As retirement age gets pushed back and the number of workforce entrants increasing rapidly across the Asia-Pacific region, it is common for the contemporary workplace to be made up of employees that span three generations. The workplace now is a mixture of the baby boomers, the Gen-Xers and Gen-Yers/millennials – the latter category is expected to make up 50 per cent of the workforce in Hong Kong by 2020. Therefore, a fresh graduate joining in their twenties could be reporting to a middle manager in their mid-thirties, who, in turn, reports to a veteran with a more traditional and conservative mindset. This reinforces a common tradition of correlating advanced age to more senior tenure within a company. There can occasionally be friction between the generations; a PriceWaterhouseCooper study from 2011reported that 38 per cent of millennials believed older senior management did not relate to their generation and 34 per cent even said their personal drive was intimidating to older colleagues.
Increasingly though, companies are flattening these reporting lines and the successful ones have benefited from an increased exchange of knowledge across multi-generational lines which leads to a more inclusive, empowering culture. At AIA Hong Kong & Macau, the employee value proposition is “Challenge, Empowerment, Growth”. Hence, they are committed to finding all ways to sustain an already empowering culture where employees can thrive and achieve their maximum potential while being treated with care and respect. They are breaking down hierarchical silos to drive a flat workplace predicated on collaboration and mutual advancement.
This, however, puts the impetus on human resources professionals, working in partnership with the business, to develop a diverse workforce beyond just the composition of race, gender, qualifications and experience. From a recruitment perspective, it is essential to spot young talents who might lack practical on-the-job knowledge, yet have the leadership attributes crucial to become leaders and provoke positive change in the long term. In a competitive global and local market where the war for young talents is rampant, this is no easy task.
One company setting the high bar is AIA Hong Kong & Macau. The firm is known for continually finding new ways to attract and grow young talents and develop them for the long term. It has recently rolled out several new programmes targeted at the Gen-Y and millennial segments in the hope of attracting them to join a leading-edge successful company. AIA Hong Kong & Macau’s brand promise is to be “The Real Life Company” that makes a positive difference by helping people live “longer, healthier, and better lives”. This brand promise includes a commitment to encourage people to live a healthy lifestyle both physically and mentally, growing their careers, providing rich learning while allowing them to freely contribute their ideas and empower them to make decisions. Given many Gen-Y talents seek meaning and purpose in their work, the brand promise is a unique, inspirational offering to our Gen-Y talents.
“With our Gen-Y and millennials segment comprising 40 per cent of our current workforce, we need to play our part to help develop the future capabilities of these talented individuals,” says Wei Wei Watson, Chief Human Resources Officer, Human Resources at AIA Hong Kong & Macau. “They deliver fresh ideas, innovative thinking and help broaden the number of perspectives that allow us to play a leadership role in driving economic and social development in the communities we serve.”
A notable development programme, The Gen-Y Taskforce, will see a group of 11 Gen-Y talents proactively driving innovative solutions to address current business and people priorities. They will form a team and brainstorm possible focus areas, and then partner with senior management team members to sharpen and focus on a business area. The taskforce will then work towards identifying shortcomings and addressing them, before reporting back with an implementation plan to the CEO and the Executive Committee.
AIA Hong Kong & Macau recognises that it operates in a fast-changing insurance sector, and a large part of maintaining success depends on how readily and quickly the company can embrace new ideas, such as digitalising its support to clients through the claim management process. The idea is to allow these young employees to gain exposure and show their potential, provide a safe space for them to develop their leadership capabilities and to increase their cross-functional knowledge.
“The Gen-Y and Millennial talents, we feel, can help us prototype new ideas and solve problems,” Watson, who is part of the Executive Committee, says.
The company is convinced there are countless key benefits to hiring future talents – for example, using their natural ability to operate in a digital and technologically inclined environment. In a connected society where mobile apps and devices are ever ubiquitous tools for work and communication, this younger generation is a valuable source of talent to be harnessed.
“We need to evolve along with current societal trends, and Gen-Y is the segment that can unlock new ways of creating value for our current clients”, Watson adds.
Its focus on engaging a multi-generational workforce has allowed the company to capitalise on its diverse demographic to exchange ideas, and promote innovation. And it also ensures a healthy pipeline of leaders.
“It is essential to develop leaders of the future to ensure that our people capabilities and succession planning are accounted for,” explains Annie Lee, Director of Resourcing, Leadership Development, Culture and Engagement, Human Resources. “We recognise the immense ROI here and the necessity to innovate and bring in new perspectives.”
As such, the company has rolled out numerous development programmes to groom future talents. These include the aforementioned Gen-Y taskforce, internship programmes, structured mentoring programmes, disruptive leadership training, asking Gen-Y employees to take up visible, cross-functional projects, as well as its Future Leaders programmes. In addition, there are various employee resource groups that Gen-Ys have taken key roles in to drive organisation-wide engagement events and participate in key campaigns such as AIA Vitality, a comprehensive wellness program. These represent great ways for them to demonstrate their leadership potential. What is unique is they are involved in the strategic decision-making of these initiatives by sitting in on all the steering committee meetings with senior leaders and are expected to present updates to the leadership team. It is more than just a supporting role. They have the capability to shape the way we are driving our business.
Contributing to our purpose of playing a leadership role in driving economic and social development in the communities we serve by developing the next generation, AIA Hong Kong & Macau is looking for new talents in the workforce to drive innovation and relish the opportunity to drive results to lead AIA through environmental changes, and who can adapt quickly to feedback while seeking a better outcome.
“We are building future talents for the organisation, strengthening our people capability depth and talent pipelines,” Lee says. “Any individual who is starting out, and has a deep desire to grow their careers, who feels they have the leadership seed in them, and who has proven demonstration of leadership success in their past endeavours, should apply. At AIA, we live by our value proposition, which is ‘Challenge, Empowerment and Growth’, so this is definitely an opportunity where you can set a mark in your career within the insurance industry and with the world’s preeminent life insurance provider.”
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