togethr iim shillong
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TogetHR IIM ShillongTRANSCRIPT
Dear Readers,
“In a world where discovery is more important than delivery, it's the people who find, remix and
direct attention to old stuff that should be rewarded, not the people who deliver it or sit on it
waiting for someone to show up.” -Joichi Ito
So the wait is finally over!! We @ Team usHR, take great pride in bringing to you the inaugural
edition of ‘TogetHR’, the first HR magazine across all IIMs. This magazine caters to the needs of
not only the HR professionals but all the managers who want to see their employees grow,
prosper and contribute positively to their organizations. It goes out to all the leaders who have a
vision in their eyes and wish their employees to share it with them. And finally to the HR
enthusiasts studying in various B-Schools, sharing this common dream of bringing about a
change, a change that would bring this profession on a level it truly deserves.
“Talent Management: Top Trends”, is the highlight of this inaugural issue of TogetHR.
Organizations these days find it hard to retain its talent, its people, who are considered to be the
most valuable asset. The cover story attempts to uncover the latest trends in this aspect with
examples from some of the companies actually implementing them.
Our other articles under the section ‘Concoction’ cover the most elementary aspects of HR, but
with a contemporary touch. We start with an article titled “Employer Branding is
Indispensable!!” which prompts us to ponder over the importance of internal branding of the
organization in front of the employees. The article “e-Recruiting fundae” talks about how
technology has revolutionized recruitment, considered to be the most essential function of
Human Resource Management. In the article, “Facets of law in HR”, we try and acquaint our
readers briefly with the relevance of law in this field with a special focus on some of the laws
being implemented in Indian context. Finally, the article “Comp n Ben: The 02 of employees”
discusses what has always been and will continue to be a very important factor in employment-
compensation and benefits, the changes we have seen in the last few years and how it has
evolved to be more attractive for the employees.
The next section “Conflux” is an endeavour to unleash the latest trends in HR and recognise the
best practices of various organisations. For this month’s edition, we interacted with Mr. Ajit
Kumar, Director- Human Resources, Philips Healthcare. During the course of this interaction, Mr.
Kumar talked about the changing industry attitude over the traditional way of carrying out HR
functions and how developing the leadership pipeline is gaining prime importance.
“Connoisseur Speaks!’ is a one of a kind section where we attempt to address the day to day
queries and concerns commonly being faced at workplaces. Finally, we offer our readers a platform
to scratch their brains and come up with novel ideas for the contest of the issue, “Contest with the
Best!” and win exciting prizes for the same.
This magazine is an attempt to bring together a group of likeminded professionals and use each
other’s intellect and creativity to enhance the quality of contributions and explore new ideas of
making this magazine sharper and reader friendly. Do write in your feedback to us at
Happy Reading!!
Pooja Batheja
Faculty Advisor:
Prof. Rohit Dwivedi
Team usHR:
Mayur Kumar
Lakhmani
Neetisha Arya
Pooja Batheja
Sakshi Prashar
Disclaimer: The views presented are the opinion/work of the individual author and The HR Club of IIM Shillong bears no responsibility whatsoever.
Cover Story 5 - Neetisha Arya | IIM S
The war for talent is on. By recognising a person's inherent skills, traits and personality and offering him a matching job, organisations are benefitting from increased productivity and capability. At the same time, employees show higher motivation and commitment, increased knowledge about and contribution to company goals, sustained motivation and job satisfaction.
Conflux 1
1 Excerpts of Interview with Mr. Ajit Kumar
Concoction 9 9 Employer Branding Is Indispensable!!!
- Jitesh Patel | IIM S
11 Comp ‘N’ Ben: The O2 of Employees
- Mayur Kumar Lakhmani | IIM S
15 E-recruiting Fundae
- Sakshi Prashar | IIM S
17 Facets of Law In Human Resource
Management
- Sourojit Ghose | IIM S
Connoisseur Speaks! 19
Contest With The Best! 21
21 Crossword…
Con
tent
s September 2011
Conflux
www.iims-ushr.in | 1
Mr. Ajit Kumar, with over 15 years of HR leadership
experience, is responsible for strategic leadership in the
Healthcare division of Philips India. He has previously
worked with Yes Bank and Fidelity Investments after
completing the PGDPM programme from XLRI,
Jamshedpur in 1996.
Q. How is the academic HR curriculum different from
the industrial practices?
Application of theory is important. What I studied in
XLRI 15 years back has undergone a lot of changes
over the period and so is the case with the various
academic curriculums. In practice, a manager needs to
apply common sense and strategic thinking skills. Such
qualities cannot be taught and they develop only with
experience. Theory is basically to build upon your
strength to face situations but does not prepare you
completely. Going by the subjects taught, I have always
felt subjects like Organizational Behaviour relevant for
the organisations and it does help in practical
applications but a course like Industrial Relations has
become out dated especially in the services industry
and to an extent even in the manufacturing industry.
Q. Organizations often stress the importance of
human capital for businesses today. Could you
distinguish between the terms human capital
and human resource, considering there is a very
fine line between them?
