An experienced human resources leader with nearly two decades of experience across talent management, performance management, organizational development and succession planning, Cicin Ruruh Winedar,  the Human Resources Director of Godrej Indonesia, is also a certified psychologist.

Cicin’s experience spans a notable career at a major local organization in Indonesia as well as a blue-chip multinational company, prior to joining Godrej Indonesia. In line with her interest in organizational development, watching talent she nurtured, grow and establish themselves as leaders, gives her a sense of fulfillment. 

Discussing with People Matters the current talent and learning trends in the SEA region, Cicin deep dives into what qualities she looks for in potential hires and what she is most looking forward to in 2020.

Here are excerpts of the conversation.

You have a background and a keen interest in psychology. Can you share an instance where having a psychology background helped you navigate through an issue?

Many instances. Our work life is always in constant relation with people – whether our superiors, team members, peers, or other stakeholders. Understanding human psychology helps me a lot in managing my own emotions through challenging times, keeping myself positive towards difficult conversations, and reminding me to stay humble through moments of self-vulnerability. Carrying this mindset will also provide me a bandwidth of keeping myself calm (and happy) throughout various experiences.

What trends defined 2019 for you as a leader?

In this uncertain world, we cannot guarantee our future success by only relying on the past glory. As a leader, it is important for me to continue pushing myself to acquire new knowledge, skills, and competencies that are relevant.

As an HR professional, I’m responsible to nurture both an organization as well as people capabilities to set them off ready for future challenges. One important aspect that we need to accelerate is the work around digitalization and data analytics, so we can speed up the right actions for our business in the best possible ways.

Having valid and reliable data points will also help us provide a good platform for design thinking and experimentation in every aspect of our business.

This will lead to a multiscale of outcomes at the end.

Finding the right talent aligned with the long-term organizational goals remains a key priority for talent leaders. What are the core qualities you look for as you hire new talent?

High degree of learning agility, resilience, and ability to manage change are the most important aspects that I look for in candidates. These qualities will enable them to grow high both in their functional expertise and leadership.

The employee base today constitutes individuals from across generations, from baby boomers to millennials and soon Gen Alpha. With such a cross-generational workforce, how are you enabling effective learning opportunities?

I think the classic 70:20:10 rule is still relevant. Moreover, understanding fully individual learning needs based on their business priorities, gap, and to find the most engaging ways to accelerate their learning will be very critical.

There should be flexibility in the method of our learning deliveries as well. I always believe that no single approach fits all. Hence knowing your target audience is a must.

What are some of the major talent-related challenges facing the SEA region?

We are still experiencing an imbalance between talent demand and supply, in specific for certain leadership levels. In fact, I experience talent scarcity for several specialist roles as well.

There is a visible mismatch between our education system and job market, so a constant pressure always comes back to the industry to create a robust learning platform for our people from the very first day of joining with the organization.

Therefore, talent acquisition and leadership succession plans are still our main challenges.

How can leaders work towards building the future of work and workforce?

Creating a purposeful organization will help us build talent sustainability for the future. Building organization culture that enables diversity, inclusivity, and work-life balance is the key. The young generation would like to work with organizations that provide them this. This will allow them to bring their whole selves to their work. When people feel fulfilled, they will be the most energized and motivated employees aiming for delivering their best.

Several European companies and most recently Microsoft Japan experimented with the four-day work week and observed significant improvement in productivity. Can this new trend become a globally accepted workplace norm?

It should be.

I think the human need of living purposefully will go beyond country boundaries. Organizations have to find creative ways to encourage this through their policies and practices, so their people stay engaged with the company and self-motivated to reach their best performance.

What’s your take on alternative workforce? Do you think global businesses are ready to leverage the gig economy?

I see different industries having different stages of readiness on this. The nature of the work sometimes limits the possibilities. However, clearly the movement to that direction is happening across.

What are your priorities for the year 2020?

As a leader, I would like to be more effective in providing sufficient space to grow for my team. As a mother of two, I would like to see both of them grow as individuals who are kind, happy, and independent.