The Futurist 2014

As the scope of HR rapidly changes, HR professionals are required to not only keep up with the evolution of the industry which has already been realised, but they’re required to plan ahead for the changes and challenges to come.

On 23 April, Human Resources welcomed hundreds of the region’s top HR professionals for the very first The Futurist 2014 conference, held at the Shangri-La Hotel in Singapore.

As the rebalancing world economy generates a diverse need for talent in Singapore, HR professionals are expected to take on a more strategic role alongside C-suite executives, all the while understanding how to use data and analytics to predict future trends, keep up to date with the latest HR technology advances and stay on top of the changing local manpower policies which will shape how organisations attract, retain and develop key talent.

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The day started with two excellent speakers who perfectly set the tone for the conference by outlining the future of HR from a demographical, legislative and economic perspective. After all, how can we know where we’re going, if we don’t know where we’ve come from or what we’re up against?

Gerard Koh, vice-president of HR at SMRT, kicked off with his opening keynote which went over the finer points of Singapore’s demographical changes – including the statistics from the controversial Population White Paper – to help the room understand why the need for change exists. He also covered the implications of the Fair Consideration Framework on future HR strategy.

Then, Byron Rienstra, global head of HR consumer banking at Standard Chartered, gave an insightful presentation that mapped Singapore’s talent challenges against economic growth projections. This was followed by the first panel session of the day, which discussed the future of Singapore’s workforce, with Tai Mern Yee, CHRO at JURONG International; Chee Nian Tze, group general manager of HR at Robinsons & RSH Group of Companies; and Tang Seok Hian, head of talent management for Southeast Asia at Starcom MediaVest Group.

Adapting to the changes in Singapore’s labour laws should be done while keeping the strengths and unique characteristics of every industry in mind, the panel agreed, adding HR practitioners need to place a greater reliance on local skill sets to fill their talent pools.

But the diverse range of industries present in the region makes it impossible to have “a set template” to deal with the changes, said Tai Mern Yee of JURONG International.

Following a morning break, the conference continued with a fantastic on-stage interview, moderated by event host and Human Resources editor, Rebecca Lewis, with the CEO and HR director of Maersk Line.

CEO Thomas Riber Knudsen and the HR director of APAC, Rupert Brown, presented an incredibly honest look into their working relationship, and what the CEO expects from HR – and vice versa. The candid interview highlighted some thought-provoking material for HR delegates in the audience, and even ended with some of the attendees giving Brown advice on how HR can better utilise data to get the CEO on side.

Joydeep Bose, president and global head of HR at Olam International, then gave a keynote on the evolution of HR from first generation to business critical, which was followed by another keynote on innovation, competitiveness and technology by Subbaraman Ramaswamy, vice-president of the Asia business at Ramco.

A panel on the future of HR’s role in business allowed for much discussion around how the HR function is about to evolve, particularly in reference to technology, data and social HR.

This panel included Timothy Cheong, group HR director at Banyan Tree; Oliver Grohmann, HR senior VP at Daimler South East Asia; Madan Nagaldinne, head of HR, APAC, at Facebook; and Vineet Gambhir, VP and head of talent, APAC, at Yahoo.

After lunch, two more keynote presentations took place – a hard look into big data and transforming people with analytics by Gambhir, and the technological transformation in HR from Jodie Choo, director of group HR at Far East Organization.

Following this, Ujjwal Sarao, regional talent director at Dentsu Aegis Network/Southeast Asia, Sanjeev Kumar, VP of HR, APAC, at Moody’s, Choo and Nagaldinne sat on a panel to discuss the future of HR technology. This conversation centred on HR shared services, HRMS and how each of these HR leaders was currently navigating their journey through the tech space to better optimise the function and the business.

The end of the day saw two final keynotes – a look into adapting your C&B strategy and boosting your EVP to win the future war on talent by Cheong, and an overview of the next generation of leaders and the true value of leadership development programmes by Daimler’s Grohmann.

The day concluded with a rapid-fire session, where panellists could answer questions gathered from throughout the day to ensure all topics, debates and challenges within the room had been covered. This panel included Sarao, Kumar, Koh and Virendra Shelar, head of corporate HR at Sony Electronics Asia Pacific.

It was a truly successful event, and we look forward to seeing everyone back at the next event.

A huge thank you to our sponsors for helping us put together The Futurist 2014: Ramco, Far East Hospitality and British Council.