Walk-in?

A recent ad caught my attention as I scanned the Job Openings pages of newspapers to see which way the employment market was swerving that day. It was a medium-sized classified ad and called for people- editors. Nothing strange so far except that it stated clearly that these were senior positions. And then it invited walk-ins in working hours on the mentioned day. I re-read it because I saw a gross mismatch. They wanted senior people and all they wanted to invest was an open day when anyone without a prior appointment could walk in.

Visualise the scenario. A person aspiring to be in the senior rungs of a company would come to them without a confirmed meeting. Then they would meet him or her without knowing any prior information or discussion. And they expect to put together a cohesive, effective team this way that would deliver the goods? And who with the right amount of desire for growth would come to such an interview?

This may be an extreme case but it leads us to a pertinent area of learning: How much do prospective employers put into the hiring process? Is it a set exercise of calling the usual search and placement agencies? Is there a clear definition of the requirement and is the communication between the hiring department and HR clear and unambiguous? My HR friends say that the process is quite often set. The usual agencies are called up. Many rue that the job profile and the profile of the person to be hired is often hazy. This gets even hazier if there is a re-vamp of roles or a new role is being created. Oftentimes, not enough time is spent on fleshing out the position. If the pre-hiring process is not sound and studied enough it leads to the same dangerous status of mismatched team workers and the hullabaloo that follows.

Your thoughts?

Transition time- too little or too much?

A young man I met recently constantly referred to his company as “They….” I asked him somewhere along the conversation when he had joined this place and he said he had come there seven months back. He also made references to his older employer and used the term “we”.
It so happened that in the same week I met an HR manager who confidently shared with me her training calendar and the activities she planned to do with me. When I referred to a past communication with the company I learnt that she had been around for just about a month. The contrast between the two experiences couldn’t have been greater.

Since then I have tried to list out in my mind: Who are the people who immediately get into the skin of their roles? And who are ones that take longer? I cannot seem to- as of yet- establish any certain pattern or apply any particular attributes to these lists.

I am thinking along the following lines: How long does it take for a person to identify with an employer? Are there any HR processes to assess this transition? Is there any ideal duration or average time span allotted to this? Is it important to shorten this adaptation time? And whose responsibility is it? And finally I would like to study the connection between this adaptation time and attrition rate. Does a shorter adaptation time allude to a lower attrition rate?

My study of this aspect of employment is in its nascent stages and your contributions, thoughts, ideas would help to build upon this still-fragile foundation.

Qualification versus Experience

Annabhau Damle, 50, has worked on this shop floor for the past 32 years. He is now Supervisor. He has always been popular in the factory. The management looked at him whenever any cultural event had to organized. He took on the responsibility happily. Over the years he had become the unofficial arbitrator for any disputes, quarrels or disagreements on the floor. Before taking any step, the management always consulted him to pre-empt the response of the employees.
This was till a few months back. Over the past few months there has been a marked change in his demeanour and attitude. He is irritable and angry often. At other times he is glum and quiet. He gets offended easily. His friends in the factory tell you in hushed tones that this started when the new, young 25-year old supervisor joined the company at a higher grade. The young manager was now his immediate boss. He had to report to him.

So is Damle wrong in feeling this way? Or is the young manager not giving him enough status and space? And by doing that could he be jeopardizing his own role or responsibilities? Or does the ‘mistake’ lie not with either of the two men but somewhere else?

I think over this real-life situation and wonder if there is a solution. I believe that if Damle and his colleagues were sensitized to the changes in the management structure earlier, may be things would have been different. I feel that instead of dropping the bombshell – read spanking new manager- on the shop floor, an orientation exercise should have been conducted. In the absence of such an exercise everyone stands to suffer: the older workers feel endangered and naturally resent the new fellow; the new fellow for no fault of his has to wade through the resentment and difficult vibrations in his work place.

Companies have grandiose growth plans. But rarely are people’s issues addressed right from the start of such plans. More often, solutions to such issues are afterthoughts and hastily put together. Change management training is done but seems more like a routine, mandatory requirement rather than something that actually focusses on the emotional quotient required for a bunch of co-workers to stay together in spirit.
But change management after all can’t be only for direct profit-making. Your thoughts?

shall we share? - II

My last post pondered over knowledge sharing. Should it be expected of a senior to share? Is it his duty? Or is he justified in some circumstances at least for not sharing it all? The responses from the industry seniors were impressive and heartening. One said that in the corporate environment it was virtually your duty to share your learning with your juniors, your team. Someone thought that way when you started out. Now it is your turn to do it.
Another’s response verged on the philosophical. “Whether a junior learns or not, whether he is callous about it or takes it for granted is not my concern”, he says. “It is for me to share because I see it as my duty, my obligation. What the other fellow does with the information and knowledge- whether he distils it into wisdom or trashes it is his choice.”

“I learn from the younger generation too”, says an HR director, “because the one casualty of climbing up the corporate ladder can be the inevitable distance you create from ground realities”. “These people then become our eyes and ears. We interpret their raw data and both parties learn in the bargain”, she concludes.

Well! All these explanations fit neatly in the corporate place. But whether Sanjeev Kapoor feels a similar obligation to share his critical tricks is to be yet seen.

Shall we share?

While surfing the Internet for random information and comparing the ease of access to information today as compared to my student days this thought struck me hard- should a person be obliged to share his knowledge freely? And would that lead to a fairer world?
There’s no doubt how much better life got for most of us with free information on the Worldwide Web, with free software led by Linux or free encyclopaedic information from Wikipedia. We are all happy to get free advice from experts in newspapers – on issues ranging from the stock markets to fitness and healthcare- people who have collected reams of information and distilled it into knowledge over years.
And now for a moment let me cross over to the other side. Most would agree that a manager should be guiding his team to success, giving his team members free access to his experience. But, as that manager, I may find it difficult to share the result of my years of hard work with team members who may just see it as a routine input. I may not see a sense of gratitude and can easily resent such a painless transfer.
And then again, can such inorganic learning actually lead to results similar to that of first-hand collation? Can I really take down Sanjeev Kapoor’s recipe and become a great chef? Or can I follow a supermodel’s diet to become one myself? As anyone of us knows, there is that X factor that makes an individual excellent at what he does. Can that be just casually passed down to anyone?

'Chalta Hai' Ab nahi chalega!

Last week my colleague travelled from Mumbai to Delhi and back. Her observation - that while one airline gave a wonderfully-cooked meal the other passed off a huge, dry sandwich with just about a small spoonful of so-called chicken filling. There wasn't enough tea in the cup to push the sandwich down. This meal cost Rs 200. Either way cabs cost much more than the last trip and looked in poorer shape.

We claim to have come all the way since globalisation and yes we have made considerable albeit lopsided progress. But we don't seem to have left our basic thinking behind: Of how little can we give the customer for the rupee. This is the contrast we suffer with say successes of countries like Japan. Japan became a force to reckon with because it is obsessed with quality in delivery. It constantly asks just one question- Just how much can we give for a dollar.

And that's where the difference lies: how much or how little. How much can I pack in and remain in business or how little can I pass off and not face a revolt. Way back in the `60s Jawaharlal Nehru with his socialistic bent provided protection for the Indian small and medium-sized enterprise. The idea was that protection from developed markets would help our own industry to grow and become world class. But what followed was that the rich businessman lined his pocket, fattened his wallet and leveraged on the protection by continuously supplying low-grade goods.

No wonder then that about a decade back when nimble Chinese companies started pushing their goods into the Indian market the SME fellows protested. Eventually the industrial belt from Navi Mumbai to Thane virtually went out of business. One major reason was that at the lower technology levels Chinese goods were far, far better and far, far cheaper.

We are now poised at a resurrected market once again after a big hit over the past three years. We have yet another chance. We can see this as another opportunity to go change our attitude and focus on quality or look at it as a growing opportunity to pass of poor stuff once again. I hope we, as a country, opt for the former. I hope that we can make quality our mission statement because 'chalta hai' ab nahi chalega.

Can Ethics be taught?

Can ethics be taught? A recent interaction with a member of the younger generation left me at first shocked and then later, thoughtful. A discussion in a group activity was centred on where a professional should draw the ethical line.
“Should you defend a man who you know is a criminal in cold blood?” I asked a young lawyer.
“Yes, why not?”, was his prompt reply.
I tightened the question further and asked, “What if in this case an innocent person would go the gallows?”
He was OK with that too.
By now the rest of the group was beginning to go silent.
I took the issue further and asked, “What if this innocent man was your brother?”
The young lawyer did not reply immediately. He seemed to weigh the options. As he paused the group seemed to gasp. He needed to actually think over it. And then he replied.
He said, “Yes”.
“Yes”, he said, qualifying it further by adding, “Yes, if it means power and money.”
The rest of the people in the room seemed to have gone cold as a frosty silence enveloped them.
I now asked him to switch roles.
What if you were a patient with a terminal illness and half a dozen doctors had given up on you? What if this seventh doctor said he could help you? And you found out that it was just a racket. There was no chance for you to survive. Is this doctor justified in taking advantage of the situation and putting you through the trauma while making you pay large sums as fees?
This time his answer was as prompt but in negative.
“The doctor cannot do such a thing!” he exclaimed.
“Why?” I queried.
“This is unethical,” he said.