39 minute read
There’s no HR playbook, the role is broader and deeper now
There’s no HR playbook,
the role is broader and deeper now
Agrowing number of employees today expect more from their employers in terms of providing individual flexibility, fostering an inclusive company culture, responding to world events, supporting mental health, and personalising the employee experience. This is a mammoth task for corporations. Providing these expectations and future-proofing organisations in an environment of uncertainty and shifting priorities remains a challenge. “If the last two years have taught me anything – the goal shouldn’t be to futureproof the organisation, as it’s impossible to predict the types of problems coming our way,” said Serena Townsend, the chief people officer at Silicon Labs.
With over 25 years of experience in technology organisations, Townsend earlier held HR leadership positions at companies including Samsung Austin Semiconductor and HomeAway (Expedia).
We are in the middle of a workplace transformation and there is no HR playbook today, says Serena townsend, Chief People Officer of Silicon Labs. How does that influence the rewards and retention strategy? By Mastufa ahmed
How are organisations reinventing their talent strategy in the wake of a mass exodus of talent and a tight labour market? How do you see the larger transformation of talent strategies?
Employees have absorbed a remarkable amount of change and disruption over the last two years. Nobody knows where emerging labour market trends will settle. Still, we know that employee needs and expectations are changing fundamentally. There is also a greater focus on personal flexibility and wellness. Companies that understand that and adapt their value propositions will succeed.
Gimmicks don’t work long-term for attracting and retaining talent. Know your values. Build strong company culture fundamentals. Listen and respond authentically to your employees. Recognise and appreciate great work.
In the post-pandemic world, the use of AI and automation has increased manifold and businesses are exploiting next-gen tech to improve efficiency and handle increased customer demand and expectations. How do you see the impact of next-gen tech such as AI and automation in the Human Resources Department?
There is a lot of opportu-
nity in the HR space to leverage technology and automation to improve the quality of service and increase efficiency. We’ve seen trends towards shared service models, automating routine tasks, enabling employee and manager self-service, and predictive modelling to do some cool new things, like identifying potential attrition risk and understanding possible bias in decision-making.
The most important starting place for innovation is good human-centred design. What problem are you trying to solve? Begin with designing a great employee experience and an effective process, and then find the tools and systems that support that, not the other way around.
Organisations must balance automation with human connection. We know that connection and community are fundamental needs and that personal interactions are key to building a culture of inclusion and belonging. If your new hire only interacts with a bot, it’s more difficult for them to feel welcomed into the organisation, so it’s critical to keep the employee experience top of mind.
How is the role of HR evolving in the wake of remote work practices, a rise in data, and a focus on inclusive culture and employee experience?
We are in the middle of a workplace transformation. There’s no HR playbook that we have experienced over the past years, and the role of HR is changing inside organisations to be broader and deeper than ever before.
Employees are asking for more support and expecting a lot more from employers in terms of providing individual flexibility, building an inclusive company culture, responding to world events, supporting mental health, and personalising the employee experience.
It’s critical to understand the world around you, your industry, your business, your organisation, and the variety of employee needs to design and roll out programmes that have the most impact. You must continuously invest time in all areas to be a great business partner and to offer relevant counsel.
As a global talent leader, what has been your core focus in the hybrid work era? How do you measure progress?
Keeping our company's value of “do the right thing” top of mind. To us, that means providing flexibility and personalised solutions to employees as much as we can, as we all navigate the pandemic and new pressures on individuals/families/communities.
Employees need different things at different times, and there is no one-size-fitsall solution today. This is especially true for a global organisation like ours.
We measure progress through annual and quarterly employee experience surveys, inclusion assessments, focus groups, leadership
forums, and regular performance and development conversations. Our ability to attract and retain talent is also a key indicator of our progress.
What are the top challenges and opportunities that you see in the up-skilling and re-skilling workforce today? Can you share insights about your initiatives around the same?
Like most growing global tech companies, we have a continuous demand for top talent and there is a limited supply. It’s a losing strategy to expect to grow long-term by only hiring experienced talent. ties in technical and professional development areas. This provides benefits to our employees who care a lot about their career growth and continuous learning, and it also helps our organisation to strengthen core capabilities that are critical to our long-term success.
As an HR leader, what role are you playing to futureproof your workforce?
