Our Managing Director Evelyn Chow started DecodeHR in 2011 with no lofty ambitions. But a love of people – from working closely with partners and external clients, to carefully nurturing a close-knit team of passionate perfectionists – has given the small company the wings to fly above and beyond what she ever dreamt. She reflects on the journey.

#1 As a child, I wanted to be an entrepreneur

As a child, I had a sense of what I would enjoy doing - I would pretend to buy and sell things. It was just masak masak then, but I was actually running a business. It’s probably something that I've always hoped to do without realising it. At this point in my life, I think that I'm very blessed to be able to do what I'm doing.

#2 I studied PR and stumbled into HR

I actually majored in Public Relations at RMIT, with a degree in Communications but I was open to other options. It happened that my first job after graduation was in in-house HR, for a hospitality company in Singapore. I went on to take on regional HR roles in global MNCs.

#3 It’s not so much about manpower, but about people

What I loved about HR is not so much the manpower aspects. It’s about people as individuals, who are assets to an organisation. And it's about realising that it's the people in your company that can help you make a difference in the impact that you create. The people part continues to resonate with me, which is why DecodeHR’s tagline is “Accelerating our people edge”.

#4 I started DecodeHR in 2011 because of my family

I quit my full-time job in 2011 and started DecodeHR as a sole-proprietorship. As I was in a regional role, I would have conference calls after work because we worked closely with our colleagues in Europe and a client in the US. That really took up quite a bit of my time beyond the regular office hours, and I would have to travel quite extensively to meet the client. I felt that I didn't want to short-change my team. I also couldn’t give the family as much time as I wanted to. I decided that it would be best to take a break and explore my options. When I quit, my son was six, and my daughter was four.

#5 I didn’t start with lofty ambitions

I resigned so that I could have more work-life balance. Having said that, I knew it would be hard for me to take a complete stop because I've always enjoyed working. And so, I kept working, with no ambitious expectations. I remember in the early days, that I had to do basically everything! It was good because that helped me to build a deep understanding of the business which has kept us in good stead as we built the team over the years.

#6 It was exciting when the “wow” projects started coming in

As the business grew and we had more clients, I registered the company as a private limited firm in 2013. There was a lot more planning involved, I had to think more about the direction we wanted to take as a firm, and I started focusing on building the capability of the firm.

One of our first few projects was for an energy client. The client was trying to professionalise its HR function and it was a pretty extensive project. We had to cover the full employee life cycle, review the compensation programmes. Soon after, we were awarded another project covering a few locations – Singapore, Malaysia, Myanmar. That was very exciting for us. These two projects gave us our Aha moments – Oh wow! We’re in it for real!

#7 We believed in technology very early on

We saw very early on that technology could be a key enabler of businesses, and that it was something we needed to be a part of - not just embrace but be an integral part of that ecosystem. In the last few years, it’s quite apparent that our appreciation and understanding of technology, particularly HR technology, was something that helped our clients to be able to move in the right direction in terms of digital transformation. We put a lot of effort into working with the right partners. To date, through dcHR.tech, we probably have about 40 HR tech partners.

#8 Uncertainty is the most challenging

Running a business means being prepared to live with a lot of uncertainty. It’s a competitive industry as well. You need to know what is your key differentiator, and you don’t actually develop that insight overnight. You need time to hone your business, to be able to intentionally and genuinely articulate the true differentiator of your business rather than what you hope to be. It’s not just an aspiration, - you need to start becoming the company you want to be, and that takes time.

#9 It is the team which makes our company

Today we have 11 people on our team. What differentiates us is our passion in pursuing quality and our dedication to our clients. It’s not just me, it’s the team, the standards they pursue and the commitment they have. That sometimes still blows me away.

Wanting to see our employees grow and develop and be excited by the work that they do, means a lot to me. Also, being able to help our clients break new ground and help them to have the right infrastructure and capability to pursue excellence means a lot for us.

#10 Our vision for the next 10 years

I think we would definitely want to be a recognised regional player by then, with a global reputation. When I say regional, I mean Asia-Pacific, but we’ve also got our sights set beyond that.

Watch the video clip below to hear Evelyn share about the highs and lows of her entrepreneurship journey: