HR Asia Best Companies to Work For in Asia Awards celebrates caring side of Thai employers

BANGKOK, THAILAND - Media OutReach- 28 October2020 - The COVID-19 pandemic has wreaked havoc across the world, and Thailandis no exception. Economic activity has been disrupted, but employers acrossAsia are persevering amidst the crisis, and looking out for their employeesduring these uncertain times.

To celebrate this spirit, the HR AsiaBest Companies to Work For in Asia Awards honours those employers who not onlyshow good employee engagement and best practices, but also the deeper,intangible characters of strength, resilience, empathy, and care.

William Ng, group publisher andeditor-in-chief of HR Asia said, "Ten years from now, we will all look back attoday's pandemic and appreciate the value of genuine care and perseverance inovercoming one of our generation's darkest moments. But for today, let usrejoice in the belief that when employers and employees are united, even theimpossible can be made possible."

Good Employers Score Higher

The Total Engagement Assessment Model(TEAM) survey is specially designed to measure the employee engagement level ofa company, thus aiding in the selection of the award winners. There are threeparts to the survey which are the Core, Self and Group. These three main pointsare crucial as they provide an insight about how the employees feel about thecompany and how the company treats them. Companies that truly places theiremployees at heart are the ones that deserves to win this award.

Celebrating Empathy and Care

In addition to the Awards, HR Asia alsolaunched a new program called the WeCare™ Certification 2020. This program isto recognize companies that have not only demonstrated workplace excellence,but also empathy and care as part of their DNA.

From 138 nominations, 38 companiesemerged as winners and received their awards during the gala dinner held at theMarriott Marquis Queen's Park Bangkok.

First time winners include AXA InsurancePublic Company Limited, B. Braun (Thailand) Ltd., Baxter Healthcare (Thailand)Co., Ltd., Chubb Samaggi Insurance PCL., HÄFELE (Thailand) Limited,Kasikorn-Business Technology Group (KBTG), Krungsi Group, Krungthai AXA LifeInsurance PCL., Lazada Limited, Maersk Thailand, Novartis (Thailand) Limited, Pyathai& Paolo Hospital Group, Sanofi, SAP Systems, Applications and Products InData Processing (Thailand) Ltd., Takeda (Thailand), Ltd., True CorporationPublic Company Limited, URC (Thailand) Co. Ltd. and many more.

Ten companies proved to be the best ofthe best by winning the award for two years in a row. They are Advanced InfoServices Plc., AIA Company Limited, Kasikornbank PCL., Kerry Ingredients(Thailand) Ltd., Microsoft (Thailand) Ltd., Nestle Indochina -- Nestle (Thai)Limited, Philip Morris Trading (Thailand) Co., Ltd., Provincial ElectricityAuthority, Thai Beverage Public Company Limited and Unilever Thai TradingLimited.

The WeCare™ certification winners areAXA Insurance Public Company Limited, Cigna Insurance Public Company Limited, Kasikornbank PCL., Sanofi and ThaiBeverage Public Company Limited.

WORDS OF WISDOM

Recipients of this year's awards havethese to say:

"We are honoured to be recognized by twoprestigious awards for creating a workplace excellence.   This represents an important milestone in thetransformation journey towards our Ambition to become a company of choice forour customers and employees. We will continue this journey conscious of ourstrengths and of our capacity to produce a positive impact on economies andsocieties. Acting for human progress by protecting what matters." - ClaudeSeigne, Chief Executive Officer, AXA General Insurance Thailand.

"This award reaffirmsour continued commitment towards our human capital but also of our vision: 'Weprotect and improve the health of people around the world' as employeeengagement is essential in moving our lives, our health and our world forward.With a history of more than 180 years globally and over 30 years in Thailand,B. Braun strongly believes in our employees' capabilities. We will continue toensure the development of a highly talented, professional, diverse andinclusive workforce." - Mr. Sayan Roy, Managing Director of B. Braun Thailand.

"Thisrecognition cannot make us prouder and is testimony of combined efforts ofevery Baxter Thailand staff in what they do every day in our mission to saveand sustain lives. The award is even more meaningful as this year's externalenvironment has presented us with many more challenges than one could everexpect. With this accolade, we join our colleagues in Vietnam, Hong Kong, andTaiwan, and we appreciate the acknowledgement from the HR Asia AwardCommittee." - Nara Decharin, General Manager, Baxter Healthcare (Thailand) Co., Ltd .

"We stronglybelieve if our employees are happy, they will make our customers happy. We definitely valued our employees' feedback and listened to all our employees'suggested solutions to make our company a better place to work.  We willdefinitely continue to engage our employees, there is always rooms forimprovements and we will always stick with the mindset and keep improving ourcompany to move from "Better Place to Work" to be "Best Place to Work" - PakornPituvong, Head of Human Resources, Chubb Samaggi Insurance PCL.

