Author: Abhishek Singh Rana | HRKatha

The age when employees used to settle for whatever their employers offered is long past now. Today’s employees are actively seeking better pay and benefits from their employers. They are not ones to be satisfied with anything less than what they deserve. Is there a visible divide between employees’ preferences in terms of benefits and pay? For some, money is more important because it gives them the power to make their own choices. For others, the benefits that come with their pay are more important. This is because, these benefits provide additional support in their time of need, and helps…

PwC Australia recently revealed the salaries of all of its eighty thousand employees. Its report included pay brackets for Senior associates ($141,500-150,000 a year), Managers ($180,000-197,500 a year), and Senior managers ($235,100- $270,781 a year). PwC’s goal is to remain transparent about how the employee pay is determined. The company’s decision to release the wages of its employees is a rare instance in corporate world, where employees’ salary is seldom disclosed. While discussing salaries during interviews, employees usually offer their experience and unique skills hoping to negotiate a good package deal. Regardless of whether they succeed in getting what they desire,…

Is trying to relax making you anxious? While sitting back and putting up your feet, do you suddenly feel quickness of breath, or a surge in heart rate? Are you experiencing palpitations and symptoms that align with anxiety just when you lie down to sleep on a holiday? Does a sense of calm feel out of reach even when you are relaxing in solitude? Are you suffering from negative thoughts, uncertainty and constant worry when you are trying to take a break? If your answers to these questions are in the affirmative, you are stresslaxed! What is stresslaxation? In simple…

Recently, a software company, Kissflow, awarded BMW cars to five of its employees in appreciation of their loyalty and contribution. Suresh Sambandam, CEO, Kissflow, told the media that the chosen employees had been with the Company since its inception and helped the firm achieve success during the pandemic. He added that the employees belonged to humble backgrounds and had faced huge challenges at the beginning of their careers. This isn’t all. After Kissflow’s acknowledgement of its employees’ worth, an IT company, Ideas2IT, gifted 100 Maruti Suzuki cars to its employees as a reward for their hard work. The cars ranged…

Leaders are expected to be empathetic and kind toward their employees. To get the best performance out of those working under them, leaders have to be friendly and supportive so that their employees are encouraged to work hard and be responsible. The question is, is it possible for leaders to always appear genial? Can leaders be empathetic and kind to their employees always? After all, leaders are human beings too. They are bound to face situations at the workplace that may test their patience and even drive them to the edge, forcing them to show their not-so-polite self. If leaders…

Having an incompetent boss at the workplace can be very challenging. Of course, one can always quit the job and move to a new company and leave the boss and related woes far behind. But then, luck may deal another blow. The incompetent boss may follow one to the new company. Double whammy! Fortunately, such cases are few and far between. However, for those who find themselves in such a difficult situation, this can be the trigger for sleepless nights, given the history of the uneasy relationship with their former boss. Some may have even decided to move simply because…

It is very common to experience self-doubt at work when one’s confidence is low and the work too much. A feeling of failure and underachievement does set in at some point in our lives. Most of the time, we manage to get over this by motivating ourselves to work harder and looking at better prospects in the future. However, when this feeling becomes persistent, it gives birth to the Imposter Syndrome. Simply put, the Imposter Syndrome is a psychological pattern wherein people begin to lose faith in their achievements, skills and talents. They become victims of a persistent internalised fear…

In 1986, Space Shuttle Challenger burst into flames 73 seconds into its flight, killing all of its seven members aboard. An investigation into the incident revealed that the accident had taken place because the group of engineers at NASA had been unable to speak up and point out that the O seal of the shuttle was faulty and needed to be fixed. This is one of the most devastating examples of groupthink, a phenomenon wherein a group of people reach a conclusion without critical reasoning. The members of the group do not act with practical and common sense. Instead, they…

Hybrid and remote working models have certainly changed the way organisations operate post pandemic. Surely, these two models have made it easier for employees to work during difficult and uncertain workplace situations. However, they are not the only possibilities that organisations have within their reach. One of the emerging models that seems to be especially successful is the ‘open talent’ or ‘flexible’ model. In simple terms, flexible models allow organisations to use employees outside of their workforce for a limited amount of time to complete a project. ‘Open or flexible talent’ is a broad term that includes everyone, from local…

Ensuring gender equality at the workplace is one of the biggest challenges for any organisation. While many companies are struggling to have equal representation of women in their workforces and in powerful roles, Bharat Serums & Vaccines (BSV) is assiduously working to realise this future. The biopharma company has a headcount of over 1,800 employees. Nilesh Kulkarni, CHRO, Bharat Serums & Vaccines, tells HRKatha that the Company is dedicated to creating a gender-balanced workforce across its offices. Since its primary concern is women’s health and care, it believes that having more women as employees enables it to understand its target…

The definition of leadership, and what the role is meant to be, has been in flux ever since the pandemic. With the drastically-altered business landscape, not only has there been a shift of organisational priorities from work to employees, but the role of leaders has also changed significantly. A new group of people, whose efforts to bring a sense of stability and safety to their organisations during and after the Covid-19 outbreak, has been observed throughout the world, is now being referred to by a new name that defines them succinctly — consequential leaders. These leaders, from Google CEO Sundar…

Metaverse has long existed as a far-flung utopian idea rather than an achievable reality. Writer Neal Stephenson coined the term ‘metaverse’ in 1992 in his science fiction novel, Snow Crash. Simply put, a metaverse is a virtual-reality space through which people can interact with a computer-generated environment and engage with others as well. It promises an immersive experience, and includes virtual reality, augmented reality, mixed reality, extended reality and so on. In the not-so-distant future, metaverse will not only enable people to connect with each other through technology, but also go one step ahead and make their experiences feel as…

Recently, the CEO of a leading global technology company sent out an e-mail to all the employees, restricting them from posting opinions about the Ukraine – Russia war situation online. The decision to control employees’ right to express themselves is just another example of the rampant censuring of expression in big organisations. Russia’s attack on Ukraine has affected millions of lives across the two countries, and disrupted world politics. As people latch onto the daily news for the latest updates, the Internet is facing a deluge of comments, stories and write-ups on the varied takes about the war and its…

There are two kinds of employees in an organisation who excel at work in different ways — the ones who are ‘engaged’ and the ones who are ‘involved’ in their work. The two may not look different on paper, but they are actually vastly different in action. ‘Involvement’ means that the employees are not only focused on the work, but also want to add value to the organisation. Very often, people use the terms ‘employee engagement’ and ‘employee involvement’ interchangeably. They define these two terms according to what they feel is best suited for their organisation. “Engaged employees are those…

An organisation’s culture of purpose is defined by what it is and what it stands for. Its beliefs, expectations and values are separate from its overall goal of profit making. If an organisation aims to grow and expand, it needs to not only focus on building its business, but also cultivating a strong foundation of core values that positively impact everyone inside and outside its boundaries. However, this is easier said than done. Many a time, organisations forget that they even have a purpose outside of succeeding in their line of work. Their ‘purpose’ may be printed on a plaque…

People feel proud to have fancy job titles. And why shouldn’t they? After all, we all work hard to achieve stable positions of authority and power so that others can look up and aspire to be like us. Job titles tell a whole story about a person’s status and influence in a company. Anyone who has a high position within an organisation will wield a certain kind of respect that isn’t accorded to others. Our culture has long promoted this attraction to titles. A person’s importance grows with the higher positions he or she attains within an organisation. Since everyone…

On-demand learning (ODL) is a strategy that helps employees access knowledge anywhere, anytime. While the concept isn’t new, it has gained more importance in the post-pandemic era because the old methods of learning are difficult to practise in the remote and hybrid working conditions. Comprising of diverse content — videos, podcasts, blog posts, job aids and so on — it is necessary that all the material in on-demand learning be easily available to the employees. Today, with the increasingly technology-dependent world, employees want more convenient ways of accessing content, without going through multiple barriers which only interfere with the learning…

