One of the most remarkable lessons our Asian heritage gave us, is the importance of a family unit. The Asian family puts at the forefront principals such as respect, care and life long protection. To an Asian family, to protect and look after family members is an honourable charge. A responsibility not taken lightly. This is the difference between us and the hire & fire attitude of Western companies. To understand the philosophy behind this, we spoke with Melissa Tan, the General Manager behind Wah & Hua Pte Ltd. The waste management company was built from scratch in the 80s, even before the words “startup” and “recycling” were even a thing. Armed with an old garbage truck and determination, the founder of the company collected discarded material. Working 18 hour days and 7 day weeks, Wah & Hua Pte Ltd took shape and over the years became one of Singapore’s more established names in the waste management business. The most important piece of the Wah & Hua business fabric, are the people. Yet people are also the trickiest component of any business. People are difficult to manage, are emotionally volatile and be unwilling to cooperate with you. Let’s take for example, skills upgrading and implementation of technology. These moves require a receptive attitude to change and innovation within a company. Some workers, especially older workers, are not receptive to new technology. If faced with having to adapt, some would rather leave the job. “10 years ago when the government implement workplace safety, there would be a lot of resistance from the staff”, said Melissa. They would refuse (or “forget”) to wear their safety helmets and boots, getting co-operation is a challenge. The order of the day was tough love. “I introduced a system of fines. If we catch you twice, we’ll take pictures for proof. On the third strike you’ll be fined $10!” The money is then accumulated and at the end of the year, we have a party with money. Everyone benefits. “I told them they could scold me all they want, at the end of the day they’re the ones benefiting from a safe environment”. Following national policies implemented to limit foreign manpower, Wah & Hua is also facing hiring issues.
“It is not a sexy industry”, admits Melissa. “There is a stigma that this is an unglamorous job. From drivers to office administrators, manpower for all positions are not easy to find.” The company had tried targeting people of various demographics and skill sets. Old, young, male, female. They’ve tried newspaper recruitment, ex-convicts, hiring from special needs schools, handicap associations…all have turned out negative. There also isn’t technology yet that will help them reduce manpower costs substantially. The company still needs good old drivers to load, unload and transport the large amounts of waste from all over the island each day. The sorting of rubbish still requires human effort. “We just have to pay well”, shrugged Melissa. That they do cheerfully;because of their family-approach to managing staff, the company doesn’t pinch pennies when it comes to salaries and welfare. The average salaries of all the staff is about $2k and unless they’re taking on non-compulsory over time, they follow office hour timings. Hardworking drivers whom are motivated to start earlier and end later can earn up to $4k a month. Salaries alone aren’t enough to attract people to work with them. Wah & Hua is fortunate to have built a strong brand from a 30 year corporate history. Many of the staff are attracted to the strength of its name and their commitment to workers, hence staff turnover rates are very low. “I don’t see myself as a ‘boss’, or ‘the bosses daughter’. Whatever my workers are doing, I join them and talk to them” “I believe communication is an integral component of corporate success, so i talk a lot!” The company assures staff that it isn’t just about work and that the organisation is committed to carving out career progression for them; including sending them for training and self improvement courses. “We may have over a hundred workers, but bear in mind that each worker feeds an average of 4 mouths back home”, “Do you see what keeps us going? It is the worker and their families that drives us to perform so that rewards can be shared with everyone”. Now that is how an Asian corporation embodies the spirit of family and care. We are not merely commodities to be hired and fired to the selfish benefit of a corporation. We are family, we take care of each other and we help each other improve. “I want to tell you story of one of our drivers, Mr. Yeo” Mr. Yeo was one who had worked with Wah & Hua for a very long time. Several years ago, the man suffered a stroke. He was fearful. His physical condition was not good, the doctor even wrote to the traffic police to have his driving licence revoked his driving licence. He was fearful. As the sole breadwinner of the house and with children still in primary school, Mr. Yeo had much reason to worry. “We put his heart to rest – we assured him that when he recovered, he doesn’t need to be a driver. The company maintained his salary and let him chose what he would like to do. He is now redeployed as a security guard!” Wah & Hua puts the workers at the heart of all they do. It is the knowledge that workers and their families rely on the company for survival that keeps the company growing and breaking new grounds. “We are all equals in this company. If we are faced with problems, we’ll talk it through. It is this philosophy that keeps us in business year after year, decade after decade”, says the feisty boss. Source: Refer here for original article by Five Stars And A Moon.
