People Matters: Diversity & Inclusion - March 2020

VOL XI / ISSUE 3 / MARCH 2020

BIG INTERVIEW Elisa Mallis

The D&I needle is shifting globally and businesses are pursuing it as a compelling business imperative.

But are we on track to bet on the resultant advantage yet?

Managing Director and Vice President, Asia-Pacific, Center for Creative Leadership

INTERVIEW Elizabeth Faber

Deloitte Asia Pacific’s Chief Talent Officer

New Code Of Work Awards

The New Code of Future Campus

India’s rst New Code Of Work Awards was held on 6th February 2020, at The Oberoi’s, Gurgaon. It was a gala night, celebrating 9 awards across 4 categories and 4 parameters. The event’s Chief Guest was Mr. Amitabh Kant, CEO of NITI Aayog.

Wheebox launches a New Code of Campus Hiring, called The Future Campus, a digital platform for Organizations and Universities that connects talents available at any and every campus to Job opportunities.

It saw over 200+ CXOs from all over Asia coming together to celebrate the spirit of the New Code of Work. A best-practices compendium was also unveiled, that includes 31 most sustainable, innovative and aspirational organizations chronicles, handpicked by our amazing jury - industry stalwarts like Radha Ahluwalia, Renuka Ramnath, Deep Kalra, Amarjit Batra, Dr. Santrupt Misra and Anand Kripalu.

Parameters that the nominations were evaluated on were Productivity, Meaning At Work, Leadership and Future Readiness. The four award categories were Startups, Mid Size Enterprises, Large Enterprises and Large Multinationals.

To know what the New Code Of Work is, please visit https://newcodeofwork.com/awards

Company Aditya Birla Capital Dr. Reddy's Sony Pictures Network

As per India Skills Report 2020 by Wheebox, in association with AICTE, AIU and UNDP, maximum campus associ hiring is done from only 6 states prohibiting inclusive growth and workforce diversity. Wheebox Future Campus leverages the largest talent repository of Talent pool and our platform’s analytic capabilities to empower organizations with a heat map of talent availability across cities, colleges, regions, universities, and zones. It is an integrated Digital Platform to ensure organizations get a seamless experience right from the sourcing stage to releasing the offer letter. In addition to Proctored assessment, this Digital Platform has the capability to conduct GD and PI to ensure completeness of the selection process. The platform enables organizations to hire the best candidate for a given role from any campus, reduces the cost of hiring, and improves the quality of hiring and retention.

To know what the New Code Of Work is, please visit https://wheebox.com

Winning Category Productivity Leadership Meaning at work

Genpact

Future Readiness

Ashok Leyland

Large Enterprise

Ixigo

Mid-Sized Enterprise

Mondelez Tap Chief

Multinational Corporations Start-ups

Genpact

NCOW 2020 Winner

Process Partner

Media Partner Call us on 639-100-5466 or email us at info@wheebox.com for more information

G

lobally, a major shift is underway across organizations to embrace diversity and inclusion and bet on the resultant advantages. In today’s hyper-competitive business environment, “innovation” is the key that can provide the vital differentiation for both traditional and new age businesses. And diversity – among other positive outcomes, can help bring in a key factor of enhanced capacity to innovate.

A Boston Consulting Group study found that companies with more diverse management teams have 19 percent higher revenues due to innovation. As a matter of fact, diversity has a solid business case too. It has been estimated that closing the gender gap would add $28 trillion to the value of the global economy by 2025, according to a recent McKinsey study.

But are we on track to realize all these benefits? The answer is a clear no. While advanced next-gen businesses are moving beyond diversity and embracing inclusion which is more than gender, race and ethnicity to now include employees with varied religious and political views, socio-economic backgrounds, sexual orientation, cultures and disabilities, overall, we are way behind. Women are still underrepresented at every level, and they face real barriers to advancement. None of us will see gender parity in our lifetimes, and nor likely will many of our children. That’s the finding of the Global Gender Gap Report 2020 done by the World Economic Forum.

| MARCH 2020

THE COVER STORY (BEHIND THE SCENE)

Approved!!

Not approved, change the colours.

YAYE! VOL XI / ISSUE 3 / MARCH 2020

FFrroom m tth h e E d i t o r ’’ss DDeesskk 4

The headline agenda for global leaders

Having said, we have seen a dramatic increase in terms of awareness and the launch of new D&I initiatives by organizations – albeit at a sluggish pace. The needle is shifting from gender diversity/inclusion being a “nice to have” to “concrete strategies” to enhance both the number of women at work as well as create inclusive environments for them. So what is ailing the global diversity and inclusion jigsaw?

If the need for diverse workforces is so obvious which has been debated long and hard now for nearly 40 years, why do we still struggle to achieve our goals? The reasons are manifold.

There has been an increase in the number of females entering the full-time workforce, but that has not always led to similar percentages moving into senior roles. Great strides have been made to enable anyone to apply for, be considered, and be selected for more senior roles. But the work has not always been done to make those roles appealing or practical. Many such roles still demand unsocial hours, unpredictable hours, extensive travel, and even working practices and environments that many consider undesirable.

Having a policy or aligning some process to facilitate D&I is not enough. D&I needs to be well thought through – with a vision, clear strategy as well as an integrated action plan to ensure both social and cognitive diversity, as well as create a culture of inclusion. While the responsibility for building an inclusive environment rests with every colleague, the Board has a critical role to play. The cover story in this issue digs into the state of diversity and inclusion, organizational D&I strategies, the business case for D&I, challenges in creating a culture of inclusion, role of inclusive leaders, and the future outlook.

For the big interview, we have Elisa Mallis, Managing Director and Vice President, AsiaPacific, Center for Creative Leadership, who shares insights on what will it take to groom Asian leaders to break through the bamboo ceiling as Asia becomes the center of the world.

Also featured is an interview of Dr. Loo Leap Han, Head, Group HR, KMU Eiscon Holding, who shares his perspective about how the role of a traditional HR professional is changing dramatically in light of the rising demands placed on people leaders in this digital age.

Lastly, we have a sharp piece on “Winning in the age of hyper-competition” written by Dr. M. Muneer who is co-founder and chief evangelist at the non-profit company Medici Institute Foundation for Diversity and Innovation, and Rita McGrath who is a Professor of Columbia University, NY. As always, we would be happy to hear your views, comments, and suggestions regarding our stories.

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Esther Martinez Hernandez Editor-in-Chief follow

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contents

MARCH 2020 volume xi issue 3

56

‘The time is now to propel the D&I agenda’ Shailaja Sharma, Aviva’s Regional Head - Talent,

Leadership, OD and Diversity: Asia and Digital 59

‘Organizations should take tangible measures to implement D&I’ Vasudha Agarwal, Regional Inclusion & Diversity Recruiting Lead, Asia-Pacific, McKinsey & Company

62

‘Boards need to approach D&I like other business imperatives’

Nikita Singh, Organizational Psychologist from the London

School of Economics & a Talent, Leadership & Wellness Consultant 66

cover story

50 C O N TE N TS

52

54

Richard Smith, Ph.D., Professor at Singapore Management

University where he also serves as Deputy Dean for the Lee Kong Chian School of Business

‘Organizations should have Chief Diversity Officers at board level’

68

‘Progress in D&I is slow in Malaysia, and there is no silver bullet to fix it’

thinkers on all things Talent 70

Meena Anand, Managing Director and Head HR, Global Business Services, Standard Chartered Bank

Before fixing bias in AI, let us fix our own

Abhijit Bhaduri, One of the most widely read and followed

Vikki Leach, Global Head, Inclusion and Diversity at Kantar

Gender equality in Asia: It might get uncomfortable

Diversity and inclusion: What’s the big deal?

Clinton Wingrove, Director of

www.WantToBeGreatManager.com and www.ClintonHR.com

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the big Interview

interview

CCL’s MD on Must-have skills for global Asian leaders

To have diversity, there must first be a strategic imperative

Elizabeth Faber, Deloitte Asia Pacific’s Chief Talent Officer

Elisa Mallis, Managing Director, and Vice President Asia-Pacific, Center for Creative Leadership (CCL)

By Mint Kang

By Yasmin Taj

Editor-in-Chief

Esther Martinez Hernandez Senior Editor

Yasmin Taj

Manav Seth | Vallari Gupte | Mint Kang Assistant Managers, Content

Associate Editor, Print & Online

Mastufa Ahmed

Anushree Sharma | Bhavna Sarin Senior Associates, Content

Manager, design, photography, and production

Marta Martinez

Drishti Pant | Neelanjana Mazumdar Design & Production

Shinto Kallattu

Manager, Content

Digital Head

Jerry Moses

Prakash Shahi

Associate Editor

General Manager, Sales

Abid Hasan

Senior Features Writer

Shweta Modgil 6

Features Writers

| MARCH 2020

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This issue of People matters contains 112 pages including cover

contents

4 2 F u t ure of H R

8 2 F u t ure of H R

1 7 L ife @ Wor k

Dr. Loo Leap Han, Head, Group HR, KMU Eiscon Holding

By Vallari Gupte

By Amit Ramani, CEO & Founder at Awfis

7 2 I NT E R V I E W

8 4 F u t ure of w or k

Workplace 2030: How the future of work will look like

1 8 I N D I A Bud g e t 2 0 2 0

A taxing budget

By Manav Seth

Dr. Loo Leap Han on the future of HR in the APAC region

To drive the D&I agenda, leaders need to be ‘fearless’

Anjali Rao, Director of HR, Intel India

By Yasmin Taj

Sally Nelson, Chief People Officer of Fidelity

By Abid Hasan

Zahira Sughra Zainuddin, Program Director, Corporate Initiative, PETRONAS

By Drishti Pant 8 6 The road less t ravelled

By Mint Kang

By Visty Banaji, Founder and CEO of Banner Global Consulting (BGC)

Singapore sets aside S$4 bn to preserve jobs

The gaps in D&I initiatives

By Dhruv Mukerjee

Social entrepreneurship: Can it curb unemployment?

7 6 S elf im p roveme n t

Convert stress into leadership success

By Drishti Pant

By Payal Nanjiani, US-based globally acclaimed motivational leadership speaker, executive and business coach

3 2 F u t ure of H R

7 8 F u t ure of H R

HR roles for 2020 & beyond

How Phenom People aims to help one billion people find the right job

Mahe Bayireddi, CEO and Co-founder of Phenom People

By Shweta Modgil

2 2 F i g h t i n g for four

By Manav Seth 2 4 E n t re p re n eurshi p

HR is a contact sport

9 0 I NT E R V I E W

2 0 n e w s fea t ure

C O N TE N TS

Leaders of quality don’t dwell on negativity

1 9 S i n g a p ore Bud g e t 2 0 2 0

By Drishti Pant

Rewards must be a combination of past performance plus potential

9 4 Busi n ess S t ra t e g y

Winning in the age of hyper-competition

By Dr. M Muneer, Co-founder and chief evangelist at the non-profit company Medici Institute Foundation for Diversity and Innovation and Rita McGrath, Professor of Columbia University 9 8 Blo g

Life after 60

By Yogi Sriram, Senior Vice President, Corporate HR, Larsen & Toubro

3 6 Tale n t M a n a g eme n t

Jacob Jacob, Group CHRO, Columbia Asia Healthcare

By Bhavna Sarin

By Megha Gupta, Director of HR, Fiserv

8 1 D iversi t y & I n clusio n

3 8 I n t ervie w

By Leela Bassi, UK-based multilingual keynote speaker and Transformational Coach

By Yasmin Taj

Making organizations future-ready using analytics

Learn, Unlearn & Relearn are my mantras for the future of work

Syukri Sudari, Chief People Officer of AXA Affin General Insurance

By Drishti Pant 4 0 Tale n t M a n a g eme n t

Using design thinking principles to solve recruitment problems

By Raghav Poojary, Vice President – Business Operations & Process Automation at FirstMeridian

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Never shy away from raising your hand for opportunities that arise

| MARCH 2020

102 Wor k p lace 2 0 2 0

Am I biased?

Leading human capital in the 2020s: HR thought leaders at ISB

regulars

04 From the Editor’s Desk 10 Letters of the month 12 Quick Reads 16

Rapid Fire

106 Knowledge + Networking 108 Blogosphere

Featured In this issue Anjali Rao Deep Kalra Elisa Mallis Elizabeth Faber Jacob Jacob Dr. Loo Leap Han Mahe Bayireddi Meena Anand

Nikita Singh Sally Nelson Shailaja Sharma Syukri Sudari Vasudha Agarwal Vikki Leach Zahira Sughra Zainuddin

CONTRIBUTORS to this issue Abhijit Bhaduri Amit Ramani Ashwajit Singh Clinton Wingrove Leela Bassi M Muneer Megha Gupta

Payal Nanjiani Raghav Poojary Richard Smith Rita McGrath Visty Banaji Yogi Sriram

Letters of the month

l e t tqeur isc okf r t heea m d os n t h

The rise of the gig economy Undoubtedly, one of the biggest changes in the traditional way of working over the last few years has been the rise of the gig economy and how small and big organizations have embraced the evolution. The cover story touches upon all vital aspects of this trend and can help young HR leaders and managers develop a nuanced understanding of the transition that is underway. In the past decade, organizations have stopped considering gig workers as temporary workers and utilized their talent in business-critical processes. All the experts who contributed to the story offer valuable lessons on how to navigate the changing workforce. More importantly, the rise of the gig economy points towards the changing priorities of new-age workers.

They prefer flexibility over rigidity, autonomy over hierarchy, and work-life balance over conventional perks. HR leaders and managers must introspect and understand what wasn’t working in traditional management and processes, and how they must adapt to changing workforce expectations to script a successful future.

- Sakshi Adhikari

The business case for LGBTQ+ inclusion It is encouraging to witness organizations formalizing processes and policies that officiate the inclusion of members of the LGBTQ+ community. The findings of the report dispel the false assumption that organizations supporting LGBTQ+ inclusion might evoke criticism or backlash from a largely-conservative country like India. On the contrary, organizations that consciously focus on inclusivity have better hiring, retention, culture, and financial

performance. While we have come a long way in the last few years, there’s a lot of ground yet to be covered. Indian organizations with global ambitions and operations must develop a progressive outlook and inculcate an inclusive mindset. I believe that the coming decade will record higher participation of people from the marginalized groups in the workforce, and by embracing this diversity, HR leaders will have a pivotal role in making the future of work inclusive for everyone.

- Samavesh Arora

The company culture can’t be put in a box or dictated

David Rodriguez’s interview provided vital insights into the way one of the biggest hotel chains in the world manages its employees. The several initiatives taken by Marriott to enhance employee well-being and make the workforce more diverse and inclusive are commendable. David’s perspective that suggests considering technology as a tool to run business rather than a separate dynamic layer that needs to be ‘adopted’ should be a fundamental principle to help businesses transition to the new digital world. Furthermore, Marriott’s approach to empowering its employees by supporting them in their quest to learn, develop new skills, grow personally and professionally will help develop leaders that can help other businesses thrive in a volatile and uncertain world as well. We need experienced, compassionate, and visionary leaders like David to help us navigate the challenge of retaining the human element in today’s increasingly automated workforce.

- Payal Gulati 10

| MARCH 2020

FEBRUARY 2020 issue

Why companies should encourage employees to take time off in 2020 Gary Bury's suggestion that organizations should encourage their employees to take time off must be considered seriously by leaders, managers, and HR professionals. We live in an increasingly tense world where political, social, religious, and financial divisions are becoming more pronounced. Even for people who love the work they do, the sheer habit of following the same routine every day can be taxing, both physically and mentally.

Add to that, challenges in the family and relationships, and there is no doubt that we all need to regularly rest and recuperate to be at the top of our game. And this is particularly true in countries like India, where there is intense competition and a culture of prioritizing work over personal life. The writer makes an excellent point by saying that when people take planned time off frequently, the chances of taking unplanned leaves reduce significantly.

- Vikas Garg

Interact with People Matters

POSH committee – Dealing with bias and conflict of interest

A primer on the Code of Wages I would like to extend sincere gratitude to Rashmi Pradeep and Anna Thomas for decoding the impending changes in the labor and wage laws. Admittedly, there has been confusion regarding the proposed changes, even among the most experienced and learned HR leaders in our organization. The changes have been a topic of discussion several times with my colleagues in the past few months, but your article has helped me gain a thorough understanding of the subject.

I am glad that the government is clearly laying down the definitions of workers and employees, payment of minimum wages, and bonus thresholds. While the changes have been long pending, it will be interesting to see how the government enforces them, and their implementation across organizations. As you suggest, the consolidation of labor laws will help make the Indian workforce competitive and promote inclusive growth and investment in India.

- Utkarsh Nangia

- Anushka Kant

The (funny) business of HR awards Visty Banaji’s observation that the several HR awards and honors are fast losing their prestige and currency is unfortunately true. Given the pressure on HR to help organizations adapt to new business realities, it is natural that acknowledging and rewarding HR leaders for their work is essential. However, the opacity of the process renders the entire process unreliable. Commercial and vested interests influence award shows in all industries, but by following this path, we fail to recognize the genuinely excellent work being done by some HR leaders. Banaji’s suggestions on how to restore the sanctity and authority of these awards should be considered seriously by contenders, award organizers, awardees, and the HR community in general. To ensure that such awards make a tangible impact on how HR leaders and CHROs function, we must bring a higher degree of fairness and objectivity to the entire process.

- Nimit Grover

The travel risk outlook 2020 The report on global travel risks brings to light several potential challenges for employers and leaders to ensure the safety of their employees, particularly from global uncertainties and disruptions. The past few years have witnessed several political and climate-related challenges for businesses, and their impact will continue to dictate policies and operations for several years to come. The recent outbreak of the deadly coronavirus shows that global businesses and employees are not immune to such emergencies, no matter the source of their origin. It is discouraging to learn that Asian organizations are lagging behind their global counterparts in providing safety to their employees traveling for work. In the face of consistently rising of global geopolitical and security threats, organizations must educate their mobile workforce on the possible hazards, and the best course of action in the event of an emergency.

LS Murthy @lsmurthy99 Replying to @Gautamxl99 @PeopleMatters2 and 13 others @VistyBanaji Thanks so much Gautam da !! for looping. We wish to appreciate beautifully articulated and curious insights shared in People Matters. Kudos to the great details and various perspectives.

Patti Clarke @PattiBClarke On my recent trip to India, was great to share some of my thoughts on leadership, talent trends and the "new age of work" with @PeopleMatters2 jasonaverbook @jasonaverbook Was supposed to be leaving for today on two-week speaking education tour southeast Asia --#coronavirus have POSTPONED plans but so excited to get back there soon! @PeopleMatters2 @successfactors @servicenow - let's all support this important region at important time @Leapgen Nikita Vaswani @NikitaVaswani3 Customers will never love the company until the employees love it first. #employees #HumanResources #hr #schrm Dr Aquil Busrai @aquilbusrai Replying to @lakhotiasanjay @NobleHouseTalks @PeopleMatters2. This promises to be a relevant learning experience. @lakhotiasanjay is a highly credible and knowledgeable professional.

Marriott International @MarriottIntl In a recent interview with @PeopleMatters2, Marriott International Global Chief Human Resources Officer David Rodriguez shared his thoughts on a wide range of topics related to company culture. marr. in/60191YNSc

l e t tqeur isc okf r t heea m d os n t h

I am surprised to learn that the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act has glaring loopholes regarding how to handle situations of bias or conflict of interest. Since the inquiries and reports of the Internal Complaints Committee are crucial to cases of sexual harassment, we must ensure that their composition is undertaken in an unbiased manner.

While the law has made a notable process in the last few years, we need to remain vigilant and keep updating the legislation to remedy such gaps. Until these changes reflect in the law, organizations must adhere to the suggestions given by the writer to ensure that cases of sexual harassment are dealt with objectivity and fairness. I want to thank the author of the article for writing in detail on the extremely relevant issue.

People Matters values your feedback.

Write to us with your suggestions and ideas at editorial@peoplematters.in

HRCurator @HRCurator RT @AndySpence: How #Blockchain will Change the Way We Work 30-minute talk by me at #TechHRSG in Singapore with @PeopleMatters2 follow

M > @PeopleMatters2

- Priyam Singhal {WRITE TO US NOW BY SCANNING THIS CODE} MARCH 2020 |

11

AUTOMATION

Intelligent automation to accelerate India’s economy to US $5 Tn by 2025

q u i c k

r e a d s

Intelligent automation will catapult

Indian economy to US $5 Tn in the next five years, up from $2.7 Tn, according to a new study commissioned by Automation Anywhere.

Today, automation is driving efficiencies for enterprises, resulting in dramatic productivity gains in the back office and enhanced customer experiences in the

HIRING

2,400 rail operators needed in Indonesia The Jakarta-Bandung high-speed railway, a major national strategic infrastructure project, is scheduled to commence operations in 2021, and in preparation for its launch, the Indonesia-China consortium developing the rail, Kereta Cepat Indonesia China (KCIC), is hiring 2,400 staff.

The positions to be filled range from high-value engineering and operations control personnel, to technical roles and front-line passenger service. The hiring will be carried out in phases, and both fresh graduates and experienced personnel are needed. As this will be the first highspeed railway to operate in the country, KCIC is providing new hires with additional training to ensure that they are able to cope with the work. This includes overseas training for positions that require licensing not currently available in Indonesia.

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front office. According to the study conducted by Ernst and Young India (EY,) the country will experience a significant boost to its economy to reach US $5 Tn by as early as 2024.

The research examined the economic impact of automation and found that largescale adoption of automation technologies, such as RPA, artificial intelligence, natural language processing and machine learning will drive increased efficiencies and new jobs resulting in economic growth in the next few years. According to the report, automation is driving intrinsic growth in every sector of the Indian economy and is influencing every activity of the workforce by creating higher skilled jobs, resulting in more opportunities for workers and a higher economic output.

Banking, insurance, and financial services have emerged as key industry adopters of intelligent automation as they experience the benefits of lowering costs of business transactions and providing a differentiated customer experience.

| MARCH 2020

CORONAVIRUS

Cathay Pacific asks employees to take leave, stops hiring amid Coronavirus Hong Kong airline Cathay Pacific has asked staff to take three weeks of unpaid leave to help cope with the impact of the coronavirus. On January 30th, the company implemented temporary service modifications on all Cathay Pacific and Cathay Dragon flights to and from destinations in mainland China until further notice.

The airline has offered a voluntary special leave scheme to the employees from March 1st to June 30th. The company mentioned that preserving cash was key to protecting its business.

EMPLOYMENT

Tech employees optimistic about their prospects in Singapore: Survey

As per a study by SGInnovate, the majority of tech employees shared that they are optimistic that the Republic's science and technology industry will remain competitive for the next decade. About 88 percent of research and development (R&D) and technical professionals believe Singapore will remain competitive as a global science and technology hub in the next decade.

Furthermore, around 84 percent feel that pursuing an R&D or technical role in the science and technology industry is rewarding in terms of career prospects and remuneration. Singapore has indeed come a long way in developing itself as a tech hub and creating opportunities for its talent within the country. It has also attracted businesses from overseas to expand and operate in Singapore.

Even in the survey, Singapore's government's clear direction was highlighted as one of the top reasons to believe that the country's science and tech industry will remain competitive.

While Singapore's science and tech industry will remain competitive, skilling is a crucial aspect the government and corporates together have to attend to.

The industry's growth depends hugely on talent and its capabilities to innovate and leverage science and tech. Developing local talent thus was highlighted as an important assignment the government should take the lead on by more than a quarter of the respondents.

Currently, seven in 10 respondents believe that the current tech professionals in Singapore's engineering discipline have "high-quality skill sets as well as mindset". This includes attributes such as continuous learning, willingness to experiment and openness to new ideas.

However, in terms of soft skill sets and entrepreneurial spirit, they had a poorer perception, with fewer than half of the respondents believing there is a "high prevalence" of such qualities.

a plan announced in December 2019 to cut about 8,000 positions, or more than nine percent of the workforce.

These job cuts will be carried out via early retirements and in alignment with the group’s workers’ representatives, Mustier has repeatedly noted. Simplifying the bank’s structure, effectively allocating capital, accelerating the cleanup of the balance sheet, and cutting costs, are the focus areas for the company. Since 2014, UniCredit has cut about 20,000 jobs. Mustier’s first business plan, dubbed ‘Transform 2019’, envisaged a total of 14,000 job cuts.

Layoffs

UniCredit to cut 6,000 jobs and shut down 450 branches in Italy Italian global banking and financial services company, UniCredit, is cutting down 6,000 jobs and closing 450 branches in Italy as CEO Jean Pierre Mustier sets his three year-efficiency plan in motion.

According to a letter sent to unions, the reductions and closures will take place through 2023. The terminations are part of

JOBS

ECONOMY

As per a recent Google Cloud-BCG joint

“Public cloud deployments in India have the potential to contribute approximately $100 Bn in GDP (gross domestic product) cumulatively from 2019 to 2023.

When annualized, this is equivalent to 0.6 percent of GDP and 15 percent of the GDP impact of the IT industry and 25 percent of the textile industry in India,” the report revealed.

Of the 2,40,000 direct jobs, around 1,57,000 will be in digital and technologyrelated roles such as data scientists, product managers, engineering, design, user experience, and infrastructure management jobs with cloud service providers, IT service providers and across industry verticals. Additionally, the public cloud deployment will create another 83,000 direct roles that will be related to core business functions across industry verticals.

EMPLOYEE HEALTH

r e a d s

report, deployment of the public cloud computing system can add around $100 Bn to the Indian economy and generate 2.4 lakh direct jobs by 2023.

the last few months were not actively looking for jobs before they were employed, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics: this is a three-decade high that indicates an increasing number of Americans are joining the workforce. In January, 4.8 million people who were not actively searching became employed anyway, outnumbering those who dropped out of the workforce.

The bureau’s figures show that workforce participation has been rising steadily for the last five years, which may explain why talent shortages in the country are so high and unemployment so low despite weak job growth and generally downbeat economic forecasts for the last year or so.

Survey results released last month by ManpowerGroup indicated that 69 percent of US employers cannot find the people they want, well above the global average of 54 percent; comparing this number to historical data, the skills shortage is over three times more acute than it was a decade ago.

Meanwhile, US unemployment rates have remained at 3.6 percent, a 50-year low.

q u i c k

Public cloud computing Workforce participation can create 2.4 lakh direct in US at record high Three out of four new hires in the US over jobs: Report

Healthcare benefit costs to rise by 7.1% in APAC Employer-sponsored healthcare benefit costs are projected to grow at the same rate in 2020 as the last year in the APAC region, according to 2020 Global Medical Trends Survey. Some markets such as: China (9.8 percent), Hong Kong (8.3 percent), India (12 percent), Indonesia (11 percent), Malaysia (12.6 percent), and Singapore (9.3 percent), are projected to even exceed the 7.1 percent average increase.

Rising cost of new medical technology and insurance providers’ profit-oriented business model were cited as the drivers of medical costs. About 66 percent of the insurers predict that behavioral and mental health conditions will turn into one of the most costly medical conditions over the next five years. However, about 50 percent of the employers are still excluding mental health coverage from the policy plans.

As medical costs continue to rise, it is crucial for both employers and insurers to be aware and anticipate the outbreaks’ impact on employees and the organization.

MARCH 2020 |

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newsmaker of the month

The Coronavirus contagion

q u i c k

r e a d s

The virus has shown that it can slow down businesses worldwide –and right now it seems to be winning

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I

n the critically acclaimed movie Inception, the protagonist compares an idea to a virus –“An idea is like a virus.

Resilient. Highly contagious. And even the smallest seed of an idea can grow. It can grow to define or destroy you.” Today as the world grapples with the fallout of the Corona virus or technically named as COVID-19, which originated from the Wuhan province of China and has spread to over 27 countries affecting 73,000 people globally and causing the deaths of over 1,800 people, I can’t help remember those haunting lines.

This particular strain of virus, transferred apparently from animals first in the Huanan seafood wholesale market in the center of the Chinese city, has not only crippled China wherein nearly half of China's population –more than 780 million people –are currently living under various forms of travel restrictions as authorities race to contain the spread of the deadly virus but has brought businesses, economies, global travel, and normal life to a standstill in affected areas. It started with a 14 day shutdown in Wuhan, with many Chinese factories and businesses still on an extended break, travel bans to China with many countries suspending their flights to China, travel and tourism taking a hit in Singapore, Thailand and Southeast

| MARCH 2020

In a highly interconnected and globalized world, a small virus has shown us the downside of relying on one country to supply so many things Asian countries which are much dependent on the influx of Chinese travelers, and many industries such as pharmaceuticals, electronics, automobiles, steel, and mobiles, across countries bracing for a big impact in the coming days.

Think of it. In Singapore, the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) has downgraded its economic growth forecast to between 0.5 and 1.5 percent indicating a possible recession and is readying a stimulus package for the tourism, transport, and hospitality industry which are the worst hit sectors. China is one of the major auto parts suppliers in the world.

Automaker Hyundai had to shut its assembly plants in South Korea recently because it couldn't get the auto parts it needed from China. Similarly, automakers in countries such as India are working on a plan B to secure auto parts they need to keep their own operations going. 85 percent of

Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs) imported by Indian companies are from China. As per global business research firm Dun & Bradstreet, subsequent shutdown of huge portions of China could impact more than five million businesses worldwide.

Today, the Chinese economy constitutes around 20 percent of global GDP and if the containment of the outbreak is delayed beyond the summer, the “cascading effect” might bring down the global GDP growth by one percentage point. Apple has already announced it will be missing its quarterly revenue forecast and stocks in Asia continue to tumble amid expectations of a slowdown.

In a highly interconnected and globalized world, a small virus has shown us the downside of relying on one country to supply so many things. There is no doubt that the Chinese government will pump in more money to revive the economy, with many corporations such as Alibaba, Tencent, UBS, among others also pitching in huge amounts to tackle the outbreak. But it is highly unfortunate that the outbreak came at a challenging time for the Chinese economy, which has been reeling amid a trade war with the United States. The virus has shown that it can slow down businesses worldwide –and right now it seems to be winning.

Deep Kalra moves aside as CEO, MakeMyTrip Deep Kalra, the Group CEO of MakeMyTrip, has announced that he will be stepping away from his role as the CEO and Co-founder Rajesh Magow would be taking over the top job. Magow had been leading the India business of the online travel giant and would now be leading the entire business.

Renault names Luca de Meo as new CEO Renault SA named Luca de Meo as Chief Executive Officer. The 52-year-old Italian will take up the role on July 1, the French carmaker said in a statement. De Meo, who helped turnaround Volkswagen AG‘s Spanish arm, emerged as a frontrunner in November following the ouster of his predecessor, Ghosn protege Thierry Bollore.

WATConsult elevates its HR Director to CEO Dentsu Aegis Network’s digital agency WATConsult has announced some senior leadership changes. Starting February 1, 2020, Heeru Dingra will be the new Chief Executive Officer of the agency and Rajiv Dingra the current CEO shall move on to the role of Chief Mentor and Advisor for WATConsult. Dingra, who is currently the Director HR & Finance, will now have a new role and added tasks, overlooking the entire executive duties of the agency.

Ducati India appoints new Managing Director Luxury motorcycle brand Ducati has announced a change in its management structure. With Sergi Canovas moving to an international role, Ducati Motor Holding announced Bipul Chandra as the new Managing Director of the India operations. Chandra in his earlier role was Ducati India’s Sales Director and has now assumed the position of Managing Director for the company. In his new role, he will be responsible for spearheading Ducati’s business growth and network expansion in the country.

Coca-Cola Bottling Investments Group’s CPO quits Annella Heytens, who was working with CocaCola as the Chief People Officer of their Bottling Investments Group has stepped down from her role. After working with the company for 1.5 years, she has decided to join Amazon Web Services. She will be reporting to Ian Wilson, Vice President and Global Head of HR of Amazon Web Services.

Noblis appoints new Chief People Officer Noblis, a leading provider of science, technology and strategy services to the federal government has named Deborah Drake as Vice President and Chief People Officer. Drake will lead the Noblis human resources and organizational development organizations which includes responsibility for talent recruitment, the total rewards system, professional and organizational development, and employee engagement.

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Twitch Hires first APAC Managing Director Twitch, the service and community for multiplayer entertainment, announced the continued expansion of its global leadership team with the hire of Sunita Kaur as the company’s first APAC Managing Director. Sunita will be based in Twitch’s Singapore office with a focus on supporting growth of the Twitch community to benefit content creators, media partners, agencies, advertisers, publishers, and developers in Asia, Australia, and New Zealand.

JLL appoints new Head of HR JLL has appointed Raymond Hall as the Head of Human Resources for the Americas. In this role, Hall will lead JLL’s HR team in the Americas, partnering with the firm’s businesses to acquire, develop, engage and reward employees. He succeeds Mary Bilbrey, who maintains her position as JLL’s global Chief Human Resources Officer.

q u i c k

WeWork appoints new CEO Coworking company WeWork has named IndianAmerican real estate veteran Sandeep Mathrani as the new Chief Executive Officer of the company. Mathrani, who most recently served as CEO of Brookfield Properties' retail group, will join in his new role from February 18. He will also be a member of the company's Board of Directors.

Mathrani will report to Marcelo Claure, who will remain the Executive Chairman, WeWork said.

Invitation Homes ropes in new CHRO Invitation Homes announced that Elizabeth Galloway has joined the company as Executive Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer.

Galloway is a seasoned human resources executive who brings nearly two decades of leadership and human resources experience. She will lead the company's human resources team and ensure strategy and execution on recruiting and retention, training and career development, compensation and benefits, and culture.

PropertyGuru elevates Human Resources Director as CHRO PropertyGuru has appointed Genevieve Godwin as Chief Human Resources Officer. Godwin had been leading the people agenda for the company as Human Resources Director for two years.

Godwin has played an influential role in improving the firm’s talent growth across Southeast Asia, which includes Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, and Vietnam for over 1,200 employees. In her new position, she will now be responsible for talent management along with employee learning and development.

