Corporate culture refers to an organisation's values, beliefs and behaviour. It is important because it determines the way our clients perceive our staff, and how credible and professional we are. Meanwhile, employees will only change their behaviour when they are inspired and believe in the values of their employer.
Traits
SGS seeks to mobilise people towards a common goal and change employee behaviour to improve the way we do business. `Trust' is the core value of our culture. Passion, integrity and commitment are also highly valued qualities.
Trust Customers' trust enables us to make business more efficient and simpler, which gives our clients a competitive edge in the areas of inspection, verification, testing and certification.
Passion We strongly believe that happy colleagues are more productive and deliver better services. We have strong team morale.
Integrity SGS maintains ethical integrity and professional excellence in our business operation, enabling our clients to trust us.
Entrepreneurship SGS employees are encouraged to think and act like entrepreneurs. We are dedicated to providing excellent services through innovation, continuous improvements of our processes and staff development.
Policies
We develop our corporate culture based on our people-development strategy. Each year, we run more than 40 initiatives such as e-learning courses, award programmes and lunch-time self-enrichment seminars. We also encourage employees to get involved in environmental initiatives and community services. Other important initiatives include:
Regular training for employees SGS provides regular training to our staff, equipping them with industry-specific knowledge and encouraging them to coach their teams.
Employee engagement campaigns We engage competent colleagues in business programmes to develop their potential. We gather creative ideas through engagement campaigns, such as the environmental protection knowledge contest and the business innovation award.
Communication with staff In addition to e-mails and an LCD TV notice board, we have an intranet site and other platforms to share information with employees. An example is the e-newsletter `Green Footprint' (www.hk.sgs.com/footprint-hk) . Sent to all SGS colleagues and clients, the newsletter focuses on our green practices, social activities and people development initiatives. We also have a code of Integrity and Professional Conduct.
Results
SGS has been recognised for its responsible corporate culture. Last year, we received the merit award at the Hong Kong Outstanding Corporate Citizenship Award and the gold label from the low-carbon office operation programme initiated by WWF. We were given the Excellent Brand Award of the Testing and Certification Industry by Metro Finance in 2010-2011, and have been a Caring Company under the Hong Kong Council of Social Service since 2005.
