Why a company should implement human resource policies?

Why a company should implement human resource policies?

Human Resource Policies

Human Resource policies are the guidelines by the management for managing manpower and sources in an efficient manner by implementing policies through the support and help of Human Resource.

As we already know we do have so many of HR policies in every company to follow on a regular basis.

Here are a few policies mentioned below which represents the importance of implementing below mentioned policies in the company.

 General HR policies

Recruitment & Selection Policy:

This policy aims to achieve the following objectives:

• Recruit staff with the appropriate skills, both personal and technical, in order to meet operational and strategic requirement which helps the company to grow with the right people
• Recruiting positive people can effectively contribute to the company in a positive manner
• Recruiting/hiring right talent for right positions helps to increase productivity ratio
• Implement right and transparent selection policy without bias helps to choose quality people

 Leave Policy:

This policy helps to achieve the following objectives:

• The company make great effort to create and maintain a balanced work schedule for its employees through its varying leave policies
• It helps to maintain clear communication between employee and management
• Leave policy is a necessary want and need for employees, which also helps the management to motivate employee for giving them advantage to use this policy according to their needs

Induction Policy:

This policy aims to achieve the following objectives:

• Induction includes the company introduction with all rules & regulations mentioned on it for giving clarity to the new employee which help them for completion of future tasks smoothly
• It helps to build a friendly relationship among the employees with the induction policy
• Induction policy represents a clear image about company which help the employees to get all true information about the company and its norms

Performance Appraisal Policy:

This policy aims to achieve the following objectives:

• Performance Appraisal policy helps the management to take decision about the salary increment of an employee
• It helps to employee to grow and perform more efficiently with the company
• Need of training for an employee can be identified through this policy
• It also helps to recognize and reward staff member contribution and efforts

 

Why do we need Human Resource Policies?

 Policy plays an important role in the company for employee and employer

Below mentioned are the needs for implementing policies-:

• With the help of implementing above policies company can maintain a good relationship with employees by providing them the benefits and services.
• Giving an employee a chance to grow can also help the company to grow
• Company grows with employees’ growth: policies are made to avoid unnecessary gaps between the management and employees
• Implementing right policy at the right time helps to reduce disputes/conflicts
• With the help of policies company can lead manpower more efficiently and effectively
• Policies are made for improving the work flow, work smoothness between employee and employer

 

About the author

Author’s email id -: Shikha.rawat@turacoz.in

Original Source: Why a company should implement human resource policies?

Shikha is a seasoned human resource professional with the skills to manage employee relations, rewards & recognition, training and development, talent management, compensation & benefit etc. for all the employees across the organization. An effective communicator with interpersonal skills and problem solving skill. We at Turacoz always welcome the talent and know the value of right talent. Connect with her on LinkedIn.

A Day of a Human Resources Manager

It’s great to be a People’s Man. It’s tough to be a Management representative. It’s responsible to be Human Resources Head.

There are 100s of people working for different section heads. But the welfare and happiness at work is a responsibility of 1 department, Human Resources. Although to cover up the pressure, we all share the responsibility with all other Heads of Department.

Staff feels that we have a Magic Wand, with which we can change the ecosystem of workplace as per their expectation, but we don’t use it. So Staff become upset with us.

Management feels that we have the power to change the flow of mind power of staff in the favor of management decisions, but we don’t do it. So Management becomes upset with us.

Colleagues come and share their anger (may be on anything in the entire universe) with us. HODs will come and share their expectations from colleagues (how weird it may be) and set the benchmarks for future hire. Management call for cost cuttings, hence non incurrence of expenses.

End of quarter – The result on KRA of HR Head is –

“Needs to be more focused while be attentive to colleagues”.

HR is responsible to hire great Talents. We impress people to join the organization by giving them good pictures about the management, culture, ethics and what not. Business fails due to anything in the entire world, we are the one holding the toughest responsibility for that time – Manpower Downsizing. Suddenly a talent becomes a weight and our face gets changed from being Good Man to Bad Man and tell those people whom we hired – It’s time to part ways.

The irony is – out of 10, 9 people say – HR job is the best job because it’s the most relaxing job.

NOTE: This applies to people who actually do their job sincerely. Not just who call themselves as HR Manager but do nothing.

