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"Don't under-estimate the impact of the demographics shift," says Schneider Electric's Dorothy Chan. Enjoy this and the other key takeaways from HRO's flagship conference.
Driven. Energised. Motivated. That’s how you want your talent to feel as Hong Kong enters a period of recovery, with businesses looking to grab new opportunities to make up for the past three years. But recovery isn’t straightforward – exacerbated by the talent drain, corporations in Hong Kong are struggling to hire and retain talent (new and experienced) despite their best efforts.
It is time for a big shift. It is time for ‘The Great Talent Reformation of 2023’.
With this in mind, Human Resources Online held our annual flagship conference, Talent Management Asia 2023, on 7 June 2023 as an in-person, one-day event. Back after three years of pandemic, and curated by Zoe Auclair-Boissonnat, the conference saw more than 150 HR leaders and managers gathering to reimagine their talent strategies with authenticity and resilience, as well as to enjoy the learning and networking opportunities among their peers.
With a wealth of conversations on- and off-stage, here are some snippet takeaways that we gathered at the event.
#1 Consider D&I holistically
Sari Suono-Rasehorn, Chief People & Culture Officer, ISS Hong Kong, grew up in the Finnish countryside and with her background, she appreciates and treats people fairly and with dignity. It's no wonder that she is such a strong advocate of driving diversity & inclusion (D&I) strategy. In fact, with two years still to go for ISS Hong Kong's D&I goals, the progress so far has been incredible.
The team is working on five all-encompassing dimensions of D&I:
- Generations & age
- Cultures, race and ethnicity
- Pride
- Abilities
- Gender balance
"It is key for us to be a true partner to the business," said Suono-Rasehorn. "We build on our values and they are truly part of our everyday world. We believe in recognition, respect, as well as are committed to giving over 100,000 diplomas or other qualifications for employees and their family members, by 2025."
#2 Numbers tell a story
"Without data, you are just another person with an opinion. As HR professionals, we are nowadays sitting on a goldmine of data - but what we do with that data, is what's really important, in order for HR to be the organisation's secret asset," affirmed Mukta Arya, Managing Director, Chief Human Resources Officer, APAC, Societe Generale.
With this, she shared the four depths and varieties of HR analytics that we should be tracking (in sequence):
- Descriptive analytics - understanding what happened in the past, more static
- Diagnostic analytics - understanding why it happened
- Predictive analytics - understanding how (it happened) and repeating it
- Prescriptive analytics - achieving directed and new understanding, also known as persuasive analytics
She went on to remind us: "The reasons why we're doing so many things in human resources is to really help the business move forward. But the fact of the matter is, you have to connect the dots and present things using data. People analytics will be effective when woven into a story, and then presented as a business solution.
"Even simple things like leave utilisation can help you unearth trends in attrition. Are people not using their leave? Does it point to a wellbeing issue?"
#3 Retention in today's competitive market
Hiring, training, and retention are the three pillars of talent management today, many of our speakers agreed. For the first, hiring is not only for skill sets but also for culture fit. For the training, companies really need to invest in tools - they're not just nice-to-have, but they are essential. Outside of salaries, this is where employee spend needs to be focused on - making their life easier. Finally for retention, we need to focus on culture - who is responsible for culture, is it HR, or can we do it alone? Resoundingly no - Every single person in the company is responsible for building culture. Every interaction has an effect - culture can make or break an organisation.
Flexibility to work from anywhere was one of the factors that was thought to come up more often in conversations, wherein panelists agreed people really enjoy the freedom and flexibility, as long as they don't take it for granted. Thus, ground rules need to be set - eg, working in the APAC time zone especially for client-facing roles.
It all comes down to engagement and values. Everyone at the leadership level needs to walk the talk for it to trickle from the top-down.
#4 Living, learning and earning longer
Dorothy Chan, Vice President, Skills Transformation Global Project Lead, Schneider Electric, leads the skills transformation ambition of Schneider to define the strategy on skills management to identify, assess and develop business-critical skills for future growth, and to support employees to develop to their fullest potential.
Under her leadership, a global framework and local programmes anchored around four employee personas has made huge impact for the Schneider multigenerational workforce. Her advice:
- Don't under-estimate the impact of the demographics shift,
- Understand what employees need,
- Flexibilities, transparency, and psychological safety are key, and
- Provide equal opportunities for all generations.
As we wrapped up the on-stage presentations to make room for off-stage roundtable discussions, Charles H. Ferguson, General Manager, APAC, G-P, signed us off on a good note, citing research and his own insights: "A lot of businesses are coming into Hong Kong and using it as a springboard to enter other parts of the world. Even so, per a latest UOB survey, more than 70% of businesses in HK want to expand to other markets.
"When it comes to talent in the region, watch this space! Hong Kong is going to come back like you cannot believe - personally, I am really excited for businesses to organically grow here and expand, but also for the inbound opportunity."
Human Resources Online would like to give our heartfelt gratitude to all speakers, panelists, moderators, and roundtable hosts for lending us their time and expertise towards the success of this one-day platform.
We would also like to thank our sponsors and partners for their limitless support:
Gold Sponsor
G-P
Silver Sponsor
Deel
Exhibitors
Adecco
AXA
Harvard Business Publishing Corporate Learning
LHH
Lyreco
Persolkelly
We hope to see you all again next year!
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Photos / Talent Management Asia 2023
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