EmployWise: Skills required for achieving career goals

Skill is an ability to accomplish complex activities by incorporating knowledge based ideas. The skillset possessed by an employee is an essential prerequisite before grasping a responsible position in an organization. However, the skills necessary for success are often not included in academic curriculums but are required to be nurtured through individual practical implementations.

Before getting a hold of the work, it is essential to acquire and maintain skills that provide a platform to solve the problems by saving money and time.

There is a huge skill gap between educationally acquired knowledge and the industrial requirements expected from an individual at the workplace. Moreover, in the current scenario of India’s rapidly evolving and rising economy a huge resource of skilled people are required to sustain its future economic ambitions. What so ever organizations serve as a platform that provides skills with which an individual can build and develop skills necessary to be successful.

• The current industrial environment requires making use of formally educated young generation of India’s workforce by providing them on job and practical training. Fortunately, in the rapidly evolving industrial environment organizations serve as the base for acquiring practically usable knowledge. The correct career skills can be developed by identifying and following the patterns of skill implementations in the organizations.
• New technologies are being implemented consistently to enhance the market competency levels of the organizations. In order to be competent and productive, it has become mandatory for each employee to update their skill levels with the practical knowledge on latest technologies. Hence, acquiring knowledge in a consistently evolving organizational environment fueled by technological innovations gives an edge to the employees for succeeding further with every new change.
• Improvising individual intelligence with the help of knowledge should be the passion of each employee who aspires to be successful in an organizational environment. The global economic structure is getting more dependent on intelligent mental efforts rather than the mere physical hard work. Hence, it is necessary for the working individuals to concentrate more on structuring their intelligence levels synchronized with technological advancements.

The collaborative effort of organizational leaders and employees can truly result in making the work environment a breeding ground for people seeking success in achieving their career goals. As a highly populated nation, India can only succeed as an economic giant in the global market when evolution of individual intelligence and an knowledge seeking work environment is encouraged with an all round effort.

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EmployWise: Tips for providing mandatory HR training

Training for HR is mandatory in every company and it is important to educate the managers and supervisors on certain policy and procedures as well as legal matters.

Supposedly we take employee harassment of any sort as an example, usually people might hesitate or find it awkward to be a part of harassment related training session for a couple of hours, but then it depends on the trainer to do his/her homework well and come prepared with some real-life experiences to share. The point, which is to be kept in focus, is that for such unconventional topics the message has to be conveyed in a way different from usual training sessions.            

The following tips if followed can make the trainings on complex though important topics much more effective:

Trainings made alive through multi media: Instead of reading out the policies from a book, make them interesting through a blend of visual and multimedia aid. It is important to put the message across especially in trainings related to harassment, FMLA, ADA laws etc.

Real life examples of appropriate action: Real life examples leave a long lasting impact on the attendees; therefore to make the training effective such examples should be narrated more often. Showing the severe consequences of unacceptable behavior is critical to set an example amongst the employees. Moreover the trainer/front line manager should be able to portray that right steps were taken as an employer in the real life example they are stating.

Engage experienced trainers: Bring in people in-house or external with loads of experience to share experiences from their past work life. It’s better to train on topics that are crucial before waiting for them to become mandatory.

Apart from that the organisations can focus on arranging follow-up classes and provide handbooks with detailed policies and procedures for all attending the training. Such efforts taken by the employers depict the seriousness that they are putting in to make the employees aware of the necessary laws and regulations which influences the employees to give a respectable response

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EmployWise: Save Time & Energy with Good Prioritizing Skills

Prioritizing tasks is an important skill that not only helps to focus what is important, but also allows doing tasks on time with more attention and energy. For dealing with time management problems, prioritizing can facilitate in making better use of time, along with eliminating gaps in productivity. With this skill, you need not to work faster, but schedule your time in a way that you can dedicate time for various activities.

The 80/20 Rule...

When we are overburdened with work, we are not able to dedicate time and energy to all of them. At times we are even short of resources, which start hampering the work and results in several things left undone. Prioritizing is a way that helps solve all these problems and reduce frustration.

