Economic downturn – Time to hire best talent

When layoffs begin to plague the economy and unemployment rises, more and more job seekers are competing for fewer and fewer jobs. While this is generally a good thing for hiring organizations, it can also be intimidating for those not used to the flood of applications they are likely to receive for open positions.

While an economic downturn is something that we never hope for, it does provide an excellent opportunity for organizations that are committed to hiring the best talent available. The following are four tips for hiring during an economic downturn.

1. Be choosy, numbers are on your side – Don’t spring for the first qualified candidate that walks through the door. You are likely to come across a number of qualified applicants who are interested in working for your organization, so broaden your selection horizons to include criteria other than just experience and education. Look at things such as passion for your organization’s industry, cultural fit within in your organization, and the presence of soft skills such as interpersonal communication, empathy, and likeability.

2. Beware of the “low-bid” – After several months of being out of work, many candidates will become desperate to find any job they can just to pay the bills. To make themselves more attractive as candidates, some of these job seekers will be willing to work for less money than their experience, education, and skills would normally demand during better economic times. While it may be tempting to hire such an individual for the perceived payroll saving they promise to offer, doing so usually costs more in the long run than the short term savings are worth. Bottom line – pay your team members what their positions are worth.

3. Wait for the best talent possible – While economic downturns are generally short lived, time is on your side. It is essential that your organization adhere to a policy of hiring the best talent it can afford, and a recession or economic downturn is no exception. While it can be tempting to hire the first person with the requisite qualifications to fill a
position that has been open for some time, hiring anything less than the best talent you can afford will ultimately rob your organization of possibility and profits. Any short term lapses in productivity will be worth it in the long term when you hire the best talent for the job.

4. Match candidates to the right jobs – It’s a sad truth, but there are thousands, if not millions of individuals who are in positions they are just not a good fit for and not passionate about. These individuals rob their employers of possibility by reducing employee morale, running up turnover costs, and killing engagement and productivity. For these reasons it is absolutely critical that you insist on hiring team members who are a good fit for the position and your organization’s culture by carefully identifying the critical accountabilities of the job as well as the mission, vision, and values of your organization and hiring candidates who are a good fit based on these criteria.

The hiring decisions that your organization makes are some of the most strategically important decisions it can make. An economic downturn, while never pleasant, offers an excellent opportunity for your organization to secure top talent and reap the benefits for years to come if done correctly. Following the tips above will greatly improve your chances of hiring success during this current economic cool down.
Source: http://www.indiaprwire.com Press release report, dated Tue, 09 Jun 2009

Ten Ways to Welcome New Employees

It’s easy to overlook new employees. Project deadlines, meetings and other responsibilities often become more important than checking in with the new hire. But welcoming new employees is important for several reasons. Not only will recruits better understand their new workplace, they will feel more comfortable and confident if their peers and supervisors make an effort to welcome them. Follow these 10 tips to ensure that your new employees feel at home in your organization.

Welcome them upon arrival. Don’t leave your new employees in the waiting room on their first day. A supervisor or co-worker should be available to greet the new hire as soon as he or she arrives. First impressions can often determine the tone of relationships, so make sure that you’re attentive and friendly.

Introduce them to others at the company. Though all of the new names might be a little overwhelming, try to introduce new employees to members of their team and other important people in the company. Also, send an email that announces new workers’ arrivals and describes some of their past experience so that veteran employees are aware of their skills and background.

Have their workstation ready. Arriving at the office to a fully functional computer, phone system and work area is definitely meaningful to new employees. Have an IT representative walk them through passwords and other technology setup procedures. If your company employs an ergonomic specialist, have that person stop by to make sure that the desk, chair and keyboard are properly configured. Be sure that news employees are comfortable, and address any concerns that they might have about the new space.

Assign work buddies. Work buddies can help recruits comfortably transition to their new professional environment. The buddy should work in the same field and be able to answer questions, explain policies and offer encouragement for the first month of a new hire’s employment.

Take them to lunch. A welcome lunch with team members and supervisors is a fun way to greet new employees. Be sure to ask new hires about diet preferences and food allergies — for instance if they are vegetarians or allergic to seafood — before making restaurant reservations.

Give them a tour of the building. New employees should be comfortable navigating the workplace. Make sure that they are familiar with important locations in the building, including bathrooms, the kitchen, and additional entrances and exits.

Explain your expectations. Review new employees’ job description and explain any additional responsibilities so that they understand your expectations. Describe the professional hierarchy within the new employee’s team — for example, who they report to and who reports to them. Finally, go over day-to-day work operations in order to help new hires prepare for the first few weeks.

Give them something to do. It’s hard to jump right in when you’re new, but it’s even worse feeling as though you aren’t needed. Make sure that new employees have a training manual to read and small, simple tasks to complete during their first few days. They will feel valued and useful but not overwhelmed.

Get the paperwork in order. Notify HR of any new hires before they arrive. Be sure that your new employees understand all of the benefits, payroll and other forms and know to whom they should direct questions.

 

Check in at the end of the day. Stop by your new employees’ workspaces at the end of each of their first few days to find out how things are going. Make sure to answer any questions, and express your pleasure at having the new hires join the company.

