Poules Shares Thoughts on HR Challenges in Asia-Pacific

Graeme Poules is the Associate Director of Award Governance at Macquarie Group. But, like most people, he arrived at this job via a winding road that offered memorable experiences, skills building, and challenges. As one of the newest members of the HR Exchange Network APAC Advisory Board, Poules shared the rundown on his career, insight into HR trends in the region, and the mood about regulatory change. Read on to learn more: 

HREN: So, how did you end up in this career and this role?

GP: I started out in Canada, and and did a bunch of student leadership positions in university, specifically in the residence system. I started as a general student at large and joined a bunch of committees and really quite enjoyed that. Then, I became a floor coordinator, then a vice president, and then the president of the association. I learned a lot about management and leadership, and how to motivate people through those positions. Then, at university, I got what I thought was a real job, hated it, and immediately went back into the university system as an HR manager. So, I spent a couple of years there, met my future wife, and we moved to Australia, where we’ve been for 21 years now.

I started off in a bank doing shared services work and getting them ready to outsource a bunch of different positions. I had an HR services manager role with Accenture. Then, I decided I wanted to move from Accenture. I picked up and went to Cadbury, where I was an HR services manager for the whole of ANZ, and I spent 18 months there before it was purchased by Kraft. We outsourced payroll, which was part of a global outsourcing project. We separated from Schweppes, so I was part of that committee, which rounded me out.

From Cadbury, I went to PwC because when Kraft bought Cadbury, I knew my role was going to be removed, so I took the chance to jump to PwC, where I stayed for 18 months. During my time there, I worked on a couple of big projects. I was in the part of PwC that was disbanded because it wasn’t profitable. And I went to AustralianSuper. I had three marvelous years at AustralianSuper, and then I took a chance on a university, which ended up being really bad. I did about a year there implementing success factors or a reward system strategy. That's when I decided that I was most interested in reward systems. Then, a role came up at Latitude as the head of reward systems. So, I moved to that, and it was awesome.

After a couple of years there, I met with Bupa, just as a side conversation about its Workday implementation because it had had some problems with advanced comp modules. We talked for an hour and a half. Then, a month later, Bupa called and said it hadn't had a reward lead and was interested. And I said, 'Yes!' It was a neat organization. I ended up spending five years there - 18 months as head of reward, and then three and a half years as people director of employee experience, where I was getting broad shared services experience. There was an emphasis on reward systems, technology, learning, payroll. It was kind of all lumped in. But I got to a point where I was keen to get back into pure rewards, which is why I moved into this current role as associate director of award governance.  

HREN: What are some of the trends now that you're seeing in employee experience and rewards?

GP: We are very much focused on hybrid [work], very much focused on enticing people back to the office - or not. Some organizations are mandating people return. Some organizations are saying that you need to come in a couple of days per week to collaborate or when you have client meeting. I know the big four consultancies are very heavy on having people come to the office to engage, strategize, and plan to meet with clients. The rest of the time you can do your work from wherever. They've been better at work from anywhere for a long time because they already traveled a lot. They were working from hotels, lobbies, a taxi cab, wherever. They're working from holiday homes because they can. A lot of it has been digital anyway. I think it's, it's becoming even more to the fore now in those places.

There's a lot of regulatory change. Many organizations, especially in financial services, are trying to come to grips with CPS 511, which is a regulation that's much more prescriptive about how and what you can offer and when you can offer it. A number of the sessions I've been to over the last 18 months have people put on a panel or forum to talk about how do you recruit a candidate in that type of environment. There are many roles and nobody to fill them. We keep hearing it's a candidate’s market, but I am still not convinced myself.

I have seen some good friends of mine who are highly talented and capable, and they are not able to command the process or get the kind of role they are seeking. So, I think it's the opposite. I think it's still actually a fairly small candidate pool, so they are picked out at the post regularly. I just don't think people can say, ‘I want this or that.’ They don't get it. So it's really weird, and there's lots of turnovers. There's lots of flux.

HREN: What do employees in Asia-Pacific want from employers?

GP: They're looking to join your organization as smoothly and seamlessly as possible with the best possible EVP (employer value proposition) including hybrid [work] and well-being and diversity as priorities. If you're not shining a light on that, you won't be getting the best talent. That's kind of the nuts and bolts. If you can't have a great EVP displayed on your website that leads talent into a really beautiful recruitment process, followed by an onboarding that has you in touch with the manager at an organization that has its eyes on a DEI and ESG, then you're not going to get the better candidates. They will go where they get all that. And hybrid [work] is massive. People don't want to be told that they have to be in the office five days a week. It's different in frontline roles, obviously, because they're the frontline. So, they have no choice, but they haven't had the same shift in work patterns that the rest of us had during COVID.

HREN: What do you think we'll be talking about a year from now, when we get on another call about APAC’s HR trends? What do you think the next big thing is for Human Resources professionals than Asia Pacific?

GP: Look, there's a lot of talk about the four-day workweek. I haven't seen that flair to life as much as I thought it would. I think the people are kind of considering if they only have to work in the office a couple of days a week, then they can work the five days.

HREN: What is your biggest challenge in your role?

GP: Managing the desires of the business and making sure that you can still be forward-thinking in your activities, while keeping an eye on the regulatory environment. When you make offers to people, [you must] keep a focus on the reward governance side of things. What are we doing from a policy perspective, from an incentive perspective that is new enough and cool enough and fresh enough to attract talent but still meets the requirements of the legislation and the regulations? I think that's probably what I would say is the biggest challenge for me at the moment.