You can do the following:

Know your future employer’s current financial health

If your future employer is a public listed company, the financial information about the company is widely available in the internet. As a start, you can visit the company’s website to download or read about the company profit & loss (P&L) account, balance sheet and cashflow account. For those who are not familiar with these financial jargons, I’ll briefly explain them here in layman term:

• Profit & loss (P&L) account: From the P&L, you will know how much revenue was generated either quarterly or yearly and how much of that revenue was spent as company expenses. The bottom line in the P&L is how much profit was generated from the revenue.
• Balance sheet: You will know how much money was spent on assets and where the money was generated to buy the assets. From the name itself, the money generated must be the same as the money spent on the assets i.e. the money transaction must be balaced.
• Cash flow: The most important financial report where you will know how much of the profit that was generated from the P&L is actually available in cash to sustain the company’s operation for the coming future. 

In summary, these financial reports will give you an idea on the financial health of the company. If the company is not generated much cash from their business, then it is a clear indication that the company will not be able to sustain their operation for a certain period of time. So you might want to consider to reject the offer but discuss with the hiring manager before you finalize the decision. You can ask about the future actions that the company is taking to generate more cash either by increasing revenue or reducing the expenses. You can also ask about the projected order trend for the next 3-6 months. This will give you some idea on the projected sales and revenue that will be generated. On top of that, if you know someone else that you can trust currently working in that company, you can also ask that person about the insider information about the company. Make sure you have sufficient information before making the decision to accept or reject the job offer.

Understand your benefits as an employee

I wrote this article in Oct last year about assessing the benefits with your needs. In this article you will be able to find some guidelines on how to assess your needs with the benefits that your future employer will give if you decided to accept the job offer. 

In addition to that, in today’s article, I would like to share about termination benefit. With reference to Malaysia’s labour law, employer is responsible to provide termination benefit if the employer terminates the service contract of an employee for whatever reason except termination due to misconduct, retirement & voluntary resignation. The minimum amount of the termination benefits depend on the duration of the employee’s service as follow:

• 10 days wages for each year of service if employed less than 2 years.
• 15 days wages for each year of service if employed less than 5 years but more than 2 years.
• 20 days wages for each year of service if employed more than 5 years.
• For those have served less than a year, the benefit will be based on pro rate to the nearest month.

The payment must be made within 7 days after the termination date. The details of the benefits must be in written and copies must be given to the effected employee.

With this knowledge, if the unavoidable happens, then you already know your rights on what you deserved. But I hope this will not happen to you.   

Please share your thoughts about this article especially from your experience in the comments below. Feel free to share this article with friend or family who are lucky enough to get a job offer during this economy uncertainty.

Regards

Yusoff

Read: Part 1

First of all congratulation to all these lucky jobseekers and I’m sure they are pleased with their job offer. Even though I’m glad to see there are industries seeing some light at the end of the tunnel hence they require human resources to support their industry but I’m still sceptical on their job security as a newcomer.

Let me start by sharing these following facts based on the economic data collected in the US. (These data were taken from AP -Associated Press)

• The December Purchasing Manager’s Index for manufacturing was down nearly five percent to 32.4 (anything below 50 for these indexes represent contraction, while numbers above 50 show expansion). This marks the fifth consecutive month of decline, and, according to the Institute of Supply Management who publishes the report, the economy has contracted for the third consecutive months.

• Employment levels were down 4.3 percent, which is obviously negative, but the rate of decrease has slowed, so the bottom from which to rebound might be closer than some projections. Also reported that while the number of individuals collecting unemployment benefits is at its highest level since 1982, the number of recently laid-off workers signing up for the unemployment benefits fell sharply in the final week of 2008. Latest recorded in December 2008, the employment rate increased to 7.2%, the highest in the past 16 years.

• After nudging slightly over $50/barrel, oil prices sit at $48.58 as of press time. This is still up over $5 from three weeks ago. As you could imagine, this has impacted prices at the pump. Although still comfortably under $2/gallon, average regular unleaded gas in the U.S. sits at $1.71, up 10 cents from a week ago.

Locally in Malaysia, in the Smart Investor (Malaysian edition) magazine – January 2009, I found the following:

      ·     The Malaysian Institute of Economic Research or MIER has

           forecast the Malaysian unemployment level to hit 4.5% in 2009

           up from 3.5% in 2008. This would be the highest level in a

           decade.

