Exploring employeeengagement in the

new turfs

EmployeeEngagement:

Most organizations

are embracing the fact

that merely engaging

employees will not be

sufficient and relevant in

the times to come. It is

time we think of

engagement on a

different level where

technology, talent and

transformation will

blend smoothly.

BUSINESS MANAGER | OCTOBER 2018 1

IN THIS ISSUE

06Mind Mapping- Unlocking the potential

As in many other instances in our cognitivepractices, normal is not Natural! Naturalcreativity is a creativity that flourishes andgrows throughout life, as evidenced by most ofthe great writers, artists, poets and thinkers ofall nations throughout history. We simply needto unlock the creative potential that we haveunwittingly locked in. An article by Tony Buzan

13Vicky Donor-The need in fragmented Organization

The author through a caselet tries to make acase of importance of training for futureresource planning and developing talentwhich is generally marred by sense ofinsecurity in managers and poororganization designing skills. An article by Sanjeev Sharan

105 Strategy Questions Every Leader Should Make Time For

Business leaders needto make ample time toreflect on theconfiguration that hasemerged. They need tosystematically analyzeand carefully think itthrough, and makeadjustments where

necessary. An article by K S Ahluwalia

IN EVERY ISSUE

Response

From the Editor’s Desk Guest Column by Dr. Vinayshil Gautam

0304 05

Entertaining the conferencestyle - A growing trend

15 INTERVIEW

with Poonam Sharma

Women need toenhance self belief

& challengethemselves

The most effective wayto strengthen the role of

women at workplace isby sensitizing leaderson these unconscious

biases and carving outways to minimize

them.

-BM Editorial Team

Develop ecosystem of empowered teamsin a decentralized command environment-Debjani Roy

Create an environment where employee isvalued & contribute for purpose-Neetu Singh

Practice agility to the ever-changing needsof employees-Samriti Malhotra

Managers need to unlearn and relearnabout real engagement-Shivaanii Agrawaal

Move from engagement to employeebonding-Dr. Virendra P Singh

7 ways to achieve effective employeeengagement-Jayshree Dutt

Employee engagement : Hype Vs. Truth

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-BM Editorial Team

BUSINESS MANAGER | OCTOBER 2018 2

IN THIS ISSUE

LABOUR LAW

40

21 Gender diversity- Essentially acorporate responsibility?

At the risk of sounding radical or contrarian,the onus of changing this lays with us,women. Whenever a woman fails to grow wepoint a finger at the corporation, its policies,its people practices and mostly the unfairboss. But let's be honest, if we really wantedto get something and worked hard for it, howmany of us can honestly say that we havebeen shortchanged because we are women?An article by Mohua Sengupta

52Tripartite settlement :A protective shield

The sanctity of the settlement under section18 (3) of the ID Act has been held in highpedestal by the Courts and is applicable to allworkmen of the establishment. However, thisis not the case in regard to settlement madeunder section 18 (1) of the ID Act. Under 18 (1)it applies only to the parties to thesettlement. An article by Deepanjan Dey

Managing Labour RelationsAuthor : Govindaraju N.S

Environmental LawAuthor: S.C. Shastri

Contract Law for Managers Volume I & IIAuthor: Joshua Aston

Environmental Law for ManagersAuthors: Bimal N. Patel & Prachi V. Motiyani

LINE

54CASE STUDY

58 BOOK LEARNING

Revised Minimum Rates of Wages in Maharashtra

Revised Minimum Wages Rates in Uttar Pradesh (01.10.18 to 31.03.19)

Revised Minimum Wages in Haryana (w.e.f. 01.07.18)

55-57CASE ANALYSIS

Case Analysis - I

Let's discard the evil PIPBy Mukesh Kanojia

Case Analysis - II

Need to look beyond PIPBy Manpreet Kaur

59-62 GOVT. NOTIFICATIONS

Anomaly in date of birth force workers to forgo PF deposits

Nirmala, Executive Director - Group HR, conferred with "WomanGlory Award"

Govt. finding difficult to the reform labour law amid tradeunions pressure

Hundreds of thousands laid off despite growth, thanks to GST

Indian wage disparities - a matter worry for ILO

Maternity Law: big cos unlikely to go slow on women hiring

62-63 HR NEWS

from the COURT ROOMRecent Important Labour Judgments 4

2-5

1

19What’s the alternative to layoffs?

