Human Capital Singapore (HCS) made its public debut at the 2nd Singapore Human Capital Summit held on 29 and 30 September 2009 at the Raffles City Convention Centre. Graced by our Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, who is also the Guest-of-Honour, the Summit is a premier Asian conference on managing and developing human capital, organised by the Ministry of Manpower and the Singapore Workforce Development Agency. The event brought together top business leaders and leading HR practitioners to advance people practices in Asia and beyond.

Visitors and participants of the summit were treated to an impressive ‘Knowledge Showcase’ which provided meaningful and valuable insights into best HR practices and burning human capital issues facing organisations today. The core elements of strategic manpower development, Initiate, Actualise and Sustain, were highlighted at the summit.HCS was one of the six corporations invited to share some in-depth knowledge on good HR practices that helped to enhance an organisation’s effectiveness.

On ‘Sustainability’, HCS presented an inspiring case on how organisations could better align HR management to its business needs and goals through a ‘change in mindset’ and looking beyond the HR talent pool for hire. One case in point was Alexandra Hospital where its CEO, who was also its Chief People Officer (CPO), took a bold move to hire a former Operations Head of a pharmaceutical company to head its HR team and manage an HR transformation of the hospital.

The showcase on ‘Initiate’ saw one of Singapore’s oldest banks, Standard Chartered Bank, partnering HCS to develop a customised talent management programme that would gain nationally-recognised Specialist Diplomas under the HR WSQ framework. Leveraging on such partnerships and initiatives, HCS would be able to bring the best of human capital practices into the learning environment and ensure a realistic learning outcome for participants of our training programmes.
 

HCS also presented another of our partners, PCF Kindergarten, which sent more than 360 Principals and Branch Managers for a customised programme on ‘Performance Management’ to boost its people competencies. The programme, jointly developed by HCS and PCF Kindergarten, demonstrated how organisations could tap into existing capabilities and synergise best practices without reinventing the wheel.

In addition to the ‘Knowledge Showcase’, the summit had close to 800 participants at the plenary sessions. The speakers spoke with a wealth of experience and knowledge and the facilitators were able to keep a lively and meaningful discussion. At the end of the two-day summit, participants had only good things to say about the event, with many promising to return for the next.

HCS invited some of our corporate clients, courseware developers, trainers and staff to the Summit. Said Mr Sadeep, one of our courseware developers who arrived early at our invitation: “The event was professionally done and well-organised. I am glad that HCS participated and that something is being done to recognise the HR profession.” 

Our guests were treated to an afternoon tea with our CEO, Mdm Ho Geok Choo, our Senior Manager, Celeste Seah, and our Account Servicing Manager, Amelia Ho. Much was discussed and shared at tea with affirmations that there would be future opportunities for greater partnerships.