Meet Tosh Onishi 👋
Tosh Onishi is a Senior Talent Acquisition Leader with 18 years of experience, passionate about helping organisations leverage talent as a strategic advantage.
Insights from Tosh Onishi
1) On Impact: What’s one HR initiative you led or supported that made a clear impact on your team or company? What changed because of it?
In 2022 at Visa, I led a global project to redefine and rewrite our internal mobility policy. We went from a policy that was regularly overruled through exception approvals to a policy and guidelines that provided clarity to the employees and those involved in the hiring process on how to think about internal mobility and manage internal job applications. The policy change was an uncomfortable one for many of the stakeholders on this project however it set a very clear tone that the People organisation was implementing progressive policies and practices that positively challenged the status quo and got the organisation into a more future ready mindset.
2) On the Future: What’s one key skill or mindset you think every HR professional in Singapore will need in the next 5 years - and why?
Practicality. HR solutions/initiatives need to have genuine and practical benefit to your organisation, else they simply are not worth doing. HR professionals need to shift their mindset away from “HR best practice” and focus on what is actually going to make a difference or be useful to their business.
In the pursuit of perfection and best practices, the HR profession has too many purists who struggle to meet the business at the level of maturity they are currently at.
3) What’s one piece of advice you’d give to someone just starting their career in HR or people leadership?
Focus on solving real business problems with the simplest and most practical solution you can think of. Chasing “ industry best practice” can be a pathway to failure when what you try to accomplish has no relevance to your business.
4) What’s one workplace trend you’re excited about — and one you’re cautious of?
AI and Automation. It’s hard not to get excited about the profound impact that AI can and will have on our lives, both at work and in our personal lives. In Talent Acquisition it’s hard to ignore the benefits of AI driven profile matching on recruiter productivity for example however I’m very cautious about the rapidly changing and evolving regulatory landscape around the ethical use of AI. This is currently a significant barrier to the adoption of new AI driven tools and a topic that I believe is not getting enough attention.
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As Singapore marks 60 years of progress, SG60: 60 People Leaders Shaping Workplaces honours the people leaders building cultures where people thrive.
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