      ·     Malaysian GDP in the 3^rd quarter of 2008 is 4.7% and it was

   projected to close in between 3.5% to 4.5% in the final quarter

   of 2008. Malaysian economy will begin contracting after Q4’08

   where 2009 GDP projection is currently between 1.1% to 0%.

      ·    Kuala Lumpur Composite Index (KLCI) is at 838.28 points in

  December 2008, slightly above the 4 ½ year low of 801.27

  points. Projected to go below 800 points if the economy gets

  worst in 2009.

With the above data in mind, overall in 2009 will be a bad year financially for many of us including giant companies such as Nokia, Sony, Toyota and many more. Currently many companies are taking precaution or unavoidable actions to cushion the impact of 2009 economic recession. Some are taken actions to freeze hiring and also annual salary increment. Others are also forcing their employee for compulsory time off or unpaid leave, while the some are resorting towards voluntary or force retrenchment. Worst, there are some companies such as Nortel, a Canadian giant telecom & networking company has filled a Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

Believe me or not, there is a risk of accepting a job offer during economic instability. As a newcomer, the tendency for you to loss your job will be relative higher compared to the old timer in terms of the retrenchment cost (Last In, First Out – LIFO). Except if you have a critical skill that is important for the company to leverage from, then LIFO might not work on you.

In my coming article, I’ll be sharing on how to mitigate the risk of losing your job as a newcomer.

Till then, if you have your own experience to share as a newcomer, feel free to drop your comments or share this article with your friends and family.

Thanks

Regards

Yusoff

Couple of days ago, I visited my cousin’s son who was admitted to a specialist hospital for brain haemorrhage. As a very active 3 ½ years old boy, he fell from a flimsy chair and hit his head on a tiled floor last week. He was okay after the fall, being active as normal but after couple of days, he started to complain pain in his head. My cousin brought him to the hospital for a check up and was recommended a CT scan. The CT scan showed a mild blood clot between the skull and the brain. Yesterday, the doctor decided to proceed with the operation to remove the blood clot because of the persistence pain. Thank God (Alhamdulilah) the operation was a success and he is recovering well now.

You might be wondering why I’m sharing this incident with all of you. Well, while I was at the hospital, I understand from my cousin that the company he is working with do not provide medical insurance to his son. What a shock to me. He just joined that company as a specialist engineer with a relatively good pay and not getting a commonly given benefit is really shocking news to me. Luckily he has enrolled on a personal medical coverage for his son. Imagine if he has not taken the insurance coverage, that will be very ugly

Starting from that day, I started to think on how to assess our needs vs. the benefit given by the company before accepting a job offer. That is why I’m writing this article today to share some tips which may be helpful for all of us.

#1

Salary vs. needs

Money is never enough. No doubt it is a fact but practically there is a limit to it. Any easy way to gauge how much you are worth is by doing a salary comparison. Jobstreet provides FREE salary report on common job positions where you can gauge your salary level.

Another good way to gauge your salary level is by understanding the cost of the job and by crunching the numbers; you will have an estimated range for your salary level. Typically the costs are contributed by fixed monthly expenses such as the mode of transportation, clothing, communication needs, food, accommodation and other commitments such as education, family obligations and etc. Once you have the numbers, tabulate them into a spreadsheet and get the total expenses. This will be your fixed monthly expenses that you will need to spend to have or maintained a comfortable lifestyle. Hence your salary must be higher than your fixed expenses, typically 40%-50% more but depends on the market level & your capability.

# 2

MUST have benefits

Each individual have their own list of MUST have benefits. It may vary from a person to another, but typically companies are provided the following general benefits:

·        Life insurance

·        Medical insurance

·        Dependent medical insurance

·        Medical/Dental expenses

·        Dependent medical expenses

If you are not getting any of these general benefits, then you can either reject the job offer or negotiate to get them.

# 3

Good to have benefits

The list of good to have benefits can be anything under the sun. It is up to you and your employer to decide what additional benefits you should get. The bottom line, regardless what the benefits are, most importantly is both, you and your employer are in a win-win situation. Negotiate wisely so that you can get what you should deserve.

