HR Magazine’s most recent conference, focused on HR’s role in the knowledge driven economy in equipping employees with the skills, knowledge and attitudes they need to operate in today’s highly competitive environment. In case you didn’t get a chance to make it along on the whole-day to the event at Cliftons, we’ve summarised the key advice from each of our speakers.
Brian Chitester, Chief Personnel Officer, PepsiCo Asia Pacific Region
After a quick introduction from Paul Arkwright, Publisher of HR Magazine, Chitester was the first of the day to take to the stage. He began by sharing his experience of recognising that a large percentage of the business would be eligible for retirement in the coming years, creating a situation where there would not be enough leaders to run a larger, growing business.
15 critical experiences
This realisation led to PepsiCo’s approach for creating their next generation of leaders. To accelerate the development of their high-potential employees they used a combination of 360 feedbacks, functional competencies and performance management. From here, PepsiCo used a methodology where 70% was experiential—interviews with leaders and discussion of experiences to optimise development, 20% was coaching—with a mentor to quantify experience, and only 10% was formal education. The process included spending time in deep self-awareness and the formation of a development plan of ‘15 critical experiences’ required to move up to the next level. He stated that, “…feedback provided the development plan and this now forms part of the succession plan.”
Sharing energy
Chitester emphasised the single most effective point was engaging senior managers to “share their energy.” He pointed out that some of the important principles in the process were to ensure that senior managers were present and engaged in discussions, coaching sessions and key note presentations and allowing plenty of networking time.
He then shared an interesting anecdote of a recent team-building event: by nature, everyone was ultra-competitive which was dysfunctional and made for a great lesson learnt. Some of the areas covered in development included strategic thinking, must-win battles, internal alignment, external stakeholders, deep self-awareness, team building, organisation savvy and values-based leadership including a showing of the movie ‘Hotel Rwanda’.
Talent mobility
He then addressed internal movement, saying that, “movement must include talent mobility” and added, “If people don’t get new roles, you are not developing your next generation of leaders.” He pointed out that dramatic levels of engagement were shown where this was the case and shared some of the key lessons learnt along the way:
- There is no substitute for senior ownership
- Self-awareness tools make improvements
- Executive coaching augments, rather than replaces, the boss
- Forced or convinced moves are sometimes required
Chitester concluded, “Development is for everybody, as everybody contributes to the business but it should be accelerated for those with highest potential.”
Sureish Nathan, Vice President, Centre for Creative Leadership
Nathan presented ideas on ‘The Leadership Gap’ and explained why it matters and what HR managers could do about it. As main sponsor of the event, Nathan began by briefly outlining emphasis that the Centre for Creative Leadership (CCL) placed on peer sharing and learning. Since its establishment 40 years ago, the Centre has conducted significant research in leadership.
Complex challenges
Nathan highlighted two key findings from this research. Firstly, the challenges that organisations are facing are not getting any less complex. Secondly, generally organisations have the right leadership skills to face today’s rapidly changing world. An interesting trend identified in a 2007 CCL survey was the rise of complex challenges. Nathan elaborated, “Compared to five years ago, the rapid rate of change had led to different scenarios and more complex challenges.”
Future-important skills
A further study rated a number of leadership skills in order of current effectiveness and their future importance. There were several skills identified as being currently important, namely leading people, strategic planning, managing change and resourcefulness. The future skills that were identified differed: leading people, strategic planning, inspiring commitment and managing change being cited as the most important. Nathan added that the dynamics are changing and he asked, “How prepared are current leaders for this change?”
Some of the skills identified as being ‘future-important’ are, according to Nathan, “the weakest of today’s leaders.” He added, that “If these gaps are not plugged it can result in the best people walking out the door.” In analysing the gaps, collaboration and the importance of participative management were questioned. Interestingly the study revealed that while 97% of executives said that this was important, only 47% of leaders were skilled collaborators.
Nathan stated that CCL believes in teaching their leaders collaborative skills, but that systems in place in many organisations might not recognise and reward collaboration. There are many complexities that organisations face, including multiple creative viewpoints and the quest for innovation, but that ultimately, “collaboration goes right across the board.”
