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ACI Asia-Pacific HR Excellence Awards 2014

Employer Branding for Airport Business

Submitted by

Changi Airport Group (Singapore) Pte Ltd

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Company Introduction Changi Airport Group (Singapore) Pte Ltd (CAG) was formed on 16 June 2009 and the corporatisation of

Singapore Changi Airport followed on 1 July 2009. As the company managing Changi Airport, CAG

undertakes key functions focusing on airport operations and management, air hub development,

commercial activities and airport emergency services. CAG also manages Seletar Airport and through its

subsidiary Changi Airports International, invests in and manages foreign airports.

Changi Airport is the world‟s most awarded airport with more than 450 accolades received since it opened

in 1981. To serve passengers and visitors from the world over, there are over 350 retail stores and 120

F&B outlets across the airport's three terminals. Changi Airport handled more than 52 million passenger

movements in FY12/13, serving about 100 airlines flying to more than 250 cities in about 60 countries and

territories worldwide. A flight takes off or lands at Changi roughly once every 90 seconds.

Our Vision To be the world‟s leading airport company, growing a vibrant air hub in Singapore and enhancing the

communities we serve worldwide.

Our Mission Exceptional People, Connecting Lives

Our Values

Our employer brand defines who we are as a company which represents our promise to our employees

and future hires. In the conceptualisation of our overall employer branding strategy, we were guided by

two key principles - brand authenticity and having an integrated approach for internal and external

branding.

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Defining our Employer Brand

In late 2011 and early 2012 when we embarked on reviewing our brand strategy, we started out by first

looking at the defining attributes that best described our Employer Brand and developed our Employee

Value Proposition.

To ensure the authenticity of the Employee Value Proposition, focus group discussions and surveys were

conducted with both employees as well as potential employees (the general public) to tease out the key

qualities that were authentic, appealing and differentiated CAG as an employer of choice. Inputs from

senior management team were also sought. The perception of potential hires was also tested to determine

the appeal and relevance of these attributes.

Taking on board the feedback gathered, and incorporating the organisation‟s Mission, Vision and Core

Values which describe the essence of our purpose, where we wanted to be and how we intended to get

there, we developed our Employee Value Proposition. The attributes (highlighted in blue) describes the

authentic and compelling experience we aspire to give our employees and potential hires alike, living and

breathing the values put forward by the organisation on a daily basis. The Employee Value Proposition

then guided the formulation of our branding strategy and communication of our employer brand to our

internal stakeholders as well as the general public through various branding initiatives.

Employee Value Proposition

As Changi Airport Group, we are, first and foremost, a service company. We operate Singapore Changi Airport, the world‟s most awarded airport, and help develop and manage airports worldwide. Our people are our most important asset in our mission to be the world‟s leading airport company, growing a vibrant air hub

in Singapore and enhancing the communities we serve worldwide.

We aspire to build a company where ordinary people achieve extraordinary results. Our people have a passion for service and are committed to teamwork, integrity and excellence. Working together with our

colleagues and partners to achieve the best outcome, we deliver innovative services and create a world-class experience for our customers.

Changi Airport Group offers a unique work environment in a global, vibrant and exciting airport community. With a set-up of multiple businesses, we present challenging work and diverse opportunities for our

employees to further their personal and professional growth, providing a platform for them to develop and see through their ideas and contributions, making an impact to our organisation and to the communities we serve

locally and globally.

Together, we are Changi Airport Group: Exceptional People, Connecting Lives

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Our Employer Brand Strategy As evidently shown in our vision statement and listed as one of our core values, CAG values our People,

whether they are at the frontline or backend of the business, as they work together as a team to deliver

exceptional results which led us to being the world‟s most awarded airport.

Therefore, we believe in building a strong talent pool by hiring, motivating and retaining the right people in

the organisation. Our brand strategy is built on the premise that companies with a successful employment

brand attract and retain top performers. In order to create a strong brand, we focus on building and

promoting our brand through two different groups of stakeholders – internal stakeholders (employees and

partners) as well as the external stakeholders (general public and prospective employees).

