The Cost Of Employee Fraud

Goldenberg scandal ,Anglo-Leasing scandal the name immediately brings back the memories of the most popular scam of Kenya. The fraud cost 5.5 billion to the 10 major commercial banks of Kenya. An employee fraud is not a new concept or term for Kenya. The annual survey by KPMG (a leading management consultant) has provided many interesting insights to the recent scenario concerning employee frauds. The sample of the survey covered more than 1000 public and private organisations in Kenya. According to the survey, 47 percent of the frauds in the organisations have been done by either the employees or the senior executives with a decision making authority.

Types of frauds:The most common fraud reported by the organisations is the magnified or the inflated expense account by the employees. In these types of fraud, the expenses incurred by the employees are exaggerated and false invoices are submitted to the organisation for re-imbursement. Such frauds account for almost 50 per cent of the total losses incurred by the organisations because of employee frauds.

Other types of frauds faced by the organisations are:
• Keeping a secret share of commissions from suppliers for self
• Counterfeiting or faking the company cheques
• Purchase of goods for personal use on company expense
• Manipulating customer’s accounts
• Using official information for personal benefits
• Forging financial statements
• Misappropriation of other company resources
• Corporate espionage

Frauds related to manipulating and misusing the power to access the confidential information about the customers and the organisation and theft of data were also found to be more common than the rest.

Dimensions of frauds;Any or every employee/ executive fraud, has the following magnitude or dimensions:
• The human dimension - There is always a human mind behind every executive fraud. It has been found to be of an internal employee or management in 90 per cent of the cases. Employees use their power and intelligence for corporate espionage.
• The technology dimension - Technology has emerged as a very important dimension to the employee frauds. New technologies have given way to unethical practices like hacking etc. On one hand, where the information technology can be effectively used to check frauds, it can and is giving opportunities and assistance to the people in planning and executing frauds.
• The legal dimension – The last dimension is the legal dimension that the legal framework and the institutional system regarding the frauds. It also includes organizational practices and policies regarding frauds.

Detection of frauds;According to the survey report of KPMG, a majority of the frauds were exposed by internal controls or check measures. Whistle-blowers or, many a times, anonymous notifications received also help to detect frauds. What follows the detection is the investigation by the management of the organisation , a review of the entire situation, followed by actions like firing the concerned employee, formal police investigation, and sometimes – letting the employee resign.

The study by KPMG also sights the fact that most of the Kenyan organisations are unprepared to detect, handle or deal with fraud. Also, shocking was the fact that as much as 77 per cent of the respondents do not even conduct or has fraud diagnostic review systems in their organisations; nor do 84 per cent of the respondents have a written fraud policy. Assured of their security and internal control systems, 52 percent of the respondents (corporate heads) did not consider frauds as a threat or major problem.

Scenario in Kenyan sectors;The percentage of risk from corporate espionage of the information communication and entertainment sectors, and financial sector of Kenya (including all the financial service providers) is as high as 84 and 81 per cent respectively. But the sector which is facing the frequent brunt of the problem is the emerging BPO sector in Kenya. Cases of frauds in BPO sector, employees using the customer’s confidential information, manipulation in accounts are getting common. The reasons being quoted for the increasing number of frauds are:
• Weakening of society's values,
• The growing economic pressures,
• More sophisticated technologies to assist criminals
• Urbane and intelligent criminals and
• Inadequate punishment for those who are caught

Solutions;The first and the foremost solution to the problem are the reference checks and affirming the employee details of the employees before their confirmation in an organisation. To reduce the possibilities of frauds, it is advisable to design and incorporate the fraud diagnostic systems in the organisations creating internal detection systems. Also, regular periodic rotation of the staff can help reduce the possibilities of the employee frauds.
It is also being planned to create a common database for an industry vertical by all organisations of all employees who have been identified and have been proved as fraudsters in the past. This would help the other companies to check for them before hiring them for their organisation.

Thanks!

How Work And Play Are Human Resources' Initiatives?

What does this worlds means to you?Work Hard, Play Harder!Imagine a workplace, an environment with no interaction or concern between the employees, no laughter, no jokes with only hectic monotonous work; and a workplace having friendly environment with an embedded tinge of fun and laughter. Which would you prefer and enjoy working in??
Just as the above mentioned environments, 'work' and 'play' are complete opposites. But when combined, they can be of crucial importance in the success of the organisation. The results of various researches conducted throughout the world have proved the fact that "Happy workers are productive workers". A strained, tedious and boring corporate culture and work environment is the common de-motivating factor for the employees in an organisation. Having fun while being at work enables an employee to enjoy his work and even make that extra effort or even stretch himself for his job. Working in a relaxed environment, adding the fun element to the work atmosphere helps makes the job a pleasure for the employees. A right corporate culture conduces the full potential of the employees. Initiatives like celebrating the success of the projects of teams (even on a small scale) can help improve team spirit and synergy in the organisation.

The dynamic and vibrant work environment helps create a feel-good factor within the organisation and a positive and cohesive attitude amongst the employees. It also acts as a great booster of employee morale, a stress buster, a change in the monotonous work schedule. Work & play organisation culture also plays an important role in the retention process of the organisations. In many cases it has been proved that the retention rates of the organisations with the same culture have better retention rates than other organisations. HR initiatives of creating such environment show the people that the organisation cares for them.

Realizing the value and advantages of fun at workplace, the HR professionals are taking special measures to incorporate the same in their organizational cultures. Some of such Hr initiatives are:
#.Arranging meetings over lunch & dinner which fosters the communication between the employees and the management.
#.Celebrating the major festivals
#.Arranging sports facilities within the organisation and sports events regularly.
#.Conducting events where the families of the employees can also participate.
#.Giving paid vacations to employees (yearly or on successful completion of projects)
Such initiatives provide a platform to understand, imbibe and integrate with the organisation and the organizational culture. Also, binding the employees to the core values and ethics of the organisation.

Such "Work and Play" organisational culture is also known as HEDONISM culture. It is the work culture marked by periodic celebrations, parties and fun being a part of the overall workplace culture. Hedonism emphasizes on enjoying the work and providing a relaxed environment to work.

Arguments against the work & play culture;Many researchers, professionals and employees oppose such culture at the workplace. They argue that such people lack the commitment and seriousness towards their work. Unfortunately, many see such fun to be a waste of time. Contrary to the belief that happy workers are productive workers, many people argue that fun leads to a decline in the productivity.

This argument has already been proved wrong by various researches conducted on the same subject. A humorless or an environment devoid of fun may build frustration and stress in the employees (also affecting their personal live in some cases). It can create communication gaps in the employees and the management, and making the change management difficult.

Many organisations are already reaping the benefits of this culture. For example: Southwest Airlines has the motto - "Take yourself lightly and take your job and your responsibilities seriously. By adopting this motto, you may soon discover that life's burdens and anxieties are lighter-sometimes even lighter than air.." and motivate the employees to .Think funny; $ Adopt a playful attitude;$ Be the first to laugh; $ Laugh with, not at;$ Laugh at yourself; $ Take work seriously, but not yourself
In the recent survey to find - Great Places to Work in Kenya - the opinion of employees regarding the work and play culture, the fun element in the atmosphere was a vital point under consideration in deciding the results. The only constraint to the whole situation is that it is not always appropriate to take everything lightly. There are times when fun is not appropriate.

As long as deadlines are met, targets are achieved, projects are successful and the results are leading to the achievement of the organizational goals, celebrating success and having fun at work is not wrong. Such culture promotes optimism, organizational values, team building and motivate employees to bring out the best in themselves. That is why, many organisations are taking fun seriously!

