CEO 101

What is the impact of the current economic situation on your pro-family HR policies?

Mr Lim Cheng Teck, chief executive, Standard Chartered Bank, Singapore

Standard Chartered has in place strong pro-family policies and practices. In difficult times, it is more important than ever to focus on our employees.

However, these initiatives are not economic-environment dependent but are integral to motivating and bringing out the best from our talent.

We want to create a supportive and family-friendly workplace where employees are better able to maintain work-life harmony.

Examples of our pro-family practices include flexible/home working arrangements, a shorter work week, sabbatical leave, paid family-care leave and Happy Friday, whereby employees are encouraged to leave the office earlier one Friday a month to spend time with family.

From TODAY, Business – Monday, 01-Jun-2009

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CEO 101

How do you approach the issue of employees’ external appointments and activities?

REPLY FROM Mr Kevin White, General Manager for Tyco Fire Suppression & Building Products, Asia Pacific

At Tyco, we encourage good work-life balance and place a keen interest in our employees’ personal goals and pursuits. Demands at work can lead to spending an unhealthy amount of time at the office, away from friends and family, which is not good in the long run. It is important to be effective at work, so that you can spend more time with others for the things you enjoy doing together. Having a healthy personal life and fun interests clears your mind, and also aids in managing anxiety and stress — common factors that we see affecting employee performance and satisfaction.

From TODAY, Succeed – Monday, 18-May-2009

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Why a ‘blood transfusion’ may not work

The other day, we had our communication session, and I was having a small discussion with one of our teammates, and how some of the management decisions seemed inconsistent with the drive to reduce cost, especially during these hard times. And that is exactly what this article is discussing: retrenching 'experienced' workers, then hiring new blood… may not be warm blood after all, and even then, may not be warm enough to bring about the heat to induce the much-needed energy to propel changes – for the better.

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IT MAY be a time-tested policy, but the "blood transfusion" approach — retrenching workers during a downturn and hiring new ones when the good times return — may not be in the company's best interests these days.

Instead, companies should look at ways to manage costs and retain existing manpower, said labour chief Lim Swee Say.

"The blood transfusion method means that at the company level, you're going to lose a lot of experience, a lot of skill and time... it takes time to hire and retrain new workers. And if you're in a knowledge-based economy, the time needed to retrain new entrants will be much longer compared to a labour-intensive operation. It's better to upgrade and restructure with your existing workforce," said Mr Lim.

Companies restructuring operations should focus on reskilling, upskilling and multi-skilling existing workers while keeping their wage costs down, he added. This would lead to a win-win situation for workers, companies and Singapore's economy.

    The seminar also saw human resource experts offering some tips on how to manage employees during a downturn. CHANNEL

NEWSASIA, 938LIVE

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From TODAY, News – Thursday, 07-May-2009

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The Perfect World

Workplace Incentives

SCOTT FRIEDMAN
succeed@mediacorp.com.sg

NANCY, my Director of Everything, and I were talking about how we could better serve our clients and each other.

How can we be more efficient and effective in the office? How can we highlight our strengths and outsource or minimise our weaknesses? Out of the discussion came that one thing we knew we had been looking for ... the Perfect World concept.

How do we create each other’s “Perfect World?” Wouldn’t it be nice in our employer/employee relationship if we created a situation in which we both did more of what we loved, outsourced what we didn’t like, make it a point to do everything possible to make sure the other is happy, and stay focused on living true to our values?

What a concept! In fact, that would be each of our job descriptions: To create each other’s Perfect World. Simple, yet profound.

Mine and Nancy’s perfect world Okay, Nancy asked, “What is it for you? What drives you? What do you value? What is your perfect world?”

“It’s having more joy and less hassle,” I said. “Freedom to come and go as I please, freedom to create, and freedom to make a difference in this world in ways I’d like. If you help me do that, I’ll be one happy boss.”

“Okay, Nancy, what is your Perfect World?” I asked.

