clair068

SAPPHIRE Weekly News from the HR World XLRI Jamshedpur 25 January, 2007 School of Business & Human Resources NEWS-OPINION Work Force Management Job hoppers go absconding Easy job openings, desperate employers coupled with young workers and their frequent job hopping are bringing in a new kind of casualness about jobs and resignations in corporate India. Absconding workers - workers who do not resign, but just disappear - are becoming common . As a result resignation is losing its value. Some simply SMS and move on. Some do not even bother to inform. Some fall ill and never turn up. Submitting formal resignation letters is becoming rare. Serving notice period? Even rarer. Growing India needs a right mix of work & play It's been a ceaseless endeavour for India Inc for the last couple of years — to bring down costs, boost efficiency and raise productivity even as it moved up the value chain. While it meant revamping production processes and bringing in new technologies, perhap...

Marketing Wizkid and my buddy Mayank has an excellent post on why employees are organizatio's biggest brand ambassadors . He suggests how organizations can strive to create a brand ambassador out of each employee. Brand Ecology: First step of the transformation is mapping the brand ecology – how various interactions with the brand happen, both internally and externally. More importantly, how the employees interact with the brand and what kind of relationship they share. Once this is done, one can analyze if the interactions and relationship is in line with the defined philosophy of the brand and its essence. Identification of the gaps is essential so that proper actionable agenda can be chalked out to fill those gaps. Brand Story: Based on the understanding of Brand Ecology, a brand story needs to be developed that can, in simple terms, explain what the brand is, its philosophy, and how employees are expected to drive it. People learn and adopt change readily if done with excelle...

Google ranks as the best place to work for in 2007 and here’s what Fortune has to say about people working at goggle. The people at Google, it should be stated, almost universally see themselves as the most interesting people on the planet. Googlers tend to be happy-go-lucky on the outside, but Type A at their core. Ask one what he or she is doing, and it's never "selling ads" or "writing code." No, they're on a quest "to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful." That's from the actual mission statement, by the way, which employees can and do cite with cloying frequency. Systematic HR has this comment on Best places to launch career. The best place to launch a career is distinctly different from the top 100 best places to work lists. For one thing, what works for a new grad may not always work for a mid career or senior professional. For one thing, new grads are hopefully looking for quick learning opp...

Sunil Mittal has been named by Fortune as Asia's Businessman of the Year, they calls him a "Wireless Wonder" who has built a mobile-phone empire by turning outsourcing on its head. Sunil Mittal Bharti Group is partnering with Wal mart to enter the retail sector in India. Few days back I had the pleasure to listen to Sunil Mittal when he spoke about his journey from the small city of Ludhiana. It’s always a great experience to listen to Business leaders and know how they charted their success story. There is no book on leadership which can teach you leadership nor there is a defined way of developing great leaders, if there one thing which I’m sure brings the best out of us is the inspiration you get when you meet and listen to great leaders. Few things always stand out in great leaders , the way they address the audience, the passion, the conviction the humility and love they have for the cause and the dream which they share with all. Sunil Mittal was no exception as he ...

John Sullivan speaks on VPs of HR Don’t Become CEOs , he feels its rare to find a Fortune 500 vice president of HR who has been promoted to CEO within his or her organization. It’s a striking indication that HR still has a long way to go. Having had the opportunity to advise literally hundreds of VPs of HR around the world over the course of my career, I have concluded that there are a number of reasons why HR VPs are rarely tapped to lead organizations. Failing to state CEO as a career goal . Many VPs of HR publicly declare that serving in that job is the pinnacle of their career dreams. They see themselves as a behind-the-scenes player. And they are therefore often treated as such. Failing to build a well-recognized internal HR brand. Image is as important within an organization as it is outside one. Unfortunately, most VPs fail to develop an internal brand as the solver of strategic business problems. Failing to prove impact . HR people are notorious for calling themselves business...

Alan Deutschman talks about the framework which enables individuals to manage change .In his new book, Change or Die: The Three Keys to Change at Work and in Life , Alan Deutschman discusses how some of us just not prepared to adapt and change despite do or die situations. He looks in-depth at the three "impossible" cases of far--heart patients, drug- addicted criminals, and rebellious autoworkers. He outlines three keys to change, which he call the three Rs: relate, repeat, and reframe. THE FIRST KEY TO CHANGE Relate You form a new, emotional relationship with a person or community that inspires and sustains hope. If you face a situation that a reasonable person would consider "hopeless," you need the influence of seemingly "unreasonable" people to restore your hope--to make you believe that you can change and expect that you will change. This is an act of persuasion--really, it's "selling." THE SECOND KEY TO CHANGE Repeat The new relations...

Employee’s exits are something which HR folks have to handle on day to day basis. Exit interviews are part of speration process to ensure that feedback and reasons for employees leaving the organization are systematically captured through the interview and questionnaire method. Exit interview data is critically analyzed for working out talent retention strategies and improving employee’s satisfaction at work. In a study on turnover conducted by Human Resource Executive magazine, 96% of HR managers reported conducting exit interviews with employees who are leaving the organization voluntarily, but just a meager 4% use a systematic method of collecting and tabulating the exit survey findings. Due to poorly designed and inconsistent exit interview questions and processes, companies' takes on turnover are not only incomplete, but are often highly inaccurate, says Leigh Branham, author of The Seven Hidden Reasons Employees Leave. I think exit interviews are very critical as it leaves a ...

In general, chief HR officers are allotted time at board meetings to report on key human capital issues. They sit in with other members of the executive team at board meetings to offer counsel, and then leave when the board moves into executive session. At the committee level, HR usually is linked with the compensation committee, but there are opportunities with other committees as well, including governance, nominations and even audit. SHRM article outlines how HR can play the role of a key partner in deciding organizations future strategy. As organizations seeks more data and metrics before making business decisions HR can facilitate the process by coming up with metrics and measurement parameters. It talks about how HR can play a more pro active role at Board level in organizations and make its impact felt on business of the firm and also ensure that key strategic HR issues, such as succession planning, talent management and executive compensation are discussed at Board level .

HR trends for 2007 continue to be exiting as ever and it will worth pondering over some of issues which HR folks are likely to face and gear up for the new year ahead. Its fascinating how the role of HR has been a talking point in shaping business decisions. Talent war: The war for talent will become more intense and the job market is going to offer lot of opportunities. Organisations will continue to come up with innovative ideas to attract, retain and develope talent. Update : According to a survey by ORC worldwide when asked about the highest-priority HR initiatives for 2007, 37.1 percent of survey respondents say talent management, while only 2 percent mention succession planning. “While we believe that succession planning continues to be an important initiative in most organizations, the processes and programs may be in place and working well, allowing member companies to expand their focus into other areas of managing talent,” the study says. Job market will continue to grow and...