The Snitch

The economy may be in the doldrums but if you’ve been doing more than your usual job scope, you’re likely itching for a better pay to commensurate the effort you’ve been putting in. The question is how?

If your company is still mindful of the fragile economic conditions or has gone through budget cuts, you do have to play your cards right without getting backslash from your manager.

Speaking from a boss’ perspective, Roy Magee, regional vice president for AchieveGlobal Greater China & Singapore, gives Human Resources an insight into when’s the best time to approach bosses for the money talk.

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How can you stay afloat when your financial situation is sinking?

While a layoff may be our greatest fear in this recession, a pay cut comes close to second. In a survey conducted by Hewitt in April this year, 37% of 53 companies in Singapore say they have implemented a recruitment freeze, and another 33% say they have plans to do so in the May-July period. Although 66% of overall companies  reported no layoffs, the service sector saw 18.2%  looking to retrench staff.

That said, a pay cut, unpaid furlough, or diminished working hours can be a difficult adjustment. In an article on Money Watch, Richard Sine suggests four steps to minimise the effects of a pay cut.

Step One: Get the full story

At the news of a pay cut, it is important to get past the emotions and understand what your employer is actually offering so you can plan ahead. Bosses often don’t make things clear, and it is best for you to review the company’s HR policies or ask the HR department about the possible effects a pay cut has on your benefits. Perks like health insurance, severance packages and bonuses are calculated based on salary and/or work hours, which a pay slash or work reduction may eliminate. It is hence important to fully understand what a pay cut means.

Step Two: Know your rights

Make sure your boss is treating you fairly. There is always a possibility that a manager is using the recession as an excuse to penalise certain workers unfairly or even illegally. If you suspect discrimination, bring it up to the company’s HR department before taking it out of the company.

Step Three: Try to negotiate something in return

Bosses are usually forced to cut your hours or pay because they have little choice. They still want you to remain loyal and productive. Hence, it may be a good time to negotiate for something in return, such as a more flexible work schedule, discounts on company products or services, or allowing you to retain some of the benefits you were set to lose. Approach your boss about this. If it fails, consider banding together with some colleagues for more heft.

Step Four: Adjust your finances

A pay cut may be temporary, but depending on the economy and the company’s fortune, it may be a long time. It is thus important to make adjustments to your finances. Sine provides a list of strategies for consideration:

* Divide all your expenses into “mandatory” and “discretionary.” Then, reduce your discretionary spending and get an idea of how long you can continue paying your mandatory expenses with your reduced salary.

* Increase your savings cushion to prepare for the possibility of a layoff.

* Maintain your access to credit. Make sure you occasionally use each of your credit cards so they don’t get closed due to inactivity. But pay the balance in full!

* To make up for your lost spending power, take advantage of every last benefit your employer offers, such as transit reimbursements, flexible spending accounts for health or childcare, and company-sponsored discounts.

Related article: Penny pinching tips for the unemployed

With most industries adversely affected by the current economic slowdown in 2009, will there even be salary increments for us this year? If there are, how much should we be expecting?

Samir Bedi, practice lead of rewards for Hewitt Associates, reveals his prediction for the salary increment projections in Q2 in the video below. But before that, Bedi helps Human Resources retrace the salary increment figures  since the downturn began till the end of first quarter this year.

He also gave an insight to some of the measures compensation and benefits practitioners across various industries in Singapore will be implementing as the economy tightens up.

Nothing like knowing the salary increment projections for the second quarter of the year to keep you motivated at work, eh?

Do you dare to bare your company's C&B secrets?

Money money money! It’s something we all work for, yet it’s considered to be a taboo conversation topic. In our latest issue of Human Resources magazine, we focus on issues related to compensation & benefits. How do companies benchmark wages? When do you reward someone with a higher salary?

In this new issue, you will find:

• Our cover story: Compensation secrets unveiled.
• OCBC Bank tells about how its flex-plan has worked for them.
• What are some of the executive compensation tools available in the market?
• Gemalto’s formula for employee innovation.
• Tata Consultancy Services’ CEO, S. Ramadorai, talks about talent management.
• What’s the difference between a manager and a coach?
• When do you know if your company has gone crazy with its cost-cutting measures? When staff appreciation lunches now come with a price. You pay for what you order.

In order to tighten their belts, some companies are adopting a blanket, across-the-board wage cuts for all employees. But this could end up chasing your top talent away, says CEO of coaching company Thought Perfect,  Pratap Nambiar.

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Is your employer brand taking a beating from competitors?

Ah, it’s the $1,000,000 question: What is it that Singapore employees want?

In a survey conducted by B2B branding specialist StrategiCom and Singapore National Employers Federation, it sought to understand what key employer brand attributes drive employee attraction and retention. (See our original story here.)

Here’s the full breakdown of the survey answers.

