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HR Era, Issue # 31, Mar 2nd, 2003

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CONTENTS

1. Moderator's Space

2. New Humor Resource For Human Resource - by Dr James Y Lin

3. Tomato Soup for the Soul

4. New Members :

Prashant G.Verma, General Manager - H.R., Global Hospitals
Shweta, Manager Training & Development, TCNS Limited
Ajay M S, Executive-HR, Indal

5. Are Headhunters calling you...or ignoring you? - by Deborah Walker

6. Quotation Corner : Wisdom of the Soul - sent by Neeraj Narang

7. What I want to contribute to Human Resources Development? - by Maneesh Goel

8. The Fifth Discipline : Book Review - by Gautam Ghosh

The Fifth Discipline: By Peter Senge

9. More from our Members & HR Era Website

10. HR Training Programs (India)

11. Best HR Jobs (India)

12. Aims of HR Era, How to Contribute Articles, Legal Stuff.

1. Moderator's Space

Dear Fellow Professionals,

If you wake up a doctor in mid-night and ask what is the medicine for malaria, he will tell you quinine or chloromycitin. Hallmark of professional is that he should be able to talk about his area of expertise. Similarly, HR Professionals should be able to speak & write about HR.

However, we get fewer contributions in core areas of HR. More contributions come in areas like inspirational stories, which are also needed but ...

We request more of you, the experienced as well as the young professionals, to pen your experiences, observations, readings, summaries on HR topics. Don't worry about perfection, just give it a try.

regards

Rajeev B Bhatnagar

rajeev@hrera.com

2. New Humor Resource For Human Resource - by Dr James Y Lin

Presented at the 29th ARTDO (Asian Region Training and Development Organization) Conference and Exhibition, Taipei, Taiwan, September 26-29, 2002

Do you often wonder why you are so distressed at work? Do you know most people are working hard but hate working? If you do not have fun at work, you are wasting 3/5 of your life! It is crucial to make your work fun by transforming your work attitude and by promoting fun workplace. Working supposed to be fun experience for all.

In our six-year survey of Asian Human Resource Development, in both the private and public sectors, the QLQ International team observed that HR is in the transitional position for new transformational actions.

One of these HR transformational actions needed is to initiate the underdeveloped workplace wellness. Studies have proven that among other things, humor power enhances employees’ total physical, mental and spiritual wellness. Hence, where there is humor there will be positive work attitude, work satisfaction, loyalty and better performance and productivity. Humor is also said to be the best medicine for a healthy well being. It is also the vital enhancer for workplace wellness. Workplaces lacking laughter often suffer higher work stress, higher health risk, more dissatisfied employees and poor work performance.

In the current millennium, the new HR roles are: to initiate proactive wellness transformation of the workplace and to develop healthy and happy employees. So, let laughter be heard and let smiling faces be seen, as work should be fun and a satisfying experience for all!

WHY AND HOW TO CREATE A HUMOR RESOURCE IN YOUR HUMAN RESOURCE SERVICE

First of all, you must believe that appropriate laughter in the workplace has positive healing and helping powers. Initiating humor resource calls for shifting of the HR mindset, transformation of organizational culture, which will lead to the enriching of employees’ work life.

Here are seven reasons and seven ways that humor resource (HR) can transform a distressed workplace into a fun workplace, and burnout employees into satisfied and productive workforce:

1. HR TRANSFORMS HARMFUL STRESS INTO HELPFUL STRESS

It prevents illness, and heals sickness by transforming harmful stress into helpful stress. It also heals body, mind and spirit, by changing one’s biochemistry and behavior.

How is this done?

· Encourage laughter and smiling faces in the workplace.

· Replace ‘fears’ of authority (harmful stress) for ‘friendly competitive’ workplace (helpful stress).

· Promote wellness programs for physical exercises and mental relaxation

· Play soothing music at work to open up your limbic system (emotional brain)

· Provide free in-house stress transformation center and professional services

2. HR LIGHTENS UP THE WORK ATMOSPHERE

The sound of laughter diffuses a heavy stressful atmosphere in the workplace. It is vital to provide healthy ergonomics for hard working employees.

How is this done?