We only see the numbers, profits. That's all!Why not see the employees as humanbeings, that they also have a life beyondbeing a professional. That they aresomeone's child, someone's spouse, a parentand not meant just to serve you & yourintentions. An article by Priyanka Dutta

Employee Separation - The PIP Story

By Sanjeev Himachali

64 EVENT REPORT

HR Symposia’18 concluded

Owned, Published and Printed by Anil Kaushik at Sun Prints, Ganpati Tower, Nangli Circle, Alwar - 301001andPublished From B-138, Ambedkar Nagar, Alwar - 301001 (Raj.) India. Editor : Anil KaushikThe views expressed in the articles published in Business Manager are those of the authors only and not necessarilyof the Publisher/Editor.While every effort is made to have no mistake in the magazine, errors do occur. Publishers do not own anyresponsibility for the losses or damages caused to any one due to such ommissions or errors.

This issue of Business Manager contains 68 pages including cover

OCTOBER 2018

Thought outThe Articles on "Chemistry of TEAMWORK"are well thought-out / conceived and theauthors need KUDOS. While team work hasbeen a slogan for several decades, yet theindividuals performs side stepping the TEAMfor personal gains, but causingorganizational loss.

R.N. Misra

An old disease but yets viralled of late.Humane touch by HR goes a long wayin alleviatation.

Sunil PuriI love the magazine and your passionbehind it.

Harjeet KhandujaInsightful anecdotes shared here!Great article of Naveen.

Falguni R VabaleWow. Its elating. You made us proud.All the Best, Prashant.

Pramod Kumar BajpaiGreat Going Anil, Look forward toconnect soon. Love reading yourpublication :)

Runa Maitra

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CHIEF EDITOR

ANIL KAUSHIK

ASSOCIATE EDITOR

ANJANA ANIL

EXECUTIVE EDITOR

JAYSHREE DUTT

DESIGN & DIGITAL

SATENDER TEJ ARUN

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GIREESH KUMAR DIXIT

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SEPTEMBER 2018 ISSUE

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https://www.facebook.com/businessmanagerhrmagazine

MindsetCover story on layoffs is a situation which noone would like to go through the experience.But for HR sometimes it is hard andunfortunate to execute. The experts have verywisely suggested the alternatives of pushing aperson out of job but i think it is a matter ofmind set of top management which can onlybe changed when we start acceptingemployees as not mere resource butsomething more than that. There have beenmany examples were employers have turnedaround the organisations without terminatingthe employees but by reducing their wages fora temporary period.

Yogesh Sridhar

It’s differentBefore enforcing a lay-off, you are supposed to give90 days notice of intent of lay-off in your industryto the concerned labour commissioner withcomplete reasons for the intented lay-off andobtain his approval under section 25 of the IDA.You have not mentioned whether this was done ornot. Moreover, you are suppose to pay them 50%of the wages to the workers during the period oflay-off. You can implement lay-off with approval ofappropriate authority not otherwise. You have notstated anything about this. Please say somethingabout this also.

S K Bakshi

InsightfulThis refers to Dr Anupriyo Mallik's insightfularticle "Paradigm shift of industrial relationsin India" (August 2018). My understanding is,government and managements in theprivate sector have not yet acceptedprofessionalization of Human ResourcesManagement (HRM) as a priority. Whilemaking this statement, I have in mind top-level appointments (including nominationsto the boards of management) to the localcontracts for cleaning premises of work-places in the remotest corners of the country.

M G Warrier

Outstanding It's simply outstanding insightful wisdomsharing! Strongly recommended for everymanagement professional to list this bookas must read! Thanks Subramanium for yourawesome sharing! All the best!

Ghanshyam Mhatre

RESPONSE

BUSINESS MANAGER | OCTOBER 2018 3

BUSINESS MANAGER | OCTOBER 2018 4

From the EDITOR’S DESK

E mployee engagement has acquired centre stage in business world since last twodecades. Considerable attention and amount has also been spent on this account tokeep employees engaged so that talent is retained, business growth is achieved, largertalent pipeline is developed, employees are kept happy, performance is improved alongwith the image of employer of choice among people is built and what not. But the truthis that not much is achieved on this front in spite of all efforts. Engagement scoresremain abysmally low. The baffling point is how it was possible? It is evident that therehas been much hype of this phenomenon whereas truth has been something different.This is because of the fact that organisations cannot buy their way into engagement.Nor can you force employees to be on the engagement platform against their will.Actually this is to be understood that engagement must grow organically from insideout. It does not matter what is being done for keeping people engaged, what matters ishow it is done. It is a journey from contact to connect.