Original Source:

Dinesh Nagpal – A Day of a Human Resources Manager

Mastering the Panel Interview

Establishing a rapport with a single interviewer is hard enough. What happens when you need to face a panel of three or four? Worst of all, the employer might not tell you that you’ll be meeting with several people at the same time.

“Nobody’s going to tell you about a panel interview in advance,” said Don Georgevich, a 20-year IT veteran, author of “The Complete Interview Answer Guide,” and career expert. “And if you let the group run rampant with questions, they’ll burn you out. The key is to treat a panel like a one-on-one interview by breaking it down into small, manageable chunks.”

Group interviews present a unique set of dynamics and challenges. If you remain calm, and practice the following techniques, you can still prevail:

Get Names and Titles

Create a “seating chart” by jotting down the names and titles of the interviewers or placing their business cards on the table in front of you. Having a roster will help you address them by name and discern their concerns, agendas and pecking order. Sure, you’d like to impress everyone—but in reality, some interviewers have more clout than others.

“While the manager may solicit feedback from everyone, there’s only one decision maker,” Georgevich said. “Gear most of your answers toward that person, because that’s who you need to win over to land an offer.”

Control the Pace

A panel interview can morph into a rapid-fire interrogation, unless you make a concerted effort to control the pace.

“Take a few sips of water or jot down a few notes after you finish answering a question,” Georgevich said. “Those 15 to 20 seconds belong to you—don’t give them up.”

Notes can help you remember key details and formulate insightful follow-up questions at the end of your meeting. Make eye contact with the manager or leader when you’re ready to proceed.

Tailor Your Responses

Since panel members usually have different roles and responsibilities, customizing your answer toward individual questioners’ issues and concerns showcases your capabilities from different angles, said Laura Smith-Proulx, an executive resume writer and career coach.

“For instance, an engineering manager or technical lead may be concerned about your technical strengths, especially if the last developer he hired didn’t work out,” she added. “While the IT director is looking to see if you’re easy to manage and a fellow developer or PM is looking for a supportive team player.”

Framing your answer is an effective way to acknowledge the questioner’s position and demonstrate your range in front of a group with diverse agendas. For example, you might say: “As a member of the development team, I realize that I may need to acquiesce to avoid conflict. Here’s how I would handle the QA issue you just described.”

Engage the Group

Build a rapport one person at a time by addressing the questioner, but pan your head around every so often as you’re talking to keep the other panel members engaged. And be sure to limit your answers to two minutes or less.

“As you’re wrapping up your answer, go around the circle and tip your head, smile or acknowledge the other panel members especially the hiring manager,” Georgevich said. “Using body language, facial expressions or gestures is an effective way to draw in the other observers.”

Avoid Traps

Strange things can happen when a group of tech pros gather around a conference table. One may try to dominate the conversation, while another may play “bad cop” by posing difficult or “gotcha” questions. The panellists may even disagree about a testing methodology or when it makes sense to reuse code.

Whether it’s a genuine conflict or a ploy to see how you react, don’t get sucked into the drama. “By remaining calm and professional, you’ll convey that you can confidently handle any situation,” Smith-Proulx said. “And employers hold group interviews to see which candidates can handle stress and how they work with others.”

Source: Mastering the Panel Interview – Dice Insights

Q&A with an Interviewer: How to Gain the Most from Candidate Interviews

Original Post ::

LinkedIn Pulse: Q&A with an Interviewer: How to Gain the Most from Candidate Interviews

Interviewing is an art.  As a fresh graduate I went on my fair share of interviews, and being a newbie in the professional world, I assumed it was my fault if an interview didn’t go well (most likely, it was – I’ll save those lessons for another blog post). Four years later, from the other side of the table, I realize that the interviewer has to put forth an equal amount of effort in order to have a successful interview with a potential candidate.

A successful interview is one that is more of a conversation that flows from one topic to the next. The meeting should leave the interviewer with a good understanding of the candidate’s relevant experiences, through solid examples and full responses to the questions asked.

That said, it is the interviewer’s job to prompt those solid examples and full responses without leading the interviewee. As an interviewer, one must ask questions that are open enough to allow the candidate to provide valuable information, but not so open-ended that the point of the question is lost.

