Wednesday, September 24, 2014

Choices and Decisions

One : Do not promise when you're happy.
Two : When you are angry, do not respond.
Three : Do not decide when you are sad.

Some people decide something when they are under circumstances that the brain and the heart cannot synergy. Promise, anger, or decision sometimes made in the wrong time and at the wrong place. We have to control our body, mind and heart in order to control our life. The most bad control example is give up. 

Before you give up, think of the reason why you held on for so long.

Listen to your own voice and your own soul. Too many people listen to the noise of the world instead of themselves. 

We cannot think clearly and decide something unwisely about our choice because we pushed by the conditions, not by our own reason. The best time to decide is after through the step of summarizing and analyzing. Summarize what we have been through. Analyze the reason why we held on for long. 

Sometimes you give on someone, not because you don't care but because they don't.
Never waste your feelings on someone who doesn't value them.

When it come to relationship, what we important is value. Value is created based on the realization of feelings. When one / both of the couple give less value, wrong value, meaningless value, it is a sign when they have to consider their relationship.

There's a difference between giving up and moving on.

I know that it is different when we prefer to moving on rather than giving up. What is the differences? Simple, give up is stop doing something that you do regularly, move on mean to stop discussing or doing something and begin discussing or doing something different. .

Sometimes good people make bad choices. It doesn't mean they are bad people, it means they are human. 
 
And the most important thing don't blame ourselves. Learn the choices and remember that there are cost and responsibility for every decision we made. The most important thing, just be your self and don't forget to ask for God's guidance for every decision you will make. Have a nice day. God bless.




Wednesday, September 17, 2014

Mengenal Generasi Y

Beberapa waktu lalu, seseorang bercerita tentang karirnya. Bukan spesifik tentang karirnya tetapi bagaimana dia menghadapi tantangan mengembangkan bisnis perusahaan tempat dia bekerja dalam mengejar pangsa pasar generasi Y. Lalu apakah itu generasi Y? Pada waktu itu saya manggut-manggut saja seolah mengerti, namun setelah googling saya mengerti lewat artikel dari manajemenppm oleh ibu Octa.

Dengan membaca artikel tersebut, saya mengetahuai bahwa saya ternyata termasuk dalam kategori generasi Y, yang mana saya merupakan seorang yang terlahir pada tahun 1990. Betul sekali yang dikatakan ibu Octa lewat artikelnya bahwa kita yang termasuk gen Y lebih terbuka pada politik dan ekonomi yang tentunya dipengaruhi perkembangan teknologi, contohnya pemilu kemarin.

Artikel juga menjelaskan hal - hal lain dalam kehidupan pekerjaan. Saya cederung sangat memanfaatkan teknologi yang ada seperti internet dalam pekerjaan, bukan sekedar karena saya bekerja sebagai konsultan IT. Hal lainnya yang berkaitan dengan gen Y adalah saya sangat menyukai pekerjaan kelompok. Ini didukung oleh kepribadian saya yang kholeris, dimana manajemen dan organisasi adalah sesuatu yang terkandung didalamnya. Dalam menjalani karir, saya suka mengembangkan diri saya dan berharap hal tersebut didukung oleh perusahaan tempat saya berkarya. Untuk itu saya sangat terbuka pada atasan agar segala sesuatunya berjalan lancar, baik untuk saya pribadi maupun perusahaan.

Silahkan baca artikel dibawah ini, agar wawasan kita tentang generasi Y bertambah. 
Selamat membaca.




Mengenal Siapa Itu Generasi Y?

Generasi Y, yang biasanya juga disebut sebagai generasi millenium, merupakan generasi yang muncul setelah Generasi X. Ungkapan Generasi Y itu mulai dipakai pada editorial koran besar di Amerika Serikat bulan Agustus tahun 1993.

Pada saat itu editor koran tersebut sedang membahas para remaja yang pada saat itu baru berumur 12–13 tahun, namun memiliki perilaku yang berbeda dengan Generasi X. Kemudian perusahaan-perusahaan pada saat itu mulai mengelompokan anak-anak yang lahir setelah tahun 1980-an sebagai anak-anak Generasi Y.

Hingga saat ini, apabila kita membaca berbagai literatur yang mendiskusikan tentang Generasi Y, tidak pernah ada suatu kesepakatan kapan generasi ini dimulai. Sebahagian literatur menetapkan bahwa mereka adalah generasi yang lahir di awal tahun 1980-an, namun banyak juga literatur yang menetapkan bahwa generasi ini lahir di awal, di tengah bahkan di akhir 1990-an.

Di berbagai belahan bumi pun, belum ada kesepakatan tentang Generasi Y ini. Di Australia, para ahli belum menyepakati kapan persisnya Generasi Y ini muncul dan kapan pula tepatnya generasi ini berakhir atau “cutoff”. Pemerintah Australia sendiri melalui Australian Bureau of Statistics, menetapkan 1982–2000 sebagai masa Generasi Y.

Lain lagi dengan Canada, hampir semua ahli sepakat kalau Generasi Y lahir tahun 1982, dan periode akhir dari Generasi Y ini pertengahan tahun 1990-an atau 2000. Walau pun demikian di antara semua perbedaan, hampir semua literatur sepakat bahwa sebahagaian besar Generasi Y, lahir diantara tahun 1980-an hingga 1990-an.

Semua literatur juga sepakat bahwa sebahagian besar orang tua Generasi Y adalah generasi baby boomers, yang mempunyai kecenderungan untuk memiliki keluarga kecil, sehingga biasanya mereka hanya mempunyai kakak atau adik, tidak lebih dari 3 orang. Walaupun mereka tidak suka, Generasi Y dianggap sebagai suksesor dari Generasi X.

Mengapa Mereka Berbeda?


Apabila kita memperhatikan perilaku atau karakteristik Generasi Y di setiap daerah Indonesia, maka kita akan melihat karakteristik yang berbeda-beda, tergantung di mana ia dibesarkan, strata ekonomi dan sosial keluarganya. Namun secara keseluruhan, kita dapat melihat bahwa Generasi Y itu sangat terbuka pola komunikasinya dibandingkan generasi-generasi sebelumnya.

Mereka juga pemakai media sosial yang fanatik dan kehidupannya sangat terpengaruh dengan perkembangan teknologi. Kita juga bisa melihat di setiap provinsi, bahwa mereka lebih terbuka dengan pandangan politik dan ekonominya sehingga mereka terlihat sangat reaktif terhadap perubahan lingkungan yang terjadi di sekelilingnya.

Dari pengalaman pribadi sebagai senior consultant di PPM Manajemen, saya melihat bahwa Generasi Y itu terlihat lebih concern terhadap ‘wealth’ daripada generasi-generasi sebelumnya terutama generasi saya, Generasi Baby Boomers.

Banyak di antara mereka yang sudah membuat rencana apa saja yang mereka inginkan pada saat mereka baru berumur 20-an. Namun definisi mereka tentang ‘wealth’ bukan mengacu kepada kekayaan material saja. Buat mereka hubungan keluarga dan pertemanan juga dianggap sebagai bagian dari ‘wealth’ yang diinginkan.

Saya sering bertemu dengan Generasi Y, yang pindah perusahaan karena perusahaan menuntut mereka bekerja lebih dari 12 jam, sehingga mereka merasa tidak diberi kesempatan untuk membangun kehidupan keluarga atau sosial lainnya, seperti apa yang mereka inginkan. Bahkan, beberapa di antara mereka memutuskan pindah ke perusahaan dengan imbal jasa yang lebih kecil, karena mereka ingin mempunyai waktu yang lebih banyak buat keluarga.

Namun untuk memliliki pandangan secara akurat tentang Generasi Y ini, ada baiknya kita melihat pendapat para ahli yang kompeten. Secara internasional ada berbagai pendapat yang paling populer mengenal Generasi Y.

Pendapat pertama, mengenai generasi Y yang perlu diperhatikan adalah pendapat penulis William Strauss dan Neil Howe yang mencoba mendefinisikan generasi-generasi yang ada di Amerika dalam buku mereka Generations: The History of America’s Future, 1584 to 2069 (1991).

Teori mereka tentang generasi ini banyak diambil oleh berbagai penulis jurnal dan buku yang membahas masalah-masalah antar generasi. Howe and Strauss selalu memakai terminologi Generasi Millenium bagi Generasi Y, karena mereka yakin bahwa anggota Generasi Y sangat tidak suka apabila mereka diasosiasikan dengan Generasi X.

