About SCMHRD
SYMBIOSIS CENTRE FOR MANAGEMENT & HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT (SCMHRD) is a premier institute known for honing world class leaders and entrepreneurs.. Over the past 18 years, this institute has been successful in establishing itself among the top management institutes in the country. SCMHRD specializes in producing quality talent in the fields of HR, Marketing, Finance, Operations and Infrastructure Management. The institute believes that wholesome knowledge is the distilled essence of our
institutions corroborated by experience and practical learning. Hence the intense academic curriculum is designed such that it prepares students to deliver their best. Apart from academic excellence, the institute also focuses on equipping the students with the latest technical competencies used in the corporate world. It also provides opportunities to develop their leadership and entrepreneurship skills through various student activities and institute initiatives. An association with National Entrepreneur
Network is one such initiative to breed young entrepreneurs SCMHRD has become one of the trusted names in the industry for delivering quality at workplace. This is evident from SCMHRD's track record of placing its students in the most sought after companies every year. Our unique learning approach combined with a focus on holistic development gives an edge to SCMHRD students and prepares them for the challenging life ahead.
From the Director’s Desk
Prof. K.S. Subramanian Director, SCMHRD
We appreciate the efforts taken by our students for coming up with HR Mesh, which tries to keep the students abreast of the latest trends in the world of HR. It is good to see the enthusiasm shown by the students to pen down their thoughts and ideas. This magazine is a perfect epitome of how SCMHRD support and encourages adaptability and creativity into the young minds. It is also good to see that students from various B-schools have contributed for HR Mesh. Today's business world understands the importance of HR and so it becomes important to prepare the future HR managers for the challenges they will face ahead. We at SCMHRD work towards nurturing the managerial spirit by broadening horizons with learning and leadership as the prime focus. We hope HR Mesh will grow leaps and bounds in future.
Best Wishes K.S. Subramanian Director SCMHRD
HR Mesh | Special Edition
Diversity HR - Centre and ofInclusion Excellence
Human Resource Centre of Excellence The Human Resource Centre of Excellence (HR CoE) of SCMHRD religiously devotes its resources to design the state of the art curriculum in Human Resource Management that marries industry related practical problems with academically rigorous theoretical framework. The carefully designed curriculum ensures that the students receive a platform that provides vital knowledge, skills and abilities (KSAs) and sparks intellectual curiosity to learn and excel; both of which are required for a successful career ahead for budding managers.
Objectives The HR CoE maintains its leadership position as a centre with the best HR curriculum through the following distinctive pedagogy initiatives:Establishing Workshop and Activity based Learning Programs such as Leadership Skill Development, Occupational Testing, Competency Mapping & Assessment Centre, Organizational Development & Change and Sociology with extensive usage of Case Studies (Harvard Business Review Cases), latest articles and books from authors published in international journals and publishers of repute.
Some of the journals such as The International Journal of Human Resource Management, Journal of Internal Business, Academy of Management Journal, Journal of Organizational Behavior, Journal of Applied Psychology, Organization Science and various other leading international journals in the fields of HRM and Organizational Behavior are used in our lecture session plans. We provide students with access to reputed databases such as Jstor, Emerald Publishers, EBSCO, SHRM, HBR Cases and journals published in AOM & AIB to name a few, and a collection of more than 1000 books for reference in our library.
! With HR professionals increasingly turning to predictive analytics, our emphasis on HR Analytics, equips the students to align core workforce business processes with organizational goals and strategies. Industry professionals take extensive lectures on this subject with our students.
! Harnessing the utilization of Research Methodology in HRM, industry related live projects are carried out. This platform enables the students to conduct their own research to contribute both academically and professionally in the field of HRM and OB.
HR Forum Team Aastha Dhawan
Pulkit Mitra Royston Vaz Prabhu Venugopalan
Varun Chandar
Madhavan B. Prateek Kinger Shraddha Surendra Tejmaan Meen Shubhangi Acharya Umang Kotriwala Vidhula Kooretti
From the Editor’s Pen rial Edito
Greeting Readers,
Boundaries, psychological or geographical , create divisions and history has been the witness that divisions at any level have led to the destruction of empires, downfalls of nations and failure of businesses. In a world where boundaries are so pervasive, can the corporate world avoid falling a prey to it? Their creation is inevitable here too. But having learnt the lessons from past , the corporate world is making all possible attempts breaking the boundaries of cultures, gender and age and takes a leap into an environment where synergy and inclusion is the guiding light. Also in the rapidly changing business environment with the diverse workforce, "One size fits all" approach of the Corporate ladder has become antiquated and change has become need of the hour. As per the promise, HR Mesh is back with its first Special edition of the academic year and we have tried our best to live up to the expectations of our readers. Through this edition, we aim to explore and throw some light on 2 aspects of change in the Corporate organizations today, "Diversity and Inclusion" and "Corporate Ladder to Lattice". "Diversity and Inclusion" on one hand talks about breaking of geographical, cultural and psychological boundaries, "Corporate Ladder to Lattice" emphasises on doing away with inflexible paradigm of Corporate Ladder. The Alumni Talk column this time features a heart- to- heart talk with Mr Chinmay Sharma, Country HR Head of Philip Morris and gives insights into the roles , responsibilities and challenging life of a Head HR. HR Forum is grateful to him for his time and valuable knowledge nuggets he shared. It is always a proud moment to see an alumnus of SCMHRD reach such a great heights. Continuing with the tradition of 'Students Speak' , where students speak their heart out on a specific topic, this time we explore what students feel about the value addition that occurs to their life due to Diversity at a premier B School. And for those who want a time off from studies and workload of B-school , we have Fun Section as always. HR Mesh would like to thank all the readers of HR Mesh for their enthusiastic support and contributions and also extend our greetings to the authors of the best 2 articles. We always appreciate feedback from our readers, so do write to us your views, complaints or any suggestions at: hrforum@scmhrd.edu. Happy Reading!!!
HR Mesh | Special Edition
HR MESH
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Diversity and Inclusion - A Case Study:
Gunjan Kumar & Ruchi Batra, PGP-HR 201113, MDI, Gurgaon
To meet its diversification objective and to stay fit in the market, the company decided to recruit more youngsters a few years back. Soon, 38% of its total workforce comprised of people less than 35 years of age. However since last year, a new problem of an increasing attrition rate of its younger employees has perplexed the management of Kalyani. To resolve the issue head of HR department, Mr Vimal who has been working with the company since past 20 years consulted 'HRmaster' consultants.
Collage of Differences: Vibhav Kardam,
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PGP batch 2011-13, PGDM (HR), IIM, Shillong Visualize of a gathering in a prominent Indian Business school, the auditorium being jam packed with the future managers or now a days so called business leaders sitting in their inspiring formal attire. All eyes are fixed on the stage which has three reputed multinational organization's business heads enthusiastically discussing some complex business problem faced by Indian startups today.
Imperative Diversity and Inclusion : Tarun Kumar, 1st year,
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Diversity food for Thought:
IIM, Kozhikode
Anshul Chhabra, UBS, Chandigarh Manisha Vashisht, SCMHRD, Pune
This article would give the reader an insight on how it has become imperative for all organizations to have a diverse work force due to changing business environment and financial and social implication followed by results of certain survey conducted by leading corporate houses that reflect upon the importance of diversity and inclusion in fostering innovation.
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Is HR stuck in the classical era of management of 1900s? : Dr. Tissy Mariam Thomas, Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, Christ University, Bangalore
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A close examination of the incidence that lead to the murder of Awanish (the General Manager, Human Resources, Maruti Suzuki, Manesar/Gurgaon) forces us to relook at Human Resource activities in organizations in the light of historical evolution of organizational behaviour/ Human Relations Movement.
Diversity presents both opportunities and challenges in organizations. In some circumstances, diversity can become a competitive advantage by improving decision making and team performance. A few studies also report that teams with some form of diversity (particularly occupational diversity) make better decisions on complex problems than do teams whose members have similar backgrounds.
Do Lattice Organizations Call For Reverse Mentoring? : Radhika Nadkarny,
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Research Associate, SCMHRD, Pune
Conventionally mentoring is done by older employee and higher ups. Today learning and mentoring is more peer-to-peer. GE Chairman Jack Welch pioneered the concept of Reverse Mentoring for 500 top-level executives to learn from the below them to learn about the usage of the Internet. Global leadership has put a great demand on learning, especially social learning.
Latticise The Ladder For Inclusion Of Diversity : Prateek Kinger, MBA I, SCMHRD, Pune
" My ability to accept other person's thoughts and think in the way my team does" pat came the reply. " Why should I hire another person for my team who thinks the same way as the team? They do the job well enough. What is the need for a new hire if there is no difference of opinion, no differentiated thought process and no value addition?�
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Lattice - A corporate reward : Prateek Sah, PGP ABM (2012-14), IIM, Ahmedabad Lattice allows someone to stretch not only vertically but also horizontally and effectively ending the theory of one size fits all. And in the world of high attrition rates and less loyalty, the most important action by the firm is how to retain the talent and attract new talents by providing work condition analogous to their passions and dreams.
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An Insight - Corporate Ladder to Lattice :
Prisoomit P Nayak and Rajdeep Girase, PGDM 201113, L. N. Welingkar Institute of Management Development & Research, Mumbai The restructuring of the framework of the organizations from a Corporate ladder to a more flexible Lattice is an area has been crucial from the Talent Management viewpoint of many organizations thereby enabling them to utilize the combination of its tangible and intangible assets and in the process create extraordinary value for its stakeholders.
Singhal and Shobhit Goel, PGDM, 1st Year, LBSIM, New Delhi At each step of the ladder, an individual gains more responsibility and is facilitated by several rewards which define the success for that individual. Gaining more power and a higher level of prestige were the major motivators. This was the concept of Corporate Ladder.
