Powering by way of change: Q&A with Priscilla Chau, Director

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Amid the power sector’s transformation, Priscilla Chau, Director – HR, CLP Energy Hong Kong, is rebuilding tradition by serving to the workforce undertake new methods of doing issues.

Important stats: Priscilla Chau is a senior HR chief with over 20 years of expertise in a wide range of Asia Pacific HR roles, together with enterprise partnering, expertise improvement, and HR course of enchancment. Having taken on her present function in 2021, she leads the operations of people-related programmes to assist the expansion of CLP’s Hong Kong subsidiary, in addition to performs a essential function within the steady improvement of the HR perform. Earlier than CLP, she most not too long ago spent 15 years with multinational industrial chief BASF in a wide range of regional roles primarily based at its Asia Pacific headquarters in Hong Kong.

Introduction: As the foremost energy utility supplier in Hong Kong, serving greater than 80% of the inhabitants, CLP Energy Hong Kong (CLP) is presently remodeling to turn out to be the ‘Utility of the Future’ to remain forward of the challenges introduced by local weather change, and quickly evolving applied sciences.

The HR workforce, led by our interviewee Priscilla Chau, works on manpower planning to assist this technique.

The Hong Kong Energy enterprise is supported by over 50 colleagues within the HR perform, masking greater than 4,000 full-time and part-time staff. General, the CLP Group had greater than 8,000 full-time and part-time staff as of 30 June 2022, of which about 5,400 workers have been engaged in CLP’s companies in Hong Kong and Mainland China, and a couple of,700 within the companies in Australia, India, Southeast Asia, and Taiwan.

The management at CLP goals to instil a office tradition that encourages creativity, experimentation, and taking accountability.

“With altering buyer wants and enterprise surroundings, we wish to domesticate a bunch of staff who’re adaptive to the adjustments and challenges with a inventive and versatile mindset,” Chau tells us.

To this mission, CLP has had its ‘Design Pondering Programme’ in place since 2019 to equip staff with the power and instruments to innovate higher methods of working. Greater than 4,000 staff have been educated and over 100 initiatives have been initiated by staff.

“We’re excited to see our staff being empowered to drive transformation that varies from small processes to huge concepts, which all contribute to the success of CLP,” Chau shares.

CLP can be striving to extend the involvement of staff in shaping the corporate tradition; as such ‘Cultural Jam’ has been organised, a three-day group-wide discussion board for all staff to specific their opinions and concepts on what a great firm ought to appear to be.

On this interview, Aditi Sharma Kalra speaks to Chau to seek out out concerning the plans for workforce transformation, challenges confronted on this sector, milestones achieved in enterprise partnering, and extra.

Q: What are the expertise challenges you face as a part of this function and sector?

Firstly, the facility business is historically male dominated, and a serious change within the feminine ratio is a long-term problem given the comparatively restricted provide of ladies with technical and engineering expertise. As such, CLP has set gender range as a group-wide precedence to make sure a various workforce.

We now have arrange a devoted activity power for a holistic assessment of gender range, the place one in every of its main duties is to formulate methods to draw, recruit, and retain feminine workers.

We consider {that a} various workforce and an inclusive tradition is essential to our sustainable progress and innovation functionality. New concepts and views are wanted to remodel our enterprise right into a ‘Utility of the Future’. Power transition, digital evolution, and rising social and political uncertainties, in addition to expectations in CLP’s markets, are driving the necessity for better organisational agility – the power to adapt and reach a quickly altering surroundings.

CLP continues to strengthen efforts to useful resource for power transition and progress, and attracting and retaining expertise to assist our enterprise wants, along with enhancing the technical and digital capabilities of the workforce, amid accelerating adjustments within the business.

Upskilling and empowering staff to reply quickly to altering buyer wants and drive breakthrough enhancements, offering bodily and digital work environments that facilitate collaboration, and equipping staff to leverage new applied sciences, stay as our priorities.

CLP can be striving to instil a office tradition that encourages creativity, experimentation, and taking accountability. Because the power transition unfolds, CLP is dedicated to supporting its individuals to thrive in change, and selling wellbeing and resilience.

Q: CLP has been constantly rated as amongst Hong Kong’s most coveted employers. May you share essentially the most impactful HR campaigns you and your workforce have applied?

As a model with over 120 years of historical past, CLP has maintained its repute as a fascinating employer in HK underneath an ever-changing employment surroundings, proving that we’re on track and may proceed embracing a versatile mindset.

