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Having entered its second year, “Employee Engagement Summit
2010” in the theme of “Involve the Leaders of Tomorrow
Today: Advance with Employee Engagement” organised by
A-Performers.com was successfully held at Kowloon Shangri-la
on 30th November, 2010.
The summit, with 10 guest speakers who are all esteemed
leaders, academics and human resources professionals from
best-practice organisations sharing their unique insights
and suggestions on the hottest topics of employee engagement,
attracted more than 250 human resources professionals
and senior executives to participate.
Creativity
and Innovation
The morning session kicked off with Ms Winnie Ng, Director
of Bauhinia Foundation Research Centre, who shared her
views on how corporate leaders can apply the concept of
creativity and innovation in the business environment,
particularly as a strategy to motivate, retain and engage
talent of Generation Y.
"Today we are in
the world of globalisation; competition among cities is
not just about economic growth or efficiency, but also
about innovation, creativity and the engagement of talents,”
Ms. Ng said.
Ms. Ng suggested the formula to engage Gen Y, that is:
Understanding Gen Yers and their expectation + allowing
more individuality + encouraging creativity and innovation
= Gen Y engagement.
The
Role of Leaders
The second speaker of the summit was Prof. Judy Tsui,
Vice President (International and Executive Education)
& Director of Graduate School of Business of The Hong
Kong Polytechnic University.
Prof. Tsui discussed the leadership skills that we need
to advance employee engagement in today’s ever-changing
environment and pointed out the four main roles as leaders
in employee engagement: motivating teams and individuals,
communication and care, culture and climate, and leadership
style.
"It is most important that the leaders
have to feel that they have the responsibility to motivate
the young people. Leaders also have to be able to change
the mindset of their people by communication and care,
and everyone in every level has to be a role model. The
leaders themselves have to work hard. Culture and climate
ultimately changes the opportunism into efficiency for
the organisation. How to do it? A fair and open incentive
and reward system. Remember, perception is something that
you need to reflect on,” she explained.
Care
for People
The next onto the stage was Mr. Chan Hin-sang, HR Manager
– Compliance, Employee Relations & HRIS of CLP Power Hong
Kong Ltd who shared his views of building the organisational
culture of sustainability in the local context and the
best practices of successful engagement.
He said, “‘Care for people’ is our top value. We have
a caring culture, i.e. we care for the community, the
environment and our performance; we respect laws and standards,
and we value innovation and knowledge.”
As told by Mr. Chan, at CLP, there are a series of practices
for showing the company’s care for its people, which are
good for employee engagement that lead to a low turnover
rate of the organisation.
Make
the Right Choice
After the tea break, Ms. Bonnie Tse, Senior Vice President
and Managing Director of AIA Pension and Trustee Co. Ltd.
and Chief Executive Officer of American International
Assurance Company (Trustee) Limited began her speech by
addressing the deferment of the MPF Employee Choice Arrangement
(ECA).
She shared her insights into selecting the best provider
for employees and said, “Despite the delay of the ECA,
it is in fact time for employers and MPF members to look
at their existing plans, including fund choices, information
for employees, employees’ flexibility on fund switching,
transaction and statement, etc., see if they can make
things better.”
To choose a suitable service provider, Ms. Tse suggested
members could take a look at:
．The available fund choices
．Service quality
．Management fee
．Performance and reputation
Strategic
Engagement
The last speaker of the morning session was Mr. Alex Chung,
Director of Samsung Electronics HK Co. Ltd. Mr. Chung
spoke on strategic employee engagement which helps achieve
a highly engaged workforce and improved bottom line result.
He shared a contingency view of organisationsal alignment,
which includes strategy, structure, people/HRM, information
& decision making, rewards and stressed the importance
of a detailed and well-developed HR system.
"Employees must commit when the company sets up goals
and strategy. Secondly, the managers must behave to support
and maintain trust in-between the people, whilst owners
must share the economic return with their employees to
promote long-term security,” he added.
An
Equal Workplace
The afternoon session began with an inspiring speech by
Mr. Lam Woon-kwong, GBS, JP, Chairperson of Equal Opportunities
Commission, who shared his views of how corporate leaders
apply the concept of equal opportunity in the business
environment.
As told by Mr. Lam, building an equal opportunity workplace
can help create an environment of mutual respect, which
helps employees to feel valued and be able to balance
their work and life.
Mr. Lam mentioned four key elements in employee engagement
– be inclusive, gender-friendly, family-friendly and talent-oriented.
“As research finds, many Gen Yers care less about money
and more about opportunity to learn, care, collaborate
and share knowledge across cultures and generations with
a team they respect. Therefore, the ability of an employer
to provide an inclusive workplace can make their ability
to attract and retain fresh young talents.”
Engage with Respect
and Fun
Ms. Ivy Leung, Intellectual Capital and Quality, Director,
Langham Place Mongkok was the next to the stage. Ms. Leung
shared the innovative practices at the hotel to engage
talent as well as its award-winning corporate culture
with the audience.
She said, “It is very important for leaders to take personal
action to develop and deploy the Vision-Mission-Value
(VMV) of the company. Members of a workforce feel engaged
when they find personal meaning and motivation in their
work when they receive positive interpersonal and workplace
support.”
With respect to this, the hotel continues with a wide
range of special incentives and comprehensive training
programmes to ensure every staff member actively involved
as a part of the Hotel and organises a myriad of activities
to promote equality and recognition among staff members
so as to cultivate a better and closer relationship between
staff members.
Managing
Travel Risks
Mr. Sek-tung Lee, Head of Sales and Marketing of International
SOS Hong Kong then delivered his speech on travel risk
management – managing risk associated with expatriates
and business travelers.
He highlighted the importance of organisations to be able
to manage travel risks and threats that are not only harmful
to business travelers, but also the whole organisation.
“Besides the threats to your staff, there are also risks
to the organisation, including legal risk, reputational
risks and financial risks. It’s not only about the loss
of skills set of your human assets, it will also lead
to a business continuity issue.”
Mr. Lee suggested, “Nowadays many organisations put too
much emphasis on the post-incident arrangement. But when
you really talk about risk management, we should put more
focus on pre-incident arrangement that is when something
really happens, we have to mitigate the harm and risks
as much as possible.”
Corporate
Culture Is Key
After the tea break, Mr. Dai Guo-qing, Director of Administration
and Personnel Management Centre of Nimble Group gave an
interesting talk on corporate culture and talent management.
Mr. Dai believed that corporate culture serves as the
foundation of everything in an organisation. “For organisational
success, every company should have its unique culture
and it is the key for their talents to understand the
culture and engage in it,” he said.
Retaining
Young Talents
The last speaker of the summit was Dr. Chung Ting-yiu
Robert, Director of Public Opinion Programme (POP) of
The University of Hong Kong. Dr. Chung reported the findings
of HeadlineJobs Quality Workplace Index (2010 2nd Half)
and talked about the retention of young talents.
As Dr. Chung revealed, the survey analyses work situations
across five categories: career development, job nature,
human relationships, work environment and remuneration
schemes.
"Further analysis of this year's
survey has paid attention to the employment situation
of the ‘Post-80s’ young people. It is found that their
overall job satisfaction is lower than other age groups,
with the satisfactions of salary level and promotion opportunities
ranked the lowest. Employers should give more attention
to and take appropriate measures to maintain the morale
of young employees.”
A
Note of Thanks
A-Perfomers.com, as the organiser, would like to take
this opportunity to thank all the honorable speakers,
partners, sponsors, exhibitors, advertisers, facilitators
and delegates from Hong Kong and overseas, who have made
this summit a success and memorable one. Hope to see you
all next year!
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