Time

It has been a while since i last posted anything here.

I have gone through a time where i kept telling myself that I am too occupied till i do not have anytime for myself. I realize now that I was not entirely right.

I have came to my senses in reminding myself that time is mine to plan. Knowing the fact time will not wait for you, it seems very clear that I have to managed my time well enough to facilitate its usage accordingly and appropriately.

There is no perfection in life clearly. A structured and good time planning could be a better means in making life more meaningful. As a person once said to me rightfully 'For Things To Change I Must Change First'

Here i urge myself, my family and friends to always remind ourself appreciate every single moment in time and get the best out of it...

 

People Model Experience

Recently I had the opportunity to attend a leadership seminar held in a nice district in Southern France from May 10 - 13, 2011. A long and tiring journey of 18 hours in total from Malaysia. That doesn't pull away even a bit the excitement and anticipation of exploring a foreign land.

I made a quick trip to Nice with 2 comrades that I met at the airport on the the day i touched down in the wonderful land of Nice. What I could say in simple words is "Nice is NICE". A quiet peaceful serenity with pleasant view and people.

A wonderful and awesome experience indeed as I had the opportunity to meet representatives from various parts of the world. An eye opener and a good avenue to exchange and share views. A great refresher from great speakers on topics that is utmost important to all being who appreciates people as the asset of an organization.

Maybe I'll share more in my next post.

Vacancy - Employee Relation & Communication Executive

There is a vacancy for Employee Relation & Communication Executive.
* Position will be based in Subang Jaya.
* Candidate should have at least 3-4 years in ER / IR.
* Good communication skills.
* Independent & strong interpersonal skills.
* Candidate to possess and able to demonstrate a positive and commendable attitude.
* Possess own transport and mobile.

Interested candidate can drop their CV in MS Word (doc) format to hairuzz06@gmail.com or azha_is@yahoo.com.

Motivational Quotes

At times when we think we are down in a slump or having tough situation, thinak again...


Whether you think you can or whether you think you can't, you're right. - Henry Ford

Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does. - William James

A consistent man believes in destiny, a capricious man in chance - Benjamin Disraeli

I am not discouraged, because every wrong attempt discarded is another step forward – Thomas Edison

Things do not change; we change – Henry David Thoreau

Ask and you will receive. Seek and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you – unknown

Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any one thing. – Abraham Lincoln

Experience is not what happens to a man; it is what a man does with what happens to him – Aldous Huxley

A person is a success if they get up in the morning and gets to bed at night and in between does what he wants to do. - Bob Dylan

Life is either a daring adventure or nothing – Helen Keller

To think is easy. To act is hard. But the hardest thing in the world is to act in accordance with your thinking. - Goethe

To guarantee success, act as if it were impossible to fail. - Dorothea Brande

Foreign worker limit affects locals, says Tun Mahathir

KUALA LUMPUR, May 28 — The Najib administration’s decision to restrict the entry of foreign workers has also affected job opportunities for Malaysians, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said today.The former prime minister said the absence of low-skilled foreign workers has impacted the manufacturing industry, resulting in locals losing their jobs.He said he has been approached by businesses seeking for the restriction to be eased.“A Japanese corporation has been facing problem because foreign workers are hired to do jobs that do not require skills, [are] lowly paid and do not attract locals,” said Dr Mahathir in a blog post last night.“Our workers work in the higher level to process the work done by the workers below them. When there are no lower level workers, initial works cannot be done,” he added.Dr Mahathir said such a scenario would cause businesses to shut.“When they do this, Malaysians will also lose their source of income. The same problem can be seen in Langkawi, too. Restaurants and duty-free shops do not have workers anymore,” said Dr Mahathir.“I believe Malaysians are not that cruel to let businesses and local workers to suffer losses just because they don’t like to see foreign workers here,” he said.Early last year, the government started banning the hiring of foreign workers in the manufacturing and service sectors, in a move to prevent locals from being laid-off.Malaysia now has approximately 1.9 million foreign workers spread across sectors such as manufacturing (39 per cent), construction (19 per cent), plantation (14 per cent), housemaids (12 per cent), services (10 per cent), and with the rest in agriculture.The contributing countries by rank are: Indonesia (50.9 per cent), Bangladesh (17.4 per cent), Nepal (9.7 per cent), Myanmar (7.8 per cent), India (6.3 per cent), and the rest from Vietnam.Last month, Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein had announced that the government plans to reduce the number of foreign workers to 1.5 million in three years.

Going against the grain

CULTURE CUL DE SAC
By JACQUELINE PEREIRA

Speaking your mind nowadays can have dire consquences.

PERSONAL view” as a meaningful phrase, in the sense of “he/she was merely expressing a personal view” has ceased to exist. Perhaps it should be erased from the English lexicon, since we appear to have reached the stage where everyone has the capacity to know everything about you and what you really think. Whether you want them to or not.

In the latest issue of New York Magazine, jailed fraudster Bernard L. Madoff’s similarly incarcerated mates have revealed what the vilified Ponzi scheme perpretator is like in prison. The profile, which makes for compelling reading, is based solely on the writer’s interviews with Madoff’s cell-mates and lawyers. We are left to wonder what the man himself, convicted of swindling US$65bil (RM$271bil) from his investors, said.

After reading Madoff, Free at Last, we know what the seemingly unrepentant culprit thinks about his victims. In short, he doesn’t give a hoot about any of them. Instead, Madoff labels them greedy and selfish, and even insinuates that his victims deserved everything they got. He revealed to his cell-mates that the casualties of his con were throwing their money, consistently and voraciously, at him. Even when he did not want to, they kept insisting that he make more money for them.

