International SOS calls for innovation in crisis management

International SOS, the global security and health risk management company, has unveiled a global guide to help organisations navigate the complexities of modern crises.

The paper, Building a Responsive and Effective Crisis Management Programme and an accompanying webcast emphasise the importance of moving beyond traditional crisis response to adopt innovative strategies.

Giles Hill, Global Head of Security Services at International SOS said: "Crises, though inherently disruptive, serve as powerful crucibles for greater resilience and innovation. They expose latent vulnerabilities, sharpen decision-making and compel organisations to think about agility – an essential capability in a volatile world. They are a brutally honest appraisal of an organisation’s strategy and culture.

"Leaders and organisations that embrace crisis as a catalyst – not just as a threat – emerge stronger, with more agile systems, clearer priorities and greater competitive advantage, ensuring their organisations not only survive but thrive in the face of adversity."

Using real-world scenarios and events, the paper demonstrates how, through informed, pragmatic, and adaptable crisis management, organisations can sustain operations and flourish, and how visionary leaders can transform their organisations into resilient entities capable of facing even the most unforeseen challenges. Based on International SOS’ 40 years of experience supporting clients and their employees through crises, the paper provides practical insights into all key aspects of best practice in dealing with today’s crises – from pre-crisis planning and post-crisis demobilisation to the critical roles of perception, strategic communication, and innovation.

Gautier Porot, Group Crisis Management Practice Leader at International SOS, emphasised the importance of the adoption of best practices across the workforce: “We have seen from recent escalations particularly how imperative it is to have robust crisis management and to encompass all eventualities.

"This paper is not just a source of information but a real call to action for all organisations, their leaders and each employee. Only by collaborating and preparing actively can crises be turned into opportunities and ensure sustainability and success.”

Highlights include:

- Pre-crisis planning: Identifying systemic risks, organising resources, and training teams to minimise potential impacts. This includes creating ad hoc teams with specific and complementary skills and developing key documents such as crisis management policies, plans, communication strategies, and guides.

Stacey Conlin, Head of Risk, Cricket Australia said: “When you look at traditional crisis and incident management, it’s often linked to very high risk-based thresholds or impacts. Once an impact hits this level, organisations then convene the crisis management team. With the growing frequency of incidents and crises, early intervention is paramount, and I’ve established and recommended that organisations set up an Early Intervention Impact Assessment team. This means that prior to an incident hitting high impact levels, we gather, assess the facts, risks, impacts, and most of the time, we are able to de-escalate the situation."

- Crisis response: Mobilising teams, controlling the situation, and resolving issues through rapid decision-making and clear communication. The paper outlines the importance of modular and agile response teams tailored to each crisis's specificities.

- Post-crisis demobilisation: Supporting teams, analysing the new ecosystem, and adapting strategies to better cope with future crises. This involves a structured approach to problem-solving, including identifying the desired end state, breaking it down into workstreams, prioritising them, and developing strategic intent and action plans.

Details

The whitepaper can be downloaded at https://www.internationalsos.com/publications/global-crisis-management-paper

Watch the webinar at https://www.internationalsos.com/events/crisis-management-webcast

DocuWorks 9 supports cloud, mobility

Fuji Xerox Asia Pacific has launched DocuWorks 9. New features allow the document handling software to link with Fuji Xerox’s cloud services for efficient mobile activity.

DocuWorks enables electronic documents such as office documents and image files to be handled just as if they are paper documents. With the new functions for mobile work, users can now continue unfinished work anytime, anywhere.

Once users have collected documents needed for their work in a new function called Task Space, they can store the documents in Fuji Xerox’s cloud service, Working Folder, by simply clicking the sync button. If they enter Task Space from another PC or mobile device, whether remotely or internally, they will be able to view and edit any documents stored in the cloud service*.

Basic services are now more secure through adopting Amazon Web Services, and the storage capacity of the cloud-based Working Folder has increased by more than 10 times. Working Folder’s basic service now provides 100 GB of storage and can be expanded to up to 5 TB.

In addition, the Task Toolbar, a tool that enables users to visualise the work procedures by changing the icon positions following the work process, was enhanced to allow users to create multiple tabs. With this, daily operations can be further streamlined, enabling users to accomplish multiple tasks quickly and concurrently. Other functions, such as the newly added Pencil Case function, helps improve ease of use by enabling users to register electronic stationery (annotations) including stamps, notepad and markers, and also helps improve efficiency by allowing users to easily call up frequently or recently used functions.

“Together, DocuWorks and Working Folder provide an integrated platform for businesses to manage accumulated paper and electronic documents in a unified manner — opening up the possibilities of a wide range of work styles to achieve greater productivity.” said Keh Joo Tan, Senior Manager l,  cloud service marketing, Fuji Xerox Asia Pacific.

DocuWorks is document-handling software. The company has given out 5 million DocuWorks licences as of July 2017 in cumulative shipments in Japan.

*Cloud linkage with Task Space requires a separate Working Folder contract.

PCs to be used outside the office require DocuWorks, and mobile terminals require a free mobile app, DocuWorks Viewer Light 4 (either iOS or Android edition).

Influential Brands unveils award winners for 2017

Influential Brands has named six CEOs Top CEO of the Year at the 5th edition of the CEO Asia Conference held in Singapore on 7 November. The 2017 conference, themed The Future of Business in Asia, was held in collaboration with knowledge partner Deloitte Singapore, education partner, SIM, and official car Rolls-Royce Motor Cars.

Among the awards* presented at the event were Top CEO of the Year, Top Influential Brands, Outstanding Brands, Influential Artist of the Year and Influential Woman of the Year. Some 400 C-suite executives from over 100 leading companies across the region including Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and China attended the event. 

Source: Influential
Brands.

