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Dr. Murugappan, Head, Human Capital Division, Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission on why it is important to keep employees informed of the company's goals, changes, and challenges.
With the explosion of a new convergent communications and multimedia industry in Malaysia in the mid 1990s, a new paradigm requiring new approaches in media policies and regulation became a necessity. As such, the new regulatory licensing framework for the industry saw the creation of regulatory body, the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC).
At the third annual edition of Employee Experience Awards - Malaysia in 2023, MCMC won a number of awards as voted by the jury members, namely:
- Gold for 'Most Innovative and Sustainable Office Design' and 'Best Holistic Leadership Development Strategy',
- Silver for 'Best Employer Branding', and
- Bronze for 'Best Remote Work Strategy', 'Best In-House Learning Academy', and 'Best Management Training Programme'.
To celebrate this milestone, we catch up with Dr. Murugappan, Head, Human Capital Division, Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) on why it is important to keep employees informed of the company's goals, changes, and challenges, in building the culture.
Q How do you ensure your employee experience initiatives are aligned with your business objectives?
At MCMC, we believe that creating a positive and fulfilling employee experience is important. It leads to greater employee satisfaction, increased productivity, higher retention rates, and a more successful and competitive organisation in the long run.
We benchmark best practices to empower MCMC to become a more effective, forward-looking, and consumer-oriented regulatory authority, supporting the growth and development of Malaysia's communications and multimedia sector.
Apart from that, we conduct employee surveys and feedback sessions through focus groups, which is crucial for understanding employee needs, drive engagement, improve communication, and help organisations make data-driven decisions to enhance employee experience. We also regularly monitor and measure the impact of our initiatives as it helps to not only assess its effectiveness, but to also determine whether such measures achieve the desired outcomes and if adjustments are required.
Q Can you provide examples of how the organisation has invested in the employee experience?
We have incorporated various initiatives to boost our employee experience, which is critical in shaping an organisation’s success, productivity, and overall performance. We encourage our employees to learn and develop through our leadership development and competency development (functional and behavioural) initiatives. We also offer flexible work arrangements and hybrid work arrangements to support the importance of work-life balance.
As our employees’ mental and physical health is our priority, we constantly look for ways to improve their wellbeing by hosting various health and wellness programmes throughout the year.
We also acknowledge and appreciate our employees’ hard work through rewards and recognition programmes such as retirement programmes, long service awards for our long service staff, recognising the employee of the month, and even providing festivity incentives to our employees, which has proven to boost employee morale and create a positive working culture at MCMC.
To improve our employee experience, we also regularly seek and conduct employee feedback and engagement.
Q What are some of the key challenges that you faced in implementing your EX initiatives, and how did you overcome them?
Some of the key challenges that MCMC has faced include resistance to change, organisational prioritisation, measuring the success and ROI of initiatives, and the sustainability of employee engagement initiatives. To address these changes, we have involved employees in various decision-making processes and engaged senior leaders in the planning process through the HRBP approach. We also demonstrate how these initiatives align with the company's strategic goals.
To measure the effectiveness of our initiatives and their ROI, we set clear, measurable pre-implementation goals.
MCMC uses surveys, feedback mechanisms, and performance metrics to track progress and assess the impact on employee satisfaction, productivity, and retention. To keep employees engaged with our initiatives, we practice open communication, foster a culture of continuous improvement, and actively involve employees in evolving these initiatives.
Q Do you have processes to measure the effectiveness of your EX initiatives, and what metrics do you use to evaluate success?
The metrics and methods used to assess the impact of employee experiences in MCMC include conducting employee feedback surveys to gather feedback on various aspects of the workplace experience, including job satisfaction, work-life balance, career growth opportunities, and communication effectiveness.
Apart from that, we track employee retention rates over time. We have set a metric of achieving a ≤5% attrition rate and a talent gap of <5% through a competitive total rewards package which is at percentile 60.
We also track employees' participation in our training and development programmes to measure the effectiveness of these initiatives in enhancing one's skills and knowledge. Additionally, we evaluate key performance indicators (KPIs) such as productivity, customer satisfaction, and efficiency to identify if our initiatives positively impact our outcomes.
Q Finally, what role do leaders and managers play in driving a beautiful employee experience, and how are they held accountable for the success of these initiatives?
Our leaders and managers are crucial in driving a positive experience for our employees in MCMC. Through effective communication and transparency, our employees are kept informed of our goals, changes, and challenges, which helps foster trust and a sense of belonging between one another.
Here at MCMC, we also create and promote inclusive and cross-functional teams as it provides a holistic view of projects and promotes inclusivity and diversity within teams, ensuring that employees feel valued and appreciated for their contributions.
Our leaders support work-life balance by being flexible with schedules and understanding employees' personal needs and commitments. Our managers also play a critical role in employee development by providing feedback, coaching, and opportunities for upskilling and career advancement in their job functions.
Holding leaders accountable for our organisational success may involve leadership development and competency development (functional and behavioural) initiatives to enhance their skills in cultivating a positive workplace culture.
Read more interviews on why organisations have won trophies for their HR practices - head over to our Winning Secrets' section!
All photos / Provided by MCMC
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