Good luck

Till then,

Take care.

Regards

Yusoff

Are you aware that your job offer letter is a legal document that bound you and your future employer legal rights to protect each other interest? Unfortunately, many job seekers are so delighted after getting the job offer until they will ignore even to read and understand the job offer before signing the papers. Ending up, some will fall as a victim to unethical employer. There are cases where whatever compensation that was promised never given and the unlucky employee has to suffer. No one is able to help legally…

It is important for all job seekers to understand your rights that are bounded in the job offer. Whatever compensation agreed upon must be clearly stated in your job offer and never rely on verbal agreement only. To protect your legal rights, your compensation plan must be in black & white and signed by your future employer and yourself.

Today, I would like to share in this article some tips on how to protect your rights by understanding what must be written in your job offer. Each country has their own legal requirements so please check with your local labour office for details.   

A typical job offer letter must be on an official company letterhead and will consist of the following:

-         offer letter date

-         your name

-         your mailing address

-         job title

-         supervisor name & job title

-         employment start date

-         monthly salary

-         # of days of annual and sick leave

-         contractual bonus (if available)

-         probation period

-         requirement for health & background check

-         request for bank information for payroll processing

-         special/extra compensation/benefit from your negotiation

-    instruction on how to accept or reject the offer

To consolidate the details on compensation & employer expectation, sometimes employee handbook will be given with the letter.

If any of these are missing, you have the right to request your future employer to include them into your job offer letter.

Remember, your job offer letter is a legal agreement that you must carefully review between the lines before closing it off with your signature.

You know anyone who is currently employed with your future employer? Before accepting the job offer, it is recommended to talk to that person to understand your future employer’s trustworthiness. You can also refer to your local labour office for any cases involving your future employer. Do you homework before making your decision. 

Good luck!!

Regards

Yusoff

Last week and yesterday’s article covers points 1) & 2) for us to consider before making a decision to accept or to reject a job offer.

In point 1), we have learnt that the job you will be taking up should be aligned with your career objective and in part 2), the vision and direction of your future employer should be conducive enough for you to deliver your commitments to them and also to facilitate in achieving your career objective.

3) Compensation

The first thing that come to our mind about compensation is definitely how much is your future employer is willing to pay for you. Well, your monthly salary is just a portion of the total compensation. As an overview, compensation that you are entitled consists of the 2 parts:

      Monetary compensation

-         Salary

-         OT (Overtime)

-         Sign on bonus

-         Bonus

-         Medical coverage  

-         Dental coverage

-         Insurance coverage

-         Share option/Restricted share unit

-         Salary review

-         Performance bonus

-         Profit sharing/Result bonus

-         Service award

-         Allowance

-     EPF/Pension scheme

      Non-monetary compensation

-         Flexible working hours

-         Flexible starting date

-         Working from home

-         Working less than 40 hours/week

-         Learning & development program

-         Education assistance program

-         Professional membership

-         Child care assistance program

-         Annual, medical, weeding, paternity, maternity, compassionate leave

-         Paid time off

-         Public holiday

-         Internet / phone personal usage

The above are the typical compensation that you are entitled from your future employer. Please take note that, different companies have their own compensation plan which might not cover everything as listed above or may have additional plans which I’m not aware of. Feel free to share your own experience in your comments. The good news is majority of companies especially the well established ones, will compete with other to provide the best compensation plan for their employees. Hence you have some sort of bargaining or negotiation power with your future employer to get the best compensation plan.

In my future articles, I’ll be sharing in details each of these monetary & non-monetary compensations for our discussion including some tips on how to negotiate effectively before making your decision to accept or to reject the job offer.

Till then,

Take care

Regards

Yusoff

To recap, the 3 points to consider are:

1)     Your career goal

2)     The company’s vision & direction

3)     Compensation

2) The company’s vision & direction

To effectively understand your future employer or company’s vision & direction, you will need to do some homework about the company then during your interview, you should ask clarification questions based on your findings. I’ll share more in the future on how to do it when we discussed about interview.

This is something you should do before reaching to this decision making stage, but don’t worry if you have not done so, you still have this final chance. Before making your decision, you have the right to ask and get more information about your future employer.

