Tuesday 21 May 2013

REWARDS & RECOGNITION TIMES

As the job markets improve, organisations in general and human resource personnel in particular need to shift gears to innovate and improve on their total employee benefits programme to attract and retain talent. What makes it more important to create a better rewards and recognition programme is the fact that employee loyalty has eroded as an effect of the global financial crisis that forced employers to cut jobs and freeze pays. A recent Mercer survey suggests that employee engagement has reduced significantly over the last couple of years from 24 per cent in 2010 to 13 per cent in 2012. Increasing the value of people, and truly understanding why people show up to work, and why they stay for longer periods in certain environments and shorter in others is important. For every person who says that money is the biggest motivator, we today will have another saying, that other factors like recognition, workplace environment and work-life balance are bigger motivators. The other variable today in play for creating employee benefit packages is the dynamic and intrinsic nature of the new motivating factors. With organisations creating challenging and engaging assignments, allowing employees the chance to interact with charismatic leaders and path-breaking technologies, allowing flexibility in the workplace and the time to pursue their own interests, the options that employees today have are innumerable. The fact today though is that people expect both the tangible and the intangible component in equal measures. With globalisation and a diverse set of employees being a reality across most organisations, it is impossible to create best practices that can address all organisations across cultures and functions. The difficult part in creating comprehensive employee benefit plans is in understanding what motivates employees and the fact that each individual has unique motivating factors makes the process more complex. The challenge is in creating a broad framework and then adapting it to suit unique situations. Organisations are aware of these facts, and in India and across the globe, we have seen a conscious effort to create better and bespoke rewards and recognition packages that focus on capturing and addressing employee needs.

In this issue, we carry a special study by Great Place to Work® Institute and Edenred on India’s best companies for Rewards and Recognition in 2013. This study is an attempt to analyse what the best organisations in India do to create happy and productive employees through unique rewards and recognition programmes. The issue carries insights from the winning organisations on how they have been creating high performance organisations through their people practices. What is also interesting is that the best companies for rewards and recognition come from across industries. The study recognises the best while at the same time encourages other organisations to create practices that suit their own unique situations the best. We are happy and proud to partner with Great Place to Work® Institute in this endeavour.

As always, l look forward to your feedback and comments. Happy Reading!

Thursday 11 April 2013

EMPLOYEE EXPECTATIONS AND LEADERSHIP

Mainstream Human Resource literature over the years has emphasised to the point of obsessiveness the role of leaders and leadership in an organisation. The journal ‘Emerging Leadership Journeys’ shows that leaders and followers are both essential to an organisation. Unfortunately, most scholars have focused primarily on the leader and the leader’s role in motivating followers, and neglected the significance of followers. The authors who have focused on followers suggest that they are active participants in the leadership relationship and motivate themselves. The transformational leadership theory focuses on followers as recipients of leader behaviour and influence.

There has also been some research on the leadership styles of executives and leaders in different countries. Surveys have showed that leaders from America have very different priorities than those from India or from China. The interactions between leaders and followers also seem to considerably different from country to country. Most of this research is though from the leadership perspective.

Followers who perceive the leader as responsible for making decisions are less likely to take an active role in the decision-making process, thereby giving up autonomy. They may expect the leader to motivate them rather than taking the responsibility to motivate themselves. On the other hand, followers who take the initiative to motivate themselves to achieve goals view the leader more as a partner and therefore desire to collaborate with the leader in a relationship, thereby expressing autonomy. Two issues stand out. One issue points to the followers’ perception of expected leadership behaviour, and the other stems from the perception of the followers of themselves. Both perceptions can increase or decrease the effect that leader style has on the follower’s autonomy and motivation. If the follower has as much control over self perception, motivation, and behaviour, as these authors claim, then there is no reason why followers cannot determine the quality of their own followership and the leadership process.

In India where businesses operate in a multi-faceted environment, which is quick changing and diverse while being significantly influenced by culture and the socio-economic framework of different regions, there was a need to find if employees from differing regions, job functions and personality type have different expectations from their leaders. In this issue we publish a path breaking research by Professor Arindam Chaudhuri with respect to expectations of employees from their leaders in the Indian context, and how their expectations vary with differences of their geographical location, their job function and their personality type. In a large scale survey conducted across the length and breadth of India, employees from different geographies and job functions were asked to answer to questionnaire scored on the Likert Scale about their expectations from their leaders and bosses. The findings are interesting and at times counter-intuitive, as they seem to suggest that expectations from leaders are influenced by all the above factors. The findings may be able to help leaders tune their interactions for achieving the most out of their employees.

Along with the cover story you will also find perspectives of leadership from a wide range of professionals and experts. I am sure you will find this issue rewarding and impactful as always. Do write to us with your valuable feedback. Happy Reading.

Thursday 21 February 2013

ETHICS, HR AND THE ORGANISATION

In a world where corporate malpractices no longer make front page news, does it pay to be ethical? If we look at the number of Fortune 500 companies that have been charged with misconduct and unethical practices, the perception may be that it does not. The truth though is that not all organisations that are successful are sustainable. Research does suggest that organisations with a culture of fair and transparent practices and a holistic objective that is not limited to the bottom line are more likely to be successful and sustainable in the long run. Companies with a long-term vision understand that aligning business objectives to ethical values is an investment that will bear fruits. From the opposite end of the spectrum, the one lesson that has to be learnt from the financial meltdown of 2008, is that short-term profit goals have the capacity to bring down behemoths.

Today ethics is not an option, but a necessity, and a priority for organisations. At a time when information flows at the speed of light, and social media provides ordinary citizens the ability to voice their views, shape world opinion, and bring down governments, transparency fairness and ethical behaviour are necessary factors for sustainable growth in business. Ethics in organisations works at two levels, individual morals and organisational culture. In both these, the human resource function has a large role to play. When an employee engages with an organisation the first touch-point typically is the search and selection team. A clear and objective recruitment policy and transparent communication channels create the first level of trust between the employer and the employee. Successful organisations are investing in hiring policies and processes that are unambiguous and directed towards finding employees who not only have the potential to perform but also have the right fit with the organisations culture. During the life cycle of an employee, at an individual level, what directly affects the employee, whether it be personal development or performance evaluation, or for that matter separation are human resource policies. An organisation that is able to create a fair, just and humane HR system helps keep aloft individual morals and significantly removes the chances of individual impropriety. At the organisational level, while leadership has the onus of weaving a culture of ethics it is the responsibility of HR to spread the culture across every level and create a sense of collective responsibility towards all stakeholders. A community approach towards ethics also creates communal goodwill which moves beyond business objectives to serve the society. At a time when corruption is rampant and malpractice the order of the day, the society at large will willingly pay a premium to do business with an organisation that serves a greater goal than its own bottom line.

In this issue we have looked at the various facets of ethics in an organisation with special emphasis on recruitment and selection process and how HR is playing an important part in tackling it tactfully. In a business environment where the quality of our talent makes the difference between success and failure, creating a bond of trust that is based on an ethical culture will go a long way in helping both the individual and the organisation succeed. It is our opportunity to make an impact that goes beyond business-as-usual.