HR Practices of LGU Davao

In this tasked, my chosen organization is the HRM (Human Resource Management) Office in Davao City Hall. This organization is well-known because of their HR best practices and was hailed by some other organizations both in Local Government Units and Non-Local Government Units. This organization also was hailed because of its HRIS that the other LGUs in the country wants to be imitated.

Davao City is a wide city that has more than thousands of employees working in government service. According to a commmon online encyclopedia, HRM is more flexible than Personnel Management which is rigid. PM sees its workers as a cost rather than an investment. PM is guided by policies and guidelines unlike HRM is proactive while PM is reactive and so, most organizations and companies has its Human Resource Management. That is why, there are also illegitimate employees and these were the ghost employees. Due to the best HR practices done by the city government, there are more than thousands of ghost employees were expunged.

As I surf over the internet, I found these informations about the HR practices of LGU Davao;

HR benefits of 911
Mendoza (Executive Director of the Career Executive Service Board (CESB)) mentioned as worth duplicating the establishment of the city’s Central Communication and Emergency Response Center or Central 911 which has employed 133 Davaoeños after it was launched in 2003. Central 911 is only the third emergency response helpline in the world of its kind, next to the United States and Canada.

HRMO as a department
Participants also lauded the creation of HRMO as a department, up from a section, in the city government’s present structure.
“Davao City shows that HR offices can also be given equal importance with other departments, unlike most LGUs in the country,” said Eddie Maslog, chief of the Human Resource Management and Development Office (HRMDO) of the Provincial Government of Bohol. Unlike the case of Davao City, Maslog’s office has yet to secure an approval from the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) in creating its department head position.
Escalada (former HRMO Chief of LGU Davao) attributed the department status of the HRMO to the joint support of the City Mayor and the City Council, giving the office more clout to implement HRM policies.
In the workshop, participants further listed down as best HRM model Davao City’s high regard for “merit and fitness principle,” with the city mayor hiring only from the top five applicants as recommended by the personnel selection board. Escalada said this was to discourage political accommodation in the recruitment process.
Escalada also reported the termination of around 730 “ghost” employees in the city hall since his assumption as HRMO acting head in 2002.

More HR models
Other initiatives of the city government that the participants wanted to replicate were the setting up of a child-minding facility at City Hall which offers free custodial services to employees who need to take their children to work; the microcomputer-based Human Resource Information System (HRIS) which updates records of all plantilla and coterminous personnel; the character advocacy program which identifies good character traits to be exhibited by employees on a monthly basis; the 5-S program which promotes good housekeeping and systematic approach to work, and the attachment of the Public Employment Service Office of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) which focuses on job generation, facilitation, enhancement, job preservation.

“We take pride in being able to give total human development to our personnel through our HR programs,” Escalada said.
In a separate interview, Nora Fe Alajar, president of the Davao City Hall Employees Association (DACHEA) said rank-and-file employees have a bigger role in the city government today than ever. She said this started when a Collective Negotiation Agreement (CNA) was forged in 2000, providing for the representation of the employees union in the many influential committees of City Hall.
“City Hall management and the workers’ union have a very good partnership because of the many programs that are sensitive to the needs of the employees,” Alajar said.

Davao City shared similar complements with other panelists from the Municipality of Malalag in Davao del Sur and the provincial governmet of Sultan Kudarat.

In the same workshop, the Malalag municipal government, represented by Municipal Mayor Givel Mamaril, was commended for the participation of the LGU personnel in the reorganization and restructuring of the municipal government and for various local government initiatives such as revenue generation schemes and economic enterprises.

Sultan Kudarat, whose HR practices were presented by Provincial Human Resource Management Officer Ben Zamora, was hailed for giving higher incentives to its personnel (14th month pay) and a CNA where retirees can recommend replacements in lower positions, among others.
The symposium was conducted to bring together human resource managers from previous AusAID-assisted institutions nationwide and to provide a venue for discussing how to address the effects of the national government restructuring measures using human resource management principles.

Source: http://www.pia.gov.ph/?m=12&sec=reader&rp=1&fi=p050113.htm&no=6&date=01/13/2005

Let's Define!!!!

Personnel Management:

Within organizations that employ people, this is the function with policy responsibility for the selection and recruitment of staff, training, performance assessment, career development, disciplinary proceedings, pre-retirement advisory work, equal opportunities policies, pay bargaining, and industrial relations. In small organizations these functions may be combined with other management responsibilities; in large organizations a substantial separate department may be involved in setting policy, its implementation, and in keeping up to date with developments in labour law. In recent years the newer alternative term 'human resource management' has come into use, reflecting the increased importance of this function in labour-intensive service-sector industries.


In this statement, personnel management is the one who is responsible in recruiting and selecting staff. Its obligation also is to train, assess, and make any such development in careers and so on. That is why, personnel management is important to an organization.
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Administrative discipline of hiring and developing employees so that they become more valuable to the organization. It includes (1) conducting job analyses, (2) planning personnel needs, and recruitment, (3) selecting the right people for the job, (4) orienting and training, (5) determining and managing wages and salaries, (6) providing benefits and incentives, (7) appraising performance, ( resolving disputes, (9) communicating with all employees at all levels.

In this definition, personnel management is responsible for hiring and developing employees to be more productive in an organization.