· Decorate your workplace like your home away from home

· Smile first and you will get smiles back – fear not of what people may think of you

· When you are relaxed and happy you do not feel working hard

3. HR ENHANCES EQ (Emotional Intelligence) FOR NEW SOCIAL ATTITUDE

Appropriate socialization in the workplace is helpful in building empathy among employees and minimizing organizational hierarchy. When employees have friends at a friendly workplace, they tend to become more enthusiastic and happy.

How is this done?

· People who socialize together, work best together

· Socializing at work improves EQ and empathy

· Remember, work involves the whole person – brain power, muscle strength and a caring heart

4. HR PROMOTES POSITIVE WORK ATTITUDE

The best work attitude comes from having fun and being rewarded for one’s work effort. Work smart replaces work hard. Positive work attitude minimizes work errors while maximizing quality performance. Positive work attitude will motivate employees to do above and beyond what they should do.

How is this done?

· Choose from the four work attitudes

· Attitude is the driver for work passion, motivation, satisfaction and loyalty

· Positive work attitude must come from the top and spread out 360 degrees

5. HR INCREASES WORK SATISFACTION AND LOYALTY

Work is supposed to be a fun experience in the workplace. Work satisfaction comes from intangible rewards. Satisfied employees enjoy working and they have less health risks and there is also a low turnover rate.

How is this done?

· Humor is the most intangible, affordable, cost free, natural gift we can share

· When people are happy, they work and live longer

· Tangibles give immediate rewards but intangibles last longer

6. HR FACILITATES TEAM BONDING

Good team bonding will develop better communication, conflict resolution, decision-making and better skills in coping with difficult people.

How is this done?

· As in all sports, having fun together empowers the team performance

· In team bonding, it is not the common task but the emotional bond that makes players come closer to one another

· A fun team enjoys one heart and prevents conflicts

7. HR@ INCUBATES CREATIVE AND INNOVATIVE EMPLOYEES

When employees have fun together they work best together. Creative minds and innovative performance are resulted from happy employees.

How is this done?

· Creative ideas are often born out of crisis but innovative performances often done when fun is present

· How to make your fish fly?

· Innovative organization is open for creative ideas and fun works.

SUMMARY

Many workplaces do not have wellness consciousness. They are likely to be ‘unwell’ workplaces that need healing desperately. Employees who work in these ‘unwell’ workplaces tend to develop negative work attitude, poor morale, high work stress, and become dissatisfied with their work. These ‘unwell’ workplaces will suffer from poor productivity and quality control. They will also have problems retaining good employees, let alone their worker enjoyment and loyalty.

To remedy this, HR should be the major driver that takes transformational actions towards implementing humor resource in the workplace, so as to develop the truly ‘Human Resource’ and not just ‘Worker Resource’. Let every employee, regardless of position and power maximize his/her work enjoyment and satisfaction, so that total workplace wellness may be shared and enjoyed by all.

Let humor resource enriches the human resource!

Guidelines for implementing good Humor Resource: follow A.T & T principles .........

· Appropriate to the situation and people

· Tastefully and sensitively done to achieve good response

· Timely, for the appropriate occasions

Contributed by Dr James Y. Lin (PhD, MEd, BA, LTh – USA & Australia).

Dr Lin is a Polynesian born and Western trained psychologist, corporate trainer, humorist and stressologist from the USA. He is the chairman and CEO of the QUALITY LIFESKILLS QUANTUM INTERNATIONAL (USA, Asia Pacific). He leads a team of QLQ corporate consultants and trainers serving the Asia-Pacific countries. He is also the executive advisor to HRD Gateway (Asean HRD organization - http://www.hrdgateway.org ) For more information on QLQ please visit www.jyl2000.com, email jyl2000@singnet.com.sg All Rights Reserved, QLQ Training.

3. Tomato Soup for the Soul

Business Sense

Before going to Europe on business, a man drives his Rolls-Royce to a downtown New York City bank and asks for an immediate loan of $5,000.

The loan officer, taken aback, requests collateral. "Well then, here are the keys to my Rolls-Royce," the man says. The loan officer promptly has the car driven into the bank's underground parking for safe keeping and gives the man the $5,000.

Two weeks later, the man walks through the bank's doors and asks to settle up his loan and get his car back. "That will be $5,000 in principal, and $15.40 in interest," the loan officer says. The man writes out a check and starts to walk away.