Thanks!

Why Cooporates Choose Temporary Staffing?

The face of HR fraternity in Kenya is undergoing sea level changes with upcoming trends like e-recruitments, outsourcing HR functions, and the like. Now the next big thing - Temporary Staffing is gaining acceptance across industries. Few months back the job market was overflowed with people who were labeled as leftover guys who could not find a permanent job for themselves. But that is passe now. Companies are recruiting employees on temporary basis mainly for a particular project, paying them off and then letting them go as soon as the project is over.

What is Temping? Temping is the process of hiring temporary workers or, as they are called - Temps, for a shorter duration of time for a particular project and remain in the company till the project lasts.

The temps work for one Client Company while being on rolls of a third party. A temp is contract worker who is being hired for a short time, typically till a project lasts. The contract ranges from a period of 2 months to 15 months. These temps are made available by the employee leasing firms like Team Lease. Such companies provide a wide range of temporary staffing solutions including temporary-to-permanent services where in the company hires an employee for trial basis and absorbs him within the company on the basis on his performance; and long-term contracts where temps are hired for a longer period of time which may last up to two years.

The non core functions like sales, front office, customer support, finance, back end operations and administration demand more temps. The reason seems to be quite obvious - companies focus on their core functions to sustain the cut throat competition, while they outsource their non core functions.

So how often do these temporary workers turn into permanent employees? Though, earlier, the chance of being absorbed by the company was almost negligible, the trend is gaining pace as the demand for skilled workforce is increasing. The conversion rate has grown up to 25 to 35 percent form four percent.

Why Temping;Temping started off with MNC's hiring contract workers. It comes with a packet of benefits for the organizations as well as for the employees. Organizations enjoy the benefit of workforce flexibility and ease of recruitments and quick replacements. Temping also saves training costs as leasing companies direct skilled and experienced workers to the companies. Moreover, non productive employees can be chucked out without many complications. By outsourcing non core functions, the company deeply focuses on its core functions only. The companies also get more work done from temporary workers and also escape for paying them perks and incentives.

From employee's point of view, temping helps an employee to acquire different skills and upgrade basic skills by working in different setups. Employees acquire multiple skills to remain employable is competitive job markets. Temping even offers tempting career opportunities to housewives, retired personnel, people with defense backgrounds, freelancers and freshers. Temps who work for big brands also boast about the same in their resumes, thus, giving them an advantage over others.

These are some flip sides of temping too. Job insecurity always acts as a demotivator for others candidates. The temps hardly get any perks and incentives like the permanent employees. The chances of becoming permanent with the client company are also less so possibility of achieving a stable career lacks. The under performers are always at risk as they can be sacked anytime and that too without a notice. Moreover, too much hopping act as red flags in one's resume.

Sustaining the trend;Though job security is still essential for many in Kenya, an increasing number of young people are opting for temporary jobs. The market for such jobs will grow exponentially in coming years. Almost every sector, be it capital intensive or labor intensive, is showing keen interest in temps. Moreover, those candidates who have a hunger for multiple skills, are increasingly taking up these jobs. Permanent job assurance is now passé as downsizing can happen any time. Temping will prove to be a viable option in such cases. The industry watchers believe that this new HR trend is here to stay.

Thanks

Are You Thinking Going Abroad For A Job?

International mobility of Employees;What was earlier known as the 'Brain Drain' and had become a matter of concern for many countries has taken the shape of international mobility of employees. Of late, international mobility of employees has become the latest trend and one of the top HR issues of present, courtesy increasing globalization, widening horizon of operation of MNC's, attraction by the greener pastures at the other side, etc.

With the influx of globalization, with flow of technology and capital across geographic and political barriers to help creating new resources, the concept of distance became virtually non factor.International mobility of highly skilled workers has increased significantly and far more complications and intricacies involved. International mobility of employees - there are the following two perspectives of looking at the prevalent scenario:
People moving across the globe freely for jobs.International mobility of employees is increasing. People tend to not to limit themselves to working in their home country. People going to work in other countries are known as expatriates. . The emerging rationale behind the trend is the quest for better work exposure in complex work environments than simple, homely environment that would have left them less competent to face future challenges. This is a paradigm shift from the motive which people attributed for migrating to foreign lands - that lack of sufficient opportunity to get employed suitably. The new trend is most commonly seen in the IT industry, international experiences and exposure are considered crucial in pharmaceuticals industry, scientific research, and the professions like sales and distribution for career development and progress.
With the MNC's increasing their foothold in almost every country, they are also providing ample opportunities to talented and experienced employees from foreign locations to utilize their skills for the organisation. Employees are also willing to cover that extra mile for new, challenging and rewarding career opportunities and growth, better standards of life and greener pastures at the other side. An overseas opportunity by an employer is also taken as a sign of empowerment by organisation and a move upwards in the career.
The other side of the same coin is working with and for the cross-border clients.
With the widespread and transnational operations of MNC's, changing work practices, increasing off shoring and outsourcing of work, the international mobility of employees is increasing at a rapid rate. The intricacies of international mobility involve being sent to the client locations in other countries and even remote locations, to work with the client itself. Moreover, to fill the positions with the right kind of person has become of supreme importance for the organisations, and they are willing to recruit expatriates and deploy the best person irrespective of his/her nationality to the place having the requirement. Refusing any such offer of the company can have its own consequences for the employee.

Body-Shopping:Another concept related to the international mobility of employees is "Body shops". Body shops is a term that refers to manpower supplier or recruitment outsourcing companies, especially in the IT sector, which deploy and cater to the requirements for skilled IT labourers of its clients placed across the globe. Body shops are contributing significantly to the tremendous growth of the international mobility of employees by recruiting employees for their clients to work in foreign countries.
Issues rather challenges involved:Various factors like technological advancement, International mobility of employees has changed fundamentally and traditional nature of the concept. There are many issues and considerations involved for the organisation, the concerned employee and his/her family. For companies that do business globally, the need for broad, comprehensive HR programs that anticipate, and address, the myriad issues that come with having an internationally-dispersed workforce is absolutely crucial. It's essential that you have in place a competitive international mobility programme that is not only aligned with your business strategy but also facilitates the transactional aspects of international mobility.

The challenge for the Organisation;Talent Management,The main challenges for the organisation are;Selecting the candidate keeping in mind the factors like cultural adaptability, communication factors, family background etc.Performance management: Clearly defining the objectives of the assignment, the standards, measurement of performance etc.Reward aspects: The compensation during the assignment including all the benefits and other privileges.Immigration requirements and tax procedures for the employee should be arranged by the organisation.

The organisation should have policies and strategies for dealing with the requirements of international mobility of its employees aligned to its overall strategy and business objectives systematically.

The challenge for the family;Another major concern is the immediate andlong term and direct andindirect implications of the relocation of an employee on their family. Generally seen as the concern of the employer and the concerned employee, most neglected are the life partners or the families of the employee. The effect on the career of the partner or the families can become a hindrance for an employee in accepting the offer to relocate. Relocating the children and spouse in midst of their own education or careers, can harm the same. Bring new opportunities as well as challenges and problems for the family.

The challenge for the individual;Before accepting or taking up any such assignment, the concerned employee should seriously consider its impact on career development, impact on the immediate family, adjusting to the new environment etc.

