hr tunes- touching chords of human resources
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Dr. Jasmeen Pawar
HR TUNES
Touching Chords of
Human Resource
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HR TUNES – Touching Chords of Human Resource
Copyright © Dr. Jasmeen Pawar, 2013
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1
Human resource is considered to be a centralized
part of any organization in the world and hence it
includes a lot of factors based on which the articles
given below have been written. These articles are
written based on experience, knowledge and
observation.
Shape up or Ship Out
"I will not do the work more than what is assigned to me. Sorry! I am just paid peanuts". "Making you multifaceted is merely a jargon used by private sector employees to exploit us and our skills". I am sure we hear this kind of conversation almost every day .It may be from our peer group at work or from our friends sitting with us in a group or even sometimes at home from our elders. The mind sets, the perspective or even the conviction in these statements depend on situations or an experience that employees carry with them in their day to day lives. In all this, there’s something that we all forget, that an employee is not just doing for the organization but also for his own motives to be accomplished. We do expect to rise up the ladder of success and we all want to be recognized at our workplace. Where, in this game of growing and giving back to the organization is evident ,there are numerous hidden facts and fundas which needs to be clearly understood by us if at all we seek RECOGNITION
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and GROWTH for our life. In the current scenario, there is a notion embedded in the minds of young management graduates or even job seekers that they just have to sit in a cabin and do some work which they later carry with them if at all they get hired and become rigid enough to shape themselves up. But, the real fact is, if an individual holds a degree or is merely doing a job for the heck of it then one can be called a FROG IN A POND. Then, the statements stated above are more evident with this group which I address as FROG IN A POND. It is always good to LEARN THE ROPES, i.e. get an expertise in one’s profile and then make one open to better opportunities. The more we open ourselves to opportunities the more we get prepared for challenges and this is the point where real learning of life happens. One who is rigid and desires to be multifaceted very easily faces the situation where he needs to ship out from his respective workplace and later POUND THE PAVEMENT that leads to frustration at a time when he gets completely saturated with this vicious circle of leaving jobs and searching for a new one. While the one who is open to shape out moves on a path completely different that gives him every opportunity to add new dimensions to his career path ,the other gets entangled in shipping themselves out. Every time he needs to prove his capability in the new environment to stabilize himself. The choice is always ours either to be a CREAM OF THE CROP or DEAD WOOD. If, we choose the
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former we shape up better else we ship out frequently. We are all architects of our own fortune. So, let us build the same by adopting SHAPE OUT rather than SHIP OUT!!!!
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Hopping is not always fruitful "Had I planned a career in a systematic way I
would not have been hopping jobs like this." This is
a line which gets into my ears quite often and that
makes me wonder what may be the reason for
people to make such a statement. When people
step into Management studies they do have a lot of
absurd and incongruous reasons to back up their
reason behind choosing the same. That's the point
where the actual problem starts. It is quite easy to
say that I got a package of so and so on my first job
and it’s hard to some extent to sustain the same.
Getting a lucrative package, getting a job on the
campus …..Wow! This seems an amazing start of
career for a fresher. And the real story begins when
this same lucrative and remunerative package
becomes quite hard to sustain. Actually, the
problem starts when people step into careers they
never wanted to be into. This somehow relates to
poor focus or a lack of goal. The moment this lack
of goal comes in front this vicious circle of hopping
up jobs starts. Now lack of goal is one part of the
story but the other part reveals the truth i.e. lack of
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proper understanding and guidance too. This is
used as an excuse too.
Now when people keep hopping from one job to
another, somehow their own indecisiveness spoils
their CV or their profile. This happens merely
because the moment they appear for any interview
an HR gets mad on watching the CV of such
candidate who has changed 10 jobs in 5 years and
questions the credibility of such a candidate. It's not
about packages, designations, or even about the
brands you are working with, it is certainly about
the gratification level you have in your work that
matters the most. Until and unless an individual is
not sure about whether he loves his work it is
simply impossible to grow in his professional life.
The best solution for the same may vary from
person to person. But, one thing is for sure that it is
always good to run after what you really want
.Which stream attracts most of your attention?
What work gives you a sense of Gratification? Ask
yourself what your short term and long term goals
are and is it associated with the kind of profile you
have chosen for yourself. Ultimately it is not about
hopping 10 jobs and then getting satisfied. But, it is
about how well you grow in the profession you
choose for yourself.
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Withhold the top performers
In this market scenario, where dynamism persists
at every nook and corner, retention of the
employees still remains as one of the
biggest challenges posed on HR. Who says that
the notion “GRASS LOOKS GREENER ON THE
OTHER SIDE" is wrong? Well it is the same for the
employees who are eager to switch to the new
organizations with the ambiguity of attaining
packages and lots of benefits & compensations.
This concept of switching jobs is
well embedded among the top performers these
days and the moment January comes they start
eagerly waiting for April as it’s time for appraisals
and plans to move ahead. And this is exactly the
point where all the cost for training,
talent management and having performers within
the organization go in vain. This in turn increases
the level of stress and burden on the HR
department on a larger scale.
Problems persist in every organization and every
work. The need of the hour is not to sit back with
problems but in recognizing them and working out
solutions. One of the major problems is that the so
called top performers can always find jobs
elsewhere. These are the people who fall under
critical workforce segment showing consistent
performance and can simply succeed anywhere.
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This is another point which the HR needs to refocus
is letting employees work first in one sphere, get an
expertise rather than expect multitasking. Regular
training programs as per need should not be
ignored.
It is often good to retain your best talent rather than
working your way hard to find afresh. Right HR
planning at periodic intervals can work out the best
and get better outcomes. Also never be afraid of
transparent communication within the system
because if transparency does not persist disbelief
in the management rises among employees.HR
cannot deny the fact that top performers are
definitely assets which if lost, poses a great deal of
liability on the organization.
4
Go beyond saturation
Yes! Today no more is the task of HR limited to just
hiring, compensation and benefits, appraisals or let
us say firing. With dynamism everywhere, how
could HR roles stay saturated to the same limited
styles? The terminology of saturation is not
applicable anywhere now in the world of business
or the corporate scenario. We know that technology
brings breakthrough in some seconds and the
same happens in the case of HR where
management of diversified cultures is also a
challenge. Let me give you an example of Sam
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Walton who always worked hard on creating a
congenial corporate culture. Every employee was
equally important for him and he even established
certain sociological programs for getting insights
from employees which affect their working
behaviors.
Employees should be trained enough to contribute
towards a higher productive level. The teams need
to work in close association with each other and as
an HR manager, he or she should maintain a good
level of communication both with the senior
management and subordinates too. Understanding
the psychology of employees, working on regular
feedbacks, one to one interviews bring various
insights which work like a tool for designing &
implementing the new strategies.
Getting work done from employees needs a smart
approach and critical thinking along with problem
solving skills. The same stereo- type approaches of
just giving normal or standard appraisals after
particular tenure no more works as a motivation for
employees. Even this can no more be used to
retain the best talent within the organization which
indeed demands a movement beyond saturation.
This in turn demands reaching towards the heart of
employees and making them feel that they are a
part of the organization. Again coming up with the
example of Sam Walton, he had been one of the
first persons to bring in the approach of Profit
Sharing for employees. It makes them act as
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shareholders and keep in sync with the
organization. This creates a competitive edge for
employees both professionally and personally.
Poor people management leads to poor outcomes.
Employees who are being managed and trained
well think out of the box and come up with the
innovative solutions as and when required. In order
to build better teams engaged in reaching their
targets the concept of fun at work proves to be a
tonic to motivate as well as bring the employees
together .Working upon the areas which have
saturated can definitely help organizations in
setting higher benchmarks and GO BEYOND THE
SATURATION!!
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Manipulating volatile situations
The hiring was so poor that the employees
were neither trainable nor were they are worth it!!!
Such employees have become more of a liability on
the organization rather than an asset. But if we go
back to the basics we must check out and look at
the core hiring that had been done by an HR
recruiter himself who claims to be the best person
for choosing talent. And this is where, when
economy becomes volatile, fluctuations rise at
levels beyond limitations and interruption in normal
business behavior occurs. The most important thing
for an organization is having a talent within it who
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can handle such situations and above all have
a leader who can transform the situation to a win-
win.
The leadership which we call transformational
leadership in such situations becomes the need of
the hour. Organizations such as IBM, Infosys, and
Wipro have time and again worked upon what we
call people management. The actual problem
arises when people are themselves not aware of
what exactly they are expected to deliver.
A higher sense of responsibility lies on the
shoulders of the HR manager as he has to first
understand the organizational structure and
accordingly organize the training sessions for
employees .The dynamics in market and its ever
changing scenario demands the building up of
strategies which can ultimately help flourish the
business houses. It becomes essential to keep
employees acquainted with overall enhancement of
their skills which may help them in reaching their
strategic goals. These trainings and thorough
knowledge help in dealing with volatile times of
market.
This further requires identification of the key
contributors within the organization and having a
good hold over retaining such employees. These
volatile situations are involuntary but sometimes
they even bring a positive change and the after
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effects of the same can be enjoyed for a long
period of time. HR plays a significant role in such
conditions. Defining competencies and working
upon them to achieve strategic goals is very
important. HR needs to be accountable for
promoting an environment conducive to positive
change and setting goal expectations. Yes! It is
important to work on value addition but it cannot
be achieved without value creation.
6
ADVOCATING TEAM: CAN DO IT
ATTITUDE!
Just imagine you have a team who is about to play
a cricket match representing your department, but
in the team of 11,only 2 of them are good at
bowling, while 3 at batting, 4 do not know how to
play the game while the remaining 2 are not loyal
enough and can do match fixing too. How does this
relate to a team as HR? Well yes! This is the
scenario in our current teams wherein some people
are confident about their roles and know what they
have to do. Few of them are not even aware of
what has to be done, while a few just spread bad
words. Having such a junk can never take you
anywhere or rather land you nowhere. Yes! It’s
important to realize that if cricket teams are made
based on competency, I relate it to cricket as its
one of the most favorite games of almost a
maximum number of people then why can’t we
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have the members in a team working on the same
strategic goals and working smart enough
to achieve them.
The responsibility of this falls on the shoulders of
HR because again it is all about hiring the right
employee for the right job and looking out for the
right competencies required for the said job. The
biggest mistake we people make is while recruiting
.It’s hard to say but I have seen people come for an
interview and they are unable to justify their
resumes. Such candidates even if hired can never
be assets to the organization but they become a
liability and the employer later starts finding the
best way to fire such an employee. Then why the
hell should we hire such a candidate without even
finding out whether he or she fits in for the vacant
job profile or not?
Now winning the game is not a child's play,
similarly being at an edge also needs a lot of hard
work, smart work and persistence. When your team
knows clearly where to go, what is to be done, how
a particular goal has to be achieved and how you
expect them to conduct themselves in the pursuit of
that vision and goal, there's a good chance that you
will reap rich dividends for yourself and your team.
Once you have spent good time with every member
of your team and know their pitfalls too, it always
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get easier to strategically assign the work to
respective employees based on their
competencies. Again multi-tasking cannot be
accomplished in a day or two. Careful observation
of team members is equally required before you
decide on this part whether to make your employee
multi- faceted or make him perfect in a single role.
The passion among team members need to be the
same just like players playing a match in which
every member should be alert and definitely be so
consistent that achieving heights should not be an
impossible task for managers but rather I’M
POSSIBLE(IT’S POSSIBLE) and we can do it
attitude!!!
7
ACTUALIZE VIBRANT WORKFORCE
“My team is no more working the way it should",
“my employees are not giving their best"....Often
we come across such statements from managers
but I wonder how they forget that such responses
are an outcome of the ignorance of the managers
themselves. Why should we always blame an
employee or a team be criticized when it is the
same workforce we created ourselves. How can we
forget that? Yes! Managers do wake up, open your
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eyes and analyze what were the discrepancies on
your own part? Where did you ignore your teams
when they needed you the most? And why are the
levels of frustration so high among the employees?
We need to reshape the HR schema if we really
want to talk about creating the best of teams to
meet the organizational goals. Extensive support
should be given to the employees. They are more
sensitive these days and it is not only getting work
done keeping a stick on their heads but also more
of understanding them, focusing on their career
development and a sincere guidance in periodic
intervals.
I would like to relate an instance in this regard-
There was an employee who always performed
well and gave his best. Every time he worked more
than expected and also better than the other
members of his team. But his reporting manager
never supported him and also guidance was
negligent in his case. Slowly the graph of his
performance started falling down. While the other
team mates no matter how they performed they
were always in the manager's good books. This
attitude demoralized the employee to such an
extent that he lost faith in himself, his work and was
on the verge of resigning. But the manager senior
to his reporting manager tried to sort out and
motivated him to work again as he used to earlier.
Now in this case the responsibility of creating a bad
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team and having lesser outcomes does not fall on
the employee alone but also on the manager who
created an atrocious team.
When we say that it’s time for a transformation or
an age of rapid development it becomes equally
essential to create more vivacious and energetic
teams which are unbiased and where team mates’
opinion is carefully observed and taken as and
when required. Such teams enable business
success through engendering, improving and
sustaining the organizations competence.
Employees should be made a part of the
organization rather than making them feel that they
are load bearing donkeys. Respecting employees
and creating a good team is the best solution to
creating an edge and be distinct in whatever you
do. That is why we say” Having a vibrant workforce”
is the need of the hour
8
TANTALIZING TO CONTROL
Managing talent and retaining the best of them is
not an easy task. Often when lured with an
opportunity of high packages and lucrative benefits,
there would hardly be an employee who won't
leave the organization and run for the better. And
again none other than an HR would be blamed for
the higher attrition rates and having employees with
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second thoughts on staying in their coveted jobs.
Why then should the HR alone be blamed? Why
should retaining talent be a problem for
organizations? Why then should recruitment by the
HR not be taken up as an urgent mission for getting
the right talent for the right job?
The stalwart behind having a good talent is:
working on” WE rather than I”. For this the most
accountable are the managers handling teams
wherein people need to work together rather than
for individual goals. This ultimately will help in
reaching the strategic goals of the organization in a
better way and engaging employees in the task at
hand rather than thinking about leaving jobs. It is
essential to strengthen the work culture and build a
talent powerhouse. Further the employees should
be encouraged towards contributing and supporting
Corporate Goals. Looking after employees’ career
interests is equally important in order to help them
succeed and grow in their current roles which may
help them in building a better future.
Ensuring that the right people are placed in right
positions for now and in future is equally important
to meet our corporate goals. The basic problem
comes when even the employees are not aware of
what is expected out of them and certain questions
that cloud the mind of an employee are:
- Do I have an opportunity to do what I am best at?
- Is my development relevant to my employer?
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- Will my good work ever be recognized?
- Do my opinions have any value here?
- Are there any opportunities to learn and grow?
When it comes to the question of an employee
belonging to the organization, probably a doubt
arises in terms of his retention. The cardinal fact
behind this doubt lies in the front of the employer to
hire an employee with the right set of skills for the
right job. This further has the following requisites:
- The selection should be for the right TALENT
rather than experience, determination and
intelligence.
- The Expectations from an employee should be
well set and guided, so that they may achieve the
same.
- It’s important to keep an Employee motivated by
focusing on his/ her strengths rather than
weakness.
- Look for the right FIT for the right profile rather
than just filling the organization with unskilled
people.
- Study your people well and spend time with them.
- Do your best to cultivate the talent of your
employee.
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Again if the bad happens it comes on the shoulder
of an HR but one must not forget that good is also
an HR's takeaway. So having the right talent and
temptation of controlling the same with an
organization made me work on a thought –
TANTALIZING TO CONTROL!!!
9
REPOSE YOURSELF
Working all time, being stressed with heavy
workload, deadlines, targets, performance...oh my
god!! There is so much I need to do. Suddenly a
voice came from my heart, Hold on...what are you
running for? You will end up losing all your
enthusiasm and energy. All you need to do now for
yourself and the people you are working with is
REPOSE yourself and stay calm. Yes! We often
forget this and keep ourselves all the time so much
hooked up with work, that we never relish the joys
of life.
Who says a person who works like a clock will
definitely be successful in all spheres. If you do not
relax how will you perform better? It is like this that
people rarely succeed if they do not have fun in
what they are doing. So, sometimes having fun in
what you do is more important than working 20 hrs.
a day. It’s better to work 5 hrs. And get high levels
of productivity rather than sitting 20 hrs. and getting
no output. Definitely this is an individual's
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responsibility to perform well and come up with
bright colors for his own growth. But since a team is
formed by the members of its group, it again is the
responsibility of the Manager or an employer to
have an overview of the changing patterns in his
team, the way the members in the team work and
how each of them works under different conditions
and situations.
Keeping the team together and understanding their
needs is the sole responsibility of an employer.
Therefore it is essential to create a team of
employees who are jovial, buoyant and happy at
heart. So having FUN AT WORK is what I mean.
Having some fun element often contributes to
giving good times and building good relations too.
It is often said and believed that HAPPY
EMPLOYEES = HAPPY CUSTOMERS. So having
happy employees is equally important as they are
the face of organization. It is important that we take
small breaks in between if we aspire to achieve our
dreams because the right way to reaching solutions
and finding a way to dreams comes from working
hard and efficiently. And this is not possible until
and unless we repose ourselves timely. The more
you stay happy the better are the results you come
out with. Finally, an HR is expected to create the
HPT's i.e. High performance Teams which
definitely needs employees who are motivated
themselves from within and working towards the
strategic goals of organization.
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REPOSE YOURSELF AND WORK TOWARDS
YOUR GOALS IN AN EFFICIENT MANNER!!
10
EVEN EMPLOYERS NEED TO LEARN
The employers expect to have a good team which
gives high performance, high revenue, very high
productivity, and competitive advantage.........it is a
never ending list which is expected from its
employees. But why do they forget the fact that it is
only the Employees who can either break or make
an organization. Often lectures are given on
motivation of employees but there lies a lot of
difference in speaking, delivering and
implementing. Employees are the face of an
organization or I must say the primary asset for
organization.
The employers sometimes fail to create an aura for
its team/ employees which in turn creates an
impact on their performance. This in some way
stops their personal and professional growth which
definitely becomes negative for the steps of
success which can be related well to a metaphor –
Using the right steps to the ladder we call staircase.
The wisdom, authenticity, creativity and factualness
gets missed which is expected from its employees.
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When all these facts are so important and
employers look out for these, how can they miss
something really important i.e. respecting its
employees and understanding their needs? The
most common error made by employers is when
their behavior is biased and they forget it is a team;
it is not one person who leads it. Self-development
for employees is equally important but in an
environment where intellect is hardly valued, how
will people grow? How will an employee be
competent enough to give his best? No matter what
we say, it may even come from within to succeed
but when the employers miss out on understanding
their employees and finding out what is hampering
their performance they can never create Top
Performing Teams which is often called- TPTs.
Employers must first educate themselves on how to
overcome their own shortcomings because
employees learn from their seniors as it is often
said- Kids learn from parents! Similarly even
employees learn from their reporting managers. But
if these reporting managers are themselves Lousy,
Procrastinators, Biased who don’t not recognize
and value their presence...probably they need to be
prepared enough to face the same. It’s often said-
GIVE AND TAKE RESPECT! So the moment an
employer forgets this, he himself loses his respect
in the eyes of the employees too.
The moment the employers learn some basic facts
which even include the basic courtesies, there
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won’t be an HR fighting for the basic problem of
Employee Attrition and searching the right talent &
a right candidate for creating high performance
teams. And no more will an employee cry out his
heart and say EVEN EMPLOYERS NEED TO
LEARN!!!!
11
HR - AN IMPULSIVE FIELD
It’s been said & I must say believed that if things
remain the same and don't change, then one day
we get bored of it or stagnancy levels raise.
Ultimately that particular thing loses its charm. The
same holds good in terms of Human Resource
Management or what we say personnel
management. The changing trends and dynamism
is a part of the word called "Globalization”. Not only
are the private organizations concerned about the
personnel management but the government firms
have also shifted their focus towards this field. This
remarkable change has been seen in the line of HR
managers with time. Recruitment which was prior to
1992 was not a very tough phase has now become
a prime responsibility of HR manager and an affair
that needs a lot of attention. If recruitment is not
done properly, it leads to various other problems in
an organization.
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The prime focus of HR management is no more just
the selection of an employee but their roles have
become far more vulnerable & flexible. HR
department is now considered to be an impulsive
area around which rotates almost every other
sector of an organization. The firms are now more
result oriented and performance based. An
employee is considered now to be an asset of an
organization. But there is one discrepancy which
needs a solution that people need to be more in
sync with each other within the organization. The
role clarity and a good relationship management
with senior personnel can help in achieving the
goals at a much faster pace.
The organizations still need to be more focused
and inclined towards the human resource
management. These days it is not only about hard
work but also a lot about being smart enough to do
the work and get efficient outcomes. Getting the
best of outcomes requires a proper understanding
of the employee’s psychology. It needs
understanding of the work culture, the gap among
employees in terms of competencies and efficiency
and how they contribute towards productivity. On
the basis of this understanding training needs to be
designed and timely implemented for the benefit of
the employees. Not only is the training important for
employees but also for the employers too.
