Based in Indonesia, Yuni Savitri, Head of Human Resources, Hilti, designs, plans and executes holistic recruitment strategies and plays a crucial role in ensuring that the people who work for the multinational company, known for its products in construction, energy, and manufacturing industry, continue to work efficiently and in a cohesive manner across different countries. 

As the future of work undergoes rapid changes, Yuni Savitri believes that the need of the hour is for all employees to understand the core competencies and products of the brand that they work for. In an exclusive interaction with People Matters, she shares her insights on attracting a diverse pool of talent as an employer in the construction industry, building a cohesive work culture, and planning for sustainable growth. 

Can you provide an overview of the talent landscape in the construction industry?

Presently, most of the construction industries instead of direct selling models, assign distributors. We have a group of employees who we retain as they are efficient in working closely and in building a relationship with our customers directly every day.

Does Indonesia produce enough talent for the construction industry?

It is quite difficult to find potential candidates in the construction industry due to a tough working environment. Consistent talent nurturing is required from the very beginning in order to build a strong and diverse team.  

How do you create a common culture in Hilti, an organization which is spread across the globe?

Our organization is very thoughtful about the corporate culture. The culture has a crucial influence on the satisfaction of our team members and our customers and therefore drives Hilti’s sustained success. We believe that our culture is a continuous journey that takes place every day in the company. At Hilti, we have our Sherpa, the one who guides us for Living the Hilti Way and facilitates the phased approach to Our Culture Journey including maintaining ongoing communication with Leadership Team and respective teams on the status of Our Culture Journey. She or he is an ambassador for the work culture throughout the organization.

Are your HR policies in this region synchronized with the global HR policies?

Since every market organization has its own needs and challenges, we have to adhere to diverse themes and formulate policies according to various needs at the global and local level. For instance, the provision of flexible working arrangements to enhance Diversity & Inclusion is applicable in the global spectrum while initiatives like educational assistance program, series of employee engagement events along with families pertain majorly to the Indonesian context. Therefore, some policies have to be regulated globally, and opportunities have to be utilized based on this diversity in order to attract and retain our people.

What are the values that you consider in the hiring process?

We follow our Red Thread dimension while assessing the candidates to classify capabilities, attitudes and motivation. The Red Thread dimension put by our organization refers to six competencies of which “functional expertise” forms the first one. We also consider the ability of “understanding the business” to ask about the candidate’s understanding of Hilti business. Thirdly, the focus is “understanding and defining what needs to be done” or how the individual establishes direction and clarity of communication. “Getting things done” on how does the candidate approach and tackle every task given to them. “Working with others” and the final criteria that assesses how the individual developing herself/ himself and others through continuous learning and the leadership quality based on how one deals with other team members.

Apart from the inclusion and recruitment of women into the organization, what are the major crises that you face in talent management in Indonesia?

Retention is a challenge in the Indonesian context where you have to compete with other e-commerce industries that are capable of higher payment. Talent mobility is an area of importance to support our talent pipeline. A robust and clear individual development plan is also important for talent retention. Back in 2017, we have moved our Head of Marketing to Hilti Singapore, and our Account Manager to Hilti Australia.

We also provide Best in Class training program organized by our regional training team in Singapore for newly Account Managers and Engineers where they are expected to perform certain activities including on the job learning process, mentoring, and in-class training during a six-month time to improve their skills and knowledge and to implement the acquired ideas on the job.

What are your key focus areas for ‘Hilti’ in FY 2019-20?

We intend to link HR strategy with the business strategy since we continue to maintain our sustainable business growth by expanding our territory. The primary focus will be on continuing the hiring of account managers to manage and maintain the growth of the company.

We are quite aware of the new challenges which may arise while attracting fresh candidates and they must learn about the Hilti way of operating a business in order to fulfill the leadership criteria. So, we will manage to include eighty percent of the team leader position promote from within and continue to focus on increasing engagement of our employees. The annual survey named GEOS [Global Employee Opinion Survey] has become a part of the agenda of that team leader who has to come up with an action plan and who will be in charge of reporting and monitoring the progress of the team engagement every year.