Competition is getting tougher day by day. The standards of excellence have now become international with organizations operating globally. Improving Quality + Customer Satisfaction = Growth + Survival

 It is now being realized that the human [...]]]>

Competition is getting tougher day by day. The standards of excellence have now become international with organizations operating globally.
Improving Quality + Customer Satisfaction = Growth + Survival

 It is now being realized that the human factor will play a crucial role in achieving these standards of excellence. In the absence of proper HRM, many organizations are caught in the trap of mediocrity.

Sub-Prime crisis came when people borrowed more than what they could repay. Similarly, mediocrity arises when incompetent men and women are given important respectable positions and when these set of so called professionals do not deliver their best of the services.

Only the will and commitment to be on the top can avoid the mediocrity trap. This has to come from the Top level management.

There are no quick fix solutions but broad goals to aim for. These goals should be achieved by institutionalizing systems in required areas.

First, there should be no compromise in recruitment, especially for managers and the levels above. An important step could be recruitment tests. Cognitive ability tests are far better than personal interviews.
Secondly, selected candidates should be paid the best rates possible. An excellent employee costs less in the long run than a mediocre one. A mediocre manager asks for an assistant who I turn will turn him worse. Thus two mediocre employees will be doing the job which can be done by one excellent employee. One of the sure symptoms of mediocrity trap is an increase in the number of employees without increase in the business accompanied by a clamour for more and more staff. Job Analysis and role evaluation helps here.

Third, the organization should be willing to spend on Training and Development. Efforts must be made to reduce the growth gap of individuals. Growth here means acquisition of human, technical and conceptual skills. A climate of self development should be created.

 Retention = Good performance appraisal + Merit based promotion

Teleology is often used. Who says so? Should it be used frequently. The term might be new to some. However in layman language, Teleology is running after results. This running becomes habit and habit determines your image. Remember, everything is [...]]]>

Teleology is often used. Who says so? Should it be used frequently. The term might be new to some. However in layman language, Teleology is running after results. This running becomes habit and habit determines your image. Remember, everything is image, everything is image.

To get results by hook or by crook. In recruitment, it means getting candidates in by hook or by crook. The point is an HR professional is expected to follow protocols and ask others to do the same. This means the essence of the role gets violated as these 2 are conflicting in nature.

The ultimate purpose of using deontology by itself here is to achieve result. And that end result is a proper image of the employer in the market. Imagine what can be the consequences of being non-compliant by selecting a candidate outside transport boundry, signing the offer letter on someone else’s behalf.

Also, the documentation policies are not followed. Now the question is who is responsible. The manager who was driving this unethical behavior with good intent or subordinates who followed his/her footsteps. When such case gets escalated to the supreme court i.e. CIO what should he do. Warning or firing.

For some, teleology is a way of life. And some who are not caught pretend to be hardcore deontologists. The animal called perception plays a vital role in corporate world. In the race to prove self worth, results are attained but rules are sacrificed and some one who was partly responsible looses the job for forgery.

Can this be termed as organizational politics? Were these things pre-decided? Can a person clap with one hand? Who were the stakeholders who actually attacked but pretended to be on the defensive side? Will these questions ever be answered or will we have to watch RAAZ 4 – the mystery continues.

The more you see, the less you know. Amazed ………Why is this so? The answer is simple. It is because attention gets diverted. Have you ever been listening to sad music. Some might say its quite often that they do [...]]]>

The more you see, the less you know. Amazed ………Why is this so? The answer is simple. It is because attention gets diverted. Have you ever been listening to sad music. Some might say its quite often that they do so. Ever wondered why are you behaving so. Go back in flashback There is some instance which is affecting you. Songs are sad only if you listen to them. How do you perceive yourself?

