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Five Outdated Human Resource Policies That Need To Go, Now!

Five Outdated Human Resource Policies That Need To Go, Now!

by | Nov 3, 2015 | Job Offers, Management, Performance, Productivity, World of Work

We spend between 8 to 12 hours of our waking time at a place we call “work”. Some of us have chosen our career options, some of us didn’t really have any choice. Whichever category you may fall into, the one thing common between employees from both categories is that both are “governed” by the Human Resource policies your company subscribes to. The HR policies your company believes in and enforces speaks volumes about how they treat or intend to treat their employees. As an employee, you would ideally want to work in an environment which is respectful and put quite curtly, treats you like a responsible adult. Unfortunately, many of the HR policies which are in practice are extremely unnecessary and outdated. The World of Work has made progress by leaps and bounds, however, it is policies like these that hinder the pace of this progress. If only every organization, every company followed two things J.W. Marriott said, like their bible, and shaped all their HR Policies around them, the World of Work would be such a happier place.  We continue our post on outdated HR Policies that need to be scrapped, in the spirit of these words, by one of the greatest entrepreneurs ever:

“Take care of your people and they will take care of your customers”

“Treat your employees the way you would like to be treated – provide them every avenue to success. Get their confidence and respect. Have them like and be interested in their job.”

These Five Outdated Human Resource Policies need to go and need to go now:

1. The Tedious No Reference Policy: For those of you who have been at the receiving end of this extremely frustrating policy, and have no idea why most companies across the globe follow this as a rule, the story goes like this: “Not very long ago, in the United States, an anesthesiologist was dismissed after he was caught using narcotics at work. After firing him, the company gave him a positive reference, but later, at his next job, he came to work doped, which almost cost a patient’s life. The patient’s family, who sued the new employer, was awarded $8-million USD. That company then turned around and sued the anesthesiologist’s former company, which provided the reference, and won”.

Hence, in order to avoid complications arising from references which can later be used against the company, and also to avoid defamation lawsuits (in case the company gives the employee a brutally honest reference the employee disagrees with), companies prefer giving no references at all. This HR policy is not only outdated in today’s world where networking is crucial, it also means that there is absolutely no trust in the employee-employer relationship. While it is only fair for an employee to get a reference from his/her former employer stating his/her potential, it is equally beneficial for the future employer to have knowledge of the same.

2. The Insensitive Bereavement Pay Policy: This particular policy is outright insensitive. Losing someone close to you is difficult enough, without having to fill in bereavement applications categorizing whether the deceased was an immediate family member or a non-family member, based upon which the companies issue paid leaves. It is these occasions that you as an employer, or the person responsible for the well-being of the employees at the organization, have to be extremely sensitive about. And it is precisely these occasions that characterize employee-employer relationships, which have a direct impact on productivity. However, when your employee loses someone dear, put yourself in his/her shoes and think how you would feel if the place you go to work at objectifies it, in a manner so insensitive. Being human will take you a much longer way than being a capitalist in these situations. Life, after all, is not a balance sheet. Take care of your employees and they will take care of your business.

3. The School-like Attendance Policy: We thought we left school eons ago, however, we were so wrong. Old school attendance policies haunt us to this day, even at work, where we thought we would be treated as responsible adults. Not allowing work from remote location as a rule and clocking arrival and departure time (which then goes on to affect the pay) stringently indicate a deep-rooted lack of trust and  only result in demotivating the employees. How about moving from time-based management to goal-based management ?

4. The Draconian Bell Curve Performance Reviews Policy: One wonders if this is a particularly Indian phenomenon. As Indian kids, we were constantly compared to the metaphorical (and sometimes literal) “Sharmaji ka beta” (the neighbour’s son for our international readers). So we get a job and are finally ready to taste freedom, only to realize, “Sharmaji ka beta” has followed us to our workplace too! Bell curve performance reviews segregate employees according to their performances (high, average and low) by a comparison between the employees, and are completely based on the discretion of the manager. The ones ending up at the bottom of the curve end up being fired to accommodate fresh recruits to make up for the lost performance. This may not only result in unfair evaluation but also in high attrition rates thus having a direct negative impact on the goodwill of the company. Moreover, this format of a performance review makes for an extremely competitive and pressured environment, which any good manager knows, are huge road blocks for productivity. It is imperative to avoid such a divide and conquer strategy in the workplace. On the brighter side, Infosys having made a change, hopefully more Indian companies will follow in scrapping this draconian policy!

