Thai Beverage, a leading beverage company in Southeast Asia (SEA), and Kuok Singapore, an investment holding firm with diverse operations, reinvented human resources (HR) through empowering employees with the latest innovative technologies. As part of their strategies to implement SAP SuccessFactors in HR, the companies were able to strengthen the resilience of their workforce and future-proof their respective organisations.
The global COVID-19 pandemic has elevated the role of HR in governments, enterprises, and organisations. With the current business landscape continuing to evolve, HR is tasked with ensuring that employees are confident in their ability to adapt to remote working, that all business processes are tightly integrated, and that the organisation complies with new regulations while maintaining business continuity. In this article, we put a spotlight on the role of SAP SuccessFactors in HR transformation and take a look at how two ASEAN companies leverage the solution to keep their operations efficient even in a wave of disruption and uncertainty.
During the SAP SEA HR Connect 2021 Panel Discussion titled “Leading the Change – Reinvent HR Experience,” Dr Agapol Na Songkhla, Chief People Officer at Thai Beverage, revealed that making employees feel safe and secure was critical for business continuity. As one of Asia’s largest non-alcohol and alcohol beverage producers, the company employs 40,000 employees, of which only a quarter can feasibly work from home.
“Besides providing insurance and regular testing, the new requirement for human capital is to be able to do precision management when it comes to the well-being of our employees. Information can no longer be one-way, and we need to better understand employee feedback,” Dr Agapol explained.
Thai Beverage’s partnership with SAP dates back to 2016 when it first announced the adoption of SAP SuccessFactors cloud-based Human Capital Management (HCM) in the company. This has so far enabled executives to monitor and make decisions about human capital through cloud-based solutions including payroll systems, talent management, and HR analytics. With this large-scale project, Thai Beverage implemented the solution not only in its Thai headquarters and subsidiaries but also across its operations globally.
With the ongoing pandemic, Thai Beverage has ensured that employees have virtual access to as much information as possible, including vaccination and COVID-19 test details. Because of its diverse workforce, tasks had to be classified, and assessments of employee safety from various workstations had to be made. Moreover, employees access the information through an SAP SuccessFactors-supported platform which also allows Thai Beverage to communicate with them on a regular basis.
“We are constantly innovating to improve the online experience for our employees,” Dr Agapol emphasised.
Utilising SAP SuccessFactors in HR Transformation
Meanwhile, Kuok Singapore Limited also digitally transformed HR with SAP SuccessFactors to enable growth and deliver business success. With a diverse workforce spread across 17 countries, the company is one of Asia’s most dynamic multinational conglomerates. To manage the changing rules and restrictions imposed by governments in response to the pandemic, Kuok Singapore Chief Human Resources Officer Melissa Kee explained that the company needed to ensure employee safety first then strengthen the resilience of its workforce.
“One big enabler of this disruption was the acceleration and adoption of technology in the workplace. The next opportunity for many organisations is to take advantage of the crisis and accelerate the workforce into the future of work,” Kee said.
By implementing SAP SuccessFactors, Kuok Singapore improved governance and risk management, adopted efficient processes that are standardised across the group, and now has a single source of truth to drive informed decision-making and planning. Furthermore, Kuok Singapore is also actively tracking the vaccination rate of employees globally with the support of SAP SuccessFactors.
Through the platform, the organisation was able to get employees to provide their vaccination status, according to Kee. Just last month, Singapore-based firm Accredify integrated with SAP SuccessFactors for the advancement of employees’ COVID health credentials verification and to pave the way for businesses to manage workplace health.
“That helps us to make sure the workplace is safe for everybody. If employees are not fully vaccinated, they are not allowed to come back to the office,” Kee disclosed.
