From the editor’s desk D Human Edge: Our Past, Present and Future for HR September 2014 Prathyusha About four years in August 2010, first issue Vol. 2 • Issue 1 Mandala of Human Edge magazine promised all HR professionals Innovative, creative and Editor In Chief Editor-in-Chief practical articles on different issues of HR and we successfully provide the same for Prathyusha Mandala a year. HR had come a long way since then and so did Human Edge. [email protected] [email protected] We want to present new improved version of Human edge which will be called as Chief Mentors D Human Edge henceforth. We want to continue towards bringing the new Indroneil Mukerjee generation HR we spoke through our Dr. K. Krishna Mohan articles. We had seen how HR is in the current scenario in different Industries DESIGN STUDIO in interaction with Top HR professionals through their eyes. We believe that change ASIAAD has to come from us and hence returned to this initiative of providing complete (Advanced Studio cum Institute knowledge of Industrial HR practices to all of Art, Animation & Design) HR professionals. www.asiaad.in We continuously researched on HR roles Published By and thrived to know HR roles and problems Dezine HR Consulting they are facing in different Industries and Regus, Level 3, The got ready with our article to suggest how belvedere, Raj Bhavan a new generation can evolve from this Road Somajiguda, scenario. Strategic HR is the new buzz and Hyderabad 500082 HR professionals are working hard to find place and prove themselves as strategists. 2 | D Humanedge • September 2014 Through our articles we are trying to simplify HR strategy in our coming issues. This first Issue of D Human Edge is dedicated to the fond memories and support we got from HR professionals for our effort. This is a collection of cover stories we had published in our print version. We hope and request all your support for our initiative and drive us ahead in providing the best of the article and achieve our primary aim of New Generation HR.
contents 4 Intellectual capital measurement: Managing by measuring 6 Employee Engagement: It’s all about having dialogue… Regularly 9 Women @ Work (The HER perspective) 12 The Art of Hiring 14 Making Learning Happen 16 Training at Business Table 19 Banking on HR 22 HR role in Reputation Leadership 25 The First 20 Hours 26 Growth in terms of position or salary? 28 Hackman & Oldham’s Dimensions of Motivating Potential September 2014 • D Humanedge | 3
Intellectual capital measurement: Managing by measuring Everything that can be measured can be managed. When this is said many of us may ask about intangible assets. Individual departments which do not have any direct relation with organizational profits also come under the same category. In this article we want to highlight how these can be measured. “The Measuring intellectual assets: There 2. Balanced scorecard importance are 12 techniques used to value Supplements traditional financial measures of meaning intangible assets, namely: with three additional perspectives -- Intellectual customers, internal business processes, and Property 1. Relative value learning/growth. is subsided Bob Buckman (Buckman Laboratories) and Leif Edvinsson (Skandia Insurance) 3. Competency models by the are proponents of this approach, in which By observing and classifying the behaviors availability progress, and not a quantitative target is of “successful” employees (“competency of methods” the ultimate goal. Example: have 80% of models”) and calculating the market value of employees involved with the customer in their output, it is possible to assign a value some meaningful way. to the intellectual capital they create and use in their work. 4. Subsystem performance. Sometimes it’s relatively easy to quantify success or progress in one intellectual capital component. For example, Dow Chemical was able to measure an increase in licensing revenues from better control of its patent assets. 5. Benchmarking Involves identifying companies that are recognized leaders in leveraging their intellectual assets, determining how well they score on relevant criteria, and then comparing your own company’s performance against that of the leaders 6. Business worth This approach centers on three questions. What would happen if the information we now use disappeared altogether? What would happen if we doubled the amount of key information available? How does the value of this information change after a day, a week, a year? Evaluation focuses on the cost of missing or underutilizing a business opportunity, avoiding or minimizing a threat. 7. Business process auditing. Measures how information enhances value in a given business process, such as accounting, production, marketing, or ordering. 4 | D Humanedge • September 2014
8. “Knowledge bank.” Finacial Focus Treats capital spending as an expense (instead of an asset) and treats a portion Total expenses Total expense ratio Statutory result of salaries (normally 100% expense) as an Premium income Admin expense ratio Operating result asset, since it creates future cash flows. Gross contribution Cash-flow, insurance Return on net assets value 9. Brand equity valuation Methodology that measures the economic Customer Human Focus Process impact of a brand (or other intangible asset) Focus Focus on such things as pricing power, distribution No of employees reach, ability to launch new products as Satisfied customer index Decision support index Average response time “line extensions.” New sales No of job training days Discounted calls 10. “Calculated intangible value” Market share premiums Average handling time Compares a company’s return on assets Customer barometer for completed cases (ROA) with a published average ROA for the Lapse rate Average length of industry. Sales efforts unmatched payments 11. Micro lending A new type of lending that substitutes Renewal and Development Focus intangible “collateral” (peer group support, training, and the personal qualities of Number of new products Number of IT development hours entrepreneurs) for tangible assets. Premium from new products IT expense/administrative expences 12. “Colorized” reporting Portion of graphical user interface activities Suggested by SEC commissioner Steven Wallman, this method supplements be known and can be managed according to Inbuilt tool traditional financial statements (which give is easy to a “black and white” picture) with additional company needs. develop information (which adds “color”). Examples and will be of “color” include Brand values, customer Measuring Intellectual Capital will satisfaction measures, value of a trained tailor made work force. provide many other benefits and enable according to the needs of The first step is to identify what the organization to compete with other organization all is required to be measured. All the organizations need not consider all the organizations in the present scenario. factors to measure. The most important factors for any kind of organization are Our research from organizations of skills, knowledge level of employees, performance, the contribution or simply various industries revealed very interesting saying earning by the organization from each employee, the value of the company, details about them. innovation levels. Every organization should know these factors through Intellectual The customer capital is measured from capital Measurement. customer satisfaction and it is high for IT The factors which are given in the figure above are easily measurable by the HR if and banking organizations than retails proper information is given to them. organizations. What are the uses of measuring? The human capital is measured on factors 1. The organization will know about the current status in terms of the employee of competencies of employees, innovations innovation and other important factors of growth. and amount of innovations converted into 2. All the departments will be under focus and also develops co-operation between HR real ventures by the organizations. Most of and other departments. 3. The development will be more focused as the organizations in retail and banking have they already know the weaker areas. 4. Management will be easier. this factor more than IT as their ideas are 5. Customer relations and cost per employee (most important factor in present times) will respected by the top level management and converted into new products. The cost per employee is decreasing in IT and banking organizations while it is observed to be increasing in Retail sector. Culture and atmosphere play an important role in managing the Intellectual Capital which is better in IT and banking sector than the Retail sector. Many other important things are known through this which amplifies the importance of measuring the intellectual capital. Measure to manage should be the mantra of the organizations in the case of Intellectual capital which provides them many ways to manage their organizations in the current turbulent times and it is the HR who can make this measurement accurate DHE and useful for the organization. September 2014 • D Humanedge | 5
It’s all aboutEmployee Engagement having dialogue…Regularly The best organizations are those who retain their precious talent than recruit fresh. But the attrition figures are no less for most of the organizations. So, what should organizations do to retain talent? 6 | D Humanedge • September 2014
