Guest Profile:

Lynn Dang is the HR Leader for Microsoft Singapore. She works in the senior leadership team aligning the People and Culture strategy to Microsoft's vision and mission. This includes talent acquisition and retention, compensation and benefits, talent development and organisation engagement, learning and development, as well as diversity and inclusion. Lynn has worked in the tech industry for over 15+ years with a keen passion for leadership development, improving the employee experience and creating a strong sense of empowerment and belonging in organisations to bring commercial success. Lynn’s personal experience as a former Vietnamese refugee living in a refugee camp has inspired her work to ensure equality and opportunity for those in disadvantaged groups. She is a Board member for Australia for UNHCR (the UN refugee agency) and received her Bachelors of Commerce from the University of New South Wales.

Episode summary:

In this conversation, Lynn and I discuss how they are approaching Hybrid work by using data and insights from their employees. They are looking at – ‘where’ to work, ‘How’ to work, and recognising that employees are thinking ‘why’ they are working and how they contribute to the organisation agenda and alignment with their purpose. We also covered the role of Managers, meaningful work, how tech can support wellbeing and what skills are required to lead the future of work.

Key questions and topics covered:

1. As we have seen more demand for digital tools and how that is supporting work. How has been at Microsoft team as I assume they have been busy with the huge demand. Have you solved the workplace debate? How are you approaching it?

2. As people work remotely and use a digital tool, How has that impacted people’s wellbeing and productivity?

3. One size doesn’t fit all, and Microsoft is listening to their employees and using the insights to design inclusive experiences

4. One of the MS survey findings is that Teams are siloed in a digital world. What roles should leaders play?

5. Ideas on how to use technology to support wellbeing.

6. Remote jobs listing are going up, and that will change the way jobs are designed in the future

6. What skills are required to lead in the future of work ??

Sound bites from the podcast:

(please listen to the podcast for full context)

‘for us care is the currency…’

‘When we were interviewing people, we were talking about, like, what's been your skill set or what are you doing in technical and now in the interviews, you know, the candidates are asking you what's your purpose ?’

‘how to create those equitable, inclusive experiences, and the design has to start with people that are not in the room…’

Resources

Follow Lynn on LinkedIn | Twitter

Checkout Headspace app for mindfulness

Resources and insights from Microsoft (work trend index) and LinkedIn (economic graph on future of work)

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