7. January 15th, 2010 N0.1, Volume 1
Pudong New Area
Association of Enterprises
with Foreign (Domestic)
Investment
Main Points
Human Assets Standards Association Under the special global economic
environment, HR managers in multina-
(Preparatory) tionals should consider HR models
that fit local business operations,
while HR managers in local companies
have to think about how Chinese HR
management should adapt globaliza-
tion.
Meeting Minutes for Preparatory Session 1 HR needs common standards
throughout industries, in order to
On January 15th, 2010, HR Directors and VPs of China or Asia Pacific region from over 20 world-famous corporations provide benchmark reference for HR
gathered together with authoritative experts from reputable institutions to discuss about the topics such as the con- management in business and help
struction of HR standards and systems, the development of local Human Resource Management, the founding of companies that need improve HR
Human Assets Standards Association (HASA), and etc.. The conference was held by Mr. Kevin S. Cheung, the Direc- management to set up formal HRM
tor General of Executive Committee, Human Resources Commission of PDI. The conference started with a brief systems.
speech from Kevin, who elaborated the development of current society, the situation of HR industry, personal develop-
ment for HR professionals, organizational culture and economic environment. Kevin also suggested the feasibility of HR management demands ways to
establishing HR Industry Standards. The attendees offered their opinions one after another. The following are main evaluate, so as to assess the ROI,
cited speeches from participants. effectiveness and value of HR man-
agement.
Ph. D. Advisor, Professor Wen-Xian Zhang, authoritative expert in Accounting, The management standards should be
HRM and Marketing from Fu Dan University: the common model of HR management
summarized through professional
discussion, which are the indispensa-
ries. The theme today is ited loads of entrepreneurs in ble segments of HR management in
great, the problem always the past decades. Most of any organization. Based on that,
concerns me. I published a them agreed that the value of benchmarks of different industries
book in 2005 regarding that. management contribution and companies can be generated.
I ever arranged a course for should be quantified, then
HR Directors, should we transfer to company’s share.
issue certificates? The Minis- That is the better incentive
try of Education had agreed scheme rather than high pay.
to issue certificates at first, Managers or supervisors then
but they raised a good ques- become owners. The capi-
tion soon: what is the stan- talization of human assets Accounting is facing object,
dard of a HR Director? For should change the concept to but HRM is facing people.
example, Accounting has move the enterprise to a
The theme today is to estab- standards, and even Interna- healthy track. HRM is in the How to quantify the cost and
lish the standards of Human tional Accounting Standards golden period to grow. To value of Human Resource
Assets. I personally more (IAS), which is more and research HRM cross differ-
than happy to be here to more internationalization. ent areas and to investigate
Management?
learn and participate. As we Organizational management on how to quantify the hu-
know, there are lots of theo- has a lot of standards now, man assets is the direction of
ries in Human Resource such as ISO certification for HRM development both in
Management. The foreign quality system and etc. even China and in the world. Cur-
invested enterprises are look- Corporate Social Responsi- rently, I believe it is just
ing for internationalization, bility has standards now. about time to combine the
the opposite side is localiza- Microsoft is NO.1 because theories and practices to-
tion. Therefore more and everyone else needs to fol- gether to form the standards Agenda for This Session
more enterprises are recruit- low their standard. This plat- for HR industry that suit the
ing overseas returnees. HRM form is offering a lot, I actu- enterprises in China. Discussion on international trends of Human
is better to be well planned, ally come here to learn more Resources Management;
however, sometimes the than sharing. Accounting
changes come sooner than studies object, but HRM has Present situation of local HR system & stan-
plans. There are also lots of to investigate people. What dards;
issues in HRM, should we is Human Resource Account-
promote the people inside ing? It is to quantify the cost
Feasibility of local HR standards setup;
the company or recruit from during the process of Human
outside? Could we possibly Resource Management,
ruin the team if we recruit an which will be elaborated
outsider? There are 10 para- more in my new book. How Construction & advice on founding Human
doxes, not only in real-life to calculate the cost and Assets Standards Association & systems.
problems, but also in theo- value of HRM? I have vis-
8. Page 2 Human Assets Standards Association (Preparatory)
Mr. Phil Tu (Yun-Feng Tu), Managing Director from Fujitsu PFU Computer
(Vice Director-General of PDI HR Commission)
HRM is management or Art? I have been working in Japanese compa-
nies for many years, but have some knowledge of Euro-Americas
companies as well. For western companies, management seems more
like science. However, opinions that also regards management as art is
becoming more popular these days. That is also the oriental way of
management. From that perspective, HRM requires more cooperation
than other management due to culture differences. What’s the standard
of management, especially Human Resource Management? Psychol-
ogy and the growing background influence HR management as well.