“Get rid of anything to do with accounting and technology, have more time for marketing and taking care of our clients. I’d also like to spend more time with my son (who at the time was 12) and with family around the country. I’d like to travel more, have more fun, and partake in the delightfully unexpected more often.”

“Okay, done,” I replied. “No more accounting and technology. We’ll order out. This will free you up to do more marketing and spend more time with clients. You can ‘call in well’ anytime you’d like if it gives you the opportunity to be with David and the family. We’ll create an incentive plan and your reward will be free tickets to travel anywhere you’d like. And I’ll do my best to keep things from getting mundane in the workplace.

“At the end of every month, we will grade ourselves on a scale of 1-10 on how well we did at creating each other’s Perfect World. If we aren’t at a 9 or 10, we’ll figure out a way to raise the score the next month.” And for the last 19 years, we’ve stayed in tune with each other’s Perfect World.

I run a small business and it may be easier for me to make quick changes than it is for you, but the question is, how attuned are you to your employees’ Perfect World? Are you self-absorbed and think only of your needs or do you think of what’s best for the people around you?

Creating others’ perfect worlds What if we lived our life with each other’s Perfect World in mind? What if we spent more time asking questions and paying attention to the Perfect World of our co-workers, spouses, family and friends? What if we made choices in life based on those Perfect Worlds? Would you sell more? Would you laugh more? Would you love more? Would the quality of your relationships improve? Would the quality of your life improve?

So how do you best go about creating another person’s Perfect World? You start by looking at the world through their eyes. It’s not always easy if you only have eyes for “I”. Get past your self-absorbed self. Pay more attention.

Start by asking questions. Ask the customers themselves: “If we could have done one thing better in working with you, what would it have been?” Find out and then deliver.

Ask: How can I create a better experience for my customers? What can I do to truly connect with them? How can I move from being ordinary to extraordinary?

Do you want to keep good customers? Want to keep good friends? Want to keep good employees? Find out what drives them. Find out what constitutes their Perfect World. The most effective company incentive programmes I’ve seen are the ones customised to meet the desires of each employee.

Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “One of the most beautiful compensations of this life is that no one can sincerely try to help another without helping himself.” It’s a wonderful way to live.

By living the Perfect World philosophy, we provide an opportunity for joy, spontaneity, curiosity, silliness, and laughter to flourish. And that’s not a bad way to live... In fact, that’s... perfect!

The writer, a certified speaking professional, will be delivering a talk, “Excuse me… are you a CEO? The chief engagement officer: Leadership through laughter”, on April 28 as part of the Singapore Institute of Management CEO Breakfast Series. For details, please contact Jacqueline Low at 6248 9448 or jacquelinelow@sim.edu.sg.

From TODAY, Succeed - Monday, 13-April-2009

Quick, short and efficient

On-site training

Workers and bosses give thumbs up for training at worksite

Alicia Wong

alicia@mediacorp.com.sg

THEIR lean manpower and mode of operation made it difficult for these retail companies to send their staff for training programmes.

Retail outlets cannot just close an outlet and send their employees for training even if business is slow, said Mrs Josephine Teo, assistant secretary-general of the National Trade Union Congress (NTUC), at the graduation ceremony of the inaugural “Provide GEMS Service” On-Site-Bite-Size (OSBS) training programme.

To cater to these retailers, the 12-hour OSBS programme was broken into five sessions and held during non-peak retailing hours, twice a week. The programme was first rolled out on March 23 at IMM, where the 24 participants were working.

“(We wanted to) find a way of delivering service training under the Workforce Skills Qualification framework to benefit a larger group of retailers, in particular, the SME group,” said Mrs Teo, who is also the executive secretary of the Singapore Industrial and Services Employees’ Union (Siseu). “SME retailers tend to have very lean manpower staffing and the conventional way of training delivery is not feasible for them.”

