Human Resources September 2013

September 2013

The smart HR professional’s blueprint for workforce strategy

Veronica Tan, of H+K Strategies, explains how her company keeps staff engaged in the high pressure PR industry Page 14

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Opinions Play nice

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What HR can do to help regional leaders develop a global mindset Page 18

How to put an end to office politics

Next, please How L&D can help your succession planning

EDITOR’S NOTE

September 2013 « CONTENTS

COVER STORY 14 Q&A Veronica Tan, regional director for Hill+Knowlton Strategies Asia, shares how the global firm keeps employee engagement levels up and attrition levels down.

Features 18 Time to take aim Organisations have their work cut out for them when it comes to identifying skills for business leaders in Asia. Sabrina Zolkifi fi nds out how HR can help leaders take a global view of business development.

28 I’m coming home. Now what?

Returning home from an overseas assignment isn’t as simple as it sounds.

Amos Seah discovers what HR should be looking out for when repatriating employees, and how it can deal with the various challenges this brings.

Opinion 38 Learning & Development If you’ve been wondering how to work L&D into your succession plan, Rajesh Rai, senior director of HR at Expedia Asia Pacific, tells you how.

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40 Unconventional Wisdom Teo Wee Seng, VP of HR at Jurong Port, says cultural transformation plays a bigger role in building a creative workforce than you may realise.

43 People Issues Goh Ban Ping, head of regional HR at Sennheiser Asia, tells you how to put a stop to the one thing in the office that we all hate – office politics.

44 Upwardly Mobile

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ON THE COVER: Art direction: Shahrom Kamarulzaman; Photography: Stuart Jenner – stuartjennerphotography.com; Hair and makeup: Parichat Naidu – parichatnaidu.wix.com/parimakeover

Looking to improve your company’s talent development efforts?

Tan Kwang Cheak, director of human resources and talent development at MOH Holdings, introduces you to the four “Es” you’ll need.

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Regulars 3 4 6 8 9 10

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Ed’s note In the news Hot topic Suite talk Spacial Awareness HR by numbers

11 Snapshot 11 Widernet 12 White paper 50 Up the ranks 51 Shelf life

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Any suggestions or tip-offs for Human Resources?

Email rebeccal@humanresourcesonline.net

MANAGEMENT SERVICES: Find your suppliers quickly and easily on page 42

EDITOR’S NOTE

EDITOR’S NOTE

HumanResources editor

Rebecca Lewis

deputy editor

Sabrina Zolkifi

journalist contributors

Amos Seah Goh Ban Ping Rajesh Rai Tan Kwang Cheak Teo Wee Seng Stuart Jenner

regional art director senior designer regional marketing executive

senior event producer event producer head of event services

Shahrom Kamarulzaman Fauzie Rasid June Tan

Ang Yoke Han Scarlett Hao Yeo Wei Qi

executive - event services

Renee Phua

senior account manager

Karen Boh

account manager audience manager

Ben DeRegt Manuel Almira

brand director

Mike Parsons

regional finance director

Evelyn Wong

publisher and editorial director group managing director

Tony Kelly Justin Randles

A reality check for young employees I absolutely hate perpetuating the tired notion that my fellow Generation Y employees – and the consistently berated Millennials – want nice things, powerful titles and lots of money, but don’t want to work for them. And yet I keep being presented with examples which fit or further strengthen the stereotype.

The first was a friend of a friend who decided to leave her job because the commute was “too much”. Then, I had the unfortunate opportunity to run into a peripheral “friend” (that might be stretching the term) who more or less told me I was wasting my time as a magazine editor because I was never going to be rich, and had I thought about switching jobs to earn more?

Honestly, it makes me roll my eyes and sympathise heavily with all you HR professionals.

How do you cope with these examples of what is otherwise a pretty cool generation? What do you say when yet another young employee decides to leave their job for, quite frankly, a range of rather fl imsy reasons?

Well, I’ve got a few things I’d like to say. I wrote this up as an online column recently (www. humanresourcesonline.net) but I feel like it still needs to hit home.

SCAN TO SUBSCRIBE! Stop job hopping. Right now I know, I know. It seems cool because everyone is doing it, but how on earth can you explain to your boss that you “grew out” of your previous role in just one year? Stay in one place, use the time to grow and learn new skills, and then move on.

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

you can do as a young employee. I compare it to the love-hate relationship I have with my personal trainer. No pain, no gain … and all that stuff.

It’s not about who you know, it’s about who knows you Quit going to all those industry events just to swap name cards with people (who, let’s be honest, you almost always won’t follow up on) so you can prove to your boss you were there. Get in there, really get to know people, and form relationships. This is how business gets done and how people get ahead – by knowing other people. True story.

Not informed? Get informed.

It doesn’t matter what job you’re in, if you don’t know what’s going on in the world around you, you will always come across as uneducated, uninterested and uninformed.

Say what you mean!

How can anyone help you fi x a problem/achieve your goals/become happier if you don’t speak up until the day you decide to hand in your notice? Be honest and ask for help. I’m aware of the cultural limitations of this, but 90% of the time I bet your boss would be thankful you spoke up.

If you’re feeling similarly disheartened by the younger generation, feel free to hand this column over to your younger employees as a guide, or a lesson, or just some good old-fashioned advice.

Then perhaps we can stop the stereotyping once and for all. Enjoy the issue.

Use this little thing called ‘your initiative’ No wonder you’re bored in your job! All you’re doing is sitting around waiting to be told what to do. You’ll never get ahead – or enjoy yourself – by sitting on your backside waiting for opportunities to present themselves. Decide what you want, then work systematically towards achieving it.

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

Singapore: Lighthouse Independent Media Pte Ltd 100C Pasir Panjang Road, #05-01, See Hoy Chan Hub, 118519 Tel: +65 6423 0329 Fax: +65 6423 0117 Hong Kong: Lighthouse Independent Media Ltd Unit A 7/F, Wah Kit Commercial Centre, 302 Des Voeux Road Central, Sheung Wan, Hong Kong Tel: 852-2861-1882 Fax: 852-2861-1336 Malaysia: Lighthouse Independent Media Sdn Bhd Suite 11.7 11th Floor, Bangunan Yee Seng 15 Jalan Raja Chulan, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Tel: +603 2075 0355 Fax: +603 2075 0395

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

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Work for someone who pushes you Guess what? Working hard is good for you, and working for someone who understands this is a blessing, not a curse. Of course there’s a line, but working for a boss who knows when to apply the pressure and when to back off is the best thing

Rebecca Lewis editor September 2013 « Human Resources «

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News from humanresourcesonline.net

SINGAPORE IS FIFTH MOST EXPENSIVE CITY FOR EXPATS Global – Despite European and African cities dominating the world’s most expensive locations for expatriate employees, Singapore holds its ground in fifth spot.

According to the latest Mercer 2013 Cost of Living Survey, top spot was taken by Luanda (Angola) followed by Moscow (Russia) in second place, and Tokyo (Japan). Singapore comes in just behind Ndjamena in Chad.

The Cost of Living Survey is designed to help multinational companies and governments determine compensation allowances for expatriate employees. The rankings measure the comparative cost of more than 200 items in each location, including housing, transport, food and entertainment. entertainment “Recent world events, including economic and eve political upheavals, which wh resulted in currency fluctuations, cost of infl in ation for goods and services, and volatility in aaccommodation prices have impacted these cities making them expensive,” said Barb Marde Marder, senior partner and Mercer’s global mobility practice leader.

The other cities appearing in Mercer’s Mercer top 10 list are Hong Kong, Geneva, Bern, Zurich and Sydney.

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YOUR BOSS SAID WHAT? Global – Rude, mean and inconsiderate bosses are everywhere. To prove it, we rounded up a number of the rudest and strangest comments made by bosses.

One woman said: “I had a manager advise me to make my staff feel more uncomfortable around me.”

Another told the story of her boss’ “hilarious” idea of a practical joke:“My boss told me I was fired.

I started crying and that’s when his face changed and got really serious and he started saying, ‘I was just kidding, sheesh’.”

And finally, this gem from an employee who received an unexpected response from her boss after falling ill: “Upon hearing the news I’d been laid up for a week with a serious case of food poisoning, my boss remarked I should use this as a great way to start on some weight loss.”

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JOB SEEKERS DEMANDING MORE SSingapore – More than 40% of workers in Sing Singapore are seeking positions with a monthly salary of betw between $1,500 and $3,499. According to the jobsDB Asian Consumer Co Market Survey, there was also a significant increas increase in respondents searching for roles in the $5,000 to $7 $7,499 salary range, up 7% from October 2012.

Additionally, there has been a 3% decrease in yo younger job seekers in the 20-24 age bracket, compared with a 4% increase in those aged 45-49.

The survey also found a 2% increase in job seekers 45-49 in Hong Kong.

The increase in older workers looking for jobs in Hong Kong and Singapore suggests people are seeking better paying roles to manage their retirement.

“The developing trend around the demand for higher paying job roles among the older age range leads us to believe Singapore workers are not wholly satisfied with their current role and salary,” said Angeli Beltran, managing director of jobsDB Singapore and Malaysia.

SEPT THE BEST COMPANIES FOR WORKING MUMS

Singapore – Many local companies have proven that flexible working arrangements can increase productivity ductivity and employee focus. But most importantly, they have helped mothers carry on working.

The “Best Companies for Working Mums”, launched aunched in March, was organised by the NTUC Women’s Development Secretariat (WDS) and Tripartite Alliance lliance for Fair Employment Practices (TAFEP) to recognise efforts to implement flexible work policies. ean The 12 top companies for working Singaporean mums are: Discovery Networks Asia Pacific, Absolute solute Kinetics Consultancy, Changi General Hospital, Singapore Management University, Housing Development Board; DBS Bank, Procter & Gamble, ble, Tan Chong International, SSTC School For Further er Education, Environmental Resource Management, nt, Health Promotion Board and Polycom Asia Pacifific. c.

OFF WORKERS OFFICE BURNING OUT BURN Singapore – Local workers are exhausted and fatigued because beca of problems at work, but a huge number still refuse to take a sick day to cope. According to a new survey by JobStreet. com, 60% of loc local workers said they experienced mental fatigue because be of stress, depression and other factors.

More than half (55%) also identified stress as the biggest contributor cont to their mental fatigue, followed by a lack oof exercise (38%) and poor diet and chronic illness ((7%).

However, despi despite the high level of mental exhaustion, 70% of respondents said they would not take a sick day if they were feeling unwell, but were physically fit fo for work.

In fact, most employees em only take between one and 10 days of sick leave a year.

LOCAL GRADS LOOK FOR CREATIVE AND DYNAMIC WORKPLACES Singapore – University students expect to join companies which allow them to “be dedicated to a cause or feel that they are serving a greater good through my career”. This was revealed in a survey by Universum on 6,012 local students, which aimed to find out their career motivations and goals.

The respondents’ top career goals were to have worklife balance and a secure and stable job. The report also found more people place importance on people and culture issues, and are more attracted to friendly, creative and dynamic work environments.

Rachele Focardi, senior vice-president of employer branding and talent strategy at Universum APAC,, said private homegrown companiess were found to be more closely aligned ligned to having a friendly work environment.

“On the other hand, the foreign employers have the edge over the domestic employers (excludingg the government) for the provision of professional training ng and development as well as having a creative and dynamic mic work environment.”

In Singapore, the top five most ideal companies as voted by the students were: Google, ogle, Singapore useCoopers, Ernst Airlines, PricewaterhouseCoopers, & Young and J.P. Morgan. an.

IS THIS SINGAPORE’S RUDEST BOSS? Singapore – A job candidate who responded via text message to a job posting on Gumtree was surprised when the employer he was communicating with sent back a rude response.

STOMP user Kaimx posted a screen grab of the exchange on the website, which showed them asking thee potential employer about a basic salary. The would-be employer responded with: sh, pls find another job.

“If you don’t understand English, Thanks.”

When the candidate said they were being rude, the employer responded again: “I’m m not rude, nor am I the HR. I own the company. And basedd on your stupidity, I don’t ye. want you to be in it. So goodbye.

Don’t bother replying.”