A trade-off between the costs and benefits for the employee who is supposed to relocate is nearly impossible (qualitative factors). But comparing the costs and benefits from the side of the organisation is the most logical and the feasible step. Keeping in mind all the developments taking place towards globalization, international mobility of employees will increase with time.

Thanks!

Internet & New Media Jobs In Kenya

If you think that internet is just for E-mail and chatting,then you're wrong!With technology advancements getting into the homes of everyone there has been a boom in the Internet and Media sectors. Thus more and more Internet & New Media Jobs are getting created in the market, which is in turn enhancing the prospects of employment in this sector.

The glamorous and sensational nature of these job profiles has often seen to tempt youngsters who are taking Internet & New Media Jobs very seriously. Creative, confident and the urge to take on a path, not many would want to take, are quintessential characteristics of people who want to try their luck in the Internet & New Media Jobs.

Internet & New Media Jobs take care of all the profiles ranging from Digital Media (audio/video) to advertising, online marketing and even search engines.

Thanks!

Information Technology Jobs In Kenya

Information Technology Jobs have helped generate a new breed of professionals who are passionately associated with the different aspects of communicating information generated through computers.

There are several links to the profiles connected to the Information Technology Jobs with Software, Hardware, Networking, System Design, Analyst and DBA completing the full circle. Software development jobs are premium career option for many young people and IT industry is expanding enough to offer lucrative job opportunities for many computer engineering graduates.

There are several leading brands across the various fields that have also contributed towards the growth of Information Technology Jobs in the market. Excellent pay packages and interesting silhouette of the profiles have made Information Technology Jobs more lucrative than ever.

There are also several professional International organizations that are continually striving to better the prospects of these Computer jobs and they have representations in most of the countries across the globe.

Internet has played an instrumental role in creating a revolution in the world of Technology. There has been a steep rise in the demand for Information generated through computers. Today, from Ticket Bookings to Hotel reservations, Job Search to is made possible on the Internet.

Thanks!

Airlines Jobs in Kenya

With more people tend to take flights for their travel and Air cargo services business is speeding up, the airline industry in the country is on the path of increasing its base. New airline companies have come in to existence, which gave rise to the number of flights and number and size of air ports in Kenya.

Consequently it gave spurt to jobs in the airline of Kenya like Pilot jobs, ATR pilot jobs, Boeing Pilot Jobs, Flight Engineer jobs, Aircraft Engineer Jobs, Chef jobs, Cockpit crew jobs, Crew jobs, Aircraft Maintenance Engineers jobs, Airport Services jobs, Flight Attendant jobs etc. In this section you can find jobs in Airline companies operating in Kenya, Kenya based international flight jobs, Pilot jobs, ATR pilot jobs, Cabin Crew jobs, Cargo flight jobs and jobs in chartered flights.

This page concentrates on Airlines jobs in Kenya. On this page, we list the relevant India Airways job sites, Air Jobs, Flight job vacancies, Air cargo jobs in Kenya, Pilot job openings, Chef Jobs in Kenya as well as Cargo Pilot job vacancies. Through these Airlines job sites, you can search the various Airways company job opportunities available in Kenya. We have attempted to put on this page Airline Job search in Kenya to help those who seek flight job vacancies and Pilot job openings.

Thanks!

Accounting Jobs in Kenya

Well,Accounting as a profession holds its roots back to the early days of human civilization. It’s one of the oldest professions that have ever existed. With the recent phenomena of globalization taking hold of the world economies, accounting jobs Kenya has made their presence felt in the corporate sector. It has again made its way up to the top jobs category. Accounting jobs in Kenya are among the most sought after jobs. Every small, medium and large corporate house is on the hunt for efficient accountants. If you have it in you, fat pay-packets are there for the grab.

What it takes:If you are interested in making it big in the accounting profession, you may try various options. Colleges offer bachelors degree in commerce with specialization in either accountancy or finance. A B.Com Honors degree is all what it takes for a well paid job. There would be at least one institute in every small town who provide specialized trainings and crash courses to prepare you with some practical demos for accounting job.
Job Description:Once you pass out with flying colors, getting a job of your liking isn’t a big deal.A company accountant is trusted with duties like:

Setting up an accounting system $ Preparing the annual audit $ Filing the annual tax return of the company $ Help in company secretarial work $ Provide interim help with preparing accounts or book-keeping $ Running the company’s payroll $ Advise in corporate finance .

The accounting discipline offers the following accounts jobs: Accountant *Accounts Executive* Financial Accountant *Cost Accountant *Chartered Accountant *Accounts Manager *Taxation Manager

Scope: If you thought that the scopes with this profession lie only with corporate houses, you aren’t probably aware of the bigger picture. Accounting has its applications in the following sectors, which also offer number of opportunities to qualified accountants, such as Schools, Colleges, Universities, Government organizations, NGOs, Small, medium and large scale commercial units

Jobs Ahead: Finance jobs, Finance job search and top Finance jobs. Job search by job description, Company, Experience, Location.

Financial Jobs: Financial Jobs, the source for professional careers in banking, accounting, corporate finance and investment. Browse this site for open positions accounting & financial jobs, entry level jobs in finance, corporate finance jobs, banking finance job, financial job search, financial job listing, finance manager job, finance director jobs, and real estate finance jobs.

Accounting Jobs :Accounting and financial jobs site that has openings in disciplines like Accounting & financial job USA, finance jobs in Canada, healthcare finance jobs, finance executive jobs, MBA Finance jobs, financial jobs in Dubai, auto finance jobs, finance jobs in UK etc.

Thanks.

Advertising Jobs in Kenya

What it takes for one to join in advertisement?Advertising or Publicity is one of the key activities in every business. It is equally important as producing something using raw material, or as capital, manpower, planning, organizing etc. Publicising the products or services that the business offers to the targeted customers is called advertising. It is integral part of marketing, and an essential precondition for selling. Advertising something in a country with vast population requires organizing and applying human skill and talent and technology backed media.

Advertising companies use multifaceted talents to carry out successful campaigns. With the development of electronic media, advertising has grown as an organized industry, offering a lot of employment opportunities.

There are ample Advertising jobs in Kenya and abroad. Advertising Job opportunities include that of account planner, executive, copywriter, visualizer, creative art director, animator, multimedia expert, photographer, printer, TV producer, media planner, web developer jobs, web planner, and marketing professional. Those who are qualified in Commercial Art have great opportunities. MBAs can also play a significant role in client servicing.

However, individual creativity and ability for innovation count more than academic degrees. The advertising industry always has a perennial demand of talent. In order to succeed in the advertising area, one has to have competency laced with diverse talents. The copywriter, the visualizer, the art director, and the studio technician have to work in tandem, as the ultimate objective of a good advertisement is to build a strong bond between the product and the consumer. However, the backbone of the advertising industry is the ad agency, though the nutrients come from the advertiser.

Tanks.

Effect Of Emotions On Job Performance

There was a time when emotions in the workplace were considered important in relation to employee well being and job satisfaction only. In recent years, the organizations have realized that employee emotions are pervasive in the workplace. The emotions are not only a deep-seated part of work life but have an important role to play in one's job performance. An employee's emotions and overall temperament have a significant impact on his job performance, decision making skills, team spirit, leadership and turnover. Its is believed that employees bring their feelings of anger, fear, love and respect with them when they come to work. An employee's emotions are essential to what happens in an organization. Emotions matter because they drive one's performance.

Emotions at work place, generally, fall into the category of positive (good) and negative (bad) emotions. Positive emotions are those feelings of an individual that are favorable to the attainment of organizational goals while negative emotions are those that are perceived to be destructive for the organization. To classify them further, emotions can be categorized as discrete, dispositional and as moods. Discrete emotions reflect short lived emotions like joy, anger, fear and disgust which arise from the occurrence of a particular event; while dispositional define an employees overall approach towards life like cheerful, negative, etc. Moods, however, are long lasting as compared to discrete emotions.

The impact of emotions, whether positive or negative, is well researched on. Studies suggest that negative feelings have adverse effects on job performances. Anger often leads to aggressions towards colleagues while sadness leads to dissatisfaction with the job. Envy or conflict with peers also leads to frequent fights and in turn results absenteeism. It is not always that only bad emotions lead to bad results. Office romance, despite being a positive feeling, can have negative effect on others. However, emotions can have positive effects as well. Positive emotions increase creativity, encourage helping behavior and cooperation and reduce aggression both against the organization and against people. Research suggests that positive people have better cognitive abilities and tend to do better in the workplace and with accuracy.

Emotions influence the task on which an employee is working, the efforts he puts and how he influences other employees around him. In other words, what employees feel and how they express their emotions affects their performance.

Effect on decision making : Studies have shown that positive mood leads to better and efficient decision making. However, this doesn't mean that decisions taken in a bad mood are disruptive. Studies have also found that negative emotions can lead to more effective decision making. Negative emotions, sometimes, may lead to more concentrated, detailed, and analytic processing of the facts.

Emotions and absenteeism: Positive mood is associated with reduced absence and intention to quit the job while negative mood increase absenteeism, intention to turnover, and actual turnover.

Effects on creativity: Positive emotions influence creativity positively as it creates a content state of mind which is open to all ideas. It also leads to a more complex and flexible thinking.

Interpersonal relations: Positive feelings induce helping behaviors while feelings of jealousy of hatred lead to poor relations with colleagues.

Managing emotions
Emotions directly influence behavior, so one has to manage emotions while at work. Some jobs simply cannot be done, if emotions are not dealt with first. Imagine how employees whose jobs asks compulsion towards specific emotions, like the front desk people or customer care executives, manage their emotions. This is where the concept of emotional labor comes in to play. Emotional labour or emotion work is the effort, planning and control needed to express desired level of emotions while on work. Emotional labor is a form of regulation in which workers are expected to display certain emotions as part of their job and to promote organizational goals. When interacting with coworkers, customers, suppliers, and others, employees are expected to abide by such rules.

There are two main ways of managing emotions at work - surface acting and deep acting. In surface acting, employees are required to show emotions that they actually might not feel. For example an employee may fake a smile for his client even if in actual he is unhappy because of some personal reasons. This method of managing emotions may lead to discrepancy between what employee expresses and what he actually feels and result in job dissatisfaction. This leads to emotional dissonance, which refers to a state of disagreement between internal expression of emotions and publicly displayed emotions. Emotional dissonance is often accompanied by high emotional exhaustion, low organizational commitment, and low job satisfaction .

In deep acting, instead of expressing fake emotions, employees try to experience the emotions that they are supposed to express. This method of requires more effort but leads to greater job satisfaction. Thus, the containment of unpleasant emotions decreases job satisfaction and increases intentions of quitting the job.

Thanks.

How To Attract Talent Through Employee Referrals

At this time when the labor markets are facing severe shortage of skilled manpower and when companies experiment with wide range of recruitment models (job portals, newspaper ads, direct hiring, recruitment agencies) to fill their vacant positions with quality talent and combat attrition, ‘Employee Referrals’ is the new buzz that is catching up too fast. The concept is not novel though, however, of late it has increasingly become the favorite option for every other organization for hiring best talent. In most companies 30 to 40 per cent (or even more) of the new hires come through the channels of internal referrals, i.e., those candidates recommended by the company’s own employees. The HR managers assert that employee referrals give them the best results and are highly cost effective.
Why Referrals?
There are a number of reasons why employee referrals are becoming preferred model of hiring. Firstly, companies believe that their employee are more clear of what skills are required for a particular profile. Therefore, chances that the referral candidate belongs to the best-fit-lot are high and thus his chances of getting selected are also high.

Secondly, employee referrals help in cutting costs which are associated with hiring. Companies work on reducing the average cost per hire. Recruiting candidates through the referral system results in huge savings as large amounts on advertisements and placement agencies costs are saved. Companies reveal that the cost of hiring a referral candidate works out to be 60 percent to 70 percent cheaper than that of going through an external agency and recruitment advertisement. Recruiting through referral programs help in finding the right person with right skills and that too at a nominal cost. It is the most cheapest but effective mode of recruitment. It also help foster a stronger commitment with employees.

The referrers also supply quality candidates who are expected to perform better. This is because they want to make an impact on the organization by showing their commitment to the organization. Moreover, the candidates referred are well versed with information about the company’s culture and goals as provided by their friends. They are informed, well in advance, about the company’s work environment and expectations.

Also, the candidates hired through referrals are expected to stay for long with the company than those hired through recruitment agencies. Thus, infant mortality (that is the percentage of people who leave within one year) is low when employees come through internal referrals.

The referrals lead to shorter recruitment cycles as compared to those hired otherwise. Moreover, employee turnover is also lesser in case of referrals. This is because most referred candidates prefer to work in an organization where he is known to someone, where he has a buddy by his side to help him out or guide him through. It also helps them to settle down easily in case they are from different cities.

Employee Advantage
The referral programs are made tempting by the employers so that employees are motivated enough to refer their known ones to their organization. The companies, now-a-days, are giving up huge rewards to the employees who bring in candidates, specially for hard-to-fill positions, and award them when the candidate is inducted. The rewards range from cash bonuses to gift coupons and even luxury items. For instance, Adobe Kenya runs a referral scheme where all employees who have successfully referred a candidate are eligible for a lucky draw where they can win a luxury car.

Companies are encouraging their employees to refer candidates whom they know. It also helps in team-building, as it gives employees a reason to feel that they are contributing to the growth of the company.

What goes wrong
Hiring potential recruits through referrals seems to be most advantageous than other options, however, there are always flips sides to it. Hiring through referrals might encourage nepotism and other concerns.

Enticed by lucrative bonuses, employees may recommend candidates left, right and centre. It is also believed that this process has diminishing returns to scale for rather than referring quality candidates, employees refer tom, dick and harries. Tempted by the referring incentives, employee recommend candidates who even are unknown to them. Statistics also reveal that most of the employees refer candidates only to help the person instead of helping the company or to fetch themselves the incentives and cash bonuses.

One of the concerns that needs to be given a serious thought is where referrers are yet to realize that they are accountable for the quality of recommendations they make. A bad recommendation from them affects their goodwill and commitment towards the organization.

Some argue that referrals give encouragement to Groupism. Organizations should ensure that favoritism does not happen and it does not act as a roadblock in recruitment process. It is also seen that employees refer candidates with same backgrounds as theirs which results in building up of a uniform workforce and reduces diversity.

Conclusion
To ensure a successful referral system, it has to be designed and implemented well. it is important to suitably award those employees who are bringing suitable candidates to the organization. Apart from this, the recruiting firms are getting affected by this trend. For senior level positions, companies are relying on recruitment agencies-so that area remains unaffected. However, for junior and middle levels, companies are trying their luck with referrals, which is impacting agencies and consultants significantly.

Thanks.

The Essence of Employee Communication

People with diverse backgrounds, different cultures, varied qualifications, contrasting experiences and unique skills – all, when taken together, form the greatest assets of an organization, or rather the organization itself. So what force holds them together? Well, the answer is Communication. It acts as a glue that binds every single employee with every other employee, every employee with his superiors and all the employees with the organization. Earlier being considered as a source of control and power, communication has now become liberal in organizations where every employee has now a right to access the information he needs. However, due to failures of mergers and acquisitions and huge layoffs, employees these days feel more disconnected from their employers.
This also puts a question on their loyalty for the company. Here comes the role of employee communication. Effective communication is thus, critical to the organization as it directly affects the organizational performance.

What to communicate?
Most corporate firms believe that employee communication is all about dispatching a weekly or monthly newsletter on everyone’s desk. For most companies communication means informing employees about the weekly or monthly happenings that occurred in the company during a specific time frame like the CEO inaugurating some internal function, or employee picnics and other miscellaneous events. What most of the companies miss out is the information which will help the employees in knowing the organization better like the new training systems being implemented, or the business models which the company follows. Such initiatives equip the employees to understand and adapt to the company’s strategic initiatives.

Before an employee is engaged and shows off his best performance, the Employee Communication Program in an organization should satisfy the following three key employee needs. The employee needs to:
•Know the organization, what businesses the company is in, who are the customers, specific details about the product or service, where forms are located, who to see when there is a problem and the like, the values and philosophy of the organization and the like.
•Know about his job profile, what purpose he is supposed to solve and what is expected out of him. He is also to be made aware of what practical skills will be required to do the job, the resources he will use, specification guidelines, etc.
•Know the teams with which he will interact, his supervisors, and his team leader and peers. The essence of this is to inculcate into him a sense of belonging with the company. Effective communication should make him realize his worth to the company and ensure him that he will be listened to, respected, trusted, and valued by the company.

It is being observed that even though a company is a brand in the market, however, it fails to be the same in eyes of its own employees. The employee communication, thus, should aim towards having a common consensus about the organization in the minds of its employees. It should promoting loyalty among employees, inspire quality work that satisfies the need of the customers, and encourage employees to represent the company in a manner consistent with the image defined in the market. Moreover, the company should work towards promoting transparency and openness in employee communication.

There are four fundamental levels of communication in an organization. The first level deals with organization wide communication involves communicating all employees about practices and policies being followed or to be followed at organization level. It will include communicating about recruitment practices, remuneration policy, or change in pay grades. Such information has an organization wide impact and thus is to be communicated throughout the company. The next is departmental communication which is specific to a particular department or unit. Then there are team communications which deal within one cohesive team and include communication about targets to be met, resources to be used, etc. finally there are individual communications which are specific to one employee at any one time or occurs between employees.

Impact on performance
Employee communication is directly linked with the success of an organization. Generally, effective employee communication is linked to productivity and morale of the employees. The effective the communication, the better is the performance. Employees, today, want to have access to more and better information. Researches have revealed that effective communication has a positive impact on employee satisfaction, productivity, turnover, and morale. Research show that employees are most highly motivated and make their best contribution to the business when there is full and open communication at work. It is also proved that where there is an adequate flow of information and ideas among employees, productivity is enhanced and confusion, duplication, and unproductive conflict are minimized. Moreover, employee communication should not be seen as impersonal and a formality of dissemination information among the employees. It should be considered to be an empathetic transfer of understanding and deeper feelings.

Conclusion
Does this mean we have become experts in the field and that howsoever we communicate, its effective? Well, there are always scopes for improvement. With every new day, corporates are facing new challenges and barriers to communications. Huge number of employees on rolls, workforce diversity, cultural shifts, easy access to large databases, and employee attrition being some of them. Apart from this, there is an increasing demand for monitoring the employee communications. Many employers fear that employees can pass on the confidential data out of the company through emails or other channels. Moreover these facilities can be used for non business activities or personal uses which only adds to the costs incurred. It is a dilemma for employers whether they should monitor their outgoing mail or not. To deal with such challenges the future HR departments will have to acquire special competencies in order make the communication more effective and transparent.

Thanks.

The Face Value Problems In BPO

Business process outsourcing, the most flourishing Kenyan industry sector has emerged as Kenya’s most promising sector, and has been growing at a rate of 40-50 per cent since its inception. BPO is a very fast paced and a high momentum industry. BPO industry is expected to generate one million jobs by the year 2008. Taking advantage form the abundant skills and low cost benefits, large number of BPO companies have mushroomed in Kenya in recent years, many of the well established IT companies have also started their BPO divisions. But, there is another side of the BPO picture too. The side that has already brought the BPO industry in limelight many times. This picture is concerned with the non viability of the BPO and the fact that the young generation of Kenya is actually loosing out in the BPO.
In the past couple of years, Kenya has witnessed many small time businessmen entering the bandwagon of the flourishing the business process outsourcing sector without adequate investment capital or vision that is required to run an employment organization. (This article is not critical about individual business or small entrepreneurial efforts) Even many biggies and MNCs were found exploiting the psyche of people who favour and safeguard employment generating and economic development efforts against critics. Many are taking an advantage of the favourable climate created by the recent outsourcing culture of the west.

Business process outsourcing organisations, commonly known as call centres – work when rest of the Kenya sleeps! Most of the BPO organisations work according to the international (US and UK) timings, therefore most of the BPO employees work in might shifts starting anywhere from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. and ending at 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. There is also a graveyard shift starting at 4 a.m. working in such shifts having odd timings have started showing hazardous results on the health of the Kenyan youth.

Prolonged working in shifts of odd hour’s can have major implications on the physical and mental health of the employees. The physical strains like sleep disorders, depression, odd working shifts, learning foreign accents, constantly handling abusive calls and high stress levels are making the BPO employees more prone to hypertension and heart attacks.

Various surveys and research conducted amongst the call centre employees have shown that depression is the most common problem faced by BPO employees. Frequent headaches, feeling of fatigue, sleeping disorders and frustration have become regular problems for them.

The basic profile of the BPO employees is trouble-shooting, sales or revenue collection. All of these are done through tele-calling. Talking to foreigners in a fake foreign accent, solving other people’s problems, facing and handling the anger and abuse of the clients become a routine for these juvenile population.

The youth is facing the brunt of the thoughtless campaign of many employers who are just trying to encash the flourishing BPO scenario. With no particular qualification required for call centre jobs (except fluency in English and good communication and convincing skills) BPO jobs provide a quick gateway to good pay packages. Many youngsters are quitting their education right after the 12th standard for these jobs. This step can block and kill their long term (future) career prospects. Also, at the very young age they get lot of money in hand and they are unaware of the rational utilization of that money. Also, working in overnight shifts does not get accepted easily in the traditional Kenyan culture and the youth are resistance from the seniors in the society.

Due to the increasing gap between the supply and demand of the talent for Bpo’s, and the already saturated talent market, the companies are luring and attracting youngsters with attractive pay packages and other benefits as soon as they get out of college. But the youngsters have to face the realities of the industry as they fail to cope up with the stress and responsibilities of their work life. It is clearly a case of hyper-growth with an immediate fall-down as soon as the reality strikes.

With no time for personal life, the erratic schedules and monotonous work of business process outsourcing also disturbs the family life of the employees adding to their frustrations. This will definitely lead to loose family ties and other unhealthy behaviour.

All these problems have triggered the problems of attrition and retention for the BPO industry itself. If not taken care of, these problems can lead to hazardous health and other implications for the youth of Kenya.

