Human Resources Hong Kong, Q4 Oct-Dec 2015 - Vendors of the Year special edition by Human Resources Online

EDITOR'S NOTE

THE BEST IN THE BUSINESS editor, Hong Kong regional editor senior journalist journalist sub editor regional art director senior designers circulation executive regional head of advertising & sponsorship regional directors

regional marketing manager regional production leads regional producers

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

Anthony Wong Aditi Sharma Kalra Akankasha Dewan Jerene Ang James Foster Shahrom Kamarulzaman Evisu Yip Fauzie Rasid Deborah Quek Naomi Cranswick Karen Boh Yogesh Chandiramani Jaclyn Chua Keiko Ko Zoe Lau Isabel Ho Sarah Kee Jenilyn Rabino Sharissa Chan Nikita Erpini Shivon Aaria Gunalan Sanna Lun Kenneth Neo Evon Yew Gabriella Yu Yeo Wei Qi

Evelyn Wong Tony Kelly Justin Randles

After landing in Hong Kong at the beginning of the year, Human Resources magazine has quickly become the go-to guide for the HR community. I am excited and proud to present to you the first-ever Hong Kong edition of the HR Vendors of the Year magazine, spearheaded by Human Resources. It has been an eventful first year in Hong Kong for Human Resources which saw my team host several conferences and awards, three printed editions of the magazine and my appointment as the editor of the magazine in Hong Kong. The HR Vendors of the Year magazine is the end of the year report card to reward and recognise all the hard work that Hong Kong’s very best HR solutions providers have put in. This research into finding the HR industry’s most preferred service providers is not something new – in fact, 2015 marks a decade of this special edition in Singapore. This annual special edition serves as the one-stop guide for reliable HR solutions providers that leaders need to achieve their HR objectives, according to HR managers and directors, the people HR professionals trust most – their peers. In bringing this guide to HR leaders regionally this year, we have also bolstered the entire methodology underlying the research. Consistent with our aim of continuous improvement, we set in place much more stringent assessment criteria to ensure the winners and finalists you meet in these pages truly stood out in the 22 areas of HR services assessed. One of the ways in which we did that was to get top-ranked vendors judged by the people who matter most: senior HR professionals from the biggest employers in Asia. The rankings, classified among gold, silver and bronze winners, were based on a comprehensive two-tier selection process.

Finalists in each provider category were identified through an extensive online survey of HR managers in Asia, which queried them on their vendor preferences. The finalists then submitted documentation to verify their credentials and this was validated by a jury of HR leaders and directors from some of Asia’s largest employers. Given the vast experience of each jury member, their stamp of approval will mean a lot to each vendor, solution provider and partner featured in this special edition of Human Resources. This publication has also expanded to a fully fledged awards show celebrating the very best HR solution providers in Asia over a glittering evening of networking and recognition. Our warmest congratulations to the winners, and a heartfelt thank-you to all our judges and those HR leaders who took the time to rank the finalists. We sign off for this year with this special edition, and with that, we wish you happiness and success for the festive season, and the year ahead. Here’s to another year of celebrating the best in HR. Enjoy the issue.

Vendors of the Year is published annually by Lighthouse Independent Media Pte Ltd. Printed in Hong Kong by Asia One Printing Ltd. Tel: (65) 6383 5290. MICA (P) 178/08/2010. Subscription rates are available on request, contact the Circulation Manager by telephone: (65) 6423 0329 or by email to: subscriptions@humanresourcesonline.net COPYRIGHTS AND REPRINTS. All material printed in Human Resources is protected under the copyright act. All rights reserved. No material may be reproduced in part or in whole without the prior written consent of the publisher and the copyright holder. Permission may be requested through the Singapore office. DISCLAIMER: The views and opinions expressed in Vendors of the Year 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

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Anthony Wong Editor, Hong Kong

HR VENDORS OF THE YEAR 2015

Editor’s note

Best Payroll Software Paying their way

Methodology

Best Recruitment Websites Logging into the leaders

Best Applicant Tracking Software Keeping an eye on your talent pipeline

Best Recruitment Firms – non-management roles (under US$4k per month) Building a strong foundation

Best Learning Management Systems Learning the ropes

Best Talent Management Software Manage your talent smartly and effectively

Best Recruitment Firms – mid-management roles (US$4k-US$10k per month) Managing the middle

Best HR Management Systems Efficient systems for more productivity

Index

Best Recruitment Firms – senior-management roles (over US$10k per month) Load up your leadership

Best Overall Recruitment Firm Recruiting winners

Best Psychometric Testing Providers Reading your candidate’s mind

Best Background Screening Providers Keeping out the unwanted

Best Leadership Development Consultants Leading from the front

Best Compensation & Benefits Consultants Getting bang for your buck

Best Employee Insurance Vendors Investing for a rainy day

Best Relocation Companies Wheels in motion

Best Mobility & Orientation Consultants Getting ready for day one

Best Management Training Providers Time for school

Best Sales Training Providers Learn to sell

Best Team Building Training Providers The collective sum of individual efforts

Best Training Venues A place of pride

Best Payroll Outsourcing Partners The best way to dole out the dough

HR VENDORS OF THE YEAR 2015

METHODOLOGY

PRESENTING THE BEST OF THE BEST In this exclusive edition of the HR Vendors of the Year Awards, solution providers were ranked based on a two-tier selection process, including robust assessments made by senior HR experts in Asia. 2015 was a year of changes within Hong Kong’s HR landscape. These ranged from alterations in hiring legislation to an increased focus on local leadership training. Despite this, HR vendors continued to stand as reliable pillars of support for HR departments in the country, adjusting their services and products to suit what was required by firms. This was once again proven in Human Resources’ HR Vendors of the Year Awards, which is a long-running annual vendor rankings report that recognises and celebrates the very best HR vendors in Asia, starting out in Singapore, and this year extended to Malaysia and Hong Kong. In line with this big development, our team strengthened the rankings’ judging criteria to ensure 2015’s top HR vendors truly represented the best in the landscape.

A strong portfolio of categories We are proud to announce that 22 big award categories have been identified this year. We designed the categories carefully in order to identify the vendors that have truly delivered excellence in growing their business and serving the HR industry at the same time. These cover a range of areas, including Best Recruitment Websites, Best Leadership Development Consultants, Best Relocation Companies, Best Payroll Software, Best HR Management Systems, and Best Team Building Training Providers, among others. Robust assessment process Keeping in mind the extensive range of categories we fi nalised this year, we also bolstered our

HR VENDORS OF THE YEAR 2015

judging process to make it more robust and truly effective. The HR Vendors of the Year Awards was based on a two-tier selection process. In the first step, Human Resources conducted an extensive online survey which was sent to its comprehensive and large database of HR managers in Asia. These professionals provided us with a list of category finalists which reflected their vendor preferences for each category. Each finalist then provided us with a submission form, profiling their companies and any special alterations they had made to their products and services over the past year. In the second step, an esteemed jury of senior regional heads of HR from throughout Asia judged the finalists’ profiles (listed in the table on page five).

METHODOLOGY

Companies represented on the HR Vendors of the Year Awards jury are the most respected Fortune 500 organisations and some of the biggest employers in Asia. Jury members hailed from companies such as adidas Group, AECOM, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Citi Group, Lane Crawford, Hong Kong Broadband Network, among others. Scores obtained from these judges then led to us identifying gold, silver and bronze winners across each of the 22 categories, along with a list of finalists per category (listed alphabetically). This year, we received 123 entries across all of the categories in total. A regional gala awards show To culminate the 10 th edition of Human Resources’ Vendors of the Year research, and to inaugurate the Hong Kong special edition, the annual vendor rankings report will be celebrated as a fully fledged awards gala night. Recognising and celebrating the best of service providers for HR professionals, this prestigious award ceremony honours the most esteemed HR vendors and promotes excellence across the plethora of HR services and solutions. At this year’s hugely coveted awards, gold, silver and bronze trophies will be taken home by the winners presented here in each category.

CATEGORIES NO. CATEGORIES 1.

Best Recruitment Websites

12. Best Mobility & Orientation Consultants

Best Recruitment Firms (non-management roles under US$4k per month)

13. Best Management Training Providers

Best Recruitment Firms (mid-management roles US$4k-US$10k per month)

14. Best Sales Training Providers

Best Recruitment Firms (seniormanagement roles over US$10k per month)

15. Best Team Building Training Providers

Best Overall Recruitment Firm

16. Best Training Venues

Best Psychometric Testing Providers

17. Best Payroll Outsourcing Partners

Best Background Screening Providers

18. Best Payroll Software

Best Leadership Development Consultants

19. Best Applicant Tracking Software

Best Compensation & Benefits Consultants

20. Best Learning Management Systems

10. Best Employee Insurance Vendors

21. Best Talent Management Software

11. Best Relocation Companies

22. Best HR Management Systems

JUDGES NAME

DESIGNATION

COMPANY

Edward Wong

Regional talent acquisition leader, APAC (global talent acquisition)

adidas Group

Ivan Zenovic

Director of talent acquisition, digital marketing and employer branding

Avery Dennison

Karen Liu

Area director of HR, Greater China

Anantara Vacation Club

Wilfred Chan

Director, compensation and benefits, Asia Pacific

AECOM

Naveen Kumar

Senior vice-president, human resources

Bank of America Merrill Lynch

Terry Endsor

Group head of human resources

Citi Group

Francis Chan

Director, group HR (projects)

Esquel Group

Paul Hotchan

Assistant vice-president of human resources

Galaxy Entertainment Group

Elena Pentsi

Human resources director

Hermes-OTTO International

Agnes Wong

Senior manager, talent management and co-owner

Hong Kong Broadband Network

Jim Poon

Head of compensation and benefits

Lane Crawford

Philip Wixon

Senior vice-president, programme management office

Li & Fung

Christy Cheung

HR director

Madame Tussauds Hong Kong

Vivian Au

Manager, people

National Australia Bank

Benjamin Wong

HR director – Asia Pacific

Knorr-Bremse

Kitty Yip

HR vice-president

Sa Sa Cosmetics

Loretta Lau

Head of regional HR ISP, APAC

Societe Generale

Lynne Barry

Human resources director

Telstra International

Joanna Lee

Head of human resources

Yip’s Chemicals

HR VENDORS OF THE YEAR 2015

BEST RECRUITMENT WEBSITES

LOGGING INTO THE LEADERS Career websites fulfil one of the most basic needs HR professionals have – sourcing candidates easily and conveniently. With recruitment being one of the top challenges of HR professionals, HR managers would be lost without recruitment websites. While all recruitment websites have their strengths and weaknesses, the best recruitment websites do not necessarily deliver the most candidates.

Instead, the best recruitment websites focus on delivering the most relevant candidates – high-calibre, motivated applicants who can do the advertised job well. Other features of great recruitment websites are candidate management features, ability to integrate with employers’ recruitment systems, mobilefriendly, and social sharing-enabled. Employer branding flexibility, price and customer service are also big considerations.

GOLD jobsDB.com With the new business of SEEK Asia being the combination of two leading job portals in Asia, jobsDB and Job Street, established near the end of 2014, new strategic priorities and values have been set up to ensure the group’s success. Following the group’s goal of “improving lives through better careers” and its mission to “match more people with jobs than any other organisation”, jobsDB Hong Kong continues the roadmap of being the market leader by providing excellent products and services to the market, especially in the segments of sales, customer service and business development, IT, administration and HR, banking and finance. In early 2015, jobsDB launched a regional campaign across four Asian countries with the message, “happy is a better job”, to encourage job seekers to find a more satisfying and fulfilling job. This consisted of a series of activities, including high-profile outdoor advertising throughout Hong Kong with buses and billboards throughout the year. To strengthen the concept, a survey on the level of happiness at work was conducted, with the report widely published by local media. A personality test has also been launched to help job seekers evaluate

their level of happiness at work. The campaign has led to a significant increase in site visits, as thousands of job seekers have chosen jobsDB to be their job searching partner, and the majority of employers of all sizes are using it to attract the right candidates. It has won many external accolades for its prowess, with Nielsen noting jobsDB.com as the most commonly used recruitment media for eight consecutive years among job seekers who have been currently at work for the past 12 months, while jobsDB has been voted as a top 10 favourite website in Hong Kong since 2013 as per the Hong Kong Association of Interactive Marketing. To enhance the user experience, jobsDB constantly innovates its features. It launched the mobile app in 2013 to cope with the increasing trend of mobile usage. In 2014, it added the “search by salary” field to job searches in response to the concerns of job seekers. In response to the market’s need of multichannel candidate-sourcing, in August 2015, it introduced the talent search function to support employers to reach more job seekers and enable job seekers to be hunted.

HR VENDORS OF THE YEAR 2015

The winner of the Best Recruitment Website award is the site which ticks the most boxes on the HR professional’s wish list. If you are a user of one of these five, you’re in good hiring hands.

BEST RECRUITMENT WEBSITES GOLD

jobsDB.com

SILVER

Recruit.net

BRONZE

Michael Page

FINALISTS cpjobs.com Spring Professional (Hong Kong) Finalists are listed in alphabetical order.

BEST RECRUITMENT WEBSITES

SILVER

BRONZE

Recruit.net

Michael Page

cpjobs.com

Recruit.net is an HR tech engineering company. Its unified engine is a proprietary web content aggregation platform and the result of multiple iterations and releases. To date, the company has seen a significant number of partnership integrations with job boards, applicant tracking system (ATS) vendors, online classifieds, recruitment agencies and direct employers. One of the key features of Recruit.net’s portal is the near real-time search index updates, whereby thousands of jobs are updated in close to real-time ensuring Recruit. net users always have access to the freshest job content. Big data normalisation is another unique feature – through which salaries, experience, categories, qualification requirements, and other segments are extracted and normalised automatically for big data analysis and content filtering. All data is compliant with HR Open Standards and HR-XML 3.1. The website also features advanced location detection and normalisation for 56 countries.

For many years, Michael Page Hong Kong’s website served as a valuable resource for job seekers and employers. However, the old website was in need of a design and functionality overhaul to solve challenges from a user perspective. The next generation (NextGen) website is a user-friendly, insightful and seamless portal for job seekers and employers. It allows users to apply for roles directly using their LinkedIn profile. This process is completely integrated with the firm’s resume submission systems and reduces the time taken in applying for roles. An updated, keyword-based search allows job seekers to discover opportunities easily and ensures the most relevant jobs are presented. New functions and filters such as location, type of role (contractual/permanent) and suggestions based on past searches have also been added. Alternatively, users can browse for jobs by industry sectors. The responsive layout offers users a platform optimised for use across desktop and mobile devices.

The past year has been a milestone year for this organisation, as the website was rebranded from ClassifiedPost.com to cpjobs.com, and has since undergone further improvement. The redesigned website offers job seekers easier access to the latest and most relevant job opportunities via the implementation of its predictive analytics job recommendation technology called “match me”, the first recruitment website in Hong Kong to do so. This built-in predictive job recommendation features functions based on algorithms built around user behaviour, providing job seekers easier access to the right opportunities. Recruiters also benefit from increased exposure as their job ads are proactively, but selectively shown to the bestmatched candidates, increasing both quantity and quality of applications received. This unique feature was also implemented on email job alerts, hence, spiking up the average open rate of communication. The website has also been recently redesigned with a simplified and modern UX/ UI, new functions and on-the-go applications.

Spring Professional (Hong Kong) Since its inception in March 2013, Spring has ramped up its digital and social media attack with targeted “build, engage and recruit” online tactics with a particular focus on LinkedIn. At the end of 2014, Spring embarked on a mobile optimisation charge and the new springasia.com site is now fully optimised for all mobile devices and is fully integrated with its front office system as well as being shareable on all social media platforms. The new site has features such as personalised candidate dashboards, job application history reviews, jobs streamed straight to Facebook with eco-system links to all other social media sites.

Spring is undoubtedly at the cusp of being more streamlined and more efficient in digital as a specialist recruitment company and will expand its “Spring to mind” conceptual pitch as its online influence continues to grow. This expansion is also on a geographical scale as Spring now has a total of 66 offices in its areas of operations across the world. As a result of its efforts, Spring has won key awards in the recent past, such as being highly commended as “best newcomer” at The Global Recruiter Asia Pacific Awards, in recognition of Spring Professional Thailand in 2014.

HR VENDORS OF THE YEAR 2015

BEST RECRUITMENT FIRMS – NON-MANAGEMENT ROLES (UNDER US$4K PER MONTH)

As an employer, you are constantly on the look out for high potential, multi-skilled talent to do more with less in today’s tight labour market. While some integral skills are industry and jobspecific, the most in-demand employee attributes are those which unanimously straddle across varied positions, regardless of entry levels and/or industries. Leveraging this array of skills, junior staff keep the wheels of the organisation turning and feed the company’s talent development programmes to become the leaders of tomorrow. Attracting the right junior staff is hugely important and the winner of the Best Recruitment Firm – non-management roles (under US$4k per month) category is the recruitment firm which best supplies its clients with high calibre entry level and junior talent. Consider yourself in safe hands if you consistently partner with one of the winners and finalists listed in this section. BEST RECRUITMENT FIRMS (non-management roles under US$4k per month)

BUILDING A STRONG FOUNDATION

GOLD

Page Personnel

SILVER

Ambition

BRONZE

Hays Hong Kong

FINALISTS ACI HR Solutions Huxley Associates Match Talent Finalists are listed in alphabetical order.

GOLD Page Personnel Gold winner Page Personnel operates in 20 countries. It has extended its coverage in Hong Kong by setting up specialist teams for new industries and leveraging its expertise from the Michael Page teams. Over the past 12 months, it has launched procurement and supply chain, technology as well as human resources in October. There are currently a high number of MyPage subscribed users in Hong Kong and a significant volume of job applications have been made through the website this year. In the past two years, Page Personnel has also developed an outstanding team focusing on contracting, temporary and interim opportunities. Apart from providing innovative solutions and solving staffing issues for clients, the team is also determined to drive greater awareness on the benefits of contracting among job seekers in Hong Kong and championing good industry practices to ensure contract staff receive the same salary and benefits as permanent staff. Hong Kong is a hub specifically for the Greater China region where Page Personnel has an impressive number of offices. The team in Hong

Kong has become the go-to expert for entry level and contractual opportunities. Also, many internal initiatives benefiting the PageGroup network have been pioneered from Hong Kong, including the Women@Page committee, as part of the company’s diversity and inclusion promise. Given the sheer scale of its operations internationally, Page operates within a robust technology infrastructure globally to ensure quality, delivery and consistency. Page Personnel has rolled out its next generation website in Hong Kong which features an enhanced keyword search, a responsive layout and a modern content management system to enable regular market insights. These are critical steps to help improve job seekers and employers’ online experience. Yammer is the newest communications platform incorporated by Page. It is a corporate social network that allows group staff to collaborate and interact with staff not only in their own office, but anywhere in the world. From sharing expertise, market data, and making referrals, Yammer provides a central platform for connecting staff.

HR VENDORS OF THE YEAR 2015

BEST RECRUITMENT FIRMS – NON-MANAGEMENT ROLES (UNDER US$4K PER MONTH)

SILVER Ambition Celebrating its 15th year in Hong Kong, Ambition specialises in permanent and contract recruitment in banking and financial services, finance and accounting, information technology, sales and marketing and supply chain and procurement. Client retention is very important to Ambition. While it works on projects, the primary focus is on creating long-term mutually beneficial relationships with clients and candidates. It offers a number of different solutions to clients, including both contingent recruitment and retained search services. The partnership Ambition has with clients is grounded in its expert knowledge of the roles they recruit for. Ambition’s consultants have a deep understanding on what makes the right individuals in the market stand out for businesses. Its consultants constantly work to build and maintain their network of candidates within their specialist areas. In 2015, the fastest growing practice area for Ambition has been in technology contracting. It has the ability to deliver the right people to clients, while maintaining pools of candidates who are actively

looking as well as passive candidates. This silver winner has the capacity to undertake large-scale projects, yet is able to retain the soul and personality of a smaller company. Ambition assigns consultants who are specialists within the sector and the functions they hire for. It has a dedicated client services team which focuses on ensuring clients receive the best service. It provides clients monthly/quarterly and annual reports based on what they require, helps run ad hoc reports and provides information for reviews. The firm understands it is sometimes difficult for clients to provide space for meetings or interviews within their own offices, particularly when you need to interview more than one candidate within the space of a day, so it’s ready to provide such space for clients. Ambition produces regular market information which gives an insight on the market, job growth, increases/decreases in temporary positions, etc. As part of the Ambition Group, all its offices are connected, with locations in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Parramatta, Perth, Hong Kong, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Tokyo and London.

BRONZE Hays Hong Kong Hays is the world’s leading expert in recruiting qualified, professional and skilled people across a wide range of specialised industries and professions. The firm has been in Hong Kong since 2006 and is involved in recruiting permanent positions, contract roles and temporary assignments across 15 areas, spanning accountancy and finance, banking and financial services, IT, construction, engineering and HR, and many more. Hays Hong Kong is accredited with the International Quality Standard ISO 9001:2008. With a strong global and regional footprint, Hays is able to source professionals from its global network of mobile candidates and its extensive database of local nationals. It proactively finds solutions combined with quick responses and a flexible, tailored service. Its consultants are committed to delivering the best service to clients by finding them the best talent on the market. They have innovative candidatesourcing techniques, including system integrations with Google and LinkedIn, enabling far-reaching and accurate search results. With a high volume of applications on its

websites in Asia, Hays has access to a readily available pool of talent. It also has a large pool of passive candidates on its database, and also through its LinkedIn connections. Its database provides enhanced functionality, harnessing the power of Google searching, automatic CV uploads, job board postings and enhanced management information. The Hays Talent Solutions business is a leading recruitment process outsourcing expert. It offers full outsourcing solutions to manage the end-to-end resourcing process or modular-based services to support customers’ existing infrastructures. It operates globally and has been providing these services in Asia Pacific for a significant period of time. The company’s training and development programmes focus on developing its people into recruitment experts, and giving them the opportunity to further develop their careers for senior management level. Employees in Hong Kong attend a high number of training sessions and were awarded with a number of promotions in the past financial year.

HR VENDORS OF THE YEAR 2015

BEST RECRUITMENT FIRMS – NON-MANAGEMENT ROLES (UNDER US$4K PER MONTH)

ACI HR Solutions

Huxley Associates

Match Talent

ACI HR Solutions (ACI) is dedicated to serving recruitment in the travel, tourism and hospitality sector. Established in October 2012, ACI aims to aggressively compete against major generalist recruitment agencies, and at the same time, passionately dedicate itself to the advancement of the tourism landscape across Asia. The firm pledges to turn around a shortlist of qualified candidates to clients within one week, and manage the entire recruitment process, including salary negotiations, onboarding management and post-placement follow ups. ACI’s founder and CEO Andrew Chan sees the need for a specialist recruitment firm owned and operated by people from within the industry. Knowing the recruitment model needed some fundamental changes to not only achieve profitability, but possess the ability to weather fluctuating business cycles, Chan went about remodelling the business. The firm recognises that costs can escalate quickly, particularly around the salary of poor-performing consultants. It has eliminated as much costs to its business as possible by not having a traditional office. Each staff member is given a Regus businessworld gold card, allowing them access to any of Regus’ serviced offices locally and internationally. This has proven to be more cost-effective, and is able to make consultants more productive because they can choose to meet with candidates at locations that are most convenient to them. Additionally, consultants’ base salary was removed and their commissions doubled, giving them unlimited earning opportunities, and at the same time, safeguarding the business against additional costs during slow months or downturns.

