plugHR Career Cafe, An experience!!

As I entered the building, my phone started off and I answered to Bulbul on the other side, “Hey, I have already reached, where are you? Are the others too coming?” She asked me.

“Ya, just reaching in 5”, I replied promptly.

While I met Bulbul at the Café on 3^rd floor , Nikhil  and Paras too joined us.

No, we were not long lost friends but total strangers and only thing in common was that we were all passionate HR professionals coming from different industries but similar frame of mind, to be part of plugHR career cafe. Initially there was a momentary silence and as a host I initiated with a small introduction which simply took us to next level. One thing is for sure you are not in HR if you can’t talk like old friends to new ones. Meanwhile some more like minded people joined in along with Manoj, plugHR COO, who brought lot of value and aggression to the discussions.

Honestly I have organized many career cafes PAN India but never had personally attended one, so this being my first one I was not sure how would the discussion turn around. While I kept wondering my talking friends made it very easy. We had people pouring in the challenges and industrial grievances. Some discussed how HR role have been diminished over a decade and mostly sums up to coordination. To this one commented that it’s important for HR to align itself with Business the make the role and job more respectable and important. Common issues were on why it is important for HR to take a stand and what stops them for taking that critical call. Incomplete and ineffective dashboards and why have they not been able to move beyond attrition numbers too was a point to ponder.

But it’s foolish to be part of such event and miss out on self learning. Latest feedback practices of ‘Sandwich’ discussions and unique way to control attrition though effective and intelligent hiring was indeed something to imbibe personally. One of them was frank to comment on PMS session as a “Bajate Raho” time and another one told us how they would have two chairs during review time and when a non performer would sit, it would fall and he would know that it’s not his day….inspired from Mogambao of M. India. So next time don’t question HR on their sense of humor for you might not know the implications of the last night movie.

Well observing all of them engrossed in a great discussion was an experience. We had people with varied age group talking candidly like old pals. Funny thing was they all had apprehensions to attend career café initially and I had countered questions like “How will we break the ice?” “Are there any charges?” “What is the agenda?” “Why should I attend?”And here without any charges we kept talking for good 2.5 hours without a single awkward moment and the agenda was nothing but ‘be yourself’ with a mutual learning exercise.

Such are plugHR Career Cafes, where we provide platform to HR professionals to share experiences and unlearn to relearn with plugHR!!

We will soon be there in the café next to your place, just join in by writing to rakshita.dwivedi@plughr.com

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!!

Are you Hungry??

Hunger is to want more…to achieve more...to perform more...to explore more

Look around yourself and you might find people hungry for knowledge, right opportunity  and other such intangible and worthy experiences .No wonder why Rashmi Bansal  titled her book ,”Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish”!! Letting yourself want something will keep you hungry and realizing that you haven’t all that knowledge required will keep you foolish and this would end up in a success story…

When you find a profile updated on a portal, the first things which strikes you is a job seeker. But honestly it’s not always that though the idea of being successful is always at the back of one’s mind and we all in one way or the other are trying to settle our careers northwards. Looking for a job change is a career decision and many time job interviews however good, tricky or difficult they might be, is not right way to decide on this life changing event. I find many people changing jobs for reasons they themselves are not convinced and by the time they realize it’s too late even to run the ‘Rat Race’. For though we look forward for a bright career but wrong move makes us end up with a job. Now why do we attempt to jeopardize our future and just like me and you there are many others who would not like to re-invent the wheel

There is a section of our society who keeps itself updated with the general happenings in and around through different media and they are people who yet hungry but believe in ‘Better be safe than sorry ‘.And what they miss is the first hand experience on that risk. What would have happened if?? And this ‘if’ most of the times remains unanswered. Again the question is “What’s more important and is it worth it?”

So whether or not you a job hopper…

Whether or not you have an appetite for risk…

Whether or not your love your work…

You still are hungry!!

Interesting on an average we would agree that we not just crave for information but also self assessment and further the best option we find for the same is job interviews. Have come across people attending interviews in order to assess their knowledge though job change is not always the real reason. Frankly, what are the other options??But job interviews too cannot be an ideal way for such discussions. A typical interview will always revolve around the specific requirement and it hardly will let an attendee explore his/her grey areas. In such formal discussions we land up only to know what the other party requires and not what our capability is. So here the need was understand your strengths and analyse your past decisions but on the contrary you either land up with a job offer without still exploring those untouched areas or with an unsatisfied and confused feeling of what went wrong?.Ironically we never come to know the right answer.

