Call for help.

Dear Reader

Sorry for the lack of updates recently.

I finally found some time off a busy schedule the past couple of months to pen (type?) down some thoughts, and I felt I needed to share what’s been on my mind.

Those people who know me personally would know that I used to be a consultant at an executive search agency. I probably represented the most mercenary of all creatures who walk the face of the corporate world, and I do admit, I was having a good time while I was still in the business, money-wise.

Up until some close friends of mine got retrenched, and then I realized I lacked the capacity to help them even though I thought I was a top biller in my industry, did it strike me that perhaps I had let the mercenary part of the business get the better of me. I could have been using my networks and contacts to be doing something more meaningful to help others, but I guess being selfish, and wanting to be comfortable myself, it didn’t occur to me that I could have used the skills that I picked up professionally to help those in need.

For the past months since March 2010 (last recorded activity here on Sponsor a Job), I joined another headhunting firm, and recently I decided to quit for good. It may sound crazy, but after 5 years of being a gun for hire, I decided to quit an industry where I was adept at and making good money—because honestly I am getting sick of what I was becoming.

I’ll be starting a new business venture in the media industry soon, and at the same time, I would like to make Sponsor a Job a more active venture than a passive cry for assistance.

Which brings me to my next point. I’m wondering if there are people out there who believe in what I hope to do and achieve with Sponsor a Job, and if anyone would be keen to join me on this little mission. Ultimately, I am a one-man band, but I think having more on board would mean we can make that little difference.

I am still pretty much a one-man crusade. I need more people to believe in what Sponsor a Job can do, and come on board to help me achieve the vision of helping those in need seek gainful employment—without asking anything in return.

Granted, I may not be able to garner a large team to help me on this, but even if it is just one or two individuals who are willing, I think it’s a good start, and I welcome anyone to join me in this.

If you are keen to be part of Sponsor a Job, please write me at roy.phang@yahoo.co.uk.

Everything else, I hope that 6 months down the road, Sponsor a Job can become a credible platform to help fellow Singaporeans in their quest for finding jobs in an increasingly crowded job market.

Sincerely,

R.P.

Global MNC seeking full-time admin assistant: http://www.jobsdb.com/SG/EN/Search/JobAdSingleDetail?jobsIdList=400003000022466

More complaints of unfair dismissals

SINGAPORE: There was a spike in the number of complaints to the authorities about unfair dismissals last year – particularly from pregnant women and executives.

The Ministry of Manpower (MOM) received 56 complaints involving pregnant employees, up from 26 cases in 2008 and 16 in 2007. Twelve of last year’s cases involved pregnant executives, up from just one the year before.

Minister Gan Kim Yong attributed the increase to various factors “including greater awareness of maternity protection” after the heightened publicity and enhancement of maternity leave benefits.

In all, 149 complaints of unfair dismissal were lodged, up from 101 the previous year and 118 in 2007, Mr Gan revealed in a written response to a question from Member of Parliament Lee Bee Wah.

Under the Employment Act, employees who feel they have been unfairly dismissed can appeal to MOM.

Most cases were mediated and “amicably resolved”, sometimes with a settlement payment, said Mr Gan. But 3 per cent of cases were found to be dismissals without just cause, and the companies had to compensate the employee.

As for executives, those dismissed on grounds related to pregnancy can appeal to MOM. For non-pregnancy related disputes, the Ministry provides mediation; about 270 executives seek its help each year.

“Close to half of such disputes were resolved amicably. The rest of the cases were withdrawn, or the employee sought settlement with their employer directly or through the civil courts, after consultation with the Ministry,” said Mr Gan.

With the executive ranks in the workforce swelling, MOM recently announced plans for a dispute resolution process to help junior- and mid-level professionals, managers and executives resolve common employment tiffs. – TODAY/sc

Job market picks up for fresh graduates: http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/1035386/1/.html

Fair enough, but if candidates are not realistic in their expectations, there’s no point talking about better opportunities. That said, would things be as optimistic for scores of experienced PMETs out there who still have problems finding work? With “competition” coming from university and polytechnic graduates (i.e. lower starting salaries), how would this affect the chances of qualified but older candidates from landing the same pool of available jobs in the market?

“They need to be a little bit more adaptable and flexible. They shouldn’t just look at the title and the pay but also look at the opportunity of where they can build a career.” – Dhiren Shantilal, SVP, Kelly Services.

Telesales professionals wanted: http://www.jobsdb.com/SG/EN/Job.asp?R=JDBS154790201

Dispute resolution process to be put in place for mid-level professionals

[Source: ChannelNewsAsia]

SINGAPORE: The Ministry of Manpower (MOM) will introduce an employment dispute resolution process to help junior and mid-level professionals, managers and executives (PMEs) earning up to S$4,500 and their employers address common employment issues.