If the last two years have taught me anything – the goal shouldn’t be to futureproof the organisation, as it’s impossible to predict the types of problems coming our way. Focus on building organisation resilience and
foCuS oN BuILDING oRGANISAtIoN RESILIENCE AND LEADERSHIP CAPABILItY So tHAt wE ARE BEttER At SoLVING NEw AND uNEXPECtED PRoBLEMS IN CREAtIVE wAYS...AND HAVE tRuSt IN EACH otHER AND tHE CoMPANY So tHAt wE CAN wEAtHER HARD tHINGS
We have robust pathway programmes where we partner with local high schools and universities to build STEM skills and provide career opportunities to students to excite them about our industry, and so that we can build and grow the overall talent pool.
Internally, our Silicon Labs University initiative offers live, online, and ondemand courses to help build skills and capabilileadership capability so that we are better at solving new and unexpected problems in creative ways to work through the change curve at a faster pace, and have trust in each other and the company so that we can weather hard things.
What are your company priorities and how do you align this with employee expectations?
Silicon Labs is a respected leader in the large and growing Internet of Things market. This is a space that used to be unknown to people and now it's part of everyone's everyday lives and is expected to be some of the fastest growth in technology in the industry for the coming decade. We are bringing together some of the most innovative, skilled, and creative talent from around the world to meet this challenge.
It’s important for me (and all leaders) to understand our overall business strategy, people trends influencing our space, unique strengths of our culture that create tailwinds for us, the changing needs of our employees, and the pace at which our organisation can absorb change.
It’s important to communicate often and transparently with employees through regular company meetings, town halls, leadership forums, all-hands, company intranet, and other channels on what’s happening in our market, how our business is doing, and how our customers and products are doing. This level of transparency builds trust with our employees that we are sharing what we can and that we are planning responsibly. We also regularly share the results of our engagement surveys, actions we are taking, and progress we are making towards people and culture-related goals.
VisTy BAnAJi
A flood of moonlight
Those operating close to subsistence levels have often had to stretch themselves over multiple jobs. Why is the trend accelerating among knowledge workers and what should we do about it?
he road less travelled t Recent TV debates on Moonlighting have fully lived up to the potential of the medium. Participants have talked past their opponents and sometimes even past those purportedly on the same side!
Proponents of Moonlighting almost break into one of Andy Williams’ signature lyrics (with minimal augmentation): Moonlighting river, wider than a mile I'm crossing you in style someday You dream maker, you heartbreaker Wherever you're going, I'm going your way.
The other side fields supreme court advocates threatening death, doom or (failing those) dismissal. Nothing less will assuage the righteous anger of the affronted CEO. White-hot moral indignation about employees wanting to earn more must take special chutz (grand)pah from promoters who out-wage the moonlighters by a thousand times or more.
Neither side chooses even to define terms, much less investigate causes. Such confusion is not recent. As far back as 1963, Harold Wilensky wrote that "the range of fact and opinion about moonlighting discourages understanding and prediction."1 This column seeks to describe how mid-level Moonlighting is only the culminating act in a long sequence of neglect coupled with several enabling technologies. It goes on to analyze varieties of Moonlighting as well as the special circumstances when Moonlighting can be a boon. But we can do none of that till we get some definitions and terminology in hand.
I find the definition provided for Multiple Job Holding (MJH) by Emily Campion (et al) useful: "The act of working more than one job simultaneously, including working for employers and self-employment, wherein all tasks, or sets of tasks, are performed in exchange for, or expectation of, compensation…. MJH is distinct from but can overlap with, the concept of 'gig economy work'… MJH is a broader
concept that captures working and managing multiple jobs simultaneously, which may or may not be short-term or project-based."2 Their justification for preferring MJH over Moonlighting is also convincing. Moonlighting is pejorative and implies a clandestine activity which need not be true of all MJH. In the interest of greater familiarity, however, I shall continue with the less happy usage for most of this column.
Psychological contract pyramid
When an issue is fraught with confusion and emotion, I find it useful to start from the basics. "The psychological contract concept is used to explain behaviour by considering the extent to which the employee believes that the employer has kept the promises the employee perceives were made to them. As in any relationship, if promises are kept, then satisfaction and a desire to stay in the relationship are likely consequences. If, on the other hand, promises are broken, negative emotions and the urge to withdraw may follow." 3
In this case, I shall pick five fundamental building blocks of the psychological contract that exists between people and the organisations that employ them. My choice is also dictated by the help they provide in classifying Moonlighting and the triggers for it. The following table provides a summary:
Neither these terms nor the reciprocity between the columns needs an explanation for an HR reader. What could do with some elaboration are the consequences when one or other side fails to live up to its side of the unwritten psychological contract. Moonlighting is a particular type of employee withdrawal behaviour, usually in response to some breach in what the organisation is expected to provide. It involves diverting at least 'Time' and 'Energy' from the primary job (or from the time intended for rest and recuperation) and sometimes the other 'Employee Brings' as well, to another job. Professional codes vary greatly in the extent to which they accept such diversion, with the military and religious orders being least tolerant of divided loyalties while doctors and teachers generally enjoy far greater leeway. The corporate world is somewhere in the middle, making its challenge more nuanced and complex.
