10 ways to measure employee enagagement...

With changing times as Personnel Management became Talent Management, employee wellness has becomes the focus for any HR Manager. Organizations too have realized that though employees are governed my labor laws but ultimately they are major stakeholders in its organic growth. This paradigm shift has brought a major challenge of keeping employee motivated and engaged within the organizations. More opportunities and technologies have resulted in competitive strategies to have more happy faces around.

However like physicists say ‘ No machine can have perfect efficiency’ likewise hitting a perfect 10/10 can be a  farfetched dream but still there are ways to measure your engagement quotient and timely action can make just turn around stuff.

Best and the most well known is to analyze your exit reports and keep a tab on that deadly attrition factor. Resignations not only adds to ones blood pressure but replacement too come with added cost .So why not channelize the energy and finances on more productive side which can help keep the      attrition counts stay low and engagement high.

Remember what made college better than school? Well college didn’t have any uniform. Truly burden of strict policies such as reporting time sometimes can be highly annoying. Employee are truly engaged if they come on time because they love being at office not because they have late marks counter on.

Do your employees doze off or try to bunk those open forums addressed by the CEO or founder? So next time make sure it’s more interactive. They deserve to know where the organization is heading and let them feel like a family only then they would give their best to you.

How about the last appraisal process? How many reminders did you send to the managers? Do they believe in the appraisal process or is it just another formality for them. Processes can give us some very critical information’s about the employee motivation.

Once somebody suggested about having a ‘Smilometer’ , which can help us tracks smiles in day. Indeed more laughter and friendly behavior on floor suggests that it a happy place to work and smiles are always infectious J

My personal experience says an engaged and motivated employee will always. The feeling of pride to be associated with one’s dream company is too good a motivator and also helps spreading the feeling around.A happy employee would love to refer more of his friends to join the gang.  So you know when employee referrals are low what needs to be done.

Mostly HR faces challenge of maintaining salary confidentiality and more employees are stressed and frustrated every discussion boils around their favorite topic. If they are monetarily satisfied and happily engaged there are no reasons for you to worry on your strict and confidential information to go public.

Have you noticed who all regularly miss annual day celebrations or office parties? It’s similar to avoiding a dinner because your don’t like the host. Do I need to say more?

Trust in management and feeling of belonginess plays a great role too. If an employees is participative and know that his ideas and efforts will be well appreciated and acknowledged, he would be well bounded with the organization values and philosophy .However this comes with due course and here timely and right communication channel is very important.

 Keep a tab on informal and ‘online and social media’ discussions. Technology has opened many avenues for official gossips. Understanding employee psychology and behavior helps to understand their needs and leads to timely actions and further improvements.

Employee Engagement is need of the hour. Today keeping talent motivated and happy is important so that focus on organizational growth is undeterred. Important is to understand that every organization and individual is unique. What works with one might not click with others .But the beauty is to manage complex human brains in the most simplified manner.
However we all know that nobody is married to an organization but being engaged is no less than that !!

Wish you Happy Engagement J

 

2 Years at plugHR!

It has been 2yrs ever since I became a part of plugHR family and the most startling part is without even meeting most of my family members in person. The affiliation with each one of them is simply precious not just because of my interpersonal skills but because I have such passionate leaders who inspire constantly through their conduct.

I had a very narrow view of recruitments before I joined plugHR. For me talent acquisition was limited to a few channels, namely staffing, consultants and job portals. It was only when I got into plugHR that I comprehended how vast a field was recruitments. Finding appropriate people in context to the organization is the fundamental puzzle in recruitments.

When I first understood the concept of plugHR, my reaction was that the concept is innovative and different, finding the right fitment would be a challenge because plugHR is unique in its own way and culture. It’s an organization where you need highly flexible people and experts who can multitask and acknowledge the simplicity and purity of the people working in this organization. In fact, there are very few who have all these qualities. So it seemed like a constant challenge back then but now I feel I know the art of cherry picking when I look at our awesome team.

At plugHR, ‘Hiring Process’ is not really a process. We are here to do our best to establish relationships with all who show interest in our company. We strive to treat them well. We consider this as a recruiting relationship, and give our interactions with candidates a personal touch and hope they gain out of the experience. However, the recruiting relationship is just the beginning. The interview is the day where we do a  fine job of keeping the relationship intact if we’ve managed to bring the prospective employee this far. Infact after we shortlist our prospective employee we invite the candidates to come and spend a week or two at work with us to get a feel of being a plugHR employee.  

Here recruitment drive is not limited from website experience to the onsite interview. It is a series of meaningful communications that begin when a prospective candidate first hears about our company or visits our website. It continues through the recruiting relationship and interviews, and becomes an employee relationship, a positive networking relationship or best of friendships because we treated our prospective candidates well. In a competitive recruitment environment, these relationships certainly matter.

Talent Acquisition for plugHR is more than just a process. It is personal, it is unique, and it is all about associations. After these 2yrs with all the online birthday celebrations, the bootcamps, the social networking fun, and the workflex working culture each day at plugHR has been one of a kind experience with awesome people working at plugHR. 

