Speech by Minister of State for Manpower Foo Cexiang at the 19th Singapore HR Awards Gala Dinner and Ceremony

Foo Cexiang, Minister of State for Manpower , Ritz-Carlton, Millenia Singapore

SHRI President Ms Low Peck Kem,

SHRI CEO Mr Alvin Goh,

Distinguished Guests,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

1.         It is my great pleasure to join you at the 19th Singapore HR Awards Presentation Gala.

2.         Tonight is a celebration of excellence. But it is also an opportunity to recognise work that is not always visible but always valued.

3.         Across our economy, HR professionals are helping your organisations. For those of you working in multinationals, you may be redesigning roles across markets, across regions. For those of you working in SMEs, you may be building ecosystems while juggling many other responsibilities. In the public and social sectors, you may be strengthening capabilities while staying true to a larger mission.

4.         Each of us operate under different contexts, but all our work has a common purpose. You help organisations improve. You help workers build skills and careers. You help leaders change culture, especially when change is so difficult. And all of this happens quietly, one conversation, one decision and one worker at a time.

5.         While the rest of the world often celebrate the visible outcomes: stronger performance growth, transformation, good employee engagement; Tonight, we want to recognise the heart work behind the hard work, and the people behind the people.

A New Inflexion Point

6.         Work has always mattered across time. But I believe we are now at a critical inflexion point.

7.         AI is not just another tool that’s arriving in the workplace. It is changing how work is done all over the world. It is also changing which capabilities organisations value. It can unlock new sources of productivity and growth, but it will certainly unsettle workers who wonder: Will my job still exist? Will my experience still count? Will I continue to be valued and relevant?

8.         These questions will be answered not by machines, but by people’s choices. What organisations choose to automate, how we redesign our jobs, where we redeploy our people and whether workers are given real pathways to grow.

9.         These are people decisions that place HR professionals at the forefront of this AI revolution. You will help leaders connect business transformation with people transformation and help workers emerge stronger from the change.

What Each Technological Age Asked of Us

10.       One way to perhaps think about this moment that we are at together, is to consider what each technological age has enhanced in humans.

11.       In the Agricultural Age, human brawn and strength mattered greatly. Our ability to work the land and endure physical labour shaped livelihoods and progress.

12.       We move to the Industrial Age, when machines amplified strength, and human dexterity and precision became more valuable. People learned to operate equipment, master processes and produce at scale.

13.       In the Knowledge Age, memory and cognitive skills increasingly became more important, so the ability to acquire information, analyse it and apply specialised knowledge created value.

14.       Now, as we enter the AI Age, machines can retrieve information, recognise patterns and generate answers at extraordinary speed. So, what becomes of human? Which part of human is elevated? Which part of human is more important now?

15.       My view is that in this AI Age, the part of human that can be uplifted and elevated is the human spirit itself. Because it is something that no machines will ever have. It is the human spirit that will give value to the qualities and the core of being human: compassion to understand another person, creativity to imagine what does not yet exist, collaboration to bring people together, and last but not least, judgement to choose not only what can be done, but what should be done and what should not be done.

16.       But this will not happen automatically. It is precisely because machines will not be able to do all this that they will only happen by the design of people, and people at the centre.

17.       Not everyone views AI with optimism. There will be people among us that view AI with a good view of healthy scepticism. Workers worry whether their experience will continue to matter. Managers may also wonder whether investing in people will slow transformation. And as HR professionals, you may feel that you are being asked to solve more and more complex challenges. These concerns are understandable. They are precisely why HR matters more in the AI Age, not less. 

18.       When technology can perform a task faster and at lower cost, is it realistic to preserve learning and development opportunities? It must be. Because the workers who exercise judgement tomorrow need opportunities to learn today. Otherwise, we may save time now, we may even save costs now, but we will weaken how expertise is formed.

19.       HR must therefore help organisations decide what should be automated, what should be augmented and what must remain deeply human.