The answer seems lies in the don’t assign “In India only organization’s ability or inability to • The skills he/she supports, encourages, 37% of the engage employees. The important work force factor which was recognized HR of top and develops or doesn’t develop is engaged, organizations is Employee Engagement. • The employee relationships he/she really Engage your employee you will get best which means productivity out of him. People join understands and appreciates or doesn’t we have a organizations but leave managers is now a appreciate significant well acknowledged fact. The manager or the 63% need to immediate boss plays a pivotal role in creating Categories of Employee be better the conditions essential to engage his team, Engagement: engaged” one team member at a time, which ensures increased productivity and reduced attrition. Engaged: “Engaged” employees are the builders. They want to know the Employee Engagement: expectations from their roles and will try to why is it required? exceed them. They are very curious about the company and their place in it. They like The most interesting fact about us is that to use their strengths and talents in their day we are unique and what differentiates one to day work. They will take the organization person from the other is the way we respond forward with their innovations. to a given set of situations. Statistically, the probability of finding 2 people who would Not -Engaged: “Not-Engaged” employees respond exactly the same way to a set of tend to concentrate on the tasks, then the situations is 1 in 33 million. This makes us goals and outcomes that they are expected 1 in 33 million, each one of us brings our to accomplish. They have to be told what own uniqueness in thoughts and action to to do, so that they can finish the given task. our work place. When these thoughts and They often feel that their achievements are actions are aligned towards delivering better overlooked and their potential is not tapped productivity and overall organizational completely. goals, superior results are ensured. The manager’s main objective is to align these Actively disengaged: The “Actively unique thoughts and action to execute the Disengaged” employees are the cave organization’s strategy. Or in simple terms dwellers. They are always full of negativity the manager should create the conditions that and are always unhappy. They are virtually engage the employee. In India only 37% of the against everything. They cause great work force is engaged, which means we have damage to the culture, if not dealt with a significant 63% need to be better engaged. properly. Employee engagement is defined as the An important task for HR manager is level of commitment and involvement an to maintain the engaged employees and employee has towards the organization and make the actively disengaged employees its values. Employee engagement is a measure cross over to the engaged zone. It is said of productivity, reduced attrition and better that successful HR managers can find alignment of strategy to execution. The role the actively disengaged within a week of of the manager is the most significant in joining and advises them for change and ensuring the strategy is executed efficiently adjustment to the organization’s culture. through employees in his workgroup. As there is a direct link between the end customer, profitability and the employee Manager need to understand that; engagement activities, dealing with the • Every employee is unique and brings his/ actively disengaged employees is of prime importance. The employee engagement her unique self to the workplace and primary target of employee engagement • As a manager he/she has the is to retain employees and make them ambassadors of the organization. The responsibility to engage every single important task is to measure employee employee in the workgroup engagement in the organization to categorize and identify the three groups of employees. Engagement is what a manager does with his people; Tools for Measuring: • The relationships he/she has or doesn’t The most used tool for measuring the have employee engagement is the Gallup 12 • The tasks he/she assigns with purpose or question tool. There are 12 questions that September 2014 • D Humanedge | 7
“The most analyze the engagement levels of employees your team for granted, without out their used in terms of the job, encourage interaction performance you cannot be an effective between supervisor and employee and manager tool for also the relationships between the factors e) Try to have lot of engagement activities measuring like profitability, productivity, safety and in the organization. This does not mean, the employee retention. conduct games only, but also add humor engagement to the conversation with the employees. is the Gallup There are a lot of tools available to f) Always remember that managers need 12 question measure employee engagement, but to create environment that brings out according to the author the conditions of performance. tool” engagement has changed and the dynamics g) Lastly remember that do not start of relationship between the manager and any employee engagement activities his team has evolved. The evolved metric for without the knowledge or support of the employee engagement has been researched leadership. This will not yield the desired and conceptualized by Mr. Curt W Coffman results and may de motivate employee. (author of the book “First Break All The These few points are easy and cost Rules”). A set of 11 conditions measures the almost nothing but the efforts of manager. Macro and the Micro culture and is built Organizations have to remember that it is around the philosophy that there are as not entirely the duty of HR to implement many cultures in an organization as there Employee engagement; it is a culture the are people managers. Aligning the micro entire organization has to invest in building. culture (manager’s responsibility) to the HR at best can only be a facilitator in this Macro culture of the organization ensures journey. A CEO/MD cannot engage every organizational engagement. single employee - that role belongs to the manager / supervisor. As personal experience I can say Employees Engagement is critical and (attended a work shop conducted by has become the differentiator in ensuring MR. Naveen Kumar, Chief Operating employees are aligned to organizational officer of PCI-Coffman) that this tool is goals and participate actively in executing not only simpler but effective in today’s the organizational strategy. There will not be scenario to measure and manage the radical difference in terms of productivity employee engagement which results in if the attrition is almost equal to the desired business outcomes measures like recruitment numbers. To make sure that the productivity, customer retention, employee employees stay loyal and committed to the retention etc. The analysis of the response organization, it should begin the journey of to these conditions is personalized and can building an employee engagement culture. be easily interpreted by employee and the DHE manager that helps them identify gaps in the environment that needs to be fixed to build engagement. Engaging Employees some simple steps for Managers; a) The relationships you have or don’t have – Invest in nurturing and building a relationship with each member of your team b) The tasks you assign with purpose or don’t assign – Always begin with reason why you want your team to do what you want them to do. c) The skills you support, encourage, and develop or don’t develop – Catch people doing right and appreciate and encourage them. We spend way too much time finding out what went wrong. d) The employee relationships you really understand and appreciate or don’t appreciate – Don’t take any member of 8 | D Humanedge • September 2014
WOMEN @ WORK (The HER perspective) It’s important to remember that feminism is no longer a group of organizations or leaders. It’s the expectations that parents have for their daughters, and their sons, too. It’s the way we talk about and treat one another. It’s who makes the money and who makes the compromises and who makes the dinner. It’s a state of mind. It’s the way we live now. Anna Quindlen (20th century), U.S. journalist and novelist. “And Now, Babe Feminism,” New York Times (January 19, 1994) It’s a typical Indian perspective that men brought up to believe on achieving what had seen the women as mothers, sisters, they wish for and are raised as such. While wives and daughters and looking at majority of the parent community boasts them as colleagues is quite intimidating. off that they nurture their girls in the It’s often seen at our home that boys are similar way, they are often raised to put September 2014 • D Humanedge | 9
In the contemporary scenario where ‘egalitarianism’ is propagated as a culture, it is not practically right to delve into the designing of various people practices specific to the women. the family first, compromise on their life have filled in considerable space in rolling aspirations in the best of the interests of the out the budgets and sent the bottom-line family and society and above all self doubt ringing. However, the difference is in the their abilities. Given the context, women nature by itself…..from the creation…. entering the corporate world are daunted by WOMAN…..by the very birth. When there its norms. Their socialisation is limited to is a difference by birth (Men and Women), home and family with Study and work being then why not the workplace – people the short-term activities, in preparation practices …..be it the Recruitment (or) to for the homemaker role. In the process, that of the Retirement….because it is not those women who are not prepared for the just the difference in the gender….it’s more workplace do not last long in the corporate about the ‘Thought Consciousness’ about the world and hence one can only find a few who reality of living a woman’s life. As such, actually made it to the top. there are certain issues that are ingrained and generations through, the same were When one walks down the memory ignored (or) questioned seldom. lanes of Corporate India, we are given to understand that men made the rules and In the contemporary scenario where left the women not sure about the ways to ‘egalitarianism’ is propagated as a culture, negotiate with the Corporate World designed, it is not practically right to delve into the defined and refined by the men from time to designing of various people practices time. It’s a state of mind. It’s the way we specific to the women. live now. This is no different day before and yesterday. It remained the same today and Different conscious which bring may be tomorrow…….and who knows….. this the HER perspective can be the same even the day after. Connect Conscious In an ever-changing competencies filled By the very nature of existence, woman Corporate World, over the past; women tends to be conscious / acts conscious 10 | D Humanedge • September 2014
