Maintaining a quality staff and ensuring its stability are corporate manpower priorities that unfortunately often make odd bedfellows.
For employers, the Catch-22 is that the better the quality of their employees, the more difficult it is to retain them due to market competition for manpower. Giordano International has successfully kept this issue at bay even though its reputation as a 'Shaolin Temple', or top training school, in the apparel retail sector makes its employees prime targets for other employers seeking quality talent. Its group human resources director Ngan Lei-tjen said the company had taken sustained measures to promote staff retention, and these proved to be especially beneficial during retail booms like the present.
'We provide a challenging working environment that helps our staff grow and mature quickly. We know that Giordano staff are coveted by other companies so staff retention has always been a management focus for us,' Ms Ngan said.
To this end, Giordano has been implementing a range of measures aimed at fostering employees' morale, loyalty, mutual support, development and competencies which are all major factors with a bearing on their stability. Their effectiveness is evident from the company's stable turnover which has remained on a par with the industry average even during the present market boom, according to Ms Ngan. These measures, she said, also complemented the strong service culture and demanding working environment at Giordano, helping, in particular, new staff to adapt to these challenges quickly.
'We have a strong culture for teamwork and mutual support. Everybody is motivated to be constantly alert to the needs of other colleagues and to be ready to offer a helping hand,' she said. 'We are especially caring towards our new colleagues, who are given direct responsibilities quickly after they have joined the company. While this puts them under rigorous work demands, they are also supported and assisted by their colleagues and supervisors to help them settle in and grow quickly.
'All this goes towards creating a happy working environment which is essential for retaining staff. We believe that non-monetary incentives are more important than monetary ones for promoting staff satisfaction and loyalty.'
Established in 1981, Giordano operates more than 1,700 outlets in the Asia-Pacific region employing 11,400 staff. In Hong Kong, it has close to 100 shops and 1,000 staff aged mainly between 20 and 40.
