What would I do if today I were retired?

I just had an interesting conversation with my colleague. He had been working for 26 years and next year he will retire. Yes, he will reach the age of 56. Here 56 years old is the limit for someone to work, the beginning of pension moment.

My colleague was talking about his golden moment and when he came to the part of planning after he retires, he kind of looks sad. Though he tried to say something positive, something to elevate his mood, the look in his eyes could not lie. I can feel that he is not “ready” to retire. He still wants to work, he still has some energy to go to the office in the morning and goes back home in the afternoon. He feels that although he is 56 years old he is physically and mentally powerful to work.

I have seen some people who are clueless on the early days after they retired. They do not know what to do. They used to be busy with things. Then they have nothing to do. It is going to be more complicated if the person was in the high rank position. Being retired, he no longer has any power he used to have. If he cannot handle it, he will suffer post power syndrome.

Companies/organizations are responsible for the welfare of their employees. They give salary and provide fringe benefits. However, after the employees are retired, how responsible is the organizations for prosperity of their employees. Pension plan might be one solution. Sadly not all organizations are financially healthy to provide such benefit. 

Some organization initiated to conduct some training especially given to those who will retire. They hold entrepreneurship training with a hope that the employees are still able to be on their own and being financially healthy.

I really appreciate such idea. And I think we need more training in order to explore more on the potentials. 

And it got me to think: if today I were retired, what would I do? Would I be ready? Could I still make enough money? And what would I do to earn some money? Well, I have to prepare from now. And I think everyone should also prepare long before they are retired. Last but not least, after I am retired from working for the Ministry of Education and Culture, Republic of Indonesia, I will continue to teach at college and of course I will write! Wish me luck :)

Standard Operating Procedure: The Overview

The bureaucracy reform held by my office, the Ministry of Culture and Education, Republic of Indonesia intended to restructure the whole systems: human resources, organizational, performance accountability, law and regulations, ICT, and educational substances.

 

Everybody in the organization must understand how the systems work. They need to know how the process starts and ends. Therefore the function of clear and visible SOP is a must. 

Currently the ministry is rearranging all the SOPs in the organization. Once they are settled, the SOPs will be disseminated. First thing first, what is SOP? And how does SOP help to ensure the process run smoothly? Let’s discuss now.

A Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) is a set of written instructions that document a routine or repetitive activity followed by an organization.  The development and use of SOPs are an integral part of a successful quality system as it provides individuals with the information to perform a job properly, and facilitates consistency in the quality and integrity of a product or end-result.  The term “SOP” may not always be appropriate and terms such as protocols, instructions, worksheets, and laboratory operating procedures may also be used.  

SOPs describe both technical and fundamental programmatic operational elements of an organization that would be managed under a work plan or a Quality Assurance (QA) of the Project Plan. 

SOPs detail the regularly recurring work processes that are to be conducted or followed within an organization.  They document the way activities are to be performed to facilitate consistent conformance to technical and quality system requirements and to support data quality.  

They may describe, for example, fundamental programmatic actions and technical actions such as analytical processes, and processes for maintaining, calibrating, and using equipment.  SOPs are intended to be specific to the organization or facility whose activities are described and assist that organization to maintain their quality control and quality assurance processes and ensure compliance with governmental regulations.

If not written correctly, SOPs are of limited value.  In addition, the best written SOPs will fail if they are not followed.  Therefore, the use of SOPs needs to be reviewed and re-enforced by management, preferably the direct supervisor.  Current copies of the SOPs also need to be readily accessible for reference in the work areas of those individuals actually performing the activity, either in hard copy or electronic format, otherwise SOPs serve little purpose.   

Job Rotation

The Bureaucracy Reform held by the Ministry of Education and Culture, Republic of Indonesia has eight agendas; one of them is to reform the system of HRD. The purpose of such agenda is to build personnel who have integrity and to be qualified, professional, modern, and prosperous personnel. 

The agenda is undergone by doing job analysis and job rotation. The job analysis is discussed earlier, and this posting I’d like to talk about the job rotation.

