Starting out in the hospitality industry in 1987 after graduating from Les Roches International School of Hotel Management, one of the world’s leading hospitality schools, Wong Kim Sung has never shied away from a challenge.
After working in various roles – first as a cook, then a butler and later as a hotel manager on board a cruise ship – Wong decided to make a career switch in 1996 to housekeeping in the healthcare industry to expand his horizons.
Little did he know that his brief foray into healthcare would result in him battling the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) virus on the front lines in early 2003. As the head of housekeeping in a local hospital then, SARS meant working round-the-clock to keep the premises clean for patients and staff. The key challenge, he said, was ensuring the well-being of his staff while keeping them motivated through the uncertain times.
“During SARS, I was in a healthcare environment where we were dealing with patients. There were a lot of unknowns and fear. I had staff at the hospital who cried because they feared that they had contracted SARS, and some even wanted to resign in the next 24 hours. It’s always the unknown factor of the virus that is the challenge,” recalls Wong.
Having survived SARS while working on the front lines strengthened Wong’s resolve, and this prepared him for the challenge that he was to face 17 years later when COVID-19 hit Singapore’s shores.
No longer in a healthcare setting, Wong adapted his experience and lessons learnt while managing the SARS crisis to keep guests and Team Members safe at Marina Bay Sands.
With first-hand knowledge of how contagious such viruses can be, Wong makes sure that all PAD Team Members wear personal protective equipment (PPE), masks and gloves and face shields if they are rostered for customer-facing duties. Understanding the importance of maintaining open communication, he ensures that each supervisor communicates the latest developments and sanitisation measures to Team Members at each daily shift briefing.
Guided by his experience with SARS during his previous healthcare stint, Wong implemented a set of enhanced hygiene and sanitisation measures around Marina Bay Sands that allowed the Integrated Resort to attain its SG Clean certification in April.
Key to the SG Clean audit was the fact that he had to organise, train and rally departments across the entire IR – from the Hotel, Casino, Sands Expo and Convention Centre, attractions like ArtScience Museum to The Shoppes and over 200 individual tenants.
“I remember it was the afternoon on 11 March when we attended a briefing on the SG Clean audit. The next morning we arrived at work to start the audit process. It was quite a massive task as we’re dealing with the entire scope of the IR, across multiple stakeholders, but we did it methodically. We started with areas that we are already doing, for example the temperature-taking measures,” says Wong.
Despite tight deadlines and the evolving advisories that changed almost daily, Wong soldiered on with his team and led Marina Bay Sands to achieve the SG Clean certification on 7 April across seven sector-specific categories.
Wong has since taken up a new challenge to redesign hygiene and sanitisation measures for an even safer experience, as the IR re-opens its doors. These include operating with enhanced hygiene protocols, exploring technology and getting an international health and safety standards audit by Bureau Veritas, a nearly 200-year-old world leader in testing, inspection and certification.
Throughout his 11-year career at Marina Bay Sands, Wong’s adaptability and quick problem-solving skills have made him an asset to the over 500-strong PAD department, allowing him to move quickly up the ranks from Manager to Director. Even in the early days, he embraced the challenge to get all housekeeping operations up and running before the IR’s official opening.
“When I joined PAD, there were only three of us. During that time, nothing had been planned. We had not even selected what tools, cleaning cloth, toilet paper to use. On the first day of work, we were pulled to Procurement to start selecting the equipment. We were racing against the clock, and we hadn’t even started recruiting Team Members for PAD yet in December 2009. Basically, an SOP had not been written and there was no training material. We had to do everything from scratch and that was a challenge,” recalls Wong.
As a leader who walks the talk, Wong takes a very hands-on approach to keep the property in impeccable condition by being on the ground every day.
Wong also tries to find ways to improve processes and explores new technologies to make cleaning more efficient. For instance, his team was already exploring automated escalator handrail self-cleaning technology in the pre-COVID-19 era. Those early explorations came in handy when the pandemic hit, and made it easier for the team to plan the installations on property.
“Working at Marina Bay Sands is truly exciting. Every day is a new challenge. This job has given me the opportunity to meet people from all walks of life and gain a comprehensive understanding of integrated resort operations. After 11 years, what I’ve learnt most is that providing excellent service depends on how well you listen to your customers. Given our diverse operations, it’s crucial to listen to the specific needs of each business unit so that my team can provide our internal stakeholders with better service,” he says.
Despite the personal strides he has made, Wong's biggest hope is for the cleaning profession – which has been thrust into the limelight due to COVID-19 – to continue to gain traction and attract new talent in the years to come.
Elevating the image of the cleaning profession is a key factor, as is investing in training and improving work processes to raise productivity, he says.
“We have to transform to become a skilled workforce where Team Members are trained to use technology and equipment to do their jobs, instead of the traditional bucket and mop. This would allow us to reduce the amount of manual labour, scale up our productivity, and freeing our Team Members to take on more meaningful and higher-value jobs.”