Point Of View

Who is responsible for retention or attrition of employees — line managers or HR?

People leave their bosses and not organisations,’ goes the familiar saying. If this holds true, then line managers are to be blamed for the...

Do employees want better pay and less benefits or vice versa?

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...

Should companies rehire employees who exit on a bad note?

Boomerang employees is a popular practice. However, sometimes, great talent may leave the company on a bad note. The reasons for their decision to...

Can humans be fired by a bot?

A Bloomberg report claims that an employee who spent four years delivering packages for Amazon, as a contract driver in Phoenix, suddenly got axed....

Will cancellation of Class 12 board exams impact future hiring of this batch?

The Union Government on June 1, decided to cancel the Class 12 board exams for CBSE and ICSE students. It was done keeping in...

Are colleagues family, friends or just teammates?

An email sent by Shopify CEO, Tobi Lütke, to the mangers of the Company last August created a lot of commotion and chatter in...

How personal can companies get?

In a recent case at BlackRock, the American global investment company, a memo was shared with the staff asking them to reveal their relationships...

Is attrition a boon in disguise?

Looking at the common mindset of people, attrition is a word which has always carried a negative connotation. When you hear about a company...

Should political debates be banned at workplaces?

Recently Google banned political debates at workplaces to improve their work culture. It said that people should only debate and have conversations around their...

Do HR managers with cross-functional experience have an added advantage?

The dynamics of business is changing rapidly, and so is HR. We need leaders with blended capabilities at the top. A look at the...

Skilled introvert vs charismatic extrovert, who will rise faster?

Each individual is important for an organisation— from the base line to the top management— but senior leaders hold the reins of the company...

Does HR fall for social-media pretensions?

Social media profiles are important for people, especially when they are hunting for jobs. People try hard to appear knowledgeable, vocal and opinionated on...

Can salaries be made transparent across organisation?

More than half of the 2,000 companies surveyed in the US by the consulting firm, Willis Towers Watson, plan to increase transparency around pay decisions in the next year. Verve, a marketing company, has already listed employees’ salary on an internal document for everyone to see. By 2019, all 1,100 employees at CareHere, a Nashville-based healthcare company, will know the pay ranges for all positions in the company. Another New York-based software company, Fog Creek, ensured the same last year. Employers have long avoided discussing money at work, partly because concealing salary information keeps compensation costs down. But the examples above clearly show that the attitude is starting to change. Can India be transparent when it comes to disclosure of salaries?

Is it possible to keep a check on behavioural issues of line managers?

Line managers are in key positions with a hold on both business and people. That said, how managers behave, particularly with their teams, can have a huge impact on team morale and overall performance. At times, managers may impose their own insecurities, incompetencies or for that matter, their obsession with how work should be done, on others. In doing so, they may behave in ways that could hurt others and consequently affect organisational effectiveness. Is there a way organisations can keep a check on such subjective yet day-to-day issues?

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Does an open office always translate into an open culture?

While it may facilitate an open culture, it may not guarantee one.

Can my boss change my role at any time?

With businesses increasingly seeking employees open to change and multitasking, alterations in job roles should not rattle anyone.

Should an employee accept a counter-offer post resignation?

A pending or skip level early promotion, an exorbitant salary raise or a new profile — counter-offers may appear in many forms. However, there are hidden disadvantages.

Is HR made to do the dirty job?

Be it negotiating salaries during hiring, to bring down employee cost for the organisation, or disclosing the management’s decision to let go of people, HR always ends up having to do the dirty job. On the one hand there is the management that requires HR to execute a certain task beneficial to the organisation, and on the other, there are those people whose careers are at stake—a catch 22 situation for HR. It is left to HR to decide whether they should balance out the situation or get their hands dirty, by blindly following the management’s orders.

Is there a ‘moment of truth’ in hiring?

The decision to hire or not hire someone is a crucial one as it directly or indirectly impacts not only business performance but also the workplace dynamics. While the hiring process is now backed by a lot of reliable data and analysis, human judgement and intuition still play a significant role in making the final decision.

Have the interviewers or recruiters ever had to wonder whether their intuitions or judgements  with regard to the candidates  will really stand true in the real scenario? What is the real moment of truth in the hiring process? How does it impact the hirer’s decision or how does one deal with it?

Are recruitment and talent acquisition two sides of the same coin?

