HREVISTA

PFACULTY OF SOCIAL WORK

THE MAHARAJA SAYAJIRAO UNIVERISTY OF BARODA

“EVERY RISK IS WORTH TAKING AS LONG AS IT’S FOR A

GOOD CAUSE & CONTRIBUTES TO A GOOD LIFE”

- RICHARD BRANSON

VOLUME:4 ISSUE :4

EOPLRACTIC

EBEST

27th December, 2014

ES

TABLE OF CONTENT

EDITORIAL BOARD

EDITORIAL NOTE

COVER STORY – BEST PEOPLE PRACTICES

CHALLENGES FACING HR PROFESSIONALS IN

CHANGING ENVIRONMENT FROM THE PERSPECTIVE

OF INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS

FOURTH GENERATION LEADERSHIP

BOOK REVIEW - SELECTED

BUSINESS PRACTICES IN HRM

INTERVIEW – MR. MEHUL PANDYA

INNOVATIVE EMPLYOMENT ENGAGEMENT PRACTICES

HR PRACTICE’S – THE STEP BEYOND

HR QUIZ – WHO AM I?

EDITORIAL BOARD

Mr. Chintan Trivedi, HR Executive, TOTO India Industries LTD

Ms. Mansi Davda, Senior MHRM, Faculty of Social Work

Ms. Setu Soni, Senior MHRM, Faculty of Social Work

Ms. Asha Jadav, Junior MHRM, Faculty of Social Work

Dr. Hemang Joshi, Junior MHRM, Faculty of Social Work

Ms. Hetvi Chatufale, Junior MHRM, Faculty of Social Work

Ms. Karmana Kantharia, Junior MHRM, Faculty of Social Work

Mr. Khush Brahmbhatt, Junior MHRM, Faculty of Social Work

Ms. Sweety Chauhan, Junior MHRM, Faculty of Social Work

Ms. Shivani Suttar, Junior MHRM, Faculty of Social Work

EDITORIAL NOTE

AS WE APPROACH THE END OF 2014, IT'S A GOOD TIME TO

THINK ABOUT NEW IDEAS AND IMPROVEMENTS TO OLD ONES

THAT ENHANCE A FIRM'S “MANAGING PEOPLE” STRATEGIES.

MANAGING OTHERS IS BOTH AN ART AND A SCIENCE, WHICH IS

NOT ALWAYS EASY.

IN A KNOWLEDGE ECONOMY, IT IS PEOPLE — NOT CAPITAL OR

MARKET — WHO MAKE ALL THE DIFFERENCE. AS TALENT

OCCUPIES CENTER STAGE IN THE INDIAN WORKPLACE,

MANAGING AND RETAINING MANPOWER IS BECOMING CRUCIAL

TO AN ORGANIZATION'S SUCCESS. TO ACHIEVE THIS,

COMPANIES ACROSS SECTORS ARE FOCUSING ON SOME OF THE

MORE CRITICAL HR PRACTICES.

IN THIS ISSUE, WE TRY TO IDENTIFY SUCH TRENDS. WHILE

GREAT PRACTICES ARE RARELY PLUG-AND-PLAY, THERE IS

MUCH THAT CAN BE LEARNED FROM UNDERSTANDING WHAT

THE BEST WORKPLACES DO TO ENGAGE, REWARD, AND

COMMUNICATE WITH EMPLOYEES. WE EXPLORE DIFFERENT

INSIGHTS INTO BEST PRACTICES IN DIFFERENT SECTORS AND

HOW IDENTIFYING DIFFERENT PRACTICES HELP BRING

SIGNIFICANT BENEFITS.

-By EDITORIAL BOARD

COVER STORY

BEST PEOPLE PRACTICES

uccessful businesses are those that attract, develop, motivate and

retain the best people. You will get the most benefit from your

people if you have key strategies for doing so. These can include:

Employees are often in a position to see where improvements to

working methods can be made or when market demands are

changing. For example production staff will be aware of inefficient

production processes, while customer service staff will know common

sources of complaints.