With these tips, you can help new employees adjust to your company. Not only will new hires will be grateful for your attention and effort, but your business will benefit from more confident and productive workers.

Source: www.hrworld.com/features by Lea Hartog on April 10, 2008.

Productivity Post – May 09

Handout_May 09

Blue Oceans in HR

 W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne, authors of the best-selling book, “Blue Ocean Strategy”  revolunised the concept of business thinking  when they suggested that successful businesses can be created by making the competition irrelevent rather than fighting against it. A Blue Ocean thus refers to unchartered territory within the same competitive sphere or a new value proposition that completely alters the competitive landscape 

In his article in CXO today, C. Mahalingam, Executive Vice President & Chief People Officer with Symphony Services Corporation, gives examples of some of the new practices and innovations. We are presenting them briefly here.  Full text can be obtained from http://tinyurl.com/blueoceansinhr

Frou-Frou Practices versus Blue Oceans in HR :  Many new HR concepts/practices find favour from time to time because of their newness even though they may not have been validated or their credibility established. Seminars and conferences get organized on these “frou-frou” practices making it even more compelling. Given such a scenario there is need for genuine Blue Ocean thinking across all stages and areas of an employee life cycle.  Some examples are :

Offers designed as Contracts: One of India’s leading financial services product software companies that got acquired recently by a global software product market leader had this practice for many many years. This practice involved hiring software professionals across levels on contract for 2 years at a time, renewable when the contract expires if both the employee and the organization are willing. Since employment security today is only as good as the competence and employability of the employees themselves, there is no inherent concern with job security in this model. Barring miniscule exceptions, most companies anyway experience a heavy churn of employees after 2 or 3 years. Against this backdrop, the contract model at least provides the following benefits: (a) better and planned churn management; and (b) a lot less sleepless nights on attrition (good news for HR?). Designation Basket to choose from More recently, we have seen highly innovative and tailored designations at senior levels. Some examples include Chief Mentor, Chief Gardener, Chief Fun Officer (or Chief Buffoon?), Chief Evangelist, Chief Servant, Chief Innovation Officer and the like! Why then deprive the younger cadre of professionals of a choice from a basket of designations and titles? It should be feasible to come out with a menu of titles and designations for each role in the organization that fairly represent the roles and responsibilities. Jobs are becoming more and more boutique and so can be the titles. Assign this task to those carrying the fancy title of Chief Innovation Officer! Pulse-Check to Prevent Infant Mortality: Yet another challenge plaguing many companies is the early departure of 10 to 15% of employees within 6 to 12 months of joining. Just when they are about to become productive, they decide to leave citing adjustmental and compatibility (with technology, domain, team, manager) reasons. Often referred to as “infant mortality” in HR circles, this can be overcome by instituting periodic pulse checks on areas where “things can go wrong.” 

 Employee-owned Development Budget: A European Consumer Electronics major with its software center in Bangalore introduced this several years ago to combat the complaint that no one takes training seriously. This takes a different mindset with no operational hassles at all. Here the training budget is worked out per capita and the employees are given this as their personal development budget. Since employees own this budget, they can use it for determining their development (training, seminar, membership in professional bodies, etc). There are some basic conditions to be adhered to like getting the immediate manager’s sign-off on the relevance of the development initiative chosen by the employee. This led to a remarkable improvement in the morale of employees and focused development owned and executed by the employees themselves. So, beat the training blues by passing the responsibility and budget to employees!! New 10% rule in Performance Management: Most companies do follow a “bell curve” to segment people based on their performance. This is meant to help create a high performance culture as bell curve helps communicate clearly that 5 to 10% of the underperforming people should “shape up or ship out.” 

 Competence-based Base Salary: Not a totally new practice, but has not quite caught up much in India so far. In its true spirit, this calls for granting pay increase to employees based on demonstrated competency enhancement year after year. Delivering against performance goals or targets set for the year would only qualify for the variable pay, being on target (100%), less or more depending on met targets, fell short or exceeded them. Base salary is increased only under conditions that employees measure up against a validated and widely implemented competency framework and demonstrate a higher level of competences required for their current or next job. Implementation of this is fraught with difficulties and so care is needed to systematically move from a performance-based salary review to competency-based salary review.

Yellow Pages as a key tool for Knowledge Management: Managing knowledge – both retention and sharing – has become a huge challenge for organizations especially in the context of increasing attrition. When key people leave, they carry all the knowledge in their heads with them. Organizations are beginning to invest in creating systems and frameworks for generating and generalizing knowledge. In knowledge intensive industries, there will always be more knowledge that will remain implicit in the heads of people than companies can ever tap it into explicit knowledge through documentation. Rank Xerox found out that maximum knowledge was imbibed not from their ‘blue books’ but due to sharing between their service engineers at the coffee machines in the corridors! Hence, there is an even more pressing need to “connect people” by preparing an elaborate list of “who knows what” and make it available on the internet with appropriate coordinates for reaching out. For ease of remembrance, let us call this a Directory of Internal Yellow Pages. Stay Interviews for celebrating the positives: Exit interviews need no introduction as most companies do this as a routine. While data from exit interviews could be very useful to understand triggers for employee resignations, this is not a very proactive intervention. On the other hand, Stay Interviews involve business HR partners talking to employees working for over 18 to 24 months in the company and collecting reliable information on what makes them feel good about the company. The aim is to get at least 3 or 4 top of the mind ‘positives’ people perceive and value. With sufficient data, organization can go about ‘celebrating those positives’ and strengthening them. This will more likely help retain people proactively than exit interviews.

