Sustainability Report 2012 • 53
Executive Development Programme
We continue our collaboration with leading
universities on the mainland to provide Executive
Development Programmes (EDP) for the leaders
of our mainland businesses. During the year,
17 executives participated in our week-long
Tsinghua EDP while 33 participants completed
the more recently established Zhongshan
University programme. Programmes are also run in
collaboration with Nanjing and Dalian Polytechnic
Universities as well as the Southwestern University
of Finance and Economics. Thirty senior executives
also attended a five-day programme at the
Chinese Academy of Governance to enhance their
knowledge of China’s political, economical and
social environment, while a further 270 financial
professionals frommore than a 100 mainland
businesses attended a Finance workshop in
Liaoning.
Superior Quality Service (SQS)
Scheme
Our SQS programme was set up in 1992 to improve
quality and drive performance throughout our
operations. Over the years, more than 4,498 SQS
projects have been completed both in Hong Kong
and on the mainland, saving over HK$695.5million
in costs. In 2012, 719 employees in 99 teams in
Hong Kong completed 64 projects saving HK$28
million, while on the mainland, some 6,018 team
members completed 524 projects with cost savings
of over RMB 53.82 million.
Following a “Voice of Customers”exercise with
colleagues in Hong Kong , we responded the
hunger of new problem-solving tools and an
innovative learning environment by establishing
a new SQS innovation model in 2012. Moreover,
two SQS training sessions were also conducted in
our project in Jincheng, Shanxi province and plans
are in hand to further extend this training into
our operations in Northeastern China. Though a
new training model was launched during the year,
making sure that it keeps up with modern business
practices, its objectives – to encourage staff to take
the initiative, solve problems and play a greater
leadership role in their day-to-day activities –
remain constant.
Effective Communications
A comprehensive programme of internal
communication from regular meetings and
briefings to functions and events, information
presentations, departmental and company-
wide newsletters as well as an internal corporate
website, keep employees fully informed of what
is happening throughout the Group. We also
encourage two-way communications to enable our
employees to express their views and ideas to our
senior management. In addition to the employee
suggestion programme, we organised luncheons
and gatherings for employees to meet senior
management and we also set up a dedicated“Talk
to the Managing Director”mailbox to facilitate
direct communications.
Official communications are carried out through
regular meetings with staff unions while specific
committees deal with labour and management
issues.