Jorge Rodriguez, MD, Influential Brands said, “All awardees of the Top CEO of the Year awards are business leaders from Asia representing diverse sectors from the consumer industry. Chow Tai Fook is a prominent leader in (mainland) China and Hong Kong, Thai Beverage is a market leader in Thailand and in the region, NTUC FairPrice is a dominant player in the grocery sector in Singapore, Success Resources is the global market leader in people development, Hatten Land is a developer with an award-winning portfolio of integrated residential, hotel and commercial developments in Melaka and finally, ONE Championship has expanded to become the Asia’s largest martial arts event company.

"The six Top CEO awardees have demonstrated not only their capacity to lead their organisations but also their ability to understand clearly what consumers expect from them."

Rodriguez added that three factors will drive business success.

- Dynamic connections: consumers will decide how, when and where to buy

- Meaningful branding and innovative products: consumers will be drawn to a brand that has a purpose and is always innovating its products

- Right associations and partnerships: consumers will find the most efficient way to get what they want hence brands must increase brand exposure and leverage on strategic partnerships

"Influential Brands exists for these reasons of fostering dynamic connecting, building channels for brand education and facilitating partnerships and opportunities in Asia," he said.

Thirty-three brands were named in the Top Influential Brands awards and another four as Outstanding Brands. Old Chang Kee was recognised under Influential Brands Hall of Fame for its appeal to consumers across generations. The brand has been a winner for five consecutive years under the Influential Brands Top Influential Brands award category.

Two new individual awards were introduced this year. Iskandar Jalil, Singapore's celebrity potter, won the inaugural Influential Artist of the Year award. The first Influential Woman of the Year award went to Christine Tan, anchor for CNBC's Managing Asia programme.

“The role of the CEO exists at the intersection of the external environment and the internal organisation. In today’s disruptive marketplace, it is not possible for CEOs to shield their organisations from ambiguity,” said Philip Yuen, CEO, Deloitte Southeast Asia and Singapore.

“At Deloitte, we harness our organisation’s broad capabilities to deliver forward-thinking and fresh insights for every stage of a CEO’s career through Deloitte’s CEO Programme – supporting CEOs in their strategic agenda to manage the complexities of their roles, tackle their companies’ most compelling challenges, and adapt to strategic shifts in the market. In this spirit, I would like to congratulate the award winners and wish them continued success.”

Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, the official car for the event, introduced the Rolls-Royce Ghost and the Wraith, a two-door coupé, at the award ceremony.

Paul Harris, Asia Pacific Regional Director for Rolls-Royce Motor Cars said, “Rolls-Royce has always been the choice for industry titans, and the movers and shakers of the business world. To maintain our pinnacle position means also constantly evolving and integrating cutting-edge technology to create the best in luxury. We are supporting Influential Brands’ CEO Asia Conference as it is a unique platform to support the regional business arena, while showcasing our brand of luxury to highly-successful individuals.”

Deloitte has also released a white paper, Scaling Edges – A Pragmatic Pathway To Broad Internal Change, in conjunction with the event. In the paper, the consultancy advised companies to reconsider how they innovate today, typically by flooding the market with new, marginally improved products or services, to "innovating at an institutional level" instead in the era of the "Big Shift", what Deloitte terms the current environment where we are experiencing increased globalisation and rapid advancements in technology. 

"This change requires firms to rethink even the primary objective of why they exist and drastically change their management mindset; in today’s rapidly changing landscape, a focus on scale efficiencies is not enough. Though transformative change is required, it is admittedly far from a simple task," Deloitte said in the executive summary of the paper.

Pragmatic Pathways is a new framework for digital transformation that in essence says: 

- Focus on edges rather than the core of a company, as change agents can better identify projects which are most likely to achieve significant and sustainable returns. 

- Leverage external resources rather than internal support to scale in edge projects to circumvent scrutiny and organisational resistance to change.

- Accelerate learning rather than focus solely on short-term outcomes to make edges conduits of transformation.

Details:

Top CEO of the Year 
 
Seah Kian Peng, CEO, NTUC Fairprice Co-operative

Dato Colin Tan, Executive Chairman & MD, Hatten Land

Chatri Sityodtong, Chairman, One Championship

Richard Tan, Chairman, Success Resources Singapore

Kent Wong, MD, Chow Tai Fook Jewellery Company

Thapana Sirivadhanabhakdi, President & CEO, Thai Beverage Public Company 

Influential Woman of the Year 
 
Christine Tan, Anchor, Managing Asia, CNBC

Influential Artist of the Year 
 
Iskandar Jalil, Master & Veteran Potter

Hall of Fame 
 
Old Chang Kee

Top Influential Brands
	Brand Name		Category	Country
1	Raffles Hotel		Heritage Hotel	Singapore
2	Gardens by the Bay		Tourist Attraction	Singapore
3	Lee Hwa Jewellery		Premium Jewellery	Singapore
4	Din Tai Fung		Asian Restaurant	Singapore
5	BreadTalk		Bakery	Asia
6	NTUC FairPrice		Supermarket & Online Grocery Retailer	Singapore
7	Watsons		Retail Loyalty Card & Personal Care Store	Singapore
8	MindChamps		Pre-school Education	Singapore
9	Orange Clove		Caterer	Singapore
10	ERA		Property Agency	Singapore
11	Spectacle Hut		Multi-Brand Designer Optical	Singapore
12	Gain City		Air-con & Home Appliance Retailer	Singapore
13	Huawei		Mobile Phone	China
14	Delsey		Luggage	Asia
15	De Longhi		Premium Coffee Maker	Asia
16	Canon		Camera	Asia
17	Grab		Taxi Booking App	Asia
18	Lazada		Online Market Place	Asia
19	Jean Yip Group		Beauty Centre	Singapore
20	My First Skool		Pre-school Education	Singapore
21	Sunshine		Bread	Singapore
22	SCS		Butter	Singapore
23	CP Group		Frozen Food	Asia
24	Gardenia		Bread	Singapore
25	Skylight		Abalone Premium Gift	Singapore
26	Bonjour		Bread	Singapore
27	Katrina Holdings		Bali Thai, So Pho, Streats	Singapore
28	JobStreet.com		Online Job Search	Asia
29	Central Food Retail Group		Grocery and Convenience Retailer	Thailand
30	Chow Tai Fook		Premium Jewellery	Asia
31	Joy City		Shopping Mall	China
32	Beijing Tong Ren Tang		Traditional Chinese Medicine	China
33	Telkomsel		Telecommunications	Indonesia

