PWC WANTS TO KEEP GEN Y HAPPY

Excerpts of interview with PWC Chairman

When Dennis Nally started at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP 37 years ago, the business was simpler, says the chairman of the accounting and management-consultancy. Back then nearly 80% of firm revenue stemmed from PWC audit work in the U.S.

Today, the company has 175,000 employees operating in 154 countries. And about half of PwC's global revenues derive from tax and advisory work, which includes consulting on operations, human resources and M&A, among other things.

About 18% of the firm's revenue comes from work for clients in developing markets in Asia, the Middle East, South America and Africa. Over the next five years, the company expects this to grow to 40%, as its clients become increasingly focused on emerging markets.

Recruiting and hiring, particularly in those markets, is the biggest challenge the firm and its clients are facing, says Mr. Nally. As evidence, he quotes from PwC's annual global CEO survey, released in April, in which more than 90% of the business leaders surveyed said that they are focused on making significant changes to their human-resource policies in the next 12 to 18 months.

The Wall Street Journal spoke with Mr. Nally in London where he talked about hiring and the importance of keeping the so-called millennial generation happy. Edited excerpts:

WSJ: How do you define talent?
Mr. Nally: Having the technical skills is important but that's almost a given these days. [Talent is also] having the right softer skills in terms of being [able] to work in a collaborative environment, teaming with people, good communication skills, good sensitivities to cultural diversity.

WSJ: What's the biggest challenge for companies when trying to recruit talented staff?
Mr. Nally: The competition for talent in the emerging markets has never been greater and that's placing a lot of pressure on salaries. Having a competitive compensation base is really important. It's [also] about how to create an environment where people want to be. This millennial generation is not just looking for a job, they're not just looking for salary and financial benefits, they're looking for skill development, they're looking for mobility, they're looking for opportunities to acquire different skills and to move quickly from one part of an organization to another. How you manage that sort of talent and how you deal with their expectations is very different from what's been done in the past.
So, clearly articulating your people strategy, what you can deliver and importantly what you expect in return is key. Connecting with your employees so they understand you can deliver the career they want is key.

WSJ:How do you go about creating that connectivity?
Mr. Nally:The human capital agenda has to be driven by the CEO. It's so strategic today that you want to have great support coming from the HR organization, but if this isn't viewed as just as strategic as new products and services or research and development, [it] won't be successful.

WSJ: Why is this thirst for talent more evident now than before?
Mr. Nally: The opportunities are so significant, coming from all different directions in all parts of the world that the demand for talent is at an all-time high. In today's global competitive workplace, you can't think just in the context of your own territory.

WSJ: What sort of policies will companies need to put in place?
Mr. Nally: The millennium generation is probably the most technological group of people ever joining the workforce. How they want to work, use social media and team within a company is very different than the prior generation. If your human policies aren't responsive to what they are looking for, they are going to go to a company that is. They want less-hierarchical structures, they want more flexibility, they want to work as hard but they want to define how they do their work. If you can't figure out a way to accommodate that kind of flexibility, you're not going to be able to retain that talent.

WSJ: What [is PwC] doing to attract and retain talent?
Mr. Nally: We have adapted both how we recruit and how we work with people once they join us to suit the millennial generation. For example, in the U.S. we have set up a LinkedIn application that allows students to track the career paths of existing graduate trainees already in the firm so a student can see how a career with PwC develops. In the U.K., we use a Facebook application to connect recruits together before they join so they can begin to build their own PwC community.
We also provide mentors for our people from day one both formally and informally and encourage people to actively use their mentors to build skills and experience. We understand that flexibility and the ability to gather useful experience are key, as a result we actively encourage our people to move both between different business areas and around the world to gain experience. We also provide career breaks, flexible working, cycles of experience outside PwC and we actively encourage volunteering.

For full article, click below.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303365804576434223787503598.html

Moderator

GEN Y Travel Trends

News Analysis: Gen Y travel trends

As the age-old Spanish proverb goes — the belly rules the mind. That truism is certainly borne out in Contiki Holidays’ 2011 Style Miles report, which shows food dictates the travel habits of most young Australians.

It appears that fast food is losing its appeal at the expense of local cuisine and restaurants, with the report finding 97% of 18 to 35-year olds agree food is the most important element of travel. They’re also keen to let the taste linger a little, with 57% replicating local dishes at home, and a quarter of travellers even changing their dietary habits to incorporate foods they ate while on holidays.

Music and art also ranked as high priorities while on holiday. Most respondents said they had visited local museums and galleries while holidaying in the past three to four years, while 88% went to see local bands or music. Fashion was less popular, however, with about half of travellers having seen a fashion show, and buying souvenirs fell off the radar altogether.

THE TREND SHIFT

The findings came as a surprise to Contiki’s managing director, Fiona Hunt, who said the report confirmed that the profile of 18 to 35-year old travellers was changing. “Young travellers are no longer happy to sit and watch their holiday go by from the traditional tourist hotspots,” she said. “They want to get involved, get immersed in local culture, and they want their holiday to be based on what they find interesting in their daily life.” Labelling overseas travel before the 1990s a “predictable venture” where travellers stuck to popular spots to avoid nasty surprises, Hunt said today’s 18 to 35s want to get a taste of the unknown. “They want to get their hands dirty, get off the beaten track and bring a little bit of their experience home with them,” she said.

Hunt point ed to the internet as the force driving the change in attitudes, but admitted that there could be other factors involved. She can’t be far off the mark though, with the findings also showing Australian globetrotters send an average of 10.8 emails, as well as making 7.9 Facebook updates each holiday. “We’re not entirely sure what’s driving the change, but technology has revolutionised how people are travelling,” she said. “People are researching their holidays more, they know where they want to go, and more than ever, they know what they want.”

