Event highlights of the Great Place to Work® Greater China Annual Conference - "Growing the People's Brand"

SHANGHAI, Dec. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- On November 30, 2021, Great Place to Work® Greater China (hereinafter called Great Place to Work®) successfully held its Annual Conference at The Peninsula Shanghai, with the topic this year being "Growing the People's Brand." The idea for the topic came from the inspiration of businesses of all sizes and industries that have been affected by the global epidemic over the last two years. Companies are paying more attention to the attraction and training of people, and hope that a great workplace environment will attract and retain top talent, while striving to achieve the company's values and mission.  

As part of the tradition, one of the key elements of the conference is to share research and analysis reports on the Best Workplaces in Greater China™ of that year, and to further explore the latest trends in the market through keynote speeches and panel discussion. 
At this year's conference, Great Place to Work® invited many top speakers from companies such as Accenture, Infineon Technologies, Hilton, Maersk, and International WELL Building Institute™ (IWBI™). Experts in various fields shared insights and experiences of their top levels of management. In addition, senior leaders from five outstanding organizations came forward to share the best practices of their companies. 

The year 2021 marks the 10th anniversary of the founding of Great Place to Work®, and Mr. Jose Bezanilla, CEO of Great Place to Work® Greater China commented in his opening remarks, "The 10th year anniversary celebration will focus not only on today, but throughout 2022 as well, providing opportunities for learning and exchanging ideas through a variety of events." 

Moreover, a comprehensive 10-year analysis on workplace culture in Greater China was released in the form of a report, which indicated that the Best Workplaces in Greater China™ list has increased from 24 to 61 organizations in the past decade. The overall average rating has increased from 79 points in 2012 to 89.8 points in 2021, with a highest score of 90.5 points in 2020. 

Great Place to Work® also brought in industry insights from a third-party perspective. Ms. Mok Kai Lynn, Director of Corporate & International Relations of BIPO, and Yury Karp, Global Account Director provided professional insights from the perspective of human resources service providers. They found that the COVID-19 outbreak was a huge challenge for businesses, and employee engagement was the key factor in employee turnover. At the same time, the digital process is driving market changes, which also offers more possibilities for companies to tap into alternative ways to attract, develop, and retain employees. 

Furthermore, this year's conference featured an innovative experience called the "Best Practice Relay", in which speakers from five different companies shared one of their best practices in five minutes. Unique hands-on experiences were shared by different speakers, and afterwards, the audience were asked to vote for their favorite best practices.  

At the end of the conference, Ms. Alicia Tung, COO of Great Place to Work® Greater China, presented to the audience the "Going Forward in 2022" agenda, with many new activities and collaborations planned for the year ahead. This includes celebrating the organizations that have been awarded as "Great Place to Work-certified™ " and as "Best Workplaces™" in the past 10 years, as well as a new "The Best Guide", which will showcase the values and best practices of these award winning companies from the inside-out. The primary purpose of these kinds of activities and collaborations is to acknowledge and promote more positivity, mutual trust, and respect, all of which can be integrated into a company's culture, one that all employees love, and resulting in making the world a better place.

The panel discussion saw several speakers share the most cutting-edge industry foresight and professional insights. Below are some of the highlights: 

01 Keynote: Accenture - New Talent Strategy: Talent First, Drives Business 

As a world-renowned consulting and management company, Accenture has extensive experience in strategy, digital, technology and operational services, and Ms. Catherine Huang, Managing Director & Human Resources Lead of Accenture Greater China has more than 20 years of experience in the industry and is the Member of the Accenture Greater China Management Committee and Global Leadership Committee. 
Today she shared the key points of Accenture's employer branding creation in four ways namely, retaining talent, shaping skills in the new era, building a new culture of seamless integration, and building a sustainable organization. 

In general, Accenture uses an active retention model, artificial intelligence, five key beliefs and other ways to attract, cultivate and retain employees in all aspects of management. 
Catherine commented, "We take digital transformation as our mission. We help Chinese enterprises and governments to master the digital power, and other customers to do a full range of transformation all at the same time. We also make changes to the internal talent strategy thinking, adhering to the concept of talent as a priority to drive business forces and to create a full range of experience for employees." 

02 Enterprise "Best Practices Relay" 

After ten years of accumulation, Great Place to Work® discovered that many companies have some great practices that are worth learning from in creating best workplaces. Therefore, Great Place to Work® organized a "Best Practice Relay" for the first time, allowing the audience to experience those companies' best workplace practices with great intention and sincerity.  
Five guest speakers were each given 5 minutes to present their company's best workplace practices.

Ms. Sandy Shen, HR Director, Cadence Greater China  
"We care about our employees' personal lives, their families, and their mental health. Our goal is to help employees balance family, personal, and workplace relationships and to ensure their safety and health by providing them with flexible working hours, family allowances, and personalized psychological counseling."  

