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Jinny Chong, Executive Vice President, Group People & Organisation, shares how Silverlake Axis managed to turn its unique challenges around into its main goals.
In this evolving business climate, Silverlake Axis understands that standing still isn't an option. Instead, the key is to take small steps towards change is better than staying put. With this, the organisation's mission is to keep moving forward by continuously building momentum, by exploring alternatives in its talent acquisition and improving its talent management, amongst other areas.
"By doing this, we not only keep up with our industry's changing needs, but we could also work towards creating a growth-oriented work culture," comments Jinny Chong, Executive Vice President, Group People & Organisation.
At the HR Excellence Awards, Malaysia (2023), Silverlake Axis emerged as winners in the following categories:
- Gold in Best HR Team (MNC)
- Silver in Excellence in Recovery & Rebound Strategy
- Bronze in Excellence in Crisis Management Planning
Read on Chong shares how Silverlake Axis managed to turn its unique challenges around into its main goals.
Q Congratulations on your top performance at the HR Excellence Awards! How has your HR and people strategy contributed to your success this year?
The proactive implementation of our people strategy – Project Starlight – has been instrumental in our commitment to enhancing the employee experience and fostering a workspace where our people can thrive in.
We believe in data-driven decisions, hence, through our insights from our past annual employee engagement surveys, we identified key areas to enhance our people experience, such as boosting our employees’ career growth and personal development. Therefore, we committed to implementing programmes that support every stage of our employees' career journey. This is why we introduced our robust learning framework, One Silverlake Academy, which covers a wide range of learning initiatives, such as graduate programmes for fresh graduate new joiners, upskilling and reskilling programmes, and leadership development. As a whole, these have enabled us to create a better career experience for our people from the moment they join our organisation.
When we see our people grow throughout their career in Silverlake Axis, it is then that we could see the success reflected in their journey towards their better selves.
Q Looking back at your achievements, what aspect of your HR initiatives are you most proud of and why?
We are most proud of our One Silverlake Academy, which has been a significant milestone as a result of our collective efforts. Our team, while still relatively young, has put in tremendous effort to gain the support of both our stakeholders and people all the way from the planning stage to the implementation. Therefore, a lot of energy and time were invested to build the necessary momentum for One Silverlake Academy.
This initiative holds a special place in our hearts because of the transformative impact – it empowers our people to acquire new skills, develop their talents, and achieve their full potential. What makes us especially proud is that One Silverlake Academy plays a crucial role in our learning culture transformation, which has improved by leaps and bounds as compared to the past.
As we look to the future, we are excited to see how our initiative will grow. We will continue to refine our programmes, adapt to our people’s needs, and ensure that the academy remains at the forefront of our HR efforts.
Q During your HR journey, what were some significant obstacles you faced, and how did you overcome them to achieve excellence?
In our early days as an HR team, we faced unique challenges, which we turned around as our main goals – which is to find the right people for our organisation and keep our employees happy.
To get our HR initiatives on the right track, it requires careful consideration and planning. Before putting our people strategies into action, we collected feedback by listening to our people, conducted research on the industry’s best practices, and ensured that our strategies matched both our people and organisation's goals.
In this evolving business climate, standing still isn't an option. We believe that taking small steps towards change is better than staying put. So, our mission is to keep moving forward by continuously building momentum, by exploring alternatives in our talent acquisition (e.g., collaborating with academic institutions, participating career fairs), improving our talent management (e.g., encourage employee voice, enhancing learning initiatives), and improving two-way communication (e.g., introducing a channel for our people to reach out to us).
By doing this, we not only keep up with our industry's changing needs, but we could also work towards creating a growth-oriented work culture.
Q How does your organisation measure the success and impact of your HR initiatives?
To assess our initiatives, we gather feedback through regular surveys, check-in sessions, and pulse surveys. We believe in a balance of quantitative and qualitative insights – while we value data-driven decisions, we also recognised the significance of understanding our people's experiences beyond numbers. Therefore, gathering multidimensional feedback allows us to continuously refine our initiatives based on our people's evolving needs.
Our annual employee engagement survey is a key component in understanding our people’s overall experiences with our people initiatives. By listening to their voice, we are also able to continuously enhance our strategies. For example, we gathered feedback on our learning initiatives under One Silverlake Academy. It is through this process that we can fine-tune the framework to ensure that what we deliver is adapted to our people and business needs, and will boost our growth as an organisation.
Q In what direction do you see the HR/people function evolving in the future, considering the emerging trends?
As HR, we are witnessing the increasing integration of technology and data-driven decision-making, such as predictive analytics, leveraging AI for smarter recruitment, and actively engaging with employees through feedback and sentiment analysis. However, we need to balance this out by seeking to understand the experiences of our people beyond numbers.
Learning and development is another core aspect – microlearning, personalised training paths, and innovative tools to make learning engaging and tailored to individual needs are growing to be prominent in the market. Apart from people growth, we are also happy to see the significant shift in focus on enhancing employee wellbeing and experience. With initiatives putting the spotlight on mental health, work-life support, career progression, and recognition and rewards, we're striving to make the human side of HR more meaningful.
As we navigate these trends, as HR, we should take charge and be proud to take the next step towards shaping a future where technology enhances our work experience and career journey.
Read more interviews on why organisations have won trophies for their HR practices - head over to our Winning Secrets' section!
Lead image / Human Resources Online
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