{"id":54919,"date":"2026-03-19T04:13:15","date_gmt":"2026-03-19T04:13:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mihcm.com\/?p=54919"},"modified":"2026-03-26T02:51:26","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T02:51:26","slug":"beyond-hr-tech-unpacking-the-future-of-hr-transformation-with-vindya-cumaratunga","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mihcm.com\/vn\/resources\/blog\/beyond-hr-tech-unpacking-the-future-of-hr-transformation-with-vindya-cumaratunga\/","title":{"rendered":"Beyond HR tech: Unpacking the future of HR transformation with Vindya Cumaratunga"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The launch of MiHCM Consulting in January 2026 heralded a new era for global HR technology provider MiHCM, with the new practice designed to deliver end-to-end HR transformation, change management, and advisory services for organisations across South Asia and Southeast Asia.<\/p>

It also expands MiHCM\u2019s regional footprint beyond technology into strategic advisory and execution and positions MiHCM as a regional HR transformation leader, combining deep HR expertise with digital HR, Work Tech, analytics, AI-driven insights and AI agents.<\/p>

In this episode of \u2018MiHCM Leadership Lens,\u2019 we speak to Head of Consulting for South Asia, Vindya Cumaratunga, who unpacks the future of HR transformation.<\/p>

Vindya is a strategic HR professional with three decades of experience and has worked at top corporates in Sri Lanka during her stellar career, including John Keells, Virtusa, Millennium IT Software, LSEG Technology, and Senok Group of Companies, where she was Director \u2013 HR prior to joining MiHCM Consulting.<\/p>

An HR practitioner with a strong business focus and proven capability to strategise and deliver HR projects aligned with business goals, Vindya has held multiple senior roles and is recognised for her ability to harness global HR best practices to shape teams and drive corporate success across organisations, domains, and generations.<\/p>

Here, she shares her insights on the evolving role of HR, the rise of AI-powered workforce intelligence, and the strategic transformation required for organisations to thrive in the future of work.<\/p>

Watch the interview here<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Recognising the opportunity for strategic HR transformation <\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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MiHCM recently launched MiHCM Consulting. What prompted the decision to introduce a dedicated consulting arm at this stage?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>

In one word, it\u2019s the opportunity. The demand for strategic HR decision support is skyrocketing. Companies are investing in technology and working on software implementation, but the real question is, do they see the strategic value in these technological advancements?<\/p>

The gap is not in technology or software systems. The gap is in the alignment between people, strategy, process design, and, most importantly, digital capability. Have we really understood that?<\/p>

If you take the Western world, especially in terms of the tech companies and some multinationals, this journey has already started. Here, companies started automating their systems a couple of decades back, but have they really optimised? That is the question before us.<\/p>

We saw this as an opportunity and thought it was the right time to kick off our consulting practice and take it forward because we\u2019re backed by one of the best products in the market \u2013 the MiHCM HR system.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Moving beyond traditional HR consulting <\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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How does this consulting practice differ from traditional HR consulting?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>

Traditional HR consulting often stops at recommendations, but we go beyond that. We combine people strategy, process design, and technology architecture into an integrated model. With our strong technology backing, our consulting practice centres on data-driven and more execution-focused areas.<\/p>

In simple terms, we are not here to simply advise. We want to take the entire transformation journey; we help our customers design, implement, and deliver measurable transformation.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Bringing practitioner experience to HR transformation <\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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You\u2019ve implemented our system before at one of the corporates you worked at, so you have extensive experience in guiding that, along with your HR experience. So, you bring all of that to the table?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>

Precisely. I bring experience not only with the MiHCM system, but also with several global HR systems. Having been part of implementation teams in large corporates, I understand both the technology perspective and the operational HR challenges organisations face. That combination of experience helps us guide organisations more effectively through transformation.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Elevating HR to the boardroom <\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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How does MiHCM Consulting elevate HR to the board level?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>

When HR focuses on administrative tasks, it becomes very operational, but the expectation from the board is different. The board expects HR to bring analytics, help it with data-driven decision-making, focus on people growth, and support business growth as well. When HR teams are too busy with operational work, they cannot really deliver on those strategic aspects that businesses expect.<\/p>

With MiHCM Consulting, we\u2019re trying to build that strategic HR so that the whole mindset of the leadership shifts to a different area, with HR ready to support in terms of what the business exactly wants, contributing to revenue growth, and making sure that people are aligned with the business strategy.<\/p>

That\u2019s where our consulting practice comes in. We work with HR teams and make sure that they deliver strategic business partnering. That\u2019s a very strong term and that\u2019s how modern HR should work, not as a backend\/operational type of HR.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Overcoming complacency in HR transformation <\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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From what you\u2019re saying and from what we\u2019re seeing, HR is clearly changing. It\u2019s more about strategy, about having a say in board decisions, and so on. What are the most common challenges that HR is facing today in modernising itself?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>

There are a lot of things that we can talk about. People can say it\u2019s resistance to change or things like that. I feel that it\u2019s complacency. We\u2019re in our comfort zone.<\/p>