Come back Peter, Come back Paul Alumni Club: People leave for various reasons like salary, titles, and responsibility, location and technology or domain preferences. And in many cases, it is quite common that some of these employees realize they were much better off with the companies they left and may like to come back if there is a possibility and they had a hassle-free separation procedure. The advantages of welcoming the ex-employees are very overwhelming. Even if these employees do not return to the fold, they could be powerful brand ambassadors. Hence, it makes eminent sense to start Alumni Club on the extranet and provide useful information about the company and other appropriate matters. The potential benefits of the Alumni Club should be experienced more than explained.

The partition line between Blue Ocean and frou-frou practices lie in value created in terms of intangibles such as more satisfied employees, more competent managers and more productive HR teams besides a great culture of executing on plans. HR has a huge opportunity ahead and if they miss it, they no one else to blame!

Source : www.cxotoday.com,  April 18, 2009, C Mahalingam

Best Employer in India-2009

HCL tops the sixth Hewitt Best Employer in India. for creating a positive work experience for employees and its long-term approach amid challenging conditions, says a study by global HR consultancy Hewitt Associates. The result released on April 2, 2009  is significant at a time when employee retrenchment is at its height due to global slowdown.

Hewitt Associates, in its sixth ‘Best Employer in India Study 2009′ in partnership with magazine Outlook Business, has enlisted the country’s 25 companies, led by HCL Technologies, which provide the best working environment for employees. The other 24 companies include — Hindustan Zinc (second), Taj Hotels Resorts and Palaces (third), Cisco Systems (fourth), ITC-Welcome group (fifth), Eureka Forbes (seventh), LG Electronics India (eighth), Domino’s Pizza India (ninth), and Marriott Hotels India (10th).

In India the study was conducted among 230 organisations. It is part of the larger Hewitt Best Employers in Asia study, which covered Australia, China, Hong Kong, Thailand, Korea, Malaysia, and Singapore. To generate the result the company received opinions from more than 46,000 employees representing a workforce of over 8 lakh people. The Hewitt Best Employers study is now in its eighth year, having begun in 2001. The winners according to Hewitt Best Employers project lead Sonali Chatterjee, are those companies which despite the downturn have used their workforce more productively and yet met all the goals. The 25 winner companies have scored mostly on the score for “employee engagement”. It has gone up to 88% as compared with 82 % in 2007 and 76% in 2003. “Our study reveals Hewitt Best Employers have learned that creating and maintaining an environment that is focused on key human capital elements should be a business priority,” Hewitt Associates market manager (India, Middle East and SAARC) Vishal Pandit said. Their strategy to make minor adjustments without losing sight of the larger goal allows them to sustain their strong position and prosper–or be set to prosper when the economy improves, Pandit added.

The study stated that despite wide variance in industries and company profiles, the firms share some common winning traits such as — alignment of people practices to the overall business strategy of the firm and an environment which creates a positive employment experience even in challenging times. The companies also have a long-term approach towards handling the current economic crisis, the report stated. The companies were judged on the various criterion including — organisations score on a combination of the overall engagement and alignment scores, scores on leadership, diversity and development. Mr. Akhilesh Joshi, Chief Operating Officer, Hindustan Zinc, said, “The challenge in the mining industry is to attract the best talent for some of the remotest locations in the country. However, Hindustan Zinc has not had any difficulty in attracting such talent”.

Source : iStock Analyst, April 4,2009

Shireesh Joshi, Nandini Sethuraman

Bharti Airtel Ltd has appointed Shireesh Joshi as Director Marketing. Joshi will be reporting to Manoj Kohli, JMD & CEO, Bharti Airtel Ltd. His last assignment was with PepsiCo International – Greater China Foods as Vice President Strategy & Business Transformation. He had joined PepsiCo in January 2002. Joshi has had the experience of turning around Pepsi business in China and growing the Lays brand via an innovation approach with new tools.

Joshi has close to 20 years of experience in marketing, with significant achievements to his credit. He has worked in various positions with leading international companies, including Procter & Gamble Co, in India as well as abroad.

A graduate from IIT Kanpur and an MBA from IIM Bangalore, Joshi began his career with Procter & Gamble in 1989 as a management trainee and worked on several brands and categories.

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Marks & Spencer Reliance India Pvt Ltd (Marks & Spencer India) has appointed Nandini Sethuraman as Head of Marketing, India. Sethuraman, who will be based in Gurgaon, will report to CEO Mark Ashman, and will be responsible for all marketing, corporate communications and CSR initiatives. She joins Marks & Spencer India from Spencer’s Retail, where she successfully spearheaded repositioning and visual identity initiatives, and also built Spencer’s private label programme. Sethuraman is a seasoned marketer with over 15 years’ experience and has held a variety of leadership roles at international companies, including IKEA, Pepsico and Hershey’s in markets such as Canada, the Middle East and India.