Max Life Insurance gets new VP, HR Having led the Learning & Development function at OYO in the role of Head of L&D, Charandeep David has taken up a new role as the Corporate Vice President of HR with Max Life Insurance.

"The culture at Max Life is driven by its values of caring, collaboration, customer obsession, and growth mindset," said Charandeep David. "Keeping these as the CORE, my focus would be on 'leadership development' and 'digitization initiatives' for 2020."

MARCH 2020 | march

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Rapid-Fire

TWELVE Q u e s t i o n s

interview

Deep Kalra

Founder & Group Executive Chairman, MakeMyTrip

By Anushree Sharma

1

8

Who is the one leader you look up to?

One thing that you consider as your strength and one thing that you would like to improve on?

Sanjeev Bikhchandani – a true reflection of a leader, mentor and friend

Strength: Staying constantly curious and inquisitive Area to improve upon: Push the self-confessed workaholic in me to take out more “me & family” time

r a p i d - f i r e

2

What is the one leadership lesson you learned on the go as a people leader?

Paying it forward

9

What matters to you most, effort or outcome?

3

How digitally ready are you as a leader on a scale of one to ten?

Effort

4

What should leaders do: create more leaders or create more followers and why?

9 on 10

10

Which was the last book you read on leadership?

Create more leaders, who lead-by example – followers will support your vision but leaders will help you take that vision a notch higher

Not the last but one of the most impressive ones - Nuts by Kevin & Jackie Freiberg

5

What is the one thing leaders should do to make a difference?

Bringing everyone along on a shared vision and sharing success with every member of the team – it’s never about an individual’s success

6

One step that you are taking to develop a leadership culture in your organization?

Encouraging “entrepreneurial spirit” across all functions and at all levels

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Great ideas can come from anyone, anytime and anywhere

7

One thing that makes you passionate about your work?

Solving real problems of travellers with tech-enabled solutions

11

Three key learning that you have picked up from your team

• One-for-all; All-for-one • Appreciating diversity of thoughts and opinions • Great ideas can come from anyone, anytime and anywhere

12

What sort of leader would your team say that you are?

A people-person

Amit Ramani

Workplace 2030: How the future of work will look like A look at how workplaces will change in the next ten years

S

Video technology will reduce the need to travel while ensuring connectivity Video communication technology in the past decade has evolved from the conventional video conferencing to holographic 3-D technology, enabling a face-to-face interaction that negates the actual need for physical presence.

These advancements will facilitate the ability of an individual to communicate, collaborate, contribute and deliver results remotely. There is also a scope of virtual reality to further enhance work-productivity by imitating the required environment. Thanks to high-speed internet connections, wide-scale interaction via video-connectivity is no more a buffering game, which will further heighten work efficiency as well as productivity.

W o r k

The traditional office setup will cease to exist within the next five to ten years.

Laptops, smartphones, and tablets will become redundant and will give way to voice-activated assistants; the Internet of Things (IoT) will play an important role here. With the help of wearable technology such as embedded chips and wearable glasses, there will be a customized reflection in all parameters of an individual’s style of working. No more one-size-fits-all approach.

Moreover, the data provided by these devices will also personalize the furnishing as per the individual requirement.

For instance, chairs will now be better suited to the user’s preference, comfort, and working style while keeping in mind the ergonomic requirements. Workspaces, too, will see a change based on specific conditions like brainstorming, meetings, and corporate sessions, networking or leisure time.

With constant technological advancements, the future will bring an interconnected ecosystem. With the IoT analyzing the data received from all the public and private infrastructure in real-time, it will aid in understanding the individual preferences and factors important to the well-being of the people. The real-time analyzed data will allow workspaces to transform, adapt, and react to users instantaneously with health and safety being the centerpieces of infrastructure design and execution.

These spaces shall also be explicitly designed to maximize the lighting and ventilation, complementing the worker’s seating arrangements. Even the idle time for spaces such as desks, conference rooms, and training areas can drop to zero, ensuring optimized usage of space and asset deployment that can help shrink the real estate cost per square foot.

Naturally, we will also witness artificial intelligence become more accurate and automate repetitive, mundane tasks.

Automation of these tasks will ensure better utilization of time and resources by directing it to more meaningful tasks and outcomes.

In summary, technology will enable wider, more profound, real-time connectivity and productivity gains by designing ‘individual focused office solutions’ that deliver near-zero idle time. These will drive business organizations to move away from traditional workspace solutions that offer much lower productivity in the congested, far from home, and one-size-fitsall workspace model. Over time, we will witness the workspace solution providers transition from being organization-driven to individual-driven, thus changing the fundamental concept of working.

@

Customization using wearable technology & artificial intelligence

Creation of smart buildings with interconnected smart workstations

L i f e

ince the last few years, the contemporary workplace has been undergoing a series of rapid changes. Modern technology has made it possible for the workforce to work from anywhere, thereby reducing the necessity of physical work-desk. This, coupled with the swelling real estate prices across the globe, is compelling large corporations to rethink their workspace strategy.

The conventional idea of what constitutes work will continue changing and with Gen Z set to join the workforce, it becomes crucial for the existing workspaces to transform and cater to the requirements of the new-age workforce.

We will witness a host of changes to create favorable work practices to suit their work style, their social conscientiousness and work-life balance. Young employees want to work with organizations that provide them with smart solutions, know their unique preference and requirements.

Amongst all the factors, technology will play a pivotal role in shaping the workplace culture in the coming decade. Technology will be more focused on providing experience and augmenting interactive employee engagement; in turn, creating an ecosystem of enhanced productivity, creativity, and culture. While it is impossible to predict the future with certainty, here are my two cents on how the workplace of 2030 will look like:

About the author

Amit Ramani is the CEO & Founder at Awfis MARCH 2020 |

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experts suggest that those who have investments up to Rs. 2 to 2.5 lakh are better off in the old structure2. Any savings made by paying a lower tax will likely be offset by the additional tax paid on taxable income under the new regime, which was deductable in the old one. Since many people make investments to claim deductions in Section 80C, and others, experts also expect a dip in such investments in the future, as the taxsaving benefits of such investments will no longer be available3.

I N DI A B u d g e t 2 0 2 0

Impact on employees and HR

A taxing budget

The proposed changes to the tax rates in this year’s budget will undoubtedly mean more work for taxpayers and HR

By Manav Seth

A

fter delivering the longest budget speech in recent years, clocking in at two hours and forty minutes, Finance Minister Nirmala Seetharam left taxpayers and CAs frantically calculating their taxable income under the existing and proposed tax regimes. Let’s take a quick look at the changes and how they are likely to impact taxpayers and HR.

Changes in taxes The new tax regime divides existing tax slabs into narrower ranges1. Incomes up to Rs. 2.5 lakh continue to attract no taxes, and up to Rs. 5 lakh will be taxed at 5 percent, with a rebate of Rs. 12, 500, in effect resulting in zero tax. However, incomes from Rs. 5 lakh to Rs. 7.5 lakh will be taxed at 10 percent, from Rs. 7.5 lakh to

Rs. 10 lakh at 15 percent, from Rs. 10 lakh to Rs. 12.5 lakh at 20 percent, from Rs. 12.5 lakh to Rs. 15 lakh at 25 percent and above Rs. 15 lakh will be taxed at 30 percent.

Earlier, there were just two rates for those earning more than Rs. 5 lakh; 20 percent for those earning up to Rs. 10 lakh and 30 percent for those earning more than Rs. 10 lakh. The budget also proposes to cap the tax exemption on employer’s contribution under Employees’ Provident Fund, National Pension System, and superannuation fund with a total upper limit of Rs. 7.5 lakh.

Taxpayers will have a choice to pay taxes as per the old rates or opt for the new and lower rates, but give up existing deductions. While the government expects people to move to the new regime to simplify the calculation of their taxes,

Existing tax regime vs. new tax regime Old Regime Income Slabs

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Rate of Tax

New Regime Income Slabs

Rate of Tax

Upto to INR 2,50,000

0

Upto INR 2,50,000

0

INR 2,50,001 to 5,00,000

5%

INR 2,50,001 to 5,00,000

5%

INR 5,00,001 to 10,00,000

20%

INR 5,00,001 7,50,000

10%

Above INR 10,00,000

30%

INR 7,50,001 to 10,00,000

15%

INR 10,00,001 to 12,50,000

20%

INR 12,50,001 to 15,00,000

25%

Above INR 15,00,000

30%

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The two possible ways to compute taxes will naturally mean more work and calculation from employees, but even more so, from office administration and HR. Depending on the choice made by the employee, organizations will have to compute taxes as per the applicable tax rate and do so within this financial year. This means that employers will have to calculate the taxes differently for each employee, and take into account the deductions for HRA, LTA, and 80C only for employees who wish to continue with the existing tax structure. Organizations might even have to assist their employees in making a choice that helps them save more tax by explaining how the changes will impact them and answering queries that will naturally come up. The fact that one cannot go back to the old tax structure once they opt for the new one means that the choice must be made after due consideration.

By giving people a choice to continue with existing tax rates or opting for lower ones, in place of deductions, the government hopes to simplify tax assessment and filing. The government says that since 92 percent of those filing IT returns avail exemptions of less than Rs. 2 lakh, a flat tax rate will ease the process and reduce the tendency to understate income4. The Finance Minister has also said that the government intends to do away with all I-T exemptions in the long run5.

On the day of the budget, the stock market nosedived and recorded the biggest loss after a budget since 20096; however, it recovered in the following days. While experts have appreciated the government’s cautious budget, many suggest that it has not done enough to make structural changes to the Indian economy to pave the way for sustainable growth in the long run7.

Similarly, a lack of focused incentives for the struggling real estate, auto, and telecom sectors was considered another disappointment8. The budget refrained from launching any new nation-wide project or program and was clear in its message of exercising fiscal prudence until stability is restored in the economy.

Singapore sets aside S$4 bn to preserve jobs

By Mint Kang

T

he Singapore government recently announced a S$4 bn stabilization and support package as part of its Budget 2020, to help workers stay in their jobs and help businesses stay afloat during the economic downturn exacerbated by the novel coronavirus outbreak.

"Our foremost concern is jobs," Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat said in his budget statement on Tuesday. "We want to help our workers retain their jobs and use any lull period to upgrade their skills, to be ready when the tide turns."

Retaining jobs through reducing labor costs The larger part of the funding, roughly S$2.4 Bn, will go into defraying wage costs for businesses. S$1.3 Bn will be spent on a jobs support scheme that covers eight percent of every Singaporean employee's wages for three months, capped at S$3,600 per business per month: the objective, said Heng, is to help enterprises retain their workers.

Another S$1.1 Bn will go to enhancing the government's existing wage credit scheme, an initiative first launched in 2013 that supports wage increases for Singaporean workers earning a salary of up to S$4,000 per month. Budget 2020 provides for increasing that limit to S$5,000 per

"We want to help our workers retain their jobs and use any lull period to upgrade their skills, to be ready when the tide turns"

workers to reskill. Budget 2020 provides for a one-off S$500 top-up to SkillsFuture Credit, a targeted funding for Singaporeans who want to learn new skills or obtain new qualifications. It also introduces a version of the funding for enterprises, giving them S$10,000 to defray the out-ofpocket costs of business transformation, job redesign, and skills training. Companies will additionally get an extra incentive for hiring mid-career workers in their 40s and 50s through reskilling programs.

month, and will retroactively apply to wage increases given in both 2019 and 2020.

The road to recovery

- Heng Swee Keat, Singapore's Finance Minister

Recovering at-risk jobs through reskilling As hinted in earlier statements, the government will also give additional support to sectors that are particularly hard hit by the novel coronavirus, specifically tourism, aviation, retail, food services. Because workers in these sectors are considered at higher risk of losing their jobs, the government intends to give them extra help in finding new positions: workers who reskill can currently get funding for up to three months, but the time limit will be extended to six months for these four specific sectors.

An estimated 330,000 workers will benefit.

On top of these measures, the government is pushing harder for Singaporean

Singapore Budget 2020

Jobs are the number one concern during this period of economic downturn and epidemic outbreak, according to Singapore's Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat

It is clear from the Budget 2020 measures that the Singapore government is determined to soften the impact of the economic downturn and the coronavirus outbreak on workers: unsurprising, given that with the country’s aging population and Singapore’s vulnerable position as a trade hub reliant on fair international conditions, workers in the city-state will be the first to take a hit when times become tough.

However, with a slew of measures every year to make older workers more employable and prepare employers themselves for changing economic conditions, upskilling, reskilling, and accepting diversity of age and experience in the workforce are likely to become the new normal for both employers and employees: as they should in today’s fast-changing world.

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f e a t u r e

The gaps in D&I initiatives

Diversity and inclusivity initiatives often play an important role in rooting ideas of equality of genders, races, cultures, etc into tangible business goals. But how effective have such programs been?

D

By Dhruv Mukerjee

espite both policy changes and a growing mandate, D&I initiatives have done little to improve the marker on diversity within workforces in Indian Inc. Especially when it comes to creating a gender-balanced workforce. A recent benchmarking report on diversity within companies by JobsForHer portal pointed out that only 29 percent of its interviewed companies had formally introduced D&I initiatives. While India ranked 108th in the World Economic Forum’s Gender Gap Index 2018, the latest version of the report for 2020 noted it fall to 112th position. This puts it in the company of some of the worst-performing nations on the issue of the gender gap. Looking specifically at the subindex of the report on economic opportunity and participation, India's position fell further down to the 149th position.

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According to the India Skills Report, the economic participation of women in the workforce has fallen from 32 percent in 2016 to 23 percent in 2020 The formal job participation level among women has also fallen. According to the India Skills Report, the economic participation of women in the workforce has fallen from 32 percent in 2016 to 23 percent in 2020. This is in contrast to the fact that employability within both men and women, according to the report, stood at similar levels; 47 percent for women while 46 percent for men. Yet men form 77 percent of the workforce employed in a formal setting. Such data points indicate a major problem in how companies aim to

create a gender-balanced workforce. Investments have been rising and CEOs are more serious about having impactful diversity programs. But this had done little to translate into on-ground efficiency and companies still face major challenges when it comes to executing a well-planned initiative.

Implementation failures

Corporate training plays an important role in how companies improve grasp over skills and bring about behavioral change within their employees.

When it comes to diversity, training has been used to a similar extent. Although most diversity training is aimed at addressing biases and creating an inclusive work culture, an ill-thought-out training program can do more harm than good.

Questioning people to assess their biases does little as an HBR report notes that while people are easily taught to respond correctly to a questionnaire about bias, they soon forget the right answers. While it's easy for companies to boil down the essence of diversity training into a handy list of dos and don’ts, the study notes that the positive effects of diversity training rarely last beyond a day or two, with experts suggesting that it can activate bias or spark a backlash. Nonetheless, there

remains a heavy dependence on such transactional activities, all of which fall under diversity training.

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Addressing the gaps with diversity training

Resistance within the organization, for example, could be caused by several different things: employees not believing that actual changes can be made, employees feeling victimized, or managers being forced to hire someone only to meet the numbers

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A major cause of concern regarding diversity programs arises in their implementation stage.

From taking a tokenistic approach to not having stakeholder support, implementation of diversity programs has the potential to be marred by a host of reasons. Failures in both galvanizing support and investments reflect itself in the form of a superficial effort to deal with a severe problem that impacts large portions of Indian businesses.

Factors such as resistance, if left unchecked, play an essential role in the failure of D&I initiatives. Resistance from employees, managers, senior leaders, both explicit and subtle, can hamper the eventual success of such initiatives. While it is relevant to note that many such initiatives strive to bring about more than just procedural changes within functions like recruitment, training, and other aspects of employee life-cycle, faulty implementation brings it down to the level of tick-in-thebox activity.

To create an impact is to aim for a mindset change and that requires all stakeholders to be on-board. Resistance within the organization, for example, could be caused by several different things: employees not believing that actual changes can be made, employees feel victimized, or managers being forced to hire someone only to meet the numbers.

There is also the chance that in-charge of implementing diversity programs overdo it, creating what has been called "diversity fatigue" leading diversity initiatives being yet another act that impedes work. To create better ways of bringing about change, the conversation on diversity has been inclusionary without it being forcefully fed across the length and breadth of the organization.

Figuring out what works Fixing problems with diversity programs isn’t a one-off activity but rather a series of steps, with the first step beginning with agreeing there is a problem that needs to address. It’s important to not take rising investments as the only marker but rather involve key stakeholders more meaningfully. There are better ways to promote diversity by engaging managers and staff in a positive holistic way. Hiring, for example, can be improved by involving managers in the various college recruitment programs targeted to women and minorities directly. Using technology effectively to create channels of communication can also develop mindsets positively. Managers, in this example, would take their campus visits more seriously as they look to find the best minority candidates among the students.

Formal mentoring too has proven beneficial as it helps women and minorities with professional advancement as well. Reports show the benefits of a formal corporate program increase when mentors with proteges connect, break barriers and biases more holistically. Contact between groups, social accountability, and diversity managers are other ways researchers have found that better promotes diversity in the workplace.

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Fighting for four Charting the rapidly-rising demand for four-day workweeks and anticipating what to expect in the future

By Manav Seth

T

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he prevalent 40-hour workweek model (eight hours a day; five days a week) can be traced back to the Fair Labor Standards Act in 1938, which was passed in response to worker demands for better working conditions and pay during the decades leading up to it. In 1937, auto plant workers in General Motors protested against poor working conditions that did not allow bathroom breaks, no benefits, sick pay, or safety standards.

The Act passed the next year was the government’s way to support the demands of the workers1. But, that was more than 80 years ago, and businesses, workplaces, management models, and workforce priorities have undergone a monumental shift since.

These changes have raised questions regarding the need to rely on outdated work schedules and models, notably when technology has simplified and automated several manual and time-consuming tasks. Continuing the conversation that People Matters initiated in January 2020 edition, wherein we discussed the benefits of a four-day workweek, let’s look at how the movement gained momentum in the last few years and what we can expect in the future.

The rising demand for a four-day workweek The concept of the four-day workweek has been around for more than a decade, at least. The state government of Utah started working ten-hour a day from Monday to Thursday in 2008; however, the practice was ended in 2011. Public schools in Hawaii also tried non-working Fridays in 2010 for a limited duration, and government officials in the Gambia were also given leave on Fridays between 2013 and 2017 (although the working hours were 8.00 a.m. to 6.00 p.m. on working days in the latter case)2. Even the World Economic Forum has thrown its weight behind the new work model3.

However, the most prominent example of a successful four-day experiment can be found in New Zealand’s Perpetual Guardian, which started the practice in February 2018. The founder of the organizations, Andrew Barnes, has become one of the biggest advocates of the concept, and has started another organization called “4 Day Week” and written a book called “The 4 Day Week: How the Flexible Work Revolution Can Increase Productivity, Profitability, and Wellbeing, and Create a Sustainable Future” as well. The trial at Perpetual Guardian garnered significant attention, and researchers tracking the experiment called it a success, with only a few of the 200+ employees struggling to adapt to the new schedule or missing work during the extended weekend4.

Barnes says that the company has permanently adopted the “100:80:100” system - 100 percent pay, 80 percent hours, and 100 percent productivity. Unlike the four-day workweek experiment that Microsoft conducted (explained in detail in the previous edition), Perpetual Guardian let its employees decide which day of the week they want to take off or even work all five days, but with fewer hours every day. Barnes says that fewer working days will have other benefits too, lower energy consumption, and manageable traffic on roads.

In the last couple of years, the concept has spread like wildfire; presidential candidates in the USA have endorsed it5, labor unions in the UK have

The concept of the four-day workweek has been around for more than a decade, at least 22

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adopted it as their demand6 (the Labor Party in the UK even promised a 32-hour workweek in its manifesto7 but lost the election), and Finland’s Prime Minister is known to have a favorable view of it as well. Several small establishments in the UK were reportedly trying the four-day workweek in early 2019 as well8. In January 2020, American fast-food joint Shake Shack rolled out the four-day workweek at a third of its location, primarily to attract and retain quality talent9.

Earlier this year, it was falsely reported that the Finnish Prime Minister wants to make four-day workweeks and six-hour workdays a reality. Later, it was revealed that she had merely expressed support of the idea during a party meeting in August, well before she was elected as the Prime Minister and that there are plans in the near future to make the four-day workweek a norm in Finland.10

How will it play out in the future?

the day every week, or work fewer hours on five days. Next, employees must be supported in this change and shouldn’t be made to work extremely long hours or under high-pressure stress on the four days they work. Lastly, experts suggest that a four-day workweek might force employees to prioritize on the most-critical tasks they need to do, and lose sight of other essential tasks that are not as high on the priority list; for instance, training and career development12.

One of the biggest critiques against the fourday week model is that it does not apply to all industries. Only white-collared workers having typical 9-to-5 jobs are most likely to benefits from it as employees in sectors like retail, manufacturing, or construction are needed at their place of work every day. And this is particularly true in a country like India where an overwhelming majority of the workforce is employed in the informal sector. Furthermore, the culture of working hard

While no leading global organization has embraced the four-day workweek model yet, experts think that bigger and established organizations like

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Google and Facebook will be able to adopt it much better than smaller businesses11. This is because employees in small organizations are likely already to be working their full capacity, and a full workday off might induce more stress to finish the same work in lesser time. Experts also believe that employers need to offer creative and flexible work solutions to attract skilled people and incentivize employees to stay. So, it might just be a matter of time until one or two industry leaders start the practice, and others follow suit to remain competitive. HR will, however, need sophisticated tools and resources to balance employee productivity and business deliveries alongside flexible working hours to ensure continued progress and growth.

Similarly, employers will need to measure and track the impact of these changes meticulously to decide if there is a need to revert back or not.

However, some obvious landmines would need attention before the concept is applied. Barnes says that a top-down approach would be counterproductive, and employees must have the flexibility to change how they work. In other words, they should choose if they want a fixed day off, choose

f e a t u r e

Perpetual Guardian has permanently adopted the “100:80:100” system - 100 percent pay, 80 percent hours, and 100 percent productivity

and committing to work is extremely dominant in India13, which means that the mindset of what constitutes hard work needs to change before we can change the number of days we work. In a country where working for six, or even seven, days of the week is the norm, the conversation around the four-day workweek is unsurprisingly muted. It is also important to note that several global business leaders and entrepreneurs, like Elon Musk and Jack Ma, are advocates of longer workweeks and have expressed their disapproval for 40-hour workweeks.

So, if most young employees today would barter flexibility for a higher salary14, and if the average global worker feels that they can do their entire day’s work in five hours15, is it just a matter of time until the modern work culture and management practices catch up with reality? Or is the four-day workweek a passing trend that will fade into oblivion in a few months? Depending on who is answering the question, the answer might be starkly different.

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Social entrepreneurship: Can it curb unemployment?

As WEF puts is, social entrepreneurship --as an organizational expression of social innovation, is the demonstration of alternative working models as we face the current challenges to our planet, our societies and our economies

By Drishti Pant “People should wake up in the morning and say, ‘I am not a job seeker, I am a job-creator’.”

- Muhammad Yunus

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s per International Labor Organization, in 2018, global unemployment levels fell one percentile to a steady five percent in 2018, the lowest figures since the economic crisis that wreaked havoc on labor markets. World Employment and Social Outlook Trends 2019 report further emphasizes that unemployment rates were anticipated to fall further to 4.9 percent this year.

The number of jobless in real terms is estimated to rise from 172 million to 174 million in that time as the labor market expands.

As economies across the globe look to curb the unemployment crisis, there are two areas to focus 24

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on, one is job creation and second is skilling and reskilling. On one side economies need a more skilled and job-ready workforce, on the other they need to create relevant job opportunities for this population of employable workforce. While there are many ways in which the unemployment crisis could be dealt with, from constructing relevant policies around skill development to fueling various sectors with funds, boosting the social entrepreneurship sector or building the social economy is also one of the effective mediums.

Besides assisting in overcoming poverty and achieving social integration, social entrepreneurship can also help in creating productive employment. Intergovernmental organization, the United Nations reiterated the role social entrepreneurship can play in curbing unemployment, when it launched UNICEF’s UPSHIFT Program. Recently,

in the World Economic Forum 2020, Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship in its 2020 Impact Report highlighted how it has improved the lives of more than 622 million people in 190 countries.

An alternative working model

How are some countries reaping the benefits?

En t r e p r e n e u r s h i p

Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum said, “By having as its mission the engagement of all stakeholders in the creation of social and economic value, social entrepreneurs have proven how employees, customers, suppliers, local communities and the environment can benefit.”

Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus believes social entrepreneurship is derived from the need to value the abilities of every human being and understanding that saving the environment must be a collective effort. With social entrepreneurship, many birds can be hit with one stone.

It empowers individuals to utilize their potential and work for a better livelihood, and improve the lives of the consumers from all socio economic backgrounds and all of this is done keeping in mind the greater good of the entire environment.

Hence, social entrepreneurship benefits many stakeholders of the ecosystem and eventually the whole ecosystem at large.

As WEF puts is, social entrepreneurship, as an organizational expression of social innovation, is the demonstration of alternative working models as we face the current challenges to our planet, our societies and our economies. With the role of HR evolving and the scope of its function going beyond the people of the organization to the community at large, it is important for HR leaders to understand the opportunities of this emerging sector and what it could mean for them.

prises anticipate hiring new staff in the coming years.

Other countries like the United States, Canada and the UK have also attracted a lot of skilled talent through social entrepreneurship and made it to the top ranks of the report by the Thomson Reuters Foundation, Deutsche Bank, UnLtd and the Global Social Entrepreneurship Network.

Asian countries like Singapore, Hong Kong and Malaysia also made it to the top list of the countries with the best environment for social entrepreneurs. In fact, as per another report, compared to other regions, young entrepreneurs in South and East Asia have the highest percentage of businesses creating between one to four jobs, and roughly half of the youth businesses providing no additional jobs.

Here are some initiatives that have accelerated the growth of social entrepreneurship in some of the countries in Asia: Philippines: Youth Entrepreneurship Program (YEP), a nationwide program by the National Youth Commission to help young Filipinos develop their entrepreneurial skills.

Hong Kong, SAR China: Young Entrepreneurs (YE) aims to foster entrepreneurship globally and to connect entrepreneurs with global markets, in business, capital, education and services.

Singapore: The Singapore-ASEAN Youth Fund was launched in 2007 and is administered by the National Youth Council of Singapore. It is an initiative of Singapore’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Community Development, Youth, and Sports, with the main aim of promoting greater interaction among youth in the ASEAN member countries.

All of these initiatives directly or indirectly empower the talent in countries to utilize their

Bangladeshi social enterprises have an average of 22 full-time equivalent staff and average turnover of around £21,000 (BDT 2,134,475). In the latest survey done, it was identified that Bangladeshi social enterprises have created an increasing number of jobs over the past years, and expect job creation to continue. In terms of anticipated job creation, a majority of the surveyed social enter-

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potential and put their skills to use and take care of their own development while also adding value to the society at large.

ment situation by working on both sides - on the demand side from organizations and supply side with access to the remotest part of the country.

The India perspective

Social enterprises as job creators

Rituparna Chakraborty, President , Indian Staffing Federation, says, “ Social Entrepreneurship in India has come a long way over the years.”

As she also shared, the numbers state that there are nearly two million social enterprises, and given the country’s socio-economic challenges, these are only expected to grow. Chakraborty believes that social entrepreneurship provides a unique opportunity to focus on specific challenges while remaining relevant and sustainable in the longrun. The good part is that the government is also interested in promoting these, through funding options, advisory services and making the sector more regulated.

She highlighted how the Skill India program, with an allocation of Rs. 3,000 cr, is a good example that could boost social enterprises in the vocational education sector. A number of such programs are being pursued and an active private sector participation could help scale social enterprises.

Chakraborty agrees that social enterprises are uniquely positioned to help improve the employ-

Having identified the benefits of social enterprises and the value it can create for the entire society and economies at large, companies like Shell and PwC have extended foundations working for the cause. Through either funding or knowledge sharing there are some companies working along with social enterprises and empowering them to further create an impact.

Tanya Kothari, Program Manager, Shell Foundation shared that all of their portfolio companies so far have created cumulatively 3.6 lakhs jobs, globally.

Jaivir Singh, Vice Chairman, PwC India foundation, also shared similar data. He said, “One statistic available from the global experience of School for Social Entrepreneurs is that social entrepreneurs on an average create two jobs and 11 volunteering opportunities by the end of one year of their operations and this grows as their social business grows. This however varies across countries and depends on the size of the enterprise.”

He further added that since the sector is still at a nascent stage, its ability to cause for a multiplier effect in creating jobs is still limited but has great potential considering the issues faced by modern society.

Lack of access to support and advisory services, lack of finance and funding, lack of technical skills and social enterprise awareness are some of the barriers to growth

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What do the social entrepreneurs think?

Yashveer Singh, Co-founder & Global Director, Ashoka Young Changemakers believes that all organizations globally are going through a profound change. It is no longer enough for them to hire someone with specific skills and hope those

The way forward “While social enterprises have made big strides, they are still very concentrated and fragmented.

Firms would need to scale up, work together and collaborate with the government to make noteworthy impact. The scale of transformation required is massive and coupled with the “for-profit” objective, Social Enterprises would need more time before they start delivering at scale,” said Chakraborty.

Kothari from Shell Foundation, in an interaction with us had also highlighted the importance of having social enterprises with ideas that can scale and impact billions and not only millions. She advises that it’s beneficial to invest in them and support them in their journey from the beginning phase.

Lack of access to support and advisory services, lack of finance and funding, lack of technical skills

Social entrepreneurship, as a sector, has contributed towards employment generation and skill development for jobs; and has a long way to be a major driver of improving employment status nationwide and social enterprise awareness are some of the barriers to growth for social enterprises.

Singh from PwC India foundation said, “Social entrepreneurship, as a sector, has contributed towards employment generation and skill development for jobs; and has a long way to be a major driver of improving employment status nationwide. Private sector partnerships can serve as important tools to catalyze the development of the sector. Whilst there is much more to be done, the trends are pointing in the right direction but will need the sustained support of government, the private sector, and the social sector.”

With the World Bank supporting this notion with data point that 70 percent of jobs are created by small and medium enterprise, social entrepreneurship is an area for the betterment of which government, academic institutions, professional bodies and companies should work together. Business and HR leaders of the organizations can probably be the one taking the ownership of going beyond the scope of their business and in the new age of work as “People Leaders”, work for uplifting the entire community.

If you are already making efforts in this direction, then do share your story with us.

As a people leader, would you be willing to contribute towards promoting Social Entrepreneurship? Write to me at drishti.pant@peoplematters.in and let me know your thoughts.

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skills would be relevant for ages. “For organizations and companies to thrive, they need people who not only can adapt constantly and navigate this change effectively but who also help others to thrive as drivers of change,” he shared.

“Many social entrepreneurs around the world now work with the objective of teaching new skills providing opportunities for the underprivileged and creating employment. While some work on creating direct employment, there are others who work at the systems level to bring policy shifts in creating an enabling ecosystem to create jobs and livelihoods for all,” added Singh.

Another social entrepreneur and UN Environment Leadership Awardee, Dr. Vaibhav Tidke, CEO, S4S Technologies, emphasized how social entrepreneurship challenges the traditional model of employment.Most of the social entrepreneurs we interacted with shared the same concern. While the future for social entrepreneurship majorly looks promising, there are many roadblocks to its growth as well.

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CCL’s MD on Must-have skills for global Asian leaders

In an exclusive interview with People Matters, Elisa Mallis, Managing Director, and Vice President Asia-Pacific, from the Center for Creative Leadership (CCL) shares some insights on what it will take to groom Asian leaders to break through the ‘bamboo ceiling’ as Asia becomes the center of the world. She also highlights how important it is for the leaders of today to have a diverse and inclusive mindset

By Yasmin Taj

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I N TERVIEW

lisa Mallis has over 20 years of experience as a business leader with a focus on transformational change, human capital strategy, sales, and marketing.

She has spent 14 of these years based in Asia (Beijing, Sydney, and Singapore). Before her role as the APAC Managing Director for CCL, Elisa served as the Mainland China Director and Head of Executive Development for a talent development firm, Management Development Services (MDS). Before MDS, Elisa spent over ten years at Accenture, working as a talent and organization consultant for Accenture’s New York, London, and Beijing offices. Elisa, who split time growing up between Miami, Florida, and Athens, Greece, has lived in multiple countries in four continents and is passionate about leading with an inclusive and global mindset.

Elisa joined CCL in 2019 as the Managing Director and Vice President, Asia-Pacific. In her role,

While global organizations continue to look to Asia for growth, there is a stark need for leaders who deeply understand the region to not only execute a local growth stratgegy but also to have a strategic and influential point of view within the top team on what it will really take to win in Asia 28

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she leads CCL’s efforts in SE Asia, India, North Asia, and Australia to accelerate the leadership development and results of clients throughout the region, from multi-national corporations and government agencies to domestic organizations, while also contributing significantly to CCL’s global research agenda.

In an exclusive interview, Elisa shares some insights on what it takes to support Asian leaders to break through the ‘bamboo ceiling’ and better support organizations that would like to be ‘truly global’. As Asia becomes the center of the world, what are the skill and mindsets that leaders must possess to accelerate success and create positive impact not only in their own country and region, but across the world.

Here are some excerpts from the interview:

Your career trajectory is very extensive and interesting. When you look back, what are some the key talent shifts/trends you have seen in the APAC region in the last decade?

Over the past 14 years living and working in Asia I’ve witnessed an impressive increase in leadership maturity. Globally we know we are in an increasingly RUPT (Rapid, Unpredictable, Paradoxical, Tangled) environment. In Asia, the pace of that rapid change has been far more acute. There are many examples of technological advances in Asia that have skipped many steps that other markets had to go through, leapfrogging ahead. At the start of my 10 years living in China, I remember adjusting myself to a “cash only” approaches for many payments and transaction. By around 2016 the drastic transformation to a “no cash at all” way of life took within a year powered by WeChat and AliPay mobile payment systems, skipping many steps that other countries had go to through. Asian laders driving and adapting to these types of transformations have had to further develop and demonstrate high levels of agility and resilience along the way.

