Employees at beauty service group Neo Derm (HK) are obsessed with two colours - red and green. These are the colours that tell the company how its staff are doing.
Neo Derm's strategy is derived from Six Sigma, a management tool which removes 'defects' from business processes. A defect is anything that may lead to customer dissatisfaction.
As part of the group's customer quality management system, or customer intimacy programme, clients are called three days after treatment and asked 40 questions. Therapists who get four out of five or 80 per cent satisfaction are in the green. Those that do not reach 80 per cent are in the red.
The results appear each week on a television screen in each of the 15 treatment centres across the city for all employees to see. Those consistently in the green are recognised and rewarded. However, being in the red is not the end.
'We know people make mistakes once in a while but you have to make a commitment to change that,' said Neo Derm's founder and managing director Lim Meng-teng. It is all part of the company's mission to help employees unleash their untapped potential. 'We want them to be very good at what they do. That forms the whole direction.'
The company's core values are integrity, make a commitment and keep a commitment. So for those in the red, their commitment is to get into the green. They are re-coached to help them get there.