Jobs and Employment creation in India

While a lot of ink is used on focus on jobs in the - what people usually forget is that a majority of Indians work in what is referred to as the "unorganized sector". This sector has to be the focus of attention if the country has to emerge faster from the economic slowdown. Take a look at this old post by Dr. Madhukar Shukla on the future of work and employment in India.

Now a ILO report has stressed the need again. From an article in Mint:

“Employment creation by itself will be a stimulus for growth as purchasing power will increase and, therefore, local demand can be created, provided remuneration is adequate and monitored,” said the report sponsored by the International Labour Organization (ILO).

The report also called for the implementation of a statutory national minimum wage and easier credit for micro, small and medium enterprises, and emphasized that benefits from financial incentives be monitored to ensure employment is protected.

An estimated 131,000 people have lost their jobs across 3,003 labour-intensive, export-oriented sectors such as leather, gems and jewellery and textiles, according to the Labour Bureau’s latest survey conducted between April and June.

Half-a-million people had lost jobs between October and December, followed by a mild recovery—280,000 new jobs were created in the January-March period.

The report has identified urban youth, women, migrants and workers in the informal sector, particularly in construction, among the worst hit. The informal sector includes economic activities that are not officially regulated and which operate outside the scope of the incentive system offered by the government.

Jobs: Officer shortage in the Military

Interesting article from the Strategy Page on the officer shortage faced by the Indian armed forces. Will the global recession change this reality? Will we see more talented people joining the Indian military?

Until the last few decades, it was considered prestigious, and career enhancing, to serve at least a few years as a military officer. These days, no more. Shortages are often filled by lowering standards, which can have disastrous results in combat.

The Indian Army is short 24 percent of its officer strength, while China has the numbers, it is seriously concerned with the quality. Meanwhile, the Indian army has had a shortage of officers for decades. The air force and navy are also short, but only by 12-15 percent. In China, the problem is growing as the economy continues to boom (despite the global recession.)

But it's not just officers that are hard for the Indians to recruit and keep. Technical specialists are in short supply, which is a growing problem as the army adds more high tech gear. The basic problem is that the army must compete with the civilian economy for highly trained or educated personnel.

The Indian army maintains high standards for officers, and has tried to eliminate the shortages by more aggressively recruiting young NCOs for officer candidate school. But that doesn't always work, because too many of the NCOs cannot pass the entrance exam.

Who are Career Counselors?

Over the last few months have got a couple of mails from folks, typically who are looking to relocate to India - asking me if I can suggest people who can be their career counselors.

Full time career counselors are not really well known in India, and the only type of career counselors who come to mind are the ones who do advice columns in the papers like Usha Albuquerque or TV, like Rashmi Bansal.

But what exactly does a one on one career counselor do?

This is a good answer on Lawjobs:

A counselor serves as a guide on your career exploration. He or she is an objective listener who can help you determine solutions to the issues that brought you to her or him.

Do not expect a counselor to tell you what to do. As a way around what may be viewed as a counselor's unwillingness to resolve a dilemma, a client sometimes asks the counselor what he or she would do in the same situation. Even if the counselor responds, the answer may not be relevant to the client. Each one of us has different characteristics and needs. As a result, the hypothetical actions of the counselor may not be the best approach for the client.

With that in mind, consider the counselor's qualities that can lead to a productive relationship. Working with an objective, attentive listener is a key component. The talking-listening balance favors you engaging in a major share of talking while the counselor listens and poses questions that help you probe into the issues.

A counselor may also challenge you to analyze some of your underlying perceptions. Without recommending a particular course of action, a counselor can offer ideas and strategies for you to consider.

When deciding on a counselor, take into account your level of comfort and trust. As you determine whether you are comfortable with a counselor, discount your discomfort about dealing with your career issues. Focus on whether you have rapport and can discuss issues openly with the person.

Some interesting HR posts

Dub Dubs looks at the Top Chef show and draws some parallels with management styles HR.