Source: Exchange4media

Nasscom Survey- Most exciting emerging companies

NASSCOM, today released findings of its annual survey – ‘Exciting Emerging Companies to work for’, along with the ranking of top 15 emerging companies in the IT-BPO sector in India.

This is the second edition of the survey which has been conducted in partnership with Right Management India.  The companies are:

1. HeroITES
2. Corbus (India) Pvt. Ltd
3. AgreeYa Solutions India Pvt. Ltd
4. Nagarro Software Pvt. Ltd
5. R Systems International Ltd
6. Synygy India Pvt Ltd.
7. Acclaris Business Solutions Pvt. Ltd
8. Infogain India (P) Ltd
9. Hytech Professionals India Pvt. Ltd
10. Nucleus Software Exports Ltd
11. Sopra India Pvt. Ltd
12. Cactus Communications Pvt. Ltd
13. Interglobe Technologies Pvt. Ltd
14. H5 Asia Pacific Pvt. Ltd
15. Saba Software India Pvt. Ltd

Emerging companies are sought after by career seekers for their close knit, non-hierarchical work environment, culture of innovation and commitment to employee empowerment. The focused approach of the these companies makes them the perfect platform for nurturing specialised talent and building cross functional skills.

The objective of this survey therefore, was to identify the best small and medium sized IT-BPO companies to work for. This survey aims to provide participating companies with insights on their employees’ perceptions on the work environment, work culture and degree of satisfaction and examine the robustness of their HR systems and processes. At an industry level this survey will help companies to learn best practices from their peers and enhance the overall employer branding of this segment.

Key analysis
* Employees across participant organizations believe that the following are the most critical considerations for them at their workplace:
o Open and Caring Relationship with their Supervisors: team members can express their ideas freely.
o Personal Recognition: Appreciate and recognize individuals contribution in all areas.
o The existence and communication of Career Growth Options: informed about all career growth options.
o Trainings for Current and Future roles: Trained and prepared for handling current responbsibilities and taking up new responsibilities as well.
o Open Relationship with Colleagues.

* Career Development: There is a significant difference between the career development scores of the Top 15 companies and rest of the companies with those sharing career development plans with the employees scoring higher on the excitement index as compared to companies which don’t.

* Fairness and Equity: Employees of small companies (having strength less than 100) have better perception of their workplace with regards to fairness & equity.

* Rewards and Recognitions: The difference between the scores of the Top 15 companies and the rest of the companies is the maximum in this dimension. The main reason being the fairness and transparency of the processes adopted by the Top 15 companies while deciding on the benefit schemes for its employees.

* Work Environment: The survey highlights organizations which are smaller in size have been able to meet their employees’ expectations on work environment better than mid-sized organizations.

* Work Satisfaction: Interestingly the survey revealed that companies’ investment in physical work environment condition does not seem to have any correlation with their Excitement Index. The key differentiators included in this dimension are enjoyment in working alongside a colleagues, culture of learning and fun while working.

* HR Systems and Processes in the Top 15 Companies are significantly better than the Rest of the Companies and that is the main distinguishing factor in the Excitement Index of the Exciting Emerging Companies 2008.

Source : www.ciol.com, Jan 27, 2009

India Still Hiring

Leading advisory Boston Consulting Group says India will have a demand for 85-90 million people across various sectors, and the majority of the demand will come from high-growth industries like IT, outsourcing, banking, retail and healthcare.

Similarly, a survey by HR consultancy Manpower projects hiring to rise steadily by around 18 percent from this quarter in many sectors, signifying that jobs in India may not be entirely affected by the financial turmoil in rich nations.

“India poses a far more positive outlook as compared to what has been happening across the world,” said Cherian Kuruvila, director operations, Manpower India, adding that seven percent gross domestic product (GDP) growth for the country showed that the economy remained healthy.

“Employers in the mining and construction industries as also services sector are especially looking to scale up,” Kuruvila told IANS, but added that new jobs won’t be distributed evenly through all regions and industries.

India has a work force of 484 million people, of which 273 million work in rural areas, 61 million in manufacturing and about 150 million in services, says the Boston Consulting Group that recently conducted a study on the country’s services sector.

“Going forward, the Indian economy is likely to be overwhelmingly dependent on the growth of services. More than 70 percent of India’s incremental GDP and 60 percent of new jobs over the next five years are expected to be generated by services.”

A survey across the Asia-Pacific region by TNS, a market research and business analysis firm, with Gallup International, a global human resource consulting firm, also threw up interesting findings.

Sixty-two percent of the Indians polled felt they would be able to hold on to their jobs in 2009 and the 57 percent who expected unemployment to rise did not not consider they would be the ones affected.

“It seems, despite the slowdowns and reports of downsizing, there is an overall confidence among the employed in India that ‘My job is secure! Difficulties, if any, are for others, not me’,” said TNS India executive director Chhavi Bhargava.

Experts concede that the present financial meltdown has raised doubts over the performance of some industries and its impact on salaries and perks, but hope Indian businesses will come out of the slump earlier than their counterparts overseas.

“The impact on salary was felt in 2008 and it may continue till some time. The payouts were significantly lower than the 15-200 percent bonus payouts in 2007,” said Absolute HR Services chief executive Kunal Banerji.

