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CEO Adj Prof (Dr) Raymond Chua tells us how blending digital tools with personal touchpoints is reshaping how employees access support, feel heard, and stay empowered.
The Health Sciences Authority (HSA) sees employee experience as more than just efficient HR services; it’s about building a culture of empowerment, care, and trust.
Guided by its ‘pyramid of care’ model, the team has found a way to scale personalisation without losing the human touch – an effort that has led it to earn a gold award for ‘Best HR Digital Transformation Strategy’ at the Employee Experience Awards 2025, Singapore.
From the launch of its Moments@HSA portal to embedding psychological safety into daily interactions, every initiative seeks to empower teams to drive real change. As Adj Prof (Dr) Raymond Chua, Chief Executive Officer, affirms in this interview, digital transformation at HSA begins with one core principle: trust your people, and the innovation will follow.
Q How does your team define "employee experience", and what aspects do you prioritise most?
Our staff derive deep, intrinsic value from HSA's mission and play a vital role in protecting public health through robust regulation, administering justice through forensic excellence, and saving lives through blood services. Our employee experience is built on the foundation of "IGNITE" - a holistic approach that views each person's journey through multiple dimensions.
I would prioritise Empowerment the most. It's foundational to enabling the other principles. Given HSA's vital role in public health, administration of justice and blood services, staff need to be well-equipped and supported to handle these high-stakes responsibilities. Without proper resources, tools and support (Empowerment), staff cannot effectively drive innovation, pursue growth opportunities, build meaningful networks, participate inclusively and contribute to transformation. Empowered employees are more likely to maintain the high standards required in regulatory, forensic, and public healthcare work.
Q Can you walk us through your most high-impact EX initiative that led to your success at the awards this year? What business need did it solve, and how was success measured?
Moments@HSA, our in-house HR portal, emerged from a critical observation by our lean HR team: information flow gaps were driving an unsustainable volume of staff queries. Our research revealed that 89% of employees believed a centralised HR portal would significantly improve their experience, particularly in addressing challenges of fragmented and outdated information.
What makes Moments@HSA truly special is that it exemplifies our IGNITE principles through genuine ground-up innovation. Our HR team, without being tasked, identified this opportunity and proactively pitched the solution to senior management. They embraced the challenge of learning new skills, from portal development to content design, whilst actively engaging employees through focus groups to shape the portal's direction.
The team's commitment to user-centric design led them to completely reimagine our staff handbook and HR policies. They transformed what was once a static information repository into an intuitive platform where employees can access any HR information within three clicks. This approach to simplification and accessibility has proven transformative.
The impact has been remarkable. Beyond providing immediate access to accurate HR information, the portal has significantly reduced routine queries, allowing our HR team to focus on more complex, value-adding activities.
The platform continues to evolve through regular user feedback and content enhancement, ensuring it remains relevant and user-friendly.
Most importantly, this initiative has demonstrated how empowered teams can drive meaningful change. The results speak for themselves: streamlined HR operations, enhanced information accessibility, and significantly improved employee experience across all departments. Moments@HSA stands as a testament to what can be achieved when we trust our teams to innovate and solve real problems.
Q How do you balance personalised employee needs with scalable EX programmes?
The key to striking this balance lies in what I call our "pyramid of care" approach. At the foundation, we build robust digital platforms like Moments@HSA and our AI-powered chatbot (MoMo) that provide instant, personalised responses 24/7. This digital infrastructure ensures consistent quality at scale while freeing up our HR teams for more complex matters.
We've learned that personalisation means giving employees choice in how they engage with our systems - whether through self-service, chatbot interactions, or direct support. By analysing usage patterns across these channels, we continuously refine our solutions based on real employee experiences and needs.
While automation handles routine queries efficiently, our HR business partners remain equipped for unique situations requiring a personal touch.
This approach has proven successful, with positive feedback showing that technology, when thoughtfully deployed, can actually make HR services feel more personal, not less.
Q What are some underappreciated drivers of employee engagement that you think deserve more attention?
True employee engagement isn’t solely about perks or programmes — it’s about psychological safety, autonomy, and trust. When our employees feel empowered to voice their ideas, innovation flourishes. Micromanagement stifles creativity; autonomy fuels motivation. Ownership is cultivated when individuals control their work and receive recognition daily, not just at milestones.
But engagement isn’t a metric — it’s a reflection of leadership. Empathy, genuine investment in people, and commitment to well-being make engagement an organic force. Leaders who truly care don’t measure engagement; they embody it. When trust is embedded and appreciation is a natural part of daily interactions, engagement ceases to be an initiative, it becomes the lifeblood of a thriving organisation. The future of work isn’t about tracking engagement; it’s about fostering a culture where it’s deeply felt.
Q Finally, what is the most important message that you'd like to share with your team as you plan?
Our journey demands both urgency and patience. As we transform together, remember that every small innovation, every learning opportunity, and every collaborative effort builds toward our larger vision. Success isn't just about what we achieve, but how we achieve it - through trust, mutual support, and shared purpose.
We're not just building an organisation; we're creating a legacy that will impact lives beyond our borders. Let's embrace this journey with pride, purpose, and the courage to aim higher.
Read more interviews on why organisations have won trophies for their HR practices - head over to our Winning Secrets section!
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