It has to be understood well that employees are not connected through events andprograms; they are connected and engaged by people. We need to look for and developinspirational leadership to get it spread in all directions vertically and horizontally. Thereis difference between satisfied, happy and engaged employees. These are altogetherdifferent states. Employee may be satisfied because of salary and work environment butnot necessarily happy. In the same way employee may be happy because of his state ofmind or extra perks and facilities at workplace, which he may not get outside, but againnot necessarily be engaged one. Engagement has to be two ways and should be drivenby an element of honesty. It comes from within. This takes willingness to look insideoneself and to be truthful. When organisation demonstrates honesty and commitmentin employee dealings with utmost care, it will automatically pull the employee towardsengagement with organisation. It has to be grown from bottom to top. It becomes easywhen you hire the people with happy state of mind and inherent will to work. This is amatter of value and belief system of each employee.

Let us understand the truth of engagement also. In most of the organisations, the hiringpattern is changed. Temp and third party employee's employment is the order of theday. The objective of making money by all means diminishes the concern for employees.Employee who is always working with the sword hanging on his head and he is not surewhether he would be coming to work next day or not with full of insecurity, howorganisations can expect from this big chuck of employees to get engaged emotionallyfrom the deep of their heart. No amount of any initiative, program or event or moneycan make such employees engaged. So there is a basic flaw in the concept ofemployees' engagement with this kind of employment strategy. Unless there is sense ofbelongingness among employees, essential elements of pride, commitment and loyaltyto the organization from insecured employees cannot be brought in. It is a taskrequiring much more than good communication, empathy and active coaching.

This edition talks about hype and truth of employee engagement, issues underlying,changing metrics and way forward in this direction.

If you like it let us know. If not, well, let us know that too.

Happy Reading!

Not "WHAT" but "HOW"

October 2018Vol. 21, No. 4

Anil Kaushik

@ tdanilanilkaushik

anilkaushik

Samriti Malhotra Associate Vice President, Global HRD, Denave, Noida

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Practice agility to the ever-changing needs of employees

The emotional connect originates from the organizations'ability to influence the employees on three major aspects ofworkplace culture, even when open communication is not thestandard. These are : "Camaraderie", "Empathy" & "Autonomyto unleash self-potential."

BUSINESS MANAGER | OCTOBER 2018 31

COVER FEATURE Employee Engagement : HHyyppee vvss.. TTrruutthh

In a conservative working environment where opencommunication is not the standard, how do you encourageemployee engagement?

SM Employee engagement is the quotient of commitment,involvement, and contribution that an employee showcasestowards the organization's vision, mission & values. It is notlimited only to happiness quotient or employee satisfaction, but,is the emotional connection and commitment that the employeefeels towards the organization and is willing to go beyond the callof duty to contribute to organizational goals.

The benefits such as learning & career developmentopportunities, compensation - design & parity, work-life balance,autonomy, advocacy & recognition are some of the key drivers of"Employee Value Proposition". However, a strong foundation foremployee engagement gets laid as & when the employee builds anemotional connection with the organization.

The emotional connect originates from the organizations' abilityto influence the employees on three major aspects of workplaceculture, even when open communication is not the standard.These are : "Camaraderie", "Empathy" & "Autonomy to unleashself-potential."

The employee engagement, in the conservative & traditionalwork environment, may be encouraged by inculcating spirit of"camaraderie". This creates a bond amongst the co-workerstowards the shared vision or experience and a mutual trust, thatis one of the key factors for teamwork. It becomes relativelyeasier to positively influence a larger workforce by creatingbrand ambassadors for higher employee engagement.

"Empathy" is a well - recognized at the workplace that influences& augments employee engagement. Empathy is the ability tounderstand and experience the others' emotions and respondwith care to the same. Empathy at the workplace create long -lasting connects and relationships. The managers should make adeliberate attempt to deal with employees' feelings with genuinerespect & care. This shall lead to a stronger bonding, engagedemployees and, eventually, more productive workforce with apositive impact on business bottom-line.

"Autonomy to Unleash Self-Potential" is the differentiatingfactor that unites and inspiresemployees within anorganization and is stronglyconnected to employeeengagement. There is amajority of employees whobelieve that their freedom tounleash their creativepotential is lacking in thecurrent organization. Suchemployees are willing to actthe same, not limiting to shiftin the jobs, with employerswho offer them a platform tovoice out their opinions andtake actions. The organization& its top management shouldstart treating their employeescentral to the solution bylending a listening ear,adequate involvement andallow employees to add valuethrough their experience,expertise, and ideas.

Needless to mention,"Communication" is a

About the Author

A management professional with blended experienceof 13 years, Samriti is an avid contributor to eminentHR forums.

BUSINESS MANAGER | OCTOBER 2018 32

COVER FEATURE Employee Engagement : HHyyppee vvss.. TTrruutthh

powerful tool for employeeengagement, when combinedwith "Employee ValueProposition". It creates a positiveinfluence for engaging theemployees.

However, in conservativeworking environments, there areminimal communicationchannels available. Suchscenarios primarily require ashift in thought process andchange management that getsdriven by the top management &leaders. HR, as the custodian,plays an important role towardscreating the desired workplaceculture for engaging employees.

How do you see the challenges inthe employee engagementspace?

SM It has been established throughvarious studies that employeeengagement is one of the keyimperatives for increasingproductivity, improving overallperformance & executing thebusiness strategy & henceforthmaking the organizationssuccessful.

Employee engagement, however,comes with its own challenges &barriers.

Lack of ownership &accountability by peoplemanagers still comes across as

one of the biggest challenges in the employee engagement space.Most of the times, the accountability for driving employeeengagement is left solely for HR rather than making it a businesspriority for the people managers. This leads to an inconsistent &half - hearted buy-in amongst the middle management whothemselves may not be fully invested and engaged. The employeeengagement needs to be envisaged as an equal priority with thebusiness centricity with an equal ownership across managementlayers. HR plays a crucial role in standardizing & unifying allmediums, initiatives, people & processes with the overall agendaof employee engagement.

Inadequate & ineffective employee communication leads tounclear or diluted messaging, leaving the employees in a state ofdisengagement with the organization. It is important to haveeasily accessible communication channels, charting out cleardirections on organizations' vision, values, and goals to do awaythe feeling of uncertainty amongst the employees. The failure toset up robust internal communication platforms restrains theinformation authenticity and accessibility to the employees andcreates a disconnect with the organization.

The absence of mutual trust & facetime is responsible forabolishing employees' emotional connect, involvement andlongevity in the organization. Mutual trust is an importantelement of employee engagement. This gets manifested throughemployees' real-time experience, positive reinforcement &leadership practices on the propagated organization values.Mutual trust & facetime with the managers serve as a foundationfor nurturing the workplace relationships & inspiration to theemployees. The sheer absence of facetime to offer positivefeedback, guiding & coaching leads to demotivated employees.

Diverse workforce with different expectations also contributes tonew age challenges in employee engagement wherein "One sizefits no one". Workforce diversity has taken a drastic leap whereinthere is a constant effort going in managing the multi - facetedengagement drivers to instill a sense of purpose and valueaddition towards achieving organizational goals. Theorganizations are encountering the challenge with respect to notonly retaining employees but also engaging them fully. Hence, itis becoming imperative to have a thought through "Diversity &Inclusion" agenda and capture the minds and hearts of its diverseworkforce at every phase of their work lives to keep it engaged.

Looking at the last three years in the context of technologysurge, how it has impacted the employee engagement?

SM Technology surge has had a huge impact on employeeengagement. With the persuasive positioning of employeeengagement, the organizations are now turning to technologytools to create a predictive analysis for decision making andproactive measures. The tedious task of measuring the employeeengagement has become simpler, more comprehensive & on thereal-time basis by technology. There are multiple applications &products that allow the managers to get the real-time data andinsights on what their employees are feeling. This has helped theorganizations to be agiler and customize their initiatives inalignment to the employees' expectations.

The Internet, mobile devices, and cloud technologies are helpingbusinesses with continuous connect even when employees areworking remotely. The organizations are focusing on employeevalue proposition in alignment to ever-changing workplacedynamics. The newer technologies such as virtual workplaces areharnessing people - focused culture with high levels of employeeengagement.

