TALENT MANAGEMENT OVERVIEW

People are the foundation for any organizational success. Individual innovations always provide the assured source of long-term success and competitiveness. Therefore, Talent Management is beneficial to both the organization and the employees. The organization benefits from (1) increased productivity and capability; (2) a better linkage between individual effort and business goals; (3) the commitment of valued employees; (4) reduced turnover; (5) increased bench strength and a better fit between people'sjobs and skills. At the same time, employees tend to benefit from: (1) higher motivation and commitment; (2) career development; (3) increased knowledge about, and contribution to company goals; (4) sustained motivation and job satisfaction. For these consequences to be realized, the right people must be hired, trained, mentored and retained.

Also, today priorities have changed. Although profit is the ultimate goal of the organization, a series of paradigm shifts has been discerned, going from profit-centric organization to customer-centric models and now to employee-focused ones. Now when the employee is in the limelight, one of the major concerns of organizations is to attract, develop, motivate and retain high-potential staff. It is now recognized that such employees constitute the vital component in organization'sformula for success, both in the short- and long-term perspectives.

Effective deployment and redeployment of employees is an emerging area of specialization within HR that requires solid workforce planning, analysis and skills/aptitude/interest tracking. It is essential that organizations develop the capacity to analyze their workforce and redeploy staff effectively. The typical company'sgrowing requirements for workforce flexibility and its need to develop employee skills through developmental assignments means that people change jobs and careers inside organizations as frequently as they do between organizations.

Brunei Darussalam has a small population and our people are our vital assets in nation building. We wish to develop a modern, diversified and sustainable economy. To achieve this successfully, we need to enhance our human capacity so as to give our families and communities lasting confidence in the future.

At the heart of this vision are our people.

His Majesty the Sultan of Brunei, in a statement made during the APEC High Level Forum on Human Capacity Building for Common Prosperity held in Beijing about four years ago, stressed that due to the rapid advancement of technology and communications, it was important to update constantly the skills of our people and such skills had to be brought to an international level of competitiveness. And for them to prosper in the New Economy, they had to feel that they had a personal stake in its success. The challenge here was obviously the complexity of the skills and knowledge to be absorbed and mastered by our people.

Since then, we have put more focus on developing human resources as a key investment in our economy. It has therefore been given the utmost priority in our National Development Plan. Brunei Darussalam is currently undertaking a consultative study to review and improve on the present state of human resource development policies and programmes. It essentially takes into account the evaluation of educational, academic, vocational, technical and related programmes carried out in the country. What we are aiming at is a comprehensive formulation that best serves the need of human resource development in our country.

We recognize the new demands placed on both the government and the private sector by the sheer speed of modernization, and the human qualities it calls for. These challenges, brought among others by the new competitive reality and by rapid globalization, require new mindsets and competencies, and innovative ways of learning and training.

The objective of this paper is to provide a broad overview of current trends in HRM and leadership development, and to give participants an idea how some of the most successful companies manage their people and culture.

What we can observe today in the most successful companies is a clear trend away from HRM as a mere cost function to driver of firm performance and sustainable competitive advantage. This trend goes hand in hand with a belief in the efficiency of so called “high performance” work systems or HRM practices. There is strong research evidence to suggest that high-performing companies adopt HRM practices different from those adopted by low-performing firms (e.g., study of U.S. companies conducted by Mark Huselid and colleagues such as The Workforce Scorecard: Managing Human Capital to Execute Strategy [Harvard Business School Press, 2005]).

Based on this and related research, Jeff Pfeffer concluded that seven HRM practices are particularly effective in improving firm performance.

1. 1) Highly selective hiring: e.g., Southwest Airlines in 1993 received 98,000 applications, interviewed 16,000 people, and eventually hired 2,700. Infosys last year (in 2004), despite the increasing competition for software engineers in India, received over one million applications, they tested around 130,000 candidates, and hired 10,000 — the top 1%, based on their assessment results. Companies can only be highly selective in hiring when they have a large applicant pool. And, these companies need efficient and validated selection processes. Also, Pfeffer found that some of the most successful companies focus on attitudes and cultural fit, rather than job-related skills, in the selection process. Kelleher, the former CEO of SWA, puts it this way: “If you don'thave a good attitude, we don'twant you, no matter how skilled you are. We can change skill levels through training; we can'tchange attitudes”.

2. 2) Extensive training: Emphasis on training is a logical consequence of the fact that these companies focus on attitudes and cultural fit, rather than job-related skills, in the selection process.