Celebrating its 20 th anniversary in 2015, Huxley Associates is one of the market leaders in delivering recruitment solutions to the banking and finance, IT, engineering and supply chain sector. Its clients include some of the world’s best known banks, insurance companies, fund managers, brokerage firms, accountancy and consulting firms and other financial institutions. Many of its expert account managers, consultants and recruiters come directly from the banking and financial sector. They work in specialist teams built around the sectors Huxley serves, meaning they have a full understanding of the issues and challenges faced by clients and know how and where to engage with the best talent. It helps clients identify, attract and recruit the business critical talent they need and connects professionals with some of the industry’s best opportunities to enable them to achieve their career goals. Huxley’s main aim is to help clients achieve their business goals by connecting the best talent with the best employers and to enable candidates to achieve their career goals by matching them with the best employers in their desired field. Working at a strategic level, it develops and delivers bespoke solutions designed to meet clients’ specific challenges. These comprise of permanent and contract recruitment, executive search, talent management consultancy (including salary surveys, location strategies, talent mapping, diversity consulting and organisational design) and managed services (including HR business process outsourcing and recruitment process outsourcing). It has a network of offices based in the world’s leading financial centres, including three of the world’s major financial hubs. Its broad global reach allows it to support clients and candidates wherever they are in the world.

Match Talent is Asia’s trusted partner that identifies the high demands of the flourishing digital sphere. The recruiter believes it has the potential to transform businesses into success, thus making it a top priority to match the top candidates to the best organisations. The firm’s team of consultants handle everything from digital, creative, marketing and account servicing to the IT sectors. Its services include searches for the companies looking for different kinds of employment terms. From permanent, contract, freelance to executive candidates, it helps companies locate the talent they want. It provides exclusivity to clients that are looking for a more personalised bespoke and proactive service. With its extensive market knowledge and expertise, it places the best talent at all levels in the right place. The company has built long-term relationships with both clients and candidates via understanding, trust and professionalism. Offering market knowledge and advice on how to reach and where they want to be is part of its services. Match Talent handles recruitment in the digital industry in Hong Kong and China. Whether it is fresh graduates or veteran clients, Match Talent has the connections and industry expertise to help companies beef up their digital team. To serve candidates effectively, the website is constantly updating various job openings related to the digital sector. They can easily look for positions they may find suitable with the company’s sophisticated search function. This function allows job applicants to search for jobs that require different level of experience, expertise and salary range. The company’s ultimate goal is to be Asia’s best-performing and most recognised digital recruitment agency in the industry.

HR VENDORS OF THE YEAR 2015

B E S T R E C R U I T M E N T F I R M S – M I D - M A N A G E M E N T R O L E S ( U S $ 4 K - U S $ 10 K P E R M O N T H )

function, yet not sufficiently seasoned to take full control of the business, high calibre middle managers are confident in their abilities and well looked after by their current employers. But they are looking to accelerate their careers and are open to joining a new employer if it means taking a step up into a more senior role. The winners of the Best Recruitment Firm for mid-management roles (US$4k-US$10k per month) awards are the recruitment firms which excel at identifying high potential talent and linking them with the companies and roles which are the best fit. With many recruitment firms in this category dotting Hong Kong’s landscape, if you are working with any on this list, you can be assured of working with the best of them.

MANAGING THE MIDDLE The average tenure of a manager has shrunk to less than four years on the job. With companies having to replace key personnel so often, this can lead to a drain on the senior team’s time and financial resources to fill vacancies. What is more important is these costs – be they monetary or non-monetary – are avoidable.

Both line and HR managers can nip the problem in the bud with a strong hiring process. However, the reality is, mid-level talent is often the trickiest to recruit. Investing in the pipeline of middle managers and grooming them for future leadership positions is cited as the number one concern of HR heads. Hay Group’s 2012 study on Next Generation HR listed “developing future leaders” as the top priority for HR leaders, not just then, but for at least the following five years. Experienced enough to understand their core

GOLD Randstad Randstad’s strong focus on addressing clients’ needs has steered the firm to tailor its products and services offerings. One example is RPO-lite, a unique and alternative solution for clients looking to augment their talent acquisition and recruitment teams without giving up control of their recruitment process. This programme places the company’s recruiters at clients’ premises to assist in project hiring, but unlike the typical RPO model, the company’s recruiters are equipped with an extensive reporting system which allows clients to have full visibility of the entire recruitment progress. Randstad also runs a sourcing centre from its Kuala Lumpur office, with a strong headcount of dedicated researchers who are assigned to specific engagements for clients. It currently runs multiple talent searches for global companies through the sourcing centre, after which the firm’s specialist recruiters will take over and qualify all potential candidates before profiling them to clients. Randstad leads the way in innovation, both globally and locally. Randstad prides itself on maintaining strong

relationships with its clients through its various thought leadership platforms throughout the year. The efforts have proven to be effective in creating strong traction as it saw repeated businesses and affirmative feedback across many of its clients. The Randstad innovation fund is the only one of its kind in the recruitment industry, with a constant focus on seeking out and investing in the newest disruptive technology. The commitment to invest in emerging technologies allows the company to better compete in the increasingly evolving HR services industry. Randstad is also honoured to be the only HR services provider included as a member in the professional services industry of the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices (DJSI) review in 2015. The DJSI World is the first global index to track leading sustainability driven companies worldwide based on RobecoSAM’s analysis of financially material environmental, social and governance factors. Of the 19 companies eligible to participate in the DJSI world index, only Randstad and one other company have been included.

HR VENDORS OF THE YEAR 2015

BEST RECRUITMENT FIRMS (mid-management roles US$4k-US$10k per month) GOLD

Randstad

GOLD

Robert Half

SILVER

Links International

BRONZE

JAC Recruitment

BRONZE

Michael Page

FINALISTS ACI HR Solutions Ambition Hays Hong Kong Pro-Matrix & Co Finalists are listed in alphabetical order.

B E S T R E C R U I T M E N T F I R M S – M I D - M A N A G E M E N T R O L E S ( U S $ 4 K - U S $ 10 K P E R M O N T H )

GOLD Robert Half Robert Half has been growing its global and regional footprint and expanded into Hong Kong in 2006, with 11 other offices in Asia Pacific. In Hong Kong, the firm has a high number of recruiting professionals specialising in permanent placements as well as temporary and contract roles in finance and accounting, technology and banking and financial services. The firm has adopted a culture of customer success. At its core, the company makes sure everyone puts the customer first. Its goal is to efficiently match its client companies and mid to senior-level candidates in successful longterm relationships. It prides itself on treating executive clients and candidates with respect, sensitivity and professionalism, while adhering to the highest ethical standards in recruitment. It serves top MNC clients across a wide range of sectors such as banking and financial services, securities, insurance, FMCG, luxury and professional services. Robert Half operates four divisions in Hong Kong. First is Robert Half Management Resources for senior-level finance, accounting

and business systems professionals on a project and interim basis. Second, the company provides the Robert Half Financial Services for high-calibre professionals within finance and accounting, operations, risk, compliance, investment banking and financial markets. Its finance and accounting division provides one of the world’s leading specialised financial recruiting consultancies offering permanent, contract and temporary recruitment services in the accounting and finance profession. Finally, the Robert Half Technology division provides services for experienced IT professionals The company also prides itself on its innovative methodology, named the company-in. This method offers clients a time-saving approach to get their businesses fully staffed and running smoothly as quickly as possible. The company compresses the first interviews into a few hours by running back-to-back assessments either at its office or client’s office. Robert Half evaluates every candidate through the Robert Half match system before recommending them to clients.

SILVER Links International Links has a reputation for being a go-to market leader for recruitment of mid-management roles. One of Links’ unique selling points is its streak of innovation. Its latest innovation, Links digital interviews, has been an immediate game changer in its recruitment projects for clients and has enabled the company to stand out from its competitors. The digital interviews enable the company’s clients to build their brands efficiently in Asia by hiring the right candidates quickly. The company recognises that engaging thought leadership that adds value to clients’ business is critical to ensuring it retains its existing clients and attracts new clients. In line with that aim, Links launched several thought leadership initiatives. These included the 2015 Asia Salary Snapshot report, which provides HR professionals with a concise overview of human resource and salary trends in Asia and explores what is motivating Asia professionals. The firm also launched HR Innovation Asia, its annual study which investigates what HR

technology and practices Asia’s HR leaders are adopting to leverage their HR function to ensure employee engagement and retain and attract Asia’s best talent. Its strategy to be recognised as the innovative HR partner of choice in Asia means embracing diversity to encourage a culture of innovation internally throughout the team. As a result, it hires outside the “mould” to obtain a team with diverse perspectives and promotes innovation. Links employs a high number of people across Asia and from diverse geographical backgrounds, such as from China, Hong Kong, Singapore, New Zealand, United Kingdom, the US, Canada, France, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Macau as well as the Philippines. As a professional services business, Links recognises its staff are a key unique selling point and the crucial factor in ensuring its business is successful and sustainable. Accordingly, it allocates significant resources to attracting, retaining and developing the best team and ensuring employee engagement.

HR VENDORS OF THE YEAR 2015

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BRONZE

JAC Recruitment

Michael Page

ACI HR Solutions

JAC Recruitment provides recruitment services for a wide range of industries and for companies from all over the world. It is one of the market leaders for Japanese recruitment in Hong Kong and has a strong database of native Japanese-speaking candidates.

Under the PageGroup umbrella, Michael Page has nearly 40 years of recruitment experience with operations in the Americas, United Kingdom, Continental Europe, Asia Pacific and Africa. Michael Page has undoubtedly played a pivotal role in PageGroup’s success. Celebrating its 20th anniversary in Hong Kong last year, the Michael Page brand has grown tremendously with a strong reputation in the market. The Michael Page team in Hong Kong has become the go-to experts and continues to open up opportunities for markets in Greater China. Also, many internal initiatives have been pioneered from Hong Kong, including the Women@Page committee, as part of the company’s diversity and inclusion promise. Given the sheer scale of its operations internationally as PageGroup, the company operates within a robust technology infrastructure globally to ensure quality, delivery and consistency. A few key technologies and enhancements were also rolled out this year. For example, Michael Page rolled out its next-generation websites in Hong Kong which features an enhanced keyword search, a responsive layout and a modern content management system to enable regular market insights. These are critical steps to help improve job seekers and employers’ online experience consistently. Last year, Michael Page Hong Kong successfully placed a high number of middle to senior-level professionals into permanent employment and temporary roles. This was a record-breaking year for the company in terms of placements and revenue. Notably on an individual level, a few of the firm’s consultants from Michael Page Hong Kong are also among the top 20 billers across the Asia Pacific region.

ACI is Asia’s leading specialist recruitment, executive search and professional training firm dedicated to the travel, tourism, hospitality and lifestyle industries. The firm provides turnkey HR solutions formulated to meet the needs of today’s talent requirements. All ACI consultants have worked in the travel, hospitality and/or lifestyle industry and are well trained on the latest methodologies in recruitment and executive search. The firm can typically turn around a shortlist of qualified candidates to clients within one week, and manage the entire recruitment process, including salary negotiations, onboarding management and post-placement follow ups. Confident of the market potential for a franchise licence business is strong, given the thriving travel industry in cities across the globe, ACI intends to aggressively expand its ACI licence model. The firm successfully launched its first franchise in the Philippines in 2014 and has Thailand and Australia in the pipeline. Initiatives such as these has seen ACI recognised by industry peers. Knowing the recruitment model needed some fundamental changes to not only achieve profitability, but possess the ability to weather the fluctuating business cycles, which have become the recent norms, the firm has also remodelled its business. CEO Andrew Chan established a unique business model to ensure stability and sustainability, having recognised that costs can escalate quickly, particularly around the salary of poor-performing consultants. Consultants’ base salary was removed and their commission doubled, giving consultants unlimited earning opportunities, and at the same time, safeguarding the business against costs during slow months or downturns.

JAC has a strict 24-hour rule, whereby after receiving a request to introduce candidates, it responds within 24 hours. It endeavours to find the most suitable candidates that will not only match the role requirements, but match clients’ corporate cultures. Although it has not been in the recruitment market in Hong Kong for long, JAC has seen significant year-on-year organic growth since its opening in 2011. In 2015, the company grew significantly in revenue and headcount. The firm prides itself on having placed a very high number of middle management professionals with a salary range of HK$30,000 to HK$75,000 per month for a wide variety of industries, including banking and finance, retail, technology, manufacturing, engineering, trade, accounting and other industries. JAC Recruitment Hong Kong has a diverse office with staff from multiple countries and is able to service clients in English, Mandarin, Cantonese, Japanese, Shanghainese and French at a native level. It also has a number of consultants who have worked in recruitment for more than 10 years. JAC’s working environment is also quite unique as the company gives a lot more freedom to its consultants than many other agencies. This allows them to develop stronger relationships with clients and candidates. It also creates a positive working environment where employees enjoy coming to work.

HR VENDORS OF THE YEAR 2015

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Ambition

Hays Hong Kong

Pro-Matrix & Co

Ambition offers a number of different solutions to its clients, including both contingent recruitment and retained search services, along with market mapping and payroll solutions. In 2015, the fastest growing practice area for the company was its technology contracting business which has grown significantly. Along with its formal service offerings, the company provides regular market updates and publications for its clients and candidates, in addition to interviews and career advice, and half yearly salary surveys. As a part of the Ambition Group, all of the company’s offices are connected, with locations in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Parramatta, Perth, Hong Kong, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Tokyo and London. The company believes that to differentiate itself in the market, it needs to offer more than a standard recruitment process. Alongside its varied sourcing processes, Ambition also provides further services such as hosting a series of client and candidate events globally each year. The company’s consultants are specialists in their individual sectors and pride themselves on providing clients with any ad hoc information. Additionally, the company also produces regular market information which gives an insight on the clients’ markets, job growth, increases/decreases in temporary positions, etc. In fact, the firm has a dedicated client services team which focuses on ensuring they receive the best service. The firm promises clients a deep knowledge of the roles it recruits for, along with a solid understanding of what makes the right individuals in the market stand out for specific businesses. It believes maintaining pools of active as well as passive candidates is core to its success.

Hays is one of Hong Kong’s market leaders in recruiting permanent positions, contract roles and temporary assignments. It has deep expertise in recruiting across 15 areas spanning accountancy and finance, banking and financial services, and many more. Hays has been in Hong Kong since 2006 and is accredited with the International Quality Standard ISO 9001:2008. Due to its strong global and regional footprint, Hays is able to source professionals from both its global network of mobile candidates as well as its extensive database of local nationals. The company’s approach proactively focuses on finding solutions combined with quick responses and a flexible tailored service. The firm is committed to delivering the best service to clients by finding them the best talent on the market. Its innovative candidate-sourcing techniques include system integrations with Google and LinkedIn across its database of screened and assessed candidates, enabling far-reaching and accurate search results. To ensure its ongoing success, the firm relies on its talented and engaged workforce. Its employees in Hong Kong attend a high number of training sessions and various staff members in Hays Hong Kong were promoted in the past financial year. The firm is determined to be recognised as the global industry leader for the way in which it trains and develops its people. It builds a culture that truly supports and encourages learning, knowledge creation and sharing. The company’s training and development programmes focus on developing its people into recruitment experts, and giving them the opportunity to further develop their careers to senior management level.

Pro-Matrix primarily specialises in the financial services market and is focused on mid to senior-level recruitment. In 2014-2015, the company successfully helped a high number of financial institutions recruit high calibre candidates. The company has been particularly successful in placing a high number of C-level roles. In fact, Pro-Matrix in all aspects has proven to be one of the niche industry leaders in the China financial services recruitment market for its services. From requirements analysis, talent search, and recommendations to the final hiring interview, Pro-Matrix is able to quickly and accurately understand the real needs of customers and candidates, and propose effective solutions, and excellence in all aspects of customers and candidates. The company’s knowledgeable management team members have held roles in international firms as partner-level recruitment leaders and have provided thought leadership to the recruitment industry in China. The company’s consultants’ individual productivity ranks in the top percentage of the China market. The firm prides itself on establishing the concept of a “hive mind” into its company culture and therefore, it is a huge supporter of sharing its internal administrative processes to inspire every one of its consultants to fully share and collaborate with other peers. In line with this aim, Pro-Matrix has developed to be a collective recruitment knowledge as well as marketing insightsharing platform. The company also ensures its consultants undertake regular screenings and training to make sure every one of them becomes a trusted field expert.

HR VENDORS OF THE YEAR 2015

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LOAD UP YOUR LEADERSHIP As market boundaries blur and organisations try to cope with increasingly diverse workplaces, the question of senior leadership has to be raised. Questions such as: do our current senior managers have what it takes to pave the way for your organisation’s successful future? What makes a truly exceptional leader? How can we find and groom the next generation of leaders? Answers to all of these lie at the heart of recruitment of senior managers and leaders. Talking to senior managers and discussing their careers takes a sophisticated set of skills, not the

GOLD Robert Half Robert Half is among the world’s pioneering and largest specialised recruitment firms, and a recognised leader in professional recruiting and consulting services, dedicated to providing excellent staffing services to its candidates and clients. Expanding into Hong Kong in 2006, the firm also has other offices in the Asia Pacific region. In Hong Kong, its recruiting professionals specialise in permanent placements as well as temporary and contract roles in finance and accounting, technology and banking and financial services. Through a culture of customer success, this gold winner makes sure every employee puts the customer first. Its goal is to efficiently match client companies and mid to senior-level candidates in successful, long-term relationships. It prides itself on treating executive clients and candidates with respect, sensitivity and professionalism, while adhering to the highest ethical standards in recruitment. As a result of its service excellence, it serves many top MNC clients across a wide range of sectors. Robert Half operates four divisions in Hong Kong – Robert Half Management Resources, Robert

Half Financial Services, Robert Half Finance and Accounting, and Robert Half Technology. Its comprehensive recruiting programme uses innovative recruitment methodology, offering clients a cost and time-saving approach with increased control to get their business fully staffed and running smoothly. Clients can also be assured they are dealing with some of the most experienced professionals in the industry. Every candidate it recommends has been evaluated through its distinctive Robert Half match system, which includes in-person interviews and work history evaluation with candidates, customised background checks and more. At the same time, Robert Half boasts an extensive up-to-date and responsive candidate database backed by a strong and flexible CRM system. This allows it to easily facilitate a cross-reference search on experience, industry and organisations to find the most suitable candidates for clients. Additionally, its high-traffic online presence via its website – which contains streamlined content tailored to employers and job seekers – makes jobs accessible and easy to navigate.

HR VENDORS OF THE YEAR 2015

least of which is the ability to communicate at their level and establish trust. Identifying senior candidates who are ready for business unit management or top leadership roles and then persuading them to move is an extremely difficult task. The Best Recruitment Firm – senior management roles (over US$10k per month) category winner is the recruitment firm which can best demonstrate consistent success in this high level area. If your senior-level recruitment mandate lies with any of the 10 firms who have made their mark on this list, then you have just raised your chances of success at hiring leaders. BEST RECRUITMENT FIRMS (senior management roles over US$10k per month) GOLD

Robert Half

SILVER

Pro-Matrix & Co

BRONZE

Michael Page

FINALISTS ACI HR Solutions Ambition Experis Hong Kong Hays Hong Kong JAC Recruitment Oliver James Associates Spring Professional (Hong Kong) Finalists are listed in alphabetical order.

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SILVER Pro-Matrix & Co Aiming to offer the highest standard of service quality in China’s recruitment industry, Pro-Matrix’s reputation has been built on the success of the companies it recruits for and the candidates it recruits successfully. Over the course of 2014 and 2015, the company has successfully recruited an impressive number of high calibre candidates for numerous clients all over the world, ranging from global conglomerates to large Chinese corporates. Among the candidates recruited, many have been placed in senior roles such as C-levels and director-VP levels. The silver-winning firm is known by its clients and candidates for its specialisation in the recruitment of professionals in the financial services market and its focus on recruiting mid to senior-level roles. As such, Pro-Matrix considers its landmark practice to be the recruitment for the financial services industry, with recruitments from that industry contributing to a significant amount of the firm’s revenue. In the financial services practice alone, it has a significant number of specialised consultants based in Beijing and Shanghai. In 2014 to 2015, it

successfully helped a large number of financial institutions recruit many high calibre candidates. In addition, Pro-Matrix adds to industry knowledge by developing a number of national talent market intelligence research projects. In all aspects, this has entrenched the firm’s position as a leading recruitment firm in the niche industry of China’s financial services recruitment market. The firm boasts an experienced management team comprising members who, in their previous roles, were mostly partner-level recruitment leaders at international firms and thought leaders in China’s recruitment industry. With average recruitment experience of more than five years, the firm’s consultants are seasoned recruiters. Bringing the concept of “hive mind” into ProMatrix’s company culture helps the firm advocate the streamlining of its internal administrative processes, making it more efficient than before. At the same time, the “hive mind” concept helps inspire every one of its consultants to fully share and collaborate with their peers, effectively working as a team to serve clients better.

BRONZE Michael Page Under the PageGroup umbrella, Michael Page has nearly 40 years of recruitment experience supported by a global scale of operations, and this bronze winner has undoubtedly played a pivotal role in PageGroup’s success. Celebrating its 20 th anniversary in Hong Kong last year, the Michael Page brand has grown tremendously with a strong reputation in the market. Last year, Michael Page Hong Kong successfully placed a great number of senior-level professionals into permanent employment and temporary roles. With continued steady growth over the years, there is an impressive number of MyPage subscribed users in Hong Kong and numerous job applications were made through the website this past year. The Michael Page team in Hong Kong specialises in securing top candidates from middle to senior levels across various functions and industries, including banking and financial services, engineering and manufacturing, human resources, legal, marketing, property and construction and more. Hong Kong is a hub specifically for the Greater China region. The Michael Page team in Hong Kong has become the region’s go-to experts and this

continues to open up countless opportunities for the other markets in Greater China. Given the sheer scale of its operations internationally as PageGroup – operating within a robust technology infrastructure globally to ensure quality, delivery and consistency – the company is able to provide clients with the best blend of global and local services possible. Key technologies and enhancements rolled out this year included the Page Recruiting System (PRS), NextGen website, Yammer – a corporate social network – and Join PageGroup – its unified global careers website. PRS integrates with its digital systems, including its next-generation website and job boards, as well as its financial systems to create a seamless and automated recruitment process. The next-generation website features an enhanced keyword search, a responsive layout and a modern content management system to enable regular market insights which help improve job seekers and employers’ online experience. The group invests heavily in the development of its people and PageGroup’s learning and development team is widely regarded as a market leader.

HR VENDORS OF THE YEAR 2015

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ACI HR Solutions

Ambition

Experis Hong Kong

Established in October 2012, ACI HR Solutions (ACI) is a company dedicated to recruiting for the travel, tourism and hospitality sector. It was founded by Andrew Chan, founder and CEO, stemming from a need he identified for a specialist recruitment firm owned and operated by people from within the industry to not only aggressively compete against major generalist recruitment agencies, but at the same time passionately dedicate itself to the advancement of the tourism landscape across Asia. Client partnerships are unequivocally the bedrock to ACI’s success. Being passionate not only about its clients’ success, but also the industry as a whole, makes ACI the leading travel and hospitality recruitment expert regionally. Knowing that time is a valuable commodity in the fast-paced environment of the travel and hospitality sector, ACI can typically turn around a shortlist of qualified candidates to clients within one week, and manage the entire recruitment process from salary negotiations to post-placement follow ups. Fuelled by its passion for the hospitality industry, ACI has established, and provides the only government-endorsed responsible service of alcohol workshop and has trained service staff across the region. Knowing there is still a white space for travel, tourism and hospitality specialist recruitment companies, with either none or few players across Asia, North America, Europe and Australia, ACI intends to aggressively expand its ACI licence model to better serve clients operating in these regions. All of the company’s consultants have worked in the travel, hospitality and/or lifestyle industry, giving them an in-depth understanding of the type of candidates sought by clients.

