Your HR Buddy !!

HR Buddy has moved to a new Website !!!

2012-02-26T22:10:00.000-08:00

Your HR Buddy !! blog has now moved to a new website - http://nisharaghavan.com. Hopefully you will find this new site a better reading experience. Please subscribe to my blog at this new website. You can find all the existing content from this blog on the new website.

Please feel free to offer suggestions and leave comments there. Thank you for continuing to read my blog.

Thanks a Zillion - Appreciate each other!!

2012-02-12T20:24:00.000-08:00

It really sucks when someone is not appreciated when it’s due!!

It’s not necessary that someone should achieve a remarkable success for us to appreciate their job. In day to day work a ‘Thank you’ or ‘Well done’ compliment to your team members or colleagues goes a long way to boost them up in their work.

Employers Invading Social Media Privacy

2012-02-07T19:42:00.000-08:00

No matter who – a potential employer, a friend/relative or an unknown person, someone is sure to have looked up your public profile to know about who you really are or to learn more about other facets of your life.During the selection process employers might invade into your profiles on social media sites like LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and so on!!

But what if you are asked to share your social media password? Read what I said in Social Business News.com

Candidate Engagement Through Social Media

2012-01-23T20:05:00.000-08:00

One of the objectives of Engagement is letting others know who you are. Then why does it not start with candidates who could be potential employees? Especially when a candidate evaluates a company on the basis of his experience throughout his recruitment process.

Well, when you get 1000 or more applications for one single job, it would be tough though to respond to each and every applicant. Even if you spend time on this, it becomes a question of what is the return you get out of it. Employers need to decide between minimizing the cost and time involved in this process or focusing on improving the quality and experience of a candidate throughout their job application. Well, this is the new era of Talent Engagement!!

Read what I had to say on 'Candidate Engagement Through Social Media' in Social Business News.com

Move Out of Your Comfort Zone

2012-01-22T19:39:00.000-08:00

My writing was published last week in Women of HR, a site dedicated to the development of women in business through community, collaboration and conversation. Read what I had to say on exploring the opportunities that await outside of your comfort zone!!

Managers drive Attrition & Retention!!

2012-01-15T22:14:00.000-08:00

I just had a chat with one of my friends who was also one of our ex-employees. It was all about a confession and frustration where he wanted to get rid of his current company-especially his manager!!

Talking about this friend, he was an excellent resource for our sales team and always had been rated highest for his outstanding performance. Due to some personal reasons he had to quit his service with us and then join one of the newly emerging Telecom companies in India. In fact he had been influenced by this company (our competitor) with a higher salary (while we couldn’t meet that monetary requirement).

My first achievement in Blogging!!

2012-01-15T21:43:00.000-08:00

2012 woke me up with the pride of success and happiness of achievement when I saw a mail from Nurul Shima Abd Rahman, Editor, Guild of HR e-Mag at HR REPUBLIC asking for my writings to be published in their e-Magazine.

HR Republic is an international recognition project and a manifestation platform for employers, HR practitioners and consultants to network, share intelligence and form lifetime acquaintances.

You can read my writings on 'Managers improve HR’s Visibility at work place' in Guild of HR e-Magazine.

Wish you all a wonderful year ahead!!

Job-Search Tips for Recent Graduates

2012-01-08T16:25:00.000-08:00

Don’t be an Imitator: Being a Recruiter, I would be more interested to know about the experiences that you may have gained through your Internship or volunteer work rather than your academic course work. Instead of just copy/paste of the course work or the job description from a job site, personalize your resume that speaks about you and makes it stand out from the crowd. Tell the hiring manager how you can be a better fit for the position that you have applied for and that way he can relate you to the current job opportunities.

