ACER, COMPETENTLY BREAKING BARRIERS BETWEEN PEOPLE AND TECHNOLOGY

ACER, COMPETENTLY BREAKING BARRIERS BETWEEN PEOPLE AND TECHNOLOGY

The group started in the hegemony of Stan Shih Chen Jung and five others with a mere approximate capital of $25000 is at present a worldwide buzz.

Acer marked its debut in India in 1999 and never looked back since, their customer-oriented behavior, passion towards innovation and innumerable contributions made for the growth and development of the economy made them one of the most loved and sought after company in India.

Their entrepreneurial culture at the company demonstrates total mastery of every requisite competency within the organization. Acer India has built a highly credentialed and capable team that inspires the entrepreneurial mindset and 'people focused' culture. They are passionate about creating an extraordinary work culture. One that builds high performance, empowers, engages and nurtures an entrepreneurial mindset.

Believing that stable leadership is a testimony of trust & consistency in 'people management' practices, Acer has successfully been certified as "Great Place to Work" by "Great Place to Work® Institute", India in the year 2018 -19, their work culture inspires people to grow and build a long term association. The organization's strength lies in its core values. Every employee irrespective of their position believes in the values of the organization i.e. passion, innovation, user-centric, teamwork, the balance of interest and integrity.

Today Acer is one of the world's top ICT companies and has a presence in over 160 countries. From service-oriented technologies to the Internet of Things to gaming and virtual reality, Acer's 7,000+ employees are dedicated to the research, design, marketing, sale, and support of products and solutions that break barriers between people and technology.

The company's tagline, 'Explore beyond limits', embraces the spirit of offering solutions beyond the obvious.  Acer's portable, responsive and powerful devices are perfectly suited to help people navigate their world faster, better and more securely by making tools to meet the needs of the modern day explorer.

ETHOS FOR EMPLOYEES

Every year more than 10,000 organizations from over 58 countries partner with Great Place to Work® Institute for assessment, benchmarking and planning actions to strengthen their workplace culture. Great Place to Work Institute's methodology is recognized as rigorous and is considered as the gold standard for defining great workplaces across business, academia and government organizations.

They were assessed on two Prime factors – firstly, on Employee's Trust Index which is based on Employee Survey, and secondly on Culture Assessment.  Based on both these assessments, Acer India is "Great Place to Work-Certified"

EMPLOYEE RIGHTS AND RELATIONS

Reward and recognition program: Acer's reward and recognition program are branded as BRAVO. Their reward and recognition program revolves around the core values of the company. Reward and recognition program aims at building a strong performance culture across the organization. The reward mechanism is highly transparent and addresses the aspirations of every employee in the company. To address the functional requirements, they have customized R&R programs to better suit a particular function.

Annual Excellence award – This award was coined six years back to recognize the people who are on a target driven KPI. Hence their assessment will be based on pre-published award criteria on which they can compete. Award winner would enjoy the following perks:

• An award of excellence – A trophy with name and title of the award is presented by the MD
• Award winners' Business card carries the title of the year printed behind his/her Business card. Whenever he interfaces with external customers, he presents this card which helps them to present their image in a better way which builds the lasting trust between customers and sales personnel.
• A hall of fame in Acer Head office with winner's name encrypted is the symbol of celebration of excellence at the workplace. Hall of fame is refreshed every year.
• Tabletop calendar carries winner's photographs and it will be displayed at all workstations throughout the year which conveys the significance of winning an award in Acer.
• Group photographs of all winners are displayed in all the cabins of the senior leadership team and also displayed in all offices prominently. It will be available for one year

Half yearly Reward and recognition: It is organized once in six months.  It aims to bring transparency to the entire process of selection. Either an employee can nominate oneself – if an employee feels that he/she done something worth showcasing or an employee's colleagues/supervisors/ departmental head can also nominate deserving employees with justification.

All these nominations are scrutinized by an independent committee formed from cross functions and are awarded a trophy with name – Presented to them by the MD, an experience/adventure – such as hotel stay / SPA / Horse riding, etc. and a certificate of reward.

Everyday recognition – Spot people who add values and deliver: This is a type of Spot Reward program for employees. People managers are empowered to identify the deserving employees immediately on completion of the task. It's branded as – SHABASH program.  It is an impromptu appreciation for any task which was extremely well done or executed extraordinarily. This award is presented on the spot by a Manager / Senior / Functional Head. It is in the form of a small gift and BRAVO APPRECIATION CARD.

Career milestones celebrations: Acer India believes in employees' career longevity. A well-settled employee is an asset to the organization. An employee who knows the systems, Process, Products of the company can deliver quicker and better results. Hence, it's a competitive advantage for the company. It's with this intention; they celebrate every milestone of an employee with a lot of fun.

• 5 years completion – Employees are felicitated with silver salver which is presented by the MD. Employees receive a congratulatory email from HR on the day of completion.
• 10 years completion – Employees along with their family members (spouse and kids) are felicitated. The career anniversary award is presented on an annual family day, it is also called Acer incorporation day where all employees and their families are present. They are rewarded with a customized award with his /her photograph encrypted on it. Award is accompanied by a wristwatch presented by the MD.  The employee receives a congratulatory email/bouquet for completing such a milestone.
• 15 years completion – Employees are felicitated with a customized silver award. The same is presented in an annual family event where all employees and family are present. The citation carries a silver souvenir with a family holiday voucher.  The employee receives a congratulatory email/bouquet for completing such a milestone.

On the occasion of employees' birthday and wedding anniversary, they send a congratulatory email on the day of the event. In addition to this when a new family member is born to an employee they receive a congratulatory email. On the wedding day, the company presents a cheque on behalf of the entire Acer family.