WHERE TO NEXT?

Young Australians are also visiting new places. While Europe has been Contiki’s flagship destination in the past, 18 to 35s are increasingly fascinated by Asia, with 53% of the survey’s 1005 respondents visiting Asia in the last three to four years. Almost one third visited Europe, 26% holidayed in the Pacific and 23% travelled to the US.

Excited by the growth in Asia, Hunt revealed plans to launch into the China market. Breaking into the South American market later this year is also on the cards.

Although tight-lipped on the exact details, Hunt said that there will be a “string of announcements” in the coming months. “We’re taking this research under our belt so we can respond to our customer base, but I can say there will be more to come as we continue to engage with the youth market,” she said.

Extracted from the Travel Weekly. For full report, please click below:

http://www.travelweekly.com.au/news/news-analysis-gen-y-travel-trends

Singapore Head Hunter

Communicating With Gen Y

Communicating with Gen Y employees can be a challenging task, but with the right communications strategies and approach in place, Gen Y can offer organizations an innovative, energetic, committed and tech savvy addition to the workforce.

Give them cutting-edge technology.
Generation Y grew up with computers, ipods, and PlayStations and this techno upbringing shapes their work expectations. Organisations can successfully motivate Yers by structuring their work so that it is congruent with their technical prowess. For a start, allow them to communicate with customers via instant messaging, provide training on-demand in multi-media formats, and give them Internet access for research and resources.

Rewards and incentives with immediate payout.
Gen Y are skeptical of long-term commitments from employers. Many younger workers have seen their parents lose jobs to downsizing and outsourcing and this has led to doubts about their own futures. For any reward to work with a Gen Y, it has to be very short term. So instead of an annual review with a huge payout, consider a monthly review with a moderate payout.

Keep them posted
Generation Y has grown accustomed to accessing information instantly through such leading edge technologies as Wi-fi, Ti-Vo, Google, and podcasts. They expect to be in the know and in the know immediately. Give them company information through digital channels and also deliver training in high-tech digital mediums.

Present information/goals in very very small bit-size.
Gen Y work most productively when big tasks are broken down into small steps with goals that are realistic. They respond very well to training programs that allow them to pick and choose the subjects that they need most, especially when those subjects are presented in short, high-impact, media rich formats.

Frequent feedback.
Experts assert that Gen Y are used to reinforcement at a rate that is 50-100 times greater than Boomers. A lot of Yers grew up spending hundreds of hours each year playing video games and these electronic games provided immediate, clear feedback on their performance. In the workplace Generation Y expects supervisors and managers to provide immediate clear feedback frequently and promptly.

Work flexibility.
Gen Y grew up in flexible times and as adolescents they had a lot of say over their world. They want say in everything from benefits to scheduling to the option of telecommuting. Generation Y expects work to accommodate their personal and family life.

Getting involved with Gen Y.
Managing from behind a desk will be most ineffective with Gen Y. They want to see managers roll up their sleeves up and get the feet/hands wet. This keeps management in touch with the challenges their people experience everyday.

Top 7 Ways to Increase Your Chances of Getting Hired

This is a great article from the "The Top 7 Business Website"
(http://www.top7business.com/)

Top 7 Ways to Increase Your Chances of Getting Hired By Joel Sussman



It would be a lot easier if hiring decisions were totally based on one's resume (unless, of course, you're right out of college). The reality of it, though, is that the successful candidate is often the one who interviews the best. Here are some tips to help you make it to the final cut.

1. Visit the web site of the company you're going to interview with. Almost invariably, one of the first questions out of an interviewer's mouth is: "So tell me what you know about us." If you stumble through your answer, consider yourself eliminated from the running.

2. Be ready to rattle off your strengths and accomplishments. This is one of the main things an interviewer wants to know, so make sure this information is fresh in your mind.


3. Do you have any weaknesses? Everybody does; but only applicants who want to be eliminated in the first round of interviews will reveal a weakness that could, in any way, affect their performance in the job they're applying for.

4. Don't even hint at any personality conflicts or disagreements you might have had with your present or past bosses. Interviewers often are predisposed to side with former managers. If the question comes up about whether you've been involved in conflicts at work and how you handled it, it's highly recommended that you portray yourself as the peacemaker, the conciliator, and the diplomat.

5. Put a positive spin on your answer to the question "Why do you want to leave your current job." One of the many impressions you don't want to convey is that you're a job hopper.

6. Be ready for variations of the following questions "Why should we hire you?" "Convince me that you're right for the job!" "How do I know you can handle these new responsibilities?" "I have 25 more people to interview. What skills or qualifications do you have that make you stand out?"



7. Leave for the interview early, so you can have plenty of time to get lost, get back on track, creep your way through road construction, crawl through traffic jams, fix a flat tire, and arrive at the interview early. You'll want to have a few moments to fill out any necessary forms, compose yourself, and make a quick, last-minute grooming trip to the bathroom.

Joel Sussman is a business writer and Internet publisher who has created a online resource called "Career and Job Interview Strategy Center". Visit http://www.geocities.com/optimalbiz for helpful articles, downloadable manuals, and other job hunting tools.

Cheers,
The Singapore Head Hunter

Facebook: www.facebook.com/stanleytan1000

Tweeter: @stantan

Skype: stanleytan1000

Resume Writing Tips

Your resume is your marketing tool and should be visually pleasing. It should make the reader want to read on. It should have a simple and clean structure and is easy to read. As far as possible, try to make your resume symmetrical, balanced and uncluttered.

There should be uniformity and consistency in the use of capital letters, bullets, boldface and underlining. For example, if a period is at the end of one job's dates, a period should be at the end of all jobs' dates; if one degree is in boldface, all degrees should be in boldface.




A resume's first impression is most important. It should therefore be visually pleasing and appealing, to be inviting to the reader.

Ensure that there are absolutely no errors: typographical errors, spelling errors, grammatical errors, syntax or punctuation errors as well as factual errors.

All basic information is included. A resume must have the following key basic information such as your name, address, contact numbers and your email address at the top of the first page, a listing of jobs held, in reverse chronological order, educational degrees including the highest degree received, in reverse chronological order. Additional, targeted information will of course accompany this.

Listed jobs should include a title, the name of the firm and the duration of your stay with the firm.

Preferably, a resume is targeted. A resume should be targeted to your career objective, to the next step in your career. You should be clear what your career goal is, what the ideal position or positions would be. Then you should figure out what key skills, areas of expertise or body of experience the employer will be looking for in the candidate. Format the resume structure and content around your career objective target, proving these key qualifications.




Make sure that your strengths are highlighted. Focus on your strongest and most impressive traits. Make careful and strategic choices as to how to organize, order, and convey your skills and background.

Make sure that your resume has focus. A resume needs a focus to help the reader understand immediately. Think of the resume as an essay with a title and a summative opening sentence. A focus may be as simple as the name of your profession ("Financial Controller," "Marketing Director") centred under the name and address; it may be in the form of an objective or it may be in the form of a summary statement.

Try to use power words. Use the most active impressive verb you can think of for each skill, accomplishment or job described.

Cheers,
The Singapore Headhunter

Facebook: www.facebook.com/stanleytan1000

Skype: stanleytan1000

An Experience with an Unscrupulous Recruitment Firm

As in many other countries, the recruitment market in Singapore is highly competitive. Facing such fierce competition, some recruitment companies would resort to unscrupulous tactics for self interests, with total disregard for the employers and the candidates.

My experience with an unscrupulous recruitment company last week was really an eye opener. I was searching for an Accountant and called up a candidate for an interview with me. In the current economical downturn, the candidate was absolutely delighted to hear from me. He was enthusiastic and agreed to come to my office for an interview.

During our dialogue, he told me frankly that another recruitment firm had contacted him for a similar role. Since he was coming to see me, he would inform them to hang on.

The candidate turned up punctually for his interview. After the lengthy and thorough interview, I immediately drafted the recommendation report and submitted it to the client on the same day.

The next day, imagine my shock and frustration when I received an email from the client informing me that the same candidate had been referred to them by another firm.

The candidate was equally frustrated and upset when I told him about the situation. It was apparent that the other firm had emailed the candidate’s CV to the client to “lock” him in though instructed by the candidate to “hang on”; when they learned that he was coming to my office to interview for a similar role.

Initially, the other firm denied that the candidate had given them instruction to hang on. After much insistence from the candidate, they then finally relented and agreed to “withdraw” his CV.

In the Singapore recruitment market, due to the highly competitive nature, many unscrupulous recruitment firms resort to resume-dumping to their clients, in order to be the first company to lodge the candidates’ CVs with the clients. Such firms will cut corners, work for their self-interests and totally disregard the interests of the clients and candidates. The clients will typically pay the recruitment firm that sends in the CVs first. This penalized those recruitment firms that go through the tedious task of interviewing, assessing the candidates and drafting proper recommendation reports. In many cases, the unscrupulous firms would have sent in the CVs by the time the recommendation reports reached the client.

Ironically, the clients typically consider the recruitment firms that send in the CV first as the representatives for the candidates. Such practice has indirectly encouraged some unscrupulous recruitment firms to cut corners and resort to resume-dumping to lock in the candidates. That is very frustrating to the recruitment firms that have put in the quality efforts to meet, interview, assess the candidate and draft detailed and proper recommendation reports.

Hunting for a job in a recession

“You are retrenched!” That is a much dreaded verdict few would want to hear, especially during the current economical turmoil.

As the economy grinds to a halt, job seekers are hit with double whammy. First, the number of available jobs is shrinking at a frightening rate. Second, the number of job seekers is ballooning as more and more workers are being retrenched. The job market gets significantly more competitive as a result.

What can you do to secure a job in such a situation? It is going to be real tough though it is not impossible if you approach the unenviable task in a logical and rational manner.

Rather than panicking and worrying, it is more prudent to sit back and look at the situation from a totally different angle. That way, you can position yourself more favorably and create for yourself certain competitive advantages.

Understand what employers want
Start by understanding what employers want and ask if you are the best candidate to fulfill them. If you are the best candidate, obviously the employers would like to have you. If you are not, then you should work hard to become THE best candidate. Look at the big picture and understand how you can help your future employers succeed.

Stay focused
You have to stay focused on the type of role that you are applying for. As a headhunter, I see the common mistake that many job seekers make. They apply for any positions that are available. That would not work as their skill set is never going to be suitable for all positions and actually works against them. It shows that they are desperate and are not sure of what they want.

Look at different industries
Where your skills are transferable, you may want to look at different industries. If you are doing sales in the finance or IT sector, you may consider sales positions in the telco or health-care sector.

Research your target companies
The golden rule in job-hunting is to research your target companies thoroughly. You should never attend an interview without knowing about the company. It reflects your sloppy attitude towards your career and impairs your sincerity in trying to join an unknown organization.

Demonstrating a strong knowledge of your future employer will give the hiring managers an impressive opinion of yourself, your seriousness, attitude and your interests in the organization. They will have a higher confidence in you to succeed.

Customize your resume
You should never send a generic resume for the positions that you want. Customize your resume by highlighting the most relevant skills and achievements for the jobs. That will help you put greater emphasis on your potential value to the future employers.

Make full use of your network
Your network is key to your success. What you know may be important but who you know may be more important, especially during bad times. With so many candidates applying for the same job, a good recommendation from your network can do wonders to sway the selection decision in your favour.

Sell results, not skills
Employers want results, not skills. You may possess a whole plane-load of skills through your years of hard work. These will be of no use to the employers if they cannot produce results. Your skills are the necessary means to the ends (results). You should clearly explain how you can help your employers achieve the desired results using your skills, instead of just conveniently listing your skills.

List your achievements in your resume
Employers want contributors and problem-solvers. They don’t really want employees. Your resume must be a great sales tool to clinch the interview. It must include a list of achievements to demonstrate your capability and your ability to contribute or to solve problems. That will give you the competitive advantages over your competitors.

Think outside the box
Many people picture the recruitment section and the job-boards when they think of job-hunting. Nothing can be further from the truth. You should identify ideal potential employers and craft customized resumes to send to them. Explain clearly why they should consider employing you.
Contact everyone in your network. Make it clearly known that you are available and are looking for career opportunity in the job market.

Know your worth
Do you know your worth? Not many people do. A rough estimate of your worth can be a proportion of the value of your contributions to the employers. For a sales-related job, the contribution can be related to amount of sales generated. For other positions, it can be related to the amount of cost savings achieved, etc.

Knowing your worth is important as it enhances your bargaining power. You should highlight your worth to your interviewers diplomatically. If possible, let them feel that it is their loss in not employing you.

In the current economical turmoil, job seekers face an uphill task in securing a job. Though tough, it is not totally impossible to secure a job as long as you can approach the task in a logical and rational manner. You can look at the situation from a different perspective and create for yourself competitive advantages to enhance your chances of securing that elusive job.

Doing Business In A Recession

Doing Business In A Recession
By Stan Tan, MBA (email: ess@ltc-cpa.com)


It is official. The National Bureau of Economic Research (of USA) said on 1st December 2008, that the U.S. has been in a recession since December 2007. What does this mean for us, in this part of the world, Asia?

Undoubtedly, most people get worried about how long the recession is going to last, the security of their jobs, reduction to their salaries and their abilities to service their financial burdens.

Getting worried is not going to benefit you. Rather, one should keep a clear mind (I know that is tough!), be objective and figure out the best ways to not only survive but to do well in this recession.

What are the typical behaviors during a recession? Let us list out some:

- Businesses are understandingly more worried.
- Businesses cut down on their spending.
- Businesses think about survival instead of expansion.
- Businesses scrutinize their operations more closely.
- Businesses look at cost cutting seriously.
- All the bad news in the newspapers daily: retrenchment, bankruptcy, downsizing and even suicides.

So what should you do? Worry away your life? You can take comfort from the fact that, historically, recessions come and go. Conditions undoubtedly change for the better. Businesses and people who exploit the current opportunities and position themselves for the better times ahead, will do well and be market leaders in the future.

- Businesses are understandingly more worried.
Your customers are more worried. Talk to them and explore ways to help them. What are they actually worried about: revenues, profits, overheads, costs, survival? You will be surprised that as you talk to different clients, their worries can be different even though, in general, they are all more worried.

Offer them advice and try to sway their thoughts from the pessimistic to the optimistic. Such discussions help generally as they help to eradicate the gloom, to a certain extend. Such discussions with customers will go a long way to strengthen the rapport with them as well.

- Businesses cut down on their spending.
Remember. The key message is that businesses cut down spending. They do not stop spending altogether. Businesses reduce their spending and give their business to vendors that they trust; vendors that they view as offering them value for money.

During a recession, it is critical that your company brings itself in tune with the customers. They are fighting to cut cost (not foregoing value and quality!). Can you help them manage by offering them a recession rebate until conditions improve? Do not do the wrong thing by lowering your prices! That can send a very wrong signal to your customers, especially the very good customers. They may think that you have been over-charging them all the time, plus it will be difficult to raise the prices back to the higher levels.

- Cost management
I prefer the term cost management to cost cutting. We manage our cost more carefully in difficult times. Differentiate between the needs and the wants. Better still; re-classify the needs and the wants. Some ‘needs’ in the good times may actually become ‘wants’ now. Once this is done, forget about all the ‘wants’. For example, in good times, your staff will consider a PC with more functionalities as a need because of the increased work-load. During the current difficult time, can that PC be ‘downgraded’ to a ‘want’ instead?

Many companies use such difficult times to downsize by retrenching. It may be prudent to use retrenchment as a last resort. Why? Because it can be conservatively estimated that it costs a company more than S$100,000 to replace a manager in term of recruitment, training, lost production and opportunity cost. Unless your company is 100% sure that the staff is definitely no longer required for the long foreseeable future, it would be prudent to utilize other cost management methods such shorter work-hours or going on mandatory vacation. Retrenchment can lead to low morale (which can be already low in such situation) and diminish the company’s reputation as a good employer!

- Scrutinise your offerings.
Customers’ needs and focus may shift during difficult times. Like you, they are going to focus on only their needs. Fad items are out. Think of ways to help your customers whenever possible, be flexible and tailor your services to suit their needs for the current time. New offerings and corporate image are out; superior value and price performance are in.

-Manage your marketing.
It is not advisable to stop all your marketing activities altogether! On the contrary, companies should market harder to position themselves as the customers’ best help to get the best value for their money, reduce cost and to do well in the recession.

In fact, companies should use such time to negotiate for a better price with your marketing agent and lock in the favourable prices. Adjust your marketing message to focus on value for money, superior value and price performance for your customers.

-Manage your customers.
Do not lose your customers. It enhances your company reputation greatly when you can keep your customers for a long period. Studies have shown that it costs more than 5 times to gain a new customer than to keep an existing one. Be as flexible as far as you can go and keep your customers happy. That does not mean that you should agree to a loss-making deal. Your customers who are with you long enough will be reasonable, as long as you demonstrate to them that you are giving way to meet their demand. You must always remember that you are in business to make a profit.

-Maintain your core values.
Your company is successful because of your special core values, culture and your unique selling propositions. Do not lose track of these or your foundation of your success will be undermined.

-Innovate during this difficult time.
Your customers may have special requirements during this difficult time. You can work closely with your customers to understand these requirements and adapt your services to suit them. Such working relationship with customers is crucial and can go a long way to cement you as their key vendor/consultant.

-Build for the future.
Do you realize that you can actually get more for less during difficult times? When times are bad, your customers are not going to pay your premium price. They go elsewhere instead.

The same goes for recruitment of employees. Potential employees do not demand higher salaries in view of the softer labour demand. Progressive companies use such time to cherry-pick good talent that may be let off by their employers. Such talent can be a real gem when market conditions recover and can help your company stay way ahead of the pack.

Who knows? Such employees may just be the ones to help your company do well and overcome this difficult situation.

Conclusion
In conclusion, recessions come and go. Like the Chinese phrase, “wei ji”, you should focus on the “ji” (opportunity) instead of worrying about the “wei” (crisis). Understand your strengths and focus on your customers’ modified requirements for this difficult time. Work closely with your customers and adapt yourself to satisfy your customers. Exploit this difficult time to position yourself for the turn-around.

You will not only survive this recession. You should be coming out of it much stronger!


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Article by Stanley Tan, Director of ELTICI HR Consultancy Pte Ltd, a leading regional executive search firm. ELTICI HR has an established network of offices in the Asia Pacific and Europe, specializing in the search for middle-management and senior management executives and senior executive placement service.

Copyright 2008 by ELTICI HR CONSULTANCY PTE LTD, all rights reserved. This material may be freely copied and distributed subject to inclusion of this copyright notice and the author's name.
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Recession-Proof Your Job

Copyright 2008 by ELTICI HR CONSULTANCY PTE LTD, all rights reserved. This material may be freely copied and distributed subject to inclusion of this copyright notice and the author's name.
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Recession-Proof Your Job
by Stan Tan, MBA (email: ess@ltc-cpa.com)

In the current economy downturn, we may want to refer to the famous quote from John Kennedy, 35th President of the United States:
“Ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country.”

It may be appropriate here to modify this famous saying as follows:
“Ask not what your company can do for you - ask what you can do for your company.”

Why? Because if your company does not make it, neither will you. You lose your job and if you are lucky, you find your next job quickly. But ask yourself: how likely will that be during the current market situation.

Another timely quote from Theodore Roosevelt, 26th President of the United States:
“Whenever you are asked if you can do a job, tell 'em, 'Certainly I can!' Then get busy and find out how to do it."

Companies are struggling! In the United States, former leading brand names like GM, Ford and Chrysler are fighting for survival. Companies in Singapore are foreseeing a difficult time ahead. So, what should you do? Whine and wait for the worst or stand up for your company and live to fight another day? Below are some suggestions how you can stand up and make a difference to recession-proof yourself.

Attitude counts a lot.
It is all about attitude. In the current difficult time, the importance of attitude cannot be over-emphasized. Positive attitude will help boost morale and enhance harmony and unity. This is made more important during difficult times where morale is typically low.

Take a macro view/look at the whole picture.
Look at the company as a whole and see yourself as part of the whole company. Do not wait to be told to do something. Now is the crucial time when you should look hard around and help the company to be stronger to be able to secure the diminished available business.
Be aware of and anticipate the needs of your co-workers and other departments. If you come across an article that might be useful to your co-workers, send it to them with a note.

Think of ways to generate revenues or cut costs.
During an economy downturn, the opportunity to generate revenues is diminished. Even then, we should always pro-actively think of ways to generate revenues. It is only when we ‘give up’ and stop thinking that we get into trouble.
We should keep the cost factor firmly in mind and cut costs wherever possible. Whatever costs that can be postponed should be postponed. Differentiate between needs and wants. All the wants should be firmly put on hold.
Cutting costs means that you can offer a more competitive price to your customers. Cutting costs is different from cutting corners. It means doing things in a more efficient way and doing away with non-essential stuff, without any adverse effect to quality.

Make positive contributions.
Make positive contributions whenever possible. Think of all possible ways to make positive contributions, even if it is not in your area of responsibility. Share your ideas willingly and be helpful to everyone.

Talk up your contributions.
There is no need to boast about your contributions. But keeping silent about contributions is not going help either. Subtly mention how your contributions have helped and offer more help whenever possible.

Doing your job well will not help.
In good times, doing your job well may suffice. In the current difficult situation, doing well just is not enough. Why? Because of the diminished available business opportunity, we must do our job exceptionally well to be able win the projects.

Build a strong rapport with other departments.
Unity is strength. Unity enhances morale. This is more crucial during the current downturn when morale can be low.

Make yourself stand out. Strive to be leader in your industry.
In such difficult times, it becomes more essential be best as we are competing for a limited number of available projects in the market. You can write articles, do a presentation at a seminar or even make use of the current trend and use a blog.

Get your skills up to date.
Ask yourself. If your skill is outdated, how can you contribute to the company? During the downturn, normal people start to worry. Progressive people think of how to contribute to the company by upgrading their skills, in line with the company’s requirements. Doing so will demonstrate to your company your positive attitude.

Continue networking.
It is more about who you know than what you know. What you know is important of course, but who you know can go a long way to help you succeed in difficult times. With your strong network and through the network of your network, you will be surprised how much can be achieved. This is particularly true in the current difficult time.

Be visible.
Be visible. In such difficult times, the company needs all contributions it can get. Now is not the best time to go on long vacation. The risk is that you may return to find out your job has become redundant. Make yourself useful and visible. Offer whatever help you can to whichever department that needs help.

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Copyright 2008 by ELTICI HR CONSULTANCY PTE LTD, all rights reserved. This material may be freely copied and distributed subject to inclusion of this copyright notice and the author's name.

Helpful Tips to Recession-Proof Your Job

Helpful Tips to Recession-Proof Your Job


Quote from Theodore Roosevelt, 26th President of the United States:

“Whenever you are asked if you can do a job, tell 'em, 'Certainly I can!' Then get busy and find out how to do it."

These tips can help you to recession-proof your job.

1. Make positive contributions: - Make positive contributions whenever possible. Share your ideas.

2. Make your superiors aware of your valuable contributions to the organization.

3. Be aware of and anticipate the needs of your co-workers and other departments. If you come across an article that might be useful to your co-workers, send it to them with a note.

4. Build a strong rapport with other departments.

5. Offer sincere and genuine compliments.

6. Build upon your skills or develop new ones.

7. Strive to be the thought leader in your industry. You can start a blog, write for journals or speak at seminars or conferences.

8. Build a strong network within and without the organization.

Self Management for the New Manager

1. Monitor your work hours.

Set a limit and stick to it. It’s very easy to get sucked into working longer and longer hours just because you are new to the role and have so much to learn.

2. Recognise and manage your signs of stress.

Each of us has different reactions to stress. Unfortunately, when we are stressed, we often don’t realize it until it becomes too late and we get ill or it severely affects our performance.

3. Learn to delegate.

Failure to delegate is the most common failing of new managers.

4. Communicate, communicate, communicate!

This means regular meetings with:

· your team members

· your boss.


5. Give praise and recognition regularly.

Even “Thank You’s” are important.


6. Focus on what is important, not what is urgent.

In particular, talk with your manager about the three most important priorities he/she has for you in your role. Make sure you focus on these at all times.


7. Ensure you have a balance between intellectual, physical and emotional activities.

Whilst people differ markedly in their biorhythms (the way we manage our mental, physical and emotional makeup), each of us needs to manage these three.

8. Find yourself a mentor.

This should be someone who has been or is a successful people manager.

Tips for improving coaching

Tips for improving coaching

· Develop a skills matrix for all the roles within the team.

· Ensure each staff member has an individual analysis of where his/her skills match the matrix and whether they need to develop further skills.

· Identify team members who are good at coaching / training others and formalize this process by setting specific training tasks for these people.

· Arrange rotation and temporary placements (within the team when someone is on leave and in other units / teams for further development).

· Encourage people to suggest new ways of doing things and look for ways to improve work flows.

· Allow people to make mistakes without feeling threatened (remember, most of us learn by trying things out!)

Effective Training and Leadership Development

Effective Training and Leadership Development

Here are tips about how to provide effective training and leadership development for adult learners.

Enormous research has been done on how to train with impact. Here are some specific tips that will increase the impact of your investment in building leadership brand, as opposed to developing leaders:

- Offer an integrated model for the experience.
We continue to see many training events as parades of stars, with each day or module taught by a thoughtful presenter (either outside faculty, line manager, or customer), then another module from another face, and then another. With little integration, each training module is an isolated event. Branded training requires an integrated message (what our leaders need to know and do to demonstrate a leadership brand consistent with a firm brand) that has distinct modules woven around the brand theme.

- Use a host of training pedagogies.
Since adults learn differently from another, different methodologies can and should be used. A mix of lecture, small group discussion, written case studies, live case studies, action learning projects, team presentation, video snippets, technology-based learning, simulations, assessment tools, and so forth can be woven into the training experience to ensure that regardless of each participant's learning style, all will find some methods that work well.

- Bear in mind that with adult learners, the faculty should be talking about 60 or 70 percent of the time.
If faculty allows their participation to fall below 50 percent of the talking time, participants are in a problem-solving session and wonder what the faculty adds; if faculty does 85 percent or more of the talking, participants are more likely to be listening than internalizing what is taught.

- Design modules to follow the concept-illustration-action (C-I-A) rational.
During a training experience, a host of modules may be woven around the integrated C-I-A theme. Each module should have a clear set of concepts.

Tips For Managers - Assessing performance .........

Tips For Managers

Assessing performance and providing feedback

· Ensure performance standards are discussed and agreed at the start of the review period.

· Correct poor performance as it happens and do not include it in the annual review.

· Conduct informal performance reviews regularly – at least monthly.

· Ask staff members how the performance review sessions can be improved.

· Be sure to include discussion on career /professional development in the review sessions.

Manager Team Building Tips

Team-Building Tips for Managers

Positive office dynamics add great strength to a business, while strained ones create strife. As a manager, you simply can't afford to leave such an important aspect of the company to chance.

There are many ways for managers to bring a team together and foster its ability to work together as a whole. These 10 tips can help unite even the most disparate group of people.

