BANGSAR: March 21, Wednesday: ATCEN Sdn. Bhd. organized the “Asia Human Capital Development Conference 2018” in Connexion@Nexus at Bangsar South, Kuala Lumpur.
The one-day Human Capital Development Conference witnessed a gathering of nearly 250 delegates from 140 companies, across multiple industries such as banks, education, insurance, retail, manufacturing, technology and FMCG.
The delegates included many human capital professionals, corporate leaders, recruiters, thought leaders and speakers all seeking to learn and share on the conference theme of “Making Learning the Heart of Your Organization.” The entire purpose of the conference learning is to drive human capital growth and empower the staff to be more AGILE in this new VUCA environment.
The Conference was sponsored by Pembangunan Sumber Manusia Berhad (PSMB), a dynamic organization under Kementerian Sumber Manusia, responsible for the development of Malaysians to meet the country’s aim of becoming a high income country. The Gold Sponsor was Healthmetrics, a company that specialized in helping other companies manage their employees’ health benefits.
ATCEN Sdn. Bhd., CEO, Mr. Jeremy Lee gave the welcome address. The opening speech was given by Ms. Sashikala Devi, Director of SME Development, PSMB on the future of learning and development of organizations. Dr. Timothy Law, a well-known Organization Behavior expert, was the Master of Ceremonies for the conference, giving his insights throughout the Conference.
The first panel discussion was titled as “A Better Employee Experience for the Organisation”. The moderator and panelists of the session included Mr. Zohrab A.S Chong, Strategic Learning Director, Group Succession and Talent Development of Group Human Capital in Maybank, Ms. Wan Nor Ailani Wan Ibrahim, Senior Vice President and Head of Human Resource of Siemens Malaysia Sdn. Bhd. and Mr. Anthony Raja Devadoss, Managing Director and Regional Head of PERSOLKELLY Consulting, Asia Pacific. This session’s focus was essentially on the need to create a culture of fairness, a sense of worth and purpose for organizational growth. The panelist also emphasized on using office space to infuse organizational growth and creativity.
“Developing a Powerful Learning and Development Brand” was the focus area of the second session. The session was moderated by Mr. Jeremy Lee, CEO of ATCEN with panelists Ms. Norliza Ahmad, Assistant General Manager of Learning and Development in Bank Islam Malaysia, Mr. Koljit Singh, Head of Organization and Culture Excellence at BASF Petronas Chemicals Sdn. Bhd. and Dr. Mageswari Kunasegaran, Talent Consultant at Humanology Sdn. Bhd. The main focus of this session was identifying and articulating the benefits or learning and development in the organization. They opined that organizations should build consistency of message and experience and value to employees and the organization leaders around learning.
Third session of the day, focused on the concept of “Developing Agile Employees to Thrive in Uncertainty”. The moderator and panelists of the session comprised of Ms. Tan Shu-Tze, Founder of Alignz Associates, Mr. David Mayo, Chief Marketing Officer of Ogilvy & Mather Asia Pacific and Chief Executive Officer of Ogilvy & Mather Malaysia, Mr. Kenny Ong, Managing Director of Universal Music Group Sdn. Bhd. in Malaysia, Singapore and Indochina and Ms. Fahiyah Binti Yahaya, Human Resources and Administration Manager of Fibertex Personal Care Sdn Bhd. They discussed on ways to create proactive organizations, removing fear and learning inertia for a learning culture and developing leaders for uncertainty.
The final panel session of the day, “Replacing Appraisals with Coaching and Continuous Feedback”. The moderator and panelists were Mr. Ken Ng, Chief Executive Officer of PORTMAN College, Dr. Mohamed Ashraf Iqbal, Director of MindSpring Sdn. Bhd. and Independent Director of HSBC Amanah, Mr. Byron J. Fernandez, Country Director of Teledirect Telecommerce Sdn. Bhd. and Mr. Zacharias Rajagopal, former Director of Human Resources of Hard Rock Hotel Desaru Coast. The experts discussed on the viability and rationale of removing appraisals and practical ways of doing it, how to incorporate a culture of continuous feedback and performance conversations and strategies to embed coaching and drive effective development conversations.
Other than the panel sessions by local and Asian leading professionals and thinkers, the conference audience celebrated the successful soft launch of Dreamtalents.com, a game- changing specialized platform that aims to address the constant lack of talents in the market by connecting ready-to-work talents with potential employers, recruiters and business owners. The audience also gained more knowledge on trending workplace medical software through a presentation by the gold sponsor HealthMetrics Sdn. Bhd.
The conference also had 2 short learning sessions by Dr. Azma Abdul Hamid, Chief Executive Officer and Learning Strategist of Content Capital Sdn. Bhd, on the 5 Key Factors for Successful E- Learning Content Development. The other session was conducted by Mr. Jegatheeswaran Manoharan, Chief Executive Officer of Accordia Training and Development Sdn. Bhd. on “playing to learn”.
Finally, the conference was concluded by Ms. Nadia Nishaa Binti Shamsuri, Head of Learning and Development of Maxis Sdn. Bhd. She shared Maxis Sdn. Bhd’s learning and development in the digital age journey.
The closing speech was followed by an overview by the organizer and a networking session for all attendees.