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The function of a personnel manager usually begins with the staffing process. The manager may be focused on screening and interviewing applicants, with an eye to placing individuals with the right skill sets in the right position within the company. Along with placement, the HR manager may also oversee, or at least be involved in, the creation of entry level training programs, as well as continuing education opportunities for existing employees.

Determining company policies and procedures as they relate to personnel is another important aspect of the personnel management process. HR functions often include drafting vacation, sick leave, and bereavement policies that apply to all employees. The personnel management team is also often responsible for managing any healthcare program provided to the employees as well.

One aspect of company organization that needs the input of effective personnel management is the drafting of a company handbook. Establishing operation policies and procedures, requirements for employment, commendation and disciplinary procedures, and even something as simple as a dress code has to be compared with state and federal guidelines before the handbook is ready for release to the company at large. Personnel managers and the HR staff are ideal for drafting and reviewing the company handbook.

Sometimes overlooked in the course of personnel management is the emotional welfare of the employees. Increasingly, more personnel managers understand that a well-adjusted employee is an asset to the company. To this end, many people in charge of personnel management try to provide opportunities for employees who are in need of counseling to receive support from the company.

This support often involves scheduling time during working hours for the counseling sessions, and perhaps picking up the cost if insurance does not cover counseling. As with continuing educational programs, counseling is seen as another way that the company invests in the future relationship between the employee and the employer. A good HR manager understands this and will strive to make sure this sort of support is available.

Depending on the size of the organization, it may be possible for one person to handle all personnel management functions. As a company grows, it may be necessary to expand from a single personnel manager to a full-fledged personnel management, or Human Resources team. By understanding the needs of the company at each point in its growth, management can readily see to the addition to the Human Resources team over time.

Personnel Management is related to personnel manager. Personnel Manager is the one who oversees of the emotional welfare of the employees. That is why, personnel managers understand that employees are the main ingredient of an organization.


Human Resource Management:
Human Resource Management (HRM) is the function within an organization that focuses on recruitment of, management of, and providing direction for the people who work in the organization. Human Resource Management can also be performed by line managers.

Human Resource Management is the organizational function that deals with issues related to people such as compensation, hiring, performance management, organization development, safety, wellness, benefits, employee motivation, communication, administration, and training.

Human Resource Management is kinda related to personnel management. They are both in line with hiring, performance management, employee motivation, and other activities related to the employees.
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Human resource management is responsible for how people are treated in organizations. It is responsible for bringing people into the organization, helping them perform their work, compensating them for their labors, and solving problems that arise" (Cherrington, 1995, p. 5). There are seven management functions of a human resources (HR) department that will be specifically addressed: staffing, performance appraisals, compensation and benefits, training and development, employee and labor relations, safety and health, and human resource research.

In this statement, human resource management is responsible in making employees feel at home even they are in their workplace. HRM is also responsible in making people to be more productive so that they can easily solve problems in their organization.

Areas Related to HRM on the 9th SONA of the President

During the 9th SONA of the President at the Batasang Pambansa, there are lots of achievements she shared. She discussed some achievements in banking and finance, education, and a lot more and one of the achievements she shared related in the Human Resource Management are; for small entrepreneurs they should be well funded, teacher's training to provide more quality education to their students and lastly, effective protections for our OFWs.

To discuss these three areas related to Human Resource Management further, let's go back what Human Resource Management is. According to our brother online dictionary, Human resource management (HRM) is the strategic and coherent approach to the management of an organization's most valued assets - the people working there who individually and collectively contribute to the achievement of the objectives of the business. The terms "human resource management" and "human resources" (HR) have largely replaced the term "personnel management" as a description of the processes involved in managing people in organizations. In simple sense, HRM means employing people, developing their resources, utilizing, maintaining and compensating their services in tune with the job and organizational requirement.

For the last works done by our dynamic President, she made some efforts in order those employees both in private and government sectors will work in motivation. That is why, many of our organizations, corporations and companies here in the Philippines doesn't experience recession well.

These were the three areas related to HRM in which the President shared. To wit:

1. Nakinabang ang pitong milyong entrepreneurs sa P165 billion in microfinance loans. Nakinabang ang sandaan libo sa emergency employment ng ating economic resiliency plan. Kasama natin ngayon ang isa sa kanila, si Gigi Gabiola. Dating household service worker sa Dubai, ngayon siya ay nagtatrabaho sa DOLE. Good luck, Gigi.

Here, loaning is one of the easiest way in which our small entrepreneurs can sustain to their businesses. They have to borrow some money from the lender whether how much is it. That is why, the Arroyo administration imposed this kind of loaning system which is called microfinance loan. Microfinance refers to the provision of financial services to low-income clients, including consumers and the self-employed. This Microfinancing loans are small loans granted to the basic sectors, on the basis of the borrower’s cash flow and other loans granted to the poor and low-income households for their microenterprises and small businesses to enable them to raise their income levels and improve their living standards. These loans are typically unsecured but may also be secured in some cases. That is why, this microfinance loan is such a great help to our so-called mamamayan. For them, this is not a burden but as long as they can sustain their businesses in their own, it is better not to borrow in order for them not to sink in the quicksand of debts.