in every walk of her life beginning with cycle that woman will not be comfortable Statistics responding to an unknown number over the discussing with men. In order to avoid such pertaining to phone. Hence, it has to be ensured that the inconveniences, it is necessary to include the ratio of Consultants / HR team members are advised a woman (especially when interviewing men Vs women to call woman candidates only during the women) in the selection panel. It is not employees day time….preferably by 07:00 PM. Similar advisable to put across questions pertaining should be the approach on the subsequent to the personal life of a woman (like her in the meeting arrangements….and in exceptions, marriage plans, family way etc.). While one organization appropriate care has to be taken. can understand that such information is necessary to a company as such changes in a and the Identity Conscious woman’s life will have an impact on the work process floor in When it is understood that a woman would flow, it is suggested that the woman member be so conscious even over the telephone, it is of the selection panel / HR team should specific the responsibility of the HR Team member understand about such sensitive issues via wherein she to ensure to share the information about the an informal discussion with the candidate. interview schedule to all those concerned…. Further, HR should make it a point to share will be including that of the Security Staff at the as much information as possible relating to deployed. entrance. Done so, the moment she steps in the various measures / people practices of the company premises, she would feel the the company that are designed in specific comfort of ‘people are here to take care’. to cater to the needs of women employees. Such care taken in creating the comfort Acquaintance Consciou zones to the women will go miles in winning There is ‘no rule laid’ to introduce the their confidence of working for the company. prospects to each other (other candidates attending the interview). However, doing so Security Conscious would enable the women to get acquainted Given the backdrop of Indian culture and to that culture of ‘getting along with people’ the tenderness with which the woman are and in the process gets her acclimatised brought-up, she and her families are more quickly to the environment around. concerned about the personal security / safety issues . In the story narrated Socialising Conscious above, the act of HR informing / advising It is too big a word to use…..but in a micro the family members of Anjali to reach the perspective, the informal environment that pick-up point to receive her clearly hints places like Cafeteria could offer will make on the value that they give to the finer the women break their jinx in interacting aspects of life of a woman. The more the with the people around. Further, the understanding, the better would be the hospitality extended in the process (in the impact on the woman’s mind that will drive above story) clearly sends a message that her to make a decision of ‘pursuing her ‘you are important for us’. career aspirations’ with the company. Affinity Conscious Understanding these sensibilities by Be it the men or women, everyone would like the HR of the company would enable to have people who could empathize with women to ‘earn fortunes’ for the employer. them and their situation. When it comes to Just turn the pages into the History, you women, they have the tendency to remember will find the imprints of ‘Great Woman’ such courtesies for long. Such support by who made a difference…..not just to the the team members would enable them build Corporate World, but to the Mankind their confidence and allows them to give at large. This is not a great branding their best in the interview. Such action from exercise nor involves huge investment. All the HR team members (like the interview men out there….it may be difficult for you to tips given by Mr. Kishore in the story) think so ‘sensitive’ about men…..but when it is triggers the concept of ‘we care for your for a woman, this happens naturally for you. career’. What it all requires is a bit of common sense and the way the woman are treated Sensitivity Conscious when they are at your workplace….. As indicated, men and women are different because beauty is in the eyes that see. by birth….and it is obvious that there would be certain aspects of life / life DHE September 2014 • D Humanedge | 11
The Art of Hiring Ages ago, the only reason that helped HR to shed its image of welfare or administrative role is Recruitment. It was recognized as a key to success for an organization. Right people at People have always been important, and Methodology. The method should be Right Job will but right people at right job will innovative so that the best are taken into decide success decide the success or failure of your organization and the methodology or failure of the organization. Variations in skill sets should be a study of all methods to see how organization while choosing people carefully increased long the hiring can be done using the same the importance of HR skills. HR Manager method. and hence should also track the ROI on the recruitment recruitment is through his own perspective and What are new Ways of Hiring calculations. This is important in developing Effective people into the an Art more innovative recruitment processes organization efficiently? according to the new generation. The All New Social Networking In tougher situations In India the hiring Many of the recruiters and organizations practices are much better due to the method are now using social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn for hiring. These new sites are providing them with recommendations and all the details required for recruiting top level and middle level management. People are also providing the required details in their accounts. There are few advantages in using these; like easy to find people once you know how to search, job posting- reaching the persons directly through groups and recommendations from their colleagues make it easy to know whether the candidate is genuine or not. The HR managers should now enter the world of Social Recruiting to make the best of it. Recruitment process outsourcing and Recruitment Outsourcing: These two look to be the same but there is a difference. In MNC’s and larger organizations the Recruitment Process Outsourcing means the whole process is outsourced while the latter one is found in medium level organizations where only finding candidates(headhunting) is outsourced and decision of recruitment remains with the parent organization. HR managers should adopt latter to keep their importance. This gives the power to recruit the HR manager and will make the work of finding suitable candidates for the job, easy. Many of the organizations find it easier to outsource the whole process and hence the HR manager has nothing to do but to start from the induction process. Giving publicity to your website: The new way is to develop a company website as a brand image for your organization. 12 | D Humanedge • September 2014
The vacancies can be posted on the website standards for quality before recruiting. Many of the and will attract potential candidates who ●● Source of Hire: Data is driven by the Recruiters and take your organization as their dream percentage of new hires from each defined organizations organization. HR department should plan candidate source. Data is also driven by the to reach the required audience for their percentage of hires per source, with highest are now recruitment and publicize their website. This on-the-job performance and tenure rates. using social method will allow HR to play an important This is must for those organizations where networking sites PR role also. the process is outsourced. This will tell the like Facebook, Referrals are the new Way: HR department to continue or discontinue Linked IN, Finding referrals is the best way of finding the source currently used. Twitter for hiring good candidates. New referrals tools are also ●● Pipeline Development: Data is driven where analytics developed by Naukri and other Job Portals by the number of potential candidates; are easy to which indicates that new way is sooner going the recruiter has developed relationships to be best way. with, for key strategic positions. Data is capture What is needed to internally check the managed through an effective CRM system. efficiency of Recruitment? Similar to tracking pipeline development There is a need for continuous improvement of sales professionals, measuring recruiter- in the area of recruitment for HR developed candidate pipelines can have department. In the case where, they conduct a dramatic improvement on time-to-fill the whole hiring process and decide a (candidates are already in process for candidate to be a perfect fit for the job and commonly needed positions), cost-per-hire organization, but he leaves the organization (pipeline candidates have no additional cost in a month, what signal HR department associated with placing them), and quality is giving out to the whole organization? of hire. This should be checked continuously and avoided. This needs measurement of the Companies can decrease their time to recruitment process in terms of efficiency fill and decrease their cost per hire, but if and effectiveness. they can increase their quality of hire and quality of service, the entire game changes. The Recruitment Metrics gives the Better employees translate into higher efficiency of the hiring process through performance, more revenue, and higher different calculations. These numbers profits. should be derived from questionnaire addressed to recruitment department in These Metrics will also give sense case of recruitment done in the company of importance to HR department which and to outsourced organization when RPO currently doesn’t quite exist because of is implemented. These numbers give exact Recruitment Process Outsourcing. These picture of the effectiveness of the methods calculations will someday bring HR and the HR department. recruiting department to the decision table even though the process is outsourced. They should be calculated on a quarterly basis and taken to be one of the key DHE parameters while gauging the performance of the department. Some of the metrics are given below which are to be calculated after building a questionnaire. This inbuilt questionnaire will be more effective than the audit of HR department as a whole and results would be an eye opener. Some the today’s metrics are ●● Performance/Quality of Hire: Data is driven by performance appraisal ratings and/or production during 6 to 12 months into the new employee’s job as compared to their peers. Quality should be the first and most important recruiting metric. Since there is no formula for determining quality, recruiters and the hiring managers should define the September 2014 • D Humanedge | 13