Prioritizing all the tasks in a way that this 20% contribution from our activities is properly scheduled can help us spend more time with family and produce better value outputs. In addition to this, it will help us understand what is important and what is urgent.

Prioritizing Tasks

For prioritizing skills in a useful manner, you should be able to differentiate your work as important and urgent. To prioritize work as important, you should focus on work that provides value, think for long term and one should have a clear vision. Rather than wasting time on different things, one should understand that first things always come first.

Usually when the tasks are given they all seem urgent and important, but in fact, most of the urgent activities that keep us involved are not really important for the long run. Tasks should be prioritized in such a way that they help us achieve long-term goals or may have long-term consequences.

Therefore, Good prioritizing skills facilitates everyone to finish the urgent tasks as soon as possible that may cause a problem if not taken care at time. These skills always prove helpful in saving time and energy and also reward us in the long run.

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EmployWise: How Corporate Recruiters Can Prop-Up Talent Management?

Talent management is an important section that is increasingly gaining attention and is helping organizations to bring management initiatives and human resources together. These days, companies utilize different types of talent management schemes so as to develop high potential employees. But only 56% organizations are able to rate their talent management activities as effective, while others are experiencing a downturn in talent management.

The fact is that organizations are not successfully integrating their succession planning and talent with their strategic business plans. Sometimes, it can be due to disconnect in the hiring process between hiring manager and recruiters. But companies need to understand that talent management should always be seen as a long-term process, in order to achieve success.

Role of Corporate Recruiters in Talent Management

Corporate Recruiters can always act as a bridge between cultural changes and employees. They tend to have a better understanding about the corporate culture and new employee’s expectations in relation to work culture.

For example, when a new employee experiences a change of culture, recruiters can help the new employees by managing their expectations as per the organizational culture. At the same time, they can also have a discussion with the managers to make them aware of how they can assist the new team members and facilitate them in making cultural adjustments. This kind of proactive behavior can always help organizations to manage their talent pool for a longer time span.

In addition to cultural adjustments, job and career expectations in the new employees also raise issues, which sometimes affect talent management schemes. In such scenarios, recruiters can guide the new team members to be flexible and talk to managers regarding highlighting the job role to the employees.

This way, new members will have the idea of how their job role will be different in future as compared to now. Managers will also be able to develop and nurture their team members, thus managing the talent pool effectively.

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EmployWise: Anointing the Bruise of Performance Appraisal

Performance appraisals induce strong tremors as aftershocks which have known to cause cracks in the mental state of employee’s. These cracks soon transcend and escalate into wide gorges, which cause rifts between the employee and his company.

Majority of the company’s employ an appraisal model, irrespective of its effectiveness and even its implementation. But no matter its finesse in execution, the truth remains that the factor of subjectivity will play spoilsport in maintaining an impartial and unbiased appraisal review.

The factor of subjectivity is bred in our human nature, and the outcome is directly proportional to the vibes between the manager conducting the review and the employee being reviewed.

Companies have learnt to pause recruitment drives post immediately after their performance appraisal, as they are expecting resignations form employee’s, who have fallen victim to the cracks from their appraisals.Therefore it’s essential to practice damage control which perhaps may mend and prevent the loss of an employee which may cause a talent deficit in the organization.The best antidote is to invoke a fair feedback system immune to character assassinations of managers due to the rage of employee’s.

Indian corporate has established a dogma which is far fetched from the fact of introducing these feedback systems. This is due because, feedbacks systems turn volatile as they need to find balances between being negative or constructive irrespective of it being the truth. And the skill of diplomacy is not something everyone bags.

The best remedy is to create an anonymous feedback system which confines the feedbacks in an enclosure as options given and to provide a quality and fair canvas to the employee’s. Prominent measures need to be taken by the HR to provide testament to the worthiness of the feedback which may in turn be a reassurance to the employee’s.

Job satisfaction has a direct impact upon the manager and employee relationship, its the prime ingredient in cooking up resignations and causing alarming talent deficits. Good performers fall victim to subjectivity and often cause a large void in the talent pool of the company upon their withdrawal.

