Personalized career tracks and freedom to try new roles: People are placed first in this company

 

You may not realize it, but you are most likely to use one of KONE’s products in the course of your daily life.

As one of the world’s leading escalator and elevator manufacturers, Finnish company KONE delivers millions of people safely and quickly to where they need to be.

The company, says senior service business manager Yip Why Mun, is just as dedicated to ensuring that its people are progressing smoothly in their career track.

“KONE really values ​​employees and wants to support their development,” said Mr Yip

Every single one of KONE’s 60,000 employees globally has their own Individual Development Plan – a chart that maps out a staff member’s projected career trajectory across the next five to 10 years.

Managers work one-on-one with their subordinates to try to fulfill their career aspirations as much as possible.

In the case of Mr Yip, he found himself needing a change after almost two decades in the quality, safety assurance and compliance field. A transition to an operations role would mean starting from scratch at another company – and having to take a big pay cut – if he quits his job.

But once he expressed his desire to his superiors, they were quick to do everything they could to help the good performer transition into operations, from providing mentorship to furnishing him with a slew of opportunities as well as relevant on-the-job training.

“It was all really beneficial for me,” says Mr Yip, who has now held his current position in operations for three years.

As part of their mid- and end-of-year reviews, KONE employees can express interest in other roles they would like to pursue within the company.

“KONE is open to employees trying out new roles,” said Ms Shafa Azman, sales and operations planning specialist at KONE.

Though she joined the company as a project administrator, her growing curiosity in delivery operations led to her eventually transitioning to her current role, but not without two years of mentorship and training.