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Another aspect of the significant increase in leadership maturity over the last two decades in Asia comes with the increased movement, mobility and diversification that has taken place. Accross China, India and SE Asia, increasing numbers of Asian professionals have been relocating to different cities, gaining more regional exposure and experience. These leaders have become more culturally savvy and globally-minded.

Moving forward Asian leaders aspiring for global careers need to further develop a level of comfort with disruption. They also need to step out of their comfort zone to develop global relationships and credibility with key stakeholders within and outside the organization.

Can you tell us about some of the key highlights from CCL’s Global Asian Leader report?

What are some of the stark highlights that you have noticed come out of the report? What traits do you see in the global Asian leader?

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With Asia as the “new centre of the world”, Asian organizations and Asian leaders will be playing an even bigger role in defining some of these new solutions and new economic models for success going forward. While global organizations continue to look to Asia for growth, there is a stark need for leaders who deeply understand the region to not only execute a local growth stratgegy but also to have a strategic and influential point of view within the top team on what it will really take to win in Asia. However, despite the acute need for ‘Asia-fluent’ leaders at the top, our research confirms a significant underrepresenta-

Global Asian Leader - Must Have Attributes & Traits "Reading people" "Quick learning" "Being mobile" "Asking questions" "seek new experience" "Cultural curiosity" "Hunger to learn" "Keen to explore" "Adventure spirit" "Global awareness" "Expand Knowledge" "Learning agility" "Open minded"

CO UR AG E

ASPIRATION

TRU ST

"Political savvy" "Collaborating to get stuff done" "Self advocacy" "Leading remotely" "Lead communication" "Remote influencing skills" "Articulating ideas in a compelling manner" "Navigating the matrix" "Negotiation skills"

NCE LUE INF

TY SI O I R CU

"Self belief" "Not giving up" "Being assertive" "Step out of comfort zone" "Risk taking" "Managing conflict" "Challenge leaders" "Grit" "Appetite for challenge" "Persistence" "Adaptability" "Taking initiative" "Have thick skin" " Giving feedback" "Dealing with uncertainty" "Take chances" "Be bold" "Confidence" "Being vocal" "saying No" "Speak up" "Resilience" "being direct" "Pushing back" "Emotional strength" "Confronting" "Express opinion"

STRATEGIC THINKING "Market knowledge" "Long term thinking" "Strategic intent" "Commercial acumen" "Economic motivation" "Understand complexities" "Understanding macro-Shifts" "Managing resource conflicts" "Reading the environment" "Understanding the organization"

"Non judgmental" "Relationship building" "Networking ability" "With trust" "open with people" "Transparency" "Global mindset" "Being resourceful" "Humility" "Understanding different POVs" "Ability to listen" "Involving key stakeholders" "manage cross-cultural alliances" "Authenticity"

© 2020 Centre for Creative Leadership. All Rights Reserved.

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tion of Asian leaders in the top Executive Teams of European and US multi-nationals. The Global Asian Leader research systematically identifies the obstacles leaders face in their transition to global roles, and the roadblocks organizations need to overcome to build a robust talent pipeline from Asia. One significant insight coming from the study is that while organizations facing a leadership crunch almost instantly start evaluating capability gaps of Asian leaders, the root cause of inadequate global Asian leadership often resides elsewhere. Our Global Asian Leader research identifies multiple root-causes, including: the organizational roadblocks, roadblocks at the country level, as well as roadblocks coming from the individual leader that include but are not limited to capability gaps. Country level infrastructure to equip talent with the skills that are needed and unwillingness of the individual to go out and get more exposure themselves are two common limiting factors.

So what is the common recipe for success when it comes to global and regional roles? Developed from the 120 interviews in the study, the global Asian leader capability model provides a common recipe for success and the skills required, which include: Curiosity, Courage, Trust, Strategic Thinking, and Influencing. It is about the ability of the leader to influence others who are people who are very different from him or herself and being able to do that across multiple countries.

What are some of the similarities and differences that you have noticed across Asia Pacific when it comes to leadership skills?

While there are significant and valuable differences in the culture and accepted practices of doing business across Asian countries, our research identifies five common leadership traits of Asian Leaders.

1. Collectivist approach – Asia scores low on individualism 2. Forcusing on harmony – Non-confrontational attitude at work 3. Having a VUCA-ready attitude – Moving pieces make leaders very complexity-‘friendly’

Better understanding Leadership Development through an Asian lens, in terms of how it manifests today, is critical for future success of most global organizations

4. Dependencies on networks and relationships – Friendships, family ties, or social strata 5. Having a pervasive sense of hierarchy – Caringautocrat attitude

In your current role, you are responsible for accelerating the leadership development and results of clients throughout the region while also contributing significantly to CCL’s global research agenda. Could you tell us more about your focus areas?

In terms of our research, we are taking an “East to West” approach in order to better understand leadership through an Asian lens. Over the last 50 years the study and practice of leadership development has been influenced mainly from academic institutions and organizations in the Western world. Better understanding Leadership Development through an Asian lens, in terms of how it manifests today, is critical for future success of most global organizations.

In addition to the Global Asian Leader, we have recently completed the most extensive study done to date on Asian Boards of Directors (BOLD 3.0) and will soon be launching a unique piece of Asian research focused on overcoming barriers to Women’s Leadership.

What are the key traits of inclusive leadership and what do they do differently? How do leaders become more inclusive?

When my husband and I announced to all our family and friends in 2007 that we were moving to

Beijing, we heard two words repeatedly: difficult and different. Of course there were many difficulties and it was very different from London, where we lived at the time. What at first looked difficult, quickly became much easier thanks primarily to the people who helped us relate to, understand and come to love the many unsaid and important things about living in China. Having the curiosity to see the world through their eyes and feel and understand their reality was the driving force to form stronger and deeper connections. The mentors and leaders in Asia who influenced and impressed me the most over the last two decades have been leaders who have demonstrated that curiosity and courage. Inclusive leadership is becoming more and more important at a global level for organizational and societal success. We need leaders who can rise above differences and readily recognize our common humanity, especially in a digital era. We see technology outpacing what people, organizations and countries can keep up with. As we continue the digital transformation journey, we need to make sure we are not leaving large pockets of people behind. Inclusive leadership is the key and inclusive leadership also fosters developing the right understanding, products and solutions to win across many markets. The global Asian leaders who have the maturity and selfawareness to relate to people from all walks of life, will be instrumental not only in solving for their region, but also in solving for the world.

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I N TERVIEW

Interestingly the Asian returnee and the local expat face similar levels of experience when it comes to exposure to different cultures, strength of relationships in headquarters and how embedded they are in the enterprise strategy.

Inclusive leadership is becoming more and more important at a global level for organizational and societal success.

We need leaders who can rise above differences and readily recognize our common humanity, especially in a digital era

B IG

Recognizing, celebrating and championing these leadership traits is an important part of supporting Asian leaders to reach their full potential. At the same time we know that practices and behaviors that make leaders successful in one country may, in fact, set them up for failure elsewhere. Asia is very diverse. Depending on the types of experience leaders have, regions they grow-up in, their ethnicity and other factors; they may look and behave very differently. This Asian diversity is extremely valuable and is also becoming more complex. Through the research interviews we see that Asian leaders come in four different flavours.

• Asian Returnee – a leader of Asian origin who has educated and mainly worked outside of the region (often till mid-career) • Regional Champion – a leader of Asian origin with multi-country and perhaps a multi-company work experience, but mainly within Asia • Global Nomad – An Asian leader who has diverse multi-country experiences within and outside of Asia, often with the same organization • Local Expat – A leader who may not be of Asian origin, but has spent most of his or her working career within Asia

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HR roles for 2020 & beyond In a new decade of a growing gig workforce, the possibility of man and machine working together, and disruption in every corner, there are many new roles the HR leaders would have to play. Here are five such roles we think HR might play in the future

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HR

By Drishti Pant

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he HR function has evolved rapidly over the decades. From an administrative function to a support function to a business enabler, the importance and relevance of the role for organizations has only grown and matured with time.

Over the past decade HR leaders have earned the seat at the table and their perspective to every business decision has become critical. CEOs have in fact started to look at every macro decision with people at the center.

The advent and advancement of technology and analytics contributed greatly to the growth of HR function. But without the capabilities of HR professionals to analyze, interpret, understand and then articulate the data, the growth of their function wouldn't have been possible.

Now as HR leaders gear up for a new decade and newer challenges and opportunities it brings, their role further needs to evolve. In a new decade of a growing gig workforce, the possibility of man and machine working together, and disruption in every corner, there are many new roles the HR leaders would have to take.

Here are five such roles we think HR might take in the future, as far as we can predict and understand it:

Chief Experience Officer While the discussions over employee experience have been around for a while now, creating an ideal 32

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employee experience to match the needs of changing workforce dynamics at work — still seems to be undervalued and has a long way to go.

Although the onus of creating a great employee experience lies with each and every people leader, the responsibility to drive it would be with the HR leaders. With better people insights gathered by leveraging data and tech, the HR leaders can proactively create relevant talent strate-

gies and policies. The technology will only make the task easier, through behaviors and conversations HR leaders along with business leaders would have to ensure a great employee experience for employees who will be significantly impacting the business bottomline with their intrinsic willingness to serve the company and its customers.

As Rajeev Bhardwaj VP HR Sun Life ASC puts it, employee experience has many elements. “It is the moment of truth with their day to day work; their growth potential in the organization; the way conflicts are resolved, and the way business is serving society, customers and clients.

All of this together constitutes employee experience.”

Lara Hernandez, Senior VP, Human Resources, Hilton in Asia Pacific also shared similar thoughts and said, “Ultimately, the employee experience is all about empowering team members to fulfill their aspirations and creating a real sense of belonging.”

The HR of today and tomorrow would have to create a compelling employee expe-

Although the onus of creating a great employee experience lies with each and every people leader, the responsibility to drive it would be with the HR leaders

rience that mirrors a company’s customer experience.

Talent & Technology Integrator

analysis and multiple iterations have to be put to make every talent decision. From framing a recruitment strategy to deciding the compensation and benefits policy to designing the career roadmap for employees, HR leaders need to think and work like an engineer.

With people at the center of business, HR leaders role will now be that of the organization’s engineer who works on building, sustaining, and constantly innovating a workforce and a business that strives and thrives amidst rapid disruption.

Organizational Engineer or People & Business Engineer

role of a CHRO will be that of a change enabler and should be appropriately called Chief Change Officer.”

Culture is the foundation for every organization and hence a fundamental element for any organization's transformation journey. As the ecosystem demands the businesses to constantly transform, enabling change will be a focus area for most of the organizations.

As disruption in business is preceded by disruption in the way people engage, interact, and work, HR leaders become the custodian of talent and the ones to drive such a change across the organization.

They have to lead the change management strategy for the entire business and empower everyone from C-Suite leaders to front line representatives to speak the same language of agility.

HR leaders of 2020 and beyond have to be as well as develop agile leaders and create change-ready organizations.

Chief Change Officer As Apurv Choubey, CHRO Bridgestone India articulates it, “The

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Technology is no longer just a nice to have tool for HR. It is increasingly being integrated across the various facets of talent management. Be it recruitment, assessment, selection, salary advice, learning, career management and collaboration, technology is being leveraged across the function. And although some might argue that this technological transformation be driven by the IT leaders, it is now the HR who has to be the one to take this responsibility as well.

Surely, the expertise would come from the IT professionals and experts, however, HR leaders would be the one to be able to integrate technology with the relevant talent needs for business.

HR leaders have to work on integrating technology not only with their own function but have to enable the entire organiza-

towards meaningful work. They are driven by purpose and whether or not the purpose aligns with their employer is an important criterion for them.

The HR leaders of today and tomorrow have to be a part of this purpose-driven workforce. The scope of their role will go beyond the boundaries of their departments and companies. They would be responsible for the entire community.

They have to represent and voice the needs of talent and drive change for them at a macro level.

HR leaders would have to be influencers beyond the organization, shaping policies, regulations and laws that support the new world of work.

Community Activist In a recent report it was highlighted that majority of the respondents (80 percent) would rather have a boss who cared about them finding meaning and success in work than receive a 20 percent pay increase. People today are willing to put their efforts more

HR

tion to adapt to the digital transformation each function and entire business is going through. Moving ahead, as the technology gets more advanced, HR leaders have to ensure that the entire workforce is prepared to take on the challenges and make the most of the opportunities.

They not only have to help technology, automation and human contributions collaborate but also forecast skills for the future and enable the workforce to build them.

o f

In the new world of work, HR leaders are the architect and the engineers of the new organizational culture and structure As HR has already moved beyond being an administrative or support function, the way they approach each talent decision and take people decisions to drive business outcomes has also changed.

The need for HR leaders to be adaptable and strategize for agile talent policies can’t be stressed on more. In the last decade, there were a lot of conversations around bringing in the concepts of design thinking while making talent decisions.

In the new world of work, HR leaders are the architects and the engineers of the new organizational culture and structure.

They have to think like engineers and product teams, help cross-functional teams organize, continuously iterate and deliver compelling employee experience.

Businesses today require well engineered talent strategies for driving their growth. A lot of thought, research,

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i n t e r v i e w

To have diversity, there must first be a strategic imperative In an exclusive interaction with People Matters, Deloitte Asia Pacific’s Chief Talent Officer, Elizabeth Faber, talks about moving the needle on diversity in a large, regionspanning organization

By Mint Kang

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n September 2018, Deloitte Asia Pacific, when it was formed, created a new role for the specific purpose of overseeing all people and partner matters in the entire region, from Australia and New Zealand to Southeast Asia, China, Japan and Taiwan: the Chief Talent Officer. The firm appointed one of its partners, Elizabeth Faber, to the position, with a clear mandate: create a more diverse and inclusive culture across APAC.

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Faber, who has spent her entire career in various roles and geographies with Deloitte, is a long-time advocate of diversity and inclusion and has hit the ground running in the new role. One of her earliest initiatives as Chief Talent Officer was to create an AP Talent strategy to enable one of the key firmwide strategic priorities to create a culture of inclusion and growth. This proved so effective that in mid-2019, less than a year after her appointment, Faber was awarded the prestigious Diversity Champion Award at Campaign’s third Women Leading Change Awards. She also made it to the HRD Asia Hot List 2020 as a leader who has advanced the standing of HR in her organization.

People Matters asked Faber about her thoughts on how Deloitte’s D&I practices have played out to date, and some of the factors that help organizations succeed with an inclusive strategy.

Here are some excerpts from the conversation.

What are your thoughts on the D&I landscape in the Asia Pacific region? How has it evolved over the years, and are things where they should reasonably be?

When I think about the evolution of an inclusive strategy, I see it as having moved from an approach that is more compliancebased, to one that is more HR-led, and finally to a leader-driven strategic focus.

Across the region, firms will be at different levels on that continuum. Some are more HR-led: their initiatives and projects to create diversity are driven mainly by the talent function. Some are more leaderdriven, where it’s clear that the CEO has identified diversity as a strategic priority and is keen on having a more inclusive culture and diverse workforce.

Deloitte Asia Pacific is more on the leader-driven end of the continuum, where we have recognized diversity as a strategic imperative. Without having that strategic intent around a culture of inclusion, the shift [towards greater diversity] won’t

happen. And we’re very clear that this is the culture we want, where everyone can succeed.

Do you factor in an inclusive mindset when you do your hiring: is it something that people are ready for?

We are very focused on helping our existing employees and partners develop an inclusive mindset. We make broad efforts to help them understand what we mean by an inclusive mindset: we have training, workshops, initiatives to educate them about the concept. When it comes to the recruitment function, though, while that certainly plays a major role in ensuring that we have a diverse workforce, it’s a little harder to test for an inclusive mindset at that stage.

Certainly, we would not hire someone who does align with our culture and values, so in that sense, it is a dealbreaker. We do look very carefully at our pipeline, to ensure “pipeline parity” at all levels, so that the incoming gender mix, culture mix, or other indicators are representative of what we aspire to have in the firm.

It is playing out very well. Our leaders across AP have signed off on this initiative: we have the signatures of executives and board members from different geographies, committing to adhere to the targets, and that is making a difference to the numbers internally. We’re also starting to get a lot of external traction.

As an example, I’ve been invited to two conferences where I had the opportunity to work with the organizers on the question of how to improve representation, and I was able to help them source speakers. For one conference, the topic revolved around the future of the financial services sector and the accounting profession, and the speakers were all male. I respectfully challenged them on that: how can you credibly talk about the future without having representation of the people who will actually be part of the future?

It goes two ways. At another conference, on women in leadership, all the speakers were women. But you can’t move the needle on women in leadership without involving the perspective and sponsorship of the men.

Could you share your experience with gaining organizational buy-in and ownership towards driving D&I initiatives?

The point around having gender representation, or really any kind of representation, is that there is a business case for it.

We’re promoting women in leadership, for example, because it has been proven that having a more diverse workforce at senior levels—executive level, board level, and in our case, partner level—does benefit business performance.

and we track the gender balance of our intake at different levels: new recruits, experienced hires, and partner hires. We track promotion pipelines, especially for manager and director roles, as these lead directly to our longer-term goal for the percentage of women partners. We run surveys to hear what our people are saying about D&I, to understand their mindset.

All these metrics and others go into a scorecard that we match up with our goals every six months at a global level starting from the top. We’ve been tracking them for about a year and a half now.

When we first began measuring diversity and inclusion metrics, we calculated, based on the practices then in place, how long it would take for Deloitte to achieve gender parity at partner level. And the number was just not acceptable. After that, we launched a global strategy called ALL IN, which focuses on growing women leadership, and the timeline has become much better. It’s still not great and we will continue to work on it, but you can definitely see an improvement.

What is your advice for leaders who want to build scalable D&I initiatives?

I am a fan of starting small, testing and learning before scaling. Starting small can also mean starting with the biggest population, because scalability varies

We, at Deloitte, look at the overall percentage of women in leadership roles including executives and board members, and we track the gender balance of our intake at different levels: new recruits, experienced hires, and partner hires Most leaders respond well to the language of the business case; they see the benefit of having more diverse voices.

That’s how I counter challenges towards D&I: by bringing the discussion back towards performance and outcomes.

What kind of metrics do you usually look at when evaluating D&I initiatives?

Deloitte is a partnership, so one of our key metrics is the percentage of women partners. We also look at the overall percentage of women in leadership roles including executives and board members,

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You’ve just launched a Panel Promise initiative that aims to achieve fair and balanced representation on panels at conferences and forums, and you’ve even set specific numbers: 40 percent men, 40 percent women, possibly and 20 percent men, women or other underrepresented groups. While it’s still early days, how is this playing out so far?

This is so important, because if you do not have diversity of thought, you will not have diversity of discussion, of dialogue, of debate.

by local context. When you look at the Asia Pacific, there are so many different diversity profiles across the geographies: some groups are more relevant in some markets than others. There are definitely other under-represented groups that have a higher priority in different markets, be it cultural diversity, LGBTI, or other aspects.

But something like cultural diversity is more difficult to scale globally. This is why we focus on women: gender diversity applies to all the markets, and improving gender diversity can pave the way for other under-represented groups to follow.

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Megha Gupta

Making organizations future-ready using analytics Here’s how companies can identify early signs of disengagement, and gather meaningful data to act proactively on talent needs

W Ta l e n t Mana g e m e n t

hile the world is talking about leveraging technology and making decisions based on data, as HR professionals, we need to ask whether we are leveraging technology to the fullest. Can we think of our current processes and systems that can be made future-ready to help our business grow?

There is huge potential in our current HR processes, wherein we can make a shift and start looking at future trends rather than just historical & current data.

In the world of Artificial Intelligence, there is an opportunity to relook at our current data matrix to make it more relevant to our existing business requirements. What if we can predict the exact names of people who are going to leave the organization in the next 3- 6 months? Or be able to identify the percentage of women who can be promoted in the next year, and therefore, how many positions do we need to still hire from outside?

And can we identify the triggers of disengagement before they lead people to exit?

Can our data on performance, compensation, time employees spend in the organization show any trends towards attrition? And can it help us

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predict the future? Annual engagement surveys to real-time engagement data, what makes real business sense on the ground, and how can save costs for the organization?

There are a few areas that can be made futureready: 1: Predictive attrition: For several years, we have been working on creating different kinds of analysis on attrition. Can we try and link our hire to retire strategy on this data along with proactive retention? The question to ask is whether we can leverage past data and predict attrition, not by percentage, but the actual names of people who may be at risk of attrition in the organization?

Data on performance, compensation, the time spent by the employee can inform trends on attrition

How to get there • Gather all employee data including total experience, roles in the current organization, no. of promotions, tenure, time in current role, years in the last role, compensation data, etc.

• Put all the employee history data in one place in HRMS or excel

Where can we leverage this data What decisions /changes can we make in the organization: This can help in making critical decisions on how we are growing our senior leaders.

• Hiring plan for senior roles • What kind of developmental interventions do we need to run for our senior leaders that

Ta l e n t Mana g e m e n t

The secret sauce: Look at patterns in the organization, when you analyze this data you will see patterns – For example, people who did not attend any training in the last nine months are likely to exit 70% of the time.

Now convert these patterns into actual themes and identify the people who fall in these patterns.

This will give you a list of people, now keep analyzing this data every month for the next 3-6 months, and you will arrive at the people likely to leave.

What to do with this data: Speak to respective business heads, show them the analysis on why an employee may be at risk of attrition. Ask which of your employees we need to retain and jointly create a retention strategy for them.

You will see a more valuable conversation with your business and CFO on Talent strategy as you now move from reactive to proactive retention strategy.

the past years can be put in a simple tool wherein people are mapped to the talent review grid like a 9-box model. Enter data around the movement of people over the last few years.

This data will help create a map of the future forecast of available leaders, how many senior people will be getting ready for future roles every year and what roles we are going to struggle for internal growth/promotions. One can also leverage this data for diversity to understand how many associates are getting ready for the future.

What kind of developmental interventions do we need to run for our senior leaders that will help them grow?

2. Early signs of disengagement: We often ask questions during the exit interview to gauge the disengagement reasons of an individual. What if we can proactively identify the key trends that are part of attrition data like growth, compensation, promotion, learning, culture, work-life balance, location, etc. and ask managers to fill this information every quarter for their teams? Based on the response, one can create a map of people who may be identified as being on high risk, low risk, and medium risk.

This data can trigger conversations around people at risk, what can be done to change the situation, being prepared for any exit. It can also lead to organization level decisions on culture, creating awareness about polices, providing flexibility, or creating a learning charter for the team. This heat map of people of each team can be a part of your HR quarterly business reviews.

3. Talent reviews growth map: Currently, most organizations follow talent reviews for mostly senior/critical roles as the process is mostly manual/ discussion format. The talent review data of

will help them grow like giving real-life action learning projects, job rotation, 2-year learning journey, coaching, etc., • Diversity roadmap and how can we work on this.

4. Happiness meter: Do we remember the annual engagement survey that we ask everyone to fill, and then we share results and create action plans for the next year? And again, wait for next year's results? With the latest technology and diverse workforce we have, we need to think about a survey that can be quick and share instant results rather than waiting for one full year.

Think about three questions that can be a popup every week to associates and keep analyzing data cues by location, manager, role, tenure. You will soon gather insights on the pockets that are disengaged and can speak to people to get more insights. This will help in improving the engagement levels rather than annual surveys.

About the author

Megha Gupta is the Director of HR, Fiserv MARCH 2020 |

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Learn, Unlearn & Relearn are my mantras for the future of work: Syukri Sudari i n t e r v i e w

In a recent interaction with People Matters, Syukri Sudari, Chief People Officer of AXA Affin General Insurance discussed the state of HR tech adoption among companies in Asia. He also shared how AXA Affin is preparing its HR teams to face technological disruptions as well as other changes shaping the world of work

By Drishti Pant

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he Chief People Officer of AXA Affin General Insurance Syukri Sudari started his journey as an HR professional in 1996. In his almost 25 years of journey in HR, he has worked in diverse industries including financial, telecommunications, aerospace, engineering and insurance. He is also the President of Association of Insurance Employer and Council Member of the Malaysia Employer Federation (MEF).

At AXA, Sudari is responsible for all aspects of HR, including HR Strategy, Performance Management, Planning & Development, Compensation & Benefits, Recruitment & Planning, Industrial and Employee Relations, Training & Development and Talent Management. Beyond HR, he is also engaged in strategic business initiatives, and has even contributed to its business by leading the acquisition of a new distribution channel for the company.

A strong advocate of digitalization in HR, Sudari has led several digital innovation initiatives and implemented robotics and artificial intelligence in HR. Here are the excerpts of the interview.

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According to you, what is the one key trend that will shape the talent strategies of organizations in 2020? How are you preparing for this trend?

I think the element of human experience will continue to be the priority for leaders as they develop talent strategies within the organization.

Our main focus this year is to create a sustainable talent experience to drive organizational growth and workforce transformation. We strongly believe that by keeping the human element at the center of everything we do, we can build a remarkable, meaningful journey for our people (employees).

In order for us to achieve sustainable talent experience, we also continuously seek enhancement in efficiency and simplicity, where Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is adopted as part of our daily work to save time and focus on meaningful, value added activities.

What are your thoughts on the digital future of HR? How far do you think have the companies in Asia come in terms of HR tech adoption?

How are you adopting HR technology at AXA Affin General Insurance?

The foundation lies in having an accelerated mindset that aligns with the core values of the company. It is important to have an end goal in mind and do the right thing that meets the business needs and expectations. We take charge and position things right at the development stage, work closely with the expert team to employ best practices while staying detailed and specific.

It is always important to have the courage to try new things and apply the 80-20 rule, where 80 percent is good enough to take decisions, and continuously build trust with your targeted audi-

We strongly believe that by keeping the human element at the center of everything we do, we can build a remarkable meaningful journey for our people (employees) ence via various action plans. This has been and will continue to be our approach.

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As a strong advocate of digital inclusion, I always believe in the concept of “more digital, more human�. By leveraging on technology and automation across various HR functions, our people can focus on more meaningful and valueadded activities instead of repetitive administrative tasks. This gives more job satisfaction to the team, helping them to develop their personal and professional growth and enhancing their employee experience to a truly human experience.

We are very proud to begin our RPA journey in 2017 and were among the pioneers to have actively engaged our people to work hand-in-hand with virtual workforce to improve agility and efficiency at work. In 2019, we begin to see more companies in Asia starting to embrace technology and introduce robotics, AI, blockchain to ease some roles and jobs. I think this will soon become business as usual.

Sky is always the limit in terms of where and how people can grow through continuous reskilling and upskilling. The entire fraternity has in fact become eager to learn and share best practices when it comes to HR tech adoption. People are keen to understand more on how they can leverage HR tech in the most innovative and fulfilling way to benefit their organization.

How are you preparing the HR teams at AXA Affin General Insurance to face technological disruptions as well as other changes shaping the world of work?

I think having an agile mindset is important, where one will constantly seek improvement in every aspect, including having the eagerness to learn, exploring new ways of doing things, and improving existing processes and procedures. At the same time, I also emphasize on the application of design thinking while taking talent decisions and creating meaningful human experiences. All these are critical to HR practitioners to be strategically aligned with business directions that may change from time to time.

In this rapidly changing business environment, how do you keep yourself relevant?

I would say my willingness to learn, unlearn, and relearn is the way to stay relevant in the future. I am always open to new ideas, opportunities, and ready to act upon the latest industry trends while having the courage to let go of old and out of date beliefs and thoughts. And of course, be fast enough to relearn future skills to stay current and ahead of the game. The most successful integrators are always the most change-ready integrators.

MARCH 2020 |

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Raghav Poojary

Using design thinking principles to solve recruitment problems A step-by-step guide on how to use design thinking in recruitment

Ta l e n t Mana g e m e n t

“If I had an hour to solve a problem, I'd spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and 5 minutes thinking about solutions.”

– Albert Einstein

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can closely relate to the above statement made by the creator of “the world’s most famous equation”. We live in an era where most of us are so enthusiastic about finding solutions that we tend to disregard the importance of deeply analysing the problem statement before jumping to conclusions.

Fear is a major obstacle, and not discovering new ways to break stereotypes is the biggest mistake we all commit. While most orthodox recruitment theories are still put to practice with proven results, could there be another way, a better approach to solving recruiting problems? I’ve been going through a lot of contextual notes on Design Thinking and how it is solving some of the most complex real-world problems in a structured way; I am thinking why not apply some design thinking principles to solve some of the most pressing and persistent problems in the recruitment space?

First, let me put across the concept in a quick illustration and pick up a real-time use case to solve it by applying Design Thinking principles.

Now that we know the design thinking approach, let’s run a use case using the design thinking methodology to solve a simple, yet a persistent problem all recruitment agencies are facing today: • Identifying an opportunity: Let’s consider a problem statement, one that is a real pain for every business within the world of recruitment solutions – sourcing of candidates for niche job profiles.

• Scope the project: Now that we’ve identified the problem, we need to define the scope and what we aim to achieve by the end of the project – this

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will be the starting point of our design thinking process.

• Scope/Project Need: Identifying and creating a supply chain of candidates for niche profile • Program Objectives: Create sustainable channels and models, identification of job roles, create domain expertise, define methods of sourcing • Draft your design brief: Identification and creation of long-term sustainable channels – be it online or offline, your aim is to ensure the engine runs continuously to attract talents to match the job roles. Have a dedicated team to work on specific skills.

What is?

Make your plans • Review all the existing methods of candidate sourcing – online portals, offline ads, referral network, hackathons, social media, etc.

• Identify the channels that can be used as a sustained channel for sourcing niche job profiles; for ex., hackathons, tech community groups discussion forums, new HR tech, webinars, learning forums, etc.

• Look out for additional inputs to attract, assess and promote jobs Do your research • Identify the tenure and use of the technology and the domain where it is used

Fear is a major obstacle, and not discovering new ways to break stereotypes is the biggest mistake we all commit

Design Thinking – Problem Sovling Approach

Identify insights • How is the job role positioned in the market?

• What are the key selling points you would share with the candidates to attract their interest?

• Interview the hiring manager to identify the critical areas Establish design criteria • Market benchmarking • Supply source • Key Matrix of evaluating What If ?

Brainstorm ideas • Create a mind map and then evaluate

the best model of sourcing that will lead to attraction • Define the delivery engine for the sourcing model Develop concepts • Project based hiring • Contract Hiring • Outbound sourcing • Hackathon Create some napkin pitches • Work along with the Hiring Manager and the Talent Acquisition team to define the hiring process What Wows?

Surface some key assumptions • Talent benchmarking • Sourcing model Make a prototype • Build and test the delivery models as suggested earlier What Works?

Get feedback from stakeholders • Test the solution with different teams, business managers

Run your learning launches • Make note of findings and refine the approach

Ta l e n t Mana g e m e n t

• How many companies are using these skills?

• Map the skills and salary against the industry benchmarks • Can you benefit from your available resource pool?

• What will be the career progression?

Identify and define the career progression of the niche job role; use this information to market your capabilities for the particular requirement

Design on the ramp • Launch the most successful model post refinement

Conclusion Now, applying design thinking concepts for developing successful delivery models in recruitment can consume a bit of time and effort, because ours is a servicing sector.

While most TA teams tend to brainstorm occasionally to refine and continually improve their delivery models, they overlook some key factors defining the experience of the team members, candidates as well as the end customer. A lot of research must go into solving recruiting problems effectively using design thinking. And for these reasons, I recommend that you invest enough time and effort, and may even hire an expert to apply this methodology to your recruitment practice.

About the author

Raghav is the Vice President – Business Operations & Process Automation at FirstMeridian.

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Dr. Loo Leap Han on the future of HR in the APAC region

In an exclusive interview with People Matters, Dr. Loo Leap Han, Head, Group HR, KMU Eiscon Holding, shares his perspective about how the role of a traditional HR professional is changing dramatically in light of the rising demands placed on people leaders in this digital age and rapidly evolving digital future of work

By Vallari Gupte

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ith more than 19 years of experience in the HR industry, Dr. Loo Leap Han has worked across various sectors ranging from manufacturing, healthcare, and infrastructure construction. At present, Dr. Loo is the Head of Group Human Resources and Administration for KMU Eiscon Holding Sdn Bhd, a civil construction firm based in Malaysia dedicated towards infrastructure projects in the region.

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Dr. Loo has worked across various functions of HR such as talent acquisition and management, employee competency gap analysis, organizational development and culture, and helping organizations develop its people. In an exclusive interview with People Matters, Dr. Loo shared his perspective about how the role of a traditional HR professional is changing dramatically in light of the rising demands placed on people leaders in this digital age and rapidly evolving digital future of work.

Here are the excerpts of the interview.

Do you think your role as an HR leader will continue to exist in the future landscape of work? If so, how will it have changed? If not, how will you prepare for your future role?

Each organization will still continue to need a full-time employee who works as an HR. Both people and organizations are complicated. An HR’s role is going to change drastically and move away from the traditional HR roles. The new digital economy will require employees to constantly upskill and find new, creative ways of thinking and problem solving.

It is precisely why HR must transform

Creation of new ‘hybrid leaders' who are diverse in their experience of leading organizations and those who are first and foremost excellent problem-solvers with innovative ideas will be the key skills for people leaders across the globe

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themselves into digital HR and data analytics ambassadors in the ever-more-digital environment. HR must have the ability to analyze and interpret data, use it to help business leaders understand the needs of the workforce and incorporate those results into planning and strategizing for the workforce.

HR will need to champion the role of a mindset changer. Dealing with employees’ expectations and ensuring that the business is productive would also become the prerogative of the HR professional.

