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The panel discussion is about to begin. You will only hear the talks once. Good afternoon, everyone. On behalf of the Hong Kong Management Association, it’s my pleasure to welcome you to this afternoon’s panel discussion on the topic, careers management in the 1990s. A very important topic, I know, and of considerable concern to all of you here today. Careers management in the 1990s. My name’s David Watson, and I’m the director of the association. As you know, the focus of today’s meeting is careers in large and small companies. This is the first panel discussion which we’ve organised here at the Hong Kong Management Association, and we’re delighted to have such a distinguished panel for you. Let me introduce the members of the panel to you now. On your far left is Miss Jenny Tong. Miss Tong’s a training officer who works at the headquarters of the Hong Kong International Bank in Central. Miss Tong’s here to represent large organisations and will tell us about their approach to staff. Next to Miss Tong is Andrew Stewart, who’s the managing director of Asha Computers, which is a small retail company in Mong Kok. Mr Stewart will give us another approach as adopted by a typical small company. Next to me on my left is Mark Woods, who’s an industrial psychologist working for IBM in their office in New York. Mark gives advice to employers on how to organise their work, including how to recruit staff. First, I’d like to call on Jenny Tong to talk about the large organisations’ approach to careers management. Thank you. What I’d like to do in my short presentation today is to outline some of the advantages which you’ll have if you decide to work for a very large organisation such as ours. Let me begin with our induction programme for new staff. If you have a look at the headings in front of you, you’ll see that I’ve mapped it out as a flow diagram, and I’ll help you fill it in now as I explain the stages involved. Our induction period covers the first two years of an employee’s career. The first part of the programme consists of a so-called orientation week. This is a series of introductory talks and films about the organisation in general. Then new members of staff spend the first year visiting the four major divisions within the bank. Normally, they spend three months in each of these divisions, the first being general banking. Following three months in general banking, the trainees move to the technical division, for example, the computing department or the EDP department. That’s data processing. We have a number of departments within this technical division, but the ones where all trainees really need to have experience are computing and EDP. Then, for the third placement, they join the administrative division in, say, the personnel department or the office premises department. The personnel department, of course, deals with all matters relating to staff, such as salaries, while the office premises department is concerned with where we locate our branches. Finally, they spend the last three months in the specialist banking division. This contains a number of small departments, such as the foreign exchange, or forex, as it’s sometimes called, and the investment department. So, what happens once this first year of placements is over? Well, this is a very important time for new staff, since their performance during the first year has to be reviewed. This happens at a formal personnel interview. Each of the departments visited during the first year prepares a report on the new staff, and the reports form the basis for the personnel interview. If all the reports are satisfactory and positive, the member of staff proceeds immediately to year two. However, if there are any negative reports, the trainee has to go back to the departments which gave a bad report and repeat the training until the department is satisfied. Now, for those staff who complete year one successfully, what happens in year two? Well, year two consists of what we call a posting for a full year to either a general or a specialist banking department. So, that’s how the induction program works. After the program, our trainees should have a good idea of how the organization operates. Now, let me say something about the characteristics of this induction program. First of all, we like to give new staff the experience of working in many different departments so that they get a broad view of the organization. Secondly, we don’t want staff to specialize too early in their careers with us. We prefer them to choose a specialization a little later in their career. Thirdly, the induction program is characterized by a strong emphasis on training. During the first two years, about 20% of working time is spent on training. Our training program is geared to producing staff with certain qualities that we believe are important in our organization. We believe that a well-trained workforce will be happier in their jobs as well as more effective. We believe that if staff develop an interest in the organization as a whole, they’ll spend their working life with us. Ultimately, it’s this quality of loyalty which we value above everything else. That’s why we try to keep them interested in their jobs and encourage them to identify themselves with the organization. To sum up, large organizations offer many benefits to staff, such as a long-term career structure, a job that’s secure, and plenty of opportunities for training. Now, just before I finish, I’d like to say something about the fringe benefits we offer. The staff should remember that large organizations usually provide subsidized canteens. Also, there are often excellent sports facilities owned by the company. And don’t forget the offices themselves. In a large company, you’re more likely to have the latest office equipment and a pleasant working environment. It all adds up to a very attractive package for a young person starting out. Thank you, Miss Tong. Now you’ve heard how large organizations deal with new staff. Let’s hear what happens in a small, private firm. Our second speaker is Andrew Stewart, who’s the Managing Director of ASIA Computers. Mr. Stewart. Well, who wants to spend the first two years of their working life being moved around from department to department and spend a fifth of their time sitting in classrooms? These training courses are all very well, but in the real world of business, there’s no substitute for experience and learning by doing. Right from the first day, our new staff are given responsibility and the chance to