Antonym of Engagement

What would you do if your employees did not meet their targets? Well! motivate them and inspire them so that they can improve their performance. May be even train them, enable them and facilitate better resources.

Most of the times though, employees falling short of targets are subjected to coercion, veiled threats about loss of job and many times even ridiculed in front of other colleagues. 

What works and what doesn't is open to argument, however there are no two words that you have to drive performance in the organization. Incompetence cannot be tolerated and hurts the business results, customers, eventually other performing employees and ultimately the entire organization. 

But how far would you go to punish the employees who fall short of their targets? Company has all rights to ask them to improve their performance, put them in QIPs and even then if they do not improve the company may ask them to leave. The whole idea is engage the 'majority' so as to elicit voluntary contributions and performance. But it still does not stop the company from treating the others going-out through their gates decently!

However a Chinese company does not think so! It has come-out with a bizarre punishment for its errant sales personnel who failed to meet their targets. Dozens of employees from a food company in southwest China's Sichuan Province ran along the wintry streets of Chengdu in only shorts and T-shirts on Monday because they failed to meet their company's annual sales quotas.

Source: http://english.peopledaily.com.cn

According to the company's rules, male employees had to run only in their shorts, while female workers had more freedom to choose what they would wear as they ran along the streets as a "punishment" for not meeting their sales requirements. Men had to run 10 kilometers, and women had to run five kilometers.

The employees who took the punishment had to face the piercing stares of the passers-by that they found most difficult to handle. Talk of putting gun on the head, the company perhaps stopped just short of that! 

However the company can still claim to have not touched the bizarre levels of punishments in the Roman era, the "death in the arena" punishment meted out to the prisoners in the Roman Colosseum. The Seesaw is seen by modern children as a plaything. The Romans had a far more strange application for this seemingly innocent school yard addition. Two condemned prisoners were strapped to either end of the seesaw, and were encouraged to begin the simple game of going up and then down. Once they got a rhythm going, however, the cages of the Colosseum opened, and out came the wild beasts. To a roar of excitement from the crowds, the two prisoners would begin their galloping up and down much faster - as a lion or a bull would be waiting on the descent, waiting to rip the poor prisoner to pieces. This resulted in a frantic attempt to touch the ground and get back in the air as quickly as possible. Eventually, however, the prisoners would tire, or slip up, and that's when the lion would pounce. Perhaps it was just a foot, or a leg, but the giant cat would grab onto the prisoner and pull. The resistance of bone meant very little - it would pull until something was disjointed and the imminent food could be pulled right off.

The Chinese firm must be thinking what engagement are you guys talking about, we will strip our employees if they do not meet their targets! Dunces!!! they should be thankful, we did not let the dogs out on them...

Banker's Bank is still not Customer's Bank

Recently, one of my close friends bought a new car. Part of the amount was financed  He chose a public sector bank, one for the tenure and second for the slightly low rate of interest. He applies for the loan, completes all the required formalities...cut to third day, he gets a call from one of the bank officials asking him to pay Rs. 127/- (a little more than $2) pending amount in a credit card issued by another bank for his loan to be approved. For a loan amount of Rs. 4 lacs, how could pending payment of such a small amount be significant to determine the credit-worthiness of the borrower? Anyways, the instructions did not stop at this...the bank official further directed my friend to physically visit the credit card issuing bank, pay the amount, take a receipt and present the same to them for sanctioning of the loan. My friend told that his bank did not have retail branches and that he would pay the amount online and send them a transaction record. The bank official asked my friend to talk to some madam, but then he found out that madame had already made a move, he agreed to my friend's offer with reluctance. My friend immediately makes the payment.

Cut to day four...the bank official calls my friend again. This time to tell him that he would have visit the PSU branch to sign the loan agreement at 3 p.m. for the loan to be released. My friend requests the bank official that considering the distance of the branch and traffic of Bangalore, and further considering that it was a working day, would it be possible for the bank to send an executive to his office or home or if the time of appointment could be shifted to a mutually convenient time. The bank official summarily turned-down both the requests, much to the irritation of my friend. For those who live and commute in cities like Bangalore, they know that accommodating such rigid appointments from service providers is not easy at all. Any other private bank would have gladly sent one of its executives without much ado. But not this PSU bank! My friend got so annoyed that he called me and expressed his desire to cancel his loan application and instead apply the same from a private bank. The higher interest, he thought, would be better to pay! But I pacified him and told him now that now that he had come this far, to just go through the pain and finish the process. My friend does as directed by the bank huffing and puffing throughout the day.

In between two verification  all the paper work happen, the loan is finally released in a week's time. Not bad! for a PSU bank. Cut to next week, suddenly I get a call on my mobile...some gentleman on the other side calling me by my friend's name and before I could react, charging me of not taking his call despite the fact that my phone has been ringing. I politely ask the gentleman on the other side of the phone about his identity. He turns-out to be a loan verification agent. He has been entrusted with verification of the loan borrower. But hasn't that been already done? Anyways I told him that I was not the borrower and was his friend. He told me that when the first number (my friend's number) did not respond he called on the alternate number that I think my friend had given my number. I told him that I would inform my friend to call him. I tried to call my friend on his mobile, the phone actually kept ringing with no answer. I tried his office number and could get him online. It turned out that his mobile was out of order. That explains why the verification agent could not get him. Anyways I gave him the message. My friend was taken-aback a little, considering this was the third time verification was happening and then the loan had already been disbursed by the bank. Then what is the use of this verification? Putting all this logic aside, he promptly called the agent. Later in the evening when my friend called me, he told me that the agent came and his visit was another formality. While leaving, the bank agent asked my friend to pay for his fuel expenses  citing that he had to visit repeatedly. When my friend refused the demand firmly, the agent left, not very happy though.

When will the PSU banks learn how to engage their customers? In this age of competition how long can they afford such ignorance and inefficiency?

An enterprise with poor organizational design would  always nurture bureaucratic and non-empathetic employees with little or no concern for customer convenience and needs. They make hassle-prone processes and execute them with no rationale.

I know you want me to name the bank...well does it really make any difference? All I can say is that the Banker's bank is still not customer's bank! Use your imagination!

Last heard, my friend has been asked by the bank to bring his new car to the branch and show the same to bank officials. Reminds me of the ancient stories where people used to take their newly bought buffaloes to the zamindar (landlord) for blessings :-)

India Gender Pay Gap 2013 Survey Findings

Leadership challenge in Engagement

Recently, The Conference Board came-out with The Conference Board CEO Challenge® 2013. This global consultancy firm has been coming-out with these challenges since 1999. For the year 2013 CEOs world-over have stated Human Capital as their top-most challenge followed by operational excellence.  I had an opportunity to attend session by Dr. Rebecca L. Ray, Senior Vice President, Human Capital -The Conference Board. She clearly stated that engaging human capital remained as the top-most priority of CEOs across the globe, including India.

Interestingly to one of my questions about what she thought was the top-most concern in engaging human capital in India, she very candidly stated that the organizational leaders need to walk-the-talk. If a senior leader of the organization does something that is not consistent with organizational norms or policies, many a times he/she is let-off. Such an incident, even if it happens only once, destroys the engagement of the employees with the organization.

Employee empowerment is talked about by mist organizational leaders these days. It has almost become a slogan for companies and institutions. But ‘few’ really seem to have the gut to listen to an empowered employees’ honest feedback. For starters reportedly a professor in a prominent law school in our country had to lose his job for challenging the decision of the senior leadership of the institution. After the barbaric gang-rape of one of its students in the campus premises, the management imposed a 9 p.m. deadline for closure of the campus gates. This deadline was challenged by the adhoc-professor and he was booted-out & his contract was abruptly terminated. But consider the published excerpts of his letter the professor seemed to have a point. 

Consider this –

In his letter, the professor stated, “While students have been and can be advised to avoid dangerous areas in the vicinity of the campus, imposing such blanket restrictions is an unduly paternalistic move. There have been numerous instances of sexual harassment and physical abuse of NLSIU staff and students in daylight. These problems cannot be eradicated with a simplistic measure such as constraining the movement of students after 9 pm. In fact, such restrictions are likely to result in more students choosing to stay off-campus in the future, thereby escalating the risks to their physical safety….

As word gets out, it may also affect our attractiveness for prospective applicants, exchange students and visiting scholars, among others. It is also quite foreseeable that not allowing students to enter after 9 pm may result in numerous instances where students can be left stranded in the vicinity. In addition to these practical concerns, there is a larger question of the symbolism inherent in the institution’s response. Given that these restrictions are clearly a knee-jerk response to a crime committed against one of our students, we are indirectly engaging in victim-blaming rather than addressing the root of the problem.”

Going by such the strategies of the institution, roads should be shut if accidents happen instead of improving roads, lane discipline, traffic surveillance systems and drivers’ competencies.

Leaders seldom walk-the-talk. They hate to be told that they are wrong and worse to be challenged. This in turn breeds a flawed organizational design that creates rigid hierarchies, a culture of intolerance and a control system based on hire and fire. Engagement is the biggest loser in this case.