Corporate culture determines the success of every business

Over 18 years since its establishment, what makes the leaders of construction company Coteccons proud is maintaining a stable workforce, with about 2,400 engineers and over 20,000 workers at its construction sites.

Top enterprises across food and beverages, telecoms, banking, and more are focused on their people,Photo: Dung Minh

More than half of employees at Coteccons have been with the company for more than 10 years. According to Nguyen Trinh Thuy Trang, director of Internal Affairs, the reason for this connection all starts from the recruitment process. “It is somewhat rigorous, but with the right audience and right needs, as well as the process of building a corporate culture that values excellence to be fair and encourage employees to take ownership,” she said.

According to Trang, the company has made great efforts in the past couple of years to break invisible barriers and encourage staff to make their voices heard.

“We encourage people to take off their masks and speak frankly and honestly when expressing their personal views on any issue. The space of all departments is also designed to be open to increase interaction between employees. All employees, regardless of position, are provided opportunities to develop and are entitled to proactively offer solutions at work,” said Trang.

Although the secret sounds simple, to realise it requires Coteccons to invest heavily in digital transformation, applying big data to manage and evaluate labour performance more fairly. But Trang said the biggest challenge is how to encourage all employees to play their part in a team.

“We always uphold transparency and integrity. We try to let employees understand that short-term difficulties will be the driving force to achieve better long-term results,” she said.

The roadmap of the company’s cultural and strategic transformation started in 2020 and this month, Coteccons was named in the top 10 best workplaces in the construction industry, according to the VBE500 event held by Viet Research and Vietnam Investment Review.

“Our goal is to create a fair and mutually beneficial working environment. Our employees are always of good quality and the company always encourages people to contribute more to social activities,” said Trang.

Meanwhile, along with big brands in Vietnam’s banking industry such as Vietcombank and Techcombank, KienlongBank was also named in the list of the best places to work thanks to building a corporate culture rooted in sharing.

Deputy general director Tran Hong Minh said that they are one of the few names in the banking industry with a high percentage of long-term employees. In October, the bank held a ceremony to honour employees who have worked at KienlongBank for over 25 years. The number of employees who have worked for 10-15 years at KienlongBank also accounts for a high proportion.

In addition, the bank has also been focused on finding and developing young staff through seminars in collaboration with universities.

“We have built a stable and long-term staff pool, and the goal in the coming time will be to focus on developing a strong workforce in digitalisation and fintech,” Minh said. “We want to build a development roadmap and are ready to train new personnel to meet the demand for the digital transformation that is taking place in the industry.”

Building a corporate culture has become an important trend pursued by many businesses in recent years.

A survey on measuring corporate culture maturity in Vietnam in 2022 conducted by corporate consultants Blue C, with the participation of 117 businesses, showed that 83 per cent of such businesses are currently focused on training corporate culture periodically. The survey results also suggest that investing in corporate culture training will help employees adapt to the environment and become more united in achieving common goals.

Typical examples of building corporate culture in Vietnam today are Viettel and FPT, two leading enterprises in the technology field. While Viettel is known for its disciplined culture, FPT’s model is towards teamwork, democracy, and respecting every decision of each individual. This is also partly why FPT has grown rapidly after 30 years, becoming a tech corporation with more than 41,000 employees with revenues by the end of the third quarter of 2022 reaching about $1.3 billion.

Nguyen Thi Hoang Nguyen - Deputy director, Centre for Strategic Analysis and Forecasting Institute of Labour Science and Social Affairs

Digital transformation has taken place in many state agencies and businesses. For example, during the pandemic, various sections of the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (MoLISA) adapted to hold online meetings and stored and transferred documents via an online system. The ministry has also made efforts to implement Resolution No.68/NQ-CP on policies to support employees and employers facing difficulties. It has also made efforts to ensure workers’ rights, especially vulnerable people. For business employees, benefits have been partly guaranteed. The ministry also has policies to care for informal workers, encouraging them to pay voluntary insurance. A young labour market is one of Vietnam’s advantages on the path to digital transformation. All colleges and vocational schools nationwide under the Ministry of Education and Training (MoET) have now been returned to the management of MoLISA. Schools have actively implemented digital transformation. There are now many technologies to improve the quality of teaching and apprenticeships. However, Vietnam’s tech infrastructure is still limited. The country’s labour force is still mid-level, with few highly qualified human resources at regional and international standards. The ministry is developing a labour market information system, aiming for policymakers and businesses to access information easily. A quarterly labour market report is updated on the ministry’s website, incorporating many infographics. The ministry is also focused on improving vocational education and training, providing career counselling, and applying digital transformation to pay unemployment insurance premiums.

Truong Minh Tien - CEO, Viet Research

The top 10 best workplaces awards have shown that businesses with their own brand and corporate culture have challenges maintaining and improving their culture. Paying attention to branding also means building company culture and sustainably respecting talent to ensure employees’ proper training and general development. The message we want to give businesses is to build a good image by showing inner strength, thereby recruiting and retaining employees. Nearly half of the workers surveyed by Viet Research said they wanted to work in a more flexible environment. This shows that traditional working models are changing. Before the pandemic, the definition of a good working environment was focused on salary and remuneration. But currently, 80 per cent of workers prioritise work-life balance. Many workers tend to not focus so much on issues of income and economic benefits, but are more interested in conditions such as travel and flexible working time or even the eye-catching designs of offices. Recommending plans to build an effective working environment is difficult because it depends on the various aspects. However, we expect businesses to care about human resources with both heart and mind.

Le Bao Anh-Deputy general director Construction Corporation No.1

Our construction and installation activities do not depend on the actions of real estate companies. Accordingly, though the real estate market has suffered policy and liquidity shocks, our corporation (CC1) has not been affected too much and has not made any redundancies. On the contrary, we have continued to recruit workers. At the same time, we have also ensured full and timely payment of salary and bonuses for workers. We will have the opportunity to participate in many large projects in the transport sector. Because the company has vast experience and a solid background, it has a good chance to win public investment packages in the transport sector. We also plan to recruit more workers. In 2021, the corporation started the Quang Trach 1 thermal power plant, with investment of more than $4 billion. It is a joint venture with Mitsubishi Corporation and Hyundai Engineering and Construction in the central province of Quang Binh and it demonstrates that we are competitive. Due to global economic instability, Vietnam’s government is expected to focus on disbursing public investment capital to stimulate the economy, especially funds for infrastructure, transportation, airport, and other public projects. CC1, with its strong capacity and wealth of experience, is suitable for such works.