Tripartite group to formulate strategy to make older Singaporeans employable

A tripartite committee set up by the Manpower Ministry will formulate a broad strategy to change perceptions of employers, employees and customers towards employing older workers.

It will also recommend holistic and cost competitive measures by employers, employees and the Governmment to keep older people in the workforce.

These are among the terms of reference adopted by the committee, tasked to study ways to keep older Singaporeans employable.

Headed by Permanent Secretaty (Manpower) Yong Ying-I, it will also identify the challenges facing older workers.

A Ministry statement says the committee, which comprises employer and union representatives, has started its work and aims to complete its findings and recommendations before end of the year.

It will pay particular attention to specific issues such as employment practices, wage and benefits structure.

It will look at measures to enhance the cost competitiveness of older workers, and employment and workplace practices to enable employers to retain and motivate experienced older workers.

The committee will also address barriers to re-employing and retaining older workers, and how to enhance their employment opportunities and employability. - CNA

What’s the best way to get hired?

CareerXroads 4th Annual Sources of Hire Study

CareerXroads releases its annual Sources of Hire Study, covering the hiring trends of some of America's largest organizations throughout 2004. The 40 firms who completed the survey employ 2.7 million employees in the US and 4.1 million worldwide. On average each of the respondents to this year's survey lead or influence staffing organizations of 50 recruiters and, collectively, filled more than ¼ million positions. What do the activities of these leading organizations tell us about today's recruiting environment?

Read more here

Record number of jobs created last year: MOM

THE Singapore economy created a record number of jobs for locals last year, with the number of new jobs created hitting 49,900 — a marked increase over the gain of 14,900 in 2003.

Overall, employment grew by 71,400 jobs, more than recovering the 36,000 positions lost over the preceding three years. Local employment formed the bulk of the growth.

The Ministry of Manpower (MOM) released these upbeat numbers yesterday in its labour market report for last year.

The service industry led the way, adding 54,700 workers last year, about seven times the number created in 2003.

The manufacturing sector generated 27,200 jobs last year — its strongest annual gain in 16 years — while the construction sector lost fewer jobs than it did in the previous year, as some 9,100 positions were cut, compared with 17,500 in 2003.

Employment of foreigners rose for the first time in four years, increasing by some 21,500 last year, but the foreign share of the job gains remained at 30 per cent.

This is still lower than the 61 per cent seen during the boom period of 1993 to 1997, when the economy created more job spaces than locals alone could fill.

MOM says the share of foreigners in the workforce remains at some 28 per cent at the end of last year, largely unchanged from 2003.

The seasonally-adjusted overall unemployment rate stood at 3.7 per cent last December, significantly lower than the 4.6 per cent figure of a year ago.

Nevertheless, MOM said structural unemployment remained a concern. As of December last year, nearly three in 10 job seekers had been unable to find work for at least 25 weeks.

The ministry said the long-term unemployed made up 1.2 per cent of the resident labour force, well above the early 1990s' average of 0.4 per cent.

For 2005, the ministry still expects new jobs to be created, but at a slower rate due to the projected slower growth of the economy this year. — Channel NewsAsia

Launching a Search Firm Takes a Host of Contacts

I thought this article gives insight on what search firms are, and how we operates. Unlike other resources on Wall Street, this is actuall free.

Question: I'm interested in the medical-recruiting field, but haven't had much experience in health care. My experience has been in administration, management and personnel recruiting. Can you recommend any courses or seminars or other suggestions? -- Leon, East Meadow, N.Y.

Leon: Executive recruiting is the sort of low-capital business that one might imagine would be easy enough to launch with a phone and a pot of coffee. Some folks have started exactly that way and achieved fantastic success.

But it's a business of relationships. It requires a sprawling, thriving network in the industry you serve, and that makes it tough to start from a standstill, no matter what courses you take or seminars you attend.

Still, it can be done. Bob Douglas started Chase Hunter Group in Chicago nine years ago, after several years working for another executive-search firm. He left his former employer with a noncompetitive agreement, and so began with an utterly blank slate of clients.