Heading into its 15th year in Hong Kong, Ambition’s primary focus is on creating longterm mutually beneficial relationships with its clients, candidates and staff to live up to its aim of “building better futures”. Working as a team across disciplines and offices, Ambition aspires to provide the best recruitment services as well as add value through hosting meetings and events where clients can hear from industry leaders and professionals about hot topics and enjoy a gathering of peers around a table for an opportunity to share information. Ambition specialises in permanent and contract recruitment across various industries such as banking and financial services, finance and accounting, information technology (including technology contracting), sales and marketing, and supply chain and procurement. The company offers a number of different solutions to clients, including both contingent recruitment and retained search services. It also offers market mapping and payroll services. Alongside Ambition’s varied sourcing processes, it also provides further services such as global client and candidate events, a dedicated team focused on ensuring the best service is offered, various reports, interview spaces, and more. Additionally, all of Ambition’s global offices are connected, enabling it to better serve global clients. For Ambition, the partnership created with clients is grounded in its expert knowledge of the roles it recruits for, combined with the understanding it has developed of what makes the right individuals in the market stand out for clients’ businesses. A crucial part of the company’s success is how it maintains an active talent pool. Its consultants constantly work to build a network of candidates within their specialist areas.

Experis’ deep industry knowledge to understand the challenges various businesses face gives it the ability to provide its clients with the professional talent and expertise needed to seize new opportunities and accelerate their business forward. With few companies able to match Experis’ scope, the company has an excellent history of success and a reputation as one of the global leaders in professional talent and solutions. Through the company’s deep industry knowledge and unmatched understanding of human potential, it’s able to help its clients and referred talent to achieve peak performance. Experis accelerates business growth and careers by extensively attracting, assessing and placing specialised expertise in IT, banking, finance and accounting, hospitality, tourism and leisure, retail, engineering, legal, sales and marketing, human resources and the executive C-suite. The company delivers in-demand talent precisely for mission-critical positions, enhancing the competitiveness of the organisations and the people it serves. It also applies its expertise to provide a suite of proven workforce solutions that help improve client productivity, efficiency and cost containment. An example of the firm’s previous success was when it was appointed by a leading global systems integrator to recruit talent within a specific domain and technical knowledge on short notice in a limited local talent pool. Within a week of being appointed, the Experis team mapped, headhunted, shortlisted and presented three qualified candidates to the client and was the only appointed search firm to do so. Within two weeks an offer was rolled out by the client. As a result of Experis’ excellence in business practices and commitment to ethics, the company has won numerous awards.

HR VENDORS OF THE YEAR 2015

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Hays Hong Kong

JAC Recruitment

Oliver James Associates

Operating on a global scale, and having been in Asia Pacific for more than 20 years, Hays is one of the world’s leading experts in recruiting qualified, professional and skilled people across a wide range of specialised industries and professions. Hays has been in Hong Kong since 2006 and is accredited with the International Quality Standard ISO 9001:2008. The company has since been recognised as among the best suppliers of quality talent by local organisations, multinationals and SMEs alike, making it a preferred recruitment partner for a number of worldrenowned organisations. The combination of innovative technologies, global reach and scale, local market knowledge and breadth and depth of expertise is what makes Hays a true worldclass leader in the recruitment industry. Its consultants place a high importance on the service provided to clients and candidates and the company frequently measures customer satisfaction levels, and consistently receives high feedback scores.

Even though JAC Recruitment joined the Hong Kong recruitment market late, it has seen significant year-on-year organic growth since its opening in 2011, and is now among the larger international recruitment agencies in Hong Kong. JAC Recruitment provides high quality recruitment services for a wide range of industries and for companies from all over the world. The company has successfully placed a very high number of senior management professionals for a wide variety of industries, including banking and finance, technology, manufacturing, engineering and many more. With a growing reputation, especially for senior management recruitment, JAC Recruitment consistently receives enquiries from senior management up to CXOs who are discreetly looking to change jobs as they know JAC Recruitment can be trusted. With its strong database of native Japanese-speaking candidates, JAC Recruitment is a clear market leader for Japanese recruitment in Hong Kong.

Established in 2002, Oliver James is an independent niche provider of contract, interim, permanent and search recruitment within the financial services and consultancy sectors with an international presence. Its offices in Asia place a focus on insurance and actuarial recruitment – a niche and complex sector that demands consultants are well-versed with industry nuances. A key advantage for Oliver James Associates is its deep understanding of the global demographic of this specialist market, giving it the ability to tap into a pool of potential relocation candidates. With no other firms so ingrained within the insurance and actuarial recruitment market, Oliver James has built an excellent reputation within the sector, placing an impressive number of professionals to date. The company prides itself on developing long-term partnerships by understanding the needs of its clients. Its consultants take the time to understand the client and their businesses – from why it is a good place to work – to their recruitment processes.

Spring Professional (Hong Kong) Spring Professional is an international recruitment firm specialising in mid senior-level management in the industries of engineering, IT, property and construction, as well as supply chain and logistics. Within two years of operations, Spring Professional has expanded its regional footprint to cover a number of countries in Asia while increasing its repertoire of specialisations from engineering and IT recruitment to include property and construction as well as supply chain and logistics, making it one of the fastest growing recruitment firms globally. Additionally, it has also begun its operations in Europe and the UK.

Spring is undoubtedly at the cusp of being more streamlined and more efficient in digital as a specialist recruitment company and plans to expand its “Spring to mind” conceptual pitch as its online influence continues to grow. Since its inception in March 2013, Spring has ramped up its digital and social media attack with targeted “build, engage and recruit” online tactics with a particular focus on LinkedIn – where it has had some of the most impressive growth in terms of engagement. At the end of 2014, Spring embarked on a mobile optimisation charge and the new website is now fully optimised for all mobile devices.

HR VENDORS OF THE YEAR 2015

BEST OVERALL RECRUITMENT FIRM

RECRUITING WINNERS It is no secret that economies in Asia are among the fastest growing the world has ever seen, and this is a reflection of the region’s important contribution to various aspects of global business and market development.

For this reason, access to a qualified and skilled pool of candidates is the foremost priority of business leaders. Regionally, the heightened competition for talent in Asia is also having a direct impact on recruitment processes, which means human resources professionals have their work cut out for them, and often they require the support of a capable recruiting partner. Being recognised as a leading recruitment firm in one area is one thing, but demonstrating

GOLD Robert Half Proving its calibre across all categories of recruitment is overall winner Robert Half, well-known as among the world’s first and largest specialised recruitment firms. The firm has been growing its global and regional footprint after expansion into Hong Kong in 2006, with 11 offices in Asia Pacific. In Hong Kong, the company's recruiting professionals specialise in permanent placement, as well as temporary and contract roles in finance and accounting, technology, and banking and financial services. At the core of Robert Half’s success is a culture of customer success – a mindset that puts the customer first, with the goal to efficiently match its client companies and mid to senior-level candidates in successful long-term relationships. The firm prides itself on treating executive clients and candidates with respect, sensitivity and professionalism, while adhering to the highest ethical standards in recruitment. Robert Half operates four divisions in Hong Kong, the first of which is Robert Half Management Resources aimed for senior-level finance, accounting and business systems professionals on a project

and interim basis. Robert Half Financial Services is the second division, earmarked for high-calibre professionals within finance and accounting, operations, risk, compliance, investment banking and financial markets. The third division is Robert Half Finance and Accounting, a world leader in specialised financial recruiting consultancy, offering permanent, contract and temporary recruitment services in the accounting and finance profession. The fourth division is Robert Half Technology, targeted at experienced IT professionals. All four divisions are underpinned by an innovative recruitment methodology which Robert Half calls “the Company-in”. This approach offers clients a time-saving approach to get their businesses fully staffed and running smoothly as quickly as possible. This includes compressing the first interviews into a few hours by running back-to-back assessments either at its office or at the client’s office. Key benefits of this approach include a shorter interview process, which ensures the client is less likely to lose a preferred candidate, as well as immediate post-interview feedback for both parties.

HR VENDORS OF THE YEAR 2015

leadership in all areas of recruitment takes a very special organisation. The winner of this category is the recruitment firm which best matches the right candidates with the right roles in the right organisations across the entire recruitment and talent acquisition spectrum.

BEST OVERALL RECRUITMENT FIRM GOLD

Robert Half

BEST PSYCHOMETRIC TESTING PROVIDERS

Within the time given to fill openings these days, it is often an arduous task just to find a reasonably suitable candidate for the role. But in the current environment of data-driven HR decision-making, psychometric testing has migrated from being a fringe task to become an increasingly common part of the talent acquisition process. Psychometric testing is used by companies to ensure that shortlists are free of people whose personalities do not gel with an employer’s culture and environment. In this category, the winner of the Best Psychometric Testing Provider award is the company that provides insights into a candidate’s personality and future behaviour on a consistent basis. If you are working with one of the best psychometric testing providers identified in this year’s shortlist, you can rest easy knowing that your selection and assessment process will provide you with the best-fit candidates.

BEST PSYCHOMETRIC TESTING PROVIDERS

READING YOUR CANDIDATE’S MIND GOLD CEB CEB has been in the Hong Kong market for more than three decades, and has earned a solid reputation for strong customer coverage. From large banking organisations to world famous hotel groups, CEB has helped many clients achieve real business results from the use of its talent measures, enabling more effective and resource‐efficient recruitment. CEB recently launched several new products/ services such as the high potential (HiPo solution) and the enterprise leadership solution. The Technology Council in Hong Kong has integrated CEB’s HiPo solution into its internal development programme. The solution enables the council to have confidence in its internal talents and to formulate targeted training and development initiatives. CEB’s enterprise leadership solution brings to the market a brand new model for leadership that focuses solely on the behaviours that drive business results. This new approach helps develop leaders who are strong individual performers to be even stronger as part of a team. The firm also introduced talent central in 2015, a new talent measurement platform developed in

response to clients’ feedback on ways to measure performance and usability improvements. Plus, in October, CEB launched the global talent monitor. This provides a snapshot of how real employees and job candidates worldwide feel about the economy, their own prospects and what motivates them – or doesn’t – when it comes to work. By keying in six metrics, CEB provides employers top line visibility into employees’ needs and motivations, which helps them to focus on priorities and shape programmes based on business needs. CEB works with a high number of Dow Jones’ Asian titans as well as the FTSE 100. It delivers a huge volume of assessments per year in a significant number of languages and has one of the world’s largest databases of people intelligence. In the past year, CEB has run several internal initiatives, which include the integration of its various acquisitions and the rolling out of a new career path framework for its employees. It has also built strong partnerships with its local community through its work with local NGOs for local charity organisations to give back to the needy in the community.

HR VENDORS OF THE YEAR 2015

GOLD

CEB

SILVER

GraduACE

BRONZE

StrengthsAsia

FINALISTS Drake International PsyAsia International Finalists are listed in alphabetical order.

BEST PSYCHOMETRIC TESTING PROVIDERS

SILVER GraduACE GraduACE takes pride in developing psychometric solutions catered for local needs. It is a psychometric testing vendor who does not look “to the West” for its psychometric solutions, but develops them locally. It understands the unique cultural ethos in Greater China that impacts the workplace. GraduACE is dedicated to making the assessment relevant to the client and setting the assessment in the context of the client’s business. Its work strength assessment tools are focused on the psychometrics aptitudes in Hong Kong and China. It develops aptitude tools that are set at the right level of difficulty for local candidates. GraduACE develops assessment systems that don’t rely on generic reports, but generate a specific job attribute report for each job, thus reflecting accurately how well a candidate fits the client’s required job attributes. The company also develops bespoke assessment centre exercises that reflect a client’s unique work environment to give candidates a “day in the life” experience with their potential employer. There are also eligibility questionnaires for candidate screening that are bespoke for clients.

Making the assessment relevant to the client and setting assessments in the context of the client’s business, improves the predictive accuracy (validity) and, as line managers recognise the relevance and context of their business, they become much more engaged in a structured and objective hiring process. To have a deeper understanding of clients, GraduACE hosts informal networking events by inviting clients for an exchange of ideas. GraduACE is a developing company with a unique working culture where all employees are seen as equal and work alongside side each other without any hierarchal barriers. All employees are highly encouraged to learn from each other. The firm also has no set working hours, instead it considers work hours as those that are necessary to fulfil a project. For example, if a client needs an assessment at 7pm on a Sunday evening, someone in GraduACE will be there to deliver it. The company ensures the greatest flexibility and efficiency for clients. The results have been encouraging so far: All staff that joined the company when it started six years ago have remained with the company.

BRONZE StrengthsAsia StrengthsAsia has been firing up people and organisations in Asia to love what they do and do what they do best every day since 2011. It delivers three main training products: the Strengths based leadership programme, the Strengths based team engagement and the great managers programme. Through these programmes, StrengthsAsia is bringing more focus on the worth and wellbeing of the individual, creating momentum in people, groups and organisations to believe and invest into their unique strengths, and unleashing a positive disproportionate impact into their lives, organisations, communities and societies in Asia. StrengthsAsia comprises top Gallup-certified strengths coaches in Asia in the advocacy and practice of strengths-based thinking, living and performance. It creates and delivers inspirationally transformative experiences in strengths engagement for individuals and organisations. Being in Asia gives it the unique edge, experience, perspective and understanding in designing and delivering strengths-based engagement in Asian cultures.

Lim Kim Pong is the CEO and managing director of StrengthsAsia. He engages corporate leaders and teams in the dialogue of discovering, leveraging and maximising individuals’ and teams’ talents and strengths. His entrepreneurship experience in successfully growing a SME has given him deep knowledge in leadership, employee engagement and talent management strategies. With the Clifton StrengthsFinder tool, leaders and managers are equipped with the language to bring out the very best in people in their respective organisations. This translates to increased employee engagement in organisations, more motivated teams and better team performance. With extensive experience in organisational development and the grooming of leaders, StrengthsAsia has witnessed that the long-ingrained mentality of focusing on weaknesses leads to increased demotivation. The opposite approach is to focus on the individual’s strengths in order to maximise natural potential, which leads to the much-quoted phrase: “It pitches focusing on what is strong and managing what is wrong.”

HR VENDORS OF THE YEAR 2015

BEST PSYCHOMETRIC TESTING PROVIDERS

Drake International Since 1951, Drake has assisted organisations to solve a wide range of human performance problems to help staff and their organisations operate more efficiently and effectively, and realise targeted objectives. The Drake’s operating philosophy is based on the principle that organisations achieve the highest level of performance when they are staffed with the right people, working with the right skills, knowledge and behaviours, and using the best processes and technology driven solutions, over an extended period of time. Its unique suite of talent management solutions can be customised for organisations to generate an exponential impact by improving performance, productivity, recruiting, retention, organisational culture, leadership and customer satisfaction. Drake P3 and Drake Picasso are psychometric assessment tools used to generate accurate and reliable reports about the behavioural traits of both individuals and teams. This information assists employers to maximise the performance of their people and strategically manage every aspect of the employee life cycle. Drake P3 is a user-friendly behavioural

assessment tool which can be completed online in less than 15 minutes. The tool features four expert modules that can be applied throughout the employee life cycle. The selection expert is a precise tool used to identify specific behavioural tendencies which naturally incline candidates to succeed in certain roles. The performance expert assists managers to align individuals with the goals of the organisation by analysing any gaps between their performance and that of their high-performing colleagues. The management expert builds a more effective workforce. It is used to open and enhance communication, resolve conflict, measure training effectiveness and motivate your people to achieve their goals. The team expert is a high-tech toolbox which facilitates understanding of team dynamics and assists in the integration of new team members. Drake Picasso is a psychometric assessment tool used to gain deep insights about individual’s behavioural patterns across different roles. Some of the traits analysed include leadership style, reasoning skills, team dynamics and conflict resolution abilities.

PsyAsia International Using psychometric tests to shortlist job applicants or to assist in development, coaching and career counselling has become commonplace. Psychometric testing adds more information to the overall assessment process. However, that information is meaningless if the test chosen is not the right one for the situation or if a well-developed test is used incorrectly because of a lack of training and competence on behalf of the test administrator. In view of this, PsyAsia International offers world-class science-supported psychometric tests for recruitment, selection and development. PsyAsia International has a long history of serving Hong Kong and being an innovator in psychometric tests supported by registered psychologists in Hong Kong. It started its first psychometric test training course in Hong Kong in 2002 with the Vocational Training Council and has continued to teach psychometrics and sell psychometric tests in the city-state since. It currently runs two offices in Hong Kong. PsyAsia is founded by and managed by registered business psychologists who are experts in psychology, business and personalities at work and

who have undergone years of training in the field. Its psychologists must continue to undergo continuous professional development to remain as registered psychologists as they are answerable to professional and government regulatory bodies. With advances in internet technology PsyAsia has been able to take its psychometric tests across borders. Its online psychometric courses have led to internationally recognised qualifications from the British Psychological Society (the RQTU level 1 and 2 test user certifications) as well as the European Federation of Psychologists’ Associations (EFPA Euro test user certificate). The company’s most popular consultancy package is its psychologist-on-call service, whereby its psychologists interview clients’ job applicants on the basis of their competencies and the applicant’s psychometric test results. Clients worldwide have the opportunity to use PsyAsia’s online psychometric tests for hiring, development, coaching and team building. All tests are designed and produced by registered psychologists who are experts in psychometric testing at work.

HR VENDORS OF THE YEAR 2015

BEST LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT CONSULTANTS

LEADING FROM THE FRONT With no shortage of the printed word about leaders and leadership and an abundance of leadership frameworks backed up by years of research and academic theories, there is no doubt that leadership development is one of today’s most critical business imperatives. As a matter of fact, investing in talent management programmes to develop an organisation’s leaders came up as the primary focus for human resources professionals in research conducted just this year. As a result of this intense focus, HR and business leaders are spoilt for choice in shopping for suitable solutions at the leadership development store, but with the challenge of effectively finding and implementing the framework that is most likely to accelerate the development of leaders in their organisation.

GOLD Young Samuel Chambers Driven by a desire to make sustainable change, Young Samuel Chambers (YSC) is one of the world’s premier independent leadership consultancies which helps organisations achieve commercial success by releasing the power of their people. Developing deep psychological and behavioural insights is core to the firm’s work. It is known for going below the surface and creating interventions that drive real and profound transformational change whether at the individual, team or organisational level. Operating 20 offices worldwide, YSC’s international presence equips it with great cross cultural understanding as well as the ability to complete assignments in more than 19 languages. The firm addresses various types of client needs – such as creating a leadership model that is in line with the corporate culture and business objectives; understanding leaders’ capabilities to meet current and future business needs; and building a pipeline that can fulfil the leadership requirements of the company, among others. As such, it partners with clients to create and implement leadership development strategies in a holistic way, working with them across their entire

people agenda to build a strong and sustainable pipeline of talent. This involves helping clients get the right people into key roles, identifying and unleashing potential and helping to accelerate people’s growth at all levels. YSC also helps its clients develop high performing teams, implement business change and embed the values and culture necessary to achieve strategic business goals. The company’s holistic approach to leadership development takes into consideration individual, team and organisation development. The approach uses four steps: framing an agenda which defines capability; generating deep insight by assessing capability and effectiveness; cocreating change which includes coaching, leadership strategies and initiatives, team and organisational development; and measuring sustainable impact such as returns on investment, team and organisational effectiveness. YSC believes its rich rigorous leadership insights, good quality benchmarking data, cuttingedge assessments and a strong developmental feel and independent judgment set it apart from its peers in the industry.

HR VENDORS OF THE YEAR 2015

From functional leads to business unit heads all the way to the C-Suite, leaders who come from within the company are much more likely to succeed than if they were recruited externally. Therefore, plan A is always to identify the organisation’s high potentials, keep them in the company and develop them into leaders. This doesn’t happen all by itself and increasingly even the best managed companies turn to leadership development consultants for help. The winners and finalists of the Best Leadership Development Consultant category is the consultancy which best helps its clients consistently develop the next generation of leaders. These are the seven specialists you can trust to provide the know-how and the right tools to develop your leadership pipeline, based on a meaningful understanding of your organisation’s needs, your current bench strength, and the factors impacting their development. BEST LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT CONSULTANTS GOLD

Young Samuel Chambers

SILVER

Team Building Asia

BRONZE

Mercer Hong Kong

FINALISTS Asia Corporate Training Sandler Training Singapore & Hong Kong SAP SuccessFactors Signium Management Consulting Finalists are listed in alphabetical order.

BEST LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT CONSULTANTS

SILVER Team Building Asia Team Building Asia is one of the largest and most trusted management training event and training providers in Hong Kong, with an active regional presence, especially in China and Singapore. Knowing it is crucial that great leaders are able to work in teams with their peers, the company has an array of more than 70 team building activities for its clients and have added at least five activities to its widely-recognised selection. In 2015, the firm launched various new products and services and made improvements to existing ones. Some of its new products include the go team high tech treasure hunt; push it! – a high energy, interactive tablet challenge; and puppet masters – where learners create and manipulate gigantic puppets. Go team is a new tablet application exclusive to the company’s catalyst team building network, and transforms any location into an amazing race full of interaction and adventure. The

app features a unique follow arrow that helps guide teams to their waypoints. Once members arrive at their destination, GPS-triggered challenges are issued to the teams in the form of questions, clues and pictures that require teamwork to complete. Instant updates, feedback and scores are kept in real-time as the technology tracks the teams’ progress along the way. Designed with meticulous attention to detail, push it! has an engaging, user-friendly interface which encourages maximum involvement. Each team receives two tablets which are wirelessly paired to ensure that participants collaborate in each decision. The trials include skill tests, physical challenges and brain-teasers which are customised to achieve each client’s desired outcomes. Puppet masters is a fully inclusive team activity making use of giant puppets for team building, where everybody has a clear understanding of their role.

BRONZE Mercer Hong Kong Mercer is a well-known global consulting leader in talent, health, retirement and investments. It helps clients worldwide advance the health, wealth and performance of their most vital asset – their people. Mercer has extensive experience working with corporations everywhere – from global, national or government-owned. The firm is aware there is an ever-increasing need for leaders with a global mindset, along with an understanding of various cultural and geographical sensitivities. As such, the company aims to help organisations build leaders for today’s world who can operate and excel in the diverse, dynamic and interconnected workplace. Mercer offers an end-to-end suite of leadership solutions that help clients identify, develop and retain a pipeline of ready, capable leaders who can drive

the strategic agenda of the organisation and help the organisation gain a competitive advantage and deliver measurable results. Furthermore, it can provide clients with a comprehensive understanding of all human capital issues – not just leadership – and how they interrelate and support business imperatives. Based on extensive research with its clients, other top companies and thought leaders, Mercer has developed a global leadership model and offers products and solutions to help organisations assess and develop global leaders. Some of its new leadership products and services include a strategic talent management workshop and talent game, a virtual assessment centre, and “leading to transform” – a two-day, fully immersive programme that develops leaders’ ability to think strategically, influence dynamically and lead change within a global context.