"Wait, sir," the loan officer says. "You are a millionaire. Why in the world would you need to borrow $5,000?" The man smiles, "Where else could I find a safer place to park my Rolls-Royce in Manhattan for two weeks and pay only $15.40?"

Climbing the Ladder

The workers talk about football in the afternoon,
The officers talk about cricket in the afternoon,
The managers talk about billiards in the afternoon,
and the directors talk about golf in the afternoon,
that means and proves that higher you go smaller your balls are!!

From the Net

4. New Members

Prashant G.Verma, General Manager - H.R., Global Hospitals

Well, I will keep sending mails on different items and interacting more with all of you. Gives great satisfaction. Thank you once again.

With best regards,

Prashant

Prashant has done his Masters in Human Resources Management from Andhra University; P.G.Diploma in Personnel Management from NIPM; Bachelor of Laws; P.G.Diploma in Public Relations; Diploma in Computers and recently P.G.Diploma in Hospital Administration from Vellore as he is working in Healthcare for quite some time.

He has worked in manufacturing industry, Hotel industry and at present is in Healthcare Industry for more than 6 years as Head of H.R.

Contact: prashantg_verma@hotmail.com

Shweta, Manager Training & Development, TCNS Limited, New Delhi

A 1998 MBA batch from Indian Institute of Planning & Management, Shweta has had a very wide exposure with two leading Consulting Firms prior to her present assignment with TCNS
Limited.

A one-year stint with Planman Consulting gave her an exposure in Marketing and Administering the Training programmes. Three years with Asian Centre for Organization Research & Development (ACORD), gave Shweta an opportunity to work for organizations like Hindustan Levers Limited; Planning Commission, Hughes Software System. Her area of expertise are Training, Action Research and Change Management processes, Psychometric Tools and Counseling.

Contact: shweta@tcnslimited.com , 011-26861390

Ajay M S, Executive-HR, Indal, Belgaum

Message: My objective is to pursue a challenging assignment, which demands responsibility, innovation and creativity where I can prove my multi-dimensional worth and contribute towards the Organization's growth in conjunction with personal advancement.

Regards,

Ajay M S

Ajay has done MSW from Karanataka University; Diploma in HR from Chennai, and is presently doing ISTD's Diploma in Training & Development.

Ajay has 5 years of experience in HR & IR. His strength include multi-tasking, self starter, excellent people skills, strong commitment to the task at hand. He is fluent in Kannada,English,
Hindi & Marathi.

Contact: Ajay.MS@indal.co.in , Ph (O) 0831-472716-20 , 94480-27515

5. Are Headhunters calling you...or ignoring you? - by Deborah Walker

Ex-recruiter reveals secrets to gaining headhunter's attention!

In my former life as a recruiter (also affectionately referred to as "headhunter") I received hundreds of resumes a week from all parts of the country. The statement that a person's resume gets a 15 second read is not far from the truth. In fact, 15 seconds is a generous assumption. In reality, a resume must capture the recruiter's attention in the first five seconds to avoid the
round file. Candidates can greatly improve their chance of catching the recruiter's attention by following three simple rules: use the correct format, include plenty of quantifiable accomplishments and sprinkle liberally with appropriate keywords.

The first rule, use of correct format, is crucial. There is one, and only one, proper resume format for recruiters--chronological. Recruiters' do not have time or patience to figure out the
complexities of a functional resume. To recruiters, time is money.

A second danger of using a functional resume is that recruiters automatically assume the candidate is attempting to hide something. This is a universal assumption. No job seeker on earth is able to hide unpleasant facts within a functional resume. Recruiters are trained from the start to pick up on any possible "red flags" that identify the job seeker as an undesirable candidate.

The second rule, use of quantifiable accomplishments, is essential in helping the recruiter see you as money in his pocket.

Remember this point--you will only capture a headhunter's attention when he sees you in terms of commission potential. Since recruiters earn their fee by providing better candidates than their competition, your resume should shout "ACCOMPLISHMENTS." Quantifiable accomplishments are most convincing when connected to bottom-line results: revenue earned, money saved, market share increased, costs cut or time saved. This type of information gives the recruiter selling points to market you to their clients and put you in front of employers quicker.

