Probability, People and Profits

Author: Pranay Reddy

Some days ago I asked a friend, “What is your chance of becoming the next top shot entrepreneur running a billion dollar company”. He replied, “Its 1/2, either I’ll become one or else I won’t. Suffice it to say, either he has it in him to be the next Jobs or else he’s destined to bite dust. The point to be highlighted as per him is that, his chances of reaching those heights are as high as 50%, so are the chances to fall in glitch. If the aforesaid, dictum is true then what do you have to say for snowing in Delhi. Well, as expected we have an identical answer, probability of snowing are as likely as 50% i.e. either it snows or it doesn’t. Weird isn’t it? The explanation of the aforementioned paradox is the property of probability, known as chances of an event occurring should be equally likely. This explains for the reason why it doesn’t snow in Delhi, because the chances of such an occurrence are close to zero. Similarly, if we speak of chances of rain in Mumbai during monsoons; because the conditions are so favorable it is as high as 90%.

For the sake of argument, what are the chances, of an aspiring entrepreneur to achieve stardom, now that we know the property of probability of ‘Equally likeliness’?  Let’s apply some basics of mathematics: The chances of you attaining success in you entrepreneurial sojourn is say, m/n, where m is the no. of successful entrepreneurs and n is the total no. of entrepreneurs. But, as we know n>>m, i.e. n is a much larger no. then m the fraction m/n is close to ZERO. Does that mean that chances of your entrepreneurial journey ending up as a success is close to zero? The big and the obvious answer to this question is a big fat NO. But sane people have said and I quote, “Logic seldom lies, and math never”. So the only solution to this problem is to reduce the burgeoning no. n exponentially. 

This calls for some introspection and some sound strategizing. It is indispensable to have an idea, which is unique, robust, ingenious and off course scalable if you’ve to reach heights. If you have such an idea, next step is implementation, and that too you need an ecosystem for your idea to thrive and veritably hard work, will power and dedication as quoted by Legend himself, Milkha Singh. Inspite, of stuffed with truckloads of abovementioned attributes, the trick that entrepreneurs miss are there people.

Irrespective of the domain of your industry viz. services, manufacturing, etc., whatever you create, you do it for people. Gurucharan Das once spoke, the best form of R&D must involve taking in the opinion of your customers, and the best way to do that is to involve your own people. It is the people who create things not machines. Suffice, to say if your workforce is motivated, supported and happy, they are in amicable condition to spell a magic in your venture. Always remember, only humans can think of what humans want, not machines.

So, I cannot guarantee the causal of entrepreneurial Yahoo, but can promise lots of correlations. Apple Inc. who’re committed to their workforce recently overtook Coca Cola, as the most valuable brand, and they did that without incurring any cost in advertising!

Author
Pranay Reddy - PlugHR Pro

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.

 

Why HR should make Business Cases?

When you first read the topic , does it seems as though the profession is heading towards a paradoxical ( not paradigm) shift? In the past, there were hardly any instances of HR having to make a business case to the Board or CEO or senior management – which in essence means that today’s HR professional across levels has a clear understanding of the fact that each people related intervention also needs to have a cost-benefits analysis done, a feasibility or viability exercised conducted, senior management buy-in and clear linkages to business performance. Interesting as it sounds, it’s a challenging approach right ?  Well, it certainly will be - because making a business case is not just an additional responsibility, it is a change of mindset which the HR professional must be cognizant of in current times.
 

Does this need to make a business case mean that each initiative has to have a defined ROI or a clear monetary impact? Not really and not in entirety. What it does mean is that the HR person will need to think beyond – he or she will need to assess what happens after the initiative in a more structured manner and the resultant effect of the initiative on the business. What it also means is that HR should be able to speak the business’s language and explain this effect to the leaders. Finally what it also means is – an absolute end to working on silos! It means collaboration and buy-in, thinking through and coming together.

So in brief how is it that HR makes a business case for its initiatives? To keep it simple – here are some quick, generic steps that will apply across most initiatives - this is indicative, not exhaustive, so you could add more aspects that you find relevant: 

• Understand the organization’s vision and business objectives, its implications on people and particularly to the concerned initiative/intervention.

• Do a viability/feasibility study or a cost-benefit analysis – whatever you may choose to call the same, but basically a listing of the pros and cons ( should cover tangible and intangible impacts).

