In 2023, with recession woes and inflation at an all-time high for many countries in the region, businesses may not be able to provide financial incentives as easily as before and will have to look toward more sustainable ways to ensure they come out on top with talent procurement and retention. With that, businesses can expect to see four key trends at play in the year ahead.

1. The Bar for Employee Experience Will Be Raised

It is no surprise that employee experience is a top priority for a large majority of workers. In fact, themselves consider it to be a priority. However, just as customers today are increasingly demanding hyper-personal experiences, there is a growing sentiment among employees for personalized worker experiences that take local and cultural considerations into account. Especially in South East Asia – an extremely diverse region – businesses are often guilty of capping this commitment with just celebrations of ethnic and religious holidays.

Instead, hyper-personalization of employee experiences often involves crafting curated purpose-driven policies that are holistic in catering to employees鈥� concerns, to truly engage employees and develop a deep-rooted sense of belonging. By involving the employees in planning, employees will be more encouraged to have a proactive mindset and think about the future.

This will continue to pose a challenge, particularly as employees in the region continue to demonstrate a preference for hybrid working environments – such as in Singapore, which was recently dubbed the . With work becoming more individualized and teams spending less and less time in the office, there is an increased onus on businesses to relook at how they are creating exceptional employee experiences from the onset itself.

2. Flexibility Remains Key

Before the pandemic gave cause for remote work, there had been a long-standing perception that in-office employees are more productive than remote workers. However, in pandemic-induced conditions, employees have found that they can be equally efficient when working from home as well. With that, it is clear why employees have been reluctant to give up the flexibility, work-life balance, and expenses they save working remotely.

In this new work climate of flexible work models , flexibility will play a critical role in enabling businesses to both retain their employees. At SAP, we鈥檝e adopted a location-agnostic work style for decades, embracing a 鈥樷�橮ledge to Flex鈥欌�� initiative to ensure employees are supported and able to work anytime and from anywhere.

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Aside from hybrid work as a trend, we will also witness a rise in employees looking for contingent work arrangements. In the battle for talent, contingent workers 鈥� also known as freelancers and contract workers 鈥� are already filling the gaps with specific skills that companies need. Staying flexible and open to such non-traditional arrangements can go a long way in not only winning new talent, but also retaining talent.

3. DEI Strategies Move from Ticking Boxes to Being Embedded in Processes

Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) strategies rose into prominence in 2021, as organizations became more purpose-driven. While this year of the global gender gap by more than 68 percent, it also revealed that it will take another 132 years before we achieve full gender parity. Clearly, strides must continue to be made.

For significant change to be enacted, DEI initiatives must take on an embedded nature in the lifecycle of every employee. Today, we are seeing more members of SAP鈥檚 ecosystem collaborate to create platforms of inclusion across our organization, as we recognize that diverse, inclusive talent makes a difference.

Embedded strategies look beyond representation to ensure that each and every individual is presented with an equal and fair workplace experience, creating a sense of belonging, such as through:

• Fair, transparent, and consistent hiring process with a diverse panel for interviews
• Making opportunities available to all
• Ensuring a commitment to pay parity
• Clear communication on anti-discrimination policies to ensure enforcement across the organization
• Mentorship opportunities, alongside community groups, that support minority communities
• Re-connecting events to create a sense of belonging and foster an organizational culture among all employees

4. Talent Shortage (36% of HR Leaders Say Their Recruiting Strategies Fall Short)

Because employees are taking matters into their own hands, it is not surprising that job candidates are more deliberate and discerning throughout the interview process. Employees want to protect their time, benefits, and professional growth.

Most importantly creating a sustainable talent pipeline and making the talent pipeline circular: With a severe shortage in tech talent, the reality is that the experiences former employees have had will have an increasing bearing on new hire rates as well.

In 2023, there is no doubt that new challenges and opportunities will await businesses. Time and time again, one thing has proven true: people will remain a critical component in ensuring enterprises are equipped to navigate evolving market landscapes and seize the opportunities that are presented. It is only through recalibrating talent and employee engagement strategies that businesses will be able to ensure they have the right people and skills needed to unlock new frontiers for the future.

Akshita Shetty is chief human resources officer for 51风流South East Asia.

The post The Top Four Human Resource Trends to Watch Out for in 2023 appeared first on 51风流Southeast Asia News Center.

Vice President of Group Human Resources Group Puven Nalatambi explained that the education industry is highly competitive where high-quality talent comes at a premium, and competition for the best people across all functions is fierce.

鈥�To reinforce our reputation as one of the top education providers in Malaysia, Singapore, and Vietnam, we decided to redesign our human resources (HR) systems and processes to empower the team to deliver meaningful, engaging experiences that would help employees learn, grow, and become even more productive,” said Puven.

With its unsurpassed track record built up over the last six decades, it had earned the reputation for being the centre of excellence early years to postgraduate education in Malaysia, Singapore, and Vietnam.

