HR Success Guide | Top Human Resources Blog

How to Improve Staff Engagement in the Legal Industry

2015-08-28T00:30:00.000+01:00

Author: Avelina Patay (NeoMam Studios)

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How do you motivate Low Performers to do a Better Job?

2015-08-21T00:30:00.000+01:00

Author: Antony Xavier

This is a question that keeps many managers up at night. And it's hard to answer. The answer is hard because different things motivate different employees. For example, one employee may be motivated by a monetary bonus, but another employee may be motivated by less stress. So when it comes to low performers, managers have to apply various strategies, not one cookie-cutter approach.

But how do managers determine what motivational strategies to use? They start by viewing "motivation" from a holistic perspective. Low performers are not ONLY motivated by paychecks, bonuses, or promotions. Those things are important, but so are other things like less stress, greater cooperation, and different tasks.

So when you talk to employees about doing a better job, you want to give a "reason" they can relate to. This means that you have to know how performance improvement will benefit each of your low performers.

Here are 24 benefits to consider:

ASK: How might "this employee benefit" from improved performance?

1. Less stress that comes from having to make corrections
2. Less oversight and monitoring of assignments from you, the manager
3. More autonomy in handling individual assignments
4. Fewer complaints from customers and clients
5. More compliments from customers and clients
6. Less time spent having to offer explanations about incomplete work
7. Less time spent having to offer explanations about incorrect work
8. Fewer requests from coworkers or other employees asking for status reports
9. More opportunities to perform different types of "desirable" tasks
10. More opportunities to work with different or "interesting" employees
11. Increased opportunity for improved performance rating
12. Increased opportunity to receive bonus or some type of monetary recognition
13. Increased opportunity to receive recognition or some type of non-monetary acknowledgement
14. Less mandatory overtime required to complete overdue assignments
15. More opportunities to work overtime that is based on good performance
16. Less time spent redoing and reworking assignments
17. Less time spent having to correct mistakes and errors
18. More time off as a direct reward for good performance
19. Reduction in personal backlogs or workloads
20. Increase in personal accuracy and quality
21. Greater cooperation from managers, coworkers, or other employees
22. More opportunities to participate in different types of "employee development programs"
23. More opportunities to participate in different types of high-profile projects
24. More opportunities to work with people who can positively influence career

Remember, Different Things Motivate Different Employees

Motivation is personal and individual. So it's not enough to say, "If you do a better job, you will receive a bonus." And even if this approach works once, it might not work every time. Or you might not always be able to promise a bonus for performance. You need a variety of ways to keep your low performers motivated. And the approach you choose depends on the employee. You might have to cite several "personal benefits" to motivate some employees, but only one or two for others. This list gives you 24 to choose from. Try a few the next time you have to talk to a low performer.

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The World's Biggest Office

2015-08-14T00:30:00.000+01:00

Author: Dave Cummins (Dublin Office Centre)

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How to Attract the Right Candidate

2015-08-08T00:30:00.000+01:00

Author: Helen Sabell (College of Adult Learning)

Today’s job market is highly competitive and inundated with a growing number of people seeking employment. As a result, employers may find themselves swamped with an increasing number of job applications. However, this large pool of applications may not harbour a large number of the ideal candidates for the job. Here are some tips on how you can update your recruitment practices to attract the right candidate for your job offering:

♦ Job Analysis

Before advertising for a role, the organization needs to analyze the available job in order to have a clear idea about the job description. This includes finding out details such as what the job responsibilities are, what tasks are involved, what prior knowledge is necessary, what the salary package will be and any other details that an applicant would find relevant.

♦ Define who the “right” candidate is for the job

Before attempting to attract the right candidate, you should first define what exactly you are looking for. An employer needs to ask themselves what qualifications, qualities, experience level and skills are they seeking in a candidate for this job? When describing the kind of person that would be best for this job, remember to be realistic. These minimum qualifications and requirement criteria serve as a way of filtering the applications, and from preventing unsuitable applicants from applying.

♦ The Advertisement

Once you have established the job description and who the ideal candidate is, you are ready advertise. When advertising a job offering, human resource practices has moved far beyond a simple job advertisement in the newspaper. With advances in technology, organizations need to take advantage of the many platforms they can advertise on, to allow a large pool of candidates to be reached. The utilization of social media channels such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram provide more exposure and publicity and ensures that the right candidate is able to find you.

The job advertisement should be clear, concise, easy to understand and use the right keywords and terminology. So that only candidates who feel that they are suitable will apply, it is important to be honest in your advertisements, if your advertisement does not match the job itself, you may have to go through the whole recruitment process again after because an employee may leave after finding that the job was not what they believed it to be.

♦ Go Straight to the Source

Many companies choose to advertise and hold information sessions at universities to directly attract new and fresh talent. Career fairs are also a great opportunity to give your organization some more exposure, and to liaise with prospective applicants. These events bring awareness to not only those who were actively seeking jobs, but those who may not have otherwise been looking.

♦ Application Process

Employers should ensure that the application systems are convenient and can be reached by all applicants. If your application process is done online, ensure that there are no technical difficulties or problems. Any application process which is too tedious or time consuming will deter applicants.

♦ Be the “Right” Employer

An employer should not lose sight that they are in direct competition with other organizations over the most promising and capable candidates. While asking themselves about what they seek in an applicant, employers sometimes forget to consider why an applicant would want to work for their organization.

To attract the right candidates, employers have to sell their organization and make themselves as appealing as possible. If you want your organization to be a highly sought place to work, you should make any employee benefits and perks clear, such as flexible hours or career advancement opportunities. How you treat your current employees is also an important factor in recruitment. If your organization is not known to be a good working environment, word of mouth from unhappy employees can spread. On the other hand, if you have fostered a positive working environment, employees may even refer their friends and family to apply.

It is also important that any rejections of the not-so-right candidates be handled in a delicate and professional manner, so as not to deter people in future for applying. Both good and bad application processes are shared among candidates and any bad word of mouth may deter people from applying in future.

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SMEs Guide to Online Payroll Services

2015-07-08T00:30:00.000+01:00

Author: Colin Cuthbert (Ayers Management)

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Employee Performance Reviews

2015-07-04T00:30:00.000+01:00

Author: Mark Feldman (Find my Shift)

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Resume Etiquette

2015-06-29T00:30:00.000+01:00

Author: Jesse (Blueberry Labs)

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Be Productive at Work

2015-06-25T02:24:00.000+01:00

Author: David Keane (Davitt Corporate Partners)

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Further Your Career with a Second Language

2015-06-21T00:30:00.000+01:00

Author: Shane Whelan (ULearn School)

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Ask without Fear

2015-06-17T00:30:00.000+01:00

Author: Antony Xavier

One has nothing to lose but only to gain by asking, but still many people are afraid to Ask because of rejection but they don't realize that they are actually rejecting themselves in advance before somebody says NO. To be successful you have to take risks and one of the risks is the willingness to face rejections. Don't assume that you are going to face a "NO". Take the risk of asking what you want to ask without any fear.

Fear of failure is actually linked to fear of rejection and criticism from others, which leads to procrastination and excuse making. You can always create a list of excuses not to Ask, no matter how potentially valuable and rewarding it can be, finally you are missing an opportunity.

You can overcome the fear of asking by following these simple steps -

Take the initiative to Ask, and go the extra mile. If you don’t ask despite your fear, you miss an opportunity.

Replace your negative thoughts by positive thoughts.

I repeat, do not assume that you will be wrong or you may stand foolish, but take it as an experience. The Person who doesn’t ask is the person who actually fails.

Start asking today for Information, Assistance or Support that is required to fulfil your vision and see how it’s going to change your life forever.

Wish Your Dream Comes True By Asking.

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Magnify Your Offshore Presence

2015-06-13T06:35:00.000+01:00

Author: Gaurav Bahadur

Less than 20% Offshore Development Centers
Have Budget Allocation for Promoting Offshore Setup

Offshore development centers have poor visibility. As support centers they are lead conservatively, having no mention on the primary company website. Occasionally they end up having a website of their own that gives them local recognition.

With the changing times companies have now started to realize the importance of magnifying their offshore presence. The way you need to market your products/services to attract clients, similarly these days it is vital to market your offshore to attract talent.

With so many good pay masters around, are you doing enough to attract talent? Why should someone join your offshore setup?

Website: Have a website that recognizes your offshore setup. Make it impressive because this is the first place your prospective employees would check you out. Case Studies, Blog, Downloads make a website look mature and reflects experience.

More than 50% Offshore Setups are not recognized
on their Company’s Website

Flyer: A document that briefs who you are, vision, mission, broad areas of your deliverable's and the areas of business. It gives an overview and is a feeler about what your company is all about.

A Quick Read to Create your First Impression

Fact Sheet: Have a fact sheet that you can send to just anyone. Mention your milestones and accomplishments. Let the fact sheet do the talking for you. Update it whenever you have new accomplishments to highlight.

Let the Facts do the Talking

Product / Service Catalog: A very useful document to send to your prospective employees. Many times this works as a catalyst for candidates to join. They have worked on similar products/services and they feel excited because they are experts in your area of delivery.

Let others know what you are recognized for

Press Release: A vital piece of information that you should be releasing every few months. It spreads positivity around across your network and service providers and reduces negativity that is generated occasionally due to circumstances beyond your control. It acts as a catalyst of hope and a belief that good times are just around the corner.

Highlight Your Achievements

Meaningful Exit Plan: Have a good worked out exit plan for those whom you don’t wish to retain. Now a days prospective candidates increasing verify your Glass-door reputation. Recent negative feedback is a serious concern for prospective candidates. A meaningful exit plan is something that safeguards company reputation and counters the damage of a negative feedback on Glass-door.

Handle Exits Responsibly

CSR Initiatives: Make CSR initiatives an essential part of your company engagement. Let this be the way of giving back to the society. Inculcate in your employees the feeling of social responsibility and give them a reason to work for a cause. CSR is one of the powerful ways in which you help the society, motivate your employees and generate lot of good word of mouth for your organization.

Give Back to the Society

Business Cards: Company should print Business Cards for all their employees. Let your employees be proud to showcase their company. Let the good words spread around.

Your Employees are One of Your
Best Word of Mouth

Printed Material / Brochures: Your front desk should always have printed material / Brochures that people can read and carry with them. It helps them connect with you and know you better. They can be attached to the posts / courier that you send to employees / service providers.

Create Engagement

Social Media Pages: LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. Cover them all and update these pages occasionally. Don’t leave these pages unattended as it generates a feeling that you are not investing in your social reputation.

Social Media Platforms are a Reflection
of Your Companies Inward Efforts

Membership / Affiliations: Highlight company membership and affiliations on the website. Spread your wings and keep connecting to generate recognition and associations across industry and local groups. This helps people know your company and make recommendations to you that help you grow and improvise.

Join Groups and Organizations that
Helps you appear Bigger and Brighter

YouTube Videos: Videos are a powerful way to showcase what you are doing and how? It changes how people look at you. Have impressive YouTube Videos that showcase your expertise, knowledge and people.

Show Me Don’t Tell Me

Having a budget allocation for marketing initiatives of your offshore setup is vital. It helps your offshore create a reputation that you can bank on in terms of attracting talent. Use this as a differentiator for your offshore. After all it’s always the small things that makes the big difference.

Investing in Your Brand is Investing in People’s Experience

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What makes Global Teamwork, Offshoring, Nearshoring & Remote Coorperations so Interesting?

2015-03-26T05:53:00.000+00:00

Author: Hugo Messer

In this article, I would like to share (a short version of) my personal story with you. I have done a short interview with myself:

♦ What drew me to this market?

An odd combination of events. Short after the millennium I was working in a publishing company in Amsterdam. They published city maps, sponsored by advertisers from each city. The interesting thing about this organization was the division between their sales office, which was in Amsterdam and their studio, which was in Breda (some 100 km away). The sales office would gather all the materials for the ads from customers (this was the CD ROM pre-fast internet era) and send it by post to Breda. The designers in Breda would create the ad and send a print proof back to Amsterdam. Amsterdam got it confirmed (or gathered changes) and so the process went. So I wondered, if this company makes a process to create designs remotely, why wouldn’t it be possible to do this in another country where everything is cheaper?

Around the year 2000, the IT market hit an all-time high, companies couldn’t find programmers in their own country and started searching elsewhere. India started booming as its government had invested in educating loads of engineers since the 90s.

So I left the company and travelled through India for 3 months. And that’s when I decided that I had to found an outsourcing company. The whole country spoke and dreamed about IT and still does. IT is India’s way to become a world power and move staggering amounts of people out of poverty. And there is an abundance of smart, friendly and hardworking talent. I wanted to become part of this movement, which in my view contributes to a better balance in the world as it creates jobs in developing countries while bringing growth and profit to both developed and developing countries.

♦ What do you like about it?

First of all, the fact that I could build an interesting business within the offshoring industry. I love working with and meeting up with people from other cultures. I find it incredibly challenging to find ways for people to cooperate remotely: in each cooperation we set up with a client, we have to find the way for them to work with the programmers we hired for them. It is satisfying to make that work out, to see that the cooperation between someone in Western Europe with someone in Eastern Europe or India produces positive experiences.

I also find it inspiring to build our company culture across borders. I had initially built a company that worked as an intermediary between customer and foreign supplier. But that gave me no influence on what was going on inside the ‘black box’ of the supplier. Since 2008 we started setting up our own offices, first in Ukraine, then in India. In our own offices, we’re able to decide who joins us and to deliberately build a culture that stimulates behavior needed to succeed in cross-border cooperation’s.

♦ What do you dislike?

The thing I disliked was having to go through so many mistakes. The first years, I was in the dark as to what one needs to do in order to cooperate with someone in India or Eastern Europe. I made all the mistakes you can imagine: hire the wrong people, work without any process, not using any online project management tools, communicating through chat only, work with suppliers that were not trustworthy, get stuck in the middle between client and supplier, not being able to deliver a project to a customer. And then another bucket of mistakes opening an office in India without any prior experience or Indian contacts.

If somebody had told me upfront that I would have to learn 5 years to figure out a business model that will work and make people happy, it’s likely that I would have chosen another venture. But now it works, and then again, it is better not knowing what lies in front of a new venture as otherwise you wouldn’t start.

♦ What are your greatest achievements and failures?

The biggest achievement is that I have built a company with great people, spread out over many countries, that knows how to make remote collaboration work. I had set out to build an outsourcing company and through trial and error, we have developed a formula that works.

Specifically I am proud of our office in India, where about 30 people work together in a culture that feels like a family. Every time I speak to my colleagues, they tell me that our culture is different from any other company in Kerala that the company feels like a second home. I didn’t know anything about setting up a business in India, started completely from scratch (took my back and a friend to Cochin and we rented an office and off it went) and went through many hardships. And it worked out.

A more personal achievement was living in India with my wife and 8 months old twins. This gave our family a fantastic experience, made me understand Indian culture on a deeper level and enabled us to lay a strong foundation for the company.

And then failures. First of all, there were many failures on the customer side. I didn’t know a thing about managing remote cooperation’s when I set out with Bridge. So I had to screw up a lot of projects to learn what I should and shouldn’t do.

Another failure (although I see this as a very positive experience overall as written above) was that I moved from the Netherlands too quickly. I had set up Bridge in 2006 and in 2008 I thought I had it all figured out for our Dutch office. We had two well performing sales guys and two project managers, we had been growing steadily for three years and we had just started our Indian office. So I appointed somebody as ‘director’ for Bridge Holland and left for India with my family. My plan was to build and grow our Indian company and then move on. But I had just landed in India when trouble started. First of all, recession started, which didn’t help us. We hired the wrong project manager (he was doing other stuff than what we paid him for to say the least), lost a big account, drove one of our account managers mad along the way (which resulted in his departure few months later) and started losing more clients in the spring of 2009 because of the financial crisis. So one year later, back I was in Holland. And it took me quite some time to rebuild what was destroyed. But ok, I had a great time in India!

♦ How would you advice others on offshoring?

First of all, I sincerely believe that unless you are building a company similar to mine, it is not a good idea to setup your own team in another country. Of course you may be lucky, but I am confident that you’ll face many of the hardships described above. Although I wouldn’t want to have missed them, I think it doesn’t make economic sense for an SME to invest the time and money I did in a captive center.

The most crucial aspect is getting the right people in your newly found company. And you’ll choose the wrong ones invariably (again unless you are lucky), because you don’t know what to pay attention to in another culture. On top of that, you’ll have to learn how to work with remote teams.

I believe it is crucial for European companies to engage in offshoring, because there is no denying that it’s hard to find talented people. And it will go worse now the population gets grey. The safest course of action is to work with a company that knows how to get the right people that already has a set up and above all, can help you in managing your remote team. If your dream is to own a foreign subsidiary, you could start with a supplier and agree to establish a joint venture that takes over the team after x years.

On a more general level, I recommend everyone to start working with remote developers. It enriches your life, you get to see more than your home country, and you learn a lot, better the world and have fun along the way!

It would be great if some readers could share some personal anecdotes as answers to the questions above!

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Courage Counts

2015-03-14T07:42:00.000+00:00

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10 Common Offshore Mistakes

2015-03-13T00:57:00.001+00:00

Author: Menzo de Muinck Keizer

This isn’t the first article about offshore IT or BPO mistakes, but recent changes in the offshore business require an update.

1. Expectations

Mismatching expectations is main reason for disappointing offshore operations.

Example: the client expects to get rid of some operational issues, while the supplier expects to be judged based on the availability of skilled resources.

Solution: discuss, agree and write down your high level expectations and evaluate regularly.

2. Incomplete Business Case

Many offshore business cases miss important cost elements, like start-up cost, increased overhead cost, transition cost, rate changes, Leading to optimistic expectations and disappointing results.

Solution: get your business case reviewed by an experienced offshore manager, before taking brave decisions.

3. Salary Inflation

Cost differences between locations aren’t ‘static’ but changing. Salary inflation (defined as the annual increase of a specific skilled person may vary from +25% in certain areas in Romania and China to <0% in some areas in Spain. Country averages don’t tell the whole story.

Solution: get informed about salary inflation and take it into account in your business case.

4. Wrong Location

Offshore IT and BPO started more than 25 years ago in India, which went well for some types of operations, but for others the Indian culture appeared to be less suitable, for instance customer contact centers.

Nowadays, we recognize offshore destinations on all continents, all having their specific strengths and weaknesses.

Solution: get informed about the cultures suitable for your operation and availability of resources.

5. Juniorisation

Large suppliers have full time dedicated ‘juniorisation managers’ replacing senior resources by juniors.

What you see: the manager/architect/software engineer that you trusted so much, has suddenly disappeared, because he was urgently needed somewhere else. According to the supplier this has no impact on the quality. The reality is often very different.

Solution: add seniority KPI’s to the contract and monitor it.

6. Governance

The number of engaged managers at the client’s side is often too high. This may cause confusion, supplier frustration delays and unnecessary cost.

Solution: a radical change of the governance structure, although many managers won’t like it.

7. Empowerment

Business analysts on the client side and executors on the supplier side is the common distribution of tasks in offshore operations, not utilizing the valuable experience of the suppliers’ seniors.

Solution: put the seniors of the supplier into a powerful position and give him/her full responsibility for making it success. Don’t forget to assess the capabilities of the suppliers’ senior and monitor it.

8. Inexperienced Client

In a football match the experienced team is likely to defeat the inexperienced team. In offshore operations the supplier is often the most experienced. The inexperienced client pays for his loss by an uneconomic contract and disappointing results.

Solution: get some people in your team who played the game before.

