Partha's Blog

The Curious Case of the Lazy Achiever! “I choose a lazy person to do a hard job. Because a lazy person will find an easy way to do it!” (Bill Gates) I read about this quote from Bill Gates a while back and could well associate it with some of the professional achievers I have seen throughout my career. Yes, some of them have achieved a lot despite coming across as primarily lazy or laid back persons. It totally flies in the face of conventional wisdom, which says to be successful one should be a disciplined hard worker apart from having the other core competencies to be successful in their roles. However I do find a few possible drivers that catapult them to their success, despite their seeming lack of effort. From my past experiences, an example that I can cite relates to a 7 day hackathon that we had on upgrading a product feature. The most productive employee was almost twice as effective as the second best one. This takes significance as the two of them put together accounte...

Don’t Burn the Bridges – The right way to quit your job! Lowliness is young ambition's ladder, Whereto the climber-upward turns his face; But when he once attains the upmost round, He then unto the ladder turns his back, Looks in the clouds, scorning the base degrees By which he did ascend. (William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, Act II, sc.1) Times are changing and it is reflected best in the separation trend in the IT industry. Till the 1990’s most professionals had a linear thinking pattern; acquire a skill (engineering, accountancy etc.) and then choose an organisation (typically a PSU) where one could work for a long period of time, if not till retirement. With the opening up of the Indian economy in the mid-90s, came the era of the IT boom which continues to this day, albeit at a much faster pace. With several opportunities rising due to the industries getting more integrated to global markets and economy, job stability is a thing of the past. People have realised that...

Let’s Stop it! - Workplace Trends That We Don’t Want To See In 2017 As we welcome the New Year, I find a lot of people predicting the workforce trends that we are likely to see. Some interesting ones include improving the candidate/ employee experiences, multi-generational (yes, Generation Z is here!) and multi-skilled workforce, continuous assessments, HR Big-data analytics and Artificial Intelligence in HR. Very interesting times indeed if we believe the Issac Asimov’s in the field of HR! On the contrary, I strongly feel we still need to unlearn old practices before we learn and adopt the new ones. There are a lot of aspects we need to either minimise or completely stop to ensure that our people in the coming year will be able to balance their work-life priorities and also be happy and productive at the workplace. This becomes critical when we are going to see almost 4 generations of people - with different needs, working styles, and aspirations - rubbing shoulders (and brains) ...

Cabbages and Kings – the lighter side of categorizing people The time has come, the Walrus said, To talk of many things: Of shoes — and ships — and sealing-wax — Of cabbages — and kings — (Through the Looking Glass; Lewis Carroll) These lines have lingered with me since the first time I read ‘The Walrus and the Carpenter’ in my childhood. Though the words are simple and comical at first look, I have realised over the years the deep thought behind them once you scratch the superficial layer. As children we enjoy the superficial’, like the rhyme and the absurdity of the poem, but subsequently we find quite a few life’s philosophical gems hidden in it. It also goes to show that human nature has not changed much, though the times apparently have. Being a HR professional with around two decades of experience, I have seen this never ending segregation of people into Cabbages (average performers) and Kings (top performers) by Managers. Annual Performance appraisals are often used as ...

There are no two views about the fact that for maintaining a sustainable competitive advantage, an organization needs to attract, hire, engage and retain the best talent relevant to the industry or the competitive landscape it operates in. To ensure that the recruitment strategy aligns with this philosophy, it is very important to properly assess and filter the right candidate to the mapped or anticipated positions. The generic strategies used to minimize recruitment errors include assessment tests (aptitude, technical/functional, behavioral, case studies etc.) and detailed interviews (techno-functional, managerial, HR etc.). In theory it all looks good and comprehensive, however the effectiveness of a good strategy is primarily based on how well it is executed and whether it helps in achieving the desired goals. Interviews can be conducted in multiple ways ranging from one-on-one interviews to cross-functional panel interviews. One of the interview type’s that is gradually growing in ...

Diwali, the festival of lights, is a not only celebration of the triumph of good over evil, but is also a celebration of positive synergy, camaraderie, optimism and goodwill within the teams and across the organization. Set right at the onset of the mild and pleasant winters in the South, Diwali welcomes in the festive season which continues till the end of the year. At Four Soft we understand the significance of Diwali, as a time to celebrate our success and achievements, put all negative performance (if any) behind us and look with optimism to the year ahead. Right since the initial days, we understood that to be a successful organization we have to use occasions like Diwali to announce all important things to the staff so that they understand and continue their engagement with the organization having the right amount of faith, hope and belief in the future. The Diwali celebration is typically done a day before Diwali at Four Soft, a tradition which has been continuing right from t...

The often used term when benchmarking salaries are “market” or “industry” standard, however these terms are often vague and the salaries ranges (upper-lower limits) quoted are often huge to make any real sense either to a prospective candidate or to the organization in general. Though in essence it is a handy tool to have, it often loses significance when the job requires high levels of technical or functional skills and/or it is in a knowledge intensive industry like IT or Pharmaceutical. Even for a standard role like software engineer in the IT industry, the average or median salary can fluctuate hugely based on parameters like education (including graduating college), experience, technical skills (including certifications), city, organization worked (type, reputation, size etc.) etc. Moreover the demand and supply of qualified resources in the market based on the prevailing macro-economic conditions also impacts the market standard salary significantly, wherein in a recession marke...

When an employee decides to voluntarily separate from an organization, whether for personal (relocation, study etc.) or professional (better role, salary etc.) reasons, s/he need to be extremely careful on how they conduct themselves during their notice period. Most companies have a mutually agreed notice period, based on an employee’s seniority and/or role in the organization, which are often clearly stated in the appointment letter or in the employment handbook. The separating employee needs to be extremely careful on how s/he plan to serve their notice period – serve it in entirety or negotiate an early relieving – and avoid getting into any confrontational mode, which will help in averting any negative emotions with the Manager/team or possible legal issues with the organization in future. The right process to follow is to first have a one-on-one meeting with the reporting Manager and state the intent to separate and the cause behind that decision. It should be followed with an a...

The need to think beyond just compensation With the IT industry having an optimistic outlook for the year ahead, the competition between organizations for attracting and retaining talent is going to be high. Hence apart from just direct compensation, programs like work-life balance, career development and performance management are crucial business responses for the ever changing workplace. Organizations that are interested in maintaining a diverse workforce, retain experienced and knowledgeable employees and attract new talent cannot afford to overlook the value such programs bring to balance the concerns of today’s workforce. In fact many organizations have already started using initiatives like flexi-timings, extended maternity/paternity leaves, Management development programs, job enrichment etc. to help recruit and retain employees. Senior Management and HR practitioners can affect employee engagement and retention by first understanding the other things an employee values, apa...

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 ...