Among other things in an organization proper
coordination is still lacking and it needs to be
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worked upon. To survive in the growing
competition the managers have to understand and
adopt the new trends. The responsibility of success
or failure of an organization depends a lot on how
well the HR managers take up the work and get the
work done by the employees of their organizations.
Since this field has shown a lot of changes with
time and is also stepping ahead with new trends
every now and then, henceforth it’s not wrong to
say that yes – HR IS AN IMPULSIVE FIELD....
12
MULTI ETHNIC WORKFORCE
It was considered traditional by the people to stay
confined to their hometowns and they hardly
preferred to move to other cities for work. Rather
the gratification among employees was quite high
in terms of work & the organization where
employees used to work. This aspect of being
satisfied is now getting lost somewhere and it is not
only employees’ own motivation level which is
coming down but a lot for this is organization
culture which is responsible. Post liberalization and
adoption of globalization by India has changed its
face to a great extent. Work patterns, job roles and
responsibilities, preferences have shown a
tremendous change.
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Post liberalization various international firms
stepped in and even the investment plan by FII has
shown a great deal of change. The scenario has
changed so much that now in 2011, hardly there is
any multinational which does not have its
operations in India. As a result of this one can find
people from diverse backgrounds and cultures
working together with each other in the same
organizations. And here the responsibility of having
a good organization culture within the system
among this multiethnic workforce lies on the
shoulders of the leader.
We are well aware of the fact that Indian
workplaces are one of the most ethnically diverse
places. Somehow there is a differentiation among
employees from different regions in terms of their
diverse expectations. It is the responsibility of the
manager to take care of the individual behaviors
and adjustment of employees in their particular
environment. No matter to which region they belong
to an employee who feels responsible to his work,
obviously contributes higher in terms of meeting the
organizations goals.
In such a case the leaders need to understand the
need of its employees. The needs of employees
differ at individual bases but some of them are
definitely generic and those needs move around -
Guidance & Support, which every employee
expects. Then comes favorable work environment
& this favorable environment is created by the
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workforce no matter to which ethnicity it belongs.
The important thing which leaders should take care
of is providing recognition & appreciation.
The diversity of the workforce or the region/culture
the employee comes from is immaterial. All that
matters the most is how cordial the workforce is
with each other. How well the business is
understood by them, how well they coordinate and
move towards their goal. The workforce is the
primary asset for an organization and must say it is
the best brand ambassador.
13
RETICULATED EMPLOYEE ATTITUDE AND GRATIFICATION
The important parameters in the purview of an HR
professional are being concerned about an
employee’s attitude which is quite clearly depicted
by his behavior and the job satisfaction levels. Even
though job satisfaction levels vary for every
employee the organizational programs & the
management practices create a deep impact on the
productivity level of employees. The Management
schools give an impressive and good lecture on -
Organizational behaviors, attitude building & so on.
So, how much does each employee implement
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those lectures in their practical life? Hardly do we
find the employees interacting with each other.
The responsibility of choosing a right employee for
a right job i.e. the one who matches well with the
requirement of job lies completely on the shoulders
of the HR professional. Work situation matters a lot
in terms of job satisfaction and organizational
impact. Employee attitudes and outcomes are
directly related to each other. If somewhere the
employees are not motivated enough to give results
and doing work just for the sake of doing it, then an
HR professional is accountable for the same. HR
department is considered to be the center or rather
I must re name it as the Heart of any organization
from where the entire operation or business is
regulated. The callous attitude of the HR
professional paralyses the entire system such as
the employee’s attitudes and their job satisfaction
directly and smashes up the outcomes.
Some core factors which help in forming the
employee’s attitudes are-
- Career development.
- Relationship with management.
- Compensation and benefits.
- Work environment.
Lacking clear and defined roles make things worse
as an individual loses his focus on his core area
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and will be unable to deliver what is expected out of
him / her. The satisfaction of job revolves around
fulfillment, commitment and engagement put into
the assigned work. Recognition of an employee’s
efforts is equally important. One can get
satisfaction when there’s a - hike in salary, better
compensation, promotions to higher level and of
course more benefits. Such perks definitely act like
a value addition and encourages an employee to
work towards his goal. Insufficient knowledge,
inability to select qualified and good competent
workers for a particular job, lack of communication,
lack of job definitions are the factors which affect
job satisfaction negatively. The management
should keep a check on overcoming these
discrepancies so that the ultimate aim of achieving
goals and strategic requirements of the
organization are met timely and in an effective way.
Job satisfaction and sincerity to job affect each
other reciprocally and have an impact on
performance levels. Efforts to improve the
processes and practices within the organization are
essential in order to have a good healthy
environment. At last the most important factor is
that happy employees are more productive.
Creating happy employees and keeping them
engaged towards their work ultimately results in
having higher levels of job satisfaction. The attitude
of employees and their satisfaction is practically
relevant and henceforth organizations should focus
on the same.
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14
INTERLUDE IN PERFORMANCE LEVEL
Generating high revenues and high incomes are
the core aims of any business or an organization
because these organizations have this kind of
Business Model. Strategies and plans are made at
almost every quarter meetings & even reviews are
done, but still there exists a gap in terms of setting
up right strategies and further it even goes beyond
the setting up of those strategies is the right
implementation. YOUR PEOPLE ARE YOUR
BUSINESS. One cannot forget this fact that no
matter what your strategy, or your marketing plan,
IT system, finance department, management
information system all put together cannot make
that difference which even people in an
organization can make. People are considered to
be the key to success. So to transform business,
it’s essential to transform your people.
So the need of the hour is to take personal
responsibility for their performance, as well that of
the overall work. Once the people in the
organization engage in doing this, probably the
levels of performance can be much higher and
even productivity levels rise higher. This gap has
been found in organizations due to various
reasons. Having said this a few of them are as
follows-
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The organizations rarely track the performance
against the top priority goals which had been set.
No communication within the organization.
No follow ups.
Performance bottlenecks are not visible to top
management in various situations.
Strategy & top priority needs do not match the
same wavelength.
Issues like how well the team communicates
tackles difficult assignments as well as create short
& long term plans & hold themselves accountable
for results matters a lot. The biggest disparity lies in
delivering the right message to people. They are
hardly aware of what is expected out of them.
Moreover it’s really painful to see people who do
not have clarity in terms of the roles assigned to
them. Job responsibility comes later; people are not
even clear about their job roles. This discrepancy is
not because the middle management or lower
management people are not willing to work, but it is
probably because the higher management hardly
takes time out to discuss with its people about the
difficulties they are facing.
It’s essential to have clear & defined roles for each
employee in an organization & then we can expect
higher productivity. Problems are endless, but if we
carefully analyze this interlude & try to find out the
solutions then success may not be far and even
P a g e | 32
organizations can reach their goals in a short span
of time. All that is needed is to keep a track of
things and have them moving right.
15
Employee training is a pronominal task
When it comes to the point of larger productivity
and better outcomes then one cannot ignore the
fact that the right kind of skill set is required at the
right place. The same holds good even when we
talk about the professional environment or even the
social segment wherein we all come across
different responsibilities and areas of work. No one
is born with technical or soft skills, these skills are
developed with time and henceforth the employees
in an organization must understand the value of the
same. Some of them even find training as a waste
of time and for them I must say" Knowledge never
goes Waste". Probably the new things that they can
acquire from training can help them in motivating
themselves and acquainted in facing new
challenges that comes across.
So in this competitive era where the level of
competition is high in every field then, how could
Training & Development stay behind? With the
need to maximize the individual and organizational
effectiveness, technical (hard) skills and soft skills
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both play an important role and require attention.
But generally it has been observed that the focus of
most of the organizations is more on Technical
skills rather than the soft skills. But the customer of
today or your audience is no more interested in
Gyan(Knowledge), everyone wants the speaker to
understand their psychology and their mindset. So
this definitely requires a lot of brainstorming on the
part of the trainer. To put it in a nutshell one cannot
ignore that training is a must for all, whether he or
she is a part of the senior, middle or lower
management.
Now that we know that training is important for all,
the structured training programs are a must for all
the employees. It’s to make them aware that they
are the organization's future and by giving their
best they can one day turn out to be leaders. The
ultimate aim here is to keep employees engaged in
the task assigned and also be accountable for their
work. Ideally organizations hire the people who
acquire the skills required for a particular job but as
it is said that with time, wear and tear occurs or can
say depreciation occurs, so having said that I would
say that everyone needs to brush up his skills. This
procedure of brushing up skills is giving training as
and when required.
Well it is said that training is expensive but if people
don't value training it becomes even more
expensive. Even in the training most important
thing is to understand the psychology and mindset
P a g e | 34
of the target group because it helps in retaining
them. Training for employees is important because
it contributes to the organization’s competitiveness.
In other words it often helps in creating a
competitive advantage as for e.g. it helped in case
of - Rosewood Hotels, Hard rock café etc. Good
training offers good facilities to employees in terms
of their effectiveness and enhances their
performance levels.
Training creates a lot of difference and even helps
employees in getting to the heights which they are
craving for and looking forward to.
16
TRAINING AS A CARPENTER TOOL
Training & development has gained tremendous
recognition in the past 5 years and is widely
adopted. But there are instances when people run
away from training or they think it as a waste of
time. This has proved to be a curse for some
organizations that aim at bringing improvement
using this tool. This tool of training and
development is no more different from a carpenter’s
tool which he uses to pound and get a job in some
cases, while in some to sustain the job. No doubt it
is a widely accepted concept now and Human
Resource department is laying a great emphasis on
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the same but let me just ask a question from every
trainer – Are you targeting the right audience?
When a carpenter pounds a nail into the log of
wood he is aware if the wood is suitable for this
work or not. Similarly when I compare training to a
carpenter’s tool, I mean that training needs to be
given to the right people, at the right time and
where it is required. This in turn means that a good
analysis is mandatory before deciding what kind of
training has to be given. At last it’s important to
make trainings effective & productive. Now it’s not
predefined that training can always create effective
employees because it requires equal participation
from the participants too.
Evaluating the persisting problems within an
organization and then working on those is one way
to achieve a successful training. There are a lot of
expectations from an employee and a certain kind
of skill set is required for a certain job. So, in order
to achieve the same, training needs to be taken
seriously. For example- in an organization a trainer
might be hired for the purpose of providing training
to employees timely and in a systematic manner. If
the burden increases and more responsibility is
thrust, then a trainer may have to serve other roles
also. For instance he may have to even tackle
customer related problems who walk in to the
organization for their queries. So in that case it is
essential to make this employee acquainted with
the training on customer handling. Here training
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can help people accept the challenges of evolving
jobs.
If nothing changes in the world and everything is
stagnant or there is a lack of dynamics in the
organizations, then in that case no one needs to
emphasize on training. Training is insignificant if it
is done for an employee’s development and would
be less critical to an organization’s success. So this
follows the need to analyze not only the part of an
employee’s development but also keeping the
accomplishment of organization’s objectives clearly
in mind. A clear look on the significant changes that
have taken place in the organization is essential.
Training needs arise from various circumstances-
· The installation of new equipment or techniques
into the system.
· Change in the working methods or products.
· Labor shortage.
· A desire to improve quality.
· An increase in number of accidents.
· Promotion or transfer of employees.
There can be more reasons for having trainings but
yes the ultimate aim lies in having productive
outcomes from them. The carpenter spends hours
a day to cut wood and provide us with many
products similarly training creates a lot of difference
P a g e | 37
if given at the right place at the right time and again
with the right kind of attitude. Keeping in mind the
beneficial reasons behind training it should be
made mandatory and be followed and taken
seriously.
17
MY FIRST EMPLOYEE HANDBOOK
I still remember the induction program of my First
job where in all the newly appointed candidates
were made to sit in front of a trainer. There were so
many questions in our minds like what were we
doing there? What we had to do? Are we going to
be paid on time or not? When would be getting our
salary hikes? How do they evaluate our
performances? What are the company’s rules and
regulations? What do they expect of us? All such
questions made me realize that there might be
some catch for sure else why did they hire us? And
then the trainer came up with some pages in his
hands and a small booklet. I was wondering if it is
again back to school days some test/ grilling or
what? And then I heard a voice which said – Hi
dear welcome to the organization and this is your
handbook. Then I realized it was an Employee
Handbook. Once I opened the same, many of my
unanswered queries got clear.
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So, as the organizations grow, it becomes
increasingly important to have a known or
structured set of rules and guidelines to address
everyday issues. The Employee hand books help in
explaining the employment policies and the
consequences for violating those policies. Yes, I
mean the handbook although small gives a clear
idea of what the policies of the organization are and
by not abiding by rules it can lead to negative
consequences. Moreover the good part is that
every employee has to follow the same rules and
regulations which have to be clearly understood.
So every employee handbook in general has some
features which are as follows-
- Introduction – which states a message from the
Managing Director, company Chairman. This later
gives an idea about what the organization is all
about, the culture and history of the organization.
- Pay & salaries – i.e. the salary which will be paid,
tax deductions and how they are calculated.
- Performance reviews- which covers the appraisal
programs and how often the appraisal would be
done. Also it mentions the evaluating criteria.
- Benefits- this includes the benefits which will be
given to employees.
- Discipline – the maintenance of decorum is
essential in every organization and doing anything
against it is not good for employees.
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- Employee safety- it includes the safety of its
employees in their organization.
- Complaints – how complaints have to be handled
is also included in this.
Any unconditional promises which the organization
will not fulfill should not be included in the
handbook. This handbook once reviewed
thoroughly is one way to get all the information in
just a few minutes about the organization. Most
importantly the right to change policies as and
when needed must be included in the hand book,
as the kind of dynamics which this market is going
through anything is possible. But sometimes
employees may argue later for things not included
in the handbook which must be made clear at their
induction period.
So this handbook, for many employees like me,
stays in the mind as a memory with which one can
carry a little knowledge about the organization to
which one is associated now or even after one
takes up another one.
18
PATH TOWARDS SUCCESS
Success stories in life do not happen in a day or
two. If that had been the case, every person on this
P a g e | 40
earth would have carried the tag of being
successful in their resumes and lives. It is not fable,
when we state that only 5 % of the people are
successful in this world. A major chunk of the world
becomes a follower rather than being a leader and
hence 95 out of the 100 people in this world have
no clue to where success lies. As it is impossible to
live like everybody and hope for financial success
at the same time.
One of the most important elements for being
successful is passion and desire. Never mix the
words desire and wish as they both have different
meanings. Many a time it happens that an idea
comes to mind, but what would an idea alone do. It
requires an action too.
1- If you dream follow it and achieve it
For this it is extremely important to follow your
dream. Rather I would say before you follow it, be
clear in your mind what your dream is? What are
you striving to achieve in your life? This is later
carried forward by following your dream. So it’s
better to be calm, composed and give a though to
what you want to achieve. A better idea would be to
take a paper and jot down the list of your dreams
because we all have many of them. All it needs is
to go in a systematic manner and once you
complete this step it means your first step is done.
2- Once started – follow your dreams one by one
per day
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Don’t rush! Hold on. It is impossible to achieve your
dreams in a day. Certainly, now you are at a point
where you know what you want and so you can
plan systematically to achieve each of them.
It is a lot about one’s firm determination to achieve
something in life and be successful. Many a time
we come across situations where failures become
our day to day partners and one day that partner
bugs us so much that we feel frustrated and loose
hopes. But we ourselves have to fight those bugs
and come up again as each individual stands for
himself on this earth. No one comes at your rescue
when you face problems. So it is better to be a
fighter than a looser. Who says that you cannot rise
after a downfall! This is absolutely wrong. Having
the zeal to succeed can help in fighting against any
odds and make us shine. You are the maker of
your own destiny whether you are
married/unmarried/working in an office/having a
business one must have the right focus, direction
and above all the right intention to be successful.
IN THE JOB-
Often people in jobs come across numerous
problems, ranging from workloads to competition to
preference given to a non-deserving colleague. But
success is above all these excuses. The one who
aims to be successful in his job goes beyond all
these and comes up by creating an edge in his
P a g e | 42
performance. For such an individual I agree that
climbing the ladder of success is not that difficult or
easy. So, one thing is clear that one needs to have
a strong passion in ones heart to reach that
particular point. You may face many hurdles as well
as setbacks but success comes when you go
beyond these hurdles. Look for what you desire
because desire comes from heart and not from
mind. Heart controls emotions and mind controls
magic. If there is a conflict between emotion & logic
then every time it is emotion that wins. So give your
best input to reach the point where you think
success lies for you. Now this never means that
you will reach that point in a day or two, it takes
time. Once you are well equipped with the
knowledge at core basic level then it becomes quite
smooth and easy to reach the upper levels in your
job.
IN THE BUSINESS –
One of the common mistakes which people make
while they venture into some business is that they
do not perceive if the idea with which they are
entering market will be accepted or not. It’s
essential to find out which area has potential for
your business. For eg- Buying property in a remote
area where no urban population or let’s say even
rural population stays around, and planning to have
a shop there means an absurd idea in itself. So it’s
P a g e | 43
better to look out for a potential market where you
are planning to enter. In business again, the zeal
along with passion and above all experience
matters a lot. It is never wrong to take advice from
the learned men in fact it is rather fruitful. The
bigwigs in business started with a scratch and that
too at times when none had any awareness of what
markets were? What is IT? What is technology &
globalization? But now times have changed
Entrepreneurship is a widely accepted area and
many people are making good revenue out of it.
But this in itself needs a careful planning, right set
of strategies and mindset.
The most important point that I would like to add
here is that right and positive attitude is even more
essential than knowledge. Now in business it is
also essential to understand what is the statistics of
the market? Is the economy showing an upward
trend or not? Whether the business you want to
enter into is acceptable in the market or not? Who
are your competitors? What are they doing to reach
that particular point? How to create an edge and
capture the large part of the market? How to form a
customer base? Who are your potential
consumers? What is your target in the market?
Leaders are those who have a strong strategic
vision. It’s important to design an efficient business
plan and then train & motivate the workforce
towards it. For this one needs to have a capable
workforce, a good relationship management as
P a g e | 44
good contact helps in its own way. Successful
companies have strong relationships with their
customers and this leads to rapid sales, higher
profit margins and lower customer acquisition
costs.
So for being successful it is always good to
remember this –
"The difference between a successful person and
others is not lack of strength, nor lack of
knowledge, but rather a lack of will." Vincent T.
Lombardi
19
COG IN THE WHEEL- HR
Human resource is just like a steward and an
enabler to the organization. Here managing talent
is just like the mainstream to the success of the
organization. Certain implementation of the
programs or the lack of doing something incorrect
creates a dissonance and here it is well compared
to the Cog in the wheel which if once it creates a
problem in rotation then it’s entire balance gets
disturbed. So, human resources department has to
shoulder the responsibilities carefully as it comes
across as the central point for the management.
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Their failure can distract the normal balance of
organizations and rather the organizations which
face a downturn are actually in that situation
somehow by the kind of problem created by the HR
department.
If the HR hasn’t understood or there’s no clarity
about its business focus then it means that it is the
starting point for some major problem yet to come.
One thing is clear; if business focus is unclear then
it is just like a disaster. In such a case, even if the
best practice is given by the HR personnel or the
best policy is implemented they won’t work. Trust
me all the hard work goes in vain when the
business focus is not clear. Moreover the senior
management sometimes behaves as if the HR is a
puppet who must dance to their tune. Now this is
wrong! An HR has all the rights to raise his voice
and clarify the employee’s doubts making them
sure of their defined roles.
Also it is important to have regular audits and HR
processes to be reviewed timely. Now as the
economic environment changes business requisites
also change. Proper assessment of the HR
personnel should be done. Also one must not forget
the kind of effort an HR has to put forward in all the
processes right from staffing solutions to training
employees. Regular feedback from the seniors is
essential. Some of the HR processes even lead to
failures if unchecked and the famous example for
this is the Toyota crash by HR people. The reason
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for failure in this case was not one but many. It
started with rewards and recognition that fueled
sales but safety based inputs were ignored. Even
the corporate culture was biased towards any
positive information. The leadership, retention and
risk assessment by the HR missed identifying the
revenue impact of human error. So in all it created
a kind of mess and led to crash for Toyota.
HR needs to understand the behavior. The
sentiments in banking and financial sector remain
volatile as talent behavior corresponds with the
market swings. The focus of the HR should be very
clear. While hiring decisions are made because an
employee hired has to be trained and training itself
demands lot of expenses. Sometimes the decision
to hire the wrong employee and later the attrition
rates in the organization actually mess up the
things.
So the reasons for shambles by the HR can be
many but the point lies in finding out solutions. It’s
very important to understand the maturity level of
the organization before deciding to take any
decision. Since HR is a part of the organization
where in major functions rotate so a HR personnel
needs to be clear, knowledgeable and strategic in
taking decisions for the organization because if this
cog in the wheel creates a problem then, an
imbalance can lead to major defaults.
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20
LATEST IN HR- COMPETENCY MAPPING
Every one dreams to be a star performer in some
way or the other in the respective organizations.
