The best time to hire is (really) now

You must be thinking I’m crazy or I have my own agenda (I do run my own recruitment agency in Singapore). But regardless of how you are going to hire, the time has never been better than now.

I know the impending recession is still looming over our heads. Projects are down, profits are miserable. If your business is going to outlast the recession, here are the reasons why you should be hiring:

• Your competitors will be letting go some of their talents

This is the standard knee jerk reaction every organization out there will be doing. It is a no-brainer. No business means less profit. To balance the books, you reduce expenses and what best way to do it than to reduce salary cost since they normally constitute the highest expenses component. And so your competitors will let some of their talents go, talents that you had been pulling your hair out to find over the past year.

• Replacing the dead weight

Since you can easily find replacement now, the risk level in ridding of dead weights and not finding capable replacements are significantly lower (see above).

• More contingent staffs

When the market is good, less people are willing to take on contingent assignments. With a volatile employment market, the luxury to be choosy diminished and that provide a lot more opportunities to look at gaps you can temporarily addressed. And if they turn out well, reward the commitment and hard work by converting them to perm staffs when the opportunity permits.

• Time is on your side

Remember how you had to drop everything to rush a hiring process so you won’t be beaten to it by the hour? With lesser hiring activity across, you can take the time to interview more candidates and get to know them better. So when you are ready to hire, you would have more than enough chances to know their skills sets and their cultural fit.

Recession-Proof Yourself

Recession-Proof yourself

A day doesn’t go by in Singapore without reading about the doom and gloom, the economic uncertainty, the Eurozone crisis, china’s inflation and the US government empty coffers. Even our PM is prepping everyone to be ready for what is to come and expect only a 1% – 3% growth in 2012. This is a forecast before any actual bad news materialized. During the 2009 recession, forecast was adjusted to a 6% to 9% contraction. We were ultimately hit with a 2% contraction.

Percentage aside, the upcoming events made many organizations very nervous and many have already begun implementing measures to control payroll costs. Banks are planning workforce cuts and others are enforcing unpaid leaves.

The chain of events that will occur will be beyond us but the obvious is life goes on and bills need to be paid. And if the down period stretches, the probability of finding a replacement employment will also be dented.

So if you are gainfully employed now, here are some tips that may help prevent you from getting the pink slip that your boss is preparing:

1. Be observed doing the right stuff – Work ethics are important at all times and poor ones are viewed worse during bad times. No boss or manager, already mired in challenging macro situations, wishes to see his staffs’ facebooking or tweeting away during office hours. If physical observation isn’t possible, copy him in emails of triumphant and constructive ideas.
2. Provide solutions – Big or small, solutions are always welcoming and it shows your vested interest in the organization. Even small little things like changing a cheaper pen suppliers or a more cost efficient way to save on transport would show a great deal. It isn’t the actual solution that matter; it is the fact that you cared enough to think of one that is.
3. Be the jovial spark – During my NS days, Basic Military Training days are the most demoralizing phrase as we are still acclimatizing to the regimental lifestyle while reminiscing the freedom that was taken away. But a canteen break never fails to cheer us up. Be the jovial spark to cheer your colleagues up. Morale in a company will be badly affected when layoffs occur and company would want to retain the spark that keeps the spirits high.
4. Ask to help – Make yourself as irreplaceable as possible by moving beyond your job scope. Show that you can be there not just in good time but also the bad. Bosses need people like that to help steer the boat on bad tides.
5. Network, network, network – Knowing more people have never, in any way, been a bad thing. And one connection you know in person is worth the thousand virtual ones online. These connections not only could possibly help to provide solutions (see number 2), they could also be links you can depend on if the axe were to drop on you. In a recovering market, companies tend to hire via referrals as that is the most cost effective option. The more referral you know, the higher the chances you have.

Year End Recruitment Standstill

Many employers take the lead from the public service over many HR initiatives in Singapore. One of the most significant would be the 13^th month bonus, otherwise known as the Annual Wage Supplement (AWS).

It is given out to employees towards the end of December and amount to a month of salary. Because of that, recruitment activities across organizations normally drop to a low as potential candidates are clinging on to receiving that AWS.

The world doesn’t have to come to a standstill. Recruitment strategies just need to be fine-tuned during this period of time to ensure your business still goes on.

Be clear – Many jobseekers are already reviewing their options in December even though they won’t be planning to move after the year. But many also automatically assumed that current positions require current candidate to fulfil. Many of our clients are actually open to waiting or even buying out notice. Mention this clearly in your communications to avoid any mis-assumptions.

