We were blessed to have the opportunity to participate in our 2nd HRDF SME Engagement event, this time held at Putra World Trade Centre (PWTC), Kuala Lumpur on the August 20th, 2019.
Access Ideas Malaysia had earlier took part as an exhibitor at the HRDF Seminar PKS, organised by the Pantai Timur branch on July 16th, 2019.
Definitely the atmosphere was a level up this time around with HQ being the backbone of the event. The excitement rubbed on to Team AIM was we were amongst the earliest to the venue to set up for event which had “Pushing Beyond Boundaries” as the sub theme.
The seminar kicked off at 9am sharp with Puan Wan Yon Shahima Wan Othman, PSMB Chief Customer Officer launching the prestigious event. Always vibrant and high in energy Puan Wan Yon gave a glimpse of what changes are expected to come as PSMB moves towards providing better opportunity for engagement between training providers HRDF contributing employers. Amongst other things mentioned was the soon-to-be implemented new Trainer Development Framework – which we have shared on our previous blog post; the HRDF LATIH – a market place that will increase trainer’s visibility and employer’s accessibility to high quality training programmes; and the revision of unutilised levy mechanism period from 5 years to 2 year – which will encourage employers to have the urgency to send their employees for training.
This was further elaborated by PSMB Head of Customer Engagement, Puan Hjh. Morni Bujang in her slot “Introduction to the Human Resource Development Fund”. Puan Hjh. Morni also gave a snapshot of all the available training aid schemes that PSMB has to offer while giving the audience context on why such schemes were made available and how important if is for SMEs to take advantage of such schemes.
Team AIM managed to slip in a question during the Q&A session in regards to the perspective of technical skills are being prioritised over soft skills. Puan Hjh. Morni however ensured us that PSMB’s intervention in the technical area was more of a strategic decision based on data which has shown that the lack of fund utilisation on technical training programmes where an indicator that the area needed more assistant due to the challenge of acquiring quality and need-specific technical training programmes compared to soft skills training.
Next speaker was Mr. Heera Singh presenting, “The Critical Importance of Effective HR Documentation in SMEs in Malaysia”.
Mr. Heera shared with the audience that HR documentation is a necessary preventive step to “insure” you and your company from unnecessary legal complications that may occur in the future. Although undoubtable that doing all these documentation work is “leceh”, we need to document HR related matters regardless of the size of our company as the law does not discriminate company size.
As an SME ourselves, team AIM sought clarification on whether WhatsApp group communication, a popular platform for communication amongst working team nowadays, is considered a valid documentation?
Mr. Heera explains that like how e-mail now has been widely accepted, WhatsApp screenshots too can be considered for documentation purpose.
The third speaker to grace the seminar stage was The Lorry.com Executive Director, Mr. Nadhir Ashafiq. The young entrepreneur who made the “Forbes Asia 30 under 30 2017” shared some insights on “Leading Highly Productive Team” through his journey of growing his company into a regional set up.
What team AIM gathered from Mr. Nadhir is that he is a strong believer in McKinsey’s 7S Framework and he made sure his company runs according to what he believes would make a difference. Amongst other things, Mr. Nadhir spoke highly about the importance of culture and hiring the right fit – namely “Job Fit” and “Culture Fit”. We were inspired by his session and aspire to take Access Ideas Malaysia to the next level like how he did with The Lorry.com.
Lunch was quite hectic for us with many visitors coming to our booth asking about our Train The Trainer programme. It was our small contribution to help PSMB to achieve their vision of ensuring that every Malaysian employee is trained. We can achieve this by developing more quality PSMB Certified Trainers and make training accessible.
After lunch, Mr. Micheal Teoh took the stage for his session on “Inspire Human Possibilities with Industry 4.0”. Although not giving much technical input on the effects of IR4.0 itself, he did mention that he is not the subject matter expert on Industry 4.0, Mr. Micheal did gave some interesting perspective on life lesson that applies to embracing change. Since change is inevitable, we should have higher level of awareness on what good it brings and how we can remain relevant with the changes.
Next in line was a very insightful presentation that mixes data and data interpretation by Media Prima Digital Group General Manager, Mr. Nicholas Sagau Tony Ngimat. His topic of “Malaysia Digital Landscape” was an eye opener and continued the theme of embracing change that was presented earlier.
Team AIM, had many “aha moments” from this session and will look into putting those ideas into action soon.
The final speaker for HRDF Seminar 2019 was Prof. Mohd Said Bani CM Din from bzBee Consult Sdn. Bhd. Prof. Mohd Said further elaborated the influence of social media as a game changer of today’s business.
All in all, it was a very good session for us because not only did we manage to showcase our company and services via the exhibition, we also learned a lot from the speakers invited. Kudos to the organising committee from PSMB for a very well thought through selection of venue, speakers and combination of exhibitors.
Team AIM is looking forward for the next opportunity to participate and support the training industry. Together, let’s make training accessible!
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