HRM Asia Watch List 2018: Rudy Afandi
- HRM Asia Newsroom
Rudy Afandi moved into HR after spending a few years in finance, and then marketing, and was surprised to find that it was a good fit to his own personal interests and sensibilities.
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As he sees it, the two most important aspects of a business are its product, and its people. As such, HR has a huge role to play in ensuring the health of a business.
Afandi himself has developed a respectable body of HR work that has taken him all around the business, and the region.
He started out in Unilever, where he served stints in as a HR business partner in the company’s personal care unit in India, as well as customer development in Indonesia.
These bookended a short project in Saudi Arabia, where Afandi was a change management consultant.
He cites his experience in India as a particular high point.
“Unilever’s India business specifically asked for someone from Unilever Indonesia to go over and help with employee engagement,” Afandi explains.
“It was intimidating at first – challenging experiences are not always comfortable. But I learned a lot and definitely grew as a person and a HR professional.”
In his current role as HR director for General Electric in Indonesia, which he embarked upon three years ago, Afandi has two key priorities: talent attraction, and retention.
“A lot of companies in Indonesia are struggling now with the big gap in talent. We’ve seen a lot of growth in the country due to a large amount of investment that’s coming in. Unfortunately, talent capabilities haven’t been able to keep up with that growth.”
As such, talent attraction is a challenge, even for big, brand-name companies like GE – and of course, once said talent is in, it’s vital that they want to stick around.
His goal in that regard – and in general, as a HR leader – is fairly straightforward. “I want to continue to help leaders become more passionate and inspiring coaches for their teams and the rest of the organisation.”
The HRM Asia Watch List aims to showcase the up and coming generation of HR leadership talent in Southeast Asia. The list will be unveiled daily between September 27 and October 19, 2018. Check the dedicated archive for the latest updates, follow #hrmwatchlist on social media, or see below.
Introduction | Welcome address by Tom Mason
Profile #1: Jaspreet Kakar | Profile #2: Dianne Goette | Profile #3: Chen Fong Tuan
Profile #4: Felicia Teh | Profile #5: Monica Oudang | Profile #6: Evangeline Chua
Profile #7: Agapol Na Songkhla | Profile #8: Clayton Tan | Profile #9: Tony Tan
Profile #10: Vanessa Mercado-Maningas | Profile #11: Jahja Soenarta | Profile #12: Minn Yan