William Strauss dan Neil Howe juga menganggap Generasi Y merupakan generasi yang istimewa. Dalam buku mereka yang berjudul The Fourth Turning, yang ditulis pada tahun 1997, mereka banyak menuliskan keyakinan mereka ini. Keduanya, berpendapat bahwa sejarah modern itu akan selalu berulang sendiri setiap 4 siklus sosial, yang setiap siklus kurang lebih memakan waktu 80 sampai 100 tahun.

Dalam buku tersebut penulis juga meyakini bahwa 4 siklus sosial itu selalu terjadi dengan urutan yang sama. Siklus pertama (High), terjadi pada saat manusia melakukan ekspansi untuk menggantikan generasi yang sebelumnya.

Siklus kedua, dinamakan sebagai siklus kebangkitan (Awakening). Orang-orang pada masa ini lebih spiritual dari siklus sebelumnya, tapi mereka yang hidup di masa ini mempunyai kecenderungan untuk memberontak kepada segala sesuatu yang yang sudah dibuat mapan oleh generasi pertama.

Pada siklus ketiga yang diberi nama sebagai siklus Unraveling, elemen individu dan pengelompokan mempengaruhi masyarakat sehingga timbul berbagai permasalahan yang kemudian memicu kebangkitan generasi keempat.

Pada era masyarakat mengalami berbagai kesulitan sehingga timbul kebutuhan untuk meredefinisi lagi struktur, tujuan dan sasaran yang sudah ditetapkan dalam masyarakat.

Setiap generasi memiliki karakteristik yang berbeda satu sama lain sehingga mereka diberi penamaan yang berbeda. seperti: Prophet, Nomad, Hero, and Artist. Menurut mereka Generasi Y merupakan generasi yang dikategorikan sebagai Hero, dengan karakteristik sangat percaya kepada institusi dan kewenangan, terlihat agak konvensional akan tetapi sangat berpengaruh. Kebanyakan Generasi Y ini dibesarkan pada siklus Unraveling dengan proteksi yang lebih dari generasi sebelumnya, Generasi X.

Ciri-ciri Generasi Y pada setiap tahap kehidupannya akan sangat berbeda. Pada saat muda, Generasi Y ini sangat tergantung pada kerja sama kelompok. Pada saat mereka mulai dewasa mereka akan berubah menjadi orang-orang yang akan lebih bersemangat apabila bekerja secara berkelompok terutama di saat-saat krisis.

Pada saat paruh baya, mereka akan semakin energetik, berani mengambil keputusan dan kebanyakan mereka mampu menjadi pemimpin yang kuat. Pada saat mereka tua, mereka akan menjadi sebagai sekelompok orang tua yang mampu memberikan kotribusi dan kritikan kepada masyarakat.

Pada tahun 2000, berdasarkan suatu penelitian demografis yang sangat luas William Strauss dan Neil Howe menulis buku yang didekasikan kepada Generasi Y dengan diberi judul Millennials Rising: The Next Great Generation.

Di dalam buku ini mereka memakai 1982 dan 2001 sebagai masa di mana Generasi Y mulai dan berakhir. Mereka sangat percaya bahwa semua orang yang lulus SMA sampai tahun 2000 nanti akan sangat berbeda dengan mereka yang lulus SMA sebelum dan sesudah masa itu, karena orang-orang pada masa itu menerima banyak perhatian dari media dan perkembangan politik yang mereka terima. Bahkan William Strauss dan Neil Howe berpendapat bahwa generasi ini akan menjadi generasi yang peduli akan masalah-masalah kemasyarakatan.

Jean Twenge, pengarang buku Generation Me (2007), mempunyai pendapat yang berbeda tentang Generasi Y. Menurutnya, Generasi Y dan bersama-sama Generasi X termasuk generasi yang diberi nama Generation Me.

Ia berpendapat seperti ini, karena dari riset perilaku yang dilakukannya ia melihat bahwa generasi ini meningkat kecenderungan narcissismnya apabila dibandingkan dengan riset yang dilakukan terhadap generasi Baby Boomers, pada saat mereka remaja hingga mereka berumur duapuluhan.

Dengan dasar penelitian ini, ia mempertanyakan pendapat Strauss & Howe tentang generasi ini. University of Michigan’s secara terus menerus sejak tahun 1975 melakukan penelitian terhadap para remaja. Hasil penelitian mereka memperlihatkan:

• Pelajar yang menyatakan kekayaan itu penting semakin meningkat setiap generasi dari 45% pada Generasi Baby Boomers (disurvey pada tahun 1966 dan 1978), menjadi 70% pada Generasi X dan 75% pada Generasi Y atau Millennials.

• Sebaliknya, pelajar yang menyatakan bahwa selalu tahu tentang keadaan politik semakin menurun setiap generasi dari 50% pada Generasi Baby Boomers (disurvey pada tahun 1966 dan 1978), menjadi 39% pada Generasi X dan 35% pada Generasi Y atau Millennials.

• 73% Baby Boomers ingin mengembangkan filosofi yang bermakna, sementara hanya 45% Generasi Y yang mau melakukan hal tersebut.

• 33% Baby Boomers mau terlibat dengan program membersihkan lingkungan dan hanya 33% Generasi Y yang mau melakukan hal tersebut.

Praktek Pengelolaan SDM Bagi Generasi Y

Apabila kita perhatikan data demografi karyawan di perusahaan, kita dapat melihat kalau Generasi Baby Boomers adalah generasi terbesar yang anggotanya sedang aktif bekerja. Penelitian dan observasi memperlihatkan bahwa Generasi Baby Boomers mengidentifikasi atau menggambarkan kekuatan mereka adalah pemikiran-pemikiran tentang organisasi, rasa optimisme dan kemauan untuk bekerja dengan waktu yang panjang (work long hours).

Generasi ini dibesarkan di dalam suatu organisasi dengan struktur organisasi yang hierarkhis daripada struktur manajemen yang datar di mana kerja sama yang timbul di dalam organisasi didasarkan pada tuntutan pekerjaan (teamwork-based job roles).

Sementara Generasi Y, yang mempunyai karateristik yang berbeda dengan Generasi Baby Boomers, juga mempunyai harapan yang sangat berbeda kepada perusahaan yang memperkerjakan mereka. Secara merata Generasi Y mempunyai pendidikan yang lebih baik dari para orang tua, mereka cukup terbiasa dengan teknologi bahkan sebahagian mereka sangat ahli dengan teknologi. Mereka ini mempunyai kepercayaan diri yang tinggi, mampu mengerjakan beberapa tugas dan selalu mempunyai energi yang berlebihan.

Namun di sisi lain Generasi Y ini sangat membutuhkan interaksi sosial, hasil pekerjaan yang dapat dilihat seketika dan keinginan untuk mendapatkan pengembangan yang cepat. Kebutuhan-kebutuhan ini yang sering dianggap sebagai kelemahan dari Generasi Y oleh kolega mereka yang lebih tua terutama mereka yang berasal dari Generasi Baby Boomers.

Berdasarkan pengalaman PPM Manajemen di dalam merekrut Generasi Y, terlihat bahwa Generasi Y itu lebih banyak harapannya kepada perusahaan, sehingga mereka akan pindah pekerjaan lebih banyak daripada generasi-generasi sebelumnya. Untuk menghadapi tantangan ini beberapa perusahaan multinasional sudah melakukan riset sosial dan perilaku yang lebih mendalam untuk Generasi Y.

Institute of Leadership & Management, misalnya, berkolaborasi dengan Ashridge Business School melakukan riset tentang kesenjangan antara Generasi Y yang direkrut dengan para manajernya. Penelitian ini menyimpulkan bahwa Generasi Y sangat menginginkan perusahaan mempunyai sistem yang dapat mengembangkan diri mereka, imbal jasa yang baik dan proses coaching yang jelas. Apabila perusahaan ingin menggunakan Generasy Y sebagai sumber kompetitif mereka maka perusahaan harus menyempurnakan sistem sistem dan proses Human Capital-nya.

Usaha-usaha yang perlu dilakukan oleh perusahaan di dalam proses akuisisi dan mengembangkan Generasi Y, di antaranya adalah:

1. Meredefinisi karakteristik atau ciri ciri karyawan yang diinginkan karena Generasi Y memiliki karakteristik dan ciri yang berbeda. Misalnya, beberapa perusahaan mempunyai kebijakan untuk tidak menerima karyawan yang memiliki tatto, karena tatto dianggap suatu ciri pemberontakan pada suatu institusi.