“Gone are the days of experimentation with jobs. I would advise employees not to be adventurous checking different jobs. Stability is the mantra,” said Confiar Consultants managing director Vivek Ahuja.

Apart from advising employees to keep their jobs this year, HR consultants also feel these are also the times when people will turn to age old values and ethics and play by the book.

“The old adages like no substitute for hard work and no short-cuts to success are back in vogue,” Banerji told IANS. “Stay hungry for work or stay hungry is the mantra for corporate India.”

Source : www.thaindian.com , Jan 18, 2009

Infosys – Overhauling Performance Appraisal system

Infosys has now hired global HR consultant Mercer to work on the overhaul its Performance Appraisal system and the process will be completed before June. “Our current performance management system does not meet the requirements of a 100,000-plus organisation. The new system is undergoing evaluation by Mercer,’’ TV Mohandas Pai, Infosys’ director for HR, education, research and administration .

The key aspects being looked at in the new system include sharper focus on technology, condensing the number of roles while increasing span of control. The new system will seek to define roles more clearly and try to more carefully match roles to employee aspirations.

“All programmers may not want to become managers. As we grow and move up the value chain there will be more opportunities for engineers to either go deeper into technology areas or take up senior managerial roles. The overhaul will provide us with room to create more options and multiple career streams for employees,” Mr Pai added, while declining to share specific details on the overhaul.

The current span of control is 1:2:5.5. That is, on an average for every one project manager there are two managers and 5.5 developers. Now, with the increasing number of employees this could increase. On the other hand programmers who don’t want to be managers can opt for hi-tech areas like technology architecture, system designers and so on.

Incidentally, TCS, which has over 130,000 staff had also overhauled its structure in April last year. “We had put in place a new structure about nine months back to manage the large employee numbers. Under this we became more vertically focused and now have 18 industry solution units,” said Ajoy Mukherjee, global head of HR for TCS.

The overhauled system while catering to a larger employee base will also try and create more opportunities to move up the ladder. “The larger companies (like TCS, Infosys) are looking at the structure keeping in view the growing employee base and challenges they might face a decade or two from now. At present the employee force is young and most of them are programmers. They may not like to be programmers as the workforce ages. The overhaul will help meet those challenges,” said executive search firm EMA Partners managing partner (India) K Sudarshan.

Source : Economic Times, January 17, 2009

Appraisals 2009

The performance appraisals this year may not only mean assessment of an employees achievements but may also bring in changes in the way companies assess and reward employees. More importantly, there will be a shift in the parameters and goal setting benchmarks.

A few voices from the HR Industry

Human resources consultancy e2e People Practices Pvt. Ltd is working with large information technology (IT) and back office services clients to create more tangible, measurable objectives for certain job roles and restructure the performance-based portion of those salaries. Performance-linked pay may increase to as much as 40% or 50% from the previous norm of close to 20%, says Yeshasvini Ramaswamy, who runs the consultancy.

Roles that are directly linked to performance milestones and clear-cut job objectives had some variable components to their salaries, but the economic downturn and pressure to cut costs yet avoid layoffs are forcing human resources departments to think a little more creatively.

“Organizations are moving into very specific key result areas,” says Ramaswamy. “Pressures are tight, budgets are tight. It is getting more driven down into direct revenue and senior positions.”

In the sectors worst hit by the slowdown—banking, finance and real estate—salaries, along with hiring, are more or less frozen. But in sectors such as consulting, information technology and back-office services, says Sandeep Chaudhary, who leads the performance and rewards practice at Hewitt Associates LLC, salary changes are driven more by the drop in attrition rate.

The rate—a measure of the number of individuals leaving their jobs—is down by almost 50% since 2007 by some estimates. “There are less job opportunities in the market place, which means they (companies) can be far more prudent in terms of salary increases,” says Chaudhary. “It is not fuelled by buoyant market conditions, so it is only made by performance.”

Senior managers, Chaudhary says, are looking at little or no direct salary increases, but should expect the performance-based portion of their pay to grow 5-20%. Middle management at offshore financial and back office services providers will see last year’s 12-15% raises drop to 7-8%.

Reviews will become much more important.  “What we are hearing companies say this year, is that they will be more strict about enforcing norms of differentiation, with variable payout, and merit increases linked to the performance rating,” says Gangapriya Chakraverti, a business head at Mercer LLC in India who specializes in compensation.

Managers, she says, are being asked to follow a so-called bell curve in their grading scale this year, and award positive reviews to only half of their employees.

Companies are also considering introducing or increasing variable pay at junior levels, though the amount varies by industry and position. Entry-level roles in IT and retail will start seeing 5-10% variable portions of a salary, and sales positions in insurance and at back office service providers can carry targets that can account for 20% of a salary.

Since variable pay is often folded into a larger salary package, it is sometimes difficult to tell if the percentage has increased, say business school placement officials. Madhu Vij, who heads placements at the Faculty of Management Studies in New Delhi, says while the bulk of offers are yet to come in, companies have stopped offering signing bonuses. She expects the base salary for some offers to be less than they had been in the past.

In addition to tweaking the variable portion of salaries, companies are considering other ways to keep promises while cutting, or at least stretching out, their costs. They are experimenting with techniques such as staggering payouts or making them quarterly, says Ramaswamy.

