Closing the year with goodies .....

Howdy peeps!

In the midst of drawing the curtain of 2015, we have had some activities. Just two week ago, we had our top management meeting facilitated by our Group MD, Mr Mikel Yaw, and on the same week itself, we also had our year end staff gathering. This time around, the HR Dept organized two activities in parallel; a story-telling contest and the ever-famous gift exchange to usher the yuletide and also to refresh our camaraderie amongst the staff members.

Let's start with the contest - creation of an object based on our core values 'ISTARS" and telling the story of the object created by the respective team. This is a departmental effort, where they were given about a month to plan the creation and then prepare the script of the story. ISTARS stands for Innovative, Sincerity, Teamwork, Adaptable, Respect and Simplicity. It is our belief system, and our Group MD has always reminded all of us on this abbreviation.

The teams squeezed their creative juices, and each team came out with their masterpieces. From something simple, to something extensive - we just let it flow. After the Monday's top management meeting, the Group MD was having a week of hectic schedule where in his planner, he is also required to judge the creations from the teams on Wednesday afternoon. It was held 'over two days' due to time constraint. First, he judged the object creation itself. He was looking for a representation of the core values. He gave his scoring and excused himself for the second day. On Thursday morning, we had the story-telling contest. The teams were called one at a time, for them to tell us the story behind the object which is supposedly to represent the core values.

Mikel was overwhelmed with the creativity, and the talent of our staff members, especially the junior or new staff members who stood and vowed him with their rendition of the ISTARS stories. Each teams were trying to outdo each other, to win the heart of the judge. The Group MD was very pleased with the outcome of this activity, and when the last team finished their story, he invited all of us for lunch at a restaurant in town. Yeah, it has been a stressful day for the teams and, yes, the 'makan' at the restaurant was a de-stressor, and everyone had a good time rejoicing.

So, do you want to know the winners?

It was a tough fight - the scores were very close to each other especially for the top three placing. But let's put it on hold as we have other goodies to reveal too. On the next day, Friday 18th Dec, we had our year end staff gathering which we aptly called Year End Suka-suka (YESS) at 4pm. The theme was of course, 'world peace'. So we have some food and dessert, and the birthday cake for babies in August, September, October, November and December. Yes, HR bad, we have skipped the 3rd Q gathering and combined it with this event. We also gave out presents to the birthdays' babies. So some of us practically received 3 gift items on the same afternoon - the birthday gift, the Christmas gift and the contest prize! And that's not all - we even announced that the Company will be off on 31 Dec as the replacement of the state public holiday which was on 14 Dec for winning the Malaysia football cup. Happy faces aplenty with food, gifts and one extra off day on a long weekend over the new year. Imagine, for just two week, we only work for 6 days, but off for 8 days! Now as a HR, I have to vouch, such privilege doesn't happen everywhere but it happens in Elabram - well it doesn't happen often, but it sure did this time.

Ahhh .... it has been a long write this time - good things are meant to be shared. Let's join us in this journey of closing 2015 with positive mind and work towards a better tomorrow.

Creations dressed the glass walls of the Office

Artistic creation from International Business team - 'seasons of change'

Simplicity rules - object from Finance team

HR / Deployment / IT came up with a 'starry tree' 

Talent Acquisition with Christmas landscape 

NPO on 'battlefields'

Regine Lee represented NPO telling the story about battlefield

Stella Tan of IB telling the story of seasonal change 

Muhd Iqbal of TAD talked about not conforming to the norm 

Tharshaan representing Finance with star bright starlight  

Jaslyn Loo of HR/Deply/IT begins with 'Once upon a time ..... '
 



Birthday Babies 

Gifts came in a sleigh by Secret Santas

Crowd anticipating the goodies 

And the winners are:

3rd Placing - IB Dept represented by Regine
 

2nd Place - Finance

Yes, the 1st Prize - HR, Deployment  & IT team
 

Winners received Ringgit 100 for 3rd prize, Ringgit 200 for 2nd prize and Ringgit 350 for 1st prize. TAD Senior Manager, Shirley Kok gave out the cash prizes just before the end of the event. Even the 4th and 5th placing received a token each. The HR team didn't expect to win as the contest is quite competitive. The  creation in a form of a tree with solid trunk representing the company, surrounded by leafs of staff names in between the stars with two birds nestling for the future captured the MD's heart and represented the overall ISTARS spirit.

