tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-88228702653962117812024-03-14T20:49:54.399+08:00rewards@workRewards & Performance Management in Singapore and (overseas)Chinese Work Communitiesc.k.hohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01352583226593049470noreply@blogger.comBlogger23125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8822870265396211781.post-25644406456944995512008-05-26T12:10:00.026+08:002008-05-31T08:50:00.784+08:00Do we have the minimum wage to make ends meet?<p class="MsoNormal" style=""><st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on"><span style="">Singapore</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style=""> does not have any minimum wage law and does not implement a minimum wage system. It postulates that wages should be determined by free market forces of supply and demand. Employers and workers should be allowed to negotiate and mutually agree on the wages to be paid before they enter into an employment contract.<o:p></o:p><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style=""><span style="">The National Wages Council</span> (NWC) <span style="">was established in 1972 to advise the government on wage policies and also issue wage guidelines in line with long-term economic objectives. The NWC’s recommendations, when accepted by the government, serve as a basis for wage negotiations between employers and unions. NWC’s recommendations apply to both the public and public sectors</span><span style=""> <o:p></o:p><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style=""><span style="">The key function of the NWC is to enhance <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Singapore</st1:place></st1:country-region>’s competitiveness in global markets by adjusting wages in an orderly manner. With this as its purpose, the goal of the NWC is to recommend wage policies and guidelines that attract foreign direct investments into the country, and in its process provide jobs for its local and overseas residents.</span><span style="font-size:10;"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style=""><span lang="EN-AU">A minimum wage is defined by </span><span lang="EN-AU">International Labour Organization</span><span lang="EN-AU"> as:</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;"><span style="">The minimum amount that must be paid to the majority of the workers of a country, generally on an hourly, daily or monthly basis; and which is ideally fixed in such a way as to cover the minimum needs of the worker and his/her family, in light of the prevailing national economic and social conditions.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-AU">According to the conditions for work and employment information sheet published by the International Labour Organization, minimum wage laws are now enforced in more than 90% of all countries. </span><span style=""><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="">Adjustments to the minimum wage are driven by </span><span lang="EN-AU">two criteria: social, and economic. The social criteria takes into account the needs of the workers and their families, the cost of living and / or inflation, general level of wages, and the level of social benefits.<span style=""> </span>The economic factors are the economic situation and / or development of the country, the capacity of enterprises to pay, employment, and productivity.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-AU">There have been commentaries on introducing minimum wage legislation in <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Singapore</st1:place></st1:country-region>.<span style=""> </span>Many supporters of the minimum wage assert that it is a matter of ethics and social justice that helps reduce exploitation and ensures workers can afford what are considered to be basic necessities. Others, however, claim it hurts businesses by reducing profit margins, and also increases unemployment. While the discussion on minimum wage continues, Singapore (Incorporated) does not have a legislation on minimum wage.<br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="">The National Wages Council (NWC) has completed its deliberations on wage and wage-related guidelines for 2008/2009. In its deliberations, the Council took into account the prevailing national economic factors, such as its economic performance, labor market conditions, productivity, wages and inflation trends, <st1:place st="on"><st1:country-region st="on">Singapore</st1:country-region></st1:place>'s cost competitiveness, uncertain economic outlook, and high inflation.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="">The <st1:place st="on"><st1:country-region st="on">Singapore</st1:country-region></st1:place> government has accepted the NWC’s recommendation covering the period from 1 July 2008 to 30 June 2009.<span style=""> </span>As in previous submissions, the recommendations by NWC were driven mostly from an economics perspective such as affordability of employers, increase in productivity of workers, and wage flexibility.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="">In addressing the high inflation in <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Singapore</st1:place></st1:country-region>, the council recommends a <span style="">one-off special lump sum payment for rank-and-file workers </span><span style="">with heavier weightage for low wage workers</span>.<span style=""> </span>The one-off lump sum payment has been hailed by main stream media as an innovation of NWC, and was reported to be widely received by both employers federations and union members. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="">Although the lump sum inflation buster payment is meant to assist rank and file workers to make ends meet, the council could not prescribe the quantum to be payable. Hence, the amount of the one-off lump sum payable and its implementation are left to the creativity of companies and perhaps the devices of compensation and benefits practitioners.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="">NWC recommendations on wage and wage-related guidelines did not, in my opinion, delve adequately into the social factors such as the ability of </span><span lang="EN-AU">workers to pay for what are considered to be basic necessities</span><span style="">. As inflation sets in, a higher benchmark in terms of pricing for a basket of food will be re-established, and the affordability of workers to purchase basic necessities threatened. <span style=""> </span><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="">Why do workers work? At the basic level, rank and file workers work to bring bread (</span><span style="">and </span><span style="">rice</span><span style="">) to the table for themselves and their families. With the price of food and commodities reaching dizzying heights, are they still able to bring bread crump to the table? <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=""><st1:place st="on"><st1:country-region st="on"><span style="color:black;">Singapore </span></st1:country-region></st1:place><span style="color:black;">could introduce an inflation-indexed wage system for its rank-and-file workers. Inflation indexed wage system means that wages would automatically go up by the extent of consumer price index (CPI) increase.</span> The idea of an inflation-index wage system is not far fetched because the CPI indicator may be embedded as a key performance measure for rewarding public service administrators.<span style=""> </span><span style="color:black;">Perhaps</span>, the amount of the one-off special inflation buster pay could be index to consumer price index, and made variable according to employee levels.<span style=""> </span>After all, the one-off special lump sum payment recommended by the NWC is intended to fight inflation, or isn't it?<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="">Will we have the minimum wage to make ends meet?<o:p></o:p></span></p>c.k.hohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01352583226593049470noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8822870265396211781.post-16505612049186599262008-04-25T11:10:00.014+08:002008-04-26T07:44:45.694+08:00Paying for non-performance?<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-AU"><o:p></o:p>In a commentary dated 15 December 2007 on “money not enough?” the issues of pay for performance were explored.<span style=""> </span>As discussed, compensation of chief executives and senior management of private enterprises have been under scrutiny by stakeholders. Stakeholders are utterly disgusted at the manner senior managers reward themselves regardless of company performance. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-AU">Although the westernised idea of paying for performance has been embedded as the reward strategy in many organizations, the question of paying for whose performance is pertinent.<span style=""> </span>Are we paying company directors, chief executives and senior managers of organizations for their performance such that we may ultimately be “rewarded”?<span style=""> </span>Or, are senior managers paying themselves handsomely for their own “performance”, even to the extent of behaving fraudulently to satisfy their greed addiction.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-AU">One need to go no further than to examine the classic case of Enron to understand why pay for (whose?) performance led to the collapse of the organisation. <span style=""> </span>More recently, the collapse of Opes Prime in <st1:country-region st="on">Australia</st1:country-region> wiped out millions of dollars of pension funds; First Capital suffered similar fate, and most recently, Victorian stock broking firm in <st1:place st="on"><st1:city st="on">Geelong</st1:city>, <st1:country-region st="on">Australia</st1:country-region></st1:place> has allegedly been behaving badly.</span><span style=""><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-AU">As the economy is flushed with more money and ready credit, greed had consumed some of us, allowing us to be extremely creative in feeding our greed addiction.<span style=""> </span>As an example, the work performance of a loan officer is measured on the amount of credit that is booked for a given period.<span style=""> </span>To secure higher book value, a bank credit officer may resort to unconventional means of earning performance bonus by offering higher credit to its customers, often ignoring their ability to service loans.<span style=""> </span>Hence, many of us have continually been seduced by financial institutions offering pre-approved increases on credit cards limit, or re-financing homes with subsequent mortgages without much effort or difficulty.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-AU">For many years, organizations embrace pay for performance as the panacea for driving desired behaviours towards cash and more cash, often ignoring behavioural integrity, ethics or legal considerations.<span style=""> </span>Edward Lawler III, an authority in compensation management once argued against the effectiveness of pay for performance in “why is pay no longer an incentive to better job performance".<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-AU">Another commentator, Michael de Beer suggested that careful efforts to design an incentive system to make pay contingent on performance may be misguided, and raised questions on the worldwide trend towards the use of more executive incentives. However, many organisational practitioners are still paying extraordinary attention to pay for performance. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-AU">Perhaps, it is the idea of pay for performance, but whose performance?<span style=""> </span></span><span lang="EN-AU">Are practitioners familiar with the notion of pay for non-performance?<span style=""> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-AU">The notion of performance based pay is rather complex. There are research conducted on pay and performance and on the causation between risks and rewards; the higher the risk, the greater the rewards.<span style=""> </span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-AU">For an economist, pay for performance is grounded on the theory of incentives known as the agency theory. Agency theory, also known as the principal-agent model presupposes the association between time and effort.<span style=""> </span>The employee may influence the amount of work accomplished, by exerting himself, but he cannot control output entirely, because his work performance may not entirely under his control.<span style=""> </span><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-AU">Under the agency model, the employee is assumed to be averse to both effort and risk.<span style=""> </span>If an employee is effort averse, then incentives must be designed to get the employee to exert himself. As the employee is also risk averse, the question of tradeoffs between an employee and the employer sharing the risk is pertinent.<span style=""> </span>Risk is in the balance.<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-AU">As work performance may be beyond the control of the employee doing the work, pay for performance may perhaps be labeled appropriately as pay for effort.<span style=""> </span>Hence, we find ourselves in a flurry of activities, as we are measured on the amount of noise we generate, and not on work related performance.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-AU">From a principle-agent perspective, the moral hazard of pay for performance is pertinent.<span style=""> </span>Moral hazard is defined as the ‘‘actions or in-actions carried out by the agent that are unobservable by the principal’’ When the actions of the agent are unknown and cannot be evaluated by the principal, the principal’s ability to enforce the agency contract is hampered. Senior managers control organizational resources and know most about the organization’s activities; this allows them to act opportunistically to the detriment of shareholders.<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-AU">Because of their superior information and shareholders’ lack of full observation, managers can take actions that will maximize their rewards; but their actions may harm organizational performance in the long run and result in losses to the principals. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-AU">In the words of Gordon Gekko, “greed is good, greed is right, greed works, greed clarifies, cuts through and captures the essence of evolutional spirit”. Based from the collapses of organizations involving billions of dollars, is greed really good especially if pensions are wiped out almost completely overnight.</span><span lang="EN-AU"> </span><span lang="EN-AU"><span style="">Fortunately, the Central Provident Fund of Singapore </span>manages pension of Singaporeans. At least, our superannuation are bolted under lock and key. Otherwise, we may suffer the same fate as the Australians that invested with the likes of Opes Prime et al. </span><span lang="EN-AU">T</span><span lang="EN-AU">rust is definitely in the balance.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-AU">Perhaps, pay for performance may actually be misguided as it will fuel more corporate collapse.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-AU"> Should we continue to pay for non-performance</span><span lang="EN-AU">?</span></p>c.k.hohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01352583226593049470noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8822870265396211781.post-4102263772552183492008-03-15T10:35:00.034+08:002008-03-15T19:53:23.390+08:00An employer's dilemma?<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh05sIDe9_1_W4AoivEL3QZAUzv7PY6NeAi8M5lemoLMM3Dc7VEm6SdSwuLiJbRp8WbDD1VsF6BdvG-fWzsR94sDy2zH_5KIwAWrQKkTUfN55QAJ0MD833Wtgq2aXUjzps-vx26a-xMkqMZ/s1600-h/1403FPG003_law_firm_workaholics.jpg"> </a><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span lang="EN-AU">The question of “can we work anywhere we please so long as we get the work done” is pertinent for instituting a work-life balance policy in an organization. <span style=""> </span>Are flexible working arrangements and unstructured work environments crucial for recruiting and retaining talented people? <span style=""> </span>A recent report suggests that "shoo-ing workaholics out of office" may be the answer for a Singaporean mid sized law firm.</span></span></p> <a style="font-family: georgia;" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh05sIDe9_1_W4AoivEL3QZAUzv7PY6NeAi8M5lemoLMM3Dc7VEm6SdSwuLiJbRp8WbDD1VsF6BdvG-fWzsR94sDy2zH_5KIwAWrQKkTUfN55QAJ0MD833Wtgq2aXUjzps-vx26a-xMkqMZ/s1600-h/1403FPG003_law_firm_workaholics.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh05sIDe9_1_W4AoivEL3QZAUzv7PY6NeAi8M5lemoLMM3Dc7VEm6SdSwuLiJbRp8WbDD1VsF6BdvG-fWzsR94sDy2zH_5KIwAWrQKkTUfN55QAJ0MD833Wtgq2aXUjzps-vx26a-xMkqMZ/s400/1403FPG003_law_firm_workaholics.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5177792187628197074" border="0" /></a><a style="font-family: georgia;" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjq05nxHEf_qudH-Jja0NT6G-wDuRrbErd7b26Qwbw0AbmpKWK1R-0gveyjz9FtBZtipuVL1HXYtumlL1XPuvJn6IqIoBjPV-Y_uDm-8fcAzfOhSvRh6JlnbU_RV4c89kx6zxvq6s6NPagl/s1600-h/cropped_law_firm_workaholics_2.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjq05nxHEf_qudH-Jja0NT6G-wDuRrbErd7b26Qwbw0AbmpKWK1R-0gveyjz9FtBZtipuVL1HXYtumlL1XPuvJn6IqIoBjPV-Y_uDm-8fcAzfOhSvRh6JlnbU_RV4c89kx6zxvq6s6NPagl/s400/cropped_law_firm_workaholics_2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5177798999446328626" border="0" /></a><br /><span style=";font-family:georgia;font-size:78%;" >http://www.todayonline.com/pdf_main.asp?pubdate=20080314</span><span lang="EN-AU"><br /><br /><span style="font-size:100%;">In Singapore, </span></span><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size:100%;">the year 2007 </span><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size:100%;">ended with “money” talk. With an extremely competitive labour market, cash and more cash were thrown at people, particularly talented people to attract, and retain them. While this “old school” approach appears effective until greed consumes some of them, practitioners are focusing on non-cash compensation to engage talented employees to “keep you in business”.</span><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size:100%;"><br /><br />It has been reported that organizations are pursuing non-cash compensation solutions. About 53 per cent of the organizations in a survey offer opportunities for continuous learning. Others cite improving work-life balance (49 per cent), improving staff engagement (31 per cent) and faster promotion (30 per cent).</span><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /><br />Before we rush into creating innovative non-cash compensation solutions to attract and retain talented local and foreign people, it is important to realize that non-cash compensation solutions may be workable only if salaries are attractive and competitive.</span><span style=";font-family:georgia;font-size:100%;" ><br /><br />From employees' perspective, cash compensation is normally not swappable with non-cash compensation. While we attempt to carve out current cash compensation to fund non-cash compensation items, employees perceive intangible benefits as entitlement. Carving out cash compensation to fund additional employee benefits are often perceived as a reduction in salary.<br /><br />Should additional benefits to be introduced in organizations be carved out of their current compensation? Cognitively possible, but emotionally difficult to implement.</span><br /><br /><a style="font-family: georgia;" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjX4h50Su_qGuu4bMumA0wWE7x1k22_xSGWTIO5Ib-xaYFYiAQPdfgx7cEUOilsDYKmFdEqswf75jLYPiKPPohlIaTDS9BiQF9_veehForur9b2DnkzhdyMI2YJZaTexQqorQDNykxGpvZw/s1600-h/rising_wage_cost.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjX4h50Su_qGuu4bMumA0wWE7x1k22_xSGWTIO5Ib-xaYFYiAQPdfgx7cEUOilsDYKmFdEqswf75jLYPiKPPohlIaTDS9BiQF9_veehForur9b2DnkzhdyMI2YJZaTexQqorQDNykxGpvZw/s400/rising_wage_cost.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5177815779883554114" border="0" /></a><br /><span style=";font-family:georgia;font-size:78%;" >http://www.todayonline.com/pdf_main.asp?pubdate=20080315<br /><br /></span> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size:100%;">Perhaps, the dilemma for employers is the spiraling wage costs. "Will spiraling wage costs scare away business?" An economist with the Singaporean UOB Bank did not think it will. Other advantages, according to the UOB economist, such as "a high quality of manpower, transparency and efficiency, and good infrastructure are what continues to attract businesses here.”</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size:100%;">We assumed a causation between </span><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size:100%;">productivity </span><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size:100%;">and </span><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size:100%;">wages ; if productivity leads wages, there is no real cause for concern. But then, the concept of "productivity" is continually abused by government agencies to justify for spiraling wage costs, and increases in the cost of conducting business. Regardless, spiraling wage costs is still a cause for concern even if productivity leads wages.<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size:100%;">An employer's dilemma is not so much as to offer innovative employee benefits to attract and retain talented people. What is most pertinent is the costs of providing for intangible benefits.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size:100%;"> Human resource management practitioners may not be comfortable with the mathematics of </span><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size:100%;">actuarial science</span><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size:100%;">, financial modeling and life-choice simulations. </span><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size:100%;">Hence</span><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size:100%;">, the cost of non-tangible benefits may not be computed and thus, unaccounted for. </span><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size:100%;">We may be in for a rude shock if we compute the total costs of providing non-cash compensation to employees.<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size:100%;">Where benefits are offered to employees, it may be difficult to swap them for other benefit items, or withdrawn from employees when dated. This is the main reason why organizations continue to "grand-fathering" dated benefits that were once offered to employees.<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size:100%;">The dilemma of employers is </span><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size:100%;">the unseen costs of providing non-cash compensation to employees, talented or otherwise.<br /></span></p>c.k.hohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01352583226593049470noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8822870265396211781.post-10452323187695473892008-03-05T08:51:00.008+08:002008-03-05T09:26:25.446+08:00Never mind the rising rentals, really?<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAi_6qB4O34sNizUTrHdiKfDFny_IkElv5qXscjFladXIn8OjE2dNg5Q0m-RCkq2B8Cd0CAx6hLwlDe49KuuDjGZBVgzQyGnfuz8wzbrL9d6URt6iW5AB998Pgxwa1L7UTqJPeF4luaii-/s1600-h/0503HNR005.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAi_6qB4O34sNizUTrHdiKfDFny_IkElv5qXscjFladXIn8OjE2dNg5Q0m-RCkq2B8Cd0CAx6hLwlDe49KuuDjGZBVgzQyGnfuz8wzbrL9d6URt6iW5AB998Pgxwa1L7UTqJPeF4luaii-/s400/0503HNR005.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5174062768296303538" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:78%;">http://www.todayonline.com/articles/241170.asp</span>c.k.hohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01352583226593049470noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8822870265396211781.post-77073548295702264982008-01-31T14:31:00.000+08:002008-02-01T14:21:30.034+08:00Can we work anywhere we please so long as we get the job done?<p class="MsoNormal">One of the most difficult question facing employers is on “how to keep the people who keep you in business”. As history reveals, the traditional method to attract and retain talented people is to throw money and more money at them.<span style=""> </span>While this “old school” approach appears effective until greed consumes some of them, an appealing solution is to engage talented employees particularly the younger generation with flexible work practices.</p><p class="MsoNormal">According to Marcia Hall, owner of Reputation Counts, an American Severna Park-based firm that provides workforce development and productivity training, a work-life balance is particularly important to members of the "millennial generation" who were born in the early 1980s. They not only grew up under intense pressure to get into the best schools but also have become more aware of their mortality with the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and other tragic events, she said. "The effect has been that their tomorrow is unpredictable," Ms. Hall said. "That means time for family and time for their personal life."</p><p class="MsoNormal">Money isn't the key to keeping Kiwi workers either - it's improving their work-life balance and supporting their careers. Remuneration consultants DSD Consulting reported on the importance of work life balance in their recent remuneration and market trends survey of 65 leading companies in <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">New Zealand</st1:place></st1:country-region>.</p><p class="MsoNormal">"Companies need to realize that, for many New Zealanders, their career and work-life balance is increasingly important. They want to work and be appreciated for what they do but they also want to be able to spend time with their families and pursue their other interests," says DSD director Susan Doughty.</p><p class="MsoNormal">DSD says the research shows bosses also need to accept that Generation Y employees don’t stay in jobs more than three or four years, so notions such as long-service bonuses don't appeal anymore. Employers need to think differently to remain interesting to their work force, especially when unemployment is so low and jobs are readily available.</p><p class="MsoNormal">Technology has allowed people to stay connected from anywhere. Perhaps, flexible working practices and "family-friendly policies" that help employees achieve a balance between work and life should be the alternate reward management practice as baby boomers retire later and employers search for talented people in a tight labor market.