The speakers might have come from companies as varied as their products and services - Viagra and insurance, hotel rooms and broadband services - but amid the innovative ideas and techniques discussed, some common themes emerged from last week's HR Magazine staff training and development conference.
As explained by Eddie Wong, human resources director at Royal & Sun Alliance Insurance in Hong Kong, the message to employees was: 'You drive your car, we provide you with energy.' This idea of staff driving their own development was also highlighted by Rita Wong, operational effectiveness director at Pfizer Hong Kong.
'Colleagues can discuss their strengths and weaknesses with their managers and work out the skills they would like to enhance,' she told some 200 people at the conference, for which Classified Post was the media sponsor.
They could then put this plan into action through one of the company's e-learning programmes, at self-organised workshops and through training from 'subject-matter experts' or colleagues with the skills.
Wong said Pfizer's middle managers could also learn from cross-industry sharing sessions, with input from senior executives from Sony, Audi, Yahoo and Pfizer.
Christy Wang, assistant learning and development manager at City Telecom, said those taking part in her company's 'management reading days' were constantly reminded of one thing: 'Do not expect to learn a lot in two hours. It is what you do before and after that counts, as learning from each other is not something you can do on your own.'