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.

 

 

 

 

Corporate Constitution

 

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

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

 

F - Freedom

R – Rational

E- Equality

E- Empowerment

D – Democracy at Workplace

O - Opportunity

M – Modern

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What does freedom at workplace mean to you?

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

 

Author

Pallavi Prabhu - Sr. Project Manager @plugHR

 

 

 

 

Are you Human Oriented?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

 

Are you ignoring high performer?

 

'Low performers are more engaged than the high performers?'

Read one of the tweets recently…trust me I was more shocked than you though reading it further, only made me wonder about the gap in expectation and performance . Even more, the entire HR metrics around it.

However if I myself look back during peak attrition times, the entire bell curve goes for a toss when high performers leave voluntarily saving low performers as an option to be retained back. This is called need of hour or some are born lucky!!

Exit Interviews does give a feedback where high performers leave due to work load, managing high employer expectation, work life balance and above all working with a team members who without much efforts are paid at par with them. We can’t blame the system, for it’s human nature to look for the best resource while assigning any task and in most circumstances this become a repetition.Initally such delegations are appreciated but we tend to forget that an individual has a capability which would not withstand pressure beyond a certain elasticity .Once we cross the said threshold, frustration is inevitable. ? High performers are not easy to recruit but retaining and engaging them with the organization is a challenge for all. What fun would be to lose cash cows over a problem child?

It’s true every employee has different expectation but we should try to understand that such situations might solve problems in short run but going further will complicate issues. Many times high performers are unable to cope up with additional pressures and work load and overnight the category changes. What is expected other than an exit!!Timely cognizance will not just make the employee feel cared but also re affirm his/her trust in the HR processes and also help him/her stay engaged.

We would only flaunt those engagement rings when we are happily married!!

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….

 

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?

How not to lose job over the weekend!!!

Last two months of my interaction with so many employees, both in job and out of job has revealed a sad insight. That there is a generation of professionals in the market today who have no idea about what it takes to hold the job. Call it the complacency of the good times, enough of them have no idea how their own businesses make money and most of them are too slow to figure out changes in market conditions.

So here’s a short list of things one can keep in mind in order to keep those weekends paid for long.

Your employer is doing less business and is making lesser profit than it used to, when you had happened to him first time.
Your employer’s first concern (and the right) is to seek profit, rather than keep your job. Your job is largely your problem.
There’s a high chance that you don’t have a job today, but if you do have, there are at least 500 worthy contenders for the same job who will, if given a freak chance, will do your job not just better but also probably at half the cost. So you better sleep on your desk.
Two day weekend wasn’t your birth right, it just came about less than a decade ago, my advise is don’t stick to self-destruct idiosyncrasies, manage with whatever is available, remember during wartime, soldiers go for months without weekends.
Annual leaves, 20 days holidays, international vacations; you better count yourself in jobless already.
Now the good news is that the employer is still around, and he does have jobs on him. You got to assure him that you can add to his profit, that the purpose of your job would be his profit and not your salary. That if you don’t make him money, you won’t make much either.
I get job applications on my site where I have explicitly asked for references. I get entries like “references upon request”, why the **** would I request more than asking for them on my website in full public glare. Others under the effect of some sedatives write “references during interview”, the guy has selected himself for the interview. You think I care, you think I was out of my mind to ask for references upfront…..so why don’t you just give it?
Are you getting the point? There are fewer jobs, but jobs there are unless you blow them off for yourself.
And for god’s sake, don’t ask for long leaves this year at least, you’ll do yourself a favor.

I sincerely wish you paid weekends forever…….. keep watching this space, I’ll write a few more that will help…….. stay relaxed but stay on your feet :)

Monday Morning at Diamond Mine

"There's a Diamond in each one of you" - were the words with which we started this work week. Not a bad start would say even the pessimists.

Team members of Rigved - The retail Infrastructure company headquartered in Mumbai were not showing any signs of Monday morning blues when I walked in for the session. A neat rug on the floor of the conference room was the seat for all from CEO to the Office boy all sitting at random. And while the facilitator moved on to variety of things from small prayer to, moments of silence, deep breathing, praising the colleague, some self discovery, I remained amazed at how an hour on Monday morning can energize teams for the day, the week and may be longer. For some members, this was the first session to see how each member has things to deal with, for some the rare praise from someone they never thought even looks at them.

