TODAY

I have noticed increasing number of foreigners on my way to work and back home. I mean those with business suits rather than tourists. It is also heard Myanmar businesses and organizations are hiring foreigners as needed by their industries. Because of rapid changes, in appointing foreign employees, there could be organizations without enough time to make employment rules and regulations, and without knowledge of how to choose to appoint although they know they need to take on foreigners. Therefore, we would like to contribute basic guidelines and do’s and don’ts for appointing Foreign Expatriates with the advice from economists and experience from businessmen.

 

Professor Dr Aung Tun Thet

 

Should Myanmar companies take on foreign expatriates?

It’s now a trend among many companies to appoint expatriates. This can be due to two reasons. The first is if they appoint as they are needed, it’s because they have to contact outsiders as they don’t have enough talents of their own. There can be various types of expats. Most companies usually hire them from neighbouring countries like Singapore, India and China. That’s because we are affordable to hire them. Actually, you’ll see fewer westerners. Even if they come here, the costs for them might be enormous.

 

Another thing to consider is if they are employing expats by following other companies, without considering if they really need or not. Just a question. Sometimes, you don’t want to lose opportunities like others by taking on expats. But it’s surely because of your necessity. You’ve got less capacity and wanted to make your transition smooth.

 

 

Which industry should hire them at the first place?

In fact, it’s no different if you take on at your experienced or talented industry. In banking industry, there’re fewer people with banking experience. Even if you can find them, they’re so old that they’ve lost touch with modern banking systems. Another industry is IT. I don’t see Expats coming into ordinary construction industry, but I see it in other sectors like Hotel Management. Industries having enough capacity and depending on local knowledge rarely take on Expats. So it’s clear that we hire Expats for lack of specialized knowledge in us—for example, in banking and hotels. Also expats like an accountant or an auditor, in addition to expert lawyers with experience in business law.

 

 

Which positions should be given priority?

I support appointing Expats. But it’s an issue to decide which position to offer. You can get difficulty in dealing with your own employees if a Management Post is offered to them—whether senior or junior. I would like to advise you to hire consultants, to do business with their advice. If they are given management responsibility, there might be some difficulty in doing business.

 

 

How should we prepare them to be in line with Myanmar employees?

When you hire Expats, our employees are the first to be in touch with them. There can be some difficulties in communication with junior and middle employees although it’s okay in dealing with owners and MDs. So it needs to do more to solve it. Another thing is that although we take Expats with high expectation, as they have experience from Singapore, Hong Kong or the US, they are less used to Myanmar and it’ll take time to get along with our employees.

 

 

Which citizens of Expatriates should we appoint?

To choose them, it depends more on your demand, rather than which citizen they are. While doing so, it’s to appoint depending of their expertise. Management is non essential, and we ourselves can handle it.

 

 

How could we prepare to be ready to meet the requirements of Expatriates?

They’ll think the whole package of benefits. And we can give them salary, but housing is costly due to increasing property prices. Another thing is education of their children, health insurance, etc. the total of which will cost so much. It’s not used to here. So our businessmen have to balance cost and benefits. That means to balance costs for them and benefits for us.

—

 

U Soe Win

Managing Director

Myanmar Vigour Co Ltd

 

Expatriates and the role of young people in Myanmar

Expatriates should be hired for Myanmar economy. Our country has been out of touch with the world and global communities since a decade ago. Today, young people of Myanmar will have to struggle a lot, with their poor English language skills and lower standard of education, to become leaders in the world of dynamic economy. In coming decades, those in leading positions will be expatriates coming back after learning abroad or those living here with continuous knowledge of English language, economics and development subjects.

 

 

Pros and Cons of Expatriates

When you take on Expatriates, you will get their expertise, language skills, experience in dealing with foreigners, and confidence in thinking and communication. On the other hand, there might be mismatch of expatriates’ expertise and Myanmar’s business processes. The best example is banking. When private banks are allowed to process foreign banking, some giant banks are heard to employ expatriates. Expatriates may think banking in Myanmar the same as advanced banking in their countries. But these can’t be useful as Myanmar even doesn’t have Security Exchange. Foreign banking in our country seems to have to start from scratch. So expertise of expatriates is higher than and not fit with banking in Myanmar. Another thing is they are needed to be allowed a huge salary and benefits. Also there can be misunderstanding between Myanmar banking employees and expatriates as there is gap in language, jargons and expertise. Now is the best time to take on expatriates. Getting appropriate expatriates at this time of economic rejuvenation will give business success.

