Soft Skills

HR: Back to basics

Good people practices help dynamically align individual goals with organisational objectives. Any company that embraces fine employer principles and is committed to providing an enriching professional experience is bound to succeed, writes Upinder Zutshi.

Few leaders build truly people’s organisations. Many entrepreneurs and CEOs do not understand how to build one, or even why it is important. Others lack the necessary skills and knowledge to make it happen. Unfortunately, as companies confront inevitable business challenges, they are faced with an array of organisational problems that could have been avoided if they had known how to build a great company from the beginning.

Sounds oft beaten, but the need for people-centric organisations is gaining profound significance in today’s emerging marketplace. Retaining fresh talent and nurturing existing one is quintessential for the success of any company. While companies are going all out to woo prospective employees and retain the existing lot by salary hikes, various performance enhancement programmes, recreative programmes and other methods using the latest technology and technique, I would like to draw your attention to some basic fundamentals of HR.

Back to basics, that are being forgotten and thereby not serving the cause of an organisation. There are some primary aspects of building a people’s organisation that cannot be ignored, and is something that I have learnt in due course.

Mood of the company

The ambience of your organisation should be in sync with your culture. If you believe in people (and you better do), then the ‘air’ in your company should also reflect the same. Make sure that your work place is as exciting as the growing marketplace. Employees while leaving for the day should feel as energetic as they were while coming in at 9 am. There should be lot of energy, light and vitality in the company. If this calls for some architectural change, don’t hesitate. The look and feel of the company should be attractive, beautiful and pleasing to say the least. Your employees should tell others “why don’t you visit my office someday, it is striking”.

Be available

Being a leader or CEO, you are always running against time. But this will not augur well for the company if your employees too realise the same and don’t get to see you at regular intervals. Always be there for your employees when they need you. Be accessible, but that does not mean being physically present. It may not be possible always. So the best you can do is ensure prompt response to any query or complaint from your people. Take stock of your human resource regularly and a chat with them through the intranet will be well appreciated. A meeting once in a month can be the icing on the cake.

Enriching professional experience

Don’t ever let the feeling of stagnation sink into your employee’s head. Always remember, if your people do not grow, nor will your organisation. The end result may be high levels of attrition. A constant learning process is a must within all companies for its people. Ensure that your company has good training programmes along with lot of interactive fun and learning workshops. This is possible only with a sincere effort from you HR team, along with your supervision and guidance. Learning should be more than training, aiming at all round development of your workforce. Imagine a workforce full of motivated people who are constantly learning and ready to meet any challenge. That will be like hitting the jackpot.

Rewarding talent

Be careful here. While rewarding good performance, once should ensure that it nourishes healthy competition. An organisation should try to create balance while encouraging people to perform better.

An employee’s performance should be appreciated and rewarded, but in such a manner that is motivates his peers. It often happens that an employee is rewarded and it becomes a bone of contention between another employee and the organisation. So don’t go overboard, but also try not to be parsimonious.

Partners in growth

My company is your company. It may seem ideal, but every organisation must strive to make their employees feel they are its partners. Mere ESOPS might not work here.

Working for the company’s business should be like working for their own. This sentiment has the power to command 100 percent commitment and loyalty from your employees. A good manager may not be a good leader always. So inculcating this feeling among your people is always a challenge and should be taken head-on.

The writer is Chief Executive Officer, Infinite Computer Solutions