Building an effective HR department is more than you thought and ever attempted. To get a sense of how wrong you'd been all along, ask for a tour of HR departments of companies your admire and be prepared to get surprised. They don't comprise of HR professionals alone, the senior you go you'd find even lesser of them, in my last week visit to a top corporate, I met top two layers of HR department fully comprising of non-HR executives, in fact all techies :)

 Single most reason for such a mix is clearly a need for HR department to play leading role in business goals achievement, which may not be an HR expertise area considering the kind of education HR undertakes at B'school and their limited think connect with strategy formulation. Most of early years of HR professionals are spent in operational, downline rigor like calling candidates, coordinating interviews, processing attendance or putting together training facility and logistics. Limited participation of top management, specially the entrepreneur or CEO in driving HR function eventually leads to isolation of HR teams from business strategy, resulting in HR experience being devoid of think capacity development. So a 10 years experience professional would have done more of execution rather than thinking and planning.

 Let's see what all might be needed as expertise in your HR capabilities. Understanding of business modeling, commercial modeling, key business drivers and key accountabilities. Ability to create people budgets to achieve business plans, determine key influencing factors for talent as per competitive landscape, devise key initiatives and programs to achieve competitive advantage. Create clear actionable operational plan to attract, retain and develop talent in line with 3 to 5 year business plan. Ability to drive communication programs, media plan and content for engaging with talent both inside and outside the company. Ability to listen and continuously evaluate work place relevance to team members.

 It's very clear that you are unlikely to find HR professionals who would carry such capabilities, not that the an't any; there ain't enough. So creating a multifunctional HR function is a good way to develop an efficient, business focussed HR. It would also contribute to leadership pipeline development in the organization just like any other cross functional movement.

 Not all is lost for those who have an all HR department, you can begin with some cross functional training for your HR, it may take long but it's the right direction. By the way when was last that you sent your HR for training :)

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That could be the only reason why job advertisement and your website's career page seem to be competing for "who's uglier contest".

If I was running a coaching class on how to write ugly ads, I would just open some job sites and give my students unlimited case studies. Now don't get upset, why do you do that?

Okay, now you'd rush to edit those job ads, thats yet another eyewash, we just don't get it. Let me tell you one last time why all this is important.

Remember the corner "Sugarcane Juice Vendor", he doesn't have a brand, still he gets customers - but he won't get employees easily. Thats right, today's Consumer is far more forgiving and experimental, It is highly likely to try you out even if you don't have a brand. But expect this from a prospective employee and you're straight out from under the rocks, world has changed since then my sleeping beauty :), Yes, Welcome to the "War for Talent" days. You need a brand to hire not to sell anymore.

Yes, I have heard that before, the story of you being a Small Enterprise and that SMEs don't build Brands, well, tell this to your receptionist not me. But just in case you asked how?

Here is how:

By 2016 there would be 156 million jobs available to some 70 million employable people, everyone will have choice of work, who will work for you? Hello! this is 2011 :)

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Ever wondered why it is so difficult to articulate vision, mission and then stick to it for long. If you' have made a website for yourself ever, you know it partly, as making a website is equally difficult. Most of the time we outgrow our own vision pretty fast, or it alters or we lose steam.

But the good news is that your team members are more forgiving than you think. They don't much care about your visions that change with every new consultant passing by. On vision, teams are happy that you have one and that consultants consume most of your time.

Instead, they worry about your value system, no not the one you talk about, but the ones they see you practicing. Most part of work experience for professionals is effected less by what you declare but more by how management behaves. And behaviors are highly influenced by values. Purists can argue that Vision leads to values, well may be, but values can also stand on their own. To live values, vision is not an essential condition, trust me its good news, makes things simple.

Try this, no matter what your vision is or mission is, think about 5 things that you call your values, personal extendable to the enterprise you are creating. Thats how you take decisions, thats your "How" part of achieving whatever you are set for. Since values are close guides for decision making, team can use this clarity very effectively in their day to day work life. Over time, it will bring consistency in your manager's decisions and you'll see less normalizations happening.

So starting point is values. And you can forever with them.

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It works really well for us and having worked like this for over three years now, I am tempted to share it as a well tested model. Rather than giving it a fancy jargon that could then do the rounds in HR circles like omnipresent beblades, I've called it "Alone & Together" model. Let me jump straight to the merits.

The A&T (thats just the short form, not a jargon...come on...) model is based on the premise that being alone allows for higher concentration, flexibility & creativity to be deployed at work, apart from getting less disturbed by the presence of others. Moreover, one is less likely to get drawn into unplanned operational mundanity (overlook the vocab invention). Members structure routine and work styles the way it works best for them and each achieves more.

