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Messages - Badshah Mamun

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1846
Employee Engagement / Job Role as a Driver of Employee Engagement
« on: April 25, 2012, 04:29:57 PM »

All of us have heard the story of 3 brick-layers who were working side by side when a passer-by asked them what they were doing.

The first said - “I am laying bricks”

The second said - “I am feeding my family”

The third said - “I am building a cathedral”

This simple story conveys the essence of an engaged employee. The last brick-layer identified his job with the larger goal and hence was able to bring that something extra that served as an inspiration to many.

Most of the employees will land up for work and try and fulfil their role requirements irrespective of their perception of the organization, its policy, pay etc. This is because the fundamental driver for most of us is (1) to utilize our time gainfully and (2) to earn a livelihood. But this does not help organizations in the long term. So, what should organizations do? How can they build an engaged workforce that will help create long term competitiveness?

Many of us become prescriptive when trying to implement employee engagement initiatives without understanding that the first step towards creating an engaged workforce is to help employees see a clear linkage between their job role and organization goal.

The following are some measures that organizations can take w.r.t (with respect to) the “job/role of employee” that will help improve engagement.

    Clear Role Definition -
Engagement begins even before the employee joins work. Carving out a clear job description will actively engage a potential hire and help convert him/her into an enthusiastic joiner and then engaged employee.

    Paint the Larger Picture -
During the peak of hiring activity, my team and I were given a tough time about new joiner renege and attrition of existing employees. Most of the time, we oscillated between bearing the brunt and/or retaliating by throwing our hands up, buying time or throwing industry data points as reference but never did we understand the true impact till one of the business leads sat us down and connected the dots for us and articulated the $(dollar) impact of each of our activity. That day, we graduated to truly becoming business partners.

    Job Rotation -
The grass on the other side is always greener. While the revenue generating/client facing entities believe that the support staff (like admin, human resources, finance) has a cushy job, the support staff often complains of a vendor like treatment at the hands of the former. An employee can contribute his best if he/she can see how his/her role ties in with the larger organization goals or explore linkages of his/her role with other teams in the organization. For this purpose, tools such as job-rotation, multi team projects, best practice sharing by teams can be leveraged effectively by organizations. Such interactions help create an informal and seamless source of information across teams which helps employees to perform effectively and efficiently.

    Goal Setting -
A realistic and time bound goal that clearly mentions linkage to the organization goal is an important aspect in building an engaged workforce. This will be dealt with in greater depth in the following chapter which deals with Performance Management as a driver of engagement.

    Job Loading -
Organizations can effectively use both ‘vertical-loading’ i.e. job enrichment and ‘horizontal-loading’ i.e. job enlargement to motivate employees. Both these approaches allow an employee to explore and use their strengths and also beat work monotony. These also help skill development and enhancement which in turn helps employee output, team output and eventually organization output.

In conclusion, engaged employees create quality output not because they have to or are forced to but because they want to, because they see a clear linkage between their work and the organization vision and results.

1847
Employee Engagement / How to Engage Women Employees ?
« on: April 25, 2012, 04:28:58 PM »
   

There has been a flurry of conferences, studies and researching on why women employees are likely to leave their companies earlier as compared to men employees. Why is the number of unhappy female employees growing? Why great leaders are unsuccessful in retaining women employees even after spending a lot of money, time and effort?

Although women show more stability than men when it comes to their job but recent studies have shown that the number of unhappy and unsatisfied women is on a continuous increase. Unlike men, women prefer to explore multiples work areas and different jobs instead of going up vertically. They desire for widening their horizons and perspectives rather than going up on mere designations. Despite this strange characteristic of theirs, organisations these days are finding a lot of difficulties in retaining their women employees.

Most women when decide to move, the most common reason is their family. They mostly engage their families while making a decision to move whereas the matter with the men is absolutely different. According to various independent surveys, men associate their leaving of company with the imbalance and unrest in their families. They tend to think that their low or no income would upset their family dynamics.

The women when decide to quit, the chances of their resuming the work are extremely low. Economic instability or crisis may compel them to work again but under normal circumstances, it is almost negligible.

While the number of women employees is continuously on increase, organisations can not afford to keep employee retention on the back burner. They should actively involve them in finding what really disengages women employees and make them quit and even if it is their family behind their decision, organisations should come up with something that can motivate them to resume work.

“How to engage women employees and retain them” is the question that most organisations are facing today. The question points out the need of keeping the women employees engaged and fulfilling all their specific needs and requirements to keep them motivated to pursue their career and take it to the next level no matter what.