But is it that easy to be a star performer? No! It
requires a lot of hard work and sincerity,
Knowledge and intelligence is what makes one
competent enough in the working environment.
Along with this some other features are also
required to excel in the job. Good managers often
look for traits which are essential to do the job
effectively and work to bring positive outcomes.
The psychologists in organizations have refined
their understanding and converted it into the
process which is known as competency mapping.
This is a tool used by HR professionals to find the
right person for the particular job requirement.
It has emerged to be a tool used by the HR
professionals to find out what set of skills is
required for a particular job and how to achieve the
same. So this is the process which assesses and
determines one's strength as an individual worker
and in some cases as a part of an organization. It is
essential to find out the areas where an employee
has a good hold because when the task assigned
to him is related to that area then he can
accomplish the same in a shorter span of time and
P a g e | 48
get a better outcome. So basically this term
Competency Mapping rotates around two main
factors- Emotional intelligence and Strength of a
person in a particular area.
The right way of getting results from a team
requires one to be a good team manager or I can
say a good team leader. The one who understands
the team building process definitely has a good
team structure and hence can give effective results.
Taking the right decision at the right time is equally
important. This concept of Competency Mapping is
now widely accepted and large organizations are
using the same to understand effectively how
competent the strength of workers is. Even various
types of procedures are used for the same-
1- Employees are provided with a Questionnaire,
basically to ask them what they are engaged in,
what more skills are required in order to get a more
improvised performance.
2- Once the similarities in answers obtained
through the questionnaires are noted a competency
based job description is prepared and presented to
the personnel department for their feedback on it.
3- Final step involves mapping of ability to
benchmark and then decide the rest of the tasks to
be assigned accordingly.
This concept in India is a new one and has been
recently adopted by various. But still it is a question
P a g e | 49
mark if it has been seriously adopted or not. This is
a kind of mapping that helps in defining some
success criteria in one's career and is beneficial
both at individual and organizational level. But yes
some organizations even face problem in adopting
it completely. They sometimes make the mistake of
having the right set of procedure for the same and
this leads to wastage of time. Moreover in some
cases the incorrect assessment itself leads to a lot
of problems being posed and faulty cases. All that
is required is to have the right understanding of
what is being adopted and how it has to be
implemented so that the latest trends and
outcomes in HR bring lucrative results rather than
drawback.
21
HR & SOCIAL MEDIA
Social media has emerged as a powerful tool in all
aspects of business and every field is engaged in
this area, so how can the HR stay away from the
same. It is also a notion that social media motivates
the employees. Moreover the branding and
promotions are best done and spread to wider
network by the use of social networking and media.
This discipline deals with selecting the appropriate
social media sites and formats from a myriad of
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options which are available and leveraging the
same in order to create value for an organization.
Engaging in HR and social media requires an in
depth understanding of the key benefits, the
drawbacks which are related to social media & also
managing the same in a proper way. It means that
now social media can be at best used for effective
Human resource management which includes
Recruitment, Collaboration and Engagement of
employees at all levels. Since there are a lot of
forums now where the discussions are related to
various HR topics so this keeps them more
engaged at all levels.
As such the social media has become a model for
Employee interaction. Sharing of information
through various HR portals and forums has now
made interaction and discussions easier. Now- a-
days even, the use of Face book, LinkedIn and
Twitter is not only limited to sharing videos and
photos but their use has also widened engulfing
into recruitment, branding and customer contract.
Even the same is used for capturing knowledge
and sharing the same. Formal and informal
learning, collaboration and communication &
engagement are some of the uses.
The business network allows an employee to post
professional and personal information. Various
other tools like micro blogging, blogging, instant
messaging are now in. All these tools are available
through various forums and have their own
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platforms which are used even by HR professionals
on a larger scale. So these things are used to
connect, communicate and collaborate
globally/nationally with other employees effectively.
The trend is now focused on these social business
networks which need to be distinguished from
social public networks. As the trends change, it is
essential to change with the same and adopt them.
Now HR & Social media are well connected with
each other.
22
3R & HR- INNOVATION IN ITS OWN WAY
Innovation is the word which is being heard almost
everywhere in the corporate from one wing to the
other. Every senior tells his sub-ordinate to come
forward with innovative ideas else the things won’t
work. Well some have a misconception that HR has
no role in this so called INNOVATION. But the truth
is that HR in any company contributes a major
share in the innovation of the Success formula.
This follows the fact that the functions of the HR
have an impact on the innovation capacity of an
organization. This impact needs to be a positive
one.
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HR reinforcement acts in terms of innovation and
here it is not required to move out of the world to do
something extra or strange. All that HR needs is to
focus on its 3R's i.e. -
- Recruitment in an effective way
- Rewards as per requirement.
- Retention of the talent.
Some way or the other, the most positive and
effective impact in the organizations is best created
by HR personnel, provided they give their best to
the task they hold on to. Thus HR plays an
essential role in contributing to the corporate
innovative agenda.
Recruitment: is one major thing which should
be done carefully. Effective recruitment is a tedious
task and one that requires a great deal of attention
at all times. So this begins with hiring the best
people to work for you in your Organization. So HR
must take care and work diligently to ensure that
the right systems are in place to attract, identify and
hire the best talent which becomes a driving force
for innovation. So contribution to innovation does
not mean going to the market and searching for any
innovation GURU. Here it means to have the top
talent, with good knowledge at all levels from junior
to the top management executives. This sounds
quite easy but it is actually a hard task to
accomplish. No one can be blamed for this, as it
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has been seen that even the HR managers
sometimes have made mistake over the years on
their patterns of recruitment and the kind of staff
they hire. The HR should take advice from the other
people in the organization too to hire the best
talent.HR should provide special interviewing
classes and skills to the managers who are
engaged in hiring.
Rewards: When we put in our best inputs to the
task assigned to us we often expect recognition.
Now this core area has also to be handled by the
HR as it holds a specific meaning in a working
environment. So having reward mechanisms at the
right place is essential and also requires innovation,
in terms of building and working upon
compensation strategies, performance
management tools and reward programs. So the
HR should work upon its resources timely and
come up with new ideas.
Retention: Now from the time an employee who
is hired is connected with the organization in one or
the other way, the HR plays an important role.
Retention of talent is equally essential. Here the
prime objective should be retaining the top
performers as they have a higher tendency to move
forward and switch when offered with more
lucrative packages. It is important to make these
people realize that they are the key people in the
organization. It is now the responsibility of the HR
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to hold onto the performer before he or she takes a
decision to leave.
All the terms and conditions of the HR and
innovations revolve in some or other way around
the 3R's.Tackling them effectively reduces half the
burden of the HR. Things can be worked out
effectively to make the HR an important contributor
towards what we say INNOVATION.
23
RECRUITMENT PRIORITIES KEEP CHANGING
Gone are the days when parents used to insist that
a high score will take you high in life. The
recruitment pattern has changed a lot. In the past
few years where the academic records which if
definitely are excellent enough need to have a
background of practical skills too. These days
studying hard and having good marks on the report
cards is not considered to be a big thing. If you are
competent enough to survive and stand for yourself
in this tough practical world, then you will be shown
a path towards success and promotions, as the
marks in your report cards are not considered when
hiring a candidate or even when appraisals are
done.
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This is something logical and even practical. If we
read/hear the success stories of such individuals,
then we come to know that they never come up in a
day or two or with good academics rather they
come up with Good leadership skills, Effective
management, Teamwork and Hard work. So,
extracurricular activity is a good source which
creates a positive impact upon your personality
level too. This helps as these qualities speak about
the traits, strengths and overall personality of an
individual. The one interested in sports turn out to
be a good team player while the one in artistic
activities appear to be creative and have a lateral
thinking pattern. These qualities in some way or the
other are helpful for the organizations as strategic
thinking and planning are the two important aspects
of management. So these qualities can be of
invaluable functioning to the organizations. So in
one way or the other, these activities nourish and
enrich the careers of individuals.
There are various instances where some
individuals are not so good with their academics but
definitely turn out to be very good in the other
activities. These extra activities make their minds
more sharp and hence they are quick in their
responses. The tendency of action and reaction is
perfect in these individuals and their performance
levels are worth appreciating. So it is not
mandatory now days that the ladder of success is
only for people with good academic achievements.
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The recruitment process is a hard one where a lot
of time is invested in selecting an individual and
hence it has to be carefully done with a good
review and checking if the candidate actually fits for
the particular job description or not. Hiring a
candidate means the right assessment and
screening has been done. It has to be seen if the
candidate has specific skills or not. Academics and
also good practical knowledge help in
accomplishments at a much faster pace.
24
WOMEN IN MANAGEMENT ON THE TOP
There is no area where a woman has not
contributed and had been appreciated. It is an
understood fact that she can balance her
professional and personal life well. Traditionally
men preferred their women at home. But as times
have changed in terms of advancement and
adoption of technology how could women stay
away from working. Women these days are
contributing a lot in the field of management
irrespective of sector.
As per research studies it is observed that the
firms with women representation on the board have
attained sustainable profits as opposed to the
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board which had no women. But still in India gender
diversity ratio is being given so much emphasis that
at times it’s also irritating as many men hate to see
women ahead of them. Women prefer working now
and wish to contribute financially to support their
families, they also gel well with their spouses who
often face the same kind of pressures and stress at
work which women do.
We cannot forget the various personalities who
have shown tremendous growth in the past few
years and definitely are considered to be among
the great management leaders. Few of them are
Indira Nooyi who heads Pepsico, Kiran Majumdar
Shaw who heads Biocon, Chandakoachar a lady
whose contribution in the banking sector is
tremendous. We even cannot forget Shikha
Sharma and similarly many such examples before
us where women have contributed to the corporate
sector at best in their own ways.
Moving ahead when we talk of corporate sector the
best HR professionals turn out to be women who
are into Recruitment, staffing or into Training.
Anisha Motwani, chairman Max New York Life
insurance says that women have contributed their
best in the corporate sectors and are also engaged
in having consistency in terms of the service they
provide. No doubt there comes a gap in the
professional career of women due to personal and
family priorities but the ones who cover this gap
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and again come across with the same zeal turn out
to be the best managers.
So women in India continue to equip themselves
with academic credentials and experience thus
matching male leaders in functional expertise and
wisdom. The leadership levels of women have
shown an upward surge in a short duration of time.
What happens if the females on the board of
organizations are less? Of course it creates an
impact on the companies which have no women at
the top management levels. They are at higher risk
in terms of growth levels. It is seen that over 80% of
the companies which are showing the fastest
growth have more than two women on the board
and 35% of the others have at-least one.
Women leaders in organizations contribute their
best in their own way. All that we need to change is
the mindset and equally allow women to grow and
excel too. It is rightly said that ‘The hand that rocks
the cradle rules the world’. The female who is
considered to be the best house-manager can also
turn out to be a great leader in the organizations
which cannot be ignored as we have many such
women before us.
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25
KEEPING EMPLOYEES MORE UPDATED
The word called Human Resources, 10 years ago
was not that much focused upon as it was not
considered to be an essential component in
management. But now, one cannot imagine any
organization to run without this field of
management. Then came the time when corporate
training was considered to be a very essential part
of an organization wherein huge amount of money
was spent on this particular area. Moreover the
trends and patterns in training have shown
tremendous change since past few years.
These days competition worldwide has increased
so much that it is very hard to maintain the top
notch levels without some extra efforts by
organizations. Rather it can be said that the market
of today is transformed to a corporate race where
everyone is struggling hard to stay ahead in
competition. This naturally requires hard effort by
companies to maintain and increase the levels of
productivity each day.
So, to create a competitive edge and be ahead
fruitfully resulted in the shape of corporate training
which has truly revolutionized the way in which
companies educate and discipline their manpower.
Each day something new happens in an
organization. This may be in terms of some new
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policies or practices or it can be in the form of new
strategies for increasing productivity. It can also be
implementation of new software into the system. So
in some way or the other the need for training is
created and it becomes essential to keep the
employees updated and informed about the same.
Now the question arises as to who should be hired
for corporate training? This actually is a question of
serious concern. The people who are highly
experienced in their particular fields can turn out to
be the best corporate trainers. It is important to
move with changing trends in the market as
technological advancement and variations take
place at a very high pace. So no doubt a good
corporate trainer is required by the organizations.
So the responsibility of corporate trainers is high
and henceforth organizations need to have the best
of them. Some qualities which cannot be ignored in
a good trainer are-
- Business perspective and adequate knowledge of
their subject.
- Good interpersonal skills.
- Excellent communication skills.
- Quality to get along with anyone.
- Good observation skills.
- Training & Teaching skills.
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- Listening skills
Sometimes even the companies are in a dilemma
whether to hire a trainer full time or part time. But it
all depends upon the needs of a company and the
departments for which they require a trainer.
Sometimes temporary hiring works best while in
other cases it may not. So corporate training has
emerged as a powerful tool to keep the employees
updated and informed.
26
RETAINING EMPLOYEES - PRIORITY FOR
HR NOW
As there are several options before the employees,
companies these days are shifting their prime focus
on retaining their good employees and trying their
level best to reduce the attrition rates which are on
a much higher pace as compared to the new
entrants in the system. The idea behind increasing
the perks of employees and adding more benefits is
nothing more than stopping them from moving to a
new organization as it is not that easy to have a
good talent within the system.
The new form of Stock options as we know E
SOPS are again in and back to lure and retain the
best performers of organizations. The idea is to
provide an employee with many benefits so that
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they may not think of switching over and be loyal to
the organizations they are already working for.
Earlier employee stock options were offered only to
the top level people who were loyal to the
organization for a long period of time. Also
perks/benefits were given when employees
achieved a certain milestone in the same
organization.
This kind of lucrative option was withdrawn during
the time of economic downturn when there were no
rewards and downsizing departments took place in
almost every organization. This option was followed
in the US and now it has been adopted by domestic
companies in India too. So E SOPS and other stock
options were what every employee was almost
seeking to achieve. Then came the time when
IPO's were given more preference. Somehow
companies keep offering one of the two just to keep
a check on lowering its attrition rates. One good
example for this is Deloitte which has increased
40% of stock options for its employees.
Various other companies which have now
increased stock options for its employees are -
Essar, Appolo Hospitals, Thomas Cook, I Gate and
Info Edge. This follows that achieving some major
motives by the organizations is like a driving force,
creating competitive edge and inculcating an
ownership culture among employees. Retention of
employees is like a direct result that helps in
keeping employees engaged, focused and above
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all improving their performance levels. Also some
companies offer the option of sweat equity which
means the share offered to the people who are in
the business from its inception.
In a private sector it is very clear that if you
perform well you get a handful of rewards but if you
do not perform your job is on the line. Boosting
employee output and having good performers
within the system is always beneficial. So retention
of the best manpower is a great challenge and a
top priority for HR professionals. Employee
retention is one of the primary measures to the
health of an organization.
27
Transition into the field of HR
People from varied backgrounds want to make their
careers in HR. But it is not written anywhere that
HR professionals have an easy life, although HR is
considered as an easy profession by many people.
HR is considered to be the field which has a lot of
areas in its own self or I can say it is a one stop
shop for a lot of things. People often seek to make
their careers in HR, as it is a notion very common
among all - That HR means just to sit and work as
an administration officer. But let me make this
aspect more clear, that HR functions are not
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performed traditionally any more. A lot has changed
and similarly roles in HR are also not the same.
There is no doubt that HR offers a lot of lucrative
opportunities and is one of the fast growing
industries now. Even career analysts project that
the number of jobs in the future in this field are
definitely going to increase. But certainly, one must
not forget that to make a career in HR, one should
be very clear with the conceptual part. As we are
often taught and told to get back to basics. So once
you are clear with your basics and you have a good
knowledge of the subject, no can stop your career
growth.
It’s commonly seen that HR professionals are from
different educational backgrounds. However many
HR positions require at least a Bachelor’s degree.
Having a Bachelor’s degree often acts as a boost
for a HR career. Such a degree is often regarded
highly among HR managers. But it does not mean
that the people who don't have degrees cannot
make successful careers in this field.
The good news is that many B-Schools have
started offering specialized and even executive
level courses in HR that help in having a long term
career in this field. Even large companies offer the
certification courses for being a part of HR. The
most important point to remember is if one is
planning a HR career then plan your life, your
education and your experiences all together in a
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proper and systematic way.
Human Resource is a career which demands
integrity, confidentiality and a high level of
interpersonal interaction capability from the people
who already practice human resources. Being into
HR means you should have a good hold and
knowledge of almost every management aspect
and subject. Also one should not forget that HR
means a challenging career where in you are
expected to deliver more than being asked for.
If the organization is small then only one of the two
people wears the hat of an HR and he is expected
to carry out the entire work as an HR generalist.
Larger the organization, multiple are the tasks to be
done. Since trends have changed a lot now as
compared to traditional times, even the different
departments of HR in an organization can be seen
ranging from a separate hiring & staffing
department to a training department.
Labor relations are one separate subject in HR
now. To have a career in this one must hold good
knowledge of labor laws. Being knowledgeable and
delivering the same in practical aspect of life is
often a value addition and positive point for our
careers.
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1- HR AND ATTITUDE
It is rightly said that no one likes to stand by a
person who is pessimist and is negative in every
single thought. The HR personnel, is one such
personality around whom various or I must say a
major part of the organization revolves so a right,
optimistic and enthusiastic attitude is a must. This
positive attitude becomes a spark that sets the
vehicle of life moving in the right direction. The top
notch employers while hiring now look for the right
attitude first, then examine academically how
strong the candidate is.
While facing some interviews, I could clearly make
out that the HR person rarely looks at the degrees
you hold, but they try to find out what kind of
attitude you hold for being a part of the system and
whether you deserve to be given an offer letter or
not. Right vision, conviction and effort compile
towards achieving goals in life. Attitude is clearly
represented by your personality, the way you
communicate and what you represent. All this
somehow requires a passion to do something and a
burning desire to achieve the same.
There come certain situations in our lives, for which
one finds no solutions and that’s where a serene &
calm attitude plays the role rather than getting too
apprehensive and losing control on our own
emotions because ultimately it poses a negative
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impact on our professional and personal lives.
Having the right set of focus & clarity of goals can
be accomplished well if one holds the right attitude
for the same. The HR personnel has a great degree
of responsibility on his or her shoulders which
means that he or she needs to have a good attitude
to fulfill those responsibilities.
I would like to share an instance related to attitude.
When the numbers in sales profile are getting low
each day and one is unable to meet the revenue
targets, and then somehow the attitude of that
person starts getting pessimistic automatically. This
person would be unable to reach the target that
later 3-4 months also wouldn’t be sufficient to save
his job. Now the one who has become a pessimist
will never be able to recognize the flaws in his own
work but would rather blame others for being
unsuccessful. This in turn will de motivate him and
it will make him feel that life is worth for nothing.
But the person who has a bit of optimism will
definitely hold on and give a thought to what the
problem is and what alternate solution can be found
for the same. Also what can be done, so that he
does not lose his job and also be able to sustain is
what an optimist would think. This is how difference
in attitudes can either make or mar one’s life or
take it.
An employer often hunts for the candidate who
holds a very positive attitude towards work so that
he or she may spread a positive aura around. The
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positive attitude acts like a magnet that attracts
everyone towards him and being an HR person
such an individual would be of help to his
employees in keeping them engaged in their work.
So it is like a mantra for imbibing success and
attracting everyone to your charm of optimism. This
helps in making yourself employable throughout
and definitely helps in accomplishing goals.
2- BOOSTING UP YOUR OWN MORALE
The level of work pressure is so much these days
that in some way or the other it starts hampering
our lives both personally and professionally. This
leads to an irritable behavior which in turn affects
our relationships with our peer groups and loss of
right focus for the job responsibility we hold on our
shoulders. In such a case, it is very essential to get
some positive vibes around yourself so that one
may not lose enthusiasm to move towards ones
goals. Some basic things which can be of help to
us are-
SETTING UP OWN BENCHMARKS-
It is always better to have own goals and mission in
mind rather than looking upon what others are
doing. Comparisons with others and just looking at
what others do sometimes make life dull. It seems
we are worthless when we keep looking at others
for our accomplishments in life. It better to
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understand that, what you expect in life and how
you can achieve the same. The focus should be
very clear regarding that and look at what you have
achieved and what more should be done to
improve performance and have a competitive edge
above others.
SURROUND YOURSELF WITH POSITIVE VIBES-
It is always good to stay away from people with
negative vibes. It is better to have friends who have
diversified backgrounds like achievers, business
owners, singers, authors. Interacting with each one
of them can help you in getting positive vibes even
if it is just a cup of coffee or a phone call. This
pumps up the level of motivation and inspiration,
that itself creates a positive impact on the
employee’s performance. Also its always good to
have a positive rapport with your seniors or bosses
or senior colleagues because they are the people
who have come across the same challenges which
you have faced and somehow their experience can
help you in learning something new every time.
LIVE IN PRESENT-
Stop bothering about what will happen tomorrow
and how things will be the next day? Stop thinking
about the past failures, as they just put us down.
Time once gone can never come back. All we all
can do is to learn from bad experiences and
mistakes rather than taking them on our heads.