There is not much difference between the two
according to me. It is just like calling somebody with
two different names. The term ‘Capital’ is being
stressed to lay additional stress on the importance
of people in an organisation. This discussion of
drawing the distinction between words is limited only
to the boundaries of B-schools. How you call
something and why becomes irrelevant once you
come into the industry.
Q. What are the recent trends observed in various
leadership and development programs that are
being used by different organisations? Can
assessment centres be one way of developing
leaders in an organisation?
TRENDS IN HR PRACTICES:
A LOOK AT PHILIPS
HEATHCARE
Mr. Ajit Kumar explains why it is vital to build the
leadership pipeline in an organisation. In an
interview with Team usHR, he also talks about the
areas of focus in HR practices today.
Conflux
www.iims-ushr.in | 2
Presently, organisations are laying a lot of stress on
developing and building the leadership in an
organisation because this is what actually differentiates
an organisation from another. This is the main reason
for the success and failure of companies. Keeping this
in mind, all companies are working hard in this regard.
There are two ways of doing this - the theoretical
approach is to put
people
through
frameworks.
For instance,
we have tie-ups
with Bain &
company to conduct
programmes on
leadership for our employees. Recently, we
had organised a program in association with ISB
Hyderabad for the same. The second approach is
practical in nature, and involves strong coaching and
mentoring for leaders who have been identified. The
idea is to identify leaders and build on their capabilities.
Unless people work on their abilities and put it into
exercise, they can’t really be developed.
Organisations are moving away from using assessment
centres for this purpose. It should ideally be used for a
developmental purpose or for effective recruitment etc.
Identification of a leader ideally takes about 2-3 years.
There are no short cuts for the process. You need to
see how consistently a person performs in demanding
and challenging situations. No quick-fix way of doing this
can be successful.
Q. In the present time, when every company tries to
cut down its budget, how feasible is it to invest
on Talent management activities?
There is no simple answer to this question. The
CEO of any organisation facing such a situation
needs to arrive at his decision
depending on the available
resources and the circumstances at hand.
Normally, if one is given the task of cutting costs,
talent is the first thing to be axed. However, for
organisations looking at long term growth, this may
not be the right choice. Investing in talent reaps
benefits over the long term. Although
companies should not cut down their
resources if they are looking over the long
term, a CEO needs to prioritise on the available
resources and decide accordingly. This may turn out
to be the right decision in certain situations.
Q. Innovation is the key to success. How do you
drive your people to continuously strive for
innovative solutions which would be beneficial
both for Philips and its customers?
For any company to succeed, one needs to
recreate and reinvent the company and come out
with new products for its consumers. Sometimes
innovation is a necessity, sometimes it is due to
environmental needs and sometimes it may be due
to the needs of the consumer. For example,
consumer moved from incandescent bulbs to LEDs
and may be to solar bulbs in the future. For a
company, which is the market leader in this product
will have to innovate to adapt to the changes in the
needs of the consumers.
Conflux
www.iims-ushr.in | 3
Innovation is the major key; not only in terms of
launching new products but can be in various other
ways like ways of creating new markets, ways of
launching new products in the market and coming
up with different ways of marketing.
To drive people to incorporate innovation in all offerings
at Philips, we offer rewards as a motivation mechanism.
Rewards are offered in cash or kind. Spot rewards may
also be offered to motivate people. In other situations,
public acknowledgement may also help in motivating
people
Q. What is the relevance of automation in the HR
practices of Philips? Is it by any means a threat to
the whole concept of Human Resource Management
as every aspect in it, right from recruitment to
performance management is automated these days?
Relevance of automation is very high but HR is not
about automation. Automation covers only databases
and systems to manage those databases. Automation
as such cannot replace HR functions. Human
Resources is required by people managers or
supervisor and not just people who occupy positions in
HR departments of the organisation. We as HR
professionals are there to act as facilitators of the
process where every manager takes the people aspect
into consideration while making decisions. And therein,
automation would only help and not replace HR
processes.
Q. Often there are situations when organizational
changes are required on a large scale. How do you
manage people resisting such a change, especially
when it’s known that the success of the project
would depend on how well people adapt to it?
Implementing changes on a large scale is always a
challenge. However, the point to remember is that
any change should not be brought about without
explaining the need behind it and how it is going to
influence the lives of those involved. A strong
communication strategy is required to explain the
change process and understand its necessity. A
forced change cannot be successful. It is a human
tendency to resist any change forced upon them.
And one has to counter this resistance by
proactively considering it and taking measures.
Q. Every organization invests a lot in its Training &
Development activities. Philips is known to
implement its “One Philips” framework for
learning and development. How does this
framework integrate various aspects of an
employee’s growth at Philips?
‘One Philips’ is not just a framework for implementing
the T&D initiatives. The main objective of this model
is to
The need for innovation
always exists. The reason
for the need changes
with time.
