Sany Group's "Reverse Addition"

Keeping with a top talent philosophy in the crisis

By Lucy Li

Chinese version

"SANY DOESN'T treat training and development as an expense, but as an investment." While the financial crisis stormed all over the globe, numerous companies cut their investments towards human capital. However, the President of Sany Group Mr Tang Xiu Guo, says that Sany is maintaining employee training and development.

In fact, in recent years, Sany has been generous in its investment in training and development. In 2006, a school named after Sany begun its operation. Virtually all Sany's employees have had training from there. In 2008, Sany invested an average of 2.5 million yuan on training costs for 300 employees. Sany's philosophy is "Quality changes the world," but how does it use training to match its philosophy? "We have vision and ideas but lack the ability to execute," said Mr. Tang. Through Watson Wyatt's assistance, Sany's issues were addressed.

Sany started as a small company in Hunan province. In 20 years, it has developed into a publicly traded corporation with over 10 billion yuan in revenue. Sany's footprint can be seen all over China and throughout the world. Using its enterprise aim of "Top enterprise, Top talent, Top contribution," Sany has accomplished nearly 50% to 60% growth per year. "Every year, there are so many new employees entering our company; without training, it is very difficult for them to understand who we are and our philosophy of 'Quality changes the world.'" However Mr. Tang believes that although Sany spends a lot on training and development, it lacks methodology, technique, and a system to fully implement Sany's goal of promoting "Top talent".

In January 2008, at Sany's headquarters in Hunan province, a number of top consulting firms competed to become Sany's partner in creating a system of human capital training and development. For Vice president Wang Wu Chao the boldest impression from Watson Wyatt was the consultants' dedication. "You can see how serious and dedicated they are from their proposal, method of communication and the seniority of consultants they sent."

In approximately one hour, Watson Wyatt consultants presented to Mr. Tang the overall process and results from their project. During the nine months consulting period, Watson Wyatt consultants were able to analyze the competencies of Sany's employees through interviews, observations, and comparisons based on Sany's philosophies and values. From the job requirements of each professional role, the consultants analyzed the organization's expectations for employee competency; then used these results to design the basis for segmentation of the training programs. In addition, the consultants optimized and integrated the original training management system to include evaluation of the training results. Mr Tang said, "what I really needed was a piece of paper telling me what to do. The details can be discussed with the human resources personnel of the company." To condense nine months of work into a piece of paper wasn't easy. Mr. Tang said "I believe Watson Wyatt provided me, in addition to what I had in mind, exactly what we need to do for this year's training."

When facing this rare financial crisis, many of the Chinese domestic companies are freezing hires, delaying salary increase to help control cost of labor. Earlier this year, Sany Group had made a surprising move; Chairman Liang Wen Gen announced that he would earn only 1 yuan in 2009, the board taking pay cuts of 90%, and senior executives taking 50% pay cuts. However, it was also announced at the same time that Sany would not be conducting layoffs or pay reduction for employees with less than 12 years of service. With such a generous gesture by Sany, over 5000 employees voluntarily still requested pay cuts. Mr. Tang believed the willingness to endure the current financial hardship by the employees would be attributed to the success of Sany's training. Mr. Tang added. "This represents the acceptance of our company's beliefs and values by our employees through our long-term training policy." Watson Wyatt brought Sany an organizational structure, where the different training needs for different employees, are being recognized. "This will make our future training even more diverse, effectively increasing the abilities and capabilities of our employees," concluded Mr. Tang.

- Lucy Li is a Marketing Manager with Watson Wyatt Shanghai office.