 

 

Appropriate positions to appoint

When you appoint expatriates, you can just consider positions suitable to your business. Not so high levels. Former State Commercial Bank used to hire expatriates like four assistant managers and an assistant general manager. It’s like hiring a few people with extensive skills and this has made your work successful. But bank officials from this country were also sent to countries like England for training of at least six months. Some were even lucky enough to go two to three times to learn abroad. Current Myanmar economic conditions are seemingly not necessary to hire expatriates at every level as in Singapore. We should take on them only if it is necessary.

 

 

If you are about to appoint expatriates

You should prepare

(a)  Which position to hire for your business

(b) How long to hire

(c)  At what level to hire (e.g. manager or trainer level)

(d)  Which results to be expected (e.g. are their solutions suitable for your business?)

(e)  Your employees should be ready to take over expertise from expatriates.

 

 

Preparation to make it ready

Young people in Myanmar still need to work hard with diligence. They need to change themselves. Need to learn English language as it is a communication language internationally. With your studies, you must be well prepared to be able to speak with foreign expatriates in English. It is useless if you don’t understand and just carry out your duty. Your own employees are important. Expertise and their knowledge are needed to be taken over. It is not correct if employees think expatriates themselves will do the job as they are hired with salary. They are needed to be given limited time frame to work. Once we get desired result or once our employees can take their roles, they are no longer needed. They will be valuable especially in international communication, systematic internal development, meaningful written and reading skills, expanding new products, etc. As the economy is heading away from traditional means, we need to step forward to look for new businesses.

 

 

Expatriates suitable to appoint

If you have to give the same compensation, you should take expatriates from Europe especially Britain because they are systematic. The US or Europe is leading the world’s economy but stronger economies like England, Germany, France, Switzerland are playing better roles. Second consideration should be given to those from Singapore. When you take on expatriates, they should be male in their 40s or 50s as these people could really focus on your work.

—

 

U Kyaw Tin

SGS Myanmar

Managing Director

 

Is it a time to hire expatriates?

Some industries without technical expertise will be realistic only if they appoint expatriates. For example banking industry lacks international banking practice. We can’t still use updated software. Such things are not just limited to banking sector. If we would like to use international standard technology in our industries as necessary, even if they’re affordable, we’ll have to hire foreigners to skillfully make use of them.

Also in management, there are talented managers in respective industries. For those businesses we have never done before, we’ll need expatriates temporarily, then we can take over from them when our people become skillful.

In SGS Myanmar, there are no expatriates currently. When we need experts, we’ll hire them—if such expertise is absent here or if we need to strengthen ourselves. SGS has over 34000 employees in 144 countries, so whenever experts are needed in Myanmar, employees from these countries are transferred to work here. All the main duties of SGS Myanmar are done by Myanmar employees, so there are no permanent foreigner employees. Although we did hire them 12 years ago, we had had difficulties with them as we had to ask permission for everything for them like travelling, although we mostly need to get them their destinations at once.

 

 

Warnings while hiring expatriates

Myanmar businessmen need to understand international practices. Senior administrators should learn management practices, I think, so that they can control their own employees and keep abreast with the norms of international administration. In case of learning fields, they also need to know international practices of marketing or sales.

 

 

What kinds of rules and regulations can be stipulated for expatriates?

Such regulations are needed to be enforced by the state as well, like other countries. For example, when a foreign firm enters their countries, they can decide how many foreigners to hire, and how many native employees to appoint and at what level. On the other hand, it also needs to protect job opportunities of our own citizens. Another thing is that the government needs to enforce ethical values to be practised at the workplace. It’s needed to impose rules in advance to prevent culturally unrelated things or conflicts.