Upon introspection it can be noted that the performance of an employee is a complex equation harnessing the variables such as motivational factors, training, expected outcomes, resources, delegates and the extent of empowerment. If an employee fails to meet the relevant and required competencies it’s rather absurd to blame the employee unless it is a case of voluntary underachievement.

The crucial litmus test of an organization in an employee’s mind lies in the way the company treats its departing employees. Therefore the outcome of this test is what defines the rate of corrosion in the employee pool.

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EmployWise - 5 Key Factors to Increase Employee Motivation

Employee motivation is a tricky subject for most managers and organization heads. Yet it is imperative for them to handle employee motivation diligently since it forms the core for organizational success. Employee Motivation essentially means developing effective ways to recognize and applaud the contributions of your employees whereby they are encouraged to perform better and contribute more productively to their organization.

According to entrepreneur.com, employee motivation is “using both tangible and intangible rewards to keep employees enthusiastic, loyal and interested in continued improvement”.

One way organizational heads can improve the level of employee motivation in their organization is by first ensuring that there is a definite structure or setup that is well implemented within their organization for understanding, assessing, measuring and rewarding employee activities and achievements.

J P Maroney, the founder of People Builders has listed down five success keys to effective employee motivation. According to him, the key factors for employee motivation are satisfaction, appreciation, recognition, inspiration and compensation.

Satisfaction: When employees are happy at work, they are always motivated and productive than those employees who are unhappy with their work. Therefore, organizations must increase and innovate ways to keep their employees happy. There are different ways to improve satisfaction at work. Organizations must understand what the workforce needs – may be flexible hours, rewards and recognition scheme, opportunities for career growth, open-door policy or anything else – and “satisfy” these needs. This way, when you have satisfied employees, you are also likely to have satisfied customers.

Appreciation: Employees like to be recognized for their efforts and their contributions to the organization. Therefore, managers and organization heads must make honest attempts and take every opportunity to openly praise and appreciate their employees. Appreciation is an effective morale booster. The more frequent it is, the better it motivates employees. A pat on the back, a few encouraging words, a thank you note, a mention in a meeting, a write up in a weekly newsletter are all simple ways to convey to your employees that you care for them and hold high their services to your organization.

Recognition: Employees like to learn that their work in the organization is taken note of, and that they are considered as assets of the organization. Managers and organization heads must honor this innate employee attribute and have a sound rewards and recognition system in place. They must find ways interesting ways to motivate their employees to perform a task and when the said task has been accomplished successfully, it must also be rewarded appropriately.

Work and non-work related contests, in-house rewards for various contributions and even recognizing their contributions outside of work will increase employee motivation by leaps and bounds. 

Inspiration: Employees always look up to their seniors and the organization head for inspiration. But more importantly they also look for inspiration in their organizations and the values it stands for. Keeping this in mind, organizations looking for improved employee motivation must have a strong mission statement and the heads of the organization must sincerely abide by these values and missions. When leaders lead form the front, employees will be inspired to follow them. Employees will be happy to work for an organization that is true to its beliefs and works towards realizing its dreams. Since every employee aspires the same, he will take inspiration from the organization itself. Inspired employees are also motivated and loyal.

Compensation: Monetary rewards or tangible rewards are one of the important factors of employee motivation. Therefore, organizations can use this means well to their benefit. Performance bonuses, promotional raises, salary hike, enabling profit sharing, giving gifts and distributing reward coupons are some of the effective means of compensation.

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EmployWise: Mobilizing Working Possibilities

A desire for increased productivity and a more connected company culture has prompted companies like Yahoo!, Best Buy, Bank of America and Zappos to scale back their flexible work arrangements. 

A decision like this would definitely impact the women workforce, but it is naive to believe that it would have no impact on today’s aspirational men. In fact the report presents some findings which actually expound all these beliefs and more.