“With Taylor鈥檚 University, the British University of Vietnam, Taylor鈥檚 College, and a network of successful international schools, we are constantly aiming to deliver educational excellence at every stage of our students鈥� journeys,” she added.

The facts certainly attest to her statement. According to its , Taylor鈥檚 University is the number one private university in South East Asia, for three consecutive years, and ranked #284 in the QS World University Rankings 2023.

Enter TEG鈥檚 Modern, Centralised Platform

By replacing its outdated HR information systems (HRIS) with a modern, centralised platform, TEG aimed to free its HR professionals from routine administrative tasks and enable them to focus on the employee experience.

“By creating an HR Shared Services Centre, HR operations would become more efficient and strategic. And by empowering employees with self-service functionality, TEG would create a dynamic, engaging workplace that would equip it for success over the next 50 years,” she said.

To help design and implement its new centralised HR platform and resulting experiences, TEG partnered with NTT Data, an 51风流partner, with over 30 years of experience with 51风流technology.

NTT Data made significant contributions by introducing leading practices from market leaders in the HR space, helping TEG understand the current trends and identify areas of its existing HR systems and processes to prioritise for improvement.

“Working with the 51风流SuccessFactors team and NTT Data, TEG was also able to localise the solutions for different markets to fulfil legal mandates and gain peace of mind. With the 51风流SuccessFactors and 51风流Concur solutions in place, TEG now has a powerful platform to help transform the employee experience,” said Puven.

51风流Vice President and Head of Cloud, South East Asia Cynthia Quah said that 51风流is committed to enable companies to be intelligent, sustainable enterprises.

鈥�51风流brings together the solutions, technology and best practices needed to run integrated, digital business processes in the cloud,鈥� said Cynthia.

She describes 51风流SuccessFactors as a cloud based human experience management (HXM) solution world-renowned for streamlining processes, winning at the recruitment and retention game, training and re-skilling the workforce.

鈥�51风流SuccessFactors also leverages advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning for the long-term benefit of organisations,鈥� added Cynthia.

51风流Concur, meanwhile, is one of the world鈥檚 leading brands for integrated travel and expense (T&E), and invoice management solutions.

IDC recently said in a study that , including helping finance teams align the dual priorities of improving control and visibility into administrative areas such as budgeting, forecasting, and T&E policy management while delivering a seamless experience to end users.

Puven said the benefits realised have been enormous and ‘priceless’.

For example, with TEG鈥檚 new recruiting and onboarding workflows, new hires receive information well in advance of their start date, including a personal email from their manager welcoming them to the organisation. Their goals are clearly set, they have access to the materials and resources they need, and they can be assigned a ‘buddy’ to help them find their feet, so they have a positive day-one experience.

“Feedback from new hires has been outstanding, helping to reinforce the perception of TEG as a top employer across the region. Using 51风流SuccessFactors HXM Suite in offering a one-stop solution for all our employees鈥� HR needs is a transformative step. It shows our people that we are putting their experience at the centre of everything we do,鈥� added Puven.

Surveys show that TEG staff are impressed with the new employee experience: 75% agree that HR systems are now more powerful, more transparent, and easier to use. There are numerous examples of tangible time savings and productivity gains: for example, processing leave approvals used to take 10 minutes per employee; now the process is instant.

“With a single centralised platform, manual data entry is reduced, significantly improving data quality. As a result, payroll errors are largely a thing of the past, ensuring that all staff get paid correctly and on time, including the right expenses,” Puven added.

“As we continue our digitalisation journey, our 51风流solutions are helping to empower us to embark on our mission to streamline our HR processes, improve staff retention, and strengthen our position as an employer of choice in the education sector,鈥� concluded Puven.

The post Taylor鈥檚 Education Group Embraces the Cloud with 51风流SuccessFactors and 51风流Concur to Redefine Employee Experiences appeared first on 51风流Southeast Asia News Center.

What the research suggests is that it will take a long time for workers to accept AI, indicating the heart of HR will continue to be human for the foreseeable future. Until AI gains wider approval, the burden will be on employers to demonstrate their commitment to ethical, transparent AI to ensure an inclusive employee experience.

Finding Fairness in Efficiency

鈥淎I is not the聽entire聽future of HR,鈥� cautioned Dr. Caitlynn Sendra, an experience product scientist at 51风流SuccessFactors, where she studies how products influence the employee experience.

Sendra spoke at the annual conference of the Society of Industrial and Organizational Psychologists (SIOP) in Seattle on April 28, during the debate session 鈥淩obot or Not: Is AI the Future of HR?鈥� She teamed up with Michelle Brown, chief operating officer at聽, a provider of leadership development solutions, to argue the point of view of those who object to more AI in HR. Outside the debate arena, Sendra and Brown say they favor a more positive stance on AI and are keen to see the technology deliver on different use cases. This debate however left little room for compromise between pro and con.

