CO-OP Doctors Are Flying to Cebu for Another Cooperative Consultancy Clinic

WE ARE FLYING TO CEBU!!!

       Last 2014 October 23 to 24, the first ever Co-op Consultancy Clinic was launched in Luzon at the Fernandina 88 Suites, Cubao, Quezon City by National Confederation of Cooperatives (NATCCO Network).  Medium and small sized credit cooperatives were able to consult top-notch consultants in the different areas of operations, specifically in HR management, Financial management, Marketing Management and Credit Management. This is a return service for the CETF remitted by member co-ops to NATCCO Network.  The consultation per service, per co-op was about one (1) hour.  The cooperatives brought with them some issues that cannot be immediately addressed with training but with coaching, the co-op management attendees were able to bring with them some strategies in addressing their concerns and issues.

           Come December 2 to 3, 2014, the Co-op Doctors are spreading their wings to Cebu for another Cooperative Consultancy Clinic.  

Consultation with Finance Specialist

COOPERATIVE CONSULTANCY CLINIC

THEME:

"Healthy Cooperatives for sustainability and members' growth."

DATE: DECEMBER 2-3, 2014 (TUESDAY & WEDNESDAY)

VENUE: SARROSA INTERNATIONAL HOTEL, CEBU CITY

          Hoping to have a wider reach in serving members of cooperatives, the Coop doctors are more than willing to extend their expertise, provide best practices advice and coach participants of Visayas Cooperatives.  

          We hope to duplicate the success of the 1st Co-op Clinic in Visayas Region.  With our first experiences, we hope to improve the services extended to participants.  As consultants, our joy is to be able to help our clients improve their operations because it is the best way to help the members of the cooperatives.

          Again, we are more than willing to lend you our ears, because... 

We Listen to Serve You Better!

(Note:  For your queries, concerns and confirmation, please contact Ms. Divina Grace Aya-ay thru Sun mobile number 0922-8235311, Ms. Monalisa Albeos thru Sun mobile numbers 0925-5028031 / 0943-6067828, Globe 0927-6106220 or Tel. no. 032-4125775, or email add divinagraceayaay@yahoo.com.)

Photo credits to Dado Luna of NATCCO Network

The Coop Doctors Are In... 1st Ever, Coop Consultancy Clinic in the Philippines

 

 

National Confederation of Cooperatives (NATCCO Network) has established the Consultancy Team in service to its primary members.  The purpose is to help these cooperatives address their needs specifically in providing management solutions for credit cooperatives' management.  The difference with other consultancy services is that the Consultancy Team of NATCCO Network provides integrated approach to its members. 

 

Handouts all packed

When we say "Integrated Approach", the team looks at the different areas in management - Financial Management, Credit Management, Marketing Management and HR Management.  These areas are all significant parts of the management body.  If one part is ailing or ill, then the other parts are affected.  Thus, we need to look at the root cause of pain.  Sometimes it can be found in the bloodstream (credit operation efficiency) or sometimes it's in the physical well-being (human resources) of the cooperative.  There are several reasons why cooperative bodies were not being able to meet their goals and as a federation, we hope to provide accessible professional services to its cooperative members.  As a result of this passion - Serving Our Members, the Coop Consultancy Clinic comes into fruition.

The first ever Co-Op Consultancy Clinic in the Philippines will be held on October 23 to 24, 2014 at Fernandina 88 Suites Hotel, Cubao, Quezon City.  There are 23 primary cooperative members participating on the said event, coming from Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao.  The total expected number of participants is seventy (70) coming from the following Co-Ops:

• LABO PROGRESSIVE MULTIPURPOSE COOPERATIVE (MPC)
• PASSI CITY EMPLOYEES MPC
• KANGARA MPC
• BUKLURAN MPC
• ILOILO CITY PUBLIC SCHOOL TEACHERS AND EMPLOYEES MPC
• RED RIBBON MPC
• OLONGAPO MPC
• ILOILO EMPLOYEES MPC
• BUENAVISTA DEVELOPMENT COOPERATIVE
• BONTOC MPC
• BAGONG SILANG 2 MPC
• REGION 8 COMELEC EMPLOYEES MPC
• MOTHER RITA MPC
• NOTRE DAME OF MARBEL UNIVERSITY EMPLOYEES DEVELOPMENT COOP
• STA. CRUZ MPC - MAASIM
• ST. VINCENT FERRER PARISH MPC
• ASIAPRO
• CALSEDECO
• ABRA DIOCESAN TEACHERS AND EMPLOYEES MPC
• JOBS 4 ALL MPC
• HOLCIM MPC
• CORDOVA MPC
• LIGAS KOOPERATIBANG BAYAN SA PAGPAPA-UNLAD MPC

