Coffee Talk: Not so glamorous

I work in an industry that is not so glamorous-- Human Resource (HR). It's always considered as a non-revenue generating business unit within the organisation, and loathed by the employees when their needs are not well-taken care of, but HR personnel are still being respected because... well, they help to pay your salary and they decide if you'll be recruited or not. But I'm not from an organisation's HR department, our company actually supplies local and foreign operators to the customers, more specifically, factories. If you know how my field works, you'd know-- we are not only serving our customers, we are serving the operators as well.

Coming from a background where I did almost all the works related to figures and facts, I certainly have had a hard transition into dealing with people. This is a small industry that does not only need good documentation, administration, and calculation skills, but it also needs to deal with people from different levels-- from operators to HR personnel and sometimes... the big boss. Oh, did I tell you that we also need to update the operator's attendance and allowances because we have a separate system from each client's HR department that we need to tally every day? This kind of information is easy to retrieve within the organisation, but it is not always that straight-forward for us as a manpower supplier because there'll always be an exception, late information or system mistakes. We need to call and find the abscond operators why they're absent and report back to our clients. Besides, we also need to be an excellent managers of the transport arrangement and the accommodation's repair and maintenance. We also must, MUST be an excellent communicator with patience because the production supervisor might rebuke you for bad operators' attendance because of the rainy weather, the HR personnel demands you to supply operators with 1-day immediate notice, and the operators who are hunting for jobs being rude and demanding to you. On top of these, because of my position in the company, I need to be a good marketer (though I still fail regrettably at this HAHA), a good accountant, a good researcher, a good budget planner, and the most important of all-- a good colleague.

As our company is founded on my father's principles, all of us strongly uphold the quality of the service provided with efficiency and care. You can find us rushing to the client's factory from home at night, just to fetch a sick worker back to his/her hostel or to the clinic. You will find us still replying operators' queries late at night, especially day before the work commencement. You will find us waking up earlier than the operators to prepare for their interview process, you will also find us doing all sorts of things to take care of the workers as if they're our child. You'd see my dad and his drivers are always the last person to be home, because they'd make sure all the workers are safe while they're walking out from the factory to be brought home.

You'll quickly find yourself frustrated and tired if you don't have a passion for this, especially for an introvert like me. When I first entered the company, I was so upset and disturbed at the fact that I need to deal with so many operators who are ill-mannered. I also wasn't getting used to socialize with the HR personnel. But I slowly pull through it, I slowly discovered the fact that our company is acting as a bridge between the workers and the clients, that I'm helping the economy (yes I sure am, factories' production cannot run without operators) to grow, and more importantly, I help the job seekers to feed their families, especially the single mothers or the sole breadwinner of a family. I get the satisfaction when I managed to find truly responsible and hardworking workers for our clients, because it's a win-win-win situation. Where else can I find a triple-win solutions from a job? Most are only duo-wins! I'm also extremely happy when I managed to help rejected job seekers due to obese or their sex orientation to find jobs in other places.

I start finding ways to help creating a happier workplace all I can for the operators. I certainly couldn't create a free cafeteria with varieties of food, fund them an annual trip to the overseas, or let them have a more flexible working time... But I can start from me, from our company, from the little things we do every day. I can start from the way I talk to them and my utmost care to them. I don't treat myself as a manpower supplier, but a supporter. Supplying is often without emotions, but supporting is different. I take sincere care in the type of workers my clients would take in, their needs, take their own problems as mine to ensure the production lines operate smoothly every day. As for operators, I constantly care for them after work, I motivate them from time-to-time, I also encourage them to come and find me if they have any problems. I address them Tuan or Cik-- the same as how I'd address our clients. It's important how we talk to them to show that we truly appreciate and respect them as a person. And I, would continue doing that because

Do right. Do your best. Treat others as you want to be treated. -Lou Holtz

Well... that's quite a job, isn't it? No glamour, but... it's pretty cool. And I'm starting to loving it. More importantly, I'm starting to improve.