Michael Specht is putting together a social recruiting conference in Australia.

Saikat reminds us of Ulrich's points for HR professionals

What do you say? Read any great HR posts recently?

Let us know in the comments and it might be featured here!

Executives like working in the slowdown?

Ok, I admit, this study's conclusion is a sign that people are not inherently looking at extraneous reward factors, but that Herzberg's motivation factors more meaningful work, higher responsibility etc are much better to excite people than the combination of higher salary and boring work

Excerpts from the article:

Challenging economic times seem to be extracting the best from executives worldwide, as many of them are putting in longer hours and are having more responsibility at work.

Interestingly, most of the executives also find their work more exciting and meaningful now, despite the rising stress levels, according to a survey conducted by global consultancy firm McKinsey.

As I have stated earlier, making work interesting is the real way to achieving employee engagement, and not external factors.

Glad to see that current research even in not so good times supports this thought.

Different ways to get the blog's updates

This is just a reminder to those of you who read this blog on the net.

Did you know that you can get updates from the blog via a RSS reader like Google Reader, FeedDemon or even on your iGoogle page? To subscribe, go here and click on the service of your choice.

You can even subscribe to get email updates by entering your email here.

Currently 2600 people have signed up getting the updates via rss and email.

Alternately if you are on Facebook, you can follow the updates by becoming a fan of this blog's page. Good thing there is that you can post your views, pictures and videos and interact with other members of the community there too. Currently there are 200 fans of the page.

If you are on Twitter, you can follow this blog's twitter account @gautamblog (this is a different twitter account than my personal twitter account @gautamghosh)

Ok.

Now back to regular programming :-)

Individuals turn to coaches in the downturn

Interesting article in the WSJ. Normally coaches are hired by organizations to develop their people's skills - however some forward thinking employees are taking their own initiative to develop themselves by hiring their own coaches.:

Eric Chaffin, a 38-year-old partner at law firm Bernstein Liebhard LLP in New York, has paid coach Dee Soder out of his own pocket on a retainer since 2003, and has no plans to stop. "In a down economy, it's particularly important to have someone on your side," he said. "Instead of 10 client opportunities this year, there might be five. You have to make each one count."

Executive coaches say they're being hired by more individuals like Mr. Chaffin, a trend that has helped offset tighter budgets at some corporate clients. Dr. Soder says the number of her clients who are individuals paying on their own has nearly doubled since November. Wendy Alfus-Rothman, founder of Wenroth Consulting Inc., a New York executive-coaching firm, said more individuals are scheduling monthly, rather than quarterly, sessions.

A 2007 study commissioned by the International Coach Federation pegged annual revenue world-wide for the industry, which includes life, career and executive coaches, at $1.5 billion, with about half the study's 5,415 respondents in the U.S. Of the respondents, 58% reported executive coaching as their specialty.

Coaches say many companies still use their services to retain top talent and support senior leaders while coping with smaller staffs and recession-starved budgets. Amber Romine, director in global human capital at consultancy PricewaterhouseCoopers LLC's Washington, D.C., office, said she fields a steady stream of requests from clients looking for referrals to executive coaches. Gene Morrissy, a management psychologist at RHR International, said demand in the executive-coaching practice of the Wood Dale, Ill., organizational-development firm is up 10% from a year ago.

So what do you think? You think you're ready for a coaching approach to develop yourself?
The article shares also how some small business owners are relying on coaches increasingly. A demographic that I feel will contribute more and more to coaching revenues.

Slasher Careers

No, am not talking about horror/thriller genre of films called 'slasher' movies - in line with how many people get slashed :)

No, I am talking of this phrase which is coming into vogue because lots of people, specially freelancers are carrying on multiple careers as "HR Manager/Photographer" The slasher in 'slasher careers' refers to the "/" symbol between the two careers. And its a progression of the portfolio careers that Charles Handy has spoken about.

I personally think new careers will emerge at the intersection points of careers/functions.

