How HR students at NBS are learning, adapting, and thriving

As technology advances and the future of work evolves, the role of human resources ​will continually shift and grow in importance. Representing the next generation of aspiring HR leaders, the passionate undergraduate students in the NBS Human Resource Consulting Club (HRCC) are continually striving to learn from, contribute to, and connect with the HR sector in Singapore.

One of the Club’s flagship annual events is the National Human Resource Case Competition. The event is the largest student-led HR case competition in Singapore, and provides a platform for undergraduate students to critically analyse a real-world business case and develop solutions to address some of the challenges faced by the HR industry today. 

HRCC member and second year student Wang Xue Ci served on the organising committee for this year’s event as a Project Executive. “I was given the opportunity to be a team lead, alongside my club members, to plan, execute and oversee the entire event from scratch,” she shares. “It’s quite a challenging event to plan because there are so many external stakeholders across the universities and industry judges, but it has been a great learning experience that has helped to improve my leadership skills, time management and communication.” 

The theme of this year’s competition was ‘HR Certification’, and students were invited to identify innovative ways to enhance the value of HR certifications for HR talents. More than 26 teams participated, with representation from undergraduate students across NTU, NUS and SMU. “It’s not only for HR students,” Xue Ci says. “We encourage students from other specialisations, like marketing and business analytics, to participate as well, because multidisciplinary perspectives are becoming more important in the real workplace.” 

Last month, at short notice, the organising committee were told they would not be able host a physical event this year due to the evolving COVID-19 situation. Despite this sudden change, students in the organising committee were quick to devise a contingency plan that saw teams delivering their final presentations to the judging panel via video conferencing. While these conditions forced teams to think quickly on the feet and adapt, the professionalism of students and the quality of their presentations meant the competition this year was as fierce as ever. Presentations from the four finalist teams were assessed by the judging panel, consisting of senior HR professionals from this year’s industry event sponsors - OCBC, the Institute for Human Resource Professionals, and the Society for Human Resource Management. 

​For the first time, participating teams delivered their presentations to the judges this year via video conference, due to the recent COVID-19 restrictions.

Team DVM Consulting, consisting of NBS students Brent Kuan (REP, Year 1), Hoo Bing Xu (BUS, Year 1) and Oh Ying Jie, Angela Ray (ACC, Year 1) emerged as this year’s champions. Together with their mentor David Ian Santoso (ACBS, Year 2), the students worked hard for three weeks, devising a three-pronged strategy 'Going Deep, Going Broad, and Going Fast' to elevate the value of HR certifications.

Angela, Bing Xu and Brent commented: “We are so grateful to have experienced this competition as it has taught us extensively about the HR industry. We would like to dedicate this win to our club seniors who have spent their time and effort to teach us.”

National Human Resource Case Competition 2020 winners Team DVM Consulting, pictured left to right: NBS students Brent Kuan, Hoo Bing Xu, Angela Oh and David Ian Santoso

Preparing students for the future

At NBS, we know that learning continues beyond the classroom. Over the past two years, we have updated our undergraduate pedagogy to ensure a greater focus on developing soft skills in students from Day 1.

Clubs like the Human Resource Consulting Club are supported through donations from the NBS alumni community. Your support provides the next generation of students with dynamic opportunities to learn and thrive. You can support student club activities and events like these by donating to the NBS Advancement Fund.