Group 2

Title: Would the review of the salary scheme is sufficient to retain talents in Malaysia?

It seen unlikely review of the salary scheme will be sufficient to retain talents in Malaysia
since foreign countries organisations such as United States, United Kingdom, Singapore and
many of the developed countries had provided the remuneration package with high salary and
more benefits compared to Malaysia local companies. Therefore, the companies shall think of
other ways besides review of salary scheme in order to retain talents.

Nowadays, most of the employees and job seekers are placing a higher importance on non-
financial incentives such as flexible working hours or remote working in order to create
a work-life balance before they seek for their desired companies and jobs. Employees who
are able to strike a balance between work and life will demonstrate greater commitment and
pride over the work that they do. Therefore, consider to integrate flexibility benefits and
lifestyle options in the reward model by conducting a company-wide assessment on
employees’ work-life needs and their work approach, and how it impacts productivity and
performance. Then, design a relevant and sustainable Employee Value Proposition (EVP)
that meets the changing needs of business and employees. Correspondingly, the improved
EVP becomes an important engagement driver and retention tool.
Moreover, the companies can build up their own internal talents by placing additional
emphasis and visibility on internal talent, and shift sourcing and retention strategies to focus
more on redeployment and internal talent management. This requires designing a structured
career progression path for employees that encompasses on-the-job training, mentoring,
project management, job rotation or foreign assignment opportunities. Building talent from
within the company can provide a major competitive advantage as the employees are
positioned to add the most value and contribute to the success of a company. In turn, this
increases employee engagement as the opportunities for progression provide the employee a
sense of purpose which then creates a positive cycle of higher motivation and productivity,
improved retention levels and reduction in the urgency around external hiring. A structured
career development programme is also one of the biggest draws for millennials as they feel
that this is what makes an employer an attractive prospect to work for.

In conclusion, there are many ways to retain the talents in reality by the local organisation
besides review of salary scheme in Malaysia. However, it still needs to depend on employers’
willingness and actions in order to retain talents as currently the economic performance had
become weaker and layoffs happened in few large organisations. Therefore, the cost of talent
retention may become unnecessary expenses for the organisations and most employers may
not intend to implement the talent retention programme.

Group 2
Title: Would the current salary increment be enough to match the rising cost of living?

We strongly agreed that current salary increment are not enough to match the rising cost of
living as according to the New Straits Times, Bank Negara’s 2018 Annual Report has shown
that Malaysians working locally get paid less than their counterparts in advanced economies
like Australia and Singapore. Other economies used as benchmarks were the US, UK, and
Germany.

However, low salary is not the sole reason that caused the rising cost of living but also due to
inflation and time value of money. Inflation is a sustained increase in the general price level
of goods and services in an economy over a period of time. In fact, the salary shall be
increased according to the inflation rate in order to hedge against the inflation rate which
caused the prices of consumption items. If not, the purchasing power of consumers will be
reduced and facing financial difficulties. So, the consumers were advised that the consumers
can invest in different investments in order to earn interest as extra income which can hedge
against the inflation rate to prevent the reduction in purchasing power.

Furthermore, the contributing factor of rising cost of living are due to the weak value of
Malaysia ringgit compared to other major currencies. Prices of many goods and services with
foreign content are going up with a falling ringgit. Not only that, online overseas purchases
will reflect immediately the prevailing exchange rate while those involving supply chains of
stock and wholesaler will see a delayed pass-through until stocks are replenished with the
new imported price. Therefore, consumers are advised to postpone buying imported goods
until Malaysia currency exchange more favourable to the other major currencies or spend
more locally to help the domestic economy.

Moreover, the rising cost of living also due to people nowadays intend to pursue a luxury
lifestyle which is consumed more in high valued luxury and brandy items. Brand
consciousness among the Malaysian society has been increasing over the past few years,
especially with the young generation who are now appetite for luxury goods and brands
especially from college, university students and young working adults. Therefore, the luxury
goods sector has been growing along with the rest of the world over the past ten years.
Therefore, it is one of the reasons of the salary received n is not enough to cope with the cost
of living as they had included the needs and wants into the cost of living.