Internal Branding Initiatives

Employees are the first to live out and experience the brand promise of the organisation. Therefore, it is

important that we stay true to our brand promise in order to keep employees engaged and happy. If the

expectations are different from the actual work culture, new employees will soon feel disengaged and

demoralised and less likely to strive in the company which in turn lead to a poor performance culture.

At CAG, we are committed to engaging and developing our people as we know our people are responsible

for what truly makes Changi Airport great. We must function as one strong and committed team in order to

succeed. Therefore, we identified several areas on how we can promote our brand internally - (1)

Communication, (2) Recognition, (3) Engagement, (4) Reinforcement and lastly (5) Advocacy.

The various initiatives described below illustrate how we fulfil our internal brand promise while aligning to

CAG‟s mission and vision.

(1) Communication

Communication by CEO

Our CEO, Mr Lee Seow Hiang, has been highlighting the need to „Build Terminal H‟ which represents the

„heartware‟ and soul of the company in our organisation. We want to invest in our people and believe that

our people are the most important asset to help the business grow. This message was emphasised in our

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internal communication by CEO as it is important to demonstrate that the senior management of the

company is committed to this focus.

CAG Intranet and Newsletter

Employees are kept abreast of new initiatives, training programmes, team bonding activities through our

staff intranet (Changi Vine), email communications, work.play.cag (an employee newsletter – refer to

Appendix A). A dedicated section on Changi Vine announces new colleagues to the CAG family.

(2) Staff Recognition

The inaugural Annual Appreciation Awards was held on 6 November 2012 as a tribute to both CAG‟s long

serving staff as well as winners for the inaugural CAG Core Values Award.

The Long Service Award recognised CAG staff for their commitment and dedication while the Core Value

Awards acknowledges individuals and teams who exemplify CAG core values. The Core Values Award

comprises four categories - Best Buddy, Most Supportive Supervisor, Core Values and Open Category.

What is unique about the Core Value Awards is that staff can nominate anyone in the organisation who

demonstrated our Core Values in the areas of People, Customer, Business, Partner and Integrity. The

support and response has been overwhelming and we have seen a 50% increase in the number of

nominations from 240 in 2012 to 358 in 2013. A panel made up of management members evaluated and

established the final 17 award recipients in 2013. All nominees were invited to the CAG Annual

Appreciation awards where they are presented with the award by our CEO, Mr Lee Seow Hiang. The

heart-warming stories and testimonials were also shared during the award ceremony and published on the

staff intranet to recognise them for epitomising the core

values of the organisation.

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(3) Employee Engagement

Employee Orientation

First impression counts. Therefore, it is important to ensure that all new employees feel welcome on their

first day of work. New employees are required to go through a short briefing on their first day of work by

their HR Business Partner. They will then be introduced to their buddy who will help the individual to

assimilate well into the new environment.

All new employees will need to go through a compulsory 2-day orientation programme where they will

interact and meet other new employees from different divisions. They will also learn more about the

company through presentations by different divisions and tours around the various parts of the airport.

Employee Engagement Survey

CAG conducted its first Employee Engagement Survey (EES) in 2012 to take stock of the engagement

levels within the organisation. The survey provided valuable feedback into specific areas of focus to build

greater engagement both at the organisational and divisional levels. Communications sessions were held

to share the survey results and action plans so that there was clear understanding on the expectations

and steps taken to address issues that matters most to staff. The organisation had since implemented

changes after taking into consideration the feedback from the EES in areas such as career progression

and performance management. For example, a career development framework will be launched in 2014 to

provide a roadmap that will enable employees to plan their career. Reporting officers were also sent for

performance management training to equip them with the right performance appraisal skills.

As part of employee engagement, HR also organised events that allows staff to bring along their family

members and loved ones so as to build stronger bond among colleagues. One recent event would be the

CAG Family Day in February 2013. It was an evening of fun as the entire Universal Studios Singapore

was reserved exclusively for CAG staff and their family members.

