Issue-01:2012
...By HRythm
LAL BAHADUR SHASTRI INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT
Foreword From The Director’s Desk An overwhelming change has taken place in the manner in which management education has evolved through the contemporary times In such a revolutionary and constantly transforming period of modern education. It is an honour to lead this prestigious institute that functions according to the value system espoused by Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri. This responsibility is both a challenge and an ever enriching learning experience, and I accept it as a privilege.
Faculty Advisor Dr. Bindu Chhabra
Student Team Mansi Jain (Chief Editor) Surbhi Gupta
Lal Bahadur Shastri Institute of Management (LBSIM) is an established centre of excellence in management and IT education. LBSIM aims at nurturing and developing professional managers who deliver results while believing values such as honesty, integrity and frugality, enunciated and practiced by Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri.
Sonali Jain Kanika Bansal Varun Arora Zain Imfy
Inside This Issue: Rendezvous with Mr. Prashant Deo 3 Singh, Head—Human Resources and Group Affairs, Panasonic India Retaining, Motivating and Engaging 5 The Millennial Workforce XIMB, Bhubaneswar 8
Poorva Vashishth IMI, Delhi Talent Management From An Em- 9 ployer Branding Perspective Neha Jain & SourabhSahu IIM,INDORE Influencing change in 20somethings
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Surbhi Gupta & Sonali Jain LBSIM, Delhi Meeting the workforce challenge: Retaining Gen Y Nishant Ajitsaria & Mansi Jain LBSIM, Delhi
Dr. Gautam Sinha Director Lal Bahadur Shastri Institute of Management
From The Convener—HR Department
Amit Kaundinya
Employer Branding
LBSIM‘s pre-eminent position as an institute for education in management and IT is driven by its unique learning environment. This learning environment is enriched by faculty with wide ranging industry experience, who create new knowledge through research, consultancy and social interventions. It is a melting pot where students embrace professionalism and it inspires them to achieve higher goals. With great pride I applaud the endeavor of students from the domain of Human Resources to launch ‗TORCHBEARERS‘, the first HR magazine. I sincerely believe that we all shall, in the coming future carry it forwards towards greater heights.
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Each era brings with it its own set of challenges, and businesses have to evolve accordingly in order to stay in the fray. In the knowledge economy of the 21st century, it is the ‗people‘ who matter more than anything else and it is they who help in giving that ‗edge‘ to companies. Businesses abroad have latched on to the importance of the role of Human Resources long back, while many Indian Businesses are still groping in the dark and are yet to tap into the potential of their people and transform their business. Yet, the future seems bright with the ‗Millennial‘ HR managers, who are joining organizations run by the millennial workforce, working in collaboration with the experienced professionals. For the first issue of Torchbearer‘s, I would like to extend my sincere thanks to Mr. Prashant Deo Singh, Head of Human Resources and Group Affairs, Panasonic India, for sharing his insights and valuable experiences which, I‘m sure, will be of considerable value for the readers. I would take this opportunity to congratulate the team of ‗HRythm‘, the HR Club, for the efforts they‘ve put in to publish Torchbearer‘s, the first HR Magazine of LBSIM. I wish the whole team the very best for their future and hope they will continue bringing to the fore, contemporary issues and developments in Human Resources from across the world. Dr. Bindu Chhabra Convener—HR Department Lal Bahadur Shastri Institute of Management
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Rendezvous with Mr. Prashant Deo Singh Head—Human Resources and Group Affairs Panasonic India
Q. You have been in the industry for over 17 years. What differences do you think have come in this period? The basics of HR remain the same. The major difference has come up between manufacturing and service sector. Service sector customer is on the face while in manufacturing the customer is out of the boundaries. Service sector has more of knowledge workers and for manufacturing it would be more of high skilled labor, so you have to tweak your HR practices. In marketing, you segregate your target customers. Similarly, in this sector, you need to target your audience, even within your employees to understand what that employee needs. If you are in manufacturing, your target audience is workman, he is your internal customer and in a consulting company, the consultant is your audience. For workmen what would matter most would be wages, timing, welfare, etc. A consultant would rather look at flexibility, career growth, personal development and of course, salary. HR practices should be tailor made as per needs of employees. But you have to make sure you do not lose control, if that happens, it would be a mess. Group the workforce with common needs and interests and then cater to them. So you segregate your