 

 

Preparation from Myanmar employees if they are to work with expatriates

In our accounting industry, we come to know that it’s difficult to fulfill work requirements. Requirements mean the number of accountants. In addition to insufficient expertise, our employees also gained their specialized knowledge without international experience. For example, we can’t compete with international people as we have only theoretical—not practical—knowledge of giant public companies or stock markets.

Even if we don’t have such practices, we should prepare to understand them to be ready. In our accounting industry, if an IMCPA member is to go to Tokyo to learn Tokyo Stock Market with the help of Japan government, he will have to give training on what he learned when he comes back. In my office, two months ago, five Myanmar engineers were sent to Australia for internship training. Preparations like these are also found in other sectors, but the necessary manpower won’t become enough overnight, so expatriates are still to be coming in. At such time, Myanmar employees need to sharpen themselves with language skills and knowledge to catch up with the opportunities.

Not just for accountants, all Myanmar employees need to prepare by reading or attending seminars although they can’t acquire international experience. Another thing is English language, which is still poor among Myanmar people. It’s a must in communication with foreigners. So business owners should also see team building and training as long-term investment for their own employees and develop these activities.

—

 

U Min Sein

Advocate of the Supreme Court

 

When hiring expatriates, how should Myanmar businessmen prepare to be ready for facility, security, insurance and so on, to meet their requirements?

Expatriates are hired because of their international experience in their countries. According to their ranks, things like accommodation and vehicles are needed to provide, and some business owners have already done these arrangements.

The area of security for them is widespread. For their personal security, we Myanmars do not tend to hurt foreigners, although there can be very rare exception. However, there should be security in their housing or apartment, as burglary will give you unwanted hurdles.

Business owners usually provide insurance for them as necessary. Employees of a hotel, for example, have been provided life insurance from a foreign company. If they unexpectedly pass away, their family will get the insurance money. It’s good if our state-owned or citizens-owned insurance companies are developed. Insurance is not just limited to your life. You’ll also get relieved if you also provide insurance for damages, losses, thefts and diseases.

 

 

What kind of industry should start to hire?

For giant industry, start with administration and management experts; for banking, international banking experts. Also in construction, it takes time to learn to become administration and management experts, and international banking experts. You need to work practically to get exposure with international community. Successful businessmen in our country are seen to be employing such experienced foreigners. It’s not to say to neglect Myanmars. Our people are very talented, they only need to be trained to get in touch with what I just said Exposure.

 

 

How to harmonize current Myanmar employees and expatriates, to prevent politics?

Our people are less jealous on foreign professionals. They are needed to inform first to teach Myanmars. They should not see our people as their subordinates. You should avoid foreigners with such viewpoints. So, at first you should attach observers on them.

 

 

What kinds of rules and regulations should be enforced in advance for expatriates?

The main principle is to respect Myanmar culture and traditions. Every country has its own culture. But if you come to a specific country, you must obey their culture. When we go to their countries, we have to follow their customs. So this must be a discipline. Communication with elderly people should also be taught to abide by the discipline.

For example, in our countries, names are called with initials U, Ko, Daw, and so on, which is different from their countries, so it’s needed to be taught. It’s awkward if they don’t know this and called the names as they like. Also work regulations are to be taught like Myanmar employees. If hardworking Myanmars assume foreigner as getting more benefits, there could be misunderstanding among our own people.

—

 

 

U Moe The

Managing Director

TODAY Ogilvy & Mather Myanmar

 

To hire expatriates or not

Of course, we need them, in case of advertising industry. Our company TODAY Ogilvy & Mather also employs expatriates because we need them.

 

 

How long have expatriates been appointed?

Since February 2012. We have a total of six expatriates currently, in the positions of Manager and Director, with plans to take on up to the level of General Manager.

 

 

Why do you hire them?

Both because of technical skills and requirements, especially for working with the standards and norms of the advertising industry practised by Oglivy working together with us. We want our local team to gain their skill transfer and knowledge transfer. So we appoint expatriates to work along with local team.

We’ve become a joint venture since May 2012, our company brand has also changed from TODAY Advertising to TODAY Ogilvy & Mather Myanmar. Locally, TODAY is well-known and Ogilvy stands for world-class Best Practice, Best Network advertising agency. Most of our clients understand the standard, culture and practice of Ogilvy and if they know Ogilvy is present in Myanmar, they expect the standard of Ogilvy. At such time we need foreigners with knowledge of technical skills, Ogilvy culture and practice to serve those clients. That is also a reason to hire expatriates.