Networking: When I have a requirement I always approach my friends, employees and those in my network. Thus 80% of my recruitment happens through referrals and I find them to be very reliable. Networking is not just for job hunting; it is also about developing relationships that can help you not just today but also for jobs that open up in future. Start interacting and constantly communicating with people especially with those working in the industry that you want to get in. Social Media tools like LinkedIn, Facebook & Twitter help you do that in a very professional way. Be digitally savvy and learn how to use all these social media tools in an effective manner.

Showcase a professional footprint in the social world: The possibility of impressing someone is much greater when you present yourself through the Social Medias like LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and other tools. Make the employers notice you by involving yourself in discussions posted by them. Instead of just re-tweeting start sharing your own views and interests towards meaningful discussions. Make sure you don’t have photos posted on your Facebook wall that you don’t want the employers to see. Always be professional and make private any photos or comments that are intended for your friends.

Don’t make that mistake: I sometimes get email from candidates that are addressed to a different name and person. I am sick of it. The moment I see that mail it will directly go to the trash. Make sure you are not just forwarding/copy-pasting the mail which you already forwarded to multiple recruiters. Always draft fresh mail to each and every single recruiter to avoid these mistakes and personalize your interaction. Having a personalized mail shows your interest in pursuing a career with them. If you have not been selected this time for the position, chances are that they would consider you for another position and even refer to other recruiters.

Indoor Team building works better during winter!!!

2011-12-18T22:06:00.000-08:00

Time has come once again to prepare you for the cold & frosty weather. The time you really don’t want to get out, the laborious task of cleaning the ice off your driveway & waiting for your car engine to heat up!!

There is nothing more boring than being at work during the winter. It can be really
dull. Most of the people would be opting to work from home, or might go for a vacation. This disengaged situation may bring down the productivity of your employees. Trying to keep the available workforce motivated is not that tough though.

Recognize the invisible support @ work!!!

2011-12-14T22:18:00.000-08:00

It is celebration time in office and that is what it takes to get people closer to each other and bring joy to them.

Its Christmas time and everyone will be having grand celebrations and events in their office. Last year at work we had a Best Santa competition, Christmas carol competition and other fun activities like wine drinking competition, mimicry, karaoke and dancing. The office was decorated with lights, stars and of course beautiful Christmas trees.

Employees enjoyed it and as always everyone had a nice moment to remember from our workplace.

Give your best shot everyday @ work!!

2011-12-04T23:28:00.000-08:00

I always found it ridiculous when every evening my husband asks me to play football with him at a little playground next to our home. I know, people who know me might laugh at knowing that I am playing sports!! I must tell you, when I say playing football, I meant he just wants me to throw the ball so that he can play catch. He enjoys it!! Sometimes me too!! But of course not every day!!

He is a sports maniac and a talented tennis player. I found it funny though that some times he asks me, someone who is least interested in sports, to partner in his favorite interest. And here is where two extremes come together for a good reason!!

Give Ownership to your team to get the best out of them.

2011-11-20T22:19:00.000-08:00

It sucks when you have to do frequent follow ups for the tasks assigned to your team.

Spending extra time for doing some touch up work on the task finished by your team is just killing your own time. When you constantly end up contributing your own time to finish a particular task that is assigned to your team member, you might sometime question the necessity of having him in your team. But his expertise and skills in one or more areas might convince you on the need of having him with you.

It may happen that you don’t even get the time to do your own work!!

Thanksgiving Employee Engagement Idea!!!

2011-11-09T20:00:00.000-08:00

‘Bizarre Bazaar’

For my new blog entry I am happy to share with you a wonderful experience that I was a part of - The Thanksgiving Employee engagement program in my Husband’s Office. The ‘8th Annual Bizarre Bazaar 2011’ organised by Archon Group in Dallas, Texas was a memorable and nice experience for me.

How to manage your boss and make your career succeed?