After the financial tsu- To manage a group of staff with different background and ages is also
nami in 2008, the such a big challenge for HR managers. From the management point of
view, to establish formal standards for HRM is definitely needed.
structure of industries
have being adjusted
in a global range. In Ms. Joanna Meng (Yi-Yan Meng) VP from Carrefour China
this process, the How to quantify HRM? To me HR is basically art, but we need to
room, pace and make it scientific, hence our value could be seen by CEO and CFO.
During the financial war in 2008, how HRM help an enterprise
strategies for many seems more and more significant. We must have the guts and ability.
company’s develop- How to numeralize HRM depends on how we can make HR manage-
ment more scientific. With the Labour Law taking effect, we have to
ment have been ad- think about how to perform our role and lead the company improving
systems and saving costs? If we can combine laws and art, we should
justed as well. What be more and more significant to our company.
HR should do to cope
with the new trends of
global economy? In
terms of strategy re- Mr. Wei-Zheng Zhu, Director General of EDP, EMBA from Business School of Nanjing
University
engineering, HR
management should Speaking of standard, I have a lot to say. I constantly compare the
Universities in China to those in the world. I’m interested in their
be the critical factor. research in MBA or EMBA programs. Because of diversities of posi-
tion and markets of companies, some students indicate some case
studies are meaningless and make professors embarrassed. Compar-
ing with western management styles, Chinese or Japanese manage-
ment is being more and more emphasized. No matter for foreign
capital to invest in China or for China companies to move outside,
science is the basis of management. Do more case studies would be
very helpful for designing HR standards in the future.
Mr. Jeremy Yao (Jian-Bo Yao), VP of HR from Bureau Veritas China
(Vice Director General, PDI-HR Commission)
There are 2 types qualification certification and standards in our
company, one is internationally recognised standards and the other is
the standards customized to meet clients’ requirements. So the task
today, to design the standards and make it workable and recognized
by market, is a huge challenge, though it is really important too.
Now there are many awards designed by HR service vendors, but the
objectivity is a big question mark. Key Performance Indicator is
usually most concerned in the process of HR management. However,
how to add value to HRM itself? The standards should be divided
into two aspects: the operation standards of HR management and the
measurement of the contribution that HRM make to the company.
The standards should be established based on the common process
and characters, but not for a particular company.
9. Page 3 N0.1, Volume 1
Dr. Ai-Dong Liu, HR VP from Bank of China Investment Management
Establishing Standards for standards are eventually created. Differ-
HR industry is very much ent trades and different areas would
meaningful and will require different benchmarks, possibly
surely expedite the pro- could be very specific. We should start
gress of HR management from the very beginning, maybe from
in all industries: 1. HR setting up some frames and principles,
manager need to know the and then have all professionals help to
ROI ratio of staff. When build them up together. There’s a long
we budget for HR man- way before the enterprises and the soci-
agement, the boss also ety would recognize it, but it is more
wants to know the ROI. than necessary to continue. Such com-
How does the ratio like munication opportunities will be very
compared with others in the trade? It should be much beneficial to improving our pro-
great if the ROI could be quantified. 2. Perform- fessionalism. HRM is something of art.
ance evaluation of HR. Other departments are Just take a look at food and beverage
always interested in the efficiency of HR Depart- industry, it can be a type of art while it
ment. If we have such industry standards, we will
be able to prove our efficiency and present to
can also be a type of standard, like fast
food. HRM can absolutely done in that
Society of HR Management
other departments as well as our boss. However, way. The standards can help HRM to in US (SHRM) has
there are tremendous works to do before such assure quality of HR management. From
that angel, to standardize is feasible. started to design the inter-
national HR standards.
