Tagged with Asia …

Jan 14 2012
1 Comment
Business, Employee Engagement, Enterprise 2.0, Human Resources, Leadership, Management, Social Media, Technology

Change & Communications Study Report: Implications For Asia Pacific

Towers Watson (my employer) recently released a report on The 2011/12 Change & Communication ROI Study report. It has great insights about what could organizations do to build Clarity, Confidence and Community in their organizations through effective communications and change management. While I leave you to enjoy the full report, I found some of the charts interesting as they showed geographical breakdowns including Asia-Pacific level data.

In terms of ensuring that employees are business literate and have a good view of organizational performance, there seems to be little variation across the geographical regions. Even so, Asia-Pacific sits at the bottom of the pack on these important issues related to providing clarity and building a sense of connection.

The second issue I spotted was related to Employee Value Proposition (EVP). Given the nature of the talent race in Asia, I think it’s quite a hot issues these days. And interestingly, a higher percentage of Asia-Pacific companies report that they have a clearly defined EVP. However, when it comes to having a segmented EVP approach (e.g. for high performers, high potentials etc.), these companies fare a bit badly. Also, the bigger question is how effectively is the EVP winning mind-share in the talent market.

And as social media powers the new world of communications, there is a fair distance that companies in Asia-Pacific have to go. Only about 30% of the organizations report that they have a documented social media policy in place, the corresponding number for the USA is 77%! Moreover, only a handful of Asia-Pacific companies report that they have the right tools to measure the effectiveness of social media. So, first there is an adoption issue and then, if measurement is not effective, then establishing a clear business case for social media will be a challenge for companies. As for me, I am more interested in finding out how Asia Pacific companies are leveraging these channels for building an open, transparent and collaborative workplace.

All graphs and data credits to Towers Watson
Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Jul 06 2011
8 Comments
Blogging, Business, Employee Engagement, Human Resources, Leadership, Management

Carnival of HR – The Talent Race

Alright people! I bring to you the latest Carnival of HR. Themed as “The Talent Race”, this edition contains interesting posts about how could organizations effectively Attract, Engage and Retain their employees and what are the latest practices in Talent Management. Additionally, I wanted to have some Asian flavours by getting posts by people writing about the Asian context. Unfortunately, I didn’t get many posts about talent management practices from Asia. And that means that one, we need more professionals in Asia to blog on the subject and two, I need to expand my Asian network even more!

  • Jon Ingham is one of my favourite bloggers. He feels that there is a need for a differentiated unique proposition for people management. Sticking to the theme of “talent race”, he shares how Haier (a consumer electronics MNC that started off in China) established race tracks for a unique way of managing their talent base.
  • Laura Schroeder wonders where has all the talent gone. She analyzes reports from the Economist Intelligence Unit and Bersin & Associates to come up with strategies to bridge the talent gap.
  • Tanmay Vora writes at the QAspire blog and shares with us some Core Lessons in Leading & Managing People. He says that “working with people, guiding a team and helping them in their quest for peak potential is one of the noblest things we can do as leaders. It is an opportunity and an obligation as well.
  • As HR professionals, we are often heard advising employees to “take charge of your own development”. But do most employees really know how to do this? In this post, Dan McCarthy, from Great Leadership, offers a free step-by-step self-study guide to developing leadership skills. Best of all, it’s free to use and/or share, as a way to engage and retain valuable employees who are willing to learn on their own but need a little structure”.
  • Heard about the “HR Hairball”? Find out in this excellent post by Mark Stelzner.
  • It might be important to hire employees for their skills, but hiring for culture-fit is really important as well. Wally Bock shares his views on Hiring Well. One of my favourite lines from the blog post – “Performance and growth are often situational”.
  • Amy Wilson writes about transforming existing performance models into one that is more work-centric and embedded in the natural flow of business to get the best work done.
  • A strong learning & development platform is critical for organization looking at managing their talent base effectively and driving sustained business performance. Linda Fisher Thornton from Leading in Context shares 11 Learning & Development Reports. Informative!
  • Anita Lettink feels that “best practices” may not always work for you because you have your own unique context. Instead, she shares some guidelines for winning the Talent Race.
I would like to thank all the contributors for sharing their ideas. Also, thanks to Shauna Moerke for the giving me the opportunity to host the Carnival of HR.
Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Jan 20 2011
1 Comment
Business, Leadership, Management

Sell The “Change” That You Want To See

Indranil Roy of Korn/Ferry has written an insightful piece in The Forbes magazine “Asia Doesn’t Have the New Business Leaders It Needs”. He talks about two terms – Asia 1.0 and Asia 2.0:

Until now that growth was built largely on being a workshop to the world, providing cheaper products to seemingly insatiable Western consumers. But that was Asia 1.0–and that engine is losing steam. Now the demands of Asian consumers, with unique and increasingly sophisticated needs, are changing the way companies create, design and market products. They are bringing about a new growth model that we call Asia 2.0.

And, goes on to talk about the kind of leadership styles suitable for these two worlds:

We found that the leaders who best met the Asia 1.0 challenges were highly directive, task-driven and productive, or else logical, serious and data-driven, with strong attention to detail.

In Asia 2.0, leaders’ success will depend on their abilities to handle multiplicity, diversity and cultural differences across their workforces and markets. The leaders most likely to succeed in Asia 2.0 will be those who use openness, informality, humor and adaptability to lead, and who are inquisitive, collaborative, involving and patient in their leadership.

I have myself worked with several organisations in Asia and do agree with some of these points. As I read the article, I thought about the leadership’s role in the context of an evolving, changing Asia. Organisations here are re-inventing themselves, repositioning themselves and are in the middle of constant change. This definitely affects the workforce in these organisations. In such a scenario, communication becomes a very important part of the change management process.

More than simple communication, I believe “selling” of change is critical. Leaders need to be adept at creating dissatisfaction with the present, painting a compelling vision for the future and charting a clear path to move from one point to another. Leaders need to passionately articulate the journey and its impact on the organisation and the individual. And in the process, rally people around the cause. Leaders need to ensure that their people “buy” the change; are completely sold out on it.

But, this does not work out so well when the leadership style is directive or overly serious. Leaders need to reinvent themselves as they map out the great change journey for their organisations. And organisations need to think about how they select and develop leaders for Asia 2.0.

Tagged , , , , , , ,
Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.