Hello Future: The best talent can come from within

Organisations may find the talent they need from within. They just need to be willing to invest in training and coaching.

The best talent can come from within

The history of imaging is littered with noteworthy parables on the need to adapt – or die, and it has inspired some monumental changes in a business that started over 30 years ago as a single photo printing shop, and has since evolved into a leading printing and imaging specialist.

The family-run business has broadened its offerings to remain relevant in the rapidly digitalising environment, building a niche in the preservation of images, fragile heritage materials and confidential documents, while growing its range of retail and corporate imaging services. Yet, it had not moved quite as quickly in updating the roles of some of its long-serving employees, says Adeline Choo, Principal Consultant and General Manager at Cadence Group, which worked with the organisation in October last year.

“Companies often recognise the need to upgrade their technology and infrastructure, but don’t always realise that they also need to adapt the roles of their people to the changing company,” she says.

At least 2 of its employees had spent over a decade each with the company doing exactly the same thing. 1 did sales, mainly answering client queries as they came in, and the other was a project executive who processed orders and then saw them through to execution.

While they were both good at their jobs, they were severely underutilised. The institutional knowledge and skills they possessed could be used much more strategically in helping the company grow, says Adeline.

“They were both capable of so much more – the company was not maximising the potential of its human capital… Job redesign could help,” Adeline says.

Over a period of 4 months, her team at Cadence worked with the company to grow the first employee into a Business Development role, training the salesperson to go beyond what clients wanted, and sell them on what the company had to offer from across the business. This was a capability the company actually needed – and it did not have to look far for the right person for the job.

Similarly, the project executive had exceptional – but untapped – technical skills. He could tackle the tough technical challenges and requests for highly-customised work, and offer solutions he knew the company was capable of delivering. Working alongside a salesperson as a Technical Marketing Consultant, he could also better manage client expectations, and deliver even greater customer satisfaction.

Both are currently undergoing a structured learning plan, including on-the-job training, and have been promised increments and promotions at the end of it. The company expects these expanded roles to deliver a 15% increase in customer conversion rates, and 15% in savings on labour costs based on increased productivity.

“They were both able to add much more value to the company, and their knowledge could help improve the current workflow. When we checked in with them, both also seemed much more motivated and confident,” says Adeline, adding that the resulting simplification of some work processes also led to time savings of 30%.

This is the third job redesign exercise the company has undergone, having seen concrete results from relooking some of its other roles, like client support, and upskilling its teams to make them more relevant in a rapidly evolving business environment, says Adeline.

“Businesses need to work out where they want to be in the next 12 to 18 months, and identify the capabilities required to deliver on those goals. Sometimes, there is actually someone within the organisation who can perform that role. You just need to identify the right person – and then help them develop the right skills.”

Cadence Group is among the consultants pre-approved by Workforce Singapore (WSG) to help companies redesign jobs and tackle manpower and productivity issues. Up to 70% of the cost can be funded through the Support for Job Redesign under Productivity Solutions Grant (PSG-JR). For more information about PSG-JR, click the link below.

Read more in our Hello Future series

1. A Critical Time to Relook Jobs. In our curtain raiser piece, job redesign consultants shared why companies need to move now on jobs to protect their top- and bottom-lines.
2. Elevating Patient Service, by Design.?Jia Yong of Ernst & Young Advisory Pte. Ltd showed a local private hospital how job redesign can be a powerful tool to solve its recruitment and productivity issues.
3. Reconstructing Construction Roles.?Nellie of BDO Consultants is leading the transformation of the project coordination role in the construction industry to help ensure projects get completed on time.
4. Designing for Design Roles. Dominic of SFIC Institute showed a mid-sized furniture and furnishings firm how job redesign can let them achieve cost savings of about 20 percent.
5. Making mentoring as easy as ABC. Jek of EON Consulting & Training helped a preschool group figure out how to redesign the senior preschool teacher job and free up time for mentoring their juniors.
6. Perfecting the fit in fashion roles. June of Singapore Polytechnic and Ke Le of AON Solutions Singapore supported two different fashion labels with the job redesign support needed to expand overseas and keep up with omnichannel pressures.
7. Getting Performance Management Right for Success. Johnson and Thomas of CET Global redesigned the HR Executive role in a Chinese manufacturing company to empower the staff to automate tasks and focus on impactful contributions.
8. Spicing up F&B Roles. Siling of Singapore Productivity Centre assisted a Japanese restaurant chain in redesigning jobs and streamlining operations during COVID-19 to achieve tantalising results.
9. What it is, and What it isn’t. In our summary piece, consultants bust some job redesign myths, and suggest how you can maximise the value you get from a job redesign project.