28 Inside COSCO Corporation COSCO Corporation (Singapore) Limited Inside COSCO Corporation
29 Inside COSCO Corporation COSCO Corporation (Singapore) Limited HUMAN RESOURCES Developing our people COSCO Corporation firmly believes that in order to realise its aspiration to become a world-class shipping and ship repair company, it has to attract, nurture and retain highly talented and committed people. COSCO Corporation seeks to continually build up its human capital in four fundamental ways – recruitment, training, succession planning and motivation. The first way is through the recruitment of quality staff, and in this respect COSCO Corporation seeks to source the kind of human talent that will propel the organisation forward in the future. Every year, COSCO Corporation carries out recruitment drives at the top universities in China to source for excellent graduates from a range of disciplines. In this way the business is enriched by the fresh perspectives and dynamism of young minds. The second is through training and skills development, which is imparted through a mix of in-house courses, professional courses in institutions of technical or higher learning, and training from international industry partners. Internally, regular in-house training courses are conducted for all levels of staff, to upgrade their skills and knowledge base. Prior to their commencement of work in shipping and ship repair operations, technical workers receive one to three months of prerequisite training in their areas of specialisation to equip them with the required technical skills. To maintain a rigorous quality standard across the organization, all technical workers are required to pass technical examinations in order to qualify for a permit that allows them to work on the ships. Their skills are then upgraded and honed on an ongoing basis through further in-house training for two weeks to one month each year. In addition, appraisals of all staff members are conducted every year to facilitate the evaluation of individual work performance. All staff receive regular upgrading of their information technology skills through in-house training or system training conducted by our vendors. When COSCO Group adopted the universal SAP system Group-wide this year, we sent several staff members to China for a month to learn about the new system so that they could help both in the implementation of the SAP system within COSCO Corporation and in the training of its use by all staff. Similarly, during the year, management level and key operational staff underwent training in the use of the IRIS-2 system which was introduced recently to better manage our electronic data. Likewise our financial staff received training from certified accounting firm Price Waterhouse Coopers. COSCO Corporation also leverages the international expertise of its partners to introduce new capabilities or train staff in a number of areas including engineering, management and safety. A prime example is COSCO Corporation’s strategic collaboration with Singapore’s SembCorp Marine to train and nurture key personnel in the management of the ship repair and engineering business. Middle management members are offered opportunities to further their knowledge and skills in institutions of higher learning such as the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. Key senior management members are sent to countries with a strong maritime tradition such as Norway, in order to learn from the best in the industry. COSCO Corporation recognizes that the future success of the enterprise depends largely on the quality of the leadership, which in turn is dependent on effective succession planning. The individuals at the helm of COSCO Corporation are specially identified and selected in an ongoing succession planning programme. Potential leaders are then specifically groomed for top management roles via training programmes with strategic partners, as well as institutions of higher learning. Motivating our workforce The final way in which COSCO Corporation seeks to build the kind of committed workforce that will project its future growth, is through motivation. A motivated workforce is a productive workforce. Thus, besides financial incentives, COSCO Corporation has several programmes that aim to enhance staff loyalty and boost the productivity of the workforce. One such programme is the “Model Employee of the Company” award, open to all employees. Every year, model employees are selected to receive this award, based on their work performances for the year. Among other incentives, the selected employees are each given a week-long visit to China comprising of a visit to the COSCO Group’s Beijing headquarters. Another incentive is the Employee Share Options Plan (ESOP). Introduced in 1994, the ESOP is offered to key staff members such as senior management members and senior staff members as a tool for motivation. During the year in review, most of the options were exercised, demonstrating the high level of commitment there is to the company’s well-being. Ensuring staff welfare COSCO Corporation places the highest importance on staff well-being and several policies have been put in place to ensure that its staff keep in the best of health, and safe. Health benefits include yearly health checks and comprehensive medical insurance covering incidentals like dental charges and flu vaccinations. All COSCO Corporation’s ships carry medical personnel, and the shipyards have medical facilities on site. In terms of safety, COSCO Corporation has a reputation for maintaining the highest possible levels of safety throughout its three core business units. Safety standards are aligned with the industry’s best practices such as the International Safety Programme, and rigorously applied with stringent checks, as our ISO9002 accreditations demonstrate. In the ship repair unit, an internal safety audit team regularly conducts random spot checks at COSCO Corporation’s seven shipyards in China to ensure that safety standards are kept at high levels at all times. In the shipping business, COSCO Corporation’s high standards of safety recently received recognition through both ISO9002 certification and the United States Coastguards’ “Qualship 21: certificate of eligibility”. Widely considered the most rigorous and prestigious award in the international shipping industry, the latter was awarded to three of COSCO (Singapore)’s COSCO Corporation (Singapore) Limited Annual Report 2004