HR MANAGEMENT




Can Malaysians Think Right Anymore?

 NO PRAYERS DURING WORKING HOURS – Offenders Will Be Fined RM500 By Employer!

When it comes to religion and race we are a country that has lost our ability to rationalize what is right from what is wrong

2nd Aug 2019

The Incident in question

This company had purportedly issued a memo on 30th July 2019 banning prayers during work hours. A copy of this memo was viralled out onto social media.  And as usual with Malaysia, a brouhaha was kicked up and the authorities kicked in to investigate.   Well, the conclusion to this incident is that it turns out that the company had never issued that memo.   Somebody had faked and viralled it, and nobody (ie neither you nor me) had actually noticed that the memo bears no signature, and that the workers interviewed by the JTKSM during its investigation at its premises all say that they never saw the memo, nor had any superior talked to them about it, plus they are all being given time off for prayer all the time.


My Personal stand is as follows:

 (1)   It is always GOOD for an employer to voluntarily practice good employer/employee relations and allow privileges to the employee if by doing so the employer does not lose out in business but gains the appreciation of his workforce.

     (2)  Prayer time is one of such privileges.  It is not a statutory right.   This is what the employer, HR PROFESSIONAL and the employees must all understand.  A privilege granted gains appreciation and goodwill.  A right is granted does not gain any appreciation at all, because there are enshrined penalties for failing to grant rights.   Granting a privilege as if it is a statutory right is an act of ignorance and the good action is taken for granted as a right and not shown appreciation for. 

         (3) In this particular case, assuming that Hond Tat Industries did issue that memo :

        (a)  Hond Tat would not have been wise but then it would have acted within its rights as an employer. It would not have violated any law, nor any contractual right of the employees. 

     (b)  That memo should not state (it is not wise) that the company will impose a monetary fine on the employee who break that rule.  Yes, as far as the law goes, the company may impose “any lesser punishment” than a dismissal for misconducts {See Employment Act 1955 which provides so} and a fine is definitely lighter punishment than a dismissal decision.  But then there are less controversial actions that can be taken, especially that in this country religion has already hyped up to a hysterical level of sensitivity.  Rather than being a question of law and rights, it is a question of wisdom. 

   (4)   If this country is willing to stand up against LGBT rights which are also human rights, then prayer rights are also nothing more than human rights as such.  Much as I disagree with certain private things that LGBTs do, I will still say let the transgenders has do those things in their private space and time. And so too, let employees do their prayers in their own private space and time unless the employer chooses to graciously allows it.

        The following this will be a detailed explanation on my stand.


THE MAIN ISSUES THAT WE HAVE FORGOTTEN...

The authorities want to investigate? Oh good,  … but to investigate WHAT?  Go think …..

  1. What national law has been broken?  ( Name it if you can )

  1. Which part of the contract of employment with the employee has been breached?  ( Did the terms and conditions in the employment contract state it?)

  1. What enshrined right of anybody has been violated?  ( State the law that upholds the right to prayer time during working hours )

  1. Does not the employer have his rights under the contract of employment? {See IR Act 1967 Sec 13 : Management prerogatives to decide on how the business is to be operated)

LEST WE FORGET …. :
  1. A people who do not respect and uphold the law is a lawless people, despite the fact that laws do exist.  Do we?

  1. A business is a business.  Business needs comes first. No business no jobs. No employment.....no pay.  {See IR Act 1967 Sec 13 : Management prerogatives to decide on how the business is to be operated)  

  1. A contract of employment grants rights to both parties.  Anyone talking about the rights of the one who pays the salary?

  1. A wise employer may CHOOSE to forgo certain of his rights and grant privileges to employees for the sake of harmony that would enhance operations.  The decision is strictly voluntary and discretionary.  The same applies to time off for prayer. 

  1. Being unwise may be disadvantageous to the employer, but being unwise not an offence against any law.   The unwise employer will have to suffer consequences of law breaking ONLY IF any law is broken.  The unwise employer may have to suffer paying up for contractual consequences if any (express or implied) term of the employment contract is violated, if any is violated.

  1. Religious obligation is a PERSONAL obligation. Every religion has its own rules. Unless and until such rules are ENSHRINED as law, they remain as personal however widely accepted and practised they may be.

  1. When we impose as law what is not law, and ignore law when the law exists, we are nothing more than a lawless people, however well-schooled or well-educated we are.

THE FACTS WE DO FORGET/ OR CHOOSE TO IGNORE:
  1. Any court of law will agree that an employee is under a contract of service to be PAID FOR THE TIME HE IS UNDER THE CONTROL of the employer according to the contracted hours. Non work time is not to be paid for.
  2. Expanding on #1 above, according to the Employment Act 1955, the WORK hours of on-shift worker does not include any time off for breaks.   A Non shift worker works 8 hours a day times 6 days a week up to a maximum of 48 hours a week.  He MUST be given a minimum of 30 mins of break for a maximum of every 5 hours of work. He may even be given more time off for breaks, but these break times are not included within that 8 hours a day.