show what they can do. The best way to let people develop their talent at work and to motivate them to work well is to give them a real job to do and let them get on with it. I don’t use very much theory in my job, and I’m running a very profitable company with a team of excellent staff. They all work very hard, and they love it. All right, they may have to work longer hours than you would in a large bank, but they get paid well for their efforts. I didn’t hear Miss Tong saying anything about salaries, did you? Of course not. Large companies with their staff systems put all new staff at the bottom of their salary scale. Then you get a small salary increase every year. In a small company like mine, the director looks at each member of staff’s performance during the year and can reward an exceptionally good employee with a larger than average rise. That’s what people want nowadays. Who’s going to do exceptional work if the boss doesn’t recognize it in his pay packet? And of course, good staff want more than just a financial reward, so we have to be prepared to promote good staff as soon as they’re ready. Some staff get promoted quickly, and others make slower progress. That’s life. I prefer to spend my company’s money on staff salaries rather than training courses and staff canteens than those so-called fringe benefits Miss Tong mentioned, so you won’t find any fancy canteens or sports facilities at my company. And my staff appreciate this. We are realistic about staff and know that people will work where they get the best opportunities. Nowadays, companies have to accept that staff change jobs frequently, especially in Hong Kong. In my opinion, this can be good for a company. In fact, my philosophy is that a successful small company needs frequent changes of staff. Everybody knows that staff work best when they’re still excited by a new job. Now, this usually only lasts for a few years. I believe that companies need a high turnover of staff so that good new people are coming in all the time. So, take my advice. Think small when choosing an employer. Thank you, Mr Stewart. We’ve now heard two quite different views from the employers. I think we’ll take a few questions now before we hear the other speaker. If you’d like to ask a question, please say who you are and where you work. Yes, sir? My name’s Frank Brown, and I’ve recently been appointed as manager of a small employment agency in Hong Kong. We specialise in finding staff on behalf of companies. I’m finding this seminar very useful, and I’d like to ask the two speakers how they recruit their staff. Ms Tong? We look after recruitment ourselves through our personnel department. We don’t use private recruitment companies. Almost all our new recruits join us on a general trainee scheme, which starts every September. We have to be sure they’re suitable for work in a number of different jobs in the organisation, so we rely heavily on interviews. Each candidate’s interviewed by members of our staff, first by someone from the personnel department, and then by one person from the general banking section. Before the interviews, we ask for two references on each candidate, and we also take seriously what the referees say about them. At present, we don’t use any tests during recruitment. We used to give all candidates a short test of their written English and basic numeracy, but these weren’t popular with the staff, who find the interviews more reliable. Our policy in recruitment methods is guided by the need to be consistent in the approach we use, and the need to have a fair system for all applicants. Thanks. Mr Stewart? Well, small companies haven’t got big personnel departments, so I often use employment companies and agencies to identify possible candidates for us. We tell the agency the kind of person we are looking for and the kind of vacancies we have, and they try to find the right people for us. I need to recruit new staff whenever an employee leaves the company, so I can’t know far in advance when new jobs will start. Of course, we interview the candidate recommended by the company. I interview them myself, in fact, and if he or she is okay, we take them on. I don’t bother with all these tests and references. If I think the person’s right for the job, I take him. If I don’t like him, I ask the agency to send us somebody else. Anyway, we don’t waste much time on recruitment ourselves, and leave it to specialists who usually do a good job for us. Thank you. I had no idea that employment agencies were so widely used nowadays. It will be interesting to see whether they continue to take over the work of the traditional personnel department. Time for another question, I think. Yes, madam? My name is Linda Lau, and I’m a careers teacher at a secondary school. I know that examination results are very important, but what I don’t know is the other qualities that employers look for in staff. And I have to give students advice when preparing their job applications. That’s an important question, of course. Mr. Stewart? For me, the two most important qualities are initiative and drive. By drive, I mean personal ambition. They must also be able to motivate other people and make them work well. We don’t need staff who need to be told what to do all the time. We also like staff who can cope flexibly with new situations. And of course, we need people who aren’t afraid of taking responsibility themselves. You certainly know what you want, Mr. Stewart. I just wonder how many young people possess these qualities when they start work. I would have thought that some of these skills would develop with experience. But let’s hear what qualities Miss Pong looks for at the bank. Basically, we look for people who are adaptable enough to fit into the organisation. It’s also extremely important for our staff to have good social skills, so that they can work well within their teams and also with members of the public. Then they must be prepared to attend training courses, so they have to be ready to learn new skills. Another quality they need is patience, since many of the jobs they’ll do during their time as trainees are routine. And possibly the most important of all, they have to be good communicators. And finally, I think it’s only fair to say that we prefer staff who look neat and tidy. After all, they deal with members of the public and organisations are judged by the staff who represent them. Thank you very much. You certainly expect a great deal from your staff. That’s the end of part one. You will now have five minutes to tidy up what you’ve done in part one.