5 Key Takeaways from the "Skills in Demand at Workplace for Now and Future" Webinar

Charlene Tan (Regional Sales Director, Workday), Pei Woan WoNg (Director of Presales Consultant, Workday), Simon Ma (ASEAN Regional Sales Director, ServiceNow), Melissa Ng (Senior Talent Acquisition Partner, ServiceNow)

In an era of disruption, it has become a must for individuals to upskill to remain adaptable and relevant to the changing nature of work. As the world of work continues to evolve, how can you stand out from the top talents in the workplace of tomorrow?

In this webinar session hosted by SkillsFuture Singapore and Workforce Singapore "Skills in Demand at Workplace for Now and Future", we compiled key takeaways discussed by Sales, Technology and HR professionals Pei Woan, Charlene, Simon and Melissa as they exchanged perspectives on what organisations look out for in potential hires.

Read on to find out the skills that are critical to help you stand out, along with useful insights to identify the right organisation to work for.

1. Owning A Growth Mindset

According to Harvard Business Review, individuals with a growth mindset are those who believe that their talents can be developed through hard work, group work strategies, and input from others. They tend to put extra energy into learning and are on the lookout to improve themselves.

If you are looking to have a ‘growth zone’ mentality, Charlene, Regional Sales Director from Workday shared about the importance of identifying your trigger points when facing challenges. Adding on, Pei Woan, Director of Presales Consultant from Workday also stressed the need to develop a curious mind and staying open to opportunities.

“Finding out what triggers you at work and learning how to talk back to these trigger points, to persuade it to collaborate as you pursue challenging goals is crucial.” In fact, she encouraged individuals to go beyond asking “why?”, and instead question “why not?” when faced with a difficult situation at work.

Takeaway: Owning a growth mindset is a valued characteristic and a skill that can be learnt. When asked how people managers actually assess if a candidate has a growth mindset, both Charlene and Pei Woan revealed that situational questions are generally an effective gauge.

Questions such as how one overcomes a work adversity or performs a difficult task helps in determining how the candidate thinks and solves problems. Other factors include a willingness to reinvent in order to keep up with the market and a general openness to learn.

2. Having An Entrepreneurial Spirit

Individuals with an entrepreneurial spirit are what people managers like Charlene look out for. This does not mean that the individuals are necessarily entrepreneurs. Instead, they are people who challenge the norm, own original opinions, and have the ability to move discussions forward.

As leadership guru and motivational speaker Simon Sinek puts it, ‘Innovation is not born from the dream, innovation is born from the struggle.’ To this, Charlene related how facing an adversity head-on is an important trait commonly found among high performers. Generally, these individuals do not shy away from challenges. Not one to wallow in self-pity or cower to fear, they tend to roll up their sleeves, keep an open mind, and come up with creative solutions to overcome obstacles.

Continuing on, Pei Woan used an example of one such high performer in the Workday team to illustrate her point. She described this person as a highly capable employee with an active contribution at work, but he did not stop just there. Seeing an opportunity to do things differently, he managed to put together a business plan to the management and volunteered to drive it to success. Because of his entrepreneurial spirit, the plan came to pass. Not only did he become a highly recognised star performer, he went on to become the main liaison between Asia Pacific, Japan and her headquarters, heading five regions in total.

Takeaway: Having an entrepreneurial spirit means constantly being on a lookout for opportunities to present yourself. Do not rest on your laurels and wait for opportunities to drop. Instead, go out and create them for yourself! While it is important to have digital and other hard skills, having an innovative spirit is something machines can never replicate.

[What soft skills are organisations looking for? Check out the 16 Critical Core Skills developed and introduced as part of the Singapore Skills Framework]

3. Finding The Right Culture Fit

It is no secret that culture is considered to be the most important factor in an employee’s success and longevity at work. As people managers, both Pei Woan and Charlene highlighted how they have always been told to evaluate the type of cultural impact new hires will have on their organisation. Culture fit is based on the alignment of values, beliefs and behaviours between the employee, and their supervisors or employer.

“If we hire somebody with a lot of credentials but that person isn’t a good cultural fit, it is going to create a toxic, unproductive environment. This, in turn, is going to impact not just my team but also the entire company,” she said. Instead, attributes such as emotional quotient and social intelligence are valued moreover one’s qualifications and achievements.

Takeaway: When looking for opportunities and attending interviews, do prior research by visiting the company’s website and refer to their core values and mission statement to gather relevant information. Beyond that, take time to go the extra mile by checking the news or go on YouTube to watch the leaders of the organisation. Their speeches will often provide you with a better understanding of the company culture and help you assess if it is a good fit.

[Are you a good organisation fit? Use our RIASEC profiling tool to assess your career values here.]

4. Leveraging On Soft Skills To Stand Out

As a Senior Talent Acquisition Partner at ServiceNow, Melissa shared about how making tough decisions is part and parcel of her role. When it comes to moving candidates to the next round, how does she decide who is a good fit when every candidate is equally competent? In such cases, she revealed soft skills is what triumphs over hard skills. Putting it shortly, she explained, “Soft skills are essentially about showcasing your storytelling, problem-solving, collaboration and communication ability.”

