WFPMA

APFHRM UPDATE

Australia

Overview

The re-structure of AHRI into two separate entities reported last quarter was completed in July.  The membership of the Institute, through the member elected representatives, obtained ownership of the key assets of the association including the membership list.  The services company, which manages all administrative functions, professional development, communications and commercial sponsorship arrangements for the AHRI membership, was initially retained by Deakin University, but put up for sale by competitive tender immediately thereafter.

AHRI Ltd, the member representative body was the successful tenderer and so purchased the services company in October returning the Institute fully to member governance. As part of the sale process former CEO Jo Mithen resigned and national President Peter Wilson assumed the role of interim CEO. An executive search is being conducted for a new CEO and that is

expected to be completed by early in 2007.

Labour market update

The Australian economy is still undergoing a boom driven by China and resources and centred particularly in the mining industry in the west of the country. 

Skill shortages continue to create difficulties in this environment as competition for talent reaches crisis point in a number of professional and trade areas.

The Australian Reserve Bank and other agencies are increasingly reminding the market that there will be a limit to the boom period and that preparation is needed for the time when the boom ends.

Over the 12 months to August 2006, trend employment in Australia grew by 2.2% after growth of 3.4% in the previous year.

The strongest rates of employment growth were in Wholesale Trade (10.8%), Government Administration and Defence (10.3%) and Mining (8.2%).

The trend rate of unemployment was 4.8% in August 2006, lower than in August 2005 (5.1%).

HR in Australia

The Federal Government’s WorkChoices laws, which were designed to further free up the nation’s labour laws, began to roll out as the year progressed.

After taking public submissions, the Australian Fair Pay Commission, established under WorkChoices to set minimum wages, handed down its first decision in October and surprised many observers by granting a $27.36 per week increase to the 10 percent of employees earning less than $700 a week, rejecting the government submission for restraint and almost accepting in full the Australian Council of Trade Union’s submission for a $30 rise.

The Office of the Employment Advocate (OEA) set out the new WorkChoices’ laws relating to agreement making, while an Office of Workplace Services (OWS) was established to adopt an overseeing and enforcement brief where required.

Although there is general agreement that under WorkChoices the actual process of making workplace agreements has been simplified, it has also been observed that the weight of legislative amendment surrounding the process is complex and may well provide an abundance of work for the legal profession as organisations attempt to come to terms with their options. Getting it wrong can attract hefty fines for both organisations and individuals.

Driven by the need to boost workforce participation, the Government has also passed welfare-to-work legislation with a view to reducing the numbers of people in the welfare system who could be participating in the workforce.

AHRI activities

AHRI has experienced a net growth of 6 percent over the last year bringing financial member numbers to 11,200 at the end of October.

AHRI activities include:

• Code of conduct - A new code of ethics and professional conduct has been introduced to AHRI members. By joining AHRI, members agree to be bound by the code and include it as part of their working practice in interactions within their organisations, with clients, colleagues and the community in general.

• Course accreditation – The AHRI accreditation of tertiary courses is complete for 2006. Accreditation ensures consistency in the quality of Australian universities and vocational education and training (VET) programs that offer HR qualifications. A total of 112 qualifications have been accredited since the commencement of the processes in 2004. Of the 39 universities in Australia, 32 have engaged with AHRI in the HR course accreditation process.

• Awards – Excellence in HR was celebrated at the annual AHRI awards dinner in Sydney during October. The 2006 awards were expanded to include the new HR Leadership Awards given in two categories: one for consultants and the other for practitioners. The annual innovation award was given for excellence in creating and managing flexible work practices.

• AHRI Convention – The 2006 AHRI National Convention was held in Melbourne in June and again surpassed the previous year's turnout with 2,600 attendees including 1,100 delegates.

          • Planning is well under way for the 2007 convention to be held in Sydney on 4-5 June. Secured speakers include the

            University of Michigan’s Dave Ulrich, cultural diversity authority Fons Trompenaars, Harvard Business School’s Chris

            Bartlett and Australian entrepreneur Jim Penman, founder of the successful franchise Jim’s Mowing.

• A series of HR Week conferences were held in each state and territory during the third week of September with 1800 attendees at events across Australia.

