The Human Variable

1. Preface ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….1 2. Gamification Of The Workplace T.Adwitiya ……………………………………………………. ……….…..2 3. Study On Generational Difference – B. Kanika …………………………………………………………….…4 4. The Role Of HR In Startups – S. R. NandIni ……………………………………………………………………5 5. Role Of Gamification In Organisations - G. Somil…………………………………………………………….7 6. Role Of HR In Startups –P.Punya ……………………………………………………………………………………9 7. Role Of HR In Startups – D. Rupam……………………………………………………………………………….11 8. Role Of HR In Startups – P. VInisha…………………………………………………………………………….…12 9. Role Of Gamification In Organisations – N. Shivani……………………………………………………….14 10. Role Of HR In Startups –C. Arijit …………………………………………………………………………………..16 11. The Role Of Social Media In AttractIng Talent- B. Ashish………………………………………………18 12. Role Of Gamification In Organisations – B. Prem…………………………………………………….……20 13. Role Of Gamification In Organisations – K. Rajat…………………………………………………………..22 14. The I’m HR Team ………………………………………………………………………………………………………...24

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THE HUMAN VARIABLE | DECEMBER 2014 | Page 1

On behalf of the IMT Hyderabad HR club it gives me immense pleasure to introduce the first issue of ‘The Human Variable’ an annual magazine which would showcase articles on contemporary HR themes.

As times change, businesses are recognizing the importance of human resources as a source of competitive advantage. In the words of Renee West, “You can have the best strategy and the best building in the world, but if you don’t have the hearts and minds of the people who work with you, none of it comes to life.” However with this recognition also comes the challenge of acquiring, managing and retaining talent in an increasingly dynamic workplace where terms like engagement, loyalty are on a downward spiral. Like Roger Enrico of Pepsico said “The soft stuff is always harder than the hard stuff.” This magazine aims to capture these challenges in human resource management and what organizations across the globe are doing to deal with them.

Human Variable would be covering the latest issues and trends in the area of HR. The inaugural issue of the magazine captures some of the contemporary issues like increasing Engagement through Gamification, Using Social Media in Attracting Talent, Managing Generational differences in the workplace, Employer Branding and the Role of HR in startups.

I would like to express my appreciation to the students from different B-schools across India who contributed their articles for the magazine. We hope to receive your contributions for the future issues too. Finally I would like to congratulate the I’m HR team members who have done a great job in putting this issue together.

Best wishes Dr. Romina Mathew Faculty Mentor (I’M HR) Area Chairperson (Human Resource Management) Institute of Management Technology, Hyderabad

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Imagine your typical day at the corporate office not starts by reading reports, and planning meetings but playing Angry Birds? Or playing Farmville and learning collaboration with the most annoying fellow in your team?

Good news for the HR departments across the world! If the employees are busy playing games secretly on their mobile phones, and company laptops- it is probably adding to Company’s bottom line!

Wondering how? Welcome to the era of Gamification of Work Place!

Badgeville Chief Strategy Officer & Co-Founder Kris Duggan says that gamification is “taking techniques that make games engaging and addictive and applying them to things that are not games.”

How did this concept evolve? Gallup report 2014 reports that 70% of the American people are actively disengaged in the workplace. And then we have millennials joining work force by the thousands each year. Need of the hour is to keep the tech-savvy population engaged.

And, what better way than making workplace a game zone for those who grew up playing them?

Gamification uses leaderboards, badges, virtual currency to help employees develop innovative thinking, strategy and team spirit.

The designers at Silicon Valley have been kept busy with developing cause and effect games, dynamic systems game, and skill building games to monitor real world behavior of the employees.

These are designed to specifically help the procrastinators (they are a dime in dozen in every organization) get involved in professional skill development.

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Image Source: Metro.co.uk/twiddling your thumbs in office

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Accenture labs recent paper has enlisted different uses of gamification in recruiting, training, and sourcing and performance management. American Army has always been using games to train and recruit best of the pick for their ground soldiers.

