Staff Selection

Staff Selection Secrets to Employ the Best People (Targeted at entrepreneurs & HR practitioners)

By Eric Alagan

Micro Mouse Business Series LCA Consultants Pte Ltd Singapore

First Published Feb 2011 Published by: LCA Consultants Pte Ltd (Company Registration No. 201008768Z) No1, Jalan Ulu Sembawang The Sensoria, # 05-11 Singapore 758930 WWW.LCABOOKS.COM ISBN 978-981-08-7538-1 Copyright @ 2011 by Eric Alagan Cover artwork @ 2011 by Eric Alagan Typeset and Cover design by : Rank Books Printed in Singapore This book is an original work by the author. All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner.

Condition of Sale This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the copyright holder’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

Disclaimer The author and publisher disclaim all liability and responsibility for loss caused to any person by any act or omission to act directly or indirectly as a result of material contained in this book.

National Library Board, Singapore Cataloguing-in-Publication Data Alagan, Eric, 1955Staff selection: secrets to employ the best people/ by Eric Alagan. – Singapore : LCA Consultants, 2011. p. cm. – (Micro mouse business series) ISBN : 978-981-08-7538-1 (pbk.)

1. Employee selection. 2. Employees – Recruiting. 3. Small business – Management. I. Title. II. Series: Micro mouse business series.

HF5549.5.S38 658.3112 -- dc22

ii

OCN694134382

Dedication To My Mentors Ian Frank Davis (UK) – 1992 to 1995, Aerocontracts William (Bill) Wayne Wright (USA) – 1987 to 1990, Dowty Goh Bok Keng (Singapore) – 1973 to 1982, SGAS Frankie Chung (Malaysia) – 1972 to 1973, SGAS

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About the author ERIC ALAGAN has more than 35 years of international business experience in the areas of aerospace MRO, security consultancy and services, trading and logistics and supply chain. He has held several progressive positions in multinational corporations and last held the position of managing director, Asia Pacific for a European aerospace company. He has been involved in several green field start-ups, mergers and acquisitions.

Eric has managed companies in Singapore and Australia with extensive experience in ASEAN, the Indian sub-continent and the Pacific islands.

He holds several engineering qualifications, a business degree from Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology and a master’s degree in logistics and supply chain from University South Australia.

He currently undertakes business consultancy work, writes novels and self-help books for entrepreneurs under the Micro Mouse Business Series.

The first two titles released in 2011 are: 1. Staff Selection – Secrets to Employ the Best People This book targets micro businesses, entrepreneurs and those interested in Human Resource.

2. Increase F&B Sales – Secrets to Boost Profits

This book targets existing cafes, restaurants and F&B

start-ups.

Eric is married to Lisa Chew and they have three adult children pursuing business and medicine. iv

preface This book targets primarily micro enterprises, general managers who wish to have an overview and all those interested in the field of human resource. It especially targets entrepreneurs who do not have the services of human resource experts.

The Models and Methods contained in this book assume no prior knowledge on the part of the reader.

There are various definitions for micro enterprises but the commonly accepted is any business with 2 to 9 people and a turnover of under $2 million.

The MICRO MOUSE Business Series provide a series of simple steps to achieve measureable targets.

Micro Mouse Business Series – a play of words based on the famous Mighty Mouse, an animation superhero created by Terrytoons for 20th Century Fox. In that cartoon a mouse beats all the big boys, normally portrayed as cats. Therefore, this series of self-help management books hopes micro enterprises can hold their own against the fat cats of industry.

The Series draws on the experiences and observations of the author and presents suggestions on Staff Selection from first identifying and justifying the need for additional staff right up to selecting, employing, probation and confirmation.

However, you should always rely on your own independent professional advice, judgment and preferences. No warranties, assurances, guarantees or representations about the accuracy,

reliability, timeliness or otherwise of the information contained in this book can be given or to be construed.

To the full extent permitted by law, LCA Consultants Pte Ltd (including the author) shall not be liable (including liability for any form of negligence, errors or omissions) for any loss or damage arising out of your use of this book.

You must always consider the appropriateness of the information in this book (as expressed explicitly or implicitly) to your relevant circumstances. By buying this book, you have agreed to the above terms.