We consider that good employer branding comes from efficient methods similar to our well being and wellbeing programmes, work-life steadiness initiatives, and our enhanced family-friendly insurance policies, with an emphasis on psychological well being and our current introduction of extra versatile working modes.

CLP has positioned its worker well being and wellbeing technique as ‘Increase’. This technique goals to assist staff in 4 key areas: bodily well being, psychological wellness, social well being, and monetary wellbeing.

Underneath the ‘Increase’ wellbeing programme, we’ve launched Virgin Pulse, a well being and wellbeing digital platform and app, that gives a private wellbeing journey – for instance, extra train, much less stress, higher consuming, and wholesome competitors amongst our staff by way of workforce and company-wide challenges that make wellbeing enjoyable.

We now have appointed ‘Increase Wellness Champions’, a bunch of colleagues who’re obsessed with supporting fellow CLP colleagues to develop wholesome habits and thrive at work and of their private lives. A current instance of their work consists of wholesome recipes by way of inner movies.

Past the work-life, we encourage staff to plan for a joyful retirement by way of pre-retirement workshops on psychological and monetary preparation, in addition to our ‘CLP Retiree Recreation Membership’ the place retirees are welcome to proceed to take part in CLP’s social, recreation, and sports activities actions, in addition to volunteering companies.

Underneath psychological well being assist, our ‘Worker Help Programme’ has been made out there because the early Nineties to help people, and their instant relations, who might encounter work or private points and want skilled assist. Providers are offered by registered social employees and scientific psychologists and saved in strict confidence. Alongside, we offer entry to mindfulness webinars, meditation workshops, and extra.

On this area, we’ve additional enhanced the individuals administration functionality of our individuals leaders, for which a sequence of psychological well being coaching programs have been organised similar to psychological well being first support coaching. Greater than 250 mid-level managers in Hong Kong participated within the programme, equipping themselves with the information to establish and deal with early indicators of psychological well being points.

Since then, a highway map has been developed to embed psychological well being in CLP’s insurance policies and techniques, and to plan for the target of accomplishing the ISO 45003 certification for psychological well being and security at work from the Worldwide Group for Standardization.

The psychological well being assist ties into our work-life steadiness initiatives, whereby CLP’s social, recreation, and sports activities programme, provides actions, together with Thai boxing, dance, yoga, tai chi lessons, ball video games, and the chance to enroll in company sports activities groups.

Throughout the pandemic, extra digital health programmes have been organised by adopting totally different know-how similar to Groups, Fb, MS Stream, and many others, permitting workers members to remain engaged and keep their bodily wellness. To extend consciousness concerning the significance of excellent well being and a wholesome work-life steadiness, CLP Energy has made October its ‘Work-Life Stability Month’, with a calendar of occasions, actions, and workshops, on topics similar to vegetarianism and diabetes.

Speaking about our family-friendly insurance policies, we’ve launched versatile working hours; a work-from-home coverage launched in 2022; an enhanced part-time working coverage that gives extra part-time sample choices; in addition to an unpaid depart coverage with a flexibility of as much as three months.

All the depart we offer is greater than what the regulation requires – for instance, 5 days of marriage depart, 16 weeks of maternity depart, 10 days of paternity depart in addition to adoption depart, three days of compassionate depart, and at some point of wellbeing depart (newly launched in 2022).

Q: Expertise administration and enterprise partnering have been the main target areas because you joined the organisation. What are CLP’s distinctive initiatives on this area, and what milestones have been achieved on this journey?

The labour market in Hong Kong is presently tight, and it imposes nice stress on corporations to draw the best expertise. From the HR perspective, it is very important promote CLP as an employer model, and construct an early pipeline to assist the long run wants of the corporate.

To draw extra younger expertise to affix the business, we’ve several types of internship programmes to supply hands-on work expertise by way of well-designed initiatives in a variety of scopes. We now have teamed up with universities and the Vocational Coaching Council to supply several types of scholarships. As well as, we’ve totally different graduate programmes such because the ‘Graduate Trainee’ and ‘Technical Trainee’ for graduates.

Strategic, basic administration, and expertise improvement programmes are used to develop future leaders, with programmes delivered internally (in Hong Kong by way of the CLP Studying Institute) and in partnership with main tutorial establishments (in Hong Kong by way of CLP Energy Academy).

As well as, CLP screens pay rigorously to make sure it’s aggressive and rewards staff for particular person and firm efficiency. Core worker advantages are reviewed commonly to make sure they’re fit-for-purpose and sustainable.