The trouble I have with interviewing is that I am a very direct communicator. When interviewing, my directness can lead to narrow answers from the candidate with little opportunity for me to receive additional insight.

After searching through a variety of online content for interviewer tips (this one was helpful), I consulted a very good friend of mine to help me improve my interviewer skills – Rosie is an accomplished journalist who works at one of the largest newspapers in the US. Journalists are professionals at asking questions. They have to maneuver conversation to receive the information they need, without leading the interviewee.

The goal of my conversation with Rosie was to identify strategies that may be useful to prospective interviewers as they go into hiring season. Here is summary of our conversation:

 

Q: In an interview, the candidate may be meeting with a variety of people one after the next. What are your tips on prioritizing questions so that the conversation is not tired by the time it is your turn to interview?

I often start with an easy-to-answer question that covers the basics. A question that helps the interviewee reinforce his expertise, and allows him to show that he prepared for the interview.

If this person was recommended by someone internal: Give the interviewee a compliment– “I heard you’re really good with deadlines. So-and-so (his reference) told me about the time you accomplished X – How’d that go?”

Leverage your notebook as a tool: Yes, eye contact is important, but it’s helpful to periodically break eye contact. The notebook gives you opportunities to look down, while giving the candidate a few seconds to collect his thoughts. It also allows you to process the responses without dragging the conversation.

Regarding content – Don’t be boring. You can still get a lot of information through questions that are asked in a more creative way. For example, “How do you explain your job at a cocktail party?”

 

Q: How do you set the stage for it to be more of a conversation and not an interrogation?

Consider not sitting across from each other at your office desk (the seat across an office desk is usually in a seat that’s lower than yours, so you’re literally looking down at them.) Share the power dynamic by setting up two chairs at a coffee table in your office, or going to a conference room. When in the conference room, sit on two sides of a corner. This lessens the amount of direct eye contact and creates a setting for a more easygoing conversation rather than a face-off.

If you do not have the liberty of using a conference room, leave your office for one minute to grab water or coffee for both of you. This gives the interviewee time to acclimate to the room without the pressure of your presence. It also accelerates comfort — by being in your office and assessing your decorations without you there.

This strategy may not work for every interview – Try having a maximum of three or four key questions that you need answered. Memorize these questions and don’t bring a list (this way, the interview feels less stiff).  Then wing it: listen carefully, and let the conversation go wherever you take it based on what the candidate says and what you’re interested in (kind of like a first date).

 

Q: How do you ask open questions in a way that gets you (as the interviewer) valuable insight?

Use What, How, and Why as your question words.

Listen, listen, listen! It’s OK to start with a general question, but you must show that you’re a good listener and follow up on what you find genuinely interesting. Help the candidate develop his answer without developing it for him: “You said you found xxxx interesting. Could you articulate why…?”

Look for anecdotes — the way the interviewee tells an anecdote might shed light on how he makes decisions or what he thinks is valuable.

I always end the conversation with “Well, this has been great. Very interesting, we’ve covered a lot, etc. etc., anything else you’d like to add?” What the interviewee ends up saying in response to this question typically summarizes his main takeaway points. Or, the answer provides an additional insight that the interviewee had prepared for the interview, but the topic never came up.

 

Q: In that case; this has been very insightful – Is there anything else you’d like to add?

Yes! A few more pointers:

It’s ok to ride out a silence. Give the other person a chance to think and talk.

I can’t emphasize enough how important listening is. A common rookie journalism mistake: Too often, interviewers are too focused on the next question on their list and don’t realize an even better follow-up question is right under their nose.

Lastly, I recommend developing self-awareness of when you’re interrupting. This helps you realize whether you cut-off the candidate before he got to the best part of his point, and helps you teach yourself how to gracefully interrupt and steer the conversation back on track.  I suggest asking the candidate for permission to record the conversation.  If he agrees, take time to listen to the recorded interview, and note the times you interrupted.  Do you now wish you had heard the end of the candidate’s sentence?

Author: Erica Zahka

What I Learned About Life After Interviewing 80 Highly Successful People (James Altucher)

Original Post from Pulse:  What I Learned About Life After Interviewing 80 Highly Successful People

Author: James Altucher (Entrepreneur)

“You interrupt too much,” people email me. “Let your guests finish talking.” But I can’t help it. I get curious. I want to know! Now!