  1. On the other hand, a SHIFT WORKER’s 8 hours of work a day is inclusive of an aggregate of 45 minutes time off.  It is up to the employer to decide whether to arrange to give the 45 minutes at one go, or two or more breaks.

  1. Therefore, in view of #2 & 3,  should not the prayer time, being a personal commitment to God be done during these break hours?   Why must it be on paid hours if the law does not demand it, and the “unwise” employer does not choose to pay for it?


THE FACTS WE DO NOT KNOW OR MAY KNOW BUT CHOOSE TO IGNORE:

1.      In religion, prayer time is never strict “on-the-dot” time.  There is always a time leeway within which it can be done.

2.      The actual prayer time is not that long and it can always be completed within an arranged time, given that the employer can always arrange for less but longer breaks for shift workers. Non shift workers rarely enjoy only half hour of break, but usually longer.

3.      Even in the instance where the break time for shift workers does not allow enough time for him to complete his personal prayer to his God, he can always replace for missed prayers after work (if he really is committed to his God and his religion)

4.      And in a certain religion, where the person must pray on a specific day and time and at a specified place there are exceptions to the rule by that religion which is very very often touted as a very reasonable religion, ie:



     i.    If one is constrained by others from doing so, it is not a sin on him.  If the work regulations are a constraint, there is therefore no sin.   

             Is the above information correct or no?     Ans (  ) Yes      (  ) No.


     ii.    Even if he had chosen not to attend, it becomes a sin only if he fails to do it 3 times in a row.  Shift changes are usually done once a week or two weeks. That makes it almost impossible to miss it 3 times in a row, since only one shift has hours that fall within the specified hours.

              Is the above information correct or no?     Ans (  ) Yes      (  ) No.


          iii.     It is a fact that the ritual, prayer and worship time is obligatory on that specified day, but the sermon time is not. The prayer and worship time takes much less time than the sermon time.  Why is the normal one hour break not enough, barring parking problem and travel time are cited as reasons.

                 Is the above information correct or no?     Ans (  ) Yes      (  ) No..


           iv.   When we are speaking about a religion that is reasonable and based the above information if they are all correct, then it is the UNREASONABLE PEOPLE who are MAKING UNREASONABLE DEMANDS that becomes the problem.  If an employer choose to be unwise or even stupid and be out to disadvantage himself and his operations so that nobody wants to work for him, that is his own problem. It is not a problem of the law to be investigated, is it?

I lament the state of this country that has fallen to such depths. We were once among the foremost Asian Tigers. But now we are not because we have lost the ability to think critically and act rationally.  I lament for the future of our young, for those minds continue to be dumbed down by seniors in the community and parents such that they cannot think anymore.  Today, Singapore is way ahead of us. Today China is way way way way 30 years ahead of us. In the 1970s, China was some 30 years behind us.  They are communists but they can think. We are democratic but cannot think.  Give it another 15 years, you will be sending your daughters and wives to Cambodia and Myanmar to work as maids. What a thought. Remember, The Philippines was the top Asian Tiger in 1970’s ….WAS.

Now you know why this blog is called "UNPLEASANT TRUTHS".
  
Related Readings on “Can Malaysians Think Right Anymore?”


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A CHICKEN IS A CHICKEN
whatever else you may choose call it!

Tasty phoenix claws! But it is still chicken feet!
Tasty "Phoenix Claws" ! But it is still chicken feet

The Chinese named a very tasty dish “Phoenix Claws”.  “What’s that?”, you may ask.   The Phoenix, for the information of the ignorant, is a  mythological magnificent bird of East Asia that reign over all other birds.  And that absolutely tasty  dish stewed with mushroom is definitely not the chopped off claws of a phoenix. Those are chicken feet. You can change the name of a chicken to phoenix, but it is still a chicken. Nothing more.  A chicken is a chicken, is a chicken, is a chicken.

Chicken is not a phoenix, and a phoenix is no chicken. You can easily tell one from the other.
A Chick can never be a Phoenix



Which was why I resisted the title of Senior Business Partner in the institute at which I am serving.  I am a consultant, because that is exactly what I am. I own NOTHING of the institute. I do not even own the pen that I use when I am there. I own no shares, which is why I am not a partner. But I am a partner in Sow and Harvest Consulting Services. In fact, I am a Senior Partner of it, because I own the majority of the shares in Sow and Harvest Consulting Services. But I am not a senior business partner in the Institute.  I am just a consultant. Period. A consultant is a consultant, is a consultant, just as a chicken is a chicken, is a chicken.

What is the issue here?
Let’s get some sanity back into HR management. It is Human Resource management, not Human Resort management. In the history of management the decade before the advent of the 21st century witnessed the introduction of big job titles, which are nothing but misnomers, of the actual jobs.  Fancy job titles started to emerge. Grand sounding majestic titles in fact! As grand as the the chicken becoming the phoenix!  Quit the HR  culture of dishing out grand titles just to pamper feelings and emotions!