• Budgetary and resource support needed and for what duration.

• Market study of such initiatives ( if similar ones are run by competitor and your exit analysis shows that there has been attrition due to this being absent, as one of the study elements).

• Challenges/Roadblocks that you perceive and senior management’s involvement in the same.

• Project/Work plan with timelines and if this initiative has linkages to other future initiatives  

If you are able to work along the above steps, your business case will be as comprehensive as it can be. The rest depends on how clearly this case is communicated and shared with the senior management!

 
 

About the author 

Simran Oberoi is currently working as a Knowledge Advisor in 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. 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. She can be reached on Simran.Oberoi@shrm.org

 

 

 

 

 

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

 

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!!

 

 

10 ways to measure employee enagagement...

With changing times as Personnel Management became Talent Management, employee wellness has becomes the focus for any HR Manager. Organizations too have realized that though employees are governed my labor laws but ultimately they are major stakeholders in its organic growth. This paradigm shift has brought a major challenge of keeping employee motivated and engaged within the organizations. More opportunities and technologies have resulted in competitive strategies to have more happy faces around.

However like physicists say ‘ No machine can have perfect efficiency’ likewise hitting a perfect 10/10 can be a  farfetched dream but still there are ways to measure your engagement quotient and timely action can make just turn around stuff.

Best and the most well known is to analyze your exit reports and keep a tab on that deadly attrition factor. Resignations not only adds to ones blood pressure but replacement too come with added cost .So why not channelize the energy and finances on more productive side which can help keep the      attrition counts stay low and engagement high.

Remember what made college better than school? Well college didn’t have any uniform. Truly burden of strict policies such as reporting time sometimes can be highly annoying. Employee are truly engaged if they come on time because they love being at office not because they have late marks counter on.

Do your employees doze off or try to bunk those open forums addressed by the CEO or founder? So next time make sure it’s more interactive. They deserve to know where the organization is heading and let them feel like a family only then they would give their best to you.

How about the last appraisal process? How many reminders did you send to the managers? Do they believe in the appraisal process or is it just another formality for them. Processes can give us some very critical information’s about the employee motivation.

Once somebody suggested about having a ‘Smilometer’ , which can help us tracks smiles in day. Indeed more laughter and friendly behavior on floor suggests that it a happy place to work and smiles are always infectious J

My personal experience says an engaged and motivated employee will always. The feeling of pride to be associated with one’s dream company is too good a motivator and also helps spreading the feeling around.A happy employee would love to refer more of his friends to join the gang.  So you know when employee referrals are low what needs to be done.

Mostly HR faces challenge of maintaining salary confidentiality and more employees are stressed and frustrated every discussion boils around their favorite topic. If they are monetarily satisfied and happily engaged there are no reasons for you to worry on your strict and confidential information to go public.

Have you noticed who all regularly miss annual day celebrations or office parties? It’s similar to avoiding a dinner because your don’t like the host. Do I need to say more?

Trust in management and feeling of belonginess plays a great role too. If an employees is participative and know that his ideas and efforts will be well appreciated and acknowledged, he would be well bounded with the organization values and philosophy .However this comes with due course and here timely and right communication channel is very important.

 Keep a tab on informal and ‘online and social media’ discussions. Technology has opened many avenues for official gossips. Understanding employee psychology and behavior helps to understand their needs and leads to timely actions and further improvements.

Employee Engagement is need of the hour. Today keeping talent motivated and happy is important so that focus on organizational growth is undeterred. Important is to understand that every organization and individual is unique. What works with one might not click with others .But the beauty is to manage complex human brains in the most simplified manner.
However we all know that nobody is married to an organization but being engaged is no less than that !!

Wish you Happy Engagement J

 

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!!

Work from home in 10

“ Yahoo Employees Can’t Work From Home Anymore”

When I read this tweet last week, was taken aback and yes not to miss thanked my stars for not being in Yahoo at least ;)

So the topic has been hot for a while now and it being very close to my heart and needless to say invariably my favorite pick I thought to pen down my thoughts as well. Again without taking any sides I quote, Sairee Chahal, Founder Fleximoms, ‘work from home is one of the many formats of work flex’ and honestly require lot of ‘MATURITY’ from both employees as well as employers. Only when both are in sync with the model will it work otherwise without arguments its failure is inevitable.