Better to have a mentor who can guide and help in
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forming the right approach to problems. Life can
never be a bed of roses, therefore it is better to
learn from mistakes and gauge the present
situation that can allow us to take an informed step
in our future en devours.
DON'T DEVIATE FROM FOCUS-
Running towards something which is not required is
a mistake made by most of us. It’s always better to
give a thought to what we need and then focus on
how to achieve the same as this solves 50% of our
problems. Because once we achieve this level it
reduces the level of stress and helps in choosing
the right path. The presence of this thing can be felt
while achieving targets especially those which are
beyond expected goals. This fact during reviews
helps the people in the company to recognize your
worth and set up new standards and challenges for
you such that you learn something new every
second.
BE CURIOUS-
If one is curious enough to learn at every step and
take new challenges, definitely such an individual
moves faster ahead in his path as compared to the
one who doesn't want to learn and move ahead. So
if you are not tuned to new changes and
developments at work place it means you yourself
are losing opportunities. A change of role always
boosts up the morale and urges one to excel at the
task at hand. It’s important to have a balanced
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approach towards work and never let negative
thoughts come your way as they hamper the
chances of positive growth in life.
3- RESTRAIN THE HIGH ATTRITION RATES
A very common trend which is seen these days is
that employees resign their jobs very soon and they
say switching in most of the cases is a greed for
higher package or job dissatisfaction which makes
them prone to this attitude of resigning jobs. But
many of us forget the fact that consistency is also
important to have a good career, rather than
jumping from one job to the other. Hence high
attrition rate among newly recruited employees is a
major concern today. It has a negative impact upon
the organization when there is an interface
especially between the employee and the
customers. So the resignation of an employee from
an organization at such a fast pace is definitely the
result of an ineffective selection process.
So the challenge that stands before the HR
employers is to hire competent candidates who can
benefit the organization. So the managers must
know how to recruit right and perhaps do away with
attrition. There can be no guarantee for a right
recruitment but it is possible to minimize the risk of
selection failure. This requires the right set of
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selection procedures and hence evaluation
methods like psychometric tests and assessments
can be helpful in selection as they help in giving
insights about the candidates. However these tools
are expensive and time consuming & are usually
not available with managers when required.
The selection of an employee in an appropriate
manner matters a lot and personal interviews are
the deciding factors for any selection procedure. So
to take good interviews the managers need to have
good interview skills in order to make the right
assessments. The biggest con in interviews is that
managers are unable to make out if the candidate's
profile matches the job requirement or not. So, just
to fill up the position/vacancy sometimes the wrong
candidate is recruited. Such a candidate becomes
unfit for the job and hence it results in his
resignation letter.
Job dissatisfaction levels are so high among
employees these days that even before joining an
organization some of them plan when to leave the
same. Now the main trouble is that no two
individuals are exactly alike and the recruiters are
hardly able to set some parameters for the
judgment of the candidate. This makes every
selection decision similar in kind and hence the lack
of the right candidate for the required position. For
success in any job right competencies are essential
which need to be looked upon while assessing an
individual. Now competencies are not just limited to
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the technical knowledge or knowledge about
subject but much more beyond this. Particularly
competencies could include areas of attitude and
culture fitness and recruiters would need to identify
these features in their candidates.
Proper planning of interview strategies is required.
In this some structured questions must be present
which may help to identify the required qualities for
job. For e.g. asking the candidate a question like -
why sales in some particular area is low or what
can be the potential areas for sale of one particular
product can help in giving insights into the
candidate's problem solving approach. Later
questions like- what steps are required to tap an
untapped market for sale of a newly launched
product can help in understanding the planning
skills of candidate. Such questions and their
respective responses become a guideline to
understand how the candidate reacts to different
situations.
Just like other management decisions this
judgment also plays a very important role in the
selection and the probability of the right and wrong
exists equally in this. The purpose should be to
conduct competency based interviews. The
decisions made on gut feeling kind of a thing
should definitely be ignored as it later leads to
negative consequences for organizations. So to
restrain these high attrition rates it’s essential to
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work upon interview skills and make decisions as
per requirement of job.
4- EMOTIONAL QUOTIENT AND WORK
It sounds strange but yes in today's competitive
world it’s very important to have an emotional
intelligence that helps in professional and personal
growth of an individual. Now there’s something very
common and faced by all of us these days in the
corporate world and that is- BAD BOSS. This leads
to suffering, complaining and in some cases even
leaving jobs by people. But how many times can we
actually run from this bad boss as this is the same
story every door. So, just because of a bad boss
we cannot keep leaving the jobs. For a moment we
should not forget that the Boss is also a human like
us and also suffers from a mental pressure much
more than us. Now what holds importance here is
Emotional intelligence and how effectively we use
the same in our lives.
By being emotionally intelligent, it means to change
ourselves according to the situations and mold our
behaviors. It helps in dealing positively with any
kind of situation. Emotional quotient sets one apart
as a good leader whom people would love to follow
and learn from. So we being individuals differ from
each other in the ability to understand complex
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ideas, to adapt effectively to the environment, to
learn from experiences, to handle pressure and the
various obstacles that come our way. Here what
counts is how we organize this complex set of
phenomenon.
Success in career which plays an important role in
today’s world is not a child's play to be achieved. It
depends on-
- How much at ease do we feel while handling
frustration at work?
- Can we manage our own emotions well?
- Do we have the ability to manage our social
skills?
Emotions at work can vary ranging from chaotic,
haphazardness, superfluous, incompatible with
reasons, disorganized to the ones resulting from
lack of effective judgment. But then again handling
these emotions in a proper way is equally essential.
Emotional intelligence is not about being nice and
letting our feelings hang out without any purpose. It
is about recognizing our own feelings and those of
others working with us in order to manage and
motivate the emotions creating a positive aura in
the work environment. A good leader is one who
can use emotions to maximize intellectual
processing and decision making at work. It is just
like the art of managing social relationships at work.
Sometimes when we are unable to recognize our
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true feelings and our expectations, it leaves us in a
state of mercy, where in it becomes hard to be
good pilots of our own lives and this directly
impacts our work in terms of ineffective decision
making.
Many people due to work pressure become
Alexithymia which means they lose command of
their emotions and it hampers the entire work
environment. Rather they lose an expression for
emotions. So one cannot deny the fact that
emotional quotient is an extremely important
component of work these days. And moving up the
ladder of success in organizations demands on a
higher emotional intelligence because this is
directly related to social competence. This
influences the level of communication, leadership,
building bonds, collaboration and cooperation at
each level. It has become a prerequisite for work
satisfaction, that needs high levels of self-mastery
and understanding how well you put yourselves in
others shoes and find solutions to the problems.
PROMOTING EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE-
This can be done by numerous ways and some of
them are as follows-
1. Understanding the cause of feelings.
2. Recognizing and naming emotions.
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3. Managing anger through a learned behavior.
4. Understanding the situation clearly and finding
solutions.
5. Using gut feelings while making decisions.
6. Taking time and avoiding haphazardness.
7. Preventing depression with a lot of optimism.
8. Developing listening skills.
So it is always better to develop the learn-able skills
of emotional intelligence which are transformational
and can benefit everyone from tuning up this
intelligence. Adapting to the changing work
scenarios can be well achieved if one has a strong
emotional intelligence level.
5- INVOLUTION BY EMPLOYEES
We often come across the saying that employees
are the assets of an organization as they are the
one who represent the same to the world. But this
makes sense only if an employee understands the
same and engages himself in the work area
contributing to the success of business. So the
questions that come to our mind regarding
Employee Engagement are numerous beginning
with -
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1. What is it?
2. Why does it matter?
3. What drives it?
4. How can you measure it?
5. Is it significant?
This word Engaged Employee puts a great
emphasis on how much a person involves him/ her
into his job. As the person grows older in his
career, it is the level of performance and
understanding of the work which counts most and
becomes a ladder to move high. There are people
who start working from the small rungs of their
organizations but as they engage themselves and
understand each aspect of their work in a good
way, it definitely helps them in taking more
responsibilities and getting more involved in their
work.
The employees who are engaged are not just
committed or just passionate but have an insight on
their own future and on the organization’s missions
and goals. They are enthused enough to use their
talent and arbitrary effort in creating a difference for
their organization in terms of business success.
Such employees are aware of the business context
and gel well with the other people in the
organization to improve the performance and
increase the level of output delivered each time.
Rather, an important aspect to understand is that it
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is a two way relationship between the employee
and the employer.
Employee Engagement - is directly related to
affective commitment because an employee's
positive attachment and commitment to work
identifies with the goals of organization and attrition
rates from such employees are really less. In this
way such employees become assets for their
organization. So this term is like a broad agreement
which stands for some basics like-
- Positive attitude and pride towards organization.
- Belief in the organization’s products and services.
- wish to work collaboratively and be a good team
player.
- Willingness to give their best services.
- Understanding business clearly.
Higher the Employee Engagement better is its
contribution to business performance in terms of
high income growth, higher operating income and
more earnings per share. So, such employees are
obviously more innovative and committed to
customer satisfaction. Now for this kind of attitude,
some driving factors are there, which are as
follows-
Organizational commitment: The psychological
attachment of an employee to an organization.
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Service commitment: The shared ethos of
understanding and meeting customer needs.
Work & career commitment: The kind of
importance an employee gives to work and
understanding in terms of how it will help in career
growth.
Job satisfaction: The impact work creates on the
mind of an employee and whether it gives him
satisfaction or not.
So, higher the engagement of employees in an
organization much higher would be the levels of
productivity and performance. The organizations
like TCS, DELL, IBM, etc have such high levels of
commitment and engagement towards work which
in itself contributes to the high turnover ratios. This
is just like a recipe for success which always works
on the principle of thinking fresh and delivering
more. For e.g. - Airtel always think fresh and use
innovative ways to meet their customer needs.
They deliver what they promise.
6- PAY FOR PERFORMANCE
When it comes to salaries and the various benefits
which are given to top employees, often we talk
about the payroll system of Organizations. Payroll
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initially, going back 10-15 years was considered to
be a part of the Finance department which is now it
taken over by HR. This kind of practice was
followed in India whereas if we take a look at other
regions of the World, the Payroll management
included by the organizations their compensation
and benefits which definitely are the core functions
of HR and since then it is adopted worldwide as a
component of HR rather than Finance & Accounts.
The sole reason behind this is that people are
these days being paid depending upon their
performance which means their salaries are more
dependent upon the kind of output they give and no
one can be blamed for the same as its the business
model which works in this manner. The
performance linked incentives are given more
emphasis. So this is a sensitive matter as
employees may come up with various questions
when they receive their pay slips. Not to generalize
but the accounts people are not so well versed in
terms of Human relations whereas HR people often
are. This in turn shows that HR people can handle
this function in a better way with a lot of difference.
These days the organizations have started using
the Payroll Management software which of course
acts as time savers. This also depends upon how
an HR system and I must say the Workforce
automates the processes like hiring, compensating,
managing performance and then retiring the
employees.HR personnel can help in controlling the
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labor cost and transform the business processes
wherein they work on the salaries and incentives to
be given to employees. The software used for
Payroll Management helps in reducing the tedious
manual work into better and high quality information
along with results. Hence forth the month end
payment will not be a strain for employers as it can
be well managed by the use of technological
solutions at their best.
In all this it becomes necessary for HR to check
and authorize the salary details before processing.
This includes checking the attendance & all the
necessary deductions. It also requires to keep a
check on leave availed by the employee.
Sometimes it happens that even if the employee is
outside for some marketing activity he is marked
absent even while on duty. So it is important to
keep a check on such things. Even the maintaining
the statuary record is the responsibility of HR.
Technology has always granted us with lots of
options to reduce the burden of hard tasks into
simple ones. So, even payroll system is quite easily
managed now- a- days by the use of HMRS
software and it is widely used globally for managing
the payrolls as per performance of employees. This
in many ways helps in managing effectively the
entire service of the employees in the organization.
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7- ONE STOP SHOP-HRM
Human Resources Management is not less than a
stop shop wherein a large number of products are
sold as per need and the requirement. It is a highly
competitive and fragmented industry which has
shown growth and is consistently showing the
same every single day. This industry in itself is
poised for enormous growth with a lot of
globalization and new companies are emerging.
Hence the need for this core area in Management
cannot be ignored. The human capital marketplace
is a hundred billion dollar industry that
encompasses countless suppliers selling hundreds
of different products and services which includes
recruitment, staffing, employee benefits, payroll,
training and development and a lot more.
In general if we take a look, its Human Resources
of Organizations which is responsible for all
practices and processes that impact the company's
most important assets i.e. the employees. So the
HR forms the pillars of this industry and these are
as follows-
Recruitment and staffing - which includes
searching for and hiring new employees & wide
variety of services from job boards to staffing and
relocation firms, testing, assessment technologies,
applicant tracking technologies, executive search /
placement firms. This is an important pillar as the
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employee hired and his competencies are of value
to the organizations.
Compensation/ Payroll - this includes everything
from payroll processing, company to company
specializing in compensation and payroll services.
This helps in understanding the salary statistics of
an organization.
Employee benefits - so this includes a wide
variety of benefits given to employees ranging from
health and welfare benefits to worksite/voluntary
products, pharmacy benefits, communication
software, 3rd party administration and workers
disability and insurance services. These benefits to
employees are of sole importance which the HR
needs to fulfill to its best.
Talent Management/ Employee relations - It
includes all Human resource services related to
managing the individual once they are hired as an
employee - appraisal, evaluation, recognition,
promotion, retention and succession planning
services.
Training & Development - This includes imparting
knowledge to the employees about new products
and services, also in terms of new software
introduced so that the employees can efficiently
use the same. It can be from conventional class
room sessions to E learning processes.
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In addition to these specific categories of work, it is
important to understand that now the services have
gone cross functional in nature and they are
somehow related to the core areas of HR like-
Consulting services - it includes thousands of
consulting firms that can help the HR department
with one or all aspects of human resources
management and process improvement.
HRIS- technology is now well integrated in HR and
has also helped in each aspect from tracking
applicants to E learning. The internet and other
technologies are definitely changing the human
capital marketplace as companies strive to become
more efficient. This technology allows HR to
automate processes and eliminate the processes
which are unnecessary and creating a burden.
Therefore HR as an industry has shown
tremendous growth and is definitely a one stop
shop for buying various HR solutions.
8- ACCOMPLISHING GOALS BY HCM
It is quite often heard that people or I must say
Employees are the assets of an Organization. What
makes an Organization grow? How do the
customers or the outer world come to know what
business you are into? Who creates strategies for
the Organizations? Who creates a benchmark in
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terms of its services? Let me not forget the ones
who help in creating a competitive edge in the
market when there are a large number of players in
the same market for the same product? Yes! This
is what we cannot ignore and so the concept of
Human Capital Management is widely accepted. It
is the people who work for these organizations, on
whom the success of business depends. So,
Human Capital represents the human factor in the
organization, the combined intelligence, skills and
expertise that gives them with a distinctive
character.
The innovativeness and insights of these people
bring timely revolution and transformation. The
success of an organization depends upon its ability
to understand how a human capital links to its
performance and increase in wealth. So, in all
effective recruiting is really efficient in this case as
the best of the companies in the world have the
best strategies and methods for attracting, hiring,
managing, developing and retaining the top
performing talent. So this concept we call “Human
Capital Management" should be well inculcated into
the minds of managers and even they should be
given training on the same.
HUMAN CAPITAL STRATEGY-
It covers the following aspects-
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Human asset profiles
Performance management
Selection
Recruitment
Career development plans.
Coaching & mentoring which further includes-
- Core values.
- Core competency.
- Performance improvement.
Selecting and retaining the top talent is the need of
the hour because quality and performance of
people is what sets an organization apart in an
intensely competitive market. So if the people in the
organization are not good enough and skilled, it’s a
huge loss for that organization. It can lead to huge
loss of revenue which creates a negative impact on
the growth. So, it is essential to understand that 60-
90% of revenue comes from the best workforce and
hence it cannot be ignored.
A timely check should be kept on how many
employees are actively engaged in work, how
passionate and connected they are towards their
work. The ones who aren’t engaged in any useful
work and are not contributing to the organization
then what’s the purpose of wasting capital on those
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employees? So if the percentage of this kind of
employees is high in your organization, it would
lead to unsatisfied customers and ultimately result
in losing business. Now that is why human capital
management is essential to keep such pessimism
away from your organization and let it grow at the
right pace.
Whether you realize it or not one must understand
that profits are leaking out from your organizations
due to three main holes-
1) High turnover ratio.
2) Low productivity.
3) Customer dissatisfaction
But the remedy to these problems is making use of
HCM and getting the best out of it. So adopting
HCM effectively can lead to -
- Lesser or no customer complaints at all.
- Increase in revenues.
- Higher productivity.
- Retaining the top talent.
- Professional growth of its employees.
So, managing employees, properly adopting HCM
will undoubtedly help an organization in
accomplishing its goals and achieving success.
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9- TRAINING AND MAINTAINING EXPATRIATE EMPLOYEES
Since globalization has been adopted at a very fast
pace and also companies have started their
operations overseas, so it’s a common trend seen
where in employees from their native countries
have started moving to other countries for work.
Such citizens who work in the nonresident
countries are referred to as Expatriates. Now in this
case effort is required by the Human resources
department to ensure that employees are given
special trainings and also special considerations
are made for compensating these employees.
When we take HR into this question of Expatriates
then of course maintaining healthy labor relations is
equally important.
ORIENTING & TRAINING EXPATRIATES
When it comes to providing the orientation and
training to the employees on international
assignments, then organizations need to adopt a
systematic pattern of sessions designed for them.
Employees need to be firmly made aware of
economics and practices of foreign countries. But
the bad thing is that very few companies provide
such trainings. WHAT KIND OF TRAINING IS A
MUST?
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The training in such cases requires a 4 level
approach-
Level-1 – Training focuses on impact of cultural
differences and raising a trainee’s awareness of
those differences and how it impacts the business
outcomes.
Level-2 – aims at making employees understand
how both positive and negative attitudes are formed
and how the behavioral pattern impacts the work of
employees.
Level-3 – it provides factual knowledge about the
country where an international assignment is being
given.
Level-4 – provides skill building in areas such as
language and adjustment and also adaptation
skills.
Besides these patterns and levels it’s essential for
employers to mentor their employees regarding the
kind of challenges they can come across. Also
seminars should be conducted for those employees
who are given international assignments, by the
people who already had worked abroad. This can
help the new ones to learn from the experiences of
the returnees. Even at various firms like IBM such
development includes rotating assignments that
permit overseas managers to grow professionally.
Such firms like IBM, Infosys etc. have their
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development centers around the world where the
executives can hone their skills.
The activities like seminars taking place periodically
can help even provide consistency of purpose and
thereby improve control, by having unified set of
values, standards and corporate cultures.
10- IT SOLUTIONS FOR HR
When every area and every field is making the best
use of Information Technology which is also our
day to day need, then how could HR stay away
from the same? Rather, IT solutions in HR have
made the work of executives and HR managers
quite easy and time saving too. When I heard of
this concept HRIS I thought it might be some new
concept introduced into the world of Human
Resource. Development about this concept is not
well known even to HR managers who have to be
equipped by the knowledge of what HRIS is. How is
it used in the present era by various organizations?
LET US GET KNOWN TO -HRIS
The Human Resource Information System is a
software or online solution for data entry, data
tracking and data information needs of Human
resources, payroll management and accounting
functions of the Business. But yes choosing HRIS
depending upon company's need is also important.
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Once a proper need analysis is done, then of
course this software can be used at its best in
different areas within the same firm. So, better
HRIS provides -
- Overall management of employee information.
- Reporting and analysis of an employee’s
information.
- Company related documents such as employee
handbook, evaluation procedures and various
safety guidelines.
- Benefits for administration such as status
updates, personal information changes.
- Applicant tracking and resume Management.
HRIS acts as an effective tool that provides
information on just about anything the company
needs to track and analyze about employees, as
well as about applicants. The timely data required
for employee management, knowledge
development and career & growth development can
also be facilitated by the effective use of HRIS.
COMPANIES USING HRIS-
Various companies both at international and
domestic level have started using and making the
best out of this IT solution. Some of them are-
Infosys, Wipro, Irvine, IBM and even many Indian
companies are using the same. So, this software
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that most effectively serves companies tracks & so
this software is useful to HR in many ways-
1. HR PLANNING AND ANALYSIS-
- Organization Charts.
- Staffing projections.
- Turnover analysis.
- Internal job matching.
- Job description tracking.
2. EMPLOYEE AND LABOR RELATIONS-
- Union negotiating costing.
- Auditing costs.
- Attitude survey results.
- Employee work history.
3- HEALTH, SAFETY AND SECURITY-
- Safety trainings
- Accident records.
4-COMPENSATION AND BENEFITS-
- Pay structure.
- Wage/ salary costing.
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- Vacation usage
- Benefit usage analysis.
5- HR DEVELOPMENT-
- Employee training profiles.
- Training needs assessment.
- Succession planning.
- Career interests.
