Emerging HR Practices in 2011

Recently, I attended Singapore HR Summit 2011 - Productivity & Workplace ROI. One of the interesting topic that was presented by one of the international speaker was two (2) "emerging HR practice" ...

1. 'Sleeping' .... in Europe, organization is allowing their employees to take a nap or have a 'sleep session' between 20 to 30 minutes. According to the presenter, research finding indicated that a 15 minutes nap / sleep can increase productivity as much as 15% to 30%.
2. 'Removing the practice of conducting yearly performance appraisal session' ... according to research, there is no evidence that performance appraisal session improve employee's performance. Please don't take it that by removing the yearly performance appraisal session - the organization does not care about managing performance. What they are arguing is managers should be managing and providing positive feedback to their subordinate on 365 days a year.
3. 'Free food' ...  there is a trend that large organizations (Google, Microsoft Corp, etc.)  are provide 'food' as part of their employment benefits. Some provide breakfast and other provide lunch! The presenter link the logic of providing 'food' benefit to "Maslow Hierarchy of Needs" ... sound logic!

Exhibit 1: Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs Theory

Employee Engagement Models

In addition to my previous article on "Video Session: Employee Engagement" - listed below are some samples of the Employee Engagement models available from the Internet ....

 

[Resource: http://www.davidzinger.com/zinger-employee-engagement-model-4011/ ]

[Resource: http://www.bpanz.com/page/Services/Employee_Engagement_Model/]

[Resource: http://was2.hewitt.com/bestemployers/anz/pages/driving_engagement.htm]

 

[Resource: http://www.boston.com/jobs/nehra/062308.shtml]

 

[Resource: http://www.employesurveys.co.uk/employee_engagement_section/employee_engagement.php]

 

[Resource: http://www.themeetingmagazines.com/index/Default.aspx?tabid=1152]

[Resource: http://www.humanext.com/employee-engagement-for-change.html]

 

[Resource: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2007/05/09111348/5]

[Resource: http://www.ennovaconsulting.com/Employee%20surveys-951.aspx]

Video Session: Employee Engagement

If you don't feel like reading, then this page will be good ... no no it is great for you ... all the video links talk about "Employee Engagement" ... check it out .... it is a great way to increase your knowledge ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNxoOWUCedo&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JbWInqfKLk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lu4HS70RJEI&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7grVYxaobQ&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3itayJYK2ek&feature=related

HR Process: Conflict Management and Workforce Relations

HR Process: Survey, Research & Feedback

HR Process: Rewards & Recognition

HR Process: Compensation

HR Process: Performance Management

HR Process: High Potential (HiPo) Development

HR Process: Training & Development

HR Process: Succession Plan

HR Process: Career Management

HR Process: Promotion

A simplified employee's promotion process:

HR Process: Recruitment & Selection

HR Process: Manpower Planning

Listed below is a sample of a typical "Manpower Planning" process flow: -

International HR Manager Vs Regional HR Manager

If you see a job advertisement for "International HR Manager" - please don't assume that it is similar to a "Regional HR Manager" job post. Read the job description carefully!

In most large MNC organization - "International HR Manager" job scope cover the following: -

• Support expat (full expat / semi expat) or overseas trainees (aka international assignee) who are on international assignment (IA);
• Co-ordinate with home country and host country HR team on HR matters related to an employee on IA;
• Responsible for record-keeping of an international assignee employment contract (compensation, tax, benefits, insurance coverage, entitlement, etc.)
• Organize orientation / assimilating training to prepare an employee who will be assigned to a foreign country;
• Preparing and up-date country orientation material;
• Actively participate in the company talent management procedure and processes e.g., succession plan, performance management records, etc.
• Subject Matter Expert (SME) for a particular group of country culture, religions & people; local country statutory law requirements; economic data; culture management training; etc.

On the other hand, a "Regional HR Manager" job scope may cover the full spectrum of a Human Resource "Generalist"  Manager but perform his / her job from a group or region (North American; Europe, Central Europe, Africa, Asia-Pacific, Oceania, etc.) perspective.

Note: In some European (especially Germans) organization, "Regional HR Manager" is also called "Area HR Manager".

Part of HR Manager Job: Budgeting, Forecasting and Costing

Many times when I am being interview by a hiring manager or recruiter - I notice that they will always miss-out one important competency for a HR Manager which is "budgeting and costing". Maybe because most HR Professionals are labelled as dumb in numbers or numerical.

If you are aspiring to be a HR Manager - make sure you are able to perform the following tasks:

• budgeting employment cost (by cost center);
• forecasting quarterly employment cost (by cost center);
• budgeting an organization wide training & development (by cost center).

The above-mentioned tasks are the minimum you should be competent. When joining an organization, I always asked the finance / accounts dept how they prepared the company annual budget and what is their "methodology".

I hope with this ... company heads will not label HR Professional as dumb in numerical tasks.

