Remote Webinar Mar 2024
Micron's Cher Whee Sim: We need to think differently about our talent community and outreach

Micron's Cher Whee Sim: We need to think differently about our talent community and outreach

On the radar for Cher Whee Sim, Vice President, Global Talent Acquisition and Talent Mobility, Micron Technology is the need to develop greater leaders who inspire.

Cher Whee Sim leads Micron’s global recruiting strategy and operations by employing innovative HR solutions to attract, engage, and retain top, diverse talent. In addition to her leadership position, she serves as chair and sponsor of the Asia chapter of the Micron Women’s Leadership Network, as well as has been an advisor on several councils, including for Eightfold.ai, the Micron Diversity, Equality & Inclusion organisation.

She will be speaking at the upcoming Accelerate HR 2023 conference, on the topic 'Leading beyond the numbers: Powering team success with EQ and inclusive leadership'.

In conversation with HRO's Lara Samson, Sim talks about the multi-faceted approach that is required to cope with the current talent shortage.

Interview excerpts below: 

Q What, in your view, are the top challenges and opportunities of leading HR in your sector and remit?

The top challenges and opportunities for the HR team are creating an inclusive culture where every person - no matter where they are in the world and regardless of their background, makes an impact, feels valued, grows their career, and prioritises wellbeing.

In addition, the fierce talent competition requires HR to innovate and improvise our talent attraction, development, and retention strategies for the future of the workforce, workplace, and work.

Q With most organisations looking to recover and rebound, where are you finding the headcount your team needs, and how are you coping with the talent shortage?

We need a multi-faceted approach both internally and externally. It is critical to prioritise our internal team members' development, upskilling, and reskilling, developing greater leaders who inspire, retaining your talents, and investing in strengthening our diversity, equality, and inclusion culture.

We also need to think differently about our talent community and outreach, such as expanding your talent search and engagement beyond borders, diverse industries and experience, as well as shifting the mindset of being an employer to an educator and influencer in building a talent pipeline.

Q Brain drain is a real concern in Asia at the moment. In this time of manpower shortage, how are you and the team preparing to manage these talent-related challenges?

We must relentlessly focus on our people, culture, and purpose strategies, including people focused, smart working, future ready, and community impact. These priorities include:

  • investing in our team members' wellbeing in five elements such as physical, mental, social, career, and financial,
  • advancing learning and career development opportunities for our team members to enable skills for the future,
  • equipping our team members with tools, technology and knowledge to enable efficiency and effectiveness, and
  • cultivating giving and volunteerism, promoting social justice and sustainability.

Underpinning these strategies are our diversity, equality, and inclusion culture and leaders' development and empowerment.

Q Looking towards 2023, what's the biggest change that you believe needs to take place in HR?

HR must acquire skills and capabilities to build greater resilience and agility in the organisation as we will continue to lead in an unprecedented and uncertain environment. These capabilities include new institutional roles such as DEI business partnering, workforce digital transformation leader, team member advocate, wellbeing specialist, talent intelligence analyst, and workplace experience designer.

Besides, we need to diversify our HR footprint so we listen to our workforce and talent community and empower with 'lead local, scale global' agility. Finally, investing in upskilling the HR team through our digital academy programme, functional master proficiency, storytelling, and having an 'I2I-Invigorate to Innovate' day in a month, where we invest in group and self-learning, and volunteering for our community, is essential.


Back, bigger and better – Accelerate HR brought to you by Human Resources Online is a prominent HR event you can’t miss. Over 30 deep-dive sessions by leading workplace trailblazers and HR innovators via informative keynotes and case study-driven breakout sessions, interactive panels and debates, fireside chats, and high-value discussions with over 250 people leaders in the region. Contact us for group discounts or download the event brochure for more details.

Photo / HRO

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