The candidate eventually posted the exchange on STOMP, saying: “What kind of company is this? The HR isn’t good at all and they still want to hire people. Imagine working with him.”

HR HEADS DISH OUTT CAREER ADVICE Singapore – No matter where you are in your career, you can always use a little support and encouragement from your peers and leaders. We asked HR leaders for the best career advice they had received.

“Every job can become routine no matter how exciting. Thus, finding a job that is meaningful to oneself is important. Then again, not all jobs are perceived as meaningful by everyone.

I think the personal quest to find meaning in one’s job is what matters the most.”

– Gloria Chin, HR director at the National Environment Agency

“Don’t compare. The more options youu look at, the unhappier you get. Do a great jobb based on trust and integrity and the rest will follow as mangers and executives will look after you as a person – not just an employee.”

– Alexander Trost, vice-president of HR at Infineon Technologies Asia Pacific

“Don’t jump into your hiring decision until you have face time with the candidate.”

– Alice Gouk, HR director at ADM Cocoa APAC

“It is wiser to pick a job tthat you are passionate about with a reasonable pay than oone that is not suited for you, but at a higher salary.”

– Chu Chua Hock Hai, vice-president of HR development at DHL Global Forwarding devel Management (APAC)

CORRECTION Our teambuilding feature case study on Cerebos (p30, August edition) incorrectly stated the CFO took part in a post-marathon cooking with the winning team. In fact, the CFO took part in cooking for “Willing Hearts”, a non-profit soup kitchen for the needy.

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Hot topic WORK LIFE

WORK LIFE » Hot topic ■ Lawrence Lee VP of HR Hilton Worldwide (Greater China and Mongolia)

What does your brand say about you?

Sabrina Zolkifi speaks to three HR leaders to understand why employer branding is high on their company’s agendas, and how it relates back to business goals.

■ Rajesh Rai Senior HR director Expedia Expedia is an internet company – we are the largest online travel company in the world, and one of the biggest trends, especially in Asia Pacific, is going viral online.

We connect really well with Gen Ys and Millennials, and that’s why the biggest trend in employer branding is that you have to be present everywhere where folks can reach you, be it candidates, employees or customers.

Companies need to remember their presence online is key, and its importance is just growing.

We’re fortunate our culture allows for things to go viral easily, because there isn’t a structure within a structure. So this means there is immense flexibility given to employees to do their own thing.

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As an example, we did our version of a (popular Korean song) Gangnam-style travel video, which has become so popular and gone viral across the company because it embraces the different countries, cultures and offices.

But “viral” is not something you create intentionally, it just happens, and Expedia provides just the right culture for that viral effect to happen, where employees are happy doing their own thing.

However, there are a couple of things when it comes to employer branding companies tend to overlook.

The first is not being present enough. Branding is a message you’re giving to people, and those messages need to be consistent and go back repeatedly to the audience so you need to make sure you’ve planted the seed and converted that seed into a nice, big plant. The engagement we just spoke of is extremely important.

The other thing is companies might do one or two campaigns, or even more, which are not

connected to one another or don’t link back or engage the audience. That is one of the biggest branding mistakes you can make.

With employer branding, candidates are looking for the thought behind it. As a candidate, I have a picture of my potential employer in front of me.

Some are looking for benefits, work-life balance or impact in their roles and jobs.

Some might even be looking at global opportunities, so as an employer, you need to be clear on your value proposition. That is, of course, based on your understanding of the market. If you know your key candidates are looking for these four or five things, and you offer most of them, then your message needs to be clear in its communication.

I don’t think candidates look for flashier things necessarily, but they look for concise messages. In most cases, HR will have to work with marketing, or even the PR communication team, when building an employer brand. It’s never a one-sided effort.

China is a place of opportunity and challenges, in the sense that we are expanding very rapidly. We are opening 120 hotels over the next few years, and this gives us lots of opportunities because there are 200 million Gen Ys in China and seven million fresh graduates every year.

There’s a lot of talent we can attract and develop to support the growth of the organisation.

Hilton being a legacy brand works very much to our advantage. In China, we are very much associated as a luxury brand because of our employer branding, so that makes it easy for us to attract top talent.

We make a very conscious effort to engage the younger talent with employer branding. Last year, we had a Gen Y conference which we did to show our commitment to engaging young talent.

Additionally, we provided a managementtrainee programme. In the past two years, this has attracted 12,000 applicants, but we only accepted one out of 100.

On top of that, every month, one of our management teams will go to one of our schools and give a lecture. With eight school alliances and one lecture a month, we’re talking about at least 100 lectures every year at universities. If 100 students come for each lecture, that’s 10,000 students annually.

We also don’t forget about our mid-career talent. I always say an important source of talent for us is people who are mid-career.

What we do is we train them up, and give them specific knowledge and skills development to become department heads and leaders in the future. In Hilton Worldwide, 75% of our general managers were promoted internally.

We measure our performance and progress in human capital initiatives through things such as a global team member survey, where we measure our engagement and trust scores.

I’m happy to say in Greater China, we outperformed the global average of the company.

Over the next few years, I think we will see more and more young talent looking to find work with local companies.

The challenge for us is to make sure we stay relevant to the local market, and that we stay engaged and committed to developing local talent, because this is the most sustainable strategy.

We also need to make sure Hilton Worldwide is perceived as a local player, and someone who is committed to developing local talent.

That’s something we are all working very hard towards.

■ Kiersten Robinson VP of HR Ford APAC and Africa For an employment brand to resonate with prospective candidates, it needs to resonate and be authentic with existing employees.

The way we think about employer branding and our employment value proposition is asking why candidates would choose to join the company, as well as why you would choose to stay. Choosing to stay is absolutely a choice, and if we don’t fulfil the promise of what originally attracted them to us, then we’re not going to have a lot of employees staying.

We’ve also found in terms of our recruitment strategies, internal referrals are one of our most effective recruitment channels – not just high quality candidates, but high quality candidates who fit with our culture and have a long-term retention rate.

For existing employees to experience an authentic culture that resonates with them better allows them to be the employment brand ambassadors that we need them to be.

We should absolutely focus on current employees more when talking about employer branding, and there are a few reasons why. One is obviously retention, and the other is around engagement, and the correlation between engagement and productivity. If employees are experiencing an authentic brand they are proud of and makes them want to get out of bed in the morning, it’s going to make them want to be more productive and attentive.

If you have employees who are proud and enjoy working for you, that shows in a variety of ways – be it recruiting other talent or being brand ambassadors. We have what we call an ambassador club, which recognises employees who have actually sold our products because of the pride and sense of ownership they have for the vehicles we produce.

In emerging markets such as China and India, everyone knows Ford and they know Henry Ford and his contribution to industrialisation, but they’re not as familiar as the more recent Ford story. That does create an opportunity for us because we’re a well established company with a great legacy and one that is still family owned, but we’re also bringing Henry Ford’s new story to the emerging markets.

We’ve been able to tell the story with that great legacy with the new world which is about growth and providing mobility to different communities. One of Henry Ford’s famous quotes is: “Opening the highways to all mankind.” That’s what we’re doing in parts of China, India and Thailand.

How we draw on our history and legacy, but making it current so it resonates in our growth markets, has been really important to us because the new generation of employees in those markets want to be part of that, and that’s very exciting.

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WORK LIFE » People

suitetalk

People WORK LIFE Get into the boss’s head

Raman Singh

Regional director of Asia, Latin America, Middle East and Africa, Mundipharma WHAT IS YOUR VIEW OF HR AS A NECESSARY BUSINESS FUNCTION? I think human resources is a key strategic driver for any company to be successful, especially in our region. It’s essential that as companies grow, we create a culture which is unique and that people can identify with at the same time. HR plays a huge role in ensuring the strategy, in terms of human management, is aligned with the overall objectives and vision of the company.

HOW HAVE YOU SEEN HR GROW IN YOUR COMPANY? The HR function has evolved completely. What we have really focused on in the past couple of years is the development of systems and processes that not only attract good talent, but also retain the good ones. We have created an infrastructure that enables people to stretch themselves and balance work with fun.

HOW DO YOU DEFINE YOUR LEADERSHIP STYLE? I’m very particular about the people I hire. Once I have people in place, I leave them to their own devices. I’m hands-on, but I don’t micromanage.

HOW DO YOU ENSURE YOU UNDERSTAND EMPLOYEES’ NEEDS? I like to give feedback collectively in front of a group to acknowledge the work behind it. And, if in a case there is feedback which has a more developmental need or a criticism, I like to do this in person.

SpacialAwareness

HOW DO YOU GIVE POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE FEEDBACK? For positive feedback, I like to specify what has been done, instead of being generic. I like to make that individual the hero for that moment and recognise and acknowledge them. I try to give negative feedback as close as possible to the time it occurred, rather than keep it for performance reviews. You have to give feedback so the person can learn, reflect and develop.

WHAT DO YOU ENJOY MOST ABOUT YOUR WORK? The diversity of the region I manage because there is never a dull moment.

It is paradoxical that there will always be a happy moment in some parts of the world, while a crisis is happening somewhere else, but it excites me and gives a lot of variety to what I do.

WHAT IS ONE MOTTO YOU LIVE BY? “Never, never, never give up” as said by Winston Churchill. I truly believe in this, especially when you are expanding and in the pharmaceutical space where there are a lot of hurdles. It’s all about perspective. It has kept me going and has never let me down, and I believe it never will.

TO GET A JOB IN MY COMPANY, YOU … should apply for it.

MEC’S ENERGY BOOSTER MEC moved into its new office on Cross Street earlier this year, giving its employees a new creative space to work in.

Gareth Ling, MEC’s director of people and culture for APAC, says because the company strives for an entrepreneurial culture, it was important the office space reflected an innovative and challenging thought-leadership environment.

“That’s why we have created a series of different work spaces in our new agile office to encourage all our talent to break convention with their desk,” he says.

The open office concept also allows for the company’s employees “a certain freedom and empowerment” because they are able to choose the space they work in, building an environment of trust.

Ling adds the interactive and flexible work space has also helped in improving productivity.

“Our policy on agile working (no one has a fixed desk) organically improves

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day-to-day communication, and therefore productivity. We’re only three months in, but the energy is tangible,” he says.

“An early observation would be that any hierarchical barriers that existed have been reduced and relationships with senior management improved. This accelerates decision-making in a shorter time frame.”

Ling says the office’s “inspiring” contemporary design, as well as the bold graphics and multiple break-out spaces, also drives creativity and exceptional results.

For organisations planning an office revamp, Ling says to stay true to the brand and company values.

“Keep it simple and recognise that having a top-notch office manager with experience is crucial,” he says.

“Creating a steering committee to achieve the result is a must and consultation with all staff is critical. It is for all of them, after all.”

September 2013 « Human Resources «

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WORK LIFE » HR by numbers

People WORK LIFE

Paid to perform Global – Performance-based remuneration is gaining traction worldwide, but even more so in the Asia Pacific region.

According to the 2013 Kelly Global Workforce Index, which surveyed more than 120,000 respondents from 31 countries, 44% of them receive performance-based salaries.

As compared with their counterparts in the APAC region (59%), only 39% in EMEA and 36% in the Americas are on a performancebased pay scheme.

Among respondents not receiving performance-based pay, there was a strong view they would perform better if they were to switch to such an arrangement.

56%

of Asia Pacific workers who don’t receive variable pay say they would perform better if they did.

45%

of Gen Y employees receive variable pay.

43%

of respondents in Asia Pacific think they are paid enough.

Source: 2013 Kelly Global Workforce Index

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snapshot

15 minutes with ...

Venny

Head of human resources department Teco Electric & Machinery WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST HR JOB, AND WHY DID YOU CHOOSE HR AS A PROFESSION? My first job was in the hospitality industry.

I was in the finance department and the HR manager requested assistance as the department was shorthanded due to the sudden turnover. I volunteered on an ad hoc basis and that was when I started to be involved in HR operations. I left the job to pursue full-time study, majoring in HR management.

HOW DO YOU THINK THE HR FUNCTION WILL EVOLVE IN THE NEXT FIVE YEARS? It will become technology based with seamless operations, and be less administrative. Each HR personnel can expect to have dual or triple roles on their lap.