In conclusion, the current salary received by Malaysian may not be enough to match with the
cost of living due to the inflation and weak value of Malaysian Ringgit. Some Malaysians did
not identify and separate the necessities and wants. They thought pursuing a luxury goods is
one of the necessities, therefore the cost of living had been increased. Hence, to some people,
the low income is not the sole reason of salary received is not enough to match the cost of
living.

Introduction (Education - Unemployment among fresh graduates)

Unemployment is a term referring to individuals who are employable and seeking a job but are
unable to find a job. Consumer spending will decrease as consumers are facing financial
difficulties due to unemployment and this leads the economic growth to be slowed down as
consumer spending is one of the economy’s key drivers of growth. As a result, a recession or
even a depression may happen when the unemployment issue above left unaddressed.
Moreover, unemployment causes the consumers to suffer financial difficulties that may lead to
emotional destruction. Looking at Malaysia, although the overall unemployment is around 3.4%
in 2017, but the youth unemployment is seen as a crisis problem in Malaysia where the youth
unemployment rate is over three times higher at around 10.8% in 2017.

Here’s the hard truth where being a university graduate no longer guarantees you a job. As the
number of graduates continues to climb each year, students are facing tough competition amidst
a shaky economy. Based on a study in 2018, there are over 290,000 students graduate from
institutions of higher learning every year (Leo, 2019). Unfortunately, 1 out of 5 graduates
remain unemployed, with the majority being degree holders and these graduates make up 55%
of those who are unemployed. In these few years, the government had found out that the youth
unemployment rate had climbed up and started to implement some actions in order to overcome
the problems. Recently, the government had submitted the Budget 2020 and proposed to
provide wages incentives to unemployed graduates who had been jobless for a year to secure a
job and the incentives were also provided to the employer in order to reduce youth
unemployment.

Reason why this segment is selected for review

We have selected the section on unemployment among fresh graduates due to the following
reasons.

We are concerned regarding the continued increasing of unemployment rate among fresh
graduates in Malaysia, it is especially concerning to us as we are about to graduate soon and
we are the foundation of the future economic progression of Malaysia. Based on the statistics
from Budget 2020, there are more than half a million unemployed Malaysian in 2018 , of whom
140,000 were unemployed graduates. Out of those unemployment, 290,000 were youths
including those are 24 years old or below. This has been emphasized by the government as
these statistics have increased every year. Therefore, based on the Budget 2020 from the
Finance Minister, Lim Guan Eng, the graduates who secure jobs will receive a wage incentive
of RM 500 per month for a duration of two years provided that they have been jobless for one
year. Furthermore, the employers will receive a hiring incentive up to RM300 per month for
each new hire mentioned above for two years. The action above taken by the government has
shown that they are helping and encouraging fresh graduates to look for a job.

Other than that, we are concerned with the current situation of the job markets as currently
Malaysian youths want to be given a chance, but the job market is lean. The country’s central
bank, Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) said that between 2010 and 2017, the number of tertiary
graduates entering the workforce surpassed the number of jobs created for them. In its annual
report published in March 2019, it said that on average, 173,457 diploma and degree graduates
entered the workforce annually over that period but only 98,514 high-skilled jobs were created
over that time. This suggests that the economy has not created sufficient high-skilled jobs to
absorb the number of graduates entering the labour force. The job deficit has exacerbated as
Malaysia already has high youth unemployment rate of 10.8 percent in 2017, which was three
times the national unemployment rate.