• AHRI partnered with Tourism Australia in a national program to reduce accrued leave in Australian organisations through a ‘no leave, no life’ campaign. Australians have stockpiled in the order of 70 million annual leave days equating to around $11 billion dollars in wages according to Tourism Australia research. The pilot program was delivered to 13 organisations in the form of workshops on how to remove the barriers to people taking annual leave. On the back of this pilot the program will roll out nationally.

• Research – AHRI continues to source new research projects both internationally and locally. Studies currently running include:

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          • ‘Human Resources Competency Study’ – This phase of the study is complete. Project leader Professor Dave Ulrich will  

          present the regional findings to Australian participants at AHRI’s June 2007 national convention.

• ‘HR: from the Front Line to the Bottom Line’ – This three year study with Melbourne University will look at how HR practices

         affect psychological contracts within the workplace.

• ‘HR Managers' Contribution to Workplace Performance’ – This project, in collaboration with the University of NSW, examines

         HR managers’ contribution to organisational performance.

New Zealand

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Membership

HRINZ currently has in excess of 3100 individual members (2700 at previous report). This has more than achieved the Institute’s objectives. There is now a consistent net annual growth of over 15 per cent. Our membership density now represents about 40 per cent of the total potential pool of HR practitioners operating in New Zealand. HRINZ membership is based on individual subscription. The Institute dos not offer corporate or organisational membership.

The current executives of HRINZ are:

- National President: Geoff Summers FHRINZ. (March 2007)

- National Vice President Jim Pope MHRINZ

- National Vice President Bill Shields Bill AFHRINZ

- Immediate Past President Ross Pearce FHRINZ

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Activities

HRINZ has had another busy year with Professional Development Programmes being delivered in locations in both the North and South Islands. There is a steady flow of new Members and a full PD programme is underway. Key programmes offered by HRINZ in 2006 include:

1. Due to the increase in membership, a new branch will be created in South Auckland, plus new groups are now meeting in provincial areas.

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2. The HRINZ HR Initiative of the Year Award is now in its 8th year and the Person of the Year Award is in its 5th year.

3. The 2006 HRINZ National Conference took place in Wellington from 13 to 15 September. The theme of this year’s conference was: 'Vision - living the future today; what we stand for and what we seek to achieve’. The Conference focused on inter-generational workplaces and the event was extremely well received by both new and returning delegates.

4. Professional (Accredited) Membership is steadily increasing as a result of the streamlined online application process. The Institute now has around 300 Accredited Members. This represents about 15 per cent of total HRINZ membership.

5. The Institute has commenced awarding Specialist Professional Membership. Members can now apply for this grade of membership with specialisations in Employment Relations, Recruitment, Health & Safety and Learning & Development.

6. The Institute has a Strategic & Annual Business Planning Process and has a number of sub-committees working on projects. The Career Development Project [CDT] team is looking at various ways of enhancing the membership benefits.

a. The CDT has initiated a broker arrangement with coaches all around New Zealand who will provide coaching services to our Members for a discount.

b. The CDT is also working on a Log Book for members to maintain, for the purposes of their career development, applying for Professional Membership and to present to prospective employers.

c. The Competency Review Group is examining the HRINZ Professional Framework with a view to possibly expanding competencies.

7. The Gradings Panel will meet next on 1 December to review Professional Membership of the Institute.

8. The results of the Institute’s latest nationwide Remuneration Survey Project were made available to Members.

9. HRINZ has increased engagement with Government, which has led to the Institute being consulted on overall employment issues. The CEO of the Department of Labour….

10. HRINZ is leading the development of an Asia Pacific Federation of HR Management website to facilitate regional collaboration and networks.

11. The Institute’s website (www.hrinz.org.nz) receives nearly a million hits most months from nearly 40,000 individual visitors and our bi-monthly magazine has expanded, with record advertising sales as a result.

12. HRINZ has also invested heavily in its infrastructure and have introduced an integrated events/financial/membership management system which will future-proof the Institute’s capability as it grows. HRINZ continues to be recognised as one of the most progressive, professional and desirable organisations of its type in New Zealand.

Appendix

Household Labour Force Survey: June 2006 quarter:
In the June 2006 quarter:
• Seasonally adjusted employment rose (by 22,000) to 2,129,000.
• The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate fell to 3.6 percent. • The seasonally adjusted labour force participation rate rose to 68.8 percent.
• Seasonally adjusted total actual hours worked rose 1.4 percent.

