Tag: #HumanResource

Healthy Human Resource and A Healthy Economy

Everyone is talking about GDP growth rate, national income, total debt, international economic transactions, fiscal deficits, production rate, raw materials and what not. But an economy is driven by its citizens, the population – who in actual are contributing each single moment for their economy. An individual can be an asset for an economy only when he or she is healthy.


Now, when one talks about health it not only includes physical health but mental health too. According to World Health Organization, Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.


An individual contributes a lot in the economy. He works in fields, he is in the production department, he is the one building the infrastructure of an economy, he is the one undertaking all the financial transactions, he is the one who frames economic policies, he’s in the service sector and hence he is the backbone, the brain or simply the driver of an economy.


An economy can only function properly when its population is physically, mentally and socially fit. But in the present times, there are few economies who give emphasis to mental and social health of its working population. Nobody cares about the mental well being of an individual. Firms and economies just want their employees and the working population to achieve the desired goals before the deadline. Whether the individual coming to the office, to the factory, to the workplace is fine or not, he or she is happy or not, nobody cares about it.


The policy makers, or more particularly the employers and hirers must ponder upon the thought that a physically healthy and mentally happy individual will be in much better state to contribute more to the firm, to the economy.


Though, for the sake of earning money for a two square meal and a roof above head, even being in a bad mood, sad state , he or she will definitely do the work being assigned but still every rational thinker knows that an unhealthy person cannot contribute more than a healthy person.


Whether someone is unhealthy physically or mentally, he or she will really not be able to work properly and will certainly exhaust him or her even more.

An economy, a firm exists solely because of its working population, the Human Capital. And if that human capital is not fit, how could one say that an economy is fit.


That’s certainly a very big question to the employers, hirers, the firms and the economies.


According to the latest report on depression and anxiety, issued by the World Health Organization, the total estimated number of people living with depression worldwide increased by 18.4% between 2005 and 2015 to 322 million. A major share of this group is the working population itself. Hence, this is fact that certainly these people could not give their hundred percent to the work being assigned to them.


Talking about India will make the situation clearer. According to a study conducted by W. H. O., around 200 million in India may suffer from depression i.e. one out of every five people is not mentally well.


The reason for not being in good mental state could be work pressure, financial problems, family matters, personal matters, addiction to drugs or a bad habit, or hormonal imbalance sometimes.


Realizing the growth of increasing mental health problems among the working population due to number of reasons, firms and economies should take necessary steps including promotion of healthy working environment and separate interactive counseling classes in which individuals can speak their heart out and share their problems with either professionals or their own colleagues. This will help people to be more free and happier and arise out of the ocean of sadness, depression, loneliness.


It will help in building better personal relationships with the colleagues, with family, with friends and with everyone else.


Therefore, a happier and healthier brain will be in a much better state to build a prosperous and healthy economy.

Article by – Shishir Tripathi
Intern at Hariyali Foundation in collaboration with Educational News

Importance of feedback in the recruitment process

A couple of years back I was shortlisted for a well-known, reputed multinational organization and I had to appear for their recruitment drive. I had to report there at about 8:30 AM and the recruitment process consisted of GD followed a couple of rounds of interview. After clearing the GD and the first interview round, I appeared for the last round of interview. It was a managerial and HR round and mostly consisted of questions about me. I answered whatever they asked me and I could understand from their non-verbal expressions, that they were quite satisfied with my answers. I came out of my interview, getting a feeling of being shortlisted. But to my utter surprise, I was rejected. I left the building, thinking about where I went wrong considering the fact that I gave my best out there and they also seemed to be impressed by me. I was puzzled and confused and I really hoped at that time, that they should have told me after my rejection where I went wrong and where I can improve.

All I wanted at that time was feedback. Feedback would have clearly responded to my questions of   rejection and would have left me – less confused. Essentially feedback is considered to be the last and the most crucial step in the entire recruitment process. But sadly, many companies fail to provide a reason of their doings, let alone a plausible one. Companies should understand that when candidates are signing up for them, they should at least respect our decision by providing a platform where we can share our thoughts easily. In the recent times, feedback is considered to be a crucial step and a recruitment process is considered to be incomplete without this step.

Why feedback is considered to be a very important step is due to these reasons:

  1. Feedback ensures the transparency of the recruitment process of an organization. It remove the fuzziness involved in the process of selection.
  2. Candidates better understand what went wrong in the process and it makes them stronger when they appear for the next drive.
  3. Feedback, if solicited from the candidates, help the recruiters to understand any loopholes in the recruitment process and it also provides an avenue for the recruiters to improve themselves.
  4. Ensures transparency of the company which can promote the employer branding and can also be a tool or a source of great competitive advantage.
  5. Word of mouth is a tool which can make or break an organization. As in the case of mine, if feedback was provided, even though I did not get selected, I would have definitely spread the good word for that company.

