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It Starts Local is a series of stories that spotlight Thai professionals who have established a strong footprint in their respective industries. These business leaders, who have worked with us for their recruitment needs, speak with us about the business and hiring outlook of the domestic market in Thailand.
In this feature, Wipaporn Niamla-Ong, Chief Financial Officer at Rojukiss International, shares her insights on navigating the pandemic, gender diversity hiring, and talent attraction and retention.
“In the FMCG industry, things can change very fast, so I am very excited to know what’s going on when I wake up every morning,” says Wipaporn Niamla-Ong, Chief Financial Officer at Rojukiss International, who highlights adaptability as an essential trait when working in a fast-changing environment.
At Rojukiss International, Niamla-Ong not only functions as a finance expert but a business partner too. “I don’t only work with numbers – I also provide my finance and business perspective to all cross-functional teams to ensure we are on the same page and can achieve the goal together,” she adds.
When it comes to setting a tone as a leadership member in the company, Niamla-Ong prefers to lead by example. She elaborates, “I believe teamwork and collaboration can drive the organisation towards our goal, and I can play a role both as a team leader or a team member depending on the situation.”
Related: How to be more confident at work according to Asia's female leaders
In 2007, Rojukiss International opened its doors in Bangkok, Thailand. The homegrown company offers a comprehensive range of skincare and makeup products in Thailand, Cambodia, Indonesia and Laos, under Rojukiss, PhDerma/PhD K-Derm, Sis2Sis and Best Korea.
Listed in the Stock Exchange of Thailand in February 2021, the cosmetics firm has plans for the development and marketing of new products and will also be looking into digital and technology development, as reported in the Bangkok Post.
For any beauty company to thrive in a highly competitive and saturated cosmetics industry, it comes down to speed and accessibility. With the COVID-19 pandemic making surgical masks mandatory for everyone to wear and sending countries into lockdown, the consumer behaviour in the usage of beauty products drastically changed as people started to use lesser products and started making more purchases online.
“Now, consumers spend more time at home, and therefore, look for DIY products and more convenience in their products,” Niamla-Ong explains. “Fortunately, this new behaviour syncs with our ‘Convenience Beauty Healthy’ strategy, where we focus on driving health and beauty innovations with high-quality products that offer results and convenience for consumers in all aspects. So, we now put our ‘Convenience Beauty Healthy’ strategy at the centre of everything we do.”
Related: How qualitative performance evaluations give businesses a competitive edge
The pandemic also affected how businesses run. Employees at Rojukiss International now work from home. Work processes were streamlined and automated to facilitate a work-from-home work model without compromising on the control and management of our operation ecosystem.
“The safety of our employees and their families is of utmost importance, and we look at it from both the physical and mental aspects. There is a great focus by our HR and management teams to be fully agile and always accessible in communicating with our employees,” relates Niamla-Ong.
The safety of our employees and their families is of utmost importance, and we look at it from both the physical and mental aspects
For her, people are valuable assets of the company, so she focuses greatly on people development. “To ensure employees can be successful at work, they need to be engaged, well-trained and supported,” says Niamla-Ong.
“I encourage my team to explore their creativity and try new ways of doing things, and it is always important to give them feedback and listen to their feedback too,” she explains.
Related: How does Michael Page attract the best talent for your business?
Our Talent Trends 2021 report, a survey of 12 Asia-Pacific markets, found that Thailand ranks top in the Asia-Pacific region for the greatest number of women represented in senior management.
“In Thailand, women have long been leaders in many organisations because in Thai culture, women, with their maternal instincts, are perceived as caring and deliberate leaders,” says Niamla-Ong. “Today’s organisations want to empower women to lead, and we have seen many female leaders provide long-term strategic vision and build a strong network and community.”
“[At Rojukiss], we embrace the principle of diversity and inclusion, and we truly believe in promoting it amongst our employees through company policies, such as recognition programmes – regardless of who you are and your sexual orientation, and we believe this will help foster a great working environment.”
The chief financial officer added that it is still challenging for women in the workforce as they usually have to juggle different roles outside of work.
Related: Why recognising women in leadership and their achievements matter
With a boom in the consumer and e-commerce industry, demand for top talent is rising, and finding qualified candidates remains a huge challenge.
“Our recruitment strategy needs to be adaptable and flexible enough to entice the most qualified and skilled talents – we are now using multiple channels from internal and external employee referrals to job postings on our website, social networks, job boards and partnership with vendors and staffing partners to help gain access to the talent pool,” relates Niamla-Ong.
Our strategy is to attract young talents with competitive packages and meaningful work through challenging roles and assignments
She believes that an attractive remuneration package and career opportunities are crucial to acquiring talent and relates that organisations first need to understand the candidates they are targeting when it comes to talent attraction and retention.
“Millennials and Generation-Z have their own values and attitudes towards career, and our strategy is to attract young talents with competitive packages and meaningful work through challenging roles and assignments,” she adds.
For employees to remain in a company, Niamla-Ong found that promoting them from within to fill management and executive positions keeps staff engaged and helps create a robust learning and coaching culture in the company.
Related: Why a good talent attraction plan is the first step to retaining your best staff
The truth is the best candidates are not always actively looking for a new job. Niamla-Ong works with a recruitment partner and believes that recruitment firms know how to reach and incentivise talent to move.
Proactive recruitment can add tremendous value because speed is always a factor
“With their undivided attention and better sourcing capacity, Michael Page takes extra measures to source candidates across multiple platforms and screen them thoroughly. They understand our business and requirements and will weed out candidates who are not of the right fit and only proceed with qualified people that can adapt to our organisation’s goals and objectives,” Niamla-Ong says.
“Over the past year working with Michael Page, we are delighted with the proactive approach in identifying and qualifying candidates for us. The team is always eagerly speaking to new candidates whether we have an active position or not.”
“Proactive recruitment can add tremendous value because speed is always a factor. If you have someone proactively working for your company from a recruitment perspective, the efficient recruitment process and recruitment experiences among candidates can be greatly executed.”
Trusted by companies across Thailand, work with a recruitment partner that understands your needs as you grow. Get in touch with us, and we can share more about the value Michael Page brings to your organisation.
Read more:5 interview questions to ask to tell a great candidate from a good oneHow to manage performance reviews during the COVID-19 pandemicThe value of mentorship and sponsorship, and what it can do for your company
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