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Common hiring assumptions continue to limit women’s career progression before it even begins. For organisations serious about building stronger leadership pipelines, the real opportunity starts much earlier: in how talent is identified, assessed, and recognised. | Written by Magdolin Boukhary Magdolin Boukhary, Mentor, Saudi Leadership Society Most organisations say they want to hire and promote more women into leadership. The intent is genuine, the diversity statements are polished, and recruiting budgets are approved. Yet progress continues to stall. The issue rarely begins in the boardroom where promotions are debated. It starts much earlier, in quieter moments: when an in-house recruiter scans a résumé, when a hiring manager forms a first impression in an interview, or when a shortlist is narrowed down based on instinct. The assumptions made in those moments can quietly place women into smaller boxes long before their leadership potential is ever openly discussed. It is worth being precise about who shapes these early decisions, because it is rarely one role acting alone. In-house recruiters and talent acquisition teams control the top of the funnel: deciding which résumés make it past the first screen, who gets the initial call, and who reaches the shortlist. Hiring managers then shape what follows: leading interviews, weighing panel feedback, and making the final hiring decision. Bias at either stage is enough to lose a strong candidate. More often, the two stages reinforce each other. A recruiter’s hesitation around a career gap becomes a hiring manager’s lingering doubt. A manager’s preference for someone “polished” becomes the recruiter’s screening filter in the next round. Fixing one stage without the other simply moves the leak. High-potential women are routinely misread, not because recruiters or hiring managers are acting in bad faith, but because the shortcuts many hiring processes rely on were built around a narrow definition of ambition and leadership. Here are five of the most common patterns, and what organisations can do differently. Mistake One: Reading Confidence as Competence Recruiters and hiring managers often equate confidence with capability. The candidate who confidently claims they “transformed an entire department” may land more strongly than someone who explains that their team “worked hard and delivered meaningful results.” Yet women often speak about achievements differently, more collaboratively, and with less emphasis on individual recognition. That difference is not a lack of capability. It is often a communication style shaped by workplace norms and the social penalties women can face when self-promotion is perceived as excessive. When interviewers reward delivery over substance, they risk overlooking candidates with proven results in favour of stronger storytellers. The fix: Evaluate evidence, not delivery. Ask every candidate the same behavioural questions. Probe for specifics: What was the challenge? What did they personally contribute? What changed as a result? Structured interviews reduce bias because they force comparison on substance, not style. Potential is not always the loudest voice in the room. Often, it is the clearest evidence of impact. Mistake Two: Penalising Non-Linear Careers A résumé with a career break, lateral move, or experience in a smaller organisation is still too often read as reduced ambition. Women are more likely than men to have stepped away for caregiving, relocated for family, or taken sideways opportunities to broaden experience. These career paths are often interpreted as gaps rather than what they frequently represent: resilience, adaptability, and broader perspective. The professional who rebuilt a high-performing team after returning to work may have demonstrated more leadership capacity than someone with a perfectly linear career. The fix: Assess trajectory based on how someone used the opportunities available to them, not how tidy the timeline appears. Encourage recruiters and hiring managers to approach breaks and pivots with curiosity rather than suspicion. Mistake Three: The “Culture Fit” Trap “Culture fit” sounds thoughtful. In practice, it often rewards familiarity. When leadership teams or hiring panels are homogeneous, the person who feels “like us” can easily become the preferred choice. That often excludes candidates who bring different perspectives, particularly women who may challenge existing norms in ways the organisation genuinely needs. The irony is clear: companies seeking innovation can unintentionally screen out the very people most likely to drive it. The fix: Replace “culture fit” with “culture contribution.” Define the values that matter in the role, whether that is handling feedback, managing conflict, or collaborating across teams, and assess those directly. Mistake Four: Anchoring Ambition to Self-Description Interviewers often ask candidates where they see themselves in five years and treat the answer as a reliable signal of ambition. But ambition is not always expressed the same way. A man may confidently say he wants the corner office. A woman with equal capability may say she wants to keep growing and take on more responsibility. One answer sounds bolder. The other may be equally ambitious, simply expressed differently. Treating self-description as objective data creates bias before the shortlist is even finalised. The fix: Look at actions over language. Has the candidate taken on stretch assignments? Sought challenging projects? Mentored others? Pushed beyond their comfort zone? Demonstrated initiative remains a stronger predictor of leadership than a polished career vision. Mistake Five: The Likeability Tightrope Women continue to navigate a familiar double bind. Warmth can be read as lacking authority. Assertiveness can be labelled abrasive. The same behaviour that signals executive presence in one candidate may be interpreted differently in another. The result is that women can be penalised for demonstrating exactly the qualities senior roles demand. The fix: Make bias visible during hiring calibration. When a panel describes a woman as “too aggressive,” “too intense,” or “hard to read,” pause and ask whether the same language would be used for a man in the same scenario. Naming the bias often disrupts it. Fixing the System, Not Just the Recruiter Awareness matters. But awareness alone rarely changes outcomes. The organisations making measurable progress are redesigning hiring systems. They standardise interview questions and scoring. They anonymise early-stage applications where possible. They build more diverse interview panels. They track hiring outcomes across every stage of the funnel and review where candidates drop off. Most importantly, they broaden the definition of leadership potential. Potential is not always a confident voice, a straight-line career, or a familiar leadership style. It is the ability to learn, adapt, lead through uncertainty, and create impact, often demonstrated most clearly by people who had to navigate more obstacles simply to get in the room. High-potential women are not hard to find. They are already in talent pipelines, in interview processes, and on recruiter shortlists. The opportunity is not to lower the bar. It is to calibrate the bar to measure the right things.

