Principal Asset Management Berhad bags Fintech - Human Resource Technology in MTEA 2021

Their HR app Selfdrvn contributed to their employees’ digital & future readiness journey.

In 2019, Principal Asset Management Berhad (Principal) introduced the Harvard Manage Mentor (HMM) a cloud-based, flexible, self-directed learning option to their employees, allowing them to build and refresh the skills they need to succeed.

However, there was still a strong desire from the management to bring the state-of-art workplace practices to enhance the overall employee experience. Principal wanted to eliminate unnecessary, time-consuming performance management steps. With this objective in mind, the firm introduced quarterly check-ins, along with a new HR System feature to help employees keep track of their performance conversations throughout the year.

In 2020, Principal Asset Management rolled out a new digital platform, Selfdrvn, which enabled them to continuously engage employees in new core values dialogues and behavioral change through various quests, quizzes, survey, polls, etc. as employee earn recognitions, badges and points and reward along the way.

It features an HR Chatbot to help employees find what they need quickly. Employees can also select their flexible benefits and claim submission from the comfort of their home or mobile devices, anytime of the day. The progress of HR initiatives are also communicated to the management and is being monitored on a weekly basis, enabling the firm to be more agile in capturing new opportunities or addressing critical events more effectively, such as COVID-19 pandemic.

As a result, employees receive more consistent, ongoing, and meaningful feedback to help them grow and progress. This process also helps all parties to minimize having unpleasant performance reviews towards year-end.

Because of the success of this initiative, Principal was awarded with the Fintech - Human Resource Technology win at the recently concluded Malaysia Technology Excellence Awards, presented by Singapore Business Review.

Now in its third year, the awards event recognizes organizations that dare to take risks and grab the reins in developing trailblazing innovations, digital services, reinvented strategies, and technological projects. Awardees were selected according to exceptionality and innovation, success, and impact as well as dynamism.

“Our employees are key to our long-term success and we position HR at Principal to stay ahead of the curve as business and market conditions evolve. Our innovative approach and solutions have proven to help us achieve remarkable outcomes in various areas within the company and business,” said Munirah Khairuddin, CEO of Principal Asset Management.

Principal aims to keep its employees continuously motivated and engaged by incorporating various HR initiatives through the Selfdrvn app. The high number of posts, comments, polls, etc. are a strong indication of employees continuing to be engaged in the journey toward the firm’s ultimate corporate agendas.