Job rotation is considered as an effective tool in applying the Strategic Human Resource Management. In a nutshell, job rotation is about settling employees at the right place where they can produce their maximum results.

Finding the right person at the right place can be done by doing an open recruitment, however doing it requires lots of time, energy, and not to mention, money. Finding the most suitable people and shifting them to take on responsibilities of a higher level is a tough task. Job rotation has proved to be an effective method to find the immediate replacement of a high-worth employee within the organization. Job rotation helps HR managers determine who can be replaced by whom and create a suitable and beneficial fit.

Job rotation has some benefits:

1.     To help managers explore the hidden talent;

2.     To help individuals explore their interests;

3.     To identify knowledge, skills, and attitude;

4.     To motivate employees to deal with new challenges;

5.     To increase satisfaction and to decrease attrition rate;

6.     To help align competencies with requirements.

Job rotation at Ministry of Education and Culture, Republic of Indonesia

Earlier in 2011, the ministry had made structural adjustment inside the organization. The echelon personnel were distributed to other departments inside the ministry. These job rotations along with the adjustment of the organizational structure were meant to create an effective and efficient organization. And the purpose of the job rotation is an alternative to reduce the boredom caused due to repetitiveness of tasks and revive their willingness to handle a job and challenges involved in it with same excitement and enthusiasm.

Be decisive, please!

Some managers are not aware that their subordinates keep on watching them how they manage the team. The employees are not blind, they know whether their bosses are qualified or not. And one of the qualities that matters is the ability to make a decision.

Some managers seem to have difficulty in making any decisions. Yes, they are indecisive! The lack of this important skill not only disturbs the flow of the job but also – to make it worse – decrease the managers’ credibility toward their subordinates.

Why do some managers become indecisive? There are some reasons. The first one is perhaps afraid to make any mistakes. Some managers think that making mistakes is a sin, and they don’t want people to know their good images to be badly broken.

There are some solutions in overcoming this indecisive problem. First is to know that you, managers, are humans. And humans make mistakes. Not to worry people’s opinion about you. Yes, they will talk behind you. Who cares? People will forget that anyway.

The second step is to ask these questions: who, what, when, why, and how to solve this problem. Collect all information related to the problem. 

Third is to anticipate what the worst part might happen. Then think: does that ‘worst part’ might really happen? It usually doesn’t, does it?  Having that ‘worst part’ in mind usually hinders us in thinking clearly.

So, please be decisive, Boss. Your subordinates really need you to lead.

Love your job but never fall in love with your company

It is customary nowadays to see employees spend long hours in the company. As if the 9-to-5 work-hours are not enough to do their jobs in the office. They need more time. In fact some of them even said that 24 hours in a day are not enough, for crying out loud!

The question is whether working long hours in the company good for them: physically, mentally, and even financially?

How about the company itself? Is it having employees who continue to work until late at nights good for the company? Can we say that they are dedicated and productive employees?

Following is an interesting speech by Mr. Narayana Murthy, an Indian industrialist and software engineer.  He is a CEO of Infosys, a premier IT company in India. He is incidentally one of the top 50 influential people in Asia according the latest Asiaweek publication.

The speech was delivered during an employee session with another IT company in India.  Following is the extract of Mr. Narayana Murthy's Speech during Mentor Session:

“Love your job, but never fall in love with your company because you never know when company stops loving you”. 

By Narayana Murthy

“I know people who work 12 hours a day, six days a week, or more.  Some people do so because of a work emergency where the long hours are only temporary. Other people I know have put in these hours for years. I don't know if they are working all these hours, but I do know they are in the office this long.”

“Others put in long office hours because they are addicted to the workplace. Whatever the reason for putting in overtime, working long hours over the long term is harmful to the person and to the organization.”

“There are things manager can do to change this for everyone's benefit. Being in the office long hours, over long period of times, makes way for potential errors. My colleagues who are in the office long hours frequently make mistakes caused by fatigue. Correcting these mistakes requires their time as well as the time and energy of others. I have seen people work Tuesday through Friday to correct mistakes made after 5PM on Monday.”

