career
Many people think of improved relations between employees and their employers when they hear the term "employee engagement," as well as measures taken to ensure employees' physical and emotional well-being on the job.
Put another way, it's the equivalent of making people "happy" at work so that they enjoy coming to work each day. It may appear that this is not a difficult challenge to solve, but keep in mind that people have varying requirements. Thus, the goal of generating such joy involves simple issues with complex solutions.
We at Career SCB would like to introduce you to Kiattisak "Nueng" Sampaongern, Senior Vice President of the Employee Engagement and Communication Function, and the team leader behind the mission to make SCB's more than 20,000 employees happy. He has been working in the field of employee engagement and well-being for over a decade, and he will tell us how SCB has managed to be a leader in this area, ensuring the physical and emotional health of its employees for decades. The Bank's success in these areas was recognized with an Outstanding Contribution for Health and Wellness award received from the World HRD Congress in 2022.
According to Kiattisak, "My main role is to create engagement inside the organization and to take care of the well-being of employees in terms of both their physical and emotional health, as well as to ensure that all employee benefit information is communicated effectively. In addition, I am in charge of the annual employee engagement survey, which is used to gauge the level of happiness among workers and to identify any unmet requirements in the company.”
Taking care of employees so they are healthy, creating pleasant activities for them to participate in throughout the workday, and informing them of their rights and benefits are all tasks that can be checked off in one stop. His team also routinely conducts employee surveys to find places for improvement and spreads a positive image of the Bank to the public. These tactics are lauded for their ability to unite a community and make both long-term employees and newcomers feel at home.
In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, new norms in work and life have emerged. As a result, all employees were impacted, and many opted to start doing some or all of their job from home, rather than risk infection by venturing outside. There was a need for SCB to implement a "Work from Anywhere" policy.
For example, Kiattisak said, "There was one time when I took my car for maintenance at the car service shop, and I was able to work from there. The showroom serves as a shared office for those in the area. I could avoid getting a cab home by doing my work among the shiny new cars at the dealership. I even captured the experience and shared the images with my coworkers. We can see that workers have control over their schedules and their lifestyles.”
However, since we were geographically dispersed and had never met our coworkers, "Work from Anywhere" presented its own set of issues when it came to employee engagement. It can make some people feel absolutely alone.
According to Kiattisak, "Management started to be concerned that when employees operate in different areas, they almost never have a chance to talk to one another, which is a major problem when trying to overcome obstacles. Employee engagement and satisfaction could drop as a result of this. In order to encourage greater participation from staff members, we established SCB We Share as a forum for the exchange of ideas and information.”
SCB is one of the first Thai organizations to implement a "Work from Anywhere" policy, which raises concerns about staff efficiency.
Kiattisak provided a specific case in response to this question. "There was a worker that commuted four hours each day because he lived outside of town. Because of the shift to hybrid working and more adaptable hours, he is now able to avoid both the morning and afternoon rush hours. As a result, he reduced his travel time round-trip to just one hour! Upon returning home, he continued working until he had fulfilled a full working day. He just confided with me that things are simpler for him now.”
Obviously, trust among coworkers is crucial to success in this setting. Since Kiattisak wants his team members to pay more attention to the quality of their job, he no longer requires them to clock in and out at the same time. Also, every week, the team gets together to talk about the challenges they've had at work and how they can work together to solve them. As a result, employees feel more positively about the firm and are more invested in its success.
It turns out that providing workers more independence is a great way to foster a "culture of trust," which in turn boosts worker motivation.
Kiattisak saw the task of developing involvement during the pandemic as equally difficult as the challenge of creating engagement amongst different generations within the firm. Every generation has its own way of doing things and its own set of priorities at work.
Kiattisak believed that what is evident is that when there are different concerns, the new generation tends to address things by providing reasons behind any decision. However, some members of the older age may find such kind of candor offensive. It's important to keep an eye on when it's most appropriate to address issues. As a result, the Bank will need to make certain changes to its working style or overall strategy to accommodate its employees’ wide range of ages. In order to create effective engagement activities, it's crucial to first understand the characteristics shared by members of different generations.
When asked what he hopes to accomplish with his work in the engagement industry, Kiattisak answered confidently, "I want to make employees come to work happy and feel good about the company. When workers are content in their workplace, they are better able to focus on their work and get things done. Workers that are fulfilled in their work are better equipped to focus on the needs of their clients and are more energized to push the company to achieve its maximum potential.”
For this reason, we know that if we take care of our personnel, they will in turn take care of our consumers well," Kiattisak summed up.