Outstanding Brands
	Brand Name		Category	Logo Display
1	Choc Spot		Confectionery Retailer	Outstanding Brands -  Singapore
2	Curry Times		Local Cuisine	Outstanding Brands -  Singapore
3	Prata Wala		Asian Restaurant	Outstanding Brands -  Singapore
4	KIODA		Korean Concept Store	Outstanding Brands -  Malaysia

Explore:

Learn more about Deloitte's Scaling Edges methodology

Read the WorkSmart Asia blog posts about:

The 2015 Top Influential Brands and the winners in 2014

The Rolls Royce Dawn Black Badge

*Criteria for the awards in 2017 include:

Top CEO of The Year

A selected group of six CEOs will be recognised for their exemplary achievements in five areas:

Brand leadership: Leads an organisation that owns prominent brand(s) with strong brand power and high brand equity in the eyes of external and internal stakeholders. Brand power is assessed by Influential Brands' constant market monitoring via surveys and social media listening.

Brand expansion (local and international): Demonstrates an ability to build strong partnerships and takes calculated risks in his/her pursuit of business expansion and market leadership. Proven track record creating new brand concepts within their existing marketplace or taking the brand to uncharted territories in Asia and beyond.

Financial performance: Assessment of business performance based on revenue and other indicators (i.e. new countries, new partnerships, point of sales, etc).

Innovation: Infuses and empowers innovation from within the organisation. Embraces new technology in line with new industry developments and allocates time/resources in research and development (R&D) as an important activity in his/her business.

Personal integrity: Living according to values has earned him/her immense respect from staff, competitors, advisers, family and wider community. Coupled with the ability to communicate ideas, this creates the potential to influence others.

In 2016, the recipients for this segment included:

George Quek, Chairman of BreadTalk Group

Anthony Tan, Co-Founder and CEO of GrabTaxi Holdings

Dr Michael Tan, Co-Founder and Group CEO of Fullerton Healthcare Corporation

Richard Eu, CEO of Eu Yan Sang International

David Chiem, Founder, CEO and Chairman of MindChamps Holdings

Alain Ong, CEO of Pokka International

Influential Woman of the Year award 

In line with the Champions of Excellence programme, the Influential Woman of the Year 2017 Award recognises one woman for her exemplary achievements in three areas: influence, business leadership and personal branding. An intensive assessment based on the following criteria was conducted:

Influence: Demonstrates an ability to infuse a special energy that leads to the generation of a greater impact as a result of her work, presence, values and decisions. Coupled with the ability to communicate ideas, this creates the potential to influence others.

Business leadership: Leads and or fronts an organisation that owns a prominent brand(s) with strong brand power and high brand equity in the eyes of external and internal stakeholders.

Personal branding: Living to values has earned her great respect from staff, competitors, advisers, family and wider community.

Influential Artist of the Year award

One artist will be recognised for his/her exemplary achievement in three areas: influence, contribution to the promotion of arts and culture and personal integrity.

Top Influential Brands awards

The 33 awardees will be brands enjoyed and loved by consumers in Asia. The selection is backed by more than five years of consumer insights and surveys covering Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and China and more than 5,000 respondents. The Asiawide study was conducted via both face-to-face and online surveys. More than 50 categories from Online Marketplace and Food and Beverage (F&B) to Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG), Electronics and Beauty & Wellness were covered. The top five brands from each category qualify for this award. 

Outstanding Brands awards

Outstanding Brands was created two years ago to identify, feature and celebrate growth brands that sparkle and have shown resilience and growth in changing times. A brand must not only be noteworthy in its own category, industry or domain, it must show significant growth in revenue year-on-year for the past two years or more. It cannot be in receivership and must have a clear business expansion plan. 

Think gold, healthcare, India for investments this year: Emirates Islamic

Source: Emirates Islamic. Jamal (left) and Dugan (right).

Emirates Islamic, a UAE-based Islamic financial institution has shared the investment outlook for 2017 with its wealth management clients in Abu Dhabi and Dubai.

Presented by Gary Dugan, Chief Investment Officer (CIO) for Emirates NBD, Dealing with Global Disruptors - Investment Outlook for 2017 detailed disruptions to the global economy in the last year which have created challenges to conventional wisdom. Citing events such as Brexit, US President Donald Trump’s victory, the rise of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the launch of the Tesla car as global disruptors, Dugan said: “These political and technological events were major surprises to global financial markets, and have triggered significant shifts in the valuations of currencies and asset classes. More importantly, they have forced investors around the globe to rethink their long-term investment strategies.”

Explaining that the disruptions to conventional wisdom would most likely continue through 2017, Dugan advised, "Given the ongoing volatile global economic and political environment, it is important to invest in countries and sectors that offer long term growth and value. We believe for example, that sectors like technology and healthcare and countries like India offer relative value in current environment. As a general principle, investments should focus on preserving capital, while at the same time achieving reasonable profit levels.”

“Gold continues to play an important role for us. The yellow metal price has continued to deliver returns and remains a key diversification component for investment portfolios,” he added.

The investment outlook event was in keeping with Emirates Islamic’s vision to be a leading Islamic bank in the region. The bank has continued to build on its long-term relationship with customers, through a ‘customer first’ approach, which focuses on personalised financial services.

Jamal Bin Ghalaita, CEO, Emirates Islamic said: “Wealth management is one of the key pillars of the banking proposition at Emirates Islamic, and we aim to provide personalised wealth advisory services to our clients through a comprehensive platform, backed by in-depth knowledge in Islamic finance and extensive expertise in local and regional investments. The continued collaboration with global Islamic finance solutions providers also empowers Emirates Islamic to provide additional value to clients, and enables us to move closer to our goal of becoming the preferred provider of shari’ah-compliant wealth management solutions in the region.” 

