Human resources are our greatest asset at ArchSD, for our every success rests upon their professional expertise, collective wisdom and deep dedication. In order to deliver quality professional services to our clients and the general public, we strive to build a well-trained workforce by providing adequate training opportunities as well as individual development programme to our staff. In parallel, we endeavour to create a healthy, safe, and fun working environment where values of our staff can be realised and enhanced, and at the same time enjoying a high level of satisfaction and fulfillment.
A workplace free of occupational health and safety hazards and risks is essential to safeguard our staff wellbeing and ensure our service delivery, which is why we take every opportunities to evaluate risks and minimise the likelihood and impacts of hazards when encountered. To ensure compliance of all safety standards, we conduct regular safety inspections to identify, evaluate and monitor hazards. Workplace safety walk, workplace risk assessment and workplace accident investigation are conducted for whole workplaces of ArchSD, covering employees of ArchSD as well as workers working in workplace controlled by ArchSD. Any new hazards or near misses will be reported and investigated promptly at both the departmental and project levels to safeguard the safety of our employees. Thorough risk assessments as well as formulate mitigation plans and control measures are also performed regularly to miminise and avoid potential risks.
The Quality, Environmental, Health and Safety Policy sets out our strong commitment in ensuring a safe and healthy working environment for the entire workforce and exhibits our dedication to improve our health and safety management system continuously. To this end, we incorporate international best practices and industry standards into our operations by implementing OHSAS 18001 Occupational Health and Safety Management System under our Integrated Management System (IMS). Performance and measures related to health and safety are monitored regularly and reviewed quarterly by the Occupational Health and Safety Representatives Working Group (OHSRWG) for continuous improvement. The OHSRWG consults and communicates to and from staff and those affected on all occupational health and safety matters and provide feedback to the Integrated Management Committee chaired by the Deputy Director of Architectural Services.
In line with our occupational health and safety related policy, guidelines and management systems, we arrange an array of trainings for the staff, including but not limited to Safety Training Course for Site Management Staff, Certificate in Safety and Health for Supervisors (Construction), and Mandatory Basic Safety Training Course (Construction Work). Emergency evacuation exercises are conducted to all levels of staff to raise their awareness and emergency preparedness.
In view of the ever-changing environment in the industry and rising challenges faced by the organisation, we continue to develop our workforce through offering multifaceted training and development opportunities for our staff to keep abreast of the latest trends in their professions while motivating them to realise their potential.
By offering a comprehensive range of training and development programmes which are aligned with departmental business goals and staff development needs, ArchSD endeavours to equip our staff with the knowledge and skills required for meeting the increasing challenges. Our programmes are arranged to fit in with the needs of professional officers, technical officers and site supervisory staff; which cover topics related to Leadership & Management Skills, Professional & Vocational Training, and Career Development.
Various delivery modes of training activities are provided to staff to meet their job needs and to enhance their learning experiences. They include regular Academy talks, structured classroom training, workshops, seminars, large-scale symposiums, experience sharing sessions, on-the-job training, coaching and mentoring, e-learning, among others. During the year, we organised 417 training courses that account for a total of 41,872 training hours. Each staff member, on average received 22.4 hours of training.
| Training Types | No. of Trainees | No. of Training Hours |
|---|---|---|
|
Leadership & Management Skills |
176 |
2,247 |
|
Professional & Vocational Training |
6,958 |
33,206 |
|
Career Development |
934 |
6,419 |
|
Total |
8,068 |
41,872 |
It has been my honour to be involved in the first government project implementing the Modular Integrated Construction (MiC), Pak Shing Kok Disciplined Services Quarters Project (PSKDSQ), commenced in August 2018. This new construction method allows building units to be prefabricated and assembled at factories then transported to the project site for installation. As most of the building process were completed at factories, the quality and productivity would be greatly enhanced as compared to traditional construction method. In addition, with workplace safety as one our most important aspects, MiC also brings benefits to on-site workers by improving the safety and cleanliness at the project site.
ArchSD also provides various professional trainings for our staff and has maintained an experience-sharing platform for different project teams to showcase and share their project learnings. I have attended several sharing sessions and find it particularly useful especially when the project types are different from my previous projects. It provides a good communication channel for knowledge and ideas exchange. The PSKDQ project would also demonstrate the contractor's MiC installation method to our colleagues to solicit more innovative ideas in construction for further improvement.
Apart from workplace safety and trainings, ArchSD also makes efforts in showing care for staff's families. I remember upon completion of some of our public projects, ArchSD organised tours to the project sites which welcome colleague's family members to join. Looking ahead, I hope more of these similar family events could be arranged in the future to let our children to have a better understanding about their parents' work.
To enhance site safety and productivity of building projects, it is anticipated that more and more ArchSD projects will adopt new construction methods in the coming years. Besides offering relevant training courses and seminars for our staff, we continue to facilitate knowledge exchange in recent years by enhancing digitisation and smart sharing platform. We also attach great importance to the value of a healthy work-life balance for our staff members and continue to look for opportunities to organise family-friendly events for staff and their families to enjoy.
The pursuit of work-life balance and a strong foundation of mutual understanding among employees are instrumental in achieving high level of performance at ArchSD. As such, we are dedicated to creating a harmonious working culture that is conducive to team building. During the reporting year, we continued to organise a range of sports and recreational activities through our ArchSD Site Supervisory Staff's Recreation, Sports and Welfare Group to help support the holistic wellbeing and foster stronger team spirit among our staff.
A total of 20 sports and recreational activities such as hiking, sports competition and hobby classes were organised in the reporting year.
As committed civil servants, we dedicated to leveraging our resources to connect, support and thrive together with the community. We actively encourage our colleagues to make positive impact on society by taking part in community services. To foster a volunteering culture within the organisation, we organise voluntary services through Volunteer Service Team on a regular basis.
In the reporting year, we participated in 21 community activities, contributing a total of 1,044 hours of service to the society.
| 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Total Number of Hours of Staff Volunteer Service |
1,185 |
1,248 |
1,044 |
|
Number of Volunteers |
46 |
48 |
58 |
|
Number of Voluntary Projects Completed |
18 |
24 |
21 |
|
Number of Active Volunteer (delete extra space) Service Team Members[1] |
16 |
19 |
14 |
|
Number of Staff Received Commendation for Voluntary Service[2] |
11 |
14 |
11 |
