Meet STEPS, a life-changing organization helping RMA with digitalization

By Stuart Daniels, Group Vice President Human Resources

 

In 2019 I was fortunate to meet Max Simpson in Bangkok, through a mutual friend, to explore how we could develop a partnership between RMA Group and ˜Steps with Theera’ (STEPS). Max set up the business, with her partner, whose mission is to train and find employment for young people and adults with learning differences. Max and the STEPS team run vocational training centres and coffee shops in Bangkok and Phuket. Among their staff, they also employ people with learning differences to give them the skills they need to access a fulfilling career through training and work experience.

The STEPS website states: ˜There are more than 2 million people with disabilities registered in Thailand. Fewer than 25% of them are employed. We are a passionate team of trainers and therapists dedicated to changing this’. We wanted to help further this effort.

Working with Max appealed to me, as she was looking for a genuine partnership as opposed to a corporate donation ¦.however she did say that she would take that as well!  Following some initial discussions, we decided to develop a project to digitize and organize over 300 employee files and other records at the RMA headquarters in Bangkok.

The project involved RMA providing IT equipment (laptops and scanning equipment) and support to explain our processes to the Steps trainees. Thereafter, the Steps team worked in a disciplined and professional manner to take our employee records from manual/paper to digital in the space of a few months.

This project has made a huge improvement to RMA, by providing us with almost instant access to employee data at the touch of a keyboard, and it’s an activity that we weren’t resourced to complete internally. The team at STEPS have expanded their experience and skills base into a new area of business services and have proven their competence through this exercise. We’re now exploring how we can expand this activity into other RMA business processes in partnership with STEPS. Thanks to Max, the Team at STEPS and the RMA Group HR team, who supported this project.

Following the success of this project, Steps has created a business services centre where they are inviting other corporate clients to discuss data and admin work that they would like to outsource. Learn more about Steps with Theera:  https://stepswiththeera.com/our-partners/business-service-centre/

If that does not pique your interest, do drop into one of their café’s in Bangkok or Phuket. They make the best cake in Bangkok and perhaps the whole of Thailand.