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INDEX
Corporate Ladder to Lattice: Vishakha
Diversity and Inclusion
Diversity and Inclusion: A Case Study
Gunjan Kumar & Ruchi Batra
PGP-HR 2011-13 MDI, Gurgaon
“Intergenerational interactive space can be created in the public domain, such as to design playgrounds alongside exercising grounds for older adults so that different ends of generations have opportunity to meet in the community � . reputed organization, but with time as they feel their ideas are being rejected and also the style of working is not being accepted by most employees of older generation, they get frustrated. Then some of them try to adapt to the culture despite dislike and others quit from Kalyani.
Kalyani Group was established in 1965 in India. It manufactures heavy engineering equipment & machineries, including power and energy equipment, casting & forging equipment and machine tools. As of today, Kalyani group holds approximately 20% of the market share and also aspires to be the market leader in the coming 10 years. To achieve the same, the company is trying many new avenues; its recent joint ventures with various global companies are testimony for it. To meet its diversification objective and to stay fit in the market, the company decided to recruit more youngsters a few years back. Soon, 38% of its total workforce comprised of people less than 35 years of age. However since last year, a new problem of an increasing attrition rate of its younger employees has perplexed the management of Kalyani. To resolve the issue head of HR department, Mr Vimal who has been working with the company since past 20 years consulted 'HRmaster' consultants. The consultants observed the culture in the company for a few days and also interviewed the employees at all levels. They found a huge gap in core values and job expectation of the employees of older and younger generation at Kalyani. While on one hand the expectations of older generation employees mainly involved respect from the younger generation, stability & security in life and need of authority, on the other hand younger generation employees desired for high salary, a flexible work schedule, fast promotions and fun & challenge at work place. Also the older generation employees seemed to dislike the latest fashion trends & modern technology being used by younger employees so frequently.
On Going in depth, the consultants discovered that the younger employees were facing a kind of 'cultural shock' after staying with Kalyani . They suggested that the existing culture was in need of an overhaul. They presented a report of their findings in front of the management and suggesting the possible steps that could be undertaken at Kalyani Group. The summary of presentation is as follows: In any organization there could be differences at group, culture and individual level among employees. The group and cultural differences could be caused due to factors relating age, beliefs, nationality, culture, race, gender, cosmopolitanism etc. Also the importance being given to the concept of diversity management is rapidly increasing as organizations wish to :
Phases through which young employees pass
Results of Benchmarking As per the analysis of trends relating age diversity across various sectors the results obtained have been consolidated in the graph below. The huge gap in age of employees is also observed in most companies in manufacturing and energy sector. While the IT sector which is heavily dependent on technology shows the reverse trend. Seeing the available workforce available in India, there is a need to bring about some change in present workforce composition at Kalyani to bring out a healthy mix.
How To Find The Right Mix Of Workforce ? It is imperative to find out the right mix of employees. The factors that will impact the decision of right workforce mix are: ! Create a business case for diversity ! Extend of manual work to be done by management : For instance Tata Group employees(department wise has given Rs 300crore to Harvard categorization). University for the same ! Nature of work in different ! Desire for innovation , better departments at Kalyani group productivity and creativeness that a Mechanistic or Organic . diverse team provides ! Degree of dependence on technology Future goals and aspirations of Kalyani Root Problem Group. There is a pattern observed with regard to These are crucial drivers in decision the stages through which young making as for instance if the nature of employees pass on entering Kalyani work is organic, then it is preferable to go Group. Initially they are glad on join the
in for an organic, then it is preferable to go in for a higher ratio of younger employees as compared to the older employees (As there is higher probability of younger workforce giving more innovative ideas). Similar is the desired mix, if the work requires extensive usage of technology. Proposed Interventions for HR Department To bridge the age diversity gap among workforce at Kalyani, the HR Department must adhere to the simple and basis Ulrich's model and fulfill all the roles and responsibilities as depicted in the model
HR Framework Proposed by consultants
below.
The intervention that need to be followed by the HR department include the following: Align the Diversity Process With Strategic Business Goals Company must understand the concept of age diversity and also establish accountabilities for its implementation. The whole process of managing diversity must align with the strategic business goals of Kalyani. A flexible management style should be adopted by Kalyani with a mix of control and autonomy. Also the leadership should be more dependent on personal rather than positional power Recruitment & Selection Process Kalyani should redesign its EVP (Employee value proposition) model, focusing on retention & fostering age diversity to attract young talented employees and also retain the present talent. It should project itself as a flexible company and ready to adapt new ideas. Moreover a competency based recruitment process should be adopted. The hiring of new employees should be done taking into account the “cultural fit�, matching the values of Kalyani Group.
change in a rapid and a haphazard manner. In fact they suggested bringing about phase wise implementation of initiatives by the HR Department, with clear communication of the same to employees. Proposed EVP (Employee Value Proposition) Model for Kalyani Group
Redesign the Induction Process at Kalyani Group The new recruits must be made aware of the culture of company and expectations from them in the beginning itself. Also they should be provided adequate training on organizational culture & functionalities to help in adapting with ease. Initiate Reciprocal Mentoring Initiatives Adopting reciprocal mentoring at Kalyani would help build relationships across the generation gap. It would involve employees from younger as well older generation mentoring each other and understanding the differences in each other's need and expectations. It would allow workers of all ages to feel valued & respected. Other Initiatives Open-door policy should be adopted by Kalyani to create an environment that encourages questions and brings out the best in both generations. At the same time intergenerational interactive space can be created in the public domain, such as to design playgrounds alongside exercising grounds for older adults so that different ends of generations have opportunity to meet in the community. T-groups should be formed and sessions conducted before the employee actually starts working on a project as a team. Here the participants would themselves learn about each other through interactions. It will lead to creation of better understanding among team members who would work together on a project. After viewing the presentation by consultants, the management had no doubts about the fact that there is a pressing need to bring a change in mental models of employees in their company. But at the same time senior consultant Mr Roa, cautioned the management not to bring about the
HR Mesh | Special Edition
Diversity and Inclusion
Collage of Differences Vibhav Kardam PGP batch 2011-13 PGDM (HR) IIM, Shillong “ The emphasis towards diversity leads to social inclusion as equal opportunities for representation are provided by the corporation to people from different culture, caste, ethnicities despite of a country/region being a particular caste or religion dominated “ Opening Vignette
Visualize of a gathering in a prominent Indian Business school, the auditorium being jam packed with the future managers or now a days so called business leaders sitting in their inspiring formal attire. All eyes are fixed on the stage which has three reputed multinational organization's business heads enthusiastically discussing some complex business problem faced by Indian startups today. All three of them are from different cultural background one of them being an Indian Parsi, the other one being an Indian Hindu and third one an American. The crowd is highly appreciating each one of them for bringing in creative and unique thoughts (partly because of their cultural upbringing and partly because of their experience in different environments) with thundering claps and praises. In midst of the conversation when the flow progressed towards discussing the role of local government in supporting new projects, disagreeing with a point made, the American on a lighter note remarked “ ohh com'mon Buddy, (addressing the elder in age Indian Hindu) most of the local government here act like
'Indian-giver' ”. Suddenly the crowd was shocked first by the way Indian manager was addressed. Since in India buddy is not expected to be used in any formal event more so if you are addressing an elder and 'Indian giver' is a racist term used to describe the act of giving a present and asking for it back later. Whatever the American origin manager said was not with the intention of hurting local sentiments in fact the terms he used are very common in American vocabulary. Similar problem is quite common in modern organizations which vie for getting the benefits from a highly diverse workforce but somehow find themselves on the wrong side when question comes of managing the same to guarantee mutual respect, understanding and acknowledging differences for the creation of a healthy working environment. This vignette gives one a sneak peek in to the world of managing advantageous yet highly 'volatile' workforce diversity. Introduction and Drivers The industry dynamics is experiencing a very fast and significant change from a complete seller's market existing a few
decades ago to a more distinct buyer's market. Today's customers have more number of options to choose from and hence want a product or service customized to their needs, at the right time, within budget and at a place convenient to them. Balancing so many wants is not an easy task especially in the wake of threat that your competitor might snatch away the opportunity from you if you don't hurry up. Any organization which has to survive today's cut throat competition and emerge victorious will have to rely on innovative products/services and strategies to communicate them. Not only this, it will have to be the first to the market in all these aspects. To achieve all this organization will have to rely on its talented workforce which can think out of the box and come out with something new each and every time it is expected out to do so. One way to accomplish that is through a carefully handpicked and well nurtured diversified workforce. That very well explains why top organizations like Google, Microsoft,Accenture to name a few have got a separate section on their website marketing the distinct edge that diversity in their ranks give them.
after years of operations which are not only hard to change but also represent a vital source of their core competencies. The alliance can survive only if all the parties involved are well prepared to embrace the uniqueness each one of them will bring to the table. The third important driver signaling towards incorporation of diversity is globalization. Fast expansion in different geographically located countries and increasing 'boundary less' business has made global MNCs come face to face with different set of customers which increase complexity and challenges of doing business with them. For example an American firm doing business with Japanese clients will never be able to satisfy them with their proposals unless it incorporates respect for local culture and sensitivity towards 'way things are done there'. Now one way to solve this puzzle is to go for all locally hired Japanese employees but then the American firm will lose its uniqueness and personal touch for which it was selected to do the business in the first place. Such problems can best be tackled through a diversified workforce for example in the above case by having a good blend of Japanese and American executives.
culture, caste, ethnicities despite of a country/region being a particular caste or religion dominated. This also leads to social harmony which is reflected in workplace also as by working together as team, distinct individuals from different social backgrounds get an opportunity to better understand and respect each other's culture. Once established, this understanding has a very high probability of being passed down the generations. Well-coordinated diversity leads to radical enhancement in tacit knowledge of the employees and more importantly in explicit knowledge, which if accumulated and documented properly could be a source of long term advantage for the organization even after the employee who contributed it leaves the organization. Employer branding is again an important aspect which diversity caters to. Workforce diversity of an organization appeals to a much wider talent pool by creating a very positive and desirable image as the caring employer for all sections of the society. Hence the quality of recruits and cost effectiveness of the whole recruitment drive increases. Diversity not for everyone
Link to Inclusion and other Benefits
Managing Diversity doesn't just include managing employees having 'visible' differences in terms of social class, religion, gender, education and values but also include catering to 'invisible' differences in deeper sense which could be in the form of different personalities, mental capabilities and work style. Although in most cases the former leads to latter differences. By considering all this diversity management helps in the overall development of the society as a whole. The emphasis towards diversity leads to social inclusion as equal opportunities for representation are provided by the corporation to people from different
Diversity is not just about the goods it brings. Various intricacies involved in its successful implementation makes it is a high risk high reward prospect. The most important point worth considering while going for diversity at workplace is that 'having it just because everyone is having' is quite analogous to playing with fire. It results in disaster when imposed on corporations by the local governments just for the sake of their vote bank politics as it affects overall national wellbeing negatively. Numerous researches ( like the one done by Liff in 1993) have shown that workplace diversity has been most beneficial to the
organization when it is driven by business needs and implemented at its own will through a well thought of holistic strategy with the focus on 'individuals' for the development of a unique but cheerful workplace environment. On the contrary organizations have failed miserably when they have tried implementing diversity under any legal compulsion or for social or moral good with focus on 'groups' and 'numbers'. As in this case there are hidden frustrations within the organization towards individuals/ groups who were recruited under obligation. This is vented in form of directed personal anger which sometimes results in violence and disturbs workplace harmony as well as lowers employee moral affecting productivity. Respecting 'differences' The second big grey area is how to bring a diverse workforce on the same platform. That means how to create a common set of attitude, values and beliefs that reflect the values of the organization. In quest for the same HR managers usually develop compliance systems and policies that hinders the individuals from displaying their true behavior for the fear of being reprimanded which ultimately kills their individuality, ironically the quality for which they were selected to be a part of the organization as being 'different' from others. The solution lies in going for dual system approach one that rewards employee for bringing in a whole new perspective to the team and as a result 'gold' valued creativity in complex business scenarios. At the same time another set of system needs to be d e v e l o p e d t o i n c u l c a t e b ro a d e r organization values like respect for individual, integrity, honesty, sharing and commitment. Tried and tested solution for this is to use either of workshops or training courses for the employees depending upon the time and resources at hand. It needs to be made sure that the HR department follows it up with some supplementary online/offline situational quizzes (or other means of measuring effectiveness) after definite time gap may be 15 days or so. This will help in determining what is the gap between desired behavior and actual one which will define the future course of action (if required) in terms of more training or workshops to rectify the same. Contd...
HR Mesh | Special Edition
Contd... Diversity and Inclusion The change programs should focus more on creating artificial situations where employees are made to think from the perspective of others through role plays or something of similar kind. After all the voice which says what is right or what is wrong should come from within the individual rather than being forced upon him by external policing. To avoid any adverse effect and ensure increased probability of success three things should be kept in mind before implementation any such programs. First is guaranteed support from top management, second is to make sure trainer expertise is present in such sensitive domain and thirdly enough follow up sessions have been planned in advance to clear confusions and monitor post training behavior. While unavailability of any of these three coupled with things like focusing only one aspect of diversity (for example only racism or only sexuality) or avoiding the 'uncomfortable/controversial' issues will render the training ineffective. Conclusion Workplace diversity is all about recognizing, valuing and rewarding differences and has proven to be a source of strategic advantage for the selected few who have been able to develop appropriate internal systems to support it in long run. For the remaining majority others who have been implementing this concept in a haphazard way without understanding the implications it brings in, diversity will continue to remain an unsolved puzzle in the coming future. An organization's strength is not in its diversity but is in its strength to unite people of different backgrounds around common principles.
Tarun kumar 1st year IIM, Kozhikode
Imperative Diversity and Inclusion “Just as national boundaries are eroding in the “global village,” so are cultural and gender barriers weakening in the global workforce. The concept of workforce Diversity is no longer an abstraction; it is part of everyday life” Diversity in a broad term is any dimension that can be used to differentiate groups and people from one another, it means respect for and appreciation of differences in ethnicity, gender, disability, age, national origin, religion and sexual orientation. Inclusion is a state of being valued, respected and supported by focussing on the needs of every individual and ensuring that right conditions are in place for them to achieve their full potential without experiencing harassment or discrimination. In more specific terms consider Diversity to be a mix of people and inclusion a medium by which the mix can work well together. This article would give the reader an insight on how it has become imperative for all organizations to have a diverse work force due to changing business environment and financial and social implication followed by results of certain survey conducted by leading corporate houses that reflect upon the importance of diversity and inclusion in fostering innovation. With diversity and inclusion we are more or less replicating the structure of the society into an Organization. It is a proven fact both men and women are biologically the same and hence equal opportunities
must be given to them in each and every sphere of life. Any discrimination or biasing done on the basis of Caste, Creed or cultural background will eventually lead to huge amount of talent being wasted and ultimately a loss for the organization. In the current business scenario, each Organization is striving hard to have a global presence, cater to different market segments and most importantly increase profits. Today, just as national boundaries are eroding in the “global village,” so are cultural and gender barriers weakening in the global workforce. The concept of workforce Diversity is no longer an abstraction; it is part of everyday life in many countries in the developed world. Driven by a need to compensate for talent shortages and compete in an increasingly diverse marketplace companies are extending their recruiting and promotion efforts to groups that traditionally were under-represented or not present at all. By honouring diversity and inclusion an organization is able to recognize, appreciate and utilize the unique insights, perspectives and backgrounds of other fellow employee. It also leads to creation of environment of trust, respect and tolerance within an organization which drives growth.
.One such example is Google Inc which in 2010 organized 6th sense(a weeklong event with the theme of diversity an inclusion) to increase employee sensitivity and awareness of differences across genders, cultures and sexual orientation. Google Inc has changed its p o l i c y st r u c t u re to encourage inclusion, some of them are listed below:1) Maternal / paternal leave programme 2)Accommodation policies (including those for visually, mobility and hearing impaired googlers) 3)Domestic partnership programme Recently Google Inc. unable to meet its gender diversity aspirations only from hip young campuses is trying to persuade women techies who had taken career breaks for reasons like marriage or child birth to come back to work by offering them reskilling and mentoring, flexible working hours and an option to work from home. To gain a better understanding of the role that diversity and inclusion play in companies around the globe. Forbes insights conducted a comprehensive survey of more than 300 senior's executives working in top 500 organizations. The findings of the survey are below:1) Diversity the key driver for Innovation and is critical component for being successful on a global scale. 2) A diverse and inclusive workforce is crucial for companies that want to attract and retain top talent. 3) Nearly all respondents reported that their companies have diversity and inclusion strategies in place. 4) Organization's diversity goals and priorities won't change significantly over the next three years. 5) Responsibility for the success of company's diversity/inclusion efforts lies with senior management. 6) Significant progress has been made to build and retain diverse workforces, but there are still some impediments to companies' efforts. As long as organizations can keep their
“eye on the prize,� that is, to keep diversity and inclusion efforts at the top of their priority list, it will position them to weather any challenges and come out ahead of the competition. REFERENCES Global Diversity and Inclusion, Fostering Innovation Through a Diverse Workforce by Forbes. Www.wikipedia.com Diversity and inclusion report- by SHRM Best practises for diversity- by SHRM
2012 And Next.. HR Mesh | Special Edition
Diversity and Inclusion
Dr. Tissy Mariam Thomas, Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, Christ University, Bangalore
Is HR stuck in the classical era of management of 1900s? Human beings are considered to be acquiring the prominent place in the history of organizational behaviour. It is people who work, it is people who mange and it is people who constitute the entire workplace or organization. A close examination of the incidence that lead to the murder of Awanish (the General Manager, Human Resources, Maruti Suzuki, Manesar/Gurgaon) forces us to relook at Human Resource activities in organizations in the light of historical evolution of organizational behaviour/ Human Relations Movement.
The prominence of human beings as the central core of every organization was first stressed by 'Social Man' theory. Mary Parker Follet and Chester Barnard were the two theorists who criticised people like Taylor (Scientific management), Fayol (Principles of management) and Weber (Administrative theory) for placing importance only on the profitability in organizations and neglecting social aspects to a large extent. Then came the behavioural era which saw the 'birth of personnel office' and industrial psychology. This giant leap in the
history of human relations movement came out of the Hawthorne studies undertaken by the Western Electric Company's Hawthorne Works in Cicero, Illinois in 1924. The idea has further been carried out by Dale Carnegie, Abraham Maslow and Douglas McGregor. Later, behavioural scientist theorists such as B.F.Skinner, David Mc Clelland, Fred Fiedler, Frederick Herzberg and J.Richard Hackman and Greg Oldham. The focus now shifted from pure profitability to engaging in objective research of human behaviour in organizations thereby placing more importance to people.
Even though history acclaims the significance of human variables at workplace, things are not at its place is what K.Ramkumar, Executive Director, ICICI Bank commenting in his article titled 'HR: Nothing human, just plain resources'. He a g g re s s i ve l y states that h u m a n resource professionals have lost sight of the connect with their p e o p l e because of their obsession with high-sounding concepts, processes and matrices. They have lost sight of the human being! He challenges the readers to walk into any HR departments and ask 100people' about these 'human resource managers' and you will d i s cove r t h e d i s co n n e c t t h e s e professionals have with their people. He calls for a name or title change in all its sense; 'relationship managers' to have people relationship focus not just human resource managers. The 'mechanical system metaphor' is really apt in this instance. The classical era in the history of organizational behaviour stressed on the general management theories which heavily converse about standardising the work from the administration point view. They have not given any importance to the 'personal touch' in the workplace which is essential in determining the productivity of any organization. The periodic, goal focused, result centric, direct and action focused ways of managing human resources is not different from that of any mechanical or electric system. Automated calendar generated birthday and anniversary wishes, concierge delivered flowers, company budget funded mementos and rewards.....there is nothing personal about it. If we fail to discover the people at our workplaces and dignify their humanness, we are in for a strife-filled period of resource management, to quote Ramkumar. His anxiety is
something that needs immediate attention from the academicians and practitioners of HR in the era of financial instability and pressing diverse environmental demands. Where is the place for handling emotions- fear of failure, anxiety of not knowing the how, disappointment of repeated efforts not yielding results, angst that a peer is speeding along and I am stuck, the shame induced by target review meetings, the tight stomach at the end of a day of things going wrong and above all the burden of having to carry the pressure of the bosses performance. Where are we heading up to? Why our care definition limits just with an sms of 'get well soon', or 'happy birthday'? The article should bring serious focus on
“The farther back you can look, the farther forward you're likely to see.� W.Churchill fixing up the humanness which is lost in HR field and deeds that humanises care and personal touch. Its our culture of care and affection and interest in another's well-being is what we miss in the current practise of 'HR'. This raises many fundamental questions. Are we still in the classical era of mechanical way of approaching the workplace? Are we st i l l fo l l ow i n g t h e a ge - o l d approaches started in the 1900 to the mid 1930s even in the twenty first century of diverse workforce and multiple demands? We forget the history behind the emergence of Human Relations Movement in this process which emphasize that any organization can survive only if it revolves around people-oriented ideas and find ways to coordinate and harmonise group efforts. Success depends on maintaining good relations with people and institutions outside the organization as Chester Barnard rightly put it forward. Any organization which does not meet the needs of its employees and does not have a positive view of people would face unexpected consequences
(Maslow, McGregor). This came true in the Maruti Suzuki incident! The emphasis on situational aspects of leadership is the need for the day. Fiedler's contingency perspective recognizes that there is no 'one best way' to manage people in organizations and no single set of principles that can be applied universally. Because organizations differ in size, objectives and environmental uncertainty, it all depends and it is HR professionals to find out what it all depends on. Initiatives on 1960s and 1970s on redefining existing theories, clarifying previous assumptions and identifying relevant variables should be continued by the HR professionals in today's organizations by reassuring the 'people side' of organizations. Organizational structures and management practises has to be altered so as to bring out the full productive potential of employees. The mechanical way of managing followed hundred years before should be replaced by trust and employeeintensive processes between the performer and the boss rigorously. REFERENCES Luthans, F.(1997). Organizational Behavior. McGraw Hill. Murder charge for Maruti Suzuki workers. (Thursday, July 19, 2012). The Financial Express. Retrieved on 31 A u g u s t 2 0 1 2 f r o m http://www.financialexpress.com/new s/murder-charge-for-maruti-suzukiworkers/976539/ Newstrom,J.& Davis, K. (2001). Organizational behavior: Human behavior at work. McGraw Hill. Ramkumar, K.(Friday, 17 August 2012). HR: Nothing human, just plain resources. The Economic Times. Robbins, S.P. & Judge, T.A. (2008). Organizational Behavior (13th Edn). Pearson Publishers.
HR Mesh | Special Edition
Diversity and Inclusion
Diversity
food for Thought Anshul Chhabra UBS, Chandigarh
Manisha Vashisht SCMHRD, Pune A few studies also report that teams with some form of diversity (particularly occupational diversity) make better decisions on complex problems than do teams whose members have similar backgrounds.” “ A commitment to diversity is as much about good business as it is about doing the right thing ” Diversity exists in terms of gender, religion, race, nationality, ability, sexual orientation and thought differences, etc. It is being recognized that diversity is essential to an organization's success. It is seen as the correlation between mission, strategy, and board composition and by establishing an inclusive organization starts with establishing a diverse and inclusive board. An organization can be an inclusive workplace when it adopts broader and open visions of inclusion which includes the organization as well as stakeholders from adjoining community, national and international levels. Inclusive workplace focuses on developing a diversified culture and utilizes these differences for competitive advantage, and for attracting and retaining talented workforce Workforce diversity takes many forms, the primary category represents surface-level diversity the observable demographic and other overt differences in people such as their race, ethnicity, gender, age etc. It is the most obvious and easiest of measure form of diversity in contrast to secondary dimension deep-level diversity represents psychological characteristics of employees, including personalities, beliefs values and attitudes. This is not being directly seen but it is evident in a person's decisions, statements, and actions. There
are various factors responsible for secondary dimension of diversity.
Consequences of Diversity : Diversity presents both opportunities and challenges in organizations. In some circumstances, diversity can become a competitive advantage by improving decision making and team performance. A few studies also report that teams with some form of diversity (particularly occupational diversity) make better decisions on complex problems than do teams whose members have similar backgrounds. For instance, Pepsico estimates revenue growth is directly attributable to new products inspired by diversity efforts. The diversity at Google is a prime example which employs people from most countries which enhance the organization's responsiveness to an increasingly diverse world of customers, improve relations with the surrounding community, increase the organization's ability to cope with change, and expand the creativity of the organization. The popular refrain is that workforce diversity is a sounded business proposition. Unfortunately, it's not that simple. There is growing evidence that most forms of diversity offer both advantages and
disadvantages. Teams with diverse employees usually takes longer to perform effectively. Diversity brings numerous communication problems as well as “faultiness” in informal group dynamics. It is also a source of conflict , which can lead to lack of information sharing too. It is impossible to remove all uncertainities but these can be reduced by collective efforts like cross culture training, mentor allotment etc Conclusion Organizations need to make workforce diversity a priority because surface-level diversity is a moral and legal imperative. Ethically, companies that offer an inclusive workplace are, in essence, making fair and just decisions regarding employment,promotion,rewards, and so on. Workforce diversity is the new reality and that organizations need to adjust to this reality both to survive and to experience its potential benefits for an organizational success. An inclusive diversity is a necessity for the different ideas, perspectives, solutions and ways of doing to ensure the success of an organization's business objectives. REFERENCES Organizational Behavior by Steven L. Mcshane Zing/Team Behaviour/Necessities
Appreciation is a wonderful thing - It makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well" India Appreciates is an attempt is to bring nation’s attention to many good things happening around us. In a democracy, we have right to criticize to what is not done but we also have responsibility to appreciate what is done. "India Appreciates" is an effort to start somewhere to revive our "Shakti Bodh". (Shakti- bodh is self realization of power, capability and self esteem of the country) Our tech savvy young generation has little opportunity to interact with government officers and in absence of an experience, we all go by history and media coverage which unfortunately is not good. So obviously, we always see our government officers in bad light but we see that few things are changing for good which these silent doers are ensuring. We all know how we feel when somebody appreciates us. It motivates us to do even better next time. Even experts endorse it.
employees working to improve our quality of life. Be it construction of roads, bridges or solving our traffic woes. Darkness should not overshadow light, so let’s put down some w o r d s o f appreciation for those who are constantly giving their best for us. These words from you will really motivate them & will boost their confidence and obviously we will get it back in form of much better attempt from them. We will communicate your feelings to the right person/team that are behind the good job. We will give “Citizen Award” to chosen officers based on your feedback. There are many avenue to criticize and complaint for what is not been done but our site is only avenue where you can count good jobs. This website is built as a
init iative http://indiaappreciat es.com/expert-talks VolunteersThis concept started with a dialogue from a movie called "Rang De Basanti", which says "Koi Bhi desh perfect nahi hota, usse perfect banana padta hai". So are you ready for "On ground patriotism" to make our place a better place? http://indiaappreciates.com/volun teers http://www.indiaappreciates.com/ become-a-volunteer
“INDIA APPRECIATES” With the dream that our “Thank You” will come back in much better work by our Government officers, India Appreciates is a small attempt to make our India a better & respected nation. As an Indian, we feel depressed reading news about corruption from every area and the list is growing as we see 2G, Tatra, Coal mine, IPS officer crushed and many more. Lokpal bill was torn down in Rajya Sabha. Team Anna is constantly telling the nation about how our leaders are incapable and corrupt. In this gloomy aura, we naturally start seeing everything with dark glasses. It is eroding our “Sakti Bodh” which is very dangerous for a country who poised to be world leader in next couple of decades. As a country, we are losing self confidence in our system. Our attempt is to bring nation’s attention to many good things happening around us and as we talk, there are many hundreds of thousands government
platform to see brighter side of the life and we hope this will benefit us as a society and as a country. This is a non political effort and we have no connection to any political party. This is an individual effort. FeaturesAppreciate a jobDid you see anything done which you were not expecting? Are you happy the way it is executed and want to Thank the person? If yes, Appreciate a job http://indiaappreciates.com/appreciatio ns http://www.indiaappreciates.com/appre ciate-a-job What Experts sayWhenever we are in dilemma, we get support and advice from many wise people who show thecorrect way in life. So lets hear what Experts says and what they think about "India Appreciates"
Government ContactsAt times, we wish if we knew a right person in government authorities who can solve our problems. Now, "Right" officer's contact details are at your finger tips. http://indiaappreciates.com/governmen t-contacts Target AppreciationsDo you have anything which you will appreciate if done by government? If yes, then build support for your target. http://indiaappreciates.com/targetappreciations http://www.indiaappreciates.com/targe t-appreciations BlogKeep yourself updated on good jobs around you http://blog.indiaappreciates.com/
HR Mesh | Special Edition
Corporate Ladder to Lattice
Do Lattice Organizations Call For Reverse Mentoring?
Radhika Nadkarny
Research Associate SCMHRD, Pune
All the world is a laboratory to the inquiring mind. - Martin H. Fischer
During one of my classes, I had a difficulty with the WiFi and OHP. A few minutes after struggling, I requested the students to help me with the situation at hand and within a few minutes one of them got the functioning and I was able to resume the class. This made me realize how often we turn to others for advice and help. My “In learning mother learnt the computers and usage of internet from me and a teenager in my neighborhood. My friend's grandparents and parents have learnt to order through Flipkart, google information, download music and ebooks, about latest avenues of investment, about new styles, fashions and technology. Infact I get my latest movie and songs updates from a young 4 year old. Doesn't this indicate we are always learning from people around us, be it young or old. The traditional structured workplace is giving way to a more open and hierarchy free workplace. The communication, relationships, participation, knowledge, style of working, leadership, decision making, career paths and management of talent is all changing. Since the advent of lattice organizations in 2005 at Deloitte, they have come a long way. Lattice ways influence not only organizing careers, training, collaboration and creativity due to its diversity, but also provide multiple avenues for learning, growth and
development. Mentoring originates from Greek mythology and was a friend of Odysseus and tutor of Telemachus. He is known as faithful and wise advisor. Goddess Athena, the goddesses of wisdom, courage and inspiration, disguised as
you will teach, and in teaching Mentor, advised Telemachus through her personal dilemmas. Ever since the term mentor refers to someone who imparts wisdom and knowledge to less experienced colleagues. Thus we see there is no emphasis on age but rather experience in mentoring. Conventionally mentoring is done by older employee and higher ups. Today learning and mentoring is more peer-topeer. GE Chairman Jack Welch pioneered the concept of Reverse Mentoring for 500 top-level executives to learn from the below them to learn about the usage of the Internet. Global leadership has put a great demand on learning, especially social learning. Several articles on Millennials at the workplace made me realize that with changing times, young workers are entering the workplace with a different and new set of expectations about learning, leadership and growth. In order to sustain the diverse workplace in a lattice organization, reverse mentoring is
one way to both thrive as well as survive. The need for re-skilling is very high today for older workers. According to the article “5 Methods for Social Leadership: Try Reverse Mentoring”, by Meghan M.Biro, in Forbes, the best metoring workplace cultures rely on a mix of formal, informal and social learning, explicit mentoring programs, support for you will learn.” cross-functional reams ― Phil Collins a n d co n s i ste n c y i n management treatment of the work population. Welch himself was mentored by a 20 year old employee to surf the internet. Spensor Osborn the world wide Managing Director of Ogilvy & Mather, was trained by younger mentors to spruce up his posts on Twitter, which he tended to make boring initially. Andrew Graff, CEO of Allen & Gerritsen , an ad agency learnt about smartphone apps to what is latest on office layouts from his 23 year old mentor. Cisco Systems has a very successful Gen Y Reverse Mentoring Program since the last 2 years. Nitin Kawale, president of Cisco Systems Canada Co., is the student and protégé to learn more about the usage of social media and external communication from a young business manager in Cisco offices in Netherlands. So why Reverse Mentoring today in a lattice corporate world? A brief look at what millennial employees are like will help identify the need for this type of mentoring.
MILLENNIALS - WHAT THEY ARE & LOOK FOR AT WORK/IN LIFE Transparency Self ownership Respect (of and for talent) Visibility & Free expression (to be heard and seen) Connecting and collaborating Energetic, motivated & confident Like challenges Close relationships with authority figures Creative and interactive learning External rewards but meaning and relevance too Feedback Better educated and more diverse Flexibility to explore their interest and growth Authentic & Visionary Risk takers Aspire leadership Less ready and acceptable of stress that comes with leadership More mobile Concerned with self acceptance & affiliation but less with communities Lateral thinkers Do not like too much control & command, but prefer a few clear cut rules and goals, often self expectation is higher Like to be treated as unique and special Feel the older generation can learn a few things from them Strong opinion, less patience and seek instant gratification As Millennails in a lattice desire transparency and close relations with authority, the reverse mentoring will help them know more about the mentee (senior employee) and their skills. There will be a more give and take of professional and personal information leading to better relationships beyond the mentoring relationship for both the mentor and mentee. Reverse Mentoring would also give the young employee a sense of self ownership. She/he would feel a part of the growth process in the organization and also learn to set own rules and goals for the mentoring and learning process and in turn more committed towards work and the organization. For the senior employee who is being mentored it will help him evaluate the younger employee for future leadership responsibilities. Respect for own and the mentees talent and skills will increase. The empathy and patience for the leaner/mentee will increase. This reverse relationship of respect will reduce the need for instant
gratification millennials have and help them be more accepting of different talents and skills in people, different learning styles and levels and speeds. They will value and appreciate the success of the mentoring through the gradual process of the learning. A mutual sense of respect would be earned through this process and relationship. Almost all millennials have a great need to communicate and express. They are called the connected generation! This process will give them the opportunity to be seen, heard, share, appreciate and be appreciated, build a rapport and develop interpersonal skills and free express their knowledge. Besides mere communication, feedback which is an essential need of the millennials is met t h ro u g h t h e reve rs e m e nto r i n g relationship. They can give and receive valuable feedback about the progress, learning, skills and areas of improvement. The mentee can learn more effective and newer communication skills from the young mentor, further leading to better internal communication.
We often see young dynamic, energetic, enthusiastic and confident millennials all around at work or in society. This type of mentoring can help channelize their energy and enthusiasm towards a d i re c t i o n o f l e a r n i n g a n d s k i l l development. This would further meet their need for challenge and variety. They could mentor different senior employee on different areas from social media to communication skills to technology usage. This will give the mentor a chance to learn to design, evaluate and motivate the mentee also. The mentee in turn would benefit with the energy and dynamism of the young mentor. As the millennial generation are extrinsically motivated to a certain extent and appreciate external rewards, they can be awarded with mentoring performance based cash bonuses, stock options, praise and opportunities to lead and mentor future projects or teams, travel and paid leaves, recommending them for training programs, flexible work arrangements etc.
HR Mesh | Special Edition
Corporate Ladder to Lattice Through this mentoring relationship the senior mentee can inculcate and display the value of intrinsic value and motivation of learning to the younger mentor.
prepares them for the stress that leadership responsibilities bring in and also learn ways of handling the stress effectively in this learning set up.
“The authority of those who teach is often an obstacle to those who want to learn.� ― Marcus Tullius Cicero
Often mentoring is a boring and serious process. The younger mentor with his enthusiasm, energy and risk taking ability can infuse an attitude of risk taking and its benefits to the older mentee. Older employees due to life experience often tend to seek security and certainty. Both the parties in reverse mentoring can learn smart risk taking, spontaneity and decision making maturity from each other. The lateral thinking ability of the millennials can also open up to new and fresh ideas and thinking.
Young employees are very mobile and ready to move. They have relatively moved more than the earlier generations due to their educations, internships, jobs and marriage. Many expect to and are open to working internationally compared to the earlier generation. They display more work flexibility and mobility and this would work beneficial to reverse mentoring, as they can mentor people across the country and globe and even virtually. This will result in developing their mentoring skill and they can reach out to more and more senior mentees. They have the confidence and exposure to diverse environments which further works in their benefit while mentoring.
Taking from this point younger employees bring diversity and novelty to the organization. This attitude of the young mentors can initiate an open mind-set in the mentees. Younger mentors need not only mentor on technology but can efficiently teach the mentee on cultures, latest trends and lifestyles of the next generation. This would benefit the older mentee to understand and leader the next generation as employees and customers better.
Last but not the least this type of mentoring builds like most mentoring relationships a bond of sharing and caring between the mentor and mentee. The human bond which we see is often lost in today's fast paced organization can be rebuilt through reverse mentoring!
Leadership is one more need millennials are high on. The need for achievement and affiliation are equally important to the young employee. This reverse mentoring will give them an experience of later leadership roles and self leadership. It gives them an o p p o r t u n i t y t o u n d e rsta n d responsibility and accountability in a non-threatening and nondefensive environment. It
As the lattice organization breeds freedom, openness, transparency and creativity, reverse mentoring can be a tool to motivate, train, innovate, appraise, retain, and encourage self leadership in and contribution from the millennial employee. The technological and global changes have made it essential for the older employees wanting to catch up. The multigenerational gap can also be
reduced by this wonderful learning concept as it builds trust and loyalty towards the organization.
Prateek Kinger, MBA I SCMHRD, Pune
Latticise The Ladder For Inclusion Of Diversity "Why should we take you? “ Ankit was taken aback receiving that as the first question in a job interview instead of the usual "Tell me something about yourself" cliché . He stumbled first but recovered well to answer " Mam , I am a good team player. I firmly believe in the Together Everyone Achieves More philosophy” "Oh. So what makes you a good team player?” " My ability to accept other person's thoughts and think in the way my team d o e s " p a t c a m e t h e r e p l y. " Why should I hire another person for my team who thinks the same way as the team? They do the job well enough. What is the need for a new hire if there is no difference of opinion, no differentiated thought process and no value addition?”
Ankit was surely caught on the wrong foot and no prizes for guessing in which direction the interview further went. WHY DO WE NEED DIVERSITY? Today in the technologically bound and shrunken down globalized business world, the organizations are vying for diversity in true sense of the word. Diversity in terms of age is being absorbed in the organisation structure for having the best of both worlds. The enthusiasm of the young workforce and the experience of the senior employees; the appropriate blend with the ingredients of care towards managing the generation gap , culminates into a perfect recipe for a growth story. The mentor- mentee programs work well in this direction. Research supports the fact that women are more emotionally intelligent when compared with their male counter parts
which makes them better decision makers and imparts the ability to take the team together in an organisation. Moreover, the societal obligations of providing equal opportunities to men and women make organisations strive for gender diversity today. Companies like Amazon, Coca-cola, Apple even come up to the stand of supporting the rights of LGBT. Another motive behind these acts is Employer Branding; better image in the market, for the organisation can flaunt of being fair and providing equal opportunities to the diverse workforce. Business organisations growing across geographical boundaries have rendered geographical and in turn cultural diversity indispensable. Both, organic growth through multinational trade assignments and inorganic growth through mergers and acquisitions bring forward opportunities to leverage the
HR Mesh | Special Edition
Corporate Ladder to Lattice skill sets and work cultures of the diverse workforce. TThe education background is also a contributing factor to create a diversified working human capital. And taking the case of India, we also have diversity on the basis of caste with protective discrimination to the less privileged sections of the society in employment issues by the constitution. The diversity on any criteria in my opinion is just the means of achieving the true aim i.e. diversity in thought p ro c e s s o f d i f fe re n t individuals. The busines environment today relies on the project and team based skills instead of individual marvels. The business today thinks in te r m s o f te a m s a n d networks, not just roles and divisions. More diverse the workforce, more diverse are the perspectives that come to the table in discussions of problems and better are the strategies and decisions made. Relation to Corporate Lattice The corporate ladder represents an efficient though inflexible paradigm in which prestige, rewards, access to information, influence, power, etc depend on the level you sit at in the organisational hierarchy. Its hierarchical structure governs how information flows and whose ideas matter and to what extent. The career success here is a linear climb to the top. The ladder's one-size-fits-all approach assumes that employees are more similar than different and that they want and need similar things. But in today's scenario , the diversified workforce has diversified needs and expectations from the organisation they work for. Take the example of tech savvy, social media
guzzler Gen Z workforce which has a short attention span and wants to explore the maximum in minimum possible time. The lattice organisation structure can be a solution and can help broaden career paths multi-directionally, enhancing employee development opportunities, versatility, and strategic flexibility. It may provide opportunities to employees from various educational backgrounds and cultures to move laterally through the organization, to get involved, share ideas and find out their forte. This will also help t h e employees to s h a r e information transparently, c r e a t e communities regardless of t h e i r organizationa l level and be at their productive best. Also the rising demand of the work force today especially the women is flexibility in work timings and styles w h i c h demands the rise of the virtual office or work from home phenomena. This provides more flexibility and choices to them for how they do their work. Leading organisations like Google and Microsoft provide the flexibility of "Work whenever you want ,day or night, wherever you want" . This results in greater workforce productivity and retention and a "greener footprint" along with lesser real estate costs as additional benefit. The lattice structure may also help women to bypass the glass ceiling by helping them diversify in their roles rather than climbing the vertical ladder. Also with geographical diversity coming into picture, flexi-work is need of the hour.
The lattice structure fosters an inclusive culture unaffected by top-down hierarchy, where everyone can and indeed, is expected to contribute. The workforce today is not the uniform group it once was. The employer has to find ways to embed flexibility and provide more options for fitting life into work and work into life. One of the solution can be the "Lattic-isation of ladder for inclusion of Diversity". REFERENCES www.forbes.com/2011/03/16/corporate -lattice-ladder-leadership-mACanaginghierarchy.html http://businessfinancemag.com/article/ shift-corporate-ladder-lattice-0422 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/cathybenko/post_1660_b_817045.html
Lattice - A corporate reward
Prateek Sah PGP ABM (2012-14) IIM, Ahmedabad
Some years down the line a story will start like this,� Long long ago there was a corporate ladder...� The continuing collapse of the corporate ladder and subsequent rise to mutual growth based lattice is one of the most dynamic transformations that are currently happening across industries. The ladder used to be the symbol of consistent rewards; recognition and individual excellence where one grow by leaving behind the rest of the world. But in today's technology driven and flat world, the need and strength of the company lies in the collaborative environment, more on mutual dependence and team work. The ladder was all about constraints and single direction measure of the work and slowly the lattice is coming stronger to replace the same. No longer are the constraints forced upon an individual instead a collaborative and team driven work platform is provided to him. The impact on efficiency in the same lattice framework proves to be much more beneficial to company than in the race to corporate ladder. A ladder symbolizes more of a unidirectional movement of growth while lattice is much more diverse encompassing the various
other factors and peoples in the process of growth. Oppurtunitinities have become more fluid and flexible and adaptability is the key engine for the growth. Lattice is not merely about the structural parameter for growth but much more a b o u t t h e opportunities that it provide in the spectrum. It is not about remaining entangled with a set of responsibilities but involves the person to pursue alternative career paths and choosing the one he/she most comfortable with. There are times when the employees will provide the firm with the best and most genuine ideas. In a top down ladder approach, the self-motivation to present the same is quite low due to vertical environment. A lattice structure not only motivates the ideas but also help in nurturing a positive culture in the firm. The culture is important both for the company and employees alike.
The new Gen-Y mba's with the reputation of being fickle and materialistic rather than loyal would actually rather stay with one organization if that organization delivered on its commitments and allowed them to grow and contribute on their terms with the support of their company. The multiverse of lattice and sideways development attracts more loyalty and longer passion towards works than the boredom that surrounds a unidirectional ladder growth with nothing new to learn. Lattice allows someone to stretch not only vertically but also horizontally and effectively ending the theory of one size fits all. And in the world of high attrition rates and less loyalty, the most important action by the firm is how to retain the talent and attract new talents by providing work condition analogous to their passions and dreams. A number of companies have already started adopting to this structure and in the process, enhancing overall competitiveness. Their success illuminates the path ahead.
HR Mesh | Special Edition
Corporate Ladder to Lattice
Prisoomit P Nayak and Rajdeep Girase PGDM 2011-13 L. N. Welingkar Institute of Management Development & Research, Mumbai
An Insight - Corporate Ladder to Lattice “People leave an organisation when their work is coming in between their family or other priorities of life and there is a conflict between what the organisation expects them to do and what is expected by their family.” - Marissa Mayer, CEO, Yahoo The 'Age of discontinuity', as this is called by Peter Drucker has forced us to engage in what Charles Handy calls “UpsideDown Thinking”. One fine example of this is that of the Corporate Lattice Structure which was introduced in 2005 by Ms.Cathy Benko, Vice Chairman and Chief Talent Officer, Deloitte LLP in her organisation. The restructuring of the framework of the organizations from a Corporate ladder to a more flexible Lattice is an area has been crucial from the Talent Management viewpoint of many organizations thereby enabling them to utilize the combination of its tangible and intangible assets and in the process create extraordinary value for its stakeholders. The Lattice Framework Lattice framework has had very pathbreaking implications in the way an organization functions and maintaining work-life balance.
The essence of the Lattice framework lies in the following parameters: ! Careers can be customized to suit the needs of individual workers; ! Flexible work scheduling that allows workers to achieve a work-life balance by taking on more or less responsibility; ! Full participation providing ways for workers to contribute ideas and suggestions in every area of the company. The conventional framework - corporate ladder needs one to work hard (harder than his/her peers) to climb up the ladder. However, in the present time, the career options have become a lot more flexible. Now, if one feels that he/ she can take up additional work load and the supervisors are satisfied with his/her performance, he can be assigned extra work goals. Since he is evaluated in a separate category, this practice often gives the employee an edge over his peers. This is also known as dial-up.
(Source: Cathy Benko, Molly Anderson and Suzanne Vickberg. 2011. The Corporate Lattice: A Strategic Response to the Changing World of Work. Deloitte Review)
Another example of this flexibility is dialdown, according to which the employees can take time off from work regularly to take care of any personal issues. This is especially helpful for women employees who may need time to take care of their families. Thus, the lattice framework allows an employee to meet his changing career needs- to accelerate, deaccelerate or even to change direction.
But there is a drawback of the framework as allowing for extra work may induce unnecessary competition among employees and some of them may opt for it just because of others are doing.
The extent to which the deliverables and services meets the expectations of internal and external customers.
Use of Resources
Benefits of Deloitte US due to Lattice:
! Earnings-per-share growth is 160 percent higher
! Return on assets is 100 percent
higher ! Revenue growth is 150 percent An employee whose performance is up higher to a level and/or have demonstrated the ! Profitability is 40 percent higher ability required to perform a higher role ! Productivity is 78 percent higher and are being considered for giving extra ENRICH ! has transformed its Thomson Reuters work. By this model ensures no ! Once you have gathered a wealth of decentralized finance functions of more employee takes up work more than information on your people. We need to than 40 portfolio companies. his/her capabilities. focus on How to effectively manage this “FinancePlus” transitioned work from assessment data to identify roles and individuals to global shared service We hereby propose a simple yet effective responsibilities which will act as centers facilitated by virtual work framework which would help motivating challenge to go that extra practices. This effort has yielded in organisations to systematically perform a mile. approximately $50 million in annual dial-up evaluation. ! Depending on the Business savings till date and helped in better requirement and career goals of these decision making, planning, forecasting high potentials we need to find a match and employee engagement. between the both. Here we also decide ! Accenture ranked No.1 in IT to enrich vertically or horizontally. Companies & No. 12 across sectors in 2012 on DIVERSITY INC list, marking its Benefits of Lattice Structure sixth consecutive appearance on the list. Its Global Women's Initiative includes ! Custom career track allows flexible working, parental leave, individuals to tailor their development mentoring for women programme, based on their career interests and goals career counselling, alternative career as well as their life needs. IDENTIFY model for executives wishing to take a ! Individuals too gain with increased lateral career move through the lattice flexibility and more choices for when and ! The old adage “People are your most framework. where they do their work. important asset“ is wrong. People are not your most important asset. The right ! Non-hierarchical approach to Mathematics, a lattice allows one to people are says Jim Collins in his Good to harness knowledge and creativity move in multiple directions without Great book. Someone who has a set of through multiple paths for learning and restricting on upward or downward skills, competencies and experiences growth. mobility and can be reiterated to any that makes a positive impact on your ! Sharing information transparently, magnitude. Practically, lattices are living business. creating communities and providing platforms for career progression seizing more collaborative. the fact of the changing needs of the ! 'Identifying Talent' means looking at ! Inclusive and meaningful options for individual and the organization across your organization Look 'Inside Out'. employees to contribute regardless of various time intervals. It can imbibe a their level on the organizational chart. spirit of transparency and shared ASSESS ! Lattice organisations have better responsibility for career planning, which Here we assess the employees on not w o r ke r r e t e n t i o n a n d g r e a t e r in turn can drive a new brand of loyalty, only their achievements but also their productivity, thus affecting the growth of based on the continuous collaboration abilities to perform in the future. The the organizations on various levels. between employer and employee to following 3 dimensions are identified and design customized career paths. the employees are assessed on these Organisational Implementation: Though invisible much of the challenges following dimensions. managers face today likely comes from Success Stories the fact that knowledge workers are In fact, we see the corporate ladder ! Dimensions already building lattice-like careers by model for career progression already moving in and out of organizations and giving way to what we term the Time Management up and down hierarchies, albeit often corporate lattice in most organisations. Timely delivery of services in without support or structure from their Some of the others to follow in Deloitte' terms of schedules, deadlines, and organizations. footsteps are AT&T, SAS, Accenture, delivery goals/targets Thomson Reuters, etc. ! Engagement and Bottom Line Customer Impact The efficient use of resources to do the job time, money , material/ information/ knowledge/ people.
HR Mesh | Special Edition
Corporate Ladder to Lattice Deloitte conducted a survey involving over 250 executives across over a dozen organizations, over 70 % of them said they had dialled up or down, either formally or informally, at some point during their careers. Break up of people who have ever formally or informally “dialed up or dialed down� their career Yes
72.2%
No
12.0%
No, but I know someone who has
15.8%
Votes Received: 259 An individual Success Story: Taking a closer look An ex-U.S. Marine with an MBA shifts sectors, locations and moves in and out of the workforce, staying home for three years with his children. He has adapted and aligned his career with his wife's as they travel the world of work and home. Today, he works from home enjoying both flexibility and convenience.
Conclusion The examples of corporates and individuals illuminated in the article exemplifies the evidence that sweeping changes in the way we work, live and build careers are not just on the horizon they are here to stay. These events are not only connected but converging creating an unprecedented pressure on organizations to accelerate the transition from corporate ladder to lattice. Hence, present day organizations need to recognize that 21st century career journeys will ebb and flow over time and in tandem with life's circumstancesresulting in a need for a new model of how careers are built. Everyone who has a career also has a life. It's time to acknowledge this, and work within a model where the workplace is once again aligned with the workforce.
Ladder to Lattice has worked for organizations worldwide but it still needs to taste its success in India. In fact with the complexities of urban life in India, this model needs to be seriously tried by the Indian corporates to reduce attrition and increase productivity. REFERENCES Cathy Benko, Molly Anderson and Suzanne Vickberg, The Corporate Lattice: A Strategic Response to the Changing World of Work, Delloite review, Issue 8, 2011. Timothy F. Slaper, Tanya J. Hall, The Triple bottom line: What is it and how does it work?, Indiana Business Review, 2011. www.public.deloitte.com www.hci.org www.corporatelattice.com www. thomsonreuters.com www.accenture.com www.masscareercustomization.com www.time.com www.businessweek.com
Coming This January
Vishakha Singhal and Shobhit Goel PGDM- Finance 1st Year LBSIM, New Delhi
Corporate Ladder to Lattice Dynamic is one adjective which becomes inevitable while defining an organisation. Nothing is stable, from technology to the workforce. Although the roles played by each in the past twenty years may not have undergone major changes but the workplace where people have been working has surely been re-defined. The pace of change is faster. An organisation includes a hierarchy of positions with different authority at each level.Earlier people joined an organisation to move up in their career. The aim of every employee was to climb the ladder rung by rung and be at the top most position. At each step of the ladder, an individual gains more responsibility and is facilitated by several rewards which define the success for that individual. Gaining more power and a higher level of prestige were the major motivators. This was the concept of Corporate Ladder. Corporate ladder which saw fame in the industrial era has now become outdated and is replaced by what is known as the 'corporate lattice'. Corporate Lattice is an em ergin g p h en o m en o n w h ereby movement can take place in any direction within an organisation (and not just necessarily in the upward direction). The
Geometric meaning states that lattice is a multidimensional figure which extends infinitely in any direction. It does not restrict the way in which an individual's talent is developed but describes a multitude of ways in which the careers are built. It is closely related to the example of a garden which facilitates growth in different directions. Corporate lattice provides an organisation with more options for getting the work done. It defines an employee's career growth as multidirectional which move upwards, vertical or even backwards. The transformation from hierarchy to lattice has flexibility to employees in shaping their careers by in different teams. It also enables generation of innovative ideas as anyone can contribute ideas regardless of their position in the organisation. Since hierarchical structure does not allow freedom to lower ranked employees to participate in the decision making process, that is, they have a limited voice, it suppresses their creativity. Moreover, a shift from Corporate Ladder to Corporate Lattice has also benefitted the women working population across the world tremendously. Through
corporate ladder, where the movement is unidirectional, that is, vertical, women employees lose out opportunities to move up the ladder due to some family obligations. But due to drastic change in family structure where more nuclear families are evolving especially in India, and with corporate lattice in organisations, working women have more opportunities to explore the breadths and depths of the corporate world. Although corporate lattice has been introduced in most of the organisations on an informal basis, a systematic approach to incorporate this model into the work environment will create more consistent and scalable results. REFERENCES Http://www.deloitte.com/view/en_US/u s/Insights/Browse-by-ContentType/deloitte-review/ 35912ee3fad33210VgnVCM100000ba42 f00aRCRD.htm http://www.huffingtonpost.com/cathybenko/post_1660_b_817045.html
HR Mesh | Special Edition
Alumini Interview
A Talk with the Esteemed Alumni
Chinmay Sharma Head HR, Philip Morris International
Mr Chinmay Sharma, Country Head-HR of Philip Morris India, Bangladesh and Sri-Lanka, is an Economics graduate who persuaded PGDM from SCMHRD, 2003 batch. He worked for Gillette India, P&G before joining Philip Morris. Mr Sharma had been on the campus recently to interact with the students of SCMHRD. Here is a detailed discussion with him about his days in SCMHRD, and those followed. Question: Could you please tell us about your experience in SCMHRD? Answer: I had a great experience during my post graduation. Apart from academics, we used to focus also on extra-curricular activities. I was handling a specific event in Neev. I have worked for admissions team and I also represented our college for the sports activities. Being part of these extracurricular activities gives you lot of learning experience and of course fun. Question: How helpful were the extracurricular activities for your career? Answer: Definitely to a greater extent. These committees are nothing but a simulation of corporate setting in the college itself. These will give you a managerial kind of exposure for you. According to me, both acads and extra-curricular are expecting the same from you. You have your own objectives and you have to deliver as per the deadlines. This is similar to your work life. So I would definitely recommend everyone to be part of such activites to have a great learning experience and exposure, which will help you in becoming better manager or leader.
Question: Since our theme for this edition is Diversity and inclusion, could you please throw some light diversity in Philip Morris? Answer: Diversity can be of any form such as gender, caste, creed, age, race etc. Among them, gender diversity is the most recognized form of diversity. Before promoting diversity, we at Philip morris have set our objective very clearly and it stresses more on transparency. We promote it in our hiring and in our assignment planning activities. Putting in a nutshell, though we don't have specific targets for gender diversity, we try to promote it but not at the cost of merit and performance. Through this we want to ensure that our employees are confident. Apart from promoting gender diversity at hiring level, it should have strong supporting mechanisms at various levels for retaining the talent. This we are promoting by updated policies to support our people in the various stages of their lives. This becomes easier especially with multinationals, with their scale and locations. Question: How difficult is working in different countries and with people of different nationalities? Answer: I am fortunate enough to work in different countries in both my present and previous organisation. I have worked in countries of middleeast, Europe, Africa and currently handling SouthAsia. Every country has different ways of handling situations and for an HR this is the toughest challenge. One needs to be aware of the difference in thinking and lifestyles of people of a particular country. For this every organization provides their employees with cultural training.
Currently I am HR head for three countries- India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. India and Bangladesh do not have much difference in their working style, but Sri Lanka do have. It is also different from India in terms of culture and language. So I handle situation in Sri Lanka differently than the way I handle the same in India. It is a quality of a good HR to adapt himself/herself according to the situation. Question: What according to you are the essential qualities to reach such leadership positions like you in the field of HR? Answer: First and foremost, as a HR manager, you should have a strong understanding of the business. Secondly you should be able to differentiate people and issues separately. As a HR manager you should deal with people softly but with the issues with toughness. Also, the HR manager should be an organizational role model. Question: What other than work surely interests you? Answer: I love teaching and was a visiting faculty in SCMHRD few years back. I generally took classes on weekends for the HR students on compensation and benefit. In future also if I get an opportunity and time permit I would sure like to indulge in teaching again. Question: How is it coming back to SCMHRD after such a long time and what difference you find when compared to your days here?
Answer: It's always give you nostalgic feeling whenever you go back to your school or college. Even I felt the same when I was back on campus. I interacted with a lot of students here, one difference worth noticing is that the youth today is much more focused and clear about their aim in life. They are diligent and much more innovative, are not afraid of competition. I am sure these young people with smart phones and tabs will do much more than their previous generation. Question: As we are reaching the end of the interview, we want to know, what is your message for the future HR managers? Answer: First of all, grab every opportunity that comes in your way. Be careful about the building blocks in the initial 5 to 10 years of your career. Please remember that leaving the jobs just for money and designation will never help you in the long run. Always look for the learning experience and the skills that you will acquire through your assignments. Remember that, you are running a marathon and not a 100 meter sprint in your career. Especially for the HR people, I would advise you to go in the hard right way rather than going in an easy wrong way. Only this will help you in building credibility, in a long run. Also, try to enjoy the journey towards the top rather than just running hard to reach the end.
Pause and Ponder “Without continual growth and progress, such words as improvement, achievement, and success have no meaning.�
- Benjamin Franklin HR Mesh | Special Edition
“Diversity is the buzz word of today's Corporate world and shows its presence in the B- School environment too. This edition of Students Speak aims to get the views of students from different educational, geographical and cultural backgrounds on "How Diversity adds value to ones Life at a premier B-School ". Here we present what they said :
in diversity so means happiness al t i , ity rs ve di e n i t just unity caused by languag rs ie rr ba e In SCMHRD, it is no th e m co r kept might have to ove nture, have always ve ad d for us. Though we an s es cc su r makes the satiable thirst fo is like an angel who it and culture, our in , pe ho of e m ito by RD is the ep to be the sculptor ue tin on c s us together. SCMH ay w al Govind s the true, SCMHRD will SCMHRD it is alway in e, dreams of students ap sh st be e Viswanathan people to th carving the lives of ite us. differences that un An alma mater which respects creativity, innovation, thinkers, doesn't matter who produce it, it may be a differently able, people from different culture and speak different languages. Under one umbrella the institute represents mother earth which nurtures and shapes every individual irrespective of Mohammad their diversities, and also provide special need for special students, and make them fit for corporate and industries. Tausif
Gunjot Singh
the volves around re , e m r o f D R greater out SCMH ave gained atest thing ab h re I g e . th to y a d s d se nd I' o s, religions, a e been exp v re I' u lt t a cu th r e y t th i divers about o tions ltural celebra d knowledge u n c a e n iv o st ti a fe ci , s re n app iscussio students, rough lively d ckgrounds of a b e v i ct n i t ethnicities th is rks In class, the d rsonal netwo e s. p t h d ig n n a c i s s u ce and m given experien rray of past resolving any a in e s id ie w g a lo o d th wi etho pare for their varied m helped me pre ve a h s ce n e contributed to ri ly! of these expe pus life so live l l m a k ca n r i u th o I ke t. a p conce ity does m eavours. Divers d n e re tu u f y m I had always heard that diversity plays a very important role in shaping one's attitude and personality. It is indeed true. After spending almost half a year in SCMHRD, I have come to know the Gopi importance of diversity in b-school. I met many people who came Joshi from various places like Lucknow, Delhi, Dubai, Uganda etc. There is a lot of things I learn from them, be it views on politics, economics, or cultural practices. Perhaps, that's the power of diversity in b-school.
de er here is the wi ov t ou s d n ta s thing which visages rience such it en RD and that one e H p M ex SC g n o i t rn in a r le te f the kind o future HR One semes u get to see, and going to face as a yo e s ar nt e w de tu ge s f en o l to y al diversit motivating them for the biggest ch d s u an s e re rc fo pa e k r r p o It w d diversifie Indian is stupendous. anaging a highly e true spirit of m ' th ly e d v i se t s ec ne ff it 'e w . e e manager i. SCMHRD, we all potential. I hav at r t ei bu th a di of In t s of e s b fferent state perform to the - Sandipan Deb e may be from di W . D R H M SC at brotherhood called India. belong to a state
In SCMHRD, people from across India from different regions have come here to participate in a common goal of learning. The difference in cultures acts as a boon to bring a new understanding of human relationships which helps in the future endeavours wherever we go. The diversity of cultures initiates diversity of thoughts and ideas and provides a shared learning advantage to all the students.The student: fresher's and experienced, Faculty: old and new are a diverse lot who strives to provide the best atmosphere for learning.
y Am it e Kah
ish un j M Ra an dh Ba
xample. s is a good e u p m a c g D R dents comin d our SCMH n tu s a e th v g a n h e e r t w d up cause uty and s pus is hype r campus be m u that lies bea a o c y t t i e a h rs t te e s v i ra n d b Its in we can occasio n to cele d mix where and on such ave a reaso o h n o s o i g y g a i a l e lw re v a a d e h and W munities an ignity, joy it all we do d m m o , u c s s s e e o t n rs t e n v u e i as, op ities. B from d inds of activ such as ide k s t g n in re h e t f if l d u with beautif and receive e iv g th o b inclusion.
The start is always the hardest part, the rest just falls into place. Beginning my life at SCMHRD was the hardest part living in a new city, meeting new people with different beliefs, customs, and cultures. This proved to be the opposite of what I expected. So far my experiences and encounters with my fellow students have been nothing less than enlightening and insightful. Interacting with others whose culture is different from mine has broadened how I think, how I do things and how I approach certain situations. Being a fresher without any corporate experience, my interactions with my fellow students with work experience, and the faculties has always resulted in me gaining knowledge from their experiences. Finally I now understand that hard work should always be accompanied by lots and lots of fun too. It's just been only six months at SCMHRD, what I've learned so far is beyond measurement. Wanrapbor Kharkongor Diversity cert ainly adds va lue to my life learned that n as I have learn o area of learn ed how to lea ing is limited Military back rn and to one perspe ground and ctive. Coming learning in su consists of En from ch diverse b gineers, Char ackground w tered Accoun an enriching e hich tants to a Com xperience an mercial Pilot d adds lot of v my perspect is truly alue to my lea ive. I have m rning as it bro ade productiv faculty and o adens e relationship ther staff me s with my p mbers and th prior experie eers, is has been p nces and attri latform to sh butes which to a whole ne a re my has taken my w level" Ameet learning expe rience Singh Khalsa
Fun Section
SIX THINGS YOU'LL NEVER HEAR AN EMPLOYEE TELL HIS/HER BOSS!!! 1. Never give me work in the morning. Always wait until 5:00 and then bring it to me. The challenge of a deadline is always refreshing. 2. f it's really a "rush job," run in and interrupt me every 10 minutes to inquire how it's going. That greatly aids my efficiency. 3. Always leave without telling anyone where you're going. It gives me a chance to be creative when someone asks where you are. 4. If you have special instructions for a job, don't write them down. If fact, save them until the job is almost done. 5.Be nice to me only when the job I'm doing for you could really change your life. 6. If you give me more than one job to do, don't tell me which is the priority. Let me guess. source-http://www.recruitersnetwork.com/jokes/neversay.htm
FB Poll We Asked: Is money the most important motivating factor for an employee in an organisation? The people participating in poll are students of SCMHRD
HR Crossword DOWN 1) HR head of HUL 2) UN agency ILO has its headquarters in _______ 3) The last stage of group development model 4) No. 1 consultancy firm 5) Acronym for a appraisal method where employee is rated on statements of behaviour Across 6) A type of training that utilizes equipment which closely resemble the actual ones used in the job 7) This person gave a famous 4-stage model of training evaluation 8) "A major reason capable people fail to advance, is that they do not work well with their colleagues." name the famous person who quotes the above famous quote 9) An organization's informal communication network 10) These type of people have a grandiose sense of self- importance and a sense of entitlement Before you start GOOGLEing, give a try.. : ). HR Mesh | Special Edition
Fun Section
Solution to the Cossword
HR Forum The HR Forum is an initiative to boost the HR activities in the institute. The main aim of the HR Forum is to spearhead activities that could remove the traditional myths surrounding HR as a function and to create awareness regarding the importance of HR function in the current business scenario. The HR Forum maintains a database of all the Group Discussion Case - studies and Interview Questions asked during the placement processes. This database serves as a reference for the GD/PI guidance process and helps our students equip themselves to tackle corporate placements. With the growing importance of mentorship programs, particularly in the corporate world, and their benefits in terms of overall learning of individuals, HR Forum took the initiative of introducing a similar concept in the institute by designing a mentorship program on similar lines called the “The Buddy Program”. The objective of the buddy program is to serve as a facilitator to help the junior batch interact with their senior batch and get inputs from them to prepare for summer placements. In this program, every junior is assigned a senior of his/her respective specialization as mentor. The mentors (buddies) guide the juniors in terms of preparation regarding Group Discussions, Personal Interviews, subject matter, summer projects etc.
Annual Events ‘Astuce '12 - The Definitive HR challenge', the annual HR student competition organized by the HR Forum at SCMHRD was held last year on 28th January 2012 at the campus. The theme of the event was 'Organizational Development (OD)'. Astuce '12 comprised of two competitions - 'Bodhi the Case Study Competition' and 'Vijnana the Technical Poster Presentation' which brought together the best contestants from across the country to battle it out. Prizes worth Rs 60,000 were won in Astuce '12. Knowledge partners for the event were Human Capital for Bodhi the Case Study Competition and Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) for Vijnana the Technical Poster Presentation.
Stay tuned to witness another mega event this January : And this time it turns bigger and better at