HRM Asia Watch List 2018: Rudy Afandi

Rudy Afandi, HR director for General Electric in Indonesia, has developed a respectable body of HR work around the region.
By: | October 15, 2018

The HRM Asia Watch List 2018 (#hrmwatchlist), brought to you by Armstrong Craven, showcases the brightest next-generation HR leadership talent from across Southeast Asia.

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.

HRM Asia Watch List

Rudy Afandi

HR Director, General Electric Indonesia

Based in: Jakarta

HR focus area: Talent Management, Leadership Development, Performance Management

Favourite aspect of HR: “Identifying the best talent fit to key roles, for the best business performance.”

Career-defining moment“Undertaking transformation at our company – bringing in automation, changing mind-sets, and getting everyone on board.”

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

Profile #13: Rudy Afandi | Profile #14: Norazlina Idris

Profile #15: Naveen Chhabra | Profile #16: Monir Azzouzi