Developing and nurturing human resource is essential for the growth of any organisation. After all, it’s the people who make the place. Human resources have unlimited potential capabilities and this potential can be used only by creating a climate that can continuously identify, bring to surface, nurture and use the capabilities of people. The 13th Annual International event, The Asia HRD Congress 2015 event, held at Dubai, recently, with the theme, “The New Talent Equation”, brought together HR and business experts to share their knowledge, perspectives, strategies, tools and tips to increase organisational performance. It named 23 distinguished leaders and organisations from eight countries including Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain, India, Indonesia, Singapore, Brunei and Malaysia. The event saw some of the bigwigs from the corporate world, leading and established HR experts & senior officials participate in this highly engaging, interactive, and content-driven event. The Awards ceremony, followed by the Gala Dinner, on the eve of the first day, honoured individuals & HR practitioners from all levels who have significantly impacted or influenced the HR community, organisations, or society as a whole. The Contribution to Society Award was presented to Dr. (Col.) A. Balasubramanian, Founder & President, Sri Balaji Society, India, for being the first to conceive the idea of launching a management institute exclusively for armed forces personnel and their dependants. Corporate Citizen takes you through the entire journey of this two-day event
Day two saw ‘short n sweet’ sessions by some of the renowned speakers. The panel discussions and sessions were interactive, highly engaging, and engrossed the audience with various tools and exercises. Dato’ Dr. R. Palan, Chairman, SMRT Holdings Berhad, Malaysia, in his session shared his experience in creating value by growing a profitable business and a successful organisation with a social conscience. “The purpose of my life is to help people learn and perform to achieve their full potential. I would like to be remembered as someone who helped people,” says Palan. He is someone who strongly believes that the intersection of hard work and opportunity is luck. Palan, an alumni of Harvard University, is also a professor, entrepreneur, author of 15 books till date—the recent one being “The Global Journey of an Asian: Talent Management Best Practices.”
"The average attention span of a participant or learner lasts only about three minutes before he/ she feels the impulse to begin a new activity"
Prominent speakers like Professor Peter Cappelli, who has been recently named by HR Magazine as one of the top five most influential management thinkers, and author of the most popular talent management book, Talent on Demand: Managing Talent in an Age of Uncertainty, named as the “best business book” for 2008 by Booz-Allen, and The New Deal at Work: Managing the Market-Driven Workforce, in his session “Doing a better job of managing employee performance” examined ways to deal with problem employees and options for improving the motivation of poor performers.
It is true that economies, today, across the world are undergoing constant change, and organisations too are struggling to stay alive and thrive in these challenging times. More than ever, businesses are realising the critical value of a more integrated approach to talent development as a means to create a foundation of sustained improvement, change and innovation. Searching and developing leadership in talent management is the heart of any organisation that sustains the organisation’s health. With workforce demographics rapidly changing, developing leaders with a diverse range of challenges including the expectations of a multi- generational workforce, can affect the retention of highly-skilled and valued talent.
"Successful succession planning can build bench strength, develop suitable team members, spur employee promotions & redesign the organisation for opportunities,”
With so many distinguished speakers, the event threw a lot of insights on the current developments in talent development, on how one can benefit from the expertise of the New Talent Gurus, learning to adopt new HR Talent Strategies to build competitive advantage and a chance to broaden HR networks within the HR fraternity including decision makers and talents, share best practice approach, shape future directions, learn about the tools and technology approaches to talent management and expand one’s perspectives with cutting edge research.
“The purpose of my life is to help people learn and perform to achieve their full potential. I would like to be remembered as someone who helped people,”
Dr. Edward Shelton, Competency Consultant, Competency Development & Consultation Unit, Saudi Aramco Oil, Saudi Arabia, focussed on the point that we need managers who are also leaders who can lead their teams to higher levels of creativity, commitment, engagement and job satisfaction, in his session. Thereafter, Ahmed A. Aziz Al-Khayat, Undersecretary, Public Works Affairs, Ministry of Works Municipalities Affairs and Urban Planning, Bahrain, in his session “Succession Planning for talent management” threw light on how successful succession planning can build bench strength, develop suitable team members, spur employee promotions and redesign the organisation for opportunities.