These include salary arrears, retrenchment benefit payment and other employment-related contractual issues.

Manpower Minister Gan Kim Yong said on Tuesday this process will be in place next year.

Speaking at an industry conference, he said that as their representation in the workforce grows, more PMEs may face employment-related issues. They now form more than half of the local workforce, up from around 40 per cent a decade ago.

The dispute resolution process would primarily involve the use of mediation. It will ride on the existing tripartite partnership with the Singapore National Employers Federation (SNEF) and the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC).

Explaining the process, Mr Gan said MOM would lead the mediation session, with the support of SNEF and NTUC.

PMEs who are union members, but are not eligible for collective bargaining or limited representation, may make use of this proposed mediation process.

If the dispute cannot be resolved through mediation, the PME employee may pursue his claims through the civil courts. In addition, he may refer disputes on salary claims for adjudication by MOM.

Mr Gan said the setting up of this new dispute resolution process will help save PMEs and their employers the cost of going through the civil court route by giving them the opportunity to mediate at an early stage, with assistance from tripartite partners.

Through this tripartite partnership approach, MOM believes that many of such disputes could be resolved amicably.

The exact details are currently being worked out in consultation with the tripartite partners.

Employers say a quick way to resolve disputes is necessary.

“Salary disputes and retrenchment disputes, all these are money issues,” said Stephen Lee, president of SNEF. “If you can settle it quickly, and you can just get on with life, rather than have it protracted. And some of these sums are not really big enough for the PMEs to want to take it to court and hire a lawyer.”

The ministry is expecting the revised dispute resolution process to benefit more than 500,000, or half of all PMEs in the workforce as well as their employers.

Mr Gan also raised the issue of productivity. To address low productivity growth, he said companies must find innovative ways of delivering higher value products and services, redesign their systems for greater efficiency, invest in technology and train their workers.

CNA: Employment prospects set to become vibrant this year

SINGAPORE: According to the Hudson Report, hiring expectations have not been so high since 1998 when it first started issuing such reports.

Of the over 1,500 key employment decision makers in Asia surveyed, 51 per cent of bosses expect more hiring to take place in the first quarter of this year.

This is quite a contrast indeed from the previous quarter when the figure was 34 per cent.

Last year, employees suffered pay cuts and restructuring seemed to be the order of the day. It was even worse for graduates entering the workforce for the first time.

But now, besides better hiring prospects, employees can expect more money as well. Respondents in most industries expect to pay higher salaries to attract talent. In fact, only eight per cent said they will not be increasing wages.

According to the survey, most are planning to give out much higher bonus payments this year. In fact, about 74 per cent of them plan to pay discretionary year-end bonuses for 2009.

Even though the overall mood seems buoyant, some analysts remain cautious.

Jimmy Koh, UOB economist, said: “It is recovering and it is normalising – even the expectations of hiring is a normalisation process, but it will take a while because 70 per cent of global GDP is still struggling.”

David Ang, executive director, Singapore Human Resource Institute, said: “You’ll probably get these people on contract basis, on part-time basis, on project basis and so on.

“So, while there’s increased hiring, I think one also needs to see in what way these are the permanent employment opportunity vis-a-vis other types of employment opportunities.”

The survey said hiring expectations are very high for the banking and financial sector. Another sector reflecting major expectations of job opportunities is the media, advertising and public relations industry. – CNA/vm

Under-employment among older PMETs becoming an uptrend in Singapore

Source: ChannelNewsAsia

SINGAPORE: Singapore’s labour movement said tackling the issue of under-employed workers will be a big challenge in the coming year.

It said under-employment is becoming more pertinent among older Professionals, Managers, Executives and Technicians also known as (PMETs).

And efforts must be put in place to help them get jobs suited to their skills and qualifications.

PMETs were the hardest hit during the economic downturn.

Many, like those in the financial sector, were left jobless and the labour movement said they had to settle for whatever job they could get to make ends meet.

But while this brings down unemployment levels, the issue of under-employment has been on the uptrend.

Halimah Yacob, Deputy Secretary-General, NTUC, said: “He may be very qualified, very skilled, but the jobs that he wants to do and is willing to do is not available.

“He ends up doing a job that does not make full capacity, productive use of his capabilities. It also involves the case where jobs are not paying them the kind of salary or earning that they feel is commensurate with their qualifications and skills.”

Madam Halimah said she’s seen many cases where middle-aged degree-holders who lost jobs during the downturn become taxi drivers.