INTRODUCTION

The tag-line that “people are our greatest assets” has been heard time and time again in the popular media. Peter Drucker, often regarded as the father of modern management, reinforced the importance of human assets when he said that “ the single most important competitive advantage will be…the ability of a company to attract, hold and motivate workers…”.

Nevertheless, retrenchment, redundancies and job cuts are equally everyday news. In this situation, do workers actually believe that they are treated as if they were the firm'sgreatest assets? Is it all lip service?

This paper looks at the experience of Brunei Shell Petroleum Company (BSP) in attracting and developing its professional workforce. It is hoped that our experience goes some way towards at least giving our employees, Bruneians and expatriates alike, a real sense that they “make a difference” in building a competitive edge for BSP.

BSP PEOPLE STRATEGY

The current BSP People Strategy was crafted in 2001. This strategy puts the balance between local and global needs at its centre by putting emphasis on the following:

1. • The aspirations of the nation will drive our Bruneianization policies, while we at the same time wish to be an employer of choice for both locals and foreigners.

2. • The use of global competence-based development (CBD) tools and processes to ensure a level playing field.

3. • The recognition of professional qualifications that meet international standards.

4. • The importance of maintaining an international flavour in our workforce.

5. • The increasing use of international assignments for Bruneians to develop their skills and leadership.

One of the main themes of the convention on which the chapters of this book are based was the connection between state governance and business management. To do justice to this gravely important relationship, we have therefore chosen to divide the volume basically into two sections. The first and shorter one deals mainly with human resource development (HRD) as a political undertaking. In essence, this amounts to a collection of advice for statesmen. The tone setter here is Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad'spresentation of how culture, skills, and development are interconnected, and how serious change must involve serious cultural innovations.

The second section — which deals with HRD as a central concern in national and international companies — is subdivided into three parts. The first part deals with various elements that make up strategic thought in HRD, the second concentrates on discussions and practical plans for the development of competence in corporations, while the third consists of descriptions of HRD experiences in the corporate world.

Some chapters are in effect rapporteur notes made during the convention, which have then been complemented with information from electronic slide presentations. It is hoped that we have managed to capture the general essence of all the talks given at the convention. All presentations, excepting one omitted in accordance with the speaker'semployer policy, are included here to provide as comprehensive an idea as possible of the range of topics discussed at the convention.

A survey conducted by the Conference Board in 2000, which polled 5,000 U.S. companies shows that less than half of all workers in different age groups and income levels are satisfied with their work. According to Towers Perrin HR Services in an article published in 2004, employees in a number of European countries share one disturbing trend — deepening dissatisfaction with their work experience and disenchantment with their company'smanagement. Likewise, having worked with over 300 Asian organizations, I have experienced a trend of growing dissatisfaction among the workers and a decline in workforce productivity. To improve workforce productivity, I recommend that corporate leaders address the three critical challenges facing organizations today:

1. 1. Change the mindsets of the workforce as well as the leaders themselves;

2. 2. Eliminate the sense of complacency in the workplace, and;

3. 3. Address the issue of unproductive competency in people. I propose that leaders do this through developing and utilizing change management skills.

WHAT IS CHANGE MANAGEMENT?

Change management is the process of initiating changes within an organization aligned to the external environment to enable it to stay relevant, efficient and competitive.

The core of change management is changing the mindsets of people to get them to accept or initiate changes to enable the organization to achieve its goals effectively and efficiently

Change is currently occurring at an unprecedented rate. The very speed of change in itself has tremendous implications not only for the business world, but also for the management of resources, especially human resources. Nowadays, business organizations are constantly hearing “more, better and faster with less” as the demand of the day. Focus should therefore be put on the link between rapid advances in technology and the way information and knowledge can both be harnessed and rendered obsolete in a short time.

Due to changes in the world environment, certain common trends in human resources are noticeable. Large companies, including government and big organizations, have to react quickly to stay competitive in today'sworld. The larger the company, the more difficult it is to be agile. There is also a growing need to manage the increased access to information through the Internet, since more information is available to everyone today. Access to information in turn changes the culture and diversity of work. Ultimately, as a result of this, there is an increasing need for continuous learning on everyone'spart, if they are to remain competitive and relevant in today'sburgeoning economy.

The development of human resources needs to take into account the various forces that are at play in today'sdynamic world. In today'sbusiness reality, we frequently hear about the urge to have more things, to have better versions of them, to attain them at a faster rate, and to get them at lower costs. These are the result of the inevitable changes that are taking place everywhere. Furthermore, it is not just change itself that is the challenge. More importantly, it is the speed at which these changes take place that is making change itself more prominent. “The amount of time to double our knowledge in many fields has gone from being measured by centuries to being measured in months”. Hence, employers and employees alike have to take into account the urgency of remaining relevant in an ever-changing environment. Human resource management thus has to consider addressing people who resist change; more precisely, those who resist being changed.