-          Winner or looser

-          Do you get angry or you take things lightly

-          Do you speak more or do more

If you feel you are a looser, look at yourself in the mirror and say ‘ Zindagi mein teen cheez kabhi underestimate nahi karna; I, Me and Myself.’ Try this for 90 days and you feel the difference for sure. The approach turns from external locus of control to internal one. Confidence matters but what matters more is how people perceive you. No one wants to support a looser and there is unlimited fan following for a winner. It does not happen overnight. But you have a choice to decide what you want to be.

If you are a short tempered person, use this as your axiom ‘Kyun thak rahe ho’. Wait for things to unfold. Do not react immediately. Every action has an equal and opposite reaction. If you believe in yourself, you don’t have to convince others. There are things which people know about you, some which people o not know about you. In between there is a game called perception. You need to play with it.

Action speaks louder than words. But self marketing is important. At times, you have to speak to make your presence felt. Its all in the mind. Lord Krishna once said’ Human being performs action every second.’ What you think is also action performed. What you think will determine your perception towards yourself and the way you perceive yourself will determine the way others perceive you.

-          Kooling Period:

What is cooling period? It means if a candidate has applied for x organization and he gets rejected, he cannot apply for a stipulated period of time. In BPO market, the cooling period is normally 3 months. It [...]]]>

-          Kooling Period:

What is cooling period? It means if a candidate has applied for x organization and he gets rejected, he cannot apply for a stipulated period of time. In BPO market, the cooling period is normally 3 months. It means if one fails he has to wait for long. This in on paper. In reality, things are different. You understand what I am trying to say

-          Ability to judge candidate:

Perception is an animal viewed differently by different people. X says candidate is good, Y says candidate is bad. Thus, recruitment and training are never friends. Still the teams share a sarcastic rapport

-          Sustaining the pressure of attrition:

The highest attrition happens in this industry. People seldom care about brand. They are happy with making short term money. This is one of the reasons why HR is always busy in BPO

-          Hours delayed are hours denied:

There are candidates who wait for 4-5 hours in a day to get their rounds completed and when they come to know they are rejected you can imagine the level of frustration. They say ‘Time waste ho gaya’ on our back and we still consider them.

-          Tolerance has a limit

Candidate gets frustrated when he comes to know X was offered more than Y. So called formal policies don’t help. Street Smart behavior works. Some alien candidates also accept the offer and then deny meeting our rivals’ needs. Its Gaddari but this is the way the industry operates

Noble ways of employee retention

N- No two employees are the same

No two people are the same. The employees are like five fingers of the hand which are bound to be different. The kind of treatment you [...]]]>

Noble ways of employee retention

N- No two employees are the same

No two people are the same. The employees are like five fingers of the hand which are bound to be different. The kind of treatment you give to X, it may not be possible to be given to Y. Then the question arises why do companies frame policies which are applicable to every employee? Its because there are some rules which are to be followed and there is no escape to it. However, this is technical part. When it comes to human behavior part, its our job to understand that every case is a different case. The sooer we understand this, the better it is.

 O- Offer vacation and holidays

Who doesn’t need a break ? The human body works like a machine 12 hours a day and hence we need sleep. That’s daily maintenance. Vacation is a yearly maintenance. The enthusiasm of an employee starts declining if he is not given a break. If not, then the energy level don’t support him. Who’s responsible?  Squeezing money out of employees is an old mantra which fails in the present era.

 B- Better compensation and benefits

Gone are the days when the employees said I like the work environment, boss etc… Its all about money. Money hai to honey hai ……warna sab shani hai. Its as simple as do your job and ask for compensation in that order. If there was no better compensation, people wouldn’t have quit jobs.

L- Let your hair down

This is to be shown than practicing it. Its employees marriage to the company. To preserve it, show that you are actually sharing with him what he needs even though you are not. ‘Jo dikhta hai who bikta hai’. Sell Perception.

E- Experience

Create a live, vibrant experience for employees that they feel like coming to work . A dull workplace is what no one wants. An optimist is a guy who never had much experience. Prevention is better than cure. Hence, ensure that you hire people with right attitude. Competency = Knowledge + Skill + Attitude. The first two can can be acquired, the third one cannot. Hence, hiring better is better than firing worse.

