Employability

The hottest topic when it comes to recruiting and talent management is the term employability and quite rightfully. The current economic slowdown gave a good idea of that most of the companies spurred on by the growth recruited in large numbers and suddenly when demand plummeted so did the manpower but one thing which needs to be kept in mind was that the organization tried to ensure it had its best performing employees and thus the employability issue came even more under scrutiny.

I have not been a spectator of the recently released movie "3 IDIOTS" but from clips I could see it taking it out on the education system which has largely been at fault and am one of its most vociferous critiques, But do we at sometimes needs to question where does the problem of employability arise from ? Is it from the bottom i.e. in the education system or from the top which is the organizations who employ people?
Now this may sound outrageous but have we ever wondered during recruitment we are always needed to follow a salary bandwidth and other compliances that may make us amnesiac to the quality of the employees. During this downturn many organizations as a process of cost reduction settled for employees with lower skill sets and lesser proportions of employability because they demanded lesser pay and if this trend continued in cases where organizations have not shelled out the right amount on good candidates then how will you get top notch employees and once you get into the so called “CHALLEGA” mode then systems follows leading to reduction in skill set.
This is personally my opinion where i believe organizations should set a standard by probably ensuring candidates have the right arsenal of talents to enter into the fields and to ensure they are happy with the basic needs of money are met.
Cheers
Arvind

Facebook the new menace

Networking is the need of the hour and especially for HR but this new report released by ASSOCHAM (The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry) shows how productivity is going down thanks to "FACEBOOK"

According to the report

Facebook is becoming a problem for employers at offices in India, as employees have started spending so much time on the social
networking site that it is beginning to affect productivity, a new survey has revealed.

The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Assocham) have found in their survey that office staff on average spend an hour a day on sites like Facebook, resulting in a loss of productivity measuring 12.5 per cent.

The study noted: "Close to 12.5 per cent of productivity of human resource in corporate sector is misappropriated each day since a vast majority of them while away their time accessing social networking sites during the office hours."

Seemingly, the workers use Orkut, Facebook, Myspace and Linkedin for "romancing".

"As a matter of fact, [the] growing use of browsing sites can be dangerous for overall productivity and IT companies have already installed software to restrict its use," the BBC News quoted Assocham secretary general DS Rawat as saying.

As part of the study, a total of 4,000 employees between the ages of 21 and 60 from different cities in India including Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Surat, Mumbai (Bombay), Pune, Chandigarh, Lucknow and Kanpur, were questioned.

It was observed that nearly half of office employees accessed Facebook during work time.

Moreover, four in every 10 workers built their entire Orkut or Facebook profile at office.

Also, 83 per cent of the employees think there is no harm surfing at work during office hours.


This report puts one question to me is whether access to Facebook, Myspace and other social networking websites is allowed in organizations? If yes does it put to rest the myth that these websites were banned which may encourage more employees to use it using proxy links or is it access via mobile phones? And the usage of these websites for romancing? I think this puts a serious question on the long standing question of employability. If people cannot resist the temptation of romancing while in office through a social networking website then how trusty can this employee be ?

Questions to be answered

Cheers

Arvind

Organizational romances

It is but obvious that in any organization where a large number of people work for sparks to fly between and flirting to go on. There has been a huge question pondering me was “is it alright if the staff of your organization to display romance of their private life with someone of your same organization itself into the office premises.”

Does the organization allow couples to work in the same office premises? Many organizations ensure that both husband and wife should not work in the same organization even if it were different locations and offices.
Is it advantageous or is it outrageous?
My major question of concern was as a HR is it a moral policing job we must take up trying to stop the romance or let it be as it is?

Some advantages of it can be

1)The productivity could increase given if their services were used aptly
2)Staff absence could go down
3)Will give a good impression about the organization

While the demerits could be

1)It could lead to gossiping among other employees which can hinder the group morale
2)It could hinder productivity
3)It could reduce social capital as people will be preoccupied with their partners and may forget others
The Jury is still out on what could be the impact but the question still wrangles in my minds do we have the job of moral policing?
Cheers
Arvind

Matrix management

There is famous saying "The farther you pull back the forward you go" and this is something i can relate in context with the matrix management. Fredrick Winslow Taylor created the functional foremanship where one person had to report to many superiors for various needs. This concept was thrashed by the purists saying it violates unity of command and it was thrown out and thus in the past few years we have this Matrix system of reporting where a person may have to report to more than one boss, If we look at the sheer structure of functioning of this style it is atleast to say the least inspired from Taylor's model and that made me think on certain things about this matrix style its Pro's and Con's

Advantages

1)Loss of communication through channels can be decreased
2)Direct interaction with clients and customers
3)The employee knows what is required by the customer and can modify accordingly

Now to the critical part its flaws

1)The communication if in Oral may not be the same for different reporting heads as it depends on the interpretation of the superior
2)It cause conflicts especially in certain conservative Indian organizations
3)The need for competent employable individuals for ushering in this kind of system

Now if we analyze it we can easily see its like a dynamite !!! give it to the right guy who may use it for cracking up mountains or if it ends up in the wrong hands it has deadly implication.

Cheers

Arvind

PAPA approach

The most hated and often most used word in the HR dictionary has got to be "ATTRITION" and with the economy picking up expect salary packages to go up and poaching and raiding to get in full flow. Though we can talk about this being unethical and all we have to analyze something is that if an employee is not interested in working with an organization he will move out for a new job in the same sector regardless of what is on the table for him.

in a recent conversation with one of the GM HR of a pan India organization i put forward this question and he answered and he said that most of the time this attrition is high because of a lack of proper induction of the employees into the organizational fabric and ensuring they fit in well he talked about a technique which resembled to like what a father does for a kid. It is essential to understand not all candidates who enter a job are Industry ready and it is essential to guide them it does not mean put them in training program but rather in the field of work where he should be guided in his activities he said it was like what a father does with a kid going to school

1) Like a father who needs to get the confidence of the kid that the school will help him the manager or superior needs to assure him that he can perform well and give him a buffer time for performance.

2) It is essential that like a father who drops his kid at school and guides him the manager should do essential acts that ensure confidence and help in development of skills.

3) Keep progress on his performance and like a good father coach him during the tough situation to overcome it.

These things appealed to me as it appeared to create a sense of belongingness which will help the employee to perform efficiently and thus helping his productivity to grow up and enabling him to stay with the organization. But the success of this plan depends on the temperament of manager and the employee.

Cheers

Arvind

Ideating

The past week has been quite a learning experience in terms of skill lab sessions. There have been various moments and learning’s which have groped my attention and one of those was a session on idea generation.

I could sense one thing which was very key that most of the idea's which the employees generate are considered but how many of them generate idea's and by generating we don’t only talk about getting an idea or prompting an idea but rather putting it in a framework and shaping it out so that it can upgrade any process or downsize the time in the process and an idea can be from any source and it is essential to ideate but one thing which is obligatory is to accept the ideas which most line managers are unable to, because of the work load and deadlines thus my belief is that HR can accept in helping this out this idea process because they become like the face of the organization to them and can open up to them easily but for this it is essential the HR's of the organization are in sync with the business and services to ensure they can find out employees flair for innovation

But for an idea like this to succeed it is critical that HR is a strategic part of the organization and not a support function and thus requires more skilled people with the need of the hour being not just people skills but business knowledge

Cheers

Arvind

Pranav mistry a legend

A change in topic and i was checking my mails when i saw this amazing talk by this guy called Pranav Mistry on his invention called sixth sense please watch the video its for 13 mins and regardless if you are a tech guy or not u will applaud his work