The disbanding of RRHR

Today I disbanded my Facebook HR Group, Rock N Roll HR.

I did this was because I personally felt that the Group had not achieved its purpose. When I created the Group I wanted to unite all HR practitioners in JB. Then I opened the membership to all HR practitioners regardless of geographical location. The response was very slow, and not as warm as I would have liked.

I persevered and remained positive. Several people fed back to me and said that the Group lacked attraction. So I organised as many networking activities and events as I can, to bring the members closer together, with the hope of advancing the quality of HR practice in JB particularly and in Malaysia generally.

There were members who supported these initiatives but there were many who did not react positively to them. Some did not react at all. Eventually organising these events became wearisome.

Same went for the discussion board in the Group. I became tired of seeing just my name and my words plastered all over the Group walls. A few other members who contributed ideas and topics also seemed to stop writing after a while probably because of the lack of response from other members. The idea exchange intention had fallen flat on its nose there.

I don't know whether HR practitioners in Malaysia generally still have not embraced the concept of intergrating social media tools with their work. Or whether social media tools do not bear any significance in enhancing the quality of their profession. Well I am a social media activist but I do still feel very much alone in my professional community.

So I have decided, today, to delete the Group. I would much rather see it gone than to see it wither away or left in a hollow existence. If I am the one doing all the work, then it defeats the whole entire purpose of having the Group. I just don't want to carry on wasting my time.

EVENTFUL HEADACHE

Organising office events is fun. Yet it can also be the most headachy of all headaches. This is because, despite having formed a gung-ho committee in the beginning of things, you will ultimately be running the whole entire show by yourself in the end.

There are only two outcomes of an office event. Either a flying success earning you heaps of praise and the appledom of your boss's eye, or a total fiasco that, in some cases I know, can lead you to being sacked.

So organising events is risky business indeed.

Is is very common for companies to assign event management to the HR people. Of course when you sign up for the job your employment contract and/or JD never stated this. But remember that clause at the end of your contract and/or JD which states "any other tasks assigned by the Management" or something else to the same effect? Well, taking this risk is one of them. That is fine in itself, but then you may ask, why HR? or if there is a committee, why does HR need to spearhead it? Well, don't you know? Because other people are TOO BUSY. Only you, the HR practitioner, has so much free time because your functions are not as important as accounts or operations or all others for that matter. The fact that you are assigned the partying affairs have nothing to do with your talent in the field. It's merely because you are the expert in being the clown.

Hahaha.

I am just being sarcastic to some quarters who insist on trivialising my work. The fact is, I am proud to be an event organiser, am honoured to be assigned the task, and me and my team will do our very best to rock it like it's never been rocked before.

But the headache will still happen of course. But if everyone is working on the project as a team, it will fly.

So the biggest, and last event of the year, for us shall be the Annual Dinner (or in our case, the Half-Decade Dinner as the last Annual Dinner was held about 5 years ago). My HR team is prepared for a big headache. But we already have Plan B. If we have to this ourselves in the end, we are going to make a humongous deal out of it. We will stamp our mark everywhere including on all the mites in the hotel ballroom carpet with the words "THE FUN YOU ARE HAVING TONIGHT AND OF WHICH MEMORIES YOU WILL NEVER FORGET IS MADE POSSIBLE BY THE BLOOD, TOIL AND SWEAT OF THE SUPERMEN AND WOMEN OF HR DEPT".

We look forward to being the HR Dream Team this side of the country has ever seen: we will fly AND rock.

WHERE HAVE ALL THE WORKFORCE GONE?

The whole situation is like a snake chasing its tail. Employers are hard pressed for manpower. They source for local workers, only to be snubbed in the face for paying "low" salaries.They turn to agents to help bring in foreign workers, only to be told by JTK that the Government is putting a plug on foreign manpower recruitment especially those on outsourcing basis.

No man, no work. No work, no eat. No eat, die.

So what's a Malaysian employer to do now?

Intriguingly, where have all the local workforce gone? Not everyone is across the causeway. And they say we are still in recession mode. So why are people not grabbing the first job opening they find?

You know this whole "low salary" story is not always true. Even if it is, for crying out loud it's a blue-collar job! What do they expect, a six-figure packet with a Camry to go with it? Most companies are in fact willing to pay workers reasonably higher remuneration than the average market price as long as they can get their people in. Still, these companies cannot seem to attract people. Don't even talk about attracting talent, they can't even entice the village idiot to come and work. What is happening? Has the nation been struck by a SLOTH PHENOMENON?