2. Pardon my partiality for the teaching profession. I was a teacher. Kaya namuhunan tayo ng malaki sa education at skills training. Ang magandang edukasyon ay susi sa mas magandang buhay, the great equalizer that allows every young Filipino a chance to realize their dreams. Nagtayo tayo ng 95,000 na silid-aralan, nagdagdag ng 60,000 na guro, naglaan ng P1.5 billion para sa teacher training, especially for 100,000 English teachers.

In this second issue, education is important to everyone especially to the young minds. Education is central to development and a key to attaining the millennium development goals of our government and our society. It is one of the most powerful instruments for reducing poverty and inequality and lays a foundation for sustained economic growth. That is why, most developed countries invest more in their education system and produce more competitive which our country envy. When Pres. Gloria Arroyo first stepped in the Malacañang Palace as our second woman president, she planned and studied well about the poor education system of our country. After for a long time, Madam President has a solution in which students can benefit but the teachers also. This solution in which our president made, is such a great help in order that the teachers and instructors of different schools in our country will be more competitive. It is good to know that the government invest funds worth of billion pesos for the training for our teachers. This training will help and motivate our teachers especially those English teachers to work hard so that they can serve well our country and so that they will know what are the new trends in teaching in using new technologies nowadays. And because of that, good to hear that and well done Madam President!

3. Sa hirap at ginhawa, pinapatatag ang ating bansa ng ating Overseas Filipinos. Iyong padala nilang $16 billion noong isang taon ay record. Itong taon, mas mataas pa.

I know that this is not a sacrifice joyfully borne. This is work where it can be found -- in faraway places, among strangers with different cultures. It is lonely work, it is hard work.

Kaya nagsisikap tayong lumikha dito sa atin ng mga trabahong maganda ang sahod, so that overseas work will just be a career choice, not the only option for a hard-working Filipino.

Meanwhile, we should make their sacrifices worthwhile. Dapat gumawa tayo ng mas epektibong proteksyon at pagpapalawak ng halaga ng kanilang pinagsikapang sweldo. That means stronger consumer protection for OFWs investing in property and products back home. Para sa kanila, pinapakilos natin ang Investors Protection Task Force.

In this last area related to HRM, the President focused it to the OFWs or Overseas Filipino Workers. According to them, OFWs are the modernized heroes of our country. The money in which the OFWs remittedevery year is such a great help so that we can earn billion of pesos. Because of the blood and sweat offered by the OFWs to work outside the country, most of us admired them. That is why, the government established a task force in which it is beneficial to the OFWs so that they will be overseen by the government whether they were paid well by their employers or not. Good to hear also that the government implemented well to have jobs inside the country with a nice wages so that working outside the country is a choice now and because of that, no more BRAIN DRAIN anymore.

Now, because of these few achievements done by our President , we may not call her tamad na Presidente but instead a WORKING PRESIDENT. These achievements done by her is a proof that our country Philippines is a developing country and soon to be a Tiger Economy .

Human Power

"Human beings are the most important, potent and critical, resource of any organization, and yet the least understood and the worst managed of its resources"

In this statement, my own notion for this is, the employee is the most important ingredient in an organization or company. Without an employee, you cannot say that it is an organization (most of us referred this as company) because they are the one which contributed more in order that this kind of organization can survive.

Leaders within our industry have consistently stated that employees are very important. According to the American Public Transportation Association, they defined two main strategic goals on the development of our industry's workforce. The managers and supervisors have stated that training and development is the core requirement to long range success. Ask yourself, "Why is training and development, attracting and retaining transit workers such a problem? Why doesn't the transit industry create a market of certified transit professionals? Why aren't we teaching our employees how vision, mission and values link to our every day business?". Organizations still ponder with the need to invest current dollars in training and certification processes, in place of short-term fixes that tend to add only little value to the industry's success. Anyone managing a multi-million dollar public transit operation today realizes that this industry employs over 450, 000 people in North America and moves over four billion people annually. Ensuring our employees have the tools needed to be successful, improving their skills through training and managerial dedication that will pay dividends. Many leaders underestimate the importance of designing an organization's future with this in mind. However, I challenge our leaders to take the steps to have the goals of training, development, and recognition as part of our industry's way of operating. Having these goals that invests in our employees, will sustain long needed success for our customers and the growth of our industry into the 21st century.

Employees are potent and critical because they are human beings which have rational thinking and logic. According to philosophical view of man, when he realises that he is the highest of all creation, then he becomes a human. When he develops his intellect, then he becomes a human. When he becomes an example for others, then he becomes a human. When he transcends the common limitations through his wisdom, then he becomes best of humans.

Not all humans have the same kind of intellect. Some men have the ability of being a leader and some are not. Do not be confused why there are people in the highest positions in a company and there are people in the lowest positions in a company. That is why there are managers, supervisors, CEOs which are gifted in this kind of disciplines.

In order that the managers, supervisors and other high ranking officials of a certain organization can have a better product, managers or any other high ranking officials of a certain organization may made some motivators to the employees so that these motivators will help to them in order that their products or contributions may be acceptable to the institution. As I surf over the internet, I found this motivators so that employees may be happy at work.

1. What People Want From Work

Some people work for personal fulfillment; others work for love of what they do. Others work to accomplish goals and to feel as if they are contributing to something larger than themselves. The bottom line is that we all work for money and for reasons too individual to assign similarities to all workers.

