Equipping employees for the continuing digital revolution

 

Nicole Poon, the Former Senior Vice President, Performance and Regional HR, MatchMove Pay, recently spoke to HRM Magazine Asia about how and why it is important for organisations to provide the necessary framework to cope with the new systems and applications that are changing how we do work.

 

HR Festival Asia Speaker Spotlight Nicole Poon Former Senior Vice President, Performance and Regional HR, MatchMove Pay What is your connection to HR? It’s more than just a connection – it’s a core belief, a core value if you must, that people are the main resource of any company. As a person who is intimately involved in growing the company and growing the value of each individual in the company, it is more than just a practitioner, consultant, or trainer. I don’t have many years of filing job applications, filling payroll, typing documents, but I have a wealth of experience in crying with people, laughing with people, growing with people, and excelling with people. My work and my life experience have made me connect to people, not to the profession. The profession is a functional name, the people are my passion and my connection. What’s the best part of your job? Being able to influence people in a positive way, support them and facilitate their growth and development. Being able to o support and encourage employees to be become better both professionally as well as personally. Seeing an employee evolve and succeed in a work setting, akin to the process of polishing a diamond from a rough stone. What’s your favourite quote? “Your attitude, not your aptitude, will determine your altitude.” – Zig Ziglar

Transformation often means a switch to new systems and platforms. How can organisations help employees cope with this switch, in terms of both skills and mind-sets? 

1) Communication – Organisations can to help address employees fears and challenges through active feedback, communication and support.

2) Collaboration between the government, organisations, learning institutes, industries and employees to maximise the impact of transformation.

Such collaboration provides a support system and a shift in mind-set to the employees.

Singapore is a great example of such collaboration where the Government provides support and education towards a Smart Nation, organisations working with learning institutions to come up with new training solutions to cater to their needs.

 

How does this in turn help to nurture a responsive and agile mind-set among employees?  

Once employees are able to adapt to the transformation and changes, to be receptive to new systems and platforms knowing that such transformation will help increase their productivity and employability.

Sharing and recognising real life examples and successes of employees being able to adapt and adopt new tools will help to change the mindset among employees, and in turn creating a responsive and agile organisational culture.

 

You’ll be speaking at HR Festival Asia this May. What will delegates learn from your presentation? 

I hope to share how HR is more than just an ubiquitous department that merely processes names and numbers – HR in the 21st Century (Age of AI) is about People. We help businesses grow by finding the synergy between People, Process, and Technology, to create a smarter and collaborative workplace.

 

Apart from your own presentation, what are you looking forward to seeing at HR Festival Asia?

I am looking forward to networking with other HR professionals, and getting more insights into HR Tech, especially in the area of AI applications to HR.

Also spending time in the start-up pavilion as the start -up scene and community is getting better and stronger, and I am interested to find out more about the cool and innovative HR solutions.

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Nicole Poon is one of more than 100 slated speakers at the first-ever HR Festival Asia, brought to you by the combined experience of HR Technology Conference & Exposition (US) and HR Summit (Asia). At the event’s dedicated Smart Workforce & Innovation stream, expert presenters will divulge how organisations can redesign your existing business models to increase mobility, responsiveness and agility. Delegates will have the opportunity to learn more about mobile workforces and uncover how to make training flexible, fast and efficient, whilst identifying and facilitating the development of critical technological savviness for tomorrow’s workplace. For more information, visit www.hrfestivalasia.com.