Bandar Seri Begawan - Human resource executives in Brunei are keen on setting up a club that will serve as a venue for the exchange of ideas on resolving issues affecting the workplace.

Watson Wyatt, a global human resources consulting and research agency, said it is interested in helping facilitate the organisation of this club in the Sultanate.

The company has been in Brunei the past few months doing a study for the banking industry, said Richard Yeo, senior consultant at Watson Wyatt Singapore Pte Ltd.

"Of course, we are running a business, but there is also that educational part from our interactions, and we find that there is something lacking in Brunei - a common platform for human resource (executives and specialists) to sit together and learn more from the experts that we can bring in," said Yeo. He added that from the past few months he found that the human resource personnel in Brunei are very keen to learn more and that plans to have a common platform would include the organisation of a club specifically to discuss human resource issues.

Watson Wyatt recently completed a human resource survey commissioned by the Brunei Association of Banks (BAB).

"The survey was done on 11 companies, banks, and is more related to the private sector's (employee) benefits," said Yeo. He added that although it was commissioned by the BAB, companies such as Royal Brunei Airlines and BAG Networks also participated in.

"The data from the survey is to serve the banking industry so that they will have some sort of comparison to better benchmark their salaries and commission packages," said Yeo. He added that in the past other surveys have been don; however, they did not meet the needs that BAB was looking for.

"Watson Wyatt has been operating in Brunei for the past couple of months, and we have noticed that there is no human resource consulting base here in Brunei," said Yeo. He added that recently, the Mean managing director for Watson Wyatt felt that it was time to invest more in the Brunei market by tapping into the projects that are available.

"Hopefully this survey will be an annual one, based on our experience with the Kuala Lumpur and Singapore market. An annual survey would be great because we believe that annual benchmarking is significant," he said.

At the moment the head offices that would lead the Brunei market would be the head offices from Kuala Lumpur and Singapore because of the market dynamics in both countries are similar to that of Brunei.

"We are going to push for the survey to be an annual thing because it is significant and it is something we are confident to bring beyond the banking sector," Yeo said.

Next week, the company will have a session with human resource individuals to share the findings of their study results.

"We will discuss the results also of the regional benefits survey, which is focused more on salaries and a little bit of employee engagement, where, based on our knowledge, Brunei is a little bit different because people tend to stay a bit longer (in a company)," he said. -- Courtesy of The Brunei Times

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