The right time to hire.

The government in Singapore is always encouraging young entrepreneurs to establish a business on their own. With more of such entrepreneurs around, the chances of establishing a successful company is higher and this would also mean a reduction in unemployment rates.

It is all good for the society, but it is a stressful situation for the entrepreneurs themselves.  It is always a stressful situation and as entrepreneurs, we have to make calculated risk and proceed with caution. We are not just looking at fixed cost, such as salary and benefits – but many sources of overhead as well such as training and development costs. This is based on the assumption that the employee is performing as the figures will only get worse if the employee is not performing – where all the training and development cost dedicated to the employee not just become a sunk cost, but businesses have to think of severance pay (and sometimes litigation), but also the time and effort dedicated to finding a replacement. Time always means money.

What is the required skillset?

What is the position you need to fill, depends on the skillset of the founders, as well as the industry of the new business. These are the questions you have to ask yourself:

• Are you lacking in a skillset
• Is the lack of skillset preventing the business from going further
• Must the skillset be hired or should it just be outsourced

With all these information, you have to evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of each. Services that are outsourced do not need to be managed – in comparison to bringing an employee onboard. Apart from the main difference in the budget, services that are outsourced are guaranteed results, whereas the results of the employee you bring in might vary. You will also think about the knowledge set whereby do the market have sufficient knowledge of the product or industry you are dealing in, and how confidential is your knowledge? The more confidential it is, the more you will want to do it by yourself. If the vendors have more expertise, knowledge and experience, you should consider outsourcing the service to them. Of course, at this time, you should also be thinking the frequency whereby this service is required. One such consideration would be the number of times you have to rebrand your company’s logo and website.

Who is the right candidate to bring onboard?

If you have decided to hire, the next step would be to think of who should you hire. These are some of the following questions you can think of

• Have the incumbent worked in smaller companies before?
• How aligned are the goals to the company with the incumbent?
• Is the candidate an individual contribution, or someone who requires hand-holding

Based on our experiences, companies prefer credentials – be it experience, or educational qualifications. However, companies should always be evaluating on the staying power of such candidates as well as on whether the incumbent will be a good fit with the company’s culture. Employees who have been used to working in big companies could have been used to a structured environment, with dedicated routine tasks whereas in a small organization setting – incumbents could likely be told to assist in practically anything and everything.

However, we have come across candidates who prefer a less bureaucratic environment because it would also mean less politics. With lesser competition, it could mean room for career progression.  We are also surprised when some candidates share that they would like to take up on the role because they are able to learn more.

Conclusion

Ultimately – You have to do your own self-assessment of the candidate. One of the ways you could use your assessment is by getting your existing employees who are well versed with your culture to recommend someone else into the company. Those who are doing the recommendation will be assessing the suitability of the new entrant as well. Or you could widen your pool of potential candidates with us, and we could do the assessment for you – with a fee of course.

Of course, we would prefer the latter.

The Do's and Dont's Of Getting To Know A New Colleague

When someone new arrives at the office, the first thought that goes through everyone’s mind will either fall under the “who is this” category or the “how well can I work with this person” camp.

An everyday office unit can be hard to penetrate, especially if it is a highly organised and closely-knitted one, where everyone works together as a single corporate organism. Take a moment to step into the newbie’s shoes, and understand what is considered appropriate (and inappropriate) when it comes to welcoming another.

DO's

Do take time to “break the ice” and find out more about them. There is nothing more uplifting than the feeling of being accepted and acknowledged by others, especially during the first week. Take this time to also assert who has the potential for growth in the company. Invite the new colleague out with the usual work crew, and as the rules state: the newbie always foots the bill.

Do establish a sense of company culture and/or rules from the start. This is helpful if the company upholds a strong sense of individualistic culture — new colleagues have new ideologies that may or may not add value to the company. It is also easier to fix the ground rules before something happens, and they have to be changed.

DONT's

Don’t confront them directly. Direct confrontations during the first week can seem like a personal attack, or unfriendly warning, to the new colleague. It can also escalate if the newbie retaliates the confrontation with an aggressive front — creating an impression that can be irreversible. This can create a downhill slide of relations in the office, where the primary misunderstanding can never be cleared for a better working relationship.

Don’t spread stories about their personality or personal lifestyle. It is hardly surprising that the newbie is recognised in the same field previously, but avoid using these past impressions to form a present judgement. People constantly change, and it is not fair to benchmark a person by looking back, instead of going forward to create a new impression that is concrete to the person today.

Don’t take advantage of their newbie status in the company. This can backfire very quickly once the newbie catches on, and the tension will never really go away. Sending him/her to get a cup of juice is fine, but getting 10 cups of juice throughout the day is an abuse of power. There is never a restart button once things sour, so instead of trying to take advantage, aim to work together and share the workload. 

What Do You Look For In A Job? Here’s 5.

As much as most candidates look for career growth, I always come across candidates who are not able to explain or understand the kind of ‘growth’ they are seeking. What is it that is important to each individual when you move on to the next role?

However, it is good to consider whole lot of aspects while you try to figure out whether to take on the role. What matters most is, you need to be sure of the job expectations before you move into the role. Else, you might fall into a pit hole and regret the move because you did not make it clear.

Advancement

Always look into the companies on what are the kind of roles they can offer you to advance in the next few years while you are with them. Is there possibility of getting horizontal or vertical move into the role?

Always look internal first, before you explore external opportunities. There are some unknown factors when you move into a new role in a new organisation. Yet, internal opportunities give assurance that you know the culture and people.

Satisfaction and Trust

You spend minimally eight hours at work and you just want to make sure that you enter office each day, feeling great. You do not want anyone to be looking over your shoulders day in, day out with the work that you’ve been assigned to. At the end of the day, if you face get fatigued easily, you will have the tenancy to look out for your next job.

Stability

This may not be the best thing that could happen in the recent years, companies themselves are not able to ensure its stability, this is by far one of the top choices of job seekers. You can only use the past year’s company performance as a guide to move forward because it cannot guarantee the similar performance in the next few years.

Environment

Observe the people who are walking past you or even at the reception, look out for a similar pattern in the workers. Do they give you a smile or even say ‘Hello!’. They might not know you but the interaction and image that are portrayed do say something about the company.

Benefits

You do not want to end up taking lesser than your current role by looking into your overall remuneration package. Some may be enticed by the amount that was given to you in your basic salary, yet when you look into the other benefits, you are getting so much lesser than what you have. For instance, if the company does not offer health insurance, you will realise that you will be spending more out of your pocket.