2011-10-30T23:20:00.000-07:00

A loyal employee serving one single company/employer for his whole tenure of service has become a thing of the past. These are the days of people having 5 different employers within their 10 years of service. People always look for one or the other reason to move on. It may be due to the lack of challenging assignments, low salary, lack of proper training, no chance to grow and learn and it goes on and on…but the worst reason probably is due to a ‘poor relationship with the manager’. Why is this worst? Since all the above mentioned key motivators or retention factors can be influenced by the manager.

Fun Friday at work with a ‘Garage Sale’ in Office

2011-10-23T21:36:00.000-07:00

Yes, I am quoting here the American comedy television series- The Office, broadcast by NBC which depicts the everyday lives of office employees. I believe the show’s fans in US must not have missed the episode – ‘Garage Sale’ of the seventh season where they decided to do the first-ever Dunder Mifflin garage sale in their warehouse.

Inspiration from Steve Jobs Stanford commencement speech!!

2011-10-09T22:39:00.000-07:00

"You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them
looking backwards."

He was really true...we always look at our lives in the way we want it to happen. But many a time man can be pitch forked on to the horns of dilemma, where he might be faced with the unpredictability of life.

In my case, I was very attached to how I thought my life is supposed to happen. I was at the peak of my career and was excited and aggressive at my work when I had to suddenly quit. I have always been passionate about my career where I had seen myself in a senior manager position 5 years from the start of my career. But I had never seen myself as an unemployed person. And life put me in that situation and here we go...

How to Influence your employee’s family to retain your workforce? - A Smart move for employee retention!!

2011-10-02T20:34:00.000-07:00

Retention process does not start when you sense that an employee is going to submit his resignation but it should start before that...

Every time a person thinks of resigning from his job he will seek his family’s opinion. No doubt about it. Most of the times this is not only a comparative evaluation of his compensation but also about his relationship with his current company. Whether the company has made a smart move of providing opportunities to balance his work life can be the deciding factor here. And if the company has succeeded in this, sometimes an opinion of a family member will make the employee to give up future monetary benefit from potential competitors.

Managers improve HR’s Visibility at work place

2011-09-20T20:23:00.000-07:00

The degree of interaction between employees and managers is far higher than that between the employees and HR. Since they deal with each other on a daily basis it’s obvious that managers can create a better work culture through a positive interaction with their team. Whenever issues show up in the work place employees tend to first draw their manager’s attention to them rather than HR’s. A competent manager can resolve it immediately without needing HR’s intervention.

Employee Engagement Ideas- Monthly Fun Activities @ Office!!

2011-09-18T22:25:00.000-07:00

Companies are always struggling to retain the best talent at work and striving for ways to create an emotional bond to the organization in the employee’s mind. However for the employees every day excitement might be getting diminished. For them there is no time to be wasted and are rolling along with the chain of busy life in office by attending the conferences, meeting the targets, convincing the clients etc. Normal office routines during the day might slump under tremendous work pressure. But companies who have a consistent employee engagement activity keep their workforce incredibly active all the time. It’s been well accepted that an engaged employee is a productive employee. There is a direct relationship between employee engagement and employee motivation, productivity, satisfaction and retention.

Why are employees frustrated by HR!!

2011-08-30T17:29:00.000-07:00

I still remember that heartbroken face of an employee who received the “Resignation-Encouraged to Leave letter”, a polished form of ‘Termination letter’, from the HR head when he entered the HR head’s cabin to extend an invitation for his marriage. He was a good resource but he was being let go due to downsizing. While HR was helpless… unfortunately HR turns into the devil that can devastate an employee. They have to act in accordance to the rules and regulations of the company without hurting anyone’s feeling, which is so tough though.

What if the employee has shown up on the first day and nothing is ready?

2011-08-24T17:09:00.000-07:00

Stepping inside the corporate world and becoming a part of the corporate family has always been an excitement for new employees. That was the first day for my sister in her new job and all of her excitement went away when her whole day was totally tied up with filling up the paper work. The one person she knew in that new world was her hiring manager who she found to be too busy always and could barely get in touch with.