MTR — Connect communities with global network and talent

“As a railway operator, we carry passengers with us. As an employer, we progress together with our staff.”

MTR Corporation (“MTR”), one of the well-established railway operators in the world, is also a local employer appealing to substantial job applicants every year. Attaining the second place in the JobsDB’s 2017 Top 10 Companies Survey, MTR impresses the respondents with four core elements—generous benefits, job security, positioning as international company and the culture of work-life balance. Stella Yu, Human Resources Manager – Property & Support, elaborated the core competencies of the company.

“We provide market competitive pay and benefits for employees. Our pay review mechanism has been in place for many years, consulted thoroughly with staff representatives and proven to be effective. MTR has adopted ‘pay for performance’, which associates pay review with individual performance to encourage and recognize good performance. We also conduct pay level study to monitor market pay movements,” said Stella. “An example of staff benefits is that our colleagues and their family are entitled to free travel on the whole MTR network. As part of the MTR family, our eligible retirees and their spouses can continue to enjoy this benefit.”

On top of it, MTR provides promising career prospects for employees in terms of a stable work environment and all-round support for career growth. “We provide significant resources in training and development to nurture our talent. Outstanding employees are recognised for their excellent performance. We also foster staff communication and initiate measures to enhance their well-being. All these initiatives contribute to a long tenure, a low turnover and a strong sense of belonging of our colleagues. According to the Staff Engagement Survey conducted at the end of 2016 with 95% response rate in Hong Kong, 85% of our respondents said they are proud to be the staff of MTR.”

The global network of MTR keeps expanding. MTR has taken on a range of railway-related projects and operations outside Hong Kong, in conjunction with the property development, reaching mainland China, Australia, Nordic and the United Kingdom. “With more upcoming projects in Hangzhou, Macau and Sydney, the global network will be extended further. The Corporation also sends young talents to carry out overseas assignments for staff development and for transplanting the MTR DNA and best practices worldwide,” said Stella.

To promote work-life balance in the workplace, MTR has set up “Metro Recreation Club”. The clubhouses offer a rich array of leisure facilities for the MTR staff and their family and friends. Furthermore, employees are encouraged to initiate, organise and participate in volunteering services via the company’s “More Time Reaching Community” volunteering scheme, to reinforce the staff engagement with the community.

Metro Recreation Club’s leisure facilities and activities

As a transportation company, MTR offers some unique job opportunities for people interested in railway operations to unleash their potential and pursue career goals. “Among them are station officers, maintenance professionals and traffic controllers, which are highly demanding yet utterly fulfilling roles. In case of emergencies, operating staff such as station officers are responsible for addressing passenger needs and coordinating with various internal and external parties to handle incidents smoothly."

"Working overnight, the maintenance teams make tremendous efforts to ensure smooth and reliable train services, as well as implementing a number of Rail Gen 2.0 enhancement projects within only two golden working hours at midnight. On the other hand, traffic controllers play a crucial role as back-end support – they work at the Operating Control Centre and monitor the entire rail network 24/7 to ensure efficient train services. They also manage projects and maintenance work progress during non-traffic hours,” said Stella.

Station Officer addresses passenger needs

With an aim to strengthen the culture of innovation and effectiveness, MTR encourages its staff to challenge the status quo and suggest improvement of work processes. “With an aim of modernising our railway, our colleagues have made relentless efforts to enhance customer experience through technology applications, such as the MTR mobile app.

MTR also invests and deploys new technology for operations and maintenance, like adopting Fully Automated Operation at South Island Line and purchasing new track maintenance vehicles worth million dollars.

“As a growing international company, MTR strives to connect communities through our railway networks, property projects, various commercial activities and investment projects. We take pride in our contributions to make Hong Kong a better place and continue to export our expertise and experience to cities outside Hong Kong. Our staff are the most valuable asset and we offer them multiple tracks to build his/her career and connect with communities,” concluded Stella.

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