Winning Secrets: How Central Retail Corporation embodies its EX vision of mentorship, growth, diversity and more

On By Vaseline

“These components are crucial to ensure that our team is ready for the evolving challenges in the rapidly changing retail sector, where adaptability and resilience are crucial,” affirms CPO Panchalee Weeratammawat.

At the inaugural Employee Experience Awards in Thailand, held on March 15, 2024, the HR team of Central Retail Corporation, a leading multi-format, multi-category retail platform in Thailand, won a total of 10 awards across pillars.

The team achieved three gold, one silver and six bronze victories:

  • Gold:

    • Best Employee Wellbeing Strategy,

    • Best learning and development program, and

    • Most Inspirational Leader (Panchalee Weeratammawat).

  • Silver: Best HR communications strategy
  • Bronze:
    • Dear employer branding,
    • Best Graduate Training Program,
    • Best ESG program,
    • Dear internal learning academy,
    • Best Capability Development Program for the HR team, and
    • Best Career Development Program.

Instead of these victories Panchalee Weeratammawat, Chief People Officer, Central Retail Corporationtells HRO how the organization’s holistic vision lies in nurturing consistency and beauty in the employee experience through an “steadfast commitment” to its core values ​​and a culture of continuous improvement.

Q How would you describe the pillars of your Employee Experience strategy, and what principles have you taken into account in developing it?

As an expansive organization with nearly 60,000 employees and more than 12 distinct business units, Central Retail recognizes the inherent challenges of driving a cohesive employee experience strategy. Nevertheless, we remain steadfast in our commitment to achieving the vision of becoming ‘A Great Place to Work’ and cultivating a ‘Winning Team’.

This vision focuses on creating a challenging yet supportive work environment, nurturing people’s development, enriching growth opportunities, facilitating career mobility, promoting holistic well-being, promoting one-team spirit and embracing diversity .

These components are critical to ensuring our team is ready for the evolving challenges of the rapidly changing retail sector, where adaptability and resilience are key. By achieving gold awards in both learning and development and employee wellbeing, we have proven our commitment to providing our staff with the necessary tools for both personal and professional development, and actively fostering a unified team spirit to cultivate, connecting our diverse employees. shared goals and deepening their sense of belonging and involvement within the organization.

Q In a world driven by rapid change, what measures have you taken to maintain a human-centered, human approach to your EX as it evolves?

As the retail industry undergoes rapid evolution and technology continues to reshape the landscape, we respond with strategic flexibility to ensure our employee experience remains both people-centric and technologically adept. We aim to leverage AI to streamline entire HR workflows, from recruitment and onboarding to performance management, learning and development, talent management and last but not least, to separation management. By automating repetitive tasks and analyzing data to identify trends, AI enables our HR team to focus on strategic initiatives and provide more personalized support to employees, such as AI-powered chatbots to provide real-time assistance and increase responsiveness of employees to improve.

Our goal is to leverage AI as a complementary tool that drives personalized, efficient and supportive experiences tailored to employee needs, contributing to a seamless and enriching employee experience across our organization.

Q What initiatives are you taking so that delivering employee experience is a collective responsibility of all stakeholders in the organization?

At Central Retail, we actively promote the spirit of one team across more than 12 different business units, each playing a unique role in our collective success. We recognize the distinctive challenges and opportunities within each business unit and tailor our employee experience initiatives to their specific needs, while aligning with the overarching goals of our organization. This strategy ensures that every stakeholder, from frontline staff to management, is empowered to play a critical role as an instrumental member of a ‘winning team’.

By creating a culture of collaboration within their respective units, our HR leaders in each business unit play an indispensable role in facilitating communication and ensuring the sustainable implementation of the aligned strategies to create a cohesive and supportive environment that is conducive to ‘A Great Place to Work’.

Q Do you have any words of wisdom to share with others in the industry about the best ways to keep your employee experience consistent and great?

Consistency and beauty in the employee experience at Central Retail are fueled by an steadfast commitment to our core values ​​and a culture of continuous improvement.

We prioritize amplifying the voices of our employees as a cornerstone of these efforts and actively encourage our diverse workforce to share their unique perspectives and needs. This approach includes not only listening to their voices, but also acting on their feedback to create meaningful change and improve their overall experience.

By systematically and consistently collecting employee feedback, we collect both quantitative metrics and qualitative insights that inform our strategies to improve the holistic well-being and experience of employees. Our comprehensive surveys and engagement sessions actively promote trust and enable employees to openly express their views and concerns, facilitating an environment where our employee experience remains adaptable and responsive to the changing needs and ambitions of our ‘winning team’.

It is imperative to get the support of our leadership team so that our HR leaders can work with them to deliver on our strategies and make our plans a reality.

Q Finally, what is the positive impact of the employee experience you have seen on both the company and the workforce?

The positive impact of our employee experience initiatives resonates deeply across both our business and our workforce. By prioritizing employee well-being and professional growth, we have witnessed increased productivity, creativity and collaboration among our team members. This experience translates directly into greater customer satisfaction and loyalty, driving sustainable business growth and profitability.

Our commitment to fostering a supportive and inclusive workplace culture has resulted in greater engagement, retention and talent attraction, while our strategic focus on developing employee skills also enables individuals to excel in their roles. This creates a resilient and high-performing workforce that is able to navigate challenges and seize emerging opportunities in the dynamic retail landscape.

Read more interviews about why organizations have won trophies for their HR practices – visit our Winning Secrets section!

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