Author: Kartikay Kashyap | HRKatha

The mission of Epsilon India, the digital marketing agency, is to increase the share of women employees in its workforce to around 50 per cent, by 2020. The initiative was started in 2016 when women comprised only 22 per cent of the workforce, and now the figure stands at 33 per cent. The credit for the growing number of women at Epsilon goes to interventions brought in by the Company over the last two years. While an internal audit showed that there was no difference in the progression of men and women in the hiring and selection process, the issue…

The industry is evolving very fast, and our education system is dated. This has created a serious skill gap in the existing workforce across levels. For instance, big data, machine learning, artificial intelligence, robotics are much in demand not just in tech companies, but across sectors. Yet, these courses are still to be part of the mainline curriculum. How do companies bridge this skill gap at an ongoing basis, when new, innovative and cutting-edge technologies are emerging with each passing day? Competency based learning is the solution to this. AT&T, which entered the cloud business in 2016 realised that the…

The primary characteristic of a progressive and growing company is its learning culture. Yes, we need learning interventions, and technological advancement in the learning and development (L&D) space has further helped organisations to make their employees learn better and keep evolving. Still, we cannot neglect the managers’ role in coaching and mentoring their employees and teams. Apart from carrying out their regular work, managers also create leaders for the future. That is how a company evolves and gets an edge over its competitors. In one of the studies conducted by Gartner, the following four types of managers were identified, who…

Psychographic profiling is a term that marketers are familiar with. Companies use this to segment their customers and clients, which further helps them tailor their products according to their needs and preferences. Further, it also suggests which channel to use to distribute and advertise the product. In the past, marketers used demographics to segment their customers on the basis of location, age and gender. However, in the 1960s, Daniel Yanklelovish, a social scientist, suggested that companies use non-demographic segmentation for better results. Later, Arnold Mitchel came up with the VALS methodology— short for values, attitudes and lifestyle— for segmentation. Psychographic…

A bad day at work is not unheard of in the life of a working professional. Many a time, this bad day at work is not a result of the nature of work, but because of the nature of the relationships we share with people at work, mostly our managers. As the common saying goes, ‘employees do not leave companies but managers’. Why does this happen? There can be many reasons affecting the relationship between managers and employees or other colleagues in the office. One of these can be the problem of ‘transference’. This is a psychological phenomenon, where a…

Resignations can be of two types, voluntary and involuntary. In the former, employees leave on their own for various personal reasons. In the latter, they are asked to leave or their employment is terminated on various grounds, ranging from inappropriate behaviour to low performance. Following a voluntary resignation, post all the formalities and paper work, the employee leaves the company, after serving the designated notice period. The standard steps followed, as part of the off-boarding process are: Off-boarding procedure for voluntary resignation Step 1 – The off-boarding process begins with handing over the resignation letter. After the employee has put…

The agenda of diversity is being taken very seriously by India Inc. It isn’t just gender diversity but diversity in all forms that is being given its due by the top brass in all large organisations. With the MNCs leading the way, other organisations are following in their footsteps to build a diverse workplace. On these very lines, K Raheja, a diverse Group with interests in the realty, retail, hospitality and power sectors, has taken a progressive step to consolidate its diversity agenda. The Group has implemented what it calls the The Pride Side Policy. This policy prohibits all discrimination…

The employers of today are familiar with Gen Z— a generation born between 1996 and 2010. Though many of them are still aged around 17 and 18, the first layer of the new generation has already graduated and joined the workforce of today. This generation is also referred to as netizens as its members have grown with Internet available on their computers, laptops and smartphones. They are also rightly called the true digital natives. As employers, when we talk of Gen Z and prepare ourselves to employ them, we think of technology and fancy offices with world-class amenities. But are…

One of the primary demands of a changing world is to continuous learning. If you have to stay relevant, you just have to keep upskiling yourself. To do the same, an organisation’s L&D department also needs to keep updating itself and incorporate new ways of learning. One of the new ways of learning is invisible learning— a methodology where learning is an in-built process in the organisation. The employees themselves drive their own selves towards learning new things and adding new skillsets. The principle behind invisible learning is that employees take the initiative to learn themselves, and they learn whatever…

Two decades back, the word ‘CEO’ may have conjured up images of a 60-year old person, with professional experience of more than 30 years. But things have really changed now. With the upcoming crop of startups and new-age businesses, we see a lot of young CEOs in organisations. They may not have much of an experience working in different roles, places or sectors, but they are great leaders and innovators. If we look at some of the successful Indian startups and family businesses, we will find that they are headed by CEOs who belong to the age group of 30…

There was a time when learning was not taken so seriously by the corporates. But as times changed, the business world underwent transformations too. New-age technology has made life easier but humans have had to adapt to it to make things work. New developments in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) are taking place at a face pace, and many of the job functions in the IT and even HR space are undergoing change at a rapid speed. That means, a great deal of learning is happening within the corporates today. To achieve good results from…

Chai Point, an online tea retailer with physical retail stores as well, has appointed Shashikanth KS as its chief operating officer. HRKatha’s sources confirmed that in his new role, Shashikanth will be managing the overall operations of the Company and will help in the further growth of the business. Prior to this role, Shashikanth was the HR head at Aditya Birla Retail, where he managed the overall HR function. In his more than 20-year long professional career, Shashikanth has worked in various functions of the business. During his over 11-year long stint with Aditya Birla Retail, Shashikanth took on different…

We are living in an ever changing world. The continuously evolving technology is changing the landscape of work and business with each passing day. Organisations have to keep adapting to the varying trends and technologies to stay relevant. For any business to be able to adapt, it goes without saying that its employees should also have an attitude of learning continuously and adapting to stay relevant. For that to happen, you need people who come with a high learning capacity. Human resource professionals tend to get carried away by a candidate’s academic performance. What they fail to realise is that…

People from different races, genders, ethnicity and geographical locations working together to achieve a common goal can make a whole lot of difference. Diverse perspectives, ideas, creativity and increased productivity are only some of the advantages of a diverse workforce. But is all this big talk of diversity only meant for the larger organisations? Shouldn’t smaller companies also take diversity seriously? Small enterprises generally have a workforce of not more than 40 to 50 people. When the company is small, the leaders do not really have the time to think about diversity at the workplace. They are busy making sure…

A friend of mine bagged a job as soon as she passed out of college. It has hardly been a year since she graduated, but her CV already looks quite interesting. She has worked with four different companies within a year of starting her professional career! Such frequent job changes were unheard of 50 years back. That was an era when people used to complete their education before actually “settling into” a job for good. Yes, for good, because once they joined they usually stayed put till they retired. But the trend is altogether different now. Today’s youngsters will not…

They say, diversity and inclusion flows from the top, and it is rather true. Till the top leadership is not inclusive in nature, you cannot expect to have an inclusive environment in the organisation. After all, it is the leader who inspires every member of the team. The leader is the reflection of the cultural identity of the organisation. There are several business cases where an inclusive and diverse environment has fostered a variety of perspectives and creativity. Some researches have even gone on to say that a high level of diversity directly reflects in a positive increase in profits.…

Toyota Production System (TPS) is a classic success story in manufacturing process, which enabled the Japanese automobile Company to eliminate seven kinds of wastes found in manufacturing environments called Muda. The TPS is based on lean manufacturing or lean management system which translates into speedy flow of work by cutting out waste from the whole process. This means, taking out all the unproductive activities from the system. The principal of lean management system is now being applied in learning and development (L&D) processes in companies and that’s yielding some great results. Sushil Barkur, AVP-L&D, Alkem Laboratories, shares with HRKatha how…