</p><p class="MsoNormal">With escalating fuel prices, additional taxi fee surcharges, increase on mass rapid transport (MRT) and bus fares, and more recently, an increase in the number of electronic road pricing gantries in Singapore, there is really no merit in merit pay increase.</p><p class="MsoNormal">Compensation and benefits management practitioners need to work harder than simply rely on benchmarked salary surveys to stay on the job. Instead of the 5 C’s in <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Singapore</st1:place></st1:country-region>, "we talk about the four Fs being the key to what employees value - that's finance, future, fun and features. It's the combination of pay with a range of other factors - both financial and non-financial - that determines whether your staff will stay or not." DSD director, Una Diver commented.</p><p class="MsoNormal">Should we rethink the traditional boundaries of a “9 to 5” workday? Are flexible working arrangements and unstructured work environments crucial for recruiting and retaining talented people?<span style=""> </span>Can we cultivate a flexible work culture by allowing people to work anywhere they please so long as they get the job done. Can we retain employees by introducing job sharing?</p><p class="MsoNormal">More importantly, can we work anywhere we please so long as we get the job done relevant to the (overseas)Chinese work communities?<br /></p>c.k.hohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01352583226593049470noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8822870265396211781.post-88401423608457470642008-01-18T11:34:00.000+08:002008-01-18T12:22:24.433+08:00Is there merit in merit pay increase?<p>In a statement released yesterday, ECA International, a global association of human resource practitioners says that <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Singapore</st1:place></st1:country-region> workers can expect their pay to go up by an average of 5 per cent in 2008 as compared to last year's average increase of 4.5 per cent. However, inflation is likely to take a big bite of that pay rise. </p> <p>According to the ECA report, the surge in prices of oil, food and lodgings will 'counter-balance' the projected big pay rise 'considerably'. With <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Singapore</st1:place></st1:country-region> workers looking forward to some of the biggest pay rise in the developed economies, real take-home increases will be 'relatively subdued'. Most other developed economies in the ECA survey are showing forecast wage increases of approximately 4 per cent.</p> <p>'This latest upswing in inflation, which has caught many people by surprise, will have an impact on real salary increases in 2008,' said the firm's general manager. Employees in Singapore are likely to experience relatively subdued real income rises and employers may have to budget for higher salary increases next year to make up for this year's relatively low increase in real incomes.</p> <p>If compensation practitioners are considering an upward revision in their forecast salary increases to retain talented employees, they should instead consider the merits of merit pay. Are merit pay increases simply employees’ entitlement based on cost of living adjustment (COLA), or are merit pay increases really based on merit?</p> <p>According to the Business Times report dated 10 January 2008, <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Singapore</st1:place></st1:country-region>’s inflation rate could soar past 6 per cent in the current quarter, beating previous estimates, as an upward revision of the value of public housing kicks in this month and food and oil prices continue to climb. If employees perceived merit pay increases as entitlement for COLA, there may be an reduction in their real take-home pay.</p> <p>The concept of merit pay has been around for some time. Evans (1970) believed that merit pay has its origins in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries with the Protestant Reformation. The protestant work ethic, which views man as competitive and individually oriented, emerged from the belief that economic success was evidence that a person who worked hard was serving God; material success was equated with spiritual purity. Thus, according to Evans (1970), performance-based pay plans continue this theme by rewarding those who have worked the hardest and contributed the most. </p> <p>It appears logical to base merit pay upon performance, or is it? Commentators say that merit pay plans based upon performance can have many defects, including improper design and implementation; difficulties in paying for individual performance; lack of conviction on the part of employees that pay is really linked to performance; inadequate or inappropriate objectives, criteria, and measures; as well as other shortcomings. </p> <p>Merit pay continues to be a popular vehicle for rewarding employees. However, merit pay systems that are poorly designed and implemented can lead to perceptions of inequity for individuals; and these perceptions of inequity held by individuals can have a negative impact on important organizational outcomes.</p> <p>Voluntary turnover is one possible response to merit pay inequity. Those who quit in response to perceived merit pay inequity are typically an organization’s better performers. The average and below-average performers are typically “not bothered” by a merit pay system that pays them the same as their harder-working coworkers.<br /></p><p>Another possible response to merit pay inequity is that high-performing employees who receive the same merit pay as lower-performing employees may choose to stay on the job, but they may decide to lower their performance or reduce the quality of their work in the future in an attempt to restore equity. </p> <p>Regardless of the methods employees adopt to restore their perception of fairness and equity, there is a need for practitioners to know if such behaviors are harmless or may create serious consequences for organizations.<span style=""> </span>Talented employees, especially if they are working in (overseas) Chinese work communities, may simply choose to quit and seek their fortune elsewhere.</p> <p>In administering merit pay increases, we are forced ranked and fitted into merit pay matrices representing normal distribution curves. This forced-fitting ensures that our pay increase budgets are on target. On occasions, we may "rob Peter to pay Paul" to balance the pay "bucket".</p><p> <span style=""> </span>In addition, the spread in pay increase percentages between high performing employees and average employees are usually insignificant and/or inadequate to drive change in behaviors toward increased work performance.<span style=""> </span><br /></p><p>What if a merit pay increase budget contains both cost of living adjustments and work performance outcomes?<span style=""> </span>Where the quantum of merit pay increase lags inflation, as it appear to be the current situation, can we seriously talk about merit pay increase aligned to work-related performance?</p> <p>Is there really merit in merit pay increase?<span style=""> </span></p>c.k.hohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01352583226593049470noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8822870265396211781.post-19256315389968827142008-01-11T11:16:00.000+08:002008-01-13T18:35:27.969+08:00Will the public servants speak out?In compensation terms, the year 2007 ended with “money” talk.<span style=""> </span>As we recalled, there were debates of how we should throw more cash at people to attract, and retain them.<span style=""> </span>There were also discussions on “are we paid our worth?” and perceived pay equity.<br /><p class="MsoNormal">For the public servants, their salaries were revised significantly higher to reflect the amount of compensation they expect to receive if they hypothetically resign from public duty to take on their dream jobs in private enterprises.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">The thinking behind compensating talented public servants with top private enterprise salaries is to induce and retain them in the civil service.<span style=""> </span>Is such thinking flawed, and taken in the interest of the public, especially when the motivation of work of the private enterprises is significantly different from that of the civil service?<span style=""> </span><br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal">According to March & Simon (1958), pay, within the context of the employment exchange, is an inducement to work. Money is provided in return for work and is based upon some specified contingency relationship between work and pay. To the extent that pay is desired as a medium of exchange with instrumental value, money provides people, either as means or an end, with a purpose to work.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">In addition, pay can be conceived in terms of symbolism. The concept of symbol, in this context, is defined as a sign which signifies something other than itself. Do you remember the first dollar you earned when you started work?<span style=""> </span>The symbolic meaning of the first dollar you earned signifies more than the instrumental value of a dollar. Clearly monetary pay symbolizes instrumentality as a medium of exchange, but it may also be associated with outcomes such as status, security, and achievement and thus acquire symbolic value as well.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Pay and reward systems in general is symbolic of organization culture. Will there be a clash of cultures between hierarchical bureaucracies and the horizontal organizations of the private sector? Are we motivating our public servants to behave like mercenaries?</p><p class="MsoNormal">In presenting the rationale and justification for paying public servants market benchmarks, our leaders appear to discount the symbolic value of pay.<span style=""> </span>In all respect, the symbolic value of the high office of the land is worth a lot more than several millions of <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Singapore</st1:place></st1:country-region> dollars.<span style=""> </span>If we cost the symbolic value of pay, our public servants’ pay may be placed beyond the red circle; a term used to denote salaries that exceeds the top pay range in their grades.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">But then again, if we ask ourselves whether we are pay competitively, our answers invariably would be negative, because money is never enough.<span style=""> Perhaps</span>, we should start the year of the golden rat by questioning why we are paid so much for doing what we enjoy.<span style=""> </span>Should we also be asking why we are paid so much for doing so little?</p> <p class="MsoNormal">In the brave new world of 2008, we hope to have less “money talk” and more on the intangible value of reward management.<span style=""> </span>The GROW 2.0 initiative announced by the Ministry of Education, Singapore may be a start.<br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcKWy74a_jS1vcaaCe49sUEEV9nGgB78rJQ3QP-upC_H-nvenB4z_xSlL67LhfNMe5dvYlekPdVRksPRq5_7flaVWiQOND6GQ5HGHVKYyXtAyMn8EVB9rmnBWcvVRhYUwwDbMmHmn_-_Tv/s1600-h/bonus+or+training-cropped.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcKWy74a_jS1vcaaCe49sUEEV9nGgB78rJQ3QP-upC_H-nvenB4z_xSlL67LhfNMe5dvYlekPdVRksPRq5_7flaVWiQOND6GQ5HGHVKYyXtAyMn8EVB9rmnBWcvVRhYUwwDbMmHmn_-_Tv/s400/bonus+or+training-cropped.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5154821692571603922" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:78%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal">In its 2007-08 Global Strategic Rewards study, the global consultancy firm Watson Wyatt concluded that employers and employees rank attraction and retention factors differently. They commented that the first thing employers need to do is to recognise the factors that attract and retain talent, and to realise that their expectations, as employers, are sometimes different from those of their employees.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">For example, the Watson Wyatt study on accounting and finance industry in the Asia-Pacific region revealed that employers ranked base pay, employer reputation and career development opportunities as the top three attraction factors.<span style=""> </span>On the other hand, employees ranked the nature of work, then base pay and employer reputation as the top factors that attracted them to a job.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">In addition, the recent Watson Wyatt WorkAsia study found that drivers for employee engagement are customer focus, compensation and benefits, and communication. Employees said they wanted to feel good about the products and services their employer offers. Employees also said pay, stress levels and promotion opportunities were the main factors affecting their decision to stay with a firm. The amount of respect employees received in the workplace was another important factor in their decision to join or stay with a company.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Can we ask the real public servants the factors that will drive them to commit and engage themselves with the Public Service Division of Singapore?<span style=""> </span>Do they intend to leave for greener pastures now that they are paid according to the private sector? Are our talented people currently working in global corporations applying in doves to serve the Public?<span style=""> </span><br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal">If we are to stop throwing more cash to attract and retain employees, we may need to understand their expectations more fully. We certainly need to keep the people who keep us in business. What do our public servants feel most passionate about as they serve? Will the real public servants and our private sector employees please speak out?</p>c.k.hohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01352583226593049470noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8822870265396211781.post-3246985941288628822007-12-31T06:20:00.000+08:002008-01-08T13:25:50.078+08:00Is Grow 2.0 the Growth Bonus?Based on the response from the Singapore Teachers Union on the Ministry of Education's (MOE) announcement of its new renumeration scheme, Grow 2.0 may have the effect of attracting talented people to the education profession and positioning teachers and educators more than "a step child" to the other professions.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYwA8yutCnbdr1q2tvZCo9hUAObEhoeEqOptBGM1iWmke3CtNBVsccth0aBkwlGGfjvj17Z-dnBywxtT4x_Ev50jt5gwt_X2QHSkPBlcnJYfX2Khg-PN7Yt0mOghRrDXWxpUNwemMZUbLT/s1600-h/More+apples+for+teachers+-+cropped.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYwA8yutCnbdr1q2tvZCo9hUAObEhoeEqOptBGM1iWmke3CtNBVsccth0aBkwlGGfjvj17Z-dnBywxtT4x_Ev50jt5gwt_X2QHSkPBlcnJYfX2Khg-PN7Yt0mOghRrDXWxpUNwemMZUbLT/s400/More+apples+for+teachers+-+cropped.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5149895682910671778" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:78%;"><br />http://www.todayonline.com, 29 December 2007, More Apples For Teachers</span><p class="MsoNormal">From a reward management perspective, money is never enough. Simply throwing more cash at a problem may motivate teachers to behave like mercenaries. It may also have the undesired outcome of attracting more people into the profession for the wrong reasons, as semi-retired military officers and the unemployed may have once dream of becoming teachers in our schools.<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal">The internet poll conducted by Channel News Asia (accessed on 31 December 2007, 0535 hr Singapore time) re-enforces the notion of "money for nothing" syndrome.<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"> </p><p class="MsoNormal"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPqxH4DVOZnEeFTASfBKJdRgjFVM2wMWJ3i2H92zMJLVrxKFmxKKrZy-QFVQrXyegHpwFhRtJKJG9MCss6Zh5l9rFVJ9cTls0Tg51KYfvxM8rOl65YyrdTawyXivugfFX4w5mcqMDa-Y2F/s1600-h/teachers+poll+result+-+cropped.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPqxH4DVOZnEeFTASfBKJdRgjFVM2wMWJ3i2H92zMJLVrxKFmxKKrZy-QFVQrXyegHpwFhRtJKJG9MCss6Zh5l9rFVJ9cTls0Tg51KYfvxM8rOl65YyrdTawyXivugfFX4w5mcqMDa-Y2F/s400/teachers+poll+result+-+cropped.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5149907171948188594" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:78%;">http://www.channelnewsasia.com/polls/index.php?action=vote&id=74&ranid=7757&voteNr=1</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Perhaps, Grow 2.0 may address the "money not enough" mentality fueled by debates on ministerial salaries and pay hikes of public servants. The most significant change in Grow 2.0, in my opinion, is that public servants at the Singapore Ministry of Education may no longer be perceived as "money-grabbers" conducting the business of education.<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal">Competitive salaries, as the Singapore Minister of Education commented, are "a necessary condition, even if they are not sufficient to ensuring a top-class teaching service.” He adds that “there is no trade-off between ensuring that we pay teachers competitively and sustaining the commitment and passion for teaching”.<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal">More importantly, the Growth, Career Development, and Well-Being components of the MOE's reward program may be relevant in attracting and retaining people who have the passion to teach, to share knowledge, and to do something useful with their lives. After all, it has always been the non-tangible rewards that attracted the "people sculptors' into the teaching profession and education in the first place.</p><p class="MsoNormal">In addition, Growth 2.0 may be a breath of fresh air in an otherwise "Gordon Gekko" playground. Resource allocation, continuous learning, career mobility, balance in work life for teachers and their spouses regardless of gender, work performance differentiation, spot bonuses, and the refinements contained in the connect (gratuity?) program could spark an "education revolution" within the teaching profession. Whether it stays a revolution in the classroom remains to be seen as the devil is always in the details.</p><p class="MsoNormal">On a positive note, Grow 2.0 may not be contingent on the exceptionable growth (?) of the Singapore economy. Inspiring young people to be entrepreneurs through education is very different from motivating "bottom-line" results-oriented behaviours regardless of ethics, morality, and its undesired consequences.</p><p class="MsoNormal">An English teacher from a secondary school sums up the MOE reward initiative aptly, “Performance-based pay is a double edged sword because it benefits those who shine the most.” The teacher who declined to be named adds “But there are teachers who are more low-profile, yet doing very good work that might go unnoticed.” But then, if you are starving, it is better to be in the kitchen.<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal">Regardless, the anonymous English teacher has a point. We want our teachers to mould our kids and young adults into thinkers, and reflective practitioners. In the realm of "Gordon Gekko", people may have substantial form and dubious substance. These are the extrovert "money-grabbers", and the highly successful players in the game. As we frame our performance indicators for teachers and educators, we should avoid the folly of "rewarding A while hoping for B".<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal">Incidentally, GROW is an acronym for the MOE pay package for "the professional and personal <span style="font-weight: bold;">G</span>rowth of education officers, through better <span style="font-weight: bold;">R</span>ecognition, <span style="font-weight: bold;">O</span>pportunities, and seeing to their <span style="font-weight: bold;">W</span>ell-being". What a mouthful !!! and how creative can our public servants at MOE get?<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal">Version 1.0 was announced on 4 September 2006, and version 2.0 on Friday. Perhaps, our technocrats are migrating from Web 1.0 to Web 2.0 metaphorically. Can we stop dehumanizing people by digitalizing them with alphanumeric labels? Otherwise, we may get to GROW version 3.0, release 8A in quick time.<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal">Tomorrow will be a brand new year. If there is a new year message, it would be a "keep it simple, stupid" (KISS) message. The success of a reward program lies in its simplicity, and the ability to communicate its value. Not many of us will comprehend the details of our hospitalization benefits or our insurance policy until we are warded, strapped to our hospital beds, and search frantically for that additional insurance cover presented in small prints.<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal">Happy New Year and Good Health !!!<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"></p>c.k.hohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01352583226593049470noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8822870265396211781.post-15143839794503776752007-12-20T19:00:00.000+08:002007-12-20T19:51:35.750+08:00Is greed really good?<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0Ck1JEJRom0fNLaUqPqU7LXqf2Lr8ep2YDvzAzSHy9Q7FZ5rFpihSUpVilCTNjq0_t-Z1v4j8YvPJZ8UQu46h5mlQFD4OW2V5Av-fo3Da-_4i2F8nHkGmR7wJ5Q6UFI1p7DQAdncaPky6/s1600-h/Gekko+on+greed.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0Ck1JEJRom0fNLaUqPqU7LXqf2Lr8ep2YDvzAzSHy9Q7FZ5rFpihSUpVilCTNjq0_t-Z1v4j8YvPJZ8UQu46h5mlQFD4OW2V5Av-fo3Da-_4i2F8nHkGmR7wJ5Q6UFI1p7DQAdncaPky6/s400/Gekko+on+greed.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5146013050074392274" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><span style=";font-family:Georgia;font-size:11;color:black;" lang="EN-AU" ><o:p></o:p></span><span style=";font-family:Georgia;font-size:85%;color:black;" lang="EN-AU" ><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >PROFILE - Sir Adrian Cadbury</span><o:p></o:p></span><span style="font-size:85%;"><st1:city st="on"><st1:place st="on"><span style=";font-family:Georgia;color:black;" lang="EN-AU"><br />Cambridge</span></st1:place></st1:city></span><span style=";font-family:Georgia;font-size:85%;color:black;" lang="EN-AU" > Alumni Magazine, No 52, Michaelmas Term 2007<br /><o:p></o:p></span><span style=";font-family:Georgia;font-size:11;color:black;" lang="EN-AU" ><o:p></o:p></span> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 6pt;"><span style=";font-family:Georgia;color:black;" lang="EN-AU">Sir Adrian Cadbury (King’s 1949) has spent a lifetime promoting ethical standards in the boardroom, says Peter Richards. And it’s largely thanks to him that corporate governance is transforming the way we do business. Why greed isn’t good? <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 6pt;"><span style=";font-family:Georgia;color:black;" lang="EN-AU">Watching Oliver Stone’s Wall Street in a cinema on the Upper East Side is one of my abiding memories of the eighties: seduced from the first cheesy moments by Sinatra singing ‘Fly me to the moon’ as the camera pans over a fiery dawn in lower Manhattan, then pinned to my seat by the sheer gusto of the performances. As a film it has its faults. But no one ever forgets Michael Douglas’s Oscar-winning turn as the cutthroat financier Gordon Gekko, or his ‘Greed is good’ speech to a shareholders’ meeting that is the turning point of the movie.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 6pt;"><span style=";font-family:Georgia;color:black;" lang="EN-AU">Gekko is suitably reptilian: all candy-striped shirts, power braces and slicked-back hair – the very archetype of unbridled capitalism, concerned only with the next deal and contemptuous of the interests of any ‘little people’ – employees or shareholders – who get in the way. He’s the snarling villain who steals the show; not some hapless victim like Sherman McCoy in Tom Wolfe’s blistering <st1:state st="on"><st1:place st="on">New York</st1:place></st1:state> satire, The Bonfire of the Vanities, but a real Master of the Universe. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 6pt;"><span style=";font-family:Georgia;color:black;" lang="EN-AU">The irony, of course, is that Wall Street became a call to arms that fired up a whole new generation of tycoons. Fuelled by what Ronald Reagan used to call ‘the magic of the marketplace’, the greedy eighties bounced back in the nineties as the dot.com boom, and they’re still alive and well today (albeit a little wobblier since August). Nine of the top ten buy-outs of all time have been announced in the last year.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 6pt;"><span style=";font-family:Georgia;color:black;" lang="EN-AU">Business can still be gladiatorial, but top executives have become sticklers for the rules – not least because white-collar fraud can now get you a life sentence. Bernie<o:p></o:p> Ebbers, the former boss of Worldcom, is currently serving 25 years for an $11bn accounting fraud. Jeffrey Skilling, who at the energy giant Enron built an astonishing<o:p></o:p> $65bn house of cards that collapsed in 2001, is serving 24 years. And these are billions not millions remember: sums so enormous that they make the £1.6bn losses run up by our own ‘bouncing Czech’, Robert Maxwell, look almost modest.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 6pt;"><span style=";font-family:Georgia;color:black;" lang="EN-AU">With the collapse of the Soviet empire, capitalism became the only game in town. So the key public interest issue now is how we regulate: not just the stock exchange roller coaster John Maynard Keynes famously called ‘casino capitalism’ but corporations themselves. At least that’s the message of Adrian Cadbury’s friend Bob Monks, the lifelong Republican who pioneered shareholder activism in the <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">United States</st1:place></st1:country-region>. ‘It’s almost as if we have created a doom machine in our search for wealth and prosperity,’ says Monks in the recent award winning documentary The Corporation. ‘We’ve created something that’s going to destroy us.’ <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 6pt;"><span style=";font-family:Georgia;color:black;" lang="EN-AU">Still mulling this over, I crest a humpback-bridge over a canal and come abruptly on Cadbury’s house, crunching to a halt beside the duck pond. It’s a handsome, half-timbered <st1:place st="on">Midlands</st1:place> farmhouse, grown deep into the landscape and of similar vintage to King’s College chapel (a resonance any Kingsman as devout as Cadbury must surely relish). Out back, screened today by dripping trees, are a swimming pool and tennis court, but it’s a comfortable home not an ostentatious one. You can only sleep in one bed, and Cadbury would be the last man to crave a Poussin to hang over it. He’s lived here for fifty-one years, ever since leaving home in his twenties – an upheaval, jokes Susan, his wife, he found so traumatic that he vowed never voluntarily to move again.