Employment In Malaysia Research Articles

Is a single minimum wage policy viable option? Evidence from the impact of minimum wage on youth employment in Malaysia

The present study is aimed to identify an ideal mechanism to reduce negative effect of minimum wage on youth employment generation. Using available data from Department of Statistics, the study runs an annual panel regression at the state level based on fixed effect specification model. The finding demonstrates that the minimum wage has a negative effect on employment, particularly among youth. It implies that there is an excess of labour supply in the market at the current wage rate. As a result, the rate set is higher than equilibrium, signifying firm disadvantages. The negative effect is more prevalent if the single national minimum wage rate policy is applied to all states. Therefore, the national wage policy should be thoroughly examined. Instead, a regional wage rate should be explored as a potential solution for mitigating and preventing negative employment effects.

Unraveling the Influence of Social Functions on the Success of Recent Graduates in Malaysian Job Interviews

The study aimed to explore how social functions impact the success of recent graduates in job interviews. It employed a qualitative research approach, conducting interviews with 10 recent graduates to gather primary data. Interviews provided a detailed examination of graduates’ experiences and interactions during job interviews. The analytical framework utilized was Halliday’s theory of social functions, which offers insights into how language operates in various social contexts, such as conveying information and establishing interpersonal relationships. Findings indicated that candidates demonstrated proficiency in experiential, interpersonal, textual, and ideational aspects. However, shortcomings were observed in phatic and esthetic functions, suggesting a prioritization of conveying information and facilitating interaction over social and esthetic elements in communication. Findings also underscore the importance of prioritizing informative and interactive communication strategies to enhance recent graduates’ success in Malaysian job interviews. By recognizing and adapting to prevailing communication norms in job interview contexts, recent graduates may navigate challenges more effectively and seize opportunities, thereby improving their employment prospects. This research illuminates the intricate dynamics of job interviews, offering valuable insights for both recent graduates and employers in Malaysia.

Demand for digital skills, skill gaps and graduate employability: Evidence from employers in Malaysia.

A major workforce inadequacy and the change in skill demanded have been observed due to the digital transformation. This study aims to identify the digital skills demanded by employers, focusing on exploring the skills gaps among the graduates that impact graduate employability. A cross sectional online survey was conducted among the companies registered with the Malaysian Productivity Corporation (MPC). Demand for digital skills was assessed using descriptive analysis of mean scores of the employers' rating in digital skills at present and in future. A pair sample t-test was performed to explore the existence of skill gaps, by comparing the demand versus competencies of the graduates' digital skills in the workplace. Of the 393 responses collected, 376 responses were used for final analysis. The findings show that the current top three digital skills in demand are "information and data literacy", "problem-solving", and "digital content creation". Whereas the top digital skills for future demand are "problem-solving", "safety", and "communication and collaboration". In addition, the most significant (digital) skill gap is found in "communication and collaboration skills" followed by "problem-solving" and "safety" skills. These findings provide insights into the digital skills demanded by employers in IR 4.0, allowing the practitioners, education service providers and policymakers to do better planning on human capital management and training development. By focusing on identifying the current and future demand for digital skills while exploring the digital skill gaps among the graduates, this study provides insight into the employability skills required by the graduate before entering the job market.

Intercultural communicative competence among Indonesian migrant workers in Malaysia: a qualitative exploration.

Millions of Indonesian migrant workers have sought employment in Malaysia during the last three decades. Many of them are skilled and unskilled laborers, and their incorporation into the host society's labor market has the potential to improve their own quality of life while also contributing significantly to the country's economy. However, Indonesian migrant workers encounter numerous problems in their professional and personal lives. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the intercultural communicative competence (ICC) factors as one of the Indonesian migrant workers' strategies. This is qualitative exploratory research on the factors of ICC in the integration of Indonesian migrant workers into the Malaysian labor market. Focus groups were used to obtain data from 16 Indonesian migrant workers who had already successfully integrated into the Malaysian workforce as well as newcomers who were in the process of integrating into the local culture. In addition, interviews have been conducted with the 13 employers to complement the data from the migrant workers. The data was analyzed using rounds of deductive and inductive coding and analysis based on the five components of Byram's model. The findings suggest that practicing intercultural communication skills can help migrant employees overcome cultural difficulties in the Malaysian labor market. The Indonesian migrant workers and their employers also indicated that they have an advantage in cultural integration due to the cultural similarities. The paper discusses the implications of the findings in terms of ICC training offered to migrant workers themselves (culture and language) and to professionals who work with them, with the goal of facilitating and promoting Indonesian migrant workers' labor market integration.

