All posts by Chee Shi

One of the challenges of any business is staff retention.

Staff turnover is very common in any business and the bosses always face the issue of staffs resigning and having problem to recruit staffs to work especially the right staff.

Why do staff resign?

a lot of companies are not able to keep their staffs for long, the staff turnover is so high, it makes them need to recruit new staffs every month.

Most companies always take the easy way out by blaming the staffs for not able to work long hour and so on instead of reviewing whether all these are because of their own doing which cause the resignation.

What are the effect of high staff turnover

with high staff turnover, the continuity of the work is in doubt.

For staffs who resign, the position will be vacant before the new staff comes on board

worse if the staff resigns and new staff has not joined yet, no one does the hand over to the incoming staff. Incoming staff will not know the background of the transaction.

How to do staff recruitment?

with vacancy in company, the Human Resource Department will need to do some recruitment to replace the resigned staff and get someone to do the work.

The HR department either do the recruitment themselves or engage the recruitment agency and or head-hunting firm to do the hiring.

There are some advantages and disadvantages of doing the recruitment on your own instead of using the headhunting firm or recruitment agency

Advantages

1. HR staffs get to review the applicants’ information closely.

2. Save cost in engaging a recruitment firm.

3. Able to understand the candidates better.

Disadvantages

1. time-consuming in sorting out voluminous applications.

2. May not have the time and resource to do the screening of candidate.

Some firms when they think it is too time-consuming to screen applications and do the background check, they will decide to engage a recruitment firm to do the work.

However by doing so, there are some advantages and disadvantages of doing so too.

Advantages

1. Free up the times of sorting out the applications and use the time to do the normal HR work.

2. Recruitment firms have better resources to do the background check of the candidates.

3. Recruitment will do the first round interview and shortlist the “right” candidate for the company.

Disadvantages

1. Not able to know the candidate is the one whom thee recruitment firm has been marketing for various companies.

2. some more suitable candidate may be dismissed by the recruitment firm.

3. Recruitment firms use some filtering software to filter the applications which they have set some wrong benchmark and by doing so, eliminate some good candidate.

Why do some firms use agencies to hire staffs always do not work out well?

Some firms after engaging recruitment firm to do the hiring, if they really do an analysis, will find the candidate/staff recruited via agency, normally do not seem to stay long in the company.

there are various reasons why this is so.

1. As I mentioned earlier, recruitment agency use a software to filter the applications.

2. If they set the parameter of filter wrongly, then good candidate may be eliminated in first filtering.

3. For example, when hiring a CFO, some firm may require candidate to have either a degree or professional qualification, .

4. If the recruitment agency does not how one can be a professional accountant without a degree, he or she will set the parameter and those with professional qualification but not degree will not be selected.

5. If that happens, the good candidate with professional qualification but no degree will miss out.

6. When this happens, the hiring company will miss having a good staff.

because of wrong parameter set in the filtering software, the hiring miss out recruiting the right staff.

We know how important it is to recruit the right staff for the job.

this in a way will ensure the staff will stay longer in the job and not job hopping,

Having the right staff will also ensure the company has less staff turnover, we know high staff turnover is bad for the company, not only it affects the morale of the other staffs, it also gives a bad reputation to the company.

In Astute Business Advisory, we help our clients to recruit the right staffs for the job.

we emphasis the importance of knowing the culture and the work ethnic of the company and we see whether the candidate can fit in smoothly and seamlessly.

the most important thing is we in Astute Business Advisory will not use the software to filter applications for jobs we posted.

We also set priority in getting the groups of candidates who are unemployed and looking for jobs, for those who are currently having jobs, we will not consider their applications.

For those companies who want to hire the right staff, do get in contact us and discuss your requirement and we will advise you what type of right staff you should hire for your company.

Do you want to restructure your small medium enterprise and make it more profitable?

There are a lot of Small Medium Enterprise (SME) in Singapore, and most of them depend on the government to guide them, by providing subsidy and incentive through Enterprise Singapore, or previously commonly known as Spring Singapore, instead of going ahead to restructure the business to face the new challenges.

Instead of embarking on businesses where government is providing subsidy, a business entity should embark on a business after careful analysis and evaluation and determine the feasibility and profitability of the business, if not, we will lose focus on what we set out to do in the first place.

It seems that a lot of SME only take on business where government is providing subsidy and incentive, it gives the impression they are looking at collecting the goodies or really want to do the business?

Before a SME is restructured, the owner of the business must know what he wants for his business for the next few years or decades.

Why do we hardly see SME expand beyond Singapore and become Multi National Corporation or MNC?

There are quite a few reasons for that.

1. As mentioned above, a lot of them are in business or start the business because government is providing subsidy and incentive.
2. Lack of succession plan from the pioneer of the business, most of the time, the owner or operator of the SME find it difficult to continue the business as his children are not willing to take over the business and he does not have a professional manager to run the show for him.
3. Element of change and evolve with time is lacking, with the change of business environment especially with the COVID-19 pandemic affecting all sorts of businesses and life, there is a need to have new normal in the way business can operate and survive.
4. Most SME in Singapore were started in the last century and even though some may have been taken over by the children or the 2nd and 3rd generation, however will it be operated by the 4th generation or 5th? considering now the children seldom follow the parent to the office , even they do go to the office, they will still be busy with their mobile phone instead of observing what the parents are doing.

So how to make a SME change to MNC and expand beyond Singapore and move out from their comfort zone and find more challenging business in the region and beyond?

Can We Help?

If you are one of the SME who is thinking of expanding and taking the next step to become a better business entity and one which employees like and enjoy working in, do contact us and we can work out the plan for you.

What Else Do We Offer?

At the same time you may want to subscribe to our short business solutions in our Lazy People Guide and learn a thing or two, if you are interested, you can click HERE to learn more.

Do You Need Staff Recruitment?

How do you go about doing staff recruitment?

What do you do when you need to have a good staff?

These are the questions being asked, especially in a labor market which is short of talented staffs.

If you company need a top talent to compete in this challenging business environment, we can help you in identifying the right candidate. We deliver exceptional candidate who bring good value to your business.

From C- suite, middle management to clerical level and even temporary needs, we at Astutebizadvisory can assist your internal HR to understand your company goals, strategy plan and provide the necessary knowledge and processes to guide the potential candidate to be the asset of your company.

What Can We Do To Help In Staff Recruitment?

We provide the following services in term of human resources management.

1. Identify the need of your company in term of skills and level of experience.
2. Advise your internal HR on what types of candidate you should hire.
3. Formulae the job requirements and scope to match the company’s aspiration.
4. Identify the right candidate for the position.
5. Conduct background check on the candidate before recommendation.

Challenges of Staff Recruitment

1. Competitive labor market.
2. Getting the right staff.
3. The suitable candidate,
4. Candidate who can contribute to your company’s growth, and
5. Meeting the company’s business strategies,
6. Without increasing the cost of human resource,
7. Offer the right remuneration package.

Orientation of New Employee

We at Astutebizadvisory are able to help our clients in this area.

Once we have successfully recruited the staffs for our clients, we have a special orientation program for the newly recruited staff before he reports for duty.

Our orientation program ensures the staff will acclimate to our client’s culture, and ease into his role as soon as possible.

How To Ensure Your Employee Stays On The Job?

It is important that employees stay on the company payroll longer.

High staff turnover is very disruptive for a business, the continuity of work flow is badly affected.

My experience told me about high staff turnover:

It caused:

• Breakdown of internal control and
• Loss of crucial information.

However this can be easily avoided if staff retention rate is high

Do you want to get the right candidate? contact us now.

Do your companies need fund and equity capital raising?

Fund and equity capital raising is challenging in this COVID-19 pandemic affected business environment.

Restructuring of business at the time of fund and equity capital raising.

Company may need to take the opportunity to do a restructuring of the business setup, whether re-look into the mode of operation, organizational setup or lines of businesses.

