of global HRD trends, good governance and ASEAN Community 2015...

I was in Surabaya, Indonesia last month (23/24 october) on the invitation of the East Java Training & Development  Board (Badan DIKLAT JATIM). They asked me to speak for about two and a half to three hours to 200 participants who are senior government officials from all over indonesia (from Aceh right down to Papua). The last time I was invited to speak to a similar audience was on January 16, 2006. It was a whole day affair at what was then Surabaya Hilton. PIM II Angkatan X or Eselon II. This second invite is for Eselon II & III. They are attending a month-long training program  at Diklat Jatim (much like our Institut Tadbiran Awam Negara or INTAN) preparing them for higher leadership roles in government departments back at their provinces. 

First, I was to give them an overview of latest global trends in HRM/HRD, what other countries around the region are doing and how are these trends assisting the governance process in Indonesia. Then I was also asked to touch on the impending ASEAN Community initiative (much like the European Community, EU) that has been scheduled to take off in 2015 and to what extent will the bureaucratic process enhances or impedes Indonesia's competitiveness when the ASEAN community really becomes like EU.

Oh c'mon, you guys really want me to talk about all these? hehehe. Just google them up ok? Plenty of material available online hehe. Anyway, seyesly (the language of the millennial generation hik3x) to mean, seriously, haha..some are of the view that as business forge ahead looking for newer growth avenues in a sluggish economy, leaders are increasingly banking on talent to achieve this growth so it seems (which personally my reaction would be..ya right! I have been quite vocal and cynical about these talent management buzzword  bla3x...bandied around by HR consultants and practitioners alike hehehe much to the disgust of some of my frens in the HR fraternity..erkk). While business demands, margin pressures, declining budgets, HR Technology, social media, data and analytics are all reshaping the contours of HRM/HRD, what is noteworthy as some are propagating, is the visible rise in HR's focus on these aspects and traditional ways of doing things are being re-examined as HR leaders look at more effective ways of managing and aligning talent with the new business objectives. 

And I quoted from my google search the top 5 HRM/HRD trends namely: Rise of HR Business Partners (nothing new bah..Ulrich has been saying that for  over a decade now..hehehe); One World, One HR (macam 1Malaysia jek? hehe); Enhanced Employee Engagement (which reminds me of Tarita Lubis's presentation/paper at 2008 ARTDO Conference in Bali, when she was with DDI Indonesia); HR and Technology (this I have always accused the IT guys of a clever scheme of making HRM/HRD seem strategic when all they care about is the sale of their software and hardware that only huge multinationals or government-owned companies could afford...oops sorry guys..heheh); and finally, HR Data and Analytics (now this is serious, I repeat, serious serious business because whether you like it or not, the next five years is the era of data scientists..there will be a great demand for these species. Just look at the amount of data we are producing. You tell me. Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Google and everything else).

Then I moved on to Governance or Kepemerintahan (in Bahasa Indonesia). The difference between governance in the public sector and the private sector and I shared the paper  I presented also at the ARTDO International Conference in Bali in 2008. It was entitled 'HRM and Corporate Governance: Strange Bedfellows?' 

Finally I moved to the ASEAN Community 2015 and shared a very recent research (Guido Benny & Kamarulnizam Abdullah) that was published in the Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs 1/2011:39-67 which summarily suggests that the major criticism of the ASEAN Community (AC) idea is its elitist approach and that it lacks the most crucial components that have brought about the success of other similar regional organizations such as the European Community (EU). The study also found that despite Indonesian respondents' relative lack of knowledge of the AC, they are indeed supportive of the idea under its three core pillars: Security, Economic and Socio-cultural Community.

Phew, that was quite a mouthful isn't it? I then had to take on questions from the 200 participants. Thanks to the moderateur Bpk Dr Ir H Djony Harijanto, it was restricted to 15 oh my God (OMG), toughest questions on earth...hahaha. Oh ya, my slides (very few indeed, were in English) but the 3 hours I delivered in Bahasa Indonesia ok? wink2 dot3x