Conversing in English

The secret to the friendly ambience at Han's chain of cafes lies not only in the ingredients, but also the company's investment in staff training. Mrs Teo Hong Lian, Mrs Yong Yan Ting and Mrs Chua Bee Luan, Han's employees at different outlets, have been attending weekly conversational English language courses at the company's Park Mall branch.

Flexible Training Makes Learning Easy

Han's Anson Road outlet is a hive of activity before 10am every weekday. Stepping into the cafe, you can spot Mrs Teo Hong Lian, 56, serving a rapid succession of customers queuing for their morning coffee and toast. As the outlet is located in the Central Business District, it is not unusual for Mrs Teo to serve expatriates. Mrs Teo said, “Before attending the English course, I would always pass on the English-speaking customers to my colleagues. I was too afraid to speak to them.”

She was glad when her supervisor recommended her to attend conversational English lessons at one of the Han’s outlet. The lessons were arranged around her work schedule and at a convenient location, which made it very convenient for her to attend and reduced fatigue from travelling.

The Measure Of Success For Fox Fashion Singapore

Ask any retail outlet in Singapore what their benchmarks for success are and you are likely to hear the following – having the right product, excellent customer service, developing a robust supply chain or having attractive marketing/sales promotions – these are all fundamentals.

For Fox Fashion Singapore, the fashion and casual wear chain certainly has all of the attributes above and has gone a long way since its international launch here in 2004 to grow from one flagship outlet to 22 stores island-wide.

Mr Khoo Kar Tiong, General Manager of Fox Fashion Singapore, related that though business and sales have been robust, his company are constantly looking at ways to improve. One aspect that Fox focuses on is in the area of productivity, or more accurately, the measure of productivity. “We realised that business performance could be improved by better productivity, especially in an environment where staff costs are constantly rising, and the labour market is tight.” said Kar Tiong. “Training and upgrading our staff would in turn reap greater benefits.”

Never Too Old To Learn

Mr Mohammad Bin Gelan seems to revel in the opportunities that life throws at him. The 63 year-old has had quite a colourful career, from working on a ship for almost his entire career to plying his trade in the construction industry.

Drifting from job to job, Mohammad came to a point where old age was catching up with him and he was finding work hard to come by. He however felt he had more to give and wished he could do more. And if only he was trained in something new, his job prospects could improve.

With this simple desire, Mohammad attended a job fair where he was interviewed and then introduced to programmes at his local Community Development Council (CDC)’s Career Centre, where he could enrol in a host of courses to upgrade this skills.

Bigger Smiles With Improved Working Environment

Workers at leading manufacturer of precision springs, Advanex (Singapore), have been sporting bigger smiles these days. Work-conditions have leaped to new heights after the company, with more than half of its 103 staff aged 40 years and above, maximised its use of the ADVANTAGE! Scheme to put in place initiatives to ease their workers’ workload and improve their efficiency.

Two examples of these initiatives are the vision inspection equipment with LCD monitor and the acquisition of battery-operated pallet jacks.

Improved Working Environment

“Our small metal component parts measure 5mm by 5mm and our staff used to strain their eyes to examine it. With help from the ADVANTAGE! Scheme, we bought a vision inspection equipment, which allows us to magnify the parts by 10 to 20 times and this reduces eye strains for our mature workers,” said Advanex’s Senior Human Resource Manager, Alice Tan.

“Another example would be the transporting of heavy goods. Raw materials or finished goods weigh an average of 800kg to 1,000kg. With the introduction of battery-operated pallet jack, our workers find it easier to push and pull the loaded pallet around. It reduces physical fatigue.”

Riding A Career Of Adventure

“The best part of my job is when guests come back and say ‘the ride is the best in the park!’” Rachel Tan quipped with a bright smile. Having been in the Attractions Crew at Universal Studios Singapore for over two years, Rachel takes great pride in giving visitors the best ride experience. “Contrary to what many people think, ride operation is not just about pressing some buttons,” Rachel shared. “It is really about creating the right ambience, putting visitors into the right frame of mind to enjoy the ride. To do this everyone in the team has to chip in and play a part.”

Exchanging A Ship For A Theme Park

Rachel certainly knows what it means to be a team player. Before joining the Universal Studios theme park, she was part of the server team on board a leisure cruise liner, attending to the needs of diners in its various restaurants. But after eight years calling at various ports, she wanted a change in her work. “At that time, Resorts World Sentosa was offering positions in Universal Studios Singapore,” Rachel said. “I like the branding of Universal Studios Singapore and said to myself, why not give it a try and see where it goes?”

Pairing Service Excellence with Top-Notch Cooking Skills

The ability to dish up tasty food used to be the sole quality expected of chefs in the Food & Beverage industry. But judges for this year's Singapore National Restaurant Skills Competition (SNRSC), now into its second year, are looking beyond taste to qualities such as “team work, coordination excellence, hygiene and product knowledge, service protocol and professionalism,” according to Mr Frank Yuen (right), Board Member of the Food & Beverage Managers’ Association (FBMA) of Singapore and General Manager of Le lifestyle Hospitality Food Services.

He said, “Restaurant practitioners, besides knowledge of food preparation and service, should try to gain more knowledge and skills in other disciplines to complement the overall dining experience. They need to keep abreast of developments in farming and fishing, and hone their presentation skills and salesmanship.”

Celebrity Chef Eric Teo (right) who is also judging the competition agrees. He feels restaurant staff in Singapore are “not getting enough exposure to the industry and job hop too often.”

“A professional chef or server needs to love his job and be passionate about the people dining at their restaurants . There are too many part timers who are not trained to handle picky and demanding guests,” said Chef Teo. As for beginners in the kitchen, they should “have the right attitude and be very passionate and fanatic about cooking good food.” He said, “Basic cooking skills, knowledge of various cutting methods, basic cooking techniques and finally knowing the names of basic fruits , vegetables and different types of meat, fish and seafood are the foundation of a successful career as a chef.”

Self-Improvement Leads to Workplace Success

Over the past 17 years, April Wong has accumulated a wealth of experience in the human resource field in both the public and private sectors. Currently with the National Council of Social Service, she was transferred to handle the challenging portfolio of Talent Management in the newly formed Manpower Capability Development Department, which entails developing a pipeline of future leaders in the social service sector.



Picking up Practical HR Skills

To prepare for the transfer, April enrolled herself in the WSQ Specialist Diploma in Human Capital Management (HR Development) at Human Capital Singapore Pte Ltd (HCS) to gain more knowledge of Talent Management.