Great Reads by HRBoss - Talent Aquisition

As I prepare for a brand new year ahead, the list of reading materials / publication, is useful to for Talent Acquisition framework in 2015:

https://hrboss.com/blog/2014-12-12/great-reads-hr-18

Happy New Year!

Leadership Agility

What is Leadership Agility?
 
Leadership Agility is a leadership and organisational development approach, at the heart of which sits ‘the’ 12 leadership agility practices, which global management research suggests are critical for knowledge growth and application; producing an innovative and sustainably viable organisation..by Dr Paul Aitken

More references:
http://careerbirds.com/index.php/pages/blog/26-what-is-leadership-agility-made-up-of
https://hbr.org/2011/01/the-big-idea-creating-shared-value
https://hbr.org/2004/10/blue-ocean-strategy
https://hbr.org/2012/09/the-new-corporate-garage

Happy reading...cheers!

Aging Data

Just sharing what I learnt from market pricing course on aging data...

According to World at Work, the objective on Aging Data: 

Apply the annual aging factor to estimate current compensation levels.

This practice is also known as trending or advancing the data.

The formulae:
(Number of months to age / 12 months) x Annual Aging Factor = Survey Aging Factor

How to determine the aging factor, it depends on your company compensation philosophy.

1) Lead the market - to position pay levels ahead of the market until the market catches up;

2) Lag the market - to position pay levels at current market level & lag as the year progress; 

or  Lead- lag..depending on the skill sets of workers that you required. 

Other factors to consider included projected salary surveys from:


1) Government statistics; &
2) Sources like World at Works or Mercer..various survey providers

My 2 cents worth..

Situational Leadership

If your company is in the process of change management mode, this should be applicable to you; Situational Leadership by Hersey and Blanchard.

For your pleasure reading:
http://www.dtssydney.com/blog/in_a_nutshell:_situational_leadership

What it means to your leadership style:

1) Supporting – If you have staff who are highly competence but have variable commitment, you should play a supporting role to praise, listen and facilitate them.

2) Directing – For staff that have low competence but high commitment level, you should play a more directing role; with more supervision and control.

3) Coaching – For staff that have some level of competence and commitment, you should be a coach to direct and support them.

4) Empowerment – If you have staff who are highly competence and commitment, empower them to turn their responsibility for day to day decision making.

Knowing yourself is important, read on more from Johari Window Model:
http://www.businessballs.com/johariwindowmodel.htm

My 2cents worth..

Before you embark on any change management (incremental or transformation) mode, you should know your company's business and strategies, understanding the working culture, the IT system in place and always have a backup (contingency) plan..be prepare that those that cannot flow along side with you will leave the organization..cheers! 

Learning Theories

Some useful sites that I wish to share with you on learning methodologies and training evaluation that I have acquired while pursuing the advanced certificate in training and assessment conferred by WDA in 2013..for your reference:

http://www.jcu.edu.au/wiledpack/modules/fsl/JCU_090344.html

http://www.learning-theories.com/

http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/kirkpatrick.htm

Training is never done in isolation but part and parcel of facilitating learning. To select the best training method, you will need to match the learning styles of your learners. 3 types of learner, for your info:

1) An auditory learner - talking aloud, listening in lecture or discussion in a group

2) A visual learner - taking notes and reading information later or seeing demostration

3) A kinesthetic learner - hands-on approach and physical involvement 

When designing your training materials for Managerial & Supervisory levels, you can consider some of these methods:

- Case study

- Role play

- Presentation

- Simulation

- Mind mapping

- Mentoring & coaching

- Games

For operations level, you should consider more training videos to facilitate their learning process. 

In summary, learning is an important element to human capital development and key to business performance. Special thanks to Sigma Solutions that has prepare the course materials for ACTA.

Nuggets for the day:

We teach what we know but we reproduce what we are - John maxwell

Have a great weekend!

Should Employers Ban Email After Work Hours?

With development in mobile technology, it has created a new working lifestyle albeit busier than before, for many of us. Very often I also brought my work done outside of regular work hours. However, is this a net gain or net drain on our well-being? Read on and share with me on your thoughts...

http://businessjournal.gallup.com/content/175670/employers-ban-email-work-hours.aspx#1

I came across this article on engagement from a safety angle and how an engaged workforce drives workplace safety excellence, for your pleasure reading also:

http://bstsolutions.com/en/blog?view=entry&id=156

Inflections

Be yourself... You can make a difference in this world by being your authentic self..be blessed!

