Generation Gap

Probably the new age term which every one wants to use is Generation Gap. Earlier there was a Generation Gap for every 10-15 years but now it seems there is a generation Gap for every 2-3 years and some interesting Observations I made which cause this gap show that this is so called Gap has nothing to do with Individuals but rather with the Economy and the society which has the ultimate influence on it. this i can say because

The factors which define a generation are more to do with the physical objects and things around which an individual has grown or got used to

1) The generation i grew up can be associated with things like Shaktimaan and the Landline phone

2) For earlier people it could be the commentary of cricket on radio of and so on...

What we can strangely observe is that after 1991 in India is that this Generation gap has been expanding faster than the universe in outer space. This i believe is mostly due to the economic reforms which were brought in like a steroid to boost up a flagging economy but what it did not consider was the human effects of it can do. This i say because after 1993 the people who have come look like they have been struck up in some vortex and this has been because by the time they reach maturity and start associating with certain products or individuals it may cease to exist.

With shorter product life cycles and high growth for innovation suddenly the parameters which was used to understand the individuals has slowly been fading. people are so curious to know about Gen Y because they have never been able to study them well.

One of the key components of Gen Y is Gratification and to an extent even attrition represents gratification to me.

The individuals are so pressed for Gratification that if your organization is not providing they don't mind going to another organization to get it. Which can explain the reason why there is a high exodus of top performers and that is because they feel the gratification which is long awaited won't come so being a go getter they move towards it.

The point of generation Gap fits in as we are confused under where we come. When i observe the "KID" next doors and the language he speaks am shocked as its only laced with profanity and he believes no one understands him in the whole world and this kid is barely 8. this kind of depressing things are a big concern as i may have to select and employ these people and its going to be a unique challenge. To sum it up this cartoon speaks volumes



Cheers

Arvind !!

The Ewing theory

I am gonna love this post as it mixes two of my favourite topics Sports and Human resources.

If we are talking on sportswriters there is one person who i always love for his honest opinion and straight from heart approach and for his Slapstick and sarcastic humor. It's none other than Bill Simmons. One of the top sports writers in USA.

A specific area of his writing which i was admired was his creation of the "Patrick Ewing theory"

On the outlay it looks it makes absolute no sense as it talks about the team morale after losing a star most of them should go down and depressed but it rather points out at how teams often perform better because there is no burden of a star and having to play with the star.

Its more so often when you have a star the team depends on him to perform and everyone may not come up with their true skills and may not perform to their max. potential but without a recognized star the following things can happen

1) All the players can consider themselves integral and have to step up their effort

2) There is a huge strength when playing without a Star as he he/she can draw the major spotlight and thus if the team feels dependent on one individual they can go down but here everyone play out of their skin thus it may not be easy to identify who will step up for the day

3) The team is motivated to fight as everyone has written them off

4) The fearlessness of every individual will make the team better on most of the occasions

I think the easiest example for us people to relate would be the T-20 world cup in South Africa where the team won the World Cup without it’s so called big stars led by a rookie captain and players who were on the fringes of the squad and people who were making comeback a package which proved unstoppable on its day.

The best part about this theory is that it speaks volume on how a team needs to be. In today's context when organizations prefer teams working on key projects this rule could shape up things.

There have been organizations which i know have tried to implement the normal grading system inside a team. In a hypothetical world this theory could put normal grading even in a team to find out the high performers and the non performers but if there is a team which is working on this level then there is a problem. The high performer of a team could be a relative high performer among other while if we compare the other high performers they may not be of that level. Thus this creates controversy for high performing teams

It’s a great topic for discussion!! And am waiting for eager responses for or against it :)

Cheers

Arvind !!

parity

Hey am back after a hiatus !

The so in thing nowadays seem to be recruiting which organizations are doing in full flow. The level of recruitment in one of the leading outsourcing organizations is so high that they had to conduct interviews in the "CAFETERIA" and even in the parking lot.

But is it alright for this kind of a surge in recruitment ? We had the huge lull of 12-14 months where no one was ready to hire people and suddenly this mad scramble which will ultimately lead to over staffing as every is hiring forecasting demand. Companies like software giants are hiring close to 30,000 people next quarter and one thing this will lead to is the over staffing of organizations.

Its shame we can't find a balanced level which is optimum for the organization and HR is the one who gets stuck in this context because

1) When it is a boom the people just want employees regardless of other factors of salary and when it delays HR take the blame.