Communicate goals clearly.

Employees look to management for basic company goals. When those goals are not clear, disagreements will erupt as employees try to define goals themselves. By clearly laying out goals, everyone begins in the same place and understands where the business is going.

Define responsibilities.
Offices run best when everyone clearly understands their responsibilities. Provide each employee with a distinct definition of his or her own responsibilities, both individually and as it relates to group projects. This eliminates confusion over who is accountable for what, and allows employees to relate without struggling over responsibilities.

Provide equal training.
Make sure that each member of your staff is trained and equipped to complete the tasks at hand; divisions surface when one member is unable to perform necessary duties. Provide ongoing training — if additional time is needed, pair two employees to learn from each other. Make sure, though, that it's an equal teaching relationship, where both employees are gaining new skills.

Encourage relationships.
Most offices are busy places with many demanding deadlines. But allowing employees an occasional extended lunch to go out together and relax outside of the work environment can build understanding that will transfer back into the office and improve working relationships.

Empower.
Give decision-making power to the people working on the project. Give them the authority necessary to get their jobs done, but observe the process to make sure they're rising to the challenge. Trusted employees can make decisions without fearing consequences, and good employees will value that trust and seek to make the best decisions.

Provide feedback.
Don’t make a group second-guess your opinion of its work. Be clear not only in your initial expectations and assignments, but also in your opinion of the work. Open and frequent communication, where employees are clear on where they stand, will help them feel more secure and willing to work together.

Reward.
Provide rewards to the office as a group. Whether it's an award, a luncheon, or some other treat, providing the whole office with an encouraging reward for hard work will build team spirit and bring your employees back in with renewed enthusiasm for their jobs.

Set reasonable deadlines.
Reasonable deadlines are often subjective, and timelines vary based on need. But you can build a spirit of teamwork by dividing assignments equally, providing compensation to employees who are working additional hours, and reworking less important deadlines to allow for a little more time.

Meet regularly.
The best way to understand your employees and to let them know they're not alone is to meet regularly with them. Whether it’s a monthly lunch meeting or an organized meeting with specific agenda items, it's critical to keep the lines of communication open. This allows you to gauge not only their needs and productivity, but will also help you assess any team-building concerns that need to be addressed.

Discourage “backdoor” reports.
Inevitably, there will be at least one employee who will attempt to report to you after every meeting — giving a play-by-play slanted in his or her favor. Don't encourage this behavior, and resist the temptation to use this employee as a fly on the wall. Backdoor tactics can severely undermine an otherwise positive office environment.

Building a team means creating a noncompetitive and encouraging work environment — the kind of environment that fosters positive working relationships. When employees feel valued and know that they don't have to vie against one another for recognition, they will be comfortable and confident in working together to achieve their common goal.

Seven Tips for Becoming A Successful Manager

Seven Tips for Becoming A Successful Manager By Susan M. Heathfield,

An effective manager pays attention to many facets of management, leadership and learning within organizations. It is difficult to take the topic of "management success" and say that the following ten items are the most important. However, there following are seven management success skills without which yon may not be a successful manager.

The most important issue in management success is being a person that others want to follow. Every action you take during your career in an organization helps determine whether people will one day want to follow you.

A successful manager:

- Builds effective and responsive interpersonal relationships. Reporting staff members, colleagues and executives respect his or her ability to demonstrate caring, collaboration, respect, trust and attentiveness.

- Communicates effectively in person, print and email. Listening and two-way feedback characterize his or her interaction with others.

- Builds the team and enables other staff to collaborate more effectively with each other. People feel they have become more - more effective, more creative, and more productive - in the presence of a team builder.
- Understands the financial aspects of the business and sets goals and measures and documents staff progress and success.
- Knows how to create an environment in which people experience positive morale and recognition and employees are motivated to work hard for the success of the business.
- Leads by example and provides recognition when others do the same.
- Helps people grow and develop their skills and capabilities through education and on-the-job learning.

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Selecting The Right Candidate For A Job

The mistakes employers make when selecting candidates for a job

By Ben Fletcher
(Ben is Professor of Personal & Organisational Development at the University of Hertfordshire.)

Appearances can be deceptive. Organisations spend considerable amounts of money recruiting staff. They then continue to spend money on training and paying for people they should not have taken on. In about one-third of new jobs, the selected incumbents can be considered as wrong decisions by the company.

This state of affairs is not the fault of the recruitment firm. On the contrary, companies that use recruitment services are much LESS likely to make these kinds of mistakes because the client is required to clarify what they really want when giving the brief, and the successful candidate will be more suitable.

Employers make all sorts of mistakes when selecting candidates for a job. These mistakes fall into different areas:

Inadequate specification of needs

The company has a vacancy because someone has left, or alternatively a new job has been created. In both cases, it is not uncommon for the client to be unsure about what needs they really have. This is not just because people do not work to job descriptions in the real world, but also because the operational managers (as opposed to the HR professionals) cannot communicate their real needs. They know what they want done, but not what might do the job. Alternatively, they might have a constrained view of who could fill the job or what skills they need. It almost always pays to spend time on getting a clear job/person specification and to do it properly. It is definitely cheaper than years of employing the wrong people.

Believing that you do not need the professionals

Professional recruitment companies do more than you might think. The best ones attract the best candidates, they can talk their language (and make sure you do), they know the markets and the options; they can assist throughout the entire process. Do not forget their job is recruitment even if you only hire new staff occasionally. You could do it but doubtlessly, at more long term cost.