A diverse workforce can guarantee a prosperous organization. The onus is on the HR leader to advocate diversity and engagement responsibilities to promote a better understanding between different types of people and teams.

Personally, I do not believe the HR role is going away; rather, it is becoming even more important especially in facilitating the transformation of HR organizations into agile-focused companies.

As an HR leader what are the key aspects of your role that you will no longer be engaged with in the future of work?

The key aspects which will no longer be a part of an HR leader’s KRA are: transactional and operational accountability and charting employees’ career planning journey. Traditionally, HR’s role as being in-charge of administrative functions will no longer be relevant. Most of these tasks would be automated and the repetitive tasks will be outsourced to technology and/ or vendors to ensure greater efficiencies and long-term savings.

Some of the common HR services such as payroll, training, and learning can be centralized by organizations or business units through a ‘shared services’ center via innovative and scalable cloud HR systems that allow greater empowerment of employees. Another aspect of HR’s role is charting employees’ career planning. Career development has now become agile and gig-focused. The growing millennial workforce is more focused on racking up new experiences than on banking time at one organization. There is a new social employment contract, or new business paradigm, in which employees, especially the millennials, are less incentivized by security and benefits and more eager to take on roles that offer new experiences, flexibility, and purpose.

As a people leader and HR professional who has worked across sectors ranging from manufacturing to medical, how have you seen the role of HR evolve, especially in Malaysia, and the APAC region at large?

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In Malaysia, the roles of HR have evolved quite moderately. There have been two transition categories: From transactional to strategic which has been mainly observed in SMEs and local enterprises.

Another category is from strategic to partnership-focused or collaborative, thus resulting in major transformations. Local HR leaders will definitely play a central role in acting as a transformational change agent and continue to play a front-line interfacing role with management, managers, and employees to embrace the transition of HR into a new role.

The HR fraternity in Malaysia is reaching there but not really there yet. The competency of HR leaders is one of the core contributing factors towards making this transition in the traditional role of HR, a success. As for the APAC region, especially for Singapore, Australia, and Taiwan, the HR roles have evolved significantly towards a truly people-centric approach. I call it “HRpreneur”. The HR leaders not only must acquire a strong professional HR knowledge, but also must

have good sound knowledge and experience in business delivery, project management, quality customer service, business operational activity, integration between advanced technologies and human-centric, critical strategic planning, and brand development. As HR continues to evolve, trends will come, stay and go. Some organizations have already embraced these trends, while others are lagging far behind due to being unable to anticipate the future; lack of knowledge, resources, leadership, and commitment. Change takes time and resources, and every organization is different in its setup, culture, priority, and workforce demographic. It’s impossible to predict which transitions within HR will best benefit your organization until you give them a try, and a fair chance by ensuring that there are adequate resources, targeted change management practices, and support from the top management.

Do you think the future of work is about people or tech? How do you see the future of work?

More and more companies are focusing their efforts on creating a value proposition through branding. A happy employee will be a natural promoter of the brand and vice versa. So, the impossible challenge for HR leaders is how to make all employees happy!

EXPERIENCE DESERVES A

great conference

The future of work is going to be about people AND tech. We are right in the middle of changing work environments that are driven by the need for greater collaboration between people and technology. The elements of mobile technology, data analysis software, big data, automation, artificial intelligence, robotics, realtime tools, cloud, to name just a few, have altered the way we do things.

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How will we be working in the future?

What role will future leaders play in the society? How will companies attract talents?

Environmental upheavals, political power shifts, population growth, massive advances in technology, and significant shifts in the demographic of the workforce provide a great opportunity to create a positive change to start building purpose-driven organizations.

My personal vision for the future of work is that elements of freedom, flexibility, opportunity, and empowerment will become central to businesses large and small. People would like to work with organizations that champion innovation, creativity, fun, and inspire change.

Creation of new ‘hybrid leaders' who are diverse in their experience of leading organizations and those who are first and foremost excellent problem-solvers with innovative ideas will be the key skills for people leaders across the globe.

In the future, the question that is going to drive work is: why do we do what we do?

The WHY of work is going to become even more relevant than job titles. As people view their role in the workplace not as a job, but as purpose-driven work, traditional hierarchies will breakdown. Organizations will become holacracy-driven where team members are able to discuss, decide, inspect, and adapt their ways of working autonomously. The policy of Working Anytime, Anywhere, Any Device is going to truly redefine the workplace. Another aspect that will be essential in redefining the future of HR would be to leverage big data in the right way to position companies at a competitive advantage. Moreover, applying AI in talent assessment and selection would set apart the talent pipeline available to the HR leaders to recruit the right skills and culture fit. These tools would empower the future HR to bridge the gap between culture and technology, enhance productivity, and boost innovation.

Do you think disruptions to the world of work that digital technologies are likely to bring about could pose significant challenges to policy makers and business leaders?

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In an environment where consumers’ expectations are evolving, the big question faced by business leaders is: how can they define value propositions and deliver better customer experience that also increases revenues?

Disruptions due to digital technologies are increasingly apparent in the world of work. These disruptions are bound to create some significant challenges that business leaders and policy makers must learn to overcome. For example, the disruption created by Artificial Intelligence--even though this technology has the capability to augment human decisionmaking, making it more consistent, faster, and more scalable, it also has the potential to entrench bias and codify inequity.

AI can be hacked into, thus giving attackers new capabilities to disrupt and

harm. How do we avoid the pitfalls of AI while benefiting from its promise? How can the government, the policy makers step in and regulate a largely marketdriven industry? AI happens to be one of the many technological areas that need policy administration. We also need to tackle the increasingly critical cybersecurity vulnerabilities and the spread of divisive content on social media.

Addressing such issues requires policy makers and technologists to work together from the ground up wherein the technologists are also involved in public policy decision-making.

As for business leaders, the mindset shift needs to be towards becoming a digital technology leader. Digital technologies have become a game changer in business capabilities; providing abundant data, unlimited connectivity, and massive processing power for business decisionmaking. Business sustainability is strongly associated with revenue from the sale of products and services. In an environment where consumers’ expectations are evolving, the big question faced by business leaders is: how can they define value propositions and deliver better customer experience that also increases revenues?

In my opinion, digital technologies must be leveraged in a way that business leaders can share customer insights, utilize standardized integrated systems to enhance processes, and data-supported business decision making. Moreover, HR leaders can ensure that these digital platforms empower the function to ensure accountability while allowing employees to work autonomously.

We are seeing a massive change in data, analytics and artificial intelligence and their impact on people and work.

How do you see the shifts impacting human resources?

As a rule of thumb, any HR transformation, whether it is digital or not, has to take place with a clear objective in mind. The transformation has to make business and people sense.

Too often still, companies seem to give in to “transformational pressure” getting to know their competitors all ‘do & implement digital’, so they feel like they have to do something too. But digitalizing HR processes just for the sake of it is not a smart move. It leads to the implementation of (often expensive) technology that neither meets the actual needs of the people nor the business. No doubt, digitizing HR functional roles, definitely helps to automate processes and reduce the time spent on repetitive tasks, thus, maximizing the employee experience and free-

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ing up time to strategize and ultimately benefit the business bottom-line. The shift towards digitization with an objective mindset leads to faster responses and resolutions while maintaining optimum performance levels. Organizations become more flexible and agile. Technologies offer recommendations, sense patterns and can predict trends, all leading to better, more data-informed choices. In an increasingly global workforce, HR leaders are able to manage and guide people both locally and globally. Thus, creating a direct impact on culture, experience, and business outcomes. People leaders are able to integrate and analyze workforce data to predict human capital decisions.

It is all about building the workforce of the future. It is precisely why HR leaders are (and should continue to be) at the forefront of leveraging requisite tools to assess, analyze, predict, and develop talent.

By understanding how your organization works, HR leaders can come up with a digital HR transformation roadmap that strategically aligns both people and business.

What will be HR’s biggest challenges in the future of work for Southeast Asian countries?

Some of the key challenges that HR leaders in the Southeast Asian countries are going to have to gear up for include: Creating a future-ready leadership pipeline: Businesses recognize that leadership development is a key priority, and are aware that there is a need to accelerate leadership development to ensure that they are equipped with future-focused skills. Are HR leaders capable of persuading the senior leaders to take full responsibility of a re-energized leadership pipeline?

Organizational redesign: Companies globally are reinventing their organizational structure and shifting away from hierarchical and functional organizational models towards a cross-functional design. This shift is encouraging greater collaboration, agility, customer focus and employee engagement. Are HR leaders given the trust and empowerment to lead the redesigning project?

Utilizing data strategically: HR is good at data collection and collation. But how many HR leaders are technically trained on data interpretation and utilizing it properly? The truth is that it doesn’t matter how much data collection one has if it is not being used to drive effective people and business decisions and measurable success.

Sourcing, retaining and developing the right talent for the future of

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business: The “war” for talent is an ongoing marathon. Who reaches first? Talent matters, because of its high value and scarcity. This creates huge opportunities for companies that have stronger employee value propositions. Contrarily, companies that are pressured to reduce HR costs have a more difficult time in identifying and attracting the most talented people. In such a situation, HR leaders have no choice but to refocus their talent sourcing strategy internally rather than seeking out untapped “expensive” talent.

Raising employer branding: More and more companies are focusing their efforts on creating a value proposition through branding. A happy employee will be a

The biggest challenge for HR will be to understand the wealth of technology that’s available to them, and make sure employees are able to find and use them effectively natural promoter of the brand and vice versa. So, the impossible challenge for HR leaders is how to make all employees happy!

Defining the employee experience context: The term employee experience is being used too frequently to gauge satisfaction index and that should be a good thing. The setback with employee experience is that it is naturally quite broad and subjective in its definition, scope and priority.

Competing with employee benefits: The range and types of benefits companies offer along the reward system is changing spectacularly. If companies want to win the best talent, HR leaders have no option but to innovate continuous rewards to differentiate themselves from competitors.

Utilizing technology effectively: The biggest challenge for HR will be to understand the wealth of technology

that’s available to them, and make sure employees are able to find and use them effectively. Are HR leaders ready to oversee an expanded workforce that includes people and technology working together?

The future of work is not only going to impact organizations and people but societies as well. How critical is the role of governments and the education sector to prepare people with the skills this new market needs?

Technology and globalization are significantly shifting business models in all sectors, increasing the pace of change in job destruction and job creation. Therefore, to stay competitive, the education and training systems, that remained largely static and underinvested need to be revamped to meet the new needs. All the stakeholders: from academics and industry experts to government policymakers, are required for roundtable discussions and lead the development of required curriculum to support the industry needs.

Governments need to shift focus from job creation to skill development. As new technology and jobs are created, new skillsets will become the essential capital for the global economy. Policymakers need to develop a clear path for each program e.g. Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) and Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) to ensure the students are clear about their career pathway. While it is certain that technical competencies are important for specialization of work, the importance of soft skills such as communication skills, critical thinking, emotional intelligence, etc. are important, or perhaps even more so, in a world of AI and robotics.

Collaboration between the private institutions and public sector to correctly map labor market and future industry demand is essential for the growth of nations. Both parties need to reevaluate what is taught (academic syllabus and skill development modules) and how it is taught (methodology of transferring knowledge and skill-sets) to tackle the demand-supply of the workforce. Talent development should no longer be restricted to formalized academic systems but one’s capability to tackle the market expectation.

Data-driven policy is crucial to forecasting the future needs of the economy. Preparing the workforce for jobs and skill sets is one of the greatest challenges facing policymakers.

Academicians and governments must have comprehensive, real-time insights about skill evolution to supplement shortages of future talents.

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STORY C OVER 50

| MARCH 2020

The D&I needle is shifting globally and businesses are pursuing it as a compelling business imperative. But are we on track to bet on the resultant advantage yet?

Many companies are now investing heavily in diversity – tightly monitoring their diversity metrics, providing diversity training, and publicizing their achievements as widely as possible. But the goals for many still seem to be elusive.

- Clinton Wingrove, Principal Consultant, www.ClintonHR.com

Women are still underrepresented at every level, and they face real barriers to advancement. However, the needle is shifting from gender diversity/inclusion being a “nice to have” to concrete strategies.

- Nikita Singh, Organizational Psychologist & Talent, Leadership Consultant

Before we fix the bias in the algorithms, we need to first fix the biases that cloud our view of the future.

Technology has to be defined in cognitive as well as human terms.

- Abhijit Bhaduri, Author, Columnist & Management Consultant

Ensuring D&I is not easy. Like any adaptive challenge, there is no obvious silver bullet.

Change takes time and some of the blockers are very deep-rooted –such as communication styles, resistance to change, and cultural stereotypes.

- Meena Anand, MD, Head HR, Standard Chartered Bank

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Addressing gender equality in business has been a challenge in Asia region.

The societal norms, generations of assumptions, and even legal limitations have created hurdles for women in business. While this is changing, the number of women in top political and business roles is much lower in Asia than global averages.

- Richard Smith, Ph.D. Professor, Singapore Management University

Across Europe, the landscape in gender diversity is making slow progress. However in some countries across Europe, there is progress, because of local societal differences, local leadership and focus.

- Vikki Leach, Global Head, Inclusion and Diversity, Kantar

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We see a lot of organizations formulating policies around flexibility and inclusion to support their diversity agendas. Most of these policies only exist on paper because the underlying organizational culture and implicit gendered biases act as barriers for employees to fully avail them.

- Vasudha Agarwal, Regional D&I Recruiting Lead, Asia-Pacific, McKinsey & Company

With the social momentum and awareness of movements like MeToo and the rise of the millennials that has happened in the landscape of work, I think the Time is Now to really propel the D&I agenda forward. Employees are increasingly asking their organizations about D&I efforts, while companies are becoming increasingly mindful about their public reputation.

- Shailaja Sharma, Regional Head - Talent, Leadership, OD and Diversity: Asia and Digital, Aviva MARCH 2020 |

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‘Organizations should have Chief Diversity Officers at board level’ Vikki Leach, the Global Head, Inclusion and Diversity at Kantar, shares intriguing insights on the larger picture of D&I, the business case, and instilling inclusion into organizational strategy, in an interaction with People Matters

By Mastufa Ahmed

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ikki Leach is a senior professional with extensive experience in engaging business leaders and delivering cross country change programs in inclusion and diversity, culture and engagement, behavioral change, communications and corporate social responsibility.

Vikki has over 15 years of experience in the technology industry driving change programs with diverse and complex challenges, taking into consideration the local business needs, and the company’s global vision. What drives this is a diverse mix of people, with different backgrounds and experiences.

My passion in life is equality. This is representative in my professional career and my personal career in sport. Everyone has a talent, it’s about unleashing it, and the talent is more likely to be unleashed in a supportive, inclusive and equal environment. Teams that work together outperform those that don’t. Success feels better when it’s shared with others.

Here are the excerpts of the interview.

How do you see the gender diversity landscape in Europe? Do you see some progress in that direction?

Across Europe, the landscape in gender diversity is making slow progress. Legislation has either been or being introduced to help nudge the progress. But it’s slow. However in some countries across Europe, there is progress, because of local societal differences, local leadership and focus.

Research shows that companies that are more diverse are more productive and give better returns to shareholders. What’s your take on this?

It absolutely is and there is enough research to prove this point. Inclusive behavior and leadership is critical as well. Leaders who are more inclusive also provide better results. This is just good leadership. Any leadership programs should incorporate inclusion otherwise, we are not addressing a critical component to leadership development.

Organizations pursue diversity and inclusion not just for ethical reasons, but also to realize enhanced financial performance. How do you see this?

The business case is solid. Organizations ought to by now move on from considering whether this is good for business. It should be central to any business strategy since organizations are made up of people and serve their clients and customers, it simply makes business sense. The ethics of diversity and inclusion should just be a given.

How can boards ingrain inclusion into their organizational strategy?

While D&I Managers can guide, coach, implement initiatives, set targets and much more, they

D&I should be central to any business strategy and since organizations are made up of people and serve their clients and customers, it simply makes business sense 52

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While D&I Managers can guide, coach, implement initiatives, set targets and much more, they cannot take the responsibility on for every leader. Leaders need to be accountable for D&I and hold the conversation at board level

What are the driving factors for the huge D&I gap? Why are we failing?

What are some challenges in creating a culture of inclusion?

We are diverse by default, but are we inclusive?

We are talking about behavior change, stripping out traditional mindsets and updating them so those who lead organizations understand how different it is today to when they joined the workplace. There are different expectations now, different issues that need to be addressed, but can’t if leaders don’t update their mindset. Education and coaching around behavior change should be on the agenda. We all must admit that we don’t know what we don’t know, have a growth mindset and embrace change, even if it is uncomfortable.

How can businesses get the most from the diversity dollars?

Women in leadership programs have their purpose, as long as the content includes business

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We are not failing, but there are top challenges. I would recommend any leader to have a D&I expert as their “CDO” (Chief Diversity Officer) at board level, someone who is part of the conversation right at the top (this will help close the gap). Too many organizations have a ‘D&I Practitioner’ at the wrong level, and expect this one person to change the culture of the whole organization. That is not sustainable and it contributes to why progress is slow. An organization wouldn’t have a CFO or CTO sitting lower down their organization, so I urge leaders to recognize CDO role as critical.

strategy components. The danger of WiL programs being set up, it can be seen as “fix the women” rather than what we should be focusing on which is – “fix the organization”. Any non-dominant group will be navigating their way around a dominant group, so it’s important to have a support mechanism in place, but be careful of the perception (what it looks like), i.e. setting up a mentoring program with men mentoring women. That’s just an own goal and will get women and men’s back up. One of the greatest dangers that has also slowed progress down, is that we don’t engage the men in the debate.

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cannot take the responsibility on for every leader.

Leaders need to be accountable for D&I and hold the conversation at board level, integrate inclusion into business models and strategy, to enable the D&I managers to continue to spearhead and be the catalyst. If accountability and buy-in is not held at leadership level, there is a problem.

How can companies ensure they have leaders who can create impact in a diverse workforce?

I am currently studying an MSc in behavior change and the research is fascinating. Inclusive leadership, in my view, truly unlocks the key to creating an inclusive culture. I have implemented inclusive leadership workshops for just men, men and women, at various leadership levels. It is critical to start at the top and create a ripple effect of change. When an open discussion is held in a safe and trusted environment, leaders begin to work through how their behavior impacts others. Then we can move more toward creating psychological safety and coach managers on leading and behaving inclusively.

Where do you see diversity and inclusion five years down the line?

I do think there will be a significant rise in inclusion. A lot of this is also down to generational diversity, just look at the diverse talent coming into organizations, which is a significant difference to years ago, when leaders entered the workplace. Go for experiential learning, walk in someone else’s shoes, move people from being aware of this to starting to care about it.

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‘Progress in D&I is slow in Malaysia, and there is no silver bullet to fix it’

Malaysia is the first country in the region to set a gender target board for locally listed companies, but progress is slower than we all would have liked, says Meena Anand, Managing Director and Head HR, Global Business Services, Standard Chartered Bank, in an interaction with People Matters

By Mastufa Ahmed

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eena is a global CHRO. She is currently the Managing Director and head of HR for Global Business Services, the 30,000 strong shared service center for Standard Chartered Bank. An alumnus of the London School of Economics, Meena has continued her education at both NTL (National Training Laboratories) and INSEAD Singapore.

With a strong interest in HR disruption she is constantly looking for ideas to innovate and actively invest in next-gen HR. In the past, Meena has held senior HR roles in financial institutions based in Switzerland and London.

How do you see the gender diversity landscape in APAC countries, especially in Malaysia?

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The Malaysian government have been aggressively pursuing this agenda. It was the first country in the region to set a gender target board for locally listed companies - but progress is slower than we all would have liked. And it is not for want of focus. There are several amazing organizations driving a plethora of fantastic initiatives across the country. A few of the better known ones, that Standard Chartered GBS have partnered with, are LeadWomen and the 30 percent Club which focus on the female board member pipeline, LeanIn Malaysia which creates support platforms for women on a wide array of topics (that they find relevant) and TalentCorp’s “Career Comeback” program focused on women returning to the workplace after a career break.

Overall, APAC is dynamic with women’s economic participation increasing – you only have to look at the number of female university graduates – however results, particularly at board level, need

Ensuring D&I is not easy. Like any adaptive challenge, there is no obvious ‘silver bullet’. Change takes time and some of the blockers are very deep-rooted –such as communication styles, resistance to change, and cultural stereotypes 54

| MARCH 2020

improvement. A 2017 survey by the International Finance Corporation had female board membership across the bigger firms within ASEAN at just 14.9 percent. This is in stark contrast to the same organizations Executive “feeder” pipeline that boasts a 25.3 percent gender split (and Philippines at 32.8 percent). So there is more work to do.

Research shows that companies that are more diverse are more productive, more efficient and give better returns to shareholders. What’s your take on this?

Time and time again, research has suggested a strong correlation between diversity (of all kinds) and enhanced financial performance e.g. RoE and EBIT so much so that that the link is almost taken for granted. In addition to the achievement of financial results, which have oft been written about, diverse organizations are also said to more resilient, agile and overall just better governed. More recently, however, the focus has narrowed further on the link between diversity and, the much sought after business outcome, Innovation.

How do you pursue diversity and inclusion at Standard Chartered Bank and how do you connect it with your business strategy?

For the Bank, the pursuit of diversity plus inclusion is at the heart of our purpose - driving commerce and prosperity through our unique

diversity. It is critical to the ongoing success of our business given our diverse footprint, product set and more crucially to service the needs of our clients and engage our colleagues.

How do you ingrain D&I into your organizational strategy? What’s the role of board on this?

While the responsibility for building an inclusive environment rests with every colleague, the Board have a critical role to play. The 2018 UK Corporate Governance Code for example, introduced new principles on the board’s role in monitoring and assessing culture - ensuring that practices and polices align to it - and actively promoting diversity of gender, social and ethnic backgrounds cognitive and personal strengths.

Our own board have committed to a separate D&I Policy which commits to: increasing the representation of women on the Board (with an aim to have a minimum of 33 per cent female representation), ensuring that our Board reflects the diverse markets in which we operate and ensuring that the Board is comprised of a good balance of skills, experience, knowledge, perspective and varied backgrounds.

D&I continues to be frustrating and challenging for companies and that’s why we have this huge gap. Why are we failing? What are the top challenges?

Simply put, it’s not easy. Like any adaptive challenge, there is no obvious “silver bullet”. Change takes time and some of the blockers are very deep-rooted e.g. communication styles, resistance to change, cultural stereotypes, unconscious bias, acceptance inequity etc. of differing views, wage inflation and basic respect!

What is the most overlooked inclusion issue in any organization?

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My sense is that, like Standard Chartered, many of these metrics have existed for some time and are regularly reviewed by executive teams. Quotas and scorecards have also been used by many governments, for example, Italy imposed a 30 percent female target for all boards in 2010 and by 2016 they achieved it! So metrics and dashboards certainly have a place, but also may drive several unintended consequences through for example pubic pressure.

The issue is more complex that just a set of data. Driving the agenda across the bank has required sponsorship and commitment of our senior leaders, rigorous governance at each level of our organization and targeted action.

I am interested to hear more about “inclusion sentiment” – that does feel like something we should explore!

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Do you follow a diversity, equity, and inclusion dashboards which shows the retention rate for women, the number of women in leadership positions, employee engagement numbers, and inclusion sentiment, the percentage of employees who report feeling welcome and included, etc?

At a baseline level, there is a need for all colleagues to be able to articulate the business case for inclusion, building their understanding of their own unconscious biases and truly ‘seeing more in others’ I can’t speak for all organizations, but some basic, practical challenges can be quickly overcome and “signpost” good intent. For example, creating inclusive gender neutral restroom in India, democratizing access to signature leadership programs through self-nomination or including all “Partners” on all our medical and life insurance plans… including Malaysia.

How do you see inclusive leadership and what are the top traits of an inclusive leader? How can companies ensure they have leaders who can create impact in a diverse workforce?

It’s going to be a critical skill for People Leaders. At a baseline level, there is a need for all colleagues to be able to articulate the business case for inclusion, building their understanding of their own unconscious biases and truly “seeing more in others” – one of the bank’s valued behaviors. That’s the focus of the bank’s inclusive leadership program which over 83 percent of our leaders have completed.

Where do you see diversity and inclusion five years down the line?

I sincerely hope things will change, but it is not going to happen by osmosis. It takes hard work and effort, a shift in mindset, etc. I see it consuming business leaders and HR practioners for some years to come.

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‘The time is now to propel the D&I agenda’

Aviva’s Regional Head - Talent, Leadership, OD and Diversity: Asia and Digital, Shailaja Sharma discusses with People Matters the key pillars of building an inclusive culture, the metrics to assess the effectiveness of D&I initiatives and the varying kinds of diversity organizations need to focus on

By Bhavna Sarin

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talent leader with over 20 years of corporate experience in Leadership, Talent and Organization Development across the Asian region (Singapore/India/Hong Kong/Shanghai, among others), Shailaja Sharma is currently Regional Head - Talent, Leadership, OD and Diversity: Asia and Digital at Aviva. With expertise in succession pipelining and talent assessment, management and development, and integrating the diversity agenda, Shailaja has worked extensively on creating the diversity and inclusion agenda and facilitating the delivery of key diversity metrics at Aviva.

In an exclusive conversation with People Matters, she shares her knowledge and advice for global leaders who are at the forefront of D&I initiatives and strive to strategize, execute and build a fabric of inclusivity in the organizational culture.

Here are the excerpts of the interview.

True diversity is Cognitive Diversity.

Research shows us that better decisions and ultimately more successful businesses are created by organizations that have a set of people who are able to provide diverse perspectives In your corporate experience of over 20 years, what was the moment that triggered your journey towards D&I?

While I have been a strategic Talent partner to organizations in the region, whether within a company or as a talent/ leadership consultant for the past 20 years, my formal journey into the landscape of organization DnI really began during the course of the CCC (Coaching and Consulting for Change) Masters program that I did with INSEAD in 2018. This coincided with the addition of the Diversity and Inclusion agenda to my leadership, talent, OD portfolio for a leading financial services organization. Accessing the latest in diversity thinking, and best practices with the opportunity to integrate it with the Talent and leadership portfolio within an organization enabled the best of both worlds.

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How do you see the current diversity and inclusion landscape in APAC?

With the social momentum and awareness of movements like MeToo and the rise of the millennials that has happened in the landscape of work; I think the ‘Time is Now’ to really propel the DnI agenda forward in organizations. Employees are increasingly asking their organizations about DnI efforts, while companies are becoming increasingly mindful about their public reputation.

Overall there is a sense of hope and future focus, many organizations, aided by an eco-system of NGOs, special interest groups, minority representative organizations and the government have taken up the cause earnestly, in an increasingly aware and result seeking socio-economic and political climate.

Creating awareness around diversity and inclusion helps build an inclusive culture at the workplace. Do you think organizations are ready to factor in an inclusive mindset as a dealbreaker at the time of hiring?

While there has been significant progress, especially in the past few years towards building and creating an inclusive mindset, and some companies have adopted this as a value or a leadership behavior, few of us are at the stage where this is a deal breaker at the time of hiring.

A practical challenge is that an inclusive mindset is difficult to measure effectively, therefore most selection processes are geared towards assessing technical and behavioral domains. While inclusive mindset is not being explicitly assessed or sought after, generally speaking most hiring and recruitment tasks look for leadership behaviors that are derailers. A key watch-out for us is the way a leader or manager treats his people, based on his/ her 360 feedback, whether in-company or while reference checking for candidates.

How can HR leaders work towards gaining leadership buy-in and ownership towards driving diversity and inclusion initiatives?

Research tells us culture is significantly impacted by leadership and in order to build an inclusive culture, we need to understand what’s the role the business leaders are playing. The role of the HR leaders then becomes really to equip leaders: coach, facilitate, guide leaders and when needed, hold them accountable. Sometimes D&I is seen as an HR activity, which limits its impact and

effectiveness with the organization, as other agendas seen as more critical to business success take priority. Therefore, we as HR leaders need to work at an organizational level to make it an integral part of the way we do business. This may take the form of articulating a clear business case, citing market or industry studies, for example As the 2018 research from McKinsey shows, greater diversity in the workforce results in greater profitability and value creation. The same holds true at the executive level, as McKinsey found a statistically significant correlation between diverse leadership and better financial performance.

Another big, yet often missed area of opportunity is for HR leaders to strengthen the practice of consequences for non-inclusive behavior – including elements like usage of confidential reporting mechanism, incorporating data into decision making like rewards and promotions. The role of motivators is not to be underestimated; how many of our organizations give awards / recognize people for inclusive behavior?

and others, shows that kindness is the building block of inclusive behavior. This is because kindness leads to greater trust, engagement and commitment. ‘This is especially true in today’s organizational environments where people skills – listening, communicating, teamwork, engagement and building commitment are so vital’.

Leaders need to actively feel within themselves the experience of being excluded and then translate that into empathy for their colleagues and teams. The more empathetic a leader is, the more inclusive he or she is likely to be. ii. At a Systems level, we need to examine organization polices and processes with an inclusion lens, for example - if flexitime is applicable only to employees with children, then is it an inclusive policy? Check if our processes unintentionally

What are the different areas of diversity that organizations need to work toward?

There are 3 key pillars to build a scalable, sustainable and inclusive culture. i. At the Leadership level, emphasis on building leaders who are Empathetic and ‘Kind’. While this may sound strange at first glance, emerging research from SAID business schools’ Lalit Johri

STORY

What is your advice for leaders to build scalable D&I initiatives? What are the key pillars of building a cultural fabric that fosters inclusivity?

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A quick question at the beginning of a D&I awareness building session is - if there are 6 people in a team, with the following characteristics – half are male and half are female, one is differently abled, 2 are Asian, 2 are mixed race and 2 are Caucasian, but all come from the same socio-economic background, studied at the same institution and came from the same previous company – How diverse is this team.

Most people will say “Very Diverse”.

However, true diversity is Cognitive Diversity.

Research shows us that better decisions and ultimately more successful businesses are created by organizations that have a set of people who are able to provide diverse perspectives. Conversely, people who tend to think in a similar way and come to similar conclusions will make a less effective set of decisions. This ‘group think’ in fact is seen as one of the major contributory reasons for poor sets of decisions in financial institutions which ultimately led to the financial crisis. Simply put, there wasn’t enough “diversity of thinking in the room”.

While definitions of diversity can be wide ranging and cover multiple areas, most organizations work with the primary domains of age, ethnicity, gender, physical / metal abilities and sexual orientation.

Generally speaking, I find that areas of physical/ mental abilities, sexual orientation and age diversity are relatively less focused upon. This may of course vary by company, industry or geography.

exclude some minority groups, for example - if our job adverts are only visual, how do the visually impaired candidates get access to them? Have we set up hiring or promotion criteria biased towards some groups, for example - “role requires a dynamic, energetic young man who can fully commit to the workload and time schedule” – which simply means women, non-able bodied and old men need not apply, and this perpetuates negative stereotypes . iii. At an Employee level, how are we creating a sense of belonging and the freedom to be authentic at work? Do our Employee Resource Groups feel empowered to take action? A top down approach won’t work; we can’t simply enforce inclusion just because we believe it’s the right thing to do.

And it will serve to drive compliance not genuine involvement in the agenda.

While there is a lot of focus on diversity, sometimes because numbers and metrics are more quantifiable and progress is easier to measure, the bed rock of a truly diverse workforce is an inclusive culture.

This is of course harder to measure, takes longer MARCH 2020 |

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to change and tends to be less liked because of it's more amorphous nature. This may lead to focus on shorter term gains, like hitting diversity targets without truly including the marginalized. Overtime there may not be significant changes in proportions and the organization climate may get less inclusive due to the failure of diversity initiatives.

What kind of metrics can be applied to measure the effectiveness of D&I initiatives?

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There are broadly 5 kinds of metrics i. Representation Metrics (e.g. % of differently abled colleagues of total workforce) ii. Recruitment Metrics (% of colleagues hired over the age of 55, % of hires with career gap) iii. Training Metrics (% of managers who attended D&I awareness and training workshops) iv. Workplace Climate Metrics (scores on engagement survey questions on D&I) v. Transition metrics (% of women who moved from junior to middle to senior management within the company)

Research from McKinsey shows, greater diversity in the workforce results in greater profitability and value creation. The same holds true at the executive level, as McKinsey found a statistically significant correlation between diverse leadership and better financial performance It is important to supplement quantitative metrics with qualitative data, collected from interviews, focus groups, immersion studies etc to understand comprehensively where the challenges are and possible solutions to them.

There are two great resources available to us now, in a way in which it wasn’t possible in the past- data analytics and digitization. Data analytics allows us to deep dive and truly understand in real time where the issues are. This is a shift away from the post-mortem world of annual surveys where the issues lay in the past and solutions could only be applied long after the problem had occurred.

A great example is software which can analyze meeting invitees and attendance and flag potential exclusions that are occurring.

Digitization and automation can help minimize bias to an extent, although these come with their own set of challenges since the programming is still being done by a human hand. However, these are steps in the right direction since they can reduce human involvement in processes.

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them equal access and opportunities is widespread across geographies, each at varying levels of acceptance, understanding and progress. How can organizations manage employees having an opinion contrary to the voices supporting diversity?

In my experience, there are two elemental ways to do this, which also become the root of changing our own belief system and well established norms. a. Create a climate of “psychological safety” (Amy Edmondson). Psychological safety is that belief that one will not be rejected or humiliated in a particular setting or role. In such an environment, people feel that if they make a genuine mistake, others will not punish them.

It is a confidence that they will not be judged, ignored or invalidated if they give a suggestion, feedback or ask for help. This lies at the core of what we are trying to achieve through an inclusive climate - if we can make people feel that they belong, they are cared for and listened to, we would have gone a long way towards reducing systemic and pervasive bias. b. Propagate and champion an Employer brand that is inclusive - use words like authenticity, belonging, freedom to be who you are; and then follow it up with actions that are congruent – e.g. dress code policies, acceptable workplace behaviors and code of conduct aligned to inclusion. A silly, yet insightful example I often use to illustrate this is - why is it acceptable for women to wear sleeveless clothes and not men?