Making learning happen Is learning Is learning happening? really Is it really happening? Ask learning officers and they would happening? rattle off the number of trainings held, That what participants who attended them and new all matters initiatives in the pipeline. Ask participants and they would show-off new concepts and theories, jargons and frameworks they have downloaded from classrooms and clouds. Ask an in-house trainer and she would boast off the number of training days clocked and the how many participants have rated her 4.7 or above in the smile sheets. But, is learningreallyhappening? try and make the world believe that learning Training then and learning now have always is happening, in playing around with loads been considered an important part of any of content – both offline and online - thereby organization. However, has it lived up to justifying their existence. the expectation of the business? Ask the business, the sponsor. Check with her how Things are however changing fast. Now, helpful has learning been to business. How as the demand for human potential to be is it helping in enhancing performance, unleashed and applied is rising, the learning customer satisfaction and revenue? Ask the line manager how learning has translated to retention, responsiveness and resilience of people. You would have the real answers. In silence, negation or complete evasion of the inquiry. This has been happening for eons. Despite it being talked of (in round-tables and conclaves) as the life-line of any business, learning has for some strange reason been divorced from business and organizational growth. Ever since the meaning of learning and its significance in life and work contexts evolved and men and methodsfailed to catch up with this evolution, learning has been, by and large, reduced to a mere ritual. This wouldn’t have happened if and only if, the stakeholders to the learning and development process in an organization accepted with humility that they have lost touch of the essence of learning. Instead they –right from the learners, the learning officers, the line managers and even the trainers - came together, forming a caucus to 14 | D Humanedge • September 2014
stake, its very existence is threatened. Training then and learning If learning has to be re-instated in its now have full glory as an essential business enabler, always been considered the first thing, all related stakeholders an important part of any need to unanimously appreciate and agree organization. upon is that learning is not about content. However, has it lived It’s a process by which new habits are up to the expectation imbibed for one to adapt to new habitats. In of the being continuous, the process of learning business? inculcates a kind of intelligence in the MInudkreornjeeiel learner, which goes beyond adaptation to Transformational Coach, Consultant & Enabler. enable transformation and evolution. (www.indroneil.com) Thus, for example, a learning initiative Founder – Iprodigy (www.iprodigy.net) on project management is not just about acquisition of knowledge on and cognitive understanding of the project management skills and processes. It’s also not about modification of project management behavior per force. It’s about bringing about a transformational shift in the inner drivers leading the learners to naturallyrespond with a set of new PM practices.It’s about the learner figuring out with intent the relevant skills, once she is enabled to uncover her relevant talents and connected to. If the learner comes with the will to learn continuously, she learns from most touch points of the project life-cycle on an ongoing basis, moving up the spiral of evolution in the project management practice. Once this happens, the line managers become clearer about what they need for their teams and ask for of the L&D office in terms of measurable impact of learning. The learners, for once, get to take L&D seriously and participate in learning programs with intent to learn and transform. They find learning as means of talent transformation and pathway to excellence. And the trainers find a reason to upscale themselves to go beyond slide-ware to become true enablers of learning. And only when all this happens, business finds a reason to acknowledge and recognize the importance of L&D in the scheme of things. Learning, for once moves out of academies and universities to board rooms and quality of learning happening across the organization becomes a key influencing factor of the overall valuation of the business. and development organization has begun This is not a pipe-dream. This is feeling the heat. Making available static knowledge for download, ticking check inevitability. For that’s how the course of boxes of courses conducted and keeping participants happy in classes through events are shaping up. To differentiate the games and antics is not working any more. Credibility of T&D / L&D with business is at men from the boys in the learning office and get them to take a lead. May not be as CLOs anymore, but as CBEO – Chief Business DHE Enabling officers. September 2014 • D Humanedge | 15
Training at Business Table One of the important activities of HR which deals with every level of organization is Training. The career growth and other promotion aspects depend of the Training processes. 16 | D Humanedge • September 2014
One of the important activities of acquire skills and efficiency during The designation HR which deals with every level of training. They become more eligible for of the organization is Training. The career promotion. They become an asset for the growth and other promotion aspects depend organization. employees who of the Training processes. The responsibility 5. Increased productivity- Training are participating of this activity entirely lies on the shoulders improves efficiency and productivity of of HR department. The coordination of employees. Well trained employees show decides the different on the job and off the job methods both quantity and quality performance. events that are will lead to more productivity in the There is less wastage of time, money part of training organization. The organizational strategy is and resources if employees are properly often reflected in the training process. The trained. programs training goals are thus formed according to the business strategies. The important Current Situation reason for the same is to show the Return of Training activities on Investment (ROI) to the leaders of the organization. The main aim of the HR Training in the present situation is quite department is to find place at the Business different from the good olden days. The table and get the budgets approved and to needs are not much of importance. It was show how important role training plays in now more of budget oriented program. organizational development. The designation of the employees who are participating will decide the events to be The basic objectives conducted. Outsourcing or consultant as a of Training are trainer is quite common in the organizations conducting the training programs. The 1. To prepare employees to meet the budget will get approved only when the varying and challenging needs of the job top management is participating and there and organization will be much struggle to make the plan into achievement. The main aspect which can 2. To provide knowledge and skills to new make training important among the top entrants and to help them to perform management and business leaders is ROI their role and job well. and it is making the HR to sweat to prove the worth of Training. 3. To coach employees for more complex To quote one of few Incidents: HR manager and higher level jobs. and senior manager invites Training consultant who is well experienced. The 4. To educate employees new and story is pretty good as the training location innovative ways and techniques of which is good for participants. When all set performing job. for discussion the HR of the organization start suggesting the events like Bungee Few Important benefits jumping, rock climbing and other similar of Training are activities and also they fixed the timings of the training along with the kind of 1. Improves morale of employees: Training accommodation required for different helps the employee to get job security participants. Finally the last discussion and job satisfaction. The more satisfied is about the cost of all the training so the the employee is and the greater is his budget gets approved first. The top mangers morale, the more he will contribute to who are participating require the location organizational success and the lesser to be nearer or conveyance to be arranged will be employee absenteeism and so that they attend the training and go turnover. back to their home. The other participants who are from medium and lower level will 2. Less supervision- A well trained not have much of consideration about the employee will be well acquainted with accommodation and other activities. But the the job and will need less of supervision. basic question is why an external training Thus, there will be less wastage of time consultant when the requirements are and efforts. fixed and have no purpose of knowing the needs. The consultant Trainer expressed the 3. Fewer accidents- Errors are likely to same doubt but the HR people want it to be occur if the employees lack knowledge done by external person so that everything and skills required for doing a particular job. The more trained an employee is, the less are the chances of committing accidents in job and the more proficient the employee becomes. 4. Chances of promotion- Employees September 2014 • D Humanedge | 17
The Training goes according to the needs of the top automating, and perhaps outsourcing many would hold management participants but not according true only if top to the organizational strategies or needs. staff functions, chief executives Linking management participates With this kind of attitude towards Training to the Business Goals may look at according to training when will it acquire a place at the their needs and Business table showing the achievements training less in terms of faith and more in not according to through training and approving budgets designations for conducting inbuilt programs which are terms of processes, costs, and benefits. according the organizational needs? The process does not require to be outsourced if New constituents: In recent years, the HR can show how much Training is essential for organizational development. When training department may have encountered the top management really participates according to their needs and not according new constituents, such as the legal and to their designations then there will real meaning for the training. risk-management functions. These functions Aligning Training with Business: Aligning training with the business has may see training as a documentable means consistently been seen by training executives as a key issue. In many researches (Ex: - of showing compliance. This cut-and-dried Brandon Hall Research’s survey “The Top Training Priorities for 2005”) aligning the use of training may not feel to the training training with business was top priority of many respondents. organization like linkage to the business. Aligning training to the business Training has its own mindset: The training is not easy. Here are some factors that may make aligning training to profession has its own ideas and models the business a challenge about what good training looks like, how to The customer-service paradox: Focusing on the internal customer means being open provide it, and how to evaluate it. Training to training requests. But some requests for training can be a misuse of training, and has developed its own terminology and some training requests can be off-strategy. It’s a slippery slope from supporting the its own way of doing things, from needs business to order taking. The seat-at-the-table paradox: When analysis to instructional design, from training has a “seat at the table,” it’s easier to link training to the business. But to earn a writing objectives to measurement. The rest seat at the table, training probably has to be linked to the business already. of the organization may not relate. The big-project paradox: If training projects stay modest and embedded in local operating Once a craft, now a service: Many budgets, the question of training’s trainers may have “grown up” as expert contribution to the business may not arise. But if training aggressively practitioners, planning, designing, takes on the scope and expense of a big centralized project—perhaps a delivering, and evaluating training and corporate university, enterprise software, or large-scale possessing hard-to-duplicate content training—hard questions about the alignment to the business knowledge and delivery skills. Today, may surface. Once a matter of faith, now virtually all staff functions are seen as a matter of economics: In the past, a chief executive who “got it” services and face blunt questions about simply believed in the value of training. what-do-you-deliver and what-does-it-cost. Today, after a decade or two of analyzing, To get a place at the business table the nature of training should be changed. What is a matter of faith for CEO’s in olden days is now looking in terms of processes, costs, and benefits. This is partly because of the HR department who want training just a relief for the employees but not as enhancement for their skills and make them to achieve organizational needs. The evaluation of the training have many loop holes which make them just numbers and not measurement of usefulness. Few questions to be answered before asking for a place at the business table like what types of training offerings are seen as related to business strategy? What aspects of training—the content itself, the way it is scheduled, the way it is measured—illustrate the alignment with the business? When the HR think more about the people than the designations it will be better for the Training to achieve its goals of making the employees achieve the organizational goals. Important of all is every one is same for training and when this is followed ignoring the designations better leaders will evolve in DHE every organization. 18 | D Humanedge • September 2014
Banking on HR A Banking sector is one of the essential and ever developing sectors in India. The career options in this sector are huge and many of us don’t understand the key composition of this sector. The HR function had huge scope in this sector which is discussed in the article. There are many problems and challenges involved in this sector which only HR can address. In our interviews with some of the Talent management Role HR had eminent HR professionals from banking to play in sector we tried to know some answers for In recent times most of the discussions the problems and in our article we answered had to be divided in to one that discuss Banks should some. Many of the employees in this sector about smaller banks and other about the be well can ask is our bank have HR one day so multinational or bigger banks. In any before they start asking this questions it is kind of bank important HR issue is talent know before better that we know some this about HR in management. In this sector the talent should making a banking sector. come within the sector and less probability career that someone who has experience in other choice These are the few common problems sectors can be considered for middle level enlisted by the employees in the banking or top level management positions. The sector and we discussed them here in this employees of the larger banks do not try to feature. shift chairs as they have secure positions ●● Centralized HR (Common in many banks) than the smaller banks. Due to this there will ●● Talent Management be talent crisis for the smaller banks. The ●● External Employee engagement nationalized or the government banks like September 2014 • D Humanedge | 19
services State Bank of India will enjoy a position of for the other banks the regional HR will not and the superiority in terms of availability of talent much decision making powers to solve the qualification as the employees enjoy job security and will regional problems. The direct interaction is also not be interested in working with one of the or observation with employees, which is so important India’s fastest growing bank. But at the same the most significant component of any HR time the smaller banks would not able to function, is missing in the banking sector. for survive without talented employees in their These functions are not assigned to HR selection of side. The basic mantra remains the same for and generally are performed by Branch these people any sector “Best of the talent can make you managers and Regional managers. one among the best organizations.” Hence Talent management and retention is the Some instances given by the employees important HR function. from which we can say the importance of having regional HR One of the common terms used inside any organization for talent acquisition is The bills like the travel allowances can be poaching. Many organizations as a part of claimed by marketing and sales people in their HR policies will develop anti poaching almost all the banks but due to centralized policies. Example for similar practice is HR there are no HR people who can advice bond for an executive after joining so that on this to the sales persons. When they he will not leave the organization before at change to other banks with regional HR they least two years. As we grow up the ladder come to know about this it will be too late. the policy will be different like giving them shares as incentives but keeping some time The Induction process which is one of the limit before they en-cash them. The talent important processes for the new employees crisis will make these policies tougher is not regular practice where the HR is so that they can retain their valuable centralized but when there is Regional HR employees at any cost. the employee will get acquainted with the organization policies quickly yielding better Talent management starts at results. recruitment in Banks. At the officer level the qualifications are minimum level which The control will be easy for the banks makes them acquire much major talent. But if there is centralized HR but access to the the real problem is the middle and top level core talent will be missing if they don’t have where the relevant industry experience is at least regional HR with decision making required. For the private banks the only way powers. It will easy to solve the problems to hire talent is to look for other banks give and hence can give better governance and them higher salary or by hook or crook have retention policies will be effective. to get them in their bank. This is the most difficult task for HR in banking sector. When Few advantages of having regional HR with HR professionals can showcase their talent decision making powers in this function of retaining and acquiring they have assured seat in banking sector. 1. Direct interaction with the employees They have to know where and how to get helps in easy solving of their problems talent to their organization. 2. Identification of right talent and high performance employees Centralization of HR 3. Will make the work of regional managers and branch managers in dealing with When we interact with any of the non HR employees rather in the same time they can professionals of bank’s we often hear that deal with customers for better business there is no HR in the branch of that is the 4. Acquiring regional talent will be the key main problem. The lower level staff has function for regional HR managers lesser problems of the HR being not present 5. Will give better governance and at the particular branch but as we go up developing of suitable HR policies will be to top level management the need of HR is easy. undoubtable. Many smaller problems like leave for top management professionals Opportunities for HR like Vice President regional level which can be solved at regional level will go to The major opportunity is when the regional the head office as HR is present only at HR is established by different banks. The HR that place. There is no direct interaction as must take opportunity to go to every branch many banks do not have regional HR too and interact with people and not just make surveillance from the head office. This will improve the opportunities for HR as they 20 | D Humanedge • September 2014
worked in such a sector where the talent 4. With franchises the control and The management is most difficult. governance is easy nationalized External employee management Disadvantages or the 1. With only induction training in most of government The sales of the credit cards, debit cards banks like and opening of accounts outside the bank the banks the external employee know State Bank are given to franchises. So the people you less about the product of India will often see at these places will not be there in 2. No proper training and understanding the payroll of the banks. These franchises about Bank as whole enjoy a have different names like sales associates, 3. They are not responsible to bank and position of selling agents etc…Most of the private hence various mistakes will be spilled superiority banks give these services to franchises so this will bring down the profitability of in terms of that there will be less staff in their payroll the bank. availability to maintain. These franchises will be paid 4. The major intellectual capital who can of talent contact amount and the employees from sell more is missing with the bank as them will have nominal pay from the owners these external employees can use their as the of the franchise. There will be introduction knowledge of product with nay bank employees training to their offers and services and enjoy job the qualification is also not so important These are very common issues pointed security for selection of these people. There will not and will be be regular training for these people about in banking sector. These are also the interested the products of the bank along with their in working marketing staff. So informally we can say opportunities for HR professionals. If there with one of these are external employees. the India’s is HR to train the sales agents there will be Let us consider the working of these fastest franchises or sales associates. These much improvement in profitability of the growing franchises will be offered 4% commission on sales of loans of any type. When the banks. Direct interaction continuously with bank. agent sells a loan of about 80 Lakh rupees the franchise will earn about 3.4 Lakh the employees will solve their problems and rupees. The salary of the sales person will be about 5-6 thousand with a travel allowance make then concentrate more on work and of about 2-3 thousand. These persons will usually be the recommended persons of the also retain them. To acquire better talent proprietor. So considering the maintenance of office and other things there will be they should search locally who know about profit of 2 Lakh rupees. These sales persons usually will be efficient in getting the targets the market for that they should work closely completed. But without proper training they may make mistakes like for NRI loan forms with the bank. Many major banks have and other instances. This will make the loan approval delayed due to which the person innovative HR practices but they should work may not recommend to any other person to take loan. If the case had been opposite the from the bottom to top level equally and only NRI would have recommended to few others and it will bring more business to the bank. this will give the HR good opportunities and Importance in banking. Before people forget banks have HR they should work innovatively to work on the existing opportunities and in DHE creating new ones. What are the advantages and disadvantages for the banks? Advantages 1. There will be more staff for marketing and selling and less staff for paying and on payroll 2. Not much cost on training these people as it is franchise who trains them than the main bank 3. Cheaper services and does not required to be managed September 2014 • D Humanedge | 21
HR Role in reputation leadership The corporate are looking for new styles of leadership to make themselves Leader in the market. CEO’s are chosen for the same purpose to lead with new style. The corporate leadership is a strategy decided and implemented by the Board of company. The importance of choosing appropriate leadership at the top to lead the way for market leadership made way to Reputation Leadership. 22 | D Humanedge • September 2014
What is expected from CEO? The Brand-Reputation Connection Reputation The Brand is owned by Company and Leadership Defining & Managing Reputation is owned by Stake Holders. The Communicating Financial importance of HR in Brand-Reputation refers Resources Connection comes from internal stake primarily to Strategy holders and employees who are responsible a company’s for creating brand value for any Assuring Attracting organization. The employee satisfaction and brand Execution and Aligning their Interaction with external customers positioning the Talent are of great value to this chain of reputation strength creation. determined by sales and The employee Perspective is very consumer important in creating Reputation and Brand familiarity. for any organization. The role of HR is very These are managed with the help of COO, critical in building the Employee Brand. In CMO and in few companies the attracting present days we call it as Employee Branding people and aligning talent is performed by which is practices in many organizations. CHR (Chief Human Resource officer). The main Aim of this is to make the employee Satisfied which will result in What is Reputation leadership? Customers Satisfaction and ultimately the final goal of Branding will be achieved. To There are few definitions given and followed build an overall brand it is very important by leaders in different organizations. The that HR should build employee branding Term Reputation Leadership is originated with their policies. from Marketing and Advertising arena. It refers primarily to a Employee organisation Customer company’s brand positioning Perspective culture, valure Perspective strength determined by sales and consumer familiarity. & strategy Reputation definition For the Organization: reputation Salary Corporate Price is an intangible asset that: Career Brand Quality Culture Service • That offers a promise of Symbols performance Communications • Can be used to shape Behaviour expectations and perceptions about the Satisfaction Satisfaction company’s differentiation and ability to meet needs Reputation Reputation compared to competitors For Stakeholders: reputation is the belief that an organization is Retation/ Trust Trust Turnover distinguished from its peers: Attraction • To the extent that stakeholders believe that the behaviors and communications of How Employee branding is Defined the organization resonate with their and Need for Employee Branding? needs and interests and are better than competitive offerings, they will Employee branding is the image of an be influenced to behave toward the organization for the people working in the organization in desirable ways organization. It is this reputation that the • The ability of the firm to companies make of themselves inside their consistently distinguish itself from premises that are also carried outside to the competitors over time creates a customers, the clients and also the others “halo effect” that provides greater who are internal and external stake holders resilience to difficulties versus of the company. Hence, one can say that competitors. within the company, employee branding is September 2014 • D Humanedge | 23
five P’s: done to attract the employees, and also for by strategy firms as an “umbrella” Purpose, their subsequent retention in times to come term Principles, so as to improve the company’s image of • Organizational brand is interrelated People, employee branding. with reputation—a good reputation Processes requires that the organization have There are two key trends that are a well considered and actionable and bringing the need for employee branding to corporate brand Performance the forefront. Firstly, in the service economy, 5. Brand and Reputation Management are key for the employees are the carriers of the are typically focused on brand. The brand promise to the customers communications to external measuring therefore has implications on staff training, stakeholders: Issues: Reputation KRAs, reward mechanisms etc. Secondly, the • Actions more than communications Leadership employee cynicism is on the rise and for the build reputation organization to have a motivated work force, • Employees are the most important it would have to create a good internal brand stakeholder group for any experience as well. organization • There is often a failure to understand Six Leadership Challenges/Issues that relationships build value for Reputation Leadership customer service and stakeholder relations are often the points in non 1. Boards and CEOs feel unprepared for consumer products companies at managing reputation risk: Issues: which brand is defined at reputation • The insurance company, AON, is built surveyed 360 global CEOs on risk 6. Brand and Reputation Management concerns in 2007 are too important to be left to any one • The #1 concern of 31 categories of function: Issues: risk presented was Reputation Risk • Brand and reputation management 48% of CEOs felt their company was must be holistic, or enterprise wide ill prepared for reputation risk we need to integrate across the • Boards recognize the criticality of organization and down through risk management and are engaged in strategic business units and regions the review of risk issues • Boards need to be focused on reputation since it drives or 2. Companies often look to Corporate diminishes value and not simply Advertising, Corporate Social delegate this to management Responsibility, Crisis Management and Philanthropy as reputation Measuring Reputation Leadership management: Issues: • These are tactics, not strategy; The Reputation Leadership can be measured corporate leadership is expected to be by the five P’s: Purpose, Principles, People, strategic Processes and Performance. These five will • CEOs need reputation and associated effect organizational effectiveness and hence risk to be managed strategically, as the Reputation Leadership. one would manage other risks (e.g., market, capital, legal, etc.) HR has a major role to play as the policies made by them will create an impact on 3. Reputation has not been clearly People and also on Performance. They have defined: Issues: to recruit right people into the organization, • We cannot manage or measure Train them and empower them to become reputation if we do not know what it is more self directed teams to achieve results. • Without clarity, reputation becomes a “catch‐all” phase or a substitute So, it narrow downs to the point that if term for public relations or corporate you want to achieve Reputation Leadership advertising you have to empower the HR of your • Now becoming used as a euphemism organization as they have two P’s in the for search engine optimization measurement One is to bring right people and second is to measure the performance of 4. Communications professionals often the people which will bring results at the end eschew the term brand, associating it of the Business day. with marketing and products: Issues: • Brand is better understood than is DHE reputation by management because it is taught in business schools and used 24 | D Humanedge • September 2014
