Behavioral Event Interview (BEI) Technique

BEI is now widely used as an interview tools to predict the behavior of the candidate to perform certain function effectively and efficiently. The answer or reply to any of the BEI interview questions should be based on STAR or Situation or Task, Action and Result. However, it's not easy to 'dig' the experience of each candidate if he or she could not focus to one particular example of his or her past experience. There's tendency for any candidates to share his or her wide and general experience if the interviewer could not 'control' the candidate. Candidates must understand that what are expected from them is to share their very specific experiences that had happened earlier in their life. They need to be focus to that one particular event and share their experiences based on the specific event or situation only. They have to share and 'walk through' their specific experiences with every details that had happened with the interviewer and finally to inform the results. In order to assist the interview panel as well as the candidates, the panel should lead or assist the candidate to focus on one particular event or situation that he or she had experienced earlier by stating the person who were involved, where it occurred, when and what was his or her role in that particular event or situation. Statement such as 'generally', 'usually', 'normally', 'I like to...', should not be mentioned at all during the experience sharing session. In addition, futuristic statement such as 'I hope', 'I'd like to..' should also be avoided. Opinion statement such as 'I think...', 'I guess', 'I am sure that...'and 'I know very well that...' should not be discussed during the interview. Since the interview is about the candidate who attended the interview, word to reflect many such as 'we', 'us' or everyone' should also be clarified further. It should be about him or her and all statement must be reflected to what he did before, unless it's about teamwork or others.

Managing HR Using Social Media

I bet in some developed and open minded countries, some HR are already managing using fb as one of the most powerfull tool. Why? Because most young people (and also older ones) are expressing themselves through fb either directly or indirectly. Furthermore, HR and the bosses can actually understand their staff better, their interest, their feelings and also their family members. You can do a lot of communcations, surveys and stuff using new media. Employees can share their photos and employers also can upload some promo videos about the company or products and get instant respond from their employees. They can also discuss topics of their interest that HR or management might want to know not to punish but to improve and meet the employees needs and wants.

But really, it requires great courage for the HR and employers to really be open and transparent. And it depends on the respond whether it's good or bad.

Talent: Be at right time & at right place

I believe in the above statement....

No matter how excellent you are if you happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time, your will be nobody. And of course with a little know how and know who, and being at the right time and the right place, you may end up somebody!

For instance, real example, Tun Hanif Omar, ex CPO of Malaysia. He was very young when he was appointed as CPO because the incumbent at that time was killed, he was made the CPO at a very young age (28 if i could remember it well)...because no one else more capable than him was identified....how lucky.

The recent son of a leader of a communist country was made the successor after his father died...how lucky he is at the age of 28, he was made the head of state. Our PM was also appointed as the youngest Chief Minister (was it 23?) when his father passed away long time ago. Well, not a very good example right? But the CPO case was truly the case of being in the right place at the right time.

The point is, somehow you need someone as your mentor or sponsor to promote you to higher authority especially if you want to be promoted fast. To be in the fast lane requires you to know where to go, and whom to click with. Tun Daim for instance, had a few mentees he personally developed, and now they are millionaires. But hope they'll not forget who they were before and contribute back to the nation.

In a lot of companies now, there's a special Unit namely Talent Management to manage the high flyers. The Unit is responsible to identify, manage, develop further or create more opportunity for the selected talent within a company to excel and to create better or accelerated path for them to grow. Nowadays, the system or process is getting better and better, and if you can perform well and has teh potential as a leader, you can get special treatment by your company. However, you need to be at the right place and at teh right time too to get in the system. You have to compete and to find someone who is passionate enough to take care of you as a mentor and develop you further as well as create you the opportunity to be selected as talent. And if yiu were selected, you also need to perform and get someone to assist you to performa and retain you as a talent. Life is great but it's not easy....

Transit & KAFA for School Kid at Office Area

I decided to open a Transit for school kids and KAFA class at our office complex in Taiping after our success with the childcare centre in 2000. Main reason? My kids needed KAFA education and i didn't have maid at home :D; but then again, it actually benefited almost 180 students and 120+ parents near the office complex...the respond was unbelievable!

