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The Quirky Relationship of Numbers and Retention

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An inside joke among many HR practitioners is that, they became HR to avoid numbers. Alas! HR is, at times, all about the numbers. Well, not necessarily arithmetic or algebra, but DATA. The Importance of Data Let me make this clear - gone are the days when HR choices were only based on gut-feel or stories from generations before us. A data-driven method is necessary in today's HR world, and for good reason. By using analytics, HR professionals can learn a lot about how employees behave, how engaged they are, and how happy they are with their jobs generally. When talking about retention, data is the key that shows patterns, finds trends, and helps make smart decisions. Understanding Data Analytics Data analytics exists at several levels, each of which is critical to corporate effectiveness. At its most basic is descriptive analytics , which involves summarizing and presenting data in order to provide a clear snapshot of current trends. Exploring this data aids in identifying pattern

Probationary Employment in the Philippines vs Regular Employment

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One day, you receive a familiar email - it’s from the company of your dreams, saying you’ve passed their final assessment. Greetings! We are pleased to offer you the role of senior copywriter at Company A. For six months, you will be a probationary employee. Once you meet all our standards, you will then sign a new contract as a regular employee. We look forward to working with you at Company A! Thank you. This is definitely a share-worthy email, especially if it’s your first job. On your first day of work, your new employer will ask you to sign a contract. That contract will typically have what is known as a "probationary period". Philippines probationary employment, according to the Labor Code “shall not exceed six (6) months.” (Article 281). The Civil Code of the Philippines defined the "months" further by saying that (Article 13),  When the laws speak of years, months, days or nights, it shall be understood that years are of three hundred sixty-five days each; m

Posting Your Job Advertisement

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  As one of the admins of the Philippines HR Group , I often get to see a lot of HR professionals submit job advertisement post for approval. Some advertisements are really great, some actually make me shake my head. That said, if you are one of those who take advantage of FB and other Social Networking Sites when posting job advertisements, I have a few tips for you: Requirement: Male/ Female If you are posting an advertisement where the sex (NOTE: gender is different from sex) of the employee is not important, or there is no preference set, there is no need  to put "Male or Female". You can only choose from Male or Female so why the need to put it as a qualification? "Ayaw po kasi namin sa mga bakla/ tomboy/ etc."  Why? Do you feel that their gender orientation will affect the quality of their work? Be careful that you are not discriminating against member of the LGBTQ+ community. On a side note, if you are confused on the difference between sex and gender, this m

Help! My CV/ Resume Is Getting Rejected!

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 It's June and, during pre-pandemic times, it's the start of the school year. It's generally also the time when fresh graduates start to apply for jobs. Bakasyon muna after graduation.  It's the reason why I thought of writing a blog post on how you can up the chances of your CV/ Resume getting reviewed. Tip #1 - KISS  Keep It Simple, Sweetheart! A lot of companies nowadays make use of recruitment management systems or applicant tracking systems. Why? The more advance the platform is, the less time the recruiter has to spend on filtering the applications. These platforms, unfortunately, are subject to the same rules as any software application -  Garbage In, Garbage Out .  Having very artsy CV can actually work against you especially if the Company happens to be using a platform that allows them to parse resumes. Pansin mo may mga companies  who direct you to a site where you can upload your resume? These sites can actually parse the resumé so that you don't have to

HR with A Heart

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  As an HR practitioner, you would have heard the phrase, "HR with A Heart" a million times. You might have even come across people saying that these people are a dying breed.  "Karamihan nang HR ngayon masungit". "Yung HR namin masyadong pro-management". "Naku, tuta ng management yung HR namin" "HR namin walang puso! Maka-memo wagas!" Because we keep hearing this all the time, we feel bad for ourselves and we start looking for ways on how to be more " may puso ". That's good, for the most part , because we start to see see things from the perspective of the employee. The problem is, oftentimes, we have a skewed definition of "HR with A Heart". What Do You Mean? Let's start with something basic. Let's have Peter, an average minimum wage earner who works as an encoder for a small business (think 10-member team). All is well and good, kaso  pandemic happened. In order to survive, the Company decided to put

Coaching Your Team Member

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 One of the roles of HR is to guide managers on how to coach and mentor their team members. In order for us to do this, however, we also need to understand some basic things about coaching and mentoring. Coaching vs. Mentoring While most people use "coaching" and "mentoring" interchangeably, the two concepts are actually different. According to the International Coach Federation , coaching is  “..p artnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional potential.”  On the other hand, mentoring has been defined by the Association for Talent Development  an at-will relationship between a "senior and junior employee fr the purpose of the mentee's (Read: Junior employee) growth, learning and development. When it comes to coaching , your purpose is to get the employee to realize why the behavior needs to be modified. Along the way, you also need the employee to understand the importance o

Regular Holiday and Special Non-working Day

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One of the many things that confuse a lot of people is the difference between a regular holiday and a special non-working day. While both are non-working days, there are differences in how they are handled. How Did the Holidays Come To Be? The initial list of the regular holidays (and two special non-working days) came about with the implementation of the Administrative Code of the Philippines by then President Cory Aquino. It was in the same code that the term "regular holiday" was made to mean the 10 (later became 12 by virtue of the RA 9492 and RA 9849) "legal holidays", while "special (non-working) days" were to mean the additional two special holidays. This was also reiterated in  Section 3 of the Omnibus Rules to Implement the Labor Code . What is a Regular Holiday? Currently, we have 12 regular holidays: New Year's Day - January 1 Araw ng Kagitingan (Day of Valor) - April 9 Maundy Thursday - Movable Date Good Friday - Movable Date Labor Day - M