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 | King Lai, director, finance, MSS, HR, training & development
Leo Paper Group (Hong Kong) Ltd
Photo: Wallace Chan | | |  | | Recipient of the Employees Retraining Board's inaugural manpower developer award showcases commitment to staff development
Human capital remains a key asset for companies of all scopes and scales albeit technology advances. When it comes to sustainable business development, a knowledgeable and resourceful workforce offers the only way forward. This is the operation philosophy of global paper products manufacturing giant Leo Paper Group.
In order to reach the pinnacle of success, Leo Paper pays premiums to support and balance its employees' needs for personal and professional growth. Its dedicated training and development division, for instance, encourages life-long learning via an exhaustive series of generic, management and soft skills training. Experiential training is also incorporated to boost the staffers' capacity for challenge, change as well as interpersonal relationships.
Members of the company's general staff are required to fulfil at least 10 hours of training annually, while managers and directors are looking at a minimum of 21 hours.
A library containing more than 1,000 books and a multimedia e-learning platform, in turn, allow staff to gain and develop new insights into the business, their careers and other professional areas entirely at their own pace.
"Our staff are given the ownership to professional development but we make a point to chart their progress and assess their development in the annual performance appraisal," remarks King Lai, director, finance, MSS, HR, training & development, Leo Paper Group (Hong Kong) Ltd. Other quantitative and qualitative measures including KPI, MBO and a fair and transparent job grading system which assesses individual staff's level of competence, aligning talent development with the company's business objectives. "We train for skills and build people for the future," Mr Lai points out.
Talent management
Leo Paper has over the past few years established itself into a fully-fledged, diverse business conglomerate boosting an unparalleled global reputation for its innovative streak. Mr Lai attributes the company's success to an effective talent management system which he believes plays an essential role in the company's ongoing quest for excellence. "Our talent management policies and practice help with talent acquisition and retention too," he adds.
Under Leo's talent management umbrella is a constellation of focused strategies that target three specific aspects, namely staff training, coaching and workforce mobility.
The company's target-specific "lean" training and development infrastructure adopts on-the-job, off-the-job and self-learning models, covering the development needs of staff of all functions and at every level in any of the company's worldwide operations. On-the-job training is primarily generic and is complemented by a wide array of off-the-job programmes, which hone professional skills and promote the pursuit of personal interests.
The company's Leo Higher Education Programme and Printing Management Courses provide aspiring staff a torrent of learning opportunities which are the fruits of the partnerships forged between the company and respectively the School of Printing and Packaging of the Wuhan University and the Huanan Polytechnic.
Technically savvy staff can excel at their jobs but with high mobility they contribute to business agility. Realising this, Leo Paper identifies high potential talent via a five-pronged SmarTalent programme, which places the company's succession needs at the very core of its business. Selected staff rotate through various roles within the company to explore and enrich their experience.
"Recently, we've arranged for about 36 staff from various functions to work in our Lean Production Department to gain a better understanding of the operation and concept of lean manufacturing," Mr Lai says. A series of performance evaluation and career development activities follow. Those showing real talent then go through a development acceleration phrase and subsequently become part of the company's talent reserve blueprint.
Open book
In view of mounting competition for talent in the marketplace, forward-looking companies across the board attach greater emphasis on talent acquisition and retention, stepping up measures to building an employer brand that shows promises and stands for continuous enhancement. Leo Paper is one case in point. "Quality staff are the yardstick of corporate success," Mr Lai stresses.
Last year, the company came out tops in the Employees Retraining Board (ERB) Manpower Developer Award Scheme, taking home an "ERB MD1st Award". "We discerned the objective or our endeavour, which was principally to attract talent," Mr Lai explains.
The award was the result of a painstaking documentation process of the company's training and development system followed by a thorough on-site assessment session carried out by the ERB. "We brought in a technical consultant to benchmark our practice in manpower training and development against the stringent assessment criteria," Mr Lai notes.
The accolade also underscores Leo Paper's contribution to the future development of Hong Kong industries. "By sharing best practice with industry counterparts, everyone gains some insights into manpower training and development," he remarks.
"It is important that corporations share and promote a learning culture in order to create awareness of continuous learning and develop a knowledge workforce," Mr Lai concludes. "Only then can Hong Kong maintain its growth momentum."
Walk the talk - Staff training and development aligned with business development goals
- Partnerships with academia open up boundless learning opportunity
- "ERB MD1st Award" underpins commitment to staff development
Taken from Career Times 8 July 2011, A12
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