Over the past year I interviewed about 80 guests for my podcast. My only criteria: I was fascinated by some aspect of each person.

I didn’t limit myself by saying “each one had to be an entrepreneur” or “had to be a success.”

I just wanted to talk to anyone who made me curious about their lives. I spoke to entrepreneurs, comedians, artists, producers, astronauts, writers, rappers, and even this country’s largest beer brewer.

Will I do it for the next year? Maybe. It’s hard.

Sometimes I would pursue a guest for six months with no reply and then they would call and say, “Can you do right now?” and I’d change all plans with kids, Claudia, business.

I had no favorites. They were all great. I interviewed Peter Thiel, Coolio, Mark Cuban, Arianna Huffington, Amanda Palmer, Tony Robbins, and many more. I’m really grateful they all wanted to talk to me.

Podcasting, to be honest, was just an excuse for me to call up whoever I wanted to call and ask them all sorts of personal questions about their lives. If I wanted to talk about “Star Wars,” I called the author of a dozen Star Wars novels.

If I wanted to talk about Twisted Sister, I called up the founder of the band. If I wanted to talk sex I called the women who ran the “Ask Women” podcast.

I wanted to know at what point were they at their worst. And how they got better. Each person created a unique life. I wanted to know how they did it. I was insanely curious.

As Coolio told me, “You got me to reveal some deep stuff I didn’t want to reveal. Kudos.” Tony Robbins had to literally shake himself at one point and say, “Wait, how did we end up talking about this?” I can’t help it. I want to know.

Here are the most important things I learned. I can’t specify which person I learned what from. It hurts my head when I think about it because many of the 80 said the exact same thing about how they ended up where they were.

Here is some of what they said:

A) A life is measured in decades.

Too many people want happiness, love, money, connections, everything yesterday. Me too. I call it “the disease.” I feel often I can paint over a certain emptiness inside if only…if only…I have X.

But a good life is like the flame of a bonfire. It builds slowly, and because it’s slow and warm it caresses the heart instead of destroys it.

B) A life is measured by what you did TODAY, even this moment.

This is the opposite of “A” but the same. You get success in decades by having success now.

That doesn’t mean money now. It means, “Are you doing your best today?”

Everyone worked at physical health, improving their friendships and connections with others, being creative, being grateful. Every day.

For those who didn’t, they quickly got sick, depressed, anxious, fearful. They had to change their lives. When they made that change, universally they all said to me, “that’s when it all started.”

C) Focus is not important, but Push is (reinvention).

Very few people have just one career. And for every career, it’s never straight up.

When you have focus, it’s like saying, “I’m just going to learn about only one thing forever.” But “the push” is the ability to get up every day, open up the shades, and push through all the things that make you want to go back to sleep.

Even if it means changing careers 10 times. Or changing your life completely. Just pushing forward to create a little more life inside yourself.

Compound life is much more powerful than compound interest.

D) Give without thinking of what you will receive.

I don’t think I spoke to a single person who believed in setting personal goals. But 100% of the people I spoke to wanted to solve a problem for the many.

It doesn’t matter how you give each day. It doesn’t even matter how much. But everyone wanted to give and eventually they were given back.

E) Solving hard problems is more important than overcoming failure.

The outside world is a mirror of what you have on the inside. If Thomas Edison viewed his 999 attempts at creating a lightbulb a failure then he would’ve given up. His inside was curious. His inside viewed his “attempts” as experiments. Then he did #1000. Now we can see in the dark.

Dan Ariely was burned all over his body and used that experience to research the psychology of pain and ultimately the psychology of behavior and how we can make better decisions.

Tony Robbins lost everything when his marriage ended, but he came back by coaching thousands of people.

It’s how you view the life inside you that creates the life outside of you. Every day.

F) Art and success and love is about connecting all the dots.

Here are some dots: The very personal sadness sitting inside of you. The things you learn. The things you read about. The things you love. Connect the dots. Give it to someone.

Now you just gave birth to a legacy that will continue beyond you.

G) It’s not business, it’s personal.

Nobody succeeded with a great idea.

