INTRODUCTION

Singapore Institute of Management (SIM) is the first privately owned tertiary education provider established in Singapore by Ronald Tan in 1964. Since the start operation, The SIM Group has now expanded into three segments which are the SIM University (UniSIM), SIM Global Education (SIM GE) and SIM Professional Development (SIM).
SIM University is the only private education provider that is recognised by Singapore’s Ministry of Education and they are a not-for-profit university. Hence, they have a dependency on their SIM University Education Fund which has also been recognised as a Singapore ‘Institution of a Public Character’ since 2005.

THE ORGANISATION’S CHALLENGES

SIM’s Finance department is an official arm of their Group Corporate Services and their focus is to bring revenue as well as handle payment, payroll and other regulatory services for all stakeholders of the SIM Groups. They have a department to serve each of SIM’s segments and also a separate division that handles the accounts receivable and cashiering function. Finance employees focus on a lot of structure in their daily task and while they are determined to present perfection, the meaning of customer service and positive mindsets are lost in therigid arrangements that they are accustomed to.

Upon realising this, SIM approached TinkTank to reinforce a training programme that can bring about a shift in the mindset of their finance staff. The goal is that employees are no longer in a ‘production’ state but rather taking on a ‘delivering world class corporate financial service to internal and external stakeholders’ approach.

THE TINKTANK SOLUTION

TinkTank identified that the training programme must be designed beyond techniques for a better outcome. It must also involve a building of motivation that comprises of tackling their head and their heart at the same time. TinkTank also identified that engaging participants to understand their customers’ expectations, needs and perception can give them a better foreground when coming up with solutions and action plans.

A full-day course was developed for a total of 40 participants which were divided into two sessions to deliver potent end results. In this programme, SIM’s Finance staff will be given a short lecture and most of their time will be spent on group discussion of cases and situations, hands-on practices, group work such as assignments, tutorials and presentation as well as role plays. They were also exposed to various successful models that pertain to their current service level. Participants were also granted with action plans and take-away tools to aid them in post-training motivation and success.

PROGRAMME OVERVIEW

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TinkTank identified that the training programme must be designed beyond techniques for a better outcome. It must also involve a building of motivation that comprises of tackling their head and their heart at the same time. TinkTank also identified that engaging participants to understand their customers’ expectations, needs and perception can give them a better foreground when coming up with solutions and action plans.

A full-day course was developed for a total of 40 participants which were divided into two sessions to deliver potent end results. In this programme, SIM’s Finance staff will be given a short lecture and most of their time will be spent on group discussion of cases and situations, hands-on practices, group work such as assignments, tutorials and presentation as well as role plays. They were also exposed to various successful models that pertain to their current service level. Participants were also granted with action plans and take-away tools to aid them in post-training motivation and success.

PROGRAMME OVERVIEW

THE OUTCOME

This highly motivating and captivating programme brought about positive results for SIM’s Finance department. The participants wereable to stay motivated to their commitment for change and shift their mindset to be a more service-oriented one. Instead of focusing only on delivering solid but rigid results, participants displayed higher ability of providing world class financial service even in backroom operations. These participants were also more inspired to work together as a team and achieve their goal of delivering service from their heart.

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