Wellington College China receives “2019 Top HR Management Award”
On 19th April, Wellington College China (WCC) has received the “2019 Top Human Resources Management Award” for its consistent investment and excellent performance in HR management. The Award is presented by 51Job, one of the leading HR service providers in China. The award selection was launched in September 2018. Choosing from tens of thousands of its active clients, 51Job invited 3,000 Companies to participate in the selection, and selected the winners based on participants’ detailed HR management information obtained through a survey conducted by 51Job.
Having approximately 3,000 pupils and over 780 highly qualified and experienced staff, Wellington College China has become one of the most influential international education groups in China and has established a great reputation in the global education community. According to relevant statistics, WCC’s annual employee turnover rate is under 15%, employee engagement index in 2018 is 3.93, and overall satisfaction rate is about 80%.
01 Focus on employees’ well-being, and creating a happy workplace
Founded in 2008, Wellington College China has established 3 international schools in Tianjin, Shanghai and Hangzhou in just 10 years. In September 2018, WCC’s bilingual education brand Hiba Education and its The Bridge | China were officially established. Cooperating with Durham University in the UK, The Bridge | China provides professional teacher training programmes, curriculum research and external exchanges with other institutions. To keep its leading salary levels in the industry, Wellington College China actively participates in the industry salary survey organised by Mercer Consulting each year and makes adjustments to the salary range according to the survey results. Besides a generous leave allowance and additional public holidays, WCC staff also enjoy other abundant benefits such as supplementary housing fund as well as supplementary medical insurance which also benefits family members.
In order to help new teachers from around the world fit in well in our community, each August before school opens, we organise an orientation in Wellington College in the UK for a group of new teachers led by a principal from WCC, introducing them in advance to Wellington College China, Chinese culture and the cities they are going to live in. WCC also provides expatriate staff with a full package such as accommodation, children’s education, relocation and visas. When new teachers arrive in China, the principal will go personally to the airport with a team of staff members to pick up the new teachers. And at the airport, the principal will give SIM cards to the teachers and their family members, making them feel at home.
02 Respect multi-culture, and building community consensus
In Wellington and Hiba, we respect multi-culture. With one third of our employees expatriates, we organise many cross-culture staff activities and celebrate big traditional Chinese and western festivals like Christmas and Chinese New Year in different ways, such as lighting ceremony, Christmas dinner and Spring Festival gala, etc. Our Chinese academic team members willingly teach expatriate staff Chinese language and culture in their spare time, and expatriate staff happily participate in Chinese traditional entertainment like table tennis, Karaoke and dumpling-making.
While creating a happy workplace, we also pay much attention to employees’ physical and mental wellbeing. Every week we hold employees’ fitness camps, providing sessions like yoga, swimming and physical training. Every campus has second-to-none facilities, including well-equipped teaching buildings, leading ICT facility, laboratories, theatre, tennis and basketball court, football and cricket pitch as well as 25-metre standard competition swimming pool. Employees can enjoy these resources, such as borrowing books from the library and utilising sports facilities for free.
Moreover, we encourage employees to bring their family members to festival celebrations and various activities to enjoy family time. Every spring we hold a summer festival, on which occasion lots of booths will be set in the playground with food and games, and employees are welcome to bring their families and children. Another popular school event is the Christmas & New Year Bazaar, where people can buy many things, and students, parents, staff and family members enjoy the fantastic festival atmosphere. Besides these events, the schools also hold events like the music festival, and our employees can take their children to participate.
03 Facilitate employee development, and encourage continuous learning
Wellington College China attaches much importance to staff training and development, with the aim that every employee will grow and develop to reach their full potential and progress their careers. In the Employee Engagement survey within the group in 2018, over 80% of our staff believe that Senior Leadership Team (SLT) pays much attention to and supports employees’ career development and continuous learning. All vacancies are published to staff in the form of a monthly internal vacancies flyer, thus providing a channel for internal promotion. At the beginning of each year when setting annual goals, all employees have the chance to communicate with their line managers about career development and line managers will advise training and development plans based on employees’ career development ideas and their specialism.
Founded in 2018, The Bridge | China focuses on structured training for teachers and the management at different development phases. The training programmes include Initial Teacher Education (ITE) programmes, Middle Leadership Learning programmes and Senior Leadership Learning programmes, covering training on professional skills and leadership. Every year, the Senior Leadership Team (SLT) initiates the Key Talent Review, discussing the training and development plans for employees in key positions. We also provide key talent with an external career mentor/coach, focusing on the difficulties in their development and giving guidance and solutions accordingly. For non-academic positions, there are annual workshops for HR, IT and Marketing staff, and departments with the same function can have cross-school discussions and share their professional knowledge. Besides, there are also chances for employees to visit Wellington College in the UK and Wellington College International Bangkok.
What is particularly noteworthy is WCC’s annual Festival of Education, bringing together education experts around the world to share their knowledge. The Education Festival is also a great chance for Wellington teachers to share experiences and learn from others. In addition to the training of professional skills and leadership, we also pay attention to employees’ special talents and provide platforms for them to demonstrate their talents. We invite teachers with special talents to offer classes for our co-curricular activity programmes, sharing their experience and knowledge with interested pupils. For example, some teachers provide classes such as scuba diving and hip-pop. We also plan to provide employees with these programmes in the future.
