Staying attuned to your CEO

How important is the role of HR to CEOs in the current economic environment? Three young leaders confide to Lee Xieli the level of reliance they have on HR.

■Ivan Lee

CEO

Thai Express Concepts

People are probably the most important asset in your company. You have to look after them and give them the best. HR needs to be there because we need to look after the people.

I have observed my new HR leader and found that she really listens to the operational staff and tries to incorporate their needs into the HR system. She has not changed anything drastically but I can see her take the effort to really listen to employees, their problems and if possible, adjust little things to fit their schedules or work styles.

As we grow our HR team and as our new head of HR starts to develop better ideas and plans, then we can go into real talent acquisition. In terms of managing top talent, it is not only HR’s job, but also my job and the senior management’s job. HR is part of the team that helps manage our top talent.

In terms of leadership development, HR needs to find the right people to conduit results to the company because leaders who are not tied to results is not leadership. I do expect HR to find the best solutions for the company but every department knows they are supposed to come up with good ideas too.

Largely speaking, HR has been successful in the fact that the company has grown about 200% a year in the last three years. The fact that we can manage and cope with over 1,600 staff now is excellent. Overall, it is the success of dealing with this growth that I think on a macro level, the strategies HR came up with have worked.

■ Valerie Tan

CEO

Pinnacle International

We are no longer a small retail outlet that we once were. During our business expansion into exporting in 2001, there were a lot of skills that we lacked back then. That is when we brought in the HR department to source for talent with skills relevant for our expansion. We realise HR is important because they are so efficient and productive – they get you the right people onboard once they know what your business direction is. I do communicate with HR very closely. If they don’t know what your vision is, they do not know how to plan [for the right kind of people].

I have four HR personnel doing a strategic role for the company because I feel HR should not be just a department. They plan projects for training, transference of knowledge and also identify top talent within departments. In some companies, HR is always at the corner of an organisation chart or double up as the accounts or administration, which I feel is really wrong because HR should be a partner to the company. Why are we emphasising on the importance of people if we do not believe HR is important? They are a strategic partner to your business. They need to align your staff to your business plans.

HR should be advising the CEOs as well. My HR manager tells me when certain strategies may not work and would provide me alternative viable solutions. I would ask what the benefits of the new suggestions are and I would try them out because we have nothing to lose.

■ Gurchran Singh

Group president and co-founder

Cherie Hearts Group International

HR is the essence of any organisation. HR must walk what the bosses say. Its mindset and vision has to be exactly as what the founders view it as. Unless they are not given the initiative and the discretion for it, HR departments can do so much for the organisation. I give my HR the full ability to make decisions, not just on recruitment, but for other programmes as well. Because I give them such liberty, HR comes up with innovative ideas such as having cooking competitions during our Fridays’ recreational period.

I share with my HR vice president my goal because she always thinks of her staff. It is also my personal belief that staff are the reason for the company’s success. HR identifies potential talent for me as well because it is not possible that I am the only one identifying talent all the time. My HR department are the eyes and ears for all talent. They will be telling me all the ideas employees may have come up with and they would let me know which suggestions are feasible, if it incurs too much cost or meet all our requirements. They would also develop training for all the company’s next liners after I have discussed with these future leaders their career goals.

As for coming out with low-cost HR strategies, the fact that they were previously from different departments of the company, they make decisions [regarding costs] very carefully. If I had taken an outsider, somebody not from the same industry, to head HR, then they would just be following the norms. But because my HR is from the field itself, they know how to cut cost and how redeployment can be done.