9. Cultural Differences

‘Underestimating cultural differences’ is often recognized but hard to solve, because most people are unaware of their own culture. In their view they are just ‘acting normal’, while the other side is ‘acting weird’.

Please don’t think cultural barriers only exist between Europe and Asia. They also exist between Western-, Eastern, Southern and Northern Europe.

Solution: engage at least one manager in a key role, who is familiar with both cultures.

10. Personal Relations

Even the best contract, detailed requirements and set of KPI’s won’t guarantee a proper cooperation.

To really understand each other, personal relations are needed. They can’t can be built via email or Skype: the minimum is a face to face meeting twice a year.

The solution is simple and should be included in the budget.

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Zero Cost Retention Strategies

2015-03-02T09:19:00.001+00:00

Author: Antony Xavier

In today's Scenario Retention has become very important and challenging. Many organizations react to the retention issue by addressing it only when a problem arises. When they do react, they often develop enormous incentive packages or promote to entice key employees to remain onboard. This creates a financial burden, as it costs the organization more to retain these employees than to benefit from them. A continuous improvement process cycle can help focus on consistently bettering the current talent retention situation. The below mentioned strategies are very simple and not so costly.

♦ Create Trust: Organizations that have trust among employees are usually successful, those that don't frequently are not

♦ Give and Receive Feedback

♦ Involvement: People do not want to be just treated as a number. Most of them enjoy belonging to a team and participating in teamwork.

♦ Recognition: It has to be meaningful and specific.

♦ Career Development: Hold career development discussions with employees. Set the Objectives clear.

♦ Onboarding and Induction: This is where most of them fail. Both the Onboarding and the Induction process has to be well organized.

♦ Communication: Properly done, communication with your staff will provide you with the insights you need in order to know how your employees feel about working for your business.

These simple elements can provide you with a retention strategy capable of producing amazing results. You may even have some of them already in place. The key is to make sure you've integrated all the elements into a strategy for retaining employees that's grounded in a genuine commitment to serving your customers and employees well over the long haul.

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Soaring Offshore Costs & Diminishing Returns

2015-02-08T00:30:00.000+00:00

Author: Gaurav Bahadur

More than 90% of Offshore Costs account for Compensation and Benefits

Having a profitable offshore development center is a dream come true of every entrepreneur. With cost arbitrage going away with high offshore costs, it is a tough arrangement for those who fail to manage it the right way.

At the time we start the offshore arrangement, it does look to be affordable to offer high salaries to attract and retain talent. What transpires during the journey is salaries blown out of proportion and downsizing. The outcome loud and clear (1) Low Return on Investment (ROI) because the benefits actually planned for a bigger team is now spent on handful of resources (2) Low Attrition because a large count of talent is over price and fails to get better remuneration elsewhere (3) Acceptable delay in deliverable because of the limited team strength at offshore.

Danger and Delight grow on one Stalk

Things do go unnoticed when we lead offshore from a distance but what’s important is to understand the cultural difference and get it right. After all the objective of offshore is to be a low cost center with high deliverables. The following are some of the ways to offset high offshore costs:

1) Self-Sustain: Largely the offshore model is looked at an arrangement to be financially supported by its parent entity. There are little or no thoughts put in to make it self-reliant largely because the leadership layer is not stationed locally. A sales team catering to EMEA and APAC region could be a way out. Alternatively offshore consultants on client payrolls could be a revenue model to consider. Profitability from offshore arrangement is higher and goes a long way when you develop it on a self-sustainable model.

Create a Sustainable Business Model

2) Market Data: Identify if your resources are overpriced. Hire a trusted recruitment partner and provide them with the job roles, experience level and location of your current team. Allow them to validate the local market and check the salaries for these positions. Ask for an unbiased evaluation and get the median of salaries instead of the average because different companies price same quality of resource in different salary bands.

Your Offshore Costs would double in four years maybe sooner. Plan it wisely.

3) Normalization: Conduct normalization at workplace. This means overpriced resources take a salary cut while underpriced resources get a salary hike. Worried if people would leave? Tell them this is the way forward to a sustainable offshore model. Compensate them with performance bonus so that good performers get the benefit that they deserve.

Let More People Enjoy Some Benefits than Some People Enjoying More Benefits

4) Hire Fresh Graduates: Smart Companies plan in advance. Hire a talented bunch of fresh graduates from a reputed school or conduct an off campus drive. Don’t get taken away by limited space or your inability to sustain the expense until the resources are productive. Train them well and reap the benefits of averaging out your soaring costs.

Failing to Plan is planning to fail

5) Downsizing: Hate it but be ready to live it. One of the painful phase for the organization because it takes so much efforts to hire and retain talent and so little to let go. The master stroke to cut costs when you have little or no time to set the dynamics right. Adopt some sound methods for downsizing to ensure you neither hurt your people nor your brand. Parting is painful but there are ways to let go people with a smile.

Everything Revolves around People

6) Reevaluate Service Arrangements: While this has low impact on the overall costs, it can certainly help to bring down recurring costs of the offshore development center. Invite proposals from quality service providers and know their engagement cost. Do a Cost Benefit Analysis (CBA) and choose to work with the best. Negotiate for a ‘No Change’ pricing model to escape annual hikes.

