The Cost of Teleconferencing

Recently I was talking to a friend who heads Marketing for a Financial firm. She asked me "So how much time do you spend in telecons?"

I was surprised and said that I hardly did so. I use the phone primarily to text or to only set up appointments. The actual conversation is almost all of the time face to face.

The reason is that face to face conversation is the richest mode to exchanging information. And while I am a big evangelist of virtual communities and social networking and communication, for some kind of interactions, like building a rapport with a client there is no substitute for direct face to face communication.

So this friend tells me "I am on a telecon with my boss in Singapore first thing in the morning and I end the day with a call with our US office - the call starts at 7 pm and ends around 8.30 pm!"

She goes on "And sometimes during the day, we have to have video conference with other efolks in India, so we go from our office in Colaba (where we don't have videoconferencing facility) to Andheri (where we do). However due to bandwidth problems only five people can be on the video-con. So everytime the 6th person tries to join - one of the people in the conversation actually is pushed out!"

"You know, I think this consensus driven - lets-all-arrive-at-an-agreement mindset is to blame for so many telecons in official work! My husband and I have two different landlines at home for our respective conference calls. I just wish we didn't get invited to all these useless telecons and videocons - and people made their decisions and informed us."

As a guy who believes in collaboration and that people should have a say in the decisions that affect them and their work, this comment took me by surprise. However, it stands to reason if overdone - this approach intrudes and encroaches into a person's family time - she would react this way.

What do you think? How can organizations help people to be collaborative and yet not inflect these issues?

Influence and Power

The blogosphere has been a-buzz the last weekend on popularity and influence.

A Prof of mine actually used to take an elective in my MBA which was earlier called Power, Influence and Politics which was later renamed to the more politically correct Leadership, Influence and Power.

These three terms are closely related. One builds power which is not linked to formal positions of authority and positions by being of service to others. What one leader can offer by way of service can differ, from tangible benefits to a higher level of identity and aspirations - which typically gets called Charismatic Leadership. However what we are actually talking about is Servant Leadership.

In the age of Social Media, where your readers and attention is a finite resource, you have to add something to what they know, feel and understand in each and every post. One cannot be a leader in social media unless one recognises that. That is why Scoble is right when he says:

Here’s why I’ve been saying for the past year that it is far more important who you follow than who follows you: if you follow people just to get followers you’ll end up being overworked, deep in information overload, and superficial to boot. You won’t have a philosophy. It +will+ show. You might be able to fool most of the idiots most of the time, but eventually they’ll see the difference between the “collect follower” types and the “surround yourself with smart people” types like Tim O’Reilly or Jay Rosen.
I can smell the “follow me” types a million miles away, can’t you?
One crowd is off the rails in idiot land, the other is building something of lasting value.
Which one do we want to incent? The “follow me” idiots? Or the “try to get smarter” crowd?
I know I’m swimming upstream, but I want to get smarter. Screw the page views. Screw the business models. They all are lame anyway. I want better friends. Better content. Better news. Better ideas. That means I need to find better people to be part of my social network. Idiots be damned.

Don't become the expert

Earlier somewhere on this blog (in a post that mysteriously vanished!) I asked people as part of a 8 step process for career success, to become an 'expert'.

However, the truth is expertise sits uneasily on my shoulders. I shudder when people describe me as any kind of expert. Even more than I shudder when someone (you know who you are!) describes me as a "Thought Leader".

This post is essentially a reminder to myself, as 2008 draws to a close to understand that the time of the expert is a fleeting one.

Most experts predicted the Indian Premier League to be a modest success.
Most experts probably didn't ever think in 2007 that the US could have a black president.
Most experts were betting on a burgeoning global economy and growing stock markets in India and elsewhere.
Most experts thought that a firm that is a century old won't vanish in 2008 and that Toyota would continue to make operating profits in all quarters and that an entire industry won't vanish.

Don't become an expert. Stay a student, prepared to unlearn and learn and relearn. That is the key to relevance.

P.S. Realised that my friend Gaurav had posted something similar :-)

2008's last Carnival of HR

Whew! What a fast paced year it has been!

The year's last Carnival of HR is already up!

Peggy Andrews at The Career Encouragement - where posts vary from the implications of the economic crisis (special mention to Jon Ingham's post for us HR folks inHuman vs. Financial Capital?), to leadership issues ( special food for thought Wally Bock asks "what is leadership at it's core?" in Leaders Eat Last) then there's HR Bytes on Gartner Stresses on Employer Branding and Social Networking which focusses on my two favorite issues - Employment Branding and Social Networking, together!