Good people management should extend across

all areas of your business. Recruitment,

training and people development, working

practices and the working environment are all

areas which you should continually review to

see where improvements can be made.

People management systems such as performance appraisals, quality

circles, cascade briefings, 360 degree feedback, and internal

communications will help you to get the best from your employees.

An environment that encourages employee engagement will enable you to

reap the benefits of motivated employees. Effective and efficient people

practices (e.g., flexible work arrangements) and processes (e.g., sourcing

candidates through applicant tracking software) can help drive your

business to the next level, and LoveHR can help through consulting,

outsourcing, coaching, and seminars.

Best people practices are the practices that create a bench mark for creating

best organization and the best place to work. Best people practices are not

S

only an outcome of the management practices that are performed in

organization; it is a result of the joint efforts of everyone who work there.

Leadership is the key of taking a practice from good to best. A good leader

will inspire and influence his employees to practice in the best possible way.

Nurturing employee is essential and it is carried out by talent management:

giving right work to the right person.A healthy relationship between

management and employee will help enormously in giving out best people

practices.

In our journey of reading this Magazine further, we will come across

different articles on some the People practices.

Let’s explore the world of best people practices.

CHALLENGES FACING HR PROFESSIONALS IN CHANGING

ENVIRONMENT FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF INDUSTRIAL

RELATIONS

When the whole H. R. world is making huge noise about the processes like

Talent Acquisition, Talent Management, Talent Retention, Employees

Engagement, Competency Mapping, creating best H. R. Practices, one needs

to be careful of not to neglect the very essential foundation without which all

these processes and practices would just remain Theoretical concepts

making them only a good reading without delivery and whole edifice will

collapse like a pack of cards. That foundation is, “Industrial Relations –

Their Knowledge and Understanding.”

Globalization in early 90s put forth several challenges and demands from

the work force in business especially in the manufacturing setup. Existing

manufacturers started feeling the pressure of new players entering the

market. The expectation of the work force underwent a sea of change as

they were expected not only to maintain the discipline but were expected to

contribute productively and qualitatively to meet customers’ expectations.

Multi-skilling and Multi-Tasking became the way of life.

Under this background, the HR professionals, whose role once upon a time

was perceived to be of policing, changed drastically. HR in the 80s was

mainly focused on countering industrial

relations and taking actions against

workers started changing its face. Trade

unionists were also required to take the

positions far different from the Datta

Samant days. Industries were required to

find innovative means to ensure a balance

between the employees’ expectations and

the ever changing business needs. Cost pressures added use of contract

labor, aesthetically known as outsourcing, in industry many times in areas

which are normally core areas. This gave way to incidents like Maruti Udyog

Ltd, where in HR Manager was gruesomely, assaulted which resulted into

his death.

Although the face of industrial relations as prevailing in 80s has changed

and the incidents have been on decline, there is no respite to H.R.

professionals as sporadic incidents of industrial unrest and strikes do occur.

The government machinery has also started acting proactively, by promptly

prohibiting unjustified strikes as per the Section 10(3) of the Industrial

Disputes Act, 1947. Despite this, on a few occasions, employers fail to

prevent continuance of strike even if its continuance has been prohibited by

the Government. This poses the question to one’s mind as to why this

happens.

I still vividly remember

a statement made by

the former Chairman

and Managing

Director of Tata Steel,

while dealing with a

strike as the

Chairman of the Air

India – Industrial

Relations is Talking,

Talking and Talking.

Now even if one resorts to disciplinary actions and seeks Govt. intervention

for prohibiting strike, it’s not necessary that the strike will be called off. One

has to proactively open the channels of communication and keep them

active. Influential leaders have to be identified and need to be kept busy in

constructive dialogues. Support of the local leaders and law and order

machinery must be taken as and when needed. There is a tendency amongst

the Workers’ Representatives to always take recourse to excuses like “they

are trying to persuade the fellow workers to call off strike, but the mass is

not listening to them. “

When one encounters this situation, he has to put in all the efforts and see

to it that the dialogue continues and all the channels of communication is

kept widely open and active. No deadlock takes place.

