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HR INSIDER HR INSIDER
decisions much faster now,” he says.
Sarma stresses that “HR is at the core
of it all” when it comes to making Levi
Strauss & Co. an employer of choice.
“Through technology and process
optimisation, we have freed up
HR’s bandwidth to focus on more
strategic and business impacting
priorities like business partnering,
change management, scouting talent,
developing leaders, and driving
employee engagement actions and
initiatives,” he elaborates.
“HR plays a key role in empowering
employees, driving a culture of
performance and accountability and
having an engaged workforce. We
believe that this makes Levi Strauss &
Co. an employer of choice.”
Staying true to four key values
Despite boasting a global footprint
of 2,600 retail stores and having
its products sold in more than 110
countries, Sarma says everyone at the
Levi Strauss & Co. organisation has
been guided by the same values since its
founding in 1853. These are: empathy,
originality, integrity, and courage.
“As much as we have a culture of
performance and accountability, we
are also a company which is rooted to
“We have also been growing and
delivering business success in the
last few years by connecting with our
consumers and becoming an employer
of choice,” he explains.
“We do this through a strengthened
focus and thrust on empowering our
people, driving a culture of performance
and accountability, and enhancing
employee engagement.”
Through the use of technology, Sarma
says the organisation has enabled a
higher level of empowerment.
“We have achieved this through self-
service for managers and employees as
they can access information and make
Take a stroll through Levi Strauss &
Co.’s brand new headquarters at
Metropolis Tower 2, and you’d be forgiven
for thinking that you had just stepped
into one of the brand’s retail outlets.
Several mannequins adorn the office,
each having been fitted with a different
pair of Levi’s jeans spanning different
eras, while the walls have been plastered
with different types of denim material.
Even the mobile phone cover of
Karthik Sarma, Vice President of HR,
Levi Strauss & Co., is not spared the
iconic branding.
“It’s a personalised handphone cover
with a denim graphic of our iconic
jeans’ pocket,” says Sarma.
These are not a series of one-off or
haphazard attempts to personify the
company brand.
Rather, all these minute details
have been and are part of an ongoing
carefully-crafted strategy to embed
the Levi’s culture into all aspects of the
company, right down to every employee
within its ranks.
HR at the core
Well-known as the inventor of blue
jeans, Sarma says Levi Strauss & Co.
is a 162-year-old company with an
“iconic” brand.
LEVERAGING
ON A LEGACY
Levi Strauss & Co. has long been
captivating audiences with its
iconic brand image for more than
140 years. Karthik Sarma, Vice
President of HR, Asia, Middle East
& Africa (AMA), shares how its
famed culture seeps into every
layer of the organisation
Sham Majid
sham@hrmasia.com.sg
AT A GLANCE
Total number of employees at
Levi Strauss & Co.’ Headquarters
for Asia, Middle East & Africa
(Singapore): 150 and growing.
Total number of employees
(including retail and plant) in
AMA: over 3,000Size of the HR Team
(Singapore): 9 (including regional teams
for total rewards and talent acquisition)
Key HR Focus Areas:
- Driving a culture of performance
and accountability
- Employee engagement
- Empowering people
- Building a leadership pipeline

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HR INSIDER HR INSIDER
PEGGY NG
Director
– AMA Rewards
NASEEM
KHAN
Director HR,
ANZ & SEA
“To enable HR to focus more on the
strategic levers, like performance culture,
engagement, and empowerment, we
have leveraged on technology and process
optimisation to empower our employees
and managers much more with self-
service and information access,” he says.
Sarma says the business is also refining
its talent management agenda to build
a talent bench for leadership roles
through development and acquisition.
“Levi’s is an iconic brand and needs
little introduction. As we grow and
connect with our consumers, it makes
us attractive to talent,” he elaborates.
“We have talent needs across the
spectrum; for example, creative
talent for merchandising, analytical
capabilities for planning, business
acumen for leadership roles, and
customer service and retailing capability
for our stores and retail management.
“Capability with experience across
this spectrum is not easily available in
emerging markets and that is a challenge.”
Graduate talent development is also
a key component of the organisation’s
recruitment blueprint, with Sarma
highlighting that in some of the company’s
larger markets, it offers internships and
works closely with education institutions.
Plotting career maps
Sarma says the Levi Strauss & Co.
organisation believes it should facilitate
its managers and leaders with the tools
to manage their teams.
“Towards that, we have training
programmes focused on first-time
managers and leaders,” he says.
“For managers, we have a programme
called ‘managing for performance’ and
for leaders, ‘leading for performance’.
“Our leadership programme is built
on learning and developing on the job
and through experience, learning from
others and from the company’s training
programmes, with a 70:20:10 model.”
Training programmes are not solely
reserved for managers and leaders.
Sarma says that for retail staff, there
are two key training schemes, namely
the Denim Leadership Training and the
District Leadership programmes.
“All employees are encouraged to
complete online training on ‘denim
leadership’ – apprentice and expert
modules,” he explains.
“This helps them to understand
the great heritage of the Levi’s brand,
the denim evolution, our products
in various categories, our service
approach, and how to be a stylist.
“Employees get a certificate once they
complete this training which they can
proudly display at their workstations.”
As for the District Leadership
programme, Sarma says this consists of
leadership training that is specifically
targeted for district managers at the
store level.
“This is to develop them as managers
and leaders by going through a structured
six-to-nine- month learning journey
interspersed with classroom training, store
level assignments, and group projects.
“At the successful completion, they
formally graduate and get certified as a
district leader,” he says.
