Sonia Cheng, Human Resources Director, VF Asia Limited
Sonia Cheng, HRD, VF Asia Ltd started with short background about her company VF Asia, and explained that the VF Group is a collection of brands, such as The North Face, Timberland and Lee. The group oversees 560 million units of jeans, tents, backpacks, footwear, jeans etc being produced and sourced each year.
She shared the VF talent development journey by connecting back to the business situation four to five years ago. The management team wanted to rebuild its business model by reflecting on the past, reviewing the present and determining the future. With help of an artist, the VF story had been captured and visualised, and a Growth Pyramid was developed to support a new business focus. The first of the two key areas highlighted by Cheng was marketing.
“We do a lot of promotions internally, not only through e-mail, but we also do seminars,” Cheng stated. Printed materials, such as Career Development Guide, are provided to associates which demystifies 29 competencies and links them to real roles in the organisation.
The second key area was about owning your own career. VF invested in middle managers to equip them with proper skills to develop their team— but also focused on empowering employees.
“Here in Asia, the culture has resulted in a situation where associates are looking at their managers to determine their career development,” she explained. A greater focus on empowering employees to contribute to their own career trajectory can skyrocket motivation. The focus on people became the foundation for the organisation, one that organically improves the culture of L&D, and measures the results later.
iPyramid was launched as the platform to deliver this message, with ‘Own Your Career’ having a prominent place in the top-left corner of the platform’s dashboard—and also encourages employees to ‘Go Outside for New Ideas’ rather than just learning from managers and peers.
In terms of results, since the further emphasis on developing their people, VF Asia has seen a dramatic drop in staff turnover, while witnessing increases in employee engagement. Into the future, VF Asia is committed to improving itself based on its guiding principle—people.
Paul Arkwright
Publisher
