Introspecting the HR Function - 3

Introspecting the HR  Function  -  3

Some Ideas for Action

In Part 2 of this series,  we dealt with what are some of the things an  HR Manager must do to graduate from being a manager to becoming a leader.  Having successfully made this transformation,  this concluding part of the series now takes up the issue of what are some of the  “new and innovative” interventions that the HR Manager can initiate in his organisation.

Once again,  if you can recall the learned tomes delivered at various Public Seminars and Workshops on the broad theme of  “HR in the 21^st Century”  or  “Role and Responsibilities of HR” ,  a large number of them are aggressively accusative or condescendingly disparaging about HR’s  “disconnect”  with “business”  !  Senior HR Professionals who address such gatherings act "holier than thou” in accusing their HR colleagues (they themselves being honorable exceptions, of course !) of not being able to justify HR interventions on the touchstone of business  viz., ROI.  HR Managers are exhorted that they must justify every intervention/action they propose,  in monetary terms which must be acceptable to the CFO or his henchmen.  

We are today getting requests from Heads of HR,  who have called us to discuss our conducting some training programme for them,   to give them (i.e. the Heads of HR) a good “justification in monetary terms”  as to how the cost of the training will be recovered and become profitable for the company !!  What can be more tragic or ridiculous that in today’s “advanced management era”  the value of training is not seen in the knowledge it adds to the individual or how it leads to development of the individual  ---  the organisation couldn’t  care less !  What is important is how it will benefit the organisation in terms of “the bottom –line”  and how soon it can happen.  And to do this HR Managers are asked to develop Metrics to showcase their performance – in terms of monetary gain from the things they do or propose to do.

HR must vigorously contest this pressure and this approach.  In my view,  HR is not responsible for the business – top line or bottom line.  HR’s whole and sole responsibility is people – their welfare and well-being,  their engagement and motivation, their complaints and discomforts, their aspirations and hopes, their dreams and its fulfillment.  If HR can look after the people (in the organisation) these people will look after the business – topline and bottom line and the mid-riff too, for good measure !

HR must not allow itself to be bullied into having its performance judged by the straitjacket of  “Rupee Cost – benefit analysis” and ROI (Return on Investment)  and such financial/monetary measures which are applicable to operating departments like manufacturing, sales and suchlike.  This is not HR’s lookout  and cannot be pushed on HR’s lap by the non – performing  Operating Divisions of the Company.

Well,  if  HR is not to be judged by monetary metrics,  then how is its performance to be judged  ?  If metrics is what are required,  let me propose the following :

a)  Measure the  “sound of laughter”  in your organisation.   Indeed, do people laugh at all ?  Check – you may be in for a rude shock.

And if they do not laugh,  what does it tell you about the organisation,  its working ambience,  its ability to absorb criticism, make fun, pull each other’s legs, have fun and thus develop inner strength to face the innumerable and inevitable “stresses and strains”  that any organisation faces ?

b)    Measure the decibel level of “chatter”  which is not merely or only about “chit-chatting”  but actually about the free interchange of ideas,  vigorous arguments about differing points of view and the ultimate emergence of a filtered conclusion that is a synthesis of the best of each viewpoint into a synergistic whole.

c)   Monitor and record the time people come for work – how many come in time, how many come before time and how many come as reluctant stragglers because they have to,  only because they are employed here ?

Do you ever survey and enquire why some people are “regular  late-comers”  ? What can be done to get them on time ;  do they require some kind of flexi – time,  possibly some different timings,  maybe some time-concession ?  Is this  a “temporary phase”  that will go away or is this simply his/her character  ?  And,  if it is the latter,  have you counseled the person and do you have the organizational  “guts”  to discipline him or dismiss him,  if  that  is what is called for ?

d)    Monitor and record the time people leave for home – how  many leave before time,  how many on time,  how many who stay back, not only or merely to please / impress the boss,  but because they so much enjoy their work that they do not really look at the  clock for deciding when to leave ?

e)    How many of your employees regularly attend health check-ups organized by you and what is the health/fitness  profile of your employees ?  How many are suffering from  Heart problems,  High/Low  BP,  Diabetes,  If your employees are not physically fit how do you expect them to be mentally so and how are they going to fight the battle in the marketplace which they are routinely exhorted to engage in ?

f)     How many of your employees have a hobby that they are seriously attached to or engaged in (reading, listening to music and suchlike doesn’t count !) and where they have acquired some level of competence  and standing amongst their peers ? e.g. Philately, Photography, Music (Singing or playing an instrument), gardening,   teaching the under-privileged,  social work and similar.  The prevalence of such hobbies and  “non-work interests”  amongst your employees indicates that your employees  have well-rounded personalities who can not only handle crises situations, and  also have better standing in society and their immediate neighborhood which is a major plus point for the organisation.