Companies that do not make effort in retaining their women employees have already lost some of their business or will certainly lose out in the coming years. The reason being, the women employees nowadays are also a part of top and middle management. Their one decision to quit the organisation can have a severe impact on the working as well as business of the organisation.

Providing them more meaningful tasks depending upon their comfort level, affirming their contribution, giving them an open, collaborative and innovative environment, engaging them in challenging tasks, keeping the doors open when they feel the need to work after delivering the baby or raising their kids and coming up with the options to help them take care of their family, especially kids can keep them motivated to work and perform their best.

Moreover, women prefer working in the environment where there are least hierarchies. Therefore, designing the work that engages everyone equally can help a great deal in engaging and retaining women employees.

1848
   

Why companies around the world are cutting back on their financial-incentive or reward programmes? Why they have been looking out for some other techniques to inspire and motivate their employees? Is it economic slump or something else?

Well, it has been revealed that employees who have achieved a financial stability to some extent require non-financial motivators that can offer them freedom to take their work-related decision, let them feel accountable for whatever they do, inspire them to take up challenges and enhance their overall personality.

People with satisfactory salaries along with few perks look for non-monetary initiatives from the organisation that can help them acquire new skills in professional contexts. Indeed, organisations need to focus more on balancing the financial and nonfinancial motivators. Short-term rewards can boost their energy and motivate them to perform their jobs in the best possible manner whereas long-term benefits help them retain in the organisation for long.

The various studies conducted by global management consulting firms have revealed that after financial incentives, the second biggest motivators are praise from the immediate supervisors and managers, an opportunity to lead a particular task or responsibility and attention from top management.

Non-financial motivators can be more effective for a certain set of employees but the importance of financial incentives cannot be understated. They are equally important. In such a scenario, management should try and establish custom made perks and motivators to enhance employee engagement.

As there are different types of individuals working in the organisation who have different needs and ways to weigh their motivators. Some look for more and more money while some for other things related to their professional and personal development. Motivating employees in the short run is not a big deal what is more challenging is to make them to stay in the organisation.

Strong talent management and establishing a balanced incentive programme are required to retain people and enhance their involvement, engagement and satisfaction level. According to a McKinsey Survey, employee motivation and engagement is sagging tremendously in companies around the globe. They make frequent job switches. This has compelled more than 70 percent of the organisations to adjust their motivation and reward programmes. They have cited that dropping employee motivation is the main reason behind the alteration and modification of their reward and motivation strategies.

In this economic slump, when it is hard to find cash, organisations need to rework on their strategies to cut back on financial-incentives. Understanding the needs of employees can also help them restructure their policies. In order to win commitment from the managers, companies need to have non-financial motivators such as delegating the responsibility, autonomy to make decisions and support from management in case they are going through a bad phase in their personal life.

For low level managers and bottom-line employees, financial incentives certainly matter a lot. The HR people should design such a system that they can make the best of the incentives they receive from the company. Besides this, several other programs to help them in financial crisis can be a great idea. Opening a school for their children supporting free or subsidised education can be one of the initiatives to make them stay with the organisation.

1849
Employee Engagement / Employee Engagement Trends Across the World
« on: April 25, 2012, 04:27:45 PM »


It has always been a challenge to hire, retain and reward the best talent. Even in 2012, the conditions are almost similar. Although the economy is showing a few signs of recovery but it will not be possible for employers to go back to their usual way of operating business. They still have a long way to go to achieve that kind of liberty again but now till then their biggest concern should be to improve and enhance the levels of employee engagement in order to sustain and grow in today’s highly volatile business environment.

With the beginning of the year 2012, both organisations and individuals continue to be challenged. Since the economy has not recovered to a considerable extent, the organisations will face immense pressure to hold down their operating costs. But on the other hand, they will have to make investment on all possible ways to attract, recruit and retain the best industry talent.

While companies will have to manage their operations ensuring the optimum utilisation of resources, the individuals will need to try to associate them with an organisation where all their monetary and career requirements are fulfilled. Even if they face a slight cut back in their perks and other facilities, they will have to perform their best in order to help top people improve the financial standing of the company.

Over the past few years, both organisations and individuals have faced the aftermaths of economic crisis. Started in 2008, it had its impact on almost everyone in every corner of the world. Even highly productive organisations offering excellent facilities and employees reward programmes had to struggle to maintain their established trends. Even they had to cut back a few things in order to create a balance. In 2012 also, it will continue to challenge the organisations.

Employee Engagement Trends


Usually, there are a few main employee engagement drivers that motivate employees to work harder and perform better. These include quality of life, people such as senior managers, peers, colleagues and subordinates, career and personal development opportunities, company policies and practices, company reputation and total rewards including, pay, additional benefits and perks.