The law is not in force yet, but the preparation window is now. Employers who wait until 2027 will be building under pressure. | Written by Tripti Mehta Singapore has passed its first legally binding law against workplace discrimination. The Workplace Fairness Act (WFA), enacted in two parts across 2025, converts what were previously voluntary employment guidelines into enforceable legal obligations with a grievance process, a dispute resolution pathway, and real financial penalties for non-compliance. The Act is expected to come into force by end-2027. That may sound distant, but in reality, it is not. What the Act Actually Does Before the WFA, Singapore's employers were governed by the Tripartite Guidelines on Fair Employment Practices, a voluntary framework. The WFA does not replace those guidelines. It sits alongside them, adding legal weight to the most commonly encountered forms of discrimination. The first bill establishes the substantive protections: what is prohibited, who is protected, and what employers must have in place. The second bill sets out how employees can make claims when those protections are breached. Who is Protected and From What The Act prohibits employers from making adverse employment decisions covering hiring, appraisal, training, promotion, and dismissal based on any of five categories of protected characteristics: Age Nationality Sex, marital status, pregnancy status, and caregiving responsibilities Race, religion, and language Disability and mental health conditions These five categories account for more than 95% of all discrimination complaints received by the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) and Tripartite Alliance for Fair and Progressive Employment Practices (TAFEP). Workplace Fairness Act: Key Facts at a Glance First bill passed January 8, 2025 Second bill passed November 4, 2025 Expected in force End-2027 Discrimination complaints covered More than 95% of all complaints received by MOM and TAFEP Employer obligation Formal internal grievance handling process mandatory for all firms Mediation Mandatory before any claim proceeds to tribunal ECT claims ceiling SGD 250,000 First offence fine Up to SGD 50,000 Repeat offence fine Up to SGD 250,000 TAFEP employer briefings Monthly, ongoing since September 2025 What Employers are Now Required to Have Every firm must put in place a formal internal grievance handling process for workplace discrimination. This is not optional and not dependent on company size. The intention is to create a safe space for issues to be raised and resolved at the firm level before they escalate. What Happens When Internal Resolution Fails If a grievance is not resolved internally, the employee must attempt mediation before any claim can proceed to adjudication. Mediation is mandatory. MOM has confirmed that the Tripartite Alliance for Dispute Management will handle mediation for claims up to SGD 30,000, with the Singapore Mediation Centre handling higher-value claims, and that mediators are already being trained specifically for workplace discrimination cases. If mediation fails, the employee can bring a claim to the Employment Claims Tribunal for disputes up to SGD 250,000, or to the High Court for higher-value claims. All proceedings are held in private. Legal representation is not permitted at the ECT level, keeping the process more accessible and less adversarial. What Enforcement Looks Like MOM has described its approach as education-first. Enforcement levers are calibrated to severity, ranging from directions to attend educational workshops, to administrative financial penalties, to heavier civil penalties for egregious breaches. Fines go up to SGD 50,000 for a first offence and SGD 250,000 for repeat offences. Why HR Needs to Act Now Minister for Manpower Dr Tan See Leng was direct in his November 2025 parliamentary speech: employers need to review HR processes, workers need to understand their protections, and mediators need to be trained. All of that takes time. The end-2027 implementation date was set specifically to allow adequate preparation, not to defer it. TAFEP has been running monthly WFA briefings for employers since September 2025, and is developing step-by-step guides and templates specifically for smaller businesses. MOM has also indicated it will publish a handbook explaining the law through illustrations and case studies. TAFEP has specifically called on employers to adopt the Tripartite Standard on Recruitment Practices and the Tripartite Standard on Grievance Handling now, as the most direct way to align with WFA requirements while the preparation window is still open. HR Checklist: What to Do Before End-2027 Policies and Processes Review hiring, appraisal, promotion, and dismissal processes against the five protected characteristic categories Establish or formalise a written internal grievance handling process for discrimination complaints Adopt the TAFEP Tripartite Standard on Recruitment Practices Adopt the TAFEP Tripartite Standard on Grievance Handling People and Training Train HR teams and line managers on what constitutes discrimination under the Act Brief leadership on employer obligations and enforcement exposure Register for TAFEP's monthly WFA employer briefings Documentation Ensure all employment decisions,including hiring, appraisals, promotions and dismissals, are documented with clear, objective criteria Review existing employment contracts and offer letters for compliance gaps Ongoing Monitor MOM and TAFEP for the WFA handbook and subsidiary implementation guidelines Set an internal compliance review date at least six months before end-2027 Singapore's approach to workplace fairness has always been gradual and consensus-driven. The WFA continues that tradition but it also marks a clear line. What was once a matter of good practice is becoming a matter of law. For HR leaders, the question is not whether to prepare, but how much runway they want before the deadline arrives. Source: Ministry of Manpower (MOM); Singapore Statutes Online; Tripartite Alliance for Fair and Progressive Employment Practices (TAFEP)

As companies race to cut costs in the name of AI, many are discovering an uncomfortable truth: automation without thoughtful workforce design creates more disruption than value. The issue isn’t AI itself, it’s how leaders are choosing to implement it. | Written by Preethy Suresh The headlines have been relentless. IBM announced roughly 8,000 job cuts in 2024, with HR functions specifically named as targets for AI replacement. Salesforce eliminated 4,000 customer support roles in 2025, with CEO Marc Benioff publicly attributing the cuts to AI-driven productivity gains. Duolingo announced plans to phase out human contractors in favour of automation. Microsoft, Meta, Amazon and Google, the pattern has repeated across the sector, each announcement framed as a confident step into an AI-enabled future. Klarna replaced 700 customer service agents. And the list continues to grow. But the reversals have already begun. Klarna CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski later told Bloomberg the company had “focused too much on efficiency and cost. The result was lower quality, and that’s not sustainable.” Klarna has since begun hiring again. though notably through a gig-style model rather than full-time employment. The 700 jobs that were eliminated haven’t exactly returned; they’ve been restructured as contract work, often at lower pay. Two years ago, that might have been seen as an isolated admission. In 2026, it is increasingly looking like a broader pattern. The number every boardroom should be paying attention to Orgvue’s 2025 survey of 1,163 senior business leaders across eight countries found that 55% of organisations that made AI-driven redundancies later admitted they had made the wrong call. Around 34% reported employees leaving as a direct result of how AI was introduced into the business. Forrester’s Future of Work report predicts that by the end of 2026, nearly half of all AI-related layoffs may be reversed in some form, often through offshore hiring, contract roles or lower-paid positions. And the IBM survey referenced by Fortune paints an even starker picture: only one in four enterprise AI projects delivers the return originally expected. So why does the pattern continue? Why does every quarter still bring another wave of AI-led layoffs when evidence from previous rounds already suggests caution? Because, in many cases, the decisions are not really about AI. They are about the optics of AI. The question isn’t whether AI belongs in the business. It does. The question is whether leaders can distinguish between work that should be automated and work that creates value because a human is doing it. The mistake hiding behind the AI narrative Here is what may actually be happening. A CEO walks into a boardroom just after a competitor announces major cost savings through AI. Pressure builds to deliver a similar headline. A consultant arrives with a presentation deck. A vendor demonstrates a promising new tool. And somewhere in that sequence, a decision gets made about headcount, often before anyone has properly mapped what those employees were actually doing. The rollout begins before the redesign. Headcount is reduced before organisations audit where value actually sits within a role. Then, when customer complaints rise, satisfaction scores dip, or service quality declines, businesses are left solving a problem they created themselves, often at a cost that offsets the original savings. This is not an AI problem. The technology is, in many cases, doing exactly what it was designed to do. This is a leadership problem: understanding the difference between deploying a tool and redesigning work around it. And right now, many organisations are still struggling to distinguish between the two. The contrast leaders should be talking about US compliance technology company Smarsh introduced an Agentforce-powered service assistant called Archie in 2025. Similar technology category. Similar customer-facing use case. Similar board-level pressure to modernise. But the outcome looked very different. Chief Customer Officer Rohit Khanna told CIO magazine that the AI assistant now handles a significant share of customer queries, knowledge-base creation and basic support. Then came the most important part: “We didn’t let people go.” Instead, employees were moved into higher-value work, handling more complex issues, escalations and relationship-led interactions where human judgment still matters most. AI absorbed repetitive tasks that were never the best use of human capability in the first place. Same technology. Different leadership framework. Very different result. The organisations navigating this transition well are not necessarily using more advanced AI. They are doing the foundational work first: mapping responsibilities before making workforce decisions, identifying what can be automated, what should be enhanced through AI, and what depends entirely on human capability, whether that is trust, creativity, judgment or empathy. The deeper challenge The dominant narrative today suggests AI is reshaping work. That may be true eventually. But right now, what is reshaping work is often the idea of AI, applied too quickly, without structure, and sometimes used to justify cost-cutting decisions that were always about cost. The technology ends up taking both the blame and the credit for what is, at its core, a familiar restructuring exercise with a new label. Companies treating AI primarily as a headcount strategy are likely to keep generating reversal headlines. Those treating it as a redesign opportunity will quietly build stronger operating models. And the gap between the two is likely to widen over the next 12 to 18 months, because the cost of getting this wrong is no longer theoretical. It is already visible in rehiring patterns, customer experience scores, and institutional knowledge walking out the door, often for good. The question is not whether AI belongs in business. It does. The real question is whether leadership teams can clearly distinguish between work that should be automated and work that creates value precisely because a human is doing it. If that distinction is unclear, then the AI strategy is not really a strategy. It is simply a press release waiting to be rewritten.