Mr. Roberto Siu (Li-Ming Xiao), HR Director from Parker-Hannifin Greater China Along with the guidelines
and policies from overseas
Some standards are established under aw, some are not. HRM is headquarters in multination-
pretty expertise, but the industry is lack of certification for qualifica-
tion. Many unqualified people com to the job. We definitely need to als, are that criteria applica-
find some HRM expertise to set up the standards first; though to ble in China or AP region?
build credibility is a lot harder. We should bring and motivate people For local companies, they
in HR industry together to do that and formalize the process of HR
management. want to expand their busi-
ness to outside of China.
Are the philosophies and
approaches match the inter-
national practices? For
Ms. Priscilla Guan (Li Guan), HR Director Asia Pacific from Hella foreign companies, are they
able to localize the over-
HR management can be categorized into several functions. I propose seas methodologies to fit
we may involve HR professionals to discuss about topics of each
function first. Through those discussions, we may consolidate the local operations? Can we
experiences from different corporations first; then refine the stan- have some benchmarks to
dards and make it systemized. refer to?
Ms. Marlene Ye (Wen-Yu Ye), HR VP from Boehringer-Ingelheim
No matter what we do, we should divide the target into small tasks.
What can we do first? We should make our target clear and reachable.
Some enterprises can not afford to hire big HR service vendors. That
is a real problem that they are confronting. What we do is purely con-
tributing or establishing standards for HR industry? Workforce.com
and “China Staff” have helped me a lot. It is time for experienced
mangers in multinationals to repay to the society. I think one of the
main targets of HASA should be helping the local SMEs to set up
standardized HRM systems.
10. Human Assets Standards Association (Preparatory)
Page 4
Ms. Lily Wu (Jian Wu), HR Director Asia Pacific from Honeywell Specialty Materials
The HR managers that work in world-famous multinationals
should share experience with others. In that way, our role is benefi-
cial to the society. No matter the Association will be commonweal
or commercial, it needs to survive first before we talk about con-
tinuous improvement. How shall we operate HASA? It will be a
loose team or some types of others? We’d better focus on one di-
rection and achieve to something, then we could move on to dis-
cuss about future development.
Mr. Chevy Chang (Xiu-Chuan Zhang), HR Director from Trane Air Conditioning
I am the rater of National Human Resources Administrator Certifi-
cate. There’s almost no applicant from FIEs. Candidates regard the
test more as a stepping-stone. I think it is difficult for us to deter-
mine what standard is at this moment. However, the participants
here today are all happy to share their good practices in their compa-
nies. We should start with helping someone else with some simple
stuff, and build authority and credibility of the association gradually.
There’s no much
tools in practice to
Ms. Lily Li (Wei-Yi Li), HR Director from Hua Teng Software Systems
evaluate the effec-
tiveness of HR man- I understand that it is promising to set up Human Assets Standards,
but really a challenging assignment to do so. I’m also facing the
agement. If we don’t problem that I need to know ROI when formulating budget every
quantify HR, how year. Right now I have to search for data all by myself to support my
point of view. If HR manager has good relationship with line manag-
should CEO assess ers, that data could be accepted. However, if they don’t quite under-
the most valuable stand HR, it could be very difficult to convince them. We surely
need benchmark of the whole industry to support business decisions.
assets- Human? HR
should present the
ROI through stan-
dardization and Mr. Borren Chen (Zheng-Jie Chen), HR Director Greater China from Nalco
quantification.
The main aim of the Association should be helping local enterprises
to improve their ability of HRM, improving the competitiveness of
local enterprises and sharing experiences to the younger generation.
The big picture is good, and we just need to be sure about our target
and aim first.
11. Page 5 N0.1, Volume 1
Ms. Marcelle Yih (Jian-Rou Yih), Senior HR Director from NXP
It is very challenging to set up a target and standards for an Associa-
tion with hundreds of founders. Standardisation must face lots of diffi-
culties, but the processes must benefit a lot. No process is perfect, but
we could modify it during the process.
