Strategic HR

Investment in human capital drives business transformation: Zaqy Mohamad

At the HCLI’s Asian Human Capital & Leadership Symposium 2018, Zaqy Mohamad, Minister of State for Manpower, Ministry of National Development Singapore, talked about the importance of human capital development and recognized 16 corporates who are working with the IHRP to nurture future-ready HR professionals. Here are some insights from his keynote.

Sharing an insight from the Deloitte’s Global Human Capital Trend Report, Zaqy Mohamad, Minister of State for Manpower, Ministry of National Development Singapore points out that HR leaders are at a unique position of having to transform their own HR operations and transform the workforce and the way work is done.

At the face of rapid innovation and technological development and amidst the fear of automation replacing jobs, it becomes the responsibility of the HR professionals to build effective and efficient capabilities that help both employers and economies to move towards successful transformation. This is because ‘people’ are and will be the true drivers of any change, from building the innovative technologies and giving birth to the era of automation to now being able to make most of these available solutions and collaborate both people and machine skills for better results.

To help employers and HR professionals in building newer capabilities for successful business transformation the government and various institutions like Human Capital Leadership Institute and Institute for Human Resource Professionals are working together and individually and equipping them with resources necessary in this transformational journey.

One such program is IHRP Corporate Partner Program which was launched in November 2018. It is a corporate-led program where organizations pledge their support to nurture a future-ready HR profession. Companies like Changi Airport Group (Singapore) Pte Ltd (CAG), Citi Singapore, Fuji Xerox Singapore Pte Ltd and OCBC Bank, among others, are a few partners in the program who with their partnership have displayed their seriousness for investing in the development of their workforce.

Besides this program, many other initiatives have been witnessing an increased engagement as more and more employers are leveraging these platforms and seizing the opportunities to strengthen and support their HR capabilities. For instance, Singapore’s jobs and career platform, Adapt and Grow program by Workforce Singapore, saw the participation of 2,400 employers as they hired employees using the platform from MyCareersFuture.sg and took support from the various available programs and other resources for capability development and training solutions.

Zaqy Mohamad also appreciated and highlighted the efforts of DBS Bank who is reskilling its 1,500 employees in client facing roles in cost and banking to take more enhanced jobs.

He congratulated institutions like IHRP and HCLI and appreciated the efforts of corporates who are working together on co-creating a clear pathway to provide these competencies, behaviors and mindsets which will be required by future ready HR professionals.

“Time and again we have seen that how investing in human capital can create an engaged and productive workforce and drive successful business transformation. These employers are committed to investing in people with progressive HR practices to cope up their businesses,” said Zaqy Mohamad, while recognizing IHRP’s corporate partners.

Here is the list of 16 companies who are IHRP’s partners for this program and were recognized by HCLI for their support: