“It’s a dream to create an organisation that is a preferred place to be, above all”
Management is essentially a people process. Good, evolving policies are always important for survival of organisations and thus, industries as a whole. Sustainable Management Policies are needed to incite and leverage Unique Value Propositions (UVP) for creating and re-creating human capacities and capabilities as Glocal (Global+Local) Benchmarks.
As a result and over Years, as both the organisation and people obtain a certain level of maturity, UVP transforms into Emotional Value Proposition (EVP) which enhances a distinguished mutual belongingness - specific to organisations.
The Situation:
Overall, about 60% of the work force is in SME’s. Statistics indicate that about 10% of this work force migrates across industries. 90% of this migration happens within industry - from Tier-2 to Tier - 1 and from small to large. Some also go on to become entrepreneurs. This is natural and is preferable, as always newer employees bring in a welcome change due to newer perspectives. However, a major cause of concern is reverse migration - good professionals lured by suppliers and service providers.
Given the circumstances, it is imperative to understand if this is an industry situation or an organizational situation and, whether retention or attraction as the best solutions.
Some key deliberations for such an understanding follow.
Basic professional perceptions amongst the current crop of Youngsters about different industries are:
- Confined career growth
- An average knowledge growth
- Less attractive in earnings and
- Peer recognition only within the industry.
These perceptions have been unfortunately deterrents to professionals entering into core sectors. It is a well-known and a proven fact that, in any industry rate of growth of professionals is directly linked to the growth of the organization and in turn, industry and economy.
This scenario in recent Years is undergoing a rapid change, mainly due to:
- Universalization of products & processes
- Cultural shifts and
- Harsh economic realities of a challenging future.
For some Indian organisations, a Global Centric approach has given India-specific advantage. In such organisations, it is to be noted that diminishing return on investments has led to better human performances, thus increasing the returns on human capital. Eventually, they become highly competitive too.
Despite these visible, welcome changes, certain important sectors are still the least preferred by todays Youngsters amongst others due to the so called value propositions - limited opportunities for growth, hygiene factors and rigid organisation structures. These have rendered it extremely difficult to attract talent & prevent hard core professional from moving into soft core jobs.
The Way Forward:
Innovation is the key. A paradigm shift through a process of interrogation and integration will pave way for dynamic, innovative Management Policies sustainable in an ever changing, ever challenging & ever competing environment. Management shall then be required to address certain basic needs - continuous education and adequate empowerment.
These will make employees interested, involved and appreciative of the work that they perform.
Certain organisations (Tatas, Mahindras, AV Birla Group) are able to bring a noticeable shift in this direction over the years aligning themselves with changing circumstances. From a re-active - output centric Management, Organisations as a whole have to progress to a pro-active - employee centric management and then to a predictive - society centric management. This will help to create an involved and enthusiastic team.
To facilitate this to happen, key requirements for a desirable scenario are:
- Open selection and recruitment
- Transparent appraisal management - both people & products
- Equal treatment to professional employees & family employees
- Mutual employee engagement, across product families
- SPELT (Socio, Political, Economic, Legal & Technological) exposure
- Company-wide involvement & positive failure management
- Potential enhancement through continuous training & development, and job rotation
- Mentored performance management, leading by example
This is possible only when an organization:
- Has a de-bureaucratic-integrated approach
- Is able to differentiate roles & responsibilities categorically
- Regularly meets employees across all levels
- Builds involvement and high morale within the employees
- A culture of learning, performing & calculated risk taking
- Promote sharing, giving and taking
- A brand identity with which the employees are able to associate themselves with.
Even though it would seem simple enough, one should always bear in mind that reward systems, appraisals, career planning and management of non-performers are always double-edged swords and no system is fool proof enough to have smooth seas all through the journey.
Reality:
Management of our times face the challenge of enticing diverse work force with inequalities in knowledge & economic background and imbalances in educational scenario. Added to these are the challenges associated with technological interventions, diverse opportunities available to professionals, product and process globalisations and unconstrained locations.
The transformation of the organisations from being a sandwich to being a vital link in the value chain is quite challenging for profitability and growth, employee productivity, price realisation and cost management.
To overcome such challenges, an effective management strategy will have a:
- Dynamic Growth strategy that balances current and future requirements
- An Earnings Maximisation strategy which focuses on efficiency, cost control & productivity
- An Engagement Strategy which leverages knowledge and emotions for collaboration
- A Liquidation strategy which focuses on retention and retirement.
The outcomes and benefits of a modern management can be summed up as in the table below.
Yet another challenge to the industry is to provide a value proposition to employees which encompasses his/her financial, educational and emotional needs and instils in them a sense of belongingness.
Softer strategies like a safe, healthy and happy workplace, open book management style, performance linked bonus, performance management feedback system, knowledge sharing etc. go a long way in instilling the required confidence within the employees about their respective profession, organisation and thus the industry.
Sadly, only about 30% of the organisations accept and appreciate the need for the above.
Experience:
Experience has shown us importance of the following parameters:
1. Equal Recognition across the organization - financial and social
2. Top Management participation & commitment
3. Continuous Review of both hard & soft measures
4. Career plan that foresees at least the requirement for the next 3 years
5. Open communication
6. High level of transparency
7. Empowerment and freedom to try out new things and fail
8. High level of Job Rotation & Multi-tasking across the organization
9. Structured Training & Career Development
10. Consistent move from cash to non-cash incentives through emotional bonding and Brand Leveraging
Thus, a meaningful value system and successful management policy in modern times should be able to look beyond the monetary rewards and look more towards building the emotional attachment that an employee has towards the organization.
To borrow the words of Major K. Sharma, “When materialistic urges build up to squeeze the trust of time; and perversions invade the intellect of unbridled minds, Values such as love, truth and duty do not wither with time.”
Compensation is always a short-term reward. To sustain in the long run, it is imperative that we have a team that depends on loyalty through belongingness more than anything.
Organisation and its employees, sprint to reach a destination and have to sprint faster to sustain it. But many stop after reaching the destination and watch others surpass.