Norlida (Oli) Azmi is the Group Chief People Officer of Axiata Group Berhad, driving the Group’s People Strategy in line with Axiata’s vision of becoming The Next Generation Digital Champion. She also serves as a Non-Independent Non-Executive Director (Nominee of Axiata Group Berhad) on edotco Group. Oli strongly advocates DE&I, digital, agile, and total well-being. She actively mentors and coaches young talents and aspiring leaders on various platforms. Most recently, Norlida joined a community of prominent industry leaders as Adjunct Professor for Organisational Behaviour and Leadership at UNITAR International University’s Graduate School.

1. What are some of the major challenges and trends that have been impacting the HR Industry lately?

As the world returns to some normalcy, albeit major external disruptions, be they socio-political or environmental, the effectiveness of leaders and managers in the changing ways of working is key–for them to effectively implement the actions for people first as well as drive productivity and ultimately business results. Key traits of leadership being called upon are empathy, resilience, the ability to communicate openly, cultural sensitivity, and courage. Another is the focus on mental well-being, which underlines the importance of care and wellness for our people and the overall employee experience across all the HR touchpoints.  The future of work, be it our ways of working or technology shaping our new operating models - with the right people at the right levels of competencies and capacities is another key trend and challenge.

2. What keeps you up at night when it comes to some of the major predicaments in the HR Industry?

For me, how do we build and sustain the excitement within our people, so they remain engaged and motivated to deliver at their highest capabilities and potential?

The change in our Ways of Working to ensure an integrated workforce of those who work in the office and remotely is as much a progressive move towards supporting our people’s desire for flexibility and agility as it is also a key challenge. Ensuring our people managers are equipped with the skills to manage this distributed way of working and still able to drive collaboration and ideation. And how to ensure that the Axiata Culture, we term a Winning Culture based on our 2 principles of Uncompromising Integrity and Exceptional Performance, continues to be embedded in our people’s behavior and conduct.

The Great Resignation or The Great Reshuffle has not spared us. Though we are fortunate that our talent brand is strong enough to bring new talents into our Group, there is still a period of acculturation for new joiners.  During this period, we have had our good people stepping up during these vacancies to ensure that there has not been a disruption to our business or a dilution of our corporate goals. However, with mental and physical well-being being very key today in what people are looking for, we also don’t want these people who are loyal and committed to us to be adversely impacted.  This includes key leadership departures, and these transitions need to be managed very closely and emphatically with clear, consistent, and frequent communication by those in acting capacities or by the ‘informal’ leaders.

The other key element for me is how fast we are upskilling and reskilling our people so that they can deliver effectively.  We are in an industry that is rapidly transforming by quantum leaps. Our customers out there are demanding more innovative products and services that build in new technology and sustainability features.  Learning journeys are also different today, and the outcomes are not always easily demonstratable or measurable.