SINGAPORE – Global HR advisory leader Puneet Swani has joined Aon as Head of Talent Solutions, Asia Pacific.

In a post on LinkedIn, Aon’s Head of Human Capital and CEO of Health Solutions Tim Dwyer announced the news.

“Puneet brings a wealth of experience across the HR advisory and data spectrum, and will play a key role in us executing our Human Capital strategy in Asia Pacific, and globally,” Dwyer said.

Swani sees his appointment as a “full circle” moment, having started his career with Hewitt 25 years ago. Hewitt was eventually acquired by Aon.

People Matters had an exclusive briefing with Swani on the eve of the announcement, in which he expressed optimism for tackling HR challenges in the region.

“APAC is one of the most dynamic regions and one with one of the youngest employees. My vision is to be able to partner with and help organisations being able to get the best out of their most important asset which is their people,” Swani said.

“While diversity has a lot of advantages, it also requires organisations to be flexible and adaptable to varied needs and expectations. How an organisation is able to continually adapt and deliver on these employee expectations would be key to winning the war for talent and this is one thing I am really looking forward to on how I partner with leaders in helping their organisations get future fit.”

Of the trends emerging in APAC, Swani is most eager to shine a light on the human element of work.

“One of the most important trends for organisations for 2025 would be on how they continue to focus on and prioritise the human element in their workforce. In our eagerness to transform our organisations, we should not forget that it’s our people who will be at the forefront of the transformation. Let’s keep them in mind as we get future-ready,” he said.

“Secondly, what made organisations successful in the past may not make them successful in the future. Hence, there is the urgent need to focus on reskilling and upskilling their employees and ability to identify what skills will be required for the organisation to continue to be successful in the future.

The most talked about area of HR is the impact of AI on HR and how we embrace it, rather than be worried about AI making jobs redundant,” he said.

“Organisations that embrace AI across their HR processes—whether that is recruitment or performance management or automating routine tasks—are going to see much larger productivity or efficiency gains.”

As he embraces new challenges, Swani has a message for business and HR leaders in APAC.

“My key message would be, agility is going to be very critical to remain relevant in this continuously evolving world. How we continue to transform our organisations, whether it’s around upskilling people or embracing AI or continually listening to our employees, is going to be the most critical element in our endeavour to attract, motivate and retain our employees.”