Case Studies
HRM Asia
13 Nov 2014
Mark Leong
Director of HR, UBS AG
Describe the toughest group that you’ve managed to get to truly cooperate…
The ‘toughest’ groups, not a single group – are the ones who have challenged me to come up with innovative solutions and are also the ones who get to the core of the issue. For me, these groups were initially not clear about HR end goals, or were not confident that we had their best interests at heart, and that I was there to assist them meet their business objectives. My approach was to establish a relationship and value-add, and in so doing build a level of trust.
Your greatest HR accomplishment?
From a corporate perspective: Helping clients, internal and external, meet their goals of engaging and growing their people, and in so doing, meeting and strengthening business goals. From an individual perspective: The strong relationships developed with clients and business partners who have subsequently become good friends, mentors or mentees.
Any burning HR questions?
How best to establish the fine line between value add, client focus and people versus cost containment and the drive to have employees go self-service; yet remaining relevant.
HR in 2024?
Clients will demand that we become more strategic, value-adding, and dynamic- driven by core principles; and (thereby) becoming a real partner at the table. Traditional aspects of HR service will be expected as a core, and delivered well. While business acumen is required to work with commercial partners to drive the business forward, engaging people to build careers will be the key focus.
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Aileen Tan
Group Director HR, SingTel
How do you motivate people?
I make the time to communicate and build relationships with my team. I am very passionate about what and how HR can make a difference and always encourage my team to explore new frontiers and possibilities. In challenging times, it’s important to stay calm and remain optimistic – the team counts on us as leaders to navigate through and stay the course.
Your biggest labour force challenge?
With over 22,000 employees in our group, we face a range of labour force challenges from the ageing workforce, hiring digital natives, and having four-generations. As we continue to focus on strengthening our core communications business and investing in new growth engines to ensure we remain relevant to our customers, it remains critical that we have a future-ready workforce. We need to be creative and change our paradigm on how to tackle these challenges. For example, instead of considering our ageing workforce as one that is retiring, we could reframe this group as “Silver Talent” and consider how to extend their employability and help them stay relevant.
What do you love about your job?
Leading and shaping HR for Singapore’s largest locally listed employer means there is never a dull moment. I am proud and passionate about HR and truly believe that together with my team, we can make a difference and leave a legacy in SingTel.
A tough interview question that you always ask?
One of my favourite questions for candidates would be: “What would you do differently in your current role to be more successful?”
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A Mateen
Vice President of HR, Singapore, Southeast Asia and South Asia, DHL Express
What do HR professionals hate to admit?
Traditionally, HR is not considered a strategic business function and most businesses perceive HR purely as the administrative support for people skills. However, this is no longer the case today. HR has earned its place in creating value that has a direct impact on business success.
How do you keep the workplace fun? Any office quirks?
At DHL, we work hard and play hard, and we believe in a healthy lifestyle. We encourage employees who are passionate about sports or hobbies to set up and champion hobby clubs and we have formed soccer, cycling, cricket and golf clubs. Staff Appreciation Weeks are a lot of fun as we have dress-up themes like the back-to-school one we had in May earlier this year.
What is the most unpopular HR decision that you have had to make?
With every decision made, it’s not possible to please everyone, and I don’t believe we have to. HR’s role is to take the broader view of seeking alignment across the organisation, while offering fair and competitive compensation and benefits, and creating a safe and productive working environment.
If I wasn’t in HR I would be…
After working in HR for 27 years, frankly I don’t know the answer. It is in my blood.
However, I know what I’ll do after. My plan is to go into education and give talks related to HR, nurturing the next generation of HR leaders.
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Tan Ai Sim
HR Director, Southeast Asia, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Korea, Lenovo
How do you motivate people
I would say it’s different strokes for different people – the seniority, personality and personal circumstances of each individual calls for different ways. My advice is to latch on to personal motivators without losing sight of the big picture. For example, staff who have a change in family profile, such as a newborn or starting a family, may prefer a role that requires less travelling at some point. If circumstances allow, adjust the roles and responsibilities of employees to accommodate for those personal needs.
I try to keep a listening ear and give feedback, both positive and negative. With feedback, people know exactly what is expected of them and in what areas they can improve upon. This makes my job easier too when I’m trying to get my plans and points across.
Describe the toughest group that you’ve managed to get to truly cooperate
I won’t coin the description as “tough”, more apt would be “apprehensive”. The greatest HR challenge for me would be an M&A project and the need to get the buy-in and acceptance of employees, both current and potential. Current employees, who have had many long years of service, tend to be more apprehensive and resistant to change. Getting their buy-in is key as they possess the skillsets required to ensure business continuity.
Your greatest HR accomplishment
My proudest moment was building a cohesive and forward-looking HR team that is valued by the business. Some members of the team came from non-HR backgrounds but today they are subject matter experts in their own areas of specialisation. Being able to make that difference in their careers and seeing them develop into professional HR practitioners is the greatest achievement in my HR career.