 

 

Issues in hiring expatriates at first

When we start hiring expatriates, it’s extremely difficult for foreigners to come to Myanmar. We started to hire since late 2011 for commencement in February 2012. So there’s time difference of about six months between our plan to hire and his arrival at the office. The reason why it took so long is that there’re fewer people willing to come to Myanmar, with lack of knowledge about Myanmar, and seeing the visit to Myanmar by leaving their stable posts as a risk. With these reasons, it’s a hard job to appoint an expatriate at first. That one came to us from the Philippines office.

Preparation from our side is as we don’t want them to be shocked once they arrive in Myanmar, we primarily told them current situation here and asked if they could do the job in that condition. That’s because we don’t want them to leave only after we persuaded them to work here.

However, after May 2012 when Hillary Clinton visited Myanmar, political and economic opportunities have been transformed and more people become willing to come to Myanmar. More people especially in 2013. So it is no longer difficult to hire foreigners.

 

 

Do you make any rules and regulations in advance?

As far as rules are concerned, they’re made equal for every employee. There are no special rules for foreigners as privileges. Employee rules are also made consistent with our own office based on Myanmar Labour Law.

But expatriates are told first-hand that they should live in accordance with Myanmar culture as a respect, from clothing to living. That’s just wearing neatly due to industry demand. The main restriction is only in cultural issue.

 

 

How do you manage to prevent politics?

It’s impossible to become foreigners and Myanmars as separate groups. The nature of the job itself is cooperation between foreigners and Myanmars so it’s hard to become separate teams. We’ve rarely seen politics.

 

 

What our employees can expect from hiring expatriates?

Our aims and necessities to employ foreigners are not just to work with but to give our employees on-job training with them. The opportunity from working together with foreigners is a learning process for Myanmar employees. We ask expatriates to share things for Myanmar employees like case study, work process, techniques, and so on. Just to share what they don’t know already. Those who can learn with open-mindedness will get the knowledge. We can provide for those with such knowledge to achieve better positions or offers. Expatriates also have to learn back Myanmar culture and behaviour from Myanmar employees. Consumers from country to country are not the same, although you may think so. Therefore, expatriates also have to learn back from Myanmar employees.

 

 

How long will you employ expatriates?

There will be a mixture of foreigners and Myanmar employees. As we’ve been TODAY Ogilvy & Mather Myanmar, there will still be both Myanmar employees and foreign employees.

Our advertising industry is not well developed yet, being small and immature. There is also no school in Myanmar to teach advertising as a professional career. Only a subject at the university level. To fill jobs in this industry, lack of training schools will cause local employees to mix with foreigners. So I don’t see all employees being Myanmar until five years ahead. We will have to train and coach our employees during these five years.

And we expect them to get top management level. If possible, we’ve envisioned Myanmar employees to become top leaders in advertising agencies. I also want to become like that, personally.

—

 

U Khin Aung Tun @ Nyi Nyi

Executive Director

The Hotel @ Tharabar Gate,

Kappa Int’l Ltd

Ngapali Bay Resort & Spa

White Rice Restaurant

 

Positions employing foreign expatriates

It’s been nine years since we hire expatriates for The Hotel @ Tharabar Gate in Bagan Ancient City, Ngapali Bay Villa and Spa, and White Rice Restaurant of Kandawgyi, Yangon. For The Hotel @ Tharabar Gate, we employ General Manager and Operation Manager recently. For Ngapali Bay Villa and Spa, General Manager as well as positions for Chef and Spa. For upcoming season, we may hire General Manager, Restaurant Manager and positions for Spa. At Restaurant, we currently appoint a Chinese chef from Guang Zhou.

 

 

Reasons for hiring them

We don’t divide native and foreigner in our recruitment. When we started hotel business in 2002-2003 for General Manager and Operation Manager posts, there’re few people eligible in Myanmar, so we had to hire expatriates. So also for restaurant in 2005-2006, it’s difficult to look for Chinese cuisine chef in our home country.

