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  • 03
    Apr 13
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Organizational Success Does NOT Mean Engagement!

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By Matylda Rabczenko
Guest Writer, Warwick Business School

Whether your business is at the peak of success or on the brink of failure, it is likely that in both cases you are underutilizing your most valuable asset – people.

An overwhelming body of research has consistently demonstrated a link between people and performance (please, don’t fall asleep just yet!), which is mediated by the enigmatic concept of employee engagement (told you it was worth staying awake!).
Sibson defines it for you in two simple points. Engaged employees:

1. Know how to do the work
2. Want to do the work

Yes, it’s as simple as that, and there’s a lot to gain! Engaged employees are more productive and happier. This translates into reduced employee turnover and enhanced financial performance. More interestingly to those of you who are already doing well, it often results in the exposure of unrealized gains.

Before abandoning the topic, have a glance at the quick survey proposed by Elis and Sorensen (2006). If you checked even one of the boxes, there’s a chance that your organization has an employee engagement problem.

Did I hear an ‘uh-oh’? Unfortunately, there are no generic how-to guides; every organization has different needs! There are, however, four areas that you can focus on, which a long-term study has pinpointed as exceptionally relevant to employee engagement (MacLeod, Clarke, 2009):

1. LEADERSHIP determines the organization’s purpose, which ultimately shapes why the employee wants to do the job. Can you make your organization’s vision more inspiring than it already is?

2. ENGAGING MANAGERS are key to implementing the vision. They are directly in control of employee empowerment, which may contribute to both why the employee wants to do the job, and the employee’s knowledge on how to do the job (empowerment is associated with autonomy which requires higher-quality training). Are your managers empowering or restricting your employees?

3. EMPLOYEE VOICE is fundamental to creating employee engagement. An employee will not be committed to a job where he or she cannot make a difference and is treated as an opinion-less machine. How can you take action to listen and respond to your employees?

4. INTEGRITY is the building block of trust amongst the employees. It can be achieved through consistent behavior in line with the stated vision. Do you ensure that your employees act in accordance with the organizational vision?

Don’t overlook what’s right in front of you. Have a think and perhaps you too will be able to uncover some unrealized gains – the true potential of your people!

Find ideas and tools here.

Also, have a look at Profiles Asia Pacific’s Employee Engagement Survey! The top way to figure out the engagement level in your organization!

  • 14
    Mar 13
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Diamonds in the Rough – How to Find Undervalued Talent

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By Yvonne Manzi
Social Media Officer, Profiles Asia Pacific

More or less all of us can spot talent when it’s clearly exceptional from the start. But this is not all there is to talent search – you don’t need to just snatch the obvious diamonds, you also need to find the rough but equally precious diamonds and help them refine. Unfortunately this is difficult to achieve, and most of the time we look for the wrong signs, or we simply overlook people who aren’t already shining. “At most companies” says Richard Fairbank, CEO of Capital One, “people spend 2% of their time recruiting, and 75% of their time managing their recruiting mistakes.”

Danish Talent and Performance Development Coach Rasmus Ankersen spoke at a TED event where he talked about his research and findings, which he published in The Goldmine Effect. During the talk, he explains the best ways of finding undervalued talent. “Mastering the art of talent identification is an extremely tough discipline” he says, but “by understanding three simple lessons, everyone can dramatically improve.”

There are actually quite a few people in various fields who were once overlooked and then turned out to be superstars. Asafa Powell, an unknown Jamaican sprinter, smashed the world record. Michael Jordan was cut from his high school team when he was 16, but he turned out to be the most famous basketball player of his time. Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin group, was categorized as a low performer because of his dyslexia, and he dropped out of school. Paul McCartney’s musical talent was never noticed by anyone throughout his education, and yet he was part of one of the most famous bands of all time. There could be many more similar stories to list here, but the common denominator in all of them is that someone failed to see their potential.

Ankersen says that the first step to understanding this phenomenon is to separate performance from potential. Some people have high performance and high potential, and these are the people he calls “shouting talents”, while others, such as Asafa Powell, or Paul McCartney, have high potential but low initial performance – these he calls “whispering talents”.

The pressing question is: how do we learn to see potential in something that looks ordinary?

The key is in the three lessons outlined by Ankersen.

Great talent is not necessarily right talent
If you’re not clear on the critical competencies that drive success in the jobs you’re looking to fill, you will be employing the wrong talent and missing out on the people with real potential. So, are you testing the right characteristics?