For the sake of expedience, throughout the book, the author uses male/female genders interchangeably and where he mentions a male, it refers to a female and vice versa.

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A PHOTO FINISH WIN I once played a video clip of a closely run 100 meters dash to a group of executives and asked if they could identify the winner.

They could not, so I replayed that video and this time some of them made a few guesses but there was no consensus about who actually nosed the tape first. I replayed it but this time took it frameby-frame and everyone saw the winner.

Competing in the business world is like that. You do not have to win by a mile. Put another way, you do not need a 100 great ideas – because most of that 100 had already been thought of, practiced by your competitors. You too probably know most of them.

What you need is one or two ideas no one else had thought of or exploited.

I hope and wish you could find one or two such ideas from the dozens contained in this book.

All you need is a fraction of a second – that nose length – to win.

Eric Alagan

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New Title By ERIC ALAGAN

INCREASE F&B SALES – Secrets to Boost Profits The secret models and methods would benefit owners and operators of cafés and restaurants, and even F&B chains and food court operators. Some of the topics covered: 1. Increase sales – not overheads.

2. Convert Mistakes into Opportunities to Drive Sales.

3. The most crucial staff in your F&B? (Hint – not your Chef) 4. Do not rely only on the Givens – leave those to Competitors.

5. What keeps the Customers coming back? (Hint – not Price) 6. Discover the True Cost of Rental Expenses.

7. Remove Factors Limiting Your Sales & Profits.

8. Learn Better Ways to Organise Your Kitchen.

9. Reduce Labour Cost.

10 Build a pool of Regular Customers.

11. Implement a Ten-Action Plan to Boost Sales 12. Access dozens of worked Tables and Examples

Grab A Copy And Boost Profits!

Place Your Order At: WWW.LCABOOKS.COM viii

contents Chapter 1: Introduction

1

Chapter 2: Overview of Human Resource

4

Chapter 3: Human Resource, Cost and Sales 3.1 Why Additional Staff?

3.2 How much the Cost?

3.3 What Position to Fill?

3.4 Setting Financial Targets

7 7 8 9 11

Chapter 4: Define your requirements 4.1 Work Scope 4.2 Hard & Soft Skills-Set 4.3 Miscellaneous Requirements 4.4 Job Description

17 20 23 27 28

Chapter 5: Recruitment Process 5.1 Staff Capability Factors 5.2 Through Networks 5.3 Advertisements 5.4 Personal Observations

31 32 33 35 41

Chapter 6: Pre Interview Weeding 6.1 Quick Checks 6.2 Long List 6.3 Hard Skills-Set Evaluation 6.4 Short List 6.5 Telephone Call & Email 6.6 Standard Job Application Form

44 45 47 48 56 56 61

Chapter 7: The Interview 7.1 Expectations & Soft Skills-Set 7.2 Who should be present at the interview?

66 66 68

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7.3 Place, Pacing & Time 7.4 Suggested Questions & Evaluation – Free Exchange Format 7.5 Suggested Questions & Evaluation – Topography Format 7.6 Soft Skills-Set Evaluation – Multi Attribute Analysis

70 73 74 77

Chapter 8: Second Interview 8.1 Customer Service Executive - Scenario Painting 8.2 Sales Executive – Sales Presentation

86 87 91

Chapter 9: The Job Offer 9.1 Offer & Acceptance 9.2 What if the candidate asks for better terms?

9.3 How long should you keep your offer open?

98 99 99 100

Chapter 10: Employment Contract 102 10.1 National Service, CPF, Medical Insurance, Leave Applications 106 10.2 Asset Checklist 110 10.3 Inform the other Candidates 111 Chapter 11: Probation 11.1 On-the-Job Training 11.2 Evaluation & Feedback 11.3 Reference Checks 11.4 Medical Checks 11.5 Termination 11.6 Confirmation

113 117 119 122 126 127 130

Chapter 12: Conclusion and Review of Steps

135

Abbreviations

137

Examples

138

Tables

139

1

Chapter 1: Introduction

Chapter

Introduction

In larger organizations, there is usually an in-house human resource manager (HRM – turn to the back for a list of abbreviations used throughout this book). The HRM handles a gamut of activities including recruitment, interview and selection. Some companies engage a recruitment consultant, referred to colloquially as a head-hunter (actual term recruiter) who handles all the pre selections and provides a short list of candidates. The HRM does the final interviews with the responsible line manager.

