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.

 

HR and Football!!

Author: Pranay Reddy, plugHR Pro

Remember Oliver Kahn, who stood like Colossus of Rhodes bestriding German goalpost during the FIFA ’02. Oliver single handedly enabled Germany’s progression into the finals against a star studded Brazil. His awesome goal keeping played an essential part in his team’s victory against much famed oppositions. He didn’t even concede a single goal in the seven games leading to the final, where his sole mistake in the entire tournament not only cost him the coveted “world Champ title” but his captaincy and eventually his place in the senior side. It was also for his pyro techniques Kahn was honored with the ‘Golden Ball’ a rare occurrence among the goalies.

In football, Pundits have often said and I’ll repeat, “The goalkeeping, no matter how good you are, you should must be aware that what you’re doing is a ‘Thankless’ job”. Try to recall your childhood football icons, and figure out how many were actually goal keepers? Shocked, the answer is a big fat ZERO. We are cult followers, and the goalkeepers on almost all occasions are the ones who’re unable to create any cult around; simply because they’re not involved in scoring any goals and thus are not the ones who’ve halo around their heads.

An HR manger is also not involved in creating any value in a business, directly. How many times, have you ever patted the back of your HR when your appraisals were done on time? On the other hand you’ve grumbled almost every week, as you were marked absent, just because the funny biometric was being too funny? Now I am just interested in asking some rhetorical, as all readers are well versed with answers. My purpose is to set in a though process, so that people start contemplating.

In football you cannot win a game if your Goalie is weak, because the opponent will score more goals than you, similarly if you’re HR is not strong in engaging and training, your workforce will find it difficult to stick to your organization, and you’ll see your folks entering the premises of your competitors. Bingo! Your opponent has scored a goal over you, by poaching your priceless talent. Contrary to that, if you’ve a strong and a competent HR, your people will not only stick but will create awesome values for your venture and you’ll score a goal over a goal over your competitor.    

In football, Goalkeeper is the only player well positioned, who can analyze the strategy of the opponents and hence play a key role in catalyzing positive outcomes. This is possible because atop a football pitch, he is the only person who can mark the movements of his teammates. Another question to tickle your brain; who is the only manager in your organization who alike a goalkeeper can chart the progress and trajectories of your employees. You need not think furiously as you already have your answer.

When pressure mounts on the captain, or when he feels there is a need to call in a substitution, skipper always look forward to a valuable advice from his goalkeeper, whenever he has to make a quick decision. Rhetoric again, in an organization, who is the go-to person for a CEO, when he is in a dilemma, whether he need to ask some people to leave or on occasions when he needs some new talent to be pumped in the ecosystem of the workplace full of vibrant energy.

Top four challenges in Talent Acquisition

Author: Rekha Nair

For all those who sit on the other side of the table other than HR, Talent acquisition is the most mundane, most easy and most taken for granted task.  No one spares a second thought to the Recruitment process in the Company, apart from HR and if you are lucky the Top management once in a while when the bottom line is affected and the Leaders point out to ‘manpower’ issues as the reason behind it. Yes, you heard it right, most of us in HR are aware of this and this is what we deal with every day, but we would rather sweep it under the carpet and not discuss about it, but problems has to be tackled and analyzed if not today then tomorrow , definitely.

As any HR professional who has handled or is handling ‘Talent acquisition’ shall tell you that  though it sounds to be the most simplest of and uncomplicated task, it is actually not so, it is a challenge every day, and the Company and the HR team along with the line managers has to be geared up to meet the challenges.  Some of the most common challenges which any HR manager who handles Talent acquisition shall enumerate are  as given below:-

1)      Quality Manpower : It is amazing, the number of Engineering and professional colleges that we have in our country are close to  6ooo when we put together both, but when we get down to the process of sourcing, screening, selecting, we are all the more amazed at the number of mismatch that we have to deal with.  If we specifically speak about the Campus recruitment, in order to overcome the mismatch, there has to be lot of industry and academia interaction and handholding to enable the colleges to come out with courses or course content which comes up to the needs and expectations of the organizations.

When we talk about lateral entries the biggest challenge is finding the right talent for the right job, your shortlisted, selected candidate might have cleared all the psychometric test, might have cleared all the rounds, all the technical questions must have been answered beautifully, however, when he gets down to working, within a month the Team manager and HR realizes that the whole exercise has been futile as he has everything going on paper but when it comes to delivering it is a big miss. The challenge is to find the right talent, the right attitude for the given job and for this HR fraternity has been struggling and experimenting, but to till date we are yet to come up with a fool proof method.

2)      Stability : This might sound old fashioned and out of league, but this is one of the biggest challenges  for every organization and for every HR Head , and  that is to retain the talent that you have brought in and who seems to be the right fit.  It is again not to be left to the HR department to make sure that once the candidate has joined he stays put for decent amount of time, apart from Induction, being your buddy and point of contact in the initial days.  HR needs all the efforts to be put in by the respective Departments also where he or she joins to make it comfortable and interesting and lucrative in terms of work for the employee to make him want to come back to the office every day.

3)      Transparency :  It is the prime responsibility and in fact should be driven by the Ethic code of every Company that the HR department shall be transparent about the salary, designation, role, responsibilities, rules , regulations, ethics, culture  etc. of the Company and every effort shall be made by the Company to cover all these aspects through the Induction program and the various training programs and sessions that the employee goes through upon his joining.  The HR department should take extra effort to gauge the understanding of the employees , it is a good idea to have ‘on board interview’, similar to the exit interview, after the Induction is over  so that HR is able to address the gaps in understanding of any issue by the employee.  

Transparency is applicable both ways as an employee is entitled to all the information about an organization and its systems and procedures whether it is with regard to compensation & benefits, Learning &Development, Rewards &Recognition similarly an organization is entitled to have correct information about the candidate with regard to his qualification, his past experience, his last salary drawn etc.  Most of the organizations have put checks and balances in place to be sure that the information provided to them is authentic, in spite of that the number of ‘discrepancies’ which are reported by verification consultants to the HR department is alarming, and it is a cause of concern as many candidates give incorrect information about their salaries and qualifications , more over they supplement it with fake certificates and references.

4)      Culture fit   :  Okay, let us assume that we have taken care of all the above, we have got a right fit candidate who has made up his mind to stay with us long term and is totally transparent about his credentials and all is well, but then comes the most important question, in spite of the knowledge and information passed on to him about the organization and his absorbing the same, there are many unwritten rules in the organization which he shall be able  to understand only in due course of time, which may confuse him or take him by surprise or might even make him highly uncomfortable, this usually happens when employees make a move across industries for example when a candidate who has throughout worked in Media industry changes over to the EPC sector , he sees a huge transformation staring at him.  Here HR has to play an important role , this has to be done proactively, taking into consideration this piece of information and then by way of assigning a buddy to him in the department, or putting him under a mentor for sometime or HR itself taking pains to continuously communicate with the employee with the intention of keeping him for good and let not all the efforts go in vain.  Of course, this needs equal cooperation and willingness and a genuine effort from the candidate as well to imbibe the changes and change to grow.

As detailed  above, the ‘Talent Acquisition’ team whom most of us hardly give a second look unless and until we have to forward a resume under the ‘referral scheme’, is actually strengthening the foundation of the organisation every day and making sure that while all the others concentrate aggressively on the bottom line and profit margin, they are giving their invaluable support in their own quiet and determined way

About Author

Rekha Nair

She holds over 16 years of experience,  primarily in Corporate HR and has handled the entire gamut of HR in a reputed IT company in the Corporate HR Division, for the last 7 plus years working as Chief Manager - HR  of Angelique International Ltd., a reputed EPC company from India. Posses a good experience in Talent Acquisition, Talent Management, R&R, Trainings, Employee Engagement, HR Audits  and HRIS. 

 

 

Top four outcomes of an Exit Interview!!

Author: Simran Oberoi

 

 

Exit Interviews are usually not perceived as pleasant interactions – some people view it as a venting exercise, some adopt an “advisory” approach of providing solutions to the issues they faced and a lot of people are usually indifferent!

So as an HR practitioner, it can be very frustrating to try and gather data or meaning from these discussions and try to link it to actual root causes for employee attrition. Have you ever thought of making a slightly different sort of list of what you want to achieve out of this discussion from an exiting employee? If yes, you are ahead of most others ! If not, here are some pointers which might help…and here I’d like to use my favorite sentence- this is an indicative list, not an exhaustive one !

 

1.  The most obvious - Reasons for leaving the firm. Of course, employees have a standard response to this that they come prepared with – but the onus is on you to make sure that you ask questions that make the employee give clear and specific answers instead of a whole lot of subjective information on what didn’t work well. Also, employees are hesitant to share negative feedback – whether it is due to the fear of confrontation or lack of belief that the feedback will have any  impact. You have a hugely challenging task of creating a sense of trust in an already-disillusioned employee !

 

2.  HR needs to find some answers, but it also needs to understand the thought process of an exiting employee…So probe sensitively about how the individual arrived at the decision to leave the firm. This will help you reach the core of the actual issue and manage attrition in a more focused manner.

 

3. Try to also collect the positives , the optimistic thoughts from such interviews even if those seem rare to come by – Perhaps names of supportive managers/peers, high potential team members and so on. Agreed that this could be very subjective and perception driven, but then so are a whole lot of other things related with people ! This information will come in handy to anticipate where your strength lies and how to anticipate any exits of key employees.

 

4.  Collect feedback for HR too – so the exit interview should allow the employee to share his or her thoughts on how and when the HR’s involvement could have helped prevent the exit. This also covers getting the employee’s thoughts on what interventions make sense to them and what didn’t have any impact on their motivation/engagement levels.

About Author
Simran Oberoi
Sr. Knowledge Partner - SHRM India

She 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.  

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.

 

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.

 

Emotions at work place.. Needed ?

 

Attuned to a rare habit of feeling emotions running across any space I walk into. It infuses a certain energy , tremendous power of emotions... at times positive ...sometimes negative and destructive... and sometimes just nothing. So what and how important are these emotions... Emotions are nothing but a combination of behaviour and attitude, they indicate an existence of value and in my line and way of thoughts; extremely critical for any space home or office... so focusing on emotions at work place; it is the emotions that create an organizational culture...really?  So what happens to the Vision, Mission, Values, Rules & Regulations, Principles, ethics.... that organizations spend time on putting in place. Very important... but come to think of it, we’d realize that these would actually be empty phrases and statements without emotions in them. To believe that you can be the best in market for XYZ product or ABC service... this statement stays as a vision but will certainly not translate into performance or service excellence. So how are emotions going to change this ? Emotions create a culture and culture is the single biggest differentiator for a business in the space one is in.

 

Emotions help connecting with the world within the office space and reach out to the world outside. And that is effectively opening up the channels of communication. Ever realize, you walk across the office and you see your colleagues / team members gather in group, chit-chatting, talking – laughing and then suddenly someone notices one individual walking across / towards and the crowd softly but immediately disperses. That happens when there exists no emotions... emotions of being fearless, of being able to express freely! There is a dire need of being able to communicate fearlessly. For the new age leaders... CXO’s need to have an informal approach, collaborative and democratic way of working. A need to capitalize on the emotions people have and be a caring organization... there should be no space for anxiety, anger, confusion or unhappiness. One should be able to pick up the emotions of team members before taking decisions. So it is for the leaders of today to internalize these attributes and effectively creative an ideal leadership style that people would look up to. 

 

So how does this help create a culture? Culture cannot be imposed on people. It needs to be build in the system by these same set of people working in the office. Culture will get driven by those emotions that must co-exist in harmony. An organization has no existence unless the people in it bring it to life. Bring it to life with their emotions of loyalty, commitment and performance excellence, which in all are enough to drive the organization on the path of success. You may have detailed, sophisticated presentations made to new Joinees / employees on organization culture but it essentially understood by employees as they interact with others in the office space.

Culture essentially drives organizational performance and effectiveness, more than competence it is the emotions and adherence to culture that are even more important. Emotions help managers coach employees during low performance, the growth paths can be delineated and one can essentially optimize the diversity. Emotions create and form the biggest culture capital in any company.

So the choice lies with you whether you would want to be in space where you work with people who are disinterested in their jobs. Who walk in, do their work and simply leave for the day not knowing how effectively they have contributed at work or you would like to create an environment where every team member functions as a partner in accomplishing your vision. Your company will succeed because you have built a culture of openness, a culture that promotes productivity and cohesiveness.

Author

 

Samruddhi Mulye

Sr Project Manager - plugHR

Samruddhi comes with over 12 years of HR experience with expertise in Compensation and Benefits, Performance Management, OB and Learning & Leadership. Samruddhi, in her prior assignments has worked with Infovision Software, Carlson Wagonlit travels, ABN Amro and Spanco.

 

 

 

 

So why do you work in HR?

If you work in the field and have been interviewed by someone you probably would have come across this question- “Why did you choose to work in Human resources?”

Here are some responses which make me wonder

“I like to help people so I decided to work in HR”- well why don’t you do social service or work for a charity. HR is not about helping people; it is about getting the best outcomes for the business through people. It is about understanding the commercial aspects of the business and matching it up with the right talent.

“I like people” (as opposed to animals!!)- why HR then as most people you will come across while you are working in HR would be those who have been brought to your attention for untoward behavior, under performance, or those with a grievance. It may actually lead to an aversion to the human kind. You may start to prefer animals over us humans.

“I suck at numbers and I can’t sell so Finance or sales and marketing were not an option for me”- in that case you are not going too far in your HR career, any good HR professional understands that metrics and numbers are equally important in HR as in the other parts of the company.

“Oh I was into recruitment and I thought HR is similar”- you are right on one aspect that recruitment is an important aspect of HR, but HR has a much broader role and involves numerous other aspects. I personally believe that recruitment teaches you lots of skills that you can use as a HR professional namely asking probing questions, interpreting responses, reading body language, PATIENCE, handling vendors and reading through onerous documents (resumes, cover letters, agreements and contracts).

“I think that HR will be an office job I will not be required to travel or go in the field”- that I tell you my friend is a myth. While it is true that most HR roles will work out of an office. There are many times when a HR pro has to be on the go. If you work for a business with teams spread across different geographies then more than likely you would be required to travel for employee relations, performance management, recruitment, training etc. With the changing face of HR, the profession is becoming more dynamic, HR’s presence is required where the action is.

My story of working in HR is I fell in love with the field during my summer training, where I was working as a marketing intern in an IT services company. As an immensely curious intern I kept asking numerous questions to the HR manager sitting in the next cubicle. She was working on Talent development and mobility program. I got hooked to the idea of making change happen and promptly changed my majors to HR. And I have been in HR ever since.

So, I don’t know what floated your boat to HR land, but ask yourself this question and do share your responses with us.

Author

Garima Gupta

HR professional passionate about all things HR even after 13 years in the field. I have worked in different industries ranging from FMCG, retail, education and largely in financial services. I have been fortunate to get opportunity to work in India, China, Australia and USA. After various stints internationally, I have recently returned back home to US. I can be contacted for career advice and consulting.

 

Five HR lessons from Steve Jobs!!

Steve Jobs has changed the way the world uses mobile phones, no more just an equipment to call on the go, but a device for all round communication and entertainment. Steve Jobs was not known to follow trends but he made the trends which people followed.

But what lessons can HR learn from Steve Jobs?  Steve’s leadership qualities and his ability to think outside the square was what made Apple into a force to reckon with. Here are five lessons HR can learn from Steve Jobs:

Innovation

“Innovation has nothing to do with how many R&D dollars you have. When Apple came up with the Mac, IBM was spending at least 100 times more on R&D. It’s not about money. It’s about the people you have, how you’re led, and how much you get it.” -Steve Jobs

Innovation requires passion and the right environment to fuel the passion. Hire for potential and not just for experience. When people are passionate they produce exceptional results. We have all heard of the 80/20 rule of Google where employees get 20% of their time to innovate. HR pros let’s give innovation a chance.

Think Different

“Because the people, who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do!”-Steve Jobs 

Innovation comes from ideas, and ideas from thinking. Don’t let ideas and creative thought process be drowned by red tape, legislation and procedures. Like Steve said, encourage crazy ideas which may seem preposterous because they may change the world.HR pros champion innovation and reward different thinking.

Continuous learning

“Getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life."-Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs continued to learn from his failures throughout his life. Encourage people to continue learning and not be afraid to fail. People should feel that trying something different is not taboo. Focus on how the individual can learn from the mistakes and how they will not repeat it in the future. Continuous learning is important even for the HR professionals. Continuous learning is not only in classrooms but opportunities to work on secondments in other departments, learning from each other - through lunch and learn sessions, master classes and cross-mentoring.HR pros don’t stop learning.

Marketing and promoting by unusual means

“Customers don't know what they want until we've shown them.”- Steve Jobs 

Steve did not wait for the customer to demand something instead he created products which the customer would desire and couldn’t do without.HR teams often fall apart when it comes to promoting their agenda whether it is related to Talent and succession or new social media policies or learning programs. Many HR teams make everything compulsory and get away from promoting and marketing to their customers, but they surely would not go a long way. If you have designed a great intervention or learning program find unique ways of promoting it.

User experience- creating experiences, customer comes first

“You've got to start with the customer experience and work back toward the technology - not the other way around."-Steve Jobs

While it is important to follow regulation and legislation, it is paramount to put yourselves in the user’s shoes before creating the next HR policy or procedure. No one is fond of filling long winded forms to get to a HR benefit. Just keep it simple silly!!

In conclusion, while there are several great lessons that Steve has taught us and will continue to inspire generations to come, here is a last one which applies to us all whether working in HR or not.

“Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn't matter to me ... Going to bed at night saying we've done something wonderful... that's what matters to me.”-Steve Jobs

About the Author

Garima Gupta is a global HR Professional with passionate about all HR things even after 13 years in the field. She holds a rich working experience in different industries ranging from FMCG, retail, education and largely in financial services and has been fortunate to get opportunity to work in India, China, Australia and USA. After various stints internationally, she has recently returned back home to US and can be contacted for career advice and consulting on garimagupta.usa@gmail.com

 

First Day,First Show...Hit or Miss

Cab driver was racing his car when the passenger tapped his shoulder. He screamed out for his life and banged on the road divider. When asked for such a weird behavior, he said all his life he has been carrying dead bodies to the morgue so a sudden touch was too much to scare him for life.  

Though hilarious but this is an ideal scenario of a changed work place and challenges associated to the same. Probably that’s the reason why initial induction and orientation plays an important role in an employee’s life cycle. First day at a new office is as important as a new school and nobody wants to feel left out amongst strangers. While recruiting organization makes sure to show the best picture to the potential employee but mostly falter during the joining time. It’s human to take things granted and all those long follow up calls on joining confirmation loose the stand in front of ground reality.


So what exactly happens on a first day, first show?? 

Mostly the story begins with loads of manual data entry which consumes half of the day and the new employee keeps wondering when will he get a quick smoke break, though is little reluctant to ask the HR coordinator. However this generally proceeds with a quick lunch which he would have with the other New Joinees all equally confused what to do next. Well the induction presentation too was expected full on black n white content and hardly could manage them to keep away from yawning. Next day you would find the new resource deployed at the assignment hired for all set to take over.

Neither did ever the employee complain about it nor did the HR feel the need to change after all the New Joinee feedback rated the process ‘GOOD’. So why bother!!

But will you rate this as a Blockbuster or Flop is what will make to re think about the entire process. Is it all about showing an additional hire in the monthly HR dashboard or something beyond numbers. Where is the user experience which you get while watching your favorite film in gold class?
 
So the point is both content and environment play an important role when we are inducting or introducing a new employee. First day itself should create an impression to last long, something which can engage him from day one. Something he would love to take back home for he surely made a right choice. Active interactions will not just make one comfortable but also help to understand the system and thus settling down would be much easier. Paper work and initial formalities if done online can save the day for team bonding orientation may be outside office premises or other in-house activities which helps to connect at much faster speed. Likewise there is lot which can be done around this widely practiced process ,all one requires is a Director’s Hat.

Induction is film which if directed, executed and presented well , will surely have the audience cheering for more!!

 

 

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!!