Click for full article

Keppel wins $1b oil rig deal

Demand strong on high crude prices

Keppel Corp, Singapore's biggest offshore marine engineering company, will build four jack-up rigs worth a total of $990 million for AP Moller-Maersk, the world's biggest shipping group.

The rigs will be completed at six-month intervals from the fourth quarter of 2007, Keppel said yesterday in a regulatory statement to the Singapore Exchange.

They will be deployed in water up to 350 feet deep and drill high-pressure wells as deep as 30,000 feet into the sea bed.

Record high oil prices last year drove demand for Keppel's offshore and marine unit, which had orders worth $3.4 billion as of Dec 31.

The Maersk order announced yesterday is the largest single jack-up rig order Keppel has received, said Mr Choo Chiau Beng, the chief executive of its offshore and marine unit.

Keppel expects demand for offshore rigs and other marine contracts to remain strong as an aging global rig fleet and high crude oil prices encourage oil firms to upgrade capacity and explore new fields.

Singapore is the world's biggest builder of jack-up rigs, which are mobile offshore drilling units that stand on legs lowered to the seabed. Keppel has built more than 60 per cent of those ordered globally in the past 10 years.

AP Moller-Maersk, the listed unit of Denmark's closely-held AP Moller Group, owns and operates the world's biggest fleet of ships, including container vessels, tankers, car carriers and oil drilling rigs. Its subsidiaries are also engaged in the exploration and production of oil and gas. — Bloomberg

If you think a degree is all you need to succeed...

... think again!

A study at the Stanford University School of Business tracked MBAs 10 years after they graduated. The result? Grade point averages had no bearing on their success - but their ability to converse with others did. Learn the tricks in making small talks - oh yeah, it's an artform.

This brings to mind a Neil Humphrey's piece on the difference between a typical British kid and a typical Singaporean kid. If you ask the two to talk for 5 minutes on small things in life, the British kid can yak on and on (mind you, it is not easy talking about bananas for THAT long), but a Singaporean kid might be stunned silent. Or at best, maybe the kid can regurgitate strings of nutritien facts about bananas, why fruits are good for your health, the importance of a balanced diet etc.

Now that brings a smile to my face.

It's Friday, people. Happy weekend.

Who’s Reading Your Resume?

It seems that everyone is an expert when it comes to resume writing. If you show your resume to ten different people, you will get ten totally different opinions. What is a job seeker to do when there are so many conflicting ideas when it comes to resume etiquette? Who should you write the resume for? Computer software? The screener? The recruiter? The decision maker? The answer is yes to all three. Your resume needs to take into consideration the nuances of all potential readers, including computer software.

This is precisely the reason why most jobseekers are confused when it comes to writing their own resumes. Below is a rundown of all resume readers and how to appeal to them.


COMPUTER SCANNING SYSTEM
Most resumes today aren’t read by human eyes, but rather a scanning system. This is how this works: a clerk at the hiring organization receives resumes and their job is to scan them into the computer. When a position becomes available, the clerk goes into the computer system and keys in buzzwords and the resumes that are retrieved by the computer are the candidates that are called in for interviews.

How to appeal to computer software: Your resume should be keyword rich. This will increase the chances your resume will be retrieved.



RECRUITERS
Recruiters search for candidates who meet specific requirements their clients (the hiring organization) set forth. Although the recruiter works for the hiring organization, the reality is that he or she wants to close the deal and will go to bat for you if you meet or exceed the requirements.

The advantage of teaming with a recruiter is that he or she will be able to provide you with insider information. And in some cases, specific interview questions you can expect. This type of information is invaluable.

How to appeal to recruiters: If a recruiter has a specific job for you in mind and makes resume recommendations, then listen to their suggestions. Once a recruiter is satisfied with your resume, they will submit it and act as your voice and job search partner.