63%

of employees in Singapore are on performance-based pay.

WHAT DO YOU THINK CAN BE DONE BETTER WITHIN HR? Better customer service and level of engagement within HR, for others to willingly share feedback about what is going on in the company. Most of the time, information from the bottom does help to make strategic decisions.

widernet

WHICH HR FUNCTION DO YOU LIKE BEST AND WHY? Every function has its pros and cons, but policy creation or review is probably one of the interesting functions to me. That’s where I can dig deeper into what’s going on and gain information on other companies’ best-practices.

CAN YOU DESCRIBE A REGULAR WORKDAY AT YOUR COMPANY? Checking and responding to emails, creating and revisiting my to-do list, and as much as possible clearing them off. At times, I’ll be walking to the ground to touch base with others.

WHAT DO YOU ENJOY MOST ABOUT YOUR WORK? Being able to solve problems, be it people’s problems or work issues. It gives me that sense of satisfaction.

IS THERE ANYTHING YOU FEEL HR CAN DO BETTER TO PLAY A BIGGER ROLE IN ORGANISATIONS? Do not shy away from the company’s problems and barricade yourself in your own role. Take up the challenge and be involved. More often than not, problems help us grow and understand the real business process and solving them together will take us to the same wavelength.

I CAN’T WORK WITHOUT … my morning cup of coffee!

Perspective on regional HR

Working with diverse cultural attitudes In the past we have been able to easily identify, with a high degree of accuracy, which people from which cultures might have made the following statements: • “When I have an opinion, I like to have an open discussion with my boss.”

• “It doesn’t matter what I think, I will take my boss’ instruction.”

• “I should have a place to take a nap during my lunch hour.”

• “The pantry needs to have a microwave, so that I can heat up my lunch.”

• “The office should be close to bars, so that I can go out for happy hour drinks with my colleagues.”

However, this isn’t so easy to do anymore in today’s globalised world. The impact of local culture is increasingly mixed with cross-border influences in the form of education, mass media, literature and entertainment.

The employee is more likely to be an amalgam of many cultures. You might have two employees with a similar cultural background, but one who was educated abroad can think, behave and

respond completely differently from the other who was educated locally.

In the midst of such diverse work forces, corporate culture plays a vital role in defining how employees function together in a company. At the same time, corporations also have to recognise the unique blend in each individual employee while adopting the essence of local culture.

The work of HR professionals becomes more challenging as we care for the employees involved and exercise empathy in evolving cultures.

However, empathy in the workplace should be exercised within corporate boundaries. We must always bear in mind the interests of both the company and the employees – striking that balance is our role as HR professionals.

Regardless of the culture we operate in, good communication must be a major key in the success of a company. Take note, that right things said at the wrong time can turn into a problem. The best intentions communicated inappropriately can also lead to misunderstandings, and the right words said in the wrong tone can be offensive.

We all need to seek to understand before we seek to be understood. When we, as HR

Get a grip: A fast-growing organisation needs all hands on

professionals can grasp the art of communication, we are able to successfully tackle the more complex and diverse backgrounds of culture, education and other human factors in the workplace today.

Christine P. Chung

Vice-president, human resources, Asia Pacific HOK

September 2013 « Human Resources « 11

WHITE PAPER » Leadership

Leadership « WHITE PAPER

LEADERSHIP THE TOP CONCERN FOR GLOBAL BUSINESSES

INNOVATE, OR YOUR STAFF MAY LEAVE

GET INSIDE YOUR EMPLOYEES’ HEADS

Global – Leadership development and succession are the top concerns for business executives worldwide.

According to the Deloitte Global Human Capital 2013 Trends report, which surveyed more than 1,300 business and HR professionals, companies acknowledge uncertainty, but are taking better measures to harness change as a business advantage.

In a rapidly changing world, the speed at which organisations adapt has become a critical business capability. Growth strategies are all dependent on talent as the core foundation for success.

Trends that drive critical business and human capital decisions, depending on their level of intensity and maturity, were classified into leading trends, rising trends and emerging trends. The top five global leading trends are leadership development and succession (61%); the war to develop talent (61%); organisation acceleration (58%); transforming HR to meet new business priorities (57%); and how boards are changing the HR game (54%).

While the top five trends are consistent across the three major global regions, some are more pressing today than others. Executives in APAC are most strongly focused on the need to develop their leadership pipelines and prepare the next generation of leaders within their organisations. Respondents in APAC were the only ones to cite the ageing workforce as a top five trend.

Global – Innovation is critical for the sourcing, recruitment and ongoing engagement of employees, but not all companies have the resources for innovation.

The Futurestep Innovation Imperative survey drew responses from 800 recruitment and talent managers and 4,000 employees who generally defined innovation as change, improvement and forward thinking.

Almost 70% of recruitment managers felt innovation in recruitment and talent management was crucial to achieving profitability. However, only 56% said demonstrating it was highly valued.

Additionally, 74% of recruitment managers felt their companies needed to do more to demonstrate innovation, despite 61% reporting there was an innovation budget in place within their organisation.

This sentiment was echoed by 71% of employees, who said companies needed to do more to demonstrate innovation in their recruitment and management procedures.

Compared with 29% of employees who did not think their companies were innovative, 36% of employees thought they were. Of that 36%, 8% believed their workplace was “extremely innovative”. IT and telecommunications companies 12 » Human Resources » September 2013

Employees who agreed

Employees who disagreed

I expect companies to demonstrate innovation in retaining staff.

76%

24%

Innovative workplaces foster pride that goes beyond what people are doing.

75%

25%

I expect companies to be demonstrating innovation in the ways they recruit talent.

60%

40%

Source: The Innovation Imperative Report, 2013

lead the charge here, with 12% of employees in that sector citing their business as innovative.

Professionals in the BRIC nations (Brazil, Russia, India and China) place more importance on the role of innovation in employee development. When asked whether innovative methods were important for staff development, respondents from India (88%), Brazil (85%) and Greater China (81%) were all more likely to agree, compared with the UK (67%).

Innovation is undoubtedly a key factor in attracting talent. Innovative recruitment methods will improve 51% of employees’ perception of a brand, and a similar proportion feel they are more likely to consider working in an organisation perceived as an innovative recruiter.

Innovation can have a dramatic impact on

productivity and morale, with 34% of employees saying they will feel much more motivated if innovative management methods are employed in their workplace.

Innovation is also critical in retaining employees, with 64% admitting they would consider leaving for a new role that offered innovative benefits even if they were happy in their current role.

However, even if there was a desire among HR professionals to be more innovative, implementing innovative methods can be met with barriers. Only 4% of recruitment managers reported facing “no barriers at all” to implementing innovation. Additionally, 17% said innovation was just “not something that has been discussed” in their company.

It is “highly relevant”

It “will be relevant in 1-3 years”

It “will be relevant in 3+ years”

Leadership development and succession

65%

21%

10%

Organisation acceleration

61%

29%

7%

War to develop talent

59%

27%

8%

Transforming HR to meet new business priorities

53%

30%

13%

How boards are changing the HR game

49%

31%

13%

The ageing workforce

48%

30%

17%

Trends in APAC

Source: Deloitte Global Human Capital Trends Report, 2013

They also identified branding the workplace (77%), an ageing workforce (73%), and leading talent from the BRIC (72%) as relevant now or in the future.

Respondents also felt future workplaces (68%) and the performance management puzzle (68%) would be trends rising through to 2017.

Singapore – Bosses and employees are divided when it comes to remuneration, bonus payouts, working overtime and staff retention.

The Ambition Market Trends and Salary Report 2H 2013 received responses from more than 1,400 employers and employees and found while 51.1% of employers think their company’s remuneration levels are in line with the market, almost half (44.4%) of employees disagreed.

Of employers who felt they were aligned with market rates, 44.9% were of director-level and above. In contrast, 70.6% of employees who felt otherwise were from junior management and below.

Almost half of employers (49.5%) said their bonus payouts met their expectations compared with 63.2% of employees who did not feel this.

The survey also found 53% of employees believed they could earn more in another city. An overwhelming 75.8% are willing to relocate to further their careers, and of them, 75.5% said they are likely to do so in the next six months.

Order of importance when choosing a job

Employees

Employers

1

Salary

Salary

2

Relationship with manager

Bonus

3

Career advancement

Company culture

4

Benefits

Company brand

Source: Ambition Market Trends and Salary Report 2H, 2013

About 40% of employees said there were layoffs in their business areas in the past six months. It also found a big percentage (62.9%) of them felt their companies did not invest enough in training and development. These factors may cause employees to have low morale at work, with 28.9% of employees who felt this way.

There is also poor communication between the two. While 70.9% of employers felt their companies provided adequate internal communication on company matters, 39.3% of employees disagreed. In addition, 68.7% of employers said they offered flexible working hours, but only 53.8% of employees said their companies offered flexi-work structures.

What is worrying is how employers’ misconceptions may cause staff to leave. The lack of career growth is the top reason for employees resigning (43.4%), but only 52.1% of employers felt career progression within their organisations was possible. In addition, 16.1% of employers felt staff should leave if they are unhappy with the lack of career progression.

September 2013 « Human Resources « 13

PROFILE » Veronica Tan

Veronica Veronica Tan Tan « P PROFILE ROFILE

Veronica Tan Hill+Knowlton Strategies Keeping people in the people business

By SABRINA ZOLKIFI

Q The PR industry is notorious for high turnover rates.

Personally, in Singapore I think we’re in a very stressful environment and our workforce is very tight, especially in the PR industry. They are a small group of people competing against a small group and they all move around.

Q How is this trend affected by the high concentration of Gen Y employees in the industry?

If 60% of my employees are Gen Y, I will have to plan for them to move every two years because this is one of the things that is typical to Gen Ys – not just in Singapore, but throughout Asia.

Art direction: Shahrom Kamarulzaman; Photography: Stuart Jenner – stuartjennerphotography.com; Hair and makeup: Parichat Naidu – parichatnaidu.wix.com/parimakeover

isn’t just extended to Gen Y staff, is it?

This training is suitable for employees of all levels, and through this, our firm will be better equipped with a team of strong consultants who have been trained in delivering our unique approach to strategic communication. It helps with their career progression as well.

Q How do the programmes at the

eager to move?

I guess one of the reasons is the Gen Y market is very mobile and that creates movement. In Singapore, there are also few key agencies that people would like to join besides H+K, but when there’s movement, there are opportunities as well.

Q Can you tell us about H+K’s

Q Aside from training, what other

retention strategies to help keep employees on board.

In terms of retaining staff, training is something we look at. We have a H+K University, which is a global training platform designed to help us deliver outstanding opportunities which are relevant and accessible, and focused on skills required by our current clients.

efforts are there to retain employees?

In our Singapore office we have a lot of casual gatherings during the festive seasons. We organise informal activities for them and we’ve got an internal newsletter which is distributed to our network to ensure the liveliness of a dynamic working environment.

We also have a global newsletter, and opportunities for employees to work in different offices, so these are some of our engagement efforts on top of the training we provide.

Q Is this something specific to the regional operations?

This is throughout Asia, and the university 14 » Human Resources » September 2013

work within H+K? Most of the time they move offices, so for example, in our Malaysian office, we have somebody from the US who has been identified as a high potential. She’s under a two-year contract in Asia.

Our MD in the Singapore office used to be from H+K Qatar and then Malaysia, and now he’s here. Whenever there’s an opportunity, we will advertise it through our network and internal website, where we allow employees to write in and explore the opportunities.

Employees here are also given opportunities to work in different offices, so say if somebody is keen to transfer to another office, they can apply and should the opportunity become available, they will be notified.

Q The H+K University programme

university work?

Each office identifies a trainer, and sometimes we offer training through webinars. The university is suitable for every level of training for different levels of staff.

Training-wise, we also have a training newsletter called Career Connection, where employees within the region will participate and write about the training that took place in their offices, as well as their own career path.

Q Why do you think Gen Ys are so

Q How do the mobility opportunities

comprises of two tiers of training – communication and consulting.