L’Oreal’s Reveal has topped all charts, and won Top Com d’Or in the 2011 Top Com Corporate Business Awards' Digital/Multimedia category. It is a game designed for professionals to figure out their suitability in different careers in L’Oreal, by using their talents and skills in a environment that resembles L’Oreal culture. Thomas Riegel, the Recruitment Director at the Global Cosmetics firms explained how within hours, a man can figure out where his skills are best suited – from Finance to Marketing to HR, and accordingly the best performers are invited for interviews.

When CRM of Deloitte was failing, Duggan asked the sales force to start as chicken hunters.

They used more features of CRM, achieved higher game ratings and sales force satisfaction increased dramatically.

The trend is still to catch up in India.

Prashant John, Executive Director K’wench revealed that only 10% of Indian corporates use gamification.

Word of Caution: gamification is found to reward and encourage the basic behaviors, like team playing – but are found lacking in larger term orientation and big picture thinking.

Gamification underlines the growing impact of technology in human systems. Perfect example of how human variable and technology collaborate to create the perfect learning platform for the 21st century workforce.

ADWITIYA TIWARI HRM, Batch OF 2013-15 XLRI, Jamshedpur Email: h13067@astra.xlri.ac.in

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In today’s era, organisations are willingly adding generational diversity to its employee base. It is believed that such a mix will contribute to “Innovation” which in turn will help boost revenues. But is this all that easy? The answer to this is a straight “No”. Generational diversity surely provides varied perspectives which results in innovative ideas but there seems to be some uneasiness in terms of the two generations working together. Generation X and Generation Y due to the generational gap have contrasting working lifestyles. Let us compare these aspects in order to know how this can affect the organisation.

Generation X is considered to be dedicated when it comes to work. On the other hand, they perceive Generation Y, also known as the Millennials , as easing going ones who show little respect towards the authority. This tends to create friction between the two. The Human Resource needs to constantly work towards the same.

The difference further crops up in when we look at the working hours of the two. Generation X prefers to work according to the set office timing while the other segment prefers flexible working hours. They consider the Millennials as having “Poor Work Ethics”. Here the organisation needs to realise that as long as the goals are being met there shouldn’t be a problem. At the same time, the Millennials, at the entry level, need to readjust their attitude since long hours of work is expected from them.

When it comes to what each of these groups seek from the company, Generation X replies that new and challenging tasks keeps them motivated while for the Millennials it is the organisation’s vision and goal that keeps this segment with the firm. Generation Y tends to falter when it comes to loyalty. Reports state that a whopping 70% of the segment leave their first job within 2 years. This is reverse in case of Generation X who tend to stay with it till the time their work remains challenging. This further pushes the Millennials in the negative light by their predecessors. It becomes difficult for the Human Resource department to cater to such varying needs Generation Y is considered to be a fast moving and technology savvy one. They tend to achieve their goals by using technology as much as possible. This is viewed as they taking shortcuts and puts them in the lazy bracket in the eyes of their predecessors. The organisation needs to play a key role at this juncture by removing friction between the two.

Bridging the gap between the two generations is surely a difficult task, but when we look at what they can together bring to the table it becomes all the more essential.

Kanika Bhalla Indian Institute of Management, Rohtak

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Among the things essential for a start-up to succeed, a good team holds high significance. There are two ways to build a team, either the founding members can be in charge of recruiting professionals, training them etc. or they can seek the help of an HR professional who can focus his/her attention on hiring and retention. An effective HR department enables the start up in being cost effective by lowering recruitment costs, reducing attrition rate and even saving the company from some legal ramifications.

The Role of HR is critical in achieving rapid growth for any new business and this becomes all the more evident from the following points: Recruitment It is imperative to have a lean but efficient recruitment process. In a start-up, it becomes more challenging because not only finding the right people are important but also the needs to inspire them to commit to a company that is not yet established and secure.

Better Retention As the company grows, employees need to be kept happy, engaged, and productive. HR actively works to improve the quality of work life by creating and implementing programs and policies to benefit the employee such as incentives, raises, promotions, and vacation time.

Training and Development While small businesses have to innovate, it is very difficult to imagine innovation without increase in levels of knowledge, skills and abilities of employees. Hence, it becomes extremely important that new businesses invest in training and development, which leads to better learning and productivity.

Engaging Compensation Practices In order to retain the best talent, it is critical to brainstorm practices like profit sharing and incentive-based pay in young businesses. To execute this role effectively and efficiently, it is imperative to have a strong HR team.

Information Sharing Practices Small businesses need to continuously take new initiatives and success of these initiatives depends on internal information sharing programs. HR encourages such information-sharing programs so that company can become more flexible and adaptable.

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Partnership Philosophy and trust Start-ups succeed when employees take a significant mental stake in the success of the organization through high levels of attachment, commitment and involvement in the firm.

Therefore, it’s imperative for HR team members to perceive employees as fellow owners in an organization. HR in start-ups helps in ensuring that each employee feels trusted by the company's owner/manager.

Supports the Company’s Brand and builds the Culture HR ensures that the employees embrace the company’s philosophy, strategy, and purpose and that anyone hired will be a good fit. This can only be done in house and is incredibly difficult to achieve through outsourcing.

Legal Compliance HR specialists are required to be put up, to speed on all employee laws, rules, and regulations.

One of their most important functions is ensuring that the company and all of its employees are compliant with these rules.

Thus, HR helps in sustaining and improving the company. HR helps in creating a structure with standard operating procedures and thereby enables the organization to go a long way.

Nandini Shankar Rajvansh HRM & LR (2013-2015) Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai

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Gamification is the in thing nowadays. We have plenty of frameworks available to choose from and apply to real life organisation problems but in the true sense heart is set on being a child again. However, that is not the gamification way. Gamification calls for a serious look at how to approach organisational problems. Let us take the simplest model based on Forrester’s research: Motivation

Achievement

Action

Reward

Take two situations: A game of Candy Crush and customer retention via loyalty program. The reinforcing cycle depicted above works in two cases as below: GAMIFICATION STAGE

CANDY CRUSH

CUSTOMER RETENTION

Achievement Motivation

Clearing a level See the car move onto the next stage and play next level Stay hooked and exhaust lives Get more lives and lead against peers

Be eligible for loyalty points Feel special and wanting to use the product Buy the product Get added benefits like points

Action Reward

Organisations round the globe are using this simple theoretical understanding of gamification to achieve their objectives with respect to internal and external stakeholders. Over 70% of the Forbes Global 2000 companies surveyed in 2013 said that they are planning to use gamification for marketing and customer retention.

Internal stakeholders Employees require trainings and skill up gradation. Using gamification, many companies are trying to introduce innovative methods to engage employees towards mundane activities.

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Some of the group trainings or sessions are converted into games and seek more participation from employees. For example, if I were to take a brown bag session on latest changes in policy, I could create an environment of a treasure hunt game. The clues will be leading towards clearance of a hurdle that point towards the next clue. Solving the clue encourages the employee to read more about a policy and move onto the next clue. The winner can be rewarded with points that earn him/her recognition as the quick adapter in the organisation. In this way, a policy change can be made interesting.

External stakeholders Wide variety of products and features can be embedded in the customers mind if gamifification is done properly. For example, the Ford Fusion hybrid dashboard has gamified driving, to help drivers maximize the fuel economy of their vehicles. With the Eco-Guide, developed in conjunction with Smart Design, “efficiency leaves” appear on the dashboard and grow and proliferate, when more efficiently the car is driven. This helps drivers adjust their driving speeds and it rewards them. Engagement activities like loyalty programs use it extensively.

Certifications in Gamification Designing are already offered to marketers.

In the next decade, gamification is going to take central stage in organisational strategy as well.

