Hello Health Group is developing Emerging Asia's leading Digital Health Ecosystem, enabling millions of people to live healthier and happier lives. It operates 10 platforms across 9 markets in the local language, serving over 34 million unique monthly users, 93% organic/direct traffic, 12 million social media followers, and over 100,000 pieces of medically reviewed, relevant, and engaging content.

Their unique presence in each market is shown by its adaptation of names to the local language: Hello Bacsi (Vietnam), Hello Sehat (Indonesia), Hello Sayarwon (Myanmar), Hello Doktor (Malaysia), Hello Khunmor (Thailand), Hello Krupet (Cambodia), Hello Yishi (Taiwan), Hello Swasthya (India), Hello Doctor (Philippines).

Hello Health Group is developing Emerging Asia's leading Digital Health Ecosystem, enabling millions of people to live healthier and happier lives. It operates 10 platforms across 9 markets in the local language, serving over 34 million unique monthly users, 93% organic/direct traffic, 12 million social media followers, and over 100,000 pieces of medically reviewed, relevant, and engaging content.

Their unique presence in each market is shown by its adaptation of names to the local language: Hello Bacsi (Vietnam), Hello Sehat (Indonesia), Hello Sayarwon (Myanmar), Hello Doktor (Malaysia), Hello Khunmor (Thailand), Hello Krupet (Cambodia), Hello Yishi (Taiwan), Hello Swasthya (India), Hello Doctor (Philippines).

Challenge: Building team work in a remote environment

Managing remote teams in the Asia Pacific region has presented a unique set of challenges for organizations. With the intricacies of leading a geographically dispersed team, the remote nature has led to the need for clear expectations and priorities. Miscommunications or ambiguities can result in inefficiencies and delays.

Various cultural nuances of diversity, varying time zones, and language barriers could result in fluctuations in team dynamics. There is no common thread across Southeast Asia because every market is different. The way to manage a team is culture-dependent. For example, managing teams in Myanmar is different from the way you do it in Indonesia.

Solution: Increasing team engagement with regular 1-1s

It is crucial to establish clear and synchronous communication for the entire team. Recognising the importance of alignment, a couple of team leaders from different cities joined NewCampus.

To bridge the cultural gap, Management Essentials teaches leaders to implement regular, structured 1-1 meetings with their direct reports, which create space for long-term growth and career development. Most new managers lack time for 1:1 meetings, but these meetings are necessary to build trust and foster a productive working relationship with direct reports. This helps build stronger relationships with team members and supports them in achieving their career goals.

"Coaching creates a healthy bond. The person feels safe to share and seems to become more confident in facing their problems afterward. The active listening provided me with more insights into the person's mindset.” - Product Manager

Given the diverse learners in the cohort, this helps in exchanging thoughts and knowledge-sharing sessions from different regions, insights, and best practices. Additionally, it helps team leaders better understand and navigate the nuances of each market.

Result: Embedding culture into communication

Moving away from the traditional online school model to the NewCampus learning style has allowed courses to become more flexible and adapted to the market and environment in Southeast Asia. After the NewCampus Management Essentials sprint, there was an xx% increase in learners' confidence levels when managing their teams.

"For me, it has always been a bit of a challenge to learn how the culture works, understand the people, and possibly try to learn a bit about the language because even that makes a difference. I think it's a great challenge as a manager to have to switch your style of operation based on the culture.” - EVP, Marketing & Operations

Having cultural sensitivity is something that should be constantly applied. There are different ways of thinking and interacting with each team member. As a manager, the task is to adapt to what the team needs, rather than insisting on your own style and expecting others to adopt it.

"I learned today that being a coach doesn't always mean providing a solution. It is more about helping the coachee grow and providing them with a framework to work with, acting as a guide.” - Regional Business Development Director