Internal company politics

Unfortunately, people interfere in the recruitment process in ways they should not. It might be that a boss has a particular axe to grind or a way of doing things. It might be that the last job incumbent messed up and that some incidental and irrelevant characteristic has been blamed for it. Unfortunately, humans are prone to believing in the causal significance of completely irrelevant coincidences. This can be true of bosses too!

Wanting the impossible or the very unlikely

Another common problem is the employer who does not know the candidate pool well, so they want a person with a particular experience mix, or qualifications that are unusual. Perhaps the last person they had in the job was the one in a million whose skills profile they had taken for granted. It is a fundamental law that the rarer it is the more expensive it is, or the more difficult to get. It is better to be flexible as an employer, too. People can soon grow into roles and niches they did not fit exactly before. You might even find they bring something innovative that you had not thought of.

Not staying focused on need

It goes without saying, but people get sidetracked easily in the selection process. There are a number of ways this can happen. It might be the problem of 'seduction'. Perhaps one candidate has skills that - although not important for the particular job - would be useful in a different role. Or perhaps they come from a competitor and might have useful information. Keep to the agenda unless there are compelling reasons to deviate. Even then, remember that a different job spec would have attracted a different set of candidates.

Poor selection from amongst the possible

There are many reasons companies fail to choose the best candidate put before them. These range from poor methods such as unstructured or unprofessional interviewing, taking too much notice of the irrelevant or allowing prejudices to cloud judgement. Some companies cannot even be persuaded to see the best candidates.

Hiring what you know, not the best

Another fundamental law is that people like the predictability and certainty of choosing people that are 'like them'. This is a group identity need. Often people like the job to be done with a style and in a certain way for no other reason than that is the way they do it or are used to seeing it done. This is not efficient. Indeed, this Comfort Zone is a dangerous place indeed for performance and responsiveness and innovation in business. Take professional advice. Look at what you don't know - it might prove better.

There is no panacea for these problems, but awareness of them is a starting point. As a single piece of advice I would say try to survey the territory from another tree.

Talent Retention Tips

Talent Retention Tips by Craig Donaldson

A recent US white paper found that by 2010, there could be as many as 10 million more jobs available in the country than there are employees.

Further, there is growing evidence of worker dissatisfaction, primarily as a result of layoffs, lack of career growth, and minimal pay has increased over the past several years.

In addition, some employers have become ruthless in order to survive over the past decade, creating aggressive cultures that may not be comfortable for many workers.

The ‘Responding To The Mega-Billion-Dollar Retention Crisis’ white paper, produced by The Ken Blanchard Companies, detailed 10 steps for building retention within organizations:

Show genuine interest and appreciation. Continue to be or become genuinely interested in each person whom you support and depend on.

Make work meaningful. Help people see the connection between what they do and what difference it makes, to the company, the internal or external customers, and society.

Ask courageous questions. Do not shy away from asking why people stay and what it will take to retain them.

Grow competencies, situationally. Look for opportunities to put people into challenging situations where their skills and competencies will grow.

Meet one-on-one, routinely. Conduct regular, but brief one-on-one meetings between manager/leaders and direct reports. Begin by asking, “What’s on your mind?”– then listen and act.

Make retention everyone’s responsibility. Encourage all members of the work group to feel responsible for the retention of their peers and to be alert to problems that can be fixed.

Be a career builder. Talk to people about their long-term career aspirations and help them use or build the skills and competencies they need for the future.

Help people get an “A”. Give the gift of being clear about what an “A” level performance looks like.

Manage the meaning of change. Move toward people in uncertain times, including personal and organizational change. Be there and be open. Check in with people often.

Walk your talk. Be aware that people are always watching and assessing you and your actions as a leader.

Retaining Talent

Retaining Talent

With the economy growing at a steady pace, companies are facing newer challenges. In particular, the Human Resources Department has to change its approach to managing Human Capital.

Gone are the days when the employer called the shots. Today with more people-centric business models it has become ever more crucial to be able to retain talent. The loss of talent in a firm can adversely affect the firm’s ability to succeed.

Many companies have yet to be more innovative in talent retention. Improving talent retention should be the primary aim of every manager.

We list some tips to improve talent retention below:

• Select the right people in the first place through behavior-based testing and competency screening.

• Offer an attractive, competitive, benefits package with components such as life insurance, disability insurance and flexible hours.

• Provide opportunities for people to share their knowledge via training sessions, presentations, mentoring others and team assignments.

• Demonstrate respect for all employees at all times. Listen to them; use their ideas; never ridicule or shame them.

• Offer performance feedback and praise good efforts and results.

• People want to enjoy their work. Make work fun. Engage and employ the special talents of each individual.

• Enable employees to balance work and life. Allow flexible starting times, core business hours and flexible ending times.

• Involve employees in decisions that affect their jobs and the overall direction of the company whenever possible.

• Recognize excellent performance, and especially, link pay to performance.

• Base the upside of bonus potential on the success of both the employee and the company and make it limitless within company parameters.

• Recognize and celebrate success.
• Staff adequately so overtime is minimized for those who don't want it and people don't wear themselves out.

• Nurture and celebrate organization traditions. Run a food collection drive every Christmas. Pick a monthly charity to help. Have an annual company dinner at a fancy hotel.

• Provide opportunities within the company for cross-training and career progression. People like to know that they have room for career movement.

• Provide the opportunity for career and personal growth through training and education, challenging assignments and more.

• Communicate goals, roles and responsibilities so people know what is expected and feel like part of the in-crowd.

•Encourage employees to have good, even best, friends, at work.

These tips will go a long way to make your organizations that truly appreciate and treasure employees. The returns are immeasurable. If you treat your employees really well, you will not lose them and will not lose your competitiveness.