Culture-fit hiring is all about hiring the right candidates, whose beliefs and attitudes are in perfect alignment with the values and culture of the organisation. A lot of emphasis is being laid on hiring candidates who are culturally fit for the organisation. But is this being done at the cost undermining our diversity agenda? According to a research conducted by Professor Lauren Rivera at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, that whole perception of hiring managers and interviewers when it comes to hiring culturally-fit candidates, is to select someone they would enjoy having a beer with or with whom they…

If one or two members of a team are found to be underperforming, it is quite understandable. But what if more than 60 per cent of the team is not performing? Individual team members can be said to be at fault if the number of underperformers is small, but if the whole team is underachieving, it is definitely the leadership that is to be blamed. “In my experience, I have seen many such cases in different organisations. If more than 60 per cent of the team comprises underperformers, the leader is at fault,” says Anil Mohanty, HR head, Medikabazaar. A…

Fullerton India, the financial services company, has appointed Rajat Grover as general manager and business HR head. In his new role, Grover will be responsible for talent management and engagement, talent acquisition and delivering cutting edge people services across all businesses in India. Grover will be reporting to Anil Noronha, EVP & HR head, Fullerton India. Prior to this role, Grover was the president-HR at Yes Bank, where he was responsible for a wide array of tasks as HR business partner. Talking to HRKatha, Noronha comments on the appointment, “We are extremely happy to welcome Grover to Fullerton India. He…

The personal interview is the final stage of the hiring process for most job profiles. This is when the employer meets the candidate and gets to know the person. Being a fresh graduate, I am well aware of how people prepare themselves for interviews. There are certain very obvious questions asked, some of which I feel are useless. They neither serve any purpose nor give any insights. To be very frank, I was asked these questions in most of my interviews and always knew they were coming. In fact, like the majority out there, I even practised the answers beforehand…

A research paper by Alicia Sasser Modestino, Daniel Shoag, and Joshua Balance, which was presented at the annual conference of the American Economics Association, revealed that the skill gap is just a myth, and that it is actually during recession that employers get stringent with their job descriptions and seek individuals with multiple skills and capabilities. When unemployment is rampant in the economy, you have a larger pool of people available to work. During such times employers get choosier while selecting candidates. They also make their job descriptions more competitive due to higher competition. It is almost as if organisations…

As a hiring manager or an HR personnel, if you are on the lookout for a new and effective method of hiring talent, which is better than personal interviews, then here is your answer— the ‘jury’ system. This new method to hire experienced managers and people in leadership roles involves minimal interaction with the candidates, before making an offer and discussing the commercials. The process is very much similar to a 360-degree performance review. The first step is to stop accepting applications and start demanding written nominations from internal and external stakeholders. The nominees should then be asked to give…

In the past decade, companies in India have started to take the health of their employees quite seriously. Many organisations today are investing heavily on health-benefit programmes to make sure that their employees lead a healthy lifestyle. Organisations introduce several HR interventions to achieve this. But simply introducing interventions is not enough. It is also very important to see what companies gain from it. To measure the benefits, companies use the traditional method of return on investment (ROI), that is, medical cost savings. Why is this called ‘traditional’ or ‘old school’? Apparently, a new term known as value on investment…

Whether it is our Government or the HR system in organisations, at some point, everybody needs a reality check. While the media provides it to the Government, when it comes to business, it is the exit interviews in that help look back and fix shortcomings in the work culture. But sadly, very few organisations take their exit interviews seriously, according to a study by Harvard Business School. The purpose of an exit interview is to know why an employee is leaving. If something is found to be wrong with the environment of the company, the exit interview gives the HR…

Rani Desai, who was the chief learning officer at Deloitte, has co-partnered with a five year old company, Centre of Strategic Mindset (COSM). As the chief learning officer at Deloitte, where she spent seven years, Desai was responsible for building a strong leadership pipeline for the organisation. Now, as the managing partner at COSM, an organisation which provides consultancy on leadership and coaching, she is into a new role with different responsibilities. “Now I am into a completely different role, with responsibilities, such as getting business for the firm, which I have never done before in my entire life,” shares…