Thanks

The Future Of Jobs in Retail Sector

Estimated to grow to the value of US $ billions by 2030, retail sector is one of the most rapidly growing sectors in Kenya. Organised retail chains are still at its infancy and occupies a market share of less than double digits per cent vis-à-vis the unorganized, family owned retail outlets. Moreover, the entry of new players in the retail sector has triggered the biggest controversy of the recent times in the form of protest from unorganized retailers.

With the exceptional and the unusual pace of growth in the retailing sector, a major benefit to the Kenyan economy is the rate at which the employment opportunities or jobs are being created in the sector.

The sector is witnessing a trend similar to what became popular for the IT and the BPO sector in terms of the creation of jobs. It would be appropriate to say that it's raining jobs in the retail sector.

The recent years have seen numerous Kenyan and foreign big players like Nakumatt, Wal-Mart, Uchumi etc entering and expanding in the Kenyan market. Keeping pace with its rapid expansion plans, Nakumattand Uchumi have been big recruiter more with thousands of people as their workers,the upward trend is expected by the year 2030. Similarly, Tusker Mattress is expected not to be left behind too in this regard.Simply there is promising future from these big retail giants people for its retail business in the next couple of years .The organised retail sector has also seen its employee base increasing from thousands to billions in the last couple of years. It has been estimated that the organised sector will create more than a million jobs and the unorganized sector is expected to add aprox. The same million jobs to the Kenyan economy by 2030. Ironically, the challenge the sector currently facing is about acquiring and retaining the right talent.

The high attrition rates have already become a matter of concern for the HR professionals of the industry. The current attrition rate in the industry ranges from 31 percent to 55 percent. Many big players in the industry are projecting and offering the opportunities with them as a career with attractive salary packages inclusive of various other benefits like certification for the training and development, insurance schemes, short and long term growth prospects etc. all this has helped to make the jobs in the sector - not just a job but a career!
Types of jobs
The sector has vacancies from the entry level to senior management level. From front-end sales personnel to technology experts, from HR to supply chain, business development, from research to product development and marketing, the sector is facing a deficiency of skilled and experienced professionals, especially at the middle and the senior level management. The Kenyan retailers are conducting fast paced and aggressive recruitment for various key roles.

Front end jobs
The most lucrative option (part time as well as full time) for the youth is the front-end jobs in the retail outlets like the malls etc. Sales executives, Store manager / Assistant Store managers, Retail manager helps coordinating the day-to-day operations of the store and interacting with the customers. The average starting salary in the retail industry is Ksh 3,000 per month, with the bracket extending from Ksh 6,000 to Ksh 15,000.the incentives offered (many-a times as much as 20% of a single purchase) also act as an attraction for the job seekers.

Flexi-jobs
The retail sector has a 365-day and a 24*7 working schedule. Realizing the manpower shortage, the sector also offer opportunities for homemakers and the people who want to work for less number of hours in a day or have the option of flexible working hours. Recently some organisations have started hiring women professionals to work part time and on flexi-time option. Hiring in contract basis for a specified amount of time is also gaining momentum in the sector.

The retail sector and the jobs in the sector have emerged as much more than just managing the store outlets. In today's global scenario with MNC's being the major players, students have the option of crossing over to explore diverse fields and markets.

Institutes offering retail courses
Both the number of institutes offering specialized courses in retail and the students showing interests in these courses is on rise. There is also an increase in the number of retail management programmes and institutes. Keeping in mind the increasing gap between the demand and supply of the professionals in the retail sector, many big retail players have started their own institutes to bridge the gap.

The Retailers Association of Kenya should be also starting conducting a competitive course in the same related field rather than just employment, The programme should be offered through our, colleges and Business schools chosen across the country. Such specialized programs help to impart knowledge and an understanding of the concepts and processes involved in retailing. They also equip the students with the required skills (technical, operational and conceptual) to make a successful career in the sector.

Apart from the existing players, many foreign players are planning to enter and tap the Kenyan retail markets. Therefore, the sector is all set to see various new records in terms of the creation of employment. It is and will provide ample opportunities in all fields in the retail sector and has become a lucrative option for the job seekers. It would be appropriate to conclude that it is raining jobs in the retail sector!!

Thanks

How To Managing Difficult People at Work

Every organisation, every workplace has people with diverse backgrounds, religions, educational qualifications, experiences etc. Most importantly, they differ in their personalities and attitudes. Most people are polite, easily accessible and cooperate with others. But every organisation has a few people who are simply difficult to deal with or difficult to manage. "Difficult people" as they are generally referred, exists in every workplace. They can be in the form of a bad boss, a difficult co-worker or a non-corporative vendor or customer.

Difficult people become the problem employees for an organisation very soon. From the organisation's point of view, difficult people in a workplace is a problem because not only do they

themselves perform feebly, but also affect other employee's productivity, and often become a bottleneck for the people around them to perform efficiently on their jobs. A negative person can affect and hinder the organizational processes like change.

Types of difficult people in an organisation:
Difficult people in an organisation and be characterized and categorized into the following types or categories:
•Uncooperative - These are the people who are concerned only about their needs and work, often creating troubles and conflicts for others. They don't cooperate with others and have the tendency to create tension at workplace.
•Power Seekers - There are few people who can be categorized basically as power seekers. They always look for some chance or the other to seek more authority and power over others and show their superiority. To seek the spotlight (attention), or to be in the good books of the boss, they can even become the 'yes man' of their boss and go to the extent demoting or creating problems for others.
•Complainer - This category is for the people who keep complaining about the organisation and its systems, their co-workers etc. Although there are complainers who complain against the genuine issues and do good for the organisation. The most dangerous type of complainers is the "malcontent complainer" who offers no valid suggestions but problems, and they drain out the energy from the organisation and have a demotivating impact on others.
•Pessimists - Another category of difficult people in the organisation is of pessimists. They are the set of negative people in the organisation who can find fault in almost everything and everybody. With their negative mindsets, they can create negativity in their surroundings.
•The aggressive employee - Aggressive employees, especially an aggressive boss, is the most difficult set of people in an organisation to deal with. They are the people who refuse to accept their faults and flaws, and consider themselves to be always right. They are found to be dominating in nature and believe that they "know-it-all". Such people fail to mature and acknowledge other's valuable ideas and suggestions. Such employees are often referred as "The hyena" indicating rude, aggressive, authoritarian and negative people, always blaming others for their failures.
•The wild cat -is the category of people who are generally found very irregular at their work. Also, they are known to create and spread rumors in the workplace, always making excuses and blaming others for their inadequate performance. They have the tendency to create stress at their workplace.

MANAGING DIFFICULT PEOPLE AT WORK:
Difficult people can be irrational, abusive, creating problems persistently or simply difficult to get along with. Every organisation has to decide whether and how to deal with them without having an adverse effect on the organisation's environment, employee's productivity and their morale. A few ways of dealing with them are:

Talk to them: Be patient and polite, talk to them with a personalized touch explaining them the situation. Don't confront or blame them, and listen to them. Give them a piece of your own mind, understand if there is some problem they are facing. Reinforce the good part of their behaviour.

Don't be a difficult person for them! Don't rush things and explain your point of view with care. Don't point fingers or try to judge them as a person. Be unbiased and systematic I your approach.

Always agree to disagree: Talk to the person with an open mind and positivity. No two individual are alike and there can always be disagreements. Personally disliking towards a co-worker or boss should be dealt with care. Always try to find the positive way out.

And last but not the least
Take concrete action: Once you are completely aware of the problem, through with all the possible solutions and the situation doesn't get any better, don't shy away from taking any concrete action for the good of the organisation and to stop the problem from aggravating, even if it requires to confront the person directly.