SCREENERS
A screener is someone who doesn’t have a full understanding of the inner workings of the position. They work from a checklist of requirements that have been provided by the decision maker and the job description at hand. Screeners won’t have much room to negotiate and will only approve you to the next stage if you meet the set criteria by the hiring manager.

How to appeal to screeners: If you know you are going to deal with a screener, study job descriptions and draw parallels from your experience. You must connect all the dots for them since they don’t have the luxury to make assumptions regarding your qualifications.



DECISION MAKERS
Decision makers have the most flexibility when it comes to experience and bending their own rules. This is because they are in control. This is the reason why most career professionals suggest you apply directly to decision makers.

How to appeal to decision makers: Base your resume on accomplishments. Decision makers want to see what you can bring to the table.



Resume writing is much more than being able to put sentences together but it isn’t impossible to incorporate the needs of all readers. In fact, integrating the requirements of all the resume reviewers will make the resume stronger.

---

Recognized as a career expert, Linda Matias brings a wealth of experience to the career services field. She has been sought out for her knowledge of the employment market, outplacement, job search strategies, interview preparation, and resume writing, quoted a number of times in The Wall Street Journal, New York Newsday, Newsweek, and HR-esource.com. She is president of CareerStrides and the National Resume Writers’ Association. Visit her website at www.careerstrides.com or email her at linda@careerstrides.com.

JobStreet Launches Career Profile Powered by RCI

Something caught my eyes today at www.onrec.com:

JobStreet Corporation Berhad, a leading online recruitment company in the region has launched their latest jobseeker product in their Career Enhancer range called the Career Profile, powered by the PEAKS profiling technology from Research Communication International ("RCI").

The Career Profile consists of two unique reports named the Mapper and the Mirror that can be purchased online at www.jobstreet.com . They help identify a candidate’s personality-driven career peaks on the Job Fit Index, and these unique personality scores are then mapped onto a heavily researched Asian-sourced Local-Global occupational benchmarks.

Read the full article here

Seems that JobStreet has integrated online profiling with their mainstream job services. However, the Career Profile is for job seekers to understand their job motivation. It might not be exactly useful for employers to assess their candidates, unlike the P3 Profiling.

This is what JobStreet has to say on their new service: "Both reports are built using PEAKS profiling system from Research Communication International. They incorporate a unique personality-based technology that identifies your personality-driven career peaks on the Job Fit Index (JFI). Your unique personality scores are mapped onto a heavily researched (Asian) Local-Global occupational benchmarks"

Career Profile section on JobStreet

Honestly, not many job seekers might understand those recuritment terms used. I guess more efforts are needed to educate job seekers the necessity to learn career management skills.

U.S. Job Satisfaction Keeps Falling

Americans are growing increasingly unhappy with their jobs, The Conference Board reports today. The decline in job satisfaction is widespread among workers of all ages and across all income brackets.

Half of all Americans today say they are satisfied with their jobs, down from nearly 60 percent in 1995. But among the 50 percent who say they are content, only 14 percent say they are "ery satisfied."

This report, which is based on a representative sample of 5,000 U.S. households, conducted for The Conference Board by TNS, a leading market information company, also includes information collected independently by TNS. This information reveals that approximately one-quarter of the American workforce is simply "showing up to collect a paycheck."

Read more here

A Poem for Computer Users Over 40

A Computer was something on TV
From a science fiction show of note
A Window was something you hated to clean
And a Ram was the father of a goat.

Meg was the name of a girlfriend
And Gig was a job for the nights
Now they all mean different things
And that really Mega Bytes.

An Application was for employment
A Program was a TV show
A Cursor used profanity
A Keyboard was a piano.

A Memory was something that you lost with age
A CD was a bank account
And if you had a 3-inch floppy
You hoped nobody found out.

Compress was something you did to the garbage
Not something you did to a file
And if you Unzipped anything in public
You'd be in jail for a while.

Log On was adding wood to the fire
Hard Drive was a long trip on the road
A Mouse pad was where a mouse lived
And a Backup happened to your commode.