The panel discussions on “Workplace Education: What are the future trends?” and “Best Practice: Talent Development for High Performance” by an eminent panel, gripped the crowd, while sessions on E-learning strategies for talent development by Dr. Tayeb Kamali, Ex Asst. Undersecretary, Ministry of Education and Culture, UAE and one on “Self Confidence- The Vital Ingredients of Successful HRD Practitioners” by Ahmed Al-Banna, CEO, Origin Group, Bahrain too engrossed the audience.
The event offered plenty of learning and networking opportunities in a fun environment. Leading experts in human resource truly enriched the crowd with the latest trends around this year’s theme “The New Talent Equation”.
The Asia HRD Awards Ceremony, followed by the Gala Dinner, on the eve of the first day, honoured individuals and HR practitioners from all levels who have significantly impacted, influenced the HR community, organisations, and society as a whole. More than 76 nominations from organisations and individuals across the Asia Pacific and Middle East region were considered in this year’s awards categories: Lifetime Achievement Award, Contribution to Society, Contribution to Organisation, Contribution to HR Community and Movers and Shakers.
The Lifetime Achievement Award is conferred on individuals who have made a lifetime contribution to People Development. YBhg Professor Kolonel Tan Sri Datuk Wira Dr. Haji Mohd Shukor bin Haji Mahfar, Director General and Chief Executive Officer, Inland Revenue Board Malaysia from Malaysia received the Lifetime Achievement Award this year.
The next category of award was Contribution to Society,presented to those who contributed to the development of society by spearheading education and learning initiatives that have been transformational in their impact on communities. Dr. (Col.) A. Balasubramanian, Founder & President, Sri Balaji Society, India received this award for being the first to conceive the idea of launching a management institute exclusively for armed forces personnel and their dependants.
The Contribution to Organisation Award was presented to Felda Global Ventures Holdings Sdn Bhd and HRnetGroup from Malaysia, Emirates Institute for Banking and Financial Studies from UAE, Dato’ Aishah Binti Mohammad, Managing Deputy Director in HR Policies & Performance Department, Royal Malaysian Police from Malaysia, Ms. Amal Al-Kooheji, VP, Human Capital Development, Tamkeen (Labour Fund) from Bahrain, H.E. Mohammed Al Hadhari, Deputy CEO, Securities and Commodities Authority (SCA), UAE, Finance Accreditation Agency (FAA) from Malaysia and National Water Company (NWC) from Saudi Arabia. This award is presented to organisations that have built their successes on innovative systems, processes and practices aimed at overall employee development.
At the same time, Contribution to HR Community Award was presented to Mr. C.M. Vignaesvaren, Chief Executive, Human Resources Development Fund from Malaysia, Ms. Hajah Norezan Binti Haji Hambali, Director, Civil Service Institute from Brunei, Mr Sultan M. Al Hassani, Human Resource Manager, Abu Dhabi Petroleum Ports Operating Co. (IRSHAD) from UAE, Mr. Priyantono Rudito, Director of Human Capital Management, Telekomunikasi Selular from Indonesia, Mr. Y.R. Wilson, President, Corporate HR, Himatsingka Group, India, Dr Hj Zulkifly Baharom, Project Director & Exco, International Council of Islamic Finance Educators from Malaysia, Mr. Innaci Dass, General Manager, HR, Telekom Brunei Berhad from Brunei and Mr. Atul Dhavle, Vice President for HR & TOC, Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories from India. This award is presented to individuals whose concepts and practices have resulted in effective and high impact best practices recognised by HR practitioners and organisations.
Movers and Shakers Award was presented to Ms. Shalina Virji, Chief Executive Officer, Shalina Healthcare Group from UAE, Dr. P. Sathyanarayan, Vice President, HR, Strides Arcolab Ltd. from India and Mr. D.R. Nagaraj, President & CEO, Nagaraj Management Service, India.
Over the years, the Awards Committee has received nominations from numerous organisations from all over the world, particularly Asia. The committee recognises the worth of all individuals and organisations who meet the criteria of the award categories
This conference has offered plenty of learning and networking opportunities in a fun environment and has also helped dignitaries from across the globe to get a different perspective on the HR practises followed in their organisations, and implement some of the learnings learnt through these sessions.
By Mahalakshmi Hariharan
