 Upwardly Mobile Naomi Monteiro, VP of HR at Kimberly-Clark for APAC, shares how the company has turned traditional mentoring upside down by enhancing the untapped potential of its younger workers.

Regulars

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3 4 6 7 8

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

9 Snapshot 10 White paper 46 Up the ranks 47 Shelf life

Any suggestions or tip-offs for Human Resources?

Email rebeccal@humanresourcesonline.net

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EDITOR’S NOTE

HumanResources senior journalist journalist contributors

Rebecca Lewis Aditi Sharma Kalra Akankasha Dewan Jaleel Abdul Chew Han Guan Naomi Monteiro Madan Nagaldinne

regional art director senior designer regional marketing executive

regional directors

Shahrom Kamarulzaman Fauzie Rasid June Tan

Karen Boh Yogesh Chandiranani Jaclyn Chua Naomi Cranswick

audience manager

senior event producer regional head of event services

regional finance director group editorial director group managing director

Diversity is not just a numbers game

Yang Kai Lin

Ang Yoke Han Yeo Wei Qi

Evelyn Wong Tony Kelly Justin Randles

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When it comes to diversity, in my opinion, there’s a lot of chatter, but very little action. Diversity is broadly seen as one of those things we should all support – it’s “the right thing to do” – but very rarely do companies, let alone entire industries, strike the right balance.

It’s a gradual process, though. You can’t just hire an Asian woman because you’ve suddenly realised your statistics are heavily skewed towards white males, any more than you can snap your fingers and tell your staff to suddenly be engaged.

Well, you can, but it’s not going to change anything. Why? Because diversity in numbers does not equate to an overall inclusive culture.

Sure, you might have the best intentions in the world by making it your mission to improve your diversity statistics, but your passion needs to go beyond the annual report if you’re really going to see any fruits of your labour.

Diversity is a value, not a number. It’s a part of your company culture, not a word on a report to keep the board happy. It’s more than gender, ethnicity, race or sexual preference – it’s about giving those people, all of them, a place and a voice in your organisation. That is the essential meaning of the word inclusive.

And as more companies come forward to be transparent about their diversity statistics (as we go to print, Amazon has released its figures and, like many tech companies, it’s not great) we’re starting to understand what this inclusiveness really means, and what we can gain from it.

For this reason, it’s great we have Pat Wadors, CHRO at LinkedIn, taking part in an exclusive interview for this month’s Q&A. In June, Wadors wrote a blog that outlined the company was lacking in diversity numbers. With 61% of the global workforce being male and 53% of US staff being white, she admitted “we have some work to do”.

In this interview, she elaborates on the reasons behind her and CEO Jeff Weiner’s decision to open up about diversity stats – and how, if you’re not careful, they can get away from you as you grow.

“We have a highly engaged workforce, but

we’re growing so fast ... that if I don’t change how we hire and how we think about our workforce, we won’t change what we look like as we grow older,” she tells us over pages 12-15.

“What I’m trying to do is make us aware about becoming more diverse and reflect on what our customers look like and what the world looks like. I think it is more natural.”

This, I believe, is exactly what needs to happen. People and companies aren’t perfect, and if you haven’t got your values sorted out yet, it’s OK. Just ensure you tell people that it’s a priority, and then follow through.

“If companies aren’t sharing, they will assume the worst. That’s what transparency does,” she adds. “If you are transparent, then people view you as someone with good intent. If you’re not transparent then they will assume the worst.”

Enjoy the issue.

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

editor

Rebecca Lewis Editor November 2014 « Human Resources «

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News from humanresourcesonline.net

MALA MALAYSIANS MUST NOW PASS ENGLISH TO G GRADUATE

THE BEST COMPANIES PANIES FOR CULTURE AND VALUES

A new gove government policy will require Malaysian university sstudents to pass English before being granted the their degree.

Speak Speaking at the launch of the talent developmen development programme Cyberjaya Graduate Employability Enable 2 (CGEE 2014), deputy Employabili prime minis minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said he had disc discussed the matter with prime minister Da Datuk Seri Najib Razak and would be announcing more details soon.

Muhyid Muhyiddin, who is also Malaysia’s education m minister, said graduates’ basic knowledge of the language was “not enough” if they were nnot able to effectively communicate, the New Str Straits Times reported.

“MNCs today have a certain benchmark, and want ppeople who are not only qualified, but people who can be ambassadors and communica communicate with the rest of the world,” he said. “And oone of the important requirements is the ability to communicate in English.”

Curren Currently, English is taught as a second language in Malaysia, and Muhyiddin believes it’s importa important to build students’ confidence in speaking an and writing in English.

Based on workplace insights shared by employees with employee-ranking website Glassdoor, sdoor, Twitter has come out as the best place to work at for strong culture and values.

With reviews such as “the best place I have ever worked” andd “great people people, like a family, that are passionate about growing Twitter to help everyone”, it was hard to beat.

In second place was PR agency Edelman, followed by Google in third and Riverbed fourth.

Twitter’s rival, Facebook, was down in fifth place, followed by SouthWest in sixth, Chickfil-A seventh, National Instruments eighth, Chevron ninth and HEB in 10th place.

The rankings are based on US-based companies with at least 100 reviews shared online between 22 July 2013 and 21 July this year.

THE BUZZWORDS HR HATES THE MOST The workplace is filled with buzzwords we know and hate, but some terms or phrases are deemed to be more annoying than others. According to a survey

by Accountemps, HR leaders are completely fed up with words such as “dynamic” and “forward-thinking” and are also frustrated by employees who say they are “overwhelmed” and who constantly ask for a pay rise.

The results, based on answers from 600 human resources managers in the US and Canada, indicated the importance of choosing your words wisely in the office to effectively communicate your message and feelings.

HR managers were asked, “What is the most annoying or overused phrase or buzzword in the workplace today?” Their responses included:

NOV WHY ARE SINGAPOREANS STILL UNHAPPY?

It’s been more than two years since Singapore ore made appiest headlines for being ranked the second unhappiest ings haven’t workforce in the world, but unfortunately, things picked up a whole lot. A study by Ipsos APAC C and Toluna found Singapore is the second least happy country in Asia Pacific, with 24% of respondents indicating they were either “not happy” or “not happy at all”.

According to the report, the least happyy country in the region was Japan, where 32% said theyy were feeling pretty glum. ppiness on Most Singaporeans blamed their unhappiness their personal financial situation (62%), health lth (38%) and so the two spouse (35%). Finances and health were also factors which came out on top as key unhappiness ppiness drivers across the region.

Additionally, the study, which included 2,500 participants from Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan pan and India, re less happy aged 18 to 50, found Singaporean men were than women (28% versus 19%). ouse (46%), Singaporean residents shared their spouse health (44%) and relationship with parents (38%) were the three top factors for their happiness.

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3 WORKERS JAILED FOR FALSE WORK INJURYY COMPENSATION COMPENSA CLAIMS Three workers in Singapore havee each been sentenced to between four and six weeks imprisonment for knowingly making fraudulent claims under the Work Injury Compensation Act (WICA). se According to a press release from MOM, between April 2013 and dan Raja July 2013, Khan Momen, Govindan and Billal Hossain Kader Molla, claimedd they had been injured in work-related accidents, and sought compensation from their employers under WICA. WICA is designed to provide workers who are injured in work-related accidents with an alternative to common law to settle compensation claims – and making fraudulent claims is “a serious act of deceit”.

Since January 2014, four workers have been convicted in court for making fraudulent WICA claims and/or furnishing false information. Those found guilty can be fined up to $15,000 and/or jailed for up to 12 months, while those convicted of furnishing false information may be fined up to $5,000 and/or jailed for up to six months.

THE BEST-PAID INDUSTRIES FOR FRESH GRADUATES Singapore’s latest fresh graduates can expect minimal pay rises of between 2% to 3% in starting salaries for degree holders, according to Hay Group’s annual Fresh Graduate Pay Survey.

According to the study, which is based on the salary expectations of 95 organisations in Singapore, the average monthly starting salary for degree holders in the three qualification categories – without honours, with honours (second lower) and with honours (second upper) – is $2,741, $2,853 and $2,939 respectively, for 2014. This is a slight rise in each category from 2013.

Additionally, one fifth of employers placed an average premium of $214 per month for local university graduates, compared with non-local university graduates.

As for diploma holders, they hey can look forward to a 2% increase in average starting tarting salaries this year as well – increasing from $1,840 per month in 2013 to $1,878 this year.

As for the top paying jobss for degree holders, the best three industries ies are engineering ($2,888 average starting wage), legal ($2,856) and information technology ($2,816).

WHAT DO STAFF WANT MOST AT WORK? Hint: It’s not a pay rise or a promotion. In fact, providing your employees with opportunities to learn new skills is very important if you wish to significantly impact retention and attraction levels.

According to the Kelly Global Workforce Index, 51% of employees in Singapore stated acquiring new skills is their highest priority in their current job.

The report highlighted the figure was higher than in other countries across the region, including Hong Kong (42%), Malaysia (43%) and Thailand (37%). In fact, the survey found new skills are so highly valued there is even a willingness to sacrifice higher pay and career growth for them.

More than half (55%) of the 1,500 local workers polled stated they would be prepared to trade-off either or both for the chance to learn something new and meaningful. Employer-provided training (48%), mentoring (39%) and outsourced training (23%) are the most popular resources in Singapore when preparing for career development and advancement opportunities.

More than four in 10 (44%) employees in Singapore also said they have had a career development discussion with their employer in the past year. This was found to be 6% higher than the global average.

OLDTOWN APOLOGISES FOR ‘RACIST’ JOB AD Malaysian kopitiam chain OLDTOWN White Coffee has apologised for a job posting put up by one of its franchisees, in which it said priority would be given to Malay and Chinese applicants.

In September, the public began posting the job ad on OLDTOWN’s official Facebook page, demanding to know why the company was discriminating against Indian candidates.

In response, the company issued a statement which read: “We would like to clarify that the OLDTOWN White Coffee management was not aware of the contents of the said job adv advertisement. On behalf of the franchisee, OLDTOWN White Coffee management would llike to sincerely apologise for the unacceptable and offensive content on the recruitment notice. recruitm “A y “As a homegrown Malaysian brand, we value everyone equally and it has never been ou our intention or the intention of the franchisee chisee to make any individuals feel slighted or offended ded in any w way.”

OL OLDTOWN added the offending job post ha had since been taken down, and “appropriate action has been taken to “approp ensure this will not happen again”.

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WORK LIFE » People GET INTO THE BOSS’S HEAD

Luu Duc Khanh Managing director VietJet

How would you define your leadership style?

My leadership style can be condensed into “trust and encourage”. I always trust my staff and then I encourage them to try their best to fulfil their goals at work. I only entered the aviation industry when I joined VietJet, so I benefited from the trust of our management board, which gave me the responsibility of helping VietJet to “take off” and grow sustainably in Vietnam and across the region.

So, as I was entrusted with this position, I have no reason not to trust my staff in turn.