How to Recruit Right!!

Rushing for a Monday review when suddenly got a call from Mangesh who was supposed to join but turned down the offer just when we were all set to have him onboard.

All these years have faced many such Monday’s where excitement for closure was just missed by a call or sometimes no call. Recruitment has never been easy but it certainly beyond just scheduling interviews and offers.

All these years have worked with some real sharp recruiters whose Mantra when shared and practiced worked out well

 

 

Asking Questions might bother many but is a best way for an HR to understand the requirement before even saying yes to sourcing. It makes no sense to work on X when Y was required, so miscommunication will only lead to frustration and CV spamming. Having good understanding helps better filtration, lesser interviews and quicker closures. Keeping a sample question bank too is not a Bad Idea!!

Once through with inside knowledge having good sales pitch which is crisp but informative and has flow which can attract the candidate is a MUST. Downloading all the information at the first call might not be effective rather go slow and make the conversation interactive. Don’t push much, generate interest and move on. This helps to judge the candidate profile as well as his interest. Many time first call itself can sort out fitment issues and avoid facing such situation at the final stage. First call is most important!!

Try all means to nail the requirement but be judicious on the cost. If something can be closed through internal referral why outsource the same. But if it niche enough then why wait to do the same. The call is yours but wasting time to experiment will have additional cost.

Back outs can make you land in the most embarrassing situations so better be prepared. Having a backup plan just counts a lot. Remember a position is closed only after the candidate settles in the organization.

Judgment skill and perseverance play a major role too. Stay cool and let your mind speak for you. Many times our personal interests have to be forgone when picking the right candidate. Focus should be to hire a resource that is culturally and technically fit enough to sustain a long term association with the organization.

All this might help in improving recruitment as a process and a skill but still there are and will remain on going challenges which an HR/Recruiter has to go through. Whether it’s the pressure to fill the requirements or talent crunch in the market one needs to keep the communication channel active and need based try to get best possible to suit all ends.  

Recruitment too has its ups and downs and being updated with the latest Hiring Trends will only make one a better recruiter.

HAPPY RECRUITING!!

Job hunt #Twitter

Did you hear the latest ‘talk of the town’ ...140 character resume and you already started counting your words on your CV?

So twitter seems to be next recruiting tools but is it better? That time can only tell..

However considering the lengthy resumes which requires lots for effort from candidate for the best possible editing and hardly any from employer to leave it unread or simply move it to trash, 140 character is appealing. At least, scanning time will reduce and cracking the code of TAT would not be that far stretched dream.

But will 140 characters reveal all what is required for that ice breaker call? Or is it a start of new skill set development with some tweety vocab to describe ones career in an abbreviated manner.eg. 10 HR Head (R/EE/PMS/SC/TD) Mum MBA Org: ABC/DEF/GHI, wow and all this in just 57 characters. Not bad!! So now recruiters can expect some good filtering on comm. Skills J by default!!

Most interestingly twitter or social media scores on transparency and communication, which in portal is just one way. Here employer would be more conscious of the brand, when it comes to follow up tweets. Remember how many emails/calls it took you for you to onboard last job.

But how many are really twitter savvy or will this just cater to a niche segment or a social segment. Does that mean loosing on some good audience?  That’s a good discussion point too.

Nevertheless it’s a good connect and word on social media spreads more than any other channel and no harm in trying after all it has the best pricing. IT’S FREE

 

Are you ignoring high performer?

 

'Low performers are more engaged than the high performers?'

Read one of the tweets recently…trust me I was more shocked than you though reading it further, only made me wonder about the gap in expectation and performance . Even more, the entire HR metrics around it.

However if I myself look back during peak attrition times, the entire bell curve goes for a toss when high performers leave voluntarily saving low performers as an option to be retained back. This is called need of hour or some are born lucky!!

Exit Interviews does give a feedback where high performers leave due to work load, managing high employer expectation, work life balance and above all working with a team members who without much efforts are paid at par with them. We can’t blame the system, for it’s human nature to look for the best resource while assigning any task and in most circumstances this become a repetition.Initally such delegations are appreciated but we tend to forget that an individual has a capability which would not withstand pressure beyond a certain elasticity .Once we cross the said threshold, frustration is inevitable. ? High performers are not easy to recruit but retaining and engaging them with the organization is a challenge for all. What fun would be to lose cash cows over a problem child?

It’s true every employee has different expectation but we should try to understand that such situations might solve problems in short run but going further will complicate issues. Many times high performers are unable to cope up with additional pressures and work load and overnight the category changes. What is expected other than an exit!!Timely cognizance will not just make the employee feel cared but also re affirm his/her trust in the HR processes and also help him/her stay engaged.

We would only flaunt those engagement rings when we are happily married!!