Sementara populasi Generasi Y yang memiliki tatto ini cukup besar bahkan beberapa diantara mereka memiliki tatto yang lebih dari 1. Bagi Generasi Y sendiri, tatto hanya merupakan suatu bentuk komunikasi tentang indentitas diri mereka, sehingga banyak di antara mereka walaupun memiliki tatto akan tetapi berkomitmen pada profesi yang dipilih. Atau pandangan bahwa tinggal bersama orang tua merupakan pertanda ketidakdewasaan.

Sementara bagi Generasy Y, tinggal bersama orang tua merupakan bentuk relasi sosial yang ingin dipertahankan karena mereka ingin memberi kasih sayang lebih banyak kepada oarang tuanya. Sehingga banyak di antara mereka yang tinggal bersama orang tuanya, namun secara ekonomi mereka yang menanggung kehidupan orang tuanya.

2. Memberikan informasi yang jelas tentang organisasi sejak awal proses rekrutmen sehingga Generasi Y mendapatkan kejelasan kualifikasi apa yang dituntut organisasi dari mereka. Serta hal-hal yang dapat diberikan perusahaan kepada mereka terutama sistem pengembangan karir dan kompetensi, diri mereka, imbal jasa yang baik dan proses coaching yang jelas serta iklim kerja di organisasi.

3. Mempersiapkan lingkungan unit kerja yang akan menerima penempatan Generasi Y untuk pertama kali. Sehingga para atasan Generasi Y di tempat baru memahami perbedaan karakter Generasi Y. Untuk memastikan Generasi Y yang baru masuk dapat beradaptasi dengang baik, Goldman Sachs membuat workshop bagi para atasan Generasi Y, dengan tujuan mereka bisa memahami dan memenuhi kebutuhan Generasi Y akan tanggung jawab yang jelas, umpan balik terhadap kinerja mereka dan memberi kesempatan untuk ikut dalam proses pengambilan keputusan.

4. Generasi Y juga akan membawa perubahan dalam cara penyelesaian pekerjaan karena mereka adalah orang-orang yang sangat suka bekerja dalam kelompok dan memakai teknologi lebih banyak dari generasi sebelumnya.

Apabila di generasi-generasi sebelumnya pembagian pekerjaan itu sifatnya individu, maka pada generasi ini sebaiknya pembagian pekerjaan diberikan per kelompok sehingga mereka mempunyai kebebasan untuk menetapkan tugas masing-masing anggotanya berdasarkan kekuatan mereka.

Perusahaan juga harus bisa memberikan kebebasan kepada mereka untuk menggunakan teknologi dalam bekerja. Apabila mereka menganggap tatap muka bukan merupakan suatu hal yang penting, maka berikan mereka kesempatan untuk berkomunikasi melalui teknologi.

5. Generasi Y selalu ingin mengetahui pandangan manajemen atau umpan-balik dari atasan terhadap pekerjaan yang mereka lakukan. Sayangnya, manajemen kinerja yang berlaku di perusahaan saat ini, biasanya hanya memberi kesempatan 2 kali dalam 1 tahun untuk melakukannya.

Kesempatan ini jelas terlalu sedikit dan terlalu lama untuk Generasi Y. Mereka selalu ingin tahu apabila pekerjaan mereka berhasil dengan baik dan mereka menginginkan adanya umpan-balik saat itu juga. Dari suatu penelitian yang dilakukan terhadap pembaca Majalah Manajemen, diketahui bahwa para karyawan Generasi Y mengharapkan para atasan mereka mampu memberikan tuntutan kerja yang jelas, menumbuhkan budaya kerja yang berorientasi pada kerja sama kelompok, memberikan umpan balik secepat mungkin, memberikan kesempatan penghargaan apabila mereka mampu melakukan suatu tindakan yang beresiko tinggi atau berhasil melakukan suatu inovasi.

Apa yang Harus Dilakukan Perusahaan untuk Mempertahankan Generasi Y?

Membuat suatu strategi untuk mempertahankan karyawan yang berkinerja tinggi dan bertalenta merupakan suatu sasaran penting bagi manajemen puncak di dalam suatu organisasi. Beberapa organisasi telah berhasil membuat suatu strategi untuk mempertahankan karyawan terbaik mereka yang berasal dari Generasi Baby Boomers. Namun untuk mempertahankan karyawan yang datang dari Generasi Y, organisasi tersebut memerlukan suatu pendekatan dan strategi yang sangat berbeda.

Dari paparan di atas, kita dapat melihat perbedaan karakteristik di antara Generasi Baby Boomers dan Generasi Y. Namun isu yang perlu didiskusikan berikutnya adalah seberapa jauh perbedaan antara Generasi Baby Boomers dan Generasi Y. Keterikatan seorang karyawan kepada organisasi sangat dipengaruhi oleh dimensi-dimensi kehidupan yang mempengaruhi kepuasan bekerja karyawan tersebut yang bisa membawa pikiran dan fisik mereka ke tempat kerja.

Guna mengetahui dimensi apa yang mendorong para karyawannya untuk terikat kepada organisasi, suatu organisasi dituntut untuk mencari tahu dimensi-dimensi yang membuat seorang karyawan terikat atau ingin melepaskan diri dari organisasinya (engagement drivers and threats). Untuk menyamakan pemahaman kita semua mengenai engagement drivers and threats, sebaiknya diperjelas dulu pengertiannya.

Engagement drivers adalah dimensi-dimensi yang meningkatkan persepsi seseorang untuk terikat terhadap organisasinya, sementara engagement threats adalah dimensi-dimensi yang menurunkan rasa keterikatan seseorang terhadap organisasinya.

Beberapa engagement drivers and threats yang sering dijadikan dimensi pengukuran dalam penelitian tentang engangement, seperti kesempatan mengembangkan karir, corporate social responsibility, kesejahteraan dan kesehatan karyawan, reputasi organisasi, kesempatan untuk belajar dan dikembangkan, manajemen kinerja, gaya kepemimpinan manajemen madya dan work-life balance.

Dari beberapa riset yang dilakukan oleh berbagai pihak, saya berpendapat bahwa Manajemen Kinerja (managing performance) dan Kesempatan untuk mengembangkan karir (career opportunities) merupakan engagement drivers yang paling penting sementara engagement threats yang sangat besar pengaruhnya adalah nama baik perusahaan (Employer Reputation) dan manajemen kinerja (managing performance).

Engagement di dalam suatu perusahaan biasanya diukur berdasarkan opini seluruh karyawannya dari seluruh unit yang ada di dalam organisasi tanpa memperhitungkan perbedaan generasi. Hal seperti itu, bukanlah praktek yang baik karena organisasi menjadi tidak sensitif terhadap engagement drivers and threats bagi setiap generasi dan bahkan kelompok kerja.

Sebaiknya suatu organisasi juga tidak mengukur engagement berdasarkan dimensi-dimensi yang berhasil membuat organisasi lain mengikat karyawannya. Manajer human capital dan para specialist di dalam suatu organisasi mempunyai kewajiban untuk mencari dimensi engagement di dalam organisasi, sebab dimensi engagement suatu organisasi tidak akan sama dengan organisasi yang menjadi pesaingnya maupun organisasi yang menjadi pemimpin di dalam industri tersebut.

Misalnya, apa yang menjadi engangement drivers dan threats bagi taksi Blue Bird sebagai perusahaan yang memimpin industri taxi tidak akan sama dengan drivers dan threats bagi perusahaan-perusahaan taksi yang menjadi pesaingnya.

Apabila suatu organisasi sudah berhasil mengidentifikasi engagement drivers dan threats yang menjadi ciri khas bagi organisasinya, maka manajemen madya di organisasi tersebut harus segera memutuskan bagaimana menyempurnakan sistem dan proses human capital yang sudah ada.

Misalnya, suatu perusahaan berhasil mengidentifikasi bahwa salah satu engagement drivers-nya adalah perlakukan atasan terhadap bawahannya, maka perusahaan tidak mungkin membuat peraturan yang dapat memuaskan setiap orang dari berbagai generasi.

Hal yang dapat dilakukan oleh perusahaan adalah meredisain tugas setiap atasan dan kemudian memberdayakan mereka agar mampu lebih mengenali sumber motivasi bawahannya dan meningkatkan engagement drivers mereka.

Apa yang Perlu Diperhatikan tentang Generasi Y

Di akhir diskusi ini, saya ingin menyampaikan bahwa perbedaan karakteristik di antara Generasi Y dengan generasi-generasi sebelumnya cukup besar. Generasi Y menuntut beberapa hal dari organisasi yang akan mereka masuki atau organisasi tempat mereka bekerja.

Generasi Y sangat menginginkan perusahaan mempunyai sistem yang dapat mengembangkan diri mereka, imbal jasa yang baik dan proses coaching yang jelas. Namun untuk kesuksesan dalam mengelola Generasi Y, sebaiknya perusahaan mengenali karakteristik Generasi Y yang mereka miliki sehingga manajemen bisa membuat kebijakan human capital yang lebih sesuai dengan mereka.

Walaupun beberapa organisasi telah berhasil membuat suatu strategi untuk mempertahankan karyawan mereka yang berkinerja tingga dan bertalenta. Namun untuk mempertahankan karyawan yang datang dari generasi Y, organisasi tersebut memerlukan suatu pendekatan dan strategi yang sangat berbeda. Organisasi perlu mengetahui engagement driver mana yang lebih mengena bagi organisasi Y sehingga mudah bagi organisasi untuk melakukan penyempurnaan terhadap sistem dan prosedur human capital-nya.



Sumber : Octa Melia Jalal. Head of PPM Center for Human Capital Development.

Monday, September 15, 2014

Microsoft SQL Server & SharePoint License

Few months ago, I have a client that ask me about licensing because one of their product relates to another product that is not come from same brand or company. The database is using SQL Server but the application is not. This post is similar with my case, although SharePoint is still Microsoft family. In this post, I learn about Microsoft licensing call multiplexing. Please read the full article from mirazon below. Happy reading...

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“Do I need SQL CALs when using SharePoint?”  This question came up recently while we were putting together a SharePoint solution for one of our clients … and it wasn’t the first time it has come up.

It’s a natural question. Here’s the scenario: you are setting up a SharePoint server. You need a SQL server on the backend to hold and manipulate all the data that SharePoint will need. But the users and endpoint devices will never touch the SQL server. They will just be accessing the SharePoint server.  So naturally they won’t need SQL CALs, right? Wrong!


Multiplexing

Let me introduce you to the term “multiplexing.”  Multiplexing is essentially where one system sits in front of another system providing services to endpoint devices. Or, as Microsoft puts it in a volume licensing brief devoted to the subject:

‘Multiplexing’ is when customers use hardware or software to pool connections, reroute information, or reduce the number of devices or users that directly access or use a product. Multiplexing can also include reducing the number of devices or users a product directly manages.
This is illustrated in the diagram below. SQL server sits on the backend, the “pooling hardware or software” sits in the middle, and the users and devices access the pooling system from the outside.  SharePoint would be an example of “pooling software.”


But again, the users and endpoints are never touching the SQL server so you would naturally think that SQL CALs would not be needed. However, you would be out of compliance if you did not buy SQL CALs for those users or devices.

Every User or Device Needs a CAL

Here is the key statement by Microsoft on the subject, taken from the same licensing brief:

“Multiplexing does not reduce the number of Microsoft licenses required. Users are required to have the appropriate licenses, regardless of their direct or indirect connection to the product. Any user or device that accesses the server, files, or data or content provided by the server that is made available through an automated process requires a CAL.”

In other words, since SharePoint is accessing the data in the SQL server and the user/endpoint is accessing SharePoint, then the user or endpoint needs a SQL CAL. Essentially, if you access SharePoint then you are accessing SQL as well.

Here is the full diagram from Microsoft’s licensing brief.  It illustrates the point that whether you access the SQL server directly or indirectly, you need a CAL.



The Alternative

By now you may be saying, “If that’s the case, then my SharePoint project just became impossibly expensive! What’s the workaround?”

The other option you have is to use core licenses of SQL instead of server/CAL licenses. There are two ways to purchase SQL 2012:

  • You can purchase a server license for the server, and CALs for all your users or endpoint devices; or …
  • You can purchase core licenses for all the processor cores within the server. (CALs are not needed for this option.)
If you go with core-based licenses, then all your CAL problems go away.  A million people could access that server and you would be all set … at least from a licensing standpoint.  (But from a performance standpoint, I wouldn’t recommend a million hits on your server all at once.)

Which Option Should I Choose?

Last question on this topic: “At what point is it more cost effective for me to go with core-based licenses instead of server/CAL licenses?” The answer to that question depends on a number of factors (number of CPU cores running SQL, number of users, and number of devices), so let’s set up a simple example:

Let’s say you are a small shop and you want to have SQL Standard running on a single server with a dual-core processor. Should you go with core licenses or server/CAL licenses?

Well, it depends on the number of users or devices that need to access SQL. In this situation it would cost the same for you to buy core licenses as it would for you to buy a server license and 30 CALs.


Server/CAL Licensing vs. Core-Base Licensing for SQL Standard:
  • 1 Server + 30 CALs = $7,168
  • 4 Core Minimum = $7,172
So if you have over 30 users, then you should go with core licenses. If you have less than 30 users, then server/CAL licenses would be the way to go. (Note that there is a four-core minimum purchase if you go with the core licenses. Even though you only have a dual-core processor, you still need to license four cores.)


Original Source : Mirazon

Sunday, September 14, 2014

Capex Vs Opex Definition & IT Point Of View

In this fast growing world, we are facing reality that most of companies today very selective of put their capital on something new, especially for something that is not their core business. This is my point of view from "IT Consultant". They (companies) are prefer opex to capex for their IT investment, whether it is software or hardware. This is why many ISV in Indonesia are compete to grow their data center and offer "Cloud" to their clients. The clients will improve their efficiency and reduce man power, but still could running their main business and remain improve their customer satisfaction. By the way... What is capex and opex? Below, you will find the article from diffen is very useful. Happy reading.


Capex vs. Opex

Capex (or Capital Expenditure) is a business expense incurred to create future benefit i.e. acquisition of assets that will have a useful life beyond the tax year. e.g. expenditure on assets like building, machinery, equipment or upgrading existing facilities so thier value as an asset increases.

On the other hand, those expenditures required for the day-to-day functioning of the business, like wages, utilities, maintenance and repairs fall under the category of Opex (operational expenditure). Opex is the money the business spends in order to turn inventory into throughput. Operating expenses also include depreciation of plants and machinery which are used in the production process. 




Examples
Capital expenditures include acquiring fixed assets (tangible, e.g. machinery or intangible e.g. patents), fixing problems with an asset, preparing an asset to be used in business, restoring property so that value is added, or adapting it to a new or different use.

Operating expenditures include license fees, maintenance and repairs, advertising, office expenses, supplies, attorney fees and legal fees, utilities such as telephone, insurance, property management, property taxes, travel and vehicle expenses, leasing commissions, salary and wages, raw materials.


Accounting for Capex and Opex
The crux of the matter lies in the way these expenditures are accounted for in an income statement.

Since capital expenses acquire assets that have a useful life beyond the tax year, these expenses cannot be fully deducted in the year in which they are incurred. Instead, they are capitalized and either amortized or depreciated over the life of the asset. Intangible assets like intellectual property (e.g. patents) are amortized and tangible assets like equipment are depreciated over their lifespan.

Operating expenditure, on the other hand, can be fully deducted. "Deducted" means subtracted from the revenue when calculating the profit/loss of the business. Most companies are taxed on the profit that they make; so what expenses you deduct impacts your tax bill.


What is preferred: Capex or Opex?
From an income tax perspectives, businesses typically prefer OpEx to CapEx. For example, rather than buy laptops and computers outright for $800 apiece, a business may prefer to lease it from a vendor for $300 apiece for 3 years. This is because buying equipment is a capital expense. So even though the company pays $800 upfront for the equipment, it can only deduct about $250 as an expense in that year.

On the other hand, the entire amount of $300 paid to the vendor for leasing is operating expense because it was incurred as part of the day-to-day business operations. The company can, therefore, rightfully deduct the cash it spent that year.

The advantage of being able to deduct expenses is that it reduces income tax, which is levied on net income. Another advantage is the time value of money i.e. if your cost of capital is 5% then saving $100 in taxes this year is better than saving $104 in taxes next year.

However, tax may not be the only consideration. If a public company wants to boost its earnings and book value, it may opt to make a capital expense and only deduct a small portion of it as an expense. This will result in a higher value of assets on its balance sheet as well as a higher net income that it can report to investors.


Capex and Cash Flow
Investors often look not only at the revenue and net income of a company, but also at the cash flow. The reported profit, or net income, can be "manipulated" via accounting techniques and hence the idiom "Income is opinion but cash is fact." Operating expenses directly reduce the Operating Cash Flow (OCF) of the company. Capex does not figure in the calculation of OCF but capital expenditures reduce the Free Cash Flow (FCF) of the company. Some investors treat FCF as a "litmus test" and do not invest in companies that are losing money, i.e. have a negative FCF.

Amazon is an example of a company with very high capital expenses. The following chart, by Benedict Evans, shows the growth in OCF, capex and FCF for Amazon since 2003.




Source : Diffen

Friday, September 12, 2014

7 Steps to Data Warehousing - By David Walls and Mark D. Scott

Data warehousing is a business analyst's dream—all the information about the organization's activities gathered in one place, open to a single set of analytical tools. But how do you make the dream a reality? First, you have to plan your data warehouse system. You must understand what questions users will ask it (e.g., how many registrations did the company receive in each quarter, or what industries are purchasing custom software development in the Northeast) because the purpose of a data warehouse system is to provide decision-makers the accurate, timely information they need to make the right choices.

To illustrate the process, we'll use a data warehouse we designed for a custom software development, consulting, staffing, and training company. The company's market is rapidly changing, and its leaders need to know what adjustments in their business model and sales practices will help the company continue to grow. To assist the company, we worked with the senior management staff to design a solution. First, we determined the business objectives for the system. Then we collected and analyzed information about the enterprise. We identified the core business processes that the company needed to track, and constructed a conceptual model of the data. Then we located the data sources and planned data transformations. Finally, we set the tracking duration.

Step 1: Determine Business Objectives

The company is in a phase of rapid growth and will need the proper mix of administrative, sales, production, and support personnel. Key decision-makers want to know whether increasing overhead staffing is returning value to the organization. As the company enhances the sales force and employs different sales modes, the leaders need to know whether these modes are effective. External market forces are changing the balance between a national and regional focus, and the leaders need to understand this change's effects on the business.

To answer the decision-makers' questions, we needed to understand what defines success for this business. The owner, the president, and four key managers oversee the company. These managers oversee profit centers and are responsible for making their areas successful. They also share resources, contacts, sales opportunities, and personnel. The managers examine different factors to measure the health and growth of their segments. Gross profit interests everyone in the group, but to make decisions about what generates that profit, the system must correlate more details. For instance, a small contract requires almost the same amount of administrative overhead as a large contract. Thus, many smaller contracts generate revenue at less profit than a few large contracts. Tracking contract size becomes important for identifying the factors that lead to larger contracts.

As we worked with the management team, we learned the quantitative measurements of business activity that decision-makers use to guide the organization. These measurements are the key performance indicators, a numeric measure of the company's activities, such as units sold, gross profit, net profit, hours spent, students taught, and repeat student registrations. We collected the key performance indicators into a table called a fact table.

Step 2: Collect and Analyze Information

The only way to gather this performance information is to ask questions. The leaders have sources of information they use to make decisions. Start with these data sources. Many are simple. You can get reports from the accounting package, the customer relationship management (CRM) application, the time reporting system, etc. You'll need copies of all these reports and you'll need to know where they come from.

Often, analysts, supervisors, administrative assistants, and others create analytical and summary reports. These reports can be simple correlations of existing reports, or they can include information that people overlook with the existing software or information stored in spreadsheets and memos. Such overlooked information can include logs of telephone calls someone keeps by hand, a small desktop database that tracks shipping dates, or a daily report a supervisor emails to a manager. A big challenge for data warehouse designers is finding ways to collect this information. People often write off this type of serendipitous information as unimportant or inaccurate. But remember that nothing develops without a reason. Before you disregard any source of information, you need to understand why it exists.

Another part of this collection and analysis phase is understanding how people gather and process the information. A data warehouse can automate many reporting tasks, but you can't automate what you haven't identified and don't understand. The process requires extensive interaction with the individuals involved. Listen carefully and repeat back what you think you heard. You need to clearly understand the process and its reason for existence. Then you're ready to begin designing the warehouse.

Step 3: Identify Core Business Processes

By this point, you must have a clear idea of what business processes you need to correlate. You've identified the key performance indicators, such as unit sales, units produced, and gross revenue. Now you need to identify the entities that interrelate to create the key performance indicators. For instance, at our example company, creating a training sale involves many people and business factors. The customer might not have a relationship with the company. The client might have to travel to attend classes or might need a trainer for an on-site class. New product releases such as Windows 2000 (Win2K) might be released often, prompting the need for training. The company might run a promotion or might hire a new salesperson.

The data warehouse is a collection of interrelated data structures. Each structure stores key performance indicators for a specific business process and correlates those indicators to the factors that generated them. To design a structure to track a business process, you need to identify the entities that work together to create the key performance indicator. Each key performance indicator is related to the entities that generated it. This relationship forms a dimensional model. If a salesperson sells 60 units, the dimensional structure relates that fact to the salesperson, the customer, the product, the sale date, etc.

Then you need to gather the key performance indicators into fact tables. You gather the entities that generate the facts into dimension tables. To include a set of facts, you must relate them to the dimensions (customers, salespeople, products, promotions, time, etc.) that created them. For the fact table to work, the attributes in a row in the fact table must be different expressions of the same event or condition. You can express training sales by number of seats, gross revenue, and hours of instruction because these are different expressions of the same sale. An instructor taught one class in a certain room on a certain date. If you need to break the fact down into individual students and individual salespeople, however, you'd need to create another table because the detail level of the fact table in this example doesn't support individual students or salespeople. A data warehouse consists of groups of fact tables, with each fact table concentrating on a specific subject. Fact tables can share dimension tables (e.g., the same customer can buy products, generate shipping costs, and return times). This sharing lets you relate the facts of one fact table to another fact table. After the data structures are processed as OLAP cubes, you can combine facts with related dimensions into virtual cubes.

Step 4: Construct a Conceptual Data Model

After identifying the business processes, you can create a conceptual model of the data. You determine the subjects that will be expressed as fact tables and the dimensions that will relate to the facts. Clearly identify the key performance indicators for each business process, and decide the format to store the facts in. Because the facts will ultimately be aggregated together to form OLAP cubes, the data needs to be in a consistent unit of measure. The process might seem simple, but it isn't. For example, if the organization is international and stores monetary sums, you need to choose a currency. Then you need to determine when you'll convert other currencies to the chosen currency and what rate of exchange you'll use. You might even need to track currency-exchange rates as a separate factor.

Now you need to relate the dimensions to the key performance indicators. Each row in the fact table is generated by the interaction of specific entities. To add a fact, you need to populate all the dimensions and correlate their activities. Many data systems, particularly older legacy data systems, have incomplete data. You need to correct this deficiency before you can use the facts in the warehouse. After making the corrections, you can construct the dimension and fact tables. The fact table's primary key is a composite key made from a foreign key of each of the dimension tables.

Data warehouse structures are difficult to populate and maintain, and they take a long time to construct. Careful planning in the beginning can save you hours or days of restructuring.

Step 5: Locate Data Sources and Plan Data Transformations

Now that you know what you need, you have to get it. You need to identify where the critical information is and how to move it into the data warehouse structure. For example, most of our example company's data comes from three sources. The company has a custom in-house application for tracking training sales. A CRM package tracks the sales-force activities, and a custom time-reporting system keeps track of time.

You need to move the data into a consolidated, consistent data structure. A difficult task is correlating information between the in-house CRM and time-reporting databases. The systems don't share information such as employee numbers, customer numbers, or project numbers. In this phase of the design, you need to plan how to reconcile data in the separate databases so that information can be correlated as it is copied into the data warehouse tables.

You'll also need to scrub the data. In online transaction processing (OLTP) systems, data-entry personnel often leave fields blank. The information missing from these fields, however, is often crucial for providing an accurate data analysis. Make sure the source data is complete before you use it. You can sometimes complete the information programmatically at the source. You can extract ZIP codes from city and state data, or get special pricing considerations from another data source. Sometimes, though, completion requires pulling files and entering missing data by hand. The cost of fixing bad data can make the system cost-prohibitive, so you need to determine the most cost-effective means of correcting the data and then forecast those costs as part of the system cost. Make corrections to the data at the source so that reports generated from the data warehouse agree with any corresponding reports generated at the source.

You'll need to transform the data as you move it from one data structure to another. Some transformations are simple mappings to database columns with different names. Some might involve converting the data storage type. Some transformations are unit-of-measure conversions (pounds to kilograms, centimeters to inches), and some are summarizations of data (e.g., how many total seats sold in a class per company, rather than each student's name). And some transformations require complex programs that apply sophisticated algorithms to determine the values. So you need to select the right tools (e.g., Data Transformation Services—DTS—running ActiveX scripts, or third-party tools) to perform these transformations. Base your decision mainly on cost, including the cost of training or hiring people to use the tools, and the cost of maintaining the tools.

You also need to plan when data movement will occur. While the system is accessing the data sources, the performance of those databases will decline precipitously. Schedule the data extraction to minimize its impact on system users (e.g., over a weekend).

Step 6: Set Tracking Duration

Data warehouse structures consume a large amount of storage space, so you need to determine how to archive the data as time goes on. But because data warehouses track performance over time, the data should be available virtually forever. So, how do you reconcile these goals?

The data warehouse is set to retain data at various levels of detail, or granularity. This granularity must be consistent throughout one data structure, but different data structures with different grains can be related through shared dimensions. As data ages, you can summarize and store it with less detail in another structure. You could store the data at the day grain for the first 2 years, then move it to another structure. The second structure might use a week grain to save space. Data might stay there for another 3 to 5 years, then move to a third structure where the grain is monthly. By planning these stages in advance, you can design analysis tools to work with the changing grains based on the age of the data. Then if older historical data is imported, it can be transformed directly into the proper format.

Step 7: Implement the Plan

After you've developed the plan, it provides a viable basis for estimating work and scheduling the project. The scope of data warehouse projects is large, so phased delivery schedules are important for keeping the project on track. We've found that an effective strategy is to plan the entire warehouse, then implement a part as a data mart to demonstrate what the system is capable of doing. As you complete the parts, they fit together like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. Each new set of data structures adds to the capabilities of the previous structures, bringing value to the system.

Data warehouse systems provide decision-makers consolidated, consistent historical data about their organization's activities. With careful planning, the system can provide vital information on how factors interrelate to help or harm the organization. A solid plan can contain costs and make this powerful tool a reality.

Original Source

David Walls and Mark D. Scott - Via SQLMag.Com

Tuesday, September 9, 2014

Data Visualization and Data Cubes - by Andrei Pandre

Data Visualization stands on the shoulders of the giants  – previously tried and true technologies like Columnar Databases, in-memory Data Engines and multi-dimensional Data Cubes (known also as OLAP Cubes).

OLAP (online analytical processing) cube on one hand extends a 2-dimensional array (spreadsheet table or array of facts/measures and keys/pointers to dictionaries) to a multidimensional DataCube, and on other hand DataCube is using datawarehouse schemas like Star Schema or Snowflake Schema.




The OLAP cube consists of facts, also called measures, categorized by dimensions (it can be much more than 3 Dimensions; dimensions referred from Fact Table by “foreign keys”). Measures are derived from the records in the Fact Table and Dimensions are derived from the dimension tables, where each column represents one attribute (also called dictionary; dimension can have many attributes). Such multidimensional DataCube organization is close to a Columnar DB data structures. One of the most popular usage of datacubes is a visualization of them in form of Pivot tables, where attributes used as rows, columns and filters while values in cells are appropriate aggregates (SUM, AVG, MAX, MIN, etc.) of  measures.

OLAP operations are foundation for most UI and functionality used by Data Visualization tools. The DV user (sometimes called analyst) navigates through the DataCube and its DataViews for a particular subset of the data, changing the data’s orientations and defining analytical calculations. The user-initiated process of navigating by calling for page displays interactively, through the specification of slices via rotations and drill down/up is sometimes called “slice and dice”. Common operations include slice and dice, drill down, roll up, and pivot:

Slice:

A slice is a subset of a multi-dimensional array corresponding to a single value for one or more members of the dimensions not in the subset.



Dice:

The dice operation is a slice on more than two dimensions of a data cube (or more than two consecutive slices).



Drill Down/Up:

Drilling down or up is a specific analytical technique whereby the user navigates among levels of data ranging from the most summarized (up) to the most detailed (down).



Roll-up:

(Aggregate, Consolidate) A roll-up involves computing all of the data relationships for one or more dimensions. To do this, a computational relationship or formula might be defined.




Pivot:

This operation is also called rotate operation. It rotates the data in order to provide an alternative presentation of data – the report or page display takes a different dimensional orientation.



OLAP Servers with most marketshare are: SSAS (Microsoft SQL Server Analytical Services), Intelligence Server (Microstrategy), Essbase (Oracle also has so called Oracle Database OLAP Option), SAS OLAP Server, NetWeaver Business Warehouse (SAP BW), TM1 (IBM Cognos), Jedox-Palo (I cannot recommend it) etc.

Microsoft had (and still has) the best IDE to create OLAP Cubes (it is a slightly redressed version of Visual Studio 2008, known as BIDS – Business Intelligence Development Studio usually delivered as part of SQL Server 2008) but Microsoft failed (for more than 2  years) to update it for Visual Studio 2010 (update is coming together with SQL Server 2012). So people forced to keep using BIDS 2008 or use some tricks with Visual Studio 2010.



Original Source : Apandre Wordpress

Sunday, September 7, 2014

Pengalaman Operasi Gigi Bungsu

Contoh Gigi Bungsu (Bukan Gigi Nico)

Selamat malam. Saya mau cerita dulu ah sambil nunggu ngantuk. Minggu lalu, tepatnya 30 Agustus 2014, akhirnya saya merasakan apa yang disebut operasi. Saya diharuskan untuk operasi kecil untuk pengangkatan gigi bungsu saya yang tumbuh miring. Meskipun operasinya disebut operasi kecil, tetap saja saya ngeri karena tidak pernah merasakan apa yang disebut operasi.

Sekilas tentang gigi bungsu dari Wikipedia
Gigi bungsu adalah gigi geraham ketiga yang muncul pada usia sekitar 18-30 tahun. Gigi bungsu termasuk dalam kategori struktur vestigial, yaitu struktur yang fungsi awalnya menjadi hilang atau berkurang sejalan dengan evolusi. Banyak ahli berpendapat bahwa perubahan jenis makanan pada manusia modern dari mentah menjadi dimasak membuat makanan lebih lunak. Selain itu, pemeliharaan gigi modern mengalami kemajuan pesat. Akibatnya kerusakan pada gigi berkurang. Kehadiran gigi bungsu yang diperkirakan dapat membantu bila ada geraham lain yang tanggal menjadi tidak berguna, hal ini menjadi masalah bagi kebanyakan orang. Masalah pada gigi bungsu
  • Gigi yang berdesakan. Karena gigi bungsu tumbuh paling akhir, kadang-kadang rahang tidak memiliki tempat yang cukup untuk gigi bungsu tumbuh dengan wajar. Akibatnya gigi bungsu mendesak gigi geraham yang berada di depannya. Hal ini akan mengakibatkan sakit pada gigi. Masalah ini umumnya diatasi dengan mencabut gigi bungsu yang baru tumbuh. Bila gigi bungsu menempati posisi yang sulit untuk dicabut, yang dicabut adalah gigi geraham yang terdesak sehingga gigi bungsu mendapat tempat yang cukup untuk tumbuh.
  • Gigi yang tidak muncul sempurna pada gusi. Terkadang gigi bungsu tidak muncul dengan sempurna pada gusi. Gusi yang menutupi gigi dapat menyebabkan penumpukan sisa makanan dan bakteri yang dapat menyebabkan infeksi dan sakit pada gigi.

Sedikit cerita sebelum operasi, sebelumnya saya tidak pernah mengeluh sakit gigi. Namun saya punya penyakit kulit yang saya lupa namanya. Sebenarnya bukan penyakit kulit, tapi keadaan abnormal dari kaki saya yang kulit alas kakinya lebih tebal dan berkeringat lebih daripada pada umumnya. Alhasil dari 3 dokter kulit selama 2 tahun bertualang, semuanya menyarankan ke dokter gigi untuk dilakukan pengecekan apakah ada masalah dengan gigi saya. Singkat cerita setelah konsultasi dan rontgen ternyata saya mendapati masalah fokal infeksi. Apa itu?

...

Sumber 1: Fokal infeksi adalah suatu infeksi lokal yang biasanya dalam jangka waktu cukup lama (kronis), dimana hanya melibatkan bagian kecil dari tubuh, yang kemudian dapat menyebabkan suatu infeksi atau kumpulan gejala klinis pada bagian tubuh yang lain. 

Sumber 2: Fokus infeksi merupakan asal mula dan penyebab berkembangnya penyakit sistemik seperti arthritis, ulcus peptik dan apendisitis. Fokal infeksi terutama yang disebabkan oleh penyakit periodontal di permukaan marginal maupun apikal merupakan faktor risiko terjadinya penyakit sistemik.

Penyakit periodontal merupakan reaksi inflamasi, yang disebabkan oleh bakteri anaerob gram negatif pada jaringan pendukung gigi. Penyakit periodontal bersifat kronis, perkembangannya lambat dan umumnya tidak diikuti gejala.

Pembengkakan gigi bisa saja merupakan manifestasi dari penyakit sistemik.
Gigi dan jaringan mulut yang tidak dibersihkan merupakan pusat infeksi. Ada tiga jalur infeksi dalam rongga mulut, yaitu :

  1. Melalui infeksi metastatik, rongga mulut sebagai akibat dari bakteriaemia. Infeksi diakibatkan karena prosedur dental dan infeksi rongga mulut dapat menyebabkan bakteri sementara tinggal pada organ tertentu dalam tubuh, bakteri dapat memasuki aliran darah. Penyakit yang termasuk infeksi metastatik : 
    • endokarditis sub akut
    • abses otak
    • trombosis sinus cavernosus
    • sinusitis
    • infeksi paru – paru
    • selulitis mata
    • ulcus di kulit dan 
    • osteomielitis 
  2. Melalui luka metastatik, karena efek toksin bakteri yang sedang bersirkulasi. Bakteri mampu memproduksi protein yang dapat mengadakan difusi atau eksotoksin, berupa enzim sitolitik dan toksin. Penyakit yang termasuk akibat luka metastatik : 
    • Infark cerebral
    • Infark miokardial
    • Kehamilan tak normal 
    • Neuralgia nervus trigeminus 
  3. Inflamasi metastatik, karena adanya antigen yang larut dalam aliran darah bereaksi dengan antibodi spesifik yang bersirkulasi dan membentuk komplek makromolekul imunokoompleks yang akan menimbulkan berbagai reaksi akut maupun kronis pada daerah bakteri berkoloni.Penyakit termasuk inflamasi metastatik :
    • Urtikaria kronis
    • Inflamasi usus besar 
    • Sindrom Behcet
...

Bisa dilihat dalam sumber kedua, dan jalur infeksi yang pertama, ada tertulis ulcus di kulit. Ulcus atau ulkus adalah sejenis kerusakan kulit, ada juga yang bilang borok. Untungnya saya tidak borok. Hanya kulitnya cenderung tebal dan berkeringat terlalu banyak. Meskipun tidak sama tetapi yang saya tangkap dari sumber kedua adalah fokal infeksi ini dapat memberi dampak yang luar biasa mengerikan.

Kembali ke operasi, tekad saya sudah bulat untuk operasi, apalagi rencana ini sudah tertunda selama 1 tahun. Saya putuskan untuk operasi di rumah sakit dekat kantor, yakni di daerah Jakarta Pusat. Karena saya agak takut dengan pelayanan di RS negeri atau pemerintah, saya ambil yang versi swastanya saja. Setelah konsultasi yang informatif dan solutif dengan salah satu dokter bedah mulut, saya semakin yakin dengan keputusan operasi kecil ini, ditambah saran dokter untuk mencabut gigi atasnya karena sudah tidak berfungsi maksimal lagi. 

Jalannya operasi tidak begitu mulus, karena posisi gigi yang menunduk kebawah. Dan untuk menahan sakitnya saya diberikan dosis bius lokal 2x lipat orang biasa. Setelah hampir 50 menit, akhirnya beres juga peangkatan gigi bungsu bandel saya. Dilanjutkan dengan kurang dari 1 menit untuk pencabutan gigi atasnya. 

Rasanya operasi meskipun dibius adalah tetap sakit dan tidak enak. Ya sudahlah ya, demi kesembuhan saya tahan rasa sakitnya. Kemudian saya diberi obat penghilang rasa sakit, antibiotik dan obat kumur. Selama 3 hari mulut saya tampak bengkak akibat proses ini dan setelah cari di internet ternyata hal ini adalah normal. Saya juga disarankan jangan banyak bicara, jangan makan makanan yang panas dan pedas.

Seminggu kemudian, yakni beberapa jam lalu, akhirnya jahitan operasinya dicabut. Gak sampe 2 menit sudah selesai. Rasanya lega karena 1 tahap lagi telah terlewati. Dokternya bilang bahwa untuk proses penyembuhan selanjutnya akan memakan waktu 2minggu sampai 1 bulanan. Rasa sakit yang sekarang ada akan hilang seiring dengan waktu. Dan berita baiknya sekarang saya boleh sikat gigi lagi, namun harus tetap kumur dengan obat dari dokter. Jangan lupa mengkonsumsi vitamin c juga pesannya.

Satu lagi proses dalam kehidupan saya yang tidak akan pernah saya lupakan. Total sekitar 7 juta-an dana yang telah saya habiskan dari konsultasi awal sampai kemarin di RS ini. Bukan biaya yang sedikit, namun saya bersyukur bahwa semuanya itu di cover oleh perusahaan tempat saya berkarya. Sekarang saya harus menjaga kondisi tubuh dan mengontrol apapun yang akan masuk dalam mulut ini. Semoga cepat sembuh dan terbebas dari penderitaan ini. Salam. :)

"Salah satu bentuk nikmat yang sering terlupakan adalah sehat."

Thursday, September 4, 2014

The Real Truth About Working with Recruiters- By Michael Spiro

When I first started my career as a recruiter, I worked and trained with a few “old-school” recruiters who had learned the staffing business in the days before internet searches and online job boards … when recruiters were called “Head Hunters” and kept card files called Rolodexes next to their desk phones that were filled with prized contacts. It was all about who they knew. The implication of the term Head Hunter was that they only went after top talent – usually people who worked for their client’s competitors – and actually recruited them away from one company to come work for another! Some of the best of today’s recruiters still operate that way, only seeking out top talent through networking and personal contacts. Some of those old Head Hunters even imagined themselves to be the business world’s equivalent of a Jerry McGuire … like sports or entertainment agents who represent top talent, shop them around and negotiate the best deals for their candidates. Needless to say, in today’s ultra-challenging, candidate-flooded job market, many recruiters have learned to adapt to new ways of doing business.

At the other end of the spectrum from the Head Hunters are the younger, much less experienced recruiters who never learned how to creatively source (i.e. identify) and then actually recruit (i.e. sell an opportunity to) so-called “passive,” employed, non-job-seeking candidates. They only look at résumés from people who respond to their online job postings – active job-seekers, otherwise known as the “low hanging fruit.” Since most companies know how to do the same thing by posting their own ads and collecting those same résumés, recruiters who operate that way are finding fewer and fewer companies willing to pay them a fee for that type of recruiting.

Most modern recruiters fall somewhere in between those two models. As with any profession, there are good recruiters and bad recruiters. Yes, there are recruiters out there who lie, cheat, deceive, bait & switch, promise things they cannot deliver, and will pretty much do or say anything to get a placement and get paid. I’ve met some of those people, and their sleaze factor can be quite astounding! Unfortunately, those bad recruiters tend to give the entire profession a negative reputation. How can you tell the difference? Just like with any other business relationship, time will reveal the traits of a person worth working with: honesty, integrity, sincerely, responsiveness, timely follow-through, etc. Good recruiters treat everyone with respect, and care about the people they work with. They try to do the right thing, and look out for everyone’s best interest – their own, their client’s and their candidate’s.

There are a lot of myths and misconceptions out there about how recruiters work, and how job-seekers can best utilize them as a resource. There is also a lot of confusion among job-seekers about exactly what recruiters do, how they get paid, who they work for, how to approach them, what questions to ask, etc. As a veteran of the staffing industry, I’d like to set the record straight, bust some common myths, and give some advice on how to best utilize recruiters as a resource.

Recruiters come in many different flavors. There are Retained Recruiters who typically only work on very specialized high-end C-level positions, and get paid a flat fee for simply producing a certain number of highly qualified candidates – whether or not they get hired. There are “Temporary Staffing” or “Staff Augmentation” Recruiters who work primarily on short-term contract assignments for their clients. There are Corporate or Internal Recruiters who work directly for the companies who have the open jobs. And then there are 3rd Party Agency Recruiters. For the purposes of this article, I’m focusing only on 3rd-Party Agency Recruiters – the ones who work on permanent jobs, usually on a contingency basis. These recruiters work for independent agencies who contract their services to various companies who need help filling open jobs with very specific and often hard-to-find requirements. They search for candidates that match those requirements, and try to present only the top few most qualified candidates to their clients. They are paid on a commission basis if and only if their candidates are hired and after their client company pays their agency’s fee. Those fees are usually a percentage of their candidate’s first year salary (typically 20-25% – sometimes more, sometimes less.) So naturally it’s in their own best interest, as well as their candidate’s, to help negotiate the highest possible salary from their client during the offer stage.

