Kerry Group

Can you highlight some of the new developments that helped you in streamlining HR processes in your organization?

The way we attract and retain talent within our organization is unique and truly differentiates us from our contemporaries in the domain. We have consistently worked on our internal and external communications to create a strong employee value proposition (EVP) in the market that lets us respond to individual issues pragmatically on the one hand and attract talented resources to our company on the other. Our EVP ingrains a deep sense of culture in the industry, playing a vital role in creating organizational perspective.

Leveraging this sense of culture in the organization, we set up global business service (GBS) centers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and recruited around 260 people over the last year. Kerry stood out to those individuals for its leading taste and nutrition business with over 26,000 employees globally. The company is based in Southeast Asia and has Irish roots. The deep sense of culture in the employees makes Kerry stand out as a brand with a stable organization and a good reputation. Our primary focus is to keep our employees safe and improve their livelihoods through the products we make and the way we operate.

What role does people play in upholding the sustainability standards in your organization?

Sustainability is a day-to-day part of our culture as we don’t waste any resources. We have built our business in Kuala Lumpur in a 32,000 square meter LEED-certified powerhouse. We have also installed light sensors in our offices that conserve energy by switching off the lights automatically when the sensors do not detect any movement in an area. Additionally, we have a philosophy we call ‘continuous excellence,’ where we empower our employees to share unique ideas that are good for the planet, like the reduction of plastic use. We also try to reduce any other forms of wastage in our production plants by asking employees to use recyclable materials in their daily usage, like glass bottles, that are less harmful caused to the environment.

Are there any practices you follow as a leader to ensure that the sustainability standards are always upheld?

From the people perspective, one of our practices is agile working. This philosophy enables our employees to manage their time and work efficiently without sacrificing their safety while working in manufacturing sites. Throughout the pandemic, we applied rigorous testing regimes to ensure that employees followed the necessary precautions to keep the food and themselves safe.

“Additionally, we have a philosophy we call ‘continuous excellence,’ where we empower our employees to share unique ideas that are good for the planet, like the reduction of plastic use.”

We always initiate different best-of-breed practices to lead us to the path to success with the help of change management projects, which is the application of tools and resources to deal with change in the organization. It is also fundamental to ensure that the new practices are ingrained within the organization and have been very critical in changing the mindsets of the employees.        

Are there any promising technological innovations that you are likely to adopt in the near future to uphold those sustainability standards that have personally interested you?

The use of technology in our global business service (GBS) centers is critical to our problem-solving, innovation, and sustainability mindset while ensuring continued excellence and improvement. Currently, we have 11 sites across the globe and two big GBS centers. 

We use Power BI in HR, as opposed to PowerPoint presentations and Excel spreadsheets, for an opportunity to help the company notice valuable insights for strategic decision making. It enables us to make data-driven decisions to attract, manage, and retain employees, improving ROI. This software also helps clients upload critical documents into a system, shortlisting potential candidates. Some of the technologies we leverage use repeatable and scalable activities like performance and accountability reporting (PAR) and record-to-report (RTR) operations and enhance service operations for HR and customer care to increase efficiency and reduce the time to complete a task.  

Do you have any piece of advice that you would like to offer to newer aspirants within the industry or to your readers?

One of my pieces of advice would be to have honest and open conversations with employees and create a culture that brings the best in them. Culture is crucial to every organization as it can help them reach their desired goals and objectives more peacefully. In the Malaysian business landscape, where there are many degrees of hierarchy, a flat organization structure is a fundamental game-changer, is non-efficient, non-collaborative, and leverages the power of diversity.