5 reasons

Five reasons Why you should be in Chennai on 24th and 25th of September

“Leading in the Gen Y Era”

Southern Regional Convention

Presents….

Convention bytes!!

Byte 1:

5 reasons why you should not be anywhere else on the 24^th and 25^th of September except the Chennai Trade Center…

5 elements of this conference:

1) The Theme:

First of its kind 2 day conference modeled around the Gen Y era: ‘Leading in the Gen Y Era’ focused not just on the Gen Y practitioner but the Gen Y world!

2) Collaboration and connectivity:

Collaboration of 2 reputed institutions; ISTD and SHRM India and an opportunity to be a part of this community through membership!

Avenues to engage everyday leading to the conference! Join our linkedin and facebook groups, twitter accounts, discussions and contribute to the groove we are creating!!

3) Cutting Edge Content:

Schedule includes an exhilarating opening session with a truly unique (Gen Y) experience wherein two role models from this generation will set the tone for the 2 days, a unique panel discussion, all time high audience interaction, A never before seen homage to social networking, an eloquent and inspiring closing speaker. See the attached for details

4) With speakers from all over the world, from all generations, industry and academia, this is one global and truly diverse village you don’t want to miss!

5) ‘Gen Y’ research. – In a tie up with the prestigious Great Lakes Institute of Management, ISTD will release the synopsis of this cutting edge research work at the conference.

There’s a sixth element and that is… well, that’s the ‘Next’ world we will create for you!! From innovatively developed sessions to stall activity to contests to social evening events, everything will be different and new!!

When do we sign you up????

Calling Business leaders, Leaders from different functions and future leaders

including students…

Participation Fee 8000 (Includes Annual Membership to both ISTD and SHRM India (internet membership))

Participation Fee - ISTD Members 7000 (Includes Annual Membership to SHRM India (internet membership))

Participation Fee - Student 2500 (Does not include membership)

Special price for existing SHRM members!! (call us at 022-42472000 for more)

For more on the conference and on how to register, visit www.istdchennai.org today !!

Please feel free to call us at our Convention Hotline Numbers:

91-7200000022 (Aishwarya)

91-7200000033 (Meena)

91-7200000044 (Sumathi)

Or SHRM India at 022-42472000 for any clarifications.

We look forward to sharing this experience with all of you.

See you there!

Gen Y

Wikipedia defines the characters of Generation Y as "generally marked by an increased use and familiarity with communications, media, and digital technologies. In most parts of the world its upbringing was marked by an increase in a Neoliberal approach to politics and economics"

Generation Y has been visualized as a source of innovation modernity and to lead new paths but also as a "Pandora's Box" what will they bring to the organization a fresh breath of air or Chaos. Studies have been conducted and in the past and will also be conducted to see what is in store.

For soon to be professionals the best way to learn more on the area will not be Google(as of yet) but the ISTD (Indian Society for Training and Development) Convention to be held on 24th and 25th of September in Chennai. For more details visit

http://www.istdchennai.org/

Come learn and share

Chief Happiness Officer speaks :-)

[This interview dates back to August 8th, 2009 originally posted in Saikat Saha's personal blog]

I had an exciting e- mail interview with Alexander Kjerulf ,who is also known as 'The Chief Happiness Officer'.Alex is the author of 'Happy Hour is 9 to 5'. He regularly blogs at http://positivesharing.com

I love his writing, which is directed towards infusing happiness at workplace :-)

Saikat: What is your book ‘Happy hour is 9 to 5’ all about?

Alex: It's about happiness at work. It shows how each of us can come to love our jobs and work together to create great workplaces. And studies show that happy people are more successful and that happy companies make more money!

Saikat: You are popularly known as the ‘Chief Happiness Officer’. How to identify the potential Chief Happiness officer in a company and what should be his job profile like?

Alex:It should be a person who is naturally happy and has a lot of energy. It should also be someone with lots of empathy and a deep appreciation for the best qualities in the workplace and its people.

Saikat: How do you define ‘happiness at workplace’?

Alex:It's about positive emotions. It's when people feel energized, happy, upbeat, optimistic, proud, relaxed and cheerful at work. It's when you wake up in the morning and look forward to coming to work, rather than fearing it and wishin you could stay at home.

