Singapore Third Most Popular Expat Location

Interesting article :

By: Lee Xieli, Singapore

EXPATRIATION    RELOCATION

Singapore – Singapore has risen to be the third most popular destination companies relocate their expatriates to globally over the past five years.

According to new data from global relocation services provider Cartus Corporation, the city leaped from seventh place in 2006 to third on the list of top 25 expat destinations last year. The 139% increase in relocation volume to Singapore within the past five years has placed the country just after the US and the UK, which are still the largest markets for international assignments.

A separate report by ECA last year found that Singapore was the most desirable Asian country for expatriate postings for the 11th year running. The city was also the fifth most expensive city to live in globally.

Lee Quane, regional director for ECA Asia, is confident that companies will continue to choose Singapore as the ideal location for expats because of its high quality of living.

Kenneth Kwek, head of Cartus’ Asia Pacific operations, added that Singapore’s high ranking is “no surprise” as the city has a reputation for attracting foreign investors, companies and professionals. “Schooling and health care have always been key factors that our assignees and their families find attractive about Singapore.”

The data which is compiled every five years also showed that top 10 relocation destinations have remained relatively consistent since 2006, despite the changing economic landscape.

Regionally, China remained at fourth spot and India jumped from ninth place in 2006 to sixth. A 77% international relocation volume increase moved Hong Kong from 11th to eighth place while Japan slipped three places to ninth last year.

Meanwhile, a few new locations have begun climbing the rankings as more companies start sending employees to “non-traditional relocation markets”. Among the countries whose relocation volume more than doubled are United Arab Emirates and Brazil at 13th and 14th positions.

Kwek said, "Companies will need to be well informed and positioned to take advantage of a broader array of countries, regions and cultures than ever before."

Top 10 in Cartus' rankings of top 25 relocation destinations last year (2006 ranking in brackets):

1. United States (1)

2. United Kingdom (2)

3. Singapore (7)

4. China (3)

5. Switzerland (4)

6. India (9)

7. Germany (5)

8. Hong Kong (11)

9. Japan (6)

10. Canada (8)

HR Falls Short At Recognising Staff

This is another pertinent and interesting article I came across. 

While HR leaders expect employee engagement to be a key challenge, they lack effective approaches to track engagement levels and the returns of staff recognition initiatives.

According to the Employee Recognition Tracker Survey 2011, nearly all 745 HR leaders (99%) polled agree that employee engagement will be a vital challenge in the next three to five years.

Yet, an alarming 71% of these HR leaders only track engagement levels through exit interviews, suggesting that engagement issues only surface when employees leave the firm. Some 65% linked engagement levels to staff retention rates.

Similarly, only 37% align employee recognition programmes to their corporate values, while 43% of HR practitioners reward staff based on performance linked to the firm's financial targets. Such low percentages are indicative of companies failing to implement strategic recognition schemes that can drive performance and manage the firm's culture. 

More than two thirds (69%) of HR leaders are convinced that their employees are dissatisfied with the recognition they receive at work, with 54% thinking that their managers and supervisors are ineffective in rewarding and appreciating employees. 

Perhaps more appalling would be that a third of CEOs do not invest any time at all on recognition schemes. One key reason would be that almost half of HR respondents (49%) track their schemes by unit or department, which makes it tedious for senior management to get a comprehensive company-wide overview of recognition efforts. 

Evaluating the success of their recognition schemes also proved to be elusive and difficult, with 87% of HR respondents failing to track the returns of investments (ROI) on their programmes.

HR leaders listed inconsistent metrics and the poor alignment of recognition schemes with other talent or performance management structures as top challenges behind measuring ROI (32%). 

Over one-fifth of leaders (22%) also said their current recognition programme is "not designed to deliver improvement in metrics" that the executive leadership finds valuable.

Eric Mosely, CEO of Globoforce, said, "Measuring recognition adds a level of accountability for all employees, and is ultimately how behaviours change and culture is managed." 

He added, "It's also how today's HR leaders can gain the much-needed support and investment from senior management for strategic engagement and recognition programmes."

The survey was conducted by employee recognition solutions provider Globoforce and the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) earlier in May this year.  

Job Vacancies with the Largest Chilcare & Preschool

The largest and a state-of art Childcare Centre and Preschool

is opening in September 2011.

We are inviting dynamic, highly motivated and career orientated candidates to join the team:

Teachers  

·         Candidate should possess a Diploma in Early Years Education  or equivalent

 Assistant Teachers 

·         Candidate should possess at least SPM/"O" Level

For Position 1 & 2 – Graduates including those in nursing discipline and experience teachers are also encouraged to apply.  Intensive training will be provided.

                       

Finance Executive

·         Candidate should possess at least a Diploma in Accounting /LCCI/ Finance or its equivalent

·         Minimum 2 years of experience in the related field

Administrator 

·         Candidate should possess at least a Diploma or its equivalent

·         Minimum 3 years of experience in handling administrative functions

Centre Nurse  

·         Candidate should possess at least a Diploma or equivalent qualification in nursing

·         Must be a registered nurse with the Malaysian Board of Nursing

Interested applicants are invited to submit your resume to shazee77@yahoo.com or contact (Sha) at 03-20932586  (8am-4pm) for an immediate interview.

Those who are expats its a MUST to have a working permit.

Jobs - need ASP.Net, SQL Server, Java Script, Ajax, jQuery.

Hello there... IT folks seeking for Job opportunities...

One of my friend is looking for permanent contract staff for the above mentioned skills..

