Latest news with #KarenKim
CNA
27-04-2025
- Business
- CNA
Ways for women: How you can push for equity – not just equality – at the office for a healthier work life
The words equity and equality may seem interchangeable but they mean different things. Equality in the workplace means staff are treated fairly, regardless of age, gender and race. Equity is about addressing individual needs and characteristics, to ensure fair access to resources and achieve balanced outcomes. Women need more advocacy in these areas: Flexibility, equal opportunity, and equity for female employees who are caregivers. According to a 2022 Quality of Life survey by the National Council of Social Service, women make up 60 per cent of caregivers in Singapore. Flexibility is essential for balancing work and caregiving responsibilities. A 2022 Ministry of Manpower report found that over 260,000 women were not able to work due to caregiving responsibilities. In response to this, independent non-profit SG Her Empowerment (SHE) created several initiatives to support women through community engagements and partnerships. Its chief operating officer How Kay Lii, said that if, and when, these women returned to the workforce, they faced challenges with balancing work and family responsibilities, gender bias and workplace discrimination, lack of access and opportunities, as well as lack of flexible work arrangements. These led to them getting passed over for promotions, leadership opportunities, or networking opportunities to help them navigate the job market. The organisation runs SHE Supports, an initiative which empowers women as they return to work, thorough mentoring services, legal clinics and career workshops. HOW COMPANIES CAN DO MORE FOR WOMEN In Singapore, the Tripartite Alliance for Fair and Progressive Employment Practices (TAFEP) has new policies in place that will help. The Tripartite Guidelines on Flexible Work Arrangement (FWA), which started in December 2024, support a flexible work arrangement that is beneficial for companies and employees, for a healthy workforce. Karen Kim, CEO of Human Managed, a data and AI platform service, said employers should recognise that flexibility extends beyond where work is done. 'It's about how employees add value and contribute.' Flexibility should include diverse roles that allow employees to contribute based on their skills and passions, beyond job titles, education and experience, Kim added. Women's caregiving responsibilities often cause them to face setbacks in career progression. Sher-li Torrey, founder of Mums@Work, a career portal, pointed out that these women are frequently overlooked for promotions or new opportunities. 'The hiring process still trends towards 'current experienced workers' as opposed to those with career gaps due to caregiving reasons.' She added that companies can implement return-to-work programmes and initiatives for women who have taken career breaks, helping them reintegrate into the workforce. In addition, having a corporate mindset more open to flexibility in policies on transparency for promotions and pay will lead to inclusivity for women who are caregivers. Wong Meilin, partner and CEO of public relations agency Milk & Honey PR, said the main causes of disparity in the workplace lies in a combination of deeply ingrained societal norms and challenges in the traditional organisational structure. 'Gender roles remain influenced by traditional expectations. So while women in Singapore enter the workforce, societal pressures around caregiving and familial roles have not changed significantly even today.' While manpower guidelines from TAFEP and company policies can help advance workplace equity, women themselves must also do their part. There are ways to advocate for your female co-workers – here's what every woman can do. 1. SPEAK UP AND SPEAK OUT AT MEETINGS In a meeting, women tend to gravitate toward either end of the table or the room. A 2014 study in the American Political Science Review also found that women get less airtime in group discussions where there are other men in similar or higher levels. They also get interrupted a lot by men. Women in senior positions interrupt other women too but less than men. If a woman is interrupted, interject and say: 'Oh, I'd like to hear more of that before we move on.' If a co-worker runs away with a woman's idea, speak out and say: 'Great idea and thanks to Debbie for bringing it out.' If a female co-worker is struggling to be heard, say: 'I'd love to hear what you think, Ashley.' 'The most powerful way for women is to amplify the voices of those who may not always be heard,' said Wong. 'Whether it's women, or co-workers with disabilities, lending your voice in meetings creates opportunities for them to be heard and get heard.' 