Everyone succeeded because they built networks within networks of connections, friends, colleagues all striving towards their own personal goals, all trusting each other, and working together to help each other succeed.

This is what happens only over time. This is why giving creates a bigger world because you can never predict what will happen years later.

Biz Markie described to me how he helped a 7-year-old kid named Jay-Z with his lyrics.

Peter Thiel’s ex employees created tens of billions of dollars worth of companies.

Marcus Lemonis saves businesses every week on his show “The Profit.” It doesn’t come by fixing their accounting. It comes from fixing the relationships with the partners and the customers and the investors.

The best way to create a great business over time: Every day send one thank you letter to someone from your past. People (me) often say you can’t look back at the past. But this is the one way you can. You create the future by thanking the past.

H) You can’t predict the outcome, you can only do your best.

Hugh Howey thought he would write novels that only his family would read. So he wrote ten of them. Then he wrote “Wool,” which he self-published and has sold millions of copies and Ridley Scott is making the movie.

Clayton Anderson applied to be an astronaut for 15 years in a row and was rejected each time until the 16th.

Coolio wrote lyrics down every day for 17 years before having a hit. Noah Kaganwas fired from Facebook and Mint without making a dime before starting his own business. Wayne Dyer quit his secure job as a tenured professor, put a bunch of his books in car and drove across the country selling them in every bookstore. Now he’s sold over 100,000,000 books.

Sometimes when I have conversations with these people they want to jump right to the successful parts but I stop them. I want to know the low points. The points where they had to start doing their best. What got them to that point.

I) The same philosophy of life should work for an emperor and a slave.

Ryan Holiday told me that both Marcus Aurelius, an emperor, and Epictetus, a slave, both subscribed to the idea of stoicism. You can’t predict pleasure or pain. You can only strive for knowledge and giving and fairness and health each day.

Many people write me it’s easy for so-and-so to say that now that he’s rich. Every single person I spoke to started off in a gutter or worse. (Well, most of them.)

Luck is certainly a component, but in chess there’s a saying (and this applies to anything) “it’s funny how always the best players seem to be lucky.”

J) The only correct path is the path correct for you.

Scott Adams tried about 20 different careers before he settled on drawing Dilbert. Now, he’s in 2000 papers, has written Dilbert books, Dilbert shows, Dilbert everything. Everyone was shocked when Judy Joo gave up a Wall St. career to go back to cooking school. Now she’s on the Food Channel as an “iron chef.”

Don’t let other people choose your careers. Don’t get locked in other people’s prisons they’ve set up just for you. Personal freedom starts from the inside but ultimately turns you into a giant, freeing you from the chains the little people spent years tying around you.

K) Many moments of small, positive, personal interactions build an extraordinary career.

Often people think that you have to fight your way to the top. But for everyone I spoke to it was small kindnesses over a long period of time that built the ladder to success. I think I’m starting to sound like a cliche on this. But it’s only a cliche because it’s true.

L) Taking care of yourself comes first.

Kamal Ravikant picked himself off a suicidal bottom by constantly repeating “I love you” to himself. Charlie Hoehn cured his anxiety by using every moment he could to play.

I’ve written before: The average kid laughs 300 times a day. The average adult…5.

Something knifed our ability to smile. Do everything you can to laugh, to create laughter for others, and then what can possibly be bad about today? I think that’s why I try to interview so many comedians are comedy writers. They make me laugh. It’s totally selfish.

M) The final answer: People do end up loving what they succeed at, or they succeed at what they love.

Mark Cuban said, “My passion was to get rich!” But I don’t really believe him. He loved computers so he created a software company. Then he wanted to watch Ohio basketball in Pittsburgh so he created Broadcast.com. I worked with Broadcast.com a little bit back in 1997. They were crusaders about bringing video to the Internet.

Sure, he wanted to use that to get rich. Because he knew better than anyone then how to let a good idea lead him to success.

But deep down he was a little kid who wanted to watch his favorite basketball. And now what does he do? He owns a basketball team.

N) Anybody, at any age

The ages of the people I spoke to ranged from 20 to 75. Each is still participating every day in the worldwide conversation. I asked Dick Yuengling from Yuengling beer why he even bothered to talk to me. He’s 75 and runs the biggest American-owned brewery worth about $2 billion. He laughed and said, “Well, you asked me.”