Typically, you can ask the following questions:

-         What is the company’s long term vision and how to stay competitive? (Tips: Company with long term vision will tend to stay longer in business, this is important for your some sort of job security. Typically, company will also have their set a strategy to remain competitive)

-         How strong is the company financially and what is the projected growth in this year or the next 3 years? (Tips: This question will let you know the financial health of the company and what is their projection for the next 3 years – typically company have their next 3 years projection growth plan)

-         How people oriented is the company? (Tips: A good company will regard their employees as their most important asset, they will have development programmes, career and succession plan, policies on communication and employee welfare, safe and conducive working environment, employee quarterly/yearly satisfaction survey on leadership team and working environment, attractive employee compensation programmes etc – this will give you some idea the environment that you will be working in and how you will be taken care of as an employee)

-         Can you please share the history of the company? ( Tips: A well established company has a good historical track record and there must be some values the company is practicing to become what they are now – this question is to give you an idea on how the company was established and what they have done or values they practiced along the way to achieve their success, e.g. there are companies that practice values such as speed to opportunity, teamwork, trust, respect, innovation etc)

Some of these information might be available in the company’s website or company profile booklet. My advice is to do some homework on these above questions before approaching your future employer for clarification. Also not to forget, to mentioned to them that you have done some homework about the company and would like to get some clarification.

After getting all these required information, it is now to weigh them and align it with your career objective (Weigh your job offer – Part 1). But remember, before finalizing your decision, you have this final option to look at which is Compensation. I’ll be sharing it tomorrow.

Stay tune..

Till then..

Take care,

Regards

Yusoff 

So from today onwards, I’ll be sharing some tips for you to consider before accepting or rejecting a job offer.

As I mentioned in my last article, in CMS, you are actually marketing yourself and to effectively make a wise choice on your job offer, you can consider these 3 points:

1)     Your career goal

2)     The company’s

       vision & direction

3)     Compensation

In this article, I’ll explain  point 1); your career goal.

Let us step back to the past and firstly recalled your intention when you started to look for a job. You might want to become an engineer, a doctor, an accountant or even a administrative clerk or whatever you want to become, everyone may have their own unique intention and it is very important for you to really understand your own intention before making the decision to accept or reject a job offer. If the job offer fits your intention, then the decision for you to make will be much easier but don’t finalize the decision yet before considering the points 2) & 3).

Conflict will only pop out when the job offer you received does not fit your intention but you are desperate for a job. There are some cases where the job offer is not the same as the one you applied or interviewed. Maybe your future employer thinks that you are not suitable for the job you have applied for but your skill or experience fit another job vacancy that is available in the company. To resolve this conflict, you have 2 options:

• You can just consider points 2) & 3) and make a rational decision or
• Just blankly reject the job offer.

Yes, you have the right to reject it but before doing that, you must know points 2) & 3) well enough. Maybe there is a blessing in disguise, so it is worth considering them. I’ll be sharing points 2) & 3) next week.

Till then, take care.

Regards

Yusoff

Now we have reached to the best part in CMS. After the hard work of writing a “masterpiece” resume and had gone through a strenuous couple of hours of interview, finally the job offer comes it. I dare to bet, majority of you will just grab the offer and start asking how much is the pay and when can I start?

So the question now is, why are you rushing? Remember whatever you are doing in CMS is actually you are marketing yourself. You will need to understand what marketing means to gain a win-win situation between you and your future employer.

Adapted from the book “Trump University, Marketing 101” by Don Sexton, marketing is defined as follows:

• marketing is about what people want
• marketing is about targeting the correct customer
• marketing is about positioning the benefit to customer
• marketing is about advertisement, pricing, promotion & distribution

So in CMS, you have the advantage where the customer is actually yourself and you are the only one who understands what you really want. You will need to sit down and spend some time to strategically position yourself to get the best out of your future employer

For me, by just grabbing the job offer without thinking what do you really want or benefit from as a customer is a bit foolish.

Even if you are desperate for a job, you still need to consider what is the benefit before making the decision.

In tomorrow’s article, I’ll be starting a series of tips on what do you can or have the right to do when you received a job offer.

Till then, take care.

Keep leaving your comments for our knowledge sharing.

Thanks

Regards

Yusoff

Weigh your job offer- Part 1