HR VENDORS OF THE YEAR 2015

BEST LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT CONSULTANTS

Asia Corporate Training With 13 years of experience in the training and people development field, Asia Corporate Training (ACT) believes that alignment is critical to any successful organisation. It understands that leadership development programmes are the key to creating and sustaining the corporate culture and keeping employees aligned and engaged with the company. Hence, it adopts a forward-looking and innovative approach in its leadership development programme to create impactful and long-lasting results. ACT views building partnerships as key to its company growth – especially via product offerings which benefit its clients. Some of the new products and services it offered in 2015 included various one-day to three-day leadership, training and development programmes to well-known local, regional and global firms. To create greater impact and to cater for diverse leadership needs of its clients, ACT incorporates well-researched models and theories to validate its training and support its training context. An example is its partnership with one of the world-class leadership training companies and

using their leadership programme to illustrate the importance of how to adapt a leadership approach to situations. To advocate better self-awareness in leadership development, ACT also employs different psychometric assessment tools such as leadership effectiveness analysis and insights discovery to help leaders gain clarity on their leadership approach, discover strengths and areas of development. ACT believes there are two main assets in every company – the company brand and its people – and it treats its people as its primary asset. The ACT team consists of a pool of multicultural individuals with diverse experience and skills. Its engaged and talented team members come from different industries such as the police force, hospitality, banking, finance and more. Knowing the importance of training and development, every two months, ACT organises social gatherings and train the trainer programmes to enhance team bonding and sharing. During train the trainer, it shares the company’s updated programmes and business development direction and shares new training methodologies.

Sandler Training Singapore & Hong Kong As one of the world’s leading global training companies with more than 250 offices worldwide, Sandler Training specialises in leadership, sales management and sales training. In Asia Pacific, Sandler Training was established in Singapore in 2008 and in Hong Kong in 2012 and has been able to service clients throughout the region from these two offices. As a testament of its excellent service, its list of long-standing clients consists of large tech MNCs, luxury automotive companies as well as large hospitality companies for which Sandler Training has conducted various courses – from sales to coaching the top leaders. Additionally, Sandler Training has secured numerous new clients this year, including a leading global market research company from Europe, a leading global private bank, a leading US automotive supplier company, a leading security label company from the US as well as a European software company and a major hospitality company. As a comprehensive training provider, Sandler Training provides courses catering to all aspects of business in numerous areas such as leadership,

sales, sales management, negotiations and customer service. This year, the company launched a new product called the Sandler Enterprise Selling (SES). This programme is targeted at clients who are engaged in complex, enterprise selling situations and aimed at helping them to achieve the best outcome. The programme consists of many different components such as service delivery, opportunity identification and solution developments. At the same time, it also has useful tools such as the pursuit navigator, positioning tool, client-centric satisfaction tool and the three opportunity planner. The company prides itself on being excellent trainers and business professionals. Sandler Training Singapore and its Hong Kong staff members are all seasoned professionals who bring real-world experiences to the training room, most of whom have been with the company for a long time. New additions to the company’s world-class team includes Joseph Palumbo, Sandler Training Hong Kong’s managing director, who has more than 30 years of experience in the corporate and academic world.

HR VENDORS OF THE YEAR 2015

BEST LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT CONSULTANTS

SAP SuccessFactors SuccessFactors functions as an independent business unit within SAP – the market leader in enterprise application software. From back office to boardroom, warehouse to storefront, and desktop to the mobile device, SAP enables each and every individual and organisation to work together more efficiently using SAP applications. At the same time, SAP’s applications allows these individuals and organisations to effectively make use of business insights to their fullest potential to stay ahead of the competition. With its proven track record, the company has attracted world-renowned organisations as clients with one such example being a global and widelypopular luxury hotel group. One of the company’s key products is SuccessFactors Performance Management; Succession and Development.

Using this product, many of its clients have successfully built a globally consistent and structured competency based HR practice, accessed talent management information on-demand from across all their offices and provided awareness to their employees on the available career plans and opportunities in place. With the use of SuccessFactors Performance Management; Succession and Development, many of the company’s clients have overcome various business challenges, including the outgrowing of existing HR processes and strategies, the need to attract top talent required to become a recognised market leader and the problem of succession planning data living in silos across the company. A key benefit many clients gain from using SAP’s products is the ability to establish a single global succession planning process which results in millions saved in recruitment fees.

Signium Management Consulting Established in 1986 in Hong Kong (previously as GML Consulting and Boyden Management Consulting) and expanding to Mainland China almost 20 years ago, Signium Management Consulting occupies a unique niche in the market by specialising in customised and strategic leadership solutions. Its expertise is based on its many years of hands-on corporate experience, coupled with a long list of clients in the public and private sectors. The company consists of a team of professionals who are passionate in developing leaders and committed to providing top-notch leadership solutions to its clients in order to strengthen their organisational capabilities and achieve optimal business impact. It prides itself in its ability to truly understand clients’ needs and provide highly customised and effective solutions. It differentiates itself by providing carefully

tailored solutions instead of pre-defined or prescriptive methodologies, stressing a practical and hands-on approach that gives a better fit for clients’ circumstances and yields more lasting results. The company's integrated leadership development solutions are created with its expertise, experience and understanding of the client, the market and the local culture. Based on decades of research and experience, the Signium leadership competency framework has been developed to serve as a solid backbone for its highly tailor-made leadership solutions. It has designed various leadership assessment programmes to identify the strengths and development areas for its clients’ leaders and conducts training to transfer knowledge and skills to its clients. All its leadership development programmes are highly customised with real-life role-play scenarios.

YES, we recruit there. Your single point of contact for all of your hiring needs globally

www.npaworldwideworks.com HR VENDORS OF THE YEAR 2015

BEST COMPENSATION & BENEFITS CONSULTANTS

GETTING BANG FOR YOUR BUCK Gone are the days where companies had the luxury of tossing up money at the problems they faced. The world before the financial meltdown of 2008-09 was one characterised by excess, while the era since has been often classified as the new normal. Low hanging fruit is harder to come by for organisations, which now have to go the extra mile in most geographies, product lines or targeting consumer groups. Innovation – be it in the form of newer solutions or newer ways of doing things – is repeatedly proving to be the key source of competitive advantage. The impact of all these developments has not been lost on those in charge of devising the best ways to attract, reward and retain an organisation’s critical talent. The fact that employees are in control of today’s talent market has meant that compensation, benefits and rewards strategies have been elevated to a much higher priority. HR teams, and their compensation and benefits professionals, have been party to a sea change in their job descriptions. Compensation and benefits consultants provide HR professionals with the data they need to build competitive packages that don’t break the

business and also advice on how to structure and communicate remuneration policy, a complicated task which only gets more difficult when rolled out across multiple markets and tax jurisdictions. The winners and finalists of the Best Compensation & Benefits Consultant category are those that provide the best insights and advice to their clients. These consultants have been vouched for by the HR community, so you know your spend is in the right hands when you work with them. BEST COMPENSATION & BENEFITS CONSULTANTS GOLD

Total Loyalty Company

SILVER

Gain Miles Assurance

BRONZE

CXA Group

FINALISTS Mercer Hong Kong Zurich Insurance Company Finalists are listed in alphabetical order.

GOLD Total Loyalty Company Total Loyalty Company (TLC) is a relatively new player in Hong Kong, but in four years this gold winner has made a strong impact by offering a lifestyle benefits-based employee benefits programme. It does so not just by offering a static one-off solution, but a consistent ongoing programme that is constantly changing, making it relevant and appealing to employees. As a result, the solution it provides makes the workplace happier, develops more engaged employees, and hence, improves productivity. In doing so, TLC negotiates corporate discounts and offers, approaching vendors on behalf of its clients. Vendors get the time-saving benefit of not contacting each company individually, while clients benefit as no matter what size they are, they can offer a rich programme of staff perks. To make this even easier for clients, TLC has developed a customisable website which can be branded per each client. All offers, including those unique to a client, are put in this portal. TLC also helps run staff events, from the annual dinners to lunch and learning sessions. Office Marketplace is one of TLC’s novel

solutions, wherein it brings unique vendors to its clients’ offices for product sampling and sales. TLCApplause is the firm’s ticket box office service which sources tickets to shows, concerts as well as sporting events, locally and globally. AskTLC is the firm’s buying advisory service for all things electrical. These unique solutions are rounded up by a strong staff communications platform, with weekly and monthly EDMs keeping staff informed on the latest offers and benefits. TLC also develops promotional posters, banners as well as a mobile app to support the programme. Clearly, TLC’s approach to employee benefits is a fresh approach in Asia – with a focus on benefits that enhance the daily lifestyle of employees. The key to its success is providing a year-round sustainable and consistent programme of employee benefits – one that regularly changes and is enhanced with offers and perks that are relevant and seasonal. Simply put, a programme that enables its clients’ employees to feel proud of the unique perks and benefits on offer by their employer. After all, happy and content employees are going to be more engaged and productive.

HR VENDORS OF THE YEAR 2015

BEST COMPENSATION & BENEFITS CONSULTANTS

SILVER

BRONZE

Gain Miles Assurance

CXA Group

Mercer Hong Kong

Gain Miles is a professional and independent consultant in Hong Kong, providing four major services, including comprehensive employee benefits, leading MPF consultancy services as well as risk and financial advisory. With more than 35 years of experience in the health and wealth industry, Gain Miles adopts an objective consulting approach – making recommendations and formulating advice based on extensive research and indepth market analysis. Over the years, Gain Miles has played a significant role in promoting the benefits of member education and employer responsibilities; and servicing thousands of employees and their organisations in choosing and managing their MPF schemes. In addition, this silver winner believes employee benefits are the most important part of a remuneration package in the battle for talent. Not only does Gain Miles understand the importance of benefits’ designs, it also provides reliable consultancy services, as well as conducts in-depth analysis on employee benefits.

Bronze winner CXA is Asia’s pioneering private workplace insurance and wellness marketplace. The platform transforms a company’s healthcare spend into personalised benefits and wellness programmes that empower employees to become healthier. Employees can select a mix of insurance and wellness services from a wide range of providers to suit their individual needs. Companies purchasing insurance coverage through CXA’s brokerage receive the platform at no additional cost, together with its data analytics, flexible benefits and workplace wellness administration. In the process, CXA helps employers combat rising premiums and keeps administrative costs down by operationalising a defined contribution benefits programme. It aggregates all the players in the employee benefits value chain into a private marketplace and automates all the paper, information and payment flows between employees, companies, insurers, hospitals, clinics, health screeners and wellness providers.

Mercer helps clients worldwide advance the health, wealth and performance of their most vital asset – their people. A wholly owned subsidiary of Marsh & McLennan Companies, Mercer has extensive experience in working with corporations everywhere, whether global, national or government-owned. Mercer’s approach to compensation and benefits demonstrates a strong business and customer focus, where it takes into consideration the operational needs of customers, and customises solutions to better meet their needs. One of its solutions is the international position evaluation, which provides organisations a better understanding of the jobs that make up their unique structures. Another one is Mercer’s compensation analysis and review system (CARS) conceptualised for clients’ annual salary review processes. With CARS, which is available as a customised report or as an online tool, clients can ensure fairness with an internal calibration, review salary ranges and ensure budgets are used wisely through an analysis of pay dispersions.

Zurich Insurance Company Zurich’s heritage is about helping customers understand and protect themselves from risk – this is the authentic truth at the heart of its brand. To help its customers, the firm finds solutions to the challenges of interconnected risks in businesses, governments, communities and research. At a macro level, this implies in-depth knowledge towards industry benchmarks, latest claims trends, medical inflation, market options analysis, cost containment, government regulatory trends, financial reports, and more. At a micro level, backed by such a fountain of industry knowledge, Zurich is able to offer the best professional solutions for its clients.

Be it their benefit systems, risks, competitors or market statistics, Zurich has the most valuable insights to offer the product and solution best for their needs. These innovative solutions are based on their specific needs, and in doing so, it works with a wide range of customers, from individuals to small and medium-sized businesses to large domestic and multinational corporations. Depending on their needs, customers can access the firm’s products and services through agents, tied agents, brokers or directly from Zurich. Zurich’s medical division was launched a year ago to ensure the quality of all consultants.

HR VENDORS OF THE YEAR 2015

BEST EMPLOYEE INSURANCE PROVIDERS

INVESTING FOR A RAINY DAY

While cash is king in the HR professionals’ compensation and benefits arsenal, medical and life insurance is an increasingly important benefit. As healthcare costs continue to climb, healthcare benefits that can attract, retain and engage employees become a more serious challenge for HR. Many organisations are looking for ways to curb the impact of high prices without losing their competitive edge in the talent market. The objective behind this category is to identify vendors of employee healthcare investment, those who are presenting strategies, opportunities and solutions in keeping healthcare and wellness programmes beneficial to employees and the overall business standing amid increasing costs. This is a way for employers to examine the available options and what needs to be considered when it comes to designing cost-efficient healthcare benefits. The issue is not just about investing in employee benefits, but also how to effectively implement them to satisfy the demands of the current workforce. These are the vendors that commit to addressing issues in corporate healthcare considered critical in the decision-making process

GOLD Zurich Insurance Company The heart of the Zurich brand is about helping customers understand and protect themselves from risk. Since 1872, the gold winner has been applying its expertise and experience so that customers can have the very best protection for the things they value. Zurich is aware of the importance of understanding the current market needs and deep diving into what will be beneficial to customers. To do so, Zurich places great efforts in intensive research, focus groups and surveys. Based on collected data, it found three core challenges – limited selection in benefits and lack of flexibility in choosing group medical insurance, heavy administrative burdens and lack of budgets. It understands this last challenge was especially of concern as most employers neglect to offer group medical insurance due to budget reasons and a lack of understanding about what is offered in the market. To address these challenges, Zurich developed the FlexiCare group medical insurance plan. This plan offers flexible benefit options that employees can choose from, depending on their personal circumstances. These plans also include wellness preferential options for the whole family.

At the same time, Zurich allows clients to set a budget, working within the allocated budget to provide a range of flexible benefit options. Companies can choose from either à la carte or set menu mode for employees to mix-and-match to create personalised medical insurance covers. To reduce the heavy administrative burdens, Zurich is the first and only provider in Hong Kong with a mobile app which allows easier processes. From enrolment to benefits selection, instant claims enquiries and more, employees can do everything themselves using the app. To gain valuable user feedback in preparation for the product launch, Elaine Chan, chief health officer, general insurance Hong Kong, and her medical team participated in the app-testing phase. The valuable insights collected from the phase were then evaluated to ensure a user-friendly, problemfree app ready to launch. Having only launched a couple of months ago, FlexiCare has gained promising feedback. Zurich plans to continue expanding FlexiCare to better meet its clients’ needs and it’s very positive that it will achieve great success.

HR VENDORS OF THE YEAR 2015

of HR executives and compensation and benefits managers, such as the impact of rising healthcare costs on people management. They have studied how rising healthcare inflation alters healthcare programmes and what should be accomplished to mitigate risks and to ease the consequences for employers. Another consideration they have examined is how to leverage insurance to combat worsening employee health and boost employee participation in wellness initiatives. Employers need reliable employee insurance vendors which offer affordable packages and are flexible enough to keep the most demanding members of staff happy. The financial services firms which provide companies with employee insurance for their workforce in the best possible way have taken home the Best Employee Insurance Vendor award. The winners and finalists in this category are the specialists that have received the nod of approval from the HR community, and cleared the assessment criteria of an experienced jury.

BEST EMPLOYEE INSURANCE VENDORS GOLD

Zurich Insurance Company

SILVER

Mercer Marsh Benefits

BRONZE

Sun Life Financial Insurance

FINALISTS AIA AXA Finalists are listed in alphabetical order.

BEST EMPLOYEE INSURANCE PROVIDERS

SILVER

BRONZE

Mercer Marsh Benefits

Sun Life Financial Insurance

AIA

Silver winner Mercer Marsh Benefits (MMB) is recognised as one of the premier consulting firms in the HR marketplace and provides clients with a single source for managing the costs, people risks and complexities of employee benefits. It has a network of a combination of Mercer and Marsh local offices worldwide, plus country correspondents who have been selected based on specific criteria. Its benefits experts are deeply knowledgeable about their local markets and are located in many countries all over the world, serving global clients. Through its locally established businesses, it has a unique common platform that allows it to serve clients with global consistency and locally unique solutions. Clients turn to MMB for advice on how to balance the efficiency of global policies with the requirements of local markets. It believes its expertise in talent, health, retirement and investments services distinguishes MMB from its peers in the marketplace.

Setting up its first operations in Hong Kong in 1892, Sun Life Hong Kong is one of the established players in the Hong Kong financial services market, offering customers a wide array of protection and wealth management products and services. The company's distributors use a multidistribution approach to serve a significant number of individuals and corporate customers in Hong Kong. What sets Sun Life Hong Kong apart from its peers is its comprehensive range of products, and its extensive experience as a third party administrator in the pensions administration business. It offers a variety of products for individuals as well as various group solutions. Its group solutions include MPF, ORSO, group medical insurance and group life insurance. Sun Life understands employees are the key to any business’ success. Hence, it conducts a comprehensive study of its clients’ employees’ insurance needs before offering its clients tailor-made group health insurance plans and specially designed package plans.

AIA takes pride in providing its corporate customers with the most comprehensive and efficient one-stop employee benefits solutions. As a company, it understands that life is unpredictable, with highs as well as challenges – and everyone is on a different journey. Hence, AIA’s starting point has always been about understanding people. By being genuinely engaged with people’s real lives, it is able to gain deeper insights, enabling it to offer a range of insurance and wealth management products that fit the needs of the individual. Over the past 90 years, AIA has built its business upon serving the ever-changing needs of people and companies in Asia using its personal, relationship-based approach, making it part of the fabric of life in the region. AIA’s corporate solutions department has more than 50 years of experience in providing employee benefits and group insurance products and services, including group life and medical insurance plans, SMES packages and more. Continually seeking new ways to improve, it has established itself as a market leader in employee benefits.

AXA As one of the largest health protection providers, AXA Hong Kong prides itself on serving more than a million customers in Hong Kong and Macau. The firm is committed to helping its customers achieve stability and prosperity through providing a comprehensive range of solutions. As a leader in providing insurance, investment and retirement planning solutions, AXA continues to redefine standards through a consistent and continuous demonstration of its core values. It continues to develop and deliver superior and innovative propositions to its clients. AXA knows that attracting and retaining talent

is essential to the success of businesses and aims to keep its clients’ workforces happy with the security of a comprehensive employee benefit plan. It provides a range of corporate solutions that fits all company sizes from small and medium-sized businesses to large multinationals. Its full-spectrum of group insurance products provides life protection as well as medical and disability coverage to its clients’ most valuable assets – their people. Products include group life insurance and group medical insurance, including hospital and clinical benefits and group disability.

HR VENDORS OF THE YEAR 2015

BEST RELOCATION COMPANIES

People say the world is getting smaller. Anyone who has flown from Hong Kong to New York may have a different view. For the world’s relocation firms, the Earth’s circumference is still 40,075 km, the same as it was 100 years ago and Tim Berners-Lee’s invention of the world wide web did not change the time it takes a cargo ship to sail from Manila to San Francisco. Layered on top of the logistical challenges is the human factor (that is, the expatriate staff member and his/her family) which means care of goods, timing, communication and customer service must be beyond reproach. The winner of the Best Relocation Company category is the relocation firm which both delights expat staff and reduces the administrative burden on its clients’ HR and mobility departments. If you’re working with one of these seven Best Relocation Company firms you can breathe easy – your HR peers have voted them the best in the business.

WHEELS IN MOTION Relocating key staff across the world has become commonplace, but that doesn’t mean the physical transportation of personal effects has gotten any less complicated.

GOLD Crown Relocations In 2015, gold winner Crown celebrated 50 years of successfully serving the relocation and destination industry. It provides transportation, destination and immigration services, as well as employee and family support, while assisting people relocating internationally or domestically. The firm’s calling in 2014 and 2015 was to constantly maintain the highest quality of services to meet ever-changing requirements: from simple to complex door-to-door relocations across the world. Hong Kong is home to the global headquarters of Crown Worldwide and a flagship operation. The Hong Kong operation acts as a regional service centre managing clients’ relocation and destination programmes across Asia, and as a local DSP, ensuring its clients are quickly settled, integrated and adjusted to life in Hong Kong. It boasts dedicated teams for destinations, immigration services, intercultural training, expense management and technology. Crown Hong Kong has had an exciting couple of years since the beginning of 2014. There has been a paradigm shift in local clients’ talent strategies and mobility has come under their corporate spotlight as

a valuable contributor. Internal clients now demand more from their mobility teams, expecting them not only to manage the deployment of key personnel, but to also drive regional talent management goals, while at the same time, rationalising costs and demonstrating a return. To respond, Crown’s mobility programmes in Hong Kong, like much of Asia, have grown in scope from the traditional management of expatriate programmes. Long-term expatriates are still a core demographic of senior leadership, but today prioritisation is given to tiered policies, localisation, international permanent hires, lump sums and short-term assignments. Success is being measured differently for developmental, skills transfer and critical business assignments. Thanks to the firm’s unique combination of service expertise, backed by an “owned” worldwide operational network, Crown Relocations still remains a strong partner of private individuals, making their relocation (overseas or domestically), stress-free and hassle-free. In 2015, the firm continued to invest in technology and efficient systems to make clients’ relocation seamless, more reliable and better informed.

HR VENDORS OF THE YEAR 2015

BEST RELOCATION COMPANIES GOLD

Crown Relocations

SILVER

Brookfield Global Relocation Services

BRONZE

Cartus

BRONZE

Santa Fe Relocation Services

FINALISTS Allied Pickfords Asian Tigers Mobility UniGroup Relocation Finalists are listed in alphabetical order.

BEST RELOCATION COMPANIES

SILVER Brookfield Global Relocation Services This year, Brookfield Global Relocation Services (Brookfield) has made its mark as one of the world’s trusted leaders for the design and management of international and domestic relocation and assignment services. In Hong Kong, Brookfield has promoted its strength in orientation and broader destination services to the financial services industry, and has built a reputation for providing an integrated and comprehensive relocation and home-finding service, becoming one of Hong Kong’s largest corporate expatriate residential leasing operations. The firm works tirelessly to breed an inherent culture of innovation. It believes innovation is a concept that is not owned by a single individual or department and it feels its services, and the technology that enables them, reflect that culture. In 2014, Brookfield reduced costs for its clients and improved its services through the introduction of its bundled destination services programme, MovEssentials, which combines the home finding, settling in and, if applicable, orientation and educational assistance programmes. These programmes provide comprehensive support to the assignee and his/her family, optimising assignee satisfaction, while also offering clients significant benefits from a cost perspective. This programme offers an alternative pricing structure based on the completion of services, rather than a prescribed number of days, allowing for cost transparency and an improved customer experience, enhanced and reduced scope offerings customised to meet client-specific requirements and budget Brookfield has also established various strategies focused on the continuous pursuit of retaining and developing its employees.

