Wednesday, December 19, 2007
Happy Holidays from the No. 1 Job Site in the Philippines
support to JobStreet.com, the
May you have a wonderful Christmas and a prosperous New Year!
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
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.
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:
- Focus your mind on what is being said.
- Catch the main ideas. Usually, you'll hear them at the start of the conversation and repeated several times in the conversation.
- Don't interrupt the speaker or you may break his train of thought. Besides, the speaker will appreciate you for it.
- Pay full visual attention to the person who is speaking. Don't be distracted by what's going on around you.
- 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?
- Ask questions to clarify points. Don't assume that what you heard is what the speaker meant.
- 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.
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
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.
Monday, December 10, 2007
Opportunities to work in 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.
Friday, December 7, 2007
Planning to give your boss a gift this holiday?
The season of giving is here and the holiday mood is in the air. Before I plan for my vacation, there's one thing that I'm looking forward to plan and give my 100% attention. Shopping for GIFTS! They said that its better to give than to receive. But it's not a necessity to give gifts to your co-workers and boss especially if the reason why you're giving gifts is because everyone else is giving you one.
If you want to treat your colleagues this season, you're welcome to do so. You can choose from a variety of gifts, may it be funny, cute, useful or edible, or whatever is within budget, its your call. But be more careful when picking a gift for your boss. Here are some tips on buying holiday gifts for your boss.
First of all, you have no obligation to get your boss a gift, a holiday card is enough. And it does not mean that you should get something for your boss if he buys you a gift. I'm sure your boss does not expect you to give him a gift just because he gave you something. A thank you note would be just fine and will be appreciated nevertheless.
Should you wish to reciprocate the gesture, first ask around among your co-workers about general gift-giving practices in the company. Some have company-wide exchange gift or a secret Santa where everyone (including the bosses) spends the same amount for an assigned person.
Be discreet when giving the gift, put the gift on your boss' desk early in the morning or at the end of the day so as not to draw attention to yourself. Some people don't have the money to buy their boss a present, and if they see you, they may feel inadequate. And others might gossip about it.
If you belong to a group, you can potluck for a gift for your boss. In doing so, those who doesn't have a budget, can share something and everyone can sign the gift card.
Don’t overdo it. You are not expected to spend the same amount as your boss would on a present.
Know your boss' interest so that you can get him or her something that he/she can actually use and enjoy. Suitable gifts that are not heavy on the pocket would be a book, a CD, or a magazine subscription. You can also give something that he can enjoy or share with his family such as movie tickets, sweets or wine (if he's a wine drinker). Useful items for the office like a sign pen, organizer, mug etc.
Enjoy your shopping! And don't worry too much, because it's always the thought that counts.
Your resume viewed by an employer? We'll tell you by email!
You can always set your resume to be seen by employers. Just log into your MyJobStreet membership account and look for the Searchable Resume link in the MyResume page.
What do you think of this feature? Leave a comment to let us know!
Upload the resume you write
It's quite common that many job seekers are now creating their resumes on online job sites like JobStreet.com.
However, this does not mean that nobody is writing the traditional, old-fashioned resume any more. Far from it, many people are still doing this because there are occasions when a written resume can be more appropriate than an online one. The only difference is that, instead of keeping type-written copies, their resumes are now stored as a Word document in their computers, ready to be printed whenever needed.
When you prepare a resume the traditional way, your individual style is always reflected in the way you write or format the document. On the other hand, an online resume normally follows a structured format. The self-written resume can thus often look more creative. You usually do not have such flexibility with the online version.
The resume that you upload does not over-ride the online version that you first created on JobStreet.com. Rather, both versions co-exist side-by-side and when you apply to any job on JobStreet.com, the employer can choose the version that he prefers.
Keeping a self-written resume on JobStreet.com is not an absolute must but if you do, please make sure that every time you have something new to add to your qualifications, experience or skills, you should update the information in both resumes or otherwise the employer may miss out on some information in one of them.
So do you have your resume ready? You can upload it now, if you like. Just log into your MyJobStreet membership account from here (all countries except members from Indonesia who should log in from here.)
Have you any thoughts on this feature? You can take part in a very short poll on Upload Resume and let us know!Wednesday, December 5, 2007
JobStreet Kids
Another great TVC from JobStreet.com. Better than animation and funky background music, if you know what I mean.... ;)
JobStreet Dog
Watch this video. Copy is simple but cute!
Getting irrelevant offers? Go to JobStreet.com for jobs that fit.
JobStreet.com
Improving Lives Through Better Careers
