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Kraft Heinz Indonesia took home several awards at the HR Excellence Awards 2021, Indonesia:
- Gold for HR Leader of the Year - Dina Sitopu, People and Performance Director Indonesia and PNG, Kraft Heinz Indonesia,
- Bronze for Excellence in Employee Engagement,
- Silver for Excellence in Graduate Recruitment and Development,
- Silver for Excellence in HR Change Management, and
- Silver for Excellence in Learning and Development
In this interview, we speak to award-winner Dina Sitopu on how the company continued to push on and make bold decisions on its journey forward, despite upheavals faced during the pandemic — including a re-look at their employee wellbeing programmes, sustaining a culture of collaboration, and more.
Q Tell us a little bit about your journey reaching here – how did you get here and what was most important to you during this process? 
When the pandemic broke out, we couldn’t have imagined what impact that COVID-19 would have on people’s lives, and on Kraft Heinz. Now, two years into the pandemic, we are grateful and proud of how we grappled with the uncertainties and how we continued to strive and thrive together as a team amidst this challenging time.
Despite the upheavals we faced, we’ve never shied away from making bold decisions to continue our journey and to achieve our visions and goals. We believe it is part of leadership’s role to cultivate courage in the face of uncertainty. Also, the value of 'we dare to do better every day' is one of the values we uphold in the organisation that makes us who we are now, reaching this stage in our journey.
Q What would you list as your company’s most meaningful contribution to employees in the last 12-18 months?
With the rapid changes happening due to the pandemic situation, and all its adversities, we realised that the needs of our employees have also changed. 
We re-looked at our programmes and initiatives to have better employee wellbeing, re-thought the strategy to adapt to digital transformation, and sustained our collaborative culture by providing suitable resources that fuel innovation and teamwork – starting from technological resources to a new workplace layout that supports a hybrid working environment.
Many initiatives have also been launched to help our employees grow, both personally and professionally, and engage in the organisation through various learning and development and employee engagement programmes. On top of that, we also have a series of LiveWell programmes to help employees cope with this challenging situation as well as support them physically, mentally, and financially.
Q What are some challenges you've had to overcome, both as a CHRO and as a people leader, and how did you get past them? What was your biggest learning?
Challenges during the COVID-19 situation are indeed inevitable, and of course, are never easy. Starting from business continuity, employee wellness, to sudden shifts in work culture, all have brought disruptions in the organisation that force us to adapt to new ways of working, reinvent our business trajectory, and build seamless strategies to overcome them.
However, we see the challenges as an opportunity for us to drive digital transformation and stimulate more innovations to grow our people and our business. We continue to galvanise the culture of creativity and collaboration in the organisation, and live the spirit of 'the power of We'. We couldn’t have gone through this challenging situation without a strong collaboration among all the employees of Kraft Heinz.
Q Onwards and upwards! Can you share some highlights of your year ahead in 2022, and what your workforce can look forward to?
It is exciting to share that we have a new office layout in 2022 as part of our efforts in adopting a hybrid work model to empower our employees, keep them engaged, and stimulate more collaboration in the office to drive better results.
One of our main priorities is to strengthen our health and wellbeing programme to be more integrated. Other strategies and initiatives will also be launched to enhance the learning spirit and learning culture to improve our people’s capabilities and support their individual development plans.
Moreover, we will also continue to work with all employees to improve a positive working culture through recognition and collaboration, as well as maintain a fun, exciting, and rewarding experience throughout our employees’ journey at Kraft Heinz.
Q Bring out your crystal ball - 10 years down the line, where do you see the future of HR?
Looking ahead to the next 10 years, the role of HR, when it comes to prioritisation, ways of working, and the working environment will gradually change. HR will fully take a strategic and critical role in navigating the future business, be involved in all business processes and decision making, and continue to grow people to their full potential.
Moreover, as we have seen the rapid technological change, HR is navigating its way towards a more holistic role in the business through advanced algorithms and high-speed computation in people analytics that will be seen as a go-to source of business insights which then will be translated into considerable insights and impactful actions for the people and organisation. And for sure, [our value of] 'operate with empathy and care' will last forever.
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