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Singapore

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INTRODUCTION

This report aims to provide useful information on Singapore's Economic and Employment climate as well as insights on the challenges and issues the HR Profession faced in Singapore. The report also contains information on Singapore Human Resources Institute membership statues and its activities.

I ECONOMIC PERFORMANCE
(Source: Ministry of Trade and Industry GDP Estimates for Second Quarter 2006)

The Singapore economy grew at a moderate pace of 7.5% in the second quarter of 2006, compared to 10.7% in first quarter 2006.

The manufacturing sector has also grown at a lower pace of 10.2% in the second quarter, compared to 16% in the previous quarter, mainly due to lower output from the biomedical manufacturing cluster.

The construction sector declined at a slower rate in the second quarter. It is estimated to have contracted by 0.3%, an improvement over the 0.8% contraction in the last quarter.

Growth of the services producing industries is estimated to have moderated to 6.8% in the second quarter, compared to 7.6% in the previous quarter.

Given the strong growth in the first half of 2006, and barring any economic shock, the preliminary GDP growth for the year 2006, including sectoral performances, sources of growth, inflation, employment and productivity, is expected to be between 6.5% and 7.5%.

Table 1: GDP Estimates

(Percentage change over corresponding period of previous year)

* Advanced estimates.

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II LABOUR MARKET REPORT
(Source: Singapore Ministry of Manpower, Labour Market Report for Second Quarter 2006)

Employment

The favourable economic environment continued to bolster employment creation. Preliminary estimates show that employment grew by 36,500. While this is lower than the robust gains of 45,000 in the first quarter 2006, it is higher than the 31,700 gains in the same period last year. Total employment in the first six months of this year rose by a record high of 81,500, and this is two-thirds more than the 49,500 gains in the same period in 2005. The bulk of the employment gains continued to come from services (24,200). Employment also rose in manufacturing (8,300) and construction (4,000).

Retrenchment

Preliminary findings from a survey of private sector establishments with at least 25 employees show that 3,100 workers were retrenched in the second quarter of 2006. This is lower than the 3,500 retrenched in the previous quarter, but higher than the 2,100 in the same quarter last year. The majority of workers retrenched were from manufacturing (1,900), reflecting on-going restructuring in the sector. Another 900 of the workers laid off came from the service industries and the remaining 300 retrenched were from the construction industry.

Unemployment

Driven by an increase in labour supply , the seasonally adjusted overall unemployment rate edged up to 2.9% in June 2006, up from the 2.6% in March 2006. The resident unemployment rate was 3.8%, also higher than the 3.4% in the last quarter. Nevertheless, the rates remained significantly lower than the 3.4% (overall) and 4.5% (resident) a year ago.

Unemployment improved for most age-education groups from a year ago. The largest improvement came from mature degree holders aged 40 & over, whose unemployment rate decreased sharply from 4.8% in Mar 05 to 2.4% in Mar 06. The unemployment rates fro mature residents with below secondary and secondary qualifications also improved significantly, from 3.6% and 3.9% in Mar 05 to 2.5% and 2.2% respectively in Mar 06. The mature and less educated continued to form the bulk of the long-term unemployed. 70% of the long-term unemployed in Mar 06 were aged 40 and over, while those without secondary qualifications formed nearly half (47%) of the long-term unemployed.

Labour Turnover

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Labour turnover increased from a year ago. The average monthly recruitment rate rose from 2.5% in Q1 05 to 2.9% in Q1 06. The average monthly resignation rate also rose over the same period, but by a smaller extent, from 2.1% to 2.2%. The improvement in the average monthly recruitment over the year was observed for all three main occupational groupings, namely the Professional, Managers, Executives & Technicians (PMET), Clerical, Sales & Service, and Production Operators, Cleaners & Labourers.