I have personally been practicing it for couple of months now but again my employer plugHR has been successfully doing it for many years. Still recall meeting Prashant Bhaskar, Founder plugHR saying he started on his own enterprise for wanted more flexibility and now loves the providing the same to others. Here both parties have a very clear picture of what’s happening around on the other side, the reason is ‘CONNECT’. We make sure the all work flex professional are connected on all possible ways. So my day starts with a ‘Sabse Bolo’ call meeting @ 9:15 am with all status update on the day and if I really need to speak to somebody I am rest assured that they are just a call/watsapp/BBM/gtalk away. Trust me sometimes these apps are more effective than face to face follow ups…try it to believe it!!

‘SOCIAL MEDIA’ definitely has been a boon for such set ups, it not just keeps me informed about latest happening but also is a good way for a team connect. I know my virtual colleagues as much as I knew mine with last employer. Also meeting physically once in a week helps a lot in rapport building, taking over gotomeeting or Skype with webcams on trust me works wonders. Why not... you can always show off your latest wardrobe addition!!

Having a ‘SCHEDULE’ and work space like the one you have in office would always help you focus on the job. Pursuing personal chores while at work should be avoided, though you can have breaks. Working from home need lot of ‘SELF DISCIPLINE’ and is mostly suited for people who are self motivated and for jobs which requires more concentrations.

Another approach which really helps is being PROACTIVE. In a physical office I could have explained about not meeting deadlines much more easily but when operating from home one has to very sure before giving up. Here only results a visible not efforts and to make it more transparent it’s the individual who has to be vocal enough to share concerns rather than waiting for the ugly turn.

A very important aspect of work from home is that many think it’s only boon for working moms, but in the changing dynamics men too prefer it. For now just it saves on ‘TRAVEL TIME’ but also ‘COST’ both for employee and employer. This work format also provide employers to target a potential latent talent which are otherwise females on sabbatical and for organizations which can’t afford to have a full fledged in-house crèche facility , this work as wonders.

But yes one size can’t fit to all!!

However in profiles where team work/brainstorming/product development is required one might to operate face to face then virtually .Again expecting fresher’s /junior members to be productive in this model can be a challenge. So as much as it can be a benefit of one, many might just be demotivated enough to give up.

Infact, many individuals find it difficult to operate remotely and are more comfortable in physical set up with people around. I remember we hired somebody recently and she quit because found it boring, working all by herself. We can’t blame anybody here, for humans are social and that’s the secret, why social networking is so useful in connecting virtual beings. Any achievements or failure which we would have shared with our team member otherwise are now shared with a larger audience. Trust me many people envy me for being on Face book and Twitter the whole day J

So guys to be honest this works for me, because I want it to work for me. At the end of the day I am ‘ACCOUNTABLE’ to perform and by virtue of my experience can be productive without much surveillance. If you are ready for such high ‘COMMITMENT’, you are in….

 

My Tryst with Distance Running

It’s 5am on a Sunday morning, a God forsaken hour for most of Mumbai.. What am I doing? Donning my running gear to hit NCPA for a 15km run. Not a jog… a run.

Who am I? Entrepreneur, Head of User Experience at plugHR, mother of 2, artist.. What the hell am I doing, you wonder? I am training for the Mumbai Marathon, due in January 2013. And… I run with a 300+ strong group, all in their mid-40s (I am not necessarily talking about myself here!); all running enthusiasts, not sportspersons.

My initiation into distance running was a freak accident. However, I never, in my wildest dreams, thought of it as such a life changer.

Distance running, in as much as it's a physical sport, is also a mind game. It is a play of mind over body, a willing mind over an unwilling body if you will. The mind is setting a seemingly unrealistic goal for the body to deliver.

What does it take for the mind and body to deliver on this goal? To break it down simply, I will say:

BELIEVE – ACHIEVE – BELIEVE more

BELIEVE you are upto the task, believe in the training you are putting in.

Then ACHIEVE intermediate goals, win some mind battles,

Hence BELIEVE some more that you will achieve the bigger goal too.

So, when you smoothly run 5km without major heartburn, you convince yourself that another 3k is not such a big deal, so on and so forth.