I was going through Harvard Business Review last week when I came across this article by Anna Beninger and Nancy Carter of the Catalyst research team. Catalyst is an international nonprofit organization with an aim to expand opportunities for women and create more inclusive workplaces.

The finding from their latest report - Catalyst's flexibility research couldn’t have come at a better time. A desire for increased productivity and a more connected company culture has prompted companies like Yahoo!, Best Buy, Bank of America and Zappos to scale back their flexible work arrangements. 

A decision like this would definitely impact the women workforce, but it is naive to believe that it would have no impact on today’s aspirational men. In fact the report presents some findings which actually expound all these beliefs and more. Catalyst quizzed 726 MBA graduates around the world working full-time in both for-profit and non-profit firms across industries —about their experiences with, and perceptions of, flexible working arrangements. The responses were astounding. 81 percent of those surveyed reported that they were currently working at a firm that offers flexible work arrangements of some kind. In addition to telecommuting, this includes flexible arrival or departure, flexi time, compressed work weeks, reduced work/part-time, and job sharing. Flexible work options are in fact the rule, and not the exception, at organizations today. Their research also revealed that women and men were using flexible work options like flexi time and flexible arrival and departure to the same extent throughout their careers.

However, the study did confirm that women were significantly more likely than men to telecommute i.e. work outside of the office over the course of their careers. So while men and women are equally likely to use some flexi work options, women are more likely to telecommute. But women pay for that. Lack of access to flexible working arrangements damages high potential employees' career aspirations, and is especially harmful to women's aspirations, thus impacting the number of women raising their hands for stretch assignments and promotions. The report also discovered that women working at a firm without flexi work options were more likely to downsize their aspirations. According to Catalyst, flexibility is not just about being flexible with time. It is also about being strategic, which requires employers and employees to be open and creative in questioning the process of how work should be done, and why.

In a scenario where virtual meeting is possible from any place, any time, it is hard to imagine a company doing away with work-from-home. Needless to say, offering flexible working arrangements is critical for organizations intending to maximize their talent pool with high potential employees and become employers of choice. In fact a 2011 study by nonprofit Human Resources Association World at Work found that companies with stronger cultures of flexibility experienced lower turnover and increased employee satisfaction, motivation and engagement. 

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EmployWise | Empowering Skills - Developing the Indian Youth

Skill is the ability and capacity acquired through systematic effort for smoothly carrying out complex activities in an organized environment for overall profit. Strong technical skills help to understand the technological complexities which enhance efficiency in work and helps in saving money as well as time. Moreover, it takes less time for correcting the mistakes of people with organizational skills and helps in reducing frustration and stress during work which is very important for managing businesses. With the help of skills it becomes easier to win trust of the client and associate with them more prominently from the organization’s point of view.

It has become very necessary for India to train its youth and enable them to obtain skills that could be utilized to sustain the economic growth of the country. However, in India employers often need to spend extra effort and time in teaching unskilled human resources. The major problem regarding skill development in India is lack of good industry standard communication, awareness and knowledge on modern technological implementations. As India is poised to become a global economic power and huge industrial investments are following into the Indian market certain areas of concern still prevail which needs to be taken care of.

One of the major problems that India is facing in empowering the youth with skills which is due to the lack of efficient leadership. Though successive Indian governments have come up with many innovative programs to enable the skill building procedure they still lag behind. Government needs to leverage the process of skill building in such a way that it becomes accessible for all the sections of the society.

In a highly populated country like ours, the strength of workforce required to support huge industrial initiatives is tremendous but the quality aspect is always missing. One of the reasons behind the missing quality of the workforce is lack of inclusion of skill specific training along with education. Additionally, formal education may be the basic requirement to make India literate but to make it prosperous skill specific training should be encouraged aggressively.

The role of private sectors and the civil society is equally accountable as that of the government in generating a skilled workforce for the country. Private sectors should take initiatives to provide trainings through various private establishments and should work in collaboration with the government to spread awareness regarding skill specific training.

Empowering the Indian youth with industry specific skills is very crucial for the economic development of the country. With the collaborative efforts of the leaders, private sectors and civil society India can plunge into a highly modernized future supported by well skilled workforce in the various industrial organizations.