Here, it is easy to point the finger at the Americans and say that they started it, forgetting that the Chinese first saw it fit to call the chicken feet a phoenix claws, or to  term snake soup as a dragon broth, long before he Americans even thought of it.   We remember with awe, the advent of the job title of “Vice President” . Wow ! How grand! Vice President of Sales! Vice President of HR!  Bu we forgot, that before the Americans came up with VP , the British came up with Director of Sales and Director of Human Resources who were not even board members! Or that the Japanese started the use of the title GM of Admininstration and HR for what was the department manager!.

The issue is this, does the issuing of a grand sounding title make any difference to what matters in the job? You can put a monkey into a suit, and call that it a GM in the hope that this monkey will not run over to the tree.

Nowadays what used to be called Shampoo girls and face cleaners in a beauty saloon are called beauty consultants before they can even uphold themselves as one. Are they consultants simply because you call them so?



The giving of the title of a "consultant" to a monkey demeans not the monkey, it demeans the person who is a consultant. When you call a clerk a consultant, and the clerk continues behaves, thinks and acts like a clerk when facing your clients, it makes your organization look stupid and of a low
Giving titles demeans the genuine professional
standard!




A prostitute is  prostitute, and thinks and acts like prostitute. We have whorehouses changing the job titles of their prostitutes to nicer sounding names like “Guest Relations Officers”, i.e. GROs. That surely did not change the nature of what they do. In fact, this misuse threw a little slime on the job of Public Relations Officers!

Now, we have all heard that these days, it is difficult to get people into jobs which do no not have a nice ring to the job titles. And this has apparently resulted in the practice of calling monkeys by nicer names, which has improved some organizations' ability to retain the monkeys. But have you noticed that you have not been retaining the real talents that resented being classified with the monkeys?

So, let’s get some sanity back into HR Management. Instead of just “flowing with the current” as  garbage and debris do, be strong and swim against the current, and do what is right. The garbage always flow with the current. The strong swim against it. Abraham Lincoln swam against the current of slavery. Mahatma Ghandi swam against the current of political and social enslavement!.

Do not demean your organization and the professional titles by handing them out to the monkeys and chickens. Call a clerk a clerk. And, until that clerk has acquired the competencies and proves his capability to perform at a higher level, do not call him by any higher title, lest you demean it.

Call a  salesperson a sales person, not sales advisor! And he is not a "sales advisor" unless he can, and is allowed to advise an inquirer to use the product of a competitor which is more suitable for him.  Otherwise, he is still your sales person!

Are you angry?

If you truly understand what I have been writing about here, you will see crucial elements of competency management, talent management coupled with corporate image building, protection and  communications!

If you are angry, at what I have written, think again. Maybe you happen to be the monkey with blown up job title, which is why you are angry. Maybe you happen to be the one calls the chicken a phoenix.. And if despite that,  you are facing endless talent management problems as it is, this is what I have o say to you “ Padan Muka Kamu” in the Malay language. The truth often does get unpleasant, does it not?


Consistency in Leadership
 Lessons from Pavlov's Experiment

Today, I want to write about leadership. Leadership is a very wide subject. Volumes can be written about it.
But today, I want to write about one aspect of leadership, and that is consistency.

I often hear leaders grouse and complain about their team members not responding to them in the way they had wanted, or expected.  Today, I want to say it takes 2 hands to clap.

For you people to respond to the way you want or expect, you as the leader must have been consistent in the first place. And this is something you probably never paid attention to. Why so? I don’t know. I can only guess that it is probably because you have taken it for granted that with your superior status, it is your privilege to have more leeway with your own behavior. You see,  when you as the leader do not show consistency in your behavior, expectations or decisions, you can be making your subordinates wonder, think these  about you …
  1. Now, what’s up this time with him?
  2. Uh- oh! I think he got up from the wrong side of the bed!
  3. His wife gave him a bad time last night.
  4. But that wasn’t what he said earlier!
  5. Sheeesh! Now he is looking for excuses to blame us for it!
  6. Ya! He says that for others, but what about himself?
  7. He is in his pre-menstrual syndrome again!

Lessons from Pavlov’s Experiment
Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov did some experiments with dogs, and notice that they began to saliate in response to  being fed. And then, he also noticed that they even salivate whenever he entered into the room when it was not even feeding time. And then, he did an experiment to test out his thoughts about the matter. Guess what he discovered?

It turned out that the dogs were responding to certain forms of stimuli associated with the food. It had started with his bringing in the food, and then somewhere along the line, the dog started to link the food to the opening of the door, and when finally, Pavlov consistently rang a bell, before serving the food, the dog eventually responded by salivating upon hearing the ring the bell. If the ringing of the bell always brought food, which the dog desired, the dog responded consistently.

Now, we are talking about an animal here. I am sure you are not leading a bunch of animals, although I, on the other hand have heard many people classifying themselves as animals, having been evolved out of apes. Any wonder why people are acting like animals, these days?