"In Hafele(Thailand), we do believe in family. We create caring and robust connectionsbetween everyone and their work, create the space for everyone inspired, feelsafe wherever they are, and end the day fulfilled by the work that they do tobecome greatest selves and say... "I love my job"." - Volker Hellstern, ManagingDirector, HÄFELE (Thailand) Limited.

"'Future ofBanking and Beyond Ordinary'. Other than managing IT infrastructure andbuilding a strong fortress for KBank, KBTG is determined to develop advancedinnovation that will revolutionize our customers' financial experience suitableto their digital lifestyle. KBank always says that KBTG is a game changer forthem. Now, it is proven that not only are we the technology company innovatingfor the bank, but we're also changing and evolving ourselves constantly for ourpeople with One KBTG Culture in mind." - Ruangroj Poonpol, Chairman,Kasikorn-Business Technology Group (KBTG).

"Becauseemployee is a key success factor of organization, we create possibilities tohelp employee succeed in his/her goal. KBank will keep focusing on achievinggreater efficiency in our human resource management operations, creating apositive experience for career seekers interested in working with KBank,creating a positive employee experience and engagement, leading KBank inbecoming a data-driven organization, and making KBank a digital workplace, inaddition to improvements in other facets of human resource managementoperations and promoting KBank's positive image and sustainable growth in the longrun." - Ms. Sansana Sukhanunth, Executive Vice President, Kasik ornbank PCL.

"At Kerry, Wedrive our Purpose, Our Vision, Our Mission, strongly guided, enabled by ourPeople and Our Values. With people at the core, Kerry Thailand and our teams continueto drive with Purpose "Inspire Food. Nourish Life" with strong values of,Courage, Enterprising spirit, Inclusiveness, Open mindedness, and Ownership.This enables a clear focus for our customers, consumers and markets we workwith and communities we live in.   It isan honour to be recognized as "Best companies to work for in Asia' and makes usproud for the continued dedication, hard work and contributions made byeveryone at Kerry." - Ketan Trivedi, General Manager, Kerry Thailand.

"Krungsri valuesour people and they are always our priority. We base all our people strategyand actions on our key three guiding principles; people equality, diversity& inclusion and good corporate citizenship. Stepping into Krungsri familyalready means we have a mutual commitment to succeed together along with ourgrowing, international and sustainable organization." - Dr. VasinUdomratchatavanich, Head of Human Resources Group, Krungsri Group.

"This is anamazing achievement and we are beyond proud to be named the 'Best Company towork for in Thailand".   At KTAXA, weinvest significantly our employees as they are our most valuable asset, and webelieve that happy employees lead to having happy clients.   We will remain committed to providing ouremployees with a great place to work, where they can be themselves, becomegreat leaders and provide an amazing service for our customers and community."- Sally O'Hara, ChiefExecutive Officer, Krungthai AXA Life Insurance PCL.

"Thank you, HRAsia Magazine, for recognizing Lazada Thailand as one of the best places towork in the country. We are grateful for the support from all Lazadians. Ouremployees are our greatest assets. It's an honor to receive such a prestigiousaward! I would like to thank all Lazadians for making this possible with yourpassion and dedication. This is a testament to the commitment by the humanresource and management teams to create a working environment that fosterslearning, professionalism, innovation and well-being. At Lazada, we workseriously and live happily." - Jack Zhang, CEO of Lazada Thailand.

"By developingcapable and engaged employees, who have a One Team mindset and demonstrate ourWinning Behaviours, we believe that we will achieve our future goals of deliveringseamless end-to-end services for our customers. It isn't our physical assetsthat make Maersk successful in terms of serving our customers, facilitatingglobal trade and helping societies create jobs and prosperity. It's us - allpeople of A.P. Moller-Maersk working together as one diverse, engaged andglobal team." - Jez McQueen, Area Head of Sales, Maersk Thailand.

"I am veryproud of Microsoft for winning this award two years in a row. When it comes toour people, we believe that every person and every thought matter. We learnfrom each other with our growth mindset. We treat each other with respect, actwith integrity, and are accountable to one another for our words and actions.These are our enduring values, and they sustain our culture under a sharedcommitment from everyone. On behalf of the Leadership Team in Thailand, I thankeveryone for living up to this commitment and promise that we will move forwardto grow our organization sustainably under these principles." - Mr. DhanawatSuthumpun, Managing Director, Microsoft (Thailand) Ltd.