Different employees rank these factors at different levels. This means that for some career opportunities may be the biggest factor of being associated with the company while for some money is the driving factor. Many people want to work for a reputed organisation whereas some prefer a better working environment over anything else. Preferences differ. They depend upon the regions and backgrounds they belong to and of course, their personal thought process and mind setup.

In Asia Pacific region, career opportunities are ranked first. It is followed by brand alignment, recognition, pay and HR practices respectively. In European countries, of course career opportunities rank first but their second preference is good HR practices. These two are followed by brand alignment, pay and recognition respectively.

In North America, again the career opportunities are ranked first by the employees followed by performance management, organisation reputation, brand alignment and then recognition. Overall, people prefer career opportunities over any other thing no matter where companies are operating. Regardless of their backgrounds and regions, this is something that every working professional looks for. Therefore, organisations will have to create excellent opportunities for their employees to make them stay and grow with it.

1850

Numerous management studies and researches support the proposal that there exists a relationship between employee engagement and customer satisfaction. It has been observed that the actively engaged employees are extremely loyal towards their organisation and are always ready to walk that extra mile to ensure success for their company.

The studies such as ‘Loyalty Effects’ show that when people have a sense of belongingness towards their workplace and feel great about being associated with it, they provide better customer service. They treat them as a company and therefore, strive to achieve excellence in whatever they do to serve customers better. Employee engagement correlates positively with customer satisfaction and increased productivity of the organisation as a whole.

As employees are considered the internal customers of an organisation, their satisfaction level plays an important role in keeping the company in good health. When they are satisfied, it is obvious that they will treat the external customers including buyers and end users in the best possible manner.

It is guaranteed that customers keep coming back when they are treated well. Not only this, it also helps in growing the loyalty level of customers towards the company.

Experts say that every company that is looking to sustain in this ever changing business world must try to enhance the engagement level of their employees and those who want to take their business to the level must make a dedicated effort and figure out the way of engaging almost every employee of the organisation. Employee commitment towards their job keeps them engaged and results in high levels of satisfaction.

The productivity of an organisation not only depends on the time the employees spend in the company but it also takes into account the effort they put in executing their jobs ensuring the optimal use of resources. This in turn helps them grow and acquire more skills.

Organisation must have a proper system of building the careers of its highly engaged employees to their spirits up and motivate them to perform their best always. Employee engagement depends upon how effectively and efficiently the systems and procedures of the organisation are followed. Just having well defined procedures is not enough; in fact, they need to be duly followed and upgraded from time to time.

When companies make efforts to enhance the employee engagement levels, they automatically work towards improving customer satisfaction. The studies have revealed that organisations working on this aspect have experienced a significant decrease in the rate of employee turnover.

Companies like Born experienced a downfall of 48 percent in employee turnover rate. Earlier it was 50 percent which has now reduced up to 2 percent. Monsanto found out in a survey that the strongest factors that can influence customer satisfaction dramatically include employee satisfaction and employee work-life balance.

Sun Microsystems has also found out that their actively engaged employees recommend the company as the best place to work. This has resulted in increased employee satisfaction, low employee turnover rate, increased customer loyalty and increased pool of potential employees.

The studies conducted by all these and other Fortune 500 companies have put a stamp on the idea that there is a positive link between the employee engagement and customer satisfaction.

1851
Employee Engagement / Reasons to Conduct Employee Engagement Survey
« on: April 25, 2012, 04:26:04 PM »

Conducting employee engagement survey in order to find out the involvement and willingness of employees to perform their jobs and contribute to the success of their organisation is not a new idea; however, it has become more popular than ever. The reason being, nowadays, managers are keener in knowing what actually can engage or disengage employees.

Various independent researches and specific investigations carried out by organisations have shown that there is a direct link between the employee engagement and the productivity and profitability of an organisation. Apart from this, it has been found out that employees who actively respond to the questions of employee engagement survey are enthusiastically engaged in their jobs and want to offer their feedbacks as well as put forward the problems and challenges that they usually come across while performing their jobs when asked.

On the other hand, the employees who do not take the questions of employee engagement survey seriously and take it like any other questionnaire are not engaged in their jobs. It can be said that either they are unhappy with their job profile and organisation or they are under the impression that their feedback doesn’t matter as it can’t change their present circumstances.

The main aim of conducting an employee engagement survey is to find out the factors that actually drive employees to perform their best and also the ones that can put them off. It is important in order to establish sync between what top management offers and what employees expect or vice versa.

