Resignation and Attrition

I had a resignation recently when one of my three Team Leads tendered her resignation. This is the second resignation in my team of 40 this year (for more information on the structure of my team, I had written a posting on Thursday, 10 July 2008 with the title A difficult decision). The company I work with requires a three months notice period. However, she gave a month notice and bought out the remaining two months and with some remaining balance of her leave, she was only required to remain working for another two weeks. Her last day in office was on Tuesday last week.

I quickly recalled one of my senior Service Advisors who was on an extended maternity leave. She agreed to return and took over the job and there was a 5 days hand-over between her and my previous Team Lead. Although this is not deemed to be adequate hand-over period, however I am confident that my new Team Lead would be able to handle and face the challenge.

During a briefing that I had with my new Team Lead, I emphasised the necessity of teamwork, communication and respect from her team. These were the areas that were not adequately provided by the previous Team Lead. The previous Team Lead was strong operationally, however she lacks the depth of leadership, accountability and teamwork skills that are really basic necessity in guiding the team to meet its objective.

I had a one-on-one session with my previous Team Lead two days before she left. As part of the one-on-one session, she provided me with a couple of motivational and formative feedback on me (refer to my earlier posting on types of feedback dated 24 August 2008 Self awareness a key to self improvement and success) . I then provided her with my motivational and formative feedback that covered the areas that I had mentioned above i.e. her motivational was her operational strength and her formative was the requirement for her to build on her leadership, accountability and teamwork skills. This was a unique process that I had never done before and the risk was real, it can turn messy if the resignation was a negative experience on her. Fortunately, it was not as bad as some people would have thought and the session went well.

A meeting at Westin Langkawi 24-25 Oct 2008

Last week, I had the opportunity to attend the Asia ORC Roundtable meeting at Westin Langkawi, Kedah from the 24-25 Oct 2008. ORC Worldwide is a consulting organisation specialising in international mobility and expatriates compensation and benefits. It has its offices in several locations; Chicago, Dallas, Washington, Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco in the USA; London, Munich and Paris in Europe; Melbourne and Wellington in Oceania; Singapore, Tokyo and Dubai in Asia. It has more than 40 member companies in Asia and 18 member companies participated in this meeting.

This is the first time that I had the opportunity to attend this meeting. However, I found that the setting of the meeting is like any other consulting conferences, it has several presentation topics by ORC and invited speakers from the member companies. The topics on Middle East's Workforce Management Trends/Issues had my interest but the gist of the presentation was mainly on Dubai's industrialisation and modernisation, where the speaker is based. My scope of coverage exceeds Dubai i.e. from Libya, Egypt, Syria, Jordan, and include the Globally Embargoed Countries, these were however not given adequate focus. The discussions around the table at the end of the meeting were also a normal setting for this kind of meetings and an interest to me as well. The questions posted were mainly on international mobility policy and process where the member companies would openly share their companies' policy and practices.

From my overall observation, the networking that I see during the meeting was not obvious. I saw that the member companies from each country would flock together. As Singaporean member companies dominated the meeting, it was very obvious that they were the most prominent grouping, hence Malaysian and the Philippines member companies were not included in most of the off meeting activities such as dinner and tea break. ORC also had its own preferred member companies and this also did not contribute well to the overall networking opportunities.

Other than that, I enjoyed my short 3 days 2 nights stay in Langkawi (the four photographs at the top of this posting were taken within the Westin Langkawi area). The Westin Langkawi ambiance was splendid and I enjoyed my stay there, however they could do better with their food and beverages section. I did a little bit of shopping and discovered that the famous Langkawi shopping area along Kuah town was not as before. Along the Hj Ismail Group supermarkets, there were very few shops left. I am not sure where these shops were relocated but it was obvious that the shops were no longer located in Langkawi.


I had a chance to savour the seafood of Langkawi at Shrimpz Restaurant (refer to the above two photographs). My colleagues and I had buttered prawns, steamed shrimp Mantis, grilled lobsters, Garoupa steamed with Asam and vegetables for dinner. It was a splendid dinner, richly spread and delicious. The seafood were alive when I selected them and I could taste the freshness when I ate them. I would recommend all Langkawi visitors to give it a visit and taste the Langkawi splendid seafood.

On Friday while my colleagues and two of my new networks from a member companies had lunch at Wan Thai Restaurant on the way to the Langkawi International Airport to catch our flight back to Kuala Lumpur. The restaurant's concept is authentic Thai cuisine and I would agree that it has fulfilled it splendidly. The food was tasty and the price is affordable, we had ala carte lunch of 1 large and 1 medium Wan Thai shrimps, shrimps Tom Yam in coconut, steamed Siakap and steamed vegetables.

My best wishes to Langkawi and its people, may it continue to prosper and develop further in the future.