Intuit Singapore to launch hit expense management app

Intuit, the global small business management and accounting software solutions provider, plans to launch QuickBooks Self-Employed in Singapore. The software allows users to stay on top of business expenses. QuickBooks Self-Employed launched in the US in 2015, and has 180,000 customers globally including in Australia, up from 50,000 a year ago.

Scheduled to be available later this month, QuickBooks Self-Employed is a mobile app targeted to help the growing freelance workforce. The app features expense tracking, invoicing, and helps users get better insight into their financials including net income and tax obligations throughout the year.

According to the Manpower Ministry’s 2015 Labour Force Report, 14% of Singapore’s workforce are self-employed. A growing part of this is the on-demand economy, which in Singapore includes global platforms such as Uber and Airbnb as well as strong local market players PandaBed, GrabTaxi and Redmart.

“The Singaporean self-employed community will benefit from a service that allows them to effectively stay on top of business expenses and make better financial decisions,” said Ashley Millbern, Head of global expansion at Intuit. “We know that these workers face unique challenges compared to traditional, full-time employees. QuickBooks Self-Employed will help them get organised and simplify their financial tasks, untangle business and personal expenses, and help them get ready for tax time; a task that used take hours can now be done in just minutes, and right in the palm of their hand.”

QuickBooks Self-Employed features include:

• Tracking expenses on the go with easy category selection based on swiping left or right on the phone
• Link receipts to expenses through the app
• Create and send invoices with notifications when the invoice has been viewed.
• Snap and store receipts, manage expenses, and invoices in one place

For more than three decades, Intuit has worked closely with customers around the world throughout the product development process. Customer input is critical to determine what big, unmet needs they are facing, what solutions Intuit should create, and how the products will look and feel. Intuit is also inviting Singaporean self-employed workers to be part of the product development process by joining a product testing programme to provide input and feedback on the mobile app.

Interested?

Sign up to test the software

New book combines services management and marketing best practices with the latest research

Source: NUS. Cover, Winning in Service Markets.

Tried and tested services management strategies backed by cutting-edge academic research are now available in Winning in Service Markets, a book by Professor Jochen Wirtz, National University of Singapore (NUS) Business School’s Vice Dean (Graduate Studies) and Professor of Marketing.

Professor Wirtz  has adapted his globally leading textbook – Services Marketing: People, Technology, Strategy (8th edition) for industry practitioners. Targeted towards service organisations, the new publication provides comprehensive coverage of the latest academic research and its implications for best-practice service management and marketing across multiple services sector industries.

The secret to winning in service markets is summarised into a five-part framework for readers. With the whole service-profit chain in mind, organisations can cultivate a shared service climate, culture and leadership by:

1. Understanding the power of design and packages of “intangible” benefits and products for employees;

2. Investing in high quality service operations and customer information management processes;

3. Grooming a pool of motivated and competent frontline employees;

4. Building and maintaining a loyal and profitable customer base; and

5. Developing and implementing a coherent service strategy to transform assets into improved business performance.

“Consumers today are more knowledgeable and sophisticated than ever before. Service organisations need to keep up by creating memorable customer service experiences in order to build brand loyalty,” says Professor Wirtz. “Through this book, I hope to help transform the service sector into one that creates value for both customers and employees whilst balancing profitability and growth.”

Jan Swartz, President, Princess Cruises, called the publication a “highly practical book” that is recommended for everyone working in a service organisation. She said, “I love the comprehensive coverage of services marketing and rigour. Also, it is easy to read and full of interesting, best practice examples.”

Professor Wirtz is recognised globally for his excellence in teaching and research with over 40 awards. He holds a Ph.D. in services marketing from the London Business School and his research has been published in some 100 academic journal articles and 130 conference presentations. He has published over 10 books and is an active management consultant in the areas of strategy, business development and customer feedback systems. 

Interested?

Winning in Service Markets is published by World Scientific Publishing and is available for purchase on Amazon and leading book stores. The Kindle version costs US$23.49. Key chapters are also available as standalone publications in e-book and paperback form. Read the abstract

RHB Banking Group works with Melbourne Business School for leadership initiative

Source: RHB Banking Group. From left: Yasir Abdul Rahman, Head of RHB Academy, RHB Group Human Resource; Jamaluddin Bakri, Group Chief Human Resource Officer, RHB Banking Group; Greg Campbell, GM, Asia Pacific, Melbourne Business School and Jeffery Soong, Regional Manager Asia, Executive Education of Melbourne Business School at the signing of the strategic partnership for the RHB Leadership Signature Programme Series.

The RHB Banking Group has partnered with Melbourne Business School (MBS) for the RHB Leadership Signature Programme Series, aimed at developing talents for a high performance workforce. MBS is the graduate business school of the University of Melbourne, Victoria, holding AACSB and EFMD (EQUIS) accreditations.

The collaboration is part of the group’s learning and development transformation initiatives which focus on creating a step change in the learning content, learning experience and learning environment for RHB employees. 

The programme is designed as a capstone for springboarding employees for progression and succession in their career. Jamaluddin Bakri, Group Chief Human Resources Officer of the RHB Banking Group said, “As businesses now operate in a very volatile environment which requires more complex and adaptive thinking abilities and skills, we are taking proactive measures in transforming our learning approach to develop talents to meet an increasingly volatile future. Our transformation focuses on establishing a new learning architecture for the bank which supports innovative learning practices, revamped curriculum and impactful learning experiences to accelerate the development of RHB talents.

“Working together with MBS on the new learning architectural design, RHB’s talent will be imbued with greater learning agility where they are able to learn, unlearn and relearn continuously. With this partnership, we are confident that the new approach would enable RHB to achieve its goal of creating a high performance workforce in line with our reframed strategy.”

