P-RAISE THE TOAST! HAPPY 2012

The other day I was parking my car in a wretched basement parking-lot with narrow bends and alleys. I started to park my car on a slope against the gradient and could park the car in a single attempt. The parking assistant who was helping me was seemingly impressed and said aloud - 'Gari bahut acha chalate hain, Sir', meaning 'You drive very well, Sir'. That instant recognition though small was real and made me feel good for I have always taken pride of my driving skills. Better, it made me forget the despicable parking-lot.
Ayan is home…Did I tell you about Ayan? My brother and his wife have been blessed with a baby boy. The two day old baby came home today and we were at our brother’s place to welcome our delight. My son Arnab has become a Dada (elder brother in Bengali) and he is both happy and overwhelmed by this promotion. His reaction at times is joyous and at times he is starting to feel a bit left-out. But small shots of praise, whenever he is doing something for his small bro, is making him feel delighted and responsible. He is excited and although being just 5 years old himself, is trying every bit to be caring and in-charge. We are both amused and delighted to see his brotherly overtures.
Anyways, just goes on to emphasize once again – appreciation need not be costly to be engaging and instant recognitions are always valued no matter how small they are or who really gives such notes of praise to you
So go ahead, tell someone this new year eve a word of praise to anyone who you feel has done something to be deserving of the same. And on that note, a VERY HAPPY 2012.

Contextual Challenges

Sometime back when BBC started rehearsing the announcement of Queen’s demise, in case of an eventuality, it was seen as a proactive measure and also an attempt of to rectify the past, when one of their announcers goofed-upon big time during the death of another royal. Recently, however when they started rehearsing the possible death of the former British PM Tony Blair, many eyebrows were raised. Tony Blair is pretty young and is hale & hearty except for a minor heart scare in the past. He has three kids, with the youngest one born in the year 2000, when he was in-term. The BBC reportedly came in for a lot of flak when they started recording obituaries from the ex-colleagues of Tony. Too many steps forward or from being proactive to hyperactive! The next you know they may start recording advance obituaries for all their celebs & dignitaries and may be even for the English cricket team. Just to be future-safe, you see!
The ability to interpret contexts correctly and take suitable decisions has a lot of importance. At time certain contexts may appear similar, however they may only be so on the surface. The underlying dynamics may be completely different. As in the case of BBC, they made the mistake of looking at possible demise of Queen who is in her late eighties and that of Tony Blair, who although has a high degree of importance considering he has been the British head of state but his age & stage of life has no indication of similar eventuality in the near future, in the same light. Context is different from a situation. Context comes in a flash and disappears equally fast. However for the time that it lasts it has profound impact and hence reading and knowing how to deal with the same correctly is important. The worst thing that someone can do is to try and engineer a context, in the similar way that BBC tried to do in the case of Tony Blair.

Leaders have similar challenges confronting them. Reading and dealing with the contextual challenges goes a long way in deciding the future of organizations and engagement of its constituent stakeholders.

The Eveready Indian

Further to my 2nd December post - 'The Vacation Phobia' there is still more evidence to suggest that Indians are allergic to holidays.
Regus Survey- 2011 findings -

The statistics is alarming and shows that a very high majority of people in India are working during their holidays. Is it having an impact on their health and personal lives? From an organizational view-point is it leading to quick burnout and drop in productivity-levels? Is it affecting their ‘engagement’ with their work and with the organization?
Interestingly, the same survey also indicates that not much work is actually done by the staff working during holidays.

So who wins in this 'no-holiday' syndrome - the individual, the company or the family? None, I guess! 
Anyways for all of those who have choosen to be with their families during the coming holidays  - a VERY HAPPY CHRISTMAS & NEW YEAR!

And for the 'Eveready Indian' my message is -

Beckon, not Blame!

At 34.2 percent, India's rate of female participation in the labor force is the lowest of any of the BRIC countries, according to U.N. statistics. Women make up 42 percent of college graduates in India, yet even those with diplomas are expected to let their careers take a back seat to caring for husband, children, and elderly parents. The Center for Work-Life Policy, a Manhattan think tank, conducted a study in the year 2010 on the challenges Indian women face in the workplace, and found that in fact, gender disparities at Indian companies grow more pronounced in management's upper ranks

Who is to be held responsible for such low participation of females in the workforce ? Many blame the organization for being inflexible and un-empathetic towards women. Some critics even put some organizations in the bracket of being biased towards women and as the cliché goes for women there is a glass-ceiling at the top. During the India Economic Forum-2009, Indra Nooyi, chief executive officer, PepsiCo spoke about her own personal experiences as a woman employee. She said, “The resume of a successful woman looks impressive but no one knows the heart aches and breaks that go in its making and as a woman I understand what other working women like me go through.”There are some who put the blame on managers and point to the fact that most of them either berate women colleagues or do not let them decide at all. Male managers may feel do not come-out honest towards women colleagues, a trait that women do not appreciate. Other think that that the women employees themselves are to blame for still a dismal rate of women participation in India. A primary research conducted on 1,140 women professionals shows 'career orientation' being the key factor, Indian women can be segmented into: a) Career Primary, b) Career and Home and c) Home Primary. They approximate into a distribution of 19%, 58% and 23% of women in the workforce — data which requires more authentication and individualization to each workplace. The second and major category (Career & Home – 58%) seems to causes maximum heartburn to talent managers. High attrition, lethargy in managerial evolution and low engagement are some key issues. The study finding indicate that a stressor at home forces the woman to work. 'Once it is removed, she quits. While at work, she seeks flexibility, templatised work with little goal pressure and prefers to remain an individual contributor life-long'. Hence the study feels that companies should not waste their energies on this category and instead focus on the first category of female employees that is those belonging to the ‘Career Primary’.

Despite this blame-game, several companies have taken wonderful initiatives for their women employees. CSC has not only flexible hours for women but they have also launched an exclusive website for its women employees called Planet W. The site acts as a discussion forum to exchange ideas and get useful tips on diverse issues. Google has taxis on call for employees, a particular draw for women who may need to rush home to care for a sick family member. German drugmaker Boehringer Ingelheim, mindful that families frown on young women traveling alone, will pay for an employee to bring her mother along on longer trips.

Tata lead in many ways the business scenario in India. They are truly the captains of the Indian Industry. When it comes to the issue of women equality & diversity as well they are miles ahead of others. They provide a beckon of light to those women who are talented and want to make a successful career. Talk about a pioneer in India, in terms of engaging the hugely talented women workforce in this country, Tata's are leagues ahead. Here is a snapshot of various initiatives of Tata Group of companies in India and away –

 Some women in top roles across Tata Group (2011 data, Source ET) - 

• Simone Tata, Chairperson, Trent
• Ritu Anand, VP & deputy global head of HR, head global talent management, TCS, India
• Deborah Hadwen, CEO, TCS, Australia
• Delna Avari, Product Head, Tata Motors
• Veetika Deoras, Deputy VP (brand Marketing), Tata Captal
• Jia Maheshwari DGM Tata Reality & Infrastructure
• Sohini Thakur head of Business HR, Tata Steel
• Jyoti Narang, COO, Taj Hotels
• Deepa Harris, Senior VP – Marketing & Sales, Taj Hotels
• Renu Basu, Head – Sales, Taj Hotels
• Suma Venkatesh, Director Development, Taj Hotels
• Mridula Tangirala, Director – Operations, Tajsafaris
• Ashrafi Matcheswala, GM, Taj Group
• Ritu Chawla, DGM, Taj Krishna, Hyderabad

While there have been some companies in India that have similar stories to share, yet there have been very few who have been able to emulate what Tata group has been able to do in terms of engaging the female employees.