Employability Talk at Chemical Engineering Faculty of UiTM, 17 Oct 2008

On Monday 13 October, my colleague text me telling me that one of his friends would like to speak to me. I thought that it was only the usual Q&A on Human Resources questions that I normally received from mutual friends connection. The questions that were posed to me would be on Human Resources Policy or Compensation and Benefit or employment opportunity.

The caller was a lecturer at Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) and she would like to invite me to be a Panel member in a talk on employability to her students' faculty, and she told me that there would be another Panel member from CCM. The talk would be held at the Chemical Engineering Faculty of UiTM, Shah Alam attended by students from the faculty. As UiTM was where I completed my Diploma study, I agreed and quickly linked myself to the Recruitment department of my company to source for materials for my talk. The Recruitment department was very helpful in extending materials that I found useful for my reference and use.

During the talk, I touched on the importance of collecting information and data, linking the information and data to understand the situation, proposing resolution to solve the problem and finally solving the problem. I shared with the students that problems are opportunities for businesses and not merely things to be avoided. Just merely scoring high marks in education would not be sufficient, how they utilise the education would be the key to their success in employment. I also mentioned about working in a team. In order to work in a team to solve problems, they are expected to muster skills of effective communication, teamwork and critical thinking to be able to secure opportunities in the employment market. The students were very interactive during and after the talk asking questions and seeking clarifications.

I would like to thank the Dean of the Chemical Engineering Faculty, Assoc Prof Dr Sharifah Aishah, lecturers Mr Zaki and Mdm Haslina for the invitation as well as the faculty students who had shown interest in the talk.

For more information and photographs of the events please click here http://zakizainudin.blogspot.com/2008/10/employability-talk-photos.html.

An early dinner at Sa Sayang Cafe, Batu 5 1/2 Jalan Gombak

After visiting my wife's niece in Sungai Way for Hari Raya, we headed home. As it was raining heavily just before we went out, there was heavy traffic along the way back. Our earlier intention of visiting another of my wife's niece who had just delivered a baby at Ampang Puteri Hospital was aborted. It was close to 6.30 pm and to save time we decided to have an early dinner somewhere near our house.

During Ramadhan we noticed that there was a new restaurant, Sa Sayang Cafe, along Jalan Gombak at Batu 5 1/2, just after Balai Polis Gombak or Masjid Asy Syakirin, if you are coming from Setapak. By the look of it, the restaurant seem to be an upmarket joint as it was nestled among the bungalow lots of Gombak Setia.

Fortunate for us, Sa Sayang Cafe was open for business. However we noticed that we were the only customers at the Cafe when we went in. In the spirit of adventure in trying something new, we went ahead. The menu that it offered was simple, varieties of western grill and several kinds of fried noodles and rice. My wife, my daughter and I ordered Nasi Goreng Kampung while my eldest son had fish and chips and my second son ordered Nasi Goreng Pattaya. Our side menu was Samosa and French Fries. Their drinks menu was also impressive, they had several kinds of tea, juices and other normal drinks. I ordered watermelon neat with ice just to test whether their fruits were fresh, indeed it was and I had to order for second.

The ambience of the cafe was cosy. The interior design and fittings were splendid and well placed. The price was also reasonable. We promised ourselves to come again.

SK 1&2 Sultan Alam Shah

Last weekend, while on the way to the house of my wife's niece in Sungai Way for Hari Raya, we passed through Section 11, Petaling Jaya (PJ as we Malaysian call it). I was so excited as my former primary school when I was in standard one, SK Sultan Alam Shah at Jalan Bukit, Petaling Jaya is within the vicinity. When we reached the school, I stopped by the side of the school. My two sons went down to take a few photographs with me. The above is the best shot to share in this post (me and my second son at the front of the school).

I related to them stories that had happened to me 37 years ago. One that had them in stitches was the story while I was in the first week of school. I had not attended kindergarten, a luxury then as well as it was not available where I live in Kampung Sungai Penchala. So, my late mother (may Allah forgive her and bless her soul) would accompany me to school in the morning and stayed until recess. Her presence at the canteen was a reassurance to me. She had also cooked rendang; which is my favourite until now, just before the school reopened for the New Year and brought it along with her to school. I enjoyed the rendang for the whole week.

From time to time, I would scan the canteen from where I was sitting in my class, trying to locate her sight (my class was on the ground floor and the canteen was just next to it). However, it was probably on the second or third day of the first week of school that I could not locate her at the canteen while I was still in class. I then became afraid that she had left and I started to cry. Seeing me crying, the class teacher came over and asked me what had happened. She thought that some of my classmates had hurt me. However in between sobs I told her that I could not see my mother. She then asked one of my classmates to fetch my mother from the canteen. Apparently she was not at the canteen at that time because she had to go to the toilet. My family was laughing loudly in the car as we drove off.