While hard skills are crucial, Melissa has witnessed over her years in recruitment how the job market has tightened. “It is a common sight to see many qualified candidates armed with the right technical skills vying for the same role,” she said. Adding on, Melissa shared about how past candidates, who were competent, did not continue into the next stage of the interview largely due to their lack in communication skills. “It’s about the way you tell your story!” she quipped. The ability to narrate how you have grown as an individual, using scenarios that bring out strengths such as collaboration, problem-solving skills are points to help you score well in an interview.

Takeaway: Honing your soft skills is what will help you to get ahead of the pack. As with all other skill sets, effective communication requires practice. Consider working with a career coach or friend to improve your interview skills to bring out your strengths and uniqueness.

[Looking to hone up your soft skills? Get started with your SkillsFuture Credit now!]

5. Embracing Change Is Key

Tapping on Melissa’s sentiments regarding soft skills, Simon, director of ASEAN Regional Sales at ServiceNow highlighted one more important skill - the ability to adapt. If change is the only constant, it is happening rapidly in this era of disruption. He urged individuals to continue learning every day to cope with change, and fit into new roles when the opportunity arises.

“Beyond reading a book, or even upskilling, it’s about how coachable you are as an individual,” he said. The willingness to adapt stems from being curious and having a mindset that is eager to learn.

Simon emphasised the need to always challenge oneself to rethink, learn and inspect old ways of doing things to stay current. “As someone who comes from tech, we are an industry who’s at the forefront of disruption. Hard skills such as programming languages can easily be obsolete in a few years. If I do not brush up on both my hard and soft skills, I will easily lag behind,” he shared.

Takeaway: Having an open mindset towards change will enable you to stay current. Learn to take control of your career and remain adaptable with these 3Es: Expanding your network, Enrich yourself with skills and lastly, Execute your goals by working on your strengths and gaps.

Based on these five key takeaways, we hope you would gain a better insight on how you can differentiate yourself from the rest and stay current in the workplace of tomorrow. If you are interested to find out more of such skills-related or thematic sectorial webinars, visit Skills & Advisory Training Services.

Alternatively, you can subscribe to the latest recorded webinars and other updates on our SkillsFuture Singapore YouTube Channel!

About the speakers

Charlene Tan (Regional Sales Director, Workday)

Charlene is the Sales Director for Workday, a leading provider of enterprise cloud Human Capital Management(HCM) and Financial Management (FIN) applications to more than 45% of Fortune 500. She provides leadership and direction for Workday’s growth in Singapore, building an authentic partnership with customers and the wider ecosystem. Passionate about people, she firmly believes that long term partnership is forged with putting people (workmates, customers) at the center of everything with an unflinching focus on their success. With more than 17 years of experience in the Technology Industry, her experience spans across multiple business applications like Human Capital Management, Financial Management, Customer Relationship Management and partnering with many organizations as they transform from on-premise to cloud. Charlene holds a degree from University of Bradford, Bachelor of Science (Honors), Business and Management Studies Marketing.

Pei Woan Wong (Director of Presales Consultant, Workday)

Armed with a Computer Science degree, Pei Woan was passionate about coding and planning to settle in a programming role upon graduation. Her first job landed her in the HR world at a large conglomerate and since then, she has never looked back. For 15 years, she built her career deep in the discipline of Human Capital Management (HMC) and Technology recommending and managing transformation projects across organisations. She currently manages a team of Human Capital Management (HCM) and technology solution consultants at Workday for Asia and constantly sets internal benchmarks in team management and performance. She believes that success is built upon teamwork and high trust and is a huge advocate for collaboration across lines of business. As part of her leadership portfolio, Pei Woan also chairs the Field Innovation Champions for Customer Experience team across Asia Pacific and Japan.

Simon Ma (ASEAN Regional Sales Director, ServiceNow)

Having been in the Tech industry for more than 11 years and exposed to a diverse set of organisations across the SEA region, Simon is intimately involved in the digital initiatives organisations have taken to transform their businesses across different tech domains like Cloud and Data Analytics.

Simon is currently the ASEAN Regional Sales Director for ServiceNow, a company focused on making the world of work, work better for people by delivering workflows that create great experiences and unlock productivity. In his capacity as the sales leader of the region, his team is actively involved in helping businesses drive digital strategies that transform the way they service their customers and employees. ServiceNow has 6,200+ customers, serves ~80% of the Fortune 500 and is on the 2020 list of FORTUNE World's Admired Companies®.

Simon made a career change into the tech industry 11 years ago and has not looked back since. Passionate about leadership and coaching, he volunteers his time in coaching and mentoring the youths looking to enter the industry.

Melissa Ng (Senior Talent Acquisition Partner, ServiceNow)

Melissa has spent most of her career recruiting top talent across Asia. She is currently responsible for hiring in the ASEAN and North Asia teams, with the majority of roles based in Singapore. Melissa has a strong passion for driving headcount growth and spotting top talent.