5 most important attributes to attract employees

(Ranked in order of importance)

• Allows a lot of freedom to work on one’s own initiative
• Recognition and appreciation of employees work
• Opportunity for long-term career progression
• Attractive overall compensation and benefit package
• Training and development

5 most important attributes to retain staff

(Ranked in order of importance)

• Attractive overall compensation and benefit package
• Recognition and appreciation of employees work
• Job security
• Opportunity for long-term career progression
• Training and development

5 least important attributes to attract employees

(Ranked from least important)

• Dressing
• Conservative working environment
• Internationally diverse mix of colleagues
• Humanitarian organisation
• Only recruiting the best

5 least important attributes to retain staff

(Ranked from least important)

• Dressing
• Accessible location
• Employees with varying background
• Internationally diverse mix of colleagues
• Use your degree skills

It’s interesting how an attractive C&B package only ranks as number 4 to a potential employee, but later becomes the number 1 retention attribute. And from these results, it’s clear that recognition and saying ‘thank you’ is a simply but surefire way of both attracting and retaining employees.

I’m also surprised at how the survey respondents say a ‘accessible location’ do not matter much to employees — because I’ve definitely heard complaints about companies being located too far away from work before. And with ‘humanitarian organisation’  not attractive a trait for attracting employees – does this mean companies don’t really need to perform acts of corporate social responsibility to attract candidates?

What do you think? Do these results tally with your company’s employee value proposition?

At the Robert Walters media session yesterday, the senior management team shared with us some of the local and global highlights shared in the presentation by Andrea Ross, managing director of Robert Walters, Singapore.

Locally, our financial services are experiencing recruitment freezes, especially within operations and finance. The areas of growth are within compliance credit and audit. The revenue generating sales roles are also more prominent within the oil and gas FMCG sectors when it comes to sales and marketing. The good news is that job opportunities in finance within the commerce industry continue to grow, showing no signs of slowing down.

Ross also touched on the general outlook for Singapore, which are as follows:

Globally, professionals are moving from financial services into less volatile commercial and public sectors. Demand for contract staff has also increased amid the headcount freezes and redundancies. Also, because of a smaller discrepancies when it comes to quality of skills, employers are able to select from a larger pool of quality candidates.

HR puts companies on massive diet

Employees are going to cry in their nonexistent coffee cups soon if the recession keeps up its relentless pace as more HR practitioners look to scrap off more staff perks this year.

Things are definitely not looking up for corporate folks these days. A recent CareerBuilder.com survey of more than 3,000 employers and HR professionals reveals 38% of them will make administrative cuts to perks such as company social events and corporate travel sometime this year.  No more cushy flights or free flowing champagne for you then.

Some employers in Singapore are already taking a harder cost cutting stance as overheard during the recent Conference for Fair Employment Practices. “I’m going to cut everything. [Like] D&D this year, I’m going to cut the dance. And the dinner.”

Employees should also start loading up on their vitamins or a fitness regime as healthcare benefits take a backseat this year for a quarter of employers polled. Likewise, charity will remain at home this recession as 21% plan to cut or reduce spending on philanthropic activities. Same goes for pantry offerings and incentive trips, say 34% and 28% of respondents respectively.

But there is tiny ray of joy still even if companies are curbing expenses in these areas. Rosemary Haefner, vice president of human resources for CareerBuilder.com, says companies are nevertheless “keeping in mind the importance of retaining their top talent”.

“We see companies offering more flexible work arrangements and placing an increased emphasis on employee recognition programmes to help maintain job satisfaction levels within their organisations,” she adds. Other special recession perks include increased telecommuting, public transportation discounts, compressed workweeks and increased mileage reimbursement rates. (Click here for cheap employee perks you can implement now!)

Are you impressed or depressed by HR right now? Feel free to let us know if the gloom has set in for you in your company in the comments below.

Hang on, there is more to this. Read more on the craziest, and some would say drastically hilarious, cost-cutting measures in Human Resources magazine’s newest column by The Daily Grimer in the upcoming March issue.

We’ve been hearing all the terrible news in lieu with the economic downturn but thankfully, a survey by Hay Group has unearthed statistics that should inject a fresh dose of hope that things are really not all bad.

More than 2/3 of Singapore companies surveyed have decided not to cut back on 2008’s bonuses, incentives and profit sharing. Sixty-five percent of respondents are also on track in meeting their 2008 targets and best of all, they are paying their high performers 60% more in base salary increases than to their other employees.

This leads to the question – what about the bulk of us who aren’t top performers?

The survey determined that primary concerns of organisations include retaining and recruiting top talent and employees with critical skills. This is simply because top performers make a much bigger impact to the companies as a whole, in comparison to the average employee. Companies cannot afford and do not want to lose top performers in any way, be it physically (get poached, resigned) or mentally (becoming demotivated and disengaged).

Hence, while the number of companies which has decided to freeze or decrease salaries has actually doubled from 41% to 83.4% in the past eight months, amount payable for bonuses will remain untouched for now.

According to Christian Vo Phuoc, country manager for Hay Group’s Reward Information Services Singapore, companies are generally wary about cutting incentives and bonuses as it is a reward to employees for their past year’s performance. As bonuses are already accrued for during the year, Vo Phuoc says, “It is more financially prudent for companies to pay out bonuses than salary increases which will immediately impact next year’s bottom-line.”

Most importantly, employees who have consistently performed well should not fret as more companies in Singapore are increasing their investments to retain their high-performing employees. The year 2009 will be all about performance management, as companies begin to clearly define the line between top and poor performers.