I later decided to open a transit for school children, and later negotiated with Majlis Agama Islam Perak to open KAFA class since we have mosque in our office complex in Taiping. We appointed 2 teachers, Tahfiz AlQuran to run the KAFA school. I apponted one old lady to do the housekeeping (to make sure the mosque was always clean with so many kids around, not to distrupt the mosque). The parenst could also opt for lunch provided by the KAFA school management (and pay extra) or just pay for the KAFA class without lunch/food. So if their kids went to morning school, they could come back after school straight to KAFA class or in the morning before they went to school, they would go for KAFA class in the morning, take bath there and went to school direct after KAFA class if their school were in the afternoon.

Initially I observed that the kids were playing a foll when praying with adults. I discussed with the ustazs and requested that all KAFA students to pray separately with the ustazs to observe their movement during the prayer. At the same time, I asked the ustazs to asked the kids to recit the doa and surah clearly all at once so that everybody especially the smaller kids could follow. One of teh older kid was made the Imam to lead the prayer. Ustazs were supposed to observe and taught them the right way to perform teh prayer step by step.

They were also asked to recite Yassin and I challenged them to remember (hafaz) Yassin and other simple Surah by reciting those Surah loudly togather. Kids like to learn that way, loundly and with everybody, not one to one. And they will remember better when they hear and say especially when everybody was doing it. In a short period, they could 'hafaz' a few Surahs already and I was greatful to contribute to their success in 'hafazan', even a few simpel Surahs and Yassin, Alhamdulillah.

Establishing Childcare Centre

I had the opprotunity to manage and administer directly Childcare center at our office when i was in Taiping (our regional office for Northern Region). I was there from 1998 till 2002. It was a great experience managing the centre. When i started my job there (that was not my only task), the childcare centre had about 5 staffs and 15 children. The stiuation was not satisfactory at all to me.

After a while, I found out that the food was ordered from our cafeteria operator, and interestingly it was foods for adult, hot and spicy. The kids were given very limited access to the food coz the staffs would reserve some for them to take home (fringe benefit i guess...). There were not many activities and teh supervisor was not very friendly (at least to my expectation) and was in control of the whole situation. In fact she was the stmbling block for me to improve the situation.

The number of kids were reduced coz parents were not happy at all with the whole situation. I kept the situation for a month and close the classromm for a while. These situations had supported me with strong reason to let go the supervisor and her good friend cum follower and the rest remained.

What did i do to improve teh situation after a month? I appointed new supervisor from my existing office staff and changed the menu immediately to child-friendly menu, with some extra foods for adult (enough for them to have lunch and definitely not to take home). I splitted the childcare into two units as per guidelines by teh welfare department, for kids below 2 years, and kids between 2-6 years. There were dedicated staffs to handle these groups and it was based on their preferences/choices. I also hire one staff as housekeeper, to do the cleaning and stuff, so the childtakers were specilised in their jobs without having to do the cleaning and other house chores. My focus at that time was to improve teh situation especially for below 2 yrs old category and between 2-4 yrs old category. There were no preschool due to lack of manpower and expertise to handle.

The new supervisor handled the situation well and the childcare staffs were given a timetable. All kids need to follow the timetable with activities suitable for kids. We made it fun by having a 'swimming' session in a small moveable pool, sing a song time and video time after bathed in the afternoon and play outside when waited for their parents to pick them up (prior to that kids were not allowed to play outside because parents were complaining their children were not tidy up and clean when they picked them up...what?? Yo parents, kids need to play ok? If you don't like my way, take the hiway!! Haha...

All their work were then posted in a simple gallery outside of the place where parents normally came to fetch their kids. Before this all their works were palced nicely in a folder and to be handed over to their parents at end of year....what the hack? The parents would not appreciate those when they were ready to for holiday at end of year and then to prepare their kids for new school. So we capture the parents there and then. They were then allowed to bring home their work daily. So parents could then see their kids progress daily. Every month we even invited our panel doctor to visit us and provide medicine to teh children if necessary. I didn't allow teh childcare staffs to give teh kids medicine themselves without teh supervisor around and with the parents permission.

