How to tell when your star employees are about to quit, PNG gets competition from China and Russia, and what 549,000 Papua New Guineans did last month. Readings from around the world on business, leadership and management.

Papua New Guinea’s low level of formal employment means that for many jobs there is a large pool of potential workers. But, when it comes to highly skilled positions, the labour markets can be tight, making it imperative to hang on to top performing staff.

So, what are the tell-tale signs that an employee is about to leave?

According to Seek Employer, these are the five indicators an employee is on the way out:

1. They take an increased amount of sick leave and long service leave.
2. They show indications of dissatisfaction, including more complaints.
3. They create conflict or friction.
4. They are always late.
5. They no longer seek to impress their manager.

China and Russia go big on LNG

PNG’s LNG exports, which principally go to Asian markets, will soon have increased competition.

Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin inaugurated on 2 December the Power of Siberia natural gas pipeline. The US$55 billion pipeline, which Putin has described as ‘the world’s biggest construction project’ is part of Russia’s pivot to Asia and the strengthening of ties with China.

The Power of Siberia pipeline will receive its supplies from the Chayanda and Kovykta gas fields, which are located in East Siberia and have been developed for the Chinese and Korean gas markets. Russian gas major Gazprom has reportedly been in talks with China regarding the construction of two additional pipelines: the Power of Siberia 2 (formerly known as Altai) and the Far East pipeline.

According to the Atlantic Council, as global liquefied natural gas (LNG) prices have plummeted, major exporters such as Australia, Qatar, and the United States will be ‘jostling to carve out’ a greater share of the Chinese gas market. ‘Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Kazakhstan are also keen to sell more gas to China and are, therefore, eyeing a potential expansion of the Central Asian pipeline.’

Facebook users in Papua New Guinea. Credit: NapoleonCat

Facebook king in PNG

Despite PNG’s government, in 2018, considering banning Facebook for one month to ‘research into issues like fake profiles, misinformation, and pornography,’ Mark Zuckerberg’s social media company is still king here.

There are 755,200 Facebook users in PNG. In November this year, 72.8 per cent of them used Facebook (an increase of nine per cent from October, when it reached 63.8 per cent).

Although more social media platforms have launched since Facebook first graced our screens in 2004 (most recently, WT Social), it is still king in many countries, such as the USA. The financial news portal LearnBonds has released a report showing that over 70 per cent of the US population (about 327.2 million people) has a Facebook account. In November, the platform reached 232.6 million users, an increase from 0.52 per cent from October.

Other social media networks such as Instagram and Linkedin have reported their user base (as of November this year). According to LearnBonds, the second-largest platform in the US is Linkedin with 161 million users followed by Instagram with 120.6 million individuals.

In PNG, however, only 3.15 per cent of people who can access to the internet use Instagram and 0.39 per cent use Linkedin. Given the preference of Linkedin among readers of this service, however, we could be talking about the right 0.39 per cent.