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The company's employee value proposition centres on four pillars – Ways of working, engagement, development, and compensation & benefits, as we learn from Zach Toh, Senior Director – People & Communication Asia, HAVI Supply Chain Asia.
HAVI Supply Chain Asia is a global privately owned company that lives to connect people with ideas, data with insights, supply with demand, restaurants with deliveries and ultimately, people with the products they love.
Its purpose statement — "We reimagine the connections between people and products to create a better future" — is one that largely translates into its people practices, as we learn in an interview with Zach Toh, Senior Director – People & Communication Asia, HAVI Supply Chain Asia.
In lieu of the Employee Experience Awards 2024, Singapore, where the company emerged a gold winner for 'Best Work-life Harmony Strategy' and bronze winner for 'Best In-house Certification Programme', HRO sits down with Toh to learn more about what the employee experience entails at his organisation.
Q How would you describe the pillars of your employee experience strategy, and what are the principles you have taken into account to develop this?
Our employee experience strategy is built upon our employee value proposition as a foundation, where people engagement and motivation are the constant themes. Our employee value proposition centres on four pillars – Ways of working, engagement, development, and compensation & benefits.
Ways of working focuses on sustainable working practices - hybrid working for office and front-line field people. Engagement is about reinforce our HAVI Values and extending and connecting to our people's voices.
Development relates to elevating our capabilities, transparent performance measurement, and focused individual development plans. And to round off, our compensation & benefits have a sound framework, equitable practices, and continually prioritising people wellness.
The developing principles are definitely people-centric and supported with data to drive the areas of focus and/or create the most values. Our people and leaders need to experience a holistic approach to ensure a seamless and connected journey, where equitable and fair practices are applied throughout.
Q In a world propelled by rapid change, what measures do you have in place to maintain a people-centric, human approach to your EX as it evolves?
As the world evolves and workplace changes, we focus a lot on close connections with our people to understand what they need. A global annual engagement survey to ensure people's voice matters, with corresponding follow-up actions for the business leaders to ensure business accountability and impacts, followed by regular updates on the progress. There are also local ad hoc surveys, townhalls, coffee talks, and focus groups so that we have maximum reach. We have also rolled out an app specially for the front-line field colleagues so that they can follow our company's news and progresses while on-the-move and allow them to connect with us easily.
We listen to their continuous feedback and have designed our policies and practices to address their needs regarding flexible works arrangement, wellbeing, recognition, diversity, and an inclusive culture. Transparent communication with clear and consistent messages are then delivered by business leaders for a complete feedback loop.
Q What initiatives do you undertake such that the delivery of employee experience is a collective responsibility of all stakeholders in the organisation?
Globally, we have a 'Better future blueprint' that ensures all HAVI stakeholders are aligned to deliver our promises to customers, external communities, suppliers and partners, using HAVI values as behaviour indicators and putting social & environmental responsibility at the core of our businesses. Clear targets like achieving net zero carbon emission by 2050, zero waste to landfill by 2025, 7,000 hours annually of volunteering in Asia and 35% female representation, are then rolled out to ensure collective objectives. These are then aligned and integrated with our people experience, with leadership commitments and sponsorship, as well as people's purposes and ownership through ambassador and employees resource groups.
The "People" topic is also one of our Asia leadership's annual objectives, where we have regular reviews of the progress and achievements.
Regular updates through various channels like leadership's messages, newsletters, campaigns, and townhalls are delivered, allowing our people to come forward and share their feedback.
Q Do you have words of wisdom to share with others in the industry on the best ways to keep your employee experience consistent and beautiful?
Simplistic is the key. What people want are not complicated — a stable job (which pays on time!), development prospects, work-life balance, aligned purposes with the company, being treated with dignity / respect, and empowerment, to sum it up. The vast amount of employee data and survey/feedback will allow you to channel your limited resources to focus on what drives the most values to address the people's needs.
The people experience programmes delivered are then communicated with simple-to-understand objectives, with follow up to ensure that we are getting the maximum returns. Genuine and authenticity forms the essence of our programmes, where people can feel the connection and our commitment.
Q Finally, what is the positive impact of employee experience that you’ve seen on the business as well as the workforce?
The positive impact seen on the business are better customer (external and internal) experiences and satisfaction — engaged workforce provides better services and stability (lower turnover) also ensure consistent delivery of the services. There are also increased productivities and higher performance KPIs due to a motivated workforce leading to efficiency and self-initiatives on continuous process improvements, as well as upholding our key business differentiators in term of supply chain resilience, cold-chain quality, and food safety.
On the positive people impact, we have seen improved wellbeing with better work-life balance, supportive managers / environment, and recognition. A continuous learning culture and in-house development programme allows targeted personal and professional growth in our people. And mostly importantly, it creates positive relationships among the teams, which allows for improved collaboration and teamwork, coupled with a respectful and trusting culture.
Read more interviews on why organisations have won trophies for their HR practices - head over to our Winning Secrets' section!
Photo: Provided
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