Ms. Sunny Jiang, CEO & President, EYEBUYDIRECT    
"The essence of the enterprise lies in the strategy. The essence of the strategy lies in the culture. The culture is the root of the company's invincible position. This year, through a series of corporate cultural practices, we have reduced the employee turnover rate by nearly 50% and increased employee engagement from 8 points to 8.6 points."  

Ms. Ronnie Lu, Total Rewards Senior, Medtronic Greater China 
"Medtronic's EVP (Employer Value Proposition) is implemented in all aspects of our employees' daily work, giving our employees the resources to leverage their physical and mental health while linking and helping others through unique career opportunities and development. This allows employees to connect with one another and to carry out the corporate mission."

Ms. Anne Cai, Vice President HR and Corporate Communications, MHD China 
"We provide employees with a platform to present themselves, encourage them to work together for the sustainable development of society and the environment, and maintain diversity and inclusion in our business, not only in terms of recruitment, but also in terms of support and encouragement for our employees."  

Ms. Gloria Zhu, HR Director, TOTOLE  
"Given the concerns of employees about their families, we solved the pain of working parents through a series of activities, including infant feeding programs, summer care classes, and young CEO training camps. At the same time, we also attach great importance to the safety and health of our employees' work environment, and we have taken safety measures in many work environments, especially in production areas, with the aim of creating a truly happy workplace for our employees in the future."  

03 Panel Discussion: Environment, Social, Governance (ESG) 

This conference not only explained the concept of "Growing the People's Brand" from the practices of the companies, but also addressed the topic of energy, climate and environmental issues that has attracted global attention. The era of "carbon peak" and "carbon neutral" has come, and energy conservation and emission reduction have become globally known issues. Great Place to Work® calls for the Best Workplace™ not only to provide employees with a good environment, but also to cultivate employees' sense of responsibility towards society and the environment, and for everyone from the company to the individual to jointly undertake the mission of helping the environment. The three invited guest speakers shared how companies can embark on "sustainable development" from their respective professional fields. 

Mr. Qian Jin, President, Greater China and Mongolia, Hilton   
"For external customers, we conducted a global survey and found that 88% of our guests consider the environment as their top priority when choosing a hotel. For the staff, on the one hand, we leave the best locations in new offices for our staff. We treat our staff like our own guests. On the other hand, we also require employees to not only do their job, but also to make meaningful contributions to the environment."

Ms. Anne-Sophie Zerlang Karlsen, Head of Operations, Maersk, Asia Pacific Ocean Customers Logistics  
"Hunger should actually be a concern for all of humanity. As the world's largest container shipping company, nearly a third of the world's food is transported through Maersk containers. As a result, Maersk is particularly focused on supply chain management, reducing food waste and loss by helping customers optimize workflows, from planting, to inventory, to storage." 

Mr. Zhengrui (Robert) Wu, Vice President, IWBI Asia WELL AP, WELL Faculty   
"ESG actually provides more impetus for sustainable business development, and the building environment space also plays a part. For example, some of our standard clients will pay attention to lighting environment, air quality, water environment when designing the workplace. In fact, their key is to provide employees with a good office environment."  

04 Keynote: Infineon - Building an Employer Brand with Enterprise Value 

Dr. Su Hua, Senior Vice President & President of Greater China, Infineon Technologies, has more than 20 years of work experience in the electronics industry and is well-travelled throughout the Americas, Mainland China and Taiwan. He seldom attends public speeches so Great Place to Work® was very honored he agreed to participate in the conference's keynote speech, sharing Infineon's employer brand building process, practices and standard criteria. 

In his speech, He pointed out that the key to building an employer's brand is how to impress the company's values upon each and every employee. The company needs to establish a set of corporate values and create a model of employee behavior in order to systematically measure whether each employee's behavior meets the enterprise standards. 

In addition, he also cited Infineon's successful cases in terms of sustainable growth, talent training paths, and leadership. Dr. Su won the audience's attention with an in-depth, comprehensive and selfless sharing of how he balances the business characteristics of Infineon Technologies in many different locations in Greater China with a highly coordinated management experience. 

About Great Place to Work® 

Great Place to Work® Institute is a global authority on workplace culture. Since 1992, Great Place to Work® has surveyed more than 100 million employees around the world and has used these insights to define the essential element of a great workplace: "Trust". The employee survey platform provides leaders with the feedback, real-time reporting, and insights needed to make strategic decisions. The mission of Great Place to Work® is to build a better world by helping organizations become a great place to work FOR ALL.  

For more information on building a great workplace, visit  http://www.greatplacetowork.cn/  and http://www.greatplacetowork.com.hk and connect with us on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Youtube and WeChat ID: greatplacetowork