I find this article to be very humbling .......... a good read for everyone, parents and children
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 Story of Appreciation One young academically excellent person went to apply for a managerial position in a big company.
He passed the first interview, the director did the last interview, made the last decision.
The director discovered from the CV that the youth's academic achievements were excellent all the way, from the secondary school until the postgraduate research, never had a year when he did not score.
The director asked, "Did you obtain any scholarships in school?" the youth answered "none".
The director asked, " Was it your father who paid for your school fees?" The youth answered, "My father passed away when I was one year old, it was my mother who paid for my school fees.
The director asked, " Where did your mother work?" The youth answered, "My mother worked as clothes cleaner. The director requested the youth to show his hands. The youth showed a pair of hands that were smooth and perfect.
The director asked, " Have you ever helped your mother wash the clothes before?" The youth answered, "Never, my mother always wanted me to study and read more books. Furthermore, my mother can wash clothes faster than me.
The director said, "I have a request. When you go back today, go and clean your mother's hands, and then see me tomorrow morning.*
The youth felt that his chance of landing the job was high. When he went back, he happily requested his mother to let him clean her hands. His mother felt strange, happy but with mixed feelings, she showed her hands to the kid.
The youth cleaned his mother's hands slowly. His tear fell as he did that. It was the first time he noticed that his mother's hands were so wrinkled, and there were so many bruises in her hands. Some bruises were so painful that his mother shivered when they were cleaned with water.
This was the first time the youth realized that it was this pair of hands that washed the clothes everyday to enable him to pay the school fee. The bruises in the mother's hands were the price that the mother had to pay for his graduation, academic excellence and his future.
After finishing the cleaning of his mother hands, the youth quietly washed all the remaining clothes for his mother.
That night, mother and son talked for a very long time.
Next morning, the youth went to the director's office.
The Director noticed the tears in the youth's eyes, asked: " Can you tell me what have you done and learned yesterday in your house?"
The youth answered, " I cleaned my mother's hand, and also finished cleaning all the remaining clothes'
The Director asked, " please tell me your feelings."
The youth said, Number 1, I know now what is appreciation. Without my mother, there would not the successful me today. Number 2, by working together and helping my mother, only I now realize how difficult and tough it is to get something done. Number 3, I have come to appreciate the importance and value of family relationship.
The director said, " This is what I am looking for to be my manager.
I want to recruit a person who can appreciate the help of others, a person who knows the sufferings of others to get things done, and a person who would not put money as his only goal in life. You are hired.
Later on, this young person worked very hard, and received the respect of his subordinates. Every employee worked diligently and as a team. The company's performance improved tremendously.
A child, who has been protected and
habitually given whatever he wanted, would develop "entitlement mentality" and would always put himself first. He would be ignorant of his parent's efforts. When he starts work,
he assumes that every person must listen to him, and when he becomes a manager,
he would never know the sufferings of his employees
and would always blame others. For this kind of people, who may be good academically, may be successful for a while, but eventually
would not feel sense of achievement. He will grumble and be full of hatred and fight for more. If we are this kind of protective parents, are we really showing love or are we destroying the kid instead?*
You can let your kid live in a big house, eat a good meal, learn piano, watch a big screen TV. But when you are cutting grass, please let them experience it. After a meal, let them wash their plates and bowls together with their brothers and sisters. It is not because you do not have money to hire a maid, but it is because you want to love them in a right way. You want them to understand, no matter how rich their parents are, one day their hair will grow gray, same as the mother of that young person.
The most important thing is your kid learns how to appreciate the effort and experience the difficulty and learns the ability to work with others to get things done.

Employee Engagement Survey

Now it's coming towards the end of year, other than annual performance review tht's coming, there are other performance lever or indicators such as Customer Satisfaction Index and Employee Engagement Index. A company better make sure tht there's no 'funny' decision made during this period. All unpopular decision must be avoided and only good news shd be communicated tot staff to ensure good EEI result. But do we really have to do tht? Popular or unpopular decision is driven by business. As long as employees understand the situation and the reasons behind those decisions, I trust tht employees can understand and make wise decision not to use the ESS as a mean to 'punish' the management and the company. The key thg is communication and honesty. If the mgmt can communicate well and with honesty, all employees can accept wahtever and however unpopular the news would be.
So let's communicate...

Leaders create, not destroy

Leaders create, not destroy...something we have to think about.
Leaders listen a lot...no offense but wander if they can do tht...

360 Competency Evaluation

Lucky tht we have online system available so we can do 360 competency evaluation and assessment easily and efficiently. Furthermore, we can go green without loads of papers required for everyone to do the evaluation on self, supervisors, subordinates, customers/vendors (mainly internal) and colleagues. Thanks to online 360 apps. But most importantly is the result and analysis. We can use the result to do a lot of career development and competency intervention if required. However the question is how accurate is the report? Well it depends on the person doing the assessment. He or she needs to be objective and clear wht the intention is. It started from the design of the questionnaires to the selection of the feedback givers. If we can have more feedback givers, the result can as better with less/minimal 'margin of error'. At least we have some reports tht's based on not only our own assessment but also wht others think of us as far as the targeted competencies are concerned. The main objective is to improve. No point having great 360 results but in actual fact, our staff are not competent. Make sure we do analyse the report and do not take it for granted, do something...identify the best intervention required to help your staff grow or at least improve in the areas they are lacking.

Shukri's House Caught On Fire

Shukri's house, one of our staff was caught on fire last nite. Noting left. Hope that he's OK. Will do a quick collection to relief him and his family a bit from his suffering and assist as much as we can.

