The most important factor that will help organizations overcome obstacles in an era of rapid changes is their “employees”. At “SCG”, one of the organization’s most important ideology is “ Believing in the value of its people” as SCG believes that “Employees are the most valuable resource” that will drive the company towards excellence. Thus, apart from seeking the best talents for the organization, SCG also understands the importance of retaining and continuously developing their employees, resulting in the introduction of innovative products and services that are recognized across domestic and international markets. Moreover, SCG is one of the top ten organizations that candidates would like to work with in 2017 according to a survey conducted by JobsDB Thailand as well as one of the top ten companies that the younger generation would like to work with in 2018 according to a survey conducted by WorkVenture.
Believing in People’s Value: A Key Driver of the Organization
“Mr. Yuttana Jiamtragan”, Vice President for SCG Corporate Administration revealed that emerging technologies have affected both SCG’s business and the overall industry while offering consumers a lifestyle of convenience and greater alternatives. Moreover, competition in the business arena means that all companies have had to face instability in many aspects. All of these factors represent opportunities and challenges that have driven businesses of all sizes around the world to adapt themselves, with human resource management one of the key factors that will help organizations move forward quickly with efficiency.
“SCG employees must be smart and well-rounded. Being a smart person does not mean they get good test scores, rather, they must love to learn new things in order to constantly develop their skills, while being a well-rounded person means that they need to understand how to work as part of a team in order to deliver a good performance. Moreover, they must possess leadership skills, which does not mean that they have to be in a senior position, but they have to be responsible and be able to express their ideas creatively while opening up to diversity and possessing the courage to improve their work in order to better cater to customers. These are all soft skills that SCG would like to instill and develop for all our employees in addition to hard skills.”
Adopting Technology to Seek Talent and Develop Human Resources
Mr. Yuttana added that SCG has been improving the method to develop its human resources and promote corporate culture to align with the company’s business strategy. One of the initiatives was to adopt digital technology to improve the efficiency of business operations such as implementing artificial intelligence technology or AI to filter candidate applications on SCG’s website by comparing the qualifications of each candidate with the requirements of each position in order to speed up the process, resulting in time saving for both the organization and candidates, while facilitating SCG’s search for the right person for the position.
After the employee has been hired, SCG would engage a learning management system on an e-platform that allows the company to follow and develop the capabilities of employees in all aspects, from their knowledge, skills, qualities required for the operation, to yearly reviews from their supervisors and from the employees themselves that will reveal any mistakes or gaps in their job scope that will help enhance the efficiency of individual human resources planning.
“Human resource development must be viewed as a lifelong learning process because the world today is constantly changing while new technologies are always emerging. We can no longer anticipate what will happen next, thus, we need to be prepared in order to be ready for changes. All SCG employees must develop new skills, especially those relating to services and the use of digital technology, in order to develop products and services that can cater to the various needs of consumers that are rapidly evolving as well as to create new business models to accelerate the growth of the business,” said Mr. Yuttana.
70:20:10 The Formula to Develop Employees to Prepare for Challenges
Meanwhile, the process of learning for SCG employees does not only happen inside the classroom, rather, digital technology has enabled the 70:20:10 learning formula that has proven to be much more efficient. Firstly, 70% of the learning process happens on the job using the performance management system (PMS) that allows employees to monitor the details of their job scope, while the system also analyzes the missing skills that needs to be developed so that both their supervisor and employees are able to gain these skills.
The next 20% is development that is driven by a mentor in the organization through the knowledge management (KM) system where employees can seek knowledge through Workplace, a social media channel used in the company that offers a space for employees to learn and exchange knowledge at their convenience. The last 10% is the classroom learning and online learning system through the learning management system (LMS) platform which are made of various learning programs that will assess the right program for each employee while tracking the progress of the learner until they complete the course.
Reskill – Upskill: Enhancing Employees’ Potential in the Digital Era
Mr. Yuttana added that as SCG is transforming its business operations to focus on becoming a total solutions provider directly for customers as well as implementing digital technology to enhance the efficiency of operations and create new businesses, the company is rapidly developing its employees to become more well-rounded through the process of reskilling and upskilling in order to enable them to work faster with more efficiency.
“Not only is the organization setting new skills for employees to master to allow them to better facilitate the business in the future, we are also implementing techniques like design thinking and business model canvas to help our employees develop the right mindset and encourage them to better understand the needs of customers. We are also adopting agile process that aims to accelerate the development and delivery of products and services while enabling the business model to be adaptable to cater to the demands of the customers. Moreover, SCG is adopting the mindset and practices of startup companies by developing internal startups that will help develop and adapt the way we work as well as the mindset of people in the organization to adapt to the changing business landscape.”
Engagement: Sustainably Developing Employees
Apart from these programs to develop employees through various methods, SCG also implements engagement programs aimed at promoting ownership and engagement in corporate development among employees. The program is expected to help customers gain by receiving innovative products and quality services while driving development within the company and encouraging professional growth in employees’ career path throughout their time at SCG.
“With all these human resources programs to develop and retain employees of all levels from their first day at SCG until they resign or retire, the turnover rate at SCG is only at 4.5% with a 12 year average employee tenure, which is considered higher than the world standard. We also conduct an employee engagement survey every other year, with the latest survey demonstrating 67% employee engagement. Though the number is moderate and does not prove to affect the business, it is still considered higher than average in Thailand. However, SCG is determined to continue developing its human resources in order to sustainably create value for all stakeholders,” concluded Mr. Yuttana.
For more information on working with SCG, please visit http://career.scg.com. Follow SCG news at https://scgnewschannel.com / Facebook: scgnewschannel / Twitter: @scgnewschannel and Line@: @scgnewschannel