The process which most company fails to understand is very simple. Our industry thrives on feedback and to get a very first-hand experience of how any program appeals to the mass, one should definitely implement the feedback step in each and every process. From a candidate’s perspective, I can say that it is not feasible to get selected in every company, but if I am giving sometime for one company, I might as well know what went wrong for me to be rejected from that company.

As for companies, they should understand – Respect works in both ways.

Source – Self

How to leave with respect when laid off

Abdul Kalaam once said – “Love your job but NEVER fall in love with your company”.

Desperate times calls for desperate measures. At least that’s what some of the reputed, well known and no-so-known companies have done in the recent times, owing to the pandemic. Many a companies are trying to cope with the lashes of COVID-19 by cutting costs, eliminating positions and retrenching people. Positions that were once considered to be very crucial to the functioning of the business were just scraped off from the hierarchy and employees occupying those positions were handed a ‘good-bye’ note.

But there is a stark difference in how some of the companies decided to do so. In some companies, the CEO was very transparent in explaining why there is a necessity to lay off people and they felt extremely sorry while doing so. They wrote long, meaningful mails and they at least tried to empathise with the laid off employees. And then there are other companies who’s CEOs just mailed a short message conveying that they are being laid off without any note of sorry or explanation, forget about transparency. But whatever be the mode or the reason of laying off, we as employees should understand that it is best for business and instead of leaving on a bad note, we should make sure to leave with respect and on a good note.

There is no doubt that we might be feeling very smitten inside, but we should not let that feeling empower us to destroy everything that we have accumulated over the years. Now, one must be wondering how to do so amidst such emotional times. I would like to suggest a few ways by which one can leave on a good note even when things might have not worked in their way. Some of those suggestions are:

  1. Try to not dwell on the negative emotions. At the time of lay off, one might feel very low about it, but try not to feed into the negative emotions. Instead of that, one should think about one’ achievements, successes and milestones at the company. Think about what was your best contribution and what worked for you and try to harvest on that.
  2. Try to work out a plan to handover your work. Since one is working remotely, one must be very methodical and careful while handing over very confidential information such as clients’ list project reports and other such documents so that others’ can plan out the work. It is very okay to feel about withholding information, but one should not do so because one should understand that it is not the end of one’s career.
  3. Draft a proper good bye mail. Draft a short and clear mail, intended to one’s colleagues, friends and other people in one’s office network. Make sure to include your contact details – mostly phone number and personal mail id so that people can stay in touch with you. Also one should not forget to give a note of thanks to everyone, in spite of all differences. Such a habit will definitely help one in one’s career while searching for other jobs.
  4. Try to build and amend bridges at the time of leaving. One should talk to the close colleagues, confidantes and the network of peers and mentors, so that they can assist to find a new job in this landscape.

These are the very few steps one should take to ensure that even though things did not quite work out well for you, there is always a way to make things better at some other place.

‘Networking is the key to one’s success.’

Source – Self

Shift in the workplace legal structure

COVID-19 has completely revolutionized the workplace by pushing most of the organizations and the businesses to quickly switch from ‘office model’ to ‘work-from-home’ model. While working under the roof of an office, there existed legislations and legal framework to monitor the behaviour, but those existing policies need to be adjusted so as to incorporate the WFH scenario.

Some key areas where the legal framework needs to be adjusted are:

  1.  Women working at night. Previously as per the Shops and Establishment Act of each state, women employees were prohibited to work during some specified hours at night or they have to arrange for transport services along with escort to make sure that they reach their home safely. So employers had to face compliance issue with regard to women employees. But now since most female employees have moved to WFH, so the employers are free from such compliance issues and at the same time, the floor is open for the employers to look out for those women population who could not previously access the jobs due to geographical and other constraints.
  2. Change in compensation structure. Previously many allowances such as conveyance allowance, meal allowance or food coupons were given out to employees as a part of hardship allowance. But this might not be attractive now considering the WFH scenario. Instead, employers should provide other allowances such as internet reimbursement, ergonomic allowances, IT expenses etc.
  3. Sexual harassment at the new workplace. POSH Act was passed in the year 2013 for the prevention of sexual misconduct at office. But now as the workplace has changed, new forms of misconduct such as repeated phone calls at inappropriate and ungodly hours, forcing to switch on videos, playfully passing lewd remarks and over-discussion of work are creeping up with time. Considering the face that the boundary between work and home has become blurred, POSH needs to incorporate some new rules to prevent such misconduct.
  4. Overtime work. Just a few months back, employers used to measure productivity by checking the entry and exit times of an employee. They used to do so by either swiping their cards or by biometric screening. So if an associate is doing overtime work, usually it was thought that the person is very hardworking. But now the associates are working from home, so performance should now be measured depending on the outcome of the employees rather than on the time spent on doing the work.
  5. Security and compliance threats. SEZ does not have guidelines for WFH facility but STPI has it. As per them, it is necessary for the employees to work on Virtual Private Network. So employees should spend on securing a robust and private WiFi so that that IT security is not compromised on the local system and confidentiality is maintained.
  6. Modification of labour laws like maternity benefits and compensation laws. Previously associates can claim compensation from the employers if any accident occurs at the workplace, but now with the WFH arrangement, the existing compensation laws need to be modified so as to arrange for any compensation if any accident occurs at home.