Vietnamese people love learning new things and they are very ambitious. As long as we offer a good and transparent working environment and fruitful training courses, our team will always be motivated to work harder and move forward.

What do you enjoy most about your work?

The aviation industry offers many amazing and interesting challenges. Just imagine – every new route requires us to thoroughly learn everything

from our customers’ perception to the specific culture or attractions of the new destination. This is a fantastic feeling and a great opportunity to explore, meet and understand new kinds of people and cultures. These insights can then be applied to things such as our in-flight menu in terms of the cuisine or the content of our in-flight magazine.

What’s the toughest decision you’ve had to make as a boss?

When VietJet had to decide whether to maintain plans to start operations in December 2011, three months after AirAsia pulled out of the joint venture.

What did you learn from that experience?

The great attitude and spirit of our team. Every single staff member of VietJet has always shared the same goal of making VietJet stronger. We also received tremendous support from our partners and the authorities. My decision at that time has been vindicated by our business performance over the last three years and market share today.

How do you unwind and re-energise?

The job of a managing director is not easy at all.

However, I have a very close friend who helps me overcome such pressure, and her name is yoga!

I practise yoga from 6am to 7am every day.

Just 20 minutes of yoga a day can actually help sharpen the mind and boost brain power more than conventional aerobic exercise. Yoga is not just about working out – it’s about practising a healthy lifestyle. Yoga allows us to be still in a world consumed with chaos. Peace and tranquility achieve achieved through focused training appeals to everyon everyone.

And ho how do you engage and motivate staff when tthey feel stressed?

Even though th I am extremely busy, I always try my best to make time for discussions with staff. This way, I ccan further understand their troubles as well as their concerns and desires in the workplace.

By enga engaging in conversation, I can help solve their problem problems more effectively.

If tthe problem is a matter of developing their sk skill set, we can always look into training courses courses. If the problem is a family matter, a simple convers conversation can help relieve the burden through the sim simple act of talking and sharing. If they feel some sense s of relief, they can summon their innerstrength and find a solution themselves.

How fa far do you think HR leaders can go in their careers? ca Everyone deserves the right to reach the position Everyon of an MD M if they are determined enough and are equippe equipped with the right knowledge and skills. An HR leader’s lead strength lies in the understanding of people, which is a great advantage to have. Human

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resources are the core strength of any organisation.

In my opinion, if you want to develop your business well, you should focus on the development of human resources first. Investment in products or services can come later.

What’s the hardest part of HR’s job at VietJet? Our HR department plays a crucial role in VietJet. Their job is to understand the concerns and desires of VietJet staff in all departments and develop proper solutions and activities accordingly. They must understand what pressure a pilot endures, and be aware of when the IT team needs to enjoy a vacation after working overtime to improve our booking system, for example.

Separately, HR is also in charge of seeking and recruiting new talent as well as improving workplace policies and inspiring employees to enjoy their job. With a limited number of staff, HR has to implement a variety of activities and support programmes to optimise our workforce. One of the most vital tasks is recruiting the right personnel for the right departments. When the most appropriate people are found, both the organisation and the staff will enjoy mutual benefits.

How do you view HR as a necessary business function?

The existence and development of each enterprise greatly depends on the best usage of capital, facilities, advanced technology and personnel.

Each of these resources are closely interrelated.

Resources such as facilities, devices, machines or technology can all be bought or produced – but we cannot “create” people in the same manner.

I believe your people are the most important resource of any organisation.

What’s the best thing about HR at VietJet? The HR department (we actually call it the “people department”) is well structured and well organised when it comes to the recruitment, training and development of talent. We launched a training centre in 2012, which serves both internal and external needs of aviation-related training. All the available courses are in line with the certified standards of the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam.

The people department also ensures we employ the right balance of staff in terms of skills and experience, and that training and development opportunities are available to enhance performance and achieve business goals and objectives.

Periodical programmes to commend personnel and give awards to the best employees are also taken into account. We are very proud that VietJet’s training centre earned a certificate of merit from the Ministry of Transport of Vietnam in August 2014. VietJet was also awarded “Top 50 companies to most attract candidates” by VietnamWorks.

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People WORK LIFE

SpacialAwareness INSIDE MUNDIPHARMA’S INNOVATIVE OFFICE As a pharmaceutical company, Mundipharma wanted to create an office space which reflected its innovative culture.

And with the Singapore office being the company’s regional headquarters, Mundipharma also needed a physical space which supported the horizontal working structure, which they believe empowers staff to focus specifically on their roles and help improve the quality of lives of patients.

“We created an open concept with a multitude of creative spaces for interaction – from meeting corners to café tables to a beanbag area for creative brainstorms,” Raman Singh, Mundipharma’s president for Asia Pacific, Latin America, Middle East and Africa, says.

“We are proud to say that, in recognition of our efforts to create a positive workplace, we were recently awarded the bronze in the Interior Space and Exhibition Design Category at the premier A’ Design Awards 2013/2014.”

Winners of this award are selected according to the degree of innovation in their space usage, functionality and the design’s ability to evoke behavioural and emotional qualities such as human interaction and feelings of motivation.

Mundipharma’s office in Asia Square boasts a less-formal bean bag creative area where teams can go over ideas while looking out at the Singapore skyline, and a slightly more formal modern “café”, equipped with high tables and an espresso machine for hosting guests and discussions with clients.

“Overall, we feel that having this diversity in the office and an engaging workplace are key factors in attracting and keeping top-quality talent for the long-term,” Singh says.

He believes an office space plays an important role in improving productivity, adding it also bolsters employee motivations and work attitudes.

“Staff are also more comfortable when their environment is well-lit, spacious and well-equipped and hence, more productive.”

For other companies which might be looking at re-doing their office, Singh advises them to “always take your company values as the starting point”.

“The office should always reinforce the purpose, history and culture of the company,” he says.

“Our company logo was the key visual for our office design, resulting in the use of unique geometrical shapes and modern undertones. This reflects our values and reinforces our image as the new face of pharma by being fresh and innovative and differentiates us.”

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WORK LIFE » HR by numbers

The riskiest places to do work Confidential business information is “most at risk” when employees work from places outside the office, such as cafés, hotel lobbies and airports.

According to a Regus survey, not enough bosses think ahead to how much private information may be overheard in public areas.

“Privacy remains a huge concern for workers travelling on their daily commute, but also for those taking a pit-stop at a café or catching up on email in the hotel lounge,” said John Henderson, CFO at Regus APAC. Think about it – how many conversations do you overhear when you’re grabbing a coffee?

59% of people globally think cafés are the riskiest places to do business.

46%

of people in Hong Kong would be wary of working in airports.

80%

of Japanese people worry about privacy during their daily commute.

74%

of Singaporeans think hotel lobbies and bars are the riskiest places to work.

Source: Regus

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People WORK LIFE

snapshot

15 minutes with ...

Narasimhan SL

Head of talent acquisition for APAC and head of HR for SEA State Street WHY DID YOU GET INTO HR? Growing up, I saw my family and my dad’s friends who were HR managers work through very demanding situations to help organisations stay afloat in times of strikes. They’d talk to us about how businesses are all about people and how they had a role in making that tick. The nature of the work has certainly changed a lot since their days, but the thing that stays with me is how the function can really enable an organisation.

ONE-STOP HEALTH SCREENING In The Heart of Orchard Road

HOW WILL THE HR FUNCTION EVOLVE IN THE NEXT FIVE YEARS? Change is a huge theme within HR. The move to create efficiency and re-look at processes will phase out and the drive for the function to be truly strategic and consultative will only get stronger.

HOW CAN HR BETTER CONTRIBUTE ORGANISATIONAL SUCCESS? It’s incredibly important for the HR folks to know the business - not talk at 50,000 feet, but get as low as 5,000 feet. The only way you can add value is by knowing the business intrinsically. The functional knowledge is the other side of the coin, for which there is no substitute.

OTHER THAN YOUR CURRENT ROLE, WHAT'S BEEN YOUR FAVOURITE JOB IN HR? It's hard to single out one I like the most, but I’d say it was my role as a COO for HR in Europe, based out of London. It wasn’t a traditional HR role and given it was my first international posting, it was challenging.

The role covered four aspects, with a focus on HR management in M&A, HR process reviews and controls, HR transformation and HR financials, supporting 15 countries in the EMEA region. The challenge of having to work across geographies and cultures, including the due diligence and integration side of M&As, is what made the role enjoyable. Also, I still have a sweet spot for compensation.

WHAT IS THE BEST CAREER ADVICE YOU HAVE RECEIVED? It was about the need to look at a career as a lattice (zig zagging) as opposed to a ladder, and the need to run a regional centre of expertise. We often get carried away with titles and compensation and underestimate the importance of “breadth” of experience.

I believe stepping out of the box to try different things is a priceless experience. I took a role to run recruiting a few years ago and I would be lying if I said I loved it on day one. But looking back, I had overlooked the challenges and learning opportunities that running a regional centre of expertise provides.

WHAT DO YOU ENJOY MOST ABOUT YOUR WORK? Being able to make a direct impact to individuals, as well as towards the company’s broader strategic goals. On an individual level, it’s the process of helping to nurture a person’s career. Company wise, it’s having a hand in crafting the strategy that builds assets.

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November 2014 « Human Resources «

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WHITE PAPER » Leadership

HR OUT OF TOUCH WITH WHAT EMPLOYEES WANT Global – HR and senior leadership are significantly unaware of employees’ general attitudes and perceptions.

That was the key finding of ADP’s white paper: Human Capital Management’s Disconnect: A Global Snapshot.

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

It found workers across the globe consistently had a far more negative perception of how well companies were managing them than their HR leaders and C-suite senior executives.

“After twenty years of technological innovation, corporations and their human resources departments still seem to be significantly disconnected from their organisation’s single largest investment – their workforce,” the report stated. “The divide among workers, HR and senior leadership is profound.”

This was especially highlighted when it came to areas such as compensation, work-life balance, career opportunities and the effectiveness of senior leadership.

For example, HR leaders and senior leadership were significantly more satisfied than their employees with the process of employees getting answers to HR and benefits questions.

How well companies manage employees – employee to HR comparison Countries

Employees (very well)

HR (very well)

United States

49%

71%

Canada

47%

77%

Latin America

54%

78%

Europe

38%

74%

Asia Pacific

41%

73%

Source: Human Capital Management’s Disconnect: A Global Snapshot, ADP

In Asia Pacific, 70% of HR professionals said getting HR and benefits queries answered was easy or very easy.

Only a little more than four out of 10 (44%) employees stated the same.

“The significant gap in perception between employees and HR begs the question of how companies can effectively fine-tune workplace strategies when the perception of the vitality of the HR function is so different between employees and HR professionals,” the survey stated.

Another key area to note where disconnect occurred the greatest was between employers’ and employees’ perceptions of their organisations’ talent management processes.

While 56% of employees in Asia Pacific stated they received adequate training to do their jobs well, 72% of HR professionals stated the same.