Back to the issue at hand. How do you think animal trainers get their animals to do the things they want, each and every time? Ever notice the circus ringmaster always putting something into the mouth of the horses as they complete each stunt? Every noticed how dog owners in a dog show pat their dogs on the head each time the dog does something well? It is the consistency of the master that leads the animals to perform and keep performing the way the master wants. Now imagine, you have a pet in the house. And that pet jumps up with joy and make happy noises each time it hears you coming home. And without fail, each time you pet it on the head, hold and cuddle it and even feed it. Which means you consistently show your pleasure it what it did for you, and to you. Would that relationship not continue on and on? But now, imagine this. On a good day, you reward that pet with the your behavior towards it that it desires too. But on a bad day, you shout and growl back at it, push it away, even whack it with whatever you have on hand. Are you not causing that pet confusion?  Does the pet know that you have had a bad day? Or does it understand why you should not have had a bad day?

If you are going to be consistently inconsistent in the way you treat that pet, would not that pet eventually become confused? Would it not sometimes respond as you expect and sometimes not? Would it not eventually even learn to turn a deaf ear to you? It will! It eventually will!
And that, is what I see as one of the primary reasons why subordinates are not able to respond to their superiors as expected.

Now, How Have You Been Inconsistent?

Let’s think of some very common situations:

1)      You heartily return a “Good morning!” greeting some days, and some days you just return it with a growl, or harrumph, some undiscernible guttural sounds or even pure silence!
2)      You urge subordinates to put in their best into a project or some assignment, and when they come to you for solutions to perceived obstacles, you tell them not to come back to you with their problems!
3)      You urge subordinates to work as teams, and when some complaints come up about somebody being less than helpful or cooperative, you have a thousand a one wise things to say about them not having the skills and attitude to work together, but never getting down to the alleged culprit to work things out for the whole team.
4)      You harangue them for discipline, deadlines, etc and turns a blind eye against Sharin for lateness and even absenteeism, missing deadlines, but whack Karim for the same shortcomings.
5)      You push them to be serious about standards and results, and when they come to you for help to push for standards of enforcement on this and that, you tell them not to be that serious.
6)      You put up office rules, but enforcing them only as and when it takes your fancy. You even totally ignore enforcing certain rules that you have put up. You should take down whatever you do mean to enforce!
7)      You tell them to be forthright with you for things that are not working right, brush away their reports on the negative things.

I could go on. But I leave the rest to you. You go figure. The list is endless.

The animals were conditioned to react to certain consistent behavior of the master. If the master becomes inconsistent, its behavior too is conditioned to become inconsistent. Are you not conditioning your subordinates to become inconsistent with your own consistent inconsistencies towards them? Think!

Written by: Chan Wang Tak
Sr. Business Partner

 

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Employee Engagement Equals Talent Retention
Retaining Employees or Retaining Talents?

Talent management has swiftly and silently taken over as the emphasis in human resource management. What is the point of doing everything to attract and keep employees, if the employees you retain and keep aren’t the employees who are the talents that are treasured and of value to you and your business?

Employee retention is not necessarily talent retention.  I have always shouted from the rooftops that employers are more often successful at keeping the fools they would love losing, but losing the talents they love having.  And their HR managers have been creatively conservative in coming up with ideas on programs and activities that look good, sound better, cost more money to implement, and provide more solid excuses for them to say “Look, haven’t we done all we can?”, but still not keeping enough talents that the employer needs. Which is why the same HR managers are still hard pressed on issues of recruitment and retention.

My personal definition of the ultimate challenge of HRM has always been:

“To attract, train and retain adequate numbers of competent employees within optimal costs in a timely manner”.

Maybe it is time to update that definition a little bit by replacing “competent employees” with the term “required talents”. That would make it look cosmetically better and sound more savvy.

Continuing In Efforts In Futility
And so, what have we been doing to retain talents? From what I have observed,  our efforts continue to be focused on improving the level of the salary and benefits package and making the work in this area sound savvy by calling it compensation and benefits.  But they are still no keeping the talents! Why so? Because the HR managers of the competitors just as easily moved their package upwards!
Well, there are the more creative HR managers, who are lucky enough to report to CEOs who are equally savvy in their thinking, which is why  they have managed to get more budget to renovate the work space with nice, Microsoft and Google-office looking environment, complete with Starbuckish pantry to keep talents. Little did they know that nice working environments and better tasting coffee does little to sieve out the morons and retain the talents.

Retaining Talents Need An Overhaul of Thinking.
Forget fancy footsteps. Go back to the basics. Engagement is not about doing surveys, adding new telecom gadgets, painting up the walls with equally colorful furniture and fittings and serving high quality coffee in sizzled up pantries. There is more to employee engagement which, in my mind is more about creating an environment where the talented people have the freedom and support to see their ideas put to the test, corrective measures being taken to rectify shortcomings, with timely feedback, moral support and recognition of little successes with genuine celebration and applause, and tangible and substantive rewards for major successes.

