Increasing local competitiveness through global HR practices the BAT way

Visiting Sri Lanka for the third time, British American Tobacco (BAT) Regional Director Human Resources for Asia Pacific, Andrea Nemeth was here last week to transition and update the Ceylon Tobacco Company (CTC) on the new HR processes embraced globally by the group.

With Sri Lanka being one of her stops in the Asia region, and having been on the go for three weeks at a stretch; Nemeth expressed how she wishes to spend more time in the beautiful island which she calls a friendly place to be in.

Having grown as a professional and as a person with BAT, which the second largest tobacco company in the world, Nemeth calls it her one and only work place.

Despite a very busy schedule, Nemeth took time out for an interview with the Daily FT on HR; the difference it creates, the group’s other operational regions, room for improvement in the local scenario and much more. Following are excerpts:

By Shabiya Ali Ahlam

Q: What brings you to Sri Lanka this time?

A: I am here because the South Asian HR team is having a session here where a large group of HR members are getting together for training purposes as well as to talk about priorities that need to be focused on. For us South Asia is a critical cluster from a business and talent perspective. I must add that I am always happy to be in Sri Lanka and South Asia in general.

Q: How has your experience with BAT been so far?

A: This year I will be marking 20 years with the company. Soon after my graduation I joined BAT in 1993 in Hungary. That was a very exciting time since that was when BAT just acquired a local company in that region. It was also the time when all the BAT HR practices were introduced.

I was working in different HR positions for the factory and other corporate functions as well. In 1999 I was appointed as the HR Director for BAT Hungary and soon after that, three years to be exact, I had a cross functional move because I felt that it is important to broaden my experience.

In 2004 I went back to HR since there was an exciting role available in the group house in London, UK. The role was focusing on leadership and culture where there were many interesting activities in performance management, leadership development, change management, and different culture initiatives. At that time I also had accountabilities for the Latin American region, so I travelled a lot to provide consultancy and other services for the region.

In 2009, I came to the Asia Pacific region for the first time where I became the HR director for the business in Japan. That was a very exciting experience.

And just two years ago I was appointed as regional head for HR. It has been quite a journey where I grew with the company. Throughout my career, I have been with BAT. As a persona and as a professional, I have certainly learnt a lot. It is my one and only company.

Q: Being the second largest tobacco company in the world, what is the global presence of BAT in terms of HR?

A: We have about 55 thousand employees across the globe. Asia is definitely one of the biggest regions in terms of the number of employees. More than 17,000 people we have in our books in Asia Pacific and it nicely mirrors the importance of the region in terms of the business growth that we expect.

There are quite a few countries that we are best employer. In the markets we try to create a very conducive and exciting working environment for our people. The value proposition we offer is very compelling as it is a great company with a very long and good track record in terms of business and financial performance, in addition to extending international career and development opportunities. Most importantly we have leaders who take it very seriously to develop their teams and give people the opportunity to grow.

Q: In your opinion, what is the role of HR in the businesses of today?

A: In general, there are a couple of roles that have not changed in terms of the talent pipeline providing a competitive, sustainable, and strong talent partner in the business. I think it is very important and critical to create a very supportive and energising environment for employees. I think what has changed in the past, possibly the past five or six years after the financial crisis, is that organisations are going through massive changes in terms of globalisation and restructuring. Based on what I have just mentioned, I feel that the role of HR is extremely critical to provide change support. When I say change support, I mean for the leaders, for them to understand how to create a compelling vision and ways of mobilising these.

For employees, when things are changing, they have to learn how to cope with the ongoing. They have to understand the values of the organisation and what will not change. They need to know the glue that will keep the organisation together.

HR plays the role where we have to communicate how our company is a very exciting and a rewarding place to work in.

Q: Based on experience, are there any difference in HR practices when comparing the east from the west?

A: I think the ambitions are typically very similar. It terms of how you go about it certainly differs. Doing HR in Japan or Korea is very different from the practices that you would use in other parts of Asia. At a distance, Asia is one big block if you look at it from a western perspective. However, I feel that within Asia there are quite a few diverse set of cultures. My experience is that people in Asia, in general, tend to be a lot more collaborative where they focus on working together. Sometimes when we try and drive changes, we attempt to give recognition to people. In some cultures, people like to get recognised individually, but in Asia, it is preferred to be recognised as teams. This is probably because they feel that they were a part of it together.

The other possible difference is that, people in Asia spend a bit more of their time and energy to build a solid foundation during the early years of their careers. In some of the other cultures, it is noted that they prefer to reach height within a short period. I would say that in this region, people are willing to invest in the early stages to learn, which would then allow them to grow faster later in their career.