Work from home in 10

“ Yahoo Employees Can’t Work From Home Anymore”

When I read this tweet last week, was taken aback and yes not to miss thanked my stars for not being in Yahoo at least ;)

So the topic has been hot for a while now and it being very close to my heart and needless to say invariably my favorite pick I thought to pen down my thoughts as well. Again without taking any sides I quote, Sairee Chahal, Founder Fleximoms, ‘work from home is one of the many formats of work flex’ and honestly require lot of ‘MATURITY’ from both employees as well as employers. Only when both are in sync with the model will it work otherwise without arguments its failure is inevitable.

I have personally been practicing it for couple of months now but again my employer plugHR has been successfully doing it for many years. Still recall meeting Prashant Bhaskar, Founder plugHR saying he started on his own enterprise for wanted more flexibility and now loves the providing the same to others. Here both parties have a very clear picture of what’s happening around on the other side, the reason is ‘CONNECT’. We make sure the all work flex professional are connected on all possible ways. So my day starts with a ‘Sabse Bolo’ call meeting @ 9:15 am with all status update on the day and if I really need to speak to somebody I am rest assured that they are just a call/watsapp/BBM/gtalk away. Trust me sometimes these apps are more effective than face to face follow ups…try it to believe it!!

‘SOCIAL MEDIA’ definitely has been a boon for such set ups, it not just keeps me informed about latest happening but also is a good way for a team connect. I know my virtual colleagues as much as I knew mine with last employer. Also meeting physically once in a week helps a lot in rapport building, taking over gotomeeting or Skype with webcams on trust me works wonders. Why not... you can always show off your latest wardrobe addition!!

Having a ‘SCHEDULE’ and work space like the one you have in office would always help you focus on the job. Pursuing personal chores while at work should be avoided, though you can have breaks. Working from home need lot of ‘SELF DISCIPLINE’ and is mostly suited for people who are self motivated and for jobs which requires more concentrations.

Another approach which really helps is being PROACTIVE. In a physical office I could have explained about not meeting deadlines much more easily but when operating from home one has to very sure before giving up. Here only results a visible not efforts and to make it more transparent it’s the individual who has to be vocal enough to share concerns rather than waiting for the ugly turn.

A very important aspect of work from home is that many think it’s only boon for working moms, but in the changing dynamics men too prefer it. For now just it saves on ‘TRAVEL TIME’ but also ‘COST’ both for employee and employer. This work format also provide employers to target a potential latent talent which are otherwise females on sabbatical and for organizations which can’t afford to have a full fledged in-house crèche facility , this work as wonders.

But yes one size can’t fit to all!!

However in profiles where team work/brainstorming/product development is required one might to operate face to face then virtually .Again expecting fresher’s /junior members to be productive in this model can be a challenge. So as much as it can be a benefit of one, many might just be demotivated enough to give up.

Infact, many individuals find it difficult to operate remotely and are more comfortable in physical set up with people around. I remember we hired somebody recently and she quit because found it boring, working all by herself. We can’t blame anybody here, for humans are social and that’s the secret, why social networking is so useful in connecting virtual beings. Any achievements or failure which we would have shared with our team member otherwise are now shared with a larger audience. Trust me many people envy me for being on Face book and Twitter the whole day J

So guys to be honest this works for me, because I want it to work for me. At the end of the day I am ‘ACCOUNTABLE’ to perform and by virtue of my experience can be productive without much surveillance. If you are ready for such high ‘COMMITMENT’, you are in….

 

Is it a Disease?

Image: Flickr/Frank De Kleine Coloring (Creative Commons)

"Is it a disease?", she chatted on gTalk and I could imagine the look of disgust on her face. That wasn't the face I remembered, she had been my model once when I knew about cameras and did some shoots alongside my day jobs. And that was a pretty face and a good professional over that. "Call me now", I gTalked back. "At work, will call in evening", she typed back. "No, call me now", work wasn't more important.

Irene (name changed to protect identity) didn't mince her words, she had a question for me. "How come, till yesterday I was perfect for the job and suddenly my work has to be reallocated, delegated, just because the strip showed a red line?" "Does it make sense Prashant? Is pregnancy a disease?".  She had even been to two job interviews, one of which made an offer and then pulled back when she told them the good news. 

Irene didn't work for me and she spoke to me because she felt I had interest in Organization practices. But her agony was very real, very there and her question is one that stares Indian Entrepreneurs in their faces. What's so scary about a Woman employee turning pregnant that Entrepreneurs and Organizations go bonkers. Isn't it the simplest of human resource realities that an enterprise needs to provision for? How impossible is it to cover for 3 month leave followed by a few months of WorkFlex? 

While somewhere else in the World a pregnant Merrisa takes charge as CEO of global Internet giant Yahoo, closer home Entrepreneurs are playing "I need no pregnant" with the most potent workforce around and calling their ventures sick in the process. 

I offered Irene a job with WorkFlex option and assured of connecting her to more good ventures but I continue to think........ Are we building the Awesome Ventures that we had set out to build as Entrepreneurs?