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How Employees Become Your Greatest Assets

February 2020

By Vahid Haghzare, Director Silicon Valley Associates Recruitment &

Victor Chen, Senior Recruiter, Silicon Valley Associates Recruitment

One of the top IT recruiters and IT Recruitment Agencies in Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Shanghai, Japan, Singapore, and Dubai, SVA Recruitment is an IT and employment agency that provides jobs, executive search, and recruitment services.

It's one thing to fill your IT jobs in Hong Kong with bright candidates who offer plenty of potentials and a fantastic resume. But how do you develop them into true assets that your company can leverage for the longer term?

The key lies in excellent employee engagement, and those firms which are prepared to truly invest in their employees will enjoy better retention, better productivity, and a better bottom-line overall.

Employee engagement will mean different things to different businesses and different industries, but for most IT jobs in Hong Kong, it will encompass things such as:

An attractive rewards package
A strong employer brand
Flexibility such as the ability to work from home
A clear progression path and defined training opportunities
A great company culture
The chance to give back through corporate social responsibility programs
Excellent management and a commitment to reward and recognition.

Many of these elements can be captured under the idea of the employer brand, which seeks to present the company in a way that appeals to the best talent in the market for recruitment processes. If you can develop a compelling and accurate employer brand - and then deliver against it so that your motivated hires are then incentivized to stay - your business will prosper.

Employees who are developed, rewarded, motivated, and progressed through a structured career path within your business will invariably be true assets for your business into the future. Remember that younger generations, in particular, want to feel that they are being developed, challenged, and recognized - or they will go elsewhere. This investment is a two-way street and if you invest in their career development with structured progression, stretch opportunities, qualifications and training, and real rewards, they will reward you with dedication and high performance.

It is an expensive business to bring new staff on-board and to develop them to full competence within their roles at your firm, so it makes sense to continue to nurture them. Keyways to do this include the following:

1. Ensure that your managers are well-trained and able to manage and lead. Hire great communicators who are naturally relatable.

2. Create HR policies that support progression, reward, and recognition.

3. Put aside sufficient budget for training and development

4. Ensure that you have excellent performance management policies and structures, with regular 121s and opportunities for performance reviews.

5. Create a strong culture of reward and recognition, where success and effort are both celebrated. Mark the achievements of your employees and celebrate them.

6. Invest in your internal communication, so that all staff feels informed, engaged, and encouraged to participate in regular, two-way, and open communication. Show that their contributions are valued.

7. Really seek to find ways to involve your star players in your business and the decisions that affect them. Implement two-way feedback mechanisms and open culture with an emphasis on innovation and 'healthy risk'. Delegate, and give your great employees the freedom to take promising projects forward. Reward effort and performance alike - recognizing that risky moves will not always pay off, but that a culture of innovation is a healthy one that can take the business forward.

8. Hire the right people in the first place! If you wait to find the right person, you will be investing in a genuine asset with long-term potential. A knee-jerk, rapid hire of a candidate who turns out to be a bad fit will invariably turn out to be a bad investment and a loss-maker for your business.

With these ideas in mind, what steps will you be taking this year to get the most from your valuable employee assets, and to grow your business?

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Silicon Valley Associates is ideally positioned to support the continual demand from tech companies and IT Departments looking to hire in Hong Kong, Asia, and Worldwide. Please let us know if you would further advise on the above topic or your hiring needs