Mercer’s 16th Annual Asia Pacific HR Roundtable Conference combines invaluable insights from Asia’s leading organizations with the deep-seated expertise of Mercer’s consultants to help you develop innovative HR solutions to the business challenges your company faces today.

Divided into plenary and concurrent sessions, the conference not only provides you with a unique opportunity to learn more about the HR strategies of companies such as Morgan Stanley, Starbucks and AT&T Asia; it also allows you to delve deeper into core topics such as attracting world-class talent and cross-border benefits solutions.

All delegates are welcome to attend our plenary sessions; however concurrent sessions are interactive and therefore places are limited. Delegates must register their choice of concurrent sessions in advance.

Talent management in hyper-growth markets

Dr. Raman Srinivasan

Head, Ignite Initiative, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS)

Rajan Srikanth

Human Capital Leader Asia Pacific, Mercer, India

Most multinational organizations rely heavily on competitive practices when looking for ways to manage talent in Asia Pacific; however emerging economies often require a different approach. In this session, Dr. Srinivasan will share insights into the innovative approach that Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has implemented to retain their position as India’s premier IT/ITeS company. This approach has not only resulted in the organization demonstrating the fastest growth and the lowest attrition rate in the industry in India, it has also transformed the company’s employer brand and TCS is now viewed as one of the most progressive companies to work for today.

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Trends that impact the way we do business in Asia Pacific: why you should be more innovative  

Neo Siew Khim

Regional Leader, Information Product Solutions Asia Pacific

Mercer, Singapore

In recent years, the Asia-Pacific region has witnessed the dawn of several key socio-economic, political, demographic, compensation and benefits trends that impact HR and the way we do business today. This session addresses the key challenges organizations face and sets the stage for how HR can implement innovative strategies to help overcome them.

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Starbucks: an innovation success story  

Paula Radloff

Vice President, Partner Resources

Starbucks Coffee Asia Pacific Limited

In recent years the name Starbucks has not only become synonymous with coffee, it has literally become a household brand; however, this did not occur simply because they make a great cup of coffee. The company’s market-leading success was achieved through years of implementing innovative practices and through its many 'partners'. Every employee, including part-time personnel who receive benefits, is considered a partner and each has an impact on profitability. The 'partner' concept formed the foundation of the Chairman's vision from the company's establishment and continues to dominate business practices around the globe. Starbucks has a deliberate workplace culture that embraces diversity, service excellence and continuous enthusiastic customer contact. Its human resources practices are integrated into the business and people are truly business partners in every sense of the word. Success has been achieved through the innovative involvement of every employee, who makes things happen by being passionate about its business principles. Paula Radloff, Starbucks’ Asia Pacific human resources leader, is pleased to tell the Starbucks success story: an achievement of market-leading dominance through innovative people management. 

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Benefits trends & design: achieving attraction, retention & financial management  

Bruce Rigby

Global Retirement Leader

Mercer, UK

Rosaline Chow Koo

Asia Pacific Health & Benefits Business Leader

Mercer, Singapore

Molly Yeo

Head of Human Resources, ABN AMRO, Singapore

How do you use your benefit plan design to support your human capital objectives to attract and retain your people while managing costs and risks? This plenary session investigates how companies have evolved to link plan design to their people strategy, while controlling cost and risk.

Featuring Mercer’s Global Retirement Leader, Bruce Rigby and Asia Pacific Health and Benefits Leader, Rosaline Chow Koo, this session will combine Mercer’s global experience with best practices from multinational companies in Asia.

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Each workshop will have a limited number of participants. Registrants will be asked to select their workshops upon registration.

Innovate or capitulate - Creating an innovative workplace culture

Dr. Wayne Lotherington

CEO

Allsorts Habit Creation

In recent years we have seen a revitalized interest in creativity and innovation when it comes to HR, but why? A seasoned creativity and innovations trainer and author, Dr. Wayne Lotherington will provide an answer to this question, and introduce you to those tools that will help you assess how innovative your workplace actually is. The workshop will also explore how innovation can be applied to products, services and processes, and how to foster an innovative corporate culture. Dr. Lotherington will close the session by underlining the executive’s role in generating and promoting innovation and how this can be achieved.

