My Orang Kampung

GE13 has ended nevertheless the speculation related though still debated. Who would be my choice, let it remains as secret. Emerging issues are common in every election. I believe it is almost impossible to have election held without issues arising. Since it is based on democracy principle, to we should honor the decision of people of Malaysia. Nevertheless, should there is any dispute the people of Malaysia still has the right to against the result but through a proper channel.

This time around, I want to share my experience exposing myself with orang kampung a few days before the polling day. Meet and chat with friends, uncles and aunties in the village make me realized the gap about their openness to the outside world.

I had opportunity to talk to few uncle and auntie with regard to their opinion for the coming polling day. At glance, I might say that their judgments were based on emotions and perceptions. It utterly shows the exposure of them towards outside world and where the source that they received the information. After all they would be categorized as IT illiterate. When we talked about politics most info that debated by them are among the issues that depicted and displayed by television and newspapers. It could be said that the info were very narrow and they had limited understanding on the information they obtained. Thus, the issues seem biased and not being supported with facts and figures. For me, the strategy to control television and newspaper media is very successful for such people. Not their fault, but their inability to confront the lack of technology may be the factor.

I also grab this long holiday to meet few of my old friends that still faithfully lives in the village. Many of them unable to migrate due to education and opportunity constraints caused them to continue the tradition of working in the village. At least they are not jobless and still gain something to survive. Despite some of them able to have their own business and manage to have a bungalow. When I talked to them about politics it seems not much different from the uncles and aunties that I met before. It appears they have been patterned. When I observed, they are those people who feels that what they have right now is good enough already and they don’t want to take any risk. They afraid any changes of government will jeopardize their survivalist. This has caused them to be in a comfort zone and the shadow with fear by the issues carried out during election campaign progresses. They are not a part of IT illiterate type. They know how to use internet and browse any web. But they have been blinded by propaganda that has been heralded hype.

 

I can feel the difference when I meet and talked my friends who migrated to the more rapidly growing areas and exposed to a variety of media facilities. The level of their thinking is more open and the issue debated is based on facts and figures. They issues that being debated was not based on emotion and perception but reality. The thing that experienced by them. The reality is hardly obtained from media sources controlled by a particular party. They were using new media channels since the existing media has served them with bias and distort information. For them youtube, facebook, twitter and google are among sources that they could believe and be part of their library to search information. It seems that each of them hunger for information. Not just information but quality information. I believe Malaysia should have people with this type of traits to ensure our survival. 

What ever it is, i really hope my orang kampung has made a right choice. The choice is in your hand. Change doesn't mean will end up with bad thing. Remaining the existing one also does not promise a better tomorrow. As a wise citizen, respect the democracy principle if it is done with honor and proper way.

Biometric System : A Solution for Attendance Issue

At last, thumb print biometric project has been successfully implemented to all branches. It has been awhile since the issue of attendance monitoring being raised by the internal audit team. Even though the process on attendance monitoring is there, but still non compliance happened. I hope with the implementation of new approach i.e. thumb print will enable the Branch Manager to be more systematic in monitoring staff attendance.

What is the issue?

Previously, attendance is being monitored manually via punch card. For branch which do not have the punch card machine, they are required to manually record their attendance in a attendance log book. The recent audit findings has revealed that there were manipulations of the current monitoring system by the staff.

There was a case where the staff was not in the office but yet the punch card has been punched. It was unfortunate to the staff since the audit team was there on the day at 8.45am to audit the attendance monitoring procedure while the time recorded on the punch card was 8.30am. So who punched his punch card?

The manual attendance record also much similar with punch card system issue. The Branch Manager that supposedly monitor the process has not executing the responsibility well.

The impact

The case has been reported to Human Capital for further investigation and action. After due inquiry, the are loophole of monitoring process that cause the Company to lose the case. By right, a stern action such as termination of employment could be imposed to the staff for the misconduct. Nevertheless, it can't be proceed since the loophole of process will impact the Company if the case being forwarded to the next level. This will expose the Company with unnecessary cost and could tarnish the reputation of the Company. At the end of the day, those who committed the misconduct cannot be dismissed and yet just being served with stern warning letter. Personally, it is not worth to keep this type of employee which could lead to unhealthy working environment. 

What to do?

After due consideration, the Company has decided to extend the Biometric system that currently used by HQ to all branches. Even though the cost is reasonably high, but it should be invested to mitigate future risk to the Company.  With the new approach, it will avoid the staff from manipulating the system thus the integrity of data will not be questioned.

 

With the attendance system in place, it assist the Company in monitoring the staff attendance effectively. All data could be retrieved on real time basis and  could be customize based on required format. 

So what is next? We will leverage on the system to monitor the over time by exploring the integration of the system with the current e-HR system.

PMS System

 

The performance appraisal is a way for supervisor to evaluate the performance of his respective sub-ordinates. It helps employees work on areas that need improvement and work with the employee to set goals for career development. With the business world getting increasingly competitive, some companies are finding it difficult to find time for one-to-one appraisals and have turned to electronic performance appraisals instead. Therefore, they opt for alternative solution which is online PMS.  

Why Online PMS?

• Online performance appraisal system assists employee and manager to fill in their portions of the evaluation when they can. Conducting PMS in conventional approach requires the managers and staff to scheduling a meeting to discuss the evaluation. This will consume much time where cause delay the process
• Online appraisal system can be used to make sure that all appraisals are seen by the appropriate parties on time. That increases the efficiency of the workflow appraisals. Instead of a stack of appraisals sitting on a manager's desk waiting for review, they can be part of a file that the manager can review at leisure.

What are the challenges?

• Online PMS removes personal interaction between employees and managers. When all parties are filling out online forms rather than discussing the employee's performance, it can be difficult to create a career plan for the employee or to work on a program to fix the deficiencies in their performance.
• Online system is exposed to system failure or mistake. Without human interaction at each level of the appraisal process these mistakes will remain in a report.

From my point of view, online PMS could not be a stand-alone system for appraisal. The appraisal should be conducted via one-to-one session between the manager and staff. It is more meaningful where each party could receive feedback directly. The online system could assist the process of compilation and reporting purposes where it could be done instantly without the manager needing to take time to compile reports. The calibration also could be analyze systematically and expedite the process in timely manner.

General Elections: Campaign

GE is just around the corner. The day where we as rakyat performing our right to choose the party that we think capable to govern our beloved country, Malaysia for the next five years. Yes my friend, please express your vote! Every single vote is important. 

Flag War

There are so many ways the respective parties exploring medium of campaign. We could see colorful flags where never we go. I might say it is a traditional way of them showing to the public their existence. Does is still relevance on today’s modern world? It is subjective. It might be yes or no.

 

Transparent?

Media also plays their role in assisting the parties for the campaign. Nevertheless, the info channeled is considered bias since only one party has the opportunity to fully utilize this medium. There is no freedom of each competing parties to have opportunity to perform campaign via media. I’m not inclining to any party but that is the real fact! But if yes, who cares. I have my own personal view on which party is worth to be voted. 

  

New Media

Internet has made a tremendous change to the politics environment. It helps a lot in term of upholding equality among the competing parties. No more discrimination and each competing parties have opportunity to campaign without hesitate. Yes, you could manipulate media but you can’t manipulate internet! Internet has provided a fair platform not only to parties but also rakyat by providing new media approach. Now we as rakyat could digest information with freedom and without prejudice. Nevertheless, we must be able to filter the information with facts. Use our knowledge,  experience and wisdom to analyze the facts and stand with your believe!