AmCham’s Human Resource Conference

HR Magazine recently attended AmCham’s Human Resource Conference, which focused on HR’s role in driving business performance.

Tony Tyler, Chief Executive, Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd., gave an insightful opening keynote on high performance in a people business. He spoke about overcoming the unique challenges that the aviation industry presents. He said, "Its natural condition is crisis." It is very competitive, heavily operational and governed by tight legislation. Furthermore, they are faced with growing expectations of customers and shareholders and an ever-growing and divergent workforce incorporating three generations with different aspirations and expectations and then of course volcanic eruptions—most notably the recent disruptions to European air traffic caused by the Iceland volcano Eyjafjallajökull.

Tyler views Cathay as “An organism—a series of complex relationships among human beings.” For this organism to survive and grow there must be interaction and solid relationships. He pointed out that as human beings we are not purely rational, but we are rational and emotional and stress increases the influence of emotion and the likelihood of non-rational behaviour. It also decreases discretionary effort and often affects employees other roles as husband or wife, parent, child or friend.

Aviation requires creative problem solving, innovation and responsiveness—not stress. Tyler noted that sometimes problems appear to come out of the blue, quoting Gary Hamel of Fortune Magazine, who said: “Every business is successful until it’s not.” Effective people management is vital; therefore Cathay invests heavily in growing their team internally—especially for top management. As part of their development managers move departments, exposing them to a wide spectrum of responsibilities and job functions. Exchanges with other organisations to gain insight and perspective enable fresh thinking and encourage people to challenge the status quo.

Panel discussion
The first panel discussion, “Measuring HR's Impact on business performance” comprised Tom Armstrong, Head of Human Resources, Asia/Japan, Aon Corporation and Dr. Chris Chan, Associate Professor in Accounting and Finance, Faculty of Business & Economics and Assistant Dean & Director of MBA Programs, The University of Hong Kong, With Harriet Holbrook-Lui, Senior Consultant, PDI Ninth House & Co-Vice-chair, AmCham HR Committee acting as moderator.

Training and development are highly visible costs and return on investment can be very difficult to measure, however Chan said, “Human capital should be seen as a strategic asset, rather than cost centre.” Adding, “This can be done through the HR scorecard that helps policy implementation and enables a shift from cost to value.” He divided the HR scorecard into strategy, operations, internal processes and customers and finance. He recommended the identification of HR deliverables so that managers understand and are therefore willing to pay.

Armstrong reminded us that anything can be measured, but what is important is whether or not it is of value. When measuring human capital firstly you must decide how to measure. HR strategy and metrics must be linked to the business strategy and have input from stakeholders—find out how they want it published and keep it simple and transparent.

Armstrong stressed the importance of what he described as being “joined at the hip with the CEO”. HR Directors must speak the language of business and understand what a CEO needs form HR, for example if they are fire, you should be water. HR must resolve people issues, sensitively and completely so they do not reoccur and channel corporate HR and to keep those pressures away from the CEO.

Bank on it
Moira Dickson, Senior Vice President, HR (Head of HR risk), Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Asia Pacific offered some interesting insight to working in a people business and the risks involved and the lessons they have learned in the past two years, namely the merger of The Bank of America and Merrill Lynch which took place over a weekend and was very much a “live experience”.

Dickson explained that during the merger a back to basics approach was adopted. Every HR executive worked with the head of business to establish key requirements and needs of both banks and conduct cultural assessment and foster strong relations. Business objectives were consolidated to one sheet and were targeted, specific and consolidated and therefore measurable. It required a huge integrated effort over six weeks. The first quarterly review was conducted with all business leaders and regional HR leadership. Through this process they were able to consolidate and assimilate HR functions.

Bank of America and Merril Lynch were two different organisations with different populations—Bank of America was predominantly retail, while Merrill Lynch was wealth management and investment. The two organisations still remain and Dickson said, “Fundamentally it worked because the leadership made it work and there was a shared determination to ensure both companies survive.”

Action learning
The conference was rounded off by Alvin Miyasato, Regional Programme Manager—Leadership Development for Asia Finance, Intel Asia. According to Miyasato, people learn more effectively on the job, therefore Intel Asia have initiated action learning which he described as, "the combining of learning with work and work with learning for the benefit of the enterprise". Combining action learning and business objectives created an infusion of new ideas. Furthermore, Intel was able to build and test the talent pipeline.

Through its leadership action learning programme, Intel found that HR facilitation is impacted by a lack of business acumen so HR personnel are now given a crash course in topics they will be working on. The feedback has been very positive and helped with strategic road mapping for the future.