Avery Dennison claims two awards at the Hong Kong Business Management Excellence Awards 2019

The firm was recognised for its scoring 82% in employee engagement of the North Asia team.

Rishi Pardal, Avery Dennison’s Vice President and General Manager for Apparel Solutions, Retail Branding and Information Solutions (RBIS), has been named Executive of the Year - Manufacturing at this year’s Hong Kong Business Management Excellence Awards. Pardal was recognised for an innovative business strategy that enhanced RBIS’ business focus and inspired its 20,000 employees worldwide.

Pardal’s leadership is characterised by a focus on people, innovation, sustainability and execution, maintaining the competitiveness of the global materials science and manufacturing company. Through his work, Avery Dennison’s apparel business has made continuous progress over the past few years to become an economic value-added division.

The key points of his strategy include relocating the apparel headquarters (along with several leadership roles) to Hong Kong to benefit from the city’s strategic location; encouraging the management team to take risks and pursue innovative opportunities; combining ambitious leadership with personal engagement, which has raised employee engagement ratings to top quartile levels; and fostering diversity and inclusion among teams to enrich the business and strengthen employees’ sense of belonging.

Furthermore, as a Trustee of the Avery Dennison Foundation, Pardal helps lead by demonstrating a commitment to philanthropy and empowering his teams to be involved in the global communities where they live and work.

His strategy has led to positive business results, including double-digit revenue growth in high-value segments, over 40% of revenue achieved from sustainable solutions, significant revenue from sustainable solutions, two consecutive years of >5% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, and world-class customer service flexibility levels.

Avery Dennison also earned the Employee Engagement of the Year - Manufacturing award for its project “Designing an Engaging Workplace.” The 82% employee engagement score of the North Asia team, which includes Hong Kong, reflects employees’ connection to one another and their communities. Thus, regional employee engagement scores show that 83% of employees consider the company a great place to work and 83% are motivated to perform beyond their formal duties. These strong outcomes are due, in part, to the efforts of One AD Plus, the employee engagement team in Hong Kong that organises activities focused on wellness, festivities, and charity.

Designing an Engaging Workplace involved enhancing the Hong Kong office layout by creating new co-working and leisure spaces. This change enabled employees to interact in a more relaxed but productive manner, further motivating them to share and develop creative ideas in a welcoming and inclusive environment.

The upgraded facilities include a nursing room for new mothers, vision-friendly LED lighting, and an updated air-conditioning system for a healthier environment. Employees have lauded the resulting enhancements in teamwork and overall culture, making this project worth the financial investment and leadership support. For Avery Dennison, the main reward is employee engagement itself, which keeps employees inspired to contribute their best to the organisation each day.

“Whilst engagement scores and anecdotal feedback support the work done by One AD Plus, we recognise that continuous engagement activities make a true impact over time,” she says. “We are delighted by the steadily increasing rates of engagement and reports from employees that their experience at work continues to improve. This tells us that we are successfully supporting our company values among employees.”

Watch the interview below with Rishi Pardal to know more about their success:

The Hong Kong Business Management Excellence Awards was held on 21 November at Island Shangri-La, Hong Kong.

The 2019 nominees were judged by a panel consisting of Charbon Lo, Director at Crowe (HK) CPA Limited; Roy Lo Managing Partner at SHINEWING (HK) CPA Limited; Anthony Tam, Executive Director of Tax Advisory Services, Mazars Hong Kong; Andrew Ross, Managing Director at Baker Tilly Hong Kong; and Eugene Liu, Managing Partner at RSM Hong Kong.

If you would like to join the 2020 awards and be lauded as one of the most outstanding management executives of Hong Kong, please email [email protected].