Blogger's Notes:
Commentary of an Academic
(Copyright @ 2010 by Chester B Cabalza. All Rights Reserved).
Research compiled by Chester B Cabalza
What kind of human resources are needed from the perspective of your institution, country and region?
The Philippines is an archipelago of over 7,000 islands located in Southeast Asia. It has a population of 91 million, and English is the common language of business due to American ties and multiple local languages.
As of 2007, although its GDP has grown at an average rate of 5.2% from 2002 to 2006, its actual economy is smaller than those of other competitors in the Southeast Asian region. In 2006, the Philippines’ PPP-adjusted GDP per capita was $5,300, significantly lower than Thailand’s $9,200 or Malaysia’s $12,000.
According to the National Statistics Office, the country’s workforce numbered 33.3 million in July 2007. The unemployment rate hovers around 8%, with little change over the past two years. Poverty is a major problem, with almost half of the population living on less than $2 a day.
Unionization and labor action have dwindled in the Philippines over this decade. According to the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), about 5.6% of the Filipino workforce was unionized in 2007, down from 5.9% in 2005 and 14% in 1995. In addition, the country’s major labor groups signed a Social Accord with employers in 2004, pledging to work together and minimize strikes. Strikes have steadily declined, and in the first three quarters of 2007, only 3 strikes occurred.
The Philippine government has several programs which take mandatory contributions as a proportion of employee pay. The principal one is Social Security, which takes contributions of 10.4% of monthly salary. About two-thirds of that is to be contributed by the employer, the rest by the employee. The employer’s portion was increased by one percentage point of salary as of January 1, 2007 to make up for multiple pension increases over the years.
There is also a National Health Insurance program, which pays some medical expenses. It is commonly referred to as Philhealth. Contribution levels stand at 2.5% of salary, half from the employee and half from the employer.
As a general HR concerns in the country, the Philippines has fairly cheap labor, but not cheap enough to attract significant foreign investment compared to China and Vietnam. New foreign investment centers on the sectors where the workforce has specific advantages. Currently, this is BPO, but others may emerge in the future. Managerial candidates with experience in the rapidly growing service industries, such as call centers, information technology services, etc. are in high demand compared to those in other sectors. HR professionals should also be aware that the country has a wide income gap between rich and poor, so top talent needs significantly higher salaries than the basic wage level might suggest.
Despite economic difficulties after the Asian Financial Crisis and the current Global Financial Crisis, the Philippine economy is expected to slowly grow over the next few years and the potential for multinational firms to expand into the Philippines will greatly increase. In order to utilize their large, talented, and diverse labor force, the Filipino government, together with the Technical Education and Skills Development Association (TESDA), are initiating several training programs.
Fields such as PLC programming, pneumatics, electronics circuits technology, computer programming, and web page development are all critical to the technical sector, and the Philippines will need a suitably skilled labor force for the coming future. This article reviews the efforts being made to train the labor force, as well as the employment opportunities that await Filipinos as foreign investment continues to increase at a high rate.
What do you think are the elements of ideal human resource development program? (Curriculums, teaching materials and staff, etc.)
Nine Basic Elements of Human Resource Practices
Planning and Appraisal: How an organization sets goals, plans performance, provides ongoing coaching, and evaluates performance of employees (individuals and/or teams).
Individual and Team Development: How an organization identifies the needs for employee skill development, education, and growth and how they meet those needs.
Career Planning: How an organization strives to help employees to learn their strengths and to match these strengths, aptitudes, preferences, and abilities to future work.
Hiring: How an organization defines and fills positions and roles with qualified people from within and/or outside the organization; how an organization orients these new employees.
Career Pathing: How an organization (for key positions and roles) determines the logical progression of jobs, roles, assignments, and development to provide a sufficient pool of qualified candidates and incumbents.
Succession Planning: How an organization systematically identifies key roles and positions, determines performance requirements and targets a group of people to fill these positions and roles in the future.
Job Design: How an organization determines the best methods for accomplishing a work product or result. The two major types are the individual job and the team.
Classification: The systematic process for evaluating the size and appropriate salary ranges for different jobs and roles in an organization.
Compensation/Recognition/Other Rewards: How an organization pays and rewards employees (individuals and/or teams), through salary, bonuses, benefits and/or non-financial rewards.
What are the constraints to establish ideal human resource development program? (High-costs, lack of staff, etc.)
The constraints of human resources development in developing States has been recognized by all. Developing States Governments, regional organizations and the United Nations system have accorded priority to this area, as reflected in the initiatives by developing States and support action by both regional organizations and the United Nations system. However, the unique demographic, economic and geographic constraints faced by developing States call for a strengthening of the concerted efforts at human resources development.
Policy initiatives by some developing States Governments in institutional building, educational reform, training and regional cooperation in environmental management provide useful experiences, and should be shared with others in their efforts to formulate and implement human resource development strategies.
Although the present review demonstrates both the commitment of developing States to improving and strengthening their national and local human capacity and the support action being taken by regional organizations and the United Nations system, it is by no means certain that such initiatives and action are sufficient to meet the challenges, especially when the efforts are measured against the combined constraints and the scale of those challenges.
The recent declines in external resources allocated to human resources development in developing States are a cause of grave concern: a continuation or worsening of that trend is bound to adversely affect the human resource development prospects developing States.
What do you expect from JGC’s International Human Resource Development Program (contents and methods of the program, certification, facilities and equipment, etc.)
The Hou-ren-sou Skill survey consists of statements regarding Houkoku Skills (reporting), Renraku Skills (Informing), and Soudan Skill (Consultation). The rater will rate the ratee based on these statements by simply choosing the 1, 2, 3, and 4. The number 4 corresponds to strongly agree, 3 for slightly agree, 2 for slightly disagree, and 1 for strongly disagree. The ratees score will then be tabulated and interpreted as follows, for a score of 53-60 points (A), he or she is considered to be a model for other employees to emulate, while a score of 45-52 points (B), his or her communication skills exceeds expectation, a score of 37-44 points (C), his or her communication skills is within expectation and last but not the least is a score of 15-36 points (D) which is interpreted as needs improvement.
Based on the outcome of the survey, all the departments and levels of positions appear to be commendable. The result can be summarized through percentages. The 27% of the rated employees are considered as models while 37% exceeds expectation, 12% is within expectation and only 5% needs improvement. The ABC ratees were 76%. The 19% missing are those that were not rated because of various reasons such as overseas assignment, etc.
The conclusion and recommendation of the committee based on the result of the survey is to continue the exercise every February and October until next year with the target of raising the percentage to 94%. Department plans on Hou-ren-sou will be re-aligned based on the result of the Hou-ren-sou survey. Department Mangers or Team Managers must give feedback to colleagues on the results of the survey especially to those rated as D (needs improvement).
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