share on
How can we strike a balance between technology and humans? What keeps employees up at night? What can HR do to help ease minds and stay concentrated at work? Check out the insights shared by a starry line-up of speakers. Event report by Tracy Chan.
Rapid technological advancements have made the lives of HR professionals both easier and trickier.
On the one hand, AI integration, machine learning, and digital platforms help HR professionals do their jobs more efficiently, and enable them to make data-informed decisions for better talent management. On the other hand, striking a balance between technology and humans is an essential requirement HR should always bear in mind.
To provide a platform to delve into this exciting, yet challenging opportunity powered by the digital era, Human Resources Online held our annual flagship conference – Inspire HR 2024 – on 16 October 2024 at The Ritz-Carlton, Hong Kong.
The one-day conference brought together 200 HR professionals, equipping them with the knowledge and skills needed to thrive in this tech-driven landscape by learning from enriching sessions and interacting with a star line-up of speakers amidst their HR peers.
Here are the key takeaways.
Leading with empathy to build trust and relationships
While technology has taken up much of the work, the human touch can never be replaced. "Empathy is one of the biggest assets for a leader," highlighted Suparna Banik, Senior Director People and Culture Asia Pacific, lululemon, at the opening fireside chat with Aditi Sharma Kalra, Editor-in-Chief, Human Resources Online.
Sharing her personal practice of being an empathetic leader, what resonates most with Banik is to build a deep and trusting relationship that recognises, values, and celebrates one's human uniqueness, and more importantly, cares for the whole person.
“It means you care for your team members’ ambitions, goals, preferences, both emotional and physical needs, capabilities and competence – you take everything all in.”
Securing the future
Retirement planning is one of the crucial topics for whole-person wellness. Moderated by HRO's Kalra, the challenges that come with retirement legislation, and the importance of retirement education, were talked about during a panel discussion with Jenny Pong, People Director, East Asia, Arup; Charlotte Chan, Head of HK Global Platform Solutions and Head of Hong Kong, Fidelity International; and Emily Tang, Director, Hub Lead, Creative and Delivery Discipline, HK Cluster, Standard Chartered.
“According to our study, more than 60% of Hong Kong employees feel restless because they don't know if they will have enough for their future after retirement,” Chan said.
“Almost one-third of the workforce, who are so worried about retirement planning, are not giving their 100% at work.”
Despite the challenges, Pong said this could be an opportunity for HR leaders to rethink their entire compensation structure.
Feeding for satisfaction
Keeping employees full (literally) may help alleviate some of their worries. Alvin Lam, Head of Corporate, foodpanda HK, took attendees on a flash ride into how food perks can enhance employee engagement, cultivate a sense of belonging, and create unforgettable work moments.
“We can hold everyone together in our pantry, having lunch together once a week,” he said. “As this initiative keeps rotating, it creates some enjoyment, as well as a positive culture.”
Leveraging data to enhance engagement and wellbeing
Apart from eating well, employees also want to live well and feel well. Amelie Shen, Chief Corporate Solutions Officer, AIA Hong Kong and Macau, emphasised that for employees, the important things are whether the work they are doing makes them happy, and if it is benefiting their health and wellbeing.
Given that employees’ expectations have been changing, and each generation has very different demands, how can employers bring together a successful workplace wellness programme?
“I think it starts with data fundamentally,” Shen said. “Data and analytics play a critical role in terms of designing, executing, and monitoring the effectiveness of a wellness programme. This also provides valuable insights to help us customise the programme and continuously make improvements.”
Ensuring a sense of safety while embracing technology
While embracing the advantages of technology, the ethical and legal considerations cannot be overlooked. In another fireside chat, Dermot Ryan, Global Head of HR Wholesale Technology, HSBC, and Wendy Wong, Partner, Head of Employment Asia, Lawyer, Simmons & Simmons, shared their experience and some practical insights:
- Technology is an enabler rather than a replacement.
- Change management is critical.
