Business and E-learning Forum

Tata Interactive Systems (TIS) which is a global pioneer in e-learning, a part of the $18 billion Tata Group- is hoisting the Tata Interactive Learning Forum at London which highlights key learning themes for the early 21st century.

Games and simulations; performance support; measuring e-learning effectively,and implementing e-learning throughout large organisations were the key themes of this year's Tata Interactive Learning Forum .

"Learning is not a 'soft issue'. It's a priority at every point in the business cycle in order to create and sustain competitive advantage," stated Terry Lehmann, director of training and development at the Houston, Texas-based oil products giant Baker Hughes, who outlined how to prevent 'random acts of training' of varying quality within a large organisation.

His fellow American, Gary Dickelman, of EPSS Central, based in Annandale, Virginia, examined ways to improve business performance through human performance- notably through the adoption of performance support systems. He commented that these systems have not only enabled people to become competent in their jobs in 'minimal time' but also eliminated the need for up to 80 per cent of formal training activities- including e-learning programmes.

Keynote speakers, drawn from across the world, included Terry Lehmann and Gary Dickelman, as well as Christiane Zimmer, Germany's leading business simulations specialist and Charles Jennings, head of global learning for Reuters. They were supported by a panel of e-learning experts .

Who's responsible for employees retention

Mikel Goldman raises the question on "Who's responsible to employee retention anyway?

Is it the recruiter? Is it HR? Is it the manager? Is it a combination of all three? HE argues that at most companies, no one is responsible. He says that “It's true that many strong HR departments do things like measure employee retention, provide guidelines for performance evaluations, implement training programs and plan the company picnic. That's a good start,but it's not enough. People don't quit companies, they quit managers.

Corporate-wide retention programs implemented by the HR department are nice, but they don't solve the problem.

The problem needs to be solved at the Manager-Employee level. Managers need to be given guidance, training, tools and support but, at the end of the day; they need to be accountable for retention issues on their team. If managers are given the support and they still have retention problems, they need to be warned, and then fired quickly if they can't get the problem under control. So, do we need retain-ers? No. We need programs to recruit, hire, develop and support strong managers. He challenges you to look at your own management recruiting and training programs. If they haven't been significantly updated in the last 3-4 years, you've got some work to do.

I think his assertion that HR needs to do much more than organizing corporate wide retention policy is quiet valid .Some additional points which I feel HR must do it terms of improving upon its stake in employee retention ;

1) Be the first point of contact for any issues, grievance and concerns of employees .If it is not possible in a large set up then the line manager has to take the role of ensuring that employees are free to voice their concerns.

2) Provide the employees with adequate forums to ask questions and seek clarifications on policy and other work related issues.

3) Educate the managers about the resource pool availability and prevalent market situations.

4) Work more on changing employee’s perception about the employer and the career path which the organization has to offer.

5) Ensure that communication flow in the system is flawless and that every individual is made part of decision making process.

6) That each manager has a future plan for his team members and a career path to offer .

Dimensions of Innovation

How do you encounter the growth of competitors, technology, reduce cost, retain employees and develop killer applications? INNOVATE

What exactly is innovation? Beth McConnell has his views on this ..

“Although the subject has risen to the top of the CEO agenda, many companies have a mistakenly narrow view of it. They might see Innovation as synonymous with new product development or traditional research and development. But such myopia can lead to the systematic erosion of competitive advantage. As a result, companies in a given industry can come to resemble one another over time.

In actuality, business innovation is far broader in scope than product or technological innovation.

In fact, a company can innovate along any of 12 different dimensions with respect to its

(1) offerings,
(2) platform,
(3) solutions,
(4) customers,
(5) customer experience,
(6) value capture,
(7) processes,
(8) organization,
(9) supply chain,
(10) presence,
(11) networking, and
(12) brand.

Together the 12 dimensions of innovation can be displayed in a new framework called the “innovation radar,” which companies can use to manage the increasingly complex business systems through which they add value.

IT Industry and India's Role

We all know that the IT industry in India is making news all over and analyst all over the world are quiet bullish about the growth of Indian IT trade.

IBM has a global strategy for SOA hinges on India as it bets big not only on the enormous talent pool in the country, but also on India’s image as a channel to the global market. The Armonk-based IT giant is moving development of software-based on SOA to its Bangalore centre. “India is extremely critical in both development and deployment of capabilities around SOA. I don’t see ourselves don’t see ourselves succeeding without leveraging India,” Ambuj Goyal, senior worldwide executive, information management software.

If we want to succeed worldwide, we need to be able to leverage the reach that India has. We may find great talent elsewhere, but India has another edge. It is a channel to the global market,” Mr Goyal said.

One of the poster boys of the India IT industry Azim Premji is interview in the latest edition of Knowledge at Wharton .

On being asked that today, Microsoft's revenues are more than 20 times Wipro's revenues. Here’s what he had to say

“It would be reasonable to assume that Indian services exports in IT and in BPO will grow cumulatively for the next five years at about 35%. They are now growing between 23% and 25% a year. I do not see any reason why leading companies like ours cannot grow faster than the growth of exports from India.

