Bhima Rao _s Articles in Deccan Herald

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Bhima Raos Articles published in Deccan Herald- Aleading Newspaper and other Magazines.

Need for skill based training in the corporateworldPublished in DH Avenue on 5-5-2010By: Bhima Rao

Corporates should link training given to employees directly to businessresults .

Training employees at the time of their joining theorganisation is almost mandatory nowadays,specifically in certain sectors like ITES, IT, retail andother service sectors. Take the manufacturingsector, for instance, where skill based training iscompulsory for all new hands.

However, a clear solution is yet to be found on thedebate about whether imparting training to

employees who are already working is relevant and assessment of the return oninvestments on such expenses has yet to be understood. Some feel that spending ahuge amount on training is a waste of resources, either because it does not provide asolution to the problem or the employee will not be in a position to use or implementthe training.

Organisations will willingly spend on training provided a return on investment is clearly

seen or if it directly addresses a business need. In the absence of this, mostorganisations hesitate to invest time and money on training and thus it never becomesstrategic part of the business. When the training is not part of the mainstream activity,it will get a secondary treatment.

In a BPO, an employee has to undergo initial training in various spheres likelanguage, accent, product knowledge and technology. Training is an ongoing processfor them and they are continually being briefed on product updates and newtechnology. In companies which are highly technology driven, training is continuousand directly related to business needs. But in other industries, everyone agrees thattraining is important, but it is yet to be looked at as a mainstream function in bothprivate and public sector companies.

Each organisation approaches training very differently. The reason is that no singlemethodology or procedure is adopted in conducting training to employees in businessorganisations. To take an example, simple programmes like time management,communication skills, team building skills, supervisory development will be designedin several ways and different methods are adopted while conducting the programme.

Each trainer will deliver the same programme in a different method, the contentchanges, number of days varies and so on. Whenever there is a financial difficulty,the management will do a cost-cutting exercise quickly and training will appear


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topmost in the list of items to be targeted. This happens in the form of either reductionin the budget or banning all types of training programmes. No questions are asked,everyone will follow the path or nod their heads, and training will take a back seat.Why do such things occur?

Steps before training

Training needs assessment has to be done systematically. The company shoulddevelop a personal development plan and link the training investment directly in order to to bring down the cost, reduce the cycle time, enhance customer satisfaction andfinally link business results. This is the time to sit back and take a stock of trainingprogrammes conducted which are held in the past without doing training needsassessment. A company should assess the results and calculate the return oninvestment from such programmes. The outcome of such an exercise may bringshocking information and question the accountability of all such persons who areinvolved in training. Prudently, all training programmes should be imparted only after conducting training needs assessment, and develop a personal development plan for each employee. More importantly, one should communicate the evaluation process toall participants which will be followed after the training programme and make them

understand their responsibilities to bring out the desired results.

Why needs assessment?

Most organisations are keen to remove deficiency both in production or in services. Adeficiency is a performance that does not meet the desired standards. It means thatthere is a prescribed way of doing a task and that variance is creating a problem.Allowing deficiency will never improve the productivity of an organisation. Trainingneeds assessment is a method to identify what training should be provided tomanagement personnel and employees to enhance their skills and productivity. Itfocuses on identifying the needs as opposed to desire or wants. Training needsassessment is the process of collecting information from individuals or the departmentabout the needs that could be met by conducting training. It is very essential to assess

the participants prior to the beginning of a training programme. Three major reasonsto meet the participants are: it helps to determine the exact training content, it allowsthe trainers to obtain case studies and to develop the rapport with the participants.

Assessments can be conducted formally by meeting with managers, employees,conducting surveys and group meetings, obtaining data from performanceassessment of employees and reviewing the company strategies. Why, who, how,what and when are the common analysis terms to be used while conducting trainingneeds assessment.Who is to be involved: Involve all parties to solve the deficiency. Conduct a targetpopulation analysis to learn as much as possible about those involved in thedeficiency and customise a training programme which will meets their interests.

A training need assessment can help to determine whether training is the appropriatesolution to a performance deficiency or to enhance the customer satisfaction?Training programmes may enhance employees knowledge, skills and changeattitude, but it should be seen whether such programmes will help to resolve adeficiency? Most often trainers are asked to conduct training without conductingneeds assessment. The managers may take a judgment that a particular trainingcourse will exactly meets the training needs. Few trainers also decide what they wantto teach without sufficient regard for what the target population needs to learn.Whether such programmes will be evaluated and linked to the bottom line is themillion dollar question.


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As a conclusion we see that before deciding to conduct training, at the time of trainingneeds assessment always involve all the stake holders such as managers,supervisors, target population and trainers. Clearly communicate the objectives andbenefits to them to participate in the needs assessment process. The trainingprogrammes conducted based on needs assessment will definitely add value to theindividual and organisation. Once this is achieved, training will fall in the mainstreamof any business.

Bhima Rao is a Senior HR Professional.

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DH AVENUE

Date1-3-2010

THE JOBS ARE BACK

The process and dynamics of recruitmentBhima Rao

HR departments of companies need to identify the correct methods for sourcing candidates

The good news is that job offers throughcampus placements are being made againby corporates and candidates are beingrecruited by most of the big companies in2010.

The IT, banking and mutual fund industry,among others, are in the process of recruitment. The manufacturing sector hasshown growth and other sectors are alsoimproving, leading to a spurt in hiring. So,

HR professionals are slowly awakening to the importance of looking at the dynamicaspect of recruitment and selection process.

Whether the business climate is booming or not, organisations would like to remainmore competitive. So, bringing on board the right type of candidates at the right timeand at a lesser cost is the biggest challenge for HR professionals.

Organisations require candidates at all levels from freshers to experienced hands,unskilled, highly skilled, qualified, highly qualified, managerial levels, departmentheads and so on. Recruitment has two steps sourcing of suitable candidates, andinterview and selection, which is the final step. To scout a variety of such candidates,the HR department needs to identify the correct methods for sourcing to meet theexact requirement.