A Renewed Purpose for HR

20.       This brings me to the renewed purpose of the profession: to bring out the best in every worker, with workers at the heart of every transformation.

21.       Last week at the People Behind People Forum, our challenge is to ensure that AI-led growth continues to create meaningful work and stronger careers. Greater productivity should enlarge what workers can learn, contribute and become.

22.       Workers will not judge transformation by how many AI tools an organisation deploys even if they may be very interested in the free premium AI programmes at the start. Ultimately, they will judge transformation by whether they have gained from the skills, broader responsibilities and most of all, better career prospects. That is the human test of transformation.

23.       For this to happen, HR must be present before technology and business decisions harden, to ask what the new operating model means for workers: what capabilities will matter, what experiences will be built and what new pathways can be created for our workers.

The Capabilities HR Must Build

24.       For HR professionals to fulfil this renewed purpose, I will suggest four important capabilities. Together, these capabilities point to a different vision of HR leadership: professionally grounded, close to the business and deeply attentive to how people learn, grow and experience change.

25.       First, strong professional foundations and an ethical compass: the certification. It is a baseline of trust, it is a baseline of commitment. It is important because as all of us know, HR decisions can alter the lives of working people and their families. So technical competence is important as is the judgement to make decisions, then explain difficult choices honestly, and preserve trust through change.

26.       Second, the ability to bridge the business and the human. An effective HR leader must understand where the organisation is headed and what change will demand of its people. Your value lies in bringing these perspectives together before decisions are made, so that business progress but more importantly, the human progresses as well.

27.       Third, the ability to redesign jobs without designing away learning. Experienced workers already have context when they use AI. They already know the dynamics within the organisations. They already know the patterns of the stakeholders and the partners. But someone new will not. If technology takes over every foundational task, what will the next generation rely on to acquire the craft, instincts and judgement that all of you have today? So, we must give the next generation this equal chance and success.

28.       HR must play a vanguard role here. We must protect opportunities for new entrants to practise core skills, learn from experienced colleagues and take on greater complexity over time.

29.       Fourth, the ability to lead change with trust and humanity. This is something that all HR professionals already do today, that becomes even more important tomorrow. Listening honestly, communicating clearly and helping people see where they fit in the future with compassion, creativity and collaboration.

30.       These capabilities can be first picked up in courses, but they will only become expertise when HR professionals spend time close to operations, understand how value is created and carry responsibility beyond the HR function. Business leaders will become better leaders when they understand how people acquire skills, experience change and build careers.

Celebrating Our Human Champions

31.       This is why tonight's awards is so important. They recognise professionals and organisations that are already raising the quality of leadership.

32.       I want to congratulate SHRI for playing this important role. By working with your overseas partners, you have helped to align the capabilities that HR professionals need.

33.       Tonight, we celebrate Ms Aileen Tan, Group Chief People and Sustainability Officer of Singtel, on receiving the Georges Petitpas Award.

34.       At Singtel, Aileen has championed professional standards and the development of People and Culture professionals. Beyond Singtel, she has also helped establish Singapore's national HR certification framework, strengthening professionalism and credibility of the HR community. So she has uplifted not just Singtel, but Singapore. Thank you very much, Aileen.

Closing: Bring Out the Best in Our People

35.       To all our award recipients, my heartiest congratulations. Your achievements remind us that the best HR work is not only about systems, policies or processes. It is about what becomes possible because someone saw the potential in another person.

36.       Now, the entire profession has a profound opportunity to shape workplaces where technology amplifies the best of the human spirit, compassion guides change, creativity opens new possibilities, collaboration brings people forward together, and every worker has a place, a pathway and a purpose.

37.       Technology may define this age. But whether it becomes an age that enlarges human potential will depend on the choices that we make. Few professions will have a greater influence on those choices than yours.

38.       That is the renewed purpose of HR: to bring out the best in our workers, with workers always at the heart.

39.       Thank you.