Be known – With news of companies laying off almost every other day, the upcoming choices of jobseekers are shrinking. And no one will logically apply for positions that had such exposure in the recent news. Media typically would however want to balance the bad news with good. So if your company is still hiring, leverage on the media’s balancing act and let the public know that you are still recruiting.

Be different – Traditional means of job advertisements are getting less effective. People are flipping through the newspapers on their smart phones. That mean less reader is going to come across your sat ads in the papers. Facebook has more than 2 million local users and LinkedIN has more than a million. These sites are frequented more often than news site. Leveraging on these medium may provide better returns and exposure.

Be smart – Recruitment is not the core business of most organizations and it shouldn’t be. Outsource the work to specialized recruitment agency that does this on a daily basis to reap the best returns. Not only could you free yourself to focus on other important stuffs, you can be exposed to a whole new network of talents that otherwise would never be near your grasp.

Different time calls for different strategies and knowing when to change and being brave enough to will help you tide over the seasonal lull.

Perils of a Young Manager (And what you can do about it)

During one of my career counselling sessions to a group of MBA students, almost every one of them would like to become a manager straight after their graduation. Knowing better that people management skills is something you pick up through years of working experience, i put it back that it may not be that realistic.

Most of them weren’t very pleased with my reply and some even became clearly agitated. It wasn’t pretty.

I started managing my first employee when I was 25. I have no management skills to speak of. All I could do is to think back on all the bosses I had worked under, their good and bad traits, and try to refrain from the latter.

I thought that would be good enough. But as we hire more, the reference I could use became more and more exhausted. Conflicts between co-workers? Didn’t see that in my last workplace. Employee selling out the company? Er.. is there a guidebook for that?

Still all these call for appropriate (and immediate) actions and as a manager, you just have to do what’s right in the best interest of the company whether you like it or not.

That meant terminating employees caught applying for other jobs, face booking the whole time and neglecting their KPIs, giving them a kick in the backside when they are habitually late for work.

This isn’t something I (or anyone else I believe) love to do. As a person I prefer to prevent conflicts. But many a times, you need to light a spark in order to solve a bigger problem.

I learned this the hard way. Working in a call centre straight after my NS, I was put in a supervisory trial after a year+ to manage a team of my colleagues for a brief period. From a peer to a team lead over people I know, how hard could that be?

That is until some of my colleagues started to take extra-long breaks in the pantry, login to the system late and some even decided to go home after lunch. All I need to do it keep quiet about it. And I did.

Things like this can’t be kept from the management for long and it was found out soon enough. It didn’t take long before I was suspended from the trial and back to doing what I did.

If I had the courage to confront those situations, things would be different. Yes, they may dislike me at that point in time but as a team lead, I am paid to ensure things are going in accordance to plan.

I am still learning the role of a manager every single day. If you are just like me, carrying the liability of a baby face, here is what you could do:

1. High level of self-awareness – Regardless of the personality you carry, be it extrovert or introvert, one has to have a high level of self-awareness. People who exhibit the lack of it would be those who think that they are perfect, refuse to admit mistakes. I was like that in my teens and I’m glad I’m over that otherwise I would not have reached where I am today.
2. Delivery of speech – The same power point slides will be delivered differently by different people. The same content can communicated across in vary ways. It may be work related but we are still dealing with emotional human beings here. That meant no reprimanding in public, no curt emails. Again learn from the past responses you sense from the way you used to communicated (rule no. 1).
3. Always the big picture – I failed in my supervisory trial as I was concerned my colleagues would dislike me if I had done things appropriately. I failed to look at the bigger picture and operate on what would be more important, the company’s interest and also my career development opportunity. Do not hesitate to point out something you believe is wrong but do it in the most appropriate manner taking into consideration the emotional factor (Refer to rule no. 2)

Management is something we really learn from real-world experience and not something an MBA or PhD could impart. And it started with having a consistent value and upholding it regardless of situation. Testing that value under different unforeseen situation will play a big part in sharpening your management acumen and better prepare yourself when the role arises.

Networking – What I learned from my in-camp training

Most should know that no one is allowed to bring a camera phone to a Singapore Army camp. It just happen that I am in the midst of my reservist, and without my time sapping iPhone by my side, we did the next best thing. We talked.

