#OddEven Rule – How does HR make the most of it?

New Delhi has woken up to the new year with much lesser traffic, thanks to the new #oddeven rule put in place by the Delhi government. I found a very interesting gif image on ibnlive depicting the traffic situation in Delhi today.

Let’s hope that this translates into a noticeable impact on the pollution levels as well. While the authorities are doing what they can, what can we, as HR professionals, do to make this initiative successful?

• Carpooling – The first thing that comes to mind is to encourage carpooling. What the HR team can do is program manage the car pooling initiative in office. This would require a certain amount of discipline and getting used to. However, positioning it as a win-win situation (a chance to develop new friendships, network, and even gossip :P) can go a long way towards employee engagement.

• Office Buses – For organizations that do not already have this option, give the employees the luxury of relaxing in a comfortable ride home which is managed by the office. Believe me, this will take away a lot of stress for them in terms of thinking everyday about their commute hassles. Plus it’s a much safer option as well.

• Healthy options – This can be used as an opportunity to drive health initiatives. Try and get a place where employees can park their bicycles if they use those to come to office. A further step would even be incentivizing this behavior to encourage employees to start using this mode of transport.

• Workplace Flexibility – Employees will love this. Try and institute a policy of working from home once a week. Ok, I know I’m pushing my luck here but at least some flexibility in working hours would go a long way in soothing the frayed nerves of employees every morning. 

While we all are working towards a less polluted city, let’s try and make the most of it and have some fun as well.

Do write in with your suggestions as well to make this a hassle-free transition for everyone.

Employee Engagement – Not all Song n’ Dance

A few days back, I came across this graphic which shows Engagement of Employees as blocks of a house. Being in the Real Estate sector, this obviously aroused my curiosity.

What is interesting is that the foundation of employee engagement is the Organizational Culture and the Values being espoused at the workplace. This in turn shapes the job / organizational content for an employee. This content might include everything from the nature of the job, the work conditions, the associated rewards, the perceived value of the job, the attitude of the management towards the role, the person, and expectations along with a feeling of contributing to the success of the organization. All these factors in place, one can expect a great attitude from each employee, thereby leading to what is fancily called Organizational Citizenship.

However, this is a long list of expectations to be fulfilled, especially in the millennial workforce where the average job tenure is starting to be counted in months rather than years.  Hence, HR managers of today have to focus on what is most relevant to the workforce and what will have maximum impact in the shortest time.

Now what’s relevant might differ from one employee to another. Here the HR team has to do some legwork in identifying areas of concern / impact for employees to show to employees that the organization cares. I’ve seen an organization where the average age of the workforce was below 30 and they tweaked the compensation structure to maximize the take-home for the younger lot. The relatively senior ones were still given the option to safeguard or maximize their retirals. Small change, but high impact.

Some obvious quick-wins visible in the graphic:

·     Communication – I have seen examples of leaders / top management who go out of the way to make sure that the employees stay ahead of the rumor mills. Employees love such leaders. It gives the impression that the top management is accessible and human and makes the employees feel involved in the longer term vision.

·    Happy Workplace – As  Jack Welch famously said a happy workplace gives us happy customers, leading to better cashflows. Small things like impromptu public recognition meetings, go a long way in sustaining the morale of employees. Elaborate song n’ dance routines are effective if it is ensured that the involvement is from the larger workforce, and not restricted to the HR / Marketing teams. The process is more important than the end result.

·     Flexibility – Treating employees as humans. The line between ‘work’ and ‘life has become blurred. So practice it both ways. Not only work time encroaching into ‘family’ time. Give some flexibility in letting it work the other way. And see the results for yourself.

These in no way should take one away from the fact that the biggest X factor in employee engagement is the immediate manager. Most other factors impacting this metric are the responsibility of the immediate manger. Hence, a more longer-term ongoing imperative is training managers to become human and treat their team members as humans. The message has to be that in the longer term, only the creative and agile organizations will survive. And creativity is fostered in a positive environment only. So trust the team and treat them like you would want to be treated yourself.

Gen Y – The Mindset Challenge!

The definition of Gen Y varies from source to source but let’s take the more generic one – the ones born in the late 80s and after. Essentially which form a large proportion of junior and middle management in most organizations.

The problem starts when we have the Baby Boomers and Gen X being part of the top management and expecting Gen Y to behave and act the same way as they did when they were in their 20s. So how do we go about resolving this imbroglio?

While there is no concrete answer as people strategies differ from culture to culture and organization to organiation, it would be best for both sides to understand that they can co-exist in a productive manner.

Some things have evolved…

- Slicker and faster presentation – Modes of presentation as well as confidence to use those modes has come a long way. So while you have Gen Y carrying presentations on their phones and making last minute changes, it’s a far cry from the printouts carried by the seniors.

- Always-on communication – with Whatsapp and Facebook messenger topping the communication list of Gen Y, information is beginning to travel to far-off places real time. So we might find a teen who is relaying what is being said in a discussion to a remote location reducing the time lag considerably.

- Reduced need for job security – The post-liberalization phase has got various types of opportunities for the new generation. After all, who would have heard of a social media marketer till a few years back.

- Need for faster gratification – Gone are the days when you could tell your team members that things would be taken care of in the next appraisal cycle. Gen Y is looking for instant gratification for their efforts and have no qualms in moving ahead if they feel that they have been shortchanged. That is why we see a large number of employees leaving without a job and not being overly concerned about finding another.

- Greater self-confidence – With more exposure and information at their fingertips, Gen Y is forever confident about themselves. They are ready to take on the most difficult of challenges at the earliest in life and are not scared of anything.

While some others have not…

- Need for recognition and differentiation – Gen Y needs to be recognized and appreciated for the work they do. And this is no different from our seniors. There has to be a clear line of sight of what they are expected to deliver and the underlying rewards.

- See value in what you do – Gen Y is very conscious of what they do and their need to bring in value to what they do is very similar to what the senior management is looking for.

- Responsibility and Ownership of work – While Gen Y maybe perceived as being obnoxious and aggressive, they are as responsible and like to maintain ownership of what they do as their predecessors.

- Need to make an impact – Gen Y wants to make an early impact in whatever they do. While the timeframe might be different, the ideology is similar to what the senior management thinks and desires.

So there are some areas where Gen Y is different, but the basic ideology is still very similar to what is desired at the top. Our management needs to understand that things/ideas/modes have evolved and channelize these energies to make the best us of them.