The highly productive organisations keep on conducting employee engagement surveys from time to time so that they can design or redesign the already established policies and implement key changes in order to increase the efficiency, output, involvement, dedication and productivity of employees. Not only this, it also helps them in retaining the best talent within the organisation. Moreover, when companies focus on the problem, they come up with effective solutions which significantly increase the number of engaged employees, resulting in a considerable increase in their productivity and organisation’s profitability.

Employee engagement also establishes a comprehensive two-way communication process overcoming all barriers. A study of engagement and involvement of employees certainly helps in taking the business to the next level establishing a strong work culture. The surveys definitely work provided companies assess the employee feedback, understand their requirements, work on designing new policies and practices and commit to implement them otherwise; there is no meaning of such surveys. They are not only wastage of time and money but also play with the feelings of employees who actually look at them a way to communicate their views and opinions to their immediate managers and top management.

Once top management decides to conduct an employee engagement survey, the next step is to consider what type of survey and questionnaire format should be chosen in order to get maximum possible results. The companies may seek advice from professional management consultants to decide the most appropriate type of employee engagement survey considering the nature of their business and the level they are operating it. Conducting a survey under professional guidance will show greater results.

1852

How to tap the potential of employees who are not actively engaged or are disengaged? Yes, the management studies conducted over last few years have revealed that only 11 percent of the total employee strength is actively engagement and feels a strong commitment towards their work and workplace. The rest 89 percent of the employees are either not actively engaged or disengaged. This means that the organisations are able to tap the potential of only 11 percent employees. Encouraging the rest of the workforce is still a big challenge for them.

Any organisations looking to bring the best out of their employees and engage them thoroughly in their job must prioritise its response towards the various needs of its employees. To align their response, they can utilise the Maslow’s Hierarchy model.

Maslows Hierarchy


Response of the Organisation

Biological and Physiological Needs:
These are basic human needs including food, water and shelter. Organisations can buy them lunch, offer gift cards and give time off for necessary day-to-day tasks. It not only makes their life easier but also gives them a chance to retain with the organisation.

Safety Needs:
Safety needs include good shelter, protection, safety, security, law and order and stability. Once human beings have enough for food, water and shelter, they want to live a comfortable and safe life. Again the mantra of keeping them with the organisation is to pay. Pay for food and loan them an amount to build their own home or buy a vehicle. Organisations can also support their children education.

Belonging Needs:
It is a basic human need that they always want to be associated with something. They want to belong and to be belonged. The managers can establish friendly relationships with their subordinates so that they feel that they are an important asset of the organisation and they add value to it. Including them in decision making process or any other sensitive issue springing up within the workplace is a good idea. Also involve them in improvement teams where they really can contribute something substantial.

Self Esteem:
According to Maslow’s Hierarchy model, the fourth stage of one’s life is to attain a status in the society as well as in professional life. Besides this, a sense of achievement and recognition of their efforts play a vital role. Organisations which are successful in recognising the efforts of employees and reward them for their performance and contribution are able to retain their talent. Issuing newsletters recognising their contribution or giving a think you card or awarding them with a trophy can serve the purpose.

Self Actualisation:
It is the last stage in the Maslow’s Hierarchy model that is about growth and fulfilment in personal and professional life. By this time, individuals are well settled in life and are able to contribute through their work experiences. It is the time when organisations can make them feel empowered by giving them leadership authority, autonomy to take decisions and training opportunities.

Employee engagement is a science as well as an art. It takes into account all tangible and intangible factors related to human life directly or indirectly.

1853
Employee Engagement / Zinger Model of Employee Engagement
« on: April 25, 2012, 04:20:06 PM »
An expert on engagement, David Zinger is a Canadian based management consultant whose work is designed to fostering relationships to increase the employee engagement in your organisation. With an experience of more than 25 years in this field, he is able to combine the current researches with practical approaches in order achieve substantial results.

Based on his extensive and thorough work on employee engagement, he has introduced a workable model that throws light on various aspects of employee involvement, dedication and engagement. The model is called Zinger Model on Employee Engagement. The model provides organisations with 12 keys that a manager must follow to achieve significant results.

Zinger Model of Employee Engagement





    Achieve Results:
Achieving the desired results, i.e., higher levels of employee engagement is the ultimate aim of the Zinger model; however, the process is well supported by various other steps. The managers need to work on self as well as the employees of the company through well crafted strategies.

    Craft Strategies:
Crafting appropriate strategies to achieve higher levels of employee engagement is the first and foremost task. It involves a lot of planning and considerations of employee as well as organisational requirements. Managers can seek helps from professional management consultants in order to craft effective strategies.

    Enliven Roles:
Employees will love their work when it seems interesting to them. Managers should work on redefining their tasks and responsibilities in a manner that eliminates the element of boredom from their job to keep them interested in their work.

