Tag Archives: Entrepreneur

Why Great Team Builders Chose the Best

13 Wednesday Jul 2016

Posted by in Business, Human Resource

≈ 1 Comment

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1. Why do great team builders chose the best people?

Great team builders know that more than quantity, it is quality that counts. The team is made up of individuals and will succeed or collapse dependent on its weakest link.

2. Why don’t hiring managers chose the best people?

There are many reasons and here are a few (feel free to share your points in the comments below):

  • They’re unable to recognize the best – the most talented.
  • They do not know what they’re looking for in people.
  • They confuse paper qualifications and “years of experience” for expertise.
  • They’re fearful of bringing in people who might outshine them.
  • And many more…

3. Is it not true the more the talented, the more an employer has to pay?

Most people speak in general terms and this is part of the problem. Instead of asking the right questions, they seek the “right” answers. Getting the right answer to a wrong question is not progress, not productive. However, even a wrong answer to a right question sets you on the path of progress.

Instead of seeking the “most talented” the question should be – How do I select the most talented (the best) from a given class of candidates?

This leads us to the next question.

4. How do I determine the class of people?

You do this by clearly defining the following:

  • The job’s scope – what exactly do you want that employee to accomplish. The more detailed, the better.
  • The job’s requirements – both objective or hard skills (paper credentials, years of experience, etc) and subjective elements such as soft skills.
  • An overview of the remuneration package on offer.

These three criteria will attract the right people, or people who consider themselves qualified.

Use the objective/hard skills as a funnel to shortlist candidates, people who meet ALL the requirements (excluding the soft skills) – and this will be your class of applicants.

During your selection process, zero in on the soft skills you desire and you will have your best-in-class. You’re not paying more but paying the same to chose the best from a given class of candidates.

5. Let us be candid here, as a salaried manager, if I chose someone better than me, I risk losing out on promotions and even my job. Do you expect me to chose what is good for my employer over what is good for me?

A pointed question and it’s a very valid question. Answer pending…

 

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Note: I shall upload more questions and answers in this post, and welcome you to “follow” my blog so that you’re kept updated.

Meanwhile, enjoy this short clip: Quality over Quantity is what makes a winner!

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Warren Buffett | Recommended 9 Books

26 Sunday Jun 2016

Posted by in Business Video Productions

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Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Richard Branson and indeed all self-made billionaires are vociferous readers.

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Video clip produced by Eric Alagan for Mind Kinesis Pte Ltd

Click for Video Productions

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Why you should treat your supplier well

19 Tuesday Apr 2016

Posted by in Business, Human Resource

≈ 2 Comments

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Over the last few decades, I’ve established hundreds of new customer accounts and served several thousand customers – mostly B2B.

Admittedly, l’ve encountered only about 10 customers – individual purchasing staff who had been downright rude and abusive.

How about you?

Supplier – business partner

Supplier – problem solver

Supplier – customer

Supplier – opinion leader

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Why ask job applicants to enclose their photographs?

12 Tuesday Apr 2016

Posted by in Business, Human Resource

≈ 4 Comments

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In Singapore, it is the norm to demand from candidates a “non-returnable” photograph with their job applications.

Many companies – small and medium enterprises (SMEs), multinational corporations (MNCs) and government linked companies (GLCs) – simply parrot this nonsense.

This creates a perception of discrimination in hiring.

But I also believe that many so-called HR professionals in Singapore are ignorant and merely copying and pasting stuff that they had seen and experienced when they first applied for a job.

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Match Qualification Criteria to Job Scope

01 Friday Apr 2016

Posted by in Business, Human Resource

≈ 4 Comments

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Why do human resource managers in Singapore demand unnecessary paper qualifications from their candidates?

Are GCE O Levels required for ALL job openings?

Or, is it a case of herd instinct? Since everyone else asks for it, I better ask for it too.

Or, is it something more –

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The Shortfalls of Performance Based Promotions

04 Friday Mar 2016

Posted by in Business, Hiring: A Primer for Managers, Human Resource

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We all know the game – we studied it in university, we hear management gurus spew it, we practice it on the job and seen it in action in every organization in the private and public sectors, and whether religious, charitable or non-governmental.

Performance based promotions. The foundation is meritocratic and its allure, seductive.

Therein lays all the problems of incompetence, failures and employment terminations.

Let us assume, an employee, John Typical, joins a company with the following hierarchy: Sales Executive > Senior Sales Executive > Sales Manager > Sales Director.

John Typical meets targets set at Sales Executive level. The organization promotes him. He meets targets set at Senior Sales Executive level and he is again promoted, to Sales Manager. He meets KPIs set and does an excellent job. Management promotes John Typical to Sales Director.

Every step of the way, past performance at a junior level, propels John Typical’s promotion to a higher level. Each level comes with added responsibility and authority over an increasing number of direct reports. The assumption here is, because he did well at a certain level, he would do well at the next.

However, as every high jumper knows, it’s simply a question of time before the bar drops.

womens-high-jump-finals-live-on-aug-8

Image Credit @ Reuters

When John Typical, now Sales Director, fails to deliver, he is demoralized, sidelined by his management or worse – demoted and perhaps even asked to resign.

The organization just lost a good employee – no, not a sales director, but an excellent Sales Manager!

The loss of talent and experience to the organization is great, and the toll on the employee’s self-worth and dignity, incalculable.

Notwithstanding these obvious pitfalls, most organizations, including brand name MNCs, go down this path. This is a case of hitting the same button on the keyboard in the mindless quest to gain a different outcome.

What then is the solution?

Look out for the next post.

————————- Copyright @ Eric Alagan, 2016 —————————–

Hard vs Soft Skills

23 Saturday Jan 2016

Posted by in Business, Human Resource

≈ 2 Comments

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In interviewing and selecting candidates, most hiring managers excel in identifying hard skills. Practitioners also refer to Hard Skills as Tangibles, Objective Criteria and variations thereof.

That being the case, these are some broad classification of hard skills:

  1. Paper qualifications
  2. Specific industry exposure
  3. Specific technical skills
  4. Years of experience
  5. Specific languages skills
  6. Age (See below)
  7. Nationality – jobs open to citizens and permanent residents
  8. Etcetera

The key to classifying Hard Skills is objectivity.

Does the candidate have a specific paper qualification – Yes/No. Does the candidate have minimum years of experience in a particular or related industry – Yes/No.

The challenge is in identifying what HR practitioners broadly refer to as Soft Skills – the Intangible Character traits; the Subjective Criteria and elusive X-Factor that defines a great employee from an ‘also ran’ or worse, a destructive addition to the Team.

Over the years, many models and theories sprouted. High-end placement agencies (colloquially referred to as headhunters) even developed and jealously guard their in-house models.

One measure of success is the fees paid versus the results. By this measure, all have had varying degrees of success.

Soft skills continue to remain the challenge.

Even identifying soft skill traits is a challenge – let alone measuring and valuing these skills.

 

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