Feature

What smart HR managers do

Faiz Askari analyses the need for a structured approach to sourcing, assessment, onboarding, training and retention.

HR departments in most organisations have to constantly face the pressure of an expanding workforce. Smart HR managers adopt a structured approach for making their life easy while hiring new people and retaining the existing ones. This structured approach to talent management involves systematic processes at each stage of human resource management, ranging from sourcing to assessment, reference checks and to onboarding and retaining.

In the initial stage of sourcing, it is important to tap into the right and varied set of talent sources such as online job boards, Web-based communities, target companies to headhunt from, and universities/schools that nurture the right skills. Veena Gundavelli, CEO, SITI Corporation says, “Depending on the level of position, the sourcing strategy varies and it is important for recruiters to know that the success of closing a position with the right talent largely depends on the sourcing strategy and the execution. Assessment is a very objective evaluation step and needs to be predefined to shortlist the right talent,” Rahul Mulay, General Manager, Operations, Harbinger Group says, “An analysis of the current workforce demographics would give the HR manager information about the organisation’s recruitment successes and failures. Identifying the best ways to recruit and the pitfalls/failures are a smart way to approach sourcing.”

Further analysis of the exiting employees, about their age/experience distribution, tenure in the job and reasons for leaving are used to find ways to manage attrition within the current workforce. “If enough data is available, it may actually end up in a mathematical equation which can predict the attrition,” says Mulay.

HR managers clearly define systems and processes for the success of HR strategy. Once they are in place, the next step is to ensure that these systems are well complied. Vishal Chhiber, Head-HR, Kelly Services India states, “It starts from defining the job description, structuring the search accordingly and then assessing the short-listed candidates on their competence, experience and qualifications vis-a-vis the job description. Post that, the candidate is absorbed and trained within the system.” 

Correct assessment

Develop battery of tests to assess the technical competence and assess personality traits which would include behavioural patterns in a given situation. 

Assessment can be divided into several steps such as basic aptitude tests, technical assessments and HR assessments. These steps form the basic gates to pass over to reference checking, hiring and on boarding steps.

Gundavelli adds, “Successful on-boarding results into better retention rates. As part of retention, several companies adopt techniques such as assigning seniors to be mentors to the new employees, having specific people development managers to take care of new employee development, knowledge management and training, etc.”

Group discussions assess communication skills and aptitude to take a lead and participate. These are also pointers to ownership traits of an individual when assigned certain key responsibilities. 

DG Subramanian, Vice-president-HR, CSM Software states, “Validate past performance with data and evaluate the consistency of those performances. Institute a detailed background check to validate evaluation judgment. By these practices the assessment process can become more comprehensive.”  

In the current scenario all employees look at a career path within the organisation. Chhiber points out, “We endeavour to give a realistic career path to an employee at the time of joining so that the employees should look at learning on the job, upgrading his skill sets and then deliver consistent performance in the current role before looking on to move to the next level within the organisation. The appraisal process includes specific discussions on the career path which acts as a tool in the process.”  

Understanding expectations

Ensure that the “feel good factor” is infused when the candidate is inducted as an employee.  It is critical that the new entrant feels important in the new environment. 

Subramanian adds, “Assign tasks which is close to the new entrants’ key competency to instill confidence. Define performance parameters to arrest ambiguity and take them through the career options as they move forward.”  

Any new employee joins an organisation with certain set of expectations. Understanding these expectations on day one is essential to ensure a long-term relationship. And that can play a very vital role in controlling the attrition rate. 

Mulay believes that when an employee joins and looks for a quick change, there are certain areas of expectations which are not met, “A one-on-one discussion helps to identify the reasons why an employee is looking for the change. These could be simple things which can be addressed after discussing with the employee’s manager while there are some which need more time.” But once the employee understands that the company is serious about its commitment, he generally continues. 

The Indian economy is growing at a never before pace leading to lot of opportunities for the current working generation to choose from. Chhiber feels that with such growth, the biggest challenge, apart from attracting is retaining key talent. Across industries and skill-levels employee attrition is common and organisations are groping for the solutions. “Probably the right solutions would be to hire the right-fit of talent, offering meaningful and transparent reward and recognition strategies, pre-defined career paths to the extent possible and last but not the least work-life balance,”  adds Chhiber.

Career growth

The role of a clear and well-defined on-boarding policy and assessment cannot be over emphasised, more so in the current scenario. The knowledge worker of today is vibrant to the environment around him and expects transparency in terms of his interaction with his employer.  

“Herein projecting the true image of the organisation and the business at the time of joining, training (both technical and behavioural), as an investment in employee’s growth and free and fair performance assessment, does go a long way in increasing the belonging of the employee to the organisation, thereby checking the attrition rates,”  states Chhiber.

Every employee looks for interesting work, good income, opportunity to learn, career growth and a healthy and fair work environment in any job, though the order may change for different people.  Emphasising the importance of training, Mulay adds, “Training ensures that the employee gets the opportunity to learn and prepare for handling new opportunities /responsibilities. A well-designed appraisal system and periodic assessments are necessary to evaluate the performance. This also helps to plan the career growth of the employee.” 

It’s important to identify the training needs of the employees in a formal process and ensure that it is executed within defined time parameters. It’s also important to nominate employees to identified training programmes, either at customer location or recognised technical bodies. 

Subramanian states, “By and large employees look for acquiring additional skills, enhance their existing ones and they look forward to organisational support to fulfill their aspirations. It’s important that a balance is struck between employee aspiration and organisational requirement from the business perspective.” Given the right kind of exposure and training, it is believed that attrition levels can be sustained at moderate levels. 

Key challenges

Organisations need to proactively motivate the critical employees by assigning them key responsibilities, including their leadership roles. Employee engagement is also very important as it can ensure employee’s participation and it can also take ownership on responsibilities assigned to them. Subramanian states, “Keeping open communication channels with employees and facilitate interaction with top management on a defined frequency is important.”

Growing job rates coupled with tightening labour pool is the biggest contributor to high attrition rate. “Companies are forced to think out-of-the box to create more value to the employees in three areas—career growth, financial growth and job satisfaction. Companies are also forced to think about talent pools that are from rural areas that are still not caught in the job hopping culture,”  concludes Gundavelli.