    Excel at Work:
Motivating employees to perform work certainly pays off. An organisation must have a system for recognising and rewarding employees for their efforts so that they remain stimulated to perform better and better.

    Get Connected:
Managers must remain connected to their subordinates so that they can share their problems and ask for advice to perform their tasks. Communication is the backbone of every managerial process.

    Be Authentic:
Being real and genuine is what is expected from a leader. Top management, HR people as well as immediate managers should show genuine concern towards the problems of employees and make dedicate efforts to help them get rid of it.

    Live Recognition:
Recognising the efforts of employees in front of everyone not only boost their moral but also encourages them to stay with the organisation and perform their best always.

    Fully Engage:
The desired results can be achieved in the fastest possible way only if employees are fully engage. A comprehensive study about what actually engages or disengages the employees must be conducted. Designing and implementing appropriate strategies is the next step.

    Identify with Organisation:
Employees stay in organisation for long years if they feel connected to their organisation. Management should understand that they are their most important assets without which nothing can be achieved.

    Serve Customers:
Only engaged employees can serve their customers in the best possible manner. Maintain a tradition and culture to offer the best services to the customers. Making employees aware of this tradition of the organisation from time to time can help a great deal.

    Develop Personally:
Organisation should not only focus on attaining its goal but also on the overall development of an employee. Employees who grow with the organisation are deeply connected to their workplace and always ready to walk that extra mile to achieve success for it.

    Attain Happiness:
Happy and satisfied employees are the most important assets of an organisation. The secret behind the success of highly productive businesses is their happy employees.

David Zinger Model on Employee Engagement considers all important aspects that could impact the involvement, engagement and dedication of employees.

1854

Experts say that the engagement, involvement and satisfaction of the employees should be the biggest concern of the organisations. When they are actively engaged, it can directly affect the productivity and financial standing of the company. While it may not directly add to your profits but it certainly helps in several indirect ways.

There are numerous indicators that show that employee engagement has a strong impact on the financial performance of a company. However, the direct results are still debatable. There have been umpteen numbers of studies showing the link between employee engagement and financial profitability of an organisation but none of them produces sufficient evidences to establish it as a hard core fact.

Let’s take a glance at those factors related to employee engagement that indirectly contribute to the profitability of an organisation.

Indicators of Improved Financial Performance

Increased Productivity


When employees like to do what they are assigned, they are completely involved in their job to perform their best and bring desired results. The survey conducted by Hay Group, a global management consulting firm, revealed that engaged workforce are 40 percent more productive than those who are not engaged. When engagement level among employees increases, it increases their productivity which in turn, improves the financial standing of the organisation. Although the financial performance is not directly related to the employee engagement levels but it is believed that it is the main reason behind it.

Lower Employee Turnover


When employees are engaged in their jobs and are fully satisfied with their career as well as their organisation, they grow with it. There can be two main reasons why they look for alternatives. One, they are not interested in doing what is assigned to them and two, they are not happy with the organisation. But when they like their workplace, they stay with it and grow as it grows. This decreases the cost of finding new employees and training them from the beginning to perform a specific task. Without spending much time on training new employees, an organisation can continue to move forward with its existing employees without affecting the pace of business operations.

Improved Customer Satisfaction


When employees love their job, they will make every effort and go extra mile to offer complete assistance to the customers. The studies conducted by consulting firms and universities have shown the link between the employee engagement and customer satisfaction. This means when employees are satisfied, they happily serve customers resolving all their queries and doubts. They offer them genuine consultation and guidance. This helps in establishing long term relationships with the customers. It in turn, increases the number of loyal customers which is again a good sign for the organisation as a whole.

Besides this, there are many other factors that go into the productivity and profitability of an organisation. But like the above mentioned, they lack evidence for establishing a cause and effect or direct relationship between employee engagement and company’s financial performance. Besides this, there are numerous other factors apart from employee engagement level that have a strong impact on the financial status of a company. This is not the only one but is one of the most important ones.

1855
Employee Engagement / Hewitt Employee Engagement Measure
« on: April 25, 2012, 04:15:31 PM »

Headquartered in Lincolnshire, Illinois in United States, Hewitt Associates was a global management consulting and HR outsourcing firm. Established in 1940, the firm delivered a wide range of HR and management services to the companies across the world to in managing their Human resource operations, policies and procedures, enhancing the level of employee engagement and involvement and improving their overall management.

The firm later on in 2010 was purchased by Aon Corporation and since then the new subsidiary of Aon Group is known as Aon Hewitt.