audience as per the needs maybe by experience or location. Example, learning needs of people are different. Some prefer books, others online training programs, outbound, e-learning, correspondence course, etc. You need to group the employees together by choice. This way you can group and yet cater to as far as possible individual needs. If you impose anything upon someone, first natural reaction is he will have defense mechanism and resistance. More and more people are independent minded. They have their own needs. Society has evolved, so your needs are different from mine. More people look for hygiene factors. If suddenly a person wants to pursue a hobby in his workplace, question for you is, can he do that? Q. You spoke about different needs of people from sectors like, a consultant and manufacturing workman. Now there are standard HR practices for motivating employees, but then how do you differentiate and cater to high level and high performing employees? A customer buys a BMW, only specific customers would buy Mercedes or BMW. A specific customer would buy a Maruti 800 or Santro. So the segmentation is different. End of the day you have realise to distinguish high performers. What mistakes HR professionals do is treat them in the same basket. I have here 2 people in my team who look after employee engagement, one looks after the mass and other, the class. It is very clear. Today if I have top 100 people and I am able to cater to them more specifically in terms of their needs and be more focused on them. It is not just the one thing you got to do, there are 30-40, so if you can do even 6-7 things for them differently, it makes a difference. Example, the way we train them we see to it that they get enhancement of qualification. The company reimburses the cost incurred. Secondly, at a basic level you see their compensation. If they are good performers, they need to be paid closest to the market. Third I think, just giving plain roles to high performers is not enough. The high performers, high potential, will get bored out of their roles. You have to bring projects and keep on challenging their assignments. Every two years they might have to change their roles. Another thing, the visibility of high performers has to be magnified in the organization. Example, in every 3-4 months I ask them to present to the board of directors. So there is visibility of the talent pipeline in front of the top line and it gives them a lot of encouragement. They should feel like I am a high potential employee, performing well in my job and company is really caring for me to the level of pampering, if required. The pain I feel if this guy leaves or when a normal guy leaves is very different. I think it should be what we call ―Ring Fencing top talent‖. A top performer should know he has been ring fenced. He has got to jump the rings in the organization, but it is not choking him like anything by force. Q. Do you face poaching issues from your competitors like Sony? Currently yes, poaching issues are there but we are on hiring mode as we are late entrants in the market. We are causing more pain to others than they are causing us. Good thing about this company is that we do not hire from one company or one institute for that matter. We believe in diversity so it is better to hire from across sectors and institutes to let people from diverse mind sets come and be a part of the workforce.
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Q. What factors other than the talent management activities do you think are important for retaining high performing individuals? One is managing talent piece and then there are general programs. First discussion comes in the role itself. It is an MNC, Panasonic is a big brand. Role is very important. Biggest problem is with non clarity of roles. So if a person is coming to office and in the morning brushing his teeth, he should know what he is supposed to do. We talk about JDs and KRAs, at times he doesn‘t know what he is supposed to do, that is one crucial thing. I think another factor is that boss not only has to be very task oriented, he has to be because he has his own targets, but he also needs to care about his people. Every time a person cannot come to an HR, line manager also has to play the role. That is the key. That is why they often say, people leave managers not companies. For retention, there are not one or two things, there a lot many things you need to take care of. If people like the culture, every morning they want to come to office. Nobody gets motivated these days by picnics and birthday cards. Long term motivation only comes when employee thinks my tasks are valued and I am cared in the company. It is the basic and sounds quite simple but depends on lot of individual managers and how they treat their team. So you have to educate the managers. In fact as I speak to your there are several programs going on, one is where the very idea is how I am going to develop interpersonal skills, how I am going to communicate. It is like driving a car, you know how to drive the car. At times there are people who have flaw in their driving. At times it becomes so much part of you that you feel you are the best, but somewhere you need to be told, this is not