Recrimination will not make it easier to understand the issue. So it’s no use organisations childishly shouting "He started it first". Even if it were true and a small set of employees
The employee Brings The organisation provides
Time Living wage Energy Differential recognition and reward Competencies Development of new competencies Loyalty Durable employment Citizenship behaviour Fairness in all dealings
were the first to be, say, disloyal, the retaliatory insecurity of tenure created by the employer would hit the till-then loyal employees and not the disloyal ones who would have left in any case. Nor should employees imagine that retaliatory Moonlighting behaviour will simply damage the organisation. The employees’ own well-being and long-term growth can also be irreparably damaged in the process. Rather than destroying each others’ ocular organs, far better to use them for seeing which forms of Moonlighting are detrimental – and which aren’t.
From BOP to MOP moonlighting
Long before the term Moonlighting became popular and almost since the time the first person confined to a salaried job felt the terms of trade were unfair, people have sought to burst the monetary confines of a single job. Even today, there are countless Bottom of Pyramid (BOP) jobs that yield incomes inadequate for supporting a family with school-going children and, sometimes, ailing parents. If at least one more earner is unavailable, there is no choice but for the prime earner to offer time and energy for sale again. Employers over the years have become inured to this phenomenon and find closing their eyes to it less expensive than raising payments or reducing precarity.
The reason Moonlighting is raising under-collar temperatures in recent days is that an entirely new slice of the organisation (the Middle of the Pyramid or MOP) has started entering the multiple job market in significant numbers. The reasons for the flood of Moonlighting are trifold.
For several years now, employers have been trifling with their side of the bargain in return for employee loyalty and citizenship behaviour. Family feelings were fore-fronted to blunt the edge of compensation expectations when business boomed but forgotten when times turned sour and familial sacrifices were used to mollify Abrahamic shareholder deities. Similarly, values were vapourised when commitments (e.g. campus appointments) were drowned in fine-printed clauses and the braggadocio of challenge-us-legally-if-you-dare. A previous column detailed how these short-sighted shareholder value steroids hollowed the muscles of employee loyalty.4 Such unfairness may, in the past have resulted in disengagement, attrition or some other form of employee withdrawal. This time, however, for a large variety of mid-level jobs, technology had created smoothly functioning conduits to take capabilities to the demand face with minimal dislocation and identification. Moreover, the increasing GIGification of tasks had prepared companies at the demand face to extract the effort the conduit conveyed without the inconvenience of arms, legs and a questioning tongue accompanying them. Perhaps most providential of all, Covid gave every part of the virtual system a thorough trial while wiping those with reservations about such impersonal organisation of work off the reservation.
Costs of Conventional Moonlighting
Neither organisations nor individuals emerge scatheless from BOP and, even less so, from MOP Moonlighting. "Generally speaking, spiralling and compounding demands from maintaining boundaries around each job cause depletion. In other words, the extra demands [Moonlighters] face in managing the space between their work roles drains their personal resources above and beyond the demands of each role. In addition to these role-related intrapersonal mechanisms, scholars have found that interpersonal mechanisms also explain depletion effects. For example, according to partial inclusion theory, an individual’s involvement with a social group dictates the
degree to which he or she identifies with that role and social group... [B]ecause [Moonlighters] spend less time, or are less involved, in their secondary roles, they are less likely to integrate with coworkers, leaving them feeling socially marginalised and contributing to feelings of depletion. Further, depletion from [Moonlighting] demands relates to other negative outcomes, such as reduced job commitment."5 Add to these the strain of of errors and aloofness from teams, play havoc with regular and (particularly) remote work quality and quantity. Threats and tantrums can no more be a cure for the organisation than for any failing relationship. Until the psychological contract is healed, the withdrawals symptomatic of its failure will remain uncured even if they bury themselves deep out of sight.
Obviously, Moonlighting is useful neither as a problem here. Until they can, insisting on single-job discipline should buy nothing more than a business-class seat to purgatory for the businessman insisting on it. The more interesting exception arises when open Moonlighting (or should we call it Sunshining?) provides learning or 'calling' fulfilment that the organisation is not in a position to provide but which the individual considers essential not only for future progress but to be extremely effective in the prime job. Let me illustrate this with a personal example.
maintaining a deceptive front, skewed work-life balance and hugely lowered chances in the career stakes and Moonlighting doesn’t seem such an obviously rosy path to success.