Hewitt conducted a research on employee engagement in year 2007 and published a report mentioning that the best employers have earned their ranks and reputation because of high level of employee engagement. The study revealed that more than 77 percent of the employees were actively engaged in highly productive organizations as compared with 50 percent at other organizations.

Hewitt included almost 10,000 employees working in Canada in more than 120 organizations in the survey and revealed some specific traits of the best employers. These traits included the lower turnover rates, better financial platform and ease of attracting new talent. The consulting firm revealed the fact that employee engagement is not only about creating loyal or satisfied employees but it extends to the state of intellectual and emotional involvement and a strong sense of commitment of the workforce.

Specific Traits of the Best Employers


    Ease of Attracting New Employees


    The best employers have an easy access to the best industry talent. Because of their reputation, they can attract more than 100 applications for each job posted whereas an average company doesn’t receive more than 30 applications for a particular job.

    This is the ratio when a job is advertised externally. When it comes to employee references, they have ample choices and therefore, have a strict internal employee reference policy; whereas, this is hardly the case with average employers. They may have choices but the number of references is very low.

    Low Employee Turnover Rates


    It was found out that the rate of voluntary employee turnover rate for full time employees was approximately 9 percent with the best employers. When it comes to part-time or home-based jobs, the employee turnover rate was around22 percent.

    An average organization faces approximately 13 percent voluntary employee turnover annually for full time staff whereas for home-based or part-time staff the percentages goes up to 34 percent.

    Better Financial Platform


    Higher employee engagement levels in best companies benefit their financial status ultimately. When employees are completely engaged in their jobs, they are more productive. They are able to fulfill all customer requirements plus handle all their queries and issues with complete enthusiasm. This in turn increases the customer loyalty towards the organization.

    The study revealed that the annual growth rate in service and sales experienced by the best employers was 13 percent approximately whereas average employers experienced an increase of only 5 percent in their net sales.

Although the study was conducted in year 2007, but it still holds its effectiveness in the current scenario also. It has been a challenge in front of the managers to increase the employee engagement levels and take their organization to the next level.

1856

Employee engagement has been linked with almost every aspect of management in some or other form. Although there are not enough evidences to support a direct relationship between them but several factors show that they are indirectly connected with each other. In the same way, the hygiene and motivation factors have also been associated with employee management. In fact, they have proven to be dependable and unswerving predictors of the level of involvement and engagement of employees towards their jobs.

Motivation factors are intrinsic conditions that influence the level of employee engagement. They have the ability to satisfy one’s own psychological needs including sense of achievement, personal and professional growth, proficiency and status in the organization. The psychological fulfillment at any stage of an individual’s career plays a vital role in determining his or her involvements and commitment towards their work as well as the organization.

Hygienic factors, on the other hand, are considered the extrinsic conditions that motivate employees to perform their best and feel committed towards their work. The factors such as working conditions, organizational culture, remuneration, perks and benefits, job security and relationship with colleagues and subordinates and immediate supervisors play an important role and make them stay within the organization and grow with it.


Motivation Factors


    Recognition:
It is the prime responsibility of an organization to recognize the efforts made by employees. Along with its HR department and a reputed management firm, it should establish a well-defined reward and recognition program.

    Employee Empowerment:
Employees should be given an autonomy to make their work related decisions. This helps them perform the task in the best possible manner. Moreover, this gives them a platform to be creative and perform an assigned task in a unique manner.

    Career Progression:
The talent is attracted to work with only those organizations that can help them build up a career. Organizations must have clear and well defined policies regarding the career progression of its employees.

    Personal and Professional Growth:
This is something that motivates employees to work harder and perform their best. If they see their personal and professional growth with the organization, they will stay and develop a feeling of belongingness towards the organization.

    Interesting and Challenging Work:
Different tasks must be assigned to employees at different times. Managers should try to assign them interesting and challenging tasks that motivates them to do something different from their routine job and feel a sense of achievement.

    Sense of Achievement:
Last, but not the least, the sense of achievement gives psychological fulfillment to any individual at the end of the day. Organizations can help their employees achieving this feeling by recognizing and rewarding their efforts.

Hygiene Factors


    Remuneration and Benefits:
The wages and additional benefits are the first requirement to attract a pool of talent and actively engage them in their jobs.

    Job Security:
Individuals want to associate themselves with only those organizations where they can have job security. Highly productive and most reputed private firms are far more popular than government sector companies just because they offer good compensation, job security and excellent working conditions.

    Relationships with Peers, Subordinates and Seniors:
It is the basic need of an individual to belong and to be belonged. Cordial relationship with other employees at the workplace creates a positive work environment. Employees do not hesitate in offering or seeking help from others to execute an assigned task in the best possible manner.

