According to the Singapore Department of Statistics [1], having a business in Singapore comes with advantages: a high literacy rate of 95.9%, a low inflation rate of 2.8%; a respectable, annual growth in labor productivity of about 10.7%; a GDP of $300 billion; and a hard-working, English-speaking workforce.
None of these advantages can be leveraged if your business is not equipped with the issues that come with business growth, though. One of them is human resource management. HR management comes with its own challenges, and more so in a country like Singapore, with rapid economic changes, a growing economy, a vibrant industry, and a wide pool of skilled professionals.
Rob Walker, in his feature article [2] at Inc.com, recollects how Gerd Gigerenzer, an author and a psychologist “makes the case for intuition” in his book Gut Feelings: The Intelligence of the Unconscious. Rob mentions numerous instances and examples of non-number crunching heroes and world-renowned business greats such as Steve Jobs, Sir Richard Branson, and Jack Welsh – all examples of success by going by the gut.
“Going by the gut” is good for overall business strategy and might just work for product positioning. For human resources, however, the ‘gut & feel’ system rarely works. It’s not to say that innovation is abortive when it comes to new, innovative HR solutions; it’s just that smooth and efficient operations are a must for businesses to function.
Screening, interviewing, and hiring the right talent is just the start. Payroll processing, financial management for employees, tax scheduling and processing, appraisal management systems, employee performance appraisals, and evaluation – all of these critical processes need a streamlined, efficient, and unified HR management system to help businesses organize their resources and human assets.
HR function involves setting standards for employees. It involves deploying workflows and executing key HR processes like audits, benchmarking, employee performance evaluation, etc. It also sets individual and group performance goals, task objects, and performance criteria. Smoothly aligned HR processes incorporating all of these elements are better positioned to harness business Return on Investments through a unified HR management system and processes.
How many billable hours do your employees actually work? How do you rate an employee as compared to others with regard to performance? How to ensure the best training is made available to deserving employees? Who gets promoted and on what basis?
Although these questions might sound intrinsically simple and basic, your business success lies in not just answering these questions. Business success and sound Human resources policies can only originate from justifying your answers based on hard, relevant data. Metrics need to be set in place with systems to measure individual parameters.
None of the above business objectives can be met without the hallowed marriage of your business with technology. The latest advances in cloud computing, the soaring advantages of business intelligence, and the fact that any business – small, medium or big – can tap into a realm of options as far as technology is concerned. Our HR solution, HRiQ, has been designed with the above challenges in mind.
None of the above business objectives can be met without the hallowed marriage of your business with technology. The latest advances in cloud computing, the soaring advantages of business intelligence, and the fact that any business – small, medium or big – can tap into a realm of options as far as technology is concerned. Our HR solution, HRiQ, has been designed with the above challenges in mind.
McKinsey Quarterly published a feature [3] that mentions two surveys done by McKinsey for its “War of Talent” series. In the survey, it’s apparent that ever since its first survey in 1997, and another one that followed almost a decade later, the shortage of talent is imminent all over the world. It’s critical to nurture talent, track performance, bring in change, and leverage human resources better than ever in a unified HR management world.
Unified, strategic, and highly dependable HR solutions can help you acquire, manage, nurture and retain talent.
[1] Department of Statistics, Singapore: GDP Timeline — https://www.singstat.gov.sg/stats/themes/economy/hist/gdp2.html
[2] Fastcompany: Going for the gut — https://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/120/going-for-the-gut.html
[3] Making Talent a Strategic Priority: McKinsey Quarterly — https://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/Organization/Talent/Making_talent_a_strategic_priority_2092