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 6pt;"><span style=";font-family:Georgia;color:black;" lang="EN-AU">In person Cadbury is tall, spare, self-deprecating, immensely courteous and endlessly interested in people: not their foibles and absurdities but their abilities and interests. Born into the Cadbury chocolate dynasty and still an Eton schoolboy during the Second World War, at <st1:city st="on"><st1:place st="on">Cambridge</st1:place></st1:city> he read Economics and rowed, just as his father, Laurence, had done at Trinity a generation earlier.<br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 6pt;"><span style=";font-family:Georgia;color:black;" lang="EN-AU">The river became a lifelong love affair. He stroked King’s first boat in the Lents and Mays, and then in the 1952 Boat Race rowed in the only Blue Boat ever to contain two Kingsmen (his compatriot was George Marshall).<o:p></o:p><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 6pt;"><span style=";font-family:Georgia;color:black;" lang="EN-AU">It was one of the outstanding contests in Boat Race history, rowed in a snowstorm but remembered above all for the closest finish since the dead heat of 1877. At Barnes, <st1:city st="on">Cambridge</st1:city> was leading but at the line <st1:city st="on">Oxford</st1:city> won by a canvas (12 feet), leaving both crews to pass beneath <st1:place st="on"><st1:placename st="on">Hammersmith</st1:placename> <st1:placetype st="on">Bridge</st1:placetype></st1:place> abreast. ‘All the time we were side by side I kept thinking, “Now’s the time to make a move, now’s the time to pounce”, but we never did and they won,’ says Cadbury now. Even today he wishes he had stroked the boat, particularly as <st1:city st="on"><st1:place st="on">Oxford</st1:place></st1:city>’s win put them back in the game after a five-year losing streak.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 6pt;"><span style=";font-family:Georgia;color:black;" lang="EN-AU">Cadbury’s consolation that summer was to row for <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">England</st1:place></st1:country-region> in the coxless fours at the Helsinki Olympics alongside the captain of the Blue Boat, his great friend James Crowden (Pembroke 1948). In a frame somewhere, he still has the letter the formidable King’s economist Nicky Kaldor sent him to wish him luck in the Olympics and congratulate him on his finals results. In the end the crew came fourth, missing a medal by the narrowest of margins. Honour was only restored the following year when they won the coveted Grand Trophy at Henley Royal Regatta.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 6pt;"><span style=";font-family:Georgia;color:black;" lang="EN-AU">When Cadbury joined the family firm in 1952, he brought with him not just the famous pink socks and hippo tie of the Leander Club but attitudes to corporate life drawn from his Quaker background and from rowing: a set of values completely at variance with Gordon Gekko’s rampant egotism. Remembering that last hectic summer training on the <st1:place st="on">Cam</st1:place>, he emphasises the importance of team harmony, trust and time management. As in the wider world, everyone had their talents and a part to play. <o:p></o:p> ‘The beauty of racing in a crew is that you learn that any victory is the combined effort of everyone,’ he says. ‘In the same way company results reflect the performance of the whole firm.’<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 6pt;"><span style=";font-family:Georgia;color:black;" lang="EN-AU">It was Cadbury who over a generation steered the company into the modern world. Until<o:p></o:p> 1953 the home market was distorted by sweet rationing, but within ten years growth was healthy enough for the company to become publicly quoted. When, contrary to his expectations, Adrian Cadbury became managing director in 1965, he found himself not just the youngest member of the board but a new broom who could see that the company needed a complete organisational overhaul.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 6pt;"><span style=";font-family:Georgia;color:black;" lang="EN-AU">The board itself was in the front line. With help from the management consultants McKinsey, says Cadbury, ‘we gradually moved from being a board of management, which met at 9am every Monday morning, to being a directing board’.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 6pt;"><span style=";font-family:Georgia;color:black;" lang="EN-AU">In 1969, determined to achieve critical mass in the world market, the company merged with Schweppes, a long established drinks business that looked an ideal fit, both ideologically and in market terms. Cadbury had to sell the deal to the family shareholders, but found inspiration in his Boat Race defeat.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 6pt;"><span style=";font-family:Georgia;color:black;" lang="EN-AU">‘There was a certain amount of inertia at Cadbury. We weren’t doing badly, so there was no real motivation to go through the trauma of a merger, but that was too similar to the ‘52 Boat Race attitude. It reminded me of that sensation of feeling comfortable, but dangerously so. I felt the time was right, just as I did when stroking.’ The merger finally went through and proved an outstanding success. Over the next thirty five years turnover increased from £260 million to £6.7 billion.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 6pt;"><span style=";font-family:Georgia;color:black;" lang="EN-AU">Over time, what did become clear was that the food strand of the merged business didn’t fit with the rest. In 1986, the company’s food, coffee and tea brands such as Smash, Chivers Hartley, Kenco, Typhoo and Marvel were therefore sold in a management buyout to a team led by Cadbury- Schweppes then planning director Paul Judge (Trinity 1968). Judge borrowed £90,000 to invest in the new company, Premier Brands Ltd, which he then transformed into such a roaring success that he was left £45m the richer when it was sold on three years later. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 6pt;"><span style=";font-family:Georgia;color:black;" lang="EN-AU">In 1990 he gave a generous £8m to <st1:city st="on">Cambridge</st1:city>, which, augmented by £5m from the philanthropist Simon Sainsbury (Trinity 1950), allowed the <st1:placename st="on">Judge</st1:placename> <st1:placename st="on">Business</st1:placename> <st1:placetype st="on">School</st1:placetype> to be established in the symbolic centre of the university opposite the <st1:place st="on"><st1:placename st="on">Fitzwilliam</st1:placename> <st1:placetype st="on">Museum</st1:placetype></st1:place>.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 6pt;"><span style=";font-family:Georgia;color:black;" lang="EN-AU">What Adrian Cadbury didn’t forsee when he stepped down as chairman of Cadbury-Schweppes at sixty was that he was embarking on a new career that would quickly shred any notions of retirement. Convinced that better, more effective boards were the key to good business decisions, he put his thoughts together in a little book called The Company Chairman (1990). Concise, free of jargon and full of good sense, it had an immediate impact. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 6pt;"><span style=";font-family:Georgia;color:black;" lang="EN-AU">Then, in the wake of the Polly Peck and Coloroll scandals, where accounts showing companies to be in good shape had been published just weeks before their total collapse, Cadbury was invited by the London Stock Exchange and big City accounting firms to chair a committee on financial corporate governance that would come up with a code of good practice. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 6pt;"><span style=";font-family:Georgia;color:black;" lang="EN-AU">Within weeks, new upheavals stretched their terms of reference.<o:p></o:p> ‘First we had the BCCI bank collapse [with a loss of £9bn], then Maxwell pillaging £429m from his employees’ pension funds. Suddenly we couldn’t just stick to reports and accounts. So we tried to frame guidelines for companies to define what their duties are when it comes to reporting and accounting for their stewardship.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 6pt;"><span style=";font-family:Georgia;color:black;" lang="EN-AU">‘It was not a big report. We made nineteen recommendations, and most of them are one sentence. But the essence was disclosure: you must be open about the way you’re running your business. Particularly in a publicly quoted company, the equations can become difficult. But your job as directors is to balance your duties towards your investors, your employees, your consumers and society as a whole.’<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 6pt;"><span style=";font-family:Georgia;color:black;" lang="EN-AU">Issued in December 1992, the ‘Cadbury Report’ proved a watershed that thanks to its chairman’s tireless advocacy continues even now to make waves around the world. Later reports and fifteen years of academic research have only served to uphold the fundamental Cadbury principles of openness and transparency.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 6pt;"><span style=";font-family:Georgia;color:black;" lang="EN-AU">Some publicly traded companies still do not separate the jobs of chairman and chief executive or have on their boards three or more outside directors, as Cadbury recommended, but increasingly they are seen as mavericks about whom investors can draw their own conclusions.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 6pt;"><span style=";font-family:Georgia;color:black;" lang="EN-AU">In 1992, Cadbury recalls, even after the BCCI and Maxwell scandals, there were plenty of naysayers who said, ‘Who are these people? This is interference with the way businesses are run’. The Confederation of British Industry didn’t like the recommendations, even though both it and The Institute of Directors had been represented on the committee. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 6pt;"><span style=";font-family:Georgia;color:black;" lang="EN-AU">‘They gave me the chance to have my say at the CBI conference, so they could oppose such intervention. But I really believed in what we’d done, so I was prepared to speak anywhere, to any audience, and say, “We believe that these things are in your interest – and if you don’t meet the expectations society has of you as directors, you are going to have regulation imposed on you.” In the event, I got almost total support from the CBI membership.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 6pt;"><span style=";font-family:Georgia;color:black;" lang="EN-AU">‘Our code of practice had no legal force. All we asked companies to do in their annual reports was to comply or explain why they weren’t doing so. There were all kinds of people who didn’t wish to comply: until very recently [the supermarket group] Morrisons didn’t. Fine. They explained that to their shareholders, and their shareholders initially supported them. It was only when things began to get a bit rocky that they had to make changes.’<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 6pt;"><span style=";font-family:Georgia;color:black;" lang="EN-AU">One unexpected consequence of the report has been a huge amount of travel, says Cadbury. ‘I’ve been to 24 different countries, some of them several times, to talk about corporate governance and reporting. And it’s that concept of “comply or explain” that has had such impact internationally. It’s been taken up by the World Bank, right across Europe, and taken root almost everywhere except the <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">United States</st1:place></st1:country-region>.’<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 6pt;"><st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on"><span style=";font-family:Georgia;color:black;" lang="EN-AU">America</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style=";font-family:Georgia;color:black;" lang="EN-AU">, of course, has its own Sarbanes-Oxley legislation, introduced in 2002 in response to the Enron and WorldCom scandals, but this has been widely disparaged as cumbersome and overly prescriptive, loaded down with the sort of detail that positively challenges lawyers to find loopholes. By comparison, the simplicity of the Cadbury code and the way it places the onus to comply squarely on the company has made it self-recommending across most of the rest of the world.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 6pt;"><span style=";font-family:Georgia;color:black;" lang="EN-AU">This transatlantic split reflects a genuine ideological divide, says Cadbury. Gordon Gekko wouldn’t agree that companies have any ethical responsibilities to the society in which they operate. They exist solely to make money, which is why the mantra ‘greed is good’ is hardwired into so many brains. Ethics exist only to be left at the office door with your coat.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 6pt;"><span style=";font-family:Georgia;color:black;" lang="EN-AU">As the free-market economist Milton Friedman once put it: ‘Few trends could so thoroughly undermine the very foundations of our free society as the acceptance by corporate officials of a social responsibility other than to make as much money for their stockholders as possible.’ For Friedman, a corporation’s sole ethical imperative is to stay legal.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 6pt;"><span style=";font-family:Georgia;color:black;" lang="EN-AU">So what does Cadbury think companies are for? ‘The fundamental role of a company is to provide the goods and services people want, and to do so efficiently, ethically and profitably,’ he says. ‘Companies are chartered by society. They have a legal existence; they have benefits; and in return there is an implied contract with society. Companies need to deliver the benefits society expects from them. Why should they have favoured status otherwise?’<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 6pt;"><span style=";font-family:Georgia;color:black;" lang="EN-AU">On that definition, he says, corporate governance is the job of ‘holding the balance between economic and social goals. The aim is to align as nearly as possible the interests of individuals, corporations and society. The incentive for corporations is to achieve their corporate aims and to attract investment. The incentive for states is to strengthen their economies and discourage fraud and mismanagement.’<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 6pt;"><span style=";font-family:Georgia;color:black;" lang="EN-AU">The contrast is stark. In continental Europe and <st1:place st="on">Scandinavia</st1:place> companies have an important and established social role in the community, whereas the Friedman approach – the American way – insists that companies have no business meddling in social affairs. They don’t have a mandate and it’s not their job. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 6pt;"><span style=";font-family:Georgia;color:black;" lang="EN-AU">‘For business,’ says Cadbury, ‘the dilemma we are faced with in questioning the American way, of course, is that they’re very successful. Their companies work very well. In <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Britain</st1:place></st1:country-region> we’re in a sense caught between the European and American approaches. We do very much admire American success, but we worry more about social consequences than they do.’<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 6pt;"><span style=";font-family:Georgia;color:black;" lang="EN-AU">‘Many benefits flow from the changes we have made in <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Britain</st1:place></st1:country-region>, particularly under pressure from pension funds and insurance companies. For instance, by law companies now have to state in their annual reports how far they take social, environmental and ethical considerations into investment decisions.’<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 6pt;"><span style=";font-family:Georgia;color:black;" lang="EN-AU">Recently Cadbury pulled together the fruits of his earlier and later careers in a further, equally crisply written, book, Corporate Governance and Chairmanship. A Personal View<o:p></o:p> (Oxford 2002). Ten years on from the Cadbury Report, he offers a wealth of practical advice to company chairmen and directors – including some trenchant remarks about boardroom tables – and reviews how far corporate governance has come. In the final analysis, he says, ‘the character of the company is collectively in our hands. We have inherited its reputation and standing and it is for us to advance them.’<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 6pt;"><span style=";font-family:Georgia;color:black;" lang="EN-AU">In other words, as one early Cadbury statement of aims so admirably puts it, ‘nothing is too good for the public.’<o:p></o:p></span></p>c.k.hohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01352583226593049470noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8822870265396211781.post-87256664432094232852007-12-14T22:49:00.000+08:002007-12-15T23:20:51.329+08:00Money not enough?<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 6pt;font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size:100%;">This year has been rather eventful for reward management practitioners.<span style=""> </span>Firstly, an upward pressure on salaries, amidst a tight labour market, caused numerous companies to match counteroffers of competitor firms to retain key employees. Secondly, the <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Singapore</st1:place></st1:country-region> government revamped the salary management system of its civil service to keep pace with benchmark salaries of the private sector.<span style=""> </span></span><span style="font-size:100%;">To link rewards more closely to performance, the government increased the proportion of annual salary that is variable. At the senior levels, as much as 50 per cent of the annual salary is performance-based. According to a compensation consultant, “the civil service increasingly finds itself competing for talent against the private sector and as such, needs to ensure that its pay packages are competitive and aligned with its objective of attracting top talent’</span><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size:100%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 6pt;font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size:100%;">Although the justification for paying public servants top salaries is to attract and retain key civil servants, it may have created a bridge that connects the stigmatised lowly paid public servants and the highly paid private enterprise executives.<span style=""> </span>The dichotomy between public and private sector salaries will be blurred, and the traditional mindset of lowly salaried public servants may over time be eradicated. With the revised salary management system for public servants, the Singapore Government is setting the salary benchmarks that private enterprises will inevitably follow to stay competitive.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 6pt;font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size:100%;">In the public sector, pay is symbolic. The perception of pay equity is an emotional topic.<span style=""> </span>It is more so if the rewards of the political leaders of the country are intimately pegged to market pricing, benchmarked against the most successful chief executives of global corporations, and built on the public servant salary structures.<span style=""> </span>It must be the dream of public servants to be rewarded as corporate entrepreneurs without the risks, responsibilities, </span><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size:100%;">accountability </span><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size:100%;">and/or </span><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size:100%;">competence to manage a business. As expected, ministerial salaries and bonuses created much attention and debate these past months.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 6pt;font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size:100%;">In recent years, compensation of chief executives and senior management of private enterprises have been under scrutiny by stakeholders. At shareholders meetings, stakeholders are disgusted at the manner senior managers reward themselves regardless of company performance and returns on investments.<span style=""> </span>In many instances, non-performing executives are offered golden parachutes amounting to millions of dollars as they are shown the back door. One need to go no further than to examine the classic case of Enron to understand why pay for performance and incentive schemes of the Anglo-Saxons led to the collapse of the organisation.<span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 6pt;font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size:100%;">For more than twenty years, the Anglo-Saxons embrace pay for performance system as the panacea for driving employees’ behaviours towards the goals and objectives of organizations, often ignoring “the folly of rewarding A while hoping for B”. In his research on the mythology of management compensation, Edward Lawler III argued against the effectiveness of pay for performance in “why is pay no longer an incentive to better job performance". More recently, Michael de Beer conducted a survey on a sample of global senior executives examining “if incentives work?” Their results suggested that careful efforts to design an incentive system to make pay contingent on unit performance may be misguided, and raised questions about the worldwide trend towards the use of more executive incentives. Unfortunately, many organisational practitioners are still paying extraordinary attention to pay for performance. Are practitioners familiar with the notion of pay without performance?<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 6pt;font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size:100%;">The <st1:place st="on"><st1:country-region st="on">Singapore</st1:country-region></st1:place> government may have embedded the cultural aspects of reward management by imposing Anglo-Saxon practices on its servants in predominant Singaporean Chinese work communities.<span style=""> </span>As an example, the dimension of power distance as espoused by Hofstede, within the context of reward management, </span><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size:100%;">refers </span><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size:100%;">to the degree of inequality that is tolerable between salaries.<span style=""> </span>Countries with a high power distance can have extremely wide salary gaps (income disparities) that would not be tolerated in countries with a low power distance. Within countries (as well as companies) with a high power distance, it is accepted both implicitly and explicitly that people at lower levels of the organization should be paid little, and people at the top should be paid a great deal.<span style=""> </span>Under these circumstances, is there a sense of guilt at the boardroom where people at the top are compensating themselves with obscene salaries and bonuses and the lower levels of an organization are drawing minimal wages barely adequate to meet hygiene levels? In the context </span><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size:100%;">of a high power distance work environment </span><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size:100%;">of "Yes Minister",<span style=""> </span>the ethics of performance reward should be taken seriously. Otherwise, pay and performance may arbitrarily </span><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size:100%;">be </span><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size:100%;"> determined by a "few good men", regardless of corporate governance.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 6pt;font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size:100%;">Although the government has announced the revised salary management system, many questions remained unanswered:<o:p></o:p></span></p> <ul style="margin-top: 0in;font-family:georgia;" type="square"><li class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 6pt; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size:100%;">Is the Anglo-Saxon’s pay for performance scheme designed on the premise of private sector enterprises, relevant and aligned to the Singapore civil service in terms of its purpose, its objectives, and the culture of public servants?<span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></span></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 6pt; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size:100%;">Should the rejuvenated public service rewards scheme be a pay for (past?) performance, pay for competence, pay for (future?) contributions, or simply pay for service excellence?<o:p></o:p></span></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 6pt;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size:100%;"><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">Are we encouraging public servants to be mercenaries as we throw more monies at them?</span><o:p></o:p></span></li></ul> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 6pt;font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size:100%;">Soon, public servants, accustomed to higher salaries, will seek more salaries and bonuses so that they will not be dissatisfied with work. Seriously, is there a causal link between civil servants offering public service and an economy doing exceptionally well? Perhaps, we will experience Steven Kerr’s “folly of rewarding A while hoping for B?” in due course.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 6pt;font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size:100%;">It is always convenient to justify salary increases with market pricing of benchmark companies. Inevitably, adopting salary surveys for competitive benchmarking purposes will result in upward spiraling salary costs, and intense pressure on companies to pay more.<span style=""> In addition, salary surveys are dated, and is an indication of pay for past performance. Do we really need to look back in order to move forward? </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 6pt;font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size:100%;">Reward management practitioners should go beyond the cash components of compensation and examine total rewards in the context of the industry the reward plan operates.