Our workplace dynamics have completely changed and to enable smooth transition, employers also need to look into the existing legal structure so that eventually the employees does not feel to be disadvantaged. Our home is the new workplace and so laws have to be adjusted taking our ‘home-office’ into consideration.

Source – Self

Performance Management lessons from LAGAAN

Released in the year of 2001, this sports-based iconic movie was based on a small number of people in a village in the Victorian India where they challenged the British for a game of cricket so as to avoid paying of taxes. The movie is an iconic one because it depicts how the protagonist, Amir Khan as Bhuvan took the responsibility to rescue his fellow villagers and how he taught them to play cricket. And the best part of the movie is that, how in spite of all the major and minor obstacles, Amir Khan won the game against the British and managed to secure an opportunity to not pay taxes for the coming three years.

That being said, this movie is quite extensively used by the B-Schools to teach about the various performance management lessons that can be derived from this movie. So after watching this movie again and following an extensive analysis, I have noticed certain instances which can provide exemplary examples of performance management. Below depicted are some of the instances:

World Water Day: From Lagaan to Well Done Abba, films that ...
  1. At the time when the villagers were unable to pay back the taxes, Bhuvan took the responsibility of all the villagers and acted as a leader to carve out a way of glory for them.
  2. After challenging the British over a game of cricket, Bhuvan took it upon himself to learn the game and then to teach all the fellow members.
  3. During the selection of the cricket team members, Bhuvan believed in instilling diversity and inclusion policy. Kachra was selected in the team because of a deformity in his hand which made him a good bowler, in spite of all the caste based differences. Bhura was selected because he was an expert in running to catch his hens which was identified as a major parameter to catch the ball. Even the drummer who could not speak, was selected because he spent most of his lifetime playing the drums and hence had a good upper body strength. So from these instance, Bhuvan was recognized to identify the differences in the team which can be a source of competitive advantage.
  4. At the onset of the game, Bhuvan and his team did not have the necessary resources. But he was more concerned about the performance of his team than about the scarcity of resources. He gave directions to build the necessity from the scratch and that too by the local folks. Being a leader, Bhuvan turned out to be innovative.
  5. Bhuvan did not just made the team, but he did a good job in allocating roles and responsibilities to each of the team members based on their strengths.
  6. One of the note-worthy point is that Bhuvan set some measurable goals and he supervised and improved the performance of his team members. His mantra was pure hard work but with empathy and compassion, which shows a good sign of performance management.
  7. At the end of the movie, even when Kachra facing the last ball, Bhuvan did not give up. He ran for that single run but then it was turned out to be ‘no-ball’. So as a leader of a team, Bhuvan showed immense amount of trust in his team members and a ‘never give up’ attitude.

Lagaan is definitely a movie to watch if one is trying to understand what it is that a leader truly believes in and does. So next time when you watch this movie, you can watch out for these instances of performance management.

Source: Movie ‘LAGAAN’

Succession Planning

One of the hardest task of an HR manager in any organization is talent management. It is the process of identifying the existing talent in the organization and then assessing the talent needs, followed by talent acquisition, talent engagement and finally by talent retention. The hardest part of this is not the process of talent acquisition or engagement, but rather it is the supply of talent itself. Most of the business and operating managers are of the notion that there exist an ample amount of talent in the labour market and that talent identification or acquisition would be easy. But the bitter truth is that, talent with the specific skill set and qualities is in scarce quantity in the talent market and thus the talent acquisition strategies should be very streamlined and well-defined so as not to lose out on the desired candidates. But on top of all this, one very important way that should be followed by each and every organization is Succession Planning.

Succession Planning is the process of identification and development of new leaders, usually at the executive level, with the intention to replace the old leaders when they die, retire or they leave the organization abruptly. This is a practice which is followed so that the existing capable leaders develop themselves so that they can assume the positions of the higher authorities as and when that become vacant. Succession planning is extremely important in an organization because of multiple reasons:

  1. Talent resource with the desired skill set is very scarce in the labour market.
  2. If an executive leaves the organization abruptly, there would be no qualified candidate to become the successor of the vacant position.
  3. Even if a candidate is selected to fill the vacant position, there would be loss in terms of acquisition costs, loss of productivity and hence un-productive costs and then the cost of upskilling among the few direct costs.

Considering the fact that talent is scarce in this unpredictable talent market, it is important for every organization to take strategic decisions as to how to implement the succession planning. It is a way by which an organization can plan for the future in case of uncertain events.

Now, while planning on how to conduct succession planning, an organization can follow a few steps. Some of the steps are:

  1.  At first, try to understand that how the organizational structure is going to be affected if some executive at the key position abruptly leaves the organization. And then while charting out the organizational hierarchy structure, identify the employees who play a critical role in the organization.
  2. Try to identify which are the key positions in your organization which if left vacant even for a single day will create a he dent in your organization.
  3. Scanning the organizational hierarchy, try to identify the top and the bottom players, by looking at their performance records, their career growth and majorly by discussing with their managers.
  4. For any single key position, always try to keep more than one option open.
  5. One of the most crucial step is to communicate who is selected and what is the purpose of selection. This communication should be done to both the new selects as well as the key position holders.
  6. After selection of the individuals, provide them the required training so as to make them ready to occupy the upper positions as and when required.

These is the backbone of succession planning which should be followed by every organization so that the entire organizational structure does not crumble down for a key member leaving the organization.

Source: https://www.insperity.com/blog/5-ways-your-org-chart-can-kick-start-your-succession-plan/

Digitization with a human touch

A couple of days back, I was experiencing a bit of headache due to such long hours of online classes and so I decided to buy a pair of spectacles. During an online session, I just casually mentioned my intention when my friend suggested me to schedule an online appointment in Lenskart. I was a bit surprised that I failed to think about that in the first place, so I said I will check that out. So booked an appointment today and waiting for their response.

Now one might think that this is so weird because this method of digital appointment and 3D trying existed for such a long time and that’s true, no doubt. But what’s surprising is that, may people, including me, who looked for things in offline mode, they are now resorting to try out even the rarest of things in the online mode. We are constantly being surrounded by technology and all kinds of buzzwords “WFH”, “webinar”, ‘zoom’, ‘virtual coffee break’ and so are constantly bugging our life. We are progressing towards ‘humanized technology’ where technology, especially Artificial Intelligence, is completely integrated with a normal human life.

That being said, technology also needs to adapt to human life, meaning that the technology should also be human-friendly. Just engineering a technology to do human-like work will not help, rather it should also be capable enough to assist the humans in every possible way. Multiple reasons exist as to why such integration or amalgamation between technology and human is necessary. Firstly, for convenience. Human being are such generations who need specific information in the fastest and efficient way possible. So technology should be streamlined in a way to alleviate the situation. Presently, Microsoft and Google are looking out for such avenues. Second, is the simplification. We always look up to technology when we face any complex situation because we have always known technology to reduce the complexities of our lives. Since we are dealing with apps and software all the time, organizations should pay heed to the situation so that we, human being can find it easy to search and asses the information. Thirdly, emotional quotient factor. Technology is in fact great when it comes to assess human beings, especially during performance appraisal process, to provide the ratings. Now since we have converted our homes to cubicles, it is imperative that surveys which previously used to work, will fail. Technology should be leveraged to use emoticons and mood sensors to understand the non-verbal cues as well as which emoticons they use to respond to certain events. Fourth, and last but not the least, which is the most important is inclusion. Not all of us are tech-savvy. Many are trying to learn and grasp the technical way outs. It is very important that technology creates an inclusion environment so as to make them relevant in the workforce.

To summarize, we might be progressing rapidly towards the digitization phase, but we should not forget the human aspect to bring about this change. Both has to exist concurrently.

Without the other, one cannot exist.

Source: Self

Horrors of Remote Work

Before the pandemic hit the world, working at remote locations or rather work from home was supposedly believed to give a sense of joy. But now, work from home has become the new normal with the trend hitting most of the multinational corporations. But as we are trying to combat the virus by confining ourselves to our homes, some data theft ‘viruses’ are lurking outside our homes. With most of us using the setups outside the security layers of office, data thieves are trying to tap on those setups to maximize their wealth.

Remote work might be enjoyable in all aspects, but it also possesses certain downsides which can be horrifying both the recipient and the sender of the network. Looking at various perspectives as well experiencing some, I would like to highlight a few such instances:

  1. Public Wi-Fi network. Usage of public Wi-Fi internet connection to do office work can be very unsecure owing to the malicious parties trying to tap the internet traffic to collect confidential information. Potential malwares such as Trojan horse, virus, worms, spyware, rootkits etc. can very easily damage your service with irreparable effects.
  2. Unlocked device. When working in a public location or at home, sometimes we have the tendency to just leave it and get up to do some chore or to even just get a glass of water. In the meantime the confidential data such as office website, servers or mails gets exposed to the stranger or children at home, which can lead to data leakage, thus compromising the security.
  3. Use of personal devices and networks. Most companies have started this policy where you can use your personal setups such as laptop or desktop at your home. Usually the IT Department configures all the required software in your personal device and you can use it for professional reasons. Issue arises when you are using the same device for your personal work such as installing an app or browsing in such websites which can have malicious content and thus your system, data and majorly, your confidential office data gets compromised. But then the question arises, who is to be blamed here? Is it the organization who allowed the associate to compromise company’s data with the personal setup without enough security firewall? Or is the associate who should have taken care while using it for personal uses?
  4. Wary of VPN. Many a times, the remote workers are over-confident about the confidential data-security and since VPN can make the internet connection a bit slower, people tend to just overlook it. But what they forget in the meantime is that Virtual Private Network (VPN) can restrict the flow of information or data to the intended recipient as well as encrypt the data.
  5. Exposure of home router. It’s a human habit to either go for very weak password or avoid password altogether, lest one might forget. And such a habit can easily throw us into the devil’s mouth.
  6. Opening ‘all’ kinds of e-mails. Hackers and phishers wait for the opportunity to bask in glory when they send us a very catchy and a ‘congratulatory’ kind of mail and wait for our ‘one-click’ on that mail. And after that, everything becomes a history.
  7. Device always switched-on. If we get a notification on our setup asking to restart the system in order to install the updates, we tend to reschedule it to the point when we can avoid it altogether. Non-updated device are the most-prone device to each and every kind of threat.

Just a heads up, these are some, but not exhaustive, lists of threats and danger one can face from remote work. Nevertheless, these also have their own solution but it demands a chunk of our attention and intervention. So from the next time, when you sit down and switch on your system to work, always remember there is an extra pair of eyes looking upon you.

Abort the virus, inside and outside.

Till then, stay safe.

Source:

https://www.comparitech.com/blog/information-security/security-remote-working/

Self

Institutionalization of 360-Degree Feedback

One of the most dreaded times of a financial year in an organization is the Performance Appraisal time. Traditional way of conducting performance appraisal is to hold it once, usually at the end of financial year with feedback coming in from the higher levels of management that is the team lead and the reporting manager. This method works well if one is at the lower levels of the hierarchy. But this traditional method of performance appraisal is now replaced by a more flexible method by integrating feedback throughout the year or in frequent intervals, without reserving it for the special occasion.

As an associate goes up the levels of hierarchy, his or her pay component also changes. That is, the base or the fixed component decreases and the variable pay which is linked to the performance of his or her team increases. And that is where the concept of 360-Degree Feedback kicks in. 360-Degree Feedback is the process by which surveys are used to gather and analyse feedback about the performance of a particular employee (usually at a higher-grade) from about 10 or 20 people which includes colleagues, managers, vendor, customers, suppliers, supervisor, peers and other stakeholders, who have an experience working with that employee either directly or indirectly. So to sum up, a higher grade associate is usually rated on the performance as depicted by the people he or she is interacting with.

10 Benefits Of 360 Degree Feedback - Edge Training Systems
360-Degree Feedback

The mail goal of 360-Degree Feedback is to convert the intangible qualities into the strengths and deficits, which can be used as a report, thus carving out a path with highlighted points which require definite action for improvement. 360-Degree Feedback has a lot of other advantages too, some of which are:

  1. Provides deeper insight into the mode of doing a particular job, in terms of collaboration, communication and promotion of innovation.
  2. Provides an interesting contrast in how the participants view themselves and how the others see them.
  3. Gives rich data for statistical analysis and provide ratings, based on actual data, thus eliminating subjectivity.

360-Degree feedback is highly valuable and is receiving a lot of positive responses due to its objective nature, is very much candid owing to the fact that the feedback from the peers will be anonymous and is highly compelling in nature. If one analyses the very purpose of such a feedback, benefits can be reaped from the administrative perspective as well as from the personal perspective too. From the administrative perspective, the results of the feedback is used for performance appraisal and thus for performance rating which ultimately affects the compensation. For executives at higher grade, a small increase in compensation without much analysis usually has a tumultuous effect on the bottom line of the company. And from the personal perspective, the feedback, which was provided anonymously can provide the strengths and the pain points, which can be used as reference by the associate for improvement.

360-Degree Feedback works very well for the executives at higher grades because in that way, their performance is very much linked to the performance of his or her peers and direct interacts. So in one way, it can be a great tool to improve or to remove someone if that associate is unable to perform the expected. But it has to be used with great care. Not only there is a distrust regarding the results of the 360-Degree Feedback, but also sometimes the outcomes generates more questions than answers. So this mode of feedback should be handled with utmost care and with proper control.

But in one way, 360-Degree Feedback means – “Once I knew the problem, I could fix it and I had a game plan.”

Source: https://qulture.rocks/en/blog/360-degree-feedback-what-is-it-and-how-does-it-work/

Unconscious Bias

Have you ever been in a situation where you were blamed even for doing nothing? I am sure most of you have been in that situation. I have been there too. I was working in a multinational organization, about four years back. In the beginning I was a good performer and I delivered on all my deliverable, and that too following the SMART strategy, barring a few. There were times when I could not deliver but I always tried my best, depending on the situation. Now one day, my manager got promoted and she was replaced by another another lady from our team. And then things began to go south. Problems crept up, she began to find faults in everything I do, and she always had this intention to reprimand me in the team meetings.

Things just got worsened one day. A priority 2 issue came up at about 9 PM at night, just at the moment when we were about to leave. I informed her, despite all the differences but to my utter surprise, she remarked, “It is your fault. You are responsible for this. Don’t expect anything from me and I expect this to be solved latest by tomorrow morning.” I knew something like this would happen but I never imagined the utter intensity of the remark. Moreover, when I analysed the situation, I found out that I was never responsible for the issue in the first place. One of my team mate, in fact a senior team member missed to pay attention to the issue a month back, due to which the client had to send it as a priority 2 issue. That was it. The next morning, when my manager came, I explained everything to her, but she was clouded in her own judgement to even listen to me and understand.

That was simply the case of unconscious bias. Because of past incidents and events, her judgement was clouded to let her think straight and logically. Unconscious bias was the main reason which affected her thinking and making the rightful decision. But what she failed to understand is that this little judgement of her can have profound effect on the hiring, motivation and retention decisions. In our day to day interaction, we might not be even aware of when such kind of bias creeps into our decisions and plays havoc in our mind. As per recent news, such unconscious bias can create a turnover impact of INR 22000 per associate. Surprising, isn’t it?

Unconscious Bias

Now when we talk about unconscious bias, there are multiple instances and multiple effects of such bias and each of it has its own term. A few of them are:

  1. Affinity Bias – When we come across a person who is similar to us, we tend to give positive response to him. It seems like we tend to identify ourselves with that person.
  2. Halo Bias – Because of some praiseworthy and commendable actions of the past, we tend to see that person in the positive light and admire all of his actions even though he might not have quite lived up to expectations in the present.
  3. Perception Bias – It is the tendency to form stereotypes and assumptions about certain groups which makes it difficult to form an objective opinion about individual members of that group.
  4. Horn Bias – Because of a negative incident in the past, all the present judgement gets clouded by that feeling.
  5. Confirmation Bias – Tendency to seek out evidence that confirms our initial perceptions and ignoring contradictory information.

These are some of the biases which creeps into our decisions without even our knowledge. Managers should always be neutral which looking at the present situation and not to base the eventuality of the decision based on some past incident. One way to do this is to critically evaluate all the options, put forward by everyone and also to engage a third-party to challenge those options. In this way, our decisions will not be clouded and will be a blessing for everyone.

Referring to the situation which I faced, it was Horn Bias and it could have been easily avoided if she had taken the high road to listen and to communicate with me. But nevertheless, there is always a scope for one to learn in one’s life.

Source: https://builtin.com/diversity-inclusion/unconscious-bias-examples

Are Parents able to do Work From Home?

Consider a 35 year old woman staying with her husband, 37 and her two children – aged 3 and 6 in Bangalore. She works as Project Manager in a top multinational corporation. Her husband is also working as a Project Manager, though of another firm. One of their child, aged 3, is starting with his kindergarten and demands for the utmost attention of his parents. And the other, aged 6, is starting her primary school. She has seen her parents working for most of the times and hence she is bit aware of managing herself.

Things were just going on as expected, until on 24th March, our Prime Minister called for a nation-wide lockdown. And then things just changed.

Should Work-from-Home Parents Hire Help with Child Care? | FlexJobs

Let me now give you a tour of how this woman spends her day. She wakes up to her alarm at 5:30 in the morning. Starting her day with 15 minutes meditation and yoga, she completely immerse herself in doing the household chores. Since the lockdown she has cancelled the maid, cook and nanny services. After her domestic work, she gets ready for the morning meeting with her team members and thus kick starts her 9 to 5 or rather whole day of work. But then wait, she has two children who also needs to get ready for their school. After attending a couple of meetings, she gets up, prepares her children, set up the desktops and login to their school webinar sessions. This continues till the work-chain is intervened by the lunch time. During the lunch hours, she needs to feed her younger one and at the same time, caters to the needs of her elder one. After that, they both go off to sleep and she resumes her work. Some days this workflow gets interrupted by unprecedented events such as poor internet connection, household emergencies and so on and so forth. Apparently as she described, the best time for her to work is about 2 hours in the afternoon and about 2-3 hours at night, when her children go to their beds.

Now this is just one instance. Apparently, this is what most parents are facing while they are working from home. Since the lockdown, they are not just a mom and an employee. Being a maid, a nanny, a mom, a cook, an advisor, a nurse, a repair-woman and a mediator, her life is not just only about being an employee. She is trying to manage everything, trying to subdue all the resistance and challenging all the obstacles on her path. While for others, Work From Home might be a boon or a blessing in disguise but for the parents, especially for a mother, it is a challenge, an everyday obstacle or rather, a bane. Managing her husband, her children, the household as well as her work has never been easy. For her, especially now, there is no distinct boundary between home and work. But the hardest fact of all is that, she was not prepared for this life-changing instrument.

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It is of utmost importance that the employers should take this scenario into consideration and by partnering up with Human Resource Team, they should implement policies which can elevate the motivation level of mothers. A few suggestions from my end would be to give them few extra hours each day, especially during the afternoon to attend to her children. To allow them to complete their work by 6 in the evening, so that they can spend the night-time with their children. Parents should be allowed to attend the business meetings with their children and they should not be embarrassed if something comes up in between work which needs their utmost attention. Parents are having a very hard time, juggling in between work and home and employers should be empathetic while dealing with their situations.

Employers should be all big ears while listening to the issues of the parents. They should have high emotional intelligence and should be empathetic enough to not judge them, but to provide them with empathetic solutions. If a parent says that today she will not be able to work for the entire team because her child is facing some issues, the employer should give her the benefit of doubt, trust her and cooperate with her. It is very important for the employer to keep an open mind and be receptive to the problems. They should understand it takes a lot of courage, especially for the female employees to express their problem, fearing that she will be seen as weak and might be displaced. At this moment, the employer should not despise her, but to communicate with her and provide her with the necessary arrangements.

One things is very important which should always be kept in mind – Parents, especially mothers, can sacrifice for their children and hence the employers must give the required amount of importance to them. Especially the importance that the hard-working parents deserve.

Source: https://hbr.org/2020/03/a-guide-for-working-from-home-parents

Employee Onboarding – Make it or Break it?

Consider two scenarios:

Scenario 1: Debbie was pursuing her post-graduation from one of the Ivy League schools and she was interested to pursue her career as a Talent and Acquisition Specialist in one of the top finance-based company. Luckily the company decided to come to her campus for placements and as luck would favor it, she got the opportunity for the interviews. After series of group discussions and interviews, she finally gets selected as Talent and Acquisition Management Trainee. She received her offer letter and was scheduled to join after 6 months. But those 6 months fell short of her expectations. Apart from a couple of mails which were mostly about documents submission and verification, there was zero-communication. On her first day, there were no office tours, no dedicated workspace and moreover, there loomed a non-welcoming attitude. Months passed by, even her training and performance appraisal was very irregular. Feeling insulted and demotivated, she left the job in about 7 months and decided to go for another organization.

Scenario 2: Debbie joined a new organization which might not be one of the top financial organization, but it was a medium sized thriving organization. She was scheduled to join after a couple of months aftergetting selected. Surprisingly, during those 2 months, she received a congratulatory mail, company goodies and an employee handbook. Apart from that, her HR also completed all the required paperwork. Her first day went by in a blink of her eye. Starting with orientation, followed by leadership team introduction, office tour and a special lunch with her new team, her day went by exceedingly well. Even after 6 months, she went through a methodical training program and a transparent performance appraisal process. Satisfied, she overstayed in that company for almost 9 years.

Onboarding: Building a first-time experience that makes users ...
BAD EMPLOYEE ONBOARDING EXPERIENCE

So now let me ask you a question – Given a chance, which company would you choose?

Among the two scenarios, the first company lacked a major employee experience – Employee Onboarding, which was apparently instituted by the second company. Onboarding is the process of integrating a new hire with the company and with the company culture, values as well as providing all the necessary tools, software and information, so that the new hire becomes a productive member of the team. Believe it or not, employee onboarding experience plays a very crucial role in the employee engagement and is considered to be potential investment in the employee retention.

But some people might ask, what is the necessity of such a program. The sole reason is to allow the new hires to be familiarized with the company culture, to determine the fit and most importantly, to remove the confusion and the anxiety that usually haunts the hire on the first day. Research says that our new generation, that is Gen Z is very much dependent on the manager’s approval and they expect themselves to be highly productive from the very first day of hire. New hires have immense expectations from his new company in terms of engagement, career development and growth and similarly, the employer also has expectations from the new hire in terms of performance and contribution. And the very first step to build that relationship is this EMPLOYEE ONBOARDING EXPERIENCE.

Employee Onboarding consists of 5 major steps:

  1. Pre-hire – This is the period between the selection of the candidate and his first day. Operations HR plays a very important role in the pre-hire stage. During this time, the company sends the offer letter which is to be signed and sent back. The company also sends a company guide (mission, vision and values), an employee handbook (compensation and benefits policies) and company goodies (paper weight, coffee mug, coaster etc). During this time, background and documents verification is the most crucial part.
  2. First day – On this day, the HR Team plays a crucial role by welcoming the new hire. Usually the day starts with orientation in the form of webinars and videos, but mostly done face to face. An employment contract is also signed on this day. This is followed by meeting with the leadership team who delivers information about the company’s culture, an office tour, a lunch with the dedicated team and most importantly, assignment of the workspace.
  3. New Employee Orientation – During these days, the team lead introduces the entire team with the new hire and assigns a buddy and a mentor for guidance. Also, some important contact lists in terms of work and safety are also provided. Access and account creation is also done. It is very important for the new hire to get acquainted with all the team members and try to acclimatize in the new workplace.
  4. New Employee Training – After the orientation is complete, the hew hire should understand who are the major stakeholders of his work. A training program should be developed with quantifiable objectives to make the new hire productive and the training should be result oriented. Post that, small achievable goals will be set with milestones and deadlines. The new hire will be observed and then the ground is set for performance evaluation. This is usually done for the first 90 days.
  5. Performance Evaluation – Usually after 90 days, the new hire will be evaluated on the basis of training objectives and they will receive the performance ratings. The evaluation is done based on observation or interview. The result of the evaluation is either more training or normalization to the daily schedule, depending on the rating.
7 Problems With Your Onboarding Program
GOOD ONBOARDING EXPERIENCE

These are the major steps which should be followed by a company, with some modifications according to company’s culture. What an organization must remember is that the cost of new hiring is 3 times the cost of retaining the existing employee. So if a company has taken the pain to hire someone, it should bear the extra burden by providing an onboarding platform to make this entire journey a bit easier for the new employee.

“Be thankful to your employees, who are ultimately the face of your company.”

https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/hr-topics/talent-acquisition/pages/new-employee-onboarding-guide.aspx

https://www.insperity.com/blog/employee-onboarding-vs-orientation-need/

Trailing blaze of Workplace Discrimination

Clara did not get her due promotion to be the Associate VP because she was expecting her first child. Mike was not allowed to put up his rosary bead on his computer. Gloria was not allowed to welcome her client because she was of ‘differential’ color. Sabrina was not given employment because she requested two 5 minutes break each day for her prayers. Satarupa was denied to be a part of the upcoming ‘big-client project’ because she was getting married in a month. Rahul never hangs out at the coffee spot, fearing his colleagues might ask him about his ‘personal’ life. Taylor was asked to resign because of a brawl with his ‘white‘ colleague.

Direct Discrimination. Religious Discrimination. Colorism. Religious Discrimination. Gender discrimination. Sexual Orientation Discrimination. Racial Discrimination.

The 21st Century Spectrum of Racism in America – Blue Delaware
Racial Discrimination

Almost everyday, we read about discrimination and how it is affecting lives worldwide. We read about it and for a few days, we feel very infuriated with it and then, like any other news, we just forget and move on. Then again a headlines come up and then the cycle continues. So did we actually manage to make any progress in that area. I believe we have, just momentarily.

Let me narrate a personal incident. It was about 3 years back. I recently joined a premium service-based organization after my graduation. After a month, my boss announced that our client is throwing a project success party. I was excited since that was going to be my first ‘corporate’ party. I got dressed up into, what people usually call as ‘one-piece’. It was pretty normal for me to be dressed like that. But the moment I stepped into the cubicle to leave with my colleagues for the party, one of my male colleagues looked at me directly and said:

“You are looking different. In fact, to tell you the truth, you are looking great in that short dress.”

I felt uneasy. The word ‘short’ made me uncomfortable. I did not say anything, I just smiled and went to the party.

At the party, I sat at the bar and ordered beer. My manager, who came with her family, appeared out of nowhere and gave a look at my bottle and said:

“How can a girl drink beer or any other hard drinks.”

I was astonished. I did not say anything and simply stood up and left. I was afraid to say anything because I thought that it might ruin my career in that company.

At the turn of the decade, gender inequality still affects ...
Gender Discrimination

But few years later, I ended up leaving the place because of multiple social reasons but that is not the point. The point is how on earth, even in this 21st century, are we dealing with such petty issues.

DISCRIMINATION.

Long word. Even have longer implications on the people who face it. Discriminatory remark, in its simplest form is very subtle and people usually fail to realize it. Like in my instance, I found those two comments to be quite derogatory but I was not sure whether to label it as discrimination.

Recently, CISCO was sued by the State of California because of it racial discriminatory actions against a ‘Dalit Indian-American’ employee as well as allowing him to be harassed by a couple of managers. Infosys is also facing a lawsuit due to racial discrimination which was filed by the diversity head of Infosys. Long back, Walmart faced a lawsuit due to gender as well as racial discrimination where they paid a black woman very less as well as denied her rightful promotion for years. Abercrombie &Fitch faced racial discrimination because of allowing the Latino and the Asians to work in the stock room and the ‘classically American’ on the shop floor. Nike faced lawsuit due to gender discrimination for violating Equal Pay Act and treating the women employees inferior to the male employees.

These are just few of the reported cases in the new. What goes unnoticed are the hundreds of such cases where the victims usually do not have the support to report it. It’s quite imperative that it’s high time for the Human Resource Manager to come into the play. They should take measures to curb such forms of discrimination at the workplace. Even though corporate and industries are embracing diversity and inclusion, HR Managers should promote this ‘diversity and inclusion‘ as a practice rather than an activity. A workplace is like a second home where we spend one-third of our day. We feel safe with our family, because they embrace us despite our flaws. AT the same time, HR should also make sure that the work environment should be inclusive enough to accept our diverse profiles. Such discrimination only creates differences and headlines which is like a blooming path for our competitors. Rather it is important that being an HR, we should promote this diversity, and use it to our own competitive advantage.

Be different. Be unique.

Source:

https://www.vox.com/2018/8/15/17683484/nike-women-gender-pay-discrimination-lawsuit

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/ites/infosys-faces-fresh-race-discrimination-suit-in-us/articleshow/76347038.cms