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HR Leaders Meet at Dow Chemical and IHiS in Singapore to Discuss Culture Change, Talent Management Innovation and How Flexible Benefits Can Help MNCs to be More Competitive in SEA

Hosted by: Dow Chemical IHIS

The Chapman Consulting Group (ChapmanCG) hosted its latest HR Leaders Meeting in Singapore with over 50 HR Leaders getting together at the Integrated Health Information Systems (IHiS) and Dow Chemical offices. The sessions take place quarterly and run in conjunction with the APAC HR Leaders Networking Series.

Ee Lan, Chief HR Officer IHiS, explained how IHiS reorganised talent and culture and introduced an engagement model and ‘career journey’. She tackled a huge challenge to ‘build a culture’ through a very specific industry (IT/healthcare) while also achieving rapid growth and scale.

Butch Cassidy, the SEA HR Director, Dow Chemical, discussed three top agenda items on his mind. These were Talent Management and Leadership Effectiveness, Using Flexible Rewards to Differentiate in SEA and M&A Experiences in Asia.

Key take-aways included:

  • Adopting the 70/20/10 (on the job training/coaching/training) seemed to be the most common approach.
  • Understanding personal, as well as professional, motivations has to be linked to Talent Management.
  • Coaching, for those in less developed markets, by their peers in mature markets was very effective.
  • Adopting a flexible benefits plan in Singapore had been very well received, although quickly highlighted certain quirks in SEA. Rolling this out in Thailand had been an effective way to compete with local organisations that offer attractive schemes that wouldn’t be possible for a global MNC to offer across the board.

Presentations from attendees representing Microsoft, HP and Singapore Petroleum focused on Talent Management and creative ideas they had found successful, these included:

  • ‘Commute assignments’, having someone spend four days outside their home country and then return Thursday night.
  • Engaging talent both inside and outside work, including personal drivers in career discussions, not just performance reviews.
  • Asking what lessons can we learn from other organisations when it comes to talent? One should always be thinking about innovation and best practice wherever it is working.

The next HR Leaders gathering of this group will be in Singapore during October.

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Key Contributors:

Graham Tollit

Senior Director

Consulting Team
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Consulting Team

Graham Tollit

Senior Director

Graham is a Senior Director with ChapmanCG based in the United Kingdom. He is passionate about building long-term partnerships and his current focus is on European and global search mandates, working with the team to identify high-calibre HR talent across EMEA and internationally.

With over 20 years in executive search, Graham has a successful track record delivering across multiple industry sectors and specialist functions with many of the top global multinationals. He has a deep interest and knowledge of the HR profession, future of work, and is a big advocate of the importance of mental health and wellness in the workplace. Before a return to the UK in 2017, Graham spent seven years based in Singapore.

Graham’s personal interests revolve around his family, and you could find him either on the golf course or exploring a new city or coastline somewhere.

Ben Davies
Ben Davies

CEO

Global Management
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Ben Davies
Global Management

Ben Davies

CEO

Ben Davies is the CEO at ChapmanCG and is responsible for the continued expansion of the business globally.

He has played a pivotal role in driving ChapmanCG’s rapid growth across the Americas, EMEA and the Asia Pacific. Ben’s previous experience included leading senior executive search assignments for top multinationals in EMEA, North America and the Asia Pacific for ChapmanCG and prior to that, for the London office of Korn/Ferry International. His global mandate includes enhancing ChapmanCG’s ties with global client headquarters in EMEA and North America.

Ben is passionate about best practice executive search and recruitment methodologies and processes. As a result, he has a heavy focus on driving innovation internally at ChapmanCG. He also advises key clients as they build their businesses internationally, and in particular across rapid-growth and emerging markets.

Ben studied Sports Science at the University of Wales, Cardiff. He has successfully completed ultra-marathons in Mongolia and Ecuador.

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