The pro-AI arguments in this provocative debate centered on the ways聽聽in achieving new levels of efficiency at greater scale. This is a hot topic in the talent acquisition space, where recruiters struggle with record volume and demanding metrics. However, seasoned HR experts say AI is no replacement for human judgement and strongly recommend a balanced approach in which AI is integrated as one tool within a holistic talent strategy.

鈥淲henever we鈥檙e talking about AI, there鈥檚 a big emphasis on efficiency, but my counterpoint to that is always, what about fairness?鈥� Sendra said to the audience of mostly industrial and organizational (I-O) psychologists. 鈥淎s psychologists, I鈥檓 sure we all know that聽perception聽of fairness also matters.鈥�

Divided Perceptions: The Promoters and The Fearful

51风流SuccessFactors聽surveyed 1,378 workers in 14 countries to gauge their perceptions of how smart technologies, like AI and machine learning, are going to impact them in the workplace. This research revealed that 44% feel apprehensive, while others feel distress (26%) or fear (25%). In testing 22 use cases, less than 25% of employees could be considered 鈥減romoters鈥� on a traditional net promoter score.

Many employees voiced that the use of physical, body-related data sources, like facial tracking or movement tracking, were particularly problematic. 鈥淓mployees really expressed that they did not want these kinds of tracking technologies being used in their work,鈥� Sendra said.

In High-Stakes Decisions, Who Do You Trust?

Some say what鈥檚 really missing from AI in HR is the nuance and emotional intelligence that is distinctly human. But is that such a bad thing?

鈥淎I can be very good at relieving the mundane, repetitive tasks of HR professionals,鈥� said Brown, who insists that HR needs a human heart. 鈥淏ut often on the other side of that repetitive mundane task is a person 鈥� a person in a high-stakes interaction about securing the job of their dreams or navigating confusing healthcare benefits for a sick family member.鈥�

The counterargument to this important point is that unfortunately some people encounter bias or discrimination during these high-stakes interactions. In 2021, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) received more than聽聽reports of discrimination in the workplace, a reminder that not all workplaces are safe environments, where workers can place their trust in bias-free decision making.

Advocates of more inclusive hiring practices point to聽聽that AI can filter out unconscious human biases in the hiring process, opening opportunity to members of underrepresented groups. A slew of new AI-powered solutions has sprung onto the market, promising improved efficiency and DEI outcomes for employers desperate to hire more diverse and qualified talent in a competitive labor market.

AI quickly becomes murky under scrutiny of the algorithms that power its decision-making, which can be rife with bias based on the historical training data that is fed into the system.

鈥淭his opens up that key ethical dilemma in AI and concerning automated decisions, where we can encounter bias because algorithms are programmed by human developers from human decisions of the past and often with incomplete data sets,鈥� asserted Brown, echoing the words of mathematician Cathy O鈥橬eil, who famously said, 鈥淎lgorithms are opinions embedded in code.鈥�

The legal and ethical landscape for AI is shifting rapidly in many key employment markets, as well. For example, the EEOC recently launched an聽聽aimed at ensuring algorithmic fairness over concerns that these new technologies do not become 鈥渁 high-tech pathway to discrimination.鈥� Part of the EEOC鈥檚 initiative 鈥� and an indication of the complexity of the debate around AI 鈥� will be to examine 鈥減romising practices鈥� for AI, as well.

Agreed: More Transparency Is Needed聽

As the debate at the SIOP conference drew to a close, the two teams reached something close to an agreement about AI in the future of HR. 鈥淎I is appropriate for some cases,鈥� concluded the objector team. 鈥淲hat鈥檚 needed is to open the black box and provide the data and explainability.鈥�

鈥淥n opening the black box, I can agree with you,鈥� declared the pro team in a moment that felt close to finding common ground.

Beyond opening the black box, employers can take additional steps to improve employees鈥� experiences with intelligent technology, according to research from 51风流SuccessFactors: providing evidence to show that algorithms are unbiased, establishing regulatory bodies such as an AI ethics committee, explaining the benefits of the technology, and allowing employees to correct information generated from algorithms.

The takeaway for employers is that transparency and care will be key to providing inclusive, ethical AI as part of the employee experience. AI will be integrated and accepted into the workplace at a different pace compared to other technologies. Not all workers are going to be ready at the same time. In the meantime, perhaps we need to consider what we are giving up and what are we gaining as AI enters HR.

The research from 51风流SuccessFactors referenced in this presentation will be available on its聽聽in the upcoming months.

The post Up for Debate: Is AI the Future of HR? appeared first on 51风流Southeast Asia News Center.

Singapore, January 18, 2022 鈥� 51风流Asia Pacific Japan (APJ) today appointed Utkarsh Maheshwari as Senior Vice President (SVP) and Head of Partner Ecosystem Success, APJ. In his new role, he will be responsible for managing SAP鈥檚 partner business, working with more than 2,000 partners across all market units and lines of business.