The grace period ends June 30. Employers who have not yet adjusted Emirati salaries face permit suspensions and loss of Emiratisation credit from July 1. | Written by Tripti Mehta The Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation (MoHRE) announced an increase in the minimum wage for Emiratis employed in the private sector to AED 6,000 per month, effective January 1, 2026, with establishments that employed Emiratis before that date given until June 30, 2026 to adjust salaries to meet the new threshold. The new minimum wage applies to new citizen work permits as well as those being renewed or amended from January 1, 2026 onwards. For existing employees, June 30 is the hard deadline. The AED 6,000 figure represents the latest stage in a phased approach by MoHRE, which previously raised the minimum salary for Emiratis from AED 4,000 to AED 5,000, and now to AED 6,000. The gradual adjustment is designed to align wage levels with market benchmarks while giving private sector employers sufficient time to plan. What Happens on July 1 If a citizen's salary is not updated by June 30, 2026, two measures take effect from July 1: The citizen will not be counted in Emiratisation ratios until the salary is adjusted A restriction will be applied to the establishment, suspending new work permits for citizens with salaries below AED 6,000 Importantly, the salary threshold operates as a separate enforcement layer from headcount quotas. Even companies meeting their Emiratisation headcount targets will lose Emiratisation credit for any Emirati paid below AED 6,000, and the two penalty regimes compound rather than substitute for one another. What Employers Must Do Now MoHRE has called on establishments to amend employment contracts of Emirati employees to reflect the new minimum salary before June 30. Source: MoHRE; KPMG Flash Alert 2026-006; Middle East Briefing; UAE Government official portal

With Phase 3 of the Kingdom's landmark labour reform weeks away, employers with indefinite-term workers must act now or risk legal exposure. | Written by Tripti Mehta Saudi Arabia's Unified Employment Contract Initiative enters its third and final phase on August 6, 2026, the date by which all indefinite or open-ended employment contracts must be migrated to the official template and documented on the Qiwa platform. The initiative, led jointly by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development (MHRSD) and the Ministry of Justice (MOJ), has been rolling out since October 2025. Phase 1, effective October 6, 2025, covered all new contracts and updates to existing ones. Phase 2, effective March 6, 2026, brought fixed-term contracts into the system upon renewal or extension. Phase 3, starting August 6, 2026, extends the requirement to all existing indefinite-term contracts. What Changes for Employers To qualify for enforcement under the new system, contracts must be documented on the Qiwa platform using the official template, and must carry an Execution Number issued through the Documentation Center at the Ministry of Justice, generated automatically via technical integration between the two ministries. The documentation process requires the employer to submit the contract on Qiwa, after which the employee may approve, reject, or propose amendments. Once both parties have agreed, the contract is considered documented and enforceable. The Wage Enforcement Mechanism The most consequential aspect of the reform is what happens when wages are not paid. Workers can file enforcement requests via Qiwa and Najiz if wages are unpaid for 30 days or only partially paid after 90 days. Employers can contest claims within five days, with payment verification handled automatically through the Madad platform. If employers fail to comply within five days, the Enforcement Court applies sanctions under the Enforcement Law, starting with freezing the employer's bank accounts and blocking access to government portal services. This marks a significant departure from the previous process, which required employees to go through a 21-day amicable settlement phase before reaching labour courts, a process that could stretch over two to six months. What is Enforceable Only the wage clause is subject to enforcement under this mechanism. This covers basic salary, housing allowance, transportation allowance, and other cash benefits. What Employers Should Do Now Employers must ensure that the salary stated in the Qiwa contract matches exactly what is paid through the Wage Protection System, and that any deductions are in accordance with applicable Saudi labour law. Payroll practices should be reviewed to eliminate inaccuracies between the documented contract and actual payments. Source: Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development (MHRSD), Kingdom of Saudi Arabia; Clyde & Co; Morgan Lewis; DLA Piper GENIE; Pinsent Masons

Inaugural Singapore & Malaysia edition draws over 200 leaders, 80+ organisations, and 25+ categories in a celebration of workplace excellence. | Written by Riya Malhotra The Employee Happiness Awards Singapore 2026, organised by Eventyst Global, made a powerful debut as the platform's inaugural edition in Singapore. Held on 10th April at the prestigious Shangri-La Singapore, the gala evening brought together more than 200 distinguished guests for an occasion that was as celebratory as it was inspiring. The night unfolded as a vibrant celebration of organisations and individuals redefining workplace culture. With HR leaders, business heads, finalists, and jury members in attendance, the gala created an atmosphere of shared purpose and recognition. From moments of anticipation during award announcements to the energy of teams coming together on stage, the evening reflected the spirit of collaboration and pride that defines people-first workplaces. Beyond the awards themselves, the event served as a meaningful platform for connection, where ideas, experiences, and conversations were exchanged among some of the region's most forward-thinking organisations. Headline Winners Among the 56 honoured organisations, the following winners were spotlighted during the evening: • dnata Catering & Retail Singapore: Gold Award, Best Inclusion Strategy for People of Disabilities; Silver Award, Best Company to Work For - Large • Nippon Sanso Holdings Singapore: Silver Award, Best Employee-driven Business Change; Bronze Award, Best L&D Strategy • Macross Consultancy: Silver Award, Best Small Company to Work For Winners represented a diverse mix of industries, from aviation services and industrial gases to consultancy and small enterprises, reflecting the breadth of organisations placing employee experience at the centre of business strategy. A Growing Global Movement Conceptualised by Eventyst Global, a Dubai-based event management company, the Employee Happiness Awards has rapidly grown into a global platform celebrating organisations that prioritise employee well-being, engagement, and inclusive workplace cultures. Spearheaded by Jatin Deepchandani, the initiative has evolved into a movement that champions workplace excellence through structured, credible, and impact-driven recognition. Overwhelming Response in Singapore Despite being its inaugural edition in Singapore, the awards drew an overwhelming response, with participation from over 80 organisations across more than 25 categories. This strong engagement reflects the growing importance placed on employee experience and organisational culture across the region. The awards followed a rigorous, evidence-based evaluation process led by an independent panel of jury members. Submissions were assessed on programme design, consistency in execution, and measurable outcomes, ensuring that recognition was awarded to initiatives demonstrating real and lasting impact. The gala evening stood as a testament to what organisations can achieve when people are placed at the centre of business strategy. It was not just a night of recognition, but a celebration of intent translated into action, of cultures built with care, and of workplaces designed for people to truly thrive. Winners represented a diverse mix of industries and were recognised for their innovative and impactful contributions to employee happiness. Voices from the Winners "This recognition highlights the consistent effort our team in Singapore has made to foster a positive and supportive workplace culture. In a fast-paced, high-performance environment like ours, employee wellbeing is fundamental to how we operate and deliver for our customers every day. It brings to life our global dnata values, and we will continue to invest in a workplace where our people feel valued, supported and empowered to do their best work." — Matthew Igo Ball, Managing Director, dnata Catering & Retail Singapore "It is a profound honor to be recognized at the Employee Happiness Awards SG&MY 2026. As Macross Consultancy evolves, this award validates our commitment to balancing professional excellence with a people-first culture. It serves as a powerful motivation for us to continue nurturing a workplace where every team member can thrive.” — Too Chee Keat, Founder, Macross Consultancy “This recognition at the Employee Happiness Awards SG & MY 2026 is a celebration of our people and our belief that when employees thrive, the organisation flourishes. It reflects our ongoing commitment to develop people, enable growth, and partner the business to create sustainable value through skills and workforce development.” — Pauline Loo, Senior Vice President, Human Resource, Nippon Sanso Holdings Singapore Looking Ahead The successful launch of the Employee Happiness Awards in Singapore further strengthens its position as a global benchmark for workplace excellence, with upcoming editions set to continue this momentum across regions.