Ponder all we like. Frankly, if you ask me, I don't see an immediate solution. Unless every factory invests all their gold in full-automation and pay engineers to man them. But then that'll result in price hikes for finished goods and eventually, inflation. Business dies. Sheesh.

Anyone out there has any best practice stories to share on blue-collar recruitment? I'm desperate here.

LIVING NEXT DOOR TO SUDIR

Photo copyright www.ohartis.com

I never talked about it, because a) no one ever asked and b) he was just, well, the boy-next-door back then.

It was in 1988, four years before he died. Location: KL. Specific location, I am not saying. :)

Oh yes I was a big fan. I played his cassette tapes all the time. But when he moved into our neighbourhood, we somehow weren't all agog about it. I even invited him to my birthday party once. He didn't come. But of course he couldn't, and I understood.

He didn't live in our housing estate for long. We were all a rather close-knit community there, because there were less than 80 houses in that Taman, but exactly when Sudir moved in, and when he moved out, no one knew.

He also kept to himself a lot but occasionally when neighbours caught sight of him going into or out of his house, he was a jolly chap, ever smiling and friendly to kids. He was just your average neighbourly neighbour. Soon we all stopped being curious about him and treated him like one of us.

I'd being reading a lot of things about Sudirman since he was posthumously awarded his Datukship last month, 17 years after he died.

I remember picking up the Malay Mail on the afternoon after he died and seeing the headline "Sudir Is Dead". I remember my mum thinking that it was a disrespectful headline, to term him as "Dead". She would have preferred "Sudirman Passes Away" or something like that, knowing my mum, full of decorum.

Today she terms his posthumous Datukship as pointless, especially since it's been almost two decades.

Many people say many things about Sudir's Datukship, and about Sudir.

It strikes me as odd why people who don't know anything about someone would be the ones to talk about that someone the most. We never hear Kay talk about him. We never hear Atai talk about him. Or Noor. Whatever memories they have of him, they respect him and his memory and his family enought to keep those memories to themselves.

It was only recently that Sudir's sister and lyricist Habsah Hassan went public with the real account of the circumtances surrounding Sudir's death. I think it is a good thing because finally all the hearsay and slander can be silenced. Those who still insist to say bad things about Sudir are those who do not have iman and therefore should not be entertained.

So, what do I know about Asia's No. 1 performer? Huh, what do you think. Would I tell YOU?

IN THE SPIRIT

I’ve been having a few good days lately. Many things have been going my way.


I received something unexpected yesterday, of which I am thankful.

I want to finish all my work before the week ends, because next week is pre-raya week, and normally during such a time I would be in a festive holiday mood. In any case, early work planning always works out well for me.

I’ve settled my fitrah and my zakat, and it makes me feel good about having fulfilled my responsibility.

I’ve put up blinking coloured rice lights in my office. It brightens up the office, lends everyone a cheery festive mood, and makes me happy working in the dark of my office room with only those blinking lights on.

I sing when I step into the office everyday.

I have stuck to my fasting resolution which is: SPEND LESS. My Raya resolution is similar, and with a proper budget.

I have a peaceful simple life, a good job, independence, good health, surrounded by good friends. I am blessed.

RUFFLED.

Hi guys, sorry for not having any new entries in here for more than a week now. I've been occupied at work plus I've been pissed off with some people for the past week. Some people just irk me senseless.

My feathers have also been ruffled recently by some foreign worker agencies. I do think that some agencies do not really know what they are supposed to be doing. I found out that some agencies are not even up to date in terms of their knowledge of prevailing legislation affecting foreign workers. Not only that, they do not know the difference between outsourcing and direct labour recruitment.

Basically when a company decides to engage foreign manpower on an outsourced basis, it means that the company need only to pay the wages and the consultancy fees to the agency. All other charges incurred for work permit application, levy, accomodation, transportation and workmen's compensation insurance are to be borne by the agency. The work permit is also to be under the agency's name. For all intents and purposes, the workers are the employees of the agency, not the company in which they work. The company only contracts for the services of the workers, not offer them direct employment.

If a company decides to employ the foreign workers directly, the agency only acts as recruitment broker to bring in the workers from their country of origin and assist the company to apply for work permits, visas, FOMEMA medical check-up and other statutory requirements. In this case the company which hires the workers are the direct employers of the workers. A formal employment contract is to be issued by the company to the workers individually and the levy payment, wages and other mandatory contributions and benefits are to be borne by the company.