When we need employees, we usually advertise, post in LinkedIn and Facebook, and choose from the CVs applying at that time. Individual applicant’s skills are important and as we do team-work, they need to be good in communication with others and in cooperation with teams. Also need to share their own experience and knowledge.

In our industry, Department Heads and Deputy Assistant Managers are Myanmars. We take time to prepare for teamwork and train to work with mutual respect, to acquire work targets, to overcome language barriers among Myanmar employees and appointed foreigner General Manager, Operation Manager and Chefs.

For me, I hope young people in Myanmar to take the place of expatriates someday by getting their ways of doing things and knowledge. We give priority to our own people if experience and skills are the same. But the weakness of Myanmars is lack of continuous learning and acquiring experience. In case of languages, if they know a language in addition to mother tongue, they rarely learn another one. For the post of General Manager, knowing three languages, public relations experience, and having lots of general knowledge are better suitable.

 

 

Preliminary Negotiation and Rules

After we announce short listed candidates, whether for the post of GM or others, I tend to ask them situation in Myanmar and why they want to work in Myanmar. Also I tell them in advance some conditions. If he comes with his family, for example in Bagan and Ngapali, we tell him there’s no superior school nor first-class hospital; in Bagan, no nightlight entertainment. We tell them the conditions of Myanmar workers in their work site, for example 20 percent of them are from Yangon and Mandalay and some are from other towns. As best we can, we choose expatriates from Asia or with working experience from Asia. We reduce misunderstanding among current Myanmar employees by regular discussion after hiring expatriates. After some time in appointment, some expatriates show issues related to characters and we have to take action, give warnings, make adjustment, and ultimately fire them or stop their stay permit.

We’ve taken a lot of time to hire expatriates. We set up skills requirements and regulations. We usually interview them only after telling in advance do’s and don’ts of working in Myanmar. We enquire their background. After careful selection, we showe them our policy of business and the budget we need. We don’t interfere with them details on other matters. After one year, if an expatriate goes well with our employees, customers, suppliers and local administration, and also the budget is fulfilled, we’ll continue working, otherwise we’ll look for another employee.

 

 

In helping native employees to work together…

It will be good only if expatriates like foreigner GM share their experience and knowledge, as well as to give training for our employees. As needed, we tend to conduct meeting and discussion, performance assessment and regular training.

 

 

Self-learning opportunity from working together

Of course, it does have. Mainly foreigners find it easy to say no and we also have to learn their dealing with customers and preparation for planning. We’re currently also learning from continuous meeting and discussion with citizens and foreigner hotel owners and general managers.

 

 

Common problems with Myanmar employees

In some cases, our people are used to say yes even if they don’t understand. If a foreigner says something and gets the response as a Yes or a nod, he assumes that the person understands it. When they see inconsistency of doing things, they will complain for not following their words.

So, employees are given training to sharpen their qualifications and English language skills. But they themselves need to learn. We just prop up the ladder and it’s their choice how many of them will climb how many steps.

 

 

To increase Myanmar leaders in tourism industry

It’s not wrong to regard Hotel & Tourism Industry in Myanmar only at the beginning stage. We need a good institute for opening up opportunities in this industry. Our people need to try harder, like joining higher training classes, gaining experiences from home and abroad, learning more than two languages, and getting more general knowledge.

It’s important to grasp the knowledge of your career thoroughly. If so, there will be many Myanmar middle-aged GMs in forthcoming tourism industry.

—

 

Daw Lin Lin Tin Tun

Managing Director

Mango Marketing Services Co Ltd

 

Positions hired

It’s been three years since we have appointed a Philippine Creative Director. There are also people with talented creativity in Myanmar, but they seem to prefer freelance work, not just as an employee or a professional under a company. Recently if you say creative thinking or creative communication, it’s not just limited to art creation and commercial way; commercial creation particularly related to brands is also becoming necessary. Schools for teaching these subjects are also absent in Mynmar. Myanmar people living abroad with such degrees also prefer to live abroad, so we have to hire foreigners for these posts.

