Greenpac Singapore is a knowledge-based company that specialises in re-engineering, designing and distributing innovative, environmentally friendly packaging products and solutions which started in 2002.
The company was recently given a May Day Award under the Partner of Labour Movement category for its contributions to bettering the lives of workers, through its support for the Labour Movement and its initiatives.
Read Greenpac’s May Day Awards 2020 citation here.
We recently reached out to Greenpac CEO Susan Chong to ask about the company’s secret of having and sustaining a good employer-employee relationship with its 50-strong workforce.
Many companies have a corporate social responsibility (CSR) component in their business. Greenpac has however made it into its core business.
Susan Chong: Yes, since the founding of our company 18 years ago, we have built the business upon three key thrusts.
The first is environment stewardship – that is the core of our business. Second, is that the company believes in responsible entrepreneurship. That means we must be responsible and have business ethics. The third is community engagement. We do a lot of outreach programmes to give back to the community.
There have been a lot of questions asked, such as ‘How is community outreach good for the company?’ because many people see it more as a cost than a benefit to the company. We look at it holistically. Overall, We are looking at it from the perspective of a socially responsible company. Doing community engagements is really about bonding, getting staff to come together, and giving back to the community as a company.
It is not an immediate measure of dollar. But in the long run, it actually helps because people are coming together to do good. Especially for young people, they are looking at purpose driven jobs that give them a lot of fulfilment.
Greenpac has been around since 2002. Has the awareness of the need to be environmentally friendly among companies increased since Greenpac started?
Yes, especially in the last few years, there has been more awareness of the need to be environmentally friendly. There is mandatory sustainability reporting for all the listed companies, which I think motivates most to incorporate environmentally friendly practices in their business.
How is the company coping with the current COVID-19 situation?
I always believe that if you bless others, you will in turn be blessed as well albeit not always immediate.
During this critical pandemic, the company is doing alright. The staff have been very motivated. They come together, work together, there is a lot of love, giving and taking. I believe that we will be able to tide over this tough period together. In fact, we think that there is a huge opportunity for us even after this pandemic as there are a number of business pipelines that can help us grow.
What’s the company’s philosophy when it comes to taking care of workers’ welfare?
The companies' philosophy with regard to our staff is to always have mutual respect. If we treat our staff with respect, and they are happy, they will be motivated and productivity naturally goes up. We have a lot of employee benefits and we invest in our employees' training and upscaling. We celebrate all the festivities as a company, and have annual company trips. In short, taking care of our employees is our companies' philosophy.