Saikat: In times of economic turbulence, how can the HR associates infuse happiness in the hearts of their internal customers?

Alex: There are many ways - even now with the financial crisis. It's the little things that really matter:

- praising people who do good work
- stimulating honest open communication
- making room for positivity and optimism
- allowing people to be playful and have fun at work

Saikat: What is your opinion on the Indian workforce in your country?

Alex: When I went to India to speak and do workshops I was thoroughly impressed by the people I met. The Indian workforce is tremendously talented, skilled and has a genuine desire for better workplaces.

Also, Indian culture has so much to offer the rest of the world. There is a genuine desire to excel and be happy in Indian culture that you should be sure to introduce in Indian business culture - rather than just copying American business culture.

Saikat: Tell us about your top three professional moments?

Alex: One was when I went to India to speak at a conference and do workshops with TATA. That was a fantastic trip and I met so many nice people.

Saikat: Please share a few tips with students on getting started with HR blogging?

Alex: My #1 tip is this: Blog your passion. You can only write interesting, engaging blog posts if you write about something you care about. You know the saying: "No one cares how much you know until they know how much you care!"

#2 tip: Be bold. Don't be afraid to tick people off.

Did you think about succession planning yet????

The economy is on an upswing and slowly but surely the job market promises to pick up. Of the many developments this trend will call forth, employee attrition promises to be of of significance.

Attrition across any level of employees is a cause for probing, if not concern. But at the level of CEO direct reports and up to 4 levels below the CEO position it makes a case for business continuity.

Is succession planning, then, a luxury that only some organizations can hope to have? And if it is something that impacts business and its continuity for an organization, should be left to chance?

A thought for HR folks – should succession planning be an HR prerogative? And if it is not, then why do only the ‘progressive’ organizations (read : with evolved HR practices) seem to talk about succession planning…

-Gauri Deshpande

HR makes the Corporate world go round!

I truly believe that...just that you wouldn't hear that said by many people outside of HR. Even some of my own fraternity members would call for my head when they read this. But let me explain why I say that. When I started practising any amount of HR (technically Training)...in 1996, it was hard to find more than 4-5 B Schools which had Fulltime HR Programs (even circa 2000, batch sizes were 4-5 students at best). A recent, still to be published, study by TNS for SHRM India (www.shrmindia.org) shows that out of the 150 schools sampled, an incredible 93% offer Fulltime HR Programs. I believe it reflects the preposterous growth of demand in HR.

Lets take another dimension - A study by Mercer in 2005 showed that there are over 2.5 Lac HR practitioners in the country. The same study mentioned by me earlier, by TNS, shows more than a four time increase in 2010, i.e in just 5 years time. Wait a minute...lets play devil's advocate. After all, the number of companies are growing and therefore the total number of employees (or Talent, if you will) and their problems - hence we need more HR to handle them for the Business Managers. Now you would probably be shocked - I once heard an MD for South Asia of a well known MNC in Hospitality say that " my expectation of HR is that they should motivate my employees "(I think he meant other than HR). So be it...exactly why I say HR makes the Corporate World go round...

The third indicator is the sheer increase in the number of HR heads (or Directors or CHROs) that are either part of either the Board or the Committee that takes decisions on Strategic Issues facing organizations. The PSUs actually take the lead in this (atleast 5 of them have CHROs on the Board) and especially because their HR Chiefs are often from other functions. That, to me, still indicates the growing prominence of HR. A very unusual indicator is the number of HR professionals on the Speaker List of any Corporate function - hard to see any without an HR Leader. That, hopefully, is not simply because, they generally make good speakers!

A well known MD of an Electronics/ Semiconductor Major globally said a few years back - "A Company is known by the men it keeps!". Believe me when I say to you, a company will soon be known by the Quality of the HR of its organization! If Chanakya said that after the Swami, the Amatya plays the most critical role in the Kingdom (today's organizations), he could have easily meant HR (the minister, the King's advisor).

Jai HR! Jai Chanakya! Jai Ho!
Rajesh

5 Lessons for Aspiring Global HR Managers - From WEF

I was fortunate to be part of a gathering of heavyweights a few months back - CHROs (Chief HR Officer... for the uninitiated) , CFOs, some CEOs - everyone in the room was a CXO worth his salt and experience. One of the heated discussions (as always) was around why there were so few CHROs who were ready for CEO material. It became pretty obvious to me that one reason was simply that "HR" itself became "essential" a decade and a half back or about that time. Now what was more important, than the cause, were the valuable suggestions to follow. So I have never listened more intently in my life, when someone suggested that we need to start early (like they say in Sport Management a.k.a. BCCI).

Fantastic! Finally, this bunch of veteran and venerated HR gurus were making sense to me - so the thread thereafter was how to start grooming CHROs today. Like my fave Guru Chanakya spotted an Emperor in a maid's young child and Michelangelo, a beautiful statue, in a large shapeless piece of marble, one has to identify young Talent and systematically groom "CHRO Talent". Now amongst many things, it seemed to me that its important to groom Young Managers today for becoming Global CHRO rather than for a Unit or Business alone, so I rummaged my notepads for some valuable inputs that I could offer to the Guru group or Zorporates ( a term for heavyweight Corporate pros).

Serendipity intervened and I stumbled on this piece of advice that I had copied just the previous day, after watching SHRM Foundation's DVD on World Economic Forum's (www.weforum.org) recommendations for Young Global Managers. Here they are:

1. Seize opportunities to learn about different cultures, Values and perspectives.
2. Get a mentor or a coach or both, early in your career.
3. To lead Leaders, be authentic and genuine (platitudes don't work)
4. Recognize the interdependence between Global issues, cultures, communities and people
5. Practice collaborative Leadership

Although true for every budding Global Leader, their importance for the young HR leader cannot be overemphasized. I threw my hat in the ring and stressed the interdependence of senior HR Leaders with the younger counterparts along with the above lessons . My suggestions were met with acknowledging nods around the table...thank you WEF and SHRM Foundation. Over to you, the young HR pros!

Jai Ho!!!!!

Rajesh Kamath

Mid 20 crisis!!!

Well!!! you have heard and read enough about the mid 40 crisis.....

Let's contemplate on the mid 20 crisis now!!!!

'Mr X is 27 years old and has been working in an IT company for the past 5 years. The promotions are happening in a consistent pace and the bank balance is reasonably fat [the body is also fat!!!].Future seems promising with a seemingly optimistic chance of getting a leadership role.But work pressure is too much and there seems to be more tempting oppurtunities in other companies too.

However; His best friend from a reputed B-School strongly feels that he should quit his company and prepare for his GMAT/CAT/XAT.Mr X does not have the time to prepare for the aptitude test.

His parents[unaware that he is committed] are keenly searching for a potential bride for him.

His girl friend who is also working in the same company has no plans of marriage for the next three years...

And he is definitely in a deep crisis for the above reasons.'

Mr X is certainly familiar to us. There are many such youngsters who seem to be in the midst of this 'mid 20 crisis'. They are young,spunky, promising yet confused and stressed.

Let me write my thoughts on why it happens:

• Oppurtunities are many and they want to leverage the best.

• They also desire a proper work- life balance but are not clear about
  how to achieve it.

• They are intelligent and want to use their acumen in further education.
  

• At this age they are energetic & focused and want to do professionally well but they also have to get ready for marriage where priorities are to be re-defined .
  

• Different approach from parents towards life at this age; which might not be well endorsed by the youngsters.

• Women want to delay marriage and become financially independent.
  
  Now what can be the HR's role in this issue???? Let's discuss:

• Recognise and accept the situation.
  
  
• Recruit candidates who have greater clarity about their professional life.
  
  
• Encourage employees to go for higher studies by sponsoring their
  education and providing them better job profile post completion of
  higher education.
  
  
• Help employees to achieve better work-life balance.
  
  
• Have counsellors who can assist the employees with their personal life.
  
  Guess!! 20-20 cricket is not the only 20 something issue that should concern us........

Jai Ho!!!

-Saikat Saha

HR as a 'Soft Power'...

My close friends are aware of the fact that I am an ardent fan of Shri Shashi Tharoor. He stands as a mascot of ideas that are refreshing and sincere. I was watching this video which delightfully stresses on 'Why nations should pursue 'soft' power. I must say he sounds very convincing as 'almost' always.

He highlights how countries use soft power on the basis of influencing and attracting other countries through foreign policies, political values, culture etc. He emphasizes on how Alliance Francaise has made other countries more aware of the French ethos and similarly Mtv has done the same for USA. There are many such examples.

Similarly, I believe that many companies through their upmarket and spunky HR interventions have successfully left an indelible mark on the mindset of many potential employees.

A classic yet obvious example is that of Google's 'fun' culture or the 'Learning & Development' culture of HUL. So fundamentally it's the culture of the organization that has the potency of creating a massive influence on many people.

So here the potential employees are not getting attracted towards these companies primarily for the reverence which consumers accord to the products and services of those companies. It's more because of the 'soft power' influence they have on the potential employees.

At times in life we all do some great stuff without being conscious about them fully. I believe the HR fraternity in many companies have done some stupendous work yet they are not really aware of the great benefits it has fostered for their companies. May be they got overshadowed by the phenomenal strides made by the business success.

It's promising to hear about HR's role as a business partner. I completely endorse it but at the same time HR should continue to pursue the 'soft power' role and the business should appreciate that more sincerely.

Some of the best business success stories are integrally 'people success' stories and I feel it has been possible because of HR's 'soft power' role over the years.

I strongly feel that HR's transformational role is intertwined with the 'Soft power' it will exercise in the future course of time.

Jai Ho!!!!

-Saikat Saha

How strategic can an entry level HR profile be?

I was at an HR fraternity forum early this month and this was pretty much the question on most of our minds when we were discussing about how HR can make a difference in today's changing business environment and how HR folks may therefore be motivated to think differently.

It would be ideal if all HR profiles had a healthy blend of transactional and strategic deliverables. However, what we also know is that practically, expecially at entry levels, this seldom happens. Most impressionable youngsters in the field are bogged down in their formative years with heavy transactional work and pushing papers.

What is doubly challenging for junior associates is that sometimes when they're eager to contribute to new areas and be heard, the need for delivery and deadlines on their transactional assignments stop them from treading in that direction. I know this for a fact simply because I've been there!

How do we strike a balance then, make our jobs as fresh executives more relevant? Well, I sincerely believe that during goal setting, we must all incorporate a small percentage, maybe 10 to 15% to innovation i.e. doing things differently. for e.g. the deliverable could be suggesting and implementing one process improvement in one of the years' focus areas - Employee Engagement.

In addition, talking about the highs and lows on our jobs with team members is a great way to share knowledge and pick up interesting pointers. An organization I was a part of had a weekly highs and lows meeting every monday morning for the team where each member would talk about what he did best during the week and where he could have improved. The energy and enthusiasm in the room at that time had to be felt to be believed!

While all this may not take the focus away from the job at hand which is bound to be routine and standard, it will urge the professional to look at the same job from different angles, talk to people about where he's stuck and gain satisfaction when he is able to make himself and his process infinitesimally better everyday.

I thought I'd post a couple of interesting articles from www.jobdig.com which are on the subject.

http://www.jobdig.com/articles/1373/HR_Role:_Strategic_Versus_Employee_Advocate%3F.html

http://www.jobdig.com/articles/1435/Ways_Entry_Level_HR_Professionals_Can_Be_More_Relevant.html

Jai Ho!!

Aparna Krishnan

Employee Engagement-A myth or reality????

I wonder if there is something known as 'active employee engagement'???

Well!!! the several surveys lead to the conclusion that it exists. Even Professor Google has numerous definitions for it.

But when I ask the meaning of 'active employee engagement' to a few senior professionals. They say that it's all about keeping the employees happy enough through recreational activities/fun activities'.

I do not endorse that at all. I will explain /justify that through an example. If an 'actively disengaged employee' gets to participate in your company's so called 'Disco Dandiya event'. Will it help the HR team to stop him from bad mouthing about the company or raise his work performance standards????

No!!!! most likely!!!!

He will get a good excuse to get away from his work and also have a social gathering which he can entertain through his bad mouthing about the company.

Let's apply common sense and change our approach towards employee engagement.

The purpose is to get the associates excited about their job and perform better through greater involvement and ownership.

Include the following in your employee engagement tool kit:

1. Superior Learning and Development.
2. Competitive Compensation.
3. Most importantly, foster a culture of 'goodness'. A place where the right virtues and values are recognized and appreciated genuinely.
4. Have some real 'fun' after getting the above three points right in place.

Jai Ho!!!!

Saikat Saha

If Chanakya teaches B School students!

"What would you ask Chanakya if I vanished and the great Scholar appeared here in my place for only 5 minutes?" I asked of the nine Gen Y students whom I was asked to have a Group Mentoring session with..."What tips would you give me as a management student?" said the first. "How would you suggest I get ahead in life?" expressed another.... "Give me some advice for getting a good Campus placement" mumbled the third, quite sheepish.

As the bright youngsters continued their spontaneous responses, I pondered what my own question would be and further, what would be the wise counsel from this first Management Guru of India (if not of the world)?

"Please guide me on how to kill my first boss (like you killed the Evil King Dhanananda and his six brothers)",I imagined and then quickly banished the thought - Chanakya would not be impressed. Besides, outside of my first boss, I had been very fortunate. I quickly visualised my next question to be "Tell me your Top 3 principles for Leaders". How boring, I thought to myself...I modified that further to "How can HR be practised best?"

Here are Chanakya's responses:

1. Use HR to unite the Nation (Chanakya was not only a kingmaker but primarily a Nation builder). Don't think just for your company or your city, but how the Human Resources of the country can be leveraged.

2. Focus on the Youth, they are the future of the Country and will build a better, stronger one if they appreciate the power of HR - to catalyse teams and team - building (after all, this brilliant Karmayogi from History had traveled from village to village, inspiring young blood to work for the Nation)!

3. Nudge the Youth and especially students to follow their natural inclination and make a life of it - this should be the most quintessential goal of academia and industry - especially HR, who often influence careers.(Chanakya believed his Swadharma was to teach/ mentor and did not crown himself king. Infact after finding an able successor, he retired to his hermitage to continue writing, his other love). Incidentally, Rancho came much later.

I was completely absorbed in my thoughts on my poser to the Great Guru and his advice, when I was shaken out of my reverie by a student who said "Actually, only 5 brothers of Dhananand were poisoned by Chanakya, the sixth one escaped alive and I am his descendant down several generations...Swati Nanda!"....

Jai Ho! Jai Chanakya!
Rajesh

There’s the urge to grow in the corporate ladder and somewhere along the way… there’s company loyalty.. mutually exclusive you think??

I dare say that these days I’ve started looking back at my life a lot and recalling fun times in college, at family vacations, the craziest conversations you had and a lot more! Signs of ageing you say? Well, maybe but right now I’m in a ‘Glass half full phase’ so I’m gonna say it’s the experience talking J

Anyway, so I was on one of these reflective moods one day when I remembered a random chat I had years ago in B-school with some of my classmates. The conversation was about whether if we really got into a company on campus, would one of our goals be to stick with the company for more than 5 years?

So while I recalled that conversation today, I realized that the stuff that matters most to young professionals today methinks is growth and compensation. They go hand in hand. One without the other does not work for retention from my humble experience. Much as organizations try though, most of the time, it becomes virtually impossible to keep every young professional engaged enough to perform to his optimum. Somewhere something gets missed and every appraisal season, we are faced with some demotivation and angst. I have had to counsel a number of young folk who believe that somewhere their contributions were not recognized and that they worked very hard but nobody noticed!

On the one hand we have continued to reinforce for years that proper career development, goal setting and performance management mechanisms must be in place to ensure that talent and contribution are measured and recognized in organizations irrespective of the scale or nature of operations. And that continues to be a challenge for all companies, big and small. In addition mentoring and buddying the young employees with a proper induction to the company values and their jobs also goes a long way in ensuring that the employee is attached to the organization.

While I sincerely believe these should continue to be the focus areas for all HR practitioners to achieve,

Let’s think out of the box for a minute and approach the challenge in a different light….

The young professionals today consume and spend so much more than before. Their aspirations for luxury and desire to achieve the same also comes in at a very young age largely because everything is so easily available now. Most people want to own homes in cities, cars, club memberships etc. in their late 20’s which was not only a dream but wasn’t even a desire a few decades ago. These aspirations will probably only increase with time thus making it increasingly difficult for organizations to match them.

Definitely the compensation structure is getting more and more flexible now to increase take home pay per month. This is one of the ways in which these aspirations can be met.

However, it is my belief that if organizations started looking at hiring most of their workforce on fixed term contracts (FTCs), things may start to look up in terms of employee engagement and performance.

Creating a growth path for 2-5 yrs is much easier in the current, uncertain environment that doing the same for 10-15 yrs. In addition, FTCs also allow more room for delivery based incentives and penalties if we were to get even more radical. I have noticed that young professionals are extremely particular about executing tasks as soon as possible, are willing to work late if the situation demands it and are very willing to keep everyone concerned in the loop and steer clear of office politics. Security, belongingness and bonding have taken different meanings today. Earlier, people were inspired more by the leaders that made the company, the values it represented. Today for a youngster it’s about instant recognition, a team that sees things the same way and great friends at the workplace who he can share experiences with.

Therefore, the way I see it is if we’re in a scenario where Company ‘A’ signs someone in for a period of 2 yrs for achieving deliverable ‘X’ – the progress on which will be reviewed every 6 months; and based on this progress, there are linked incentives and on successful completion of the stint, he receives say a personalized recommendation letter from the CEO and an opportunity on any other assignment, don’t you think that will be a great way to create goodwill, motivation and more importantly – performance? Isn’t this the best way for any professional to grow and be loyal to teams and companies at the same time?

I leave this thought open for comment…..

Jai Ho!!!!!!!!!!

Aparna Krishnan :-)

HR from kids :-)

Yes the conquest of observing activities and trying to learn from those to improve my skill inventory as a HR moves on and the recent place from where I observed a lot of it was on 10/01/10 or the 10th of Jan when it was the nationwide pulse polio campaign and millions of kids were administered with two drops of medicine two eradicate polio from India.

I had gone to this little suburb outside of Chennai to serve as a volunteer for one of the camps and what I had considered initially as a burden turned out to be a stress busters this was because when you deal with kids who are 0-5 alone the worlds seems such a nice place but some of my crucial learning’s were

1) Patience to ensure all the kids are administered with the dosage and thus ensuring you complete the job effectively and efficiently. Reluctance was highly there but it was persuasion which succeeded

2)A trust building process with a kid that the liquid we were giving was not bitter but rather sweet thus I wondered if an innocent kid needs quite a bit of attention and focus to get its approval how tough will it be with much matured and well planned individuals when they have to addressed for an Organizational Change

3) It’s not over till it's over - I certainly learnt that whenever we believed the crowd was over and we could take a breather! Pop the next bunch of kids came in and thus it went till the end

4) Contingency is crucial- For all predictions and levels we exceeded our targets and more and more kids coming for the dosage, it was necessary that we had adequate contingencies to complete our work as we had national interest at stake!

All in all a great day

Jai Ho!!

Arvind Srikantan ;-)

Rancho's views on Human Resiource Management

I watched the bollywood movie '3 idiots' few days back. A truly fantastic experience.I especially loved the character of Rancho played by Aamir Khan. I could relate with the character. Rancho is a witty engineering student who is truly passionate about machines and applies his theoretical knowledge in as many real life opportunities as possible. He doesn't chase high paid placement offers or an American dream. He wants to pursue excellence alone. He is passionate about people especially his friends and can go to any extent to help them in the most dire situations. He is also an impractical optimist who turns impractical possibilities into practical realities.

No wonder, I am influenced and inspired by the character. So I am attempting to post Rancho's views on managing people if he was a real character with strong and sincere opinion on HR issues.

Here it goes:

1. Finding out your employee's true passion in the business is worth it. Set him free and have faith in him.

2. Ensure that your employees do not turn cynical and always try to preserve their goodness.

3. Be there for your employees in their good times as well as bad times.

4. Be a constant learner and strive towards contributing towards the future of your domain.

5. Know what is right for people first and then for business. That's the only way to be the best business partner.

6. Help to fulfill your employee's dream by empowering them and they would empower your business.

7. Know your self priorities but try to be as selfless as possible. HR is a tough domain because of this reason but it is beautiful because of the same reason too.

8. Be candid about your opinion on people and business. But try not hurting others' sentiments in the process. Be sensitive.

9. Put theory knowledge in practice wherever possible.

10. Be an impractical optimist. At times, it is the most practical thing in business.

11. Whenever in self doubt or problem, say to yourself 'All izzzzzzzzzzz welllll' ... It might not solve your problem but it would give you the courage to find the solution...

Jai Ho!!!!

-Saikat Saha