With the exception of the United States, employees also generally rated the quality of work-life balance in their organisations lower than their HR colleagues did. Senior leadership was also rated almost 20 points lower by staff than HR. In addition, in Asia Pacific, specifically, 41% of employees stated their companies managed their staff extremely or very well, as compared with 73% of HR staff who stated the same.

“What this study shows is, despite efforts to improve communications and facilitate better relationships between HR, senior leadership and employees, a big gap remains,” said Ahu Yildirmaz, vice-president and head of the ADP Research Institute. “Companies are operating without a fully engaged workforce, an issue that has to be addressed if they are going to effectively manage their human capital.”

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Leadership « WHITE PAPER

GEN Y LACKS TRADITIONAL LEADERSHIPP SKILLS SKILLLS Global – They may be ambitious and get along well with other people, but Generation Y employees definitely have work to do when it comes to traditional leadership skills.

According to a new report from Hudson, Gen Y scored significantly lower than other generations on traits such as decisiveness, persuasion and strategic thinking. Gen Y, born between 1980 and 1994, was found to be much less “strategic” than the Boomers, which, according to the report, was an indication of today’s increasingly volatile and uncertain business environment.

It stated such an environment made it harder to develop long-term business strategies, and that leaders needed to be nimble to deal with frequent changes to the competitive landscape.

“Generation Y is no longer the baby, Generation X no longer the middle child and Boomers no

longer the parent,” said Simon Moylan, Hudson’s executive general manager of talent management for Asia Pacific.

“Everyone is moving up a step. The leadership implications will need to be reckoned with.”

Gen Y was, however, found to be the masters of abstract and conceptual thinking. This quality helps them connect the dots and come up with insights a technical team can act upon.

Gen Y was also cited as being highly ambitious, optimistic, socially confident and strong on people skills – traits that differentiated them strongly from today’s Boomers. Gen X also appeared socially progressive and an ambitious driver of change according to the report. They were also found to be stronger on traditional leadership traits than Gen Y, and were more people-oriented and socially confident than the baby boomers.

Baby boomers

Generation X

Generation Y

28% more decisive than Gen Y

13% more ambitious than Boomers

27% more people oriented than Boomers

34% better leaders than Gen Y

12% more strategic than Gen Y

32% more ambitious than Boomers

Gen X has also emerged as a diplomat in the report – speaking the languages of both baby boomers and Generation Y – by educating upwards and innovating downwards.

Conversely, Hudson’s research found baby boomers – especially males – had plenty of traditional leadership strengths, being “decisive”, “motivating”, “persuasive” and “strategic”. Baby boomers were also highlighted as being openminded and innovative.

The report added that to thrive in the future, baby boomers, for example, would need to embrace change, avoid judgments and adjust their expectations. Generation Y members, often misunderstood by others, should seek workplaces where they can experience motivation and persuasion in action, the report advised.

Source: Hudson

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PROFILE PROFIL LE » PPat at Wadors Wadors

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Pat Wadors « PROFILE

Pat Wadors

CHRO and vice-president of global talent LinkedIn The diversity dilemma

By AKANKASHA DEWAN

Q You have always championed creating a workplace employees want to work in. How do you do that and deal with different cultures and attitudes?

I think people are essentially the same.

Cultures show up in different ways and manifest themselves differently, but there are some common themes and people love choices. So my goal has always been to say, here’s a global theme that works for company XYZ, Yahoo, Plantronics, and then within your region you make it your own.

If you can localise it (the global theme), you feel really proud of the country you are in, and the city you are in, and it feels very familiar. If it’s a blend of those cultures, you don’t feel like one is dominating the other.

LinkedIn’s culture is the collective personality of every individual who works here. The five cultural tenets we embody are transformation, integrity, collaboration, humour and results. But since our culture isn’t just who we are – it’s who we aspire to be – it should come as no surprise the most important aspect of our culture is transformation. We strive to transform ourselves and our career trajectories; to transform the company in realising the full potential of our mission; and to transform the world by manifesting our vision to create economic opportunity for every professional.

Q How do you ensure the blend of cultures doesn’t interfere with the goals of the organisation?

I usually get a targeted group of people to sit together who will be impacted by the change. I solicit their input, and ask them what’s working and what’s not. I also

look at our ability to hire, our retention rate, our engagement levels and our measure of productivity. And based upon the feedback I gain, I decide if we need better co-operation or better communication. Then I create something like a menu and give them a choice of how they want to work.

What ends up happening is that even engineers who love four walls and a solitary existence begin to lower their walls and have better creative and collaborative conversations. They start having longer conversations. And 68% of LinkedIn are Millennials. They are used to student centres, used to classrooms and study centres. So if you create an environment that allows them to operate like that and collaborate with each other, they end up feeling very comfortable and get very productive.

activities, but ultimately each employee has the freedom to use the time in any way that will help achieve a personal or professional goal.

Q LinkedIn has also introduced some

Q How do you measure that success?

How I measure my success is by looking at the engagement levels. We survey every six months, and some of the things I ask are, “Do you like where you work?”, “Are you effective?”, “Do you have the tools you need to be able to be effective?” and “What would you like being done differently?”. We gather all that data to make sure we’re on the right trajectory.

We challenge our employees to imagine their dream job, and then work towards achieving it by pursuing their passions through various programmes, both formal and informal. InDay is one such programme, where one day a month we give time back to our employees to pursue the ideas that most inspire them.

Each inDay has a theme and organised

VITAL STATS Pat Wadors is the chief human resources officer and vice-president of global talent at LinkedIn. She joined the company in February 2013.

She has also led HR divisions in companies such as Plantronics and Yahoo in various capabilities.

employee engagement programmes such as Bring In Your Parents Day. How successful has this been?

Oh my gosh, that has been such a huge hit. It started in Dublin and it has been taken over globally. Our second global Bring In Your Parents Day is coming up in November. It has created such a great vibe.

If you’re part of the Millennial generation, then your parents do want to know where you work. They are very involved in your career and in your life and in what you do for a living. This is a way to bridge that and close in the generations.

The employees love it and the parents are so proud. For LinkedIn, it gives them a sense of building their own networks, getting connected and the value of being connected. The parents actually gain a lot of experience, too.

Q What’s the biggest learning you’ve gained from launching the programme?

Making your parents aware of what you do for a living and showing a sense of pride and connection. This is because it’s generally hard to explain what you do. The technology has changed so much and how you do what you do has changed also. This has been a way to communicate with your parents in a way where you feel proud.

If you rank what the employees love about LinkedIn, Bring In Your Parents Day has been one of the top five. They love it, and so we will continue to do it.

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PROFILE » Pat Wadors Q How could other leaders do something similar with more limited resources?

Be pragmatic, of course, and reflect your culture. Always know what differentiates yourself and celebrate that, and know your demographic. For us, it’s the Millennials and so we focus on their parents. If it was the older generation I might have chosen something else, who knows?

Seek input from your employees. If they love the idea organically, they will sponsor it and they will volunteer. It’s possible for you to do this very cheaply.

You can bring them in and do a pop-lock.

You can show them off in your labs and to your office space and where you work and meet your boss. It doesn’t have to be a high-priced item. Most of our offices have events involving volunteers around the globe, and they do this above and beyond their jobs, and they love it.

Q What’s the best and most challenging part of working with Millennials?

The best part is their creativity and energy.

They are just amazing in their thoughts.

I love them. I love bringing them into my meetings, asking their points of view. They collaborate naturally and they don’t think in silos. I want to foster that throughout the company. I simply love that mentality.

The challenging part is teaching them some of the corporate programmes and policies that are inherent to the organisation, and understanding in our world, what is the stock option, and giving them the structure and giving them more context in terms of certain policies.

Because they may not have ever worked for a corporation in their life. They’re coming from a university centre to us, or they’ve had very little experience. So it’s a lot more education.

Q Are they receptive to such learning?

I think they are eager to learn. Some might be presumptive and think they know. But when they get exposed to something they don’t know they get very humble and say, “Wow, I didn’t know HR could be so cool!”

For example, I had an engineer student come in as an intern this summer for HR, and he was helping in analytics and recruiting. He never saw analytics as a powerful tool in our function, and it was his professor who had encouraged him to try HR, and he walked away and said, “I actually might change my profession, my

degree. I think what you do is so cool”. So I think they think they know a lot, but are willing to learn.

Q You’ve led HR at Plantronics and Yahoo. How is HR different there compared with LinkedIn? I think LinkedIn is more creative, and has a higher focus on culture. Recognising that culture is what sets LinkedIn apart. More than anything else it is our differentiator to achieve our vision. And it’s the corpus from which my CEO, my peers and myself make business decisions from.

For example, we say we are open, honest or constructive, or we act like an owner. So if we think about how we spend the company money, or shareholder money, or we think about our business status updates to our employees, we model behaviours. We think in line with that culture to reinforce it all the time. I’ve never seen such consistency in any other company. Or in any other field, for that matter. We stay laser-focused on our vision of creating economic opportunity for every professional in the world.

Q How did your background in business and administration help you?

I was mentored by my uncle in HR since I was in college, and he taught me the value of knowing the business. He also said that for most companies, 80% of their cost is in labour. So understanding how to pay labour, hire labour and reward and recognise them, retain them and measure their success, is the key to your success.

I focused on business and then I focused on compensation for a few years.

I also did a few years of recruiting to understand those underpinnings, to make sure that if we were going to do what we were going to do, we would do it right.

I also left HR a couple of times to work in the business. I’ve done sales roles and operations because I think HR may lose its language and not be heard by the business. I framed things in a way the business would hear me, and I used a business case and data to back up my theory. That served me well.

Q Having broad knowledge of the business is integral if HR wishes to become a strategic partner.

Yes. Jeff [Weiner, LinkedIn’s CEO] and I were being interviewed a few months back and we were chatting about what he was looking out for when he was hiring me

as head of HR. And he categorised it into 4 As – agility, adaptability, analytical and authenticity. Understanding the analytical side of the business, understanding the P&L and understanding the metrics which drive the business is a huge component of how I drive change at LinkedIn. Since then I’ve also debated about the fifth A, which would be “approachable”. As an HR leader, if you don’t look like you are approachable to employees and leaders, then you won’t hear enough about the business to address the business needs.

So I’ve got five As to Jeff’s four.

Q How would you define what HR stands for and where you think it’s heading?

I think we provide different tiers of support. We will always have responsibility for handling the administration for the employee base - you know, from hire to retire, and those transactions.

We will be responsible for the company’s policies and for making sure they reflect the local law and support the culture. I think as you move up the food chain, the responsibility is to align ourselves with that culture which sets you apart as a company in order to create your employee-employer value proposition.

Another thing HR leaders are doing more of is being responsible, not only for their own companies, but also for the communities in which they work.

So when you talk about diversity, unemployment, or non-profits, there are a lot of my peers that are running (charity) foundations for their companies.

They are having a large say in ensuring the company gives back to the country and the city in which it operates in.

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Pat Wadors « PROFILE

“If you are transparent, then people view you as someone with good intent. If you’re not transparent, they’ll assume the worst.”