City Chain Stores’ operations manager Anthony Tan added that his store also did not have to look for replacement staff from other outlets while his workers went for the course.

Mr Ryan Yeo, one of the five City Chain employees who attended the course, said he could return to work easily after the class. Besides, the two-hour sessions also helped him focus better, compared to full-day classes, he said.

Added Mrs Teo, the tripartite — Siseu, the Employment and Employability Institute and the Singapore Workforce Development Agency — wanted a course that was relevant for the 150,000 people in the retail sector.

Since the programme comes under the Skills Programme for Upgrading and Resilience, which now offers 800 courses, participants get a 90-per-cent fee subsidy among others.

CapitaLand Retail, which runs IMM in Jurong East, hopes to extend the programme to its other malls, such as Raffles City, if there are 25 to 30 interested participants, said its deputy chief executive Simon Ho.

From TODAY, News – Thursday, 10-April-2009

US govt tells GM to prepare for bankruptcy filing

AFP - Monday, April 13

WASHINGTON (AFP) - - The US Treasury Department has told General Motors to make all necessary preparations for a possible bankruptcy filing by June 1, even though the troubled automaker insists it can restructure its business on its own, The New York Times reported.

Citing unnamed people "with knowledge of the plans," the newspaper said the instructions had been conveyed by members of President Barack Obama’s automotive task force, who spent last week in meetings and on conference calls with GM in Detroit and Washington.

The talks are expected to continue this week, the report said.

According to the paper, the goal is to prepare GM for a fast "surgical" bankruptcy.

The automaker already has been granted 13.4 billion dollars in federal aid, and its managers are insisting the company's image should not be damaged.

The preparations are aimed at assuring a GM bankruptcy filing is ready should the company be unable to reach agreement with bondholders to exchange roughly 28 billion dollars in debt into equity in GM and with the United Automobile Workers union, which has balked at granting concessions without sacrifices from bondholders, The Times said.

From Yahoo! News, Singapore. Find the source article here.

British Telecom to slash 10,000 jobs: report

More of the retrenchment exercises, and now it is on the giant companies...

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AFP - Monday, April 13

LONDON (AFP) - - British telecoms operator BT will cut 10,000 jobs when it reveals its preliminary results next month, reports said Sunday.

BT will also make a 1.5 billion pound (2.2 billion dollar) writedown in its under-fire Global Services division and slash its dividend by about 60 percent, according to the Daily Telegraph's website.

The job losses, which the report said will be in addition to the 10,000 job cuts BT made last year, are expected to be spread across the company's 160,000-strong global workforce.

BT's share price has plunged from 235 pence to 81 pence in just over a year, following a series of bad financial results.

The company warned in October that the previous management of Global Services, which supplies telecoms and IT services to multinational companies and government bodies, had overestimated the profitability of some of its biggest contracts.

BT's results are likely to be among the worst since it was privatised in 1984, the Telegraph and the Sunday Times reported.

Its poor financial performance in the face of the global economic slowdown is compounded by the cost of trying to plug its huge pension deficit.

A BT spokesman said the reports of an additional 10,000 job cuts were "speculative numbers."

"The company is focusing on cost reductions," he added.

From Yahoo! News, Singapore. Find the source article here.

Striking out on their own

Fresh Graduates

More graduates turn to entrepreneurship as job market sours

Lin Yanqin

yanqin@mediacorp.com.sg

HE IS looking out for job opportunities but undergraduate Wang Wei Xiang, 26, has more than employment on his mind as graduation looms.

The Singapore Management University business management student is also considering a partnership to start a consulting firm, given that the job market is less than rosy.

“Having a job would mean more security and that’s important for me, but if there is a promising idea I would explore it to see if it could become a business,” said Mr Wang, who attended the National Trades Union Congress’ (NTUC) first job fair for graduates yesterday.

He is not the only one thinking of striking out on his own. According to Ms Corrine Ong, director of the National University of Singapore’s Career Centre, more graduating students have been bringing up this idea.

