Featuring a diverse line-up of high-profile presenters that offered strategic-level human resources insights, the latest Classified Post HR Conference, held on March 16 with the theme “The Quest for Talent – unlocking the strategies to attract, acquire and retain,” covered a broad range of topics including current trends, case studies and cutting-edge issues, as well as people management challenges in a changing world-of-work landscape.
More than 200 conference participants learned from respected HR professionals and academics about talent management practices that focus on turning career paths into goal-oriented adventures, and how inspiring a creative environment is an option where risk is rewarded.
During her welcoming remarks, Cecilia Kwok, business director, recruitment business at the South China Morning Post said the daylong conference held at the Hyatt Regency Hong Kong, Tsim Sha Tsui provided a platform for the Hong Kong HR community to come together to learn from each together and share best practices.
Kwok noted how speakers from a local start-up, a family-owned business and also multinational organisations could offer fresh points of view and inspiring case studies that HR practitioners might consider using to good effect within their own organisations. “The conference comes at a time when competition for talent is intense and employers are searching for ways to ensure their HR practices maximise the performance and sustainability of their businesses,” said Kwok.
Focusing on strategies for talent acquisition, retention and creativity, during his morning keynote presentation, Professor Yaping Gong, head of the department of management at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) speculated that the notoriously long hours Hong Kong employees spend at work might be detrimental to fuelling creativity. He said people who spend a lot of time at work may be under the illusion they are being creative, but this is rarely the case.
A similar situation occurs when employees are working against the clock. “Under time pressure, people may feel more creative, but research shows they actually think less creatively,” said Gong. The rare exception, he continued, is when people are protected from distractions and are of the mindset that whatever they are doing is a critical mission. The professor also emphasised how management and leadership’s tolerance of failure is critical for creativity and innovation to thrive.
In his morning case study presentation, Shunichi Morinaga jokingly referred to himself as the chief entertainment officer as well as the president and CEO at Canon Hongkong. He also stressed the importance of keeping employees motivated.
“When the company facies adversity, key point is turning people’s negative feelings to positive ones,” said Morinaga, who explained that, as CEO, it is his responsibility to acknowledge employee achievements and support employee-focused programmes such as well-being initiatives and healthy eating awareness.
“When we overcome a difficult period for the organisation, we build resilience among colleagues, and this brings the company to the next level ,” he said.
Morinaga also said communication between management and employees had underpinned the successful restructuring of Canon Hongkong during a period of substantial change.
Clare Allum, tax talent leader, Asia-Pacific at EY, outlined how the global professional services organisation has re-evaluated its employee engagement and career-planning strategies. She said EY has focused on providing employees with “exceptional experiences”. “We want our employees to feel the work they do has purpose that aligns with their own career aspirations,” said Allum. To accommodate the changing needs of clients, EY nor offers a broad range of advisory services, including people advisory services.
Allum explained that the widening of service offerings has necessitated hiring individuals from a diverse talent pool, including STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) graduates. To attract students, EY has launched competitions and potential candidate programmes to allow such students to experience working for a professional services organisation.
During a panel discussion entitled “Hiring, Retention and Performance”, moderated by Cecilia Kwok of the South China Morning Post, the three morning speakers expressed the view that, while technologies such as artificial intelligence and robotics will continue to have a disruptive influence on current jobs, the adoption of technologies will also create a wide range of new jobs and career opportunities.
Carmen Chong, director of talent at the logistics start-up Lalamove, explained to the conference audience how building a strong HR team and utilising the “right” HR technology, coupled with a clear recruitment mission, has enabled the rapidly growing company to build the headcount it has needed.
Chong said that, to systematically address a diverse range of talent acquisition needs, the HR team first identified bottlenecks that needed to be cleared.
To achieve its hiring goals, a consistent hiring strategy needed to be implemented. “We streamlined a long ‘wish-list’ of hiring competencies into a simplified scorecard that gave us a clear framework we could work with,” Chong said.
In addition to technical skills and aptitudes that align with the company’s core values, the scorecard requires the candidate to fulfil the requirement of one high-level mission competency, and three outcomes that can be measured within a quantifiable time frame. “We hire people for their ‘grit’ and passion to succeed as much as for their experience and technical skills,” said Chong.
Stan Tang, chairman of Stan Group (Holdings), explained to the HR Conference audience how the family-owned business, which has now grown into a conglomerate, utilises its own style of talent resources management, offering a purpose-driven platform to drive employee motivation and job satisfaction. “In effect, we encourage our employees to be entrepreneurs within the business,” Tang said.
The initiative involves flipping the decision-making processes, which allows frontline employees to put forward ideas to improve services and efficiencies.
“When you empower employees, the challenges, problems and opportunities become personal,” said Tang, who added that those empowered employees also understand the potential risks innovative ideas can involve. However, Tang stressed that employees receive coaching and mentoring from senior management and also the resources to enable them to pursue career and business-related objectives.
Challenging some of the HR norms surrounding the concept of employee retention, during his afternoon keynote presentation, entitled “Redefining Talent Retention – from Career to Self-Actualisation”, Teddy Liu, general manager, corporate and talent development at New World Development told the conference that motivated individuals who want to achieve self-actualisation are more important to a retention strategy than maintaining a low staff turnover.
“Retention should be about empowering employees who are motivated and by the possibility they have of directing their own future and goal-setting,” said Liu. “They need a platform where they can shine.”
He also explained how New World Development provides opportunities for job rotation and encourages employees to challenge themselves while helping them in the form of coaching resources and advisory support.
Liu said the resulting benefits of giving employees, especially younger ones, self-motivated opportunities, is a workforce that is fuelled by the rigor to achieve.
Bringing the conference to a close, the final panel discussion, comprising the speakers from the afternoon session and also moderated by Kwok, took an in-depth look at “Talent Engagement, and Retention through Development and Culture Alignment”.