HASA association
Mr. Frank Huang (Gang-Hua Huang), HR Manager China from Hormel
Vice Director General, PDI-HR Commission) should be an
Science is basis, while arts is the way we operate. No matter Chinese
organization of all HR
management or Japanese or American, they have identical difference professionals. It
from perspective of culture. Finance has international standards. Now
that US demonstrate HR standards should be formulated, that should belongs to every HR
be a significant signal. That is something of strategic direction. Once incumbent. Everyone
the standards are created, there’ll be tremendous market needs. In our
food industry, there even exist animal benefits, which proves that in the organization
management can be quantified and standardized. Only those stan- should have rights to
dards are closely related with business operation, managers would
care, because if they don’t comply to those standards, they will lose speak. Through
the products.
competitiveness or even market entry. There could be nobody to buy continuous research
& discussion,
Ms. Sunny Yang (Guang Yang), Head of HR China from Marks & Spencer
common rules or
process of HR
My suggestion is to determine the objective of HASA first. With that,
we can see who would join and who wouldn’t. It makes sense to have
practices will then be
people sharing common mission work together. If the objective is not extracted. That
clear, it is hard to continue. We should have a core group consisting of
fewer people. Those who are interested in HASA should join and
should be the
make the team more effective. premise of basis of
formulating
standards of HR
management
Mr. Maxwell Yu (Wei Yu), HR VP from Bluescope Steel
There’re a lot of associations like this in Chinese market. As an official
professional organization launched by government, HASA have out-
standing expertise resources, e.g. authoritative experts from famous
institutions and seasoned HR professionals from front-line practice.
So, what should be our particular features? We can’t survive if we
don’t have any specialization. We should consider what we should
specialize in for our organization.
12. Pudong New Area Association of
Enterprises with Foreign (Domestic)
Investment
Participants for preparatory session 1 of Human Assets Standards Association
(Listed in no particular order)
http://www.pdi.org.cn
Prof. Wen-Xian Zhang Mr. Wei-Zheng Zhu Ms. Marlene Ye Mr. Phil Tu Mr. George Zhang Mr. Jeremy Yao Ms. Sunny Yang
Ph.D. Advisor, Expert in Director General EDP HR VP, Boehringer- Managing Director, Fujitsu Executive President HR VP China, Bureau Head of HR China, Marks &
Finance, HR & Marketing, EMBA, Business school, Ingelheim PFU, Vice Director Bo Da College Veritas, Vice Director Spencer
Fu Dan University Nanjing University General of PDI HR General of PDI HR Commis-
Commission sion
Ms. Jenny Zhang Dr. Ai-Dong Liu Mr. Jun-De Yan Mr. Frank Huang Mr. Zhen-Xiong Yan Ms. Lily Li Mr. Han-Ping Li
VP, Citi Software, Vice HR VP, Bank of China Deputy General Manager, HR Manager China, Hormel, Director of Corporate HR Director, Hua Teng Senior Advisor, PDI
Director General of PDI HR Investment Management Juki China Vice Director General of PDI Affairs, Fujitsu China Software Systems
Commission HR Commission
Mr. Kevin Cheung Ms. Yvonne Zhu Ms. Marcelle Yih Mr. Maxwell Yu Ms. Joanna Meng Mr. Sheng-Li Zhang Ms. Wei-Hong Zhang
Director General, PDI-HR HR Director China, B&Q Senior HR Director, NXP HR VP China, Bluescope VP & HR Director China, Vice Secretary General, PDI Director of Corporate
Commission Steel Carrefour Affairs, Nakamura Metal
Ms. Lily Wu Ms. Priscilla Guan Mr. Roberto Siu Mr. Howell Lee Mr. Chevy Chang Mr. Borren Chen
HR Director Asia Pacific, HR Director Asia Pacific, HR Director Greater China, Marketing & PR Director HR Director China, Trane HR Director Greater China,
Honeywell Specialty Hella Parker Hannifin Greater China, C.HOWARD Air Conditioning Nalco
Materials HR Institute & Academy,
Vice Director General of PDI
HR Commission
More is coming...
Concerning of time limit, the conference ended at 16:30. Participants gathered after the meeting, continue discus- Executive Board of HR Commission
sion. This is preparatory session 1 of Human Assets Standards Association (HASA). More than 20 attendees Rm. 1007, No. 135, Dong Fang Rd. China
joined and all appreciate this professional communication platform offered by Human Resource Commission,
PDI. The participants are interested in further discussion on the feasibility of establishing professional standards of
Tel: 86-21-51308587
HR industry with agreement derived from this session. Meanwhile, they also realized the complication and chal-
lenges ahead. It was stipulated that other preparatory or professional sessions will be held with more HR profes-
Fax: 86-21-51308586
sionals, senior corporate executives and academic experts involved after Spring Festival. The subjects will be
Email: PDI-HRC@gmail.com
concentrated on HR professional researches gradually.