The fair — which drew 800 jobseekers — also catered to the enterprising. Spring Singapore was present to introduce its Young Entrepreneurs Scheme for Startups for those under 26. Over 300 graduates are already registered to be part of Spring’s database, with a handful equipped with plans to start a business, said Mr Patrick Lim, Spring’s head for new business support.

But most do not know what being a young entrepreneur really entails. According to Spring, just 13 of the 30 applications received since the fund was launched in November have been accepted.

Apart from good ideas, entrepreneurs need to be prepared to work even harder to drive sales in a poor economy. They should also ensure they have sufficient partners to execute a business plan,  said Mr Lim.

But even with the interest from graduates, the fair focused mainly on job and attachment positions, with 2.48 per cent, or about 149 of the 6,000 openings, related to entrepreneurship.

NTUC assistant secretary general Josephine Teo said yesterday that some 8 per cent or about 1,000 of this year’s 12,000 graduating university students may find themselves without a job even after six months — if the employment rate of 87 per cent during the Sars period in 2003 is anything to go by.

Meanwhile, the labour movement will be organising three sector-specific networking sessions for graduates this year. Those seeking employment advice can also access NTUC’s new online advisory service at www.youngntuc.org.sg.

NTUC secretary-general Lim Swee Say urged graduates to keep an open mind. “One door will lead to another and you never know where life will take you to. If you give your very best… any job (which) may not come across as a dream job can turn out to be better than your dream job.”  

From TODAY, News

Tuesday, 07-April-2009

How to be more happy at work

I got this article from Yahoo! shine, and it is nice to keep. Tips on being happy at work, especially nowadays of a stressful economic downturn.

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Of course, being happy at work depends mostly on how much you like your job. But there are also smaller steps that can boost your happiness, as well -- partly by boosting your physical comfort and your productivity.

Some of these steps are VERY small, but the fact that you’re taking steps to improve your situation itself boosts happiness.

1. Check for eyestrain by putting your hand to your forehead in a salute. If your eyes feel relieved, your work space is too bright.

2. Sit up straight with your shoulders down — every time I adjust my sitting position, I instantly feel more energetic and cheerier.

3. Get a phone headset. I resisted for a long time, because it looks so preposterous, but it’s really much more comfortable. Also, it lets me pace while I talk on the phone, which also looks preposterous, but is energizing.

4. Don’t keep candy on your desk. Studies show that people are much more likely to snack when a treat is within easy reach, and a handful of M&Ms each day could mean a weight gain of five pounds by year’s end.

5. Never say “yes” on the phone; instead, say, “I’ll get back to you.” When you’re actually speaking to someone, the desire to be accommodating is very strong, and can lead you to say “yes” without enough consideration. Along the same lines…

6. When deciding whether to say “yes,” imagine that you’re accepting a job that you’ll have to do next week. Don’t agree to something just because it seems so far off that it doesn’t seem onerous.

7. Don’t let yourself get too hungry. My husband goes without eating for hours and hours at a time, so once, trying to be helpful, I bought him a big bag of granola to keep in his desk. He ate the whole bag in one day and ended up sick as a dog. Lesson: eat regularly.

8. Take care of difficult calls, tasks, or emails as quickly as possible. Procrastinating makes them harder; getting them done gives a big boost of relieved energy.

9. If you’re feeling overwhelmed, think hard about how you spend your time. Be honest. How much time do you spend surfing the internet, looking for things you’ve misplaced, or doing a task that’s really someone else’s job? Also…

10. Let yourself stay ignorant of things you don’t need to know.

11. Go outside at least once a day, and if possible, take a walk. The sunlight and activity is good for your focus, mood, and retention of information.

12. Say “Good morning” to everyone. Social contact is cheering, and if you feel that you’re on good terms with all the people in your office, you’ll be happier each day. Also, it’s polite.

 

From Yahoo! shine. The original article is here.