Alone and Together - distributed work model

May be to plugHR it came naturally, I realized only through other's observations that our corporate team wasn't really sitting close. I brave Mumbai, our India operations Head stays firm in the seat of power at New Delhi, advocacy manager hangs down south in Hyderabad and Head of Brand shuttles through Mumbai, Kolkata and New York.

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?

Tagged Corporate HR Human resources Leadership Management Organization Performance Management Training Workplace plugHR

Proof of Performance Intention

Last month plugHR made a significant shift towards its performance preparedness. Taking leaf from Military, plugHR made some items as "issue items" in Project Manager inventory, a step that takes plugHR Managers on a different level on day one at work. It took managers a week to digest the move (possibly HR lived without them for too long) but the benefits are for all to see now.

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

Tagged HR Hiring India Jobs Organization Organization culture Performance Management

HR in the Times of Slowdown

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... :)

Tagged Economic Slowdown Employees Entrepreneurship Human resources Management Performance Management Team building

Got the guy...Induct him Boss!!!

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 :)

Tagged HR Hiring Motivation Performance Management Team building Training