BLOGStreet, from JobStreet.com

Interaction of company culture and employee loyalty

(Editor's note: what is corporate culture? In this article, Serene Yap, a Human Resource Practitioner and a certified Master Class Trainer in human capital development, shares her thoughts with us. Her experiences in both multinational and small to medium-size companies include the whole spectrum of Human Resource Management and Development. Serene holds an MBA (Distinction) in General Management and a Diploma in Private Secretaryship. She is also a Competent Communicator certified by Toastmasters International.)

Company or Corporate culture is defined as "the shared basic values, ideologies and assumptions, which guide and fashion the organisational behaviour and action".

Corporate culture can be influenced by the local and global business environment, for example, the telco industry may have to instill an innovative and fast decision-making culture due to the quick evolution of the industry. Corporate culture may also be influenced by the diversity of race or nationality, which creates the needs to be sensitive to differing racial personality and background.

Corporate culture plays a very important 'informal' role in the daily activities of an organization by providing guided practices of company values and behaviour. Therefore, it is imperative to cultivate positive company culture from respectful values which encourage employees loyalty. The key strategy is to create a strong foundation or framework that holds and aligns all employees to ONE direction (it's just like music, when sung together in rhythm, its in harmony), and instill into them from a 'New Born' stage. It is not what's written on the walls or in the offices, but values that change and touch the hearts and minds - values that can be imprinted in the hearts and minds of all employees.

Company culture cannot be cultivated or changed overnight, nor in just a few months. The change is gradual and may take at least one year or more. It is most ideal to introduce the Company culture from the day the employee starts work, and gradually cultivate into them the values to be adopted and expected from all staff.

In a recent overseas study, statistics show that in about 85% of companies, employee morale declines sharply after the first six months of joining, and continues to deteriorate for years after that. This survey from about 1.2 million employees at 52 primarily Fortune 1000 companies, found that the fault lies with the management who diminished or destroyed these employees' enthusiasm. Therefore, it is crucial to MAP the journey of all employees to the right direction and to be in alignment with the organization's direction. These employees need to be guided from 'young' to work together and adapt to the Company culture and environment through a structured orientation program, which will also provide a cushion to any cultural shock.

Top Management plays a significant role in evolving the Company culture. People in the organization tend to look upon the Top Management as their role model, and modify their behaviours to suit the wishes and behaviours of the top people. An autocratic CEO or leader using coercive management will often find people in the organization blaming each other for faults or problems. In such a culture, the first thing that the superior does when things go wrong is to find who is at fault, and not the causes and solutions, and Employees are sometimes dismissed indiscriminately. However, one factor that is often overlooked by the management of such culture is that the way the firing is done can have as much impact on the people who remain. These people who remain in the organization will ask "Could this happen to me?" or "When will this happen to me?" Naturally such culture will instill 'fear' instead of 'loyalty'.

Human Resource practitioners play an important role by assisting the Management in shaping a desired positive company culture through introduction or improvement of appropriate management or HR best practices and tools. Effective implementation of reward systems, training / coaching / counseling, and most importantly, Leading By Example.

Timing is everything

(Editor's note: We came across this press release from Hays Australia and we thought it is useful enough to share with you. Happy reading!)

Timing is everything and the recruitment process is no different, quickening as employers realise the need to act fast to secure the best candidates, says specialist recruiter Hays.

“Candidate shortages are still very evident in many sectors, and in these cases today’s job seekers need to be prepared for a swift response,” said Chris Mead, General Manager of Hays in Singapore. “Solid candidates in skills-short areas often receive an employment offer within 48 hours of an interview, although it is not uncommon for candidates with a very strong skill base and experience ideally suited to a vacancy to be offered a role less than 24 hours after interview. 

“Traditionally, a week would easily pass between an interview and an offer.  However today if one company's recruitment process is protracted, they risk losing the candidate to competitors with a faster and more efficient recruitment process. So it has become imperative for hiring managers to act quickly and decisively.

“It is no surprise that organisations with an efficient recruitment process are the winners in the current market.  The recruitment process should last no longer than two interviews - one with the direct line manager followed by a second interview with senior management - and an assessment or testing session if necessary. However some organisations will hold one interview, calling senior management into the interview if the line manager is impressed, and will offer the candidate pending successful testing if it’s required.

“We’ve even seen instances where some hiring managers will conduct interviews on a Friday and then come into work on a Saturday or Sunday to finalise the offer so it is presented to the ideal candidate first thing Monday morning. Many businesses are also acting to secure quality candidates before formal vacancies are even confirmed.”

However, Hays offers an element of caution about creating a recruitment process that trades time for the appropriate depth of information required for both parties to make a decision.

“Candidates should be ready to receive and action offers quickly, and be sure of their motivations for applying for specific jobs. They should also be prepared for a number of offers and the concerted efforts of their existing employers to buy them back through a counter offer,” said Chris. 

JECI poll, July 2008

It was as expected. Though the effect was delayed, we anticipated the JobStreet Employee Confidence Indices could dip in July, and they did so in three of the four countries where we run our JECI poll monthly. Job seekers are generally getting more concerned about the impact of higher consumer prices on the job market in their respective countries.

In Malaysia, the JobStreet ECI dropped to 47.9 from a month earlier. The decline had been felt slowly since March but this drop came in the wake of the increased fuel and food prices. In Singapore, the JobStreet ECI settled at 53.5 from 54.0 a month earlier. In India, the decline in employee confidence continued with the JobStreet ECI registering a drop to 66.1 index points. The only country to buck this trend was the Philippines where job seekers expressed more confidence in the employment market in July than in June, pushing the index up to 57.3 points.