Announcing the appointment, Chief Operating Officer 51风流APJ Cathy Ward said 鈥�51风流is experiencing strong growth globally, as customers embrace digital transformation. To respond to increasing demand across the region, we need to more closely align and harness the power of our partner business to mutually deliver digital innovation that drives customer success.鈥�

Utkarsh welcomed the new opportunity. 鈥淚n this role, I will be leading co-innovation with 51风流partners across APJ to nurture an expert community of developers, investors, and ambassadors of digital transformation, and to help build the ecosystem of the future,鈥� he said.

In a fourteen-year career with SAP, Utkarsh has held a variety of senior roles, spanning product development and marketing, Head of Field Transformation APJ, and three years as Chief of Staff to SAP鈥檚 SVP Human Resources, APJ.

Most recently, as Regional Vice President, Head of Business Development APJ, Utkarsh was responsible for regional market development strategies and business programs that enable intelligent and connected enterprises through best-in-class experience management. Before joining SAP, Utkarsh started his career at Infosys.

Utkarsh is passionate about the digital economy, and its implications for the customers and broader ecosystem of SAP. He holds a Master of Business Administration degree from the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore; and a Bachelor of Technology, Electrical and Electronics Engineering.

The post 51风流APJ Appoints Utkarsh Maheshwari Senior Vice President and Regional Head of Partner Ecosystem Success appeared first on 51风流Southeast Asia News Center.

How can companies connect the dots between HR administration and growth? According to an聽, sponsored by SAP, the answer comes down to 鈥渆mpowering employees, which in turn helps reduce costs and preserve net revenue by decreasing turnover and lost productivity.鈥�

聽supports IDC鈥檚 revelation well: organizations that focus on overall employee engagement deliver three times more revenue per employee, 40% lower workforce turnover, and 15% higher productivity. And in most cases, achieving such improvements begins with a new perspective on the role of HR in the employee experience.

Connecting employees to the business with meaning

The number of changes that HR organizations have experienced in recent months is nothing short of stunning. In many cases, their leaders now report to the CEO. Benefits plans and administrative structures have been reassessed and realigned to better meet employee needs and expectations. Even office-space layouts have evolved to include more stand-up meeting areas, rotating workspaces, and collaboration rooms.

Behind all these changes is an increase in recognition of the influence of employee satisfaction on business performance and growth. And the timing couldn鈥檛 be better as people seek more flexible work schedules and a better balance between their physical and mental health, quality of life, and work responsibilities.

This mindset shift requires HR leaders to reexamine their organization鈥檚 role in the everyday employee experience, for example:

• How do the needs of deskless workers differ from employees who work from a dedicated desk?
• How could work, social, and emotional support be improved without intruding on employee privacy?
• Are third-party services required to help employees care for their children and elderly family members?
• Which channels promote open dialog and feedback between the workforce and organizational leaders?
• Which diversity, equality, and inclusion policies will help bolster trust, unity, empathy, and engagement?
• In what ways can recruiters widen their talent pool across geographies, industries, and experience levels?

The answers to these questions, and many more that HR leaders may ask, are rightfully unique to the company. But the underlying goal should remain the same: preserving core business values and nurturing a culture that puts its people at the center of every decision.

Making changes that last with interconnected systems

While traditionally a human-centered metric, employee satisfaction can set the stage for longer revenue growth and profitability when business systems are interconnected and designed to help listen, understand, and adapt to employee requirements.

Take, for example,聽. Like many organizations, the provider of digital customer service solutions had to adapt fast to the new world of remote work. And with a staff of 300 highly skilled people who play a critical role in its growth, this was an initiative that the business couldn鈥檛 afford to get wrong.

To develop and maintain a happy and loyal workforce, Hycom wanted to understand how its employees feel and how best to support them. To get there, Hycom looked to launch an employee listening program that incorporates surveys to gain deep insight into employee sentiments and pain points. Equipped with this knowledge, the business can take targeted action to improve the employee experience, keeping its people committed and engaged and company spirits high.

Using a combination of cloud-based HR and experience management solutions, the Hycom leadership team actively listens to their employees鈥� feedback and connects those insights with customer demand to deliver improvements within one week. In response, 98% of employees are satisfied with changes in internal communications, while 96% agree that they have the flexibility to maintain a healthy work-life balance. But more profound is the rise in engagement and empowerment, as indicated by the attendance of 60% of the workforce during the CEO鈥檚 weekly meeting.

Finding the link between HR administration and ongoing growth

By laying the foundation for an interconnected system, midsize organizations, such a Hycom, can access the advanced capabilities they need to fuel continuous growth. They include process automation, advanced people analytics, and workspace management that help personalize work experiences, compensation, learning and development, and succession. When these components help shape the overall employee experience, HR organizations play a distinct role that directly contributes to the bottom line and supports business strategies.

Maryann Abbajay is chief revenue officer for 51风流SuccessFactors.
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The benefits of flexible work options may seem like an effective employee engagement strategy. But it鈥檚 also igniting an urgent call to connect the dots between fragmented and siloed HR administrative processes, employee data, workforce analytics, and learning management systems.