“Another problem is that people who are in the office long hours are not pleasant company. They often complain about other people (who aren't working as hard); they are irritable, or cranky or even angry. Other people avoid them. Such behavior poses problems, where work goes much better when people work together instead of avoiding one another.”

“As Managers, there are things we can do to help people leave the office. First and foremost is to set the example and go home ourselves. I work with a manager who chides people for working long hours. His words quickly lose their meaning when he sends these chiding group emails with a time-stamp of 2 am, Sunday.”

“Second is to encourage people to put some balance in their lives.  For instance, here is a guideline I find helpful:

1. Wake up, eat a good breakfast and go to work.
2. Work hard and smart for eight or nine hours.
3. Go home.
4. Read the books/comics, watch a funny movie, dig in the dirt, play with your kids, etc.
5. Eat well and sleep well.

This called recreating. Doing Steps 1, 3, 4 and 5 enable step number 2.”

“Working regular hours and recreating daily are simple concepts. They are hard for some of us because that requires 'personal change'.  They are possible since we all have the power to choose to do them.”

“In considering the issue of overtime, I am reminded of my oldest son. When he was a toddler, if people were visiting the apartment, he would not fall asleep no matter how long the visit, and no matter what time of day it was.”

“He would fight off sleep until the visitors left. It was as if he was afraid that he would miss something. Once our visitor's left, he would go to sleep.  By this time, however, he was over tired and would scream half the night with nightmares. He, my wife and I, all paid the price for his fear of missing out.”

“Perhaps, some people put in such long hours because they don’t want to miss anything when they leave the office. The trouble with this is that events will never stop happening. That is life. Things happen 24 hours a day.”

“Allowing for little rest is not ultimately practical. So, take a nap. Things will happen while you're asleep, but you will have the energy to catch up with you awake.”

Hence, "LOVE YOUR JOB BUT NEVER FALL IN LOVE WITH YOUR COMPANY".

The Disadvantages of Job Analysis

The previous posting talked about the advantages of job analysis, now let’s discuss the disadvantages of job analysis:

1. Subjective matters: it is a challenging job for a job analyst to avoid personal biasness when observing a target employee. The feelings of likes and dislikes may interfere with the job analyst when collecting genuine and accurate data.
2. Lengthy projects: the most frustrating part when a job analyst doing his job is this requires lots of time: this is time consuming to collect the data needed.
3. Require lots of human efforts: with so many people involved, there’s no wonder that doing job analysis is quite troublesome. The process involves lots of human efforts.
4. Source of Data is Extremely Small: Because of small sample size, the source of collecting data is extremely small. Therefore, information collected from few individuals needs to be standardized.
5. Unqualified Job Analyst: the skilled and qualified job analyst is a must. He/she needs to master the appropriate skills to conduct the process. Training for a job analyst has to be completed in order to get authentic data.
6. Mental Abilities Cannot be Directly Observed: Last but not the least, mental abilities such as intellect, emotional characteristics, knowledge, aptitude, psychic and endurance are intangible things that cannot be observed or measured directly. People act differently in different situations. Therefore, general standards cannot be set for mental abilities.

Though job analysis also has disadvantages, the advantages prove to be superior to the advantages. It is also a fact that job analysis is beneficial to the success of an organization.

The advantages of Job Analysis

Job analysis has advantages that are not only beneficial to the job analysts but also to the organizations in order to create strategic decisions. As we understand, human resource department is currently considered as an important factor in deciding the path of success. With its strategic human resource management, HRD plays an important role in achieving the organization’s vision and mission.