However, technology may be used as just the medium or tool, butnot the absolute solution or answer to employee engagement. Atthe end of the day, additional efforts and initiatives shall need tobe put in place to touch the emotional chord or build a connectionwith employees for a long-term association and desired value-add

With the persuasive positioningof employee engagement, theorganizations are now turning to

technology tools to create apredictive analysis for decision

making and proactive measures.

BUSINESS MANAGER | OCTOBER 2018 33

COVER FEATURE Employee Engagement : HHyyppee vvss.. TTrruutthh

for a positive impact on the business performance.

Interestingly, the cognizant application of technologybreakthroughs in employee engagement arena shall establish itsmanifestation as "Boon" or "Bane". After all, it is about managinghuman emotions to derive conducive behaviors.

Can you tell us about efforts undertaken by yourorganization for employee engagement? What have beenyour learning/key takeaways so far with the experience?

SM Employee engagement is a continuous process at Denave thatrevolves around the organization's core values - "Respect for theIndividual", "Integrity", "Transparency" & "Inclusive Growth".Denave, with Its diverse workforce & multi-cultures, practices anagile approach that gets customized for our global deliverycenters too. At Denave, we have taken numerous initiatives tosupplement "Employee Value Proposition" and employeeengagement. Some of the key initiatives taken in the last 2-3years are :

The platforms for idea generation have been created in theorganization that inspires the employees to ideate, create,transform, preserve, recreate & earn reward and recognitionunder "Innovation at Workplace" campaign. This initiative offersan opportunity & autonomy to the employees with a canvass toenvisage their creativity, ideas & entrepreneurial spirit, acrossthe levels, irrespective of hierarchy.

Denave has consolidated the internal communication channelsand has introduced the Internal chat platform - "Yapp", that helpsin bringing all the units of Denave on one platform. It is thebreeding ground of innovative ideas and at the same time, it isalso the platform to undertake fun activities to induce the cultureof collaboration and team spirit in Denave.

With the recently launched career framework, Denave's "TalentManagement Philosophy" of talent fitment in alignment todesired competencies and career paths - "Vertical, Lateral &Diagonal", has got reinforced. Denave's career framework hascomplemented the learning culture in alignment with thepreferred career path & competency mapping.

The key learnings from the real-time experience have beennumerous. In the nutshell, it may be summarized that theorganizations must practice agility to the ever-changing needs ofemployees. Some of the HR practices may become obsolete, and,the HR needs to keep the pace of fast-changing workplace &industry dynamics.

The organizations and HR must be cognizant of its ecosystembefore making investments in technology and should adopt athought through approach. Also, the organizations should createtheir own employee engagement agenda, customized to theirunique works place demands.

What's your employee engagement roadmap for the future?

SM The future roadmap is as agile as the ever-evolving workplacedynamics, focused humane aspect and conducive work culturethrough initiatives & best practices in sync with organizationalgoals. Strengthening loyalty and employee gratification remainthe guiding principles for Denave's employee engagement charter.Also, while a clear employee engagement roadmap lays out theblueprint, it is the continuous efforts enriching the real-timeexperience that reflect on the outcome & organization behavior.

At Denave we aim to consistently improve overall employeeexperience peppered by the multitude of initiatives, learning andcareer development and enabling work-life balance across themulti-generational and multi-cultural workforce. We engage ouremployees and use their inputs while designing HR services,career progression & mobility, policies, learning and

development goals to create aholistic employee experience.

The employee engagementroadmap for future shall focus onthe below given key aspects :

Adoption of "Two fold approach oftop down & bottom up" on drivingemployee engagement charter thatenables budding people managersto embed employee engagement totheir long-term charter and derivethe benefits not only for teams butalso for the organization.

The new age employeeengagement strategy shall focuson providing employees withadequate information on theorganization's vision and long-term objectives. They need tounderstand what is expected ofthem and how their individualcontribution is linked to thebigger picture.

The forthcoming employeeengagement strategy shallcontinue to interact & involveemployees in the organization'svision & deploy appropriatesystems to measure, reward andreinforce desired behaviors.Denave shall continue to propagatethe culture of diversity, careeropportunities and global mobilityto curate the employee experience.

At last, HR shall play a strategic &lead role towards transformingpeople practices in its pursuit ofengaging employees withunprecedented pace for theorganization to thrive in thetwenty-first century competitivelandscape.

The organizations and HR mustbe cognizant of its ecosystembefore making investments in

technology and should adopt athought through approach.

BM