A last-minute deal kept 48,000 Samsung workers on the floor on 21 May. Four days later, the union is fracturing over who got what, and HR leaders across the region are watching a new lesson unfold in real time. | Written by Riya Malhotra There's a particular kind of silence that descends on a workplace when trust has finally run out. Last week, Samsung was hours away from that silence breaking, loudly, across 48,000 workers and 18 days of stopped production. It didn't break. Not in the way we expected. In an 11th-hour move on Wednesday, 20 May, Samsung Electronics management and its labour union reached a tentative wage agreement just before the planned walkout, suspending the general strike planned for May 21 to June 7 and putting the deal to an internal vote. JPMorgan had estimated potential losses between $14 and $20 billion in operating profits if the strike went ahead. On paper, this looks like a win. It isn't. Because what the deal averted in production losses, it has revealed in something far harder to repair: a fault line running straight through Samsung's workforce. The Win That Created a New Fracture Workers began voting on the agreement on Friday, 22 May. The structure of the deal tells you everything about why a victory celebration didn't follow. Workers in the memory chip division stand to receive bonuses of around $416,000 this year. Those in the foundry and logic chip units will receive smaller but still substantial payouts, while staff in smartphones and home appliances will get considerably less. The AI boom has made some divisions of Samsung extraordinarily profitable. The deal rewards those workers handsomely. But Samsung is one company, one brand, one employer, and a smartphone assembly worker and a memory chip engineer share more than a payslip header. They share a daily belief about whether their employer sees them. That belief is now in question. At a press conference on Friday, the National Samsung Electronics Union (NSEU) publicly criticised the agreement, calling it a rushed outcome that had reduced bargaining to a single division's bonus. A second union, the Samsung Electronics Co Union (SECU), had walked out of the negotiating team before the deal was finalised. This is what happens when a negotiation closes the immediate crisis without resolving the underlying question. The strike has been averted. The grievance has not. The Myth of the "Clean Resolution" There's a comfortable corporate instinct after a near-miss like this: log it as a save, move on, brief the board on the avoided downside. That instinct is exactly where the next crisis quietly germinates. The Samsung deal teaches a harder truth that HR leaders should sit with this week: a settlement is not the same as alignment. When the cost of "yes" is unequal treatment among employees who consider themselves peers, you haven't closed a chapter, you've written the opening line of the next one. Employees who feel left out of the spoils rarely make noise immediately. They go quiet. They stop volunteering. They start interviewing. And six months later, retention dashboards turn red and nobody can quite trace why. What This Means for HR Leaders in the UAE, KSA, Singapore, Malaysia, and Beyond For HR teams across our region, where AI is similarly reshaping which roles are critical, which are commoditised, and which are being quietly rewritten, Samsung's updated story carries three questions worth holding up to your own organisation today: 1. When AI lifts some roles and threatens others, how is your reward philosophy keeping pace? Samsung's memory chip workers are being rewarded for sitting at an AI chokepoint. That is rational economics. But every appliance and smartphone worker in the same company sees the same headlines. The question for HR isn't whether to reward critical talent, it's whether your communication explains the why in a way the rest of the workforce can live with. 2. Are your "wins" structured to unite or to divide? Settlement-by-segment is tempting because it's faster. It's also corrosive. A deal that solves Tuesday's negotiation by creating Thursday's resentment isn't a deal. It's a deferral. 3. After a near-miss, are you debriefing, or just exhaling? The most dangerous moment in any HR crisis isn't the crisis itself. It's the week after. The week where everyone wants to feel relieved and nobody wants to reopen the conversation about how it got that close in the first place. The Real Lesson, Updated Last week, we wrote that Samsung's looming strike was a leadership story, not a labour story. This week, it's still a leadership story, just a different one. Samsung didn't fail to avert a strike. It succeeded at that. What it has yet to demonstrate is whether it can avert the slower, quieter erosion that follows when one part of a workforce is told, in effect: you matter more right now. Trust isn't measured in the moment a strike is called off. It's measured in what employees believe about their employer six months later, when the cameras are gone and the bonuses have landed and only the workforce remembers who got what. The conversation Samsung avoided last week became the crisis it managed this week. The conversation it's avoiding now will be the story we're writing about in November. The question for every HR leader watching from Dubai, Riyadh, Singapore, or Kuala Lumpur is the same as it was last week, but sharper: Your employees aren't asking whether you can close a deal. They're asking whether the deal you close treats them like they belong to the same company. Sources: The HR Digest — "Samsung Faces a Massive Union Strike as Last-Minute Negotiations Proceed" (17 May 2026) Reuters and Korean labour ministry briefings (May 2026) Global workforce sentiment and employee relations trends, 2026

A new nursery mandate, expanded parental leave, and some of the Gulf's most optimistic workers signal that Saudi Arabia is serious about employee experience as a competitive priority. | Written by Tripti Mehta Saudi Arabia's Cabinet has directed both public and private sector employers to establish workplace nurseries, in a move designed to support working mothers and advance early childhood development goals under Vision 2030. Authorities have also been tasked with addressing operational challenges, including differences in working hours between nurseries and institutions such as ministries, schools, and companies, to encourage employees to enrol their children in workplace childcare centres. The nursery policy builds on a broader legislative shift already underway. Saudi Arabia's 2025 labour law amendments extended maternity leave from 10 weeks to 12 weeks with full pay, with a minimum of six weeks mandatory after delivery and the remaining weeks available at the employee's discretion. Paternity leave now carries a mandatory timeframe, requiring fathers to take their leave within seven days of the child's birth. The reforms are landing in a workforce already showing strong positive sentiment. According to Gallup's State of the Global Workplace: 2026 Report, 51% of employees in Saudi Arabia report thriving, while 77% say it is a good time to find a job, more than double the MENA regional average of 36%. For HR leaders in the Kingdom, family-supportive infrastructure is moving from a differentiator to a baseline expectation. Organisations that move ahead of the mandate rather than in response to it will be best placed to attract and retain the talent Vision 2030 is producing. Source: Gulf Business, Gulf News, Gallup State of the Global Workplace 2026, Saudi Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development, Clyde & Co

