Crystal Pang is the co-founder and CEO of Pickupp, a door-to-door delivery platform. The 2021 Asia's Most Influential honouree tells Tatler about dealing with her employees’ mental health during the pandemic, and why her roots will always be planted in Hong Kong
Envision is a series designed to bring hope to Hongkongers amid the uncertainty and isolation of the pandemic. Each week, we publish letters of encouragement and messages of positivity from the city’s most influential leaders in the realms of art, culture, business and sport. These deeply personal, first-person accounts from the community can be read as love letters to Hong Kong. In these trying times, the series inspires and serves as a reminder that we’re all in this together, and that we will bounce back stronger than ever.
As co-founder and CEO of delivery company Pickupp, Crystal Pang’s job has become more urgent than ever. If rapid test kits and medicines aren’t delivered to people on time, there are real consequences. The tech-enabled logistics platform has operations in Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia and Taiwan, and navigating ever-changing government regulations in each market has been a cumbersome task, to say the least.
While she and her army of more than 50,000 staff are solving new challenges every day, Pang admits that maintaining the mental health and morale of her employees is a particular struggle. In this week’s edition of Truth Be Told, Pang shines a light on how Covid-19 has affected her business and why she’ll never abandon Hong Kong.
March 24, 2022
We’ve been working from home since January. The last time all our staff were together was at our office Christmas party. Since then, we haven’t seen anyone. Everyone is on remote calls and trying to manage daily life, but it’s difficult.
When the city was at a standstill after Chinese New Year, maintaining a healthy mental state at home became very hard. Then there’s juggling work. What we have been experiencing at work has also been very challenging.
I admit, the logistics industry is more fortunate than others and is more recession-proof. This year, we’ve seen a lot more enquiries coming from the food and beverage industry and medical sector. But the challenge is the speed at which requests are coming in on a daily basis.
The entire company is feeling the stress, even though we’re working from home. We’re on a 24/7 operational clock. When merchants come to us, we know that every single call is time sensitive, whether it’s for medicine, test kits or care packages for people suffering from Covid-19. We try our best to help as many people as possible, but there is a lot of stress on our business development team to bring new merchants onboard, from test kit companies to medicine companies. Medicine and test kits aren’t new business for us. We started handling Covid-19 specimen samples last year, but the volume was never this large or as urgent. It’s almost like these companies need our service yesterday. It’s a constant rush, and it’s coming towards us like a tsunami.
We have 50 full time staff, which is manageable, but if we include the warehouse staff, part-timers and freelance workers that number goes up to more than 50,000 people. We have a very big workforce, and we can’t prevent them catching Covid-19. The surge in Covid-19 cases shone a light on this. Our operations team had to reinvent the wheel almost overnight when dealing with sick and recovered staff. When someone is sick, we need to find someone to replace them. We’ve been so focused. Unless we make a conscious effort to leave the desk, there is no time off. People on the team are working non-stop even on weekends. I’ve seen how hard my team have fought during this period and how hard it has been to strike a work-life balance.
Our operations team’s mental state is bad. I used to think that if you were the CEO of the company, you always had to [maintain] this image of yourself and be gung-ho about everything. But it’s hard. Everyone is already doing the best they can. There are days when we tell our people to switch off. We tell them to get a bottle and expense it on the company to give them some downtime. I try to be more approachable too. I tell my staff to reach out and talk to me. If I am suffocated, I am sure they are too. I try to be there for them and give them that time off.
Overall, the frustration lies in maintaining the company culture and morale. We want to avoid burnout. But, working remotely means we’ve lost the ability to see people’s body language to see if they are doing alright. I was out for a meeting the other day, and I saw so many people just wondering in the park. You can tell people are not OK, but there are no other channels for release, except for a stroll in the park. There is also the added stigma of asking for help in Asian culture. I want to look more into this and see what I can do to help others.
I have operations in other Asian cities, and it can be quite frustrating seeing other places open up. But every city has their own process. Malaysia was on an extended lockdown and only recently opened up. Singapore is open but still doesn’t have 100 per cent capacity at the office. In Taiwan, people go out without a mask to certain areas. Our team in Hong Kong keeps asking when it’ll be our turn [to open]. We have to stay hopeful.
I grew up in Hong Kong and my whole family is here. I want to be here and I want Hong Kong to thrive. And if I want it to thrive, I need to do whatever I can to ensure that it happens. I might not have the power to change everything, but I can at least do my part. Carrie Lam’s announcement last week [about reducing quarantine to seven days starting April 1] did give me some relief.
There’s a lot to love about our city. The nightlife, the scenery, the food and the people. The people of Hong Kong are so resilient. This pandemic has been a ride with ups and downs. We’re down now, but just think: we survived Sars in 2003. This pandemic has [resulted in] a much longer downturn, but we’ll bounce back. Just look around you: people are here for a reason, and they are not abandoning Hong Kong for a reason.
My message to the people of Hong Kong is to understand why you’re here. I know it’s hard to imagine what the future looks like, but I urge you not to forget about all the good times you had when things were normal. Covid-19 has been painful and horrible. But it has also been a catalyst for change. The retail and medical industry are all undergoing massive transformations. When we are forced to change, there is always a silver lining. Things will change for the better. —Crystal Pang
Crystal Pang is an Asia’s Most Influential honouree from 2021. Discover the changemakers, industry titans, and powerful individuals who are making a positive impact on the region in the Asia’s Most Influential list from Tatler.
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