Archive for the ‘Human Resource’ Category

During my last review I asked my manager, who is a senior vice president, about a promotion. He indicated that he would begin to think about what a promotion for me would look like and discuss it with HR. At the end of our conversation he stated that due to a possible acquisition, I might expect a promotion in the next 6-9 months. Well the acquisition has not taken place, yet but I still want something to happen. It has been over six months; should I bring the promotion conversation up again? If so, what should I say?

The first rule of promotions it that you want one more than anyone else wants you to have one. So, yes, you need to bring this up again. But, before you do, you need to do the work your boss said needed to be done: Figure out what a promotion for you would look like.

The acquisition sounds like a delay tactic. It’s true that when big things are going on, companies sometimes set policies about not moving people around until things are resolved. But, if that were the case, it’s likely your boss would have mentioned it directly. A senior VP should know these things.

So, let’s figure out what a promotion looks like. This is not a case of a true or bona fide promotion, where there is a vacant job one level up and you get moved to that job and your current position is now vacant. This is a case where you take on new responsibilities, and to go along with them, you get a new title and a salary increase. (Hopefully. Plenty of us have taken on more responsibilities with no salary increase or title change. We’re hoping to avoid that here.)

Ask yourself, “What responsibilities would it make sense for you to take on?” Look around at what needs to be done, or who is completely overworked. Does it make sense for you to take on part of Jane’s work, or to take on a new client group, or a new function, or develop a new training program? Do you have the skills to do that new task?

If you do have the skills, then write up a proposed job description and then present it to your boss. He can, of course, reject it or change it, but it’s much more likely that you’ll be given the promotion if you’ve explained how doing so will benefit the company.

If you don’t have the skills but are confident you can acquire them, then write up a proposed job description and a proposed method for gaining those skills (classes/seminars, shadowing, being mentored). Then present both of those to your boss.

The key things here are 1. make sure you are doing the work to figure out “what a promotion looks like,” and 2. make sure you are demonstrating how this promotion can benefit the department/division/company.

When you’re writing this up, be aware of political missteps. It may make sense, logically, for you to take on part of Jane’s responsibilities (since she’s over worked), but understand that Jane may balk at giving some of those things up. Don’t expect your boss to instantly embrace your proposal and hand you a big fat increase that moment. Everything will still have to go through proper channels and your boss (and HR, including the compensation team that will determine if your proposed job description really is worth more money), and may or may not get approved. But, what you’ve just done is given yourself a huge step forward in the process by showing your boss why and how you should be promoted.

Manini Dubey, a software engineer at one of the top Indian IT firms, feels it is high time she starts looking for a new job. Having worked in her current firm for nearly three years, she wants to move over to a new firm, just for the change. But, here is what holds employees like Manini from moving to a different firm: Incentives.

From project completion lunches to holiday sponsorship, companies around the world dole out several innovative incentives to employees, in a bid to retain them. Siliconindia lists out the ten most popular incentives that employers offer, and employees enjoy today.

Cash Bonuses – According to a recent Accountemps survey, 46 percent of (1,400) CFOs cite cash bonuses as the most effective way to acknowledge a job well done by the accounting team after a major project. Be it an IT firm, or a non-IT firm, cash bonuses based on performance has always been a favourite among employees and employers alike. The satisfaction that comes from being recognized as an important and valued associate is an extremely powerful motivator for employees.

“This is a very popular incentive that employees look forward to. It is enough to motivate an employee to turn a dream project into a growing, profitable business. Besides, if you don’t reward your employee on time, some other savvy businessperson will make them an offer that they can’t refuse,” says Srikant M, a software engineer working at a mid tier IT firm.

A similar bonus is the Employee Stock Option Plans (Esops). ESOPs enable workers to earn a retirement nest egg, which will grow as the company’s business prospers. This also allowed employees to help the company succeed. An ESOP can also be a great deal for the owner of a business. The owner can sell some of his stock in the company to the ESOP, reinvest the proceeds in publicly-held securities, and not pay any tax on the gain until the stock is sold. Hence, it is a win-win situation.

Project completion lunch – This is another popular incentive that employees look forward to. Today project completion lunches have become the norm in most mid tier and top IT firms. According to Prashant Honnavar, HR Manager at NextBit Computing, “These days project teams, work hard to meet the deadlines to release a particular product without any delays. During this phase, the team members put all their efforts for which they need some kind of relaxation. Having a lunch together with the team will enhance the team rapport, refresh them, and will get the team to be more cohesive and will reduce the personal clashes within them.”

Joining bonus – This is a great incentive that works well in employing the right candidate in a short amount of time. It allows an employer in attracting and retaining a talent that is critical for niche areas of technology, and hence not losing out to rival firms. Many candidates are lured by this incentive in a bid to make some extra bucks. The bonus depends on the size of the firm, and can range from Rs.30, 000 to Rs.50, 000 in India. However, a lot of big IT firms also practice awarding bonuses on special occasions. For instance, on the occasion of the silver jubilee of Infosys, the IT giant offered a princely sum of Rs. 126 crore to be distributed among its 58,000 employees.

Tax Saving Incentives – Tax saving incentives that include food coupons, HRA (Health Reimbursement Account), transportation allowance, are some of the most popular and sought after incentives. Additionally, companies allow employees to reimburse their children’s education bill and telephone bills, which are non taxable and hence allows maximum savings. This becomes a big boost for an employee to join a company.

Corporate discounts – Company products and services offered at a discount to staff or negotiated corporate discounts with certain retailers, recreational facilities or hotels/airlines. Today employees around the world can benefit from substantial discounts at nearly all the top retailers, when purchasing holidays, household appliances or everyday items like CDs or magazines, whether it is online, over the phone or in-store
Rewards and Recognition – One of the most valued of all employee incentives includes the peer programs, or in other words awarding performance through recognition. In 2008, one of India’s top IT firms, Infosys doled out iPods and Xbox players to its top performers as an incentive.

“I can remember one policy that I had rolled out at one of my previous organizations. It was called Peer Program. This is basically a recognition program where the awards were scattered in different phases. Some of the awards that were covered in this program included, on the spot award, best debutant award, best team player award (quarterly award), and best employee of the year award,” says Honnavar. These awards are given to employees who are nominated by the team manager under specific criteria. Nominations of course had to be justified along with proof of work. The awards were shoppers stop vouchers of various denominations of Rs. 250, 500, 750 and so on, along with certificates.

Holiday Sponsorship – “But it is the ‘Employee of the Year Award’ that is the most sought after incentive – A two nights and three days package tour to Dubai,” adds Honnavar. This serves not only as a reward for the good performers, but also becomes a motivation for others to perform well and get rewarded. One can also offer staff members flexible scheduling for the holidays, if feasible. If work coverage is critical, companies can post a calendar so that people can balance their time off with that of their coworkers.

Point System – This is especially for hourly employees, who can be offered a point system that is tied to prizes. This re-energizes the first-tier employees, and creates a more competitive working environment. For workers on salary, several companies offer large prizes based on a ‘points lottery’ or simply allow for extra days off or an extra 15-minute break or two.

Insurance – Whether it is health insurance or life insurance, this is an incentive that most employees look for when joining an organization. According to a survey by Hewitt Associates, a human resources consulting and outsourcing company, of nearly 600 large U.S. companies representing more than 10 million employees, almost two-thirds (65 percent) say that they currently invest in long-term solutions to improve the overall health and productivity of their workforce.

Motivational employee recognition – “Informal recognition, like saying thank you or please, can make a huge difference,” says Abhay Kumar Dubey, a software engineer working with a startup in Delhi. Supervisors, have enough opportunity to praise and encourage best efforts daily. These help in providing recognition that is valued by the employee and also a motivational factor.

With time, incentives have gained importance, and are now the prime motivational weapon used by employers around the world. According to most experts, incentives can push performance and productivity far beyond what you expect. Do let us know, what are the most popular incentives that your firm offers, or you would like your firm to offer?

Tata Group have shown gesture for the 26/11 accident . YES! IT IS WORTH READING FOR HR GUYS.

All category of employees including those who had completed even 1 day as casuals were treated on duty during the time the hotel was closed

Ø   Relief and assistance to all those who were injured and killed

Ø   The relief and assistance was extended to all those who died at the railway station, surroundings including the “Pav-Bhaji” vendor and the pan shop owners

Ø   During the time the hotel was closed, the salaries were sent by money order

Ø   A psychiatric cell was established in collaboration with Tata Institute of Social Sciences to counsel those who needed such help

Ø   The thoughts and anxieties going on people’s mind was constantly tracked and where needed psychological help provided

Ø  Employee outreach centers were opened where all help, food, water, sanitation, first aid and counseling was provided. 1600 employees were covered by this facility

Ø   Every employee was assigned to one mentor and it was that person’s responsibility to act as a “single window” clearance for any help that the person required

Ø   Ratan Tata personally visited the families of all the 80 employees who in some manner – either through injury or death – were affected.

Ø   The dependents of the employees were flown from outside mumbai to Mumbai and taken care off in terms of ensuring mental assurance and peace. They were all accommodated in Hotel President for 3 weeks

Ø   Ratan Tata himself asked the families and dependents – as to what they wanted him to do.

Ø   In a record time of 20 days, a new trust was created by the Tatas for the purpose of relief of employees.

Ø   What is unique is that even the other people, the railway employees, the police staff, the pedestrians who had nothing to do with Tatas were covered by compensation. Each one of them was provided subsistence allowance of Rs. 10,000 per month for 6 months.

Ø   A 4 year old granddaughter of a vendor got 4 bullets in her and only one was removed in the Government hospital. She was taken to Bombay hospital and several lacs were spent by the Tatas on her to fully recover her

Ø   New hand carts were provided to several vendors who lost their carts

Ø   Tata will take responsibility of life education of 46 children of the victims of the terror

Ø   This was the most trying period in the life of the organisation. Senior managers including Ratan Tata were attending funerals over the 3 days that were most horrible

Ø   The settlement for every deceased member ranged from Rs.36 to 85 lacs in addition to the following benefits:

o   Full last salary for life for the family and dependents

o   Complete responsibility of education of children and dependents

o   Full Medical facility for the whole family and dependents for rest of their life

o   All loans and advances were waived off – irrespective of the amount

o   Counsellor for life for each person

D.   Epilogue

Ø   How was such passion created among the employees? How and why did they behave the way they did?

Ø   The organisation is clear that it is not something that someone can take credit for. It is not some training and development that created such behaviour. If someone suggests that – everyone laughs.

Ø   It has to do with the DNA of the organisation, with the way the TATA culture exists and above all with the situation that prevailed that time. The organisation has always been telling that customers and guests are #1 priority

Ø   It is history now that the hotel business was started by Jamshedji Tata when he was once insulted by a British Hotel and refused entrance because he was an Indian.

Ø   He created several institutions which later became icons of progress, culture and modernity. IISc is one such institute. He was told by the rulers at that time that he can acquire land for IISc to the extent he could fence the same. He could afford fencing only 400 acres.

When, at the above mentioned HR function, the group hesitatingly made a very rich proposal to Ratan – he said – “Do you think we are doing enough?”

Ratan Tata’s approach was  – the organization would spend several hundred crores in re-building the property – why not spend equally on the employees who gave their lives?

Attitude is defined as ones’ feelings or mood – Positive or negative – toward things, circumstances or people. No matter how you may choose to define attitude, it is one of your “most priceless” or disabling possessions.
You, and only you, are in charge of your attitude! You must realize that your attitude is your choice to make, and that you alone can decide how to deal with events in your life. Your attitude will determine how you position yourself in life and what you get or don’t get out of life.
Viktor Frankel, psychologist and survivor of the World War II holocaust, observed a few men in the concentration camps walking through the huts comforting others, giving proof that everything can be taken from a human, but the last of human freedoms – the choice of one’s attitude in any given circumstance – cannot be taken.
I have had the pleasure of hiring directly or indirectly thousands of people throughout my career. I have also experienced the distasteful process of having to fire individuals. I have never fired someone for lack of skills; it has always been based on behavioral problems. I did not fire them for a bad attitude, but rather for specific behavioral problems which were as a result of their attitude. Because of my experience I have developed eight rules for hiring from the outside and for promoting from within.  Leadership development coach Roger have narrated 8 rules for hiring smart talent.

8 Rules for Hiring Smart

1. Hire attitude, train skill. (Southwest Airlines mantra)

2. Hire people for “who they are” first, and “what they know” second. What they Know, and will need to know, changes, Who they Are Doesn’t.

3. Hire people first with the right mind-set, and second with the right tool-set.

4. Hire people who have a demonstrated record of life-long learning and the “application” of that learning.

5. The best predictor of future behavior is past behavior. Ask interview questions that get them to talk about how they have reacted in certain situations (change, stress, wins, conflict, deadlines, teamwork, etc.) Listen to learn.

6. Hire people who are passionate and have accomplished things in their life.

7. Look for energy, humor, spirit and self-confidence, and a great attitude.

8. Hire people who are excited about managing their own career, contributing to the greater good of the organization and involved in the community. Great people are normally greatly involved!

The most common – and fatal – hiring mistake is to find someone with the right skills but the wrong mind-set and hire them on the theory, “We can change them.” Hiring smart is productive, not doing so is unproductive.

she’d need in order to attain an increase in her sales commission.

Then, on June 2, 2006, Lockwood’s 4-year-daughter Lily woke up with pinkeye. She called a manager to request rescheduling a meeting since she wouldn’t be able to come to work. A half hour later, the manager called back with words that chilled Lockwood: Unless she resigned, she would be fired with or without cause.

Why? “It just wasn’t working out,” Lockwood says the manager told her.

Out of a job, Lockwood says she couldn’t pay the mortgage on her recently-purchased home, and she had to seek forbearance on her student loans. Worse, she told the Tribune, “My children had to see me stressed, depressed and anxious.”

Chicago’s human-rights commission’s final order found that Lockwood was the victim of “blatant” discrimination against employees with children, citing examples from its investigation such as a colleague being given the day off to sort out a home repair.

A lawyer for Professional Neurological Services told the Tribune that the company will appeal the decision.

Though some employers have embraced family-friendly policies, nearly 500 cases claiming family responsibilities discrimination were filed in U.S. courts between 1996 and 2005, up 97 percent from the previous decade, a 2006 report by the WorkLife Law Center found. In response, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in 2007 issued guidance on applying existing laws forbidding discrimination based on gender, pregnancy, or disability to protect caregivers of children and aging parents.

Lockwood’s case is the first involving parental discrimination to appear before the Chicago commission. “I’m excited because there aren’t too many opportunities in the employment arena to have the first of something,” Ruth Major, Lockwood’s lawyer, told the Tribune. “I hope it creates the opportunity for employers to pay more attention to this issue and take proper precautions so it doesn’t happen.”

The case is also significant for shining a spotlight on the growing power of local human-rights commissions. In the past, lawyers and claimants have shied away from taking matters before human-rights commissions rather than to state and federal courts, assuming that commissions would not award significant damages. Lockwood’s victory — a payment of $213,000 for her ($100,000 of which represented punitive damages), plus another $87,000 for her lawyer — will surely draw more cases before local commissions.

“While the scope of local laws may seem limited, their impact can be significant and costly for employers,” Stephanie Bornstein of the Center for WorkLife Law at the University of California Hastings College of Law told the Tribune.

It’s often said that money doesn’t bring happiness. But the truth could be more complicated, according to researchers at University of Toronto and Stanford University who have discovered that people paid by the hour are far more likely to be happy than those earning a monthly salary.

It seems that the reason being paid by the hour has more of an impact on employees’ wellbeing is that they give pay more attention to what they’re earning than those who earn a salary.

“Income was uncorrelated with happiness for salaried employees, whereas it was significantly associated with happiness for people paid by the hour,” the research published in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin concluded.

“Hourly payment doesn’t make you happier per se,” said Sanford DeVoe, co-author of the paper. “Hourly payment makes you happier if you earn a lot of money per hour, but it makes you less happy if you very little per hour.

i beleive, “Salary is the main source of motivation for the employee . My question is why an employee do job? simpliest answer, is to have money to survive hsi life and needs. Money received in the fastest way can bring the motivation level very high.”

Salaried people have there living ways and job philosophy. Anything against, those philosophy are not welcome, at any cost . Even, there happiness definition is also different , even though they are working in one team , one organisation.

“The key thing is that it makes how much you earn a bigger aspect of how you define your happiness.”

Members of the U.S. Nordic Combined Ski Team won gold and silver yesterday in the sport’s final Olympic event. It was the culmination of an amazing winter games for the team, which won medals in all three of the sports’ competitions. It was also one of the more amazing turnaround stories of the Olympics.

How Nordic Combined went from dead last in the world in 1988 to regular trips to the podium is a lesson in slow, deliberate growth managers at struggling US companies like General Motors, Delta, or even the New York Times Co., might take a page from.

Tom Steitz, who we first wrote up on the blog last week, took over as Head Coach for the team in those dark days of 1988, inheriting little money or athletic talent to work with. But he set a methodical approach to turning the team around, and set ambitious goals that put it on the path that would lead to Vancouver.

On February 14, one of the skiers he recruited and helped develop, Johnny Spillane won the silver in the first of three events, the first American ever to win a medal in the event. On February 25, Spillane repeated his silver finish in the large hill Nordic Combined, crossing the finish lines seconds behind teammate Bill Demong, who’s gold medal makes him the nation’s first ever champion in the sport. In between four of the American team, including Spillane and Demong, won the silver in the Nordic Combined team competition.

How do you get from dead last to dominating at the most important contest in the world? Steitz seems some lessons in the team’s transformation that can be applied to business. No longer the team coach, Steiz is now a leadership consultant who works for big companies like Johnson & Johnson and Hewlett-Packard. Be he’s still a welcome adviser to the athletes, and spent February at the Games.

Here are some of the lessons he learned from Nordic Combined that he thinks apply to businesses looking to win.

* Move the unproductive out quickly – Right away Steitz overhauled the coaching staff and started to hunt for promising athletes who had good team spirit, who wanted their teammates to do well.

* Set big goals, and plan to build to them - Just attending an Olympics couldn’t be anyone’s goal, Steitz says. They had to want a medal, and every athlete had to be improving whether they were already easily going to make the team or not. Steitz tied those goals to fund raising. He asked sponsors for modest contributions up front, but a promise that they’d give more if the team rose in the world cup rankings. That strategy took them from the worst funded team to the best competing in the 2002 Games.

* Spend time together – Steitz relocated the whole team and all their coaches, nutritionists and medical staff from all over the country to Steamboat Springs, Colorado. He lost a third of his athletes and staff, but he knew those who stayed were committed.

Not everything from sports transfers to business, of course. A coach will invest 10 to 15 years into training an athlete, Steitz notes, only to find that competitor’s age start to slow them down. Corporate managers face a different problem: the chance their great talent will jump ship for another company.

How likely someone is to pick up a headhunter’s call is one of the metric’s Steitz recommends managers track. And it’s one he uses to measure his own performance. Of course there’s no goal medal for coaching.

Tenants in green buildings experience increased productivity and fewer sick days, says a survey. According to the study conducted by the University of San Diego and commercial real estate broker CB Richard Ellis Group, Green buildings have lower vacancy rates and higher rents than non-green counterparts, reports Chris Palmeri of Business Week.

Respondents of the survey said that an average of 2.88 fewer sick days in their current green office versus their previous non-green office. About 55 per cent of respondents indicated that employee productivity had improved. The study also found that tenants in green buildings such as the Behnisch Architekten-designed Unilever offices in Hamburg above are more productive based on two measures – the average number of tenant sick days and a productivity change.

The increase in productivity translated into a net impact of about $20 per square foot. The study also showed that green buildings have 3.5 per cent lower vacancy rates and 13 per cent higher rental rates than the market. Based on the average tenant salary, an office space of 250 square feet per worker and 250 workdays a year, the decrease in sick days translated into a net impact of nearly $5.00 per square foot per year.

The economic impact of the total green construction market from 2000 to 2008, the study found, was $178 billion. It created or saved 2.4 million jobs and generated $123 billion in wages. Another report out in the past week concluded that constructing new green buildings or retrofitting existing structures with energy efficient air conditioning, solar panels and the like will support 7.9 million U.S. jobs and pump $554 billion into the American economy over the next four years. The study, by the U.S. Green Building Council and Booz Allen Hamilton, determined that green construction spending currently supports more than 2 million American jobs and generates more than $100 billion in gross domestic product and wages.

The U.S. Green Building Council certifies LEED buildings and has an interest in the movement, but Rick Fedrizzi, Chief Executive of the group said, “Our goal is for the phrase ‘green building’ to become obsolete, by making all building and retrofits green – and transforming every job in our industry into a green job.”

The next time you arrive late for work; don’t start giving excuses to your boss, for a new study has found that employers don’t believe excuses for not coming on time. The study involving 1,000 employers showed that just seven percent of them trusted the reasons that their employees give for being late.

One in five respondents said long, over-complicated stories were the biggest giveaway. Almost a third said avoiding eye contact was another hint. A fifth of bosses said hearing the same excuse again and again made it less convincing; while 12 percent said any excuses given on a Monday morning were even less believable. Nearly two-third of employers believe that they were experienced enough to tell when an employee is lying about why they were delayed.

The researchers also uncovered 10 weakest excuses. Topping the list was being unable to shut a window. Then came a broken burglar alarm followed by sick pets, spillages and, at number five, claiming to be snowed in. However, female employers were found to be more trusting, with eight percent fully believing the excuses staff give compared to just six percent of male bosses.

“As a nation, problems within our homes certainly seem to be a common reason given for lateness,” the Daily Express quoted Mike Pickard, Head of Risk and Underwriting at UK based Esure Home Insurance, which compiled the study, as saying. “If we are to believe even half the excuses included in this study, then we anticipate a lot of calls about emergency home cover or claims for accidental damage this winter,” he added.

Indian companies stand first among their global counterparts in terms of employee satisfaction, which reflects their successful business practices, says a study.

The study ‘Driving Success Through Performance Excellence and Employee Engagement’ done by research arm of leading global HR solutions provider Kenexa is based on two employee based indicators of business success, which can be used to measure and monitor a firm’s state, these are Performance Excellence Index (PEI) and the Employee Engagement Index (EEI).

“The higher the scores on these two indices, the better positioned employees are to deliver the organization’s value proposition. By improving their scores on these indices, organizations can improve their business results,” said Jack Wiley, Executive Director, Kenexa Research Institute.

India stood first with 76 percent on country level PEI index of 14 countries. The index states employees’ views on product and service quality and the firm’s focus on customer services, quality, and training and employee involvement. Russia scored 67 percent as Japan recorded the lowest 45 percent.

The EEI index measures an employee’s pride in the firm, willingness to recommend the employer whether they intend to stay and their overall satisfaction.

India also ranks the highest in the country level EEI index with 73 percent, followed by Brazil at 65 percent, while Japan stood at the lowest with 36 percent.

The report also provided an analysis of the financial impact of performance excellence and employee engagement that can have on an organization, as they are major contributors to an organization’s ‘total shareholder return’.

“Given the recent economic conditions, many organizations and employees are feeling particularly battered. The analysis tells us where employees are reporting strengths for improving performance, enabling leaders to modify their practices and improve their systems,” said Wiley.