So its not just Zappos

 

 

Last week Amazon too spoke about exit incentive. Not just a token gesture but raising the incentive to some $5000 for taking the exit offer is a serious attempt to clean workplace of the dubious souls. So golden handshake or VRS isn’t new concept even in India, but most would remember it as an end of career smiley. That a company would pay you just after induction to say “please spare us the pain”, might take an effort.

Those who still recall our movie night at last plugHR Bootcamp, we had watched Tony Hsieh in awe and exit incentive was one thing that impressed us for sure.

 

  

Think about it, new economy businesses are mostly about belief’s. These are new business categories, quite radical, uncertain, changing at high pace forcing the talent to operate in sustained ambiguity.  Last thing you want at your workplace then is a doubtful soul who walks in every day, concerned and spends all day spreading the same. You want that soul with your competitor sooner than later

 

Now for one’s who say the usual, “its not easy to…..”, well even your birth wasn’t easy, if that could happen, anything can happen, you just need to think like inspired entrepreneurs. Read Jeff Bezos, listen to Tony Hsieh, gather courage and roll it buddy, Post Induction Exit Incentive. It’ll just clean up some future mess in advance, much like that time machine thing which you could use to go forward, figure how much damage would these hires cost and come back to just pay them out.

For my HR, get over attrition chart stats and show me some real baddies off the bus & keep building Awesome Ventures.

The argumentative Indians can carry conversation here or catch me on twitter @prashantbhaskar

Happy Women's Day!!

We all have somebody or the other who might have touched our lives at some point or the time. Some inspire us to keep it going others make us believe in our true selves. This women’s day we asked some of our plug Pros to share the reasons for the smiles they carry every day. One’s who added value to their lives and left an impact for them to pass on to the future generations.

My Mom, greatness personified.

My Life has been a journey, and a lot of people have influenced it in some aspects or the other, my family, my friends and my teachers, but the one woman that has given meaning to my life and shown me how to live and face this world is My MOM.

No doubt moms are very special for everyone...but what my mom has done is truly outstanding. She is my pillar of strength, full of love and compassion.

Being a single parent life was never a cake walk for her, she struggled hard as teacher to provide the best of education and life to me. She provided not only basics but also the Luxuries of life to me. As a teacher she has mentored many lives apart from mine. Forgiveness is at the core of her heart and one look at her calm, serene and smiling face melts way all kinds of anxiety and anger.

No matter what the situation, she has disciplined me to be calm and always stick to the truth (Which we are tempted to conveniently let go).Today at the age of 60, she is still teaching and changing lives. She is my mentor, my source of inspiration, temple of Love and i never have to look elsewhere for any kind of advise. Whether personal or professional, what she will say will be the most thought after long-term solution. I trust her decision in all aspects, and yes of course she believes in learning from me as well as her other students to stay in tune with the times----she is on watsapp too!!!

I hope to instill as many values as possible in my kids as she has instilled in me. She is a very loved grand mom and does spoil my kids at time ...but always keeping them disciplined. She is and always will be my friend, philosopher and guide.

The message that she imparts through her words and deeds is very clear, whatever hardship or challenges life throws up, if you persist, persevere and pray...u will come out a champion.

Contributed By: Fatema Lokhandwala

You inspire me Maa’m!!

There will be always many people who inspire in your journey called Life. Just to name one person who have inspired you immensely would be like deciding between your own kids. Still I am taking that risk and naming one women who have inspired me apart from my Mother.

Hemangi Marathe is my Yoga instructor who has been teaching yoga since 1986 but if you meet her you will not believe that she belongs to the old school of yoga. Her larger than life smile, her curiosity to learn new techniques, her ability to adapt changes always inspires me. At the age of 48 when many people starts feeling that they need to slow down, she is learning new forms of dances.

I hope she keep inspiring all her students for many more years to come.

Contributed By: Shilpa Kayal

Now if you come to think of it, I am sure you would come across many such women who have helped you become what you are today. Sometime an acknowledgement like this can be good way to show your gratitude. So go ahead make someone feel special!!

Happy Women’s Day

 

 

Are you hiring for #startup?

We are in age where being an entrepreneur is a career choice but still more than 50% fail.

The current market dynamics though have been favorable for startup but execution is a key which many miss on to. However for any startup to run successfully it’s important to have the right talent at the right time. Yes RIGHT is very crucial here and all the more when attracting one is not an easy task. No matter how brilliant the Business plan looks like but without the resources actually on boarded it might just be good as a PowerPoint presentation.

