HR role : from a Japanese Intern’s point of view
sawadika- My name is Tomo.
Donuts Bangkok welcomed both Thai and Japanese interns. Since I have a chance to work here, I would like to share the experience as Japanese intern at Donuts bangkok.
Why I chose the internship at Donuts Bangkok?
I’m currently a third year 3 student at a university in Japan majoring in social sciences. I thought it would be better for my future if I had an opportunity to work at company and see the ‘real’ world.
At first, I was looking for a job in Tokyo, and one of the companies I visited was Donuts Japan. I didn’t decide to work there at first actually. However, I heard Donuts have a Thai office and the HR intern position was available.
After the interview with Thai director (whom I found quite unique and interesting), I decided to join Donuts Bangkok as a HR intern.
The challenge during internship
My position was HR, and the main duties include recruiting and improving the working environment of the company.
The challenge I took during my internship was the attempt to improve the satisfaction of staffs while also provide better service to our clients/users. HR staffs and I conducted a survey to measure how much the staffs are satisfied with their job and the company.
From the survey we found out that lots of staffs feel do not clearly understand the goal of works. So we decided to change the framework we use in measuring our achievement at work.
The implement of new framework in a few months was difficult, because we all get used to the past framework and people tend to linger on the same-old method. The old framework was all about setting the number as a goal, but that was the end of it. Additionally, it is often said that the biggest failure companies can do is feeling satisfied after setting up a goal, and then end up forgetting about it. I wanted to make the implement of new framework successful, so I needed to come up with how to remind staffs of their goals and push them to take actions towards those goals.
At the end, we decided to hold a weekly small meeting for a staff and their team leader to recheck and update the progress of their work. To tell you the truth, this method is not exactly new. Donuts Bangkok introduced this system half a year ago, but each of the staffs had only done it once. Because this system will only work if it is practiced continuously, I was thinking on what can be done to solve this problem. For the time being, I wanted the staffs to answer the questionnaire to determine how helpful the meeting is for them. By doing so, the staffs will be able to carefully think about the meeting, and the leaders will get the feedback on how good they are doing.
What I thought about HR work
The importance of HR work is not always recognized by most staffs, because, of course, they are almost always busy dealing with what is in front of them. They have their duties and their deadline. However, company needs someone to think about the the future of the company in a long run, and I believe that HR can fulfill that role.