2) The recruitment goes on in such an odd fashion it is hard to comprehend and get a grip of situation people are focussed with that other activities of interaction take a backseat

3) To get the best you have to offer the best and in many cases the HR's offer to a candidate looks really nice but it may not be in essence of what is there so it needs parity.

4) Finally in the normal grading for every 100 people brought in 10 have to go out. Thus it is the HR who has to give the bad news of asking these employees to leave which is a shame.

The worst part to all these things is organizations will hire consultants to suggest their opinions and ultimately end up not following them which always confuses me.

Still waiting to find the organization which has a stable level.

Cheers

Arvind

Opinion

In the recent past i saw this article

With health-coverage costs going up, especially for high-risk employees, more and more employers are looking at put smokers on the “need not apply” list. Is it legal?

The quick answer is: It seems to be legal — so far — but that depends on what state you do business in. Consider:

Federal anti-discrimination laws don’t protect smokers. So the Feds’ approach is it’s up to the employer.
There are 16 states that do have laws prohibiting employment decisions, such as hiring, based on the tobacco habits of a candidate. (But those laws usually don’t prevent employers from making life miserable for their workers who smoke — banning smoking in the workplace or charging more for health coverage are pretty much legal.)
In most states, your official application can contain a question asking if the applicant smokes. You might ask that to make determinations about the cost of health coverage. What if the applicant lies by checking the “no” box on the application? You might be justified in using the lie to refuse to hire or to later fire the person if hired. Laws vary from state to state on that one.
At least one employer has tested the waters and refuses to hire smokers. Memorial Hospital in Chattanooga, TN, doesn’t hire new employees who use any kind of tobacco products, on or off duty. How does the hospital do it? Nicotine screenings are part of Memorial’s standard drug test for new hires.

This talks about the legality or the possibility of not hiring smokers but i think we have take some time to deliberate if it is ethical ?

1) Most of the smokers in our country are from Urban areas who know its effects.
2) Is it fair to discriminate someone based on certain of their habits ?
3) Now its with smokers how about consumption of Certain types of food tomorrow and so on to speak.
4) Rather than not allowing them to work or increasing their Insurance cap is it not easy to have an employee assistance policy to help them break out of the addiction.
5) And like any addict the more you try to stop him more intense will be his urge.

I think we as HR can play the role of helping them out in coming out of this habit.

Most of them smoke when they do not have some work or when they are left free if its possible to engage them in some work and delay their dependence on nicotine for ideas it could work in the long run.

Agreed that nicotine calms down stress and for many people gives ideas but isn't it making a person be Dependant on it ?

But the tough question is that many of the HR folks also have a liking for nicotine and when these kinds of policies come where are they going to hide their faces ?

Lots to think

Cheers

Arvind !!

"HR : The change manager"

A beautiful session which focused on the role of HR post recession some of the key learning’s from the key speakers are

Mr. B.Santhanam - Saint Gobain

1) To work in realism and not swing between blind optimism and excessive pessimism.
2)10 million people get added to Indian workforce every year and out of that only 10,000 are an HR professional which creates a great divide between divide demand and supply.
3) Hr is a body of practice and it’s about "common" common sense which people fail to use.
4) As HR it’s crucial we should sell values and credibility and to go back to the books use the knowledge as they hold a lot of value and use it for processes like restructuring.

Swami Sukhbodhananda

1) To respond to a situation and to react.
2) Reaction leads to stress and makes us lose opportunities.
3) Dissatisfaction of past leads to distaste of present and distrust of future. Make sure "Failure is the fertilizer for success in the future".
4) Be a part of the solution and don't be victim to a problem.
5) Winning in a rat race won’t make you great. It will make you a rat.
6) Don't work for happiness work from happiness. Have Body will, Emotional will, Spiritual will, Intellectual will.

Adil Malia - Essar Group
1) We should work at punctuated equilibriums.
2) Development happens in periods of turbulence.
3) Do not build an environment which can last build an environment which can last the change.

B.Ramamchandran – Motorola India

1) HR to business should be like coffee beans to hot water which can spread the aroma and colour while not losing its own colour and smell.
2) Hr is like an elephant's Mahout.
3) If you cannot face a beast steer around it.
4) Have eyes on profit and Cost.

Ravishankar – HCL Tech
1) Pampered for 6-7 months in boom screwed for 2 years by recession.
2) Change is painful for everyone.
3) Key on value addition and value integration.
4) Lack of quality professors in India is one of the main reasons of Unemployability.
5) Do not aim at quarter targets but a long term targets.