Q How does providing mobility

VITAL STATS Veronica Tan is the regional director for Hill+Knowlton Strategies Asia.

She recently joined H+K from Jones the Grocer, and is currently overseeing the firm’s global talent initiatives, performance management and talent development, among other things.

opportunities help with retention?

It shows there’s a commitment from H+K to provide opportunities in development and training, and career progression. Right now, despite the fact Gen Y like to move around, they also want something in it for themselves. By paving a career progression path for them, we are able to retain some of these individuals.

Q H+K also provides annual engagement surveys to gauge employee sentiments in the offices?

The engagement survey is like a climate survey and has various questions to help us understand things, such as how employees feel about their packages and what they want. It’s through these voices we design development programmes.

155 Seeptem Sep SSeptember eepte tem embe em beerr 220 013 13 « Human Hum Hum uman an Re Res R eessou our our urcceeess « 1 2013 Resources

PROFILE » Veronica Tan

Veronica Tan « PROFILE “As HR professionals, in order to execute or even plan strategic engagement initiatives, the one-size-fits-all methodology doesn’t work anymore. We have to take into consideration what works best according to each office.”

We conduct it globally to gain feedback from staff, and then we prepare action plans in each office on how we will act on the feedback.

Q How do the action plans of the post-engagement survey work?

The engagement survey usually takes place in April, so by June or July, you will have to digest the survey and present the findings to the staff. After that, you will develop a focus group made up of different practices and levels within the company to create the action plan. We also implement deadlines for the offices to follow up with their action plans. At the end, you follow up and see how well you’ve done in the action plan, and this happens within three to six months.

in most of our events, and also take part in brainstorming sessions.

Q Are there also open communication avenues for the students during their internship?

After one month, we usually catch up with the interns and then again at the six-month point, because the school also needs feedback on their performance. It’s a good opportunity for the intern, school and H+K to find out what we’ve done well and what can be done better.

Q Why is it important to follow up on the findings of the engagement survey?

The truth is when you conduct a survey, but there’s no action at the end, the staff will stop participating or take it lightly.

Q What’s the most important part of the internship process?

At the end of the day, we’re in the people business. Our key role is to reach our business objectives, and be a stronger partner with our clients. If we are able to retain a group of talented individuals, then

Q How does the focus group help H+K create better action plans?

The focus group is usually a mixture of employees, depending on the office. We give them the freedom to choose who participates, but because it’s to develop action plans, we try and get as many different voices as possible. A lot of these action plans develop around staff benefits, career development, training… we usually focus on three or four things we think are critical for the year.

Q Going back to the topic of

focus group agenda for the Singapore office?

Training constantly appears in the surveys, along with team-building. A lot of the time, everyone is so busy, they don’t have a lot of time to get together with their colleagues.

Gen Ys, does H+K adopt any internship programmes?

We do a lot of internships with the big universities here, and sometimes we do sponsorship for their orientation programmes. Recently, we sent one of our directors to the National University of Singapore to do a presentation to engage students and tell them what PR is about.

Once they’ve completed their internship, we offer them employment as well. We’ve been successful in converting a couple of interns to full-time staff.

Q What do you ask employees in

Q This is something unique to the

these surveys?

It asks questions about how you’d rate your manager, how you feel about your pay package, if you’d recommend H+K to your peers. It’s important for us to identify our strengths and areas we can improve on.

Otherwise, we will become complacent and will never be able to improve. It’s a lot on the well-being of the company and employees.

Singapore office?

Most countries have an internship programme, but it may be in a different format depending on their local structure.

Q What’s high on this year’s

16 » Human Resources » September 2013

Q Do internship programmes also help with retention?

With an internship, they are being exposed to the industry itself. At H+K, we feel it is very important to nurture the interns – we

recruit and attract the best-in-class, we can then tell our clients we have a pool of gold-standard individuals who will be able to support them. Everything is a chain; if you have happy staff, you will have higher profits and happy clients.

Q Speaking of everything being connected, it seems as though engagement isn’t just the responsibility of the HR function in H+K. No, engagement activities are not only HR’s responsibilities, it involves the MD and business partners as well because we’re talking about our best asset – the employees.

Q What do you think are the biggest mistakes companies make when it comes to engagement?

As HR professionals, in order to execute

or even plan strategic engagement initiatives, the one-size-fits-all methodology doesn’t work anymore. We have to take into consideration what works best according to each office. To have an effective engagement initiative, you need to understand the overall dynamics of the organisation and use the engagement surveys to understand their needs.

Communication is also important. You need to communicate with staff to get their feedback.

Q On the topic of communication, what are H+K’s best practices when it comes to performance reviews?

Usually it’s done in the last quarter of the year. It’s an opportunity for both the employees and managers to have a formal conversation and pin down KPIs for next year.

We will also talk about things the employee would like to do, such as being more involved in a certain aspect of their job. From there, we are able to gauge the employee’s interest and engagement, and find out the training they’d like to attend. It’s a good tool to encourage communication as well.

provide interns with a set of programmes and we don’t just ask them to do things like photocopying. We are committed to train the interns so they know exactly what the PR world is about. We have a lot of interns we have kept in contact with and asked to come back after their graduation.

Q Internships could also be used to weed out those who aren’t a good fit for the industry?

Yes, there are some people, who after doing their internship, realise it’s not the type of work they want to do. Those who have a keen interest in developing a career in the PR industry know what it is about and have a clearer picture of how to map out their career. I think it’s crucial and beneficial to both the intern and company.

Q How long is an internship?

Usually it’s about six months, which is just nice. They take about a month to familiarise themselves and the rest of the months, they’ll hit the road running. Our interns contribute effectively and participate

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September 2013 « Human Resources « 17

FEATURE » Leadership development

Leadership development « FEATURE

Organisations have their work cut out for them when it comes to identifying skills for business leadership in Asia.

Sabrina Zolkifi finds out how HR can help leaders take a global view of the business.

usinesses today may rely on sophisticated systems and tools to stay ahead, but the real change-makers are the ones walking out the office every night: the employees.

However, having the best employees does little to gain a company an edge if the people leading them leave much to be desired.

The quote, “Leaders are made, they are not born” by notable American football coach Vince Lombardi, has rung true in the hallways and boardrooms of many companies, but lesser known is the second part of his quote: “They are made by hard effort, which is the price which all of us must pay to achieve any goal that is worthwhile.”

Today, more organisations are investing time, money and effort into leadership development.

As the business world continues to develop and grow, companies are realising they cannot wait until tomorrow to develop leaders.

“Our people and our leadership will make all the difference; it is for this strategic driver that we invest heavily on our leadership pipeline growth and development,” says Shahrukh Marfatia, VP of HR for global commercial (downstream) at Royal Dutch Shell.

At Shell, those earmarked for development opportunities are not only given the opportunity to hone their professional skill sets, but also to work on their personal development.

“Shell believes we will drive performance in the short and long-term for our people and the business by personally developing our people to be the best,” Marfatia says.

He says the company does this through telling employees what is expected of them, holding them accountable for their development and providing support to help staff succeed.

Alex Kershaw, director of HR (Singapore market head) at American Express International, says increasingly leaders are required to lead through uncertain times.

“While this is not a new phenomenon, I believe it will be an increasingly relevant theme over the next three years,” she says.

“Leaders need to create their own leadership signature by developing and leveraging their capabilities and applying this to the requirement of the current situation.”

Therefore, American Express has put in place several leadership development programmes to help leaders further themselves, and most recently, launched its global “people leader learning path” to help different levels of leaders

September 2013 « Human Resources « 19

FEATURE » Leadership development at different stages of their leadership journey (read more in the case study on page 22).

Putting words to action Another company placing a lot of emphasis on leadership development is Sony Electronics.

“We talk to all of our senior leaders to find out about the kinds of leaders they are going to need in the future,” says Samantha Foong, regional HR manager at Sony Electronics.

This collaboration between HR and other key business leaders within the organisation ensures the company is developing the right breed of leaders to support the future of Sony Electronics.

But the company wasn’t just satisfied with getting input from their key stakeholders – they also benchmarked the information they received against current leadership research to ensure they were not just prepared for changes within the organisation, but also within the market.

To make sure it was providing its leaders with the best environment to be developed, the Sony University was introduced two years ago.

“Previously, we did have leadership training programmes and they would rely on research on external institutions, but this was a more conscious effort from our end, where we said, ‘If we were to take this company forward, then how are we going to develop those leaders?’,” says Virendra Shelar, head of HR at Sony Electronics Asia Pacific.

He says that’s the biggest piece of advice he gives his peers when it comes to developing talent.

“If you don’t consciously focus on doing something different, it’s not going to happen,” he says. “There needs to be a change in mindset.”

But not just any change in mindset is required. In an increasingly global world, where business can be conducted across borders and time zones, the biggest thing holding Asian leaders back is their Asian mindset.

“To be truly successful in the global arena, you need a really global mindset, which I think still needs to be developed in our Asian leaders,” Shelar says.

“If I were to compare Manchester United, one of the best football clubs in the world, to a local club, we have a long way to go. Do we both play football? Yes. But the way in which they are groomed and trained is very different.

“Manchester United has a lot of established systems and processes, and a lot of money invested into the people. In the Asian context, we are now starting and there’s quite a bit of

20 » Human Resources » September 2013

Leadership development « FEATURE catch up, but because we’re on the right track and going at full speed, we might catch up quickly.”

Shelar has a lot more to say about the differences between leaders with an Asian and global mindset (read more in Sony’s case study on page 24) but he adds he’s not worried about Asian leaders lagging too far behind.

“When it comes to leadership, I believe that as we see Asia growing and changing, our leaders will also adapt,” he says.

“There are a lot of people who can lead in Asia, so the basic fundamental skills are there – it’s just putting that into context of the current situation and adding a global flavour to it.”

Changing gears This is also one of the reasons why Shell is very focused on developing tomorrow’s leaders today.

Shell looks for leaders who are able to exemplify the company’s recently revamped four leadership attributes, namely authenticity, growth, collaboration and performance.

However, Marfatia realises these are skills that cannot be embodied overnight, which is why “Shell leaders create stretch assignments for leaders, and coach and support them in developing their leadership through the assignments and in preparing for future roles”.

At American Express, there is also an emphasis on making sure the company’s senior leaders are engaged in leadership development programmes because it is “a critical success factor”.

“Being clear on roles and responsibilities of all the key players is important,” Kershaw says.

“This helps to drive accountability for learning and ultimately behavioural change.

“HR can play an important role in developing timely, relevant and impactful solutions. These don’t necessarily have to be time consuming or costly programmes.

“Our leaders often gain as much value from an hour-long panel discussion and Q&A with internal senior leaders, as they do from formal learning programmes.”

Moving forward, Marfatia expects business imperatives and stakeholder demands to continue to evolve and get more demanding.

“Business success will be determined by the decisions that our leaders take. So how we develop our leaders to deliver and execute on these strategies and address current business challenges and grow in the future will be the key to our success.”

September 2013 « Human Resources « 21

FEATURE » Leadership development

Leadership development « FEATURE

CASE STUDY: AMERICAN EXPRESS Sabrina Zolkifi finds out how American Express is handling its latest leadership development programme, and how it will help strengthen its talent pool.

American Express has never been a company to think inside the box and prides itself on being adaptable when faced with obstacles. Alex Kershaw, director of HR (Singapore market head) at American Express International, says those two principles have been a result of strong leadership within the organisation.

“Breakthroughs occur at the edge of the comfort zone. An American Express leader welcomes new ideas, continually testing the ‘tried and true’,” Kershaw says.

“We anticipate and act, refusing to wait until the future has happened.”

Because the world’s focus is now resting on Asia, it is in that vein Kershaw says the company has decided to focus on developing leadership in the region. She says one of the biggest challenges facing the company’s leaders in Asia is driving and leading change.

“As leaders, we need to embrace change and to take our teams along with us on this journey. We know the human condition is often to fear and resist change, so our leaders need to understand their role as an enabler for change and growth and hone their changeleadership skills,” she says.

American Express boasts a dedicated global leadership team which plans ahead and anticipates leadership development requirements. La Last year, the company launched a new “global people lleader learning programme” to support its development eefforts.