HR introduced a „Bursary-cum-Families‟ Onboard‟ programme over the last two years whereby staff can

bring their family members to the airport and give them an opportunity to gain insights into the operations

of CAG. We feel that families also contribute in employee engagement as it makes a difference when an

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employee‟s family members appreciates and supports their work at CAG. As part of the event, CAG also

demonstrated care towards its employees by handing out a total of 68 bursary awards to their children.

CEO Challenge

CEO Challenge is an initiative for employees to get creative by submitting their ideas on profit generation,

cost savings and increase productivity. The winners receive monetary award and the satisfaction from the

impact of their idea benefitting the organisation. One idea that won was to use the horticulture displays in

the airport as advertising space to generate additional revenue. The idea came from our own employees

and stood out in terms of its originality and potential hype for the company.

(4) Reinforcement

Staff Development

A key thrust in CAG‟s efforts to forge ahead is the development of its leaders to steer their teams

effectively to face the challenges of the business. This is consistent with our internal brand strategy that

we are committed to staff development as we believe that it is our people who make CAG and Changi

Airport great. CAG defined its leadership competencies - CAG Leadership DNA in the areas of

Relationship, Enabler, Direction, Execution and Drive made up the core competencies needed to be

displaced by our leaders throughout the organisation. It guides our people to be good leaders and in turn

grow great people.

This newly developed CAG leadership DNA forms the foundation for a structured two-year leadership

milestone programme which was launched in 2013 for all managers to enhance their staff management

and leadership capabilities. The CAG leadership DNA is also integrated into employee development

planning and the annual performance appraisal exercise.

CAG continues to instil a learning culture. The third Learning Festival was recently held in September

2013. It was themed „Service through Design‟, as we embark on a Design Thinking journey as we

continue to serve not only our passengers, but also each other, better. As part of the Learning Festival,

learning tours to several top employers in Singapore including Macdonald‟s, American Express, Tan Tock

Seng Hospital, and Singapore Prisons were organised. Participants learnt about the best practices in

different industries and in CEO‟s speech on the closing of the Learning Festival, he reinitiated the

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importance of innovation and how we, as a company, must continue to design, ideate and redefine what

airport management is in order to remain as a world-class airport.

(5) Brand Advocacy

CAG Brand Ambassadors

CAG launched the CAG Ambassadors Programme in 2012. Some 56 managers from various divisions

were selected to be “CAG Ambassadors”. These individuals each have stories about how the Employee

Value Proposition was made alive in them. The programme includes training which equips them with skills

that they need to effectively position CAG as an employer of choice in forums such as career fairs.

These individuals also attended social media training conducted by our Corporate and Marketing

Communications Division to learn how to market CAG effectively on social media platforms. We continue

to involve our ambassadors in various recruitment and school engagement initiatives. This programme is

unique as it involves a careful selection and training of a core group of “CAG Ambassadors” who will not

only market the Employer Brand but also the Company‟s brand through social media.

CAG Jobs Connection

HR has implemented a job referral scheme known as the CAG Jobs Connection (CJC) for employees to

recommend suitable candidates for a specific position. Since it was introduced in April 2012, we received

over 200 staff referrals via CJC and we have seen good success through this. Each year, we are

recruiting more than 100 new employees. With several key development projects in the pipeline, our

recruitment numbers are bound to grow in the long-term. We believe that the job referral scheme is both

cost and time effective and the probability of hiring the right candidate is higher as the employee would

have done the first „screening‟ before recommending the person for the job. It is also a good indicator for

staff engagement when employees recommend their friend or family member to join the organisation.

External Branding Initiatives As a service company, CAG strongly believes that our people are our greatest assets in realising our

Vision. In order to remain competitive, we need to attract the best people in the market for the job.

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(C)(A)

External branding is very important as we need to position ourselves to be an employer of choice

leveraging on our brand uniqueness and diversity to attract the best talents.

We achieve this by identifying and reaching out to both the mass market as well as engaging young

talents in order to build a sustainable leadership and talent pipeline.