Cultivating the right leadership
Nathan suggested organisations need to analyse the gaps and then “link the leadership strategy to the business strategy.” He added that a business has a strategy, which is then executed and results are expected. This needs to be capitalised on for growing businesses and the business strategy linked to leadership development. In terms of managing the talent pipeline, Nathan advised organisations to ask:
- What skills and behaviours are needed to fulfil strategies?
- What is the collective capability?
- What leadership culture do you hope to develop?
Nathan said, “Leadership matters—it requires leadership at all levels to execute strategy, buy-in and commitment at every level across the organisation.” He then stressed the importance of cultivating the right leadership. He added that organisations should look at recruitment—methods, value-adds and expectations—and ask themselves if this meets their requirement. “Having the right leaders is about on-going development to meet the business strategy.” He concluded that, “leadership is linked to the culture of the organisation and where you see the organisation going—address the leadership gaps.”
Kenneth Wai, Area Director of Human Resources, Island Shangri-La
Wai began by introducing the importance of employee branding and stressed that engagement and participation of management was required to make it successful.
Community-based holistic approach
Hotels are unique environments providing scope for numerous initiatives to save energy, re-use, recycle and reduce waste. Wai pointed out that, In the end, a true CSR mission requires a more community-based holistic approach, including operating to best practices, striving to be a leader in corporate citizenship and caring well for employees. This CSR mission must also be shared internally and externally to make it more meaningful and Wai added, “Profit is not the only important factor—it is also about what is contributed back to the community.”
5 core CSR areas
The Island Shangri-La mission focuses on five core areas, enabling the organisation to make use of expertise in different backgrounds and included stakeholder relationships.
- Environmental initiatives
- Health & safety
- Supply chain
- Employees
- Stakeholder relations
CSR initiatives
Hotels obviously use a lot of energy and measures to reduce both the usage and costs have led to the creation of an energy saving guideline, which Wai pointed out had facilitated a year-on-year 7% reduction in consumption. A number of initiatives were also implemented to manage water usage, waste disposal and indoor air quality, together with adherence to green hotel guidelines during design and renovation stages.
In terms of health and safety awareness, the group has introduced food safety management systems in all its hotels, and the majority are now HACCP certified.
The organisation also aims to inspire its suppliers to practice CSR and not only issues a supplier’s code of conduct, but also conducts surprise compliance audits to ensure high levels of compliance.
The group aims to create a caring, family environment with an aim to achieve both personal and career goals. This is provided in the form of training programmes often run at a dedicated academy that has been set up in Zhuhai, PRC.
The final step has been to engage stakeholders to embrace projects, fundraising and volunteer activities—achieved through the CSR branding program.
Wai concluded that moving forward, training and best practice is important and that, “Every morning, the same story is shared in all hotels within the group.”
Norris Hickerson, Vice President, COL Limited
With over 25 years’ experience within the Wharf Group, Hickerson discussed ways of aligning human capital with technology as a method of maximising efficiency through business process outsourcing. Throughout his career, Hickerson has seen traditional HR functions evolve to be more strategic and outsourced to specialist and shared service providers.
HR trends affecting BPO
He identified several current trends in HR that affect IT service provider roles:
- Policies are becoming more specific to organisations, even those within the same industries
- Strategic and succession planning is becoming more important
- Increasing pressure on cost control
As the drive is heading towards professionalism in HR management, organisations need to meet more requirements. This has culminated in a focus on employee enablement, such as self-service Internet kiosks. Hickerson added that there are growing pressures on HR: cost pressures, reducing numbers of HR staff, newly emerging roles within HR that are not merely support functions, a need for increased efficiency and limited IT support. He stated that in Hong Kong, many organisations are still “vertically integrated” and that platform based business process outsourcing is increasingly becoming an alternative.
Clear, creative strategies
Wharf T&T itself is starting to see a creative way in how companies are looking at their own operations. Hickerson stated, “This is already happening in India; emerging in China and the Philippines, but is yet to have a significant flow on effect for organisations in Hong Kong.” He added that BPO success stories have a commonality, “The organisation knew exactly what they were trying to achieve and were committed to maintaining strategic control of what they were outsourcing.” Best practice of outsourcing includes low value, high volume aspects of the business such as benefits, payroll, employee data management and the employee contact centre. He concluded that to ensure success organisations should make a value proposition “…to enhance HR’s values and the strategic focus of their organisations through standardising HR processes and technology and providing a predictable and scalable operation cost.”