What you see is not necessarily what you get
Lower performers may have greater potential. Oftentimes obviously high performers are professionally trained, while average performers have been left to themselves. Raw lower performance might be better than a trained higher performance. This means that you shouldn’t just judge by the numbers because there are external factors that can affect results – luck, market conditions, good vs. bad bosses, even pure randomness.

Never overrate certificates, never underrate character
Sure, being trained in a top-class environment is a valuable addition, but character should always be taken into account. Individuals who haven’t had the opportunity to reach those stellar training environments could still be very much worth your time. In fact, they could be even better, because rougher beginnings can often lead to stronger characters. Regardless of certificates, it is worth looking at the right motivators for both types of individuals. Ankersen mentions factors such as “why are you here?” and “what drives you?” and “how much do you really care?” because the most important thing an individual has to tell you is what he or she isn’t telling you.

In conclusion, companies need to make sure they’re not missing out on all these diamonds in the rough. That college graduate that isn’t so great at communicating his or her skills at first impact might actually have a sea of potential ready to grow. By keeping Rasmussen’s research in mind, you can learn to identify these diamonds in the rough, and then help them channel their talent to straight to superstardom.

For some diverse tips on how to attract young talent, have a look at this article by our affiliate company–Profiles International.

  • 12
    Mar 13
  • 1

Six Keys to Great Customer Service!

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By Yvonne Manzi
Social Media Officer, Profiles Asia Pacific


The lifetime value of one single customer is much greater than the added value of numerous single transactions. This is especially true in times when business is going badly, because loyal customers are more likely to heed a call for help or be patient through imperfect service. It is also true in our digitized era, where a bad online comment from a customer can go viral within minutes.

If you try and think of it from the customer’s perspective, you can see why it doesn’t take much for him or her to decide that your company isn’t worth their time and money. One bad experience is enough.

Profiles International, the affiliate of Profiles Asia Pacific, found that assessing core personality traits and a standardized set of skill measures provides clear indicators of probably success in a customer-facing role. In 1997, Profiles developed the Customer Service Knowledge Scale, and it has been refining its research ever since.

There are six behaviors that we finally identified in customer-facing employees that will make the biggest difference for your business.

1. Trust. Trusting individuals tend to believe that the motives of others are honorable. Find a good balance of trust that works for your business, you don’t want untrusting and unhelpful employees, but you don’t want naïve employees either!

2. Tact. How you say something to a customer can be just as important as what you say. If customers make mistakes or do not understand something, employees should take extra care to be patient and make them feel at ease.

3. Empathy. Customers need to feel that someone cares about their experience. Even if there is nothing the employees can do to solve an issue, it is important for them to show that they understand how important it is to the customer, and to still try their best to find ways to ease the situation. Frequent and honest communication is a good method to start with.

4. Conformity. The optimal degree of conformity for your customer-facing people depends on your business. The first thing to do is identifying your customer’s objectives and expectations, and then aligning your people with them. For a luxury hotel, for example, it is best to have low-conformity frontline staff that can make quick inventive decisions. But for a company that has to follow strict health and safety guidelines at all costs, it is best to have more conformed staff.

5. Focus. Customer service is about relentless focus. Your customer service employees should always stay focused and thus be quick and attentive, but they should also be able to identify when a customer does not want all of the information you are capable of giving them.

6. Flexibility. Companies that provide the best service think in terms of the customer, and this requires employee willingness and flexibility. However, highly flexible people can become bored of routine decisions, while inflexible people may appreciate routine decisions more than being exposed to important open-ended questions. It is important for you to identify what kind of people your company needs in selected areas, and then match the right people to the right jobs.

  • 07
    Mar 13
  • 0

In Search of a Quick Fix – Teamworking and Why It Doesn’t Always Work

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By Matylda Rabczenko
Guest Writer, Warwick Business School

Over the past 30 years, teamworking has become a widespread phenomenon, which has since been renowned as the panacea for organizational ailments. Still, recent studies show that teamworking does not guarantee improved performance and managers continue to struggle with creating successful teams.

Oftentimes, this is due to the fact that when searching for a quick fix, supervisors overlook the crucial factors that are largely responsible for forming viable teams– the first one being team type.

The two most popular types of teams include shopfloor teams, which are responsible for producing goods or providing services, and project teams, which produce one-time outputs like a new product or service to be marketed by the company.