(1) Mass Market

Recruitment Campaign

A series of advertisements were developed as part of an overall branding campaign to showcase CAG

and what we do. We wanted our employers, both existing and future hires, to understand and appreciate

how their respective roles can contribute to the larger Changi Airport Group mission and vision. This

guided our advertisement development, where we created a link between the work that our employees did,

and how it translated into the outcome we desire and the difference it would make for our customers.

Each of the advertisements was developed for a specific target audience, seeking to bring out the relevant

element of our Employee Value Proposition. To illustrate, we developed images which depicted CAG

employees discussing plans for a new facility which would delight a passenger (A) or dreaming about new

flight paths into Singapore leading to the reunion between a father and his daughter (B). This creatively

articulates the link between what a CAG employee does (Exceptional People) and the positive outcome

for our passengers (Connecting Lives), thus fulfilling our vision. This differentiates our advertisements

from others that delinked the employer advertisement from the product. We also created an advertisement

for our Airport Emergency Service (AES). The picture depicts the bravery of our firefighting team which

makes the airport so serene and secure that a mother can doze off knowing her child is safe (C).

Please refer to Appendix C to view the enlarged version of the advertisements.

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The models used are our employees cast in their own jobs (e.g. Engineering, Air Hub and AES). It makes

our branding more authentic and gives our employees a sense of pride.

Staff Featured Articles

In addition to recruitment advertisements, we also feature our employees in the local newspaper, the Strait

Times Recruit Section, The New Paper Career Scope as well as selected scholarship and career guides.

Employees were interviewed to share not just about their work but also their passion for the company. We

want our readers to feel inspired and learn more about the company through the perspective of our

employees (refer to Appendix B).

Revamped Career Website

To inspire readers to join CAG, the career website was revamped to make it more personalised and

aligned with a look and feel that is consistent with our advertisement campaign and our corporate

branding. More importantly, the site also communicates our Employee Value Proposition. We asked our

staff, from top management to junior level, to write what they enjoy about working with CAG and we

published it on our career website as a „Meet our People‟ section1. This contributed to a friendlier and

more authentic feel to the entire brand image.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

At CAG, we believe in the potential of people. In particular, we are committed to supporting youths, to help

them be active contributors and leaders of tomorrow. Therefore, CAG launched the Changi Foundation in

April 2012. Through the Changi Foundation, we help disadvantaged youths transform their lives and

empower them to go achieve more than they thought was possible. CAG has injected an initial

contribution of 1 million dollars and will contribute a percentage of its net profits each year to Changi 1 http://www.changiairportgroup.com/cag/html/careers/learn-more-about-us/meet-our-people

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Foundation in support of youth community efforts thorough 3 main thrusts: Education, Skills Development

and Community Service. Changi Foundation has benefited more than 800 youths.

Everyone can play a role in enhancing the social responsibility of the company. Employees are

encouraged to volunteer and they are entitled up to 3 days of volunteer leave per year. The CSR

programmes are meaningful to both youths and volunteers alike as volunteers can share their expertise

and passion about their work. Workshops like „Be a Service Star‟ teaches youths on fundamental service

techniques and interpersonal skills. It also gives youths an appreciation of CAG‟s standards of service and

how we aim to deliver first class service experience to our customers. These programmes are aligned to

CAG‟s culture and vision and the sustainability of CAG‟s CSR efforts is a result from the continuous

support and dedication by our people to enhance lives and care for the communities we serve.

(2) Engaging Young Talents

Partnership with Universities and Polytechnics

Recruiting and nurturing young talents is necessary to building our talent pipeline. Therefore, HR works

closely with education institutions namely the Universities, Polytechnics and Junior Colleges (JCs) so that

we can reach out to students at an early stage to create awareness and promote CAG to them during

career fairs or talks or by inviting specific target groups to attend the following:

(a) Scholarship Engagement Event – top JC students and their parents are invited to attend a session of

presentation and networking as we recognise that parents are as much involved in the choice of

scholarships as the students. This session includes sharing by past scholars, networking with senior

management and scholars (who are also CAG Ambassadors), and culminates in a tour of the Airport.