It is my belief that the potential of gamification is only start to surface and as more people understand and gain insights into the gamification applications in businesses, more diverse fields can adapt to the idea. Educational institutes already find effective application in teaching students from primary to senior secondary by combining the use of technology in classes. It is expected to be a tool of innovation that will come handy for the MBA graduates when entering the market and also to ideate and take management to the next level.

SOMIL GOEL XLRI, JAMSHEDPUR

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“Great vision without great people is irrelevant.” - Jim Collins For the success of an organization people form the foundation for its success. With the splurge of start-ups in various industries across the world, managing the workforce of companies becomes an imperative task. More often than not, start-ups at the beginning have a very small workforce of around 10 to 15 employees. However, with the apparent increase in the number of employees in start-ups the role of HR cannot be ignored.

The need of HR in start-ups: 1. Culture building - The initial years of the organization and the kind of culture it has will help in its future growth. The first set of employees who are hired will more or less shape the culture of the organization in the coming days.

2. Constantly evolving – Startups will undergo constant changes with the growth of business and changing market scenario hence there will be a lot of structural and role changes for a number of employees.

Companies initially employ a professional to handle their HR needs and eventually strengthen the department when they have the capital to expand. The role of HR in start-ups is as follows: 1. Recruitment – HR is involved in selecting and hiring the right kind of talent. It is very important to have the right set of people who align with the values of the startup. This is more challenging because besides doing their market research and understanding the job market, exploring motivators – salary, perks, benefits, etc. they have to find the right people and inspire them to commit to the company that is not yet established.

2. Organizational structure - A lot of research, focus group discussions, strategic planning goes into defining the organizational structure and growth model. It is a systematic process which cannot be relied on instincts. A competent HR team will be a great asset in helping the organization get where it wants to, with minimal disruption.

3. Performance Management - Having a scientific method of performance evaluation and appraisal will help in identifying the high performers and preparing an action plan for all the employees.

4. Training & Development - Developmental needs of the employees should be catered by means of training and skill development to have proper career progression.

5. Compensation - HR can help provide employees the right pay structure using methods

like internal equity or market pricing. To give a good pay mix by providing ESOPs, profit sharing or incentive-based packages.

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6. Compliance - HR team helps in ensuring that all kind of compliances are met with and there is proper documentation of the same.

7. Communication & trust building - HR can be the channel in advising the management on impact of timely communication with employees. Without disrupting the business-asusual it creates a clear feedback channel to seek employee inputs hence creating employee trust in the process.

6. Welfare programs - HR must try to improve the quality of work life by creating and implementing programs and policies to benefit the employees such as providing flexi timing, leave policy, mediclaim insurance, etc.

So, having an HR team in a startup has a great ROI as it saves money by lowering recruitment costs, reducing attrition rate (resulting in lower training costs), and even saves the company from legal implications.

Punya Pullakita Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai

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Many startups are coming up nowadays and we cannot ignore the role of HR in startups.

Generally, we think HR doesn’t play a major role in startups, but contrary to this thought HR does play an important role. Most startups believe that HR only manages day-to-day activities and administrative duties that can be executed by the employees themselves. Additionally, hiring an HR specialist is not viewed as a cost effect measure. As a result, employees in the organisation are burdened with tasks that take time away from tasks they are recruited for. It can lead to a strained workforce, inefficiency and high attrition rate.

Startups need to be prepared for personnel crises that can upend the workplace. The HR role requires a strong personality with flexibility, such that they can handle the unsure situations in startup operations. Important HR work in a startup can be - making a handbook, maintaining organisational culture, recruiting the right people and ensuring the benefits reach the employees. Other important HR department tasks can be to help build company brand, ensure retention of the workforce and legal compliance of the organisation.

