What an Assignment

Three humongous assignments in the coming months:

1. Heading the people & competence area in a REFORM/Transformation project
2. A member of a task force to determine the future of 50 staff members (read: people will hate me)
3. SAP live date has been confirmed
   

What a Monday

Global Talent Index

Malaysia is on the top 15. Acceptable level, considering our total population as well as GDP.

Read more information here

I have ordered a copy from Heidrick and Struggles. Watch the space.

Profiles XT

A rather newly created instrument dedicated for job fit matching.

Please read here.

The ProfileXT intrument is measuring an overall job match index (in percentage). It is mesured by combining of three dimensions:

1. Thinking Style i.e. aptitude tests on both verbal and numerical (in skill and reasoning). In fact, the composite of these four aptitude tests became the Learning Index - a measure on one capacity in adapting/learning. Please note that there is a job match percentage based on the thinking style as well.
2. Behavioral Traits i.e. the pschometric assessment itself. It consists of nine traits i.e. Energy, Assertiveness, Sociability, Manageability, Attitude, Decisiveness, Accomodating, Independence, and Objective Thinking. Please note that there is a job match percentage based on these traits as well.
3. Occupational Interests i.e. ranking interest of six areas: Enterprising, Financial/Admninistrative, People Service, Technical, Mechanical, Creative

Budget 2008

105. The Government had announced in the 2007 Budget that all PLCs are required to disclose CSR activities in their annual financial reports. Beginning financial year 2008, PLCs will be required to disclose their employment composition by race and gender, as well as programmes undertaken to develop domestic and Bumiputera vendors. The private sector should leverage upon the strength of Malaysia’s diversity by employing Malaysians from all ethnic groups.

Full Budget 2008 text here

There are several serious implications on the recruitment & talent management philosophy in any PLCs that I can think of. Cuma tak sure either it is for better or worse.

Resourcefulness

RESILIENCE - the last of three important attributes to a successful corporate career.

What is resilience?

Too many people like to run with the herd. Like the buffaloes. Winners look ahead. Goal-oriented and determined to reach their objectives.

Like salmon - swim hundreds of miles upstream against rugged rapids, preyed upon by hungry eagles and bears. They don’t stop until they die. They are all merely ordinary adversaries.

Never give up. Never accept "NO" as an answer. Always

If There’s a Will, There’s a Way

BUT, there is a catch - to know the limit. Too much of resilience is aka stubbornness

You would not want that, right?

The Future of Human Resource Management

64 Thought Leaders Explore the Critical HR Issues of Today and Tomorrow:

1. Understanding & Managing People



2. Invest in the Next HR Professionals



3. Master the New Role



4. Adapt Culture to Business Conditions



5. Organization as Capabilities not Structure



6. HR Decision - Craft, Science, Art



7. Social Expectation, Public Policy and Ethics



8. Global Life, Local Act

Huge Distractions

What a day...




Where is my sexual harrasment guidelines?

Occupational Personality Questionnaires (OPQ32)

• A suite of questionnaire designed to assess the typical or preferred behavior of individuals in a way that is relevant to the world of work
• Variety of applications mainly for selection, development, team-building and counseling
  OPQ32i forces people to make a choice between most and least preferred aspects of their personalities
• Controlling distortion due to response bias
  

The 32 dimensions measure the followings:

Relationship with People
1. Influence - Persuasive, Controlling, Outspoken, & Independent Mind

2. Sociability - Outgoing, Affiliative, & Socially Confident

3. Empathy - Modest, Democratic, & Caring

Thinking Style
4. Analysis - Data Rational, Evaluative, & Behavioral

5. Creativity & Change - Conventional, Conceptual, Innovative, Variety Seeking, & Adaptable

6. Structure - Forward Thinking, Detail Conscious, Conscientious, & Rule Following

Feelings and Emotions
7. Emotion - Relax, Worrying, Tough Minded, Optimistic, Trusting, & Emotionally Controlled

8. Dynamism - Vigorous, Competitive, Achieving, & Decisive

Organization Transformation

Consider the following facts:

1. Your organization's top management has created a 15-year-blueprint. The new direction setting has redefined your organization's existing vision, mission, and strategies
2. Next action item is to operationalize those long-term strategies. Realignment to the line of sight. Convert the abstracts into measurable milestones. In the meantime, your organization may need to transform the current structure, process, system, policy, and people (cannot use the old presumptions, anymore)
3. Unfortunately, your organization does not possess internal capability to spearhead such transformation from within. Credibility (of the HR Department) is also an issue. Thus, the top management has created a Request for Proposal (RfP) and invited seven world-class transformation consulting firm to participate in the project. In the end, only four firms submitted the final proposal
4. A technical evaluation committee (TEC) is entrusted to review and evaluate the proposals. Besides teh normal criteria, it is also an option for the TEC to reject all proposals, if none deems fit the requirements
5. You are appointed as one of the members of TEC. You are also supposed to provide your 'subject-matter-expert' on the "people and competence" aspect of the proposal
   

Upon the review and evaluation of the consulting firms, you find out that only two organizations worth to be considered. Shortlisted process began. Final recommendation on one firm was made and submitted to the approving body.

The approving body requested TEC to reconsider the other two proposals that have not been shortlisted in the first place.

Do you agree with the approving body?

Why?

Global Competitiveness Index

No. 26... Malaysia should set a target to be top 20 within three years.

Start your Balance Scorecard thingy!

Is this appropriate?

A Company, via its HR Manager, issued an official apology on their employment advertisement.

The Manager of the Human Resources and Administration Department wishes to personally express his remorse and sincere regret and unreservedly apologize...

Questions arise:

1. Why is the HR Manager has to personally apologize on behalf of the Company? Should the Company, as a corporate entity, apologize?
2. Should the Company extend such apology to all women in Malaysia well? The ad also segregates gender by preferring only male candidates
3. Why can't the HR Manager learn to draft a proper job specification from the job description (after the job analysis exercise)?
4. Can a Company make a pure assumption based on religion, race (or whatever superficial prejudices) in their hiring practices? e.g. all Muslims will not be interested to work in "pork-retail-facility"? Or, all Hindus will not be interested in serving beefy Big Mac? Or, all Manchus are against eating dog meat? Or, all Jains are vegetarians?
5. And the big Q - How about the statement "Bumiputra are encouraged to apply"?

Where is the line?

Annual Leave (Vacation)

For the last umpteen years, I have never try taking my annual leave in a long stretch. Maximum is a week (five working days), I think.

Next week, I will take a whole month break for my summer vacation.

And, I will buy that blackberry...

I promise.

The Curse of Palestine "State"

The "state" was created by our grandfathers' blunders more than 60 years ago. They have created it based on greed - materialistically, politically & spiritually.

Then, they failed.

Failed. And failed again.

Just like corrupted unionists.

Now they want to pass the burden of their "curse" to us.

How convenience?

Annual Check Up

http://www.tribune.com.ng/07062007/hlt1.html

1. ... at least once a year (especially those are above 40 years old)
2. Annual medical check-up in two phases:
   
   

• Clinical or physical examination
• Laboratory test

GM's DIET

Sometime a small HR initiative can snowballing into a different kind of animal. I do not know why?

At least in my organization. The magnitude has mounting tremendously yesterday. This week is a prize-giving week to the lucky ones. Thus, everybody is talking about it - the weight-loss-diet-program introduced by GM.

"I lost 5 kg within a week. I feel good about myself..." said Mrs. Datin, who, in my humble opinion, remains exactly the same in size 20 as of last month.

"It is good for cleansing toxic from your body!" proclaimed Mr. Topper from the Operations Department. The problem is, Mr. Topper smokes like a dragon. Not as angry dragon, though. No pun intended ya. He is my kind of guy i.e. accidentally-left-your-lighter-somewhere-else kind of guy. He is my man... (different story nanti)

Only one way to determine the truth. I will enter the contest myself for the September drawing.

And, if it works, I will have a six pact & a good chance of winning that SPA trip. If not, business as usual...

Watch me

Taste of my Dream - Part III

September 2004

When I listened to Pak Lah during his budget presentation that Friday, I felt 'terpanggil' to do my national service. Sort of ‘giving something back’, in a less honorable manner.

After all, his administration appears to believe in individual’s true capability rather than the mere clocking years of service. Everyone is mentioning Oxford graduates, towering personalities, Ethos Consulting, Azman Mokhtar, young & bright, all – if possible, in a same sentence. So, yours truly sent three letters detailing my intention to work for them and offering my so-called “competent services” to:

1. PMO’s Office. – Attention to Pak Lah for the obvious reason. I wanted to work at the fourth floor, or at least at the NEAC secretariat with Tok Pa at that time. For one, I am an avid fan of the West Wing; and my ambition is to be a Josh Lyman!
   
2. Khazanah Nasional. – Being entrusted to spearhead Malaysian national coffer, AMOK is a good role model to all young & restless like me. I was inspired to work with the ‘world-class’ employees – managing their careers would be my ultimate challenge and dreams.
   
3. XX – Dato’ Z is my role model since 1992. I was assigned at the Chase Manhattan building – opposite of SHELL House. To be a successful employee in a multinational oil & gas Company is a daunting task, to say the least. For a simple reason: it is an engineering-dominant working environment. I knew this because I used to work in American Oil Company (AMOCO) before. Being a woman like her (with legal background) and be appointed as a Deputy Chairman, you ought to multiply her adversities by 100 (on a fair day).

So the hunting began…

The Setiausaha Politik Kanan to Pak Lah replied to my request, promptly via a standard letter. I reckoned Pak Lah is receiving tons of such letters. The setpol is politely suggested that I should send my application to SPA who manages all recruitment exercise on behalf of government. Hey, I knew that. I studied the whole JPA structure remembered?

There is no reply from Khazanah Nasional. Shame on them.

Out-of-the-blue, I received a call from a true gentleman named Kula. He asked me to come over the XX to have a chat with him. Wow, so efficient and focus. The interview process went quite well. Kula is a very good listener, asking all tough questions and answering all my stupid inquiries.

Then, within a week, came the big day – a meeting with Dato’ herself. She went beyond all my expectations – from professional and leadership perspectives. She asked direct but difficult HR questions from strategic perspectives. She asked me on my expectations. She asked me on my motivations. She was focused on the HR deliveries and key performance indicators. She understood HR well.

May 2007

I got this opportunity to meet Dato' Z again. This time under a different scenario - although not yet an equal footing.

A bit awkward, but all in all it is a positive development.

Issue on Faith

Everyone is talking about religion today – freedom of religion that is.

Generally, I didn’t see other people through their faith, race or gender. But, I have seen others who have inner core perspectives that are derived from these axis. I am not saying that they are wrong, and I have a moral superiority over them. What I am saying is that there is a serious lack of statutory equality bodies in providing guidance, information and codes of practice among the Malaysians.

Many organizations in Malaysia do not have any equality or diversity policy. So forget about a wider issue – other than ‘race-and-religion’: which is a synonymous (double-whammy) issue in the Malaysian context. Thus, we conveniently overlook other sensitive issues such as age, gender, nationality, disability, sexual orientation, political association, medical records, trade union association, criminal convictions etc. We will not appreciate at the “hate-incident” ratio as critical as we grasp the “near-missed” or “lost-time-injury” in safety & health.

So, let us focus ONLY on ‘race-and-religion’ issue.

Do we capture the information pertaining to our Staff’s race and religion? Most organization will say that they collected sensitive information as part of employment data. The information will be analyzed and used to inform current and future decision-making so that one can contribute to an improved employment environment and service delivery for the Company.

Is it fair to ask Staff’s proficiency in certain languages e.g.: Arabic, Urdu, Hokkien or Mandarin to reflect their ethnicity?

Lain kali kita cerita lah

One Liner

An old-timer is someone who remembers every detail of their life story, but cannot remember how many times they have told the same person.

- anonymous -

Salary Hike

A record salary hike for civil servants was announced by the Malaysian Prime Minister today. The 7.5 – 35 percent salary increase (about USD$2.5b annually) is expected to benefit more than 1 million civil servants (as well as half a million of pensioners) in Malaysia. The authorities expect that this pay hike will contribute about 0.5 percent to Malaysia’s economic growth this year and another half percent in 2008.

What are the implications on HR in the private sector? Will there be a new effort by the industrial & trade unionists to increase our minimum wage? Inflation vs. COLA? Is it a worthwhile effort to reward their performance? Any link with poductivity? Will it be a shift in hiring trend for young graduates?

DDI's Essentials of Leadership

DDI has a complete and most comprehensive leadership framework (compared to others - off course within my limited domain of knowledge). One of the management blueprints for a successful manager is on the "Leadership Imperatives". It is a critical set of competencies that all leaders must possess and continuously improved. By mastering these imperatives, one will become an adaptive or situational leader. There are seven imperatives:

1. Coach & Develop for Results
   Leaders get work done through others. The ability to effectively coach for success and for improvement is critical to getting work group results. Developing others through training and targeted experiences is one of a leader's most important contributions to the organization.


2. Drive Performance
   Leaders are responsible for getting results personally and from their work groups. Setting performance expectations and holding people accountable are critical for getting results.


3. Inspire for Loyalty & Trust
   Retaining talented staff is the leader's job, and staff satisfaction is the key to retention. Good leaders create an environment where staff can maximize their talents and perform at or above expectations.


4. Manage Work
   Resources, time, and budget need to be deployed effectively for leaders to meet their work groups' objectives.


5. Partner Within and Across Teams
   Whether it's a formal team or an informal group that needs close teamwork, in order to be effective, creating and maintaining a high-performing team and cross-boundary partnerships is a key leadership role.


6. Influence Through Personal Power
   Leaders need to get things done without using position power, either because it's inappropriate or they're leading people who are peers or who are not direct reports.


7. Select Talent
   Identifying, evaluating, and selecting internal and external talent are essential skills for most leaders.
   

Attending IFIs Seminar

I went to this IFIs seminar and all I got was this "wonderful" motherhood-concept for an emotionally well-balanced professional -



"DIET, SLEEP & EXERCISE"


BTW, I need to color my hair.

Labor Day Blues

Assessment Tests

In general, there are three main types of assessment tests:

1. Personality & Motivation
2. Interests
3. Abilities

Let us focus on the first part - Personality & Motivation Tests.

There are various types of instruments that measure our personality and motivation. They are designed with specific objectives and these tools can be very useful in identifying our individual inner feeling and thinking.

Some of my favorites are:

• Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) by CPP. More than 2 million annually have benefited from this instrument. It is an useful instrument to learn your preferences for a lifelong growth and development. Key word - understand self & others. Four dichotomies: Extraversion-Introversion; Sensing-iNtuition; Thinking-Feeling; Judging-Perceiving.

• Fundamental Interpersonal Relations Orientation-Behavior (FIRO-B) by CPP. Identify the key motivators that drive behaviors and help transform a group of individuals into a cohesive team. A powerful instrument to discover our need for participation, influence, and closeness. Must-have instrument for mentoring & coaching.

• Occupational Personality Questionnaires (OPQ32) by SHL. SHL provides over 250 assessment tools of various instruments. One of the instruments i.e. OPQ32 provides valuable information on individuals preferred behaviour on 32 personality characteristics. The dimensions are grouped into three areas: relationship with people, thinking styles, and feelings & emotions. You will love it once you mapped the 32 dimensions into your own competency framework.

• Personal Profile Analysis (PPA) by Thomas International aka DiSC: Dominance -Influence - Steadiness - Compliance. High on each D-i-S-C meant that the person likes to be around people, loves to complete one task at a time, cautious in decision making, and lives a challenge & taking charge.
  

I will explain later on the individual instrument - the advantages & disadvantages & how to cheat on it.

Confirmation Process

What would you consider a fair percentage of salary increment for this new hire:

"... is highly dedicated staff who adapted to work culture well. He learned and understood the detailed procedures of the division within a very short period.... He started contributing to the assigned tasks in almost immediately. ... his contributions are highly noted and appreciated. Therefore, I strongly recommend him for a confirmation with an outstanding rating..."

Duh... it is a lousy assessment. Does not even deserve a B-

Sometime good enough is not enough.

No... good enough is never enough.

Seeds in an Apple vs Apples in a Seed

How Do You Measure Your Potential?

Before that, there are few ground rules:

1. Acceptability of the result. Suck up and take it like a BIG boy. Accept that the fact that the truth sometime hurts (I-always-think-that-I-am-a-big-fish-in-a-big-pond attitude). Often times the truth tastes bitter (sesekali ajer it tastes that sweet).


2. Potential is always innate. Exceptional leaders are born - they are not made (kecuali plastic leaders). It is in their genes. So, if you are not born with great leader potential, it is okay. There is only one Muhammad Ali in this world. NO matter how much money & time you spent & develop, you won't be able to replicate another Muhammad Ali true potential. PERIOD.


3. For less-than-mortal people, you must learn to be a person who is able to influence other people efficiently (efficacy?) & effectively. These are the attributes that you must seek. Know your limitations and work around it. Know your strengths and capitalize in it.

These are the fundamentals in measuring the estimation of individual potential.

The framework is based eight main dimension as per the following diagram. More definitions and teh instruments are coming.

Customer Delights

My Best Emergency Fire Drill Exercise...

I was on the 18th floor when it happened. A gentleman with a red arm band and a loudhailer interrupted my meeting and requested me to leave immediately through specific escape routes. Well the overall situation was not that chaotic anyway. So, I took my time as I had to walk through the staircase all the way down - together with my notebook. I can't left my precious information "burnt" just like that ok.

One the ground floor, leading to the assembly areas, surprisingly that there were two big long tables on both sides. One was with bottles of ice-cool mineral water and another was with air kotak perisa orange.

Hmm... I am truly delighted.

Job Design - Mintzberg's Model

The post "9-11" event has created lots of new words and jargons.

