We had waited so long to announce this but we’re thrilled to be finally publishing our interview with our guest, Jacely Voon. Jacely is the Chief People Officer, People, Culture, and CSR at FUJIFILM Business Innovation Singapore with more than 20 years of experience behind her.
With the woo-wow-win framework; the EVER BETTER motto; the unheard-of tech resources, Jacely is a pioneer of people and business success at Fujifilm, and in her industry. Here are tidbits from our interview with this truly global and awe-inspiring people leader and mentor.
Jacely: I like to start my day in peaceful silence with my usual meditation routine, followed by a cup of warm honey. It works like a restart button to reboot my brain and even regulates my blood to fuel the energy I need for the day.
To sustain my hectic back-to-back meetings, I have a bottle of freshly-squeezed ash gourd juice. It helps keep my mind sharp, brings an enormous amount of energy, and helps me stay calm and healthy.
A day in my work life is all about meetings and talking to people. If I have some time free from meetings, I usually catch up on my emails and articles, to get more insight, and learn about new things. I make it a point to keep myself abreast of the latest market trends and changes. Besides trying to learn something new every day, I make an effort to share my knowledge and experience with my people in the organization. There’s nothing greater than sowing a seed of knowledge while watching people grow in both their personal and professional life.
Jacely: The pandemic has had a tremendous effect on the workplace culture and made us rethink how to connect with the people that matter the most to us. The sense of camaraderie and belonging seemed to gradually fade, with reduced physical face time and water cooler chats. Post-pandemic, our focus should be to create a more meaningful and lasting emotional connection between people and corporate entities. At Fujifilm, our aim has always been to follow open, fair, and clear practices. In the future too, we plan to evolve our employee experience by upholding our values of Trust, Respect, Team, and Pride, with a greater emphasis on diversity and inclusion.
At Fujifilm Business Innovation Singapore, our efforts to accelerate digital transformation have resulted in an upgraded Learning Management System that enables social and personalized learning; and collaboration for knowledge sharing. We’re also stepping up our recruitment tools to improve the managerial experience. What’s more? We’re introducing HR Helpdesk intending to improve employee engagement and deliver a lasting positive employee experience.
It’s all about having a responsive listening strategy that addresses the key struggles of employees. Come 2022, and we will be heavily investing in making “People insight” as part of our communication strategy - one that integrates Culture transformation with Employee Experience. We’re one step ahead in our mission to create the perfect employee experience.
Jacely: Thanks to evolving technology, the business model for many companies has taken a significant leap. As technology continues to advance, so will the needs of people. Repositioning the role of technology has become a major part of the Go-To-Market strategy for true business transformation.
New technologies trends like mobile-first consumer experience, machine learning, and artificial intelligence have become critical in decision-making for businesses. These advancements have really reshaped the competitive landscape and disrupted the way we manage business and people. CIOs bring the system expertise and CHROs bridges the people's perspective - right from behavioral and talent insights to core competencies.
The CIO-CHRO is not just about successful tech integrations in the present, but also about creating a futuristic environment for employees and employers. By investing in the right tech resources for building people’s skills, we can create a shared vision of achieving the desired business outcome. I’m certain that this partnership will deliver excellent customer experiences as well as great employee experiences.
Jacely: My passion is aligned with my corporate mission to grow and develop my people. At Fujifilm Business Innovation Singapore, the People Culture & Corporate Social Responsibility (PCC) has developed a Strategy Map focusing on four key strategic levers: Leadership, Talent, Employee, and Sales. This map is the foundation that shapes our culture and behaviour in a high-performance organization like ours
We advocate an Inward Game strategy composed of Trust, Respect, Team, and Pride to achieve high-performing culture. With the 4Es principle, we leverage a leaders’ crucial role in engaging, enabling, empowering, and energising our people to drive success.
To make this initiative a reality, the commitment of the executive leadership team is essential. With our Never Stop to be EVER BETTER motto, we reinforce the inward game and culture through coaching. Our leaders lead by example, demonstrate a commitment to listen, take action, develop and nurture our people.
The key success strategy is to embed the inward game within an active employee engagement strategy. Remember to over-communicate and manage oversight if you’re aiming for a culture of thriving.
Jacely: Woo-Wow-Win is modelled after our Customer Experience framework. It is the guiding principle that helps us transform a basic experience into a magical one. To be Ever Better at people engagement, we inspect every element of the employee life-cycle to understand what would make them thrive with our diverse value propositions.
In short, we 'Woo' talent to our organization with a positive 'Wow' experience and 'Win' their heart with a sense of belonging with Fujifilm.
Jacely: Honestly, we were honoured to be recognised at the first-ever Employee Experience Award 2021. But I have to say that it’s not the only feather in our hat. We struck Gold for Best Leadership Development and Silver for HR Communication Strategy. We also recently got recognised for Best Analytics and Employee Listening. As thrilled as we are, I believe it is not only the award that matters. The testament and recognition from industry leaders and judges help our strategy become a market leader. This award also strengthens our position in the industry; and is a great way to recognise my team for the hard work that we have put in in 2020, and even before that.
The recognition has unquestionably been a great source of motivation for my team. We now continue seeking Ever Better ways to improve our people engagement while a progressive People and Culture team.
Jacely: When in doubt, connect the dots with hindsight, insight, foresight, and oversight!
Stay ahead of the curve by connecting internal and external learnings with the power of hindsight; understand current business and employee landscape. Draw insights and support through external factors to capitalize on the opportunities; Sharpen foresight to stay ahead of trends; Create values that build a stronger future and propel ideas to move your organization forward.
Remember, oversight is about management. It is of utmost significance to mindfully care for your people through responsible stewardship and prudent decision-making. This is how you can leverage the best potential of people and even preserve the values of the organization.