Its not all smooth sailing mind you. There is the occasional calf pain, knee pain, twist in the ankle, there are bad running days, there is bad weather, there are shoe bites, there are late nights, and there are bad terrains.  At times, the body simply refuses to take direction. Be kind it says!

Therein lies another lesson… very early on, it is amply clear to any runner, that a good run is just that - ONE good run. You understand that “Past performance is no guarantee of future return”. If and when you begin to become smug in your achievements, nature very quickly deals a sobering effect. So, you learn to take each day as it comes. Each run is “the” run, each run has its own outcome. There is no time to celebrate one good run, and no time to gloat over a bad one. You just basically get on with it!

Of course, this also takes other kinds of preps:

1.    There are the groaning and back breaking stomach crunches, knee exercises,  pushups – yes, those too!
2.      .    Don’t forget, the carbohydrate loading, throwing all weight loss dietary habits to the winds
3.     And then, and this is the tough part, no partying late into the night, watching the booze intake, watching meal times (all the boring stuff)

The focus always being on conditioning the mind and body to endure the rigors of training and the mental and physical strain you are about to inflict on them.

Why endure all of this you ask? Well, the buzz and the adrenalin rush that you experience on crossing the finish line, with breaths to spare, are altogether something else!

So - and here is where I get philosophical - are there lessons here to use in a corporate setting? The lesson, to my mind, is in the area of performance management, goal setting, motivation.

·      How do we create an environment where people are able to experience and live out the cycle of BELIEVE – ACHIEVE – BELIEVE more?

·      How can rewards and recognition be fine-tuned to not only pat a good run on a bad day but also support a bad run of an otherwise smart runner?

·      How do we put enough stress on fortification while all the hype is on the run?

Would love to hear view on some of these.. 

Writer is Entrepreneur, running enthusiast, artist.

Additional Responsibilities- Are you game?

There have been discussions about what to do in the free time at office/work. If at all we all have any free time, do you think taking some extra responsibilities without giving any hints to the seniors or bosses about the free time is possible? Why not? Give it a try.... Recently while taking an interview of a senior HR professional, the similar discussion cropped up- The guy was just not ready to sit relaxed and hence he took up the additional responsibility of handling operations.... what's your take?  How can we do that...read on

Being handed new work duties is part and parcel of restructuring drive within an organization. Saying yes to new challenges at work is always an opportunity to learn new skills, contribute more towards the growth of the company and career building bridges. However, the load of new responsibility will require some extra input on your part. Here’s how you can make the role transition a smooth process:

Rendezvous with your peers Before you assume charge of some new work responsibility, it is important to gain insight into the role from the person who held the responsibility before you. Go beyond discussing the mere protocol involved; rather have a discussion over the nature and scope of the task you are about to take over.

If it is a newly proposed work, then discuss with the colleague who initiated the idea and/or gave you the responsibility for the same to develop an action plan in order to get started.

Amalgamate new work with existing one. Next, you will need to integrate the new tasks with your present work schedule. An addition to already existing responsibilities can leave you overwhelmed and mismanaged for both time and thought.

You can begin by grouping work that is similar to some existing work in adjacent slots as it gets done faster, with your thought process already aligned in the particular direction. Thus take stock of your daily schedule and create concrete work pockets for different tasks ensuring that the increase in duties does not hamper your original work arrangement.

Take on only as much as you can handle. As your work responsibilities expand, so will the need arise to create a work plan to judge how well you can manage your previous and newly added duties. Be clear on how much you can add to your plate without hampering your productivity and efficiency. There are times when we think our plate is not full and we just keep on filling it and then one day we realize that we are stuck. We have no idea how all this came to us and we cannot do it. So, just take it easy and go on slowly while asking for new tasks.

Initial regular assessment is important. As you assume the new responsibilities, take out time to gauge the progress and impact of your efforts. It’s best that you define the methodology and the projected outcome of the tasks in the beginning before they become accepted processes. Take the feedback from your seniors at various intervals, so that you know you are on the right track and taking a suggestion and advice from experts will surely add value in the long term prospects.

Take challenging tasks: Be open to work with new challenging assignments if you have any free time. Don’t jump over to any opportunity that comes your way, evaluate, introspect and work as per your areas of strength and where you can have some new opportunities of learning.