“We are constantly liste listening to feedback from our lead leaders, and improvemen to existing making improvements programmes, while developing new programmes or con content to meet the need of each leade leadership segment.” compa isn’t just fi xed But the company on developing lead leaders who will t hrive in Asia. thrive “Increasingly, our leaders lead teams which are ge geographically w need to dispersed, and we b ensure we are building a culture and la language of wh leadership which transcends cultural and geographic boundaries. boundaries.”

Kershaw says the biggest behin providing driver behind tailored lea leadership

22 » Human Resources » September 2013

development programmes is to provide “a solution that would meet their needs and give them the flexibility they need to learn at their own pace in their preferred style, in whatever part of the world they are in”.

“We needed to fi nd the right blend of group-learning events to drive connectivity and collaboration, as well as self-directed learning to ensure flexibility,” she says.

“By using a blend of learning channels, technologies and approaches we believe we have developed an impactful global solution which meets these needs.”

The American Express “people leader learning path programme” consists of four learning paths, each designed to cater to different levels of leaders at different stages in their leadership journey, with different paths for new and existing leaders.

Kershaw says it was piloted extensively across several markets, and feedback was used to tweak the programme – a key step that would ensure the programme’s relevance and engagement at the market level.

When it was launched in Singapore, the most critical step was building buy-in for the programme.

“Th is started by gaining support from the country executive team and identifying an executive sponsor, as it ensures the programme has advocacy at the highest level, and from within the business, not just within the HR function,” she says.

The company also rolled out a kick-off meeting for each learning path when it launched the programme.

The aim was to make sure the participants were clear on the programme’s aims, content, expectations and structure.

“Involving the leaders of the participants was important as they play a critical role in facilitating learning gained from the programme and ensuring it translates into behaviour change,” Kershaw says.

“We know that creating an environment which is conducive to learning is key to creating behavioural change, and so we want to ensure leaders are aware of what their learners are experiencing, and are prepared to coach and support.”

Kershaw says the programme is still in the midst of being fully rolled out, but the response has been very positive.

“We’re constantly taking feedback from our learners, so we can make improvements for future programmes.

Th is programme is no different and I’m sure there will be lots of learning as it continues through the roll out.”

September 2013 « Human Resources « 23

FEATURE » Leadership development

Leadership development « FEATURE

CASE STUDY: SONY ELECTRONICS Sabrina Zolkifi speaks to Virendra Shelar, head of HR at Sony Electronics Asia Pacific, about the company’s leadership development principles.

Sony Electronics’ belief in driving innovation and making changes doesn’t just extend to its products.

“We wanted to show to our leaders that it didn’t have to be products only – it can be applied in any place across anywhere,” says Virendra Shelar, head of HR at Sony Electronics Asia Pacific.

He says that is one of the biggest principles the company follows when doing business.

“One of the biggest things we did while keeping that spirit in mind was we were going to give one briefing of RFP (request for proposal) to everybody at the same time, so please be open that you’re going to have your competitor sitting at the table,” he shares, adding doing a mass proposal call like that, was pretty much unheard of, and allowed an element of creative thinking to the process. “[One of Sony’s founders] Akio Morita-san said, ‘To be successful, we have to do what others do not do’, and that’s what we want to do in our training pr programmes.”

Two years ago, the S Sony University was launched in Singapore, Sin located an easy five-minut ve-minute walk from the company’s headq headquarters in western Singapore.

Shelar says the HR team recognised talent development developmen was not something that was solely HR’s responsibility, and so engaged other business bus units within the organisation organ to identify which competencies wer were needed.

“One of the things we did was we in interviewed our key sstakeholders, and a asked them what kind of leaders we will need five years down the line. They g gave certain ideas in te terms of some of the com competencies required for the these people, which we b then benchmarked against resea research Korn/Ferry was doin called Asia 2.0. doing “Then we took

24 » Human Resources » September 2013

the competencies we were required to develop in our leaders, and designed our programmes around that. The programmes we are doing at the Sony University are more futuristic – other than developing leaders for now, we are developing leaders for the future.”

He acknowledges Sony isn’t the only company to have jumped on the corporate university bandwagon, and suggests a shift of mindset over the past few years is the biggest driver behind the trend.

“The previous mindset was, ‘I can bring in a leader from the western world, plant them in Asia, and they will be successful’.

“In Asia, with the whole economic shift where you can see Asia being more and more important, it became very critical for companies to realise that bringing in someone from the outside world is not going to help.”

It was because of this realisation the Sony team decided it wasn’t enough to only develop leadership in Asia, but also Asian leaders who possessed a global mindset.

“Asia is where it’s growing, but there’s a lack of global leadership. We have leaders, but they may not have the global leadership mindset.”

But what is the biggest difference between leaders with an Asian and global mindset? Shelar says when it comes to competency gaps, the answer is in one word: listening.

“In the Asian context, we tend to speak more than listen, and in the global context, people will listen quite a bit.

“Of course, both have their own pros and cons, but in Asia, we believe a lot in consensus-building first, before taking any action, whereas once everyone is on the same page, it’s very quickly executed. If not all views are considered and you’re not on track, your execution has been a waste of time.”

However, the Sony University isn’t just focused on developing global leaders – it also wants to produce leaders who will thrive in the complex and dynamic business world of the future.

“We know the world is changing very rapidly and the term VUCA, which is an acronym for volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity, is being used more so in the business world. As leaders, as Asian or otherwise, they need to get comfortable with this idea of ambiguity.”

Therefore, all programmes offered by Sony University

are designed around the concept of VUCA. “In the programme itself, we bring a lot of volatility and uncertainty, and give them real-life situations. Once they get comfortable with the idea of VUCA, no matter which situation we put them into, they should be able to take back whatever learnings they had.”

Similar to how the company takes a transparent and unconventional approach when it calls for proposals, Sony Electronics “challenged every single traditional norm” when crafting the programmes.

“The other thing we told them was that the whole module, which was carried out over six days, would be done without a single PowerPoint presentation,” Shelar says.

“When you remove the PowerPoint, your training becomes more interactive.”

He says the design of the programme also included a coaching element, which made up the middle portion of the three-part module.

Following the 70-20-10 model, participants would spend three days both at the start and end of the module for training on campus, which makes up for the 10%.

In between, there is a three-month gap where the 70% comes in, and participants are expected to apply their learnings to their everyday roles.

It is also during this time participants have to take on a mentor role, which will then account for the last 20%.

“During these three months they are away, we encourage them to meet up at least once a month to coach or teach, and when they return for the second part of the on-campus training, the first question we ask them is: ‘How was your coaching? What have you learnt? Who did you coach?’, and those are questions you have to answer in front of the group – and you can’t fake it.”

And because Sony University captures the company’s spirit of innovation and change, and was created with the intent of developing futuristic leaders, Shelar says the team makes a conscious effort to change 20% of the modules offered yearly.

“After five years, we will have a completely different set of programmes … there will be some things that have changed completely because the business has changed.”

While he admits this is a risky move because “we don’t know if this will work or not”, it is a risk they are willing to take.

“We want to keep challenging ourselves to be in line with the market.”

September 2013 « Human Resources « 25

FEATURE » Leadership development

Leadership development « FEATURE

CASE STUDY: SHELL Royal Dutch Shell shares how the company keeps its development programmes relevant to Asia. By Sabrina Zolkifi.

At Shell, leadership is more than just finding people to lead the organisation.

“Leadership is about driving performance and leaving a legacy for our people and for the business by personally developing our people to be the best,” says Shahrukh Marfatia, vice-president of HR for global commercial (downstream) at Royal Dutch Shell.

“From research, we know that 90% of learning and development takes place through coaching and by creating ‘in-role’ stretch opportunities to learn, grow and develop.

“The rest of the 10% comes from learning programmes, so here we have a well-established curriculum of classroom, online and blended learning.”

He says developing leaders to reach their full potential is critical to remain competitive and deliver business value to stakeholders.

This is especially so in the Asian region, as more business opportunities are coming back to the east.

About 10 years ago, Shell formed the Asian Talent Council (ATC), which is led by the most senior business leaders in Asia, and is supported by their HR VPs and talent managers.

“The ATC aims to support business growth by accelerating the quality and degree of representation of Asian talent in leadership positions in Asia and in the group,” he says. leader have to take The ATC leaders ownership an and ensure all senior jobs available in Asia in the next six to 24 ar reviewed. Following months are that, recom recommendations will be th hiring managers to made to the ensure the best Asian talent is s placed in such jobs for enhanced deve in-role development. ar also conscious “There are t educate and raise efforts made to awar the awareness of global leaders t Asian context and on the cu culture when interacting, m managing and developing A Asian leaders as western l leaders also need to look at the value of Asian talent with a more sensitised Asian lens,” he says.

26 » Human Resources » September 2013

Marfatia says internal research by the company found Asian leaders didn’t fare as well as their western counterparts in communication and executive presence, and therefore needed “more coaching on how they could themselves be better coaches and mentors”.

To bridge this competency gap, Shell took on a multipronged approach.

This included providing employees with jobs and goals that would help stretch and develop their leadership skills.

Because the company agreed such a programme was a priority, it carried out actions to address it at Shell’s “individual development plans” discussions.

The company also makes sure it identifies staff strengths and development areas through assessments, which are done when a leader is new to a leadership group as part of a core programme or during a mid-assignment leadership assessment, which occurs two to three years into the assignment.

For leaders newly appointed to the leadership group, they are also provided with core leadership programmes and targeted leadership programmes, which address specific leadership skills development, and initiatives targeted at specific groups of employees such as the Shell Life programme for newly hired graduates, and the women’s career development programme.

He says it is important that leadership appointment decisions and succession planning efforts “explicitly consider performance in leadership attributes and the leader’s track record in developing people”.

One way Shell gathers that information is via the mid-assignment leadership assessment, which is a 360-assessment on leadership attributes, and a review of the Shell People Survey results.

“Leaders then receive feedback on the future roles that could suit them, so they can plan their development,” Marfatia says.

Line leaders also conduct in-depth talent reviews to hold them accountable for the quality and diversity of their talent pipeline.

Additionally, the Shell People Survey provides feedback on the extent to which its people feel they are developing, among a number of other dimensions.

“In Shell, it is our leaders who personally develop the best people, not processes and programmes,” Marfatia says.

“The successful progression of a leader through the organisation depends on how well they develop the leaders coming behind them.”

September 2013 « Human Resources « 27

FEATURE » Expatriate management

Returning home from an overseas assignment isn’t as simple as it sounds. Amos Seah discovers what HR should be looking out for when repatriating employees, and how it can deal with the various challenges this brings.

Expatriate management « FEATURE epatriating an employee from an overseas assignment is comparable with a soldier returning from an overseas mission. Firstly, he returns home after having achieved an objective or goal (one would hope) and secondly, with him he brings new knowledge and valuable experiences.

Additionally, they both face the challenge of adapting back into their old environment.

When repatriating an employee, HR becomes involved in many aspects of the move, attempting to make the transition “as painless as possible”, says Pete Baker, Maersk Line’s director of human resources for Asia Pacific.

Similar to the expatriation process when an employee first moves to a foreign country, HR needs to ensure a smooth ride for the expatriate’s return, so the staff member “can focus on their performance without being incredibly worried about the logistics in the process”, says Baker.

To do this, alongside companies assuring employees their personal belongings are well taken care of, properly transported and set up back at home, HR will brief the employee on the administrative changes they will face through an off-boarding process. This can be done weeks or even months before they repatriate.

“There are regular communication and follow-ups with our assignees during their time overseas, so even before the repatriation process begins, the assignees are prepared to deal with the whole process,” says Foo Chi Minn, regional head of human resources at Certis Cisco Security.

Jérôme de Grandmaison, vice-president of HR for Alstom Group for East APAC, mentions that through the performance management cycle, the company will “highlight the performance and the next career steps of the expatriate”.

Dealing with reverse culture shock “Sometimes people feel that repatriation is very easy because the person is coming home, but in many cases it is not,” Baker says.

Returning expatriates will have to readjust to a different lifestyle back at home. Additionally, their home country may have gone through a period of change, socially or politically, during the period they were away.