The First 20 Hours Malcolm Gladwell’s advice of 10000 hours of deliberate practice for developing expert-level performances may put off many who feel pressed of time in this demanding world. Wouldn’t it be great to acquire new skills with reasonable expertise in just about 20 hours, which means only 60-90 minutes of practice every day? The First 20 Hours is written by the skill to be learnt. During this research Leadership Josh Kaufman, the author of the phase, one may notice sub-skills that may & Learning is international bestseller – The be listed or talked about extensively. His indispensable Personal MBA. In this book, he has proposed opinion is that such sub-skills are important to each other rapid skill acquisition principles through and so one needs to learn them first. He which he argues that new skills can be also suggests that we identify ways to John F Kennedy learnt to a reasonable perfection in 20 hours. enable swift feedback so that it speeds up He maintains that all of us have learnt many our learning curves. Research also helps to skills in our lifetime and in a much shorter identify target performance levels. time. So, there has to be some other way. He not only has proposed simple steps but also Remove barriers to practice has proved it by trying it himself. In a year, he has learnt six new skills and it is amazing Any distraction like television, people to hear him play Ukulele on You Tube, one of disturbances, internet, phone and pets need the six skills that he picked up. to be removed during the time of practice and to create an environment in which it The book is divided into nine chapters. is viable to put our 100% in these practice The first chapter talks about Kaufman as a sessions. learning junkie. This chapter connects with readers who may want to acquire new skills Practice at least 20 hours but feel they have no time. The second and third chapters talk about the principles of It is important to put in at least 20 hours of rapid skill acquisition and effective learning. deliberate practice. Emphasize on quality as From chapters 4-9, Kaufman provides his well as quantity using spaced repetition and own case studies of how he either acquired reinforcement techniques. Practice, if done new skills or reskilled existing ones. At 2-3 hours before sleep, is very productive as the end of each chapter, he summarizes the consolidation of learning happens in sleep. different principles he used. I have applied these principles in In learning a skill, most of the hurdles we face are in the initial stages. He believes learning to drive a car with fair comfort and that these hurdles are more emotional than intellectual as we are afraid that we might it has worked for me. Elated by my success, look stupid when we fail. To not quit at this stage, he stresses that one needs to commit to I checked out Kaufman’s blog and was at least 20 hours of deliberate practice before they start. Steps that he proposes are: delighted to find many success stories there. Deconstruct In today’s business situation, need for Break skills into small learnable pieces learning is constant. Like Pamela Slim, rather than seeing it as a whole. Identify those parts of the skill which enables quick author of ‘Escape from Cubicle Nation’ learning. Practice these important skills first one by one. says, “With the amount of information and Enable self-correction change in the world today, the person who Research to identify tools that enable your can adapt and learn the most quickly will be learning. These can be books, videos, articles or discussions with practitioners on the most successful.” DHE Wishing you a speedy learning! (Disclaimer from the author: The views represented here are purely personal) Review by: Ms Rama Narayanmurthy, Manager-CHRD, Wipro Ltd., She is a Learning & Development professional with 14+ years in the field. She has managed trainings and competencies for large teams. She is currently a L&D professional with Wipro Technologies. September 2014 • D Humanedge | 25
Growth in terms of position or salary? The job The task of establishing HR was given HR department. This made Suresh write responsibilities to Suresh and when he started out in a proposal for HR department for the were also quite Ultra Violet Colors Pvt. Ltd, he was organization. The director of the company usual and not very much surprised to see the scenario agreed to the fact that HR department quite effective in the company. Ultra Violet Colors Pvt. will lead to major developments in his to bring rapid Ltd. was a 13 year old well established organization which had not happened in the changes in the company. It manufactured color pigments. past 13 years. As a young HR professional he mindset of the Another two companies were established was quite excited with the idea that he would which were partially dependent on it for get a chance to apply all that he had studied employees raw materials. The situation in all the three in his management course, in this company. organizations looked similar, except the work Director assured that he will be given all the force numbers. So once Suresh started the required support from the staff and himself. work, he understood that he had a huge task The organization was well established and in ahead of him in establishing HR in these the top 10 companies of the industry. It was organizations. well developed and supported by marketing department, R&D which was very important What is the situation in for their product development, accounts, the organization? dispatch and production department. They all had their individual responsibilities well It all started when Suresh read “please known and the working was efficient. They return this card to HR department at had two units and a centralized system for the time of leaving the organization” almost all the departments. They had the on one of his friend’s ID card. He knew top management as directors and lower level that the organization did not have any employees, with workers working on shop floor and other executive level employees working in different departments. The employee to work ratio seemed to be healthy at the first instinct. When the company was reviewed from outside, it seemed that everything was well placed. On the first day Suresh went for a normal chat with a computer executive who had joined about a year back and had good reputation, as no one else in the organization was well versed with computers. He organized a few casual meetings with few important people which could reveal more about the organization. It revealed lack of formal job responsibilities, issues regarding working hours, and improper communication between departments. Then he reviewed the employees of different departments and made an informal organization chart with the information available. The primary observation was that there was no proper reporting system and multi reporting. The reporting was not done to those who had the required expertise and could solve problems, but to more than one person, which would magnify the problem and no immediate decision was taken. 26 | D Humanedge • September 2014
The job responsibilities were also quite reason for dissatisfaction. Suresh soon usual and not quite effective to bring rapid realized that this changes in the mindset of the employees. Suresh started to know the work of the is not just about It was observed that the director had the designations more responsibilities of solving shop different employees and their experience for floor problems even after establishing but the other the organization in the market. No giving them designations. Along with this benefits were communication about the responsibilities of going hand in one department was shared with the other the framework, the company’s HR policies hand with the which resulted in interference and conflict. designations The primary observations were quite easy like allowances for marketing department, to understand for Suresh. He derived some basic responsibilities to assign according number of leaves, type of reporting that to the departments. These were assigned to only those at the lower level as some of were to be followed were also designed. them were common for directors and the top management people. Finally the organization chart was made with The other two organizations left similar designations and proper reporting structure impression on Suresh as the employees working for both the organizations are where no person had to go for dual reporting. located in the same premises. This made things easy for Suresh and after making In a meeting this was placed before the responsibilities, informed the director for the same. Director asked for organization director. He looked to be unsatisfied with the chart as that would make things better for his understanding and also will ensure that there kind of designations given to the employees. is no overlapping. The other major issue which came up was the After two weeks