Kids were happy and parents talked to other parents, there were a lot of request to enroll their kids. I needed to expand. I then decided for the childcare to move to a bigger place. there were a bungalow for teh Office Complex Manager but nobody wanted to stay there. So we moved to the bungalow after it was renovated and fire escape staricase was built for safety.

There were parents who sent their kids as early as 630am in the morning and picked their kids after 730pm. I issued a circular for parenst to pay to the childcare staffs thru supervisor overtime claim. They needed to compensate the staffs tehmselves. Some parents were not happy but wh wanted to work for FREE?? Later the parents stopped sending his kids early at 630am and instead took his kids for brakfast and sent them around 8am (actually the mother worked in Ipoh so to make his (the father) life easy, he sent his kids straight to the childcare after sending his wife to the bus station to take express bus to Ipoh...).

After much discussion, wedecided to open preschool and later appointed 2 teachers for 5 yrs old preschool and later 6 yeras old preschool after we had enough kids enrolled. We also hired part time english teacher,  mandarine teacher, ustaz to teach AlQuran and computer teacher to teach the kids computer, all were scheduled in the afternoon. So in the morning the went for normal cyllibus. I also sent the teachers to attend fast learning technique in Ipoh to learn about the new technique. The preschool was also a success.

Overall, based on the respond, I would consider my effort a huge success and in fact, we had to reject some kids due insufficient space. What a great experience indeed... :D

Industrial Casses

I had the opportunity to handle a few industrial cases last time and it was really interesting and taught me a lot about life. Summary of cases that i handled and what actually happened:-

1) staff asked money from potential customers - amazingly he lied to his own neighbors and collected money from them as potential customers while the promotion didn't state that employees could collect money from anyone including customers without authorization. His case was investigated but his neighbors (almost all of them involved) refused to become our witnesses. We would not have a case without any witnesses. However. luckily during the day of the inquiry, we managed to get support form the witness's superior (government agency) to force the witnesses to testify in our domestic inquiry. He was then dismissed based on two witnesses and one other charges were dropped since the witness named did not turn up. For me, even one witness testified against him would be more than enough. It's not the amount in question but the honesty and trust. He then filed his case at Industrial Court and this time I stand as witness. It was not a good experience even though you only stand as witness because you will be questioned by not only the company's lawyer but also by the defense council appointed by the claimant (ex staff). I managed to answer all questions and luckily the Chairman of the Industrial Court was with me when the defense council asked loose questions which I refused to answer. It required skill, knowledge and experience to avoid you from being trapped by the lawyer. I was confident that the company won the case, and we did!

2) My colleague replaced me to represent a company during conciliation at Industrial Department in Ipoh. When he came back, he told me he was screwed by the Industrial Relations officer in charged for not well prepared for the session. Somehow the session was postponed coz the union who was supposed to attend did not turn up. I attended the next session and the IR officer summon me to be in his office. He was surely not very nice and arrogant/stuck up. I responded seriously and acted arrogant too coz i did not see any reason for him not to treat me well. I responded to his question by saying it's company's right to terminate him and we did all it required by law to provide him natural justice. We had witness and he pleaded guilty, and the punishment (dismissal) was justifiable and just coz it involved money. There were no more trust between him and the company and the punishment should serve as example to other employees. Even tough we did not charge him on criminal breach of trust, CBT (coz if we did we had to proof him guilty beyond reasonable doubt, and our objective was not to charge him a criminal charge, but enough to serve him well and set example to others. The IR officer mellowed down after that (he knew I was an experienced IR manager myself), and requested for reschedule coz the union failed to attend again. I refused coz that was second time and the union did not even call to request for postponement. I told the IR officer I was wasting company's time and wasted company's money by attending the session twice when the union as if refused to attend. The officer agreed with me and I left the office after that. I did not receive any more letters from IR office related to that particular case again after that.