The programme series is designed as an integrated learning journey which will use multimode learning approaches such as face-to-face, self-paced, and interactive coaching as well as online to deliver an engaging and flexible solution. It comprises three core programmes, namely Transition to Business Leadership Programme for Middle Level Leaders, Emerging Leaders for Frontline Managers and Foundation of Leadership for Individual Contributors. 

“This is an important initiative and signals a clear and tangible commitment from RHB in developing its people and equipping them with the skills, knowledge and mindsets that will enable them as well as the bank to thrive and flourish in a highly competitive and dynamic world,” said Greg Campbell, GM, Asia Pacific, MBS, RHB Banking Group's strategic learning partner in the design, development and delivery of the programme.

Meanwhile, the first cohort of 145 in the RHB Leadership Signature Programme Series is scheduled to be rolled out in December 2016. Other major programmes carried out by RHB as part of developing talents were the RHB INSEAD Senior Leadership Development Programme in 2013/14 and the GMC-1 Senior-Level Mentoring Programme in 2015.

Global mobile social influencer network launched

VOLTU, the performance-led social influencer network for mobile acquisition, has officially launched. By mobile adtech pioneer Glispa Global Group, VOLTU connects advertisers with content creators worldwide in order to drive app installs, brand awareness and engagement, and is a take-off from Glispa's bespoke social influencer ad campaigns for clients like Square Enix and Chinese giant Youzu.

Influencer marketing has proven to be an effective way to motivate and engage consumers because it harnesses the power of authentic, meaningful content, created by consumers, for consumers. Consumers find this medium of advertising trusted and valuable, rather than interruptive and contrived.

VOLTU is set apart from other social influencer solutions by its proprietary adtech platform and its ability to reach beyond the US into other regions, including Southeast Asia. VOLTU has over 30 thousand social influencers in its network with over 3,500 apps to promote. Influencers with anywhere from 10 thousand to millions of followers are invited to apply and run campaigns on the VOLTU network. Influencers can get paid for creating more of the posts and content that authentically fit with their followers.

The network taps into all significant social channels worldwide, which will allow advertisers to reach global audiences in a highly efficient way. VOLTU’s local influencer partners create authentic, relevant content across local platforms such as AfreecaTV (Korea), Douyu (China), and NicoNico (Japan).

“With VOLTU we address inherent mobile ad industry challenges including advertisers’ needs for transparency and fraud protection, ever-diminishing user engagement with banner ads, and the rise of ad blockers,” said Samantha Turner, Commercial Director and VOLTU Creator/ambassador. “We offer our advertising clients a hyper-native solution, leveraging trusted authorities in their topic areas (e.g. gaming) to drive high-value user acquisition and brand awareness at scale.”

Gary Lin, CEO and founder, adds, “Glispa Global Group is employing its 8+ years of performance DNA, proprietary technology and unprecedented global reach to make this incredibly valuable delivery method viable for all marketers. VOLTU connects advertisers with thousands of influencers worldwide to promote apps, drive installs and develop stronger customer relationships or lifetime value.”

VOLTU’s technology platform leverages the Glispa platform, which includes advanced tracking and attribution, campaign management, reporting and analytics, quality optimisation, fraud analysis and billing system.

Grab for Work helps companies manage transport expenses

• Grab for Work enables human resource (HR) and finance professionals to manage business transport expenses efficiently, enjoy payment flexibility and set ride policies
• Full integration with Concur to reduce time on claims reimbursement
 

Grab, the Southeast Asian ride-hailing company, has launched Grab for Work, a free transport expense management solution designed for business users across Southeast Asia. Grab for Work offers business leaders, line managers, human resource (HR) and finance professionals across small and medium enterprises (SMEs)* and multinational corporations (MNCs) a more productive way to manage their organisation’s transport spending.

Grab for Work was beta tested and developed with inputs from more than 150 companies across the region, and is currently in use by more than 150 companies across Southeast Asia, including Chope Group (Singapore), Park Hotel Group (Singapore), Rainmaker Labs (Singapore), Yesboss (Indonesia) and Malaysian Airlines (Malaysia).

“Companies should focus resources on business growth and serving their customers. We see an opportunity to provide an end-to-end transport solution for companies – to help them modernise and streamline their transport expense management processes through our technology platform. From rides to receipts to reimbursements, Grab for Work offers a seamless user experience and enables HR and finance departments to save time on managing day-to-day corporate transport expenses,” said Anthony Tan, CEO and Co-Founder, Grab.

Rides booked with Grab can be tagged as business rides and assigned to corporate groups within the Grab app. All rides would be synced to the Grab for Work web portal, which is a single tool for businesses to organise and oversee employees’ travel. Features include:
Track and manage travel expenses by cost-centres, departments and project teams
Use the groups feature to sort ride statements, and enjoy the flexibility of assigning different payment modes by groups or individuals. Keep track of specific group travel by scheduling automated weekly or monthly reports to be sent to your work email.

Set preferred corporate payment options
Provide flexible payment options to employees, including automatic charging to corporate credit cards or allowing the use of e-vouchers, personal credit cards or cash.

Set and enforce ride policies
Company executives can manage travel expenditure by setting ride policies to regulate when and where employees are allowed to claim for business travel, based on set locations, times and days. For example, policies can be set to cater for business meetings or late night rides.

Reduce paperwork
Rides booked through the Grab app will be automatically consolidated in the Grab for Work portal in real-time, complete with ride information including the employee name, travel date and time, pickup and dropoff location, fleet type and selected payment mode. This removes the usual pain points of manual processes, such as scanning receipts and penning down trip details.


The Grab for Work portal is also available for free to all Grab users, enabling them to:

Separate business and personal rides
Tag rides as business or personal using the Grab app. All rides booked through the Grab app are automatically updated and categorised in the Grab for Work portal.

Consolidate receipts for reimbursement
Employees can download e-receipts of all completed rides using the Grab for Work portal. The search function makes it easy for business users to download a history of past business rides whenever needed.