Yes, activities like conducting the annual employee engagement survey is necessary, but this is only for the purpose of obtaining some formal feedback on how people feel about the way things are being run in the company. How reliable is that feedback will still need to be questioned, because your people may be telling you what you love to hear, rather than what you need to hear. Get the point? Does your company have the right environment from which you get honest answers?

Yes, you will need to work on the relationship environment in work, watchful of and ready to nip individuals’ nit-picking, disruptive or harmony-eroding behaviours without fear or favour. You need to work on the health of the all communication channels, whether it is top-down, bottom up, or laterally. All these are basic imperatives in management.

Yes, you have to pay attention to the academics of employee engagement such as:
  • setting clear goals and expectations for the organization, and assign these downwards to departments and individuals
  • enforcing a system of giving meaningful feedback on a regular basis
  • provide opportunities for growth and development, and ensure that those who seek growth and develop have access to them
  • being able to practice fair and rewards, recognition, appreciation
But you will need to do more than have these things in place in order to get the employee into a state of being fully engaged with the company.

Getting Down To Work On the Matters that Matter.
All the wonderful superstructures you put in place above is not going to work for you to get employees fully engaged until you put sincerity and consistency into how these things work. Here are some thoughts you need to be clear about:
  • Expectation and Goals and mean nothing, if you do not hold every person and every position accountable for what is doable, and should have been done, which wasn’t done.
  • Failure to achieve goals is not the real problem, but the failure to put to work that which could have brought the results.
  • Feedback is important. Regular feedback is even more important. And meaningful feedback must top it all. Any superior who does not have the skills to provide feedback in a meaningful manner needs to be drilled until he can do it, and if he fails, send him to Siberia.
  • Talents are talents because they have ideas, competency and the desire to perform. If there is any superior who feels threatened by the dynamism and zeal of any talent, that superior needs to receive more than a slap in the wrists, otherwise he is going to dampen the zeal of the talent, or even create a condition that makes it himself feel secure without the presence of that talent.
  • Not everybody is a talent who seeks growth and development. Not everybody wants to make progress through contribution to the company’s growth. Some prefer to do less in order to maintain their own level of comfort. These people deserves no special attention, except to perform to the minimum expectation, and be compensated in no special way. Mediocre people should be given mediocre compensation. Complaining mediocre people should be invited to take their complaints elsewhere.
  • Talents usually have passion for what they do. They need an avenue to channel their passion, energy and to test out ideas. If you want to retain the talents, you need to give them the opportunity to expend their energy and put their ideas into practice. You need to redesign their jobs for them … not just giving them a new and fancy job title. Redesigning jobs would also mean re-designating job relationships so that existing work can go on unabated and uninterrupted, while the talent increase the level of his contribution and enjoy the challenges he seek.
  • Talents are usually ambitious. For some talents, you may need to consider enlarging the jobs they do, so that they can enjoy wider responsibilities, assume greater accountability, which expedites their growth and also give them more challenges, and more interesting work to do. Tap into their passion, not douse it.
  • And yes, you really have to differentiate the rewards and make rewards directly identifiable with the successes they produce, to be substantively justifiable with the level of success attained. Your methods and process of performance evaluation and rewards must therefore be relevant and transparent, away from the “everybody does it” way so common in the world.
And finally, take a thought that while you are working at retaining the talents that you are not turning them into high performing prima donnas. They should be subject to the same level of discipline, moral behaviour and standards of professionalism as everybody else. They should not be allowed to push the average performing people around. The average persons are important to and need to be treated with as much respect at their work. Imagine working at an office where there is no one to clean to toilets and keep their environment dust-free.

Superficial and cosmetic changes to job titles, painting up the walls to be more cheerfully colored, nicer work cubicles are nothing better than passing fads.  They are only good for photo shoots and media conferences.

Talents are attracted by challenges. Talents are motivated by successes. Talents look forward to achievement and recognition. These are things which your competitors find difficulty to match with; they can outplay you at the compensation and benefits game anytime.

Written by: Chan Wang Tak
                 Sr. Business Partner
                 MIHRM





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Talent Management - Use higher level approaches instead
Why are you Losing your talents?

Still using run of the mill answers?


In my decades at this noble profession, I have grown benumbed to the call to rectify the loss of human resource with improvements to salary and benefits.  In those days, still refer to human beings as human beings, not talents. It seems to be the only response managers know how to use in those days. And still is so today.  When the company is making good money and can afford it, what the heck! ………., isn’t that is the easiest way to shut up the noise of those pesky managers? Well, as far as I can remember, we often continue to lose the talents, and usually the best. Improving the salary and benefits does stop the outflow for a while ……. but it picks up again sooner or later, and we go into another round later on. At least in the meantime, we get a chance to tell off those other pesky managers “ What more do you want? Haven’t the salary been raised?”, and get some relief for our ears, and buy time to work on the real solutions.