A handbook represents what the company expects of the employee and what benefits are offered. It is the job of the HR manager to make sure that the company stays innovative and work environment remains conducive for optimal productivity. People should know that their suggestions about improvements in the company are welcome. At a startup when you have only a few employees, hiring the right people is critical. They need to have the right experience, the right mentality and be a culture fit. Providing right benefits is also important. Employees aren’t just looking for money alone while expressing an inclination to work in a startup. Medical benefits are an important factor that should be provided. On the other hand, benefits like gym memberships, lunches, company happy hours, versatile working environment, etc can do wonders to improve employees’ efficiency. During periods of growth in startups, conflicts are bound to arise. An HR specialist needs to identify, resolve, and restore employee related concerns. Right from the start, HR department needs to be aware of the existing laws that can have an impact on the business and employees. Company needs to be sure that legal matters are quickly attended to. HR specialists also make sure that all employees are familiar with employee laws, rules and regulations and ensure compliance to these rules by employees.

Sometimes, because of increasing market competitiveness, businesses want to decrease their cost by any means and generally the step taken by them is to invest less money in HR, which in turn affects many related processes and in turn the management. Hence an effective HR department is a necessity in a startup.

Rupam Das IMT Hyderabad

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Startup Business and Human Resource If Business world is an engine, a start-up is its fuel. Dynamics of challenges faced by emerging companies have changed. Nowadays, the biggest challenge faced by the start-up companies is to attract best talent and retain it. When a start-up has to compete with well-established organizations for the best talent in the business industry, it has to look for more innovative hiring techniques and out of the box HR practices to bring the best talent to a start-up. For example, start-ups have to look for other ways apart from compensation packages to attract and retain talent.

Challenges faced by Startups in HR : One area of challenge: Most of the time start-up employees feel the firm lacks clear direction and well defined business processes as a result employee morale suffers.

Another area of Challenge: Key people leave for other opportunities and start-ups have to absorb the losses involved in hiring and training their replacements. Any negative publicity by departing employees can create difficulties for a start-up to attract talent.

The Key to deal with challenges is to follow a proactive approach.

Following diagram explains how sequential steps of a proactive HR approach by a start-up could result in creation of a positive work environment.

Positive Work Environme nt

Optimum use of Resource

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Well defined HR Procedure

Proactive HR approach Internal HR Knowledg e sharing platform

Clearly defined chain of control A compete nt leadershi p team

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HR strategies for Start-ups: Precise written working agreement: Employee agreements are very important for HR department; start-ups have to clearly identify who are its employees by means of working agreements and their exact job responsibilities?

Company goal and values: Every start-up has a business vision when it enters an industry. It is very crucial for a start-up to communicate its goal to the employees so that organizations aim and values are instilled into every member of the organization.

Create an internal knowledge sharing platform: It is crucial for start-ups to create a shared knowledge platform where employees can easily share any work related information.

Cost effective HR systems: start-ups could use cost effective systems to keep a check on work remainders, payroll management, employee benefits etc.

Conclusion Today start-ups are not only defined by how they are approaching their business goals but also how they react to worse business scenarios. Human resource functions are continuous and define the strength of an organization during good and bad times. Now a days, finding a compatible talent for a start-up is essential for running a business successfully. As mentioned by Naval Ravikant of Venture Hack- “Hiring for a start-up is harder than raising money”.

Vinisha Panwar PGDM Student (2014-16) Goa Institute of Management

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Online games are not just for playtime anymore. Ask any HR practitioner about new, innovative practices at the workplace and the one common answer that you will probably get is “Gamification”. “What exactly is Gamification?” you might ask. Gamification is basically the concept of applying game mechanics and game design techniques to engage and motivate people to achieve their goals. Gamification taps into the basic desires and needs of the users’ impulses which revolve around the idea of status and achievement. It also taps into the social desire of humans for self-esteem and desire to interact. Under factory settings, this may translate into creating a virtual setting for shop floor workers to in order to make a more exciting environment, like what McKinsley did or by using simulation mechanisms where in observations can be used to reduce wastage.