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Timothy Sebastian
Group Director, HR, Agency for Science, Technology and Research
How do you motivate people?
I find that when you take the time to explain to talented people why they need to do a certain task or assignment, and how that particularly task or assignment they are working on contributes to a larger whole, you get a lot more buy-in and enthusiasm. People work best when they know that what they do means something, and that what they do counts to the organisation.
Your biggest labour force challenge?
Finding the right talent with the right fit for the organisation, and thereafter recruiting them in a timely manner is always a challenge. The fact that the talent market in Singapore is very tight doesn’t help. It requires HR departments to try to anticipate talent needs in advance, and to be adroit in building different talent pipelines that can be triggered as soon as new talent needs are required for the organisation.
HR in 2024?
I think technology will allow us to work from anywhere, and to be connected to everyone. This will gradually change the definition of the workplace. People will be able to work seamlessly from home, the office, or from public spaces. The traditional nine to five office may become a thing of the past. The HR of the future will be challenged to redefine the way it assesses and appraises staff, builds teams and forges organisational alignment, and the way it fosters leadership and people development in this new technology-driven work environment.
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Lee Murphy
Senior Director HR, Microsoft Asia Pacific
What people management challenge keeps you up at night?
Firstly, how we prepare our people, teams and organisation in times of change and transformation, how thoughtful we are in our preparations and mindful of the impact change has on people’s lives.
Secondly, how we develop talented people to reach their full potential. This especially relates to people leadership capabilities that inspire, are authentic and builds commitment.
Describe the toughest group that you’ve managed to get to truly cooperate
When I moved from a Regional to a Global role with a mandate for change, I went through a difficult ramp-up period, managing resistance, dealing with ambiguity and lifting performance while adapting to a new way of working.
How do you keep the workplace fun? Any office quirks? Bugbears?
Personally, I feel that humour and the ability to laugh at yourself during difficult moments is a critical part of keeping the tempo up at work. I have a strong preference for informal gatherings as it’s a great way to keep it real.
A bugbear is when people are not present in a conversation and not making the effort to engage. As for quirks, I’m known to always have a tray of treats on hand, usually sweets, and chocolates from many countries. I’m sure I have a few other quirks the team can tell you about!
If I wasn’t in HR I would be…
Landing a professional footballing contract in Serie A, the Italian football league, or a Hotelier on the Adriatic Coast….
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Lyn Lee
Vice President of HR, Shell Business Service Centres
What people management challenge keeps you up at night?
What keeps me up at night is taking stock of the rapid changes in the organisation, thinking about my HR teams across the world, and reflecting on how each and everyone across the world is doing in their work.
What is the biggest change in HR that you’ve experienced in the past 20 years?
The biggest change in HR over the past 20 years would be the shift in the way people work. When I started out working 20 years ago, the main way of communicating at work was still through computer-generated memos that were placed in In and Out trays! And when emails started to become the norm in the mid-1990s, the speed of communication quadrupled. Now, smart devices and social media, such as workplace forums, Twitter, blogs, and crowd sourcing, have really changed the way in which people exchange information, make decisions, and gather input for work.
Your biggest labour force challenge?
Managing a young and mobile Generation Y workforce where alignment of career goals to life and personal aspirations are much more critical than loyalty to the organisation.
If I wasn’t in HR I would be…
Running a chain of high end boutique hotels and resorts. I love travelling, spontaneity and surprise, luxury, good food and wine, golf, and spas, and enjoy the company of people from all corners of the world.
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Raymond Yip
Senior Manager – Group HR, Qian Hu Corp
What do you love about your job?
In a small or medium enterprise (SME) environment, where one has to multi-task and be hands-on, the merit is you can see your contribution bearing fruit clearly. This is great satisfaction. As the management representative for the organisation’s business excellence journey, I can get an overview of all the processes and contribute in operational and customer areas through working on areas for improvements.
Your biggest labour force challenge from a strategic perspective?
To me, it is not so much about manpower limitation given the legislation or rising wages. More pressing is changing people’s mind-sets in areas of innovation and value-adding, and in the acquisition of such skills.
In general, in my opinion, we have yet to achieve the Japanese mind-set in productivity, let alone the German way of value-adding.
How do you keep the workplace fun? Any office quirks?
We did a mini-casino game session during a staff gathering years ago (of course, no money was used), to encourage creativity which led to a lot of fun. We modified mooncakes with wasabi for games, designed our own staff award plaques and created our own “longkang” (drain) bowling prize, amongst other initiatives. We work hard and play hard; this should be the way.
What is the most unpopular HR decision that you had to make?
