We want to keep our dynamics, says Hong-Wha Ling, Chief People Officer at VIG Re

Rapid growth and an international environment. These are the main aspects that contribute to the highly dynamic nature of the Prague office of the reinsurance company VIG Re. „Because we are efficiently organized, everyone can really have a huge impact on his work in every position,“ says Hong-Wha Ling, Chief People Officer at VIG Re in the Global Minds podcast, which features prominent foreign executives speaking about business in the Czech Republic.

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You can also listen to the full interview at THIS link.

A man at the head of HR? Why not? Hong-Wha Ling is ideally suited for the role, having become familiar with the field while still a student. At the time, he was earning extra money as a private driver, but he soon discovered his talent for human resources management. „I figured out that I can either do driving myself or I can ask other students to drive on behalf of me and expand the range. And that is what happened. But I also realized that I needed to pay taxes, social securities, hire people and do all this kind of arrangements. So that was the trigger for me to focus on HR during my studies of economics,“ he describes his beginnings in the Netherlands. 

He then furthered his career in HR and gained experience on international missions. He worked in Turkey, Romania, and Japan, and in January of this year, he moved to Prague. While his previous positions were in banking and insurance, the move to Prague also meant a transition to reinsurance. „I started my career in banking in Netherlands. The interesting part of reinsurance for me is, that it combines banking and insurance. I love this combination from the start. And when an opportunity came to move to the beautiful city of Prague, I said yes,“ he says. 

From his perspective, working at VIG Re is very dynamic, which is partly due to the multinational nature of the company and its staff. „If I look at our company with 37 nationalities, I can hear so many languages across the corridor and you need all the different cultures come together, which also translates in the dynamic of the company. It is extremely interesting environment,“ he depicts and adds that in such an environment, he finally does not have to explain the non-European origin of his name. 

How to shape culture

Due to the nature of his position, Hong-Wha Ling is jointly responsible for corporate culture. According to him, the current culture is largely determined by the fact that VIG Re has experienced very rapid growth in a short period of time. „With this fast growing came also a fast-paced environment, everything is very fast. And because we are efficiently organized, you can really have a huge impact on your work in every position, which is specific within the reinsurance sector. I have worked at big corporate environments where you sometimes are slowed down by all the procedures and amount of people you need to involve in the matrix organizations,“ he reveals. 

However, according to him, the multinational staff also contributes to the current form of VIG Re's corporate culture. „People are very helpful. I think that again comes back from the fact that we have so many nationalities that for everybody it is somehow a new environment,“ he adds. 

Hong-Wha Ling would like to maintain and further develop this concept of corporate culture. At the same time, however, it is necessary to monitor developments in the labour market and respond to the demands of new generations of workers. „We continue to grow in all the different areas we are already present. That means also that we are looking at what kind of people are we hiring, what kind of capabilities we are getting into the company and how do we help people work across different borders. We are already very diverse, and it is also part of our culture not to ask people 'where are you today?' We want to keep these dynamics as a part of the culture and to focus more on this in relation to innovation and performance. Taking responsibility for what you do,“ he says. 

Not to micromanage

Every manager must find their own leadership style. At the same time, everyone should build up immunity against the urge to micromanage. At VIG Re, this is a top-down directive, and Hong-Wha Ling is also struggling with it. „I try to micromanage myself and it sometimes is very difficult. It is in a human nature that when you are in stressful moments, you want to know everything from A to Z. What I always try to do at least is to take a bit step back. At the end, everything which can happen is always relative. There are much bigger things on the world sometimes happening than just the things which are happening in the office. If you take that into account and you also learn from the things which happened, it is the best way to manage it. But it is not easy,“ Hong-Wha Ling believes.

The Dutch manager's observation regarding feedback on management in an international work team is interesting. „I think giving and receiving feedback is more difficult in international environments. We all speak English, but we might mean it or understand it in a different way. To be aware of that I think is the most important starting point to have actually any discussion, not just feedback. The second important thing is to develop a climate giving the opportunity to teams to give feedback,“ concludes Hong-Wha Ling.

Can anyone adapt to the specific working environment at VIG Re? What does VIG Re expect from its unified global strategy characterized by the slogans Passion, Performance, Partnership? And what does management style have in common with oil tankers sailing through the Bosporus Strait? These topics were discussed in the Global Minds podcast.

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Hong-Wha Ling

An experienced international HR professional, Ling specialises in aligning people strategies with business objectives to drive growth and innovation. Ling joins VIG Re from NN, where he spent the past 16 years in various senior roles, most recently as Head of Human Resources. Former he worked for ING Bank and Jacobs Douwe Egberts, also in HR positions. Ling will work across the company’s offices in Prague, Munich, and Paris, focusing on fostering inclusivity, empowering diverse teams, and aligning people strategies with business goals to support sustainable growth and innovation in the reinsurance sector.

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