1)    Do you have patience to listen to other’s problems?

Ans. Sayyam + Samajdaari = Smartness. Endurance is the crowning quality,  And patience all the passion of great hearts. The answer should be a straight Yes. But how do you justify it. Give an [...]]]>

1)    Do you have patience to listen to other’s problems?

Ans. Sayyam + Samajdaari = Smartness. Endurance is the crowning quality,  And patience all the passion of great hearts. The answer should be a straight Yes. But how do you justify it. Give an example from your past experience (personal or professional) wherever possible.

2)    Why do you want to join this company ?

Ans. Your answer in reality may be different. For instance, you want more money which you replace with better prospects. The interviewer understands that the reason is apparently fake. Then why does he consider you ? The reason is simple. Even he/she wants you as your background is reflected on your CV

3)    How do you face furious people ?

Ans. Be it a people facing job or not, you are bound to come across angry people. What do you do then? Anger is a state of mind where mind is out of state. For every minute you are angry, you loose 60 seconds of happiness. Who wants unhappy people? No one as sad people sad work, sad work sad results, sad results sad people. It is a viscous circle.

4)    What is the nature of the job you are expecting ?

Ans. Be careful. By this time the interviewer knows what kind of person you are. Now if you say you are a happy go lucky character and you love people facing job and this is not in sync with the previous question then you loose points. Your personality and job role has to be in sync. There is no second thought to this

5)    Tell me something about yourself.

Ans. Wondering why is this fifth question instead of first. It is to know whether your answer is scripted or not. Some oversmart candidates have a script rehearsed properly. But the objective of the interviewer is to catch the words. Words are wind. Look before you leap. Be extremely careful.

6)    What do you know about the industry ?

Ans. The industry knowledge shows your level of interest in the job. Agreed it is not directly relevant to your job but what happens on the road affects the driver and here you are the driver. On a senior level, you are expected to have done a SWOT about the industry you operate in. This is because you may not know much about the company but you are expected to know about the industry.

Professional H2O

What comes to our mind when we see this formula H20. H2O is water. Just as water is indispensable for our life, we over here are emphasizing that H20 is indispensable to succeed in professional life as well. [...]]]>

Professional H2O

What comes to our mind when we see this formula H20. H2O is water. Just as water is indispensable for our life, we over here are emphasizing that H20 is indispensable to succeed in professional life as well. What is H20. Why is it that we are emphasizing on it. Why is it so crucial? Well the answer goes as follows:

H- Honesty

H- Holistic approach

O- Optimism

Honesty

Many organizations keep blowing the trumpet about this word. Also, the interviewer ia keen to know about this aspect of yours. Why is it so? The answer is obvious. We may say that everyone is not honest. Agreed  People may not do business with honest people but people certainly won’t do business with dishonest people. Honest people get satisfaction out of honesty. Half truth is a whole lie. This takes us to the next point

Holistic Approach

Holistic Approach is thinking about the whole of something, and not just dealing with particular aspects. This may sound contradictory to the theory that suggests break a big event into small pieces and success is yours. We are not against this. By holistic approach, we mean apply PEST to decision making. What is PEST

P-Political

E-Economic

S-Social

T-Technical

Apply this and you will automatically get the holistic idea. Of course, mastering this takes time. Applying in reverse order is advisable

 Optimism

When we apply holistic approach, we tend to weigh pros and cons. Then where does this optimism comes from which looks only positive aspects. No, optimism does not look only positive aspects, it also looks at negative aspects in a positive way. When you live your life with an appreciation of coincidences and their meanings, you connect with the underlying field of infinite possibilities. This means that if one day in your professional life is not so good, say ‘Picture abhi baaki hai mere dost’

Drink this H20 daily and observe the difference in your professional life weekly, monthly and quarterly. The difference is guaranteed. So lets begin the process of engaging ourselves wholeheartedly towards our goals. Imagine you are running towards your goal. Whenever you get tired, drink water/Professional H20 and revive yourself with the lost enthusiasm. At last, I would say ‘Paani piyo Dil se Jiyo, Drink H20, here you Go’

Downsizing refers to a company’s decision to reduce its workforce for reasons other than

-          Poor performance

-          Criminal conduct

-          Unethical behavior

How is Downsizing an Ethical Issue ?