<span style=""> </span>Just as it is a folly to pay public servants private sector salaries, it will be a folly to pay volunteers and full time employees of charitable and/or non profit organizations private sector salaries, as a senior public servant suggested in his keynote speech at a recent charity dinner.<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 6pt;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family:Georgia;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family:georgia;">Regardless, money is never enough.</span></span><o:p></o:p></span></p>c.k.hohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01352583226593049470noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8822870265396211781.post-82218130888934868642007-12-14T09:40:00.001+08:002007-12-14T18:17:08.120+08:00Are we motivating public servants to behave like mercenaries by throwing more money at them?<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-xRANsD0b3SE-xgi8PsrNetfrU1WfJ79xQhp0Joezxr3jZ0aSazRWDdT0iQE8ESkDjgVzsnssYDrCu-WcSeysmIMrGJPVGt4ZnTeY1AvGt2xbIn-P9bTqoYnOLyJDsIpuvUAP9MvJTZrW/s1600-h/pay+hike+reduced.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-xRANsD0b3SE-xgi8PsrNetfrU1WfJ79xQhp0Joezxr3jZ0aSazRWDdT0iQE8ESkDjgVzsnssYDrCu-WcSeysmIMrGJPVGt4ZnTeY1AvGt2xbIn-P9bTqoYnOLyJDsIpuvUAP9MvJTZrW/s400/pay+hike+reduced.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5143637834375456290" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);font-size:85%;" >TodayOnline, 14 December 2007, Singapore</span>c.k.hohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01352583226593049470noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8822870265396211781.post-84340552080683984592007-12-13T09:34:00.000+08:002007-12-13T09:57:51.070+08:00A special monthly bonus for our employee of the month?<p class="MsoNormal" style=""><span style="color:black;"><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" ><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);font-size:100%;" >Incentive strategy works for designerintimex business solutions</span> </span><o:p></o:p></span><br /><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);font-size:85%;" ><st1:place st="on">South China</st1:place></span><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);" ><span style="font-size:85%;"> Morning Post, 13 December 2007<o:p></o:p><br />(c) 2007 South China Morning Post Publishers Limited, <st1:place st="on">Hong Kong</st1:place>. All rights reserved.</span> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 6pt; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">Employees are bound to look around for better opportunities in a booming economy and few will hesitate to jump ship when a tempting offer comes along, particularly if the offer comes from a larger, more established company than their present employer. <o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 6pt; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">Daisy Chow Oi-yee, chief operations officer at website design company Intimex Business Solutions, understands the problem. "For a small company, attracting new members involves a big effort and a large investment. So losing staff is a big loss," she said. <o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 6pt; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">She knew she could not win if staff simply wanted the kudos of working for a big-name company, so she created a working environment that discouraged staff from making the decision to leave. <o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 6pt; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">The innovative approach to retention won her company a place in the finals at the HKIHRM/SCMP People Management Awards 2007. The company was entered into the small enterprise category. <o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 6pt; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">Key to Ms Chow's approach is her introduction of large company human resources practices and systems to her small business. She adopted this strategy after completing her Open University MBA course in 2004. <o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 6pt; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">Her successful formula is the "Motivate" principle which stands for motives, open communication, trust, innovation and creativity, vision, appreciation and rewards, thoughtful feedback and entrepreneurship. Consequently it helped to reduce turnover by 60 per cent in two years. In the past six months she has had less than three of her 20 staff leave her company. <o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 6pt; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">Her industry is rapidly expanding and changing so she encourages her staff to be entrepreneurial, which means thinking outside the box and generating work that is fresh, exciting and different to the competition. <o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 6pt; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">"We encourage employees to try new things and we allow trial-by-error, as this can stimulate creativity," she said. <o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 6pt; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">The designers are encouraged to be creative during their monthly design competition. Each designer selects their favourite website from that month and puts it forward for judgment by colleagues. It is voted on and commented on by all members of the company. <o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 6pt; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">Designers are also asked to make sure they are proud of their work. "If they are proud of their work, they will also engage the customer," she said. "There is a 30 per cent fail rate in this industry, because the service is not satisfactory, or projects are delayed. So we have a promise to our customers that we will finish the job by all means at our disposal," she said. <o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 6pt; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">Management is encouraged to show appreciation by e-mail and regular appraisals are given every six months, with outstanding employees offered promotions and salary rises. <o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 6pt; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">An unusual incentive is the special monthly bonus that is paid in recognition of the outstanding performance of staff during the month. The company divides 20 per cent of a month's profit among deserving staff.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">__________________</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Finalists strong to the core</span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" ><br /><span style="font-size:100%;">Strong faith in human capital management and link between HR and business strategy help to impress the judges, writes Rosheen Rodwell</span></span><o:p></o:p><br /><st1:place st="on">South China</st1:place> Morning Post, 13 December 2007<o:p></o:p><br />(c) 2007 South China Morning Post Publishers Limited, <st1:place st="on">Hong Kong</st1:place>. All rights reserved. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"><span style="font-size:85%;">Finalists of this year's HKIHRM/SCMP People Management Awards impressed the judging panel with their strong faith in human capital management - a vital element of a successful business. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"><span style="font-size:85%;">The final results will be announced at the gala dinner tonight at the JW Marriott Hong Kong - an occasion which also marks the 30th anniversary of the Hong Kong Institute of Human Resource Management (HKIHRM). <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"><span style="font-size:85%;">All five judges are strong believers in the importance for businesses of good human resource management and they were pleased to discover that all of the finalists demonstrated a similarly strong faith in human capital management and that this faith was borne out in the implementation of their HR strategies. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"><span style="font-size:85%;">They met at the end of November to hear presentations from this year's four finalists. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"><span style="font-size:85%;">"The most enjoyable part of the process is seeing the results for the different projects demonstrate that the HR profession is of much more value to companies than just payroll and admin," said Gary Fielding, regional president Asia of Clariant International.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"><span style="font-size:85%;">Equally rewarding, said Aaron Yim Chong-kee, managing director of Ricoh Hong Kong, was the fact that the commitment to these strategies went all the way to the top. "The strong link between HR strategy and business strategy was very clear. The chief executives demonstrated a strong belief that successful people development could uplift the productivity of the workforce and generate better profit for the company," he said. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"><span style="font-size:85%;">The presentation day gave the judges a good opportunity to gather more information on the projects put forward and assess whether each project had involved the whole company. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"><span style="font-size:85%;">Andrea Zavadszky, editor of Special Reports and Classified Post for the South China Morning Post, said: "We always want to make sure that the awards go to a project which had a great deal of involvement by the HR department, was fully supported by the chief executive and embraced by the staff. All of these points would have to be fulfilled for a project to win. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"><span style="font-size:85%;">"We really have to base the judging on a thorough investigation," she said. "Sometimes the project looks perfect on paper, but when we visit the company we cannot find the results as described. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"><span style="font-size:85%;">"The same thing is true in reverse. Sometimes the paperwork is a bit lacking and we doubt if the project should get in at all, but during the company visit and the presentation we gain a better understanding and become really impressed with what the company has achieved." <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"><span style="font-size:85%;">Each finalist impressed the judges in a different way. China State Construction International Holdings, which presented first and was among the three finalists in the large enterprise category, was congratulated for the united front it presented and for the consistency of its approach to the performance and profit sharing reward scheme, which had proven successful during difficult times for the industry. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"><span style="font-size:85%;">Eddie Ng Hak-kim, past president, international committee chairman and external affairs director for the HKIHRM said: "<st1:place st="on"><st1:placename st="on">China</st1:placename> <st1:placetype st="on">State</st1:placetype></st1:place> has applied a generic performance and reward scheme and profit sharing system that cascades down to everyone. Workers in the field, people with different skills sets and with a variety of educational levels are all participants in the same scheme. This is a very proactive and professional people management ideal set." <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"><span style="font-size:85%;">City Telecom (HK) came next and made a good impression with a dynamic presentation. Ms Zavadszky said: "I really enjoyed the City Telecom presentation. It was presented by an ex-police officer and was bursting with energy. As a start, he took off his jacket and rolled up his shirtsleeves, with his teammates following his example. It was a little theatrical but it was a fun element and it well represented the leadership's management style: energetic, detail minded and team spirited." <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"><span style="font-size:85%;">NWS Holdings presented third and the company, which employs 42,000 people across a huge range of businesses, was commended for its Outstanding Employee Grand Award scheme. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"><span style="font-size:85%;">Mr Ng said: "Being big, being diverse is a challenge. The beauty of what NWS Holdings has done is to hold one scheme common to all, even though the company is so big. The idea of the employee award cascading down to individual companies first, so each one would present their own unique contribution, [thus] building a culture of appreciation, is very important for today's community." <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"><span style="font-size:85%;">Finally, in the small enterprise category, Daisy Chow Oi-yee, chief operations officer at website design company Intimex Business Solutions, introduced her HR strategies. They had been specifically designed to combat the turnover that so drastically affects small businesses. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style=""><span style="color:black;"><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);font-size:85%;" >Ms Zavadszky said: "This presentation was impressive. Through her presentation you could see the everyday struggle of SMEs trying to change from a small company employing a few people, to something more structured as the company grows. "Ms Chow had terrific stamina and a great love of her job, her staff, and high objectives. Therefore she could remain in the black in a very competitive industry, with crippling attrition and could count some big and famous companies among her clientele."</span><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 6pt;"></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 6pt;"><span style="color:black;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>c.k.hohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01352583226593049470noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8822870265396211781.post-39105414633839732112007-12-11T21:23:00.000+08:002007-12-12T08:11:23.298+08:00Are we willing to match an offer from a competitor firm to retain a key employee?<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Georgia;">"A key employee has just presented his business manager with a job offer for significantly higher pay from a competitor firm. The threatened departure of the employee catches the business manager by surprise. Alarmed, the business manager contacts the human resource manager seeking to counter the external recruitment effort. An impassioned plea is made to authorize an exceptional pay package to match the offer. Under pressure and constrained for time, the human resource manager accedes to the business manager’s request, retaining the employee and in the process undermines the integrity of the company’s overall pay policy and practice."<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Georgia;">As practitioners, we encounter a dilemma when the extension of a counteroffer is necessary to retain key employees. On one hand, we are reluctant to participate in an upward pay spiral by matching competitors’ offers with counteroffers. On the other hand, the bidding may be justified when the potential contributions and/or the difficulty of replacing the employee are great. In addition, matching offers of competitor firms promulgate a </span><span style="font-family:Georgia;">'greed is good' </span><span style="font-family:Georgia;">culture whereby opportunistic employees solicit </span><span style="font-family:Georgia;">bids from competitor firms to extort higher pay from the company.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Georgia;">Simply aligning employee pay rates with the market median rates may not be sufficient to keep the headhunters at bay. Also, it would be naïve to presume that adherence to a market median, or an upper quartile pay practice should automatically translates into employee retention. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Georgia;">It is time to focus on market pricing of jobs and institute retention tactics in anticipation of the prospect of employees receiving job offers from competitor firms.<span style=""> </span>Regardless of perceived pay equity challenges, market pricing of jobs is individual centric. </span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:Georgia;font-size:100%;" ><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);font-family:Georgia;font-size:100%;" >In anticipation of competitive bids in the war for talented people, </span><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);font-family:Georgia;font-size:100%;" >should we </span><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);font-family:Georgia;font-size:100%;" >offer key employees salaries commensurate with the alternative jobs </span><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);font-family:Georgia;font-size:100%;" >(real or hypothetical) </span><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">they could hold, or can we afford not to?<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">A recent employment outlook survey suggests that the "barbarians are already at the gates" ...</span><span style="font-family:Georgia;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Georgia;">__________________________<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Georgia;"><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >Employers see strong hiring in Q1 next year: survey</span> <o:p></o:p><br /><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);font-size:85%;" >Business Times <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Singapore</st1:place></st1:country-region>, 11 December 2007<o:p></o:p><br />By Chow Penn Nee <o:p></o:p><br />(c) 2007 Singapore Press Holdings Limited <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia;">THE hunt for talent shows no signs of abating, as <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Singapore</st1:place></st1:country-region> employers will actively recruit qualified staff from January to March next year, according to a quarterly survey measuring employers' intentions to hire or fire employees. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia;">Conducted by US-based Manpower Inc, the Manpower Employment Outlook Survey polled 52,000 public and private companies in 27 countries. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia;">Of the 736 employers polled in <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Singapore</st1:place></st1:country-region>, net employment outlook - the percentage of employers looking to hire minus those expecting a decrease in employment - was 51 per cent. This indicates that employers throughout <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Singapore</st1:place></st1:country-region> will continue to hire at a vigorous pace, said Manpower. This is nine percentage points higher than in the fourth quarter of 2007. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia;">Forty-five per cent of employers said they expect to hire more people during the first quarter of 2008, while 2 per cent expect to reduce staffing levels, and 24 per cent report no change in hiring intentions. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia;">C K Goh Rosa, country manager of Manpower <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Singapore</st1:place></st1:country-region>, noted that job seekers are more selective with job offers and are more demanding in negotiating salary packages. 'With the consistently strong hiring outlook, we may see a continuous trend of rising salary packages to attract and retain talent. This will drive up operating costs and is a source of concern for most companies.' <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia;">She added: 'It will be a good time to invest in training the mature workforce to narrow the gap of talent shortages.' <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia;">Employers in the public administration and education sector report the strongest hiring outlook of 70 per cent, which is a marked increase from the previous quarter, and from a year ago. The finance, insurance and real estate sector was the second strongest with a net outlook of 67 per cent, a slight drop from the previous quarter, and a fall from a year ago. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia;">The mining and construction sector was the third strongest in hiring outlook, with 59 per cent, up from a quarter ago, but a drop year-on-year. Employers in the wholesale and retail trade sector report the slowest hiring pace with an outlook of 33 per cent, higher than a quarter ago but a fall from the previous year. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia;">'The sharp increase in the public administration and education sector outlook is likely due to the increase in enrolments in training institutions and learning centres in Singapore,' said Ms Goh Rosa. 'More people are looking to invest in personal advancement and marketability. We are seeing signs of companies sending their mature employees to courses to improve their skill sets and knowledge in an effort to extend their employment.' <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia;">In the Asia-Pacific, hiring activity is expected to be positive, but employers in <st1:country-region st="on">Australia</st1:country-region>, <st1:country-region st="on">China</st1:country-region>, <st1:country-region st="on">Japan</st1:country-region>, <st1:country-region st="on">New Zealand</st1:country-region>, <st1:country-region st="on">Singapore</st1:country-region> and <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Taiwan</st1:place></st1:country-region> show a slower pace of hiring from a year ago. On a quarterly basis, however, net employment outlook improved in <st1:country-region st="on">China</st1:country-region>, <st1:city st="on">Hong Kong</st1:city>, <st1:country-region st="on">Singapore</st1:country-region> and <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Taiwan</st1:place></st1:country-region>. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Georgia;"><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);font-size:85%;" >Globally, the strongest first quarter hiring expectations were reported in <st1:country-region st="on">Peru</st1:country-region>, <st1:country-region st="on">Singapore</st1:country-region>, <st1:country-region st="on">India</st1:country-region>, <st1:country-region st="on">Argentina</st1:country-region>, <st1:country-region st="on">Costa Rica</st1:country-region>, Hong Kong and <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">South Africa</st1:place></st1:country-region>. Employers in <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Ireland</st1:place></st1:country-region> reported the least optimistic hiring plans.</span><o:p></o:p></span></p>c.k.hohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01352583226593049470noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8822870265396211781.post-57541208925832088062007-12-11T11:50:00.000+08:002007-12-12T05:44:00.131+08:00Is mandatory annuity scheme for old age still palatable on the back of 8 years of poor health?<p class="MsoNormal" style=""><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia;"><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >Annuity made palatable</span> <o:p></o:p><br />Straits Times <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Singapore</st1:place></st1:country-region>, 11 December 2007<o:p></o:p><br />Review - Editorial <o:p></o:p><br />(c) 2007 Singapore Press Holdings Limited <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style=""><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia;">BIT BY bit, the probable final shape of the compulsory annuity scheme for old-age support is emerging. Two features of the proposal which a good many people found objectionable may be modified, according to the principals working on the plan. These are the sequestering from the policyholder's heirs of surplus sums left upon death, and the seemingly ambitious age of 85 at which payouts from the annuity are to begin. Under modifications being studied by a government-appointed panel headed by Professor Lim Pin, the unused portion will revert to the family. This will be welcomed and should remove the one impediment that stands between voluntary and grudging acceptance of the old-age protection idea. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style=""><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia;">Just as cognisant of public unhappiness expressed is the concession that policyholders could have a choice of starting ages at which they will begin receiving payouts. Manpower Minister Ng Eng Hen, who is steering the annuity scheme, mentioned by way of illustration a range from age 65 up to 90. The base is obviously too low. A credible number could be 75 or 80. Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong has said he favours age 80. The original access age of 85 on the face of it is scaled too high. All that the Government has said of longevity projections is that half of those Singaporeans who attain age 62 will go on to live beyond 85. How many would that be? The incredulity with which this was received by many people was undoubtedly a visceral response, but it was enough to dump controversy on a proposal which by rights should get easy passage, as about half of CPF members simply would not have enough money in their accounts to support themselves if they lived to extreme old age. The Government will now engage private actuaries to verify data on projected life spans. This preferably should have accompanied the announcement of the original proposal, but better late than never. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style=""><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia;">Two points arising are worth recording. First, the Government has taken on board views and criticisms that clearly are deeply felt, even if these should eventually turn out to be not completely justified. The receptiveness will be welcomed by the people. But they should be prepared to pay higher premiums, and consequently have reduced CPF balances, for the relaxed criteria. Second, it should be remembered reform of old-age pension proposals had begun in the 1980s. Data showed Singaporeans were living longer and outstripping their modest savings. Life expectancy was only 61 years when the CPF was started in 1955. As those who need help most are least able to accumulate enough in voluntary savings, a mandated plan is unavoidable. <o:p><br />_____________________________________</o:p><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >S'poreans live longer but suffer 8 years of poor health</span> <o:p></o:p><br />Straits Times <st1:place st="on"><st1:country-region st="on">Singapore</st1:country-region></st1:place>, 3 December 2007<o:p></o:p><br />By Salma Khalik, Health Correspondent <o:p></o:p><br /><span style=""></span>(c) 2007 Singapore Press Holdings Limited<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style=""><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia;"><span style="font-size:100%;">MOH study shows main causes of sickness are diseases that could be prevented early on</span> <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style=""><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia;">IF YOU needed another reason to lead a healthy lifestyle, here it is: A study shows that Singaporeans may be living longer now, but they are also sick for more years than people in some other countries. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style=""><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia;">The main culprits are heart disease and stroke, cancer, diabetes and even mental illness. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style=""><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia;">Now, the average <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Singapore</st1:place></st1:country-region> woman should live to 81.8, but she will spend eight of those years ill or disabled. Men too will spend eight of their 78 years in poor health. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style=""><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia;">So while <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Singapore</st1:place></st1:country-region> does well on life expectancy charts, a different picture emerges when good health is tracked. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style=""><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia;">The Ministry of Health study confirmed that a lot of suffering and premature deaths come from diseases that could be prevented - such as heart attacks, stroke and diabetes. Some cancers too could be caught early. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style=""><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia;">The prevalence of such diseases also suggests that more should be done to tell people what they can do to save themselves from becoming ill, said Dr Lam Pin Min, a member of the Government Parliamentary Committee for Health. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style=""><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia;">He called for more public education on how these ailments can be prevented, and screening to catch problems like diabetes and cancer early. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style=""><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia;">He added: 'With early detection of diseases, prompt medical treatment can hopefully minimise illness and medical complications.' <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style=""><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia;">But health authorities can only do so much, argued unionist and Health GPC head Madam Halimah Yacob. People must take ownership of their health if they want to keep such illnesses at bay. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style=""><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia;">Her advice: 'Go for regular screening, eat more vegetables, less salt and do more exercise. That could cut the number of years you suffer from ill health.' <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style=""><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia;">Dr Derrick Heng, deputy director of the Ministry of Health's non-communicable diseases branch said the study will guide the authorities on how to spend health resources. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style=""><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia;">But though it 'shines the torch' on diseases that cause the most suffering, the ministry will have to see which actually benefit from preventive measures. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style=""><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia;">The study will be repeated every three years, to track if the main causes of disability change, or are reduced, as the ministry puts in more effort to tackle them. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style=""><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia;">A surprising finding was how mental disorders count as much as diabetes and stroke for the wasted years. Mental health is getting a boost as the ministry has committed $80 million over the next five years to improving it. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style=""><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia;">Zooming in on problem areas could help <st1:country-region st="on">Singapore</st1:country-region> catch up with countries that fare best - such as <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Japan</st1:place></st1:country-region>, the top country in the world for long, healthy lives. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style=""><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia;">Japanese women live an average of 77.7 years in good health, compared to only 71.3 years for women here. Japanese men have 72.3 years of good health, compared to 68.8 years for <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Singapore</st1:place></st1:country-region> men. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style=""><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia;">The ministry has already made the treatment and prevention of chronic disease a priority. People can now use money previously reserved for hospitalisation to treat diabetes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure and stroke. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style=""><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia;">The intention is to treat those conditions early before complications set in. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style=""><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia;">Unfortunately the programme has not been popular, said Madam Halimah. She suggested expanding the use of Medisave money to include an annual health check. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style=""><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia;">Men should also take a leaf from their wives. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style=""><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia;">Women all over the world live longer and healthier lives. The World Health Organisation (WHO) attributes it to their smoking less, exercising more and being more health conscious than men. As for <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Japan</st1:place></st1:country-region>, its explanation is the low rate of cardiovascular diseases comes from their high-in-fish diets. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style=""><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia;">Madam Halimah said: 'We should also start eating more fish and less meat.' <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style=""><span style="font-family:Georgia;"><span style="font-size:85%;">salma@sph.com.sg</span> <o:p></o:p></span></p>c.k.hohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01352583226593049470noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8822870265396211781.post-51166595300834779132007-12-10T12:25:00.000+08:002007-12-11T05:57:25.988+08:00Can we moderate economic performance with superannuation contribution rates?<p class="MsoNormal" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family:Georgia;"><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >Fight inflation with CPF, GST: economists </span><o:p></o:p><br /><a href="javascript:void(0)"><span style="text-decoration: none;"></span></a>Business Times Singapore, 10 December 2007<o:p></o:p><br />By Siow Li Sen <o:p></o:p><br />(c) 2007 Singapore Press Holdings Limited <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 6pt; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family:Georgia;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Cool labour demand by raising employer contribution, roll back July GST hike</span> <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 6pt; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family:Georgia;">(<st1:place st="on"><st1:country-region st="on">SINGAPORE</st1:country-region></st1:place>) The government should restore some of the CPF employer contribution cuts as a way to cool labour demand, which in turn will moderate growth. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 6pt; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family:Georgia;">That should help ease inflation and help people cope with runaway prices that are biting into the lives of most Singaporeans, said Chua Hak Bin, Citi economist. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 6pt; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family:Georgia;">Another way to help people cope with higher prices is to target the punitive 2 percentage point increase in the Goods and Services Tax, other economists added. This is because when the 2 per cent GST hike was pushed through on July 1, the government had not reckoned on food and energy prices shooting up the way they have done. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 6pt; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family:Georgia;">'Higher CPF (Central Provident Fund) contribution rates will help cool labour demand and moderate growth,' said Dr Chua. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 6pt; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family:Georgia;">Economists expect the government to soon announce more specific measures to help the poor, who are especially hard hit by inflation. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 6pt; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family:Georgia;">But Dr Chua thinks more has to be done for the wider population, and restoring CPF employer contribution cuts will go a long way towards tackling the problem. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 6pt; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family:Georgia;">Inflation jumped to a shocking 3.6 per cent in October - a 16-year high - and the projection is that it could go as high as 5 per cent early next year, before easing. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 6pt; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family:Georgia;">Standard Chartered economist Alvin Liew said while the policy of having a stronger Singapore dollar can 'quite effectively deal with import inflation, it is less effective against domestic price pressures such as rising rents and higher wage expectations'. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 6pt; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family:Georgia;">'We are likely to see more government measures to moderate rental increases, business costs and wage expectations,' said Mr Liew. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 6pt; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family:Georgia;">Some measures could be to increase property tax rebates and raise the corporate tax exemption threshold, said Mr Liew. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 6pt; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family:Georgia;">Dr Chua thinks it's strong growth that must be tackled, and one way would be to restore the CPF contribution cuts by one percentage point and more for older workers. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 6pt; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family:Georgia;">'Job growth is running at too strong a pace, given such a tight labour market,' he said. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 6pt; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family:Georgia;">Job growth is running at 200,000 a year, or at an 8 per cent pace and the unemployment rate is now down to below 2 per cent. Easing the rules on hiring foreigners is not the solution, he said. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 6pt; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family:Georgia;">'Where will you house the foreigners?' Dr Chua asked. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 6pt; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family:Georgia;">Higher CPF rates will also help the middle class cope with rising living costs, by giving them more cash to pay for things which have become too expensive, he said. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 6pt; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family:Georgia;">When the CPF rates were cut, many had to dip into their disposable income to help with their monthly mortgage payments. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 6pt; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family:Georgia;">CPF cuts over 2003-06 (which brought the employer's rate to 13 per cent) were probably overzealous, especially for older workers, Dr Chua said. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 6pt; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family:Georgia;">This year, the government restored by 1.5 percentage points the employer's rate to 14.5 per cent, bringing the total CPF savings to 34.5 per cent for younger workers. But for employees past 50, the contribution rates are much lower to encourage employers to hang on to these older workers. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 6pt; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family:Georgia;">Suan Teck Kin, economist at United Overseas Bank, thinks the government will not restore CPF rates because it will add on to the wage pressure. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 6pt; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family:Georgia;">And companies enjoying strong growth will just hire more, he said. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 6pt; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family:Georgia;">To reduce some of the cost pressures, the government should do more to defray the punitive 2 per cent hike in GST, Mr Suan said. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 6pt; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family:Georgia;">Dr Chua agrees. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 6pt; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family:Georgia;">'With the benefit of hindsight, hiking the GST by 2 percentage points was probably unnecessary, given the fiscal windfall and inflation impact,' he said. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 6pt; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family:Georgia;">Dr Chua listed the windfalls. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 6pt; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family:Georgia;">The Ministry of Finance had projected tax revenue to increase by only 7.9 per cent, according to the 2007 Budget, but actual tax revenue increase may be more than double that rate. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 6pt; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family:Georgia;">The government projected income taxes to rise by 7.5 per cent. But income taxes for the first 6 months of the fiscal year actually rose by about 20 per cent. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 6pt; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family:Georgia;">The government expected GST revenue to rise by about 23 per cent. But GST collected (for the first 6 months of the fiscal year) has risen by about 49 per cent. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 6pt; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family:Georgia;">The 2 percentage point GST hike was expected to raise $1.5 billion, and the government was projecting a primary deficit of about $600 million (with the 2 per cent GST hike). <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 6pt; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family:Georgia;">'But even without the $1.5 billion proceeds from the 2 percentage point GST hike, back-of-the-envelope calculations suggest the government will likely run a small primary fiscal surplus,' Dr Chua said. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 6pt; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family:Georgia;">----------------------------------------------<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family:Georgia;"><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >Interest rates not the only monetary policy lever</span><o:p></o:p><br />Wednesday, 28 Nov 2007 11:51AM<o:p></o:p><br />By Alex Dunnin<br />www.financialstandard.com.au/index.php?id=11421<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 6pt; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family:Georgia;">With <st1:country-region st="on">Australia</st1:country-region>’s super system looking more and more like <st1:place st="on"><st1:country-region st="on">Singapore</st1:country-region></st1:place>’s every day, maybe it’s time we also followed their lead in using contribution rates as a de facto monetary policy tool.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 6pt; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family:Georgia;">The Singapore Central Provident Fund (CFP) is their A$100 billion national provident fund that helps Singaporeans save for retirement, to buy a home, for medical expenses and to build wealth though a series of non-retirement investment schemes.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 6pt; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family:Georgia;">But where it gets interesting is that while the only official lever <st1:country-region st="on">Australia</st1:country-region> uses to slow down an overheating economy is raising interest rates, in <st1:place st="on"><st1:country-region st="on">Singapore</st1:country-region></st1:place> they sometimes use the CPF contribution rates.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 6pt; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family:Georgia;">Contribution rates being up to 36 per cent of wages means changes these rates are likely to have much more impact controlling surplus discretionary spending anyway, especially as Singaporeans buying their home through the CFP account are only paying interest rates of 2.6 per cent anyway.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 6pt; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family:Georgia;">“With the economy doing well, it is timely to retune the balance of our CPF contribution rates towards the upper end of the 30-36 per cent range. A modest CPF increase will not erode our economic competitiveness and will allow us to better meet the needs of an ageing population. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 6pt; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family:Georgia;">“To enable our workers to benefit from economic growth and to help them build up their CPF savings, effective 1 July 2007 the Government will raise the employer's CPF contribution rate by 1.5 percentage points,” said a statement from the CFP back in February this year.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 6pt; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family:Georgia;">While a 2.6 per cent mortgage rate compared to the 8+per cent paid by Australians is incredibly attractive, the cost for this low rate is that returns paid by the CFP are generally only 2.5 per cent because the overwhelming majority of CPF assets are held as government bonds.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 6pt; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family:Georgia;">Another trade-off is that if Singaporeans use their CFP-funded mortgage to buy their initially publicly funded home they are not allowed to sell it for more than three years and they have to live in it themselves, a policy that <st1:place st="on"><st1:country-region st="on">Australia</st1:country-region></st1:place> might consider as a means to limit house price speculation amid our housing affordability crisis.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 6pt; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family:Georgia;">While it would an administrative nightmare, if <st1:country-region st="on">Australia</st1:country-region> really wanted to take the heat off our currency and mortgage rates, we could introduce floating superannuation contribution rates and really watch savings rates go through the roof too, just like in <st1:place st="on"><st1:country-region st="on">Singapore</st1:country-region></st1:place>.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 6pt;"><span style=";font-family:Georgia;color:black;" lang="EN-AU"><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);font-size:85%;" >But with the “economic conservatives” now running the country, the chances of policy as radical as this aren’t even worth thinking about.</span> <o:p></o:p></span></p>c.k.hohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01352583226593049470noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8822870265396211781.post-30572565838739025142007-11-28T06:31:00.000+08:002007-12-10T13:22:11.658+08:00The Growth Bonus: Is there a causal link between a civil servant offering public service and an economy doing exceptionally well?<p style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);" class="MsoNormal">In the design of a successful incentive plan, an obvious starting point is "what do we hope to achieve ?". In other words, "What is the objective of the proposed incentive scheme?"<br /></p><p style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);" class="MsoNormal">As organisational practitioners, it is always challenging to frame the main purpose of an incentive plan and its competing agendas. Organisations may adopt SMART ideas in determining the goals and objectives of the plans. Performance standards and measures may be formulated using economic value added models or balanced (HR) scorecard templates. With performance measures aligned to the strategic intent of incentive plans and the goals and objectives of the organisation, the causal link between pay and performance may perhaps be forged in theory, and may not necessarily be forged in practice.</p><p style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);" class="MsoNormal">As its name implies, the primary purpose of incentives is to incentivise and reward behavioural change towards performance targets. A significant challenge in the design and implementation of successful incentive schemes (both long and short term plans) is the notion of line of sight. If we are unable to "set our sights and sight our targets", it will be problematic for us to achieve our goals regardless of our competencies and motivation. If the line of sight is remote or obscure, organisations would simply be offering us more money for nothing.<br /></p> <p style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);" class="MsoNormal">In an attempt to make the civil service careers more attractive, the public service division of Singapore announced it would provide extensive career development opportunities and performance based pay for its public servants. An aspect of the performance based pay is the concept of a "Growth Bonus".</p><p style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);" class="MsoNormal"> </p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);">According to its press release of 25 October 2007:</span><span lang="EN-AU"><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);"><br />"<span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);">A new Growth Bonus, to be paid in times of exceptional economic performance, will also be introduced. In line with the philosophy to link rewards to performance, this bonus will be tied closely to individual performance, with the better performers receiving more ... </span></span></span></span></span><span lang="EN-AU"><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);font-size:100%;" >The Growth Bonus will only be paid when the </span><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);font-size:100%;" ><st1:place st="on"><st1:country-region st="on">Singapore</st1:country-region></st1:place></span><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);"><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);font-size:100%;" > economy has done exceptionally well, and is a reflection of the Civil Service’s contribution to the economic performance as well as the contribution of the individual officer</span><span style="font-size:100%;">"</span><br /><br />With an expectation of a "Growth Bonus" for a stellar economic performance to be payable in March 2008, the public service division under the Singapore Prime Minister Office may be setting another quantitative benchmark on short term incentives for the private sector to follow.<br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-AU"><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);">As a tiny red dot, the economic performance of Singapore may be driven mostly by external factors, such as the growth economies of China and India, and may be beyond the grasp of our public servants. No matter how hard we may try, we are still a sampan in an ocean. Do we reward ourselves while we sail in calm waters, and blame the tankers for creating waves when they are in close proximity? What happens when </span></span><span lang="EN-AU"><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);">the sea level raises</span></span><span lang="EN-AU"><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);">?</span></span><span lang="EN-AU"><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-AU"><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);">As a servant of the public, performance standards and measures may be difficult to articulate. In addition, the line of sight between the performance and contributions of civil servants and the exceptional (?) economic performance of Singapore may be obscure, or even remote. Seriously, is there a line of sight between a high performing civil servant offering public service and </span></span><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);font-size:100%;" lang="EN-AU" ><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);">the </span><st1:place st="on"><st1:country-region st="on">Singapore</st1:country-region></st1:place><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);"> economy doing exceptionally well</span></span><span lang="EN-AU"><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);">?