Can Gamification be implemented in HR? Yes, most definitely. We see companies come up with exciting ways of implementing Gamification in the actual workplace. Gamification is currently being applied to various HR verticals like customer engagement, employee performance, training and education, innovation management, personal development, sustainability, health and wellness and what not. Introducing rewards and badges for everyday mundane activities like filing paperwork or maybe, creating a competitive atmosphere among co-workers to ensure that a task is performed to perfection are seen to guarantee better results. However, the primary concern here is if all of these techniques are adding value to the company or are just an added cost. Because Gamification appears to be a sly attempt at trying to make the employees do what they were actually supposed to do already. Another concern that might arise is that employees need to be treated with respect and must be trusted with responsibility. It is often seen that Gamification is used to train the employees for a particular task in a certain way which ensures that they deal with that particular situation is described, optimal way but when a new situation arises, they are rendered handicapped.

Instead of using Gamification to attain new outputs at the workplace, it can be used as a very effective employee engagement tactic in order to ensure maximum engagement from its employees. It can be used to set short term goals yet effective ones at that, shorter deadlines thus, ensuring effective productivity. To see instantaneous results is always an encouragement for the employees to achieve long term results and this is what makes Gamification a very

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effective method to ensure maximum productivity. In addition, Gamification is seen to produce a less stringent workplace atmosphere which helps new employees relax and perform better.

Gamification helps relieve skills like efficiency, social intelligence, Conscientiousness and also provide employees an opportunity to make real life decisions and provide managers an opportunity to judge them. After all, who wouldn’t go an extra mile to be appreciated for their efforts!

Shivani Nehru SCMHRD

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“Think big but start small“ is the mantra of every start-up company. A start-up can only succeed if it has a good team. The success of a start-up is based on its employees.

A dedicated HR department will do wonders for a start-up to take it off the ground. A start-up company lacks brand image compared to its counterparts, hence the role of HR is crucial in attracting talent, recruiting the right fit of employees and retaining them as few employees form the workforce in a start-up. HR should maintain a friendly work culture by maintaining an open door policy for employees to discuss problems with HR managers, in order to resolve them at the ground level itself. It will improve employee retention thus saving costs on new recruitment and training.

HR should allow employees to work on projects in a flexible environment.

As the company grows, there is a need to re-examine the decision making and implementation process. There is a need of structure that will suit the pace of organization. HR department helps to design the organisation structure and growth model of the company.

The HR on-boarding and good induction programs will help to retain the employees in the company. As a start-up company has fewer employees, the retention power should be high. The HR department needs to monitor performance management and payroll management of any start-up company. In order to compete with other start-up companies the HR department should provide better work life balance to employees. They should offer gym membership, company happy hours and versatile working environment to attract best employees.

As a start-up grows, the laws and requirements will be intricate. The HR department needs to be aware of all these legal matters. The HR department’s key responsibility is to check that company and employees are following these regulations.

One of the main problems with a start-up company is capitalization. Revenue might not be generated as expected, and compensation might be compromised or cut to make the company

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survive. Thus HR department plays a crucial role in persuading the employees to stay with the company during this stage.

Communication between employees and leader is very important in a start-up company. The HR department can advise management on the timing and impact of timely communication on employees. The HR department should maintain proper feedback channel to seek employee inputs and reactions. Finally the HR department should make clear to all the employees about the ethical behaviour and policies of the company.

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REFERENCES (2013, November 15).

Retrieved November 29, 2014, from http://www.smartrecruiters.com/blog/5-most-important-tasks-to-startup-humanresources/ (2013, December 12).

Retrieved November 28, 2014, from https://aseonline.org/ArticleDetailsPage/tabid/7442/ArticleID/776/HR’s-Role-in-NewBusiness-Start-Ups.aspx (2014, February 9).

Retrieved November 28, 2014, from http://www.commdiginews.com/business-2/managing-a-start-up-company-the-hard-part7636/

ARIJIT CHOWDHURY PGDM (2014-2016) GOA INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT PHONE NO: +91-7028548845

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With the advent of social media, the world has come closer. The barriers of communication have been breached and the majority of world’s population is no longer inaccessible. All this has become possible due to the widespread use of social media platforms by one and all. Social media is a stage where people from various corners of the globe can come together, interact and discuss various significant issues. The opportunities are simply inexhaustible in the virtual world.

In April 2014, Facebook crossed the milestone of 100 million users in India, making it the second largest nation engaged in social media, after the United States of America (U.S.A). This event appeared to be of great relevance for Human Resource managers from the recruitment perspective. Rather than going for the traditional methods such as inviting applications through post, etc., social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn could now be used as a powerful recruitment tool, as they offer new points of contact for companies to locate and target top talent. LinkedIn is the obvious choice due to the volume of potential candidates. Others like Facebook and Google+ have more people and can be used for interactive video conferencing sessions like we have Google Handouts.

What this phenomenon leads to, is significant cost savings. HRs are already labeled as those, who do not bring direct profits to the company. In the light of this view, recruitment by using these social media platforms can help companies reduce what they spend on recruitment. The practice currently being followed by the HR managers is verifying the authenticity of the accounts of potential candidates. In this direction, HR managers can take a step forward and start recruiting directly from websites like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, etc.

The adoption of this new process would lead to a new dimension in recruitment and selection. If successful in short run, this can be implemented as the alternative to the traditional recruitment processes. Companies can start this by testing recruitment of junior staff and then move to senior staff selection. Interviews can be taken through video conferencing.

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Thus, I envision a world where employees are recruited from any part of the world through the use of social media, interviewed and then asked to work through social media itself. Their performance appraisal is done online and they report to their managers online. Would this experiment work? Maybe, yes. For some companies, like the ones involved in IT services, it can work, but not for manufacturing firms.

Social media gives an incredible opportunity to the companies to reach out to potential talent for their organization. To do this successfully, they must first identify the right platform that is most used by their target audience — LinkedIn, Twitter or Facebook. They must also decide on the message, and demonstrate how the culture and the values align with the individuals or groups.

The companies also need to ensure that social media offering has a positive impact and can grab candidates’ attention. However, one should also make sure that responses are managed and an active presence is maintained, without which the efforts may go in vain.

Ashish Bansal Goa Institute of Management

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Did you spend most of the time as a child in a video parlor mastering the moves of Tekken?

Perhaps decades later you must have felt accomplished when you defeated the terrorist forces in Counterstrike. There are high chances that you did play many of these games with utter fun, joy and competition. And smart companies are banking on just that!!!

Gamification is defined as the use of game mechanics in a non-game context. These techniques leverage on the natural desires humans have to excel in competitions, earn rewards and make them visible to others. Game mechanics such as filling in progress bars, earning points, topping leader boards and achieving badges for completing tasks are just some of the many rewards for accomplishing desired tasks.

Research has shown that profitability and Productivity are positively correlated to employee engagement levels. Increasingly companies have realized this and are making not-so-fun tasks easier to complete, bringing in greater transparency and improving visibility at the workplace with Gamification.

Key Gamified HR functions: Recruitment: “WANT TO FLY FOR INDIA?” This is the tagline for the official Indian Air Force Mobile Game‘Guardians’. The game puts the player in the hot seat as an Indian Air Force Combat Pilot and takes you through the missions. The Game acts to be a motivating recruitment tool for the 14 to 20 year old age group.

Employer Branding: Marriott International is an excellent example of a company using gamification to educate players about the hospitality industry through the ‘My Marriot Hotel’ game on Facebook. The online game requires players to juggle the various responsibilities of a hotel kitchen manager.

It also is a robust platform to familiarize candidates with the company culture.

Training & Development: Deloitte revolutionized gamified training for executives. Deloitte Leadership Academy (DLA) has used gamification to train employees. Interactive as well as traditional learning material is used alongside points, badges and leader boards that reward the completion of training modules. It integrates various social platforms to broadcast their achievements across mediums for a more personalized experience.

Gamification aids simulated on the job training which is especially helpful when training is dangerous or the costs incurred are extravagant.

