Intel decided to close 2 plants in Penang

Intel has been one of the major foreign investors and employers in Penang for thirty over years, providing job for about 6000 workers in the island. The company is known as one of the good employers with great career prospects that most electronic and/or electrical engineers wanting to work for.

However, the current global recession is now putting a blow to about 2000 affected workers in Intel Penang, after they decided to shut down 2 assembly test facilities (PG6 and PG7) in the island as part of their global restructuring plan.

No doubt their move will affect the Malaysian economy, as generally Intel's employees are having relatively higher income, which have higher purchase power that contributes to the economy especially the property and retail sectors in Penang island itself.

It is hoped that their remaining 6 plants in Penang, as well as their plants in Kedah Kulim Hi-Tech Park will continue to operate and not be affected.

It is also hoped that the Penang state government currently ruled by Pakatan Rakyat and leads by Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng can come out with some good measures in retaining foreign investors in Penang.

I feel really sorry to hear about this, and feel more worry about the global economic situation.

Citibank credit card cash back promotion

Good news to Citibank credit card users!

Citibank has allocated RM2,200,000 for a "Guaranteed Cash Back Promotion" running from 15 January 2009 to 15 April 2009. Under this promotion, cash will be given back to their eligible credit card users provided the terms and conditions are met.

Here is the detail.

Eligible credit cards:
All Citibank principal credit cards issued in Malaysia except the Shell and Giant co-branded cards.

Promotion period:
Month (1) : Jan 15 - Feb 14
Month (2) : Feb 15 - Mar 14
Month (3) : Mar 15 - Apr 15

How to get the cash back?
There are 3 promotion periods, each last for 1 month. During each of the promotion periods, if you spend 5-7 times for retail transaction of minimum RM50 with your Citibank credit card, you will get RM10 cash back for that month. If you spend 8 times and above, you will get RM20 cash back.

Register for participation:
Card members are required to register in order to participate in this campaign. There are 3 ways to register:

• Register via SMS: SMS GCB10 [Your 16 digit credit card number] to 36700.
• Register online: Visit to http://www.citibank.com.my/APPS/portal/loadPage.do?tabNo=3&htmlPageName=/prod/det/gcb_promo.htm and click "Enrol" on that webpage.
• Register at their branches in Malaysia.

The tracking of cash back earned by the participant shall commence only upon successful registration.

Click here for detail information about the Citibank credit card cash back promotion.

What management can do to gain staff loyalty

Staff loyalty is always important to the management, as productivity could be highly affected by staff turnover.

Apart from financial rewards, do you know what the staff are looking for in order to work happily and remain loyal to the organization? Here are some of my experience and observation to share with you.

1. Empowerment

Empowerment is a form of trust to the staff. Staff, especially of higher level, will be happy to have more control over their work and time schedule. A good staff will just need the manager to tell them what he/she want them to do, the expected result, and the deadline. The rest should be managed by themselves.

Only if the manager does not have enough trust on the staff, then he/she need to tell the staff how to do, closely check on the work progress, and try to monitor the time with tools such as time clock, timesheet, etc. Well, it is true that not every staff can work with minimal supervision, but for those quality staff that can really work with minimal supervision, you can actually gain their loyalty with empowerment.

Do you agree that employee will not be happy with those time clock, timesheet, etc. unless related to financial rewards, such as for calculation of overtime wages? In fact, most people will work more hours if they can have some control over when they actually have to work. Check this out with those companies that introduced flexi-hour scheme.

Management should work towards the direction to develop the staff such that they can be trusted and empowered. If this can be achieved, the management can even save operational cost by introducing telecommuting, allowing staff to work at home.

2. Relationship

It is not deniable that we have people that we like to work with, and we also have people that we dislike to work with.

When forming a project team, by putting people that are "compatible" to each other, you are actually promoting a good teamwork which can optimize the productivity as well as gaining their loyalty.

Management should work towards the direction to form teams with good relationship, and resolve any relationship issue once detected. You will have strong bonding teams working loyally for you then.

3. Task assignment

Every staff have their talent in something, or interest in something. If you put the right staff in the right place, assigning them with task that they are keen on, you can not only expect to get good result, but also boost up the staff loyalty.

Management should work towards the direction to develop the staff to love their job. If you tend to put the wrong staff in the wrong place, probably you will have a higher turnover rate.

4. Training and event

Staff will be always grateful if you send them for training and event that they are interested of. In addition, you can also earn gratitude from your staff by providing them opportunity to conduct training or to give talk in event, for them to share their talented knowledge to others.

5. Convenience

Let the staff have a peace of mind about their car parking place at work, their work place, tools and resources they need for work, food and refreshment, etc.

For outstation staff or expatriates, the management should also take good care of their accomodation, transport, Internet access, etc.

Some companies even provide nursery service, sport facilities, etc. to their staff.

It is not difficult to observe that convenience plays an important role in retaining staff loyalty and attracting new staff.

Do you agree with me on the above 5 points?