MYTH: Recruiters Find Jobs for People
Wrong! Recruiters find People for Jobs! If you think about it, that’s a very different concept. Recruiters do not get paid by candidates, nor are they job counselors. Sure, they “counsel” the candidates that they choose to work with, help them refine their résumés, and prep & coach them on interview techniques. However, they are paid by client companies to find candidates to fill very specific positions with very specific (usually hard to find) requirements. Randomly contacting a recruiter with your unsolicited résumé, and saying “can you help me find a job” is NOT a good tactic … and most recruiters will not respond. I get at least two or three of those a week from people I cannot possibly help. On the other hand, answering a recruiter’s job posting with your résumé and a message that says “I match every requirement you’ve listed …” is a GOOD idea. Calling to follow-up is even better. The name of the game is matching your skills and experience to a specific job they are already working on. That’s what they get paid for! That’s why most recruiters don’t return calls or emails from candidates that don’t match all the requirements of their current job searches. For them, time is money, and they only make money on matches!

Is it Better to Apply Directly to a Company, or Go Through a Recruiter?
The answer depends on who you know at the company. If you’ve already networked your way to a decision-maker, and have a personal relationship there … go direct! If, on the other hand, you don’t know anyone there and you talk with a recruiter who has a personal relationship with a hiring manager … then the advantage goes to the recruiter! The company’s desire to avoid paying the recruiter’s fee might sometimes be a factor … but a personal relationship trumps that every time. Most good recruiters develop and nurture relationships with their clients over a long period of time. Those relationships are invaluable … they have the trust and attention of the decision-makers who are the hardest to reach. They can get you in front of the right people. That is one of the main advantages of using a good recruiter!

Industry-Specific Recruiters
Most Recruiters specialize in a specific industry, and only look for specific types of candidates. Some are more focused than others. For example, a recruiter may be a general IT Recruiter, looking for any and all technical positions. Others may be focused on a smaller subset of IT – for example, only .NET programmers, or only JAVA developers, or only Web Designers, or only users of a particular type of software, etc. Others may focus on totally different industries. I’ve heard of Recruiting Firms that concentrate exclusively on very narrow industry specialties: HVAC Engineers, Paper and Pulp Industry Professionals, Hospitality Industry Executives, Copyright Lawyers, Corporate Controllers, Radiology Technicians … the list is literally endless. Needless to say, an industry-specific recruiter does not want to waste their time talking to candidates who do not fit their niche. Job-Seekers who want to find a recruiter to work with should figure out which agencies and/or recruiters specialize in their specific industry niche, and focus on getting on their radar.

How Do Recruiters Find Candidates that Match Their Job Requirements?
There are several ways that recruiters might find matching candidates: using sophisticated Boolean key-word searches, they first mine their electronic resources: they look in their own data base of collected résumés; they post their jobs (usually without identifying the client company) on the popular job boards, on Social Media sites, and on their own agency’s website and then screen applicants for matches; they search résumé banks that they pay to subscribe to, like CareerBuilder, Monster, etc.; they make extensive use of searches on all the free Social Networking sites like LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, etc. Finally, they do a LOT of old fashioned cold calling to people within their industry niche, asking everyone if they know of anyone else that fits their job requirements, and asking everyone they talk with for referrals. It’s a laborious time-consuming process where one person leads to another, to another, to another and so on. All along the way they collect résumés from potential candidates who may or may not fit the immediate job they are working on, but seem worth keeping on file for future searches in their specialty area.

What is the Best Way for a Job-Seeker to Use Recruiters as a Resource?
Try to identify an agency, or a specific recruiter who specializes in your industry niche, and put yourself “on file” there. Send them your résumé to get into their searchable electronic data base so that when a new job comes up, they’ll “find” you later during a future search. You should also regularly check that niche agency’s job posting on their own website, and look for jobs that match your background. If you do spot a matching job, contact the agency and ask which recruiter in their office is working on that search … and try to reach that specific person to alert them of your own matching qualifications. Needless to say, you should also keep your online profiles (Monster, CareerBuilder, LinkedIn, etc.) up to date and filled with as many “keywords” in your niche as possible. You want to make yourself “findable” when a recruiter does a search.

What Questions Should You Ask of a Recruiter Who Calls You About a Job?
  • What company are they recruiting for? (If you’ve already applied directly to that same company, they would usually not be able to represent you there.) Find out everything the recruiter knows about that company. If they cannot tell you the name of the company, ask why. (If it’s truly a “confidential” search, OK … but more often than not it’s a trust issue, and failure to identify the client could be a red flag for a job-seeker.)
  • What are the job requirements? Ask them to send you a job description. Help the recruiter see how you fit those requirements, if you do. Be honest about any requirements that you really don’t have.
  • What is the salary range defined for the position? You should be honest and up front about your own salary history and the salary range you would accept going forward. If your salary history and expectations do not match the job’s defined range (or seem unrealistic) most recruiters will not consider it a match worth pursuing. Like it or not, it’s a primary factor recruiters use to decide who they’ll represent to their clients. [Read “Answering the Dreaded Salary Question” for more info on how to deal with this issue when working with recruiters.]
  • What is the history of this position? (New or replacement … and if the latter, what happened to the person who left?)
  • Who is the hiring manager, and how well does the recruiter know that person? What is their management style? What is the company culture like? Can you get any inside intelligence?
  • How many other candidates is this recruiter representing to this job? Are there other agencies that are also sending candidates, or is this an "exclusive?"
  • What is the client's hiring timetable? What steps are there – how many phone interviews and in-person interviews will there be, and with whom? When do they want someone to start? How long has this position been open? How high is their degree of “urgency” to full it?
  • What is the next step? Will the recruiter definitely be sending your information to the client – and if so, when? How soon should you expect to hear back from the recruiter?

Good recruiters should be able to answer almost all of these questions and more. If they can’t answer those basic questions … then they probably don’t know their clients very well, and I would question whether or not you want them to represent you. Good recruiters will also be able to help you tweak your résumé to better fit the job specs, prep and coach you on how to successfully interview using their insider knowledge of the company and the decision-makers, and they will help you negotiate the best salary if and when an offer comes. Good recruiters will also follow through with things they say they will do, and will be good about keeping you informed with updates and progress reports. Expect good communication … and beware of anyone who suddenly stops returning your calls or emails — that’s a telltale sign of unprofessionalism that is certainly not limited to recruiters!

Also, always verify that the recruiter will never submit your résumé to any companies or jobs without your knowledge and approval. Believe it or not, that happens quite frequently. I’ve recruited many candidates over the years who swore they never even heard of my client company, only to find out later that the company had already received that person’s résumé from another recruiter! Not only did that make me look stupid, but more importantly it ruined that candidate’s chances of getting the job – most companies will automatically eliminate any candidate who is submitted from multiple sources. They don’t want to get into the middle of a turf war

What NOT To Do When Working With Recruiters …
  • Never ever agree to pay any money to a recruiting agency for their services, or agree to any future financial obligations – e.g. re-paying their fees if you leave a job before their guarantee period is up. Recruiters who ask for money from candidates are not to be trusted. Run away quickly, and don’t look back!
  • Never do an “end-run” around a recruiter and apply directly to a job they told you about. That is extremely unethical, and almost never ends well. If, on the other hand, the recruiter does not submit you to their client company for whatever reason – then you have every right to go ahead and apply directly to that company on your own.
  • Do not sign any documents that promise “exclusive representation” by a recruiter. You have every right to work with multiple recruiters (as long as they are not working on the same job with the same company) and to continue applying directly to other companies. You should, however, inform your recruiter of other opportunities you are working on – especially if you are actually interviewing elsewhere, and may be getting close to an offer at another company.
  • Never lie to a recruiter about your qualifications, your experiences, your education, your salary history, or anything else! Be honest about everything, and expect the same in return.
  • Finally, do not put all of your job hopes into working with any recruiter, no matter how good they are. The real truth about working with recruiters is that while they can be a great resource … the vast majority of job-seekers today will NOT find their next job through a recruiter. Job-Seekers should concentrate on their own networking activities designed to get them in front of decision-makers in their target companies. [Read “How to Network: A Step-by-Step Guide for Job-Searching” for more detailed information on how to do exactly that!]

Original Source : Michael Spiro