We are faced with unprecedented change in our lifetime. It is not so much that there have been many changes, but rather it is the rate of change imposed upon most societies that has dramatically altered our socio-economic landscape. Increasingly rapid technological changes have affected the way we live, the way we work and how we conduct ourselves towards each other. Inevitably, these changes have an important bearing on the way nations and organizations develop their human resources.

Although change is inevitable, it is not necessarily a bad thing. What is important to address is how we confront change and the challenges that come with it. If we survey the way technology has affected socio-economic patterns, we find that before the twentieth century, “change” was relatively slow in comparison to a person'slife expectancy. The time gap between the discovery of new technology and its mass application was very wide. That gap has gradually shrunk and the impact of change is being felt sooner than ever before. For instance, photography was invented in 1727, but it took 112 years before it was put to use. The telephone was invented in 1820 and it took 56 years before its application became general; television was invented in 1922 and was introduced to the general public 12 years later; the atomic bomb took only 6 years between its invention and its application in 1945; and the solar battery took only 2 years between its invention and its application in 1953.

In light of the rapid introduction of new technologies, the need for a person to keep abreast of new knowledge and skills means that periodic upgrading and retraining have become a necessity. More and more people are realizing that one-time education can no longer be regarded as an option if they wish to survive in an ever-changing world. Once upon a time, a person could adapt to a set of conditions that would remain more or less constant throughout his/her lifetime.

My focus is on the use and role of information technology in meeting the challenges facing Human Resources (HR). The functions of HR have expanded tremendously over the years in such a way that very few organizations are now able to perform these diverse roles effectively. The core functions of HR can be summarized thus:

Labour Sourcing

1. • Demand forecasting

2. • Recruiting

3. • Contractor Hiring

4. • Supplier Relations

5. • Offer Negotiations

6. • On-Boarding

Workforce Management

1. • People-Deployment

2. • Development

3. • Compensation

Services Labour Relations

1. • Compliance

2. • Organizations

Post-Employment

1. • Termination

2. • Benefits

3. • Re-Hires

4. • References

5. • Records

In the face of contemporary business realities, some questions elucidating the pressures and considerations that HR must be faced:

Development and Retention

1. • How can I develop an agile workforce to support my changing business?

2. • How can I attract workers with key competencies and skills?

While evaluating factors that affect the effectiveness of training, we meet one of the main hurdles right upfront — in the classroom itself. It is hard to ignore the difference between the deep engrossment of a child in the midst of a discovery and the expressions of adult learners forced into training by corporate training plans and trapped by learning strategies that are out of place for adults.

To make learning exciting and meaningful for adult learners, Specialist Management Resources has used and promoted the FUN technique for over a decade now. FUN must balance content for results to show. FUN training, which is based on the 5 Is — Introduction, Involvement, Interaction, Instruction and Intensifying Retention — uses many techniques and tools that have enriched the tool kits of many trainers.

In this session, Karen, who has been coaching trainers and facilitators in the use of FUN techniques and tools, will present corporate best practices on the use of FUN in training. The session will use case studies to examine how the techniques have been adapted to suit varying audience needs.

Ever since the book The Magic of Making Training Fun by Dr R. Palan, author and international speaker, was published in 1998, we at Specialist Management Resources have made phenomenal changes in our approach to training. Fun tools and techniques have become key resources for supporting learning in our corporate and public programmes.

When we deliver training using the Fun Formula: Fun ×Content = Results, we have had great results. Fun is a catalyst and an enabler for learning. It is a vehicle for delivering content. It is based on the five principles popularly known as Palan's5Is.

INTRODUCTION

As with any event, how we begin our programme will determine how the rest of the session will measure up. The very first ten minutes can make or break a training session. A warm welcome with an activity-based opener can set the stage and pace for learning. Both learner and facilitator come together and begin to form a bond and rapport.

Learning is an ongoing process, and in these times learning must involve networking beyond national boundaries. With that in mind, the ASEANEC Management Centre (AEMC) decided to optimize its contacts within the region'sHR community in order to manage a convention that would leave deep and lasting impressions on all involved. This was how the initiative to organize the ASEAN-EC International HRD Convention & Exhibition held on 18–20 January 2005 came about.

