The Snitch

With Singapore’s lagging labour productivity affecting the country’s competitiveness, how can companies and unions seek to raise employee productivity? How about doing it in a song?

The latest music video produced by Singapore’s Food Drinks And Allied Workers’ Union and “dedicated to NTUC” pretty much butchers The Beatles’s song, Oh-bla-di, Oh-bla-da.

Of course, after watching this video several times, I still have no idea how the Food Drinks and Allied Workers’ Union aims to increase employee productivity and beat foreign competition – other than doing things “cheaper, better, faster”.

Can Singapore really beat other low-cost Asian countries on cost? I don’t think so.

This isn’t the first song montage to be made about improving the labour workforce in Singapore. Remember the NTUC performance led by NTUC Labour Chief Lim Swee Say just earlier this year on how companies can survive the recession without having to retrench its employees?

Of course, my all-time favourite video still has to be the rap video produced by the Ministry Development Authority in 2007. Check out the high production values, the bling-bling and snazzy CGI! One guy is even decked out in gangster garb!

Uniquely Singapore indeed!

In order to thrive in the workplace, some employees feel the need to don a more serious persona and lose their sense of humour. However, Lenny Ravich, optimism guru at Ha-p.com says using humour at work can help relieve stress and encourage creative problem-solving.

To find out the benefits of using humour at work, watch the short video below.

As employees get promoted to managerial positions on their technical capabilities, these young and inexperienced managers often lack effective listening and coaching skills.

As a result, employees under the watch of the young manager may become disengaged and eventually leave the company, says David Wee,  managing director for Lee Hecht Harrison South East Asia.

So what are some of the common pitfalls of young managers and how can companies train and develop this group of people? David Wee shares his thoughts.

For Australian ad creatives Shane Dawson and Ben Birchall, getting booted from their their company after it lost a key account meant starting a whole new project about their unemployed status.

Armed with a website, The Sack, the two men document their daily lives of the unemployed. Some of the video content include montages of the guys clearing out their desks at work, going for job interviews, and working on their portfolios.

They have even managed to garner a fair bit of media interest in their project – which could certainly help in landing their next job.

As far as creative job searches go, this one definitely comes up tops.

(Via The Pitch)

With the economy on the recovery, Ana Dutra, CEO of leadership & talent consulting for Korn/Ferry International says companies should capitalise on talent opportunities in the market now.

In an external market, Durta says companies can take this opportunity to create new and strategic positions around talent such as ones that focus on talent management.

“Internally we see more focus on talent retention and development. And for the ‘rock stars’ that are hidden throughout large workforces, it is a huge opportunity for them to demonstrate their high potential and move faster in the career ladders,” Dutra adds.

In this video, Dutra also shares her thoughts on some strategies HR practitioners can adopt in order to prepare for the recovery.

Companies often adopt flexible workforce practices in order to better manage their people and teams more effectively, says Lynne Ng, regional director for Adecco South East Asia.

For instance, for companies with cyclical needs (such as warehousing, sales and promotions), having a complementary workforce helps manage work more effectively without being saddled with headcount costs.

Implementing such practices also allows for companies to retain talent (such as young mothers) who might otherwise quit working altogether.

Learn more about workforce flexibility in this four-minute video as Ng lists out its pros and cons.

While not all companies will see a need to outsource their HR function, many do so because of cost-savings, compliance issues or the need to free up HR for more strategic work.

Jim Konieczny, president of HR BPO services for Hewitt Associates shares his thoughts on why companies choose to outsource their HR function and what are some of the common pitfalls in doing so as well as how they can be avoided.

A great service culture is one where employees not only create value for their customers, but also strive to make work better and easier for the rest of their colleagues.

According to Ron Kaufman, founder of UP Your Service! College, companies need to adopt a great service culture such as this to stay competitive, keep their current customers and engage their internal employees.

“There is an increased profitability, higher margins, greater market share, more loyal customers that come to organisations that can build and maintain this superior service culture,” he adds.

In this three-and-a-half minute video, Kaufman talks about the benefits of a service culture and how HR can help create and nurture a service culture within their organisation.

Have trouble loading the video? Why not check your company or computer’s firewall settings to make sure that Youtube videos can be streamed on your computer.

Negativity can be infectious and have a draining effect on the morale in the workplace. Is there any way you can manage or even change the attitudes of negative employees?

Alan Fairweather, associate consultant of d’Oz International, believes so. In the video interview, Fairweather has a few suggestions for managers who find themselves having to deal with employees who relish seeing the glass half full.