HR World: Hire Party
More HR gems from across the globe
Singapore burger business throws hard-hat party to attract staff
Think the recruitment process is all CVs, suits and serious faces? The Asia-based restaurant chain The Butchers Club disagrees.
In an undisguised attempt to get more “young and trendy” types to apply for positions at its new burger restaurant at Clarke Quay in Singapore, the Hong Kong-based company invited jobseekers to attend a hard-hat party at the construction site on 31 August, even throwing in a free burger and beer as an incentive.
Alongside the party, the company has created a video highlighting “the fun aspects and the ability to work internationally with the rapidly expanding brand” while also showing a lot of drinking and lairy behaviour.
In an article on the company’s website, Jonathan Glover, MD of The Butchers Club, said: “The video is put together in this way to attract a certain type of person. Some people may find it a bit rough and ready and may not be impressed by the behaviour, but that’s the point; this is the first step in our screening process.”
The Butchers Club was launched in Hong Kong in 2013 as a butcher’s shop, private dining room and cooking class concept. It now has 11 sites open or under construction across Hong Kong, Bali and Singapore, including stores and restaurants.
Chinese tech companies employ ‘cheerleaders’ to motivate male workers
Internet companies in China have come up with an ingenious (if sexist) way of motivating their male programmers: they are employing ‘cheerleaders’ to provide eye candy and stroke egos around the office.
According to the Facebook page Trending in China, a spin-off of the Chinese government’s news site China.org.cn, tech organisations across the country are employing “pretty, talented girls that help create a fun work environment”. The job description includes buying the programmers breakfast, “chit-chatting” and playing ping-pong with them.
One HR manager at a company that has hired three cheerleaders said its programmers were mostly male and terrible at socialising, and the presence of the women had greatly improved their motivation and efficiency.
However, many posters on the Facebook page took a somewhat less sanguine view. Manuela Dossantos said: “Or you know, hire some women who code. Oh wait, that would be too intimidating for these man-children, right?”
Childish behaviour widespread in the US workplace
If the dictum, “Behave like a child and I’ll treat you like one,” actually holds any water then HR managers in the US might do well to familiarise themselves with the naughty step technique.
According to a recent survey by CareerBuilder, whining, sulking and temper tantrums are not the exclusive domain of truculent toddlers and teenagers – it seems that they’re pretty commonplace in the workplace, too, with 77 per cent of employees having witnessed childish or adolescent behaviour at one time or another.
More than half (55 per cent) of the 3,000-plus workers surveyed identified whining as the most common childlike behaviour among colleagues, with pouting over not getting their own way (46 per cent) and tattling on a co-worker (44 per cent) close runners-up.
Other immature behaviours included playing pranks (36 per cent), making a face behind someone’s back (35 per cent), forming a clique (32 per cent), starting a rumour about a co-worker (30 per cent), storming out of the room (29 per cent), throwing a tantrum (27 per cent) and refusing to share resources (23 per cent).
The survey also asked more than 2,000 HR managers to relate childish behaviours they had witnessed. Examples included a company owner who threw tantrums, yelled and slammed doors when he didn’t get his way and an employee who hid to get out of duties.
US study: work stress as bad for your health as passive smoking
Workplace stress is as harmful for your health as secondhand smoke, according to a new study by researchers at Harvard Business School and Stanford University.
The report summarised the findings of 228 existing studies and assessed the effects of 10 workplace stressors on four health outcomes. It found that job insecurity increased the odds of reporting poor health by about 50 per cent and high job demands raised the odds of having a doctor-diagnosed illness by 35 per cent. Meanwhile, long work hours increased mortality by almost 20 per cent.
“When you think about how much time individuals typically spend at work, it’s not that surprising,” study co-author Joel Goh, an assistant professor of business administration at Harvard Business School, told CNN.
He added that he hoped the study would encourage companies to consider how they manage their employees, as while it might seem as if demanding faster work or longer hours would increase productivity, that might not be the case.
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