Many of you must have read at least one book by Canadian author Malcolm Gladwell, whose books The Tipping Point, Outliers and Blink have all made it to the Number 1 spot on the New York Times best-sellers list.

This August, I’m privileged to be invited by the Singapore Institute of Management (SIM) for their 30th SIM Annual Management Lecture (AML), where Malcolm Gladwell will be speaking in two keynote presentations:

1. The Human Capitalization Challenge
2. The Entrepreneurial Profile

I’ve read two of Gladwell’s books, and I’m definitely excited to hear him speak in person.

His books are logical; you will find yourself nodding in agreement while turning the pages, and yet they are also set against conventional wisdom; making you think twice about topics ranging from social psychology to marketing, politics to self-help, and also decision-making strategies.

Having studied Human Resources in my diploma course, I am aware that many companies these days have a problem not just in talent acquisition and talent retention, but also talent capitalization. In the first keynote, Gladwell will share his thoughts and learnings about how to best ‘exploit’ the available human capital in an organization, to ensure highest efficiency at the workplace. This is relevant not only to HR managers, but also all persons within a managerial-level position, business owners, as well as supervisory-level staff.

The second keynote should be of interest to current business owners and potential entrepreneurs. Gladwell will be profiling the ‘entrepreneur type’, so I’m definitely interested to see if I fall into that ‘type’. I’ve never thought of myself as a risk-taker; yet Gladwell opines that entrepreneurs are operationally risk-averse. Regardless, this session is bound to shed some light on how we can encourage innovation and entrepreneurism at our workplace.

If you’re interested in these talks, check out the SIM-AML Facebook page, where you can find out how you can buy a ticket to this full day seminar event, as well as how you can WIN a complimentary event pass worth up to S$1337.50 (inclusive of GST and buffet lunch).

SIM Annual Management Lecture 30th Anniversary
Event details:
26 August 2011 (Friday)
9am to 4pm
Shangri-La Hotel Singapore

This post is sponsored by SIM Annual Management Lecture.

While I do understand the logic that in this dire economic climate, of course, that higher authorities may encourage companies to first hire Singaporeans, to ensure that all citizens have a job, before opening the available position to foreigners, I also wonder if some companies state that for invalid reasons, for example, HR does not want to process work visas for foreign staff because it is troublesome and involves a lot of paperwork. Having come from a HR background myself, I can tell you that this reason is fairly common.

Of course, there may be real and valid reasons why companies require only Singaporean employees, or employees with Permanent Residency statuses:

1. There is a manpower quota, which varies for different sectors, and the company (especially small ones) may not have met the minimum required number of Singaporeans in order to be able to hire foreigners, or they may have already fulfilled that maximum quota of foreigners they can employ.
2. Jobs / positions within the organization (usually governmental) have high security levels, that is, concerning defense and internal security of the country, perhaps. Organizations like Mindef, DSTA, PMO, MHA would likely have such restrictions to hiring foreigners.

Barring factors like having a bad economic situation and therefore wanting to retain jobs for citizens first, I think having such “requirements” in job ads (and they are usually in bold font, and some even in red), it creates within many foreign talents in Singapore a feeling of not being wanted here, a feeling of being discriminated against. It does not bode well for the image of the organization.

How does that line up against the government’s plan to import more talents, and to increase the population by doing so?

With Singapore’s small population and limited human capital, how does this harm the organization’s chances of hiring the best talent (i.e. best fit, best abilities, best HR dollar ROI for the organization) to do the job? And how many dollars lost to competitors does that translate into for that particular organization?

How much less revenue is the industry (and country) generating due to such non-ideal recruitment practices, as compared to say, having the right people in the right places for the right prices?

With the admirable work done by the Tripartite Alliance for Fair Employment Practices (constituting representatives from the Ministry of Manpower to represent the government, NTUC to represent employees, and SNEF to represent employers) to ensure that jobseekers and employees are not discriminated against for their race, religion, and gender, I do sometimes wonder if this blatant, undoubtedly very real, discrimination of nationality, is a step back for our society in Singapore?