BRONZE Cartus Cartus has guided clients through thousands of corporate relocation programmes, be it large and small, unique and complex. Ideally equipped to lead, the firm has helped relocating employees and their families find their way to new homes, new communities and new experiences. It does this through an unwavering focus on listening and delivering services, solutions and expertise that responds to their needs and the needs of their companies worldwide. Whatever the move or location, it couples personal attention with the expertise gained through more than three million moves and a diverse client base. In 2015, Cartus celebrated its 60th anniversary in the relocation industry. As part of these celebrations, the firm is particularly proud of its growth in the Asia Pacific region. Cartus opened its first Asia Pacific office in 1997 in Hong Kong followed by Singapore in 2001 and Shanghai in 2005. Two years ago the firm identified its clients were relocating their employees to a large number of emerging markets. Cartus’ clients required the firm to provide more information to them and their assignees about these markets and in response, its emerging markets initiative addressed their needs. In 2014/15 the firm introduced various tools to fulfil this requirement. Among the materials for clients, the firm published a range of country based emerging market videos as well as marketwatch documents for clients to read. In 2015, this was supplemented by materials on three special emerging markets for clients – China, Brazil and Africa. In fact, it regularly publishes a range of communications for clients that cover every aspect of relocation from destination information to policy recommendations.

BRONZE Santa Fe Relocation Services Tying with Cartus this year is Santa Fe Relocation Services. Santa Fe is a leading provider of global relocation services offering effective outsource solutions for even the most challenging global mobility programmes. In addition to moving services, the company provides a suite of mobility services such as global mobility programme health checks, policy benchmarking and design, global mobility programme reviews, total cost management reviews and global mobility supply chain reviews. Its focus for 2015 is the companies’ consulting services where its global mobility consulting services team provides HR teams with the support and expertise needed to help them address the strategic side of their global mobility programmes, while enabling them to maintain focus on the operational aspects of their role. Santa Fe’s consulting services team all have operational backgrounds, including experience of running global mobility programmes and delivering services involved in these programmes which means the company’s solutions are grounded in reality and best practice. Santa Fe takes pride in its unique “beehive” model which enables it to analyse its clients’ businesses from a strategic level and an operational perspective. Transparency is significantly important to the company and it takes special care to ensure each of its processes are open and transparent, including its pricing structure and the way it engages stakeholders – simple and open. This year, Santa Fe announced the launch of a mobile app developed specifically to make it easy for relocating employees. The app is available on Apple’s App Store and Google Play.

HR VENDORS OF THE YEAR 2015

BEST RELOCATION COMPANIES

Allied Pickfords

Asian Tigers Mobility

UniGroup Relocation

For almost 400 years, Allied Pickfords has been synonymous with high quality home moving. From the packhorses of the early 17th

Coming in as a finalist this year is Asian Tigers Mobility – a firm which has a unique system of delivering its top-notch services. For example, it offers a single point of co-ordination to streamline clients’ communications and reduce the number of people clients and their transferees need to contact. The programme is tailored to meet the needs of each transferee and their family in terms of the specific country/city location. Services can be provided on an ad-hoc basis or bundled for a total solution. Asian Tigers Mobility will make recommendations to the transferee based on its comprehensive transferee needs analysis and its recommended practices for each location. Asian Tigers assures its clients peace of mind during relocation. Perhaps that is why independent companies tracking customer service satisfaction of relocation companies put Asian Tigers above the industry average. This is a result of the firm’s focus on developing new methods and procedures in delivering its services. The big initiative for this year is the development of a new IT system that aims to improve customer experiences. Asian Tigers has also added new divisions with a realty department and destination services department. The company has also expanded its business to fine arts logistics and set up a joint venture with overseas partners. One of its missions is to make Asian Tigers Mobility a great place to work and be an employer of choice. It takes pride in being a people-oriented business. It believes it can have happy customers only when it has happy employees. Asian Tigers’ high staff retention rate is a testimony of this fact. Asian Tigers Mobility will review staff performance at least once a year to identify their needs of training.

UniGroup’s Hong Kong office is the regional headquarters for UniGroup Relocation’s Asia Pacific operations. Through UniGroup’s global network, its Hong Kong office can assist clients with local and international relocation services anywhere in the world. It also specialises in office moving and logistics services. Its team of experts provide a global relocation or logistics solution that is custom designed to meet clients’ specific needs. UniGroup’s main goal is customer satisfaction. In policy, procedure and operational planning, customer satisfaction is the company’s top priority. It strives to provide seamless and excellent service to its clients and assignees. It has a standard of procedures and policies which ensure the same level of service is performed for each move from the beginning to the end. UniGroup regards its staff as one of the most valuable resources of the company. Each year it identifies and assigns employees to undergo training to help them gain more insight and up-to-date knowledge and understanding on topics relevant to their daily tasks. With knowledge from training and hands-on experience through daily operations, the foundations for providing exceptional service to clients and assignees are built. UniGroup believes communication is vital in daily life. Good communication skills are needed to communicate thoroughly with clients, assignees and also vendors or moving partners who are from different cultures and backgrounds. The company’s international moving co-ordinators are trained in customer service to handle all situations. With UniGroup’s new RedSky system, information can be easily and quickly obtained and shared all over the world with a simple click of a mouse.

century to the most advanced shipping and transportation methods of today, over a large number of countries, Allied Pickfords has grown to become one of the largest and most respected providers of moving services, handling a high number of domestic and international moves every year. First established in 1984, Allied Pickfords Hong Kong is supported by a huge number of employees. As part of its commitment to workforce diversity, its Hong Kong office comprises various nationalities. And in keeping with its corporate commitment to community giving, the firm contributes to various local non-profit organisations. Allied Pickfords believes that companies need a relocation partner that understands the challenges of an evolving market and it is uniquely positioned to help them overcome these challenges. It takes pride in its ability to partner the HR contacts and their expatriate staff – throughout the entire relocation. For Allied Pickfords, high service standards, international accreditation and innovative technology tools are important. It works hard to improve the relocation experience for assignees. The company’s goal has always been to provide consistent and quality moving experiences to relocating employees so they can get to their destination and be successful in their new role as quickly as possible. It has also developed an RFP toolkit, which reduces the administrative burden and helps clients to secure good household rates.

HR VENDORS OF THE YEAR 2015

BEST MOBILITY & ORIENTATION CONSULTANTS

Navigating the logistical challenges involved in shipping containers full of household items is one thing. Getting relocated staff settled in their new city and back to work with minimal business disruption is another. In fact, studies with HR leaders have revealed that, more often than not, overseas assignments have failed because the individual or his/her family have been unable to successfully integrate into the new environment, and not because the individual on assignment is not successful. The best mobility and orientation consultants should be able to prepare the relocated manager (and their family) for changes in culture before the move, take care of the immigration administration, work out tax issues, provide advice on banking and other legal and statutory requirements and get the expat executive into the office as soon as possible. The winners and finalists of the Best Mobility & Orientation Consultant category best exemplify these traits, and you can trust them to acclimatise your assignees in their new work location. BEST MOBILITY & ORIENTATION CONSULTANTS

GETTING READY FOR DAY ONE

GOLD

Crown World Mobility

SILVER

Brookfield Global Relocation Services

BRONZE

SIRVA Relocation

FINALISTS ECA International Santa Fe Relocation Services UniGroup Relocation Finalists are listed in alphabetical order.

GOLD Crown World Mobility This year’s top mobility and orientation consultant has more than 50 years of experience in the mobility industry. Crown has unique first-hand experience and deep local insights into the challenges faced by the rapidly evolving mobility industry. Being a key hub for multinationals, Hong Kong is home to the global headquarters of Crown Worldwide. The local operation acts as a regional service centre, managing clients’ mobility programmes across Asia, and as a local DSP, ensuring employees and their families are quickly settled, integrated and adjusted to life in Hong Kong. Crown Hong Kong has had an exciting couple of years since the beginning of 2014. The firm has realised clients now demand more from their mobility teams, expecting them not only to manage the deployment of key personnel, but to also drive regional talent management goals. At the same time, they have to work towards rationalising costs. Crown’s mobility programmes in Hong Kong, like much of Asia, have grown in scope from the traditional management of expatriate programmes. Long-term expatriates are still a core demographic of senior leadership, but today’s

priority is given to tiered policies, localisation, international permanent hires, lump sums and short-term assignments. In 2015 Crown introduced a new workflow management tool. Linked directly to its mobile app, it drives improved data integrity and triggers the key touch-points that keep assignees fully informed. This has increased productivity and allowed Crown’s customer services teams to reduce their administrative tasks and devote more time to closer interaction with families. Crown also provides an online tool that assesses the need for intercultural training prior to incurring a full ICT programme cost. The intercultural readiness check (IRC) helps employees prepare for the challenges of moving to a new location and gives HR managers an assessment of the level of training required and helps control costs. The IRC also provides a powerful tool for trainers to adapt programmes to the employee’s individual investment. In 2014, Crown introduced a rigorous risk assessment step for all immigration applications. It now conducts full eligibility assessments on all applications within 48 hours of initiation.

HR VENDORS OF THE YEAR 2015

BEST MOBILITY & ORIENTATION CONSULTANTS

SILVER Brookfield Global Relocation Services Silver winner Brookfield Global Relocation Services is a provider for the design and management of international and domestic relocation and assignment services. In Hong Kong, Brookfield has expanded its destination services to the financial services industry, and has built a reputation for providing an integrated and comprehensive relocation and homefinding service. Today, the company has become one of Hong Kong’s largest corporate expatriate residential leasing operations. Brookfield believes innovation is a concept that is not owned by a single individual or department. In 2014, it reduced costs for clients and improved services through the introduction of a bundled destination services programme, MovEssentials, which combines the home finding, settling in and, if applicable, orientation and educational assistance programmes. The programme provides comprehensive support to the assignee and their family, optimising assignee satisfaction, while also offering clients significant benefits from a cost perspective. It offers an alternative pricing structure based on

the completion of services, rather than a prescribed number of days, allowing for cost transparency and an improved customer experience. The Hong Kong residential leasing market is expensive, frantically paced, and is without the benefit of a central listing service. Making use of its deep and widely-regarded real estate operations expertise, Brookfield prides itself in negotiating the inherent challenges of the market by finding just the right property at the right price for clients’ employees. In 2014, Brookfield launched Perfect! – a new proprietary software development project to expand its real estate capabilities. This web-based, highly versatile SQL technology, allows internal users full access to Brookfield’s listings database of archived landlord listings, and is derived from over 17 years of experience in Hong Kong’s residential leasing sector. Highlighting the preferred expatriate housing options across all housing budgets, Brookfield is in the position to provide people relocating to Hong Kong with the largest possible selection of properties to choose from – regardless of their budget.

BRONZE SIRVA Relocation With increasing globalisation and the rise of new emerging markets, companies’ mobility or relocation needs are more complex, creating demand for relocation expertise and innovative as well as customised solutions. This year’s bronze winner, SIRVA, is a relocation partner that understands the challenges of an evolving market and is uniquely positioned to help it overcome these challenges. With a strong global footprint, the firm supports companies anywhere they need to conduct business. SIRVA has expanded its relocation footprint to India and Qatar and strengthened its moving network in Macau. With a strong focus on relocation expertise, SIRVA educates clients so they can meet the evolving challenges of the industry. By providing proprietary research, thought leadership and industry events, the firm has empowered companies to better face the relocation challenges of the future. SIRVA believes in this digital age, new products or improvements to existing products are driven by innovative technology. The innovative technology by SIRVA enables clients to better manage their mobility

programmes while also enhancing the assignee and transferee experience. One such technology, SIRVAlytics, is empowering companies to transform relocation data, which can be ambiguous and overwhelming, into actionable insights. SIRVA developed its SIRVAlytics reporting and dashboard tool to enable clients to access critical relocation data from anywhere in the world and it delivers relocation data and insights that help companies make more informed and quicker relocation decisions. SIRVAlytics provides clients with access to comprehensive insights surrounding their relocation programmes. Having this timely information readily available means clients can make informed relocation decisions quickly. Another innovation the company introduced to make employees’ lives easier is the SIRVA connect mobile app. This app provides assignees with access to information and tools to manage their relocation wherever they are. For employees, it enriches their mobility experience and reduces stress while administering their move on the go.

HR VENDORS OF THE YEAR 2015

BEST MOBILITY & ORIENTATION CONSULTANTS

ECA International ECA International’s operations in Asia support a huge number of companies covering mature markets such as Hong Kong, Japan and Singapore and developing markets such as China. The firm’s aim is to provide industry leading data and technology, enabling companies to move their staff around the world as cost-effectively as possible. The company made a decision in 2013 to allocate more expenditure towards increasing the range of software and data it provides to various clients. In its country reports, ECA today provides companies all the information they need to manage employee mobility effectively. Improvements it has made to the report include increasing the number of locations for which data is provided. It also provides cost of living allowance recommendations for a significant number of locations worldwide. It has also expanded the comprehensiveness of its reports for increasingly popular locations in Asia. It has expanded the number of cities for which it provides data in China to more than 20 as well as enhancing coverage in key emerging locations in ASEAN such as Brunei, Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar. ECA is at the forefront of developing assignment salary calculator technology. It provides an integrated employee mobility cost-estimate tool, allowing companies to calculate estimated employee and employer costs for all types of employee mobility: permanent transfers, international assignments short-term assignments, etc. The tool can be customised to reflect company policies regarding allowances and benefit provisions and achieves significant improvements in assignment case management efficiencies.

Santa Fe Relocation Services Santa Fe’s global mobility consulting services team provides HR functions worldwide with the support and expertise to help them address the strategic side of their global mobility programmes, while enabling them to maintain focus on the operational aspects of their role. Members of this consulting services team all have operational backgrounds, including experience in running global mobility programmes and delivering services involved in these programmes. Their solutions are grounded in reality and best practice. The scope of service provided by Santa Fe includes global mobility programme health checks, policy benchmarking and design, global mobility programme reviews, total cost management reviews and global mobility supply-chain reviews. The firm analyses clients’ businesses from a strategic level and an operational perspective. Santa Fe understands the connectivity between all aspects of an individual company’s programmes and the solutions required. The fee the firm charges is transparent, and everything from the company's pricing structure to the way it engages stakeholders is simple and open. Santa Fe has also announced the launch of a mobile app developed specifically to make it easy for relocating employees. The “Santa Fe Relo” app is available on Apple’s App Store and Google Play. The app helps to plan relocation tasks, track relocation status and provides access to many useful tools to help with the settling-in process in a new destination. The app also enables assignees to stay connected with their case manager throughout their assignment with current information.

HR VENDORS OF THE YEAR 2015

UniGroup Relocation For more than 60 years, UniGroup has provided top-notch global relocation services to companies. With a global mobility network of a large number of locations, the firm is one of the largest owner-managed relocation networks in the world. Its Hong Kong office is the regional headquarters for the firm’s Asia Pacific operations. UniGroup Relocation offers specialised moving and relocation services tailored to meet the diverse needs of a global clientele. Each service centre in its network is held to a rigorous service level agreement, ensuring the same level of quality regardless of destination. UniGroup pledges a common voice globally, a consistent standard of quality and unsurpassed local knowledge, giving assignees support and peace of mind as they embark on their foreign assignments. Each assignee is paired with a regional account manager who will act as a single point of contact. A move supervisor, strategic partner and an account manager are also assigned to address unique goals and challenges and help reduce administrative burdens. UniGroup Relocation and its network of service providers help customers assimilate into new host countries seamlessly through an extensive menu of destination services. From preview trips to departure assistance, its team of professionals worldwide develop a custom package of services that make the departure and settling in processes easy for everyone involved. The firm also publishes several moving guides to help assignees prepare, understand and plan for their international moves. UniGroup Relocation received its ISO 9001:2000 registration in 2003 and earned the new ISO 9001:2008 certification in 2009.

BEST MANAGEMENT TRAINING PROVIDERS

management tools which in turn leads to improved bottom-line business performance. The winner of the Best Management Training Provider award achieves this for its clients on a consistent basis. Great management training consultants are able to inspire future leaders by challenging them to step out of their comfort zone and reach a new level in their career development. They are able to transform the culture of the company and the way managers look at their business. Every organisation and every manager or executive will have different needs at various stages of their career. Training consultants are able to customise programmes to fit each individual’s needs. If you are thinking of nurturing the next generation of leadership to ensure the sustainable and long-term growth of the company, this list of winners and finalists will be a good place to start.

TIME FOR SCHOOL The foundation of a company is built on strong leadership. To help nurture the next generation of leaders for a company, employers need to provide strong leadership training for high potential staff to get them prepared for the next leap in their career. But the sad fact is most managers learn how to

BEST MANAGEMENT TRAINING PROVIDERS

manage people on the job, and as a result, they make far more mistakes and lose far more people from their teams compared with managers who received management training before they were tasked with running teams. Great management training providers equip new and experienced managers with people

GOLD Team Building Asia Team Building Asia is one of the largest and most trusted management training event and training providers in Hong Kong, with an active regional presence, especially in China and Singapore. Knowing it is crucial that great leaders are able to work in teams with their peers, the company has added at least five activities to its more than 70 team building activities it has for its clients. In 2015, Team Building Asia launched various new products and services and made improvements to existing ones. Its array of new products include push it! – a high energy, interactive tablet challenge; go team, a high-tech treasure hunt; and puppet masters – where learners create and manipulate gigantic puppets. Designed with meticulous attention to detail, push it! has an engaging user-friendly interface which encourages maximum involvement. Each team receives two tablets wirelessly paired to ensure that participants collaborate in each decision. The trials include skill tests, physical challenges and brain-teasers which are customised to achieve each client’s desired outcomes. Go team is a new tablet application exclusive to

the catalyst teambuilding network, which transforms any location into an amazing race full of interaction and adventure. The app features a unique follow arrow that helps guide teams to their waypoints. Once members arrive at their destination, GPStriggered challenges are issued to the teams in the form of questions, clues and pictures that require teamwork to complete. Instant updates, feedback and scores are kept in real-time as the technology tracks the teams’ progress along the way. Puppet masters is the ultimate test of communication, collaboration and performance as teams manipulate gigantic puppets to perform seemingly simple human actions. To succeed, each team becomes a “nerve centre” controlling a myriad movements to wow colleagues with an effortless performance. Puppet masters is a fully inclusive team activity where everybody has a clear understanding of their role in the bigger picture. This gold winner knows that people are a key asset to any business. Hence, while it cares about its clients, it also makes sure its staff are kept happy and fulfilled to accomplish their tasks.

HR VENDORS OF THE YEAR 2015

GOLD

Team Building Asia

SILVER

Sandler Training Singapore & Hong Kong

BRONZE

Asia Corporate Training

FINALISTS Dale Carnegie Training (HK and Macau) Ethan Hathaway Hong Kong University StrengthsAsia Finalists are listed in alphabetical order.

BEST MANAGEMENT TRAINING PROVIDERS

SILVER Sandler Training Singapore & Hong Kong In Asia Pacific, Sandler Training was established in Singapore in 2008 and in Hong Kong in 2012 and has been able to service clients throughout the region from these two offices. As a leading global training company with over 250 offices worldwide, Sandler Training specialises in leadership, sales management and sales training. Sandler Training has secured numerous new clients this year, including a leading global market research company from Europe, a leading global private bank, a leading US automotive supplier company, a leading security label company from the US as well as a European software company and a major hospitality company. Additionally, as a testament of its excellent service, its list of long-standing clients consists of large tech MNCs, luxury automotive companies as well as large hospitality companies for which Sandler Training has conducted various courses – from sales

to the coaching of top leaders. As a comprehensive training provider, Sandler Training provides courses catering to all aspects of business in numerous areas, such as leadership, sales, sales management, negotiations and customer service. This year, the company launched a new product called the Sandler Enterprise Selling. This programme is targeted at clients who are engaged in complex, enterprise selling situations and aimed at helping them achieve the best outcomes. It consists of many different components such as proposing and advancement, opportunity identification and solution development. At the same time, it also has useful tools such as the pursuit navigator, relationship builder, client-centric satisfaction tool and the three opportunity planner. Sandler Training Singapore and Hong Kong’s staff members are all seasoned professionals who bring real-world experiences to the training room.

BRONZE Asia Corporate Training Asia Corporate Training (ACT) understands the challenges and responsibilities of managers by designing practical and impactful management training programmes for its clients. It knows there is often a missing training process when it comes to managerial development and that most managers are promoted to a position they don’t have the experience in without proper training. As such, this bronze winner has come up with a variety of products and services to cater to its clients’ challenges. Some new products and services it introduced in 2015 include various one-day to three-day management trainee, management skills and management practice alignment programmes catering to well-known local and regional firms. ACT strongly emphasises on understanding behaviours to create the best results and focuses on helping participants realise which of their current behaviours are creating undesirable results and

how they can improve. To better structure the management training programme and accelerate participants’ learning, Asia Corporate Training uses psychometric assessment tools to provide a bigger picture for participants to manage their team and business results. Believing that experience is the best way for participants to reflect, learn and gain clarity of where they are and how they can step out of their comfort zone, Asia Corporate Training uses challenging and fun activities to simulate participants’ working environment, allowing them to use another perspective to look at their “deadlocks”. Through using its solutions, ACT’s clients have improved their relationships with team members, have a better appreciation of differences between each other and how to adapt their working style to communicate more effectively as well as feel more confident in their managerial roles.

HR VENDORS OF THE YEAR 2015

BEST MANAGEMENT TRAINING PROVIDERS

Dale Carnegie Training (HK and Macau) Dale Carnegie Training Hong Kong and Macau is well known for its brand, having been in the business for more than 100 years, and more than 50 years in Hong Kong. The company stands for integrity, care, professionalism, quality and practices – “walking the talk”, not just “talking the walk”. At the same time, it is also known for its innovation and creativity – constantly reinventing its offerings to stay competitive in the marketplace. A pioneer of the principles of achieving success through human relations, Dale Carnegie couples those core concepts with a spirit of confidence to drive changes in its clients’ employees’ performances and ability to achieve. Its new product includes modules on leading and communicating with Millennials and sales leadership training programmes. Between 2014 and 2015, it has also made various improvements to its existing products and services, including implementing extensive follow-up sessions post-training and adding tailor-made certification services.

Ethan Hathaway

Hong Kong University

Ethan Hathaway is one of the leading providers of information, training and coaching for business executives and finance professionals all over the world. It provides a range of public, in-house and online business and financial training courses which cover a wide range of financial topics from asset and liability management, risk management, leadership management, project management and more. All its courses are specially designed by active industry experts for industry practitioners. At the same time, its courses have clear objectives as Ethan Hathaway makes sure its courses are: practical – skills taught are relevant to mastering the job; applicable – skills learnt can be applied to the job; and valuable – clients receive a much greater return for their investment. The array of courses Ethan Hathaway provides includes ones such as business continuity and scenario planning, business writing and communications, strategic alliances, strategic negotiations and many more.

Hong Kong University’s (HKU) Executive Education, previously known as the Poon Kam Kai Institute of Management, was established in 1998 under the auspices of the Faculty of Business and Economics of the University of Hong Kong. It specialises in providing executive training and leadership development programmes to seasoned professionals of local, regional and international private and public organisations. Advocating an entrepreneurial approach, its executive programmes blend academic rigour with the analysis of economic and business issues in the real world and invites prominent business leaders as speakers to share their valuable experience and innovative insights.

