Pawan Rochwani: Hello everyone, welcome to this new episode of People Led Show by inFeedo. My name is Pawan Rochwani and in this episode I have the privilege of hosting Sumiya. Who is the CHRO at Hana Bank Indonesia. She is a very senior executive leader who has proven track record of building a culture of continuous improvement through implementing large and complex human capital and operational banking strategies.

Pawan Rochwani: She has been leading the process of transformation from conventional banking to digital banking. She has also built a new and strong corporate culture, which is supported by newer technological innovations and newer challenges that come in the human resource department and how to tackle that through technology.

Pawan Rochwani: We also do touch upon AI as a topic. Of course, no episode is complete without AI and HR as a discussion. I hope you enjoyed this episode. If you like this, please do share it with other. folks who are in the HR space or people that you might think who would love to hear something like this. Here is how the recording went and this was pre recorded.

Pawan Rochwani: So some of the discussions or questions might have been from a different time and context. I hope you enjoy this. 

Pawan Rochwani: Thankyou so much sumiya for taking out the time to do this. I'm really, really thrilled to host you on our show. And I'm so glad that we got to do this today. So thank you so much for being on our podcast. 

Sumia: Thank you Pawan for inviting me. It's special to be here. 

Pawan Rochwani: Super. 

Pawan Rochwani: You know, I start all my conversations with this one question that I asked to all CHROs.

Pawan Rochwani: And it is about what do you do outside of work and what is something that you know, people might not find about you online. So let's, let's start with that before we get into a lot of HR and people analytics and other things. 

Sumia: Yeah, I enjoy spending time with my little dog, Cha Chan. He's very playful.

Sumia: Love to do creative thing to get my attention. I was very surprised on how he's able to understand my emotion. Make me feel most love in the world. 

Pawan Rochwani: Super. I am also a pet parent. So I know how these little ones bring out best creative things to get your attention. Hopefully if, if anytime I'm in Jakarta, we will get to play with him.

Pawan Rochwani: But that's great. And if we, if I have to ask you before we get into all the questions, like What are the top two dilemmas or questions that you face as a CHRO of Ahana Bank? Like, what would be those two top dilemmas for you? 

Sumia: The first is how to balance the challenge of becoming an SLD leader. Who can support in achieving the best strategy while satisfying these employees. 

Sumia: The second one is in line with growing technology in the banking industry. My question is, how can we continuously provide challenging opportunity to our employee while at the same time, we continue to advance our technology? 

Pawan Rochwani: Wow. That's really great actually. And, you know, this is something that. At inFeedo also we try to help a lot of 300 plus CHROs that we like work with. And I'm glad that you, you brought up the point of technology. Because right now a lot of organizations, not only in Indonesia, but across the globe are leveraging technology to, you know make humans the focal point of work.

Pawan Rochwani: And I just want to understand is, is there something that you folks are already you know, using any technology or any tools or anything that we should like know that you're using from the point of view of like work for employees. 

Sumia: First things first, we must remember that the creators of technology are human.

Sumia: It's us who create technology to suit our needs in order to make our life more comfortable and provide a higher level of satisfaction. As long as human needs and desires still exist, technology projects will never stop. 

Sumia: The most important thing is when a technology is created, it's us who create it. We must provide opportunity for continuously learning.

Sumia: Organizations can no longer solely depend on corporate learning departments to analyze learning needs, design curriculum, and develop learning solutions. Is that organization need to instill a growth mindset in the workforce and provide opportunity to learn. 

Sumia: This, when the collaboration project will bring not only engagement, also the faster learning curve opportunity for employees to gain new skills and experience and be able to take a new role or additional responsibility.

Pawan Rochwani: I think very rightly said that this collaboration between technology and employees need to happen for that faster learning and faster adoptions. You know, one more question on, on, on this technology front itself. We still witness a disconnect sometimes among employees which might lead to reasons for burnout or mental health problems in workplace.

Pawan Rochwani: And a lot of this especially has happened in like hybrid work settings. How can leaders like you address this challenge? How can they, you know, really make sure that their employees feel satisfied at work?

Sumia: So our organization implement full work from office policy, because we are banking industry, so we required to do work from home sorry, work from office actually.

Sumia: So to avoid disconnect, burnout, and mental health problem. We create a number of activity to create collaboration and engagement among employees. So this program also joined by the Board of Management. So we have leaders and teams to align with HANA Bank's strategy by, first, foster a positive work environment.

Sumia: To trust, set of belonging and also ownership. Second, we clear, have a clear KPI to establish great expectation. The third one, adding continuous interactive training to fill the knowledge gap and optimize productivity for collaboration and bachelor regular meeting. And the last one, we introduce our leader and employee with collaboration tool so they can work together and collaborate to solve the problem that may lead to unproductive activity through project.

Sumia: The employee will be also become a critical stress point more than ever. For this reason, Human Capital Team initiated various well being programs, and we also partnered with employees itself to give ideas and champion various fun learning and engagement sessions. 

