The Classified Post’s first HR Conference of 2017 on March 29 drew over 200 HR professionals, talent strategists and business leaders to the Hyatt Regency Hong Kong in Tsim Sha Tsui to hear a range of expert speakers share their views on the latest developments in compensation and benefits (C&B) strategies.
Following an introduction by Alex Ho, general manager of South China Morning Post Publishers’ recruitment, education, circulation and syndication businesses, Stephen Sui, secretary for labour and welfare in the HKSAR government, gave the conference’s opening speech. Sui reminded those gathered that before taking public office he too was a HR practitioner and that he felt very much at home in the surroundings.
He also underlined the urgency of fresh thinking for the territory’s HR sector, which needed to “go beyond the mere administrative functions of HR and fully unleash its positive strategic impact on organisations’ competitiveness and long-term health.”
After Sui, Professor S. Noorein Inamdar, associate professor of practice in management, CUHK Business School, took to the podium to give the keynote speech, entitled “The use of C&B to motivate employees across cultures.” Inamdar said that the onset of globalisation has resulted in companies expanding into new markets and “sending people all over the world with minimal multicultural training.”
With research showing 70 per cent of international ventures failing, purely for cultural reasons, the professor emphasised a greater use of cultural understanding was vital to increase motivation and that HR had a key part to play. “The HR role is pivotal in figuring out how to engage people across cultures so they can get along, that they can actually work together in a way that creates substantial value,” said Inamdar.
The next speaker was Simon Gluyas, employee insights practice leader, talents and rewards at Willis Towers Watson, who presented findings from a recent survey on the “robo-gig” economy that his company had carried out among Hong Kong employers and employees.
With automation increasing at an exponential rate, Gluyas said, it is predicted 50 per cent of the workforce in the US will be freelance by 2020. “Organisations are becoming a lot smarter about how they form alliances and how they partner with one another to get work done far more effectively than through a traditional job, by sharing talent.”
He said 40 per cent of the Hong Kong businesses questioned in the survey expected to raise their share of non-employee talent in the next five years. Employees appear to be even more sensitive to the change; 60 per cent expected employers to introduce new technology over the coming three years to use outsourced talent.
Dr Alexander Chiu, chief operating officer of the recently opened Gleneagles Hong Kong Hospital then spoke on the use of medical packages in employee benefits. Chiu said a shortage of doctors means the city is a provider’s market for medical care. “A lack of price transparency and price certainty means there is no incentive for medical service providers to cost-contain for patients,” said Chiu.
He outlined the criteria used to determine medical packages at his hospital, which are aimed at containing costs, by transferring “the burden of risk from the patient side to the provider side.” If successful, Chiu predicts that “in five years’ time, instead of hotels.com we’ll have hospitals.com. It makes it easier for payers, not just insurance companies or corporates but individuals, to make better, informed decisions.”
There then followed a panel discussion during which Inamdar, Gluyas and Chiu tackled the subject of how to link company culture to C&B, covering recent trends in performance-based rewards and changing HR strategies. After this there was a luncheon conference in which Thomas Lee, chief corporate solutions officer of AIA Hong Kong and Macau, talked about how rewards strategies can be redefined by optimising employee benefits.
Lee shared some insights supported by research findings on what companies are currently facing, such as employees become more demanding on benefits and the deterioration of employees’ health over time. “Employee benefits should be able to help productivity of the workforce, reduce absenteeism and boost employee engagement,” said Lee. A one-size-fits-all solution is not the answer, he said, but rather a comprehensive employee benefits solution, which is not limited to conventional, protective support, but extends to continuous, preventative and comprehensive care.
Next up was Stephen Fung, chief executive officer of AIA MPF, who gave a presentation on how MPF can go beyond being an employee benefit and favour HR. While MPF is a mandatory system for most in a company, voluntary contributions can be used to retain talent. A well-designed voluntary contributions offer is very beneficial, he noted: “From the employee’s point of view, it’s a kind of pay rise and also helps enhance their sense of loyalty to the company. It can also enhance their retirement protection. When you talk about talent retention, MPF is something you can work on.”
After a useful stretching session given by AIA Vitality and Pure Yoga, digital transformation was the theme of the next address, by Andy Ann, founder and CEO, NDN Group (HK). He said that exponential growth is a feature of modern business and it can engulf companies that fail to see things coming. “Sometimes corporations only notice when it is too late. It’s slow at first and suddenly runs at lightning speed,” said Ann.
Technologies such as artificial intelligence will bring new requirements for HR and even new positions to fill, such as sales engineers to replace sales teams. “My company laid off our entire sales team because we have our apps running on various platforms to bring in sales. We don’t need to make calls,” he explained.
The final speaker was Divya Gopalan, principal consultant, media training and crisis communication, CP Learning, on media training, which, she said is essential for all companies who deal with the media.
Gopalan said that in an age of social media “one bad image or one bad reaction can end up online and spread across the world,” forever associating a company with it. Using contrasting examples of media engagement by CEOs, she underlined how vital it was to control a company’s reaction. “These are some of the things you can get from a media training workshop – body language, case studies, role play, how to put forward your best face,” said Gopalan.
Classified Post’s next HR Conference will take place in June. Stay tuned for more details.