As this article says:

While a new vocation may begin as a hobby, slashers tend to view all their pursuits as careers; and while those who moonlight might quietly take on a second job, career slashers are generally open about their multiple interests. They may even have a business card to prove it: The Wall Street Journal recently ran an article about the increased demand by career slashers for more than one business card so they can effectively promote their varied interests.

Slashers typically have a primary vocation, but they may pursue several other interests over the course of their working lives. For example, someone might be a copyeditor/aerobics instructor for a few years, and transition to a copyeditor/masseuse. As Marci Alboher, who coined the term, said in an interview with BusinessWeek, “Being a “slash” is a way to evolve without giving up the security of a job or losing the confidence in your expertise.”

Check this book by Marci Alboher 
The Blog that she used to write for the New York Times and the blog she writes at Amazon.

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• Use a "Slash" to Find Work While Unemployed [Career] (lifehacker.com)

The seat on the Table

Apparently, it's not just the HR types folks who wring their hands on not getting "a seat on the table"

Jessie Paul, Chief Marketing Officer of Wipro (whom I got in touch with after we interacted on Twitter) blogs that the marketing folks in the IT services group yearn to be seen as strategic as their counterparts in the FMCG industry.

She shares that marketing becomes important enough to get a spot on the Board:

1. When supply outstrips demand.
2. When the original innovation that the company was founded on starts to age
3. When there are at least 3 credible choices for customers.

Interesting viewpoints.

And if you are interested in Marketing with an Indian flavour I'd urge you to follow Jessie's blog and B. Harish's blog Marketing Practice.

Any other interesting Marketing blogs you'd care to share?

Monetary Incentives, Motivation and Work

Check this TED talk video by Daniel Pink - and the points he raises:

1. Our compensation and monetary incentives are for doing non-creative work.
2. Conceptual and creative work actually suffers when monetary incentives are increased.
3. Why doesn't the business world follow social sciences' research ?

Any thoughts?

Apple and the no poach with Palm

Image by macinate via Flickr

This is interesting. I have always believed that a no-poaching agreement is morally wrong in free markets and therefore Steve Jobs' offer is wrong on so many counts

Two years ago, Palm's then CEO, Ed Colligan, rejected a proposal from Apple chief Steve Jobs to promise not to hire each other's employees, according to Bloomberg News.

According to Thursday's Bloomberg story, which cited unspecified "communications" between the two executives, Colligan in August 2007 said that Jobs' proposal was ill-considered. Jobs was worried about losing key Apple employees to Palm and said "we must do whatever we can to stop this," reported Bloomberg.

"Your proposal that we agree that neither company will hire the other's employees, regardless of the individual's desires, is not only wrong, it is likely illegal," Colligan told Jobs, according to the communications reviewed by Bloomberg.

Obviously Palm did not agree with proposal as it needed to actually hire Apple's executives. And of course, Apple would be legally within its rights to safeguard its IPR legally - however a non-poaching agreement is the wrong way to tie people in.

It's always better to make people stay by making them want to stay rather than erecting walls.

People never want to stay in places which force them to stay - and productivity is the first casualty.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Jobs Wanted a Secret, Illegal 'No Poaching' Deal with Palm [Apple] (gizmodo.com)
• Palm's Colligan rebuffs Steve Jobs' 'likely illegal' plea to stop hiring from Apple (engadget.com)
• Apple Allegedly Sought Non-Poaching Deal With Palm (news.slashdot.org)

Work and Offices in the future

Interesting article that showcases changes in office life. As it states the challenges of a virtual workplace is the loneliness that employees can get caught up in - which is why we see a lot of freelancers and telecommuters yearning to connect with others of their ilk, and tweetups and face to face meetings. By the way, here's a post on web worker daily when I was featured during my freelancing days :-)

The other challenges organizations would face would be to change their culture to facilitate this method of working. The ability to trust people and focus on the deliverables and not merely control the activities. Not too many organizations can make the transition easily.

Excerpts from the article

Imagine a work world with no commute, no corporate headquarters and perhaps not even an office in the physical world at all.

"We don't care where and how you get your work done," said Dan Pelino, general manager of IBM's global health care and life sciences business. "We care that you get your work done."

IBM says it saves $100 million a year in real estate costs because it doesn't need the offices.

The work force at the Accenture management consulting firm is so mobile not even the CEO has an office with his name on the door.

With no corporate headquarters, if you need a work space, you reserve it like a hotel room — checking in and out at a kiosk.

In the future, more companies with scattered work forces and clients may do what the marketing firm Crayon is doing: making its headquarters in cyberspace.

Crayon's workers rarely meet in the physical world — some are in Boston, others are in Nutley, N.J. — but their online alter egos in the virtual world gather once a week.

Encouraging Innovation

Info Edge (promoters of Naukri.com and other online portals) CEO Sanjeev Bikhchandani blogs on the struggles of innovating in a large firm and how they are putting into place to facilitate innovation. Some excerpts:

First – ensure that there is an adequate talent pipeline at the second and third levels in every department within the company. Wherever required get high quality talent from outside the company. Basically invest in a talent bench.

When a new business starts - move some of the best talent there and give that business senior management attention. This gives everyone career growth while at the same time giving the start up business a real chance of success, without compromising on the prospects of the existing large business.
Reward for milestones other than revenue early on – remember that on a revenue comparison the older larger business will always outshine a new business.
If the system ensures that Business Managers use only revenue and profits as a measure of their self worth in a start up business in a large organisation they will be demotivated and probably quit. Celebrate innovations. Punish incompetence and lack of commitment – but do not punish failure.

When innovating on product within a large business – have small high quality teams and empower them. You need to ensure that you have the agility, focus and quick decision cycles of a start up – essentially have a many start ups within a large company.

Quite interesting, to note that innovation has to be done taking into account the needs of a smaller business. And the bit about not punishing failure. Punishing failure and tolerating inaction probably causes the most harm in large organizations.

Using social tools with an Agenda

Often these days I come across articles that say "Here's how you use Facebook for Recruiting" or "17 ways of effective job hunting using twitter"

The problem is, if you merely use the tools with an agenda to recruit/job hunt or whatever, then you're headed for disappointment.

That's because these tools are social in nature. And whether you are a marketer, PR person (see post on PR hires must be social media savvy), Recruiter or job seeker, using them badly will not just turn off the very people whose attention you strive to seek, but might also backfire on you.

Remember, as Chris Brogan keeps saying on these sites "it's all about them, not you"

So if you want to use the tools for social recruiting, or job hunting, here are some basics:

1. On twitter, focus on conversations when you are starting out. If you are interested in a job in the paint industry - connect with other folks from the paint industry (using the @ sign), tweet interesting links about paints and  grow a community that you can help. Give help without expecting any. That's the way it works.
2. Blog about your passion. In this case- paints. Hunt for other painting blogs, link to them. Grow a community again. That's always the way to go about it.
3. I really don't advocate using Facebook to hunt for jobs, but some people might. Use facebook notes to pull your blog posts - and that way you can get your non-blogging, non-tweeting folks to read your thoughts. Here's how you post your blog posts to Facebook.

Notice that I didn't ever say "approach x person for a job". That won't work in these environments. 

You have to sow and invest time and energy, before you reap. That's why when you read articles of examples of people who got a job "using social media" it's usually not true

They were on social media to connect, share and network. Recruiting just happened by the way.

Do not conduct Exit Interviews

HR people in their desire to know why people are disengaged enough to quit organizations often conduct exit interviews - to talk to employees who have resigned - and trying to understand the reasons why they quit. (Some organizations also conduct what they call 'stay interviews' trying to understand why people are staying!)

However every HR professional who has conducted such an interview would know that more of then not, these interviews would hardly unearth anything really useful.