Panel debate: state of employee health in Hong Kong
The afternoon session kicked off with a Panel Debate on the state of employee health in Hong Kong. The panel, chaired by Alex Cheung, Hewitt Associates Hong Kong; comprised Mike Ramsay, Director, Alliance Insurance Services Limited; Brock Judiesch, Sales Director, CIGNA International and Professor Sian Meryl Griffiths (OBE), Director, School of Public Health and Primary Care, CUHK.
Increasing pressure to improve Hong Kong healthcare
Ramsay stressed the importance for HR to ensure that employee benefits continue to reflect the needs of their employees. Judiesch welcomed the Government’s decision to enter the insurance market, stating it would have the benefit of keeping providers honest. Professor Griffiths pointed out that healthcare is not just an issue of insurance and health costs, but that it is also important to consider wellness and positive policies to reduce stress at work. She added that this doesn’t have to cost financially, but does require organisation. She explained, “You must have policies in place, to deal with circumstances such as epidemics of chronic disease like diabetes and high blood pressure. Make sure employees are working in a health promoting environment and that the insurance sector is taking these into consideration.”
Keep policies updated
Ramsay pointed out that many insurers had not changed their policies for years and yet retention rate was 96%. With so much ‘stickiness’ there was little incentive for insurers to update policies, and so he advised HR managers to analyse their existing insurance coverage, compare this with current staff requirements and then start making demands to their insurers. Judiesch stated that HR should also be looking for true, interactive and proactive wellness programmes, for example those that include onsite nurse visits.
Enhancing work life balance
Professor Griffiths stressed the importance of promoting positive mental health. She suggested adoption of stress reduction programmes such as reduced working hours to counteract the existing culture of inflexible work schedules and frequent weekend work.
Ramsay stated that the number one obstacle to employee wellness is financial, with 70% of employees actively looking for alternative employment because of financial pressures in their life. He explained that the problem could be easily solved by running financial wellness activities for staff, which could reduce absenteeism and turnover by 90% without costing a penny. To achieve this he recommended HR look at employee financial wellness in three stages.
Physical and financial protection: health and life insurance.
Financial well-being: helping employees accumulate wealth and save for retirement and/or children’s education.
Emotional and physical well-being: work life integration.
Professor Griffiths highlighted the cultural stigma attached to mental health issues in Asia, where staff are reticent about seeking help because they are worried they may be labelled and not get promoted. She advised HR directors to create more open discussion and look at other countries, such as the UK which has a ‘healthcare bazaar to help get people back to work.
What should employers look for in staff healthcare plans?
Judiesch said HR should look carefully at pre existing exclusions, stating, “The devil is in the details and you need to ask those questions [about what exactly is covered]”. Ramsay highlighted three things staff felt were most important in respect of healthcare coverage: maternity, traditional Chinese medicine and provider network. He reminded HR managers to bear these elements in mind when updating their insurance policies.
Diana Tsui, Director, Corporate Social Responsibility, KPMG
Tsui spoke on programmes to help get staff involved and engaged with CSR. She began by outlining the rapidly evolving trend for CSR, illustrated by the fact that in 2007 there were only 16 CSR reports, while this had risen to over 500 in 2009. She also explained how the scope of CSR had broadened over time to encompass more issues including corruption, climate change, employee relations and talent retention.
CSR platform
KPMG has developed and engaged their 9,000 plus staff members through a CSR platform. Every year the company recruits over 1,000 graduates, so CSR and staff engagement is critical, Tsui pointed out that, “Gen-Y in particular want to be associated with a company that’s credible, has a good CSR programme and a platform for engagement.” She added, “To add value and enhance productivity CSR needs to tie in with business issues. CSR issues such as community investment relate to innovation, competitive pressure and attracting and retaining talent. Identifying these CSR issues is the key to success.” In essence, CSR should be embedded in the business because talented people want to work for a company that they feel has the right values and a good reputation.