Talent Development:

The organization has a well-structured talent development program which is well aligned with the business requirement of the company. The full-fledged department addresses the talent development needs of the company. The training and development program is to establish a consistent learning culture in the organization by a dedicated qualified training team to bridge the skill set gaps. There is regular classroom training for employees who are the customer touch point to provide a better experience to the customers. And just recently, there was a 3-weeks intensive course created to empower the new Acer retail sales force on critical skills required to excel in their career.

Employee Orientation program:  Any new employee who on boards requires a direction, guidance and complete overview of products and processes of the company. Its people and process assimilation program aim at the complete orientation of new employee in the company.

Performance management – A well-aligned performance management system brings synergy in terms of individual KPIs, goals of the company and frequent feedback and review mechanism within the organization. This system is designed to identify individual KPIs for the year; it is a result oriented system with an individual development plan, also skips level review helps in reducing gaps and improvises two-way communications.

Employee Coaching and mentoring:

Employee coaching is the backbone of Acer culture. People staying with the organization over the last 20 years and taking up various managerial and leadership roles in the company is a testimony for their culture.

• Catch them young and watch them growing: Acer hires fresh talents from various business schools as 'Management trainee' and grooms these young talents at the campus. They go through structured development and familiarization program for a period of one year and later absorbed in the organization.
• First 90 days: if an employee is taken care of during the first 90days, he/she will be an asset for the company. Most of the employee exit decisions would happen based on their first 90 days of experience. All Management trainees and managers and level employees necessarily to have to go through a review program with senior leaders. This helps the employee to settle down the job with an initial impact.
• Shadow the leaders: This program is initiated at the level of MD and another senior leadership team. Under this program, they identify High potential leaders and post them in the MDs office or any of the senior leadership team members. The duration of the program is for a period of 6 months to get all the business insight at the top.
• Summer Interns: they have internship programs at Acer which helps in shaping the future of bright students from business schools. They learn from the art of doing it themselves, which is 'on the job interns' concept of Acer. On completion of their MBA program, they could be probable candidates for the company's management program.

WORK-LIFE BALANCE AT ACER

Fun at work Place: Break the monotony at work is an important task for the leaders. Continuously rejuvenating employees at work and bring the best in them will remain always a big challenge for the company. To build a sustained team and individual spirit at the workplace, there are happy music hours to combat the morning rush and stress. There are teams bonding events like – Potluck, food fete, sports day, theme-based talent shows.

Monthly team bonding activities are arranged like Republic day celebration, International women's day, International World environment day, wellness month and Acer India anniversary and Christmas, etc. Then there is 'Leaders day out' where all the leaders would go for two days short outing with their spouses to any of the holiday destinations. MD and senior leadership team spends a lot of time with the family members and participate in many team bonding activities.

Corporate social responsibility: Acer India believes in contributing to society continuously. These initiatives would help the employees to inculcate a sense of social responsibility among its employees. Towards this, they continuously strive to organize different activities.

• International World Environment Day. On this day, they distribute 'Sapling to employees', so that every employee gets an opportunity to plant trees.
• Project humanity: It's another drive where Environment-friendly measures are adopted like a plastic-free workspace, keeping green plants at the workplace, stopping the usage of non-toxic and chemicals at, etc.
• Computer education: Recently the company has given a few computers for the Tribal computer literacy program. This has helped to educate a few tribal students on computer education
• Acer India is associated with an NGO called This NGO supports women empowerment, self-help groups, and computer literacy program in socially backward areas.
• Employees also participate and contribute to different NGOs continuously.

Employee Wellness: Healthy employee is always an asset to the company and to build a healthy employee base, Acer India provides Stationed gym to ensure fitness breaks, Physiotherapist at workplace, General physician at workplace, Regular health / dietician talk or sessions, Medical check-up for employees, Family insurance to take care any medical emergencies, Accident insurance to take care of financial security and in the event of death of an employee, they are insured against sum amount which will benefit the near and dear ones.

END-TO-END CUSTOMER SATISFACTION

Acer's success depends on the trust of its customers. Since the company's founding, they have demanded of themselves constant improvement in quality. From product design through production to after-sales service, they continually strive for innovation and improvement, all while also complying with domestic and foreign legal requirements for performance and customer safety.

Acer's vision is to become a leading brand that creates better lives through innovation and customer care. They firmly believe in the pursuit of quality in everything they do, and that this approach will ensure they remain competitive. To ensure that the customers are satisfied, they actively strive to understand their needs and to develop better, easier to use products and services that meet or even surpass expectations. In this way, they create greater value for the customers.

They also carry out 'Acer Customer Satisfaction Surveys' in each country individually. As such, methods can vary. However, the head office still regularly collects the results of the surveys and reviews them for trends and insights.

The four main methods by which these surveys are carried out are by telephone, online, face-to-face, and through telephone discussions with major corporate customers and in terms of customer type, they categorize them as either end users or retailers.

BOOMING ON THE WAY

Acer is completing 20 years of India's establishment in 2019 and 43 years of presence globally. Primarily a Taiwanese PC organization, Acer has come a long way from where it started.

Today the company stands at approximately a revenue worth of more than $350 million and over the last few years, Acer has successfully acquired major brands like Packerd Bell, Gateway, and eMachines. In the international playing field of the business, the diverse management system and the unusual global structure has played in the benefit for Acer. It is a successful combination of European sensibility and Taiwanese engineering which gives them the perk of adaptability.

Acer, from being a PC manufacturer for the big fishes of the market to competing with the same brands has chivalrously advanced powerfully towards its enormous expansion and growth.

Only a few could have envisioned the nature of growth Acer has achieved over the years and with not a hint of doubt, the future looks bright for this giant.