“By leveraging technology, Grab for Work effectively answers the need for greater efficiency in administrative processes, especially in complex operating environments such as the hospitality industry. With this innovative solution, we expect meaningful time savings for our associates, which would translate to higher productivity levels and allow more effective deployment of our human capital,” says Elaine Toh, Group Human Resource Director of Park Hotel Group.

Source: Grab. The employee experience.

Grab for Work is fully integrated with Concur, an expense management platform. Concur users who travel with Grab can look forward to faster expense reimbursement; their Grab e-receipts will be automatically synced to Concur, removing the need to scan and upload receipts.

“Connecting effortlessly with leading transportation apps makes it easy for our clients. The partnership with Grab is important to our Southeast Asia market and we’re thrilled to welcome them as a Concur App Center partner,” said Madanjit Singh, Managing Director, South East Asia at Concur.

Interested?

Grab for Work is now available to corporate customers in the six countries that Grab operates in: Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam. In Indonesia, companies can opt for the monthly direct billing option, where companies issue company codes to employees, and are invoiced monthly for business rides. Sign up

Plantronics turns headsets into data aggregation tools

Plantronics has announced Plantronics Manager Pro v3.8 and the new Asset Analysis suite. Plantronics Manager Pro is a software subscription service that customers and partners can use to manage audio communications devices, enabling them to gain insights into their business communications processes, how to streamline them, and generate more positive outcomes such as increased first call resolution.

The Plantronics Manager Pro Asset Analysis suite allows users to:

• Track device deployment and configurations, reconfigurations, and firmware updates
• Find non-standard firmware, software, softphone, and communications client deployments
• Use user personas to define standard device settings that ensure an optimal user experience and comply with workplace security, health, and safety policies.

When analytics are built directly into business processes, it helps reduce human and financial resource expenditure. Plantronics Manager Pro with Asset Analysis enables the IT manager to quickly run an inventory report to see who has particular headsets, their operational status, and to which softphones they are connected. 

One of the greatest values is seen by customers deploying new unified communications. Customers can identify user personas throughout their organisation and match the right headset to their communication styles. With Plantronics Manager Pro, they can subsequently establish the right mix of system-defined and user-defined settings and push them out to the headsets, so that on first use, everybody’s experience is customised to their requirements. This service can help speed user adoption through reports showing if and how the headsets are being used, and can ensure valid configurations. It also lets IT know things like who may benefit from additional training or configuration changes.

Plantronics Manager Pro with Asset Analysis allows contact centre managers to equip customer service representatives (CSRs) with the right tools to provide the best customer experiences. The service allows the contact centre manager to create standard configurations for the CSR workspace that foster the best customer and CSR experience, and lock them in place.

Interested?

Plantronics Manager Pro and Asset Analysis suite are available under an annual subscription from Plantronics Approved Resellers in Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore for the Asia Pacific region. The offer will be expanded globally in the coming months.

Watch the associated video

Read the TechTrade Asia blog post about Plantronics personas

Performance management receives little praise for 46% of Asia Pacific employers

Source: Willis Towers Watson. Types of performance management objectives.

Employers in Asia Pacific are using performance management processes to drive broad organisational objectives, and believe that by and large, these objectives are being met. However, Willis Towers Watson’s 2015 Talent Management and Rewards Pulse Survey* — Asia Pacific also found that almost half (46%) of employers in Asia either said their performance management processes are ineffective, or are neutral. Willis Towers Watson is a global advisory, broking and solutions company.

 
This gap could be explained by what is measured, and what is not. The research, which reached out to employers to learn about their performance management processes, shows companies are largely concerned with tracking compliance, and not qualitative or business outcomes. Most employers measure success through metrics such as the percentage of managers who complete annual reviews on time (39%), or employees who complete the process on time (37%). Only one in five employers measure the quality of goals set. Almost one in three employers do not formally measure effectiveness.

“Employers seem to be at a crossroads when it comes to their performance management processes,” said Dhritiman Chakrabarti, Asia Pacific Leader for Rewards, Talent & Communication at Willis Towers Watson. “On the one hand, they sense change is needed, but on the other hand, they are not sure what specific form that change should take. It’s because of this uncertainty that a few have turned to extreme steps such as going completely ratingless, which makes news headlines and causes other employers to wonder uneasily if they should follow suit.”

The survey shows that 6% of employers have eliminated performance ratings/scores, and an additional 11% are considering doing so. 10% of organisations are considering scrapping performance management all together. Instead, employers are finding ways to improve their current system: For instance, three in five employers have already changed or are in the process of changing their focus to include performance achievement and future potential. Another three in five have introduced or are considering introducing new technology.

“These are positive changes, but incremental. Employers could go a step further,” said Chakrabarti. “The key to driving high performance across the workforce is to align performance management — and individual performance objectives — to strategic business priorities. Once employees feel they are making a true contribution to the success of the business, their engagement rises and their potential can be unlocked.” 

 
According to the survey, lack of helpful feedback and resources are the greatest barriers to effective performance management. Almost three in five (59%) say managers spend too little time having ongoing conversations with employees about their individual performance, while 57% report a lack of effective feedback. Two-thirds of employers spend less than four hours on performance management per employee per year — the time is spent covering the annual performance review.

Additionally, more than half of employees say managers and supervisors do not have the necessary skills (53%) or are pressed for time to manage performance effectively (54%). “Developing — and maintaining — an effective performance management process is never an easy ask,” said Chakrabarti. “Performance management not only needs to keep employees motivated and engaged in the current organisation, it also needs an eye to where the organisation is going, and the skills needed to take it there. Today very few employers in Asia Pacific have this type of forward-looking agenda. By taking a strategic and holistic — including communication and technology, for instance — view of performance management, employers can ensure their workforce, often their most valuable resource, is also their greatest competitive advantage.”

*The Talent Management & Rewards Pulse Survey was conducted in October and November 2015. A total of 365 large and mid-sized Asian employers from 11 countries (Australia, mainland China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand), representing a cross section of industries participated. Respondents were primarily HR executives.