As organisations race to integrate agentic AI into the workplace, experts are warning that the real challenge is no longer technological, it is organisational. | Written by Riya Malhotra On International HR Day, workforce and AI transformation leaders are urging businesses to move beyond viewing AI solely as a productivity tool and instead focus on the strategic workforce decisions that will define whether the technology creates long-term value or long-term disruption. With AI agents becoming increasingly capable of handling complex workflows autonomously, many organisations are prioritising speed, efficiency, and automation. However, industry leaders argue that the companies seeing the strongest outcomes are those redesigning work proactively, rather than reacting to disruption after it arrives. According to Mohammed Alkhotani, Middle East General Manager and Senior Vice President at Salesforce, the true opportunity of AI lies not in replacing people, but in redefining the value of human work. “The conversation around AI often begins with productivity, but the bigger opportunity is really about how work, and the workforce, evolves,” Alkhotani said. AI has the ability to create significant capacity within organisations, helping teams move faster, operate at greater scale, and rethink how work gets done. But the real value is not simply in efficiency, it is in what organisations choose to do with that capacity. He noted that the most forward-thinking organisations are using AI to create more space for employees to focus on higher-value responsibilities, work requiring judgment, creativity, innovation, and relationship-building. “That is where AI moves from being a technology conversation to becoming a leadership conversation. And this is where HR has a critical role to play,” he added. Alkhotani highlighted that digital transformation has historically been accompanied by uncertainty, particularly when employees are unclear about how change will affect their roles or career prospects. Yet, if managed effectively, the rise of AI could unlock one of the biggest workforce opportunities in decades. “It opens the door to rethinking how work is designed, building new skills, redeploying talent into more meaningful, higher-value roles, and preparing the next generation of employees for a very different world of work,” he said. The urgency around workforce readiness is increasing globally. According to the World Economic Forum, nearly 39% of existing skill sets are expected to become transformed or outdated by 2030, making reskilling and AI fluency immediate business priorities. Alkhotani also pointed to the growing emphasis on workforce capability across the Middle East, particularly in markets such as the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, where national economic agendas increasingly place digital capability and human potential at the centre of long-term growth strategies. For leaders, that means looking beyond technology deployment and asking a bigger question of how do we bring our people with us? Industry experts say that as agentic AI adoption accelerates, HR leaders will play a defining role in shaping how organisations transition into this next phase of work. Businesses investing in reskilling, talent redeployment, and employee support are expected to emerge more agile and future-ready than those focusing solely on automation. “The future of work will not be defined by AI alone, but by leaders who use it to unlock human potential,” Alkhotani concluded.

As the workplace evolves, HR is no longer confined to policies and processes. In this column, Sultana Al Amri explores how modern people leaders are becoming culture architects, balancing empathy with accountability while designing environments where employees can thrive sustainably. | Written by Sultana Al Amri The role of HR has transformed dramatically over the past decade. What was once primarily an operational function focused on policies, compliance, and administration has evolved into something far more strategic. Today, people leaders are not just guardians of process. They are architects of culture. This shift reflects a deeper realization that organizational performance and human experience are inseparable. From Policy Managers to Culture Shapers Traditionally, HR success was measured by efficiency. Were positions filled on time? Were policies compliant? Were processes documented and controlled? While these fundamentals remain important, they are no longer sufficient. Modern organizations operate in fast-moving, high-pressure environments. Talent expectations have shifted. Employees are no longer satisfied with stability alone. They seek meaning, growth, flexibility, and alignment with values. As a result, people leaders must move beyond procedures and actively shape environments where individuals can perform sustainably and grow intentionally. Culture is no longer a side topic. It is a performance driver. Understanding the Business to Influence It To evolve from HR to true people leadership, commercial awareness is essential. People strategies cannot exist in isolation from business realities. Leaders in this space must understand revenue drivers, operational constraints, market pressures, and long-term strategy. When HR speaks the language of business, it gains influence. When engagement is linked to productivity, retention to cost optimization, and leadership capability to innovation, the function becomes indispensable. Balancing Empathy and Accountability One of the most delicate challenges for modern people leaders is balancing compassion with performance. Too much focus on comfort risks lowering standards. Too much pressure erodes trust and wellbeing. High-performing cultures are built on clarity, fairness, and psychological safety. Employees need to understand what excellence looks like while feeling safe enough to ask questions, admit mistakes, and offer ideas. Empathy does not replace accountability. It strengthens it. Culture is no longer a side topic. It is a performance driver. Designing the Employee Journey The shift from HR to happiness also means thinking in terms of experience design. Every stage of the employee lifecycle shapes perception: recruitment, onboarding, performance reviews, development conversations, recognition moments, and career transitions. These are not administrative checkpoints. They are emotional touchpoints. If onboarding feels rushed, the first impression weakens. If feedback is inconsistent, trust erodes. If promotions appear opaque, engagement declines. People leaders must intentionally design these experiences and address friction points structurally. Developing Leaders at Every Level Culture does not cascade automatically from the top. It is translated daily by middle managers and team leads. This makes leadership development a strategic priority. Modern people leaders must equip managers with coaching capability, emotional intelligence, conflict resolution skills, clear communication habits, and strong decision-making discipline. When managers are confident and aligned, culture becomes consistent. When they are unsupported or overwhelmed, culture fragments. Using Data Without Losing Humanity Technology and analytics have elevated HR’s strategic potential. Engagement data, retention patterns, and performance metrics offer powerful insight. However, data should inform decisions, not replace judgment. People leaders must interpret numbers within context and combine analytics with meaningful dialogue. Embedding Wellbeing into Performance A significant shift in modern organizations is the recognition that wellbeing and performance are interconnected. Burnout reduces creativity. Chronic stress affects decision-making. Lack of recognition diminishes motivation. Performance systems must avoid rewarding unhealthy behaviour. Sustainable success requires aligning expectations with human capacity. From Function to Strategic Influence The evolution from HR to happiness represents a shift in identity. It is the movement from being a support function to being a strategic influence. People leaders today shape how organizations think about talent, leadership, culture, and long-term sustainability. The question is no longer how to manage HR efficiently. It is how to design an environment where people can thrive and deliver sustainable performance. When that balance is achieved, happiness is no longer an initiative. It becomes a natural outcome of intentional leadership and strong culture.

