HR’s rise in Asia

Travel from Mumbai to Hong Kong, or from Shanghai to Sydney, and you’ll see significant differences in the way HR is performed. It’s not that some countries are better or worse at the profession (though some organisations certainly are); it’s that with a region as large and diverse as the Asia Pacific, HR necessarily needs to be adapted to each location, culture and legal jurisdiction.

Of course, to see the largest contrasts in HR practice, you’d need a functional time machine! The evolution that the profession has witnessed, particular in Asia and particularly over the last twenty years, has been both fast and dramatic. But even with that change, the lessons of the past have some strong relevance to both the present and future.

In this exclusive cover story, HRM talks to five HR “stalwarts” of the profession, each responsible for a region-wide HR role and each boasting more than 20 years of experience in the field. They share some of the key challenges and highlights of their careers, while also explaining the way the profession has evolved over a generation of business.

A wide continent
Asia is certainly a continent of contrasts, and the economic differences between cities, countries and regions are some of the most stark. While the city-states of Singapore and Hong Kong are yet to be officially recognised as “developed” nations, they draw much more in common with the US and Europe than the fast “emerging” giants of China and India. This creates some very different talent markets across the Asia-Pacific region.

“It’s still 8% growth every year (in China),” Nina Dankfort-Nevel, Senior HR Manager, Asia Pacific and China, GE Energy says. The Shanghai-based leader considers finding new talent in that rapidly changing economy to be the biggest HR challenge there.

“There’s a lot of competition now, but it’s a different type of competition.” Where once multinationals like GE only competed with each other for the best skills and talent, now Chinese companies – both private and state-owned – have comparable employer brands. “They want to be global too.”

To compete, HR professionals need to adapt their employement offers to that fast-moving environment. “People are impatient,” Dankfort-Nevel says. “They want their next job or training programme faster. The hunger for learning is also something that strikes me as a difference.”

The same challenges are true 5000 kilometres away in Mumbai, India. Saagarika Ghoshal, Chief People Officer, Reliance Big Entertainment, says the media conglomerate has a strong employer brand but can still suffer from a short supply of reliable skills. “Getting the right people with the right skills into the right jobs, a common definition of talent management, is still challenge in organisations,” she says.

“All of us still struggle to get the right fit.”

In India, this has become an issue at all levels of organisations. “While the focus of talent management tends to be on management and executive positions, the issues apply to all jobs that are hard to fill,” Ghoshal says.

For Klaus Duetoft, senior regional HR director, eBay Asia Pacific, the constant change taking place in the key markets of China and India means constant restructure for the entire organisation. “As our market and our competitors change so rapidly we really look to evolve rapidly as well,” he says. While that’s certainly a challenge, he says he and his team also relish the excitement of HR on the run. “If you have the right people in place and they are aware of the changes and it’s communicated well, and you support them through that, it’s an incredibly exciting dynamic.

The more mature economies of Hong Kong and Singapore can’t match their emerging neighbours for economic growth – but increasing talent mobility means they are still affected by their tight labour markets.

Carmen Wee, Vice President of HR, Asia Pacific and Middle East, Invensys Operations Management, says the talent wars are certainly present in her base of Singapore. Again, employer branding is the key for organisations looking to hold their own. For Invensys, the major focus is on its learning and development programmes.

“(Our brand) hinges on the ability of employees to learn new skills and grow to the next levels of leadership;” she says.

Wee also takes a strong interest in the talent challenges of smaller businesses, many of whom are clients of Invensys. Speaking at last year’s Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit for Small to Medium Enterprises (SMEs), she urged these businesses to adopt the HR strategies of larger corporations, particularly when it comes to attraction and retention of talent.

“You need to align the leadership around this idea of talent,” she told HRM. “(This lets you) take ownership of the talent question through the way you motivate and manage.”

A changing profession
No matter where you are in Asia, the evidence of HR’s growing business influence is clear. Economies may be different but best-practice thinking is able to cross borders as easily as an email, and this has led to Asia quickly catching up to the philosophies and strategies commonly used in the “west”.

Connie Lam, the Hong Kong-based HR Director of China Light and Power (CLP), says organisations are now recognising talent as a critical business issue and relying on HR’s expertise to plan long-term strategies. She says her biggest career highlight has been the establishment of a complete Manpower Planning Framework for CLP.