This event will serve as venue for cooperatives to discuss their issues and concerns and access professional advice from experts on their savings & credit operations, as mentioned earlier, on credit management, human resource management, marketing management and financial management.  This is a return service of the Cooperative Education and Training Fund (CETF) remitted by the cooperatives to NATCCO Network.  Training is not always the answer to experienced issues.  Some issues can be addressed with improvements in the processes or development of guidelines and policies.  Some interventions may be on the development of new products or through employees' competency development.

We need to diagnose further and through consultations on specific issues, consultants would be able to mentor and coach on how to implement recommendations in resolving identified issues & concerns.  Although NATCCO consultancy opens their door to cooperatives for consultations, the advantage of participating on this event would provide further learning on ASEAN Integration, Integrated Network, and Information Technology for cooperatives. This will also serve as a venue for learning best practices from the sharing of Success Stories of some large cooperatives - St. Martin of Tours Credit Development Cooperative (SMTCDC) and Tagum Cooperative.  Also, there are participating units within NATCCO Network that would serve as pharmacies: 
1) IT, 2)Education, Training, Consultancy Group (ETCG), and 3) Central Fund (Treasury & Credit).  The speaker for the ASEAN Integration is also an expert from AIM, Mr. Mark Chan. This would be one busy and fruitful day for the participating cooperatives. 

 

The NATCCO Network Consultancy Team is very excited for the upcoming event because they would be able to extend their hands and share their expertise not only to the participants but also to all the members of the participating cooperatives.  If we were able to help these cooperatives improve and provide quality services to Co-Op members, then we will be able to help the Filipinos as well.  It's our way of giving back to the society and serving our country.
 

Preparations for the Consultancy Coop Clinic

 

 

We Listen to Serve You Better!

High Turnover... What does it Say?

Many types of organizations, including Financial Cooperatives, are experiencing fast turnover due to several reasons.  The following are three (3) of the usual reasons why employees leave their employers and as an HR, you may have heard it during the exit interview:

Greener Pastures - When employees resigns and tell you that they are leaving due to greener pastures, what they mean is that they are transferring to a company who offers them higher salaries and better compensation packages.  If this is the case, don't start changing your salary structures or don't start adding benefits.  What you need to do is to first review if what you offer to your employees are still within the market value or still competitive on the same industries. 

Usually, the competitors of financial cooperatives are banks and micro-finance.  But in terms of employer, any other types of industry may be a competitor for specialized skills such as for the accountants and IT.  Accountants with experiences are very scarce in out country.  So what happens is that if you hired a new graduate, he/she will just spend a few months or years with you and then they get offered higher salary in another industry.

Another meaning for "Greener Pastures" may mean the career path or the promotable state within the organization.  Young bloods, usually those ages falling within the Generation Y and Z are ambitious, aggressive and hopes that they'll immediately reach the peak of their career as soon as possible.  If this would be the case, then you as an HR would have to look at the Career Path or plans for your employees.  Does the cooperative or organization offers opportunities for growth, travel, or studies for your employees?  Do you have adequate training plans for the development of your staff?  Do you groom leaders or you immediately losses the very good and skilled employees and what is left are those who would not support changes or are grounded? 

Photography by Rose Gob

Studies - Aligned with the career path is that employees leave because they have professional plans for themselves and they don't see that the organization can actually provide them a venue for said growth.  Many would say that they are resigning because they plan to continue with higher studies.  This could be a good indicator that you were able to hire an employee who finds satisfaction on continuous development.  The sad part though is that you don't have what it takes to keep these kind of employees.  Revisit your employees development program.  Do you have a very good performance management system that helps you monitor well the performance of your employees?  Do you have a very good compensation and benefit package that motivates the employees to keep on performing at their best? 

Leadership -  Many books say that an employee resigns because of failed leadership and not because of the organization.  It could be true because the leadership provides the direction of the organization.  But we cannot sum it all to the kind of leadership.  "Birds of the same feather flocks together" as the saying goes.  So if your cooperatives are consists of owls or eagles, you cannot expect a penguin would survive in that kind of culture.  What you can do is to check not only the leadership type that you have but also, check how you select people during recruitment.  Do you have the right criteria and are you able to assess well the type of employees that would be working for you?  Check what type of culture the cooperative has then match it with hires with the same values as that of the cooperative.