In my last job at a leading retail group then, after fumbling in the 1980's, we did actually manage to keep most of our biggest talents after that. Our group of companies then may have appeared to be of nothing more than “cina-apek” origins.  Yet, we rocked the market. Our competitors eyed our pool of talents and we lost few to them.  Our vendors did pinched from us, though and they did well. And some 10 years after my departure, the whole organization collapsed and even got delisted from the stock exchange. Yet, look back and look on now, it is satisfying to see so many of the talents of those days sitting in top management positions today in other retailing companies and other industries. They were real talents, and we managed to retain them until after the new board of directors in the 1990s screwed with the funds, jammed up the cash flow and caused the whole business to collapse. But from 2000 till now,  the talents remained the talents and are spinning money for companies like Aeon, Giant, NSK, The Store, etc instead!

How do you really keep talents? Apparently money is not the only answer, as important as it is. People do not work for money alone. Try looking into the push factors …….. i.e. factors in your management culture that is pushing your people to your competitors ! They are probably things you have failed ot think of, till now.  Let us tickle you with just three,  here i.e.

1)      Smart financial management that pay off your vendor partners quickly. Strong vendor partnership reduces negotiation stress and hurdles, and help to keep talents.
2)      Train talents in relationship management and how to uphold their image as professionals and deal professionally with others, gaining respect for themselves as worthy representatives of your organization. They hate to leave you after this.
3)      Challenge your talents with responsibility and freedom to act, BUT give them clear guidelines on the authority that comes with that responsibility to see that they can enforce whatever is needed to bring in the results expected, and set clear rules on the boundaries of that authority such that they know how not to abuse it.
Talk to MIHRM if you want to know how to go about retain talents apart from the run-of-mill, academic approaches.  We can talk to you about all those, too. But we know better.

Written by: Chan Wang Tak
                       Sr. Business Partner


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EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT - HOW TO PRACTICE IT
 The Various C’s of employee engagement


You may think you engaged a pair of hands to help out your business. But that pair of hands comes with a heart and a brain. You pay for the hands, but you get the brains for free. The biggest bonus for you is the heart!
I came across this idea of 10 C’s of employee engagement somewhere on the internet.. While I do agree with all of them, I have found some of them a wee bit contrived. And so I am sharing it with you the same ideas from personal of 30 years ago, long before the term “employee engagement” was coined! The C's that I have practised very successfully are:

1.      Credibility: Can you be trusted? Do your subordinates trust you? Too many managers think themselves to be too smart, good at making nice sounds on behalf of the management, to elevate their self images and to make themselves look good! But these managers are also  very adept at making excuses for themselves and the company when it comes to keeping promises. These guys know nuts about credibility. Without credibility, you are just a piece of talking head and moving mouth. I have seen too many leaders in the office that take more tea breaks, longer tea and lunch breaks and everybody else, and the justification? “As an executive, I have to work harder than others, I actually have to work on my off-days, rest days and even when I am on my annual leave!”  How convincing! To himself, that it. Hello, there! You also happen to be paid more, enjoy more days of annual leave and higher range of benefits!.
So, learn to be believable in order to be credible.  Credibility is the most important of all the C's that follow. If you do not have this, don’t bother with the others. Who is going to believe what you say or do, anyway?

2.     Confidence: With credibility in place, you have to build your subordinates’ confidence in yourself and the company. Building confidence takes more than exercising your tongue and lips. It means showing actions and behaviour that complement what you say. Walk the talk.  BE SEEN doing what you encourage others to do. Be consistent with the things you say and propound! Stop taking advantage of the so-called “executive privileges”, rather be seen as a person ready to sacrifice for the company. And keep promises. And make sure the company keep promises. The less excuses the better! Be accountable.

Maintain high ethical and performance standards!
3.       Connect: That means, get real with your people. Sitting high and mighty on your executive ivory tower cushioned chair disconnects you from them! Spend a few hours month rolling up your nice long sleeves, tuck in your neck ties, and doing the job that they do. Try updating the big spreadsheet someone has to do all the time, and see how fast you can do it without making the same mistakes they do! Go and stand at static duty with the guard at the guardhouse. How about spending 2 hours picking up incoming phone calls? You can also try your hand at get some sales appointments fixed up as if you are the administrative assistant, and see how well you can do.  Why not spend time, going out on cold calls with a salesman or two? Go and drive the van or bus for a day. Go onto the production floor and man the production machines. Or go climb into the sewer or up the ceiling with the facilities technician while he does so repairs.
And while you are doing all those things, keep your ears open and listen. And while you are at it, talk with them, talk to them and listen. You will marvel at the things you would not otherwise hear and learn about. Then, get back to your office and do something about it! See the magic that results with your people.

