Managing Diverse Workforce

Managing a team with members from different cultural background and nationality has its own unique dimensions and challenges. Typically organizations have different training modules which train people on cross cultural aspects before they get exposed to the people of various nationality and culture.

Research shows that most of the organizations have few common issues which inhibit the advancement of diverse groups in the workplace : (1) negative attitudes and discomfort toward people who are different, (2) discrimination, (3) prejudice, (4) stereotyping, (5) racism, and (6) bias.

In one of the HBR series discussions, Navi Radjou, VP at Forrester Research shares his insight on why Indians score over their western counterparts.

He asked senior execs at both Western and Indian multinationals with R&D operations across US, Europe, and India what challenges they face in managing their firms’ transnational innovation networks. They pointed out that the biggest hurdle is socio-cultural, as Indian engineers think and act completely differently than their Western colleagues. The former, growing up in a red-hot economy, are animated by a “growth mindset” whereas the latter, operating in mature economies, are stuck in a “settled mindset.” These two opposite approaches clash when they are asked to collaborate on a R&D project. Why? Because Indian and Western engineers completely differ in their:

1) Reasoning. Unlike Western engineers,who reason with a predicate logic (a statement is either true (1) or false (0),Indian engineers solve problems using a fuzzy logic,the degree of truth of a statement can range anywhere between 0 and 1.

2) Problem-solving. Given their average age (mid-20s), Indian engineers belong to the Generation Y, or the Millennials, who learn through hands-on experiments (think video-games) and peer-to-peer interactions (instant messaging anyone?). When solving a problem, these grown-up “kids” harness the multiplicative power of social networking tools to experiment with multiple solutions simultaneously, and select the optimal one based on peer input. You can call this problem-solving approach “Collaborative Darwinism.” By contrast, Western engineers, many in their 30s/40s/50s, theoretically weigh the pros and cons of every single solution before even trying it, and feel too proud to ask for help when stuck solving a problem. It’s the “ostrich-style” problem-solving.

3) Market expectations. It’s hard for Western engineers living in rich economies with advanced infrastructure to design products for use by customers in developing economies with poor roads and unreliable electrical and water supply. But that’s second nature for Indian engineers in Bangalore, with its ever-congested roads and frequent power cuts. As a US tech multinational’s exec eloquently puts it: “Western engineers’ product ideas are shaped by laws of abundance whereas Eastern engineers’ inventions are motivated by the rules of scarcity.

Just to add to this , it’s also interesting to look at the famous Geert Hofstede™ Cultural Dimensions when one tries to do a comparative assessment of diverse workforce. His assessment is based on five primary Dimensions to assist in differentiating cultures: Power Distance - PDI, Individualism - IDV, Masculinity - MAS, Uncertainty Avoidance – UAI and Long-Term Orientation – LTO.India scores fairly different when compared to western countries when one looks at all these dimensions, so the differences are expected. When it comes to product designing or any solution perhaps the awareness and better understanding of cultural diversity, language barrier and different socio economic approach towards consumption and consumer behavior drives Indian mindset.So instead of terming it mindset of scarcity versus abundance it would be appropriate to term it as informed and sensitized approach towards ideas and conceptualization.

Salary Compression – A HR Nightmare?

If there's one thing that's tipping the scales for fresh employees and leaving the veterans out in the cold, it's salary compression. There's no room for loyalty to the company when market conditions have to be taken into consideration and new hires have to be paid according to industry standards. With the internal annual rate of increase between 4 and 7 percent and the industry annual rate of increase touching 10 to 15 percent, there's a huge disparity between what more experienced workers earn and what their fresh-faced counterparts just setting foot in the company make.

The situation is compounded year after year, as those with the company for a longer period of time continue to earn comparatively less than those who've come after them. HR professionals and managers have been put in a bind by salary compression – they're forced to pay the going rate for the best of the new talent to hit the market even as they risk the ire and resentment of individuals who have slogged for the company for more than a few years, but who are earning a significantly smaller amount than those coming in, even with the annual hike in their salaries.

Older employees are forced to change jobs then, since they are likely to be paid the higher market rates by new employers, which means that more new employees have to be hired at current market rates, and more money has to be spent on recruitment and training costs and on higher salaries. This leads us to the questions - Isn't it more rational to increase the salaries of older employees on par or at slightly higher rates than those of their newer colleagues? Is it worth the low morale, frustration and reduced productivity that older employees exhibit when faced with the news that their juniors, people they have to take under their wings and train, are taking home more money than they are? Does this make for a workplace conducive to harmony and cooperation?

Employers are struggling to address these issues without emptying the company's coffers on salary alone. In an attempt to retain valued and experienced employees, they are offering perks like the use of company transport, phone bills at the company's expense, access to health clubs and paid vacations. Some companies are restructuring their pay levels in a new attempt termed broad banding where employers assume more flexibility in defining job descriptions and adjusting pay scales accordingly. Others offer bonuses and incentives on a performance-based model.

