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By listening to and supporting its employees holistically, Global Horizon Ventures Limited has not only ensured business continuity and productivity, but also enhanced employee health and wellbeing.
This article is brought to you by Global Horizon Ventures Limited
Having commenced operations in January 2017, Global Horizon Ventures Limited (GHVL) is a global tobacco joint venture between China’s state-owned enterprise, China Tobacco Yunnan Industrial Company, and UK-based global consumer-focused organisation, Imperial Brands.
Positioning itself as ‘a bridge beyond horizon that links to success’, GHVL is committed to developing growth opportunities in the tobacco industry in both China and international markets.
The company believes employees are the cornerstone of every success and an asset to the company. Built on the corporate values of 'Trust, Respect, Understanding, Honesty, Ownership, and Pragmatism', GHVL strives to foster a positive and supportive workplace culture that unleashes people’s potential and strengths.
Coinciding with the attributes as a joint venture company, GHVL has not only embodied a fusion of Chinese and Western cultures and working practices, but also incorporated a blended work concept of in-office and remote work that allows flexible work arrangements for employees, regardless of their place of residence.
To address the evolving needs towards flexibility and work-life balance, the company allows all employees to work from home for up to four days per week, flexible working hours, and an early release system to celebrate special festivals.
While accommodating the new normal of hybrid working, GHVL emphasises the importance of in-person connection. Therefore, the office remains the main place of work, and every Wednesday is designated as a ‘Common Day’ when all employees are required to work in the office to facilitate exchange and collaboration.
Recognising the significance of social wellbeing in mental health, GHVL has introduced the ‘FUN CLUB’, a platform that encourages social connections among employees from diverse departments through quarterly team building activities.
In alignment with the change of working modes, GHVL has enhanced its training programmes to ensure employees' accessibility to training opportunities. These include deploying an online training platform to enable self-directed learning anytime and anywhere, organising company-wide training workshops on a quarterly basis, and introducing an ‘Individual Education Fund’ through GHVL’s Training Academy to encourage employees to take charge of their professional and personal development.
To further reinforce its learning culture, GHVL has set this year’s training theme as ‘Building a Growth Mindset’, which focuses on five major behaviours, namely:
- embracing challenges and new experiences as opportunities for growth,
- persisting in the face of obstacles and setbacks,
- prioritising effort and unleashing potential for continuous improvement,
- sharing failures, learning from mistakes and accepting feedback/criticism, and
- being curious and open-minded to the success of others.
Open communication and regular feedback are key to effectively implementing these initiatives. Therefore, GHVL has placed a strong emphasis on conducting a comprehensive ‘Employee Engagement Survey’ since 2019. The survey measures the average engagement score based on the ‘Say – Stay – Strive’ criteria. Following the survey, there is an annual deep-dive focus group discussion with all employees to examine the survey results and co-create an action plan for areas of sustainability and improvement.
Over the last two years, there has been a major achievement in reaching engagement scores in the high-performance zone, with scores over 75%. The 2024 action plan focuses on the major theme of ‘Role You Play’, highlighting the significant roles played by the company, the leadership team, and all employees. It specifically focuses on 6 key areas of 3Cs and 3Es, which include 'Collaboration, Communication, Compensation, Efficiency, Excellence, and Engagement'.
Drawing insights from the survey outputs, in addition, GHVL implemented a year-round campaign called ‘Get to Know Each Other’ last year. This initiative comprised two phases:
- 'Know You, Know Me' in the first half of the year aimed to foster a greater understanding of oneself and others, both personally and professionally, in order to embrace and benefit from diverse perspectives. This phase involved organising different trainings such as ‘DiSC for Individual and Team Effectiveness’, ‘Building ONE TEAM with Collaboration’, and ‘Assertive Communication and Influence’.
- 'Thank You, Thank Me' in the second half of the year was designed to acknowledge and appreciate employees for their exceptional performance and contributions through an in-house appreciation platform named TRUE HOPE. The platform received tremendous support and participation from the entire company. Employees felt valued, respected, recognised, and motivated through thank-you notes from their line managers, peers, and subordinates. The company believes that when employees and their work are valued, they will be more satisfied, productive, and motivated to sustain or enhance their good work.
Commenting on the recent recognition GHVL gained at Human Resources Online’s Employee Experience Awards, Charlie Choy, Human Resources Director, Global Horizon Ventures Limited, says: “It was our first attempt to nominate our HR programmes, and we were delighted to be awarded in the employee engagement and hybrid working categories. We extend our sincere thanks to Human Resources Online for this acknowledgement.”
She further adds: “We are deeply grateful to our employees for their strong support and participation in all HR initiatives. Throughout and after the pandemic, they maintained high productivity and adapted seamlessly to ensure the effectiveness of our hybrid working model. We also value their honest feedback and recommendations from the employee engagement surveys conducted yearly.
“Finally, we would like to express our heartfelt gratitude to all stakeholders, especially our parent companies, for their support in advancing our business and developing our people. Despite being a small company, we are committed to continuing to strive and prosper.”
Photos / Global Horizon Ventures Limited
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