You are always looking forward to conversation on similar frequencies as yours. There is always a need to let people know,”what you did last summer”. It’s always welcoming to know that there are people travelling in same boat and you are not a loner. Appreciation coming from your fraternity counts more that from unknown.

plugHR knows just how to do it. …

We brings ‘Career Café’ in different cities for the HR folks who believe they are hungry and what can satisfy it better than ‘good food of discussions’. Catching others for a casual coffee break will not just bring you out of your dilemmas and inhibitions but also a clearer picture of your inside, one you have been seeking and longing for.

So next time when you are hungry, let’s catch up for a coffee!!

Keep it simple honey!!

Keep it simple honey…

My days are generally busy and though I start quite early still squeezing out time for my favorite section of News Daily becomes next to impossible, courtesy my adorable son. Today was no different just that I managed to catch a glimpse of Times Ascent and came across this great article on performance management system based on an interview of Mr. Thomas J DeLong, professor at Harvard Business School.

As per the Professor an organization has three types of workers. A, those who exceed expectations, B who meet expectations and C are ones who are below expectations. Now I wish most of the organizations could keep it that crisp rather than further dividing it into some five to six categories, all because the managers are either not equipped or are not aware how to measure the expectation. This does nothing but in turn complicates the entire appraisal system and leads to confused employees with respect to their performance and even more stressed supervisors who spend months convincing them regarding the ratings they themselves never understood.

All this reminds me of BCG Matrix where Business units are categorized into Stars, Cash Cows, Dogs and Question Marks. Though it refers to a marketing lesson but same can be applied on Human assets where Stars are ‘A’ performer, ones who are future leaders and viewed as critical mass in an organization. Cash Cows are however the ‘B’ performers ones who are not just competent but most steady and reliable ones, infact just like cash cows they are ones who run the show and Dog are definitely the ‘C’ performers who are below expectation and should be either pushed toward being more productive or asked to exit from the system. Any organization should not hire question marks at all!!

We all know this but what lacks here is that mostly the focus is on A performers who are self driven and high on aspirations which if not satisfied internally would move out of system voluntarily, no matter what. After which, mostly we are concerned about C category and how can they be pumped to perform better. Now what we mostly ignore is the B category that works the best, balances work life with personal fronts and is extremely engaged to the organization. But ignoring this category raises unnecessary concerns which if not handled maturely and timely leads to exits from the block and ultimately affecting the profitability of the system.

Cutting the long story short, lesser categories will make life easier for all and not to mention will have more happy faces around.

 

 

 

 

The Economic Times High Flier talks of plugHR

The Economic Times on 25th December featured plugHR in its "High Flier" section while talking about "Out of the Box Successes". Article also highlighted the entrepreneurial spirit and courage displayed by plugHR CEO in letting go the high paying job opportunities in order to chase his ambition of creating something on his own out of scratch.

Here is the article copied and pasted below verbatim:

PLUGGED GLORY

Working in the telecom sector, post a degree from Symbiosis, specialising in marketing, basically means that your life is set for the next decade or so. And when other leading MNCs come to you and offer you a better job on a platter, would you jump to take it or ponder over it and refuse the job offer so that you can start something on your own? Prashant Bhaskar decided he rather take a chance then sit in a cubicle and work under someone. “It was during my early tenures, many CEOs and HR professionals expressed the need of grappling with the task of hiring and holding people. I realised that while hiring had got enough attention, there wasn’t much help available around holding people. It seemed like an untapped business opportunity and I got down to creating products around this,” recalls Prashant Bhaskar, Founder & CEO, plugHR. Starting something completely out of one’s skin seems like a difficult job. Though Bhaskar could have opted for any job he wanted, he decided against it. He says working under someone else doesn’t really allow one to innovate, take risk and attempt exceptional rewards. Does Bhaskar miss applying his educational knowledge at work? He disagrees, “Education is never a waste. I do not regret not taking those high paying jobs as I felt that I served my ambition.”