After that, it is a matter of interpolation and desire. Do you keep scaling the organization? Do you use high-leverage models? Do you use productivity tools so that your headcount doesn't increase as fast as your revenues do? That is what we are trying to achieve, and it is not an easy challenge. How do you build maybe 8% productivity growth a year in your business model? To do that, you have to grow 8% a year in terms of revenues with the same headcount, or to grow 16% in revenues a year but with just an 8% increase in headcount.

Employee Learning and Growth

HBR reviews Workforce Crisis: How to Beat the Coming Shortage of Skills and Talent.The review tries to examines the business implications of trends in the pool of current and future employees.Some key points are :

Learning is integral to any organization's capability and productivity, recruiting and retention, and leadership and capacity for change. More importantly, learning can mitigate the coming shortage of labor and skills in two ways.

First, learning is an increasingly visible, important, and on negotiable component of the employment deal. So lifelong learning has advanced from "nice phrase" to business performance imperative.

Second, with labor and skills shortages ahead, organizations must "grow their own" expertise by providing employees with opportunities, both on the job and off, to raise their skills level.

Learning is both a marketing and a productivity tool—a means for attracting and retaining key talent, as well as for ensuring that employees are equipped with the right capabilities both to perform well and to maintain competitive competency levels. Simply put, your company must excel at enabling employees to learn.

Employees want to learn

In nationwide survey of workers and their preferences, "Work that enables me to learn, grow, and try new things" ranked third among ten basic elements of the employment deal, behind a comprehensive benefits package and a comprehensive retirement package. It ranked higher than more pay, more vacation, flexible schedule, flexible workplace, work that is personally stimulating, and even (by a small margin) a workplace that is enjoyable.

Well-educated ones, those with postgraduate work or degrees, rank learning significantly higher than do employees in general.

Employees at the two ends of the income spectrum—lowest and highest—value learning more than those in the middle.

Both young workers and mature ones show above-average preference for learning.

People with more time available—single, childless, with time to socialize—value learning above the average.

Employees of nonprofit organizations show above-average preference for learning opportunities.

Self-employed or part-time workers value learning higher than full-time employees.

People in small companies value learning more than those in large ones.

Employees who work over fifty hours per week show above-average preference for learning.

Those who work primarily from home also have above-average preference to learn.

People in professional and business services, information and technology, and construction show a significantly above-average preference to learn and grow than workers in other industries.

People in education and health services show a slightly above-average preference to learn.

Employees who are currently excited by a new project or assignment show a preference for learning well above the norm, ranking it number two among deal elements.

Some 9 percent of employees (13 percent in large organizations) say they have inadequate training or knowledge for their current positions. Meanwhile, this group as a whole shows lower than average preference for learning and growth opportunities, and a significantly below-average engagement score. So an individual's general passion for knowledge prompts learning more than one's specific job demands do.

HR Metrics

In a report release by Price Water house cooper and Saragota on HR metrics highlights how the structure of an organization influences the matrices to be followed, these metrics may underestimate the actual efforts required to deliver HR services.

For example, many organizations have HR functions such as Staffing and/or IT support that report to and have costs charged back directly to the line. At Saratoga, these types of costs and resources would be considered Indirect HR and the headcount and costs of these individuals would be excluded in Saratoga’s traditional HR calculations. Saratoga’s traditional definition of HR (AKA Direct HR) includes labor, outsourcing, system, and consulting/contractor costs charged directly to a centralized HR budget.

To help illustrate Indirect HR consider the following examples: Company A has an HR Headcount Ratio of 120 and spends about $1,200 per employee served for these HR services. All of Company A’s HR employees and costs are charged to a central budget. Contrast this with Company B which has an HR Headcount Ratio of 180 employees and spends about $1,000 per employee served. You might think that Company B is providing more cost effective HR service delivery, until you realized that all staffing at Company B is charged directly to the business unit and not to HR.

To help organizations monitor their true investment in HR, Saratoga offers Total HR Spend Per Employee and Direct and Indirect HR Headcount Ratio. The formula for Total HR Spend Per Employee is:
(Direct HR Costs + Indirect HR Costs) / Regular Headcount
The formula for Direct and Indirect HR Headcount Ratio is:
Regular Headcount / (Direct HR Headcount + Indirect HR Headcount)

It is important to note that while many organizations have Indirect HR, the majority of organizations do not.To read more download the report

Social Issues getting Strategic

McKinsey Quarterly global survey finds that “Business leaders must become involved in sociopolitical debate not only because their companies have so much to add but also because they have a strategic interest in doing so. Social and political forces, after all, can alter an industry's strategic landscape fundamentally; they can torpedo the reputations of businesses that have been caught unawares and are seen as being culpable; and they can create valuable market opportunities by highlighting unmet social needs and new consumer preferences.

The challenge is to find a way for companies to incorporate an awareness of sociopolitical issues more systematically into their core strategic decision-making processes. Companies must see the social and political dimensions not just as risks—areas for damage limitation—but also as opportunities. They should scan the horizon for emerging trends and integrate their responses across the organization, so that the resulting initiatives are coherent rather than piecemeal.

