There is performance, there is reward

Among local companies, Ping An Insurance (Group) Co., Ltd. of China is a bit special. In the course of more than ten years of development, it has introduced a large number of overseas senior executives and successfully used it for its own use; at the same time, it also cares about its internal employees. One of the circumstantial evidence is the "Platinum Employer" title awarded to Ping An by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of the United Kingdom.

External and internal talents can coexist peacefully and seek common development. Gu Minshen, deputy general manager and chief human resources executive of Ping An, believes that this is due to Ping An's fair reward and punishment mechanism. "As long as you can create value, you can be rewarded." .

Implement a clear reward and punishment mechanism

You have been working in a foreign company before, and now you are in a local company. From the perspective of human resource management, are there any differences that make you feel particularly profound?

Ping An is quite different from many local companies. I have been working in the Mainland for almost ten years. I worked at Unilever for the first seven years. The culture of foreign companies emphasizes layered responsibility. No matter which job you do, you must be responsible for your work. If the boss is wrong, you can defend your own claims. . The company requires everyone to be independent, but also requires teamwork. In addition, the atmosphere is democratic and does not pay attention to form. Some state-owned enterprises pursue formality too much.

During my last three years at Unilever, I managed a 50-50 joint venture in China. The culture there is very traditional. What the leaders say, the people below must implement it. They are actually very hardworking and hardworking, but very obedient. The practice of local enterprises is: first, collective decision-making, and everyone is responsible for mistakes;

I was a little apprehensive at first when I came to Ping An, because I had been in a joint venture and had conflicts in management philosophy and work mentality. I was quite surprised to come to Ping An, because for 15 years, Ping An has always had the courage to accept outsiders and outside cultures. It started consulting with McKinsey in 1996. It has grown from a small property insurance company to life insurance, learning from experience and seeking people everywhere, and the entire culture is very inclusive. Now we have fifty or sixty overseas employees, and two-thirds of the top fifty managers are from outside.

In this company, as long as you can create value and have performance, you will be rewarded. So it feels very different.

Management reflects the company's culture. In terms of human resource management, Ping An's distinctive point is that rewards and punishments and behavior orientation are very clear. What kind of behavior and performance are praised in the company, and what kind of punishment and elimination Yes, very clear. There is a big difference between the benefits of good performance and bad performance, and the difference in the benefits of personnel at the same level can be more than 50%.

What kind of behavior is most appreciated in Ping An, and what kind of behavior is punished?

Every period is different. In the past 10 to 12 years, Ping An has grown from a small property and casualty insurance company to a bigger company. In this process, whoever can bring in the premiums and who can create profits for the company is the best.

We have recently reached the second stage. The sustainable operation of a company cannot only rely on rushing and killing in the market, but also pay attention to the integration of the background, the improvement of efficiency, and new ideas, such as product development. Then the objects of rewards will be different. In the past, more rewards were placed on front-line staff, but now this part is indispensable. At the same time, the salary level of back-line staff has been greatly improved, and bonuses are considered for back-line staff.

Now we are going hand in hand, and in the next stage, in the next 5-10 years, to make the bank bigger, it may focus on rewarding those who have contributed to the development of new businesses.

In fact, the motivation and punishment of people are not the focus. The final purpose is to make him perform his functions according to the company's strategy and achieve the company's goals.

Some people feel that a company's human resources policy should be stable and not change frequently. This statement is correct. The central spirit of human resource policy should be consistent, but the method should be constantly changed and changed according to the company's requirements.

The three most famous sentences of Ping An are competition, encouragement and elimination. This represents Ping An's management philosophy, as it believes that moderate and healthy competition can drive corporate progress. For example, the company conducts a 360-degree evaluation for the top 15 supervisors. The results are announced to these 15 people, and they can be seen by each other, and the boss's own is also included. What does this mean? Let him see where he is not good, and he will adjust. This promotes healthy competition.