Emotional-Side of Engagement

Recently a German couple hired a mountain rescuer to look for their toy frog that had tumbled from a 2000 – m peak in the Australian Alps. It cost the couple $ 565 to rescue the cuddly green toy that was some sort of lucky charm for them. For the mountain rescuer it was one of those odd off-season assignments. Will you be interested to know how did the frog tumble to those depths? Well! The story goes on like this – The husband was posing with the frog on top of the 2192 – m peak in the Australian state of Tyrol, while his wife was clicking this memorable moment. But before this joyous moment could be secured the camera shutters, the husband slipped and although he was able to hang-on & get back up again, the frog tumbled down under. I wonder if the same rescue mission would have been taken-up by the lady in case instead of the frog her husband had tumbled into the depths below!


Mid-December die-hard fans of the Indian cinematic icon & superstar Rajnikanth celebrated his birthday all over the country. One such club in Maharashtra, the Maharashtra State Head Rajnikanth fans Welfare Association, which has some 90 branches in Mumbai alone, celebrated the day in a way that made news item. The day started with a ‘puja’, followed by a milk-abhishek of Rajnikanth’s photograph, followed by charity (made out of generous donations from Rajni’s fans), ladoos, payasam, cake-cutting & firecrackers that reached frenzied-levels. The virtual world posted with gaiety like – Rajnikanth had just blown his birthday candle. HURRICANE ALERT has been declared by the weather bureau’; ‘Rajnikanth will cut a knife with his birthday cake’; and, as Delhi celebrated its 100th birthday, one of Rajni’s numerous fans wrote – ‘Delhi was born the same day as Rajnikanth. Guess that’s the reason Delhi was made the capital.

The engagement of the German Couple to the toy frog or the engagement of Rajnikanth’s fans with their idol-star is purely an emotional connect. They toy frog’s material value must have been belittled by the money that the couple spent on rescuing it. Similarly many fans who danced in frenzy & donated with generosity may not have met Rajni in person ever nor most of them would but still for them his birthday becomes a moment to celebrate. Partly, engagement is an emotional-bonding with the subject that may be a toy frog, a person or an organization.

Sapient, US-based business and technology Consultancy Company, has found a unique way to do charity. Employees bid for the services offered by another employee and the money collected through such bids is donated to charity. The services can be anything as weird as an employee offering to chauffer his team members to work every day to offering to bring home-cooked food for the team for a week. And this process is completely silent and anonymous, hence the name ‘Silent Auction'. After every three weeks, the top services would be selected for a ‘loud auction', at the end of which the entire amount would be given away for charity. The services have little rationale and more emotions, like the home-cooked food. Similarly, the bidding for these services, the amount of which in most cases in much more than actual value of those services, is more an emotional-bid than a rational-bid. But this is also one way of keeping employee engaged to each other, towards a ‘bigger’ cause and to the organization.

Break-Away or Break-Down!

As kids, me and my younger brother used to look forward to the evenings when we could have a match of cricket. We had a reasonably big courtyard in our old house and that used to transform into a cricket pitch as the sun became more sedate. And our father used to be one of our players. We used to tell him in the morning itself to be in back in time during the evening to be able to play with us and on most days then not he used to turn-up. We enjoyed having him because we could bowl him ‘out’ very easily and when he used to bowl we used to hit lusty ‘sixes’ (much to the annoyance of our neighbours). He was such a ‘useful’ player that way! And then we used to drag him into playing almost everything that we played – badminton, table-tennis etc. He actually got a carpenter to make a table-tennis table at home so that we didn’t have to play on the dining table. I think our father also enjoyed playing with us and despite the fact that he was a very devoted government employee, he always had time for us. I have never seen him suffer from any worry or stress and is the same happy-go-lucky man even today.


I do not think many of us can really dream of such breaks and quality time to just do anything today. All of us are busy and hardly find any time. No doubt stress-levels, blood pressures, heart-aliments hyper-tension have become common terminologies. Finding quality breaks away from work is so important to recharge the batteries. A new Swedish study has suggested that reducing work hours for exercise may increase employee’s productivity. The researchers Ulrica Von Thiele Schwarz and Henna Hasson of Karolinska Institute. Stockholm divided the employee in to three groups for their research. One group of employee participated in the mandatory exercise programme of 2.5 hours a week during regular work hours. The second group received the same reduction in work hours, but did not participate in an exercise programme. The third group worked regular hours with no exercise programme. The researchers found that employees assigned to the exercise programme showed significant increase in self-rated measures of productivity, felt more productive at work and a reduced rate of work absences due to illness. Their detailed findings are due to appear in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.

There is another new trend catching-up in Sweden. Office-goers are heading to dance floors to unwind during their work breaks. More and more Lunch Beat Studios are coming-up and workers of all ages are flocking there during their lunch breaks to shake and jig a bit.

Others are letting their employees play a match of table tennis or a game of cards or may be jam-up some music between work-breaks.

The logic appears to be pretty simple - If you cannot shorten a long unending road, then plant more trees on the way. That will at least keep you sane and going. Engagement believes in sustainability. So break-away or break-down!

Empathy is Engaging, Sympathy is Condescending & Compliance is Demeaning

‘The Bangalore unit of Navratna Defence PSU Bharat Electronics Ltd. (BEL) has received the National award for “Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (2011)” under the “Best Employer” category. According to BEL communiqué, disabled people account to 2.75% of the PSU;s workforce at its Bangalore complex who have been offered a wide spectrum of welfare initiatives. Grace time, free transport, hearing aids, walking sticks for the blind, calipers with special shoes for employees suffering from orthopaedic problems and wheel chairs etc. are some of the facilities provided. Besides ramps, special toilets and ATM counters have also been set up at various locations within the facility to make life easier for these employees. BEL also runs a school, Ashankura for special children. An ancillary unit named Vijaya Physically Handicapped Association has been established in the BEL industrial estate for providing jobs and rehabilitating the disabled. Disabled sportsmen and sportswomen are sanctioned special leave ton attend state national and international competitions. What is noteworthy is that some physically challenged employees of BEL have received the Eklavya and Arjuna awards.’ (The Times of India)

In its Code of Practice on Managing Disability in the Workplace, the ILO defines a disabled person as “an individual whose prospects of securing, returning to, retaining and advancing in suitable employment are substantially reduced as a result of a duly recognized physical, sensory, intellectual or mental impairment”. As a comprehensive human rights Convention for people with disabilities, the UNCRPD recognizes that disability is an “evolving concept”, stating that “persons with disabilities include those who have long term physical, mental, intellectual or sensory impairments which in interaction with various barriers may hinder their full and effective participation in society on an equal basis with others”. Organizations benefit from having employees who have the skills to do the job effectively and efficiently.  For many people, having a disability does not impact on their ability to do the essential requirements of a job. Recognizing the true potential of disabled people and creating workplaces and work-practices that are conducive to such people is the need of the hour, especially in countries like India.

BEL has taken that extra-step and its recognition should be an eye-opener for many. Internationally such awards in the year 2011 have gone to companies like CISCO, KPMG, EMC² awarded by Springboard Consulting.

Some countries are far ahead in institutionalising such practices. Australia for instance has Australian Network on Disability that clearly lays down code of practices for employers with respect to disabled people. In UK employers are bound by the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA). The employers who exhibit the two tick symbol are thought to have a positive attitude towards job applications from disabled people.

Employers who use the disability symbol make five commitments regarding recruitment, training, retention, consultation and disability awareness.

The disabled can also be read as differently–abled and they bring immense talent along with them and add value like any other ‘normal’ employee. Evidence of the ability of the disabled comes from a lot of true stories:

Naseema Mohammed Amin Hurzuk of Kohlapur, a wheelchair user since the age 16, she has rehabilitated over 8,000 disabled children through various avenues that include a medical aid centre, vocational training centre, an integrated school, hostel and co-operative credit society.

Buse Gowda, Bangalore, a visually impaired person, is known for his mastery in classical dance. He is now part of a dance troupe called Natyanjalli and has over a thousand dance performances, world over, to his credit.

Pradeep Singha, Mumbai cannot hear, speak or see, but has succeeded in several areas. He is a trained masseuse and an editor at the Braille Press. Pradeep He works at a Braille press, is proficient with computers, is also a trained masseuse and also trains other disabled persons at the press.

Creating conducive organizational ecosystems for disabled people to co-exist the organizations is neither a legal issue nor a CSR issue.  It is in strictest sense an ‘engagement‘issue – an engagement that has empathy at the core not sympathy and has definite paybacks to the company. Treating this issue as a charity is being disdainful towards the disabled people. And, of course, if it is just for legal compliance, then it is almost mortifying the issue and always serves the bare minimum.

Organizations must remember that when it comes to disabled people - Empathy is Engaging, Sympathy is Condescending & Compliance is demeaning!

It Happens only in India!

A yesteryear forgettable and otherwise appalling bollywood number had a very apt line – ‘It happens only in India’. Some incidents in the last few days reminds me of this line.


It can only happen in India that a super specialty hospital in Kolkata, having an annual turnover of over Rs. 180 Crore could flout every possible fire safety norm and 89 patients could perish in a hell-fire that broke-out last Friday. But for the extraordinary callousness on the part of hospital authorities, facilitated by administrative neglect, one of the worst disasters in recent memory could have been easily averted. ‘That all the deaths were due to suffocation points to the absolute unpreparedness of the hospital staff. There were no evacuation plans, no alternative exits in the seven-storey building, no proper arrangement to provide access to fire tenders, fire alarms and smoke detectors malfunctioned and water hydrants simply didn't work. Worse still, the hospital had another fire in 2008, but failed to learn its lessons. Even more despicable is that the fire department only in July had given the hospital three months to clear out its basement, which it used to dump inflammable and radioactive material, and from where Friday's fire emanated. But there was no follow-up. Amazingly, the state government has a 1.99% stake in AMRI and two nominees on the hospital board with the director of medical education as its chairperson.’ (source: TOI)

A country’s political medley that preaches economic reforms becomes cold feet every time the issue of FDI in retail comes-up! The government puts the announcement in abeyance because it wants to avert mid-term polls! How funny!!! A quote from an article ‘Selling the wrong idea’ from The Times of India describes the situation very aptly – ‘Adam Smith, writing in The Wealth of Nations, was probably the first to call England a nation of shopkeepers. But few remember that Smith used the phrase to argue that England was a "nation whose government is influenced by shopkeepers". And that influence was malign. Thus, he blamed the founding of the British Empire on the desire of shopkeepers to secure monopoly of trade in colonial commodities. India's shopkeepers today invite a similar, if different, opprobrium. By opposing retail sector reform, they and their political supporters in the BJP, Trianmool Congress and the communists, are not merely sabotaging this important reform.’ We are perhaps the only nation among the developing contries to oppose FDI in retail. We are too then a nation of shopkeepers, after all this economic- reform drama. True, it happens only in India.

Amongst all this depression there was some ray of hope and brightness from our very own Virendra Sewhag. His blistering and record-breaking 149-ball 219-run knock against the West Indies in the fourth ODI in Indore, lit-up the faces of many Indians badly searching for some news to cheer. India the current world champion in this format of cricket won the series against West Indies 4-1. Do you think it is a matter of just coincidence that the sport in which India has undoubtedly excelled most has a administrative controlling body - the Board of Cricket Control in India (BCCI), that has perhaps the least governmental interference, among all the other sporting bodies? Well, I leave that for you to answer…All I can say is – it happens only in India!

All three incidents if looked closely have some linkage – the AMRI fire disaster, the retail-FDI blockade and Viru’s superfluous innings, all are reminder of the same fact that a free market is the key to true victory of the people. Why can’t you and I decide what to buy, where to buy from (be it the health services or the retail store!)or how to run an organization (the sporting bodies or the business set-ups)? Can you start a hospital tomorrow if you want? No, because you have to get 10 permits, 20 clearances for which you shall need innumerable contacts and lots of ways to please the signatory which in all cases is someone called the government. In most cases, those who can ‘fix’ the same can flout any norm (AMRI), can block the competition (FDI) and you and I haplessly suffer. But wherever that happens in much ‘lesser’ proportion we come out winners (Viru’s knock personifying Indian cricket today).

The key to free markets is true empowerment and a belief that market (people) are the best regulators.

Organizations must also take a lesson from the larger eco-system. Empowerment and de-centralization is the only way you can let your employees (people) to be ‘engaged’ to their jobs and to their contributions. The more the interference from the ‘top’, the lesser are your chances to win. Controls create a need to align, group for gaining more and more illegitimate power. Only a handful can turn the things to their advantage, in this case. On the other hand, a belief that your employees shall behave best when empowered and de-controlled always has larger paybacks.

Create that sense of ownership in people (citizens or employees) and they shall be the best guardians!
(My 100th post of the year is dedicated to the memory of those who perished in the AMRI fire disaster.)

Great, Good & Gone!

‘Small’ one year toddler of my neighbor was playing with a ‘big’ toy car of my son. She was trying her best to push the car out of the flat into the wings of the apartment. She succeeded in pushing only the first pair of wheels out of the door but the rear pair got stuck and would not come-out despite her best attempts. She then decided to board the car and although she succeeded in sitting on the top of it after quite an effort, she could not only manage to face the rear of the car. The she tried to push the car-out again. The car, however, would not budge from its place. I was really impressed by the little girl’s valiant efforts and instinctively wanted to go and help the ‘angel-faced’ in her efforts. For me, it would be just a matter of a slight finger-push to the car to roll-it-out into the gallery. But then I thought, would she really appreciate my help? I may help her out of the parental ego of patronizing but that would take away the pleasure of performance and achievement out of her. There would be absolutely no incentive to her after my help. And, then suddenly, she managed to pull the car into the gallery. Both she and the car tumbled into the gallery rather than a smooth drive. But as she gathered herself up on her feet again, she had a winning smile on her face. I am glad, I did not help! On her part, the cute Barbie-like girl, learnt to perform and the joy of performing forever!

Performance is a powerful engager. For most organizations the key lies in creating a true culture of performance that acts as a powerful engagement tool.

Just last week, Biscuit maker Britannia Industries pink slipped 42 executives in a single day, at the same time rewarded the top performers with bonuses as high as 150%. This is not a surprise to those who know that at Britannia this is part of the ongoing performance management process, which differentiates employees into three categories - the great, good and under-performers. Each year, under-performers (usually 20 to 30) are put on a performance improvement plan and progress is consistently and carefully monitored. In those cases, where the level of performance continues to be below the acceptable benchmark and there is no noticeable improvement, employees are transitioned. The Rs 4,600-crore Britannia, which has 250 managers, has been growing at strong double digits every year for the last four-five years. In future as Britannia faces tough competition from rivals like ITC, Kraft and Parle and as it forays into a new category of cereals, the Industry experts believe that companies like Britannia are bound to get tougher on performance expectation from employees.

Britannia’s ‘great’, ‘good’ and ‘gone’ performance management policy is justified because it truly rewards the performers and motivates them to perform even better in future. The notion of treating everyone equally is flawed. That can never happen and companies like Britannia have understood and implemented them well. More than anything it helps in fostering a culture of performance that acts as a powerful engagement tool for those who do! In sharp contrast most of our government set-ups have followed a performance management policy that has never segregated performers from non-performers. Hence there was no incentive to perform. I read in the newspaper that even the government is now considering performance-based incentives to employees. Hindustan Lever Ltd (HUL) and Procter & Gamble (P&G) rewarded their India -CEOs with hefty hikes for robust growth at their respective operations. ‘Unilever for its part recorded a 15% growth in sales from emerging markets as against just 5% in the developed world. P&G's three companies India — P&G Home Products, P&G Health & Hygiene and Gillette India — registered double-digit growth in the last fiscal year.’ Both companies believe in paying for performance and paying competitively to all its employees.

Second to None!

Tata SCIP is a career transition management programme for women professionals who have taken a break of 1-8 years for any reason, and wish to re-enter the professional space. The programme provides opportunities for such women to take on flexi-hour assignments with various TATA group companies.

For all those aspiring women out there looking for respectable second career, TATA SCIP is the answer.Video (link) of the interns at TATA SCIP shows how engaged the participants are! Talk about a pioneer in India in terms of engaging the hugely talented women workforce in this country, Tata's are leagues ahead.
(For more read: http://www.tatasecondcareer.com/# )

Happy Notes

I have always been critical in the way government offices function in India. However, I have always been careful not to fall into the trap of stereotyping and being the son of a central government employee myself, have been very cognizant of the fact that there are few amongst the command’s children who do their job quite well. On my recent visit to State Bank of India’s Jayanagar branch at Bangalore, I was floored by the excellent service that I received. I am otherwise a non-client of the bank and my visit was with a specific purpose of opening a public provident fund account, which could be opened only at a SBI branch. Within a minute of entering the branch, I was greeted by a lady who took my form, asked me for some address & id proofs, asked me to paste my photo on the application form (for which she gave me a fevistick instead of asking me to go in search of the same) and then asked if I could wait for sometime. Thereafter she would call me and given the challan so that I could deposit the minimum money to activate the account. I politely asked her how much time would it take and went on to add that I was asking her the same since I had to go to pick-up my son from the school. The moment she heard that I had to go to pick-up my son from the school, she asked me to give the money that I was supposed to deposit in the account to her and proceed to pic-up my son. She told me that she would do everything needful and my account would be opened. It was some 12 noon at that time and she asked me that if I wished I could collect my passbook for the account between 2:30 p.m. and 3:00 p.m. It was such a relief. I thanked her profusely and she just returned the greeting with a kind smile. And it was not only her; I could see almost every employee speaking to the customers with polite eagerness to serve. By the time I left the bank, I felt like opening a savings account in the bank and become it’s regular customer.


Later in the evening we went to a showroom to prospect for a future purchase. We went primarily to check the price and variety available at the store but not with an intent to buy. By the time we walked out of the store, we had not only almost finalised our future purchase but also ended-up with an unintentional but happy purchase of some other items in the store, worth a cool two and half thousand rupees. Completely unintentional impulse buying, prompted by the excellent salesmanship of Imran, one of the sales boys in the shop. Imran was polite, very cooperative, understood our needs perfectly and was very energetic. His enthusiasm towards his job made us not only intent on buying what we were looking for from the same shop in future but also spend a few thousand bucks that we never imagined before entering the store.

Not a bad day, two good experiences and a nice feeling of satisfaction, I thought as I munched my dinner. However one thing common between the bank and the store was their excellent employees. Both prompted trust and a feeling of polite empathetic service, calling us again to their respective organizations.

Just goes to reinforce, Employees engage Customers and not the organizations. Engaged employees shall engage customers even better. The secret is no longer a secret, however while some have solved this, for many it’s still a puzzle.

Top-Shot

Cognizant's compensation performance milestones to its top executives point to strong growth in the year 2012.


Performance milestones

The company's compensation committee granted the awards (in the table) of performance units to the top five executive officers.
The units will be subject to certain performance milestones and continued service requirements. All or a portion of the units shall vest based on the level of achievement of the revenue milestone set forth below:

0 per cent of the units, which are awarded, shall vest up on achievement of 2012 revenue of less than $7,243,000,000

50 per cent on achieving revenue of $7,243,000,000

100 per cent on achieving $7,525,000,000 and

200 per cent on achieving $8,087,500,000.

Source: Business Line, Dec. 1, 2011

The Vacation Phobia

"Others goof off work, Indians, says new study, goof off holidays."

The latest study by Expedia, an online travel firm, shows interesting stats reflecting Indian behaviour towards vacations:

• Indians leave 20 percent of their vacations unused. 29 percent of Indians couldn’t plan their holidays due to work pressure.
• Fifty-three per cent of Indians regularly check in on their emails and work status even during vacations.

• 28 per cent Indian respondents said they would prefer getting paid for unused vacations.

(Source: Business Line)

The study concluded –

• Europeans and Brazilians treat holidays as necessity

• Japanese and Koreans treat holidays as rare treasure (since they hardly get it).

• And Indians view holidays with guilt habit.

Worrying symptoms as stress and burnout are reported among all categories of Indian employees. Now you know where it is all coming from! Recently when I did a session on ‘health and Stress Management’ for the Chief general Managers of Reserve Bank of India at Chennai I equated such symptoms with the parable of a boiled frog. The frog’s body cannot detect slow changes in temperature and hence if it is kept in a beaker containing water at room temperature and the water is slowly brought to a boiling-point the frog stays and doesn’t jump-out. The frog stays, stays and dies in the same water. Stress & burnout is also similar. It is a silent killer. Most of the times slow and gradual changes in stress-levels are not detected and suddenly one day the lid just blows-off.

Strangely, many times the organizations can do very little about it. I remember when Mr. Narayan Murthy of Infosys wanted his employees to go back from their office early, the employees themselves objected. Recently I have met so many people willing to work more and earn more in a very less time (even encash vacations!). There seems to be a mad-rush.

Talk about employee’s contribution to engagement? The cost of rising prosperity is too high.

Clean Homes, Dirty Streets

There is something peculiar about Indian Homes. Most Indian like to keep their homes spic 'n' span but generally the streets leading upto those homes have accumulation of filth. The waste-dunes can be seen mostly at street corners. So what does one conclude – Do Indian love cleanliness or are they are they fond of griminess? The truth is once they clean their home, they do not know what to do with the waste, since the municipal waste-bins are mostly non-existent, so they dump it outside their house (or may be it is convenient to do it that way!). The competition seems to be only limited to keeping own house clean and not getting together to keep the surroundings better. The municipal sweeper in turn dumps it around the street corner, where it keeps stinking till some festival or local elections are round-the-corner. Then upon the instructions of the local political leader, aspiring to woo some votes, the ever-elusive municipal lorry turns-up and does a ‘solstice-routine’, to again vanish in perpetuity.

There is one company though who turned this reproachful situation in to an economic and social opportunity. ITC launched sometime back the ‘WOW’ initiative. Read as ‘Wealth-Out-of-Waste’, the WOW or 'Wealth Out of Waste' is a project that aims to inculcate the habit of recycling among school children, housewives, corporate employees and the general public as well as industries and business enterprises and reduce at least 15-25% of the garbage load through source segregation. ITC started this as a pilot project in some cities, sometime back, where they gave separate bags for solid waste, kitchen waste etc. to each household. The ITC trucks would visit all these homes once a week and collect all the garbage bags. In turn the citizens besides disposing their garbage for free even got paid for the garbage that they gave to ITC. The company gained by saving considerable money on raw material for their ‘Paperboards and Specialty Papers Division’. Recently the company celebrated saving 25000 trees through the ‘WOW’ initiative. The WOW programme is today operational in Hyderabad, Chennai, Bangalore, Cochin, Bhadrachalam, Coimbatore & Madurai. Over 3 million citizens, 500,000 school children, 350 corporates, 1000 commercial establishments and about 200 industries support WOW. And, of course, in these cities the streets look as tidy as the homes. ‘WOW’ brought wealth to everyone.

The point is pretty simple. Community initiatives never happen without innovation and engagement. Where rules do not work, engagement can do wonders, literally.

Organizations many times face uphill task in ensuring their employees or employee groups like project teams do not become so self-centric or silo-wised that they fail to share their learning and knowledge. In turn many a times it is the same ‘clean self and dirt others’ phenomena among teams or groups resulting in dys-functionality and disagreements. In the long-run the company suffers. Innovative engagement of people to initiatives can help them collaborate rather than only compete. There was a classical case that I had read many years back in ‘California Management Review’, where one of the project teams spends 6-months and considerable resource in searching for an outside vendor. When they finally found one, instead of being delighted at their feat they were rather dismayed since they found that the same vendor had already worked with one of their other teams before. All the money and time spent on searching the vendor could have been saved. Failure of knowledge reuse and sharing is one such symptom. Many such problems happen in the organization because of competition without cooperation.

Google has this thing called ‘MOMA’, the company’s intranet that has so much information shared across the company that employees have insight into what's happening with the business and what's important. It also has something called ‘Snippets’. Every Monday, all the employees write an email that has five to seven bullet points on what they did the previous week. Being a search company, Google takes all the emails and make a giant Web page and index them. It allows the Google nerds to share what they know across the whole company, and it reduces duplication. Like ‘WOW’ it brings wealth to everyone – to the employees (since they get instant recognition for what they do), to the employee community (since it helps them to collaborate and reduce redundancy) and of course to the company.

Bewitched!

Yesterday I was browsing aimlessly through he television channels when something caught my attention. William Makepeace was cooking Macaroni on TLC. I am not a cookery-show buff or a cooking enthusiast myself. What made me stop on TLC for sometime was the pleasure of seeing a expert at work. The ease and speed with which he chopped onions, smashed garlic, fluffed the macaronis, tell about the recipe, the spices, all almost at the same time without missing a task was amazing. He seemed totally engaged in his job and his expert skills made it look damn easy.
Agreed cooking is no rocket science, but I have had the same feeling when I saw Harsha Bhogle commenting on cricket, or Messi dribbling the ball to glory or for that matter watching my son play Angry Birds. None of these may be rocket-science either but all of them have something in common and that is their high-degree of skilled-engagement with their respective jobs, no matter how important or how unimportant the jobs are to the world. What is equally interesting is that the ones who observe them are also hooked and engaged and want to do with their jobs with equal (perceptual) ease.
Skills creates engagement not only for the skilled but also for the ones who are aspiring. And skill comes through training and education. Companies trying to create engagement must invest in the same. "Lupin's new project – ‘‘Learn and Earn' programme’ is yet another case of marrying for mutual benefit the aspirations and needs of a set of youngsters with the company's manpower needs. People@Work has profiled companies such as Hardcastle Restaurants (McDonald's India – West and South) which has forged tie-ups with institutions such as Symbiosis and has made part-timing a way of work to encourage employees to study alongside." Lupin heavy and suatined investments in training have already paid them rich dividends.

Just like that...

This blog post is infact in response to a comment to my earlier post. I thank my readers for inducing such thoughts.


Here it goes…

I do not think employee engagement can be built when people are only expected to comply to systems and metrics blindly. The human ingenuity and judgement ability in such systems are curtailed so much that employees fear being flexible since they are unsure of the consequences that the same will have on them. Managers become controlling authorities rather than facilitating guides. It is the classical 'dam' and 'banks' story. A dam built on the river blocks the flow and release the same as per its will; whereas the banks only guide the flow in the right direction. The erosion of the banks happens when the roots holding the specs of soil together are cut or diminished. And erosion of banks is always fatal which no dam can contain. On the contrary if the banks are strong then the dams are of little significance, no matter how strong is the flow.

Systems and metrics are important but they must have enough flexibility built in them so as to allow to capacitate people and believe in their judgements. Just like clothes, are they important? Yes, of course, but should they be so tight as to suffocate a person making him incapable of breathing?

The Managerial Myopia

Staff Sgts. Fred Hilliker and Robert O’Hair were boarding Delta Flight 1625 in Baltimore for the final leg of their journey home from Afghanistan with 32 others in their U.S. Army unit when their homecoming came to an abrupt halt. Delta personnel told the soldiers they needed to pay $200 for each person that had a fourth bag with them, even though their military orders stated that these bags were covered. Unable to gain resolution with Delta, the two Staff Sgts filmed a YouTube video about the incident. The story generated considerable buzz for an obvious reason: What Delta did to these soldiers was wrong. I’m fairly sure that the Delta employees who were demanding payment knew it. So why didn’t they just waive the fees?
The Delta situation could be dismissed as an unfortunate case of miscommunication if it didn’t seem so familiar. It highlights a trend in management that favors the fulfillment of quantifiable, top-down metrics. I’d bet that you’ve had an experience dealing with customer service where you were told that there was no one else you could talk to and no one was authorized to take the necessary action to resolve your complaint. As psychologist Barry Schwartz has observed, many areas of life are increasingly bound up with rules that limit the ability of individuals to use judgment and make the best decision for the specific situation.
It would be wrong to place all the blame on workers for their failure to take discretionary steps. The blame lies with management that sets rigid rules and metrics that disable employee judgment and create so many approval hurdles for mundane decisions, that overworked employees say, “Why bother?” Employee disengagement has reached crisis proportions as evidenced by a recent Mercer study that found that 50% of employees are checked out on the job.
It’s not hard to see how we got here. Performance metrics are a critical tool for achieving excellence and motivating outcomes. But as important as performance metrics are, problems arise when performance metrics become overly dominant as a managerial principle, as they are in too many organizations.
Metrics earn an outsized role because managing by the numbers is easier than managing people. Employees make mistakes, their actions are difficult to predict, and the outcomes of their decisions are hard to measure. When employees make wrong judgments the resulting mess, in terms of customer satisfaction and legal liability, can often be difficult and expensive to clean up.
Rules are comfort food for management. When something goes terribly wrong, the first response is to add more rules and policy. Of course, managers have good intentions: protecting the company from bad choices and creating accountability. That’s what everyone learns in Management 101. Yet the net effect often shifts accountability to the wrong places. Unassailable rules and metrics shifts accountability away from management and down the chain to the front-line employee. Rules allow managers a surefire way to dodge their responsibility and protect their career.
The blame for poor employee action should be placed on the managers who set rigid metrics, and fail to invest in employees. Yet customers need more judgment, not less, from the employees they come in contact with. When customers contact a call center, it’s because there is an exception within the existing process and they need judgment that only employees can provide. Corporations need to build guidelines and values—not absolute rules and measures. “Doing what’s right for the customer” is a value that can drive appropriate action. Judgment requires coaching, practice and training.
Metrics, policies and scorecards are not bad per se. There are many benefits when used appropriately. The pendulum seems to have swung too far away from employee judgment, though. Let’s bring it back in balance. Invest in your front-line employees and then trust them to make the right decisions for the customer. Otherwise you’ll be managing a group of automatons who, when confronted with situations outside the rigid rules, will be virtually guaranteed to make the wrong judgment.

(Source: 'When Scorecards and Metrics Kill Employee Engagement', Business Week, First appeared in Harvard Business Review—Copyright © 2011 Harvard Business School Publishing)

Women Resource - Unequal Worlds

Women in our society have fought and come along way however they still do not find this world equal to what a man finds in this planet. I am starting a weeklong series on women workforce christened as Women Resource. The idea of dedicating my next few blog posts on Women and the much needed HR response to the same does not stem from the perception that women are in anyway lesser employees but from the fact that despite the all-round brilliance of women, it is still very much a man’s world and the odds are loaded in all possible ways against women.


In countries like India the general social conditions of women is a worry in itself. In some aspects like literacy, secondary school enrolment etc. it fairs lower than countries like Rwanda, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. Have a look at some statistics:

The percentage of women married by the age of 18 in India is higher than Sub-Saharan Africa and Pakistan; the literacy rate of women in India is worse than Iran, Libya, Kenya; the secondary school enrolment of girls in India is worse than Sri Lanka, Bhutan (Table 1); more women are economically active in Sub-Saharan Africa than in India; and, Indian women have lesser presence in Parliament than those in Nepal, Pakistan, Afghanistan (table 2).


Even in the UN Human Development and gender Inequality study India fairs no better. In terms of Gender Inequality India ranks lower than countries like Rwanda, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Zimbabwe, who rank much lower to India when it comes to overall Human Development Index(table 3).

Such statistics are worrying and go on to further point that women who make it to the corporate world have not got things on platter and had to really work against a lot of odds to reach where they have. This doesn’t take anything away from their male counterparts but for them the social conditions and settings are different, expectation are different and odds are much less. If this is not enough reason to write this piece, study after study has indicated that having more women as employees in organization has contributed to high gains for the organizations. Studies by the RAND Corporation and Catalyst, among others, show a clear and positive correlation between the percentage of women board directors in a company’s past and the percentage of women top executives in its future.

Prime Focus

"No amount of technology,backend systems,processes,innovation or domain expertise will help if people do not support it and so it is critical for companies to invest in their people,said Sam Pitroda,advisor to the Prime Minister on infrastructure,information & innovations.

Addressing a large audience of HR professionals and domain experts at the National Human Resource Development (NHRD) Network Conference 2011 here on Thursday,Pitroda said,Despite the technology advancements and innovations,we still carry a 19th century mindset,20th century processes and 21st century needs.This is a huge mismatch.Our hierarchical and feudal mindsets have to change,create room for leadership that understands virtual space,a leadership that can capitalize on young talent.

Vinita Bali,MD of Britannia Industries,said changes are taking place faster than we can perceive and internalize.We are good at innovation and we create quality products.It is time we thought about people differently and invested in people to help them improve quality and make themselves stand apart as winners.

C Mahalingam,chief people officer at Symphony Services and president of NHRD Networks Bangalore chapter,said the best HR practices have come from the West,but India and other Asian countries are bringing the next set of best practices."
(Source: The Times of India, 18 Nov. 2011)

'The Italian Job'

The Italian firm, Benetton was forced to pull one of its images (the photograph featuring Pope kissing a senior Egyptian imam on the lips) from its new 'Unhate' campaign, after the Vatican denounced it as an unacceptable provocation. While, Benetton maintained that its 'Unhate' campaign was aimed at fostering tolerance and 'global love' however the Vatican seems to be miffed with the same and felt that the ad offended “not only the dignity of the Pope and the Catholic Church, but also the sensibilities of believers.” The campaign's adverts include digitally altered pictures half a dozen world leaders to show them kissing.


The protest and the resulting controversy have ensured that the ad is all over the media and social media. Those who did not see the ad or did not know about the campaign want to see and know about it. The ad could not have reached to so many people, in so very few days, across the world without the protest and the controversy. Benetton’s ROI on the ad would definitely be much more than estimated or perhaps they estimated this controversy.

The key is to understand who is the target of Benetton’s ad – it is the youth or more precisely today’s rebel youth who predominantly is a non-conformist. Does he/she care about the protest? No! Will this protest help Vatican or Benetton? The answer of course is Benetton.

As Benetton Executive Deputy Chairman Alessandro Benetton said in an interview published in The Economic Times today – “We are conscious of the fact that the images that we have used are strong. But anyone who wants to make a positive impact has to make it in a way that gets attention. We did not mean to be disrespectful or provocative in any way - all of them are performing a gesture. There can be differing points of view on this; some could call it homosexual too. There are worse things that show up on the internet nowadays. But the point is stimulating a discussion in the right direction. You as a viewer have to draw your own conclusion. Our campaign is about unhating, not lobbying. The true judge will be the reaction that we receive from the public.”

A leading Indian IT company made the same mistake last year, when after their introduction of a ‘role and career enhancement’ policy received flak from the employees & they went on to fill the social media with protest messages, the company decided to introduce a social media policy to gag the voices of the employees. This fuelled the controversy more and the news spilled all over the mainstream media. The company’s image as ‘employee-friendly company’ took a severe beating. Better sense prevailed upon the company later and much to the contrast of their earlier move, they actually started a company social networking-site, designed on the lines of Facebook.

Cutting the story short, organization must understand that the young population today rules over the world with new tools like social media. Any communication, whether a policy decision, campaign or a protest, must be made keeping in mind their reaction to the same; otherwise it shall always benefit the competitor or the rival, more.

Last I heard, was that Vatican is contemplating a legal action against Benetton. So Benetton can be assured of more headlines, free publicity in the days to come, to laugh all the way to the bank.

The Art of Gifting

Bangalore is very pleasant around this time of the year. I always ensure a window seat on one of the left-row seats of the bus during the morning travel to the office. During that time of the day between 8 a.m. and 8:45 a.m. the nip in the air that is there during the wee hours of the morning is gone but the breeze is still pleasantly cool and the sun is still under a thermostat control The coolness of the breeze and the warm massage of the sun embraces the body and the soul caressing softly, for a heavenly experience. Gifts of nature are unique and always treasured.


Talking about gifts, one of the greatest story about the art of gifting is "The Gift of the Magi". It is a short story written by O. Henry, about a young married couple and how they deal with the challenge of buying secret Christmas gifts for each other with very little money. Young married couple Della and James "Jim" Dillingham Young are very much in love with each other but can barely afford their one-room apartment due to Jim's recent pay cut. For Christmas, Della decides to buy Jim a chain for his prized pocket watch given to him by his father's father. To raise the funds, she has her long, beautiful hair cut off and sold to make a wig. Meanwhile, Jim decides to sell his watch to buy Della a beautiful set of combs made out of tortoiseshell and jewels for her lovely, knee-length brown hair. Each is surprised to find the gift they chose rendered useless, yet each is pleased with the gift that they received, because it represents their love for one another.

My experiences with the gifts that I have received have been not always been good. As a child some of my birthday gifts from guests have turned-out to be stainless steel jugs/plates/spoons, antique candle-stands, saucers to eat porridge, bone-china mugs (that my mother never let me use them as a child since she thought I would break them)etc. Not that I expected them, but they failed to thrill me as well. In hindsight, perhaps my guests could have been a bit more imaginative about a child’s world, his likes and dislikes. I am sure that all of us keep receiving gifts that we do not know what to do with and hence either pass it to someone or redirect them to those whom we think might have better use.

The value of a gift is measured not always by the material cost, instead many times by the intention with which they are given. The gifts of nature as well ‘the gift of Magi’ were prized despite they having less material value or direct utility.

Organizations need to understand the art of gifting (rewards, awards & recognitions) is not always in heavy monetary off-loads, rather in giving something to the employees that they truly treasure, with the best intentions that hovers around benefiting or recognizing an employee for what he/she truly deserves. In the same breath, let me add that I am not at all suggesting that gifts should always have lesser monetary value. Gifts require good intention and a bit of imagination to make them valued and treasured by the recipient.

Meanwhile, I am once again looking forward to tomorrow morning’s sunshine and the breeze mocktail (not cocktail since I am teetotaler) treat…Hope it doen't rain!

Happy Children's Day

Steve Jobs was put-up for adoption by his unmarried parents as reportedly Steve’s maternal grandfather was opposed to the idea of his daughter marrying a Syrian muslim immigrant. Their loss was the gain of Paul and Clara Jobs who adopted him and gave Steve not only their name but more importantly a home. It was in this home that Steve Jobs learnt the first lessons of life that went on to define him as an individual and professional. “Growing up with Paul and Clara Jobs – a high school dropout with a passion for mechanics and his salt-of-the-earth wife who was working as a bookkeeper – the couple who had adopted him soon after birth, the child Steve learnt many profound lessons. Not only that he was ‘chosen' and ‘special,' rather than just ‘abandoned,' but also that craftsmanship is important. “Steve, this is your workbench now,” Paul had told him when marking off a section of the table in the garage. “I thought my dad's sense of design was pretty good, because he knew how to build anything. If we needed a cabinet, he would build it. When he built our fence, he gave me a hammer so I could work with him,” Jobs would reminisce. Fifty years later the fence still surrounds the back and side yards of the house in Mountain View, informs Isaacson. “As Jobs showed it off to me, he caressed the stockade panels and recalled a lesson that his father implanted deeply in him. It was important, his father said, to craft the backs of cabinets and fences properly, even though they were hidden. ‘He loved doing things right. He even cared about the look of the parts you couldn't see.'”


I am sure that down the years looking at how Steve was molded into an iconic entrepreneur, his biological parents would have repented even more that they could not retain him. Steve, even in his later years, continued to identify his foster parents Paul and Clara jobs as his real dad and mom. Parents play such a huge role in nurturing a child’s present and shaping her/his future. For Steve Jobs, if his biological parents could not give him anything except ‘birth’, his foster parents gave everything to him except ‘birth’. The latter was definitely more precious for the child in every possible way.

Can you take enough time-out from your work and give the same ‘attention’ to your kid today? We may not be giving our kids up for adoption but are we doing more than just giving them ‘birth’ and arranging provisions for them? Are we? (The ‘attention’ here should not be read as being he over-zealous parent but in taking her/him through a journey of self-discovery and lifelong learning).

“From the start of Nooyi’s tenure at the head of PepsiCo, she wrote personal notes every quarter to the spouses of her executives, but still felt she wasn’t doing enough to forge the bonds of a ‘PepsiCo family’. After a trip back to India, she was reminded that in the Indian family, you are always your parents’ children; she realised that her executives were all kids once, too, and decided to start writing to their parents every quarter as well – something an American CEO would never dream of. The response, in Nooyi’s words, was “huge”.

Can our organizations help their employees to be better parents by simply giving them the flexibility in balancing their work and life schedules? Being there for one’s child first performance, first day at school, the parents-teacher meet, annual day, taking kids and his friends out for an ice-cream and similar small but precious moments for the kid could give them their best childhood gifts and their parent unimaginable happiness. The same happiness they bring back to work and convert it into ‘value’ for the organization and the society. Believe me that in doing so organizations do not lose anything, if at all they stand to gain!

Today as 'Happy Children's Day' is being celebrated across India (coinciding with the birth of our first prime minister Jawarlal Nehru), I sincerely hope that all our kids are really 'happy'.

Happy Children’s Day!

The Gandhi-Hazare Dilemma

Congress President Sonia Gandhi’s speech read-out in absentia at a rally in Chamoli, Uttarakhand said that corruption cannot be fought only by speeches. The attempt is obviously to take-on social activist Anna Hazare. Well! Corruption cannot be fought only by speeches, agreed, but it also cannot be fought by ‘in-action’ which most of our political parties have done ‘actively’ over the years, as well. Being fair to Anna, atleast someone is raising the voice and loud enough to vibrate the ear-drums and the ground beneath of our political ‘Kumbhakarans’, having some chance of changing intent and shaping better action.

Goal achievement needs voice, intent and action and in the same order. Anyone one element plucked from the string shall stall or abort goal accomplishment. The intent or the mindset is mainly driven by culture and environment. If the culture and environment are not conducive then the intent can never be right. The voices then remain as plain hollow rhetoric and hardly translate into concrete action.

Wipro’s SVP India, Africa and Middle-east Anand S Ankaran expressed his ambition to beat IBM India and be the number one IT services company in India and be among the top three in the Middle East. Ankaran thinks IBM India has been lucky to get deals of Bharti, Idea and Vodafone in India and Wipro’s hasn’t been aggressive enough. Well I do not what stopped them from being aggressive in the first place. Additionally I do not agree with Sankaran’s comment that for IBM the Indian operations are only a ‘tactical substitute for the slowdown in western markets’.

Only time shall tell whether Wipro’s SVP claim has all three ingredients for success i.e. voice, intent (driven by culture) and action. To negate IBM’s 100 year-old legacy and the excellent engagement culture that prevails in the company shall not be easy to take-on for Wipro which is very differently focused. The culture of autonomy, real empowerment, work-life balance (read my earlier story ‘Space, not Place’) and resulting engagement shall be tough to beat. It shall take a bullet for a bullet to hit the ‘Big Blue’, a company that  holds more patents than any other U.S.-based technology company and has nine research laboratories worldwide. Its employees have garnered five Nobel Prizes, four Turing Awards, nine National Medals of Technology, and five National Medals of Science. Famous inventions by IBM include the automated teller machine (ATM), the floppy disk, the hard disk drive, the magnetic stripe card, the relational database, the Universal Product Code (UPC), the financial swap, SABRE airline reservation system, DRAM, and Watson artificial intelligence.

Just one more time, the culture shapes the intent and drives the action. Else, words remain as plain rhetoric. Hopefully Wipro can match words with intent and action.

Home Cooked

Our cook always struggles to keep sync with the clock. On more days then not she turns-up well 30-60 minutes later then her appointed time, much to the annoyance of my better-half. Vandana has always been very empathetic to our cook but her repeated errors made it impossible for Vandana to keep quiet. Few days back Vandana issued her a mild warning and put her on a week’s probation. Last Sunday we were expecting a couple over lunch and Vandana has sensitized our cook well in time so that she is punctual on Sunday. Till Saturday our cook showed much improved date with the clock, much to the relief of Vandana for she expected the trend to follow on Sunday as well. But her worst fears seemed to be coming true when our cook did not turn-up even when the clock struck 12 noon. Vandana was furious and nervous. She kept marching inside our living room murmuring to herself that she should not have trusted our cook. I tried to assure her that in worst case scenario we shall order something from the nearby restaurant. This however annoyed her even more and for some strange reason, she held me responsible for all this mess. I, however, could not understand how I could have prompted our cook’s inordinate delay. May be I had become something like Ra-One who has some strange powers. Our guests were to arrive anytime and I could well understand Vandana’s frustration as the host & lady of the house to find herself short of extending a warm welcome to them.

Finally, she decided to take-charge of the situation and took-over the kitchen affairs. Vandana had made-up her time to show our cook the door, whenever she arrives. Hardly had Vandana stepped inside the kitchen that our cook arrived and rushed to the war-front. Vandana did not react and, kept a dignified silence. The cook started to chop the vegetables and other cooking chores. However she also read Vandana’s silence and knew that she was not the least pleased. The cook while doing her job explained the reason for the delay (which may or may not be convincing at that time) but in the course of the conversation Vandana could understand that our cook had not eaten anything since morning and had even refused snack in the other house she worked just to ensure that she is no more delayed for coming to our place. And the next moment while our cook was cooking for our guests, Vandana was preparing breakfast for our cook. Vandana’s anger has disappeared and she ensured that our cook first had something to eat before she did her cooking. Our cook on her part cooked with speed and made sure that tasty hot food was served to our guests in time.

This could pass-off as a mere incident but looking at this a bit deeper, there is an engagement lesson for the managers. Vandana’s decision to control her outburst even in the situation that threatened a crisis of sorts helped her to avoid an embarrassment & self-guilt (imagine had Vandana discovered about the state of hunger of cook later and had given her marching orders before that). Not only this but kind of engagement that Vandana could create in the cook for her job, would last longer than Sunday. The next day Vandana did not forget to appreciate the cook for the delicious food.

Flexibility in managing day to day affairs, deep empathy, controlled reaction to provocative situations and timely appreciation could go a long way in creating strong engagement.

Bad time to 'Claim' but excellent time to 'Tame'

Major IT firm in India are experiencing a sudden fall in the attrition levels. Available reports show that the rate of at India’s second largest IT firm in terms of software export, Infosys Technologies has declined from 17 per cent to 15.6 per cent during the last two fiscal quarters. At Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), the country’s largest IT firm, the attrition rate dropped from a high of 14.8 per cent in the fiscal quarter ended on June 30, to 13.7 per cent in the quarter that closed on September 30. Meanwhile, the attrition rate at mid-size IT firm MindTree dropped from 25.6 per cent in June last to 21.7 per cent in the quarter ended on September 30.


Now what should be attributed as a cause? There are companies like Wipro who believe that this drop is because of the efforts of their HR departments. In Wipro the attrition level is down by 4.7%. In a recent interview (link) the CEO attributed to their success to variable pay and other HR efforts.

Many industry experts however feel that trend is developing now since people are apprehensive that the economic problems in Europe could escalate into a global downturn. To lend support to this claim it has been observed that the dip in attrition levels is sharpest at middle and senior levels. Additionally, there is a slowdown in hiring, as reported by many employment firms.

It is irrelevant to argue who can be credited the plunge in attrition-levels – the HR or the economy. Instead this period should be looked upon as an excellent opportunity for the companies to engage their people especially their talent. In a recent speech at AdAsia at New Delhi, the PepsiCo Chairman and Global CEO Indira Nooyi said that corporation world over must look at the crisis as an opportunity and need adapt and recognize the fact that they live in a new world. She feels that it is an excellent opportunity for companies to groom talent and build leadership pipeline. (link to speech)

The best time to engage employees is now when most of them have decided to ‘stay’ so that this trend continues even when greener pastures return and beckon. And as of now, this is not the best time to test the power to keep people in one’s fold (the better times shall be) but definitely a very good time to see people remain in fold tomorrow as well. Lon and short of the story is - Bad time to claim (attrition-drop) but excellent opportunity to tame (engage the talent).

The Value of Reward

How long will it take for you to earn 100 bucks? Considering an average salary of Rs. 90000 per month it should be around 3000 rupees per day and assuming that person works for 10 hours a day it works out to be 300 rupees per hour or 5 rupees per minute. With that calculation it should take around 20 minutes to earn 100 rupees. Just 20 minutes! Easy? Yes? But Spar hyper store, part of the lifestyle group at Bangalore thinks it otherwise.


On my first visit to the Spar hyper store I was given a membership card and told that on every purchase points shall accumulate. I never cared to ask details about how these points accumulate and what do I do with the points, till yesterday when I went to the store again sans my membership card that I forgot back home. I had shopped for good 6000 rupees and when the billing clerk asked me whether I had a membership card or not, I told him that I did not, however asked whether my points can still be added if I tell my contact details that must be fed in their system. He directed me to their Customer Service desk. After asking whether my points can be added, out of curiosity I asked how do I accumulate these points and what do I get by accumulating them (just to check whether all the pain that I took to add yesterday’s points were worth or not). He told me that every 100 rupee purchase amounts to one point and if I accumulate 143 points then I get a 100 rupees voucher. More simply the equation means I have to shop for Rs. 14300/- to get a Rs. 100 voucher (yes 14300/- rupees!). Then once I accumulate those many points I have to bring my Driving license, my voter ID card and my pan card to claim my 100 rupees voucher ( wow! I did not need these many documents to file my tax returns even). At the end of the conversation, I was thinking who wants the voucher!

Today I overheard someone saying ‘Belated Happy Diwali Wishes’. I was thinking in my head that Diwali is over for more than a week. What is the use of this wish? How would the recipient feel? Mere hollow formality?

In short moral of the story is any reward or appreciation cannot be either a lip-service or delayed so much that that appreciation or reward loses its significance.

Organizations must remember that appreciation delayed and degraded is appreciation denied!

All in the Family

Yesterday we were out in the afternoon and had planned lunch outside. We wanted something vegetarian and had contemplated to go to 'Up South', a south indian delicacy store. We were on Bannerghatta road and we were discussing lunch when my 5 year old son popped-up an idea. 'Why don't we go to the mall nearby and have our lunch at Mc D instead?' Both me and my wife did not like the idea although we could get veg. meals at Mc D too. But my son persisted and being too hungry as well we gave-in and went to Mc Donald's for our lunch. At Mc D we all got our expected and unexpected delights - my son got a Ra.One toy, we tried the newish Mc Flurry, besides our chosen burgers.
In short kids these days are well-informed and most of the times influence purchase decisions. And for parents the world revolves around their kids and family. The combination effect is that organizations approach of 'engaging' only the individual customer or employee will not work anymore. 'Engaging' the family, especially the kids is very significant. Recently a company organized a painting contest for the kids of their employees, another organized a picnic and yet another a free family health check-up camp. Onsite creches, scholarships for the bright kids of employees, social-service clubs for employee's spouses, sports-day for employees and their kids, mother's day, father's day, wishing family members of employees on their birthdays, sponsoring lunch/dinner on wedding anniversary of an employee, family's day-out in the office...there could be tons of such ideas.

Rural Posting - Forced Service?

As per the recommendations of the A. K Khandelwal Committee that has been accepted by the government of India, new clerk recruits in public sector banks will have to serve three years mandatorily in rural and semi-urban areas. All banks have now been asked to prepare a human resource plan incorporating these recommendations and get them approved by their Boards of Directors latest by December 31, 2011.

How successful do you think this new ruling for government clerks would be? Success would be determined by not only the implementation timeline but also its real acceptances amongst the government clerks. Real acceptance signifies ‘engaged’ acceptance.

Now before you start thinking that I am a kind one who belongs to the anti-rural movement, that’s not correct. However the fact is that people shun rural postings in India. Not so long ago the doctors were up in arms against forced rural postings. Slogans like India still lives in villages, the real India is the rural India have only remained as utopic dreams. All these beautiful pictures and tableaus of Indian villages are only on ‘incredible India’ videos (the tourism promotional mouthpiece of the government). The truth is that our villages lack basic amenities and have people living in downright pathetic conditions. Our villages still lack in basic facilities like hospitable roads, clean drinking water, primary health care, good schools, hygiene and sanitation. Now who would like a posting and move happily with bag, baggage and family to rural areas. Will you? Then there are other aspects like the amount of money you make (the attractive city allowances vanish), professional growth chances (opportunities and exposure are vastly unequal when it comes to a comparison between cities and villages).

Our villages need development but such realties cannot ride on such philanthropic ideologies alone. Even if such policies are thrust by the arm of law and government acts, how ‘engaged’ the government clerks would be is a huge question. And then it is not only the question of clerks, this question is going to pop-up whenever doctors, engineers or any other professional is forced on a rural detour.

Solutions require deeper analysis and thinking. However as a pointer, I would like to quote from my book ‘Employee Engagement’ – “In an employee feedback and organizational health survey of the employees in remote locations by Aditya Birla Group, the company found that employees in remote locations – factory townships had long-standing needs that were similar to their colleagues in urban locations. Some of the issues that emerged were healthcare, entertainment, education and career for spouses. The findings were very interesting and showed how place or location may not change the way people wanted to live. They found, for instance, that today’s middle-class, young engineer finds a dissonance. He not only wants a great job and a good company, he also seeks a contemporary look and location. To ensure that such locational dissonance did not happen, the company came-up with a range of solutions. To start with it changed the exterior colour of the residential flats; it tied-up with an event management company to develop events that appeal to various constituencies like musical nights, devotional music programmes, concerts and so on. The company is also said to be discussing with PVR cinemas for setting-up multiplexes near the townships.”

If we can’t change our villages, we can atleast make the ‘rural-postings’ more rewarding both in terms of opportunities and living. May be the resultant ‘engagement’ shall then change the rural skyline!