Happy Chinese New Year to all our readers!

Dear Readers,

The Year of the Rat is upon us, and we want to take this opportunity to wish all our readers a joyous, prosperous, healthful and happy Lunar New Year! Here’s hoping you, your family and your colleagues have an abundance of fortune and happiness in the year ahead.

We thank you for all your support and feedback that keeps on driving us to bring you the best of HR content and events in this region, and you can continue to count on us to deliver the most relevant, exciting, and fresh HR platforms to you now and always.

Happy Lunar New Year!

Did you know the rat is the first of all the zodiac animals represented in the Chinese calendar, and that it represents wisdom? Or that 2020 is the 4717th Chinese year, and it is the year of the Metal Rat? Or even, that the colours associated with this year are white or golden, known as the colours of metal?

Maybe such trivia tickles your fancy during the festive season, or perhaps your favourite things are the pineapple tarts, shrimp rolls or almond cookies (personal favourite: arrowroot chips), we've got you covered.

We've listed some of our most popular articles/interviews this year to make sure you can catch up on HR reading, if you've got the time, or bookmark this reading list for future reading and sharing:

1. To whom it may concern, and other annoying phrases people write in work emails Although we are in 2020, email is far from dead, and as a result, we continue to use clichés such as 'just looping in...’ and 'per my last email' to get our point across. Read the full story

2. Job and hiring trends for 2020 As we enter a new decade, nearly 200 CEOs from the world’s biggest brands have declared that shareholders are no longer their chief concern — it's all about employees. Read the full story

3. World Economic Forum: Top 10 skills and workforce strategies in 2020 More than one-third of skills that are considered important in today’s workforce will change five years from now. Read the full story

4. To better work-life harmony in 2020: Five ideas for employers From Front Line Day, where senior management takes over customer-facing jobs for a day, to protected 'whitespace' time for employees, why not try these programmes this year? Read the full story

5. Salary increases in 2020: Asia Pacific outlook According to Willis Towers Watson, salary increases in APAC remain stable at 5.6%, slightly lower than the projected increase of 5.9%. Here's the full data. Read the full story

6. Top 5 2020 HR predictions and the best responses to uncertainty While larger corporations have been decentralising HR in recent years to more specialised functions, some have shifted back to more centralised hubs. Read the full story

7. Global workplace trends for 2020 In 2020, about two fifths of the global workforce will consist of Generation X and Millennials. Read the full story

8. [Photos] 10 inspiring workplaces of 2019 If you're looking for some inspiration for your next office revamp, we've curated a list of our top Spacial Awareness features, with designs that are bound to give you endless ideas. Read the full story

9. HR superpowers for 2020: Your guide to being a great HR leader In the backdrop of HR's accomplishments so far, we're confident that you'll love to continue working on these (and many more!) to bring HR to the next level, onwards and upwards. Read the full story

10. 3 ways to protect and promote good mental health at the workplace As a start, we must all strive to thoroughly enforce a strict code of conduct that ensures that discrimination (including mental health status) is not tolerated. Read the full story

BONUS: Mark your calendars: 2020 public holidays in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, and Hong Kong