By Howard A. Wallack, M.A., MSc, GPHR  
2/3/2010
There’s often a focus on form over substance among HR practitioners in Thailand who aspire to be strategic but who don’t achieve those aspirations fully, said Thomas L. Payne, vice president human resources, HanesBrands ROH Asia Ltd.

HR executives in Thailand say that, like their American counterparts they are struggling to be seen as more of a strategic partner. But often, CEOs in Thailand don’t always see the strategic value of HR in their companies. Strong execution is another problem, he observed.

Four other HR professionals operating in Thailand expressed similar concerns and offer insights about practicing HR in the heart of Southeast Asia.

HanesBrands Inc., the 109-year-old global clothing manufacturer of Hanes, Playtex, Champion, and Wonderbra, has its regional operations headquarters in Bangkok. It serves as the operational hub for a number of countries in the Asian region, with more than 7,000 employees, Payne said.

Given their expansion in Asia, selecting and recruiting the right talent is a major HR challenge for HanesBrands, Payne said. He added that acculturation in the recruiting and onboarding process occurs in two directions. While he acknowledged that being sensitive to local cultures is important to the recruitment process, he said developing corporate culture is equally, if not more, important.

“Personal sensitivity is a global competency,” he observed, advising new corporate expatriates “not to lose your backbone on company culture and values in order to align with what you believe to be local culture. … We are more 80 percent alike than we are 20 percent different, and what doesn’t work at home probably doesn’t work here either.”

HanesBrands uses a cascading approach to communicate its policies and processes and encourages pushback during this process to assure that they are on the right track. “You have to create the right environment to get Thais to be open to challenging presentations and asking questions, especially if it’s to their bosses, but it pays off in improved implementations and communications,” Payne said.

“It falls to HR to be the process facilitator championing new processes with line managers, not doing their work for them,” he said.

‘Bond’ HR with Business
Charoen Pokphand Foods PLC (CPF) is an agro-industrial and food conglomerate headquartered in Bangkok. It exports to more than 50 countries and manufactures in 10.  About 24,000 of its 125,000 global employees work in Thailand, and, according to the company’s web site, its global revenue was estimated at $4.8 billion in 2009.

CPF’s HR structure is centralized with HR know-how, processes and templates flowing from the corporate office to each country’s operations through an international HR unit that assists and serves them, according to Naowarat Bumrungchit, senior vice president of global learning and development at the company.

Her biggest challenge is developing people for the global area, getting HR up to international levels, and managing differences in country culture and corporate culture across operating units.

“Others follow once success is proven,” she said. “Thais give high honor to others different from them, and being an American is an advantage. But engaging people is different in Thailand, and you must live up to your position and knowledge,” she said.

“Performance management is possible when you can leverage integrity, education, knowledge and values” together and effectively, Naowarat said. It’s imperative, she noted, to have HR bond with the business. “You need to be [an] expert about all functional roles, and keeping up with technology is paramount,” along with keeping current on best practices, she said.

Mindful of Millennials

McKinnon & Clarke Thailand is a subsidiary of McKinnon & Clarke, a Scotland-based global utility and energy auditing and environmental services firm. It has 327 employees—81 of whom make up the Thai operation—and annual revenues of $35.6 million, according to the company’s 2009 annual report. Its Thai operation serves as a shared services center for the firm’s presence in 14 countries in Asia, Europe and the U.S.

HR is a new function in Thailand, where the firm has been working for eight years. Previously, managers performed HR functions such as recruiting, hiring, performance evaluation and management, and employee engagement.

While they had considerable flexibility, there was substantial trial and error in the process of streamlining HR functions, according to Suttirak. Since joining the firm, he has worked to standardize policy and compliance and to create systems that will work for HR and for the company more broadly.
 

His newest challenge is managing the expectations of a diverse workforce. In the Bangkok office, 10 to 15 percent of the workforce are not Thais, and a lack of consistency has contributed to a wide range of expectations of job positions and benefits packages.

The demands of the tech-savvy Generations X and Y employees prompted Suttirak to introduce flextime at the Thai operation, allowing for greater work/life balance and leeway in dealing with Bangkok’s infamous traffic congestion.

Employees as Customers

Managing operations knowledge, initiatives, efficiency, HR responsiveness, relationships and networking are the challenges at Chevron Thailand Exploration and Production (CTEP) Ltd. As Thailand’s top oil and gas producer, Chevron operates more than 160 platforms in the Gulf of Thailand with total average production of approximately 100,000 barrels of oil, 40,000 barrels of condensate and 1.5 billion gross cubic feet of natural gas per day. The gas is used to generate approximately one-third of Thailand’s total power demand.

“The HR department needs to see the company’s core team—petroleum engineers and geologists—as its prime customers,” said Nutavoot Pongsiri, Ph.D., the company’s manager of human resources. Nutavoot holds a doctorate in public policy and management.

Meanwhile, HR is working to understand better how it can use best practices to enhance organizational capabilities and position itself as a valued operation, he added.

While there has been a global trend “to move from transactional HR to human capital management, HR is still not recognized in Thailand as a profession as much as others, such as engineering and finance,” he said.

“We have to ask ourselves, ‘How do we enhance the credibility of the discipline in Thailand?’ and more importantly, ‘How can we align our HR strategy with organizational imperatives and stakeholders’ interests?’ ”          

To reach efficiency, the firm is strengthening the use of employee self-services online as well as improving cost efficiency for remaining non-value-added functions. HR is conducting customer satisfaction surveys in an effort to be more focused on delivery of services and processes to customers—its employees. The company is working to improve delivery accuracy, supporting corporate social responsibility and networking nationwide with professionals from a number of industries.

Nutavoot said the cultural challenges are different. Thai culture is tolerant of different behaviors, he added. Dealing with people and issues indirectly through polite discussion is a part of the culture, although it might seem inefficient, he observed.

Two-Pronged Approach

Professor Siriyupa Roongrerngsuke, Ph.D., agrees that in Thailand it seems like CEOs and function managers do not accept or recognize HR fully. Roongrerngsuke, who holds a doctorate in public administration, is executive director and head of the HR graduate studies program at the Sasin Graduate Institute of Business Administration at Chulalongkorn
 

“[The] economic and political situation makes it hard for HR to provide tangible results,” she said. “Conflicts exist between controlling costs and investing in competitiveness and productivity, and as a result of these conflicts, morale is not good.”

Some responsibility falls on HR practitioners, she said, noting many are “fad chasers.” She said they could be more effective if they devoted less energy thinking about budgets and more on high-impact initiatives, such as low-cost training, job rotations and manageable engagement strategies.

Expatriates operating in Thailand would benefit by embracing relationships and “knowing what is important and knowing who is important,” she said.

“There is a Thai uniqueness—as ‘relationship builders’—which is a core HR knowledge and skill not necessarily seen elsewhere,” Siriyupa said. “Remember that relationships come first.”

Howard A. Wallack, M.A., MSc, GPHR, is director, Global Member Programs, for SHRM.