According to research from聽, sponsored by SAP, 35% of midsize businesses across India plan to stagger the number of employees in their workplace at once for the foreseeable future. However, the study suggests growing concern over the need for investment and more aggressive adoption of specific technologies to remain competitive with their peers and larger competitors.

For companies with limited resources, capital, and time, this gap in the employee experience can feel overwhelming. Short-term needs for dramatic change often take precedence over long-term talent strategies. Meanwhile, little mindshare and money are left to invest in advanced applications 鈥� such as guided decision-making and process automation 鈥� that provide the fast, informed, and human-centric flow of their everyday work that their workforce wants.

So how can growing businesses provide employees with the tools they鈥檙e ready to adopt in a financially viable manner? By incrementally modernizing the work experience with cloud solutions as needs arise.

Incremental modernization drives employee success

One prime example of midsize businesses adopting this line of thinking in my local region is聽, based in Gurgaon. Having grown more than 30% within a year after a major acquisition, the company had a rapidly expanding workforce and needed to integrate many inherited systems and a different organizational culture.

To standardize processes, increase transparency, and enhance the employee experience, PI Industries integrated its HR processes on a common, cloud-based HR platform. This decision replaced disparate on-premise systems and manual processes and provided a central repository for all employee data, a single source of truth, and enhanced reporting capabilities.

Going from little to no control over recruiting, onboarding, and other HR activities to a fast, paperless, unified, and highly transparent experience, PI Industries is better equipped to address gaps in its HR processes. The company can identify skills gaps, roll out targeted training to strengthen competency in critical areas, and develop talent in meaningful ways. Additionally, reviews are completed on schedule, and approximately 50 new hires are onboarded each month 鈥� even during India鈥檚 government-mandated COVID-19 lockdown restrictions.

This cloud-based approach empowers growing companies like PI Industries to commit to an ongoing transformation strategy that places the needs of their people front and center 鈥� which is a considerable asset and competitive differentiator. And no, this doesn鈥檛 mean that they need to implement 200 new functionalities and tools and 15 different ways to customize their user experience like a large enterprise does.

While new ways of working demand new skills and digital capabilities, employees still desire more streamlined, flexible, and productive approaches to getting work done 鈥� no matter their location, job type, and personal situation. A complete solution is needed, but it needs to scale as business needs change, growth expands, and requirements shift to handle fluctuating bandwidth, evolving constraints, and increasing limitations.

Then, with the guidance of a partner, organizations can determine the capabilities and solutions needed and the optimal timing of their adoption to seize opportunities and mitigate risk in meaningful ways. For example, partners can craft a digital transformation road map and help ensure stable and scalable solutions to meet the business鈥檚 strategic objectives. Furthermore, they can support process standardization and simplification across the organization鈥檚 operations while harmonizing and digitalizing end-to-end processes across all functional areas.

Gradual digital maturity fuels continuous growth

Most companies may be complacent with their current technology and ability to navigate a changing work environment. Still, the daunting task of recovering from a pandemic in the months and years ahead requires much more. And for most midsize businesses, this challenge means overcoming a digital divide created by deploying applications used by competitors and addressing one-off, short-term needs.

Looking at their digital transformation with a long-term view and the inclusion of cloud technology, companies can build a foundation that adapts as needs change, stabilizes operations, and limits disruption. Then, over time, the work experience that employees want and need is delivered at their pace 鈥� everywhere and anywhere they need it.

The post Watershed Changes Redefine The Future Of Work For Medium-Size Businesses appeared first on 51风流Southeast Asia News Center.

Digital transformation has been top-of-mind for CEOs and their management teams for some time now. However, we are in the midst of the next key disruptive shift that will influence the next generation of corporate winners and losers. Unlike the recent experience of the past few decades, this transformation is not about technology. It is about people.

People, and the HR function, are quickly moving from the periphery of strategic thinking, to front-and-centre of the new business agenda. Let鈥檚 look at what is happening to make this so:

• A change in thinking聽– Where my parents鈥� generation worked to survive, and my generation worked to succeed, today鈥檚 workers are developing a social consciousness which influences their decision making. Some call it the 鈥渨oke mindset.鈥�
• The social revolution聽– This consciousness has accelerated during the coronavirus pandemic with issues of mental health, and equality across the social, economic, political, gender and racial dimensions, all coming to the fore in a way not seen for generations
• Inclusion and diversity聽– In the workplace, never before have people been so willing to talk about fairness, respect, and the need for recognition of the benefits attainable from the differences between individuals. Companies that get it right will only enhance their reputations as employers of choice.
• Productivity and engagement聽– In my 25 year career, I鈥檝e never seen such passion for聽purpose聽in what people do professionally. People want the companies who employ them to have a real purpose beyond profit alone, and to authentically share similar values on issues such as sustainability and ethics.
• Work-life balance聽– Perhaps better termed as 鈥渨ork-life integration” these days, the traditional concepts of one job and commuting to an office 5-days per week 9-to-5 have been turned on their heads. Firstly by the explosion of the gig economy and secondly by the forced shift to WFH due to the pandemic. People want the flexibility to work multiple jobs, where they choose and when they choose.