The contest received favorable vibes as besides fostering goodwill, it also elevates team bonding, communication, innovation and 'esprit de corps'. The event ended with the gift exchange program, and International Business team even came out with a year end gift of a self-made bookmark. Now that's four gifts in the afternoon.

That's how Elabram Systems draw the curtain of 2015. Here humbly wishing all readers a peaceful and fantastic 2016!

Till we meet again in a brand new year, stay peace.

XOXO

 

Breakthrough to Excellence 2016 Workshop

Dear readers,

The Group MD gathered some managers and senior management team for a workshop facilitated by himself on 15th Dec 2015. It was held at the Palm Garden Hotel, Putrajaya. A total of 10 of us attended this workshop with the aim of preparing us for 2016.

The workshop comprises of knowledge sharing, discussion, activities and also some brain-storming session of what we want to achieve next year. Mr Mikel Yaw shared with us on the topics of leadership, communication, EQ, E-colors (Personality Diversity Indicator), team alignment, SWOT analysis and goal setting.

At the end of the workshop, the team came out with some critical issues to be addressed in 2016, and it also includes L&D initiatives for the employees. Both the Group and Deputy MD hoped to iron-out some of the challenges we faced, be it at the HQ or the branches, and hope to sustain the Company growth amidst the turmoil surrounding the world economy and Asean countries.

Overall the workshop went very well and we all had a great time opening up our mind and gaining some insights from the Group MD and learning from everyone. The Group MD reminded everyone about the core values of the Company which is ISTARS, and emphasize on the importance of teamwork, respect for each other and also keeping things simple. All of us in the Company must be innovative and adaptable to changes, and must be sincere in our work.

The Group MD wants such workshop to take place at least half yearly so that all of us can discuss and resolve some issues together as a team.

Here are some takes from the workshop.

Team Presentation

The Deputy Group MD, Mr Sunny Yaw sharing his points



 

Team having a light moment

 

The Group MD in focus of what is being presented

 

Mikel clarifying some points

 

Wish list

Work in progress



Let's achieve this

Group MD wants us to be the best

ESSB Half Year Staff Gathering

Hi Peeps!

We celebrate a belated 2nd Q staff gathering on 31 July - woww, half of 2015 gone! With Eid still in the air, this time we cater food for the occasion. 

We also took the opportunity to update the staff with some info such as staff movement and promotion, and re-intro those new joiners to the family again. We also celebrated the birthdays for Apr, May, June and July. We had a lil' activities with these babies for laughter with the games of 'superheroes'. After the game, the birthday anthem was sang, candles blown and presents given. By then, it's time for our snack. Staff were also given with a token of the company's mug as part of the appreciation.

Here's some snap-shots of happenings on the staff gathering. Until next time, stay peace. 

 

 

Prevention is always better than cure

Howdy folks!

When there is smoke, there is fire. Last week we have invited a non-governmental organization (NGO) to give us an awareness campaign to our staff members on fire prevention, fire safety measure and a matter of life and death. Fire Protectors' Society presented a two sessions of knowledge sharing with us. We were revealed how easily a fire can happen, what should we prepare to safeguard ourself and our loved ones, and what can we do during fire emergency situations. Ms Eva Chong from the NGO shared with us some very graphic details and episodes of victims involved in fire. At the end of the session, the NGO also encouraged us to prepare some items to protect our life such as smoke detector device and fire extinguisher for the safety of our home. Overall the team found the slightly more than one hour session beneficial. Hope such campaign can be spread further to save more lives. 

Until next time, safety first - always.






 

Lights for Nepal

Howdy folks !

It's already in June of 2015! How time flies. Hope all of you are doing great and coping well with the wits and fancies which may surround all of us. The saying goes, keep being positive anyway, and choose happiness over all things else.