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EmployWise - There’s more to Employee Engagement than Just Work!

As the days unfold, businesses and companies face tougher competition and hostile plateaus being set up by consumers who want more from a company. With costs to cut and consumers to impress, companies are torn between these two facets. But there seems to be a ray of hope, Employee engagement! 

Wait, employee engagement?? What’s different apart from engaging an employee by providing him a job in a company? Well actually there’s more, and most of all it could hold the ticket in combating the scenarios most companies find their place in. 

Employee engagement surpasses far beyond than just engaging an employee with his or her respective work, it’s trying to inculcate a model in which an employee can find himself more responsible towards the company’s growth and ideologies. 

We have chosen five models from five of the most successful companies to share their take on employee engagement.

1. Make it strategic - Intel Corporation: Intel sets the stage up by sharing a vision and motto that links employee performances to their business strategy. Intel calculates each employee’s annual bonus directly based on its annual results. This not only incurs a dash of enthusiasm but also establishes a sense of greater responsibility within each employee.
2. Make it personal: Hyatt Hotels & Resorts - Global issues like climate change and biodiversity are issues which each employee is aware of but is hard to implement as a company. Therefore Hyatt Hotels have harnessed the power bestowed in peer to peer influence and social networking to hook up more than 300 green teams worldwide. Employees make use of Facebook and other social websites to post photos and queries about how they can make a change to the environment.
3. Make it Flexible: WalMart - WalMart recognized the need for employee engagement and took a radical step by assigning their own employee engagement schemes to the employee’s itself. Now the employees itself have synthesized a scheme called My Sustainably Plan (MSP) in which more that 2 million associates over 28 countries participate. The scheme encourages employees to share their goals, whether personal or work related to receive feedback from others on how well that goal can be achieved.
4. Make it Easy: Google - Google, already widely known for pampering of employees with knick knacks, educates its employees on the benefits of simple actions like turning of computers at night. Micro kitchens set up around every workplace are designed to encourage the use of reusable dishes and flatware.
5. Make it Last: Cliff Bar - To make an employee engagement scheme a success its vital to pursue the model as an ongoing campaign. Cliff bar has within its model benefit packages like incentives for actions like purchasing a fuel-efficient cat and building eco friendly homes. Ongoing momentum is ensured in weekly staff meetings where employees share ideas for a greener living. 

A good engagement program is a sure shot way to recruit and retain an employee pool with good talent. But engaging employees and encouraging them incurs a strong trust to blossom which drives innovation and creativity ultimately aiding to the company’s growth.

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HRIS: The best solution

With the growing challenges in the HR space today, human resource professionals are eager to incorporate automation tools, which provide them with best results at their fingertips & would also reduce the paperwork.

Even though, spreadsheet is the most commonly used means, but it has many drawbacks. The major drawback is to carry out large amount of functions and also the chances of errors are very high. Hence, HR professionals are looking to adopt automation tools that can accomplish wide range of tasks through a single click, in such cases HRIS system is the apt solution for solving the problems HR professionals are facing while using the current trend.

HRMS or HRIS provides one stop solution for all the HR related work areas, such as recruitment, training, employee performance, payroll, retirement and many more. HRIS system provides large data storage, where the HR executives can enjoy the convention of self-service access to the online records. HRIS, being secure, prevents unauthorized intervention & also provides the ability of exporting the spreadsheet data into the system.

HR automating systems are user friendly, and ensure accuracy and consistency of data in a related database. They are not expensive & allow the organization to choose a plan that best suits their workforce. Also, there is no need for an in-house IT team to set up equipment or load applications. It enables greater accuracy in computing data, is faster and easy to manage.

Unlike the traditional software base, HRIS are also available as web based systems, which enables the HR professionals to enjoy the benefits of online management system, which makes the life of the HR professionals easier enabling them to access data instantly anywhere anytime. With such a system in place, the HR can now work even more flawlessly and focus more on the strategic part rather than transactional part.

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