| April 2026 Edition It rarely starts in a boardroom. More often, it begins in conversations, a leader choosing to listen a little more closely, a team being given the space to speak up, a decision being made with people, not just performance, in mind. Across APAC, these moments are quietly shaping the workplaces we admire today. Behind them are HR leaders who are doing far more than managing functions. They are building cultures from the inside out, guiding organisations through uncertainty, and rethinking what it truly means to support people at work. In a region as diverse and fast-moving as APAC, their role has never been more important, or more human. This list brings together a group of leaders who are influencing that change in meaningful ways. Some are driving transformation at scale, others are strengthening culture in ways that may not always be visible, but are deeply felt. All of them share a common thread, a commitment to creating workplaces where people can grow, contribute, and feel a sense of belonging. What makes this list special is not just who is on it, but what it represents. Different industries, different markets, different journeys, yet a shared belief that people remain at the centre of every organisation’s success. As you explore the names ahead, think of this not just as a list, but as a collection of stories in progress. Stories of leadership, resilience, and quiet impact, shaping the future of work across APAC, one decision at a time. Peck Kem Low Chief HR Officer and Advisor (Workforce Development), CHRO Office and Workforce Development | Public Service Division, Prime Minister’s Office Peck Kem Low brings a unique combination of private and public sector experience to her role as Chief Human Resources Officer and Advisor (Workforce Development) for the Public Service Division, Prime Minister’s Office, Singapore. She began her career in quality engineering before moving into HR leadership roles across global technology companies, including Hewlett Packard, Agilent Technologies, Western Digital, and Avago Technologies. These roles gave her exposure to working across Asian, European, and American markets, shaping her global perspective on people and culture. In the public sector, she previously served as Divisional Director at the Ministry of Manpower, where she contributed to building HR and leadership capabilities at a national level. In her current role, she focuses on strengthening HR capabilities and developing HR talent across Singapore’s public service. Beyond her organisational role, Peck Kem Low has played a significant part in advancing the HR profession globally. She is currently President of the World Federation of People Management Associations (WFPMA), where she is the first Singaporean and only the second woman to hold the position. She also serves as President of the Singapore Human Resources Institute (SHRI) and is the Immediate Past President of the Asia Pacific Federation of HR Management (APFHRM). Her contributions have been recognised through multiple accolades, including being named among Southeast Asia’s 100 Most HR Influencers and Asia’s Top 50 HR Leaders in 2024, as well as Global 100 HR Leaders Hall of Fame 2025. Ku Sim Ling (AuntyHR) HR Influencer | Former Corporate Services Director Ku Sim Ling, widely known as “AuntyHR,” brings over 20 years of experience in the workforce solutions industry. She previously served as Corporate Services Director at a multinational organisation in Malaysia, where she led corporate and HR-related functions. In 2023, she made a career shift to become a full-time HR influencer, focusing on making workplace topics more accessible and relatable. Through her content, she addresses workforce challenges, promotes education, and encourages more open conversations around workplace practices. She has built a strong digital presence, with over 184K followers on Instagram and 194K on TikTok, where her content combines practical HR insights with a simplified and engaging approach to reach a wider audience. She was nominated for the TikTok Awards Malaysia 2024 under the category of Education Creator of the Year, reflecting her growing influence in the digital learning space. Her work combines practical HR insights with a simplified and engaging approach to reach a wider audience. In addition to her corporate and content experience, she has served as a panel member of the Malaysian Industrial Court, representing employers. She holds a Bachelor of Engineering (Hons) in Electronics, majoring in Computer, from Multimedia University, and is an HRDC TTT-certified trainer. She is also the founder of the #DilarangBodoh (“Don’t be stupid”) campaign under Bimbo Society, focused on promoting self-awareness and continuous learning in the workplace. Monir Azzouzi Founder & Managing Director, Futuresparx I Group CHRO, Cyberjaya Education Group Monir Azzouzi brings over 20 years of experience across HR and business leadership roles spanning Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. He is currently the Founder and Managing Director of Futuresparx, where he focuses on digital transformation, organisational development, and the future of work. Prior to this, he held leadership roles including Chief of HR, IT, and Corporate Services at Gotoko, and was part of the HR leadership teams at organisations such as Gojek and Maxis. His experience also includes board-level roles across the technology and media sectors. His areas of expertise include digital transformation, employee experience, organisational strategy, and the application of AI in HR. He is also the author of “ChatGPT-Powered HR,” reflecting his work in integrating technology into people practices. Monir has received multiple recognitions, including the Asian Human Capital Award by Temasek, LinkedIn Rising Star Award, and being named among Asia’s Top 10 Voices and the World’s Top 25 CHROs. He has also been recognised as the #1 Most Influential HR Leader in Southeast Asia (Indonesia). He holds an MSc in Management of Innovation & Business Development from Copenhagen Business School and has completed executive education at Harvard Business School in Business Analytics and Big Data. He is also an ICF-certified coach and HRDC-certified professional. Roshan Thiran Founder and Kuli, Leaderonomics Group Roshan Thiran is the Founder and “Kuli” (labourer) of Leaderonomics, a group of social enterprises focused on growing leaders, transforming organisations, and building stronger communities across Asia. With a career spanning global giants and diverse industries, he brings deep, hands-on experience in leadership and organisational development. He began his professional journey at ExxonMobil before spending 16 years at General Electric (GE), where he worked across the United States, Europe, and Asia in roles spanning finance, aviation, media, and leadership development. During his time at GE, Roshan played a key role in transforming a struggling aviation business in Malaysia into a global benchmark and was later part of GE’s renowned Crotonville leadership institute. He subsequently joined Johnson & Johnson as Director of Global Talent Management, contributing to global leadership pipelines, succession planning, and talent strategies. Today, Roshan partners with CEOs, CHROs, and leadership teams to drive culture transformation, leadership development, and organisational renewal. Through Leaderonomics, he has helped organisations build accountable cultures, strengthen leadership benches, and navigate change in an AI-driven world. Known for his engaging style, he blends corporate insight with storytelling, practical frameworks, and a strong focus on purpose-driven leadership. Dr. Susan Peisan Chen Founder & CEO, co:grow Dr. Susan P. Chen is a senior HR leader and Founder & CEO of co:grow and TalentSkope, boutique consultancies that bring a fractional and tech-forward approach to startups and scaling companies. With over 18 years of HR leadership and consulting experience, she has supported organisations across industries, from oil and gas in Norway to financial services and gaming in Asia, including AIG, Visa, and Riot Games. Her transition into Southeast Asia’s startup ecosystem saw her lead talent development and organisational transformation at Viva Health, Accenture, and Gojek. Today, she partners with founders and leadership teams across APAC to design people strategies that connect headcount to revenue, unlock growth, and build resilient organisations. Susan is known for challenging traditional HR thinking, a perspective she explores in her book, The Death of Best Practices. Her work blends a growth mindset and strengths-based coaching with commercial pragmatism, positioning HR as a driver of survival, acceleration, and scale. Alongside her consulting work, Susan is a keynote speaker, angel investor, and certified leadership coach, with over a thousand coaching hours across executives, teams, and founders. She is passionate about co-creating solutions, building trust, and shaping HR into a true strategic partner for the next generation of businesses. Handi Kurniawan Group SVP Human Capital, Bank Mandiri, Indonesia Handi Kurniawan is Group SVP Human Capital at Bank Mandiri, Indonesia’s largest bank by assets, where he leads human capital strategy and talent management initiatives. With over 25 years of experience, he has worked across banking, multinational corporations, and diverse industries in Asia. His career includes leadership roles at organisations such as Standard