III NEW GOVERNMENT INITIATIVES IMPACTING EMPLOYERS AND HR

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Strategies to meet the challenges of an Ageing Workforce

With falling birth rates and rising life expectancy, Singapore’s population and workforce will grow older. This will impact the labour market as the proportion of older workers aged 50 and above in the labour force will increase from 22% in 2004 to 29% in 2015. The increase in the number of workers joining the local workforce will also slow down from about 44,000 today to 24,000 between 2010 and 2015. To sustain economic growth and to meet the consequential demand for workers, the Government set up a Tripartite Committee on Employability of Older Workers in 2005 to implement various programmes to improve the employability of older workers. The key initiatives are:

(1) Advantage Scheme - Incentives for employers to hire older workers
The Advantage Scheme, launched early this year, is an incentive scheme for employers to hire older workers above age 40 and to re-employ them beyond age 62. A $30,000 incentive package will be given to participating companies for job redesigning, training and retention incentive. The Manpower Ministry (MOM), Singapore Workforce Development Agency (WDA), Singapore National Employers Federation (SNEF) and National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) are jointly promoting the scheme and bringing about tangible changes at the workplace and improvements in human resource practices. WDA will assist the individual companies with job placement services. To date, 145 companies had signed up the Advantage Scheme. In total, these firms have agreed to hire about 2,300 mature workers and re-hire 1,300 beyond the retirement age.

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(2) Expand job opportunities for older workers.

WDA and NTUC will expand the existing Job Re-creation Programme (JRP) to identify jobs which can be re-designed to suit older workers. The JRP is jointly launched by the NTUC, WDA and SNEF in Jan 05 to provide meaningful careers for older workers. Under the programme, jobs will be re-created to enhance job worth. These include improving working conditions, better job prospects and better image of the jobs. The JRP has successfully identified and re-created more than 7,200 vacancies in 13 sectors covering childcare, healthcare, cleaning and conservancy, education, retail, marine, landscaping, hospitality, public transport and security. Over 4,600 job seekers were placed in jobs that included Teacher-Assistants, Healthcare Attendants, Property Officers, Landscaping Technicians, Marine Supervisors and Security Officers. The JRP committee target to re-create 10,000 jobs each year.

(3) Shape public perceptions about older workers.

The Tripartite Committee on Employability of Older Workers has arranged outreach programmes to employers, workers and the general public to address misperceptions of older workers abilities, encourage older workers to stay employed longer and promote enlightened HR practices amongst employers. In August 2005, the Committee profiled best practices with regard to the employment of older workers in a ChannelNewsAsia programme called the “Winning Edge”. The Committee has also set up eight sectoral workgroups to engage the industry on the older workers' employability. The workgroups have been tasked to identify best employment practices, expand job opportunities for older workers and pilot sector specific changes. The eight workgroups come from the public sector, banking, insurance, healthcare, hotels, transport and logistics, food industry and manufacturing sectors.

(4) Enhance skills of older workers
To raise the skills and value of older workers, WDA will be working with employers and unions to upgrade the skills of older workers and keep their skills relevant to industries' needs. WDA is also providing training opportunities for unemployed older workers to enable them to take up new jobs through the Place and Train Programmes and the Strategic Manpower Conversion Programmes. Preferential training subsidies will be given to employers to encourage them to send their older and less-skilled workers for training. From January to September 2005, around 38% or 113,000 of the training places supported by the Skills Development Fund were taken up by workers aged 40 and above.

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(5) Age-Friendly Fair Employment Practices.

In January 2006, the Tripartite Committee on Employability of Older Workers introduced an Age-Friendly Employment Practices Guide to help employers maximise the potential of an ageing workforce. It is designed to assist business owners, CEOs, managers and human resource practitioners engage this significant and vital segment of the workforce. The guide outlines the practical measures for employers to consider, and documents some of the best practices that companies have implemented in attracting and retaining older workers through good human resource practices in the following six areas: recruitment, remuneration and benefits, job redesign and automation, new work arrangements, re-employment policy and managing career transitions.

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In May 2006, a Tripartite Alliance for Fair Employment Practices (TAFEP) was formed to promote employment practices that are fair and equitable to all workers. To date, 173 companies have pledged their commitment to fulfil the practices which include merit-based recruitment regardless of age, race, gender or religion; treating employees fairly and giving them equal opportunities for training and development; to follow labour laws; and adopt tripartite guidelines promoting fair employment practices. Among TAFEP’s planned initiatives is a revised Code of Responsible Practices, focus group discussions and workshops to raise awareness of fair employment practices, and training programmes for human resource personnel.