G.D. Sharma BGR Energy
1)4M's of Performance Management System.
Management of system
Motivating the employees
Mindset of the Organization
Measurement of the reports
2) PMS depends on quality of leadership, Quality of excellence, a set of ethics and guiding principles.

Manmohan Buttani - Fiserv
1) Most of attrition happens because of manager and Career path.
2) Reduction of subjectivity in PMS to 20-30 %.
3) Linking individual to organizational Objectives.
4) Proper and efficient feedback.

Aparna balakkur – Yahoo India
1) PMS is not a report card.
2) Try to have positions ready when people are also ready mismatch will lead to attrition.
3) People are not plug and play professionals so it will take time to settle into the system.

Surojit Moitra - CSC
1) Work is not with us but with clients.
2) Client should be a business partner and it’s good to compare PMS system of organization with clients for best solutions.
3) People have to take up what they are given and not what they want.

Narayanan - Raymond’s
1) HR is like Doctor.
2) Identifying talent ahead of time is a major issue.
3) Succession is becoming a major issue.

K.S.Bakshi - Indigo

1) Hr should be a mirror and sounding bow to the HR
2) Have to work on things as promised
3) Unions arise because managements are not sincere
4) Physical connect with employees is crucial

K.Raghavendra – Infosys BPO

1) Success begins with strategy and strategy leads to success
2) HR are happy in cocoons have to get functional expertise
3) To drive business and not align with it
4) We as HR have to decrease the Use of Jargons
5) We have to move from numbers to analysis

Is Pareto principle possible instead of normal ranking ?

Over the course of past couple of weeks there have been a lot of discussions on Performance appraisal systems in most of the organizations and how a Bell curve which is commonly used creates disparity and to make things clear let us first explain what is a bell curve



Example of Bell curve

Bell curve is a normal curve which believes that in any normal grouping that there is one extreme which is highly efficient and the other extreme is highly inefficient while the majority is rated as average. This system does not make sense to me as what is the great act when you want to term your employees as average and as there are extremes only some should get into it which becomes a source of power. But ultimately one thing which strikes me is the fact that nothing in the world is normal if it were then we would not need a performance appraisal! But we may not fall in the levels as expected and thus the fact of saying someone is average and poor does not seem good to me.

A strange idea occurred as I was reading "Fooled by Randomness" by Nicholas Nassim Taleb. Who suggested the Pareto principle as a much better option to the normal curve and seriously thinking how it can help in the performance appraisal process.

For starters Pareto's principle also known as 80-20 rule talks that 80 % of problems come from 20 % of causes or 80 % of sales come from 20 % of clients. How this can be applied to performance appraisal is in a simple way. Take the performance levels of all the employees of a certain cadre or level and find out the top 20 who have contributed the most and see if the rule does work over there if it does reward them as extraordinary and congratulate others for coming in the 80 % but make them strive heard to come to the 20 % group and as there is no negativity involved it will motivate the people to work harder.

Just an idea which I hope could decrease the use of normal curve

Cheers

Arvind

IT is white collared manufacturing

It is often advised in HR that you learn about human resources and its true shape only after working in a manufacturing sector.

It is even truer for students like us who are from a background which is enriched in law, counselling and psychology. But suddenly with other sectors emerging sectors like IT and Retailing who can pay more people are at crossroads if it is worth going to manufacturing sector where the pay may be comparatively lesser?

In a recent conversation with a senior practitioner who has had diverse experience mentioned that in today's world unlike 25 years back when they started it is not a must to go to manufacturing as it is not an IR dominated industry like what it was. He advised us to go to any organization where learning is high which should be the criteria and the key points he said were

1. In most of the manufacturing sectors today the staffs are outsourced.
2. Most companies have no union at all
3. Manufacturing projects are coming up slowly as we are shaping up to be a knowledge based economy.

His most crucial point was the way he remarked that today's IT sector is actually White collared manufacturing sector in terms of grievance counseling and earlier it was management who used to threaten staff to leave now management begs staff to stay. Manufacturing is not what it used to be where you had to keep a straight face to both parties any malice on any side could cost you a lot.

For people who may not be familiar manufacturing is one of the most challenging areas for a HR to work and the incidents of HR officers having lost life thanks to violent reactions is not unheard of. Unlike Manufacturing where people may have been tested for patience in terms of dealing the HR job in IT sector is more like firefighting where you have to buckle up pressure from the business heads so in essence it makes sense to call "IT A WHITE COLLARED MANUFACTURING JOB"