2. How To Demonstrate Respect at Work

Ask anyone in your workplace what treatment they most want at work. They will likely top their list with the desire to be treated with dignity and respect. You can demonstrate respect with simple, yet powerful actions. These ideas will help you avoid needless, insensitive, unmeant disrespect, too.

3. Provide Feedback That Has an Impact

Make your feedback have the impact it deserves by the manner and approach you use to deliver feedback. Your feedback can make a difference to people if you can avoid a defensive response.

4. Top Ten Ways to Show Appreciation

You can tell your colleagues, coworkers and staff how much you value them and their contribution any day of the year. Trust me. No occasion is necessary. In fact, small surprises and tokens of your appreciation spread throughout the year help the people in your work life feel valued all year long.

5. Trust Rules: The Most Important Secret

Without it, you have nothing. Trust forms the foundation for effective communication, employee retention, and employee motivation and contribution of discretionary energy, the extra effort that people voluntarily invest in work. When trust is present, everything else is easier.

6. Provide Motivational Employee Recognition

You can avoid the employee recognition traps that: single out one or a few employees who are mysteriously selected for the recognition; sap the morale of the many who failed to win, place, or even show; confuse people who meet the criteria yet were not selected; or sought votes or other personalized, subjective criteria to determine winners.

7. Employee Recognition Rocks

Employee recognition is limited in most organizations. Employees complain about the lack of recognition regularly. Managers ask, “Why should I recognize or thank him? He’s just doing his job.” And, life at work is busy, busy, busy. These factors combine to create work places that fail to provide recognition for employees. Managers who prioritize employee recognition understand the power of recognition.

8. Top Ten Ways to Retain Your Great Employees

Key employee retention is critical to the long term health and success of your business. Managers readily agree that their role is key in retaining your best employees to ensure business success. If managers can cite this fact so well, why do many behave in ways that so frequently encourage great employees to quit their job?

9. Team Building and Delegation: How and When to Empower People

Employee involvement is creating an environment in which people have an impact on decisions and actions that affect their jobs. Team building occurs when the manager knows when to tell, sell, consult, join, or delegate to staff. For employee involvement and empowerment, both team building and delegation rule.

10. Build a Mentoring Culture

What does it take to develop people? More than writing “equal opportunity” into your organization’s mission statement. More than sending someone to a training class. More than hard work on the part of employees. What development does take is people who are willing to listen and help their colleagues. Development takes coaches, guides and advocates. People development needs mentors.

To read more about this, you may click this link: http://humanresources.about.com/od/rewardrecognition/tp/recognition.htm

We may say also that the human beings in an organization are the least understood and worst to manage it is because, these human beings are able enough to make some critical decisions and justifications. You cannot easily control your employee because they are capable to do so some things which you can do unless you do have some robotic employees which are irrational and cannot perform logical thinking. That is why, God gave the dominion to the man to rule over the fluvial, terrestrial and aerial domains but not above to him.

Source:
http://74.125.153.132/search?q=cache:V1edGbz1MIoJ:www.aptrex.com/StumpoPaperCalgary.pdf+why+employees+are+important&cd=1&hl=tl&ct=clnk&gl=ph
http://humanresources.about.com/od/rewardrecognition/tp/recognition.htm

21st Corporations

150 years ago, the business corporations was relatively insignificant institution. Today, it is all pervasive like the church, the monarchy,and the communist party and other times and places. The corporations today is a dominate institution.

Corporation is like a jigsaw in the society as a whole. If you remove it, the pictures incomplete but equally, if it's the only path, its not gonna work. The corporation is just like a family unit. People in the corporation work together just for common in. Like the telephone system, yet it reaches almost everywhere its extraordinarily powerful its pretty hard to avoid and its transforms the lives of the people. It balance for the betterment of the people. The eagle, soar, clear-eye, competitive, prepared to strike but not a vulture. Noble, avisionary majestic but the people can believe in and be inspired by that creates such a lift that is source.

Corporations are artifical creations. You might say there are monsters trying to devour as much as profit as possible at anyone's expense. Like a whale, big fish which can swallow you in an instant. The word corporate gets attached in almost a sense of agenda and one hears a lot about the corporate agenda as though it is an agenda which is trying to take over the world.

What is a Corporation? It is a group of invdividuals working together to serve a variety of objectives. The principle one of it is earning large, growing, sustain and legal returns for the people who own the business.

Birth of Corporation: The history of corporations goes back at least to the sixteenth century, and since then their essential nature has not greatly changed. Before corporations, debts were transgenerational, passed on to descendents, some of whom were placed in debtors' prisons to repay the monies. The early state-chartered corporations of Europe and England were established to sponsor exploration of the New World. Those who sailed forth from England to trade for spices in the East Indies took grave risks in the journey, and even graver ones should they lose their precious cargoes. If they did not sail under the charter of a state corporation, they and their families could be ruined for life if bad weather or piracy struck en route. By establishing the corporate form, limiting shareholders to liabilities no greater than their investment, Europeans were able to create a form of commerce that could absorb the hard knocks of trading and exploring, encouraging both risk-taking and speculative investment at the same time. Those early corporations negotiated their charters with the state, which outlined the terms of their rights as well as the monies that were to be repaid to the crown. As a social technology, this was a brilliant invention, releasing the vigor of enterprise in the world. The charter of limited liability distinguished a corporation from all other forms of enterprise, because it was (and is) actually a gift of the state„a grant, a covenant, a form of permission that citizens, through their government, delegate to the corporation and its shareholders. In the early years of the republic, the citizens of the United States were keen to prevent any institution, foreign or domestic, commercial or religious, from dominating or suppressing their newly won rights. Early corporation charters were carefully drafted by states to ensure this subordination. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, there were only a few hundred corporations in the United States, and many of these were chartered expressly to build canals, turnpikes, or other public infrastructure. Even then, citizens openly and persistently expressed concern that corporations with specific rights granted under charters would nevertheless become so powerful that they could take over newspapers, public opinion, elections and the judiciary. Workers had similar fears about their own status within these new corporations. Thus early state charters were detailed and restrictive. They specified limits on profits, the amounts of indebtedness allowed, the overall capitalization, and how much land a corporation could own. The power of large shareholders was limited by scaled voting, so that large and small investors had equal voting rights. Interlocking directorates were not allowed, and in the case of public works projects, corporations were allowed to retain their original investments with predetermined percentages of profit. When profit projections were reached, the project was turned over to the state. It was the commonly held opinion at that time that corporations were a "creature of the law and may be molded to any shape or for any purpose that the Legislature may deem most conducive for the general good." In many states, clauses of incorporation gave legislatures the right to annul or revoke a charter whenever they chose to, or after a certain period of time (often several decades). Some states even required public votes to continue certain charters.

Despite these efforts, legislatures inevitably began to lose their control over big business, state by state. Government corruption became particularly rampant after the Civil War, and with it came a loosening of laws regulating interlocking trusts, factory towns and sequestered private fortunes. Child labor flourished, along with Pinkerton and other private armies that kept protests in check, workers in line. The Civil War had transferred great amounts of wealth to corporations, and with this concentration of power they began to clamor for "equal rights" and new simplified chartering laws that would treat every corporation equally (This is the means of incorporation we have today: anyone can do it, and for a nominal fee.)

There quickly followed a wholesale reinterpretation of the Constitution by the judiciary, granting new powers and rights to corporations. The primary thrust behind these precedents was the "due process" clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. This amendment protected the rights of freed slaves, but it was subsequently interpreted to give corporations the same status before the law as that of a natural person. On that basis, judges reversed hundreds if not thousands of state laws controlling wages, working conditions, ownership and corporate tenure.

In the wake of those decisions, American business was transformed. Unions could be interpreted as "civil conspiracies" and could be enjoined from striking. With the reduction of state power, incentives were reversed and states such as Deleware began attracting business by having the simplest and most lax incorporation procedures and regulations, driving other states to compete by lowering their own standards. The marriage of business and government also undermined„turned upside down, in fact„the Bill of Rights. The First Amendment, guaranting the right of every citizen to engage in free speech, was established to encourage, promote, and preserve democratic traditions. In the late 1700s there were very few ways to communicate except through speech: flyers, books, pamphlets, and broadsides from every conceivable quadrant of the political spectrum. The Founding Fathers wisely understood that the suppression of these political expressions would inevitably lead to tyranny of one sort or another; they did not want any one voice to have sway or dominance over the public discourse. There was little concern at that time that among the voices clamoring to be heard would be that of commerce... and the founders of the American republic still had no concept of the multinational corporation.

By invoking the First Amendment privilege to protect "speech," corporations achieve precisely what the Bill of Rights was intended to prevent: domination of public thought and discourse. Although corporations profess that they are legitimately expressing their democratic rights in their attempt to influence the government, their argument presupposes that all parties, from the single voter to the multinational company, have an equal voice in the political debates surrounding important issues.

Modern Corporations and Multinationals (21st Century): A corporation is a business that is legally independent from its members. Corporations may incur or pay debt, negotiate contracts, sue and be sued. Corporations range in size from local retail stores to a nation's largest corporation. These larger corporations sell stocks to shareholders, and the shareholders legally own the company. Management of the company remains separate from, but accountable to, the ownership. The shareholders are organized with a board of directors who hold regular meetings and make decisions on broad policies governing the corporation. Although many Americans own stock, they normally do not participate in regular board meetings or exert significant control over corporate decisions.

Sometimes corporations with closely related business may share board members, which is called an interlocking directorate. In this arrangement a manufacturer, a financial services company, and an insurance company with shared business also share the same board members. These few individuals, then, exert power over multiple companies whose business is interdependent.

According to a common online encyclopedia, conglomerate is a corporation made up of many smaller companies, or subsidiaries, that may or may not have related business interests. The buying and selling of corporations for profit—rather than for the service or products they provide—form conglomerates. The process of corporate merger often leads to large layoffs because, as companies combine forces, many jobs are duplicated in the other company. For example, a conglomerate may take over a smaller company, including that company's marketing department. The conglomerate will already have a marketing department capable of handling most of the new acquisition's needs. Therefore, as many as half or all of the acquired marketing department employees would lose their jobs. The same situation often occurs when two corporations of a similar size merge.

Other types of corporations include monopolies, oligopolies, and multinationals. Monopolies occur when a single company accounts for all or nearly all sales of a product or service in a market. Monopolies are illegal in the United States because they eliminate competition and can fix prices, which hurts consumers. In other words, monopolies interfere with capitalism. The Philippine government does not allow monopolies but U.S. government does consider some monopolies legal, however, such as utilities where competition would be difficult to implement without distressing other social systems. But even utility monopolies have seen increased competition in recent years. Recently electric power companies have seen deregulation and increased competition in some regions as well.

Oligopolies exist when several corporations have a monopoly in a market. The classic example of an oligopoly would be American auto makers until the 1980s. Ford, Chrysler, and General Motors manufactured nearly all vehicles built in America. As globalization has increased, so has competition, and few oligopolies exist today.

Multinationals are corporations that conduct business in many different countries. These corporations produce more goods and wealth than many smaller countries. Their existence, though, remains controversial. They garner success by entering less-developed nations, bringing industry into these markets with cheaper labor, and then exporting those goods to more-developed countries. Business advocates point to the higher standard of living in most countries where multinationals have entered the economy. Critics charge that multinationals exploit poor workers and natural resources, creating environmental havoc.

Sources: http://www.mecgrassroots.org/NEWSL/ISS19/20CorpBirth.html
http://thecorporation.com/

Downsizing Human Resource

Due to the recent world financial crisis, many business firms and corporations closed becase they cannot sustain anymore the high inflation of high prices through low income and high expenses such as in labor expense, ect. because of the stiff competition of many companies. The only solution found out by the management of different firms is to have a recession and decrease their manpower so that the company can sustain and survive.

There are companies were affected last 2008 global financial crisis and one of these companies is the FedEx Corporation (Global). FedEx is well known because of its global services such as the FedEx Express in which it delivers cargoes and baggages of customers throughout the world. Here is an online magazine (ProcurementAsia Mag) which covers about the huge loss of FedEx,

Quote:

FedEx Post Huge Loss, Outlook Gloomy By: Jerrel Yun, Singapore Global - FedEx announced a huge loss in the previous quarter, as consumers and businesses downsized shipments and the company took over approximately US$1.2 billion in one-time charges. FedEx lost US$876 million, in the three month period ending in May, compared to a US$241 million loss a year ago. The company took a US$900 million write-down for its 2004 purchase of Kinko's Inc - now known as FedEx Office - and US$90 million in charges for the acquisition of Watkins Motor Lines in September 2006. It also took charges for employee severance and facility cutbacks. In addition, FedEx's operating performance continued to be restrained by the global recession, which resulted in lower shipment volumes at FedEx Express and FedEx Freight, the company said. Revenue for the fourth-quarter fell 20% year-on-year from US$9.87 billion to US$7.85 billion. The company foresees difficult operating conditions in the near future. "The operating environment for our first two quarters in fiscal 2010 is expected to be extremely difficult," Alan Graf, executive VP and CFO of FedEx said. The company said Q408 revenue at the company's Express arm fell 25% due to a contraction in freight volumes and a rise in fuel prices. In the freight segment, revenue dropped 28%. However the company's ground segment did comparably well, with revenue dipping approximately 1% year-on-year. FedEx said that international package volumes improved in the fourth-quarter compared to the quarter before, which could signal that the financial slowdown is levelling off. "There are signs that the worst of the recession is behind us and we remain optimistic that we will see quarter-over-quarter economic improvement later this calendar year," said Frederick W. Smith, chairman, president and CEO, FedEx Corp. In a conference call with analysts, Graf said the company hasn't yet decided whether it will have to layoff more workers or make further cut backs because of economic conditions, reported AP. "That is a question that's going to play out during the year," Graf said. "We have hiring and wage freezes, basically across the board. We have suspended our 401(k) contributions. If the economy turns up and we start to see the growth that we think we will get, we will start to repair those reductions," said Graf.

And because of this huge loss happened to the FedEx Corporation, at first they downsize their human resource but time came the CEO of the FedEx decided to close their company. Last year, the FedEx-Philippines had their last cargo flight to China and had their farewell party.

There are many reasons why an organization may need to lay off employees in the current business environment that includes mergers and acquisitions, outsourcing key operations, and eliminating less-than-optimal business lines are just a few. However, at the heart of any layoff decision is the need to remain financially viable and competitive both now and in the future. It can therefore be tempting to continue the cost-saving measures as you select an outplacement services provider for your downsized employees. However, the choices you make can seriously impact your company’s reputation and profitability in the future, warns Sharon Winston, regional senior vice president and general manager of leading career services company Lee Hecht Harrison’s San Jose office.

Winston notes that in outplacement, there are no real shortcuts. "There are many paths, but they are each a climb, and anyone who tries to convey something different is misleading you."


Winston recommends that human resources professionals and senior management teams develop a system for evaluating potential outplacement providers that takes into consideration the quality of the program and the overall capabilities of the provider company. "Management teams need to realize that every former employee will likely talk to at least six people about the experience," says Winston. "That’s a lot of exposure. And if just one of those former employees feels badly enough to sue you, it will be a costly event. Taking the time up front to select the right outplacement provider can save money in the long run."


With that in mind, the experts at Lee Hecht Harrison suggest five criteria to consider when choosing an outplacement services provider:

BUSINESS BACKGROUND
Look for a firm with solid business experience and a proven track record. Be sure that the people who will service your account have experience working in the business world. If you are looking at a boutique firm or a company that focuses only on the local market, consider whether or not they have the depth and breadth of experience to handle candidates who may need to pursue a national job search.

CONTINUITY
Your employees are all business people; therefore, it makes sense that the outplacement package you purchase should be based on project management principles, like milestones, team meetings and individual accountability. This will allow each employee to jump into the job search quickly, without having to take the time to learn how the program itself works. It’s also important to ensure that each employee will be assigned a job search counselor who will remain with him or her throughout the process. Be cautious of the "bait and switch." The team you meet during the selection process should be comprised of the people who will actually provide services to your employees.

NOTIFICATION TRAINING
A good outplacement provider can help managers craft both the specific message and the tone in which news of the layoff should be delivered. Notification training ensures that all managers follow the same process and have the opportunity to ask questions before, rather than during, the event. This can help reduce the company¹s legal exposure. Don¹t assume that your managers know how to conduct themselves during a layoff. Managing a downsizing isn¹t a repetitive task, and your leadership team may not have extensive experience delivering the news.

ONSITE ORIENTATION
Your outplacement provider must be able to provide initial onsite services to downsized employees immediately after the notification. These employees need an opportunity to vent and assistance in formulating their next steps, including how to notify their families. A good outplacement provider can offer a highly facilitated opportunity for employees to express their feelings and give options to deal with the situation in a positive way. Without this guidance, it’s impossible to gauge how individuals will handle the time between the notification and leaving the property.

LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT
After a layoff, business doesn’t slow down to accommodate the smaller workforce. Instead, organizations must quickly regroup, re-identify themselves, shift key management roles and find new ways to move forward. An outplacement provider should be able to work with individuals and management teams within an organization to help them assimilate into the new corporate structure and develop key leadership competencies. This kind of coaching can have a tremendous impact on the company’s ability to remain productive after a downsizing.

Sources:
http://www.procurement-online.com/news/13501
http://www.globalhrnews.com/story.asp?sid=412
http://www.fedex.com/

How Can This University Helps Achieve My Goals?

How Can This University (USeP) Helps To Achieve My Goals?.........

Well, if you graduated in a school having a well-known name such as the University of Southeastern Philippines, it is easy to look and land for a job. Why I say this? It is because, it is proven and tested that graduates of the said university can easily land for a job specially in this kind of discipline which is the Bachelor of Science in Information Technology. I have a friend of mine who is a graduate in the said university but not in the discipline of Information Technology. Even though she graduated in the field of education, she walked in the red carpet of the PECC Gymnasium of the University of Southeastern Philippines-Tagum with a big smile and teary eyes as a cum laude during their graduation rites. After she passed their board exam, she applied as a teacher in a public elementary school. The personnel who interviewed hired her immediately without doubt it is not because she is pretty, it is because she is cum laude who came from USeP. With that, I reflect, can I survive with this kind of course? Then on my mind, an answer came up and I said to my self, "I can". They said, if you are in the Insitute of Computing (USeP-Obero), don't expect that you can take up BSCS or BSIT just in 4 years. Whew! With that words I heard from other's mouth, I trembled but I encouraged my self, to finish this course I choose. The University of Southeastern Philippines molds their students to be globally competitive so that if they want to apply both inside and outside the country, they can easily cope up the things related to the course they chose. Since the instructors of the said university are highly qualified, they are the epitome and paragon of the institution which students should extol, admire and respect. Indeed, the University of Southeastern Philippines provides quality education to the students so that they are competent enough to face the challenges on what life brings.

COMDDAP 09 @ Davao

Last July2, 2009, the first day of COMDDAP exhibit at Apo View Hotel at the heart of the city of Davao was embraced with a warm welcome by the Davaweños. It was participated by different computer stores and companies such as HP Philippines, Jupiter Systems Inc., Neo Philippines, AOC (Arts Of Color) Philippines, Canon Philippines and a lot more. This association aims to improve their camaraderie with each other.

1:35 PM: I myself, together with my classmates arrived at the Apo View Hotel. The exhibitors exhibited their products at the hotel's Grand Ballroom. In there, they displayed their optimum and finest products such as he Canon's latest printer, the Neo's pocket laptop and etc..

1:50 PM: We entered at the Vanda Room to listen some lectures presented by some exhibitors. The first lecturer was the Marketing Head of ERIC Systems Inc., which is 24 year old and a 100% Filipino owned company. There, he presented to us the latest system of Jupiter System Inc., which is the DMS (Dealer Management System). DMS is used by some car dealer companies. He said, DMS has a Thai and English language system. The Marketing Head of Nexus Group pointed also that DMS is a complete end-to-end solution for dealership. It is use for vehicle sales, services, back off and financial reporting.