Q LinkedIn believes technology has a big role to play in HR. Do you think this reliance will only increase over time?

Yes, it’s clearly one of my biggest tools. I use it to help me with change, and I use it to help me to support change. While looking at analytics and data you get to the centre of truth, you have to pull in your human capital tool and look at performance management and third-party tools out there that rate companies. You also have to look at recruiting tools, and combine all that into a tool which houses all this data. Systems which act as data warehouses and which report insights are really, really important.

We have to stop fishing for problems or solutions, and instead come up with the data to help us solve identified problems. I think HR is being more deliberate with data.

Q Do you think HR leaders today are able to leverage on this data well?

I love teamwork, so I don’t think I have to be a technical guru or in analytics to use this data. I need to know where to find them.

In HR, you know the best data scientist in your company, you know the best analyst of the finance division of your organisation.

You partner with them on the data. Once I’ve articulated a problem, I’ve never had an issue with finding people willing to help me.

If I don’t have the skills, there are people in the company who are willing to help me.

Q You recently revealed your diversity figures, which you admitted have some room for improvement. What’s the reason behind the poor numbers?

I think some companies have always shown their numbers, and no one makes a big deal out of it. Google shared their numbers – they had some pressure. I personally

believe transparency is a gift. You should show what you have in front of you as data. If it’s wrong, someone smart will tell you that you are wrong and you will have an opportunity to fix it. If you are right, then you can start changing perspective.

For me, I just told Jeff, “we’re going to share ours, and it doesn’t look good”.

We have room for improvement, but if we share it now, then the ways of our people, our hiring managers and our employees who know how we go about creating a diverse work environment will change, by the very fact that I’m sharing these figures.

And it has started to happen. We have a highly engaged workforce, but we’re growing so fast from 3,000 to 6,000 employees, that if I don’t change how we hire and how we think about our workforce, we won’t change what we look like as we grow. What I’m trying to do is make us more aware about becoming more diverse and reflect on what our customers look like and what the world looks like. I think it is more natural.

From those figures there has been a lot of great dialogue. Employees are excited, and it is changing the game in several good ways. I’m glad we’ve done it.

My peers in the Valley (Silicon) did it as well because once you get a momentum going then you get employees that are out there in the work space going, “I want to work for a company which is open and honest” and “I want to work for a culture that matters”. And if companies aren’t sharing, they will assume the worst.

If you are transparent, then people view you as someone with good intent. If you’re not transparent, they’ll assume the worst.

Q Why has a pattern of poor diversity emerged in these tech giants?

For LinkedIn, and I think it was the same for Yahoo, you’re a high-growth company. Imagine you’re a 3,000 employee-based company, and 40% to 50% of your hires are through referrals, because you do all your own recruiting from your own network. You recruit the people you know, and if you tend to hang out with people that like you, then you tend to hire that model.

It doesn’t look funny when you have only 3,000 employees, and you don’t see a gap. But at 6,000 employees you start seeing a concern. If you don’t change your patterns at 20,000 employees or 30,000 employees, then you’re in a bad state and not diverse.

I wanted to raise it while we were growing, because when you are growing you have an opportunity for change.

When you hire, you have a choice. When you’re a stagnant company, when you’re not hiring a lot and just managing turnover, the need to hire is made more difficult to make the change more meaningful. We have an opportunity for change in front of us as we are growing, and we want that growth to be as bright as possible for our diverse workforce.

Q What challenges do you face as a senior female leader?

I don’t think the problems ever change.

Boards tend to want to look at women that are from the financial or operational divisions, so if you’re a female CEO or COO, they’ll grab you for a board seat.

When you look at women who want to become board members from other disciplines such as HR and marketing, they have to be more deliberate in their voice to say they want that role. Women tend to be more conservative – they don’t want to oversell – and so that could be seen as less confident. If women want to lead companies from a board seat, we have to show our confidence and what we bring to the table.

There’s a study out there which Jeff was sharing with our executive team which showed a correlation between the number of women you have on your executive team and how profitable your company will be. The greater the number of women, the more profitable the company can get. He said it’s because women add such great diversity and depth into the conversation.

For most products and services, and in a lot of those industries, women are the predominant buyers and users of those services. So having their voice in that ecosystem just makes more business sense.

Q What can HR leaders do to make women leaders feel more confident?

First, you get the board to agree they want more diversity on their board. Lots of boards may not have the policies such as terms of service so they stay together for a very long time and may not have the opportunity for rotation.

So encouraging CEOs and HR to put in those rules at the board, and tenures and length of terms, will help with some transition opportunities that will help with diversity.

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FEATURE » Expat Management

Cost-effective mobility and migration policies have become a priority in a world where work isn’t limited to one place. While some firms already have solid practices in place, others are starting from scratch and lack strategic business input. Aditi Sharma Kalra talks to HR leaders about their best expatriation practices.

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Expat Management « FEATURE n recent years, more people than ever have started living and working outside their home country – almost 3% of the world’s population.

The United Nations estimates migrants will total about 300 million people in the next 15 years, and is now debating whether migration should be included as one of its Millennium development goals to improve the quality of the migration process.

Similarly, a global mobility practices study conducted by Cartus in 2014 found half of mobility managers expected to see volume increase for the upcoming two-year period.

At the ground level, all you need to do is take a look around you. Chances are you meet an expatriate daily, be it at work, the nearest coffee shop or on the commute home. Join the pieces, and we find that efficient and costeffective mobility and migration policies for employees have become a priority for HR. While some companies already have solid mobility practices in place, others are starting from scratch and are lacking strategic business input – instead, simply focusing on the practicalities of keeping staff mobile.

In companies such as Jabil, CEVA Logistics, and NXP Semiconductors, expatriation has a straightforward link to the business strategy.

“The mobility policy is designed first and foremost to support business needs,” says Thomas Farmer, director of Asia rewards at NXP Semiconductors.

He takes a recent example where the company required certain expertise in the Philippines, and it found the best person for the job was in Europe.

“So we brought him, and his wife and children over for a three-month assignment.” He admits while three months is a short time to be bringing over the entire family, the employee’s family did have special needs.

They structured an “accompanied” shortterm assignment with no home leave, since they all came over. “We are very accommodating when it is the initiative of the business to move someone to meet a business need.”

John Lackey, director of global mobility at Jabil, agrees the mobility team’s fit within the broad framework depends on the company’s strategy and culture and what works best within those parameters.

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FEATURE » Expat Management

On the move: There’s no right or wrong answer to your mobility strategy.

“There is no right or wrong answer – the question becomes one of what the company’s vision for employee mobility is, and the purpose they view it as serving,” Lackey says.

“There are some companies that view it purely as an administrative function; moving employees from point A to B. There are others that view it more as an integral part of their overall reward and talent strategy.”

Piecing together the policy An awareness of the business need for employee mobility is just the first step of devising a policy around it. Equally important is the need to identify the types of assignments, based on the talent requirements.

Paula Caligiuri, author of Cultural Agility: Building a Pipeline of Successful Global Professionals, put these into four categories.

First, technical assignments are best suited for individual contributors, such as engineers or IT professionals, given a specific requirement to complete a job and return home. Then functional assignments require some level of intercultural competence, directed at mid-level functional managers, such as in sales or marketing.

The third category is developmental assignments, where mid-level or junior managers are tasked with acquiring a stated set of competencies; and the fourth is strategic assignments, targeted at senior management and aimed at filling critical, international positions where intercultural competence is required.

However, across all, the basics stay the same.

“Pre-departure, relocation and destination services are an integral part of any expatriate programme,” Greg Grimes, executive VP of

human resources for Asia Pacific at CEVA Logistics, says. “These are the key areas in which we support our employees to ensure they successfully and seamlessly move from one location to the other, and both employee and the company fully benefit from the move.”

NXP Semiconductors takes a parallel view, but a different approach. Having spun off from Philips Electronics, it has historically been a decentralised company, says Farmer.

It now seeks to maintain appropriate local empowerment within an evolving global framework with a “core-flex approach”.

However, the foundation remains similar in terms of the big-ticket items that feature on the mobility policy. The first is the purpose and duration of the assignment to ensure they select the right contract and employee.

Next is a study of the cost exposure to the employee, taking care to avoid any significant hardship. Finally, housing and schooling feature high on the basic priorities, given they are the two most “family sensitive” benefits.

Numerous studies point to a growing demand for families to be accommodated as part of the relocation for the employee. Brookfield’s 2014 Global Mobility Trends Survey found that most international assignees are male (80%), married and between the ages of 30-40. And 78% had spouses or partners accompany them.

Factoring in family In 1991, research by professors Stewart Black and Hal Gregersen showed the most common reason for the premature return of an expat was the spouse’s inability to adjust. This is one of those statistics which has not changed much over time.

In fact, a 2014 Cartus study also found 76% of respondents rated family or personal circumstances as the number one reason why employees turn down assignments. No surprises then that companies are striving to involve the family or partner of the would-be expatriate early as the decision-making process.

Lackey, in a past assignment, used to provide pre-assignment counselling sessions, where he walked the employee through the requirements, the employment letter, and the benefits on offer – in the presence of the employee’s spouse.

“Ideally, companies will put the individual and their family through cross-cultural and language training. They may also offer a looksee trip just for the assignee to get a feel for the assignment. Spousal support systems are good,

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FEATURE » Expat Management especially if the spouse is giving up a career.”

The worst-case scenario would be companies which spend neither time nor money on this, and simply dispatch the employee.

In addition to this, Grimes opines it is just as important to prepare the assignee specifically for the requirements of the assignment. There has to be clarity in terms of the results expected – both personally and professionally.

“Business managers articulate the specific benefits that they expect each assignment to deliver to the company as well as the specific learning and development objectives the assignee will pursue during the assignment.”

This reflects in the numbers as well. A study conducted by BCG and The Network in 2014, found a majority of staff would consider a foreign work assignment either to broaden their personal experience or to acquire work experience. Better career opportunities and salary prospects stood at 59% and 56% respectively.

“There is no right or wrong answer – the question becomes one of what the company’s vision for employee mobility is, and the purpose they view it as serving.”

- John Lackey, director of global mobility at Jabil

Clearly, companies will do well to communicate how an assignment will help assignees better fulfil their KPIs and also their personal career goals and aspirations.

A measure of mobility So, what’s in it for the company? How can it track ROI on expatriation? Well, as it turns out, many companies don’t.

A 2013 Ernst & Young study found 78% of global mobility teams admitted they do not measure the ROI of sending an employee on a foreign assignment, while a further 18% were unsure if this was even considered.

Another Cartus survey found 61% of organisations did not track the percentage of assignees that leave the organisation within two years of concluding their assignment.

Present literature certainly does not cite many ways of tracking ROI; although a favourite method of tracking failure rates is the premature

return of an employee from the assignment.

Even so, the companies spoken to for this article prefer to take an indirect approach to tracking ROI – either by monitoring performance against targets post-assignment, or through HR metrics predicting the impact of the assignment.

Both paths, interestingly, are focused on the longer term rather than ROI solely from the duration of the assignment.

