A talent-oriented approach to build high efficiency teams
This exclusive interview with Ms. Lily Li, Director of Finance and Operations of Platinum Guild International China, appeared in Fortune Character Magazine, and highlights Perspectiv’s long-term programme to engender behaviour change and collaboration within the company.
In 1997, Platinum Guild International (PGI®) established a branch in Shanghai. PGI has been working to cultivate and guide Chinese consumers’ passion for platinum jewellery by providing a full range of support to promote the local platinum jewellery industry. In 2000, China became the biggest market for platinum jewellery in the world. And this notable achievement is inseparable from the dedication of every PGI team member. To fulfil its ambition of ‘To make platinum the premier innovator in the jewellery industry’, one of the strategic approaches for PGI China is to make its staff its strongest competitive advantage. In an exclusive interview with Ms. Lily Li, Director of Finance and Operations of Platinum Guild International China, she shared her views on people development with the readers of Fortune Character magazine.
As you have a quite rich career experience, why did you choose to join PGI? In terms of human resources and administrative management at PGI, what are differences from the industries you served in the past, and what are the challenges?
I am keen to learn new things, and PGI values exploration and curiosity, hence is a great fit. The culture is open, inclusive and encourages innovation at work. These are the reasons why I’m attracted by PGI. I have a sense of ownership at PGI. Aside from that, I also feel that PGI does look upon each of us as the origin of its core competitiveness.
Enterprises are mostly performance oriented. Although the various excellent enterprises I have served in the past have also attached great importance to personal development of employees, the level which PGI cares about employees' career planning and their soft skills development is unparalleled. I have always thought that it is not sound to judge an employee only by KPI delivery and overlook qualities that fit the organizational culture. I believe it is more important to cherish the distinct characters of each employee and establish a system that is conducive to the long-term career development of employees, and PGI has offered us an excellent platform for establishing such a system. For every newcomer, PGI will generate a set of personal "view and value" analysis report, so that the employee can understand his/her own work style and those of other team members. It helps to foster understanding, empathy, and effective collaboration. In the employee performance appraisal system, PGI places equal weight to soft competency skills and work performance as we firmly believe that a climate that promotes collaboration is the key to great performance.
What standards does PGI hold for talents? How do you attract and retain top talents? How to unlock the potential and creativity of employees at work, and keep the team full of spirit and vitality?
For PGI, four qualities make for excellent talents. First, honesty, which is the basis; second, communication skills and respect for each other's differences; Third, an unfading enterprising attitude and innovative consciousness; And fourth, exceptional expertise and dedication. These are aligned with PGI's values: honesty and integrity; one PGI team; insightful and curiosity; professional excellence.
To attract and retain excellent talent, we need much more than competitive salary and benefits. I think PGI is attractive to talents due to its long-term training and development mechanism, and harmonious office atmosphere. PGI's 2020 SOQ (Situational Outlook Questionnaire), a work atmosphere survey report, indicates: "Employees at PGI enjoy great flexibility and free time to think at work; new ideas are always welcomed and encouraged; one can boldly debate and express different opinions; conflicts in the team are rare; and a humorous and cheerful atmosphere prevails the office". To encourage innovation, we set up a "Brainstorming area" in the office area, which comes with movable sofas, screens, and accessible innovative decision-making aids (such as thinking cards, decision-making tables), etc., to create a relaxing atmosphere for team members to discuss new ideas. This is also the secret of why our employees love working in PGI and staff turnover is very low.
In daily work and life, we try our best to provide employees with comprehensive physical and mental health support. In addition to purchasing supplementary commercial medical insurance for employees and their children, and arranging annual physical examinations and flu vaccinations, we also set a "fitness zone" in the office area for employees to exercise during work breaks, regularly invite Chinese medicine practitioners to provide on-site diagnosis and treatment and massage services for employees, and hold mind healing trainings, etc., to ensure employees’ physical health and psychological resilience. During the lockdown this year due to the epidemic, we immediately arranged food supplies and the delivery of personal protective equipment for employees. We also organized online activities such as cooking competitions, drawing and relief classes, karaoke, and online socializing to help everyone ease their anxiety.
Moreover, we also activate team spirit through a variety of activities, such as yoga classes, flower arrangement classes, lunch sharing sessions, and birthday parties in the office, and team building activities outdoors. We can easily judge employees’ satisfaction and pride in being a member of PGI either from their working state or even from their daily Moments on WeChat.
One PGI Team is more than a slogan. It is an imprint in the hearts of everyone. Our team-building efforts have wrought the platinum-like tenacity of the employees at PGI. Even under the gloom of the epidemic and various unknown challenges, the team is still able to fulfill our commitment to trade partners with excellence, constantly create new consumer needs and turn those into viable new business growth engines, helping establish PGI ’s leading role in industry.
Now, the younger generation gradually makes up the most of employees and job seekers for many enterprises, and so is PGI. Speaking of the new generation, what do you think is the most impressive difference in their values? How do you balance that through the role of the HR department?
The new generation of employees prefers direct, free, and peer-like communication, and are more concerned with discovering the fun of work and creating a favorable working atmosphere, while attaching great importance to the realization of self-goals and the recognition of others. Although the new generation embodies a different career outlook at work, we don't need to counterbalance. In my opinion, what we need to do is to consciously create various conditions to motivate them to display their talents. We often find that the new generation of employees in PGI will boldly stand on various innovation forums to deliver speeches and preside over activities, etc. They are so confident and full of energy!
Young consumers are the future of the jewellery market and the new generation employees at PGI have played a key role in helping PGI to understand young consumers.
What kind of high-quality training has PGI carried out in the past year to facilitate more comprehensive development of team members? What training topics are you most interested in? What kind of training will PGI provide in the future to improve the overall quality of employees?
PGI sets aside significant training hours for employees every year. Our employees spend at least 10% of their working time on various trainings, so, we are a typical "learning organization". We have two types of routine training, one is for soft skills, which helps employees to communicate effectively in work and life; the other is about hard skills, employees choose trainings that are relevant to their specialization and project needs, such as new media operations, marketing, fiscal and tax policies, compliance training, etc.; there are also CPS (Creative Problem Solving), GRASP (Ground sensing - Real issue - Authorities - Solutions – Prototype) and other innovative courses and workshops. With the help of these tools, employees will cultivate innovative thinking and actively apply it in work. In addition, PGI’s employees and partner suppliers often offer market and industry expertise sharing; we also regularly hold online sharing sessions for global employees, where colleagues from PGI's offices in various countries will analyze recent successful cases, to provide various opportunities for communication and learning among employees from different countries.
Personally speaking, PGI's soft skills training is the most unprecedented, comprehensive, in-depth, long-lasting, and rewarding series of high-quality training that I have ever experienced. Compared with hard skills training, soft skills training often requires longer time to polish and practice. For this reason, PGI has been holding soft skills training in different fields for more than ten years. It is commendable for an enterprise to cultivate employees in such a long-term and patient way. For example, through a series of courses such as communication skills, listening skills, and leadership training for employees, continuous communication and feedback in the study group, or one-on-one conversation and coaching, the team improves year by year, and step by step, to build a good communication atmosphere, and boost productivity and performance. Our performance evaluation system also serves to motivate the team to break the routine, constantly explore new areas, and blaze the trail for new projects.
We expect more such training events in the future. We believe that employees are the wealth of PGI. Only by starting from the "talent" themselves, empowering them with platforms at work and encouraging employees to continuously explore, discover and create, could Platinum Guild International truly become the jewellery category’s premier innovator.