Agree on unrealistic salary and remuneration unemployed

We agree that one of the key factors that contribute to the increasing unemployment of fresh
graduates is due to their unrealistic salary and remuneration expectation as stated. According
to the study in 2017, as much as 68% of employers filed complaints where fresh graduates are
asking too much. 75% of fresh graduates were reported to ask for starting salaries of RM3,000.
Among this 75% of fresh graduates, more than half of them asked for salaries of RM3,500 and
above. Owing to the unrealistic demands, 72% of fresh graduates’ job applications were
rejected, with only 2 percent of employers agree that they are willing to pay the fresh graduates
RM3,000 (FreeMalaysiaToday, 2017). The previous research has discovered the reason behind
it is that fresh graduates lack of employability skills, poor understanding of the English
language and poor communication skills. At the same time, they are also being too choosy
about the job and they are demanding for an unrealistic high salary and this leads to increasing
unemployment among fresh graduates. Other job requirements like having bilingual or
multilingual traits are the hot-picks among employers because of their ability to handle clients
that don’t speak English. Poor command of English among fresh graduates leads to their
downfall in securing a job since most employers prefer candidates that can speak and write
well in English in this globalised era. In this case, the employer feels that the current ability
that the fresh graduates possess does not worth as much as the salary requested by them.

Disagree on unrealistic salary and remuneration unemployed

On the other hand, it is stated that certain fresh graduates are demanding unrealistics salary as
high as RM6,500 as their starting salary and we disagree with it. However, according to the
survey carried by JobStreet and Universum’s Malaysia Top 100 Ideal Employers Talent, 60%
of fresh graduates are expecting RM3,500 for their starting salary (SAYS News, 2016). The
reason for fresh graduates demanding RM3,500 as starting salary is because the current living
standards have raised and thus the cost of living has also increased. Bank Negara Malaysia
reports that the minimum cost of living needed to survive in the city is RM2,700 (MalayMail,
2018). Therefore, Malaysian Trade Union argued that a starting salary of RM3,000 to
RM3,500 are reasonable (MalayMail, 2018). However, a report released by Bank Negara
Malaysia (BNM) stated that the average starting salary received by the fresh graduates with
Honours’ degree is only RM2,169 (JobStreet, 2019). Furthermore, fresh graduates nowadays
have proper skills and knowledge to their working field as they have received proper education
system from the college. Thus, employers should give a chance to the fresh graduates to
contribute their skills and knowledge to the company. Although the fresh graduates are
demanding for slightly high starting salary, but they will not reject any working opportunity
which provides them a lower starting salary.

Agree on communication skills

It is stated that the poor communication skills of the fresh graduates are one of the key factors
that lead to the unemployment of the fresh graduates. In our opinion, we strongly agree with
the statement above. Based on the statistics from the Malaysian Employers Federation in 2016,
there were 200,000 unemployed graduates in Malaysia due to the poor command of English
(The Star, 2016). Despite the fresh graduates that have excellent grades stated in the resumes,
they are not guaranteed to be employed since those resumes are only used as a tool for the first
screening process and they are not the key deciding factors. Currently, the communications
skills are the other most sought-after requirement for an employee aside from the resumes that
fresh graduates have sent to the employer. Communication skills here do not simply mean the
ability to converse fluently but it also includes body language, and the ability to convey
information and ideas effectively and efficiently. Thus, employers will need to evaluate the
communication skills of the fresh graduates during the face-to-face interviews or phone
interviews before deciding to employ them and this is the stage where some high potential
candidates with excellent grades flop due to the inability to communicate and articulate ideas
clearly and in an organised manner.

Disagree on poor character and self esteem

Other than that, it is also stated that the job candidate is late for interviews, dressed
inappropriately, and poorly groomed and this has lead the job candidate would not be able to
give their best first impressions to the panel of interviewers and effectively narrowing his or
her chances of securing a job placement. However, we disagree with this. First of all, the first
reason that we disagree on this point is that the College and University do have some specific
programmes that are offered to the students to prepare them to face the real world. For example,
TAR University College has offered Public Speaking, Organisation Human Resources and
English Language Course programmes (TARUC, 2019). Under these programmes, the students
have done presentations in the class as coursework and they are taught on how to dress properly
such as wearing formal wear is required for presentation and to be punctual for the presentation
otherwise the grade for the presentation will be deducted. The second reason is that the parents
of the student in this generation is more educated compared to the last generation. Nowadays,
most parents have worked in the real world and they will share some experiences to their
children on the things to do or not to do during the job interview stage. As a result, the fresh
graduates will be more confident, punctual and prepare themselves adequately before the
interview.