Would you like to be "Retained" by your company!!!

Author : Kunjal Kamdar

 

There have been numerous posts about how to "Retain" your talent. No doubt this topic might be debatable, and most of us might have extreme views on this topic. But just thought to take on this topic, and try to understand, explore and uncover some of the assumptions that are involved in it. This post would touch upon  the angle from the employees side as well as from the employer's side. So are you ready to get into this unique world of retaining and getting retained!!!

Well, getting retained is surely an important thing from both the parties i.e. employee and employers. So does it mean there are scenarios when the employee wants to get retained!!

 

Well, if this is true, it is surely a big risk. What does that mean!! Well, if an employee knows his/her own value in the company, they can take a chance to resign and then hope for the company to retain them. Or they have a great offer in hand and might want to negotiate. So what's wrong in it!! You might ask, right!! Well, there is nothing wrong in knowing your value in the system and no harm trying to negotiate with your current company. But what about the offer that you had accepted!! What about the time when you had decided to move out of your current company!!! Does the word "Ethics" come into picture!! Well, it will be interesting to know your thoughts on this.

 

Okay, let's take another scenario. You decide to move out of your company, and resign. And your company decides to retain you by offering a great role, some extra money, may be if you are lucky an Onsite opportunity too. Again there is nothing wrong in it. Who would say no to this!! Well, how about employees asking this question to themselves "Do you think your company realized your true value only after you resigning!! Food for thought!!! Often companies talk about parity issue!! Now where is the parity issue!! Well, you might say that this is a normal industry standard and happens in all companies. Well, point taken, let's move on :)

 

I guess by this time most of you might have already started pointing guns on me and all set to make strong objections to this post. Well, the idea is to know your views on this complicated topic. Okay, moving on to the next scenario. Well, there also are genuine cases where the employee might be a bit confused at times, and the employer might sit and counsel and then help him/her to take the right decision. In such cases, one needs to understand the mindset of the employee and make sure that you as an employer listen to them. Some might say why should we listen, they have resigned, they are disconnected with the company etc. Remember, they are still your employees, your brand ambassadors for years. So no point having an EGO, just listen to them and act, react accordingly.

 

So would you like to get retained!! Looking forward to your views on this topic. Feel free to express it, as some of you might not like to share it on open platform. I do understand it, so you can connect with me on Twitter  or connect on LinkedIn.

 

Author

 

Kunjal Kamdar

 

Kunjal Kamdar has been involved in sourcing for the last eight years, having worked in both recruitment and sourcing capacities. Kunjal enjoys sourcing and using Social Media to expand and innovate new channels in the recruitment process. Blogging is his real passion, and he in turn loves sharing his passion for sourcing and social media with others in the recruiting community. 

To Appraise Performance..don’t wait for year to get over!!!!

Whenever a manager over heard mere “Performance appraisal”,  you will be able to hear their groan out of stress. Many managers see Performance appraisal as nothing more than an empty, bureaucratic exercise  forced on them by HR. Even for appraisee (a subordinate) when he gets a meeting request from his boss for performance review discussion, he feels just yesterday he has written his goals which is promptly forgotten too and this discussion becomes more of a 'BAJATE RAHO' discussion for him.

 

More than 80% of staff feels that performance reviews are unnecessary and is a waste of time because of lack of efforts put in by managers in to the process. Lackadaisical attitude of management results in Employee apathy.

The sanctity of performance management system is to keep a tap on the achievement viz a viz goals set and to design competency development plan based on the performance review analysis. Regret to mention than this appraisal tool is just being used to identify A,B and C category and decide increment percentage which is too mostly influenced by key business drivers. The annual performance review discussions, if so happens, are not aligned with need assessments, thus barely adds value to them.

Here, we need to change the approach rather than the system. There are four ways I perceive, if adopted, the Trust in performance appraisal system will be restored and employees will find it more effective and generate the desired outcome.

 

 

First is to Keep it Simple, many managers dislike complexity of modus operandi of performance appraisal system and bureaucratic forms. Design a format which is simple to decipher & captures relevant data and focus on structural part of conducting review discussions with reduced stress element.

Second, Frequent Connect between Manager and his subordinate. It is no longer effective to meet your subordinate once or twice a year to discuss on performance appraisal. Frequent appraisal meetings will help to monitor on goals achievements and to keep check on relationship needs, growth needs, motivational needs & learning needs of your subordinate. Meeting once in a quarter or sometimes more frequent will save you from future peril of non achievements of targets and give a pat on a back for achievement & study the shortfalls when they are fresh in memory and  a employee can also express his feeling on his performance. Once or twice a year performance review meeting will force you to drop your criticism at him at once like a bomb, rather 'ZOR KA ZATKA DHERE SE' approach will be easier to swallow and leads to constructive conversation.

