When technology solutions and consultancy organisation, JTH Group introduced its corporate app @oneplace in 2016, as part of a major business-reshaping process, the company scored the equivalent of a World Cup-winning goal in terms of finding the sweet spot between employee engagement and technology. Two years on, JTH’s corporate app is not only the go-to choice for interaction between geographically dispersed teams, it also provides the platform for HR initiatives, keeping employees up to date with company business “wins” and challenges, enriching the company’s vision and mission philosophies and even serves as an in-house social network, allowing employees to share work and social “happy moments”.
With the launch of its Gamification X VR360 initiative last year on the @oneplace platform, JTH has transformed its onboarding experience for new employees by allowing them to experience virtual reality messages from the CEO, heads of department and new work colleagues while they can also take a VR tour of the different offices by using VR goggles given to each new member of staff. Video clips of relevant events and interviews filmed in-house are regularly uploaded to the platform. To encourage employees to use the @oneplace platform, points are awarded that can be exchanged for gift vouchers for completing training programmes, introducing innovative ideas and playing games that reinforce company values. The Gamification X VR360 initiative recently secured JTH the Grand Award for Excellence awarded by the Hong Kong Institute of Human Resources Management (HKIHRM). JTH also won the HKIHRM Excellent Technology Innovation Award and The Elite Employee Wellness Award.
“It requires a lot of work and commitment to keep the content updated and fresh,” says Eric van der Hoeven, JTH Group CEO, who explains that a key objective was to establish a platform to connect about 2,700 employees spread across Asia in Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia and mainland China. Van der Hoeven says that, similar to the way in which JTH has transformed its processes and solutions to adapt to evolving markets and technologies, the “@oneplace” app allows the company to create new lines of communication and boost employee engagement. Part of the Fortune 500 Hong Kong-based Jardine Matheson Group, the 60-year-old company reshaped its business model into three distinct business units four years ago – Adura, a cybersecurity consultancy, Innovix, a technology distributor and JOS, a systems integrator – each with its own leadership team, under the JTH Group umbrella. Instead of operating as one organisation, explains van der Hoeven, each business unit focuses on its own specialisation and develops its own strategic strategies to respond to market needs. At the same time, the company has used its @oneplace app to build better correlations between talent management and business outcomes. For example, employees were invited to define the organisation’s corporate values, which include excellence, innovation, ownership and teamwork. “Taken together, the values add an overlay to the Jardine heritage of stability and financial integrity, which is an important part of our DNA,” van der Hoeven says, adding that, at every stage, JTH’s HR function has played a vital role in engaging staff and building values from the inside out.
Jenny Pong, JTH Group human resources group director, explains that from the outset of the business transformation, the goal was to fit talent recruitment and management practices around the needs of the organisation. “We were not looking at nice-to-have HR competencies, we simply concentrated on doing everything to support the business,” says Pong, who believes that getting the employee experience right through building engagement brings the organisation closer together. She says that, by developing the @oneplace app from a blank page, her team has been able to focus its design and applications on the needs of the business and employees. For example, the gamification programme that reinforces the company “values” is designed with a “light touch”. “Because we work with the business as a strategic partner, we have a good understanding of what is needed, which inspires us to try new ideas,” says Pong. With @oneplace as a core tool to support a wide range of employee engagement and recognition initiatives, Pong says employee retention rates have strengthened significantly. At the same time, former employees have returned to rejoin the company. “We are proud as a company that we have a technology platform that those employees engage with and appreciate,” notes Pong, who adds that the champagne results have been produced on a beer budget.