- Feedback, communication, training, rewards and recognition, change advocates, and the involvement of senior leaders can help employees accept and make changes.
- Try to identify any data privacy or security risk, and have clear policies and notifications.
- Make sure the HR decisions made by relying on technology are free of bias.
Supporting employees with flexible benefits
As much as technology is there to enable HR professionals, HR professionals are also there to support employees. One way to do so is by providing flexible benefits. “We do believe that a successful flex programme will have to go through what we call a feasibility study,” said Victoria Yow, Head of Client Solutions, Pacific Prime.
She pointed out the important things to look at before embarking on a flex journey:
- The current state and the desired state.
- Employee segregation.
- Geographical segregation.
- Financing options.
- Administration and taxation rules.
"Start small, and maybe look at the benefits options you have. Then establish the feedback loop in the first year, and see how that works out for your employees,” Yow said.
Revamping the EVP to keep the employee experience at the core
To adapt to ever-evolving employee expectations, a company’s employee value proposition (EVP) may need to be refreshed. In a Flash Talk session, Iti Jain, Group Transformation Head, InCorp HK, identified three keys about shaping or reshaping the EVP:
- Think of employees from a customer's perspective: What pain points are we trying to solve in their entire journey with the organisation?
- Define user experiences: Which are the moments of truth when they make decisions about whether they believe in the brand or not?
- Tech is smaller than people. We could sprinkle tech everywhere, but unless it has a purpose, it may not be very effective.
Transforming with resilience
How to effectively build commitment among all levels across an organisation to support change? Ilaria (Quintini) Gregotti, VP People and Culture East Asia, Australia and Duty Free, Philip Morris International (PMI), cited the transformation journey of PMI as an example.
“We have three simple values. We care. We are better together. We are game changers, pretty simple with three behaviours each underneath. That has been a fantastic catalyst for the organisation to come together around a common language and a common basis of understanding of what it means to be at PMI and to excel at PMI.”
Engaging and developing distributed teams
Another prominent change in the digital era is to see employees work in distributed teams. Stephanie Boot, Head of Talent, Culture and Inclusion, British American Tobacco, shared key components of the recipe for success in navigating this new mode of work:
- Creating a culture of flexibility that is continuously evolving and tuned into the needs of the workforce.
- Harnessing technology to create an optimal virtual work environment.
- Engaging the team to build a sense of belonging, connection, and team cohesion.
- Applying a different lens to leadership to ensure the right capabilities and mindsets required to lead a virtual team.
Strengthening retention and engagement through strategic workplace initiatives
Though people can work from everywhere now, a workplace still plays an important part in talent attraction and retention. Tina Cheung, Head of People, North Asia, and Manyi Choi, Head of Workplace, both from CBRE, elaborated the above through three lenses: rewards, transformation, and social. They highlighted that:
- A total rewards policy would definitely help structure the culture. Meanwhile, how we want to create our culture is also related to our office spaces.
- Bring people together into the transformation process because it is very dangerous if people don’t understand what's happening, and what's going to happen.
- Social is about D&I. Make sure everybody feels part of it.
Balancing innovations with digital wellness
As digital becomes a part of our lives, how can we mitigate related stress while promoting sustainable personal and organisational growth? Concluding the conference, Standard Chartered’s Tang suggested that digital wellness needed to be put at the centre of HR's decisions.
“For example, like our apps to help people to innovate, they are either team-based or employees can use them in a live session, so then they can still have the connection between human beings.”
Human Resources Online would like to thank all the speakers and delegates for being part of Inspire HR 2024! We would also like to express our gratitude to this year’s sponsors & partners:
Platinum Sponsors
● AIA International Limited
● Pacific Prime
Gold Sponsor
● Fidelity International
Silver Sponsors
● foodpanda for business
● InCorp McCabe
Exhibitors
● Citi At Work
● Crown World Mobility
● Santa Fe Relocation
Collaborative Partner
● clincolour
Photos / HRO
share on
