*As seen on Human Resources Online

At the 10^th annual edition of HR Excellence Awards, Singapore in 2022, safety solution provider Ansac Technology, won silver for Excellence in Leadership Development. Headquartered in the Northern part of Singapore, with offices in Malaysia at Selangor and Penang, Ansac has grown since 2000 to specialise in instrumentation solutions in safety, analysis, and measurement.

We catch up with Namie Teo, Senior HR Manager, Ansac Technology on how the team determined its plan of action through an organisational benchmarking assessment, and how the results of that have led to elevated performance for all.

Congratulations on the achievement! Could you take us through the highs-and-lows of your winning strategy? 

Though there are similarities and uniqueness in all companies, for Ansac Technology, we identified, through the organisational benchmarking assessment, gaps in appropriately identifying good performance, especially for the support staff because their contribution was not as obvious as the revenue-generating functions.

"To protect jobs, there was an urgent and imperative need to develop the existing team to achieve more without an increase in manpower."

This could only be achieved with a system of measuring, rewarding, and developing employees, through the leaders.

We have engaged iGROW CorpHealth (a corporate partner that drives leadership & employee engagement through holistic health solutions) and adopted a structured consultancy process. The outcomes are the measurable results of having effective leaders.

The methodology of the (initial) assessment derived from a structured interview using iGROW’s matrix for thriving organisations based on Enterprise Singapore’s nine attributes and seven Categories in the 'Business Excellence Framework' and global benchmarks.  

How did the HR team identify and align the business & employee needs, and craft out this perfect solution?

An assessment was conducted using Enterprise Singapore’s nine attributes and seven categories in the Business Excellence Framework and global benchmarks on human resource planning and learning & development.

Some areas of improvement were highlighted, with main focus on leadership programmes:

• Improved current process to anticipate HR needs and develop HR plans and policies that aligned to strategic goals and organisational values.
• Established a process to identify and groom employees for high performance.
• Established a clearer and relevant career progression pathway and career development planning for employees.
• Established a process to promote lifelong learning among employees to develop their potential and build skills and knowledge that are relevant to supporting organisational goals.
• Implemented coaching and mentoring programmes for skills and knowledge transfer to employees.
• Improved the current System to better reinforce desired behaviours and organisational values.
• Developed a system that rewards and recognises employees to be motivated towards the achievement of organisational goals.

Could you share the results that your strategy has delivered – be it on the business, HR, or people side?

Upon the implementation of the leadership development programme, the outcomes and measurable indicators are aligned to the strategic goals of the company.

On the business side:

• Improvement in the performance and productivity of the current team aligned to the strategic goals of the company.
• Department goals and KPIs that are aligned to the strategic goals of the company.
• Departmental action plans based on goals and KPIs.
• Progress and improvement in identified strategic goals.

On the HR side:

• Implemented a transparent and fair process of managing employee performance.
• Documentation on performance management system including competencies and forms developed in this iteration.
• Adoption and application of performance management system by all leaders.
• Clarity on performance management system by all employees, defined by their leaders.

On the people side:

• Developed leaders with skills through targeted training, to coach and mentor their teams.
• Confident and competent leaders that can lead the team towards team and company goals.
• Improvement of employee engagement scores by employees on relationship with leaders.
• Developed a transparent and fair system of rewarding and recognising high performing employees.

What is your message to all the stakeholders who have supported you in this journey?

I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to Steve, my general manager, for his support and approval, making my work in Ansac Technology feel worthwhile. I’m happy that I was able to contribute greatly to the company's efforts and be a valuable member of the A-team family. Thank you to #HRExcellenceAwards for this recognition, it motivates me to continue working harder.

I’d also like to share a quote by Warren Buffett, “Without passion, you don’t have energy. Without energy, you have nothing."

What are you most excited about when you think about the future of HR?

"HR revolves around the constant advancement of technology, therefore artificial intelligence (AI) is something that our team is keen on exploring."

AI is definitely an exciting area of exploration which can pave the way to time and productivity savings. This can ultimately enhance the employee experience.