Accelerating the impact of people strategies to enrich the world of work

Driven by a vast and diverse population, as well as sustained economic growth and stability, Asia has grown exponentially as a key business hub. With Asia’s GDP now overtaking the rest of the world, the World Economic Forum expects the region to add approximately 60% to global growth by 2030.

This in turn, is encouraging business leaders around the world to select Asia as a logical expansion destination, a development not lost on the Top Employers Institute, as the global HR authority on certifying excellence in HR practices continues to grow its presence in the region.

Speaking with HRM Asia, Billy Elliott, Regional Director APAC, Top Employer Institute, shared, “In 2022, we certified 297 Top Employers from 21 different APAC countries and continued growth in the region is key for our recognition as a truly global HR Certification firm. Furthermore, it made sense for us to open an office in Singapore because the country serves as the regional headquarters for many multinational companies in South-East Asia and this is our main HR certification target market.”

With a dedication towards creating a better world of work, Top Employers Institute certified 1,857 Top Employers in 123 countries, helping to positively impact the lives of over eight million employees globally.

For a region as culturally and demographically diverse as Asia, how is Top Employers Institute helping organisations grow as an employer of choice?

“Through our HR Best Practices survey, we enable Top Employers to assess and improve their workplace annually,” Elliott explained. “Recognition through our programme for these HR practices helps companies to attract, engage, and retain talent.”

“As a unique selling point in the global employer of choice ecosystem, we are the only firm in the world that certifies organisations as Top Employers based on audited fact, as opposed to opinion-based survey data.”

Participating organisations must successfully complete four stages in the Certification Programme and achieve the required minimum standard for certification.

The participating organisation is required to complete a survey that contains six domains, 20 HR topics, and 350 best practices. A HR auditor from Top Employers Institute will validate the answers by reviewing each individual survey and the required supporting documentation of a broad selection of answer options across different survey domains and topics.

The HR auditor then conducts a validation session with the company’s HR team to test and confirm the implementation of the information provided. To be certified as an internationally recognised Top Employer for a one-year period, participating organisations must achieve the required Certification Score aligned to the HR Best Practices.

How Top Employers are investing in HR

In managing the challenges brought by workplace disruption over the last couple of years, organisations have had to undergo significant transformations. What sets Top Employers apart from the competition, is their ability to maintain considerable gains in market share, profitability, revenue growth, and customer satisfaction.

“An employee-centric strategy plays an imperative role in helping companies achieve successful results over a sustained period, driven by a highly engaged and motivated workforce.” – Billy Elliott, Regional Director APAC, Top Employer Institute

A common characteristic of these successful organisations, said Elliott, is their desire to ensure that HR remains a top business priority by investing in their HR practices.

He added, “An employee-centric strategy, for instance, plays an imperative role in helping companies achieve successful results over a sustained period, driven by a highly engaged and motivated workforce.”

“Through our digital results dashboard, Top Employers can also benchmark their performance against our global standard of HR excellence, ensuring alignment with the latest international HR trends. Annual benchmarking helps organisations identify and implement key HR practices, ensuring companies continue to offer the very best employee experience.”

Employees at the heart of high-performing organisations

As the world continues to change, a new set of workplace trends are emerging to present fresh opportunities for the best organisations to shine.

Elliott said, “Our 2022 research shows that for HR globally, three major workplace trends must be tackled rapidly by organisations worldwide into 2023. At the root of these trends, we will find the emergence of the employee as a powerful voice and true stakeholder in high-performing organisations.”

Instead of employees simply being engaged in their work, the onus is on organisations to unleash the potential of “involved employees”, who are deeply involved and immersed in how work is designed.

The next step is to deliver “digit-ability”, as Elliott explained, “The pandemic saw firms introducing new technologies, sometimes to survive. Now, digital initiatives are being looked at to see how they improve employees’ overall experience.”

Thirdly, organisations must harness when Top Employers Institute describes as the “Wild West of Work”, where a working environment that has seen wholesale changes offers both opportunities and challenges.

With organisations ready to push on into 2023, Elliott concluded by asking organisations to ask themselves three questions to improve their chances of being successful:

• Are you enabling a world of work in which employees are genuinely involved in the design of all that the organisation does?
• Can you create a business where people agility, enabled by the power of technology, is a given in the search for high performance?
• How can you ensure that the potential and pitfalls created by new working environments are fully realised?

Click here to find out how the Top Employers Institute can help your organisation improve your HR practices and become a certified employer of choice.