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“In retail, there is GST. Greet, Smile and say Thank you. We must really give customers and our people a reason to smile. That underlines our HR philosophy. We must get our fundamentals for our people right so that our guys can serve our customers well.” That is the mantra peppered throughout the conversation with Mr Low Cheong Kee, the founder and Managing Director of Home- Fix, Singapore’s premier D-I-Y home solutions retailer. The company has come a long way since it was established in 1993, after Mr Low took over his family’s traditional hardware store business. With a combination of hard work, business savvy and enlightened human resource policy, Home-Fix today boasts 19 stores across Singapore, and nine in Malaysia, Cambodia and Mongolia. It also provides handyman repair services. In a sector renowned for long hours, high staff turnover, and high reliance on foreign labour, more than 70% of Home-Fix’s employees are local while staff turnover is just 2%. Secret #1: Create Attractive Careers The company achieved what it did by taking on sacred cows in the retail industry – it introduced a five-day work week with options of some weekends off for frontline staff, provided comprehensive staff welfare benefits, developed a career path and sponsored higher education for promising staff. It won the 2014 Work Life Achiever Award, an accolade given by the Tripartite Alliance for Fair and Progressive Employment Practices (TAFEP). Secret #2: No Resources? Find A Partner With One To do even more, Home-Fix recently inked an MOU with the NTUC’s U SME, an initiative which focuses on helping small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). The partnership will see the retailer updated on the latest regulations and best practices, be assisted with grant applications, and get access to the myriad of courses and seminars that NTUC organizes for bosses and workers alike. “NTUC has a lot of resources. We will benefit from the U SME because we have limits to what we can do in terms of the programmes and benefits we want to run. It is important to tap on NTUC. It’s also a very important collaboration because we get to hear perspectives outside of the industry, know what’s going on in other sectors.” In fact, Mr Low is so convinced of the benefits of collaborating with NTUC, he is even insisting that his staff sign up for union membership by paying for their dues, for all his 170-strong workforce. “There are so many benefits for individuals. Discounts at FairPrice, recreational facilities, subsidized courses. NTUC has so many seminars. I’m sure there is something my guys would find useful and interesting. We want them to attend. It’s to broaden their minds. Training and learning are crucial today because the world is changing very fast. Allowing my guys access to this platform will help them to upgrade and go further.” Secret #3: Groom The Young And Make Lifelong Learning A Culture Mr Low is a firm believer in lifelong learning, and has engraved that into his company’s value system. “When we recruit, we look for an open attitude and a passion for learning. I continue to learn, take on executive courses. I am going to be learning about the online world. Tomorrow, I am talking to search engine gurus. I think that the moment we stop learning, we deteriorate, especially more so in today’s world.” To take that learning further, Home-Fix has started learning labs in three secondary schools in Singapore to engage students and expose them to what the company does. It will also be starting on a collaboration with the Institute of Technical Education (ITE) in August. Ostensibly, this is one way of grooming potential staff for the future, especially in a tight labour market. But it is also about cultivating an interest in the practice of D-I-Y home improvements, developing skills and craftsmanship to benefit the industry as a whole. Secret #4: Equip Your Staff To Do Their Jobs Better Within the company, Mr Low feels it is more important to have a systematic way to collate, catalogue and share the knowledge and information which his staff amass. Home-Fix is developing a Learning Management System (LMS) and using Artificial Intelligence technology to harness the learning on the shop floor (“real learning comes through interactions with customers”), codify and transfer it to the backend to add to its training manual. In time to come, “hopefully, if a staff is asked a question they can’t answer, they can type in the key words and get an answer to satisfy the customer. We want to embrace technology. We are thinking about how to push information not just to staff, but also to customers. It’s a very different kind of training approach we are working on.” It is a sensible approach. Productivity and morale are boosted when staff are well-trained and feel they can satisfy customers’ needs and do their job well. It is also about meeting staff’s aspirations to keep learning so they can do more significant things. Secret #5: Train Your Staff For Their Next Job And one of these significant things is that staff can progress to become their own boss! With the launch of the company’s new Entrepreneurship Scheme in April, driven and capable staff can enter into a special franchise agreement with Home-Fix to own and run their own store. “We are training entrepreneurs. We are trying to meet the aspirations of our staff. The first employee to take it up is Ricky Soo, who has been with us for six years. He has 16 years of experience in the retail industry, and now he has taken the first step to be his own boss. I am very happy.” It seems Home-Fix has found not only a creative way to reward good staff, but also one that makes perfect business sense. Some of the company’s foreign staff have also expressed interest to start Home-Fix stores back in their home countries. This can only help to expand the company’s footprint and brand. There is certainly a reason to smile, all around.
This article was contributed by LK Lai. She has travelled the world as a news journalist and enjoys interacting with people and listening to their stories. She also likes to pen her thoughts and observations on family life, work issues, and anything that impacts societal development. Source: Refer here for original article by Vulcan Post |
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November 2016
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