It has also created of job opportunities in the US as well as around the world. It explains the phenomena why more muslims choose to migrate to America. Afterall, FBI needs ordinary muslims to translate the religion. CIA needs to differentiate specific culture influence in the global terror network. This is the alternative to intelligence gathering; apart from SME and academia usual suspects. Well, it is a bit of outside-the-box strategy.

On the other side, TERRORIST is a new job family. Lots of vacant generic positions are available - for example Jihadists. Please don't ask on their compensation package as the definition on Jihad is still out there there there there. To the end, I reckon, it would be difficult for a HR practitioner to write a good job description for a Jihadist.

But, if you have a sample, please share.

For more information on designing job based on Mintberg's model, go here, here, and here.

Attention to Detail

ATD is one of the top three dimensions required for all HR professionals. You will need this competency in all roles of HR - consultative & expert advisor, catalyst of change, value-adding partner, balanced arbitrator. Any reliable & valid personality instrument will show your tendency towards ATD. But that is not conclusive as it only measure your overall preference as far as ATD. Take a specific aptitude test or assessment center which specifically measured the ATD dimension. Then, work around your strengths & weaknesses.

Why you must be meticulous? What does attention-to-detail mean? Will elaborate later but in essence:

• small things make up to a big picture. So when the small things are well taken care of, the big thing will fall through in an orderly fashioned


• But remember to apply this dimension with the 80-20 principle...

SAP Solution Manager 4.0

Solution Manager is the latest 'in-thing' within the SAP world. It consists of world of INTEGRATED knowledge on SAP entire life-cycle including implementation, operations and continuous improvement. It has tons of practical & "non-sense" tools, pre-configured business processes (business process repository), samples of documentation etc. It also manages all issues pertaining to end-user supports to training matters.

I will take the certification examination at 1:00 pm today.

Hope the premiums akan bertambah...

____________________________________________

Note to self:

1. Any test or accreditation is a difficult task. All of them.
2. Do not ever underestimate anything.

Aligning HR

In today's context, HR must served as a value-added strategic partner in the formulation of the Company’s strategies. HR is directly responsible in implementing those strategies through "attract", "develop", "reward", "retain", and "separate" cycle of HR activities. We are "sitting" at the table.

HR plays a role in environmental scanning i.e. identifying and analyzing external opportunities and threats that may be crucial to the Company’s success. HR is to supply competitive intelligence that may be useful in the strategic planning process - again SWOT&C is relevant here.

HR practitioners need to understand and know how to measure the monetary impact of their actions. Understand our products and services. HR can only become strategic partners when we participate in the process of defining business strategy, when we design HR practices that align with the business strategy.

So today, we have been accorded "Observer Status" at the United Nation General Assembly. It is quite an achievement for all of us.

Now, I need to create a job specification for that position at New York. I know one canddiate that fits my requirements. Ha ha ha

Yours truly.

Retreat Session

Three main CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTORs:

1. What is the tangible outcome & objective from it? What is the main agenda? Is there any thematics or thrusts of issues?


2. Who is the facilitator(s)?


3. Who are the participants?

Some organizations that I knew named their Retreat Session as "Management Away Day" or MAD.

This is the first time I experienced a HR Retreat Session in two parts. The first is a bottom-up approach on HR expectations and SWOT. The second part is a Voice of Customer - mostly from managers & other head of departments.

As expected, HR is being criticized and thumped from every corner.

Tough expectations.

SOS - Update

Closing date is by 12:00 pm today.

Finally we managed to reach 76 percent of response rate. A very successful SOS.

One of the most controversial questions is Question 73. It asks the respondents to rate the overall "trust and confidence" that they have in each the President, Vice Presidents (collectively), Specific Vice President, head of division, head of department, and finally the immediate supervisor.

Some people will get nasty, while others may switch to defensive mode.

After the presentation to all necessary stakeholders & all Staff, we will handover the findings & recommendations to the Action Planning & Implementation Team.

Conducting the survey is easy; implementing the recommendations is totally different game.

Good luck, dudes!

Staff Opinion Survey

I have been designated as one of the committee members for the Staff Opinion Survey (SOS). After more than three months of working on RFP, evaluation criteria, selection process, awarding contract, detailed administration matters, focus group, culture sort exercise, high level interviews etc, finally today is our SOS day.

It is an on-line, in three different languages & directly link to the Consultant website in UK (for confidentiality purpose). After series of bold teasers (depending on who you talk to), our communication "campaign" is ultimately paid off. I did the FAQs.

As at 5:00 pm - we are at 22 percent completed the survey, 12 percent started but yet to complete.

Well done team. Our target is 7o percent.