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Distractions at work

How distracted are you at work? Would you open your email to read as soon as it arrives in your inbox?

A study by a team of researchers from the University of California found that it doesn't take much to distract a person from his everyday work. The researchers, Gloria Mark and Victor Gonzalez, tracked 36 information technology office workers at a company to record how they spent their time.

The result? They found that the average time spent by the workers in concentrating on a project before they were distracted was just 11 minutes.

Distraction came in various forms, including incoming emails, the telephone ringing or a knock on the cubicle. Further, the study revealed that once interrupted, a person would take an average of 25 minutes to return to his original task.

More than that, the workers in the study were each juggling with an average of 12 projects at the same time. The researchers called it "constant, multitasking craziness."

According to Gloria Mark, the five biggest causes of interruption in descending order were a colleague stopping by, the worker being called away from the desk or leaving voluntarily, the arrival of new email, the worker switching to another task on the computer and a telephone call.

Posted by blogadmin on Monday, 17 December 2007 at http://blog.jobstreet.com/

Are you a good listener?

It's not difficult to be one. In my opinion, the ability to listen well is one of the most basic skills that a person should have. Unless you are able to listen well and understand what people are talking to you, it is hard - maybe, almost impossible - to produce the right results.

Yet, listening must be one of the most under-rated business skills. Listening is not only about paying attention to the speaker. It's more than that. Listening is also about hearing properly, not making assumptions, digesting the speaker's tone of voice and understanding his body language.

How can you become a good listener? Here are a few tips:

1. Focus your mind on what is being said.
2. Catch the main ideas. Usually, you'll hear them at the start of the conversation and repeated several times in the conversation.
3. Don't interrupt the speaker or you may break his train of thought. Besides, the speaker will appreciate you for it.
4. Pay full visual attention to the person who is speaking. Don't be distracted by what's going on around you.
5. Let yourself finish listening to the speaker before you respond. If you can't digest what has been said, how can you continue the conversation intelligently?
6. Ask questions to clarify points. Don't assume that what you heard is what the speaker meant.
7. Watch your own body language. It may reveal a lot about you to the speaker.

So relax yourself. Respond with nods, smiles, frowns, laughter, silence ... whatever it takes to convey that you are listening and responding well.

Originally posted by SS Quah on Thursday, 13 December 2007 at http://blog.jobstreet.com/

JobStreet.com Study Reveals Top Reasons for Employee Turnover

Employers, take note: while plaques and accolades are nice to have, Filipino workers – more than their counterparts in Southeast Asia – would rather have job security than recognition and appreciation.

A recent survey conducted by JobStreet.com with over 1,200 respondents provides valuable insights to employers dealing with workforce retention. The survey results cite issues with present compensation and benefits, seeking greater challenges, exploring other career paths and promotion opportunities as top reasons for employees who leave their current jobs. Similar surveys conducted in Malaysia and Singapore also reveal that Filipinos share almost the same sentiments on career changes as their Southeast Asian neighbors, but differ from Malaysians and Singaporeans by preferring job security over recognition.

Indicators of job dissatisfaction

The same survey also shows that Filipinos prefer to have long tenures with their employers, 33% saying that a stay of five years or more is reasonable, in contrast to majority of Malaysians and Singaporeans who lean towards stints of only two to three years. Despite the preference for longer tenures, the reality is that Filipinos tend to change employers quite often, with 41% of respondents saying that they have worked for three or more companies in a period of five years. In fact, answers to another question reveal that 50% of respondents are actively looking for or changing to another job.

The survey was conducted online last November on JobStreet.com. Participants consisted mostly of young adults, aged 20 to 30 years old (52%). Thirty-one percent (31%) was made up by 30 to 40 year olds and 15% of ages 40 & above. Generally, the survey shows that younger jobseekers (those who were below 25 years old) are keener to explore new career paths while the more mature jobseekers were less inclined. People in their late 20s were more concerned about promotion opportunities while for people 40 years & older, the lack of recognition and appreciation was a more visible area of discontentment.

Retention strategies emerging from survey results

From the results of the survey, employers can devise strategies to promote employee retention.

“A high rate of employee turnover remains a critical issue for many companies as it hampers productivity, quality and profitability, ” says Grace Colet, JobStreet.com’s Country Manager. “We hope that with our survey’s findings, employers can begin proactively addressing concerns cited by respondents with strategies such as providing a challenging and rewarding work atmosphere, positive succession planning and better overall strategic and operational management.”

The online survey is the latest among JobStreet.com’s initiatives to improve the lives of Filipinos by bridging information and communication gaps between employers and workers. The company actively works with industry and employer groups such as the People Management Association of the Philippines (PMAP) and various professional organizations to shed light on labor and employment issues. It also hosts the HRInternet Forum, a free online discussion board of 1,000 HR professionals where they can tackle workplace issues, share resources and compare best practices and HR policies with fellow practitioners across the country.

Opportunities to work in Japan

Both the Malaysian national news agency (Bernama) and one of the country's main mainstream newspapers (The Star) are reporting today on JobStreet.com's entry into Japan.

The Star reports that JobStreet Corporation Bhd (JCB) had entered into a 60:40 joint venture with Asian Commission Corporation to form JobStreet Kabushiki Kaisha or JobStreet Japan which will offer employment opportunities in Japan for skilled professionals from South-East Asia.

The newspaper quoted JobStreet.com CEO Mark Chang as saying that JobStreet Japan "could help ease the labour shortage experienced by many Japanese companies." The labour crunch was a consequence of Japan's aging population which had resulted in Japanese seniors working longer and making women enter the labour force.

Japan has also eased its restrictions on foreign workers and this would attract young professionals seeking to gain exposure to the Japanese corporate culture as well as higher salaries.

With the target being junior professionals and fresh graduates from South-East Asia, Bernama quoted Chang: "We are looking for specific group of engineers mainly in electrical engineering." JobStreet Japan will train the successful apprentice in the Japanese language and culture about three months at our training centre in the Philippines.

Here is the link to the story in The Star.

Meanwhile, The Edge Daily reports Chang as saying that JCB expects its proposed transfer to the Main Board to occur by early January.

“Hopefully as a Main Board (entity), maybe the public will have higher confidence and (it would) attract more local funds to invest in JobStreet.” According to Chang, the bulk of investors are Malaysians but almost all its institutional investors are foreign parties.

Originally posted by blogadmin on Friday, 07 December 2007 at 10:58 AM at http://blog.jobstreet.com/