George Lee who has served in the Construction Department for 30 years has always made nurturing young people part of his job. A mentor in the Modern Apprenticeship Programme (co-organized by SHKP and Breakthrough) for 10 years, he is very experienced in coaching people and is as much a friend as a teacher to the young colleagues whom he has worked with over all these years. In his downtime, he and his wife regularly accompany the parents of youngsters who are on probation order to drop in on their children and help young offenders turn over a new leaf by offering assistance and mentoring.

George believes that work can cultivate a sense of responsibility and good habits in young people so that those who have gone astray can be on the right path again. He said: "What I can do is to motivate and encourage them, letting them understand that what appears minor to them at work can be of significance."

To George, young people today want to be respected. They are easily influenced by their peers so only if they treat you as their friends will they be willing to listen to you. He had an apprentice before who is always late for work because of staying up late playing computer games every night, but instead of feeling grumpy, he chose to call him every morning reminding him to get to work on time. "I'm not angry because it's just that no one is there to help fix his bad habit. My expectation of him is very simple—I just want him to develop a sense of responsibility", George said.

SHKP has always encouraged staff to participate in Breakthrough's Inner Challenge. Project Monitoring fielded a team for the race this year and finished in eight hours and two minutes, coming tops in the 25 km corporate challenge.

Mentioning the Accounts Department makes most people think of boring numbers, but department staff actually have to know what's behind all the different figures because they have implications, big and small, for the Group's finances. That means Accounts is not just about accuracy but also patience and careful analysis. 

The department has about 70 staff divided into three teams─accounting, cashier and taxation. We value team spirit like the rest of the company and encourage colleagues to voice their opinions, as this enhances their sense of belonging and cohesion for a harmonious working environment. Colleagues have close relationships like those among family; at work, we are great partners and after hours we like hosting food parties and doing crafts together to get satisfaction from the process and seeing the results of our collective effort.

By Accounts Department

The company recognizes the need for mid-level staff to learn to become team leaders, so the SHKP Quality Academy has specially designed a series of workshops to help them enhance their management capabilities through diversified learning experiences.

The latest SHKP bowling tournament was a hit with staff. Teams rolled many exciting frames before the Royal Plaza Hotel finally took first place, beating out Hong Yip Team 1 in second and The Royal Garden third.

Kitty Chiang in the China Department went to the Antarctica earlier this year and was so impressed by all the amazing sights that she joked "whoa" was probably the word she said most often during the trip. Bouncing through the ice floes on a high-speed inflatable was like an hour-long roller-coaster ride, until the scenery changed upon arriving at a small island. Kitty and her travel companions soon found themselves surrounded by a large flock of adorable penguins, but visitors are required to stay at least five metres from Antarctic creatures such as penguins, sea lions, seals and the like to preserve the ecology. Kitty told the SHKP News: "Whenever the penguins came close, we had to stop and wait quietly until they left, as if we were playing the "traffic light" game when we were kids."

Special elements of the trip such as having a barbeque and icecream in the freezing outdoors for the first time, the excitement of setting foot in Antarctica and the spectacular Antarctic scenery still linger in Kitty's memory. She is grateful for the support of her supervisor and colleagues, as their help in taking over her job duties while she was away enables her to discover the frozen land worry-free in a once-in-a-lifetime experience. 

SHKP arranged a visit to the KMB depot so staff could see the site and find out about daily operations like bus maintenance and exterior cleaning.

IFC Mall hosted "Sketch Town" this summer to let visitors put their imagination and creativity into full play. Participants' 2D drawings were machine scanned and converted to 3D, and our colleagues have a chance to get involved in the innovative fun.

Colleagues learned to make candles from natural, harmless, environmentally-friendly soy and different aromatic oils, and decorate them with pressed flowers.