StrengthsAsia Since 2011, StrengthsAsia has been firing up people and organisations in Asia to love what they do and do what they do best. By doing so, it has brought more focus on the worth and wellbeing of the individual, creating momentum in people, groups and organisations to believe and invest in their unique strengths, and unleashing positive disproportionate impact into their lives, organisations, communities and societies in Asia. What sets it apart is its experience, perspective and understanding in designing and delivering strengths-based engagement in Asian cultures. Some of its training products include

Strengths-based leadership, Strengths-based team engagement and great managers programmes. As a partner of the Gallup Organisation (Gallup), in using Strengths to drive excellence through tools such as StrengthsQuest, and Entrepreneurial StrengthsFinder, StrengthsAsia comprises top Gallup-certified strengths coaches in Asia in the advocacy and practice of strengths-based thinking, living and performance. It plays its role in Asia as part of the global movement started by Gallup to reach one billion people in discovering their talents and strengths through StrengthsFinder and unleashing the potential of excellence in people.

HR VENDORS OF THE YEAR 2015

The faculty’s expertise in the broad spectrum of business areas incorporates the latest developments, challenges and opportunities of today’s volatile global economy into its programmes to offer cutting-edge customised corporate training programmes. All of HKU’s executive education courses are conducted at the HKU Cyberport Campus.

BEST SALES TRAINING PROVIDERS

their clients with the products and services they need within set budgets. True sales professionals consistently exceed their targets and drive the revenue performance of their companies. But true sales professionals don’t just happen. Their raw optimism, enthusiasm, communication and people skills are groomed through training and practice by sales trainers, some of whom are inside the organisation, but most often are a professional sales trainer. The winner of the Best Sales Training Provider category is the company that is in the business of transforming friendly and chatty salespeople into high-performing sales professionals. The five finalists in this section have been found to be the best sales trainers in Hong Kong. Working with these providers will enable your employees to receive top-notch and relevant knowledge in the various dimensions of sales training. BEST SALES TRAINING PROVIDERS

LEARN TO SELL There are salespeople who have the gift of the gab and then there are true sales professionals who understand how to get their clients to open up, appreciate the value of listening and really provide

GOLD Sandler Training Singapore & Hong Kong Gold winner Sandler Training is a leading global training company specialising in leadership, sales management and sales training. It has over 250 offices worldwide. It was established in Hong Kong in 2012 to service clients in the Asia Pacific region, where it serves a wide range of clients from technology companies to the hospitality sector. Sandler Training is a comprehensive training provider with sales courses, sales management, negotiation and customer service. It launched a new product this year called Sandler Enterprise Selling. This programme targets clients engaged in complex, enterprise selling situations. Sandler Training’s staff are all seasoned professionals who bring real-world experiences to the training room. The company prides itself on its employees being both excellent trainers and business professionals. For one of its oldest clients, a large technology MNC which Sandler has looked after since 2010, it trained over 500 of its new salespeople in 2015. The training was conducted at the client’s locations in Bangalore, Beijing, Dalian, Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, Seoul, Singapore, Sydney and Taipei.

For another long-standing client, a luxury automotive company, Sandler continued to expand its relationship with it. In 2015, it conducted various courses for its dealers networks throughout Asia. Sandler also added a new course, called the new dealer orientation, for the staff of all its new dealerships in Asia. Sandler Training Hong Kong is led by managing director Joseph Palumbo who has more than 30 years of experience, split between the corporate and academic world. He is the former head of career and professional development of MBAs at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, and The Schulich School of Business, York University, a global top 20 business school. He also spent time with General Motors, Nissan and CPA Ontario. Sandler Training has published a library of books, including two Amazon bestsellers and two Wall Street Journal bestsellers. The books released in 2015 include Sandler Enterprise Selling, Selling Technology the Sandler Way, Bootstrap Selling the Sandler Way, and LinkedIn the Sandler Way. In addition, Sandler Training has been quoted numerous times in the press.

HR VENDORS OF THE YEAR 2015

GOLD

Sandler Training Singapore & Hong Kong

SILVER

MHI Global

BRONZE

Oliver James Associates

FINALISTS Dew-Point International PD Training Finalists are listed in alphabetical order.

BEST SALES TRAINING PROVIDERS

SILVER

BRONZE

MHI Global

Oliver James Associates

Dew-Point International

Through silver winner MHI Global, organisations can access the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s most extensive knowledge base on how to drive customer-management excellence and growth. Supported by the real-world experience of passionate practitioners and ongoing research of best practices, MHI Global brings best-inclass expertise to all aspects of the relationship with the customer. It is most widely recognised for its groundbreaking sales performance programmes, namely those on professional selling skills, conceptual selling and SPIN. Together, these programmes fulfil training needs for sales engagement and performance at all levels within an organisation. Professional selling skills provide the salesforce with a consistent process for mastering foundational need-satisfaction skills. In early 2015, the professional selling skills version six was released. The system addresses the skills needed at every level within an organisation to ensure lasting sales success. A research project was initiated in early 2014 to carefully evaluate opportunities for this latest redesign.

There are salespeople who have the gift of the gab and then there are true sales professionals who understand how to get their clients to open up, appreciate the value of listening and provide clients with the products and services they need within set budgets. Bronze winner Oliver James Associates aims to transform friendly and chatty salespeople into high-performing sales professionals who consistently exceed their targets and drive the revenue performance of their companies and clients. It is a specialist recruitment partner to the financial services sector. In Hong Kong, the firm focuses on the insurance sector with a specific focus in actuarial recruitment, an extremely niche and complex sector that demands consultants to be well-versed with industry nuances. It has built an excellent reputation within the sector, as the company prides itself on being a genuine specialist, with many of its consultants being ex-industry professionals who can share knowledge internally, talk the industryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s language, and interview candidates on a peer basis.

Every business faces its own unique set of challenges. By partnering closely with each business, Dew-Point International, a leading provider of training and management consulting solutions, develops relevant, tailormade training and highly effective organisation development programmes to directly manage these challenges. Founded in Hong Kong in 1973, DewPoint has ensured the long-term success of countless clients. It takes pride in the ability to quickly assess the specific needs of clients in order to create practical development programmes and services that use the existing capacity within their organisation, rather than continuously relying on outside support. It incorporates elements such as organisation assessment, training, team facilitation and executive coaching, with genuine enthusiasm and highly customised up-to-date experiential training techniques, to create practical and dynamic training and development modules. Its trainers and consultants are practitioners with current, relevant industry knowledge and experiences.

PD Training PD Training is an international training and professional services organisation which has hundreds of specialist trainers across Hong Kong delivering thousands of courses each year in different areas. It provides various sales training courses across the city state and various other countries. These courses help participants develop innate sales instincts, increase sales, gain loyal customers, overcome objections and grow a business with professionalism and enthusiasm. Apart from the courses providing participants substantial selling advantages, they assist them in

meeting performance targets, which in turn, leads to them gaining higher commissions. Another sales training course, this one on effective prospecting, is also a popular choice among sales people. Prospecting is a vital skill in the sales process, as it helps to develop the sales funnel and achieve significant growth in sales, thus adding to its popularity. This course assists participants to expand their client base through effective prospecting by developing and practising their networking skills at every opportunity, and gaining valuable knowledge and skills to enable them to achieve targeted budgets.

HR VENDORS OF THE YEAR 2015

BEST TEAM BUILDING TRAINING PROVIDERS

THE COLLECTIVE SUM OF INDIVIDUAL EFFORTS In today’s uncertain global economy, achieving organisational targets is a task that even the most Herculean leader will find daunting. Prospects of growth are shaky at best, and success in this scenario cannot be achieved without team support. In Ernst & Young’s 2013 research, an overwhelming majority of senior executives surveyed

agreed that teams were the best way to address today’s increasingly complex business problems. In fact, more than 80% were of the view their organisation’s ability to develop and manage teams would be essential for their future competitiveness. Alphabet’s executive chairman Eric Schmidt recently voiced his opinion on the topic by posting an

GOLD Team Building Asia Gold winner Team Building Asia is credited with delivering a significant number of team building events across the Asia Pacific region to more than 100,000 training participants, including Hong Kong, Singapore, Macau, Shanghai and Taipei. Go team, a high-tech treasure hunt, has been among the most popular training solutions by the firm in the past year. Supported by the new tablet application, exclusive to the Catalyst Teambuilding network, the app transforms any location into an amazing race full of interaction and adventure. Operating on tablets, the go team app features a unique follow arrow that helps guide teams to their waypoints. Once members arrive at their destination, GPS-triggered challenges are issued to the teams in the form of questions, clues and pictures that require teamwork to complete. Instant updates, feedback and scores are kept in real-time as the technology tracks teams’ progress along the way. Push it! is another team building module, a high-energy interactive tablet challenge that has been designed with meticulous attention to detail. Through an engaging user-friendly interface which encourages maximum involvement, each team’s

two tablets are wirelessly paired to ensure that participants collaborate in each decision. Trials include skill tests, physical challenges and brainteasers which are customised to achieve each client’s desired outcomes. The ultimate test of communication, collaboration and performance lies in another module called puppet masters, where teams manipulate gigantic puppets to perform seemingly simple human actions. To succeed, each team becomes a “nerve centre” controlling a myriad movements to wow colleagues with an effortless performance. Puppet masters is a fully inclusive team activity where everybody has a clear understanding of their role in the bigger picture. With an innovative and comprehensive portfolio of team building solutions on offer, Team Building Asia is among the largest and most trusted team building event and training providers in Hong Kong, with active regional appearances, especially in China and Singapore. It also has a partnership with Catalyst Global, an award-winning business, established over 25 years ago in the UK with 38 global offices.

HR VENDORS OF THE YEAR 2015

African proverb on his Twitter stream: “If you want to go fast, go alone, but if you want to go far, go together.” However, the word “team” no longer refers to employees who simply work in the same department, doing similar kind of work and reporting to a single manager. Teams have changed – drastically. Teams that work together with genuine team spirit are the ones which perform the best and deliver the most value to their companies. Sometimes team spirit sparks by itself, but most of the time it requires hard work and smart techniques. Most of the time those smart techniques are provided by team building specialists. The winners and finalists of the Best Team Building Training Provider category are consistently able to transform groups of employees into high performing teams who work hard for each other, communicate effectively and achieve fantastic results. You can be assured of the benefits of synergy, working with these jury approved firms. BEST TEAM BUILDING TRAINING PROVIDERS GOLD

Team Building Asia

SILVER

Hong Kong Disneyland

SILVER

Total Loyalty Company

BRONZE

StrengthsAsia

FINALISTS Drum Cafe Finalists are listed in alphabetical order.

BEST TEAM BUILDING TRAINING PROVIDERS

SILVER

BRONZE

Hong Kong Disneyland

Total Loyalty Company

StrengthsAsia

Celebrating its 10 th anniversary in 2015, silver winner Hong Kong Disneyland Resort has cemented its reputation as an event destination in its own right in the past decade. A destination like no other, the resort makes available a diverse range of indoor and outdoor venues, and most importantly, a world-class theme park with more than 100 attractions and entertainment for staging meetings, training, team-building, incentive programmes and events of any scale. To help clients fully leverage the resort’s unique event-hosting attributes, the dedicated business solutions and events team provides innovative packages and tailored solutions, making good use of the resort’s meeting facilities and culinary and entertainment offerings to maximise the effectiveness and benefits of all corporate team bonding and networking gatherings. On top of its superior venues, Hong Kong Disneyland Resort offers a diverse choice of over 70 team engagement activities designed by Disney’s team-building specialists to build trust, collaboration and leadership.

Total Loyalty Company (TLC) has had an impact in its four years since inception by offering a lifestyle benefits-based employee programme. By approaching vendors on behalf of clients, it helps clients to negotiate corporate discounts and offers, giving them a rich programme of staff perks. To make this even easier for clients, TLC has developed a customisable website which can be branded per each client. This portal holds all offers, including those unique to a company. TLC also helps to run all the staff events for each client, from their annual dinners, to social nights, team building initiatives and even lunch and learning sessions. In all of these areas, TLC has developed unique services, one of which is office marketplace, where it brings vendors to clients’ offices for product sampling and sales. Another product, TLCApplause, is a ticket box office service which sources tickets to shows, concerts and sporting events, locally and globally. There is also AskTLC, the firm’s buying advisory service for all things electrical.

Bronze winner StrengthsAsia has been firing up people and organisations in Asia to love what they do and do what they do best every day since 2011. By getting more people to do that, it is bringing more focus on the worth and wellbeing of the individual, creating momentum in organisations to invest into their unique strengths, and unleashing positive disproportionate impact into their lives and communities in Asia. As a partner of Gallup in using Strengths, StrengthsAsia comprises top Gallup-certified strengths coaches in Asia in the advocacy and practice of strengths-based thinking, living and performance for superior results. Being in Asia gives the firm its unique edge, experience, perspective and understanding in designing and delivering strengths-based engagement in Asian cultures. As part of the global movement started by Gallup, StrengthsAsia is playing its role in Asia, partnering Gallup to reach one billion people in discovering their talent and strengths through StrengthsFinder and unleashing the potential of excellence in people.

Drum Cafe The Drum Cafe was started in Johannesburg in 1996 by Warren Lieberman, as an actual cafe where drumming was used in a relaxed environment to break down barriers, inspire people and bring people together. Moved by the experience of communal drumming in Africa, and the passion to unite different groups of people in South Africa’s post-apartheid era, Liebermann developed a global team building and entertainment programme, along with support from leading motivational speakers, team builders and Africa’s top drummers. The result 12 years later is a unique, yet relevant programme used by many of the Fortune 500

companies worldwide. In Asia, it has branches in China, Hong Kong, India, Israel, Japan, Singapore and Taiwan. Drum Cafe Hong Kong specialises in corporate drumming team building for the city state, including for company training and motivation sessions, among a host of others. Drum Cafe believes drumming is a universal expression that transcends all boundaries: personal, organisational or cultural. Its team building programme is designed to break down barriers to create a more open organisation; and align employees to a common goal.

HR VENDORS OF THE YEAR 2015

BEST TRAINING VENUES

A PLACE OF PRIDE In the early years of the learning and development (L&D) industry, training sessions across most companies were stodgy affairs with limited options in terms of location and capability. Today, ample innovation has been made when it comes to the depth and variety L&D leaders offer staff in their corporate training sessions, but it’s the choice of venues – the meeting site or destination – that has truly made a big impact on the industry

GOLD Hong Kong Disneyland Hong Kong’s best training venue this year is Hong Kong Disneyland Resort. Celebrating its 10th anniversary in 2015, the resort’s success in being a top-notch training provider and venue has contributed to its record-breaking fiscal results in the past five years. A destination like no other, the resort makes available a diverse range of indoor and outdoor venues, and most importantly, a world-class theme park with more than 100 attractions and entertainment for staging meetings, training, teambuilding, incentive programmes and events. To help clients fully leverage the resort’s unique event-hosting attributes, its dedicated business solutions and events team provides innovative packages and tailored solutions, making good use of the resort’s meeting facilities and world-class culinary and entertainment offerings to maximise the effectiveness and benefits of all team bonding and networking gatherings at the resort. With a keen understanding of event needs for groups of all sizes, the team puts together a range of packages for training and team-building activities that cater to a wide budget range.

The resort has a diverse range of venues for fluid indoor-outdoor flow. For example, it houses a 1,500 sq m standalone conference centre with 16 function spaces. The ballrooms can be flexibly configured to accommodate events for a large number of delegates. A dedicated entrance to the conference centre helps facilitate the efficient flow of large groups into and out of the centre. Group networking can also be conducted in more relaxed settings such as the dining spaces in the resort’s hotels and theme park restaurants. The theme park has been expanding continuously, adding new themed areas, attractions, entertainment and facilities on an ongoing basis. Each new addition provides a fresh venue option for events that will make delegates feel special. For example, with the introduction of the “Disney paint the night” night time parade, a prime viewing zone has been set up as a private VIP area for team building and corporate guests. The “Frozen” Village has been turned into a winter wonderland and made available on select dates for exclusive corporate team building and networking.

HR VENDORS OF THE YEAR 2015

In fact, the excitement, anticipation and expectations that surround a training session are quite dependant on the choice of the training venue. Understandably, establishing an environment conducive to learning is a critical aspect of starting a training session off on the right foot. Sometimes the company conference room or office pantry area is fine, but in most cases training is more effective when it takes place off-site at a neutral venue. Since deciding where to hold the training session is often just as important as deciding which training will take place, the winners and finalists in this category are those that have truly aligned themselves holistically with the business needs of their clients. Not only do they have state-of-the-art facilities, but they also look to build long-term relationships. The best training venues listed here encourage communication, creativity and confidence within set budgets, and the companies that have made it to the Best Training Venue category best deliver these attributes on a consistent basis. If you are looking for the perfect location to host corporate training, the list below will be a good start. BEST TRAINING VENUES GOLD

Hong Kong Disneyland

FINALISTS Hong Kong Parkview The White Loft Finalists are listed in alphabetical order.

BEST TRAINING VENUES

Hong Kong Parkview Crowning a peak amid the lush Tai Tam Country Park and overlooking the stunning southern coastline, Hong Kong Parkview is an iconic multi-dimensional complex that affords the ultimate and elegant living experience to members and guests. It features comprehensive facilities, including Hong Kong’s finest private fitness centre, indoor and outdoor swimming pools, themed interactive playrooms, seven dining outlets, as well as lavishly appointed luxury serviced apartments that suit all guest needs. Specifically, Hong Kong Parkview presents a comprehensive collection of eight versatile venues for meetings and special events that can be tailored to ensure clients’ events are as effective and memorable as possible. Set against the stunning garden surroundings, a full line-up of ballrooms and outdoor space accommodates every occasion of varying sizes and types. Ballrooms, including a high-ceiling and luxurious

Éclat, a contemporary and circular compass, an elegant and intimate city hall, and three fully equipped meeting rooms, afford great flexibility in planning weddings, banquets, conferences and corporate meetings. In addition, the outdoor scenic and posh garden terrace and oasis poolside are ideal for parties and cocktails. Hong Kong Parkview is immensely proud of its highly qualified and diversified staff and team of fulltime and part-time instructors that cater to the needs of its members and residents alike, from hospitality services to fitness guidance and training. Its in-house magazine Lifestyle is its complimentary publication dedicated to providing news, and editorials about current events and trending topics that keep members and residents on top of what is happening at Hong Kong Parkview and the world. It is a collaboration between Hong Kong Parkview’s editorial team and guest journalists.

The White Loft The White Loft is a unique venue space located in the creative district of Wong Chuk Hang and easily accessible by public transport, with carparks nearby for those travelling by car. Its fresh white walls, beautiful wood floors and open spaces makes it the perfect venue for any event. It is available for parties, private dinners, corporate events, pop-up shops or restaurants, photo shoots, art exhibitions and much more. The space the company provides is extremely versatile and welcomes creativity, and accommodates up to 140 people standing, while 70 can be seated comfortably by the venue. The White Loft also boasts a fully equipped kitchen and two restrooms. Central air conditioning is also offered to delegates, along with the convenience of wireless internet. The venue also has a top-notch projector and sound system to equip clients with their

technological needs, and also takes pride in offering clients multiple light settings to add in a lovely aura to the venue. Customers using the venue also don’t need to worry about their safety. It offers 24 hours security to ensure the venue is well guarded. To make it a truly pleasant encounter for everyone utilising the venue, The White Loft also offers parking facilities nearby for visitors. It works with Sweet Soirées to plan its parties. Sweet Soirées is a boutique party planning company based in Hong Kong. With great attention to detail and a skill for creating unique events, Sweet Soirées is the perfect party planning company to organise and design a client’s next event. Full of creative ideas and a list of great suppliers at hand, Sweet Soirées is ready to bring each and every party to life. Since starting in 2011, Sweet Soirées has organised numerous birthday parties, dinner parties and corporate events.

Would you rather make excuses or sales?

Sandler Singapore & Hong Kong www.hk.sandler.com +852-9483-6066 JLin@sandler.com

HR VENDORS OF THE YEAR 2015

BEST PAYROLL OUTSOURCING PARTNERS

THE BEST WAY TO DOLE OUT THE DOUGH The outsourcing of traditional HR functions has now become a norm rather than an exception. With great advancements in technology, HR professionals can rely on software to take care of payroll management. Indeed, one of the keys to advancing the HR function is the ability of HR professionals to free themselves of administrative HR functions which will enable them to focus on strategic HR management issues. Such payroll systems bring benefits to employees as well – easier tracking of their salary slips with just a click on the computer, rather than looking for printed documents from months ago, being just one of them. The switch to a paperless way of working helps both parties. Given that so many companies in Singapore are

operating across the region, another key feature HR decision-makers look for is a framework that takes each country’s considerations into account, and yet is able to manage the payroll process efficiently. Undoubtedly, outsourcing payroll to a reliable third party is a godsend for many companies. The list of winners and finalists in this edition is a stepping stone for your organisation’s consideration in working with this third party for your payroll management. The companies that have been featured here are the ones that were listed by HR managers themselves, and then ratified by a jury of HR

GOLD Links International Links has experienced unprecedented growth in its payroll outsourcing business as a result of its HR portal and successful partnering with clients – delivering remarkable tangible results over a very short period of time. Its efficient HR portal and payroll outsourcing enables clients to build their brands efficiently in Asia by removing the distractions and reducing the costs associated with payroll employees, making Links a strong player in the outsourced payroll space in Asia. Its innovative HR portal, which is built specifically for Asia and supported by its local payroll experts, is able to deliver outstanding outsourced payroll services. Links’ cloud-hosted HR portal has an array of functions such as e-payslip, e-leave, e-expense, e-HR records and e-HR reporting which ensures its clients’ employees have a streamlined and environmentally friendly HR experience. This HR portal enables its clients’ employees to access and update their HR records, apply for leave and make expense claims anytime, anywhere. Clients who outsource their payroll with

Links are able to achieve many benefits such as a productive allocation of their internal resources and reducing the time and costs associated with staff working on administrative tasks. At the same time, clients can achieve compliant, timely and supported payroll, streamline their HR processes, reduce their IT investment, as well as achieve in-depth HR reporting, enabling them to easily understand what is happening in their workforce with meaningful, regular and up-todate HR reporting. As a professional services business, Links International recognises its staff is its unique selling point and the crucial factor in ensuring its business is successful. Accordingly, it allocates significant resources to attract, retain and develop the best team and ensure employee engagement through programmes such as Links next step – its onboarding process and transparent career development framework; Links vibe survey – its annual employee engagement survey; Links masterclass training – to ensure continued professional development of its staff; and Links innovator – which encourages innovation.

HR VENDORS OF THE YEAR 2015

directors across the region. These winners and finalists of the Best Payroll Outsourcing Partner category are the companies that best deliver bottomline value for their clients as a result of taking on and improving payroll administration. BEST PAYROLL OUTSOURCING PARTNERS GOLD

Links International

SILVER

ManpowerGroup

BRONZE

Take5 People

FINALISTS i-Admin TMF Group Finalists are listed in alphabetical order.