The above strategy could be applied when there is a sense of urgency for the

Management since there is a huge pressure on meeting the Customers’

orders and their requirements. Whereas, when the chips are down and

there are no business compulsions, there are few or no orders, the Industry

could resort to a different Strategy and need not show sense of urgency in

resolving the Strike and should utilize the opportunity to iron out by

disciplining a few culprits, who have needlessly resorted to such means by

instigating the Mass of workers. Such actions can benefit the Organization

in a long way.

In today’s times, H.R. professionals must realize that Fair Wages are being

paid to their work force by constantly benchmarking against the wages paid

by similar industries. Gone are the days of exploiting workers by

underpaying them. Work force has more opportunities available to them

than at any point of time in the past. While taking care monetarily, H.R.

Professionals must advise their employers to create a work place where work

force remains engaged, motivated and emphasize on creating a conducive

work environment, which in the longer run is going to benefit the

Organization by contributing positively to its Top line and bottom line. Long

term settlements with even the Contract labor can be entered into for a

steady progress of the industry while ensuring that the Contract workers

also keep on growing and remain motivated. This also eliminates risk of

abolition of Contract Labor as the Appropriate Govt. takes into account this

aspect prior to abolition as per the provisions of Section 10 of the Contract

Labor (Regulation and Abolition) Act, 1970.

In the forthcoming decade, the world is going through a huge change. The

rise of Indians in the world is also going to press all of us hard. This has

been very correctly realized by the newly elected Narendra Modi Government

and it is has started taking bold initiatives to revamp the whole system

including planning for radical changes in the Labor Laws which are not

currently in line with the Global requirements . So the Mantra for today’s H.

R. Professionals to be successful and effective in Business is - to create

Innovative H. R. Processes and Practices by ensuring Proactive Industrial

Relations which is a key to success.

RAJESH PALKAR (MSW 1985)

GENERAL MANAGER-HUMAN RESOURCES

ALEMBIC LTD.

FOURTH GENERATION LEADERSHIP

At the outset, let me first congratulate students & faculty members for one

more wonderful initiative called "The HR Revista".

The topic assigned to me for this article is extremely relevant not just for HR

fraternity but entire business fraternity. Today, senior professionals do face

the challenge of dealing with fourth generation leadership. On one side,

businesses are facing numerous challenges such as rapid technological

advancements, competition, low margins, challenging targets, etc. and on

the other hand, business leaders have not geared up for dealing with issues

of fourth generation leadership.

Let us understand what is fourth generation leadership?

Instead of defining what fourth

generation leadership is, it would

be easier if we understand some of

the basic traits of fourth

generation leadership. The fourth

generation leadership is

innovative, entrepreneur, open,

smart, bold, frank, blunt etc.

The issue has become more significant as the strength of fourth generation

leaders is rapidly increasing in all walks of life but we as a society have not

made ourselves ready for this big change.

If we want to understand a good example of handing over reins to fourth

generation’s leadership, then we should study the case of Bajaj Auto. We all

know that Bajaj Auto was the market leader in the scooter segment and

there used to be a long waiting period for getting the delivery of scooters.

However, when Mr. Rahul Bajaj handed over the cap to his sons, his sons

decided to close the scooter decision and to focus on bike business. When

this news appeared in press, everybody, including Mr. Rahul Bajaj, was

surprised. It means, even he was not consulted on such an important

matter! He had shared his views with the media that he is not happy with

this decision. However, he did not interfere in the matter and allowed his

sons to decide the future of the Company. The rest is history. We all know

how Bajaj bikes peaked up the market share from Hero Honda. This is a

classic example of handing over the reins of business to fourth generation

leadership.

One more such example is succession planning for Mr. Ratan Tata. He had

declared that he would be retiring in next few months and his successor is

to be identified. Hence a global search was undertaken. After 15 months of

search, Mr. Cyrus Mistry was identified as his successor. The most

important thing to be noticed in the entire transition was the hand holding

process undertaken by Mr. Ratan Tata for the induction of Mr. Cyrus Mistry.

Such strong hand holding process made the handing over process much

easier and effective.

I have had the opportunity to work closely with the Israelis. It is quite

common amongst Israelis to differ with each other on almost all the topics.

However, it is important to note that once the discussion is over and a

decision is taken, then it is treated as a “Team Decision”. Whereas we

Indians agree on everything in meetings/discussions but later on start

ventilating our disagreements in quite an unprofessional manner. This kills

team work.

Our Indian Society teaches us to respect elders. That’s fine. But does that

mean we cannot disagree with our seniors? Certainly it does not. When we

closely monitor the society today, we find that we are going through a big

transformation process and there is no other

option but to create ample space for fourth

generation leadership and involve them in all

decision making processes. We as a society need

to learn the art of respecting disagreements,

especially from young ones.

While we deal with this subject, I feel that one

word that has played a pivotal role in the entire process is “Opportunity”.

Yes, this is the game changer. What has changed in the last few decades is

mainly on the front of "opportunities". All those who are in their thirties,

should speak to their elders and find out the difference in opportunities that

were hardly there viz. a viz. plenty available today at every sphere of life.

Globalization has brought huge basket of opportunities for everyone and all

of us need to reap fruits from the same. Therefore we at HR have no reasons

to complain about high employee attrition. When opportunities are available,

it is but obvious that everyone will certainly take full advantage of the same.

So while dealing with the issue of fourth generation leadership, we must

first accept this ground reality. Hence, while creating a conducive

atmosphere for fourth generation leadership, we must remember that the

leaders that we nurture and groom today will certainly fly to other places

once they have an opportunity!

The second word that comes to my mind while analyzing the subject of

fourth generation leadership is “Openness”. Today, all of us need to exhibit

openness in our approach. Even when we deal with kids, we have to be

open to listen and consider their views. This is significant because earlier,

leadership style was mainly! But now, the managers are leaders who like to

work as facilitators.

Friends, gone are the days when we used to be the custodians of human

resources and keep track on people as watch dogs. Now the major role of HR

is to work as the "Facilitator Dept.” This is extremely important while

dealing with fourth generation leadership.

While engaging the fourth generation leadership, one more expectation from

HR is to ensure that the work place becomes a fun place. All of us have seen

the pictures of beautiful offices of Apple, Google and Facebook. These

companies have invested huge money on making their offices vibrant & fun

place. Such environment helps in bringing out the best talent of employees.

Personally, I am a strong advocate of promoting Sports. This is the one tool

that can help us remove various barriers within the organizations. While

fostering the fourth generation leadership, we must insist on organizing

sports activities to keep people together to remove various layers and

differences.

James Weldon says:

If we can fight together, we must strive together

If we can play together, we must pray together

If we can plan together, we must stand together

If we can cry together, we must try together

For together, forever we bring

The best, the good of it al

BHARAT S GOSWAMI

Sr. VICE PRESIDENT HR

GSPC

Book Review

Title Selected: Why Some People Lead, why Others Follow, and why it Matters

Authors Mark Van Vugt, Anjana Ahuja

Edition illustrated

Publisher Random House of Canada, 2011

ISBN 0307358623, 9780307358622

Length 262 pages

Selected is a thesis about the origins of social

organization and Mark Van Vugt and Ahuja

(the “authors”) introduces the new theory of

Evolutionary Leadership. The authors argue

that modern leadership theories and the social

organization of nations and organizations – and

their leaders, often fail as the style of

leadership is at odds with the hardwired

leadership preferences humans have adopted

through our 2.5 million history as a

species. The book is meant to sum up van

Vugt’s research to date and introduce his findings to a wider and more lay

audience.

“Leadership is entrusted from below, not appointed from above”

If you have ever been a part of an organization larger than one you will know

that where humans cooperate conflicts exist. Even in organizations of one

there are conflicts which goes to show our inability to live in peace. But why

is it that some in an organization lead and other follow? The authors

suggest that just as important as leadership is what they call

followership. Humans choose their leaders based on evolutionary instincts

for optimizing survival, and to follow them. Hence a conflict has arrived over

the past centuries through the industrial revolution whereby corporations

owned by shareholders appoint leaders from the top down. The authors

also argue that when the hunter-gatherers became farmers 13,000 years ago

and thus gave rise to very large societies such as we know today a

disconnect between the leader we personally know to the elected or

otherwise appointed leader we only know through media.

The authors’ conclusion – at least for now, is that successful organizations

and their leaders are so, as they accommodate the evolutionary leadership

and followership principles and keep organizations small and personal.

Research has shown that we as human beings have a capacity for a network

of family, friends and colleagues of 150 people. Just think of it as the

amount of people you have an ongoing conversation with. If you use social

media such as Facebook or LinkedIn you probably have around 150

connections, and so do your connections. So organizations should be

organized around this number. The authors also suggest that particularly

middle management should be appointed from within, and selected by peers

rather than being hired from the outside and appointed.

The authors details six natural leader types and suggest that we all have

these traits to larger or smaller degrees which has successfully developed

through the evolution of human mankind. Each type has its own function

within the group and is needed at different times of the life of the

group. The Warrior primary role is to defend the group against external

threats whether natural or manmade. The Scout seeks new resources and

opportunities for the group in the external environment. The Diplomat

forms alliances to outside group to mutual benefit. The Arbiter maintains

peace and harmony in the group. The Manager allocates resources and

organizes activities. The Teacher distributes knowledge handed down the

generations. The authors invite the reader to participate in online research

to further their studies and develop the theory.

If you have influence on how your organization, whether social or

professional is managed and organized you will find this book interesting

and the authors’ further research enlightening. I think it is very worthwhile

to heed their recommendations particularly in these times of restructuring

and re-organizing to make companies able to whether the economic

difficulties we are living through in this decade.

A groundbreaking, evolutionary science-based exploration of the history of

leadership that explains how and why some men and women evolve into

good or great leaders and some do not.

This is the first book of its kind — reaching into business, psychology,

politics and current affairs — to explore how leadership affects us all.

Selected provides deep insight into our personal and professional lives at a

time when the world urgently needs to acknowledge great leadership.

Chintan Trivedi (MHRM 2009)

Executive – HR

TOTO India Industries Pvt. Ltd.

BUSINESS PRACTICES IN H.R.M.

In business practices, there are so many things which H.R. has to study.

H.R.M. has to deal with all those things but first of all H.R. Manager has to

deal with human beings who are dynamic in nature.

Humans are the most precious assets not only for organization but also for

society. It is responsibility of H.R. Manager to sustain them in an

organization.

In every organization employees have to face many problems. They get tired

from all these problems. One of the major problems which exists in every

organization is 'Organizational Politics'. H.R. Manager also has to deal with

organizational politics.

What is Politics?

In simple terms, politics is a type of a mind game. Definition of

Organizational politics: “The pursuit of individual agendas and self interest

in an organization without regard to their effort on the organization's efforts

to achieve its goal.”

When an employee is not satisfied or he/she thinks that whatever

is going on is not good for him/her, then he/she starts to play politics. In

every organization at every level of management there exists politics and it

even becomes a part of the organization.

When politics takes place?

At the side of employee

When there is jealousy among employees or among groups

Employees get frustrated and try to overcome problems

Employee wants to shirk work

Employee wants to get higher position or wants to get any authority

At the side of Manager

When managers wrongly use their power and authority to influence

other employees

Manager wants to exploit any worker or employee

If manager wants to give some position or authority to any specific

employee of his choice

If manager tries to get any specific work from employees

Manager wants to break unity among employees or wants to break

their informal group

How Politics affects employees and managers?

Negative impacts

Politics affects

negatively on an employee's mind.

Politics breaks their informal as well as

formal relationships. Due to politics,

employee loses their self-confidence.

He/she gets de-motivated. Dirty

politics creates hostility among

employees. Sometimes peers also don’t

help each other only because of bad

politics. Employee's morale goes down due to politics. Many a times, an

innocent employee becomes a victim to politics. Due to politics employees

face demotion or termination. It also leads to strikes in factories.

Positive impacts

Many people think that politics is a bad thing but this type of

mentality is not completely right. While there are people who use politics in

a wrong manner, politics may also affect positively. When there is politics,

an employee gets alert. They take every step very carefully. Employees

always keep their mind open and it creates some smartness in their

behavior. Due to politics employees become more cautious.

Politics teaches us how to survive in an organizational

environment and how to act, react and interact with different people.

Sometimes manager has to use politics for welfare of employees. Manager

plays politics also for those groups whichadversely affect the organization.

Tips to overcome politics

Now that we know both the impacts of politics, a question

arise as to how to deal with organizational politics? So there are some points

which could be useful for managers as well as for employees:

Employee/Manager must remain honest and straight forward

You should avoid unnecessary conflicts

You should avoid gossips and unnecessary talks

Do not try to exploit any employee. If someone is doing so, then you

could stop them from doing this

Don't be afraid to highlight your own accomplishments to your

superiors and peers.

Understand organizational structures, policies, rules and regulations,

etc. where you are working

Before you act on something, make sure whether it is true or not

Avoid speaking wrong about superiors before anyone

Always keep formal relationships in organization. Informal relations

could spoil your dignity at workplace

Once you start working on something, don't be afraid of failure and

don't abandon it. People who work sincerely always get success.

As soon as fear approaches near, attack and destroy it

Always learn something from others’ mistakes of others

Don't worry about those who talk behind your back. They are behind

you for a reason.

Do not put trust in a bad companion nor even trust an ordinary

informal relationship with peers. For if he/she should get angry with

you, he/she may bring your secrets to light. It may destroy your

future at workplace.

Always be confident. If you are not on your side, why should anyone

else be? So always encourage yourself to be confident.

If you have strength/power in your work performance then you can

always break politics.

Here, there are some ways to bust or to avoid

politics. H.R. Manager has to take responsibilities of all employees so he/she

must have knowledge how to deal with everyone. So these tips could be very

useful to H.R. professionals, not only for H.R. Manager but also for

everyone's life. Everyone wants respect from others so they always have to

work for dignity so that people get success in their lives.

DHAVAL R. VYAS

DHRM, Faculty of Social Work

INTERVIEW

Mr. Mehul Pandya, HR Manager, Ernest & Young India Ltd

1. What type of selection process is adopted by the company?

We at Ernst & Young, usually has straight a straight forward selection

process. We depend a lot on Internal Referrals and Campus recruitments for

hiring.

For Campus Recruitment - HR and the functional team goes together to

different institutes and short list the candidate on the basis of certain

screening mechanisms like Written Test, Case Study, Group Discussion,

Interview etc. For Lateral Hires (experienced professionals), we rely heavily

on Referrals and usually, we get from respective functional team only. HR

just has to process the application, coordinate and issue the offer letter

based on the final decision, In case of referrals, functional team usually,

conducts interview and short listing and if selected, HR processes the offer.

However, the fitment and compensation, HR's advise is always taken, but

the final call is taken by the Functional Leader.

2. What should be the size of the group for final selection?

We usually have a panel of 2-3 (including 1 from HR) for Campus

placement. For Lateral Hires, we usually don't have pane but instead, we

have different rounds of screening.

3. What is the information on the basis of which personal interview is

conducted?

Personal interview is usually checks the technical and soft skills of the

candidates like Technical Aspects, theories, concepts, its application etc.

and communication, attitude, confidence, honesty etc. soft skills in the

interview. Personal interview is guided by two things 1st - work profile for

which the candidate is being interviewed and 2nd - candidates CV. Usually,

we also try to follow Behavioral Event Interview methods for more accurate

predictions on the candidates during interviews. However, this process could

vary from function to function (Practice Lines).

4. Comment on the Performance Management of your company. Why

would the practice of PMS at your company have an edge as compared

to companies practicing traditional methods?

We have an online Goal based performance management system which

allows an employee to discuss and finalize the goals at the beginning of the

years with his counsellor. The process, also has a provision to add learning

& developmental needs to achieve the goals set. Further, there is a provision

for mid-year review wherein counsellor and counselee discusses the

progress on the goals and if there are any challenges. If required, the goals

are also revised in light of the Mid-year discussions. And finally, at the end

of the year, there is an objective discussion around your goals and how well

one has faired and accordingly the rating is given to employees. Based on

the rating, you get your bonus and next year's increment.

5. What is the employee perception of the present benefits program?

While, it is very subjective call, but most employees in the organization

would be fairly satisfied about the kind of systems and process EY would

have around HR and benefits program. I would consider EY as par with any

other global organization and it has got many distinguishing awards in

variety of fields.

6. On the basis of job analysis, what kinds of suggestions are given to

the HR department?

Not sure if we conduct Job Analysis or not but we do keep on reviewing our

internal grade and designation structures to ensure that it is aligned with

market and need based.

INNOVATIVE EMPLYOMENT ENGAGEMENT PRACTICES

Employee engagement is built on experience of HR, positive mindset and

business obligation models which finally benefits company in managing

talent and attaining success.

The essentials of employee engagement, similar to any company’s

substance, are some congenital values experienced from business

compulsion models. These ethics determine viewpoint of specific company.

In today’s modest economy, HR Fraternity is expected to influence company

branding through various methods and sources like internal efforts, various

researches and also through employee feedback/consultation. Under

business compulsions, priorities and competitive targets, HR tends to

neglect internal environment, feeling of employee leaving behind appealing

and aggressive workforce.

To simplify the intricacy of the talent management and retention, following

ideas are suggested with sureness that it would help HR practitioner in

building excellent workforce.

1. Surveys and researches

Before getting into the direction and creating different modules for employee

engagement, it is essential to be aware of what is required rather than

imitation from sources. Target oriented efforts would help organization in

fine shaping of talent and would also help employees in becoming star

performers rather than lingering as nonperformer or underperforming asset.

Therefore, periodical internal surveys and researches are of prime

importance. However, generally accepted and result oriented engagement

modules are suggested as below:

2. Informal interactions and retreat

Go for movie, adventures place and have team buildings and fun wars! For

anyone who is putting in relentless work throughout a week, it would be a

great fun and also would work like ventilation of catharsis. Informal

discussions with various groups would help HR in locating options.

3. Reiterate company values

Form a group of under-engaged employees to focus on one of your

company’s thrust areas and entrust them with responsibility of establishing

a mechanism to achieve it. Meet such group/s on regular intervals and

provide them support/guidance to further build the challenging culture. The

person who performs the best be publicly acknowledged for actions and thus

the under-engaged employees’ turns the scenario.

4. Create employee generated value system

Allowing employees to design own ball game and create intellectual war by

forming various task forces and thereby promote team synergy within

various teams that would lead company to improved productivity and

quality. Many teams working on such strategic goals would generate

organizational excellence; however, what is essential here would be game

objective and overall performance of the project. On seeing cognizable

results, all such task force and teams would promote cohesive culture and

directed utilization of under engaged workforce. Finally it is HR to help,

nurture and speed up the progress.

5. Inspire individual projects

Team formation of cross functional employee scan is formed for initiating

uncommon ideas. This would help in getting diversified, meaningful and

creative viewpoint. Such individual assignments aligned with company’s

goal can generate wonderful results. Individual assignments and initiatives

would generate novel directions reassuring creative and energetic workforce

setting an example for all non-performers and under-engaged employees.

6. Celebration of achievement

Display group photos of various task forces/teams on a wall and publish

them around with small write-up on goal attainment. Group photos, game

photos, events photos, activity photos or fun photos on display board would

generate creative recognition of employees. Encouraging and fostering work

relationships and cross functional employee engagement would help HR in

job rotation and career planning.

7. Resolving day to day difficulties

This is a unique initiative to keep under-performing and non-performing

assets engaged for productive cause. Under the initiative, employees are

guided to enlist numerous difficulties tackled by them in their day to day

working and the method adopted by them to encounter such difficulties.

Enlisting such difficulties and method adopted to resolve problems and

issues will form a unique idea glossary. This initiative would highlight the

efforts initiated by employees and on recognition it would work as excellent

engagement initiative as well as would work as an instrument for converting

nonperforming assets to star performers.

8. Recognition and awards

All passing through difficult and time bound tasks for consecutive months,

expects a pat on back. Small, timely and judicious appreciation would

inspire employees to perform better, faster and would also help in keeping

employees focused on company productivity. Recognition of genuine

achievements/efforts would lead to a situation where all employees would

certainly concentrate on their work. This would help HR in keeping

employees engaged and would also help in converting all liabilities into

assets.

9. Inspire charity and empathy

HR can design a policy for appreciating employees who work for noble cause

and demonstrate empathy and help the needy people of society or charitable

institution of their choice. The company can align such efforts with a

specific charity mission of company and such brilliant employees can team-

up and raise fund for group of deprived people or charitable institutions.

This would certainly help employees in feeling management, in other terms

called emotions management.

10. Design retention plan

Under a banner of cost effectiveness, salary and wages bill attracts broad

and immediate attention of top management. As a result,

talented/genius/fully contributing employees finds way out and moves. As a

result, the leftover group is either group of under-engaged or non-performers

putting HR to an odd position of liability management and finally causes

employee management issues. HR can design a retention plan and create

customized/creative retention plan for those genius employees and

simultaneously keep such employees engaged through any of the above

engagement practices OR develop unique engagement practices through HR

experience OR practices developed through various researches and surveys

and further develop talented employees to be more inspired and engaged.

SANJAY SUTHAR (MSW 1989)

DY.GENERAL MANAGER

INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS & ADMIN.

L&T RANOLI

HR PRACTICE’S – THE STEP BEYOND

In today’s world where organizational culture and brand presence are

factors contributing to an organizations success; many firms have an

adopted a pro-active perspective for their peoples practice. To shed light on

this term I can say that an organizations policy that is aimed at creating a

favorable and nourishing environment for its human resource is what

comprises of modern day peoples practices. The increase in transparency

over the internet has led to many changes in the concept of managing

human resources efficiently. Earlier statutory and non-statutory measures

were all that one could associate a different organization with. However,

today organizations are trying to usher a new era of commitment,

contentment and conceptualization of new practices towards its employees.

With multinationals like Google providing one of the best infrastructure

facilities and Virgin Group of companies that have a work schedule strictly

based on Jobs accomplished and not number of hours spent behind a

cubicle, people and entrepreneurs all over the world have started taking

peoples practices seriously. From the change during industrial revolution,

where people were considered as a factor of production which can be

manipulated to optimize their performance to modern day HR practices

which are aimed at creating a creativity enhancing workplace; the corporate

sector has taken a leap of faith into the vast and diverse field of people’s

practices.

Modern day businesses don’t just aim at providing a stock option or

collecting annual feedback from their employees. The corporate sector has

over a period of time evolved into accepting that people need to be given

authority beyond their actual hierarchical authorities. Pro-active measures

like free lunch hour, bulletin boards for employee grievances, informal

leaves question your boss days and organized chaos are just a few examples

of how creative minds can device techniques to cure the workplace from its

stereotype bug. As newer and newer trends keep on emerging, we have truly

entered an age of information where employees all around the world are

given the power to subordinate organizational interests for individual

pleasures, quite contrary to one of Fayol’s principles!

Jaimeen Baxi

Sr. MHRM, Faculty of Social Work

HR QUIZ

WHO AM I ?

1. My surname is named

on a “sauce” even though

I contributed to Human

Relation Movement?

2. Even though I gave bi�h to the most organized movement in the search � a rational and cohesive technical way � managing than also I am the most misunderstood man among all?

3. For me it was said that I used to talk with Ghosts � revolutionary whose surname was given the name to his theory?

4. I gave Four Teen age young Princy who were Pals � the men and his age and his ment? Take the words you like and make my name?

5. I am also a Researcher but my surname can be boiled or stu�ed or could be eaten by everyone?

ANSWERS IN THE NEXT ISSUE