HR chief advises life-long learning to cope with fast-changing world
A change in mindset is key to fostering the appropriate work culture for the workforce across different generational groups, a human resources professional said.
Enabling staff of previous generations to work harmoniously with those from the new generation has now become a new challenge for all HR personnel, Sarinra Wongsuppaluk, chief human resources officer at True Corporation, said on Friday.
Sarinra, who is responsible for overseeing over 10,000 employees in her company, noted that the "new gens”, encompassing Generation Z (born between 1996 – 2010) and younger, as well as older generations, possesses different strengths: the older generations have the wealth of experience, while the new generations are creative and digitally savvy.
“The old mindset that the new generations are here to replace them needs to change. Instead they should work in a spirit of co-creating, something essential to have the appropriate work culture,” she said.
The number of people working for True multiplied sharply last year when the telecom giant merged with its former rival, Total Access Communication Pcl, better known as DTAC.
Sarinra said the great majority of employees, 70 per cent, were Generation Y (born between 1981 and 1996), followed by Gen X 30% (1965 to 1980), and Gen Z 10%.
She revealed that her firm’s initiative “True Next Gen” provided youngsters with opportunities to take part in developing the company’s strategies.
The human capital specialist noted that with technology playing a more significant role nowadays, those fresh faces could help impart technological adaptability to others in the organisation.
She urged all her workers to devote themselves to life-long learning and to be keen to upskill and reskill their technological knowledge so that they would not be left out from the fast-changing society.
Of greater concern is a study, “Adult Skills Assessment in Thailand”, conducted by the World Bank, which showed that Thais still lacked digital literacy.
Covering people aged 15-64 across the kingdom’s six regions, the study said 74.1 per cent of participants had poor digital skills – those who have difficulty using digital devices and cannot perform simple tasks like finding the correct price of an item on an online sales website.
The research, conducted in 2022 but released recently, also suggested that the Thai government improve the quality of the education system to enhance human capital and create an ecosystem that supports sustainable investments in digital skills.