I just realized this list can go on for another 100 items.

The specifics of success. How to overcome hardships. How any one person can move society forward.

Down to even what are the most productive hours of the day, what’s the one word most important for success, and what we can look forward to over the next century and maybe 100 other things.

Then I learned many things about myself.

Most of the people I asked to come on my podcast said, “NO!” I told Claudia the other day I haven’t been rejected this much since freshman year of high school. I had to re-learn how to deal with so much rejection.

I’ve always been a big reader but never as much as this year. I read everything by all the guests.

Some weeks I felt like I was spending 10 hours a day preparing for podcasts. I learned to interview, to listen, to prepare, to pursue, to entertain, to educate.

Podcasting seems like it’s becoming an industry, or a business idea, or something worth looking at by entrepreneurs or investors. I have no clue about that.

For me, podcasting this year was just about calling anyone I wanted to call and talking to them. I felt like a little boy interviewing his heroes.

I highly recommend finding ways to call people for almost no reason. I learned a huge amount.

But it was hard.

It’s one of those things where I can say, “I don’t know if I can ever do that again.” But I also know I’m probably going to say the same thing next year.

(You can subscribe to my podcast here.)

Closing the Recruitment / Hiring Gap: We Need a Bridge – Heather Hiles (CEO / Founder, Pathbrite)

Houston, we have a problem. Recent grads and prospective employers don’t understand how to communicate with each other. We need new options.

The latest study by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) on student’s perception of recruitment is telling. For Millennials (read: recent adults), the intrusion of recruiting apps and messages on social media is a real put off, with the exception of contact through LinkedIn.

Why? Because you can’t walk into someone’s intimate, personal space, and start talking business. Online communication, especially social media, is a private affair.

According to the report, students can’t differentiate through all the online clutter about companies online either, and they want a deeper, more intimate engagement with prospective employers, not just online contact.

But according to NACE, employers are looking for talent online, especially through social media, and are increasingly investing in sophisticated digital recruitment applications. With everyone working at odds, we’ve got a real gap in “findability” (the ability to find and be found).

What we need is a three-dimensional resume or portfolio at the crossroads. 

Job seekers: your job is to make yourself known. You are not going to get a lot of one to one intimate employer romancing in today’s economy. But, you can be so much more than just another online applicant. Why not make a trackable resume where prospective employers can find more evidence of your skills and accomplishments and you can see what they interested in you? You can.

Translating your skills and experience into more than text on a paper is crucial in today’s competitive workforce. When you use an online portfolio, you’re able to see what viewers look at, and where they spend their time. You don’t need a supercharged website or any special programming skills to make a portfolio that’s super meaningful.

Hiring managers: Instead of spending valuable resources on customized software and digital recruitment applications that job seekers avoid like the plague, why not spend a few minutes looking through digital portfolios that show you precisely who a job seeker is, what they’re all about, and how talented they are? I know from our experience at Pathbrite, that hiring managers are frustrated by all the generic, fluffy resumes that tell them almost nothing about the candidate in question.

Technology is not a replacement for human contact, nor should we aim to make it a mediator of all human connections. When it comes to networking for work or clients, I think of a portfolio as a way of revealing my authentic self. My professional portfolio makes more of my leadership, skills, and knowledge accessible to people interested in working with me.

I also like that when people look at my portfolio, I can see which artifacts are more compelling than others. I’m always amazed at how many people have looked at my family photos — something I never thought would be very interesting to others.

But as I speak at conferences and events around the world, people almost always comment on the little things I’ve added that say so much more about me than a resume ever could. How can I put a picture of myself doing volunteer work or traveling abroad on my two-dimensional, text-only resume, in a way that truly captures the spirit of who I am as a person? In my portfolio, these touches of my humanity (often called “soft skills”) are interwoven with my hard skills like my M.B.A. and my past job titles. I am known more fully as a person and contributor through my portfolio.

Finding each other is important. It’s time we bridge some gaps. It’s time we find better alignment between people. It’s time to increase our connectivity in job searches and job placements. Let’s meet at the digital portfolio.

