| COOL FRIENDS |
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| Jardine Ong, Senior HR and Organizational Development Consultant - Global Management Consultants |
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1) Jardine, you've spent 3 years at Global Management Consultants in charge of HR Outsourcing, Recruitment and Training & Development Projects for various clients. What made you choose this particular field of work? What are the specific challenges you faced?
I have been working for 6 years and this has been my consistent career path. The decision came even when I was choosing a major for myself in University, I majored in Human Resources Development and since my University days, it has always been a particular interest for me to be involved on the people-related side of business. You need to be passionate with what you do - and Training is my passion and what I enjoy most.
2) There are a lot of companies that see HR as simply being a department that handles administrative issues and as such they don't involve them in the decision making process or give them a high degree of autonomy. Is that the case when a company decides to outsource certain HR responsabilities? Is there a greater deal of focus in this situation?
I think this type of thinking has long evolved since then. Companies nowadays are more mature in their view of the importance of Human Resources. Although it is a support function, its effectiveness or lack of has direct and adverse impact on the business objective of any company.
What companies fail to realize is that it's more costly to hire people than actually retain and develop them to fit the organization's requirements - be it task-related or behavior-related. And it doesn't really take an HR Practicioner to figure it out.
In our current scenario, most definitely there is a need to focus on Training and Development since Recruitment has come close to a standstill - there is an urgent need to ensure that our people are continuously motivated and developed.
Yes, our clients can opt to choose which specific HR Function to outsource and there is much focus in this current scenario.
3) In your opinion which HR responsabilities should a company outsorce and which should they keep in house?
In any of our HR Outsourcing Projects, our intention is not to stay there permanently but to equip organizations with a properly set up HR Division. Typically HR Outsourcing Projects last for one year which gives us ample time to ensure processes and policies are in place. The whole idea behind HR Outsourcing is to minimize the cost involved with hiring a Senior Level Manager at the initial phases of its setting up so that when the organization is ready to hire such a person - this person will be plug and play and grant full independence to the company which has become sustainable.
HR Outsourcing is ideal in start up organizations or when they are at such a phase that they are streamlining processes as per the current market trends. At times, even large organizations resort to outsourcing specific HR responsibilities since their current team members may not be experts of such.
4) You also manage your organization's HR Function such as in-house recruitment, formulation of policies, benefits administration and employee relations. What are the strategies you implement in order to retain and attract key people? Have they been in any way influenced by the ongoing economic crisis?
Even our company has faced the same challenges in terms of blocking attrition as other companies are experiencing. Currently, our core team members have remained the same for 3 years now. There is a crucial need for alignment with what the company stands for - it's mission and values - with what the person is. This may sound like a cliche, but we truly hire based on attitude first. In any of our behavioral training programs, we stress the impact that the attitude and behavior of an individual has.
The whole rationale is : Without the right attitude, the skills or qualifications of this person are of no use to an organization since he or she doesn't even want to do the job.
I think this whole gambit of the economic downturn has definitely changed how things are in terms of Attrition, Benefit Administration, Recruitment and Training & Development. In some companies, the percentage of attrition has fallen, recruitment is more focused on strategic and necessary positions, our own in-house training initiatives have increased, revamping of Benefits so as not to resort to employee separation.
5) What is your experience working with DiSC® assements? What is the added value that they bring in comparison with other such programs present on the market?
DiSC® is primarily used at Global Management Consultants for Couseling Sessions. Since we are involved in behavioral training, it brings us more focus with regard to the individual's development in his or her personal / professional life. All of our behavioral training workshops are focused on the individual - his motivation, his progression, his development and his needs. By default, if we can create a fundamental shift in a person's mentality, the organization will benefit. This is the way we guarantee results in what we do. |
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Human Invest is a Premier League company in the arena of training and organizational development consultancy services, present on the Romanian market since 1998.
We are recognized for conceiving and implementing programs which offer managers an authentic experience towards improving their leadership performances, and thus we support companies in becoming more and more engaged in delivering excellent services for their clients.
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