For many months now, there has been a lot of speculation around 2021 and how it would bring a much-anticipated relief. Post New Year holidays, however, nothing really seems to have changed other than the imposition of a ‘new’ lockdown.

The 2020 health crisis was a jolt out of the blue. Companies were thwarted off their paths and the highly-anticipated digital transformation of industries happened in a matter of weeks. Who’d have known? Sometimes, the right question to ask ourselves is “why didn’t we know?” or better still, “why couldn’t we predict and restrategise?”.

In the wake of Covid-19, some companies are directly calling in, requesting for information documents and demos without demanding a physical meet up or a site visit. In the recent months alone, cost-cutting measures in many sectors like construction, logistics and even foreign consultancies in Malaysia have visibly increased as companies scout for affordably-priced payroll solutions.

Compliance is a term that most organisations link primarily to taxes and regulatory submissions. But never before has the word ‘compliance’ permeated to include everything around us - from data, software, banking, financial technology, payroll, insurance to risk management. Digital technology has ‘compliance’ hovering over every service subscription or payment gateway that you would never know until it hits you unawares.

Many organisations and their HR teams do not want to deal with payroll internally. Its time-consuming and complex nature makes a good case for outsourcing so that they can avoid inaccurate calculations, late paychecks and overlooked taxes.

Exploring workforce augmentation strategies through umbrella organisations can offer global companies an edge over managing contingent workers themselves. It has also widened the scope for global companies to locally access a wider talent pool so that they get the right people for the right job.

Sometimes crisis management does not start with tactful strategies or creating the much-needed task force. It starts with looking around the organisation – at the very people who build the company every single day and how they are likely to be affected, pandemic or not.

With the novel coronavirus ravaging economies and fueling the onset of a recession, many companies are looking for faster ways to bolster revenue and gain massive customer reach. Malaysia, a country widely known for its technologically-advanced and diverse talent pool, has often been the first choice of many global multinationals seeking visible footprint in South East Asia.

Most companies hardly think of payroll as a contingency measure during a crisis because they are busy worrying about sustaining sales, marketing and delivery systems to cut down losses and debt. With wide-spread economic implications like the one brought out by the Covid-19 pandemic, organisations all over the world face a simultaneous onslaught, forcing CEOs to dash haphazardly over recovery strategies.

Rapid spread of the Covid-19 virus has thrown the whole world in to a state of inactivity, with several businesses ceasing operations and workforce engagement. Consequently, a large percentage of people have been thrown off their jobs, creating a fearful shadow of a recession that is to come in the next few months.

Growing concern over the pandemic has pushed many corporations to go into chaotic overdrive, forcing them to either down shutters or employ a poorly-planned contingency directive lacking in specifics. Haphazard decision-making during times of crisis is proving to be the ultimate nail on the coffin rather than proactive measures that could actually help companies oil their wheels for current and future business continuity.

When a firm approaches an outsourcing company for a first-time payroll subscription, it’s important to understand what they expect in terms of enhanced services. For some, it may be the complications that payroll brings with itself, and for others, it may be the risks associated with financial security that they cannot handle themselves.

The extent to which smartphones are dictating our lives is becoming indescribable. Their popularity, driven by technological finesse and supercomputer-like processes, doesn’t just make them a piece of technology carried in our pockets but an essential tool for survival.

It’s been a fantastic year – of hard work, challenging projects, memorable milestones and great celebration. As the New Year dawns on our lives, it’s the perfect time to reflect on our wonderful partnership in the past year - one that has steered us closer to our dreams, aspirations and goals in life.

Bleak global economic outlooks have always questioned whether economies are really robust and talent markets really flourishing. While fluctuation is an ongoing process that produces ripples across nations, it can’t be held true for all trading blocs. Even as US and Europe battle erratic investor interests due to ongoing trade wars and slow manufacturing, ASEAN is facilitating business expansion much better than its rival production hubs in China and South Asia.

There comes times in every leader’s period in office where he or she has to up the game to maximize team performance. Everything that needs to be achieved has to be done according to the dictates of modern-day people management theories, most of which have been made trendy by major blue-chip companies and overnight urban startups successes.

There are also times when companies start new ventures in different continents and move their talents for expertise and management. During such circumstances, companies formulate mobility clauses to reasonably ensure that the rights of both the employer and the employee are protected in their new setting.

The Deloitte Global Millennial Survey released earlier this year analyses millennial behaviour in ways better than those previously explored. As a ‘generation disrupted’, the survey points out how they are breaking away from traditional ‘success markers’ like raising a family or buying a house to traveling the world and serving their communities. And like everything else, their attitude to jobs and organisations is also no different.

In the wake of globalization, an increasing number of MNCs have found their way to the resource-rich landscapes of South East Asia where labour is cheap and consumption, plentiful. Companies have also benefitted from its internet-dependent populations who are startup savvy and have an open mind to innovation and technological disruption. Its increasing population has also witnessed a higher number of millennials at the workplace who are redefining concepts of hierarchy, inclusion and diversity at the workplace.