—  It is understandable [...]]]>

Downsizing refers to a company’s decision to reduce its workforce for reasons other than

-          Poor performance

-          Criminal conduct

-          Unethical behavior

How is Downsizing an Ethical Issue ?

—  It is understandable that companies want to minimize their liability when they downsize

—  There are economic matters to consider, which makes downsizing a management issue

—  At its core, downsizing is an ethical issue, and the good manager is concerned not just with protecting the company’s financial and legal interests but also with honoring the dignity and integrity of the human beings who work on the front lines and who are the lifeblood of the organization

Difference between Lay-Off and Downsizing

—  In traditional layoffs, employees are asked to leave temporarily and return when the market situation improves.

—  In downsizing, employees are asked to leave permanently.

Roots

In the 1980s, downsizing was mostly resorted to by weak companies facing high demand erosion for their products or facing severe competition from other companies.

By the 1990s, as even financially sound companies began downsizing, investors began considering the practice as a means to reduce costs, improve productivity and increase profitability.

Desired Positive Outcomes

During the early 1990s, organizations resorted to downsizing on account of various reasons:

-          To eliminate duplication of work after mergers (if any)

-          To optimize resources and cut costs

-           To increase productivity and efficiency by eliminating unnecessary intermediary channels.

Following changes observed in organizational culture after downsizing:

-          Power shift from middle management to top management

-          Shift in Focus from Individual Welfare to Organizational Welfare

-          Change in working relationships (from being familial to competitive)

-          Depression, anxiety, frustration, anger and bitterness in the downsized employees

-          Possible job loss, relations with new superiors, revised performance expectations and uncertainties regarding career advancement amongst surviving employees

Questions difficult to answer

—  Who must be laid off ?

—  How much notice they will be given?

—  The amount of severance pay

—  How far the company will go to help the laid-off employee find another job ?

 Observations

—  Downsizing is a toxic solution

—  Ignoring all the signs pointing to a layoff until it’s too late to plan adequately; then action must be taken immediately to reduce the financial drain of excess staff is clear

—  LIFO – Its irrational

—  This approach may succeed from a legal perspective, but not necessarily from the larger and more important concern of organizational health.

 3 Magical words in decision making are ‘Impact on Business’

Thus, downsizing is good for the company but bad for its employees

Profit is the final objective of the company. Who drives it ? Employee. Companies are often criticized for the fact that they earn tonnes of money and pay peanuts to the money makers i.e. employees. Consider your home, is living [...]]]>

Profit is the final objective of the company. Who drives it ? Employee. Companies are often criticized for the fact that they earn tonnes of money and pay peanuts to the money makers i.e. employees. Consider your home, is living at home free ? No. How can making others work for your company be free? There is a cost attached to profit making. Over here, we are talking about Cost to the company (CTC).

The Cost to Company refers to the total expenditure a company would have to incur to employ you. It is often mistaken as salary. Salary ideally is fixed salary and may even include variable pay but for CTC many other factors come into picture. It is simply a sum of various components put together.Of course, every rational organization attempts to minimize this as much as possible.

 ‘The fact of the matter is that today, stuff-selling mega-corporations have a huge influence on our daily lives. And because of the competitive nature of our global economy, these corporations are generally only concerned with one thing.. the bottom line. That is, maximizing profit.

-          David Suzuki

The essence of a successful business is really quite simple that people will pay for at a price sufficiently above your costs, ideally three or four or five times your cost, thereby giving you a profit that enables you to buy and to offer more products and services.

