APSCo Australia (The Association of Professional Staffing Companies in Australia) honor high achieving recruiters and supporting staff in their annual awards. The 2017 Leadership Award was given to Peoplebank Australia's Chie Soma, who oversees all the HR functions for the Peoplebank Group, ensuring staff enjoy their work and reach their full potential.
Chie Soma Head of People & Performance
A shared mindset to be the best
There is a mindset embedded in Peoplebank employees to always strive for the best; to be the best in the industry, the best in Australia -- that's our differentiator. Saying it is easy, but actually doing it takes a lot of effort.
From our founding in 1990 to becoming the largest IT & Digital recruitment agency in Australia today, everyone in the organization has played a very important part. This Leadership Award is really on behalf of all the staff who have worked so hard to make Peoplebank the company it is today.
Giving people the freedom to succeed
Our managers don't micromanage. They set clear expectations about outcomes, and then give people the autonomy to come up with ideas, make decisions, and act on them independently.
As long as expectations are met, when, where and how the job is done has become largely irrelevant. This flexibility is what people love about Peoplebank, and it has become the key to much of our success.
Mutual respect drives higher performance
To us, diversity isn't something we make an effort of. It's simply about respecting one another and treating people the way you like to be treated yourself. This is one of the promises that Peoplebank has made as our commitment to stakeholders. Our culture of mutual respect gives people the comfort to be themselves, which has led the company to higher performance.
Investing in learning with a human touch
This year we have been working on reviving the learning and development (L&D) culture at Peoplebank. With the rise of technology in the early 2010's we shifted most of our L&D programs online. We thought this was best for our staff; providing on-demand, timely learning opportunities. However in reality it took the focus away from L&D.
We are now bringing back the human touch to all of our L&D initiatives. Our new High Potentials and Future Leaders programs run for seven months, with seven monthly face-to-face sessions in our head office in Sydney, and pre and post session webinars to fully embed the learning
It requires greater investment, but the direct impact on the individuals as well as the future benefits this creates, more than justifies the cost.