We had to slash some staff benefits during an organisation’s declining business performance. Equally sad was having to retrench some long service staff. However, we do keep in touch. It was heartening to know that some had been re-employed after 12 years of separation. So, this is a good policy of re-instatement.
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Pauline Chua
General Manager, Human Capital and Corporate Social Responsibility, Fuji Xerox Singapore
What is the most unpopular HR decision that you have had to make?
To ask someone to go, especially if they have been working for the organisation for a long time. Rule of thumb is that there should be no surprises and we should follow the due process. In HR we wear two hats, a corporate hat and a hat for the people. Such decisions should be handled sensitively so that outgoing employees leave with dignity.
What do you love about your job?
I love the complexity of my job, driving organisational objectives; providing support and advice on people related matters; and drawing upon other parts of HR to bring the right mix of services to support the business. The challenge is to always ensure that our HR priorities, capacity and capability are always aligned with business requirements.
How do you keep the workplace fun? Any office quirks?
A fun and energising work environment is very important to Fuji Xerox Singapore (FXS). As such, HR launched the FUN @ Work initiative; F.U.N. being an acronym for Fun Environment, Unity and eNergy. We focused on four main areas for making FXS a fun workplace which included team bonding activities, open communication in terms of having regular town hall meetings and multi-generational dialogues, providing a range of recreational equipment for employees from table tennis and foosball to Kinect so that employees can destress at work anytime of the day and return refreshed and rejuvenated. Last but not least, work-life integration is included in terms of providing flexi-work arrangements, shower facilities for lunchtime workouts, a lactation room and a family-friendly work environment.
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Gaurav Sharma
HR Director, Coca Cola
What do you love about your job?
My job gives me the opportunity to make a positive difference in the lives of people, by inspiring them to do better with what they already have within them. I enjoy helping people grow to become better individuals or professionals so they achieve their true north. It’s a privilege to be a small part of their journey.
Your biggest labour force challenge?
Technology is invading our lives, with more people preferring to connect over e-mails, text messages and social media rather than have face-to-face live discussions. This, to my mind, is hindering development of social skills like compassion, inclusiveness and open-debate, which are building blocks for social growth.
How do you keep the workplace fun? Any office quirks?
Being at Coca-Cola, this is quite easy as we call ourselves a “happiness factory” – sharing moments of joy with the world! My advice to others on having a great culture would be to “Let people be…, guide them in the right direction, and then let them do what they do best”.
If you weren’t in HR, you would be…?
I would be a medical practitioner, such as a doctor, and still continue to deal with people. On a serious note, all through my career of more than 14 years in HR, I have never had the desire to move to any other discipline for achieving my true north.
HR in 2024?
The HR professional who will perhaps be featured as the top HR professional in your 2024 edition will be one with clear understanding of how business runs and can dove-tail that with what and how desired behaviours should be instilled into the workforce to build capability.
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Carol Yong
HR Director, Dairy Farm South Asia
Describe the toughest group that you’ve managed to get to truly cooperate.
While highly profitable, one of my previous companies faced increasing competition. It was obvious to middle management that there was a need to implement a Balanced Scorecard (BSC) to track and measure every individual’s performance on four fronts: Financial, Customer, Internal Business Processes and Human Capital.
Despite engaging each one individually on the importance of adopting a BSC, General Managers (GMs) were resistant to be measured by something so transparent. In a tense meeting, when the adoption of BSC was put to a vote, all the GMs stood firm against it. Fortunately, the CEO supported it and urged all GMs to give it a try. Interestingly, he was supported by all the senior managers reporting to the GMs. The GMs were out-voted by their own staff – what a breakthrough!
A tough interview question that you always ask?
‘How does your wife/husband (if married) or parents (if single) describe you? Why?’
How do you keep the workplace fun? Any office quirks? Bugbears?
The most memorable office quirk was how we celebrated National Day. A long Prime Minister’s speech was crafted for my reading (I was the PM) to my ‘Ministers’ (Managers). I was accompanied by the ‘Chief of Army’ to inspect the ‘Guard of Honour’. At the end, we even had a real Singapore flag being hoisted in the HR office.
What do HR professionals hate to admit?
I believe HR professionals hate to admit defeat or that they have failed to support the company successfully in driving the people agenda.
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Foo Chek Wee
Group HR Director, SEA, Australia & Hong Kong, Zalora
How do you motivate people?
All of us want to be part of something bigger than each of us. Messages and actions need to be delivered consistently on three fronts to motivate my team in striving towards the same business objectives.
The three key ingredients needed to motivate people are: empowerment, measurement and recognition. On empowerment, team members are given full rein in how they perform their roles and responsibilities. On measurement, clear oversight is established to ensure all team members are aware of one another’s project or task progress. On recognition, it should be personalised, contextualised and done in a big way. In addition to these three success factors, I strive to listen and respond to my team members’ aspirations, challenges, and developmental needs.
