Most certainly, experience on the job should be
taken into consideration when assessments are made as loyalty to the
organisation is useful to prevent job hopping. For when resignations are
high, disruptions to services are bound to lower productivity. The Japanese value
workers who are loyal to the company.
Surely, we can do the same.
Let’s view worker’s loyalty as a good investment,
an asset, instead of seeing them as a liability. No doubt, long serving staff
will draw a higher salary as compared to the younger fresh graduates. But that
should not be a reason to axe the loyal workers whenever a retrenchment
exercise takes place. It is common knowledge – even in this day and age, that
whenever retrenchment is on the cards, high on the list of staff who have to go
will be those drawing bigger salaries.
Instead of retrenching the loyal and older staff,
every effort must be made to retain them, given their wealth of experience
acquired over the years and their dedication to the company. With a good work
attitude such workers can so easily mentor the young graduates. One way is to
review the salaries of long serving employees in consultation with the
unions. If need be, a pay cut can be proposed – especially if the company
is not doing too well.
No doubt investing in training, learning new things
and upgrading oneself is a must if workers want to secure promotions and pay
increases.
2-way staff appraisals
Let us not totally dismiss the remarks made by
commentators or netizens who responded to the reports on the policy of grouping
graduates and non-graduates for promotions as untrue because there is indeed
some truth in what they say.
How often have we heard this remark when someone
who deserves to move up the corporate ladder loses out on promotion/s? “It is
not how hard you work, but how smart you work.”
There are concerns that even with these acquired
skills, staff can lose out on promotions if bosses or supervisors favour some
staff. Bottom line: The staff appraisal must never be used as a ‘weapon’ by
supervisors against staff who are out of their good books.
Currently, only supervisors and bosses can rank
staff under their charge. Why not improve on the present ranking system
so that there is a fairer system in place? To this end, I propose that all
ministries implement a 2-way staff appraisal system in which the staff also
have the opportunity to rank their superiors.
This 2-way appraisal system must be implemented
based on a top criterion set by human resource experts so that there is no
back-biting, but done so in a tasteful and professional way.
If the public sector takes the lead, then the
private sector can do likewise.
Verbal and written expressions
If a worker is equipped with excellent verbal and
written expressions, he/she will always be marketable, in demand, both within
Singapore and in other parts of the world. I know of graduates who can’t even
write a first paragraph, or worse still, cannot even open a sentence, and yet
they were promoted.
Thus, public sector officers must be assessed on
their verbal as well as their written skills in their staff appraisals.
Added to that, being good at solving problems
should give them a higher score.
Participation in volunteer work
With the growing need for voluntary work to support
our ageing population and those with special needs, it will be useful for such
charitable work to be factored when promotions are being considered.
RAYMOND ANTHONY FERNANDO
No comments:
Post a Comment