PETALING JAYA: Global snacking giant Mondelez International is reinforcing their focus on efficient talent management as they embark on a transformation strategy to achieve sustainable growth, says Mondelez Malaysia Sales Sdn Bhd human resource director, Grace Munsayac.
“One way we do this is to embrace the mobile workforce. For example, regional positions at Mondelez can be based out of almost any office, including Malaysia, without employees needing to be relocated to other countries,” said Munsayac.
Among brands under Mondelez include Cadbury, Jacobs, Nabisco, Bournvita, Tang, Toblerone, Coted’Or and others.
To help Mondelez Malaysia meet its strategic business goal of transforming the snacking business, Munsayac said the company is placing even greater emphasis on its most prized assets – its people.
Munsayac said at Mondelez, the role of human resource has highly evolved as it is now is tightly aligned with the goals of the company.
“Human resource is very important in our corporate setting and it is strategically placed in the company to unleash the power of the people.”
It is company policy for the employer to know all the individuals who work there and understand their career plans.
“Every staff at Mondelez has a clear line-of-sight on career development and the highly-engaged employees bring a high level of productivity to work,” she said in an interview with Business Times.
In Malaysia, Munsayac said Mondelez is guided by six principles to make it an attractive place to work in by offering. These are rewards and recognition; career and development; good work environment (providing all the tools needed to perform the job well); inspiring leaders (leaders who care and listen to the staff); teamwork and collaboration; and, pride at work (making their jobs meaningful).
Additionally, Mondelez has a companywide online forum where the company publishes answers to questions.
The secret to managing a team, she said, is to engage staff on the purpose and reasons targets need to be achieved and how these targets can be achieved.
“The company believes in a balance between ‘me’ (the individual’s own needs); ‘us’ (family and friends); and it (the task that need to be completed). When an individual is in control of his or her own life, people can connect with each other better,” she said.
Mondelez has 100,000 employees worldwide, with 1,600 staff in Malaysia at the head office as well as in manufacturing plants in Johor (making biscuits); Penang (making biscuits and salty snacks); and Shah Alam, Selangor (Cadbury chocolates).
“We are always looking for the best talents in the industry to hire and bring out the best of the talents. For us, coaching is not about giving solutions, it is to help the staff come up with ways of finding a solution – move out of the ‘victim-mode’, so to speak,” she said.
As part of its strategic positioning to attract the best talents, Mondelez takes in 10 to 15 youths as graduate trainees and put them through a challenging routine that includes interviews and business case presentation.
“Our Emerging Leaders Programmme helps candidates develop self-awareness so that the individuals can manage themselves as well as manage others and also manage a team, and, then, manage the company,” she said of the company’s goal for its employees.