Job location: Cyberjaya, Malaysia.

Please don't hesitate to directly connect with :

Mohandeep Singh 

Soft Solvers Technologies

deep@softsolvers.com.my

Please mention the subject in the email as the title... of this email.. 

A Spaceship-Shaped, 12K Capacity Building As Our New Apple Campus

This article was published...on TechCrunch...

After having a banner WWDC start yesterday, Apple founder and CEO Steve Jobs humblypresented his idea for a new Apple campus at the Cupertino City Council today. Jobs wants to build one building that will hold 12,000 Apple employees on a former Hewlett-Packard property in the area between Tantau North Wolfe, Homestead and the 280 freeway.”It’s a little like a spaceship landed,” Jobs says. No kidding.

Jobs began the presentation referring to the fact that Apple is growing “like a weed,” and that its current campus at D’Anza and the 280 isn’t enough — fitting only about 2,800 people. Apple currently rents buildings to house its other 6,700 employees in the area. The new building will augment the current campus.

Paving the way for these plans, Apple purchased about 100 acres from Hewlett Packard in 2010 and added them to the 50 it owns adjacent. Jobs says he has corralled “some great architects … some of the best in the world” to come up with a design that will house 12,000 people in one four story high building on the property. The area is now mainly apricot orchards.

With the futuristic design Apple apparently is relying heavily on its experience building retail stores, and it will be creating one massive piece of curved glass if the proposal goes through. “There’s not a single straight piece of glass in this building,” Jobs says. The parking will be underground.

Jobs also wants the building to function as its own power source, with an “energy center” as its primary source of power (“with natural gas and other ways that are cleaner and cheaper”), using the grid as a backup.

The campus will include amenities like its own auditorium similar to Apple’s current Town Hall (“We’ve got an auditorium, cause we put on presentations, much like we did yesterday but we have to go to San Francisco to do them.”) and a cafeteria that will feed 3,000 people at one sitting.

“We do have a shot at building the best office building in the world,” Jobs told the Council members, “Architecture students will come here to see this.” Ideally Apple wants to move into the campus in 2015.

The individual members of the Cupertino City Council seemed like they were in awe the entire time the infamously charismatic Apple CEO spoke (which isn’t surprising), asking Jobs for free Wifi and iPads for constituents as well as for an Apple store that’s actually in Cupertino and not in the Valley or Los Gatos. Jobs shyly responded to the requests, “I think we bring a lot more than free Wifi.”

Key facts about the new Apple campus:

• Design will include a courtyard in the middle and curved glass all the way around.
• Jobs is planning on transforming an area that’s 20% landscaping to 80% landscaping by putting most of the building’s parking underground.
• There are 3,700 trees in the area at the moment, Jobs has hired an arborist from Stanford to take the area up to 6,000 trees.
• The plan is to build a four-story high building and four-story parking structure.
• The campus will incude an energy center, and natural gas will be the primary source of power, using the grid as backup.
• There will be an auditorium, fitness center and some R & D buildings.
• Jobs plans a 40% increase in Apple employees going from 9,500 today to 13, 000 in 2015.
• He wants to increase the campus’ space 20% from 2.6 million to 3.1 million square feet.
• Landscaping will increase 60% from 3,700 to 6,000.
• Surface parking will decrease 90% from 9,800 to 1,200 .
• The building footprint will decrease 30% from 1.4 million to 1 million.
• Cafeterias will fit 3,000 people at a sitting.
• The whole building will be designed with the utmost concern for employee safety.
• Apple currently has 20 buses running on bio-diesel fuel for its employees and Jobs thinks that system will work well with the new campus.
• The plan for the new design will submitted asap, and Jobs hopes to break ground next year and move in 2015.

Employees Uncomfortable Talking To Bosses

Quite an interesting article..

This was published under Human Resources Online:

By: Lee Xieli, Singapore

WORKPLACE COMMUNICATION

US – The lack of effective communication between senior management and their workforce has resulted in employees feeling uncomfortable in sharing their ideas on innovation with bosses.

According to the first Workplace Communications Impact Survey of 1,168 employees by Yammer, companies still have a long way to go in improving their internal communication and collaboration programmes. Only 8% of respondents said their company is extremely effective at sharing business goals, timelines and plans internally.

A majority added that they felt uncomfortable sharing ideas or feedback with their managers or senior-ranking executives. Yet three in five employees were comfortable sharing ideas and feedback with their peers or colleagues.

Worryingly, respondents preferred using emails (74%) and phone (61%) to communicate with their bosses even though it was difficult to work effectively with these methods. Only 31% will schedule face-to-face meetings and 53% will engage in unplanned conversations.  

Slightly more than a third said the lack of communication has a significant impact on their work productivity as they do not feel valued by their employer. Three in 10 felt they do not have all the information needed to do their jobs well while long, ineffective meetings are another drain on productivity for 22%.

Furthermore, close to a fifth said their companies are poor at recognising and rewarding employees who come up with ideas on improving the organisation. Only 8% felt their suggestions for innovation were being recognised.

The lack of connection between bosses and their teams may result in the differences in the level of respect respondents have for the people they work with. More than half said they respect their co-workers while only 39% respect their managers. Respondents also deemed their peers (29%) as better mentors than their bosses (19%).

“It is clear that fostering a sense of community among co-workers is key to success,” David Sacks, CEO of business social networking tool Yammer, said. “But even more so is providing managers a chance to interact with their employees on a daily basis and build more of an open, authentic connection.”