HR in 2024?
With the tremendous economic growth and opportunities happening in Asia, I foresee three trends within the next 10 years.
Transactional HR services will be totally outsourced as local HR service vendors mature and perfect their capabilities in providing business impact and scale economies.
This trend enables the corporate HR function to focus on human capital strategies and executions that matters to the bottom line.
With this focus, more local stories or evidence of how the HR function, across industries, company sizes and geographies, contribute to the organisational capabilities will surface.
In sum, I foresee the corporate HR function will no longer work on HR projects, but business projects with a HR lens.
If I wasn’t in HR I would be…
A lecturer in an educational institution, playing a part in grooming young talents to become the next-generation of HR leaders.
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Arina Koh
Covering Director – HR, Ministry of Manpower
What people management challenge keeps you up at night?
As the war for talent rages on, achieving high alignment between organisational aspirations and employee aspirations isn’t easy, as talents often look for greater flexibility to fill both specific and emerging roles.
Often, the worries are on two fronts:
Whether talents have developed stronger work or career connections outside the organisation, as it will then be harder to keep hold of them, and
If there will be enough competent and innovative people to move into roles when needed.
How do you keep the workplace fun? Any office quirks?
Food has an amazing way to bond people. I would occasionally bake for my HR colleagues when I find time and I would also stock up my snack basket in my office so they looked forward to having discussions at my office. Who says discussions have to be boring and solemn?
What is the most unpopular HR decision that you have had to make?
I often tell my colleagues that policies are meant to provide fundamental guidelines and parameters for all to work within, but HR’s value lies in being able to ask the right questions. Is this policy still relevant to this situation? If not, what can be done?
HR in 2024?
In a decade, Generation Y workers will be at a crucial stage of their working lives, with most holding key managerial or leadership roles. This generation, by then, will express a new set of aspirations and needs that will need to be understood and managed, and may not be aligned to that of the older generation, which they will be managing.
HR will then be expected to plan for strategic manpower in anticipation of future needs and set policies and practices that would appeal to a diverse workforce.
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Patrick Ollivier
Chief HR Officer, Asia-Pacific, Accor
What do you love about your job?
I enjoy working in a rapidly growing environment such as Asia-Pacific. The business is developing so rapidly here that it brings positive challenges to HR in terms of recruitment and talent management.
Moreover, having worked in HR around the world, it’s all about the diversity of HR approaches and this is another aspect of my job which I thoroughly enjoy.
What is the biggest change in HR that you’ve experienced in the past 20 years?
It would undoubtedly be the evolution of organisations and the rapid nature of their transformations. This means that as an HR specialist, you need to constantly show agility in order to support and anticipate change. It is crucial to be able to adapt to changes in this day and age, especially at the speed at which they occur.
Another area of profound change in my view is managerial style. We have now evolved towards a more coaching and mentoring leadership approach as opposed to the authoritarian management style of yore.
If you weren’t in HR, you would be…?
I’ve always been passionate about having international exposure in my career so if I weren’t in HR, I would probably be an explorer or adventurer discovering new worlds!
HR in 2024?
We are moving towards a trend of increasing work-life longevity – where people work until far later in their lives and have much longer career spans. The trend can already be felt now, but by 2024, we will be working with several generations within one workforce.
The interesting challenge we will face with this is having different generations work and thrive together within one organisation.
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Low Peck Kem
Chief HR Officer & Senior Director
(Business Partnerships), Public Service Division, Prime Minister’s Office
What is the biggest change in HR that you’ve experienced in the past 20 years?
In the last 20 years, the biggest change I have experienced is the recognition by line managers and HR itself that HR is no longer just a support function. HR’s role has evolved to be one of a change agent, making a significant contribution to a firm’s business outcome through its people, culture and management practices and strategies.
What do you love about your job?
What I love most about my job is the ability to be innovative and create an environment where people look forward to coming to work, and can contribute to and be happy to be part of the organisation. I love the fact that an HR practitioner is:
An architect who designs a work environment which is conducive for people to contribute to the best of their abilities,
A strategist who strategises with co-workers to devise business solutions, with people at the heart of what we do,
A conscience of the organisation, to ensure that we bring meaning to how we work and live, and
A gatherer of talent with a passion to make the working world a better one for all.
What do HR professionals hate to admit?
They hate to admit that some of the traditional ways of doing performance management or employee engagement may not be yielding the kind of results we hope to see in improving performance or engagement.
HR in 2024?
By 2024, HR will be recognised as an indispensable and strategic business partner.
The HR profession will have well-recognised accreditation in the business community.