There are other creative excuses that you may have heard during an exit interviews.  Do share with our readers and let us analyze how it can be resolved.  If you have any questions, you may send me queries via e-mail or through the comment section of this blog.   

Succession Planning - When and How to Start?

I am thankful and privilege to be invited as the guest speaker this morning for the 2nd general assembly of Bulacan Cooperative leaders consisting of 24 Bulacan Cooperatives (with 4 districts) plus a Bulacan-based federation.  It's always a learning experience and I really find it satisfying when I get to help them by sharing my understanding and skills gained in human resource management.

This morning, the topic was on "succession planning as key to effective leadership transition".  Since majority of the participants are cooperative managers and board members, I felt their strong concern on the continuity of their cooperatives, and they are eager to understand how they should identify their successors as I saw them jot down notes on their papers. 

Here are some questions I received during the discussion include the following (with corresponding answers):

Question 1:  We are relatively a small cooperative (about 20+ employees).  Is it still okay to assign the employees to different functions so as to test where they are really fitted?

Answer 1:  While you are small, it is understandable that your staff would do multi-tasking.  The processes are still uncomplicated specially if you still have limited offerings to your members.  Also, the number of transactions per day may not be too bulky so it would still be easy for your staff to be on the job training as they do their new functions.  Also, relatively small organizations usually have staff with the same level of expertise or staffs are selected based on relatively same qualifications or criteria.  Discrepancies or gaps on skills are not that far.  Thus, it would still be okay to do this strategy to find the right fit for your employees.  The start-up staff or your current staff will then have the opportunities to fully understand the operations, and they can become managers when time comes for the cooperative to expand.  But in the process, just be sure that you still maintain some control procedures in the functions that they handle.  Processes should be documented through manuals and policies should be reviewed and in-place as ready references as the coops grow.

Question 2:  At this point, when we get back to our coops, can we start with the succession planning?

Answer 2: Yes, but place the initial steps in place.  As we have discussed earlier, the board and the management (CEO/GM), with the assistance of the HR, are accountable in the implementation of the succession program.  The owners of this are the board members and the managers.  HR provides the nitty-gritty or implementation of the succession planning activities.  To start with, what you can do is review and updates your organizational structure.  Identify the key positions and review the job descriptions and qualifications (competencies, soft skills and other criteria) for these key positions.  Then look into the profile of your existing employees.  In their current position, see if the employees have gaps then prepare a training plan that would improve their competencies and be at par with your requirements.  Interview or ask your employees what their career direction within the cooperative.  Check for future personal plans of employees that are outside the cooperative.  This way, you can determine whom you should invest much on employees’ development. 

There are other questions raised during the question and answer portion or after the presentation.  However, I noticed that some cooperatives still lacks in the profiling of their employees.  I suggest that those who doesn't have a software or soft copy of employees data, they should start preparing it using the excel format.  Per excel sheet can be represented by an employee.  Using the records or 201 file, they can immediately extract information.  Then this data should regularly be updated.  What should be its content?  The following are some data you can include in that excel format:

1.  Name of Employee

2.  Date Hired

3.  Department

4.  Entry Position

5.  Current Position

6.  Entry Salary

7.  Current Salary

8.  Age

9.  Gender

10.  Civil Status

11.  No. of Children (if any)

12.  SSS No./TIN No./PhilHealth No.

13.  Contact Number

14.  Address

15.  Educational Attainment

16.  Trainings Attended

17.  Skills and Competencies

18.  Desired position

19.  Certifications

20.  Performance Appraisal

You can add up other data, but from the above information analyze and identify the skill gap between the current post and the qualification/criteria for the occupied post.  Also, identify the gap between the desired career path/position then develop a program that would address that gap.

A lot of this should be in place like the organizational structure, job descriptions, performance measures and key result areas but as for now, I highly recommend for your HR to do the 1st few steps mentioned above. 

I hope this blog was able to help and share our learning for today, August 19, 2014. 

To God be the Glory!

Succession Planning as Key to Effective Leadership Transition

I was invited to provide a talk on Succession Planning and prior to writing this blog, I made some researches to expound on what I would share to the attendees of my upcoming talk.  Here are some of the key points that I would like to share...

 

1.  Succession Planning as key to sustainability of the Activities done to attain organization's direction.  

Succession planning actually is providing a plan or map should in case a leadership post becomes vacated.  The organization's leaders provide the direction and goals; they lead the members of the organization on aligning their activities to the attainment of the organizational goal.  They also are the implementer of projects for improvements and initiates changes for the organizational growth. 

If an organization suddenly loses a leadership post without clearly defining the process of how to replace him/her, the organization will experience disruption in their regular operations.  If the post is highly essential to the organization's productivity, losing the employee occupying it may result to unrest or sudden stoppage.  These stoppage impacts the efficiency and effectiveness of the organization in service to their clients.  A long time built credibility may be tarnished as a result of lacking in plan for leadership replacement.  Thus, it is really essential that a written plan or process should be integrated in the policies or process manuals of the organization.  This would provide the organization some semblance on how to handle emergency loss of leaders or if there's time, efficiency in the transition or transfer of leadership responsibilities and authorities.

 

2.  Succession Plan entails that an effective culture is considered in the identification of successors. 

Succession plans are not the same with all types of organization.  Different organizations have different culture and goals.  The leaders determine the values and culture of the organization.  If a leader is pro-learning, you will see projects and programs geared towards the development of the employees.  However, if the leader is cost-conscious, expect that budgets are bigger for operational requirements and usually training costs are cut-down to minimize expenses.  A leader who believes that to get the cream of the crop employees would approve a higher-rate entry salary, but for leaders who see that entry should be at the minimum would likely get employees whose experiences is lesser or competencies are still to be improved.

In preparing a succession plan, consider the competencies for the leadership post, as well as the soft-skills required for that post.  Grooming future leaders will take longer compared to finding the requirements from possible candidates.  The best thing to do is lay down first the benchmarks and criteria for the identified leadership post then profile existing employees, specifically those who are in the supervisory posts or officer posts.

 

3.  Succession Planning involves cost and is risk taking.

If succession plan involves grooming, then the organization would have to invest on the training and development of identified successors.  However, there is no complete assurance that the identified successors would really stay for good.  Early investment on supervisors and officers is risky but something that we have to take.  People's priorities change as time goes by.  If the organization is not able to keep the interest of that successor or if the organization was not able to address the need of the employees, tendencies are you would lose that employee or successor.  Training bonds are not enough to keep them.  The best approach that HR can think of is creating a program that would allow the employees see their future in the organization, such as career path planning.  This does not give 100% guarantee.  Remember, people are changing individuals and their needs & interests vary over time.

For now, these are three (3) things that I can share with my readers.  If you have any comments or insights, please feel free to share.  Have a great day ahead.

What Are the Major Motivating Factors for Employees' Satisfaction?

Yes, many candidates first look at your compensation and benefits packages when they enter your organization. Just as stated in Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, people first satisfies their basic needs and most often, for employees it is financial. Some graduates initially look for jobs that are relevant to their chosen courses or career. But in the long run, as they get frustrated for not being hired, they then turn to find jobs that would at least give them work experiences and income. During those trying times, they resort to working in BPOs (Business Processes Organizations. This kind of industry offers high initial salary as well as very good benefits. But you will still wonder why the lifespan or most of the BPO employees would only stay for just a year or two. These are the very same reasons why many BPOs think of so much programs that would satisfy their employees i.e. dress-down, piped-in music, free vitamins, free flowing coffees, sleeping quarters and a lot, lot more incentives. Yet still, they don't stay for good.

The reasons are because... one(1) their job is not really their first interest. People are happy when they are working on what they love. Usually, it's what they have taken during their college days. Work becomes stressful if their heart is not on it. Thus, hiring nurses for call center agents would not ensure their commitments. Right fit for the right position. Two (2) or second reason, the generation of graduates nowadays wanted diversity, challenges, travels and continuous development. Without it, they tend to get bored and do the job-hopping. With a lot of good offers, international exposures, for sure they would consider transferring organization. Unlike the generations of their parents, job security was the foremost necessity in finding a job. This results to changes in culture. Three (3) or third reason as I may say is that employees want growth and development in terms of their chosen career. When their interest, needs and values are met, you can be assured that they will stay if not for good, at least for the longest possible time.

I have seen employees staying for good or very long in cooperatives (particularly in the financial sector). In my stay in this industry (which is not very long, since 2012) I was able to identify some factors that made employees stay. During our consultancy diagnostics and by conducting climate surveys, there are two (2) vivid factors that makes the employees stay - "Family Culture" and "Social Contributions". What do I mean by these?

Family Culture - Cooperatives are owned by the members and governed by the members. Because of these traits, many cooperatives allow their employees to become members as well. Thus, they enjoy the benefits given to regular members. Their families in turn are also members, if not regular, are associate members. Since they own the organization, they care for the organization and they treat each member well like part of their families. Everybody pitch-in to make the cooperative grow. They are happy receiving dividends from their shares and they can avail loans in times of need. They are taught how to manage their finances and save. They gain the values of giving cooperation to the organization. People in the cooperatives sector, most often than not, abhor aggressive behaviors. Almost everybody are accommodating.

Social Contribution - Since the members are the most important reasons for the cooperatives' existence, most of the activities done by the organization is geared towards community development, helping people by the people. Those employees in turn learns to be happy, contributing to the organization, as well as the community at large. The feeling of growth and being able to help warms their heart and thus, they stay. I think this is also what other companies are trying to achieve in creating programs that are covered in their Corporate Social Responsibilities or CSR. This trait is second nature to cooperatives. And this may also be the reason why some cooperative employees who have left the coops returns to the same industry.

What I have learned in the cooperative sector is that Values and Principles are better influencers to ensure commitment among the organization's members.

HR Management for Cooperatives

This article was first written and posted in my LinkedIn account. It was published on June 11, 2014 at LinkedIn

It has been more than two years since I transferred from the corporate sector to the cooperative. It was a fulfilling journey because I finally found an organization where you actually work with the people and for the people.

Cooperatives are owned by its members and at the end of the year, a successful financial cooperative benefits not only a few but the majority of its members. Now, the challenges of cooperatives though is that when they grow, the demands for efficiency increases to serve its members well. Quality service needs improvement as well as the products and services offered by the financial cooperative. When you say product, I refer to the time deposits and savings to name a few.

Another thing that must be given much consideration is the values taught by the cooperative to its members. When coops are small, it is quite easy to transfer the values that embodies the organization. However, when they grow, the senior members find difficulty transferring the culture that their founders have established the organization with. So the question of succession planning comes into light.

Looking at the cooperatives in Quebec, succession programs or plans are not an issue. Because the confederation and primary cooperatives in this province of Canada has a massive source of manpower pool and human resource pool. If there is enough sources of capable management sources, succession program is not so essential. The culture of the Filipinos though differentiate the requirement for succession programs. In our cooperatives, we want the future leaders be taken from internal pool of the organization so as to ensure that the values of the cooperative is sustained.

Another challenge for HR in the coop sector is the organizational structure. In our consultancy, we introduce the centralization of functions by creating a head office where most of the decisions (for operations) would be coming from the head office. This would result to specialization and providing more time for the branches to serve their members more. More time for members, equates to better service. However, most of the cooperatives are not yet in that stage and would still have to transition to this setup. Thus, there are lots of work opportunities for HR practitioners, handling or managing changes, as well as developing processes in performance management.

These are just few of the HR requirements in the cooperative sector in our country. I am happy to have this opportunity to work for a dynamic organization like this. It is about time for our new HRM graduates to consider working for the cooperative sector and not just be limited with the opportunities offered in the corporations. Learning is abundant in cooperatives.

What Does It Take to Become a Consultant?

There’s a lot of perks in becoming a consultant: travel, meeting people & networking, and the joy of sharing what you know through coaching & mentoring. What will it take for you to become a consultant? EXPERTISE. You need to be an expert on specific fields of your interest. Thus, if you are currently at the lowest step in your career, don’t despair. Make sure that you are really at the threshold of what you really want to do until you mature on that position.

Specialize, you have to learn the ins and outs of your trade and treat it as an investment to your future. You cannot share what you don’t have, and you cannot save if you don’t know how to swim. Learn your personal strengths, harness it and make sure that you fully understand and know how to use the process.

Consultancy is very similar to a doctor’s profession. You are expected to have the answers to questions, specifically to the fields of your expertise. Prior to coaching & mentoring, you would have to fully understand what needs to be solved. Therefore, you have to learn how to diagnose the needs of your clients. As an HR consultant, I start by identifying the different areas in the HR Department, the processes, the functions and the skills required from the HR personnel. I also have to understand the market trend or what is happening in other industries related to my field of expertise. Then I go back to my client and make an assessment, benchmarking them with the best practices on the HR trade.

I have mentioned the need to understanding the market trend or what the best practices are. Becoming a consultant, you need to continuously learn and study. Learning never stops. Age and maturity is not a limitation for a consultant. The more you age, the more the perception of maturity and your clients would think that you have gained enough number of years of experience on your field.

So if you want to go into that direction – becoming a consultant, then those I have mentioned are your investments. It would take a lot of patience, time, effort and interest. If your heart is in what you are doing, then it will not feel that long of a wait.