5. The Regressive Dress Code Policy: Once again, let’s just try not to keep reinforcing what we all went through at school. Yes, of course there should be some kind of dress code or at least some definition of clothing which may be considered offensive by others, hence to be avoided. However, micromanaging what your employees can and cannot wear is twisting and bending their identities out of shape in a lot of ways. For example, the still ongoing debate on Muslim women wearing head scarfs in France. Let your employees be, let them breathe easy. How one dresses is how one feels, how one feels is how one creates, and every individual has the right to decide that for oneself.

It is indeed sad that in a world as globalized as the one we currently inhabit, we still need to negotiate, on a daily basis, these outdated policies which regulate and control our every day at work. In the longer run, a business which is sustainable and scalable is one which provides an environment to nurture and respect its employees. Like we said earlier, all you need to do is, take care of your employees and they will take care of your business! It has been so long since we have been ‘profit’ oriented, let’s strive for a change to be more ‘people’ oriented. Trust us (and some of the world’s best business leaders) – the profits will soon follow.

Office Etiquette: 5 Things NOT to Say to a Pregnant Colleague

Office Etiquette: 5 Things NOT to Say to a Pregnant Colleague

by | Oct 15, 2015 | Communication, Communication Skills, Managing Yourself, Office Etiquette, World of Work

Motherhood, and the whole experience, isn’t an easy one. And it can get especially tough for pregnant women at the workplace, warding of uncomfortable questions and awkward comments on a daily basis. Usually, talk about personal life and sex is off-limits at work, and this topic falls in the gray area in between the two. Knowing what you can and can’t say to a pregnant co-worker can be a little tricky. It all begins with awareness, and the fact that you are interested enough to know more, does earn you a brownie point. Respecting her privacy and personal space is key here. Read on to find out more about the things NOT to say to a pregnant colleague (irrespective of your gender!).

1. Was the baby planned?

This can be an uncomfortable question for her to answer, since you are asking her a particularly intimate one – about her contraceptive choices! While you may ask it very innocently, it may not be as well received as you would expect. Besides, imagine if the answer is “no”, wouldn’t the conversation get particularly awkward then?

2. You look huge, are you expecting twins?

This question has great potential to be regarded as an insult. Under no circumstance is it acceptable to make a comment on the size of a pregnant lady. They already have enough trouble negotiating all that extra body mass without people pointing it out! Another thing worthy of mentioning here is, never assume someone is pregnant just judging by their size, unless they’ve explicitly told you they are. Even if someone else has told you a co-worker is expecting, it is best you reserve any comments about the same, lest it lands you in an uncomfortable situation.

3. Are you excited about your maternity leave?

Not a very sensitive thing to say, since a maternity leave does not exactly equal a vacation, unless sleepless nights and nappy changes are your idea of a vacation! If given a choice, to deliver the baby without all that preparation, she would choose to work than take the maternity leave, any day! She’s having a tough enough time without having to respond to comments like these.

4. You should have this. You shouldn’t have that.

You know how when you have acne, you have hundred different people giving you all kinds of advice? Mostly stupid advice. This is almost like that, only much worse. Trust this that she is more concerned about her health and her baby’s health than you ever will be. So let her, and her gynecologist decide what she should or shouldn’t drink or eat!

5. Can I touch your belly?

Just saying that sounds so gross. Imagine how uncomfortable she will feel if she really doesn’t want random people to be feeling her bump, but says yes just to be polite! It’s different if she is excited enough to ask you if you want to feel the baby kicking. You might ask with warm intentions but it is best not to ask, since again, this being an extremely intimate experience, she may not want people touching her tummy all the time.

Things that you can say though (and that she will appreciate hearing from you) : a heartfelt wish – “I am so happy for you – congratulations!”, a genuine compliment – “you look awesome!” or a sincere offer to help – “Can I get you something from the cafeteria ?”.

Five Career Strategies to Maximize your Potential and Performance on your Job

Five Career Strategies to Maximize your Potential and Performance on your Job

by | Oct 12, 2015 | Career, Leadership, Life, Management, Managing Yourself, Motivation, Office Etiquette, Performance, Productivity, World of Work

Do you believe that the Performance Appraisal systems in your workplace actually work for you? Chances are that you don’t and you are in “good” company here. A study done by Sibson’s Consulting found that Only 30 percent of the study respondents (750 individuals, primarily senior-level human resources (HR) professionals) reported that their employees trust the performance-management system. Given that formal performance appraisals don’t seem to be working as well as they should to give employees their due, one needs to take charge of his/her career and have a self performance management system in place to ensure career growth and commensurate rewards.  Just being good at your work, efficient and cooperative is not enough – it takes more than that to grow and be successful at the workplace today no matter what your job role or level is.

So how does one take charge of their own performance management and hence the rewards arising out of it? What practical steps and behaviors are needed at the work place to ensure a positive outcome at the job? Here are five career strategies drawn out from my experience and analysis with my team and peers of what works:

Career Strategy #1: Work Hard AND Smart – Yup, there is no escaping working hard if you want to be successful. People on the outer edges of the performance bell curve are usually workaholics. But you also need to be smart here – learn to say no to work or assignments that do not fit into your goals early on. Else you are sucked into the vortex of work alcoholism with no real benefit to yourself – doing work that you do not enjoy doing helps no one in the long run. If your heart is not in it, you will not be performing at your best levels. So choose wisely and then be 100 % dedicated to your work.

Career Strategy #2: Promote yourself – This was a hard-earned lesson for me. I had always believed that my work will speak for itself and rewards may be delayed but will never be denied. But then, who has time to wait? You cannot afford to be shy if you want your work to be recognized.  Be aware of your worth and don’t settle for less. You have to be your own marketing manager and actively market the value that you bring in to your manager, department and organization. Make sure people know who you are and what you do. Make your achievements and contributions visible as and when they happen and not just list them at appraisal time. A good way to keeps track of your achievements is also to make your resume a work in progress document that you keep updated as when you achieve a milestone.

Career Strategy #3: Get a mentor or two or three – The advantage of having a mentor at your work (or outside) is multifold. A mentor can help you see a situation differently, identify your key skills and where you need to develop yourself and be someone in your corner when you need some additional support. Look around you to find people who you admire and are role models for where you want to be. Don’t limit yourself to one mentor. You might look to one for  domain expertise, to another for industry expertise, and yet another for personal scenarios when you need practical and helpful advice or brainstorming. And if you are lucky to find a great mentor, invest in that relationship and make sure that you too provide support when your mentor needs it.

Career Strategy #4: Build a network early on – “No man/woman is an island” as they say and in the work scenario, this is amplified. Build a strong and trusted support system of peers at your work place. Draw upon each other’s strengths to get ahead and for back up when you need it. Stay close and vent, strategize and have plain and simple fun within your group. I have also found this to be a good antidote to fight against any negativity (read office politics) in the environment. As you move up in your company or switch jobs or roles, be proactive in building your contact base and staying in touch. You never know who may be of help in boosting your career (and this works both ways) and serendipity often strikes when you are prepared for it. Social media makes this easy nowadays and LinkedIn is a great place to achieve this. There is rich content on the web on maximizing your returns from LinkedIn and here is one from an expert to get you started (http://dngraham.wordpress.com/2012/03/07/five-points-to-consider-before-participating-on-linkedin/).

Career Strategy #5: Keep Learning and Stay Positive – Being a lifelong learner is essential for your career success when skills, technologies and market requirements are changing so rapidly. Not only do you need to be open to new experiences and keep learning to convert your weaknesses to strengths but also to be current and relevant in today’s job market. Set your own training goals for the year and make sure that you keeping adding new skills and knowledge to your repertoire. Limit your exposure to negative environments and people – these are energy suckers and if you are not careful, you would soon be working on fulfilling someone else’s agenda instead of your own. Remain positive and true to your own performance plan and keep moving forward on the goals that you have set for yourself – so much more productive than being distracted by negative office politics or complaint-sessions.

Maximizing your performance and potential on your job needs you to take control of your own career plan – be the CEO of YOU Inc. Be fiercely intentional about where you want to be, know your worth and be BODACIOUS (one of my favourite words – meaning a combination of Remarkable, Courageous, Audacious, Spirited) at work.

I leave you with these words from Abraham Lincoln: Always bear in mind that your own resolution to success is more important than any other one thing.

What would you add to the list above as necessary strategies to Thrive and not just Survive at work? What has worked or not worked for you? I would love to hear back and learn from you.

Five Human Resource Management Must-Dos to boost Productivity and Profits in Global Organizations – Business Management

Five Human Resource Management Must-Dos to boost Productivity and Profits in Global Organizations – Business Management

by | Sep 2, 2012 | Business, Business Operations, Career, Leadership, Management, Performance, Productivity

Trawling through the web today, I chanced upon this gem of a story:

Buddha, one day, was in deep thought about the worldly activities and the ways of instilling goodness in human beings. One of his disciples approached him and said humbly – Oh my teacher! While you are so concerned about the world and others, why don’t you look into the welfare and needs of your own disciples too?

Buddha:   OK.. Tell me how can I help you?
Disciple:   Master! My attire is worn out. Can I get a new one, please?
Buddha found the robe indeed was in a bad condition and needed replacement. He asked the store keeper to give the disciple a new robe to wear on. The disciple thanked Buddha and retired to his room. A while later, Buddha went to his disciple’s place and asked him – Is your new attire comfortable? Do you need anything more?
Disciple:   Thank you my Master. The attire is indeed very comfortable. I need nothing more.
Buddha:   Having got the new one, what did you do with your old attire?
Disciple:   I am using it as my bed spread.
Buddha:   Then.. hope you have disposed off your old bed spread?
Disciple:   No.. no.. master. I am using my old bed spread as my window curtain?
Buddha:   What about your old curtain?
Disciple:   That is being used to hold hot utensils in the kitchen.
Buddha :   Oh.. I see.. Can you tell me what they did with the old cloth they were using in the kitchen?
Disciple:   It is being used to wash the floor.
Buddha:   Then, the old rag being used to wash the floor…?
Disciple:   Master, since the rag was all torn, we could not find any better use, but to use as a wick in the oil lamp, which is right now lighting your study room….
Buddha smiled in contentment and left for his room.

This story struck home – all the more because I am working on an assignment to improve the resource utilization of the unit in various centers across the globe. And isn’t that what resource utilization is all about – connecting the dots in terms of skills, availability, requirements and time frames ?

Given the pressures of the talent shortage prevalent in the market today, resource management has become a business critical function to explore every option and implement strategy to leverage the talent within our organizations to boost productivity and profits. So how do we utilize our best assets optimally in our organizations?

Here are five short-term and long-term approaches that I have seen work and believe are must-dos to build the talent advantage:

Must-Do #1 – Demand forecasting – There needs to be a robust budgeting and forecasting process established to accurately predict resource requirements in line with the business needs. The success of resource management lies in the ability to manage spikes and dips in resource requirements so that there is no impact to revenue or profits due to lack or excess of skilled staff. This can only be done if we have a process in place to arrive at fair estimate of our pipeline into the future (not just for the current quarter but also for the next three quarters) and tie the sales forecasts with the resource planning on a regular basis through smart use of business metrics.

Must-Do #2 – Supply planning – Once you have the demand forecast in place, the supply chain needs to vetted to ensure that we have the right hiring engines to meet short-term as well as long-term needs. For example, hiring of permanent employees and the hiring of contract employees will need different strategies and engines. The supply chain needs to be aware of the demand forecast and the current priorities on a regular basis to effectively plan the sourcing channels as well as capacity building in terms of recruiters, infrastructure and training needs. These two must-dos will go a long way in arriving at a solution to this challenging question:  ‘What skills are needed to deliver on strategic objectives and how to ensure that the right people in the right places at the right time are available?’

Must-Do #3 – Competency development – Look into any HR trends or surveys in the past year and you will find the recurring theme of skills shortage as the top threat to growth and profitability. Lack of available talent means the delay or disbanding of strategic initiatives critical to pursuing new market opportunities or innovative offers. It is extremely difficult to find the “perfect” fits in terms of resources for your important requirements. A fool-proof plan is needed instead to hire or internally source “best” fits and then put them through a skill building plan based on your demand forecast and supply gaps. Any new offer or initiative should only be pursued after vetting the demand-supply gaps and having a competency building plan in place.

Must-Do #4 – Lateral career development – This one is about investing in “your own” workforce – companies need to refocus efforts and investments on first identifying their key talent and then providing them a platform to increase their ability in different areas and stay relevant in this rapidly changing (technology and business models) world. The complexities of a global business environment and the pressing need of trying to do more with less provides the business case of allowing and empowering employees to move laterally across different functions, locations and positions.  Through this, companies can create a core team of multi-cultural, multi-functional generalists who could then become the pivot around which new teams can be built with greater agility. Deloitte terms this model as the “Corporate Lattice” which reframes workplace suppositions, providing a framework to organize and advance a company’s existing incremental efforts into a comprehensive, strategic response—and mindset shift—to the changing world of work.

Must-Do #5 – Skill Repository and collaboration tools – This one is about making resource related information available throughout the important functions of the organization – where access is based on the potential value that people bring in and not on the hierarchy prevalent in the organization.  One of the things that I have found very useful in improving resource utilization is in building a company wide skill repository (a bank, so to say of the human assets) where anyone who has a resource requirement can tap into to see who is available where and when. This greatly improves resource deployment ability moving it from “pockets” to a more global arena. Add to that collaboration tools with some analytic tools thrown in, and soon you offer a space where managers and employees can “manage” themselves leading to tremendous productivity benefits (20% to 25% as per this piece of research from McKinsey)

Whatever the size of your organization, talent management is an area that needs huge attention, thought and planning. One size does not fit all as they say and it is important to create your strategy and build your implementation plan that best suits your nature of business. However, if you focus on aligning your sales plan to your resource plan, build in a process to forecast the future and plan for it, develop the right talent, make resource management a collaborative function instead of a silo and measure using the right metrics and analytics – you will be well on your way to creating the talent advantage for your organization.

 Image courtesy : http://www.flickr.com/photos/elpatojo/312519196/

Five Human Resource Metrics that link People to Business Strategy – Business Operations Performance Metrics

Five Human Resource Metrics that link People to Business Strategy – Business Operations Performance Metrics

by | Jul 29, 2012 | Business, Business Operations, Leadership, Management, Performance, Productivity

The abundance of information – from both internal and external sources – is the richest possible mine when it comes to understanding the employer brand, employee engagement and what employees want and need from the organization. The vital, and apparently missing, step is to transform the data collected into strategic advantage. The use of analytics, seems to be focused on external stakeholders and is yet to be used to its full effect when it comes to talent management. Only under half of CEOs (46%) use analytics to provide insight into how effectively skills are being deployed in their organizations.

This was a key finding in PwC’s 18th Annual Global CEO Survey, “People strategy for the digital age: A new take on talent”, which seeks to understand how businesses are preparing for the wholesale redesign of the world of work.

Clearly the standard HR metrics of Cost per resource, HR efficiency (no. of HR employees to total no. of employees), etc. which primarily help in driving down the costs are no longer sufficient in an environment where talent is the competitive edge for organizations. The need of the hour is HR metrics that are aligned to the current and the future business plans to ensure that not only is there no shortage of talent when we need it but also that we have processes and programs in place to create the right talent for our business.

When we create budgets for the year, we spend a significant amount of time planning where the revenue will come from and how the spend will be distributed across cost headers. In services organization, labour is the biggest component of both income and expenditure. Do we spend the same amount of time in planning how we would attract, retain and develop this big-ticket item so that the business objectives are met? Annual talent strategy planning is a must to develop and harness the potential of human capital – to proactively drive business outcomes instead of reactively responding to whatever the latest talent shortage crisis is. Based on my experiences in resource management and operations, here are the five human resource metrics that I think can help link your people strategy to your business strategy:

Human Resource Metrics #1: Competency Development Spend % – This one starts with identifying the key skills and talents that are necessary to execute on the company’s strategy for the year and create the competitive advantage while providing a platform for internal employees to learn and grow in their chosen career ladders. These could be technical (specialized software or hardware skills), functional (customer service, selling, tools and technology training) or managerial (leadership development, communication, succession planning, mentoring). Assess the current skill levels and the gap from where it needs to be and then draw up the competency development plan with budgets, timelines and desired outcomes for the year. Monitor the spend against the budget periodically (maybe monthly or quarterly) to ensure that there is focus on developing the right competencies that are needed for business success and that the plan is relevant to the current business scenarios.

Human Resource Metrics #2: Employee Engagement – This is the HR Mantra and enough research has been done to show that the EE figures of an organization are directly proportional to its business performance. Falling engagement levels are the precursor to higher attrition, lower productivity and increasing costs per hire. But an employee engagement survey just for the sake of measuring engagement is a waste of time and energy. The survey should be used as a tool to collect information that helps drive better results. Analysis should be done to isolate sincere actionable feedback from the “noise”. For example – what do your best performers think about your organization – does it allow them to perform to their optimum levels and get better every day? Invest and prioritize the engagement feedback that will really have an impact on key employee retention and overall employee performance and build this into your annual plan.

Human Resource Metrics #3: Quality of Hiring – This amounts to determining how a new hire’s abilities and performance varies from pre-hire requirements and expectations and is a metric that is generally calculated from 3-6 months after the hiring. Combined with the cost of hire (external recruitment spend+ internal labor costs) and the speed of hire (time taken to fulfill an open position), the quality of hire metric forms a great basis to measure the overall efficiency of your recruitment function and its processes (targeted sourcing,  speedy reaction time, consistent screening process and continuous improvement). The impact of a wrong hire is huge on the business outcome and we definitely need to spend some time here to ensure we have the right data points and methodologies to ensure that we hire the right people for the right jobs. Some excellent data on this metric here : http://www.ere.net/2009/10/02/quality-of-hire-the-missing-link-in-calculating-roi-part-i-of-a-series/

Human Resource Metrics #4: Resource Utilization % – This is the most common metric used in human resource management and for a good reason. It is the ratio of the resource’s billable work to the total amount of work and hence has a visible and direct impact on a company’s revenue and margins. What I want to highlight here is the need to go beyond this number and look at the underlying reasons for variations in the numbers and focus on them for improvement.  Numerous factors can change utilization rates, including inconsistency in calculations of what constitutes work and billable work, late and cancelled projects, increased training and ramp –up times and ancillary job demands, such as paperwork. Keep track of employee expertise areas and availability status in a central skill database, so that you can the quickly move people into a project and maximize utilization. Cross-train technical staff to respond quickly to changes in client demand. Developing a versatile and flexible workforce keeping in mind future customer requirements reduces idle time. Develop a bench strategy and a robust demand and supply forecasting process to stay on top of the target utilization numbers.

Human Resource Metrics #5: Revenue per Employee – This is a simple metric but the most important one to gauge and measure the success of all the plans and initiatives as outlined above – quarter on quarter and year on year. It also helps to compare the performance of your organization with similar organizations and set benchmarks internally for your HR and resource management functions, the data on total revenue and total headcount of companies being easily available. The revenue per employee should steadily increase leading to expanding margins and improved profitability. This is a number that must feature on all management reviews as it helps keep focus not only on the denominator (costs – and there is only so much cutting that you can do) but also on the numerator (revenue – where are we getting maximum value out of our labour and why – to drive strategy in the directions where it is working).

One size definitely does not fit all when it comes to metrics  – and you may have your own views on what metrics are best suited to drive the talent advantage for your organization. One thing is common though – we need to collect consistent information on our resources, use metrics that enable decision-making and ensure that talent management strategy remains relevant with overall business strategy and contributes actively to business growth. We need to choose the metrics that help the management to make quick and sound business decisions that are based on facts rather than feeling. What has worked for you in this area – I would love to hear and learn from you.