Because of Bernie’s celebrity status in prison, his fellow inmates, most of whom evidently admire him and his accomplishments, freely divulged details that he had no idea were slated for publication. He was, it seems, merely stating his opinions when questioned.

Though many may deride his views, Madoff, 71, and currently serving his 150-year sentence, is telling it like it is, unafraid of speaking his mind. And he does have a valid point. The state of the world is the direct result of unbridled rapacity for money and power.

In another domain, just a few days ago, 89-year-old veteran White House reporter Helen Thomas was forced to resign. The columnist for Hearst News Service left her job because she was caught on camera saying what she thought.

Thomas’ commentary on an online news service, saying that it was time for the Israelis to leave Palestine and go back to Poland or Germany, resulted in an immediate denunciation of her statement. What should have been merely an expression of opinion sparked a controversy that led to her resignation, despite her profuse apologies.

The White House called her remarks offensive and reprehensible, and her detractors went into anti-Semitic accusatory mode. Her credibility as a reporter was questioned, as well as her ability to remain unbiased in her journalistic duties.

Nevertheless, Thomas has some support, with her defenders calling for respect of the much-vaunted American principle of freedom of speech. After all, this was not the first time she had spoken out in a career that covered seven decades and 10 United States presidents.

In the light of her calling George W. Bush the worst president in US history, and her constantly pushing for answers from evasive spokespersons, Thomas’ latest comments should not have been surprising. She is known to be persistent in her pursuit of the truth. And she does not suffer fools gladly. Just two years ago, she even referred to the White House press corps as being in a collective coma.

What she did was merely to state what many people think. The difference was that she was brave enough to say it, and willing to suffer the consequences.

Madoff and Thomas are worlds apart, but they find common ground not only in the licence that their advanced years offers but, more importantly, in the way their words challenge us to re-think views that we may hold on issues of public concern.

In a frequently biased world in which prejudice and political correctness go hand-in-hand with money and power, that is something we clearly need to nurture.

At the same time, though, the private domain is becoming public property, with some even claiming that, in an increasingly wired world, privacy is an outmoded concept. Thinking before speaking is imperative. No matter what your convictions – 150 years in Madoff’s case, or free speech for Helen Thomas – may be.

Source: The Star, Sunday, June 13, 2010

Excelling in public service delivery

Human capital is the key to public service enhancement. It is people, systems and processes that will determine effectiveness, and ultimately, private sector competitiveness

THE Prime Minister has sounded his clarion call. The Government will put people’s interest first.

It will deliver services that not only meet the needs of the public but also that of businesses.

The public service will fortify its strategic partnership with the private sector to enhance the global competitiveness of the nation.

A “whole-of-government” approach will be adopted to streamline service delivery, focus on national priorities and deal with issues holistically.

To achieve this, the Prime Minister has set in place the Government Transformation Programme comprising six key national result areas and key performance indicators for ministers.

He has also instituted economic transformation through the New Economic Model and the 10th Malaysia Plan.

Both the transformation programmes advocate the strengthening of the public service delivery mechanism.

Human capital is the key to public service enhancement.

It is people, and the systems and processes that will determine public service effectiveness and, ultimately, private sector competitiveness.

Indeed, the New Economic Model advocates the transformation of public human resource management (HR) to ensure a better fit betwe en skills and job requirements.

Transformation of HR requires HR managers to shift their focus from operational efficiency to results of their operations.

Such a shift will require them to devote half their time to strategic issues in HR.

HR is strategic when its function is aligned to business strategy, when talent management – recruitment, emplacement and career development – is based on competency requirements now and for the future.

Strategic HR will forge a shared focus on what the strategy of the organisation, and that of HR, should be.

Such a focus is a pre-requisite to expedite crucial changes for better public service delivery.

Strategic HR will enable the organisation to generate and translate ideas into impact.

It will embed leaders throughout the organisation to deliver results well.

And it will help retain public confidence in the public service. A number of initiatives is under way to transform HR in the service.

Given that it knows the bench strength – employee numbers, skills and capacity – HR now partners with line management to reset the strategic direction.

This resetting is to ensure the organisation serves the larger goals of the nation. People cannot operate in a vacuum.

They require enablers to produce the services and outcomes required of them. Enablers include structures, establishment and schemes of service, resources, information capital, systems and processes.

These combine with human capital to ensure organisational capacity.

Systems and processes, as well as rules and regulations, are being simplified so bureaucracy does not stand in the way of superior service delivery.

Technology – chiefly, the Human Resource Information System – is being harnessed to automate manual processes so that HR managers are spared time to focus more on strategies, such as advising line managers on how service delivery can be improved.

Schemes of service that describe the jobs to be done and the corresponding remuneration package are constantly revised to attract and retain talent.

As part of the transformation process, there is a better management of talent in the public service.

Government sponsorship programmes and a robust system of selection – through assessment centres, psychometric testing and professional interviews – ensure the right talent gets into the service.

Talent development, through continuous competency-based training, is rigorously planned and implemented in line with the National Training Policy and with the need to upgrade critical skills required for public service delivery.

Leadership for the future will require leadership to create value through greater focus on creativity and innovation in service delivery.

The public service is growing leaders who are able to seize emerging trends for better service delivery. Leadership development will increasingly take on this tack so that a culture of innovation is embedded throughout the public service.

Performance management through KPIs is another HR practice to instill a culture of performance.

Cash incentives are given for high performance. And, for talent that is not the proper fit, exit policies are being reviewed so there is no stigma in leaving prematurely and the individual is reasonably compensated. A good foundation has been laid.

There is still much to do. The public service has raised the bar on thinking, creativity and innovation for better performance.

HR has to make that culture a reality.

The public service has always risen to a challenge; the challenge of embedding a culture of innovation will be no except ion.

Source: The Star, Saturday, June 12, 2010