Navigating the AI Era: Understanding Mechanisms, Impacts, and Policy Interventions for Inclusive Employment in Malaysia

Navigating the AI Era: Understanding Mechanisms, Impacts, and Policy Interventions for Inclusive Employment in Malaysia

Development of Supported Employment in Malaysia

Development of Supported Employment in Malaysia

Inclusive Strategies for Ai-Driven Employment In Malaysia: Decentralization, Policy Interventions, and Collaborative Governance

Inclusive Strategies for Ai-Driven Employment In Malaysia: Decentralization, Policy Interventions, and Collaborative Governance

Human Resource Development for Supported Employment in Malaysia: Verification of the Job Coach Training Program

Human Resource Development for Supported Employment in Malaysia: Verification of the Job Coach Training Program

Acceptance of Mental Health Off Day in Malaysian Job Culture

The work life balance in Malaysian working culture had been showing concerning signs where the lack of the health working culture had triggered the impact on the mental state of the Malaysian employees. In the same direction, the initiative of the mental health off day had been introduced to promote better wellbeing practice within the employees. However, the employers in Malaysia are still having lack of the action into the initiative of the metal health off days due to multiple concerns. Based on the key findings, there is major highlights on the concerns for the employers towards the understanding on the mental health off day initiative which include the productivity impact, financial impact as well as the shift in the expectations for the employees. However, the employees had viewed the mental health off day as strong positive initiatives that could become a game changer for the working culture in Malaysia. It is believed that the mental health off day will become the big step for the Malaysian working culture to move into the positive direction to promote better mental health among the employees. Therefore, the recommendation had been clear where the mental health off day should be supported by employers and employees to provide the positive impact towards the development of the motivation and retention of the employees.

Social entrepreneurship for young people with disabilities: A conceptual analysis

Employment is one of the most basic needs of everyone, including people with disabilities (PWD). However, the numerous obstacles faced by PWD limit their ability to actively participate in the labour market, become economically self-sufficient, and contribute to national economic development. In general, PWD all over the world face a high risk of unemployment. Therefore, this study explored the function of social entrepreneurship in eradicating unemployment among young PWD. This research also emphasised the challenges experienced by PWD in securing employment in Malaysia. Among the issues highlighted are the negative attitudes of employers towards PWD and how employers could adopt the social entrepreneurship perspective. The systematic review method was used to examine the previous literature to accomplish the highlighted purpose and seek answer to the research questions. The literature review revealed problems of unemployment among young PWD. Hence, the improvement of young PWD’s employment have to be focused systematically by taking into account the social entrepreneurship’s perspective. This study is expected to provide a significant contribution to the knowledge on employment of young PWD and would increase the number of their participation in the workplaces.

THE IMPACTS OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON EMPLOYEES’ PRODUCTIVITY AMONGST ADMINISTRATIVE EMPLOYEES AT UITM PAHANG, CAMPUS JENGKA

This study focused on the impacts of social media on the employees’ productivity at Universiti Teknologi MARA Pahang, Campus Jengka. A total of 113 questionnaires were distributed to the administrative employees by using simple random sampling, out of which 108 (98.58%) questionnaires were returned. A statistical analysis was conducted by using SPSS 23.0 to investigate the impacts of four factors of social media that consists of communication channels, knowledge sharing, intention to use and intrinsic motivation on employees’ productivity. The findings showed that all four factors had mean scores within the range of high and very high. In addition, the results also revealed that the four hypotheses constructed showed positive relationships between the factors of social media on employees’ productivity. Therefore, all the four research hypotheses were accepted. These findings are useful in assisting the employers in Malaysia to increase employees’ productivity with the use of social media as one of the advanced information technologies.