Workplace Safety and Health Act

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The Workplace Safety and Health Act (WSHA), passed in Parliament in Jan 2006, came into effect on 1 March 2006. This Act replaces the Factories Act. The WSHA aims to reduce risks at source by making stakeholders accountable for managing the risks they create and taking reasonably practicable steps to ensure the safety and health of workers. It forms part of the Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) framework and covers general factories, construction sites and shipyards. Under the WSHA are seven subsidiary legislations. These are the Workplace Safety and Health (WSH) General Provisions Regulations, WSH Registration of Factories Regulations, WSH First Aid Regulations, WSH Exemption Order, WSH Composition of Offences Regulations, WSH Incident Reporting Regulations and WSH Risk Management Regulations.

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Work Skills Qualifications

On the back of improved economic conditions, training participant among the local workforce rose from 25% in 2004 to 27% in 2005. However, the training intensity has declined from 4.4 days per adult in 2004 to 4.2 days per adult in 2005. The older and less educated continued to lag behind those younger and higher educated in both training participation and intensity. In view of this, the Singapore Workforce Development Agency (WDA) launched the Singapore Workforce Skills Qualifications (WSQ) in Oct 2005 an integrated continuing education and training system for adult workers to skill up to remain employable and competitive. The WSQ is founded on best international practices and validated by industries and employers. It offers employers and workers quality assurance in training and demonstrates how training can be translated into better jobs and career progression. WDA monitors the quality of training providers to ensure that they impart the right skills and knowledge to meet learning needs.

III NEW SHRI INITIATIVES

HR Accreditation

SHRI launched the Singapore HR Accreditation Framework in xxx. The objectives of HR Accreditation are:
To promote the use of the accreditation standard amongst organisations as being vital for their business success,
- To establish a national HR accreditation for organisations,
- To help build an HR brand for Singapore,
- To enhance the standing of the HR Profession,
- To establish a clear roadmap for competency and knowledge acquisition,
- To raise the standards of HR.

The HR Accreditation aims to serve the Singapore Human Capital Industry, Businesses, Employers, Training Providers and HR Professionals. The HR Accreditation is divided into two categories, the Generalist status and the Specialist status. The Generalist status is awarded to HR professionals who are accredited at a broad level. They will be given the status of HR Associate, HR Professional or Senior HR Professional. The Specialist status is awarded to HR professionals who are accredited on specific functional areas such as employee relations, compensation & benefits, training & development.

An Accreditation will be awarded to applicants based on their professional portfolio, professional development and academic qualification / examination set by the HR Accreditation assessment panel. Successful applicants will be accredited by the HR Accreditation Board. Representatives from the SHRI Council, Ministries/Statutory Boards, Business and HR Communities made up the HR Accreditation Board and Assessment Panel. Since its launch, 35 HR practitioners have been accredited with Generalist status. The Specialist status would be provided for at the end of 2006.

Communities of Practice, Priority Conversations and Singapore HR Community Portal

In March 2006, WDA invited SHRI to be its strategic partner to operate the Human Capital Communities of Practice (CoP), Priority Conversations and the Singapore Human Resource Community (HRSINCOM) Portal. SHRI took over the three operations from WDA in June. The progress of the operations is as follows:

1. Communities of Practice (CoPs)
CoP is a platform for HR professionals across all industries to engage and learn from each other good human capital practices. It consists of a network of consultants, academia and HR professionals. Each CoP focuses on a particular topic in the HR and Business areas. For a start, SHRI would be forming 20 CoPs over a three-year period between September 2006 and January 2009. Each CoP will sit for six months. The 20 topic areas are Employee Engagement, Service Leadership, Leadership Development, Ageing Workforce Management, Quality Work Life, E-HR, Workplace Safety & Health, Strategic HR and Alignment, Learning & Human Capital Mgt, Talent Management and Retention, Employee Relations, Health & Employee Wellness, HR Ethics, Corporate Governance, Compensation & Benefits, Talent Sourcing, Internationalisation and Globalisation, Corporate Social Responsibilities, Succession Planning and Performance Management.

2. Priority Conversations
These are seminar / Roundtable sessions where information and best practices sharing are conducted with the HR Community and Business Leaders. Each session has three key elements: a thought leadership component, a facilitated dialogue segment and a time for talent networking. The objectives of the Priority Conversations are to engage all CoP participants and HR practitioners through sharing and discussion of current HR practices, issues and trends. The first Priority Conversation will be conduced in September 2006, to coincide with the first CoP session. SHRI plans to roll out 10 Priority Conversations between September 2006 and August 2009. The topics for discussion include Employee Engagement, HR Competencies and Standards, Ageing Workforce, Quality Worklife, Compensation & Benefits, Talent Management, Corporate Governance & HR Ethics and Employee Relations & Health and Wellness.