Pawan Rochwani: Wow. And you very rightly said that, you know that continuous listening and regular check ins with the employees are like really, really important.

Pawan Rochwani: And and I'm glad that we are talking about this because. My next question is about work culture and you know, the reasons for any employee at any organization to like stay can, can be multiple. It could be about compensation or any other things, but I think the cultural elements matter the most and you know, that can help us attract and retain top talent. So what are those top two or three cultural elements at Hana Bank that you think help you retain your top talent? 

Sumia: So, Pawan, the top three cultural elements in Hana Bank, they help us attract and retain top talent are What do we think the Hannah? So our Hannah value with the healthy and well balanced work culture.

Sumia: We strive to achieve this through transparent communication about company goal decision and We actively listen to employee feedback and consent to foster trust, engagement, and again sense of belonging. Second is leader empowerment. We empower and encourage leaders to demonstrate empathy, provide guidance and support, and foster a positive work environment that creates a culture where employees feel valued.

Sumia: Motivated and empowered to perform at their best, and the last one, open mind for continuous growth. The organization is committed to investing in employee growth and development through continuous learning. 

Pawan Rochwani: I think that continuous growth from the employee's perspective is also like very, very important.

Pawan Rochwani: So I absolutely love the three points that you mentioned about the cultural elements. You know, talking about re architecting work and workplace for the future. What are like the top three developments that come to your mind when, when we think about re architecting work and the workplace?

Sumia: The top three that come to my mind are cultural first. A future at work where building community for existing employees is as valuable as attracting new talent. Just hiring new talent is never enough. 

Pawan Rochwani: Yeah. 

Sumia: The existing culture is called employee belief. So the work environment is critical component in why employees stay.

Sumia: The second one, also employee well being and against employee experience. Organizations are recognizing the importance of employee well being and the overall employee experience. This involves creating supportive and inclusive work environment that promotes mental health And physical health, work life balance, and personal development.

Sumia: And the last one is data driven. Workforce data and people analytics can help employees make informed decisions, develop strong initiatives, and achieve measurement goals. 

Pawan Rochwani: Got it. Yeah. And I think having that data driven mindset and the culture is also like very, very important. You know, talking about employee experience and employee wellbeing, I do understand.

Pawan Rochwani: And I'm 100 percent with you on this. But as an organization, you also have to sometimes, you know think about employee productivity and output. And a lot of times. This sometimes become conflicting to each other where you are promoting well being, but you're also thinking about employee output, productivity, obviously it's a business.

Pawan Rochwani: So business revenue and so many other things. That come in the way of like employable being, but and, and companies and leaders are increasingly turning to humanization of you know, work in, in your experience, what are some best ways to accomplish this, like, what are some factors that need to be in consideration when we talk about humanization of work, I think I would love to hear your thoughts on this.

Sumia: First, maybe we need to highlight actually the basic need of human being as a God creature are psychological safety, love, belonging, extreme and self actualization. So we all of now is about the Maslow theory. So when we talk about the humanization of work, it's important for us to place this basic need into all elements of the organization.

Sumia: So we are doing a lot of work to ensure sustainable, sustainable and successful harmony between people, productivity, output, company and leaders. So to achieve humanization at work, we ensure the basic element by doing first, transparent performance management. Second one, compensation and benefit structure.

Sumia: So we should update with the current practice, the market price. The third is character and personal growth, recognition and appreciation, corporate culture as a part of our employee DNA. So employee can speak in the same accent, same language. And also we also give the work life balance for the better employee engagement and communication and feedback is a very important for us to improve our productivity.

Pawan Rochwani: Yeah, I think it's continuous feedback is definitely directly related to employee productivity. So feedback is, and that open communication is definitely like very, very important. I'm going to jump to a new topic and I would love to hear your thoughts about diversity, equity, and inclusion. How, how is HANA Bank fostering a culture of diversity?

Pawan Rochwani: And inclusion in the organization and in Indonesia in general. And have, have you implemented any newer strategies for a more equitable workplace? 

Sumia: Yes, of course. So we build our inclusion workforce. We need to create environment that everyone will welcome, will value, respect it, and empower. So, in HANA Bank, first leader must ensure that all employees are given equal opportunity to succeed.

Sumia: So in Hanabe, we inform all of them on strategic and collaboration initiative. Second, we must value the voice of employee. Company must actively listen to the employee opinion, input, and we take action. And the last one, the other important strategy is creating open communication culture and got a sense of belonging and keep everyone informed and connected, if that 

Pawan Rochwani: makes sense.

Pawan Rochwani: And I think that definitely creates a more inclusive work environment. I'm going to ask you to. Two questions about how you kind of run your HR team all together. And the first one is about your HR strategies and the effectiveness of the strategies in terms of talent retention, employee satisfaction and overall company performance.

Pawan Rochwani: So I would love to hear like, what are some of the key metrics or KPIs? That you prioritize as the HR team and also how do they translate into execution? 

Sumia: The effectiveness of our strategy is respect in the achievement of company performance. So our strategy must be in line with the bank wide company strategy.

