[EXCERPT] April Wan, Razer's Global Head of HR, shares her FY2022 takeaways and her take for FY2023

2022 turned out to be a year like no other. Aligned with better management of COVID-19 pandemic, the year saw the resumption of pre-COVID activities and the easing of border control. 2022 also saw organizations battered with economic headwinds, resulting in an onslaught of retrenchment exercises that plague the technology sector and beyond.

April Wan, Razer’s Global Head of Human Resources, spoke at the Workday? Customer Appreciation Event Fireside Chat on January 31st to share her key takeaways from 2022 and how Razer will maneuver 2023 given the challenging economic climate and the intensifying war for talents.

Below is the excerpt of her sharing.

Q: Returning the workforce to the office and introducing mobility have been some of the key topics HR teams right across the globe have been dealing with in FY2022. We have also seen the advent of gig work or short-term talent placement. What has been Razer's strategy to attract, retain, and grow talent?

A: “Razer prides itself to be not just a great place to work but also a place to do great work.

As a place to do great work, we are obsessed with results and innovation that enables us to be a true leader in the gaming industry. This means a steep learning curve with global exposure, providing growth opportunities in personal and professional skillsets.  As a great place to work, we continue to invest in our People & Culture practices to create a conducive environment and enriching experience.

These have been our main proposition to attract like-minded talents who are hungry to push their own boundaries and create meaningful impact in what we do for the global gaming community.

In retaining talents, we need to first acknowledge the winter that the technology industry is experiencing since 2022. This definitely had a profound impact in retaining our talents as we saw our team riddled with uncertainty.

Our strategy was really focused on being open and transparent about what is going on in the industry and how it has impacted us as an organization and as a team. We amplified leadership communications, providing directions and clarity for the path ahead. We turned our focus on short-term wins that will bolster our resilience during these trying times. We celebrated our success stories through our recognition programs and leadership messages to provide the much-needed assurance that we were progressing as an organization.

We were probably one of the early adopters in returning to the office on a full-time basis, being clear that in-person collaboration is necessary to build connection and support our bias for execution, where decisions can be made swiftly.

As the last piece to the puzzle, we also rolled out a slew of people manager enablement programs, providing our managers with skills and tools that enhances employee experience and development throughout the employee life cycle, in addition to the global organizational programs.

All in all, these enables us to gain the trust and confidence from our employees, which had helped our endeavors in attracting and retaining our talents.”

Q: Looking ahead from consumer and retail marketplace, what is Razer's approach during continued uncertain times and any predictions you would like to share?

A: “2023 is likely to be another challenging year, especially for those in the technology scene. In the past 30 days, we have seen close to 50,000 jobs eliminated within the tech sector, which is already half of what transpired in 2022.

The old adage, tough times don’t last, but tough teams do, has never been so relevant during these trying times. We achieve this through our continuous commitment to being open and transparent to reinforce trust, forge teamwork and strengthen our bias for execution. We will continue our investment in our People & Culture agenda to support Team Razer in delivering our strategic goals.

Looking ahead, the fight for top talents will remain. The talent market forces are still evolving too. For one, we have seen how businesses have prioritized one’s proven skills over their experience and qualifications which will catalyze businesses to level up fast and furious during such tough times. This has significant impact in how we source our talents and challenges the conventional career development paths and development programs in retaining our talents.

We have also seen changing chemistry and dynamics with the Generation Z entering the workforce. These young digital natives are pragmatic and financially-oriented, while having strong convictions in social causes they believe in. Organizations will need to evolve their people programs and practices for a multi-generational workforce, while creating an environment where individuals have no problems being their authentic selves, and bring out their best to meet the increasingly diverse and global customer needs.