"It's a huge honor to win this award fortwo consecutive years. I'd like to dedicate it to the employees of NestléThailand, for their contributions to this success and for their wok innourishing Thailand and its people. As a people-centric company, we believe ininspiring lives and increasing well-being of our employees. Our purpose, Weunlock the power of food to enhance quality of life for everyone, today and forgenerations to come, is the basis for all that we do." -- Victor Seah, Chairman& Chief Executive Officer, Nestlé (Thai) Ltd.

"At Novartis, we seek to unleash thepower of our people and reimagine medicine. Our strong sense of purpose atNovartis to improve and extend people's lives has always inspired our peopleand driven our innovation. Our biggest asset is our people and we want tocreate a culture that inspires them to do meaningful work, and in which theycan be curious, take smart risks and see failure as an opportunity to learn." -Sumalee Kristarnin, Country President, Novartis (Thailand) Limited.

"Organizationenthusiastically driven by the people. Hence, Phyathai-Paolo Hospital groupfocus on People Management which entails both physical health and mentalhealth. We consistently believe that 'caring', 'empathy' and 'attentiveness'are the common accountabilities of our employees. We continuously instill andmutually share these within the organization resulting to unconditionallycommiserate for our customers and people around us," says Att Thongtang, CEO ofPhyathai-Paolo Hospital Group.

"With variety ideas of whereorganization currently stands, get employee voice and opportunity to sharetheir concerns and suggestions, makes employees realize that they have a stakein the organization and their opinions are valued, you can do so by collectingemployees' feedback from experienced specialist. This project allowsidentifying areas of best practice and tool for monitor organization'sperformance which become valuable input factors for further steps of businessmanagement along together with the vital resource of organization, HumanResource." - Narawadee Sirisamastakarn, Deputy Governor, Provincial ElectricityAuthority.

"We are highly honored and grateful toreceive these prestigious awards. This splendid achievement confirms that allof us at Sanofi are constantly growing and empowered to shape our own careerwith the freedom to make it happen. Our flexible working environment builds arespectful, trustworthy, and inclusive workplace that embraces diversity andrewards high performance. This enables us to engage in our purpose ofempowering life as a health journey partner, so people can live life to itsfull potential." - Marine Queniart-Stojanovic, GM General Medicines, Thailand,Malaysia & Singapore, Sanofi.

"SAP is proud to be awarded as BestCompanies to Work for in Thailand by HR Asia. This recognition is a testamentto our culture of collaboration, innovation and inclusion at SAP. SAP remainsfocused on our enduring purpose to help the world run better and improvepeople's lives. In service to our purpose, we will run at our best for ourcolleagues, customers, partners and communities." - Verena Siow, ManagingDirector, SAP Systems, Applications and Products In Data Processing (Thailand)Ltd.

"It is truly an honor to receive thisaward and my thanks go out the entire Takeda Thailand team and especially my HRcolleagues who are putting their passion for people to work every day! Webelieve that the key to achieve great things is to have empowered colleagueswho share our values and our dedication to the patients we serve. Providing anoutstanding employee experience is critical to attract and retain top talents.The feedback we received from our colleagues and from working with HR Asia isinvaluable to continuously improve employee engagement." - Peter Streibl, GM,Takeda (Thailand), Ltd.

"As part of our journey to becomethe stable and sustainable ASEAN leader in beverage and food business, receivingHR Asia Best Companies to Work for in Asia 2020 award is very rewarding. It isa reflection of our hard work in creating and sharing the value of growth toour stakeholders especially our people. We are very proud to be among only fivecompanies in Thailand to also win the WeCare Award. Despite the challenges ofthe pandemic, we are committed to cultivating Limitless Opportunities for ourpeople wherever we go." - Dr. Agapol Na Songkhla, Chief People Officer,Thai Beverage Public Company Limited.

"It's our pride to bring this award toour True employees to show them that we put all efforts to excel because ouremployees as the most valuable assets and they deserve the best company to workfor. 'One-day Satisfaction' is our group's philosophy. Our next step of HRtransformation is to be digital and innovative HR with analytics-ledbest-in-class people solutions what holistically enable our employees to growtheir capability, engage to feel more and do more, inspire to transform alongthe company's transformation journey." - Sarinra Wongsuppaluk, Group ChiefHuman Resources Officer, True Corporation Public Company Limited.

"Receiving this award brings us greatjoy and pride. We are a company that's committed to deliver delicious, highquality products with value-for-money, making a positive impact to ourconsumers, our community and our people. We make every moment fun throughprograms that promote work-life balance; through sustainable manufacturingpractices; and through staying true to our Core Values. With this award, wewill be driven to bring even more joy to everyone. We are URC. We Make LifeFun." - Tanant Suwanraks, General Manager, URC Thailand.

List of Winnersof HR Asia Best Companies to Work for in Asia 2020 (Thailand Edition)

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