My father always tells me that:"When seeing a difficulty or challenge which comes from your friends or stranger, you should think how to cope or deal with it." Therefore, I develop analysis and judgement ability for any new thing and like to think differently from other people at the same thing. Until now, it still has much influence on my life.
After I graduated university I found a job as an investment operation specialist in Nan Shan Life Insurance Company. Despite the overtime work culture in my company, I was skeptical of the necessity of my colleague's additional work hours. However, as a result of a job rotation in my second year, I found myself working overtime every day as well. Investigation convinced me that the main cause of overtime was not the actual workload, but the burden of time consuming manual work.
Consequently, I decided to analyze my work processes in order to determine whether or not they could be simplified, and the manual workload reduced. I discovered that almost 80% of the workload did not require decision making or complex judgments, merely downloading reports, reformatting them, and submitting them to supervisors. However, the volume of this work was disproportionate to the number of staff available in our department, resulting in overtime.
I determined that semi-automation of this workload would reduce the required time by half, and improve significantly the accuracy with which the reports were being processed. I contacted the company's IT staff, and discussed possible solutions. At the same time, I also reached out to all other stakeholders, including my colleagues and supervisors, to make them aware of my plan and how it would affect their workflow, and persuade them of its advantages.
Innovation is not always received well in companies, especially where long established routines and procedures are affected. Initial responses were discouraging, and there was resistance to my proposal from both colleagues and management. For some, the work habits of the past were difficult to give up, while others had difficulty appreciating the benefits of my scheme.
There were many complaints, and decided it was necessary for me to visit and speak to people on an individual basis. I discovered that speaking to colleagues one on one helped them understand that this idea had originated with someone who was in the same position as themselves, someone who understood their boredom and frustration with the overtime resulting from an unnecessarily time consuming task. They felt better about it after hearing my explanation, and realizing this was not simply a schedule change made by management without reference to their personal feelings.
Approaching management, I stressed the importance of 'working smarter, not just longer'. Taiwan companies usually take overtime for granted, and management typically expects that longer work hours result in greater productivity. To address this issue, rather than simply objecting to the concept of overtime (which I knew would be bound to fail), I argued that overtime was currently being used unproductively. I demonstrated that the proposal I had in mind would stop overtime being wasted on mere reports, and argued that if overtime was going to be expected of staff on a regular basis, it should be spent on higher priority tasks and projects.
The experience taught me a lot about change management, and the importance of obtaining the support of everyone affected. In particular, I learned the value of a personal approach to stakeholder concerns.
AIG was the parent company of Nan Shan Life Insurance Company, where I have been working, and has been of great value to my career development so far. The AIG collapse had a direct impact on my working life, and a strong influence on my career decision to focus on risk management. The work experience confirms me what should be and it is the time to plan my future career moves.
After I graduated university I found a job as an investment operation specialist in Nan Shan Life Insurance Company. Despite the overtime work culture in my company, I was skeptical of the necessity of my colleague's additional work hours. However, as a result of a job rotation in my second year, I found myself working overtime every day as well. Investigation convinced me that the main cause of overtime was not the actual workload, but the burden of time consuming manual work.
Consequently, I decided to analyze my work processes in order to determine whether or not they could be simplified, and the manual workload reduced. I discovered that almost 80% of the workload did not require decision making or complex judgments, merely downloading reports, reformatting them, and submitting them to supervisors. However, the volume of this work was disproportionate to the number of staff available in our department, resulting in overtime.
I determined that semi-automation of this workload would reduce the required time by half, and improve significantly the accuracy with which the reports were being processed. I contacted the company's IT staff, and discussed possible solutions. At the same time, I also reached out to all other stakeholders, including my colleagues and supervisors, to make them aware of my plan and how it would affect their workflow, and persuade them of its advantages.
Innovation is not always received well in companies, especially where long established routines and procedures are affected. Initial responses were discouraging, and there was resistance to my proposal from both colleagues and management. For some, the work habits of the past were difficult to give up, while others had difficulty appreciating the benefits of my scheme.
There were many complaints, and decided it was necessary for me to visit and speak to people on an individual basis. I discovered that speaking to colleagues one on one helped them understand that this idea had originated with someone who was in the same position as themselves, someone who understood their boredom and frustration with the overtime resulting from an unnecessarily time consuming task. They felt better about it after hearing my explanation, and realizing this was not simply a schedule change made by management without reference to their personal feelings.
Approaching management, I stressed the importance of 'working smarter, not just longer'. Taiwan companies usually take overtime for granted, and management typically expects that longer work hours result in greater productivity. To address this issue, rather than simply objecting to the concept of overtime (which I knew would be bound to fail), I argued that overtime was currently being used unproductively. I demonstrated that the proposal I had in mind would stop overtime being wasted on mere reports, and argued that if overtime was going to be expected of staff on a regular basis, it should be spent on higher priority tasks and projects.
The experience taught me a lot about change management, and the importance of obtaining the support of everyone affected. In particular, I learned the value of a personal approach to stakeholder concerns.
AIG was the parent company of Nan Shan Life Insurance Company, where I have been working, and has been of great value to my career development so far. The AIG collapse had a direct impact on my working life, and a strong influence on my career decision to focus on risk management. The work experience confirms me what should be and it is the time to plan my future career moves.