She said such under-employment is unavoidable as with slow economic growth, job opportunities are limited.

But as the economy recovers, the labour movement will offer targeted help to under-employed workers.

Mdm Halimah said: “We recognise that the person cannot remain underemployed in perpetuity because that is going to be very frustrating and demoralising. That is where we then need to focus help to help him to transit so that he can make better use of his skills and capabilities to move to other sectors and to retrain them and move to other sectors that require their skills and qualifications.

“Of course it may not be easy because some of them may be working in one sector for so many years. So a re-tuning is needed to acquire other skills to move to other sectors.”

The labour movement will work on job-matching assistance and training courses and Madam Halimah said workers must also actively find out more about job opportunities relevant to them. – CNA/vm

We do know for a fact that PMETs were the hardest hit in the recent economic downturn– in my line of work, I come across many PMETs who have been unemployed for up to 18 months, falling into the category of the chronic unemployed.

While efforts are being made on the part of the government, particularly with training initiatives, the fact remains that the employability of PMETs in the coming year and beyond have more to do with economic outlook and confidence more than the skills and competencies of the individual: if companies are still not optimistic in their hiring, PMETs will continue to face challenges in terms of finding and securing new jobs.

Granted, the economic outlook according to the folks in the financial sector is optimistic for 2010, but until such optimism is translated into expanding productive capabilities, particularly in the manufacturing and technology sectors, I’m not so sure if this necessarily means a lowering of the unemployment rate next year.

For now, we can only hope for the best. While the partying goes on tonight to mark the start of 2010, let us all say a little prayer in our hearts that things will indeed be better, and may those who found the going tough in 2008 and 2009 find some glimmer of hope…and a new job.

 

Labour movement gears up to go on the offensive to cut unemployment in 2010

Source: ChannelNewsAsia

SINGAPORE: It’s been a tough year on the jobs front as the global recession took its toll on Singapore’s economy.

But after a year of defensive moves designed to save jobs and prevent mass retrenchments, the labour movement is set to go on the offence next year.

It aims to reduce unemployment to below three per cent in 2010 and get to full employment as soon as possible.

Currently the unemployment rate in the third quarter of 2009 stands at 3.4 per cent.

Labour Chief Lim Swee Say said that Singapore has still performed comparably better than other parts of the world as it cut costs to save jobs and introduced schemes like Jobs Credit and Spur training.

Through the Employment and Employability Institute, about three in five jobseekers, or about 16,000, were placed in jobs and of these more than 60 per cent moved across industries.

Looking forward to the end of the year, the labour movement is hopeful that retrenchment figures will round up at 20,000 which is lower then the figures for the two previous downturns of 26,000 in 2001 and almost 30,000 in 1998.

Going forward, the labour movement also hopes to focus on three areas to boost employment next year, including among professionals, managers, executives and technicians or PMETs.

Mr Lim said: “At the end of the day, we hope re-employment rate in Singapore can be further increased, the structural employment can be further reduced and under-employment among the middle aged PMETs can be further avoided through re-skilling, re-training.”

One issue next year for firms used to getting help in keeping jobs is the withdrawal of the Jobs Credit scheme by June.

Mr Lim said the scheme is not a sustainable long-term solution and that businesses need to transform themselves to become more productive.

Still, he was hopeful that the Economic Strategies Committee or ESC report, due next month, would offer targetted help.

He added: “In the case of Jobs Credit, it applies to all companies big and small, all industries. In the case of ESC, we will expect that some of the incentive programmes will be targeted at companies that are committed to upgrade their abilities, to expand capacity.”

The Jobs Credit Scheme had previously been criticised as being too blunt a tool.

The Spur training scheme though, will remain in place for the year as Mr Lim said the bottleneck for next year is more likely to be skills development rather than job creation. – CNA/vm

42,000 unemployed find jobs through Spur

[Source: MyPaper, 23 Dec 2009]

THE report card for the Singapore Workforce Development Agency’s (WDA) Skills Programme for Upgrading and Resilience (Spur) is out.

The programme has trained more people than it aimed to,found jobs for many trainees who were unemployed, and saved countless others from being retrenched.

Started in November last year, the programme has enrolled 264,000 workers in its various training courses, exceeding the target of 220,000.

The programme also helped about 42,000 of them – unemployed citizens and permanent residents – find jobs, mainly in the food-and-beverage, cleaning, wholesale and retail-trade, manufacturing, and security sectors.

About seven in 10 were rank-and-file workers with up to secondary education. Six in 10 were aged 40 and above. In addition, more than 2,770 others were given traineeships in more than 390 firms, under a government-funded Professional Skills Programme Traineeship scheme launched in May this year.