Foo explains a reverse culture shock occurs when “old norms and values are viewed from a fresh perspective, and things are seen in a new light … what was previously familiar has now become unfamiliar.”

This problem is amplified for expatriates who

28 » Human Resources » September 2013

have been away from home for a long time. De Grandmaison mentions expatriates returning from long-term assignments may even be afraid of going back to their home country. “It becomes a real challenge to motivate them to come back,” he says.

He adds repatriates may feel reverse culture shock when people around them do not understand, or are not interested in, what they have experienced abroad.

“As an expat in a particular location, you stand out. There is something unique about you … when you come back to your home location, you blend back in among your peers,” Baker says.

Not standing out can be considered a positive thing in many ways, but it is the changing of one’s mindset that can be the biggest challenge.

“As long as you understand it, and realise it is a natural process … it shouldn’t derail the idea of having an expat assignment,” he says.

To help repatriates adapt, companies offer employee assistance programmes which give repatriates the opportunity to talk to counsellors and coaches.

“Often, people being repatriated take advantage of those and find it quite useful,” Baker says.

However, he adds it is the HR business partners “on the ground” who play a more critical role in ensuring they are connected on a personal level, and “sense how they are settling in”.

“The one-on-one work on the ground is more important than the structural process adjustments. A personal touch is what is critical.”

It is also important to ensure the same kind of induction programme offered to them when they were arriving in the new country is made available when they leave.

Baker says not many of his employees avail themselves of such services. However, making them available communicates the right signal, giving them a choice to use the services if they wish.

The process can also be less straightforward for repatriates with a family and children to worry about.

It can be daunting, particularly for children, who spent most of their lives outside their home country. When they return, they will have to make new friends and attend a new school in a country with a completely different culture.

However, Singapore isn’t the toughest place to adapt to, says Elsie Soo, head of compensation and benefits for CITI Singapore.

September 2013 « Human Resources « 29

FEATURE Âť Expatriate management Soo says HR can assist families with children by syncing the return of repatriating employees with the school term of their children. “It is obvious that the end of the scholar year for the family is the best time,â€? de Grandmaison agrees.

Living up to expectations Apart from adapting to the environment, returning expatriates will also have to get used to new processes and expectations at their workplace.

Because they will have generally been provided with various perks during their assignments, some will expect these to continue when they return home, or expect better benefits or salary.

“I’ve heard too many examples of people who come back from very strong overseas assignments‌ and they feel they are not being stretched in their new role.â€?

Pete Baker, director of human resources, Maersk Line, Asia PaciďŹ c

Although this doesn’t happen at Citi, Soo says she often goes through a negotiation process with repatriates who want to monetise and convert their former expatriate benefits.

When an expat employee returns to Singapore from an assignment, they will return to a local salary package, and are treated like any other Singaporean-based employee. “We have to always ensure that what they receive is equitable against the other locals in the same function,� she says, adding not doing so will only result in inequality. “Some of them will have to go through a transition, not just for themselves, but for their family who have been used to the perks they were enjoying on assignment. When they are back they will have to adjust back to the change.�

Some repatriates may also return to their home country with high hopes of being promoted or posted to a more senior role.

Foo accepts it is only natural for repatriates to return with the assumption they have “earned� a promotion, and their career prospects may change for the better.

Some companies may promote repatriates

30 Âť Human Resources Âť September 2013

Expatriate management ÂŤ FEATURE to make up for the extra compensation they received overseas, however, they should be careful about doing so, he warns. “One should bear in mind that a promotion typically comes with a bigger job role and proven potential of being able to assume greater responsibilities.â€? The solution lies in setting the right expectations for employees before they are sent abroad, that an expatriate programme by itself will not guarantee a promotion.

It is also important to be as transparent as possible with them and discuss what is expected of them to be promoted to a more senior role.

Baker says if employees expect “accelerated career progression�, they can become frustrated when they are not moved into a more senior assignment upon their return. “Talk to them and help them identify the skills they learnt in their assignment, and help them put them in the right plan to live with those skills and produce great results,� Baker says.

A part of succession planning While HR traditionally focuses on the logistical process and welfare of a repatriate, Baker adds it should be looking at this from a more strategic point of view. “An expat assignment is a great opportunity for a high potential employee to learn very different skills,� he says.

Because an expat assignment is a significant investment for a company, it will be beneficial to leverage on the skills an oversees assignee has learnt when repatriating them.

As part of a company’s succession process, HR should bring repatriates into a role which “stretches them and takes advantage of the fact they have learnt different skills�, says Baker.

While it shouldn’t follow with the expectation of a promotion, repatriates should be placed in a different area from where they were previously. “I’ve heard too many examples of people who come back from very strong overseas assignments ‌ and they feel they are not being stretched in their new role.â€?

Retention then becomes a problem because these repatriates end up leaving the company. It would be “a real missed opportunity�, particularly for those who have returned from a strong overseas assignment, he says.

For Baker, the challenge lies in planning the right assignment for the right staff. “We should be sending high performing, high potential employees on expatriate assignments.�

Employee relocation without the culture shock.

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FEATURE » Expatriate management

Expatriate management « FEATURE

CASE STUDY: CITI SINGAPORE

CASE STUDY: MAERSK LINE

Joanna Poh, assistant vice-president of HR and mobility at Citi Singapore, shares how the bank copes with repatriation challenges.

A seasoned expat, Pete Baker, director of human resources for Maersk Line, shares his assignment experiences.

Helping an employee adapt when repatriating them isn’t a major issue for Joanna Poh. Expatriates with the bank tend to be experienced and seasoned “Citi bankers” so sending them on a full expatriate assignment – and repatriating them back – is something they are well prepared for.

Although a solid expatriate programme helps, it is also beneficial to have a common organisational culture, which applies to employees wherever they are located.

“The beauty of Citi as an organisation is that we tend to have a very similar mindset and approach around the world,” Poh says. After all, Singapore isn’t the toughest place to return to, but all of this is not guaranteed to cushion a repatriate from a reverse culture shock Employees returning from Europe or the US will take time getting used to the different working hours in Singapore. On top of this, they must get used to a change in lifestyle. This can be a difficult switch to cope with, but Poh says the bank encourages “employees to take up the flexible arrangement options availble to be able to work from anywhere”.

Pete Baker isn’t new to the idea of expatriation. To date, he has moved around the world nine times in his career.

Over a span of 20 years, Baker has relocated to countries such as Bulgaria, New Zealand and the US and has been in Singapore since 2006. Originally from Sydney, Baker plans to locate to Copenhagen next.

“The last time I moved back to Australia was in 2003, when I was in the US for four years,” he says.

Baker has no regrets. In fact, if he was to have done anything differently, it would have been to go for longer assignments. His assignments have ranged from 18 months to two years, and he says it would have been better if he had stayed for at least three years in each assignment because he “would have learnt more”.

Family matters Although the bank attempts to eensure repatriation is possib , the “emotional “as seamless as possible” transition” often rrequires more attention.

No matter how ggood your expatriate m be, it is not always easy programme may for expatriates returning with families.

Timing is ccritical, especially for sch those with school-aged children. “We always try to ti time the return in sync family needs,” she says. with the family’s Previously, eemployees were wh repatriated whenever the business require them to be, however, required wa observed that bringing it was the back in the middle them of the school term caused “m “more pain”.

Because the bank finances school fees for these expatriates, repatriating them back h halfway through the school year would “not make sense”.

There have also been

34 » Human Resources » September 2013

times when an employee has to be repatriated first before their family; they will return a few months later after the school term has ended.

Singaporean expats returning to Singapore will have their children reassimilated into the local education system, while children of non-Singaporean staff will attend international schools here. However, education is generally no longer funded after the expatriate returns to his local payroll.

Getting the message right Expatriates from any country will be offered a separate package on a centralised payroll system, based on Citi’s headquarters in New York. However, they will go back to a local package on return from their assignment.

Poh says despite having a good programme, there will be hiccups where it’s not clearly communicated.

Generally, “communication is key” to ensure there are no misunderstandings of the intent of the benefits given.

In the past, perks tied to the expatriate programme were not clearly “spelt out”, resulting in many employees expecting similar benefits when they returned home.

“We have learnt over time that whenever we send over an expat … we manage the conversation carefully and make sure they understand that the perks are tied to the assignment. If [HR advisors] they fail to take the employee though the necessary conversation, there will be a problem.”

Working back home Despite working overseas, an expatriate is not always secured or guaranteed a job once they repatriate.

However, Poh says this is often not an issue because staff maintain good connections with their home countries and can reach out to former contacts to look for roles.

Ultimately, the availability of a job is dependent on whether the business in the home country can absorb another headcount.

“We will always try to find a role that is suitable and matches their skill set, but the focus is always on the right person with the right skill set for the right job,” Poh says.

Redundancy is the last and least ideal option.

For Poh, there isn’t a differentiating factor between a repatriate and a worker who is based locally.

“From a HR angle, we always encourage our managers to manage their teams in an objective manner,” she says.

Whether an employee has expatriate experience or not, they are “required to deliver to the level they are at”.

Readjusting to change The main concern of Baker’s when it comes to repatriation is fitting back into the office at home, or even finding a relevant job function.

“The problem with repatriation for people who are from smaller countries such as Vietnam or New Zealand is that there is no role back home for them.”

If an employee is posted to the head office in a regional location with a global job function, they may not be able to fit into their home country if repatriated. Repatriation, as a result, can make an employee feel less engaged because their new role may not be as exciting as it was overseas.

Baker recalls working in Cincinnati where his role involved large-scale global strategic projects. Returning home after something like that offers a very different role.

“A lot of people struggle with that. They were enjoying the global or regional nature of their expatriate roles.”

After repatriation, Baker says he felt a significant reduction in responsibility compared with the global strategic role he had in Cincinnati.

“You have to realise that every role has positives and negatives, and being aware of that is helpful.”

He adjusted to change by accepting the differences in his new role, and taking advantage of the autonomy and flexibility offered in the local office. Despite the global role being much more strategic, it had “a lot of management oversight” he explains.

The social media impact The advent of social media has played a big part in changing the whole experience for employees. “All our expats stay very connected to their local country through the internet … which is becoming more and more ‘real

time’ than it has ever been before.”

The lack of social media made things very different, recounts Baker on his first assignment to Bulgaria. “I was still writing letters and speaking on the phone once a month with my family and friends back in Australia.”

It can also be easy for an expatriate to forget that life in their home country has not been “paused”.

“When I came back from Bulgaria in 1992, I felt like I skipped a whole period of my friends and family history.”

According to Baker, there is a Facebook account for each Maersk office in the world to “ensure those being expatriated know what’s going on back at home.”

Positives outweigh the negatives Repatriation can be tough to handle because of the abrupt change in lifestyle and job function. However, Baker says the positives vastly outweigh the negatives. The strategic nature of an expatriate assignment can also offer different skills, which helps an employee become a better leader.

Baker says these new skills are a major plus and an overseas assignment is a great opportunity he would recommend any manager to take on.

An expatriate will learn a more diverse style of leadership and collaboration after adjusting to the working styles of different cultures.

“It is a really helpful skill to have in a globalised environment,” he says, addingg agile problemse employees solving skills is also what these will bring back. xpose staff Being overseas will also expose ay not to different problems they may oping with have experienced at home. Coping adversity is another skill they will develop, es them to as an alien environment forces cope when things go wrong. pens in senior “Frankly, that’s what happens management positions every single day.”

Ultimately, lessons learnt through nto hardship will only translate into ooks priceless career skills if one looks at the experience positively.

“It is a tough couple of months to transition back, but if you can look at your life and career in the longterm, it will help you to put repatriation into a good perspective.”

September 2013 « Human Resources « 35

Expatriate management « FEATURE

CASE STUDY: CLARIANT Repatriated employees can become “small fish in a big pond”. Suzanne Soh, of Clariant, tells Amos Seah how her organisation handles these assignment changes.

Clariant employs staff of about 19 nationalities at its regional headquarters in Singapore. Suzanne Soh, head of human resources services for Southeast Asia and the Pacific, recalls a challenging period in 2011, when the headquarters was first established.