One of the principal motives of the human resources (HR) function is to look after the employees of the organisation. However, what happens when the HR personnel suffer from intense stress and burnout and begin to lose their motivation for work? It is common knowledge that stress at work leads to low performance levels and can directly or indirectly affect a person’s health. It also interferes with attention, emotional alertness and a person’s general ability to act in complex situations. If left unchecked and untreated, prolonged stress can lead to burnout —total emotional, physical and mental exhaustion. Clearly, in the…

While everyone was affected by the worldwide lockdown imposed during the early months of the coronavirus pandemic, some suffered more than the others. Employees living in rented accommodations in the cities and were forced to relocate or move back to their hometowns, as a result of their companies shutting down, felt the maximum brunt. Not all of those who had to shift to the work-from-home mode, welcomed the transition or found it convenient. After all, home could not really measure up to the comfort and smoothness offered by offices equipped with the best of technology and gadgets. Slowly and steadily,…

When evaluating their employees for leadership potential, organisations are likely to focus on the employees who have impressed them most with their performance at work. These employees are chosen early and quickly by their seniors and inducted into leadership training. It’s not surprising that organisations usually reserve the best facilities for their high-performing employees. After all, it does makes sense that employees who put in more effort and bring forth better results, be preferred over those who are medium or low performers. However, such an approach can also lead to friction among the employees, and give them a sense of…

Just two years ago, the role of team managers used to be a lot simpler. They had to lead their teams to accomplish a shared goal, and keep them disciplined while working on it. They moved from one work to another with relative ease, because the circumstances around them remained unchanged. There was no threat big enough to disrupt the daily grind. Everyone expected things to be more or less the same as time went by, with plenty of opportunities to adapt to new changes. However, the pandemic shook everything and everyone to the core. Organisations had to adapt to…

The coronavirus pandemic was hard on the working class. Not only did it render many unemployed, it nearly ate into their savings. With the lockdown getting extended, and the need for hospitalisation growing, people had to shell out money to keep themselves and their loved ones safe and breathing. They realised how important medical insurance and health cover were. Following successful vaccination drives, soon things seemed to be slowly getting back on track. Companies welcomed back employees, and even began to woo fresh talent with bonuses and other enticements. Money is primary Google, for instance, granted $1, 600 to its…

Looking for a new job can be stressful. Even candidates prepare to the best of their potential, there is always a nagging feeling at the back of their minds that something could go wrong — a verbal stumble during the interview, or a misunderstanding, or a fault in the CV— and ruin their chances of getting the job. For a person seeking work after a long while, admitting the gap in the CV may prove to be the biggest source of worry for multiple reasons. Companies are known to look at career gaps with a lot of skepticism. A career…

Chief executive officers or CEOs are the most important employees in their respective organisations for a reason. After all, they are in charge of planning and implementing long-term goals for the organisation. They are responsible for making critical decisions that affect the overall structure and well-being of the organisation, and create a vision to take it forward. “I believe in a 2+2+2, that is, any CEO must have experience in two functions, in two businesses, and in at least two different regions/countries in order to be fully capable of handling the responsibilities that come with the position.” P Dwarakanath, former…

It’s a universal fact that employees expect to be rewarded for their work. Promotions are perceived as the best way to acknowledge employees’ growth at work over the years, and to present them with responsibilities that the seniors feel they’re now capable of handling with ease. But what if the employees are not exactly pleased with a promotion and reject it? It may sound dramatic, and even a little strange. Who would even give up a chance to progress up the ranks at work? After all, isn’t success what people most want out of their professional lives? While success is…

While being responsible, diligent and hardworking may contribute to an employee’s growth curve, how an employee is perceived by others is also an equally essential contributory factor. This perception strengthens or weakens employees’ good or bad networking skills, and eventually decides their position at the workplace. Equally important are the relationships that employees form with their co-workers and seniors. Employees are unlikely to get much support as leaders, if they have made no effort in communicating with people around them. On the other hand, if employees take no time in knowing and interacting with their co-workers, they will not know…