The problem is....

I had the good fortune of meeting a senior HR professional the other day who has moved from a global IT major to a Family run 50000+ crore Indian MNC. I will leave the other stuff out and focus on the most striking aspect.

It seems there were a few employees who were neither working nor letting others work. Truly in the IT fashion, the HR head suggested "sack them". The Chairman (one from the family) flatly refused - instead SHOUTED for an hour at the guys who werent working and sent them back to work! Later in the day, he had lunch with them!

Look at the stark contrast. We seem to be forgetting the inclusivity found in Indian values and culture - instead trying to ape the "performance driven" culture pontified by the west.

This is much like a story I read when I was in school. A gentleman once consulted his neighbour on the rolls of wall paper needed for his home (both their houses were of the same dimensions and architecture). The neighbour most gladly prescribed 16 rolls of wallpaper since he had bought 16 rolls while papering his house.

Once the gentleman completed papering his house, he found to his dismay that 4 rolls were left unused. He rushed to his neighbour's house to 'investigate' this issue. The neighbour's eyes brightened up when he learnt of the 4 unused rolls and said "Oh! This is uncanny! Even I have 4 unused rolls fromt eh 16 rolls that I bought"!!

All I am trying to say is that in our eagerness to bring in business, we seem ready to forget our own wisdom and reasoning. And then we conduct concalls to discus worklife balance issues...

Happy Independance day!!

-Sid

Recording behaviours in a LGD

Have BIs along columns and record behaviours in rows. Tick each relevant Matrixed cell.

Easier during final evaluation!!

Have you visioned today?

Sorry if I make it sound frivolous like "have you brushed today?" Couple of thoughts in this article..

First things first. Do any bit of measurement in the behavioural domain, and you will want to look at validity and reliability - prominent among them being Construct validity - have you defined what you want to measure and are you measuring that very same thing. Simple naa!

Now apply this to a real life situation. Have you defined what you want to do and are you doing what is needed to reach your goals?

Now you must have linked it all up with Visioning I guess. This is the very line of thinking. Think of HR. I learn from my colleagues in the industry that they have, BU HR, SBU HR, LOB HR, CORPORATE HR (and probably a Inter galactic HR as well in the near future that is) in most companies.

But, have the HR departments crafted a vision for themselves? Have they gone back to the business and asked "what do you want from HR" and then used the same for crafting a vision for themselves? Unfortunately, the answer is often NO.

Possible fallouts are feelings of Role erosion, role ambiguity and an overall feeling of learned helplessness from the lowest rung of HR folks. Next "milestone" - massive HR attrition!

Think about it, let me know!

-Sid