Connect people with people! Human beings are made to be social creatures. We need to feel loved, cared for and supported in whatever situation we are in. Frictions and conflicts are the unfortunate parts of social encounters. Nip all frictions and conflicts in the bud. Turn dysfunctional conflicts into functional conflicts. Never let frictions and conflicts fester. Broken relationships cause disconnections. Disconnections results in disengagement


4 & 5 Congratulate or Correct: Learn the art of MBWA, i.e. Management by Walking  Around . Train your  eyes to rove and observe. If you see someone deserving of a praise … do it on the spot, without being officious about it. Better still, remember him or her and tell her superior about it. Reward reinforces. Reward does not always need to be in kind or cash. Recognition rewards the inner needs of a person. The need for one to know that one has been useful, is capable and his contributions matter!

ON the other hand, if you see something that needs correction!, correct it on the spot. You do no need to blow your top while doing it. The important thing to remember is that you want it corrected, so that it does not happen again. And if what you are correcting has been recurring with the lower level employee, go for this superior instead, and hold him accountable for failing to supervise properly, do that right in front of the offending employee. It works wonders!

6. Clarity: Nobody wants to make mistakes. Often mistakes arise out of well-intentioned assumptions made when directions and purposes are not clear. Ensure each subordinate is clear about the objective and purpose of his job; clear about the reasons why the tasks given to him are to be done in the way expected, and the effects, if done otherwise.

Clarity about organizational objectives and purpose are also important, especially when the employee is helped to connect what he does,  and how he does things to the achievement of those objectives.

7.       Career? : Career is not everybody’s cup of tea. If a person is career conscious, then of course it is of utmost importance that his career advancement within the organization is connectable to his efforts and contributions to his work.

Employee engagement is not a all difficult. It is fun and rewarding. It also builds relationships. And the workplace becomes a lively, place to look forward to .

Written By:Chan Wang Tak
Sr Business Partner
Malaysian Institute of Human Resource Management



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Employee Engagement - How To Do It
"An engaged employee is more than satisfied with his work and the organization. A fully engaged employee works because he wants the organization to succeed, because he is excited about it"


The development of the Concept of Employee Engagement

It may take two to tango, but it takes three to engage employees. And we are not talking about getting into the marital affairs of employees here. We are talking of the state of the mind and the degree commitment of an employee to his employer!

The former wisdom of HR management from the 1970s focused on efforts to build loyalty and sense of belonging to the organization, increase employee satisfaction and raise the motivational level of employees towards their work. But in the decades that followed, we have discovered that:

  1.  Satisfied employees are not necessarily productive. They merely have nothing to complain about.
  2. Loyalty and sense of belonging led to long service employees happy with their own security of existence in the organization.
  3. Motivated employees often worked for their own benefits and,
  4. The benefits accruing the employer is only co-incidental.

Something is missing. And that missing thing is PASSION and commitment to the organization!

The formal idea of employee engagement appeared to have been defined first a William Kahn of the Boston University, who had described it as "the harnessing of organisation members' selves to their work roles; in engagement, people employ and express themselves physically, cognitively, and emotionally during role performances." , in his article  Psychological conditions of personal engagement and disengagement at work. (  Dec 1990). A later paper published by the Institute of Employment Studies (IES) called  ‘From People to Profits, the HR link to the service-profit chain’. In this paper, IES showed how employee attitudes and behaviour could improve customer retention which results in sales performance and better profits.  The focus now shifts from the state of mind of the employee to the resulting behaviour, engagement at work.

What You Can Do To Raise The Level of Employee Engagement In Your Organization

1.     Ensure all motivational factors are addressed
Keeping the employees satisfied is still a necessity. Get this done before you even think of getting them engaged. Addressed the issues raised by Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. People at different levels have different needs. Ensure that the Hygiene factors mooted by Hertzberg’s Two Factor Theory is satisfied first, then concentrate on the Motivator factors to pepped up and be on the go.  Do great things with their work environment by all means! Companies are now putting colors into the walls, using rainbow colored work chairs, fitting Starbucks style cafeterias into the office area. But don't kid yourself that physical changes like these are going to make a difference, because unless you work the other things listed below, nobody is going to notice the colors anymore after a few months.

2.      Educate, Not Indoctrinate
Educate employees on the importance of their job to the company. Do not indoctrinate. Teach them to think, not tell them what to think. Provide the information that helps them see for themselves how important their job can be. Even the toilet cleaner’s job is absolutely indispensable. Imagine yourself working in an office with a dirty, wet and smelly toilet! But the toilet cleaner does not know how much you appreciate his work unless you help him see it for himself, isn’t that true ? And he will do a better job simply because he knows how important it is.

3.      "Set the standards, and make expectations clear”  
Actually nobody wants to do a lousy job. But when they work with a lousy boss who cannot set clear standards and express the expectations of the company clearly, lousy is just a subjective word. The employee will then do what is great according to his level of thinking, which may not be great for you. Provide clear information, materials and equipment for the employee to work with, so that he can attain the standards and expectations you have set.”

4.      Regular feedback and dialogue with superiors
Give employees a sense of direction. Tell them if they are doing OK, and how Ok is OK. And say something nice, and say thank you meaningfully. It is cheaper than giving lunch, but that’s OK too.