2. CHAMPION A FEMALE COLLEAGUE'S ACHIEVEMENTS Women tend to be shy about their achievements for fear of being labelled 'self-promoting'. They often credit their own achievements as 'getting lucky' or 'getting help from others'. Contrast this with men who will attribute their achievements to their personal skill and innate qualities. As a result, women and their contributions go unnoticed. If a female co-worker's initiative is a success, compliment her and highlight the achievement like this: 'Nina was in charge for our latest product launch and it generated a lot of sales, and even garnered the most social media engagement of all our launches.' Celebrate successes and achievements so that women get the credit they deserve and do not feel embarrassed or feel the need to play small to be accepted or recognised. 3. OFFER REAL, PRACTICAL HELP Create designated spaces for women in the workplace. For women returning after maternity leave, some may require practical support like nursing rooms or refrigerator space. Rachel Lee, 39, a retail executive, said having a quiet space was useful when she returned to work after having her third child. 'When I was working at a mall, there were designated nursing rooms but there may be none in an industrial building.' Her colleagues cleared a small meeting room and taped the clear windows for privacy so she could express her breast milk. They even cleared the office fridge and made space for her to store her breast milk. This helped her feel accepted. SHE's How added: 'As a mother of young children myself, having had the support of my colleagues and bosses when I returned to work after maternity was absolutely crucial to my transition.' 4. NORMALISE FLEXIBLE ARRANGEMENTS AND MAKE IT COMPANY CULTURE Even as flexible work arrangements are getting common, there is still some stigma towards those requesting it. Have open conversations with female co-workers who ask for such arrangements. Most women need it for medical appointments for their elderly parents or when their children fall sick. How said: 'Open, non-judgmental conversations about caregiving and work-life balance normalises discussions about family responsibilities and the mental load women may face.' One way a woman can plan ahead for these arrangements is to create a working schedule or a shared calendar and update it monthly or weekly. Run through any changes to ensure your colleagues are aware. This way, you can support your colleagues' schedules without any surprises or resentment. Similarly, when you require flexible days, those are also reflected on the schedule. Having a mentor in the workplace is paramount for women climbing the corporate ladder. According to a Forbes article, employees who have mentors are promoted five times more often than those without. They are more confident in their abilities and are likely to stay in the company. Sharing experiences helps women see things from a unique perspective. The Singapore Muslim Women's Association (PPIS), a non-profit which focuses on community services for Muslim women, found that women feel empowered to succeed in their jobs if they have strong female role models. They also saw that coaching and mentorship programmes helped fellow aspiring entrepreneurs succeed if they had successful women business owners guide them. So when you see a project or an initiative which your colleague is suitable for, put her name down. Raise her hand for it.
Forbes
11-04-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Unlocking Supply Chain Value With Diversification, Data And More
Karen Kim is the CEO of Human Managed, an ASEAN cloud-native data and AI service platform for cyber, digital and risk decisions. The modern supply chain is more than a cost center—it is a critical driver of competitive advantage. Yet, business leaders face a complex and volatile environment where geopolitical instability, supply disruptions and shifting consumer demands challenge traditional supply chain models. In fact, industry reports suggest that 70% of supply chain professionals expect risks to escalate in the coming years. Chief supply chain officers (CSCOs) must go beyond cost-cutting and logistics management. They need to design resilient supply networks, integrate real-time data for smarter decision-making and embrace intelligent technologies to navigate uncertainty. The challenge is twofold: first, balancing diversification and localization to reduce risk while maintaining efficiency; and second, overcoming data fragmentation and decision overload in an era where more data doesn't always mean better insights. This article explores three strategic levers—diversification, data integration and decision intelligence—that supply chain leaders should embrace to turn challenges into opportunities and build a future-ready supply chain. Businesses today must balance diversification and localization to manage risks and optimize operations. According to The Economist Impact Trade in Transition 2025 report, businesses are balancing dual priorities of diversification and localization. In fact, nearly 46% of businesses are diversifying to enter new markets and hedge against disruptions, while 42% are localizing for reduced transportation costs and greater oversight. When it comes to choosing suppliers, 75% of businesses are spreading risk and increasing resilience