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Syed Ali Abbas
Chief HR Officer, Pacnet
Your greatest HR accomplishment
What I’m most proud of in my career so far is being a good ambassador for the HR profession – at least so I’ve been told! That could mean helping business leaders better appreciate the value HR brings to the table and how it can help them meet their goals. Or it could mean helping employees fulfil their potential by building transparent, fair and fun workplaces. Or it could mean sharing my experiences and time with other HR professionals or students through conferences, networking or professional associations. Or it could mean mobilising the HR fraternity for broader social initiatives that help communities. At the end of the day, what makes me happiest is when someone tells me they’re happy because of something driven by HR.
Describe the toughest group that you’ve managed to get to truly cooperate
It has to be getting HR leaders from all around the world to participate in a global HR transformation project I worked on many years ago. We wanted to change HR from a region or country model to a full, global functional model. There were so many agendas and assumptions and empires in play during early discussions that it was a challenge getting people to agree on even the smallest things. What I found most fascinating was that cultural stereotypes mostly held true in real life. So people across countries in Asia, Europe, North America and South America lived up to the clichés about their respective cultures, both good and bad. Understanding that showed us the way forward on how to successfully engage with each of the people involved. The transformation did happen and comfortably beat all its objectives by big margins – so all’s well that ends well!
What HR professionals hate to admit…
The problem is not with anyone else – it’s with us. If we make the effort to improve ourselves as individuals and improve the results we drive as a function; the respect, recognition and “seat at the table” will follow.
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Madan Nagaldinne
Head of HR, Asia-Pacific, Facebook
What people management challenge keeps you up at night?
The quality of a company’s culture is directly impacted by how effective managers are at leading teams. One of the biggest challengs in a company that is growing is how do you ensure that new managers understand the culture and the fabric of leading teams. In a mobile and social-centric world, the role of the manager has been dramatically altered and ensuring that our new managers understand the expectations of leading teams is a challenge for any high growth organisation in today’s digital world.
Have you ever had to change your leadership style to achieve a desired goal?
Yes. You have to understand aspects about you that will never change (which are values, the compass that guides you, and your desire to develop people, etc) and aspects that need to change (leadership style; going from being collaborative to directive as the situation demands). I have had to lead and be led to achieve a desired goal and that means sometimes you need to jump in and be directive, and sometimes you will need to be led by others.
HR in 2024?
We are already seeing a big shift in HR – HR leaders are beginning to embrace Social and Mobile in their organisations and that has already started to make them very open. HR in 2024 will be very much a social and platform-led service relying on multiple signals (data) to make very relevant people decisions.
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Serene Tan
HR Manager, Jason Marine Group
What do you love about your job?
An HR job is not an easy job, especially for me. I switched from a number-crunching career to a human-related profession. In the HR function, I love specifically:
Preparing for the unexpected
Interacting with different levels of people
Learning how to balance the expectations of employees and the interests of the company
A tough interview question that you always ask?
This question would be: “In you work experience, describe a conflict within a team. What did you do? What was the outcome? How would you do better if you come across a similar situation?”
Your biggest labour force challenge?
Goal: To have a competent, committed, diverse talent pool that contributes to the long-term sustainability of the company.
Challenge: To drive behaviours that are consistent with long-term competence and productivity, doing more with less in this tight talent environment.
If you weren’t in HR, you would be…?
I would be a teacher and would try all ways and means to help students succeed. I would want to understand every student’s personality and interest and connect them with an appropriate vocation, helping them recognise their own values and worth.
HR in 2024?
Virtual interaction, such as video interviews, will create a new milestone for the interview process. New software will enhance personality traits interpretation, helping to achieve a better culture and job fit. Candidates will be able to make an assessment to attain a company-candidate match before accepting a job offer, leading to a better employment experience once on board.
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D N Prasad
Director, Google People Services, APAC Google
Have you ever had to change your leadership style to achieve a desired goal?
Yes and No. There are some non-negotiables for leaders and leadership: integrity, focus on people and vision, building for the future, and the like. I also believe that there are two other attributes that a leader should never compromise on: authenticity and vulnerability. Having said, the approach and application is definitely situational – one might need to be a strategic leader, an operational leader, a change leader, or a thought leader. And, I think there are non-obvious ways to lead as well – as a parent, as a friend, as a coach or mentor - not always dramatic.
What HR professionals hate to admit?
You got me thinking. I think we don’t admit enough yet that it is OK for us to enable the line manager capability and step back and play a crucial role in making things happen, make HR work as though we did not exist.
How do you keep the workplace fun? Any office quirks?
Hire the best, given them a mission and a voice and be transparent, encourage them to think big and ideate, and give them the challenge to make the world a better place. That pretty much sums up what we do in Google: to make work (and the workplace) fun. It all boils down to culture and people. The office space is open, representative of a blend of organisation and local cultures that facilitate open dialogues, exchanges of ideas and social interactions.
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Theresa Tan
Head of Human Resource, Scoot
How do you motivate people?
