Cover story
Give staff space Space is quite often the ‘final frontier’ for staff in Hong Kong offices both physically—with limited space to work, and psychologically—with limited space to think and self-develop. This month’s cover story analyses two separate case studies in Hong Kong: The Lane Crawford Joyce Group and Hong Kong Broadband Network (HKBN) to see what HR is doing to help give staff more space and why integrity and speed-dating are so important too.
With commercial rents still high in Hong Kong, giving staff more office space is not usually top of the HR priority list. Likewise, with budgets already stretched and the pervading ‘cautious market optimism’, earmarking additional HR expenditure on overseas staff trips may also seem something of an extravagance. Such ideas might be easy to make a reality for super cash-rich organisations, but how can the majority of HR directors realistically ‘sell’ such concepts to the CFO. What can HR do in practical terms to help boost employee engagement, enhance performance, increase retention and how would such investments impact the bottom line? Breathing space beyond the office One solution to dramatically enhancing staff wellness and boosting profits, according to CY Chan, Senior Manager, Talent Management, Hong Kong Broadband Network (HKBN), is to invest in giving them more breathing space by allowing them to take a step outside the
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HR Magazine
office and, even the country, to venture across the globe. This initiative has run since the organisation was established in 1999 and, to date, has encompassed destinations including Thailand, Japan, Germany and Cambodia. The latest trip fell under the theme of ‘happiness’ and entailed jetting employees over the United States for eight days. Given the name ‘HappinUS’ In Search of Happiness 2012, the expedition incorporated teambuilding activities in a private area of the Grand Canyon, a sightseeing tour of Hollywood, a visit to the unconventional offices of Zappos in Las Vegas and a Happiness Workshop, hosted by Professor Dr Srikumar Rao, author of Happiness at Work. This doesn’t come cheap and each year, HKBN invests around HKD 2.5 million to fly over 70 of its senior executives overseas for what they term, ‘an outside our Hong Kong box experience’. The point being, that widening staff exposure, inspiring creativity, nurturing
happiness in the workplace and reinforcing teamwork all bring massive financial rewards. Rewards in terms of enhanced productivity, new sales and reduced costs together with increased loyalty and staff retention. Happiness drives revenue Chan coordinates the company’s annual overseas management trips and commenting on the most recent trip said, “Happiness is not something you can set a policy on, it’s something personal and it means something different to each individual who tries to define it. Allowing our Talents to gain different exposure and experiences away from their Hong Kong workstations is our way of encouraging them to open their minds to new cultures and reflect on what makes them happy in the hope that they can advocate this in the workplace.” He added that the annual trip also allows the company to put one of its core values—engagement— into practice. Chan explained, “Obviously our