Recruitment and talent acquisition are the two most commonly used terms in HR departments across the globe. However similar they may sound or be perceived as being, there is an underlying difference between the two that many professionals tend to ignore. There exists a thin line between the two that creates a big difference in the way organisations manage talent.

Should retirement age be increased to 65+?

In June, the government raised the retirement age of doctors to 65 years. Doctors anyway continue to practice till the last leg of their life but from government’s perspective, it wanted to retain the talent pool in Central Health Service. It’s a growing concern for the government as more than 28 per cent of the central government employees are above 50 years of age. This implies that not only the government will lose experienced high- level personnel but it will even entail unquantifiable costs as new recruits will require training and on-the-job skills.

If professionals such as doctors, lawyers and CAs, can continue to work for post 60, then why can’t other professionals be it an engineer, bureaucrat or a clerk do so. The official retirement age was fixed at a certain 58 years or 60 years because then the life expectancy was low. Now with better medical facilities, people above 60 are quite active and healthy. HRKatha tries to find a rationale.

Who makes a better leader: Smart Worker or Hard Worker?

With the advent of digital platforms and various other disruptive technologies, the focus of organisations seems to be shifting from quantity to quality, which is why some believe the smart workers are expected to be more successful as compared to the hard workers. However, this is a long debatable topic with two ends weighing equal depending on the context.

Millennials, the ‘entitled generation’: Is the branding justified?

Millennials are frequently blamed for their lack of duty and discipline at the workplace, and often called the entitled generation. Senior HR professionals share their opinion on this.

War of talent: Has talent already won or is it just a myth?

We often hear stories about how star developers in the Silicon Valley hire agents to sell their skills. It is said that the world bends over backwards to hire star developers from the Silicon Valley, and that they are a special lot. Has the industry transformed into one where talent calls the shots or  are organisations just playing a smart game of making them believe so?

Is predictive analytics the future of talent hunt?

We have seen brands and companies perish or become history on failing to predict the future. Does this also hold true for talent hunt?

Do CHROs make good CEOs?

CHROs becoming CEOs is not a traditional choice but evidences point out several advantages.

How this energy company is championing employee inclusivity & engagement

In today’s competitive business landscape, fostering an inclusive and engaging work environment is not just a feel-good initiative; it’s a strategic imperative. Jakson Green,...

Trident’s Asmita leaves blossom into inclusive workplaces

Forget the tired trope of corporate activism. In the heart of India's textile industry, Trident, a manufacturing company, is quietly weaving a revolution in...
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Engagement is outdated: The future of success lies in ‘employee involvement’

In the ever-evolving landscape of the contemporary workplace, a profound metamorphosis is underway, challenging the conventional emphasis on employee engagement. This paradigm shift posits...
Tata Steel employee vehicle ban

Tata Steel: Journey through excellence in talent acquisition 

Tata Steel, part of the Tata Group, is a multinational steel-making company headquartered in Mumbai, India. It is one of the world's leading steel...

Singapore government modifies foreign worker policy

The Ministry of Manpower (MOM), Singapore has modified the foreign worker policy. As per the modifications, the minimum qualifying salary for foreign workers to...

Latest

Strikes across the world by disgruntled employees

Striking cabin crew of Lufthansa, has disrupted operations and caused profits to dip. Under the aegis of the UFO Union, the cabin crew members of...

Supreme Court: Hands-off on state employee transfers

In a recent ruling, the Supreme Court delivered a significant judgment regarding the judicial scrutiny of transfer orders concerning state employees. The Court declared...

Leverage Edu has onboarded 50 return-to-work mothers

Leverage Edu has onboarded 50 return-to-work mothers. This return-to-work initiative is part of Leverage Edu's commitment to building an equitable, diverse and inclusive workplace. The...

Synchrony to roll out 25 EVs for employees

Synchrony has rolled out 25 electric vehicles (EVs) tailored for employee commuting. These eco-conscious vehicles will be easily accessible to all Synchrony employees, presenting...

DIALOGUE

Data analytics and not technology will redefine HR

Q. How satisfying has been your professional journey of 39 years? A. It has been a bagful of mixed experiences. At times I have been...

EQ, IQ & empathy define the success of a CEO

Q. You spent 16 years at LIC before moving to a corporate role at ICICI Prudential. Now, 22 years on, I am still curious...

“The big change has been that we have moved from jobs to skills,” Amaresh...

Q. How would you define the culture at GE? A. Having been present in this region since 1902, GE has been around for 120 years....
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