A job market with a limited amount of skilled labor and a large number of jobs that require highly skilled professionals gives employees the upper hand – they are able to dictate terms and threaten to quit if they're not paid what they think they're worth. But then, too much of job hopping is seen as a sign of instability in industry circles, unless the employee has something really special to offer in terms of skill and ability. At the end of the day, it's up to organizations to affect the trade off between retaining experienced employees at a higher pay or spending more to bring in new ones and train them well.

This article is contributed by Heather Johnson, who regularly writes on HR manager. She invites your questions and writing job opportunities at her personal email address: heatherjohnson2323 @ gmail.com

On ROI, HR Skills & Perception about HR Function

ROI on Training and Leadership programs

Training evaluation usually takes into account the following factors.

• Reaction-How the participants reacts to the program

• Learning-Depending upon the nature of the program ways to measure the learning has to be worked out.

• On Job behavior -To access the effective changes for the desired result on the team and the individual.

• Business result-how the change in behavior has positively impacted business result.

• Calculating the return on investment (ROI).

Most of the organizations focus only till stage 4 of the evaluation process. Typically there are 3 aspects which are considered to be looked at under ROI.

• Desired Impact- has the training program been effective it facilitating change as it was desired. Training is one of the many tools available; it must justify its effectiveness as a viable business solution to remain relevant and viable.

• Cost –to substantiate that the cost incurred leads to positive impact of profitability.

• Improve the design and content of future training programs on the basis of feedback received.

The best way to evaluate the ROI on training is to do a control group experiment and evaluate the performance of both the teams on the basis of pre identified hard and soft data points like absenteeism, productivity, morale, enthusiasm etc. Only if the pre determined targets are achieved for the group which has undergone training is evident it would be viable to have effective ROI assessment. However ROI assessment has its own challenges since the effectiveness also depends on individual willingness and openness to change behavior through structured intervention.

In my personal experience the best training programs are run by people who have demonstrated exceptional leadership ability and have proven track record of being a performer and great achiever in any field of life. Only those who are exceptional achievers can inspire others raise the bar and achieve new heights.

New Skills for HR Professionals

HR function in itself is the core of any entrepreneur activity. For any organization to be effective it needs great managers and great managers must be great team leaders having exceptional people capabilities. However Marketing (Business development and Sales) and finance are two functions which HR professionals must have to become quite essential entrepreneurs. In one of my earlier post on my blog I had opined on “selling skills for HR professionals”. Cross functional expertise is a core competency for HR professional as it is involved in Hiring, training, mentoring, developing career path and designing robust performance management system and policies for all functions in the organizations. Unless it has the necessary know how of business, functional, operational and strategic goals of teams it will never succeed in performing its role effectively.

Perceptions about HR department

Depends on what we are trying to achieve, we keep reading lot of surveys and findings on the role of HR in organizations and what is expected from HR teams .Perception of employees will change only if the expectations are aligned to the common goal. As long as HR leadership in your teams are able to differentiate and successfully execute the employee value proposition and integrate the same with organizations people’s philosophy ,in my view it would have done its core function.

HR must re-define and change the way it sees itself, it ought to articulate its business value proposition and strategic contribution more effectively. It should become a viable change agent in driving the strategic goal of organizations. Only when these goals are achieved we can expect changes in the way HR function is perceived.

Inflation's impact on HR function

Inflation is a cyclical economic phenomena, in a globalised world inflation in not just driven by internal economic variables but also get influenced by common economic concerns like global oil prices, entry and exit barriers to economies, food grain production etc. The current inflation trend is cost push inflation which is more driven by the rise in the cost of essentials goods and services. It even leads to rise in wages in excess of any gains in labor productivity, this leads to increase in unit costs of production and thus further spiraling prices.

Generally when Inflation is more demand driven (total demand for goods and services in an economy exceeds the available supply) it leads to increase in the production of goods and services. This means more employment opportunities and higher demand for skilled labour and if supply fails to match the demand for skilled and highly skilled labour, wages move northward and it also leads to higher attrition in organizations where even demand for labour is more.

In case of Cost push inflation the demand for labour does not necessarily goes up,on the other hand organizations looks for ways to reduce cost and reduce redundant work force as the cost of services and managing a non productive workforce goes up. Cost push inflation also leads to demand for higher wages to meet the growing expenses and organizations face dual challenge of managing external as well as internal cost push .This often leads to wage price spiral which means increase in wages will drive cost of goods and services.

