Incentive strategy works for designerintimex business solutions
(c) 2007 South China Morning Post Publishers Limited,
Employees are bound to look around for better opportunities in a booming economy and few will hesitate to jump ship when a tempting offer comes along, particularly if the offer comes from a larger, more established company than their present employer.
Daisy Chow Oi-yee, chief operations officer at website design company Intimex Business Solutions, understands the problem. "For a small company, attracting new members involves a big effort and a large investment. So losing staff is a big loss," she said.
She knew she could not win if staff simply wanted the kudos of working for a big-name company, so she created a working environment that discouraged staff from making the decision to leave.
The innovative approach to retention won her company a place in the finals at the HKIHRM/SCMP People Management Awards 2007. The company was entered into the small enterprise category.
Key to Ms Chow's approach is her introduction of large company human resources practices and systems to her small business. She adopted this strategy after completing her Open University MBA course in 2004.
Her successful formula is the "Motivate" principle which stands for motives, open communication, trust, innovation and creativity, vision, appreciation and rewards, thoughtful feedback and entrepreneurship. Consequently it helped to reduce turnover by 60 per cent in two years. In the past six months she has had less than three of her 20 staff leave her company.
Her industry is rapidly expanding and changing so she encourages her staff to be entrepreneurial, which means thinking outside the box and generating work that is fresh, exciting and different to the competition.
"We encourage employees to try new things and we allow trial-by-error, as this can stimulate creativity," she said.
The designers are encouraged to be creative during their monthly design competition. Each designer selects their favourite website from that month and puts it forward for judgment by colleagues. It is voted on and commented on by all members of the company.
Designers are also asked to make sure they are proud of their work. "If they are proud of their work, they will also engage the customer," she said. "There is a 30 per cent fail rate in this industry, because the service is not satisfactory, or projects are delayed. So we have a promise to our customers that we will finish the job by all means at our disposal," she said.
Management is encouraged to show appreciation by e-mail and regular appraisals are given every six months, with outstanding employees offered promotions and salary rises.
An unusual incentive is the special monthly bonus that is paid in recognition of the outstanding performance of staff during the month. The company divides 20 per cent of a month's profit among deserving staff.
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Finalists strong to the core
Strong faith in human capital management and link between HR and business strategy help to impress the judges, writes Rosheen Rodwell
(c) 2007 South China Morning Post Publishers Limited,
Finalists of this year's HKIHRM/SCMP People Management Awards impressed the judging panel with their strong faith in human capital management - a vital element of a successful business.
The final results will be announced at the gala dinner tonight at the JW Marriott Hong Kong - an occasion which also marks the 30th anniversary of the Hong Kong Institute of Human Resource Management (HKIHRM).
All five judges are strong believers in the importance for businesses of good human resource management and they were pleased to discover that all of the finalists demonstrated a similarly strong faith in human capital management and that this faith was borne out in the implementation of their HR strategies.
They met at the end of November to hear presentations from this year's four finalists.
"The most enjoyable part of the process is seeing the results for the different projects demonstrate that the HR profession is of much more value to companies than just payroll and admin," said Gary Fielding, regional president Asia of Clariant International.
Equally rewarding, said Aaron Yim Chong-kee, managing director of Ricoh Hong Kong, was the fact that the commitment to these strategies went all the way to the top. "The strong link between HR strategy and business strategy was very clear. The chief executives demonstrated a strong belief that successful people development could uplift the productivity of the workforce and generate better profit for the company," he said.
The presentation day gave the judges a good opportunity to gather more information on the projects put forward and assess whether each project had involved the whole company.
Andrea Zavadszky, editor of Special Reports and Classified Post for the South China Morning Post, said: "We always want to make sure that the awards go to a project which had a great deal of involvement by the HR department, was fully supported by the chief executive and embraced by the staff. All of these points would have to be fulfilled for a project to win.
"We really have to base the judging on a thorough investigation," she said. "Sometimes the project looks perfect on paper, but when we visit the company we cannot find the results as described.
"The same thing is true in reverse. Sometimes the paperwork is a bit lacking and we doubt if the project should get in at all, but during the company visit and the presentation we gain a better understanding and become really impressed with what the company has achieved."
Each finalist impressed the judges in a different way. China State Construction International Holdings, which presented first and was among the three finalists in the large enterprise category, was congratulated for the united front it presented and for the consistency of its approach to the performance and profit sharing reward scheme, which had proven successful during difficult times for the industry.
Eddie Ng Hak-kim, past president, international committee chairman and external affairs director for the HKIHRM said: "
City Telecom (HK) came next and made a good impression with a dynamic presentation. Ms Zavadszky said: "I really enjoyed the City Telecom presentation. It was presented by an ex-police officer and was bursting with energy. As a start, he took off his jacket and rolled up his shirtsleeves, with his teammates following his example. It was a little theatrical but it was a fun element and it well represented the leadership's management style: energetic, detail minded and team spirited."
NWS Holdings presented third and the company, which employs 42,000 people across a huge range of businesses, was commended for its Outstanding Employee Grand Award scheme.
Mr Ng said: "Being big, being diverse is a challenge. The beauty of what NWS Holdings has done is to hold one scheme common to all, even though the company is so big. The idea of the employee award cascading down to individual companies first, so each one would present their own unique contribution, [thus] building a culture of appreciation, is very important for today's community."
Finally, in the small enterprise category, Daisy Chow Oi-yee, chief operations officer at website design company Intimex Business Solutions, introduced her HR strategies. They had been specifically designed to combat the turnover that so drastically affects small businesses.
Ms Zavadszky said: "This presentation was impressive. Through her presentation you could see the everyday struggle of SMEs trying to change from a small company employing a few people, to something more structured as the company grows. "Ms Chow had terrific stamina and a great love of her job, her staff, and high objectives. Therefore she could remain in the black in a very competitive industry, with crippling attrition and could count some big and famous companies among her clientele."
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