Executives around the world overwhelmingly embrace the idea that the role of corporations in society goes far beyond simply meeting obligations to shareholders." More than four out of five respondents agree that generating high returns for investors should be accompanied by broader contributions to the public good -- for example, “providing good jobs, making philanthropic donations, and going beyond legal requirements to minimize pollution and other negative effects of business”. Only one in six agrees with the thesis advanced by Nobel laureate Milton Friedman, that high returns should be a corporation's sole focus, the survey found.

According to McKinsey, “executives are hard-nosed about why companies are engaging in this new agenda. Only 8 percent think that large corporations champion social or environmental causes out of 'genuine concern.'

Almost nine in ten agree that they are motivated by public relations or profitability or by both concern and business benefits in equal measure.”

McKinsey says the most enthusiastic proponents of a social role for business are executives in India: 90 percent of them endorse the "public good" dimension.

Executives based in China are the most lukewarm, with 25 percent saying that investor returns should be the sole focus of corporate activity.

“Looking ahead,” the survey finds, “executives expect that a wide range of concerns will dominate public and political debates.

Asked which three issues will have the most impact, for better or worse, on the shareholder value of companies in their industries during the next five years, 41 percent choose job loss and offshoring.

Also at the top of many minds are corporate political influence and involvement; environmental issues, including climate change; pension and retirement benefits; and privacy and data security.”

Eesentially the study tries to highlight the fact that Corporations will go where they feel they are likely to get some of long-term value (for example, its brand, talent, and relationships) .The rationale behind the social investment is to build on the intangibles and so as to create a more socially relvent and conscious workplace.To read more click here

Talent Crisis in America

Shortage of quality technical manpower is not the only worry being faced by American industry today. In a survey conducted by Ernst & Young LLP, ExecuNet Inc., and the Human Capital Institute reveals that, although corporate America foresees a significant workforce shortage as boomers retire, it is not dealing with the issue at present and may be underestimating the strategic challenges ahead.

Some highlights are.


Of survey respondents who believe that the aging workforce is an issue that must be dealt with, 53 percent said it will lead to a workforce shortage.

Sixty-three percent said that retirements will lead to a “brain drain."

While almost 15 percent of respondents’ employees are eligible to retire in the next 5 years, they estimate that just over 10 percent of their current workers are likely to do so.

Approximately 40 percent noted that their top human capital concern is the availability of talent over the next five years. Other highly ranked areas of concern include retention of key employees and talent management (i.e., ensuring that the right employees are in the right positions).

Over 85 percent had no formal retention programs in place. Of those who did, hiring retirees as consultants or contractors, retention bonuses, promoting a culture of generational diversity and pre-retirement planning programs proved to be the most popular.

Survey findings are based on responses from a sampling of senior human resources executives from a cross section of some of the largest employers in the U.S. in a variety of industry sectors.The survey was conducted electronically from November 11, 2005, to December 21, 2005.

The crisis of talented skilled workforce has lead to repeated request by the Industry in America to raise the cap on H1 B visa ,the govt is likely increase the cap.Reports suggest that US Senate committee has approved a bill which seeks to double the number of H1B visas and Green Cards issued annually from the current cap of 65,000 to nearly 1.15,000.

Salary Gap

Study shows that that companies in the US continue to pay the highest base salaries and annual total cash for finance and marketing directors, with those in India paying the lowest.

India may be reaping the rewards of its economic boom, but when it comes to what it pays senior managers, it is still the bottom of the pile.

The survey - covering pay for finance, marketing and HR directors in 14 countries worldwide - found that finance and marketing directors in America earn five times more than their counterparts in India, while HR directors earn over three times as much.

Mercer's Steve Gross said that salaries and annual total cash are generally higher in the US because there is greater competition for talent and employers must pay more for top employees.

"Factors such as retention costs, availability of skills, and productivity influence market rates and determine what an organization must pay to attract and retain talent in the respective locations," he said.

HR Folks don't miss this in your Comp. Review

HR directors emerged as the lowest paid of the three positions. The best paid HR directors are found in the US, UK, and Germany, where employees can earn US$175,000, US$161,900, and US$160,500 respectively. Annual total cash for this position is highest in Germany, at US$227,500, followed by US$219,000 in the US and US$202,500 in the UK.

Again, employees in this position working in Hungary and India earn significantly less annual base pay than in those in other countries – receiving around US$57,100 and US$47,900 respectively.

I-Pods for Induction

In one of my earlier post I talked about I-pod being used as learning tool in educational institutes. Another post reported that Two Scottish hospitals have become the first organisations in the UK to use Podcasting to train new staff.

The Voicemap training system is being used at Glasgow Royal Infirmary and the Princess Royal Maternity Hospital to deliver audio inductions comprising a customised tour of the workplace and identification of particular safety issues.

"Using technology - the iPod - means we can make sure all new staff are trained to exactly the same standard, and it's inevitable that that's a big improvement on a system that relies on other staff and can therefore be vulnerable to human error," said Alastair Kirk, NHS Greater Glasgow's training and development manager.

"What is fantastic is that, as well as working to the same standards, it can also be 'personalised' to each department."