I’ve learned so much about everyone of my section mates, what they do, what they intend to buy, etc. And in the midst of all these information, we also get to know each other better and bonded closer. Since we have spend so much time waiting, we talked about everything under the sun. From love life to cars to work to airplane crashes to food to football, and the list goes on.

And that is what networking is all about. Meeting up with complete strangers and knowing them well enough to help each other out. One of my section mate got his current job during a poker game through a guy he just met.

The army may have given us a setting to network much easier with our commonalities (we are all “stuck” for 2 weeks+) but it shouldn’t be any different in a corporate networking event.

Here are some tips that may help in your next networking opportunity:

• Set the premise - Sponsor the event and/or volunteer to help – you will gain more visibility. We had two street soccer sessions during our in-camp and I took the initiative to bring the ball and fix a time/date for the game to take place.
  
• Smile -  People like to do business with others they like and feel comfortable with. Unless you are selling your frown, bring your smiley face.
• Identify common grounds to tread on – For us recruiter, networking common ground would be a new job opportunity as everyone has a job and most would want to find a better one. If the common ground isn’t obvious, do your homework on the participants and find out what relevant background you can. LinkedIN is very useful here.
• Prepare your elevator pitch – Out of point or overrun. These are the most common mistakes especially for newbies.  Be concise about your point and use it as your litmus test to gauge interest. If they have questions, chances are they are interested.
• Allocate your time effectively – Always move on in networking. Even in dating events you get to rotate. A good way to put it nicely is to introduce another person into the conversation and slip away for a drink refill.
• Keep your phone – It is ruder than telling the guy you got the wrong target.

And memorizing these isn’t useful. It’s the execution that will bear fruits. So get out there and talk already!

Recession Upcoming? How to Avoid Retrenchment

The same period two years ago Singapore was on the cliff edge of a technical recession. By Sep 2009, it became a reality. Companies were cutting staffs and budgets. One cannot pass by a day without hearing of some retrenchment or downsizing.

The buildup to that deja vu appears to have resurfaced. Even the labour minister is out reassuring the citizens. That to me is just reaffirmation of what is going to hit us.

For those that were unfortunately affected then, are you better prepared this time? What did you learn from your last retrenchment?

My gut feel is we still have at least 6 months before things get rough. Use this limited time to get yourself ready

1. Make yourself indispensable. Downturn is the best opportunity for management to clean the house. Just because your manager never tell you off for consistently coming in late, going for long lunches, face booking the entire day at work doesn’t mean he don’t know. He probably done it when he was your age.
2. Avoid recession sensitive industries. If you knew Lehman Brothers are going to close down 6 months before it happened, would you still apply for job with them? Banks have always been one of the most economy sensitive industry and with such shaky landscape, you may want to look at more sturdy sectors if you are currently job searching.
3. Look at recession friendly careers. Life still goes on despite a recession and there will still be jobs that thrives, maybe even more so during a downturn. Some of such trades would be:
• Education – There will always be jobs for teachers. Kids will still go to school and many unemployed adults would choose to learn new skills.
• Military or any uniformed group – 6 to 10 years of guaranteed employment unless you do something crazy.
• Gambling – a very attractive way to make money without a job.
• Debt Management companies – there will always be a spike in such cases during a bad time. And many of these people would need guidance.

Importantly, never stop networking and that includes not burning bridges. One more friend equal to one less enemy. You never know when you may need to call in a favor.

Still Unemployed?

The latest Singapore stats is showing a 2.1% unemployment rate in June. With a population of 5 million, we are looking at about 105,000 unemployed. In our heated economy, you truly need to do some self-reflection if you belonged to the 2.1% involuntarily.

But there are certain things we can learn from those that don’t have a lack of offers every other week. Here are what we can learn from them:

Be in a job. Any job. It can be a temp or a short term contract. This doesn’t just provide recentness to your experience, it also indicate demand for your talents. The concern about notice period is no longer a major concern in the present market.

Be ubiquitous. Smart job seekers don’t find jobs. The jobs find them. Make sure you have an updated presence common recruiter databases like Monster.com or LinkedIN. Ensure relevant key words are present in those profiles so searches on those key words will have your profile on top of the search results.

Don’t discount yourself. It may be tempting to price yourself competitively to stand out. But in the current market of inflated salary packages, anything lower may draw suspicions instead of higher interest.

It is still a paper society. Very soon a diploma may not even be sufficient for entry level executive jobs. Studying may not be your thing but the society thinks otherwise. So unless you can convince the masses, it is time to dust your pencil case and head back to school. If a 18 month course doesn’t appeal, take on specialized certifications that will be directly relevant to your career direction.