Employers’ Viewpoints on Strategic Competence for Workplace Communication

Strategic competence refers to the use of both verbal and nonverbal communication to (1) compensate for breakdowns in communication, (2) manage insufficient competence in communication, or (3) enhance the effectiveness of communication (Canale, 1983). In the teaching and learning of English as a second or foreign language, such strategies are useful to ensure that messages are communicated accurately despite limitations in vocabulary or grammatical competence. In the context of higher education, these strategies are especially useful for fresh graduates who wish to seek employment in an English-medium workplace. However, very little research has examined the acceptable strategies that can be used by fresh graduates to minimize breakdowns in communication that result from existing language barriers. Hence, semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with 12 employers in Malaysia to uncover different strategies that are used in the workplace to avoid breakdowns in communication. The findings show that metacognitive strategies through observing others to improve communication as well as cognitive strategies such as obtaining direct feedback on specific terminologies, formats or wordings are among the strategies that fresh graduates could utilize to improve their competence in communicating at the workplace. Thus, the findings of this research are especially valuable for educators and fresh graduates to develop communicative competence to communicate effectively in the workplace.

The Future of Malaysia’s Dependency on Indonesian Foreign Labors: Findings from Key Informants’ Interview

International migration has become major contemporary change in this era, especially in both developed and developing countries, including Malaysia and Indonesia. Malaysia’s transformation in preparing the country to become industrial based economy has shaped the country as one of the favorite countries in Southeast Asia region for foreign labors migration. The highest migration for job seeking came from neighboring country especially Indonesia. The migration of Indonesians not only drive by the job opportunities but supported by the history of community mobility, geographical proximity, existence of social networks and the similarities of languages, religions and cultures. The arrival of Indonesian labors to Malaysia is a constant necessity for both countries. This paper aims to predict Malaysia’s dependency on Indonesia’s foreign labors in the future. This paper employs qualitative approach in gathering data using five key informants from various authorities involve in the recruitment and management process of foreign labors in Malaysia. It is found that geographical location and job offers are among the pulling factors for the Indonesian foreign labors to choose Malaysia as working destination. Employers in Malaysia too prefer Indonesian foreign labors to reduce their operational cost. The weakness of Malaysian policies and law also does not help in reducing the number of Indonesian foreign labors. Thus, it can be concluded that it is a tough effort to make Malaysia reduce its dependency on Indonesian foreign labors in near future.

THE IMPLEMENTATION OF EMPLOYEE ASSISTANCE PROGRAM IN MALAYSIA, THE UNITED KINGDOM AND AUSTRALIA IN DEALING WITH MENTAL HEALTH ISSUES AT WORKPLACE: AN OVERVIEW

Workers are currently struggling to cope with assigned tasks. As the workload increases and improperly managed, workers are certainly exposed to work-related stress, which will not only affect their performance, but also their mental health. Employers may implement Employee Assistance Program (EAP) that offers counselling sessions, workshops, support group and others, as a preventive and proactive measure to help their employees to overcome issues associated with work-related stress. Nevertheless, EAP is subject to limitations in terms of its effectiveness, such as its implementation is not optimized by organisations adapting it, and less effective EAP sessions that barely resulted in improvement of workers' mental health. Malaysian law does not stipulate the implementation of EAP in organizations. However, Section 15 (2) of the Occupational Safety and Health Act 1994 impliedly supports the introduction of EAP in Malaysia. The purpose of this paper is therefore to explain how employers in Malaysia should implement EAP to help their workers’ mental health well-being, as well as to compare how EAP is implemented in the United Kingdom and Australia. This paper applies qualitative method, which consist of doctrinal legal research approach to understand the program dealing with mental health. Comparative method will also be employed in order to compare the legal frameworks and programs related to mental health well-being in the developed countries such as the United Kingdom and Australia and this involves examination of the similarities and dissimilarities between situations within the same legal system. This paper concludes that the implementation of EAP in an organization will be able to promote the mental health well being of employees.

Role of English language in agricultural organisations

Background – The importance placed on having good English language proficiency and skills to secure employment in Malaysia is a well-known fact. However, very little is known about the role of the English language in multilingual organisations within the agricultural industry in Malaysia. As such, this study aimed to examine the employees’ perception of the use of the English language in a professional context particularly in the Malaysian agricultural and agricultural related sectors. Methods – A concurrent triangulation design was used to quantitatively evaluate the data. A total of 320 questionnaires from employees of 10 agriculture and agriculture related companies were analysed. Additionally, interviews were also conducted with 10 employers from the human resources department as they provided deep insights into the language matters of the organisations. Results – The employers and employees agree that English language proficiency has economic value and can play an important role at the workplace, as this skill can influence one’s career path in terms of employability and career progression. Conclusions - From the standpoint of employees, a more insightful idea on the influence of English on career development in the agricultural industry has been obtained. These findings have implications for learning outcomes of students, education system, and policymakers aspiring for the human capital which is needed for Malaysia to become a high income and developed nation.

Impacts of Fuel Subsidy Rationalization on Sectoral Output and Employment in Malaysia

Large allocations for fuel subsidies have long put the Government of Malaysia’s budget under great strain. Using a computable general equilibrium (CGE) model, this paper evaluates the impact of fuel subsidy rationalization on sectoral output and employment. Employment is classified into occupational categories and skill levels. Fuel subsidies were measured using the disaggregation of prices for petrol, diesel, and other fuel products. Findings show that removing fuel subsidies would hit economic performance through high input costs, specifically for industries closely attached to the petroleum refinery sector. The manufacturing sector has the largest reduction in output and employment. Nevertheless, high- and medium-skilled labor forces experience increased demand. To increase economic efficiency, the savings from the removal of fuel subsidies should be put toward policies such as sales tax reduction. This study provides useful information for policy makers in evaluating or updating current subsidy policies to reduce economic losses.

Suresh Narayanan Comment on Wage Differentials in Malaysia: Public Employment, Gender, and Ethnicity

Suresh Narayanan Comment on Wage Differentials in Malaysia: Public Employment, Gender, and Ethnicity

A framework for predicting employee health risks using ensemble model

Through the phenomenon of data, big data and data analytics have provided an opportunity to collect, store, process, analyze and visualize an immense amount of information. Healthcare is recognized as one of the most information-intensive sectors. An urge to explore analytics has been sparked by the rapid growth of data within the healthcare sector. Most employers in Malaysia provide medical benefits that are included in the medical insurance plan for their employees. Data collected such as the history of medical claims are stored with the HR (Human Resource) which contributes to the potential of analyzing and recognizing trends within medical claims to better understand the use and overall health of the employee population. Patients with higher risk will generally convert into patients with high costs. Hence, early intervention of these patients will allow employers to potentially minimize costs and plan preventative steps. In predictive analysis, Decision Trees and Regression are typical techniques applied. The proposed framework combines an ensemble technique known as Stacking. As opposed to a single predictive model, an ensemble predictive model would yield better performance and accuracy. The objective of this paper is therefore to review current practices and past research within the healthcare sector while suggesting a practical framework for classification ensemble modeling. Preliminary findings indicated that an ensemble model can produce higher predictive accuracy and performance than a single model.

Control Banding: The New Approach of Risk Assessment in Malaysia

The control banding method is a simplified risk assessment for chemical handling tasks. It has been integrated into Malaysian risk assessment tool called Simple Risk Assessment and Control (SiRAC). A brief introduction of SiRAC is narrated with small medium enterprises (SMEs) as the initial target audience. SMEs are lacking in occupational safety and health knowledge and resources yet contributed 66% to employment in Malaysia. Purpose of study is to elaborate on this new tool of risk assessment. There are seven steps in the assessment where bands of hazards grouped with bands of exposure to select one of the appropriate four control approaches. Appropriate control guidance sheet will be selected based on task under each approach. SiRAC has its limitation in scope of coverage and only chemicals in liquid or solid forms can be assessed. SiRAC is using hazard classification introduced by the Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals (GHS) which has been embedded in the local legislation. Person to conduct SiRAC should be trained by approved training provider. SiRAC Online is under development to complement the tool. Despite its limitation and anticipated weaknesses, SiRAC is expected to be sufficient as an initial tool to assist SMEs in chemical risk management in Malaysia.

LEGAL POSITION OF DOUBLE EMPLOYMENT IN MALAYSIA

Double employment is a situation where an employee holds double paid jobs, either as an employee or as being self-employed. The issue of double employment has been subject to discussion and even has brought to industrial dispute between employer and employee which require the judicial intervention. While some employers allow their employees to engage in double employment, there are few legislations clearly prohibit this practice. In Malaysia, as to date there is no specific law regulating double employment by employees. This article aims to analyse the position of double employment in Malaysia.