Developing a Strong Singapore Core

I read the article, Developing a strong Singapore core (Shalini Shukla 25 Aug 2014) from the HRM Asia. The National Job Bank is at its height, with opportunities in abundance for our local talents. Perhaps this can provide an avenue to fulfil your recruitment needs: 


https://www.jobsbank.gov.sg/ICMSPortal/portlets/JobBankHandler/Home.do
http://www.hrmasia.com/case-studies/singapore-registers-6-growth-on-the-year/191176/


There is aplenty of recruitment strategies, just share 2 common ones:

• Establish network with local tertiary institutes
• Introduce a Friend, referral program

You can even throw in a holiday trip lucky draw program for eligible recommender & recommendee for the referral program (at the end of the calendar year); as part of retention effort to retain more locals.


Nuggets for the day..


Let your mind be unwind, be surrounded with like-minded people, filling a meadow with laugher and hope...be blessed.


Have a great weekend!

The Art of Asking Questions

Here is an interesting article that I read on the art of asking questions by Marshall Goldsmith, featured in Talent Management. This is useful as you lead a team, coach or mentor your staff, to learn how to ask questions that stimulate creativity in the mind, to gain wisdom and get understanding for more insight.

This pursuit of insight or discovery is “curiosity.” To the mind, curiosity is its own reward. The byproduct of perpetual curiosity is wisdom.(Marshall Goldsmith, 20 August 2014)

Here are some key elements that produce insight:

Sociability: Watch out for too much silence. If the protégé does not answer in 10 seconds, he or she may need you to redirect the question. Know that eye contact can be important in conveying an interest in the protégé’s answers.
Beware of not giving the protégé an opportunity to answer. Silence can be golden. Pause after asking a question. If you’re susceptible to this trap, count to 10 after asking a question and before asking another. Assume that the protégé heard and understood and is simply contemplating an answer.

Dominance: Think before you ask. Consider your goal and focus. Determine what you seek to learn, and then choose questions that will take you there.
You may have a tendency to craft questions that give you the answer you like to hear. Leading the protégé is just as ineffective as leading a witness. Soften your tone. Make sure your approach does not make the protégé feel as though he or she is on trial.

Openness: Avoid keeping your questions too much on the surface. While invading privacy is not the goal, your aim is to foster in-depth thinking. Be willing to allow a bit of controversy; conflict is nothing more than a symptom of tension. When you accurately interpret and work through conflict by your candor and openness, interpersonal closeness and valuable creativity will be the likely byproducts.

Other specific techniques include:
Start with a setup statement: Questions can be more powerful if the sender and receiver are on the same wavelength. Starting with a setup statement establishes identification and context.
Ask questions that require higher-level thinking: The goal is to create insight, not to share information. The main objective is to nurture understanding and growth, not just exchange facts. Construct questions that require the protégé to dig deep.
Avoid questions that begin with “why”: In most cultures, a question that begins with the word “why” is perceived as judgmental. Body language can play a role in how such questions are perceived, but even with perfect body language, our antennae go up as soon as we hear a “why” question.
Use curiosity to stimulate curiosity: Socrates did more than ask good questions. He demonstrated enthusiasm for the learning process. Attitude is as much a part of the Socratic method as technique.

Proverbs 4:7-8
Wisdom is a principal thing; therefore get wisdom. And in all your getting, get understanding..Exalt her and she will promote you..

Dimension of National Cultures

Dimension of national cultures cannot be ignored especially managing outsourcing teams, international or project work. Some of the characteristics as defined by Hofstede:

1) Power distance: the degree to which people in a country accept that power in institutions and organizations is distributed unequally;

2) Individualism vs Collectivism: the degree to which people prefer to act as individuals rather than as members of groups;

3) Masculinity vs Feminlity: the extent to which the culture favours traditional masculine work roles of achievement, power and control;

4) Uncertainty avoidance: the extent to which a society feels threatened by uncertain and ambiguous situations and tries to avoid them

http://geert-hofstede.com/countries.html

Implications to employment relationship in our local context..

For Singapore, our society supports more uncertainty avoidance..and it gives rise to 'Corporatism'...

Corporatism - Government seeks to devise mechanisms which integrate the interests of capital labour and government in pursuit of policies typically to do with economic growth, full employment and price stability. (Hollingshead and Leaf, 1995)

With hindsight this informative resources is useful in my course of work while managing a diverse workforce...I was recently reminded the importance of forming strategic alliance..especially as a business partner, I need the support of all business units to share resources and activities, to pursue a common strategy...key success factor..another learning journey for me..cheers  

Gen Z employees: good if you can get them

“Entrepreneurial, optimistic and informed”..that will be the composite of our next generation of workers in Asia also known as Generation Z. They have been described as “go- getter and trend setter” and it will be quite a challenge to attract and retain the best of them.

I was reading this short article written by HC, Human Capital (July to September 2014 issue), a food for thought…

”Adecco recently conducted a survey of nearly 1000 Gen Zs (15-18years old) in China, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam. The survey assessed Gen Z’s ambitions, their employment preferences, their attitudes to the workplace and how they are optimistic they are about their future – in work and life.

The survey revealed interesting findings about Singapore’s Gen Z. A high proportion of Singapore’s Gen Z (82%) expects to go onto higher education and many are confident that will prepare them well for the workplace.

The respondents expect to take about seven months to find the right employer, which is about average for the region.

Most (71%) expect to work for no more than three companies in their entire career, demonstrating a somewhat greater loyalty to their employer than their peers in other markets.

They are also likely to seek services of recruitment consultants for information about companies that they may consider joining.

Those that surveyed in Singapore also want more job variety than other Gen Zs in the region, but they are also likely to value a fairer work-life balance.”

Recently, I had the privilege to speak to a group of Gen Z students and conduct interview sessions with them..they are confident to share their thoughts, forwarding looking and drawn by our company proposal of Place and Train Program aka Fast Track, an accelerated career path within 18 months. With job re-design and more career development opportunities, it is possible to reach out and get the best of out them…my thoughts.

"An organization can be birthed with great vision but can only grow with great framework"….

  

Stay Interviews

I am trying out stay interview questionaires with a pilot mentorship program with my customer service team. When designing the questionaires, we should bear in mind the cultural and academic background of our staff. The aim of the questionaires is to learn what is and what is not working in the company so we should avoid closed-ended questions that provides 'yes and no' answers. 

Samples from talent management articles:

Why have you chosen to stay at our company?
What do you find most rewarding about your work?
If you could change one thing about our department, what would it be?
What skills or talents do you possess that aren’t being used in your job?

Ref:  http://talentmgt.com/articles/view/five-steps-to-effective-stay-interviews/

Happy Easter! Cheers...

Progressive Wage Incentive

Since Jan 2014, e2i has launched the Progressive Wage Model (PWM) to help workers earn more through skills upgrading to harness productivity. This is part of tripartite initiative and eligible service providers can also tap onto the funding available, up to 10% of their contract values.

More infor from e2i: http://e2i.com.sg/employers/resource-hub11/progressive-wage-incentive/

Informative for those that wish to do a new start-up in cleaning, security and landscaping industries in Singapore.

New HR strategies for 2014

I have received the latest issue of hrm magazine by key media..alot of interesting insights for HR outlook in 2014
http://issuu.com/keymedia/docs/hrm_14.01_main_mag_e-zine

Infographics - the rise of big data, an emerging marketing tools that provides much insights and knowledge...

http://hrboss.com/blog/rise-big-data-and-data-analytics

An extract from the latest issue from hrm magazine 14.1:

I liked the part on talent management (pg10)...To engender creative thinking & pro-active mindset, we need to break up the routine of a working week..especially in South-East Asia context, in our volatile political & economic situation, we may face with unexpected challenges...

The key is to maintain a positive mindset...because in every situation, therein lies greatness. Learn to celebrate failures and you will come forth stronger than you first entered...my reflective learning... 

Employee Engagement Mindset

“High performing and high potential employees are sometimes described as ‘volunteers’; with ample opportunities elsewhere, they work for particular organizations because they want to rather than because they have to. To keep talent from taking flight as labor market conditions improve, today’s leaders would be wise to adopt this perspective and focus on creating compelling work environments that motivate key employees to stay.”Mark Royal, Senior Principal, Hay Group

To get the most out of employee engagement, I guess we need to enable employee, to position them to succeed. Real employee enablement precedes performance. Interestingly, perhaps we should focus on engaged employees to understand why they are engaged..engaged employees carries a different mindet and believes that employee engagement falls on their shoulders, not the organization… based on this book that I have been reading by Clark, Tim. The Employee Engagement Mindset: The Six Drivers for Tapping Into the Hidden Potential of Everyone in Your Company. McGraw Hill Professional, 2012.

If you dig deep, you do have a propensity to increase.. be it in knowledge, wealth etc…we always have a drive for passion for something. Therefore, we should own our employee engagement that can drive rich engagement and work performance…my 2 cents.