    HR Policies and Procedures:
HR policies and procedures of a company reveal a lot about its working. Companies with well defined HR policies attract a bigger pool of talent as well as is successful in keeping their employees actively engaged.




1857

Various independent and organisation based studies have revealed that employee engagement is the heart and soul of the change management process. Multiple researches at highly productive and reputed organisations seeking new competitive advantages in this ever changing business environment have exposed that the higher level of engagement, involvement and dedication of employees is the primary requirement to successfully implement a change initiative taken by the management.

Most of the employees are reluctant to change and there can be various reasons behind it. But if an organisation is not considering implementing and bringing change just for the sake of it, it needs to take the reluctance of employees in to account and take essential steps to help them understand its necessity and benefits in a manner that brings positive results. The dedicated employees who always look forward to take challenges may not be as much reluctant as ‘not engaged’ and disengaged employees. Translating employee reluctance in their keenness is so important to bring the required change and establish it until the next is required.

While there is no single clear link between employee engagement and change management but various themes and interpretations can be extracted depending upon the studies and researches conducted by the organisations and change management experts. It is believed that the greater the employees are engaged, the more likely they would go an extra mile to deliver the best performance and adopt various changes implemented in the organisation. Their fondness towards the organisation, their dedication towards their work, their keenness to achieve more and their job satisfaction support all business processes that are related to bring a change. If employees are actively engaged in their job, they will readily support the change management initiative taken by the management.

Employee engagement has been listed as a primary requirement to the success of a change management process. Of course, a proper communication channel and vigilant project management are the backbone of any business function. But where employee engagement, involvement, dedication, ownership and accountability are built, things become relatively easier. However, it doesn’t mean that organisation can take it easy and assume that engaged employees will always welcome a change initiative. The moment they feel that it is not bringing a positive change in their way of working, organisational culture, work environment or their overall personality development, they will be reluctant to take it further and be a part of it.

The organisation needs to carefully communicate it so that employees interpret in the similar manner as it has been communicated. Until both top management and employees are on the same side and think alike about a specific change initiative, it is almost impossible to take it to the next level and implement it. The organisations can’t dictate their terms; rather they will have to welcome suggestions and ideas from the employees and strike a right balance in order to implement it. No matter how small or big the change is, it requires careful action planning and follow-up at each step of the process.

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What if you could attract your competitor’s best employee for few extra bucks? Sounds easier than done! Attracting high-worth individuals from the competitors is not everyone’s cup of tea. Targeting them and finally hiring them is the test of your competencies experience, personal traits and brain application. This is where the strategic approach plays an important role. A full-fledged department, precisely Talent Management (a part of HRD), especially dedicated to the purpose is required to recognize, source and poach them. However the process doesn’t finish here. It is a never-ending course of action that requires continuous effort. Let’s read further to explore and understand the concept.

Talent Management, as the name itself suggests is managing the ability, competency and power of employees within an organization. The concept is not restricted to recruiting the right candidate at the right time but it extends to exploring the hidden and unusual qualities of your employees and developing and nurturing them to get the desired results. Hiring the best talent from the industry may be a big concern for the organizations today but retaining them and most importantly, transitioning them according to the culture of the organization and getting the best out of them is a much bigger concern.

Talent Management in organizations is not just limited to attracting the best people from the industry but it is a continuous process that involves sourcing, hiring, developing, retaining and promoting them while meeting the organization’s requirements simultaneously. For instance, if an organization wants the best talent of its competitor to work with it, it needs to attract that person and offer him something that is far beyond his imagination to come and join and then stick to the organization. Only hiring him does not solve the purpose but getting the things done from him is the main task. Therefore, it can be said that talent management is a full-fledged process that not only controls the entry of an employee but also his or her exit.

We all know that it’s people who take the organization to the next level. To achieve success in business, the most important thing is to recognize the talent that can accompany you in achieving your goal. Attracting them to work for you and strategically fitting them at a right place in your organization is the next step. It is to be remembered that placing a candidate at a wrong place can multiply your problems regardless of the qualifications, skills, abilities and competency of that person. How brilliant he or she may be, but placing them at a wrong place defeats your sole purpose. The process of talent management is incomplete if you’re unable to fit the best talent of the industry at the place where he or she should be.

Some organizations may find the whole process very unethical especially who are at the giving end (who loses their high-worth employee). But in this cut-throat competition where survival is a big question mark, the whole concept sounds fair. Every organization requires the best talent to survive and remain ahead in competition. Talent is the most important factor that drives an organization and takes it to a higher level, and therefore, can not be compromised at all. It won’t be exaggerating saying talent management as a never-ending war for talent!