3) I had the experience negotiating with an ex employee I terminated due to poor performance. He was a senior manager when he was not confirmed to the position and terminated due to poor performance. The IR officer called me to negotiate settlement but I told him direct that there would be no settlement coz the company had taken the rightful and necessary action before he was terminated. I knew already he'd not ask for reinstatement even though conciliation at IR office was for terminated employee to claim for reinstatement. I did not mention about compensation at all during first meeting however the IR officer asked me to reconsider. I used delay tactic by saying I was not willing to consider settlement at all coz there was no case. He initially claimed 6 month salary as compensation but for a service of less than one year, the amount was ridiculous. He asked me to consider and I told him I needed approval to agree on any monetary settlement. In the next conciliation meeting about almost two months later, I told him that we only agreed to pay him 1/2 month instead of 6 month salary he demanded. That was only a token and I did not really agree that was a settlement. After much discussion, we finally agreed with only 1 month as token, which was indirectly also agreed by the IR officer. The case was finally closed.

There were a  lot more cases I had the experience to handle, and each case was unique. I helped my company to settle a lot of cases either at IR office or out of court if the case was already registered with the IR court by convincing the claimants and his lawyer not to prolong the case further. Some cases took more than two years of hearing and still not settled. Furthermore, almost all cases involved low rank employee, hence settling out of court was not a big issue/amount of money. We pay more to lawyers than compared to the settlement amount :D. I was quite successful and lucky when I handled IR matters back then, Alhamdulillah.

Outsourcing

How to expand your sales and installation & maintenance team organically and fast? Outsourcing is one of the choices and the best for my ex organization. We have good products but we are lack in terms of sales, go to market as well as installation and maintenance (after sales). We advertise, select and did product training for our agents and in just a few weeks we are everywhere. It would take years if we wanted to do it ourselves. Once we have a huge extended sales arm, we need a lot of team to do the installation and maintenance. We opted to outsource our installation team and overnight we have our installers all over the country. There are differences and problems that we have to face but it's worth it.

Problems we encountered with our sales agents were high turnover among their sales team, hence they could not keep up with the product knowledge. Our customer service department suffered due to that, hence we have to appoint our internal channel mangement team closer to our agents to monitor and train them if necessary. Channel Mgmt team was also responsible to assist agents with targeted areas as well as promotions. It worked well and we managed to grew at the rate of 30% year on year.

We even certified our installers and sent them to attend safety passport training at Niosh. This was to increase their skill, knowledge as well as safety awareness among installers. Installantion took less than 3 days and customers were delighted. In some areas we managed to do the installation within 24 hours, esp in town areas.

It felt good when your plan materialised and worked well as planned, isn't it?

Raising the Bar & Executive Diploma program

When i joined this company in 2002, all its customer service representatives, front liners as well as technicians had formal education lower than Diploma. To raise the standard, I started to hire Diploma level employees for those positions and at the same time relocating or sending some of them for Executive Diploma program. The difference between normal Diploma track and Executive Diploma is, Executive Diploma is on fast tract, meaning that they only have to complete 18 month of classroom studies as compared with normal students (24 to 36 months). This is possible because the accreditation department recognizes their working experience. 

After 18 months most of them completed their Executive Diploma and being promoted to a higher grade based on their qualification. There's not much difference in job scope however, for the company, these graduates were better of than those with lower qualification previously in terms of skill and knowledge. The company managed to improve customer service rendered to the customers, increase problem solving skill esp those in technical team and do more with less staff. People do make a difference but skill & knowledge do make a lot more difference...

Becoming a Safety & Health Officer (SHO)

 

A lot of companies are becoming aware of OSHE in Malaysia and those high risk and corporate responsible organizations have employed Safety officer to assist and advise them related to safety for their companies, contractors as well as customers. Safety officers are more critical in companies dealing with chemical, petroleum, construction, working at high area and involving heavy machinery. It's good if you can have some working experience before you attend certification course as safety officer at Nisoh (National Institute of Occupational Safety & Health). Once certified, the pay is good. However the pay comes with high responsibilities too. You have to ensure the safety of the employees, vendors as well as customers dealing with your organization. The Act is self regulated, but once there's fatal accident, then your organization is at risk of not only summon and receiving stop work instruction, but also imprisonment. Safety officer needs to analyze the risks within his or her organization, develop safety policy and statement, review existing process & procedures, recommend improvement etc related to safety. I had the opportunity to set up Safety Unit when I was responsible for Northern Region. I set up Safety committee at sates as well as building level (based on risks). I also did safety briefings, safety visits and safety audits and coordinated Safety committee meetings every quarter. When i joined another subsidiary, I assisted the company to get safety passport through collaboration with Niosh for all of our technical staff and vendors, installers.