Organizations that have the greatest reach in terms of business and clientele should mandatorily institute enterprise-wide risk management policies that shield it from online theft and data breach. Protecting the business from cyber frauds not only totals up one’s reputation as a credible business partner, but also ensures the security of company and financial data from malicious hackers.

Cognitive technology is a derivative of artificial intelligence where computers employ predictive analysis to study and imitate human thinking patterns. Through extensive data mining and data matching, these computers can interact with users through natural language and help us in our day-to-day affairs. In HR particularly, cognitive technology helps enhance end user experience while robotics process automation, called RPA, can do away with high-volume processes in a matter of minutes.

Every year, the ASEAN welcomes scores of global companies eager to set up businesses in the region. Multinationals flock in from America, Europe & the Mediterranean to take advantage of the region’s rich labour, raw material and consumer markets. In most cases, global ventures set foot without any know-how of local labour laws, salary norms or statutory compliance, resulting in frequent run-ins with various regulatory departments.

Ours is an age of collaborative work processes where businesses thrive on functional synergies, dynamic organizational models and mobile workplaces. Agility, in all senses, rules the roost when it comes to determining success in the corporate space. Agile workplaces, in turn, give rise to new kinds of engagement, which takes businesses to several offshore markets.

An article on performance assessment in the October 2016 issue of the Harvard Business Review traces the history of appraisals back to the days of World War I. Termed the “merit rating” system, it was used by the US military to spot poor performers for discharge or transfer. Within the next two decades, the article notes, the system was adopted by 90% of companies in the US.

Managing a team can be an ordeal, even if you have the brightest minds working for you. Getting your talents to work together is an indispensable requirement given the economic competitiveness of businesses.

Expanding your business internationally can be a great leap forward, but also a risky one. In this day and age, introducing your products and services in new markets is imperative for brand recognition and higher revenue. However, opening up a new office internationally can be prohibitively expensive, when there isn’t any legal entity to rely on or carry forward your investment.

Having been in the outsourcing industry long enough, I can tell why companies shy away at the very mention of the word. Everybody is entitled to their beliefs, and in this case, it is common to assume that outsourcing is expensive, risky and, like most CEOs think, beyond one’s control. For many companies, outsourcing is an additional burden rather than a solution.

Ensuring pay parity among employees is a contributing factor to ending gender- based and racial discrimination. Although a vast number of corporate organizations boast equal pay among employees of both genders, the subtly existent ‘wage differential’ that we all know of, contradicts the very credo of ‘equality at the workplace’.

Unlike previous generations where employment with an organization lasted almost a lifetime, the modern talent is looking at contributing to only specific assignments posted by organizations. This new wave of employment (the gig economy) focuses more on short-term engagement with desired employers who are, in turn, hunting for specific skills.

As wholly integrated global enterprises, MNCs function through their own ERP systems which help maintain diverse businesses and growing employee population. Not only does ERP maintain uniformity, it is a core function of every multinational’s operational framework.

The ASEAN is a region of great beauty and diverse culture. Lovely as it sounds, it doesn’t end there. Surprisingly, living in the same country does not entitle one to a common law!

HRBP reconfiguration has always been a continuous process with changing business dynamics and evolving technology. However, compared to most other functions in organizations, HR, so to say, has always been overlooked in its capabilities that make it a game changer in day-to-day business operations.

Robots or bots as they are usually called can understand and analyze any instruction given to them and respond accordingly. Bots have become the most default and cost-effective choice for organizations focusing on smarter solutions at workplaces.

How then can you automate your workflow? Simple! Just look into the minute details of challenges and solutions.

Companies struggling under the weight of monthly payroll, compliance and periodical HR registry probably have no time for core HR tasks. In fact, if you spend 80 hours a year sorting out taxes, that’s two-full weeks spent focussing ONLY ON TAXES!

Hiring the right talents matter and retaining them matters even more. Businesses are building workspaces exclusively for their employees - catering to every single need so that they can concentrate on maximising performance.

Outsourcing disasters are one of the costliest pitfalls that companies looking to gain competitive edge fall into. If you’ve managed to steer your firm through all kinds of weather, a bad outsourcing decision is probably where you are going to hit rock bottom on the performance scale.

When you first start your business, you are most likely going to do a lot of research and investment.Once your business is finally up and running, you may find yourself asking: so, what next?

Find out how Co-Founders, Manish Mehta & Raj Kumar rose to the top of the HR industry by doing things the right way.

Shaping Future HR Leaders

When is the best time of the year to reach for that phone to make that one call that could save you a lot of hassle?

As HR practitioners, we are aware that changes will take place with the arrival of digital technology.

Growing a successful business out of a personal passion is a great achievement, but there may come a time when the tasks of running that growing business may start sapping away your ability to do what you truly love.

As the world economy reels under a quagmire of unending debt, low commodity prices, weak global trade and limited liquidity, many countries around the world are frantically scrabbling about in a bid to stay afloat.