The advantages of job analysis are:

1. Present immediate information: after the process is finished, we can obtain job-related information such as tasks, responsibilities, duties, risks and hazards and not to mention the skills and abilities needed to perform the job. 
2. Assist in designing the requirements to perform a job: perhaps is the most important result of job analysis. Job description is the result of job analysis which informs us which person qualifies to fill in a certain job, what qualities and requirements needed to work.
3. Assist in the hiring process: Employer sometimes has difficulties when to recruit the right candidate. Job analysis is the answer. Job analysis process gives answers how employers can create, establish and maintain effective hiring practices.
4. Helps in performing evaluation and appraisal processes: it is quite a troublesome for managers when performing evaluation and appraisal evaluation. They need to be objective and have to use the right tool. Job Analysis helps managers evaluating the performance of employees by comparing the standard or desired output with delivered or actual output. On these bases, they appraise their performances. The process helps in deciding whom to promote and when. It also guides managers in understanding the skill gaps so that right person can be fit at that particular place in order to get desired output.
5. Assists in delivering appropriate training: it is one important function of HRD to deliver training for the employees. The suitable training will increase the productivity however how do we know which training is suitable for the employees? Job analysis can answer that question.
6. Assists in Deciding Compensation Package for a Specific Job: A genuine and unbiased process of job analysis helps managers in determining the appropriate compensation package and benefits and allowances for a particular job. This is done on the basis of responsibilities and hazards involved in a job.

The six points mentioned above inform us the advantages of job analysis. And probably you are wondering, does it have any disadvantages? It does. Job analysis has some disadvantages. 

Some common definitions of quality

I’m sure you have your own definition of what quality is. It is interesting to know why people have different opinion when it comes to defining quality. The followings are the answer: why people differ in defining quality.

1. Conformance to specifications measures how well the product or service meets the targets and tolerances determined by its designers. The wait for hotel room service may be specified as 20 minutes, but there may be an acceptable delay of an additional 10 minutes. Also, consider the amount of light delivered by a 60 watt light bulb. If the bulb delivers 50 watts it does not conform to specifications. As these examples illustrate, conformance to specification is directly measurable, though it may not be directly related to the consumer’s idea of quality.
2. Fitness for use focuses on how well the product performs its intended function or use. For example, a Mercedes Benz and a Jeep Cherokee both meet a fitness for use definition if one considers transportation as the intended function. However, if the definition becomes more specific and assumes that the intended use is for transportation on mountain roads and carrying fishing gear, the Jeep Cherokee has a greater fitness for use. You can also see that fitness for use is a user-based definition in that it is intended to meet the needs of a specific user group.
3. Value for price paid is a definition of quality that consumers often use for product or service usefulness. This is the only definition that combines economics with consumer criteria; it assumes that the definition of quality is price sensitive. For example, suppose that you wish to sign up for a personal finance seminar and discover that the same class is being taught at two different colleges at significantly different tuition rates. If you take the less expensive seminar, you will feel that you have received greater value for the price.
4. Support services provided are often how the quality of a product or service is judged. Quality does not apply only to the product or service itself; it also applies to the people, processes, and organizational environment associated with it. For example, the quality of a university is judged not only by the quality of staff and course offerings, but also by the efficiency and accuracy of processing paperwork.
5. Psychological criterion is a subjective definition that focuses on the judgmental evaluation of what constitutes product or service quality. Different factors contribute to the evaluation, such as the atmosphere of the environment or the perceived prestige of the product. For example, a hospital patient may receive average health care, but a very friendly staff may leave the impression of high quality. Similarly, we commonly associate certain products with excellence because of their reputation; Rolex watches and Mercedes-Benz automobiles are examples.

Seeing the definitions mentioned above, it is understood then why we have different opinion in defining quality. The more we discuss about quality the more we know its importance in our business. After all, quality drives productivity. It is not an easy thing to do to produce quality, we need to plan, study, and work hard.

How do you define quality?

Ask a man how he defines quality. He will come up with some interesting answers that come to his mind. Later, ask a woman how she defines quality. The most probable, she will give you different answers than the man. Still curious, go to another person. Your choice: man or woman, young or old, etc, then ask the person how he/she defines quality. Surprisingly the answers somehow would be different from the ones you had earlier.

How could this happen? Well, how people define quality depends on the role of they defining it. Most people have a difficult time defining quality, but they know it when they see it.

For example, although you probably have an opinion as to which manufacturer of a smart phone provides the highest quality, it would probably be difficult for you to define your quality standard in precise terms. Also, your friends may have different opinions regarding which smart phones are of highest quality. 