It's such a great experience...even though I didn't go for my Safety officer certification program. The experience also helped me when I had to do renovation for office space, monitoring room as well as Datacentre in 2008. I'm currently in the midst of introducing and implementing safety policy for our offices in USA, UK, Hong Kong as well as Singapore.

Kenapa bos anda perlukan sekreteri & pemandu yg OK

Sebagai HR kita perlu mempastikan sekreteri boss dan juga pemandu boss adalah yg terbaik. sepanjang pengalaman aku jaga boss sebelum ni, kalau sekreteri problem atau driver bermasalah, akan terbawa-bawa ke pejabat. we are human, boss pun manusia, ada perasaan. so kalau dah pagi-pagi ada masalah dgn drier, datang ofis sekreteri pulak buat hal, macamana nak concentrate menguruskan syarikat? so far Alhamdulillah, tapi bukan senang la nak cari sekreteri dan driver yg terbaik. kena berkali-kali jugak la mencuba dan mencuba utk mencari keserasian. kadang-kadang tu diorang ni pada luarannya OK je, tapi hampeh. so memang kena test dulu dan bila dah tau dan faham hati budi, memang terbaik lah. dan lagi satu tips, cari sekreteri dan pemandu yg humble, down to earth, bukan yg banyak bercakap, suka menunjuk-nunjuk dan sebaganya, sebab tu penting sebagai sekreteri dan driver, kena jaga maruah boss, rahsia boss...dan tak mengada-ngada, ambil kesempatan sebab dah close dengan boss...memang payah nak cari calon ikut kriteria ni kan? Good luck & all the best  :D

kaunseling...amat mengelirukan

 Kenapa aku tak nak jadi kaunselor? sebab daripada pemerhatian, kaunselor sendiri banyak yg tidak betul. aku bukan nak menyalahkan atau menuding jari kpd mana2 kaunselor, tapi aku rasa diri ini belom sampai ke tahap yg boleh manasihati org lain. aku pernah berjumpa dgn kaunselor yg famous dan semasa perbincangan utk kontrak, dgn selambanya dia mengutuk kaunselor lain yg tidak kurang hebatnya...apa dah jadi ni. kalau korang masih ingat, ada juga kaunselor celebrity yg bergaduh pasal berebut tanah yg hanya dipinjam drpd Allah. apa yg susah sgt, ambil lah land surveyor habis cerita. kalau dah land surveyor tu kata bantu tanda asal tu dah salah, nak buat macamana? tu semua mungkin juga dugaan kepada mereka sbg kaunselor. tapi apapun diharapkan kaunselor semua dpt jaga imej mereka sebab macam guru atau ustaz juga, mereka dipandang oleh masyarakat sebagai insan yang tiada cacat cela. aku? maaf, kalau nak minta nasihat boleh tapi aku bukan KAUNSELOR... :D

kita hanya menghargai sesuatu pabila ianya dah tiada...amat ironik

Kenapa kita sering lupa dan salah sangka? kenapa kita sering berselisih faham kerana perkara yang remeh temeh. kenapa kita tidak menghargai apa yang kita ada dan sering berhasad dengki dengan orang lain dan apa yang mereka ada? kita harus pandang ke bawah dan jangan hanya pandang ke atas. ketahuilah bahawasanya ramai lagi insan yang berduka, masih terlalu ramai yang lebih berduka, amat ramai yang lebih kepayahan daripada kita...insaflah dan marilah kita sama-sama menghargai diri ini, keluarga, rakan-rakan dan jiran. berbaik sangka dan selalu membantu dengan tanpa mengharapkan habuan; insyaAllah kita akan menerima habuan kalau tidak di dunia nanti di akhirat...sekian tazkirah pada hari ini :D