Whatever the structure and techniques used, there are costs involved: the cost of a HRM and/or the cost of the recruiter.

The HRM entails a fixed and recurring cost and the recruiter might charge anything from 15 to 20% of the annual wages of the employee whom they place with the company. Obviously, these costs come with a slew of specialized skills, knowledge and information that most entrepreneurs may not readily possess.

Staff Selection

1. What happens when a small business simply cannot afford the services of a fulltime HRM, a recruiter or even the cost of a part time HRM? 2. How do you handle the recruitment, interview and selection?

3. How do you get the best for the least? In this case ‘least’ means saving on the costs of a HRM and/or recruiter.

The author who has had more than 35 years’ experiences in international business shares in this book the techniques he had developed encompassing recruitment, interview and selection. He had interviewed people in Singapore, Australia, Indonesia, Philippines and India for a slew of jobs from blue and white-collar workers to management staff leading up to general management and company director levels.

He also reveals his secrets on the probation process, ensuring the person you selected is the right fit for your business because recruitment does not end on the day the candidate starts work but when he successfully completes the probation.

Human Resource (HR) is a very complex and wide subject and even after a lifetime, specialists are still learning as new knowledge and techniques are growing by the day and added to the body of HR knowledge. The author therefore wishes to emphasize at the outset this book provides only the essentials in recruitment, interview and selection in a step-by-step approach and the reader is well advised to seek further professional advices as he deems appropriate to his requirements.

Chapter 1: Introduction

Human Resource Manual This book will help you to develop a comprehensive human resource manual tailored for your particular operation.

Henceforth, we shall refer to it as HR Manual in bold.

This HR Manual will contain all the financial computations, tables, forms and samples you would ordinarily require in recruitment, selection and probation of staff.

This HR Manual would be flexible enough for you to modify and expand as your business grows. Even when you finally employ a fulltime HRM, this manual would form a solid foundation to build up your HR procedures and policies.

This book will take you through the steps to develop the manual. Please pay attention whenever you come across the icon HRM .

0 Manual

It means you need to add another piece of the jig saw to completing your very own in-house HR manual.

Staff Selection

Chapter

2

Overview of Human Resource Let us first have an overview of the HR discipline so we can better appreciate the very narrow aspect this book addresses.

The following are some of the key activities: 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

Develop work scope and job description Plan manpower needs Recruitment and selection of staff Training and development Compensation and benefits Liaison with relevant parties, example Ministry of Manpower, Unions, etcetera

Each of the above activities can be further broken down into several sub topics. For example, compensation and benefits is by itself a very specialized and involved area covering issues such as: (i) Performance appraisal and feedback

Chapter 2: Overview of Human Resource

(ii) Fixed pay plans (iii) Variable pay plans (bonus schemes) (iv) Non-financial benefits, examples medicals, insurance, etcetera Obviously, the above is not exhaustive but the intention is to highlight the complexity and scope of the field of HR. All these activities have to complement and promote corporate strategies and goals, the HRM has to work with both senior management and line managers to formulate and implement the activities.

This book focuses on the recruitment, selection and probation of staff by micro enterprises comprising two (2) to nine (9) people. Usually these organizations do not have the services of a HRM and the owner, spouse or a clerical officer doubles as the defacto HRM. It assumes that when the staff strength increases beyond ten people, the company would either engage a full time HRcum-Admin manager or at least have a part time HRM. It is the author’s belief people are the key to any business success.

It therefore makes sense HR management is arguably the most important of all the business disciplines.

This book takes the person tasked with the recruitment, interview and selection in an easy systematic process. It does not guarantee one will succeed in getting the best candidate every time but would certainly eliminate most of the common mistakes and obvious pitfalls.

Staff Selection

Summary The field of HR is vast, complex and ever growing.

No one book can do justice in addressing the myriad issues involved. This book is a quick self-help guide for business owners who fall under the OMO and micro enterprise categories. There are also snippets that professional managers and even HRM in larger corporations might find useful.