3 Things We Learned From #BrioConnect, an Event by BrioHR
Being a HR professional is challenging. Whether its recruitment, ensuring compliance, developing talent, motivating employees, or even ensuring everyone is paid on time, HR is often a criminally underrated department.
But when HR is properly done, it brings so much more benefits. An engaged workforce is happier, more motivated to perform, and more productive. In today’s knowledge-driven economy, the performance of a company’s people is more or less correlated to profits.
This is the message that the audience engaged with at #BrioConnect, an event hosted by BrioHR for HR professionals and business owners. Speakers at the event were:
- Benjamin Croc, CEO and co-founder, BrioHR
- Roslinda Abu Bakar-Kellsey, regional director, Emeritus Institute of Management
- Joel Low, clinical psychologist and director, The Mind Psychological Services & Training
Here are three things that we learned at #BrioConnect to empower HR and create a happier, more productive workforce.
Benjamin Croc, CEO and co-founder, BrioHR
Culture is Paramount
Company culture is what determines the success or failure of an enterprise. With a great culture, employees will be happier and more engaged with their work. It also attracts and retains talent better than an organization with poor culture.
But how do you build a great culture? This was the issue that Benjamin Croc, CEO and co-founder of BrioHR sought to address at #BrioConnect. According to Croc, culture needs to remain top of mind for everyone – from the CEO, to HR, to the executive team, all the way down to the most junior employee.
“Culture evolves over time, maybe due to external circumstances, or simply the evolution as the company grows,” said Croc. “If you want to shape your culture, you need to be on top of it, to iterate, improve, and correct it,” explained Croc.
At the same time, ignoring culture is the biggest mistake many leaders make. Culture is often an idealized concept, and if leaders fail at conveying some values, it may hurt. “Culture needs to be treated as a solvable problem. Given this, what should I do? Don’t take the easy way out and say that ‘they don’t understand’,” said Croc. “The consequence of no culture is almost always toxic culture,” he added.
Croc then gave examples from BrioHR’s experience. “At BrioHR, our values are trust, respect, ownership, and excellence. We trust our employees 100% to do the right thing. Our unlimited annual leave policy is proof of this,” explained Croc.
Picking values that are inspirational and tie culture back to company goals is important. Though there is no one-size-fits-all solution to culture, being proactive in shaping culture throughout the company will result in great culture and happy employees.
Roslinda Abu Bakar-Kellsey, regional director, Emeritus Institute of Management
HR and Learning Can Be Profitable
Management normally takes a dim view of learning and development (L&D). Whether it’s the view that L&D takes up an employee’s time, or that L&D is only done to tick a box, or worse, that L&D is useless – many organizations tend to neglect L&D and ‘relegate’ it to HR.
However, several changes have seen L&D retake its deserved place of prominence. Firstly, the rise of skill gaps is a concern to many employers. It is impossible to hire an employee that knows everything without paying a premium for their services. Secondly, digital learning enables employees to learn at their own pace, in the office or at home. Digital learning also enables HR to track their progress.
Roslinda Abu Bakar-Kellsey, regional director at the Emeritus Institute of Management thus argues that L&D is now more important than ever. “We find that when companies measure L&D impacts using metrics, they can easily see that L&D does indeed make a difference. For example, you can calculate the amount of money saved by upskilling or reskilling, versus the amount spent hiring or consulting. Or, you can measure effectiveness pre- and post-training using KPIs,” she said.
Abu Bakar-Kellsey then gave another real-life example. “I worked at a place where some of the employees had an interest in emceeing. Through the company’s training portal, they had some emcee training courses. At first, no one could tell why or how this could benefit the company,” she explained.
“Then, we realized that many internal events hired external emcees to perform. So I suggested, why not we use these employees that had taken the emceeing course instead. And that worked out perfectly! From here, we already can see that L&D has saved the company money,” elaborated Abu Bakar-Kellsey.
With this, we can see clearly that L&D and HR can be a great partner not just in empowering people, but also in driving the bottom line.
Dr. Joel Low, clinical psychologist and director, The Mind Psychological Services & Training
A Journey to Your Best Self
“Be your best self” can be a phrase that many of us have grown tired of hearing. Whether we’re stuck in a 9 to 5 job, caught up in family commitments, or just plain bored, we feel a far cry from what our ambitions dictate we should be doing.
But Dr. Joel Low, clinical psychologist and director at The Mind Psychological Services & Training points out that the journey to be your best self is as important as, well, actually being your best self. “The journey into that end goal is every bit as important, if not more so, than the destination. And you know what, for most of us, we don’t even know what that destination is!” he said.
“It’s like a friend of mine likes to say, sometimes life can be like a dog chasing an ice cream truck. The dog is bent on getting to the truck, but when it gets there, it doesn’t know what to do,” explained Dr. Low. But he also said that when we know what we want, it gives us a direction to strive for and something we wake up in the morning for.
So is there a lesson for HR in all this? Yes!
Everyone has a different ambition, whether big or small. It’s HR’s job to empower them to bridge that gap between who they are now, and who they want to be. It’s going to be an involved process that takes years. But people have careers that span decades – so get on the empowerment train and unlock the potential of the people in your organization.