Expatriates are appointed not just for posts like Creative Director, but for Client Servicing too. It’s the best if we can get Myanmar people coming back from overseas, with exposure from learning abroad. It’s also convenient for team work because they can understand native language and communicate very well. Such people can be appointed with their pay scales the same as foreigners. They are better at language, so easier to work with all employees and also for consumer insight.

Sometimes when foreign companies come to Myanmar to open offices recently, their marketing and brand employees are foreigners. And the service they want demands higher quality. So, they have to look for 1) better communicator in English, 2) people with exposure on what’s happening outside your own country. So, it’s needed to hire foreign employees in client servicing such as account handling sector.

 

 

To harmonize with Myanmar employees

There are two parts for this. Foreigners can seldom speak and understand Myanmar language, so we have had language barriers. Another thing is culture. But fortunately, our Creative Director is young and can work well with our present team. Employees here are open-minded, probably due to willingness to learn new things. Working together with them gives us learning opportunity and it’s in harmony. Also he’s from the Philippines, therefore, not much different from Myanmar culture and tradition.

 

 

In case of getting together with native employees

When you compare Myanmars and foreigners, the latter may be occupying Manager level, whether it’s due to salary or capacity. Then we have to consider our long-term employees who’re not stepping up to Manager level. With office allowance, we ask them to join English language classes, with terms and conditions to refund the fees to us if they can’t pass the exam or finish the class. With their native working experience and local insight, it’s a strength if they communicate very well. They need to learn, of course. If you learn, you can gain knowledge. We have to ever remind them that positions like Manager are not just for foreigners. We also internally teach them topics related to marketing and brands. Our company Mango Marketing is attached with JWT, so if they come to give training for creative or client servicing or strategic planning, our native employees will get the chance to join and learn.

It depends individually if they go as expected even if they get the chance to join the training. There’re really talented people, and there are people not much talented as others despite having much experience with lack of thinking and conceptualization.

 

 

Regulations and benefits

The same for basic rules like office hours and benefits. But foreigners may get longer holidays as they wish to visit back their countries. Once we hire a foreigner, we have to explain first of all about our company, values of the company and our country, and so on. They mostly understand once we explain like this.

On hiring foreigners, we have to make a contract. In this contract, there are also facts about termination of work if they do such things or so, e.g. absence or not coming back or committing crimes here, or missing their responsibilities, or accepting similar jobs while working with us, etc.

 

 

Self-learning opportunity from working together

We have to learn by working together with them. Fortunately, we got the chance to work with multi-international companies around 1996, so we achieved a good experience. We continued learning in later years, but no systematic training like them. What it looked like is a CEO from a famous company joining an MBA course. He knows it already. While attending for his MBA, he even gets the chance to relate his experience with theories. It’s a good learning for him.

 

 

Can Myanmar employees take the place of them?

For example, if you take a look at Thai or Malaysia, foreigners are still present at a certain level. But the majority of company staff is replaced by native employees. When natives become eligible, foreigners will no longer be necessary to hire. We expect employees with good education and good exposure to gradually replace them. As our work is concerned with customer products, the more we have to communicate with people, the more people of speaking and understanding in Myanmar will be needed. Otherwise foreigners could only read our reports. They should go among public to ask questions. We here have fewer people to understand if they’re asked in English.

So there are also weaknesses although we get the opportunity to learn their ways of doing things. The best is to replace them with native people. But foreigners will still be present at certain levels.

 

How to avoid politics…

Most foreigners coming to Myanmar already understand Myanmar’s culture and religion. But there are some differences in doing business. We here have to respect our seniors and we’re often afraid to ask back. However, foreigners usually ask questions to get information. If someone shows them a certain way to do things, they will ask ‘how about other ways,’ ‘what if I do like this,’ ‘why,’ and then some. This is because of their education system. So we have to control problems in such cases.

In our company, top positions are not just for foreigners. There are also foreigners working under Myanmar employees. So in dealing with ranks and positions, we have to observe and tell them how to communicate with their boss who is also needed to communicate well with his subordinates. Not as a set of rules; we target each individual to coach and advise. Foreigners can write in English very well and Myanmar employees can’t write well despite good experience, but that is everyone’s strength and weakness and not a reason for disrespect.