In my years of dealing with people, I think the basis of monetary reward will only motivate people to just do their job or complete a given task. What would really motivate people to perform is the ability to have the freedom to self-direct and do things, in a way which they think is best. So in Scoot, we try to provide such an environment for our staff and it motivates them to perform and to do things differently.
How do you keep the workplace fun? Any office quirks? Bugbears?
For example, we do not restrict people on what they should wear to work. We have self-declared international shorts day where everyone wear shorts to work. Once a quarter, we organise office parties with drinks and games. We also have fun competitions in the office like finding the “biggest loser”- to see who lost the most weight within a month.
What HR professionals hate to admit
Most HR professionals would like to think of themselves as business partners and in a lot of organisations, HR is still treated as an administration department. Despite the struggle to move away from this perception, most HR professionals are still being treated as administration specialist and this is what they hate to admit.
HR in 2024
HR will evolve to be more essential at a strategic level to support the business. HR management will be decentralised and moved to the line managers. HR functions really should be at a higher level to develop plans to ensure leadership continuity in an organisation and to adapt to a changing business environment.
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Alex Kershaw
Director of HR – Singapore, Philippines and Indonesia, American Express
Your biggest labour force challenge?
One of our biggest challenges has been strengthening our local talent pipeline across key segments of our business, such as customer servicing. When the Ministry of Manpower announced the changes to foreign worker policy in 2012, we quickly realised that we needed to change our talent strategy. In partnership with the business leaders, we responded by strengthening our talent brand, leveraging new digital hiring channels, and transforming our approach to selecting and training new customer services employees.
Have you ever had to change your leadership style to achieve a desired goal?
Every day! Organisations and teams are dynamic and consist of individuals with unique needs. To be successful, I have to flex my leadership style to respond to the needs of others and the shifting environment.
Your greatest HR accomplishment?
Winning the HRM Awards for Best HR Team and Best Employee Engagement Strategies earlier this year was a great accomplishment for us. We were particularly proud to be awarded Best HR Team as building a strong ONE HR team is one of our biggest priorities.
HR in 2024?
Many organisations are already transitioning toward a more agile workforce and this is a trend I see continuing over the next 10 years. We will need structures which enable fast, nimble and responsive talent. As a function we have the opportunity to be at the forefront of this change, and we will need to challenge ourselves to ensure we are driving, not trailing this transformation.
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Caroline Lim
Global Head of HR & Corporate Affairs, PSA International
What is the biggest change in HR that you’ve experienced in the past 20 years?
HR has been able to make the leap from being a back-end administrator to a strategic business partner - in some quarters more successfully than others. This is possible when HR leaders recognise what I call the “false dichotomy” of weighing in people versus bottom-line results.
What do you love about your job?
I believe that: “brains can be bought, but hearts and minds have to be won”. When the environment encourages employees to be more engaged, energised and empowered, they become a strategic competitive advantage for the business.
I follow a three-part approach to inspiring my teams: Reinforce the positives, Address the negatives, and Set high standards.
What do HR professionals hate to admit?
HR teams tend to:
Design HR policies to regulate the 10% of employees who might exploit loopholes or break the rules, which becomes overly constraining on the other 90% of employees;
Over-engineer HR solutions, introducing unnecessary complexity; and
Run HR programmes of short-term impact, treating them as the answer to long-term needs.
HR in 2024?
It is not a given that HR is always important in an organisation. HR has to earn its place as a strategic business partner. In Singapore (Temasek portfolio companies), only 50% of HR Heads are on their company’s Senior Management team with executive decision-making powers and in active interaction with the Chairman and Board of Directors. My current company PSA is among that 50%. My hope is that this percentage of Singapore companies will increase.
An apt mantra for HR is that, “HR should not only be ‘at’ the table; HR should ‘be’ the table!”
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June Koh
Head of HR, Asia-Pacific Breweries (APB) Singapore
How do you motivate people?
The best motivation is sometimes the hardest. At APB Singapore, we encourage our employees to step out of their comfort zones and give them the courage to pursue their dreams. We provide opportunities for staff to go out to the market to connect with the business and see first-hand how our brands act as social platforms to foster relationships. More significantly, there’s no differentiation between ‘fun’ and ‘work’.
Describe the toughest group you›ve manged to get to truly cooperate
As a HR professional, I encounter a myriad of personalities at the workplace. The toughest group to put together is a dream team: strong performers, working seamlessly as one. There are often differing opinions, so it’s challenging yet crucial to align them towards a common goal and vision. This applies across every task, whether rallying employees towards building our brands, or advocating sustainability or responsible consumption.
A tough interview question that you always ask
“If you can invite someone well-known to dinner, who will that be and what dish will you cook?”