how you should drive. So you need to train such people also. Q. Flipside of retention comes the attrition, how to mark fine balance between the two? There is no point when attrition becomes 0. Let us be realistic. I would rather say that instead of getting worried about attrition and retention, people should do what they are supposed to do in driving the organization. This includes the culture, process handling, role, training programs, etc and even then if people leave, you produce talent for others. You cannot lose focus developing your own people. That is my radical response to attrition beyond a point. You should not be dissatisfied as an HR professional or a company, that you have not done enough to retain this person. Some bit of it is also healthy in the organization. It is a way of fresh blood coming into the organization, so I think 10% is fine. Beyond 10 I think you should worry. Q. Sir when analysts are speculating a double dip recession, what are Panasonic’s plans? Panasonic is has growth targets to take revenues up to $2billion this year. So for next year, how does Panasonic plan to keep up the growth as well as employability? One thing you are right, we are on a growth path and also coming up with a factory. One thing that we are doing is that we are watching our fixed costs more closely. Apart from that we will continue with other activities as planned. The MNC has been there for 95 years having seen many recessions. Still being humble about it, I think we will remain conscious of our fixed costs, but other than that, nothing specifically for the possible double dip recession. The customer demand beyond a point a point will hold on, the way Indian customer psyche is. Be it Diwali or Dussehra, the demand remains. The youth also contributes to demand. They keep on changing from Plasma to LCD to LED as and when new technology is introduced. So nothing much will happen as the plans are laid that way. Next year we should be growing around 60%, while the sector could be growing at 6%. Growing 10 times compared to the sector. Q. Panasonic is an MNC, and a Japanese company. What are the positives and challenges of working in a Japanese company? Positives are that we have very detailed orientation in terms of planning and nothing is left to chance. Very good culture, the way people treat each other and very good environment, where people are taken care of and people behave properly. Another is the brand which has product range of over 15000, so the might of the brand is there. The competitors are into consumer electronics or home appliances. We are into everything. There is also a lot of backing from Japanese side, not only in terms of resources but also training. Challenges: I think the companies that are doing well in India have what they call entrepreneurial spirit. So I think we need to sow seeds of entrepreneurial spirit to take calculated risks. But if you go too fast you risk your processes, etc. So the right balance is what we still need to work on. Project orientation is very high in Japanese company, but for Indians, you give them 40 things they do those. So Japanese will be like this and Indians will be like that. A balance has to be striked at all times. It is something that is actually working well in India. Example, I have Japanese and Indians in my team, they are able to complement each other. I can get into doing 40-50 things at a time and yet look for details. Q. You have worked in different sectors including Telecom, FMCG, Banking, Hospitality and Manufacturing. What has been one major challenge you faced in 17 years of your career? I was there for Coca Cola at Silliguri. The entire north Bengal is communist belt. Here I was a part of capitalist company setting up a plant. People there are very ideologically powerful. End of the day what was good thing was they also wanted that company should survive here. 4
So we setup an entire plant there. You have to be fearless at times. Professional alerts can be anywhere. So you have to learn to be fearless but you cannot be foolish also. You need to have lot of perseverance, patience and determination to get your task done. There were times when negotiations were going on and people would come with red flags. There were times we would be sitting in negotiations with deputy labour commissioner, local power and a Member of Parliament would also be sitting. So you have to experience the situations which are very different. If you work in such situations, you get those learnings as an HR professional. Q. We are pursuing MBA and very soon we will be a part of the industry. Would you like to give any advice for the MBA students before the step out of the institute? One is that these two years that you do in your MBA are very important to build your mental framework. Being a good human being is very important, but also you need to be effective. That is a challenge youngsters face today. You have to go for your targets in challenging environment with professional competition, do it, but be a good Human Being and then do it. In the corporate world you have to compete, but compete with right spirit. Other than that, knowledge building and correct attitude are very important for MBA students. That is my advice for Gen Y.