The team at CEVA takes the former view, using two primary indicators to gauge success.

The first is quite straightforward - looking at how well the employee performs in the new role. The second is a measure of how well the employee does when they return to their home country.

Jabil assesses key talent and performance metrics to link them back to the expatriation.

“What is the candidate’s promotability rate within two to three years of having returned from the assignment? Are we seeing more retention as a result?” These are some of the questions the team strives to answer, Lackey says.

What’s next?

The Cartus survey ranks the top three priorities for improvement within mobility as assignment planning, cost containment, and candidate assessment and selection. It also found 31% of respondents said there was a close relationship between the global mobility function and other HR and talent functions.

“Mobility experts need to know compensation and even some talent management, because relocation and related destination services are easily outsourced to high-quality service providers,” Farmer says.

“The talent management and compensation aspects are driving the localisation trends we have seen in recent years, and governments – like Singapore – are doing more to ensure local talent is the first choice, foreign talent second.”

In research conducted by Farmer, 83% of mobility managers listed this increased alignment as a key task. Lackey and Grimes echo these thoughts and also suggest elements of flexibility as well as regionalisation.

Organisations cannot claim to take mobility seriously without having linked it to the broader business picture. Mobility needs to be a strategic imperative, rather than being left solely in the hands of the administration and payroll teams.

They are, as Lackey says, “the usual suspects”, but for expatriation to really add value, it needs to move up the ladder for wider buy-in.

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FEATURE » Expat Management

CASE STUDY: CEVA LOGISTICS A stringent and rigorous process of selection ensures both employee aspirations and business needs are matched during expatriation, Greg Grimes, executive VP of human resources for Asia Pacific at CEVA Logistics, tells Aditi Sharma Kalra.

At CEVA Logistics, a company which operates in more than 160 countries, its mobility policy plays an important part in the overall HR strategy of employee and career development, as well as the business strategy of managing talent across the globe.

“We encourage employees to leverage career opportunities in other parts of the world where they can make a valuable contribution and grow in their career,” says Greg Grimes, the company’s executive vice-president of human resources for Asia Pacific.

Employees, who are evaluated as top talent, can be assured CEVA will invest in their career development in many ways. This includes an overseas assignment to broaden their skills and experience, in cases where it’s deemed to be valuable as part of the person’s individual development plan.

Grimes points out the employee aspirations and business needs both need to match. The biggest stakeholders to this decision will be the business managers in the host and home location as well as the employee.

CEVA has a global mobility policy in place to ensure consistency in the approach taken worldwide for expatriate management. Not only is this cost-effective, he says, but it also assures fairness in the treatment of assignees.

However, the responsibility of selection and evaluation of talent, succession planning and talent development lies with the regional leadership teams, who work with their peers across regions to implement these moves.

idea they will become future senior executives with the company.

“This is an integral part of our career development and talent management initiative to retain our talent pool and provide career enhancement for our employees.”

Crystal gazing An expatriation challenge that Grimes points out is to balance the need to allow room for the development of the employee, while requiring a high level of results which create return on investment.

Not only ROI, but also the ability of the country to effectively manage the financial aspects of the expatriate assignment and the smooth assimilation and integration of the employee with the new country team, he says.

Grimes and his team continuously look at ways to enhance CEVA’s mobility programme. He shares the example of how they can provide the selected employee with a more flexible or menu-driven choice of benefits within a financial framework.

“Our mobility policy is integral to our talent management programme. Managing the policy in an effective manner to yield the best results ensures that we can continue driving a strong and attractive talent management programme.”

Prepping up Employees often view international assignments as a way to develop their skills and deepen their experience.

To ensure this translates to output, the mobility policy at CEVA is designed to support and facilitate international assignments, of varying durations, for existing and new employees.

“That includes providing employees formal assimilation and acculturation training prior to their assignment.”

Before the assignment is finalised, the team ascertains whether or not the proposed assignment will fulfil expectations for the company, the host country and the employee as well as the employee’s family.

The preparation is similar across all levels and job functions as “certain results are expected from every assignment”, he notes.

He describes the selection process as “stringent” and “rigorous”, given the incumbents are chosen with the

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FEATURE » Expat Management

CASE STUDY: JABIL Putting a global mobility policy together is hard work, but the key is communicating your goals and gaining buy-in from across the organisation for it to be successful. John Lackey, director of global mobility at Jabil, shares his views with Aditi Sharma Kalra.

Respect, recognition and rewards are the three buzzwords this manufacturing services company lives by – and one of the ways it rewards its employees is through a strong employee mobility programme.

Having spent 15 years in the mobility function, John Lackey has been part of the human capital management shared services, and at Jabil, mobility falls under the domain of rewards.

“At Jabil, we want to have globally consistent policies in place. Part of that lies in wanting to communicate these policies effectively to the business, so they know that the policies are not there to slow them down or to be less flexible, but from a compliance and governance standpoint.”

Lackey feels consistency will allow Jabil to become more nimble, “managing from a common foundation as opposed to managing by exception”. Another priority in the coming year is to focus on integrating talent development and career development within the mobility platform.

“We have diverse groups of expatriates, and we want to have the right opportunities and career paths for them once they complete their assignment,” he says.

He cites the efforts of his past employer, Cisco, in starting to recognise this link between talent and mobility.

Before he left, the company put in place a framework where would-be expatriates had sponsors in the host location, clearly outlined objectives from a personal and professional development standpoint, and a succession plan.

“I think it is fairly early for a lot of companies, but such initiatives are a step in the right direction.”

Setting up shop When it comes to drafting a policy, the first thing is to identify the company’s needs by assignment type. Next comes an understanding of the company’s culture, strategy and needs, and to frame that against best practices. Here, Lackey takes an unconventional approach.

“I believe benchmarking and best practices are very important, but they do not mean much if not fitted in context of the culture of your company.”

He cites the example of a financial services firm he worked at previously. “They liked to be the leader at everything. One of their practices was certainly not industry best practice, but it worked for them. Best practice does not always mean it is best for your particular company.”

The next step is communication. Not clearly listing the reasons for new policies or changes can create ill will within the business and the assignee population. “If you take the time to fully explain the change, even though they may not fully agree, they will accept it."

Getting “the usual suspects” – payroll, finance, tax - on board is also key. “Anyone else you work with internally if it's going to impact their work, needs to be on board.”

He also advises soliciting employee feedback and designing policies or benefits that take that into consideration. “Employees may have aspirational goals, but there is a fine line in terms of managing their aspirations versus market reality.”

A local flavour While Lackey is a firm believer in a globally consistent policy, he says it is also important to note the nuances in different regions. These are not major, but the smaller things companies need to keep in mind when localising.

For example, the issue of a car allowance. Most companies based in the US do not compensate their expatriates for hiring a car or a driver. But in China and India, where there are safety issues around expats driving, it would be prudent to make an exception to companies’ nodriver and no-car rules, and include those as allowances.

Another example, he says, is housing, where many companies have a policy not to sign corporate leases, instead preferring to give cash to the expatriate. But there are certain locations, such as China, where allowances can be delivered in a more tax-efficient manner for both the employer and employee.

“Mobility teams will not realise this if they have not lived in these countries.”

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FEATURE » Further Education

ENHANCING THE EDUCATIONAL EXPERIENCE Learning never stops, but it certainly takes a whole new dimension in the workplace. What can HR leaders do in their capacity to ensure employees leverage equally on both their academic qualifications and corporate experiences? Akankasha Dewan finds out.

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Further Education « FEATURE t’s a debate perhaps as old as higher education itself, and never more relevant than in a tight job market. Do degrees hold more or less importance than experience in the workplace today?

If the current popular catchphrases are anything to go by, the most desired candidates possess the skills of “critical thinking”, “creativity”, and “leadership” above others – skills not necessarily taught in university.

In fact, a 2013 survey by the Association of American Colleges & Universities found 93% of employers believed “a candidate’s demonstrated capacity to think critically, communicate clearly, and solve complex problems is more important than their undergraduate major”.

Generally, the value of degrees, be them graduate or post-graduate, is changing – and mostly being viewed with a cloud of scepticism.

“There are mainly four values of learning – courage, curiosity, capability and collaboration,” says Carolyn Moore, regional HR director at JWT. “I think universities and educational institutions used to be good at covering all of those. But now I think they’re good at only covering capability. They don’t deal with broader issues of culture, of what it means to be human. A lot of that sort of stuff is seen as political fluff, but it is actually really important.

“And so, when it comes to teaching people courage – that is, the courage to question, the courage to put forward your belief, your position, your point of view – you get it on the job.”

But that doesn’t mean the importance of academic qualifications and learning should, in anyway, be dismissed, says Patrick Lew, leader, leadership and talent development for Asia Pacific and Japan at NetApp. “As an employer, you need to know the potential calibre of the employee you are hiring,” he says. “The education which he or she has gone through gives you a relatively good picture on the level of skills and intelligence required for the role. If you require an electronics or electrical engineer, it is highly unlikely you would hire a graduate who does not have a degree in engineering.”

Dr Nitin More, head of learning and development for APAC at Facebook, stresses it’s impossible to ignore the value of degrees altogether.

“I don’t think the value of education or academic knowledge has decreased, especially for roles that are micro-specialised,” he says.

Developing the skill of learning Clearly, both academic knowledge and corporate experiences play significant roles in the development of any professional.

In fact, the survey from the Association of American Colleges & Universities also identified that across all industries, employers encouraged a blended model of liberal and applied learning.

“Employers also strongly endorse practices that require students to demonstrate both acquisition of knowledge and its application,” it stated.

The debate between degrees and experience seems to have been resolved in this aspect – albeit in a diplomatic fashion. What has now become critical among learning and development functions today, the three HR leaders suggest, is to ensure the qualities learnt during both academic education and on-thejob learning complement each other to enable a holistic development of a professional’s capabilities.

“Neither experiences nor education on their own can make a perfect person – there is no such thing as a perfect person,” Moore says.

“And neither do you want a perfect person. You want someone with diversity of thinking, you want people who are comfortable with making mistakes and learning from them.”

And it is precisely the skill of learning which organisations should work on, Moore stresses, if they wish to enhance the knowledge acquired by professionals through academic and/or corporate means.

“Developing the capability or skill of learning is the most fundamental thing that higher education universities and companies can do.”

She identifies that developing the ability to learn is crucial for employees who have recently transitioned from an academic environment to a corporate one – mainly because the style of learning varies significantly between the two.

“In JWT, this is what we’re actively doing – developing and continuing to fertilise our learning culture,” she says.

“This is because we recognise that candidates who come straight out of university and into a working environment are used to learning in a particular, very linear way. You go to a lecture, you listen to what’s said, you regurgitate that knowledge in an exam, and you get graded for it.

And this type of learning isn’t translated in the workplace.

“Part of workplace learning is going to

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FEATURE » Further Education

Hats off to you: If you’ve explored various pathways to learning.

be some structured training, but what we’re consciously trying to break down is that this isn’t the only pathway to learning. Rather, learning is linked to working on creative projects that expand your horizons.”