What you love about your job
Being in the business of developing people and helping them understand their career aspirations beyond the confines of their roles is highly motivating. At APB Singapore, I work with people from across business units passionate about our various brands from Tiger to Heineken. Above all, as a Singaporean, I’m honoured to be part of a strong local brand that is committed to putting Singapore on the global beer map and fostering a responsible drinking culture among locals.
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Tricia Duran
HR Director Singapore & Regional HR Director – Functions Asia Africa Russia, Unilever
What do you love about your job?
I love that as a business leader, I have the privilege of focusing on what I believe is the most unique competitive advantage any company can have – it’s people. If you really think about it, products, processes, and factories can all be copied by competition. The one thing that can’t be replicated are the people that make up an organisation and the value that they bring. The better our people, the stronger our business.
How do you keep the workplace fun? Any office quirks? Bugbears?
Our workplace is awesome! It’s been featured in newspapers and magazines as one of Singapore’s ‘funkiest offices’ housing a Toni & Guy hair salon, Ben and Jerry’s ice cream fountain bar, and an infinity pool (amongst other things).
I’m also an internationally accredited yoga teacher so do sometimes resort to teaching a few classes to office friends. I’m also a lead singer in the company band just to keep my work-life interesting!
What is the most unpopular HR decision that you had to make?
As HR professionals, we are custodians of the culture and of policies that often require us to speak up and state the unpopular. Almost every week, I have “honest conversations” with people to help them step up their performance. In these discussions, I often have to say things some people would rather not hear. Whilst it is never easy, these difficult conversations are powerful in that they could lead to a step up in leadership capability and ultimately business performance. So they are worth having!
HR in 2024?
I envision three trends:
Right balance between “High-tech, high-touch” HR
Advent of a purpose driven workforce
HR data turned into business insights
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Hamidah Naziadin
Group Chief People Officer, CIMB Group
What do you love about your job?
I find it very rewarding especially when I am able to make a difference and witness the results. For example, it is very satisfying to see that the graduate trainees we bring in under our The Complete Banker (TCB) programme are able to progress in their careers with CIMB.
How do you keep the workplace fun? Any office quirks?
One of the key challenges is to design programmes to cater to an ethnically and generationally diverse workforce. In order to foster a strong spirit of camaraderie and strengthen the bond among our employees, we continuously organise activities such as “CIMB Has Talent”, “CIMB Southeast Asia Games” and Treasure Hunts. We also have a Sports and Recreation Department that comes up with various sporting and recreational activities throughout the year.
If you weren’t in HR, you would be…?
I am certain that I wouldn’t trade my job in HR for any other profession as I am enjoying every moment of it. I have never had a dull moment in the job and being able to contribute to an organisation like CIMB and its people makes it a very fulfilling career for me.
HR in 2024?
Keeping up with the fast-changing dynamics of the business landscape and also the changing demands of today’s workforce, I feel that the role of HR has evolved drastically in recent years. I am confident that HR will be a highly sought-after profession, with more HR-certification programmes being put in place to up-skill the competency level of HR professionals.
I foresee more HR professionals playing an active role and participating at the highest level of organisations, including at the Board level.
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Foo Wah Teng
Associate Director of HR, Illumina Singapore
Describe the toughest group that you’ve managed to get to truly cooperate
It was my HR/Administration group many years back. The group ranged from long-tenured staff, to older workers to fresh graduates. Their aspirations, motivations and energy levels were diverse, and there were challenges to get them to work together. Through coaching, teambuilding activities and regular team meetings, they eventually gained one another’s trust and respect, and were more open and collaborative.
How do you motivate people?
Engaging people regularly; paying attention to what excites them; active involvement in discussing their career development; and using positive reinforcement. I look for ways to socialise and have fun outside of work hours. It’s often this “down time” where camaraderie is built and strengthened.
Have you ever had to change your leadership style to achieve a desired goal?
In the last 12 months, I have had to manage a team with generational differences, in which some are less than half my age. I have had to adjust my leadership style to make everyone feel included. I have also encouraged a mentoring culture where each generation can learn from the other, and offered coaching-style feedback to achieve my work goals.
What HR professionals hate to admit?
There are job applicants who assume recruiters will read their cover letter and full résumé. That’s not necessary all the time. Most recruitment professionals use applicant-tracking systems that scan résumés for key words and job matches. The hint for a job applicant is to pull key words directly from the job description and put them on your résumé. The more matches you have, the more likely your résumé will get picked.
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Koay Saw Lean
Director of HR, Rajah & Tan Singapore LLP
What people management challenge keeps you up at night?
In a professional organisation like ours, where talent is our revenue generator, finding the right talent and retaining them is the forefront of our business. I set outcomes on our talent acquisition process and it really keeps me awake when our hiring process takes too long to find the right candidate – as it impacts how we serve our internal customers and indirectly impacts how we serve our clients and external customers.
What is the most unpopular HR decision that you have had to make?