Chartered, Sinar Mas, Jardine Matheson, General Electric, and Shangri-La Group. He has led large-scale initiatives in talent management, leadership development, and workforce capability building, supporting organisational growth and transformation. His experience spans multiple geographies, having lived and worked in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Beijing, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and the United States. Handi has been recognised as one of the 100 Most Influential HR Leaders in Southeast Asia. He holds an MBA from the University of Western Australia and a Master of Arts from the University of Michigan. Angelina Chua Human Resources Director, APAC, COFCO International Angelina Chua is a global HR leader with over 25 years of experience across Asia Pacific, the Middle East, the United States, and Europe. As Human Resources Director, APAC at COFCO International, she leads people and culture strategies across a large, geographically diverse workforce. She has partnered closely with CEOs and boards to drive transformation initiatives, including mergers and acquisitions, operating model redesign, and workforce integration. Her work has contributed to cost optimisation, improved organisational agility, and stronger alignment between business and people strategies. Angelina has led HR for organisations with up to 24,000 employees and has extensive experience building regional and global teams across China and Southeast Asia, including eight years based in China. Her scope of work has extended beyond HR into areas such as corporate governance, general and employee insurance, corporate social responsibility, and data protection, reflecting her broader business involvement. She is focused on talent development, employee engagement, and leadership advisory, with a strong emphasis on building inclusive and high-performing cultures. Hanif Sulaiman Senior Director Human Resources, Benchmark Electronics (M) Sdn. Bhd. Hanif Sulaiman is a senior HR practitioner with close to three decades of experience across multiple industries, particularly within manufacturing environments. As Senior Director Human Resources at Benchmark Electronics (M) Sdn. Bhd., he plays a key role in aligning HR strategy with business objectives. Over the past decade, he has been actively involved in business strategic planning, particularly in areas related to strategic human resources and operational execution. His experience includes managing both unionised and non-unionised environments, overseeing large workforces comprising direct and indirect labour. He has led initiatives across talent acquisition, retention, succession planning, and industrial relations, while also implementing cost-saving strategies that have resulted in measurable business impact. His work has contributed to strengthening productivity, improving people management practices, and supporting organisational growth. Known for his hands-on leadership style, he has worked closely with senior management teams to drive HR transformation from an administrative function to a strategic business partner. He is also recognised for maintaining strong ethical standards and exercising sound judgement across a wide range of HR responsibilities. Thiagarajan Veeran (Raj) Director Human Resources, Dexcom Thiagarajan Veeran (Raj) is Director Human Resources at Dexcom Malaysia, where he leads the country HR function and partners with global operations leadership to build organisational capability and support business growth. He brings extensive experience across multinational manufacturing organisations, including Micron, Western Digital, and Sanmina-SCI, combining operational understanding with strategic HR leadership. At Dexcom, he has played a key role in scaling the organisation, focusing on leadership development, workforce capability, and employee experience. His work has contributed to building a high-performing organisation while maintaining a balance between performance and employee support. Beyond his corporate role, he has contributed to national and industry initiatives. He led the PIKAS programme in Batu Kawan, Penang, a public-private partnership developed in collaboration with the government to support industries during a critical period. He is also actively involved in the HR community, contributing as a judge for national HR and employee experience awards. He holds an MBA and continues to focus on evolving trends in leadership and the future of work. Phoebe Pun Pei Yuen Head of HR, Radium Development Berhad Phoebe Pun Pei Yuen is Head of HR at Radium Development Berhad, with over 30 years of experience in human resources. She has played a key role in transforming HR into a strategic function within the organisation, supporting business decision-making and long-term growth. At Radium, she has led the digitisation of HR processes, reducing manual processing time by over 40% and improving efficiency and accessibility for employees. She has also strengthened learning and development frameworks, while promoting a culture of autonomy and continuous feedback. Her work has focused on talent development, internal mobility, and leadership pipeline building, contributing to improved employee engagement and retention. She has also implemented initiatives to support diversity, equity, and inclusion across different stages of employees’ careers. Phoebe is a strong advocate of holistic wellbeing, covering physical, emotional, financial, and social aspects. Beyond the organisation, she contributes to talent development and leadership building, supporting the growth of future HR leaders. Helen Snowball Chief Human Resources Officer, Thai Union Group Helen Snowball is the Chief Human Resources Officer at Thai Union Group, bringing over two decades of global leadership experience across Asia Pacific, Europe, and Australia. Known for driving large-scale business and cultural transformation, she has built a strong track record across both high-growth organisations and established global enterprises. Prior to joining Thai Union in 2026, Helen served as Chief People Officer at PropertyGuru, where she played a key role in scaling the organisation and embedding future-ready people strategies. She also spent over five years at JLL, including as Chief Human Resources Officer for Asia Pacific, where she led a team of 400+ HR professionals and supported a workforce of over 45,000 employees across 18 countries. Her work focused on aligning business strategy with innovative people solutions, enhancing employee experience, and building leadership capability at scale. Helen began her career in commercial and sales roles with Kraft Foods in the UK and Coca-Cola Amatil in Australia, before transitioning into HR leadership. This diverse background gives her a unique blend of commercial acumen, strategic vision, and digital fluency. Today, she partners closely with business leaders to shape people-first strategies that drive sustainable performance, organisational transformation, and long-term impact. Ozge Yurtsever Director, Global HR Business Partner, Corporate Functions & Global OD and Special Projects Lead | DKSH Ozge Yurtsever is the Director, Global HR Business Partner for Corporate Functions and Global OD & Special Projects Lead at DKSH. A strategic HR leader, she is known for driving large-scale transformation initiatives, enabling organisational effectiveness, and aligning people strategies with evolving business priorities. With a global career spanning EMEA, Asia, and Latin America, Ozge brings deep cross-cultural expertise across industries including pharma, FMCG, banking, and electronics. Prior to her current role, she held key leadership positions at Ferring Pharmaceuticals and Astellas Pharma, where she led regional HR strategies, talent development, and change management across complex, multi-market environments. Her work is grounded in strong business partnering, with a focus on building high-impact talent programs, strengthening leadership pipelines, and fostering employee engagement at scale. Passionate about people analytics, Ozge leverages data-driven insights to shape meaningful workforce strategies and decision-making. A certified change practitioner and organisational coach, she brings a thoughtful, analytical, and people-centric approach to shaping resilient, future-ready organisations. Hetal Doshi CEO, O-Psych Sdn Bhd | Founder of People@Work Movement Hetal Doshi is an accomplished Organizational Psychologist, Certified Professional Coach, and the CEO of O-Psych. She is also the Founder of the People@Work Movement, a national initiative focused on advancing workplace well-being through measurable and scalable solutions. With over 20 years of experience, Hetal is a highly sought-after psychological strategist and facilitator, known for applying data-driven and evidence-based approaches to large-scale organisational transformation. Her proprietary “Butterfly Effect” methodology enables rapid yet sustainable change, balancing performance with individual well-being while minimizing disruption to team dynamics. A recognised thought leader, Hetal is regularly featured across television, radio, print media, and leading leadership, HSSE, and HR conferences. Her work bridges the gap between science and practice, making well-being both actionable and impactful. At the core of her work is the People@Work Index, a first-of-its-kind, validated tool that measures psychosocial risk, employee well-being, and psychological safety within organisations. Having