BEST PAYROLL OUTSOURCING PARTNERS

SILVER

BRONZE

ManpowerGroup

Take5 People

i-Admin

ManpowerGroup’s payroll outsourcing service aims to be a reliable partner to corporate entities and support company expansions via a significant understanding of their business and reducing burdens on internal resources for payroll administrative functions. Regardless of the company size (one or 1,000 staff) and location, its payroll outsourcing service is proving to be particularly useful when internal resources are strained due to maintaining small-to-large amounts of employee payroll and benefits. ManpowerGroup’s comprehensive reporting system provides hassle-free administrative work to fulfil clients’ needs. With this silver winner's online system, employers and staff can easily access and manage their data remotely. Numerous multinational and global clients have benefited from the use of ManpowerGroup’s solutions. It is honoured to be continuously recognised for its excellence in business practices and commitment to ethics, diversity and social responsibility.

i-Admin one of Asia's leading regional providers of cloud-based SaaS payroll and HR management solutions for multinational companies of all industries. Its proprietary technology platform offers payroll services to 15 countries in Asia and provides a singular web-based platform to deliver electronic payslips and other e-services to its clients’ employees. The company offers its clients a world-class and easy to use payroll solution, implemented using state-of-the-art technology and a systems infrastructure that meets and exceeds industry standards. Its cloud-based payroll system achieves efficiency, security and service quality to organisations and employees without large financial or technological investments. The company’s ePayroll solution is provided through the SaaS delivery model with a per-employee-per-month subscription pricing. At the same time, it offers a simple user interface coupled with its HRMS platform – staffAdmin – to easily allow clients to calculate and manage their payroll internally.

TMF Group Founded in the Netherlands in 1988, the TMF Group has expanded rapidly across the globe. The organisation is renowned for helping clients operate and invest seamlessly, in and beyond their home markets, by providing global business services that allow them to focus on their core competencies – their products and services. It serves clients from all sectors and all sizes. Its global payroll services helps clients in running payroll across borders in one or multiple jurisdictions, taking the time-consuming task off their hands. TMF Group is one of the world’s largest multi-

national payroll providers with payroll services in more than 80 countries. Its in-country teams speak the local language and have the flexibility to invoice in the local currency. TMF Group assists local and international businesses by providing them with payroll services across the globe by working with a solid core of local experts. As a wholly owned company, TMF Group does not outsource part of the work, hence, minimising the risk faced by clients. Through its world-wide network of wholly owned offices, it can offer global reporting and one single point of contact to businesses operating across multiple regions.

HR VENDORS OF THE YEAR 2015

BEST PAYROLL SOFTWARE

PAYING THEIR WAY Back in the “good old” days, employees got a cheque at the end of the month, and if they were lucky they received a copy of the payslip. Personnel would take hours out of their routine to make the process happen, driven by a number of variables such as the total staff strength, the size and complexity of the company structure, frequency

of the payroll process, and the level of control and layers of management the process needed approval from before the pay was disbursed. In fact, HR managers would repeatedly complain about being held back by productivity killers such as paperwork, payroll processing and routine training sessions, before efforts to automate these

GOLD Ramco Systems Gold-winning firm Ramco offers a multi-country payroll solution compliant across more than 35 countries, with the capability of addressing over 70% of the world’s working population. Ramco payroll is the only global solution that can comply with payroll legislation for 13 countries in APAC (Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Indonesia, Philippines, China, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Timor-Leste and Papua New Guinea). In Hong Kong, Ramco HCM offers localised payroll compliant with MPF, ORSO and IRD regulations. It is also compliant with Hong Kong’s Personal Data Protection Act and EAO requirements. Its key features include one single platform to complete all activities related to payroll with built-in contextual intelligence; a self healing and rectifying intelligent engine which resolves errors; and an in-memory multi-agent technology based engine for faster in-memory processing. Moreover, the solution comes as a standard template-based product with predefined rules per statutory requirements for different countries. Leveraging on its high-technology, the automated system enables batch processing

of frequently occurring activities, thus reducing manual intervention. The rule engine gives power to end users to configure on their own with a visual interface to define the rules. Additionally, the solution goes beyond payroll to allow automatic calculations for gross-up tax and shadow payroll, apart from standard gross-to-net calculations. Uniquely, this payroll product offers multilanguage support (English, French, Mandarin, Arabic, etc) as well as easy integration with third-party HRIS and financial applications. The compensation rule builder enables the configuration of pay elements, while the shared services focus allows processing for multiple companies at the same time. The solution is supplemented by a payroll bureau, that is, a three-tiered dedicated team for statutory compliance, comprising country based independent consultants, top tier consultancies such as E&Y and PwC, and its own research. Ramco has been recognised as a leader in NelsonHall’s report on global payroll on multiple parameters, including overall capability, multi country, HR cloud integration focus and analytics, and reporting focus.

HR VENDORS OF THE YEAR 2015

processes started to emerge. A report by SilkRoad found 72% of HR professionals admitted that a lack of automation in talent management was holding them back from business success. How times have changed. The typical payslip is now automatically emailed to employees, or uploaded to a secure network, easily accessible, and providing a breakdown of all the elements that went into its making – such as salary, commission, bonus, flexible benefits, tax, leave, expenses, time and attendance. Alongside, there has been a focus on employee self-service, with a number of solutions now available to cater to self-service capabilities, cloudbased accessibility and multiple layers of security. All of these factors have conspired to make a smart payroll package an essential item for all companies. The winners and finalists of the Best Payroll Software category are the companies which have developed the most intuitive and most valuable payroll systems. BEST PAYROLL SOFTWARE GOLD

Ramco Systems

SILVER

Oracle

BRONZE

Take5 People

FINALISTS FlexSystem HRPro Vantis Consulting Group Finalists are listed in alphabetical order.

BEST PAYROLL SOFTWARE

SILVER Oracle Silver winner Oracle’s workforce rewards solution helps to attract and retain talent with differentiated rewards and the flexibility to address simple and complex organisational needs. It includes modules such as compensation, payroll, benefits and sales compensation. The core value of its payroll cloud is the solution is error-free and efficient, ensuring the client’s organisation is paid on time. The payroll is processed accurately in Canada, China, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom and the US; with adherence to statutory compliance according to global and local taxation rules. The solution empowers employees to maintain payroll information and view their payslips, while equipping decision-makers to leverage general payroll information integration. Behind such a comprehensive payroll solution is a strong employee team leading the charge. Oracle recently concluded a recruitment campaign for cloud sales professionals in the Asia Pacific region, bringing in people from an array of backgrounds, from established IT companies to newly founded start-ups. This brought in valuable experience as

well as fresh enthusiasm. Oracle’s new recruits also come from a line of business positions in a wide variety of industry sectors such as finance, manufacturing, telecoms and utilities, so they already speak and understand the same language as customers in those industries. As customer cloud adoption rates continue to accelerate, Oracle’s cloud salespeople will be fully equipped to enhance customer success and play an integral role in driving the region’s cloud transformation. Apart from its fully integrated stack of cloud applications, platform services and engineered systems, Oracle’s cloud-based and on-premises solutions give customers complete deployment flexibility and unmatched benefits, including application integration, advanced security, high availability, scalability, energy efficiency, powerful performance and low total cost of ownership. Established in the US in 1977, Oracle started operations in Hong Kong in 1986. It aims to be the world’s largest enterprise cloud company by providing the most complete set of cloud capabilities across all layers – software as a service, platform as a service and infrastructure as a service.

BRONZE Take5 People Bronze winner Take5 focuses on delivering human resources solutions to the Greater China and Asia Pacific region, by emphasising the human touch in this era of technology dictating daily lives. Take5 People believes the ability to deliver winning business solutions depends on a lot more than just offering great technologies. Rather, it is the ability to leverage the strengths of experienced people, and the dedication of staff, to deliver the highest quality of services. The recent past has seen Take5 having great milestones in its product development and service offerings. Its solutions cover basic modules such as HR and regional payroll that provides users a holistic view of talent; e-service that enables HR business partners on-the-fly information; an HR dashboard and HR budgeting model that provides management decision support; and mobile web management that enables users HR information on-the-go. In the past 12 months, the firm has launched mobile IOS management that fulfills the unique requirements of organisations. It also launched the Take5 web service, which provides users data integrity during system

integration and avoids duplication of entries. In doing so, Take5 People aggregates in-depth industry and market experience, and knowledge of its executive management team with a strong track record in human resources and the finance application software market sectors. The company is focusing on developing software solutions based on best-ofbreed technology that meets the requirements of today’s ever changing business environment Since 2008, Take5 has had operations in Shanghai, with the long-term goal and vision of enabling its clients a regional HR payroll solution. The firm strongly believes HR regulations and compliances are essential requirements for multinational companies. Thus, the Take5 HR regional payroll engine was developed in compliance with local regulations of countries such as China, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan and Singapore. For a holistic view for all stakeholders, users can even have different language user interfaces for data navigation. With such an intense focus on HR solutions, Take5 users can have power in managing HR information via the Take5 integration system.

HR VENDORS OF THE YEAR 2015

BEST PAYROLL SOFTWARE

FlexSystem

HRPro

Vantis Consulting Group

FlexSystem is a recognised leader in the enterprise management software industry in the Greater China region. Over the past 26 years, it has been delivering high quality application software and services to maximise its clients’ operational efficiencies in the areas of accounting, order processing, payroll and human resources, manufacturing, workflow and business management. With its strong global network of regional offices and partners, FlexSystem serves thousands of customers in more than 15 countries. Now and in the future, FlexSystem continues to be keen on technology development and to create a complete platform of new-generation enterprise resources management solutions. FESA Human Resources is its comprehensive HRIS, providing a suite of technology and solutions designed to ensure the highest flexibility, thus allowing the handling of different levels of requirements from organisations. FESA HR provides business intelligence-based analysis for decision-making on a unified platform built to handle the day-today operations from recruitment to payroll and HR self-service. Its features include organisation management, personnel management, payroll management, time management, recruitment management, training management, performance management, HR self-service and HR analytics. Its aCube employee corner (aCube EC) is another innovative product offered by FlexSystem, which is an employee self-service platform on mobile. It empowers users to connect with their organisation’s information, by making it available on their fingertips. This is a self-service facility which is delivered on mobile devices.

HRPro is an easy to use, integrated, flexible, full-featured payroll and human resources management system to cater to the expectations of most companies in Hong Kong. HRPro is compliant to local needs and practices so it offers an easy way to replace manual processes, while customising them to statutory requirements. It makes payroll, auto-pay and tax-return processing an automated, predictable and timely process with flexible and powerful functionalities that allow companies to operate more effectively, smarter and with more accuracy. The special features of HRPro’s system include a fully integrated HR system; familiar Outlook style user interface; multilingual support in English, traditional Chinese and simplified Chinese; a highly reliable database engine that uses Microsoft SQL Server, including Express Edition; and multi-user access capability. The system encrypts sensitive data to provide tighter security restrictions, as well as a reminder feature that can remind users of any important events, so as to ensure they don’t miss a step in their HR cycle. Many standard reports, listings, statements, reminders, and letters ready for use can be previewed, printed and exported to Excel, PDF or text files. Context-sensitive help is available anywhere by clicking the help button on the toolbar. Moreover, the system is compliant with Employment (Amendment) Ordinance 2007, and is able to segregate the access rights control, be it for employee groups, user groups or at a company level. It has a built-in backup and restore functionality on an interface that allows on-screen groupings. The portal also offers a customisation service to suit a company’s particular policy.

Being a leading business, strategy and technology consulting firm in the Asia Pacific region, Vantis recognised early the significant impact that cloud computing would have on how businesses would implement and manage IT investments. Vantis Consulting Group is a well-established consulting company that provides end-to-end business solutions and training services throughout Hong Kong, Macau, China, Taiwan and other parts of Asia Pacific. To help its customers sharpen their competitive edge, the firm offers comprehensive implementation services of market-leading business solutions. Vantis believes today’s economy demands a more proactive and effective role for the HR department. Without a capable and flexible HR system, companies find it hard to manage the whole HR administration, including headcount budgeting, personnel administration, complete payroll and benefit calculation, appraisal management, staff training, leave management and attendance, among others. What’s more important, overall employee satisfaction and HR efficiency will be hampered if the HR system cannot be accessed via mobility and web, which is the main trend nowadays. Vantis Human Resources solution helps organisations manage a globally dispersed workforce, improves human resource processes, and enhances employee satisfaction for greater efficiency and cost savings across the enterprise. With its state-of-the-art web development technology and mobility access over mobile phones, the most critical HR tasks can be managed anytime and anywhere. It supports multiple payroll periods by company and payment lines. A provisional payroll update is available to check and verify the result before conducting the actual payroll update.

HR VENDORS OF THE YEAR 2015

BEST APPLICANT TRACKING SOFTWARE

KEEPING AN EYE ON YOUR TALENT PIPELINE Anyone who has sorted through 200 resumes to fill a single role will understand how tedious it is to manage job applications. Now think about filling 200 roles in six markets over a 12-month period with a quarter of those candidates applying for more than one role. Impossibly complex. It is no secret that a company’s success is built on the quality of its talent. In today’s ultracompetitive talent wars, merely promoting job openings through advertisements and on social media, and monitoring them manually, is not enough. Companies need applicant tracking software to help them better manage the recruitment process from the first contact to onboarding.

GOLD Oracle Oracle started its business operations in Hong Kong in 1986, offering comprehensive and fully integrated stack of cloud applications and platform services for business requirements. In the Asia Pacific region, including Hong Kong, Oracle is committed to its cloud strategy, providing best-of-breed cloud solutions across the entire IT architecture and cloud life cycle at three levels – software as a service, platform as a service and infrastructure as a service – to enable enterprises to become real transformers in the cloud era. The gold award winner has industry leading cloud-based and on-premises solutions to give customers complete deployment flexibility and unmatched benefits, including application integration, advanced security, high availability, scalability, energy efficiency, powerful performance, and low total cost of ownership With Oracle cloud technology, employers are able to create an automated and transparent recruiting process that enables better screening of applicants and to fill positions more quickly. The Oracle talent acquisition cloud is a fully integrated talent acquisition solution, including

recruitment marketing and employee referrals to source talent, end-to-end recruiting automation, and streamlined employee onboarding. It demonstrates value and benefits for enterprise and business in helping companies run targeted recruitment marketing campaigns and increase employee referrals using social media. It enhances the candidate experience with support for mobile job applications and provides analytics and reporting on the effectiveness of sourcing and hiring activities The software is able to increase recruiter productivity by easily filtering and sorting candidates using configurable list views, while ensuring smooth onboarding by checking up-to-the-minute statuses for new hires and onboarding activities Oracle offers a comprehensive and fully integrated stack of cloud applications, platform services and engineered systems. It provides a complete technology stack both in the cloud and in the data centre. It offers a comprehensive and fully integrated stack of cloud applications, platform services and engineered systems.

HR VENDORS OF THE YEAR 2015

Missing out on conversations with candidates at any stage may result in losing them to a competitor. Research shows nearly half of HR professionals worldwide still don’t offer candidates the option of accessing their applicant tracking system (ATS) via a mobile device. This raises serious concerns, considering that when job seekers can’t apply via a mobile device, 65% said they rarely return to their desktop to finish the application. Smart companies make use of applicant tracking technology to ensure they are keeping in touch with the candidates at all times. This enables them to feel the company is committed and also a caring employer, regardless of the result of the recruitment process. An intuitive applicant tracking system is the answer. The winners and finalists of the Best Applicant Tracking Software category are the software companies that have developed the ATS packages which have both saved time and unlocked value for their customers.

BEST APPLICANT TRACKING SOFTWARE GOLD

Oracle

GOLD

Workday

SILVER

PageUp

FINALISTS Daxtra Lumesse Finalists are listed in alphabetical order.

BEST APPLICANT TRACKING SOFTWARE

GOLD

SILVER

Workday

PageUp

Daxtra

Workday is a provider of enterprise cloud applications for finance and human resources and it entered the Asia Pacific market in 2014. The gold award winner delivers human capital management (HCM), financial management and analytics applications designed for the world’s largest companies and government agencies. Workday 25 is its latest release, which adds mobile expenses, an improved user interface and detailed analytics. The Workday HCM was built as a single unified solution. It was designed to cover all processes along the human resource spectrum from onboarding to off-boarding, to reduce administrative burdens, streamline processes, reduce costs and be a “single source of truth” for workforce intelligence. Workforce intelligence provides a full awareness of the profile and cost of every worker, meaning companies can effectively plan for business changes, cost management, hiring and retention, succession planning and other business processes.

Since its inception in 1997, PageUp has helped multinational employers strategically align their talent resources to execute corporate strategies. Its solutions support large multinational organisations, including several Global 500 employers operating in a range of industries, including financial services, retail, mining and refining, transportation and telecommunications. PageUp’s software offers a seamless candidate experience and connects with existing technology partners, including online test providers, job boards, background check providers, e-learning content platforms, and core human resources systems such as payroll. The PageUp candidate relationship management team empowers recruiters with collaborative and social hiring tools to proactively identify, connect and foster relationships with passive talent and to start building tomorrow’s pipeline. It provides powerful analytics dashboards and custom reports to prove the success of recruitment efforts and to measure return on investment.

Recruitment agencies usually work with CV parsing software tools to automate the storage and analysis of CV/resume data. Recruiters can save hours of manual work by not having to process manually each job application and CV they receive. Daxtra is a specialist in high accuracy, multilingual CV/resume and job parsing technologies. It supports clients in the UK, US and Hong Kong. Daxtra’s CV/resume parsing software and CV database software can help corporates optimise their recruitment processes and products. The software helps save on the administration overheads of retrieving, optimising, storing, managing, analysing and searching candidate and vacancy data. It automates the entire employment application workflow, helping recruitment companies to quickly source the best available job seekers. The software loads candidate data from any mailboxes, network shares or VMS sites directly onto a user’s database in seconds and checks any duplicates, saving time spent on data entry and data de-duplication.

Lumesse Lumesse's applicant tracking software helps manage all contract types, tailor the reporting function to a client’s needs and generates reports and metrics quickly and accurately. Lumesse TalentLink offers multiple recruitment processes that can be easily configured. It allows recruiters to manage permanent and contingent workforces, global recruitment and related processes all in one place. Lumesse’s EasyCruit is a simple, yet powerful tool available in over 40 languages. It connects hiring managers to local talent pools. It is ideal for enterprises with small offices or companies

that do not have a dedicated HR department. The recruitment software makes it easier for hiring managers to find competent applicants and allows recruiters to evaluate the applicants whenever or wherever using mobile devices. Its employee onboarding software ensures new hires are ready to hit the ground running from day one and it creates a personalised onboarding process before their first day. Employers can access and evaluate all onboarding activities centrally. Lumesse can also create custom reports associated with new hire activity to monitor the progress of each employee at a glance and gain valuable insights quickly.

HR VENDORS OF THE YEAR 2015

BEST LEARNING MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS

LEARNING THE ROPES Businesses worldwide have woken up to the fact change is the new and perhaps only norm today. In this age of rapidly evolving ideas, technologies and systems, many of the employees’ fundamental relationships – within organisations and economies – are being reimagined and recreated in ways that challenge their usual assumptions. Because of this, the learning and development

function has become even more integral in the process of equipping staff with the skills they need to deal with such change. But as conventional assumptions about what such training represents for a company shift, assumptions about the operations of the human resources functions handling such programmes also naturally changes. The issue doesn’t merely stop at

GOLD Skillsoft Gold winner Skillsoft’s software as a service (SAAS) is SumTotal Learn, a full-feature learning management system that aligns more than 60,000 curated learning assets across IT, leadership and business to deliver the greatest impact on developmental goals. Skillsoft is committed to investing in software development, and the past year saw it doubling its research and development capacity, and sharpening its focus on innovation and usability. Among these upgrades, a standout feature to improve the user experience was the “In the Moment” learner recommendations, where SumTotal Learn delivers “push notifications” to learners to individualise learning by providing relevant content suggestions and “in the moment” actions to help them integrate learning into their normal workday. This empowers learners to explore and discover resources, lifting overall engagement. SumTotal Learn also delivers a comprehensive set of capabilities for proactively managing compliance and adapting the workforce quickly in the face of changing requirements that might impact employees’ capabilities to remain productive

or expose risk for the organisation. SumTotal Learn can be configured and tailored specifically for each intended user audience to improve the user experience. Secure, private and personalised learning is accessible across a number of devices, both online and offline. The solution provides analytics capabilities by tracking user trends by audience to provide managers and business leaders with reports around overall usage and learner results to help tie L&D efforts back to business results. Skillsoft also released a report on Mobile Learning Trends in Asia Pacific as its key research piece for 2015 to understand to what extent organisations were integrating mobile learning into their L&D programmes and the resulting challenges and benefits. To develop the report, Skillsoft surveyed 545 APAC business decision-makers and individual learners. Apart from this, Skillsoft launched the LinkedIn thought leadership programme in May 2015, with the aim to position Skillsoft’s APAC subject matter experts as thought leaders in the learning and talent management industry through LinkedIn.

HR VENDORS OF THE YEAR 2015

whether the function grows in importance or not, but rather about how the function grows. This involves a revaluation of both the department’s products and sources – in terms of what skills, knowledge and capabilities people will require, and in terms of how learning and development interventions can be delivered effectively amid this environment of change. The verdict is in: keeping track of the required skills for every role, at every level, in every market, and monitoring how every employee is progressing through those required skills and making that data available to all stakeholders in real time is beyond the capabilities of the trusty spreadsheet. Thankfully learning management systems have been developed to take on these tasks and the winners and finalists of the Best Learning Management System award listed here are those software companies which have developed the LMS which best meets the HR professional’s learning and development needs, while providing a measurable return on investment. BEST LEARNING MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS GOLD

Skillsoft

SILVER

PageUp

BRONZE

NetDimensions

FINALISTS Lumesse Oracle Finalists are listed in alphabetical order.

BEST LEARNING MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS

SILVER PageUp Since its inception in 1997, PageUp has helped multinational employers strategically align their talent resources to execute corporate strategies across borders, as well as business units, cultures and languages. The PageUp SaaS-delivered solution unifies recruiting, performance management, learning, compensation, career planning, succession management and advanced workforce analytics to help global employers overcome the talent management challenges that are inherent to operating across multiple geographies. A key module in its unified talent management solution is its learning management system, which offers five key benefits. First, it develops great leaders fast by taking the delivery of tailored learning programmes to a new level with technology that glues together every part of the career development journey. Second, it makes informal learning stick by adding such opportunities via access to a tailored learning library with on-demand, social and on-thejob development activities, recommended reading and events. The module also makes everyday learning

mobile and social, thus, providing employees with easy access to learning activities wherever and whenever, with tools where they can rate, share and view “recommended” content tailored to their development needs. Moreover, it enables the creation of dynamic career paths through an innovative career-mapping tool that gives a roadmap of where to go and how to get there by connecting competency gaps. In doing all of this, the module boosts performance with a 360-degree review, wherein PageUp 360, a multi-rater assessment tool, allows employees to nominate peers, managers, direct reports or even external clients and obtain feedback via a custom-built survey. Karen Cariss, CEO and founder of PageUp, is a key driving force behind its success, setting the strategic direction of the company as well as overseeing internal activities to ensure synergy of all divisions. She has also used her knowledge of business practices to assist the judging of numerous industry awards. She is also the author of several books, including

Talented South East Asia and Talented Philippines.

BRONZE NetDimensions Bronze winner NetDimensions’ talent suite is a state-of-the-art talent management system for the enterprise, helping organisations worldwide achieve productivity and efficiency improvements, cost reduction, risk management, and cultural and process innovation. With learning and performance at its core, NetDimensions talent suite comprises four fully integrated applications: NetDimensions learning (learning management system); NetDimensions exams (exam/assessment engine); NetDimensions performance (performance management system); and NetDimensions analytics (business intelligence application). Clients can choose to deploy its talent suite on-premise behind their firewall or via its secure SaaS cloud option in ISO 27001-certified facilities. Supporting more than 40 languages, its talent suite has been shown to scale to over 500,000 users. Its SDK (software development kit) enables organisations to integrate talent management functionality into websites, portals, external applications and mobile devices. With its “no client left behind” pledge, it integrates client customisation into a single source

code and moves them forward to new product releases without any hidden costs for clients. Additionally, it is not uncommon for organisations to prepare content that is suited and customised for a diversified audience or an audience that is multilingual. NetDimensions’ multi-language handling offers a smart way to easily set up one object with different language versions, allow metadata to be translated easily in bulk in different languages, configure language-specific content and allow administrators to use flexible delivery language options to target their audience. Jay Shaw is the chief executive officer of NetDimensions, who co-founded the firm after more than a decade with the NASDAQ-listed The Princeton Review (TPR). His experience includes running the TPR operations in the US and Asia, in which he held executive responsibility for organising and delivering both academic and corporate training programmes on a commercial basis. He is responsible for general group management and sales in his current role.

