Following on the roadmap of SMART Myanmar and Business Innovation Facility (BIF) cooperation, in March 2017 senior technical expert Nancy Feng of SMART Myanmar coached eight consultants from three different Myanmar consultancy firms to further enhance their capacities on HR management in garment factories. The five days coaching consisted of the following parts:

• One day classroom training on performance appraisal system aims at raising their awareness on the importance of performance appraisal, broaden their understanding and enhance the in-depth knowledge on the structure, different methods and practices in the garment factories.

• Four days in-factory coaching to give the consultants first-hand experience to apply knowledge learned from the class room training in the real factory situation. The assessment was led by Ms. Feng who explained to the consultants to help them improve their understanding of common issues and good practices of HR general management, employee retention, working hours and salary systems. As one practical task, the consultants were taught how to interview selected production line workers to learn about good interview methods and improve their communications as well as information collection skills. This kind of intervention creates clear links between theoretical knowledge and real life applications.

These actions were further followed up with more practical work in April. SMART's technical experts Ms. May Mi Kyaw and Ms. Haymar Oo guided the eight consultants in how to conduct factory assessments, in particular checking HR documents and checking on-site workplace safety & health conditions.