Our hurdle is employing candidates of poor quality to perform the job. Sometimes applicants oversell themselves in the recruitment process and at other times, we are faced with limited choices of what’s available.Selecting and hiring employees for an organisation is a challenging task and there are various aspects that we need to look into in order to be effective in recruiting the right candidate for the job. That one critical thing I look for when selecting and hiring candidates is work experience and paper qualification. They are essential and they go hand-in-hand.

Larger organisations today hire fresh graduates and provide training to groom them. These companies are willing to invest in training and development. However, medium and small-sized companies prefer to hire candidates who are able to perform the job as they have limited budgets for training and development. When we are recruiting managerial and executive positions, I shortlist candidates with paper qualifications and frequently during the interview, I would ask customised questions about their work experience. I might throw a real-life scenario and ask them for solutions. I do this to gauge their ability to problem solve, make decisions, engage in critical analysis as well as offer solutions.

HR Matters : What do you believe HR’s role should be defined as?
Anthony : The role of HR is to be a mediator between management and employees. We act as a middle-person to create a win-win situation for both parties. When you are a business owner or one of the business leaders, the tendency is that your perspective is geared towards profit-making. As a shareholder or business owner, your key words are dividend, business expansion, diversification and higher profit. However, the employee is oriented far more towards things like increment, bonus, job security, promotion, recognition through awards and rewards, better benefits and the like. The role of the HR – we strike a balance between both and continuously motivate staff, by meeting staff expectations and business owner objectives.

HR Matters : What do you believe to be key trends in employee compensation right now?
Anthony : Gone are the days when companies used to reward their employees once a year with a merit increment and ex-gratia payments to keep their workforce moving. Certain large industries that I know of, used to provide “ex-gratia” payments every month through out the year. Just imagine -- every month you would receive double pay!

Nowadays, organisations are moving towards a complete compensation programme that rewards employees who contribute and perform. Companies are looking into increasing productivity and reducing cost by implementing pay for performance models. There are Key Performance Indices used as the bench-mark – those who meet or exceed the benchmark are rewarded.

HR Matters : How would you go about orientating new employees – what sort of programme would you craft and why?
Anthony : Organisations channel substantial sums towards advertising, selecting, shortlisting and recruiting candidates. It is worth the effort to go that extra mile and run a structured personalised orientation programme. New members feel welcomed and this reinforces their feeling that they made the right choice in joining you. I apply a structured programme here and I encourage every Head of Department to get involved. It’s conducted twice a month with new recruits and we monitor it for one month. Some of the areas covered in this programme include presentation of the Company Handbook, showing them around the company facilities, brief introductions as to how each department functions, introductions to the other team members, welcome lunches on the first day and the Department Manager spending time with the new recruits on tasks and objectives to be met.

It is very in-depth and we give each recruit a checklist to monitor the progress of the orientation. Job tasks are listed for the new member to work on; they are required to provide progress reports to the reporting manager. In this way, the organisation achieves the objective of retaining staff. Secondly, it forms a basis for performance evaluation and creates a paper trail.

HR Matters : You have ISO 9001:2008 certification for the Human Resource Department. How were you involved in this?
Anthony : The ISO certification functions as a platform to continuously gauge HR standards in an organisation. I was involved in setting the Quality Objectives for the Human Resources department. The main objective was to develop and enhance the competencies of employees. We wanted to create a positive and professional working environment that would increase productivity, teamwork, employee retention and enrich the organisational value. We had three performance index parameters. Firstly, comprehensive training for employees. We would send them to at least three training programmes after a year of training needs analysis. Secondly, 5% reduction in absenteeism. Lastly, fostering team building with activities, company trips and Annual Dinners.

HR Matters : How do you train the heads of business units within an organisation to be receptive about handling people matters? What do you focus on?
Anthony : I had an interesting case with an organisation that had many of its pregnant employees taking both medical and emergency leave -- it was a weekly pattern. This tended to happen every Monday or Friday. Consequently, productivity was low, performance was poor and others had to step up to complete the work. When I analysed the problem, I saw two issues. Firstly, there was a pattern to how leave was being taken. Secondly, the ladies were not fit physically to come into work due to morning sickness. So, I went about designing a session entitled “Pregnancy and Work Performance” for the heads of department. I wanted to acknowledge the concerns laid out by management while sympathising with the expectant mothers. One of the more interesting phenomena raised was that these mothers to be were forgetful- a common occurrence during pregnancy.

Therefore, I started with the basics, highlighting the symptoms of pregnancy and the process. I wanted to be clear as to what management could expect for the duration of the nine months as well as the six months following childbirth. I didn’t want symptoms like nausea, morning sickness and sleepless nights to be seen as ‘problems’. Although performance would be affected, the episodes had to be handled with a sense of compassion and respect. To manage this, we suggested measures to deal with this. Things like providing staff support, the expectant employees to regularly look into their to-do list, engage in monitoring progress and positive sessions that would show compassion and understanding.

HR Matters : What do you see as the top three issues one should consider when looking at Training Needs Analysis (TNA)?
Anthony : First and foremost, it’s the commitment and budget allocated by the employer before the TNA. It should be driven by management and aim at identifying employee strengths and weaknesses. Although I know that there are companies which focus far more on strengths instead. Secondly, you need to concentrate on the method for monitoring employee performance, whether it be performance appraisal, mentoring evaluation or observation. An organisation I helped used TNA to improve the employees’ writing skills. Thirdly, you should get a good training company that can raise improvement levels for these employees. With the organisation I mentioned above, I had proposed to management, the use of an established language centre where pre-assessment was conducted. A plan was laid out and discussed within the organisation. What we learnt at the training was then introduced at the workplace to bring improvements in all written communication across the board. We also encouraged staff to correct each other in the spirit of learning. It worked well.

Thivia Anthony is currently with TACTICS Asia Sdn Bhd as an HR and Administration Manager. Her duties range from Human Resource planning to managing employee compensation, and in particular, pay and rewards. She also conducts orientation programmes, administers the labour relations issues and conducts regular staff performance appraisals with the heads of department. This year, Thivia looks forward to implementing the strategic plans for the year.

Got a question for Thivia? Email editor@hr-matters.info.