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CONTENTS
1. Moderator’s Space
2. Employee Retention (Part-1) - Competitive Compensation & Benefits by Bill Werst
3. Humor in a Corner
4.
Alienation by
Asima Sherali
5. Meet Our New Members
B.
S. R. Reddy
6. Finger Tips (Managing
Your Time)
7.
Upcoming HR Training Programs (India)
8. Best of HR Jobs (India)
9. How To Contribute Articles, Recommend to Friends, Un/subscribe, & Legal Stuff
Dear Friends,
Bill Werst is a nationally known consultant in USA. He is also listed as "one of the Institute's most effective guest faculty" by the University of Wisconsin Management Institute. His article on Employee Retention, a distillation from 26 years' experience, gives sound advice on compensation.
Asima Sherali captures the feeling aspect of work-life really well in her article on "Alienation." She tells us the aspects that we need to take care of to motivate & get the very best from employees. Her article is the best I have read till date on the importance of feelings in motivating people to work.
Regards
Rajeev
B Bhatnagar
This is the first in a five part series on achieving Employee Retention. The articles will cover:
1. Competitive Compensation & Benefits
2. Sound Organizational Structure
3. Leadership & a Motivating Work Environment
4. Recognition & Rewards
5. Employee Dreams & Empowerment
The premise of the articles is that employee retention is not a program or product, but rather the result of effective organization and leadership practices.
1. Competitive Compensation & Benefits
Employee retention starts with competitive compensation and benefits. You have to be reasonably close to your competitors. You don't have to offer the top salaries and benefits in your market. In fact, if you are the leader you may be wasting money.
Several resources to assist you in determining if your organization's package is competitive include:
Eastridge Infotech
Nevada Association of Employers [you may find a similar organization in your area]
Requesting assistance from your local college's business department [student project]
Network through SHRM [Society for Human Resource Management]
Contact your trade and professional associations -- AFSMI [Association of Field Service Management International], ICSA [International Customer Service Association], BIA [Banking Institute of America], ASTD [American Society for Training and Development].
Networking with professional peers in your industry
Asking your employees
If you find that your salary and benefits aren't competitive, fix them immediately. The consequences are very expensive - - far greater than the cost of upgrading.
Non-competitive compensation and benefits will limit you to attracting and hiring 'bottom feeders'. These people will accept your job offer because it's their only one. Bottom feeders generally have low talent, skills, attitudes, and consequently low performance. They work to survive, rather than achieve. While they may not always arrive at work on time, they ALWAYS leave on time.
If you think you're saving money hiring these people, think again. In addition to low performance, these people love to create or join unions - - - to protect their right to maintain low talent, skills, attitudes, and poor performance. Remember that when designing hiring, leadership, and organizational practices, unions do not cause unions, management does.
Paying for low performance and potential unions are only the costly tip of the iceberg. The customer dissatisfaction that bottom feeders help create will cost you far more. Hiring 'cheap' employees becomes very expensive when your customers experience:
Product quality inconsistencies
Service quality inconsistencies
Higher prices due to inefficiencies
The resulting customer dissatisfaction and lack of loyalty leads to the ultimate turnover cost . . . customer turnover. This leads to lower profits which logically leads to lowering your organization's compensation and benefits package to make up for the loss in profits. This completes another loop in a downward spiral.
The formula we use to measure the value of employee retention [including inferior hiring] is:
Cost of employee replacement
+ Cost of customer replacement
+ Cost of lost customer profit contributions
Customer dissatisfaction is the major turnover cost magnifier.
I'd like to tell you that to turn the spiral around, sending it upward, that all you have to do is provide high compensation and benefits. And that by doing so you would attract and retain top talented, skilled, and top performing people. People who will consistently produce quality products and services that will create satisfied and loyal customers. Unfortunately, achieving success is bit more complex.
Your strongest swimmers will be the first to jump ship if the only thing you've got going for them is compensation and benefits.
Using high compensation and benefits to attract and keep talented employees is like feeding peanuts to the bear. Everything goes very smoothly . . . until, you run out of peanuts. Then they maul you and your organization with undesired turnover. You can't buy employee satisfaction, loyalty, or performance.
Competitive, and even high, compensation and benefits may get talented people to consider joining your organization. However, it is not enough to get the best and the brightest to stay. Your strongest swimmers will be the first to jump ship if the only thing you've got going for them is compensation and benefits.
Competitive compensation and benefits play a critical part in enabling you to attract and hire the level of employees that you want to retain. However, compensation and benefits play an insignificant role is in retaining people.
Part 2: Sound Organizational Structure will explore what we need to do to keep talented people. It will cover the essential elements needed to build and maintain a sound organization. An organization worthy of talented people.
© Growth Associates 802 Mollie Street Hood River, OR 97031 [541] 386-1117
All
About Wives
After
a quarrel, a wife said to her husband, "You know, I was a fool when married
you."
The husband replied, "Yes, dear, but I was in love and didn't notice."
First guy (proudly): "My wife's an angel!"
Second guy: "You're lucky, mine's still alive.
My
girlfriend told me I should be more affectionate. So I got myself two
girlfriends.
