Working At The Right Places

As the year draws to a close, an article that I wish to share on working at "the Right Places" by SHRI based on the whitepaper - Fast Forward 2030: The Future of Work and the Workplace (CBRE).

It covers new emerging tends that are evolving in our workplaces..and young employees are seeking out for:

• Activity-based: "places to work" rather than "work places";
• A future workplace with "a wide variety of quiet retreat and collaborative settings" with flexibility to chose a setting that best suits their work at any particular moment; &
• Workplaces that are designed to support wellbeing

Read more in details:  http://www.cbre.com/research-and-reports/future-of-work

Happy Holidays..be blessed!

Total Rewards Model - World at Works

Check out the new Total Rewards model:

https://www.worldatwork.org/aboutus/html/aboutus-whatis.jsp

Interesting articles for your pleasure reading recommended by Dr Mark Bussin:
Variable Pay
CEO's Incentives - It's not how much you pay but how pay

Adequate Compensation & Recognition

While you can sustain employee's satisfaction through engagement in the short run, to increase the commitment level of the employees in the long run; you will need to have adequate compensation & recognition strategy.

Watch what happens when 2 Monkeys are unequally paid:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=meiU6TxysCg

One recommendation is for you to participate in Market Salary Survey..more for the reason to reduce dis-satisfaction amongst employees (hygiene factors), 

Have a great weekend, cheers!

Competitive and Rewarding Wage System

Recently, I have attended a SNEForum on Competitive and Rewarding Wage System.

My takeaway from the sharing session:

Competitive wages is important to attract and retain talent. However with higher wages, the propensity to maintain wage cost competitiveness has become increasingly important for sustainability. Therefore, we need to increase productivity to combat the rise in higher wages.

Especially in our economy like Singapore that is often influence by external factors, our wage system needs to be very flexible and responsive to remain competitive.  

For a competitive wage system, you may wish to consider the following;

- If you do not have any job grades in place in the Company, start with job levelling with career progression in mind. 
- If you wish to develop salary ranges, the min. max should be 1.5 ratio.
- Consider introduction of Monthly Variable Component (MVC).

Apart from sustainability, it is important to stress on work performance. This involves having a good performance management system and establish Key Performance Indicators (KPI). The general guidelines to KPIs should include (but not limited to); 

• Consider the relevance to company's business
• Ensure the goals are quantifiable & transparent
• The goals / targets must be responsive & timely
• Employees' are able to influence the outcomes

I thought you might also be interested to read this article from Adobe and how they keep key employees from quitting, cheers!

http://for.tn/1CbooQe

Tax Compliance Issues Impacting HR Decisions

Recently, I have attended a tax compliance training by Wolters Kluwer. Just to share a snapshot of what I have learnt:

Tax Residency is important that is determined by:

a) Employment Period

b) Physical Presence (where the individual is based)

Under Section 12(4) of the Income Tax Act gains or profits from any employment exercised in Singapore shall be deemed to be derived from Singapore.

Key principles:

• The source of employment income is where the employment is exercised.
• The location of payment of compensation or signing of contracts, or which entity bears the cost of remuneration are irrelevant for Singapore tax purposes in determining the source and taxability of the employment income.

So what is employment exercised in Singapore?

Employment connotes the performance of services. If the services giving rise to the employment income are performed in Singapore - employment exercised in Singapore.

When it comes to compensation, whether we should "provide allowances or reimbursement"..we need to consider the taxation portion in the remuneration package.

Special thanks to Mr Sivakumar Saravan, Director, Tax and Corporate Advisory, Crowe Horwath, for providing an engagement platform during the training.

You can google more at : www.taxsg.com

   

The Making of a Corporate Athlete

The High Performance Pyramid, the 4 fundamentals that you must have PQ, EQ, IQ & SQ:

1) Physical Capacity (PQ)
- Build endurance, mental and emotional recovery

2) Emotional Capacity (EQ)
- Creates internal climate that drives ideal performance state

3) Mental Capacity (IQ)
- Focus physical & emotional energy on the task at hand

4) Spiritual Capacity (SQ)
- Provides powerful source of motivation, determination & endurance

For more insights read on: The Making of a Corporate Athlete

You must have revelation to feed your spiritual man, be blessed...cheers!

Learning on the go, go, go

Online learning has become popular, the fun fact is Ms Google has also become my best friend when it comes to sourcing, referencing or my preferred search engine..have fun reading this article..
Learning on the go, go, go

I have tried the 'Competitive Strategy' module from Coursea, it's online learning and the teaching video demo is clear, you can learn at your own pace and best of all.. you'll get to receive a certificate of completion..try it! (NTU & NUS have started to use this platform to reach out to the masses)..
Coursea
  
You always reap what you sow..there is no shortcut...my 2 cents worth

Singapore's SkillFuture; another Talent Acquisition Operating Tool

This is another S'pore govt initiative SkillsFuture Earn and Learn apprenticeship program targeting at fresh graduates from local Polytechnics and Institute of Technical Education. There is a sign-on bonus for the local graduates ($5,000) while employers will also be eligible to apply for training grant (up to $15,000 for each trainee in-take). For a start, if you belong to the logistics, food manufacturing, retail or F&B industries, you should explore this option as part of recruitment strategy.

Reference: skillsfuture

Expat Pay Management

I have just read this article on expat management, useful tips for you to consider if you are managing expat management. At present, the common practice is using home based salary and added to Host's country taxation rates but increasing the it is more cost effective to offer a local plus package. You may consider permanent transfer (rather than fixed contract) and integrate the expat package to align with your local compensation and benefits structure. You may wish to conduct job evaluation if you oversees a few regional business units..

Log on to the article to read up more:
http://www.hrmasia.com/content/expat-pay-management

Happy Labour Day, cheers!

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

As a new manager, this is a classic book for good referencing.

The 7 habits of Highly Effective People written by Stephen R Covey:

1) Be proactive: A proactive person use proactive language - I can, I will etc.

What it means, having a 'can-do' attitude and focus on areas of your influence, to work on things or people that you can positively influence or change.  

2) Begin with the End in Mind: Be imaginative

Envision and be creative to develop that thought process....

3) Put things first: Organizing your priorities

Life management skills put in real practice..your purpose, values and priorities in life.

4) Think Win-Win: A framework of heart that constantly seeks mutual benefits

Meekness is not weakness, you can be nice yet considerate..

5) Seek first to understand, then be understood

Take a step backward to reflect and probe how the other party would think before you try to relate from your experiences..

6) Synergise: Creative cooperation

Value differences in short.. 

7) Sharpen the Saw: Physical, Social/Emotional, Mental & Spiritual

Take a break for self renewal...at times, when I meet challenges, I always see them as 'sand paper' that smoothen the rough edges of my life...

For details, you should read on: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

Market Salary Survey

I was looking around to participate in a market salary survey..my first time and this is what I learnt:

• Always look at previous publication and the classification of industries (can you find the type of industry that best describe yours?); 
• Check if your competitors and company's customers participate in the same salary market survey; &
• Look at the 1st time registration fees and annual fee, if any.

You may consider this, closing date is this Friday if you wish to participate in this year's exercise:
http://survey.snef.org.sg/Community/se.ashx?s=705E3F261647CB1B


"Be intentional to add value to every person you meet everyday!"
                                                                                                         John Maxwell


I hope I did add some value through my sharing, cheers! Be Blessed...

Courses in C&B / HR

For those of you that would like to find some development courses in Human Resource / Com & Ben, you may wish to consider the following training:

Global Remuneration Professional - World At Works
http://www.worldatwork.org/waw/home/html/society_home.jsp

For the locals, you may wish to consider HR WSQ modules and receive some funding support from the government:
HR WSQ

HR WSQ Competency framework:
http://www.wda.gov.sg/content/dam/wda/pdf/L301/WSQ%20Framework/HR%20WSQ%20CM.PDF

Nuggets for the day:

Every life, including yours, is a tapestry of choices. And the quality of your life depends, to a surprising extent, on the quality of the choices you make.
                                                                                                   DR AR Bernard

Linkedin?

In my new role, I have began to use Linkedin more often,.to fish out potential candidates. And, for those of you that use Linkedin, I recommend you to read this:

http://successinhr.com/simple-deadly-hr-career-mistakes#more-6452

I have been on the move in my career and I enjoyed every learning process, my reflective stance just for sharing purpose,.

When you are working for a US MNC, you can expect work processes to be very structured and well-defined but somewhat bureaucratic at times..

When you are working for a foreign owned organization with very rich local history, you can expect some legacy issues that will hamper change. For change to happen, you will need to tweak existing policies and calibrate with key stakeholders to drive change.

When you work in a Medium Enterprise, you have to be adaptable as work processes may not be robust (or you may even need to define the work process) and manage your own expectation,.tenacity is the key!

My 2 cents worth..it doesn't matter how you start but how you end..be blessed!