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Talent Management / Benefits of Talent Management
« on: April 25, 2012, 04:06:17 PM »

Talent management can be a discipline as big as the HR function itself or a small bunch of initiatives aimed at people and organization development. Different organizations utilize talent management for their benefits. This is as per the size of the organization and their belief in the practice.

It could just include a simple interview of all employees conducted yearly, discussing their strengths and developmental needs. This could be utilized for mapping people against the future initiatives of the company and for succession planning. There are more benefits that are wide ranged than the ones discussed above. The benefits are:

    Right Person in the right Job:
Through a proper ascertainment of people skills and strengths, people decisions gain a strategic agenda. The skill or competency mapping allows you to take stock of skill inventories lying with the organization. This is especially important both from the perspective of the organization as well as the employee because the right person is deployed in the right position and employee productivity is increased. Also since there is a better alignment between an individual’s interests and his job profile the job satisfaction is increased.

    Retaining the top talent:
Despite changes in the global economy, attrition remains a major concern of organizations. Retaining top talent is important to leadership and growth in the marketplace. Organisations that fail to retain their top talent are at the risk of losing out to competitors. The focus is now on charting employee retention programs and strategies to recruit, develop, retain and engage quality people. Employee growth in a career has to be taken care of, while succession planning is being performed those who are on the radar need to be kept in loop so that they know their performance is being rewarded.

    Better Hiring:
The quality of an organization is the quality of workforce it possesses. The best way to have talent at the top is have talent at the bottom. No wonder then talent management programs and trainings, hiring assessments have become an integral aspect of HR processes nowadays.

    Understanding Employees Better:
Employee assessments give deep insights to the management about their employees. Their development needs, career aspirations, strengths and weaknesses, abilities, likes and dislikes. It is easier therefore to determine what motivates whom and this helps a lot Job enrichment process.

    Better professional development decisions:
When an organization gets to know who its high potential is, it becomes easier to invest in their professional development. Since development calls for investment decisions towards learning, training and development of the individual either for growth, succession planning, performance management etc, an organization remains bothered where to make this investment and talent management just make this easier for them.

Apart from this having a strong talent management culture also determines how organization rate their organizations as work places. In addition if employees are positive about the talent management practices of the organization, they are more likely to have confidence in the future of their organization. The resultant is a workforce that is more committed and engaged determined to outperform their competitors and ensure a leadership position in the market for their organization.

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Talent Management / Financial Benefits of Talent Management
« on: April 25, 2012, 04:05:13 PM »

There are pros and cons of every management philosophy and the associated processes. Talent management is no exception to it. While many organizations simply decline to have it under their umbrella because it costs the exchequer, still others approve of it equally strongly as an effective people management process.

Before we discuss the financial benefits of talent management the following may be of our interest and worth a thought:

    Most of the organizations are short sighted, when it comes to people management.

    People management may not go well with pure capitalists.

    Organizations and industries are growing at a fast pace, faster than the rate at which talent is produced.

    There is dearth of talented and skilled professionals both at the top as well as bottom.

    Due to cut throat competition and a consequent lack of talented professionals the attrition rates have increased across all industries, especially so in services industry.

    Poaching has become common place; employee retention has become the Achilles heel of corporations.

All the above mentioned statements clearly indicate that the talent is unable to keep pace with the growing industry and also that the industry has failed to breed the pool of talented individuals as per its requirements. A fast industry growth meant that there would be a need for talented professionals for upcoming avenues and unfortunately corporate seemed to miss out on this. Business houses nowadays have diversified interests in different industries, employment opportunities are fast coming up but unfortunately the talent is pool is shrinking. This tells upon the finances of an organization in a big way.

Let’s see how.


Less attrition means lesser expenditure on hiring: BPO’s and start ups, for example where the attrition rate is the highest remain occupied in searching for people every now and then. Now this incurs financial losses to the organization. An organization not only pays an employee for his/her work but also spends a considerable amount on their training and development. There is transfer of skill and expertise and when the same employee leaves after a brief stint with the organization, it costs the latter.

The problem gets even worse when such a scenario occurs at the top level. An unoccupied executive position can cost an organization dearly. The solution - a proper talent management in place can solve this problem. The following facts become worth consideration here:

    New employees cost the company 30-60 % more than the existing employee in terms of compensation only.

    There is an additional cost incurred on training and developing the new individual.

    The process of recruitments itself costs an organization in a big way, right from advertising a post, to attracting talent and finally short listing and hiring someone for the job. Often there is a compromise in hiring when the need is urgent.


Organizations clearly need to look inside for solutions and design and develop better employee retention, rewards and recognition strategy. Performance management needs to be taken care of.

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