Providing the right learning environment Moore’s observation strikes a possibility of a new debate with regards to the importance of academic qualification versus that of corporate experience today.

The issue is no longer which is more important, but rather, if companies want to enhance the development of their staff, they need to provide the right learning environment. Such environments aim to develop what employees have already learnt in an academic setting by providing them with an opportunity to practise what they’ve learnt in a corporate setting.

This includes current employees who have been involved in pursuing part-time academic degrees such as MBAs, and juggling between different types of learning environments on their campus and at work.

This is precisely why the importance of cultivating effective learning environments cannot be underestimated, Dr More says, because if done correctly, companies themselves have the capacity to equip employees with skills acquired both from universities and from corporate experiences.

“APAC is a region which values further education as something which adds credibility to your resume,” he says.

“However, companies like Facebook have

a very different value proposition for youth.

There have been articles published in the media which state that working for three to five years in companies such as Facebook is equivalent to getting an MBA. “The question to ask is this: do you acquire core business skills if you work at a company like Facebook? You do. And does that, in any way, compensate for you not having degrees such as an MBA? It does.

“I have increasingly seen non-MBA managers in companies with rapid growth rates.”

He elaborates it is precisely the opportunity to get practical experience by working on specific projects with different strata of talent that allows employees to learn skills which overlap with what they may have acquired at university campuses.

“There are a couple of reasons why this occurs,” he explains. “One, you have a lot of hands-on experience here [Facebook], so people will let you experiment and fail. You get to get your hands dirty, and you learn a lot from that.

The second thing is, you really work with worldclass talent. And that challenges you and pushes you and makes you work every day.

“When we hire, we hire for diversity. And as diverse talent comes on board, they teach each other a lot of things they otherwise may not have been exposed to. MBA campuses also interview for diverse candidates who might teach other different ways of working. That may be another reason why companies and universities are also on a similar path.”

But just the ability to provide similar skill sets doesn’t necessarily translate to employees actively recognising and acknowledging what they have learnt in companies. And this, Moore identifies, needs to be overcome especially if learning is to be encouraged in companies as a valuable skill in itself.

“A lot of learning does come from on-the-job, and by working on projects, but often, that is not seen as learning still for a lot of employees,” she says. “So you really have to have that culture where on-the-job learning is seen as a critical part of learning.”

Establishing such a culture is in line with what Moore believes to be the main attributes of learning in itself, which is the ability to appreciate and respect different perspectives.

“In terms of HR, and in terms of our business, what we are doing is saying, ‘it’s not just about the results on the page’. Because over this period, what a lot of universities have brought in is the

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FEATURE » Further Education concept of a test. You must learn what is in the test, you must memorise the answers as those which are right and those which are wrong.

Whereas in a creative agency, particularly like we are, there’s not a lot of right and wrong.”

She adds that instead of being seen as a rigid phenomenon, learning needs to become a passion, emphasising that people need to know how to learn, and it needs to be inherent in their nature.

“When we invest in talent, it is about how we can grow the talent and, therefore, how we can create a greater impact for the business.”

– Dr Nitin More, head of learning and development for APAC at Facebook

“And if you teach through tests and encourage the presence of just one answer, the result is a lack of creativity, a lack of critical thinking. Most importantly, it takes away learning as a skill in itself. Learning becomes a rote mechanism – a means to an end. As opposed to learning being a lifelong skill of enquiry and curiosity. And that is what a lot of organisations are getting into.”

Taking responsibility for learning Moore’s emphasis on viewing learning as a passion in organisations seems relevant, considering it is precisely such passion which translates into an active recognition of how much the individual has learnt and grown in terms of their development.

Such passion, Lew adds, involves employees taking charge and driving their own development with guidance from managers and support from organisations.

“In illustration to Formula One racing, the driver is the employee, the team lead providing feedback to the driver during the race is the manager, and the organisation provides infrastructure support to enable the driver to race.

“The bulk of responsibility lies with the employees – 70% would be employees, 20% managers and 10% the organisation. If the individual doesn’t feel compelled to develop himself or herself – it would be quite impossible to get them to learn and change their behaviour.”

He adds, however, that if the employee is aware of their development gaps and is

motivated to overcome them, then HR functions need to support such employees to bridge that gap as much as they can and provide them with the platform to do so. This includes allowing employees to go for professional courses, within and outside the organisation.

“At NetApp, the learning environment is self-fulfilling. We have a platform to provide an array of learning interventions to fulfil career development needs. However, if the individual feels it’s not sufficient, there are other avenues for them to go to.

“For instance, we have an educational assistance programme to provide support for employees who wish to undertake a course of study to develop their skills to the benefit of the company and themselves.”

Dr More agrees, and adds that HR leaders and employers can also implement policies to ensure employees who are studying further are able to handle their professional and academic responsibilities well.

“When we invest in talent, it is about how we can grow the talent and, therefore, how we can create a greater impact for the business,” he says.

“From that perspective, it is HR’s responsibility to figure out a way to support employees to add to and fine-tune their knowledge, skills and experience, because ultimately that will impact their job.

“They can practise policies such as allowing employees to attend classes two to three times a week, or providing them with additional leave for a couple of weeks to study. They can also encourage the formation of employee clubs so these employees can learn from each others’ experiences.”

Lew emphasises, however, the need for organisations to be vigilant when deciding on which candidate to invest in, in terms of sponsoring their professional education.

This includes tracking employees, who have gone for such courses or degrees, to see if they are providing better results or are doing their work in more efficient ways.

“The important thing is to be balanced – don’t restrict programmes to certain courses or even for a certain employee demographic, i.e only engineering courses for engineers,” he says.

“But don’t be too flexible either. It’s important to maintain a rigidity in the system and the criteria which you have set. You need to prioritise your resources, and make sure only deserving candidates get the resources they need.”

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FEATURE » Further Education

CASE STUDY: JWT Both academic qualifications and work experience have an important role in employee development. Akankasha Dewan speaks with Carolyn Moore, regional HR director at JWT, about ensuring both valued educational experiences are aligned.

In recent years, the value of degrees and education has comes under scrutiny. While graduating from college is still important, numerous reports clearly state that skills are increasingly trumping degrees in companies worldwide.

Carolyn Moore suggests this shift in thinking is mainly because of the increasing relevance of skills which staff normally acquire outside of an academic setting.

“Companies like ours, we don’t just want someone who just locks themselves up in a room and who has achieved good grades,” she says. “We also want to see someone who has done extra curricular activities. Because there’s leadership, learning and creative skills involved in those.

I struggle to think of many environments where that can’t be applied, where critical thinking isn’t a core element of career success.”

She suggests the growing popularity of workplace experience stems from the fact universities are mainly encouraging linear and rigid forms of learning.

“Higher education institutions have discovered there’s a lot of money in teaching business and marketing. (But) they teach things like – ‘this is the one way of doing marketing’.

So your knowledge and your experiences are coming from a very limited and linear avenue of learning.

“From being institutions of learning, and research, and experience, they have become businesses in themselves." themselves.

To overcome this gap, Moore stresses the importance of both entities working together to align teaching and learning strategies. This is because the importance of degrees cannot be completely overlooked altogether.

“Universities still very much have their place, but I think the main challenge is, moving forward,” she says.

JWT’s Helen Lansdowne Resor Scholarship “One of the things we’re doing is a scholarship worldwide called the Helen Lansdowne Resor Scholarship. She was the first ever copywriter in the advertising industry in the world. She was employed by JWT.” Moore explains the fundamental part of the scholarship is that it sponsors women creatives, from any background, and not necessarily have undertaken a degree related to marketing or advertising. JWT is working with several universities for the APAC region and provides US$10,000 for the five-year scholarship.

“On one side, we’re supporting our creative conviction, and from the other, we’re looking at this from a diversity point of view. Because globally, only 3% of advertising creatives are women. This is one way businesses and HR can work with higher education institutions to develop graduates and courses relevant to the business and to ensure we don’t get cookie-cutter graduates at the end.”

Moore adds JWT also supports current employees who wish to further develop skills through higher education, and has an association with Duke University.

Facilitating an effective working culture However, staff who are inherently passionate about learning will go on to pursue higher degrees with or without financial support from the company. "And these are the types of people we really want and try to hire.”

What you can actively do is practise habits or implement policies which will facilitate a better learning environment, whether corporate or academic.

"Secondly, we can provide people with the flexibility to balance their workload against what their learning load is. The next most important thing is giving them the opportunity to apply it through projects in the job.”

Developing the skill of learning should be done keeping in mind the different stages the individual will go through, to ensure their capacity to learn is enhanced.

“You need to tailor that phase to which that person has developed their own ability to learn, and how you approach the content to what they’re trying to learn."

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OPINION » Learning & development

3 ways to own your career development CHEW HAN GUAN Corporate Learning & Development Manager Singapore Technologies Aerospace Ltd

Don’t leave all your development up to the company. Because who knows what you want better than you do?

Puzzle this: You are the best developer of your career, so why wouldn’t you take a proactive role in piecing it together?

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Learning & development « OPINION In the fast-paced work environment that we need to grapple with, we may sometimes neglect to spend time or thoughts on our own career development, relying more on the mechanisms of the corporation such as job rotations, performance appraisal exercises, career ladders, succession planning or company development action plans.

These development tools are no doubt time tested and effective, but it seems counterintuitive that we are not the ones who spend the most effort on our own development. After all, if you don’t care about your own development, who will?

And, as important as it’s being aware of the need to develop ourselves, we need to arm ourselves with the tools and knowledge on how to do so. Here are some simple tips on developing our careers: 1. Be aware While there are a variety of personality tests one can take, you can also gain some degree of self-awareness by discussing this issue with people around you. They can act as your “rear view mirror” to help reveal some blind spots or unknown talents.

This can be done conveniently as a by-the-way-kind-ofdiscussion during lunch or tea break. At the same time, take a moment to reflect upon yourself – your likes, dislikes, strengths and weaknesses. Rationalise the perception gaps between your own self image and those which surfaced during the discussions you had with others.

For example, has your decisiveness and directness which you thought was your strength brought ill feelings to others before? Did you realise you were good at listening, coaching, motivating or entertaining?

Why not do a simple SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) analysis of yourself? Just take a piece of paper, divide it into fours and populate each quadrant with, literally, your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.

You may be able to glean some useful insights from this.

But you also need to make sure you are ready to take in the comments and remarks of others, some of whom may not be as sensitive to your feelings. So pick your confidants with care and an open heart.

2. Set goals Rome was not built in a day and the same goes for our lives and careers. We should put in gate checks and intermediate goals to help ensure we are on track to achieving our goals.

For example, besides setting interval targets, which probably are already taken care of by your company, you might want to pick up on some leadership or EQ skills through observing role models, going for courses and practising these skills so you can guide and lead your team effectively.

Set timelines and expected results to examine your progress. Are you becoming a better leader and communicator?

Make a conscious effort to talk to your boss and colleagues to get some sense of your progress and identify whatever gaps there might be at a regular interval, perhaps once per quarter.