The difficulty in defining quality exists regardless of product, and this is true for both manufacturing and service organizations. Think about how difficult it may be to define quality for products such as airline services, child day-care facilities, college classes, moreover a house to live. Further complicating the issue is that the meaning of quality has changed over time.

Today, there is no single universal definition of quality. Some people view quality as “performance to standards.” Others view it as “meeting the customer’s needs”or “satisfying the customer.” How about you? How do you define quality?

What is SHRM?

As mentioned earlier, Human Resources Management plays an important role for the success of an organization. Human Resource Management has more roles than just doing administrative work such as recording employee’s presence and absence. 

The role of Human Resource Management has improved significantly that it now has a strategic function, which then created new subject called Strategic Human Resource Management.

What is Strategic Human Resource Management (SHRM)? It is the process of linking the human resource function with the strategic objectives of the organization in order to improve performance. It aligns your human resource function to your core business objectives. Moreover it involves more than just the administration of human resource programs or activities.  It is concerned with the “people” factor as a source of competitive advantage.

 

HR as a Strategic Partner 

The role of people is so fundamental in organization’s competitive advantage. Considering SHRM as just a function of the HR Department is not a good idea. The role is enormously important that cannot be handled in just one department named Hr Department. SHRM must involve all top leaders, executives, managers.

Some organizations have already proved that those who value their employees are more profitable/successful in reaching their targets. Research shows that successful organizations have several things in common, such as providing employment security, engaging in selective hiring, using self-managed teams, being decentralized, paying well, training employees, reducing status differences, and sharing information.

Introduction to HRM

JC Penney clearly had a point when he said, “The five separate fingers are five independent units. Close them and the fist multiplies strength. This is organization.”

Yup, JC Penney was true. Organization indeed consists of different units or departments or divisions – whatever you want to call it – and they all create one organization.

We can also say that organization is the combinations of different units that each consists of different personnel.  They all make up one big and solid organization. Big may be yes, but solid?

The organization’s efforts in aiming its target are highly influenced by the capacity of its employees. It is true that we also have to consider other important factors such as technology, systems, environments, laws, etc. However human resources are measured to be the dominant factor in today’s organization management system.

Human resources are no longer considered as the complement division or department in a modern organization. Human resources are now the dominant factors which lead to carefully designed of Human Resources Management.

As we understand, Human Resource Management is the strategic, integrated, and coherent approach to the employment, development and well-being of the people working in organization. It is the function within the organization that focuses on recruitment of, management of, and providing direction for the people who work in the organization. The overall purpose of human resource management is to ensure that the organization is able to achieve success through people. Human Resource Management aims to increase organizational effectiveness and capability – the capacity of an organization to achieve its goals by making the best resources available to it.

From the definition mentioned above it is clearly understood that Human Resource Management plays an important role for the success of an organization. Human Resource Management has more roles than just doing administrative work such as recording employee’s presence and absence.

Interview Method

I know some job analysts who enjoy having interview method as a technique in collecting data. They said that the responses from the employees are valuable information. And they also said that if conducted properly, interview method could be a great technique. Agree? Read on to know more about this method.

Job analysts interview an employee so that he or she will explain the procedure, required skills, working conditions, problems faced, threats and fear while working, etc.

During the interview, a trained job analyst is able to explore more so he is able to grasp the information. It takes good chemistry between the job analyst and the employee. The job analyst has to create such condition that the employee is not going to think that he is being interrogated. The job analyst also has to make sure that the interview is not going to affect the employee's career.

Focus Group Discussion

The question is how we can be sure that employee is going to answer honestly? Well, it is a good idea to interview more than one employees by putting some employees in one room and the job analyst acts as a moderator to throw some questions and see how the employees response.

It is also important that the interview should be carefully designed. The job analyst has to prepare the list of questions related to the information need. Having an impromptu interview in some cases is a waste of time. The job analyst could lose the track and unable to make good use of the employees. 

Interview Plan

Following is some steps that are useful in planning an interview: