The company that I interviewed was Dialogue in the dark (DiD).

We chose to work with them, as

they are a small social enterprise , which is very much similar to the type of business my group
and I are aiming to become. By shadowing this company, we have learnt a lot about the way it
runs and how they manage the employees and the staff.

DiD Singapore has 3 permanent sighted staff, 10 interns , and 11 part time guides. Each intern
stays around for around 6 months. The turnover rate is considered extremely high as the interns
working there take on full responsibility as any other employee working there. DiD is concerned
about turnover and has to close 2 months every year to train the interns that come and go. They
run on a system where after interns leave, they will try their best to get one or two interns to
continue for a month to help assist with the training of the next batch of interns.

One key strength that I learn from DiD is the type of relationships they build with the employees.
Due to the limited resources that DiD has, they cannot offer many benefits and incentives as it is
a advocacy driven enterprise more than a revenue driven enterprise. However, the one thing
they can offer is the human touch. It is a very flat organization and open structured. They have
an open door policy such that at any one point of time if the staff or the guides are upset about a
particular issue or problem , they can just walk up to the manager’s desk and speak. Not only
did we just hear about how the implemented structure, we managed to even see the layout of
the office and how it was positioned among all the other staff. The manager’s office did not even
have a door, and there was no segregation between the staff’s office and the managers office.
By observing the way the manager interacted with the staff, it was evident that they had a
comfortable relationship among manager and staff, and the culture there was very family like.
Despite not having incentives or benefits, all the staff and guides there understand that
resources are limited and incentives are difficult to come by. However, having that open door
policy helps the staff to be heard and understood. Staff are allowed to request for certain things
regarding work and the manager will try his best to work together with the individual to obtain his
or her goal. Examples are raise in income, training to improve skills, personal goals or breaks
from work. The manager does not freely hand to them these requests, but he works together
with them to achieve the employee’s goals. The relationship built between employees and
Manager is a Compensation practice itself and I feel it is a great way to make use of the most
overlooked resource, which is the employees themselves.

One Key weakness however lies in the talent acquisition. The turnover rate is extremely high, as
every 5 months, interns leave and the new batch is required to come in for 1 month of training.
Due to the Human resource headcount, they have a limit to how many employees they can hire.
This turnover rate is considered extremely high as interns are the ones that take on the duties of
the frontline in DiD. They basically run the business, while the 3 permanent staff and the
manager focus on other matters that run behind the scenes. Meaning, without interns, the
enterprise cannot run. The turnover rate is expected every 5 months. The weakness does not lie
in how the enterprise is run , but by how they have planned for the business to have a turnover
rate that affects mostly their revenue. It is weak because every 5 months, DiD will have to close
down for a month to train the new interns and to prepare them for the next 5 months of
internship. By doing so , they lose out on two months worth of revenue. The argument may be
that the price to pay for interns is low, which is $550 per month. However, paying 10 interns a
month on top of training which is being paid for them , is a very high cost.

One recommendation that I would suggest is cutting down the amount of interns hired, and
hiring more permanent staff, so that the enterprise can continue running for 2 months. Hiring
permanent staff may be more costly but by doing so, revenue can come in for an extra 2
months. DiD only needs to provide a one time training for the permanent staff to take over the
job of an intern, and therefore enable it to continue running. While the transition of interns
happen , the interns may leave, but the permanent staff would still be there to continue
operation the enterprise. They may be shorthanded for that period of time , and may require a
little more hard work for the permanent staff, but with the saved cost on training lesser interns
and the 2 months of extra revenue, incentives can be sourced out from by the manager to
encourage the permanent staff to continue working hard. Not only does it benefit the enterprise,
but it benefits the part time guides working there as well by providing them employment for 2
months. This in turn can increase loyalty to the enterprise and strengthen the Compensation
policy.