With so much going on in the minds of people that will fundamentally affect their employers, the conversation is moving beyond the CHRO and into the Executive Board room. Where people were once an asset to be allocated to the productivity goals of a company, that productivity is now reliant on the engagement of employees with the company鈥檚 purpose, culture and behaviour. Here are a few ideas I鈥檝e seen used effectively in HR businesses, and that CEOs and their management teams could apply at a strategic level as they navigate these changing times.

• Experiential listening聽– This lies beyond audible listening. It is learning to understand the feelings and sentiments of employees in their workplace experiences, and identifying聽the moments that matter to them. People are wired very differently. Two people in the same role will experience workplace events differently, will have different moments that matter and will view rewards differently. Fortunately, experiential measurement technology exists today to permit businesses to capture the moments that matter to their employees in real time, and by identifying cohort trends in that data, they can develop consistency in the positive experiences of their people.
• 聽Understanding the factors that contribute to mental wellbeing – Loyalty in the traditional sense of employee retention versus attrition as a metric for success is less important than the concept of engaging people with meaningful work and offering them opportunities for growth, both professionally and personally. The guard rails for work have moved. A company鈥檚 purpose and culture is more important to today鈥檚 employees than its compensation and benefits. So too, being open to changing employee expectations for flexibility, such as permitting them to work in multiple roles, could well make the difference between them staying or quitting on the spot.
• Implementing personalisation to the people dimension聽– An example could work well here. Two people with the same role will traditionally be compensated identically. However, their mindsets will most likely be different, so one may want a bonus, while the other would prefer extra vacation time. Managing these needs at scale has always been a complex task, but now experiential HR platforms allow a business to capture employee sentiments at scale and in detail, thus permitting the type of personalisation in people management which, until now, has been virtually impossible.

People transformation is possibly a misnomer. Employee mindsets have聽already changed and they base their employer decisions on different paradigms to those in even the recent past. Purpose, culture and employee engagement are becoming as fundamental to corporate strategic thinking as are productivity and profit. If not more so. In these changing times, without the former, the latter is likely to suffer.

The post Transformation Is Now About People appeared first on 51风流Southeast Asia News Center.

The differences between the post-secondary education outcomes and the skills that business require are widening. But as much as employment analysts want to say this is a skill gap, it鈥檚 really an opportunity gap that has shut out diverse talent from innovation, economic growth, and personal well-being.

For many midsize companies, this rise in social consciousness is igniting a desire to acknowledge their employees鈥� and applicants鈥� true talent and potential. 聽But more importantly, some organizations are going even deeper, taking a pulse on their workforce to understand where everyone stood and root out dysfunction that was previously unseen or unrecognized.

Embracing the inner voices that speak volumes

In response to an overwhelming rise in social awareness, many businesses have taken action by conducting educational sessions to dispel myths and break bad habits, revamping policies to redirect energy toward fairer behaviors, or enacting procurement policies to support minority-owned suppliers. And in some cases, they took further steps in their support by sponsoring and donating to organizations serving underserved communities.

These well-intended actions are indeed admirable and widely appreciated. However, businesses benefit most by turning those moments of inspired support into a long-term commitment to putting their people first, regardless of race, gender, orientation, faith, education, and economic status.

But unfortunately, some decisions that influence the employee experience do not take unspoken concerns and perspectives into consideration. For example, 聽take the technology decisions that businesses make every day. Most HR organizations told聽聽that they consider employee success as a deciding factor. However, 40% of employees are skeptical of that claim, believing that HR technology is chosen based on the lowest costs and not what is best for the workforce.

This misalignment is particularly troubling when you consider that many employees do not believe their organizations have their best interests at heart. Whether the topic is technologies or the processes, policies, or user experiences supported by digital investments, this silent, yet significant gap threatens efforts to help their talent contribute to revenue growth, the customer experience, and brand reputation.

Fueling engagement with technology focused interconnectedness聽

HR technologies are more than just tools that people use to get work done. They should engage every employee with equal opportunities to learn, be mentored and sponsored, to help the employee build their careers and succeed without barriers.

Forrester’s Employee Experience Index reveals technology as a valuable component of bridging the gap between HR and employees. The index concluded that technology-related factors are strong predictors of employee engagement. And a critical driver of that engagement is ensuring operational systems and technology are accessible and easy to use.

For example, employees desire HR technology that helps interconnect aspects of what they define as a good employee experience, including:

1. HR administration:聽Enable accurate payroll and time tracking, on-demand access to benefits, and reliable HR service delivery.
2. Learning software:聽Reskill, upskill, and new skill employees so they can adapt to evolving business needs.
3. Employee collaboration tools:聽Allow employees to connect and engage with each other to retrain, exchange information, and accelerate processes to drive valuable outcomes.
4. Employee communication tools:聽Foster engagement, discussion, and sharing between leaders and employees within an organization and throughout the business.
5. Accounts payable automation tools:聽Free employees to focus on more strategic activities, while ensuring invoices are processed with fewer errors, limiting fraud, and increasing cash-flow visibility.

