Insights from Towers Watson 2010 Global Workforce Study

The Towers Watson 2010 Global Workforce Study covers more than 20,000 full-time employees of large and midsize organizations in 22 markets around the world (Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, Russia, Singapore, Spain, Switzerland, UK and US) and was fielded by 3rd party vendor via online questionaire between November 2009 and January 2010.

 

The report was published in April 2010, and claimed to be the most comprehensive analysis of the post-recession employee mindset available today.

 

 

This 24-pages report titled "The New Employment Deal - How Far, How Fast and How Enduring?" which you can download for free after registering with them by clicking here, opined that the recession has accelerated the demise of the traditional employment contract, or "deal", between employees and employers. The Study reveals a recession-weary workforce -- one with lower expectations, increased anxiety and new priorities.

 

3 themes emerge from the Study as follow:

• Recession has driven a final wedge into the social contract, or "deal", that has traditionally underpinned the employment relationship.
• There is a gap between what employees want and expect from this shifting relationship, and what employers can affort to deliver in a highly competitive business climate.
• Organizations have a unique opportunity to define a new and more sustainable employment deal with their employees, which include fostering towards "self-reliance".

"Few employers will be able to compete effectively in the current environment without policies and practices that recognize and allow for differences in employees' roles, skills and performance, as well as their interests, expectations and needs."

 

Interested to know more details? Just use the link above to get the 24-pages report for free.

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• Towers Watson 2010 GWS found Malaysians value job security and stability 

All eyes on World Expo 2010 Shanghai China

It is about 2 years after China successfully organized the Olympics 2008 in Beijing, now all the eyes are attracted to China again with another worldwide event - Expo 2010 Shanghai China (中国2010年上海世界博览会).

With the theme of "Better City – Better Life", this Expo officially started today 1 May 2010, and will continue on for half a year until 31 October 2010. The venue is on both banks of the Huangpu River (黄浦江) in the city of Shanghai, covering a waterfront area of 5.28 kilometer square.

This Expo has made (or targetted to make) several world records, including:

• The 1st Expo held in a developing country.
• The largest world's fair site ever at 5.28 kilometer square.
• The most expensive Expo in the history of the world's fairs.
• The most participated Expo from 192 countries and 50 international organizations.
• Targetted for the largest crowd of visitors of more than 70 million people.
• The Expo Axis is the world largest membrane construction with a surface of 65,000 meter square in total.

There are 5 zones (from A to E) and 5 themed pavillions in Expo 2010, namely:

• Urbanian Pavilion
• Pavilion of City Being
• Pavilion of Urban Planet
• Pavilion of Footprint
• Pavilion of Future

The Expo logo is a Chinese character "世" (means "World") modified to projects the image of 3 people -- you, me and him/her -- throwing arms around each other.

The mascot of this Expo is named as HaiBao (海宝), which means the treasure of the sea. It is created from the Chinese character "人" which means "people".

To recap, the 1st Expo was held in The Crystal Palace in Hyde Park, London, Great Britain in 1851. Since then, this Expo has been taken place from city to city around the world, and has evolved through 3 distinguish eras:

• Industrialization (1851–1938) - focused on trade and famous for the display of technological inventions and advancements.
• Cultural exchange (1939–1987) - based on a specific theme of cultural significance, and began to address issues of humankind.
• Nation branding (1988–present) - used by countries as a platform to improve their national images through their pavilions.

Canonical will release Ubuntu 10.04 LTS tomorrow 29 Apr 2010

Good news to all Ubuntu Linux fans. Ubuntu 10.04 LTS (Long Term Support) codename Lucid Lynx will be officially released by tomorrow, Thursday 29 April 2010.

As this is an LTS version, Canonical will provide at least 3 years support on Ubuntu Desktop, and 5 years on Ubuntu Server.

It is announced that more than 80 ISVs (Independent Software Vendors) are announcing support for about 100 applications in it.

Among the applications available for version 10.04 LTS are the Acquia-Drupal content management system from Drupal, IBM Lotusnotes and the DB2 database, Cloudera Hadoop distributed computing software from Hadoop, the Tcat server from Mulesoft, the Mozilla Firefox browser, and SugarCRM's self-named CRM system.

Ubuntu Desktop 10.04 LTS will feature extensive design work, faster boot speed, social network integration, online services and the Ubuntu One Music Store.

There will also be a Ubuntu 10.04 Netbook Edition, which enables netbook users, in addition to benefiting from the improvements in the Desktop Edition, see even faster boot speeds on SSD-based devices and faster suspend/resume that will extend battery life. However, this 10.04 Netbook Edition will not be an LTS.

Ubuntu Server 10.04 LTS extends the cloud-computing capability of Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud, powered by Eucalyptus. The Cloud enhancements include a minimal installation profile for minimum-footprint virtual machines and multi-language Amazon Web Services library support. This version also includes many major applications and packages added or updated since the previous LTS release, giving new and upgrading users an extended range of applications that can be easily installed at launch.

Are you ready for the upgrade?