Business Advisors Programme
PMC-CB held a 2-day abridged programme for 28 Business Advisors from 18-19 August 2011 under the SPRING-SIM Business Advisors Programme (BAP). The partially funded programme held at SPRING Singapore Building equipped the Business Advisors with basic management consultancy skills and provides them with a pathway to be certified and further their career as a management consultant.

MUIS Halal Seminar 2011
Entitled "Establishing An Integrated Halal Value Chain", the MUIS Halal Seminar held on 7 Oct 2011 was attended by more than 300 participants from food/non-food companies, government agencies, food consultants and other players within the Halal value chain. At the seminar, the Guest of Honour, Dr Yaacob Ibrahim, Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts and Minister-In-Charge of Muslim Affairs, noted that PMC-CB has introduced a new certification scheme to endorse the quality of Halal consultants. The PMC-CB secretariat presented details of this scheme, which is a halal consultancy specialisation track in the PMC scheme, at the seminar. Contact the PMC secretariat if you need further information on this certification.

Restoration of PMC Certification Fee
Entitled "Establishing An Integrated Halal Value Chain", the MUIS Halal Seminar held on 7 Oct 2011 was attended by more than 300 participants from food/non-food companies, government agencies, food consultants and other players within the Halal value chain. At the seminar, the Guest of Honour, Dr Yaacob Ibrahim, Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts and Minister-In-Charge of Muslim Affairs, noted that PMC-CB has introduced a new certification scheme to endorse the quality of Halal consultants. The PMC-CB secretariat presented details of this scheme, which is a halal consultancy specialisation track in the PMC scheme, at the seminar. Contact the PMC secretariat if you need further information on this certification.

Re-certification
Re-certification is required every two years upon initial certification. All PMCs need to meet the required 80 Continuing Professional Education (CPE) hours in order to remain PMC certified. This ensures that the skills and abilities of PMCs stay relevant in the face of a changing business and economic environment.

As a reminder, the sixth batch of PMCs certified on 1 November 2009 should submit their CPE hours at the PMC website by 31 October 2011. Payment of the re-certification fee should also be paid immediately upon receipt of the invoice.

This section of the PMC Newsletter is dedicated to showcasing the achievements and contributions of our PMCs in the field of management consultancy. For this edition, our PMC Star is William Thien of Effective Outsource Networks and his project for Kwong Ngee Engineering.

PROJECT BACKGROUND

With the intention to groom the company in a sustainable way, Kwong Ngee Engineering Pte Ltd (KNE) recognised the need to review its full human resource policies and procedures in order to be in line with the latest market practices. It was a proactive and progressive move to prepare its workforce into the future.

While many Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) may make do with the employment contract to manage their employment terms and conditions, KNE felt it was very important that an employee handbook detailing all terms and conditions of employment be made available to its employees. They firmly believed that clarity in the provisions would avoid unnecessary tension and grievances between employees and management that prevent commitment and trust in the workplace.


“The employee handbook aligns all of the employees on the updates of the company human resource policies. It also allows the employees to understand the company’s efforts to improve the employees’ benefits.”

-Mr. Wong Loke Ngee, KNE Managing Director

CONSULTING ACTIVITY

As the employee handbook had not been undated for a long period of time, KNE appointed William Thien to update their human resource practices as well as develop the employee handbook.

A management representative, Ms. Sim Seow Hoong, Group Manager of Service Support, Finance & HR was appointed to co-ordinate the project with the consultant. However, the directors and senior managers also attended the scheduled meetings, taking the opportunity to explore with the consultant best practices in specific scenarios of people management.

One issue addressed was in the area of training and development. KNE believes in developing its employees to optimise their potential. It conducts in-house training periodically to upgrade the knowledge and skills level of the employees, in addition to sending them to reputable institutions for external courses. An additional feature of the policy was to allow employees to recommend courses they would like to be sponsored. This allows for a two-way communication process to explore and identify development pathways that are best suited to the employees' aspiration and the company's business targets.

Apart from training and development, the project also worked on other HR issues such as promotion criteria, performance appraisal, benefits, discipline and other terms and conditions of employment.

Mr Wong spoke of the improvements in capabilities and workplace climate with the introduction of various HR initiatives

"By implementing performance management, the employees know exactly what is expected of them. The company is able to capitalize on the employees' strengths and their ability to contribute to the accomplishment of work goals. The employees have gradually developed and practice self-discipline. We have seen improvement in productivity, staff motivation and morale. Workplace negativity is reduced as the company works towards a work environment with multi-level interactions".


SUCCESS FACTORS AND CHALLENGES

The project faced a number of challenges in the transition to the new practices, which inevitably would affect some employees. The challenge was to make the policy review practical rather than a mere paper exercise by taking into account contextual challenges. The consulting project would also be of lesser value to the client if the solutions were either not implementable or would create a more negative impact for the company.

Various employee relations initiatives, such as the dinner and dance, involved volunteers from various departments and enhanced multi-level interactions among staff and management.

 

The key success factors for this project were the commitment from the client as well as the willingness of the consultant to walk the exploratory journey with the client. The management team was committed to discuss at length various issues of the terms and conditions of employment through individual sessions and email. Ms. Sim did a great job by ensuring feedback between management and the consultant was fully and clearly communicated. William gave professional advice based on his experience and understanding of best practices so that the management was able to make informed prompt decisions and keep pace with the project timeline.

CONCLUSION

The employment terms and conditions, contracts, and the employee handbook were updated with every detail examined, every sentence affirmed and every query resolved. KNE is confident that with this updated handbook, the company is able to look forward to an even better management-employee relationship that will engage and motivate the workforce at a higher level.