Payroll for the ready-made garment industry in Bangladesh: Managing complexity at scale
Bangladesh’s ready-made garment sector exported USD 38.70 billion in FY2025–26, accounting for 80.62% of the country’s total export earnings, according to Export Promotion Bureau data compiled by BGMEA. The sector employs more than four million people, the majority of them women. Behind those numbers sits one of the most demanding payroll environments in Asia. A […]
What if your best employees don’t want to be promoted?
Why career growth doesn’t always mean promotion and what that means for modern talent management By Rashika Fazali For most of my career, I’ve unconsciously understood career progression in one direction. Up. You become good at your job. Then you become senior. Then a manager. Then a head. Then a director. And onwards you climb […]
The HR strategy playbook for 2026: From managing people to designing the workforce
For years, HR transformation focused heavily on digitising HR. Move paper processes online. Introduce employee self-service. Automate workflows. Centralise employee data. Modernise payroll and attendance. Those foundations remain important. But the strategic question facing HR leaders in 2026 is different. How do we redesign the workforce for a world where people and AI increasingly work […]
GenAI and ethics in HR: What HR tech leaders must know
Generative AI has moved through HR faster than almost any workplace technology before it. Gartner surveys of 197 HR leaders in June 2023 and January 2025 found that the share of organisations piloting or implementing generative AI rose from 19% to 61% in under two years, and Gartner predicts that half of all current HR […]
The Bangladesh Labour (Amendment) Act 2026: What changed and what HR must do now
Bangladesh has just rewritten the rules of employment. The Bangladesh Labour (Amendment) Act 2026 was passed by Parliament in April 2026 and took effect from 10 April 2026, following the Bangladesh Labour (Amendment) Ordinance 2025, promulgated on 17 November 2025 under the Interim Government. Together, the Ordinance and the Act introduced roughly 90 legislative changes […]
One region, many rules: The new reality of HR and payroll compliance across ASEAN and South Asia
For a regional HR leader, there is rarely such a thing as “Asian payroll”. There is Singapore payroll. Malaysia payroll. Thailand payroll. Sri Lanka payroll. Bangladesh payroll. And every other jurisdiction in which the organisation employs people. Each comes with its own tax rules, statutory contributions, employment requirements, reporting schedules, employee classifications, and regulatory authorities. […]
AI in HR needs more than intelligence: A practical guide to ethics and governance
Artificial intelligence is becoming part of everyday HR. It can help employees find information faster, support managers with workforce insights, automate repetitive processes, analyse patterns across large volumes of data and make HR services more accessible. But the more AI influences decisions about people, the more important one question becomes: who is accountable for the […]
Is Thailand ready for AI in HR?
By Rachadapon Prasomsub Thailand is not short of enthusiasm for AI. It is short of readiness. That distinction matters more in HR than almost anywhere else in the business. A marketing team that experiments with AI and gets it wrong loses a campaign. An HR team that experiments with AI and gets it wrong affects […]
Beyond headcount: How Bangladesh’s manufacturers can grow through productivity
By Anwar Parves Headcount management is a complex challenge in the manufacturing sector, especially in industries such as Ready-Made Garments (RMG), factories and industrial areas. Traditionally, businesses have assumed that adding to the headcount would increase production. This may have been true in the past, but it’s increasingly apparent that the key to future growth […]
GenAI in HR ops: What’s practical today vs future possibilities
Generative AI has been described as the most consequential shift in HR technology in a generation. It may well be. But the more useful question for an HR operations team this quarter is narrower: what can it actually do for us now, and what should we plan for rather than buy? The gap between what […]