There is much we can learn from one another. Being introduced to a variety of perspectives within a single context can often inspire. Our adopted views are then necessarily challenged and their limitations made obvious.

The three-day event was an instructive one where delegates learned from others as much as they taught them. The fact that Her Royal Highness Paduka Seri Pengiran Anak Puteri Hajah Masna consented to officiate at the convention and that Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, the former Prime Minister of Malaysia, agreed to deliver the main keynote address were ample proof of how vital the subject of human resource development (HRD) is now considered to be even by statesmen. The conditions for doing business can no longer be considered apart from the challenges of nation building.

A warm word of gratitude must go to the Permanent Secretary at the Prime Minister'sOffice Brunei Darussalam, Pg Dato Paduka Haji Abd Hamid bin Pg Hj Mohd Yassin, for his continued support and advice. Without his persistence, the convention would not have been possible.

Besides Tun Dr Mahathir, seven other speakers delivered keynote papers, including the Minister of Education of Brunei Darussalam, the Honourable Pehin Dato Haji Abdul Aziz, who spoke on the need for continuous learning in order to remain competitive in a world overwhelmed by technological advancement and change. The common message given by all other keynote speakers — Günther Stahl, David Scruggs, Roberto F. de Ocampo, Dr Palan, David Cory and Christopher Mills — was the vital importance of HRD in the New Economy.

The coming into being of this volume is a milestone in the achievements of the ASEAN-EC Management Centre (AEMC). It will extend the reach of the type of generative ideas that gave form to the many chapters in this book authored by both famous statesmen and successful business consultants. It is furthermore the crowning achievement of the institution'sdirector, Abd Ghani Pg Hj Metusin, and his capable and loyal staff.

As with all valuable books, avid readers will find pearls of wisdom in this anthology that attempt to bridge the unnecessarily wide gap between state governance and business management. It contains much useful advice for the practical person as well as the theoretically minded.

INTRODUCTION

Academics and HR practitioners have long been absorbed with constructing the perfect performance measurement system. In the hidden depths of many leaders’ minds lies the “Shangri-la” of the definitive approach to performance management. It has been re-awoken in the last decade by the resurgence of strategy-driven methodology, the process improvement culture of re-engineering, value-chain management and six-sigma, to the extent that measurement is swiftly acquiring a Nirvana-like status and becoming an additional discipline in the guise of economic value addedness (EVA), balanced scorecard, activity-based costing (ABC) and enterprise performance solutions.

The present interest in performance is therefore justified when we see that “measurement managed” companies outperform others (Schiemann & Lingle 1999).

Performance measurement and appraisal is probably the most researched area within human resources management. Agreeing on an effective method, however, has been like searching for the lost city of Atlantis i.e., hard to find. The pavements of literature are littered with discarded approaches to finding the elixir to managing employee performance.

As a result, the scroll of managing performance in the twentieth century unfolded, vacillating between setting specific directions through objectives and measuring what has been accomplished or by making a judgement on how staff has performed using traits or performance factors.

However, in the New Economy this means Out with boring achievement terminology such as MBO (Management by Objectives) and goals and In with hyped up New Economy KPIs (key performance indicators) and metrics. This also means a kick in the pants for terms that designate how we achieve success, such as Performance Factors and Traits, and kudos for new kids on the block terminology such as competencies and key actions.

Managing diversity is one of the greatest challenges of the twenty-first century. The ability to understand and harmonize differences and achieve shared goals is one of the most valuable competencies required of effective people managers. The concept of treating everyone equally is now being replaced by the emphasis on individualism. Gone are the days of “one size fits all”. Understanding diversity in work-life issues becomes particularly important as a growing number of people clamour for a more “balanced life” as a precondition for sustained performance. A balanced life varies from person to person depending on personal circumstances. In short, work-life balance means different things to different people. Work-life balance solutions must recognize the unique needs of people. A simple way of defining work-life balance is to refer to a satisfying and productive life that includes work, play, and love. There are many facets of life: economic, social, physical, mental, and spiritual. Work-life balance is not necessarily about giving equal amounts of time to all aspects of life. Balance is a key principle in life. Getting out of balance can get someone into serious trouble. Oftentimes, we are confronted with a situation where work and life conflict. This is usually defined as the tension that arises when work and personal life compete with each other in which a gain in one area means a loss in the other.

There is a strong business case for linking balance with productivity. This link should encourage organizations to promote work-life balance among employees. Diagnosing an organization'swork-life balance requirements requires looking into certain principles and the extent they are practised in organizations. These include the following:

1. • Culture — The culture of the organization creates an environment in which work-life balance is recognized and valued.