Conversation, understanding, advocacy, discussion, acceptance, policy changes, and finally implementation, the journey to translate diversity conversations into a living, breathing and thriving inclusive culture comes with its roadblocks. What according to you can accelerate this transition?

A couple of things.

Firstly, to bring “Joy back to the Conversation”.

Celebrate what has already been achieved, to enjoy what we have and what we are already good at. Too often we forget to celebrate progress, choosing to focus on ‘what has not been done’.

Secondly, to engage and widen the conversation, with people who believe in the cause. We already know that gender balance is not corrected by only having women in the actioning sessions, the LGBTQ agenda can be led by a non-LGBTQ person.

Create a system by which people who are passionate about a cause get to contribute to it.

Thirdly, create groups and communities based on common interests - for example a Pokemon or Karaoke club that has people of all age groups, genders, nationalities, hierarchies, functions etc. goes a long way to create an inclusive climate since people are bonded through a shared hobby.

Lastly, and most importantly to continue the struggle, no matter how little or how slow the progress, do not give up, persevere and carry on. It is the journey of a million miles, and by walking each step, we get closer to the destination.

‘Organizations should take tangible measures to implement D&I’

Vasudha Agarwal, the Regional Inclusion & Diversity Recruiting Lead, Asia-Pacific, McKinsey & Company, in an interaction with People Matters, shares her take on how diversity and inclusion can enhance financial performance for businesses, while talking about the larger D&I landscape, inclusive leadership, and more

By Mastufa Ahmed

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It’s widely acknowledged that organizations pursue diversity and inclusion not just for ethical reasons, but also to realize enhanced business results and better financial performance. What's your take on the business case of diversity and inclusion?

It is imperative to understand that diversity and inclusion are more relevant as critical business items than as purely social and ethical ones.

Whilst there is a strong moral and ethical ground for diversity, management investment in talent pools for companies and the positive, long-term influence of diversity and inclusion are well acknowledged through research, studies and time corporate leaders allocate toward fostering them.

If we look at studies McKinsey has led, particularly our Diversity Matters (2015) and Delivering through Diversity (2018) reports, we see that companies in the top quartile for racial and ethnic diversity are 35 percent more likely to have financial returns above their respective national industry medians, and companies in the top quartile for gender diversity are 15 percent more likely to have financial returns above their respective national industry medians. These numbers alone should venerate a business case for inclusion and diversity as a headline agenda for executive teams and should be seen as a call for action from organizations to act.

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asudha heads McKinsey & Company's Inclusion and Diversity Recruiting for the Asia Pacific region. She is passionate about D&I and has spent a decade in the HR, talent and diversity fields, being a strong advocate of the same across organizations and industries such as Consulting, Telecom, Mining, Oil & Gas. She has done research in the UK and Asia and is actively involved in topics on inclusion and parity such as parental leave policies in India, barriers of LGBTQ+ inclusion in workplaces, unconscious bias training and achieving gender parity in hiring and retention.

Vasudha is passionate about creating equal opportunities for diverse candidates who are entering the workforce and has actively mentored many women who return to the workforce post sabbatical pro-bono. She was recently recognized as being a “Top global Diversity and Inclusion leader” by the World HRD Congress, 2020.

Here are the excerpts of the interview.

McKinsey research clearly shows that companies that are more diverse are more productive, more efficient and give better returns to shareholders. What measures are you taking to ensure this and are you leveraging the benefits already?

Organizations need to make diversity and inclusion a headline agenda at all leadership meetings and embed inclusion into the priorities for each business leader that can act as a catalyst for furthering inclusion and diversity in the organization MARCH 2020 |

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McKinsey has been an ambassador for harnessing the power of diversity, and it is truly at the heart of who we are and what we do. We have several initiatives in place to ensure we're maintaining our core values of being a non-hierarchical, inclusive, sustaining a caring meritocracy and fulfilling our mission of building a great firm that attracts, develops, excites, and retains exceptional people who hail from diverse backgrounds.

Our all-in diversity and inclusion strategy is backed by a dedicated global taskforce spread across regions. We have seven non-gender related global affinity networks to help firm members thrive at McKinsey and bring their best, most authentic selves to the workplace every day. These communities have more than doubled in size in the last five years. We also have a robust women’s network. We offer flexibility and support through formal programs, benefits, and mentoring relationships (including Take Time, PACE, best in class parental leave, etc.) to ensure our colleagues can succeed in their full lives. We extend much of our support and counsel to candidates (through flagship programs, such as Next Generation Women Leaders), clients and the community (through programs like the Alliance, a McKinsey-hosted professional development and networking event for top LGBTQ+ executives).

Do you think it’s time to have diversity, equity, and inclusion dashboards which shows the hiring and retention rate for women, the number of women in leadership positions, employee engagement numbers, and inclusion sentiment?

Do you think employees will feel more included and welcome with transparent metrics in place?

Yes, it is essential to measure progress related to inclusion and diversity. You can’t change things you can’t track and assess. Metrics help an organization to stay true to its aspirations to improve status-quo. There are some tangible metrics that can be measured by way of numbers and data on the recruiting and retention side and then there are the longer-term D&I efforts like shifting mindsets and changing culture, the impact of which may be seen over time. At McKinsey, we measure our progress in attraction, recruiting, advancement and retention by way of tangible metrics and data. And over time we have put mechanisms in place such as unconscious bias trainings for interviewers and people leaders to shift mindsets, and measure progress towards that.

D&I has never been that critical it is today.

However, it continues to be challenging for companies to attract diverse talent and create a succession bench to leadership roles. Why is this gap? Why are we failing?

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There are several reasons for the gender gap in the talent market. In some of the bigger countries in Asia like India and Japan, we still see the traditional male breadwinner model being dominant, and women being relegated to the familial sphere, engaged as primary caregivers. With the crumbling of this old gender order, and the increasing adoption of dual-career/dual-caregiver models, we need to ensure governments and thereby organizations make structural changes to embed policies that make workplaces conducive for women and men to thrive.

McKinsey's latest report on supporting Dual Career Couples (2019 ) outlines some key enablers on which organizations should focus. First, it is important to ensure that top level positions appear

In some of the bigger countries in Asia like India and Japan, we still see the traditional male breadwinner model being dominant, and women being relegated to the familial sphere, engaged as primary caregivers 60

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to be achievable and that there are enough role models to inspire talent, especially women. Second, it is imperative to provide flexibility and policies that enable life transitions and balancing home and work responsibilities. Finally, it is pivotal to have sponsorship and mentorship mechanisms in place for lesser represented groups.

I'd like to quote a personal sponsorship story here. I joined the firm after taking a sabbatical to pursue another master's degree. I have seen by way of experience, especially in Asian countries, that women who are returning to the workforce after a break find it difficult to set hands on the right opportunity, but McKinsey was different. My manager was my sponsor from the very outset, and he allowed me the flexibility of carving out my role and ensured that I was given the right mentorship to be ready for the next leadership opportunity that came up; and here I am. This trust, mentorship and sponsorship have been immensely reassuring for me as a woman returning to work and has truly enabled my growth at the firm.

What are some overlooked inclusion issues in any organization? What are some challenges in creating a culture of inclusion?

An inclusive leader is someone who watches for unconscious bias in themselves and in their teams.

S/he understands why inclusion is imperative. S/ he acknowledges, encourages, and appreciates diversity of thought, enabling each colleague to be at her/his best. S/he embeds best practices in hiring, mentoring and performance management to ensure diverse talent is hired and advanced at equal rates. I believe organizations need to make diversity and inclusion a headline agenda at all

leadership meetings and embed inclusion into the priorities for each business leader, that can act as a catalyst for furthering inclusion and diversity in the organization.

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How do you see inclusive leadership and what are the top traits of an inclusive leader? How can companies ensure they have leaders who can create an impact in a diverse workforce?

At McKinsey, we measure our progress in attraction, recruiting, advancement and retention by way of tangible metrics and data. And over time we have put mechanisms in place such as unconscious bias trainings

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We see a lot of organizations formulating policies around flexibility and inclusion to support their diversity agendas. Most of these policies only exist on paper because the underlying organizational culture and implicit gendered biases act as barriers for employees to fully avail them. Flexible working hours, leaving the office early to pick up kids from school or even not turning up at office parties is frowned upon. Part-timers are still not viewed with the same lens as full-timers.

Parity and inclusion can be achieved if the culture of an organization is not predicated on implicit and often unconscious biases: a cultures in which all employees – regardless of their gender, background, class or race – feel free to utilize policies and programs directed towards balancing private and workplace responsibilities will be more diverse and inclusive.

It is also imperative to provide a platform for employees from lesser represented groups to have a shared collective voice by way of employee resource groups or affinity networks, allowing diverse talent to be seen, heard and valued within the workplace.

Where do you see diversity and inclusion five years down the line?

Five years on, I foresee an increased awareness and demand (from talent) for inclusion and diversity, in all forms, including gender, sexual orientation, age, color, race, and socio-economic backgrounds. Organizations will have to be creative in the way they engage and attract talent, placing increased emphasis on meritocracy and equal opportunities at the outset.

I hope that five years on, we will see that nearly every organization has embedded recruiting, advancement and retention best practices to open the aperture for diverse talent. Then, the world in which we live will see parity and equity in hiring, advancement, leadership teams, etc. as the new normal.

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‘Boards need to approach D&I like other business imperatives’

Nikita Singh, an Organizational Psychologist from the London School of Economics & a Talent, Leadership & Wellness Consultant, shares insights on why organizations should assiduously pursue diversity and a culture of inclusion

By Mastufa Ahmed

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ikita is an Organizational Psychologist from the London School of Economics with over eight years of experience in Talent Management and Leadership Assessment, Coaching and Development. Whilst she works across diverse areas within HR and Leadership, she is most passionate about coaching mid-level leaders.

She combines her work in leadership assessment/ coaching with a holistic well-being approach, thereby enabling individuals to make behavior changes as well as manage their energy effectively.

Nikita also works in the space of diversity and inclusion, specifically re-integration of women to the workforce (after maternity or a chronic illness). Her experience spans 10+ countries and diverse industries.

In addition, she has both led and been part of multicultural teams in the early part of her career and believes that these experiences have helped her embrace the value of diversity! Recently, Nikita was awarded the ET Now Young Coaching Leader Award at the World HRD Congress 2020.

Here are the excerpts of the interview.

How do you see the gender diversity landscape in India? Where are we in the bigger picture of diversity and inclusion?

In December 2018, the World Economic Forum reported that we are 200+ years away from bridging the global gender gap. This gap is even more glaring in India which continues to lag the average and ranks 142 among 149 countries on the economic participation and opportunity factor, that forms part of the gender gap calculation.

Unfortunately, women are still underrepresented at every level, and they face real barriers to advancement. Having said this, there are also a number of organizations where the needle is shifting from gender diversity/inclusion being a “nice to have” to concrete strategies to enhance both the number of women at work as well as create inclusive environments for them.

To reap the positive effects of diversity and inclusion, CEOs and senior leaders need to take this on as a priority, and create an organizational culture/ecosystem which allows for women to flourish!

Research shows that companies that are more diverse are more productive, more efficient and give better returns to shareholders. What’s your take on this?

The key to understanding the positive influence of diversity is the concept of informational diversity. When people are brought together to solve problems in groups, they bring different information, opinions, perspectives and strengths. This makes obvious sense when we talk about the diversity of disciplinary backgrounds (for instance, we would need diversity in backgrounds to build a car). However, increasingly, research as well as results in organizations indicate that the same

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logic (informational diversity) applies to social diversity too. People who are different from one another in gender and other social dimensions are likely to achieve better outcomes.

A lot of research studies, particularly those on large, innovative organizations have repeatedly shown a high correlation between female representation in leadership roles to an increase in financial performance. The other key question is – shouldn’t the Indian workforce mirror the diversity of the community we are? After all, we are one of the most diverse nations globally!

It’s widely acknowledged that organizations pursue diversity and inclusion not just for ethical reasons, but also to realize enhanced business results and better financial performance. What's your take on the business case of diversity and inclusion?

So, what does diversity bring to an organization? Among other positive outcomes, a key factor is enhanced capacity to innovate. In today’s hypercompetitive business environment innovation can provide the vital differentiation across both tradi-

Boards are meant to direct the destiny of organizations towards fulfilling their societal obligations. If boards, in their wisdom, create an environment where diversity in all its dimensions features prominently in a company’s strategy, this simple step would unlock the benefits of diversity and inclusion for the organization. That is, boards need to approach D&I as they would look at any other business imperative.

While there is a strong business case for diversity and inclusion, each company needs to find the right (strategic) diversity mix based on its unique context and circumstance. For instance, does the organization need more women leaders at the mid level vs. senior level, or should the senior leadership team comprise leaders from varying industries and cultural backgrounds and so on. Boards can therefore guide CEOs and organizational leaders on the “diversity mix” that would be most productive for the business.

D&I has never been that critical it is today.

However, it continues to be frustrating and challenging for companies. Why is this gap? Why are we failing? What are the top challenges?

While it’s the responsibility of D&I managers to ensure diversity and inclusivity, how can boards ingrain inclusion into their organizational strategy?

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tional and new age businesses. A Boston Consulting Group (BCG) study found that companies with more diverse management teams have 19 percent higher revenues due to innovation. Further, in a recent McKinsey study, it has been estimated that closing the gender gap would add $28 trillion to the value of the global economy by 2025!

Therefore, it isn’t just for “good optics” that organizations should assiduously pursue diversity and a culture of inclusion. This is where the concept brilliantly elucidated by Linda Hill in her book Collective Genius becomes so relevant. She says, “At the heart of driving organizational results and innovation is the need to unleash individual slices of genius and harness them into a Collective Genius”. This is also intuitive and seemingly obvious - different perspectives on business strategy, customer preferences and product improvements could fuel a better, more productive business.

You’re right. Despite all the talk about D&I, there seems to be a gap across organizations. Some of the top challenges are as follows: Diversity and inclusion as a one-time campaign or initiative: Having a policy or aligning some process to facilitate D&I is not enough.

D&I needs to be well thought through – with a vision, clear strategy as well as an integrated action plan to ensure both social and cognitive diversity, as well as create a culture of inclusion! For instance, an organization may do well to hire people from diverse backgrounds. However, enabling these people to work together in a manner that allows for the strength of the diversity to shine through is critical It is not only about a diverse senior leadership team: Yes, having the right diversity mix can lead to successful senior leadership teams.

However, promoting and striving for diversity and inclusion across levels is key Unconscious biases: For years, psychologists have found that people naturally gravitate and prefer people who are like them. It is the in-group bias. Research has also found that we unconsciously discriminate against those that are not like us – the out-group bias and it is this unconscious classification of people into the out-group that can lead to bias and exclusion. Whilst some organizations spread awareness about uncon-

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Organizations can only capitalize on its diverse workforce if they are able to leverage diverse viewpoints and experiences in their decision-making

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scious biases, this is often limited to episodic trainings. In addition, given many of our biases are unconscious, only awareness may not be enough.

Various systemic and cultural steps will need to be taken to reduce the negative impact of unconscious biases on diversity and inclusion.

Experts say, it’s time to move beyond diversity and embrace inclusion. What is the most overlooked inclusion issue in any organization?

What are some challenges in creating a culture of inclusion?

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If diversity is “the mix,” then inclusion is making the mix work. The true competitive advantage of D&I can’t be achieved without a focus on inclusion. An organization can only capitalize on its diverse workforce if they are able to leverage those diverse viewpoints and experiences in their decision-making. The organization needs to create an environment where individuals feel comfortable expressing their diversity in experience and thought.

Here are some challenges in creating inclusive cultures:

1. The conversation seems to be more about diversity numbers and not inclusion: Whilst driving more positive diversity numbers is a good start, it is not enough. Once diverse talent is brought in, creating an environment that both helps them flourish as well as enables them to work effectively with each other is the key. Most often, goals around diversity are about “numbers” across various groups (e.g., gender).

2. Addressing the unconscious bias challenge: A large number of organizations invest in training on unconscious biases. For the most part, these programs provide an education that people are biased in their decision making. They offer very few solutions on what to do about it, other than to be aware. An alternate solution lies in finding greater commonalities, rather than focusing on differences, so we naturally see people as in our in-group, and we include them. That is, organizations can leverage the in-group bias and the similarity principle to foster inclusion. Dr. Clay Alderfer identified two categories of groups people belong to: Identity groups and Organizational groups. Identity groups are made up of people who have some common social identity, historical experiences, etc. and Organizational groups are made up of people who share common positions within 64

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an organizational context (e.g., the executive team). Shifting the focus from “identity groups” to “organizational groups” could address the challenge around unconscious biases 3. Creating a culture of diversity will require the role of leaders to shift: From setting direction and articulating a vision to building a community where everyone feels a sense of psychological safety and belongingness. Secondly, leaders need to build the organizational capabilities necessary for leveraging diversity – i.e. the willingness to listen to diverse views and integrate these to create impactful solutions.

A study by BCG on gender diversity shows that 91% of companies have a program in place, yet only 27% of women say they have actually benefited from it. How can businesses get the most from the diversity dollars?

1. A comprehensive, holistic approach to inclusion vs. a piecemeal one: It is one thing to hire an increased number of women across

Leaders need to build the organizational capabilities necessary for leveraging diversity – i.e. the willingness to listen to diverse views and integrate these to create impactful solutions levels, and another to ensure processes/systems are integrated to create the required change. For instance, how does the organization’s approach to leadership development need to change given its focus on diversity? Or when women return to work from either maternity or from a chronic illness, is there a structured re-integration process for them to settle in as well as eventually return to a state of high performance?

2. We often talk about the “glass ceiling” that prevents women from reaching senior leadership positions. In reality, one of the biggest obstacles that women face is much earlier in the pipeline, at the first step up to manager. McKinsey’s study “Women in the Workplace 2019” found that whilst the percentage of women at the senior level have increased, there is a “broken rung” at the entry level. This early inequality has a long-term impact on the talent pipeline. Therefore, it will help companies to set goals for getting more women into first-level management and support the growth and development of these women 3. Personalization is imperative: As with any other program, a one-size-fits-all may not work

for diversity initiatives either. Organizations will benefit from combining their current diversity programs with one-to-one, personalized support to women. Even among a group of women leaders, there could be personality/behavior differences 4. Addressing the “double bind” that women face: A large number of research studies indicate that when women exhibit traditionally valued leadership behaviors such as assertiveness, they tend to be seen as competent but not wellliked. And those who come across as warm, that is, display a more stereotypically feminine style are liked but not seen as having valued leadership skills. This “double bind” needs to be addressed by both organizations as well as individual women leaders itself.

How do you see inclusive leadership and what are the top traits of an inclusive leader? How can companies ensure they have leaders who can create impact in a diverse workforce?

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Millennials are curious and openminded. Not only do they view diversity as gender, age or race related, but also see it as varying experiences and different perspectives/ideas

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Some of the top traits of inclusive leaders are as follows: 1. Awareness and Empathy: An inclusive leader is aware of his/her own as well as others’ strengths and development areas. He/she has the emotional intelligence and awareness to acknowledge unconscious biases and values differences 2. Vision: Inclusive leaders have a clear vision of how they can leverage diversity for the competitive advantage of the organization, and strive to build a culture 3. Promote constructive conflict: An inclusive organization is one where individuals are willing and able to accept each other’s viewpoints.

A leader’s role would therefore be to enable this culture as well as integrate seemingly different, yet complementary views to shape strategy and drive growth 4. Foster Psychological safety: An inclusive culture is one that allows for moderate risk-taking, creativity, and challenging status quo across levels. Leaders play a crucial role in creating this culture – through an authentic, warm style of leaders, encouraging participation as well as “walking the talk”. Walking the talk could be about acknowledging own mistakes or going up to a young manager and asking him/her about views on strategic initiatives. This also implies that behaviors like insecurity and/or ego-centricity may impede the creation of psychologically safe (inclusive) environments 5. Nurtures the strengths and capabilities of teams/individuals: Identifying the towering strengths of individuals/teams and allowing them to leverage these strengths is a behavior that enables the creation of an inclusive and high performance culture within an organization To ensure leaders exhibit such behaviors, organizations could: • Define/re-define critical leadership behaviors based on which leaders are hired or promoted • Provide leaders with experiences that help them understand the power of diversity (both social as well as cognitive) – for instance, a role

in a team with multiple nationalities in a different country • Encourage frequent, real-time conversations as well as self-reflection– This can help people understand each other, enhance curiosity & empathy (vs. blame)

Where do you see diversity and inclusion five years down the line?

What is today a “nice to have” is likely, over the next five years to become a compelling, allencompassing need in organizations. I believe that we are approaching a tipping point driven by the snowballing growth of millennials and Gen Z as well as the changing nature of work itself. Millennials are curious and open-minded. Not only do they view diversity as gender, age or race related, but also see it as varying experiences and different perspectives/ideas. Organizations will have no option but to embrace diversity in all its manifestations rapidly. I hope that research studies about the impact of D&I are not only related to the correlation of increased diversity/effective inclusion with performance, but also directly address the causality – through both quantitative and qualitative methods (such as real stories and experiences) as well as longitudinal studies over a 12-24 month time frame.

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Gender equality in Asia: It might get uncomfortable We did a study to take a closer look at gender equality across more than 900 companies and nearly 500,000 survey respondents

By Richard Smith, Ph.D.

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s organizations acknowledge international women’s day this month, it strikes me that many businesses obviously need to spend much more than a day to advance women in the workplace! It is no secret that addressing gender equality in business has been a challenge in our Asia region. The societal norms, generations of assumptions, and even legal limitations have created hurdles for accepting women in business roles and leadership positions. While this is changing in many countries, the number of women in top political and business roles is much lower in Asia than global averages. If we consider economic potential associated with this missing segment of human capital, Asia could add $4.5 trillion USD to the annual GDP by 2025. Given an increasing number of female university graduates, aging populations, challenge of skills development, and need for new sources of labour, embracing gender diversity provides a clear opportunity.

Through my collaboration with the Great Place to Work Initiative, we decided to take a closer look at gender equality across more than 900 companies and nearly 500,000 survey respondents for our recent research report. The largest gaps between the male and female respondents mirrored findings from other studies that suggested that women are not provided with the same opportunities as their male counterparts as shown below.

Largest gender gap items 1. People here are paid fairly for the work they do.

2. I feel I make a difference here.

3. Everyone has an opportunity to get special recognition.

4. Managers avoid playing favorites.

5. Promotions go to those who best deserve them.

6. I want to work here for a long time.

7. People avoid politicking and backstabbing as ways to get things done.

8. Management does a good job of assigning and coordinating people.

9. My work has special meaning: this is not "just a job".

10. Management shows appreciation for good work and extra effort.

Through the analysis, we find that companies that have limited gender diversity (male dominated) actually report strong employee results in teamwork and belonging. However, as the gender balance improves by adding women to the mix, we find that the men report a less positive view of teamwork and belonging. In other words, the men become uncomfortable as the traditional “Boys club” is disrupted. The good news is that for those companies with a higher level of diversity and gender balance, the sense of teamwork is high for both men and women – but this takes time.

Do we need to make men uncomfortable in order to improve gender diversity? The evidence would suggest – YES! When we take on the chal-

Do we need to make men uncomfortable in order to improve gender diversity?

The evidence would suggest – YES! When we take on the challenge of diversity, we must recognize that it requires changes in behavior, which can be awkward and challenging 66

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To help leaders at all levels embrace diversity, some organizations require goals associated with building a more open and diverse workforce. This may surface the need for training of managers to understand and recognize bias in decision-making related to people-decisions

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lenge of diversity, we must recognize that it requires changes in behavior, which can be awkward and challenging. In some cases leaders may feel uncertain and colleagues may be sensitive when working in a mixed gender team for the first time. While diversity has shown to foster positive results in terms of innovation and outcomes, it can take time for diverse teams to learn to work together. It is important for team members to create the right environment that is inclusive so that everyone feels a sense of belonging. In other words, just by having diverse people does not provide the benefit of different backgrounds and unique contributions – people must feel free (and safe) to share.

Many companies may work to improve their diversity by hiring people with different backgrounds, but this can have negative consequences if others in the organization are not ready to operate in an inclusive manner. Making a shift to be more inclusive for women will require not just policy changes, but changes in day-to-day management and individual behavior. In the short-term, this can make things less comfortable for the men in a male-dominated workplace, including making male leaders feel less certain about their actions, as assumptions are challenged, and new behaviors are adopted to promote greater inclusiveness.

Taking on the challenge of diversity takes time and effort from top leaders with the support of experts who can help guide the efforts. Reviewing the results across Asia a few key action steps emerge: 1. Address People Decisions: One of the immediate priorities (and largest gap areas noted in our study) is related to pay, promotions, and recognition. Establishing clear expectations and criteria for advancement with a high-level of transparency is required.

2. Make Diversity a Management Priority: To help leaders at all levels embrace diversity, some organizations require goals associated with building a more open and diverse workforce. This may surface the need for training of managers to understand and recognize bias in decision-making related to people-decisions.

3. Make Personal Connections: To actively address inclusion and begin to create a sense of belonging, managers can reach out to identify similar and different experiences and interests to their own. Demonstrating curiosity in learning about families, cultures, hobbies, and interests in a work-appropriate way can help break down barriers.

4. Recognize and Reward Manager Behaviors: It is often easy to start a diversity initiative, but much harder to keep the momentum.

Recognizing and rewarding managers who try new behaviors, undertake efforts to create more inclusive teams and take active steps to improve the openness of the work environment reinforces those efforts.

5. Use Data to Measure Efforts: Collecting quantitative and qualitative data to measure and manage your diversity and inclusion initiatives

can provide baseline measures and allow you to track progress over time While addressing diversity can create challenges for business in our region, it also provides an opportunity for those that choose to embrace the differences. Gender diversity is a clear starting point given the significant differences in experiences of equity and opportunity between men and women in many organizations. By taking clear actions to improve gender diversity this year, perhaps we can deliver improved gender equality results by the next international women’s day!

The full Great Place to Work sponsored research report on Asia can be accessed: https://ink.library. smu.edu.sg/lkcsb_research/6417/

About the author

Richard R. Smith, Ph.D. is a Professor at Singapore Management University where he also serves as Deputy Dean for the Lee Kong Chian School of Business. He is a Research Fellow at the Indian School of Business with a focus on Human Capital and Leadership.

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Before fixing bias in AI, let us fix our own

We are getting agitated about the bias that is being programed into technology.

The problem is not in the tech but in the worldview of those who build tech

By Abhijit Bhaduri

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hen residents in Bronx were told that door locks would be replaced with hightech face recognition software, the residents were up in arms. Face recognition software works well with fair-skinned males in the 18-35 age group. Residents of those building were from other ethnicities and often got locked out by the tech that was built on a data set that did not have enough samples from people of color.

Voice recognition software has a problem identifying high pitched voices. Children’s voices and many accents are often misunderstood. A team member of Microsoft’s Kinect discovered in the early prototypes that while the device understood gestures of the male members of the house, the gestures of women and children were not understood as well.

Amazon tried to feed a decade-old pile of resumes of job applicants to identify what the ideal job applicant. The machine knew one variable for

The challenge of inclusion is everywhere. After 92 years, the Best Picture award was given to a film that was not made in the English language

sure. The ideal candidate had to be male. That’s what the majority of resumes said. Even when the gender of the person is hard to guess from an androgynous name like Kiran, the machine can find out the gender from hobbies. If the applicant has listed cricket as a sport, there is a greater likelihood of the person being male, the algorithm figured. Sometimes the name of the college attended had “Women” in the name and that was a give away of the gender.

Diversity is a challenge everywhere The challenge of inclusion is everywhere. After 92 years, the Best Picture award was given to a film that was not made in the English language. Stand up comedians have built a career around the lack of diversity in the Academy Awards panel of jury members. But the challenge remains stubbornly unchanged. How do we ensure that the diversity challenge is addressed?

Something happens to us when we see ourselves as the majority. The people who are not like us become invisible. The majority writes the rule book to favor themselves in every way. Think of the challenge of left-handed people who wish to play the guitar or use a pair of scissors. The French word for right is “droit” and that is how adroit becomes a synonym for skilful in English.

The left hand is called “gauche” in French which is how we describe something that is socially awkward.

Anything that is an exception to the norm is termed as “abnormal”. Gender was viewed as binary and anything that challenged the definition was termed as illegal. The employees who are on the rolls of organizations are naturally given salary or health insurance but the same privilege is not extended to the freelancer or gig worker who does the work from outside the lines of payroll.

Why is tech not inclusive?

Tech is designed by a homogenous group of people. The young male engineer is the default. These businesses are managed by leadership teams that look the same. In the tech world, anyone over the age of 35 is “old” and cannot be expected to learn fast enough. Hiring married women who have children means they will not work insane hours and expect perks like “work-life balance”, the hiring manager of a tech company told me on the condition of anonymity.

The biggest tech companies build campuses that can keep you land locked in the office.

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Before we fix the bias in the algorithms, we need to first fix the biases that cloud our view of the future.

Technology has to be defined in cognitive as well as human terms

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is a brief break you take before you come back to code. It is precisely this lack of contact with the world outside that makes them blind to the opportunities. When the large tech firms move into a neighborhood, the rents go up because the young and footloose people in hoodies can pay higher rents. In a few years, the space begins to look like a ghetto with no diversity.

In technology, everything is binary. Whereas the human world is anything but that. The more techies become part of the social system, the more nuanced is their view of the world of the consumer. They begin to notice consumers who are not literate but need to use their phones and may even wonder how they store all the phone numbers they need to call. And how do they retrieve the numbers they cannot read? How do the elderly cope with the lack of inclusion that technology has put down as minimum literacy. How do people cope with the massive disruption in their careers as the machines keep gobbling up jobs that feed the family.

Before we fix the bias in the algorithms, we need to first fix the biases that cloud our view of the future. Technology has to be defined in cognitive as well as human terms. Today the definition is only cognitive. It takes away the essence of what makes us human. The backlash against Big Tech will percolate downstream. It is only a matter of time.

ever curious and eager to adopt technology. There is no better place to start than India. The first wave of technology was about iPhones and Teslas. The biggest problems of the problem remain unsolved – free elections, sustainable technology, rapid upskilling and much more.

As the next billion goes online, and the balance of power moves from US to the “rest of the world” (just think of what that term smacks of), we have to stop changing our accents to match a more “globally understood” accent and let technology figure out the accents of 1.3 billion Indians because that is where the next market is. That is the future.

“Heads up” for techies When Marie Antoinette suggested that hungry peasants should eat cake instead of bread, the consequence she faced should give us a heads up (pardon the dark humor). With almost five billion adults having phones, there is a bigger question for tech to think of – what products and services will we create for the users who do not speak English, whose paying capacity is limited but are

About the author

With more than 850,000 followers on social media, Abhijit Bhaduri is one of the most widely read and followed thinkers on all things Talent.

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Diversity and inclusion: What’s the big deal?

If the need for diverse workforces is so obvious which has been debated long and hard now for nearly 40 years, why do we still struggle to achieve our goals?

By Clinton Wingrove

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rganizations have sought to achieve diverse workforces for decades. But, some early attempts in the 80s were ill-conceived.

Companies even recruited individuals merely to achieve diversity quotas, often asking the recruits not to attend for work, “Just take the pay and stay at home!” We have moved on a long way since then.

Or have we?

Let’s be clear, corporate attention to diversity was not typically driven by ethics, morals and philanthropic prowess. Far from it! And may not be even now! It was typically driven by a commercial reality – the need to achieve sustainable profitable growth.

Globalization had exposed organizations to the challenges of selling and marketing in cultures and languages which were often poorly under-

Many companies are now investing heavily in diversity – tightly monitoring their diversity metrics, providing diversity training, and publicizing their achievements as widely as possible. But the goals for many still seem to be elusive stood with some grave results. This coincided with the start of mass migration, leading to significant changes in the demographics of domestic workforces. And, this also coincided with a shift in social attitudes to family life and work, leading to large numbers of females entering the workforce.

More recently, social media has enabled and fuelled debates about the importance of diversity across a much wider range of dimensions including religion, age, sexual orientation, family structure, education, background, physical ability, medical conditions, and even dietary preferences.

At senior levels, the bottom-line impact is still the major driver and so many companies are now investing heavily in diversity – tightly monitoring their diversity metrics, providing diversity training, implementing affirmative action initiatives, and publicising their achievements as widely as possible. But the goals for many still seem to be elusive.

So, what’s the big deal? If the need for diverse workforces is so obvious (this has been debated

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long and hard now for nearly 40 years!), why do we still struggle to achieve our goals? I suggest a few reasons: 1. Just because an idea is considered to be correct, does not always make implementing it easy or even possible. A few years ago, I worked with an organization, the board of which, set five year targets for diversity. Part of this goal was for a certain percentage of senior positions to be filled by females – an admirable diversity goal which was widely publicized. So, what’s the problem? The problem was that, if they had studied and understood their data, they would have easily seen the flaw. Achievement of the goal was not possible given their prevailing mix of workers in the reporting roles and with the very low attrition rates that they had. Even if they filled every likely

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vacancy over the period with a female and, every time there was a senior vacancy, filled it with a female from the levels below, the goal could not be achieved. A classic example of Optimism Bias and failure to attend to the data.

2. Whilst we have seen a dramatic increase in the number of females entering the full-time workforce, that has not always led to similar percentages wanting the move into senior roles. Irrespective of the reasons, this is still an issue that, in many cultures, still needs to be resolved. Great strides have been made to enable anyone to apply for, be considered, and be selected for more senior roles. But the work has not always been done to make those roles appealing or practical. Many such roles still demand unsocial hours, unpredictable hours, extensive travel, and even working practices and environments that many consider undesirable.

entiator of sustainably successful organizations is the caliber of their management and leadership.”