The third rule, liberal use of keywords, is important not only in the short term, but also leads to future opportunity. At any given time a recruiter may have 10 to 100 specific positions to
fill. Recruiters categorize their positions by qualifications identified by keywords. When reading resumes the recruiter scans for those keywords. The recruiter may be so tuned into finding specific words that he is oblivious to anything else in the resume except keywords.

The best way to make sure your resume is filled with keywords is to scour job postings of target positions and identify keywords of qualifications. Find the most commonly used keywords in 12 or more target postings and use those words as the language of your resume. For future use, recruiters save resumes in candidate-tracking databases to sort later by keywords. If your
resume does not have the correct keywords, it may never be seen by human eyes. Correct choice of words means that your resume will get recruiter attention every time he queries by keywords contained in your resume.

Once your resume is showcased in the proper format, packed with quantifiable accomplishments and strong keywords, be sure to follow proper etiquette in contacting recruiters and headhunters.
The most effective initial contact is through email. Recruiters spend 80% of their time proactively calling prospective candidates and employers. They do not appreciate spending phone
time with unsolicited callers. Once a recruiter has your resume he will call you if he is interested in you. It does no good to call him up asking if they he has received your resume. You risk ticking him off permanently.

When emailing your resume to recruiters it's best to send it as both a Word attachment as well as in ASCII (plain text) format in the body of the email. This allows the recruiter to access your
information in the quickest manner in order to contact you sooner.

Recruiters and headhunters can be a tremendous resource to your job search efforts. They are privy to a great number of opportunities in the hidden job market. They are experts at presenting candidates' best selling points. They also act as go-between for candidate and employer, allowing the candidate to learn important employer feedback. Designing your resume with recruiters in mind is an important first step toward building relationships with influential recruiters who have the power to introduce you to your next boss.

Contributed by Deborah Walker

CCMC provides Career Coaching and Resume Writing to executives nationwide. Accelerate your job search! visit her website at http://AlphaAdvantage.com or email at
success@AlphaAdvantage.com

6. Quotation Corner : Wisdom of the Soul - sent by Neeraj Narang

Yesterday was the deadline for all complaints.

Look for opportunities...not guarantees.

Life is what's coming....not what was.

Success is getting up one more time.

Now is the most interesting time of all.

Contributed by Neeraj Narang

Human Resources Department, Tata Infotech Limited
neeraj.narang@tatainfotech.com

7. What I want to contribute to Human Resources Development?
- by Maneesh Goel

"Take away my money, my company and my plant – but leave me with my people
and I will be back in 5 years."

- Alfred P. Sloan, the first President of General Motors

I am writing 7 personal qualities in this essay, which I would like to develop in the people of the organization with which I will be working in future. I have drawn theses qualities on the basis of my experience which I have gained since I moved out from my home in 1998, knowledge which I have acquired mostly through general books and my interaction with great people of academic & corporate world.

Be Helpful:

Life is beautiful & world is wonderful, provided you are nice to others. Here to be nice does not mean that you should have a helpful approach towards your peer group or subordinates or relatives or known one but towards everyone. It helps in creating a better culture & a healthy environment in organization and I suppose one of the ways to give back to the society as we all have got enough from it.

Conviction:

Nobody would appreciate/respect your ideas until you do so. Therefore you should be highly convicted about your decisions, once you have taken it. This feeling helped the founder of Sony Mr. Akio Morita in going alone at the time of launching the walkman, when he had the conviction that he was right but his staff members did not agree with him.

Give Your 100%:

Most of the people engage their mind in various activities at one time. It prevents them to give full concentration to the job in hand. So the mantra is “Give your 100% to the job in hand”. It is, however, easier said than done but if we follow it, what at least we can achieve is, improvement in our concentration.

No Fear of Failure:

I strongly believe that there is no such thing as failure. What happens is (As per my understanding) we perform the assigned job & get the outcome on the basis of our performance & other related factors. This outcome itself is not a success or failure but we perceive it in this way. Once in an organization, people develop this attitude, there would be better chances of getting & implementing new business ideas.

Look Ahead:

People often spend their valuable time on the things, which have gone wrong in the past. They think what they would have done better, which could have prevented that incident. But result is zero. Thing is there is no advantage in doing regret, whatever happened has happened. So look ahead.

