This post is probably way overdue. Someone asked me end of last year what are the trends I see in Learning and Development as we go into year 2012 and beyond. It’s indeed a tough question to answer since I do not own a crystal ball to tell the future, but I believe these were the directions.
HR Analytics falling into the trap of “Neo-Scientific Management”?
December 9th, 2011
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I’m sure many of us who are familiar with the evolution of management concepts knows that Scientific Management is all about. First introduced by Frederick Taylor in 1980s and remain popular till 1920s, it’s considered something obsolete in modern management.
If asked about their view on Scientific Management today, most managers will claim that it’s something of the past and doesn’t work anymore. However, it’s interesting to see the next wave of Scientific Management actually coming into the picture in the name of Management / HR Analytics!
Focus on People & Objectives, not Technologies
November 3rd, 2011
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Being involved in quite a number of transformation projects involving technologies enhancements (and not forgetting my Computer Science roots), I often observed great technology implementation with flaws when it comes to execution and change management. This is often due to the organization and technology specialist’s urge to showcase the best in class and state-of-the-art technologies.
What many fail to realize is the fact that technologies are only valuable if it reduces the workload of your team, usable, cost effective and most importantly bring the organization forward. In fact, a technology transformation is a good time for us to relook at our processes and gauge if it’s most optimum use of resources.
Back to Basics Personal Financial Management
November 2nd, 2011
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The awareness on financial planning has definitely been increasing with the numerous organizations offering financial planning certifications such as CFP or RFP. Not forgetting the loads of financial advisors and wealth planners around. The challenge about getting good advise from these “professionals” are that they often have vested interested (I.e: they’re trying to sell their products such as insurance or unit trusts and often get a commission on them).
It’s also often difficult or everyone on the street to understand where are they essentially placing their money and what are the risk involves. I’m no financial pro but I’ll try to explain my view of financial planning (as well as retirement planning) using the simpliest examples.
Gold and Silver prices – Bubble waiting to Burst?
October 26th, 2011
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In recent years, I’ve had many “investment advisors wannabe” making recommendations that I should put my money into gold and silver, calling it a safe haven and citing how much the prices of gold and silver has increased over the years. While there are undoubtedly some truth in the boom of gold and silver in recent years, I’m somehow not convinced (and I guess never going to be convinced in the near future) that these are safe investments.
I’m going to share some of my views here and hope to get more feedback (especially if there are any points I’ve missed in my analysis of the situation).
How do you Manage Poor Performers?
October 13th, 2011
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While most of your employees are performing up to your expectation, or at least doing their best to get there, you seem to find one or two who does not put in as much effort and consistently performing below your expectations. What do you do with them?
Very often, I see managers who choose to tolerate poor performers and “load balance” by providing more responsibilities to the high performers. While these may give the high performer a good stretch and realize more potential, there are indeed many risks to it. In this article, I shall run through some possible reasons managers chose to ignore the issue and what are the risks involved.
Steve Jobs – The Long Lasting Impact & Inspiration
October 7th, 2011
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October 5, 2011 – Yet another great inspiration to mankind succumbs to Pancreatic Cancer after Randy Pausch (July 25, 2008). Both with similiar character, highly innovative and lived life to the fullest. While Randy Pausch “Last Lecture” was an inspiration, Steve Jobs too had one of the most inspiring speech to the young generation. Watch this and be inspired!
I’ve also compiled a list of articles on Steve Jobs for those who wants to know about the legend. Read on to find out more …
Training Doesn’t Cure Everything … Many Elements are Involved.
September 27th, 2011
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I once had a department head approached me and said “My employees are not customer centric enough, can we send them for training?”. This came just a year after a department-wide customer service workshop was done. So what went wrong? Was the training ineffective? Was the facilitator unable to get the message accross? Was the employee just not ready to learn? How many times have we sent the same group of people for training on numerous counts but not getting the results we wanted?
Far too often, we see managers using “training” or “workshops” as a “cure all” whenever an employee is not performing up to expectations. That leads me to my favourite message to everyone – Learning and Development does not only involve training! It takes a hybrid of interventions to develop an individual’s performance.
In this discussion, I’ll separate development into ATTITUDE, SKILLS & KNOWLEDGE.
Why should we support 6% Pre-paid Telco service tax?
September 12th, 2011
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If you’re a foreigner reading this, it’s a Malaysian specific scenario. Let me just start with a brief of the scenario. First, the telecommunications firms announced their plans to pass the 6% service tax to the consumers. Then the consumers raised their displeasure (Obviouisly! In which part of the world do people like taxes?). It’s followed by the government and politicians (majority pro-government) coming out to voice their dissatisfaction and disagreement. The next day, the telcos announced that they have all agreed to suspend the 6% taxes. So who gained and who lost out of this whole story?
- Telcos – Positively Neutral.
- Consumer – Lost (If you analyzed into the full picture).
- Government – Won (If the people doesn’t see the full picture).
So why did I say that the Consumer lost (shouldn’t they be the winner since there are no taxes?) and Telco Neutral (Shouldn’t they have lost since they can’t impose taxes)?