Establish parameters and hire "right": One of the most important and effective solution is to frame and practice the recruitment policies and procedures to judge the attitude of the person at the time of the interview and hire only the right people.

CONCLUSION:
Dealing with difficult people is a challenge. However firing them or separating them from the organisation should be the last resort, as it is always possible to help them be more productive and effective in doing their job.

Why Does A Company Recruit ?

Recruitment is an important part of an organization’s human resource planning and their competitive strength. Competent human resources at the right positions in the organisation are a vital resource and can be a core competency or a strategic advantage for it.

The objective of the recruitment process is to obtain the number and quality of employees that can be selected in order to help the organisation to achieve its goals and objectives. With the same objective, recruitment helps to create a pool of prospective employees for the organisation so that the management can select the right candidate for the right job from this pool.
Recruitment acts as a link between the employers and the job seekers and ensures the placement of right candidate at the right place at the right time. Using and following the right recruitment processes can facilitate the selection of the best candidates for the organisation.
In this is competitive global world and increasing flexibility in the labour market, recruitment is becoming more and more important in every business. Therefore, recruitment serves as the first step in fulfilling the needs of organisations for a competitive, motivated and flexible human resource that can help achieve its objectives.
Here at Kenyayouths, we attempt to provide a detailed insight into the concept of recruitments, recruitment process and its sources, recent trends in recruitment, recruitment strategies and the scenario in the industry along with the career options for recruiters.

What Is The Role of HRD Professionals in Training

Today we are in the era of cut-throat competition and with this changing scenario of business; the role of HR professionals in training has been widened. HR role now is:

a. Active involvement in employee education

b. Rewards for improvement in performance

c. Rewards to be associated with self esteem and self worth

d. Providing pre-employment market oriented skill development education and post employment support for advanced education and training

e. Flexible access i.e. anytime, anywhere training.

Thanks

Training and Human Resource Management

The HR functioning is changing with time and with this change, the relationship between the training function and other management activity is also changing. The training and development activities are now equally important with that of other HR functions. Gone are the days, when training was considered to be futile, waste of time, resources, and money.

Now-a-days, training is an investment because the departments such as, marketing & sales, HR, production, finance, etc depends on training for its survival. If training is not considered as a priority or not seen as a vital part in the organization, then it is difficult to accept that such a company has effectively carried out HRM. Training actually provides the opportunity to raise the profile development activities in the organization.

To increase the commitment level of employees and growth in quality movement (concepts of HRM), senior management team is now increasing the role of training. Such concepts of HRM require careful planning as well as greater emphasis on employee development and long term education.

Training is now the important tool of Human Resource Management to control the attrition rate because it helps in motivating employees, achieving their professional and personal goals, increasing the level of job satisfaction, etc. As a result training is given on a variety of skill development and covers a multitude of courses.

Thanks.

How Does Emotions Affect Job Performance?

There was a time when emotions in the workplace were considered important in relation to employee well being and job satisfaction only. In recent years, the organizations have realized that employee emotions are pervasive in the workplace. The emotions are not only a deep-seated part of work life but have an important role to play in one's job performance. An employee's emotions and overall temperament have a significant impact on his job performance, decision making skills, team spirit, leadership and turnover. Its is believed that employees bring their feelings of anger, fear, love and respect with them when they come to work. An employee's emotions are essential to what happens in an organization. Emotions matter because they drive one's performance.

Emotions at work place, generally, fall into the category of positive (good) and negative (bad) emotions. Positive emotions are those feelings of an individual that are favorable to the attainment of organizational goals while negative emotions are those that are perceived to be destructive for the organization. To classify them further, emotions can be categorized as discrete, dis positional and as moods. Discrete emotions reflect short lived emotions like joy, anger, fear and disgust which arise from the occurrence of a particular event; while dis positional define an employees overall approach towards life like cheerful, negative, etc. Moods, however, are long lasting as compared to discrete emotions.

The impact of emotions, whether positive or negative, is well researched on. Studies suggest that negative feelings have adverse effects on job performances. Anger often leads to aggressions towards colleagues while sadness leads to dissatisfaction with the job. Envy or conflict with peers also leads to frequent fights and in turn results absenteeism. It is not always that only bad emotions lead to bad results. Office romance, despite being a positive feeling, can have negative effect on others. However, emotions can have positive effects as well. Positive emotions increase creativity, encourage helping behavior and cooperation and reduce aggression both against the organization and against people. Research suggests that positive people have better cognitive abilities and tend to do better in the workplace and with accuracy.

Emotions influence the task on which an employee is working, the efforts he puts and how he influences other employees around him. In other words, what employees feel and how they express their emotions affects their performance.

Effect on decision making : Studies have shown that positive mood leads to better and efficient decision making. However, this doesn't mean that decisions taken in a bad mood are disruptive. Studies have also found that negative emotions can lead to more effective decision making. Negative emotions, sometimes, may lead to more concentrated, detailed, and analytic processing of the facts.

Emotions and absenteeism: Positive mood is associated with reduced absence and intention to quit the job while negative mood increase absenteeism, intention to turnover, and actual turnover.

Effects on creativity: Positive emotions influence creativity positively as it creates a content state of mind which is open to all ideas. It also leads to a more complex and flexible thinking.

Interpersonal relations: Positive feelings induce helping behaviors while feelings of jealousy of hatred lead to poor relations with colleagues.

How one can Manage emotions
Emotions directly influence behavior, so one has to manage emotions while at work. Some jobs simply cannot be done, if emotions are not dealt with first. Imagine how employees whose jobs asks compulsion towards specific emotions, like the front desk people or customer care executives, manage their emotions. This is where the concept of emotional labor comes in to play. Emotional labour or emotion work is the effort, planning and control needed to express desired level of emotions while on work. Emotional labor is a form of regulation in which workers are expected to display certain emotions as part of their job and to promote organizational goals. When interacting with coworkers, customers, suppliers, and others, employees are expected to abide by such rules.

There are two main ways of managing emotions at work - surface acting and deep acting. In surface acting, employees are required to show emotions that they actually might not feel. For example an employee may fake a smile for his client even if in actual he is unhappy because of some personal reasons. This method of managing emotions may lead to discrepancy between what employee expresses and what he actually feels and result in job dissatisfaction. This leads to emotional dissonance, which refers to a state of disagreement between internal expression of emotions and publicly displayed emotions. Emotional dissonance is often accompanied by high emotional exhaustion, low organizational commitment, and low job satisfaction .

In deep acting, instead of expressing fake emotions, employees try to experience the emotions that they are supposed to express. This method of requires more effort but leads to greater job satisfaction. Thus, the containment of unpleasant emotions decreases job satisfaction and increases intentions of quitting the job.

Why Employee Surveillance At Workplaces?

Sitting in your cubicle, you are busy sending mails to your friends or sending your resume to explore better career opportunities, or writing scraps on the social networking sites. You feel secure as no one saw you. But wait! if you think you managed to be fooling your boss, then you are in trouble. The technology has made it easier for your employer to keep a tab on everything you do, from sending mails to monitoring your calls.

Employers now-a-days are indulging into monitoring their employees’ actions. From inspecting their personal folders in their systems to monitoring every mail sent by them, employers are curtailing the privacy of their employees. This has raised a concern towards employee privacy which is being debated worldwide.
In countries like USA, employee privacy issues are discussed explicitly as invasion of one’s privacy is considered to be a major breach of trust. However, in countries like Kenya, data security is of paramount importance. When issues like increasing internet usage for personal work, employee thefts, emails and social networking from office and the like are growing, surveillance of employees becomes necessary, thereby hampering an employee’s privacy. While employers try hard to ensure their employees do a good job, the employees don’t want to be spied. This conflict of workplace monitoring has paved the path for many such other dilemmas.