Normally, after a new round of calling for fund either from the market, from the public or debt raising from the bank, it will be good that the management of the company can have a review of the whole company set up , carry out a restructuring if need to.

Raising an equity fund is a natural progression for a company. Fund provides a more stable and secure capital base, and easier for the owner of the company to plan, and make quick decision in any investment opportunity.

What Types Of Fund Raising Are Suitable For Your Business?

A company can raise fund from debt financing, or from equity capital, it all depends on the requirement of a company,

We in Astutebizadvisory are able to advise our clients on their needs.

Whether you require a debt capital raised by obtaining a bank loan, or through equity capital by selling shares of stock, we have the expertise and knowhow to advise our clients, on the mix of  both these types of funding, the main objective is to ensure cost effectiveness for the business.

With the COVID-19 pandemic going on, and most of the businesses affected, cash flow become a very important issue.

If a company is able to raise some capital to meet everyday need with reduced revenue, it will be good for the business to survive, and plan for post COVID-19 with a new normal way of doing business.

IF you think you need to raise fund for your business, please get in touch with us, we are more than willing to listen to your requirement, and assist you to meet your cash flow need.

For the time being, you may want to look at our short business solution HERE ,and learn more about what you need to do for your cash flow need, while waiting for us to structure something for you.

Contact Us now for more information.

In the current situation, most companies may want to have a business restructuring to ensure their survival and more prepared when the economy business environment return to normal

Companies may want to look at

1. 1. Business Improvement.
2. 2. Financial Restructuring.
3. 3. Business Reorganization
4. 4. Information Technology
5. 5. Merger & Acquisition
6. 6. Valuation of company value.

1. Business Improvement

Astutebizadvisory place a lot of emphasis on business strategy planning, improving and executing business strategies and processes. The main objective is to ensure the Corporate Objectives are in line with the Stakeholders’ need.

For Business Improvement, Astutebizadvisory
offer two methods of achieving the desired objectives.

a. Business Process Improvement.

Improvement Potential Excellence Diagram Graphic Concept

I. Process improvement

We will advise clients on how to improve the business process to make it more efficient and lean. We are confident after our process review and implementation of our recommendation, the business process will be more efficient and lean, not to mention the savings made and the capacity increased as a result of the process improvement. The business may also be able to keep their staffs and enable the staffs to learn more and in-depth of the business process.

II. Business Intelligence Information.

We will analyze your business data and reorganize the data to create a monitoring process whereby the data are put to better use in business process and decision-making. In this era of big data information where data is asset, if the available data is put to good use in combination with business process improvement, it will produce a sustainable result.

2. Financial Restructuring.

In this challenging business environment, it is important to do some financial restructuring of the business.

We assist clients who are in financial difficulty to restructure their financial by negotiating with the creditors, conduct going concern review and recommend sustainable financial prudence steps to ensure the business can sustain the difficult and challenging business climate.

3. Business Reorganization.

In the time of need, we can assist our client to do business reorganization and help our clients to be more competitive and stabilize the operation and identify better business opportunity.

4. Information Technology

We help our client to leverage on Information Technology (IT), to improve business performance and reduce business risk.

We have IT professional who constantly work with us to help our clients in new IT system implementation and/or system integration and we help our client to identify their IT risk and also on data protection in accordance with Personal Data Protection Act.

5. Merger & Acquisition.

We will help to identify the target for merger and acquisition and will follow through the entire process of the transaction.

We provide the following services:

• Acquisition and divestiture plans and strategies.
• Due diligence
• Integration and assimilation process.

We will ensure our client get their value of investment for the merger and acquisition and we will try to maximize the value for our client.

6. Valuation of Company Value.

We do valuation of business, business interests and intangible asset valuation for our client.

We can provide intangible asset valuation for our client in a business combination in accordance with IFRS No. 3 on Business Combination.

Determination of the fair value of Goodwill and perform test on potential impairment are also the services provided by us.