It was in one of my previous companies when I had to restructure some of the allowances and benefits in view of the economic downturn. Being in HR, it is the most unpopular decision as the circumstances affecting the decision are kept confidential and it certainly does not boost employee morale when benefits have to be trimmed.
A tough interview question that you always ask
Typically I will ask questions on achievements, perseverance, and their approach to work. The high achievers usually have a lot to talk about. The tough questions will be finding the cultural fit to the organisation and their values, and it could be asking them to look back and assess their life and the criteria that have made them successful.
HR in 2024
In a decade from now, there could be a shift from a long term workforce to a transient flexible time workforce. The traditional tried and tested methods of acquiring, assessing, and compensating talents will no longer be the same. HR needs to embrace and integrate new and mobile technology seamlessly into the HR process to keep up with the changes.
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Vineet Gambhir
Vice President HR, Yahoo Asia-Pacific
What people management challenge keeps you up at night?
In my view, the most difficult challenge for talent is to try and focus on exactly where they want to go in their careers. I’d really encourage employees to think about not how they can do their current job well, but what job they want to do after that. If you extrapolate your next move, it allows you to map your gaps and work on continuous improvement. If you think only of the present, you tend to be complacent. Continuous evolution of talent to the next level, is always high on my mind.
A tough interview question that you always ask?
“What is the one question you would ask as an interviewer?” Then I turn around and ask the candidate to answer it. It tells me the priority on the candidate’s mind and his thinking process.
Any burning HR questions?
I call this the “stem cell approach”—I want to see HR professionals who are fungible globally and functionally –like the stem cell concept where you can become just about anything and deliver the same result no matter what hat you wear in HR. Then, there will not be a need for specialists, generalists, Centers-of-Excellence or regions – just one talent, one company, one globe - how fast can we achieve this?
If I wasn’t in HR I would be…
An astronomer gazing at the universe, or in the airline industry.
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Doris Pek
Director of HR, Learning and Development, and IT, Select Group
Your biggest labour force challenge?
In the food and beverage industry, employees are required to work long hours, over the weekends and public holidays. Hence, we provide flexible work shifts to attract part-timers who are mostly locals and ageing workers. This pool includes the regular part-timers and also student part-timers who are able to cover shifts during the vacations, which coincides with the peak business periods as well. In terms of coordinating schedules, our operations team are trained to plan and manage their manpower, and the introduction of IT initiatives have lessened the challenges of managing such a workforce.
A tough interview question that you always ask?
Are you prepared to work long hours and weekends? Many candidates become less inclined to accept but we always believe in giving candidates realistic portrayals of the job to help manage their expectations.
How do you keep the workplace fun? Any office quirks?
We organise activities to actively engage employees. We have corporate social responsibility events, sports and team-bonding activities amongst the business units. One such event is the Chinese New Year Mass Reunion Dinner organised with Kreta Ayer - Kim Seng CC. It is heartwarming to see 200 volunteers from different business segments and departments coming together to give back to the less fortunate in society. This has become an annual event that many of our employees look forward to.
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William Chin
Staffing director, Qualcomm Asia Pacific
What is the biggest change in HR that you’ve experienced over the past 20 years?
I have been working in the Asia region since 1996 including in countries such as Taiwan, Singapore, Vietnam and China. Multinational companies were just beginning to set up offices in the region then – they started out as small sales offices. Companies were hiring small HR teams to manage the daily operations of these offices. Over the years, business functions have grown. HR teams have also grown from singular digit teams to double digit leadership organisations advancing business growth. Currently, the Asia region has become “must-win” markets for companies.
What HR professionals hate to admit…
The role of HR has grown significantly larger in scope and responsibility. A while back, our work was focused on operations, setting up and managing the HR function, and later we became business partners providing strategic value to business. Today, HR is expected to contribute to areas including compliance, corporate social responsibility and marketing. Companies are facing increasing legal, government and social expectations to be solid corporate citizens in the communities in which they operate. Another hot topic is data analytics. However, HR are not data scientists. While were are used to using metrics or balanced scorecards, HR expertise is not in the area of data mining. We can’t do it all. Nor should we try to do it all. HR must cooperate with various non-HR divisions and work with partners beyond the core HR domain in order to achieve desired outcomes.
Any burning HR questions
What can HR leaders do today to enable the next generation of HR to face the coming challenges?
human resources
Article Summary:
It has been over twelve years since the launch of HRM’s inaugural issue and along the way, we have witnessed the HR profession grow from strength to strength, and evolve from being a mere “enabler” to a valued business partner. Over the years, HRM Asia has forged strong ties and friendships with the local HR community. In this 150th special issue, 30 of the finest HR leaders in Singapore share with us some of the tough decisions that they have had to make, their proudest moments at work, and their thoughts on where the profession will be headed in the next 10 years.
Sub Category:
Case Studies