HKJC wins Bronze prize in HKMA Award for Excellence in Training 2008

10 June 2008

The Hong Kong Jockey Club's contribution to the community through investing in the personal development of its part-time workforce was further recognised today (10 June) as the Club's training programme The Magic of We -Going Beyond the 'Call' of Duty for Part-time Supervisors won the bronze prize in the Award for Excellence in Training 2008 from the Hong Kong Management Association.

After two earlier rounds of judging involving a total of 30 entries, the Club was shortlisted as one of six finalists.  It was at today's final presentation session that the Club's team gained support from the judges and won the bronze prize.

At the same function, the Club's People Development Specialist Catherine Tong Ka-yi of the Club was presented with the "Distinguished Trainer" award, honouring her creative and outstanding performance in planning and delivering training programmes.

Club Executive Director of Corporate Development Kim Mak expressed his delight with the results.  "Over the years, The Hong Kong Jockey Club has cumulatively employed over 200,000 part-time staff, one in almost every family," he observed.  "And because of its huge number of employees and the people they serve, the Club always pays special attention to the all-round development of its staff and its obligations to uphold social responsibility."

The Club is among only a few organisations in Hong Kong that offer extensive training opportunities to part-time staff.  "The Magic of We" programme was created to enable 320 part-time Telebet supervisors of different ages, backgrounds and education levels to understand and identify with the strategic goals of Telebet over a period of seven months, in preparation for taking up management roles.

It helped the supervisors become familiarised with changing call centre practices and telephone account services through job attachment and "mystery shopping" tests.  In addition, tailor-made workshops and on-the-job coaching equipped them with enhanced skills in service management, leadership and counselling.

Mr Mak commented that the programme had "almost magically transformed" part-time supervisors to professional service leaders in the space of a few weeks.  "All of them will now go beyond the call of duty as team management members to lead the front-line staff in delivering Telebet services of exceptional quality," he said.