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Ias Ari Mahaputra Naibaho, Job Analyst, shares how empathy-led communication, short-form storytelling, and AI tools have helped Bank Indonesia close the gap between HR policy and employee engagement.
At Bank Indonesia, the push to rethink HR did not begin with a new system or policy. It started with empathy. Drawing from personal experience as a cancer survivor, traveller, and employee who had served across diverse units, Ias Ari Mahaputra Naibaho (pictured below), Job Analyst, and his team at Bank Indonesia saw a growing disconnect between formal HR communication and how employees actually engaged with it. This gap became known internally as the ‘LOL problem’ (low awareness, overload of formal communication, and lack of adoption).
To address this, the Policy and Culture Management Division took a different approach, turning HR policy into stories that employees could relate to. This led to the creation of Tribe content, supported by PowerApps-based FAQ MSDM and an AI-powered chatbot, APSI, designed to make HR information easier to access and more human.
The shift was not without challenges. Operating within the formal culture of a central bank, the team had to strike a balance between creativity and compliance. Early signals, such as low internal video views, showed that the message was not landing as intended. To resolve the problem, surveys were conducted, content tone was softened, and storytelling was prioritised over formality. Collaboration became key, with interns, culture ambassadors, and the BI Employee Union (IPEBI) co-creating content and sharing ownership of engagement.
These efforts were recognised at the HR Excellence Awards 2025, Indonesia, where Ias took home the silver trophy for ‘Young HR Talent of the Year’ award and Bank Indonesia won the bronze trophy for ‘Excellence in HR Communication Strategy’.
Speaking to HRO after the awards, Ias shares:
Turn policies into stories that honour both performance and well-being — and you’ll build an organisation where excellence and humanity grow together.
Q Tell us about your inspiring HR initiative - what sparked the idea, and how did you know it was the right path to take?
Our story began not with policy, but with empathy. As a cancer survivor and traveller — combined with my experience serving in diverse units such as IT, strategic procurement, and Bank Indonesia representatives office in Papua & West Papua Province, I saw firsthand that formal communication often failed to connect across the organisation. This distance led to the 'LOL problem' (low awareness, overload of formal communication, and lack of adoption). This sparked the idea for Tribe content — a movement to translate HR policy into relatable storytelling.
Alongside that, we built PowerApps-based FAQ MSDM and our AI-powered chatbot, APSI. The moment we saw the usage of our FAQ MSDM platform spike by +1,426 in a single day, we knew we had unlocked the right path —using empathy and technology to humanise HR.
Q Every journey has its ups and downs – can you share a challenge your team faced and how you worked through it together?
Our biggest challenge was balancing creativity within the formal culture of a central bank. Early on, our internal video views were low, signalling that our content wasn’t relatable enough or the adoption rate was still low — or worse, both.
We overcame this through collaboration. To fix the low views, we introduced dynamic placements via email signatures and WhatsApp stickers. Regarding the formal tone, we conducted surveys to gather more about what our audience feels and adopted a soft-selling, storytelling-based short-form video strategy based on the result of the survey. Most importantly, we built co-creation workflows with interns, culture ambassadors, and the BI Employee Union (IPEBI). This collaborative network distributed the content load, proving that collaboration plays a big role!
Q What impact has this initiative had on your organisation so far, and what do you hope it inspires in the wider HR community?
The impact has been profound, measured in both human connection and efficiency. Our storytelling approach, through internal (SharePoint and Power Apps) and external platforms (Instagram via @whatsonipebi), achieved a breakthrough in HR branding, generating nearly 1mn total views and increasing followers dramatically. Internally, our Power Apps-based and AI-based tools (FAQ MSDM and APSI) efficiently minimised the daily workload by handling nearly 300 questions in a month, truly aligning with our spirit of 'humanizing human capital' and improving the work-life balance.
We hope our journey inspires the HR community that HR policies are not just rules, but stories of care and meaning. Use modern tools and approach, such as short-form video and AI, not to replace, but to amplify that human touch.
Our success proves that young HR professionals can drive cultural traction by making policies felt and relatable, not just followed.
Q Looking back, is there a moment, person, or value that kept you and your team motivated throughout the journey?
The constant spark that kept us going was the spirit to deliver our best work but keep us human by not sacrificing our own time to rest. Having experienced roles in Papua, IT, and procurement, I valued perseverance and the power of diverse internal perspectives. The single most motivating moment was the overwhelming success of some of our HR campaigns. We produced a series of videos involving interns, culture ambassadors, and even senior leaders. The fact that this campaign successfully helped not only to deliver employee value proposition as part of HR Policies, but also improving the engagement rate, followers count, and impression of Bank Indonesia Employee Association (IPEBI)’s Instagram.
These achievements were immensely rewarding and kept us motivated throughout the journey. This showed that our unique approach — blending personal adversity with creative content execution — was truly making HR policy feel alive and relevant to our employees.
Q If you could offer one golden nugget of wisdom to HR professionals aiming for excellence, what would it be?
If I could pass on one golden nugget, it would be this:
Empathy is your most strategic advantage.
Excellence is achieved when you put emotional connection into it. Trends and technology matter, but communication only resonates when you begin by listening. When we grounded our work in empathy, policy language transformed into conversations people wanted to watch, share, and engage with. Young HR professionals can shape culture not by pushing information, but by making it relatable.
Turn policies into stories that honour both performance and well-being — and you’ll build an organisation where excellence and humanity grow together.
Read more interviews on why organisations have won trophies for their HR practices - head over to our Winning Secrets section!
Images / Provided
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