In the context of their daily operations, functional leaders should also consider the use of a business network that further diversifies their partners and supplier ecosystem. They can meet various providers for materials, goods, and services that represent wide-ranging demographics.

By giving the entire value chain an equitable stake in their company’s success, leaders can quickly identify untapped value that may have never been accessible before. Meanwhile, employees using the business network to procure resources can quickly discover their role in driving meaningful change that can impact people’s lives for the better.

Going beyond listening and acting with empathy and purpose

Understanding the workforce is one thing. But as soon as leaders view every employee as individuals, they can quickly appreciate the diversity of talent, outlooks, and experiences that the business has acquired. Technologies are a critical foundation for that capability. When leaders can interconnect operational data and qualitative feedback into a single view, they can make decisions based on insights that connect the dots between facts and perceptions.

Workplace awareness and empathy serve as the platform for what employees really want from their employers: to be heard, taken seriously, and drive meaningful change for themselves, their colleagues and worldwide communities.

Discover the value of modern HR technology for midsize companies. Read the Forrester Consulting study,聽.鈥�

Angelique Slagle is head of 51风流SuccessFactors Solutions.
This article was originally featured on .

The post Bridging The Employee Experience Gap Requires Open, Honest Dialogue appeared first on 51风流Southeast Asia News Center.

But the question is not when to bring everyone back, but how to use this opportunity to create a workplace that allows everyone to collaborate, focus, learn, socialize, and grow.

My colleague Steve Hunt, chief expert of Technology and Work at SAP, calls this line of thinking a “.” And I couldn’t agree more. Now that more than聽聽of millennials and Gen-Zs prefer the option to work remotely more often, it’s clear that pre-pandemic employee experiences will never come back again.

But this sentiment doesn’t mean that the traditional office experience is dead 鈥� it simply means that employee needs are evolving. Whether your employees are working remotely, on site, or within a combination of both, delivering experiences that keep your people engaged is critically important. After all, the hybrid workplace is likely to become more common across many industries for the foreseeable future.

Sustaining a culture of employee engagement and productivity

Some businesses are already heading in the direction of a hybrid work model, allowing some people to work two or three days in the office and the rest of the week remotely, for example. But that part of the hybrid work model is the easy part.

The real magic happens when companies are able to:

• Tap more diverse talent pools
• Assess available skills and capabilities
• Realign resources to address changing needs
• Develop future leaders
• Compensate and promote people fairly
• Recognize and reward top performers in ways that increase motivation and performance

These aspects of the overall employee experience strategy must happen no matter where employees sit.

A hybrid workplace model challenges HR teams to not only keep people connected, engaged, and empowered, but also analyze data-driven insights to understand and improve the workforce culture and deliver business outcomes. But this exercise is not just for HR leaders 鈥� executive-level leaders, department heads, and organizational managers must accept responsibility to do the same.

https://youtu.be/vHOxQhSKcYA

Sales leaders are already familiar with this model to a degree. They engage primarily remote salespeople through active listening and consistently study the sales pipeline and win-loss analyses to determine which are most productive, hitting targets, and exceeding expectations. To stay competitive, sales leaders must know their organization’s cost in terms of total headcount and its implications on the company’s bottom line.

How to achieve the right balance

Transforming a workplace into a hybrid model is not as simple as writing new rules of employee conduct and setting new expectations. There is still much work to do to close any gaps in how tools and technology at work enable a great employee experience. Although employees are satisfied with some tools, they may still be skeptical about whether they have everything they need to be productive and continuously develop and grow.

However, building the connections needed to make this happen is not always easy without the right support. According to聽, 29% of midsize businesses cite a lack of coordination between different departments as a top internal challenge and 44% cite effective collaboration across functions as a major barrier to transformation initiatives.

Technology plays an essential role in overcoming these issues to create an engaged and agile workforce that enhances business continuity and increases resilience. In fact, employees who are highly satisfied with their company’s tech are six times more likely to be highly satisfied with their overall employee experience.

So how can a business maintain that 鈥渨orkplace hum鈥� of interconnectedness when some people are in the office and others are remote on any given day? The answer goes beyond traditional HR approaches to a more human-centric one, called human experience management (HXM).

HXM聽is聽about聽putting people and their experiences at the center聽of everything,聽making work聽not only easier, but more聽individualized to each employee.

With the hybrid work model here to stay, it is increasingly important that employees feel connected, informed and with access to the tools they need to be productive from any device or location. And all of these capabilities are affordably accessible to midsize companies.

Digital workplace tools, such as this new HXM solution, allow employees to tap into everything they need 鈥� applications, processes, content, and information 鈭� from a single touch point and plus, they can personalize the experience based on what matters to each individual, and which insights and actions are relevant based on their behaviors.