Singapore is one of Asia's most competitive talent markets

Source: Randstad Sourceright website. Global figures.

Randstad Sourceright, a global talent player, today announced availability of its 2016 Talent Trends Report, a guide to 30 of the most important trends impacting the world of talent, employees and business this year.

The Randstad Sourceright 2016 Talent Trends Report was developed with the feedback and outlooks of nearly 400 HR, talent and business leaders spanning more than 60 countries. Randstad Sourceright uncovered that the single most challenging talent management issue of today is the lack of critical talent and the resulting impact on business, as well as a company’s leadership and succession pipeline. Other repercussions of talent scarcity include increased spending on talent acquisition, growing frustration among hiring managers and disappointed leaders who want to know why business plans aren’t moving forward.

“The Asia Pacific market faces a very uncertain 2016 with many challenges and opportunities ahead. For talent leaders, they also face a highly fluid world of work as talent scarcity grows across the region. To make sure their organisations remain agile during turbulent times, they need insight, the right strategies in place and a clear action plan,” said Doug Edmonds, Managing Director, Randstad Sourceright Asia Pacific. “Our 2016 Talent Trends Report takes an in-depth look at how leaders are responding to these developments and how best to prepare for these changes.”

Source: Randstad Sourceright website. Global figures.

Singapore especially remains one of Asia’s most competitive talent markets. The survey discovered some revealing insights shared by Singapore-based HR leaders:

Four in 10 (41%) said they need leaders the most (enterprising, multi-skilled professionals who can lead organisational change, development, and innovation) in the next five years

Nearly seven in 10 (68%) said talent scarcity negatively impacted their business in 2015

Eight in 10 (78%) plan to improve the skills of their hiring managers to provide a better candidate experience

The following areas that needs more investment to support their business goals, say Singapore HR leaders:

• More market intelligence (61%) 
• Investment in business and HR analytics (59%) 
• Investment in specialised recruiting and sourcing operations for specific skill-sets (54%) 

The survey results presented in the report also provide a holistic view of how organisations around the world deploy talent, the challenges they face and the solutions that help them to keep moving forward. Key findings include:

85% of respondents believe an integrated talent management approach encompassing permanent and contingent talent will enhance the resources available for business growth.

Source: Randstad Sourceright website. Global figures.

The use of talent and workforce analytics continues to increase, with 73% in Singapore using this data to create more efficient workforce planning.

When asked about the biggest trends impacting the future of work in the next five to 10 years, the top responses were the need to create greater flexible working options to attract mobile talent, the ability to analyse internal and external employee data to source and retain talent and the challenge of keeping pace with evolving technology. 

Interested?

Download a complimentary copy of Randstad Sourceright 2016 Talent Trends Report. Infographics are available on the same page. 

SingPass 2FA verification process simplified ahead of July deadline

SingPass users can now set up their two-step verification (2FA), a requirement for using the Singapore online ID, with greater ease and convenience, the Infocomm Development Authority (IDA) has announced. The process was previously more complex. 

If users do not set up their SingPass 2FA, they will not be able to perform sensitive government e-transactions, such as Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS) tax filing and accessing Central Provident Fund (CPF) statements. 

From 5 July 2016, over 100 e-services by government agencies, such as the Ministry of Manpower (MOM), CPF, IRAS and the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA), will require 2FA to perform e-transactions. This means that in addition to their SingPass username and password, users will need to enter a One-Time Password sent via SMS or generated through a OneKey token.

Jacqueline Poh, Managing Director, Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore, said, "We are consistently improving our e-services to ensure that they are as user-friendly as possible, without compromising security, such as enabling users to activate their 2FA via SMS. We encourage all users to set up their SingPass 2FA early so that they can continue to perform their government e-transactions safely and without any disruption.”

To confirm that they have set up their 2FA, users can log into their SingPass account, click My Account, followed by Manage 2-Step Verification. If they have not set up their 2FA, they will be prompted to do so.

Interested?

The IDA said users only need to:

• Log into their SingPass account and click Set Up 2-Step Verification (2FA) under the Quick Links section 
• Register for SMS or OneKey token via the SingPass website – after which, a pin mailer that contains an activation code will be sent to their registered address 
• Send the activation code to 78111 via SMS, or log into Assurity’s website, to activate their 2FA 

There is a wait of up to seven working days for a pin mailer to activate their 2FA before they can perform sensitive e-transactions.

Mercer sounds alarm over under-representation of women in the workforce globally

Source: Mercer When Women Thrive global report.

Women are under-represented in the workforce globally, and if organisations maintain the current rate of progress, female representation will only account for 40% of the professional and managerial ranks in 2025, according to Mercer’s second annual When Women Thrive global report.

Among the key trends revealed in the report is that women’s representation within organisations actually declines as career levels rise – from support staff through the executive level.

“The traditional methods of advancing women aren’t moving the needle, and under-representation of women around the world has become an economic and social travesty,” said Pat Milligan, Mercer’s Global Leader of When Women Thrive. “While leaders have been focusing on women at the top, they’re largely ignoring the female talent pipelines so critical to maintaining progress.

“This is a call-to-action - every organisation has a choice to stay with the status quo or drive their growth, communities and economies through the power of women.”

Mercer’s report finds that although women are 1.5 times more likely than men to be hired at the executive level, they are also leaving organisations from the highest rank at 1.3 times the rate of men, undermining gains at the top.

Source: Mercer When Women Thrive global report. Current and projected female representation in 2025 at 2015 attrition rates around the world.

According to the When Women Thrive report, women make up 40% of the average company’s workforce. Globally, they represent 33% of managers, 26% of senior managers, and 20% of executives. In terms of regional rankings, Australia and New Zealand is projected to move from 35% in 2015 to 40% in 2025; and Asia ranks last at 28%, up from just 25% in 2015.