Completing some courses or reading books will not cut it.

You need to ensure you are really progressing in terms of your capabilities and competencies. Just like how a CEO will be held accountable for the profit and loss of the company, your bosses will want you to deliver results.

I think the S.M.A.R.T (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, time-bound) principle is an effective way to help set goals and action plans. Though organisations will usually have programmes in place to groom and develop employees, by design they tend to be broad-based to cater to the general development of employees or groups of talent.

Dedicated succession planning programmes are more specific to the individual, but they are often exclusive due to the resources involved. That is where your own personal development action plan can come in to supplement your company’s career development activities.

For example, the best or preferred way for you to learn to be a leader might not be through training courses available, but through coaching. In that case, you may need to take the initiative to reach out to get your own mentor or coach either internally within the company or externally through skilled friends or expert communities. For some things, the more suitable learning channel may be via other means such as social media or through mobile applications.

3. Prioritise We only have 24 hours in a day, and even then we struggle to get everything done – especially in countries such as Singapore and many Asian countries, which clock in some of the longest working hours in the world. Time is a limited resource and we should guard it carefully, just like the money in our bank.

Taking a page from Richard Koch’s 80/20 principle, we should focus on the 20% of the actions which will generate 80% of the results. We need to focus on the development actions that will dovetail towards our goals. In a similar vein, the Eisenhower time management model pointed out the need for us to focus on important, rather than urgent, things.

Unfortunately, the urgent and non-important things get a lot of our attention on a daily basis. Try listing down the important and non-urgent things in your lives. I wouldn’t be surprised if many of the items are development activities which will benefit you immensely in the long run, but often are procrastinated on because you are flooded with your daily “firefighting” activities.

Conclusion I encourage you to take a proactive role in your own career development. Find ways and means to partner with your organisation to develop yourself. Because at the end of the day, who will know more about yourself and what you want? You are the best developer of your career.

This article is written in a personal capacity and does not express the views and opinions of my employer.

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OPINION » People issues

Harness the explosion of self-expression MADAN NAGALDINNE Head of HR for APAC Facebook

Why should HR, not IT, own the company’s mobile, digital and social strategy?

Everyone wants to

allow instant communication, free calls know how to become a best employer, or video messaging. and create a culture with incredible The minute you enable two-way innovation and adaptability. Most, communication over a 24-hour pipe, however, do not understand there is you can expect massive productivity no magic bullet – they need to do a gains. When your employees have series of small things, enhanced by all the information they need about technology. My passionate belief is HR their projects, how to do them, who has to own the conversation on the to contact, and what is happening organisation’s mobile, digital and social in the company, that automatically strategy; be it a five-location bakery or frees up about 20% of a manager’s a global bank. time. Managers will still need to give Let me ask you, do you use social direction, set goals and invest in the media to communicate with your development of their teams, but the friends and family? I’m sure all of you organic nature of free-flow dramatically are nodding in agreement. benefits them.

Now, do you use similar services to Seizing social: Allow people to share, learn and connect In addition, employees will and impact the way work gets done. communicate with your co-workers on comment on your products and work issues? My experience is that one services on a regular basis because in three will agree to this. they now have a voice, and they are directly involved in the Finally, do you have a company mandated messaging success of the company. application installed on your phone, supported by your IT team, More so, all the time that we spend onboarding people, or that serves as a communication vehicle in your company? Only sending out a memo and following that up with a town hall, can about 2% of people I ask this to have raised their hands to this. be done via social – that brings 50 meetings down to one post!

What we all experience between 5pm in the evening and Employees get a chance to ask questions, read others’ 9am the next morning is the information superhighway. What views, and post their comments, unlike typical top-down we experience between 9-to-5 in a working day is the exact communication. opposite – the speed at which communication moves and In cases where employees in two offices are facing a similar decisions are made are hijacked by an email dinosaur, which client challenge, the managers may be connecting maybe once does not allow companies to implement a simple mobile app for in three months. When you open up communication by sharing the employee base. wins and losses instantaneously, HR can have a real impact on So, here is my argument: HR, not IT, has to own the the way work gets done and the way companies innovate, just by company’s mobile, digital and social strategy. allowing people to share ideas, learn and connect.

This strategy impacts key metrics such as productivity, Keep in mind, you do not need to teach employees how to headcount, innovation, communication, culture and leadership do this. They already know this, and check social media multiple effectiveness, and for HR to continue to be relevant, it has to times a day! show data on each to the leadership team.

My final point – just like companies do not charge for water We keep talking about having a seat at the table and or stationery, they cannot afford to be stingy about IT equipment this is an opportunity to do exactly that – to have a wellor software. These are productivity tools that we need to invest in informed opinion on the company’s social, digital and mobile to enable and empower our employees. strategy. Of course, each industry will have its own challenges I believe HR has a significant chance to seize the opportunity of transparency or encryption, for example, in banking or here; by not doing it, we risk losing the respect of the C-suite. defence, but we cannot let that hijack our original thinking HR has to harness the explosion of self-expression, and that communication is good for mankind, and it is good for use that to create a material competitive advantage for the companies. organisation. If you do, you are going to not only get that elusive This does not require immense investment in enterprise seat, but you can also take your career, your team and your software. There are plenty of free tools available that seamlessly company to stratospheric levels.

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Unconventional wisdom OPINION

Can you quantify the impact of creativity?

It’s possible to measure one of business’ greatest intangibles through fostering the right culture.

JALEEL ABDUL senior director of human resources for Asia Adobe

Bright ideas: Push creativity to the maximum by placing trust in your staff to innovate.

Adobe recently released the results of its Creative Dividend Study which attempts to quantify the impact creativity has on the business bottom-line. The study found firms that were more creative witnessed better revenue growth compared with less creative counterparts. They also enjoyed greater market share and competitive leadership vis-àvis their less creative counterparts by a factor of 1.5 to 1.

Finally – and this is a finding that will delight HR practitioners everywhere – the survey showed 69% of creative firms also reported winning awards and national recognition for being a “best place to work”, while just 27% of less creative companies achieved similar accolades.

The survey found creative companies and a creative culture in general creates a high-performance work environment, since 83 creative firms reported winning national attention, while only 26 less creative firms did the same.

Why is this? Well, in today’s knowledge economy, companies which encourage a creative culture enable their employees to create an impact through their work, be it to the business, to society or towards their own development. This satisfies the highest part of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs – selfactualisation – which then leads to employee happiness.

Fostering a creative culture How can firms foster creativity or a creative culture? At Adobe, we believe the first step comes by placing trust and confidence in our employees, avoiding a culture of micromanaging, and letting our employees take charge of their day to day work.

This builds their confidence and leads to a continuous flow of inspiration. Employees are encouraged to share their ideas

with different community groups, with colleagues and with the senior management team, and are also given the opportunity to build upon their ideas and take them to fruition.

While having the right mindset is crucial, the other part of the equation is to ensure there are adequate channels and outlets for the practice of creativity because creativity is like a muscle which needs to be exercised in order to remain healthy.

So, from the first day an employee joins the company, he or she has various opportunities to be creative – from Hackathons and Hackfests to KickBox and CodeJams. Employees are also given the chance to participate in forums where they can meet the best minds in the industry and share learnings.

The great thing about these initiatives is not only have they allowed Adobe employees to exercise their creative muscle, but they have also generated implementable ideas.

For example, in one of our Adobe Hackathons – which is a half-yearly event where employees from various technology teams participate to build prototypes of their innovative ideas – the winning team created a workflow for consumers to purchase Adobe software by using a smartphone. By simply scanning the barcode, the consumer can not only get details about the products, but can also enrol for a subscription and remotely install Adobe products to all their other devices through their smartphone itself.

Apart from the recognition and the handsome rewards this team received, they were given an opportunity to present their idea at the Global Tech Summit at the Adobe Headquarters in San Jose. Adobe is now using the workflow created by them, and they were also able to file a patent for this workflow.

We believe creativity should be incorporated as a key organisational metric when it comes to measuring success.

Speaking of patents, the number of patents that Adobe has created in the past year alone – about 300 – allows us to continually innovate in this space. Combined with innovative thinking, we have evolved our creative software from being sold out of boxes to a cloud-based subscription model that works better for the always-on digital era.

In terms of workplace happiness, employees have ranked Adobe as one of the best places to work at, coming in at No.83 on the latest Fortune 2014 list. This is a strong testament to the effectiveness of freeing up employee creativity.

As businesses in Asia increasingly shift towards a knowledge-based economy, those which embrace and foster creativity and innovation will lead the way.

In fact, we believe creativity should be incorporated as a key organisational metric when it comes to measuring success because it positively impacts both employee satisfaction and business outcomes.

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OPINION » Upwardly mobile

Understanding ‘reverse mentoring’ NAOMI MONTEIRO Vice-president of HR Kimberly-Clark Asia Pacific

How to turn traditional mentoring upside down by enhancing the untapped potential of younger workers.

Why reverse mentoring?

Keeping up to date with ever-changing lifestyles, preferences and needs of consumers and talent segments is key to our sustainable growth in the region. We recognise younger staff can be used to help us stay ahead of the consumer curve. They come in with fresh eyes, open minds and instant links to the future of technology and rapid changes in generational trends.

Our younger staff comprise of Millennials, who are the perfect demographic to consult on how to sell a product in the digital age. The mentoring conversations are critical moments for creative idea-generation, with the potential to influence key business decisions and facilitate strategy-focused mentoring dialogues to help leaders extract latent workforce intelligence.

At the same time, mentees also benefit from the leadership on business and industry best-practices from senior leaders.

Outside the box: Open up senior staff through the input of younger staff.

Reverse mentoring is a process that reverses traditional mentoring by pairing younger staff to mentor senior leaders – a concept that provides the senior leader insights through the empowerment of younger employees who otherwise may not have the opportunity, or confidence, to share.

Kimberly-Clark is one of the leading manufacturers of consumer products, both in Asia and globally. To keep up with the aggressive growth of the business regionally, it is critical for us to implement strategies that redesign conventional talent solutions to fuel strategic business capabilities – not just HR outcomes.

As a result, we're always looking and open to adopting new approaches for talent and leadership development that supports our growth plans, with reverse mentoring being one of them.

The programme is tailored to help executives tap strategic product, customer and technological insights that younger talent naturally possesses, but rarely has the opportunity to share. It also breaks down the traditional barriers of top-down hierarchy to promote a healthy, free-flowing exchange of ideas.

It is designed to maximise intelligence exchanged by matching mentors and mentees based on differences across age, function, gender, nationality, education background, personality, lifestyle, and hobbies and interests. This allows for highly productive and relevant exposure for both groups.

We plan introductory activities and initiatives for mentors and mentees, which help them to connect with each other, as well as helping them clearly define the rules of engagement that both parties commit to.

The challenges In Asia Pacific, where most of the market has strong hierarchical cultures, top-down teaching is common, and not all senior leaders may like the idea of having younger staff as a “mentor”.