Companies on the April-March calendar, which most Indian firms follow, will only implement salary changes and hold reviews in April.

While multinational firms and companies in other geographies have long linked salaries to performance, India’s more relaxed work culture has traditionally made the association more difficult. “Risk pay, the concept, is not very widely deployed in India,” says E. Balaji, chief executive officer of Ma Foi Management Consultants Ltd. And “culturally managers have an issue telling employees you haven’t performed well”, says Chakraverti.

Source : Aruna Vishwanatha, Livemint, January 15, 2009

The Attitude of Job Seekers

Working with a HR consulting firm, one often comes across surprising, at times, shocking responses from candidates looking for Job. While there is so much talk of recession and job cuts, the attitude of many job seekers is that of indifference or even casual. And not necessarily all of them are star performers…

As any recruitment manager would vouch for, some of the most common and worrying problems in the process of hiring are

1. Candidates appearing for interview “just to check as to what the job was”

2. Candidates taking an offer, and then not joining. “They just disappear” – a friend remarked. They dont answer emails and just stop picking your calls.

3. Candidates joining and then not reporting.

I have been on that side as a recruiter and now i sit on this side as a consultant helping the recruiters.  I can add to this list of issues.

4. Candidates agreeing to go for interviews and then not going . They too disappear. One candidate i called up this morning told me to call tomorrow as he was busy in a function. When reminded that the interviews were scheduled today, he said “in that case ,( he) not interested”

This is a fact and there is no denying that slowdown is here to stay, what then is making these ( large number of) candidates to behave in this way ?

Salary Hikes-2009

A survey conducted by HR Consulting firm Mercer reveals that Four out of five companies are likely to come up with salary hikes for employees in 2009 despite the bleak global economic scenario. The survey further noted that  India Inc is not looking at any major cut in its workforce during the year.

To tide over difficult conditions, Indian firms are instead looking to moderate the increments that were earlier planned for 2009. According to the survey – which covered over 100 human resource and finance professionals across sectors in India – 83% of the respondents said that salary increases in 2009 are likely to be lower than planned. Just about one in five companies said they were considering a freeze on salaries in the coming year.

Half the respondents also said that they are likely to reduce the previously budgeted 2009 bonus given for the employee’s performance in 2008. Hiring plans have been affected with just one in four companies looking to continue adding people to their workforce. With nearly two-third of the respondents saying that they plan to avoid any significant workforce reductions, major job cuts are unlikely to take place.

The survey also revealed that 40% of the companies in India plan to increase the number of temporary, or part-time , employees as a percentage of their total workforce. Meanwhile, the role of HR in an organisation continues to be considered vital by many companies.

The survey said that 27% of respondents in India plan to maintain their investments to improve HR services overall, while close to one-third of the respondents said that they are likely to consider outsourcing HR functions.

Majority of companies in the country are trying to be selective in planning the workforce, compensation and benefit cuts for 2009, while they anticipate a decline in their company’s business performance next year, according to global HR consultancy Mercer.

The results for companies in India generally match survey findings from other parts of the world. In China, Australia, the UK and the US as well between 20 and 30 per cent respondents believe that the 2009 bonus payout would be reduced from those originally planned.

“India grew on the back of her knowledge and people -centric industries such as financial services, information technology and retail, among others. However, primarily due to employee costs having risen in India at double-digit rates since 2003, cost structures have been coming under severe strain,” Mercer Consulting (India) Country Leader Padma Ravichandar said.   She also said that “The survey clearly indicates that while layoffs will occur in India, selective and skill-based hiring will continue,” 

The Economic Times & Indiatimes , December 19, 2008

What are employers thinking ?

We recently conducted campus placement round for some of our clients.  This was a batch of students with no prior experience and therefore the focus of the process was in assessing their ability to understand the scenario around them and to articulate. The process was the usual GD and Interview. In addition, we introduced a 10 minute round where each candidate had to write about why they chose the particular employer.  In the GD, we asked them to discuss as to whether they thought this recessionary period presented an Opportunity to them or if it was a major Threat.  We also asked them to discuss as to how they should be approaching this situation.

Not surprisingly, most of them did not have a clue about the extent of problems. Their general impression was that the current scenario was over hyped and the problems were restricted to US and Europe and that India would not be affected at all.  Accordingly there was no difference in their approach towards the selection process or in presenting themselves. Unfortunately, when i discussed the issue with the placement cell, they too seemed to be complacent and echoed similar we-are-safe feeling.  It was clear that their target was to get the students out-of-college-into-a-job. What happened after that was the candidate’s problem.  This is serious.  The news from bigger, better known campuses has not been very good.  These times require a different conditioning .

So what does a candidate do to attract attention and to get a decent job? Before venturing into this area, it is important to understand what the employers are thinking. Here are a few guiding points based on my interactions with various employers, and these are relevant for freshers as well as non-freshers.

Save Cash  : This is almost invariably the top agenda. This means the employers may select you but delay the offer letters . Or give you the offer and give you a joining date of a month or 2 later.  Also, takeover of notice pay is out. These and others are strategies to defer the cash flow so as to have the kitty full for now.  Patience therefore is a virtue in these times and it may be wise to have more than one offers in hand.