Q: Focusing on the Asia Pacific, what is your view of the talent in the region?

A: On average what I can state is that in Asia Pacific, at least in BAT and unfortunately in other multinational companies, the talent representation is not very high as the business representation. In Asia, which is a growth engine for many multinationals, when you look at how many Asian colleagues are there in the management board or senior leadership teams, then the answer is that it is not as much as we would like it to be.

One of the ambitions for us in BAT for the Asia Pacific is that we want to increase the representation of Asian talents in our senior ranks.

If I look at the different talent hubs in the region, Australia certainly tops the list because of its school system and basically how the people are groomed. The natures of businesses there are well established.

The other very big talent hub for us is Asia. This is because the language skills and the education system provide a very strong foundation. In addition to this, the drive and energy people have, we can say there is quality talent here.

Also the businesses we have in South Asia gives a lot of opportunity to learn in different aspects. Currently we have about 50 people, and from Sri Lanka alone about 20 who are working in our centres in other regions.

In markets such as Japan and Korea, we still struggle a bit in terms of attracting and developing high calibre talent.

Q: What has your experience been of Asians as global leaders?

A: I think that there is a new generation of upcoming Asian leaders where they are typically highly driven and ambitious, in the right sense. They are not arrogant but have the assertiveness to express their views. They bring a lot of solid skills, competencies, knowledge and experience. They can speak from experience and not just from textbooks. I also see that they are very willing to enhance their skills. The willingness to learn is very high comparing to other regions.

Q: What is your opinion on the Sri Lankan talent pool for BAT global operations? Is there room for improvement?

A: It is a good talent pool. The business here itself provides the opportunity on how to do tobacco business. The drive is also there. What we have lost in the more developed parts of the world is the appetite for learning and growing. People are mobile, they are willing to relocate and be exposed to other markets.

What possibly would need to be further improved, especially in this case where the market position is strong, the people cannot learn how to operate in a more competitive market environment. Therefore it is critical for those who are taking senior positions in CTC to have experience in other markets to learn how to remain competitive.

Also I see that some people find it difficult to work in a more ambiguous environment where processes are not laid out. There is room for improvement there.

Q: Looking at BAT as an employer, is there anything that you are doing different to capture and retain talent?

A: What we possible do differently comparing to what we did 10 or 15 years ago is that there is a wider range of techniques to reach out to different audiences. Also there is a better balance. In the past decade we focused more on graduate recruitment and very rarely focused on bringing in talents for senior ranks. There is an appreciation for bringing in lots of fresh talent from the universities and we have them groomed through our management trainee program. More often it happens now that we bring in people from other businesses to bring in new ideas and different ways of looking at the business. In terms of target audience there is a better balance.

Our employer brand has also changed over the years. When we were graduate-focused, it was through campuses, and agencies. As the e-generation is growing, we need to flex our approach.

We are spending more time and effort on e-recruitment at the moment, and we finally have a platform for it where we have just implemented it. This provides a lot easier platform to learn about the job opportunities that we have in store.

The employee referrals are also happening a lot more often. From an employer brand perspective, we are looking for a better ambassador than who is already working for the company.

Q: How is BAT coping with the new HR trends and how are they localised?

A: For a multinational company it is always a barrier to find a right balance. What happens is that for most critical HR policies, we have global ways. When it comes to performance management and how we manage the careers of our employees and other elements, we have global guide lines.

Where the localisation comes in is when we try to embed these processes. How do we get the employees excited about the way things are done? We have to find a way to keep them enthusiastic about the process, while at the core it remains the same. We try to make sure that around the region, all employees of BAT have the same employee experience.

Q: What are barriers do you face when localising practices?

A: The barriers are not to change the practices drastically while understand the local culture and context. It is important to note what works best in a particular culture versus what may create a negative experience.

Q: What is your vision for BAT in the Asia Pacific region?

A: I would like HR to be a strong business partner for BAT. We want to fuel the growth in this region. If our team could understand the business context and provide relevant and meaningful solutions for our line managers, this is what I would like to see every day so that people will feel that they are making an impact towards the progress of the company.

Q: What does it take to be a part of BAT?

A: There are quite a few things that we look for. Going back to our guiding principles, I think enterprising spirit is definitely one. We do enjoy working with people who are willing to challenge the status quo and are will to come up with great new ideas. Also we look for those who have some resilience because we are facing significant challenges day in and day out.

And definitely those who are open-minded, have autonomy and are willing to take over responsibility.

 Pix by Lasantha Kumara