Partha's Blog

In a highly competitive work environment where employees feel they are competing against each other for salary hikes, promotions, or better career opportunities, employee bonding can become a rare phenomena. This kind of hyper competitiveness, if allowed to remain uncontrolled, can lead to high levels of work related stress and/or dissatisfaction with work which is likely to adversely affect the output of the individual and team. Some amount of employee bonding becomes essential so that everyone relate to each other’s work and importance to the team and organization. To keep things in control, the right atmosphere has to be created so that employees feel they are not competing against each other but rather are collaborating to achieve a common organizational goal or objective. Some factors that enables employee bonding at work are as follows: 1. Specific Goals and Objectives – if each employee know what is expected out of him and against what measures s/he will be evaluated, it is eas...

It is important for an employee to take initiative because it demonstrates their level of engagement and commitment s/he has to their organization. Initiatives are often misunderstood as meeting one’s performance goals; instead it is about going the extra mile by identifying a need and championing a solution for the benefit of the company without being asked to do so. Some of the reasons why taking initiatives are important for an employee can be categorized as follows: 1. Motivation at work – by taking initiatives an employee can make his/her work life more exciting, rather than treating it as a daily monotonous routine aimed at task completion. 2. Personal Growth – based on the need or problem, the employee can directly plan and see the impact of their actions, which will likely result in more opportunities for growth as a professional. 3. Self Development - Will be able to take more control of his/her professional life by learning, growing and developing through application of th...

There is an old axiom on planning, which says ‘What gets planned gets done.’ Planning is highly essential to be organized and lay out the process and timelines for achieving the desired goals both individually and at an organization level. If we fail to plan our activities then it is likely that we will be reacting to situations as they arise rather than dealing with priorities in a controlled and systematic manner. Planning however does not imply rigidity; a balance is necessary between scheduled time and unscheduled time so that work can flow smoothly rather than firefighting from one pressing issue to another. Even a few minutes spent on planning the daily calendar ensures that tasks that are important and/or urgent get completed. Planning vs. Reacting Planning is the process of converting the present state of things into a desired future state (goals and objectives). There are many approaches to planning, some are structured and explicit, while others are more organic, unfoldin...

We introduced ERS in our organization over 5 years ago primarily to fill certain niche requirements which could not be closed using the standard recruitment process, i.e. hiring done by the recruitment team using web applications, job portals, advertisements, reference network and executive search firms. The uniqueness about this program is that: a) We do not take referrals only for published (open) positions but also for perennially required niche positions/skills, b) Unlike many other referral programs, which just pays a one-time referral bonus, we also pay the employee a bonus amount when their referred candidate completes six months (1st milestone) and one year (2nd milestone) of service with Four Soft, and c) We generally do not use employee referral for hiring anyone in the post of a Manager or upwards designation. Trends in our ERS Starting from the end of 2004, presently around 20% of our staff has been hired through the ERS. In the near future, we expect this trend to co...

Recently a website has been launched http://ruwiray.in , which aims at converting exciting stories in vernacular languages (primarily telugu) into english. There are a lot of ethnic Indians, residents and non-residents alike, who frequently visit the web to read about their country/state and its culture in English. However, there is a lack of quality writing on the internet to benefit the netizens. Though there are lot of English language newspapers based in the state of Andhra Pradesh, but their material is no match to the analysis and depth of Telugu language articles and short stories. This means there is a big gap between the readership demand and literature supply, which this website seeks to bridge. Even people who are non-Andhraites can easily follow these stories in english and get a good insite on the Telugu language and culture. This website will be sort of an online literary journal with translated content providing insightful analysis about society, politics, and movies...

Generally counteroffers should not be used to respond to the threat of an employee quitting. Organizations that typically resort to counteroffers for employee retention are generally those whose compensation bands are not in order and who have allowed the employee’s salary to fall below his/her market value. But even in such situations, responding with a counteroffer only makes sense if it is part of a general overhaul of the compensation system. Frequent counteroffers as a retention tool are also seen in organizations which do not have a proper replacement (short-term) and succession (long-term) plans in place; they react to an employee leaving by making a counteroffer. When it comes to voluntary resignations, lower-performing employees are more likely to quit than more successful employees. In such instances the organizational performance is likely to improve when such poor performers are the ones leaving, and are replaced by more suitable candidates. However if a good performer ...

Recently I was interviewed by Times Ascent on the trends in the Indian Logistics industry & its related IT application development industry (ERP in SCM) and the impact of it on professionals seeking career opportunities in this domain. Following are the excerpts from that interview: What kind of growth has this industry seen in recent times? Globally, the logistics industry is valued at US$ 3.5 trillion. The Indian Logistics Industry is presently estimated at US$ 90 billion and currently being at its most dynamic juncture, it is expected to reach a market size of over US$125 billion this year. With India’s logistics sector attracting huge global investments, the Indian logistics industry is expected to grow growing at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of approximately 8% over the next five years, reaching revenues of approximately US$ 385 billion by 2015. Some of the Key Indicators of Growth in the Indian logistics industry are: 1. Geographical Advantage: India has emerged as ...