of preparing responsibilities, Suresh then started with reporting where the director was excluded in the organization chart. While drawing the existing chart with help from senior people some departments for reporting. But at the of department he was astonished to see that new kind of organization type which he same time the employees were quite happy had planned would never exist. The most senior persons who were working with with the designations and felt that their work organization from past 10 years were placed along with the newly joined, with medium will be recognized if it gets approved. The salary differences. Every department had huge gaps between the top management and marketing employees were happy as they lower level employee even though the lower level employees had good experience with would get better travel and food allowances the organization. The production department had general manger at the top and followed according to their designations. But the by supervisor. Even after 12 years of working with the same organization, employees in main person who had to approve was in a marketing department were still designated as marketing executives. Suresh soon realized disapproval mood. He said that this would be that this is not just about the designations but the other benefits were going hand in extra burden to the organization as it created hand with the designations. The other two organizations were not excluded from this. pay grade and new recruits would also be The major issue about the designation was that the employees were dissatisfied that given same salary once they are finalized. they did not have growth in terms of position even after so many years and if they have to This would also create differences between move out for better opportunities it would be difficult for them. Being treated just above the departments when they start to compare the newly joined in the organization was a major designations and experiences. Other major thing was that once these were approved, the hike in salary issue will also be raised by the employees. But Suresh was firm that experience should count and the reporting system would bring clarity to the work, ease in decision making and solving the problem. He wanted to bring to notice that the dispatch clerk which was an old designation cannot be maintained when employees give more importance to their growth in position. Not many ways are available for Suresh as once the designations are not approved, the policies also need to be changed and the image of bringing change to organization as HR manager would not work before the employees. The expectations on him had grown as he brought new responsibilities for the employees which made their work not only easy but conflict free from the other departments. What are the ways ahead for Suresh to get this plan approved by the Director and employees of the organization? Which solution will be better for employees in terms of achieving growth in positions or growth in salary with same DHE positions? September 2014 • D Humanedge | 27
HDaickmmaenn&sOilodhnams’sof Motivating Potential A job high in Motivation between core job characteristics, Employee’s motivating psychological states and key outcomes. What leads people to work well and hard, to What is Hackman & Oldham’s potential must persist and overcome obstacles, to engage Five Dimensions of Motivating be high on at with and be enthusiastic about their work? Potential theory. least one of However, the job characteristics receiving the threejob the most research attention to date have been Job satisfaction is an emotional reaction to those described by the Job Characteristics an employee’s work situation. This can be defined as an overall impression about one’s characteristics Model and Job Diagnostic Survey developed job in terms of specific aspects of the job (e.g., that prompt by Hackman and Oldham. According to compensation, autonomy, colleagues) and it experienced Hackman and Oldham, the Job Diagnostic can be connected with specific results, such Survey has been designed to diagnose job as productivity. Job satisfaction is crucial to meaningfulness... characteristics prior to any effort to redesign the pursuit of happiness and well-being. a job. This model remains significant Herzberg (1959; 1966) developed two-factor theory of job satisfaction: “motivation” till now because of the inclusion of job and “hygiene”. According to Herzberg’s theory, if handled properly, hygiene issues characteristics that looks at the relationship cannot motivate workers but can minimize dissatisfaction. Hygiene factors include between core job characteristics, employee’s company policies, supervision, salary, interpersonal relations and working psychological states and key outcomes. conditions. They are variables related to the worker’s environment. A method of describing jobs, originally By contrast, a worker’s job satisfaction developed by Hackman and Oldham (1976), is influenced by factors associated with the work itself or by outcomes directly by analyzing its key dimensions, how these derived from it such as the nature of their jobs, achievement in the work, promotion contribute to the psychological states of opportunities, and chances for personal growth and recognition. Because such the job holder, and how these states in turn factors were associated with high levels of job satisfaction, Herzberg, a major affect the outcomes for the job holder of researcher, referred to them as “motivation factors”. doing the work. Hackman and Oldham broke “The job This model remains significant till itself ” into five dimensions. They say that any given job can be analyzed, utilizing these five now because of the inclusion of job dimensions for its motivating potential. The job can then be redesigned to eliminate what characteristics that looks at the relationship is bothering the workers. Listed below are the five dimensions of motivating potential: Core job dimensions three elements defined by Hackman and Oldham in their job characteristics model, which enable job design to be undertaken in a structured and rational way. They are Skill variety, Task identity, Task significance. 1. Skill variety: the degree to which 28 | D Humanedge • September 2014
a job includes a variety of activities Core job Critical outcomes and therefore requires the job holder characterstics psychological to use a number of different skills Work motivation and talents. Skill variety states Growth satisfaction 2. Task identity: the degree to which a Task identity General satisfaction job requires completion of a whole and Task significance Meaningfulness Work effectiveness identifiable piece of work. It is about doing a job from beginning to end. Anatomy Responsibility 3. Task significance: the degree to Feedback Knowledge which a job has an impact on the lives from job of results or work of other people, whether within the organization or in the Individual difference external environment. Knowledge and skill 4. Meaningfulness at work: combining Content satisfaction the above three factors: the core Growth need strength job dimensions Skill variety, Task identity, Task significance together characteristics that prompt experienced Growth-Need shape the extent to which work is Strength refers felt to be meaningful, valuable and meaningfulness, and high on both autonomy to the desire of worthwhile to the individual. the individual to 5. Autonomy: the degree to which a job and feedback, to create conditions which provides freedom, independence to the obtain individual. foster all three critical psychological states. professional 6. Feedback: help people to form an growth and image of themselves and how well The overall motivating potential of a job achievement. they are doing. The skill variety, task identity, and task can be determined by the computation significance contributed to the experienced meaningfulness of the work while autonomy of a motivating potential score, which is accounted for experienced responsibility, and feedback established knowledge of work calculated as illustrated above. results. A job high in motivating potential must be high on at least one of the three job This study examined the role of job dimension in determining the motivating potential score of few jobs. Few colleagues took the survey using the job diagnostic survey and the scores were compared. The assessment revealed that the job dimensions highly influenced the motivating potential DHE score. NO. OCCUPATION Skill Variety Task Identity Task Significance Autonomy Feedback Total MPS 1 HR Executive 18 18 18 19 17 90 5814 2 Stores Executive 17 19 19 18 13 83 4290 3 Accountant 19 18 20 19 14 90 5054 4 Time Keeper 17 16 19 18 15 85 4680 How to Score Motivating Potential Score = (Skill Varity + Task identity + Task significance) / 3 x Autonomy x Feedback • As a rule, the lower job end-to-end. However, • Below 4,075 means that • They should establish the scoring dimensions (normally, it appears that they all do your work does not offer channels to develop extrinsic anything below 15) should be not get proper and timely much to satisfy you, use your feedback, which comes from investigated to see if the job feedback. talents or give you feedback outside the job, such as praise environment can be improved. • In all above cases on your performance of it. from manager when a difficult • In the test scores of self the Motivating Potential • The Feedback situation has been handled. and others it clearly appears Scores are 4,075 or above, mechanisms should be • Even intrinsic feedback that above job holders are which means that all of improved in this organization can be developed when happy and motivated with them feel that their work is by coaching key managers people are aware of their own the Task Variety, Task Identity enjoyable and meaningful, in the art of giveing and performance, recognize their and Task Significance. It they feel responsible and receiving feedback. The strengths and weaknesses also appears that they enjoy knowledgeable about their feedback culture is developed and take appropriate action complete freedom and work. through proper systems and to modify them as they feel autonomy in doing their processes. appropriate. September 2014 • D Humanedge | 29
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