3. HR Singapore Community Portal (HRSINCOM)
The HRSINCOM portal is an online HR Community portal that allows individuals to share, publish and network with one another. The migrating and transferring of the HRSINCOM portal from WDA to SHRI will be carried out in September 2006. The HRSINCOM portal currently has 500 registered individuals. The portal seeks to facilitate:
• Discourse about Great Workplace, the visualization of such workplaces in Singapore, and communicate / promote the intrinsic value of the workforce development interventions and other related initiatives by WDA
• Workforce development by linking HR Practitioners with the full suite of WDA services, such as employment facilitation, the National CET Framework, Labour Market Information, and to avenues for government grants

IV Workplace Diversity in Singapore

Singapore is one of the most competitive and vibrant economies in the world. Strategically located as the gateway to Asia Pacific, Singapore reaches a market place of 2.8 billion people within a seven-hour radius. Over the last four decades, it has transformed into a leading international center for business and investment and more recently, a thriving cosmopolis for arts and innovation. The key element of success for Singapore is diversity – in talent, ideas and enterprise. So promotion of diversity is now official government policy. To show that it means business, the government has not merely exhorted people to embrace the change in direction but put in place explicit measures to incentivise schools along that direction.

Today, Singapore is a reputable financial center, a key international trading center, the world’s busiest port, a rising biomedical hotbed and Asia’s most wired city. Singapore is a melting pot of cultures and technical know-how. It brings together a diverse group of companies from all over the world. More than 7,000 international companies complement the base of Singapore local companies, undertaking activities from management to manufacturing and R&D. The companies are able to bring in foreign managerial skills while retaining useful local practices.

The high concentration of enterprises on a small island like Singapore offers opportunities for interaction, transactions and collaborations. Singapore’s central location in Asia makes it ideal for companies to study and access the region. The cultures and ethnicities in Singapore are representative of the diverse Asian market with a population exceeding 2.5 billion. Hence, it is important for local managers to undergo cultural-based Human Resource management training to further their abilities to motivate a group of professionals that are highly qualified but culturally diverse. Furthermore, the HR managers must assure the local professionals that these foreign talents are not a threat to their career advancement. Therefore, the effectiveness of workplace diversity management is dependent on the skilful balancing act of the HR manager. Thus, a Human Resource professional needs to be mindful and may need to employ a “Think Global, Act Local” approach in most circumstances.

The challenges and problems faced from workplace diversity can be turned into a strategic organizational asset if an organization is able to capitalize and manage this diverse body of talent. Managing diversity emphasizes managerial skills and policies needed to optimize every employee's contribution to the organizational goals. Initiatives are taken not because of legal mandates or moral and ethical imperatives but instead to enhance organization morale, productivity and benefits. After underrepresented people are hired and employee consciousness had been raised, appropriate policies, procedures, and managerial interventions are needed to operationalize a culturally diverse workplace.

The Ministry of Manpower (MOM) has laid down several policy guidelines to ensure that employers do not practice employment discrimination. Recruitment and selection practices should be based on fair and objective criteria such as qualification, experience, skills and attributes which are relevant to the job requirement. In line with this, employers are encouraged to adhere to the Tripartite Guidelines on Non Discriminatory Job Advertisements, issued jointly by the Ministry of Manpower, the Singapore National Employers Federation (SNEF) and the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC), when putting up job advertisements. Fair and objective criteria rather than factors such as age, race, gender, marital status and religion should be included in the job advertisements. The Tripartite Guidelines laid down the following rulings:

(1) Employers should specify language requirement in their job advertisement only if it is a requirement for the employee to be proficient in that particular language to be effective in the job applied for.

(2) Employers should not use language requirement as a way to discriminate candidates. However, it would not be unreasonable for the employer to select a candidate who has the specific attributes in order to be able to perform the duties of the job.

(3) The Ministry will investigate and take appropriate action against any employer where it is established that he has resorted to hiring workers based on discriminatory requirements.