          Do you feature them in your house magazine,  if you have one ?  Do you felicitate                   them so that their achievements are known to the rest of the organisation ?  Do you                encourage them so that they can develop these  “after – work”  interests ?

g)    How many of your employees are members of professional organisations like AIMA (All India Management Association),  IEI (Institution of Engineers, India),  IIIE, NIPM, HRD Network,  IIMM  and various others ?  If the numbers are few you can be sure that your organisation is slowly becoming fossilized and outdated because its  managers are not in touch with professional developments in their fields and the only knowledge they are working with is the knowledge they had when they graduated from their respective colleges,  decades ago.  In today’s highly competitive word,  this is a dubious distinction that spells certain doom for the organisation.  We strongly recommend to organisations, whenever we are carrying out  consulting work that organisations must not only permit their employees to join professional organisations and take part in its activities on “company time”,    they should  encourage and assist them to do so – even going to the extent of paying the initial Joining Fee – the subsequent Annual fee can be paid by the employee on his own.  I reproduce below an e-mail that I received from one such manager in this regard,  which will clearly illustrate the point I am making.

From: Anand Ambdoskar

To: pratik

Sent: Tuesday, January 22, 2008 4:57 AM

Subject: Fw: AIMA - 9th National Seminar on "Performance Related Rewards"

Dear Mr Varma

First of all I thank you once again for insisting upon taking membership of AIMA; I am seeing the advantages now. 

It gives me a great pleasure in sharing this information with all of you.

On January 17-18, 2008, All India Management Association (AIMA) has organized 9th National Seminar on "Performance Related Rewards" at Delhi and I was invited there as one of the speakers. It was a great occasion for me to share our Company's practices on this national platform.

After my presentation on January 17, the Programme Director Mr M R Gera, in his review-session, has appreciated our successful journey of more than 12 years in strengthening the Performance Development Process and given compliments for our three innovative practices:

·         Implementation of Three-tier Moderation and consistency in doing that year after year;

·         Considering Competency rating for increments and promotions, and differentiating the business results from competencies;

·         Commitments by Top Management that are being demonstrated through Review mechanisms.

Anand

          The tremendous sense of achievement that  Mr. Anand experienced is evident from                the above letter.  ;  besides,  he also brought name and glory to his organisation                    because of the public acknowledgement of the  “innovative practices”  that Anand’s                organisation has pioneered in their Performance Development Process.

Thus it can well be appreciated that in addition to the employee’s personal development,  such membership of professional associations and bodies brings great respect and prestige to the organisation when its employee becomes an important office-bearer and is widely respected amongst his professional, colleagues.

h)   How many man – days of training do your employees undergo each year ?  Our own empirical study based on enquiries with various organisations that we come into contact  with (excluding IT and BPO sector with whom we do not have much dealings) suggests that if it is calculated for the managerial (i.e. non – workmen category)  the figure is a pathetic ½  man-day or less and if you include the workmen then it may well be less than 1/10^th of that !!  How stupid then to complain that Indian workmen are less productive than their counterparts in the developed economies or in the East Asian countries when companies just do not spend a single paise on  “training”  their workmen.

Similarly,  the ½ man-day average training across organisations for the non-workmen category can scarcely be called adequate if we want to have managers who are in step with the changing times, changing priorities, advancing technologies and challenging competitors in the marketplace. 

Indian organisations are notoriously short-sighted in the matter of training.  The moment there is a whiff of a slow-down in  sales or if somebody utters the word “recession”  immediate instructions go out from the CEO (egged on by pompous and  short-sighted CFOs) to slash all expenses and the first candidate for such slashing is invariably training !  Little do these CEOs/CFOs  realize that “if training your people is costly,  not training them is costlier”.

So if ½ - man day of training is inadequate,  what should be the desired minimum man-days of training for employees ?  This is not very difficult to estimate.  Let us take the case of Capital Assets,  chief amongst which are plant & machinery, various equipment and  land/buildings. The minimum  Repairs and Maintenance expenses typically incurred on such Capital Assets ranges from a low of 2 % to a high of 6 to 8 %  of the capital value.

Assuming we are to go by the low end value of  2 %, one can estimate the training man-days  as 2 % of normal working days i.e.  300.  Hence the minimum man-days of training (akin to repair & maintenance of  plant & machinery), required to keep the Human Assets in good shape for performance,  works out to a minimum of  6 man-days.  In high technology or rapidly changing technology companies or highly competitive environment,  this figure can be at the higher end of  the spectrum  i.e.  8 % of 300 working days i.e.  24 man-days per year.

Hence the ideal training man-days per employee per year should range between 6 to 24 days as dictated by the business you are in.  Under no circumstance can a company get away with ½ man-day or 1 man-day of training per year, irrespective of what the CFO feels or advises.  Can you argue that because there is recession, we will not oil or grease our machines ?   Can you argue that because there is recession you will not repair a leaking pipe  or a crumbling wall or a beam or column that is developing cracks ?  Then how and why do managers argue that  employees  do not need any  “repair and maintenance inputs (which is exactly what training is)”  and  can and should continue to perform at  optimum  levels.

This is essentially a mind-set issue as also a political one.  For instance,  the sales and marketing functions do not cut on their dealer entertainment bashes in times of recession.  In fact, they argue, successfully,  that at times of recession you have to invest more in promotional efforts be it advertising, dealer promotion, parties, tours and junkets to maintain and get back the business that is shrinking.  This is because Sales/Marketing team sits close to the CEO,  they always have his/her ears and  are more swanky, articulate and aggressive in their style. Even the powerful CFOs are helpless to stop them.  Unfortunately most HR Heads are more worried about  “pleasing the CEO and not getting on the wrong side of the CFO”  and go out of their way to cut their “department costs”  to curry favour,   instead of fighting for their function and insisting that essential and routine training, recruitment and other development activities  must go on and it is the business of the revenue earning sections of the company to ensure flow of funds for the same.  Undoubtedly,  in a crisis situation,  everyone must take a cut but otherwise,  HR  Department should refuse to become the  “fall guys”  for the rest of the organisation’s failings.

Coming now to the internal performance of the HR Department,  here are a set of metrics that might be considered :

i)     How many candidates called for interview do you meet on time  i.e. the time given in the interview call letter  ?

j)      How many days do you take to issue an appointment letter after a candidate has been selected ?

k)    In how many cases do you actually check references of selected candidates ?

l)     How many candidates do not join after receiving your offer letter and what is the trend is such numbers over a period ?

m)  What is the turnover rate amongst employees who are below 27 years of age ?  This will help you know whether your organisation is exciting enough for the young and the impatient and the footloose.

n)   How much time do you take to respond to internal queries from employees or request for any special assistance ?

o)    What is the oldest paper/document/letter sitting in the HR Department which is yet to be processed ?

p)    How many of your statutory Reports (be it related to PF or ESIC or Municipality or any Government/Statutory Authority dealt with by you) are delayed with respect to the deadline date ?

q)    By how many days is the completion of your Performance Appraisal System delayed, every year ?

r)     By how many days is the declaration of Annual Increments delayed every year ?

s)    In how many cases, by percentage, are you able to settle a resigning or retiring employees’ dues,  on or before his/her last day in office ?

t)     How much time do you take to act upon the PF Transfer request of an ex-employee who has moved to another organisation ?

As the reader would have sensed,  the whole thrust of the above is to encourage the HR function to

1. Take a hard look at its own performance in relation to what “HR is expected to deliver to employees”
2. Not get bullied by HR theorists and CEOs /CFOs into having their performance judged by criteria that are inappropriate for the HR function
3. Monitor,  on a regular basis,  employees’  feelings and concerns (real or perceived) so that immediate corrective action can be taken
4. Fight with top management for not side-tracking HR requirements under the garb of  “essential budgetary cuts” and, finally
5. Put the employee at the centre of organizational focus and concern on the  premise that an organisation can only do as well as the competency, energy, enthusiasm, motivation and morale of its employees. 

Good or bad business environment affects all organisations equally.  However good, bad or indifferent employees only affect that particular organisation.  It is  HR’s  role and responsibility to ensure that its organisation’s  employees have peak performance capability by ensuring an environment that is supportive,  encouraging,  challenging and  fun.

Mumbai

December  1, 2013 

Who should I vote for in 2014 ?

I am sure this question is already in the minds of many concerned citizens as 2014 nears and the pitch by political parties rises to a frenzy.

Broadly speaking,  people are talking of 3 choices – Congress (led front),  BJP (led front) and the 3^rd Front .

As I also tossed this question in my mind it struck me that it might make things easier if I tried to work out who I should not vote for. 

Over the past few elections,  I have realized that I and several others like me have been responsible for the governance mess we find ourselves in owing to our lackadaisical approach to voting, ranging from not voting at all,  to voting casually (for a candidate whose was know to have little chance of winning), to voting wrong (which, of course, we realized later.  In this sense,  we have not really valued our vote and the power it give us.

The first and foremost mistake or defect in the past few elections has been the electorate’s failure to throw up a decisive mandate both at the centre as well as in many states,  resulting in the cobbling together of unstable governments held together by local satraps, ever ready to blackmail the government of the day for “having their way for personal and /or localized community / communal/caste gains.”