Enhancing employer attractiveness
Tsui also cited a recent Universum survey that revealed CSR ranked as the one of the key drivers of employer attractiveness for university students, along with employer reputation and work-life balance. KPMG conduct their own people surveys every two years, and in 2008 over 97% of staff said they would like to use their skills to support an NGO or charity.
CSR programmes
Tsui explained how KPMG had instead taken a bottom-up and top-down approach to CSR. Each office has a Social and Environmental Action Team (SEAT) formed from volunteers and a partner who is in charge of the committee. She explained that the system worked so effectively because all the team were passionate about coordinating and driving their own programmes. One such programme involves a staff member working with the Society for Community Organization (SoCO) in Sham Shui Po. They mentor children, helping with schoolwork or problems at home. Operation Smile is another KPMG CSR programme which sends volunteers for a week to assist doctors and nurses operating on people with cleft lips. Two employees, one from KPMG China, were also sent to Antarctica to experience the effects of climate change first hand and gauge the significance of reducing carbon emissions. Upon their return to Hong Kong the staff members then acted as ambassadors, which not only facilitated their own personal development and enhanced leadership skills, but also benefited the rest of the team.
Interactive CSR platform
Tsui explained, “It is important to build an interactive platform for people to voice their thinking and engage and anticipate the initiative and we always develop an internal CSR portal with information about key issues and how they can get involved.” She added, “Nowadays CSR is non-negotiable. People won’t sacrifice their interests or passions. Working 8.00am until10.00pm is unacceptable for Gen-Y and our responsibility as HR professionals is to educate managers about the mindset of the new generation.” Tsui concluded that if staff members are not interested in CSR, HR should not pressurise them. She added that everything must be voluntary, and if HR directors wanted to encourage staff, the best thing they could do is ensure the company gives employees the time and opportunities needed.
Brian Walker, VP, Human Resources, Walmart Asia
Walker, the last speaker to take to the stage, spoke on talent management in terms of how Walmart identified and developed leaders to enhance corporate wellness.
Preparing for growth
Walmart’s biggest challenge is preparing for growth. With 113,000 associates currently, and a projected increase to 1.2 million within 10 years, Walker explained, “Finding and developing leaders is essential if we are to continue our success.” To achieve this Walmart has implemented ‘P3’ a triple pipeline, as they need three separate talent pipelines to fill different strategic initiatives. Walker went on to explain how ‘P3’ aims to know and fill vacant roles internally through knowing talent in the pipeline, so that the company can identify who will be ready in 5 to 15 years to lead a business. In this way the organisation can compile a list that allows them to see where they have a robust pipeline and where they don’t. He added, “Growth readiness is essential because we need leaders and leadership readiness. When entering a new market we need to be able to transfer certain capabilities, achieved through setting up an infrastructure and having pre-identified the right people.”
Ensuring leadership readiness
In order to provide leaders and ensure leadership readiness Walmart identifies, enhances and benchmarks. Firstly, the organisation addresses competency gaps through Independent Development Plans (IDPs) and the Regional Walmart University. Everyone is required to have an IDP and Walker explained how the organisation helped them put together meaningful development plans by teaching both HR and individuals. Through the Walmart University the organisation is able to design training by knowing where strengths lie. High engagement of HIPOS within P3 is essential and Walker pointed out, “You can’t just leave them there. They need some handholding. Tell them they’re on the programme and that you believe in them, offer compensation and protect them.”
Secondly, to improve business capabilities, Walmart has also set up the Merchant Academy, which makes use of top performers, who have recently been away on short-term assignments, to share what they gained by teaching others key skills, before they return to their normal jobs.
Although expensive and requiring commitment from senior management, according to Walker, this method has been very successful in helping to build a pool of people who care. Thirdly, to achieve acquisition readiness, the organisation identifies talent by going beyond the region, to identify which people, in specific functions, are leading the way.
Avoiding last-minute scrambles for leaders
Walker was candid in revealing that when acquisitions come up, teams are often set up at the last minute. Consequently, there is frequently a big scramble to find leaders and all processes are thrown out of the window. For HR directors finding themselves in similar predicaments, Walker advised, “The solution is in pre-identifying them and having an integrated team throughout—a team that care and who hold accountability.”
Paul Arkwright
Publisher