“In 10 years, organisations won’t even be close to gender equality in most regions of the world,” said Milligan. “If CEOs want to drive their growth tomorrow through diversity, they need to take action today.”

The research – the most comprehensive of its kind featuring input from nearly 600 organisations around the world, employing 3.2 million people, including 1.3 million women – identifies a host of key drivers known to improve diversity and inclusion (D&I) efforts.

“It’s not enough to create a band-aid programme,” said Brian Levine, Mercer’s Innovation Leader, Global Workforce Analytics. “Most companies aren’t focused on the complete talent pipeline nor are they focused on the supporting practices and cultural change critical to ensure that women will be successful in their organisations.”

Only 9% of organisations surveyed globally offer women-focused retirement and savings programmes, despite Mercer’s research proving that such efforts lead to greater representation of women.

Other key findings:

Only 57% of organisations claim senior leaders are engaged in diversity and inclusion initiatives

Involvement of men has actually dropped since the first report in 2014, when 49% of organisations said they are engaged in D&I efforts

Just 29% of organisations review performance ratings by gender with Australia/New Zealand ranking first

Four in 10 organisations offer formal pay equity remediation processes, compared to 34% globally, and 25% in Asia. But virtually no improvements have been made since 2014

Nearly a third (28%) of women hold P&L (profit and loss) roles with Asia at No. 2 (27%), and Australia/New Zealand in third place (25%)

Women are perceived to have unique skills needed in today’s market including flexibility and adaptability (39% vs. 20% who say men have those strengths); inclusive team management (43% vs. 20%); and emotional intelligence (24% vs. 5%)

About half of organisations in three key regions – Asia, US/Canada and Latin America – agree that supporting women’s health is important to attract and retain women. Yet only 22% conduct analyses to identify gender-specific health needs in the workforce

In a series of separate studies Mercer has found that clients find that building their leadership pipeline is one of their biggest challenges, and included a lack of plans to develop women in their workforce for leadership as one of the problems in talent management strategies. 

Said Kate Bravery, Mercer’s Growth Markets Leadership & Organizational Performance Practice Leader: “To achieve long term success, a more strategic approach to nurturing the pipeline of leaders is required. This starts by translating core business objectives into a leadership strategy that defines the talent pool, competencies and the tactics required to build leaders from within. It continues with an execution plan that helps businesses identify, develop and accelerate the critical talent moves that will help them achieve real competitive advantage.”

Mercer’s Leadership Practices Study comprises a series of research reports based on surveys conducted from 2012 to 2014 that explore and compare current leadership trends in Asia Pacific, Latin America and the Middle East. Using data gathered from nearly 1,000 companies across the three growth market regions, these studies examine how companies approach leadership strategy, assessment, development and succession planning.found that companies in growth market regions are adopting effective practices for nurturing leadership talent, for example:

· Businesses in Asia-Pacific are investing heavily in training and developing senior level and global leaders at the top of their organisations.

· Firms in the Middle East are doing a good job of using global leadership capability models to help with talent development and creating opportunities for international assignments to which any employee can apply.

However, the studies also identified critical gaps in current planning that potentially limit organisations’ ability to produce the multi-skilled leaders required in modern, rapidly-growing businesses, as well as differences in the leadership competencies that are deemed critical for success by companies in each region.

Key findings included:

· Companies can do more to plan and prepare for the next generation of leaders – fewer than half of those companies responding conduct regular pipeline projections, very few have specific plans for developing key segments of their workforce (e.g. women or grooming local talent) and even fewer have metrics for tracking progress on pipeline management.

· Many businesses are not effectively identifying who is ready for the next move or position within their leadership pipeline – 15% of businesses in Asia Pacific and just 6% in the Middle East report that they have strong, “ready-now” successors in place for critical leadership roles.

· Companies are spending less annually per person on training and developing middle level and frontline leaders than they do on global or senior level leaders. Fewer than 20% of companies in the Middle East are spending US$5,000 or more per person each year to develop their youngest future leaders. In Asia-Pacific, under-investment is even starker, with just 5% of companies achieving this level of spending for individuals at the earliest stage of the pipeline – the next generation of leaders.

· Companies view a leader’s ability to ‘create strategy’ as one of the most critical competencies for leadership success – 64% of companies in Middle East and 36% in Asia Pacific prioritise strategic competencies above other operational, people or personal capabilities.

Highlights for Asia Pacific:

· While leadership development strategies are in place in many organisations, execution remains a significant problem as performance management processes are not effectively identifying who is ready for the next move or position within their leadership pipeline.

· Systems and processes for executing talent management processes are extremely inefficient, still relying on paper-based and email resources.

· Organisations are not focusing leadership development efforts on women as a segment, despite women making up a small percentage of senior management in organisations.

· Companies continue to rely on expatriates, rather than local talent, for top leadership roles, calling into question the effectiveness of leadership development and localization strategies.

· Investment in leadership development is concentrated on top-level leaders, organisations need to also reach deeper and earlier into their leadership pipelines to build talent from within.

· Leaders and managers are not being held accountable for grooming future leadership talent.

· People-related competencies are not among those seen as most critical by organisations for leadership success.

· There is a disconnect between the development methods rated most effective by respondents (“stretch” assignments) and those methods that are most widely used such as classroom training and individual development plans.

Highlights for Middle East

· Half of the companies have defined leadership development strategies in place, although this is more likely in larger organisations.

· Those organisations without a defined leadership development strategy are often reliant on buy/borrow talent strategies.

· The short-term focus of companies jeopardises their ability to build strong leadership pipelines.

· Organisations are missing some critical infrastructure to support leadership development.

· Many companies recognise the lack of attention paid by organisations and top executives to leadership development.

· Companies are relying on traditional methods such as classroom training to develop talent and leadership expertise and these are not proving to be effective in nurturing future leaders.

· Key talent pools are under-represented in leadership positions and often overlooked in talent development programmes, including local staff and women.

Interested?

Access the report summary for When Women Thrive