If things are not OK, tell them what is not OK and why it is not OK. And show them how it can be OK again.
That means, you have to have a regular habit of meeting with them over their work, whether formally or informally; whether individually or in groups. And you will not be willing to do this if you had not told them what you had expected of them in the first place.

5.      Use their brains, not just their hands
When you employ a pair of hands to work, his brains comes free. If you value only his hands, he may feel insulted. If you value his brains, he is feels exalted.

Find every opportunity to get everyone together to solve work problems, especially the known ones that affect everybody. Don’t involve the ones who are not affected by the problem, unless they want to. Keep these meetings short, and put their ideas to good use, and give credit to the ones who gave the ideas; get them excited about their own ability to contribute!

6.      Ensure good working relationships between peers, superiors, and subordinates
As a superior, ensure that you have been showing yourself to be approachable, and open for ideas and discussions. Ensure good superior subordinate relationship

And ensure good peer to peer relationship. When you hear of employees gossiping that causes uneasiness, nip it in the bud. Talk to the individuals privately and say you want it to stop. You do not need to first know who is doing it. When you get everybody together for some purpose, just say “By the way, I have heard of some unhappiness about somebody saying that someone is this and that. Whoever it is doing it, just plug it.” You will be surprised that it will stop.

7.      Career advancement/improvement opportunities
All the praises and positive feedback from #4 above does nothing if the person who does well cannot see his path ahead of him. He is only going to feel exploited if he cannot see what he is going to gain.

Talk with them as individuals, recognize their skills and interests, and help them develop in their areas of strengths and interests. It works like magic!

8.      Give Responsibilities and Challenges
This does not mean you off-load as much work you can on them. It means you challenge them to take on more in the areas they are keen on. You show support for them while they are on it.


9.      Maintain a high ethos and values of the organization –
Set your organizational values. Believe in these values. Work on these values. Live these values. If you say “We put service above self” then live it, and get everyone to live it. It starts with the boss.


10.  Reward to engage

Reward to recognize the achievements. Reward with pay, incentives and benefits linked to achievements. More than these, reward with intrinsic rewards; with sincere appreciation and “thank you’s”. Reward with respect and praises. It will make morale soar like an eagle.
Remember never to make your “well dones”, “thank yous”, your praises nor your lunches into routine practices. Don't let your reward become "cheap".

Finally, to ensure you succeed, communicate, communicate and communicate. The elements of being sincere and caring are not to be ignored. Do everything sincerely and let the employee see that the the organization’s well-being does depend on his contributions, and the organization does care about his development, and believe that together you are going to conquer the world.  That should get him engaged.

Coming next: The Employee Engagement Survey


Written by: Chan Wang Tak
                 Sr Business Partner                
                 Malaysian Institute of Human Resource Management
                 8th August 2014

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10 BEST PRACTICES FOR SUCCESSION PLANNING



Why hit the panic buttons and rush to recruit the next best destructor to replace that gem who leaves your company? Just put these practices into practice!
  1. Get commitment of the Top Guns, i.e. the CEO, MD, Board of Directors  If the CEO is in, it will work. If the CEO asks questions, people will sweat. If the Board wants to see action, you get action. If it is HR effort, it is human resort response.
  2. Review talent pool regularly. The CEO must review the talent pool situation regularly with both the HR manager and departmental heads. That way, everybody pays attention to potential talents. Or else, some heads will make sure the talents don’t stay.
  3. Identify potentials from 2 levels down. Don’t just focus on the next level down. The 2nd level down chaps will need more time to be developed.
  4. Make the effort a continuous step by step process, no hop, step and jump approach. Develop talents from the very bottom as the source of your talents.
  5. Make managers and leader accountable Don’t pussyfoot with managers and executives who give excuses why they have no talents to develop. They run the departments and have to know the people and their aspirations. No accountability, no results
  6. Align with business strategy. See clearly the business case for doing succession planning. See clearly the consequences for failing to do it. Make sure everyone knows and can explain it.
  7. Tackle the fears and emotionalism surrounding succession planning. Some fears are rational. Some people should fear it because they are not doing their jobs right in the first place, and feel threatened. Some are irrational, some due to lack of information.
  8. Carry out assessment on the performance and potential of individuals – Measure constantly and consistently. Make no guesses. Don’t depend on subjective emotional feelings.
  9. Blend succession planning efforts into other HR functional components such as performance management, recruitment, selection, development and rewards.  They are all inter-related jigsaw pieces. If one part is amiss, the picture is not complete.
  10. Be seriously committed. Give time and resources into developmental activities  Nothing succeeds with commitment. It is easier to spend money than time. It is easier to move the lips than to move the hands and feet. Therefore, plan the developmental activities, time table and checklists. Act on it, evaluate, take counter measures and plan again. It is a continual and continuing process.
Written by Chan Wang Tak
                Sr. Business Partner
                Malaysian Institute of Human Resource Management
                17th July 2014





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