Motivation is easy to understand, and it is the motivation that shapes his behavior and keeps it going. We are also changing the way of incentives. If you give money forever, the company will not have that much money. Today's young people, in addition to money, also value more things, including giving him opportunities for promotion and challenges.

When McKinsey came here, some people were asked to work on projects. At first, some people thought it was a chore, but later, some people thought that I was not in the project team. Does it mean that I have no potential?

For the elimination, there are several kinds of people who will be eliminated: those who continue to have poor performance, those who do not work hard, and those who have bad morals. Another unique feature is that Ping An has a fixed elimination rate of 3%-5% every year. Turning the last-place elimination into a mechanism, we think this is good for the other 95% of people, it is the protection of employees who work well, and the company will not age.

There are several important points in human resource management. First, it must be linked to the business. Many human resource managers manage processes, not results. The second is to be flexible and creative, and not to stick to the rules and not change them. The company is changing, the business is changing, the market is changing, why can't human resources change? But it can't be too much. There must be some principles, such as moral standards, teamwork, and sense of responsibility at work. This cannot be changed. Third, in addition to being linked to business, we must also have foresight. Business may grow rapidly with short-term incentives, but human resources cannot. In addition to meeting business needs in the short term, it also depends on the long-term needs of the company.

Ping An Group is very large. Will there be obstacles in the implementation of reward and punishment measures?

This is divided into two parts. First, if the company is big, there will be different ideas. The majority of public opinion does not represent the truth. When a company moves forward, it may not be in favor of most people, because it brings more workload, employees have to spend their brains to think about more things, there will be pressure on performance, and things should be done quickly every day. These changes are generally not liked by employees, and everyone likes stable work. But Ping An has a characteristic, as long as it is right, it will rush forward. The people of Ping An are also used to it, and they keep following when they receive orders.

Second, in the process of implementing reward and punishment measures, distortions may occur in large companies. Our approach is to make the information as transparent as possible, and try to let the whole company know this information. We do it through the IT platform and modern communication tools, and various communication networks are very smooth. For example, our national salary is uniformly distributed at the headquarters. In this process, there is no way to cheat. During the implementation process, we must constantly communicate and explain.

The most important thing is to instill this mechanism in everyone's head, so that everyone speaks the same things from top to bottom, showing consistency.

Good at using foreign talents

Will there be more foreign talents, will it affect the enthusiasm of local employees, and how to ensure everyone's integration?

There is a historical background for Ping An to use so many foreign personnel. It did life insurance 10 years ago, and because it didn't know how to do it, it brought in some outsiders to do it, but it did so well, which increased the company's confidence.

It is true that these people come in with high salaries, different ways of doing things, and there will be conflicts, but gradually other employees will be convinced, because they feel that these people really contribute, feel confident to follow him, and feel that they will grow and succeed.

We also made mistakes in the past. Those who came in didn't do well and were eliminated. I don't make this mistake very much now, and the people I have found in the past few years are all good. Because we gradually understand what kind of people are suitable in a market environment like China and a corporate culture like Ping An. First, what we can do on our own should never be done by outsiders, but must be done by those who lack peace. Second, he must have actual practical experience. The people we bring in have almost 20 years of experience and have strong professional knowledge and experience. Third, cultural adaptation must be strong. We have also used foreigners, and it is not very easy to use. The way of thinking and doing things is different. Most of the people we use are Asians who can speak Chinese and have worked in foreign companies, including Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, and those who came back from studying in the United States. They are all Chinese. These people are more adapted to the Chinese way.

Most importantly, when we look for people, we look for a sense of purpose. They have been very successful in many companies and are not short of money, but they have dreams and want to create a successful enterprise in China. If they have such a sense of mission, they will invest. He also needs to have the ability to train his subordinates. After a long time, the people below must take over.

On the other hand, these people will not affect the promotion of local employees. Ping An's vision is definitely not reconciled to becoming a Chinese company, but hopes to become a multinational financial group like HSBC and Citi. From this perspective, the earlier the culture is consistent and inclusive, the only way it can go beyond. What's more, the company has a clear mechanism, and the vast majority of people who perform well are promoted quickly. Many employees have achieved cadre positions within a year or two. The company is expanding too fast. In the past, he could only be a cadre with ten years of experience, but now he has to be a leader in five years. Ping An has given its employees many opportunities.