<br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-AU"><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);">What about incorporating measures that go beyond economic performance to focus on </span></span><span lang="EN-AU"><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);">the well-being of its residents such as i</span></span><span lang="EN-AU"><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);">ncome disparity and work-life expectancy in a knowledge-based Singapore. Should we include the Human Development Index (HDI) and its composite people dimensions of longevity, knowledge, and purchasing power parity, as well </span></span><span lang="EN-AU"><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);">the Gini coefficient </span></span><span lang="EN-AU"><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);">as </span></span><span lang="EN-AU"><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);">key performance </span></span><span lang="EN-AU"><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);">indicators for public servants. Surely, we should align the well-being of its residents to the economic growth of the economy, or shouldn't we?<br /></span></span></p><p style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-AU"><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);">While the public service division attempts to incentivise its civil servants through "a sharper link between pay and performance to recognise staff according to contribution", will the servants of the public run into "<span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);">the folly of rewarding A while hoping for B</span>?"</span></span></p> <h4 style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);">______________________________</h4><br /><h4 style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);"><br /></h4><h4 style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size:85%;">TodayOnline, 11 April 2007, <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Singapore</st1:place></st1:country-region></span> <o:p></o:p></span></h4> <h4 style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);font-size:130%;" >Why the GDP link? Bonus peg a good indicator of how ministers, top civil servants have created wealth for all of </span><span style="font-size:130%;"><st1:country-region style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);" st="on"><st1:place st="on">Singapore</st1:place></st1:country-region></span><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);font-size:130%;" >, says Teo</span> <o:p></o:p></span></h4> <h4 style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Derrick A Pauloderrick@mediacorp.com.sg</span></span></h4><h4 style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></h4> <p style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><br />FEW would probably take issue with the fact that a minister's pay - in fact anybody's pay - should be linked to his performance. But when his pay packet is also tied to <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on"><span style="">Singapore</span></st1:place></st1:country-region>'s economic performance - the higher the gross domestic product (GDP), the bigger the <span style="">bonus</span> - even some ruling party MPs question the wisdom of such a link. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;">If Monday's parliamentary debate on pay revisions for ministers and civil servants focused mainly on that "benchmark thing", yesterday's session saw the spotlight being trained on the "GDP <span style="">bonus</span>". <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;">This <span style="">bonus</span> is a component which ministers, parliamentary secretaries, top civil servants and MPs are eligible for. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;">Several of the 13 backbenchers who spoke yesterday had reservations about the GDP <span style="">bonus</span>, even as they expressed support for the tighter link between pay and performance in the public sector, a distinctive feature of the revisions compared to past exercises. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;">One common refrain heard in the House was whether it is a fair performance peg to use. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;">"We all know that a rise in GDP may not benefit all sectors of society equally. Some may even lag behind. I would suggest that the Government consider using indicators that directly impact the livelihood of all Singaporeans," said Dr Lim Wee Kiak (Sembawang GRC). <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;">Nominated MP Loo Choon Yong, while "relieved" that a large part of the salary increases are not in the fixed salary component, said that relying on the GDP alone is "simple, convenient but inadequate". <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;">He proposed one other indicator to be considered: That of the total cost of running the Government as a percentage of total revenue. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;">After all, CEOs in the private sector have to ensure profits are not eroded by increasing costs and expenses, Mr Loo said. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;">Other suggestions of alternative benchmarks included: The consumer price index and the inflation rate, as a way to keep cost of living affordable and protect savings; citizens' feedback to major public services; the number of jobs created for Singaporeans; and even the number of Singaporeans who migrate. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;">Based on the latest revisions, ministers will enjoy a GDP <span style="">bonus</span> of between three and eight months if the economy grows between 5 and 10 per cent or more. But they will not get any <span style="">bonus</span> if the economy grows by 2 per cent or less. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;">For example, the entry-level annual salary of a minister this year is expected to include a 5.9-month <span style="">bonus</span> based on <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on"><span style="">Singapore</span></st1:place></st1:country-region>'s estimated GDP growth of between 4.5 and 6.5 per cent. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;">Mr Teo Chee Hean, Defence Minister and Minister-in-Charge of the Civil Service, heard them all. In his response midway through the debate, Mr Teo pointed out that the Government has to cater to all Singaporeans, not just individual groups. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;">"Therefore, the GDP is a good indicator of being able to create wealth for all of <span style="">Singapore</span>, and with that wealth, to make even those Singaporeans who may not benefit directly from the GDP growth better off as well ... through asset enhancement and wealth transfers." <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;">In his hour-long speech, Mr Teo delved into each of the major talking points, raised by both MPs and the public, on ministerial and civil service <span style="">salaries</span>. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;">One of these is the question of comparing <span style="">salaries</span> to the private sector instead of a comparison with what politicians earn in other countries. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;">The latter would not be comparing apples with apples, said Mr Teo. "Our <span style="">salaries</span> are clean. Everything is there. You look at the salary of the Prime Minister of Britain or <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Australia</st1:place></st1:country-region> or almost any other country in the world, you don't know what his total compensation package is." <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;">More importantly, though, as civil servants or office-holders in <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on"><span style="">Singapore</span></st1:place></st1:country-region> cannot become office-holders abroad, there is no point in cross-country comparisons, he argued. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;">"You have to look at what a young man in his 30s or 40s is comparing himself to when he's deciding what he's going to do with his life. These are the relevant market comparisons - not what politicians in <st1:country-region st="on">France</st1:country-region>, <st1:country-region st="on">Finland</st1:country-region> or <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Denmark</st1:place></st1:country-region> are being paid," said Mr Teo in response to points made by Opposition MPs on Monday. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;">Another comparison, between the civil service pay increases and the $30 monthly increase for those on Public Assistance, was raised in the House by both a backbencher and Mr Teo. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;">Said NMP Kalyani Mehta: "If we are going to be generous to civil servants, then let's be generous to the very poor." In response, Mr Teo said: "The needs of these individuals are quite different and we need to find more holistic and flexible ways of looking after their needs." <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;">Commenting on salary revisions in the context of a widening income gap, he added: "Capping the <span style="">salaries</span> of ministers and top civil servants will not solve this problem. The problem can be best addressed by à sound policies and programmes, like those introduced in the Budget recently à but most importantly by creating jobs and the resources so we can help everyone in <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on"><span style="">Singapore</span></st1:place></st1:country-region> to lift themselves up." <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;">One new issue that cropped up yesterday was the danger of concentrating too much power and money in the hands of top public officers. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;">MP Denise Phua (Jalan Besar GRC) said: "As responsible leaders, we must be careful not to leave behind a system or structure that combines power and monetary rewards to such high levels that incumbents are so handcuffed by this lethal combination that they find it hard to let go." <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;">NMP Eunice Olsen argued that the coupling of political and financial power is more likely to lead to the creation of a rogue government. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;">On this issue, Mr Teo said that the checks are elections and the ruling party's selection process. "If (a person's) motivations are self-serving or to make money, we do not select him. And if we discover that's what he's about after he has come in, we drop him," he said.</span> <o:p></o:p></p> <p style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-AU"><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);"><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);">______________________________________</span><br /></span></span></p><p style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;">The Straits Times, Nov 27, 2007, Singapore</span> <span style="display: none;"><o:p></o:p></span><br /><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >Two month year-end bonus for civil servants</span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">Better performers' can also expect growth bonus of up to 0.8 months</span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">By Li Xueying</span> </p><span style=""></span><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);"><span style="font-size:85%;"><st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">SINGAPORE</st1:place></st1:country-region>'S largest employer - the Government - will give its 60,000 civil servants a year-end bonus of two months.</span></p> <p style="margin: 0in 0in 6pt; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);"><span style="font-size:85%;">Add on the half-month bonus they received in July and the total bonus civil servants will get this year amounts to 2.5 months.</span></p> <p style="margin: 0in 0in 6pt; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);"><span style="font-size:85%;">Tuesday's bonus announcement is likely to be a guide for the private sector, as was typically the case in the past.</span></p> <p style="margin: 0in 0in 6pt; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);"><span style="font-size:85%;">Although the payout is a dip from the 2.7 per cent given last year, most civil servants will still go home with more - thanks to the new 'growth bonus'. Introduced this year, it will be given in times of exceptional economic performance.</span></p> <p style="margin: 0in 0in 6pt; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);"><span style="font-size:85%;">This year, the Government is forecasting the economy to grow by 7.5 to 8 per cent. For 'good performers', this new payout will bring another 0.5 month's bonus, and for 'better performers', up to 0.8 months, said the Public Service Division in a statement on Tuesday.</span></p> <p style="margin: 0in 0in 6pt; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);"><span style="font-size:85%;">The payout comes in a year when the economy has 'performed better than expected', it added. Mr Teo Yock Ngee, general secretary of the Amalgamated Union of Public Employees, said he expects most civil servants - those banded in the top three of the four tiers - to receive the growth bonus. It is to be paid out in March.</span></p> <p style="margin: 0in 0in 6pt; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);"><span style="font-size:85%;">This new bonus is in line with the Government’s policy to strengthen further the link between performance and pay.</span></p> <p style="margin: 0in 0in 6pt; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);"><span style="font-size:85%;">And what's given this year is consistent with what the private sector companies are planning to hand out, the executive director of the Singapore National Employers Federation, Mr Koh Juan Kiat, told The Straits Times.</span></p> <p style="margin: 0in 0in 6pt; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);"><span style="font-size:85%;">A survey it conducted among 276 companies in September shows that this year's bonus will range from two to 3.5 months. The median is 2.8 months.</span></p> <p style="margin: 0in 0in 6pt; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"><span style="font-size:85%;">This annual announcement of the bonus for civil servants is closely watched by the private sector, which often uses it as a guide for how much bonus to give out.</span></p> <p></p><blockquote></blockquote><p></p>c.k.hohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01352583226593049470noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8822870265396211781.post-4541348415508104822007-11-22T09:04:00.000+08:002007-12-09T21:29:10.496+08:00Piloting for more pay?<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_iZkq00-QTUHndlZD-YZ0Q5Hnaki9ECPLeuGPrULyCK73jVsTkqDPWwWVDd7_CF2cY8bMkaKtaGEOGz9yxe-TVPC1wTqslF-tg_DHCp6rUPb_ayhttfmtBTHw62WYRFyAWqG7-I8Pfhm-/s1600-h/2011NSL008_cropped.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_iZkq00-QTUHndlZD-YZ0Q5Hnaki9ECPLeuGPrULyCK73jVsTkqDPWwWVDd7_CF2cY8bMkaKtaGEOGz9yxe-TVPC1wTqslF-tg_DHCp6rUPb_ayhttfmtBTHw62WYRFyAWqG7-I8Pfhm-/s400/2011NSL008_cropped.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5140326363420167682" border="0" /></a><br /><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size:78%;">TodayOnline, 20 November 2007, Singapore<br /><br />________________________<br /></span><span class="updated-short-citation"> </span><span class="updated-short-citation"><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">Airfinance Journal, 01432257, Jun2007, Issue 301</span><o:p></o:p></span><br /><p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:";font-size:12;" ><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Singapore Airlines ordered to pay A380 pilots a premium by arbitration court</span></span><br /></span><span style="font-size:85%;">©Euromoney Institutional Investor PLC<br />www.euromoneyplc.com</span></p> <p class="body-paragraph"><span style=";font-family:";font-size:12;" ></span></p><p class="body-paragraph"><span style=";font-family:";font-size:12;" ></span><span style="font-size:85%;">The Industrial Arbitration Court (IAC) in <st1:country-region st="on">Singapore</st1:country-region> has decided in favour of the Air Line Pilots Association (<st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Singapore</st1:place></st1:country-region>) and ordered Singapore Airlines to pay flight-deck crew operating the A380 more than a premium compared with those operating other aircraft in its fleet. Although the decision will not create a precedent outside of <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Singapore</st1:place></st1:country-region> from a legal perspective, it is nonetheless possible that the decision will set a benchmark for other carriers.</span></p> <p class="body-paragraph"><span style="font-size:85%;">Under the ruling, the minimum salary for captains on the A380 will start at about $7,000 per month, which is $460 more than captains earn on the 747.</span></p> <p class="body-paragraph"><span style="font-size:85%;">The union had asked for a salary scale starting at $8,618 for A380 captains, arguing that pilots operating the larger aircraft have added responsibilities and should be paid more. The carrier took the position that because of advances in technology, operating the A380 is no more difficult than other aircraft fly-by-wire.</span></p> <p class="body-paragraph"><span style="font-size:85%;">The IAC panel concluded that the "ease with which modern airplanes may be manoeuvered in the air and on the ground is, by itself, not a reason for reducing pilots' salaries".</span></p> </div></div>c.k.hohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01352583226593049470noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8822870265396211781.post-79460239498833804452007-12-08T18:17:00.000+08:002007-12-09T06:51:44.033+08:00Will bonuses be pegged to (sub-prime) performance?<p class="MsoNormal" style=""><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" ><st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on"><span style="" lang="EN-AU"></span></st1:place></st1:country-region></span><span style=";font-family:georgia;font-size:11;" lang="EN-AU" ><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >Singapore bankers upbeat about fatter bonuses</span><span style=""></span><br /><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);font-size:85%;" >Business Times <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Singapore</st1:place></st1:country-region>, 8 December 2007<o:p></o:p><br />By Chow Penn Nee<span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p><br />(c) 2007 Singapore Press Holdings Limited</span><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span> </span> </span><o:p style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 6pt; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size:85%;">(<st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">SINGAPORE</st1:place></st1:country-region>) Despite market volatility stemming from the sub-prime crisis in the <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">United States</st1:place></st1:country-region>, Singapore-based bankers are counting on higher bonuses this year, and are optimistic about next year as well.<span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 6pt; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size:85%;">So says a worldwide survey of 20,270 employees working in financial services, conducted by eFinancialCareers.com, a global financial careers website.<span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 6pt; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size:85%;">The study found that slightly over half of <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Singapore</st1:place></st1:country-region> bankers expect to receive higher bonuses than last year, and only about 17 per cent expect their bonuses to be lower than the bumper payouts of 2006.<span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 6pt; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size:85%;">Sarah Butcher, editor of eFinancialCareers.com, said: 'The expectation of swelling bonuses may be linked to the fact that Singapore-based bankers are paid less than their global counterparts. She added that the survey revealed that the average <st1:country-region st="on">Singapore</st1:country-region> banker received a bonus equivalent to 44 per cent of salary last year, compared with 76 per cent in Hong Kong and 58 per cent in the <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">US</st1:place></st1:country-region>.<span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 6pt; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><st1:place st="on"><span lang="EN-AU">Hong Kong</span></st1:place></span><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size:85%;"> bankers share similar optimism about bonuses, with also slightly more than half of them expecting to receive higher bonuses than last year, and only 14 per cent anticipating lower bonuses.<span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 6pt; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size:85%;">In contrast, 60 per cent of <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">UK</st1:place></st1:country-region> bankers believe bonus levels will be down next year.<span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 6pt; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size:85%;">Globally, the survey showed that equity capital markets and M&A bankers are the most optimistic when it comes to predicting this year's bonuses. A BT report said investment banks in <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Singapore</st1:place></st1:country-region> earned over 45 per cent more in the year to date than in the corresponding period last year, driven by growth in fees in mergers and acquisitions, equity capital markets and debt capital markets. Due to sub-prime woes, debt capital markets and credit-focused bankers are the most pessimistic, said the survey.<span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 6pt; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size:85%;">Bonuses are not the only thing <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Singapore</st1:place></st1:country-region> bankers are upbeat about, as 42 per cent expect business to improve in the coming year. Bankers from <st1:country-region st="on">China</st1:country-region> and <st1:place st="on">Hong Kong</st1:place> are similarly upbeat, with 56 per cent and 41 per cent respectively, forecasting a better 2008.<span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="articledate" style="font-size:85%;"><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">By comparison, about 40 per cent of </span><st1:country-region style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);" st="on"><st1:place st="on">UK</st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"> bankers expect business to worsen next year, while about one-third of US, French and German bankers also predict that conditions will deteriorate.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="articledate" style="font-size:85%;"><o:p></o:p><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">Ms Butcher explained: 'The notable optimism of finance employees in Asia is no surprise as the growth of industries amid China's economic boom has led to increased business activity and a climate of promise throughout the entire region.'<br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="articledate" style="font-size:85%;"><o:p style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"></o:p><br /><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">______________________________________</span></span><span class="articledate" style="font-size:85%;"><o:p></o:p></span><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" ><st1:place st="on"><span style="font-weight: normal; font-style: normal;font-size:11;" lang="EN-AU" ><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></span></st1:place></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 6pt 0in 0.0001pt; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span lang="EN-AU"> <o:p></o:p></span></span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" ><span lang="EN-AU">Asia Big Bonus Swindle</span></span></p><p style="margin: 6pt 0in 0.0001pt; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span lang="EN-AU">eFinancialCareer.hk</span></span><span style="font-size:85%;"><span lang="EN-AU">, 3 December 2007</span></span></p><p style="margin: 6pt 0in 0.0001pt; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span lang="EN-AU">Asian bankers account for a growing proportion of bank's profit. But they are still short-changed at bonus time.</span></span></p><p style="margin: 6pt 0in 0.0001pt; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span lang="EN-AU">This year, the situation looks set to be worse than ever. Most <st1:country-region st="on">US</st1:country-region> banks have lost packets through the <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">US</st1:place></st1:country-region> sub-prime crisis, meaning profitable local bankers are in danger of subsidising their struggling American colleagues. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 6pt 0in 0.0001pt; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span lang="EN-AU">Gary Lai, manager of front-office banking at recruiter Robert Walters Singapore, says Hong Kong and <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Singapore</st1:place></st1:country-region> bankers employed at US and European houses are already prepared for the fact that their bonuses will be negatively affected as a result of the sub-prime fallout. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 6pt 0in 0.0001pt; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span lang="EN-AU">But is the situation really this dire? A recent study by international search firm Options Group found Asian bonuses are likely to rise by up to 5% this year. By comparison, payouts in the <st1:country-region st="on">US</st1:country-region> and <st1:place st="on">Europe</st1:place> are predicted to fall 10-15% and 5-10% respectively. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 6pt 0in 0.0001pt; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span lang="EN-AU">There are rumours that Asian bonus pools have been ring-fenced and won’t be reallocated to subsidise struggling divisions elsewhere. Nader Farahati, director at consultancy Oliver Wyman, told <span style="">Financial News</span> recently that Asian bonuses will not be reallocated. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 6pt 0in 0.0001pt; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span lang="EN-AU">John Jessen, the Singapore-based group CEO of headhunter Smith & Jessen, also doubts that Asian bankers will have to subsidise colleagues in the US and Europe. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 6pt 0in 0.0001pt;font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span lang="EN-AU"><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">Jessen says banks want to protect assets where they make the most money: “</span><st1:place style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);" st="on">Asia</st1:place><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"> is in such a build-out mode that no one wants to let their competition leave them behind.” He expects most hiring investments to flow eastwards in 2008, with trading floors in India set to double or even quadruple in size over the next two to three years.<br /></span></span></span></p><p style="margin: 6pt 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span lang="EN-AU"><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"></span><o:p></o:p></span></span><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size:85%;"><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">The sentiments of bankers in other emerging Asian economies such as <st1:country-region st="on">Indonesia</st1:country-region>, <st1:country-region st="on">Thailand</st1:country-region> and <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Malaysia</st1:place></st1:country-region> also remain positive, says Lai: “The general consensus seems to suggest that their bonuses will be healthier than previous years, as many of these economies started off from a low base and are experiencing strong domestic growth.”</span></span></p><p style="margin: 6pt 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: center;"><br /><span style="" lang="EN-AU"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" class="articledate" ></span><p style="margin: 6pt 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size:11;"><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);font-size:85%;" ></span> <o:p></o:p></span></p>c.k.hohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01352583226593049470noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8822870265396211781.post-38582632108512140972007-12-04T15:52:00.000+08:002007-12-07T08:22:04.418+08:00Is Singapore still attractive to expats?<span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">According to a Mercer Cost of Living (COL) survey, Singapore (SG) is the fifth most expensive city in Asia, after taking into consideration the costs of housing.</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">The COL Index for Singapore in March 2007 is 100.4, as compared to an index of 92 a year ago. The base city is New York, USA with a COL Index of 100.</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">The survey result reveals that it is cheaper for expats to live in the Big Apple (NY) than it is to live in the Tiny Red Dot (SG).</span><br /><div style="text-align: left;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnfli4wzaXDhXiWKXLEGVyPCJl9MRGh-nWvpz7IUynypQcxdH80Kczhluy43d6WdJoxKzt2g9qs0umIXt-UACoQErimmARhLeJ1K_37Jnf5emo984VpNrrSEwF2WT38vuNgnc5t9o9j4Nb/s1600-h/COL_Ranking_Top_50_Final_07.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnfli4wzaXDhXiWKXLEGVyPCJl9MRGh-nWvpz7IUynypQcxdH80Kczhluy43d6WdJoxKzt2g9qs0umIXt-UACoQErimmARhLeJ1K_37Jnf5emo984VpNrrSEwF2WT38vuNgnc5t9o9j4Nb/s400/COL_Ranking_Top_50_Final_07.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5140022868146130402" border="0" /></a><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style=";font-family:georgia;font-size:85%;" >www.mercer.com/costofliving [accessed date: 4 Dec 2007]</span><br /></div><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: georgia;font-size:100%;" ><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">On 1 July 2007</span></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: georgia;font-size:100%;" >, Singapore increased </span><span style="font-family: georgia; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:100%;" ><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">its goods and services tax (GST) rate from the current 5% to 7%.</span><br /></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: georgia;font-size:100%;" ><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Is Singapore still attractive to the global expatriate workforce even if it is ranked third best in terms of personal tax climate in the region?</span></span><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /><br />------------------------------------------------<br /></span> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style=";font-size:11;color:black;" ><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);">Business Times </span><st1:place style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);" st="on"><st1:country-region st="on">Singapore</st1:country-region></st1:place><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);">, 4 December 2007</span></span></span><b style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"><span style="font-size:11;"><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">Tax climate in S'pore ranked third best in region for expats </span></span></b><span style=";font-size:11;color:black;" ><o:p></o:p><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);">By Anna Teo</span></span><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);"><span style="font-size:85%;">, (c) 2007 Singapore Press Holdings Limited</span> </span><o:p style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);"></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 6pt 0in 0.0001pt; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:11;">UAE, <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Russia</st1:place></st1:country-region>, HK are among world's most benign personal tax environments, says Mercer survey <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 6pt 0in 0.0001pt; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:11;">FOR expatriates considering a posting to Asia, the personal tax climate in <st1:country-region st="on">Singapore</st1:country-region> is third best in the region, behind Hong Kong and <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Taiwan</st1:place></st1:country-region>. And unlike elsewhere, it makes little difference here whether the taxpayer is single or married, with or without kids. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 6pt 0in 0.0001pt; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:11;">According to Mercer's survey of 32 'expatriate hotspots', the <st1:country-region st="on">United Arab Emirates</st1:country-region>, <st1:country-region st="on">Russia</st1:country-region> and Hong Kong are among the world's 'most benign' personal tax environments, while <st1:country-region st="on">Belgium</st1:country-region>, <st1:country-region st="on">Denmark</st1:country-region> and <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Hungary</st1:place></st1:country-region> are the most onerous. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 6pt 0in 0.0001pt; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:11;">The findings also show that in general, married employees are better off than single employees tax-wise, and married employees with two children fare the best. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 6pt 0in 0.0001pt; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:11;">But the difference in tax liability is not too great in a few countries, including <st1:country-region st="on">Singapore</st1:country-region>, while employees in <st1:country-region st="on">China</st1:country-region> and <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">India</st1:place></st1:country-region> pay the same tax regardless of marital status. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 6pt 0in 0.0001pt; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:11;">Says Guo Xin, deputy regional head of Mercer, Asia: 'Within Asia, Hong Kong and <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Taiwan</st1:place></st1:country-region> have the most gentle tax systems regardless of marital status. The toughest personal tax regimes can be found in <st1:country-region st="on">India</st1:country-region> and <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Australia</st1:place></st1:country-region>, with Indians paying more tax than Australians if they are married with two children.' <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 6pt 0in 0.0001pt; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:11;">And through its Central Provident Fund scheme, <st1:country-region st="on">Singapore</st1:country-region> has one of the highest social security contributions - second only to <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Japan</st1:place></st1:country-region> - at 11.4 per cent. Social security payments in <st1:place st="on">Hong Kong</st1:place>, for instance, amount to barely 2 per cent. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 6pt 0in 0.0001pt; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:11;">'If you exclude the mandatory CPF contributions, <st1:country-region st="on">Singapore</st1:country-region>'s tax rate for middle managers would be 5 per cent, making it the lowest rate in <st1:place st="on">Asia</st1:place>,' Wong Su-Yen, managing director of Mercer Asean notes. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 6pt 0in 0.0001pt; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:11;">Except for <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Russia</st1:place></st1:country-region>, European countries fill the bottom rungs of the rankings. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 6pt 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style=""><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);font-family:georgia;" >Apart from taxation, other key considerations for expatriate allowances are housing, private schooling and local cost of living adjustments - all of which can add up to the high cost of a global expatriate work force.</span> <o:p></o:p></span></p>c.k.hohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01352583226593049470noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8822870265396211781.post-39046133183040476092007-11-27T18:14:00.001+08:002007-12-04T17:04:56.206+08:00Is Singapore less attractive to its residents too?<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNEfsGHemhd5VLnh6i3ahtZIhjyekcASQeC7m-KRgIGWqUIEByX90MbR_QViczPeToUKXeSGn95kX3UUKJytsTZwl7z4KBnAyDbSqCE3mlf5g3I0QN5dl4hCvbON8YgNtT0BY5U1LBIC1a/s1600-h/2711NSL004_cropped.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNEfsGHemhd5VLnh6i3ahtZIhjyekcASQeC7m-KRgIGWqUIEByX90MbR_QViczPeToUKXeSGn95kX3UUKJytsTZwl7z4KBnAyDbSqCE3mlf5g3I0QN5dl4hCvbON8YgNtT0BY5U1LBIC1a/s400/2711NSL004_cropped.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5140040584886226418" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:78%;">TodayOnline, 27 November, 2007, Singapore<br />_________________________________________________<br /></span> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 6pt; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);"><span style="font-size:85%;">The Straits Times, 2 Dec 2007, Singapore</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >Expats here are feeling the pinch too</span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">By Mavis Toh & Shuli Sudderuddin</span> </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 6pt; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);"><span style="font-size:85%;">DOWNSIZING is one way of fighting soaring rents, but expatriate Diana Cloe and her husband moved downstairs instead, going from their 24th-floor condominium apartment to a similar-size unit on the fourth. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 6pt 0in 0.0001pt; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);"><span style="font-size:85%;">The step down came after their landlord raised the rent for their 2,900 sq ft <st1:street st="on"><st1:address st="on">Anderson Road</st1:address></st1:street> flat by 40 per cent in April. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 6pt 0in 0.0001pt; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);"><span style="font-size:85%;">They moved down 20 floors to a flat that costs $8,200 in monthly rent - 20 per cent higher than what they were forking out. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 6pt 0in 0.0001pt; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);"><span style="font-size:85%;">Expats who have been complaining about rising rent are feeling vindicated by a recent global survey. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 6pt 0in 0.0001pt; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"><span style="font-size:85%;">The ECA International survey showed <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Singapore</st1:place></st1:country-region> rising 10 places to rank as the ninth-most-costly Asian city for expats. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 6pt 0in 0.0001pt; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">Private home rentals have jumped by 32.2 per cent since January, compared with 14.1 per cent for the whole of last year.</span> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 6pt 0in 0.0001pt; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);"><span style="font-size:85%;">Ms Cloe's American husband, a global development manager who did not want to be named, said: 'The rents are crazy. My housing allowance was $7,000 but my company was gracious enough to up it.' <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 6pt 0in 0.0001pt; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);"><span style="font-size:85%;">Mr Ervin Scully, head of corporate leasing at Knight Frank, said soaring rents have prompted many multinationals to increase expat pay by up to 30 per cent. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 6pt 0in 0.0001pt; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);"><span style="font-size:85%;">Indian expat Sonya Madeira said her boss increased the pay of all 13 employees by 10 per cent after a discussion on the rising cost of living. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 6pt 0in 0.0001pt; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);"><span style="font-size:85%;">Ms Madeira, associate director of Eastwest Public Relations, said the rent for her 1,600 sq ft Pasir Panjang flat doubled to over $3,000. 'Prices are up but our salaries are not going up at the same pace, so it's still a bit difficult to manage,' she said. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 6pt 0in 0.0001pt; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);"><span style="font-size:85%;">Ms Madeira said her family might leave <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Singapore</st1:place></st1:country-region> if rent hits $5,000. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 6pt 0in 0.0001pt; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);"><span style="font-size:85%;">The British and American chambers of commerce are concerned about the rise in rentals. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 6pt 0in 0.0001pt; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);"><span style="font-size:85%;">But Mr Terry O'Connor, president of the British chamber, said the Government's recent 'cooling measures' such as axing the deferred payment scheme has helped redress the situation. But this may not be enough to retain some expats. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 6pt 0in 0.0001pt; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);"><span style="font-size:85%;">Brand consultant Simon Faure-Field, 37, was hit by the doubling of both his office and home rents. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 6pt 0in 0.0001pt; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);"><span style="font-size:85%;">His High Street office now costs $10,000 a month but he renewed the lease as alternative locations were equally expensive. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 6pt 0in 0.0001pt; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);"><span style="font-size:85%;">However, when the rent for his 1,400 sq ft Bukit Timah apartment doubled to $5,000, he moved to a similar-size apartment in Pasir Ris for $3,000. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 6pt 0in 0.0001pt; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);"><span style="font-size:85%;">He said: 'I can live in <st1:city st="on"><st1:place st="on">Dubai</st1:place></st1:city> for the same amount. But there, my company can charge up to thrice the price for our services.</span></p><p style="margin: 6pt 0in 0.0001pt; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);"><span style="font-size:85%;">________________________</span></p><p style="margin: 6pt 0in 0.0001pt; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 6pt; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);"><span style="font-size:85%;">The Straits Times, 2 Dec 2007, Singapore <o:p></o:p><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);font-size:130%;" >We can barely stay afloat, say low-income folk</span><o:p></o:p><br /><span style="font-size:100%;">Some MPs and social workers say pleas for financial aid from poorer residents are growing louder and more frequent with the rising cost of living</span><br />By Jamie Ee Wen Wei , Nur Dianah Suhaimi </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 6pt; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);"><span style="font-size:85%;">ADMINISTRATIVE assistant Noor Zeen earns $1,350 a month and has not paid her utility bills for the past four months. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 6pt 0in 0.0001pt; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);"><span style="font-size:85%;">Prices of everyday goods have gone up and she finds that she no longer earns enough to cover household expenses. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 6pt 0in 0.0001pt; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);"><span style="font-size:85%;">The 28-year-old divorcee said her monthly utility bill alone has gone up by at least $20. The breadwinner in her family, she lives in a four-room flat in Hougang with her mother, her eight-year-old son and her late aunt's two children. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 6pt 0in 0.0001pt; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);"><span style="font-size:85%;">Cash-strapped and with unpaid utility bills of about $600, Madam Noor asked her MP, Madam Cynthia Phua (Aljunied GRC), for financial help last week. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 6pt 0in 0.0001pt; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);"><span style="font-size:85%;">After the soft-spoken woman poured out her financial woes, Madam Phua put her on short-term financial assistance that will provide her with $200 for the next three months. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 6pt 0in 0.0001pt; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);"><span style="font-size:85%;">The economy may be buoyant, but low-wage earners such as Madam Noor have been telling MPs and social workers that they can barely stay afloat because the cost of living has been going up. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 6pt 0in 0.0001pt; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);"><span style="font-size:85%;">These workers say that their wages are not rising as fast as inflation. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 6pt 0in 0.0001pt; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"><span style="font-size:85%;">In October, inflation rose to a 16-year high of 3.6 per cent. Two months ago, prices of food staples such as bread and noodles went up by 20 per cent. Soaring oil prices have also driven up pump prices and electricity tariffs. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 6pt 0in 0.0001pt; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">Median monthly starting pay for cleaners and labourers has in fact fallen by nearly one-third, from $860 to $600, between 1996 and last year.</span> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 6pt 0in 0.0001pt; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);"><span style="font-size:85%;">Twelve MPs and social workers interviewed said pleas for financial help from residents are growing louder but most could not give figures. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 6pt 0in 0.0001pt; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);"><span style="font-size:85%;">In Jalan Besar GRC, MP Lily Neo said she sees about 60 hard-luck cases a week at her Meet-the-People sessions. In the past, she saw about 40 cases. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 6pt 0in 0.0001pt; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);"><span style="font-size:85%;">She said: 'Each week, I find myself busier and busier, staying longer and longer, because there are so many people asking for financial help.'' <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 6pt 0in 0.0001pt; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);"><span style="font-size:85%;">Madam Halimah Yacob, an MP for Jurong GRC, said some of the low-income residents are holding two jobs and doing overtime, yet they still ask for rations of basic items such as cooking oil and <st1:place st="on">Milo</st1:place> because they do not earn enough to feed their families. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 6pt 0in 0.0001pt; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);"><span style="font-size:85%;">Mr Zaqy Mohamad (Hong Kah GRC) observed that those on financial aid schemes are showing up more often at Meet-the-People Sessions. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 6pt 0in 0.0001pt; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);"><span style="font-size:85%;">'They used to come once every three months. Now, some come back every couple of weeks to ask for food and utility vouchers,' he said, because their cash is running out faster. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 6pt 0in 0.0001pt; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);"><span style="font-size:85%;">Mr Charles Chong (Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC) said he was even told off by a retiree who had asked for financial aid. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 6pt 0in 0.0001pt; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);"><span style="font-size:85%;">The elderly man told the MP: 'I'm retired, in my 60s, have no job and living off my savings. But GST is up, food prices are up, inflation is up. The only thing that has not gone up is the banks' interest rates!' <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 6pt 0in 0.0001pt; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);"><span style="font-size:85%;">Mr Sim Boon Choon, 68, is in the same boat as the retiree. He tries to stretch every cent of the $290 in public assistance that he receives every month. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 6pt 0in 0.0001pt; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);"><span style="font-size:85%;">A loaf of bread now costs 20 cents more and the price of a packet of 20 <st1:place st="on">Milo</st1:place> sachets is up by 40 cents. Even chicken rice and kway teow soup at the hawker centre cost 50 cents more. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 6pt 0in 0.0001pt; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);"><span style="font-size:85%;">To save money, he has stopped eating out for all his meals. Dinner is a simple meal of bread and <st1:place st="on">Milo</st1:place>. To save electricity, the bachelor does not switch on the lights in his one-room Telok Blangah flat. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 6pt 0in 0.0001pt; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);"><span style="font-size:85%;">Even then, he finds himself running out of money before the month is up. 'I'm already very thrifty but the money is still not enough,' he said in Hokkien. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 6pt 0in 0.0001pt; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);"><span style="font-size:85%;">In March, public welfare recipients such as Mr Sim had their monthly allowance raised from $260 to $290 to offset the impact of the GST hike and rising cost of living. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 6pt 0in 0.0001pt; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);"><span style="font-size:85%;">But social workers said the $30 increment is not enough, given that inflation has risen so high. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 6pt 0in 0.0001pt; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);"><span style="font-size:85%;">Ms Grace Lee, centre director of Care Corner Family Service Centre (Toa Payoh), said the centre has been receiving more requests for the monthly free food packages of rice, instant noodles and canned food. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 6pt 0in 0.0001pt; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);"><span style="font-size:85%;">At least 100 packages are handed out, compared to 80 a few months back. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 6pt 0in 0.0001pt; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);"><span style="font-size:85%;">Over at the Care Corner Seniors Activity Centre in Toa Payoh, programme executive Lim Siew Eng said the elderly poor who show up for free daily lunches are asking for larger portions to take home for dinner. A typical lunch consists of rice, mixed vegetables and meat. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 6pt 0in 0.0001pt; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);"><span style="font-size:85%;">MP Cynthia Phua said she has been advising the elderly in her ward to rent out the rooms in their flats to generate income. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 6pt 0in 0.0001pt; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);"><span style="font-size:85%;">She said: 'A can of luncheon meat used to cost $1.30. Now it's $2.50. Not everyone can afford that, especially the elderly who are not working and depending on handouts.' <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 6pt 0in 0.0001pt; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);"><span style="font-size:85%;">MPs said that they try not to give cash to residents seeking aid because they cannot ensure that the money is spent on food. They prefer to give food vouchers. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 6pt 0in 0.0001pt; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);"><span style="font-size:85%;">While utility, service and conservancy rebates, and Workfare payouts have helped, the MPs hope that the Government would come up with schemes which help those without income cope with the rising cost of living. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 6pt 0in 0.0001pt; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);"><span style="font-size:85%;">Pasir Ris-Punggol's Mr Chong said: 'The current schemes that we have, such as Workfare, help those who work. But for the elderly who are retired and sickly, we need to find new schemes for them.' <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 6pt 0in 0.0001pt; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);"><span style="font-size:85%;">The Government has said that it will not keep prices artificially low by controlling price increases to help people cope with the rising cost of living. Its aim is to get the basics right - housing, jobs and affordable necessities. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 6pt 0in 0.0001pt; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);"><span style="font-size:85%;">It also tops up the wages of low-income workers through Workfare and gives various cash handouts and rebates. A total of 2.4 million Singaporeans are eligible for $650 million in GST credits and senior citizens' bonuses this year. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 6pt 0in 0.0001pt; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);"><span style="font-size:85%;">It is not just the low income who are feeling the pinch. Mayor for <st1:place st="on">Central Singapore</st1:place> district, Mr Zainudin Nordin, said families living in four- and five-room flats are trying to downgrade to smaller flats because they cannot afford the cash portion of their mortgage. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 6pt 0in 0.0001pt; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);"><span style="font-size:85%;">He said: 'These families find that they need that few hundred dollars for other necessities now that prices have gone up. They can't afford to put aside any cash for housing.' <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 6pt 0in 0.0001pt; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);"><span style="font-size:85%;">For housewife Norliza Maidin, 40, the rising cost of living could not have come at a worse time. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 6pt 0in 0.0001pt; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);"><span style="font-size:85%;">Her husband was retrenched from his warehouse supervisor job last year and now earns $1,500 - $500 less than his previous pay. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 6pt 0in 0.0001pt; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);"><span style="font-size:85%;">The couple have two sons -- aged five and one - and Madam Norliza's elderly mother lives with them in a four-room flat in Jurong. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 6pt 0in 0.0001pt; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);"><span style="font-size:85%;">Madam Norliza limits the family's electricity usage to $3 a day, chooses the cheapest fish and buys the cheapest groceries. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 6pt 0in 0.0001pt; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);"><span style="font-size:85%;">But she still finds herself with no savings at the end of the month. Sometimes, she has to borrow money from friends. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 6pt 0in 0.0001pt; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);"><span style="font-size:85%;">After being out of the workforce for five years, she is back in the job market because she wants to supplement her husband's income. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 6pt 0in 0.0001pt; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);"><span style="font-size:85%;">'I want to save for a rainy day. And buy better food for my children, such as salmon and not just selar,' she said. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 6pt 0in 0.0001pt; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);"><span style="font-size:85%;">With inflation expected to go up to 4.5 per cent next year, MPs such as Madam Phua think that the number of financial aid requests they are receiving is only the tip of the iceberg. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 6pt 0in 0.0001pt; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);"><span style="font-size:85%;">She said: 'I believe more will ask for financial help. This is just the beginning.' <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 6pt 0in 0.0001pt; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);"><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="mailto:jamieee@sph.com.sg"><span style="text-decoration: none;">jamieee@sph.com.sg</span></a> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 6pt 0in 0.0001pt; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);"><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="mailto:ndianah@sph.com.sg"><span style="text-decoration: none;">ndianah@sph.com.sg</span></a></span></p>c.k.hohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01352583226593049470noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8822870265396211781.post-70664558097372171302007-11-26T12:00:00.000+08:002007-12-04T06:39:20.598+08:00Should we pay volunteers and full time employees of charitable organisations "private sector" salaries?<span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:12;" ><!--[if gte vml 1]><v:shapetype id="_x0000_t75" coordsize="21600,21600" spt="75" preferrelative="t" path="m@4@5l@4@11@9@11@9@5xe" filled="f" stroked="f"> <v:stroke joinstyle="miter"> <v:formulas> <v:f eqn="if lineDrawn pixelLineWidth 0"> <v:f eqn="sum @0 1 0"> <v:f eqn="sum 0 0 @1"> <v:f eqn="prod @2 1 2"> <v:f eqn="prod @3 21600 pixelWidth"> <v:f eqn="prod @3 21600 pixelHeight"> <v:f eqn="sum @0 0 1"> <v:f eqn="prod @6 1 2"> <v:f eqn="prod @7 21600 pixelWidth"> <v:f eqn="sum @8 21600 0"> <v:f eqn="prod @7 21600 pixelHeight"> <v:f eqn="sum @10 21600 0"> </v:formulas> <v:path extrusionok="f" gradientshapeok="t" connecttype="rect"> <o:lock ext="edit" aspectratio="t"> </v:shapetype><v:shape id="_x0000_i1025" type="#_x0000_t75" alt="" style="'width:351pt;"> <v:imagedata src="file:///C:\DOCUME~1\THEKNO~1\LOCALS~1\Temp\msohtml1\01\clip_image001.jpg" href="http://app.sprinter.gov.sg/data/pr/20071125995-1.jpg"> </v:shape><![endif]--><!--[if !vml]--></span><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:100%;" ><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);font-family:georgia;" >It appears that we are having a stab at the "war on talent" problem, once again, by throwing money at it. Haven't we learn from Gordon Gekko of The Wall Street that greed is good </span></span><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);font-family:Arial;font-size:100%;" ><span style="font-family:georgia;">and we may get away with murder regardless of corporate governance? What happened to the lessons on the "old" National Kidney Foundation of Singapore, and more recently the Singapore Ren Ci Hospital and Medicare Centre?</span><br /></span><p style="margin: 6pt 0in; text-align: left; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Can we cultivate a Singaporean culture of caring simply by throwing money at it? Some of us truly believe we can because we are motivated by money and money alone. Offering more money is an expensive way to incentivise or reward behavioural change. Offering more money does not, in itself, solve the problem of inefficient working practice. Nor does it instil sincerity and care. How about volunteering for the sake of volunteering? </span><span style="font-size:100%;">Social responsibility</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> or wishful thinking?<br /></span></p><p style="margin: 6pt 0in; text-align: left; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Shouldn't we be engaging senior <span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);">(professionals above the age of 55 years)</span> volunteers at charitable (or non-profit) organisations instead? Can we pay them what they're worth and in accordance with benchmarked salaries of charitable organisations? Perhaps, the Singapore National Volunteer & Philanthropy Centre can play its role in connecting our senior "brick and mortar" nation builders with charitable and non-profit organisations for this purpose.</span></p><p style="margin: 6pt 0in; text-align: left; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);font-family:georgia;"><span style=";font-family:georgia;font-size:100%;" >When we are told to jump, do we ask how high we need to jump, as opposed to whether we should jump at all.</span><span style=";font-family:georgia;font-size:100%;" > Really, can (or should) we pay volunteers and full time employees of charitable organisations private sector salaries, or can we afford not to?</span><br /></p><p style="margin: 6pt 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);font-family:georgia;" >_______________________</span><b><span style="font-family:Arial;"><br /></span></b></p><p style="margin: 6pt 0in; text-align: center;" align="center"><b><span style="font-family:Arial;"><br /></span></b></p><p style="margin: 6pt 0in; text-align: center; font-family: georgia; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);" align="center"><b>SPEECH BY MR GOH CHOK TONG,SENIOR MINISTER, AT <st1:city st="on">ASSISI</st1:city> HOSPICE'S FUND-RAISING CHARITY DINNER, 25 NOVEMBER 2007, 7.45 PM AT PAN PACIFIC <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">SINGAPORE</st1:place></st1:country-region><o:p></o:p></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 6pt 0in; text-align: center; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: georgia;font-family:georgia;" align="center"><span style="font-size:130%;"><b><span style="font-variant: small-caps;" lang="EN-GB">“Lighting up the Lives of Hospice Patients”</span></b></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 6pt 0in; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-GB"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 6pt 0in; text-align: justify; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:85%;">1 My wife and I are delighted to be here this evening at Assisi Hospice’s fund-raising charity dinner.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 6pt 0in; text-align: justify; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:85%;">2</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:85%;"> </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:85%;">Assisi Hospice was started by the Franciscan Missionaries of the Divine Motherhood Order in 1986, first as a home for the chronic sick, and then as a hospice in 1993. Over the years, Assisi Hospice has provided a comprehensive range of palliative care services and generated greater public understanding of hospice and palliative care services.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 6pt 0in; text-align: justify; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:85%;">3</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:85%;"> </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:85%;">Palliative care is a comprehensive approach to treating terminal illness. It focuses on keeping patients comfortable through pain control and symptom management, and also addresses their psychological, social and spiritual needs. This is a challenging job because patients and their family members generally find it difficult to accept that curative treatment is no longer an option. They may not recognise that palliative care can help patients spend their final days with dignity, comfort and support from their loved ones.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 6pt 0in; text-align: justify; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:85%;">4</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:85%;"> </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:85%;">We live in a fast-paced society. Not many people pause to think about dying. In our culture, it is also considered inauspicious to talk about death. Many of us believe that we will age healthily, with only occasional and short episodes of illness. Unfortunately, we may not always be so lucky. Moreover, <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Singapore</st1:place></st1:country-region> has a rapidly greying population. We will increasingly encounter elderly people with chronic medical conditions.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 6pt 0in; text-align: justify; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:85%;">5</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:85%;"> </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:85%;">With the rapid advancement in medical science, lives can be prolonged using sophisticated machines and treatment. However, merely extending lives without giving due consideration to the quality of the life is a burdensome and wrong approach. Moving forward, the Ministry of Health will make end-of-life issues one of its priorities. It will study issues such as how end-of-life healthcare practices and provisions are managed and how they can be improved. Our goal is to help Singaporeans to live long, live with dignity and peace of mind.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 6pt 0in; text-align: justify; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-variant: small-caps;" lang="EN-GB">Living Life to the Fullest</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 6pt 0in; text-align: justify; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:85%;">6</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:85%;"> </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:85%;">Here we can follow the inspiring example of Ng Wei Hau. Wei Hau, whom I first met two years ago, is a young man with strong determination to live his life to the fullest despite his illness. Wei Hau was diagnosed with brain cancer in 1999, at the age of 12. He was then given only 6 months to live. However, since then, Wei Hau has survived against the odds and has written two little books detailing his struggles with cancer. When I met Wei Hau during the charity lunch in 2005, he was weak and walking unsteadily. I am therefore delighted to learn that he is now a member of the Taekwondo programme in Assisi Hospice. I look forward to his Taekwondo performance this evening. I hope that Wei Hau can be an inspiration for other Hospice patients to similarly make the most of their lives.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 6pt 0in; text-align: justify; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-variant: small-caps;" lang="EN-GB">Contributions of a varied team</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 6pt 0in; text-align: justify; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:85%;">7</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:85%;"> </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:85%;">The lack of cure for a disease must never lead us to think that nothing else can be done for a patient. The holistic care provided at a hospice requires an interdisciplinary approach. Doctors and nurses, of course, play a pivotal role by providing good medical and nursing care. However, the needs of hospice patients go beyond physical concerns. Patients and their families also require support with psychological, emotional and spiritual issues. Social workers and pastoral care staff help patients and their families with their social and emotional needs. Volunteers are also an important pillar of support for patients and their families. I understand that Assisi Hospice is supported by over 70 individual volunteers and several corporate volunteers. Working with the hospice team, volunteers befriend patients and coordinate patient activities, such as exercise and karaoke sessions and birthday celebrations. Their enthusiasm, energy and encouragement have lifted the hearts of many patients.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 6pt 0in; text-align: justify; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:85%;">8</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:85%;"> </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:85%;">Donors, of course, are needed. They play a key role in providing the financial resources for hospices. Earlier this month, the inaugural Barclays Asia Forum and the Barclays Singapore Open golf tournament were held in <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Singapore</st1:place></st1:country-region>. As both events were very successful, Barclays decided to donate $75,000 to a charity in <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Singapore</st1:place></st1:country-region>. As I was the Guest-of-Honour and Patron for the two functions respectively, Barclays asked me to nominate a charity for their contribution. I nominated Assisi Hospice because I was coming for your dinner. On behalf of the Hospice, I thank Barclays for their donation. I also commend the Lee Foundation, the Singapore Totalisator Board and Singapore Pools, Ms Emily Chan and many other organisations and individuals for their generous and sustained support for Assisi Hospice.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 6pt 0in; text-align: justify; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-variant: small-caps;" lang="EN-GB">Good corporate governance</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 6pt 0in; text-align: justify; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:85%;">9</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:85%;"> </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:85%;">Charitable organizations provide valuable social services in our community. However, it is important that they have robust systems to ensure sound governance, transparency and accountability. This is to retain the trust of the donating public. It is no longer sufficient for charities to solicit donations just by explaining the good work that they do. The public should have the confidence that their donations are used prudently and effectively.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 6pt 0in; text-align: justify; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:85%;">10</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:85%;"> </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:85%;">It is therefore important for charities to have people of integrity and the necessary expertise on their boards to provide sound leadership and raise governance standards. <span style="color: rgb(102, 0, 0);"><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">Charities should also actively attract the right people to work in their organisations. One way to do this is to pay full time employees salaries commensurate with the alternative jobs they could hold. Otherwise, the charity sector will fail to attract enough professional staff and lag behind the private sector in terms of efficiency and management. The volunteers on the boards who supervise the management must be capable men and women of integrity with a deep sense of social responsibility. Only then can the charities be run well and earn the trust of the public.</span> </span> While <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Singapore</st1:place></st1:country-region> companies are now placing greater importance on corporate social responsibility and many have made financial contributions to charities, I hope corporate leaders could be more forthcoming in volunteering to serve on the boards of charities. Following the more stringent supervision by the Commissioner of Charities, some corporate leaders and professionals may become hesitant about serving as board members. This will be the wrong way to react. The right way to react is that such scrutiny is welcome as it will help them to help charities raise their standards of governance. Volunteering to serve on the boards of charities is a very meaningful and rewarding way for those who have succeeded in the corporate world to help make <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Singapore</st1:place></st1:country-region> a compassionate society.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 6pt 0in; text-align: justify; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-variant: small-caps;" lang="EN-GB">Conclusion</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 6pt 0in; text-align: justify; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:85%;">11</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:85%;"> </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:85%;">To conclude, I commend Assisi Hospice for its many contributions to palliative care. I am touched by the dedication of its staff, volunteers and board members. Please keep up the good work and continue to light up the lives of hospice patients and their relatives. For those of us who do not have the time to volunteer but have the financial resources, we too can play our part.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 6pt 0in; text-align: justify; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:85%;">12</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:85%;"> </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:85%;">I wish everyone a warm feeling as we help others in a less fortunate position. Thank you.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 24pt; text-indent: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family:Arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt;"><b><span style="color:black;"></span></b><span style="color:black;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p>c.k.hohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01352583226593049470noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8822870265396211781.post-62555858723287455162007-11-10T15:06:00.001+08:002007-11-28T06:59:31.010+08:00Reward for working hard?<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjooFUKKomtkoa3UcohQMg2FHyi2ODLkOnasutiVSO2wrNJvrKS6bXGz7bjPv4mkbrrYNowZeU9fXAiIHbfPfNVpQ5WziQ2GaswNYXHvIH1KTNgxOqQzVP1RyszketbcPghcmsVFo4qjyS8/s1600-h/A+farm+in+Hokkaido.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjooFUKKomtkoa3UcohQMg2FHyi2ODLkOnasutiVSO2wrNJvrKS6bXGz7bjPv4mkbrrYNowZeU9fXAiIHbfPfNVpQ5WziQ2GaswNYXHvIH1KTNgxOqQzVP1RyszketbcPghcmsVFo4qjyS8/s320/A+farm+in+Hokkaido.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5131104614899335858" border="0" /></a>c.k.hohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01352583226593049470noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8822870265396211781.post-31445273589404418882007-11-20T08:20:00.000+08:002007-11-22T09:29:04.114+08:00Are we paid what we are worth?<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNoJDq2q_hTLjVXK9fEOoKKaSZG_sWHbFrTnFyTqPsmc-VnUsqtogk6wUDRThLzaApg5SqDcAP1f9ymjua8Y9qhiFMfC2ZO9T68o3CplXWxTdSIdQVSHn2c-YFjtw2SL4dzPommgC0wFoo/s1600-h/ageprofile_ntuc.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNoJDq2q_hTLjVXK9fEOoKKaSZG_sWHbFrTnFyTqPsmc-VnUsqtogk6wUDRThLzaApg5SqDcAP1f9ymjua8Y9qhiFMfC2ZO9T68o3CplXWxTdSIdQVSHn2c-YFjtw2SL4dzPommgC0wFoo/s320/ageprofile_ntuc.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5134732845380653602" border="0" /></a><br />One of the most challenging questions that organizational and compensation practitioners faced in a resource-scarce labor market is "Are we paid what we are worth?" Depending on who we ask, what we read, and the perspectives we adopt, the organizations we work for may claim that our pay is externally competitive, and internally equitable. But, what is equitable, or fair? Who decides what is fair? Perhaps, it is better to be internally consistent with our pay policy than to be fair. We can be consistently wrong but we may not be fair, or can we? How long is a piece of string? Can we be fair if we are transparent?<br /><p class="MsoNormal"> In an attempt to be transparent, NTUC Singapore, a local conglomerate (co-operative) has taken the lead in publishing its employee age profile on its website <a href="http://www.ntuc.org.sg/ageprofile">www.ntuc.org.sg/ageprofile</a>. The purpose of disclosure of the demography of its employee is in response to a call by its secretary general on companies to demonstrate their commitment towards age-friendly employment practices, ahead of the <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Singapore</st1:place></st1:country-region> re-employment legislation that will take effect in 2012.<br /><br />It is intended that such disclosure will "enhance the employability and re-employment of all workers, including older workers and women who form a significant potential source of labor supply". In addition, the disclosure, NTUC argues “aims to better recognize companies that practice age-friendly and fair employment". More importantly, NTUC disclose its employee age profile as a group on its website to give greater transparency on its employment practices.<br /><br />For compensation practitioners, an understanding of the demography of an organization is the initial step towards gaining greater transparency on what is termed as "fair" employment practices. Perhaps, it may be insightful to know "who gets paid what?" in order to know if “we are paid what we are worth”. If we understand the pay practices of organizations of our "brick and mortar" nation builders, we may be better prepared to embrace their expertise, and lobby employers to include them as members of the "family". Many of our nation builders may heed the calls of our Singaporean leaders to address the labor shortfall in the Singaporean economy by deferring their retirement plans.<br /><br />NTUC must be commended for taking the lead in sharing the demography of its employees on the Internet. Will NTUC complete the puzzle by sharing actual compensation data of its mature employees? If aggregate data on compensation and benefits of mature workers are made publicly available, we may be a step closer towards knowing if "we are paid our worth". It may also draw people back to employment, particularly those who require additional pocket money to pursue their indulgence.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">“Are we paid what we are worth?”<span style=""> </span>It is a difficult question to answer; the perception of people may be biased and perhaps emotional when it comes to money matters.</p>c.k.hohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01352583226593049470noreply@blogger.com0