Getting
married is very much like going to a restaurant with friends. You order what you
want, then when you see what the other fellow has, You wish you had ordered
that.
A: When the baby looks like the father, its Biology. When the baby looks like
the neighbor, its Sociology!
Contributed by Mr. Ravindranath
4.
ALIENATION by
ASIMA SHERALI
My colleagues at work say,
‘Hey, don’t drink tea sitting near computer lest you may spill it on the keyboard; don’t touch the screen, it may leave it greasy; don’t insert a floppy without a virus scan check; ensure the area around the computer is clean; don’t handle it that way, always handle it with care…’
All these, make me wonder, ‘Do we take so much care while dealing with people around us?’
We often tend to forget that people also do require as much or in fact more care and affection than machines, for people are not just resources or assets, not just economic, social and psychological beings.. but they are human beings who have feeling, emotion, pride and ego, and, therefore, our treatment shall not trample under foot any such finer aspects.
Somewhere
along the line, we seem to have lost track of this truism that its very validity
is at stake now. And, one wonders whether do we say, ‘treat men like
machines?’ If it is so, if one has seen a new computer being installed, the
pomp an show which accompanies the ceremony; even a puja (prayer ceremony) will be performed; an
the machine is nursed and pampered all throughout – the kind of concern and
attention it gets through breaking in period is all the more. Whereas when a new
employee joins the organization, does he ever receive even a fraction of such
attention and welcome.
It’s
time that organizations realize and recognize the need to give a better deal to
people for the success of any organization is determined by its people, their
caliber and their attitude to succeed and outperform.
A
work environment that ignores feelings and expects people to pretend they do not
have them – the positive or negative, puts a premium on the control of
feelings. Inevitably, this distances employees from the organization making them
leave their geniuses and passion at home. All too often companies bring stress,
fear and frustration to their people – feelings they bring home with them each
night. This creates problems at home which people bring back to work in the
morning. The cycle is both terrible and terrific.
Each of us realize that it is our strong love and pride and joy in our families that create the strong commitment that we have to them. It is the emotions we experience that keep us connected. Just as a person identifies himself with his family, with his political party and so on, he must identify himself with his company. It’s as simple as the commitment we have for our cricket team playing each match and our favorite player’s each ball has everything to do with what we feel when we sit in front o the television screen. If our team wins, we win. If our player loses, we lose. That’s how we feel. It’s that simple. That’s commitment. That’s connection.
Organizations often forget that the highest achievable level of service comes from the heart and the companies that reach its people’s hearts will provide the best service.
The author is an HRD Manager with Karishma Software Limited, and can be contacted at asima@asima.itgo.com or asima_s@hotmail.com
5.
MEET OUR NEW MEMBERS
Dear
Friends,
I am basically a Mechanical Engineering graduate with a Masters in Industrial Engineering and
Management.
I have over 3 decades of all-round experience in industries and consultancy firms. I have handled
a variety of jobs, which include, industrial engineering, maintenance, management consultancy,
training in management, teaching in management subjects, project consultancy, ISO 9000 quality
systems consultancy, recruitment and selection, hrd etc.
Currently I am working with an international company in Bahrain, manufacturing FRP products.
I am looking after, apart from hrd and training and recruitment and selection, quality systems
administration.
I had been to Colombia and Venezuela in South America in 1997 for 6 weeks as a Rotary Foundation
International Group Study Exchange scholar. I am presently nominated as an external member by
the Government of Bahrain, in the Consultative Committee for assessing quality of training providers in
Bahrain.
Hope to be in touch with all members, THROUGH THIS NEWS LETTER.
bye
BSR Reddy reddy_bs@hotmail.com
6. FINGER TIPS: MANAGING YOUR TIME
1.
You control your life by controlling your time.
2. Your governing
values are the foundation of personal fulfillment.
3. When your
daily activities reflect your governing values, you experience inner
peace.
4. To reach any significant goal, you must leave your
comfort zones.
5. Daily planning leverages time through increased
focus.
From "The 10 Natural Laws of Successful Time & Life Management" by Hyrum W. Smith. He is originator of "Franklin Planner" which is the most popular time planner in USA. He has also became a millionaire in the process of teaching & training Time Management.
7.
UPCOMING HR TRAINING PROGRAMS (INDIA)
|
Programme
Title |
Dates |
Program
Director(s) |
|
|
||
|
Managerial
Leadership & Team Effectiveness |
Oct
1-5, 2001 |
Prof.
Sunita Singh Sengupta |
|
Navigating
Business with Balanced Score Card |
Oct
8-11, 2001 |
Prof.
PK Sett |
|
Finance
for Non-Finance Executives |
Oct
8-12, 2001 |
Prof.
Purushottam Sen |
|
Effective
Management of Self & Organization |
Oct
8-12, 2001 |
Dr.
S Chowdhuri & |
|
Venue:
IIMC campus in Kolkata / Calcutta. Email aomdp@iimcal.ac.in |
||
|
|
||
|
Building
Holistic Organizations through Effective Communication |
Oct
8-10, 2001 |
Prof.
S Chakraborty |
|
Effective
Communication for Managerial Success |
Oct
29-31, 2001 |
Prof.
