Corporate Constitution

 

The idea of writing this article initially felt like a burden but I realized that this was one opportunity I had to describe what  freedom at workplace meant to me and how could I let that go away!

An idea to create an organization culture with an important component called “EMPLOYEE FREEDOM”! Already in love with this idea and being an HR professional what more can I ask for J

 

F - Freedom

R – Rational

E- Equality

E- Empowerment

D – Democracy at Workplace

O - Opportunity

M – Modern

 

"When people have freedom at work, they strive and deliver their best. They become emotionally committed to the organization, as opposed to being merely rationally committed. Emotionally committed employees go the extra mile in any assignment/project, actively seek new challenges and remain engaged with the organization through good times and bad."

Freedom at workplace means different things to different people but what’s in it mean for me?

When India got its independence and the constitution was formed as Indians we got ourselves some fundamental rights so I am going to try and list down some fundamental rights that could be implemented at workplace to practice “EMPLOYEE FREEDOM”.

• Right to Innovate : The modern-day freedom at workplace means to make employees feel empowered, with a strong sense of ownership and contribution, a freedom to make mistakes and to have the power to innovate. Think out of the box and to do things differently. If you can do different things and the organization supports you it is a wonderful feeling. I wanted to change the outlook and format of our Newsletter drastically; the organization had full faith in me and gave me all freedom to experiment on new design and concepts. The end product was appreciated across. It all happened because of the freedom I enjoyed and the faith the organization had in me. This will help employees believe their work impacts the organization in a positive way.
• Right to Express : Right to express my views, likes and dislikes without the fear of the consequences is one of the most critical rights. The freedom to exercise this right is not to tell my boss that his business strategy is flawed but to help nurture a culture of imbibing ownership and to think at all times how we can contribute in small or big ways to the success of the organization as if it were our own.  Organization puts forth several initiatives for the benefit of the employees but some might not have the desired impact.  Having the freedom to talk to your seniors/ managers or key people about it and suggest some ideas/ solutions and if they are ready to accept it you feel more owned.Expressing yourself will make u feel empowered to make a difference.  Employers can encourage forums for two way communication such as Town Hall, All hands call, PULSE etc. which is a regular feature with engagements at Plug HR.

• Right to work flexible : Flexibility to do whatever is required and whenever, as long as the job gets done well in time. The freedom to suit my work hours to accommodate family as well as social life is indeed a priority. I need my space and freedom to have a healthy work-life balance. It helps me to be a sane individual, who can contribute creatively towards work and other organizational initiatives. In Plug HR/Client Places, we have flexible working hours and this helps me a lot in balancing work life. In case of discussions involving people from various locations, we depend largely on the Go to Meeting online communication platform or Sabse Bolo (Conference Call), which allows us the freedom to participate even from home, well after the normal office hours. I believe work is important, but life is more important.
• Right to contribute to change: Any change even at policy/process level that involves people always faces resistance. Getting employees buy in on changes that directly or indirectly impacts them is a critical way for any business to quickly adapt. We need to ensure that key influencers are always onboard for critical decisions as that they are well equipped to drive these at grass root levels. Creating a employee forum like” PULSE” helps in taking an opinion of employees through appointed  staff representatives and also reassuring the employee that their opinion matters.  Trust me, there is no better feeling than the fact that the company actually cares about my opinion. A sales guy does sales, a marketing guy markets and a backend support guy does exactly what the name suggests. With competence comes the company's resistance to change the successful profile to another function.

• Virtual freedom: Social approach has taken a new meaning with social networks and employees wanting to be "connected" at all times. Companies hesitate to give full freedom as gaming, social networking, etc. are perceived as serious work dampeners, but @PlugHR it is essential to be social and tech savvy as we collaborate through virtual networks and reap the several benefits it has to offer. You will see employees of Plug HR active on Twitter (Tweetathon) ,Facebook, LinkedIn , actually name the platform and you bet at least a few of us would have left our pug marks there. This will help employer takes advantage of being a “global” company through employee interactions.

"Freedom at the workplace is the independence employees need in order to be motivated and perform to the best of their abilities. Freedom encompasses flexibility on where an employee chooses to work from, the opportunity to voice their opinions freely and the freedom to exercise their creativity to achieve organizational goals. We are responsible for our organization and the culture we drive in it. Hence it is time we take the ownership and drive the culture we always wanted in our organizations. HR is the key and @ Plug HR we create awesome ventures!"

At the end of all this, I am going to leave you with a couple of questions

What does freedom at workplace mean to you?

Is your organization really giving you the freedom you deserve? Its time you really asked yourself this question.

 

Author

Pallavi Prabhu - Sr. Project Manager @plugHR

 

 

 

 

Are you Human Oriented?

"JOIN OUR FAST-PACED COMPANY"
We have no time to train you.

"CASUAL WORK ATMOSPHERE"
You'll be here very late, very often -- might as well be comfortable.

"MUST BE DEADLINE-ORIENTED"
Your first four projects are already way overdue.

"SOME OVERTIME REQUIRED"
Did we mention that you'll be here very late, very often? And most weekends.

"DUTIES WILL VARY"
We might not check with you before adding more responsibilities

"CAREER-MINDED"
Female applicants must be childless, hope pregnancy is not on cards.

I came across these tweets which was shared with an intended pun but actually is a bitter reality check and an eye opener. These just reiterate that Human Resources has been more of treating Humans as resources. In the fast paced competitive work pace before we even realized Human got dropped somewhere midway and hence people became numeric assets good enough to be shown on dashboards. Numbers good enough to be deleted or added as per market climate.

Mostly organizations in urgency to increase the productivity try to optimize there bottom line which in turn results in aggressive target settings for the employees to produce desired results. As much as the top line is important ignoring employee wellness and a stress free environment is what should not be ignored either. These tweets portray the outcome based approach or behavior pertaining to most of the startup and SME where understanding human aspects still looks to be far cry.

My intension is not to counter the organization expectation but only if humans are treated as beings and not machines, as people and not just resources, as family not just assets, growth is inevitable.

So next time don’t look at your watch when somebody is late!!

 

 

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

Alone and Together - distributed work model

May be to plugHR it came naturally, I realized only through other's observations that our corporate team wasn't really sitting close. I brave Mumbai, our India operations Head stays firm in the seat of power at New Delhi, advocacy manager hangs down south in Hyderabad and Head of Brand shuttles through Mumbai, Kolkata and New York.

It works really well for us and having worked like this for over three years now, I am tempted to share it as a well tested model. Rather than giving it a fancy jargon that could then do the rounds in HR circles like omnipresent beblades, I've called it "Alone & Together" model. Let me jump straight to the merits.

The A&T (thats just the short form, not a jargon...come on...) model is based on the premise that being alone allows for higher concentration, flexibility & creativity to be deployed at work, apart from getting less disturbed by the presence of others. Moreover, one is less likely to get drawn into unplanned operational mundanity (overlook the vocab invention). Members structure routine and work styles the way it works best for them and each achieves more.

Does that make the team any less together, naaah. With all kind of things popping up the lappi, you can't be more closer. Skype, Twitter, Facebook, BB messenger make sure that I can sense team members facial expressions, count their coffees and sometime even wake them up from afternoon siesta. We don't even miss meetings (the favorite corporate passtime), thanks to sabsebolo.com and the likes.

Its amazing to realize how some of these tools have made us all pretty much at work almost always and being at a particular place (erstwhile known as office) to be able to begin work has become distant memory. Did I say begin work? Well can't say even that exists anymore, the ends have blurred, work and life both simulcast around but for the time we sleep.

But that was before Inception became so believable ..... ahh, let me catch sleep while lines blur further... you got the model right?

HR can build a business

So I am at it again, professing the role of HR as one that builds business right from the core rather than playing people charmer in organizations. In most of our start-up accounts, we have started realizing that one of the severe limitations founders have here is their inability to put discipline in most of their initiatives. So you have a business desire with very little plan, you have hiring ambition with very little form filling, organization structure that resembles flow of neurons in their head and business ideas that move like Amoeba.

One significant contribution that plugHR team seems to be making at these places is forcing discipline across levels. Need to make a manpower plan is forcing founders to write their business plans. Policy structure document is making neurons work overtime and we have tried to save the organization from ever changing Amoeba. Can't say we've succedded all along, but attempting is pretty much half way through.

So when start-up goes on overdrive, you better have plugHR on the navigator seat :)