Secondly, we have also voted for candidates with clear communal, casteist or parochial thinking,  which has lowered the quality of our legislature and put the country several years back in its development path.

With the above in mind,  I have worked out the following as my basis for determining  who I will not vote for and who (out of a basket) that I might vote for.

a)     I will not vote for any  of the  communal / casteist /parochial parties like  Samajwadi Party, BSP,  Shiv Sena,  MNS, DMK, Muslim League,  RJD,  LJP,  JMM  etc.

b)     I will only vote for either Congress or BJP to ensure that a   National Party comes to Power not bound by regional, parochial, casteist or communal  pulls and pressures and the party in power has a clear mandate or has to rely on minimal support from  “khudra” parties. 

Between the two,  Congress or BJP,  I will vote for the “better candidate”  based on his/her  past record or “known image”  if it is a new candidate. 

In other words,  out of the 2 parties that are there in my “voting basket”  I will make the final choice based on the quality of the candidate, rather than my ideological/personal  inclination towards one party over the other.  This will help ensure that whoever we send to parliament/State legislatures are uniformly of a  certain minimum quality.  Therefore, I will not vote for a candidate against whom there are pending criminal cases,  irrespective of the fact he/she belongs to “my preferred party”     

This will also send a good message to aspiring candidates, that whether or not there is a law that bars them from standing for elections or occupying their seat,  if they have a criminal case registered against them   we,  the citizens,  are going to “enforce our own law” viz.,  that if you have a criminal case pending against you,  you are not going to get our support.

c)      If the Congress or BJP candidate in my constituency is a complete disaster either on the corruption or criminalization front,  then only will I move to other parties i.e. parties other than in Group A above.

I hope some of you will find the above basis worth considering.  

In any case, my purpose is to provoke thinking and debate on this question well in time so that we as citizens discharge our duties responsibly if we are to avoid the disaster we have had for the past 10 years of unbridled corruption, back-breaking inflation,  rising unemployment  steady weakening of India’s economy, and increasing bullying by our neighbours and some of the Western Powers like USA & UK, threatening our economic freedom, territorial integrity and national sovereignty.

Introspecting the HR Function - 2

Introspecting the HR  Function  -  2

n  What the HR Manager needs to do

A small clarification at the outset – when I say HR Manager in the sub-title, I am not referring to a person with that designation per se ; rather, the reference is to HR Functionaries whether described as HR Executive  right up to   Director /President – HR.

The previous article in this series, made a strong plea for not treating employees as a commodity, fashionably called “talent ;   rather they should be treated for what they truly are,  viz.,  individuals with each having his / her  own personality, idiosyncrasies and peculiarities - in other words,  individuality. Such individuality must be recognized, respected and all interventions must take into account this individual difference within an overall framework of Corporate HR Approach.

How is this to be done ?  Let us start from the very beginning.  Let HR managers work out a meaningful  “Induction Programme” for every new joinee or group of joinees (e.g. management / sales / engineer / diploma   trainees  etc.).  First and foremost, this induction programme must have an explicit “element of welcome”  conveying the organisation’s joy at having the new employee join them.  Can you just imagine with what enthusiasm the employee will go home and describe how he was treated on the first day ?  It can be a wonderful testimonial for the company. 

What happens in reality  today is quite the opposite :  the employee has to negotiate past the security guard and  the “couldn’t care less” receptionist to reach his boss, only to find that he is in a meeting. He doesn’t know where he should sit or wait since so one else in the department knows that he is joining today and thus guide him. Having somehow managed to pass the time till his boss arrives,  he has to again introduce himself to the boss who barely gives him a cursory hearing,  pushing him on to someone else (who is,  often,  junior to the person who is joining)  and asks that junior employee to explain  “about the work and the department”  to the new person !!  Thereafter,   a search begins for a table and chair which are always missing on the first day (!) after which the newcomer simply lounges here and there and somehow gets through the whole day,  eager to get back  home. 

Am I exaggerating ?  Of course, I am exaggerating, but  only exaggerating,  not imagining ;  a large part of what I have recounted keeps happening in many,  if not most organisations  (some of world class repute,  barring some notable exceptions which are few and far between).  I would delighted if some readers of this article can write to me letting me know the experience of their first day in their last two jobs  -- good or bad.  We can learn from both types of examples.

 

The welcome should also include a Welcome Board at the entrance and an  “Announcement Notice or e-mail” about the new person’s joining to all in the organisation but especially to all his department colleagues as well as HR, Admin, Accounts and Security Department. 

This should be  followed by  a quick, friendly  and efficient conclusion of joining formalities particularly related to HR / Admin & Accounts.  The way to ensure this is by  a) making sure that  all concerned Departments know in advance that a person is joining on that day,  (see Para on welcome announcement above)   b) keep the necessary set of forms ready  (one innovative and new way to ensure so  is to send such forms in advance to the new Joinee and request him/her to bring it duly filled for submission, leaving blank the sections that are not clear to him),  and  c) have him accompanied by a person from HR (or his own department) through each Department so that he is not at a  loss as to whom he has to approach, where he has to submit the form and where should he go next.

A small practice that we follow in our office,  I would like to recommend next. Ours is a small consultancy company with employee strength varying  between 5 to 8, at any given time. Whenever a  new person joins, he/she is taken out for lunch, on the first day,  by an existing employee,  at the company’s expense,  as we do not have any canteen.  This gives him  a tremendous sense of camaraderie,  helps him make friends with his lunch partner and relieves him of lunch worries on the first day when,  inevitably people don’t bring a lunch box from home.  In bigger organisations where staff canteens exist,  the new joinee should be accompanied by a pre-designated person so that the newcomer understands the lunch protocol (e.g. can he take a 2^nd helping, does he have to clear his tray from the table, where can he sit, where should he wash hands  etc.) ;  further,  having a known person next to him when he comes into a  room full of unknown faces is of great comfort on his very first day and makes the experience less daunting.

The next major responsibility for a good and effective HR manager is to connect with all employees.  How is this to be done ?  Not difficult,  but certainly requires effort and perseverance.  As a start,  he must spend a certain proportion of his time, every day,  to move around the premises meeting people in various departments, functions and locations merely to say “Hi ! How are you ? Anything we can do for you ? Need any help ?”  Just try to visualize the tremendous morale booster this will be for the average employee when an HR functionary personally comes  to his/her workplace and enquires after his /her welfare ?  Sadly,   very few (certainly less than 1 % in India)  HR. managers do this because of their false and unfortunate sense of importance that they are “Chamber Kings”  and it is the troubled employee who must come to them and not vice versa.  Also they derive a vicarious pleasure in keeping such employees (who come to meet them) waiting outside their room to demonstrate how busy they are and how they cannot be troubled by petty issues.   This is a grave mistake.  First of all, keeping someone waiting does not demonstrate your importance;  it merely exposes your rude and crude behavior.  Secondly,  your going up to the employee instead of wanting him to come to you does not lessen your importance ; rather it increases your approachability and visibility and gives you an inkling of brewing problems much faster and firsthand than otherwise.

To sum up, HR managers must leave their rooms and go where the action is –   be it the factory shop floor,  various departments /sections in the HO building,  Branches, Warehouses,  business workplaces, and such like.   How much time should be spent on such visits  ? Very difficult to give some exact number but roughly speaking our thumb rule is at least 1/3rd  of your time over a week must be at the employees’ workplace,  not your room or desk.

A natural question here might be,  if I spend so much time outside my department/desk,  how will I do my work ?   Good question,  because it leads to the more important question  -  what is your work after all ?  Is it your job to sit in your room to await the MD or your Boss’s call or is it your responsibility to see that your employees are happy and,  if they do have a problem,  you should find out about it at the earliest and solve it at the first instance before it grows and boils over into  a complaint or escalates into a major grievance ?  Think about this question and you will know why it is important for you to move out of your comfort zone into the scene of action.

The 3^rd major area of responsibility for the HR Manager is to  “sense what people are feeling”  even before it is explicitly expressed,  especially in the following cases :

a)    Possible reaction to certain policy changes under contemplation (new incentive scheme, working condition changes,  large number of impending transfers, closing down of some section or unit  etc.)

b)    Effect on Morale when some business downturn has been forecast or has been seen for sometime

c)    Persisting power cuts or RM procurement difficulties owing to problems at suppliers’  end

d)    Political  and /or environmental issues/ concerns of local populace which is likely to affect operations and may even lead to partial closure

e)    Brewing confrontation between management and union affecting work and work atmosphere

f)     Change in top management or even ownership that leads to speculation about “what next and what is going to happen ?”

How can this be done,  this sensing in advance  “the mood and thinking of the employees ?”  First and foremost,  the moving around and regular meeting with employees at their workplace will give you a credibility that will allow people to confide in you or even approach you with questions.  Indeed,  their very questions can be pointers to their thinking.

Secondly,  your willingness to listen and your ability to pick up non-verbal cues (facial expression, tone and tenor of their questions,  their smiles or the absence of it)  will give you a good idea of  “which way the wind is blowing”

Having sensed what is the likely mood and thinking on any given issue or day,  the next task of the HR Manager is to be pro-active and take advance corrective action so that the employees'  “worries”  are properly addressed and in good time.  This essentially involves continuous,  clear and credible communication,  be it through notices or letters,  small group discussions, formal meetings or informal chats with   key opinion makers in each group and location.

Such credibility in communication only comes if employees trust you and they will only trust you if  

a) they know you (which they will not,  if you keep yourself confined to your room and desk)   and

b) you have a good past record of being trustworthy. 

This can only happen if you have moved frequently and regularly amongst them,  have made genuine efforts to understand their problems and made sincere efforts to solve them  --  bringing us back to the initial recommendation of HR managers leaving their rooms/desks to spend at least 1/3^rd of their time with the employees at the latter’s  workplace.

The fourth area I would like to emphasize is  “workplace safety”.  Tragically,  this is not seen or acknowledged as an HR responsibility – in India it  has more of an Admin  or,  at best,  an IR connotation,  a rather mundane and “day-to-day”  matter with which the more esoteric tribe of  MBA – trained  HR managers cannot dirty their hands.    This is a great pity because nothing could be farther from the truth.  If you cannot assure  “workplace safety”,  no amount of glass and granite and air-conditioning is going to create  “good ambience and pleasant working conditions”.   So what exactly am I referring to ?  Are there slippery Floors ?  Is the Exit passage always kept free so that in case of Fire or any other crises people can exit quickly (the recent cases of stampede at temples and public places will immediately tell you why this is important) ?  Is the earthing proper on all electrical equipment ?  Are there any bare,  un-terminated “electrical wires”  hanging around,  to cause “electrical short-circuits”  and the resultant fire (a common occurrence in corporate India)  ?  Are any hazardous materials being stored on the premises and, if so,  what precautions have been taken to ensure protection to people working there ?  Are there any inflammable materials like LPG Cylinders, Petrol / Kerosene items  etc. being stored in non – permissible places (recall the ghastly AMRI Hospital Fire in October 2011 in Kolkata) ?  Is the path to Fire Fighting equipment and electrical switchboards free and without any encumbrance so that these items can be accessed instantly when required ?  There are many more such small things to be attended to and in the view of this writer, squarely the responsibility of the HR manager that things are absolutely OK on this front,  even though it may also be someone else’s job/task to do the actual checking and correction.   Once again,  the  way  such “workplace safety”  can be ensured is to have regular and frequent  “audit walks” around the premises (which means not merely the HO Building where most HR managers sit but also the factories, branches and warehouses).

Next,  the HR manager must tackle an area that he is routinely accused of  being ignorant  of :  viz.  How the company’s business runs.  Every HR workshop and seminar these days  espouses the need for  HR to integrate itself into the business of the company.  Unfortunately,  none of them give any practical or workable recommendation as to how exactly this is to be done.  Let me venture to do so.

First and foremost,  the HR manager must make an honest effort to learn – he must go to the Accounts  Department and request the MIS head  or the VP Finance to explain to him what each of the Monthly statements means. Many of them are  self-evident but some contain terminologies or “ratios”  that the HR manager may not understand on his own.  Similarly,  he must go to the Marketing Head and request for a briefing on the nature of the “Product – Market”  Matrix,  the profile of the company’s customers,  the identity, size and nature of competition,  the company’s USP as well as its weak areas.  In the same spirit,  he must visit the factories for an understanding of the production process,  what are the major bottlenecks,  what are the company’s technological advantages or shortcomings,  what are the employee issues,  how is the absenteeism and safety record and suchlike ? 

This is easier said than done because when an HR manager embarks on this journey,  he is,  in effect,  publicly stating that he “doesn’t understand”  these things.  In an organizational context,  this requires a great deal of courage and this the  HR manager must muster.  At the same time, an honest declaration of ignorance (of knowledge) is not any commentary on the person’s intelligence and, in fact,  he will earn the respect of colleagues for his desire to learn and “understand the business”.  So, my unhesitant recommendation to HR managers is :  if you do not understand any part of your company’s business,  admit so and unashamedly ask to be educated on  what they are.  You will not only gain knowledge but also respect and, flowing from that,  a great degree of self-confidence that will always stand you in good stead.

The major gain from such an effort will not merely be “improved understanding of the business”  but even more important,  a much better and sharper understanding of how HR can contribute to improve the functioning through  HR interventions  be it by way of more focused training,  better discipline enforcement,  faster recruitment,  temporary contractual hiring etc.

 

To sum up,  the following are the broad areas that the HR manager must embark upon as part of his action plan to become more effective :

1.    Design and implement a structured and well – thought out induction  programme for new employees that is not merely an “introduction programme”  but a series of steps that help ease the new employee into the organisation in a way that makes him confortable and free from the  “rough edges”  of adjustment in a new work environment.

2.    Spend a certain minimum time  “outside”  his room/department,  personally meeting employees at all levels and locations -  HO, factory, branch or warehouse to establish a connect with them, get authentic and firsthand feedback of how employees are feeling or what is agitating  them

3.    Take pro-active action on issues that are top of the mind for employees and particularly make sure that issues that are agitating them or worrying them are properly addressed by continuous and well-designed communication in various forms – written, oral,  small group discussions, or town hall meetings

4.    Take personal charge of workplace safety and   review the same regularly. Take help of experts where necessary but ensure personally that the required audits are taking place,  the corrections or deficiencies pointed out have, indeed,  been addressed.  The test of course,  is the number of accident-free man-hours you can log up.  The bigger the number, the better.  Once again,  this is not merely an exercise for HO or the HR manager’s location but it is applicable throughout the organisation.

5.    Finally,  take concrete steps to integrate yourself into the business by first understanding what it is all about.  This can only be done by an honest attempt to “learn”  from each  major activity, as to how they function and what they expect or want from HR.

As a professional,   try to be known for your approachability, not  by your exclusivity.  Try to enlarge your accountability,  not your empire,  Aim to increase your influence, not your power or authority.  This is what will help you graduate from a manager to a leader.

Mumbai

October  20,  2013 

Introspecting the HR Function - 1

Introspecting the HR  Function  -  1

n  An outsider’s view from the inside

Increasingly,  any management seminar or workshop  begins and ends with an exhortation that people are the real assets of  a company and attracting and retaining good quality manpower is the need of the hour. 

While nobody can dispute this exhortation  and,  indeed nobody does,   the fact remains that only lip service is paid to the  idea.  Let us  take up  the first issue of attracting the right people.  The first thing  to note is that  in the new lexicon of  HR Managers,   people are no longer  people,  rather, they are  “talent”  ;  not unnaturally,  they are taken to be  and,  therefore,  treated like any other “input commodity or object,”.   So today you hear phrases like “talent acquisition”,  “talent retention and “talent development”  ;  the use of the word “people or employee” has become an anathema – how stupid and old-fashioned it sounds.  Rather, today’s champion HR Managers are busy cutting their teeth on something much more superior and ethereal -  talent !   

Thus,  the manager charged with attracting “talent”  address  (and treats) the people as inanimate objects rather than as the complex,  interesting an  challenging human beings that they are.    This itself will explain a lot of the disinterested, dehydrated and aloof approach that HR managers take today towards incoming people in the organisation.

What exactly are the H.R. Managers are doing about attracting talent ?  They are increasingly outsourcing the whole process.  Consultants  for recruitment are growing by the month, if not by the day.   Everybody is inundated  with “urgent requests” (barring the recent recession when there is a virtual  bar on recruitment).  So,  in the very first step of “attracting”  people,  nay,  talent,   HR Managers are washing their hands off,   because they want to bring efficiency and cost saving by outsourcing the functions to those who do it best viz. the recruitment expert.  In some exceptional cases,  HR Managers deign to look at  people “themselves”  by going to job sites.  Of course, they do not do it personally (god forbid), ;  it is done by the latest management trainee or junior-most  employee who are given a skeletal requirement and a couple of keywords to carry out the search. 

There is clearly no  serious effort applied  in making this first short list.  You can well imagine that if this is the method for drawing up the list of recruits,  no matter what the subsequent selection process is,    one will still end up with suboptimal choices.  This is increasingly borne out by the rapidly growing number of cases of people leaving or being asked to leave within a year of their being selected for a new job. 

Recruitment experts are given recruitment  assignments – because they are experts in their area.  Undeniably true.   However,  it is also true that every recruitment expert does not know the intricacies and the culture of the organisation that requisition their services.  In any case,  he is given very little information about the organisation, its culture and work dynamics.   Most enquiries are made by  organisations through E-Mail and telephone and the person speaking from the office side is a junior HR executive  or the secretary of the HR  Manager ;  can one really expect the “flavour of the organisation” to be conveyed by such people? 

If any question is asked beyond the basic specifications (age, qualifications, designation, salary etc.), the standard answer is they are looking for “good candidates”.  How original,  and,  indeed,  how explanatory ! 

There is so much hullaballoo today about the retention of managers.  How exactly  should this be done ?  While all and sundry argue,  ad nauseum,   at  various public forums that retention is not merely a function of the salary level,   the only issue that HR Managers address, discuss and plead for is “realistic salary levels” in line with market realities.  What exactly is the expertise involved in attracting persons at a higher salary than the current salary level,  is unfathomable. 

Right from the time a person joins an organisation  he/she starts judging it.  How was he received ?  Was he recognised or he did he have to explain that he is a new person joining ?  Was his boss  ready to receive him or did he ask him to wait till his important morning  meeting is finished ?   Was his table kept ready for him with all required standard paraphernalia?  Did he get any briefing from the HR Department regarding joining formalities ?  Did the Accounts Department brief him regarding salary/money matters?   Was he introduced to his immediate colleagues?  Was the circular issued prior to his joining about his coming?  Was there any welcome note put up for him at the entrance or in his department?  Did someone guide him as to where he will be served tea (or where he has to fetch it from), where the washroom is,  where can he have  lunch  ?

Most readers will recognise  that a large number of the above steps are not happening. The poor employee has to mostly fend for himself  or,   if he is lucky,  a friendly colleague helps him out in this matter.

Is there any induction programme for him?  We regularly ask companies about their induction programme.  Everybody confirms that they have one.  When we ask how long  is the induction programme for,  the answer ranges from a casual “one” to a proud  “three days.” When we  probe further as to what is done in the induction programme, we discover that essentially it is nothing but an introduction programme. 

A newcomer is introduced to various people/functions, where the introduction does not go beyond mentioning  the name and informing the designation/department in which the new comer is to join.  The manager to whom he is introduced (particularly those that are senior to him), treat this activity as an interruption in their work,  rarely look up from the desk while the introduction is being done,  never ask the new comer to sit down for having a chat and display their widest smile when he is about to leave the room !  How inspired and comfortable should a newcomer feel at this ceremony ! 

In our consulting assignments where we a drawing up the organisation’s  “Personnel Policy Manual”  whenever,  we have tried to introduce a detailed and sufficiently long induction programme,  we have faced tremendous resistance,  the argument being – we cannot afford to “waste”  so much time on “induction” programmes – the employee must be put to work immediately.

Having thus dispensed with induction/introduction, the new employee is put to work – the only difficulty is that he is rarely told  “what his work is.” “What is there to tell ?”  is the first reaction we get from most HR Managers ; “if he is  a sales manager, he is supposed to sell,  if he is a production manage he is supposed to produce,”  and so on. 

In other words,  designation becomes a substitute for Job Responsibilities !   So for the first few days,  the new employee is totally lost as to how he has to spend all eight hours.  Thereafter,   as the tasks are assigned to him and he starts carrying them out, he discovers that “the way of working” here is quite different from that of his previous organisation.  But nobody specifically guides him on “the way of working here”; as a result he bumbles along, making some lucky guesses, but mostly fouling up till he realises himself or somebody instructs him – don't you know how this is done?  Gradually, this person settles down and learns the ropes, but clearly since nobody has told him or guided him, he does not know every twist and turn of the rope and naturally, therefore,   many times,  gets entangled in it.  Very soon he discovers that he has mastered (reasonably well, the way  of working here).  He is now comfortable and more assured and finds that he is doing well what he is supposed to do since he is experienced in this area, which is why he was selected for the first place and further learns  how to do these things as per the new organisation’s style. 

It is only after some time that the realisation dawns on him that  he is only doing more of the same – the same that he was doing earlier.  The organisation could be least bothered because it only wanted  him to do the same thing which was done by the previous incumbent.  So much for  “talent”  development ! 

In such circumstances,  youngsters get impatient quickly and if they do not find that they are learning something new, they immediately start thinking of leaving and eventually do.  Older employees cannot leave so easily, primarily because of  lack of economic mobility  and family constraints and,  hence,  start getting bored,  frustrated and eventually depressed.  What exactly is the HR Manager  doing all this while ? 

He does not do recruitment because he has efficiently outsourced it.  He does not do management development because there is no need for it.  He does not do counselling or grievance redressal because it is best not to ask people what are their difficulties as they will  make an endless list.  With these mundane matters of attracting, retaining and developing people (o, sorry, talent)  disposed, off the  HR Manager is free to build his own empire.  He dangles carrots and also threatens  employees with the performance redressal system and continuously interacts with professional colleagues in other companies regarding salary levels and tax saving perquisites. Whenever he is free from this,  which really takes up very little time,  he continuously searches for a new job for himself !.  Is it any surprise,   therefore,   that the HR  Manager is not exactly a popular person in his organisation? 

It is for HR Managers to honestly and conscientiously reflect about  what they are really doing to develop Human Resources in their organisation and see that they discharge this responsibility in their organisation by  making  a change of priority in the work  “that they actually do” vis-à-vis “what they are supposed to do.”

I would therefore urge the HR Managers to carry out an honest introspection and  address this issue,  since it is  axiomatic that people (not talent) are the true assets of any  organisation.  It is necessary that we consider them as such and act accordingly.

 

hemendra k. varma

mumbai

Sep  9, 2013