Q: Earlier final 12 months, CLP Energy was acknowledged as among the many most inclusive employers in APAC. What affirmative motion are you taking to make sure inclusion and variety thrive to create an surroundings of belongingness?

At CLP, our ‘Worth Framework’ has guiding ideas to make sure we respect range, and we belief and deal with our staff pretty, no matter gender, race or different attributes. Furthermore, we respect all internationally recognised human rights related to our operations, and require our enterprise companions and suppliers to do the identical.

CLP can be dedicated to offering secure, wholesome, and safe work environments, freed from discrimination or harassment on the idea of gender, bodily or psychological state, race, nationality, faith, age, household standing or sexual orientation; or some other attribute recognised by the legal guidelines of the nation through which we function.

Among the many affirmative motion being taken at CLP, we began out with complete and well-communicated insurance policies and pointers to foster a various and inclusive office. These cowl equal alternative insurance policies on recruitment, promotion, and many others.

We do have a multinational workforce made up of expertise of various races and from totally different disciplines, age, race, tutorial backgrounds, and {qualifications}. We additionally implement a harassment-free office coverage.

As well as, we’ve well-established targets and initiatives to encourage extra ladies to affix the workforce by way of our ‘Girls In Management’ and ‘Girl In Engineering’ initiatives, each of which have seen feminine percentages on an upward development.

To not solely entice, but additionally retain ladies expertise, we offer a working surroundings and HR insurance policies to deal with their wants, such because the aforementioned family-friendly insurance policies, in addition to networking assist for feminine engineers.

Earlier within the pipeline, we’ve initiatives to encourage the youthful era’s curiosity in engineering, particularly younger feminine college students in order that they may take into account engineering as a future profession choice.

CLP has launched numerous public schooling programmes from kindergartens to secondary faculties to nurture and entice feminine college students. Within the ‘POWER YOU Kindergarten Visitation Programme’, our feminine graduate trainees and younger feminine engineers go to the kindergartens to introduce the facility era journey, secure use of electrical energy, and EE&C suggestions. Additionally they introduce engineering as a occupation to the scholars.

‘Engineer in Faculty’ is a programme the place we ship younger engineers to secondary faculties to host seminars on attention-grabbing subjects similar to local weather change and power effectivity. The aim is to arouse college students’ curiosity in science in order that extra of them will develop a robust basis in STEM topics and can be ready for superior research at universities.

On the increased schooling stage, CLP has partnered with the Hong Kong Affiliation of Careers Masters and Steering Masters to facilitate profession academics’ information about energy engineering as a profession of alternative.

To additional display CLP’s dedication to DEI (range, fairness, and inclusion) and to foster the tradition of getting these values in thoughts in each staff’ every day work, we performed a ‘Enterprise Observe Overview’. It is a necessary coaching programme for all workers by way of stay dialogue within the coaching workshops, not solely to refresh their understanding of the important thing ideas in our ‘Code of Conduct’, but additionally to facilitate a greater software of those ideas of their every day work.

Q: Let’s discuss some challenges you’ve confronted now – how straightforward or how tough has it been to pivot and alter for all these new programmes?

CLP is a good firm. Our greater than 120 years of success is constructed on our dedication to society, our stable technical basis, in addition to the best way we work as a workforce in CLP.

With the fast adjustments within the surroundings, it requires us to be reworked ourselves into the ‘Utility of the Future’ with our decarbonisation, digitalisation, and customer-centricity programmes. A few of these areas will not be solely new to us, but additionally to the business. It thus requires our colleagues to study and adapt in a short time.

As a part of the transformation, we additionally must undertake a brand new manner of doing issues by rebuilding our tradition. Subsequently, what’s essential is preserving our strengths and bringing in new parts to arrange ourselves for the long run.

On this journey of change, it is very important deliver our colleagues alongside. We make use of city corridor communications, workshops, and inner social media, to clarify to our colleagues our imaginative and prescient and strategy to drive adjustments. We additionally organise studying classes on key change subjects, for instance, the best way to use Energy BI or design considering to facilitate adjustments.

Thus far, we’ve obtained very constructive suggestions from colleagues by way of our pulse test instruments. We’re taking a look at enriching our studying curriculum to equip the organisation with future expertise as our subsequent milestone within the journey.

