NHRD Journal July2011 Final

ISSN - 0974 - 1739
NHRD Network Journal

July 2011 Volume 4 Issue 3
Dr D Prashanth Nair V M Kaul K Ramkumar Vineet Kaul
People Power Draw, Drive and Deliver
Dr Y V Verma C Mahalingam Dr Arun Kumar Jain Sourav Daspatnaik Sonali Roychowdhury & Romit Roychowdhury S Varadarajan & Alok Narain Dr Sandeep Krishna Dr S Ramnarayan & Neha Gupta Anil Sachdev S K Chathurvedi
A Quarterly Publication by The National HRD Network
www.nationalhrd.org
NHRD Network Journal People Power Draw, Drive and Deliver

Volume 4 Issue 3 July 2011
NHRD Network Board Members

National President: Past National Presidents: Sy. Siddiqui, MEO (Admn - HR, Fin & IT), Maruti Suzuki India Aquil Busrai, Chief Executive Officer - Aquil Busrai Consulting Dwarakanath P, Director-Group Human Capital - Max India Dr. Santrupt Misra, Director - Aditya Birla Group NS Rajan, Partner, Human Capital and Global Leader HR Advisory, Ernst & Young Regional Presidents: East: South: West: North: National Secretary: National Treasurer: Editorial Board Sourav Daspatnaik, HR Director, Apeejay-Surrendra Group S V Nathan, Director U.S. India Talent, Deloitte Rajeev Dubey, President (Group HR & After-Market) & Member of the Group Executive Board, Mahindra & Mahindra S Varadarajan, Executive President - HR,Tata Teleservices Prince Augustin, EVP-Human Capital, Mahindra & Mahindra L. Prabhakar, Head-Human Resources (Agri-Business Division), ITC Ltd Sy. Siddiqui, MEO (Admn - HR, Fin & IT), Maruti Suzuki India (Guest Editor for this issue) Dr. PVR Murthy, Managing Editor, CEO, Exclusive Search Recruitment Consultants, pvrmurthy@exclusivesearch.com Dr. Pallab Bandyopadhyay, Director - Human Resources Citrix R&D India Pvt. Ltd. pallab.bandyopadhyay@citrix.com Aquil Busrai, Chief Executive Officer Aquil Busrai Consulting, Human Resources, Gurgaon, India aquil.busrai@aquilbusrai.com Publisher, Printer, Owner and Place of Publication Executive Director on behalf of National HRD Network, National HRD Network Secretariat, C 81 C, DLF Super Mart, DLF City, Phase IV, Gurgaon122 002. Tel +91 124 404 1560 Nagaraj & Co. Pvt. Ltd., 156, Developed Plots Industrial Estate, Perungudi, Chennai 600 096. Tel : 044 - 66149291 Copyright of the NHRD Journal, all rights reserved. Contents may not be copied, emailed or reproduced without copyright holders express permission in writing.
Printed at
The views expressed by the authors are of their own and not necessarily of the editors nor of the publisher nor of authors organizations
Dear Readers,
The National HRD Network has been bringing out a semi-academic, theme based, quarterly journal for the past four years. It aims at compiling and publishing the professional views and experiences of reputed HR professionals, line professionals, CEOs, researchers, academicians in each theme area. We carry out extensive research, identify and invite persons who have eminent publications or have rich experience in the theme area to contribute articles for each issue. Through the journal, we aim to build a body of HR knowledge in all facets of HR which is not otherwise easily available for the current and future HR Professionals. So far, close to 300 eminent authors have contributed articles for the 17 issues. Each issue is guest edited by a person of eminence in the concerned theme area. This journal is circulated free to the members of NHRD Network to stimulate their thinking and towards their professional development. Publications so far have been based on themes such as : IT in HR Performance Management Attracting and Retaining Talent Career Management Organizational Change Global HRM Women in Corporate Leadership Roles Organization Development Learning and Development Leadership Work-Life Balance Institution Building Coaching For Performance and Development Human Resources Management in Rapid Growth Organizations HR Competence HR and Employee Relations CEO and HR The copies of these issues of the journal can be accessed from www.nationalhrd.org. The current issue (July 2011) is on the theme of People Power Draw, Drive and Deliver. The following three persons have consented to guest edit the ensuing three issues: 1. October 2011 issue by Dr. S. Chandrasekhar, on the theme Getting HR Ready for Gen Y 2. January 2012 issue by Mr. Rajeev Dubey, on the theme CSR & HR 3. April 2012 issue by Mr.Vivek Paranjpe, on the theme HR Challenges in the Knowledge Economy This is your journal and will be as rich as you want it to be. In order to further enrich it, we would like to receive your 1. qualitative feedback on issues brought out so far, and 2. suggestions for themes to be covered in our future issues. 3. Any other suggestions Kindly send in your thoughts to drpvrmurthyresearch@gmail.com Dr. PVR Murthy Managing Editor.
CONTENTS
S.No. 1. Title of Article Author Dr. D Prasanth Nair Page No. 1 Driving People Power in Indian Context : Challenges and Actions Building Ownership through people engagement : Some pragmatic dimensions Culture, Communication and Responsible Engagement Delivering Excellence through Empowerment Leveraging Business Objectives through People Strategy Engaged Employees : A Key Organization Capability Engage, Enable, Expand, Experiment, Exploit : Talent Management For 21st Century Organizations Leading the New Generation Workforce Managing the Slash Generation
2.
V M Kaul
3.
K Ramkumar
16
4. 5.
Vineet Kaul Dr. Y V Verma
21 27
6.
C Mahalingam
32
7.
Dr. Arun Kumar Jain
38
8. 9.
Sourav Daspatnaik Sonali Roychowdhury and Romit Choudhury Alok Narain and S Varadarajan Dr. Sandeep K Krishnan
45 49
10. Managing the Young Generation Professionals 11. Taking to the next level : HR in Small and Medium Businesses 12. Ownership : Overcoming Indifference 13. Mentoring, Coaching & Counseling : Value Chain for HR 14. Capability Development towards Organization Competence (Case study : The Powergrid Experience)
54 60
S Ramnarayan and Neha Gupta Anil Sachdev
66 73
S K Chaturvedi
80
S.No.
Title of Article
Author
Page No.
BOOK REVIEWS 15. The Why of Work: How Great Leaders Build Abundant Organizations that Win by Dave Ulrich / Wendy Ulrich Employees First, Customers Second by Vineet Nayar Reviewed by R Shantaram 85
16.
Reviewed by Vidya Muralidharan
85
EDITORIAL COMMENTS
I
Mr. SY Siddiqui (Guest Editor of the Issue) Managing Executive Officer Administration (HR, Finance, IT and Corporate Law & Legal) Maruti Suzuki India Ltd. And National President National HRD Network
feel extremely honored and privileged to be able to present this
issue of the NHRDN Journal, exploring on the theme People
Power Draw, Drive & Deliver, to all the members and associates of the National HRD Network. I hope all the readers find the articles in this issue interesting, thought provoking and full of enriched learnings. In the current business environment the drivers of business growth include ability to forecast and prepare for the future, flexibility and agility to change, response time to customer expectations, quality in product & services and ability to innovate. But on top of it all, the most differentiating and influencing factor would be the people strategy, work culture of an organization and the role of top leadership capability. Today it is not rare to find a CEO recognizing the People Factor as the most critical driver of business growth. Successful CEOs lay emphasis on cascading the organizational vision, mission, values and culture in the people while defining the business strategy and goals creating total involvement and buy in of its people with high ownership and commitment. HR is expected to share a common territory with the CEO by defining the vision, mission, core values and culture building while playing a direct role in people capability building including the leadership talent pipeline, involvement and empowerment, strong two way internal communications, open and transparent assessment processes, rewards & recognition initiatives and career development process with equal opportunity for the total population in the company. HR is expected to take a lead role in building leadership credibility of the top management and CEO while leading employee engagement and people satisfaction. Organizations who have been striving for business excellence have realized that the core of any business excellence programme has always
been people. Its the people who create sustainable competitive advantage for any organization. The impact of any excellence model is linked to how people adopt and practice it on a day today basis. It is thus critical that we lay emphasis on energizing and engaging people who will be real game changer in any endeavor towards business excellence. While framing the theme of this journal, we pondered and brainstormed and felt that making optimum utilization of the People Power in an organization is the biggest challenge ahead of the CEO and the HR community at large and thus felt that this is the subject our next issue should focus on. This issue of the NHRDN Journal addresses the theme of People Power from multiple facets. Some of the sub themes which we have tried to address include the Essence of People Leadership, Drawing Excellence thru Empowerment, The People Challenges in Creating a World Class Organization, Building Ownership thru Engaging People. We have also tried to cover some extremely contemporary challenges such as Managing the Generation Y and Innovative Talent Management Initiatives. I have been extremely fortunate that I was able to gather the support of some of the stalwarts in the HR field, who agreed to share their time and thoughts with us by contributing articles to this journal. I am extremely grateful to them for the support they extended, despite the tough timelines we had given to them. I would also like to extend my sincere thanks to Dr. PVR Murthy and his team. It was only with their support, dedication and passion that we could see this journal through. The amount of time that Dr. PVR Murthy could manage to support us was simply priceless.
Given below are the glimpses of the articles to give you a flavor of the same Dr. Prasanth Nair talks about the challenges of driving people power in the Indian context encompassing the range of complexity of organizations, the varied rate of growth and the competitive scenario they operate in. Dr. SK Chaturvedi writes about the need for capability development towards organizational competence. Mr. VM Kaul further elaborates on how to build ownership thru engagement of people. Mr. Ram Kumar shares his views on the subject of Culture, Communication and Responsible Engagement and attempts to connects them into one fabric. Mr. Vineet Kaul talks about how to deliver excellence thru empowerment by sharing the three levels of empowerment and a few learnings from effective empowerment. Dr. YV Verma shares his perspective on how to leverage business objectives thru the people strategy. Mr. C Mahalingam explains why the engaged employees are a key organization capability, by talking about both the lighter and darker sides of engagement. Dr. Arun Kumar Jain covers the major paradigm shifts in corporate management and shares an interesting leadership framework for innovative talent management in his article titled Engage, Enable, Expand, Experiment, and Exploit. Mr. Sourav Daspatnaik elaborates on how to lead the new generation workforce while Ms. Sonali Roychowdhury and Mr. Romit Choudhury share their rich experience on managing the Slash generation. Mr. S Varadarajan and Mr. Alok Narain also cover the challenge of how to manage the young generation professionals.
Dr. Sandeep K. Krishnan shares his perspective on taking HR to the next level in small and medium businesses. Mr. S. Ramnarayan and Ms. Neha Gupta talk about what may inhibit assumption of ownership and what leaders can do to overcome the indifference. Dr. Anil Sachdev elaborates on aligning people thru the power of positive psychology thru an extremely interesting case study. Hope you all enjoy reading the journal and draw out learnings from the enriched experiences shared by the accomplished authors.
Dr. PVR Murthy Honorary Managing Editor on behalf of the Editorial Team
Dr. Pallab Bandyopadhyay
Aquil Busrai
DRIVING PEOPLE POWER IN INDIAN CONTEXT : CHALLENGES AND ACTIONS

Dr. D PRASANTH NAIR
About the Author Dr. D. Prasanth Nair, holds a Bachelors Degree in Mechanical Engineering from Calicut University. Thereafter, he has pursued the Fellow Programme in Management (equivalent to a Doctorate) from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, specializing in Human Resources Management. He was conferred the Degree for his Doctoral Research on The organizational and human issues in mergers and acquisitions. Dr. Nair is President & Head Human Resources & Financial Services at Thomas Cook and is responsible for the Human Resources function in India, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Mauritius. riven by technological advancements and facilitated by changes in social, political and economic contexts, the world and especially the business environment are interconnected and flat. Owing to the increased level of integration with the global economy in this period, Indian business environment is characterized by uncertainties, challenges as well as opportunities. Even as the developed world experienced deep economic recession owing to the financial crisis in the last couple of years, the Indian economy (and the Chinese economy) grew, driven by inherent socio-economic-demographic features manifesting in strong consumer demand. India is undeniably an important future growth market of the world, it is young with 50% of population below the age of 25 and it is just beginning its consumption journey. Our success in the global market, stemming from the value proposition, has created the India brand in the global arena. Much of this is reflected in the positive image that the global media now projects of the country and is in line
with the projection made by a report by Goldman Sachs titled Dreaming with BRICs (Brazil, Russia, India and China): The Path to 2050, which predicts that over the next 30-50 years, India looks all set to firmly entrench itself as the top three economies of the world. Consequently, we have witnessed two broad characteristics in the market scenario: one, where global corporations are entering the Indian market or strengthening their Indian operations; two, Indian companies (which till some years ago were satisfied in operating in Indian market) increasingly expanding their operations globally. This in turn, has increased the rate of birth, change (in form and nature) and decay of organizations. Through this process of change, corporations in India have been forced to examine their economic model, evaluate their strategy, reorient their linkages with external environment and restructure the internal working, to be in tune with the external needs, requirements and
July | 2011 NHRD Network Journal 1
expectations. And in this context, there is an acceptance that the only sustainable competitive advantage for organizations is human resources and the key to the success of organizations is the way they manage people. Focus of paper: Given the large canvass of study possible on the subject of people management, it is important to set the broad parameters for the paper to ensure adequate focus. This paper will focus on the challenges faced by organizations and the factors influencing the intensity of challenges, further to which a people management Action Plan will be presented. Even though many of issues and actions discussed will be relevant at a global level, the focus of the paper will be the appropriateness of the same in the Indian socio-economic-political scenario. Organizational challenges Competing in a flat world, in an environment characterised by the Darwinian theory of Struggle for existence and Survival of the fittest, organizations are required to constantly enhance their performance and lead change for which a dynamic alignment of strategy with external and internal environment is called for. This brings about challenges (mentioned below) on the organizational and people dimensions, accentuated also by the macro social and economic environment. Driving higher level of performance: In a context of the flat world, one key expectation from the design of the organization is that the business continues to perform in such a way that it is able to not just survive but continuously beat the market, set trends and create new benchmarks, balancing the short term and long term dimensions. Needless to mention, this
2 July | 2011 NHRD Network Journal
would be an expectation for all the stakeholders, even though the measures and definition of performance would change. Skill Gap and Cost Appreciation: As an economy, our growth depends on our ability to productively create employment opportunities. But even though we have a huge population, there is demand supply mismatch on the talent front, resulting from the lack of availability of talent in terms of numbers and quality as required by the industry. Dearth of required capabilities result in increase in employment costs, putting a question mark on the business model of companies and in some cases, sectors at large. Engaging Employees in the context of change and flux: To drive performance and optimal customer experience, the employees need to be engaged with the organization. It is well proven that higher engagement is linked to productivity, a factor that directly impacts business. The challenge of engaging employees increases multifold given the dynamic context - new generation of work force coming in, the rise of aspiration level, the average time an employee is expected to spend in the organization, and the constant change the organization undergoes. Enabling continuity and change: As organizations grow, diversify or both, it is important that the fundamental and core essence of the organization is preserved and nurtured. The challenge is - How to retain the essence and values when the environment is changing and in response to it, the organization also needs to change. Governance mechanism: There is an increasing expectation from stakeholders, especially after the conduct of organizations in
contributing to the economic recession of 2008-09, that organizations have in place a sound governance mechanism which ensures adherence to laws of land and the principles of moral conduct. Sustainability: Organizations also face the challenge of ensuring that their business model balances the short and long-term perspective while continuing to deliver shareholder value. Additionally, organizations are increasingly expected to exhibit responsible behaviour in terms of Corporate Social Responsibilities and factor in the ecology / environment in their business plans. The challenges would depend on a variety of factors, but the intensity would depend on factors related to the organization and the arena of operation industry(ies) and geography(ies); which in turn would affect the people management action plan. An attempt has been made to further understand these factors, which will influence the intensity of challenges: Rate of Growth: This refers to the pace and type of growth of the organization. Type of growth refers to the mode in which organization grows both in terms of business model (organic, inorganic or diversification) and geographical (domestic / international). The rate of growth determines the degree of change that organization needs to go through to align the internal and external dimensions. Competitive Scenario: Even though the broad competitive scenario is intense, there would be a degree of difference based on the industry or sector that the organization operates in; which in turn would impact the intensity of challenges faced by the organization. The industry structure and conduct
would be a key determinant of the business strategy pursued by the firms in that industry. Complexity of Organization: This refers to the level of complexity in the organization indicated by the size and diversity within. Typically, the growth of organization leads to increase in diversity and differences in terms of personalities, backgrounds, operating environments and even businesses. The more the complexity, lesser would be the applicability of uniformity, thus, the degree of complexity in organizations would impact the intensity of organizational challenges. The interplay amongst these each variable taken on an axis - can be represented through 3 dimensional spaces as shown below.
High
Rate of Growth
Low Low
i tit o p e ari om n C Sce ve
Complexity of Organizations
High
As can be seen in the above figure, the intensity of challenges will be represented by the 3 Dimensional space defined by rate of growth, complexity of organizations and competitive scenario. The more distant the loci of point would be from the axis, the greater would be the challenges faced on the organization and people front. This in turn would determine the kind of organizational and people management strategy.
People Management Strategy Given the challenges and the need to drive people excellence to deliver sustainable organizational performance, the people management plan, which would be a critical strategic tool, would need to focus on: Design of organization with respect to the structure, roles, systems and culture. Defining the relationship between individual and organization. While there are studies on the people management addressing the above points, most of the studies pertain to the American, European or Japanese context. Research has brought out the fact that the outlook, views and lifestyles of people would have an impact on the applicable economic, business and management models. In a worldwide study conducted by Geert Hofstede, the differences of cultural traits in different countries have been brought out; which shows that there are differences in the way of life in India as compared to US or Europe or Japan. The differences will translate into fundamental way of managing people in defining the level of emphasis on structure and systems on one hand and on social and emotional side on the other. Unlike in the Western model, where the contractual relationship which specifies the pay and work place benefits between the individual and the organization is the main motivator, and the Japanese model where security and togetherness is the paramount driver, in the Indian context, an individual is inspired by the significance or importance accorded to the him/her and the level of task performed. At the same time, key drivers for Indias growth like hope and aspiration along with trends like consumerism and urbanization are changing the outlook and behaviour of people in the country, having important implications for the organizational and people management
strategy. Thus, applicable people management model in India for it to really address the challenges would need to factor in the context of India along with changes taking place, while of course borrowing the learnings from the work done in other contexts. Having studied the multiple drivers of people management and the context of India, a people management strategy IC3 Model has been suggested where the focus areas are: I Inspiration at an individual level C Capability building at an organizational level, C Culture Management C Competitiveness A brief explanation is provided below for each of them: Inspiration at an Individual Level: In a competitive world, for organizations to excel, the people need to excel, for which they need to be inspired. The factors that drive inspiration amongst people depends on the social context and in India there are three factors that can drive inspiration: Connect with employees: This refers to the emotional relationship that will determine connect of the employees with the organization and the level to which the individual would be inspired for greater performance. Personal Ambition: As evidenced, organizations would need to facilitate employees for achieving their personal ambitions. Hope and aspiration drives our country; individual desire to achieve greater power and wealth needs to be acknowledged and captured at an organizational level. Enabling individuals to achieve their
ambition would inspire them for greater excellence. Higher purpose: It has been found in research and practice that Indians are inspired by task significance how the efforts contribute to a greater cause. Hence it is required that organizations, for inspiring employees, connect the operational execution of their role to the larger strategy. While in many a context around the globe, one of the factors or a combination with a predominant focus on one of them would enable organizations to inspire employees; what is interesting from an organizational design point of view is the combination with equal focus on connect with employees, higher purpose and personal ambition that is required to inspire employees in an Indian context. Capability Management at an Organizational Level: Given the challenges faced by organizations, it needs to make sure of the organizational capabilities to manage the present and future. The key tasks involved are: Talent Management this involves attracting, motivating, developing and retaining talent. Recruiting and retaining employees is quite a challenge in todays environment because of the opportunities in the environment, and hence the employee needs to be engaged with the organization. An integral part of talent management is to continuously develop required skills in employees and to put in place a compensation framework. As part of an integrated talent management plan, it is necessary to ensure positive energy level in the organization. Succession planning is another key aspect that needs to be built in to ensure minimization of
down time and continuity of business plans. Creating Talent: Given the talent shortage in the market, and the huge number of people with willingness but lack of requisite skills, organizations need to invest in creating talent. This helps in increasing supply of talent in the market, thus favourably influencing the demand supply gap. Knowledge Management: To ensure sustainability of skills and knowledge in organizations, it is recommended that organizations invest in capturing knowledge through proper storage, retrieval and management. Given our social context knowledge sharing needs to be imbibed through a combination of system control and mindset creation. Culture: An integral part of people management is to manage the culture of an organization with the objective of fostering an organizational culture, which enables business and ensures sustainability. In a challenging environment with organizations constantly on the lookout for growth opportunities, organizations need to look at old ways of working and re-calibrate it to what is required from a strategic point of view. We also need to factor in the fact that there could be new industries that the organization is present in, different geographies of operations and if the growth is through in-organic route, different organization cultures. It is in this context that managing culture becomes an extremely important action. Managing culture does not mean that we need to strive for uniformity in everything but indicates that organization needs to put in place what is absolutely sacrosanct
from its existential point of view and what parameters can be flexible. Depending on what the organization desires, it needs to choose between a global, local and glocal culture. Some of the best practices are when organizations put in place some core values, which are global in nature, but factors in the local context and tailors the same in its overall design, thus enabling a culture of high diversity with strong core basics. Given that the issue of sustainability and corporate behaviour is increasingly getting prominence, the value of integrity needs to be treated as the cornerstone of an organizational framework. Another important trait that will be extremely important in a context of change would be innovation. The right culture for the organization arrived at after taking into account multiple factors like history of firm, future operations, geographies of operations, and sectors of presence among others would need to be defined and inculcated through the design of systems, processes and interventions. Competitiveness: In a dynamic business environment, it is critical that Human Resource actions are always focused on the strategic objectives of the firm both in short and long term with the aim of imparting a cutting edge to organization creating benchmarks. People management can enable competitiveness through the following key actions: Business focused organization design: The organization design the optimal structure, the capabilities required and the performance measures need to be aligned with the business needs, taking care to ensure scale up capability in operations. To ensure
that decision-making is robust, and to mitigate risks both at operational, financial and strategic levels, systems and processes need to be put in place and adhered to, without over-designing the systems. Thus, organization design process management should ensure an optimal balance between risk mitigation on one hand, and enabling fast execution on the other. Performance Orientation: As mentioned earlier, creating a performance oriented culture through the appropriate design of systems, demonstration of senior management behaviour and focus on execution with the objective of balancing long term and short term objectives can enable higher level of delivery from people. A key part of performance orientation is to put in place dynamic benchmarks for performance, which will enable competitiveness. Cost Competitiveness: In an Indian context, where demand outstrips supply of resources, cost competitiveness would need to be given priority. Organizations through their design would need to focus on prudent cost management, focussing on higher levels of process efficiency and delivery effectiveness. Even though all the four focus areas Inspiration (at an individual level), Capability Management, Culture and Competitiveness are important and relevant, the specificity of action plan would be determined by the organizational and people management challenges (as defined in the earlier section through the variables of Rate of Growth, Organizational Complexity and Competitive Scenario).
Conclusion: The objective behind this paper is to enhance understanding of the challenges faced by organizations in the dynamic and unique socio-economic context of India. Based on a discussion on some of the key challenges faced, a HR action plan has been suggested, which enables organizations to draw the best from people, drive people excellence and deliver sustainable organizational performance. Even though more research needs to be done to scientifically validate the model, the paper serves the objective of establishing an overall framework to understand the challenges and people management strategy in context of social-economicpolitical context.
References
Further, going forward in a global interconnected world with organizations being responsible to multiple stakeholders, there is a need to factor in the socioeconomic context in their business strategy because what was defined as business responsibility in the past may not be true in future. Given the interconnectedness between business and socio-politicaleconomic dimensions in India, businesses need to develop models that will enable them to be sustainable and competitive in a global economy, while demonstrating socially responsible behaviour and actively creating synergistic relationship between business, employees, people and society. How can we together achieve excellence?
Alvarez, Pilar and Rodrguez, Buylla: How to Manage Rapid Growth, tu-91.167; Seminar in Strategy and International Business; Helsinki University of Technology: Department of Industrial Engineering & Management, Institute of Strategy and International Business. Cappelli, Peter and others (2010): The India Way: How Indias Top Business Leaders Are Revolutionizing Management; Harvard Business Press Chakraborty, S.K. (2003). Foundations of Managerial work- Contributions from Indian thought. Himalaya Publishing House: Mumbai Greiner, Larry: Evolution and revolution as organizations growth; Harvard Business Review. 1972 and Harvard Business Review, May 1998. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_India http://indiaexpert.wordpress.com/2010/07/09/managing-a-team-in-india/ http://kanagasabapathi.blogspot.com/2010/05/need-for-indian-management-models.html http://www.boloji.com/bookreviews/098.htm http://www.geert-hofstede.com http://www.ksoils.com/whitepapers/KS_WHITEPAPER_INDIAN_CONSUMER_MARKET.pdf http://www.livemint.com/2010/08/13204558/A-case-for-offence.html http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/Indias_high_stakes_urban_challenge_2571 http://www.wikipedia.org Kaul,S and K Abhishek: Consumerism and Mindless Consumption - Sustaining the New Age Urban Indians Identity http:// dspace.iimk.ac.in/bitstream/2259/331/1/529-534.pdf Parthasarathy, Swami. (2006). Human Values Management- 20 Key Principles for Modern Management. Ane Books India: New Delhi. Slevin, D. P. & Covin, J. G. (1997): Time, growth, complexity and transitions: Entrepreneurial challenges for the future. Entrepreneurship: Theory and Practice, 22(2), 43-68 Ulrich, D., Brockbank, W., Yeung, A.K., & Lake, D.G. (1995): Human resource competencies: An empirical assessment. Human Resource management, 34, 473-495 Ulrich, Dave (1998): A New Mandate for Human Resources, Harvard Business Review (January/February 1998). Ulrich, Dave (1997): Human Resource Champions; Harvard Business School Press, 1997. Wilson Dominic, Purushothaman Roopa: Dreaming With BRICs: The Path to 2050; Global Economics, Paper No: 99; Economic Research from the GS Financial Workbench at https://www.gs.com
July | 2011 NHRD Network Journal
BUILDING OWNERSHIP THROUGH PEOPLE ENGAGEMENT : SOME PRAGMATIC DIMENSIONS

