He Chunsheng: Let employees speak out

Advantech was founded in Taiwan in 1983. Its chairman Liu Kezhen once said, "I can't win a gold medal for the Chinese in the Olympics like an athlete, but I hope to be able to help the Chinese in the field of industrial control. Chinese take a gold medal". In 2004, Advantech Industrial Computer's global revenue surpassed that of Germany's Kontron, becoming the world's largest industrial computer company.

Since He Chunsheng served as the general manager of Advantech China, the company's performance in mainland China has maintained rapid double-digit growth. Now the mainland market accounts for nearly 20% of Advantech's consolidated revenue, becoming the second largest market after North America and The third largest market in Europe. He Chunsheng believes that allowing employees to fully express their opinions is a very important job in management.

I heard that Advantech employees call you "Chunsheng" affectionately. Do you like it?

I feel pretty used to it, and I like what they call it. It's easy to call names, the important thing is that there is a relaxed atmosphere in the company. In fact, most American companies are named by name, but even if many companies are named by name, they still give people a cold feeling. But I used to work at HP for a long time. When I went to HP headquarters, I really felt very warm, so the corporate culture of each company is still different.

When a new person enters a company, sees the organizational chart, and doesn't know when and when he will be able to climb to the top of the pyramid, he will feel very far away. But every company needs to have such an organization. If a family-like atmosphere is created in the company, the indifference of the organization will be downplayed, because everyone is equal in the family. In this way, although there are superiors and subordinates in the company, everyone will still feel cordial.

So I don't have my own office in the company, but sit with employees. This is the case at Advantech's 36 offices around the world. When a manager locks himself in a room, it represents a tangible distance between him and his employees. In the office, the door is usually closed. If employees want to come in, should they knock on the door? Employees will have many concerns. And the executives locked themselves in the house and couldn't see what was going on outside. I sit among the staff, I see the staff go to work, and they see me go to work. Employees don't have to worry about anything, they can come to me at any time.

You emphasize a relaxed, communicative atmosphere, so how did you create that atmosphere?

When I first came to the mainland from Taiwan 5 years ago, I found that the employees didn't seem to have much interest in their work - after work at 5:30, people ran away. I am very curious: how can any IT company look like this? I went to find out that there is no bus in this place, so the first thing I did was to adjust the departure time of the bus to 6 o'clock. Later, it was decided that the company can subsidize the business personnel who buy a car. After the business personnel have a car, they can commute more flexibly, and they can also give colleagues a ride to enhance mutual understanding.

When I first came, our bathroom on the first floor was still locked. I had to get a key to get in. They told me to lock it because a lot of people from outside came and made the inside very dirty. I thought it was very unreasonable, so immediately after taking office, I canceled the lock and asked the cleaners to clean it frequently to keep the inside clean.

Also, the main door of the original office was never open. Everyone went to work through the side door. I also requested that the main door be opened. First of all, we must give everyone a relaxed atmosphere from the hard environment.

So how to create a relaxed "soft environment"?

Encourage employees to speak up. Sometimes my manager thinks employees shouldn't have some complaints, such as low pay, long hours, etc. I say you don't blame them, it's all normal. Let him speak so that no problems are covered. So I am more "laissez-faire", and you can "fire" if you want. If it is a more serious problem, I will convene a meeting to communicate with you.

For example, we used to have such a phenomenon: a senior business person would occupy a large area and would not be willing to release it, but he could not handle that much. On the other hand, there are not many areas for new arrivals to run, because the elderly are all occupied. One of the consequences of this is unfairness. The old salesman can receive a lot of salary, but the newcomer does not have much salary. In addition, the old salesmen did not have so much time to take care of so many areas, which also affected our overall performance.

Later, we reformed and changed the commission plan to a proportional system. For example, how many goals I give you to these customers this year, if you reach 100%, I can give you as much bonus. If you exceed the limit, you can take part of the bonus, but if you don't reach it, your bonus will be deducted. As soon as our system was announced, many old salesmen objected, believing that it was a disguised reduction in his income. I have to communicate with them, but not twice. For this reason, I also made a "Talking Post" to talk about this matter.

You must listen to the opinions of employees in the implementation of major systems, and should make moderate changes. So in the end, there are actually some changes in our policy. Modification is not a compromise, but it keeps things going. As I am older, I realize one thing, and sometimes there will be a lot of resistance in one step. So as long as the principles are in the right direction, there is no problem in reforming in two stages.

In order to create an environment where people dare to speak up, the first thing is to encourage employees to speak at meetings. When I first came here, I often told the truth by myself. Over time, this situation has changed a lot.

Second, a lot of employees will email me, and I personally read more than 150 emails a day. Another point to note is that the employee directly reported to me that he had an opinion on his supervisor. I would not immediately blame the supervisor, but to observe and then call the supervisor in a moderate environment. We want to create an environment where if you have a problem, you can communicate with anyone, and it is no problem to go over the superior of the superior. But we need to train supervisors how to deal with these problems. Some issues may require employees to go back and talk to their supervisors, rather than directly jumping over the supervisor to make a decision.

Your employees say you move around the company a lot?

Yes! For example, when I meet employees on the road, I will say hello to them, and sometimes I will stand on the side of the road and chat with someone, whether there is any difficulty in the current work, etc. Many of his ideas will use this Opportunity to give me feedback. Employees may report a lot of problems, such as the recent poor food, this is just a small thing, but you can improve it if you listen to it. When employees feel that the supervisor listens to the things they put forward and does it, although it may not reach his satisfaction, he will also feel that the leader is willing to listen to the employees.

I will also find problems when walking around, such as a department environment is messy or employees dress too casually at work, I will also criticize them.

You just said that employees are not afraid of you, so is this likely to cause employees to slack off at work?

Maintain an intimate distance from your employees that allows you to pull your face down at any time. If you are too close to face, you are not the director of a company. For example, when employees organize activities, as long as I am in Beijing, I will definitely participate. They think that there is no leader who can play with them like this. I played badminton with them, and even played two-footed football. I will also participate in the party.

But I am very strict in my work. For example, because 800 calls are free of money, sometimes customers will make 800 calls instead of calling the switchboard. After receiving several calls in a row, our customer service lady was a little impatient. Said I was not the front desk here. I said no - how do customers know where the front office is and where is the back office? So I invite everyone to listen. You can't use such a tone when answering the phone. It should say that you are looking for so-and-so, then I will help you go to the front desk. Don't let the customer feel that they are doing something wrong.

Emphasize communication and establish a relaxed working atmosphere. Does this have anything to do with performance?

Last week I went to give a speech to a client. They said that they were implementing KPIs. I said that KPIs are good, but if you talk about KPIs all day and there is no soft thing to cooperate with, employees will feel that you are using them as machines. , his enthusiasm and creativity will not be released, and the wisdom and creativity of people in the high-tech industry are the most important. Therefore, management should be both rigid and soft, and both soft and hard. The so-called "hard" part is the rules and regulations, and the "soft" part is the culture.

——Richard Li

He Chunsheng: Let employees speak out

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