Third, Conversations focused on future. Annual appraisals often becomes ‘poker game’ where employees are being asked to lay their cards on the table first, so that managers can identify weaknesses and focus on actions require to improve those weaknesses. To conduct effective performance appraisal discussion, adopt ‘sandwich technique’ whereby, you open conversations highlighting notable achievements in recent times, followed by critical assessments and interactive discussion on areas of improvement and conclude the discussion with landing a hand to him to unleash hidden potentials and tips for learning and development.

Fourth, Self monitoring of performance & learning. Nowadays, modern Performance Appraisal tools track self performance ratings which has been perceived by most of the staff as a data gathering tool for counter arguments by managers. Hence they rate themselves high so that after negotiation they will be rated somewhere in mid range. Whereby, essence is to provide a honest rating for their own performance. By asking employees to keep a track on own performance and learning, write down their goals and keep a check on success and discoveries, the data generated out of it is not being used by managers to critically evaluate but to help each employees to take responsibility of their own performance.

In era of automation, we sometimes get caught in terminologies and having an online PMS module which runs once or twice a year is not at all an issue but this system will only help to capture data, it can not motivate, inspire and develop people. Hence, frequent feedback sessions on performance & creating self organized learning environment where people learn from this feedback meetings which takes place in corridor, lifts or across the coffee. 

Author

Paras Khatri

Paras, born & brought up in city of dreams. A human Resource pro and a believer that having an active presence on social media will not only align you with professionals across industry & domain experts but also a platform to share your thoughts with them, which influenced me to become a blogger. A traveler, who wants to explore world, meet people and walk over no mans land. You can follow him on twitter  @paraskhatri .

 

Learning the #Social Way

It would really be stating the obvious when we talk about how the rise of the “Social Media” phenomenon has implications for our professional lives , but a very visible area of impact for the same is how it impacts an individual’s learning process. It has literally turned the traditional classroom methods of learning on their heads ! Today, one can gain access to information faster AND also get viewpoints from other professionals, as quickly about its relevance – what does that mean? That the learning process has become truly collaborative and it has brought the experts and the knowledge seekers all within the same universe.

 

We learn through webinars, online discussion rooms, Twitter chats, Facebook updates, LinkedIn groups – you name it and there is a continual process of learning already in flow. However, what is strange is that organizations are yet to harness the potential power of this approach to develop the capability of its people, to create a business impact. Leveraging this power means that we as the HR community, must understand how the concept works and then what are its applications to the learning process. It is a paradigm shift in its true sense, since it requires the employees to understand that the onus of learning is on them rather than the organization and the HR department.  Creating that sense of self-drive and proactivity is the HR’s role now – how to encourage the employees to take online courses/e-learning modules, how to ensure smooth and seamless facilitation of the knowledge transfer process, how to create networks of expertise, how to design learning interventions that truly connect the social media’s strengths to the employee’s needs to the business impact ! Sounds like a challenging task? Well, it definitely is. But we have to move in that direction, since that is where the future is.  

Given that Social media is playing such an active role, SHRM India has recently released a report on Indian HR Influencers on Social media ( August 2013) – it is interesting to see how HR professionals across experience levels and what they share through an open channel, can have the power to influence thought processes and trends, as well as enable the overall HR community’s advancement. Another interesting concept that I’ve recently come across and wanted to share was the India HR Live Channel, which hosts live streams of panel discussions and interviews with HR experts.

The ramifications of such a trend are huge for the HR community – the organizations and HR professionals who are able to capitalize on this change, are the ones who will have great competitive advantage!

 

Author

Simran Oberoi

She is currently working as a Knowledge Advisor in SHRM India.  Has over a decade of experience primarily in HR advisory services in the areas of Rewards (Benchmarking, Strategy, Job Mapping, Measurement), covering APAC, South Asia and the US), Long Term Incentives engagements, Organization Restructuring, Capacity Building, Competency Frameworks and Talent Development. In consulting roles, she has significant experience in key global client accounts, project and people management.  She has an accreditation in Hay methodology and Job Mapping and as an APAC leader she has driven the Reward Information Global Sector Development strategy for 14 countries. In her current role she works in Knowledge Development which involves evaluation of key future areas, content creation as well as review for HR disciplines such as Executive Coaching & Leadership Development and Diversity, alongside Talent Development/Management and Rewards. It also involves research in key areas, the most recent ones being CXO/Leadership Development and Competencies.

She has published several articles on different HR areas, with leading HR journals such as People Matters, Human Capital, Business Manager – HR magazine and industry magazines such as Oil Asia. She regularly contributes the SHRM perspective across print and electronic newspapers.