When designing a team, the team type should be used as a starting point, whilst other factors such as task design, supervisory behavior, group characteristics, and organizational context should be adjusted accordingly.

To give you a better idea, below you have a couple of examples illustrating how team factors may affect shopfloor and project teams differently.

Contrary to common belief, implementing teamworking is never as simple as putting two or more people together and asking them to complete a task. It requires careful planning and constant monitoring to ensure success. The above should provide you with a basis for what to consider, the rest is up to you!

Have a look at the Profiles Performance Indicator as well, which includes a group report called Team Analysis.

  • 29
    Jan 13
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Induction Crisis (part 2) – Tips for Success!

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By Matylda Rabczenko
Guest Writer, Warwick Business School

Last week we discussed the potential damage that induction crisis can cause to your company, which ultimately results in high turnover.

A well thought-out integration process, when applied right from the start, can be the difference between the successful placement of medium- to long-term employees, and wasting a great deal of resources on a failed hire.

Now that you are aware of the key reasons for induction crisis, it is time to point to some tips and solutions!

Don’t wait! Induct promptly!
Induction is most effective if conducted right as the employees join the company; if it is done a couple of weeks after the new employees have began work, it is a waste of time

Train your line managers!
The success of your induction is largely dependent on your line managers, who come into direct contact with the new employees most often. Notably, employees’ job satisfaction is correlated to their relationship with their managers.

Be honest and expect honesty!
As mentioned earlier, induction is a great moment to exchange views on expectations between you and the new recruits. Tell them about the way things really are in order to avoid future confusion.

Show off the company culture!
This is a great opportunity to talk about your company values and how they are applied in day-to-day activities – especially important for all types of firms.

Assign a buddy!
Make the transition period easier for your new employees by assigning them a ‘buddy’, a current employee, who they can turn to with any questions or concerns.

Monitor!
If you own a larger company, it is worth using a stability index to measure employee turnover on a constant basis. A stability index in particular allows you to identify the presence and scale of your induction crisis.

Re-assess your recruitment and selection processes!
Whilst seeking improvements in your inductions, do not turn a blind eye to failures within your recruitment and selection processes – even a great induction will not be able to make up for these.

It is easy to forget that the employment contract is indeterminate – an employee cannot give you tangible labor, he/she only offers the potential to perform labor. Although assessments and interviews supply you with a solid depiction of the extent of this employee potential, whether or not it will be utilized is up to you, the employer.

Similarly to how first impressions shape long-term opinions, inductions can play a fundamental role in shaping long-term employee-employer relations. So if you want to make the most of your employees’ potential, provide them with the first impression that will make them want to deliver.

  • 21
    Jan 13
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Shameless Promotion

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Hello to all our fellow HR professionals.

We would like to take this opportunity to shamelessly promote our content. So we kindly ask you to have a look below and connect with us through our social media platforms!

This way you can always be up-to-date, and you can be notified whenever we have updates for you.

There’s an option for everyone’s preference!

  • 21
    Jan 13
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Induction Crisis (part 1) – The Heel of the Recruitment Achilles

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By Matylda Rabczenko
Guest Writer, Warwick Business School

During the hunt for capable employees, managers often over-invest into recruitment and selection alone, whilst forgetting about the last pillar to successfully obtaining medium to long-term workers: induction.

Simplistically speaking, induction can be considered as a process of integrating new employees into an organization and familiarizing them with the job requirements, but in reality it is more complex than it sounds. According to Rice, et al.’s (1950) 3 stages to become a true employee, ‘induction crisis’ (the first of the three) is the most problematic and bares the greatest number of casualties; the crisis occurs when an employee fails to adjust to the organization and makes the decision to resign.

Decades of studies, beginning in the 1950s, have confirmed a strong link between inadequate induction and high turnover rates amongst new recruits. Usually, the crisis can take place as soon as within the first 6 weeks of employment; some leave immediately, others postpone taking action by a year or more.

Before considering solutions, it is crucial to take into account what drives this HR failure. Here are a few common sources (a detailed description can be found in Skeats’ 1991 book on Successful Induction, which I would recommend as an initial guide!).

False expectations. These can be usually attributed to over-selling the position during the recruitment process, as well as misunderstandings about salaries and promotions. Induction may help in counteracting the overselling and depicting the reality of the job.