This is more so as the days ahead are going to be tighter on cost and the parametersfor recruitment will keep changing in a competitive environment. So, HR professionals


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will need to do lot of research and make sure that they take the correct steps tosource the right candidates.

Sourcing methods

The strategy for sourcing of candidates is different for long term and short termrecruitment plans.

The long term recruitment plan provides enough time to focus on zero or minimalexpense sources of recruitment, where as the short term recruitment plan invariably isan expensive sourcing method.

The sourcing methods will keep changing as the choice is wide now.

Private sectors have identified and experimented innovative sourcing methods. Fewsuch sourcing methods have emerged after the IT, ITES and retail sector boom.

Advertisement: Today we have several new modes of advertisements which aredynamic, effective and quick to source the candidates. It is interesting to note several

advertisement modes. Jobseekers find advertisements in newspapers very useful.Also, for companies, screening resumes which are sent as a response to newspaper advertismants for specific posts is easier as it is time consuming to screen all type of resumes. The ITES and garment companies have given a shot to advertise intelevision and radio channels . They advertised both in English and local languages.Local TV channels, cable operators and F M radio channels flashed the recruitmentadvertisements which jobseekers found this is very useful.

A form of new age advertisement is the job portal, which is moderately expensive andattractive to youngsters. It is universal and candidates across the globe can access it,so placement consultants and organisations can receive resumes from all over theworld.It helps to create the brand image of the company, provides great advantage for the

HR department and it encourages the drive to paperless recruitment.One of the new methods of advertisement for recruitment is through banners, postersand pamphlets. The ITES and garment industries attempted to attract candidatesthrough this method. Its advantage is that it is less expensive and reaches the

jobseekers quickly.

Promotion & transfer: Filling up of vacancies through internal promotion and transfer are considered the best source for recruitment as the method is easy and boosts themorale of existing employees. An added advantage is that it involves minimalexpense.

Employee referrals: The IT and ITES companies introduced the employee referencereward where the employees are offered a good amount if they refer the candidatesfor recruitment. It is easiest method for the HR department as it helps to achieve massrecruitment and is also inexpensive.

Trainees: A large number of companies provide training to young graduates and postgraduates, and one alternative is to recruit some of them. It is a good option as it isless expensive.

Unsolicited applications: Every organisation will receive unsolicited applications


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throughout the year. HR department can preserve the good applications and call themat the appropriate time. Here too, there is zero expense involved.

Walk-in interviews: ITES, IT and a few garment industries conduct exclusive walk-ininterviews. The modus operandi is to advertise widely, fix a date and venue for theinterviews. Selected candidates will be issued offers on the same day. It is one of thebest methods to achieve mass recruitment quickly. It saves time and cost per hire.

Job fairs: The modus operandi is that different companies will participate in job fairs.It is most beneficial to the candidates as they can choose the jobs and industry fromamong the participant companies. Job fairs are becoming popular.

Campus interviews: Companies will visit the selected professional colleges onparticular days to select candidates. It is an excellent opportunity for students tochoose their companies and jobs. Both companies and candidates will have to followcertain guidelines.

Employment exchanges: Employment exchanges operated by government are oneof the oldest sources. All the public and government organisations depend on this

source to some extent. The efficiency of the present day employment exchanges isunable to cater the needs of private sectors and they are not preferred.

Training institutes: Training institutes impart skill based training. Most popular onesare software and hardware training institutes, ITES and animation institutes etc. Theseinstitutes provide good trained candidates to various industry segments. It is one of the best places to source right candidates and at a lesser cost.

Placement consultants: Placement consultants are capable to cater all type of candidates starting from fresher to CEO and Managing Director level. It is a quicksource and recruitment at senior levels can be done in confidence. It is one of thehighly expensive methods.

NGOs: NGOs and voluntary social service organisations are running skill basedtraining prorammes for poorer sections and help the members to get jobs. Thegarment industry has utilised the services of NGOs and it has worked wonders. It isalso less expensive.

Trade unions: In earlier days, trade unions referred the workers. It worked well wherethere was a non- affiliated union. These days, managements and the unions arelacking confidence in each other and hence it may not work so well.

Customers, suppliers : Company customers, suppliers and contractors are the bestsource for getting the reference of good candidates. They can refer candidates goodto suit the work culture of the company etc. It is less expensive.

Ex employees: Many companies prefer to bring back their good employees who haveleft. This is one of the good sources to recruit most reliable and valuable candidates.Also, it is less expensive.

Social network sites: Social network sites like Orkut, etc have brought peopletogether. The College alumni associations and network of old company colleagueshave formed their own net works. HR team can make use of such networks to spreadinformation about various vacancies.


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Conclusion

All the above sources of recruitment have merits and demerits. It is the prudence of HR professionals to deploy one or more right sourcing methods to attract and selectmost suitable candidates at a right time with less cost.

Bhima Rao is a senior HR professional. He can be contacted at [email protected].

Training gift or investment ?The need to impart training to employees in an organization hasemerged as an effective tool to add value to the job andemployees, says BHIMA RAO

Training has become an integral part of people. It starts from child hoodand continues till the end. Training is imparted to pupils in schools to

achieve excellence in academics, sports. cultural activities and so on.Village craftsmen impart training to his children in the trade of weaving,carpentry, goldsmith, farming etc. The intention of these craftsmen is totransfer traditional skills to his prodigy, to achieve quality output and earnmoney. In every sphere of life, training helps in achieving extra ordinarythings from individuals or teams. Training has changed the lives of peopleand many have reached the summit.

Industry or business organizations have felt the need and importance of training more so now than ever before. Realizations have come that peoplealone will make the difference to bring our quality product or to providesuperior service. The technology is changing very fast and people need tocatch up on the new developments/trends. The new technology or know-how is transferred to others through training.

Opportunity to undergo training is like receiving a gift and making use of itto move forward either in personal life of in professional life. Traininginvolves money; participants and trainers valuable time and many othersresources must also be deployed. Training either in schools, sports centers,film institutes of from craftsmen or in business organizations are aimed atthe same thing. Commonly understood aims of training are to enhanceknowledge and to impart new skills. Apart from these two objectives,business organizations or industry look at training to bring attitudinalchange/change in behavior, systems and process improvement and mostimportantly achieve higher profits.

Training needs are identified through performance appraisals and potentialappraisals. Inputs for training needs identification comes from thecandidate himself, superior, peers, subordinates, customers feedback andsuppliers feedback. The strengths and weaknesses of the candidate arealso analyzed and their training needs are identified. Specific trainingneeds are identified across the organization in order to achieve businessplans


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SKILL DEVELOPMENT : The aim of skill development programme is toimpart skills to the needy. The trainee will learn the new skills or sharpenexisting skills. Training is imparted in classrooms or on the job. It is afocused training to enhance the skill level.

FUNCTIONAL MANAGEMENT : Organizations do have functionalspecialization in their operations. Even though qualified and experiencedpersonnel are inducted, the need for functional training programmes isalways felt. For example, the marketing engineer may be doing well in his

job now, but he would require to undergo training on marketing strategy,forecasting, understand the global competition, pricing, understand thehew product, promotion strategies, after sales service etc. The functionalmanagement training programmes aim at enhancing the functionalcapabilities, providing new knowledge, broadening their horizons, etc;These functional programmes would help trainees to broaden theirknowledge, competence development, and more confidence to take up newresponsibilities. The post evaluation of such programmes is becomingdifficult and it is difficult to quantify or attribute the success or failure of aperson or the project. Project work is necessarily team work. Evaluation orassessing the benefits of such training program at the most can be doneon keen follow up with the individual.

CROSS-FUNCTIONAL: The cross functional programmes are conductedto trainees who are not from the same profession of from the samedepartment but they must understand the basic functions of othersdepartments. The objective of such programmes could be that theconcerned person can handle independently functions of otherspecialization or he should be in a position to appreciate the importance of such functions. These programmes would bring together or fuse themtogether or make them understand the difficulties of other professionals

and which finally should lead to better teamwork among different functionsor departments.The aims of such programmes are only to enhance the knowledge of trainees. The programmes run for a short duration and the trainers and thetrainees always struggle to cover or catch up the entire subject matter.Such programmes would give only glimpses. Ultimately the cross functionalprogrammes would help understand and appreciate each others functionand respect the other professions. The trainers or the superiors mustaccept the reality that the evaluation of such programmes could be doneon qualitative terms only.

CONRTRACTS, LEGISLATION : Legal compliances are required to bedone in all areas. These are special subjects and these matters are subjectto change from time to time. The policy of the governments and theamendments to the legislation would bring certain impact/obligations onthe relevant development in the respective fields would result in bringingcash benefits , savings and compliance of law means no litigationEach organization must make the assessment of application of various lawsto the particular business or in a particular state. The exposure to suchnew subjects to the concerned personnel would help enhance knowledge


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and also ensure benefits to the organizations. Consultants or experts arethe best faculty to conduct such training programs.

GENERAL MANAGEMENT: General management programmes areaimed at enhancing the managerial capability, effectiveness and basically

to develop leadership. Managers require various skills competencies andexpertise in the field to function effectively. The technical knowledge orprofessional expertise alone would not help managers lead a team,motivate employees, organizational development etc; they mustunderstand the principles of management and develop the appropriateleadership styles. The general management programmes attempt to impartimportant management concepts and techniques present differentperceptions of business , organization , leadership styles etc; Suchprogram focuses on various disciplines such as finance , marketing ,production , human resources , strategies , new product development ,vendor development , impact of globalization , world class manufacturingmarket research and marketing strategies.The other general management programs could be creativity and

innovation, teamwork, time management, benchmarking etc; the generalmanagement programmes are meant to middle and senior managementpersonnel.

ASSES BENEFITS: Training is considered as a gift. It is also one of thestrategies of retaining employees and show genuine interest in employees.When training is considered as gift, it is given as a good will or with a trustthat employee will reciprocate voluntarily and contribute to the growth of the organization .He translates the learning in his work area and bringchanges or adds additional value to the job he is performing. Anotherapproach to training is to treat it as expenses and expect return oninvestment (R O I). In this approach, the organization looks for clear

tangible results from the trainee who attends the training program. Boththe approaches have plus and minus points. There may not be assessmentor clear accountability for the trainee in the first approach. Whereas thesecond approach puts forth expectations. The trainee could be questionedif desired results are not achieved and also he would be rewarded suitablyfor implementing the concepts, new technology learnt in the trainingprogram.The superior trainee himself and the trainer must understand theexpectations of the organization or set clear objectives for which aparticular training program is conducted .The dialogue among all theconcerned must start at the time of identifying the training need itself. Thesuperior must spell out the expectation on the trainee; the trainee mustattend the training with an open mind and implement the new knowledge

in his work place and should be able to quantify the results as much aspossible .The role of superior should not end with recommending thetrainee to the program alone. He must have periodical review with thetrainee, organise presentations, and extend all support to implement thelearning, give feedback and reward the trainee for successfulimplementation of any new idea.Training is essential and also it is becoming expensive. In the competitiveworld, the trainee must focus to add value to the job and to the


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organization. There is an immediate need to evolve new techniques andmethodologies for evaluation of training. The new evaluation methods andprocess should be tailor-made and organization specific. As much as thebenefits of training is quantified and the benefits are felt in theorganization that much would be value addition to the training profession.

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Motivating call centre employeesCONSTANT ENCOURAGEMENT AND FEEDBACK CAN ENSURE HIGH LEVELSOF MOTIVATION AMONG THE EMPLOYEES OF THE BPO INDUSTRY, SAYSBHIMA RAO.

PROFESSOR Yoshio Kondo of Kyoto University in his book on humanmotivation said that Motivation is a matter of moving peoples hearts andminds, it is not a question of technical knowhow. According to him,peoples knowledge or skill will be a waste if there is no willingness to dowork. Any amount of progress in technology, excellent systems andprocess will not bring the desired productivity unless and until there ispositive desire to work by the people.

How do we create desire to work and motivate all kind of people in theorganisation is a million dollar question haunting from time immemorial.No one is able to find one or several standard formula for motivation of employees. Each organisation is different and each individual is unique andtherefore, motivation has become a major issue in organisations andresearch for many years.It is a fact that everyone needs money, but people do not work only formoney. What is it apart from money which drives people to work to theirfullest potential are really not understood in depth? The problem of motivation is becoming more and more difficult as new industries arecoming and growing, education level is going up and living standards areincreasing.

The emergence of BPO/call centre industry in India is a great opportunityfor young and educated workforce. Call centre is a fusion of threeingredients: Firstly, information technology, secondly, telecommunication

and lastly people. Once investment is made the first two ingredients andfalls in line there is nothing to much worry. It is not so as regards topeople. The challenges lies how to motivate people on a continuous basis?

Human needsAmong the best and well known motivation theories are Maslows hierarchyof human needs and Hezbergs two factor theory of motivation. A H Maslowdivided the human needs as five - physiological, safety, social, ego or self


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esteem needs and lastly self-actualization. According to him these needsfall in hierarchy. When one need is satisfied, the need at the next higherlevel arises to replace it. Physiological need at the bottom and self-actualisation needs at the top. Professor Kondo has identified that A HMaslow had stressed in his original paper that human needs do not ascendthe hierarchy in an orderly manner. The experience of Japans industrialorganisations has thrown light that all five needs are always present at alltimes in any human being, but their relative importance gradually shiftsfrom lower to higher levels as the growth of individuals take place. It is tounderstand that human beings always have variety of needs at all thetime.A H Maslows hierarchy of needs a reality at call centres. The youthemployed in call centres are really fortunate to start the work with fivefigures salary or reach that stage very quickly. The amount of salary andthe benefit they get quickly in the beginning of their career is more thansufficient to meet their physiological needs. The youngsters do not worryabout the safety or security needs. They are highly confident and they donot seem to have an idea of working in a same company for long and to

worry too much on job security. These two needs are met so quickly andthey enjoy the life thoroughly. The third need, belonging needs or socialneeds are met in the form of good friends with same age group and lotsand lots of outings, social get- together organised by the company andthemselves.

Managing aspirationsThe staff at call centre look beyond this and they want quick recognition and opportunity tomove up in the ladder. The tough task is to manage their aspirations in a given space. To meetthe needs of self esteem and self actualisation of any individual is not easy and a definite timeframe cannot be given. Majority of them want to move up in the ladder in less than one to twoyears and earn double or four times of salary. This desire of employees is bringing quite anamount of stress on staff and also on the HR Departments. Unfortunately, this industry ismoving in such a direction where every thing is measured in terms of money and offered morethan expected. People are not satisfied by money alone. The monotonous job, night shift, hightargets, health problems and high stress do not find any definite answers till now. Other thanmoney, many rewards are given in kind too. Besides, the companies are arranging lots of funactivities, entertainments and so on and forth. What ever may be the efforts by the peoplemanagement experts, the staffs are not fully satisfied and they always look for change in jobcontent or absent for work or change of job itself.

MotivationThe biggest problem is to motivate people on a continuous basis as they take calls frominternational customers. Call centre is a tough place to work where the performance both interms of quantitative and qualitative can be measured on a daily basis and it is verytransparent. In out bound centre, the staff gets highly demotivated once they do not able to

reach the targets. They compare their performance with others and go to shell. They getdemotivated suddenly when they are not able to make sales, not in good mood, bad health,family problems or due to any other personal problems. They get highly demotivated when theinterpersonal relations strains. It may be with the superiors or with friends or peers. Theslightest discomfort in the working environment will affect them. It so happened that a ladyemployee had problem with one of her friends and fought with each other for a trivial matterand stopped talking. After few days one of them is not able to reconcile about the incident andunable to concentrate on work. Other friends also noticed that she is scared of her friend and atthe same time she wants to talk to her again. The supervisor had to intervene and sort out the


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Attrition, retention at Call CentresThe evolving BPO industry has got the perplexing issue of managing human resources, saysBHIMA RAO

Attrition of employees in the call centre industry is mind-boggling and it is creating havoc for theindustry and especially for the HR department. The attrition rate varies from minimum 30 percent to a maximum 90 per cent per annum. The software also saw this rate till the incident of September 11, 2001. I wonder why the attrition rate was not so high in any other new industrylike telecom, retail stores, banking etc. Who has to introspect, how much responsibility shouldbe borne and are we collectively contributing directly or indirectly for the attrition.Attrition is not a new problem and it has existed earlier and will continue to exist in anyindustry. But there is a limit for every thing. The call center industry is new and every one is ina great hurry to make some thing or do some thing, become someone in the sun rise industry.The government, promoters, management team, employees, consultants, media and so many

others play a major role in developing any new industry and extend helping hand forstabilisation and finally growth of the industry.

Our country is fortunate to be identified as one of the best places for BPO and the beginning isreally good. Now the growth of BPO industry is mainly depending on the cost effectiveness andquality of the manpower. All other factors are being taken care by the government throughliberalised laws , providing infrastructure like telecom and we are best in the IT. The costeffectiveness will depend mainly on controlling the running cost and quality is dependent on themanpower employed. Attrition of employees increases the cost of recruitment and training. Ithas impact on maintaining the quality and competent manpower to meet the standards set byinternational customers.

ReasonsIt is not easy to find out as to who contributes and who has the control on the attrition of employees. Various studies/survey conducted indicates that every one is contributing to theprevailing attrition. Attrition does not happen for one or two reasons. The way the industry isprojected and speed at which the companies are expanding has a major part in attrition.

For a moment if we look back, did we plan for the growth of this industry and answer will be no.The readiness in all aspects will ease the problems to some extent. In our country we start theindustry and then develop the infrastructure. All the major IT companies have faced theserealities. If you look within, the specific reasons for attrition are varied in nature and it isinteresting to know why the people change jobs so quickly. Even today, the main reason forchanging jobs is for higher salary and better benefits. But in call centers the reasons are manyand it is also true that for funny reasons people change jobs. At the same time the attrition

cannot be attributed to employees alone.

Organisational mattersThe knowledge employees always assess the management values, work culture, work practicesand credibility of the organisation. The Indian call centers do have difficulties in getting thebusinesses and retain it for a long time. There are always ups and downs in the business. Whenthere is no focus and in the absence of business plans, non-availability of the campaigns makepeople to quickly move out of the organisation.


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Working environmentWorking environment is the most important cause of attrition. Employees expect veryprofessional approach and international working environment. They expect very friendly andlearning environment. It is proved beyond doubt that Theory X will not work in the call centre. It

means no bossism; rigid rules and stick approach will not suit the call center. Employees lookfor freedom, good treatment from the superiors, good encouragement, friendly approach fromone and all, good motivation and which is very much as per the Theory Y of Douglas Mc Gregor.

Job mattersNo doubt these jobs brings lots of pressure and stress is high. The employees leave the job if there is too much pressure on performance or any work related pressure. It is quite commonthat employees are moved from one process to another. They take time to get adjusted with thenew campaigns and few employees find it difficult to get adjusted and they leave immediately.Monotony sets in very quickly and this is one of the main reasons for attrition. Youngsters lookcall center jobs as temporary and they quickly change the job once they get in to their ownfield. Under such circumstances, there are no solutions for retaining the employees. Employeeswho start their career in outbound call centre desire to move to inbound and similarly alltechnical (BE & MCA) people would like to land up in inbound process as the work pressure islittle lesser. The other options is to move to BPO/ transaction process work where there is nopressure of sales and meeting service level agreements (SLA) in inbound process. Theemployees move out if there are strained relations with the superiors or with the subordinatesor any slightest discontent.

Salary and other benefitsMoving from one job to another for higher salary, better positions and better benefits are themost important reasons for attrition. The salary and offered from MNC companies in Bangalore,Delhi and Mumbai have gone up very high ( Rs 15000 to Rs 18000 per month) and it is highlyimpossible for Indian companies to meet the expectation of the employees. The employeesexpect salary revision once in 4-6 months and if not they move to other organisations.

Personal reasonsThe personal reasons are many and only few are visible to us. The foremost personal reasonsare getting married or falling in love or change of place. The next important personal reason isgoing for higher education. Most of the BE, MCA and others appear for GATE examination orother examinations and once they get cleared they quickly move out.

Health is another aspect, which contributes for attrition. Employees do get affected with healthproblems like sleep disturbances, indigestion, headache, throat infection and gynecologicaldysfunction for lady employees. Employees who have allergic problems and unable to cope withthe AC hall etc will tend to get various other health problems and loose interest to work.

Poaching

The demand for trained and competent manpower is very high. Poaching has become verycommon. The big companies target employees of small companies. The placement agencieshave good days for doing more business.

The employees with 4-6 months experience have very good confidence and dare to walk out andget a better job in a week's time. Most of the organisations have employee referral schemes andthis makes people to spread message and refer the know candidates from the previouscompanies and earn too.


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Handling attrition?Earlier the retention was the sole responsibility of HR Department and at the most thedepartment heads will be accountable for the retention of talent. In call center the wheel haschanged and multi dimensional approach needs to be adopted. More of concerted efforts only

would help to retain the talent. Everyone has to contribute to hold the employees little longerperiod. All the leading call centres are trying several methods to retain the talent and few of those innovative HR practices are:* Providing stimulating work environment.* Good pay and benefits.* Good performance based incentives* Free transport and free food.* Lateral career moment and well-defined career path for star performers.* Good rewards and recognition programmes.* Promotions and salary increase on a regular basis.* Better learning opportunities. n Encourage enroll for distance learning programmes.* Regular holiday packages, gifts, outings etc.* Recreation clubs, Entertain programmes , fun activities with in the work area.

Counseling and medical health check ups.All the above activities are being undertaken to a greater extent or little more in all large Callcenters. Surprisingly the attrition rate is not coming down in any of the companies, but it isgoing up and it may increase in the coming days. This is a time to introspect as to what islacking in the approach. One thing is missing is attention to individual needs. Employees havevaried expectations and it is becoming difficult to understand them and by the time you makean attempt to understand the expectation changes and it is still becoming difficult to meet thecustomized demands or expectations. To quote an example, if a friend leaves, another closefriend will also leave and he will lure another 3-5 persons. Moving for higher education andmarriage are the major reasons for attrition. To tackle these will be impossible with any type of strategies and approaches. The HR personnel have become silent spectators and start huntingfor new personnel to replace.

The broader approach is to bring sanctity in the recruitment process like demand the relievingletter from the previous company, have non-hire agreements with the call centers in theparticular area. It is not easy to bring the entire call centre under a forum. Nasscom hasattempted to bring out certain guidelines on the matter and the impact is not felt yet. The MNCculture, high salary level and benefits offered by them are the only two major aspect of attritionand no one can halt them doing so.

ConclusionHigh attrition will push the operation cost to high levels, productivity will take a beating andcompany will loose its competitiveness in the market. The attrition is affecting both Indian andMNC companies. The capacity to withstand will only survive in the business and others will fade

away now or later.The final solutions lies in the stabilization of business and availability of trained and maturedmanpower in abundance and which may bring a long lasting solution for the high attrition. Moreof committed people at all levels will help this industry to stabilize, grow and add value to theeconomic growth. The author is Vice President, Human Resources, Vangaurd Infosolutions. E-mail: [email protected]
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]


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HR Role in Business Matrix

HR personnel can take the initiatives and drive the organizations and become part of the Businessprocesses. Following are the core HR functions, which needs to be evolved, established andinstitutionalized .

1 Recruitment.

There is need to develop sound and objective Recruitment process and system to recruit workers andstaff separately . There shall be a separate HR team for recruitment and they should acquire all requiredrecruitment skills to conduct test, conduct interviews and competencies to select competent candidates.Presently most of the HR team members are generalists and they also do recruitment and selection.Firstly, there are lot of things to be done to attract HR Professionals to Garment Industry and there after attract competent workers and professionals.

2 Performance Management.

Full pledged Performance management system process is missing totally to workers and supervisors.Even if it is in place in few organizations for Managerial positions, how far it is implemented is a milliondollar question. There is a dearth to evolve a unique Performance Management system to meet theexpectation of Garment industry. A clear opportunity is available to conduct research in this area.

3 Career Development.

Hardly we find career development programmes. As of now , the industry is facing haze attrition at bothworkers and staff level. A tailored made Career Development programme is to be developed.

4 Leadership Development.

Definitely there is dearth of Leaders in this Industry. Hardly we can find candidates with excellentleadership qualities. The solution is to develop internal members to become effective leaders in allfunctions of Garment Industry.

5 Change Management.

Change is constant and Garment Industry is undergoing changes externally like taking over, merging of units and one or two MNC have entered in this Industry. There is lot of scope to implement ChangeManagement internally to raise the efficiency of the plants.

6 H R Policies / Manuals / SOP.

Garment industry has worked so far with minimum systems or no well defined HR systems. It is a greatopportunity to HR Professionals to develop new HR systems to remove Non Value added jobs in their work sphere and simplify the systems. HR team need to study the existing system in detail and developH R Policies / Manuals / SOP and take the organizations to new heights. This will facilitate to enhancethe job satisfaction, retention and also attraction to people to take up employment in Garment Industry.


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7 Training & Development.

Except NIFT and few colleges/ universities, there are no formal education is available to develop peopleto take up employment in Garment Industry. The graduates of NIFT and other colleges would like to takeup employment either in the field of Design, Marketing or Merchandising. They hardly enter the core

Manufacturing area. There is a dearth of technical personnel for manufacturing area. What ever we havepersonnel as of now are from generic or from other field / specialization. Countries like SriLanka haveintroduced specialized courses for Garment Manufacturing and they are available to manufacturingareas in abundance, where as in India there are shortages in this area.

A continuous training programmes needs to be conducted to vast majority of personnel in all the areaslike Technical, General Management, Functional Skill development programmes for all departments, Softskills, Commercial, Legal, Leadership and Management development programmes are very essential.

8 Reward and recognition programmes to retain the talent.

Managing and Rewarding for High performance is the requirement of todays market conditions. Welldefined Reward and recognition programmes are very essential to motivate the workers and staff . Fewcompanies may have incentive schemes to motivate workers and staff . How far these schemes arehelping to enhance the productivity and motivation needs to be studied and revisit in to such schemes.Employees crave for recognition in this industry and rewards in kind is much appreciated. A great lot of work needs to be done to retain the talent both at workers and supervisory level. It is time make a humblebeginning now to evolve specific schemes to meet the requirement of Garment Industry.

EMERGING HR ROLE.

HR Team in Garment Industry needs to change the style of functioning and bend towards new trends of Human Resources .

1 Proactive.

HR Team needs to become proactive , more competent and demonstrate the leadership qualities .Mindset needs to be changed and all concentration is to bring in changes and add value to the business.

2 Business Partner.

Do not bogged down in the routine personnel administration functions . All HR members need to join themain stream of business and learn to understand the running of a garment industry . More and moreknowledge about business , acquiring of new management skills and development of a right attitude willhelp the HR team to be in the lime light of business. It is easy to become business partners as you

continuously do value added jobs and create new things in your area of specialization or which affectsthe entire business.

3 Strategic Issues.

The real issue is that the expectations of Internal customers about what HR specialist can and shouldcontribute is not clear or may not have kept pace with rhetoric / style. Be a partner to evolve strategiesto run a business profitably . Enough scope is available to develop new strategies in HR and other areas.


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In HR , it may be recruitment and selection or compensation management or retention strategies etc. Bea forerunner to develop new strategies to resolve the issues as well tackle future issues in peoplemanagement areas.

4 Multi Functional ( Recruitment, Trainingetc.)

HR Team members need to develop multi skills. Learn fast, implement new ideas , develop new skills ,become champions for bringing changes . Adopt new IT systems / technologies in HR domain.

5 People Development

Treat people as very important assets. Develop Managers to function effectively on a global side, butalso effectively at the local level. HR has to run many extra miles to become competent to conductSWOT analysis of all personnel. There after HR Team members need to play a major role in identifyingthe internal talent, develop, reward and retain them.

Understand the Expectations of Top Management

The HR team needs to take several steps / actions in order to change the overall image of HRDepartment in Garment Industry. The first step they should initiate is to have continuous dialogue withthe top management team / CEO / Managing Director and understand their expectations from HRDepartment. In my perception and by and large the Top Management s expectations on HR functionmay be as under :

1 Recruit Right Candidates - workers & staff . Quality of Recruitment has to improve .

Recruitment process needs to be evolved and followed strictly. Selection has to be objective, select rightcandidates who can add value to the organization and who can associate with the organization for a

longer period. HR Team needs to come evolve new strategies, find out new sources for recruitment andintroduce scientific selection tools for selection of right candidates.

2 Recruit Best Line Managers and deal with Non performers.

The Line Managers are back bone of this industry to enhance the productivity. Here is the missing linkas we have very less number of Line Mangers who are competent and can embrace the new technology,who can introduce newer methods and develop excellent people management skills .

Recruitment process needs to be strengthened to select right candidates. HR team must work on clear targets to Induct competent Line Managers and also weed out non- performers periodically.

3 Ratio of Manpower need to be redefined

The biggest issue is maintaining the ratio of Operators V/S Non Operators . There is no one provenmethod to adopt the ratio of manpower and each organization has its own standards. The challenge toHR and Industrial Engineering department is bring down the Non operators category and havemanpower with acceptable ratio It may be 100 Operators : .70 Non Operators, or 100 : 80 or 100 : 90 .Evolve clear standards and maintain the same.


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4. Identify Inefficient Personnel / Non Value adders ( Workers & Staff ) .

There are old systems, non performers or average performers are available. There is no clear system toidentify Non performers and to initiate action or periodical scan is not happening. Once a while action istaken on certain personnel based on incidents but mostly not based on data. HR team needs to get

involved in identifying Star performers and Non performers on a regular basis and based on data onperformance. They shall initiate counseling processes, if need to impart new skills. If the improvement isnot seen there is a need to initiate disciplinary proceedings.

5 Training & Development programme for Supervisors / Line Managers

There is a great amount of work needs to be done to develop the existing Supervisors/ Managers tomeet the challenges. Identify training needs, department wise, functional wise and map the trainingneeds to meet the organization objectives. Develop the training modules in such a way it is interesting tothe participants. Many Line Mangers may not be comfortable to undergo training if it is imparted inEnglish. If need be it should be conducted in local language or both. Conduct regular programmesthrough out the year and cover all Line Managers, Conduct Post Evaluation of such Training and list out

the benefits accrued due to training.

6 Become Lean

All the Garment Industry are eager to become lean . It is the need of the industry to reduce the Cost inmanufacturing set up , In Administration & Service departments. Lean Management concept will help toa great extent . HR needs to get involved in such initiatives and become parent to achieve the businessgoals.

HR need to assess the cost of manpower on a regular basis and evolve strategies to Control on Wages,Over time and other Employee Related Expenses

7. HR to work closely with Marketing and Manufacturing departments.

There is a compartment between HR and Manufacturing departments in most of the places and it maybe more in Garment Industry. The challenge is to remove compartments. Periodical interaction andorganization Development initiatives are very much essential to remove the blocks betweendepartments. HR along with Top Management personnel, regular OD exercises needs to be initiated andinstitutionalized.

8 Reduction of Absenteeism.

Industry is facing a major problem of absenteeism among skilled workers. HR team and particularly the

Welfare officers have major challenges to tackle absenteeism. There is no one proven method to beadopted to tackle this burning issue. HR Team and Welfare officers need to evolve a tailor mademethods and solutions to curb the absenteeism. One of the major reasons for absenteeism is treatmentmeted out by the Line managers and their abusive language showered on workers. Welfare officersshould take a lead to involve Line Managers and if need be targets needs to be set to each departmentheads and line managers to control the absenteeism.


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9. Reduction of Attrition.

Any amount of initiative to retain workers is not sufficient in Garment Industry. Urgent need to initiatepositive actions to curb attrition, share the data on attrition to department heads on a regular basis.Conduct Exit interviews and obtain feedback , conduct Innovative cultural, social and health

management programmes for the benefit of workers, which may help to reduce the attrition to someextent. Importantly, set the targets to each department heads and line managers to control the attrition intheir respective departments.

10 .Buyers Compliance

Ensure that the Manufacturing Units adhere to all the requirements of local law in respect of health,safety and welfare areas and meet the requirement of Buyers. Analyze the cost incurred and time spenton each audit and present your critical remarks once in a quarter to the top Management. ConductTraining programmes to all Line Managers on importance of Buyer's audit and on their role andresponsibility. Analyze the passed audits V/s Orders received and present the report to the CEO/Directors. High importance to be given for preparing of SOPs / Process improvements and it shall be

reviewed once in a quarter for introduction of new systems for smooth flow of social and technical audits.

11. Welfare Programmes and Redefine the Role of Women Welfare officers .

In many companies the Welfare officers are assigned with Pay roll related assignment or they assist thedepartment head in mundane and routine jobs . There is an urgent need to redefine the role of Welfareofficers, Re- train them on concepts of new welfare programmes, Coach, set targets and conduct formalperformance reviews . Assess the progress on the approved welfare schemes once in a month. Evolvenew welfare programmes which wiil meet business objectives and to enhance employee satisfaction.Prepare monthly and annual budgets for implementation welfare programme s.

Lastly and importantly, Welfare officers shall assume the role of Counselors and they can a play major role to mitigate the problems of Lady workers and in turn it will help in reduction of absenteeism, attritionand will help to enhance the productivity.

12. Human Resources Information System ( HRIS )

The need of introduction of well-defined HRIS is very essential in the present day business competition.The HRIS should be prepared daily and monthly and submit to Top Management. The HRIS will help toanalyze all the expenses, assess the results / deliverables which has facilitated to achieve the objectivesof business and over all performance of HR Department.

Conclusion:

The real issue in Garment Industry is that the expectations of Internal customers about what HRspecialist can and should contribute are not clear . Human Resources function has become highlyspecialized in all other Industries. The specialized functions in the area of HR can be grouped with tensub titles as under:

Human Resources Development, Personnel Administration, Industrial Relations, EmployeeRelations, Labour Legislation, Buyers Compliance , Labour Welfare , Training & Development,


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HR Out Sourcing and International / Global HR Management .HR Team members need to introspect and find out in which of these areas the most attention is requiredin Garment Industry. The best way is to conduct a detailed Human Resources Audit by experienced HRProfessionals, conduct periodical Employee Satisfaction surveys to obtain the feed back for improvementand to strengthen HR Systems & Processes in Garment Industry. Finally, all the Human Resources

Professionals have opportunity to play a key role in building the organizations capability. It is verypertinent to raise the performance bar of HR Team, develop competencies to deliver or add value tobusiness and facilitate to meet the changing demands of customers and employees.

==================================================================== Bhima Rao, Vice President Human Resources , Gokaldas Images Pvt Ltd , Bangalore

Author can be contacted on mail id > [email protected]

======================================================================

Lateral Career Movement A Passion or Compulsion.Published in Roshini Alumni Association Magazine August 2008: by Bhima Rao.

It is a myth or a strong belief of employees that organization should give good career path to allindividuals and it is responsibility of the organization. Still employees are not realizing that a Manager or Managing Director or Organization cannot grant career growth. In reality the individual is responsible for his/her own career growth. It is not like some one will grow the mango tree and another can pick themango and eat it too. Career is not like reaping the benefits from a grown up mango tree. Similarlycareer cannot be given by organizations unless the employee has interest to grow and passion to workand excel. I always share my thoughts in many training programmes that Career development is alwaysa two way process.

Organizations are craving for new ideas and for innovation in the area of HR. Retention of talent is thebiggest challenge in any new industries. Organizations are adopting new HRD tools and changing veryfast. Either it may be due to technological changes, due to new business opportunity, expectation of thecustomers or due to tremendous competitions. Lateral career movement is one of the hot subject matter in many new economy industries. Lateral career movement is considered as one of the important HRprocess to harness the potential of talented employees. We all wonder what is this lateral career movement and what are its features. In real sense the lateral career movement means a person movesto another domain or another profession voluntarily by his or her choice. There is no one formulaadopted for lateral career movement.

Lateral Movement involves a change in job, but not necessarily in responsibility, status or pay. Whenthere are fewer opportunities to grow and when organizations are not doing so well or reducingmanpower. Lateral movements are important career option to the individuals who are dare to take riskand pursue his /her interest. When the current position is not offering growth and getting too stale asideways move can provide with an opportunity to expand skills and knowledge in a particular area, or across different functional areas of the organization. Employees need to have open mind and look for opportunity or discuss with the superior about ways to move to other roles with in the company. Discussplans and work out a referral to a different area. Changing role and department can give vast experiencethat will be critical for a successful career in future. Lateral moves always increase ones portfolio of marketable skills and widen the network of personal contacts. Lateral career movement always helps tolearn new skills, interaction with new colleagues, relocate to a different location, or transfer into a faster


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growth opportunity.

Lateral career movements are happening naturally in common peoples life, particularly in unorganizedsectors. Concept of career is not visibly present in majority of the unorganized sectors. The highly skilledpersonnel will make a move quickly from one domain to another if it is lucrative and attractive. For

example, a mason may become a painter if it fetches more money. Similarly in agriculture field, a personmay undertake different types of work in a given year depending on the type of crops grown in aparticular area or depending on the boom or no boom. There is no one to guide them to be in the sameprofession and it is always their choice. They switch from one domain area to another based on needand opportunity. Today old craft industry is vanishing. For example, we will not be able to see old potterymaker even in rural settings due to plastic items all around. All these skilled manpower have moved toother domain areas only due to compulsion and to make a living. It is evident that they design the career path by their choices and they survive or prosper or change to another domain area based on their passion or due to compulsion.

It is interesting to watch keenly the lateral career movement, which takes place in Bollyhood, Kolywoodand Sandol wood. Amol Palekar is a versatile actor and he had earned good number of fans and few of

his movies were box office hit. Later on he tried to become director. Whether he is successful or not isimmaterial. But he moved from acting to direction of a movie. Is it due to compulsion or due to passion isto be known. Another versatile actor, Mr. Anupam Kher directed a movie, but he continues to act also.

In Kannada film Industry, Lt Shankar Nag acted, directed and produced films too. He was a great stageartist He could do everything in the film industry. He wanted to do many more things in the film industry.In fact he was instrumental to start a recording centre in Bangalore and in a way he was anentrepreneur. All these things he did with passion. He never worked for money alone. He broke the mythby directing a famous TV Serial Malgudi Days. The other three actors are Ravichandran, who is acting,directing, music director etc. Mr. Upendra was a successful director , but switched on to acting. Mr.Arvind Ramesh has recently directed a movie and continuing acting . Both in unorganized sector andfilm industry there is no written career path for any one . They decide based on their interest, glamour or

due to compulsion.Lateral career movement is a boon to youngsters and many others who dare to take risk and who wantcarve their own future. Many of the professionals do not feel that career plan is made once for all and notthe end of it. Particularly, the star performers have experienced that career plan and growth is acontinuous process and always brings changes. No longer the performers will stick on to a job, which isnot good for them or when they are unhappy with the chosen career. They do not want to stick on for lifetime in an industry, which he / she dislikes, or to the profession which does not give stimulation or enjoyment. They will not be happy if their strong skills are not utilized properly.

I worked in an IT education company few years ago where we had given opportunity for lateral career movement to the deserving and needy persons. Typically the IT Education centres will have the positions

of Lab Instructors, Faculty Members/ Software Engineers, Marketing Executives, AdministrativeExecutives and Branch Managers.The core of the centre is always Lab Instructors and Software Engineers (faculty). Lab Instructors willeasily move as Software Engineers provided they have teaching skills, good presentation andcommunication skills. We had good number of Administrative Executives who would like to come to thecore area of teaching. When an opportunity was given to them, many showed eagerness to become LabInstructors as well as Software Engineers. The selections were made based on written tests andinterviews and few were selected. All the selected individuals did excellent job and many became star performers and later many became software developers in other organizations. The amount of dedication to the job, learning and constantly upgrading skill sets made them to be successful. It is


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