Cut you did with a pocket knife
Paste you did with glue
A Web was a spider's home
And a Virus was the flu.

I guess I'll stick to my pad and paper
And the Memory in my head.
I hear nobody's been killed in a Computer crash
But when it happens they wish they were dead

- Author Unknown

HR Generalist & Recruiter - The Spouse Analogy

Till Death Do Us Part...

I was reading this article by Jeremy Eskenazi on how a relationship between a HR Generalist and a recruiter are often similar to spouses:

"I can't tell if the relationship between HR generalist and recruiter is like siblings or spouses. I do know it's just another version of something you see so often in nature: two organisms in conflict and yet dependent upon one another to survive. I do know the conflict is common; I can't tell you how often I've seen a version of the above story played out in companies."

The article raised many good points. One I am particularly impressed with is how roles of a HR Generalist are often associated to something negative (resolving employees conflict, retrenchment etc.), and that of a recruiter, positive (adding new talent to the company, solving manpower issues etc.) - but yet both are equally important in the recruitment process.

And, of course, the general note that typical hiring managers won't give a damn whatever spate exist between the two - just fill up the damn jobs :-)

Worth a read

Australasian employers are changing they way they recruit

Labour market demand and supply factors are combining with significant advances in technology to irrevocably alter the way employers recruit. The technological advances have been facilitated by the widespread adoption of the internet, which has not only enabled the emergence of a new industry, the e-Recruitment industry, but a paradigm shift in the recruitment function.

The Australasian e-Recruiting Trends 2002-2004 report is a comprehensive review of the utilisation of e-Recruitment within Australasia over the past 3 years. It analyses the utilisation and rate of adoption of three core components (the careers website; advertising jobs on the internet (e-Sourcing); and e-Recruitment systems) and adherence to generally accepted best practice principles by 500 of Australasia’s largest employers (the Australasian 500).

Key Findings

MSN Career Quiz

Career Quiz

How much do you love your job? We all know people who have happily found a compatible, lifelong profession and others who just can't seem to settle on one career path. Where do you fall along this spectrum?

Take this online quiz on MSN, developed by CareerBuilder.com

Easier for last year's NTU and NUS grads to clinch jobs and higher pay: Surveys

THEY have been chastised as being fussy and idealistic, but fresh graduates here could be having the last laugh.

According to the latest surveys, graduates now find it easier to land a job and earn higher starting salaries within months of graduation, with some attracting more than one job offer.

These findings came from separate surveys conducted by the National University of Singapore (NUS) and the Nanyang Technological University (NTU). Both released their results yesterday.

About nine out of 10 graduates found a job within five months after graduation said both varsities, which surveyed graduates from last year's batch.

Fresh graduates from NTU earned about $2,500 a month, up from $2,290 in 2003, while those from NUS earned about $2,370 across all courses, compared to $2,324 in 2003.

Also, NUS graduates with professional degrees — such as architecture and law — took home an average of $2,658.

Graduates from both universities have also become more desirable to employers, both locally and abroad.

Forty-two graduates from NTU's 2004 cohort found a job overseas, up from 28 in 2003, while half of NUS' graduates had more than one job offer.

Both universities attributed the salary rise and higher employability to companies being more willing to hire on good economic growth last year.

For graduates, the private sector continues to be the key employer, with fewer graduates entering the civil service.

A cut in head count in ministries could have resulted in less graduates being employed, said Professor Lily Kong, NUS' vice-provost (education). — Ansley Ng

Source: TODAY Online

The Great Race for Talent

The Great Race for talent is on again. The race has been announced by a falling unemployment rate for college graduates, which is down from 3.1% in January of 2004 to 2.4% in January of this year. It has also been announced by an increase in cost per hire, which, despite better use of technology and the use of fewer and less expensive contractors, has crept up every year since 2001, according to Staffing.org. Finally, it has also been announced by the constantly repeated theme at recruiting conferences about how few good candidates are applying.

Read more here