The move involved shifting nearly 25 families from different parts of the world to Singapore, which she says “was a great achievement in a short amount of time”.

However, things can get tough when it comes to repatriating these employees – back to Europe mostly – because they experience a drastic change in culture. Soh says they “cannot pull themselves back to where their culture is. It takes a while for them to adapt”.

Most of Soh’s expatriate employees, who she refers to as international assignees, are frequent travellers who do not merely return home after being sent to Asia for an assignment. “Most of the time, they move from one country to another for assignments.”

Being prepared for change Soh says the repatriation process can be a difficult one, especially when staff get used to expatriate privileges such as paid accommodation, transport and schools.

“When they are on assignment, their home country contract is dormant. They are given a letter of assignment and are placed on the IA (international assignee) policy,” she says, adding when they return home on a local policy, it is void of benefits they used to enjoy. Therefore, p y places a lot of importance on mentally the company p eparing the pr preparing them for repatriation. It’s much toug tougher when employees aren’t pr prepared and there’s “a lot cu in managing their of difficulty emotion . emotions” “It is not so much just the international inte assignees themse themselves, but also the family.”

The ease of transition can depend on how long they have aw from home and how been away much ssupport they have from friend and the company. friends N Nevertheless, it can take a long time for their spouse and child children to adapt to changes in th their environment.

A As part of HR’s efforts to

assist the transition, Soh says the company helps families to find suitable accommodation and schools.

Suddenly a small fish in a big pond International assignees typically hold significant key positions in Singapore, says Soh. Some of them may find it a challenge when they return to a role less “visible” in a corporate office that is much bigger in manpower size.

Soh compares them to being a “small fish in a big pond,” when they used to be a “big fish in a small pond”.

It is the struggle of “getting back into the organisation hierarchy, and getting to know everybody again” amid the changes which took place while they were away.

A returning international assignee may end up taking instructions, when they used to have more decisionmaking power in their previous role. But some are fortunate enough to return to a bigger role.

Soh is honest about retention becoming an issue when assignees return to their home country in a role they are unhappy with. Often, localising the expat to the host country is a viable solution for those who do not have a suitable job to return to at home.

However, there will also be no reason for the company to continue supporting these international assignees when they are already “considered as a local”.

Soh understands most international assignees prefer to go home eventually. Forcing them to localise may only result in “an unhappy person working in the organisation who might eventually leave”.

Just like onboarding It is a common misunderstanding repatriates need less support when they return home. Soh says they should be given “a similar welcome” when they shift home as they were when they joined the company.

Putting equal importance on the repatriation process ensures these employees are equally successful in their new roles.

To orientate returning staff, companies can arrange pre-move visits, and a cultural awareness programme also helps those who haven’t been home for a long time.

Every employee has a different set of needs and expectations, so it is important to remain sensitive to their emotions. Soh suggests a formalised repatriation policy to improve the process.

“The repatriation process takes time”, she says. “We are not moving furniture; we are moving people.”

September 2013 « Human Resources « 37

OPINION » Learning & development

Learning & development « OPINION

Developing for success Succession planning is critical to the long-term success of businesses, yet many organisations still continue to struggle with it. Here are some hints to help you out.

RAJESH RAI Senior director, human resources, Asia Pacific Expedia leaders held accountable for the development of their key employees. This ensures that once the leader is ready to move (internally or to an external employer) there is already a back-up prepared for their role.

Maturity and sophistication are inherent to this process, so it won’t bring about anxiety among the leaders themselves as it may be related to their own roles.

There are various aspects of learning and development that can be applied for building a good succession plan. These aspects form the backbone of robust succession planning: 1. Learning and development programmes should be linked to strategy. One of the best ways to link strategy to everyday jobs is a balanced score card. This ensures all leadership development, or learning and development in general, is linked to overall strategic objectives.

Planting the seeds of success: Growing a successor takes time and you need to plan excellent learning and development programmes.

Succession planning is critical to ensure business continuity as well as the retention of key highpotential employees and preserving the company’s culture.

Despite succession planning being so critical to the longterm success of businesses, many organisations still continue to struggle with it. Succession isn’t about just performance or potential, but also about how one ensures the potential base requirements have been met. Learning has to keep on flowing continuously and in the right direction for succession to succeed.

So much depends on proper learning and development because that is the key to preparing high potentials for the future demands.

38 » Human Resources » September 2013

There has always been a deeper connection between learning and development, and succession planning activities.

Succession planning can be a tough cookie to crack – identifying employees who are ready for new roles, and ensuring they are ready for them, isn’t an easy task.

We all know succession decisions aren’t easy and there is a need for larger stakeholder consensus for the same, but learning and development would make things relatively easier to back up solid succession efforts. How should an organisation ensure great internal talent development for the purpose of development of its potential leaders?

One of the best ways to bring about succession is to have

be designed keeping in view the culture and the core values of the organisation.

5. Create formalised and robust assessments to ensure the identified learning needs are correct. This will ensure the learning requirements identified match the future needs of the employee as it relates to succession.

There are wide variety of assessments that can be used – from online tools to behavioural event interviews – but an ideal approach is one that combines all of these in the form of an assessment centre. Organisations need to ensure the future competency requirements for each role are mapped out well enough before an assessment exercise of this sort is undertaken.

2. Learning experiences built into development interventions have to be as per the targeted roles or what the potential roles demand. This means one has to identify where the strategy is headed, what kind of future roles will come up, and then what the developmental initiatives needed are to build skills and competencies for those targeted future roles.

“One of the best ways to bring about succession is to have leaders held accountable for the development of their key employees.

This ensures there is already a back-up prepared for their role.”

3. Learning and development has to be defined in a very specific manner by getting a lot of questions answered. Why is a certain role needed? What is required of the role? What needs to be the biggest accomplishment for this role? What are the key competencies required for the role holder to be successful in this role? Learning interventions need to be based on all these details.

6. Ensure learning needs take the form of accelerated development. There has to be a well integrated plan executed with all aspects of an incorporated learning experience. While learning on the job is an invaluable experience, classroom training, online training, stretch assignments, cross functional/ geography assignments and many more similar interventions have their own place in this whole plan.

4. All learning interventions should bridge the gap between the role requirements and the existing competencies of the future role holder. There is need to start backwards by measuring an employee’s performance in the current role objectively, and mapping it against what the competency requirements are against the future identified role(s) for the employee. The gaps will then be mapped out; identifying what kind of intervention is needed for the employee. All learning interventions then need to

7. Continuous evaluation and feedback on performance after a learning intervention is needed. Learning leads to new experiences and when those experiences are further deployed, more learning takes place.

Continuous feedback will not only ensure the learning results are being looked at closely, but it also measures how much learning and development can impact strategy if done well.

September 2013 « Human Resources « 39

»

OPINION » Unconventional wisdom

Unconventional wisdom OPINION

Principles for productivity Building a productive workforce begins from cultural transformation. Here are the three key building blocks HR should follow to achieve this.

TEO WEE SENG VP of human resources Jurong Port

A smooth production line: For organisational success, HR needs to work out how to boost productivity in the company.

HR plays a leading role in helping organisations build a productive workforce to overcome the current labour shortage. Organisations that embark on a journey to build a productive culture will reap at least three benefits: lower cost of operations, increased employee engagement and a rise in customer satisfaction.

With the tightening of work passes by the Singapore government, businesses are facing an increasing squeeze on their operations. This is most evident in industries that are labour-intensive, such as retail services and transportation.

It is imperative for HR to raise the productivity levels of its workforce for organisational success. To begin the journey, organisations need to focus on three important building blocks.

Principles to guide the organisation Principles and values define an organisation and what it stands for. Incorporating the principles of continuous improvement and innovation among its core values will shape workforce behaviour for success.

Senior leadership can help set the tone of these principles by being role models in their day-to-day interaction with employees. Employees want to see these principles being displayed in daily business decision-making.

Articulating the connection between the new behaviours and organisational success will engender a trusting climate in the organisation, a necessary component in building a productive culture.

Align practices with principles People practices and programmes such as performance management, and learning and development may be reprioritised to align with the organisation’s focus on productivity.

40 » Human Resources » September 2013

For example, targets may be set for employees to participate in productivity related projects that are aligned to the corporate scorecard. HR can also provide tools such as lean management to create heightened awareness of opportunity for innovation.

To promote crowdsourcing, Jurong Port (JP) has experimented with an “ideas jam”. Employees contribute ideas to specific organisational issues related to productivity.

This crowdsourcing shows the organisation values employees’ insights and experiences, as well as the senior management’s belief in the wisdom of its employees to help overcome business challenges.

Recognise the role models To entrench the productivity culture, role models are identified and publicly recognised. Besides instilling pride, role models provide a corporate standard for others to emulate. An incentive scheme can be used to complement this practice.

At JP, a ceremony is organised to recognise these role models and their ideas. As John Kotter has shown us in his book, Leading Change, constantly repeating the simple change message of productivity via all available means and avenues is the key to ingraining it into the culture.

Over a period of time, a collection of stories and anecdotes can help embed the productivity message in the corporate culture. An example of this is how 3M frequently uses the invention of the Post-It note to tell its innovation story.

Ultimately, a productive workforce is key to an organisation’s continual success in the face of growing manpower shortage.

HR’s ability to shape culture by putting in place a set of core values, aligning its practices and recognising its role models, will create change and raise its credibility in this journey of organisational transformation.

September 2013 « Human Resources « 41

»

People issues OPINION

Stop pointing the finger While workplace politics isn’t something new to any of us, let’s find out how we should deal with these tricky situations effectively.

GOH BAN PING Head of regional HR, Asia Sennheiser

Playing the blame game: Laying the blame elsewhere isn’t going to calm problems in the office.

Office politics has to start somewhere and,

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unfortunately, it is difficult to avoid. In this column, I will be using a typical workplace scenario to demonstrate how HR can get caught up in office politics and explain how to overcome the issue.

Employee A is unhappy with employee B for not doing his work, but he complains about it to everyone other than HR. At the end of the day, HR is roped in because there are so many complaints about employee B. HR eventually speaks to employee A, who says: “Please keep this confidential. The issue is not from me alone; there are also many others who think the same way.”

In my career, I have observed HR being used as an “official killer” or “policy setter” many times when things go wrong. The views of people vary as they ask: “Why is HR not taking any action on employee B when there are so many complaints about him?” or “Why is HR so insensitive and not confidential of the ‘whistle blower’?” Or, they will ask their bosses: “Why does HR not have a clear policy to avoid such situations?”

It can take a while to learn how to balance politics with the actual handling of such issues, and to stay afloat and remain well-respected by all. In my experience of handling situations such as this, I have followed the tips below, which have worked well for me over the years.

1. Know who you are working for first and understand what the boss likes to hear. You will need to build trust and rapport with the boss.

2. Display scenarios where you are always handling situations or policies in a neutral, consistent and fair manner, even to your own HR team, to gain respect.

3. During one-on-one discussions with your boss, it is always good to give him or her an overall picture of key personnel and their behaviour. Flag possible conflict of interests among certain employees so the boss can make an objective decision.

4. Handling your peers can be tougher than your boss because everyone is different. Start with what they would like to listen to first, before going into the context of what you want to talk to them about.

5. Observe the weaknesses and strengths of your peers to manage them effectively. It is a skill you will learn over time, but you must also know how to use it properly.

6. You must acknowledge that things put across to your boss and in front of you can be totally different. It is important that you anticipate such behaviour and cover them with your boss first to avoid surprises.

7. If your employee asks whether you can settle the issue with them directly instead of forwarding the email to the boss, say: “Think about what would happen if I didn’t involve the boss.

Others might misconstrue the picture behind your back and the outcome could be much worse.”

September 2013 « Human Resources « 43

OPINION » Upwardly mobile

Empowering our employees today for tomorrow TAN KWANG CHEAK Director, human resources and talent development MOH Holdings

Tan Kwang Cheak shares the “4E” framework you need to take talent engagement and development to the next level. experience and rotations that are beneficial and impactful for the development of our staff. These include facilitating career planning and mapping with staff, as well as job postings and progressions based on desired career mappings.

