Cargill awarded Best Employer with its strength in people management
Translated from an exclusive interview article by Prachachat Turakij: https://www.prachachat.net/sd-plus/news-1551144
Cargill, one of the world’s leading food and agriculture companies, believes that “people” are the most valuable and important resources of the company. The company has therefore invested in people and received Kincentric Best Employer Thailand Award for the two consecutive years.
Vichaya Pongphasook, HR Business Partner Director, Cargill Protein Southeast Asia and the HR lead in Thailand, said that Cargill has been operating for over 158 years with the headquarter in Minnetonka, Minnesota, United States of America.
Most of Cargill’s key businesses are related to agricultural industry, the company has invested and operated in over 70 countries around the world with around 160,000 employees. For Thailand, there are around 16,000 employees, accounting for 10% of total employees globally. The 3 legal entities in Thailand include:
1) Legal entity for commercial animal feed business with 6 factories and 1 aquaculture technology research and development center and around 800 employees
2) Legal entity for domestic and export sales of cooked chicken products for food service businesses and retail stores with around 15,000 Thai employees; around 12,000 of them are daily-paid employees and around 3,000 of them are monthly-paid employees.
3) Legal entity for the industry from our recent M&A effort, called Gidavi Co., Ltd. The business is about cake decorations and chocolate with 200 employees in Pattaya, Bang Lamung, Chonburi.
For views on people-related challenges, Vichaya mentioned there are 3 dimensions.
Dimension 1 The business in Thailand is labor-intensive. Cargill has employees with different races, e.g. daily workers in chicken processing and instant chicken products business have 4 different races: Thai, Cambodian, Laos, and Myanmar.
Dimension 2 External factors, e.g. Thailand is moving towards Aging Society. As a result, diversity, equity, and inclusion management is required to ensure balance of all generations across the organization.
Dimension 3 Digital and technology. Even though our business is significantly labor-intensive, technology is still a must. So we have to focus on developing digital and technology-related skills for our employees.
Despite challenges, Cargill has a strong people strategy and adaptability. This resulted in Cargill being awarded Kincentric Best Employer Thailand Award based on efficiency and effectiveness of management in two main dimensions including Strategic Human Resource Management and Strategic Human Resource Development with linkage to customer satisfaction, employee engagement and focus on efficiency and effectiveness for the overall business.
“We have strength in building customer satisfaction because we focus on people management directions. As Cargill has operated for over 100 years, without smart and good people and appropriate people development, we cannot go further. That’s why we really focus on this.
In addition, we focus on well-being and psychological safety by offering EAP or Employee Assistance Program with psychiatrists and psychologists to provide service and advice on personal, work, and other issues. Also, in case employees find non-transparency or improvement areas, they can contact our Ethics Open Line.”
Vichaya also said that success in people management does not rely on HR management team or supervisors or executives, but it requires seamless collaboration. HR takes the role of an Organization Designer, translating the message from the top into actions and ensuring that ten-thousands of employees understand it in the same way. HR must translate the message into easy-to-understand practice.
“Cargill puts significant effort to develop supervisors, managers, and executives that not only focus on work but also take the role of a People Manager because such people are the real HR as they involve in people management starting from recruitment. Moreover, Cargill would like to create a happy, pleasant, and respectful workplace for employees because this directly affects employee morale. Overall, this will affect the produces and quality of work delivered to customers.”
To recruit people, 3 main factors are considered;
First, The Fit Job Considering Hard Skills, e.g. recruiting a technical engineer should consider computer skills and direct experience to ensure suitable knowledge and skills.
Second, Nontechnical Skill Considering Soft Skills, e.g. recruiting a leader for the team of 100-200 people should consider leadership, communication, coaching skills, and etc.
And third, Team Fit Considering the overall team including the hiring manager, colleagues, and subordinates.
For generation diversity in the organization, Cargill Thailand has 4 generations of employees. The largest group is Generation Y, accounting for 68%. Generation X accounts for 20% and Generation Z accounts for 1.5%, which is still very small. Baby Boomer accounts for 1%
“We cannot deny that younger generation like Generation Z will become the main driver in the future for all organizations. So, understanding this generation and their identity will lead to development. Gen Z people, aged 26-27, who is in the early stage of their career, has grown up in Digitalization Era and prefer speed. They are familiar with technology. They want to express their opinions and expect that the company, executives and supervisors listen to their opinions. Such group are quite confident to speak up and to be different. They do not like micromanagement and prefer clear explanation. We encourage this group with coaching, caring and resource support.”
At Cargill Meats (Thailand), we have invested in NGTA (Next Generation Talent Acquisition), job application filling platform that meet the needs of new generations to recruit talents. All data will be sent to the evaluation system. After the evaluation is completed, online tests, such as English, will be conducted. Then such data will be sent to a Hiring Manager. This is suitable for Gen Z who do not like complicated steps. Then we develop them after they join our company. We also create the environment that supports their learning of various systems in the organization.
Vichaya talked about people development that the company focuses on People Skill and Leadership Skill. In Thailand, Leadership Development Program has been developed. For example, senior level employees are developed based on LEAP Structure (L = Learn, E = Engage, A = Apply, P = Perform) through face-to-face trainings.
For first-line managers and Generation Z, we have Super Leader Course that provide guidance on role and responsibility, coaching skills, and communication skills.
“A good leader should have 2 components. The first thing Cargill prefers is a person with strength in Core Value: Doing things straightforwardly, being honest, focusing on people, and possessing growth mindset. Another thing is to have Heart of Leadership, respecting diversity and putting people first.”
Cargill’s strategies really emphasize its people management excellence.
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