V M KAUL
About the Author V.M. Kaul is a Director (HR) in POWERGRID Corporation of India Limited, the central transmission utility of India. He has a degree in Mechanical Engineering from IIT Delhi and a MBA. He has over 37 years of varied experience in the fields of HR, Project management and Contracts, and has earlier worked with NTPC and EIL. At present he is looking after all the HR functions as well as, Corporate Communication, Law, Joint Ventures and Consultancy Services, both foreign and domestic. He has introduced numerous innovative HR policies for the active engagement of employees in POWERGRID during his tenure as Executive Director (HR) and Director (HR). His specialized areas of interest are training, talent management, industrial relations and employee welfare, besides planning and business development.
1. Introduction : One of the important concerns of HR managers today is how to engage their people in the organization so that they contribute wholeheartedly to it during their tenure. The term employee engagement or people engagement has become popular among human resource management practitioners and development consultants, internal communication practitioners and business conference presenters. (Brad Shuck et al 2010) An engaged employee has a high level of commitment and involvement in the day-to-day process of decision-making and contributes actively towards achieving the goals of the organization. People who are fully engaged in the organization are reasonably aware of the business context, and work with colleagues to improve performance within the job for the benefit of the organization. Though people are skeptical about the meaning of the concept,
it is by and large agreed that an engaged employee is an asset to the organization and is likely to remain loyal to it. To achieve competitive advantage, organizations must find ways to create and sustain the level of energy and passion that people bring to work. The best way is to bring in a sustaining culture where engagement is not only the norm, but also a strategy that attracts and retains people. Organizations of all size and types have invested substantially in policies and practices that foster engagement and commitment in their work force (Robert, 2006). Many studies have established that the performance of an organization has a strong correlation with employee engagement. The more enhanced the engagement levels of the employee, the better the organizations performance will be in terms of customer satisfaction,
revenues, profits, productivity and retention. Fully engaged employees deliver higher levels of performance that may be critical for business survival. In the longterm they may help companies not only to weather tough times, but when business conditions improve, to ensure that they are stronger and better placed to take advantage of future opportunities. A successful employee engagement strategy helps create a community at the workplace and not just a workforce. When employees are effectively and positively engaged with their organization, they form an emotional connection with the company. This affects their attitude towards both their colleagues and the companys clients and improves customer satisfaction and service levels. In the context of emerging human resources challenges and opportunity, this article attempts to bring out an overall understanding and definition of the theme employee engagement. It also makes an attempt to propose strategies for the success of employee engagement initiatives. With a view to augmenting the understanding of the concept, this paper also highlights certain employee engagement strategies that have been initiated in POWERGRID. 2. Employee engagement A way of building ownership. The relationship between employees and employers is fast changing. Organizations are no more in a position to offer the kind of job security and career paths that they used to offer in earlier days. In todays competitive global business environment, the traditional loyalty relationship is fading away and is being replaced by greater emphasis on the manner in which the employee is treated. Since can no longer count on their members loyalty, they have
to continuously compete for talent. They have to focus on attracting and hiring the most talented people and retaining their critical existing talent. In order to do this, they must utilize approaches to management that are advantageous to them and their employees, and which can lead to higher and higher levels of performance. The quest to find the best way to retain employees has taken HR experts through concepts such as employee reviews, employee satisfaction, and employee delight, etc. The latest idea is employee engagement, a concept that states that the degree to which an employee is emotionally bonded to his organization and passionate about his work is what really matters. The term employee engagement represents an alignment of maximum job satisfaction with maximum job contribution. A highly engaged employee is proud of his/her organization and develops a sense of belongingness and ownership. It is the need of the hour that organizations should increasingly convert from traditionalism to contemporary employee management. With growing opportunities and greater flow of information, employees today want to be in the best workplaces, handling the responsibilities they are best suited for, and also want to enjoy greater autonomy. Therefore, engaging the employees to work as per their competency level must occupy centre stage not only for the HR department, but also in other areas. Engaged employees are the key to a companys ability to grow and prosper and have a positive impact on the customer experience. This is particularly so in todays economy, where attraction and retention of experienced, skilled, and creative employees can make the difference
between success and failure. There is clear evidence to suggest that what employees look for in their work is a mixture of both tangible and intangible elements that create a stimulating environment where their contribution is recognized and appropriately rewarded. In fact, emotional factors play a much more important role in shaping attitudes and behavior than previously thought. They contribute significantly to the perception that the employees also have a stake in the company. A number of recent studies from the Gallup Organization, Corporate Leadership Council and Towers Perrin HR Consultancy have shown that, in a typical organization, 20% of employees at any one period are actively disengaged from the organization, while a further 60% are only moderately engaged they turn up for work, perform their duties and then go home, without being prepared to go the extra mile for the company. As a consequence, only 20% of the workforce is actively engaged with the organization and its objectives. Studies also reveal that people higher up in the organization experience a higher level of engagement as they are closer to the centers of decision making, have more say in the direction in which the organization is progressing and presumably were promoted, at least partly, on the basis of their ability to deliver in tune with the organizations goals. Significantly studies also point to the fact that engagement level in the government sector is relatively low in all countries. Satisfaction of employees is evidently a very important factor for engaging them in organizations. In a survey conducted in POWERGRID, on the factors responsible for employee satisfaction, it was found that there are eight major factors that contribute
to employee satisfaction. These factors, in order of priority given by employees, are: Training and Learning opportunities Positive environment Job security Compensation and Incentives Job content Work life balance Stress free life Encouragement for higher education 3. Review of literature: According to Rafferty and others (2005, 2007) employee engagement has become one of the most popular HR concerns these days and a lot of research has been undertaken on the topic by academicians and practitioners. The concept is relatively new for HRM and appeared in the literatures only during the past two decades. In engagement, people employ and express themselves physically, cognitively and emotionally during role performance. William A. Kahn (1990) conceptualized engagement at work as the harnessing of organizational members selves to their work roles. The term employee engagement, in its present usage, was coined by the Gallup organization, as a result of 25 years of interviewing and surveying employees and managers. Employee engagement indicates the extent to which an employee is willing to put in extra effort in terms of extra time, energy and brain power to get the job done. In fact engagement is one step ahead of commitment. The second related construct to engagement in organizational behaviour is the notion of flow advanced by Csikszentmihalyi (1975, 1990).
Csikzentmihalyi (1975) defines flow as the holistic sensation that people feel when they act with total involvement. Flow is the state in which there is little distinction between the self and environment. When individuals are in Flow State, little conscious control is necessary for their actions. Employee engagement therefore, is the extent to which workforce commitment, both emotional and intellectual, exists relative to accomplishing the work, mission, and vision of the organization. It can be seen as a heightened level of ownership where employees want to do whatever he or she can for the benefit of their internal and external customers, and for the success of the organization as a whole. Various authors and researchers have given diverse definitions of employee engagement: Perrins Global workforce study (2003) defines it as the employees willingness and ability to help their company succeed, largely by providing discretionary effort on a sustainable basis. Robinson et al. (2004) define employee engagement as a positive attitude held by the employee towards the organization and its value. An engaged employee is aware of business context, and works with colleagues to improve performance within the job for the benefit of the organization. The organization must work to develop and nurture engagement, which requires a two-way relationship between an employer and an employee. The Gallup organization defines employee engagement as the involvement with and enthusiasm for work. Gallup as cited by Dernovsek (2008) likens employee engagement to an employees positive emotional attachment and level of commitment.
However, Robinson et al., (2004) have revealed that an engaged employee will generally demonstrate behaviour such as: belief in organization, desire to work to make things better, understanding of business context and the bigger picture, respect and helpfulness towards colleagues, willingness to go the extra mile and keeping up to date with developments in the field. An engaged employee is one who is fully involved in and enthusiastic about his or her work and thus will act in a way that furthers their organizations interests. Thus engagement is distinctively different from satisfaction, motivation, culture, climate and opinion. In an attempt to highlight the relationship between employee engagement and employee ownership, it was found that an engaged employee becomes emotionally attached to the organization and starts putting all his energy, efforts, mind and soul into the work. According to Gallup: Organizations using emotional engagement automatically record high growth and very low attrition. Unless organizations realize that employees have emotional baggage and they deserve the same emotional logic and rationale that management adopts with its own relationships, companies will always complain about high attrition. As Fernandez (2007) points out, Employee engagement is required for retention of employees. 4. Strategies to develop Employee engagement: 4.1. Employee induction programme: Effective recruitment and orientation programs are the first building blocks to be laid on the very first day the new employee joins. Unique induction programs contribute toward engagement
of employees. Most Public sector enterprises like POWERGRID, NTPC, BHEL etc., organize excellent induction programmes for their newly recruited employees to make them feel comfortable and proud of their company, thereby building ownership. Other organisations like Marriot International have an exclusive induction program called VOYAGE for all new recruits, while NIIT begins with SEED (School for employee education and development) at New Delhi. 4.2 Leadership commitment: Many innovative organisations see youth as a source of innovative ideas and as such encourage the young employees in the company to come out with creative ideas and also strengthen the leadership of the company. N.R. Narayana Murthy, Founder, Infosys, remarked, It is important that you give challenging engagements to deserving people, whether they are young or new in the organization. Youth and empowerment are the keys to scalability and longevity. The POWERGRID leadership explicitly demonstrates its work culture by being accessible at all times, by interacting frequently with employees, especially with new, young entrants to the organization and by adopting a transparent policy towards employee welfare. Unless the people at the top believe in it, own it, and pass it down to managers and employees, employee engagement will never be more than just a corporate fad or another HR concept. 4.3. Equal and satisfactory opportunity for learning and development. Employees see learning and development within companies as a big opportunity not
only for developing themselves but also a way of contribution to the growth of the organization. POWERGRID provides innumerable opportunities for training. It has a mandate of providing atleast 6 person-days of training in a year. Despite a busy work schedule, employees are often sent for training in their respective areas. Apart from this, they are readily encouraged with incentive schemes to increase their work related qualifications, either in India or abroad, as and when required. This helps employees to update their knowledge and skills through appropriate training. 4.4. Performance Management: Companies need to develop a performance management system that holds employees accountable for the level of engagement they have shown. Conducting a regular survey of employee engagement levels helps to determine factors that keep employees engaged. The results of such a survey can be circulated amongst the employees and also become the source of information, which forms the basis of major HR decisions. Opportunities for personal development through well planned growth of knowledge, skill and aptitude, and integrating the same with their career can keep employees engaged. A pragmatic model depicting strategy for people engagement is given below: 4.5 Pay and benefits: The company should have a proper compensation system so that the employees are motivated to work in the organization. In order to boost his or her engagement levels, the employee should also be provided with appropriate benefits and perquisites. Research indicates that engagement levels are low if the employee does not feel secure while working. Therefore, every organization needs to adopt appropriate methods and systems to
Fig. 1. Building ownership through employee engagement - pragmatic model.
ensure the health and safety of their employees. Innovative schemes to recognize their talents and also devising appropriate pay and perks would be a great motivating factor. 6. Employee engagement initiatives The POWERGRID experience: I) Regular Communication with Employees: POWERGRID believes in openness and regular interaction. There are open house sessions where the Chairman of the organization regularly interacts with senior executives and other employees through video conferencing and other modes of communication. This enables everyone to resolve any apprehensions about new changes and policies. It helps inculcate a feeling of togetherness in the organization. The Chairman and other members of the Board
of Directors are accessible to all sections of employees in the organization and share their experiences with the employees and seek suggestions. ii) Employee Suggestion Scheme: This is an integral part of the employee involvement process. An employee who suggests a policy or scheme or valuable input is suitably rewarded. It enhances the individual concern for the well being of the organization. It also promotes the feeling of ownership in the organization. A well-placed employee suggestion scheme is always a key to organizational success and people empowerment. Once his/her suggestion is recognized or implemented, the employee feels proud to be a part of the organization. iii) Online web forum: The departmental web portal is an innovative way of keeping
the employees engaged in their functional areas. This enables every one in the department to deliberate and discuss the key issues in the decision making process. In a way, it keeps everyone updated with the latest changes in the organization. Function specific questions can be posted to various people in the department and the solutions can be acquired from all before a final decision is taken. POWERGRID has a well-established intra net system reaching out to all sections of employees. iv) Bilateral forum: If the employees grievances are listened to properly, half of the grievances can be settled at the initial stage itself. The best way is to encourage people to become active players in bilateral forums such as the POWERGRID National Bi-partite committee (PNBC). Similarly at the regional and local levels, a forum of employees helps them to deliberate and settle their local issues in the organization. Forums like these infuse a sense of belongingness because all queries and demands are met at the initial stages. This results in building ownership in the organization. v) Innovative career plans: Fair evaluation of an employees performance is an important criterion for determining the level of employee engagement. A that follows an appropriate performance appraisal technique (which is transparent and not biased) will encourage employees to stay on in the organization and develop a bond with the organization. When career opportunities are high and equal, people feel proud to be part of the organizational team. Schemes like accelerated career growth opens up channels from one grade to another in a short span of time.
vi) Employee participation in culture building: Employees role in culture building is encouraged. There is active participation of employees in cultural and social meets, Foundation Day, Independence Day, Safety Day and Womens Day, etc. Such celebrations are a testimony to the diversity and wide geographical footprint of the company. These celebrations in the organization also develop a sense of belongingness among the employees. The company provides sufficient contribution in financial terms so that the celebration and participation of employees is encouraged. Employees are readily encouraged to participate in sports and games so that their talents are recognized. During social occasions, the family members of the employees are also brought into the limelight. This encourages team spirit and provides a feeling of oneness in the organization. In order to encourage feelings of happiness and contentment, POWERGRID also arranges regular spiritual talks by prominent spiritual leaders and speakers. vi) Employees involvement in CSR activities: Corporate Social responsibility has become one of the important subsystems of HR. In the recent past, companies have been allocating a substantial portion of their budget towards the social cause. POWERGRID, for instance, has allocated 1% of its net profit for CSR activities across all the regions of the company. These activities cover an entire gamut of social issues like education, health, environment, employability and disaster management. POWERGRID encourages its employees at the field level, to take part in all the numerous CSR initiatives that the company sponsors in various areas of social development. Participation in such social development activities enhances the employees
interaction with the disadvantaged strata of society and also creates a sense of satisfaction and pride and ownership towards their organization. It encourages the perception that they belong to a company that has concern not only for products, services and profits, but also towards people and society. 7. Conclusion: How to engage an employee has become a big challenge? If an organization takes appropriate steps to keep its employees engaged, they will feel good about their work, contribute whole-heartedly to
the organization and tend to remain loyal to it. Organizations are struggling hard to retain their best employees. Only innovative employee engagement strategies will help an organization to keep its team together. It has been established beyond doubt that there is a direct linkage between employee engagement initiatives and improvement in productivity and reduction in attrition rate. The strategies mentioned above are of course not exhaustive, but they bear testimony to what has been happening in organizations in this era of globalised economy where attrition rate is quite high.
References:
1. 2. 3. 4. Brad Shuck and Karen Wollard (2010), Employee Engagement and HRD: a Seminal Review of the Foundations, Human Resource Development Review, Sage Publications, Page. 89 Robert J Vance (2006), Employee engagement and commitment, - A guide to understanding, measuring and increasing engagement in your organization, A SHRM Foundation publication Robinson D, Perryman S, Hayday (April 2004), Report 408, Institute for Employment Studies, Sandeep K, Mark Gatenby, Chris Rees, Emma Soane, Katie Truss, Employee Engagement: A Literature Review
15
CULTURE, COMMUNICATION AND RESPONSIBLE ENGAGEMENT

K RAMKUMAR
About the Author Ramkumar, Executive Director on the Board of ICICI Bank is responsible for Customer Service and Human Resource functions. Ramkumar is a PGDM from Madras School of Social Work and a BSc in Chemistry. Prior to joining ICICI Bank Ramkumar had over 16 years of experience in companies such as Hindustan Aeronautics, Brookebond Lipton India Limited (now Hindustan Unilever Limited) and ICI India Ltd. At ICICI Bank Mr. Ramkumar has been responsible for Human Resource function, initially for the Bank and then for all the companies in the ICICI Group. He has joined the Board of Directors with effect from February 1, 2009.
ost social organizations including commercial organizations, approach the themes of culture, communication and engagement with its constituent members, in a compartmentalized manner. We cognitively understand that these three are intricately linked and they impact each other. However, when we operationalize these, we seldom conceptualize, plan and implement them in unison. This leads most social institutions to resort to platitudes and pedantic positions. I have chosen to examine this integrated theme from a point of view not often chosen. Let us examine 3 core aspects of this integrated theme viz Transparency, Feedback and Freedom of expression. All three are cultural, communication and engagement levers. At the outset, we should differentiate the usage of these terms in the context of
financials/regulations/policy articulation and cultural engagement. In this article we are largely dealing with socio-cultural nuances, more so when applied to commercial organizations. Transparency and openness: Have we ever come across a social institution which says that it will not be transparent or admits that it may not be transparent with respect to all aspects of its functioning? There will hardly be any difference in the utterances of national leaders, political leaders or CEOs when you engage them on the theme of transparency. All would eulogize the virtue of transparency and claim that they and their organizations are the paragons of this virtue. Let us examine this deeply. The unit of most trustworthy social institution is the family.
Can we dispute that the trust dynamics of an average family of say 6 to 8 people, should be far less complex than say any social institution of 100 people? Can we dispute that the physical, emotional and material interdependence of family as a unit ought to be far more entwined than any social institution? If we agree to this basic premise, then we should ask the controversial question, How transparent and open is the culture within a family on economic & psychological issues, personal judgment each member have of the other, strength of relationship, mutual expectations etc.? How transparent are spouses to each other about their assessment of each others characteristics? How transparent are parents and adult children to each other, on the impact of each others expectations and behaviour? How transparent are adult siblings to each other, on their differences, economic or otherwise, and how willing are they in adopting transparent and open ways of sorting them out? An honest answer will be strong and near ideal some times and with some members, but tense, imperfect and often clumsy at most times. If this is even partially true, then why is it that so many of us advocate and even claim to have, the virtue of transparency in culture, communication and engagement, in an almost near perfect standard or demand it be so? Speak to one of the apostles of seven steps to heaven, they will immediately project on the screen a two by two grid which would elucidate the seven steps to the transparency heaven. They would even show you case studies of organizations, which have adopted these steps, of course with the ubiquitous change agent and created the Promised Land of Transparency. Now if we choose to be irreverent and then proceed forward, we will agree that the virtue of Transparency is contextual, relative and calibrated as Yudhisthra found out in Mahabaratha about
His Dharma in engaging Dhrona or Bhishma. Now I can hear the readers screaming at me and wanting to know THE answer as we have been conditioned by our education. This is where the problem arises. We confuse general tenets with application guides and then like cook book recipes rush to try it out in our organizational kitchens. And there are always the ever obliging purveyors of best practices ready to sell them to us. Rarely do we want to use the tenets as a broad percept and choose to explore the right touch and mix for our constitution. The truth is some organizational engagements and processes can be open and transparent and some will not be. Many of us including our senior leaders are afraid to say this and thereby violate the principle, which they claim to be upholding. We confuse honesty with openness and transparency. By saying that we cannot be transparent on all aspects of running a social institution, we will be honest. On the other hand, by proclaiming transparency as a non-negotiable culture of engagement, the leader will be dishonest and be forced to be non-transparent. Feedback: Now let us examine the other holy cow of culture, communication and stakeholder engagement Candid and Direct feedback. This is the holy cow of managing performance, inspiring teams, managing collaboration and sensitivity. You will also see the connect between transparency, openness and feedback. You will note that these are also the proclaimed culture anchors of most organizations. As always you can throw this paper into the dustbin and rush for the How to Guides and the Seven steps to heaven gospels or pause and deliberate. If giving and receiving Candid and Direct feedback is so natural and
inevitable aspect of social life, why do humans struggle to display it even when they are well past into their adulthood? If this is all about calling or walking into someones presence and engaging in an open and transparent manner about ones intent, behaviour and its impact on someone or some institution, why is there so much fuss about it? When was the last time one of us, engaged our spouse, parent, adult child or sibling with a Candid and Direct feedback on how their intent or behaviour is impacting us or someone else? When was it that we walked up to one of this inner core trust group called family and asked for a Candid and Direct feedback of our intent or behaviour and its impact on them or someone else? How often do we do this? Once a week, month, year (as we are told is a must) or a decade! Or, most of it is very often indirect, subtle and even obfuscating. Yet we very often sense it and respond to it with a multitude of responses such as hurt, corrective actions, defiance, counter feedback, explanations, conditional acceptance, relief, etc. So what is this that makes us expect not an indirect and subtle feedback, but a Candid and Direct feedback in low intimacy and thereby lower trust oriented secondary social institutions? Years of propaganda by the purveyors of the Seven steps to Heaven apostles! Let us delve deeper into this Candid and Direct feedback manna. It is not sufficient to be candid and direct, we have been told that we have to be objective and evidence based in these engagements. Let us take the case of a strained relationship at home between say your spouse and your parents. Is this not the most common collaboration, sensitivity and relationship-destroying issue at most homes? So here comes the Dr. Benjamin Spooks bringing up a child gospel. Be candid, direct, objective and evidence based lo and behold the issue is
sorted out and the family as a unit is now strife free. Now why is it that our critical acclaim rejects this every day occurrence at millions of households and believes the gospel of management fiction writers as the truth? When was the last time any spouse was candid, direct, objective and evidence based on the partners conjugal performance? This question I know is embarrassing to our closet culture, but if this is so touchy, how can more touchy issues at secondary social institutions be handled in the manner we have been told it should be and that many are doing it consistently well? Let us take an even more mundane performance issue. How candid, direct, objective and evidence based are we, when we choose to give feedback to our adult children on their performance, with their careers or other goals they have? In case of serious power imbalance say with a child, we do not give feedback, but we pronounce judgments. In most power imbalance engagements, we masquerade judgments as feedback even in social institutions and posture in public forums. The truth is human relationships and engagements are complex and emotionally sensitive. Hence to load on it unreal expectations of conduct or engagement rules, leaves people chasing a mirage and large parts of the constituents unhappy and frustrated. In some relationships and at sometimes the exalted ideal of candid, direct, objective and evidence based feed back is possible. But most of the times and in most contexts it will be indirect, suggestive, subtle and feebly evidence based. Largely the emotions of the giver and the receiver will interfere with objective perception. Can you visualize, how rude and shorn of warmth and sensitivity will be a Candid, Direct, Objective and evidence based feedback? The story of Harishchandra is a testimony for it. It will sound like a high court judgment or a high priests preaching from
the pulpit. The receiver will be hit by the full blast of un-deniability and a sense of finality. We should never forget that feedback, what ever its tone and tenor, will always be perceived by the receiver as a judgment on his / her intent or behaviour. However measured, objective and evidence based it may be, it first tickles the emotional part of the human brain and not the rational part. That is why more candid, direct, objective and evidence based the feedback, more shock and anger it instantly creates How can you see me like this? Not you! Now let me tell you why your perception is wrong? Do you see how quickly the receiver has debunked the feedback as your perception? The argument here is not that feedback is not possible or that it cannot be candid, direct, objective and evidence based. The proposition is that, it is very complex, difficult and not a natural state of things. Nor is it something anyone can display in all engagements, in all contexts and with all people. It is an imperfect endeavour, which humanity will struggle with in their social institutions for all its existence. Freedom of Expression: Openness and transparency provides the holding environment, feed back functions as the socio-cultural thermostat and freedom to express becomes the very heart of meaningful membership in any social institution. These three shape and regulate and breathe life into the culture and thereby the quality of engagement in a community. Thomas Jefferson the founding father of the US Constitution once said,I will defend with my life the right of expression of anyone and so will I the right of another to disagree with him. This sums up the third and most sought after culture, communication and engagement ideal. A social institution, which stifles its
members voice, will almost always end up having to deal with a Tahrir square or a Tiananmen square. However most of us confuse repression with the much needed restraint of any civilized set up. No set of people, however upright and well meaning they may be and however just their cause may be, can choose in the name of freedom of expression, and hold systemic organs of any social institution to ransom. The French revolution is a testimony to it. Unbridled and maniacal right abrogation by members of an institution, led the very own protagonists of this movement to death either through murder (Marat) or on the guillotine (Robespierre). Egged on by the hype of management fiction and the apostles of culture, most of us enter institutions with a mind set, that we will consider something to be true freedom of expression, only if we are permitted to throw stones at the authority figures or lambast policies and systems and rile the leaders. We confuse the right to critique or advice or suggest, with the right of determination or forcing the issue on our terms. The leaders or the establishment are expected to passively listen, not even present a counter point or challenge the flaws in these propositions, lest they will be engulfed by the lynch mob. The very fact that one has a voice only in a non-repressive system is quickly forgotten, the stakes are raised so high that the demand becomes one of accept my proposition or I will damn you as repressive and authoritarian. Pause for a moment and only focus on the processes of a non-repressive and nonabusive social set up. Ask the question, where does my right for free expression start and where does my duty to be a responsible dissenter commence? Is it not facile and mischievous to expect that a person with no responsibility or accountability in a system, be given unrestrained power to overturn a nonJuly | 2011 NHRD Network Journal 19
repressive social institution, merely because the current order is not beneficial to him/her? (Do not confuse these arguments with the current movement against corruption or any other movement against state or systemic repression). Imagine a social system that provides such rights to its members. Then every day any set of individuals, who are aggrieved by some norm, law, rule or policy, will demand that this be changed. Now assume that this rule, law, norm has been in the first place instituted through a proper governance process. How does the system engage with this set of aggrieved individuals? Accession to their demand will get a new set of people to demand a change and non-accession will lead to the leaders being charged as authoritarian. Hence as Thomas Jefferson stated, all that a free social institution can guarantee is the freedom to state ones view in a civilized, non rebellious and non disruptive manner and thereafter reserve the right to express its disagreement in an equally civil and non repressive manner. Is this not the very essence of a civilized dialogue or debate? This is the purpose for which social institutions create appropriate forums, protected by proper governance structures, where the constituent members are provided, structured and normed opportunities to enter into a dialogue or debate. An institution that does not understand this ends up promising freedom of expression without a social structure and norm and then gets pushed into reneging on it. The nascent social net forums run the risk of becoming a wailing web wall or an electronic graffiti wall, if the constituent members do not bring in order and some personal dignity protection norms. The culture of presenting ones view with pseudo names, misusing the freedom of expression to malign and defame individuals and institutions and not for a
moment going beyond saying what is wrong to how it can be corrected or what will I do to correct it, will lead to serious social illness. My case is not against the freedom to express, but it is about having the personal responsibility to do so, with ones identity and not standing at street corners behind a mask and throwing stones. This may be inevitable, in an abusive or repressive regime, where someones personal safety and the security of loved ones is at stake. In free societies, we should not celebrate and eulogize these behaviours, as the new in thing and give license to juvenile instincts, which I am afraid is happening, in the name of freedom of expression. So to put a skin around this debate, let me conclude that freedom to express in a free institution with governance structures cannot be without norms and structures. It also cannot be let loose without demanding and holding its constituent members to responsible expression and accountability for the consequences. To conclude, in this article I have tried to connect culture, communication and engagement into one fabric. These three entwined levers, impact aspects such as collaboration, sensitivity, relationships, dignity and order. If we understand this well, then we will design culture attributes that are realistic, communicate them clearly and manage constituent engagements in a responsible and productive manner. The essence of culture is civilized conduct. The imperative for civilized conduct is not swinging to idealism or extremes. Civilization is a product of subtleties, constituent members rights, responsibilities and accountabilities, benign use of authority under a prudent governance structure and above all trade offs for the preservation of order, so that the institutions basic purpose is carried out in line with the intent of the original charter.
DELIVERING EXCELLENCE THROUGH EMPOWERMENT

VINEET KAUL
About the Author Vineet Kaul is the Chief People Officer, Hindalcoa $14 Bn global Metals major with 32,000 employees. Earlier, Kaul was Vice President (HR) - Indian Subcontinent and an Executive Director on the Board of Philips Electronics India Limited. His career as an HR Professional spreads over 34 years of enriching experience in the Manufacturing, FMCG, Consumer Durables, IT and Technology sectors. After obtaining a Masters Degree in Social Work from MS University, Baroda. Kaul started his career as a Management Trainee with Tata Motors, worked with Birla Yamaha and Eicher Motors before joining Philips. Kaul has served on the CII National Committee for HR and IR and is a Past President of the Mumbai Chapter of the National HRD Network. Professional Awards he received include Best HR Professional Award from Centre for Industrial Relations and Social Development, Baroda and from Mid-Day in Association with DAKS, London. An Empowered organization is one in which individuals have the knowledge, skill, desire, and opportunity to personally succeed in a way that leads to collective organizational success. uring my initial years, I worked for a large manufacturing plant and one of the assignments handled by me was in Welfare. As a part of the Welfare function, we had set up Co-operative Societies of the wives of the workers. The activities taken up by around 800 of these women were in Tailoring, preparing food items, as also assembling and supplying various electronic items to the Materials Department of this large factory. All these women were from humble backgrounds and most of them had not even completed their Higher school education. However, they got drawn into a Welfare Programme and joined like-minded women to run these Industrial Cooperatives. The women were their own shareholders, they planned their activities, decided on the team / workgroups, managed the purchasing, production scheduling, supplied in time to the plant and also managed inventories. The products that were supplied to the plant were subject to all terms and standards as applicable to any vendors. They wrote their Accounts off course sought help from outside on few expertise areas. They also regularly conducted their Committee elections, Audits, as well as distributed salaries and dividends to members as required. They never let down their customer schedules despite all odds that they faced. This entire experience was a great learning, especially because what was set up as a Welfare programme beginning with 15 volunteers crossed to thousand, soon. At best, we had planned that these activities would also serve its purpose of Proactive IR / ER, as the family would also have a stake in the smooth running of the Plant. I had not heard of the term
Stephen Covey.
Empowerment at all but when I look back, was it not Empowerment? These simple, less educated womenfolk participated in an enterprise much better than what most of us struggle to. On top of everything they all enjoyed what they were doing and also broke through various social and patterned norms of the 70s in running the Co-operatives. As one of them once told me My self-esteem has gone up and I feel proud to supplement the family income. Now, that is what to me was Empowerment. Employee Empowerment is a strategy and philosophy that enables employees to own their work and take responsibility for their results. Empowerment is a panacea for organizations ills, when implemented with care. Employee involvement and participative management are often used to mean Empowerment and are not interchangeable. Employee Empowerment provides a continuum for leadership and involvement that includes an increasing role for employees and a somewhat decreasing role for Supervisors in the decision process. Empowerment is the process of enabling or authorizing an individual to think, behave, take action and control work and decision-making in autonomous ways. It is the state of feeling self-empowered to take control of ones own destiny. When thinking about empowerment in Human Relations terms, try to avoid thinking of it as something that one individual does for another. This is one of the problems organizations have experienced with the concept of Empowerment. People think that someone, usually the Manager, has to bestow Empowerment on the People who report to him. Consequently, the team members wait for the bestowing of empowerment, and the Manager asks why people wont act in Empowered ways. This led to a
general unhappiness, with the concept of Empowerment in many organizations. Think of Empowerment, instead, as the process of an individual enabling himself to take action and control work and decision-making in autonomous ways. Empowerment comes from the individual. The organization has the responsibility to create a work environment that helps foster the ability and desire of Employees to act in empowered ways. The work organization has the responsibility to remove barriers that limit the ability of employees to act in empowered ways. Empowerment is a desirable management and organizational style that enables employees to practice autonomy, control their own jobs, and use their skills and abilities to benefit both their organization and themselves. In the 80s, the Japanese Automotive industry was the learning ground for Quality Management and I also got an opportunity to visit few manufacturing plants there. I recall the visit to a large vehicle assembly line wherein the speed of work, as well as the team work and flexibility of operations left me spell bound. Whilst being briefed, the Manager on the line also mentioned that Quality was the hallmark and any Operator (180 on that line in a shift) who felt that a bad product was getting through, could stop the line. The Operator did not need to take permission of his Supervisor before taking this step. I was thinking that in my Unit back home, to go to the washroom, the Supervisor has to be informed by the worker or else he gets upset. However, here for such an important decision, it is left to an Operator! No wonder the Operators in Japan took ownership, thought and also behaved differently than many employees across the world. Off course, there have been major strides and learnings in our organizations in India thereafter. This example shows us how the Japanese
managed superior products and services with Employee Empowerment, whereas in those days, on many other matters it was a seniority based culture. The incidence of a quality issue or an unsafe act was rare perhaps only once in 6 months however, the spirit behind this Empowerment was great. Such and similar practices, helped the Japanese Auto Industry take the Leadership in their products & services from well-entrenched stalwarts. So how does one work towards Empowerment? I personally feel nothing happens on its own, and we need to strive for it. The model below is a good one that can be adapted as per the need: The three levels of Empowerment are: 1. Encouraging employees to play a more active role in their work and trust them to do the right thing. 2. Involving employees in taking
responsibility for improving the way things are done. Employee involvement is neither the goal, nor a tool, but is a Management and Leadership philosophy about how people are most enabled to contribute to continuous improvement and the ongoing success of their work in the organization. 3. Enabling employees to make more and bigger decisions on their own initiative, without interference of someone more senior. Empowerment is the process of enabling or authorizing an individual to think, behave, take action and control work. Why Empowerment does not happen? Employee Empowerment is a business necessity and not just a HR process. Improved motivation and morale is an excellent outcome to deliver superior performance and results. Moreover, productivity gains add to the bottom line.
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With so much awareness and understanding on the subject why is that Empowerment does not happen the way we would like it to be: 1. Managers pay lip service to Employee Empowerment, but do not really believe in its power. As with all management and business buzz words, Employee Empowerment can seem like a good thing to do. After all, well-respected management books recommend that you Empower Employees. When you Empower Employees, they grow their skills and your organization benefits from their Empowerment. Right. Employees know when you are serious about Employee Empowerment and when you understand and walk your talk. Halfhearted or unbelievable Employee Empowerment efforts will fail. Frequently communicating that we are committed to Empowerment will always be tested with ground realities. 2. Managers dont really understand what Employee Empowerment means. They have a vague notion that Employee Empowerment means you start a few teams that address workplace employee morale or safety issues. You ask people what they think about something at a meeting. You allow employees to help plan the company picnic. Wrong. Employee Empowerment is a philosophy or strategy enables people to make decisions about their job. 3. Managers fail to establish boundaries for Employees Empowerment. In your absence, what decisions can be made by the employee group? What decisions can employees make day-byday that they do not need to have permission or oversight to make?
These boundaries must be defined or else Employee Empowerment efforts will fail. Again, this also needs to be communicated well so that efforts made by employees are not questioned. Cold-shouldering initiatives taken by employees can be a setback and hence derail the process. 4. Managers have defined the decisionmaking authority and boundaries with the team, but still micromanage the work of employees. This is usually because managers dont trust their people to make good decisions. Often employees know this and either craftily make a decision on their own and hide their results or they come to the manager for everything because they dont know what they really can control. A good test is the number of signatures for applying / forwarding a particular request. These can become milestones in the process. The paperwork is buried for days, but employees cannot proceed without the necessary signatures. Do employees make mistakes? Certainly, but often our procedures and legacy of work processes creates the doubt and mistrust. 5. Second-guess the decisions of employees you have given the authority to make a decision. Employees can help to make good decisions by coaching, training, and providing necessary information. You can even model good decision making, but, what you cannot do, unless a serious complication will result, is undermine or change the decision you had empowered a colleague to make. Teach the employee to make a better decision the next time. But dont undermine their faith in their personal competence and in your trust and
support. You discourage Employee Empowerment for the future. The colleagues will play safe and avoid taking decisions or always ask you what is to be done. 6. Managers need to provide growth and challenging opportunities and goals that employees can aim for and achieve. Failure to provide a strategic and structured framework imperils the opportunity for empowered behaviour. Employees need direction to know how to practice Empowerment. The employees are keen to also relate to the larger picture more often than not we feel that at best they understand only their work area. However, I have experienced that their connect with the larger canvas is rewarding and you will see real strategic thinking and output coming from them. 7. If managers fail to provide the information and access to information, training and learning opportunities needed to make good decision, dont complain when Employee Empowerment efforts fall short. The organization has the responsibility to create a work environment that helps foster the ability and desire of employees to act in Empowered ways. Information is the key to successful Employee Empowerment. I recall an example of development an expatriate CEO sharing an example of developing and growing mushrooms. You keep them in the dark always, feed them filth and when they grow cut them off. Lets avoid this mushroom syndrome. 8. Managers abdicate all responsibility and accountability for decisionmaking. When colleagues are blamed or punished for failures, mistakes, and
less than optimum results, your employees will flee from Employee Empowerment. Or, they ll publicly identify reasons why failure was your fault, or the other teams fault. Failing to publicly support decisions and stand behind your employees will make them feel deserted. You can make Employee Empowerment fail in sixty seconds. Have we not often heard the statement who the hell authorized you to take this step / act on the subject matter? Now I will have to bail you out. 9. Allow barriers to impede the ability of employees to practice Empowered behaviour. The work organization has the responsibility to remove barriers that limit the ability of employees to act in empowered ways. These barriers can include time, tools, training, access to meetings and teams, financial resources, support from other staff members, and effective coaching. The Q12, which we are familiar with, at its base level, very clearly asks the employee if he/she has the resources to do the job. 10. When employees feel undercompensated, under-titled for the responsibilities they take on, undernoticed, under-praised, and underappreciated; dont expect results from Employee Empowerment. The basic needs of employees must be met for employees to give you their discretionary energy, the extra effort that people voluntarily invest in work. It has to be clearly linked with the Rewards & Recognition program. We will reap what we sow. Employees are exhorted on how good Empowerment is, it is essential for the organization, etc however, this is no where reflected in the Rewards Program, which does
not motivate at all employees who run the extra mile. Few Learnings for Effective Empowerment: 1. Believe in the employees abilities to deliver: The same employee whom we see at workplace, manages a family, household expenses, gets his children educated, married and also discharges various obligations in the society. If he/she can manage all these responsibilities very well why not in the workplace? Hence, my confidence that the abilities are there to deliver. 2. Build Trust: Easier said than done. My own experience is that 9 out of 10 cases live upto the trust we repose in them. Yes, it also does take time to build trust, but finally Trust begets Trust. 3. Involvement is the key: Sharing of information is essential and always expected by the employee group. It institutes a sense of belonging and ownership. Companies that have set up an institutionalized processes of communication gain by effective teamwork and better levels of productivity. Higher the involvement, more the initiatives and creative inputs from employees. The attention that we give to employee feedback and suggestion makes them contribute further. 4. Provide direction and support: In the initial period, employees look for direction and also often for support. Time spent by managers in nurturing and caring for the employees helps draw them into the main stream.
Proper resources as well as timely intervention also help in removing road blocks to Empowerment. This also sends a positive signal to the various teams to go beyond their call of duty. 5. Focus on the Goal / Results: This works as a powerful medium and catalyst. We all have experienced groups of employees rising to this occasion. The Goal / Objectives binds teams to the accomplishment of the Mission. I have often sensed high energy and initiative coupled with commitment in delivering the results. 6. Reward & Recognition: It is a very important element for building a strong foundation for Empowerment. Positive behaviour gets reinforced when recognized and rewarded appropriately. The DNA of the organization gets developed, often influenced by what is recognized and rewarded by the manager. When the reward mechanism is at cross- purpose to the culture that we want, it becomes an uphill task to motivate people for change. To conclude, the benefits of Empowerment are excellent and at the same time we can achieve wonders with the contribution of employees. It has been aptly put Never tell people how to do a thing. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity General George Smith Patton, Jr.
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LEVERAGING BUSINESS OBJECTIVES THROUGH PEOPLE STRATEGY

Dr. Y V VERMA
About the Author Dr. Yasho V. Verma, COO LGEIL has been associated with LG India right from its inception in the country. He joined LGEIL as VP (HR & MS) and was elevated to Director HRMS and again elevated as COO, LG India. He started his career with TATA Steel in Jamshedpur. An Honorary Fellow of All India Management Association, he has authored a Book Passion - The untold Story of LG Electronics and is also the Honorary Editor for Journal of Projective Psychology & Mental Health by Anchorage USA. He is also the President of Consumer Electronics and Appliances Manufacturers Association (CEAMA).
headline in a newspaper says, Niche job portals new campus for hiring freshers. The article goes on to say that considering knowledge-based businesses alone make up 70% of hiring at these freshers job portals, campus placements are no more confined to campus visits. For a labour-intensive country like India, jobs mean numbers, and human resource management goes beyond the process of bringing people and organizations together so that each others goals are met. With a change in the market place and the changing world of work, the role of HR manager is of one who affects change, through resources. She (HE??) has effectively shifted from being a protector and screener to a planner. With outsourcing and international mobility, the work scenario is vastly determined by the Personnel director. He/ She is the new corporate hero on whom
rests the responsibility to have personnel relations in order, without which a good financial and operative report in a business would be quite an uphill task. What adds to the challenge are the new labour laws, limitations on the talent available, shifting demographics, socioeconomic imperatives where dominant businesses and social trends must meet, and above all, the game-changer called globalization. The changing employment As Thomas Freidman said in his book, The World is Flat, the environment that we live in is primed for constant change. Customers are becoming tougher and varied in their choices, and competition springs out of nowhere. You never know where and when a new, innovative startup emerges to snuff out your very existence in the market. This new kid on the block
has the potential to give you a run for your money, pushing you to speed up and become more agile, quick- and light-footed. It is a well-known fact that if we fail to continue to learn new things on a regular basis we become stagnant, and professional growth dies a slow but definite death. Not adapting to change not only limits our personal growth, promotion, earning potential, but also ebbs our ability to foresee and expect a brighter tomorrow. This has never been so true as in businesses. Even in India, some old skills are dying and some skills are growing. Over the years, highly skilled and knowledge based jobs are increasing, while low skilled jobs are decreasing. By this very fact, exhibiting entrepreneurship has become an imperative for managers who think like they own the business, even if they are front-line employees. For them, it is imperative to constantly seek out ways to grow and learn more, and become more successful at a steadier and brisk pace. In fact the entrepreneurial worker has been a determining factor in where, how and for who people work, thus transforming company structures and cultures. As this shows, again, a good and progressive business environment is all about the people involved. Companies have realised that a successful business depends on how you design and implement a people strategy that is properly aligned with and supports the business strategy HR leaders are under pressure to demonstrate results from their workforce practices and policies. HR is increasingly now being seen as a strategic linchpin one that needs to work closely with operations, finance and other
functions to help drive business strategy and success. This, in effect, has taken over the Indian organizations at a very nimble pace indeed, given the never-ending change in systems, management cultures and philosophy, particularly because of the global alignment of Indian organizations. Whats needed? So we need to strategize on the ground, need to streamline peoples relationship with the companies they serve, so as to continually stay in the forefront. Therefore, if on the one hand, careful evaluation must be done in selecting employees, on the other, training and development must extend beyond information and orientation training, to include sensitivity training and field experiences that will enable the manager to understand cultural differences better. It also rests with companies to ensure that managers are protected from career development risks, re-entry problems and culture shocks, while performance evaluations should take into account the inherent socio-economic conditions. Companies also must ensure that while compensation supports the overall strategic intent of the organization, the packages should be customized for local conditions. Therefore: 1) Companies should ensure quality manpower and keep the bar raised by creating a competitive peoples advantage. 2) Companies must have a capabilitydevelopment system in place. Busy does not always mean high productivity, and too much work in process destroys the ability to be actually productive. So, confidence must be elicited in the personnel to do
what he / she does best, in the best possible way. 3) Companies must accelerate value creation, including in areas like process quality, in-time cycle, on-time delivery, customer service and innovation. 4) It is also crucial to instill people strategy in line management. There are those who strategize content with the facts that they have, but are surprised that their labour has not borne fruit. There are also those who focus on firm operations and its efficiency and sincerely believe that they are implementing a strategy. Then there are companies who are caught unaware by the poor implementation of the strategies they have painstakingly devised. There are also those precious few who work out a strategic plan, implementing and reviewing it as per the conditions they encounter in the environment. In all the above, the precious few are the clear winners, considering that they take into account the ground realities. And one of the realities on the ground is to make all the stakeholders understand and aware of the strategies they have formulated. This is what constitutes people strategy, for it is with them. 5) Leadership capability development: Change being constant in the current world, leadership too has shifted significantly over the turn of the Millennium, and will continue to change at an increasing pace. The challenge of leadership capability today, as it is said, is the War for Talent, Leadership Capability, Emotional Intelligence and Talent Management. Organizations do their best to attract, develop and retain those people who demonstrate talent and leadership. Yet they find themselves quite lost when
faced with the question as to whether they have the right people, the ability to acquire them, or to grow their own. 6) In this innovative world of today, there is hardly a place for standard processes and systems. Constant change shuffles up things and customers are at the forefront of this revolution like never before. Added to this is a technologydriven environment, where products and services become out of date within months. Every company wants to be the first one to catch the fancy of the consumer, be it with new products, marketing initiatives, brands or delivery channels. Therefore, the capabilities of an effective leadership hinges on adapting both internal and external customers, and working across disparate functions to make things happen with extreme speed and efficiency. The leader must ensure that people and resources constantly add value as the stakes become higher. Creating competitive advantage through people Human, not financial, capital must be starting point and ongoing foundation of a successful strategy Sumantra Ghoshal (19482004) What the late founding Dean of the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad, and co-author of Managing Across Borders: The Transnational Solution says makes most sense in the growth-infused, labourintensive country like India. According to a Goldman Sachs projection, Indias labour force may rise by 110 million this decade. The report goes on to say the key demographic trends driving the labour force are urbanization, more women in the workforce, and a large increase in the 30-49
age group, and that demographics alone may contribute about 4 percentage points of annual GDP growth over the next decade. The exhaustive projections also say demographics will affect consumer spending patterns while spending on services such as health care and education may increase five-fold by 2020. Indias manufacturing sector has the potential to create the necessary jobs, it adds. To stay on this most encouraging scenario, it must be mentioned that the working population has to embrace the new global rules of the game. Their skillsets and capabilities must match the need for speed and flexibility. Further, the winners in this game would be the continuous self renewal demand players who are positive, passionate and stay connected with the organizational goals. This, the HR managers must remember, requires an efficient talent acquisition, development and management process. For, only then, organizational capability will be built through continuous upgrading of skills in line with current and future business needs. Building organizational value through people Putting people first for organization success is, perhaps the only way, for continuous growth projection. A people-oriented organization is one that is of values. If you value and care about the people in your organization, you will pay for their well being, apart from the compensation packages, provide regular raises and bonuses for dedicated staff. If you value equality and a sense of family, physical trappings of power, status, and inequality will automatically disappear. Theres onus on each one to perform to the best of their ability.
Thus, engaging employees in pursuing the organizational goals by identifying what they care about uniquely and individually and then developing the overlap between individual and corporate priorities becomes one instrument of excellence and success. Along with it, given the matrix of constant change, developing and encouraging employees who understand the emerging business context and are capable of constantly delivering value through innovations, responsiveness and prompt service, also add to the value chain. It is imperative to note here that organizational sustainability depends on the continuous ability to create higher value products and services drawing on new skills and innovation. Instill people strategy in line managers As we have seen, nurturing and encouraging people is the only way to achieve organizational goals. By this very fact, the HR department has the onerous task in involving and partner with line managers to ensure a trickle-down effect of best people practices, down to the lowest level. Such streamlining and determined domino-effect of best practices not only accelerate decision making, but also enhance quality of decisions taken, facilitate effective resolution of workplace problems and also bring in pathbreaking management ideas to the table. By channelizing responsibility for HR issues by a process of responsibility transfer or delegation, line managers are provided with an opportunity to engage in day-to-day people management decision-making. Simultaneously, HR specialists are able to work on achieving closer alignment of an organizations
systems and processes with the corporate objectives, while remaining sensitive to external environmental changes. We must consider that the most significant element in a workers relationship with his organization is the relationship he has with his / her manager. He / she turns to the manager for information, guidance and feedback. By devolving responsibility, HR strengthens and fosters that bond. A HR line manager partnership ensures managers become the face of HR policy and procedures to their teams. At the same time, to make line managers effective in this role, HR needs to provide the systems and tools, and develop the policies that help line managers succeed as managers of people. Training and building the support systems are imperatives for managers to become people managers. An organizations leadership too can help out to set the tone and climate within which this activity takes place. Building leadership capability for organizational sustenance and growth Prospering in a dynamically competitive environment is linked to the nature and context the leadership is able to relay to the rest of the organization. Building competitive sustainable advantage requires a growth that is balanced and inclusive. The onus lies on companies to recognize that they can drive business continuity primarily by addressing people development within. Thus, the need of the hour is to capitalize on people competencies, with the HR and
the leadership team working together towards a performance and developmentdriven culture. Therefore, the emerging crucial drivers of business growth include creation of a leadership pipeline and managing the High Potential Employees or the HiPos. In terms of HiPo management, organizations must have tools in place to improve and measure manager effectiveness and identify high-potential employees through performance management processes. For sustainable growth, building leadership at all levels of an organization and identifying few vital leadership requirements that will drive the business strategy, even making it a part of the CEOs agenda, are some other enhancements required in businesses. Although the central focus being the people themselves and drawing the leaders among them for progressive growth, the challenges to attract, develop and retain the leaders of tomorrow have not changed. Again, call it a boon or bane; the speed of change makes any gaps in capability more evident, faster and starker than ever before. Creating, attracting and retaining tomorrows leaders requires a multifaceted approach today to help deal with the demands placed on these individuals. Undoubtedly, the knowledge economy and the services sector boom have made people the center of business. Hence, for any business turnaround to be effective, organizations must have the equal buy-in of all stakeholders in forwarding the people agenda.
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ENGAGED EMPLOYEES : A KEY ORGANIZATION CAPABILITY

C MAHALINGAM
About the Author C. Mahalingam (Mali) is the Executive Vice President & Chief People Officer with Symphony Corporation. Prior to Symphony Services, Mali headed HR for IBM India, Hewlett-Packard India and for Royal Philips Software operations in India. He can be reached at mahalingam.c@symphonysv.com.
1.0 Introduction: Over the last two decades, no other people practice got discussed and debated as much as employee engagement. And this was for very good reasons. That is the good news! And the not so good news is that engagement of people continues to be elusive and enigmatic. You name any well-known consulting firm and I bet they will have a framework and model for employee engagement. Their research over a few decades informs uniformly that across geographies and corporations, employee engagement continues to remain elusive. There is a clear convergence that the percentage of fully employed workforce is no higher than 20%. And an equal percentage of people represent the other end of the continuum - fully disengaged. This leaves the significant chunk of well over 50% of employee population as cat on the wall- neither engaged, nor disengaged. Not surprisingly, the cost of disengaged workforce runs into hundreds of billions of dollars. There is, therefore, a clear case for leaders in organizations including those in the
HR function to pay attention to this elusive phenomenon. 2.0 Welcome to the Experience Economy: Many of us are still discussing and describing the current economy as services economy whereas the reality is that we have moved past the same to enter into what is known as experience economy. In its evolution, the economy acquires distinct characteristic based on the economic offerings. Commoditiesdominated economy was known as agrarian, goods-dominated one was known as industrial and servicesdominated one came to be known as service economy. However, with services becoming highly commoditized over the last decade, winning over and retaining the customers became a matter of offering experiences that the customers will pay for. We describe this as the experience economy. That people will pay for high quality and memorable experience is evident from the fact that Caf Coffee Day makes over Rs.20,000 out of a kilo of coffee
power that costs no more than Rs.200! People pay for the experience and ambience. This is true of why people go crazy and are both willing to wait in the queue and pay a high price for watching the recent craze, T-20! The logic is simple. In the agrarian economy, the nature of the offering was fungible; in industrial economy, the offering was tangible; and in the services economy, the offering became intangible. And hold your breath; in the present experience economy,the offering has become memorable.In the experience economy, customers are delighted by the ethereal experience that employees create for them. The argument therefore is that only highly engaged employees can transform the customer experience by offering them consistently ethereal experience. Employee engagement therefore has become a business imperative today much more than anytime before. 3.0 Understanding Engagement: There are as many definitions of engagement as there are consultants and consulting firms. In simple terms, employee engagement refers to a state of heightened sense of ownership and commitment to goals and plans of an organization. Engaged employees spend a lot of their discretionary energy in delivering performance. This discretionary energy is not something that organizations can mandate or demand. Not even the most inspiring leaders can get this, if employees choose not to offer. There lies the challenge for organizational leaders and human resource professionals. Engagement becomes a make or break phenomenon as without discretionary energy at work,
employees cannot create the ethereal experience for the customers so very critical for success in the experience economy. Engagement literature distinguishes between two types of engagement, viz. (a) rational engagement; and (b) emotional engagement. Rational engagement focuses on sharing the big picture, increasing the role efficacy & effectiveness, and enhancing the goal congruence and motivation. On the other hand, emotional engagement revolves around inspiring leadership at work, opportunities for selfactualization and high sense of being wanted and valued by the organization. Both the rational and emotional engagements are important to draw the discretionary efforts from people. Organizational interventions focused on only one side of the engagement coin often fall short of delivering results. 4.0 Lighter side of engagement: As a curious student of human behavior and HR, I have watched with interest how different organizations have approached employee engagement. Broadly speaking, communication, compensation, career and care have become the four key pillars of employee engagement. Myriad interventions deployed in different shapes and colours will fall under one or more of these four categories. However, I must also point out some hilarious practices that are prevalent: Supplementing free coffee and tea with NimbuPani (lime juice)& butter milk Introduction of dating allowance Opening of a marriage bureau at work
Stretching flexi time to a point where people just do not show up for work for days together These are hilarious not because they are useless, but because they are touted as key engagement drivers. Ironically, the more successful a firm is financially, more of everything they do become touted as best practices. Not surprisingly, conferences and seminars on employee engagement where so-called best practices are passionately presented often leave the unsuspecting and all the same curious-to-learn participants more confused than convinced! 5.0 The darker side of engagement: Lighter side aside, let me spend a few minutes to discuss the darker side of employee engagement. This has got more to do with myopic approaches to employee engagement than the intention behind the engagement efforts per se. It is not uncommon to come across organizations where engagement interventions are designed and implemented using some of the accepted approaches. They include benchmarking best practices from other successful companies, lifting some practices from the published literature on the subject and picking up recommendations from thoughtfully-constituted internal task forces. On the face of it, all these are approaches that are in vogue and practiced widely. After zealous implementation for fairly long period of time, HR leaders are confounded when engagement has either not gone up or worse still has actually nosedived. In some cases, wellintentioned and ferventlyimplemented engagement drivers actually led to negative impact on the
organizational results and performance. One does not have to look too far for understanding this. The key point to remember is that when engagement drivers are designed and implemented without validating them for their potential impact on organizational performance, surprises are bound to be in store. Look at the three examples below. These are real cases that I have noticed / case-studied in organizations: A 3000 people strong software company recognized flexi time as a key engagement driver (untested assumption). And this was taken to an extreme where over the next 9 months post aggressive practicing of flexi time, they discovered that the productivity fell by over 60%. HRs assessment was that reversing the flexi time would lead to even more negative consequences (another unvalidated assumption). The net result was loss of key customers in quick succession and once a dream company today it is struggling for survival. Another company with 1800 people and operations in 3 different locations in India in the IT space hired a consulting firm for their engagement offering. One of the key recommendations was to substantially increase the employee advocacy factor as this is an important facet of engagement. The intervention / driver implemented was giving employee referrals a dramatic focus. When the initiative was launched, the employee referral constituted 15% or so and it soon
peaked to 65% in 12 months, given all the attention and awards associated with the referral program. As employee referrals started to reach for the sky, the inevitable let-up in hiring quality standards happened. Scorecards and reviews only worsened the matter. Result: many clients quit complaining that the quality of delivery was not acceptable. Not intended, but that is what happened. This company currently is in the ICU! One of the medium-sized subsidiaries of an MNC determined that aggressive retention bonus program will help increase retention and possibly employee engagement. The enthusiastic HR manager made a case of covering over 40% of the employees and was lucky enough to get away with budget for doing this. Retention bonus has effect when it is selectively implemented and not widely distributed. This program had exactly the opposite effect with more and more people leaving and feeling disillusioned. While one may be tempted to conclude from the 3 real life case studies above that the HR leader made judgmental errors, there is more to it that meets the eye! The HR leader perhaps had the best of intention. The leadership team that endorsed these interventions and engagement drivers perhaps had the best of interests in mind. The missing link was examining some of these interventions as to whether at all and how much relevance these drivers had for organizational effectiveness / performance. The moral of the story
is simple and straightforward: Not all engagement drivers are necessarily the drivers of organizational performance. In fact, some of the engagement drivers can potentially become counter-productive as it was the case with the examples above. 6.0 HR Analytics is Key to determining Engagement drivers: HR analytics is still a nascent discipline in India. Unlike scorecards and metrics that we collect and analyze to make sense of what happened, analytics are future-focused. They give us insights on what will be the potential outcome of interventions and drivers we plan to implement. Measurement guru, Jac Fitz-Enzobserved: Analytics is a mental framework, a logical progression first and a set of statistical tools second. Dr. Jeffrey Pfeffer (of Stanford B-School) and Dr Robert Sutton (of Standford Engineering School) both said: If taken seriously, evidence-based management can change how every manager thinks and acts. Therefore, HR leaders will do well to look at data and evidence, take a medium to long-term view and examine every single engagement intervention proposed with care. If analytics show clear trends of manager quality as reason for disengagement and turnover, there is no point in rushing head-on with interventions such as sabbaticals and bonuses. 7.0 Engaging the Millennial workforce: Let us keep in mind that the millennial generation is entering our workforce in big numbers. And drivers that engaged successfully the earlier generations like baby boomers and
Gen X will terribly fall short if implemented for Gen Y. We are clearly at cross roads, for we are yet to understand what drives and engages the millennials. Work by Danial Pink (Drive), Marshall Goldsmith (Mojo) and Lynda Gratton (Hot Spots) besides many other leading consulting firms could provide some pointers. Danial Pink in his New York Times best seller book, Driveoffers extensive insights that hover around three key elements of motivation and engagement. They are: (a) Autonomy; (b) Mastery; and (c) Purpose. Let us examine these in some detail: (A) Autonomy: Dr Pink cites the work by Cali Ressler and Jody Thompson, both former HR executives with Best Buy in USA known worldover as ROWE (Result-Oriented Work Environment). Fast catching up, this is a philosophy first and as such will qualify as a management innovation in the dictionary of Dr. Gary Hamel. This recognizes people as partners and not pawns in the production system! Dr Pink also cites a study by Cornell University of 320 small businesses, half of which granted autonomy to workers and other half practiced top-down direction. Those that provided autonomy grew at 4 times the rate of controloriented firms and had one-third turnover! So much for the power of autonomy as a driver for engagement! (B) Mastery: Dr Pink brings a great perspective on the subject of mastery whey he says that only fully engaged people can achieve mastery. And the process of
achieving mastery has a furthering effect on the engagement itself. Pink calls for designing jobs that provide what he terms as Goldilocks tasks- challenges that are not too hot and not too cold, neither overly difficult nor overly simple. Since mastery is a mindset, what people believe shapes what people achieve. Interventions to promote mastery, be they learning & development intervention or coaching and mentoring interventions, can go a long way in creating this sense of mastery and consequently the engagement. (C) Purpose: Organizations have long recognized the power of creating a sense of purpose as a driver of engagement, but not much of deep and sustained efforts has gone into it. Purpose has a balancing effect on the other two pillars of engagement, viz. Autonomy & Mastery. Purpose scores way higher than money for as an emotional catalyst, wealthcreation lacks the power to fully mobilize human energies, according Dr. Pink. According to him, the secret to high performance is not our biological drive or our reward-punishment drive, but our third drive our deep-seated desire to direct our own lives, to expand our abilities and to live a life of purpose! 8.0 Conclusion: We recognize from the foregoing arguments the following key messages: That we are moving away from service economy to experience economy
That in the experience economy, what matters is creating an ethereal experience for the customers that only fully engagement employees can deliver That engagement therefore is a key organizational capability that will provide a lasting competitive advantage That not paying attention to designing engagement interventions will lead to frittering of precious resources and end up
frustrating organizational leaders and their efforts That Autonomy, Mastery and Purpose seem to deliver far better engagement effect than most mundane and monetary drivers HR leaders should do well to benefit from the recent researches and insights and leverage the science of analytics to design and deliver the engagement interventions. There lies the key to creating, sustaining and getting the most out of employee engagement.
References:
1. 2. 3. 4. Joseph Pine II.B & James H Gilmore (1999), The Experience Economy; Harvard Business School Press, Boston Daniel H Pink,(2009), Drive; Riverhead Books (Penguin Group), New York Jac Fitz-Enz, (2010). The New HR Analytics: Predicting the Economic Value of Your Companys Human Capital Investments; American Management Association Jeffrey Pfeffer& Robert Sutton (2006) Hard Facts, Dangerous Half-Truths and Total Nonsense: Profiting from Evidence-based Management; Harvard Business School Press, Boston
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ENGAGE, ENABLE, EXPAND, EXPERIMENT, EXPLOIT : TALENT MANAGEMENT FOR 21ST CENTURY ORGANIZATIONS
Dr. ARUN KUMAR JAIN
About the Author Dr Arun Kumar Jain, a strategy scholar has taught at leading Universities in USA, UK, Greece, France, Germany, and Singapore. He holds honorary chairs as Distinguished Professor of Corporate Governance and Strategy at SP Jain Center for Management (Singapore), and Affiliated Professor of Strategy, International Business and Corporate Governance at EM Strasbourg School of Business, Strasbourg (Frances largest University). He was previously Research Chair Professor at German Graduate School of Business and Law (Germany) and Chairman & President of Center for Accelerated Learning, Innovation, and Competitiveness (Germany). Dr Jains publications are in international journals including Harvard Business Review (The Elephant Dances). He authored books like Competitive Excellence; Corporate Excellence; and Managing Global Competition. He has addressed Council of Europe (Strasbourg), Global Corporate Governance Forum at Washington, World Bank/IFC, Bundesbank (Germany), Global Forum for International Investment (Paris), OECD at Paris and Copenhagen, UNCTAD, MITI (Japan), European Union (Brussels), Commonwealth Secretariat (UK), India-Germany Business Forum (Germany), Academy of Management, Academy of International Business, etc. He can be reached at arunjain@iiml.ac.in.
oltaire had said long ago, If you wish to converse with me, define the terms. Before we even attempt writing a framework for talent management strategies and people-led initiatives, it is important to understand the context for this discussion.
CONTEXT Some years ago, at one of the annual management international conferences in
India, a well-known corporate manager mentioned how the HR paradigm had shifted in the country. According to him, earlier it used to be a 321 model; now it has been successfully turned on its head and reshaped into a 123 model. What was this? He continued - 321 means we used to hire 3 persons, pay them the salary of 2, and they would give the output of 1 person. Now we hire 1 person, pay him the salary of 2, and take an output of at least three
persons. There was much clapping in the audience - perhaps they liked the play of words rather than understanding the implications of such inflictions on employees. Probably the model is more efficient in terms of office space management, but is it sustainable for the individual and the hiring organization? Does it lead to voluntary contributions and increased motivation? It is true that industry contexts, spatial and time dimensions for businesses and strategies are different and therefore difficult to generalize the critical success factors for any firm. Yet there are certain transitions that must be understood well if companies are to survive and excel in the new paradigm. The corporate world of 21st century is quite different from that of 20th century. The manner in which organizations and people from different geographies relate, collaborate and share their individual and collective aspirations, and the level of information available in real-time has a profound impact on the governance and management of companies. I sometimes watch in amazement how the young generation in India today has global and all-conquering ambitions (often unbridled and unsupported by ground realties and work ethics). Similarly, corporations now realize that they have no choice but to compete with global companies whether here or there. We are now seeing a new social order where individuals acting independently yet coordinated by a strange attractor can cause upheavals in global orders using widely available
technology platforms. Two major upheavals in recent times are strong pointers to this emerging paradigm, which has sharp implications on governance, management, and organizational structures. The first is what can be termed as the Assange phenomenon. One single maverick can challenge the worlds biggest economic and military power and reveal its darkest secrets to the world. The latter can only watch helplessly as its best-kept state secrets tumbled out in mass media. US administration could only attempt to block the funds-flow to Wikileaks to constrict it out of business. Visa, Mastercard, Paypal, etc. became part of the effort. But something profound happened instead as a mark of protest, anonymous global individuals jammed the entire services of these payment gateways. The second event is equally breathtaking. The spontaneous organization of peaceful crowds at small notice in Tunisia, Egypt, Bahrain, and many other parts of West Asia has thrown out old, entrenched dictatorships. Once again, the new combination of social networks such as Twitter, Blackberry, Facebook, YouTube, Al Jazeera, Google, etc. have played a major role in providing real-time information to individuals located far and wide. Here too the governments seem unable to block the crowds from gathering, despite switching off access to Web, or blocking social networking sites in their countries. What do these events mean to companies in commercial space? In order to connect
the dots and visualize any patterns, we need to look at a few more pointers. For instance, before the end of last millennium, we had witnessed the coming of ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) age. Ten years down the time line, fresh sets of convergences are creating a change of a different order and magnitude. Companies (and technologies) such as Cisco, Google, Facebook, Twitter, Smartphones, TabletiPads, Web-enabled high-definition TV, cloud computing, etc. are changing the way voice, graphics, and other forms of information are processed, shared and consumed. The sudden surrender of once-market leader Nokia in the mobile operating system (OS) space is dramatic by all standards. Stephen Elop, the embattled CEO of Nokia, could only tell his employees that that their platform was burning and there was little the firm could do to catch up with iPhone and Android OS. Its market share was dwindling since less people were writing applications for Symbian! Nokia has chosen Microsoft as a strategic partner to offer Windows 7 mobile platform to its customers. The convergence of Internet, video, and cloud (IVC) technologies has rendered a whole meaning to global collaboration and delivery models. MNCs have offices across the world with employees working round the clock and staying in touch seamlessly and in real time. Much of the work follows a Global Delivery Model with parts of a project being executed at different places and which then are collated and delivered.
Cisco has completely transformed itself in line with the trends. The erstwhile manufacturer of routers, switches, and telephony is now a market leader in collaborative technologies such as pervasive video conferencing and personal tele-presence, enabling travelless meetings. We are not far from the days when most of the mobiles, computing, and consumer electronics devices will be connected to one another. The new sensors will change the manner in which we seek professional help. Qualcomm is working on technologies in collaboration with automobile and construction industries for providing remote assistance and operational controls. DoCoMo is working on simultaneous translation of languages that would enable managers in a foreign country, even while meeting face-to-face, to talk on mobile devices to overcome the language barrier. Mobile telephony is just one area where the erstwhile new technologies become the basic platforms for future innovations. There are many other simultaneous divergences and convergences happening around that are reshaping the world. We can clearly see a new social order implying major upheavals for corporations and HR practices. IMPLICATIONS Table 1 encapsulates the corporate transitions on structural, operational, strategic, and mindset levels on some key dimensions in the last ten years. This shall lead us to an actionable and practical framework for managers.
TABLE 1 MAJOR PARADIGM SHIFTS IN CORPORATE MANAGEMENT Dimensions Competition 20th Century Economy Cut-throat; Companies fighting for market share, top-line growth and profits. Companies aware of major competitive forces. 21st Century Economy Competition will come from small, lesser-known companies such as, Facebook and Groupon, which are posing big threats now to giants such as Google and Microsoft. Disruptive networks, technologies and dynamic business models will outshine the static and stable ones. Entrepreneurship Mostly limited to genes or Startups and companies people with money or political that invest in ideas contacts. leading to network effects and knowledge entrepreneurs. Mostly reactive with some exceptions. Companies will be forced to be proactive on all fronts in order to survive and excel. Digital information sharing will be the dominant design. Word of mouth over the Internet will make or break the companies. Fewer employees each one multifaceted and highly talented. Proactive and self-starters Entrepreneurial instincts. Risk-taking encouraged More experimental in nature Easily bored with status quo
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Perspective & Mindset
Marketing approach
Mostly traditional marketing with experiments in online and digital space
Organizational design Many employees with increased focus on lean management and automation. Usual Employee behaviour Risk taking Reactive and presumptive Risk averse, conservative Stable, lifetime job
Dimensions Products
20th Century Economy Standardized with growing focus on customization
21st Century Economy Mostly customized with flexible facilities to match sudden changes in customer behaviour Difficult to say; Can change rapidly with changing values Profits + stakeholder value + Social Value + Environmental Value Focus on long term and getting new customers will be difficult. Seamless integration
Customer tastes and behaviour Corporate strategic motives & Values Relationship with customers
Mostly standardized
Profits + stakeholder value
Transactional/Long term
Business Environment Cultural and Ethical Issues
Structured Low and negligible in most companies
Unstructured and unanticipated Companies will be forced to adopt ethical and socially aligned practices Open and distributed; Can be sourced all over the world External orientation Strategic (entrepreneurial) are self-driven, and are able to work in an environment that promotes sharing of information. The critical success factors for retaining talent and creating teams that push innovation in a firm has to be customized and dovetailed to the vision and strategy. A fresh approach is necessary. DISCUSSION ON SUCCESSFUL EMPLOYEE SELF-INITIATIVES: The emerging leadership framework shows an alternative way of governance, people management and conduct of
Innovation Resources Mostly in-house; Closed systems Engagement Enablement Internal orientation Tactical (local)
The above Table clearly indicates that the working environment for the corporation in the 21st century is substantially different from the one even ten years ago. For top management and HR people above 40 years age, it may be difficult to keep communication pace with the younger employees entering the workforce if they saw corporate transformations purely from the lenses of lessons learnt in the bygone century. Clearly organizational and competitive excellence will come only when employees
business. It is a complex interplay of autonomy, vision, communication, and social ethical responsibility in an information busting and knowledge paradigm. Superior and sustainable corporate performance comes from a holistic approach of engage, enable, expand, experiment, and exploit. In that sense, we need to extend the People Power Draw, Drive & Deliver approach (the theme of this issue). An easily digestible and practical form of the framework looks as in Figure 1: FIGURE 1 LEADERSHIP FRAMEWORK FOR INNOVATIVE TALENT MANAGEMENT
builds upon tacit knowledge, which makes it difficult to document and transfer to other new operators. A key to their success is their quick ability to analyze current operating conditions while sitting inside the control room and accordingly respond. This is vital for 24 hours non-stop continuous operations power supply management. As a result, such employees become a scarce knowledge resource of a company. At one of the plants in Gujarat at Hazira, a power plant operator approached its principal equipment supplier AlstomSwitzerland to suggest and come up with an innovative solution to overcome the shortage of knowledge-owning plant operators. The real problem of the customer was that all the senior operators who had experience in operating complex machines had either left the company or moved on to a higher position and thus no longer able to continuously remain inside the power plant. The fresh batch of operators was still not trained enough. The Swiss visitor remembered the ubiquitous presence of mobile phones in India when he saw the Plant Manager talking on his mobile phone. He came out with a solution that important data could be transmitted from the control room on real-time basis to the mobile phones of senior managers (who were previously operators). This way, irrespective of their location, the senior managers could scan through data and suggest possible solutions. This idea was further refined subsequently in the R&D labs of the company in Switzerland and a patented technology was developed.
An example of path-breaking innovations by self-driven, small, a diverse background team comes from the manufacturing sector operating in a relatively stable power equipment industry. It is well known that knowledge and skilled plant operators are responsible for running and maintenance of complex heavy-duty machines such as Gas turbines in a power plant. Their experience in operating complex machines
The example show that ideas and operational solutions can come from most unexpected sources and from different industries. It is important for the front-line managers to be always alert to new possibilities and to never underestimate even the smallest complaint/request from the customer, no matter how crazy it sounds. It demonstrates powerfully that the most significant source of innovation does not come from the headquarters or R&D laboratories, but from collaborative networks that can leverage resources and capabilities across multiple organizations or individuals. In this case, a technical
expert of one company, commercial managers and plant operation managers of a second company, and a mobile company teamed up together to come up with an out-of-box solution that has fundamentally altered the technology paradigm in power plant management. Socrates had said I cannot teach anybody anything, I can only make them think. This is sole purpose of the article I hope it gives managers something to think in the new directions. Long-lasting companies have the ability to align to the emerging trends.
44
LEADING THE NEW GENERATION WORKFORCE

SOURAV DASPATNAIK
About the Author Sourav Daspatnaik is Director Human Resources and Strategy Apeejay Group. He is an alumnus of the Birla Institute of Technology Mesra, Ranchi., an alumnus of MS at Stevens Institute of Technology, NJ, USA. Prior to joining Apeejay, Sourav worked as Director, Mercer Human Resource Consulting, Tata Motors, Tata Steel and Ispat Industries in cross-functional areas like Technical Services, Sales and Marketing etc. Sourav has been actively involved in Industry Associations like CII, FICCI and served as the Chapter President of Natioanl HRD Network and is currently Regional President, East. His portfolio of work encompasses HR, IR and Group Strategy and its implementation.
n the recent months leading and managing Gen Y work force has been a major topic for research. This topic is especially critical for India, where more than 35% of the workforce is below the age of 27 years. There are three generations working in the Indian context Baby Boomers (born 1945-1962), Generation X (born 1963-1981), and Gen Y (born 1982-1997). In the years to come, most of Indias high potential employees and middle managers will be from Generation Y. They already comprise a large share of the workforce than anywhere else. It is increasingly becoming clear that the future of Indian organizations rests on the ability of organizations to engage the Gen Y. The paradox is that the top leadership that needs to manage Gen Y is mostly born before 1980 and has limited knowledge and skills to engage with them. As managers struggle to design tailor practices to attract
and motivate them and make them truly productive in alignment with the organization, researchers across the world have been bringing out some interesting findings (courtesy ASIA HR EXECUTIVE BOARD). Management practices are the function of societal trends, beliefs and values and will continuously evolve further in the new business landscape. Thus, there is a need for managers and organizational leaders to deeply understand the changing mind sets and acquire sophisticated understanding of human interaction, including the need to appreciate and take account of demographic preferences and cultural differences, starting with Basic Assumptions Values and Norms Behaviours. As per social scientists, Gen Y is more self confident, optimistic, structured and impatient. The age group or generation is more tolerant and socially liberal. This
The author acknowledges the contribution of Ms. Rashmi Singh, Asst Manager (HRD), Apeejay Surrendra Group and Karishma Dhawan, Deputy Manager (HRD), Apeejay Surrendra Group.
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Myth #1: Very different desires - Gen Y wants different things as compared to the other generations.
Realty#1: 70 % of top 10 employee value proposition attributes that attract employees to a potential employer are common across all 3 generations (Baby boomers, Gen X, and Gen Y). Realty #1: Gen Y in India evaluates potential employers based on innovation as well as technology level. Organisational Mandate: Leverage the common
Myth #2: Retention is all about Compensation Gen Y is only about money and will move to another organization if the compensation is right.
Realty #2: While Gen Y employees move to other organizations because of compensation, they do not leave because of compensation. Realty#2: Gen Y in India with higher probability of staying have comparatively lower satisfaction levels with compensation as compared to development opportunities Realty #3: Employees with high intent to stay tend to have managers who provide constructive formal feedback. Realty #3: Formal feedback mechanism works well and effectively than an informal one.
Myth #3: Need for high levels of appreciation and feedback, mostly delivered informally.
Myth #4: Prioritize life, not work Gen Y gives more importance to work life balance than Gen X.
Realty #4: Preference for work life balance differs widely across countries and regions and is a function of local and cultural aspects. Realty 4: Younger employees in India have lower preference for work life balance early in their careers. and mms means they are impatient to stay connected and get result oriented. For them quality of work is more important than the quantity of work. While they may be known as an overindulged, over protected and over stimulated generation, Gen Y is inquisitive, challenging and creative. They desire the flexibility to complete the tasks in their own way, they are learning oriented and want instant feedback so that they can progress.
generation has been privy to fast changing social milieu, socio political turmoil, chaotic events like Kashmir violence, terrorist attacks, 9/11 in America and natural calamities like the Gujarat earthquake and the tsunami. Experience of so many chaotic events is definitely going to affect the change and uncertainty before them in the very fast changing work place. The advent of global communication and internet with real time connectivity, sms,
Leading Gen Y It is important to know and appreciate the styles of management, which will be effective and bring alignment with Gen Y. Gen Y need to feel connected with the Company they work for and its values. For the GenY workforce, the workplace provides a social network where they can create relationships within the organization. Organizations need to provide collaborative work environment rather than command and control style of work environment. The increasingly flat organizations and reducing hierarchies makes it critical that Gen Y get mentored and coached by their reporting leaders. As per research findings, the key characteristics that Gen Y work force desire of their leaders are caring, inspiring and competent. Gen Y want their leaders to guide them with a friendly and firm hand, while acknowledging and accepting the individuals unique traits and abilities. Thus it is important to have regular and open communication between managers and their Gen Y staff. Realistically, in normal organizations we have a mix of Gen Y, Gen X and Baby Boomers and hence managers will need to cater to Gen Y and other generations as well. Engaging with Gen Y A quick dip stick survey reveals that Gen Y will prefer employers who not only provide them a fulfillment of career and professional aspirations, but also their personal and social needs. Thus, it will be important to manage younger employees, and some simple ways of doing that are: Dispel negative mindsets. Negative preconceived notions serve as psychological barricades, which prevent employers from understanding their younger employees and uncover
their potential. Thus, it is important to proactively manage tensions and root out negative mind sets. Open dialogue and communications with trust and transparency helps in building a positive feel. Maintaining regular dialogue and providing feedback helps manage expectations. Regularly recognizing Gen Ys work and contribution is a big motivation for Gen Y to stay engaged and remain within the Company. Keeping it Real is key to gaining the respect from Gen Y. They are smart to gauge real motives and intentions and hence it helps managers to be genuine in their dealings. Remember that the manager is as vulnerable and has shortcomings as any other human being, thus showing vulnerability demonstrates sincerity. To inspite their younger staff, managers need to demonstrate passion and inspire their staff to higher results. In turn, Gen Y would be motivated to work towards common business goals. Use coaching and practice informal mentoring. Experts advise managers to avoid using tones of power and authority and encourage informal mentoring. Proactively answering their Why questions before they even ask them with detailed briefings and information helps reduce uncertainty and avoids guesses. Daily briefings, spending time talking about the history, context and under lying issues will help win loyalty by connecting with them at a personal level. Putting technology to good use with email, meetings, sms, electronic almanacs, Knowledge Management systems, To do list on mobiles, etc and keeping them updated will make them more involved.
Giving Gen Y some authority on deciding appropriate training and development options for themselves will often help them develop on the job and improve their decision making skills. Talent acquisition strategies for Gen Y: It is a war for talent, a fierce competition to find, hire and retain the very best people at a time when supply is shrinking and demand is increasing. And true to original predictions, this worldwide phenomenon shows no signs of abating, with the increasing shortage of talent affecting all industries and all career paths, both hourly and professional. A number of far-reaching trends are driving the changes that have manifested as the talent war. Among these trends are three key factors: Changing workforce demographics; The expectations of the 21st-century (Millennial or Generation Y) worker; and Emerging global economies. You think that a nice salary, good benefits package and opportunities for advancement might be enough to draw great talent for a company? Think again. Todays workforce is looking for global work experience and are seeking opportunities to work on international projects. Thats true for workforce across generations, from those just out of college all the way up to those near retirement. According to a recent global survey by Kelly Services, 81 percent of Millennials
(Generation Y) believe its important to their career potential that they be more globally oriented. Generation X workers were close behind them at 78 percent. Whats more, 71 percent of Baby Boomers said they prefer jobs that offer the opportunity to work on internationally oriented projects. The Paradigm Shift: Most of the organizations worldwide have started to move away from the dependence on recruitment or third party agencies and are going towards Employee Referrals and creating and developing Networks. These Networks may be existing or needs to be created to tap the talent. Global locations shall be growing considerably in the next decade and it is important for recruitment managers to reach out to them as Gen Y is no longer on email, they have to be tapped from social networks like Linkedin/ Facebook, etc. The paper resume will no longer exist by the next decade and new and creative ways that allow people to create their profile, support video interviewing, etc. will be the new method for hiring. A research suggests that the by 2015, the Gen Y population in the workforce will double, and how we recruit and engage them, and how we continue that engagement throughout their career becomes imperative. Talent acquisition is moving from findingpursuing tracking talent to cultivating talent by building on & developing own existing networks. Therefore, creating a strategy and building a culture to support that kind of network sharing requires a large social media presence and organizations need to take this into consideration.
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MANAGING THE SLASH GENERATION

SONALI ROYCHOWDHURY and ROMIT CHOUDHURY
About the Authors Sonali Roychowdhury heads Human Resources at Procter and Gamble India. She is from XLRI batch of 1998, with experience across India, Singapore and Vietnam in P&G. Sonali has varied experience in Talent Development, Organization Design, Leadership Development and Mergers/Acquisitions. Sonali also has an avid interest in travel. Leading an HR team of almost 75% Generation X employees, Sonali has developed her insights on managing this group through personal trial and error.and is still learning on a daily basis! Romit Choudhury (Twitter handle: @microRom) is the HR Business Partner for the Southern and Western region of Procter & Gamble Indias Sales function. He passed out of TISS batch of 2008, joining P&G from campus. His professional area of interest includes Talent Development & Capability Building. Weekends you can track him via Twitter, Foursquare or Facebook attending social-media conferences, whose top-trend employee related topics have contributed richly to this article! The philosophy of the school room in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next. - Abraham Lincoln owhere is the above sentiment more apparent than in India today, which is on the cusp of preserving the strengths of the past, yet reinventing itself for the future. The 2011 census report reaffirms India as a young nation, with over 50% of the population below 25 years and 75% below 40 years, a similarity shared with most rising Asian economies. The impact of youth in the country is best felt in the labour market which engages and will continue to engage this vast slice of demography over the next few decades, leading to critical economic growth and systemic nation building. In most organizations today, the significant percentage of talent is Gen Y (people born after 1980), with an average 2-3 years of work experience. Gen Y is often referred to also as the Slash generation i.e. multitasking and working on several things at one go (X/Y/Z/etc.) and therefore, organizations need to evolve themselves to tap into those inclinations vs. force-fit into what works today. While their agility and fresh-thinking is an asset to any organization, having almost every alternate managerial role staffed by young talent implies significant organizational investment in coaching and capability building. How does one leverage the power of this huge pool of talent as a competitive differentiator vs. manage within the old construct of the past? It is no longer a nice to have focus but a must have for organizations to not just survive but thrive in the future. Internal research and feedback reveal the following trends:
The Insights In Procter & Gamble, weve tried to understand what really drives Gen Y by various organizational studies in the last half decade and here are a couple of insights from our learnings. While the core of employee engagement remains the same, Gen Y employees place far greater emphasis on a few areas: 1. Wow ME - Young employees are delighted by personal relevance and customized intervention that appeals to their individuality vs. generic one-size fit for all deployments. This is not a syndrome of Whats in it for me but search for a broader canvas/ environment which allows them to find their personal equation in the workplace. 2. Fair to me Thanks largely to the digital revolution the current generation is highly aware and sensitive to transparency and fairness indeed they demand it. They want to be associated with an ethical company and a workplace that treats them fairly and with dignity right from hiring. 3. Outcome vs. activities The youth exhibit a strong bias for action that leads to visible impact rather than defocusing energy in bureaucratic processes that consume effort but yield little. 4. Two way street Linked to this sense of urgency and empowerment is a strong need for dialogue and interactivity with managers. Working across multi-cultural teams and collaborative behaviour is much appreciated. The age of commandment is truly over. 5. Connected 247 Technology has impacted our lives and organizations in unprecedented ways. The youth want all time access to information and leverage technology to simplify work processes.
As an organization, once we realized these insights, a multifunctional task force was appointed to design an Action Plan to proactively engage the Gen Y employees. The recommendations of this team were to be hard-coded in the organizational DNA over the next few years. Today 60% of P&G is Gen Y and these initiatives have played a key role in engaging and retaining this talent pool. The Initiatives Few areas were focused on sharply, on the foundation of existing building blocks/ people systems in place. The insights helped us to hardcode the learnings in our people-systems and drive role-modeling and communication. The learnings are relevant for any sector or industry. 1. Ignite potential vs. one-track job Young people today want early responsibility. As a measure of faith that the Company has on its young talent, we empower every individual to draft their own action plan for the year ahead so that as a owner of the company they can themselves plan the best way to impact their business. The managers job is defined around: Initially explaining the business vision, goals & strategies to ensure consistency between the overall direction and the individuals effort. Aligning and locking the work-plan to set the right expectations Act as a barrier-buster or coach as per need and never micro-manage This empowerment pushes the boundary by ushering in more innovative thinking. It gives meaning to the work people do, beyond simple monetary rewards, especially when they see a visible connect between their own contribution and how
P&G improves consumer lives. Overall, igniting the potential in our people leads to better business results and engagement vs narrowing them down to check-box driven one-track jobs. A good example of providing meaning to a job beyond regular work can be found from Salesforce.coms 1/1/1 initiative[1] which gives 1% of its profit to a foundation which in turn pays for 1% of each employees time to do voluntary social work. Overall, the companys workforce does more than 50,000 hours of community work and according to a Time magazine article [2] the program has increased their retention dramatically, engaging high-quality employees to give back to the society and feel enriched by the experience. 2. Remove Barriers to communication Any organization gets impacted if hierarchy and work culture prevents free flow of communication between teams and individuals. At P&G, over the last one decade we have actively worked to remove such barriers by: Removing all visible hierarchical barriers like office cabins, corner seats etc. In fact most of our offices have moved to a hot-desking culture without allotted work-station which drives an agile and flow-to-work behaviour. Technology allows each individual to touch down at any part of the office as and when they want. The whole space is their office, not just one desk! Decision making is not hierarchical but linked to relevant need of the project in hand systems need to be designed so that decisions can be made by those who are most impacted. Theres a strong decision-matrix model in the Company that is implemented for roles & responsibility clarity in any work-team. Typically there are few
approvers or deciders, while rest of the team assumes contributor or executor status. Multi-functional team design One of the critical enablers in P&G that drives inter-functional relationship is the organization structure that embeds functional resources directly with line management as business partners to provide functional expertise. All of these sum up to create a free and transparent organization that drives engagement of the younger employees, who otherwise are at the receiving end of hierarchical or preferential treatment. 3. Develop the young to be Tomorrows Leaders Every P&Ger is expected to lead in creating a work-plan for himself/herself at the beginning of the year which they align with the manager and deliver for the rest of the fiscal. This process, while including the standard KRA and performance management element, goes way further in terms of pro-active people development with each individual having a Development Plan in which the manager captures the persons three strengths and one opportunity as per a consistent competency framework. It culls out the specific action plan for the individual to grow himself/herself via a host of Company offerings like Corporate Training, On-the-job experiences, and forums to demonstrate certain behaviours, etc. This systematic effort to groom individuals to leadership roles leveraging their unique strengths especially at their early career stage is much appreciated by the younger generation. 4. Invest in People Management capabilities In sync with the earlier points, it is obvious that employee-manager relationship
assumes a whole new dimension when the managers role shifts from a hierarchical boss to a business enabler. As a lot of our young managers assume people management responsibility quite early in their career, we invest disproportionate organizational energy in building peoplemanagement capabilities. This ranges from Corporate Workshops on inspiring teams, the science and art of 1:1s, education on people systems like performance management, salary etc. This investment has a multiplicative impact in driving better work relationship and retention across the organization. 5. Offer jobs honestly vs. over-selling While recruiting, hiring managers often over-sell the job to the young candidates, only for their hopes to dash post join-up, leading to frustration, disengaged contribution and often attrition. This is nowhere visible more than at business schools, where demand exceeds supply leading to tall claims from recruiting managers to ostensibly stand-out from the crowd. We ensure that role requirements are communicated honestly because it helps us to recruit the right-fit people vs bringing in someone whose passion clearly lay elsewhere. A sales role has some market work and travel ingrained in it, a client management role with western customers will involve some late night conferencing and no amount of euphemisms can take away those truths. It is better for us to clarify the expectations of the job before offering, rather than the candidate turning up at office and realizing this is not exactly what he/she had signed up for. Such gap in expectations immediately breaks the circle-of-trust between the individual and the organization prompting a chain of downward spiral.
6. Power of Choice in Flexible propositions As organizations become increasingly diverse in terms of gender, skill-sets, life-experiences and thought, it is important to offer customized propositions to employees to work for the company rather than one size fit for all. We have introduced a host of flexibilities for employees to choose according to their own needs. These ranges right from Compensation, where specific items can be cashed out or contributed depending on the employees choice, to flexible workarrangements, work-from home and remote-working options, depending on the nature of the business and the role involved. 7. Leverage Technology The youth of today are extremely wellversed at technology and organizations need to learn how to leverage technical innovations to drive engagement. Some of the key strategies to drive via technology are: Customized Experience Leverage technology to drive customization in all our major people processes and communication. In P&G, every employee has an independent intranet account called My Life and Career. Similarly, the whole performance management piece, earlier referred to is maintained via a website. Offer Flexibility Mobile office / Remote Teams / Work from Home and other flexibility options are enabled by technology. In fact as a consumer products multi-national spread across 80 countries with multi-national / functional work-teams, cutting edge communication tools ensure that remote teams work effectively due to technology.
Enable Simplification The young generation has less patience with archaic bureaucracy, and technology helps to drive better accessibility to information, easier processes and overall simplification and time-savings. 8. Drive Work-Life effectiveness & WellBeing Finally it is important to ensure that theres proper work-life effectiveness so that they can continue performing at peak in a sustainable fashion. Enable this by: Driving Simplification as a priority in all our work systems across all functions. Best processes are those, which achieve maximum impact at minimum touch-points. Simplification cuts the clutter and saves time for people to focus on building the business Provide Work Life Coaching Last year weve introduced an Employee Assistance Program for all P&G India employees and their families free of cost. This program provides them with
trained counsel for all professional and personal challenges at complete anonymity. Well-being should be taken care of by medical and engagement programs that deal with all life stages and role demands Policies that support wellbeing of employees located at nonmetro locations without peer group / social support must be catered to via appropriate wellness/socialization programs. As a final word, it is important to discern between the real engagers vs. the superficial efforts. For example just following an extremely informal workplace clothing policy or a lot of celebratory events without cutting down the hierarchical barriers will not drive real communication either horizontally or vertically. As a HR professional, we need to be aware of what are the true drivers of engagement and delight our young employees to give their passionate best for the organization.
References
[1] http://www.sharethemodel.org [2] The Time Magazine: What Gen Y Really Wants, July, 07
53
MANAGING THE YOUNG GENERATION PROFESSIONALS

ALOK NARAIN and S VARADARAJAN
About the Authors Alok Narain is a Graduate in Commerce and has a Diploma in Hotel Management. He has over 25 years of experience across multiple industries primarily with in the service sector. He is presently VP-Employee Development at Quatrro Global Services (earlier known as Quatrro BPO Solutions). He is based in Gurgaon at their corporate office. S.Varadarajan is a Post Graduate in Commerce from the Madras University and a Post Graduate in HR from XLRI, Jamshedpur. He has over 28 years of experience across multiple industries including HR consulting in India and abroad. He is presently part of the promoting team of Quatrro Global Services (earlier known as Quatrro BPO Solutions) in Gurgaon and is their Executive VP & Chief HR Officer. Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive But to be young was very heaven! - William Wordsworth processes, norms and guidelines for managing the organizations where the Young Generation Professionals or Gen Y happen to be right at the core as it couldnt be otherwise any longer! The New Order Cometh Lets consider the situation in our own backyard in India. We will be growing our GDP at a scorching pace of about 10 percent every year till 2020. The shift from agriculture to services and manufacturing will now begin to be significant. The most critical information though - India is getting younger the average age in 2020 will be 29 in India as against 37 in China and USA, 45 in Europe and 47 in Japan. As India gets younger, it also gets richer and continues on its journey to become a significant player globally. Needless to say that there would be radical changes around us. Also, it is well known that every new era brings with itself a
e live in interesting times, irrespective of the hats we wear and irrespective of the nature of business we transact. The sheer diversity that we experience every living moment and the ever-continuing onslaught from the pushes and pulls keeps the adrenalin levels forever high! Sure enough, we wont be willing to trade places with anyone else and even if we were willing to, the nature of experience wont be too different perhaps! Now looking at all of this from the unique vantage points that are offered to us as professionals - nothing can be more interesting and challenging than that. Even more interesting is the fact that we arent mere observers, but active participants in the process of establishing systems,
completely new set of challenges in managing the next generation on account of the incremental evolutionary changes in earlier generations. It has been possible, however, to manage these incremental changes by making minimal or incremental adjustments. The changes this time around can be termed as truly disruptive, very similar to the changes happening in the world of technology. Its almost as if all the cumulative effects have reached a critical mass thus causing disruption. The Gen Y clearly seems to be such a generation and hence changes in our own approach need to be radical as well. Who are they? Lets make an attempt at deconstructing the Gen Y, knowing fully well that such attempts are fraught with serious risks and fallacious as the Gen Yers dont lend themselves to stereotypical definitions, but lets make a start in any case! Wikipedia defines Generation Y as those born in the midst of a mature western culture between the early 1980s and the late 1990s. Unlike the generation that have gone before them, Gen Y has been pampered, nurtured and programmed with a slew of activities since they were toddlers, meaning they are both high performance and high maintenance. They are by nature very inquisitive and need clear answers for the innumerable questions they raise. They also believe in their own worth. Sociographically, they are at home with Facebook, Linked In, Twitter, YouTube, Skype, texting, IM and other instant communication technologies giving them a reputation for being peer oriented and seeking instant gratification. Their penchant for communicating by using social media tools is giving new meanings to virtually every aspect of our lives social, political, economic and moreWhat is truly disruptive is the fact that the events caused take a size and shape beyond anyones imagination and predictions!
It would also be instructive to learn from the last two to three years as the Gen Y have clearly demonstrated a high degree of commitment and responsibility towards building democratic societies and communities in various parts of the world - in countries and regions where the local environments werent at all expected to be conducive. Jasmine revolution and its aftermath continue to engage the attention of the world in many ways as there will be far reaching consequences of the events that have taken place in the last one year. Our own experience, at the risk of being somewhat anecdotal, Generation Y are generally more ambitious, independent, brand conscious and tend to be driven by quality of experiences and interactions. The tenures in jobs are shorter and the motivation to move to newer jobs could be right from frivolous to profound - because my friend is leaving to I didnt appreciate the way I was spoken to. On occasions the lead-time given to their current organizations could be no more than hours and hence they may come across as having virtually no appreciation for organizational processes and norms! At a different level, the Gen Y is acutely aware of their own value in the job market. In the present day organizations, we can safely assume that the first generation entrepreneur/ leader is managing a second-generation manager who in turn manages a third generation (Gen Y) employee. Many organizations struggle as the first generation leader is the one who makes the policies that may not always match with the expectations of the Gen Y employee. Hence it is very critical that we have our listening posts active to bake in their requirements/needs in setting up the guidelines in our organizations. The Impact It wont be an overstatement to say that Gen Y will radically change the rules of the
game! In fact with more than half of the Indian workforce below 27 years of age, a more relevant discussion at this interesting transition point would be about Getting Managed by Gen Y rather than Managing Gen Y! They will bring about nothing less than radical changes in the ways we view management and leadership - an era of true disruption and discontinuity! Let us then understand the kind of impact we are likely to see on account of the behavioural characteristics and attributes that the Gen Y have in abundance! 1. Independent thinking Attributable to the way the Gen Y has been brought up - there would be myriad of theories around that. The bottom line is that the Gen Y is highly independent and has no reservations to let us know about that! For the Baby Boomers and Gen X, this can come across as confrontational and bordering on arrogance. 2. Confidence This has shades of overlap with the first characteristic. Gen Y has no qualms in putting across their thoughts, feelings and letting us know where they are with respect to an issue. 3. Creativity Gen Y is high on creativity as they are not impressed by what has been done in the past! They are on the lookout for newer ways of doing things rather than sticking to the old successful ways! 4. Teamwork - Gen Y genuinely values teamwork and is committed to the teams. They are happy to share the credit rather than try to hog the limelight! This also brings up an interesting complexity that the leader needs to address as they value independence highly as well! 5. Driven by real learning - Gen Y appreciates true learning and look for
it. Not for them just the classrooms and the instructors. They need to be provided by logic or better still if they are able to find their own logic and rationale in the way learning happens! No wonder that the traditional approaches to teaching-learning or mentoring dont deliver! Bring in technology and connectedness to the real world instead. 6. Scant regard/respect for formal structures of authority - With all the above, it should hardly come as a surprise! They could be mistaken as the rebels or even the revolutionaries! Give us a rule/policy and we will break it/ deviate from it! A few organizations have moved away from rules to creating guidelines that act as boundaries for any actions to meet the needs of this generation! 7. Maturity in approach has been replaced more often by instant decision making - This can sometime come across as bordering on impulsive. Loyalty and commitment to organizations are now considered dated concepts and the old school of thought! 8. Need to follow their dreams The Gen Y is very clearly committed to doing what their heart desires and fortunately current times offer diverse opportunities to explore new unexplored avenues, out of the realm of the clichd options. 9. Age is just a number and that doesnt matter - The Gen Y cares for competencies and capabilities. Age is no longer the driver for competency to handle big roles- numerous examples of young and very young achievers who are running organizations in diverse sectors, domains....
With the above, we would stress on certain key aspects - the Gen Y possesses the kind of outlook and orientation coupled with confidence that the corporate world needs today. Even if it sounds overly self critical, the reality is that all the experience and wisdom of the Baby Boomers and the Gen X couldnt keep the troubles of the last 3 years away, so our claim on how the Gen Y/Next needs to be, is nothing but hollow! Also, in recent years the mindset change in the younger workforce has been nothing less than radical - there are scores of examples of youngsters who have chosen to reject fat pay packets to opt for start ups in hitherto completely unexplored and uncharted territories. Their sole desire is to bring about meaningful changes in the larger community. Demands on Organizations and the Response Organizations would need nothing less than great footwork and zeal to be dealing with what is coming their way! The talent situation in India makes it imperative that there would be multiple generations at play in the organizations. Building an ecosystem with the customers, suppliers and all the external and internal stakeholders, along with the organizational leadership would be a key deliverable for the HR leadership and functions of tomorrow that is now already in any case! 1. Building platforms for communication/collaboration - We need to play an active part in building people networks by leveraging technology. Web 2.0 and graduating to 3.0 has to be a reality. The good news is that more than money, its now imagination and creativity that is needed to build these networks! It is very critical to have all information available and be shared with this Generation to quench their inquisitive nature as also feed into their creative juices. How about charging a
team of Gen Y with this responsibility in case you havent done so already! 2. Redefining Work and How it gets Done - Work is no longer about what gets done in a certain place and within certain premises! Gen Y is about Getting work done, and how and where are no longer relevant. It is necessary to provide them opportunities and flexibility to manage multiple opportunities, as that is what keeps up their interest and challenge. Its alright to make the demands in terms of responsibility and accountability, but the old definitions have to give in. Working remotely will become standard, leveraging technology and virtual relationships. Gen Y is at the core of this trend because for them, meeting and interacting online is just as comfortable and real as face-to-face meetings (unlike Gen X and Boomers who see a clear difference between online and in-person experiences). Sooner the better! It is necessary to weave fun/sense of humour into our workplaces, as it brings out the best in people to showcase their potential and true self. Be serious about work without taking yourself too seriously!! 3. Reward - Interestingly, rewarding Gen Y is about much more than money! The desire to take on new challenges, expand their capabilities and as a result, advance to new, more highly compensated roles. The focus for these individuals is less about the compensation and more about the advancement, the improved capabilities and the recognition of achievement marked by a new position as also to get their instant gratification need met. Offering Gen Y employees a raise while keeping all other factors the same will not have the same impact as giving them new challenges. In fact, in
many cases a raise alone could backfire and cause the Gen Y employee to seek job satisfaction elsewhere. 4. Learning / Training - There is a need to bring in the various generations under a common umbrella - This is an opportunity to reexamine the programs and processes- redesign the practices and culture to accommodate these changes. A judicious mix of informal and formal initiatives for bringing together the team members, and creating forums for ideas sharing go a long way in creating engagement. Again, leveraging technology in simple and relevant ways can help in bringing the organization together! It is absolutely necessary to help them in defining the skills that they need to advance and meet these needs through experiential and engaged training 5. Advancement Expectations - The Gen Y expect to move ahead in their careers much faster than their earlier generations. Its a matter of setting the right expectations early on and then managing aspirations on an ongoing basis. What is of critical importance the organizations need to keep their word and in case the requirements in terms of learning are met, the growth must be provided. In any case, meaningful and empowered job roles, enhancement in job responsibilities must happen - mere change in designations and empty titles dont impress anyone - more so the Gen Y! 6. Leadership The aspect of leadership assumes critical importance and focus to manage and lead the Gen Y. Gen Y does not like to be treated as kids or teenagers, which many of the managers tend to. They need to be treated as colleagues who bring in their value to achieving the goals of the organization. Gen Y also is constantly
looking at how good a team player the leader is, for they strongly believe that the best of team leaders have to necessarily be good team players. Hence balancing the role of being the boss with that of being perceived as a team player gains significant focus. It also becomes absolutely necessary for leaders to tolerate well-intentioned failures and treat them as steppingstones for success to come. Gen Y are quick to learn from mistakes and what they expect is the leader to coach and counsel them, rather than police them and pull them up for the mistakes that they make. They look forward to the leaders providing them constructive feedback that they absorb like a sponge. Mentoring would be one more effective way of leading the Gen Y. 7. Social Conscience, supported by Real Action - Its worth noting that CSR, Voluntarism, participation in community activities/initiatives cant be dismissed as just buzzwords where the Gen Y is concerned. In the absence of a formal program, the employee groups are known to take their own initiatives by pooling in their own resources and through their own networks as well! This recognizes Gen Ys strengths and offers them time to explore civic interests and volunteerism. This creates the feeling of community so desired by Gen Y while also emphasizing a supported setting. It also reiterates the commitment to community that is so inherent in 18-30 year-olds. In Conclusion There is no doubt about the fact that the organizations have a significant role to play in building and institutionalizing a framework, an ecosystem that has the ability to bring together the multiple generations. All the generations need to
contribute and add value to the outcomes. The organizations need to build a framework to connect with the extraordinary talent pool in order to create an employable talent pool. The processes to transform that talent through the organizational leadership has to be initiated very early and especially so in a scenario at this juncture in India where we are virtually talent starved. The platforms thus built, create a connect with the Gen Y and also the subsequent generations! The way the Gen Y thinks and feels would no longer be a surprise and shock for those who are from earlier generations! Also, there is a need to recognize the obstacles and in most cases they turn out to be the biases and prejudices that cause
the resistance. If the individuals make an honest attempt to suspend their judgment the resolutions happen and the outcomes are enhanced. The best examples of these changes are found in our own immediate environments - the way we embrace our own young and accept changes! Finally, we would dedicate this write up to the rebellious and revolutionary Young Professionals from whom all those wise and experienced Business and HR Leaders grew. All wise and experienced Business and HR Leaders were once young and rebellious although many of them choose to forget it! Dedicated to wise and experienced Business and HR leaders when they were young and rebellious!
Bibliography and References

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Bliss was it..- William Wordsworth (The Prelude) Dedication - Adapted from The Little Prince- Antoine de Saint Exupery Wikipedia - Definition Current Challenges in Human Resource Management - Jon Burgess Challenges of managing Gen Y - Barbara Moses Managing Gen Y is a different ball game - Sangeeth Varghese
59
TAKING TO THE NEXT LEVEL : HR IN SMALL AND MEDIUM BUSINESSES

Dr. SANDEEP K KRISHNAN
About the Author Dr. Sandeep K. Krishnan is the Vice President, HR and Corporate Development, Acropetal Technologies, India where he heads the function. He is a Mechanical Engineer and a Fellow of the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmadabad, where he completed his doctorate. His areas of expertise include designing human resource processes, leadership development, organisation structuring, and employer branding. He has been instrumental in organisation development and bringing change by instilling effective HR processes and systems as an in-house professional and as a consultant. His work has been recognised by Asia Pacific HRM Congress with Acropetal winning the Organisation with Innovative HR practices Award. He has worked with organisations such as IBM, RPG, and Ernst and Young in the area of Human Resource Consulting, Talent Management, and as a HR Generalist working closely with Business at senior levels. He teaches as a visiting faculty in institutes like IIMs, and IMT Nagpur. He has published papers in highly regarded academic journals and publications of general interest. He can be reached at sandeephrm@gmail.com
Its passionately interesting for me that the things that I learned in a small town, in a very modest home, are just the things that I believe have won the election. Margaret Thatcher
mall and Medium Businesses are like the small veins and arteries of the economy. They drive growth by enhancing reach of the economy in terms of spread, risk taking, innovation, and generating employment. While anything from an investment of less than 1 crore can be mentioned as small and 10 crores as medium business, a lot of complexity still exists in the definition primarily sector, number of employees, turnover, years of existence. A lot has been written of how
enterprises of this size grow and grow to a formidable size or just sustain. While availability of capital, innovation, reinvention, and markets is critical, the growth beyond a point is driven by people and mostly the leadership team with the entrepreneur or the founding group anchoring it. While it is clichd to mention this, what matters is the depth of this aspect and how HR can play a critical part in influencing it. I draw upon three case studies where I was involved as a HR consultant or in-house manager. The contexts are very varied in terms of sector of operations. One is a small-scale pump assembler, second is a NBFC (Non Banking Finance Company), and third an organization in the IT sector.
All three fall under SMB and are in high growth phases. Case 1: Ramesh Pumps Ramesh Pumps was a small-scale business that started in 1998 based out of Ahmedabad by an entrepreneur - Ramesh Patel. The focus was on assembling pumps to be exported to European markets. The company had grown to revenue of around 3.5 crores by 2002 and had a healthy 15-20 % as average net profits. Ramesh also had funding for the company and was quite excited about the opportunity, as market also existed in Europe for his pumps. The company had close to 40 employees and mostly they were from ITI with background in mechanical or electrical fields. The salary ranges were quite less and just met the minimum wages. Ramesh was really worried about his growing attrition levels and he did many things to manage this including raising salaries many times. He also saw some of his trusted employees leaving the company. This also bothered him as they were with him from the beginning. It was at this stage that Ramesh got in touch with us at the management institute and I had a chance of working on the project for Ramesh. We worked starting with understanding the current issues in the organization and diagnosing the causes. A few of the issues were attrition rate close to 80 % annually, high level of absenteeism, defects in work and associated costs, and fighting between employees, that Ramesh could not control. We also delved into the causes and some of the aspects that came out were very interesting. a) There were no policies in terms of rewards and punishments. Whatever Ramesh thought as punishment or reward was based on his liking for the person, and general feeling was being
given. For example, if a person came late and he is a person generally liked by Ramesh, he might be forgiven and the other person who might not be that liked, might have to forego his half-day salary. b) The industries outside were paying better than Ramesh Pumps and even for a small increase people were ready to quit c) The new workers were not emotionally attached to Ramesh as they valued the association only to the extent of rewards d) Ramesh did not have anybody as a second line he could trust and most of the work of second line was done by trusted old employees who were at same level of new comers e) Ramesh worked as if he controlled everything and believed that he is successful with what he started and was looking at new challenges. The challenges that Ramesh faced are very similar to what many entrepreneurs who have found success with their startups might have. The first aspect is that entrepreneurs themselves do not evolve with the organizations they have started. Secondly, they are unable to accept the fact that organizations should have basic processes and practices to manage beyond their personal ability and skills. Thirdly, they are unable to invest in a good second line to manage and give stability to the organization. Case 2: High Growth NBFC This case of a company that has already crossed pangs of a startup and has stabilized as a medium scale company for a while. The company was planning for its next level of growth and had investments coming in from private equity
majors. The company was already listed and the investors were looking at a major ramp up in operations of its loan business so that the growth is reflected as stock price. The company had a 50 years legacy and it was in the recent times that the growth path was engaged. From 100 branch operations, the growth plan was to reach around 1000 branches. I was part of a team that worked as part of a major consulting engagement with the company. The plan was to have processes in place in HR that will help in its growth. The diagnosis in the organization and HR audit showed that the organization had the following gaps. a) HR processes existed. However, they were highly skewed in favor of employer and many of them were harsh. b) Performance was managed through hard control and incentives. c) The head of the organization is still involved at minute operational level details and is unable to come out of it. d) The second line had a couple of empowered leaders. However, they were not willing to take a stance that is neutral or against the interest of the promoter. e) Frequent transfers, promotions, demotions, and punishments were leading to an attrition rate of around 70%. f) The company needed a clear vision and direction to motivate its team. This was a classic case where the founder was still an active member and stuck in operations. For growth there was a need to build a stronger top management and middle management. Rather than processes that are to control, best practices had to be incorporated. Vision and
structure had to be inbuilt to take company to the next level. Case 3: Growing IT company The third case where I had an interesting experience was with an IT company that is fast growing, both organic and inorganic. With the growth, the company also went public. It had four small acquisitions in a short period of two years and is in the process of consolidation. The company has invested in core sectors of IT and also future sectors like healthcare, energy and environment. The companys high growth in a short period has led to following. The company is around 200 crores and the challenges are a) How to ensure that the organization is going in right direction in terms of its strategy and growth? b) How to have operational and strategic control and integrate acquired companies? c) The promoter being from a non-IT background, how can he ensure that right investments are made? d) How to build a second level core team that can take the company to next level? The case is clear of the promoter getting adjusted to high growth and having the challenge of uncertainty of managing high growth. HR Solutions for the growth challenges: The solutions at different levels that can be facilitated and led by HR can be aligned at four major levels. 1) The promoter or founding team 2) Second line 3) Organizational structure 4) HR Practices and processes
Theme
Startup
Early growth
Medium size
Sustenance / further growth Strategic level operations by promoters Strong professional team Decisions on investments driven by strategic thoughts and processes.
The promoter or founding team And business agenda
Highly driven by the promoters.
Focus on taking on most Early success activities by driving new promoters markets/ oerings Cost consciousness Growth Driven by leading to more primary specialization business within teams agenda and and also need early capital to bring in new members Driven by growth models and bringing larger capital Very less. Mostly a few known people New people brought in as a judicious thought
Promoters with rst line of employees brought through contacts
Team size grown. Decision making by promoters to give up operational control to professionals Diversication to mitigate risks Professionals in place / inow started
Second line
Second line of professionals in place. Not clear of their roles and identity in the organization Structure driven by addition of resources A few in place for recruitment, compensation, but confusion on performance management, and lack of best practices. Need for clearly drawn practices felt
Professional management in place and clarity in terms of roles and responsibilities Structure drives future growth Drive for clarity in practices by professionals and external consultants.
Organization Flat structure HR practices Nil. and processes
Flat with a second line A few drawn for business
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The key is to understand that the confusion in the organization is part of the growth challenges and the solution lies in tackling it at the right time. Too many processes without growth can lead to a bureaucratic organization and lack of it with growth can lead to confusion. The role of HR is in ensuring that right practices and processes are done at the right time, and at times best practices are enabled. Recommendation for start-ups Clarity in terms of compensation and incentives for everybody including the founding team Set-up recruitment processes Ensure one of the founding member is in charge of people decisions Basic policies that will enable early growth timing, attendance, leave, reporting / reviews, and travel Vision and business goals leading to business plans Recommendations for early growth Hire managers that best fit the role Compensation plan including stock and variable pay Clear second line structure Plan for a structure that will help drive and manager future growth HR resource to work with the promoter on people related issues and management Clarity in roles and responsibilities with proper designations, and also in the performance expectations and parameters for second line Reviews on performance for the second line
Hire a professional CFO and operations head if required Founding team responsibilities to delegate
Recommendations for medium scale Definitely have professionals as second line Full fledged HR department with a professional leading it Coaching and mentoring for promoter and founding team to manage change A professional CEO if required to manage the growing scale and complexity of operations Establish clear HR processes and work towards best practices Robust goal setting and performance management system Build a strong board or an executive council, and appropriate governance and review mechanisms Establish an enabling structure for future growth strategy Seek external / professional help / support for implementing any of the above actions. Recommendations for future growth and sustenance Compensation and retention policies for key team members Appropriate processes for M & A and other growth strategies Focus on best practices implementation that will help in future proofing Succession plans for key management team Ensure and strengthen culture and values Establish corporate identity and brand
Conclusion As a strategic business partner, HR has a big role to play in growth of enterprises. The reality is that the function exists in many such organizations without a core HR professional, and instead anchored by the promoter or founding members. The promoter or founding member himself or herself drives the basic premise of HR for growth in the early stages. After a while it becomes a journey towards professional management and many a times practices are invented according to the need of business. The earlier practices become obsolete or hinder business growth. The promoter who once supported those practices will have to change it for best practices or the ones that suit the growth. I would point to them as points of inflection that is more of a compulsion to change rather than planned. Resistance to the same can be catastrophic or pull the organization back in its growth plans. The main actors promoter / promoter group decides how well the story of growth of an organization goes. It is also their decision to change and bring professionals at the right time with right strategy, and a right infrastructure in terms of processes and practices that will lead to growth. The challenge will be a chicken and egg story
As there are no professionals there might not be best practices in the system and this will not attract the best ones. Secondly, as the strategy is driven primarily by promoters, professionals might not be attracted to a haphazard organization and change might not happen. Thirdly and most fatally, promoters might not understand the need for change and end up as prisoners of their own creation or limited success. A professional HR joining in a medium scale organization in a growth phase will have to primarily work on getting a buy-in from founding members for change, implement practices though it might hurt interests of a few, bring in new talent through innovative compensation and recruitment methods, and align processes to create an employer brand. The key is to make investments in the strategic direction of the organization and HR processes are to be aligned to it. For example, a small-scale unit might require basic processes that govern rewards and punishments, while a medium scale unit might require compensation mechanisms aligned to retention and long term gain share. The need to reinvent and rejuvenate is ongoing for sustained growth and HR plays a critical role in this process.
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OWNERSHIP : OVERCOMING INDIFFERENCE

S RAMNARAYAN and NEHA GUPTA
About the Authors S. Ramnarayan is from the School of Business (ISB), Hyderabad. He earned his Ph.D. in Organizational Behavior from the Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio. He has taught at IIM, Ahmedabad, Case Western Reserve University, and University of Bamberg, Germany. He has carried out research funded by the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, Ford Foundation, World Bank, Commonwealth Secretariat, Department for International Development and German Science Foundation. He has co-authored books titled Changing Tracks: Reinventing the Spirit of Indian Railways, Change Management: Altering Mindsets in a Global Context and Managing Organizational Change, and co-edited Life After 360 Degree Feedback, Strategic Management of Public Enterprises in Developing Countries, Managerial Dilemmas: Cases in Organizational Behavior and Organization Development: Interventions and Strategies. Neha Gupta, Researcher at Centre for Leadership, Innovation, and Change (CLIC) at Indian School of Business (ISB), Hyderabad holds a MBA in HR and B.E. in E&C. She had a stint at IBM as an Application Developer. She has co-authored chapters in the forthcoming book Organization Development: Accelerating Transformation and Learning edited by S. Ramnarayan and T.V. Rao, which includes contributions from eminent OD practitioners like Udai Pareek and Marvin Weisbord. She has published articles & book reviews in leading HR magazines like Human Capital, NHRD Newsletter.
With market opening up for imported coal in the new liberalized regime, Singareni Collieries could, no longer pass on its inefficiencies to the customers in terms of increased prices. It was faced with mounting losses. Even as the company was referred to the Board of Industrial and Financial Restructuring (BIFR) and confronted the grave threat of imminent closure, the mine workers made no effort to avert the decline. In fact, catcall strikes at the mines were on the rise.
A large engineering organization had constituted a Business Planning Group (BPG) to focus on the development of new and value-added products. To ensure attention at the highest level, the Deputy General Manager (DGM) who headed the BPG was given direct reporting relationship to the Managing Director (MD). Specialists from key functions were transferred to the newly formed department. Yet, an internal review conducted at the end of six
months showed that the new team had been a major disappointment they had very little to show in terms of performance. To remain competitive, the leadership team at the Union Bank of India realized the need for a radical change in employee mindsets. Bankers at operating levels were required to assume responsibility for launching sales campaigns, making customer calls and focusing on customer relations. A massive training effort was taken up at senior levels. Despite these efforts, there was little attention paid to altering employees mindsets at the cutting edge. By 1999, Nissan was struggling for survival. It had not made profits for 8 years. There was a staggering $11 billion debt in its account. Carlos Ghosn CEO of Nissan, asked Otani, the Purchasing Group Manager to reduce purchasing cost by 20% to stay competitive in the marketplace and constituted a crossfunctional team (CFT) for this purpose. But the CFT came up with sub-optimal recommendations. For Ghosn, CFTs work was akin to jumping half the well. He knew that with those sub-optimal efforts, Nissan would still fall in the deep, dark well of bankruptcy.
people work in your company? a CEO replied laconically: Less than half of them. The studies on employee engagement corroborate the CEOs response. Ownership and engagement in organizations present a dismal picture. Recent research[1] concludes that only 29 percent of employees are actively engaged; 54 percent are not engaged; and 17 percent are actively disengaged. The actively disengaged workers tend to undermine engaged co-workers accomplishments by incessantly voicing their unhappiness and grievances. To return to our earlier question: Why do a large majority of employees merely assume a spectator stance in organizations rather than involve themselves as actors? Employees face challenging situations at work. These challenges cover a wide gamut enhancing quality, minimizing costs, building customer orientation, or optimizing talent pool. As actors, when they assume ownership, these situations turn into opportunities for enhancing performance and competitiveness. In the absence of ownership, the same situations degenerate into problems to be avoided. It is imperative for leaders to examine why organizational members assume or dont assume ownership of challenges, and what they can do to overcome indifference and foster ownership. Recognition of problem and problem solving Landry [2] suggests four interrelated conditions that indicate the presence of a problem to an employee (Refer Box 1). According to Landry, the judgments and choices made by organizational members on these four factors determine their ability to recognize a problem and initiate appropriate remedial action by assuming ownership.
n the four case illustrations above, it would seem that the workers in a colliery, business planners in an engineering company, senior bank executives and members of a crossfunctional team are indifferent to the organizational requirements. Why is there so little ownership? After all, by endangering the health, survival and competitiveness of their organizations, employees hurt themselves indirectly. It is because there is so little ownership that, when asked by a journalist How many
Box 1: Four interrelated conditions indicating the presence of a problem Depending upon the degree of ownership, two levels of problem solving takes place[3]. 1. First-order problem solving Ownership is limited to overcoming the immediate obstacles. 2. Second-order problem solving Ownership is also assumed for the higher order problem of diagnosing and altering the underlying causes to prevent recurrence. The employees exhibiting first-order problem solving assume ownership of only the lower order problem. They do not expend extra energy on a problem after obtaining the inputs required to complete the task. Studies show that as high as 90 to 95 per cent of the responses to problems fall in the category of first-order problem solving[3]. Facilitating second-order problem solving requires understanding the processes underlying peoples recognition of problem and assumption of ownership. Four factors to engender employee ownership The recognition of issue doesnt guarantee action on the part of the employees. The leaders need to create an environment where the employees are engaged enough to assume ownership of challenges and initiatives. Four factors that engender employee ownership are SCIP Stake, Controllability, Interest, and Purposeful Energy (Refer Box 2). Box 2 SCIP - Stake, Controllability, Interest, and Purposeful Energy to engender employee ownership
#1) Stake Feeling a sense of involvement in the situation Turnaround at Singareni Collieries Company Limited Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL) was referred as a sick company to BIFR (Board of Industrial and Financial Restructuring) in 1996. With mounting losses, the survival of the company was at risk. Sarma who joined SCCL as Chairman in January 1997 spoke to a wide cross-section of people and discovered that the workers had no clue about the poor financial health of the organization. Instead of resorting to a bailout package by the government, Sarma decided to reach out to the workers and their families to enlist their support. He started communicating to workers and their families to inform them about the companys current status and how a worker can make a difference. He initiated discussions with workers and their families at mines, offices and their colonies to gather their views, suggestions and ideas to improve SCCLs performance. He implemented some of these ideas, which resulted in higher productivity. At the same time, he initiated steps to create a caring environment that fostered a sense of trust. Sarma, aided by his management team, communicated relentlessly with workers to mobilize their support. SCCL sent letters, broadcasted talk shows on local TV channel, visited workers and their families in their colonies, published newsletters, organized industrial visits, and conducted plays to bridge the information gap. As awareness grew, SCCL workers started to perceive a stake in the situation. Ownership led to performance improvements, and the organization turned the corner[4]. What inhibits assumption of ownership? Lack of information and feedback from superiors, peers and other stakeholders. Operation of departments like a closed system which pose barriers to communication.
Resorting to first-order problem solving to fix the problem without investigating the root cause. What can leaders do? Ensure that employees receive relevant information and regular feedback. For instance, Mawana Sugars was declared a sick company by BIFR in 2003. The organization conducted a series of dialogue sessions with different level of employees at all locations. In these dialogue sessions, shop floor operators and trade union leaders were especially invited and encouraged to participate. Once they became aware of the situation and the remedial plan of action, they became partners in the change process. Inculcate a culture that motivates and encourages people to report and resolve problems without being labeled as cynics or whiners. Use progress reviews to identify and analyze the root cause of problems and their solutions. #2)Controllability - perceiving discretion to initiate action Failed change at Large Engineering organization (LEO) The Business Planning Group (BPG) at LEO was formed to help the organization gear up for emerging competitive scenario by developing new and value-added products. However, the large and powerful Production Planning Department (PPD) perceived the upstarts as internal competitors; they refused to share information or provide support to BPG. The group did not receive support from marketing function either. For instance, when BPG sought some market data from marketing function, they were informed that data was confidential and hence couldnt be shared. The problem was compounded by the huge status gap between DGM (heading BPG) and MD.
As LEO was a highly hierarchical, the DGM had to wait endlessly in the Secretarys office to meet MD. Even when the group needed the support of MD, they couldnt muster the courage to make the request to him. As the group started to flounder, members got themselves transferred back to their earlier roles/ functions. This crippled the group further. Yet the anxious and de-motivated BPG felt constrained in freely and openly voicing their concerns and getting the problems addressed. With every stalled initiative, members of the BPG started to view things as uncontrollable at their level. What inhibits assumption of ownership? A sense of helplessness owing to the perception of low status/influence within the system for dealing with the issue. This is a particularly serious problem in large hierarchical organizations. No/low access to necessary information for an in-depth analysis of issues or suggested solution. Absence of convenient communication channels to express ones views and ideas. Lack of support and encouragement from leaders/other departments to initiate action. What can leaders do? Make organizational arrangements to facilitate communication and collaboration. For example, Vineet Nayar launched U & I Intranet communication web portal at HCL as a forum for employees to post their questions/ comments to the CEO. With CEO and leadership team answering around 50 questions a month, the portal successfully captured peoples attention by engaging them in open conversations. Instead of pointing out what was wrong, people gradually
started deliberating on what could be done to fix the problem[5]. Provide necessary resources, information, and support to employees to initiate action. Generate optimism that improvements can result from initiatives taken by employees. #3)Interest - inclination to assume responsibility A new MINDSET at Union Bank of India (UBI) New generation Indian private sector banks and some multinational banks had taken advantage of Indias liberalized environment and utilized their branches and their investments in technology to target a growing lucrative set of young customers. UBI leadership recognized the need for transforming itself into a customer centric bank. This meant instilling sales orientation amongst the organizational members. New skills and mindset were required at operating levels. A massive training effort was taken up at senior levels on the organizational agenda. But these senior executives were already burdened with a wide array of challenges and responsibilities. Even if they saw the urgency of the change agenda and perceived discretion to act, they had little time, energy or resources to inculcate the new mindset. To address this problem, UBI appointed a number of middle and senior executives exclusively as coaches for some months. They were provided requisite skills and asked to coach employees at cutting edge levels through hands-on training. The internal coaches worked with operating managers closely, accompanied them to meetings, and helped them gain confidence. The intervention proved to be a huge success in meeting the transformational goals that the bank had setfor itself. What inhibits assumption of ownership? Preoccupation with routine tasks may inhibit commitment of resources for new initiatives.
Ignorance about implicit opportunities or implications of unaddressed issues makes people hesitant to commit resources. Narrowly defined role expectations create a feeling that people may cross wires by initiating steps to diagnose the root causes or implement a new program. According low priority to problem solving and making improvements. What can leaders do? Communicate energetically and clearly about the importance and impact of every initiative. For instance, in the transformation journey of Tata Chemicals Limited between 2001 and 2006, the Managing Director and senior leaders set an example by volunteering to subject themselves first to the change process. When multi-rater assessment process was proposed, they opted to go through the process first and receive feedback. This helped a great deal in institutionalizing processes/ practices at other levels of the organization. Engage in expectation setting to convey that employees can make a difference. Make conscious efforts to shift the culture and norms towards employee driven initiatives and acceptance of genuine mistakes as a normal part of learning. Review work methods and systems of reward & recognition to encourage employees to devote time and energy. #4) Purposeful energy - Commitment to experiment with new and different approaches Revival of Nissan In Nissans revival between 1999 and 2002 headed by Carlos Ghosn, cross-functional teams
(CFTs) played a critical role in overcoming the highly compartmentalized functions. Ghosn chose Otani, Purchasing Group Manager to head the CFT on purchasing and assigned him the challenging task of reducing the purchasing cost by 20%. His CFT made recommendations to the Executive Committee that would have resulted in 10% savings over three years. But these recommendations were rejected outright by Ghosn. After long deliberations, Otani realized that the goal of 20% savings could only be achieved by changing the existing ways of the large, cohesive and all-powerful Engineering Department. It was unthinkable at Nissan for a supporting function like Purchase to challenge the Engineering department. Otani sought the help of two executive vice-presidents and team leaders to convince Engineering department to support the steps to achieve the targeted 20% savings. After two weeks of hard work and tough negotiations, Purchase CFT drew an action plan that met Ghosns expectations. What inhibits assumption of ownership? Any deviation from established routines is seen as inviting trouble from superiors/others. Absence of any direct feedback that the available solutions are ineffective. Lack of incentives or policies to encourage out of box thinking. Rigid boundaries across functions/ hierarchical levels make people follow readymade solutions. What can leaders do? Become role models by challenging the status quo to change the perception of what is acceptable and what is not. For instance, when Tata Consultancy Services set up operations in China, it chose to create a wholly foreign owned enterprise rather than a joint venture. The idea was to gain understanding of
the Chinese market for long-term success. The commitment was to make the requisite investments of time, energy, effort and resources. Under the circumstances, no half measures were even considered. Help people reflect on how the usual ways of dealing with the situation would not be able to achieve higher aspirations, and what the long-term consequences of the actions could be. Form cross-functional teams to help people broaden their outlook and realize the limitations of existing approaches. Reward and communicate successful initiatives to encourage people to try new approaches. SUMMARY AND CONCLUDING OBSERVATIONS In this paper, we have presented a set of case illustrations and related concepts to explain why employees occasionally exhibit indifference to organizational challenges. As we have seen, when the following perceptions exist, people dont perceive the challenges as their problems in other words, they dont assume ownership of those problems. Individuals/groups do not recognize that the situation is negative and could have an adverse impact. They do not perceive the problem as controllable at their level in other words, they feel that they cannot do anything about it. They dont think that they have the time and resources to deal with the issue and so have little interest in dealing with the issue. They think that the existing solution is adequate and any new action could result in adverse consequences.
Consequently, leaders can create ownership through SCIP: (a) Stake helping people perceive a stake in the issue by strengthening the communication process; (b) Controllability empowering individuals and helping them experience controllability and discretion to initiate action; (c) Interest - creating interest and inclination among employees to assume responsibility by overcoming
possible hurdles to employee initiative; and (d) Purposeful Energy - fostering commitment to try out new and different approaches not only by creating appropriate role models, but also by enhancing aspirations. In the Box 3 below, we present a summary of what leaders can do to enhance employee engagement and ownership.
Box 3. Recommendation to enhance employee engagement and ownership Communication Reduce the information gap by communicating regularly and explicitly through multiple channels. Ensure that employees receive relevant information and regular feedback Share the organizations goals, priorities, and challenges with all the employees Encourage two-way communication by soliciting feedback and suggestions from employees Structural arrangements Clarify roles and responsibilities without making the boundaries too rigid or bureaucratic Make organizational arrangements to facilitate collaboration E.g. Cross functional teams (CFTs), online portals, employee blogs & forums Empower employees at lower levels to initiate action by providing resources, support & information
References
Gallup Management Journal (2006), available at: http://gmj.gallup.com; Seijts, G.H. and Crim, D. (2006), What engages the most or, the ten Cs of employee engagement, reprint # 9B06TB09, Ivey Business Journal Online, available at: ibjonline@ivey.ca Landry, M. (1995). A Note on the Concept of Problem. Organization Studies, 16(2), 315-343. Tucker, A., Edmondson, A., & Spear, S. (2002). When Problem Solving Prevents Organizational Learning. Journal of Change Management, 15(2). Excerpts from personal interview with APVN Sarma (5 Feb, 2011) by S. Ramnarayan and Neha Gupta Nayar, V. (2010), Employees First, Customers Second, Boston, MA: Harvard Business Press
Enable employees to invest resources by changing work arrangements, providing autonomy, etc. Identify ways to align an individuals interests & aspirations with larger goals of the organization Culture and Norms Invest in trust building trust people and demonstrate your trust-worthiness Create a WE culture by making conscious efforts to foster collaboration across levels and functions Openly share successes and failures celebrate successes, but also acknowledge inevitable setbacks Inculcate a culture that encourages people to report problems without being labeled as cynics Shift the culture & norms towards risk taking by encouraging the spirit of experimentation
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MENTORING, COACHING & COUNSELING : VALUE CHAIN FOR HR

ANIL SACHDEV
About the Author Anil Sachdev is the Founder and CEO of Grow Talent Company Limited. He has spoken at national and global conferences all over the world and has written contributory pieces for leading publications. He has been adjunct Faculty to leading business schools such as Indian School of Business, Kelly School of Business, Indiana University, GMI, Flint Michigan, Antioch University, Seattle and Ohio University, Athens, Ohio. Anils career was with Tata Motors and Eicher. He worked in HR, operations and TQM. He is the Founder of Eicher Consultancy Services and was its CEO till 2001. He is active in management circles and has held several public offices such a Chairman of National Committee on Industrial relations and Regional Committee on Human Resource Development of Confederation Indian Industry. He has received several National Awards such as The HR professional of the year etc. His biography appears in Whos who of the world published by Marquis in 1991.
Aligning People-Power of Positive Psychology
What are the best ways to enable this? What are the critical elements to ensure its success? This paper will attempt to answer this by sharing a case study about Indus Towers, a fascinating story of how a CEO and a HR leader can work together to enable real alignment within an organization. INDUS TOWERS Indus Towers is a company born out of a powerful innovative idea. Three competitors joined hands in 2007 to share their telecom infrastructure, there by conserving capital and bringing down the
rganizations with an A Grade Vision and Strategy and B Grade alignment always lose out to competitors with a B Grade Vision and Strategy but an A Grade alignment. This is a well known fact and known to most business leaders. What is the reason for this effect? What makes the subject of alignment so crucial? How does one know the extent to which the process of alignment must be led? How much leadership attention needs to be paid to this aspect?
cost of operations resulting in tariff that is the lowest in the world. This required the leaders of these three companies - Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Idea to collaborate, even though they were fierce competitors in the market place. The idea was so powerful and the speed of the execution so fast that the entire company was co-created in record time and the telecom towers and people from all three companies transferred without the luxury of long-range planning and detailed process design. The first CEO was an expat deputed by Vodafone and he carried out the mandate with great speed, the need of the hour at that time. The present day CEO, Shantharaju took charge in 2008 (he had earlier worked in HAL, Eicher, GSK, British Gas and GMRlast assignment as Head of DIAL-Delhi Airport) and was selected by the Board as he had deep knowledge of the Indian context and had a proven track record of building high performance teams. Many years back, I had hired him as a campus recruit in Eicher from IMI and many years later, he had become a client when he headed the British Gas subsidiaryGujarat Gas. As Founder & CEO of Grow Talent the consulting firm, I had led a large program of facilitating a transformation process,which was ably led by Shantha - this amongst other initiatives had made Gujarat Gas win the prestigious award of being included in the list of top Performing Companies compiled by the global firm AT Kearney. Pankaj Mittal was brought in by Shanta as his Chief People Officer or Head of HR. He had a proven track record of having worked as an outstanding Business Partner with several leading firms.
In early 2009, I got a call from the two gentlemen to discuss the possibility of initiating a large vision led transformation program for building a high performance organization. THE CONTEXT: Here is how they described the situation The company was created as a result of a break-through idea of competitors joining hands to conserve capital and provide services at a low cost to customers. All the companies who had joined hands were outstanding, professionally managed companies and had the imagination and vision to see the power of this idea The company was managed by a Board consisting of representatives of all the three companies and the MD had complete freedom to decide what was in the collective interest of all stakeholders. The Board members (representing the shareholders) behaved professionally from Governance point of view and did not allow conflict of interest to occur considering the fact that they were also the biggest customers of the enterprise. As the company was created almost overnight, without the time to think through all details, processes were still being developed. The company had yet to develop its own culture as all employees were transferred from the three companies and had brought their own culture and behavior to the organization. They wanted to undertake an exercise to develop a powerful shared vision that brought all employees together and created the glue of shared values that would
define the culture and identity of the company. Thus began an exciting journey that lasted several months. While I was personally involved in providing thought leadership to the assignment, my former colleagues from Grow Talent Companys consulting division (now part of Right Management) including the former Head of the LEADERSHIP Practice, Shyam Viswanathan (now Executive Director of SOIL) and Vivek Tripathi (The then Head of Gurgaon office of Right Management) were deeply involved in leading a lot of work done all over the country. The 1st meeting: We kicked off the Program of transformation by inviting the top 40 leaders to spend an afternoon with us at the Trident Hotel in Gurgaon to share their thoughts about what they expected from this intervention. There was a healthy exchange of ideas and many people shared their hopes, anxieties and concerns. We presented the overall approach for the work by sharing the two frameworks that we planned to deploy in the Program the 4D Framework and the LSIP Process. Appreciative Inquiry The 4Ds and The Power of Positive Psychology at work Inspired by the early practitioners of Positive Psychology, the Appreciative Inquiry Framework of 4Ds is divided into the following phases: a) Begin by studying people at their best. This D-iscovery phase is all about asking people questions with child like enthusiasm about when they and their teams were at their best and what was unique about this experience and what
did it reveal to them about their individual and organizational gifts or strengths. This is an exciting technology of mining for the gold and the very process of paying attention to people at their best builds enthusiasm and the capacity of people to excel and give off their best. b) Get people to share the findings of their Discovery and D-ream about how they could leverage their individual and collective strengths to create a powerful vision for the future that inspires them to create an organization of their own choosing. c) Create a process for people to D-esign a road map for making the vision a reality by thinking through all the steps needed. d) Define roles and responsibilities, measures of progress, review process, etc to ensure that the design is D-elivered in a timely way so that the organization reaches the desired state that everybody is inspired by. Researchers like Suresh Srivastava, Ronald Fry and David Cooperrider of the Case Western Reserve University in United States did the initial work on this fascinating body of knowledge and I have been using this methodology ever since I began my consulting career in 1991. My colleagues and I began the Discovery phase by interviewing a cross selection of employees at different locations of Indus Towers. We also interviewed leaders of the shareholder firms and customer organizations and also some business partners. The enthusiasm created by this exercise that took about 8 weeks was palpable! The SOIL had been prepared to begin the next phase of the work.
THE DREAMING PHASE AND CREATION OF SHARED VISION AND VALUES This phase began by our facilitating a two days retreat of the top 40 leaders of the company at the beautiful Westin Resort at Sohna, Gurgaon. In this event, the stories of the Discovery process were shared and the group had a joyful conversation of what all stakeholders regarded as the biggest gifts (strengths) of Indus. As these were supported by real life stories, the process created a lot of positive energy & excitement. They were then asked to visualize individually and in small groups how they could leverage these gifts to create Indus of their own dreams. They drew pictures, made collages and presented key words and phrases to describe their dreams. Each team presented their output to the larger group. We then collected the keywords of each team and did an affinity process to group all ideas into families of similar ideas and gave each one a caption. The large group then did a multi voting process to choose the most important building blocks of the draft Vision. Small groups were then requested to draft vision statements by combining all the key words into powerful and inspiring statements. The large group then discussed each statement and in the end, chose the top three statements and attempted to integrate them into one evocative and impactful statement. We then started the process of defining the core values of the company that were implied in the visualization and stated in the vision statements in different words.
The participants had a very involved discussion and finally chose five core values that were being already lived and also that they aspired to live in the future. These were defined and a first draft was made to define Dos and Donts of behavior if these had to be lived by one and all on a daily basis. This was done first by small groups and then presented to the larger group and discussions held till everyone had committed to the same. The retreat ended by participants discussing the road map of engaging the rest of the organization in building a shared vision and added with a strong sense of togetherness and family. The top 40 had got aligned on what they were inspired to do together to build an outstanding firm. They were very clear that what they had created was only a draft and they were now to co-facilitate with the consulting team the next phase of engaging the rest of the people of Indus. The Next Levels of co-creation Five unique events were then held in Gurgaon, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Chennai and Mumbai using the Large Scale Interactive Process - LSIP. This s a unique process designed by Dr. Kathleen Dannemiller and her associates (first discovered in the eighties and applied in Ford Motor Company) at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. In this process, a Design Team is formedconsisting of the microcosm of the group that is the target of change. This is cross functional, cross hierarchical, cross locational and cross attitudinal, so that both cynics and optimists are covered.
The entire LSIP exercise was designed with the design team to visualize every part of the next workshop so as to ensure that the process had the ownership of the macrocosm. My colleagues, Shyam and Vivek ably supported by Isha Gera (Project Leader), Neha Singhal and Tuhina Panda consultants (all form Right Management) were involved in this work. They covered the next lot of 180 leaders at levels below the top 40 in these 5 workshops. As was the case in the Retreat for senior leaders, these groups of employees were involved in co-creating draft visions and values statements and Dos and Donts of behavior. They were then shown the output of the Leadership Retreat and then a process of integration was done to arrive at new draft vision statements and definitions of core values and behavioral indicators. This was followed by 6 LSIP events in which the next lot of 900 employees was covered and they too recommended vision, values & behavioral indicators statements. Finally, we were back at the Westin at Sohna in a confluence LSIP in which we invited representatives of all the LSIP events that had been held. The entire company had now developed a positive spirit of working together to build a company of their dreams. From a company that had distinct cultures identified with the three parent companies, they had evolved to the new Indus with a strong identity of its own. In this workshop, we shared stories of all the events through videos and the personal accounts of the representatives who had come from each of the events. We then adopted the final Indus Vision statement and agreed on core values and
the ways in which they would be lived through behaviors. From a position in the beginning in which many people doubted the power of this methodology, there was hardly anyone who had not been moved by the process of co-creation and shared visioning. The workshop ended with a detailed Design and Delivery Plan to link every business process to the new vision and values and a way of building competencies and assessing values at the time of hiring and linking these dimensions to the Performance Management System. The Design of the New Organization Our team then trained Value Champions who, in-turn trained everyone on how the values had to be lived on a daily basis. They were especially trained on how to elicit value dilemmas and facilitate conversations on how the employees would go about dealing with them. This was a much needed step to close the loop and ensure that everyone was clear on how they would personally commit to make the vision and values come alive everyday. The Transformation of the People Systems and the Delivery of the promise Our team then helped the Indus leaders to do several things to ensure that the transformation process would be institutionalized. These were Creation of a website in the employee portal to share stories of how the vision and values were being lived on a day to day basis. A series of symbols and artefacts and metaphors were created in the workplace from screen savers to posters to stationery items to brand the
workplace with the inspirational vocabulary of the new vision, values and behaviors. A Guide was prepared for behavioral event interviews to assist interviewers on how they would assess these values in candidates who were being recruited into the company. Values were incorporated into the competency framework of the company - as critical part of the Performance Management System. Our team also assisted Indus to define the roles, structure etc. for the office of the Ombuds person to whom cases of violations of values could be reported without fear of reprisal. Finally, a quiz was developed to test the knowledge of how each employee had internalized the values and it was planned that each employee would take this quiz every year to continuously remind himself/herself of these critical dimensions of the Indus way. Challenges and some questions I have led and facilitated such large scale Aignment exercises in a number of large and complex organizations. In each case, the impact has been beneficial,
ranging from raising positive can do spirit to break-through innovation and quantum jumps in productivity, quality and service levels with scores of employees engagement showing dramatic increases. Here is what I have learned are the pre-requisites for ensuring that this happens: The CEO has to genuinely feel that co-creation is the best form of creating ownership The HR Head has to work as a real business partner and has to be willing to demonstrate personal behavior in line with the vision and values and he/she is seen as the champions of this process Business leaders have to feel secure and not feel challenged, if their juniors modify or alter the draft vision and values statements that they have created People have to keep aside quality time to invest on this Institution Building Program no matter how many fires are burning The top team has to be very careful not to crack jokes or pass loose comments about why this elaborate
DISCOVER
* Half day kick off workshop * Appreciative Inquiry Intensions involving Stakeholders
DREAM
* 2 days leadership retreat for top 40 leaders * 5 LSIP Events to involve the next group of 180 leaders * 6 LSIP events to involve the remaining 900 employees * Confluence workshop of 60 Leaders top 40 and 20 representatives of LSIP events
DESIGN
* Training of values * Behavioral Interview guide * Website in employee portal to share stories * New symbols & artefacts * Redesign of the Performance Management System (PMS)
DELIVER
* Workshops on valuing our values * Stories on values captured and shared * Annual Quiz to refresh knowledge * Office of Ombudsperson * New Recruitment system and PMS implemented
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exercise of employee involvement was being done. The company has to sacrifice leaders who do not live the values of the company and do not believe in co-creation no matter how brilliant they are. NOW SOME QUESTIONS Should such an Alignment exercise be done if the company is in the midst of M&A?
References:
Appreciative Inquiry Real time Strategic Change
How often should this be done? At what part of the organizational life cycle should this be done? Is it possible to do these processes virtually, by leveraging telepresence and technology? I hope the readers of this paper will attempt to address these and raise several questions of their own in response to this sharing. I look forward to your feedback.
Note from Pankaj Mittal, CHRO Indus towers In 2010, we embarked on the iLIVE (I Live Indus Values Everyday) journey; a landmark initiative at Indus Towers which defined the Reason for our existence through our Vision and the Way we live through our Values & Behaviors! This has been an institution building process, which will impact Indus for many years to come. For me personally the i-LIVE journey has added a whole new dimension to my experience of over 23 years in the Human Resources field. The i-LIVE initiative based on the Large Scale Change methodology of Cathleen Dannemiller provided us with the necessary freshness and impact, befitting the size and scale of our new organization. The bottom up Co-Creation approach used through the Large Scale Change model has been deeply invigorating and has been responsible in infusing a great deal of positive energy and enthusiasm at Indus.
Each and every employee in the organization felt involved in this epoch making initiative. There is a sense of real ownership and sense of pride in the outcomes: Our Vision We Transform Lives By Enabling Communication And Our Values ExCITE (Excellence|Customer| Integrity|Teamwork| Environment). This ownership has made the institutionalizing process much easier as there is complete acceptance due to the cocreation process followed. The i-LIVE initiative has also institutionalized the co-creation approach at Indus. A lot of our subsequent initiatives have been based on this methodology and has played a pivotal role in transforming Indus to an organization which Actively Listens and involves employees in the organization building process.
CAPABILITY DEVELOPMENT TOWARDS ORGANIZATION COMPETENCE (CASE STUDY : THE POWERGRID EXPERIENCE)
S K CHATURVEDI
About the Author S. K. Chaturvedi, is the Chairman & Managing Director of PowerGrid Corporation of India. He is a Graduate and Post Graduate in Science from University of Lucknow. He holds a Post Graduate Diploma in Personnel Management & IR and is a seasoned HR professional with varied experience of more than 30 years in the area of Human Resource Management, Industrial Relations and Organisational Development. He has also worked with Steel Authority of India Ltd., NTPC Ltd., POWERGRID (for more than thirteen years in POWERGRID from August 1991) in various capacities in HR and then joined NHPC Ltd. as Director (Personnel) in October, 2004. A strong votary of human development, Chaturvedi has introduced several new concepts of employee development and was responsible for initiating several progressive HR policies in the organizations he has served.
he success of any organization depends on the capability of its Human Resources. In the wake of the dynamic business environment, every organization has to focus on its core competencies and enhance the value of human capital. Our country has been ranked third in terms of its intellectual capital. Our population that was considered a major drag in the industrial era can well prove to be our greatest advantage in the information age. We can achieve success through people, leveraging their intellect, loyalty and commitment. Against this backdrop, the POWERGRID experience is presented. POWERGRID was formed as a result of amalgamation of assets and associated manpower from six
organizations. POWERGRID faced bigger challenges in terms of employee relations as its formation brought divergent work cultures, different terms of employment and service conditions, as well as multiple unions with different political linkages at different places. Accepting these challenges as opportunities, we embarked on an integrated and comprehensive plan that would faciliate the harnessing of human potential for the purpose of organization excellence and vitality. This story of POWERGRID attempts to hoghlight people interventions and initiatives, customized to our business and human resource environment and practiced effectively in order to strengthen Organization Competence.
POWERGRID: One of the largest Transmission Utility in the world Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd. (POWERGRID) was incorporated in the year 1989 with an authorized share capital of Rupees 5,000 crores with a mandate to establish and operate regional and national power grids. POWERGRID became operational from the financial year 1991-92. We acquired the transmission network on ownership basis from 6 different organizations, viz. NTPC, NHPC, NLC, NEEPCO, THDC and SJVNL along with their associated manpower. Today, POWERGRID with a strength of about 9,800 employees is one of the largest transmission utility in the world. As opposed to the dominant perception, POWERGRID is not a monopolistic organization. POWERGRID operates in an environment of stiff competition and in a regulated business environment. For example, POWERGRID like any other corporate, borrows and raises funds for investment from competitive money markets, it sources human resource from an open competitive talent pool, and the transmission sector has been opened up for private sector participation. POWERGRID is accountable not only to its customers, but also to the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission. Employee Involvement and Capability Development The emerging business order of the power sector; the focus on reliability, security, economy and commercial principles in the Mission statement, required us to specifically focus on Alignment of a diverse workforce Optimum utilization of resources Building requisite competencies skills and
Inculcating a mindset and orientation towards customer delight, and Involvement of line managers on people matters given the dispersed deployment of people POWERGRID has therefore continuously and consistently endeavored to develop and implement integrated HR systems focusing on Involvement, Capabilities and Performance for the creation and sustenance of Organization Competence. Some of the key people interventions are discussed below: 1 Delegation of Powers (DOP): POWERGRID has business operations across the length and breadth of the country manned by its geographically spread out 9,800 employees. In such a scenario, waiting for approvals from management to initiate and execute projects can cause enormous delays and poor maintenance of transmission system, apart from giving a sense of helplessness to the front-line employees. In realization of this fact, POWERGRID had created an employee empowerment framework through a clearly articulated Delegation of Powers (DOP) instrument. This instrument clearly details the powers that can be exercised at different levels starting from the junior most executive to the CMD of the company. Employees are empowered to take operational decisions which encomapass financial, people and customer imperatives. What is important is that all employees have been communicated, trained and enabled to use this DOP in the most effective fashion. These powers come with responsibility and accountability. A periodical internal and external audit system ensures the proper use of DOP. The DOP has provided great opportunities to our employees to exhibit leadership mettle and
communicated the trust that the organization reposes on them. 2 POWERGRID National Bi-Partite Committee: POWERGRID is probably the only company in India, with such a thin human spread and large operational network with employees scattered in all parts of the country maintaining about 82,335 Ckt Kms of transmission lines and 135 sub-stations. Only 2 or 3 employees work at many of these locations. In such cases, it is quite likely that employees feel alienated from the company. This thinking has paved the way for involving employees in the organizational management through a formal joint consultative body at the corporate level. POWERGRID National Bi-Partite Committee (PNBC) was constituted with top management representatives and employee representatives. The PNBC developed the guidelines for choosing representatives of employees through a secret ballot system once in 4 years, which thus provides an equal opportunity to all employees to participate in the PNBC. PNBC has contributed to the development of human resource management policies in the areas of rewards and recognition, training & development, promotions, incentives, employee welfare and setting up of performance targets. It is also extensively used to communicate the companys vision, business plans, core values and important business developments. PNBC stands as one of the best example of employee involvement and empowerment in the Indian corporate world. For employee involvement and empowerment to be cascaded down to all levels, POWERGRID Regional Bipartite Committees (PRBCs) were constituted at the regional level to identify the areas of improvement and prepare action
plans for implementation in the pursuit of operational excellence. This organizational democracy has further cascaded down to work locations, namely the sub-stations, where about 20 to 30 employees work together in a shift system. This local body is primarily engaged in identifying the areas for improvement at the substation level, manages and coordinates among employees working in different shifts. Issues discussed here range from cleanliness of work premises to saving of operational costs. 3 POWERGRID Employee Suggestion Scheme: This is an integral part of our endeavour of Capability Development towards Organization Competence. It provides an opportunity to all employees to influence the decisionmaking and involve themselves in organizational functioning. Suggestion committees evaluate suggestions and acceptance and awards for suggestions are announced following a well-defined criteria. Over a period of time this has proved to be an effective instrument for employee involvement. 4 POWERGRID Employee Welfare Association (PEWA): POWERGRID also has more than 135 employee welfare associations operating at different work locations mainly concerned with improving the facilities in townships in the areas of sports & culture; participation of employees families in township maintenance and running cooperative and thrift societies. This forum is open to all employees and their families. POWERGRID offers funds and matching grants to support the PEWA activities. PEWA over a period of time has generated good will and contributed to the voluntary involvement of not only employees, but also their families.
5 Open House Sessions: The CMD of the company and the Functional Directors address all employees in an open forum sharing with them business issues of the company. Employees can raise any issue; offer their views and suggestions for growth of the organization. 6 Integrated Developmental Plan (IDP): POWERGRID believes that in this turbulent business environment, one single factor that will provide the organization a major impetus is its Human Resource. With this view, POWERGRID has developed an ambitious plan for integrated development of its employees with focus on nurturing the inherent potential of an individual for the overall growth of individual along with the organization. In tandem with, business environment of Power Sector, a comprehensive Organization Training Needs Assessment is conducted with the help of key executives to identify the macro and micro competency requirement at organizational and departmental level. This is followed by an Employee Training Needs Assessment to assess training needs of each employee based on skill and competency profiles. Line managers are continuously involved in selection and assessment of training and development programmes. Annual training plan titled as Learners Planner is followed to conduct programmes to bridge the gap between competency requirements and availability. POWERGRID regardless of its business fortunes and availability of financial resource allocates suitable budgets to employee development since we treat this as an investment. Knowledge Management System has been envisaged with a view to share the knowledge across the organization, whether it is the execution of a major
technical project or an organizational climate survey. It is an integration of basic knowledge system with the organizations web portal. Resource persons from respective fields evaluate and review the knowledge system so that employees spread across the length and breadth of country can use the knowledge system to improve their working. It is a well established that success of managers largely comes from personal attributes such as inter personal competency, motivational levels, attitudes, values, self clarity and decision making orientation. Even the best of technocrats, tend to perform sub optimally when motivational level or inter personal competency quotient is below the required level. Performance Appraisal, Competency Mapping & Role Directory, thus, has been a major developmental activity to enhance the performance of employees, capitalizing on strength of individuals to develop teams, putting right persons on right jobs and overall development of competency based HR systems. To encourage Self Development among employees, we have clearly spelt out policies such as Study Leave for pursuing higher education; Incentive on acquiring higher qualification; and Sponsorship for further studies. POWERGRID has collaborations with the best B Schools & Technological Institutes within the country & overseas and also with its manufacturers for the capability development of its employees. The Future Cadre is developed from amongst employees through comprehensive development modules. Top management including CMD participate in the development programmes and attend international and national conferences to update their business and leadership skills.
Similarly, we have adopted 4 it is at Bargi (Madhya Pradesh), Bhadravathi (Karnataka), Buxar and Marthoura (Bihar) to upgrade their infrastructure for providing quality vocational training, which apart from enhancing employability also helps mitigate skill shortage. POWERGRIDS approach to issues of Environment and Community are a significant source of employee and organizational pride. POWERGRID was the first PSU to develop Environmental and Social Policies and Procedures in 1998 and the first company in the power sector to publish a Sustainability Report in 2009. The ESPP amongst other aspects also covers Resettlement and Rehabilitation activities. HR in POWERGRID is considered as a critical business activity and is included as a vital performance parameter in the Memorandum of Understanding signed by Government of India to set key business targets of a Public Sector Undertaking on an yearly basis. Great business results Today, POWERGRID is one of the largest transmission utility in the world with a significant presence in the global power arena. POWERGRID has excelled in all the areas of its activities: project execution, operations, load dispatch, commercial, finance and human resource. Standards set by POWERGRID in its journey towards forming of national power grid are considered as benchmarks in their own right. The key to many of these achievements is our Employee
Involvement and Capability Development Instruments. The financials, transmission network, MVA, Sub-stations that POWERGRID added in the last two decades of its existence without adding much manpower are testimony to the record of POWERGRIDs achievements. POWERGRID made a net profit of Rs 2,697 crores against Rs.237 crores and enhanced the turnover from Rs. 634 crores to a stupendous figure of Rs. 9,100 crores during the period 1992-93 to 2010-11. Similarly, number of sub-stations has risen from 38 to 135 and length of transmission lines from 22,228 Ckt Km to 82,335 Ckt Km during the same period. The profit per employee has increased from Rs. 4.19 lakhs to Rs. 28.00 lakhs. Today, POWERGRID has been ranked as the 8th fastest growing company in Asia and 18th fastest growing company in the world in the Platts Global Energy Companys ranking. POWERGRID has been conferred with the National Award for Meritorious Performance in Power Sector for 4 consecutive years and the prestigious MOU Excellence Award for 9 years, of which 6 years in a row by the Department of Public Enterprise. We have also been conferred the National Telecom Award 2010; Award for Excellence in learning 2011; Award for Talent Management 2011 and the Global HR Excellence Award 2010-11 for the Organization with Innovative HR Practices.
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RESEARCH & BOOK REVIEWS

1. THE WHY OF WORK: HOW GREAT LEADERS BUILD ABUNDANT ORGANIZATIONS THAT WIN Author : Dave Ulrich / Wendy Ulrich
So, is this one more book about Leadership? Well, you could say that. Is there a new framework or a new, improved framework for Leadership that you can get out of this book? Yes, but youll have to find it within yourself. Thats probably the best thing about Dave & Wendy Ulrichs recent book, The Why of Work. Shifting from the intimately personal details and anecdotes to the broad frameworks they exemplify, the authors bring to life several of the leadership principles they postulate in the book. As Marshall Goldsmith says in the introduction, thats possible because of a happy marriage of the micro perspective of a psychologist (Wendy) and the macro perspective of a business thinker (Dave). Combined, they build the picture of a leader as a person who shapes and creates meaning for others. They offer a set of seven meaning drivers, which will help the leader create space for abundance. They define abundant organizations as those where individual employees create meaning for themselves, value for stakeholders and hope for humanity at large. Thats quite a stretch goal to set for someone who is looking to be merely a business leader which is why this book is more about personal mastery than about 7 things you do to become a leader. It boils it all down to that one thing: creating meaning at work around seven aspects of working in organizations. Those seven aspects are: Identity, Purpose, Relationships, Culture, Contributions, Evolution and Delight. Each of them is explored from a personal perspective as well as from that of value to the organization. While there are enough checklists, questionnaires and other tools to help you put the principles of abundance into action, they can all be set aside, as long as you are focusing on the core of creating meaning for oneself. The framework, therefore, is as exciting as you personally intend it to be. The principles here are thus unique enough, and powerful enough, to provide a boost to anyone who displays traditional leadership traits. If thats not your thing, the book will still give you enough leverage to transform yourself and thats a good way to begin changing the world! Reviewed by :
Shantharam R. Co-Founder, Kelsa Solutions
2. EMPLOYEES FIRST, CUSTOMERS SECOND Author : Vineet Nayar

To quote CK Prahlad from his foreword to the book, this book is a narrative of organizational transformation and a practical guide for managers who wish to achieve similar results, as well as a story of the personal transformation of a CEO. What struck me as significant about the book were the following aspects: It is about the journey of an organization very Indian in its origins and culture and about the experiences of an Indian CEO in bringing about change within this psyche this means it is a journey we can all relate very well to and draw a lot of practical lessons from. July | 2011 NHRD Network Journal 85
Every step in the journey comes across as radical and bold, sometimes egregiously so, but also flavored with the right degree of pragmatism in its execution. The approach chosen by HCL for the change was Employees First Customers Second (EFCS) the title of the book. The essence of this approach was to prepare employees through various initiatives - discussed further in some detail here and at length in the book to deliver greater value to customers resulting in long-term strategic partnerships for IT rather than the regular delivery of IT outsourcing services, which was the industry norm and practice among Indian companies at that point in time. So what was the trigger for change? The fact that Vineet Nayar took over as CEO of HCL Technologies on invitation from Shiv Nadar, the founder, of course, after some reluctance on the part of the former was one immediate trigger, as well as the assessment that HCLs growth had slowed down and its competitors were threatening to overtake it. Nayar came up with this change process, which he later classified into the following four stages, while reflecting back on the journey. The four stages are as follows: Mirror, Mirror: Creating the Need for Change Trust through Transparency: Creating a Culture of Change Inverting the Organizational Pyramid: Building a Structure for Change Recasting the Role of the CEO: Transferring the Responsibility for Change The salient points and important learning are outlined here. Mirror, Mirror: Creating the Need for Change This was the starting point sensitizing people to the need for change, aligning multiple sets of people and preparing them to stop simply basking in past glory and start looking into the future. This really is the most difficult step in any change process, the one that creates the much needed initial momentum and gathers critical mass for change. Nayar used this step to surface issues that were facing the organization, issues that most people knew about, but were reluctant to discuss. He did this by having face-to-face meetings across the organization, both in India and overseas. This process also helped him classify people into three categories Transformers, Lost souls and Fence sitters Transformers being the ones wanting change, Lost souls being the naysayers, and Fence Sitters being in a Wait and Watch mode. Some important observations made by Nayar here, that are valuable lessons for change, are: There was a need to hold up a mirror not just to the employees, but also the leaders. In defining the agenda for change, it came through that Point A where the company stood at that point in time, was itself unclear and needed to be defined. He found active support amongst Gen Y employees and used them as catalysts in a big way. Trust through Transparency Here again, Nayars unconventional, yet pragmatic thinking and action shows through. After coming up with a bold blueprint for change and allowing the management team to debate over it to reach a consensus, he says he realized that the team did not trust him or each other to execute the plan successfully. He takes a pragmatic view to say, Why should anybody trust anybody? Trust needs to be built. He also cites the family as a place to look to for tips on how to build trust. His view is that some unwritten rules of corporate actually inhibit trust, such as: 86 July | 2011 NHRD Network Journal
Do not trust your manager. Do not get too emotional about anything. Remember, it is not personal, its only business. Having understood and accepted the need, Nayar went about creating a culture of transparency in the organization. U & I, an online forum was created, where any employee could ask any question, which Nayar, along with his leadership team, would answer. Both the questions and the answers could be seen by everyone. There were several other initiatives launched across the organization to build an environment of openness and trust. After creating a culture of transparency within, HCL went on to create transparency with its customers by explaining the changed business model Employees First, Customers Second (EFCS). Inverting the Organizational Pyramid: Building a Structure for Change This seems to be one of the most radical steps in the change effort creating reverse accountability that of senior managers to employees down the line who were actually creating value; as well as of enabling functions like HR and Finance to the customer-facing functions. And quite obviously, communication formed a very essential part of the entire change initiative. Recasting the Role of the CEO: Transferring the Responsibility for Change Nayar uses an interesting metaphor to explain his thinking behind this step 0 HCL had to become more like a starfish than a spider a starfish has every major organ replicated across every arm. In toher words, HCL had to become more decentralized. A few interesting and again unconventional steps taken by Vineet Nayar were: He started posting questions in the U & I forum and seeking responses to issues he was struggling with. Responses apparently poured in. He did this to: Acknowledge and learn from the knowhow that resided with value creators across the organization, Break the myth of an all-knowing CEO Get people to take more ownership of problems and seek solutions. He created Employee First Councils to come up with new ideas and implement them. Subsequently, he also worked actively with customers to make them partners in the change process of HCL and the customer organization. This is how his goal of what he defines as creating a self-governing, seld organizing company was achieved. Of course, in all humility, he signs off by saying that the journey is far from complete. What struck me here was Nayars confession that he had always had a problem with hierarchical structures and that he was fortunate in having been groomed by teachers who served as enablers of learning. Perhaps it is this perspective that made it possible for him to think so radically. And his trust in the value of people enabled him to take them along to implement these radical ideas. Employees First, Customers Second is a personal account of a transformation journey, but can be quite far-reaching in its impact if we care to take learning from it. In its honesty and radical thinking, it is reminiscent of the book Maverick by Ricardo Semler written way back in the 80s a first person account of how a second generation entrepreneur achieved change in a company steeped in problems and nested in an economy (Brazil) that had even more problems 200 percent inflation, rampant corruption, inefficiency and so on. The simplicity of the narrative in the book by Nayar can easily lead one to miss out on the complexity and the impact of what Nayar achieved. In reality, the book carries powerful lessons for all leaders of organizations, HR professionals, change agents and students of organizational dynamics. Reviewed by :
Vidya Muralidharan Head HR Product development Ashok Leyland Ltd.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Our profound thanks to all the contributors of articles and book reviewers who have taken time off from their busy schedules out of their dedicated interest to the field of Human Resources. We are grateful to the Guest Editor Mr. SY Siddiqui for his excellent contribution despite multiple pressures on his time. Similarly, this issue would not have been possible but for support from Mr. Anil Gaur and Mr. Prateek Bhargava. Our special thanks to Mr. Prabhakar L., VP-Human Resources, ITC, Agri-Business Division, for meticulously screening every article word by word out of his passion for the profession. We acknowledge the support from Sunathy of Exclusive Search. We thank Prof. (Col) A. Balasubramanian of Balaji Society for his continuous support. Dr. PVR Murthy, Managing Editor (On behalf of the Editorial Team)
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ABOUT THE JOURNAL
he National HRD Network publishes a semi-academic quarterly journal where in each issue is dedicated to a theme.
The journal publishes primarily three categories of articles : Conceptual and research based Contributions from thought leaders including a limited number of reprints with due permission Organizational experiences in HR interventions/mechanisms
Publications so far include on the themes IT in HR, Performance Management, Attracting and Retaining Talent, Career Management, Organizational Change, Global HRM, Women in Corporate Leadership Roles, Organization Development, Learning and Development, Leadership, WorkLife Balance, Institution Building, Coaching For Performance and Development, Human Resources Management in Rapid Growth Organizations, HR Competence, HR and Employee Relations and CEO and HR. The current issue is on the theme of People Power Draw, Drive and Deliver. The following persons have agreed to anchor as guest editors for the future issues : 1. October 2011 issue by Dr. S. Chandrasekhar, Vice President -HR (India/South Asia), IBM India, on the theme Getting HR Ready for Gen Y 2. January 2012 issue by Mr. Rajeev Dubey, President (Group HR & After-Market) & Member of the Group Executive Board, Mahindra & Mahindra on CSR & HR 3. April 2012 issue by Mr.Vivek Paranjpe, Group HR, Reliance Industries Limited, on HR Challenges in the Knowledge Economy Editorial Board Members : Dr. P.V.R. Murthy, Managing Editor is a product of I.I.T., Kharagpur and IIM, Calcutta with close to thirty years experience in H.R. field. He is founder and runs an executive search firm Exclusive Search Recruitment Consultants. He is associated with a number of academic institutions. He is trained in TQM in Japan and in human processes from ISABS and NTL, U.S.A. He is the Past National Secretary of National HRD Network. Dr. Pallab Bandyopadhyay is Director - Human Resources Citrix R&D India PVT Ltd. A doctoral fellow from XLRI and AHRD, he is trained in OD and Human Processes from NTL, USA and he believes in applying HR concepts to practice to make it more meaningful and effective. He is a mentor and coach to many young HR professionals. Aquil Busrai is Chief Executive Officer at Aquil Busrai Consulting. He has over 36 years HR experience, both in strategic and operational HR with blue chip organisations like Unilever in Kenya and India, Motorola in Asia Pacific and Shell in Malaysia. He was Executive Director, Human Resources at IBM Corporation, National President at National HRD Network, HR Director Shell Malaysia and MD Shell People. NHRD firmly believes in and respects IPR and we appeal to the contributors and readers to strictly honour the same.
For any further clarifications, please contact :

The Managing Editor Dr. P V R Murthy, CEO, Exclusive Search Recruitment Consultants, #8, Janaki Avenue, Off 4th Street, Abhiramapuram, Chennai 600 018. pvrmurthy@exclusivesearch.com
National HRD Network

The National HRD Network, established in 1985, is an association of professionals committed to promoting the HRD movement in India and enhancing the capability of human resource professionals, enabling them to make an impactful contribution in enhancing competitiveness and creating value for society. Towards this end, the National HRD Network is committed to the development of human resources through education, training, research and experience sharing. The network is managed by HR professionals in an honorary capacity, stemming from their interest in contributing to the HR profession. The underlying philosophy of the NHRDN is that every human being has the potential for remarkable achievement. HRD is a process by which employees in organizations are enabled to: acquire capabilities to perform various tasks associated with their present and future roles; develop their inner potential for self and organisational growth; develop an organisational culture where networking relationships, teamwork and collaboration among different units is strong, contributing to organisational growth and individual well-being.
www.nationalhrd.org

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ISSN - 0974 - 1739

NHRD Network Journal

Dr D Prashanth Nair V M Kaul K Ramkumar Vineet Kaul

People Power Draw, Drive and Deliver

A Quarterly Publication by The National HRD Network

NHRD Network Journal People Power Draw, Drive and Deliver

NHRD Network Board Members

Vineet Kaul Dr. Y V Verma

Dr. Arun Kumar Jain

S Ramnarayan and Neha Gupta Anil Sachdev

Reviewed by Vidya Muralidharan

feel extremely honored and privileged to be able to present this

issue of the NHRDN Journal, exploring on the theme People

Dr. Pallab Bandyopadhyay

DRIVING PEOPLE POWER IN INDIAN CONTEXT : CHALLENGES AND ACTIONS

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BUILDING OWNERSHIP THROUGH PEOPLE ENGAGEMENT : SOME PRAGMATIC DIMENSIONS

Fig. 1. Building ownership through employee engagement - pragmatic model.

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CULTURE, COMMUNICATION AND RESPONSIBLE ENGAGEMENT

DELIVERING EXCELLENCE THROUGH EMPOWERMENT

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LEVERAGING BUSINESS OBJECTIVES THROUGH PEOPLE STRATEGY

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ENGAGED EMPLOYEES : A KEY ORGANIZATION CAPABILITY

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Perspective & Mindset

Mostly traditional marketing with experiments in online and digital space

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20th Century Economy Standardized with growing focus on customization

Profits + stakeholder value

Business Environment Cultural and Ethical Issues

Structured Low and negligible in most companies

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LEADING THE NEW GENERATION WORKFORCE

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MANAGING THE SLASH GENERATION

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MANAGING THE YOUNG GENERATION PROFESSIONALS

Bibliography and References

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TAKING TO THE NEXT LEVEL : HR IN SMALL AND MEDIUM BUSINESSES

The promoter or founding team And business agenda

Highly driven by the promoters.

Promoters with rst line of employees brought through contacts

Organization Flat structure HR practices Nil. and processes

Flat with a second line A few drawn for business

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OWNERSHIP : OVERCOMING INDIFFERENCE

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MENTORING, COACHING & COUNSELING : VALUE CHAIN FOR HR

Aligning People-Power of Positive Psychology

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RESEARCH & BOOK REVIEWS

Shantharam R. Co-Founder, Kelsa Solutions

2. EMPLOYEES FIRST, CUSTOMERS SECOND Author : Vineet Nayar

Vidya Muralidharan Head HR Product development Ashok Leyland Ltd.

July | 2011 NHRD Network Journal

ABOUT THE JOURNAL

For any further clarifications, please contact :