Looking ahead to 2019: HR leaders weigh in

We asked some rising stars of HR in Southeast Asia for their views on what's ahead for employees, organisations - and, of course, HR.
By: | February 20, 2019
Topics: Digital Transformation | Employee Experience | Features | Learning and Development | Recruitment | Southeast Asia | Talent Management

 

The year of 2019 is well and truly underway, but it’s not too late to make some resolutions!

For our first print magazine issue of 2019, out now, we asked some rising stars of HR in Southeast Asia for their views on what 2019 will bring.

What are your HR hopes for this year?

Fong Tuan Chen, Head, HR and General Affairs, Samsung Malaysia Electronics:

“2019

will be a year of new possibilities for Samsung, accelerating new technologies and exploring new opportunities.

HR will be the cog, ensuring our people are equipped and ready to take on the challenge.

Our three main focus areas will be:

  • Talent attraction – continually strengthening Samsung’s employer brand to be top of mind in our target segment;
  • Analytics – leveraging Samsung’s data richness and enabling technology to gain valuable people insights, helping us make wise and relevant people decisions;
  • Talent development – providing our talent pool with integrated learning opportunities aimed at future capabilities to prepare our workforce to be future fit.”

What are your HR goals for 2019, in terms of how you’re looking to move your organisation and employees forward?

Jaspreet Kakar, AXA Philippines:

“At AXA Philippines HR, we will concentrate on building our capability on leading teams through constant change and the application of skills like automation, digitisation, AI, and design thinking, to solve business problems.

We will also continue to fortify our culture of agility, simplicity, and empowerment to stay ahead of market conditions.

We are also investing in enhancing the employee life cycle experience through automation of processes, self-service, and accessible learning and development tools.

In addition, we will strengthen our employee assistance programs to further enable the physical, financial, and mental wellbeing of our people.”

What should employers expect from employees in 2019?

Dianne Goette, Regional Director for Talent Acquisition, Ogilvy:

“This year, employers will need to create more flexibility in work approaches to allow the modern worker to forge their own career path.

The more driven ones will want to create time to pursue personal interests for their own development and satisfaction, and employers must ensure that their business processes and people policies can accommodate this to retain the best talent.

Deliverables will remain of high quality if managers can identify and deprioritise non-value adding work requests.”

How are regional trends impacting your HR approach for 2019?

Tony Tan, Group Chief HR Officer, Jewellery Luck Group of Companies:

“Myanmar has been going through some massive changes with the introduction of the gig economy, the increasing use of mobile technology, the fact that the young workforce here is not trained for the jobs that will exist in the future, and business leaders who are stuck in the past and not ready to acknowledge the increasing number of professional competitors.

Our strategy to overcome these challenges is enabling staff and leaders to continuously develop and evolve themselves according to their strengths and the requirements of their changing responsibilities; and using business intelligence from our technological platforms to make data-driven HR decisions to support transformation.”