The Official Blog of Benifys HR Solutions

People change, fact of life. And organizations change too, much like a evolving mass of ideas in a constant state of flux. Trouble brews when the lines connecting the goals of an individual to that of an organization diverge and go out of alignment, add to that the job hopping typically associated with Gen-Y folks and an entire generation of baby boomers heading towards retirement – and you have a whole lot of leaving coming around (pun intended). But, as any seasoned HR Pro will agree, not all people have an equal capacity to maintain their maturity when it comes to letting go. Whereas the more wise will leave gracefully, an awful lot will act like a child with an ego hurt; the first question hence comes to mind – “how difficult is it going to be to ask this person to leave and see them through the exit process”. Another factor, and perhaps one that is more important to the employer is “how much will the business be affected negatively if this person leaves?” Let’s equate these factors against each other as a measure to assess an employee’s work style based on the way they behave while parting ways.

Peaceful Impacter – These individuals are usually very understated, and most likely introverts. But that does not mean their work has to be understated too; because of the highly efficient methods they deploy at work (by coming up with creative solutions) and their adaptable nature… it becomes very is hard to find faults with their work. In fact, it’s your turn to be alarmed if this person leaves or is contemplating leaving your organization, because they will do so in a very matter-of-fact manner once they make their mind up.

1. Needs their space.
2. Will work uninstructed in ideal conditions.
3. More likely to come up with breakthrough ideas.
4. Might seem arrogant and indifferent on the surface.
5. They strive to find meaning in their work.

Arrogant Influencer – It is said that in organizational life, one can either have freedom from others or influence over them. Never both things at the same time. Individuals in this quadrant choose to exert influence on others as opposed to enjoying freedom from them, they control people and get work done through them (and that’s the impact they bring). Being arrogant, like micromanagement, is often not a choice, it’s a conditioned thought pattern. Needless to say, the tolerance for such employees differs based on the organizational climate.

1. They need people to listen to them.
2. Will seem inseparable from the organization.
3. Can be, and mostly will be pushy.
4. Yields authority, of that, there is no doubt.
5. More likely to delegate, direct or supervise work.

Drama Queen – They have quaint and frail self-image, like they are living in some kind of a dreamland, of which they are the respective prince or princess. They should have probably taken dramatics as a career since they obviously have a flair for it. Anything work related is not really their forte, they are full of acts (pun intended) as long as you don’t expect them to work or ask them to quit. If and when you do either one of those things – you are in for a live workshop of high emotion drama. Don’t argue much with them – they have an undue sense of entitlement, others just have to live with it.

1. Cannot work 9 to 6 faithfully even if life depended on it.
2. Might be paranoid and have delusions that they are being discussed and scrutinized.
3. Will expect people to take care of their needs without saying them.
4. Needs a thorough reality check, either through introspection or intervention.
5. More likely to spill coffee in a conference and create a scene, or just create a scene with anything.

Useless Bystander – The ones seated bang at the middle of the conference table, and will switch to whichever side of the table as dictated by the status quo. The main motive that fuels their actions is to keep things running the way they are, for better or worse. Why they behave the way they do can have so many endless explanations that it deserves a post of it’s own. They will leave the organization as easily as they came in, the the difference to the overall scheme will not be noticeable. Why does this work? Because at least there is no unrequired theatrics and in their defense – they provide a balancing effect.

1. More likely to not do anything of great significance.
2. Might prove useful in diffusing situations where serious conflict arises.
3. Will stick to sides, whichever side seems better in a given situation.
4. Can have a really long and healthy career despite incompetence because they never fix what’s not broken.
5. Needs to be a little more opinionated – to fight like they are right and listen like they are wrong.

“What’s the first syllable in the word routine?” That’s right… it’s rut. Being in a rut can be a very emotionally frustrating period, we all have a drop in motivation levels every once in a while, but if left unchecked, it becomes a self fulfilling prophecy – if you think you can’t get out of it, you can’t! As an employer, if you are observing a drop in the engagement levels and enthusiasm of your employees, by default it becomes your concern to provide support in some form because it is now your problem too. You have to understand that someone yawning in the office, or the star performer in your office acting like Jughead after declaring him his role model is not a problem per se, it is only a symptom of a problem.

Signs of clear and present danger! Something might be wrong if:

1. Everyone is laughing and pushing each other around until they realize its Monday and not Friday, silence ensues.
2. The main project that everyone is working on is the ‘staring game’, no one wins.
3. The last time your team celebrated the successful completion of a project was – oh snap; now you have memory loss.
4. Your organization has a revolutionary motto, it is – “We don’t even smile for free”.
5. Conversations go something like that – Q. “Was that work that you gave to him/her done?” A. “Yes, that was done and the other was done too”. No objectivity.
6. New ideas are met with an enthusiastic, almost frenzied cheer and then a “what was that?” a little later.
7. After a lot of failed attempts, your employees finally started a YouTube podcast; it’s called “Lessons in time mismanagement”.
8. You observe violent reactions every time someone mentions “work-life balance”, sometimes people just read it somewhere and then run and scream.
9. The most generous compliment the boss gave this month was actually an insult in disguise.
10. When you approach people at their workstations, you can swear you saw them making wish-lists at eBay, and later frantically hitting Alt+ Esc.

