By Archana Mehta
Certification helps busy HR managers keep up with the changing professional landscape, according to Archana Mehta. In this guest post reprinted with permission of the HR Certification Institute, Mehta discusses the expansive role of human resources, and how it embraces change.
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Florence Tan’s HR team members are spread around the globe — her colleagues are in countries as diverse as the United States and Singapore, with 15 3M subsidiaries throughout the Asia-Pacific region.
But when she communicates with her project team of more than 20, Tan is constantly reminded of one big thing: the need to embrace and understand different cultures to handle difficult HR situations that are unique to each country. Adding to the unique complications are the ever-evolving employment landscape and rapidly shifting technology, which force HR professionals to determine how best to engage employees around the world.
“The old ways of thinking are so different, and we have to change our views according to the times,” says Tan, a Human Resource Management Professional (HRMPSM). “How do we
change? Policies and procedures must change, and we must be able to adapt along the way.”
Tan has spent the last two decades working in human resources for 3M Singapore, a wholly owned subsidiary of the multinational giant 3M. Tan’s company markets nearly all of 3M’s major products, ranging from industrial tapes and adhesives to healthcare solutions.
Throughout the span of her career with 3M, Tan has seen human resources evolve. When she began, the HR department in Singapore encompassed two professionals — she and the HR manager — overseeing HR needs for 200 employees. Over two decades, the HR team has grown to 20 members overseeing 1,600 employees.
But Tan hasn’t always been kneedeep in HR challenges. Before her tenure at 3M, Tan worked in purchasing and administration at a manufacturing company in Malaysia. While working on a special project at that job, Tan was asked to create an opinion survey for the company’s 350 employees. The outcome of the survey and proposals on action
items for the supervisorial and managerial staff was considered a success for Tan.
From there, Tan was asked to create and develop training programs for the company, with business performance indicators serving as key metrics. Part of creating a training curriculum was the construction of a comprehensive new employee orientation program in the local Malay language. Orientation allowed employees to more easily assimilate into the company and its culture, minimizing the desire for workers to form a labor union.
At the time, Tan’s HR knowledge was developed through frequent visits to the National Library in Johor Bahru, located in the state of Johor in Malaysia, and plenty of reading material on management, training and development and HR practices and principles.
Although Tan was building her HR skill set, it wasn’t until she joined 3M that she decided to formally pursue a career in human resources. At 3M, Tan is currently the Asia-Pacific project manager for HR Enterprise Resource Planning Solutions.
Tan credits her certification with providing her with the confidence she needed to handle her expansive role. “The certification has helped me look beyond my role with an open mind,” Tan says. “I am able to handle working with 15 countries without a fear of failure.”
Working with so many countries — and cultures — is no easy task. Tan notes that Malaysia and Singapore have similar cultures. But when working with other cultures, she emphasizes how important it is to understand cultural nuances. She
stresses that as part of the coaching and training process with new HR projects, it is important to teach colleagues to embrace changes in technology and business processes.
“In most countries, all managers and employees — with the exception of production employees — speak English,” Tan states. “But even though all of my project members speak English, I still need to take care and be sensitive when speaking. When I speak, I focus on speaking slowly, and slow down if I need to. But we all have the 3M culture in common.”
Indeed, technology sometimes helps to bridge the cultural divide. Tan meets with her colleagues across the world weekly through phone calls and web meetings. And in those meetings, Tan takes advantage of the opportunity to build ties with her colleagues. When Tan first joined 3M, the company needed a self-starter who would take on a role that involved setting up policies and procedures for recruitment, benefits and compensation and overseeing expatriates in her country.
Tan says that 3M treats each employee as unique and different and that 3M was an excellent training ground for her to learn all aspects of human resources, including HR processes and systems.
In addition, she says that her management also backed her professional development, encouraging her to complete her diploma and bachelor of commerce degree with double majors in Management and HR Management. Such benefits are not unusual in her region.
“These benefits incorporate tuition reimbursement and employee choice benefits, or cafeteria-style benefits, that fit across different demographics and generational profiles,” Tan says. “The trend is very common in Singapore, and other Asia-Pacific countries are adopting the same policies.”
In addition to an added level of confidence, Tan shares that becoming certified really helped her feel like she was keeping up with the latest trends and challenges in the HR world. For instance, the work-life balance trend is changing rapidly in Singapore, with younger and more mobile employees pushing to ensure that their office time is optimized and their private time is indeed private.
“The surrounding economic trend in the Asia-Pacific region, as well as other parts of the world, including the U.S., involves challenges with managing talent and understanding HR measurements and aligning them with company objectives,” Tan says.
She adds that the HRMP certification provided her with an excellent way to build on her growing knowledge of the changing professional landscape. “The certification helps me to look at the broader perspective . . . on how human resources can contribute towards the success of business performance in my current role.”