Learn new things for job enrichment: The same work, less work can add monotony and going to the office may start feeling like a burden. Yes, that’s what happens we all have seen such phases in our career. So what do we do? Start learning new things, look around and whenever an opportunity strikes at your door, just grasp and learn. 

For example if you are in HR role and just handle recruitment, start learning about other HR functions in spare time. Observe, understand and then learn best practices while still working your own thing. This way you can get better opportunities in the future.

HR Lessons from Life!!

Why have you chosen HR as your field??

Mostly asked question during my jobs interviews. No matter how I answered the question but had never given the real reason. The reason was that I have learned it at various stages of my life though the realization only came when formally studied it during my MBA…

 

Born as a first child in the family was welcomed with open arms however my overwhelmed parents were not sure how to handle the crying bundle of joy. And then my grandmother with her age old experience pacified me by feeding and singing a soothing lullaby. My first lesson - analyzing the situation and problem solving and second lesson came hand in hand – nothing can beat the experienced .No wonder why I always loved her so much. Then gradually with time as I grew so did my lessons. Every time I was scolded or praised I understood the theory of negative and positive reinforcements. When my wishes were categorized as acceptable or not acceptable in a way my parents were teaching my Maslow’s need hierarchy.

Every time good merits were awarded both in school and back at home ,theory of motivation made place in my mind. Further boarding schools and college taught me team work &conflict management .Moreover  limited pocket money was probably a lesson on budgeting and resource management .Working and handling student associations and strict wardens not just helped me better my people management  and leadership skills but also handling difficult people ;)

Now comes the most interesting and exciting lesson which indeed has been very close to my heart. As time flew and my parents started to look for a prospective groom. Not to mention I am happily married person but husband hunting is unbeatable. Three years and after dozen of meetings I finally got the right fit .The whole things sounds so much like recruitment where the focus should always be to get the right candidate and not compromise on quality for that leads to smooth functioning of the system.

Life always has been an amazing teacher, whose age is as much as you but infinite experience. Every day is a new lesson and maybe I chose to imbibe the HR ones….how about you??

 

 

what's in the place??

When I told my friend that I work with Plughr, a work flex organization which gives me an option to work from home and I am on a lookout  for a baby sitter, she first couldn’t  relate to it and very candidly said , “why do you need to do that when you are anyways are at home?”

Now lets not blame her  for this ,mostly you would find people joking around as WFH to be work for home than work from home and worse is that most of the times  its true. A great work flex model, if not practiced properly  fails to keep upto the real intention. Work from home can be a dream job for people like me who want to cut down on travelling to save it for more quality time with family and better output,  for you can’t beat the work engagement and concentration without collegues .Infact  when I got one , could only thank my brightest star for the that.But its not an easy ride and to make it happen the way it should ,one has to consciously put efforts to streamline the work. Office working always has its own advantage over virtual , where most of the intangible things like taking a break, amount of efforts, actual working hours put, need no explanation for its mostly visible .But the moment you are out of the visibility arena your work has to speak for you and further you have to make your self more vocal. Though technology has helped a lot in this front still there are areas which are not as transparent and that’s where the challenge lies.

Moreover work from home is just a change of place and not the schedule.Will you entertain your neighbor if you were in office then why should you when working from home? If you need groceries do it after office hours and not in your lunch break. Making a personal call should be limited to only urgent ones. Strong reporting and regular meeting is a wonderful way to let you manager know about your progress. At Plughr we have morning rhythm (con call) where we discuss our daily routine and that also keeps us on our toes for as an individual we are answerable towards our self defined milestones.Also regular webinars and weekly official visits helps building rapport with team member and collegues. Interesting all throughout working for technology companies before plugHR , I never got an opportunity to be so tech savvy as I am now. Credit goes to Go-to-meeting and  sykpe for never letting me feel that working from home can be boring .I also have found people complaining about no time limits to work, but that’s true for office jobs  as well.Why blame 'work from home' for that? Mostly the culprit is the time management, again a very crucial aspect for working remotely.Setting up a schedule and most importantly following it that way can be a great help too.

Another very important aspect is the acceptability of the model with employers and clients. I remember initially my client wasn’t comfortable enough with the work from home model and it took us some time to make him believe that it works. To sum up its very easy to falter in this model and most of the times its because we don’t practice the basic rules properly but the beauty is to follow it the right way and enjoy the benefits attached to it.

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?