Finding a job is never easy. But don’t assume that because you’re unemployed you’ll never find work again. Many people can benefit from making some changes in how they approach their job hunts.

Questions to Ask Your Interviewer

As the war for talents continue to heat up, many organizations are becoming more creative in their approach to fill up their vacancies. It is no longer just about the job. It became everything else. Things have escalated to an employee courtship. Creating employer branding, making applicant feel special, allocating expensive floor space for swanky chill-out areas in the office are just the tip of the iceberg. As a job seeker, you need to peel away the layer of marketing barrier to get to the core of the position.

Ultimately it is the job that matters so here are five questions to ask your prospective employer before taking that leap of faith.

1. How would you describe a typical day in this position? A job description is adequate in illustrating the entire requirement of the position. However many of them doesn’t provide an insight in the actual weightage of each responsibilities and how frequent each of them would occur. Having a first-hand insight will provide a clearer picture of what to expect when you are in the job.

2. Who would my co-workers be and what are they like? Unless you are joining a new start-up, chances are you will be working with new co-workers. Putting diverse people in the same room and conflict is bound to arise. But having clearer expectations and understandings can provide better preparation and know the kind of characters you will be facing eight hours a day.

3. What do you like about this company? What keeps you here? Everybody works for money but it is the rest that comes along with it that make one chooses their current employment. Knowing what it is will provide insight to the company’s actual beliefs system. And you just need to match them against yours to see if they are a good match.

4. What are the main challenges associated with this position? In all roles, there are people who made it and there are those that didn’t. You want to make sure you are not in the latter. A good idea of the challenges would let you assess if these are within your capability to take them on.

5. (To Line Manager) How would you characterize a successful employee and what are their common qualities? As the saying goes, one doesn’t quit their job. They quit their boss. And this same person will be the key decision maker in your performance appraisal. Knowing their expectations give you better acumen of how to eventually manage your boss.

The employment market is still looking sharp and will continue to be tight. The opportunity to move into another company is never better. But before you jump, make sure you can differentiate the facts from what is on the brochure.

Knowing yourself scientifically

Recently my entire office were put through DISC assessment test. DISC is a quadrant behavioral model based on the work of Dr. William Moulton Marston (1893–1947) to examine the behavior of individuals in their environment or within a specific situation (otherwise known as environment). It therefore focuses on the styles and preferences of such behavior.

It breaks down the human behavior into 4 distinct quadrant:

1. D – Dominance
2. I – Influence
3. S – Steadfast
4. C – Compliance

The results you would get from the test is highly accurate. There are a few of our folks that has common behaviors and you can see not just from their work but even little things like their eating habits.

Importantly it helps you to understand more about yourself and let you make better decisions about what suits you and what doesn’t. For instance someone with a low I would typically be a person that prefers to think than speak. Try putting that person on a stage to make a living and you are just setting him up for failure. (Which could be why my aspiration to be a singer didn’t pan out. I’m an extreme low I)

And that is what a lot of fresh graduates are doing right now. Without a good understanding of themselves, they often set themselves up for failure jumping from one job to another.

Much as it has almost been accepted by the society to lower the period of measurement in regards to job hopping, you will ultimately gain a competitive advantage if you had been in a stable employment for a substantial period of time.

And to do so you really need to know more about yourself and validate what you like and what you don’t.

“He who looks outside, dreams. He who looks inside, awakens.” – Carl Jung

What would you do for free?

This will constitute one of the many new questions I’m framing to ask our new potential hires.

If you think about it, skill sets are actually quite obvious from your resume. So what will make one candidate different from another if all ten of them shares similar profile?

As a job seekers, it will be a competitive advantage to know quickly and early what you want to be? This is especially relevant for school leavers and younger generations.

So just ask yourself one key question. What exactly would be one thing you would do for free? That will set the right direction for you to explore in more details.

Say for instance you love football and wouldn’t mind playing football everyday for free. The area of passion is quite obvious. Further on, match your skill sets to this new found passion. Do you have what it takes to be a professional footballer now? 3 years later? 8 years later?

If all that seems impossible, don’t be disheartened! The passion in football could still be served out by working in a more suited role in football clubs or even football associations. It could be back room staffs, coaching or simply retailing of football apparels and accessories.

As you can see, the options are extensive.

So before you even start your next job search, ask yourself this question and don’t begin until you have a thorough answer.