KUALA LUMPUR, MYS — 24th April 2018 — Forest Interactive is announced as the winner of a Silver Stevie Award for Innovation in Consumer Products & Services for its digital payment platform, Wallet Codes under the New Product category in the fifth annual Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards. Able to meet the scores of more than 100 executives around the world acting as judges, the company bagged another win and also named the winner of a Bronze Stevie Award for Excellence in Innovation in Technology Industries.
The Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards is the only business awards program to recognize innovation in the workplace in all 22 nations of the Asia-Pacific region. The Stevie Awards are widely considered to be the world’s premier business awards, conferring recognition for achievement in programs such as The International Business Awards® for sixteen years. Nicknamed the Stevies for the Greek word for “crowned,” the awards will be presented to winners at a gala banquet at the Mira Hotel in Hong Kong on Friday, 1 June.
The Vice President of Forest Interactive, Sharon Maurenn stated that “We are truly honored to win not only one but two awards from different categories. We can’t be more grateful for the great recognition among other prestigious companies. On behalf of Forest Interactive, I would say, these two winnings are the homage as a global mobile tech company for all of our team’s continuous commitment for their hard work and never-ending belief in fulfilling the company’s vision to enrich mobile experience through multifaceted innovative products tailored to enhance telecommunication solutions. “ Read More
Addressing The Issues On The Language Barrier, Mindset Towards Night Shift Work And Strengthening Government-Private Sector Collaboration Through PRIDE.
Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) has aggressively launched programs that aims to encourage young Malaysians to pursue a career in technology. In a recent initiative, MDEC’s Talent and Digital Entrepreneurship Division (TDE) invited members of the academe, tech experts to business owners. The activity is a one-day session to introduce Project PRIDE (Platform for Real Industry Driven Project Exchange. PRIDE provides a structured engagement platform for industry players to collaborate with Premier Digital Tech Universities and Preferred Digital Tech Polytechnics in various capacities.
Forest Interactive attended the event and learned a lot about how the government has been building a government that aims to produce talents that would soon become great assets in the tech industry. Among the panelists were Rene Bernard, CEO of Lux Tag and President of ACCESS, Blockchain Association, Dr. Dayang Norhayati Abang Jawawi—an associate professor at the Faculty of Computing in UTM and Waran Govindarajah of IBM’s Shared Services and Telecom Expense Management.
From Left To Right: Dr. Dayang Norhayati Abang Jawawi—An Associate Professor At The Faculty Of Computing In UTM, Rene Bernard, CEO Of Lux Tag And President Of ACCESS, Blockchain Association, And Waran Govindarajah Of IBM’s Shared Services And Telecom Expense Management
Mindset Towards Night Shift
Waran of IBM shared that there are a lot of applicants in the company but the challenge includes mindset. Some applicants won’t even accept night shift work. He continued to say that these individuals are missing out on the opportunity. Sometimes parents are involved in negotiating with the salary. Some of the audience found the quip funny. Monster.com a leading job search portal cites Robert Hosking of Office Team that some parents would involve in instances such as reviewing resumes and calling the employer to negotiate on the salary. It should not be the case.
Waran further shared that because of this challenge, some companies are looking into hiring foreign talents because they are the ones who are willing to accept jobs that would require time zone differences. As for the academe, Dr. Dayang said that ”some schools now have evening classes to help give students the idea of working at night, but that is still something that needs to be worked on.”
The Language Barrier
In an interesting take, one of the panelists Rene Bernard cited how language also became a barrier in Malaysian talents. In some cases, certain students are still unable to speak and articulate in English professionally. Barnard shared that the readiness to be able to send emails has also become a barrier. English is considered as a major factor on why some applicants do not get hired.
One of the audience also acknowledged how grammar would seem to be an issue amongst the youth. How do schools prepare students to go out of the interview? Dr. Dayang of UTM recognized this challenge saying schools are preparing students to be ready for global work through initiatives. For example, getting students to practice and be accustomed to using English daily. There are also activities involving encouragement for students to do all school events in English and to “Think Global.”
Mindset is the teacher’s responsibility hence will keep on trying to change the current situation. Some articles also point out how up-scaling language is the tested and proven approach. Countries like Japan to improve the marketability of their people and their businesses as a whole and that Malaysia has taken an approach for reform on tertiary education (“English in Malaysia: Current Use and Status,” Toshiko Yamaguchi, David Deterding, 2016).
Bernard however chimed in on the ”Think Global” mindset saying: “brain drain happens when we give them the mindset that they have to leave, that could be one issue,” by which Dr. Dayang replied with a personal perspective answer, “The ones here have limited flexibility as opposed to those who actually went to study abroad. Two (2) years in University and two (2) years in the industry program helps expose the student to the industry.”
Statistics actually show that brain drain is rampant in South East Asia, in fact, the number of highly educated migrants continuously increase over the years due to higher wages, better working conditions, and benefits that come with the job offer overseas.
All three panelists agreed that it is important to hire interns to experience real work scenario in the industry. Lux Tag’s CEO said, “SMEs have a different approach on what can be done to help students get jobs in the company.” Adding that this is mainly because some do not always have the luxury of time and workforce to train students. IBM however, is a more established and larger scope have more options. Waran noted that every employer should: “treat the interns correctly, not do photocopies or just give tasks like making coffee. To prepare them, one must treat them well. The apprentice should see how the work is done.”
There are also complexities with internship because interns have to learn how everything works in the real world. Mentors in IBM would allow interns to shadow executives for exposure on the job. The scope of shadowing is dependent on how much work the intern will take on. Sensitive data and tasks that require accountability remain a caveat. But at the end of the day, the ultimate goal is to mold someone to become a globally ready professional.