For companies, the loss is even more apparent, especially if leaking IPR to competitors and working during the time committed to the company are factored in. Lack of full energy and attention, higher incidence retaliation nor as a cure for breaches of the psychological contract. There are, however, some critical circumstances when Moonlighting might not just be permitted but encouraged. We have already referred to those individuals whose primary job does not provide adequate means of sustenance or a living wage for the family. Ideally, employers should cure the compensation and contractualisation Sunshining for Vitamin D (Development)
When I came back to India after a four-year stint in Europe, it was to a job that didn’t score very highly on standard yardsticks for measuring CHRO job size. Thus, though it exposed me to a range of new industries and governance styles, raw headcount and geographies were far fewer than those to which I had been accustomed. I, therefore, had a genuine fear (unjustified, as it turned out) that my talents would be underutilised and my personal development attenuated. I still admire the flexibility shown by the promoter seeking to bring me on board in accepting my suggestion to permit me to consult for other organisations that were not direct competitors. Of course, the number of days
I could consult each month were limited and I got no leeway in delivering the ambitious results expected in my primary role. In return, the organisation continually benefited from the additional exposure, new capabilities and fresh contacts that I acquired through my consultancies. A clear win-win made possible by an enlightened promoter operating a relationship of trust that I was careful never to betray.
In these special circumstances, Moonlighting is converted from being a cause of both individual
tive disadvantage for the primary employer. • Employers must be willing to craft policies that make selective Sunshining feasible and attractive to those for whom the lure of the 'calling' or competency accretion makes the strain worthwhile. • For all of this to work, the understanding must be open and scrutable.
I appreciate that employees may prefer the excitement of gambling with unauthorised Moonlighting. They also make unauthorised alterations to a far more popular perennial of talk shows and webad-nauseums: the future of work. All the blinding new insights we have received on the subject in the last couple of years can easily be accommodated on the head of a needle without inconveniencing any of the thousand angels already gathered there. Let me be radical enough to suggest a way in which Sunshining could actually transform the future of work for organisations bold enough to launch such an experiment.
This column has embraced the happiness of people as a core goal for HR and repeatedly pointed out how the enrichment of jobs is the most lasting way of growing aggregate happiness.6 Job Crafting is an even more felicitous term and Amy Wrzesniewski (et al) explain it well: " [J]ob crafting is the process of employees proactively changing the boundaries that comprise their jobs… Job crafters shape the boundaries that define their jobs in three main ways. First, job crafters may change the physical or temporal boundaries around the bundle of tasks that they consider to be their job. We refer to this as 'task crafting,' and it consists of adding or dropping tasks, adjusting the time or effort spent on various tasks, and redesigning aspects of tasks (e.g., a teacher who spends time learn-
depletion and organisational talent leakage into a source of enrichment for both. Here are the five essentials for the conversion: • The focus must be competency building or venturing into a 'calling' which is not feasible in the primary job. • There should be no scaling down or relaxation in the KRAs of the primary job. • Ideally, the competencies acquired should have some rub-off that benefits and certainly no competiFrankie Laine’s lyrics:
You can gamble for match sticks, you can gamble for gold,
The stakes may be heavy or small,
But if you haven't gambled for your job and lost, you haven't gambled at all
They call me a moonlighting gambler .
The Future of Work Crafting
Since this column started with the shallowness of TV debates on Moonlighting, it may be fitting to end it with
ing new classroom technology to fulfil his passion for IT). Second, job crafters may redefine the relational boundaries that define the interpersonal interactions involved in performing their jobs. We refer to this as 'relational crafting,' and it consists of creating and/or sustaining relationships with others at work, spending more time with preferred individuals, and reducing or completely avoiding contact with others… Third, job crafters may reframe the cognitive boundaries that ascribe meaning or purpose to the tasks and relationships that comprise their jobs. We refer to this as 'cognitive crafting,' and it consists of employees’ efforts to perceive and interpret their tasks, relationships, or job as a whole in ways that change the significance of their work… The three types of job crafting are not mutually exclusive, and job crafters may exercise any combination of the three.7
Broad as is this description, one searches in vain for a reference to the Sun shining outside the confines of the organisation in it. The reasons are not far to seek. In 2013, when the book containing Wrzesniewski and her co-authors’ chapter appeared, the technologies and business models permitting skills to be piped remotely and organisations being able to put them to productive use were nascent (see the section on 'From BOP to MOP Moonlighting'). It is not only technologies for organising work that needed to catch up but the harnessing of big data to help individuals in understanding and realise their own developmental demands better.8 This process is just making a start in a few progressive organisations. Perhaps even more game-changing than the techno-economic feasibilities will be is the evolution of mindsets that permit non-competitive Sunshining to figure as a full menu choice in the restaurant at the end of the universe.9
This is such a far stretch from present reality, even if we peer all the way to the horizon, isn’t it? Perhaps that’s because we have been looking directly into the sun for light.
And not by eastern windows only,
When daylight comes, comes in the light,
In front the sun climbs slow, how slowly,
But westward, look, the land is bright.10
Notes:
1. Harold Wilensky, The moonlighter: A product of relative deprivation, Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, 1963. 2. Emily Campion, Brianna Caza and Sherry Moss,
Multiple Jobholding: An Integrative Systematic
Review and Future Research Agenda, Journal of
Management, Volume 46, Issue 1, January 2020. 3. Neil Conway and Rob Briner, Understanding
Psychological Contracts at Work: A Critical Evaluation of Theory and Research, Oxford University
Press, 2005. 4. Visty Banaji, The Great Reciprocation: Loyalty is a two-way street, People Matters, 11 July 2022. 5. Emily Campion, Brianna Caza and Sherry Moss,
Multiple Jobholding: An Integrative Systematic
Review and Future Research Agenda, Journal of
Management, Volume 46, Issue 1, January 2020. 6. Visty Banaji, ‘If you want people to do a good job, give them a good job to do’, People Matters, 24 June 2021. 7. Amy Wrzesniewski, Nicholas LoBuglio, Jane Dutton and Justin Berg, Job Crafting and Cultivating
Positive Meaning and Identity in Work, from A B
Bakker (Ed.), Advances in positive organisational psychology (pp. 281-302),. Emerald Group Publishing, 2013. 8. Visty Banaji, Big Data: Bigger performance – biggest delight, People Matters, 14 January 2022. 9. Visty Banaji, PC in the hybrid age, People Matters, 13 September 2022. 10. Arthur Hugh Clough, Say not the Struggle nought
Availeth, from The Poems of Arthur Hugh Clough,
Clarendon Press, 1974.
viSty BanaJi is the Founder and CEO of Banner Global Consulting (BGC)
7 “IRRESISTIBLE” CONvERSATIONS WE'vE HAD
Just a month ago, Josh Bersin released his latest book, “Irresistible” – about what makes companies absolutely enticing to top talent, and how to get there. People Matters looked back at the companies we've spoken with over the years, and brings you 7 examples of conversations that illustrate the book's principles in practice By Mint Kang
It's their attitude towards how people work, rather than the work or industry itself, that attracts and retains the best talent. This is the message at the core of Josh Bersin's newest book, “Irresistible” – a heavilyresearched, anecdote-dense handbook for how to make an organisation genuinely attractive to people.
Reading “Irresistible”, the hundreds of interactions with leaders and experts that we've had over the years came to mind. Huge companies like Unilever and IBM, which feature in the book's generous list of case studies, have of course nailed the seven principles that Josh Bersin writes about. But so have many others – and at People Matters we've had the great good fortune to hear from them directly.
Here, we look back into the conversations we've had over the last few years and highlight a few – but not all – great quotes and pointers that “Irresistible” brings to mind.
De-emphasise the hierarchy
A common factor in many of the “Irresistible” principles, and a trend that's being taken with increasing seriousness in today's workplace, is the idea that hierarchies need to be phased out and power distances narrowed. The first principle – teams, not hierarchy – states it bluntly: people should be allowed to operate independently, including outside of their own function and in collaboration with people from other departments, without needing to be constantly controlled and directed by management.
People Matters heard this advice more than a year ago, from Virendra Shelar, General Manager of OMRON Corporation's Global Human Resources Strategy Department and President of OMRON Management Centre - Asia Pacific, who said: “A culture of trust will have to be strengthened into the company. We have to trust that people are doing what is required of them, that we don't have to micromanage them and check on what they are doing every half hour or one hour. It is all
about building trust with not just one person, but with the entire team.”
That was his prediction for how management will change in 2021 – and he was entirely correct about the shift that managerial approaches have taken, and how the importance of trust has increased. As the third principle of “Irresistible” – coach, not boss – puts it, leaders should exist to enable, not to order people around.
We also heard this advice right back at the start of the pandemic, from Liz Smith, Chief Human Resources Officer of digital consultancy Mobiquity, who told us: “Leaders need to recognise that employees are people first and they are multidimensional. Leaders should emphasise professional development of their team members, give employees more autonomy to set more of their own work patterns, and provide input on what they will work on whenever possible.”
Although she was speaking in the context of leadership during crisis, it was clear even then that this approach ought to be the norm even during times of stability – that leaders and managers should put more effort into developing talent, and less into micromanaging it.
Focus on the work people actually do
Another central factor that makes companies irresistible is whether they focus on the right aspect of the work. The second principle of “Irresistible” – work, not jobs – talks about concentrating on tasks and outcomes rather than traditional measures of capability such as academic qualifications or years of experience.
We heard one very practical approach along these lines from Trent Jones, APAC Human Resources Lead for ABB Electrification, who told People Matters that in an industry with a highly competitive talent landscape, what people can do is more important than where they come from: “Looking for people outside typical industries has long been part of our human resource strategy. We focus on finding synergies that different fields might have, looking for adaptable skill sets, and aim to train and set our talent up for success in their roles... Industry knowledge and expo-
sure continue to be highly soughtafter skills in talent, but we also make sure to consider the bigger picture in forming holistic and strong teams. We value people with complementing skill sets and highly encourage crossindustry and cross-business function learning.”
Of course, this approach needs to be matched in employees' career development, which the fifth principle of “Irresistible” sums up as growth, not promotion – the idea that career development is about gaining skills and capabilities via continuous learning.
That link was clearly drawn by Francine Katsoudas, Chief People, Policy & Purpose Officer at Cisco, who told us last year: “We need to reframe the skills discussion against the backdrop of 'career journeys' and leverage technology to get a snapshot of the skills we have, work with leaders to understand the skills we need, and map to new opportunities that will allow individuals to own their career paths. What is important to us is that our workers have the right skills, not where or how they acquire them.”
Make sure employees gain satisfaction at work
“Irresistible” isn't just about processes and operations, of course. The entire premise of this book is a more human-centric style of managing people, which is nicely encapsulated in the next three principles: culture not rules, purpose not profit, and employee experience not output.
Culture in particular has become inextricably intertwined with the shift to flexible and remote work, with leaders telling us that the challenge is to shape and maintain a work culture that keeps people satisfied in this very different working environment while still being inclusive.
“I’ve spent 20 years at VMware designing a culture that was anchored to an in-person experience. Now, a significant portion of our workforce has been added since the pandemic that hasn’t been part of the pre-pandemic VMware culture,” said Betsy Sutter, Chief People Officer of VMware in a conversation early this year. “We need to continue establishing a strong culture that is inclusive of all communities to drive collaboration and innovation and foster a sense of belonging.”
Similarly, flexibility combined with digital acceleration has made technological tools a linchpin of employee experience. Natasha Dillon, Chief People Officer of Inmarsat, told us: “In order for the flexible model to work successfully, businesses and employers need to digitalise the employee experience. Employees are increasingly expecting a consumer-grade experience when it comes to workplace technology... in the same way that lockdown initially forced businesses to adopt technology in order to continue working from home, I predict there will be another major shift towards digitised employee experiences.”
That conversation was in mid2021, and since then, the ongoing boom in HR technology has proved her right.
The final principle of “Irresistible” postulates that employees are more interested in a company's purpose in the world, than in its profits – something which has been thoroughly borne out as younger, more idealistic generations enter the workforce in an era when climate change, war, economic recession, and social enlightenment are shaking their notions of a stable world.
Sophie Smith, HR Director for Experian APAC, told People Matters last year: “The pandemic has elevated the significance of understanding, articulating, and authentically operating in accordance with the stated purpose. There is a newfound sense of perspective emerging with many organisations and employees reflecting on the unique value
they bring to the world. Organisations will need to ensure their purpose aligns with their product portfolio, performance metrics, people strategy, and decision-making frameworks. Employees will increasingly reflect on whether their core values are aligned with their employer’s purpose.”
While the conversations we've quoted here are by no means a comprehensive list of the interactions we've had with leaders over the years, they do drive home how well “Irresistible” summarises the aspirations of people management today – the principles that have been shaped by events of recent years and, suitably put into practice, will go on to shape the world of work in the years to come.
A GOOD READ TO UnDERSTAnD WHY LEADERSHIP MATTERS
A biography by Asha Bhandarker and Subrat Kumar sheds light on the role of a leader in shaping an organisation By Jagriti Kumari
It is rare to find a book highlighting the role of an academician in shaping the future of an organisation. And, “Pritam Singh: The Alchemist Guru”, by Asha Bhandarker and Subrat Kumar is an effort to fill that vacuum. Illustrating the significance of leadership and its impact on an organisation, this book carries takeaways for corporate leaders, academicians, and employees, indeed anyone who is interested in the intricacies of leadership in action.
Written by interviewing the people who worked with the late Dr Singh or his acquaintances, this book can be described as a celebration and remembrance of a pioneer in management education who has mentored numerous people in the academia and corporate sector and contributed to making them the leaders of today.
It offers readers an opportunity to sense the significance of building interpersonal relationships, taking care of people irrespective of their position, duly respecting them, developing teams, and putting in place a system by which people were all incentivised and rewarded for performance.
The beautiful depiction of Dr Singh’s groundbreaking initiatives in the book leads you to the campuses of MDI Gurgaon, IIM Lucknow, and IMI Delhi, where he created the possibilities of a better future for these institutions than they might otherwise have hoped for.
Divided into four chapters, this book talks about the importance of having empathetic leaders and how they can influence the well-being of employees and stakeholders. The authors have taken pains to highlight the role and importance of a leader in scripting the rise and fall of an academic institution. Whether it is MDI or IIM Lucknow (IIML), or IMI Delhi, Dr Singh was instrumental in mapping out the ways and means to give them the profile people were expecting. Despite the constraints faced by a government institution, Dr Singh left no stone unturned in making IIM Lucknow the prominent institution it has become. His dedication clearly shows that it is people, not the machinery, who make change possible.
For instance, MDI, now a wellknown B-school in India, was in very poor condition before Dr Singh took over as director in 1995. To his dismay, he found that the MDI was
struggling with severe financial conditions and had little money even to pay its staff. The book goes into detail around the actions taken by Dr Singh to improve the status of the academic institutions where he served, such as how he used his personal provident fund to address the salary issue. Later to make the Institution self-sustaining financially, Dr Singh started a part-time evening programme, training, and consulting activities. He proved that with the right leadership, even an impoverished academic institution like MDI could rise to glory.
This book is a must-read recommendation for every leader who is willing to lead by example in the workplace. It is meant for everyone who is on a quest for self-discovery and self-betterment.
Written as if in conversation with Dr Singh himself, this book scripts the role of leaders in settling challenging goals, allowing followers to start on a clean slate, and fostering a high-expectations culture. It clearly shows how Dr Singh was a director with a vision and executive capability, as a change leader his aura made people work with him. He had a knack for picking up talent from various domains—corporate world, academia and various institutions. He was blessed with the ability to spot a promising person. The mention of rewarding a hard-working faculty by giving him his personal consulting assignments and telling him to buy a good car with the money earned paints his caring nature for his people.
The book sheds light on how the culture of reward, recognition and care for your employees fosters a great work culture where people and employees feel special, included, wanted, heard and cared.
Dr Singh believed that it is a sin to give recognition to those who don’t deserve it and it is a greater sin to not recognise those who are deserving. If this book would have not been written this might had been an injustice to him.
Needless to mention, this book is a must-read to understand the significance of rewards, recognition, and communication in the workplace. A personal touch, and freedom to take decisions bring wonderful results to an institution. Reading the book motivates you to do wonders for your organisation. It highlights the significance of personal touch with colleagues, a performance management system (PMS), and how giving financial freedom can empower the workforce.
In all, this book will help any reader develop a clear perspective of what it means to have a leader who leads by example. People who are in leadership roles must read this book. And not only leaders but employees can also enjoy reading this book to understand what makes a workplace happy and healthy.
This book depicts how a visionary leader can do wonders for institutions and their people. Total rewards and recognition, and flexibility have become a buzzword, however, Dr Singh made it possible at MDI, IIM L and IMI way back in the mid-90s and early 2000s.
Past Month's events
People Matters EX Conference Indonesia People Matters Total Rewards and Wellbeing Conference Online Programme: Design Thinking and Agile for HR
People Matters 03 November 2022 The world of work is changing and so are the expectations of people involved. Workplaces are not the same anymore. This shift in employee perspectives and expectations needs to be acknowledged and accepted. Against this backdrop, it was our pleasure to host senior leaders from across Indonesia at People Matters EX Indonesia this November. With a great turnout and intensive sharing of cutting-edge ideas, we're delighted to have had the opportunity to EXponentially further employee value proposition, and advance a corporate agenda that meets business needs while being people-centric and ecologically sustainable. We look forward to returning next year! ters People Mat-
09 November 2022 We came together to Re:Frame – To Break The Mould! As we enter a new era of employee engagement, people and culture leaders and rewards professionals need to work together as a leadership team to build a stronger and meaningful company culture to make attraction, retention and engagement more ‘sticky’. This 9th of November, we were excited to host leaders from across India at Leela Ambience, Gurugram to Re:frame – The Opportunity Within. Bringing great insights and engaging conversations, People Matters TRWC India 2022 was an opportunity not to be missed. We will be back next year! People Matters
BeNext 10 October – 11 November 2022 The latest edition of this programme was held for HR leaders committed to finding creative solutions to complex problems facing their teams, moving from an understanding of Agile processes to a whole new mindset of creativity, innovation and peoplecentred progress. Watch this space to find out when this BeNext course will return.
Ongoing Programmes
Upcoming events
Online Programme: DEI: Implementing Unbiased Strategies in the New World of Work Online Programme: Reframing Your C&B Strategy: Agility, Equity and Sustainability
People Matters
BeNext 31 October – 02 December 2022 This programme is for leaders invested in creating lasting mindset shifts and developing a more inclusive employee experience through the implementation of impactful DE&I initiatives and strategies. Develop a more diverse, inclusive and equitable workplace through practices and strategies that uncover and overcome biases. People Matters
BeNext 07 November – 09 December 2022 This programme is designed for organisations with existing rewards programs interested in reframing their compensation and benefits strategy to create a more agile, equitable and sustainable strategy that drives business-wide change. This programme would also be suitable for start-ups looking to move beyond the founding stage and gain a better understanding of how to craft a comprehensive rewards program. Online Programme: HR Business Partner in the New World of Work
People Matters
BeNext 21 November – 23 December 2022 This programme is for leaders and practitioners interested in how the HRBP drives cultural shifts that align with the changing needs of teams and organisations. Learn how the HRBP can create greater impact and value with a people-based approach to leading the transition to the new world of work.
People Matters Conferences will return in 2023 with new ways to support our community to Become The Answer! Watch this space for updates.
Blogosphere >> arJun SEtHi
Instilling a sense of ownership in employees
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a macro-level attitude shift in employees’ view of work, which led to a record number of people leaving their jobs in 2021. This was especially prevalent among the younger generations. 54% of Gen Zers considered leaving their current employers last year and made their decision within a year of their joining.
For corporates, addressing this shift is certainly important, not only for the purpose of talent retention, but also to understand the factors driving productivity and excellence at work.
I tend to think what motivates people in their career has been more or less constant throughout history. Psychologist Abraham Maslow came up with his theory, the ‘Hierarchy of Needs,’ as early as the 1940s, purporting that our actions are motivated by needs that progress from more basic physiological and safety needs to more complex psychological needs.
What we see among talent today is a greater focus on higher level needs such as a sense of belonging to their organisation, respect from their colleagues, and a desire to self-actualise, as Maslow calls it.
It has occurred to me – and many of my colleagues – that one of the central traits underscoring the attitudinal shift is a longing by employees for more ownership of one’s work. From my experience, young professionals are willing to go above and beyond to provide their cli-
ents with the highest quality service if they feel an endearing reconciliation with their work. In other words, they want a greater sense of agency in defining priorities and producing results. The most important step in promoting a sense of agency in the workplace is cultivating an ethos of ownership within the company. When employees view themselves as owners they will feel a greater sense of responsibility, oneness, and pride with not just the work they are doing but also the present and future direction of the workplace.
Doing this, however, is no easy task. It comes down to creating a shared sense of purpose as well as providing tangible incentives to push the company ethos in the right way.
The former is a broadbased task and a longer-term effort that takes commitment, wholesale change of the modus operandi and a deep reflection into the ethos that drives a company. Companies can do this by looking into processes that influence communications and selfmanagement. For instance, a culture of direct, honest and constructive communication can be instated, responsibilities can be assigned instead of tasks to be completed, and companies’ mission statements and strategic direction can be communicated and solidified regularly.
Another important step corporates can take to further a sense of purpose and ownership is one that can be accomplished in the shorter term: rethinking the remuneration model.
Compensation might be the most basic thing employees look for in a job, and in the current economy where the rising cost of living is affecting everyone, it is more important than ever for employers to offer a compelling remuneration package. However, monetary incentives can satisfy far more than basic livelihood needs. When designed properly, monetary awards like bonuses offer acknowledgment and a sense of accomplishment which help motivate employees to keep up their good effort.
This is why Kearney announced in August that it will become the first management consultancy to widen the doors of ownership and fundamentally expanding the ranks of employees that have access to an equity stake in the firm.
By offering equity stakes to consultants who attain junior manager levels, something that was previously restricted solely to partners, we are creating a culture of equity and opportunity and making the workplace more purpose-driven.
As the business environment becomes more complex, more interconnected and more information-driven, companies must call upon their one true asset: their people. Having people who are in it for the long run with your organisation will be the smartest investment you make to ensure a sustainable business.
about the author
arJun SEtHi is Regional Head and Chairman, APAC at Kearney.