In such situations it becomes very critical for the HR team to take the right decisions on:

• Hiring the best talent-To ensure that the value added is more than the cost
  

• Improving productivity - Initiate ways to enhance productivity per employee, to have better retention programs to engage the high performers.
  

• Review the compensation and benefits applicable: Change in economic scenario drive the compensation structure, too much of market uncertainty would mean that variable and bonus component of employees needs to be aligned to marked realities.
  

  
  

• Partner with leadership on decision making- Don't forget the role of the ear piece of senior leadership in your organization, HR has to come up with relevant findings and metrics which helps the organization meet challenges better.
  

  
  

• Communicate effectively and timely: In such economic scenario it becomes very critical that right information reaches employees at the right time. Even if it's a decision which is likely to negatively impact the compensation or benefits of the employee, it's very critical that the rationale for change and how it will help the organization and its workforce to meet the challenges are well articulated by leadership and HR teams.
  

HR benchmarking and systems

Recently my interview appeared in SCOOP an online HR magazine, it covers industry news , analysis and features the latest from the HR world. The interview covered wide ranges of issues ranging from HR strategies, processes and various other issues which organizations are grappling today. Here is the first part the interview.

On Benchmarking in the field of HR.

Benchmarking in today’s business environment has different context for different organizations.HR practices have also been keeping pace with ever dynamic business environment and every industry presents unique challenges for HR professionals. There are two important aspects which every HR team must try and benchmark against:

Innovative HR Practices: HR practices needs continuous change and innovation, it is key to the competitiveness of any industry. HR teams have to lead in setting new trends in attracting and engaging talent. Today the best places to work are those which have Innovative and engaging HR practices. If you are looking at benchmarking HR practices you need to review the existing practices and then indentify high impact areas which you think are critical for the execution of your business goals and long term employee philosophy.

Humane Processes: I have deliberately used the word humane as we tend to standardize and reduce the human touch in the name of standard HR processes. This is especially true for large organizations as they find it difficult to resolve unique situations through their HR processes.HR teams must set up processes which are more fungible and responsive to employees need rather than just operation ease.HR process benchmarking should focus on creating unique employee experience, in this regard small upcoming companies can provide valuable examples to emulate.

On successful HR system and its implementation?

In my view it’s not just the successful “system” per say which makes the difference. It’s all about the people you have in your team and the way they go on to do their daily job with great excitement and enthusiasm which is the mantra for any successful system. Some of the best organizations have doomed after their best leaders and team members have quit while some of the very ordinary organizations achieve remarkable results by sheer team effort and promoting a culture of co-operation and collaboration.

At present HRIS (Human resources Information System) is the critical backbone of any HR system. In most the of the organizations ccurrently Human Resource Management Systems covers following functions:

• Recruitment & Selection(Applicant tracking and short listing systems)
• Training & Learning Management system
• Talent Deployment
• Compensation and Benefit administration
• Separation and feedback process

HR solutions like client-server (distributed system comprised of both client and server software), Application Service Provider, and SaaS(software as a service) Human Resource Management Systems has enabled HR processes to be structured and streamlined. The manual effort has reduced considerably and helped HR operations to scale their services effectively. These HR systems have helped HR teams to focus more on engaging and developing employees more effectively.

Employee Performance Management System

Talent management is one of the most critical and ever challenging activities for any HR team. Sound performance management system is quintessential for the success of any talent management strategy for any organizations. While lot of organizations have automated their Performance evaluation and rating processes a large number of small and medium enterprises continues to struggle between legacy systems and new age Human capital management systems which integrates different aspects of performance measurement and also integrates it with other ERP and HRIS (human resource information system) .Some of the key factors which needs to be considered while adopting automated IT system based performance evaluation model are:

• A well defined performance management tool should focus on arriving at role based assessment and evaluation matrix which is duly aligned with the competencies defined for each role.

• Ratings must translate into performance index scores and should follow the philosophy of the performance evaluation and distribution method generally followed, for example –MBO, Force rating method or Behaviorally Anchored Rating Scales.

• Key tasks and related competencies for each task should be duly mapped and performance grading should have pre set values assigned to the tasks performed.

• It must consider the various variables which have influence of the final deliverables. These variables will again be unique to the roles and competencies.

• Performance index must be benchmarked for different performance scales (best, average and below average performers)

• It should integrate metrics and milestones from any other HR or Internal systems, to enable evaluator assess more accurately with the help of readily available data for specific tasks.

• Should capture qualitative aspects and clearly identify the strengths and performance highlights like client appreciation, key differentiators and initiatives etc.

• It should help in identifying the developmental needs (training, mentoring etc) on the basis of the gaps, based on the assessment against the desired superior performance level.

• Basis Performance management aspects like SMART Goals (Specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timely) needs to be factored and assessment must be done again pre defined goals and role based evaluation parameters.

• It must cover relevant feedback and evaluation ratings from all stakeholders apart from the manager and next level reviewer to enable more holistic and 360* overview of the employees performance.

• Periodic review and update features to give a comprehensive assessment for the performance calendar, should not necessarily be open during a particular time during the evaluation window but allow periodic ratings to be weighted for the purpose of cumulative index score.

• It should help in identifying the readiness of the employee to perform a higher role and also capture the future career aspirations.

5 ways to get more done in your Workday

A major complaint among HR professionals these days is a severe lack of time. This is a common concern across the professional landscape and something that we all combat every day. You probably find yourself hoping for more hours to get more done. This isn’t going to happen but there are ways you can make more productive use of your time to make sure that your “to-do” lists are completed by the day’s end. Here are five ways you can create this needed time:

1. Switch your hours. If the 9-5 shift isn’t providing you enough time to get everything done that you need to then consider working longer. Wake up an hour earlier and get to work that much earlier. The earlier you get to work the less interruptions you’ll encounter. While your free time will be cut into you’ll feel more satisfied that you got more done.

2. Multitask. This is the catchword of the day and it’s here to stay. If you’re trying to further your career then listen to audio textbooks while in the car. Waiting for a doctor’s appointment or your car to get fixed? Bring a book that is appropriate for your job or paperwork.

3. Cut out activities that eat up time. Turn off the television if you have one in your office. Cut out the twenty-minute chit-chat session in the morning with your friends by the coffee maker. Don’t surf the internet for anything not related to your job. Resist these temptations! These extraneous activities can severely cut into valuable time that you could be spending on getting stuff done.

4. Work faster. This may sound like a no-brainer but it’s hard for people to change their work habits. Learn to type faster by taking a typing course or tutorial online. Be a better reader as you scan for the details that you need and cut out the meaningless text that takes up your time. Make your own deadlines that are independent from the natural deadline attached to a project. This will create a sense of urgency that will make you work faster.

5. Preparation is crucial. If you have tomorrow lined up before you leave work today then you’re in good shape. The worst thing you can do is come into the office in the morning and have little to no idea what you should be doing. It will take you an hour to plan your day. Be prepared with your tasks for the next day and you’ll get off to a running start when you arrive!

This article is contributed by Heather Johnson, who regularly writes on the topic of career exploration. She wanted to share a guest post on HR Funda and I was more than happy to feature her post .She invites your questions and writing job opportunities at her personal email id: heatherjohnson2323@gmail.com . If you have any guest post to contribute, please drop me a mail on ajitchouhan@gmail.com

HR Challenges -Time to act

Prioritizing key activities and focusing on strategic areas of concern continues to be a challenge for majority of HR professionals. Most of the studies which focus on challenges faced by HR professional continues to highlight the ever increasing pressure of attracting, engaging in retaining talent.

In a recent study by i4cp when respondents were asked about the main barriers facing HR in 2008, 44% of the 355 responding companies rated lack of time as having a high or very high impact on HR’s ability to achieve its goals.

“HR professionals are singing a familiar refrain,” said Donna J. Bear, senior research analyst at i4cp. “They’re citing not enough time, talent or money and too many conflicting priorities as top impediments to accomplishing their employers’ goals.”

Besides not having enough time, nearly four in 10 respondents cited “conflicting organizational priorities,” “scarcity of workforce talent” and “financial resources” as having a high or very high impact on achieving their goal of filling their employers’ ranks with high-potential workers.

Regarding their own ongoing development, HR professionals recognize the need to develop competencies that are both broad and high-level. The study’s respondents ranked leadership first among all the competencies needing further development, with 55% of all organizations ranking it as high or very high in importance. Also, 50% of organizations ranked change management as a high or very high priority, and innovative thinking is also a competency that HR professionals must develop, according to the 47% of respondents who said it ranked high or very high in importance.

HR links for the week

Here are some of the interesting posts from the HR blogosphere for the week. I’m sure readers will enjoy going through the posts.

Career bright on working from Home and how it is important to be self-directed and self-motivated to be able to work from home completely.

David Zinger has an interesting post on Employee engagement where he illustrates through this video on the concept of learned helplessness that contributes to disengagement at work.

Heather Hughes shares her personal experience of how she escaped her newspaper job to start her own Business -- and how others can leaern from her experience as well.

Rowan hosts the Carnival of HR 30 .

A Bob Brady post on no I-PODs at work has most of readers disagreeing to the idea.

Alltop list and HR Guru

The new layout of this blog got some good news as well.HR funda got featured in the ALLTOP list under careers section. Guy Kawasaki took less than a minute to confirm the inclusion after my request.

I also joined the HR Guru community (part of Monster group) and got the invite from TessaT to contribute as a featured blogger. Looking forward to share and connect with the HR community on HR Guru.