Multi-Tasking : Why have 2 resources, if you can get one who does both the jobs ? So multi-skilling and multi-tasking is seriously in. And this is not about some middle or senior level. we are talking about even the entry level requirements.  This definitely doesn’t look like a  time to talk about core-competence or specialisation. You have to be better than that. Multiple core competencies ?  so look at your CVs and see if you have enough diversity. If not, you should be able to at least demonstrate enough intent and enthusiasm to do more and to learn faster than ever. This is a boon for freshers as they have everything to learn & gain.

More for Less :  A general feeling amongst employers is that the asking price of employees for all jobs at all levels have come down. To some extent it is true and this is leading to interview sessions turning into negotiation discussions. We have seen employers starting with “no increment over previous CTC” policy and then ending up with 5-10% raise.  The attitude of employers is “if you agree too quickly for a lower salary, you may not be worth it. If you argue too much for a higher amount, we don’t need you”. While it is not yet a completely buyer’s ( employer, i mean) market, it requires the candidates to be cautious. The important thing is to focus on your abilities first and convince the employers that you are the right fit and then go for the negotiation. And for God’s sake, be honest. Do not say- “money is not important, job content is” , if you are  actually changing only to get a better paying job.

Cost Cutting :  Be ready to work in non-A/c offices in not the best locations as more and more companies are looking for cheaper locations to reduce establishment costs. I personally know of many mid-sized companies who have shifted offices from prime locations to small industrial estates. Freebies are being cut. so expect a less lavish lunch spread and rationing of tea-coffee. Conveyance allowances and mobile expense limits are being reduced. Budget airlines (or even trains) and small hotels are in. No more off-sites. 

Goes without saying that such times also lead to heightened political activities as the motto is, if you don’t want to get fired, find some who can be fired.

 But all is not bad.  One biggest positive emerging out of this is that people with lesser experience are being considered for higher responsibilities as the focus is on maintaining status quo. True that supervisory roles are being pruned (as companies try to shed flab at the top), more junior & middle level people are finding their ways into the higher roles.  Further, new methods are being tried to retain talent  and to keep the spirits up- like conducting in-house innovation sessions, engaging employees in active discussion on cost cutting and salary restructuring etc thereby leading to a more transparent culture and a healthier atmosphere.

 

Overseas Graduates for Indian Jobs

Business graduates from foreign institutes such as the University of Chicago Booth School of Business are seeking opportunities to work  in India, at a time when an economic recession is resulting in more job losses and lack of opportunities for them in the US.

A group of around 25 students from the University of Chicago Booth, which is the second oldest in the United States, have started a program called India Business Week (IBW) to visit Mumbai, Bangalore and Delhi for seeking jobs in the segments of private equity, IT, investment banking and consulting.

“We received very convincing and receptive response from several firms that we visited. Most of us are originally from India, we want to move back,” said Nitesh Jain, IBW lead from The University of Chicago Booth.

These students, having a work experience of five to ten years are visiting Indiabased companies such as Tata Group, Wipro, Infosys, ICICI Venture Fund, Intel, IBM, McKinsey, Goldman Sachs, Citigroup and Deutsche Bank.

Mr Jain who has an electrical  engineering background and worked on hardware design for some of the latest handsets to come from Motorola, is also among those who are seeking opportunities with Indian firms.

“Salaries are comparable at the positions we are looking, cost of living is low here and quality of living has also improved”, says Mr Jain. “There are huge opportunities for talent to come and handle start ups as they are looking for talented people. With global talent coming in, companies can perform better”, said Anu Parthasarathy, chief executive of Global Executive Talent (GET), which is a cross-border senior executive search firm based in Menlo Park, CA.

“Earlier parents felt that it was better decision for them to move to US but now their children are coming back to India for better jobs and to connect with their roots in the country” says Ms Parthasarathy.

“There are more chances for students to get leadership roles here such as team leaders and project leaders even if they have five to six years of work experience. The attraction is now here while the markets have cooled down in US. Some People are also coming back for their parents” admitted SV Krishnan, who is the HR head at Satyam Computer Services.

Economic Times, December 22, 2008

Key to Retention

Everyone wants a raise and employees can shift to competitors if they are offered better pay packets. Does that mean that higher compensation is the key to retention ?

 Not Really. The employees do not remain satisfied for long with the extra money- says a study conducted by Villanova School of Business and Right Management, a human resources consulting subsidiary of Manpower Inc.

Started in 2007, a team of researchers “embarked on a project to learn more about the nonpecuniary rewards that drive employees to stay with a company. Looking at the Indian labor market, they examined the talent management practices of 28 companies operating in India. The researchers surveyed 4,811 of those companies’ employees about their attitudes toward their employers, including their intentions to stay or leave.”

Despite salary increases averaging more than 15% annually in some industries, annual turnover rates among young professionals was fund to average 15% to 30% and go as high as 50%. 

While there were many factors that were beyond the control of employers,Of the factors that an employer can control, four emerged as most important: performance management practices, professional development practices, the quality of supervision and the company’s socially responsible posture. In turn, the researchers discovered that these four factors drive two key employee attitudes: an employee’s satisfaction with and pride in the organization. When satisfaction and pride are at a high level, employees are likely to stay.