Website: http://www.glassdoor.com/index.htm

I want share this website known as "Glassdoor.com". One of my colleague shared it with me how his friends in the banking industry utilized the website to obtain information for employment, salary and view "company review" by existing employees of a particular company. It is raw information and I think HR Professional need to check out this website ... as you name name be mentioned in it (either for good or bad! hax2)

It is a great tools for HR Professional to find how well the company or the HR Dept is doing! It is a good place to get feedback from your employees. But it is not for the weak heart person ... pure honest and "raw" feedback!

Exhibit 1: http://www.glassdoor.com/index.htm

My e-Learning / Online Study Experience

Last year August 2010, I decided to register with an UK online learning center (NCC Home Learning: http://www.ncchomelearning.co.uk/About-Us) for a Diploma course in Psychology. The decision to select an online course was because the "traditional" course I was interested only have classes during weekend (Saturday and Sunday) which I cannot commit the time.

I completed the diploma course in just 9 months [officially received the notification from my professor Dr. Matthew Smith (http://drmatthewsmith.blogspot.com/on) on May 10, 2011]. This learning experience changed my mindset about e-learning and now I can see the positive contributions (and effectiveness) to an employee's training and development program.

Exhibit 1: Progress of My Online Study

Exhibit 2: Progress of my course by modules

Exhibit 3: Copy of my Diploma in Psychology

There are Pros and Cons in enrolling for a online course: -

Pros:

1. Compared to traditional classroom training - online study is much more economically. The online diploma cost me around SGD$770 conversion. A traditional classroom for a Diploma in Psychology in Singapore will probably cost me SGD$4000.
2. In an online study environment, how fast you finish your course - is solely depend on you.
3. You can study when and where you like - there is no fix time or classroom.
4. One-to-one "tuition" from your supervisor - interaction is only between your supervisor and you.
5. Indirect cost saving on transportation as you don't have travel to a location to study.

Cons: 

1. Isolation! You will not have any course-mate / classmate to discuss with you about your assignments or study material.
2. You are totally depend on the Internet facility provider as most of your learning material and resources is only available via the Internet. You will develop a new set of skills in using the internet search engineer to do your research online. 

What They Don't Teach You in College: HR Report

Sometimes I asked myself what do I do with all the various monthly / quarterly HR report generated. Do the company management really use it to make critical management decision? The answer is yes and no ... depending on the company performance but as HR Professional, it is always go to have these reports at your figure tip. Sometimes HR report is also known as (a.k.a.) statistic - if it is submitted to a government department or agency (e.g., Malaysian Labour Dept; Singapore Ministry of Manapower - MOM; Dept of Statictis; etc.).

Usually, for me I will focus on reports that are required by (i) government agencies; (ii) group / headoffice; and (iii) if it is related to measuring the HR Dept KPI or performance indexs. Listed below are some samples of HR reports: -

 Exhbit 1: Headcount by Age Group

Exhibit 2: Employees Nationality Report 

Exhibit 3: Employees Nationality

(Singapore MOM classification) 

 Exhibit 4: Average Age by Employment Category

(Usually used to compliment succession plan report)

Exhibit 5: Gender Report

(Required by certain countries for listed company and department of statistic) 

Exhibit 6: Headcount Report by Dept, Employment Category, Gender & Citizen

(Singapore MOM Format)

Singapore Re-eployment of Older Employee Processes & Flowchart

On 19 April 2011, I presented my assignment and working paper to my trainer (and assessor) from SNEF (Singapore National Employers Federation). I had to do it to pass my certification in order to obtain the WDA's (Workforce Development Agency) S.O.A. (Statement of Attainment)  on implement strategies to re-employ older employee after their retirement ages.

Taking the opportunity, I would like to share with all of you on the flowchart drawn by me to complete my certification. It is a mix of Singapore re-employment guideline and European best practice in managing employee's retirement.

 

 Exhibit 1: Re-Employment Process Flowchart by Eleutherius Liew (March 2011)

What They Don't Teach You in College: "How to set-up a HR Dept?"

Between 1994 and 2001, if any headhunters or hiring managers were to ask me what was my HR expertise - I would mentioned that I am strong in (i) setting up a HR Dept and re-structure the HR Dept; and (ii) industrial relations (e.g., discipline handling, domestic inquiry, etc.).

During these period, I set-up and / or re-structure four (4) HR Dept belong to 3 organization. I have to admitted that during the time HR Dept were managed in a more decentralized manner. Over the years, I started to develop my own HR tools to help me stay focus in setting-up a HR Dept from "ground zero". Please refer to Exhibit 1 for the "Checklist"

Exhibit 1: Check List for HR Dept Start-Up, by Eleutherius Liew (May 2011)

Cultural Management

For the past one (1) month, I have been meeting training providers to help us customize our in-house training program on Project Management. In one of the modules, we indicated that we need to impart the participants four (4) competency which were (i) Negotiation; (ii) Leadership; (iii) Organizational Effectiveness (at Personal Level); and (iv) Culture.