• We must prepare individuals before they apply for or are considered for people-management positions so that they can make an informed judgment as to whether it is right for them.

• We must be ruthless in our selections and only select those who want to be people-managers and who have demonstrable potential to succeed.

• We must closely monitor or buddy all new management appointments and take corrective action with the first 120 days if needed.

• We must make continuous professional development (CPD) an absolute requirement for continuation in a people-management position. That development must include frequent training in the importance of diversity and inclusion, and the role of Unconscious Bias in achieving it.

What’s the big deal? Most organizations still have a long way to go. Perhaps they have not calculated the potential benefits. Perhaps they do not understand the issues. Let’s start addressing the causes of low diversity and inclusion so that we can cap our investment in addressing the symptoms. That’s a tried and tested approach to most management challenges.

STORY

It has long been known that most final decisions are made on an emotional rather than logical basis. Data and logic can make decision options acceptable. But, emotional factors often drive the final selection from a range of those logical options

C OVER

3. It has long been known that most final decisions are made on an emotional rather than logical basis. Data and logic can make decision options acceptable. But, emotional factors often drive the final selection from a range of those logical options. Thus, final people-decisions are especially prone to this and are massively impacted by the decision makers’ unconscious biases. More about the impact of unconscious bias in a moment.

4. Over the past few years, we have realized that even diversity in our workforces is not what we need. What we need is inclusion of diverse capabilities. A few years ago, I was attending a client’s monthly senior management meeting. On the agenda was, “Strengthening our organization through diversity.” One of the senior managers was in full flow with his PowerPoint slides and an impassioned presentation of actions in his division to get more females into management positions. Much to the surprise of those in the meeting, the chairman banged his hands on the table and blurted out, “Why the heck are you focusing on that when you don’t listen to the ones you already have in post.” The sound of the immediate silence was deafening! But, this is the real challenge.

Any commercial value will not come merely from achieving diversity (covering all of the appropriate dimensions, not merely genders). In fact, the effort and impact of attention solely to diversity can be negative! The value only comes from their inclusion.

5. We are only just beginning to understand the issue of inclusion and neuroscience has played a large part in increasing our understanding. We now know how our unconscious biases and our ingrained operating habits have a major impact on our interactions with others. This, in turn, affects how they feel, think and act following our interactions. I have recently been privileged to work with a multi-national organization, providing their managers with training on how to spot the existence of unconscious bias, evaluate its potential impact, and take action to reduce or remove that impact. You see, we all have unconscious biases and they are unique to each of us due to our different education, nurture, experiences, etc. Unless we become aware of them, they affect our everyday working. For example, we may always greet males with whom we play golf seconds before we greet others; we may always pay just a little more attention to those ethnically similar to ourselves; we may give more weight to an idea put forward by someone with similar sexual orientation to us; all of these micro-behaviours (many thousands of others in a day) have an invisible and often untraceable impact on the relationships we have with others, and consequently how they feel, think and act i.e., how included they feel or are! None of this shows up in any diversity data and is often hidden in other data such as engagement, exit interviews, etc.

6. And lastly, my pet peeve! If we want to achieve diversity and inclusion, then we must put the right people into people-management positions.

Yes, here comes my mantra! “The significant differ-

About the author

Clinton Wingrove is Director of www.

WantToBeGreatManager.com and www.ClintonHR.com.

He may be contacted via: clinton.wingrove@ WantToBeGreat.com MARCH 2020 |

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To drive the D&I agenda, leaders need to be ‘fearless’: Intel India’s Head HR

I N TERVIEW

Diversity leads to innovation. You need to keep challenging how you do your work and for this, you need to be able to get people from diverse viewpoints that can challenge how you are doing things today and look at how you can do things differently tomorrow

In an exclusive interaction, Anjali Rao, Director of HR, Intel India shares her views on how for organizations of today, diversity goes beyond gender and how inclusion is becoming a critical element of the D&I picture in the evolving world of work

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By Yasmin Taj

njali Rao leads HR at Intel India and has been with the organization for about 15 years. She has held several portfolios within HR prior to assuming her current role. Rao’s passion lies in engaging with organizations and their leaders, enabling them to achieve their strategy and goals. Throughout her 15-year career in Intel HR, she’s shown incredible leadership and acumen managing leadership transitions, landing new engineering teams at the India site, supporting key initiatives and driving organizational change and development. Anjali brings a tremendous degree of personal drive and energy, impeccable account72

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ability, and is valued for her results orientation.

In an exclusive interaction with People Matters, Rao shares her views on how for organizations of today, diversity goes beyond gender and how inclusion is becoming a critical element of the D&I picture in the evolving world of work. She also gives some insights on how to create a diverse and inclusive workplace and the must-have leadership imperatives for doing so.

Diversity and inclusion become absolutely indispensable to any organization’s business or growth strategy. What is your view on D&I becoming so critical to a company today?

There are two key things: The first one is having a diverse workforce which is a representative of the kind of diversity that is available in the market that your customers are in. Therefore, it represents the diverse customer needs for which you are engineering products. If you look at a company like Intel, it is everywhere. It powers up different technologies to deliver different kinds of products and experiences. If that has to be truly represented in the way we make, design and engineer those products, we really need to see the diversity in the workforce we hire, we groom, and we grow. It is representing the market, the needs of the customer

through a diverse workforce. Secondly, I firmly believe that diversity leads to innovation. Innovation is critical today for any company. You need to keep challenging how you do your work, how you bring efficiencies into your work, and how you tap into newer markets, etc. For this, you need to be able to get people from diverse viewpoints that can challenge how you are doing things today and look at how you can do things differently tomorrow. You cannot do that without having diversity of thought in a room or when you are designing your product. It doesn't matter whether the company is tech or FMCG or any other industry. The last and a slightly smaller part is talent availability. Every company today is facing a war for talent, and there is no doubt about it. Talent is scarce and limited.

When you have a diverse approach to hiring and bringing talent in and making your culture more inclusive, what it does is, it opens up avenues for you to tap into diverse talent that may not be there if you do not have a diverse perspective.

A lot of thought leaders and experts believe that diversity goes beyond gender, and that there is a lot more to diversity today. What are your views on that?

Diversity is only half of the D&I picture. How crucial is inclusion in today's changing world of work? And how does an organization like Intel look at inclusion?

I think inclusion has to go hand-in-hand with diversity. If you don't have inclusion embedded into your culture and therefore, flexing in different ways, it is just a waste of having a diverse workforce. For Intel, inclusion is a focus area that we have completely called out in our culture tenets. It cuts across different things like how our benefits are shaped and what kind of development programs we are giving to our managers and educating them about what is inclusion. It also cuts across the kind of leadership we have hired and how we make sure that they are inclusive enough to bring their thoughts and differences to the table.

Inclusion has to go hand-in-hand with diversity. If you don't have inclusion embedded into your culture and therefore, flexing in different ways, it is just a waste of having a diverse workforce

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I N TERVIEW

I completely agree with this. I do believe that diversity is beyond gender. The way I see it is that the way for us to quantify what diversity means is being able to give it some header. We also need to take certain goals in order to measure diversity. I think from that standpoint, gender may be one place to start. But beyond, gender, I think there are other areas such as whether your workplace is inclusive of ‘diverse-ability’. This means whether you tap into people with disability. I prefer to call them ‘diverse-ability’ rather than disability because I think they bring a lot of strength.

The other thing is generational diversity, which is tapping into the generation that is not really a part of your workforce but can bring a different perspective. A third angle is the LGBTQI+ community which is really a population that is oriented

differently. Since their orientation is different, the perspectives and diversity of thought they bring to work is yet another angle. I think these are the categories that help measure diversity. But beyond this, if you look at the heart of it, it really is about diversity of thought. It is also about how you make sure that there are very many thoughts coming on to a table when you want to solve a bring problem or when you want to impact bottom-line in a different and positive way.

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Inclusion is a bit nebulous, which means that it is a bit hard to measure unless the company and the culture take it upon themselves to develop some sort of an index to measure this. This could be something as simple as asking employees questions from time to time. It could be leaders talking about inclusion in their organization and depicting it in the way they run meetings, in the way they put project teams together, which includes people of different thought processes and viewpoints. It is also about asking the people whom we think as diverse if they feel included.

Also, inclusion is institutional. You may have a very diverse workforce in your organization, but you may not necessarily have policies that are inclusive. That is where the angle of institutionalizing inclusion becomes very important.

What is the D&I philosophy at Intel and what are some D&I initiatives being followed?

At Intel India, we do look at diversity in the form of numbers. For example, we have had goals around ensuring that we have a good tech female representation or generally the right female headcount from a gender diversity standpoint. We have

Inclusion is institutional. You may have a very diverse workforce in your organization, but you may not necessarily have policies that are inclusive. That is where the angle of institutionalizing inclusion becomes very important

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also expanded the definition of diversity at Intel India by including the ability to hire and nurture people with diverse-abilities and people who are part of the LGBTQI+ community. In these two categories, the numbers are slightly challenging to measure because it is very private. We respect that since we don't want to force employees to reveal their orientation or their disability. Beyond this, from an inclusion standpoint, we have taken some definitive steps. We have included certain benefits to exemplify our commitment to inclusion, especially in the domain of health benefits. The first one was being able to enroll same-sex or oppositesex domestic partners, irrespective of gender, as a dependent in our hospitalization health insurance policy. We also extended outstation coverage to these domestic partners, irrespective of gender.

The second benefit that we included in our health and benefits coverage was gender reassignment procedure. This included hormonotherapy, surgical intervention, psychiatric consultation and any medication that followed such a procedure. The third one, which is the most interesting, is the one where we included coverage for mental health conditions and any hospitalization due to mental

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Whether it is about bringing talent in or about nurturing the diverse talent, a strong voice from the leadership team kind of drives the thought process and actions around diversity and inclusion

How can organizations create and drive an inclusive work-based culture?

Firstly, there needs to be a very strong voice from the top. I think that is super critical.

Whether it is about bringing talent in or about nurturing the diverse talent that we have, a strong voice from the leadership team kind of drives the thought process and actions around diversity and inclusion. At Intel, we have been marching ahead taking big, bold goals, and looking at diversity and inclusion year on year.

Moreover, it is important to measure, take goals, track them and hold people accountable for them. And then, all actions are geared up towards

I N TERVIEW

health conditions. This could be stress-related, anxiety, depression, psychosomatic, etc. Very few companies actually provide this but we did this because we really believe that we need to help our employees understand that mental health is as important as their physical health. And lastly, we have also expanded our medical insurance coverage to include genetic disorders and external congenital conditions of life-threatening nature. We wanted to reaffirm our commitment to inclusion by making sure that we influenced our insurance partners to include these additional things in the health benefits. Beyond this, we have also expanded our hiring approach to have methods that attract people with disabilities and the LGBTQI+ community. Also, in the space of gender diversity, among other things, we introduced a program call ‘Home to Office’ wherein we wanted to enable women who had taken a break in their careers to get a chance to come back into the workforce. In addition to this, we have also endeavored to have senior technical women as leaders.

those goals. Also, inclusion needs to be spoken about at various levels and it needs to reflect through actions. I think it should start with leaders and managers talking about inclusion and practicing inclusion in the way they manage people and work. It is also to look at processes and channels where employees can voice if they are not feeling included.

What do you think are the leadership imperatives for a diverse and inclusive workplace?

The first imperative is about being fearless and challenging one’s own assumptions — all of these are critical at the leadership level. When you challenge yourself and challenge how your managers hire, the kind of profiles you hire, etc., you push the boundaries by being fearless and hence, you can actually include people who are diverse. Second imperative is driving the vision that you have regarding topics like D&I as a leader. We need to ask ourselves as leaders what does it mean for me in my organization, and if I had to talk about this at my organization with a lot of weight behind it, I need to be able to articulate that with complete conviction.

The next one is about being really bold enough as a leader and create and track your goals related to people in the diversity space and link it back to the bottom-line. And lastly, one very critical imperative is how you address concerns regarding inclusion when things are not in line with the philosophy of the organization. Your actions need to reflect your philosophy and your words.

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Payal Nanjiani

Convert stress into leadership success Here’s how you can stop feeling stressful and view it as an opportunity to grow and develop in less than thirty seconds

D Self improvement

uring my visits to corporates to deliver keynotes and leadership breakthrough workshops, of the conversations I have with people, the issue of stress – and how to deal with it keeps recurring.

When asked about the cause for stress, the common answers I receive include: 1. Business uncertainty 2. Layoffs and job instability 3. Work pressure 4. Want for more income and luxury 5. Long working hours 6. Long commute 7. Too many changes within the organizations 8. Disruptions and quick innovations 9. Being unhappy with the job 10. Workplace conflicts and relationships

To live stress-free would be to deny our responsibility as leaders. Leaders have to make crucial decisions, lead teams, and stay focused on what they do. So, they’re going to be stressed. However, today most leaders are overstressed. Despite the best resources available to deal with stress, stress

has only escalated. Stress isn’t the real problem in our life. The real problem is our inability to deal with what I call – our inner leader.

The nature of work, on its own, is never the real cause of stress. I’ve met CEOs who complain about stress, and janitors who complain about stress.

What average leaders do is to complain about stress, whereas exceptional and successful leaders use stress as a pathway to growth and progress.

One technique I use in coaching executives is what I call ‘M3’. This technique will take you no more than thirty seconds to convert stress into success or vice versa.

M3 stands for ‘Meaning, Making, Machine.’ On a particular day, three men were working in one place. Another man came by and asked the first man, “What are you doing here?” The man looked up and said, “Are you blind? Can’t you see I’m cutting stone?” This person moved on to the next man and asked, “What are you doing here?” That man looked up and said, “Something to fill my belly. So I come here and do whatever they ask me to do. I just have to fill my belly, that’s all.” He went to the third man and asked, “What are you doing

To live stress-free would be to deny our responsibility as leaders here?” That man stood up in great joy and said, “I’m building a beautiful temple here!” All of them were doing the same thing, but the meaning they gave to what they were doing was different. What meaning are you giving to your work, relationships, and interactions with people?

As humans, we interpret everything that happens to us and with us. You can take a look at any situation and create your very own narrative inside your head. Most things that happen to you are because of the meaning you give it. If you have a boss who looks stern and rarely smiles, what meaning would you ascribe to it? Do you say he 76

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All these steps can take place within thirty seconds. You see, stress is self-created. External situations and people can never be the cause of your stress. Stress is generated from within by the meaning you put to everything that happens around you. Nothing in the world means anything until you decide what meaning to give it.

As humans, we interpret everything that happens to us and with us. You can take a look at any situation and create your very own narrative inside your head

Self improvement

is rude, or a micromanager, or do you say that he must be merely busy and caught up with work?

The meaning you give will decide your course of action toward your boss. If you say to yourself that your boss is rude, you will probably distance yourself from him, you will hesitate to share your ideas with him, and your slightest interaction with him will be a cause for friction. You will generate stress in your life. And if you say to yourself he may be simply caught up with work; you will find ways to connect with him and know his problem and help with solutions. You will generate a pathway to success.

Has this ever happened to you – you waved at your colleague, but he or she did not respond? Do you think he or she is mad at you? Or do you say to yourself that they simply must not have seen you?

In thirty seconds, you can move from success to stress or stress to success by merely giving meaning. Because whatever meaning you provide will determine your response, and your response will finally determine the level of your growth and success. Your interpretation of things is always the cause of your actions. Here’s what happens in thirty seconds: 1. Something external occurs, an event- perhaps a passing comment from a colleague.

2. You assess the event and give it meaning.

3. As a result of that meaning, you generate an emotion such as fear, hope, joy, anger, or guilt.

4. The emotions trigger an action that leads to your result.

The problem is that we humans are wired to give negative meaning to everything we face.

Some of us have a triple Ph.D. in giving negative meaning to situations. We need to recognize this “meaning-making” process and the subsequent stories we invent. Instead, try to see the event for what occurred without adding “color.” Gather relevant information and evidence.

Knowing that you can choose what something means to you can give you great power and a sense of security that you never had. So- assign meaning in a way that will change everything in your favor and open the pathway to your leadership success.

About the author

Payal Nanjiani is a US-based globally acclaimed motivational leadership speaker, executive and business coach. She is also the CEO of Success Is Within Leadership. She can be reached at success@ payalnanjiani.com MARCH 2020 |

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Rewards must be a combination of past performance plus potential Jacob Jacob, Group CHRO, Columbia Asia Healthcare, Malaysia talks about his approach to designing employee experience for a multi-generational workforce, building HR capabilities for the future and more

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HR

By Bhavna Sarin

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n HR professional with close to 25 years of HR experience across various international markets from India to Middle East and now SEA, Jacob is currently leading HR strategy, organizational change and performance management for Columbia Asia Healthcare, Malaysia.

His core areas of expertise include performance management and development of reward systems (Including ESOP), career planning & development, competency mapping, change management, HR strategy, organizational design, and organizational restructuring & people transformation initiatives for enterprise growth.

In an exclusive conversation with People Matters, Jacob Jacob, Group Chief Human Resources Officer at Columbia Asia Healthcare, talks about designing customized employee experience for a multi-generational workforce, stabilizing the performance management and overcoming roadblocks in developing L&D initiatives.

Here are excerpts of the interview.

In your career spanning close to a quarter of a century, what has been the biggest learning experience? How did that impact your outlook as a leader?

I have been fortunate and lucky to have worked across various continents, geographies and industries spanning Middle East, Africa and across South East Asia. Understanding various cultures, how people work in various countries, their aspirations and what really makes them tick has been ongoing learning, and I have picked up various facets in managing a multicultural workforce.

What stands out is that when you work across

Today, it’s important to have diverse policies to cater to the contrasting expectations and differentiated segments of our workforce 78

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different regions, you cannot have one framework for people; it requires detailed customization, which requires you to go in depth into understanding people and their mindsets. You need to interact more with people across the organization and more importantly, ensure that they are connected to the organization by its culture and value systems.

Organizational ethos is all about understanding people and getting them to connect with the organization and help build the enterprise. This is key in ensuring that people connect better with the organization.

How are you building the capabilities of the HR function in your organization? How do you see the role of HR changing in times to come?

It is important to understand that performance management is certainly not a science, but an art. One must look at managing performance in the context of what is important for our organi-

One must look at managing performance in the context of what is important for his organization and how it helps employees in performing their roles better

HR

Large scale change has to be looked at in the context of: • How will this change help grow the organization?

• Was there a lack of resources that delayed bringing in this change sooner?

• Will this change help derive a competitive advantage for the organization?

Performance management has undergone multiple changes from mere annual feedback and appraisal to biannual conversations to quarterly, monthly and now real-time feedback to monitor and improve performance. What can HR professionals do to bring in stability in the changing functionalities of performance management?

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What lens do you apply when you contemplate enforcing a large scale change in the organization?

Today’s workforce is extremely demanding. The key is to have diverse policies to cater to the contrasting expectations and differentiated segments of our workforce. If we can create some degree of customization, it will have a huge impact. More importantly, we need to focus on the key products and services we provide as offerings to our associates. Are the products and services competitive enough to provide a meaningful experience to all those who work for us? Is HR working as an innovative center of excellence and are we ahead of the curve and not only doing what someone else is doing but thinking through in creating new products and services? Today’s employee demands are all about the experience that we provide to them. Is our value proposition competitive and better than the choices they have in the market is what we need to think about.

F u t u r e

The capabilities of HR are a direct determinant of the business and the growth of the organization. HR professionals in every organization must assess their strengths and opportunities from the standpoint of if I am doing enough to help build the organization and what areas I must improve my capacity to deliver better. Do I have a competitive advantage through what I am delivering on the people front? If not, where is the gap and how must I close it? This simple analysis is what is required to build capability.

The role of HR will see a change in the following dimensions: • Rethinking HR value add and context with new HR delivery mechanisms • Ability to scale up with minimal effort and build the enterprise • Use of technology both for decision making and making lives simpler within the organization • Creating an inherent advantage for the organization with talent as the only differentiator

from their employers. What is your approach to employee experience with such divergent demands?

Once you have got answers to the above, the next step is making this change happen by communicating the need to key stakeholders, getting their buy-in and creating catalysts among them to make it happen. The key is keeping it simple and not complicating the change process. This can be done by not creating too many layers and processes to make the change happen. It is equally important to review what has been put in place and understand whether it is working or not working, and accordingly making any necessary changes to ensure effectiveness.

The workforce today is multi-generational with significantly contrasting expectations MARCH 2020 |

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HR

Upskilling and digital transformation can only happen if your talent insights are credible

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zation and how it helps employees in performing their roles better. Processes designed around the initiative must be simple. The key element here is to ensure that employees receive feedback in real time and not wait for the year-end or bi-annual feedback. Basically the employee would like to know how he/she is faring in real-time and rewards must be a combination of past performance plus potential. Managers must be given the freedom to decide what is best for their teams and one cannot be prescriptive. The HR function cannot be the custodian and owner of the process, instead, they must facilitate this shift to the line departments and managers to take ownership of their teams and have the freedom to decide what is best. On an organizational level, managers must be accountable and should take ownership for their teams. By being collectively responsible for enterprise growth, they can deliver on their commitment together as a team. This approach is more holistic, simpler, and less bureaucratic.

With agile practices and design thinking being among the key pillars of the future of work, what challenges do you face in conceptualizing and implementing learning and development initiatives? What steps are you taking to overcome these roadblocks?

Most employees/associates look at their organizations as playing an important role for upskilling and improving their capability to deliver better.

Integrated learning is the key focus area today.

Gone are the days of sending employees for internal/external training. Employees like to look at learning in their own time, space, and convenience.

E-learning and gaming initiatives on learning are preferred approaches to L&D today. Employees today are looking at ways and means to keep

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learning simple, at the same time look for avenues to learn on their device, supported by classroom sessions where required. Therefore, design thinking in L&D Initiatives must focus on simpler innovative methods by which employees can learn a new skill. The focus must be on improving one’s skill set rather than the certification/qualification that one gets through such initiatives.

As a healthcare organization that employs a varied workforce across various countries, our approach is based on the following: • Customizing learning by geography/location • Do it in your own time • Do it on your device & • Skill-based approach to internal career progression

With leaders across the globe focused on addressing digital transformation, talent scarcity, and upskilling, what do you think is the need of the hour?

The most important aspect is to ask yourself the question: Is the talent that we have today capable of upscaling our organization by 2X in the next two years - if not, what must we do?

The starting point is a realistic assessment of where we are on talent and what must we do to get the right talent in. Therefore, the most important element is “talent acquisition”. This has to be well thought through. Only if you have the required skill sets, can you take the organization forward?

Upskilling and digital transformation can only happen if your talent insights are credible.

What are you most looking forward to in 2020?

The year 2020 will be a year of consolidation where we’ll see a lot of movers and shakers in the people space. This will mean organizations competing fiercely in the marketplace for talent and placing adequate importance in retaining key talent.

I personally look forward to our growth story and the ability to nurture, sustain and attract the best of talent through improvisation of our entire employee experience process and story.

Leela Bassi

Am I biased?

All efforts to accelerate gender parity and promote gender equality have come a long way in gaining attention and catalyzing change, but there is still a long way to go

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Unconscious bias is like jealousy: nobody likes to admit it, and often we’re unaware of it Researches have shown that simply learning about unconscious bias is not enough to make meaningful changes.

According to an article recently published in the Harvard Business Review, “Unconscious bias training can be a useful component of diversity and inclusion efforts, but only if it’s thoughtfully designed with research in mind.”

Cult intel is a form of phenomena Daniel Kahneman calls System 2 thinking—a slower, more deliberate response rather than the impulsive default of System 1 thinking” With System 1 thinking, we rely on our most intuitive, unconscious and automatic ways of digesting and responding to stimuli. However, with System 2 thinking, we actively become more conscious and deliberate in how we react to stimuli.

Unconscious bias needs to be addressed and managed effectively.

Back in April 2015, with a team of 11 other women I was selected to take part in an expedition to the Arctic Circle. The idea was to raise gender diversity awareness and challenge some of the uncon-

scious bias in the workplace. A 100-km traverse across Baffin Island in minus 40 degrees Celsius. The trip was very challenging due to the extreme conditions, the cold and the wind chill were atrocious. I caught frostbites on my fingers and some of my colleagues were hit with hypothermia. Although there were times when we wanted to give up, but we pushed through and continued facing the battle no matter what. We proved to many out there that no matter the gender we should all have equal opportunities. The trip had a huge impact on all our colleagues, friends and families and inspired many to do something similar. As an International Keynote Speaker, I am frequently asked to share this story especially, to celebrate IWD on March 8th a focal point in the movement for women’s rights for well over a century.

All efforts to accelerate gender parity and promote gender equality have come a long way in gaining attention and catalyzing change, but there is still a long way to go. It is crucial to recognize that women are a part of the workforce and should be respected and treated fairly just like any other individuals. A prime example is Samira Ahmed, a British journalist, writer and broadcaster at the BBC who claimed having been underpaid by £700,000! How could Ahmed have been paid so much lower compared to a male fellow presenter despite doing a very similar work? Thankfully justice was gained, and Ahmed won the employment tribunal.

Employees are constantly being reminded of the unconscious bias and how to build awareness further as well as offering diversity and inclusion training.

Hence why strategic planning is imperative in any organization.

D i v e r s i t y & Inc l u s i o n

seem to remember it as if it was yesterday. Walking down the streets of the little town where I grew up, before I knew it, I found myself lying face down on the pavement, pushed by a bunch of young boys who liked to threaten & torment me. Most mornings, I would arrive at school with dirt all over myself and mud on my hands.

The teacher would send me to wash but never asked any questions.

After all, I was a child of color.

Like most of us, my friend Sophie had chores to execute at home, the only difference was that her brothers were getting paid for theirs, whilst she was not.

After all she was a girl.

I guess that, back in the 80s, things were different from today, right?

But are they really?

Recently, I was at the airport, sitting in the lounge waiting to board my flight. I could not help but overheard a conversation between an agent and a gentleman queuing to check his luggage in “Excuse me, but this line is for first-class passengers only.” “Yes, I know. I’m in the correct line,” responded the man. The agent broke into a wide grin and said, “Oh! Are you really? You’re flying first-class? How lucky for you!” The agent turned, walked silently past the passengers and went back to the ticket desk.

– After all the gentleman was in his midtwenties.

What is unconscious bias? outside the diversity and inclusion community many people are still unfamiliar with the term.

A widely accepted definition is “learned stereotypes that are automatic, unintentional, deeply ingrained, universal, and able to influence behavior.” (Mike Noon, Professor of Human Resource Management at the University of London). When thinking of unconscious bias, I am often reminded of a quote from Thais Compoint, author of Succeed as An Inclusive Leader. “Unconscious bias is like jealousy: nobody likes to admit it, and often we’re unaware of it.”

Does it make it right though?

About the author

Leela Bassi is a UK-based multilingual keynote speaker and Transformational Coach.

She is the CEO/Founder of Above & Beyond RESILIENCE / The Unstoppable FEMALE Academy | Entrepreneurial Mindset Mentor.

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Never shy away from raising your hand for opportunities that arise: Sally Nelson thing with integrity, to be bold and curious, but also compassionate. It is essential to align yourself with the company’s culture, be passionate about your job at hand and seek out for sponsors at various stages of your career, and lastly, never shy away from raising your hand for opportunities that arise!

F u t u r e

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HR

What are your views on current assessment and prospects for the Investment Management Industry globally?

Sally Nelson, the Chief People Officer of Fidelity, shares

her thoughts on people management in the digital age, technology in HR, and India’s contribution to Fidelity Global

By Abid Hasan

S

ally Nelson is the Chief People Officer of Fidelity, and she is responsible for global Human Resources and Corporate Affairs.

She focuses on talent and communications related subject matter of greatest importance to Fidelity International. In an exclusive interaction with People Matters, she shared her thoughts people management in the digital age, technology in HR, and India’s contribution to Fidelity Global. Read the edited excerpts here.

Here are the excerpts of the interview.

You have completed two decades with Fidelity. How has the journey been so far?

What were the significant challenges and opportunities and key learnings?

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The journey has been fantastic - it has been both challenging and rewarding in equal measure. To keep pace with the fast and demanding external environment, we continue to adapt and change our ways of working. We continue to invest in our talent and create a culture that positions us as an employer of choice in the market place that continues to attract and retain talent as we go along. It has been a rewarding journey in terms of having worked closely with a diverse team, stakeholders, mentors, and individuals who have contributed significantly to my learning and experience at Fidelity. I wouldn’t get this opportunity and exposure to work with such diverse individuals in such a short period. Some of my learnings from these experiences would be to do every-

This is a fascinating industry to work in and one which is continually subject to change. For an HR professional, in a sector that relies almost totally on people, the challenges and opportunities are enormous. Asset management is invariably subject to market cycles, is highly regulated, and there is fierce competition.

Talent development is critical, as is the importance of a strong employer brand. If you want to attract the most qualified and experienced candidates - and keep them then you must do much more than provide a stimulating work environment and excellent career prospects. Today employees expect their employer to act in a socially responsible way, to embrace and value diversity in all its forms, and to recognize that individuals need flexibility in their working lives.

It is important to align yourself with the company’s culture, be passionate about your job As Chief People Officer, what are the things you do to create a learning culture in the organization?

We have a strong reputation for growing and developing people, which makes us an employer of choice for emerging talent. We have a career vitality measurement on our

company-wide dashboard, which measures lateral and promotional career progression and global mobility. This helps to hold us to account (after all, we know that what gets measured, gets done) and encourages and enables colleagues to develop and grow their careers.

We have invested significantly in Learning and Development, as we believe this is an essential support mechanism to talent development and organizational effectiveness. We identify our leader pipeline early in their careers, and we develop them through a combination of on the job opportunities and formal training and experiences. We ensure all our leadership programs are inclusive as we believe innovation is fuelled by collaboration and diversity of thought.

Further, we are aware that the skills required in the future are evolving, and

and beyond. For example, our Country General Manager for India is also one of our Heads of technology, as well as sitting on our Global Diversity &Inclusion Council and being the strand lead for ‘Gender’ globally.

We will continue to invest in roles and work being driven from India, and this will include all levels of seniority and experience. In recent months, we have seen a significant uptake in technology roles, as well as functions that help build out our digital footprint.

Looking at the advent of AI/ML, what are your thoughts on technology in HR? AI has a significant impact on how we operate our business and offers tremendous opportunities to elevate people engagement, create the culture of employee self-service and enable talent

colleagues. We are really excited about this experiment and will continue to look at emerging technologies to enhance the employee experience.

Do you see the role of people management changing in the digital age, and how does this connect with your broader organizational objectives?

Digital is a driving force for change across almost all industries, including Fidelity, and yet conversely, change management is one of the main bottlenecks to digital transformation. While technology adoption continues to be necessary, changes in leadership and talent attributes are far more critical for organizations to be able to embark on the digital journey. This has implications on

India has always been and will continue to be, integral to our talent landscape. It is a hub for functional, technical, and business expertise, comprising 3,000 employees across the Gurgaon and Noida offices. We have seen leadership and technical talent thrive and go on to lead businesses and functions in our firm, both within India

HR

How does Talent in India contribute to Fidelity International globally?

attraction and development. AI data mining and contextual search platforms, are now regularly used, particularly in India, for volume hiring and has resulted in a more reliable and better-quality talent pipeline. The use of AI within HR has significantly increased the efficiency of our hiring decisions and our ability to hire more people directly.

In India, we are also exploring Amber – an AI-based bot that reaches out to employees at important milestones to understand their experience of job roles and responsibilities, learning opportunities and organizational culture. It would allow us to use this information to intervene and offer further support and guidance to

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we continually update our programs to align with emerging trends in the market.

In 2020, we are revamping our leadership development program at all levels in the organization as we recognize that everyone can play a leadership role.

F u t u r e

If you want to attract the most qualified and experienced candidates - and keep them - then you must do much more than provide a stimulating work environment and good career prospects how we manage people and the subsequent role of HR. There are disruptive trends that influence people, namely cyber, data, cloud, social and mobile, a multi-generational workforce, new ways of working and the employee being perceived as the first consumer of the employer’s brand. While leading people, it is important to keep in mind how one can help employees gain digital competencies to be able to drive transformation. Agility and scalability are fundamental for any organization attempting to translate strategic objectives into reality successfully and to keep up with the accelerating rate of digital disruption.

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w o r k o f F u t u r e

Leaders of quality don’t dwell on negativity: Zahira Sughra Zainuddin In an exclusive interaction with People Matters, Zahira Sughra Zainuddin, Program Director, Corporate Initiative, PETRONAS talks about the global trends shaping the economy and discusses how businesses and workforce can prepare for the upcoming challenges

By Drishti Pant

A

s a leader who has driven several transformation projects, Zahira Sughra Zainuddin, Program Director, Corporate Initiative, PETRONAS reflects on how organizations can manage adversities like the global economic slowdown and the complex business ecosystem we are operating in currently.

In her exclusive interaction with us, she highlights how leaders are at the forefront of driving culture in any company and shares how they can create a sustainable culture to ensure the talents are set up for success.

Here are excerpts from the interview:

The global economy seems to be slowing down, from the US-China trade war to the recent attacks on Saudi Arabia’s oil infrastructure, many challenges are impacting the world of business currently. Are the tremors of a slowing economy being felt in Malaysia as well?

Despite the slowing down of the global economy, strong GDP growth continues to highlight Malaysia's resilience whereby the Malaysian economy grew at a stronger pace of 4.9 percent in the second quarter of 2019 and is expected to grow sustain84

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ably for the rest of 2019. While Malaysia's growth is encouraging, we cannot ignore the high risks associated with the challenges (e.g. US-China trade war) impacting the world of business.

Despite the positive sentiment, we (industry players) continue to tread cautiously and are quick to respond to market conditions – we have taken lessons from the 2014 oil crisis that sent oil prices crashing in just under a six-month period and led to the cancellation of several large-scale projects globally to ensure we have a robust and sustainable plan in place in view of these disruptive conditions.