(b) Student Engagement Session – top students from the universities are invited to attend an

engagement session in Changi Airport. It is an opportunity for them to learn more about CAG and also

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to network with CAG‟s CEO and senior management. The guests are also brought on an airport tour

to showcase CAG‟s unique work environment and initiatives that make Changi the world‟s most

awarded airport.

(c) Career Fairs and Talks – CAG also participates in campus-wide career and scholarship fairs

organised by the various educational institutions each year. It is a good platform to enhance our

branding and increase awareness of CAG and our business to graduating students. We also aim to

„sell‟ our employee value proposition through our CAG Ambassadors at the fairs and sharing their

experiences at talks. In addition to the generic fairs, we also participate in faculty-specific career fairs

or talks so that we can target and attract the right group of candidates that is aligned to our

recruitment needs. For example, we participated in an NTU Exchange Event in September 2013 that

is catered for engineering students as we are looking to recruit more engineers for several key

development projects in Changi Airport. Therefore, our employer branding efforts are also in sync with

our recruitment strategy and manpower needs.

Scholarship and Internship Programme

As mentioned, attracting the best talent is essential to cater to the growth of CAG‟s business in the long-

term. Through our scholarship and internship programme, CAG is building a steady pipeline of talents for

our future needs. Much time and resources are invested to do roadshows and talks at many Junior

Colleges (JCs) and universities throughout each year to promote these opportunities to the students. Over

320 applications were received for CAG‟s Internship Programme and more than 1,000 applications were

received for the CAG Undergraduate Scholarship. Reflecting the popularity of its scholarship, CAG was

ranked within the Top Five Scholarship Provider of Choice in Singapore for the past three years.

(Left) Q&A session with CEO, Senior Management and Scholar at Raffles Institution (RI) Scholarship Event (Right) Presentation by Mr Foo Sek Min, EVP, Corporate

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Results

Brand Perception

A Corporate Reputation Study presented in December 2012 showed that CAG has a very strong

reputation within Singapore, and that we are well ahead of benchmarks.

Awards

Our engagement and branding efforts and partnerships with schools paid off when we came in the Top

Employer in Singapore in a recent JobsCentral Employer of Choice Survey 20132 by undergraduates and

fresh graduates. In addition, CAG was ranked among Singapore‟s 100 Leading Graduate employers3 by

GTI Asia for the past three years.

In recognition of the strength of our Employer Brand, CAG was ranked fifth place by Randstad as the most

attractive employer in Singapore 20134. In addition, we were also conferred Asia‟s Best Employer Brand

Award by Employer Branding Institute in 2011.

2 http://community.jobscentral.com.sg/node/2574

3 http://singapores100.com/rankings/2013-rankings/

4 http://www.randstad.com.sg/the-randstad-award/randstad-award-country-winners/country-winners/2013-

singapore-winners

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Online Presence

CAG‟s social media team manages and develops content for popular social media channels like Changi

Airport‟s Facebook, Twitter, Instagram as well as Youtube. They keep the general public connected to the

Changi Airport brand and as at Dec 2013, our Facebook page, Fans of Changi, has one of the highest fan

numbers (over 300,000 fans) among the world‟s airports.

Iconic Changi Experience

Since our journey began in 1981, Changi Airport has won more “Best Airport” awards than any other

airport, with over 450 accolades to our name. As the world‟s most awarded airport, we are committed to

delivering the iconic Changi Experience to our passengers.

A key ingredient for our success is about having the right people who share the same dream. Therefore,

we must ensure that we have a strong employer brand that will differentiate us from other employers so

that we can attract, engage and retain the right talent in the company. To make this happen, we have

been guided by two key principles - brand authenticity and integration between our internal and external

branding strategies, which has helped us make the difference internally to our employees, and externally

in building our employer brand equity.

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Appendix A

Sample of monthly staff e-newsletter (December 2013 Issue)

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Appendix B

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Appendix C

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