Building a culture of ownership within the workforce is a gradual process, as it involves trust, patience, empathy and a deep understanding of skill sets that will garner long-term results and growth. Although fostering a culture of ownership within an organisation may appear to be a Herculean task, if done with the right intent, it can do wonders for the organisations in terms of achieving their goals. It’s all about trust As Ramesh Shankar S, senior HR leader, Hrishti, puts it, “Ownership culture in any organisation is based on day-to-day behaviour rooted in trust and empowerment. This permits both the…
Author: Aliya Abbas Bhattacharya | HRkatha
A very interesting yet intriguing post is doing the rounds on social media, where a candidate and his interviewer are pulling up each other over the use of ‘Hey’ in a WhatsApp message! What would seem like a harmless form of greeting to many apparently led to an argument between the two parties involved. The employee who starts his WhatsApp message greeting the boss with a ‘Hey’ wasn’t prepared for the boss’ reaction at all. The latter clearly took offence to the casual greeting and proceeded to explain why such language is “unprofessional”. The language used by the new generations…
A small group of people chatting over lunch or during coffee break at the workplace, is normal and fine, and rather acceptable. However, such chats can become a cause of concern if this same bunch of people gets access to the management and begins influencing them. This phenomena is called the coterie system. The ‘coterie’ or ‘darbar’ system was part of ancient society and culture. A ‘coterie’ is simply a small group of people with shared interests, usually exclusive of others, who managed to influence rulers and kings. Coteries exist even today. The only thing is that times have changed and…
While ‘team leader’ sounds very inspirational, the phrase ‘team manager’ has a more authoritarian ring to it. That is because, in the domain of management, a team leader is known to inspire and motivate, while the team manager dictates and directs. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean that a manager is a villain or that a team leader is an angel. Also, the organisation needs both. Differentiating the two further, senior HR professional, Satyendra Malik, explains, “Team leaders are the ones who inspire the teams by walking the talk and showing the way. They are the subject matter experts, while managers are…
In the United States Navy Sea, Air, and Land Teams, commonly known as Navy SEALs, preference is given to trust over performance during hiring and promotions despite the fact that they have a high performing job and in high pressure situations. However in the performance oriented corporate sector, does the same rule apply. In fact it will be interesting to gather opinion from Indian corporate leaders, whether or not they believe in this proposition – Trust over performance. Every company would like to hire a person who stands tall on both the parameters –performance and trust. However, that’s a very…
Loneliness at the workplace is so rampant across organisations that it has started affecting the bottom line. An analysis by Cigna in 2020, suggests that loneliness cost employers in the US more than $154 billion per year in lost productivity, due to absenteeism. That means, loneliness is an ailment, which affects not just individuals, but the organisation as a whole. Therefore, it is high time companies started worrying about it. Unlike what is commonly believed, loneliness is not just restricted to solo players, even people who work in teams can be impacted by this bug. It only implies that people…
They say, ‘Big journeys begin by inculcating micro-habits’. It is true that small changes make it easier to implement innovative and productive habits that give long-term benefits. These micro-habits, which are small habits practised on a daily basis, have the power to help break bad habits too. The adjustments are natural, which come over a time and eventually end up being a normal part of the routine, whether at work or at home. “For the company to grow, each and every department has to perform and everyone has to contribute in a big way. This can only happen when every…
There’s a thin line between surveillance and snooping but at times, the companies cross this without realising where to stop. The implications of this on the employees are many. Industry experts believe that keeping a tab on employees in work-related matters is important to understand the progress that the company is making, holistically. However, overdoing this does have its repercussions, especially in the form of distrust between the employers and their employees. “How much is too much? Where should the line be drawn?” HR Katha asks experts. With the information technology (IT) boom, employers seem to have more power when…
Let’s go back a little in history. Prior to the introduction of the Employees’ State Insurance Act, 1948, under the Ministry of Labour and Employment, any kind of employee benefits was only practised among manufacturing units with more than 500 employees. “The employees earlier were not even provided with basic rights such as potable drinking water and washroom facilities, but with the introduction of the Act, things changed for good. With the introduction of more laws and involvement of Human Resources, the companies went from just not caring to sharing their earned assets with the employees,” says Anil Misra, CHRO,…
In today’s competitive world, it has become really difficult to find the right candidate with the potential to be a leader. But are emerging leaders focussed on their own progress, sought after by organisations? Yes. Looks like they are. Earlier, there used to be a common misconception that emerging leaders are not good for the company’s growth. After all, they would be focussed solely on self-growth or their individual progress, instead of helping the company grow. Now, however, with the learning and unlearning environment becoming more open and with training-on-the job becoming more vigorous, things have changed, and so have…