Given the recent global socio-economic trends, how is the oil and gas industry shaping? How will the industry’s talent priorities change?

For the oil and gas industry, after the prolonged downturn, the upswing in oil prices has enabled the industry and PETRONAS specifically to refocus and invest in new talent, competencies, capabilities and technology. Industry players have changed gears from survival to growth mode – and this is evident in the way new investments and operations in large-scale projects have been unlocked.

For PETRONAS, in addition to our threepronged growth strategy of maximizing cash generators, expanding core business, and stepping out which will ensure we continue to be a frontrunner in the industry, talent continues to be our top priority.

For us, investing in talent and human capital management is vital to sustainable business growth and success. We have our global talent strategy of developing the right talent, right environment, and right leaders, which will support our three-pronged growth strategy.

We take a holistic view of talent development and therefore, we continue to still focus on human capital investment through our efforts on supporting education and collaboration between academia and the industry.

As a leader who has driven several transformation projects, how do you think organizations can manage adversities like the fear of approaching global economic recession? What role can leaders play?

Leaders of quality don’t dwell on negativity; rather, we should see things from a positive perspective, develop insights from tough situations and move forward

w o r k

Leaders are at the forefront of driving culture in any company. Therefore, by consciously taking responsibility for the situation, leaders should retain full control thus are able to respond and adapt, rather than react, to adversity.

For PETRONAS, this is the ecosystem we want to build, whereby we want to ensure we provide the means, authority and also the space for leaders to both act and rally the organization forward in a disruptive and VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex & Ambiguous) world we see today.

Having the right ecosystem in place will allow our talent to push the boundaries of innovation and creativity to overcome adversities.

As talent continues to be a key priority, we are determined to focus on the talent experience for which our vision is to be an empowered, agile, and enabled organization.

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How can leaders create a culture that evolves in tune with time? What are some key pillars that determine the organization’s success in the moments of adversity? How can such a culture be created?

F u t u r e

Adversity is not necessarily a bad thing, instead we can view it as an opportunity for the company to truly evolve and even in the most challenging circumstances, there is room for improvement and build efficiencies within, through a new way of working. Resilience is key, rather than worry and anticipate the worst, we should always look for the best ways in which the organization can move forward. The leaders should recognize there’s no value in trying to change the inevitable; whilst the focus should be on making the best of the situation.

Purposeful leaders take ownership during adversity. I believe anticipating and connecting the dots is key and it involves both a state of mind to be in and a set of actions to be taken.

What are some opportunities that business and talent leaders must tap into to stay ahead of the curve?

Changes in technology, values and culture, and new ways of working, require the organization to adopt and adapt to remain competitive.

What this means is that everyone needs to have a mindset of continuous learning – learn, unlearn and relearn as what works for leaders previously may not be applicable today. Therefore, to remain relevant in times of unprecedented change and disruption, only those who are capable of adapting in the face of change, and willing to change will be able to stay ahead.

Hence the right ecosystem is so critical to ensure the talents are set up for success and leaders will play an important role to humanize the workplace and redefine the experience.

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Visty Banaji

HR is a contact sport

The road less travelled

The increasing outsourcing of HR tasks and the use of technology in place of personal interaction brings the genuine danger of HR losing touch with employees. The new face of HR should not be faceless

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he factory looked like a war-zone. Much company property had been destroyed.

There were serious injuries. I won’t reveal the nature of the injuries or when this episode took place to prevent the organization where it happened from being identified. Besides, such explosions are frequent enough for us not to probe the specifics of a particular instance. In nine out of ten cases of violence at the workplace, the management is taken totally by surprise and has no time to plan counter-measures, leave aside preempt the conflagration. While many people have analyzed the fundamental causes of industrial violence, my limited purpose here is to understand why early warning systems, which could have prevented the worst excesses, failed and how we can prevent such failures that repeatedly catch us with descended lower-garments.

The single thread that is common to almost all workplace violence is a break in the chain of face-to-face communication between people at the Bottom of the Pyramid and HR / ER people whose reports reach top decision-makers. The greater worry is that the newer models we are adopting for organizing and managing HR make catastrophic failures in feedback channels more rather than less likely.

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The height of fashion nowadays is to find a tech solution to every issue. For example, grievance handling, that required all the skills of naturally intelligent and sensitive humans to resolve is now proudly declared to be the domain of artificially intelligent and utterly insensitive bots Losing touch The example at the start of this column illustrates the most prevalent reason for HR losing personal touch with its most important constituency – people. While ever greater proportions of valueadd have been shoveled into the hands of contract workers, the redirection of HR attention to what has, in many organizations, become the larger part of the workforce, is not just inadequate but negligible. Rare is the ER / IR manager who actually meets with members of the precariat even occasionally, and with a grievance resolution mindset. Small wonder then that embers of discontent smouldering in that part of the working population are overlooked till they burst into uncontrollable flames. Yet, even if Indian industry gets over its addiction to contracted1 or uberized workers (I hope I have sufficient rebirths left to see either happen) or learns to give them the same ER care and support as it extends to its regular workforce, there are other fast-growing fashion trends that are drastically reducing face-to-face communications with employees.

First comes the noble-sounding (but actually lazy) program to push HR tasks (especially

existence of multiple and conflicting interpretations about an organizational situation… Equivocality means that asking a yes-no question is not feasible… The key factor in equivocality reduction is the extent to which structural mechanisms facilitate the processing of rich information."3 At the top of the ranking for dealing with rich communication is our humble, age-old accessory: face-to-face communication. Bots don’t even enter the rankings.

Know your people Uncovering or predicting disruptions in industrial harmony are certainly not the only, or even the most important, benefits of Human Resources having regular human-to-human contact at all levels in the organization. Let’s look at some more significant and hard-to-replace gains from this contact sport.

Cases abound of major transformation initiatives in highly regarded companies coming to grief simply because they had no process in place for sounding out a cross section of employees before embarking on a major policy change affecting them. Ongoing face-to-face contacts are not just invaluable for anticipating reactions to substantive people policy revisions (and possibly tweak-

HR interactions obviously don’t need to stop only with listening. The reason conversations with HR can be more practically beneficial are the skills the HR practitioner is expected to demonstrate in counseling employees to get a more realistic perception of their problems

MARCH 2020 |

The road less travelled

the ones that can’t be done in air-conditioned comfort behind the protection of a computer monitor or in the luxury of a posh training centre) to line managers. The first casualty of the offloading drive is the messy but essential need to meet employees at all levels regularly. Don’t get me wrong. It is important for line managers also to be in touch with their teams through non-task interactions. But there is no law that prevents a second channel of communication from being set up via HR. The value of such a parallel path becomes blindingly obvious when the channel through the chain of command becomes blocked or distorted, as it can all too easily in times of churn or staffing by inexperienced supervisors. Even worse is the situation when the problem to be reported lies somewhere within the same reporting hierarchy or when that channel is mis-utilized to message what suits an ambitious manager’s agenda. If HR has given up its own eyes and ears, its people are reduced to being dumb Myrmidons, powerless to confirm or contradict faulty reports emanating through the line conduit, and simply carrying out their demands.

Another surefire recipe to lose touch with one’s own people is to outsource those activities of HR that yield a large volume of interactions across levels. What is sneeringly called HR operations and considered untouchable by the upper caste business partner elites is actually a treasure trove of information about what is truly happening and of all the corns and callouses affecting employee satisfaction. What is an extremely valuable by-product of providing an employee service in-house, by the HR business partner, evaporates without a trace when it is outsourced and almost to the same extent when it is centralized.

The height of fashion nowadays, of course, is to find a tech solution to every issue. For example, grievance handling, that required all the skills of naturally intelligent and sensitive humans to resolve is now proudly declared to be the domain of artificially intelligent and utterly insensitive bots. While much of the debate in the community today is about whether chatbots can do what a human HR professional does (and of the dangerous snafus they can cause)2, my concern here is the loss of face-to-face contact such a substitution brings. Bot solutions are doubly disadvantageous in this context. In the first place, they leave employees feeling shortchanged that the organization doesn’t deem them worthy of a person listening to their concerns (surely top management doesn’t get bottled up like this). Even if employees’ problems are solved, it is unlikely that they will feel grateful and indebted – those are not sentiments that can easily be felt towards bots or transferred, from them, to organizations. Secondly, it will be very difficult for bots to extract information of the preemptive type we have been discussing out of standard service requests and day-to-day grievances. Information that can be used to forestall IR breakdowns, formulate policies or identify individuals for progression or observation are by nature equivocal. "Equivocality means ambiguity, the

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The road less travelled

ing them in the direction of greater acceptability).

They are equally useful for evaluating reactions on the ground once changes are announced and making quick course corrections before reactions and resistances reach the point when they can only be assuaged by the bathwater, the baby and the baby’s father, all being thrown out.

Another of the great advantages of face-toface communication is that it is two way. Apart from using the opportunity to understand what is bothering employees or gauging their reactions to impending policy pronouncements, such contacts provide the perfect setting for credible communication of what is important to the company. There are plans and responses to competition that are difficult to explain believably in writing or through other one-way channels. Moreover, when disaffected employees, hostile unions or unfriendly outsiders are spreading disinformation and it is deemed unwise even to acknowledge it by giving a documentary response, these meetings are among the few ways in which employee opinion can be kept firmly favorable.

Over the decades I have been privileged to observe the performance of hundreds of young

Listening to people and solving individual problems are as much a core part of an HR person’s job as the grandiose visioning, meticulous planning and flawless execution that are more easily assessed and rewarded men and women in HR / ER. One characteristic that distinguished those who had a natural flair for dealing with people (and, hence, their outstanding success in HR) was their insistence on spending most of their time with the people they were supporting rather than at their tables in their offices. Today, those tables carry colorful computer screens with all the attractions (strictly professional, of course) the cloud has on offer and the offices are airconditioned. But if youngsters find it more difficult to tear themselves away from their work stations now, the need to meet with people in person has also become more acute because transitory tenures demand more frequent meetings if trust has to build before individuals move on. It is not only the development of young HR professionals that is assisted by constant people interactions.

It remains one of the few ways by which senior leaders (including CHROs) can keep their feet on the ground and retain a feel for what is happening at the grassroot level.

Help your people As important as keeping HR aware of the reality on the ground and equipping it to craft successful 88

policies and processes is the way in which regular face-to-face interactions with people can resolve issues troubling individual employees before they fester into disaffection, destruction or departure.

On the positive side, there is also no substitute for such individual meetings by HR in the recipe for building commitment and belongingness among employees at large. By just listening to the problems, concerns and aspirations of individuals, HR is signaling its commitment to the welfare and happiness of people. No friend, however patient and available, can reaffirm the individual’s worth to the organization in this manner. It needs the commitment of a HUMAN Resource by HR to substantiate its stated intent of caring for people.

Of course, this requires that HR professionals are trained in active listening4 so that the impact is positive even in those instances where they cannot provide useful counsel or more direct help.

HR interactions obviously don’t need to stop only with listening. The reason conversations with HR can be more practically beneficial than talking things over with a friend or even a line supervisor are the skills the HR practitioner is expected to demonstrate in counselling employees to get a

| MARCH 2020

more realistic perception of their problems while tapping their internal reservoir of strengths in coping with them. In addition to counselling is also the knowledge-base HR professionals should have about which policy or avenue of appeal is likely to be most efficacious. This should be supplemented by case knowledge of how employees in other parts of the organization have been aided in similar situations.

While not always possible, there are a significant number of opportunities for HR practioners to intervene directly and solve problems. These interventions may take the form of talking things over with the line manager (especially if s/he is the origin of the problem), championing the employee’s case where there is discretion in the hands of a senior HR or line decision-maker or providing some limited coaching in overcoming an internal barrier to the problem resolution. An external shared-service provider is hardly ever in a position or sufficiently motivated to provide such help and an AI-bot is obviously much less so. Even if they were capable, the gratitude and consequential commitment would not flow back

to the company or to HR and would, therefore, not be available for future 'drawal' when individual employee support (aggregated over many instances) can make all the difference in managing a crisis or a transformation program.

A competent HR professional with a well-tuned antenna should also be able to provide secondary guidance to an employee. The initial contact may arise from an internal job interview, an employee approaching with a grievance or an employee contact program but, as part of the dialogue, the HR interlocutor may discover an employee’s talents, contact networks or side interests that could be useful in another assignment or as a member of a task team or a voluntary activity – something that may have never come to light otherwise.

Actively reaching all

In my bible, unless each employee is personally 'touched' by an HR person on a regular basis, HR is failing in one of key roles – knowing and solving people problems both individually and systemically being threatening or perfunctory, those unused to employee interactions would need to be given a brief orientation and everyone would utilize a basic checklist for the meeting followed by a brief on-line report.

The road less travelled

Listening to people and solving individual problems are as much a core part of an HR person’s job as the grandiose visioning, meticulous planning and flawless execution that are more easily assessed and rewarded. Those seemingly trivial interruptions by individual employees, far from being distractions, are HR’s special moments of truth5 which demonstrate, employee by employee, whether the knowledge, skills and empathy with which we claim to be so well-stocked, can actually be converted to practical problem resolution which, in turn, builds good will towards HR and the organization at large.

Of course, employees feeling the need and having the trust to approach HR with their problems are just one source of opportunities for interaction. There are myriads of others which fall into the laps of HR practitioners without any effort on their part. They can come from processes as varied as Q&A during training programs, counseling for late-coming, absenteeism or indiscipline handling and even from exit interviews. Regardless of the process of origin, each of these opportunities for face-to-face interaction can help employees solve problems and get developmental aid while yielding valuable feedback to and positive affect for the organization.

Rich as the yields may be from the interactions initiated by employees or other people processes, they cannot possibly cover all employees. In my bible, unless each employee is personally 'touched' by an HR person on a regular basis, HR is failing in one of key roles – knowing and solving people problems both individually and systemically. To achieve this goal, organizations need to institute programs for reaching out to every single employee on multiple occasions each year. Every HR person from the CHRO down and including the ones working in back office or routine clerical roles should spend between half to a full day every week on this activity. For those HR people who do not meet cross-sections of employees as part of their job, these meetings would yield the secondary benefit of knowing the reality and reactions of the ultimate customers who their policies or back office work support. To prevent the exercise from

Drop by drop Can such simple meetings really add up to much?

Should they take us away from the killer schemes that win us awards and get our names plastered all over the media? Thought leadership and pioneering projects are immensely fulfilling and periodically essential. However, they cannot substitute the most fundamental and frequently used tool in the HR person’s kit: the face-to-face meeting. At such times it is useful to remember (a slightly tweaked version of) Julia Carney’s poem6 for children, Little drops of water Little grains of sand, Make the mighty ocean, And the pleasant land. ….

Little deeds of kindness, Little words of cheer, Make our people happy, And drive away their fear.

About the author

Visty Banaji is the Founder and CEO of Banner Global Consulting (BGC) MARCH 2020 |

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I N TERVIEW

How Phenom People aims to help one billion people find the right job In an exclusive interaction with People Matters, Mahe Bayireddi, CEO and Co-founder of Phenom

People, shares how the Talent Experience Management helps companies to deliver a better talent and employee experience

By Shweta Modgil

T

alent experience has been highlighted as one of the major HR trends for the year 2020. It will occupy the center stage in the global HR market which is more than a $400 Bn, with over $32 Bn spent on technology solutions. In order to optimize talent experience for millions of job seekers, employers require data and automation throughout the entire journey in order to personalize and optimize every talent experience. This is the gap that firms like Phenom People aim to address.

The Philadelphia based leading Talent Experience Management (TXM) platform founded in 2010 by Mahe Bayireddi, Hari Bayireddy, and Brad Goldoor offers a single platform that eliminates the need for multiple HR tools—connects the four key stakeholder experiences in the talent lifecycle and reduces time-to-hire and cost-per-hire, while improving talent quality and productivity. The HR tech firm with offices in Canada, India, Israel, London, and Rotterdam, has grown to 600 employees, over 200 customers across all industries and ranks 120 on the Deloitte Technology Fast 500.

In an exclusive interaction with People Matters, Mahe Bayireddi, CEO and co-founder of Phenom People, shares how the Talent Experience Management helps companies to deliver a better talent and employee experience.

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What was the tipping point behind creating Phenom People?

When we first founded the company, we specialized in mobile recruiting. As we’ve grown, we’ve expanded to the full talent experience for candidates, recruiters, employees, and management— Talent Experience Management (TXM). HR is built to only manage the process and workflow of the talent lifecycle, but there is opportunity to improve the individual experiences.

“Our focus is to deliver a hyper-personalized experience throughout the talent lifecycle and turn work into moments, activity into productivity, job redesign into talent evolution, and reports into intelligence.”

How exactly does Phenom People help companies to deliver a better talent and employee experience? Please explain in layman's terms.

Our platform is built using reliable and accurate Phenom AI, which means our features provide personalization, intelligent search, and actionable insights to the talent journey. What do these things mean? Let’s break it down: Personalization: On the candidate side, they get to experience what it’s like to have page content change as they browse the career site, and even receive relevant job recommendations based on their interests, skills, and location. This means job seekers no longer need to face the void when they are on a career site—which can be one of the most daunting aspects of finding the right job. For employees, an internal career portal empowers talent to define their career path within the organization. Employees can discover best-fit open positions within their company, as well as the skills

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deeper analytics and insights into all touchpoints along the talent journey. This is one of the most powerful pieces of our platform. Analytics are multifaceted, but from them recruiters can get advice on how to improve their talent marketing tactics—such as email or SMS campaigns— and management gets better insights on how to increase ROI, from CRM usage to overall hiring strategy. These insights ultimately shape better time-to-hire and cost-per-hire metrics.

I N TERVIEW

AI will have a positive impact on all talent experiences. It’s already changing our industry for the better, such as taking recruiters out of the weeds of tedious tasks and empowering them to focus more on what’s important

Design team

58%

How has the traction been since its founding? How many customers does Phenom People have? How do you monetize the platform?

required. The platform then recommends learning courses to upskill and train talent to achieve their career goals.

Intelligent Search: Also on the candidate side—keeping in mind this can also mean an employee looking for internal jobs—we provide advanced searching capabilities. When a job seeker searches for a specific type of position, our AI understands the intent behind what they are looking for—regardless of typos, abbreviations, or synonyms. This is the true benefit to natural language processing and means talent finds what they need, faster.

Actionable Insights: For recruiters and management, we are the first solution to offer

With over 300 customers worldwide, we are well on our way to fulfilling our mission of helping a billion people find the right job. Our platform is a licensed-based modular solution. We host the following for enterprise organizations: career site, chatbot (for candidates and employees), CRM, CMS, email & SMS campaigns, university recruiting, internal mobility, career pathing, diversity & inclusion (such as employee resource groups), reporting, forecasting, and talent analytics.

We have been very excited about our growth since our founding. Just a few weeks ago, we announced raising $30 Mn in Series C funding.

What differentiates Phenom People from competitors that offer similar solutions?

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I N TERVIEW

With over 300 customers worldwide, we are well on our way to fulfilling our mission of helping a billion people find the right job Phenom People’s single platform approach to the talent experience is in and is its advantage.

Because all stakeholder interactions occur on the Phenom TXM platform, our Phenom AI understands the intent of everyone and can deliver better job recommendations, more qualified candidates, and stronger tactics for recruiting and retention strategies. These interactions make up our massive data network and predictive modeling that powers our AI. We are also seeing impressive chatbot adoption. In just one year, our AI-powered and machine learning chatbot has captured 20 million interactions—getting smarter with each one. To help the chatbot learn and better personalize the talent experience, our customers feed it the information it needs to answer questions and provide facts about the organization.

What are going to be your future plans as far as product and expansion are concerned?

Personalizing each experience has been at the

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forefront of what we do. But now it’s time to integrate each experience for a holistic talent lifecycle from job seeker to employer brand advocate.

There’s also a lot of talk in the industry about whether or not AI should be used in the candidate selection process. Our belief is that it should be used to point candidates in the direction of the right job, the recruiter in the direction of the right candidate, the employee in the direction of the right career path, and management in the direction of the right talent strategy.

“When employers adopt AI in their talent acquisition and talent development efforts, more of the right talent is brought in and recruiting velocity is accomplished.”

How do you see talent experience space changing in the coming years? What will be some of the trends?

We believe AI will have a positive impact on all talent experiences. It’s already changing our industry for the better, such as taking recruiters out of the weeds of tedious tasks and empowering them to focus more on what’s important: building relationships with top talent. We’re also seeing AI provide richer experiences for job seekers, connecting them to the right job while feeling seen in the whole hiring process—just like everyone deserves. We have a lot of plans to shift the talent experience and evolve the whole talent journey so everyone can focus on what matters. That is how we will help one billion people find the right job!

Real Time Compliance Management Avoid non-compliances taking place than a post mortem after the damage is done.

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Winning in the age of hyper-competition Today, the competitors to a bank are not just the other banks but also Apple Pay, Google Wallet, Paytm, Alibaba, and even the post offices

By Dr. M Muneer (With inputs from Rita McGrath)

T Business Strategy

he biggest disruption enterprises face today is not technology or political uncertainty but the demolition of two fundamental assumptions of strategy, which are gospel to practitioners of strategy. According to Rita McGrath, one of the leading minds in the field of strategy and innovation, the first assumption is that industry matters most.

In B-Schools and elsewhere, we were taught that industries comprise of relatively stable competitive forces. If you take the time and effort to analyze the forces, you will be able to create a roadmap for your business, which may last for some time. Since industries were considered to be mostly stable, one might believe in getting a reasonable return on investment by analyzing industry trends and planning the strategy accordingly. Five-year

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plans were very normal decades ago but today, we find the time span is getting much shorter, and in many companies, annual updates on strategy is the norm.

That brings us to the second assumption that is getting derailed. This is the holy grail of strategy: sustainable competitive advantage. Having derived a competitive position within an industry, organizations tended to promote employees who were good at running big businesses, driving operational excellence, improving supply chains and so on, keeping the advantage intact. Management structures that directed resources and talent to strategic business units were associated with high performance. The core assumption here was that you could optimize your systems and processes around a set of sustainable advantages.

Stability, not change, is the state that is most dangerous in today’s hyper-competitive era

Stability allows people to fall into routines and habits of mind. It creates conditions for turf wars and organizational rigidity. It inhibits innovation. It tends to foster the ‘denial’ reaction rather than the proactive design of a strategic next step

Business Strategy

However, in more and more sectors, and for more businesses, this is not what the world looks like anymore. Examples galore: Music, technology, travel, hospitality, movies, communication, consumer electronics, the automobile business, healthcare and even education are facing situations in which advantages are copied quickly, technology changes or customers seek other alternatives and things move on. In any field today, even when a high technology product is launched, the advantage will not last for more than 6-9 months.

The bias that was inherent towards the assumption of stability had been fatal to many enterprises and industries from Blackberry, Nokia and Kodak to banking and music. Stability, not change, is the state that is most dangerous in today’s hypercompetitive era.

The presumption of stability leads to all the wrong reflexes. It encourages inertia and power to build up along the lines of an existing business model. Remember what happened in the telecom business in India? Existing players knew about the imminent launch of Jio at least two years before and yet none of them thought of a disruptive business model by the new entrant. They assumed that there would be price war and were bracing up for that. What Jio did was disrupting the unit of business from mobile calls to data, which till then was unheard of and that ignited the imagination of the consumers while destabilising the business models of incumbents.

Stability allows people to fall into routines and habits of mind. It creates the conditions for turf wars and organizational rigidity. It inhibits innovation. It tends to foster the ‘denial’ reaction rather than proactive design of a strategic next step. And yet, “change management” is seen as an otherthan-normal activity, requiring special attention, training and resources. A web search on the very

term “change management” turned up 21,600,000 results – that’s twenty-one million citations!

A long track record of relatively stable success caused the ambition to hungrily search for new opportunities to atrophy. Once gone, it’s hard to regain quickly in the face of fast competitive onslaughts.

Welcome to the era of transient advantages Competition today does not come from within the same industry. Yet, enterprises define their most important competitors as other companies within the same industry, meaning those firms offering products that are a close substitute for one another.

In more and more markets, industries are competing with other industries, business models are competing with business models even in the same industry, and entirely new categories are emerging out of nowhere. Look at the banking industry, for instance. The competitors to a bank are not just the other banks but also Apple Pay, Google Wallet, Paytm, Alibaba, and even the post offices.

Industries are still relevant but using industry as a MARCH 2020 |

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basis to analyze competitive forces is not relevant anymore. A new level of analysis that reflects the connection between market segment, offerings and geographic location at a granular level is needed. According to Rita, what one should look at is “arenas”, that are characterized by particular connections between customers and solutions, not by the conventional description as offerings that are near substitutes for one another.

There is a big difference between thinking about strategy in terms of arenas as opposed to industry. In industry analysis, the goal is often to determine one’s relative position with respect to other players in the same industry. It’s good to have a large market share. And competitive threats are of the traditional kind – moves around product introductions, pricing, promotions and so on.

In the arena, enterprises need to monitor for changing trends constantly, different ways to meet a customer need, how the interplay of technology and other industries play on business models, and so on. In essence, management must constantly be asking what jobs of customers they can do next.

While the sustainable competitive advantage is in jeopardy, there are many opportunities that offer shorter competitive advantages. Spotting these advantages quickly, scaling up r rapidly, exploiting that advantage and eventually disengaging from that business and moving resources to other opportunities are the skills for competing effectively in the transient advantage era.

With temporary advantages that won’t last long as before, the existing business model will always

come under pressure, necessitating the need for reconfiguration and renewal of the advantage.

The reconfiguration process is central to winning in transient advantage situations, as it is through reconfiguration that assets, people, and capabilities make the transition from one advantage to another. During reconfiguration, teams that might have been engaged to ramp up or exploit an advantage are shifted to some other set of activities; assets are changed or redeployed, and people move from one assignment to the next. Rather than viewing this change as negative, they are taken for granted as necessary and useful in a transient advantage world.

The most difficult situation for any enterprise is to disengage from an existing business even when all the telltale signs of its demise are visible.

Through a disengagement process, a firm disposes of the assets and other capabilities that are no longer relevant to its future, either by selling them, shutting them down or repurposing them. The objective is to manage this process gracefully and quickly. Long drawn-out disengagements do little more than consuming resources while not making the end result any more pleasant. In a transient advantage context, disengaging is not confused with business failure. Indeed, disengagement can and should take place when a business is still viable, rather than when a desperate organization has no other choice as was in the case of Nokia, for instance.

Winning in the transient advantage era that we are in today requires six major changes in strategic thinking.

Organizations should continually reconfigure their businesses, think about healthy disengagement before it becomes painfully embarrassing, develop the ability to skillfully reallocate resources, make innovation a way of life within the organization, develop new leadership mindsets and enable individuals to manage their own career progress for the transient advantage era.

Competition today does not come from within the same industry. Yet, enterprises define their most important competitors as other companies within the same industry, meaning those firms offering products that are a close substitute for one another 96

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Leadership mindset needs change Winning in the new era had implications for the mindset leaders bring to their businesses. They will need to take decisions faster – not like the telecom incumbents – and in ‘roughly right’ mode rather than in more precise, but slower pace.

Prediction and being ‘right’ will be less important than reacting quickly and taking corrective action.

And unlike most corporate decision-making processes today in which people seek out information that suggests they are correct; in a world of transient advantage the most valuable information is often disconfirming – it helps highlight where the greatest risks in being wrong are.

spective of the size of the company, without quick and roughly right information flowing freely from bottom-up, leadership will not be able to drive the different aspect of the transient advantage economy. The water cooler moments have always been about rumors at the top (bad news travel fast downwards) but the bad news from the market doesn’t travel fast upwards. Changing that needs a holistic approach.

The proverbial “knowledge is power” and “sharing is caring” may not always go together just as greed and charity. The task for CHRO and team to break this standoff is beyond technology which is why this cannot be a CIO project.

List of changes leaders should make to succeed FROM TO Assumption that existing advantages will come under pressure

Conversations that reinforce existing perspectives

Conversations that candidly question the status quo

Relatively few and homogenous people involved in strategy process

Broader constituencies involved in strategy process with diverse inputs

Precise but slow

Fast and roughly right

Prediction oriented

Discovery driven

NPV oriented

Options oriented

Seeking confirmation

Seeking disconfirmation

Talent directed to solving problems Talent directed to identifying and seizing opportunities Extending a trajectory

Promoting continual shifts

Accepting a failing trajectory

Picking oneself up fast

All the listed changes above need one major support, and that is solely dependent on HR to take a lead on: Timely inputs and knowledge to enable quick decision-making at all levels. The CHRO will have to work closely with the CIO in quickly designing a knowledge management and sharing platform that is user-friendly and transparent for disconfirmation bias.

Some competitive advantages such as deep customer relationships, making highly complicated machines like airplanes, running a mine with autonomous robots, and a great knowledge sharing culture are sustainable for longer periods of time. I propose a solution to enable HR to drive competitive advantage for the organization indirectly and help ride the transient advantage waves.

It is imperative that a culture of facilitating and sharing knowledge is nurtured and information sharing is enabled across the board

According to a study by Singapore Management University, culture creates a bigger roadblock than technology to employees using digital platforms.

Therefore, it is imperative that a culture of facilitating and sharing knowledge is nurtured and information sharing is enabled across the board.

While striving to build a knowledge sharing culture, keep in mind the following: • Encourage transparency in communication • Build a knowledge repository • Decide on the tech platform based on the requirements the organization has and the information sharing needs.

• Engage with two-way communications • Imbibe storytelling techniques • Have an open door policy

Business Strategy

Assumption that existing advantages will persist

Creating a knowledge-sharing culture Sharing of knowledge requires a repository of knowledge that is inherent in employees and stakeholders, and facilitating the sharing. Capturing the inherent knowledge from scratch is a mega task and without motivating the aging workforce it will be almost impossible to capture the content. The millennials have less serious issues for sharing.

Why is knowledge sharing so necessary to compete successfully in the current world? Irre-

About the authors

Muneer is co-founder and chief evangelist at the nonprofit company Medici Institute Foundation for Diversity and Innovation. Rita is Professor of Columbia University, NY. Twitter: @MuneerMuh MARCH 2020 |

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Yogi Sriram

Life after 60 Organizations that believe in a Diversity & Inclusion (D&I) agenda must also consider the 5th Generation. The Yoldees (older people with youthful hobbies and minds) can be as alert and as productive as their younger counterparts

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Unlike our obsession in India about retirement ages, in many parts of the West, mentioning a retirement age in the appointment contract, is not customary. In fact, a reference to age is not only socially awkward but can also trigger litigious rebellion

I

f we live in India, we live in an ageist society.

After 60, according to many, or most, people are labelled as senior citizens who become slow, are not digitally savvy. Some believe that when you double click on what they want to say, there is some buffering in getting their point of view across.

While some literature exists on the silvering workforce, in most contexts it is seen as a demographic drag. In Europe and Japan buses are stopping a little longer for that retractable step to take in wheelchairs. But in India there is no time for that. After all they are a drag on the dependency ratio. This ratio is a measure of the number of dependents aged zero to 14 and over the age of 65, compared with the total population aged 15 to 64.

This indicator is supposed to indicate the number of people of non-working age, compared with the number of those of working age.

India will soon lose its demographic dividend.

The dividend cannot last forever. Though our spend on healthcare as a nation is pathetically low as compared to the more advanced nations, people are living longer due to modern medicine. This is notwithstanding the recent trend of seeing alarmingly high levels of pollution in several cities. The technological advancements in medicine, emphasis

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on clean surroundings and personal fitness has led to longer lifespans.

Organizations that believe in a Diversity & Inclusion (D&I) agenda must also consider the 5th Generation. The Yoldees (older people with youthful hobbies and minds) can be as alert and as productive as their younger counterparts. Unlike our obsession in India about retirement ages, in many parts of the West, mentioning a retirement age in the appointment contract, is not customary. In fact, a reference to age is not only socially awkward but can also trigger litigious rebellion.

Looking at somewhat dated census data of India from 1991 to 2011 (The next Census is due in 2020-21), we find this observation is validated and a large number are getting added to the silvering workforce.

Charts 1 & 2 on the next page show how people in the age group 60-69 years are increasing as a percentage of Total Population. This holds for the Literate Population also.1 Kingsley Davis led and conducted major studies of societies in Europe, South America, Africa and Asia, coined the term "population explosion", and played a major role in the naming and development of the demographic transition mode. There was

Many at 60 and above have skills that they are leveraging. They are advising, coaching and mentoring others. A lifetime of accumulating domain knowledge patiently cannot vanish only because a person has crossed 60

Literate population by age group as % of total literate population 2.3%

2.5% 2.0% 1.5%

1.8%

1.7%

1.5%

1.3%

1.0%

1.0% 0.5% 0.0%

Year 1991

Year 2001 Age Group 60-64

Year 2011

Age Group 65-69

Population by age group as % of total population 4.0% 3.0% 2.0%

2.7% 1.5%

3.1% 2.6% 2.2%

1.9%

1.0% 0.0% Age Group 60-64

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a big concern about this phenomenon in India, in the 1960s, 70s & 80s which turned out to be a boon later as we advanced into the late 80s. India luckily did not have to face the Malthusian catastrophe.

Instead, India has become the toast of nations that have a young and productive population. Food supply and famine are still matters of concern but within control.

As India moves closer to becoming the most populous country in the next 7 years, the country is facing an ageing population. According to some studies, India is ageing much faster than previously thought and may have nearly 20 per cent population of 60 years and above by 2050. The government has stated that India will have 34 crore people above 60 years of age by 2050, more than the total population of the US.2 The celebration of a youthful population does not mean that we treat those who are aging as people who are in their sunset years only marking time in God’s waiting lounge for the inevitable to happen.

Many at 60 and above have skills that they are leveraging. They are advising, coaching and mentoring others. A lifetime of accumulating domain knowledge patiently cannot vanish only because a person has crossed 60. Many are open to reverse mentoring through which there is give and take of knowledge and skills.

With the turn of this decade, I predict that the single most important competence leaders will have to develop in an increasingly unpredictable world, is the art and science of making a good Judgement. There are several elements to making a good judgement call. In a recent article in Harvard Business Review, the author Sir Andrew Likierman mentions six basic components of a good judgement -

Age Group 65-69

60 is not the end of the road. It is the beginning!

Picture taken by the author in UK

Picture taken by author of an Eurasian EagleOwl that symbolises wisdom

a. Learning b. Trust c. Experience

d. Detachment e. Options f. Delivery3

These elements get honed and will mature with age. AI and machine learning can mislead us to take decisions which are wrong because of the tendency of biases to be baked in. And this is where Judgement can be a useful overlay for insulating managers and leaders from using only crunched data (one extreme) or gut (the other extreme).

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make recommendations about music we should hear, what movie we should see, about what we should be learning next, suggest which products to buy or not to buy, and are increasingly used in decisions where the stakes are high. However, just like people, algorithms are vulnerable to biases that can make decisions “unfair”. In the context of decision-making, fairness is the absence of any prejudice or favoritism toward an individual or a group based on their inherent or acquired characteristics. Thus, an unfair algorithm is one whose decisions are skewed toward a group of people.

Ninareh Mehrabi, from the USC Information Sciences Institute, California, and her colleagues, Fred Morstatter, Nripsuta Saxena, Kristina Lerman, and Aram Galstyan, mention 23 types of biases in their paper4 “A Survey on Bias and Fairness in Machine Learning”, that can skew a decision made using AI and/or ML. And just to mention again, the algorithm is written by a human. Next, consider Social Bias. Social bias happens when other people’s actions or content coming from them affect our judgment. An example of this type of bias can be a case where we want to rate or review an item with a low score, but when influenced by

There have been a few good examples of professionals from the ‘silvering workforce’ who have continued to contribute professionally with exemplary work in their domain after crossing the age barrier and benefited organizations with their vast experience and knowledge

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other high ratings, we change our scoring thinking that perhaps we are being too harsh. We may make a wrong recruitment choice by being carried away by such a bias. With age and experience, the capability to reflect on one’s own biases may be better since this is related to self-realization.

Consequently, the capability of factoring these biases in a decision or an algorithm are also likely to be better with experience and self-awareness. To simply write off senior members of the workforce could, therefore, be perilous to any organization.

There have been a few good examples of professionals from the ‘silvering workforce’ who have continued to contribute professionally with exemplary work in their domain after crossing the age barrier and benefited organizations with their vast experience and knowledge.

Here are some examples of leaders who are contributing to the corporate world and have been able to prove that age is only a number. Mentioned below are the cases of a few of the people known to me as leaders who have achieved eminence and excellence. They are above 60 and living an energetic life, and continue to add value to their professional arenas.

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Rajeev Dubey Rajeev Dubey is the Group President (HR & Corporate Services) & CEO (After Market Sector), Member of the Group Executive Board, Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. He is the Chairman of Mahindra First Choice Services and serves on the Boards of three other Group companies.

Rajeev joined Mahindra in 2004 after spending 29 years with the Tata Group, of which 7 years were as MD & CEO first of Tata Metaliks and then of Rallis India.

Rajeev is a renowned name in the field of developing the best in human capital of an organization.

Rajeev joined the TAS in 1975 and has a MBA from the Yale School of Management. His wisdom and compassion have been the bedrock for various Human Resources and Industrial Relations initiatives at the prestigious Mahindra and Mahindra group.

Rajeev is also a Member of the Governing Body of the ILO.

Anil Sardana

Manoj Kohli Manoj Kohli is the newly appointed SoftBank India Head after a nearly five-year stint as the Chairman of the Japanese telecom and investment giant’s renewable energy business SB Energy since 2015.

Manoj has experience of over 40 years, was the MD of Bharti Enterprises Limited besides working at companies like DCM Shriram and Escotel before joining SoftBank.

Manoj’s key contribution has been building Airtel as the No. 3 telco in the world with over 360 Mn customers. He led Bharti Airtel’s India operations during which the customer base grew from 2 mil-

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Anil Sardana is the MD & CEO of Adani Transmission Limited since May 2018. Anil has more than 39 years of experience in the infrastructure space, particularly in the Energy and Telecom sector and has led complex transitions, developments & operations as well as Engineering, Procurement and Construction assignments. Prior to joining Adani group, Anil was leading Tata Power as MD & CEO and had other successful stints at Tata Teleservices, NTPC and BSES (now Reliance Infra).

Anil is credited with having spearheaded the dramatic turnaround of Tata Power Delhi Distribution which achieved remarkable reduction in Aggregate Technical and Commercials Losses during his tenure. Anil spearheaded two major M&As namely with NTT DOCOMO of Japan and a reverse equity swap & merger to create most valuable Infrastructure company.

Anil has been appointed by the Adani’s to take the group’s transmission business to new heights.

His energy levels are well known and he continues to electrify the corporate world with his achievements.

With age and experience, the capability to reflect on one’s own biases may be better since this is related to self-realization. Consequently, the capability of factoring these biases in a decision or an algorithm are also likely to be better with experience and self-awareness lion to 150 million before moving to International responsibility in 2010.

Manoj is on the Board of National Human Resource Development Network (NHRDN) and continues to work with youthful enthusiasm and a boyish grin.

Let us draw inspiration from these gentlemen and many others who are above 60 and are still contributing. Let us celebrate the 5th generation.

It is also important that professionals think about a second career when they enter their 50s.

These days, the word “purpose” is associated with millennials. But it is equally applicable to those entering the 50s and even more applicable for those in their 60s. Some say their purpose is to leave behind a legacy. Making a mark. Their contribution can be written in indelible ink. Purpose can be much more meaningful and deeper if it is seen as something that is worth living for and is the fire within us which keeps us going. And we are the keepers of the flame.

(The author’s views are personal and have nothing to do with his current employer or their policies) About the author

Yogi Sriram is Senior Vice President, Corporate HR, Larsen & Toubro MARCH 2020 |

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HR thought leaders and faculty from ISB at the 2nd annual Human Capital Thought Leaders’ Summit

Leading human capital in the 2020s: HR thought leaders at ISB More than 30 leading CHROs from well-known companies across India spent a day deliberating and finding answers on the theme of ‘Leading Human Capital into 2020s: Decoding the Digital Discourse’ at the 2nd annual Human Capital Thought Leaders’ Summit organized by The Human Capital & Leadership Initiative (HC&LI) at Indian School of Business in association with People Matters

By Yasmin Taj

W

ith the onset of the 2020s, time has come for the world of work to look at what the future would look like and what would it take to lead human capital into this new decade. What worked earlier might not even be relevant today. So, what would it take for us to successfully tread on the ever-changing dynamics of the workplace?

What kind of organizational structures, leadership models and mindsets would we need to forge ahead? To discuss and deliberate on the key factors that would be required to lead human capital in the ‘20s, The Human Capital & Leadership Initiative (HC&LI) at Indian School of Business

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convened its 2nd annual Human Capital Thought Leaders’ Summit at its Hyderabad campus recently, in partnership with People Matters.

The exclusive one-day event welcomed more than 30 leading Chief HR Officers (CHROs) from well-known companies across India who spent the day deliberating and finding answers on the overall theme of ‘Leading Human Capital into 2020s: Decoding the Digital Discourse’.

Welcoming the delegates, Dean of ISB, Rajendra Srivastava said, “Human capital is the topmost priority of CEOs and ISB is driving industry relevant applied research and executive education in this area. This event marks ISB’s commitment to engage

with leading human capital practitioners and advance the thought leadership in this area.”

Talking about the reason behind organizing this thought leaders’ meet, he further shared, “There are several challenges that we face today, and one thing where ISB would like to contribute to is what we call ‘value migration’. We as a country and companies within India, really need to focus on value migration. Other than this, one of the key topics today is digital transformation and that is a huge opportunity that we have. Also, we need to look at what we need to succeed in the human side in organizations. We need competence, we need a commitment to our organizations, we need to contribute our organizations, and increasingly, we need collaboration as we have to work across boundaries.

Another very important thing that we need to look at is the need to change mindsets.

Changing the mindsets of organizations and implementing that change is not easy, but if you talk to the leaders around the world, what we are finding is that there are two things we need. The first is to find the north star, which means where we are

convergence that the future of human capital will see several advances.”

Prof. Chandra outlined four industry endorsed topics in the context of leading human capital in the next decade. Given the increased impact of digital technologies on work, organizations, and human capital, he emphasized that it was critical for leaders to take stock of the evolving digital discourse across the following: 1. Organizational agility: How will organizations change and transform for the new digital ethos?

2. Mindsets for the future: What paradigm changes will the new ‘digital’ world order demand?

3. Leadership development: How to better balance the leadership narrative between EI and AI? 4. Beyond diversity: Building inclusive leadership for a digitally enabled world

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In the corporate world today, human capital is one of the most critical priorities and CEOs are extremely concerned about it.

Human capital of the future is actually an intersection between strategy and technology

Emphasizing the changing role of human capital in today’s world, he further shared, “In the corporate world today, human capital is one of the most critical priorities and CEOs are extremely concerned about it. Human capital of the future is actually an intersection between strategy and technology. It is not about labor relations anymore; it is about driving the future with the growth of companies literally from the driver’s seat and partnering in the strategy of the organization.

That is the kind of role that human capital is expected to play. Digital technologies will create an additional pressure and demand from human capital to respond more strategically and handle the twin task of helping companies transform digitally and helping the human capital function itself transform digitally. And it is on this

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headed and why, and secondly, leaders too need to focus on changing the mindsets.”

Dean Srivastava also spoke about the need for strategy execution alongside strategy development in the opening address.

Chandrasekhar Sripada, Practice Professor (OB & Strategic Human Capital), who is also the Executive Director of ISB’s Human Capital initiative declared the oneday conference as a ‘day for learning’ where some top thought leaders and academicians come together in a gathering where ideas are free flowing ideas and there is a joy of intellectual enquiry. He said, “The idea behind bringing all of you together was to not just network, but to create ‘thought partners’ and ‘idea buddies’.”

Next in line, a book edited by Prof Chandrasekhar Sripada, Leading Human Capital in the 2020s: Emerging Perspectives was released by Dean Rajendra Srivastava. This book contains articles from ISB affiliated professors on themes like: Leading Digital Transformation in Traditional Organizations, Workforce ‘Capagility’, Building Global Organizations, Managing Cognitive Bias in Leadership Decision-making, Architecting Leadership Development through Enhanced Cognitive Versatility, and Workplace Well-being and ‘Beingful’ Work. The idea behind this book is to present ISB’s thought leadership in the various areas of human capital to practitioners in the field. Dr. Phil Zerrillo, Deputy Dean ISB moderated a panel discussion with the authors and explored the key messages of the book.

This was followed by a keynote conversation between Professor Madan Pillutla of London Business School and Anan-

Chandrasekhar Sripada, Practice Professor (OB & Strategic Human Capital) and the Executive Director of ISB’s Human Capital initiative delivering the opening address MARCH 2020 |

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tha Sayana, Chief Digital Officer of L&T. Sayana himself has done a commendable job at digital transformation at L&T, which is a traditional organization and he shared the story of what it took to make this transformation successful. In this big picture conversation, the speakers covered a large range of real world issues and challenges around how to drive digital transformation of organizations, by looking at some exemplary work done by L&T in this area. He shared, “When we decided to start our digital transformation journey, we agreed that we were setting on to this path to enhance productivity and optimize operations. We also decided that when we go digital, we need to go digital everywhere and it has to be pervasive and touch every function and every employee. We also focused on having our leadership endorse this as having a digital mindset was a must.”

The day then moved into participant-led discussions via carefully designed roundtables facilitated by ISB faculty, who have done research on the topics outlined for the event. The roundtables saw deep deliberations and great participation by the leaders who shared their views, insights and best practices on these topics that are extremely relevant for the future of human capital as we move into a new decade. In the later part of the event, the leaders got together and presented their learnings and recommendations from each roundtable.

Some of the key highlights from the roundtables were:

Organizational agility: How will organizations change and transform for the new digital ethos?

In every organization, there is a need for agility, but each organization has a different starting line. It is very important to

acknowledge the starting line and then call out what you need to do. In this discussion, some of the most prominent parameters about agility that came out were: Empowerment, Simplicity, Purpose, Structure and a Growth Mindset. Empowerment came out as a very beautiful definition of saying, “If you want agility to work, I need to feel empowered, and I would truly then create the value that you are looking for.” So, are organizations building in systems and processes which allow for that empowerment, not just at the top level or managerial cadre, but to the last employee standing? Are we truly making it simple to consume and understand? When you are talking of agility, your overall objective has to be simple and clear. Also, are we communicating the purpose to each employee? It is also very critical to realize the difference between speed vs. haste when you think of going agile. Some principles which were brought forward were:

It is a fact that, today most of the businesses are grappling with competition and trying to bring in digital along with innovation. Leaders need to balance this shift

1) No hierarchy, no privilege based on your organizational context 2) Allow people to ask questions 3) Have an openness to feedback, not just top down, but bottom up as well 4) Hear the diverse views in the room.

Make sure everyone in the organization has a voice, have a culture where that voice is heard, and an environment where approachability is a given 5) Bring clear value, especially in terms of how you articulate that 6) Agility is possible if there is stability.

Mindsets for the future: What paradigm changes will the new ‘digital’ world order demand?

In this discussion, the participants discussed and enlisted some mindsets that would be essential for the future of work.

The first mindset was about transparency.

And transparency is of two kinds – first is hierarchical and the other is about decision making and being judgmental.

The second mindset comes as a part of ‘organizational orthodoxies’, which is also about the culture - what you do, how you do and the way you do it. The third is about ‘freezing’ and ‘unfreezing’, which means looking at things of the past and seeing what needs to be kept and what needs to be let go of. The fourth mindset was about looking at things differently.

The fifth was about flexibility and the sixth one is about ‘creative insecurity’, where you know that it is important for you to learn but you will not perish.

The seventh key mindset is about speed while the eighth one talks about having a strong foundation. The ninth mindset that came to the fore was ‘what’s in it for me’, wherein each person needs to know what will he/she achieve in the digital journey.

The next important mindset would be of empowerment followed by having a growth mindset. And then comes empathy as a very important mindset to have.

From a leadership standpoint, humility came out to be a very critical mindset to have. Another very important mindset to have would be the ability to look at the big picture. And finally, having a digital mindset would be key for the future. The group also suggested some ways forward for the future wherein they shared that it was time to start matching aspirations of individuals with the organizations, changing the way we work and moving from L&D to LXP ( Learning Experience Platform).

Professor Madan Pillutla of London Business School and Anantha Sayana, Chief Digital Officer of L&T during the keynote conversation 104

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Rajendra Srivastava, Dean of ISB delivering the welcome address

The group concurred that for leaders,

it is all about understanding how they can contribute towards a better world order and how they can use technology to do that effectively.

Beyond diversity: Building inclusive leadership for a digitally enabled world In this roundtable discussion, the participants discussed the criticality of having inclusive workplaces. They shared that when you delve deep into Diversity & Inclusion, you would realize that inclusion actually comes before diversity, because diversity is actually the outcome of what we do in the process of inclusion. In fact, organizational culture gets built because of inclusion. Diversity means different things to different organizations based on their nature of business and industry.

When it comes to building diversity, there is no single formula that cuts across. And there are more aspects of diversity than just ‘gender’.

The concept of creating ‘safe spaces’ was also something that came across

strongly during the discussion while talking about how to inculcate diversity and inclusion in the organization. While these spaces were originally created for marginalized groups, the idea is to create such safe spaces for the rest of the population also so they can talk about how they feel some of these aspects and policies that organizations are bringing in. Giving this openness also provides a ‘visibility of doing’ which enhances the organization’s culture and brings in the inclusive mindset at various levels. So, how do organizations build this visibility? The group concurred that creating stories creates an emotional connect and therefore, it helps inculcate the right kind of culture. Another aspect is by using CSR funds to create impact within the organization.

The group also highlighted the fact that diversity is thin at the top level in organizations and we do not have role models.

This is an important aspect on how an organization’s focus on diversity gets translated down the line and therefore, the focus should be on creating that kind of visibility and role models. There were also some important facets on how organizations can go about preparing their leaders to be more inclusive that were discussed, which included reverse mentoring, empathy, and how having a digital mindset democratizes diversity.

The overall event was a day of immense learning for the leaders as well as academicians who participated in it. The day ended with a vote of thanks by Ester Martinez, CEO and Editor-in-Chief of People Matters and Prof. Chandra, with a commitment to come back with more of such insightful initiatives.

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The participants in this roundtable discussion deliberated upon what it takes to bring a balance between leadership, technology/AI and personal & interpersonal effectiveness. It is a fact that today most of the businesses today are grappling with competition and trying to bring in digital along with innovation. Leaders need to balance this shift. With the world getting more linear and logical in the way we do things, and millennials joining the workforce, creating a balance between AI & EI is becoming even more critical.

Leadership today is becoming more contextual in nature and model-based leadership styles do not work anymore.

Speed is becoming a very important trait; as businesses change, the kind of leadership required to steer the business forward is also changing. So, we need to match leadership styles with evolving circumstances. Also, while the best way to learn was considered to be experiential learning as far as leadership is concerned, with the reduction in cycle time, this is becoming more and more difficult. So, how do we ensure that our leaders are emotionally intelligent at the same time? Leaders need to be authentic and have a high quotient of emotional intelligence in today’s times.

Some of the behaviors that are required from leaders in today’s times include: 1) Leaders need to learn how to inspire 2) Leaders need to have curiosity 3) Leaders need to be unbiased 4) Leaders need to be adaptable

Leadership today is becoming more contextual in nature and modelbased leadership styles do not work anymore

w o r k p l ac e

Leadership development: How to better balance the leadership narrative between EI and AI?

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Past Month's events

Knowledge + Networking

Budget 2020: A guide to choose between old and new tax regimes People Matters & Sodexo Wednesday, 26th February 2020 Online Budget 2020 offers individuals the choice of paying tax under the new regime of lower income tax rates by forgoing the tax exemptions or continue to pay tax under the existing income tax laws by claiming the applicable exemptions and deductions.

The more exemptions an individual claims, the less likely the individual is to benefit from the new optional tax regime; however, which regime is beneficial will vary on a case-to-case basis. In an insightful webcast, People Matters and Sodexo came together to decode this dilemma of old tax regime vs. new tax regime and enable HR teams to solve employees' catch22 situation around benefits and tax saving.

Preparing the workforce with skills for the Future People Matters and ACCA 5th February, 2020 JW Marriott, Aerocity, Delhi As per its recent research, the 5 key areas where working professionals need to focus on include Digital, Assurance, Business transformation, Data navigator, and Sustainability champion. Both the demand and the need for these skills will be high in 2020 and the upcoming decade. But is the workforce prepared with these skills? How can HR leaders help talent in nurturing these skills?

To help talent leaders find answers to these questions, and share more about the top five skills for the future of work, People Matters and ACCA had organized an exclusive roundtable discussion to find out the answers of the above.

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Building family-friendly workplaces through inclusive culture & benefits People Matters & Klay 13th February, 2020 Online Maternity is a significant barrier to women joining the workforce. Providing childcare support and advocating for equal parenting/ fostering culture of care are grass root solutions for tackling this problem.

Further, education, diversity in hiring, and removing unconscious bias solve for the larger problem of gender gap in the workforce. But talent leaders often find themselves in a fix while creating such an inclusive culture. This webcast by People Matters and KLAY Schools discussed how talent leaders can learn to design and build familyfriendly workplaces through inclusive culture and benefits and also how you can empower working professionals to achieve work-life integration.

Strategizing your digital transformation roadmap: The how & why People Matters & DarwinBox 4th February 2020 The Ritz Carlton, Bangalore Every business model is getting turned on its head and people have to adapt to these changes in realtime. The need of the hour today for every organization is to devise a digital transformation strategy roadmap that can help it adapt to these changes and stay agile. But before HR initiates a transformation exercise, it needs to build a case for transformation. In this roundtable by People Matters & Darwinbox, we discussed what should be the priorities of the organization to undertake transformation? How can HR build a business case for transformation and present it to the stakeholders? And most importantly, what are the outcomes and value-add that one should commit to through the transformation.

Redefining the purpose of wellness programs to address productivity goals: The how and why People Matters and Sanofi 6th February, 2020 Taj Coromandel, Chennai Though investing in health and wellness is the 2nd top priority of organizations in India, yet 65 percent of organizations in India are not measuring the impact of workplace wellness on productivity. To discuss this in detail, People Matters and Sanofi, with the help of a recently formed HR advisory committee, brainstormed on how preventive wellness contributes in optimizing productivity and arrived at an advisory of strategic guidelines and how organizations can develop a roadmap to establishing preventive healthcare guidelines.

Coaching for scale: The Human-AI partnership in L&D People Matters and Koch.AI 4th February, 2020 Online The coach-coachee relationship is seen as a highly personalized relationship that requires constant meetings and interactions. Therefore, so far, coaching is seen as something that can't be rolled out across organizations. Coaching is widely recognized as the most effective way of learning and must be made accessible to more and more people.

However, factors such as the cost of the amount of time and effort invested as well as the inability to concretely measure the outcome make it a problematic domain. This webinar addressed some of these aspects and how coaching can be scaled up with a Human-AI partnership.

Upcoming events People Matters EX Conference 2020

https://www.ex-conference.com/site/ register

People Matters Media 6th-8th August, 2020 The Leela Ambience, Gurugram People Matters TechHR India 2020 helps untangle the digital context.

Themed around BY DESIGN, the conference will examine the purpose of technology: its impact on business, accelerating change in talent practices, as well as the ways in which we architect digi-

tal culture while keeping an eye on what technology brings to the fore. Learn from illuminating talks, case studies & hands-on masterclasses from leaders around the world on cutting edge application of technology. Star speakers like Amitabh Kant, CEO, NITI Aayog; Anne Roemer, NASA; Kaushik Shaparia, CEOIndia, Deutsche Bank and many more are already on board with us.

People Matters TechHR Singapore 2020 Conference & Workshop (New dates announced!)

People Matters Media 1st - 3rd September, 2020 Marina Bay Sands Convention Centre, Singapore The future is on everyone’s minds-what lies ahead and what will be its impact on people and work? How can we be future-ready by design? It is these questions People Matters TechHR Singapore 2020 will explore and hope to find the answers to. People Matters TechHR Singapore 2020, Asia’s largest HR and WorkTech conference is back in a bigger and bolder format. Themed around ‘By Design’, the conference will examine the purpose of technology, its impact on business, accelerating change in talent practices as well as the way in which we architect digital culture while keeping an eye on what technology brings to the fore. The conference will also stimulate conversations on completely rethinking how we run our business, how work gets executed and how we create seamless experiences for our customers and employees. Speakers like Hod Lipson, Professor of Engineering & Data Science Columbia University; David Green, Managing Director - The People Analytics Program Insight222; Jason Averbook, CEO & Co-Founder Leapgen; Chin Yin Ong,

Head of People, Grab; Holger Mueller, Vice President and, Principal Analyst, Constellation Research and more will share with us their thoughts. We have planned an immersive learning experience for our delegates through People Matters Study Tour 2020, dated 2nd September Renowned organizations like Netflix, INSEAD, Capgemini and many more on board already with us. Each of these organizations will share their digital success stories and best practices which make them the most desired organization to work for. Additionally, we also have People Matters TechHR Certification Workshops planned for 3rd September as part of People Matters TechHR Singapore 2020. Get an opportunity to learn from the best in the HR and Work Tech space at the Marina Bay Sands, Convention Center, Singapore at a special offer price.

Knowledge + Networking

People Matters Media 27th May, 2020 Conrad, Bengaluru Today, HR leaders need to deliver experiences that deliver business impact. The power of employee experience thus becomes the most underrated, yet the most valuable action point in business.

People Matters EX Conference aims to fire up the community to talk about employee experience on the largest scale ever. Join People Matters EX Conference that aims to accelerate Employee Experience interventions with holistic design, break functional barriers and establish Employee Experience at the core of the humancentric design. Be a part of People Matters EX Conference and "Experience" what it takes to create a world of incredible experiences. We have renowned speakers like Tanvi Choksi, Head- Human Resources, JLL India; Krish Shankar, Group Head- Human Resources, Infosys; Nikhil Arora, MD and VP, GoDaddy India.

People Matters TechHR India 2020 Conference

https://singapore.techhrconference. com/register

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Blogosphere

>> Ashwajit Singh

The 2020 workplace culture-nomics A look at the changes that took place in the workplace culture in 2019 and what to expect in the future

T b l o g o s p h e r e

here is a workplace culture shift. In 2020, more business leaders will realize that culture drives performance and an improved staff work experience can promote better employee engagement and retention. Here’s a look at some of the most important workplace trends of 2019 that has implications for 2020.

Inclusion and diversity: More organizations are now beginning to believe that having a diverse group brings in newer perspectives and increases the power to innovate and imagine. With organizations spread across geographies, cross team-learning on projects has become critical, and collaboration between diverse employees has become essential.

Employee well-being: Happy and healthy workspaces boost the overall productivity of employees. Whether health care benefits, improved work-life balance, leave policies, professional development programs, or training, organizations are making all efforts to provide employees a conducive work environment to prevent burnouts.

Focus on values: People today want to work in a place that gives them a sense of purpose. It is here that core organizational values play a pivotal role. It provides a set of beliefs that help people bond. Organizations must revisit and re-energize these values periodically as they play a pivotal role in deepening the organization’s roots and become intrinsic to an employee’s professional journey.

Flat structure: The rigid hierarchical structure is giving way to a more horizontal and distributed form of organization. There is more workplace agility and team collaboration, which is helping organizations allocate resources faster based on project needs across varied locations or functions.

People today want to work in a place that gives them a sense of purpose. It is here that core organizational values play a pivotal role. It provides a set of beliefs that help people bond 108

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Organizations are becoming more conscious about innovating work culture with technology. With millennials making up 35 percent of the global workforce and Gen Z making up 24 percent by 2020, the business landscape is set to change further

•

#2020WorkplaceTrends: A glimpse

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• Culture first where every employee feels cared for and respected by people within the organization.

• Work-life flexibility, which correlates with higher organization loyalty.

• More usage of technology. With an influx of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, there will an increased focus on making HR processes more robust and optimizing the overall employee work experience. With a faster uptake on mobile technologies, digital feedback mechanisms, collaborative systems, and internetworked teams, business leaders will need to integrate people, processes, and technology judiciously.

• Diversity and inclusion which goes beyond just people diversity to also include cultural

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b l o g o s p h e r e

Use of technology: With organizations becoming more distributed, there is a trend towards virtual teams. The role of technology is becoming increasingly important. Data has shifted to the cloud, and there is a shift towards an analytic approach that is more measurable and actionoriented. There is an emphasis on employee training programs to build both employee and organizational capacity as well.

Organizations are becoming more conscious about innovating work culture with technology.

With millennials making up 35 percent of the global workforce and Gen Z making up 24 percent by 2020, the business landscape is set to change further. The proliferation of big data and artificial intelligence will become the drivers of business decisions.

diversity. This could mean a rejig of the internal organizational process, especially that involve human capital.

Gender focus for a safer and balanced work environment for women and providing them equal work opportunities.

More human touch where employees feel a sense of belonging. This is especially true of Millennials who often look for quicker recognition and appreciation.

Employee branding to maximize corporate branding through training, right recruitments and culture propagation Career progression programs to enhance the learning curve of every employee so that they can learn, grow, and advance.

Workplace wellness that leads to an overall physical and mental fitness of every employee.

Keeping pace with this workforce transition while keeping intact our core values that encourage a sense of shared purpose, inclusivity, recognition, and appreciation of all employees, old or new, to build a more dynamic, purposedriven, and versatile workspace will surely be an exciting proposition.

About the author

Ashwajit Singh is the Managing Director at IPE Global MARCH 2020 |

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REFERENCES 18 A taxing budget 1. https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/wealth/ tax/new-income-tax-slabs-will-you-gain-byswitching-to-new-regime/articleshow/74024648. cms 2. https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/economy/budget/old-tax-regime-or-new-one-checkthe-break-even-levels-of-tax-benefits-to-decide/ article30734059.ece 3. https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/ india-business/life-health-covers-may-lose-lureas-sops-turn-optional/articleshow/73858120.cms 4. https://indianexpress.com/article/business/ budget-2020-behind-new-tax-regime-92-usedexemption-under-rs-2-lakh-6248076/ 5. https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/ economy/policy/govt-intends-to-remove-allincome-tax-exemptions-in-long-run/articleshow/73842038.cms 6. https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/markets/ stocks/news/investors-lose-3-5-lakh-crore-themost-on-a-budget-day/articleshow/73865435.cms 7. https://www.business-standard.com/article/ opinion/a-disappointing-budget-120020101840_1. html 8. https://www.business-standard.com/budget/article/budget-telecom-auto-sectors-stay-in-stresszone-with-no-direct-relief-120020200034_1.html

at-dozens-of-locations-as-the-ceo-says-its-neverbeen-harder-to-attract-and-retain-workers/ articleshow/73254149.cms 10. https://newsnowfinland.fi/politics/how-finlandsfake-four-day-week-became-a-fact-in-europesmedia 11. https://www.forbes.com/sites/jackkelly/2020/01/08/finlands-prime-ministers-aspirational-goal-of-a-six-hour-four-day-workweekwill-this-ever-happen/ 12. https://www.inc.com/jessica-stillman/biggestproblem-with-4-day-workweek.html 13. https://www.peoplemattersglobal.com/article/ life-at-work/how-much-work-is-too-muchwork-22101 14. https://www.cnbc.com/2018/06/27/nearly-9-outof-10-millennials-would-consider-a-pay-cut-toget-this.html 15. https://www.kronos.com/about-us/case-for-4-dayworkweek-nearly-half-employees-worldwidecould-do-their-jobs-in-5-hours-or-less-each-day

24 Social entrepreneurship: Can it curb unemployment?

1. https://www.britishcouncil.org/sites/default/ files/bc-report-ch2-bangladesh-digital_0.pdf 2. https://www.livemint.com/news/world/globalunemployment-rate-falls-to-5-hits-pre-crisislevels-1550069660713.html 3. https://www.weforum.org/reports/two-decadesof-impact 4. http://poll2016.trust.org/ 5. https://www.undp.org/content/dam/undp/ library/peace/governance/RBAP-DG-2019-YouthEntrepreneurship-Asia-Pacific.pdf

22 Fighting for Four 1. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/ where-did-40-hour-workweek-come-n192276 2. https://digiday.com/marketing/inside-story-fourday-workweek/ 3. https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/11/ economics-four-day-work-week-productivitymoney-saving/ 4. https://money.howstuffworks.com/four-dayworkweek.htm 5. https://twitter.com/andrewyang/status/11328065 23711889408?lang=en 6. https://www.tuc.org.uk/blogs/four-day-weekdecent-pay-all-its-future 7. https://www.bbc.com/news/50405068 8. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/ mar/12/string-of-british-firms-switch-over-tofour-day-working-week 9. https://www.businessinsider.in/retail/news/ shake-shack-has-rolled-out-a-4-day-work-week-

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Science, Vol. 32, No. 5, Organization Design, May 1986.

4. Mpumelelo Longweni and Japie Kroon, Managers’ listening skills, feedback skills and ability to deal with interference: A subordinate perspective, Acta Commercii - Independent Research Journal in the Management Sciences, June 2018.

5. Marc Beaujean, Jonathan Davidson and Stacey Madge, The 'moment of truth' in customer service, McKinsey Quarterly, February 2006.

6. This link provides not just the unabbreviated and untweaked version of the poem but says a few words about its origin: https://www.famlii.com/ little-things-poem-julia-carney/

86 HR is a contact sport 1. Visty Banaji, Udta Udyog – Industry’s addiction to contract workers, People Matters, 15th September 2016, (https://www.peoplematters.in/article/ temporary-and-contract-staffing/udta-udyogindustrys-addiction-to-contract-workers-14090).

2. Sintija Valdez, Are Chatbots Doomed to Failure or Will They Eventually Conquer HR?, Cake HR Blog, 4 February 2018.

3. Richard L Daft and Robert H Lengel, Organizational Information Requirements, Media Richness and Structural Design, Management

98 Life after 60 1. Rbi.org.in. (2020). Reserve Bank of India Handbook of Statistics on Indian States. [online] Available at: https://www.rbi.org.in/Scripts/ AnnualPublications.aspx?head=Handbook%20 of%20Statistics%20on%20Indian%20States [Accessed 6 Feb. 2020].

2. The Economic Times. (2020). Demographic time bomb: Young India ageing much faster than expected. [online] Available at: https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/ demographic-time-bomb-young-india-ageingmuch-faster-than-expected/articleshow/65382889. cms?from=mdr [Accessed 6 Feb. 2020].

3. Andrew, L. (2020). The Elements of Good Judgement. Harvard Business Review, (January February, 2020).

4. Mehrabi, Ninareh, Fred Morstatter, Nripsuta Saxena, Kristina Lerman & Aram Galstyan (2019). A survey on bias and fairness in machine learning. arXiv preprint arXiv:1908.09635

Economy Economy

RNI Details: Vol. XI, Issue No. 3, R.N.I. No. HARENG/2010/33504. Price Per Copy: Rs. 150/- Printed and Published by Mahesh Kumar on behalf of People Matters Publishing Pvt. Ltd. Published at 501, 5th Floor, Millennium Plaza, Tower A, Sushant Lok-1, Sector-27, Gurgaon - 122009, Haryana, India. Printed at Polykam Offset, C-138, Phase - I, Naraina Industrial Area, New Delhi - 110028. Editor: Esther Martinez Hernandez

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