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Retaining, Motivating and Engaging The Millennial Workforce Amit Kaundinya XIMB, Bhubaneswar Introduction One of the most valuable assets of any company are its employees. Retaining these employees and getting the best talent possible to join their organization should be among the top priorities of human resource organizations. Talented employees can well serve as a competitive advantage for the companies and can be a major differentiator between competing companies. Mr. Narayan Murthy, ex-CEO Infosys, once famously quoted "Our assets walk out of the door each evening. We have to make sure that they come back the next morning." We believe that not only should the employees come back the next morning but they should come back the next day, equally motivated and energized. The three major challenges for Human Resource professionals in today’s time are – How do we retain the talent pool in our organization and reduce attrition rates? How do we continuously engage our employees and make them feel a vital part of the company so that they come up with creative out of box solutions to problems? How do we continue to motivate employees to give their best performance every day, even when some of them are working on the same mundane tasks day in and out? Retaining, Motivating and Engaging The Millennial Workforce The aim of Human Resource Managers should be not only to retain employees but also to engage them and keep them highly motivated, so that each one of them works to their full potential. On time promotions and increasing salary based on growth of company are more of hygiene factors that are expected by employees and the company should look to providing these. But just focusing on increasing monetary compensation and benefits to reduce attrition is nothing but a mediocre strategy to tackle attrition - A strategy that is highly short term in its orientation, which would not yield any significant results in the long run. Below have been outlined five steps that Human Resource Managers can take to tackle the problems that they are facing Focus on a Strong Performance Management System – Performance Management is not just about the final rating that is given to the employees at the end of the year. Project leaders and managers should look at the Performance Management System as a tool to groom employees, to understand their strengths and weaknesses, to identify the right training program for the employees and to continuously motivate them through feedback and rewards. In short the Performance Management System should be looked at as a career development and motivational tool and not just as a compensation system. One of the most important things to be kept in mind while designing a Performance Management System is to have a strong feedback mechanism to ensure that both the appraiser and appraise get relevant and timely feedback. One of the ways to ensure that managers take performance management of their employees seriously is to link the attrition rate of the manager‘s project team with his performance incentives. This means that if attrition rate of a manager‘s team increases then the monetary benefits he receives decreases. Companies like Hindustan Unilever and Wipro have already started this practice. Instil Creativity To Break From Monotonous Work – Most employees join companies with the thought that they will get to work on something path breaking. Employees who join marketing firms believe that now they would be creating branding strategies, integrated marketing campaigns, etc. Similarly employees joining IT companies are with a view of working on cutting edge technology, developing new programs and building next gen software. However Indian IT companies‘ projects are highly skewed towards maintenance and support or testing projects. Working on these projects be6
comes monotonous after a point of time as employees do not find the work intellectually challenging. Hence organizations should focus on increasing creativity within the projects and Project leaders must motivate employees to look at creative ways of solving the same problem. Example – Can we design an automated script that will perform the test cases instead of manually performing them? Such creative solutions will not only continuously challenge employees and keep their skills updated, but will also help to increase nonlinear revenue growths for companies. Listen To Your Employees – While it is important to listen to the grievances of your employees. It is even more important to act quickly on the feedback collected from your employees. This shows that the organization is actually interested in listening to you and the employee survey is not a farce. Organizations like Tata Consultancy Services through their employee survey PULSE, have listened to their employees and also catered to their problems. Example – TCS‘s Bouquet Of Benefits which allows employees to design a part of their salary structure was a result of employee feedback received via PULSE. Also exit interviews should be looked at not just as a formality but as an opportunity to understand employee‘s grievances and to ensure that employee feedback can be implemented to reduce attrition. Creating A Millennial Friendly Workplace – The average age of employees in companies is falling down and is around 28-30 years. This young generation or the millennial generation as we know them as, have a very different work style and companies should focus on creating policies and rules keeping in mind their work behaviour. Today‘s young work force likes flexible work timings, is one who likes constant challenges, strives for fast growth and instant recognition for efforts, does not like too many restrictions applied on them. Keeping in mind this behaviour of the millennial workforce ,HR policies need to be drafted. Example - FaceBook and Twitter have become a part of the life of the millennial lifestyle, companies need to look at providing employees access to these systems in their workplace albeit with a few restrictions and with a strong social media policy in place. Companies like Wipro are also working on BYOD (bring your own device) by which employees can use their own devices be at Tablets or IPhones in their workplace. Soon, all employees at Wipro will be able to get corporate data access on the device of their choice, be it iPads, Windows Phones, or iPhones. By doing this the company wants to make Wipro a trendier place that appeals to a younger audience. Helping Employees Manage Stress and Maintain Health– We believe that if your employee is happy when he leaves your company for home after a day‘s of work, then that would mean that the employee would carry the impression that he loves his job and hence would remain with the company for a longer period of time. Also we believe that healthy employees make happy employees. HR managers hence should also focus on keeping employees healthy and helping them cope up with their work stress, this would automatically lead to happy employees. Example – HUL has a vitality index for employees where the personal vitality of individual employees are measured based on four parameters — the Body Mass Index (BMI), blood pressure, blood cholesterol and blood sugar. Employees are then encouraged to improve upon their vitality index through fitness programs, fitness workshops, meditation and yoga sessions, sports activities organized in HUL. HUL is also looking at attaching monetary incentives to the vitality index, to further motivate employees to stay fit and take care of themselves. Thus through the above mentioned pointers HR managers can focus on the three major problems of retention, motivation and engagement of the millennial workforce, thereby improving employee productivity and reducing employee attrition rates.