This takes a long-term (10 or more years) view of the organisation’s talent requirements, projected retirements and likely turnover of staff. It also addresses some of the unique recruitment challenges of the Hong Kong-based firm – such as the overwhelming preference for university students to take on banking and economics studies rather than engineering-based courses.

As well as new scholarships and programmes to attract new blood, even from the secondary school level, Lam has helped to build a powerful employer brand among the existing workforce. She says the company has leveraged on HR to become well known as a family-friendly employer.

Ghoshal also notes a clear progression in the HR function, in both India and the rest of Asia. “We now play a very specific role in terms of decision making,” she tells HRM. “We are a more proactive function now – planning HR strategies many years ahead. Back then (around ten years ago) we were more reactive.”

She says this strategic role has certainly found use in recent acquisition activity by the Reliance Group. “If acquiring a company, HR can look at the culture and leadership and advise on what issues may come up,” she said. “These are the things that weren’t really looked at before.”

HR has certainly stepped up to the plate in a number of organisations, in all countries of Asia. That’s been due to a combination of talent shortages making businesses more aware of HR issues, and some real-world successes in talent strategy. “The biggest difference is the change from an operational, administrative role to where you’re now a business partner,” Dankfort-Nevel says, adding that there is one more important reason for HR’s professional ascent.

“Technology is the driver,” she says. “It’s been a big enabler to give us the time to do that role.” As well as freeing up staff hours, giving HR more time and space to concentrate on those longer-term issues, technology also provides some important analytical and data-crunching tools that allow more sophisticated strategies to develop. Before some of these solutions were available, HR metrics could only be gathered through trawling hard copy files.

“I remember 11 years ago; we still had all the paperwork in big binders,” Dankfort-Nevel says. “We had to take it all to the US to present to the head office.

“Now, you just take your laptop – everything’s at the tips of your fingers.”

HR at Invensys certainly takes advantage of its particular expertise in technology. Wee says internal information strategies have helped HR to really stake a claim at the boardroom level. “We have organised HR into a centre for excellence, driving learning and development and other initiatives,” she says.

That HR leadership is also charged with aligning the long-term employer brand with the brand that “Open Minds, Open Doors” brand that Invensys’ customers know and favour. “It’s about sustainability; cohesiveness and being high performing,” Wee says.

Saagarika Ghoshal
Chief People officer

What challenges exist in your home talent market?
"The vivacious nature of global business is putting an ever-increasing pressure on companies to be constantly on the lookout for incomparable talent in a market where demand far exceeds supply. In this, India is no exception"

Organisation: Reliance Big Entertainment
Current Industry: Media
Previous Industries: Air travel, telecommunications
Location: Mumbai, India
Total HR Experience: 27 years

Klaus Duetoft
Senior R egional, HR director

Your most satisfying career achievement?
“Building the Asia Pacific HR team itself. Now, the business does not give a second thought to the fact that HR is at the table as a business partner”

Organisation: eBay and PayPal Asia Pacific
Current industry: Online retail
Previous industries: Government, fast-moving consumer goods, pharmaceuticals
Location: Sydney, Australia
Total HR experience: 22 years

Carmen Wee
Vice President of HR, Asia Pacific and Middle East

What key HR strategies will help to make the most of this current economic climate?
“People need to be properly mentored and able to meet with their peers so they can also grow and contribute to the company”

Organisation: Invensys Operations Management
Current Industry: Information technology
Previous Industries: Hospitality, Fast-Moving Consumer Goods
Location: Singapore
Total HR Experience: 20 years

Connie Lam
HR Director

How has HR changed over the years?
“In the past it was about building policies and procedures. Now it's about building organisational capability”

Organisation: China Light and Power
Current Industry: Electricity generation and transmission
Previous Industries: Trading
Location: Hong Kong
Total HR Experience: 24 years

Nina Dankfort-Nevel
Senior HR Manager, Asia Pacific and China

What challenges does HR face in Asia?
"The inherent motivators of people are the same; the challenges that you have come from the speed – Asia is a very, very fast environment"

Organisation: GE Energy
Current Industry: Energy
Previous Industries: Consumer products
Location: Shanghai, China
Total HR Experience: 27 years