The study also showed that employers should target high-potential employees extremely early in their tenure and create accelerated development plans for them. Young, high-potential employees demand active management support — something first-line managers are often not equipped to provide, but which is critical to employees’ decisions to stay or go. The authors recommend that companies also invest in training front-line managers so they can help employees thrive.

This research is pertinent not just for companies in India, but for managers everywhere. “We’re in a global war for talent,” Doh says. “Any company interested in accessing the labor force in India or another developing country needs to pay attention to these findings.” That applies to companies in slower markets, too, such as the current U.S. economy. “No matter what the environment, employees care about nonpecuniary rewards — pride, satisfaction, the support of the management team,” Doh says. “In slow times, it’s a mistake to cut back on those aspects.”

Source: Financial Post, Dec 22, 2008. Article Courtesy- MIT Sloan Management review, full text available at  http://sloanreview.mit.edu/smr/

How safe is my job ?

With every passing day, the scenario is becoming more and more frightening. The web and the papers are full of news about Job cuts. while most companies are defering their hiring plans, how safe are the jobs of people working in these companies ? Here are a few views from HR consultants.

“It won’t be safe. 2009 will test employees. Only excellent performers will be safe. Companies will be very selective about who they retain. Increments will be in single digits for best performers and for average performers, it will be around 5 per cent,” Rakesh Malik, practice leader for globalisation and business transformation, Hewitt Associates.

“In general, no job will be safe. Even those who are doing well can’t be sure of retaining their jobs in the sectors hit by the downturn. There will be either no increments or marginal increments. Variable pay may rise, but not fixed pay,” A Sudarsan, vice-president (sales and marketing), Expertus HR.

“Job safety depends on the sector you are in. The picture for banking and financial sector will be grim, but insurance will keep hiring. There won’t be much retrenchment in the BPO sector, but there won’t be much hiring as well. The IT sector will start hiring in pockets — as and when there are new projects or existing projects get renewed. There could be 20 to 25 per cent salary cuts in the IT sector,” Sampath Shetty, vice-president, TeamLease Services

“Eight jobs out of 10 are safe. Increments will be in high single digits. Pharmaceuticals, healthcare, life sciences, energy and telecom are safe. IT and stock market-related jobs are in the uncertain category “. E Balaji, CEO and director, Ma Foi Management Consultants

Business Standard, Dec 26, 2008

Outplacement

According to ET report dated Jan 1, 2009, outplacement — a concept popular in western markets for over 30 years — is gaining ground in India. During past three months, companies across the segments of IT, business process outsourcing (BPO) and FMCG have offered such help to their staff. HUL, Motorola, Sapient, Yahoo, Intel, Genpact, Cisco and Fidelity are among several companies in India who have offered out-placement help to their affected employees.

“Outplacement is gaining ground in India but usually it is done in an informal manner and companies do not want to publicise it too much,“ said Mr G C Jayaprakash, principal consultant at Stanton Chase International, a global executive search firm. “When a global software company wanted to downsize, they asked me to get in touch with another firm to see if they would like to absorb the employees,” he said.

Agrees Vati Consulting chief executive Amitabh Das: “Very few organisations have used it in India and in most cases, it has been the MNCs. Indian organisations generally shy away it.”

People Capability Maturity Model (PCMM) certification — an international framework that helps organisations address their critical people issues —makes it mandatory for companies to offer out-placement help.

And it pays off. Companies that offer outplacement stand a good chance to attract talent when the situation improves. “Retrenched employees bear no negative feelings and perceive the organisation as a good employer. It also sends a positive message to the remaining workforce thereby giving fillip to morale, loyalty , productivity and retention,” ABC Consultants chief executive Shiv Agrawal said.

Source : Economic Times, Jan 1, 2009

Geetanjali Gupta

Geetanjali Pandit Gupta, has joined the Indian Express Group as Corporate Head – Talent Engagement. Pandit will be reporting to Shekhar Gupta, Editor-in-Chief of the Group. She took charge from January 2, 2009.

Pandit was with the India Today Group for three years. She has 14 years’ experience in implementation of and strategising human resource development and employee relations across high-performance sectors – manufacturing, consulting, services, including hospitality, and more recently, media. Prior to joining the India Today Group, she was with EIH, the Oberoi Group, in the Corporate HR division as Assistant Vice-President.

source:Exchange4media

Lower Salary expectation at IIM

Average salary expectations of students have come down to a more realistic Rs 14 lakh this year, according to a recent Nielsen Campus Track B-School survey. However, six months ago, during summer placements, there were no signs of economic downturn at IIM campus recruitments. Average salaries among IIM graduates were up by a whopping 30 percent, with offers ranging from Rs 50-70 lakh. In fact, international placements were in the range of $2,80,000 to $3,60,000.

“Sanity is returning to the campus like everywhere else. Earlier, several firms, especially international companies in financial services, offered mind-boggling salaries that nobody could match. The trend is also changing in campus recruitments with several companies focusing on catching them young. So, good students are identified well before the official placement season begins,” says Milind Sarwate, chief of HR and strategy, Marico Industries. Students are opting for FMCG companies over financial services because of higher security and stability.

Source: Economic times, Jan 05, 2009