Follow BrioHR on LinkedIn to be notified of future events like #BrioConnect. Learn how BrioHR can empower your people and unlock their potential by booking a free demo today!
Being a HR professional is challenging. Whether its recruitment, ensuring compliance, developing talent, motivating employees, or even ensuring everyone is paid on time, HR is often a criminally underrated department.
But when HR is properly done, it brings so much more benefits. An engaged workforce is happier, more motivated to perform, and more productive. In today’s knowledge-driven economy, the performance of a company’s people is more or less correlated to profits.
This is the message that the audience engaged with at #BrioConnect, an event hosted by BrioHR for HR professionals and business owners. Speakers at the event were:
- Benjamin Croc, CEO and co-founder, BrioHR
- Roslinda Abu Bakar, regional director, Emeritus Institute of Management
- Joel Low, clinical psychologist and director, The Mind Psychological Services & Training
Here are three things that we learned at #BrioConnect to empower HR and create a happier, more productive workforce.
Culture is Paramount
Company culture is what determines the success or failure of an enterprise. With a great culture, employees will be happier and more engaged with their work. It also attracts and retains talent better than an organization with poor culture.
But how do you build a great culture? This was the issue that Benjamin Croc, CEO and co-founder of BrioHR sought to address at #BrioConnect. According to Croc, culture needs to remain top of mind for everyone – from the CEO, to HR, to the executive team, all the way down to the most junior employee.
“Culture evolves over time, maybe due to external circumstances, or simply the evolution as the company grows,” said Croc. “If you want to shape your culture, you need to be on top of it, to iterate, improve, and correct it,” explained Croc.
At the same time, ignoring culture is the biggest mistake many leaders make. Culture is often an idealized concept, and if leaders fail at conveying some values, it may hurt. “Culture needs to be treated as a solvable problem. Given this, what should I do? Don’t take the easy way out and say that ‘they don’t understand’,” said Croc. “The consequence of no culture is almost always toxic culture,” he added.
Croc then gave examples from BrioHR’s experience. “At BrioHR, our values are trust, respect, ownership, and excellence. We trust our employees 100% to do the right thing. Our unlimited annual leave policy is proof of this,” explained Croc.
Picking values that are inspirational and tie culture back to company goals is important. Though there is no one-size-fits-all solution to culture, being proactive in shaping culture throughout the company will result in great culture and happy employees.
HR and Learning Can Be Profitable
Management normally takes a dim view of learning and development (L&D). Whether it’s the view that L&D takes up an employee’s time, or that L&D is only done to tick a box, or worse, that L&D is useless – many organizations tend to neglect L&D and ‘relegate’ it to HR.
However, several changes have seen L&D retake its deserved place of prominence. Firstly, the rise of skill gaps is a concern to many employers. It is impossible to hire an employee that knows everything without paying a premium for their services. Secondly, digital learning enables employees to learn at their own pace, in the office or at home. Digital learning also enables HR to track their progress.
Roslinda Abu Bakar-Kellsey, regional director at the Emeritus Institute of Management thus argues that L&D is now more important than ever. “We find that when companies measure L&D impacts using metrics, they can easily see that L&D does indeed make a difference. For example, you can calculate the amount of money saved by upskilling or reskilling, versus the amount spent hiring or consulting. Or, you can measure effectiveness pre- and post-training using KPIs,” she said.
Abu Bakar-Kellsey then gave another real-life example. “I worked at a place where some of the employees had an interest in emceeing. Through the company’s training portal, they had some emcee training courses. At first, no one could tell why or how this could benefit the company,” she explained.
“Then, we realized that many internal events hired external emcees to perform. So I suggested, why not we use these employees that had taken the emceeing course instead. And that worked out perfectly! From here, we already can see that L&D has saved the company money,” elaborated Abu Bakar-Kellsey.
With this, we can see clearly that L&D and HR can be a great partner not just in empowering people, but also in driving the bottom line.
A Journey to Your Best Self
“Be your best self” can be a phrase that many of us have grown tired of hearing. Whether we’re stuck in a 9 to 5 job, caught up in family commitments, or just plain bored, we feel a far cry from what our ambitions dictate we should be doing.
But Dr. Joel Low, clinical psychologist and director at The Mind Psychological Services & Training points out that the journey to be your best self is as important as, well, actually being your best self. “The journey into that end goal is every bit as important, if not more so, than the destination. And you know what, for most of us, we don’t even know what that destination is!” he said.
“It’s like a friend of mine likes to say, sometimes life can be like a dog chasing an ice cream truck. The dog is bent on getting to the truck, but when it gets there, it doesn’t know what to do,” explained Dr. Low. But he also said that when we know what we want, it gives us a direction to strive for and something we wake up in the morning for.
So is there a lesson for HR in all this? Yes!
Everyone has a different ambition, whether big or small. It’s HR’s job to empower them to bridge that gap between who they are now, and who they want to be. It’s going to be an involved process that takes years. But people have careers that span decades – so get on the empowerment train and unlock the potential of the people in your organization.
Follow BrioHR on LinkedIn to be notified of future events like #BrioConnect. Learn how BrioHR can empower your people and unlock their potential by booking a free demo today!