Oh, by the way, I am hosting 2009's first Carnival of HR on 7th January. So if you have any interesting HR related posts, let me know about it by sending its URL, a synopsis and post it to i@gautamghosh.net !

Booz Allen Hamilton's free ebook Capturing The People Advantage

Here's a nice Christmas gift to HR (and others too!) professionals! You can get a free PDF ebook Capturing The People Advantage: Thought Leaders on Human Capital by authors at Booz & Company and Booz Allen Hamilton.

You can download it at http://www.strategy-business.com/HCreader

[Clicking on the button will require you to enter an email id and some data about yourself. The link with the download instructions will be sent to that email id.]

The authors (Richard Rawlinson, a partner with Booz & Company based in London. Walter McFarland is a vice president with Booz Allen Hamilton based in Herndon, Virginia. Laird Post is a principal with Booz & Company based in San Francisco.) interviewed leading HR executives and academic experts in the United States, Europe and the Middle East and Asia to find the latest innovative people strategies in such areas as metrics capabilities, flexibility, “market segmentation” strategies for managing human capital, attracting and retaining talent through employer branding, future talent acquisition strategies, and leadership development and learning programs.

How can expanding multinationals train thousands of poorly educated citizens in India and China into a highly skilled workforce? What should an organization do when a government controlled monopoly is transformed at the stroke of a pen into a public company in one of the world’s most competitive industries? And how can a company adapt to a merger if not one of the company’s 20,000 employees has the same job? These are just some of the questions addressed Capturing The People Advantage.

Hope you enjoy it! I have downloaded it too and will share my thoughts soon :D

Monday Humor - Consulting Case Interview Spoof

For those of you who might be interested in giving a consulting interview in the near future, here's an interesting spoof on what really happens ;-)

Innovative Job Search

Gaurav posts the interesting example of an Investment Banker in NYC and how he found another job

Joshua Persky, the out-of-work banker who grabbed headlines this summer by standing on New York’s Park Avenue, handing out résumés to passers-by and wearing a sandwich board that said, “Experienced M.I.T. Grad for Hire,” has finally landed a job

Gaurav asks me if Indian i-bankers can use such creativity.

Well creativity certainly pays, but in these cases only for the first guy. Being the first Mumbai banker might pay off, but you'd have to be really looking for a non-banking career to get a job offer. Something tells me such whacky ideas won't be appreciated in the Indian banking community.

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Re-imagining HR

Laurie first blogged about Blowing Up HR , and now Frank at the KnowHR blog has posted 10 tenets of the New HR.

I totally agree with both of them and here's what I think HR should be doing to doing its job better.

1. Recognise that the administrative, boring, non-value added part of the job won't go away. Get specialists, within the organization or from outside to do that. Or automate it.If you are a small business, maybe you can join other SMEs and find one large contractor to handle that piece. Yes, that would mean letting go of customised reports etc. But if it's non value added, then why have it at all?

2. Get a business guy/girl to lead HR. Ideally someone who's in line to be the CEO. Not just some loser whose career is headed for the dead end. Should have been a great people manager. She/He'll add business perspective to HR. Focus on the activities that will add dollar (and rupee) value to the business. And you in HR, you should move to a business function. Try marketing and sales. Understand how difficult it is to bring in money into the organization. Or try operations. That'll make you understand how difficult it is to produce and deliver whatever you produce or provide. You'll be a better HR professional for that.

3. Get your head around to the core competitive value of your business. What makes it better than your competitors? And how is this core competitive value going to evolve in the near and long term? Then get your HR processes to support both these all the way. For example, if your company's competitive value is creative product/services and will remain the competitive differentiator then as a HR organization you should know how to attract, retain, develop the most creative talent than your competitors. Also look at behaviors/processes that hinder creativity and kill them (the processes, not creativity!)

4. Get a strong team. You can't make a difference to the business by putting a weak scaffolding. HR needs to have a strong structure and support the business fundamentals. That won't happen by putting one junior HR generalist for 500 employees and giving an IT HR infrastructure. That'll mean giving senior HR resources to support business units.

Are you ready to re-imagine HR?

Indian Hiring Outlook Weak But Better Relatively

According to the Manpower Employment Outlook Survey :

The survey data reveals that employers with the most active first-quarter hiring plans globally -- despite generally weaker hiring patterns -- are reported in Peru, India, Costa Rica, Canada, Romania, Colombia, South Africa, Australia, Poland, the United States and China.

On the other hand, employers in Singapore, Ireland, Spain and Italy reported the least optimistic hiring forecasts. Only employers in Canada, the United States and Switzerland are reporting improved Net Employment Outlooks from three months ago.

Job prospects are decidedly less optimistic in the Asia Pacific region, with employers in all eight countries and territories surveyed reporting weaker hiring plans compared to the previous quarter and one year ago.

Although they are weaker quarter-over-quarter, the most favorable job prospects in the region are still found in India, Australia and China. The slowest hiring activity is expected in Singapore and Taiwan, where negative hiring expectations are reported.

So while the recession/downturn is having an effect, India is still the place to be. At least in Asia Pacific. Of course, these opportunities are not across sectors. Retailing, Construction and Real Estate will not be hiring in the same numbers. Generic BPOs will also be affected, but specific KPOs and LPOs would continue to thrive and even grow.

My good friend and Executive Search Consultant AK Menon has a detailed analysis of job openings in India on his blog post. And you can add this blog ,which his firm maintains, of great job openings - to your RSS reader.

Flaws in Exit Process

A friend posted this on Linkedin:

What are the flaws in an Exit Process- voluntary and involuntary seperation. What should be in-corporated to ensure a smooth 'exit' and a pleasant seperation for the employee. You'll could also share instances if you please.

This is to help us all stream line our exit policies, create a more cost and time effective process and make a brand building impact.

This is what I answered:

I guess the flaws can be addressed before the separation process. If the reasons are because of performance has the person been given enough time and support to increase his performance level?

If it is a behavioral issue what feedback has his manager and HR leader given. Has enough opportunity been given to him to turn it around?

If the above two have been followed the nitty gritty of the exit process needs to be followed so that the separation happens in a decent and mature way. The exiting person should not be made to feel guilty of leaving the organization (where it is voluntary) or victimised (where it is involuntary)

Find your next job at JobSearchUSA.

Employer Employee Relations in Indian IT industry

IT Entrepreneur Abhishek Rungta posts on his blog

And suddenly, the situation has taken a u-turn. Companies are laying off their "talent bank" for which they fought so ferociously. The guy who walks out of office today is not sure, if his job is here to stay when he reaches office the next day. The morale is at all time low. Employees are finding it difficult to trust an employer. The question is - "Will he sack me today?"

This is an environment of extremes and uncertainty. This is an environment of relationship without trust. And, this is going to worsen with every cycle on up-and-down.

So, Who is to be blame? And more importantly, how this cycle can be broken? OR, Can this be at all checked?

In my opinion,

This environment is a result of a number of social-commercial factors, like:

• Employee side:
  

  • Desire for overnight riches and i-want-to-retire-young mindset
    

  • Career objective not properly defined. (Corollary: Objective=money)
    

  • Peer pressure. Comparison of lifestyle. Increase in jealousy.
    

  • Spending more than the earning!
    

  • Gaining experience without gaining competence (i.e. 12 years of experience looked like 1 year of real experience repeated 12 times over! - which eventually remains 1 year of experience)
    

• Employer Side:
  

  • Inexperienced and poor management
    

  • Unavailability of proper HR professionals (Hint: NOT those people who think HR = headhunting)
    

  • Treating employees as commodities
    

  • Not sticking to the basics
    

  • Lack of strategic insight into one’s business
    

Currently, the problem is in a virtuous cycle, and it is difficult to break it, since it is not based on a tangible outcome. It is purely based on emotions! And, if this cycle is not broken soon, it will intensify and re-occur more frequently.

This is what I commented on his post:

The two big issues that need to be resolved are:

1. What is the business leaders’ expectations from HR? If it is just recruitment, then they will always equate HR with headhunting and only hire such HR people. In some ways NASSCOM and other industry body should raise awareness on how IT leaders can leverage HR for better value.

2. Often smaller niche firms have a junior HR exec/manager who cannot advise/coach senior business leaders on people processes and issues, and also cannot push back on business decisions that might impact people aspects. Such firms might need to engage a senior HR consultant to act as a de facto HR leader for direction and strategising.

World of Workcraft : Mid Week Smile Time

What happens when a group of Dragon Slayers go to office?

The World of Warcraft meets The Office :-) in the World of Workcraft! (hat-tip Jason Calacanis)

Watch more video games and play free games at WeGame.

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