across more partners. Resilience can also be built by additional buffers of inventory or diversified materials to be used as inputs. Delivering enhanced customer experience could also mean customized products and channels. As cited in an EY case study, a leading electronics supplier, overly reliant on Asian manufacturing, faced shortfalls that disrupted operations. With most of its customers in the US, the company near-shored production, optimizing its supply chain. This move cut delivery times, lowered carbon emissions and reduced excess inventory, enhancing both efficiency and sustainability. In their 2025 report, Gartner recommends that CSCOs consider five supply chain characteristics to deliver business value: agility, resilience, strategic alignment, regionalization and ecosystem collaboration. Achieving this requires investments in technology, sustainability, talent and business models to enhance customer satisfaction, revenue, and performance. These investments align with four strategic paths: • Design Path: Innovates on business models and simplifies products. • Decision Path: Uses advanced technologies to optimize supply chain tasks. • Deferment Path: Delays new capabilities to maintain stability and control costs. • Durability Path: Focuses on sustainability and risk management for long-term resilience. Technology is the key enabler, and data powers decision-making. CSCOs play a vital role in: • Understanding supply chain data sources • Ensuring data accuracy • Integrating data flows across teams • Designing feedback loops for smarter decision-making A robust DataOps system in the supply chain refines MLOps for AI-driven operations, enabling probabilistic planning, real-time sustainability tracking and advanced analytics to balance trade-offs effectively. As cited in a DHL case study, a multinational company with a significant number of vending machine outlets needed to manage brand assortment within the machines more efficiently. The company needed to balance its target sales volume and gain market share of brands. Another priority was to avoid 'out of stocks' and 'dead slots' within the vending machine. Additionally, it was dealing with complexity within contractual obligations with different manufacturers. The company consolidated its data from vending machines to design a data model to get visibility on the hundreds of brand assortments and interactions between different data pools. Web-based technologies leveraged data in simulations and predicted outcomes. Benefits included getting insights into consumer buying preferences, developing targeted assortments and predicting logistic costs. Data integrated from vending machines thus helped with decision-making across different disciplines within the organization. While organizations invest in AI for supply chain efficiencies, they also need to plan for the explosion of data, predicted to reach more than 2,000 zettabytes by 2035. One of the consequences of data overload is indecision paralysis. According to Oracle, more data means that business leaders face a 10-times increase in the number of decisions that need to be made, leading to alert fatigue, manual analysis and indecision, all contributing to operational inefficiency. To address these issues, Gartner experts believe that supply chain planners will prioritize technologies such as decision intelligence platforms (DIPs) to deliver advanced decision intelligence and automated decision-making. DIPs are AI-driven systems that integrate data analytics, automation and predictive modelling to enhance decision-making. Unlike traditional business intelligence tools, DIPs enable supply chain leaders to simulate and anticipate disruptions and optimize operations dynamically. Aboitiz, one techglomerate we worked with that has 44 business units across South East Asia, spanning a variety of industries from power generation, banking, food and land, is transforming its century-old traditional infrastructure to an AI-powered tech enterprise. The scale of change creates technical challenges of maintaining security and operations across legacy systems and new digital systems. Continuous monitoring of data movement, across the enterprise, identifying patterns and detecting anomalies is critical. An integrated monitoring system that flags potential security implications immediately is a must-have. In a volatile landscape, supply chain leaders must go beyond cost-cutting to build resilient, data-driven operations. While diversification is a priority, true resilience requires balancing supplier networks, integrating data and leveraging AI-driven decision intelligence platforms to turn data overload into actionable insights. The challenge is no longer just adapting to short-term shocks but embedding long-term resilience through smarter strategies and scalable technology adoption. Businesses that embrace this shift won't just survive—they will thrive with a competitive edge. Forbes Technology Council is an invitation-only community for world-class CIOs, CTOs and technology executives. Do I qualify?