“We also have regular training around
compliance and values.”
Sarma reveals there are also mandatory
trainings that all new hires have to
complete to ensure the company’s
worldwide code of conduct is adhered to.
“As we grow and have new
opportunities, we look for talent within
our talent planning process and provide
them with appropriate opportunities
connected to their individual
development plans,” he adds.
“We also move people for their
expertise and to help build capability.”
Engagement champions
With engagement clearly being a key
priority at Levi Strauss & Co., Sarma
emphasises that the organisation
“must engage the hearts and minds of
our employees.”
“We enable our managers with
tools and training to be able to drive
engagement at the smallest operating
unit in the company, where every team
is the foundation,” he elaborates.
Hence, Sarma states that the
company has a network of specially-
trained leaders and managers who have
agreed to be “engagement champions”.
“Hearing our employees’ feedback and
taking action is a key responsibility of
managers, leaders and for us as a company
in promoting employee engagement.
“Beyond this, we also have various other
interventions which are local and specific,
and some which are global and very
deeply ingrained in our ‘jeans’,” he says.
One key example is community
service, which Sarma concedes is “very
close” to everybody’s heart.
“We celebrate Community Day
across all our offices; 2015 was the 15th
anniversary of our global Community
Day,” he explains.
“We have undertaken various
initiatives around water conservation,
giving back to society through team
activities like painting and cleaning
the homes of the elderly, and ‘BATAM
Build’, where our teams worked to build
houses for the poor in Batam, Indonesia.
“We also have our ‘Run for Red Tab’
events which raise funds for the Red Tab
Foundation, which is a platform for our
employees to help their colleagues in need.
Having recently moved to a new office
its values. This manifests in the ways
we behave and act collectively and
individually,” he says.
“We are non-hierarchical, open and a
very friendly office.
“You can see from our open office
layout that everyone sits without offices.
We create multiple opportunities for
interaction and collaboration. As we drive
a culture of performance, ‘how’ goals
are achieved is just as important to us.”
Sarma says the organisation measures
this and develops employees through its
framework of success behaviours, which
it calls “&Co Expectations”.
“Having said all this, one shouldn’t
forget that we make jeans, and that is
fun,” he adds.
“We get to dress up in Levi’s every
day and express ourselves through our
brand and products.”
Fighting the talent war
While Levi is a global entity that is
instantly recognisable and has a unique
corporate culture, Sarma admits
the organisation is not immune to
recruitment obstacles.
“Key challenges remain around
getting great talent, especially great
talent with relevant industry experience
for key roles,” he explains.
WHO’S WHO IN HR
Three employee awards
Levi Strauss & Co. has three important awards for staff who excel in their roles. They are:
• Excellence Award – This is an annual award that recognises outstanding performance by
celebrating the Levi Strauss & Co.’s teams and individuals who have:
– Produced exceptional business results that drive key strategy
– Made an exceptional community contribution that enhances the company’s reputation
– Contributed to a “best-of-the-best” achievement that sets a new internal or industry standard
• The Koshland Award – This award honours the memory of Daniel E. Koshland, a former
company president whose personal and professional commitment to humanitarian ideals
made a lasting impression on the Levi’s culture. It recognises exceptional contributions to the
organisation’s success and reputation while modelling corporate values and behaviours.
• The Bob Haas Leadership Award – This award is named after Levi Strauss & Co.’s chairman
emeritus, and former CEO of Levi Strauss & Co., and former President of the Levi Strauss
Foundation. It honours his distinctive leadership and supports his unwavering “profits through
principles” approach by recognising exceptional and innovative achievements in the areas of
commercial, social and environmental sustainability
Levi’s facts
• To date, the company’s water saving
products have saved more than one billion
litres of water. By 2020, the Levi’s brand aims
to make 80% of its products using its water
saving techniques, up from nearly 25% today
• Levi’s not only invented the first blue jeans
for men 142 years ago; it also invented the
first blue jeans for women in 1934 , originally
called “Harriet”
• The Levi Strauss Foundation has donated
US$300 million to various charity organisations
• 80% of the garments for the Levi’s 2015 line
were prototyped in its Eureka Innovation Lab,
a research and development facility in San
Francisco to innovate new products
KARTHIK
SARMA
VP – Human
Resources, AMA
CHIA YIN TAN
HR Manager,
Singapore
LAURA
CROSSLEY
Head, Talent
Acquisition – AMA
ROY HAN
Senior Recruiter,
AMA
CALEEN KAM
Senior HR
Executive, Singapore
in Singapore, Sarma says the open
design actively promotes collaboration
and access, therefore making it a fun
and exciting workplace.
Rewarding for performance
Sarma says the organisation has a
number of ways in which it recognises
employees for exceptional work.
“Our performance management process
is robust in distinguishing and calibrating
high performance and business impacting
contributions,” he says.
“Our total rewards philosophy also
focuses on rewarding for performance.
Beyond the regular performance
management process, we also have
enterprise-wide recognition for
outstanding work and contributions
by cross-functional teams through the
year.” (see: boxout)
Furnished with its rich heritage,
iconic brand and strong values, Sarma
stresses that Levi’s has worked hard to
retain its employees and has had the
privilege of strong employee loyalty.
“With growth and success, we are
able to provide opportunities for our
employees to grow with us across various
international locations, leveraging our
global footprint,” he adds.
“Our talent is always looking for new
challenges and opportunities. We need
to continuously engage them, provide
developmental opportunities, and
empower them to build their careers.”