I have by now met at least 100 - 200 CEOs who have spoken about transformation of their teams. I have seen less than 5 really attempting that. A few more have delegated it to senior people (you can guess the result).

So what did Nirav do? You walk into Rigved office and you'd realize the attention of the CEO in everything around. Colours please you, walls talk, reception lets you catch a breath, you can visit rest room without infection worries and I can go on and on... point is, these are not small things for Rigved, these are essentials. No surprise then, that Nirav doesn't find it difficult to find that hour on Monday morning, when team members get their concentration right and warm up with other members to head into the work week.

Rigved operates in fiercely competitive space and they know how to fight it out. So next time you want transformation, don't talk.....take a walk around work bay, you'll know where to start...

Indian Appraisal Time

Its appraisal time in India - an activity where whole corporate India would spend time and effort. Believe it or not, performance appraisal is one of the most wonderful activities in the entire gamut of human resource management for managers.

Here is a list of advantages that performance appraisal offers to all stakeholders.

It is an opportunity for individuals to take stock of the whole year’s effort which would have seen good days and bad, accolades and brickbats, upbeat moments and stressful nights. Annual appraisal is time to unwind a bit and look back at those moments with the luxury of having passed through them.
For managers, its time to spend some quality time with team members when the agenda is not around consuming alcohol. Almost 80% managers would find this as the only time they got discussing work-life one to one with team. Smart managers would also find huge value in feedbacks from their team members around their own performance, behavior and get direct insights into what works directly from their consumers.
For organization, its an opportunity where by virtue of quality time being spent in the belly of management, huge value can get generated. Appraisal also provides for normalization of relationships, smoothening of operational kinks etc.

Now I can write a book on possible gains but I guess you’ve got the point. This whole gain rests on one fact i.e. Quality time spent during appraisal. So here’s a way to spend that quality time.

1. Appraisal is a two way process and should be conducted that way. Its important to check convenience of people to set appraisal appointment. Both people involved must do some preparation in terms of putting together indicators of performance. Preparatory notes should be made for discussing conflicts, confusions or disagreements.
2. Its advised to chose business hours to conduct appraisals, avoid early morning or late evening when unnatural pressures like reaching in time or leaving for home apply. Remember appraisal discussion is not additional work, on appraisal day, this discussion is THE WORK.
3. The value of learning, exploring and discussing would get realized if listening and talking is balanced properly. Managers must give their team members opportunity to talk enough. Members should be encouraged to discuss facts and data behind their assumptions. Insights would come out only if both work together on highlighted areas.
4. If for some reason argument erupts, it’s a good idea to take a break and again start discussions. There is no hard and fast format of conducting appraisal, mutual comfort is paramount. Also note down things on paper after some amount of talking has happened, its not required that from first sentence everything should be written down.

Quick points to remember

1. Appraisal is a much team member’s activity as it is for manager.
2. Any conversation that begins on pleasant note has higher chances of creating value.
3. Lot of times perceptions speak where as fact have to be found out. Find facts together.
4. Outcome of appraisal is not the paper, neither is it a rating, true outcome is the quality time spent between member and manager discussing performance issues, organization issues and methodologies to do better over time.
5. Increments, bonuses and other rewards only have a connection with appraisal process but that’s not the purpose of doing appraisals.
6. Last but not the least everyone has a right to disagree.

Please feel free to write to prashant@plughr.com if you have a direct question around the subject. Be patient for the reply, its appraisal time :)

A great appraisal challenge !!!

Imagine getting into a new client relationship at apparaisal time and finding that some fifty professionals need to be appraised in absence of any suggested KRAs. Further more their roles also may not be defined clearly and both they and their managers cary different versions about their roles.

Now imagine you are in charge for pulling off this appraisal and there is a deadline. You are wishing you were better dead. So did we.

Thanks to survivor skills of our Group Manager that we really pulled it off after some intense discussions, definitions, form filling, processing and late night coffees.

While India seems to be on a one way journey of growth, state of affairs within organizations remains pretty dismal as far as organization building is concerned. Short cut seems to be the flavor at both companies and training schools thus making original work uninitiated & unrewarded.

plugHR's own research points out clearly that top reason for high attrition in companies is not salaries at all but absence of basic people management practices apart from faith in senior management.

Its time for coporate India to revisit basics we guess and put money where the mouth is. HR is the mouth :)