HR VENDORS OF THE YEAR 2015

BEST LEARNING MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS

Lumesse Lumesse is an HR software vendor with a difference – it really understands what it’s like to sit on the customer’s side of the table, with a strong team of employees who have previously been HR managers, L&D managers and even former customers. Therefore, Lumesse doesn’t pay lip service to customers’ challenges, as it understands how difficult their job can be at times from firsthand experience. It provides talent solutions to organisations in over 70 countries, enabling them to engage and nurture the best talent in an everchanging and demanding global environment. With its unique and highly adaptable talent solutions, its customers are well-prepared to capitalise on the fast evolution of new technologies and disruptive business conditions, while meeting all business needs locally and globally. Its talent development solutions give clients everything they need to identify and understand the learning needs of their workforce and establish personalised career development programmes. They not only schedule, manage and track their training programmes, but also measure their effectiveness. Easy access means managers and

employees can review their learning and talent development whenever and wherever they want. From bespoke learning content to a full learning management system with learning portals, Lumesse has a range of learning and development solutions that work well for businesses. Coupled with advice from its expert team, Lumesse works with its clients to identify their learning and development requirements and offer tailored solutions. Lumesse’s learning solutions present cloudbased training platforms with easy access to learning materials, online courses, tests and exams. Unique and flexible, all data that the company generates is secured and results are readily available for easy monitoring and tracking. The benefits of e-learning are manifold such as ensuring quick and flexible delivery of learning materials; allowing employees to experience classroom learning without an instructor; e-learning programmes to enable employees to learn at their own pace; anywhere and anytime access to the courses as long as there is an internet connection; and videos, presentations and documents used in the programmes that can be reviewed anytime.

Oracle Established in the US in 1977 and starting its business operations in Hong Kong in 1986, Oracle offers a comprehensive and fully integrated stack of cloud applications and platform services. It has deployments across a wide variety of industries in more than 145 countries, with over 130,000 employees. In 2015, Oracle successfully completed a recruitment campaign specifically for cloud sales professionals in the Asia Pacific region. The new cloud salespeople come from a wide array of backgrounds, from established IT companies to newly founded start-ups. This brings valuable experience and fresh enthusiasm. New recruits also come from a line of business positions in a variety of industry sectors such as finance, manufacturing, telecoms and utilities, so they already speak and understand the same language as customers in those industries. As customer cloud adoption rates continue to accelerate, Oracle’s cloud salespeople are fully equipped to enhance customer success and play an integral role in driving the region’s cloud transformation. Oracle aims to be the world’s largest enterprise cloud company by providing the most

complete set of cloud capabilities across all layers – software as a service, platform as a service, and infrastructure as a service. Oracle’s learning and development transforms traditional training into a modern learning solution that is agile, social and personalised for its clients’ business. Integrated with Oracle’s HCM suite, its solution helps organisations maximise talent, and drive performance and engagement throughout the employee life cycle. With the core value of transforming talent into a high-performing workforce, Oracle can easily configure learning solutions and workflows for each business, as well as personalise training content for various learners within the organisation. Accordingly, organisations can gain measurable insights into their learning programmes through advanced reporting, as well as use the e-commerce feature to provide an additional revenue stream for their business. In the Asia Pacific region, including Hong Kong, known as “The Cloud Company”, Oracle is committed to its cloud strategy, providing best-of-breed cloud solutions across the entire IT architecture and cloud life cycle.

HR VENDORS OF THE YEAR 2015

BEST TALENT MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE

MANAGE YOUR TALENT SMARTLY AND EFFECTIVELY Do you experiment like R&D, communicate like PR, engage like sales and measure like finance? A solid talent management strategy relies on HR leaders to collaborate and increase awareness with all other parts of the business in order to be truly strategic. Indeed, there is absolutely no denying that people are still at the heart of what drives businesses. As the HR function takes on a more businesscritical role, the need for practitioners to realise the traditional belief that a talent management strategy only consists of the holy trinity of attract, motivate and retain has to end. That means HR directors need to sit down and come up with a holistic talent management strategy that connects all of their work efforts to the business strategy in a way that adds the most value to the business objectives. The starting point here then becomes the actual business strategy itself – to look at it and find out what the business’ next step is going to be, and anticipate what the talent requirements at that stage will shape up to be.

GOLD Skillsoft As one of the pioneers in the field of learning and talent management, with a long history of innovation, Skillsoft Corporation was founded in 1998. Skillsoft provides cloud-based solutions for customers worldwide, who range from global enterprises, government and education to mid-sized and small businesses. The gold winner has an impressive number of customers and learners worldwide and provides continuing, hands-on support to assist them in maximising their ongoing success. Its sum total talent expansion suite helps transform employee engagement into organisational performance by embedding personalised learning content and development opportunities directly into daily workflows, enabling self-development and building “self-developing” organisations. The suite benefits clients by providing them with powerful analytics capabilities, including cross functional analytics and end-to-end reporting, userfriendly and intuitive dashboards as well as the ability to integrate talent and learning applications. It also delivers context-aware applications to develop people in their job roles, has embedded

widgets to enable just-in-time learning and social learning and a virtual system that demonstrates realtime return-on-investment for talent and learning programmes. Committed to investment in software development, in 2015 Skillsoft doubled its research and development capacity, sharpening its focus on innovation and usability. At the same time, it released enhancements for talent expansion which includes a “position fit feature” – enabling employees and managers to visualise individuals’ succession paths and provide development opportunities to help them advance their careers. Then there is streamlined learning – helping individuals identify and prioritise learning and enhanced visibility into prescribed coursework and assignments; and the sumtotal foundation framework – helping users at all levels track the status of their own talent management initiatives, and enabling managers to track the progress of teams visually on the programme interface. In addition to its products, Skillsoft’s customer support teams draw on a wealth of in-house experience to develop tailored programmes.

HR VENDORS OF THE YEAR 2015

With that being said, talent management is a relatively new concept and talent management software (TMS) is even newer. And yet smart talent management software applications are increasingly essential for companies which need an enterprise system to manage the life cycle of all their employees – from recruitment to performance management to learning and career development to retention and succession planning. The winners and finalists of the Best Talent Management Software category are those software companies which have developed the talent management systems that provide the most value. BEST TALENT MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE GOLD

Skillsoft

SILVER

Workday

BRONZE

SAP SuccessFactors

FINALISTS Oracle PageUp Ramco Systems Take5 People Finalists are listed in alphabetical order.

BEST TALENT MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE

SILVER

BRONZE

Workday

SAP SuccessFactors

Oracle

Since it began actively marketing in Asia Pacific in 2014, Workday has experienced steady growth and customer traction in the region. It is now one of the leading providers of enterprise cloud applications for finance and human resources in the region. Workday serves an impressive number of customers globally, achieving a splendid industry leading customer satisfaction rating. In the year to date to better serve its clients, Workday has doubled its number of certified consultants, providing strategic consulting and implementation services. Workday delivers human capital management (HCM), financial management, and analytics applications designed for the world’s largest companies, educational institutions and government agencies. Workday 25 is the latest system version, which adds mobile expenses, improved user interfaces and detailed analytics, rolled out to customers in less than four hours. Unlike other products, Workday HCM was built as a single unified solution, offering a comprehensive suite of business-critical services, including, but not limited to, workforce life cycle management, organisation management, onboarding, goal management, performance management, succession planning, career and development planning. Workday HCM was designed to be easily adaptable for a global mobile workforce. Its architecture makes getting information and taking action easy for any user via an intuitive, consumer-like interface. Key benefits include a single, unified solution – covering all processes along the human resource spectrum; lower cost of ownership with cloud – allowing for continuous innovation; and the redeployment of scarce IT resources to other strategic projects.

SuccessFactors functions as an independent business unit within SAP – one of the market leader’s in enterprise application software. SAP’s applications allows individuals and organisations to effectively make use of business insights to their fullest potential to stay ahead of the competition in their various industries. From back office to boardroom, warehouse to storefront, and desktop to mobile devices, SAP enables each and every individual and organisation to work together more efficiently using its applications. One of the company’s key products is SuccessFactors Performance Management; Succession and Development. Using this product, many of its clients have successfully built a globally consistent and structured competency based HR practice, accessed talent management information on-demand from across all their offices and provided awareness to their employees on the available career plans and opportunities in place. With the use of SuccessFactors Performance Management; Succession and Development, many of the company’s clients have overcome various business challenges, including the outgrowing of existing HR processes and strategies, the need to attract top talent that are urgently required to become a recognised market leader and the problem of succession planning data living in silos across the company. A key benefit clients gain from using SAP’s products is the ability to establish a single, global succession planning process which results in millions saved in recruitment fees, and an increase in the accessibility of HR data company wide. Through the use of its products, clients’ HR functions are able to efficiently locate employees with specific, highly in-demand skills.

Established in the US in 1977 and starting its business operations in Hong Kong in 1986, Oracle offers a comprehensive and fully integrated stack of cloud applications, platform services and engineered systems. Oracle provides a complete technology stack both in the cloud and in the data centre to an impressive number of customers, including those in Fortune 100 companies in more than 145 countries. Its cloud-based and on-premises solutions give clients complete deployment flexibility and benefits, including application integration, advanced security, high availability, scalability, energy efficiency, powerful performance and low total cost of ownership. In the Asia Pacific region, Oracle is committed to its cloud strategy, providing best-of-breed cloud solutions across the entire IT architecture and cloud life cycle at the three levels of SaaS, PaaS and IaaS, to enable enterprises to become real transformers in the cloud era. Oracle has also been driving PaaS by leveraging on its unparalleled advantages in the database and middleware areas in an effort to provide customers with flexible and centralised platforms and to bring value to the China market. It aims to be the world’s largest enterprise cloud company by providing the most complete set of cloud capabilities across all layers – software as a service, platform as a service, and infrastructure as a service. Oracle’s talent management cloud enables HR to manage everything from recruiting to talent reviews and development – all in a single, cohesive software-as-a-service system. It allows HR to find, grow and develop key talent with modern talent management and align individual goals with corporate goals.

HR VENDORS OF THE YEAR 2015

BEST TALENT MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE

PageUp

Ramco Systems

Take5 People

Founded in 1997, PageUp has grown to be a significant force in unified talent management software as a service (SaaS). PageUp’s SaaS-delivered solution unifies recruiting, performance management, learning, compensation, career planning, succession management and advanced workforce analytics to help global employers overcome the talent management challenges that are inherent to operating optimally across vast and multiple geographies. Since its inception, it has helped multinational employers strategically align their talent resources to execute corporate strategies across borders, business units, cultures and languages – maximising employee value and business results. The company's unified talent management solution (UTM), delivered via SaaS tools, possesses capabilities which extend across the full spectrum of talent management, including four core solutions – recruitment (with onboarding and contractor extensions); performance (with compensation extension); learning (with career path extension and 360 review); and succession. Each solution can be implemented as a standalone, however, their full capability is realised in a unified solution which leverages interdependencies across the employee life cycle. PageUp helps clients implement the solutions successfully through its various consulting services, spanning from process optimisation to change management, user adoption programmes and custom competency solutions. Key benefits of PageUp’s UTM solution are that it facilitates movement of people and data in one platform and creates a consistent and engaging experience for employees. It also offers visibility and business intelligence.

Being part of the Ramco Group of companies, Ramco Systems is one of the fastest growing companies with impressive annual revenue. Ramco Systems is focused on providing “next-generation enterprise solutions” that enhance the competitive capabilities and value proposition of customers by leveraging on new and emerging technologies and expanding global connectivity. With more than 20 years of rich experience, it has established a strong foothold globally with a wide user base. Ramco’s talent management suite addresses end-to-end talent management processes from performance management, learning and development, succession and career planning, enabling its clients to thrive in an innovation economy. It runs on a single platform-sharing organisation structure with competency models and employee data across different processes, allowing each process to talk to the other in a meaningful and relevant manner. The Ramco talent management suite includes a performance journal which allows for real-time performance appraisals, talent tagging for the easy identification of the right person for the right job, messaging intelligence to help improve teamwork and mentoring by using advanced analytics. It also gives managers a holistic view of an employee’s data through its talent score card – which represents key information about an employee, enables talent managers to compare staff potential with their actual level of performance using the nine box chart, and uses a behaviour model/perspective model/competency model to help managers understand an employee’s behaviour, perspective and competency.

Since 2008, Take5 has been focused on delivering HR solutions via new technology and serving clients with its best work. It strongly believes that HR regulations and compliances are essential requirements for multinational companies. Take5 People is known for demonstrating its core values, uniqueness and commitment to all of its various clients, partners and stakeholders. Seeing many opportunities in the industry, Take5 positions itself to stay with its mission and vision – providing best practice and operational excellence to its valuable clients in the Asia Pacifi c region and being the leading solution provider in that region with advanced technology solutions and quality services. With a strong focus on delivering human resource solutions in the Greater China and Asia Pacifi c region, Take5 emphasises the “human touch” in an era of technology. Take5 People believes the ability to deliver winning business solutions depends on a lot more than just offering great technologies – it’s the ability to leverage the strengths of experienced people and their dedication to deliver the highest quality of services. Its product development and service offerings cover basic modules for human resources and regional payroll with a holistic view, rostering and e-service to enable information access on-the-go, an HR dashboard and an HR budgeting model to provide management decision support. It enables its clients to give all stakeholders a holistic view of compensation packages in different currenw cies. It even allows the head of HR to have a different language user interface for data navigation.

HR VENDORS OF THE YEAR 2015

BEST HR MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS

EFFICIENT SYSTEMS FOR MORE PRODUCTIVITY Philanthropist and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates made this case for automation in business processes years ago: “The first rule of any technology used in a business is that automation applied to an efficient operation will magnify the efficiency. The second is that automation applied to an inefficient operation will magnify the inefficiency.” His view reflected a challenge that many HR professionals face today, with a lack of technology forcing them to spend time doing things that can easily be automated. On the other hand, many of them have implemented technology that promises to provide

GOLD Workday Hong Kong’s best HR management systems provider this year is Workday, which is one of the city-state’s leading experts in enterprise cloud applications for finance and human resources. Since the company began actively marketing in Asia Pacific and Japan in 2014, it has experienced steady growth and customer traction in the region. The majority of these customers are global, large enterprise companies with operations worldwide and a significant number have operations in the APAC region, including Hong Kong. Workday delivers human capital management (HCM), financial management, and analytics applications designed for the world’s largest companies, educational institutions, and government agencies. In 2015, it made a significant investment in the Asia Pacific and Japan region, including more than doubling the number of employees in Singapore and Hong Kong, opening a new office in Kuala Lumpur, and upgrading the office in Hong Kong to add training facilities. The firm also recently launched new innovative solutions. For example, Workday 25 is its latest release, which adds mobile expenses, an improved

user interface and detailed analytics. It was rolled out to customers in less than four hours. Ease of migration from one release to the next is just one example of the benefits of Workday in the cloud. Workday HCM was built as a single unified solution. It offers a comprehensive suite of business-critical services, including workforce life cycle management, organisation management, compensation management, absence management, employee benefits administration, onboarding, goal management, performance management, succession planning, and career and development planning. Workday HCM was designed to be easily adaptable for a global, mobile workforce. Its architecture makes getting information and taking action easy for any user via an intuitive, consumer-like interface. Spurred on by local cloud, mobile and HR self-service trends, and Workday’s growing global reputation, 2015 saw a steady increase in the interest levels in the company. One significant way in which Workday added value locally was by bringing its groundbreaking market engagement model to Hong Kong, the Asia Pacific and Japan.

HR VENDORS OF THE YEAR 2015

HR and employee information at line managers’ fingertips, only to find there aren’t enough takers because it requires an additional learning effort from line managers before it starts to reap them benefits in time savings. Conversations with HR decision-makers, who are in the various stages of implementing some sort of human resource management system at their organisations, point to the key challenges they face, not only in considering an external vendor, but in the implementation and utilisation. Best of breed payroll, ATS, LMS and TMS systems are often excellent, but many companies prefer the consistency and centralised control offered by all-encompassing, end-to-end HR management systems which include all HR technology modules. The winners and finalists of the Best HR Management System (HRMS) award are the software companies which have developed the HRMS which ticks all the boxes and adds the most value for its customers. BEST HR MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS GOLD

Workday

SILVER

Oracle

BRONZE

SAP SuccessFactors

FINALISTS Ramco Take5 People Finalists are listed in alphabetical order.

BEST HR MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS

SILVER

BRONZE

Oracle

SAP SuccessFactors

Ramco

Established in the US in 1977 and starting its business operations in Hong Kong in 1986, Oracle offers a comprehensive and fully integrated stack of cloud applications and platform services. In the Asia Pacific region, including the Hong Kong market, Oracle is committed to its cloud strategy, providing best-of-breed cloud solutions across the entire IT architecture and cloud life cycle at the three levels of SaaS, PaaS and IaaS, to enable enterprises to become real transformers in the cloud era. Not only has the firm achieved robust

SuccessFactors provides the leading cloudbased SuccessFactors HCM suite, which comprises solutions that are complete, beautiful and flexible, and which can help you optimise your workforce today and prepare it for tomorrow. SuccessFactors functions as an independent business unit within SAP, one of the world’s market leaders in enterprise application software. From the back office to the boardroom, warehouse to storefront, and desktop to mobile devices, the people and organisations using SAP applications can work together more efficiently and use business insights more effectively to stay ahead of the competition. Having seen it was outgrowing existing HR processes and strategies, the firm realised it needed to attract top talent to become a recognised market leader. It also identified its succession planning data lived in silos across the company. To overcome these challenges, the firm established a single, global succession planning process. SuccessFactors strives to hire the best employees and maintain a diverse workforce.

Ramco is focused on providing “next generation enterprise solutions” that enhance the competitive capabilities and value proposition of customers by leveraging new technologies and expanding global connectivity networks. With more than 20 years of rich experience, the firm has established a strong foothold globally with a wide user base and strong customer base, dealing with a significantly large number of companies. With its efforts focused on cloud, mobile and analytics across three core products – ERP, aviation and HCM, the firm is able to constantly innovate and stay relevant in this dynamically changing environment. It also offers Ramco human capital management (HCM), which is a global talent management solution that addresses clients’ HR and payroll needs – from hire to retire. It offers modules such as core HR (workforce management), time and attendance, payroll, talent management, recruitment, planning and analytics. Ramco HCM also offers localised payroll services for Hong Kong customers.

growth in the SaaS business segment and been highly recognised by a wide range of enterprise-level customers from all sectors, Oracle has also been driving PaaS. It does this by leveraging its unparalleled advantages in the database and middleware areas to provide customers with flexible and centralised platforms. Oracle’s cloud salespeople are fully equipped to enhance customer success and play an integral role in driving the region’s cloud transformation.

Take5 People Take5 has gained a good reputation for regional solutions in its industry in 2015. By working as a cohesive unit, the firm has been able to utilise available resources wisely and bring the best ideas to the table for the benefit of all. Take5 takes pride in delivering human resource solutions in the Greater China and Asia Pacific region. In fact, having operations in Shanghai, PRC China, since 2008, the firm enables clients a regional HR payroll solution. It strongly believes HR regulations and compliances are essential requirements for multinational companies. Its unique solution roadmap includes an HR dashboard and HR budgeting model

that provides management decision support. In addition, the Take5 HR regional payroll engine was developed in compliance to local regulations in Hong Kong. The firm emphasises the “human touch” despite functioning in this era of technology. It believes the ability to deliver winning business solutions depends on a lot more than just offering great technologies. Instead, it is also dependant on the ability to leverage the strengths of experienced people – namely the firm’s staff and their dedication to deliver the highest quality of services. Today, Take5 is positioned to provide best practice and operational excellence to its clients.

HR VENDORS OF THE YEAR 2015

INDEX

Company

Page

ACI HR Solutions

8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18

Company

Page

Match Talent

8, 10

AIA

34, 35

Mercer Hong Kong

Allied Pickfords

36, 38

Mercer Marsh Benefits

34, 35

MHI Global

48, 49

Ambition

8, 9, 12, 15, 16, 18

Asia Corporate Training

28, 30, 44, 45

Michael Page

28, 29, 32, 33

6, 7, 12, 14, 16, 17

Asian Tigers Mobility

36, 38

MW Intelligence

26, 27

AXA

34, 35

NetDimensions

62, 63

Brookfield Global Relocation Services Cartus

36, 37, 40, 41 36, 37

CEB

cpjobs.com

6, 7

Oliver James Associates Oracle Page Personnel PageUp

Crown Relocations

PD Training

Crown World Mobility

Pro-Matrix & Co

16, 19, 48, 49 56, 57, 60, 62, 64, 66, 67, 70, 71 8 60, 61, 62, 63, 66, 68 48, 49 12, 15, 16, 17

CXA Group

32, 33

PsyAsia International

Dale Carnegie Training (HK & Macau)

44, 46

Ramco Systems

Daxtra

60, 61

Randstad

Dew-Point International

48, 49

Recruit.net

6, 7

Drake International

22, 24

RISQ Group

26, 27

Drum Cafe

50, 51

Robert Half

12, 13, 16, 20

ECA International

40, 42

Sandler Training Singapore & Hong Kong

Ethan Hathaway

44, 46

Santa Fe Relocation Services

Experis Hong Kong

16, 18

SAP SuccessFactors

First Advantage

22, 24 56, 66, 68, 70, 71 12

28, 30, 44, 45, 48 36, 37, 40, 42 28, 31, 66, 67, 70, 71

Signium Management Consulting

28, 31

FlexSystem

56, 58

SIRVA Relocation

40, 41

Gain Miles Assurance

32, 33

Skillsoft

62, 66

GraduACE

22, 23

Spring Professional (Hong Kong)

Hays Hong Kong HireRight

8, 9, 12, 15, 16, 19 26, 27

Hong Kong Disneyland

50, 51, 52

StrengthsAsia Sun Life Financial Insurance Take5 People

6, 7, 16, 19 22, 23, 44, 46, 50, 51 34, 35 54, 55, 56, 57, 66, 68, 70, 71

Hong Kong Parkview

52, 53

Team Building Asia

Hong Kong University

44, 46

The White Loft

52, 53

HRPro

56, 58

TMF Group

54, 55

Huxley Associates i-Admin

54, 55

JAC Recruitment jobsDB.com Links International Lumesse

12, 14, 16, 19 6 12, 13, 54 60, 61, 62, 64

ManpowerGroup

8, 10

HR VENDORS OF THE YEAR 2015

54, 55

Total Loyalty Company UniGroup Relocation Vantis Consulting Group Workday Young Samuel Chambers Zurich Insurance Company

28, 29, 44, 50

32, 50, 51 36, 38, 40, 42 56, 58 60, 61, 66, 67, 70 28 32, 33, 34