Just recently, the earth witness another devastating episode of 'earth-wrecking' which occurred in the country of Nepal. A strong earthquake jotted the small country which can even be felt in the Everest. It has caused major destruction in some part of the country and affected many lives.

Elabram Systems Malaysia team felt sorrow over this incident as we have many Nepalese workers in the country. They have come to work here so that they can send money home to give their families a better life. During the incident, we saw many sad looking Nepalese on their way to work, and they must have been worried and wonder the fate of their loved ones - if they were affected by the act of God. In the midst, many Government and non-government organizations (NGOs) across the globe have offered their assistance to the country. ESSB also felt that we can do our part, by contributing some donations to meet their plights and make the lives of the victims a little easier. Hence, we have came up with an idea for this charity drive. HR decided to 'light' up the lives of the Nepalese, and we mooted the idea of candles.

We picked scented candle bars for the charity drive. The candles come in the 'flavor' of lavender, red berries, lemongrass, ocean breeze and white gardenia aroma, sold over 80 bars and collected RM1,200/ during the three days sale. The sales were considered good as we only have less than 30 staff members in the Headquarters.



The money was then handover to UNICEF Malaysia Office at the United Nations Building in Kuala Lumpur as they have started a charity for this cause to help particularly the children in Nepal affected by the quake. The organizer, on behalf of UNICEF Malaysia, thanked us for the kind deeds and the collection of money to help the needy in this fundraising.

 

 

 

The saying then continues that, giving is always better than receiving. Kudos to ESSB team !

Elabram Systems Group at LTE MENA, Dubai

Just recently, Elabram Systems Group Managing Director Mikel Yaw participated as one of the distinguished speakers at LTE World Summit- Middle East and North America (LTE MENA) and 

happened at Conrad, Dubai. The event main objective is to position the Middle East and North America at the forefront of the connected world. Directors like John Tey, Tommy Ng and Muhammad Fathi Ali from Malaysia joined Mikel in Dubai and shared the Elabram Systems Group (ESG) solutions to the attendees such as Network Planning & Optimization (NPO), Talent Acquisition & Deployment (TAD), Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) and Knowledge Process Outsourcing (KPO).

According to its official website, LTE MENA 2015 returned to Dubai this May 2015 for the 5^th year and fulfilled the promises to be the most exciting event,  reflected the  impressive progression of the region over the last 12 months. More than 800+ attendees participated, more than 50+ Operators came and more than 50+ exhibitors shared their products and services. Middle East Operators such as Etisalat and Du are working towards increased network capacity, improved QoS for consumers and better monetization of new and current services. Challenging the leading innovators in the mobile broadband market, they are beginning to drive the connected revolution towards LTE-A, IOT, Smart Cities and 5G.

The emerging markets of the region continue to rollout LTE and expand their networks. Encountering different challenges and following different business models to their more established neighbours, they are beginning to harness the potential of LTE and drive revenues from new services.

LTE MENA 2015 took a balanced look at both markets. Examining real case studies, the event incorporated advanced issues such as LTE-A, VoLTE, Video, Carrier-aggregation and 5G with LTE rollout success stories from emerging markets.

In addition the most senior speaker line-up seen to date, the event  offered unparalleled networking opportunities, through round table sessions, panel discussions, speed networking, in-depth focus sessions and a considerable exhibition floor bringing together MENA's leading solution providers. The Elabram Systems  Group (ESG) Directors participated in the Speed Networking, Signalling and Focus sessions.  Also, ESG took advantage the booth space to share to the attendees a more detailed explanations of the solutions. 

Elabram Systems Group is already 16 years in delivering quality solutions to different multinational and global companies worldwide and expanding to different industries such as Telecommunications, Mining, Information Technology and FMCG with headquarter in Malaysia and offices at Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines and Singapore and with more than 6000 manpower around the globe delivering quality solutions to different global companies.

For more information, please send emai to mariagracia.n@elabram.com or visit our website, http://www.elabram.com

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