Q: It’s time to shift the main target to the long run – which lies in cleaner fuels and better power effectivity. What impression do these game-changing developments have in your workforce – by way of introducing automation, upskilling the employees, and making certain concord between the previous and the brand new manner of doing issues?

CLP is constructing a workforce for a future formed by structural shifts, together with power transition, demographic adjustments, and evolving regional market priorities. This drives the necessity for better organisational agility – the power to adapt and reach a quickly altering surroundings.

One of many examples is that greater than 4,000 Hong Kong staff have participated in our design considering coaching. This programme is meant to nurture a people-centric innovation tradition within the firm, offering sensible problem-solving frameworks for product and repair improvement with customers’ wants in thoughts.

Additionally, over the previous few years, a number of of our staff have gained skilled accreditation in knowledge analytics expertise, constructing their functionality to leverage know-how and knowledge in new and insightful methods to reinforce the client expertise and operation excellence.

CLP’s ‘Govt Improvement Programme’ for senior managers was held through the 12 months, specializing in growing expertise required to steer transformation. The programme mixed management, power transition, and enterprise simulation parts, and was performed just about in partnership with numerous worldwide institutes.

We even have a variety of workers improvement programmes for colleagues at totally different profession phases, talked about beforehand, to fulfill future managerial engineering wants.

CLP places explicit emphasis on individuals improvement and expertise switch from one era to the subsequent, thus our CLP Energy Studying Institute supplies systematic and sensible coaching to uplift the usual of buyer companies, and capabilities of our workers within the power retail business.

Q: CLP has come a good distance because it was based in 1901. How does the management workforce be sure that legacy doesn’t get in the best way of adapting to new developments and improvements? Personally, how do you persuade stakeholders of being open to alter?

CLP has a deep-rooted ‘Worth Framework’, first launched in 2003, which displays the time-honoured ideas and commitments which have been integral to CLP’s success for 120 years.

This framework consists of our long-standing ‘Code of Conduct’ which supplies the guiding ideas for all firm staff to do what is true, behave with integrity and honesty, deal with individuals pretty, respect range, obey all legal guidelines, settle for accountability, talk overtly, and all the time behave in a manner that’s past reproach.

The corporate expects all staff to watch and apply these ideas within the conduct of the corporate’s enterprise. We care how outcomes are obtained, not simply that they’re obtained.

Moreover our ‘Worth Framework’ and ‘Code of Conduct’, we even have a set of competencies for CLP leaders as a compass to information our management behaviours to strengthen our values whereas conserving ourselves updated with the adjustments within the enterprise and operation surroundings. As a lot as we worth the wellbeing of our staff, we additionally have a look at creating an inclusive surroundings for everybody to thrive and overtly share their concepts. That is our thought of constructing CLP a secure surroundings to cradle modern concepts.

Q: Trying to a post-pandemic highway map, what’s in your HR guidelines to make sure that CLP’s worker expertise stays personalised, purposeful, and well timed?

On prime of the checklist is taking good care of our colleagues’ particular person wants. Moreover their wellbeing, we goal to supply an area for them to study and develop a profession with CLP. In CLP’s transformation, there are numerous alternatives for colleagues to participate in initiatives which are significant for the long run and everyone seems to be welcome to be a part of it.

One other essential imaginative and prescient that we’ve is to make HR companies accessible to our colleagues. We’re within the midst of driving digitalisation in HR in order that colleagues can entry numerous on-line platforms. The primary space we began is in e-learning – from micro-learning to on-line studying platform, colleagues can enrich their very own information and expertise at their very own tempo wherever.

Q: What are your private begin/cease/proceed targets as you set your resolutions for the 12 months forward?

I take pleasure in each second working in CLP and have discovered enormously from the good workforce round me.

One factor I’ve benefited rather a lot from personally in my profession up to now is creating an surroundings whereby all are inspired to offer open suggestions in a non-hierarchical manner. To me, that is important for being modern.

We now have totally different transformational initiatives and there are two issues I remind myself on occasion. Very first thing is rarely cease enhancing, and all the time be daring sufficient to problem assumptions. What bought us right here won’t be capable of get us there; due to this fact, be open to alter.

One other factor I personally see as essential is that we should always have enjoyable at work. I want for each myself and the workforce in CLP that we work collectively not as a result of we’ve to, however as a result of we like to. That’s my motto of life.

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This text first appeared within the This autumn version of Human Assets On-line’s Hong Kong e-magazine. View the e-magazine right here, the place you will discover power-packed options and interviews with leaders from Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia, the UK, India, and extra!

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