DMS Process Flow presented by the Marketing Head of ERIC Systems Inc.:

Pre-Sales

• sales appointments
• sales lead monitoring from initial inquiry to actual close
• supervisor review of appointment schedules and sales calls
• classifies sales probabilities
• keepsall call histories
• prospect follow-up reminders
• lead generation reports
• sales quotation processing

Vehicle Sales

• the system supports sales of new and used vehicles
• vehicle inventory checking in multiple branches and warehouse
  
• vehicle purchase agreement processing
• Vehicle Sales Invoicing
• process receivables and payables
• Vehicle Delivery Advice Entry
• Vehicle Receipt to Warehouse
• Vehicle Inventory Costing
• registers all vehicle purchase to Service Management

After Sales

• advance booking/customer appointments
• operation maintenance/flat rates
  
• repair orders
• repair estimates
• customer service history
• technician time-in/time-out
• parts requisitioning and picking
• service invoicing
• warranty claims and processing
• field service actions
  
• service reminders
• customer feedback
• highly graphical technician assignments and loading window
• sublet P.O. processing
• Point-of-Sale (POS) type billing window
• interface to Manufacturer Systems
• reports and queries
• service metrics

3:30 PM: The next lecture we attended is the exhibitors from HP-Philippines. It is a well-known company because of their optimum products such as the HP notebook and desktop computers, HP printers, HP scanners and other computer accessories and parts. The Market Development Manager of HP-Philippines showed the us their latest product and that is the HP Thin Client. According to a common online encyclopedia, a thin client (sometimes also called a lean or slim client) is a client computer or client software in client-server architecture networks which depends primarily on the central server for processing activities, and mainly focuses on conveying input and output between the user and the remote server. In contrast, a thick or fat client does as much processing as possible and passes only data for communications and storage to the server. The term was coined in 1993 by Tim Negris, VP of Server Marketing at Oracle Corp., while working with company founder Larry Ellison on the launch of the landmark Oracle7 release of the company's flagship relational database management system (RDBMS). Ellison had charged Negris with finding a way to boldly differentiate Oracle's server-centric software from the decidedly desktop-oriented products of then-rival Microsoft. Thin Client became Ellison's relentless battle cry, repeated in hundreds of speeches, interviews and articles attendant to the release of Oracle7 and many other products after that. Many thin client devices run only web browsers or remote desktop software, meaning that all significant processing occurs on the server. However, recent devices marketed as thin clients can run complete operating systems such as Debian Linux, qualifying them as diskless nodes or hybrid clients. Some thin clients are also called "access terminals." Many people that already have computers want the same functionality that a thin client has. Computers can simulate a thin client in a single window (as thru a browser) or with a separate operating system boot-up. Either way, these are often called "fat clients" to differentiate them from thin clients and computers without thin-client functionality. As a consequence, the term "thin client", in terms of hardware, has come to encompass any device marketed as, or used as, a thin client in the original definition – even if its actual capabilities are much greater. The term is also sometimes used in an even broader sense which includes diskless nodes.

The Market Development Manager of HP-Philippines tackled also about the challenges for IT professionals and these are:

• Provide Information Security
• Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)
• Deployment and Maintenance

After he lectured to us about their product which is the thin client, he gave some prizes to those who can answer the questions about thin client and that experience, all I can say is, "Technology is dynamic, not static".

Being a Web Designer

What is a Web Design?

According to a common online encyclopedia, Web Designing is the skill of creating presentations of content (usually hypertext or hypermedia) that is delivered to an end-user through the World Wide Web, by way of web browser or other Web-enabled software like Internet television clients, microblogging clients and RSS readers and therefore, the person who creates the web sites is the Web Designer.

Technology nowadays is expanding at an increasingly high speed due to the thriving expansion of the Internet. The World Wide Web has taken a strong hold on the vast majority of businesses and organizations, becoming a principal means of marketing and providing information. The number of Web sites in use increases every minute-skyrocketing job opportunities for Web site developers and designers - Webmasters. Today's companies seek professionals with the skills and training to produce effective Web sites that can attract the billions of consumers surfing the Web every day.

Being a web designer it is not an easy task. Before creating a web site and uploading a website you have to plan eagerly in order that your project will be done properly. Thoroughly considering the audience or target market, as well as defining the purpose and deciding what content will be developed are extremely important.

Part of the web designer's task is to create pages that can be used on any type of server (a central computer in a network that stores files and provides these files to individual computers) and viewed with any type of browser (the software that enables people to access the World Wide Web). To do this, a web designer must be familiar with issues of browser/server compatibility, including which browsers and servers work well together and which ones do not. In addition, the designer must know computer languages such as Javascript, which can be used to create web pages that are compatible with a wide range of hardware and software.

Website design is comprised of many steps. Depending on the employer and the designer's skills, typical duties may involve:

• Translating a client's marketing or informational content into a functional website.
• Mapping or outlining a website's structural content.
• Creating or editing images and graphics for website use.
• Determining all coding requirements for site creation including: e-commerce capability, forms and specialized scripts.
• Creating templates of approved website layout.
• Coding website using HTML, or GUI design software.
• Coordinating with programmers for specialized scripts.
• Creating verbal content for the website or using approved content from the client.
• Integrating verbal content with site design for final product.
• Posting completed site to internet server using FTP software.
• Making changes to the site directed by client.
• Submitting completed site to search engines.

Some web designers possess all the skills listed above, while others only possess a portion of them.

If you have the right technology background and can learn new software quickly, a career as a web designer can be very lucrative. Web design skills are important in every industry now and they afford motivated people the chance to run their own business.

Reference: http://careers.stateuniversity.com/pages/142/Web-Designer.html
http://www.degreesource.com/articles/89/1/Web-Designer-Job-Description/1.html