Company style. Although the company style is conveyed through advertisements, company websites, etc., the true company style and culture may come as a surprise to some new employees. Induction provides you with a good opportunity to give the new recruit a preview of the way in which people operate within your company.

Demands of the job. It is often not just the company that over-sells the position, but also the employee him/herself. Consequentially, the employee may become overwhelmed by his/her new responsibilities. Similarly, an employer may hire someone who is overqualified for a role and will find it boring. Induction allows you to have an exchange of expectations with the new employee, which may on occasion result in re-assignment to a more suitable role.

Difficulty with colleagues. Clashes with fellow co-workers are especially likely to occur when the new employees are thrown into a workplace environment without previously interacting with one another. In this case, induction can be a great opportunity for your new employees to socialize in a more informal setting.

Keep following our blog for the part 2 discussion including tips for success and conclusions!

  • 17
    Jan 13
  • 0

Improve Your Recruitment in the Philippines

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By Yvonne Manzi
Social Media Officer, Profiles Asia Pacific

For your company to be successful in the Philippines, it is important that you do not simply apply general international recruitment practices. Across regions the differences can be more defined than you think, and failing to recognize and appropriately respond to them can lead to severe problems.

A 2012 Kelly OCG report outlines 5 ways in which you can improve your recruitment in the Asia-Pacific region.

Know what motivates.
Today it is widely accepted that to motivate employees to achieve their best results, companies need to give them more than just great salaries. Across regions, there are significant differences that are influenced by culture and values, which must be taken into account. What matters in HR is not why these issues arise, but how to respond appropriately. It is therefore of utmost importance for HR professionals to recognize the motivational trends in the region, and devise ways to address them.

In the Philippines, as in other countries in Asia-Pacific, the basis for employee motivation is the value they perceive they have. Applying Western-style opportunity+responsibility motivational methods is acceptable but limited; you must also practically show your employees that they have real worth. In general terms, this can be shown in two ways: through the right job title, and through corporate reputation. If the employee has an important job title, and he/she works for a company that is socially responsible, influential and that gives back to the community, the results will be more impressive. First, the employee will feel more valued and thus be motivated to perform better, and second, the clients will respond more positively because these cultural trends are ingrained in their mindsets as well.

Beware the pressures of a growing market.
In Asia-Pacific, a region with already limited skilled labor, talent search and retention is becoming increasingly difficult. The market is quickly growing both within specific countries and within other developing regions. This means that there are more and more opportunities for candidates all-around, and there are more incentives being offered to candidates by competing companies and recruiters. This means that it becoming even more critical for organizations to find the right long-term candidates who they will keep and develop for a long time.

Recruiters and HR professionals must make sure they have a number of skills in order to remain competitive in the Philippines. They must have:
a) an understanding of upcoming skills shortages
b) access to global candidate networks
c) strategies for developing and engaging existing employees
d) long-term strategies for increasing the inflow of talent

Dig deeper to measure candidate quality.
As I mentioned earlier, in emerging markets there is a shortage of highly skilled staff. 83% of responding companies blame this on hiring issues in Asia-Pacific, compared with percentages in the 70s for the Americas and EMEA. The complicating factors are low unemployment rates, largely given because of the aforementioned growth which affects most sectors.

According to the Kelly OCG report, this means that “it is common to find organizations seeking candidates without the ideal previous experience, but with the fundamentals to be able to learn as they go”. It is therefore important for your company to determine how effective the interview and screening process is. The skills that need to be measured are:
a) aptitude for learning
b) team-work and leadership
c) communication
d) problem-solving and strategic insight
Perhaps one of the most effective ways to ensure this is to integrate assessment solutions in the hiring process.

Think flexibility.
The Kelly OCG report states that “contingent and temporary labor has grown almost everywhere in the past decade, yet it has grown exceptionally quickly in the Asia-Pacific market”. Promotion of this type of labor can indeed create insecurity in the lower end of the market, but the report explains that for those with high-level and in-demand skills, the situation is a win-win one. The candidates will be more inclined to participate because this will provide for improved work-life balance, they will be able to choose their favored projects, and it is especially beneficial for women who may want to remain or re-enter the job market while they have a family.

So, how to do this? According to the report, the steps are 3:
a) Determine what the success factors are for specific roles. They may not necessarily require permanency to reach the same results. Especially with the aid of internal networks and the right technology.
b) Focus on collaboration. Give managers the responsibility, but then allow them the freedom to delegate and re organize the work on their terms. They will be more able to target the strengths of particular individuals.
c) Engage specialists rather than generalists. This will increase the quality and productivity of work, and reduce job dissatisfaction.