Conflux
www.iims-ushr.in | 4
provide a common yardstick to measure the
performance and growth of the organisation in all the
three sectors of operations, namely Lighting,
Healthcare and Consumer Electronics. Philips is a
strong people process oriented organisation.
We invest a lot in engagement, training and
developmental activities and One Philips ensures that all
the three sectors remain on common ground with regards
to such activities.
Q. Employee Engagement Surveys are conducted to
find out the employee satisfaction levels in a
company. However, the process often dies out after
the results are obtained. How does Philips ensure
that such surveys yield outcomes that would benefit
the employees and promote internal branding?
Engagement surveys are like a thermometer, which is used
to check how people are doing in an organisation. However,
a thermometer is rendered useless until medication is given
to a person who is reported to be not doing well. Similarly,
these surveys must be followed by relevant actions taken to
ensure people satisfaction throughout the organisation.
Philips follows strong policies in this regard. To quote a few,
if under a manager, similar scores or results are obtained
over a period of time, then the manager is changed or if in a
country, the engagement services are reported not to be
performed properly, then the country leadership is made to
undergo a change.
Cover Story
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Cover Story
Cover Story
Cover Story
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Talent management is easily one of the biggest
challenges facing the CEOs today. They often realise the
importance of this phenomenon once a couple of high-
performing middle-level managers resign.
As companies work towards increasing their market share,
competition for hiring the right people has made this
routine task much more difficult. Adding to the woes,
talent is becoming expensive by the day. The imbalance
caused by a demand much greater than the supply has
pushed the salary levels to an all-time high. Poaching from
both, within and outside the industry, has made talent
more mobile than it ever was. Increasing globalisation of
organisations has made the hiring of leaders with a global
mind-set and ability to adapt, extrapolate and take
decisions relevant to each local market mandatory.
Today, the challenge is not just whether to invest
resources in talent management, but also in where to
invest, i.e. how to identify what talent practices provide the
greatest return; where leaders can most effectively spend
their time developing people; and how to drive greater
consistency, integration, and alignment of talent practices
with the business strategy.
Keeping the changing definition of talent in mind, we look
at some of the most relevant industry-wide trends that
Senior Managers and HR Heads are paying attention to.
Predictive Talent Analytics: with a focus on managing
core talent
As more and more effort is being expended into talent
acquisition, organisations are no longer content with the
mere idea of return on investment. In fact, many
organisations are focussing on predicting the value
addition to the firm by potential employees, much before
Talent is in short supply, talent is becoming expensive, talent thinks different from ever before and the relationship between employer and employee is changing faster than the organisation’s policies, leaving the entire HR system out-dated.
(Bill Gates)
Talent is no more seen as just a set of
paper qualifications and experiences, but
as a set of life experiences – Dr. S. B.
Misra, CEO, Carbon Black Business &
Director, Group H.R., Aditya Birla Group **
** (an excerpt from PeopleMatters, February 2011 issue)
Cover Story
www.iims-ushr.in | 7
they are actually hired. The shrinking talent pool has made
the hiring of exceptional talent a hugely difficult task.
To ensure an adequate level of core
talent, HR is becoming more effective in the recruitment
practices.
The focus has shifted to recruitment of key people for
performing jobs that are core to the business and
outsourcing of non-core functions to the extent possible.
This ensures that companies have the best talent working
for them for all functions, irrespective of the fact whether
the person lies on the firm’s own payroll or not. This
efficiency is enhanced by the use of predictive analytics to
ensure that the new recruits add value to the firm.
Starbucks, Cognizant and Accenture have all utilised
predictive analytics in other ways, to measure and improve
talent engagement and employee satisfaction. Google
analyses employee reviews, promotion and other related
data in order to identify employees most likely to quit, thus
enabling them to predict and control attrition. Senior
Managers and HR Heads at firms, which spend
significantly on their employees, increasingly need to
improve the effectiveness of their employee engagement
and development programs. The use of Predictive Talent
Analytics can help achieve this aim.
Becoming Social with Talent: with a focus on talent
engagement
As the networking-savvy present generation enters the
corporate world of email systems, employees tend to get
disengaged with their work and the organisation owing to
lack of access to the internet in the work place. Such
employees are physically present in their workplace but
are psychologically absent. They are unhappy with their
work situation and often share this unhappiness with their
colleagues, thus creating a ripple effect.
To solve this problem, many firms have set up internal
social networks to foster communication and collaboration
in the work place. ERP vendors such as Oracle and
Salesforce and software firms of the likes of IBM and
Microsoft are capitalising
on this opportunity by
building a social
environment for their products. These firms have realised
the fact that there is an urgent need to provide employees
with the kind of technological environment they are used to
in their personal lives. Boring email systems and restricted
access to the internet do nothing to keep the employees
‘involved’ with their organisation. On the other hand,
networking helps employees research quicker, multi-task
and manage a diverse work environment. It has also been
known to enhance their productivity.
Cover Story
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Neetisha Arya | IIM S
Finding the right fit: with a focus on competency
mapping & acculturation
The challenge lies not only in finding the right people for
the organisation, but also in assigning them the
right job. This naturally requires an in-
depth understanding of the role itself.
Normally, people understand jobs,
levels and grades but not the roles.
The fitment to a role is based on the
expectations one has from a job. As a
result, when recruitment for a particular
job is done, the recruiters look for similar experiences on
the resume, assuming that since the person has done it
before, he/ she will be able to do it again. However, this is
not always true. Several firms like John Deere have
devised specific strategies to achieve the right P-O fit in
their organisation. While John Deere has made use of
predictive analytics for this purpose, others employ other
means such as personal interactions and interviews with
potential hires to know them better and assign roles that
they would be able to do justice to.
In addition to the fit in terms of competencies, the
alignment of an individual with the organisation’s culture is
also extremely important. Understanding this, some firms
like L&T promote internal hiring before
looking for suitable candidates outside
the group. Hiring employees from
within the L&T group ensures that
the employees are well-versed with the
ethos and values of the organisation and
the acculturation process becomes quite
simple. This idea has been
implemented by means of specific
employee referral schemes on the
internal portal which benefits both, the
referring employees and the
organisation as a whole.
The war for talent is on. Trying to fit a square
peg in a round hole has consistently proved to
be a disastrous option. If people are forced to do
work that they don’t like or don’t want to do, the
results will be obvious. Low productivity,
dissatisfaction, low morale, absenteeism and
other negative behaviour will become typical till
the employees are shown the door. To avoid this
situation, forward-thinking organizations are using
innovative talent-management approaches to
gain a competitive advantage, to help them ride
out the ups and downs in the economy and
create a strong platform for growth and
excellence. By recognising a person's inherent
skills, traits and personality and offering him a
matching job, organisations are benefitting from
increased productivity and capability; a better
linkage between individuals' efforts and business
goals; commitment of valued employees; reduced
turnover; increased bench strength and a better
fit between people's jobs and skills. At the same
time, employees show higher motivation and
commitment, increased knowledge about and
contribution to company goals, sustained
motivation and job satisfaction.
Concoction
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The quote from Stephen Covey captures the essence of
Employer Branding in a concise manner. In layman parlance
Employer Branding can be converted to mean the phrase
‘great place to work’. Companies are often focused so much
on pleasing the customer that they forget the most important
part of their organisation – their employees. This ignorance
can lead to serious repercussions and ultimately hamper the
objective of making the customers happy. This article aims
to trace the origins of the concept of Employer Branding, its
need, how it is a multi-disciplinary domain and how
Employer Branding will play a bigger role in the coming
years.
The term ‘Employer Branding’ is a fairly new entrant to the
long, almost unending list of management jargon often used
by all companies and management graduates. Surprisingly,
the term was first used and defined in 1996, in a Brand
Management Journal and not in a Human Resources
Journal as one would expect.
The psychological benefits like appreciation and recognition
are often neglected and can lead to employees losing
interest in their jobs and if this is repeated, the employer
loses credibility which can have a cascading effect on other
disciplines within the business entity.
Employer branding is a rare concept
with straddles the domains
of
Human
Resources and
Marketing. The phrase itself has
connotations of branding, and hence implies creation of an
image of the company in the minds of its current employees
and perhaps also the future ones. The difference being, this
branding is not done by the marketing department, but rather
by the Human Resources function of the organisation.
Employer branding also involves the ideas of positioning, a
value proposition and internal marketing. It is akin to a
product being sold, just that the product here is the
‘company as a work place’.
The relevance of Employer Branding is reflected in the fact
that in just 15 years, this idea has gained widespread and
almost universal recognition by all the major business
organisations in the world. All companies know of it, and
most of them are working to improve their image as an
employer. Drawing on the product analogy again, if the
product is branded well – it leads to better customer
acquisition and retention and if your company is branded as
a good employer – it means better employees come to work
Employer Branding Is Indispensable!!
‘Always treat your employees exactly as you want them to treat your best customers’ ~Stephen R. Covey
Employer Branding: the package of
functional, economic and psychological
benefits provided by employment, and
identified with the employing company.
Concoction
www.iims-ushr.in | 10
Jitesh Patel | IIM S
for you and stay with your organisation. It is not uncommon
to see business newspapers and magazines listing out the
‚best companies to work for‛. Employer branding works
powerfully to motivate the employees and therefore improve
the functionality of all the departments of the organisation.
A recent example of employer branding coupled with internal
marketing was the ‘RISE’ campaign by Mahindra Group.
The Mahindra group wanted to unify all their group
companies under a single brand philosophy ‘RISE’ pertaining
to newer ideas and better lives for the future. They key point
is, Mahindra first started the branding campaign for their
employees, and only then took it outside the company. 6
months were spent on creating awareness about the
campaigns, the changes and new process to their existing
employees so that, when the campaign opened up to the
external audience, the thoughts and actions of the
employees would resonate with the redefined brand
philosophy. The campaign clearly emphasises on the fact
that they’ve changed all their touch points with the
customers to drive across the point. Changing touch points
translates to changing the perception of the Mahindra
employee who will deal with the customer at that particular
touch point. Such campaigns are not uncommon; rather they
are being carried out throughout the business world.
The question remains, how will Employer Branding shape
organisations in the coming years? The answer to this lies
in what choices the businesses will make. Many employers
today have incorporated ‘keeping employees happy’ as a
part of their organisational philosophies. Lot of companies
want to be the Number 1 employer of choice in their
industry. Talent is a scarce commodity and the right
Employer Branding will help companies recruit and retain the
best of talent. There are more and more companies vying to
be the ‘best place to work for’ because that will eventually
result in it becoming the ‘best business organisation’.
Concoction
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21st century has been characterised by fast changing
technology, vast amounts of knowledge piling up every
moment and to top it all, increasing levels of competition to
capture the change and maximizing benefits out of it. This
ever-accelerating trajectory of
knowledge and technology
has led to the development
of new industries, new
markets and new competition
ultimately causing changes in
business strategies and new
organizational designs. This has
further led to jobs getting invented,
reinvented and blended. Organisations face
great difficulties in attracting the right talent for these jobs
and one of the steps taken to ensure the right set of
people is re-crafting the compensation and rewards system
to ensure the alignment of the individual goals with those
of the company.
Compensation practices are prone to change. There can
be various factors that can affect them such as labour
market shifts, economic swings, changes in technology like
the Internet, challenges from competitors, and the
evolution of organisational design and culture. It may be
the ‚same old product in new
packaging‛ or something
innovative, but one needs to
be aware of all the methods
that can be used to provide a
package that makes the employee feel
its worth. This article attempts to
discuss some of the concepts
being used to make the pay
schemes attractive and
balanced. Talking about
direct financial
component of the
compensation
packages, there
have been a
few changes in the
past. To start
with, a major
part of the
compensation plans
tend to make sure that basic pay structures
are consistent and fair over all the levels of organisation.
Due to high competition within the organisation, employees
are concerned towards the basic pay which determines
their security and makes them less concerned about the
slow rate of increments in pay. Also, the differences in the
basic pay at different levels marks an increase in position
and responsibility as one moves up the ladder. Things like
fixed-time periodic incrementals and lump-sum merit
payments are losing out their sheen and there has been
growth observed in management incentives and incentive
based compensation for the achievement of long term
corporate goals. This is due to the emphasis on
performance and competition for talent. This is the major
Concoction
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source of motivation for employees to perform to their best
and outdo their colleagues. For industries, where
companies need to fight for hiring the best talent, various
other methods like hiring bonuses are also used. However,
to decide upon these, there needs to be an extensive
research on the levels set by the industry and prepare the
best offer that the organisation can offer.
Skill based pay is another form of compensation schemes.
Under this system, an employee gets rewarded in the form
of additional pay in exchange for formal
certification of the employee’s
mastery of skills,
knowledge and/or
competencies. This kind of
system is based more on a
person’s characteristics rather than the job. It is one of the
most under-researched human resource practices being
used today. The problem is that it is not a single system,
but a conglomerate of different small practices which are
prevalent in various organisations. Because of this, one
form of skill based pay may not apply in the same way to
any other organisation, hence leading to confusion about
the system.
Another developing aspect of employee compensation
practices has been the evolution of work/life balance
initiatives taken up by some of the companies. Its
importance is growing with the increasing demands and
responsibilities of an employee on the
personal front. Along with other
benefits, employees are willing to
forgo large pay increases in return
of a balanced lifestyle. People
prefer flexible timings instead of
rigid Monday to Friday eight-
hour work schedules. Working
from home also is becoming
increasingly popular to avoid
daily commute and to get more time to spend with the
family. Companies are using these benefits as an added
advantage to the pay packages to attract employees.
Living a balanced life has started getting a higher priority
than earning big bucks especially with people who have
been working for some time.
In an effort to reduce the rigidity in the pay structures,
companies are moving from traditional methods to broad
banded pay structures. ‘Broad banding’ is the consolidation
of traditional pay structures, consisting of many narrow pay
ranges into a few wider ranges or bands. Broadband is still
considered a novel concept and companies must ensure
that it fits into their organisational culture as it has been
observed that many early adopters of this new method are
now reverting back to the traditional structures. Successful
use of broad banding would require all managers to be
mature and highly trained in human resource management
and compensation. With all the drawbacks and
Concoction
www.iims-ushr.in | 13
Mayur Kumar Lakhmani | IIM S
speculations surrounding this method, one must keep track
of the latest developments happening in this area.
The final trend without which discussion about
compensations would remain incomplete would be the
stock options. This is not something recent which has
been introduced in the compensation policies of the
organisations. Stock options have been the leading means
of compensation for executives and managers since the
1990s. With
stocks, an
employee
gets to buy stocks of the
organisation at a fixed
price and exercise at a
later date. This is believed
to provide motivation to the
employees to work harder and add to the value of the
organisation to increase personal gains in terms of addition
in value of the stock. Although the recent trends show that
companies are tending to move away from the stock
options slowly as it brings about a great deal of volatility in
the variable compensation part but still, for most of the
organisations, it remains a component of compensation
especially for high-level positions. The major reason for
this is to make the employees at high level a partner in the
business and ensure their commitment in the long-term
goals of the company.
Other newer methods being employed market pricing
techniques. Herein, organisations in order to reduce upon
the bureaucracy of compensation methods and time taken
for designing of compensation structures tend to go for
market pricing techniques. The drawback of this method is
that it requires extensive
surveys on which the
organisation is dependent
for compensation related
data to fix the salaries
based on the industry
standards. Other
components of the compensation structures might also
include components like gain sharing, group incentives,
hiring bonus, retention bonus, project completion bonus
and many others which are added by HR managers as
and when required based on the needs and work of the
organisation.
All of the above methods and trends discussed are
effective individually but may not be valid for each and
every organisation. The major challenge lying in front of
the HR managers is to identify the best method to align it
with the objectives and goals of the organisation. Though a
time and resource consuming activity, investment in
planning and development would definitely yield long term
benefits in the area of employee development and
satisfaction. The best way would be to conduct a thorough
analysis of the organisation and understand in depth what
can be the motivating factors for the employees at all
levels of the organisation. The objective of any HR
department which deals with compensation must be to
keep the employee workforce motivated and engaged and
design a system that brings together in alignment the
interests of both the organisation as well as the individuals
to create real commitment among the staff in working
towards strengthening of the organisation.
Concoction
www.iims-ushr.in | 15
Technology is definitely changing the face of business
today. And when HR is on the way to being a strategic
business partner in most organizations, every function of
HR seems to be using technology in helping it achieve this
goal. A major function in every organization is
Recruitment – one of the most important and
traditional areas under Human Resource
Management. Technology has penetrated
this field immensely. Companies
use internet and other web
based applications to
shortlist, interview
and finalise on the
new recruits. This
process is known as online
recruiting or e-recruiting. E-recruiting helps
decrease cost of recruitment and improve efficiency of
recruitment process by standardising processes of
acquiring new talent in the organization.
According to NASSCOM, ‚Jobs is among the top reasons
why new users will come on to the internet, besides e-
mail.‛ Web portals like
naukri.com and monster.com have
helped online recruiting come off
age and become popular
among many companies today. Companies can post their
requirements on these portals
and then shortlist from among the list of interested
candidates. Assessing the success of this method of
recruitment, most ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning)
solutions today have a module of e-recruiting.
Another emerging trend in the area of online
recruitment is the use of social networking sites
to find more about candidates a company
plans to recruit.
Sites like LinkedIn (a
professional network),
Facebook etc. help
recruiters extract
more information about
their potential recruits which
otherwise would be very difficult. But,
companies have to be really careful while dealing with
social media as not all information can be trustworthy.
Today when most companies are aiming big on
sustainability and green themes, e-recruitment comes
handy to them in helping them
achieve this. Information flow is
well managed and requires less
of labour and time in doing work
which can be handled easily by an automation system.
This can be called ‘virtual outsourcing’ – outsourcing work
from man to comp.
E-recruiting fundae “Information technology and business are becoming inextricably interwoven. I don't think anybody can talk meaningfully about one without the talking about the other.” - Bill Gates
Concoction
www.iims-ushr.in | 16
Sakshi Prashar | IIM S
Another significant function which most companies want to
implement is Talent Management. And talent management
starts from skill mapping. Online recruiting can easily
handle skill mapping and skill gap analysis from the point
of recruitment itself. Once the competencies are defined as
critical, moderate and minor, the firm can devise strategies
to overcome these gaps by effective training procedures.
SHRM (Society for Human Resource Management)
published a survey report, ‚Advances in E-recruiting:
Leveraging the .jobs Domain‛ in 2007. According to the
report, companies which use e-recruiting showed better
efficiency levels in almost all key performance indicators in
the area of recruitment like time to fill, cost of fill, quality of
fill etc.
Definitely this form of recruitment has broken global
boundaries. Who knows that in time to come, even face to
face interviews will be held on video conferencing which
will make the process of recruitment ‘e’ from tip to toe. But
we cannot ignore certain limitations and shortcomings of
this method. Few of them being privacy of a candidate and
policies of companies, limited processes that can be held
online which does not match with the philosophy of
elaborate recruitment process of certain big firms of world.
Technology does come with its own limitations. But the
answers to those problems are hidden somewhere in the
equation itself. Definitely e-recruiting has the process of
refining itself. Most businesses have realised the
importance of integration of its functional areas where HR
is emerging to be a significant partner. Time is not far
when HR along with technology will create wonders for an
organization. After all, you can’t run a business in which
‘people processes’ are not powerful. Can you?
Concoction
www.iims-ushr.in | 17
Facets of LAW in
Human Resource
Management
It is often said by eminent jurists that law, as it exists, has
no use unless it is used in applying to a situation. Indeed,
the various provisions of law would have just been mere
written words, having no effect, had such a situation
been there. In a business organization, the
application and adherence to laws is
present in every sphere. However, Human
Resource is the area where maximum
application and usage of the various legal
provisions take place. Since Human
Resource deals with managing human
beings working in the organization, it
has to adhere and respect the laws
governing individuals in the regions in which it is
working. It is a fairly complex process as different
laws exist in different parts of the world and
sometimes even in the same country. Thus, HR
professionals have to be acquainted
with the basic legal provisions relating
to employees in the region in which
they are working. I would concentrate
on the Indian aspect in this article. In
India, the Constitution of India serves
as the bedrock for all enactments and laws in the country.
The framers of the Constitution had the welfare of the
general citizens of this country in mind and hence
formulated the Constitution in accordance with those
principles. One of the key fundamental rights enumerated
in the Constitution of India is the ‘Right to Equality’. The
application of this right extends to the workplace in the
sense that men and women have to be treated equally and
given the same opportunities to develop and become
successful professionals. Furthermore, Article 15(3) of the
Constitution states that the state can make special
provisions for the upliftment and protection of women. We
see the application of this in the many laws protecting the
rights of the women in the workplace in India, such as
‘The Maternity Benefit Act 1961’ and ‘The Equal
Remuneration Act 1976’. There were also laws
protecting the labour workforce and
ensuring that they received the
minimum wages, healthy working
conditions, overtime wages and other
aspects of leading a decent life. The
strictness of application of these laws
varies from industry to industry.
Some of the prevalent laws
relating to labour force in India
are The Payment of Wages Act, 1936,
The Payment of Wages (AMENDMENT) Act,
2005, The Minimum Wages Act, 1948, The
Payment of Bonus Act, 1965, The Factories Act,
1948, The Dock Workers (Regulation of Employment) Act,
1948, The Plantation Labour Act, 1951, The Mines Act,
1952, The Merchant Shipping Act, 1958, The Beedi &
Cigar Workers (Conditions of Employment) Act, 1966, The
Contract Labour (Regulation & Abolition) Act, 1970, The
Sales Promotion Employees (Conditions of Service) Act,
1976 and The Inter-State Migrant Workmen (Regulation of
Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1979. When
an employee retires or leaves the organization after a
Concoction
www.iims-ushr.in | 18
Sourojit Ghose | IIM S
certain period of time, he gets a lump sum amount from
the employer as a sign of gratitude for the services put in
by the employee. There are laws implemented in this
regard which provides the exact proportion of payment,
minimum period of service which have to be completed to
be entitled to the
application of this
laws and other matters. Such
enactments are called social security laws. The various
social security laws present in India are The Employees’
State Insurance Act, 1948, The Employees’ Provident
Fund & Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952, The
Employees’ Provident Fund & Miscellaneous Provisions
(Amendment) Act, 1996, The Payment of Gratuity Act,
1972 and The Unorganized Workers' Social Security Act
2008. HR professionals have to be acquainted with these
laws in order to make sure there is conformity by the
organization to the above mentioned laws. Non-adherence
to these laws attracts strict monetary penalty for the
organization.
There are many companies which do not have a dedicated
legal department. As HR managers are involved in the
administration of the organization, they have to interact
with the lawyers appearing for the organization on various
legal issues. Thus, a basic knowledge of the laws and
regulations governing the affairs of the organization would
be extremely helpful to them in understanding the position
that an organization has to take in various matters and
while discussing matters with the lawyers. Thus, having
knowledge of the laws and regulations will enhance the
capabilities of a HR professional and ensure he gives an
additional value to the organization in which he/she is
working.
Team usHR invite articles from B-Schools all across India. We are looking for original articles related to field of Human Resources. References should be cited wherever necessary. The best article will be featured as the ‚Article of the Month‛ and would be awarded cash prize of Rs.1000/- . Instructions:
Kindly email your article with the file name and the subject as <Title of Article> _<Institute Name>_<Author’s name/Group’s name> by 31st October 2011
Article must be sent in Microsoft Word Document (doc/docx), Font: Times New Roman, Font Size: 12, Line spacing: 1.5
The cover page of the article should only contain the Title of the Article, the Author’s Name and the Institute’s Name
Also certain entries which could not make the cut to the TogetHR will get figured on our blog www.iims-ushr.in
Connoisseur Speaks!
www.iims-ushr.in | 19
Hello. I am Rohan and have graduated from
a reputed B- school and recently joined a
leading manufacturing company as a
recruitment Specialist. As a part of my job, I
am often assigned the task of interviewing
both internal and external candidates who are
often much older than me. As a result, I feel a
little hesitant while asking a certain set of
questions which I would have otherwise
asked had the candidates been of the same
age. I am not too sure how to overcome this
hesitance as I myself realise that it's
reflecting on the selection criteria and the
choice of candidates. Please help.
Hi Rohan, every recruiter goes through this dilemma at some or the other
stage in his/ her life. The best way to overcome this is by making both
yourself and the interviewee comfortable during the interview. However,
this comes with experience and since you are quite new to this
profession, it might take you some time. Take each interview at a time.
You may feel a little hesitant to stress the person if he is relatively much
older to you; but you can start by questioning the employee on his past
experiences and analysing the relevance of his past work with your
organization and the profile being offered here. One thing to be kept in
consideration is that you should in no way try to demean the person or
make his past records look menial. This would not reflect upon well on
both your part and your organization’s part. Also, in such cases, keep an
objective list of selection criteria or parameters in front of you so that
they keep the interview more structured and performance driven rather
than based on the level of seniority of the interviewee. This tactic would
not only help you while recruiting but also while conducting performance
evaluation of internal employees.
Hi. I am a 27 year old woman working in a
financial research company. Since past
months, I have been dating a colleague of
mine who belongs to a team which sits next
to my bay area. Our relationship has recently
come to notice of many of the employees here
and especially my boss who thinks that my
productivity has decreased due to this. I have
ensured that I complete all my deliverables
on time but in spite of that, my relationship
with this person has caused friction between
me and my boss. Kindly suggest how do I go
about convincing my boss and my team
mates that it's my work that should matter
and not my personal life.
We totally understand that it’s your personal life and you wouldn’t like to share each and every thing with your team mates or your boss. But you must also understand that ‘romance@workplace’ is still considered a taboo at Indian workplaces. Now since they have come to know about your relationship, there is no harm in casually confronting the same, say may be by introducing your partner to them and at the same time maintaining its integrity as well. But you would need to ensure that you are able to meet your team and team lead’s expectations without fail. At any chance given to them, they would not hesitate in putting the blame of your failure on your relationship. Also, in such circumstances, it’s better to avoid hanging around in the office premises or during office hours as much as possible.
Connoisseur Speaks!!!
Connoisseur Speaks!
www.iims-ushr.in | 20
Hi. I have recently joined a new project
in the same organization where I have
been working since last 1 year. I am a
member of this team consisting of 10
people, all of them working from 2
different locations. I have been assigned
a mentor who will guide me on all the
tasks which I have to perform. However,
this mentor of mine has been working in
this project since its inception and has
quite a good rapport with the Delivery
Manager, because of which he either
works from home or comes to office as
per his own timings. This is affecting my
work as I have to stick to the company
timings and at the same time I don't get
sufficient time to interact with him. I am
not too sure about bringing this matter in
front of my delivery manager as this
might have some repercussions on me.
How do I go about this matter?
I appreciate the fact that you want to raise this issue and change the way
things are happening at present. To begin with, I believe that you should
have an open discussion with your mentor regarding his behaviour and
how it appears to be affecting your work. Talk to him and try to make him
understand how his guidance and direction is important for you to fulfil
your responsibilities efficiently. However, take care that this doesn’t
sound like a complaint to him. Unless he feels that you appreciate his
role in you performing your job successfully, he might not be willing to
change his ways. However, if talking to your mentor does not work, you
can voice your concerns to the Delivery Manager. Point out the fact that
your mentor failed to understand your point of view, as a result of which
you were forced to bring it to the attention of senior authority. You are
willing to be flexible and adapt to the working pattern of your mentor,
however he needs to understand your concerns and adjust his schedule
slightly to suit you better. I’m sure that there won’t be any serious
repercussions for you, provided you handle the situation well and
express yourself
You can send us your queries at [email protected]. The relevant queries shall be answered in the
next issue of TogetHR
Contest
www.iims-ushr.in | 21
8
1
9
2
3
11
10
5
12
4
6
7
Clues given on the next page…..
Contest with the Best!!
“Crossword”
Last date for sending the answers for Crossword: Oct 31st, 2011
Email ID: [email protected]
Subject of the email: TogetHRContest1_CollegeName
Contest
www.iims-ushr.in | 22
Across
1. A plan whereby employees gain stock ownership in the organisation for which they work.
2. Organisationally controlled incentives, such as pay, benefits, incentives, achievements, awards etc. used to reinforce motivation and increase performance
3. A popular strategic management concept developed by Dr. Robert Kaplan and Dr. David Norton.
4. The process, by which an individual determines direction, influences a group and directs the group toward a specific goal or organizational mission.
5. A career development method whereby less experienced employees are matched with more experienced colleagues for guidance either through formal or informal programs.
6. A feeling of uncomfortable tension which comes from holding two conflicting thoughts in the mind at the same time.
7. Non-monetary reinforcing, such as praise, given to an employee in recognition of a job well done or a particular achievement.
Down
8. A collection of instruments and exercises designed to diagnose a person’s development needs.
9. A small group of employees (normally six to twelve) invited to actively participate in a structured discussion with a facilitator.
10. The process whereby representatives of management and workers negotiate over wages, hours and other terms & conditions of employment
11. The perceived fairness of the process and procedures used to make decisions about employees
12. Used to define labour that is necessary to support the manufacturing of a product, but is not directly involved with the actual process of manufacturing a product
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