Here at Pacific Logistics Group, we strengthen our Singapore business footprint and expand into international markets through strategic hiring of individuals across various business units and skillsets. As Prime Minister Lee aptly noted earlier in February 2021 ahead of Singapore's Budget 2021, "when the sun shines, we must be ready to seize new opportunities."
In our latest media outreach, Pacific Logistics Group was featured across various media publications. Doubling down on our recruitment and management of new talents is the first proactive step to ready ourselves and take advantage of new opportunities when it arises.
Building Business Capabilities with Diversified Strengths
Strengthening our foothold in markets begins with more strategic hires in our teams. By hiring new individuals outside the supply-chain and logistics industry, this will give us new competitive advantages through expanded perspectives and diversified strengths in our teams. This is especially true in sharpening our key account management and customer service touchpoints.
Just last week, in a feature on The Straits Times, our founder and Group Managing Director, Kelvin Lim noted that Pacific Logistics Group is looking to build its human resource capital through hires in different backgrounds. He astutely noted, "We will not stop looking for people who can bring value and guide our company to be even better."
Pacific Logistics Group continues to grow, and our organisation has expanded by 20 percent accommodating these new hires with diversified strengths. It is part of the process in building business capabilities for the future.
Great Customer Service, Great Effectiveness
Building upon the theme of diversified hires, our Commercial Director, Edwin Lim recently shared with People Matters insights into strategic hiring of former aviation professionals. He noted that "These former aviation professionals had prior experiences and the contextual background knowledge of freight. This effectively reduces our training duration and accelerates their on-the-job learning experiences."
Likewise, "the rich cultural experiences gained through daily interactions with international audiences, colleagues, and staff will enable them to engage customer needs with greater empathy and understanding," he added.
Our former aviation hires too shared similar thoughts aligning with Pacific Logistics Group's direction in interviews with Lianhe Zaobao and Singapore Business Review.
Suzanne Chia shared in an interview with Lianhe Zaobao that skills acquired including, customer services, communications, and emotional resilience, are transferrable for the logistics industry.
In an interview with Singapore Business Review, Kevin Chin noted, "Skills in problem-solving, communications, customer service, people management as well as technical and operational know-how had come handy in dealing with project engagements."
Alvin Aung added on, "Customer service skills can be translated into key account management. The difference lies in the continuity of the professional relationship; in logistics, we have our key accounts that we build rapport and renew long-term relationships".
Yenny Juwita ended with, "The difference lies in work focus' previously, it was about passenger needs and safety; now, it is providing the right solutions for clients, with larger working groups and stakeholders involving freight."
Multilingualism is essential in today's international and interconnected logistics networks. With the strategic hiring of such professionals who are well-versed in languages including Japanese, Malay, Thai, and Bahasa Indonesia amongst others, Pacific Logistics Group's expansion plans across the region will be stemmed further with greater understanding and empathy for the in-markets.
Venturing into Business Development & Supply Chain Compliance
Pacific Logistics Group too tapped into Singapore's Jobs Growth Incentive (JGI) Scheme to complement our strategic hires. On the Singapore front, Pacific Logistics Group utilised the Professional Conversion Programme (PCP) for logistics professionals.
Aretha Chen is taking part in the PCP for logistics professionals under the supervision of Raymond Tan, General Manager, Regional Rail Freight Development, YPL. In an interview with TODAY Online, she shared how her skillsets in transportation, handling of good are transferrable and applied now on a larger scale. Aretha's present position as an assistant business development manager also taps into her customer engagement skills by now liaising across different international stakeholders.
In 2020, Pacific Logistics Group's business footprint expanded to Dangerous Goods (DG) handling and storage. As part of ensuring strict and high levels of safety and compliance, this involves individuals with the right discipline and understanding of the nature of work.
This was exemplified in the profiling of Sia Hock Tee in our recent Straits Times feature. He now serves as one of Pacific Logistics Group's supply chain compliance executives. With 8 years of experience in transporting DG manifest, and with the attitude of lifelong learning, he is presently undergoing his 12-month PCP to augment his work experiences. This will strengthen and reinforce our standard operating procedures and compliance standards.
Moving Forward for Pacific Logistics Group
Cross-industry and cross-functional capabilities are key levers in moving the organisation forward to meet the changing demands of the logistics industry. The digitalisation of technology into logistics lends to more diversified needs and requests from our clients.
This means building an organisation with a myriad of experiences and skillsets to work together to create new, competitively advantageous solutions. With our expanded team of diversified and cross-functional professionals, we are confident in unlocking new value to customers, and building the economies of the future.