Growing Leaders: How VISTA Eye Specialists have gained from its Upskilling Program using Gamification.

PETALING JAYA,Malaysia,March 31,2022 --Started amidst the 1st year of COVD in Malaysia in 2020,VISTA Eye Specialists (VISTA),one of the leading Eye Specialists in Malaysia since 1999,implemented an Upskilling program to help the staff take the focus away from the COVID pandemic and focus on creating a positive workplace environment,where staff can experience 10x More Fun,10x More Learning and 10x More Staff Engagement. The program helped the staff to develop new ideas,learn new skills,unravel creativity and motivation,via experiential learning and employing gamification methodology,leading to a successful year for VISTA in 2020 despite the pandemic.

VISTA's Virtual Annual Awards Ceremony to acknowledge the staff who made the biggest impact in 2021.

Following its success in 2020,VISTA chose to extend the Upskilling program in 2021 and targeted to grow leaders through the program by introducing different new elements throughout the year. Themed "The Last Dance" year,the whole program was divided into 3 terms,with each term serving a different purpose in the journey towards building leadership.

The first term was built on the previous year's template and added in more intensive games and challenges,and also introduced episodes of learning from the best professional sport coaches - 'The Playbook',setting the table to identify possible leaders to grow in the second term.

The second term,a highly intensive program which was tailored to represent a learning course much like an Masters Program (MBA) had selected individuals represent their branches and departments to attend an online Masterclass Program - The Outthinker Masterclass - with the top innovation speaker - Kaihan Krippendorff,organized by Entrepreneurs Organization (EO) in Malaysia. This masterclass drives the needs and ways to outthink the competition by being innovative in many facets of a business. The selected leaders were also then required to implement their learnings hands-on within the challenges of the second term. "The intensity of this term expedited the learnings and growth of these leaders significantly,and helped push VISTA's growth not just in its people but also trickled down towards its daily operations,buoyed by the teamwork and motivation it generated," explained Monica Wong,Chief Human Resource at VISTA. "Never have we seen any one program or course over the last 20 years,had this kind of impact,from the participating leaders to their individual branches," she added.

The final term - 'The Final Game' - late in the year introduced a less scripted program and focused on letting the selected leaders develop their own plans within the loosely defined challenges,turning the theory into practical and letting the leaders make more aided decisions than before. "After an intensive MBA course like program,we wanted to focus on creativity,implementation and also much more fun,while still achieving our Upskilling goals," describes Fionna Tong,Marketing Manager at VISTA and the main organizer of the final term,with challenges built more game like and also adding health related challenges to be more holistic. "By this time,and with the ending of the last MCO,our motivation and energy to burst out of the gate was at an all time high! This contributed to the most successful periods in performance ever in our history,where we hit multiple months of sales records," Fionna mentions.

The Upskilling program contributed to developing many leaders that propped the company up during the 6 months of MCO in 2021 and helped push VISTA to new heights when the MCO ended. Many of these leaders ended up performing so well that they won different awards during our 2021 Annual Staff Awards

One such leader,Ms Ng Hui Yin,an optometrist at VISTA who was also recently promoted as a Clinical Specialist Manager at VISTA for her performance in 2021 at leading her team during the program. "The Last Dance Upskilling program helped give me the platform and opportunity to learn new different leadership,business and management skills that helped shape my year and also that of my branch. The motivation and teamwork displayed by them,as a result of the program,allowed us to focus on different facets of the business that with the aid of gamification,lifted our performance throughout. We showed better coordination,customer service,creativity and communication. Personally,it also helped me win the Hero of the Year award amongst other awards at our 2021 Awards,the crowning achievement of my time here at VISTA," explains Hui Yin.

The winner of VISTA's Leader of the Year Award and the Gamification MVP award,which signifies the most valuable player for the Upskilling Program - Larry Leong,Center Manager of VISTA Penang agrees: "The program has bonded our team together - there are less excuses given,more action and accountability can be seen within the team. Even faced with overwhelming difficulties - such as having covid hit our staff hard during the peak,we still believed in ourselves and covered each other up not only operationally but also for the challenges. The teamwork and mental strength we have developed has certainly made a huge difference in our response to the difficulties,and I am proud to be part of it."

"The success of the whole gamification program in growing leaders,creating new performance heights,customer service breakthroughs leading to win the Star Outstanding Business Award 2021 - Best Customer Service Silver Award,new innovations operationally and also as a training ground for the staff and also the organizers ourselves was something that we planned to achieve initially,but the final outcome blew our expectations out of the water," adds Fionna. "Now,as a company,we are more than ready to thrive in 2022 like never before,with great teamwork and motivation at this most crucial of times that,given the circumstances,will make or break any company."

About VISTA Eye Specialist

Founded in 1999,VISTA is one of the leading Eye Specialist Centers with 11 centres across Malaysia.