worked with leading organisations, including Fortune 500 companies and government-linked entities, Hetal continues to reshape how leaders understand and approach workplace well-being, making it measurable, practical, and central to business and cultural growth. Khim Tan CEO, Pinnacle Connexion Khim Tan is a recognised voice in HR, culture, and talent across Southeast Asia, with over 30 years of executive experience spanning banking, insurance, FMCG, professional services, technology, stockbroking, and retail credit. She has held senior leadership and Group HR roles at organisations such as Alliance Bank, AIA, British American Tobacco, PwC, Maybank, Courts, and TA Enterprise. Her expertise spans mergers and acquisitions, divestments, organisational and cultural transformation, succession planning, talent management, as well as HR digital and AI transformation. She is an ICF Certified Coach, a Gallup CliftonStrengths Coach, and a certified Hogan and DiSC practitioner, as well as an HRD Corp accredited trainer. She is currently pursuing a PhD focused on AI adoption, mindset, and workforce innovation performance. A frequent speaker at business and HR conferences, Khim also leads training on AI, the future of work, and culture and leadership transformation. Her recognitions include Top 10 Voices in HR, Leadership and People Strategy in Malaysia 2026, Asia’s Top 50 HR Leader 2024, Top 25 Mentor 2023, Top 10 CHROs in APAC 2022, along with multiple honours across Southeast Asia for HR leadership. Shameem Farouk Adjunct Professor, Asia Pacific University of Technology & Innovation (APU) Dr. Shameem Farouk has over 20 years of experience in Human Capital management across major Southeast Asian corporations in industries including financial services and telecommunications. She previously served as Executive Vice President and Human Capital Director at a leading regional financial institution, where she led large-scale workforce transformation and the democratization of artificial intelligence (AI) and technology capabilities. She has pioneered several AI-driven initiatives, including the development of a generative AI decision-support model for sales teams, enabling broader access to strategic insights traditionally limited to senior leaders and consultants. She has also led enterprise-wide AI upskilling efforts, where over 50% of certified participants were women, many from non-STEM backgrounds, reflecting her strong commitment to advancing diversity and inclusion in technology. Beyond her corporate leadership, Dr. Farouk has contributed to shaping Malaysia’s Financial Sector Future Skills Framework and has introduced innovative learning methodologies to build future-ready capabilities. She is an active global speaker on digital transformation and AI in the workforce, including at Harvard Business School and other international platforms. Dr. Farouk is a U.S. Department of State Fulbright Research Fellow and conducted research on workforce transformation at INSEAD in San Francisco. She holds a Doctorate in Education specializing in Human Performance Technology, as well as an MBA and a Master of Science in Education, all from Indiana University.

Naaman Lee, Chief Operating Officer, explores how JurisTech built a high-performance AI lending tech culture where innovation, compliance, and people-first values come together to drive meaningful impact across the financial ecosystem. | April 2026 Edition The Happiness Perspective Innovation thrives within clear guardrails Real-world impact drives deeper motivation Diverse thinking fuels stronger solutions Culture must scale without losing care Speed works best when balanced with support Leadership connection builds trust at all levels Growth is strongest when opportunity is internal Naaman Lee, Chief Operating Officer, JurisTech The AI lending tech industry operates at a relentless pace, where evolving technologies and regulatory frameworks demand both agility and precision. At JurisTech, this balance is intentionally designed, creating an environment where innovation thrives within clearly defined boundaries, allowing employees to experiment while staying aligned with the discipline required in financial services. Creating Space for Innovation with Structure JurisTech believes innovation needs the right environment to grow. As Naaman explains, the company is continuously working towards building a holistic workspace, including a large-scale office refresh designed to foster creativity and inspiration. This creative freedom is balanced with strict operational guardrails. With adherence to regulatory standards such as Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) requirements for data handling and privacy, the organisation ensures innovation does not come at the cost of compliance. Rigorous project execution and strong quality control systems reinforce this balance. Equally important is the emphasis on trust and wellbeing. Teams are encouraged to recharge through quarterly budgets allocated for relaxation and team bonding. Anchored in the company’s GECO values: Growing Heroes, Excellence as a Habit, Customer First, and Opening Up, JurisTech has built a culture where employees feel empowered to innovate responsibly. We want every employee to feel the real-world impact of their work, not just as output, but as contribution to economies and people’s lives. Connecting Work to Real-World Impact While millions interact with digital banking platforms daily, the teams behind these systems often remain unseen. JurisTech addresses this by consistently connecting employees to the tangible impact of their work. Town hall gatherings and Annual Dinners tie recognition directly to measurable business outcomes, often sharing real client appreciation so employees hear gratitude firsthand. These moments reinforce the value of their contributions. Beyond internal recognition, the company highlights its broader role in powering financial ecosystems across the region. JurisTech supports governmental organisations in improving credit default rates, enabling more people to access loans and financial opportunities. By sharing such stories, employees see their work not just as technical output, but as meaningful contributions to society. Turning Diversity into Collaboration The AI lending tech environment brings together engineers, financial specialists, data scientists, and product teams. At JurisTech, this diversity is embraced through what Naaman describes as “radical cultural acceptance,” creating a strong mix of perspectives. This diversity leads to what is often seen as a productive “collision of ideas,” where different viewpoints drive innovation. To ensure these perspectives translate into effective collaboration, the organisation invests in strong team-bonding. Initiatives such as the Juris Olympics, game nights, after-work fitness sessions, and hackathons help employees connect beyond work. These shared experiences build trust and camaraderie, making it easier for teams to challenge each other constructively and solve complex problems together. Scaling Without Losing the Human Touch Rapid growth often puts pressure on culture. For JurisTech, scaling from 200 to 400 employees tested its ability to maintain a deeply personalised approach. Historically, the organisation focused on understanding employees at an individual level, supporting both professional and personal needs. As the company grew, maintaining this level of care required deliberate effort from leadership. Management reinforced expectations for leaders to continue this approach, ensuring employees still felt seen and supported. Leaders invested significant time in understanding team members, even during demanding processes such as performance reviews. This phase confirmed that personalised care is not a temporary initiative, but a core part of the organisation’s culture. Balancing Speed with Support In a fast-moving industry, sustaining performance without overwhelming employees is essential. JurisTech addresses this through structured leadership practices and intentional connection. Weekly leadership meetings ensure alignment and enable quick decision-making, allowing the organisation to respond effectively to changing demands. At the same time, initiatives such as the “Top Box Table” create space for meaningful engagement. These informal sessions, hosted by the C-suite, bring together high-potential employees and those needing encouragement, offering a platform for open conversations. Even as the company moves at speed, leaders take time to listen and connect. This balance reinforces that while the organisation continues to push fintech boundaries, it remains grounded in supporting its people. A Culture That Feels Personal For anyone experiencing JurisTech firsthand, the most striking aspect is its sense of warmth. Despite its scale, the organisation maintains a culture with minimal hierarchy and strong interpersonal connection. Employees are supported through well-being initiatives and structured onboarding that encourages immediate teambonding. This creates a sense of belonging from the outset. Internal mobility is another defining feature. Many leaders, including members of the C-suite, began as interns or trainees. The organisation actively promotes from within, recognising potential early and providing opportunities for growth. This combination of care, opportunity, and trust creates a workplace that feels both dynamic and deeply personal, a rare balance in a fast-paced AI lending tech environment.