Employee Retention - Tool or a Program

Employee Retention – A Tool Or A Program

Employees are the assets of any organization, was just to say few years ago. But taking in consideration today's scenario this is more of proven fact. Employer’s should think about how to secure the long-term commitment from their employees. Failure to create the right environment will encourage disgruntled employees to take off in search of better job prospects.

Employee Retention Tips' that i use to build my teams  @ SNS Technologies

Demonstrate leadership commitment and accountability. Employer's should create a work environment in which employees want to establish careers rather than merely work . Employees look for commitment in terms of work environment, and economic benefits and liability in terms of making their work give an significance, rather than just a 9 hours job.

Hire and train the right people. Employer's regularly should review their recruitment policies & practices. Possibly collect and analyze applicant flow data to ensure that they are attracting and fairly considering the widest and most diverse possible applicant pool. It is also vital to recognize the value of having supervisors and managers with sufficient knowledge, skills and attitude to establish success at workplace.

Establish Special Emphasis Programs and collaborate with affinity groups. By establishing and utilizing Special highlighting Programs and partnering and/or consulting with the affinity groups, organizations can raise employee awareness of the importance of diversity and demonstrate the company's commitment to their employees.

Conduct employee opinion (climate) surveys and 360 degree evaluations. Climate surveys and 360 degree evaluations can help organizations assess the pulse of their workforce and make changes before employees decide to leave. Employer’s can use these tools to hold supervisors and managers accountable for low ratings and reward them for high ratings.

 Improve advancement opportunities. Employer's can ensure that all employees have equal opportunities for advancement by creating and funding Individual Development Plans and Career Development Programs. Organizations  can include these programs in their succession plans to ensure that they identify and develop well-qualified candidate pools (feeder pools) for their senior grade levels.

Practical Degree V/s Theoretical Degree

A situation arose a few months back. Cannot label it as Right or Wrong. I need my readers views on this

One of my friend was called for an interview with a reputed company in UK, i would surely not disclose the name by ethics. For the fact that she was invited for the discussion itself proves that she is qualified for job as per specs. The discussion went quite well between them. After a few days my friend got an auto generated mail " we regret not to select you, as your professional degree is not adequate as per Job Requirement". This was a shock and surprise. Getting to Root of this problem, i investigated along with my friend and the reason that we got was " we only require Full Time MBA's" and that friend had done a PG course, few months have passed  and that friend of mine got a better opportunity with a renowned company at Central London.

This entire episode makes me think that " does a professional degree takes an upper hand on practical experience" 

In my opinion it differs from employer to employer. Few are in search of innovators and few prefer those who support the crowd. Professional degree will not matter to all those who are on the roads of innovation and are supporting cutting edge technology as they have equipped themselves to try new things everyday whereas a typical set organizations with a same line of business over ages will not want to deviate for a fact that they will be repeating the same stuff  and to them a professional degree will matter as they do not want to experiment. Despite of this fact, Industry now a days are choosing such employees who are hands-on at their area of expertise rather than who have only read about fundamentals and never applied. Clearing the set of interviews theoretically does not prove ones ability to resolve the tough nut situation.

To clear the test of " applying your fundamentals" will reach its verdict if the decisions / stands taken are wise decision taking into account the critical behavior of situation and consequences rising because of that situation and avoiding them as well. I support the fact that your top most professional degree will not have any value if you fail to make wise decision in the worst of time. Your professional degree will surely help u form a strong base but will not help u any further if you do not apply them to situations and on the other side of table if you can put a wise solution across table with your experience, you would be a trusted advisory automatically. Weighing your experience as per facts and figures and putting it in right bucket will make your work experience count and then people will not bother about what professional degree you hold.

This is my my 2 Cents, would be happy if you can share yours too.

Strategy - Action or Role play

Strategy, though a small word, but has weight. Without this no organization can move even one step ahead and those which are trying to evade building strategies are only groping around in the dark with no particular goal or objective in view. This can be quite a dangerous proposition considering the constant competition level that the organization have to tackle and win over every day they are in the business.

Strategy building is a game of visualization by top management or the owners as they look at the “bigger picture” of the business and have a more comprehensive understanding about where the business is going and the resources at disposal. If you fail to execute your strategy, your plan will drain down.

Strategizing activity has to  be like a star bursting technique, where you have your Goal ( problem statement) in the center and you frame questions to derive your desired result.Strategy building can be done at three levels – corporate level, business level and operational level, based on the level of business where the strategy is supposed to be implemented. After proper analysis of strategy, the right path needs to be chosen and implemented.

Goals are important

What is goal - ambition to reach at a desired level.

On the best sunny day, the most powerful magnifying glass will not light paper if you keep moving the glass. But if you focus and hold it, the paper will light up. That is the power of concentration.
A man was traveling and stopped at an intersection. He asked an elderly man, "Where does this road take me?" The elderly person asked, "Where do you want to go?" The man replied, "I don't know." The elderly person said, "Then take any road. What difference does it make?" How true. When we don't know where we are going, any road will take us there. Suppose you have all the football eleven players, enthusiastically ready to play the game, all charged up, and then someone took the goal post away. What would happen to the game? There is nothing left. How do you keep score? How do you know you have arrived?
Enthusiasm without direction is like wildfire and leads to frustration. Goals give a sense of direction. Would you sit in a train or a plane without knowing where it was going? The obvious answer is no. Then why do people go through life without having any goals?

To keep your motive running, a well defined goal plays important part right from developing a blue print of your minutest idea to building a ship of Ideas.

Are goals set by one person – I guess no, it a set of like minded people who has a definite focus and philosophy where they want themselves to lead.

I heard a wise saying that if you are destined towards your goal, hit the brain of your goal.

We have often heard, people asking us - are your goals set – what does it mean ? does it purely relate to tasks or is it beyond that ? Goals are set and challenged as per your individuality & potential to deliver.

Assigning goals which are beyond your capability will make you look a failure.

My take away  on Goal Setting  is do not tie to your mission statement, rather tie goals to your future projection as that will help you to grow in the right direction along with your people.

Is HR all about Yes Sir, it will be done or much beyond it

Lately a thought emerged.. How many time have we all said in our respective career "Yes Sir , I will ensure the task will be completed" , may be innumerable time, without realizing the fact that if the work assigned is right or wrong.

During long strategic discussions it happens quite often that plan is laid by a person who has drawn some thoughts in his mind, transfers it to a group, normally called executors  who works like collective brain and those collective brains deliver 1 idea to a representative who has to implement it. The most interesting part of this strategy of implementation is, the HR representative does not know the starting point and seems lost while delivering it, but cannot challenge as it’s a Directive.

But later I have realized that if you want to channelize your HR delivery, the root has to be firm and the HR representative who’s going to deliver needs to know the entire background to deliver the right result. To give the result which is desired below steps can work at catalyst
1) Know the start of the thread
2) Gather your points while discussion
3) Connect dots with your recent discussions or prevailing trends
4) Projection forward
5) Where do u stand in the mind map of the executor
6) Your views are also important for delivery

Core HR delivery team now a days is challenging the directive then just nodding the head and taking directives, its all about presenting your data points and turning tables to your side by saying how to do , what to do and when to do and most important all of this will get equipped only if your learning is strong along with your fundamentals in execution is strong.

So, when any of you just nod to your bosses, realize what you are doing is desired or expected.

Over for now.. happy executing !!!