Opening Address by SMS Koh Poh Koon at the HR Business Partner Forum 2018

Opening Address by Dr Koh Poh Koon, Senior Minister of State for Trade and Industry and Deputy Sec-Gen, National Trades Union Congress at the HR Business Partner Forum 2018, 27 September 2018, 9.15am, Singapore Marriott Tang Plaza Hotel

Distinguished guests, speakers,

Ladies and gentlemen,

Introduction

1.     It is my pleasure to join all of you this morning at the SHRI HR Business Partner Forum 2018. This forum reflects SHRI’s aim to promote and maintain high standards of professionalism in HR management as well as people development. It also highlights the critical role that HR practitioners and business partners play in their organisations in developing a progressive HR agenda that aligns present business objectives with future goals, as well as what the employees and employers ought to be doing together.

Important role of HR industry in jobs and worker transformation

2.     As we are aware, our businesses today operate in a much more complex environment. Not just that, it is also a much more competitive economic landscape. According to the research study on HR and culture conducted by the SHRI and the Center for Creative Leadership (CCL) which will be launched here today, HR leaders across Asia expressed some uncertainty about the ‘future-readiness’ of their organisations. Now, on one hand, this is good because it means HR practitioners are aware that they are the inflexion point, that there are challenges to be tackled. On the other hand, it is also worrisome because when HR practitioners themselves are uncertain about how to go about doing things, then what are the rest of us going to do? While nine out of 10 leaders agreed that having the “right” organisational culture is necessary for future success, it is of course rare to have one uniform culture, especially in a big organisation. This is due to factors such as varying market maturity across different economies, different countries and regional dynamics.

3.     Further to this, businesses also range in different sizes, from a simple SME, a micro-SME, to a large MNC that spans across different industries, face different challenges, depending on their different stages of growth. All in all, this makes for a rather complex mix of factors which cannot be generalised across the entire spectrum of industries. For continued and sustained growth, our businesses and workforce will need to be much more agile and flexible in this rapidly changing economic environment. In relation to this, the role of HR partners and practitioners remains an important key, a lynchpin to link what the management wants to do and what the workers need to do. This is because what the management has decided ultimately needs to be translated into capability that the workers can actually deliver.

4.     Recently, there has been quite a bit of buzz about Worker 4.0. What is Worker 4.0? Businesses are now moving towards more digitalisation, technology adoption, with the aim of becoming more productive and creating new products, services that will capture new niche markets. That’s what Industry 4.0 tries to do by leveraging on the Internet of Things, robotics, automation and digitisation. For businesses to be part of Industry 4.0 and have smart factories, smart operating processes, we need smart people who can leverage these new emerging trends in order to capitalise and extend the growth opportunities. This is where a Worker 4.0 needs to complement Industry 4.0. Simply put, Worker 4.0 is about a worker who is equipped with adaptive skills, a worker who has technology skills (or the ability to navigate a digital environment) to be able to take on digitisation, automation, and finally, a worker who has technical skills, skills that are specific to the deep domains that they operate in.

5.     Ultimately, what we want for Worker 4.0 is for the worker to be equipped with 3 good outcomes – to be resilient in the new changing environment, to be ready for any new jobs that come and to be able to be readily adaptable. So Worker 4.0 is really about a worker who has adapted to a rapidly changing environment. The worker of the future needs to be ready for new jobs, because we know that with disruption, we are changing business models. Old jobs will become obsolete, but new jobs will come as well.

6.     We need to possess relevant industry skills and be resilient to new ways of working. Our HR industry therefore plays a strategic role in helping people and industries to transform and grow, by being a key touchpoint between businesses and their employees. While acting as catalysts of a business’s transformation, our HR practitioners must also recognise that their own growth and development are equally important – because if our HR practitioners have no clear understanding of how the career development of employees should be mapped out, then they cannot play that useful catalytic role to help translate their management’s vision into reality. So, HR practitioners, you will have to ‘walk the talk’ as well and build up your own capabilities, so that you can serve the future economy well. HR practitioners sit in the middle, at the policy level and at the operational level, as a link between the management and workers. This is where I think you have the most important role.

7.     Having a strong HR industry underpins the efforts of the 23 Industry Transformation Maps (ITMs) to promote growth and competitiveness in key sectors and create good jobs for Singaporeans. Good HR practices make good business sense, and helps employees to adapt, transform and achieve their maximum potential, while boosting overall organisational effectiveness.

Worker 4.0 for the HR industry and strengthening the profession

8.     In light of Worker 4.0, how would the HR practitioner similarly develop and change for today? In today’s context, this means having expertise in analytics, to provide evidence-based recommendations for informed decision-making. They need to be able to identify any critical gaps in organisational capabilities while striking an optimal balance between workload, productivity and resources. They must also be able to adapt and embrace technological enhancements. 

9.     To strengthen the HR profession, the Skills Framework for HR, jointly developed by the Ministry of Manpower, SkillsFuture Singapore and Workforce Singapore with the support of the Institute for Human Resource Professionals (IHRP), was recently launched to provide a platform for individuals to glean information about career planning and progression. I will urge all of us here today to leverage on some of these existing platforms to further upgrade yourselves and to give us your honest feedback about where the gaps may be, so that together we can provide some of the support that is needed to take our HR practices a step higher.

10.   Further to this effort, NTUC has introduced a formalised structure for the NTUC Training Council, which will tap on the union’s unique network of tripartite and training partners to identify training needs for the benefit of workers. Ground feedback from workers and companies will be routed back to the NTUC Training Council to finetune training-related policies, initiatives and courses. By growing this ecosystem through the NTUC and its tripartite partners, we are translating ITMs, roadmaps for industries, into real outcomes for companies and workers; and bringing Worker 4.0 to quicker fruition. I would like to urge all of you to work closely with NTUC and leverage the union’s various training support available, so that you can be equipped with the necessary skills for the future economy.

11.   Now ITMs, as a construct, is something that’s quite uniquely Singapore. Today, across all the economies, every country is grappling with the same disruptions and challenges - disruptions from technology, disruptions from changing models, disruption from geo-politics, trade wars. Singapore is unique in the sense that we have a unique tripartite relationship that allows us to articulate the industry transformation roadmap, to bring about systematic change across a wide industry spectrum.

Every stakeholder has an important part to play

12.   To conclude, I encourage companies to adopt a people-first mindset, invest in human capital capabilities and in their people. The Government will continue to work with unions, partners and invest in education and training to support our companies in their human capital development efforts and to support Singaporeans in developing relevant skillsets. This will enable our workers ultimately to enjoy better working environments, better jobs, better wages and of course, better job prospects for the future.

13.   I look forward to all of you joining us on this exciting journey, whether you are a HR practitioner, HR business partner or a business leader or an employer. Let’s work together to support business transformation and growth, because our collective future depends on us working together to achieve synergy and unlock our mutual potential. I wish everyone a fruitful forum ahead today. Thank you.