Improve your “candidate experience”.
The candidate experience is the process the potential employee has to undergo when applying for a position within your company. Just like a customer, the candidate should also receive a positive experience. This means that it needs to be tailor-made for the candidate, and appropriately targeted and marketed.

The basic elements that are indicated by the report are 5:

1) The brand experience
2) The reputational experience
3) The technological experience
4) The human experience
5) The process experience

(See side figure for explanation)

If successfully done, what will this lead to?

There are 3 positive outcomes:
a) A desirable yet unsuccessful candidate will be more inclined to reapply to future opportunities
b) The successful candidate will be more engaged from the start
c) You will be perceived more positively in the recruitment market, and this will increase your inflow of applicants

These guidelines should provide you with some very valuable insight!

  • 14
    Jan 13
  • 0

HR Planning in Times of Uncertainty

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By Matylda Rabczenko
Guest Writer, Warwick Business School

Uncertainty

In current times of uncertainty, HR planning is commonly associated with bureaucratic rigidity that is inapplicable to the rapidly changing modern world, where reliance on past statistics gives us little scope to make future forecasts.

But contrary to this widely shared dogma, today’s fast-paced firms need a degree of HR planning if they want their workforces to keep up with the unstable market demands. This has been supported by research from the past decade, which confirms that HR planning continues to make important contributions to the better monitoring of staffing costs and employee numbers, as well as to the maintenance of a workforce profile, which allows for better-informed resourcing decisions.

Broadly speaking, once implemented, HR planning can result in one of 2 forecasts: labor shortages, or labor surpluses. A majority of Western companies will endure the latter due to the recession. However, unlike the Western world, the Philippines have not experienced the effects of the recent financial slump. Instead, the economy is undergoing incredible growth, largely due to heavy foreign direct investment, which has been fuelling cohorts of new ventures. Consequentially, there is a high demand for labor, which is widely available, however rarely skilled. On occasion, this may result in skilled-labor shortages, in which case the employers must resort to: employee overtime, employee outsourcing, or employee retention schemes.

In order to prevent such desperate measures, companies employ HR planning to predict both internal and external labor demand on a constant basis. This way, strategies to tackle employee shortage or surplus can be planned before the problem even arises, thus preventing the labor shortage or surplus from happening, or at least ameliorating the company’s approach.

When analyzing internal demand, there are 5 questions that need to be asked:

1. Is employee turnover high or low? High employee turnover can be an indicator of upcoming labor shortages. On the other hand, low employee turnover may imply the success of retention strategies, meaning that the company will not experience labor shortages.
2. What do the ‘employee movements’ say? How many employees have changed positions to ones within or outside of the company, and why? Employers often use replacement charts, succession plans, or transition matrices in order to track this.
3. How high is employee productivity? If employee productivity is not high enough to fulfill quotas, then this implies labor shortages.
4. Is the organizational performance on the rise or fall? When organizational performance is falling, then the company is likely to experience labor surpluses, as profits fall short of wages.
5. What is the company’s strategic direction? In cases where the company intends on broadening its scope of activities, the expected outcome would be labor shortages.

Analyzing external demand is much more tricky, as this may involve an endless number of factors. The questions below highlight some of the most important issues that should be considered:

– Are there enough unemployed and qualified individuals to satisfy the company’s resourcing needs?
– What are the general levels of unemployment and within relevant occupations?
– What types of skills are available in the area? As mentioned earlier, the question of skills is especially pertinent to the Philippines, where skilled-labor shortages are more likely to occur than in the Western world.
– What are the industry trends?
– What are the government’s legal frameworks?

These questions alone should give you a better idea of your business’s future recruitment challenges. They should also give you an idea of the importance of properly applied HR planning. Perhaps, it’s time to give it a shot!

  • 14
    Jan 13
  • 0

Selling to HR Professionals

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By Yvonne Manzi
Social Media Officer, Profiles Asia Pacific

The importance of HR for companies is becoming increasingly evident. The expertise of HR professionals in the management of everything-employees makes them one of the most important pieces in the puzzle of maintaining a successful company.

However, given their busy schedule and versatile roles, marketing to them can be difficult. This infographic that was recently published by the HR Marketer provides very useful information.

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