The JobStreet.com Employment Confident Index is a measurement of job seeker confidence in finding a job in the countries where we hold our monthly polls.

JobStreet.com 15th Human Resources Networking Event

On 5 Aug 2008, JobStreet.com organized its 15th Human Resources Networking Event (HRNE) in Malaysia at the Sunway Pyramid Convention Centre. More than 350 HR folks attended the event which had a tagline of “I Love HR”. The theme of the event was “Strategic HRM through Employer Branding”.

We had among the speakers:

• Andy Li - Director of Talent Acquisition Asia, Flextronics
• Antony Lee – CEO of AIG-Software International JV Sdn Bhd
• Steven McGinnes – Strategic Planning Director of Saatchi Lab (Singapore, Malaysia & Indonesia)
• Moses Choo – National Council for the Blind, Malaysia, and
• Chua Chai Ping – Senior Manager, Human Resources, Deloitte KassimChan

We also held a forum at noon which brought together four panelists to discuss further on “Why is Strategic approach for HR relevant during difficult times?”.

Mark Chang, JobStreet.com Founder & CEO, took to the podium to welcome the attendees and share the latest updates on JobStreet.com .

Some of the key takeaways included:-

1. If your employees feel happy working for the firm, they will refer their friends. So, if possible, have an attractive referral programme. The number of referrals would be a barometer to indicate whether your employees enjoy working there and are willing to recommend to others.

2. You can do Employer Branding through videos, including simple videos made by employees using normal digital video cameras. Today, you can upload your YouTube videos to your job posting at JobStreet.com without any additional charges.

3. Money is not the main reason people quit a job.

4. People join an organization, but leave a manager.

5. Ideally, HR reports to CEO and/or Top Management Committee.

For those of you who missed this HR Networking Event, we hope to see you next year!

An unlikely recruit

Every now and then, we come across some quirky news from around the world. For example, there's this news that a drawf, standing barely 1.2m in his socks, had been recruited - yes, recruited - by a gang of burglars!

Of course, the recruitment wasn't done in the normal channel that we will expect from every law-abiding company but nonetheless, it set off wide grins here in the office when we read about it. Don't, please don't, use JobStreet.com for such activities, okay? Perish the thought, ha ha!!

Here's the picture of the news report that appeared in the Telegraph:

You can read the full story here.

Facebook? MySpace? Be careful of what you write!

Here's an interesting extract from a story that appeared recently on Reader's Digest:

If you're on MySpace or Facebook, so is your potential boss. Time to make some changes?

Here's an interesting fact: Every American has, at some point, appeared naked, drunk, unconscious, rude, crude or felonious online.

Okay, maybe not everyone, but surf the Net and that's the impression you'll get. On social networks like MySpace and Facebook, you can find pages only a hedonist would love: "Thirty Reasons Girls Should Call It a Night," "Beer Pong Dream Team," … you get the idea.

There's a photo of a young man named Carl on yet another page. He's fast asleep -- passed out, actually -- and his friends have sketched scars, a mustache and graffiti on his face. (By the way, we deleted his last name, but it's right there on the site.) Katie is there too. She's wasted and naked and has her head resting on a toilet seat. Her photo comment? "Not my finest hour ... what a classy chick!"

Click here to read the rest of this story.

JECI poll, June 2008

June was not a particularly good month for countries in the South and South-East Asian regions as the spiralling price of fuel began to impact on the cost of living of the people.

Nevertheless, the impending rise in inflation does not seem to have adversely affected the job market yet.

In the four countries where JobStreet.com has been running our monthly Employment Confidence Index (JECI), we noticed that the indices are still relatively holding stable.

In Singapore, their JECI held at 54.0 points, only a 0.1 point down from the previous month.

In the Philippines, their JECI was also relatively stable, ending the month at 56.4, down by 0.3 points.

In Malaysia, their JECI also dropped by 0.3 points to 48.9 in June. Their JECI has been in a slow decline since March when the index touched a year-high of 51.8

In India, their JECI has also been slowly declining since January. For June, the index had settled at 67.8.

The JobStreet.com Employment Confident Index is a measurement of job seeker confidence in finding a job in the countries where we hold our monthly polls.

Using YouTube to promote your jobs and company brand

For those who are innovative in recruitment - you can now post your job advertisement on JobStreet.com with your YouTube video embedded.
It's simple - just look out for the YouTube box when creating your advertisement, and paste the URL of your YouTube video.

For those who are new to this concept - YouTube is a good opportunity for employers if used correctly.  You can provide a video preview of the work environment or what present employees think of the company.  Use it to emphasize your call for action and attract applications.

We'll be posting more about how to publish your company and recruitment videos on YouTube so keep an eye on this blog.

Malaysia faces ICT skills gap

The demand for information and communications technology (ICT) jobs in Malaysia remains healthy, but graduates entering the workforce still lack certain fundamental skill sets, say industry players.

Albert Wong, chief product officer of online recruiter JobStreet.com, said there is increasing demand for IT staff from multinational corporations (MNCs), as well as local companies that are starting up their respective shared services and outsourcing (SSO) or IT centers in Malaysia.

You can read the rest of the article here.

Regional JECIs hold steady in May despite uncertainties

Here are the latest graphs for the JobStreet Employment Confidence Index (JECI) in Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines and India, as at the end of May 2008.

The JECI in Malaysia held steady in May 2008, dipping just 0.5 index points from Apr 2008.

In Singapore, the JECI has been in slow decline since Feb 2008 but in May, it improved slightly over the Apr data.

The JECI in the Philippines has been showing some volatility in recent months as it hovers between a tight range of 3.0 index points since the beginning of the year.

And in India, employment confidence remains high despite the slight monthly fluctuations.