Working for startups for a while now and managing this fire fighting here are some quick tips to follow out of my personal experience.

Invest on career page: Go check your career page, will you ever apply to an organization you have never heard of and even the website looks like from 90s. Following the latest trends and what your competitors or similar player doing in the market might give a baseline at least and later is your creativity to add more appeal. After all it’s all about creating an experience!!

Don’t ignore social: The current generation is truly a ‘social animal’. Social media is a free & interactive marketing tool, which has come out as a boon for startups. Not just one but has numerous platforms to target audience as per there interest. Channelizing the social efforts in the right direction will help in branding and also help to connect with passive and genuine job seekers. Such hirings come through pull affect and also help is spreading the word of mouth. If you are a starter better focus one platform to start with rather being everywhere with no impact at all!!

A day at work: Giving a feeler for how a day or a week looks like at your organization can be a good attraction and also will fetch you genuinely motivated talent and not just the one who thing startup means higher salary. Working with startup has its own charm and challenges, and this period though might not give full but at least a partial hand on experience to both the parties.

Talent holds prime importance: Reality is that instead of running after industry expertise better attract talent profiles that have zeal and enthusiasm to work for a startup. For various reason startup might find it difficult to hire experienced candidates and even after hiring retention will be a prime concern due to the past expectation and environmental influence of the candidate. In such cases Onboarding someone will lesser experience but potential to execute might be a better choice.

Pitch at its best: Do you have a call pitch? So how did you close the last deal? Well hiring has never been out of sales, and when it’s about selling a new workplace which is new in all relevance, it becomes even more imperative. A pitch which makes sure meets the aspiration or at least incites a desire to know more is what we are talking here. Listen to talk!!

Let the JD stand out: Revisit the Job Descriptions and see does it stand out? Make it interesting enough for the candidate to write back to you and hit your website before simply ignoring your job posting for some run of the mill work from an unknown name. Yes, sometimes we do judge the book by its cover J

Hiring for startup is a challenge for sure but as said it the RIGHT fit which can make the strategy look like a master plan.

 

The new buzz, Employee Wellness

 

 

 

 

What’s the new buzzword in the HR circles which may show stronger trends in 2014?  

Well, a lot of buzzwords for sure, but one critical one that seems to be catching the combined attention of the community is Employee Wellness. It’s really not a new-age concept, but has certainly been redefined and remoulded to suit the needs of the current times. It has gone beyond the gamut of employee wealth, health and safety, to reach a different level.  

Initiatives in this area are not restricted to company insurance plans, hospital tie-ups and club memberships only. They cover provisions such as onsite healthcare facilities, online health assessment tools, programs and information providers for healthy living, employee health screening camps, wellness and nutrition coaching. Organizations are also slowly opening up to the idea of addressing specifics such as women’s health and stress management counselling. More progressive organizations look at even providing assistance to those employees who have a tobacco or alcohol dependency as well as raising awareness in HIV/AIDS.

So with this kind of interest and of course investment, it’s time to try and see what are some key reasons for organizations to start focusing on this area.

1.       There is a slow but steady understanding of the fact that there is a linkage of employee health to business productivity. How organizations track this or measure this is far from developed in terms of a process, but at this stage, suffice it to say that the acceptance of this linkage as a reality, is the driver.

2.       Employer branding and employee value proportion – The rising need for a balanced work-life approach in the current workforce, is forcing organizations to evaluate how they want to position themselves as a an employer brand. Hence the emphasis on providing a stress-free work environment with focused commitment towards the overall well-being of an employee has risen.

3.       Such investment is a long-term spending and when weighed against other opportunity costs such as loss of work hours due to absenteeism, sick leaves, attrition / turnover cost, retraining and so on, it might not seem that significant.

Reading the undercurrents related to this future trend, SHRM India introduced the Employee Wellness Award for organizations, within its set of HR Awards, at its Annual Conference. The winner was Scope International, while SAP Labs and Reliance were runners’ ups. It is therefore evident, that this is a fast-paced trend, which will pick up speed in 2014 and so the more prepared we are, the higher our employee competitive edge will be as organizations.

About Author 

 

Simran Oberoi

Sr. Knowledge Consultant - SHRM India