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Building your leadership pipeline in Asia

Elisa Hukins

Global Leader Cultural Integration, Mergers & Acquisitions

Mercer

Leo Wee Lin

Regional Director - Human Resources, Asia Pacific

Estee Lauder

This session will cover the process for and importance of having a strategic and systematic approach to developing internal leadership talent. Specifically, this session will cover:

• Trends and challenges facing organizations in Asia with regard to leadership development

• The five essential steps for building a leadership development strategy
  Step 1: Aligning and defining your leadership strategy
  Step 2: Defining your unique leadership success profile
  Step 3: Assessing the current and future pipeline of leadership talent
  Step 4: Building and implementing a systematic development process
  Step 5: Measuring progress along the way

• Estee Lauder's approach to building a leadership pipeline in Asia – Where to begin.

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Retaining your best talent while building a business-ready succession pipeline

Peter Smith

Global Leader, Executive Talent Management

Mercer, Australia

Prue Weitemeyer

People & Capability Leader

Mercer, Australia

Tailoring a unique succession tool solution, Mercer talent management experts Peter Smith and Prue Weitemeyer will explain how to better manage your leadership pipeline, mitigate the risk of gaps in critical job succession, close capability gaps, enhance talent sharing and cross-business transfers, and develop and deploy your global workforce.

The session will also explore how working with the succession tool will enable you to ensure a sustainable competitive advantage.

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Cross-border benefits: case studies and solutions

Ellen Ip

Director

Mercer, Hong Kong

Henry Wong

Managing Director of Mercer Hong Kong, and Health & Benefits Business Leader for Mercer Greater China

Panelists:

Iain Palombo

Head of HR Support Services, Asia Pacific

Morgan Stanley

Keith Busch

Director, Compensation & Benefits, HR Asia Pacific

Walt Disney Company (Asia Pacific) Limited

How do multinationals manage their employee benefits effectively while enhancing employee value? This workshop takes a broader look at managing insurance and retirement benefits, incorporating the latest developments in cross-border plans. It will also feature insights from session panelists Keith Busch, Director, Compensation & Benefits, HR Asia Pacific, Walt Disney Company (Asia Pacific) Limited and Iain Palombo, Vice President, Asia Pacific Compensation & Benefits, Morgan Stanley Asia Limited, who will discuss the challenges they face and the strategies they have adopted in order to better manage their employee benefits in Asia Pacific.

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Does Asia deserve your heaviest hitters? Identifying and attracting best-in-class leaders

Michael Bekins

Managing Director

Korn/Ferry International Hong Kong

Ask any HR director in Asia Pacific what keeps him awake at night, and he or she will say how to attract the best talent. In this workshop, Michael Bekins will explore the real talent landscape in Asia Pacific today, including the growing skills gap, and discuss current hot jobs in the region. Drawing on examples from the best companies in the region, he will demonstrate unique approaches to attracting and retaining the best talent. He will also close the session by looking at how to develop globally minded leaders to run your Asia business.

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Multi-country retirement plan governance: from 'how do you know' to 'what do you do'

Fergal McGuiness

Japan Retirement Leader

Mercer, Japan

Russell Mason

Worldwide Partner

Mercer, Australia

Jacques Delesgues

Treasurer

Asia Pacific IBM

For many companies pension programs represent a significant source of both cost and financial risk. Despite their significance many companies are finding that they lack both the expertise and internal infrastructure to manage their pension programs in a disciplined manner.

In this session, Mercer will explore practical approaches companies can use to run a risk management framework. Drawing on Mercer’s groundbreaking research, we will describe the challenges companies face when implementing an effective governance infrastructure, as well as the benefits that have been realized by doing so.

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Executive coaching that influences business outcomes

Bill Cornwell

CEO

Cascade Consulting, Singapore

Are you looking to add fuel to your leadership engine?

In this workshop, Bill Cornwell will not only show you how to connect talent development costs to ROI but will also introduce you to coaching methodologies that work.

He will also look at internal versus external coaching and current and future trends in coaching.

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Developing your work-life balance (WLB) programs

Syed Ali Abbas

HR Director - Asia Pacific

AT&T

Syed Ali Abbas will provide an overview on work-life balance programs, paying particular attention to the various programs that companies across all industries provide today and best practices from the hi-tech sector. In addition to this, he will share his perspective on implementing work-life balance programs successfully in your company through tools such as workforce segmentation and ROI measurement.

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Addressing the challenges of an aging workforce: lessons from Asia's leading companies

Vanessa Wang

Asia (Ex-Japan) Retirement Business Leader

Mercer, China

Jennifer Chee

Hong Kong Retirement Business Leader

Mercer, Hong Kong

Ka Shi Lau

Chairman

Hong Kong Retirement Schemes Association (HKRSA)

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