Education We are putting in place leadership and functional development road maps for our staff. Through these, we aim to enhance their development and educate them through various professional, functional and leadership development courses that are planned and managed by the HR team and line managers. Scholarships and sponsorships are also given to staff to support their aspirations to upgrade and gain knowledge through master, degree or professional courses.

Open the doors: Show your employees the light by helping them develop.

Attracting, retaining and developing talent is the primary preoccupation of any organisation seeking to grow and do well, and this is no exception at MOH Holdings (MOHH).

As Singapore’s healthcare needs continue to grow and evolve because of our ageing population and longer life expectancy, our overall demand for talent is also rising – by a projected 70% or 32,000 more professionals by 2030. Thus, we will have to continue ramping up our efforts to find, attract and retain talent, not only for doctors, nurses and allied health professionals, but also for other professionals, such as those in IT, development, finance and HR. To do so in Singapore’s tight and extremely competitive labour market is not an easy task, and all of us in HR can attest to this. A key leverage point for us is to focus not just on talent acquisition, retention and competitive remuneration and benefits, but more importantly on talent engagement and development.

Driven by our HR vision to enable our people, grow our talent pipeline and power our organisation forward for the future, MOHH is embarking on a journey to drive talent engagement and development to the next level. To this end, our HR team is working to enable the “4E” framework for our staff.

Experience We seek to facilitate and enrich the breadth and depth of work 44 » Human Resources » September 2013

Exposure We provide exposure for our staff to enable self-driven development through tools such as 360-degree feedback and personality tests. Additionally, they gain exposure through stretch assignments and cross-divisional projects at the corporation level, as well as other opportunities to work with the senior management team.

Engagement A key aspect of engagement is enabling our staff to understand the purpose of their work and what they are contributing towards.

Such engagement opportunities are provided through fire-side chats and lunches with our senior management team and board chairman. An annual team-bonding retreat will be held to engage them on the organisational goals and plans moving ahead.

Additionally, engagement is enhanced through a mentoring scheme for our staff. Career dialogues and feedback sessions are being organised to allow them to be personally engaged in their own development through conversations with HR and our senior management team.

All these strategies will need to be underpinned by strong commitment and support from the senior management team, as well as in-depth participation by line managers.

The link between their performance and commitment which builds talent for their team and the organisation should be emphasised.

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CAREERS » Personal development

uptheranks

Good reads to improve your business life

Tracking HR’s industry moves Who: Jérôme de Grandmaison From: Alstom Group To: Alstom Group Previously the vice-president of human resources for East Asia Pacific, Jérôme de Grandmaison was promoted to the role of vice-president of human resources for Asia Pacific on 1 July, 2013.

In charge of the HR organisation and strategy for Asia Pacific, his main responsibilities now include managing HR for 14 countries, and ensuring the organisation, its processes and talent management are aligned consistently across the region.

De Grandmaison is working on deploying an organisation across the board which mainly oversees the two pillars of efficient shared services and the centre of expertise at a regional level. The regional organisation also supports the implementation of the global HR strategy of the group and the business lines.

He said focusing on effective talent management and the retention of employees were key targets for the company.

Pick of the month

Who: Anish Singh From: Reckitt Benckiser To: Unilever Anish Singh was previously working as the country HR director for Reckitt Benckiser in India for a year. He rejoined Unilever on 1 May 2013 as the leadership and organisation development director for global markets.

Singh’s key responsibility is to create a capable organisation and help it realise its 2020 goals. His responsibilities cover talent management, organisational effectiveness and development, employer branding and leadership development. He is also a HR partner for HR teams across global markets.

Singh believes there is much work to be done in the areas of business and HR in developing and emerging markets. He also believes in thinking for today and tomorrow to execute HR strategy flawlessly and create a sense of purpose among employees through the alignment of goals.

Idea Stormers Bryan W. Mattimore Jossey-Bass S$38.47

personalgrowth

This book explains how one can successfully innovate and turn even bad ideas into surprising solutions.

Bryan W. Mattimore also reveals behindthe-scenes details of how coming up with creative solutions helped to solve problems that companies such as Ben & Jerry’s and IBM were facing.

It talks about how leaders can facilitate innovation – such as how to train a creative mind and how to go beyond brainstorming

HOW TO PREPARE EMPLOYEES FOR THE BIG JUMP Sabrina Zolkifi says providing a smooth transition for internal moves can be the difference between making or breaking staff.

I was recently promoted to deputy editor of the magazine – a transition that took slightly more than three months.

Before the move up the career ladder, a detailed transition plan was laid out in front of me by my editor and managing editor. It included KPIs I’d have to reach, which would be evaluated during two performance reviews within the three-month period, learning points I’d have to keep my eye on, and additional responsibilities I needed to get used to before my official promotion.

I will be the first to admit that although I was being primed and prepared for the promotion, the transition period was still a very anxious and stressful time for me.

Here are a few pointers to keep in mind when helping employees move up the career ladder.

Start small While some promotions or lateral moves may seem like the next natural step in an employee’s career path, make sure you’re not overwhelming them. For example, if you’re promoting an employee into a managerial position for the first time, it may be a good idea to give them a small number of direct reports to begin with. A leader may be one person, but their failure in the position – especially early on – could drag down the rest of the team.

50 » Human Resources » September 2013

Phillip Van Hooser John Wiley & Sons S$29.91

The leap of faith: Make sure you don’t let employees fall during internal moves.

Hand holding is OK It doesn’t matter if you’re promoting someone for the first time or moving a veteran professional up the ladder – any promotion is a step out of the employee’s comfort zone and requires a level of hand holding at the beginning.

Follow up After the promotion, the employee may or may not be under your charge.

Regardless, it never hurts to follow up for a few weeks or a couple of months to make sure they are settling into their new role well.

Photography: Fauzie Rasid

Work together on the transition plan Although my plan was crafted out by my bosses, I was consulted on whether the targets were achievable, if there was anything I needed changed or tweaked, and if the time line was acceptable. Allowing employees some semblance of freedom in creating their career path adds a deeper level of accountability to the situation.

Leaders Ought to Know

This book establishes the 11 universal ground rules every leader “ought to know” if they intend to lead successfully.

By evaluating realworld examples, this book explains concepts such as how to earn your employees’ respect and how to be taken seriously as a leader.

The book highlights the fact that one’s competency at their job does not necessarily translate to their success at managing people. Phillip Van Hooser maintains “all

– bbut it doesn’t merely ta aabout the theoretical ta talk aspect of innovation.

It is a consolidation of accounts of wha what actually happened – stories of the ccreative mindsets, processes tec and techniques which helped generate breakth breakthrough ideas and solve difficult creative business challenges.

In ad addition, Mattimore acknowledges the presence of roadblocks ro in the course of innovation and asserts the th true innovator sees obstacles not so much as a project-killing, but as inevitable h ll t “doing the new”. challenges to Mattimore details his experience with a client, Schick Razors, to illustrate how an organisational challenge was creatively addressed and why keeping a positive attitude, both personally and organisationally, is important.

Bookmark this!

“Everyone, and I mean everyone, has the potential and, if encouraged, the desire to contribute new ideas to help their company.

Successful managers of the future must recognise this. Learning and using the simple creativity techniques and innovation processes in this book will dramatically add to any manager’s ability to inspire the creative potential in themselves and their co-workers” – page 7.

leaders are born, but none are born leaders” ex and explains the concepts that will help leaders to lead well. For example, the less you know about your followers, the more likely they will choose to follow someone else. The book also describes t pitfalls of leadership and the o offers advice on how to avoid c committing these critical m mistakes of leadership.

With real-world anecdotes, it is an engaging read that is a gu for leaders who want to guide lea with success. lead Boo Bookmark this!

“Do “Don’t fall victim to the myth that just because you have a college degree, some sort of professional certification, significant years of experience or a well-known mentor that you’ve somehow gained adequate knowledge to be successful. It’s just not that easy” – page 237.

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The Manager and the Monk Jochen Zeitz & Anselm Grün Jossey-Bass S$37.40

This book brings together two seemingly opposite viewpoints of a monk and a CEO, who discuss issues we face in today’s world, such as prosperity and culture.

Opposing dialogue between the two parties brings to light the fact there are more similarities than there are differences between the two personalities.

For example, Jochen Zeitz, who was CEO of PUMA at the time the book was published, attributes the need for a place of reflection and peace in the increasingly fast-pace of our world. He feels living in a place such as a monastery for some time offers the chance to find inner equilibrium and to win back one’s creative strength and energy.

In addition, monks and managers are similar to each other in that both desire to protect the environment, improve society and employ sustainable methods.

Giving readers an intimate insight into both their worlds, this book enables us to discover new possibilities in all of us, and is a helpful guide on how to manage responsibly in the modern world.

Bookmark this!

“No one is an island. A vision can be created by a single individual at the beginning, but a culture has to be shaped by many people.

And an open and creative culture doesn’t just affect many people; it must be carried by almost all of them” – page 35.

September 2013 « Human Resources « 51

LAST WORD

How to get your mojo back Feeling a bit blah about work?

Rebecca Lewis has five tips for getting happy again and finding a new challenge.

LAST WORD

I don’t know about you guys, but this time of the year does really bad things for my mojo.

No, I’m not talking about Austin Powers’ idea of mojo (yeah, baby), but the other kind of mojo. You know, the one that stands for motivation, desire, passion and excitement about the work that you do.

We’ve got one more quarter until the year is up, and it can be hard to push through that mental barrier of, “I’m almost at the end of the year. All I want to do is go on holiday�. When you embark on something new (like a new year) it’s exciting and you feel revitalised, but like everything that starts out great, it eventually plateaus.

I’ve decided to focus on ensuring my mojo doesn’t run out for the remainder of the year, and this is how I plan to do it. Perhaps you’ll find some of these ideas helpful to get your mojo back.

Change habitual patterns Get up, commute to work, make a coffee, do work, go home, cook dinner, relax, go to sleep. Is this sounding familiar?

Perhaps one of the reasons you’ve lost your mojo is because you keep doing the same old boring thing. Every. Single. Day. Change up your routine. Go to the gym in the morning instead of the evenings, or rally up your colleagues and go somewhere new for lunch. If you can, switch desks in the office.

Sometimes, it’s the little things that dramatically change your overall view.

Get new friends I know it sounds scary and hard, but the people you surround yourself with are a huge influence on your life, whether you realise it or not. If your friends are constantly complaining about work, their spouses, their kids – whatever – the negativity will rub off on you. OK, so maybe you don’t need to ditch all your current friends, but realising what attributes you value in people is important. Surround yourself with positive people and you’ll feel better about life in general.

52 Âť Human Resources Âť September 2013

Recognise your priorities At the beginning of the year, I listed my life priorities.

They were to get healthy and fit and to spend more quality time with my fiancÊ and friends, which in return would ensure I stayed happy and positive about work. Then I looked at my 2013 diary and realised I actually wasn’t doing much to support my own priorities (actually, they were simply unbalanced. There was too much gym-going and not enough quality time with people I care about because of it.) Adjust your schedule to fit in things that really matter to you.

Get an attitude adjustment One day, while having a drink with my fiancĂŠ, I was moaning about something which happened at work.

Nothing major, just a gripe. Instead of indulging me in my woe, he simply said: “That sucks, but at least you hit your targets and your staff are performing really well.� I didn’t even realise I had told him some very positive things about my day, before launching into the negative, yet that is what he picked up on.

Attitude is everything, and realising when you’ve got it good is imperative. It also helps to have someone in your life who can keep reminding you of this.

Get someone else to keep you in check This could be a friend, a partner, a colleague or a professional mentor, but whoever it is, they should be someone who (a) you can open up to about how you’re feeling, and (b) will tell you when you need to focus on the previously mentioned four points.

Getting started on these five changes is admittedly difficult and I appreciate it can be daunting to change your habits and attitude, but getting your mojo back is simply an imperative for a good quality of life. It’s good for you, your family, your friends, your colleagues and your staff. So what are you waiting for? rebeccal@humanresourcesonline.net

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September 2013 ÂŤ Human Resources ÂŤ 53

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