Navigating through the big shifts in the world of people and work

In his keynote address at People Matters TechHR Singapore, Graham James Lim, Senior Partner Manager-APAC teams, Globalization Partners, shares his incredible take on how leading businesses must approach the world of people and work. The APAC region, according to him, is marked by three dominant trends: a constantly evolving workplace, changing priorities of the employee and how the talent landscape is bridled with new challenges and opportunities equally. 

For Lim, this boils down to two things: keeping people at the centre and thinking outside the box.

With only 56% of employees believing that C-level executives care for them, it is high time that leaders today revisit their compensation and benefits, whether their employees feel satisfied and fulfilled at their jobs and most importantly, whether they feel that you care about them. In order to achieve this, Lim suggests four key strategies:

• Accepting the possibility that your hires might wish to pick up skills and take up tasks beyond the roles they were hired for. At Globalization Partners, this is getting done through internal internships. Such opportunities indeed make a difference because not only does it empower your talent to own their career journeys, but it clearly highlights how you, too, are invested in their growth.
• Invest in making your employees feel like they belong. Something as simple as a global welcome pack system makes your hires feel recognised as new members of the workforce, and they can now feel that they will be looked after, and paid attention to even though they might be working on the other side of the globe.
• Prioritise your people’s mental health and well-being. With several vendors in the wellness market today, it becomes easier for employers to collaborate with them in launching Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs). With a remote workforce, this becomes even more pertinent as it creates a greater risk of disconnect and isolation. 
• Rotate the timezone sacrifice. One cannot overlook that timezone management can often be a barrier to building connections with a remote workforce. What will become fruitful then is to ensure that when scheduling meetings, one adjusts to the other’s timezone every week. This is something that Globalization Partners prioritises.