Sumia: Part of the SR strategy is to implement the supreme performance management where the target of achievement must be well communicated. and become the responsibility of all employees. The achievement of performance management shall impact the performance of the band. So in return, if you can have a good performance, so actually will directly impact to the employee benefit, talent retention, and also employee satisfaction.

Pawan Rochwani: Got it. Another question with respect to strategies and in general as HR function, After COVID, a lot has changed, right? Like in across the world. And even with the way how the HR teams now function. And you also mentioned in the beginning of the podcast that now you are work from office. So how have you built a strong business continuity plan for the people to strengthen services and also mitigate risks after COVID 19?

Pawan Rochwani: I would like, love to hear about that. 

Sumia: So actually COVID 19 is like a dream, yeah, but finally we can wake up again, right? So in HANA Bank, actually, COVID 19 has changed a lot of the work ethic, business process, policy, and procedures in our organization. So we built a strong BCP by Azure, Alternate PIC, and WorkSite as a backup.

Sumia: And the role and responsibility are well known to the all employees. We also ensure that all required infrastructures are in place. And we also have dedicated taskforce team to manage during the emergency situation. 

Pawan Rochwani: Got it. Makes sense. I'm going to come to my last set of a few concluding questions.

Pawan Rochwani: And the first one is about, What is one thing that other organizations should learn from Anabank's people and culture? Like, what is one thing that other organizations can learn from you folks? 

Sumia: I love to share, actually what we we have in Hanabeng that make our organization is better. So, actually, we have culture, our culture is combination of South Korean culture and Indonesian culture.

Sumia: So, by working together, side by side. We were able to build culture based on the best of the board. So from South Korea, the culture are giving innovative output. Result in a speedy manner, or in Korea, call it pali pali. In Asia, we call it chapa chapa. So this was maintained every day. And our expatriate leader are very humble, friendly, and always open to the new ideas.

Sumia: We were able to continue to improve our process, product, and service. Meanwhile, the Indonesian culture of the post legal or tolerance, resulted in agility in our collaboration culture. So, during this time, our organization remained flat.

Sumia: Well, we don't have many employees in the middle management, so we're able to minimize the bureaucracy and communication gap with understanding that all employees are our main asset. We encourage them to work together, contribute to the bank, in achieving our mission, growing together, sharing happiness.

Pawan Rochwani: Makes sense. And I think that removing that middle management does help in overall communication across the org. And I think that's one thing that a lot of other organizations should learn from Hanna Bank. I totally agree on that. My next question is about. You know, what truly defines a great people leader because there has been talked a lot about how a CHRO should be, how, how the HR team should be and so many other things, but what is the, what, what effective leadership is and how does a CHRO or a people leader influence the culture of your workplace?

Pawan Rochwani: That's like very important. How do you define who is a great people leader? 

Sumia: So for achieving thriving organization culture required integrated approach of having the end of mind and providing the team with the support during the process. In our culture, we encourage leaders to be visionary. 

Sumia: What makes it leaders is the ability to motivate the team through humanizing effort, ensure that every member of their team feel valued and appreciated.

Sumia: This will include being empathic, actively listening, and get with the team to understand their challenge and strengthen the team to achieve highest productivity. So we must encourage our employee. We must always beside our employee from the beginning until the end of the process. 

Pawan Rochwani: Got it. And I'm going to come to my last set of question.

Pawan Rochwani: And again, I want to end this on a positive personal note rather than a lot of the things that you've talked about. So if you, if you could go back and give your 20 year old self one piece of advice, what would that be? 

Sumia: So actually, this is a very specific question, Pawan. So when I read your question, I need maybe one day to think actually if I go back and to my 20 years old self, so what effect that I should have it.

Sumia: So I think that don't limit myself here. So actually, as an introvert person, I'm not comfortable to meet. and be surrounded by many people. I find doing things by myself very comforting. So if I go back to my 20 years old self, I must challenge myself to explore the new opportunity, learn new skills, and enjoy to meet many people like today I met you.

Sumia: And also for hero and give a chance for myself to go beyond beyond and give more good impact to the society. So, if I can say today, I'm very grateful with who I am now. Surrounding by lovely family and wonderful friend and colleague. And actually I think that I still have the time to realize my 20 years older when I'm 15 years old.

Pawan Rochwani: Nice. I I love that answer. And I'm sure everybody who's going to listen to this, they'll also have a lot of takeaways and learn from this, that, you know, don't limit yourself. It's absolutely like necessary. And so me, I think this was I, I did not feel like this was your FO first PO podcast.

Pawan Rochwani: I am so glad that we did this conversation and we got to learn so many new things about your work and about Hana Bank's culture as well. And I'm glad we. Keep seeing you more often and on more events, podcasts, LinkedIn lives, and so many other things because you have a lot to share and you have a lot to you know, the world has a lot to learn from the work that you have done.

Pawan Rochwani: So I'm glad that we did this and I had this opportunity. So thank you so much for doing this conversation. I'm really, really happy we did this. 

Sumia: Thank you. Thank you so much.