White Paper

Friends should work hand in hand

 

Friends working together might benefit job productivity, according to an Accountemps survey.

 

Fifty seven percent of the executives who responded the survey think co-workers who are friends outside of the office will affect productivity in a positive manner. Sixty three percent of the employees being surveyed agreed.

 

No managers felt it was very negative for friends to work together and only one percent of employees felt that way. Max Messmer, chairman of Accountemps and author of Motivating Employees for Dummies (John Wiley & Sons, Inc.) was quoted in PRNewswire as saying, “Colleagues who are friends are more likely to support one another when presented with challenges or new responsibilities, enhancing workflow and team spirit.”

           

In your opinion, when co-workers are friends outside of the office, how does it affect productivity?

 

	Executives	Employees
Very positively	2%	22%
Somewhat positively	55%	41%
No effect	28%	25%
Somewhat negatively	13%	7%
Very negatively	0%	1%
Don’t know	2%	4%

Source: Accountemps, June 2007 n=669

 

 

Not easy being a modern Dad

 

The Monster Intelligence Father’s Day survey reveals that being a modern father is anything but easy. Other than the desire to succeed at work, they need to juggle between wife, kids and other responsibilities. Balancing between work and kids especially, is no easy task.

 

Fathers these days place higher emphasis on their kids and families. In fact, 68% of the father respondents would consider being a stay-at-home parent if money were no object. Fifty-three percent of these fathers would appreciate a workplace with a flexible work schedule to allow them to effectively juggle between their work and children.

 

In addition, the survey revealed that 46% of these working fathers do not bring work home during the week, while 78% of them feel that by bringing work home, father-children relationship will deteriorate.

 

 

 

Key Findings

 

1)      If money were no object, 68% of dads would consider being a stay-at-home parent.

2)      The workplace benefit that fathers appreciate most is a flexible work schedule (53%), followed by telecommuting (24%), onsite child care (12%) and paid paternity leave (10%)

3)      Forty six percent of working fathers never bring work home during the week; 34% report one-two nights per week, 12% three-four nights and eight percent report bringing projects home every night of the week.

4)      According to 78% of working father respondents, bringing work home during the week affects a dad’s relationship with his child/children.

 

Source: Monster Worldwide, Inc., The Monster Intelligence Father’s Day Survey, June 2007 n=1011

 

Global shortage of IT talent

 

Many countries are facing a common problem – shortage of skilled IT professionals. Despite the growth of tertiary institutions around the globe, the supply is still a lot lesser than what is required in the market.

 

Steve Gilroy, vice president of internal sales and marketing for CompTIA, was quoted in a report from the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) as saying “The types of IT skills that are now in demand are changing radically. In most economies, even in developed countries, the ability of supply to keep up with demand is the issue.”

 

To keep up with IT skill shortage, many countries are investing heavily in their education sector.

 

The US leads the chart for human capital by scoring an index of 96.4. Asian countries follow closely behind with Singapore scoring an index of 84.9 and South Korea 74.8, coming 2^nd and 5^th in the chart respectively. Human capital is defined in the report as the combined scores of total number of students in higher education (25%), enrolment in tertiary-level science programmes (5%), employment in technology sector (10%) and the educational system’s capacity to train technologists with business skills (60%).

 

India produces 2.5 million graduates each year, and 200,000 are engineering students. However, there is still a great shortage of skilled IT workers despite the growth in enrolment in higher education. Kiran Karnik, CEO of Nasscom, India’s software industry body, said in the EIU report that graduates are lacking “soft” skills. He added that India’s rigid methods of lecture-based teaching do not encourage graduates to question nor think critically. The market requires high-level IT skills such as project management, technical architecture, change management and business analysis.

 

 

It’s an increasingly superficial world

 

A recent survey by Personnel Today found that the UK workplace is placing more emphasis on physical appearance. The surveyed HR personnel personally believe that it is permissible to tease people about certain “uglyliness” such as blonde hair (22%) and eccentric dress sense (20%).

 

Eighty one percent of HR professionals surveyed believe that society approves of teasing red heads and 20% of HR people personally believe this is acceptable.

 

Women with large breasts are the merciless target of teasing with 63% of HR believe that large breasts are funny in the eyes of society. Seven percent of HR personnel say there is no wrong in teasing women with large breasts and 73% of the women being surveyed have been teased for having this body trait. A victim of such teasing was quoted in Personnel Today as saying, “Lewd comments about the size of my breasts are insulting and show a complete lack of respect for another human being.”

 

What’s interesting is that more people are being mocked for being underweight (84%) than overweight (63%) even though HR practitioners believe that the society prefers to tease people who are overweight (65%) than underweight (46%).

 

To what extent do you agree or disagree that society believes it is acceptable to tease people about certain hair, facial or bodily characteristics?

 

	What HR thinks society believes is acceptable to tease people about	What HR personally believes is acceptable to tease people about	Percentage with this characteristic who have been teased
Ginger hair	81%	20%	79%
Eccentric dress sense	70%	20%	84%
Large breasts	63%	7%	73%
Small breasts	49%	5%	59%
Overweight	65%	8%	63%
Underweight	46%	5%	84%

 

 

Source: Personnel Today, May 2007 n=4000

 

 

Singapore managers lose out to HK counterparts in pay

 

Managers in Singapore and Thailand have less take-home pay as compared to counterparts in Hong Kong, a new study by Hay Group found. 

 

Hong Kong came in third as the country with the most disposable income, tailing behind oil-rich and tax-free nations Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates which came in first and second respectively. In contrast, Singapore and Thailand ranked 8^th and 9^th on the table.

 

Roland Ruiz, managing director, Reward Information Services (Asia) at Hay Group said, “Pay rates for management have traditionally been high in Hong Kong – up to more than a third higher than other Asian cities such as Singapore – while income tax rates are low. Due to the rapidly rising rentals in Singapore, we suspect that Singapore may have slipped down the rankings a few more notches by the end of this year.”

 

The report also found that managers in less developed countries such as Russia, Mexico and Ukraine have more disposable income compared to their Western counterparts. American senior managers were ranked 24^th on the table, while the UK ranked a dismal 39^th with disposable incomes of US$86,367, after factoring in high taxes and a high standard of living.

 

“Companies are operating in an increasingly open and competitive global economy, and emerging markets are offering executives higher disposable incomes than established countries –which is making these locations an attractive prospect for senior talent,” said Iain Fitzpatrick, reward information services manager for Hay Group USA. “This makes sobering reading for companies in Western Europe and the US, who face not only a global war for managerial talent, but an increasingly competitive threat from buoyant new economies.”

 

Hay Group's World Pay Report: Key Findings

Rank	Country	Average Disposable Income: Senior Managers (US$)
1	Saudi Arabia	229,325
2	UAE	223,939
3	Hong Kong	203,947
4	Russia	157,348
5	Turkey	154,762
6	Mexico	152,283
7	Ukraine	149,118
8	Thailand	147,547
9	Singapore	142,655
10	Argentina	138,188