10 Things the HR Department Won’t Tell You

Woman's Day, on Tue Oct 26, 2010 9:23am PDT

By Kimberly Fusaro

If everything’s going smoothly, you probably won’t interact with the folks in human resources much between the day you’re hired and your last day with the company. But every day in between, it’s their responsibility to make sure you’re doing your job well. Which means they know a lot more than you might think. We checked in with human resources experts to see what your current employer is keeping tabs on—and how your next employer could be judging you based on a whole lot more than the résumé you submitted.

10 Things the HR Department Won't Tell You

1. Background checks have gone beyond Google.
Before calling in applicants for a job interview, HR will snoop around online to make sure there are no virtual red flags. “Social media ‘stalking’ has become the norm—especially at larger companies,” says Mary Hladio, who worked in human resources for more than 15 years and is currently CEO of leadership group Ember Carriers. “Beyond typing names into a search engine, companies will also employ sophisticated online monitoring platforms that dig even deeper. If there’s something on the Internet you wouldn’t want your boss to see, it’s probably in your best interest to take it down.”

2. Arriving super-early for an interview is almost as bad as arriving late.
Of course, if someone shows up late for an interview, he or she isn’t going to get a callback, says Amy Habedank, human resources manager of Pinnacle Services. But she’s also hesitant to hire someone who shows up an hour early. “It feels like they have no regard for my time,” she says. If you’re headed to a job interview, don’t show up more than 10 minutes before; if you get there with time to spare, catch up on email or listen to relaxing music before heading in.

3. Your physical appearance matters.
“Research suggests that the decision to hire or to deselect a candidate is made within the first 90 seconds of the interview,” says human resources consultant Steve Cohen, author of Mess Management: Lessons from a Corporate Hit Man. That means you must arrive at a job interview in a clean, well-put-together outfit with neat fingernails, smoothed-down hair and fresh breath. Also, think twice about any eccentricities. “Some people might be able to look past pink hair and black nail polish, but it will affect their decision,” says Hladio.

Check out a foolproof outfit that’s perfect for a job interview.

4. Personal hygiene counts, too.
Smelling like cigarette smoke can work against you, as can having body odor. Because both conditions are within an individual’s control, an employee or job candidate who smells bad is viewed as lacking professionalism, Cohen says. Plus, an employee who smells bad is a public relations liability. Most companies won’t tolerate poor personal hygiene in an employee or potential employee.

5. You won’t get hired to work from home if you aren’t a “home professional.”
If you’re applying for a work-from-home position, you need to present yourself as a “home professional” from the get-go. This means that when HR first calls to express interest, there better not be crying babies or barking dogs in the background. “When an applicant has no control over the noise level in her home, it’s a signal that she’s not ready for virtual work,” says Shilonda Downing, who’s in charge of hiring for Virtual Work Team. You’ll also need a quiet home office space if you’re petitioning your current boss for work-from-home hours.

6. Being overweight can work against you.
Even though overweight individuals can be fast on their feet and slim people can be lazy, an interviewer might assume an obese job candidate won’t be able to keep up at a “high-performance” company. Cohen gives the example of a manufacturing company that prided itself on efficiency and speed. Every prospective employee was taken on a walking tour of the large plant before being hired. If the prospect couldn’t keep up with the owner’s fast pace on the facility tour, he or she wouldn’t be hired. If you’re worried your size may be working against you, Cohen suggests emphasizing how adept and resourceful you are.

7. Ageism (illegally) exists.
“People who have seen their 50th birthday are losing jobs to younger people, even though ageism is illegal,” says Dennis Kravetz, head of human resources consulting firm Kravetz Associates. Older employees hoping for a promotion need to be extra-vigilant about staying on top of trends and technology. In a job interview, emphasize what you’ve learned from years of experience and explain how you’ve grown along with your industry.

8. Your relationship is being monitored if you’re dating a coworker.
“Sometimes people meet their future spouse at the office,” says Cohen. “But mostly, dating coworkers is risky.” Even if dating among colleagues is allowed, a relationship that ends badly is going to affect other people in the office. It gets extra-tricky if a romantic relationship between a supervisor and his or her subordinate sours. “Human resources is watching behavior that could turn litigious,” warns former human resources executive J.T. O’Donnell, founder of Careerealism.com.

9. Your Internet usage is probably being documented.
Don’t assume there’s any level of confidentiality when it comes to company technology, whether it’s email, voicemail or indiscriminate use of the Internet, Cohen says. “In a situation where an employee’s integrity or credibility is in question, there will always be an audit of her computer usage.” That means your boss probably isn’t randomly checking to see how often you log on to Facebook. But if he’s looking for a reason to fire you, your computer records could provide easy ammunition.

10. Your good and bad behavior matter—but the bad matters more.
“Promotions have favoritism built in,” says Hladio. Good behavior and positive experiences have a “shelf life” of three to six months. You need to continually impress your employer in order to stand out as an exceptional employee. Bad behavior and negative experiences, on the other hand, can linger in an employer’s mind for years.

Original article appeared on WomansDay.com

Teh Tarik Session with Senior Mgmt

We have to give to get? is one of the key take home points for this evening teh tarik session. He told us a story about him asking for promotion and never got it but when he listened to his boss's speech one day saying that magic statement, he stopped asking and just do his job, even more than expected, because that magic statement really changed him back then. Miracle happened after that when he received his promotion twice within a year or two. It's not about miracle but it's about what you did without asking for reward. People can and will see what you had delivered. Even if you won't get it right now, here, you have to believe that God is Great, and he'll repay sometimes later maybe not directly but indirectly in term of health, successful kids, or even afterlife. Just do good, don't expect reward, and you'll happier and deliver better result. If you keep asking, and you didn't get, definitely you'll get frustrated and your productivity deteriorated. How can you get your promotion then? Just think about it. Be patient, honest and don't expect anything extra, you'll be happy at work. I strongly believe in what he's saying...do you?