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By combining digital platforms, AI, and a strong human focus, Yuni Lasti Faulinda, VP of People Strategy shares how the team reshaped HR into a strategic engine for a workforce of more than 80,000 employees.
TechConnect’s HR transformation was driven by changes in business scale and speed. With more than 80,000 employees across industries, the organisation recognised that traditional HR operating models were no longer sufficient to support agility, efficiency, and long-term competitiveness.
From 2021 onwards, TechConnect accelerated the adoption of digital platforms, automation, and AI-powered capabilities. The journey started with foundational HRIS integration and progressed towards predictive analytics, Gen-AI recommendations, and personalised employee experiences. The approach aligned with the organisation’s aim of building a future-ready workforce, supported by data, systems, and technology.
Implementation presented challenges, particularly in driving consistent adoption of digital and AI solutions across a large and diverse organisation. The shift required HR to move from administrative execution towards data-driven, technology-enabled decision making.
As recognition of the team’s efforts, TechConnect secured multiple accolades at the HR Excellence Awards 2025, Indonesia:
- Gold for Excellence in Business Transformation,
- Gold for Excellence in AI-Powered HR Solutions,
- Gold for Excellence in Total Rewards Strategy,
- Gold for Excellence in Digital Transformation,
- Gold for Excellence in Agile Talent Mobility,
- Gold for Excellence in Talent Acquisition,
- Gold for Excellence in Talent Management,
- Gold for Excellence in Gig Workforce Management,
- Gold for Excellence in HR Change Management,
- Gold for HR Manager of the Year
- Silver for Excellence in Workplace Culture,
- Bronze for Employer of the Year, and
- Overall HREA Winner
Speaking to HRO on the team’s achievement, Yuni Lasti Faulinda, Vice President of People Strategy, TechConnect, shares true HR excellence comes from leading with both innovation and empathy.
Q Tell us about your inspiring HR initiative – what sparked the idea, and how did you know it was the right path to take?
TechConnect’s HR transformation journey began with a clear recognition of a shifting landscape, one where the scale and speed of business growth demanded a new operating model for people management. With over 80,000 employees operating across industries, traditional HR approaches were no longer sufficient to maintain agility, efficiency, and long-term competitiveness.
From 2021 onwards, TechConnect accelerated the adoption of digital platforms, automation, and AI-powered capabilities, beginning with foundational HRIS integration and evolving into predictive analytics, Gen-AI recommendations, and personalised employee experiences. The strategy aligned directly with the company’s mission to build a future-ready workforce, where systems, processes, and data empower employees to become 'superworkers', capable of delivering higher productivity and greater innovation.
Organisational improvements, including higher employee satisfaction, stronger talent pipelines, faster HR processing, and improved leadership continuity. Validated that this was not only the right direction, but a crucial foundation for the company’s long-term trajectory.
Q Every journey has its ups and downs – can you share a challenge your team faced and how you worked through it together?
One of the most complex challenges was driving consistent adoption of digital and AI solutions across a diverse, large-scale organisation. While implementing platforms such as Connector+, automated HR processes, AI-powered recruitment, predictive analytics, and talent mapping brought major efficiencies, they also required a fundamental shift in mindset, moving HR from administrative execution to data-driven, technology-enabled decision making.
TechConnect overcame this through continuous communication, clear ROI demonstration, phased deployment (starting with MVPs for quick wins), and engagement of leaders from early stages. Digital transformation was framed not as a technical project, but as a cultural shift supported by learning enablement, process simplification, leadership sponsorship, and transparent feedback loops.
Over time, stakeholders saw the tangible value themselves, faster service delivery, less manual work, stronger talent visibility, and better leadership development outcomes, turning initial resistance into sustained organisation-wide ownership.
Q What impact has this initiative had on your organisation so far, and what do you hope it inspires in the wider HR community?
The transformation has reshaped HR from a service function into a strategic engine, powered by automation, analytics, and AI. Key achievements include:
- AI-driven decision making: Enabling faster, fairer, and data-backed talent placement and leadership development.
- Connector+ as an AI-powered employee hub: Allowing employees to request information, services, and transactions via simple natural language prompts.
- Predictive analytics: Including employee flight-risk models, supporting proactive retention strategies and leadership continuity.
- Personalised digital learning journeys: With AI recommending targeted training and boosting learning completion rates.
- Automation (RPA): Eliminates repetitive processes, improving accuracy, and allowing HR talent to focus on strategic, value-adding initiatives.
Business outcomes speak for themselves, including increased retention, higher internal leadership fulfillment, stronger employee satisfaction, and significant productivity gains.
We hope this journey demonstrates that HR transformation is not about technology replacing people, but about using digital innovation to elevate the human experience, enabling employees to do more meaningful work, learn faster, and take greater ownership of their growth.
Q Looking back, is there a moment, person, or value that kept you and your team motivated throughout the journey?
What kept the team motivated was a shared conviction that digital innovation and AI were not introduced to replace the human element, but to enhance it. The belief that technology could make work better, smarter, and more meaningful became a unifying purpose for the entire HR ecosystem. Every improvement whether faster onboarding, predictive decision-making, or personalised learning recommendations was visible, measurable, and directly felt by employees.
Also, what truly sustained the journey was seeing leadership consistently show up, not only by funding or approving initiatives, but by engaging, supporting, and reinforcing the message that this transformation mattered. The team worked in a space where trying, failing, learning, and improving were part of the process. MVPs and quick wins helped build confidence that progress wasn’t theoretical, it was real and happening now. Witnessing how these changes helped employees work smarter, grow faster, and feel more supported gave the team a sense of purpose that kept them moving forward with energy and commitment.
Q If you could offer one golden nugget of wisdom to HR professionals aiming for excellence, what would it be?
If there is one golden insight, it is this:
Technology empowers progress, but people make transformation real.
AI, automation, and digital tools are powerful, but their full potential is realised only when HR builds the right ecosystem around them: a culture of learning, transparent communication, data-driven decision making, and a genuine understanding of employee needs. Transformation is most successful when digital innovation is human-centered and designed to reduce friction, elevate capability, and empower employees to take ownership of their development.
True HR excellence comes from leading with both innovation and empathy. It means knowing the business, understanding people, and applying technology in ways that support better decisions rather than replace human perspective. When employees feel guided, valued, and inspired by the digital tools available to them, they are more motivated to grow and contribute. In turn, the organisation becomes more resilient, more adaptive, and better positioned to create lasting impact for its people and overall performance.
Read more interviews on why organisations have won trophies for their HR practices - head over to our Winning Secrets section!
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