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Performance Management: Work.com, a social performance management platform from Salesforce, has deployed gamification as a tool that emphasizes intrinsic motivation by reinventing the performance appraisal field by encouraging users to reward colleagues by awarding badges that signify a job well done. It has made it easier to holistically evaluate employee performance by providing instant feedback to an employee by key stakeholders.

The Way Ahead However, not all gamified applications succeed. Gartner predicts that by 2014, 80% of current gamified applications will fail to achieve business objectives. Care should be taken in understanding that gamification is not just sharing artificial badges and scoring points, the key is to tie it to real accomplishments with a focus on the right tailored design to suit business needs.

Nevertheless, the trend to gamify enterprise processes will continue to gain momentum. With the increasing digitalization of our lives and the need to keep the interactive workforce engaged HR personnel need to successfully tap into this trend for a sustained competitive advantage.

Prem Batra MBA HR | 2014-16 SBM, NMIMS, Mumbai

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The informal network in an organization unites people, in this way the HR capacity gets to be imperative in the matter of utilizing the maximum capacity of this liberal, open and element media stage. In India, associations, for example, ITC, Tata, HUL, Infosys are extremely dynamic in utilizing their particular Facebook pages, blogs for alluring in the prospective workforce. Not only do they do the verbal exchange about their brand but also amass a faithful following of students and well talented job seekers through promotional contests such as Tata Steel's Steela-Thon, Mahindra's War Room, ITC's Interrobang. Also another great advantage of social media is the exceptional reach of this medium.

L'Oreal's Brandstorm B-school challenge epitomizes this truly international masterplan wonderfully. It is a straightforward consequence of this that the HRs an wholly influence the gigantic measure of contestant produced and through case study competitions, careful review of student’s recommendation and thought process, they can abridge it down to the most capable.

Other than these destinations, sites such as LinkedIn offer a pre-fabricated database of employees, moreover they use powerful networking tools maintaining professional contacts within and across industries. According to Jobvite social media survey, recruiters most popular social media is LinkedIn and nearly 94% of recruiters are there who use or plan to use social media in their recruitment efforts and 78% have made a hire through social media. Trailing behind is Facebook with 65% and Twitter with 55%.

According to recruiters(survey by Jobvite social media), recruitment through social media provides following benefits: Higher quality candidates  Becomes easy for them to contact candidates  Keeping a tab on prospective candidates On being asked what the recruiters look for while reviewing candidates on social networks, the recruiters said that they looked for following information: Professional experience  Length of professional tenure  Specific hard skills Besides this, other social media such as twitter allows HR professionals to discover potential employees by overseeing the inputs of people in their extended network of current and erstwhile employees, as well as any supporters of the company. Essentially, it acts as

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surveillance apparatus to ascertain individuals who may be an appropriate match for the company. Also, adding a HR blog or an online forum to our company’s website gives current and former employees a medium to intimate their job gratification to potential employees who are probing the company in order to arrange for a job interview or in response to a hiring campaign.

In the contemporary scenario, the organizations have also given heed to their Public Relations team who are utilizing social media as a means of keeping alumni inter-connected. This mentally creates a valuable proposal in erstwhile workforce and assists them to publicize companies and their brands to each and every individual member’s entire social network. At the end, the HR professionals should definitely consider and use social media to optimize the recruitment process but should also be vigilant of the potential negative impact it can create.

RAJAT KAPOOR IIM SHILLONG E-MAIL ID - rajat14@iimshillong.in

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Faculty Mentor: Dr. Romina Mathew

Editors: Gaurav Gupta Marilyn Mathew

Creative Head: Marilyn Mathew

Editing support:

Sneha Bazzar Mohd. Ahmer Gajanan Govekar

Core Members: Manish Agrawal Aiman Fatima Tanvi Lal Snigdha Kanduri

Divya Madhuri Apurva Sinha Rupam Das Janane Sethunarayanan Shubhangi Sharma

Rahul Agrawal Laveena Bhatia

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