What employers have to say?
Many studies and surveys have revealed how employees spend time on doing personal work while being in office. Realizing the misuse of internet and rise in issues like data security, employers consider it relevant to monitor their employees’ actions. Employers defend themselves by quoting a number of reasons for employee surveillance like improving productivity, selecting and retaining honest employees, evaluating employee performance, conforming to privacy obligations of the company, etc. Some of the valid reasons stated by employers include:

Productivity: Surveys reveal that employees spend 2-3 hours of their working hours in sending personal emails, visiting sports sites, trading stocks, sending off color jokes to peers, etc. The surveys also show that on an average, it is estimated that 30-40 percent of employees' internet usage is not work related, and result in loss of productivity.

Improper internet usage: The employers have some justifiable reasons for monitoring their employees’ internet usage like preventing cyber stalking by employees and preventing employees from downloading software illegally, etc. Moreover, downloading pirated music or movies onto a work computer can lead to a copyright-infringement suit. Similarly, viewing pornographic video clips or sending off-color emails can lead to sexual harassment claims.

Data Security: In an attempt to prevent confidential data from being passed on to rivals through internet and prevent employee disclosure of trade secrets, employers keep a tab on outgoing the mails of employees.

The employers can indulge into several types of monitoring like follows:
Performance tracking: Here, the employer can take screen shots to know what his employees are doing, how much time they dedicate to work, and how productive they actually are.

Computer searches: Computers provided by employer are personal but not private. So employees should not expect privacy in computers. Employers have full right to access information stored on them.

Monitoring calls: Employers can monitor calls of employees to ensure quality. Moreover, employees use official phone lines for personal calls. To keep a check on that, employers can monitor calls.

Monitoring mails: For preventing employees from indulging into offensive writings, spreading rumors and the like employers have a legitimate business interest to review e-mails.

Some Common Offences:
Some of the most prevalent instances of misuse are:
• Sending messages with an intention to harass/malign, or exchanging potentially offensive messages;
1 Online chatting and instant messaging;
2 Shopping and gambling online;
3 Surfing pornographic sites;
4 Unproductive downloads;
5 Disclosing customer-sensitive information; breach of confidentiality
6 Browsing social networking sites like Facebook, Orkut, and many more.

Is it legal or illegal?
It is necessary for an organization to know what its employees are doing. It is especially important to know what they are using the company’s resources for. While there are plenty of software available in the markets to track what is happening on each of the networked computers, there is one question that needs to be answered before making use of it. Is monitoring an employee legal? The answer to this question lies in the legal aspects of monitoring. In some cases it is legal, while in other cases, using monitoring software to view what employees are doing on the job can be illegal. In Kenya, as yet, no legislation specifically addresses e-mail privacy and electronic monitoring activities. Moreover, it depends on the policy of the company which should clearly specify the apparent offences and the penalties for the same. Moreover the intentions behind monitoring employees should be right. Employee surveillance should be done to track reliability, use of time, and efficiency of employees.

Conclusion:
A line is to be drawn on what is considered private for an employee and what is private for the organization, that is, what are those matters that are considered a part of organizational information that an employee has to skip. When too much sneaking is done, employees lose faith in the employer resulting in lesser commitment towards the organization. Employees feel alienated and thus are motivated to leave the company. To ensure healthy practices at workplace, companies should establish clear policies on workplace privacy, and clearly define what privacy means to the organization based on culture, business needs, and operations. It should be communicated properly what will be monitored and what will not. And lastly, a balance should be maintained between surveillance and employee privacy.

Job Hopping: Does It Really Pay?

We barely get to hear of a person who started his career with an organization many years back, dedicated his entire career growing with the organization and finally retired from the same organization. As it is said, nothing lasts forever; same is the case with jobs these days. Jobs today do not last unlike previous generations.

In the past few years job-hopping has become so widespread across the industries that even a four year stretch in the same organization is considered to be a stable job. Three jobs in less than a year, no longer raise eyebrows and gaps mouths. Job hopping, in fact, has become the new mantra for success. People no longer believe in sticking to one job and waiting for that golden leap to come. But is job hopping for career advancement a mere illusion or does it really pay?

The trend of hopping jobs is prevalent in IT- ITeS sector most. However, other sectors like retail, banking and hospitality are also witnessing the same trend. Not only are freshers changing jobs frequently, but senior professionals are also increasingly falling in the trap of job hopping. Willingly, senior professionals with excellent credentials are changing jobs more frequently than ever before.

Some of the common reasons for hoping jobs as quoted by job hoppers include dissatisfaction with the job, lack of challenging work, stagnation or less pay. A survey revealed that 24 per cent of the graduates from premier B-schools and quit their first jobs within 12 months of being hired. The eye-popping fat salaries appear to be one of the main reasons for their resignations. Job hopping also acts as a shortcut to success. Employees make their way to higher levels in the management hierarchy as each job change brings with it a hike in pay and position.

Moreover, sticking to the same organization from which you started off your career is passé now. It is believed that those who hang on to the same job are taken for granted and declared not competent enough to move ahead in their career.

The consequences of frequent job change are many, but the most affected area is loyalty with the organization. The word loyalty has become old fashioned and is no more considered a success mantra. Loyalty, which once has been considered a fundamental value in an Kenyan organization seems to be losing its relevance.

People, especially younger generation, are highly career conscious. They don't mind changing jobs too often if it helps them earn more and grow faster. They are ready to shift their loyalties for an extra buck, an additional perk or any other monetary consideration.

Grass is not always green on the other side.
No doubt job hopping has become the latest trend today, or a shortcut to success; one can not jump from one job to another as and when it strikes one’s imagination. Moreover, though two or more jobs on a resume no longer are an employment risk, too many jobs in less than two years time portray one as a chronic job hopper. A series of rapid, random and pointless moves will show up as annoyances on the resume.

Employers view such contenders as dysfunctional - lacking in loyalty, trust and self-motivation. Quick moves from one job to other raise big questions for prospective employers as to one's staying power and ability to withstand challenges, as well as accept accountability. Employer may feel that you are not committed to a particular organization. The future employers, who are probably looking for a long term employee, might not be impressed with the job hopping tendencies. They might perceive that one has become a job hopper may be because of inability to get along with colleagues or employers. It does not even leave substantial time to acquire sufficient experience and hands-on skills. What’s more is that after innumerable hops, one may find himself at the same place where he first started.

Is it really that bad?
As experts believes that, after a long stint, there always comes a time for moving in most organizations, but it is important to move for the right reasons, rather than superficial ones, like money, designation or an overseas trip. Job hopping today is considered an important part of career development. But, there is a big dilemma about where to draw the line, i.e. how long is too long or how short is too short? Also, how long can the hop last? Career experts opine that staying around for 2-4 years is ideal. Also, every job move deserves careful consideration and planning. While monetary increase is often a valid reason to change jobs, one should realize that work environment, long term career prospects, colleagues and company culture are equally important factors in determining an ideal job. It should be a mature decision carefully charted out after properly weighing varied factors like current job satisfaction, challenges, career development, company image, benefits and growth prospects. One should consider the suitability of whole package rather than being blindfolded with short term benefits.

Thanks