Tag Archives: Business Study Mission

Investing in Your Employees

  By hmteam • May 16, 2016

Times have changed. Typical employee benefits no longer set apart organisations as they used to. Smart managers have realised that they need to invest more wisely to retain their employees. Continually interviewing and hiring and losing well-trained employees is not a sustainable process.

Here are some ways to keep your employees loyal and motivated.

  • Help Build Their Brands:

Every employee offers something unique to the company. As they work with your clients and build their credibility, they become more valuable. You can do your bit and educate them on using social media sites like LinkedIn and Twitter effectively. Guide them on increasing their web presence. Encouraging them to invest in their personal brands is as important as investing in the organisation. If customers know and respect each employee, they will develop a relationship of trust with them and hence, the company.

  • Allot Personal Time:

Time is money. So you need to devote a sufficient amount of it to your employees if you want success for your company. A big reason why employees quit their jobs is a lack of career progression. You need to ensure that they know that it won’t be a problem with you. Take them out for casual lunches where you can get to know more about how things are going at work and what could be changed to align their roles with their goals. Keep an eye out for career development opportunities for every employee that you manage. Invest in business trips and conferences that relate to their area of work so that they can pick up new contacts and the latest information. The idea is to keep a focus on the big picture while keeping every employee’s career development needs in mind.

  • Be Flexible:

Good companies recognise the need to be flexible – especially during major life events such as pregnancy or a family crisis. Being flexible with your employees builds employee trust and commitment and helps you attract and retain talent.

  • Look After Their Well-being:

An employee who is not in a good physical or mental health will not function properly at work. How about investing in a gym or reimbursing them for their gym memberships? Allow work breaks since research has shown that most humans can concentrate for periods of 20 to 90 minutes only. If you don’t like the idea of breaks, your employees will probably take them anyway by doing things like checking their personal emails or texting. It’ll be more conducive to their health to let them walk around, stretch and have a quick chat with colleagues. Some companies even invest in group initiatives such as marathons and feel-good activities like visits to a local charity in order to boost the team spirit. And stay alert on mental health issues because anxiety, depression and other illnesses can affect performance and harm people in the long run. A lot of companies invest in counselling services. Plus, if you think somebody genuinely needs a break, give it to them.

  • Support Their Educational Goals:

Once you know your employees’ goals, you can help them get there. Sponsoring or subsidising graduate school expenses or a certification programme can result in employee happiness and more skills on your team. You’ll already be investing a lot in on-site training but educational goals can be met simultaneously if you can work out a schedule. Another perk of sponsoring employee education is that they’ll remember the favour and add new value to your business.

Did you know that the Nanyang Fellows MBA programme has an entire course dedicated to talent management? Check out details here: http://www.nanyangfellows.com/about-nanyang-fellows/programme-structure/#talent_mn

So invest well. Avoid emotional and financial damage by retaining good employees. Give them the responsibility and be there for them.

Go Global with the One-Week Overseas Business Study Mission

  By hmteam • November 16, 2015

When you choose the Nanyang Fellows MBA programme, you are in for a memorable journey that will take you to new places metaphorically and literally. While your professors and classmates teach you things that will help you succeed in the business world, the curriculum goes a step further with its one week long overseas business study mission component. This carefully planned programme aims to enrich your knowledge of global developments while you work on your dissertation. Instead of sitting in your classroom in Singapore and just reading or hearing about how things run abroad, you get to experience it yourself.

02_Business_Study_Mission

Locations

In the past, candidates have attended business study missions in the Silicon Valley, San Francisco, New York City, London, Toronto, Shenzhen, Tokyo, Athens, Brussels, Cambridge, Helsinki, Hong Kong, Sydney, Berlin, Bangalore, Dublin, Munich and Copenhagen. Every location has unique characteristics that can contribute to your research and lead to an in-depth dissertation based on life changing experiences. You’ll end up choosing the location that matches your selected topic best.

The Project

The business study mission gives you the opportunity to conduct a detailed case study in a country that will probably be completely new to you. Once you reach your destination, you will be studying a specific geographical area to recognise the nature of its business environment. You will also be studying a particular industry and organisation. Although independent research will be your primary activity, you will not have to worry about finding the right connections thanks to NBS’s extensive network with B-schools and companies across the globe. Combined with your own effort and the network’s resources, you’ll find yourself talking a lot with consumers/suppliers and managers. At the end of your one week, you present a final report to the company that gave you so much time and attention so that you could know so much more.

The Benefits

One week could seem too short to some of you, but the length of the programme has usually encouraged students to cram in as much as possible into those precious days. So be prepared to learn about the business and industry of whichever segment you are researching, in another country. You’ll develop better critical thinking skills as you’re thrown into a new space outside the safety of a classroom. You will also be exposed to a new culture and learn about how people behave, talk and work in it. For instance, a student in the past learned that even though Aussies were laidback people who enjoyed their lunch break and rugby games, they didn’t waste a minute during office hours and therefore never had to whine about working overtime. Insights like this supplement your business knowledge, adding to your overall growth as a future leader.

So the overseas business study mission is not just about spending time in an office. It is about immersing yourself in cultural, social, political and business dynamics that are a part of the larger regional or international stage for different players in the marketplace.