Singapore - For FedEx, ensuring that employee promotions are based on merit requires a thorough screening and recruiting process, says Ramesh Kumar Singam, managing director of FedEx Express Singapore.
According to Singam, the transportation provider disregards a person's gender, age and race during an interview or promotion process. And as the company is built on a culture that promotes diversity and equal opportunity in the workplace, only factors such as skill competencies, cultural fit and personality fit are considered in the hiring process.
One of the fair employment practices the company implements is the Job Change Application process where new job openings are made known to all employees. Employees who possess the right capabilities and want to apply for the job will be considered alongside other applicants.
To ensure that the promotion or hiring is fair, the organisation also has a thorough and stringent recruiting process, says Singam. "We have a lot of questions that are very well-documented by a panel of people. And we screen them properly and thoroughly to ensure that there is no question about preferential treatment."
Singam uses his experience of starting as a HR trainer and moving to current managing director position as an example of how this equal opportunity policy has allowed for many FedEx employees to move up the ranks.
FedEx also practices an open-door policy which allows the 1,000 Singapore staff who have issues or concerns to voice them to anybody on the management team, regardless of rank.
And even as the logistics sector takes a hit during the downturn, the company does not intend to shift from its diversity tack. "It's part of our people-service-profit philosophy that we have, which really says that put people first, because they are your most important asset and they will provide you the outstanding service. And when you have the outstanding service, the profits will come," he says.
FedEx recently become the 1000th company to sign the Tripartite Centre for Fair Employment’s pledge to support fair employment practices in Singapore.