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Employer Branding Poorva Vashishth IMI, Delhi As defined by Universum, ―Employer branding is the strategy companies use to appeal to desired current and future ideal talent‖. In other words, employer branding is to convey to the ‗employees that matter‘, why an employer‘s workplace is appealing and unique. Employer branding as a term can be thought of as marketing and human resource combined effect. It integrates a link between the corporate and the employee. It provides a platform for the marketing and human resource departments to work closely together to create the right mix for employer branding. Employee branding is intended to induce employeebrand identification, a psychological connection between the employee and the brand, to provide an unobtrusive, seemingly unproblematic engine for ―on brand behaviour‖. Trust is the essential ingredient for the primary workplace relationship between the employee and the employer. Looking at the various definitions in various ways we find In human resource way it is about attracting and retaining the best talent. In finance it is about building the assets of the firm. In marketing it is about holding the brand equity of the firm and taking it to the next level to be the best in market. In operations it is optimizing the resources to the fullest and getting the best returns of any investment. It basically represents an organizations‘ effort to promote, both within and outside the firm, a view of what differentiates it and makes it a desirable employer. It‘s about good internal brand experience where employees are the carriers of its brands. The biggest challenge of any organization today is control the attrition rate of the employees. The challenge is to win the talent race in the market which will require a rare unification between marketing and HR. Thus it can be defined as: Marketing + HR = Employer Brand Power Strong brands have major effects on markets. A company may be spending less on its marketing cost but is still able to retain its customers by maintaining its brand equity which helps us in understanding the power of a brand. Strong brands create relationship between consumer and producer and this relationship is mutually beneficial. Thus strong brands create increased loyalty and increased customer retention. A same direct effect can be attributed to employer branding which has the ability of improving the employee and employer relationship drastically. Employer branding can be seen as investment to increase brand equity of the firm to be able to attract and retain its employees. A strong brand in the market enjoys monopoly and customer favoritism, on the same lines a consumer is expected to pay higher price in return to get the brand. Looking on the same lines employer branding has the ability of leveraging a robust relationship to its employees who will have increased commitment and productivity in return. Thus employer branding is expected to attract the employees of best caliber, retain them and get the best results in return with increased performance and commitment and a greater sense of belongingness. Thus the results of employer branding is = Commitment Higher sense of belongingness in the employees with reduced average time of employee attrition. Provides greater sense of commitment to the employees who work with higher efforts to reach the goals and which in return provide greater customer satisfaction thus benefiting the employees and the employer both. Thus a greater commitment by the organization towards its employees will result in greater commitment from the employees. Thus the essence of Employer branding is a dual effect committed to provide committed employees, committed results and committed customers. 8
Talent Management From An Employer Branding Perspective Neha Jain & Saurabh Sahu IIM, Indore Talent management can be defined as the process of attracting, integrating, developing and retaining highly skilled workers. The cornerstone to talent management is the development of people to help them reach their full potential – the underlying principle that what a company gives to its people, will be returned by loyal, committed, motivated and highly productive employees. Employer branding, however, is the process of generating appeal, creating an identity, communicating that identity and ensuring that the identity remains authentic and true. It‘s about ensuring that your organization is known, respected and considered to be a great place to have a career and work. Talent management and employer branding both have the same objective in mind, i.e. to make companies more successful in their recruitment and retention, but they shouldn‘t be considered the same thing. Talent management is about how to manage employees and employer branding is about how to create and communicate a strong corporate culture that resonates well with the target group you wish to recruit and retain. Employer branding and talent management are interdependent, however, and one cannot function without the other. In the talent management and employer branding circle there are four potential groups to identify and manage: 1) Candidates 2) New hires 3) Employees 4) Alumni This article will address how talent managers can incorporate the employer branding activities into their work, outline the benefits of doing so and address how each constituent can be approached. Candidates – the potential employees Candidates are all those people that could be considered potential employees. Traditionally, candidates have been university students and working professionals, but now employers are adopting the marketing and consumer branding approach and are considering targeting the candidates from an early age, as far back as nursery school level even. This confirms that an employer‘s communication approach needs to be holistic and address all potential audiences. What is essential at this stage is to define a strong, authentic and true employer value proposition and make certain that communication is consistent – from the career site, recruitment marketing, graduate programs, presence at career fairs, and presentations on campus to the recruitment process. The employer value proposition is what an organization offers to its current and potential employees, making it distinctive and attractive. New hires – the potential new talent New hires are people who have just joined an organization. To ensure a true transition from being a new hire to a longterm employee, employers need to implement induction and on-boarding programs to show new employees the ropes, to train them into their new roles and ensure that they will be comfortable and able to deliver in their new role. It‘s important that all managers and other longstanding employees in the be the role models for the new recruits and transpire the corporate culture, both in words and actions. Employees – the talent to manage From an employer branding perspective, it‘s vital to understand how the employees perceive the company. It‘s important that they understand the various employer offerings and benefits. It‘s imperative that they find the employer value proposition appealing. Internal communications, rewarding and recognizing individual achievements, offering career 9
development and a good work environment are important parts to guarantee that all employees are aware of the employer‘s unique benefits and opportunities. Employer branding helps people find your company attractive, make them want to join and also helps create the corporate culture and work environment. Nevertheless, at this stage, talent management is the most critical component. Highly skilled workers can leave because of personal contentions with their immediate manager and not because they dislike the company or corporate culture per se. This is the most common reason for failing to retain key performers. The solution to the problem is to check and appraise managers on their leadership behavior and adherence to the corporate culture. Alumni relations – the exiting employees to be one day converted into boomerang hires The alumni of an organization are often neglected, but are the most important group to manage. They are your brand ambassadors that bring the true message to the outside world. They could spread either good or bad word-of-mouth and they could either enhance or put into question your employer reputation. Exit interviews are standard practice to understand the real reasons why a key employee wishes to leave. All employers should communicate and manage relations with this very important group, as a part of their employer branding work. The real test to put in practice for any employer is to question how many alumni wish to return. What percentage of the alumni is willing to be boomerang hires? It is 20 per cent or 80 per cent? It‘s a perfect indicator of whether or not the employer is doing a good job. Talent is everywhere, you just have to find and manage it Talent management is no longer the function of just the HR department and has become the responsibility of all managers within an organization. It should also be the case for employer branding, because every employee has the potential to be a good brand ambassador and generate positive PR for the employer. The approach of talent management can differ from company to company. For some organizations it is the management of individuals who are considered skillful or identified as high-potentials. For other organizations, it is about how talent is managed generally, based on the assumption that everyone has skills that can be developed to perfection. The objective remains the same that it should give a signal that the employer cares about its employees and wishes that everyone in the organization achieve their potential. Whichever approach, all organizations should take care of their most important asset – human capital!
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Influencing Change in 20-Somethings Surbhi Gupta & Sonali Jain LBSIM, Delhi Change is the only constant; is an as accepted truth in our daily life‘s as in management echelons today. It is universal cultural phenomenon that we deal with people everyday who resist change. In this chaotic age of disruption and innovation, it is one of the most common issues facing mankind. The common myths surrounding effective implementation of change are: “I‟m responsible for the „hard‟ side of the project, not the „soft‟ stuff.” “I have a communication plan, isn‟t that enough to ensure buy-in?” “We are introducing change and managing the project, so aren‟t we managing change?” “We don‟t need change management.” Suppose a sage told you, ―When in China speak Chinese‖ but gave you no language lessons. Over reliance on mere communication plans, Kotter‘s 8 step and several other models tell us what to do; how to implement it is often ignored. While the news of a problematic financial year is being communicated, the pink slips are being readied. When the management sets drastic quarterly goals, focus is on ensuring nods and commitment to the plan. The salespeople say ‗The Logan is so fuel efficient‘ when the adventurous prospect has his heart on the SUV. It is not enough to communicate or ensure buy-in to the original plan. The important point missed is that we are essentially dealing with humans- people with core beliefs, viewpoints and values. People in short don‘t resist change. They resist being changed. They resist their lifestyles, their current situation being changed which is comfortable to them. They resist change due to fear of unknown, or lack of conformation to their beliefs. The problem manifolds when the boss has to deal with a bunch of highly talented, confident 20-somethings. As the basic rule of communication goes, understand the audience before making yourself understood and influencing action/ change. These millennials are young enthusiasts who have been brought up in a culture of competence, openness and diversity, seek rapid career growth not by being loyal to a superior‘s position but on merit of their work and opinions. They are independent, well paid, and enriched by experiences that many of their parents could only dream of. Their core belief is work should not be just a means to an end a way to make money, support a family, or gain social prestige but should provide a rich and fulfilling experience in and of itself. Jobs are no longer just jobs; they are lifestyle options. (Refer Exhibit 1) According to the Golden Circle proposed by Simon Sinek (Refer: Figure 1), great leaders inspire loyalty by communicating inside-out. Communicate to these dynamic 20 somethings WHY they should align with the desired change. What is the compelling vision, values of the company in pursuing that? How will that change improve the person‘s current situation? For instance, adopting computer applications instead of doing manual work might be resisted and seem frightening for fear of being seen as incapable. But the vision of company becoming more technologically abled, faster, efficient and more competitive in the marketplace, so that the employees work in an employer of choice and save their present time for further challenging work. While establishing HOW to bring about the change- the support system and processes and WHAT to change (the means to achieve WHY), the role of coaching and mentoring becomes paramount. The leader‘s role in implementing change lies not in telling what to change. But rather define the problem; lay out the constraints (both organizational and structural) and let the 20 somethings discover multiple ways of achieving that idea. The Why should be clear, well defined and reinforced, whereas the 20 somethings should be empowered to take ownership of the What and How (as opposed to the re-
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verse traditionally where there is discontent due to lack of identification of why by the 20‘s) The ideal leadership style is a combination of Military (directive) and Bollywood (participative) work approach. While discussing alternatives, there should not be hierarchies and a chaotic team approach, whereas review of progress and conflict resolution must follow the Military like order and hierarchy. The incredible quality of millennials is their restlessness to multi task, short attention span if it doesn‘t command merit or challenge, and their wide networks (social and personal) spawning wide connections and solutions. Young people have the energy and creativity necessary for the problems faced today, and the problems we will face tomorrow. Giving them an opportunity to participate in such subtle instances of crucial change management processes will also equip these young bright 20 somethings with the necessary skills of managing ambiguity, contribute to succession planning and build organizational capabilities embedded in this volatile yet manageable culture. In a nutshell, instead of micromanaging change management, leaders must only define the WHY, the destination of the organization and individual‘s value from changing the present status quo. When there is value fit, the how and what to change would automatically flow and be implemented by the employees, under a combination of Military and Bollywood leadership! As Mr. Covey puts it- It is neither my way, nor your way, it is ‗our way‘- the third alternative that implements change. Exhibit 1: Generational differences in values, expectations, behaviours and goals
Figure 1: The Golden Circle
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Meeting The Workforce Challenge: Retaining The Gen Y Nishant Ajitsaria & Mansi Jain LBSIM, Delhi Retention of High Performing Employees India's Best Companies to Work For 2011, an annual study by The Economic Times and The Great Place to Work Institute, nails the fact that the companies that manage talent best also happen to be market leaders; it's no coincidence that Google, Intel and Makemytrip, the top three in this study, are also leaders in their business sectors. But talent management is not an easy task in current scenario .One of the major challenge in talent management is, retention of the valuable employees showing potential. Every organization needs hardworking and talented employees who can come out with something creative and different which can provide the firm a competitive edge. Talent Management in Gen Y Talent management is more challenging nowadays with Gen Y making up a sizeable portion of workforce. Some 64 million skilled workers will retire by the end of this decade, according to the Conference Board, and companies will need to go the extra mile to replace them, even if it means putting up with some outsized expectations. Leading job portal Monster.com said that 73 per cent of Indian CEOs spends over one-fourth of their time on talent-related activities. When it comes to dealing with high performing employees in Gen Y, ―what used to be common sense isn‘t common sense anymore‖. There has been a growing recognition that strategies that have been successful in engaging older employees are not quite as effective for this new breed of executives. This is because their job-related preferences, attitudes and beliefs are different than other generations. Its members are different in many respects, from their upbringing to their politics. Their effect on the workplace makes them truly noteworthy. They're ambitious, demanding, and they question everything, so if there isn't a good reason for that long commute or late night, don't expect them to do it. When it comes to loyalty, the companies they work for are last on their list--behind their families, their friends, their communities, their co-workers, and, of course, themselves. When Gen Y looks into employment, they‘re picky and knowledgeable about what they want. Therefore retaining high performing employees require a variety of different benefits like flex time, more vacation, a clear work and life balance, great learning opportunities, high visibility for career advancement, exciting challenges, a collaborative environment, fun at work, up to date technology, diversity in team members and perspectives, and other employment aspects. Manage, lead, mentor The big issue is Leadership. Generation Y employees don't work for companies; they work for their direct supervisors. The importance of relationships and the quality of those relationships can't be stressed enough. Leadership styles that include a heavy dose of negative feedback or military-style management techniques are simply not working. Young, talented employees will leave because they have options. The most common reason for people in this age group leaving their jobs is lack of boss‘ enough attention or positive feedback. Mentor them: Don‘t just give orders; give the reasoning behind them. If you want Gen Y workers to do something, tell them why, in a way that lets them know the importance of the task to the company. Let them talk: Meetings that allow innovative ideas and creative inputs prove that your company is a forward-thinking organization. If your young employees can see their input in company solutions, they have total buy-in for the mission. Green goals: Company goals that are connected to causes like the environment and world peace attract and keep talented young workers.
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Show them how their work will contribute to the bottom line: Give recognition and praise for the efforts they have put in for the work. They need to know they are making an impact. Career development: An employee needs to perceive that opportunities for advancement and promotion are available. As one advances in the organization, benefits become less important and a say in company matters becomes more important. A good supervisor mentors, sets goals, and delegates responsibilities to develop the high performer's career. Work life balance: As Gen Y sees it, it‘s life-work balance, with the emphasis on ―life‖ first. Work, for this young cohort of professionals, needs to fit within their lives. To ensure retention of these workers organizations will need to focus on building a flexible work culture. Setting an example MakeMyTrip has created a workplace culture committed to innovation that balances work and life, keeps employees engaged and creates an atmosphere of trust. Building a great workplace is one of the crucial priorities for the company. It follows an Open Door Policy wherein every employee has the liberty to meet the CEO without appointments. Most of the processes are informal. The organization has a flat structure and the culture is very open. It strongly believes in giving out employee‘s great learning, a career path, and a fun environment. For it, Fun@Work is not a jargon, but a value which defines the true spirit of the organization. Balance between business goals and people-centricity is ensured in all company policies. To keep the uniqueness and essence of MakeMyTrip, the HR team ensures that they offer the employees a culture of freedom, empowerment and excitement. This ensures that each morning the employee looks forward to reach office and start a new day. The HR department is highly responsive and follows the philosophy of ―happy employees make happy customers‖. The SPOC (single-point -of-contact) model is followed in the organization, wherein at least one HR person sits at every floor. This ensures that the employees always have someone within their reach to put forward their queries to and get an instant direction/ resolution. This is what makes MakeMyTrip one of the Best Places to Work. ―Low attrition rate‖ is something which the company earns through its policies and does not have to make any conscious effort to retain its people. Conclusion: In a challenging environment, an organization with higher depth of talent is better positioned to face a slowdown and quickly affect turnaround. Therefore, it is critical to keep the top talent ring fenced and motivated, talent no longer binds itself to an organization, but to an exciting and challenging career. Therefore, focus should be on creating dynamic and informal work environment, participative decision making and career development systems that are exciting and can be self-navigated. Every manager must realize that the key to talent management lies in the efficient handling of employees and with the Gen Y gearing up for the corporate ladder, their job just got a little difficult.
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Recent HR Club Events SAMANVAY At LBSIM annual fest ‗TATVA‘ in year 2012, HR Club organized the event ‗SAMANVAY‘,a management game involving cooperation, conflict resolution, and group dynamics skills. The activity tested Participants‘ analytical, Strategic thinking and decision making skills .Teams from various B-schools across Delhi participated in the event making it a success.
APERTURE 2011: The online photography competition by HRythm 2nd Prize: Somesh Mehta (Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar)
1st prize: Kottu Abhishikth & Hemant Jain (Institute for Financial Management and Research)
Rahul Grover LBSIM
Nishant Ajitsaria LBSIM
Vivek Aggarwal SIBM Bangalore
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Vaibhav Dhar LBSIM
With pleasure I would like to present the first edition of ―Torchbearers‖, the first HR magazine of Lal Bahadur Shastri Institute of Management. I would like to thank the HRythm team and the faculty for their immense support for the success of the magazine. This issue of Torchbearers brings forward the topic ―'Talent Management in the age of Millennials (Gen Y)‖. We thank all those who contributed with their articles and ideas on the same. In further issues as well we aim to present collective ideas from students pursuing MBA as well as from the industry experts. Hope it is a good learning experience for all of us! Mansi Jain Chief Editor - Torchbearers
Lal Bahadur Shastri Institute of Management, Delhi Plot No. 11/7, Sector 11 Near Metro Station, , Dwarka New Delhi-110075 Phone: 011 25307700
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