Neerja Pande |
|
Venue:
IIML campus in Lucknow. Email mdp@iiml.ac.in |
||
|
|
||
|
Managerial
Effectiveness Enhancing Strategies |
Oct
8-13, 2001 |
|
|
3-TR:
Tier III - Top Management Programme |
Oct
29 - Nov 3, 2001 |
|
|
Venue:
IIMA campus in Ahmedabad. Email mdp@mdplan.iimahd.ernet.in |
||
|
|
||
|
Managerial
Leadership & Team Building |
Oct
8-12, 2001 |
Mr
OB Sayeed |
|
Creativity
Training Workshop |
Oct
8-12, 2001 |
Mr
HV Bhasin |
|
Venue:
NITIE campus in Mumbai. |
||
Free
Service:
Training
institutes & Trainers can request insertion
Vice President (Human Resources), Ahmedabad
For:
Torrent Pharmaceutical Limited. Belongs to Torrent group with group turnover of
Rs 25 billion. TPL is flagship company of the
group, is in healthcare business, has integrated operations, & state of the
art R&D.
Job:
Responsible for HR & IR functions at plant and research center.
Person:
Post graduate in Personnel Management or Social Welfare from a premier
institute. Age in 40s. More than 15 years of experience in organizations of
repute of which 4 to 5 years in similar capacity. Experience as functional head
in a pharma company is desirable.
Apply
to:
Mail to The Group CEO, Torrent Private Limited, Torrent House, Off Ashram
Road, Ahmedabad - 308009. Subscribe position on top left hand corner of the
envelop.
Vice
President (Human Resources), Ahmedabad
For:
The Ahmedabad Electricity Company Limited belongs to Torrent group. Installed
generation capacity of 500 MW & distributes 3.5 billion units of power to
Ahemedabad & Gandhinagar.
Job:
Responsible for manpower planning, restructuring compensation package,
performance management system, attending legal proceedings, statutory
compliance, liaison with statutory bodies, effective employee relation policies
at plant level, general administration.
Person:
Post graduate in Personnel Management or Social Welfare from a premier
institute. Age in 40s. More than 15 years of experience in organizations of
repute of which 4 to 5 years in similar capacity. Experience in Industrial
Relations in manufacturing / core sector desirable. Experience in power plant
added advantage.
Apply
to:
Mail to The Group CEO, Torrent Private Limited, Torrent House, Off Ashram
Road, Ahmedabad - 308009. Subscribe position on top left hand corner of the
envelop.
Admin
and HR Manager, Hyderabad
For:
Cadsys (India) Limited. Is an employee owned, ISO 9002 certified, software
company established in collaboration with Apex Data Services, USA the global
leader in AM/FM/GIS and ePublishing services.
Job:
Responsible for recruitment, induction, training, performance review of staff.
In addition also for public relations, upkeep & maintenance of the unit.
Person:
At least 3-5 years experience in IT industry and excellent communication skills
- written & oral.
Apply
to:
Email to resume@csy.apexinc.com. Mail to Personnel Manager, Cadsys (India)
limited, 3-6-262, 2nd Floor, Tirumala Estates, Himayatnagar, Hyderabad - 500 029
Training
Manager, Chennai / Hyderabad
For:
Om Kotak Mahindra Life Insurance. A JV between the US$ 500 million Kotak
Mahindra Finance Limited and Old Mutual plc.,a 156 years old global financial
giant.
Job:
Train agents and 1st level Sales Managers / Officers. Will in due course manage
training center.
Person:
Graduate or Post graduate, preferably commerce or legal background. Over 4
years’ experience in teaching and training, preferably with some insurance or
selling experience. Computer literacy.
Apply
to:
Preferably email to cv@chrglobal.com. Mail to Tanmoy Bhattacharjee,
General Manager, CHR Select Services Pvt Ltd, 206, Sumer Kendra (2nd Floor),
Pandurang Budhkar Marg, Worli, Mumbai - 400018.
Peoplesoft
Professionals (Functional), deployment in US & Europe
For:
Cognizant Technology Solutions. Sixth largest software exporter from India in
2001 (Nasscom), Best Small Company America (Forbes), has 3600 associates spread
across the globe.
Job:
On teams for customer projects in US & Europe.
Person:
Degree (First class) with advanced specialization in Human Resources Management
or Finance. Total 4 years experience of which 2 years in Peoplesoft with full
cycle of implementation. Good grasp of ERP. Experience in Peoplesoft to cover HRMS,
Financials, Payroll, Supply Chain Management, Distribution & CRM.
Apply
to:
Email celebration@chn.cognizant.com. Mail to Cognizant Technology
Solutions India Limited, 38, Whites Road, 3rd Floor, Chennai - 600 104.
Free Service
Organizations
can request insertion of their HR
Suggestion from HR Era
When
emailing your biodata, attach it as a txt file or
9.
HOW TO
Contribute Articles
Contributions
from readers are wholeheartedly solicited. Contributions are the things that
enable sharing of learnings.
Recommend to Friends
All
HR people have lots of friends and colleagues.
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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
Copyright (C) 2001 by Rajeev B. Bhatnagar