When an employee is spending his/her last few days in the organization, to expect him/her to be absolutely candid and frank is unrealistic. People want to get their dues settled and don't want to burn too many bridges. In many countries the next job might be dependent on the background verification that the existing organization gives.

However, what HR people can do is to call when the employees have joined the next organization. Say, after a month or so. That is the time when an ex-employee can be candid and has no real reason to pull any punches.

Or better still, get a third party agency to make that call.

Blogger completes 10 years and I complete 7

This week Blogger.com on which this blog is hosted turns 10 year old. And somewhere last month I completed 7 years of blogging. To commemorate Blogger's anniversary Delhi based Mail Today featured some Indian bloggers - including me :D

So 2380 posts later on this blog, here's congratulating Blogger on this decade of empowering people to self publish.

I hope Blogger rolls out these product ideas soon. Then I'd rather stick here than move totally to my wordpress blog. The best part I like about Blogger.com blogs over wp.com blogs is the ability to add scripts.

If WP.com adds that one thing, then I'd move totally there.

More than your role

Met some folks from a firm, and when they shared their business cards I noticed something different.

Along with their designations, the card also listed their various hobbies - like rock climber, cook, yoga enthusiast etc.

It's the first instance that I have seen where an organization acknowledges that the employees are not just role holders but people with multi-faceted interests, over and above that role too.

Increasingly, with technologies that enable people to be reached anywhere and work from anywhere, organizational time is blurring the traditional boundary between work and life. And according to this post by Gerry Crispin, organizations are increasingly becoming interested in what their employees do after hours in this age of social media.

The Rock Stars of the Talent Age

'Tis the age of talent, and in this age of talent your employees become your rock stars and marketers too.

So it's fitting that Intel chose an employee to be its superstar in the ad.

What do you think?

Trust enabling vs Employees as Resources

On the XLRI Sapphire blog I read this blog post on how HR people can use levers to manage employees as resources.

Sample this:

It is not important how much one is paying to work in a company; it is the way one is making the payment. As per the understanding on compensation, it could be very well said that most of the companies following the same philosophy compensate employee within a span of (+ / -) 10%. But the most important part is the way they used to compensate differs from each other. Some focuses on fixed cost, some on variable cost etc. One should keep in mind that pay should solve three purposes:

1)      It should pay for what the employee has done in past

2)      It should provide benefits for employee current needs

3)      It should serve as an incentive / motivation to work the same company in future.

Thus the compensation policy should focus on all the aspects of past, present and future. There should be a sound mix of base pay, benefits and incentive plan.

Erm, Ok.

The problem with these approaches - of benchmarking compensation - of sticking to the tried and trusted way of doing things - of viewing employees as resources - is that they always ensure that your firm is an also-ran. An average player in the larger scheme of things!

It takes guts to be different.

Sample this post from OD guru Gurprreit Siingh on his experiments with trust:

 It was time for annual increments. I decided to share the financials with every member of the team. And asked each one of them to decide their own increment for the year. With the exception of 1 person, every one of them chose an increment almost exactly in line with what I would have given.

It was also during this period, that we won every award that the company had to give. That we had record levels of performance and customer satisfaction.

Even today, I look back on that period of my life with awe. While it is easy to describe the successes as end-points, there were challenges on that journey that could have led us either way.

My key learnings from those experiments:

1. Trust is always repayed with trust

2. Almost all people are responsible and want to do a good fair job. People are innately good.

3. There is little or no malintent in people

4. If you give people broad guidelines and allow themselves to self-govern, they will do a better job than if you micro-managed them

5. When you trust people and let go, you unleash energy, creativity and employee entrepreneurship

Yes, the truth of HR management is simple.

It is not about looking at employees as resources. Trust them. Have faith. And give them reason to have faith in you.

Unfortunately, in our yearning to be business partners, and 'strategic' we often forget the "human" in HR... and are seen as manipulative by employees - and are manipulated also by all parties.

Identity theft from Job Applicant Data

ID theft expert Brian Lapidus, chief operating officer of Kroll Fraud Solutions suggests that it is an organization's responsibility to secure applicants' data.

