Wharf Hotels’ Vice President of Human Resources, Juliette Lim is recognised by HRD Asia in its ‘2021 Asia’s Hot List’. Only 11 nominees across Asia Pacific clinched this highly coveted spot that featured the most influential HR leaders who led their people through a turbulent year of uncertainties and challenges.
The Asia’s Hot List recognises visionaries who successfully placed their people strategies in the core of the business, and chartered a way forward that guided employees as they performed mission-critical tasks in a volatile environment. The honourees have exemplified courage, empathy, resilience and foresight as they took charge in leading organisations through an unprecedented people-centred crisis.
The group’s winning HR strategies in 2020 covered a thorough workforce reorganisation during the pandemic where manpower was redistributed across functions, and employees were protected against the vulnerability of the economic climate. Corporate governance was strengthened to ensure stringent compliance of local labour regulations and internal guidelines that safeguarded the interests of our employees across properties in different regions. Employee wellbeing was top on the priorities hence healthcare and safety became fundamentals to how the group operated; by providing free influenza vaccination, daily temperature checks, daily health self-declaration and complimentary masks/sanitisers to all employees in the early stages of the pandemic and continuing the practice of caution and vigilance throughout the year. Extensive training opportunities were created and provided to employees to learn remotely via different platforms, enabling them to enrich their knowledge and acquire additional skills whilst they worked from home. By setting up these e-Learning structures successfully has provided the company a backbone for its integrated Digital Innovation Strategy in 2021.
Whilst balancing the different dynamics concerning its workforce, the company continued to reap promising results in showcasing the outstanding performances of individuals and HR-driven initiatives. Within 2020, Wharf Hotels was recognised as the “Caring Company” by The Hong Kong Council of Social Service; awarded “Manpower Developer” status by The Employees Retraining Board; achieved the highly acclaimed “Excellence in Employer Branding” in HKIHRM Excellence Award by The Hong Kong Institute of Human Resources; claimed 4 distinguished awards in HRD Asia Awards; and crowned “Hotelier of the Year” for both Corporate and Finance categories in the renowned Stelliers Hotel awards. All of these success stories were reaffirmed by the encouraging annual Associate Engagement Survey which showed a record high 9.0 in Overall Satisfaction & Loyalty, and 8.9 for Overall Engagement since the exercise started in 2010.
Leading these successful strategies and being recognised for their transformational impact, Juliette said, “2020 was a year so precarious that it stretched HR to its ultimate bandwidth. The only way to beat the uncertainties was to stay focused on our purpose; and become stronger and wiser as we braced through the storm. Staying vigilant and cautious in each step we took has made us stay on track and embrace the lessons learnt. Only with unity and shared responsibilities can we get out of this turbulence together.”
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