bangkokpost

A hands-on approach to HR

It’s about more than payrolls and parties

• Published: 31/03/2010 at 12:00 AM
• Newspaper section: Database

A Thai software company is leading the way in providing software and services to automate much of the work of HR managers, be it simple payroll processing or recruitment, or psychometric evaluation, in order to help develop the HR function in companies to make the role more professional and strategic.

Chris McAleer, MD of Peopleserve, says Thai HR staff need to become more than just glorified administrators sitting in the boardroom.

Chris McAleer, Managing Director of Peopleserve (Asia), explained how his company is a Thai firm with him being the only expat working there. All development is carried out by his 30-strong team of developers in Bangkok and the shareholding is 60 percent Thai. Later this year the company will add an office in Tokyo to its other operation in the Philippines.

“Every successful business owner is in many ways sitting on a time bomb,” he said.

“They have a very well thought-out sales, product and marketing strategy, and financial strategy, but quite often they do not have a well thought-through people strategy or an idea of how they are going to respond to the changes in the local market,” he said.

Peopleserve offers a payroll service for many multinational clients based in Thailand. The payroll is compiled, sent to the client for approval and any last-minute changes are applied. Then finding is requested and Peopleserve does everything from actually crediting the employees’ bank accounts to settling any withholding tax with the Revenue Department, social security and submitting the associated paperwork.

Away from services, Peopleserve also offers performance management, recruitment, leave management, time attendance and pretty much everything else needed by HR.

McAleer used to work as the regional head of a multinational and has previously been involved with four PeopleSoft installations – a company that he now competes against. So why do his clients, such as the world’s largest software company and a certain Bavarian car maker, choose him over the big red giant?

“Customisation is very important,” he said.

“When they go to a big provider, they find it rather inflexible. This is our system, we know it well, we put it in place and implement it. Customisation is very expensive [with the competition]; with us, there is much greater flexibility.”

Another reason for bureau-type payroll processing is confidentiality. By outsourcing it, the number of people with access is reduced and if there is a leak it is much easier to pinpoint the source.

McAleer says he takes privacy very seriously and is often bemused when people call him up asking to peek into the database when they want information of someone else in their company.

McAleer has been an HR director with many big companies and reflected on his experiences since coming to Asia. Thailand, like a number of Asian countries, needs to develop its HR function. Most of the time the most senior HR manager still cannot sit in the boardroom as they are glorified administrators rather than true strategists, yet in the West, many successful CEOs have spent time as HR to help them develop the interpersonal skill sets needed.

Today his work helps clients to streamline HR operations, freeing up HR professionals for the strategic and value-adding tasks and helps grow the HR function in the organisation so more and more HR managers are of the best calibre.

“If Thailand is to progress, it needs a better trained workforce generally and the HR people in big companies should be playing a key role in making it happen,” he said.

One of Peopleserve’s most interesting modules is psychometric analysis, much like a corporate psychologist.

There is a call for the HR department to become much more forward-looking and strategy-oriented rather than just back office administration. HR is not just about salaries, administration and organising the annual office party, but it is about helping the company attract, maintain, motivate and use HR to drive the bottom line of the company.

Research indicates that people are hired for their technical skills but 99 percent of the time they leave because of behavioural mismatches. People join companies but they leave managers. The psychometric testing, along with Peopleserve’s executive coaching, helps to identify those who will stay and prosper and those who will leave after a couple of months.

The cost of hiring and training the wrong employee is often up to six times the actual pay, hence the incentive to hire the right person. There is no way to fail a personality test but it is a matter of measuring traits such as emotional intelligence, ease of getting discouraged, independence and need for structure.

In the case of one Thai customer, a major retailer with very high turnover, McAleer put in the psychometric module and told his client to reduce its 50-strong HR team to just five. This was allowed them to focus on higher, strategic HR rather than just clamouring to keep up with the churn.

Despite the recession, Peopleserve expects to hit its target of doubling business by the middle of this year. Its managed services have proven very popular, with businesses looking to streamline their HR and increase efficiency and reduce costs.

Peopleserve has just entered into a partnership with accountancy firm RSM which is “not quite in the PWC league”, in which Peopleserve’s various software and services will be offered to RSM’s customers.

About the author
Writer: Don Sambandaraksa
Position: Database Reporter