V Update on Singapore Human Resources Institute

Founded On: 24 Nov 1965

President: Mdm Ho Geok Choo

Membership
Corporate Friends: 150
Individual Members: 2800
Total: 2900

Activities/Programs
Year 2005 marks SHRI's 40 years of bringing HR to the fore. Various prestigious and mega activities were held in 2005 and 2006. SHRI is proud to represent Singapore and the APRHRM in hosting the 11th World HR Congress Singapore 2006 and the WFPMA Congress.

Taiwan

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Economic Update

The 3rd Quarter economic growth is 4.39%. Directorate-General of Budget adjusted the year end economic growth slightly down to 4.28%, due to banks are more conservative on issuing credit card’s expenditure, estimated consumer’s’ expenditures are still low.
Due to Taiwan is an ocean country, oversea trading is our major economic activity, the government will focus on development of oversea opportunities, major targeted countries are Japan, Korea, Middle East oil manufacturing countries, India, Brazil, Russia and East South Asia.

Labour & Employment

Compare with other countries such as United States, Germany, Canada & Hong Kong, Taiwan is in a better situation, compare with South Korea, Taiwan is 0.3% higher

CHRMA Updates

- CHRMA assumed the APFHRM Secretary-General on Sept. 26, 2006. Terry Yu has been appointed to take on this position.

- CHRMA recently was awarded the “National HRD InnoPrize” by government, which is the top HR prize in Taiwan.

- CHRMA will launch a new website (the Global HRD+) which will cover several new functions , incl. Blog, Community, HR Focus and Web 2.0 mechanism etc.

- CHRMA will issue a new e-magazine monthly, which will create a new platform for HR professionals in Taiwan.

Philippines

Brief Update

The fourth quarter of 2006 in the Philippines opened on an upbeat note following generally positive economic news and improved fiscal prospects with a strong gain of the Philippine peso, in spite of a strong typhoon that directly hit the country’s capital, suggesting sustained confidence in the country’s economic fundamentals and reform necessary for an economic expansion.

Domestic savings and investment rates are still among the lowest, and the positive effects of a strengthened tax collection and administration are beginning to be felt, even though the country has once again struggled with a low international competitiveness ranking.

Labour and Employment

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Employment continued to expand in July 2006 posting a 2.3 percent year-on-year growth rate or an increment of 735,000 new employed persons. The rise in employment was driven by an expansion in the service sector which negated the slump in the agriculture, fishery and forestry sectors. Likewise, the quality of employment improved as reflected by the rise in full-time employment and wage and salary employment.

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The gain in employment, however, was matched by an even higher growth in the labor force (2.6% or +928,000) pushing the July 2006 unemployment rate up to 8.0 percent. The rise though was negligible at just 0.3 percentage point compared with last year’s figures.

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Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) in the Philippines

The Philippines is now considered a major player in the global BPO market, even though BPO is still an emerging industry in the country, and is regarded as one of the fastest growing industries in the world. The BPO boom is being led by demand for offshore call centers, with an estimated 12,000 people working in call centers by 2005, bringing in revenues of an estimated US$1.12 billion for the year for this BPO sector alone. This is a sharp increase from 2000 when call centers employed 2400 people.

The BPO industry in the Philippines is fueled mostly by customer care, medical transcription, software development, animation, and shared services. Though customer care call centers form the largest part of the BPO boom locally, the Philippines' language proficient information technology, human resource, and finance/accounting professionals are significant contributing factors as well. The proficiency of many Filipinos in English is a major factor in the growth of BPO in the Philippines. Areas such as major cities apart from Manila are now being developed for offshore operations, further fueling employment opportunities for local workers.

PMAP Updates

• PMAP assumed the APFHRM Presidency on 26 September 2006. Ernie Espinosa has been appointed to take on the Presidency.

• PMAP recently concluded its 43rd Annual Conference with 1,160 delegates. On the last night of the conference, the 50th anniversary of the institute was celebrated.

• Eversince getting the Investors in People license for the Philippines early this year, PMAP has been busy helping in organizations get the International Award.

• PMAP continues to advocate for the organization of a National HR Commission for the country to craft and implement an integrated Human Resource Plan for the country. A bill has been passed in Congress.

• PMAP on 13 October 2006 will hold a nationwide simultaneous job fair together with its 18 chapters to commemorate our Golden Anniversary. On that same day, PMAP will launch is book on “People Management Practices in the Philippines”.

• Elections for Officers of 2007 will be held on 29 November 2006.

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