HCS Content Administrato
on
6 Aug 2010 11:27 AM
Wong Tuck Wah
Where do you want to take the business? All businesses need to grow. What are the strategic implications of talent to ensure that the company has the right people in the context of the organization.
A lot of SMEs have their talent residing in the founders, but there exists a chasm between them and their employees, with no clear successors to lead the business.
SMEs face unique challenges. Most talent will not consider an SME. Our education system does not encourage people to be entrepreneurs, or to consider joining an SME and building the organization.
General Discussion
The general issues brought up during a brief initial discussion were
1) Looking at the recruitment of older talents
2) Adjusting compensation and benefits
3) Shaping organizational culture
4) Career path
5) Dealing with the Singaporean mindset about SMEs
Top 2 Issues
The top 2 issues chosen by the CoP participants were culture and engagement of talents, as well as career path. The traditional choosing of 3 issues was narrowed down to 2. and later 1, due to the abridged nature of the CoP and the shortage of time.
Culture and Engagement
Engagement was overwhelmingly the most popular topic chosen as a route to retention of talent. In the discussion by the participants,
One of the unifying factors is the organizational values the employees can agree with. From those values, how can you encourage employees to feel a stake in the company, and encourage active participation. The building of this internal branding is a strong means of increasing engagement, with younger employees having a tendency of wanting to find meaning in what they do.
In order to get engagement from employees, there needs to be a process of seeking their opinion. Some form of incentive could also be given. Shares and dividends in the company can also be used to give employees a tangible stake in the company. There is also a need for management to be transparent so that trust can be built between employees and employers. Management also need to practice what they preach. When you tell employees to work hard, or cut expenses, management needs to lead by example, or employees will disengage due to the display of hypocrisy.
Engagement at a social level could be encouraged through more informal sessions. For SMEs, they may lack the time to conduct such events, whereas it may be an established practice in larger companies. From there, personal bonds between people in the company is established.
last edited by HCS Content Administrato on 8/6/2010 12:42:51 PM