Some businesses may feel overwhelmed at the prospect of protecting this wealth of information --after all, everyone has heard the horror stories of businesses that toss boxes of job applications in the dumpster.  Others might not realize the responsibility before them and the significant toll that a misstep can have on their organizations.

As India moves to a universal ID project the risk of this replicating in India is also high.

Here are Brian's Top 5 Tips for Keeping Your Job Applicant Data Secure

1.      Know your organization’s data “hot spots” and secure them against misuse, loss or theft. When job seekers submit applications on your company’s Web site, is that transmission secure? Where do you store resumes, job applications, credit reports or other background check information? How are they protected?  Who has access to this data and how carefully do you screen those employees? Do you keep record of how information is distributed to other entities inside and outside of your organization during the hiring process? Companies large and small must ask these vital questions in order to close security gaps both internal and external.

2.      Establish a privacy policy at your organization and stand behind it.   Once you have identified areas of vulnerability, develop a privacy policy that addresses these issues as well as general best practice rules of handling data. Remember that a privacy policy is only as good as the mechanism for enforcing it, so be sure to review the privacy policy with employees and stress that applicant data is just as important as that of any customer. Finally, share the policy liberally with applicants to quell concerns and publicize the proactive stance your organization is taking on the protection of their information.

3.      Be sensitive to the concerns of job applicants about the use and storage of their personal information. Identity theft is a growing crime, and it’s probable that you will run across applicants who have already had their personal information either stolen or compromised in some way. While it may make your job easier, it is not necessarily vital to obtain all the information you will need up front. Be flexible and understand that reluctance to provide certain information, especially Social Security numbers, until later on in the process does not necessarily mean that person has something to hide.

4.      Familiarize yourself with the laws governing recordkeeping and disposal of information. While data protection laws vary by state and type of records, many companies have adopted a best practice policy of shredding unnecessary documentation as often as possible. The FACTA Disposal Rule, which generally applies to consumer reports run as part of a background check, requires businesses to use “reasonable and appropriate” means to dispose of these records; and the FTC encourages businesses to practice proper disposal of any and all personal information. Many states also have laws concerning the use of Social Security Numbers as identifiers, as well as minimum time periods for which applicant records should be maintained.

5.      Have a plan in place in the event an applicant’s data is breached. A pre-breach plan may be a part of your company’s overall risk management or security planning, but make sure it incorporates measures for protecting applicant records, not just employee, customer, or vendor records.

By incorporating applicant data into your company’s data security policies and procedures, your organization will significantly minimize your vulnerability to a breach.

WTF is Social Media and why should I care

Image by luc legay via Flickr

Yeah, you're probably trying to scream that out to me whenever you see a post by me labeled social media (200 odd and counting) - saying "Gautam slow down blogging about Twitter, Facebook and all that other useless stuff. Stick to HR"

Well here's an interesting presentation that my friend Charu Madan posted on her blog. Charu is handling Marketing in Silicon Valley - and she started off doing HR in the Indian IT industry in Bangalore. So if she posts it - I reckon it comes with her endorsement too :-)

So check out this slideshare presentation:

What the F**K is Social Media: One Year Later

View more documents from Marta Kagan.

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HRM Today to get auctioned on eBay

Image via Wikipedia

OK this was a bit of a surprising news. The HR bloggers' network HRMToday is going on the block to get auctioned !

The community (disclaimer: I am a member too) is a great effort by Lance and Laurie with lots of support by other bloggers.

However I am wondering how my engagement would change depending on who finally gets the site after the auction.

Trust in a community of peers is very difficult to replicate - and any organization bidding for it might see engagement and maybe even membership dwindle. As the news says:

The eBay auction will last ten days and include http://hrmtoday.com, http://blogs.hrmtoday.com, and http://network.hrmtoday.com, along with archived user data.

 Further disclaimer: I maintain a HR professionals' network on Ning too - but with much less functionality.