The Government has recently announced that with effect from 1 April 2009, no deductions are to be made from the foreign workers' salaries with respect to the levy payment. This applies to all workers whether hired on outsourced basis, or direct basis. Where the workers are outsourced from an agency, the agency is responsible to pay for the levy, and no deductions are permitted to be made from the workers' wages.

As I discovered, and personally experienced recently, many agencies still charge their clients various processing fees and other costs including the levy under an outsourcing agreement. Some include a clause in the agreement which obligates the client to deduct the salaries of the workers and pay the deducted portion to the agency as levy reimbursement. This is not right.

There are also those which do not provide basic amenities such as transportation and accomodation, as per the Government regulations. These are outsourcing agencies' responsibilities which should not be passed on to the client.

I do  not know whether these agencies are genuinely unaware of their mistake or if this is practiced to inveigle unsuspecting clients.

Caveat emptor, companies need to be smart enough to read the fine print in outsourcing agreements. When in doubt, consult your nearest labour office or trade association. More often that not these agencies will not change these so-called fundamental terms of their service agreement. If this happens, then the company should change the agent. That's all.

What pissed me off though is that there are many such agencies around and it is not a conducive situation when I am pressed for time to get my workers on board. Coupled with the fact that it is close to impossible to get local people to work. Everyone is holding businesses at ransom these days. Staffing is becoming an expensive aspect of business and a playground for the opportunists.

Tommorow I'll be back with another instalment of Gavelled Destiny.

HR PRACTITIONERS MAKE LOUSY ACTORS.

In any social circumstance, there is prejudice. I have heard that prejudice is nothing but an expression of opinion without getting the facts right. This could not be more true.

In an organisation where there exists a HR or Admin Department, both of which are usually fused, that fused Department would often be the Department most prejudiced against by the rest.

What gave them the right to do this, no one knows. No one cares. Other Departments seem to get a kick out of trivialising HR/Admin jobs and practitioners.

As if they are better.

The narrow perception of today's office world is that the ones who jab the laptop keypads noisily like there's no tommorow, bustling hither and tither proclaiming to each poor sod they bump into at the latrines how occupied they are as loud as their larynxes may allow over the sound of pee and farts, staying back as late as the last drone of the boss's car engine exiting the office gates, are the personifications of busy-ness. They seem, and so they be. And ergo merit higher pay and better benefits.

HR is seen as a relaxed Department with a lot of spare time and resources, just because we do not go about doing our jobs with theatrics.

You see, our job deals with people, so we need to earn respect.

To do that, firstly we need to be efficient at all times. No hustle, no bustle, just get the job done.

Secondly, we need to manifest trustworthiness. We listen to people, respond to them discreetly and keep their secrets. Mum's the word, no unnecessary gabbling.

Thirdly, when dealing with people's emotions, rice bowl and future, we need to think a lot. We also need to balance that against fulfilling the company's needs and wants. So we need to do lots of research and acquire knowledge of best practices. This requires, amongst other things, surfing the Net, social media networking, emailing, making phone calls, meeting up with people and doing lunch.

It all looks like "doing nothing", doesn't it. But of course, some people judge books by their covers.

And finally, pace. Hey, a problem can get solved in two ways. In a rush like they do it, and end up leaving a trail of mess which guess who has to clean up? Or, with proper planning like we do, with no loose ends, win-win. If you can tell me a real story about another Dept having to clean up HR Dept's mess, I'll buy you lunch.

 Let's all grow up and start giving each other respect.

NOTHING

I spent today doing absolutely nothing.

It is not too common for me to spend my weekends doing nothing. My typical weekends would either be half spent at the office and half running household errands like grocery shopping, or going on roadtrips for various reasons.

Once in a while it feels good to do nothing.

It clears your mind off work worries and lets you recharge for the next dose of work worries in the coming week.

It's where you are free just being you, alone with yourself, to do what you want, eat what you want, wear what you want and just use up your time how you want. It is a liberating feeling and makes you feel good about yourself.

ANOTHER PEANUT STORY.

Read this.

Do you agree?

In my humble opinon, the pay should commensurate with the job. That’s all.

If a PhD holder wants to do the job of a clerk, then he should be paid for doing the job of a clerk, not for being a PhD holder. If an SPM holder does a brilliant job as a manager, perhaps due to the experience he has garnered over the years, by all means he should be paid in pari passu with the current market rate for a manager in his field, and the fact that he does not have tertiary qualifications as most managers are expected to have should not prejudice this.