Here’s some articles that are related to employee engagement:

http://www.haygroup.com/downloads/sg/2013%20global%20employee%20engagement%20and%20enablement%20trends.pdf

http://www.mlionline.net/aligngroup/2014/01/Creating_Positive_Organisation.pdf

http://www.haygroup.com/downloads/sg/hg_asian%20ambidextrous_white%20paper_web.pd

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I like this pictorial article from my friend’s blog…without communication relationship cease…having  conversation builds  trust and engagement.

http://www.oxford-group.com/pdf/Whydoconversationsmatter.pdf

Mentoring

I have a good lecture on writing dissertation as I learnt how to use goggle scholar..some articles on mentoring relationship that was mentioned in yesterday's lecture...

Although I do not have longitudinal data but chances are if you are able to find a good mentor.....The mentor relationship can significantly enhance development..in the midcareer stage of the more experienced individual. Kram, Kathy E. "Phases of the mentor relationship." Academy of Management journal 26.4 (1983): 608-625.

For your pleasure reading:

http://successinhr.com/hr-mentoring

Mentoring and Performance: Testing a Mediated Model in Supervisory and Formal Mentoring in Business Organization, Sushmita Srivastava & Munish Kumar Thakur (email if you need this in pdf).

Our thoughts, mirror our approach in life..as we go through different seasons in our lives, somehow God will place different mentors to shape us...my reflective learning.

Compensation & Benefits

This is dedicated to my MBA friends...additional resources on compensation & benefits, apart from Tower Watson, Mercer & Hays given from the HRM modules..

http://www.worldatwork.org/home/html/compensation_home.jsp

http://www.worldatwork.org/waw/adimLink?id=28330

http://apprd02.worldatwork.org/t/2897/141048/2380/24/

Additional resource:
Performance Driven - oracle

Gaining insights and adding knowledge..my 2 cents worth

HR Outsourcing

A short article for my MBA friends doing their HR assignment...on HR outsourcing

HR outsourcing is a strategic move to improve the quality and flexibility of one's workforce, while improving an organization's ability to accommodate change and stay ahead of market forces..by Shalini Shukla-Pandey

HR Outsourcing

Additional resource:

e-HRM Inc

Which 'shore' works best?

Offshore - refers to foreign location that is far away in distance from your primary place of business.

Near-shore - refers to a foreign locale, but one that is much closer to you.

Onshore - refers to a locale in the same country as yours.

Source: Nearsoft 

With hindsight, we need to consider distance and time to decide what is the most critical factor that works best for your organization...my 2 cents worth..

Coaching

I have just received this from Chief Learning Officer magazine on Coaching. Coaching is an effective tool for nurturing leaders in our organization...the impact is expotential growth in terms of higher employee performance, engagement that could harness business results.

However before you embark on coaching, you need to ensure that your organization has a supportive management and a learning culture to support the framework..(my mentor taught me this..)

For your pleasure reading:

Leading Through Coaching: Tips for Fostering Success

It is one thing to learn but another thing to be taught...my 2 cents worth.

HR Resources

Some said HR people always pursue standardization and abhor exception… but I guess this is more for compliance reason and exception do require more than rote solutions..if you make one exception, HR fears and the floodgate will open..my 2 cents worth..

Anyway, today I wanna share some useful HR websites for your pleasure browsing…

http://www.hr-guide.com/

http://www.shrm.org/Pages/default.aspx

http://shri.org.sg/

http://www.shl.com/uk/resources/insights/latest-insights/

Some interesting articles that I have come across...

Times are tough for some headhunters

Driven to distraction by mounting multitasking

Whatever HR tells employees has to match what the company actually believes, empty rhetoric only breeds discontent....(Hammonds, Keith H., Fast Company)..

HR Competency Model

According to Ulrich, there are 6 domains in HR Competences:

1) Credible activist - They do what they say they will do.
2) Strategic positioner - HR professionals understand the global business context—the social, political, economic, environmental, technological, and demographic  trends that bear on their business—and translate these trends into business implications.
3) Capability builder - effective HR professional creates, audits, and orchestrates an effective and strong organization by helping define and build its capabilities.
4) Change champion - HR professionals develop their organizations’ capacities for change and then translate that into effective change processes and structures.
5) HR innovator and integrator - At the organization level, the major competencies of effective HR professionals are their abilities to integrate HR practices around a few critical business issues.
6) Technology proponent - First, HR professionals are applying social networking technology to help people stay connected with one another. Second, in the high-performing firms, HR professionals are increasing their roles in the management of information.

You can read more from 1st chapter - free on-line:
Global HR Competences: Mastering Competitive Value from Outside In

Similar competency concept can also be found in Handbook for Strategic HR: Best Practices in Organization Development from the OD Network.