Does that make the team any less together, naaah. With all kind of things popping up the lappi, you can't be more closer. Skype, Twitter, Facebook, BB messenger make sure that I can sense team members facial expressions, count their coffees and sometime even wake them up from afternoon siesta. We don't even miss meetings (the favorite corporate passtime), thanks to sabsebolo.com and the likes.

Its amazing to realize how some of these tools have made us all pretty much at work almost always and being at a particular place (erstwhile known as office) to be able to begin work has become distant memory. Did I say begin work? Well can't say even that exists anymore, the ends have blurred, work and life both simulcast around but for the time we sleep.

But that was before Inception became so believable ..... ahh, let me catch sleep while lines blur further... you got the model right?

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Ofcourse these steps are simple, almost natural to a large professional population, taking it to HR was one move though. So if the idea to work at plugHR crosses your mind, here's a quick list of things you'd be expected to be ready with.

1. plugHR asks you whether you use a mobile phone with push mail facility (blackberry or their cheaper counterparts). If you don't or don't intend to, we gladly pay for your coffee and end the discussion there. In plugHR language, you are not even ready to perform even at intention level, hence we save ourselves from your long stories of imaginative bravado. Do we provide you with such phones? Of course not, just the way we don't buy you clothes, or shoes or laptops. If you don't own either of these, you were not thinking of working anyways.

2. We push lot of learning content to our team through webinars and other interactive medium that requires laptops, headphones, speakers, ability to put them together and login into interactive sessions. Here we do give you one training considering there are still business schools in India that don't give a damn to technology.

3. We use online project management tools off the cloud and you won't run a day if you can't walk in the clouds. Again we do run a demo, but running you do. Lot of it is simple, my 7 year old daughter runs some of them well, but you need to get over the freeze.

This is not an exhaustive list but this states the point that I am trying to make. For a professional, preparedness matters and we check for that. We treat your selection of tools as a Proof of Performance Intention. If you come with it, we'll ensure that you perform and grow and grow others and build organizations. Thats what HR is all about isn't it?

To check whether you fit at plugHR or not, write in prashant@plughr.com

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The other day, my close acquaintance dropped the hot job offer from a respectable company like a hot potato.  Reason was definitely new, she didn't get good vibes while browsing the brand up on social media. Before the hardworking HR manager and the already money sensing consultant could figure out what happened, my learned friend renegotiated terms with her current employer. I couldn't wait a day to put this down for the benefit of my hardworking HR friends.

With facebook reaching over 200 million users in record under a year, youtube being the largest search engine, over 200 million registered blogs and over 70 million users from 200 countries on LinkedIn, social media is the largest reachable collection of employable humans, of course far too suddenly, every other medium gave us good learning time.

HR managers now have a much larger role to play on social media, something that just can't be pushed to hyperactive marketing folks plainly. Look at the following aspects of human resource management that fall squarely in the middle of social media world.

1. HR for ages has been singing praises about referral hiring being the best form of hiring. Employee get employee schemes, other benefits have traditionally being doled out for generating referrals for hiring. Now if you overlook Linkedin that carries profiles that are pre-referenced, and with some effort you can make sense out of them, it would be criminal enough, isn't it? You must note that the smarty you spotted there, is going to do exactly the same on you, so make sure your organization group is there and it talks.

2. Employee engagement remains a challenge for organizations mostly because of lack of understanding of employees "likes", ha, what better place than facebook to see where are your people shooting their likes. Even FB events can give a lot of information about what employees want. Any MBA would then be able to cut and paste the events, formats, engagement programs. Similar or more focussed results can also be achieved if HR has implemented MyplugHR.com in their organizations.

3. Exit wounds exposed on social media can give you perennial lows, so HR must make sure that parting methods are simpler and more ladylike. Never lose sight of what ex-employees are doing out there, just in case there is one hurt ex-marine doing rounds, address it enough to closure.

4. If you ever were serious about your talk to CEO regarding building employee brand, you won't lose a day nor would you lose a thing from mention on as many networks as you can officially open at workplace. While you didn't sit in the class that started and ended at Kotler during your MBA, take a simple note; to make a brand, you got to talk first, talk enough and talk right. Keep your CEO informed initially, you may slip a few times, let the CEO pre-pardon some mistakes.

Now I can also run you through social media strategy but I am sure you'll put that together from the above material, in MBA we trust. Get social.

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Typically, if as a customer, you feel upset about the service of organization, you want to write to the CEO of the organization. As a vendor, if your payments get delayed, you connect with the CEO or as an ex-employee, if your final dues aren't coming in time, you do the same. SO in all these cases, if our first assumption about a CEO being a total insider was true, all these outsider actually would not hold any hope for favorable response from CEO's office, isn't it. Fact is that, most of the time, outsiders do get attended to their concerns by writing to CEOs. This also suggests that not just the outsiders consider a CEO as someone who'll hear them as a neutral party but even CEOs see themselves responsible for even outside interests in outsiders dealings with their organizations. Call it corporate governance, or fair play, or organization culture, whatever; role of CEO does seem to have an accountability towards outsiders in safeguarding their interests along with driving business interests of their payee organizations.

Do outsiders also expect some assurance from the CEO of the organization that they interact with? Are there some assumptions here, let me try to lists down a few, my own guess;

1. Outsiders expect CEOs to be people with high integrity to society at large, sure about value of their own product/ service and sincere towards their organizations dealings with outsiders.
2. They also expect CEOs to be by and large fair. Along with that , they also feel that CEO is capable of taking the risk of siding with outsiders if fairness demands as long as its not entirely against organization's interest.
3. They also believe that a CEO is fully capable of going extra mile, put extra authority, spend extra time in helping outsiders, if she thinks its fair to do so.

Now some of this might not be true or consistent across the fraternity, but by and large, whether written or not, CEOs do seem to have the responsibility of guarding outside interests of people who deal with their organizations.

I once met a senior lawyer, who told me that if he is working for me, he'll write documents that are fully one sided in my favor; I am sure people see CEOs differently.

Its a complex subject and I have just shared my opinion. More comments are welcome.

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In both, amidst lot of democratic distribution of knowledge & sympathy, I could sense a somewhat frustrated cry from SMEs around the fact that professionals including fresh MBAs do not like to join SMEs. In Bangalore discussion, MNCs were blamed for bringing this curse on Indian SMEs while in Mumbai, way and means were being discussed to push young MBAs by force into SME workplaces.

There was talk abound, of the great work experience that awaits professionals once they join SMEs.

Somehow, I hold a slightly different view and I did raise it in both the forums but may be I couldn’t say it enough. So here it is once again.

Let’s for a moment look at a typical SME set up that one can see, on any bad day walking through some by-lane of Andheri East in Mumbai. The workplace would for sure look far from inviting and one can be almost certain to be greeted by a rude, smelly, cluttered reception. If you feel thirsty or get nature’s call, you can rest assured to catch an infection without much effort. Imagine how motivating this workplace would be for professionals to come in every day and gain that valuable experience.

Now, in most cases, during interview not much would be told about the role & career progressions, in fact the whole discussion might revolve around how part of money would be based on performance. If you expect that you’d be told about performance parameters, you’re being a typical MBA. Your interviewer may not have any idea about what kind of targets exit in business plan; in fact business plan itself might not exist.

If you join, don’t expect good appointment letters, Induction is a joke and training – you are supposed to have taken during MBA.

Now frankly, I haven’t met many young MBAs who would have slogged to get through a competitive exam and then read best of management work through two years, dreaming about a career opportunity at an SME of the kind I just helped visualize above. So my take is that rather than focusing on hiring MBAs, SMEs would do well to sponsor few of their existing employees to evening education and they’d do well by joining one such class themselves.

I am not saying that SMEs do not offer good experience, may be they do, but you can’t figure that out in absence of any communication around it. Also absence of basics and indulgence of top management in mundane stuff completely gets professionals wondering how long will the ship sail; it doesn’t sink you’d say but remember the experience of turbulence during flights; now imagine traveling like that all through.

SMEs must look inside and focus on turning themselves bit more attractive to be able to attract talent. Blaming MNCs or blaming MBAs for getting attracted to great workplaces won’t help. Good news is that its not all that impossible but that’s for another day….....

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So here’s a short list of things one can keep in mind in order to keep those weekends paid for long.

Your employer is doing less business and is making lesser profit than it used to, when you had happened to him first time.
Your employer’s first concern (and the right) is to seek profit, rather than keep your job. Your job is largely your problem.
There’s a high chance that you don’t have a job today, but if you do have, there are at least 500 worthy contenders for the same job who will, if given a freak chance, will do your job not just better but also probably at half the cost. So you better sleep on your desk.
Two day weekend wasn’t your birth right, it just came about less than a decade ago, my advise is don’t stick to self-destruct idiosyncrasies, manage with whatever is available, remember during wartime, soldiers go for months without weekends.
Annual leaves, 20 days holidays, international vacations; you better count yourself in jobless already.
Now the good news is that the employer is still around, and he does have jobs on him. You got to assure him that you can add to his profit, that the purpose of your job would be his profit and not your salary. That if you don’t make him money, you won’t make much either.
I get job applications on my site where I have explicitly asked for references. I get entries like “references upon request”, why the **** would I request more than asking for them on my website in full public glare. Others under the effect of some sedatives write “references during interview”, the guy has selected himself for the interview. You think I care, you think I was out of my mind to ask for references upfront…..so why don’t you just give it?
Are you getting the point? There are fewer jobs, but jobs there are unless you blow them off for yourself.
And for god’s sake, don’t ask for long leaves this year at least, you’ll do yourself a favor.

I sincerely wish you paid weekends forever…….. keep watching this space, I’ll write a few more that will help…….. stay relaxed but stay on your feet :)

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World loves the underdog and there's so much support for anyone who tries hard. Scenarios in organizations is no different. While there is so much hue and cry about organizations focus on training, its interesting to see that very few people actually try harder. While employees want the perks, lifestyle and recognition of a Nadal, they do not want to sweat it out for 5 hours. Fact remains that for those who try harder, there is no dearth of support and encouragement from organizations, even companies want new winners, more winners.

To turn into a winner is tough, even attempting to win is tougher, no one else can make you one, not even your organization no matter how much they spend in training. First you have to decide to run for the win.....and the sweat, the cramps, the breath, the focus......

Do you have it in you?

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Slowdown may not be all that bad for organizations if they retain the balance to pull out all those quadrant two items that never saw daylight during long period of growth.

Here’s a list of things that HR departments may want to run through;

1. Take time from CEO and run through manpower plan just in case it was given to you before mid-September 2008.

2. If you’re still hiring, take a hard look at salary structures that you’d offer. You’ll be surprised how much de-risking you can do for your organization now.

3. Offer a salary correction rather than raise at interview. Remember if all assets were over valued, so was human asset and there is no reason that later shouldn’t get corrected. My guess is 20 – 25% correction is a fare call.

4. Functions where deliverables can be easily measured, keep performance linkages to payouts. You can provide for higher payouts on better performance considering value of high performance during slowdown can be much more than usual days.

5. It’s a great time to test senior management commitments, propose a salary cut. Up to 15% salary cut doesn’t hurt anyone’s lifestyle at senior level.

6. While you look at costs, please note that cutting a few cups of tea may not impact costs much but can cause discomfort to large part of the team, so avoid high visibility low impact calls.

7. This is a great time to bring everyone’s attention to performance. Leaders can inspire people to deliver unexpected performances in tough times. This has been seen during wars, natural calamities time and again.

8. Lastly do not stop smiling, playing, movies, rewards, recognitions. Interact with teams regularly and in high spirits. Listen to some Bob Dylan...times they are a changin... :)

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Having gone through number of functional induction presentations, I thought it might be a good idea to just write about what we want to achieve through this induction. So here's my view....

Objectives of functional induction

1. To reassure the new member about her decision of joining the team.
2. To introduce the member to other members in the team.
3. To connect the member to History and Decorations of the team
4. To pictorially depict departments delivery commitments to company.
5. To describe department work flow.
6. To describe work styles and things that matter.
7. To apprise of frequently faced challenges.
8. To suggest names of team members who can be approached for initial handholding.

Apart from this, member should be taken through demands of her role, work relationships, KRAs and intial training if need be.

Please note that induction can be interesting or boring, based on how the presentation is made and delivered. Do not hesitate in taking professional help from designer to put together a great ppt. This is also the first time the new member would be judging you, so be the Boss :)

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Yes, I am talking about "Minutes of the Meeting". Its a surprise to find that though such a simple tool, MOM gets sheer neglect in so many organizations. I find MOM simple and highly effective tool to drive weekly kind of routine. In fact I think MOM can replace every other planning tool that people juggle with in day to day work, just paste last week's MOM right in front and keep striking.

May be it starts at taking notes right during review or weekly meetings, but once recorded along with action items and timelines, it can act as a single tool binding all teams and all committments.

So while corporate India, gets down to learning Chinese, spending an hour on how to write MOMs can be highly rewarding.

Next weekly meeting, ask, Where's MOM :)

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A run through the manager hiring process in companies tells a story - that no one differentiates managers from frontline staff and hence hiring basis remains the same - is he good at work.

Now the big question is "What is work for a manager", writing codes, getting sales orders, attending client complaints or hiring team, making plans, communicating, motivating team, reviewing performance.

Love for action orientation of entrepreneurial leadership teams has completely eroded role for managers which has become almost same as frontline. What can managers do, leaders themselves are doing frontline work themselves leaving no space for managers to do their real job. And frontline is wondering why they were hired in first place.

Job of a manager is not doing but getting done and only if this is clear can a manager focus on right deliverables like team formation, risk mitigation, monitoring, coaching, redundancy building. This way managers can contribute significantly towards organizational goals.

Starting point in this direction can be setting manager's KRAs right. Try not to put more than 50% weight on core output putting rest across team building, planning, review, derisking their deliveries, coaching teams, innovation etc.

Similarly while hiring managers, assessment must be done on managerial qualities as indicated above. Remember a good manager can give performance upside from whole team, so do not waste talent letting him write codes.

Comments/ questions can be directed to prashant@plughr.com

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Here is a list of advantages that performance appraisal offers to all stakeholders.

It is an opportunity for individuals to take stock of the whole year’s effort which would have seen good days and bad, accolades and brickbats, upbeat moments and stressful nights. Annual appraisal is time to unwind a bit and look back at those moments with the luxury of having passed through them.
For managers, its time to spend some quality time with team members when the agenda is not around consuming alcohol. Almost 80% managers would find this as the only time they got discussing work-life one to one with team. Smart managers would also find huge value in feedbacks from their team members around their own performance, behavior and get direct insights into what works directly from their consumers.
For organization, its an opportunity where by virtue of quality time being spent in the belly of management, huge value can get generated. Appraisal also provides for normalization of relationships, smoothening of operational kinks etc.

Now I can write a book on possible gains but I guess you’ve got the point. This whole gain rests on one fact i.e. Quality time spent during appraisal. So here’s a way to spend that quality time.

1. Appraisal is a two way process and should be conducted that way. Its important to check convenience of people to set appraisal appointment. Both people involved must do some preparation in terms of putting together indicators of performance. Preparatory notes should be made for discussing conflicts, confusions or disagreements.
2. Its advised to chose business hours to conduct appraisals, avoid early morning or late evening when unnatural pressures like reaching in time or leaving for home apply. Remember appraisal discussion is not additional work, on appraisal day, this discussion is THE WORK.
3. The value of learning, exploring and discussing would get realized if listening and talking is balanced properly. Managers must give their team members opportunity to talk enough. Members should be encouraged to discuss facts and data behind their assumptions. Insights would come out only if both work together on highlighted areas.
4. If for some reason argument erupts, it’s a good idea to take a break and again start discussions. There is no hard and fast format of conducting appraisal, mutual comfort is paramount. Also note down things on paper after some amount of talking has happened, its not required that from first sentence everything should be written down.

Quick points to remember

1. Appraisal is a much team member’s activity as it is for manager.
2. Any conversation that begins on pleasant note has higher chances of creating value.
3. Lot of times perceptions speak where as fact have to be found out. Find facts together.
4. Outcome of appraisal is not the paper, neither is it a rating, true outcome is the quality time spent between member and manager discussing performance issues, organization issues and methodologies to do better over time.
5. Increments, bonuses and other rewards only have a connection with appraisal process but that’s not the purpose of doing appraisals.
6. Last but not the least everyone has a right to disagree.

Please feel free to write to prashant@plughr.com if you have a direct question around the subject. Be patient for the reply, its appraisal time :)

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I came across this very interesting article on research ethics in IJME (Indian Journal of Medical Ethics) that talks about dilemmas faced by professionals while they undertake fieldwork with a defined objective. How they end up involuntarily gathering information which is different from and more than required, how interest of respondents becomes important, how current scenario can create a diversion to planned research. Read the full article on www.ijme.in/161re22.html

Interesting reading for HR professionals who can relate this to field research that they do in their organizations and around.

Article is written by Qudsiya Contractor - a social scientist based out of Scotland. The piece was written during her stay in Mumbai. She also happens to be an alumnus of TISS Mumbai. Comments can be mailed to qudsiya.contractor@gmail.com

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One significant contribution that plugHR team seems to be making at these places is forcing discipline across levels. Need to make a manpower plan is forcing founders to write their business plans. Policy structure document is making neurons work overtime and we have tried to save the organization from ever changing Amoeba. Can't say we've succedded all along, but attempting is pretty much half way through.

So when start-up goes on overdrive, you better have plugHR on the navigator seat :)

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