The insurance industry is highly competitive and the flow of talents is relatively large. What good practices does Ping An have in retaining people?

We do everything possible, including raising the salaries of key personnel, providing incentives, option programs, and promotion channels.

Ping An has many development opportunities. The company will develop new businesses such as banking and funds, and establish new platforms. The company's employees will also have more development.

A lot of people on our side don't want to leave, because you can learn something here, and you'll just contribute elsewhere. Some people can't help us if they leave. This is a market competition mechanism. Some new insurance companies find general managers, poach the managers of Ping An branch, and double their salaries. I can't double everyone's salary. In the past two years to the next two or three years, this situation will still happen, and it is absolutely impossible to keep people with money.

Ping An is more about constantly replenishing new blood. The company provides a proper training mechanism. It can be seen that many young people can show great performance in the stage of 30-40 years old, and their creativity and action are very strong. There are more and more people who have worked in Ping An for more than 10 years, hundreds of them every year.

The most effective development comes from direct leadership

What kind of people does Ping An want most?

In the past, Ping An was someone who wanted the best. But we gradually found that the best people have to have, but not all of them are the best people, because this will not allow everyone to play his greatest contribution.

The insurance industry is actually a customer service industry. It needs people who are down-to-earth and friendly, who can fulfill customer requirements and satisfy customers. We need a group of outstanding people with a bachelor's degree or above, and train them. They are the basis for the successors of cadres. But not all jobs require such people. We used to think that it is best to let people with a bachelor's degree or above do all the work, but this is actually wrong. Let him do the same job for three years, such as writing subpoenas, he will not be willing, he still wants to continue to develop, it is better to let a high school student do it, he can do it well and be very happy. Our emphasis now is on putting the right people in the right positions.

Where did you find the people you wanted?

Campus recruitment, through headhunting, are available.

In fact, Ping An attaches great importance to cultivating its own talents. The external hires are mainly experienced overseas employees and banking professionals. Because they do not have any, most of the property and life insurance parts are grown internally. All positions at Ping An are posted on the intranet. Anyone who thinks they are qualified can apply for it. As long as they can apply, they can do it.

Ping An also has some plans, such as the succession plan, and now has a potential list, and those on the potential list will be given priority to participate in some training.

At Ping An, does every employee have the opportunity to develop?

Yes. Regarding the training of personnel, there is a concept that must be clear. In essence, because the company needs this skill, it trains employees to do it. No company develops all of its employees to be great, and companies don't need those competencies. Whether the company can give you a training plan depends on whether you have value and contribution to the company. This is two-sided.

When we consider the company's future development needs, there are indeed many training programs, but everyone is different. Our expectation is not that every employee can be a CEO, nor is it possible. Some employees cannot be CEOs, but they can be department managers. There will be some training on how to be department managers. For newly promoted managers, we have a new officer class, what requirements will the company have for new officers, what is the strategy, what will be done in the future, even how to write reports and how to read financial statements. For high-level executives, it is to cultivate strategic thinking and send people to HSBC to study for three months or half a year.

Most employees are provided with skills training to do their jobs well. But he will also develop in other areas, because he may rotate. For the 20% of the elites, we spend more time on various aspects of training. For example, some people are very knowledgeable about actuarial science, and they are encouraged to take the exam as an actuary in North America. After the exam, they will be given options and bonuses.

In addition, letting employees take on projects and accept greater challenges is also a kind of training, which is more effective than sitting in the classroom.

A company has a lot of training courses, not necessarily the right one. In the end, we found that the real best training is the teaching from the direct supervisor, which is to teach employees how to do it directly at work, which includes many things, how to identify problems, how to communicate, and how to make the boss understand and agree with your ideas And so on, these promotions for employees are the most direct and effective.