Now that you know something is wrong (thank god for that!), next time we’ll cover the actions you can take to salvage the situation an turn it around if you witness such absurdities at work…

One position, multiple applicants – but still one of them has to be and will be selected, what gives? To complicate things further some of them might even have the same educational qualification and experience, what’s the deciding factor? Selecting the younger of the two is what happens at the Universities, not necessarily at the workplace. The interviewer will not feel compelled to hire you only because you look good on paper, in fact Cavett Robert estimated that 85% of the reason you get a job, keep that job, & move ahead in that job has to do with your people skills & people knowledge.

We went ahead and asked some seasoned recruiters the one thing that candidates do which completely ruin their chances of making it, listed below are the most common answers in no particular order:

1. Being defensive – Some people seem to be engaged in an ever lasting battle in defending their point of view, or their career choices and amongst other things. There are a few things to be considered here – (1) An interviewer might be testing you for how flexible you are, (2) You might actually have made some mistakes, but you don’t want to admit them, (3) You are the sort of person who starts their argument based on a defense, e.g. “Although I wanted to be in the healthcare industry, but I wasn’t good enough for it”. Either of these ways, you’ve set the alarms ringing in the mind of the recruiter.
2. Complaining a lot – Traffic was bad, it’s always too hot or too cold, the office is not anything like what you expected, the pervious employer exploited you, they had the wrong business plan, you’re sure the future employers will too… these are the kind of things that an interviewer does not want to hear from a candidate. Think of an interview as a one hour job where you have to be at your best behavior and highlight the positive aspects of your personality, go easy on the complaining. Nobody wants to hear it.
3. Narrating scripted answers – This might be acceptable to some extent for students right out of college, but as a seasoned professional you are expected to talk about your careers so far and the way ahead in an ‘as it is’ manner and not as you think the recruiter wants to hear it. Stephen Paul says “When you give up your own truth to win at someone else’s game, everyone loses”.
4. Being arrogant – This actually happened with a recruiter – A candidate for an IT position came in for an interview on time and well dressed and the whole drill… score? Sure. He had good credentials and a consistent employment record… win? Absolutely. Now, as part of standard selection procedure, he was asked to take a half hour written technical assessment when he realized he didn’t have a pen on him. He asked the recruiter for a pen and was quick to show his impatience when the recruiter too couldn’t find one. And that was the moment of truth in the interview, no points for guessing the outcome.

Social media falls under a larger umbrella term Web 2.0 which has fundamentally changed and is still changing the way that we work. From Fortune 500 organizations hiring people to blog or ‘tweet’ for them, to personal brand management and collaboration – these are just some of the things a new age professional in the fields of HR, PR, Media is expected to have at least some knowledge about.

So, what has the shift been?

And it’s all happening now; following are some things that Human Resource professionals and organizations are using Social Media for:

• Brand Management (Appearance/reach on the web, voice of the company, audio/video podcasting)
• Recruitment (Through Blogs, LinkedIn, Twitter)
• Knowledge Sharing (HRevolution, Carnival of HR, HRM Today, HR Guru etc.)

Specifically in case of Human Resources departments, there is also a commonly felt paradox. On one hand it is no more feasible to keep employees from creating and maintaining their personal brands online because it will ultimately (and supposedly) come back to the organization, on the other hand HR department is traditionally responsible for keeping a check on the drop in efficiency that is associated with ‘facebooking’ and ‘tweeting’. What do you think? All show and no go, or a shift in work culture?

If you look around our blog, you will find quite a few articles that deal with the ‘ambiguity’ of things, being comfortable with the uncomfortable is an underrated activity. There are many times when there are no clear answers, Entrepreneurship is no different, and it actually would be a tad misleading to associate the ‘entrepreneurship’ phenomenon to any one single attribute – but if we are to talk about the most dominant one, it would probably be instinct.

There is the instinct bit, the drive, the ability to sniff out an opportunity, the packaging, the yearning for freedom and value-add, and yes, wealth creation. If the instinct is matched with the requisite skills that can be taught and learnt – that is, fiscal planning, learning from others who failed or succeeded, go-to-market strategies and tactics, hiring right, surviving on shoe-strings – then you have the perfect mix.

Resources for entrepreneurs

• Guy Kawasaki suggests entrepreneurs to Make Meaning and Get Going (Download PDF).
• Entrepreneurship resource page by Havard Business School.
• Alltop page for Start-Ups is another great resource for entrepreneurs.
• About.com has a knowledge base and blog dedicated for entrepreneurs.

For those of you who have missed it…

The tickets for NASSCOM Product Conclave 2009 are sold out! But there’s hope yet… IndiBlogger (India’s largest blogging community) is organizing a contest and are giving away T-Shirts and free passes to the event itself! Two passes have already been given away, three more to go. Read their blog post for further information and knowledge about how you can help spread the word.

1. NASSCOM Product Conclave 2009 and a contest (via IndiBlogger.in)
2. The Official NASSCOM Product Conclave 2009 Page (at NASSCOM.in)
3. IndiBlogger on Facebook
4. Nasscom on Facebook