Faedah Perkeso yg kita patut tahu

Apakah yg perlu anda tahu pasal Perkeso? Perkeso adalah Pertubuhan Kebajikan & Sosial Pekerja atau Insuran Pekerja yang ditubuhkan oleh Kerajaan Malaysia untuk manafaat pekerja yang ditimpa bencana. Setiap pekerja bergaji di bawah RM2000 sebulan layak mencarum ke dalam Perkeso, dan keahliannya adalah berdasarkan sekali masuk terus masuk. Sebagai contoh, jika anda naik gaji atau pangkat melebihi daripada RM2000, hatta sebagai COO atau CEO sekalipun, jika anda pernah mencarum, anda waji terus mencarum. Kelebihannya? Seperti insuran yang lain, jika anda tidak ditimpa apa2 kemalangan, so anda tak boleh claim apa2 sehingga bersara...ada org kata rugilah, tapi rugi ke kalau tak ditimpa kecelakaan?? Sendiri mau ingat lah... Tapi malang tak berbau, so kalau ditimpa kemalangan, dan diberikan MC melebihi 3 hari berturut2 akibat kemalangan di tempat kerja, anda perlu melapor ke pejabat Perkeso terdekat dan jika layak akan menerima elaun semasa MC. Jika diikutkan, tuntutan tersebut adalah hak majikan terutamanya jika majikan bayar gaji sepanjang tempoh MC tersebut, tetapi rasanya tiada majikan yg claim, indirectly dah jadi hak pekerja. 

Utk makluman, Perkeso cover apabila shj pekerja yg mencarum keluar daripada pintu pagar rumah untuk ke temoat kerja, di sepanjang perjalanan pergi dan balik ke tempat kerja, semasa berkerja tak kira lokasi, semasa keluar untuk makan tengahari dan semasa melakukan apa2 shj aktiviti rasmi syarikat seperti aktiviti kelab sosial tajaan syarikat selagi ianya dibenarkan oleh syarikat dan tidak melanggar undang2 negara dan bukan aktiviti merbahaya. 

Perkeso juga melayan tuntutan kecederaan akibat daripada pekerjaan terdahulu yang dilakukan utk jangkamasa lama seperti sakit tulang blakang yg kronik akibat mengangkat barang2 yg berat, atau hilang pendengaran akibat daripada bekerja di tempat yg bising yang kuat seperti di lapangan terbang (dulu alat tutup telinga tidak disediakan) dan apa2 kecederaan yg seumpamanya (kemalangan pekerjaan). Yang penting perlulah ada medical record dan rekod peerjaan yg lengkap (terutamanya kepada mereka yg sering ebrtukar pekerjaan). Jika kemalangan, perlu ada laporan polis dan lain2 maklumat (sila rujuk laman sesawang Perkeso). Maaf, sakit 3 serangkai tak layak sebab dikategorikan sebagai bukan sakit akibat pekerjaan, mungkin faktor keturunan atau pemakanan.

Saya suka nak highlight perkara ni sebab kebanyakkan pekerja tidak tahu hak mereka. Semasa saya berkerja di Utara Semenanjung, saya mengkaji rekod MC pekerja dan yg mana kerap mengambil MC saya arahkan mereka menjalani medical check-up atas pembiayaan syarikat. Adakah syarikat akan rugi mengeluarkan kos yang tinggi untuk bayaran medical check up? Tidak, sebab hasil daripada medical check-up, beberapa pekerja telah dikenalpasti sebagai layak utk dirujuk ke Lembaga Perubatan Perkeso dan selebihnya baru maklum penyakit yg mereka hidapi (selalunya kalau ke klinikpanel, doktor akan bagi paracetamol shj, bukan salah doktor GP juga sebab setengah2 symptom hanya boleh dikenalpasti setelahdilakukan medical check up). Akibat daripada itu, pekerja yg kurang sihat telah mendapat medication yang sepatutnya dan MC berkurangan. Secara langsung, produktiviti pekerja dans yarikat meningkat. Ramai juga yg apabila dirujk ke Lembaga Perubatan Perkeso, telah diluluskan dan mendapat pencen dengan syarat tidak lagi digaji oleh majikan. Dalam kes ni, ramai yg layak telah memohon medical board out (MBO) dan diluluskan oleh syarikat. 