Learning:

There is no age limit for learning & at no point of our life we can say that we have known/learnt enough. It is a continuous process. This idea may be similar to develop a learning organization. I, however, feel that even if a person reads regularly new books, he is learning something. The point is all the employees of organization should keep learning not to upgrade their CVs but for self-improvement & organization development.

Do What You Love:

Some people say this thing in other way around i.e. Love what you do. I do not know how it could be possible. We at the most can try to give our best to the job. But loving everything we do, is somehow difficult. On the other hand the first principle i.e. Do What You Love would motivated you for long. More specifically you should search & do the job, you like.

Contributed by Maneesh Goel, MBA Student

Contact: manish_goelhrd@rediffmail.com

8. The Fifth Discipline : Book Review - by Gautam Ghosh

The Fifth Discipline: By Peter Senge

This book was written quite a long time ago (in 1990) and shifted the boundaries of management from concentrating on silos (marketing, HR, finance, production) to looking at organizations as open systems which interact with outside systems and put into motion forces that may not be easily understood using traditional systems to assessment. This ability of Systems Thinking Senge called the "Fifth Discipline" , the other four being:

1) Building Shared Vision.
2) Mental models .
3) Team Learning.
4) Personal Mastery

The field of Systems Thinking was developed in MIT under Prof Jay W. Forrester, but Senge gave it the 'managerial' flavour, cross-fertilising it with folk beliefs , spirituality and scientific thought from around the world.

The belief being, once an organization has mastery of all the five disciplines, the organization can become 'a learning organization'. This book, therefore triggered the craze and fad on part of organizations to become 'learning organizations' and the rise of the 'knowledge economy' was
perfect timing for it. Now when the hoopla has settled, it is time again to revisit the true essence of Senge's work and what he REALLY means.

Being a consultant who works in the areas of creativity and knowledge creation, Senge's work is like an ocean , which I visit time after time. And come up with an occasional nugget and pearl. It's not an easy book to read, but well worth the effort.

Contributed by Gautam Ghosh,

Consultant, Erehwon Consulting, Bangalore. "Triggering Innovation for Quantum Growth"
Contact: gautam@erehwonconsulting.com , Ph: 91 80 5263423 , 9845149410,
Personal Web Page : http://www.geocities.com/gautamghosh

9. More from our Members & HR Era Website

Time Management Handbook , sent by Tarkesh Gupta

I have recently developed this book. I am sure, it will be liked by all HR Era members. It is available in Hard Copies as well.

Regards,

Tarkesh Gupta

Contact: tarkeshg@DABUR.com

Steps in marching towards Victory , sent by Ambar Nanavaty

Here is an insightful story about what attitude helps in achieving our goals and excel. Be focused like the frog. Dont be like those who are dead before the battle.

Contact: ambar_nana@yahoo.com

10. HR Training Programs (India)

Free Service: Training Institutions & Trainers can email their Programs to Alka@HREra.com . We reach them to 1400 + HR professionals for free.

Program on Managerial Compensation at Hyderabad, Vadodara,Delhi,Mumbai

I am happy to invite nominations for the following workshops on managerial compensation at

Baroda : 14th & 15th March 2003
Delhi : 4th & 5th April 2003
Mumbai : 25th & 26th April 2003
Hyderabad : (dates to be finalized)

Participants from 128 companies have attended earlier nineteen programs including Hindustan Lever, Satyam, Birla Technologies, Wockhardt, HCL technologies, Crompton Greaves, NOCIL, L&T, Willis, Veritas, GE, Zensar, MBT, Geometric Software, Eicher, Tata Libert, Trinity Computers, Boyden etc.. Out of these, three programs were conducted as in-house programs for Satyam Computers, Hyderabad. Average participant rating for all programs has been more than 8 out of 10.

Participant profile

* Senior & middle level HR managers
* Finance professionals connected with compensation
* Senior line managers involved with policy decisions on compensation
* A team from the same organization would be an ideal combination

Objectives:

At the end of the program the participants will be able to apply the compensation management principles with a view to

* Align the compensation philosophy & strategy with organizational strategy & culture
* Rationalize the salaries to make them internally consistent
* Critique the existing performance linked pay system &/or outline a new one including special issues of service functions like HR, Finance etc.
* Redesign the salary structure to reflect the current & future trends in the employment market

Fees

Rs.5,500 per participant for one nomination & Rs.5,000 per participant for two or more nominations. Self-sponsored participants will be offered a special discount.