Therefore the software that holds so much
importance in the field of HR and is useful should
definitely be implemented well and training should
be imparted on the usage of the same. Hence it is
the software which has enabled the various
complicated and time consuming tasks to be
completed in a short time and in an efficient
manner.
11- BALANCED SCORECARDS
It was during the 1980's probably the end of 80's
when it was realized that only financial
measurements cannot bring success to firms.
Rather it was insufficient to guide the companies to
success. So Robert Kaplan & Nortan found that
companies which took over financial aspects and
tried to resolve it either by cutting down in terms of
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quality of service given to customers or laying off
employees to maintain its financial figures. Keeping
this in view, he came up with the concept of
Balanced Scorecards which is a strategic
Performance Management frame work that allows
organizations to manage and measure the delivery
of their strategy. Now what matters most is creating
value to the customers who come from this kind of
service delivered to them. So the best of the
companies in the world are creating value for their
customers by-
- Working upon customer relationships.
- Improving processes.
- Maintaining good services.
- Taking measures related to improvement &
innovation.
- Working upon employee capabilities.
The effective use of a Balanced Scorecard started
in the early 90's and was made well by-
- Engineering & construction companies.
- Insurance companies.
- Major Banks.
- Mobile marketing companies.
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- Refineries
So, the four generic perspectives had been
selected for this card which covers the main
strategic focus of companies. Rather it is being
used as a management control system. It helps in
tracking the key performance indicators from
different business units (i.e. operations, finance and
marketing). This scorecard's basic focus is that it
realized the strategies in a more balanced way
rather than just the dependability on financial
measures in which it had been traditionally used.
TARGET AREAS-
1- FINANCIAL - The question that arises here is
how do the shareholders of a company identify
financial success? One cannot ignore this fact that
accurate funding is very important. Risk
management and cost effective are the core areas
which cannot be ignored.
2- CUSTOMER- Customer focus and customer
satisfaction is the main priority for success of any
business. If there is poor performance and
ignorance in this aspect then it becomes an
indicator for future decline for the firm. So this is a
core area that needs most of the attention.
3- BUSINESS PROCESS - This perspective helps
in checking if a process is going internally and also
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be able to meet the customer requirements or not?
These processes have to be uniquely designed in
order to have an edge over competitors and retain
its customers.
4- LEARNING & GROWTH - That works upon
improving employee capabilities, their self-
improvement and also corporate cultural attitudes.
Continuous and timely learning for employees
needs attention.
Challenges ahead in management in terms of
performance management are several therefore
adoption of better tools will definitely be an
advantage for firms. Therefore managing the
delivery in a systematic manner can help in facing
those challenges & hence the use of balanced
scorecards can be of value to firms.
12- SMALL BREAK FOR CORPORATES!
All work and no play make one dull and even
hamper the growth in life of such an individual.
When it is said that employee attrition rate is high,
among various other factors and reasons involved,
the most favorable reason is when employees feel
that there is no growth in these firms where they
have spent years and are still not given rewards for
their inputs.
Now it becomes important on the part of employers
to take care of its employees’ needs which may be
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by gifting employees a certain vacation or a holiday
in order to make them feel a bit less stressed and
get rejuvenated. These holidays can be given to
some exotic locales along with their families so that
it helps employees to stay in high spirits and also
imbibe in them team spirit.
Can an employee even think of or plan for a
vacation gifted by their bosses? But yes this is now
practically possible and many corporate have
started working on this in order to have an efficient
workforce rather than having ones who are dull and
think of leaving jobs. The step towards this is
planning and execution of trips to fascinating
locations, adventures and amusing. This is also a
step in the form of outbound trainings for the
employees away from the same day to day routine
of office and trainings rooms or within the 4 walls I
must say.
The idea is basically to gift employees with a
holiday to get away from routine and connect with
their peers in some better ambience spreading
positive energy amongst them. This all in all
contributes to increasing the efficiency levels which
in turn is beneficial for firms. Earlier this was to
attract the work force but now it is more about –
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Retention of Employees
Allowing employees enjoy a good time
Help in improving their performance
Rejuvenation
Adventure sports, games and competitions are
mere efforts to relieve stress and make employees
feel that they are not loaded with pressure all the
time.
All in all the sole purpose is to make employees
learn the objectives of management in one way or
the other. Now planning these activities is also not
that easy, consultants are hired for this and they sit
with the HR team and chalk out the entire program
based on requirements and needs.
The various points on which these trainings focus
on are-
- Leadership.
- Team building activities.
- Consensus building.
- Self-awareness.
- Interpersonal relations.
- Attitude.
- Emotional awareness.
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Such activities even help in improving relations
among the employees who may not be too good
friends in the work environment but definitely can
turn out to be one, after such gatherings. So this
not only helps in building good equations among
employees but also provides a better
synchronization at work. Thus such outbound
trainings and vacations can definitely help in
bringing better outcomes for firms.
13- AVANT GARDE IN HR
Changing scenarios each day created an impact on
every aspect of business and so how could HR stay
away from the same. The attrition rates in
companies these days are much higher than they
used to be earlier which leads to a diminishing staff
and so the work is directly or indirectly affected by
the same. All this has definitely increased the
burden on HR departments now and here the level
of struggle has also become high. In this century
the traditional role of HR has now changed to
integrating HR and this further leads to their
involvement in business planning. So does the
work levels and responsibilities at each level of HR
personnel changes and hence these professionals
have to meet day to day challenges while
continuing their operational and political
management.
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So, innovative and ground breaking changes have
come up and are emerging every day in this field.
They are in the form of-
HR Capital Steward- here HR acts as a guide and
a facilitator in partnership to bring people &
organizations together to work for a particular role.
Knowledge Facilitator- HR facilitates here both
capital and knowledge inflow.
Relationship developer- HR manages
relationships between the individuals and groups
both internal and external to firms to enhance the
capital across the value chain of system.
Rapid deployment: HR takes responsibility for
development of flexible human capital resources
with emphasis on adaptability, tolerance and ability
to learn.
Initially it was believed that HR personnel need to
take over hiring of employees and then just over
see the administration part. But now the role of HR
has become more refined and challenging. It starts
from the moment a candidate is hired till the
candidate leaves the organization but then also the
work of HR does not end. It still needs to manage
PFs and all the remaining tasks related to
employees with the firm. So the role of HR today
includes-
- Reduce absence of employees
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- Motivate the staff
- Team work
- Recruitment and selection
- Training and development
RECENT INNOVATIONS-
1. Six Sigma practices- it is basically a rigorous
and disciplined methodology that uses data and
statistical analysis to measure and improve the
company's operational performance by eliminating
the defects.
2. Human Resource outsourcing - this involves
various roles such as-
Taking care of organizational structure and staffing
requirement.
- Recruiting, training and development.
- Tracking department’s objectives, goals and
strategies.
- Employee and manager training.
- Benefits administration.
3. Retention Strategies- These are basically to
reduce the high attrition rates among employees
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and also have good employee strength within the
organization.
4. Quality Management - in terms of the
employees’ knowledge and roles assigned to them.
Job rotations are done in order to make employees
understand how different roles are important to run
the firms.
5. The hothouse effect - a new concept in the field
of HR the focus of which lies on managing
creativity. It works on following points-
- sustain high level of innovative creativity for a
significant period of time.
- draw on knowledge and innovations of broader
cultural zone to which they belong.
- establish new ways of doing things.
So in this way no doubt innovations are more
frequent in case of technology and services, but
similarly even the HR field has shown tremendous
growth and change with the period of time.
14- CONTRIVE A CONCEPT OF HR BRAND
Gone are the days when the work of HR was just
limited to some back end operations or looking into
the part of administration. Now this department
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equally needs to look over and rethink their role in
this competitive environment where in each day
something new erupts within a few seconds. The
ongoing challenge for HR now is to maintain a good
relationship and balance in order to establish strong
partnerships with both its internal and external
customers. In future the HR personnel needs to
look at the big picture understanding each aspect
within the firm with a broader perspective.HR
continues to balance the demand of several
different roles -
- Business partner.
- Internal consultant.
- Operational expert.
- Administrative expert.
- BUILDING HR AS A BRAND
For this it is essential to understand how the
employees feel about their HR department? What
is their feedback? Is HR Department working up to
its best to deliver good services? In this, the big
constraint is that even employees think that the
responsibility of HR is to just conduct interviews
and calculate the benefits to be granted. To change
this particular image HR personnel have to
participate in role taking of building good public
relations, taking feedbacks, discussing the updates.
It is important to understand that HR department is
flexible, adaptable and a solution oriented partner.
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It is a source to whom the firm’s employees and
senior personnel can turn to whenever some
problem arises and build a solution oriented
approach. This will not only clearly define the
flexible nature of HR but also promote it as
something which we are all savvy about and that is
a brand.
There are few important points in HR that make it
more feasible as a Brand-
- Pre employment experience.
- On the board experience.
- Post hire experience.
- Interview experience.
- Interview follow up and response.
- Trainings
Carefully managing these points help in bringing
good experiences for the employees and help them
in delivering their best to the most important asset
of every firm- CUSTOMERS. This can be well said
by quoting examples of brands like Starbucks,
Pepsico, Southwest Airlines, Kraft who created the
same kind of employee brand that they enjoy with
customers. Creating a competitive edge in terms of
HR is only possible if firms work well on their
important points in an efficient manner.
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So, branding of the firms along with that of products
now hold an equally important role and this can be
well taken care of by the HR which itself is now
reflected not less than any Brand.
15- KINSHIP IN HR & PSYCHOLOGY
Is behavior related to HR Management? What is
the relation between psychology and HR?
After reading these questions I hope I am able to
reflect what exactly this post of my blog is all about.
People work in the organizations having a certain
set of goals in their mind, which are relevant to both
organization and an individual. Now an
organization's success depends upon the
knowledge, skills and abilities of its employees in
creating a competitive edge. So moving around this
topic an HR needs to understand the psychology of
individuals who are considered to be an asset of
the firm. Rather psychology acts like a tool for
bringing a proper balance in terms of knowledge,
skills and abilities of employees.
Psychology in HR is helpful in various ways-
- Selection of the right candidate.
- Training of employees as per need analysis.
- Career development of employees.
- Performance management.
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- To tackle the problem within an organization i.e.
diagnosis of problem and solve the same.
- Interviews- understanding the psyche of a
candidate.
- Job analysis
- Supporting employees & motivating them to reach
to their goals.
- Minimizing the level of stress in work.
Moreover psychometric tests are essential for every
employee and they should be done by HR
department while the process of recruitments and
hiring goes on. Now understanding the mind set of
candidate and kind of responses that he/she
delivers are directly related to the psychology of
person.
If a candidate comes for the position of Business
development manager, then psychology plays an
important role while an interviewer interacts with an
interviewee. It comes up with an ideal profile which
an organization looks for which means that job
analysis is done as per certain parameters set for a
particular job. In simple words I can say that it
analyses various elements involved in a particular
type of work.
TRAININGS-
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Training now- a- days is a very important aspect in
a job wherein as per need analysis it is being
delivered from time to time. Now trainings in that
case are not only on technical skills but also related
to the organizational behavior and attitude which
employees need to keep in mind as per
requirement. This takes us again into the
psychological aspect which is polished during
trainings based on non-technical skills. The kind of
courses to be given is designed keeping into mind
the psychological levels of attendees. Employees
are guided on the scientific and basic learning
theories.
CAREER DEVELOPMENT-
Psychology helps in determining what can be the
best career for the person keeping in view his
attributes and characters. For e.g.- person holding
an experience in sales on the field now can develop
in career by being promoted to the position of a
team leader wherein he can deliver his experiences
well to its sub ordinates depending on his practical
experiences. Also it suggests the best ways to
attain his goal in the future. Also psychology at the
level of HR helps in recognizing where all the
employees can improve and shine even in their
present career itself.
PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT-
It suggests various ways by which performance
appraisals can be done. Also detecting and
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eliminating errors. It helps in setting the right
evaluation by suggesting the best ratings methods.
DIAGNOSING PROBLEMS-
It helps in understanding the varying needs of
employees from time to time. It evaluates the kind
of problem an employee is going through and tries
to understand their perspective. This further helps
in creating ownership among employees and
raising their level of morale to achieve high and
give their best.
INTERVIEWS-
It helps in determining what can be the various
interview methods as per the job requirement. This
helps an HR person to understand exactly the kind
of candidate they are searching for, for the
particular job which in-turn helps in framing the set
of questions.
JOB ANALYSIS-
Psychology has provided HR department with
several methods which are used for interviews and
helps in job analysis. Some of them are-
- Questionnaires
- Activity methods.
- Psycho graphic analysis.
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- Time and motion study.
- Skills analysis.
- Job psycho graph.
The growth of industries largely depends on the
psychological aspects, so various experiments and
investigations are conducted in the field of
psychology some of which are-
Conditions of work
Nature of work
Selection of employees
Human elements in work
Conflicts in industry
Stress busters
Transfers and promotions
The psychological aspect of the HR personnel is
henceforth considered to be relevant in terms of
employees and their contribution to organization.
Therefore it is said that psychology and HR hold a
kinship and a strong inter- relationship within the
firms.
16- REMONSTRANCE IN HR
The economic growth in India is taking place at a
fast pace with a good level of growth in GDP almost
yearly. This in turn shows that there are a number
of people who are getting qualified and are seeking
jobs. We are all aware of the fact that employment
is still a problem for even the well qualified
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professionals. But India holds an important place in
the global market as most of the companies from
the west have started their operations here. Tight
labor market has become an issue. Now in that
case the responsibility of the HR has increased a
lot. Rather it can be said that the HR is the central
part of any business now. It is solely an obligation
for the HR to create a work force which may help in
achieving strategic goals for an organization. This
means that they need to follow certain standard
policies and regulations.
CORE CHALLENGES-
One major problem which professionals face here
are that they are not highly experienced. Some no
doubt are good academically still they lack practical
knowledge for which the institutions are also
responsible as they give the least exposure of what
happens in an industry to their students. Millions of
the college graduates pass out every year. But
exactly how many of them get a job. Or it can be
said that they are not meeting the standards of
western companies.
Now the ones who have qualified from the top
business schools they do have 2-3 offer letters but
again there comes a problem in the salary or I must
say the packages offered. But salaries offered in
India are very much lower than what is offered in
western countries.
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Another problem these days which is a big
challenge for the HR is that the lesser the number
of people who are recruited and who join the firm
higher are the attrition rates. Now people leave the
job due to various reasons -
- Bad working environment
- Lack of support from seniors
- Can’t see a growth path
- Not satisfied with the packages
These high attrition rates are seen most commonly
in BPO's and among people involved in financial
product selling.
So the two most important challenges before the
HR are-
1. To attract good employees for the firm even
though there is fierce competition.
2. Keeping employees satisfied so that they don't
leave the firms.
Controlling attrition rates is very important,
because companies spend a huge amount on
training these employees who ultimately leave the
company very soon.
Some standard practices which every HR
department should follow are-
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- Designing the compensation packages with
performance appraisals too as and when required.
- Regular performance reviews to be taken.
- Making sure employees are respected.
- Providing good working environment.
GOOD REMEDIES-
Some other strategies which can work well in this
case are-
TRAINING:
The companies usually prefer experienced people.
So one thing which can work out well is to hire the
candidates from average business schools and
give them training for the job before they are
actually hired. This expands the candidate pool and
is also helpful in terms of enhancing the candidate’s
skills.
EMPLOYEE SATISFACTION:
Having simulations and some business games
sometimes can be good as it can help in reducing
the stress of employees and later help them in
giving a good outcome. Some of the organizations
like Infosys also organize various competitions like
sports competitions, then clubbing, gymnasiums.
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Such efforts can bring in a positive outlook for
firms.
CAREER DEVELOPMENT:
Yes, it is largely seen that salary is what employees
look for, but hold on there’s something beyond this
which holds importance for them is career growth.
So the employer should take care of the career
development part of his employees by giving them
regular feedbacks, taking reviews from time to time,
One to one meetings with them on various goals
and at a certain point if training needs to be given
then it must be given. This enhances an
employee’s productivity in the long run and helps in
his career growth. Sometimes internal company
transfers, job rotations can also be helpful.
So, I would like add that retention of employees is
also as important as hiring of new employees. Of
course it is like a challenge for making sure that
new employees are right for the responsibility
granted to them and are proactive enough to
handle the challenges coming across.
17- SLEEPING WHISTLE BLOWERS
The more the organizations are growing these days
the more is the rise in revenues which the company
hold. Sometimes it’s hard to handle the situations
and as we grow more we need to be more cautious
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and the lesser we remain in the comfort zone. Now
this is the situation in India as we talk in context of
corporate sector. Since the number of companies
which are formed and growing each day in the
country the regulators are finding it tough to
manage and regulate the same in a better way. As
a result of which we hear about the fraudulent
cases like Satyam and Global trust bank. Moreover
now a day’s a large number of companies hide their
annual financial reports and the accounts
department is smart enough.
But what should strike the minds of the people is
the reason why a company wants to hide its
financial reports year after year. Although we talk
so much of globalization and liberalization, still
there are cases of frauds found in our country?
How can regulators ignore on such an important
point? And yes like always the answer is lack of
strong regulations & good controlling environment,
legal support and willingness to bring things into
some systematic pattern. Moreover the corporate
babus are smart enough to play smart games in
such cases. Also the registrar of companies shows
lenience by giving companies time for settlement
and they are permitted to pay late fees and submit
reports. Smart people are not just enough and
right! Even not to go far our law is not strong
enough to threaten the culprits.
Now when companies do not file or they plead for
more time from Regulators to submit their papers,
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obviously they get a good time to commit frauds
and hide the true details. In India after the global
economic meltdown and increase in competition,
cases of frauds have also increased among the
corporate companies. The direct impact of this rise
in fraudulent cases is on the investors mind. Of
course they become more skeptical about whether
to invest in Indian markets or not. So in such an
atmosphere of doubt and disbelief every investor
thinks a 100 times before investing.
FACTORS THAT FACILITATE FRAUDS IN
INDIA-
- It is considered as acceptable behavior due to
ignorance by our regulators.
- Poor internal policies.
- Lack of right procedures and good administration.
- Lack of effective regulatory and compliance
mechanism.
- Weak law enforcement.
Now definitely this thing needs attention. There was
a time in the US when the Enron fraud took place
and the Serbanes Oxley Act was passed to set up
the enhanced standards for all US company
boards, management and public accounting firms.
Punitive provisions were introduced. Such things
and acts need to come in India so that chances for
frauds lessen.
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In the case of Satyam who checked what
Ramalinga Raju claimed? He claimed to have
53000 employees on pay roll the actual figure was
just 40000. Certainly the accounting professionals
are responsible for such fraudulent cases and they
should act as whistle blowers but no they act smart
in supporting the unethical business environments.
So in order to bring a reform and some changes
definitely an action should be taken against these
professionals too. Critically the role of the senior
management should be looked upon and checked if
things are fine. Wrong doers are really needed to
be controlled. The government and the regulators
should set the rules and act as impartial umpires
and must follow the principle that rules are not
meant to be broken but to be adhered to and
followed upon.
Not only will making laws and rules be helpful but it
should also be checked if they are followed and
enforced strictly. So if the nation has to be
protected from frauds and gain investor confidence
definitely our sleeping whistle blowers need to
wake up and come into action.
18- VOIDS IN TRAININGS
Training and development is as essential as the
other areas in any organization. It is believed that
training creates a competent workforce which
underpins the success of any organization. The
staff should be well acquainted with knowledge,
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skills and competencies which are required for an
optimum performance. No doubt the candidate is
competent and skilled due to which he is hired but
something needs to be brushed up well with time to
get the best out of it. It can be said that - nothing
shines forever, until and unless being taken care of.
The same rule holds good for trainings too, but still
there are some gaps in this particular area which
need to be filled in well to get the best outcome.
In many organizations the basic key is missing i.e.
unable to recognize the training, development and
learning needs to equip staff with the capabilities
required to contribute to business success and
progress in their own careers. Even some do not
realize that training and development is something
for improvement of their own staff. Now- a- days
technology has contributed a lot in terms of
trainings and there is a shift seen from conventional
trainings to online trainings, use of HR Portals and
also SAP-HCM software. ERP (Enterprise
Resource Planning) and HRMS (Human Resource
Management Solutions) are other transformations
which are still not adopted by many firms. There is
a huge need to fill these gaps.
Now trainings are not only required for the new
hires but also for management development. By
management development it means to emphasize
longer term development and to focus on
developing the capabilities of current or future
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managers. In this case training holds a lot of
importance in-
- Assessing the company's strategic needs.
- Appraising manager’s current performance.
- Developing the managers.
This is the lacuna which is ignored at times and so
it has a negative impact for organizations as well as
an employee’s growth. Training needs to be
imparted at each level to make employees aware of
the changing trends in HR. Training and learning
are the components of a broad approach to
competency management aligned to HR and
business strategy. The gap lies in training in the
following ways-
- Lack of understanding the current and evolving
future requirements with methodologies that are
tailored to individual client needs.
- Analysis of gap between current competencies
held and needed.
- Preparing and making employees understand the
strategic competency management framework.
- Focus is much on technical skills training rather
than the interpersonal skills training.
The need for training in organizations is more now
as an economic turmoil had been seen in the last
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one decade. Improvements and filling of these gaps
can be done by-
- Offering new methods for learning and
development.
- Adapting to changes as per demand and supply at
the level of industries.
- Aligning of the strategic goals of business to the
learning programs.
- Realizing that people are the sole survivors of the
organization and keeping them updated with
knowledge at various levels can help firms in
achieving their goals.
- Focus on high effective performance at each
level.
Now when it comes to training, billions of dollars
are spend by the corporate outfits in imparting
training to employees but the success of these
programs at times still remains a suspect. The
basic reason behind this is - the lack of need
analysis. Effective training needs to be reinforced
and even monitored at regular intervals so that
behaviors modified and knowledge implied may
lead to permanent changes. Done effectively with
this and doing proper need analysis , then
designing good training sessions will definitely not
leave any VOID IN THE TRAININGS.
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19- CHOOSY EMPLOYERS
To have a perfect job and a perfect career is not a
child's play. We often make mistakes which of
course are big time blunders and reasons behind
not having a good job in hand. In this era, where
competition thrives at such a fast pace and people
with good educational qualifications in their
pockets, having a perfect job is still a dream.
Having several degrees and even being good in
academics doesn't help much because now- a-
days these qualifications are with almost every
pass out from a college. Now unemployment is
such a bug which is eating our lives like anything.
Some important skills are missing in the markets
which the corporate are looking for in addition to
your academic results.
An employer of today is choosy in taking
employees into the organization because the
business models now- a- days focus on what
values can an employee add by being a part of
organization. Of course employees are a valuable
asset but then how do they make a difference while
being a part of the organization is a question in the
mind of an employer. Now some of the basic points
which can be helpful in an endeavor to have a good
job are-
1. COMMUNICATION SKILLS-
Can you speak clearly? Are you using proper
grammar? Do you slur making it difficult to
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understand? These are the things which every
employer needs to check well because the way you
communicate directly impacts your business. So
communication can be checked both in verbal and
non-verbal terms. Missing clarity in what you want
to depict is definitely a weak point. It is always
better to practice before you go for an interview.
Look in front of a mirror and check with your words
and especially your answers particularly to
questions like” Tell us about yourself?”
2. INTEGRITY-
I will add a fake experience, since I need job...yes
this is what many of us do and when questioned on
the so called fake experience they are unable to
justify the same. It’s extremely important to be
honest in your statements. By faking around at
least, you are not doing any good to your own self
or your career. Employers look for an honest
worker and not any thief or any liar.
3. TEAMWORK SKILLS-
Employers look for people who can gel well in
groups and not prefer to be loners. It’s always good
to add some joint projects in your resume if you
have worked on them in the past and which helped
you in gaining some teamwork skills. Working on
different projects is of course an asset in your
resume so one should not miss on that.
4. INTERPERSONAL SKILLS-
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The educational system of today gives the least
focus on this as they are more busy giving lectures
and getting results for their educational institutions.
Some people are too shy to speak which has a
negative impact in an interview. Having a good
smile on ones face shaking hands and showing
interest is what gives a positive impression in front
of the recruiter. It’s always better to be calm and
composed, as it reflects the optimism in your
personality.
5. STRONG WORK ETHICS-
Make sure by your speech to your prospective
employer that you are ready for the job and ready
to work as hard as expected. Showing interest in
job and working hard is helpful for your own growth.
Willingness to do work and giving your best is what
an employer wants.
6. STRONG KNOWLEDGE-
Coming unprepared to the interview is what we
need to check once before appearing for any
interview. It’s important to know well the position
you applied for and what skills are needed for the
same. An employer wants to ascertain whether you
are logical and fit well to the role. Make sure that
your employer recognizes that you are suitable for
the job position you came for.
7. FLEXIBILITY-
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Every employer seeks to have an employee who
does not procrastinate and one who would work
even at a stretch to give his best to the job
assigned. They test whether you can adapt yourself
to an unusual situation or not. It’s better to think of
instances when you had been flexible enough in
your job, if required you can even mention the
same.
8. GOOD ORGANIZATION SKILLS-
Are you able to organize things well? Organization
skills strengthen the employee's reputation. By
being organized, the employee is contributing to a
better working environment for his or herself.
9. CREATIVITY-
Creative skills are important in improving the
company and the working environment. Employers
are always looking for creative solutions to diverse
problems.
Keeping in mind these key points can be helpful for
everyone. Henceforth develop your skills in such a
way that you can create a competitive edge and be
a potential candidate for an employer. It is your
career, so better be competent enough to look at
what can give you satisfaction in life and how you
have to get a job even in this hard competitive
world convincing the CHOOSY employers.
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20- NURTURE STUPENDOUS EMPLOYEE RELATIONS
It is quite funny when you see that the people you
found competent enough for your organization and
hired them with a lot of expectations are the ones
responsible for the high attrition rates in your
organization. Things do keep changing with time
and so is seen a change in the relationship of
employers and employees. Employee justice,
safety norms and union relations sound quite heavy
but yes they are the foundation criteria for having a
good employee relation. Commitment to Business
Ethics comes from this. The best suited examples
for the same are Tata group and Infosys for their
commitment to business ethics. Poor employee
relations for instance untruthful or incomplete
communications can do no good for firms as the
employees are considered to be the best Brand
ambassadors for any organization. So when we say
a good word it comes from happy and content
employees having good relations with their
supervisors. Varied behaviors and kinds of relations
are seen in firms.
ASSORTED EMPLOYEE RELATIONS-
- Employees are praised for their good work.
- Employees are trusted.
- Employees are treated with respect.
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- Supervisors yell at employees.
- Supervisors prefer their own favorites.
- Employees’ questions and answers are
responded quickly.
- Employees are lied to.
- Employees’ suggestions are ignored.
- Employees’ hard work is appreciated.
- Supervisors threaten to layoff or fire employees.
- Coworkers help each other.
- Coworkers argue with each other.
- Coworkers respect each other.
Huge and enormous variations can be seen in
terms of relationships of employees within the firm.
Now these relations create an impact on what we
say organization culture. This culture is formed of
the values, traditions and behaviors which
company's employee’s share. Engaging and
inculcating good relations among employees and
supervisors can do wonders if implemented well
which of course is a joint effort by both.
In certain cases given as follows supervisors
knowingly or unknowingly lead subordinates astray-
- They tell staffers to do whatever (means
whatever) to achieve results.
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- Overload top performers to ensure that work gets
done (no matter by hook or crook).
- Look the other way when something wrong
happens (OH! I never knew this, trying to be
innocent, just to save their jobs).
- Take credit for others work or shift blame.
Friends let me tell you employees are the real
assets of any organization so if not respected and
taken care of you are going to lose the most
important component of your firm. By good
employee relations I mean deliver what people
want today. They want to feel good about who they
are, what they do and where they work. In that case
the comfort/discomfort of an employee in a firm is
also an issue.
- Employees are concerned about their privacy and
rights which of course is not wrong.
- Employees want to know whether their employer
considers their opinions or not.
- They want to be more productive and engaged.
- They are concerned if their values, skills and
knowledge are acknowledged or not.
- Whether they would be supported/guided while
taking challenges or not.
Now some organizations clearly work on this such
as Jet blue Airlines founder David Neelman says-
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"We all are together". So this is the message he
delivers to each of his employees. This definitely
motivates the workers to give their best as they
themselves feel a part of the organization. HR
management is responsible for this area and it has
to take care of employee grievances, recognitions
and boosting the morale of its employees to make
the working environment healthier, so that they can
fulfill the expectations of the management
maintaining good work culture and ethics.
TWO WAY COMMUNICATION-
Building a two way communication affects the
perceptions of how an employee is treated. This
clearly depicts- Engagement- involving employees
equally in decision making taking their feedback
and input. Explanation- ensuring that each
employee is well informed and involved.
Expectations Clarity- making sure that everyone
knows up front on what standards they will be
judged.
FACILITATION-
Facilitating a two way communication can be
explained by the example of Kentucky based
Toyota motor manufacturer's hotline. The plant’s
hotline is available 24 hours a day where an
employee can pick up the phone dial any extension
and deliver his message. This is a certain
procedure used to receive feedback of the
employees about the company and managers.
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So a well-planned employee relation is the key to
success creating a healthy environment, Good
organization culture balanced retention where
employee and employer both are at a level of
gratification and content. This is all that is required
to avoid conflicts and above all for both personal
and professional growth of an employee.
21- STOP COMPARING!
There is a huge transformation seen in the choice
of people with time and the fast pace with which
Technology is adopted in every way. Numerous
alterations are observed every day in terms of
things which were done traditionally and the way
they are done now. We are all so internet savvy
that we sometimes even forget our regular daily
chores. Several people call this advancement/
transformation and use many more words for the
same. So when transformation is seen in every
area and every field then of course training and
development is no exception. Trainings are now
made available to the employees at anytime,
anywhere and at any pace. But then can you tell
me if there is a single thing in this world which does
not have pros and cons. My conviction tells me NO!
There are many companies like Hexaware, Infosys,
Wipro, Accenture and many more such companies
which have adopted the use of Online Training
Programs. The companies use and adopt not only
their training programs but also use their HR
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portals, SAP-HCM - Human Capital Management
software. Definitely these technology prone ideas
have supported an increase in revenue for the firms
but still there are some things which cannot be
taught without hands on experience on the job. If a
sales person wants to use CRM software for his
data recording and use the same for after sales
service also, then definitely he/she needs to be
equipped by the hands on experience of how the
software works.
PROS-
Online trainings have made it quite easy to learn
and implement things well in the present times.
Some of the pros which off line training can’t
overcome are as follows-
It allows an employee follow the training process at
any hour of the day
Budget involved in this is less and hence
companies find it more cost effective
Easily flexible to the needs of the company as per
their need analysis
Prevents wastage of time
CONS-
Even though it is essential and has so many pros
still it is not that dominant and can't phase out the
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face to face learning. Hence it has some cons too
which are as follows-
Failure of social interaction
Lack of team oriented learning
Not getting any doubts clarified immediately
No tactile experience.
If I say I want to learn how to drive a car? Do you
think I can learn by some online instructions? No, in
that case I need to take guidance of an
experienced person for the same.
People do need off line trainings too wherein the
face to face interaction takes place. Here the key
ingredient for learning is human interaction. But yes
the con in this case falls out to be the cost and
budget which definitely is higher.
But in the real sense there is no competition or I
must say even no comparisons should be made in
terms of the training modes used because both are
equally essential and for companies to reach their
objectives and goals , it requires to give both kinds
of trainings to its employees. So both methods
should work together and none of them should be
eliminated. Online learning is considered to be an
isolating experience but still it has its own value as
it engages the learner and the same can be true in
terms of offline training too.
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22- GROWTH NEVER COMES IN 1 DAY!
It is very easy to say that oh this company was
formed just 10 -12 years ago and today it has
reached sky high. But we forget the hard work,
dedication and 24X 7 untiring effort put in by the
employees within the same and helped the
firm reach that level. Success never comes in a day
or two. In case of firms it is extremely important for
the goals of employees to be well aligned with that
of the organization and then achieving them in the
shortest possible time which is a great challenge
before firms.
All this requires the high levels of motivation of the
employees so that they can contribute their best
and help the firm grows at a faster pace. When I
say motivation level of employees it comes
from use of a dynamic tool i.e. PERFORMANCE
MANAGEMENT AND APPRAISAL. A perfect
example of this is Biocon limited, a Bangalore
based company that has shown an exponential
growth in the last decade and picked up its
revenue. The senior management at Biocon
realized the value of performance management and
helped its employees achieve good levels and
positions which motivated them to give their 100%
to the firm and help it in achieving its strategic
goals.
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An employer who looks clearly at the performance
deficiencies of an employee and then gives a
feedback is being responsible. An employer should
check if the employee meets the performance
standards set up by the firm or not. The aim behind
this tedious process is to ensure that an
employee’s performance is supporting the
company’s strategic aims. This doesn’t mean to
give a review once or twice in a year but rather it
should be given at least once a week. For this right
performance planning and managing people is
important. This chalks out the role of HR manager.
It is observed now that as the environment has got
quite competitive which is the result of increased
levels of Globalization and also many multinationals
having their offices nationwide so it is important that
each employee’s competencies and efforts must
focus on helping the company achieve its strategic
goals. Here what we say is that continuous
improvement is essential and it holds out to be the
philosophy of the Management.
BUILDING BLOCKS OF EFFECTIVE
PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT-
Role clarification – each employee should be
clear of his day to day duty
Goal setting and planning- means translating the
organization’s goals into specific goal for each
employee
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Coaching and support – should be given as a
feedback process
Rewards , recognition and compensation- all
play an important role in keeping the right flow of
work and the employees should be motivated to
achieve the goals of the organization.
Having an effective management definitely helps in
creating good workforce and achieving
organizations goals. In this increasing competitive
environment where in like a race everyone is trying
hard to win, it’s important to have good manpower
so that the organization can achieve its goal up to
its best. The organizations like TCS, WIPRO &
INFOSYS have shown tremendous growth due to
the hard work and contribution made by the
employees at every level which has helped them to
become globally famous and amass huge
revenues.
23- ANIMOSITY IN TRAININGS
Well its sounds strange but what can one say after
hearing this- Oh why the hell do we have trainings
which are so meaningless and useless? Yes this is
the kind of attitude observed among the employees
these days. They abhor trainings more than
anything else. They don’t find these sessions as a
way to learn something new. It is being treated as a
medicine or a kind of punishment which they have
to take as a matter of compulsion. I am not at all
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saying that this is the case with every training
session and every trainee who goes for it but by
and large this is how it is now days. Now having
attended some of the training sessions I have
realized that very few of them appear to be
interactive. Rather these sessions act like a
sleeping pill but still one has to sit with open eyes
even if he / she is listening or not. There are lots of
expectations regarding this but what exactly can be
done? Companies spend a lot so how can this
insight change so that it does not appear boring.
It is observed that seniors or even our reporting
managers do not tend to be a part of the trainings.
They say “Oh we know everything and why should
we attend training". So now this kind of an attitude
leaves a negative mark on the minds of people who
are attending training. They are bound to think that
if their seniors hardly cared to attend training then
why should they be so serious about it? This is the
kind of message which seniors embark upon their
subordinates which becomes the sole cause of
failure of trainings.
I will not go very far but I quote the same with an
example- Nurses and the administrative staff are
required to attend trainings on Customer service
like to be said patient service. Then what about the
doctors? They don’t even care to be the part of this
kind of training and it is sometimes the doctors who
exhibit bad behavior in front of the nurses and other
staff for not attending to the patients properly. They
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equally hold the responsibility of ‘patient needs’ and
also to make their staff learn about the same. No
wonder it is quite commonly seen that they never
want to be the part of these trainings as such
trainings sound irrelevant to them.
It is the responsibility of the senior to make his sub
ordinates understand the importance of trainings
and they should do a lot of questioning to clear
their doubts from their trainer rather than sitting
dumb. They should tell them how training is
valuable for a particular role in an organization and
how the changing roles can be adopted making
each employee confident enough to work in any of
them. No one likes to be a part of boring training-
every attendee wants to be a part of interesting and
good trainings.
ADDING VALUE-
The trainings can be made valuable enough by-
- Not just reading study material.
- Adding a lot of examples from real life.
- Making sessions quite interactive.
- There should be an element of fun in between.
- Take a chance to grow and learn.
- Make the best out of it.
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It is in hands of the trainer along with the attendees
to make the session valuable. It’s the responsibility
of the trainer to make his attendees feel that they
are not trapped or punished but they are here for
some good purpose. Trust me with such a positive
mind set and making them feel cherished, none
would abhor trainings but would rather appreciate
the fact that it involves a lot of handwork by trainers
and especially by the presenter who has to make
the training session successful and lucrative for the
organization and its employees.
24- REVEALING TRUTH FROM ACTIONS
It is rightly said that- Actions speak louder than
words. We often ignore that our body language and
our gestures tell a lot to the ones who are
interacting with us. It can be applicable in terms of
both professional as well as our personal lives. The
word KINESICS technical word for body language
is an epochal aspect of the modern day
communication and relationships. It is relevant to
the corporate cultures in terms of management and
leadership. Rather it is applicable to all the aspects
of business environment and work culture where
the people from one area need to communicate
with the other. Even outside the work culture it is
well observed.
Communication also means effective listening
which is actually not clear to some people.
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Exhibiting an arrogant behavior and not letting
others speak shows discourtesy and to some
extent even manner less attitude. One must not
forget that your body language reveals all the truth
about you in terms of your feelings and emotions
too. Most often in an interview, the investigator or
the interviewer observes your behavior more than
your knowledge of technical skills.
Let me illustrate to you one such instance- An
interviewer asked Mr. Singh what makes him
distinct from other candidates. Mr. Singh gave a
cunning smile and started rubbing behind his neck
and said,” Well I am more intelligent and
hardworking as compared to the other candidates
here”. Now here it clearly reveals the truth about
Mr. Singh that- He is over confident regarding his
own skills but he cannot be a good leader as he is
concerned only about himself and not concerned
about the teamwork at all. Then giving a cunning
smile in itself shows an arrogant attitude as if
proving his superiority to others. Moreover he is
showing his defensive attitude by rubbing behind
his neck.
Sending of such body signals takes place at both
conscious and unconscious levels.
Body language can be of various kinds-
1. Tilted head- means you are quite convinced and
interested.
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2. Rubbing hands- anticipation.
3. Rubbing eyes- Doubt in mind or a kind of
unconvinced behavior.
4. Stroking chin- Thinking something.
5. Downward gaze- feeling of being defeated.
6. Clearing throat - Nervousness.
7. Hands over the mouth - Feel of boredom
8. Arms swinging- feel like running away from a
situation.
Similarly there can be various types of gestures
which reveal your personality from the way you
move within an organization. It is actually a lot
about your behavior and your body language when
you are in certain situations such as follows-
- Job Interviews.
- Day to day situations.
- Gestures at the time of review meetings.
- Gestures in the conference halls.
- Business meetings.
- Appraisal meetings.
Now since body language is an important aspect
which is now focused upon by firms definitely some
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training sessions should be given on the same too.
There should be sessions given by some body
language experts which will definitely bring a
certain change among all the employees as –
‘Nobody is perfect’ and it can definitely be of benefit
to them. It is a face to face encounter with another
human being. Sometimes even a single gesture of
hands or eyes conveys 100% what we want to say.
And this sometimes leaves a very good impression
and vice versa too.
All in all it’s a fascinating subject which leaves an
impression and mark in its own way sometimes
revealing the entire truth. Even the world’s best
communicators manage to be Persuasive due to
the kind of body language they hold. Frowning
head, eyes down and no smile definitely shows you
are trying to be defensive. So the personality one
holds within is reflected well sometimes by your
gestures. This subject should definitely not be
ignored as it is an important part of an
Organization’s behavior and given the right training
for the same definitely can bring a good and
positive aura within the firms.
25- CREATING BETTER AND HAPPY EMPLOYEE
Hi Joe, how’s your work going? Well Andrew, I left
the job. Oh not again, I guess it’s just 3 months that
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you had joined the company and you even left that.
Well I could not work in that company. So this is
what happens most of the times with new hires as
they have no end to the number of reasons for
changing their jobs. But if organizations help in
creating happy and better employees, then
definitely the attrition rates won’t be as high as they
are these days. The basic problems which new
hires face are-
· -Lack of support from immediate supervisor
· Stress associated with the learning of the job in a
very short time
· Lack of understanding the job expectations
· Lack of understanding the company structure
· Some feel they cannot have a good career path
and feel stuck in the company
· -While some do not feel comfortable within the
system
As I said earlier, there is no end to the no. of
reasons why the new hires leave job and show no
consistency in their jobs. Moreover some of them
do not even stay in the firm for more than 3 months
which in real terms is bad for their own career. Here
falls the responsibility of the firm hiring these
employees to train them well and make them feel a
part of the system rather than just loading them
with pressure and giving them unachievable
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targets. Even those targets can be achieved well
and in time if employees are given the right set of
training at the right time.
It’s well said by Dale Carnegie that- training is
essential for the achievement of business. Creating
better employees and generating profits from their
devotion to work is not that easy. If no training is
given to these employees in whom the company
found a high potential at the time of hiring. So all in
all good training is like a benefit package offered to
an employee. Also it helps in reducing the attrition
rates of employees and retaining them. In general
these trainings give an insight to the employees on
how they can sharpen their skills to become
effective and competitive in their professional life
and adjust themselves to the corporate culture too.
Trainings are given to not only some technical skills
but there can also be various aspects covered in
trainings. If we talk about Dell, it’s a huge MNC and
hence there are many kinds of trainings given
ranging from hardware training to software
infrastructure training and then learning
management skills too. Hence all the training
programs help employees get well acquainted with
the system into which they have to work.
For any organization it’s the employees who
deserve gratitude from the top management. As
they contribute so much to the firm definitely they
should be shown appreciation and must say a word
of Thank You for all their hard work. This will not
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only help in making employees feel good but also
increase their levels of credibility to the firm.
Moreover less become the chance of attrition due
employees. Creating happy employees should be a
fractional or say an integral part of overall business
strategy. If employees are given the feeling of
belongingness and say the Maslows Need
Hierarchy theory is implemented well, then it
definitely helps employees to work wholeheartedly.
26- MEMORABLE BLUNDERS
It happens quite often that when we come out of an
interview, we feel that we have given our best and
definitely we should be hired by this organization.
Later after an hour or so, when we come to know
that we are not hired we start looking reasons for
blaming the hiring managers rather than
introspecting within ourselves as to the blunders
committed by us and our shortcoming? Having
shortcomings/unable to clear an interview/ facing
failures in interviews is not at all an end to one’s
life. It’s the best opportunity to learn from mistakes
and move a step ahead in the next interview which
we will face and who knows the door we knock this
time is the last one. It is always better to learn from
the blunders committed once rather than
committing them again.
What the hiring managers look for is whether a
candidate will be a valuable asset for their
organization or not. Not one but several blunders
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are committed by candidates and can be committed
by anyone facing interviews. This happens not only
in the case of a fresher but also in the case of
experienced people too. But it’s not good to give
lame excuses or exhibit an arrogant behavior in the
interview as no one is liable to you. Moreover it’s
equally a candidate’s responsibility to maintain
decorum and maintain a good attitude and
behavior.
UNEXCEPTIONAL BLUNDERS IN INTERVIEWS-
Some of the regular mistakes which are committed
by candidates are as follows-
1- Not prepared -
Being unaware of the firm where you want to work and also have no knowledge related to the field you have chosen to work for means a big NO at the beginning itself. None of the managers would like to hire a candidate who is just looking for charity in terms of salary and contribute nil. A small instance in this case- a candidate went for the position of a lecturer at a particular University and applied for the post of MBA Finance lecturer. He was not even aware of what’s a monetary and fiscal policy. Obviously being unable to answer this makes a recruiter aware of the depth of knowledge and no one would hire such a candidate.
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2- Talking unnecessary-
Who is free enough to hear your life story? I guess no one. So, if you talk unnecessary and deviate from what is asked then you create a negative impact before the panel in an interview. 3- Improper attire-
Hello! You are attending an interview wearing denims, applying a lot of make- up then you are fooling around wasting the time of the recruiter. Your degree of seriousness is depicted a lot by the kind of attire you are wearing.
4- Long answers-
Please a big no to stories. Many more people are waiting to get employed. So, better answer to what’s being asked by keeping your answers succinct and to the point. Relate your answers with good and practical examples rather than just bluffing around and talking all nonsense.
5- Lack of Good eye contact-
Please talk to me...I have asked you a question! In a one to one interview this is a feeling of recruiter. It’s important to have good eye contact while talking to the recruiter and of course a hand shake at the end of the interview leaves a certain impression of generous behavior. 6- Irrelevant answers-
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It’s always better to think before you answer. Once a candidate had been asked to mention any one author of HRM whose book he read, and the candidate replied Mark Andrews who had never ever written any book. This clearly shows you are giving some answer just to speak anything rather than a relevant answer. Oral responses to oral inquiries are on the agenda
of interviews where a proper screening of the
candidate is done before taking the decision to
recruit him/her into the system. Interview is an
indispensable management tool which is a stepping
stone for one to be in the particular job. Interviews
depend upon situations or behaviors too. Be
careful about your words and your actions as they
reveal your personality.
NUTS AND BOLTS-
Yes let me take you forward with some basics
which prove to be nuts and bolts for all of us when
facing interviews-
1- Have a good knowledge about the position you
are going for and about the organization.
2- Relate your experience well with the position
offered and how can it benefit the firm.
3- Give uncomplicated answers to reveal your
clarity in your words.
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4- A formally and neatly dressed up person spreads
a good positive vibe.
5- A smile on the face and not laughing I say a
smile to make the aura comfortable for the recruiter
as well as yourself.
6- A thank you before and while leaving the
interview room will never make you small but rather
show your generous behavior.
Blunders and mistakes are made by all of us. But
it’s better not to repeat them. Also it can be of no
use cribbing about them because it’s not that you
will never get job. Jobs are plenty it’s all about how
you search for and approach them at the right time
and at the right place. Having good
conscientiousness, intelligence and interpersonal
skills will always keep your morale high and help in
achieving what we deserve.
27- GAP ANALYSIS
Hey! Tomorrow is the training on some new subject
and we get to learn something new about which we
were not aware initially. This was the response of
employees some 10 years back when there used to
be an announcement of training programs within
firms. Traditionally trainings were perceived by
employees as an opportunity to learn something
new, a break from some of their hard schedules or
a chance to meet some new people.
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Oh no! Not another boring training and again some
GYAN. This is the reaction of the employees now-
a- days may not be in every case but in many
cases. This response is the result of unplanned
and fortuitous training sessions which are
undervalued as they don't add any value to
trainees. There is definitely a change now and its
essential to look for loop holes in organization
based on which these trainings should be designed
and carried forward. It’s not only about classroom
teaching but it’s also a lot about understanding the
psychology of people to whom you are talking to.
When I talk about need / gap analysis then it’s
essential to chew on some basic points-
Trainings to be in- sync with the organization’s strategic goals and objectives.
Please do not make training a selling or a consumer item.
Customize training based on what the organization requires.
Look carefully for the gaps which restrain optimal performance and find a solution accordingly.
Organized and systematic sessions often add more value.
It is essential to know that what kind of gaps can
come in the normal functioning of the company or
what exactly are the factors which evoke the need
for trainings. There can be various types of
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pressure points within the firm which evoke this
need. Some of them are-
Lack of some basic skills in employees
Poor performance from time to time
Introduction of new technology
Customer requests driven from use of CRM or such relationship managing software or sources
Influx of new products
Improvement in performance standards
New job responsibilities
After understanding these it is then required to
understand who needs training. It is a misnomer
that some managers feel only junior employees
need training but actually these programs should
be conducted for all from the top management to
the lower level. Then in this context some more
questions arise which are as follows-
1. What is that the trainees need to learn?
2. What kind of training should be given?
Once a good need analysis is done it definitely
gives a good and positive outcome. This can be
quoted well by taking the examples of the
companies which have lost in terms of profit and
revenue generation at some time or the other but
later came up with flying colors once they found out
the gap due to which the fall down happened and
they overcame the same with good solutions.
Remember even Confucius said that- “Learning
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without thought is a labor lost. Thought without
learning is intellectual death." So having a good
need analysis means adding value to your firm in
the form of result oriented training programs.
28- REMARKABLE AMELIORATION IN HR SOLUTIONS
We are now well acquainted with the fact that
nothing remains the same and with time things
keep changing. Similarly the practices used in HR
have now changed a lot and many new advances
have come up with time. HR solutions have now
shown a radically distinctive growth and
improvement. Each day some new concepts and
ideas are introduced and are even well adopted.
So let me take you forward with the concept of SIX
SIGMA about which already I said - that it’s a new
HR solution. This word sounds like six attributes
engaged to form something new or one concept out
of six features. But hold on my readers, it is a
concept or I must say a business strategy with its
application now days in the HR department too.
A WORD ON SIXSIGMA
SIXSIGMA is basically a business management
strategy which was originally developed by
Motorola in the USA in 1981. It had its application
in almost every sector or it was applied in many
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sectors of an industry. Once it was adopted there
were critics and controversies against the same but
still it’s used worldwide by many multinational
corporations. For criticism one must remember
what had been well said by Emmet Fox that-
"Criticism is an indirect form of self-boasting".
However it’s a practically untouched concept by the
HR departments of many firms till now whereas on
the other hand it has been adopted and
implemented well by some firms. Few of them are
as follows-
Wipro Technologies- has its focus on six sigma skill
base and consulting experience which in turn works
upon bringing about a continuous improvement in
the organization. Also it worked on competency
based people processes which had shown
tremendous improvement with time.
BSNL adopted Six Sigma as it helps them in
meeting the requirements of the changing
environment. Various projects have included the
concepts of green and black belts into the system.
HR consultancy services have adopted this on a
large scale.
Tata Consultancy Services- applied Six Sigma to
streamline its HR processes and also to add value
to its business.
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Strategies are developed in any business to have
profits and achieve a good level of growth. This had
been achieved well by many firms with the
introduction of Six Sigma within their HR
departments. Essentially it’s the work of the HR
department to interact with its employees and
influence them to achieve the strategic goals of firm
in the best manner.
The functions of the HR in any firm are huge and
hence its focus lies on bringing Returns on
investment by creating a knowledgeable employee
aware of all the new advancement. Six sigma had
helped in recognizing the gaps and opportunities
for improvement by breaking down the complex
tasks into simpler ones. It has provided a
dramatic improvement through innovations in the
functions of the HR.
Outcomes given by the implementation of Six
Sigma in HR are as follows-
Reduction in cost and time to hire employees
Reduction in employee retention
Reduction in safety violations
Reduction in overtime
SIXSIGMA not only acted as a support to the
management but also helped in creating value. The
companies making the best use of it definitely are
in a better predicament and plight.
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29- THINGS CHANGE WITH TIME
An umbrella can give shade to many and protects
one from both sunlight & raindrops. It is well said
that what you show people form an image out of it.
Similarly employees are considered to be the brand
ambassadors of the company who present their
firm before others. The way you present, helps in
forming of an image by the outer world. Human
Resource Management has shown a lot of changes
since past few years and now the roles and
responsibilities have also diversified.
Traditionally, the role of HR was limited to handling
administrative work or taking candidates within the
system. But now as said that nothing remains the
same forever we see an introduction to a lot of HR
initiatives within firms which have been very well
adopted & implemented too. So an umbrella in this
context is a one stop shop which is well related to
HR as it shows a lot of diversification from -
Recruitments
Training & Development of Employees
Compensations
HR policies
Performance appraisals
Payroll Processing
Resume Processing
Employee retention
The responsibility is increasing every day on the
HR executives and for the same even Technology
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has supported a lot. Advances in technology have
introduced the concept of HR PORTALS which are
widely used and accepted by various multinational
companies.
HR PORTALS-
These portals are advantageous to the HR
management-
· Knowledge sharing
· Giving online based training classes to Employees
· Sharing of articles
· Keeping updates on new changes within the firms
Let me share with you the use of these HR Portals
by the famous MNC's these days even in India. For
example-
1. Hexaware uses these portals for centralized
reporting and analysis that help in decision making
processes. Secondly it is used for resource
mobilization from different areas of the world.
2. Infosys uses these portals for knowledge sharing
and keeping updates on the changing trends and
advances within the firm.
3. Wipro uses channel W named portal for
connecting Wiproites across the world.
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These portals act like a binding force across HR
initiatives. HR is a huge field which now focuses on
providing value added services to its employees
and creates a competitive edge in the market. More
the advances within HR, the more it improves the
awareness levels and knowledge sharing among
employees. With such advances affinity clubs,
message boards, chats, intranet search and
various personalization engines have been
introduced within the HR management. As
definitions of jobs are changing new trends are also
coming up. Even the concept of six sigma, SAP
and competency mapping are included in the
recent advances which I will share in my upcoming
blogs.
This competitive age and era needs employees
who are well acquainted with the upcoming trends
and have knowledge as it makes you more aware &
definitely helps in creating an edge above others.
30- MOVING HIGH UP ON THE LADDER
It’s not that any person who joins the firm on the
very first day becomes the CEO or the chairman of
the Firm. Years of hard work and a lot of smart
work these days become the ladder for success in
a maximum number of cases. Value the time you
have in your life rather than just wasting it and
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thinking why life is worthless. Life always comes
the way we imagine and how much input we give to
drive our imaginations.
Trainings in corporate life are like water for the
survival of fish now- a- days. The one who is
trained well will of course be efficient enough as
their results will show as compared to the ones who
do not believe in this system of training &
development. Now one thing which is practically
missing these days and very commonly seen is that
people do not value time at all. To a great extent it
is seen that even senior employees are sometimes
not on time to the offices which quite obviously
creates a negative impact on their sub ordinates
and so how can one expect them to be on time.
Mostly in the case of sales profile, the sales people
have to move for calls to the clients. But it is always
good if they maintain a proper diary and write about
their timings of meetings with their clients as this
saves time and also helps things flowing in a
systematic manner.
It’s always better to reach 10-15minutes earlier for
any meeting which creates a positive impression on
the employer and also reduces the level of
apprehension & anxiety which is very common
before any meeting or even an interview. Suppose
you move to some another site for some work,
better have a cup of coffee and enjoy talking to
people there before your meeting starts. If you
arrive early for meetings better introduce yourself to
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other participants. Know the people because this
world is about people and the contacts you hold in
your database. This is actually known as contact
management when you maintain a good database
of the people whom you meet and interact with you.
They will one day be definitely helpful to you in one
or the other way.
Try to remember what you can about people. Show
good positive gestures towards them. Keep an idea
of their birthdays and anniversary or any special
day in their lives and greet them. Be considerate
enough to understand what you can do for people.
Send cards, greetings of congratulations if
promoted, or a condolence message if something
bad happens. Once you engage in people
management you’ll realize that people remember
your kindness more than even you do. Now such
things I agree cannot help you enhance your
technical skills or help you in gaining expertise but
they would definitely help directly or indirectly to
give you the recognition which can be a stepping
stone on your way to succeed in your work and
your job.
Times are really tough now and to get jobs is not
that easy as it used to be. It has also been seen
that a maximum number of the fresher’s are
unable to sustain in their jobs for more than 1 year
because they are unable to build good relationships
with neither their sub ordinates nor with their peers.
This is due to lack of training programs on soft skills
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which should be given to the new hire’s as and
when they are called for joining their jobs. Before
their induction in the firm training programs should
be conducted so that the new hire gets acquainted
with all the aspects pertaining to his job.
So the important thing which one should not forget
is that the more you value people around you the
more you receive recognition. Also not to forget
trainings are just a way to polish you and bring out
some hidden qualities which you already have. So
it’s better to have good client relationship and grow
in a systematic career as moving up high on the
ladder is never a child’s play.
31- WHICH FORK TO USE AT LUNCH?
Often when we talk about business etiquettes I
don't understand why people feel that it’s too
significant to hold a fork in the proper hand during
lunch with a client. Does holding a fork at lunch
complete the real sense of business etiquettes? But
this word called Etiquettes in Business include
significantly many more important things other than
knowing which fork to use at lunch with a client.
Etiquette is about how you present yourself, the
kind of polish which shows how serious and
professional you are in terms of the corporate. It’s
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about how comfortable you are with people and
how the others are with you.
It is all about the kind of people you have in your
firm and how are they presenting your organization
in front of your clients. What kind of an image your
employees project people will have the same in
their minds. Sometimes due to breach of proper
mannerism and good etiquettes many firms loose
the business and even customer loyalty. Let’s not
go very far. For eg- we go to shop at Big Bazaar
and we feel that customer dealing is poor and
moreover the employees have no etiquettes to
present themselves, I guess none of us would like
to visit the shop again. This in-turn spoils the
company's image more by word of mouth.
The environment within the firm too creates an
impact on the employee’s behavior. Sometimes the
senior management is not that cooperative and
talks rudely to its employees. This in turn also adds
a negative impact on the employees. So the
discourteous and disrespectful behavior is passed
along from the top. This impact affects firms in the
form of bad customer relations. So here comes the
role of good etiquettes as no one misbehaves
intentionally. Having trainings on behavior
management can help employees a lot in this case.
REMEDY
Let’s not forget that most of the times when we
have a bad note with some or if our behavior is
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perceived as disrespectful, rude or abrasive it’s
always unintentional. Sometimes it’s even due to
lack of proper communication. But there lies a
solution for everything. The first and the most basic
solution for this is to have an open mind and
maintaining an open, honest communication. The
concept of miscommunication can be eradicated by
this remedy. Now practicing good manners and
having a calm and composed behavior in daily
office routine can be helpful.
KEEP IN MIND
It’s well said that get back to basics. So the same
falls for etiquettes in your working environment. By
basics I mean be courteous and generous enough
to the people around you which means to both your
seniors and your subordinates. Listen to what
convictions other people hold, respect them and
then respond in a good and positive manner. We
are often influenced by the big corporate leaders &
management Gurus like Ratan Tata, C.K Prahalad,
Michael Porter. They hold leadership with their tags
because they have all those good qualities which
truly present the value of etiquettes in their work,
mind sets and daily lives.
PLEASE AVOID
- Using abusive language
- Talking in a loud voice
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- Using harsh words
- Always showing yourself superior to others
Your words and your behavior mostly add to the
kind of credibility and respectability you deserve.
So better hold good business etiquettes rather than
just keeping a fork in the proper hand in front of
clients. The better your customer relations you
have the better is your contribution to your firm's
and your success.
32- BASIC ETIQUETTES!
The professional growth of an individual depends a
lot on the way he/she presents himself/herself. It is
rightly said and very much applicable in terms of
etiquettes that First impression is the Last
impression. So etiquettes play an important role in
every aspect-
- Interviews - Presentations - Peer group relations - Basic office etiquettes The one with good etiquettes often receives respect
and is looked upon with much attention as
compared to the one who ignores them. Now let’s
say if a candidate goes for an interview without
being properly dressed in formals but wearing
jeans, obviously the interviewer gets an impression
about how serious the candidate is about getting
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the job and taking any responsibility. Moreover the
one who cannot carry himself well how can a firm
take a risk of hiring such a candidate.
Some of the etiquettes which should be taken care
of are-
Take care of bad breath and bad smell from body.
Colors should be the one which suit an occasion.
Not to smoke in the office premises.
During meetings it’s better to keep the phone on silent mode.
Let the one who’s speaking complete, rather than interfering.
EMAIL ETIQUETTES-
Be concise and to the point.
Answer all the questions in a systematic manner and give relevant responses.
Use proper spelling, grammar and punctuation marks.
Templates can be used or frequently used responses.
Do not write in capitals.
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Properly check before you send.
Take care to whom you are sending a mail rather than replying to all.
Be careful about formatting.
Avoid long sentences.
Have a meaningful subject. However skillful a person is these basic etiquettes
definitely create an impact. I shall keep adding
more on these skills in my upcoming posts.
33- SOFT SKILLS- CANNOT BE MISSED
The changes in behavior and thinking of employees
depend largely on the kind of soft skills they
acquire. There exists a strong relationship between
the soft skills of employees and effective customer
relationships. If we talk about our Indian companies
definitely they are creating a competitive edge in
terms of growth of which training of employees both
technical and soft skills play an important role. Soft
skills, as compared to technical hard skills, greatly
create an impact on the personality development of
employees. This is now an important aspect of
managerial trainings as companies are now not
only limited to local level but have turned out to be
global. Various training institutions have opened up
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nationwide the emphasis of which is purely into soft
skills trainings.Few of them which create a great
impact upon the clients from across the world are
as follows-
- Team building skills - Presentation skills - Time management skills - Cultural sensitivity - Business etiquettes - Good communication skills - Telephone etiquettes - Email etiquettes - Listening skills If a firm en devours to be on the growth path they
cannot ignore how important it is for the employees
to be skillful both technically and personally. Going
through proper need analysis of the firm sessions
of training modules are prepared as per their need
and these trainings are given from time to time. It
can be well said that soft skills is a sociological
term for emotional intelligence of individuals. Even
though it’s a face to face interaction with a client or
on phone or through emails this aspect of trainings
is important.
34- INTERNET BASED- TRAININGS
Employers make extensive use of web based
trainings these days. Quite a lot of emphasis is
given on the internet based learning. Even some
firms let their employees take online courses
offered by the online course providers like
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saba.com while others make use of intranets to
facilitate computer based training.
The wider use of Microsoft office is for providing
trainings and these are in the forms of power point
presentations, Microsoft Excel is to make them
learn the financial figures. Various products like
black boards and Web CT support online learning
en devours. Web CT is a product that provides a
process for delivering course content via Power
Point presentations which enables learners and
instructors to interact live and asynchronously via
online chat rooms and discussion forums and also
deliver grades and compiles online exams and
grades.
Now people are internet savvy and have knowledge
of internet based systems, so it’s easily accepted
by firms and moreover many students are familiar
with its advantages. The use of internet based
learning is in various sectors like banking, travel
and tourism particularly by airlines.
Effectiveness:-
It has been seen through various research studies
also that internet based learning is a bit more
effective than the classroom teaching. This helps in
providing the procedural knowledge and having a
proper domain knowledge. Even trainees are
equally satisfied with the web based instructions
more than other modes of training.
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Advantages:-
- It is a feasible educational option. - Trainings can be given to the employees of firm even in remote locations. - It allows people to fetch knowledge in their specific domain. - Also it has contributed to an increase in ROI's on trainings. It is all about adopting the new ways and bringing
them into practical implementation which works on
well and helps in bringing better outcomes.
35- LEARNING PORTALS
Learning portals during trainings are very much in
and acceptable in the present era of advancement
and adoption of technology at various levels. Many
firms these days employ Business portals. Through
its Business portals firm’s employees, secretaries,
engineers, sales people can get the tools which are
used to analyze the data both inside and outside
the companies. Also they help in checking the
customized content like industry news and
competitive data which is needed by them.
Employee trainings are increasingly conveyed
through learning portals. The suppliers of these
portals form contracts with employers even to
deliver online training courses to the employees of
the firms. Some of them are like Learnivity.com,
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skill soft.com etc. Commercial portals are used to
deliver trainings both to employers and employees.
Business portal training links are maintained by the
suppliers of these portals.
Even these suppliers provide business firms with
some offerings. Some even create special courses
for the employees of firms and customers. Such
systems had been initiated by the USA for the first
time. Learning Management system is used to
expand the portal services’ learning activities. This
program gives access to the state of the art training
and lets the portal service managers monitor their
organization’s training progress.
E-learning systems have been introduced to make
these trainings more result oriented. Employers can
easily synchronize employee’s trainings with their
performance appraisal, skills, inventory and
succession plans.
36- ON THE JOB TRAININGS
On the job trainings are one of the most effective
methods of training being adopted by most of the
firms today. But how many of us exactly know what
is on the job training? OJT means a person learns
the job by actually doing it and I guess this phase of
training must be taken by every employee who
joins the firm. Rather every employee from a junior
to senior level in a firm has to go through this mode
of training. It is like your employer tells you- "GO
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AHEAD, THESE ARE YOUR JOB
RESPONSIBILITIES".
The most common type of OJT i.e on the job
training is coaching wherein your mentor or your
senior who was one day holding your position and
has now moved on to a higher one explains to you
what will be your responsibilities, what challenges
you would come across and how to manage in any
kind of a situation? It is similar to a senior
supervisor training his employee.
Now let me quote this with an example- If a
candidate joined as a Relationship Manager, then
the one who can help him most is the Senior
Relationship Manager. He can help in making the
RM understand following points-
- What are the various ways to generate business? - How to tap an untapped market? - What does ‘by providing post sales services’ mean? - How to make good relationships with clients? - How to take new references from the existing clients? In all, it can be said that every manager is accountable for the development of his or her direct subordinates. OJT is advantageous in many ways-
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1- It is relatively inexpensive.
2- Trainees learn while being initiated into the system.
3- No need for expensive off site facilities like classrooms or programmed learning devices.
4- Even trainees learn by doing work on their own & get a feedback on their performance.
Moreover in this kind of training the trainee should
take care of the following points-
- Prepare the learner well -
Put the learner at ease.
Explain to him why he/ she is being taught?
- Present the operation-
Explain the key points to the learner.
Make him clearly understand the things to be taken
care of.
- Important steps-
Make the trainer learn in a systematic pattern
required for his job.
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Look out for the mistakes committed and how to
correct them?
- Follow up-
Designate a trainer to whom he/ she could
approach for help.
Compliment the trainee for the good work and
motivate the employee.
Make the training effective so that they can be a
value addition for employees and can have a
competitive edge as compared to its competitors.
37- POINTS- NOT TO BE MISSED!
Some people feel and say" Oh no! Not again,
another training session and one more day to sleep
and yawn. But hello let me tell you that it rests a lot
in the hands of the trainer to take care of each and
every thing and make sure the people are active
rather than yawning. More meaningful and more
interesting is what everyone expects in these
sessions.
As per my experience it is a lot about the GYAN
given in trainings that makes the sessions
monotonous and provokes the listeners to show
that they are in the least interested in trainings.
Nobody these days want to listen to what is written
in the reading material and moreover why to listen
to what is already printed in books.
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There are certain important things which create a
positive impact in these sessions-
1. Spacious and airy space.
2. Good seating arrangement.
3. Proper lighting.
4. Neat and tidy place.
5. Trainer with a smile and positive attitude.
6. Trainer with a loud voice and clarity of words.
7. Trainer with a good body language.
8. Having good eye contact.
9. It is good for the trainer to even be a good
listener.
10. Most important relating concepts with examples
and practical experiences.
Even management games make the sessions more
interesting and help in making the mind more
active. Positive mind set and a smile raises a good
level of confidence within the trainer and creates a
positive aura within the training room. One should
be ruthlessly positive and honest with ones words
to have good outcome.
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Feedback from listeners are important too, to have
an understanding of how helpful the training
sessions were for the trainees and whether it is like
a value addition for them or not.
38- INTERESTING SESSIONS
It is not always about teaching when we talk in the
context of training. It is a lot about the two way
interaction & a matter of discussion. Training
sounds to be more effective if participants equally
participate in the same. Being trained well &
acquiring a good set of skills definitely helps in
creating a competitive edge.
In most of the trainings it is seen that the focus is
on the subject matter and the reading material. But
the sessions become more interesting and
interactive when not only the study material but
also the other things are given equal importance.
Soft skills are given these days special attention in
most of the corporate offices. Proper attire, good
attitude, smile and a composed gesture creates a
positive image and gives positive vibes.
Smart Presentation skills are what come with time
and practice. No one can be perfect in a single day.
Such sessions help in the growth of the employees
both on the professional and personal front.
Practical implementation of these skills enhances
the growth level of employees. Making your
followers follow you is not the only sole purpose
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behind trainings but it’s a lot about learning new
things, adopting new skills sets and grabbing the
same. Reactions and behavior is what a person
should understand.
One must have a tremendous eye for detail and
understand every aspect which may help the
employees in returning the favor to the firm in a
good way. To create a warm and glowing
environment during trainings, two way interactions
and discussions should be focused upon. Such
things being taken care of definitely helps in making
the sessions interesting rather than boring lectures
which make people sleep too in trainings.
39- WHY TRAININGS
Now after talking so much on Training and
Development, let me take you ahead as to why
training is such an important aspect in any
organization? What if we do not have T& D in our
firms? Why to invest such a huge amount into this
aspect of HR?
Trainings can be initiated for various reasons like-
1- It is a part of an overall performance
development program.
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2- It is a part of the succession planning to help an
employee in adapting to the new change in role and
responsibilities.
3- It is used as a benchmark to compare the status
of improvement so far in the Performance
Improvement effort.
4- To train the employee on a specific topic.
5- To meet the increasing expectations of the
corporate social environment.
6- To be in sync with the diverse workforce in
bringing good values and morals to the work place.
7- When dealing with heavy equipment or being
into some manufacturing units, safety training is a
must.
8- To meet the increasing competition of global
market place and understand its needs.
9- Improvements in specific areas and increasing
knowledge.
10- To have a competitive edge and higher
threshold of performance.
When we say that an employee is really working
well at every stage, we must not forget that he is
able to deliver not only because of his own
competencies but also due to the proper know how
of his work, so trainings are essential and very
much in need to give employees a higher and a
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competitive edge in the organizations. This helps
them in their professional growth at a much faster
pace.
It is better to attend these training sessions
regularly and take them seriously rather than sitting
dumb and being unaware of new developments
coming up. It not only helps you but also other
people in the same working environment. Being
unaware and not serious about this is like
hampering your own growth in your professional
life.
40- GOOD INVESTMENT
Investing in the development of skills of employees
is as essential as the other aspects of operations in
any organization. The purpose behind these
trainings is not only developing skills but also about
behavioral modification of Employees to have
efficient results. Such trainings on Behavioral
modifications, attitude, soft skills must be done from
time to time to have a good aura within the firms
which makes them more result oriented.
On-going training programs for current employees
help them to adjust to the ever changing and
rapidly coming up new job requirements. Even it
helps employees in brushing up their skills and
working upon them. Even seminars and workshops
are now a part of these training programs as they
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are focused on some particular objective and work
on fulfillment of the same. They do help in
improving business operations too.
It essential not to forget some important points
before the trainings are scheduled-
1. Objectives of the organization.
2. Need Assessment.
3. Is there any gap?
4. Selection of training methods.
5. Administer Trainings.
6. Evaluation of trainings.
No training is without any purpose. So, a
demarcation of the objectives behind training, then
what methodologies should be adopted for the
particular training and how exactly to go ahead with
this process is required.
The right set of investments into the trainings, to
uplift its own employees, can come out with fruitful
results.
41- CHANGES AS PER NEED
With advancement in technology and science,
along with development taking place at such a fast
pace nothing remains the same. Changes keep
coming and we have to adapt to them. So, new
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ways and methodologies have been adopted every
day by trainers to make the sessions more effective
and efficient.
The Traditional method used for training was either
formal classes or delivery of some lectures to make
the listeners aware of the task being assigned and
how to do the same. But now-a- days many new
ways have come up to make these sessions more
interesting and outcome oriented. Some of them
are as follows-
- On the Job Training
- Job instruction Training
- Computer based Training
- Audio- visual Training
- Simulated Training
- Apprenticeship Training
But before opting for any kind of a training method
it is essential to analyze the need for training. It is
essential to know whether the training has to be
given to a new employee or to the one who is
already on the job. Look out for what do the job
entails and then break the same into tasks. Further
into sub tasks and make it easier for listeners to
understand things in a simpler way.
Such adoption of methods, understanding the
needs, can make it easy for the employees to be
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more knowledge equipped and work in an efficient
way going through the systematic pattern of
learning things. If employees are not well trained
then even gaps are observed in their performance
which is not good and hence trainers should make
use of some analytical software like Saba software
being used for the diagnosis of these gaps. When
we know the facts that there are some
shortcomings and gaps, training modules can be
changed as per requirement.
Therefore when the right set of training sessions
are being delivered it helps in both the personal
and professional growth of an employee.
42- LEARNER TO TRAINER
It had been very rightly said that “if you won't put
yourself into the system you will never be able to
understand what exactly goes within the same".
Similarly one can turn out to be a good trainer if he
/she are himself/herself equipped with the right set
of knowledge and good attitude. Certain own
characteristics, attributes & experiences contribute
in giving a better delivery of ideas.
Being into marketing and doing hard core sales
from a certain period of time or for a long period,
the sales person can give the best training on what
are the aspects and basic things a sales person
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needs to understand to generate and develop a
good business. Some of them can be like-
- What should be the target market for a particular
product?
- How to tap that target market and reach the right
set of customers?
- What can be the different attitudes & behavior of
people sometimes and how to react to them?
- What challenges can come across in direct
selling?
- How to do cold calling?
Along with practical aspects of training and the
knowledge part, trainers should focus also on-
- How to make their sessions more interactive?
- How to initiate group discussions?
- How to give equal attention to all the listeners?
- How to make a proper eye contact with each of
them?
Certain basics are definitely required to make these
sessions more successful and output driven.
Concept of Apprenticeship Training is always a
good mode of training. It is a combination of both
formal learning and on the job training. Even
many surveys and studies have emphasized more
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on the ‘On the Job Trainings’ along with formal
trainings as practical aspect becomes more clear
through them.
Getting the right set of instructions and having the
right knowledge definitely helps a good learner to
turn out to be a good trainer one day.
43- VARIATION IN TRAINING NEEDS
As each sector has its own requirements and own
priorities, similarly trainings in each sector are not
the same. They do differ depending upon the need
of a particular sector. People often confuse the role
of BPO's with that of KPO's but there lays a huge
variation.
Some aspects of training are similar and are
required in each sector. It is for the development of
the employees. Some of them are-
- Behavioral management.
- Soft skills training
- Stress management.
- Time Management
- Positive work attitude.
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As we go ahead with the training required in KPO’s,
there are various essential points which are needed
to be taken care of. So the training is given in the
following areas-
- High quality Research & analysis.
- Managing complex relations.
- Project development.
- Team member skills.
- Maintaining databases and preparing MIS reports.
- Taking feedback on Training.
The training designs are only effective if they help
employees in reaching their goals and objectives.
Now it’s not only limited to the private sector but the
public sector has also realized the importance of
the Training and Development. Companies have
initiated policies for regularly updating the
competencies of their employees by different
training programs. Therefore no compromise
should be made in providing training at the right
time and at the right place.
44- HALLMARK OF MANAGEMENT
The initial step which every new employee has to
go through at the entry level in an Organization is
an Orientation followed by Training. It is given to
new employees to provide them with the skills that
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are needed to be performed in the job. This training
is sometimes given in the form of some sessions or
depending upon requirement the training can also
be on- the- job training.
Moreover a good management is formed only if
employees are well trained and hence they deliver
the same to their sub ordinates along with learning
from their senior management. Now for e.g.-
showing a new web designer the intricacies of your
site, new sales person given training on products or
how to prepare daily sales reports DSRs can be
taught well and be used to generate effective
results by a proper and systematic manner of
training. Such DSRs help in engaging the data
which is used for both generating new clientage
along with providing post sales service to current
client base.
So training is specific to each sector depending
upon ' know how' & what task is to be performed.
Training is the hallmark of good management & it is
something that managers ignore at times which
creates an impact on upcoming success. Workforce
must know what to perform and how to perform.
Training programs which are being given must
make sense in terms of company’s strategic goals.
The word 'Performance Management' depends
solely on assigning, training, assessing & rewarding
employees. Relevance of the same depends upon
sector to sector.
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So now this can be well said that training is
booming as it contributes to an organization’s
effectiveness. Workplace learning and even on the
job trainings have laid down positive results.
45- CREATING- SMARTER WORK FORCE
As we talk about the issue of Training and
Development within organizations, we all need to
understand that it is something which is part of a
subsystem. Training helps in reducing randomness.
It makes you aware of what exactly is being
required at a particular time and as per demand.
If I talk about CRM , this is often practiced in
various companies for retention of customers,
maintaining their records, moreover it helps in
increasing sales but practically I have seen very
few people in the financial sector( even in other
sectors) particularly the ones who know exactly
how this software works. What lacks behind???
Here something, that lacks is the right training for
the use of software. When people within the
organization are not aware of their own systems
then how can outcomes be expected.
So creating a smarter workforce and bringing
changes in employees depends a lot on what kind
of training they are delivered with. Of course an
organization that gives value to training stands at a
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better position in terms of performance by
employees rather than the one who does not focus
on this aspect of HR management.
Corporate trainings are being appreciated in all the
result oriented organizations and in the ones which
are moving at a fast pace. This is the subject which
I must say is the’ Most – In’. Even these training
sessions enhance the skills of worker force from
time to time and they give better results. Today it’s
the core of any Business model to be successful.
These trainings are not limited to any one particular
sector but they are equally important in all sectors
they may be IT, FMCG, Pharmaceutical or BPO's
and KPO's. Moreover when we say "know how" of
the work and expectations can be well fulfilled by
understanding this aspect and achieving it in the
right manner.
46- Training & Development- Cannot be ignored
Let me take you to an important aspect of Human
Resources Management i.e Training &
Development where in the emphasis is entirely on
letting you know that no matter how effective and
how good performer one is, everyone needs
training and is such an aspect which cannot be
ignored.
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When an employee is recruited he/she is given
certain responsibilities and are expected to perform
them effectively and come out with efficient
outcomes. This recruitment is done depending
upon their competencies, capabilities, educational
backgrounds and most important experience. But
none of us are completely knowledge equipped
with what exactly we need to do & how to do it until
being guided in a systematic manner. For the same
every employee has to go through the procedure of
what I say - Training and Development.
Organizations spend huge amounts on Trainings
and the sole purpose behind is that their employees
may be able to achieve the organization’s strategic
goals and reach higher levels. Moreover it is not
only a newly hired employee who needs training
but even the one who is already into work they
should also be delivered with trainings from time to
time to enhance their knowledge and help them to
perform in a more better and skillful manner.
This is very well seen that even carefully selected
employees don't guarantee that they will perform
effectively. Even the high potential people
sometimes cannot bring positive outcomes if they
do not know what role and responsibility they need
to fulfill. And here lies the sole purpose behind
Orienting and Training employees. Every new
employee has to go through orientation to
understand the organization, what they deal with,
what the hierarchy of the organization is and who
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are all their seniors and sub-ordinates. Once an
orientation gets over it is followed by training.
Effective outcomes, generating revenues and
having competitive edge above others depends
upon what you are delivering and how well you are
implementing the right set of strategies. Hence
training is that aspect of HR which cannot be
ignored and should be given priority to have
lucrative results.
47- 80/20 PRINCIPLE FOR EVERY PROFESSIONAL
Introduction –
80/20 Principle is a well-defined concept which had
been first given by Pareto and its application is
varied when it comes to personal lives, professional
growth and even while an individual moves in
society. This book carries a very practical notion of
how our lives revolve in this 80/20 circle when we
go ahead with various spheres of our life. It is an
inbuilt imbalance between our efforts and causes. It
clearly states quoting various examples that 80% of
results we achieve are derived from 20% of the
serious efforts we put in to reach to the same. In a
quite detailed manner relating to our various
instances of life this 80/20 principle is applicable.
This principle should be used by every individual,
every organization and every part of society that
aims to accomplish something higher in life. This
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principle raises the level of effectiveness,
satisfaction and above all what we keep searching
throughout i.e happiness. This is practically
inevitable that 80% of results which we get in our
jobs are merely the outcome of 20% sincere efforts
being put in. In the context of Business the 20% of
products are responsible for 80% of the revenues.
In a similar lexicon, even 20% of customers are
responsible for generating benefits to 80% of the
business. Time and again various organizations
have used this principle to generate successful
outcomes and IBM was one of the most successful
and earliest corporations to spot and use the 80/20
Principle. Those who developed the personal
computer and its software in next generation such
as Apple, Lotus and Microsoft applied 80/20
Principle with more vigor to make their machines
cheaper and easier to use for the new target
customers.
Importance of 80/20 Principle –
50-50 fallacy i.e. our thought process that 50%
input will generate 50% output is deep-rooted in our
minds and hence it creates problems. It is essential
to understand the imbalance. Some customers are
more valuable than the others and this should be
understood by the executives so that better post
sales service can be given to them & keep them
loyal to the Business. This principle gives you a
pace of what exactly is happening around you and
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how well you can apply the same in your life in any
context.
It works on the principle of nonlinear thinking.
Thinking linear may not always generate the best
results. So, it is essential to work on situations in a
nonlinear way and then find out the best alternate
for a particular situation.
Also when it comes to investment the biggest
mistake we do is expecting results from our poor
moves too. It has been well explained by the
example of an investor from the book who applied
80/20 principle for his investment and he found that
investing 5% of his money in Filofax which is not a
very well-known investment stock generates 80%
of his wealth. The moment he sold those shares he
could get the price 18 times more than what he
invested.
80/20 principle guides us in terms of realizing what
is important and how we should emphasize more
on the important things rather than cribbing and
complaining over the unimportant ones. It works via
use of 80/20 Analysis and 80/20 Thinking. 80/20
thinking works on increasing or multiplying the level
of effectiveness which further helps in celebrating
productivity, looking for shortcuts and deriving
results, exercise control over life and strive for
excellence in few things too. This indeed teaches
that 80/20 thinking requires creativity and active
participation too.
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APPLICATION OF 80/20 PRINCIPLE
Various organizations like FORD electronics
manufacturing apply the same in quality program
i.e. correcting 20% of the causes of complaints by
customers can roughly eliminate the complaints of
800 out of 1000 customers. Apple used the
Information revolution of 80/20 principle in
developing the APPLE NEWTON MESSAGE PAD
RISC software. Information revolution aims at
transforming the work habits and efficiency of large
tracts of Business.
This principle helps in finding out which are the
areas of disaster and how they can be washed off
to make the business flourish in a good way. It
helps in dividing business into competitive
segments. It works on simplicity of the things rather
than making them too complex because the more
complex the business becomes the more its returns
fall dramatically. The less profitable segments
should be eliminated as they contribute to
overheads. Also the negative value activities in
firms should be controlled to deliver better value to
customers.
To reduce costs 80/20 insights should be used in 3
ways-
Simplification – elimination of unprofitable activity.
Focus- on key drivers of improvement
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Comparison of performance- to know the
competition
Working very hard and generating results is a
conventional concept that’s what smart working
strategy is all about. That is the focus is on the high
profit generating activities. It is basically used to
pinpoint improvement. It gives an idea of
working on successful marketing as it is all about a
focus on relatively a small number of customers
who are most active consumers of your product.
Hedonism via 80/20 Principle-
This principle is hedonistic as it emphasizes on
helping others and getting closer to achievement. If
we do not look for a possibility to progress we can
never change the world for better. It is important to
be relaxed and selective in decision making.
This principle clearly states that managing time in
an effective way itself brings success closer to you.
To an extent this further raises the level of
happiness and enthusiasm if applied in an effective
way. It further explains-
Choose your mentors and allies carefully via
applying 80/20 principle.
Long term success needs smart work and patience.
Work on generating higher i.e. 80 % by making the
best use of 20% in hand.
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Conclusion –
Happiness is a key ingredient for any of the pitfalls
or shortcoming in life. Generate happiness for
yourself in any way for which two main strategies
as the author says are –
1st- find out what gives you happiness and devote
your time towards those activities.
2nd – find out what activities lead to unhappy
behavior and reduce your attention towards them.
Further to harness the power of 80/20 principle in
your life with research observe how things happen,
what can be the best strategy for customers, check
the areas where you have highest errors and
eliminate them, keep a right attitude as it is
famously said- it is the attitude at the beginning of
the task, which more than anything else will affect
its outcome’s success.