2. • Strategy — The work-life balance strategy is central to the organization'saims and objectives.

3. • Action — The organization has successful work-life balance solutions.

4. • Effectiveness — The organization can show that its work-life balance strategy is delivering positive results.

What this chapter highlights is the importance of benchmarking in human resource management (HRM). Benchmarking is a process of evaluating a corporation'sown weaknesses and learning from top performers. It involves analysing how these top performers carry out key processes that are targeted at improving business performance and understanding the underlying reasons behind the implementation of these key processes. One must first stress the need to put a value on human capital, something that is often sidelined. There are many means for measuring HRM'scontribution to business, especially in how contributions are quantified. Benchmarking is thus indispensable and much authority can be gained from quantifiable evidence in shaping HRM'sprocesses as well as justifying its relevance and centrality to business operations.

THE VALUE OF HUMAN CAPITAL

The fact that human resources are traditionally categorized under cost in an organization'sbalance sheet implies that a chair is perceived as having greater value to an organisation than HR, since the furniture is listed as an asset in the balance sheet. This is ironic because physical assets depreciate over time while human assets continue to appreciate. Thus, we see the importance of quantifying contributions made by HRM to overall business goals. There is always a discrepancy between an organization'sbook value and its market value. A study of market-to-book ratios over time has shown that for every dollar of book value, $6 of market value is created. The discrepancy between book value and market value is attributed to intangible factors such as human capital. Under this broad banner of human capital are factors such as leadership quality and workforce productivity, engagement and capability.

Learning is a key competency to success. One has to keep on learning in order to achieve one'sgoals and to positively contribute as a team player in a company. Learning itself can provide the catalyst and the intellectual resource to create a sustainable competitive advantage for many organizations. Such is the case for market champions — entities who strive on continuous learning, and who continue to learn how to do things better. At Petronas, the adoption and implementation of learning strategies have been very successful.

Petronas, or Petroleum Nasional Berhad, is Malaysia'snational petroleum corporation. Since its incorporation in 1974, Petronas has transformed itself into a fully integrated multinational petroleum corporation with business interests in more than 30 countries. Petronas has embraced the fact that learning how to learn can positively contribute towards the success of developing human resources. Correct learning strategies, coupled with correct training or teaching strategies, when implemented, are the key competencies for sustaining global competitiveness. To necessitate this, trainers and learners together have to know the principles required to achieve these strategies, and to be able to translate such principles into practice.

Often, companies need to realign their business direction, and so the current workforce needs to be trained quickly in order to face challenging business demands. Re-skilling is not just a new fad; it is an important recipe for success in human resource development, as new knowledge is constantly needed to solve new on-site problems. For big multinational companies such as Petronas, this is not only a business reality — it is a business priority. Petronas has recognized that to enable performance to be achieved at the required standard, competence should be seen as a combination of awareness knowledge, skills and attitude. The company thrives on its human resource mission statement, i.e., “We want to develop people who are Capable, Confident and Committed and develop a Challenging, Attractive and Conducive environment”.

A methodology for achieving an integrated, informed and innovative government for the twenty-first century can build on three concepts:

1. • International Best Practice — Embracing international benchmarks.

2. • Modern Public Management Theory — Utilizing relevant concepts.

3. • Country-Specific Orientation, Values and Commitment.

Some common issues faced by governments of emerging economies including Brunei Darussalam are:

1. • The role of the ministry is often not clearly stated and its organizational structure is often out of date and reflects old concepts.

2. • Management methods are often old style and not relevant to a modern environment.

3. • Service delivery is generally poor.

4. • The tasks and the person hired are often mismatched in terms of quality and quantity.

5. • Performance measurement is not practised efficiently.

6. • The development of information technology is often unplanned, fragmented and significantly under-utilized.

A point worth discussing here is the professionalism of the public service. The public service is a corporation formed by all government employees, and is not an entity or institution. It is therefore necessary that government employees believe that they work for the government and not for individual ministries. The employees must be embedded with a strong corporate culture based on sound management practice, delegation of power and accountability. They must also comply to a uniform code of ethics.

An organization must possess effective policy-making elements in terms of transparent vision, mission and strategies or policies. An organization must have key processes and tools including standardized HRM, IT, corporate planning and service delivery. It must also possess human resources that are capable and motivated enough to carry out their duties using the key processes and tools implemented by the agencies for achieving the desire goals. At the same time, the employees must also be provided with clear job specifications and training so that they can utilize their potential and do their job.