Enquiry

E-mail:sbjpune@hotmail.com or devyanip@eth.net
Tel no-020- 5445087. Mobile : 98900 39322

Shirish Joshi

11. Best HR Jobs (India)

Free Service: Employers & Consultants can email their job vacancies to Alka@HREra.com . We reach them to 1400+ HR professionals for free

HR Head -US Operations

JobStreet SELECT is created to provide value-added Search & Selection services to our blue chip clients. JobStreet SELECT is constantly on a mission to source for qualified and talented discerning young professionals. We are looking to fill the position of US HR operation head for one of our premier clients

Requirements:

Candidate should be an MBA from a premier institutes with 12-15 yrs of overall experience ,with atleast 2 yrs of experience in handling US operations. Candidate should have excellent communication and networking skills. Candidate should be willing to work in US.

Responsibilities:

To co-ordinate overseas HR activities with home country operations.
To ensure the HR strategies, HR practices, implemented overseas are in line with the organization goals.

How to apply :

Those interested send in your resumes to :

Pankaj Khanna
Vice President and Head,
Channel Sales and Search Practice
JobStreet.com India Pvt Ltd
pankaj@jobstreet.com

Compensation Head

JobStreet SELECT is created to provide value-added Search & Selection services to our blue chip clients. JobStreet SELECT is constantly on a mission to source for qualified and talented discerning young professionals. We are looking to fill the position of Compensation Head for one of our premier clients who would be required to give strategic direction to the function.

Responsibilities:

Candidate should be an MBA from a premier institutes with 8-10 yrs of experience. Candidate should have excellent communication and networking skills. Candidate should be willing to work in Bombay.

Requirements:

To lead the team in implementing the compensation review methodologies. To build adequate structures/incentives so as to maximize employees efficiency & development. Periodical benchmarking against industry performance & compensation standards to ensure maximization of human potential.

HOW TO APPLY:

Pankaj Khanna
Vice President and Head,
Channel Sales and Search Practice
pankaj@jobstreet.com

HR Professionals, Gurgaon / Delhi

Dear Friends,

We have a few openings for HR Professionals at various Middle Management levels in our group companies based at Gurgaon / Delhi.

Those who are having upto 10 yrs of HR experience and willing to work in leading automobile component manufacturer group having Japanese J.V.'s may
forward there CV at

nikhil@mindaweb.com

Thanks,

Nikhil Taneja

Senior HR Executives / Managers, Mumbai

Hi,

My name is Sujatha Iyer and I represent a Mumbai based Executive Search Firm. Presently we have requirements for Senior HR Executives / Managers, with one of our leading clients.

Kindly let us know if you would be interested. If yes, please email a copy of your latest resume
at the earliest with the following details :

1. Current Annual Salary
2. Expected Salary
3. Notice Period
4. Current Location

Awaiting a positive response.

Thanks and Regards

Sujatha Iyer-Anand
Greycells Executive Search
101, Siddharth Towers
Thane (East) - 400 603
Tel. No. 91-22-55971370
91-22-25372359
Fax. No.91-22-25424178
Email : sujathaiyer@greycellsearch.com
Website : www.greycellsearch.com

12. Aims of HR Era, How to Contribute Articles, Legal Stuff.

Aims of HR Era:
It aims to enhance CAREER GROWTH of its readers by bringing to them practices & ideas they can apply in their work, opportunities to network with other Professionals, training opportunities, jobs available, and techniques for self-management.

Contribute Articles & Other Contents:
Contributions from readers are wholeheartedly solicited. Contributions are the things that enable sharing of learnings. Lead Article should be about 800 words, others 400 words. Please send details about yourself also as we would like to post them along with the article. Kindly note, no honorarium is paid now! Please email contributions to Alka@HREra.com

Legal Stuff!
All information in HR Era is presented in good faith. However, before using, please consult relevant experts. We do not accept any financial responsibility for accuracy.

Visit our Website at http://hrera.com