Discovering peer groups, mentors, and intelligent recommendations with greater ease helps employees access the resources they need, stay connected, and save time to get work done. In addition, HR teams can leverage the technology to onboard and offboard employees and upskill and reskill through continuous learning,聽skills development,聽and on-the-job training opportunities.

With this modern and intuitive technology, multiple applications are integrated into a single user interface, extending the experience across all work-related touch points. And since the platform is extensible, companies can generate more value for their customers, partners, and stakeholders without the burden of ever-increasing IT costs.

Putting people first matters

There鈥檚 no doubt that the pandemic has empowered us to reimagine the workplace and created opportunities to optimize it.聽But no matter where or how employees work, employee experience matters, especially when it comes to employee engagement and retention.

A hybrid work environment that is interconnected with the right foundation can become an experience that gives employees what they need to feel connected, empowered, appreciated, and fairly rewarded. And when employees and their experiences come first, and their true value is well-understood, midsize businesses create a true meritocracy that empowers their workforce to take charge of their future and the company鈥檚 success.

Connect the dots聽between聽customers, employees, insights, and processes across your midsize business. Read the Oxford Economics brief, 鈥�,鈥� for research-based insights on the聽value of being聽interconnected聽and the e-book, 鈥�,鈥� for tips on how to act on them effectively.

Lara Albert is global vice president of Solution Marketing for 51风流SuccessFactors.
This article was originally published on Forbes, .

The post The Hybrid Workplace: Engaging The Post-Pandemic Workforce In Midsize Companies appeared first on 51风流Southeast Asia News Center.

In face of the push for digital transformation, with much of it being catalysed by the global pandemic and a need to increase future business resilience, ASEAN鈥檚 main challenge is to overcome 鈥渁 weak local digital ecosystem.鈥� But rather than be handicapped by this reality, Southeast Asian companies can work around it by accelerating their digital agenda where they empower it’s people with a sense of purpose.

People reforms first

This is something many companies often miss out on鈥攖hey drive digitisation without looking at how they can empower their workforce. A classic case of putting the cart before the horse, this leads to a type of workforce whose obsolete skills and traditional mindsets only cost the organisations in the long run. Remember: When employees are imbued with a clear sense of purpose, they will have a better idea of how they can adopt agile attributes and enhance their career skills to help drive their company鈥檚 transformation.

That said, how can business leaders champion a purpose-driven innovation? How can companies align people agenda with their business strategy to foster a holistic digitisation? Here are ways to consider:

1. Make HR a change enabler.

The foundation of digital transformation involves a mindset reset. However, many companies make the mistake of introducing digital solutions without preparing their workforce for it. What鈥檚 needed therefore in today鈥檚 workplace is an HR that is far from being reactive鈥攎eaning, an HR that feels the urgency of upskilling their employees and that which takes the lead in de-hierarchising their organisations. Once employees realise the importance of digital in improving their career prospects, it becomes easier for them to drive pockets of leadership in the workplace and sustain a company鈥檚 digitisation efforts. Take the case of China Datacom, a mobile Internet service provider. Because of its constant push for a data-driven performance management system, it鈥檚 now able to see clearly into the career development of the company鈥檚 1,500 employees, allowing its HR to act faster and support better business decisions.

What is needed in today鈥檚 workplace is an HR that is far from being reactive.

2. Leverage external partnerships.

There are a good number of small- and medium-sized Asian businesses that are poised to expand. These companies however can鈥檛 exactly afford to fund large-scale digital transformation because their resources are set aside to improve the core aspects of its operations. Companies in transition can boost their chances of digital success by seeking external partnerships that will hone a digital-ready workforce. The partnership forged between the ASEAN Foundation and 51风流SE provides an enlightening example. Intended to create a positive social impact in Southeast Asia, the partnership seeks to equip youths with the skills they need to thrive in the digital economy, while allowing local enterprises to build their own capabilities. The partnership will also facilitate capacity building and workforce development programmes to build an entrepreneurial culture in Southeast Asia and scale up youth-oriented projects.

3. Create a new employee experience.

HR should cultivate a dynamic and collaborative relationship with its employees. Employees are the heart of every organisation, and it鈥檚 important that they aren鈥檛 treated as mere numbers. When you have a mobile-ready workforce, your HR is required to provide a smart and聽connected experience for employees. How can HR do this? By adopting data-driven solutions to improve talent recruitment, onboarding, learning and development, and even career succession. This is key to improving your employees鈥� loyalty. It also assures them that the company is ready to invest in their future.

Empower today鈥檚 workforce

Without a connected workplace, instilling purpose in your employees becomes harder to do. And this only leads to poor business performance. To correct this, HR must start becoming a proponent of change. As the most direct line to the workforce, it must hone employees who welcome digital transformation as an enabling reality.

and empower your workforce to build a more resilient business today.聽

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