Partha's Blog

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...