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Al Campbell

Sa Sa Cosmetics is recruiting 150 beautician trainees, three training officers and about 10 management trainees.

   The recruitment drive is in line with the beauty product distributor's expansion plans in the region.

  The company, which has been operating for 18 years, has 10 stores locally and is planning to open another five to six next year. It also has plans for Macau, Taiwan, Singapore and Malaysia.

  During the last fiscal year, Sa Sa recorded a sales turnover of $740 million, which the company said represented a 23 per cent share of Hong Kong's $2.6 billion annual cosmetic industry. In the first six months of this year, sales were up 35 per cent.

  Simon Kwok, chairman of Sa Sa Cosmetics, said the company was one of the largest cosmetic distributors in the region and he wanted to make it the biggest within five years. Sa Sa distributes more than 15,000 products and about 500 brands.

  'On average, Hong Kong women spend about $500 to $600 a month on beauty products and they are very knowledgeable about what they buy. What we offer our customers is the best selection of beauty products from around the world and a professionally trained staff. We see a need for that throughout the region,' Mr Kwok said.

  He said new recruits would be trained as beauty consultants.

   In a four-month training period, staff undergo an orientation involving product knowledge and application, customer service and company philosophy and history.

  Wisteria Cheung, Sa Sa's vice-president of human resources, said staff were assessed on their performance in customer service, product knowledge and their co-operation with other staff and team leaders.

  Ms Cheung said the company was looking for people with two years of industry experience and a minimum Form Four education.

   Applicants should speak Cantonese and English, with Japanese, Korean and Mandarin language skills preferred.

  'Personal qualities are the most important criteria. A person must be service-oriented, have a pleasant personality and a very ambitious mind. Because we are providing a career for her, if she is not ambitious enough she will underperform,' Ms Cheung said.

  'We will take people with no experience who have outstanding personalities and show a willingness to learn. As our company grows, we want our staff to grow with us.'   The company employs about 360 staff, of which beauty consultants account for 90 per cent.

   It folows an internal promotion strategy where employees can be promoted to senior beauty consultant after 18 months and eventually work their way up to shop supervisor.

  Ms Cheung said beauty consultants worked a six-day week and received a salary based on sales and service performance.

  'We have a strong concept of performance management. If a person performs well they will get more pay. On average, we pay our staff a monthly income of more than $20,000,' Ms Cheung said.

  Sa Sa employees receive a 13-month salary, seven days annual vacation, 80 per cent medical coverage, access to a social club and discounts on products. There is also a voluntary provident fund where the company matches the employee's four per cent contribution.

  Employees who have been with the company for two years are also eligible to be selected for overseas training arranged by the company and cosmetics suppliers.

  Sa Sa also requires a training manager and two training officers. The main duties of the manager are to strengthen the service culture through identifying training needs, develop internal programmes, overseeing a team of training officers and conduct assessments.

  The candidate should be a degree holder in a business or human resources discipline with four years of experience in the service industry preferred. Training officers should be college graduates or degree holders with two years of work experience.

  In the one-year management trainee programme, recruits will rotate among the various departments within the company, learning about human resources, staff training, distribution, computers and operation procedures. After a year, the company places the employee into a suitable department. Within two years, the employee is eligible for promotion to junior manager.

  The position requires a university degree, one year of work experience, market knowledge and the ability to speak Cantonese and English, with Japanese preferred.

  'The degree can be in any discipline because we believe it is the person and the qualities they have that will make for the best management,' Ms Cheung said.

  'If they have too much experience I don't think we need them. We want them to be shaped by our culture and share our values and not other values first.

  'We are a young and innovative company that is growing. We want the best of the new university graduates as they will grow with us.' 



Recruitment drive primes expansion