The programme first launched in China, where more than 65% of the workforce is Generation Y, so understanding their motivation as employees and consumers is essential. To enable a successful relationship, senior leaders and young talent were invited to volunteer to join the programme.

Senior leaders are reminded their role is to listen and learn and they should resist the urge to impart their wisdom, while the reverse mentors are encouraged to talk about the issues that matter to them. Meetings tend to take place in informal settings to help break down the barriers to free discussion.

What are the outcomes of reverse mentoring?

We believe in empowerment of the individual and acceptance of the best ideas, wherever they come from. Whether it be empowerment of our senior employees through cross-border stretch assignments, or empowerment of our younger employees through reverse mentoring, we ensure each individual feels they're part of a winning culture.

This contributes to retaining talent and the overall productivity of the organisation. The reverse mentoring programme has helped us to drive both enterprise and talent outcomes, as well as manage generational diversity.

We are pleased with how the programme has increased knowledge and changed behaviours, with most of our leaders admitting to have done something different as a result. We believe this has helped promote creative idea generation which can influence key business decisions – which is crucial to success in the fast-changing consumer marketplace.

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CAREERS » Personal development

uptheranks Tracking HR’s industry moves Who: Deborah Woollard From: Abbott Laboratories To: InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) IHG has named Deborah Woollard vice-president for human resources for the Asia, Middle East and Africa region, based out of Singapore.

In her new role, she is responsible for shaping and delivering human resources strategies to support the company’s business plans and objectives in the region.

She will lead the company’s talent management programme to identify, recruit and retain key talent and also drive the training and development strategy for the company’s leadership team to ensure IHG continues to have the right talent to deliver its strategy in AMEA. She succeeds Zareena Brown, who has been promoted to senior vicepresident of talent and leadership development at IHG.

Who: Selina Chean From: Ambank Group To: Packet One Networks Selina Chean has been named chief human capital officer of Packet One Networks (P1), which was recently acquired by Telekom Malaysia.

Her appointment was announced as part of the acquisition and new board and management line-up. It includes Tan Sri Dato’ Sri Zamzamzairani Mohd Isa, group chief executive officer of TM, as P1’s chairman; Dr Farid Mohamed Sani, chief strategy officer, TM; Imri Mokhtar, executive vice-president, consumer, TM; Giorgio Migliarina, chief technology and innovation officer, TM; Park Jung Ho, executive vice-president and chief growth officer of SK Telecom; Tan Kay Yen, CEO of Green Packet; and Puan Chan Cheong, CEO and managing director of P1.

personalgrowth SO YOU WENT TO HARVARD DID YOU? LET ME JUST CHECK THAT OUT When did HR become so relaxed about background screening? Rebecca Lewis asks.

As an HR professional or recruiter, you need to ask yourself this question if you’re in charge of acquiring senior talent: Do I really know who I’ve hired?

Because according to a report from HireRight, we don’t. In fact, 49% of HR leaders polled in the British study said they simply “assume” senior candidates they’ve hired have not lied about their background or on their application.

Even more incredulous is the fact 27% confessed they had hired people they probably wouldn’t have, had they done proper background checks. When they did do proper checks, 36% of them had exposed some sort of leadership lie.

What’s going on? When did we become so relaxed about candidate screening at a senior level?

To pay attention to this seriously neglected part of the HR job description, here are a few things to look out for to spot the fibs on a CV or in person ... you know, before you go and do an official check on their credentials!

Check them out online The internet is a wealth of knowledge, and if a candidate has been up to no good

– or is simply lying about having attended a certain school – chances are a bit of online digging will throw it out into the open. This might be harder to do with older, more senior candidates, but it gives you a good starting place.

They can’t recall the details of their history Got your suspicions about the background of a senior employee? Bring it up in conversation. And not just a casual, “So, how did you like Harvard?” but more specific information that someone who went to Harvard would actually know. And keep pressing for answers, too.

If they can’t answer you, or they give you a noncommittal answer, you might have your first red flag.

They don’t know the basics of the job This isn’t a hard and fast rule, but people who have been lying about their careers and skills for years have probably never learnt the ABC’s of the job they’re doing.

On the surface, they might be able to do the job, but if they didn’t work their way up through the ranks like they said they did, you might find a few more skill and competency gaps than you expect.

You have a gut feeling. Trust it.

Human resources is all about being human, so if you have a feeling, don’t ignore it.

Do more research yourself and see where it takes you.

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Good reads to improve your business life

shelflife

Above The Line

The Social Executive Dionne Kasian-Lew Wiley S$30.77 Why is social media increasingly being seen as an essential professional investment?

And how can executives build their own professional platform online? These are the two questions driving Dionne Kasian-Lew’s The Social Executive.

Adopting a clear and easy to follow format, the book begins by luring the reader into the dynamic world of social media and expands on its many advantages and professional benefits. It separates the myths of social media from the facts using evidence from the world’s leading global consultancies

Uplifting Leadership adership Andy Hargreaves, Alan Boyle, Alma Harris Jossey-Bass, Wiley S$35.59 Drawing conclusions from a seven-year global study, this book focuses on how leaders from diverse organisations havee and can inspire and uplift their teams’ performance.

Adopting a framework that revolves around the concept of enhancing current leadership strategies, the authors feature case studies from organisations such as Fiat, Marks & Spencer, and Cricket Australia among others.

Across seven chapters, which focus on different elements of leadership, the book delves into the minds of how successful leaders think and act in ways that others don’t.

on the magnitude of the multi-trilliond dollar connected economy.

Statistical evidence and lists aare re also employed in an attempt to effectively to effe organise the horde of pe perspectives regarding how social media works an what it entails. and The second part of the book reads almost like a practical guide for professionals to move forward an capitalise on these opportunities which social and m media provides. Aiming for readers to “speak CC-suite social”, Kasian-Lew invokes real-life case st studies so professionals can build evidence-driven arguments based on incisive analysis to socialise their businesses.

Ranging from how to construct an effective social media design theme to how to respond to posts, the book is a must-read for novices of social media, and those who wish to leverage on the full advantage of this worldwide phenomenon.

Bookmark this!

Tweet often, tweet good material and follow people back. Over time, you will build up your following.

When you approach following 2000 people, Twitter will not allow you to follow any more people until you have more followers than you are following. This barrier can be quite frustrating for Twitter users. What you need to do is to clean out followers who aren’t adding value because they don’t tweet or are spam or bots – page 175.

The brilliance of the boo book lies in its multipro pronged approach towards lea leadership. It captures an essence of leadership pe perhaps overlooked in m many business-oriented rresearches today – how to cultivate a leadership mindset which is unconventional, but works. A mu must-read for leaders.

Bookmark this!

Uplifting people doesn’t mean uprooting them. The paradox of uplifting leadership is that it also has to stand on firm ground. You cannot lift each other up if you are on a shaky foundation. Sustainable success requires a solid footing, as well as a manageable rate of progress and an ability and willingness to ensure that immediate actions are connected to long-term results – page 157.

Michael Hendersonn Wiley S$33.66 Before you dismiss Michael Henderson’s Above The Line as another lecture on the importance of cultivating an u ure organisational culture orld, in the corporate world, ly think again. Not only o ound does the book expound c cal on crafting a practical a to an and step by step plan c create a company culture p ployees, which engages employees, delights customers and heds delivers results, it ssheds w greater insight on what a a ave it even means to have corporate culture inn the first place.

Delightfully proclaiming himself as a corporate anthropologist, Henderson spends a good majority of the book analysing the multiple nuances of an organisational culture. While he is clearly passionate about the subject, he is more than aware of the cynicism which may accompany his detailed trajectory of such “soft stuff”, as opposed to directly getting to the practical ways of formulating a corporate culture.

Nevertheless, he clearly highlights the need to do so in his introduction by explaining the gap which currently exists between organisations and human beings, and how both can work together in a way that profits all.

Divided into four main segments, the book’s combination of anthropological and practical approaches offers a workable, fun and engaging approach to enhancing organisational culture.

Bookmark this!

Unlike stable cultures, which tend to ask the question, “How can we fix this problem?”, successful cultures ask, “What is the problem we are trying to solve?”. In other words, they pose questions about the problem before they experience it. In this way, successful cultures develop, in a small way, at least an increased capacity to meet the future and its challenges with greater agility – page 134.

Photography: Fauzie Rasid

Pick of the month

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LAST WORD

Time to make your own Mark Rebecca Lewis explains why Mark Zuckerberg’s latest skill should be a lesson to us I don’t often get to “wow” people. no genius. I can’t solve a Rubik’s cube in all that it’s never too late to underI’ma minute, and I certainly can’t do complicated learn something new. math off the top of my head (come on! I’m a writer!)

I, like the majority of people on this earth, am wonderfully, incredibly average. And I’m OK with that. No really, I am.

But I have to admit it does feel nice to “wow” people. The only times I can recall that rush of adrenaline you get from being able to do something no one expects you to be able to, is the time I did a handstand on a moving skateboard (I am still so proud of that, and I’ve always wanted to include it in my CV), and the few times I did gymnastics in front of friends or colleagues who had no idea I could still throw tricks like that.

So when Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg blew away an entire audience in Beijing last month by conducting an entire Q&A panel in Mandarin, I bet he felt good. I bet he felt really, really good.

And so he should. Mandarin is hard. (Not that I would know – I’ve been promising myself for three years that I would start lessons). He’s spent the past four years trying to learn the language, and he decided to put his skills to the test in front of a global audience. I mean, talk about pressure.

Learning Mandarin is not only hard, it’s neverending. It’s also, unlike languages such as French or Spanish, a disaster if you mispronounce something or get the tone wrong. I actually read one article about Zuckerberg’s Mandarin which stated that his way of saying “China” actually sounded more like “middle kiss”.

What makes all this so impressive? Not only has he somehow managed to learn Mandarin to

a level most of us non-Mandarin speakers will probably never master, he’s also managed to do it while growing and managing a multi-billion dollar company which is constantly under public scrutiny and being judged by everyone from major investors to your grandmother who just learnt how to “poke” someone on Facebook.

It’s impressive for that reason, but it’s also infuriating. Why? Because in just a three-minute YouTube clip of Zuckerberg’s panel, I felt all the regret of things I had promised to learn or experience and never did – for no real reason.

Yes, I told myself years ago I would learn Mandarin. But I still haven’t mastered French or Spanish to the level I want to (although, I could get by ... maybe. After a wine or two) and I didn’t make it to Base Camp before turning 30. There are many things left unchecked on my life’s to-do list.

However, there are things I have done, like conquered my fear of public speaking – thanks to this job – and become better at saying yes to a number of things which would have previously been outside my comfort zone. They may not be big things, but they’re something.

And that’s where I think we can all learn from Zuck. Instead of his new-found Mandarin skills making you feel hugely underachieved, why don’t you put a positive spin on it and use it to remind yourself just how capable you are of learning something new?

Because I think we’re all capable of the “wow” factor – we just have to apply ourselves.

(And no, I can’t believe it took a 30-year-old in a grey T-shirt to remind me of this either.) rebeccal@humanresourcesonline.net

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