The CEO talks about it, but he doesn\u2019t want to do anything. Then the next level talks about it \u2013 technology upgrades, being on par with everyone else, staying ahead of the game and so on \u2013 but then they take a step back and see that they have a very comfortable journey, they are in their comfort zone, so they take a step back. They don\u2019t really pay enough attention to what they have been doing with their business all this time.<\/p>

Just because you have been progressing for 20 years, that doesn\u2019t mean that that knowledge, that practice, or that process will be relevant to the next 20 years. You need to change. There should be a shift in mindset, and you should be ready to change.<\/p>

If you treat your environment as your comfort zone and you become complacent, that\u2019s a huge challenge. That\u2019s not just seen at the bottom level, but even at the top level \u2013 that attitude of \u2018oh, things have been well for us, why are we changing?\u2019 That\u2019s the question, always. It\u2019s important to take a step back, analyse the situation, and make sure that you\u2019re ready to take the next leap.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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The role of AI and HR technology in transformation <\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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In taking this leap, how do MiHCM\u2019s products \u2013 such as MiHCM Enterprise, MiA ONE, and Syntra \u2013 support this transformation journey?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>

Enterprise is our main platform. MiA ONE, Syntra, and SmartAssist are AI products. I am proud of the MiHCM Consulting practice, because we are backed by one of the best systems that gives support unlike any other product.<\/p>

SmartAssist is the product that supports HR administration. HR takes a lot of time on transactional work, like drafting letters, contracts, JDs, and so on. SmartAssist helps people in HR administration teams do this work in a few seconds with one or two prompts. That\u2019s a big advantage, because then HR will have enough time to do more strategic work.<\/p>

If I\u2019m to talk about MiA ONE, it is the total employee experience. I think it\u2019s one of the best products I\u2019m seeing in the market out there today. I\u2019m sure all of us have had the experience of sending a mail to HR, going to \u2018reach HR,\u2019 or talking to the help desk, but all these things take time. You create tickets even to get small information.<\/p>

Sometimes HR will have to validate with different people or go through policies and get the information out. Be it any employee data, it takes time. But with MiA ONE, employees can put in just one or two prompts and get whatever information they want. That\u2019s a big plus that we have.<\/p>

The other thing is Syntra. Syntra is going to go to every single boardroom, because it helps the C-level, the leadership, the board. The moment they\u2019re in a board meeting, if they want to discuss a certain employee or make a certain decision as a board \u2013 maybe it\u2019s the next board member that they want to appoint \u2013 Syntra can provide a lot of information with one or two prompts.<\/p>

If the board wants to understand \u2018who are the top performers?\u2019 or \u2018do we have succession planning for our leadership roles?\u2019 with Syntra you can click one button and give one prompt and that information comes to your laptop. That is the level at which we are operating. It saves your time and your energy and, most importantly, it gives you the information that you want.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Balancing workforce intelligence with data security <\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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So, we are talking about people, right, from across every level of the organisation, right up to the board and company strategy? Where do data privacy and security fit in with MiHCM in this area?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>

I think that\u2019s a very timely question, especially with countries all over the world talking about personal data protection. At MiHCM, we take trust, governance, data protection, and data security very seriously.<\/p>

As a company, we are compliant with GDPR and compliant with the Personal Data Protection Acts of each country in which we operate. We are also ISO\/IEC 27001 and ISO 9001 certified. With all these, we have taken data protection, security, and governance very seriously.<\/p>

In addition, right now we are working on SOC 2 Type 2 compliance and once that is achieved, it will ensure that we have complete control over the protection journey that we want to take.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Shaping the future of work across South Asia <\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Looking ahead, how do you see MiHCM Consulting shaping the future of work across South Asia?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>

We spoke about our opportunity. It\u2019s a great opportunity that we have before us right now.<\/p>

If we focus on South Asia and Southeast Asia, we have great talent. One goal is to ensure that we make South Asia and Southeast Asia a hub for an innovative workforce. We will work with organisations to scale with confidence, to operate with AI-enabled intelligence, and to build agile workforce models. That is very important.<\/p>

I think that when the workforce models become rigid, it\u2019s not ready for change. That\u2019s one area we want to focus on to make data-driven leadership decisions. MiHCM Consulting aims to build future-ready HR models.<\/p>

With our future-ready HR models, we want to make sure that they are accessible, that they are practical, and that they are impactful across South Asia and Southeast Asia. We\u2019re building more than systems; we want to make sure that we become the one-stop HR intelligent partner for the organisations that we work with.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The launch of MiHCM Consulting in January 2026 heralded a new era for global HR technology provider MiHCM, with the new practice designed to deliver end-to-end HR transformation, change management, and advisory services for organisations across South Asia and Southeast Asia. It also expands MiHCM\u2019s regional footprint beyond technology into strategic advisory and execution and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":54920,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-54919","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mihcm.com\/vn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54919","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mihcm.com\/vn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mihcm.com\/vn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mihcm.com\/vn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mihcm.com\/vn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54919"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mihcm.com\/vn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54919\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mihcm.com\/vn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54920"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mihcm.com\/vn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mihcm.com\/vn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mihcm.com\/vn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}