Vendor Management is an Investment. Maximize your Returns

Offshoring is a profitable business when dealt with in the right way. It requires the ‘Right Planning’ at the leadership layer at the parent location and the ‘Right Execution’ by the management layer at the offshore. The pitfall is a low quality high cost arrangement that fails to meet the purpose.

Your Company is only as extraordinary as your People

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Stop being Aggressive and be Assertive

2015-02-06T00:30:00.000+00:00

Author: Antony Xavier

I am sure you would have come across many such incidents in real life. There was this person called Mr. Sam who joined the organization through Campus Placement; he was very young and energetic; since he was fresh out of the college he was able to impress many people in the organization in a very short period and was appreciated by many in the organization for his energy, innovation, performance and positive attitude. He started growing fast in this organization and was promoted as a Zonal Head in a very short notice and became the youngest Zonal Head in the Organization and started reporting directly to the CEO. This promotion came as a surprise to him and he was very happy. For the first few months being a Zonal Head he was responsible for lots of activities in the Zone which involves less of decision making and more of Implementation like attending meetings, sending reports, Delegate work, manage people, Make people agree to his decisions and so on...It was more of an Executive role. As month goes he started getting nervous, since he was not actually prepared for this promotion like managing teams. His behavior started changing slowly he became aggressive and started showing his supremacy. Since he was very aggressive he started getting into conflicts with everybody including his subordinate and peers. He became rude, aggressive in his stance and used hard languages in the meetings. People waited and one day came together to complain against him to the CEO for his behavior.

Later the CEO called him in private to discuss about the issue. He asked him "Are you aware of the complaint that people had given against you". He Said, Yes Sir but is it wrong to be aggressive, I wanted everybody to perform and contribute to the growth of the company and I just did my job and I am very passionate about it. The CEO told him your intention is correct but the approach is different. My dear Sam, I know about you and I am the one who placed you here so it is my responsibility to guide you better. You have reached here because of your hard work and ability to do the job. But you should learn the difference between Being Aggressive and Being Assertive and I don't want you to ruin your career. My suggestion to you is "Stop Being Aggressive and be Assertive".

Know the difference:

If you are a manager, then we don’t have to tell you that managers are often over-worked and under-appreciated. You have so many different hats to wear, and too many people to keep up with. Because of the pressure on your time and energy, it is easy to settle into a task-driven routine that limits the productivity of your team because it reduces your effectiveness as a leader. As a leader you can be aggressive or passive in your communication. Being Aggressive is good but it is rarely appreciated. It can be intimidating. A Passive communicator is soft and will not able to put forth his views strongly and often these people are deemed effective. Few people think assertiveness is aggression; others think they're being assertive, when in fact they're being rude or overbearing. Surveys show that skill in interpersonal communication tops the list for success - or failure - in any workplace, whether you own it, lead it, or work in it.

Being Assertiveness is about making a point without hurting other's feeling. Advantages of being Assertive are, it helps to strengthen the relationship, improves self-image, boosts self-confidence, helps managing stress easily and can clearly communicate one's vision and goals for success, improves self –esteem and earn others respect. People can often confuse aggressiveness with assertiveness, because both types of behavior involve standing up for one’s rights and expressing one’s needs. The main difference between the two communication styles is that individuals behaving assertively will express themselves in ways that respect the other person. They assume the best about people, respect themselves, and think “win-win” and try to compromise. In contrast, individuals behaving aggressively will tend to employ tactics that are disrespectful, manipulative, demeaning, or abusive. They make negative assumptions about the motives of others and think in retaliatory terms, or they don’t think of the other person’s point of view at all. They win at the expense of others, and create unnecessary conflict

The CEO later sent him for a specialized training program to learn and practice the art and science of Assertive Leadership Skills. Mr. Sam took the effort to change and corrected himself and lived happily ever after.

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You are a CEO - Take Ownership

2015-02-02T07:15:00.001+00:00

Author: Nishit Lal

What if someone says “You are a CEO”! Would you believe him! You might think that “I am a middle class man or woman working for a corporation from nine to five, I have a small family and I barely get by my monthly expenses with the salary I get paid for. I am just a regular employee!” That is where we begin to sink into an illusion. We tend to believe that our fate is dependent on the organization where we work and our livelihood is dependent on the salary we get paid for. We believe we are working for a corporation, but in reality we are working for our own self. We are ourselves a corporate entity.

If you don’t have a life plan then you will fall into someone else’s life plan

You are a CEO of your own “First-name Last-name Private Corporation” just like I am the CEO of “Nishit Lal Pvt. Corp.” Each one of us is providing services to various other corporations. Few provide full time services and other part time, all depends how you wish to use your skills. When you see yourself from this perspective, you feel responsible for your services, growth and financial condition.