Kenapa pekerja tak nak memohon MBO? Kebanyakkan pekerja masih mempunyai anak yg bersekolah. So mereka takut jika MBO, tiada gaji atau pendapatan tetap. Penerangan berkenaan kelebihan Perkeso seperti bayaran perubatan akan ditanggung oleh Perkeso, pencen tetap bulanan, elaun bantuan untuk pembantu jika bedridden, serta biasiswa untuk anak2 yg masih bersekolah...banyak tu... Tapi saya tak nak sakit, saya hanya nak tolong pekerja yg memerlukan dan layak sahaja. Alhamdulillah so far saya sihat walafiat...doakan kesihatan utk kita semua, amin...

Data and Employee Migration in 2006 - A Success Stroy

Corporate companies always on restructuring mode every three years or so. The changes are required when there's change in the stewardship or change in market or customer, or change in capital/ownership.

I was involved in the company spin off/demerge as well as merger in a large corporation. In 2002, the parent company decided to spinn off its internet base business in order to improve performance, productivity and speed to the market. However in 2006, the parent company again decided based on lengthy study and analysis made by consultant, to merge large chunk of the subsidiary business back into parent company. I was tasked to do the migration for almost 650 employees back to the parent. My problem at that time was at the same time the merger was to take place, the parent company was undergoing IT transformation exercise and all HR data were to be migrated from Peoplesoft to SAP. Therefore, we were instructed to hold the data migration for another 6 month at least for SAP to be stable before the 650 data from the little subsidiary could be keyed in into SAP one by one (data migration was not allowed). By the way, the employee migration was set to be on 1/1/2007, and the data migration for parent company would took place in December 2006.

After much deliberation, I decided to transfer all 650 employee data from subsidiary into the parent with 25K employee data with effect from 16/11/2011, two weeks before the NO NO date. My argument was, if I wait, there'd be nobody to take care of the 650 employee data in the Peoplesoft while another 25K employee data were already migrated to SAP. Even though the letter to employees were dated 1/1/2006, in actual fact, their data had already been migrated with effect from 16/12/2006. Legally that was wrong but I had to decided to a little wrong to avoid a huge issue ahead. It was done smoothly and only a few individuals within the parent's migration team noticed about the transfer. However since I promised to assist themt o do the checking and data varification for a few nights aftre 1/12/2006, they accepted my decision. We passed the test with flying colours, however there's a few teething issues especially with dependants data not fully migrated or rather detected by outsourced medical management organization. However those were not major issues and we had to tackle the issue on a case by case basis.

In general, the migration was successful (however, Finance had to do some adjustments later due to charging and accvount code; but it's ok as long as it didn't affect employees badly).

In HR, whatever we do, it should be employee first...:D

Implemented Performance Improvement Plan at HK office

When I join this organization in 2009, HK office performance was really bad. After year end, its performance only managed to hit barely 50% of target given. HK office was OK prior to that year but somehow, misunderstanding and commotion between sales staff and the country manager got out of control and had affected overall sales performance. The employees were given minimal bonus due to Board's consideration however something must be done to ensure the performance was back to track. HR was involved togather with Finance Unit in HK and Sales Management Office in HQ to identify the weaknesses and draft perfoemance improvement plan for HK office. All sales staff including country manager were issued a show cause letter to explain why their performances were bad. They were also given a short term target to improve on month on month basis for the next 3 months. They were asked to discuss and if agreed to sign off the target given, and they were also asked what required from the management to ensure they achieve the targets given. They were then strictly tracked and monitored on a monthly basis. A month later some of them failed to achieve the monthy targets given, hence they were issued another warning letters. After 3 month ended, only one sales staff couldn't make it and she later resigned from the company without action being taken against her based on non performance. Otherwise, she must be given a chance to explain her reasons for not achiev ing the monthly target given 3 month in a row and if the explanation given was not satisfactory, she could be terminated based on non performance. Luckily that year, HK office managed to score 100%of their target given to them.

Sometimes, people need to be reminded before they can put performance and personal issue separately. If they were not 'hit', they'd not feel the 'heat'. The performance improvement program set, even though it looks more like disciplinary, but it's very detail and measurable as well as agreed by all parties. It's basically a SMART target which could be achieved if they were focused. It worked!

2010 was a good year for them and it continued in 2011. Hope HK office will also perform better this year.