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Behaviour
of individual employees and teams influence the overall culture
of the organisation, and can strengthen or dilute its core values,
believes Satish Kumar
The
recent global economic slowdown and its impact on the Indian software
industry, provides us with an opportunity to review the state of
the Human Resources (HR) function in a highly people-intensive business.
Looking back, one can clearly distinguish two phases of evolution
in the HR function. The first phase, which was dominated by the
extraordinary decade-long growth in the Indian software industry,
the HR function was primarily driven by the need to bridge the vast
demand-supply gap of skilled software resources. This was accentuated
by very high attrition rates, sometimes reaching as high as 40%
p.a.! In these circumstances, it was natural that the recruitment
aspect of HR was in the forefront. People-development and team-building
initiatives were not successful in this uncertain environment, where
there was a constant churn out of people. In retrospect, this phase
neither helped the organisation nor the people, as it hampered the
steady growth of knowledge and skills technical, behavioural as
well as managerial.
Today,
high attrition rates have become history (hopefully forever)! This
has been driven by the significantly reduced demand-supply gap,
as well as a willingness of employees to build and invest in a relationship
in their existing organisations. Software professionals are reviewing
their career growth within their organisations and settling for
stability instead of frequent job changes. This has become possible
with several software organisations in India offering much more
exciting opportunities coupled with increasing doubts about insecurity
of overseas jobs. Aided by this relatively stable people situation,
HR has entered a new phase in the Indian software industry. HR in
the software industry needs to embrace strategies to sustain stability,
develop people and improve productivity.
Strategies
to enhance employee skills
To
begin with let us look at the performance evaluation system. There
is a great need to ensure that it covers every aspect of people
development with a strong emphasis on behavioral traits such as:
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Teamwork
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Conflict resolution
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Responsiveness
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Sharing of knowledge and best practices.
It
is worth noting that the behaviour of individual employees and teams
influence the overall culture of the organisation, and can strengthen
or dilute its core values.
The
importance of assessing the behavioural patterns of individual employees
increases as the employee climbs the career ladder. Once a person
attains a people management level there is a need to critically
evaluate the
individual’s behavioral traits.
Performance
evaluation
While
we always identify areas of growth and high performers in the organisation,
one must be conscious of those people who need improvement. Strategic
plans must be in place to enhance the performance level of employees,
which are below par. This may not just be due to skills mismatch.
Many a time, the concerned person may not integrate well with the
organisation’s culture, or simply not fit into the team; last
but not the least, the employee could be a perpetual poor performer.
Even when performance evaluation systems adequately cover the above
aspects, the gaps need to be constantly identified and bridged.
In
addition, a successful performance evaluation system will need a
well-defined succession plan. This must be carefully prepared by
evaluating the skill set of the incumbent based on which, managers
have to make an assessment of the possible successor. Occasionally
there will be gaps, which means that the identification of the successor
within the organisation is ruled out. In such cases, the management
will have to evaluate the intensity of such gaps and take a decision.
Rewards
and Recognition
Let
us move onto yet another critical HR tool -rewards and recognition.
They are an important method of keeping employees focused on their
long-term career goals. However, reward systems must undergo changes
to be relevant and keep pace with the dynamism of people. They need
to be exciting for people and have a substantial, positive impact
on the organisation’s culture. Another important factor that
will work to the advantage of the people and the organisation is
the nurturing of a unique culture that can bond, attract and retain
talent. With people becoming more loyal to their organisations,
there is a strong need to build and sustain people bonding with
them. Various social, emotional and psychological factors that help
in creating a community and a sense of belonging need to be addressed.
Knowledge
Management: KM can be a key tool to facilitate bonding. The
concept of sharing knowledge and providing “learning windows”
apart from the normal training and skill enhancement programmes
will go a long way in creating a unique culture in an organisation
developing “people through people”.
Empowerment:
Increasing empowerment and encouraging employees to think, sharing
ideas and providing freedom of enterprise can sustain retention
of high performers.
Best
Practices: Nurturing and developing unique organisational standards
like Knowledge Development can contribute towards building its culture
that will be a clear “competitive and strategic advantage”.
Today the software industry is in a state of flux, where fast changing
business dynamics have transcended cultural and geographical boundaries.
In this scenario, organisations must be alert and be in a position
to anticipate change and develop strategies to counter change. Being
pro-active and developing ownership at all organisational levels
must be the new buzzwords of HR. It needs to nurture people who
can adapt to changes in the organisation structure, forms of work
and the nature of work itself.
In
conclusion, the HR mandate in the software industry needs to shift
from the numbers game to a concept that encompasses change management,
managing people empowerment, career enrichment and energising people
towards long-term career goals by creating and sustaining a strong
“spirit of enterprise” with a major thrust on innovation.
(Satish
Kumar is vice president-Human Resources, Celstream Technologies)
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