Most training providers were very comfortable with three (3) of the competencies but not "Culture". Most training provider find it hard to conduct training on Culture. This was an eye opening for me - suddenly I felt that I was very lucky to be exposed to cultural management during my years of HR professional career.

1997 - my first encounter about culture management was at my MBA class where I was introduced to "Geert Hofstede's Cultural Dimensions"; 

Between 1996 and 2000, while working at a manufacturing plant, I had the opportunity to be exposed to Bangladeshis culture as the company hired a lot of Bangladeshis as there production workers; 

From 2000 to 2005, I spend a lot of time on organizational culture change management when the Japanese company I worked with wanted to change the business model. We found out that in order to be successful in our change model - the management need to introduce "western" management and working culture mindset. 

April 2005 to December 2007 - after been transferred to the APAC regional head-office as the regional HR manager - I was introduced to a reading material from University of Toyota entitled "Work Effectively Across Culture". This time I was responsible for Japanese expat orientation program and a lot of effort was develop to educate the Japanese expat on the differences between Asian and Japanese culture and practices. 

2008 to 2009, I focus most of my time on post M&A initiative and had the opportunity to observe two (2) large organizational culture that was very different in nature. One was very structure and process driven while the other one was very informal driven and has not respect for SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) ... clash of the titans! 

2010 until now ... I had the opportunity to work with global consulting firm like Lee Hecht Harrison and Jitsker Kramer, founder of Human Dimension. 

Listed below are some of the resources available: -

1) Geert Hofstede Culturer Dimension

http://www.geert-hofstede.com/geert_hofstede_contrarian_position.shtml

2) Terri Morrison & Wayne A Conaway (2006) - "Kiss, Bow or Shake Hands" 

http://www.kissboworshakehands.com/2008demo/XEdata/XEcountry.php

3) Jitske Kramer (2009) - "Managing Culture Dynamics"

http://www.jitskekramer.com/publications_jitske_kramer/managing_cultural_dynamics

4) Lee Hecht Harrison Singapore Website

http://www.lhh.com.sg/

Discipline & Misconduct

Part 1: Discipline

Discipline could be defined as follows: -

• "behaviour in accordance with rules (as of an organization)";
• "a rule or system of rules governing conduct or action";
• "a body of laws relating to conduct";
• "an orderly or regular pattern of behaviours".

Discipline in Industry refers to the observation of rules in an industrial establishment for maintenance of control and order to organizational standards and objetives. It also refers to a mental condition or attitude prevailing in the different heirachical structure in an industrail organization in accordance with the rules and regulations in force.

The fucntions of discipline is to mantain order by setting limits to an individual's behaviour which may jeopardise the interests of an organization.

Part 2: Misconduct

In the field of employment, an employee has certain express or implied obligations towards his employer. In common law, an employee has the following inherent obligations towards his employer: -

• to give faithful and honest service;
• to utilize reasonable skill and care in his work;
• to obey reasonable and lawful orders;
• not to commit misconduct.

In Industrial Law "misconduct" is a mode of behaviour and conduct of an employee which is inconsistent with the express or implied obligations of his employer. It is an act or omission thereof which is contrary to the expected performance of his duties or in variance with the faithful discharge of his obligations undertaken by him either expressly or impliedly in accepting employment.

[Resource: Hong Leong Mgt School Training Material, 1997]

Talent Management Models

For the last one week - I have been busy with my company "Performance & Potential Evaluation Dialogue" (we call it PPED for short). It is one of tool created for my company Talent Management System. It strike me then .... "What is talent management (TM)? Ooopss ... I don't have the definition! Focusing too much practical, make you loose sight of the the concepts and theories.

Hmmm .... according to Taleo Research, they define Talent Management as is a complex collection of connected HR processes that delivers a simple fundamental benefit for any organization ... and "Talent Drives Performance".

Most people tend to get confuse between succession plan and talent management. In short, succession plan is part of talent management system. Talent management is a bigger picture in the subject of HRM.

I would like to introduce a few TM models - some from consulting firm like Taleo, others are just samples from the Internet and organizations that has invested in TM.

 [Resource: Taleo Research - http://www.taleo.com/researcharticle/what-talent-management]

[Resource: TalentAlign.com - http://www.talentalign.com/talent_management_processes_in_organization.htm]

 [Resource: http://www.gov.ns.ca/psc/v2/hrCentre/amHRProfessional/talentManagement]

  [Resource: http://sergaygroup.com/Smart-Talk/Talent-Management.html]

[Resource: http://joshbersin.com/2007/07/12/the-need-for-a-chief-learning-officer/]

 Resource: http://joshbersin.com/2007/05/11/talent-management-too-important-to-be-delegated-to-hr/

Resource:Grovewell LLC