What Stood out to Me on My Global Travels in Q1

Now Q1 is very much over and we are already heavily into Q2. It’s made me realise how much we have already achieved this year but also how much there is still left to do!

In the first 4 months of the year I have visited our offices in New York, London, Hong Kong and Singapore, where I have been able to attend an Elliott Scott HR event in each location. Our events provide me with a great opportunity to meet key members of the Elliott Scott HR community and get a true sense of what is going on globally in the HR world. Here are some of the key trends that I have seen over the last few months: 1. Diversity & Inclusion is still THE hot topic, but it’s not all the same… D&I remains a topic that HR leaders seem to be hearing and worrying more and more about.

However, the focus differs around the world. In New York and London the gender pay gap has been hitting the headlines. With International Women’s Day falling in Q1 it always means this has a bit of spotlight but right now people and leaders seem to be more wary of this than any other D&I issue. If I compare this with Asia, the D&I agenda’s there have a small focus on gender but still appear to be more focused towards ethnicity, ensuring that local nationals are looked after and receive more backing/support from MNC’s that adopt Singapore and Hong Kong as their regional homes. This is where it gets interesting, in the West ethnicity is regarded as irrelevant to the point that if it is highlighted then it’s regarded as a right wing extremist view. Yet in Asia it remains a key focus on the D&I agenda. Will this ever change? I really don’t know, it might, but it will take years and will need to be driven by the very governments that lead their respective countries. 2. Facts and Data are so powerful.

At our events there is a lot of discussion, views and opinions. We like this, the interaction it brings is hugely powerful but what can supersede this is the ability for a speaker to quote facts, figures and research which HR professionals in the room can learn and utilise in their daily work. Increasingly people are getting busier and they are striving for information that they can use but probably don’t have the time to read. In this case data and research seems to paint a wonderful picture. 3. Wellness, the topic we hear but do little about. I have to say that at the start of the year I really felt that Wellness would become a key focus of most organisations in 2019 and with Diageo’s announcement in regards to their paternity policy I think some of this is coming through. But from my recent discussions I’d say that globally, it’s something people talk more about than act on. From the various conversations I have had on wellness it appears that not enough people seem to know what it is, what it actually means and who internally is doing something about it? While in D&I everyone accepts they need to do something, Wellness hasn’t developed in this way and it’s regarded as something we could do rather than something we must do. I really hope this changes, for me, mental health is a company’s biggest health issue and I really do hope that 2020 sees governments and companies really start to take this seriously. These are just 3 of the most prevalent topics that I have heard about on my travels, amongst others, and I’ll continue to monitor this over the course of Q2 and Q3.

If you have any thoughts on the above please get in touch with me at se@elliottscotthr.com and I look forward to seeing you all on one of my next visits.