No more is your financial condition dependent on the organization where you provide your services, but dependent on the quality of service you provide. In today’s time of globalization, it is imperative for us to act with greater responsibility and take ownership of our own marketing, training, sales, financial health, operations, relationships etc. People tend to say,

“That is all I get paid for at the end of the month”

“I do not get promotion on time”

“My peers are favored during project assignment”

“The organization I work for doesn’t value my skills”

These statements reinforce the fact that you blame your life’s conditions on factors other than you. If you are a corporate entity in your own self, you can choose the remuneration you wish to have, you can choose the organization you wish to provide your services to, you can develop your skill sets and add more value to others, you can invest in your training and add more competencies, you can outperform the competition by having an edge in the services you provide.

You can decide what kind of organization you wish to build and begin developing it. You may choose to become a Small and Medium enterprise or you can aim to become a Fortune 500 company. It’s your vision for your own self that will propel you every day to achieve new feats and work the extra mile.

“If you don’t have a life plan then you will fall into someone else’s life plan and that may not look interesting to you”. Become an author of your own book, and write the story you desire to have. Imagine what people have to say about you when they read your life’s story – you can make it a thriller, a comedy, an action packed movie, a horror or a dull plain story. It all depends on you.

I want my life’s story to give a message of Hope and Possibilities

People ask me “What kind of story are you writing for yourself”, and I say “I want my life’s story to give a message of Hope and Possibilities”. What’s your story? What plans have you made about your life? How do you want to end your life’s story? Right time to design your future is now. Take out time and decide a vision for yourself, which can inspire you daily to give more to others.

Know that you are not working for some company or someone but working for your own “first-name last-name private corporation”. Your performance rating is a feedback of the quality of services you are providing, your paycheck is the feedback of the amount of value you are delivering, your relationships is the feedback of the quality of networks you have developed.

Become responsible for your own life and chart a way which makes you reach closer to your goal. Every day say to yourself,

“I AM responsible for my own Destiny – no corporation, no person, no event can decide my Destiny, I AM the author of my own life and I DECLARE I AM responsible for my own life, this very moment.”

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Does it pay to be Preety

2015-01-13T00:30:00.000+00:00

Author: Richard Madison (Brighton School of Business and Management)

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Top 7 HR Challenges

2015-01-09T08:40:00.002+00:00

Author: Antony Xavier

There can be many challenges that an HR manager has to face. Here are the top 7 Challenges that HR Manager has to face in today's situation.

♦ Attracting, Recruiting and Hiring Talented Employees: Talent Hiring continues to remain the top challenge for Human Resources.

♦ Managing Change: As the organizations are going Global, this is one problem faced by many organisations of managing the change in the organisation and how to make people acquainted with the changes.

♦ Work Culture: Due to acquisition and mergers taking place it becomes important for the HR Manager to develop the work culture.

♦ Ethics and Values: In the times when we are getting more professional and narcissist, it is very important to have Ethics and values to be in place which also in the long run decides the sustainability of the organisation.

♦ Managing Low Attrition Rate: More competition also adds to high attrition. Now here is the opportunity for the HR manager to play safe and introduce good retention strategies.

♦ Balancing Work and Personal Life: Huge responsibility is on the shoulder of an HR Manager to create a balance between the work life and personal life by flexi work hours, paternity leaves and vacations are some of the options in hand.

♦ Stress and Conflict: Long working hours, target pressures, high competition etc adds stress and conflicts in the Organisation. It is the duty of an HR Manager to have proper responses to the stress and conflict before it causes damage to someone’s' personality.

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10 C’s of Employee Engagement

2015-01-05T00:30:00.000+00:00

Author: Marie Zutshi

1) CONNECT: A direct reflection of how employees feel about their relationship with the immediate boss. Early in my professional life I learned a lesson that when you are people leaders, your job is to focus on developing your staff and harness their potential. If they grow, you shall automatically grow. However, whenever in large gathering I ask a question, is your manager more interested in his career or yours? The answer is "HIS OWN". Managers / leaders must learn to inculcate the sense that employee growth and capability building is at the forefront of their mindset which will enable not only employee growth, however, their own as well.

2) CAREER: Leaders should provide challenging and meaningful work with opportunities for career advancement. Employees do look forward to sense of career direction both from short and long term perspective.

3) CLARITY: Leaders must communicate a clear vision. Success in life and organizations is, to a great extent, determined by how clear individuals are about their goals and what they really want to achieve.

4) CONVEY: Leaders clarify their expectations about employees and provide feedback on their functioning in the organization. It is imperative that leaders / managers sharpen the art of giving developmental feedback.

5) CONGRATULATE: Exceptional leaders give recognition, and they do so a lot; they not only coach and convey, however, tend to catch people doing right things and appreciate them.

6) CONTRIBUTE: People want to know that their input matters and that they are contributing to the organization's success in a meaningful way.

7) CONTROL: Employees value control over the flow and pace of their jobs and leaders can create opportunities for employees to exercise this control.

8) COLLBORATE: Studies show that, when employees work in teams and have the trust and cooperation of their team members, they outperform individuals and teams which lack good relationships.

9) CREDITABILITY: Leaders should strive to maintain a company’s reputation and demonstrate high ethical standards that lead them to command the respect of their staff.