Author: Heather Hiles (CEO / Founder, Pathbrite)

Original Post from Pulse: Closing the Recruitment / Hiring Gap: We Need a Bridge

Human Resource Challenges in India Today

Human Resource Challenges in India Today

In the words of Oliver Wendell Homes-

“The greatest tragedy in America is not the destruction of our natural resources, though that tragedy is great. The truly great tragedy is the destruction of our human resources by our failure to fully utilize our abilities, which means that most men and women go to their graves with their music still in them”

A company and its success stories are made up of its people. It’s the Human Resource department which sets the pace and acts as an intermediary between the company and its human resources. Managing and laying the foundation does not come without its set of challenges. In the recent times the major challenges which are faced by corporate India are:

1. Shortage of skilled talent pool – That’s the question organisations seems to be asking as the demand for experienced professionals burgeons forth. The primarily reason for this is human capital flight or brain drain. Every year students are picked up from top Indian institutes for high flying dollar and euro jobs.

Catch them early– The best way to overcome the crunch in the talent pool is that organisations’ should hire more qualified freshers and train them with a long term perspective. Right talent has to be identified and nurtured. This will ensure that organisational goals are synergised with individual ambitions.

2. More than salary– Though compensation may be the initial reason to switch over companies but when it comes to making a long term commitment, employees are looking beyond the pay packages. Employees built their perception about a healthy organisation on the basis of its overall work culture and the value the HR initiatives add to it. If these initiatives reflect that the organisation “cares”, they will surely think twice before moving on. It is therefore pivotal that the HR initiatives focus on making the employees feel truly valued in the organisation.

3. The engaged employee– Employee engagement is a major “food for thought” in our times. With many top companies losing a vast majority of its employees to its competitors, to yet others trying to boost their revenue figures drastically high, corporate India today is constantly adopting varied measures to intensify employee engagement.

4. A work life balance – Candidates today make a decision on choosing a particular organisation based on the work life balance preached in the organisation. A healthy work life balance directly impacts on the retention of top executives in any company. Today there are many who would gladly forgo a better pay option to spend quality time with their family. The main focus should hence be on understanding what is really important to employees and to demonstrate a caring culture through healthy work-life balance.

5. Long working hours– Spending extra hours at the office seems to be the most common thing in all fields in India today. It is reported that an average Indian spends about nine to eleven hours every day at office and often takes work home to finish. This is not a healthy scenario. It will lead to exhaustion and stress among employees and will only mount to less productive hours at the office.

6. Rewards and promotions- Good work and good performance should not only be encouraged but also acknowledged and rewarded. An award given at the right time, to the right person for a meritorious job goes a long way in raising the moral of the individual and becomes a source of inspiration for others. However it is a double edged knife, in the sense that the reward given to a non deserving person, surpassing a proper system can lead to demoralisation of many. Hence a challenge for HR is to have a fool proof selection criteria in place to ensure that the rewards are fair and are through a transparent system.

7. Retention– Organisations’ needs to ensure that the opportunities provided to the employees are lucrative enough. Be it opportunity for vertical growth, competitive compensation or better work life climate. In today’s dynamic market conditions, there are always lucrative offers afloat. Under these circumstances it becomes even more important that HR heads in organisations ensure that employees see a long term career progression and association with the company.

8. Mechanism for redressal of grievances– It has been stated that even a small grievance in the mind of an employee can sometimes lead to withdrawal from the system and finally separation from the organisation. It is hence becoming more and more important that the HR of an organisation ensures that there is a proper mechanism or forum in place where an employee can freely share his grievances. The very fact that there is someone at the work place who cares and is ready to listen is redressal in itself.

9. Compassion and Human approach– Everything is not only rules and regulation. Flexibility in implementation of rules with a human approach and compassion is the key. The majority of the work force in most companies today comprises of the younger strata. It is important to understand and adopt their needs in the organisational climate.

10. Encouragement of new ideas– An employee is not just a pair of hands, hired for a particular set of jobs; he is also an ideating being, capable of newer and better ways. It is very important that an employee feels involved in all aspects of the organisation. Developing a culture where an employee feels part of the system and is able to express a new idea will ensure better employee engagement and sustainability. Today, hatching and harvesting ideas from the collective intelligence within an organisation will add to competitive advantage.