There is some justification to wanting an employee to prove his salt before enhancing his remuneration package. I certainly would be hesitant to recommend my teammates for a raise or a bonus if they have not shown accomplishments of agreed targets, or initiative to make visible improvements in weaker areas, or have not completed a project/probation period. A carrot should just be dangled in front of the employee, not served him on a silver platter with salsa dips.

There are also people who do love the work they do and money becomes a secondary consideration, if at all. As long as they are paid enough to bring food on their table, they are content. They may be willing to forgo monetary compensation if their job brings spiritual fulfillment, such as working for charitable organizations or NGOs that serve the community. Some look for job security or a happy working environment, and once they’ve found it, whether or not they get a raise or a bonus becomes less important. Not everyone is motivated by money, and not everyone gets up in the morning to go to work because of it. There are other pursuits in life which people seek to feel and become richer, and the concept of rich is wider than just fiscal opulence.

What about you? Why do YOU work?

I'M A HR SIMPLETON, DOWH.

I don’t do fancy HR. You know the sort. The ones using big words and lots of rhetoric and not much real application to the real world of real HR.

The ones where you have to pay through your nose to go for their training courses only to end up sitting in a freezing conference room listening to the trainer grandstanding for three whole days and not really making much sense let alone giving you the practical answers you seek to your everyday situations at work.

Some of these fancy HR people will frown and say, ah but then, your HR methods are passé. Some, may even angkat their bakul even higher, let out a mocking snort and tell you that they are way past that “everyday HR manager” level and solving your inconsequential problems are just a waste of their time. Others may just tell you blatantly that your approach is wrong. The rest are just plain conmen.

I tell you what works. Being a traditional people manager works. Anything swankier than that is pointless. Majority of Malaysians still have not departed from the traditional ideology about work i.e. work = pay. I’m sure the colleague sitting beside you does not equate work with enhancing his ability to draw colourful trees with felt pens to plot his sequence of thoughts. So to manage him, you need to apply methods that he understands so he can do what you want him to do. If you start going all Freudian on him, it’ll just petrify him and you won’t get anywhere with your job. Not to mention the Management will soon find you a nonconformist and nonconformists are non-team players. And you do know what happens to those.

I like my humble no-frills existence in the corporate world. And I can see through you conmen, too.

ODE TO A DIVA

Photo copyright Tahirah Manesah Abu Bakar, 2009

This is a special blog entry for my friend Zaila, who celebrates her birthday today.

When we first met, back in 2006
I knew back then that we would click
Underneath that prim and proper attire
You were wild and full of fire
Just like me, and what a surprise
Born in the same year, how very nice!
You were not like the average PA
Not sombong or eksyen or nyey-nyey-nyey
Working with you was a lot of fun
Remember when we formed Rombongan Pak Man?
Those Starhill memories stay fresh forevermore
You singing Jaclyn made everyone drop their jaw
The karaoke and makan sessions over the years
We’d monkey around and laugh till we had tears
I just want to say what a good friend you’ve been
And what a lousy poet I am, so you can trash this poem to your bin.

Anyway, just want to add something here: that if one day you decide to leave your profession, you can always become a HR practitioner as you have all that it takes to be a very, very good one.

I purposely put this ice-cream eating pic of you up here. I caught you on camera being simply you, and that’s a beautiful thing, more beautiful than the beauty queen crown you’re wearing.

Happy birthday Zaila!

SALAM RAMADHAN

Salam, I'd like to wish all my Muslim friends Selamat Berpuasa. If you are looking for something special to serve your guests for buka puasa, or Raya cookies or cakes with a difference, do visit CRUMB CRAVINGS at http://www.crumbcravings.blogspot.com/ for a range of scrumplicious home made baked goodies!

Chocolate lovers will fall in love again and again with SHERA'S CHOCOLATE HEAVEN, a moist, steamed chocolate cake with chocolate inside and outside and all over your heart! Home-made by my friend Shera Azman, it's a simple creation that makes you salivate for more. To order, just message me and Shera will get back to you for your orders.

If you would like to buka puasa with Rosyam Noor, Hafiz AF7, Stacy and Adam, make a date with them at  Restoran Alicafe, Kelana Mall, KL on 29 August 2009 at 7.00pm. Tickets cost RM50.00 each inclusive of a four-course set meal, photo session with the stars, gifts and a chance to win lucky draw prizes! Plus kids under 12 can go in for free without ticket charges. Check out the details at http://www.powerroot.com/.