Components of CTC

- Fixed Salary

- Fringe Benefits

- Perquisites

- Bonus

- Retirement Benefits

Fixed Salary

Fixed Salary includes Basic, Dearness Allowance and House Rent Allowance. It is taxable in nature. It is generally determined by first 2 Ps of 3P compensation which are Person, Position & Performance.

DA differs from city to city as this is directly associated with the cost of living. E.g. DA in Mumbai is surely higher than that paid in Baroda. This basket is revised periodically by the government and given to the company which contains cost of living details considering the prices of essential commodities.

House Rent Allowance (or HRA): Paid to meet expenses of renting a house. The least of the following is exempt from tax.

Actual HRA received

50% of salary (basic + DA) if residing in a metropolitan city, or else 40%

The amount by which rent exceeds 1/10th of salary (basic + DA)

The normal business practice to give HRA ranges from 10%-40%

Fringe Benefits

These are the benefits which are not in direct relation with employee’s performance. Its shown as extra by the company but the fixed expenditure from company’s side is divided amongst all employees. E.g. Z company providing Pick-Drop Facility. Does it matter whether 50 employees are in the bus or 60. Company has borne that expense irrespective of employee performance or no. of employees

Bonus

Benefit paid on satisfactory work performance for employee motivation. Though this amount is not assured to the employee, most companies include the maximum amount that can be paid as bonus, to the CTC. Fixed Annual Bonus: Paid on the basis of employee performance, either monthly or in most cases annually, it is a fully taxable amount. Every company may not follow this rule.

Variable bonus depending upon performance is a better way. It actually drives people to work and % slabs can be formed which will also distinguish star performers from poor performers.

Retirement Benefits

PF, Gratuity, Super Annuation Fund

PF stands for Provident Fund. It is compulsory to be given by organizations who have more than 20 employees. 12% is the amount of Basic contributed in the ratio 1:1 by the company as well as the employees. This reflects is salary slip and is paid when the employee leaves the organization.

Gratuity is for expressing gratitude for long term services by an employee. Its for more than 5 years of service. The amount is depostited in actuaries. E.g. LIC is a recommended one and normally government bodies for this are more reliable than the private organizations. It is compulsory. It is not applicable for banks.

Super Annuation Fund is not compulsory. It is normally given by organizations to White collared employees on a managerial level. The entry level employees and the blue collared workers are not given this.

Perquisites

Non Government Employees – The value of perquisite is an amount equal to

(i) 15% of salary in cities having population exceeding 25 lakhs as per 2001 census;

(ii) 10% of salary in cities having population exceeding 10 lakhs but not exceeding 25 lakhs as per 2001 census

It includes motor car, residential accommodation, bills paid by company, gift vouchers, club membership, interest free loan etc.

Performance Management is the process of Performance Planning (goal setting), Performance Monitoring and Coaching, Measuring (evaluating) Individual Performance linked to organizational goals, giving him/ her feedback, rewarding the individual based on his/ her achievements against set performance goals & required [...]]]>

Performance Management is the process of Performance Planning (goal setting), Performance Monitoring and Coaching, Measuring (evaluating) Individual Performance linked to organizational goals, giving him/ her feedback, rewarding the individual based on his/ her achievements against set performance goals & required competencies, and working out a plan for his/ her development.

The PMS Process Cycle can be explained as follows:

1. Performance Planning:

Organizational Goals are selected & deployed to the respective divisions, departments & individuals, & individual targets for the year are set.

2. Performance Monitoring & Coaching:

Organizational goals, divisional/ departmental as well as individual goals are reviewed against current performance, & course correction & coaching is done to enhance performance. Mid-term individual review & corrective action planning are also part of this step.

3. Performance Measurement & Feedback:

Individual level performance, competencies & development requirements are reviewed and assessed. Feedback on the assessment is given to the individual. Company level moderation & finalization of performance evaluation is also done

4. Performance Linked Reward & Development Plan:

Data generated from individual appraisal is used to decide on salary, career progression (promotions), competency development. This also includes feedback & development planning & up-gradation