10) CONFIDENCE: Good leaders help create confidence in a company by demonstrating high performance standards. While they do so, they also help build the confidence of their employees by creating a culture where employee capability building, employee growth and growth from within remains at the centre stage of their mindset.

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Time for New Goals

2015-01-01T00:30:00.000+00:00

Last year has been a challenging year for HR Success Guide. The blog with efforts and hard work of many contributors just got bigger and brighter. We strive to become the best Global HR Blog. To make it possible we have set our goals carefully and clearly.

♦ Exceptional Content: Focus on useful and extremely engaging Contents (Core HR, Visuals)

♦ Quality presides over Quantity: Engagement not more than 4 to 6 Posts a Month.

♦ Capture Search Keywords: HR Guide, HR Success and HR Success Guide

♦ Transform into a more SEO Friendly Blog: Seek Professional SEO Services

♦ Audio and Video presentations: Self Developed Audio and Video Contents

♦ Create Robust LinkedIn Group Engagement: Make it an Interesting Platform for peer HR

♦ Expert (Panel) Interviews and Webinars: Is the way forward. Take steps towards it.

♦ Introduce Partner Section: Look for HR Partners (HR Experts, Webinar Partners, HR Magazine, HR Book Partners, HR Products Partner, HR Forum Partner, HR Community Groups, HR Programs, HR Courses)

Also, we are pleased to announce our Star Contributors: Marie Zutshi and Antony Xavier

We hope that this year turns out to be an exceptional one for all our Readers. Best Wishes !

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Season's Greetings

2014-12-25T00:30:00.000+00:00

Click Here to check out our recent celebrations.

LinkedIn Vs Facebook for Professionals

2014-12-21T00:30:00.000+00:00

Author: Richard Madison (Brighton School of Business and Management)

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Just working isn’t enough to Succeed

2014-12-17T06:25:00.001+00:00

Author: Nishit Lal

“Success comes to those who act” is a commonly heard phrase. But the irony is that people work every day yet they don’t succeed. There are people who work on their enterprise yet they are far from being a success. People are working on their health but are still unsuccessful in losing that extra pound. Then there are those who work hard to make a relationship work, yet they fail several times. I have personally heard people saying,

“No matter what I do, I don’t get the results I desire”,

“I am working for ten years yet I stand at the same place”,

“I gave it all yet I am not getting what I expected”.

Aren’t these commonly used statements?

As the working population of the country is growing, so are the levels of dissatisfaction. The working population is yet to enjoy the divine fruit of success because of the limited thinking that work alone can make them successful and happy. They believe that the more time they put into work the better are chances that they will be successful. For people who believe that success is a function of working over a long duration of time are living in an illusion. The ones who believe that with time their relationship will become better are living a lie. People who believe that they must work their whole life to become successful are fooling themselves.

People who believe that success is a function of working over a long duration of time are living in an illusion

We should know that success is not a function of hard work instead it is a function of “intentional work”. Intentional work can change your life three sixty degrees and get you to achieve quicker outcomes. Take the example of a candy seller. One candy seller spends his entire life at a road junction selling candies where he barely gets by with his earning. He works twelve hours a day selling candies consistently throughout his life. This man lives and dies as an average human being.

There is another candy man who works on the next street, and he is involved into intentional work. He doesn’t sit at just one place, but also waves his hand full of candies towards the children, he would jump and show his dance moves on the street. He would greet people who pass by and gives a smile to everyone. He observes that in afternoon children would hoard around the school gate so he spends ample time in that area, while in the evening he would go out to the main bazaar to sell candies. He is curious to know where the market lies. He saves money and buys a cart after a few months. He believes in progress. He hires another person and gives him few candies to sell on his behalf in the nearby block. More customers start coming in, he decides to hire more candy sellers and hence his candy business becomes popular in the neighbourhood. Today, he is the owner of a successful candy selling business. He is different from the first candy seller because he believes in intentional work.

Intentional work can change your life three sixty degrees and get you to achieve your outcomes in less time

Intentional work requires seeking continuous improvements in whatever you are engaged in. When you keep surpassing your past performances, new doors open, opportunities which you couldn’t see earlier, begin to appear. Mere working at the same level throughout your life will not make you financially and emotionally rich. You must find ways to master your area of interest.

One question which can guide you to become a master of your domain would be: “How can I go the extra mile?” Every day ask yourself “How can I go the extra mile in serving my customers? How can I go the extra mile in becoming healthy? How can I go the extra mile in learning a new skill?” The greatest disappointments are caused by mediocrity. Mediocre performances have cost several jobs, mediocre presentations have caused failure of numerous products, mediocre communication skills have caused limitless relationship failures, mediocre dressing have caused several social fiascos, and mediocre products have doomed so many organisations.

Mere working at the same level throughout your life will NOT make you financially and emotionally rich

Passionately challenge mediocrity with your dynamic will. Work with an intention to rise above mediocrity and attain mastery, because it is not enough to simply work. You must outlast and out-perform the competition through intentional work.

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