Dear Readers,

In a world where discovery is more important than delivery, it's the people who find, remix and direct attention to old stuff that should be rewarded, not the people who deliver it or sit on it waiting for someone to show up. -Joichi Ito So the wait is finally over!! We @ Team usHR, take great pride in bringing to you the inaugural edition of TogetHR, the first HR magazine across all IIMs. This magazine caters to the needs of not only the HR professionals but all the managers who want to see their employees grow, prosper and contribute positively to their organizations. It goes out to all the leaders who have a vision in their eyes and wish their employees to share it with them. And finally to the HR enthusiasts studying in various B-Schools, sharing this common dream of bringing about a change, a change that would bring this profession on a level it truly deserves. Talent Management: Top Trends, is the highlight of this inaugural issue of TogetHR. Organizations these days find it hard to retain its talent, its people, who are considered to be the most valuable asset. The cover story attempts to uncover the latest trends in this aspect with examples from some of the companies actually implementing them. Our other articles under the section Concoction cover the most elementary aspects of HR, but with a contemporary touch. We start with an article titled Employer Branding is Indispensable!! which prompts us to ponder over the importance of internal branding of the organization in front of the employees. The article e-Recruiting fundae talks about how technology has revolutionized recruitment, considered to be the most essential function of Human Resource Management. In the article, Facets of law in HR, we try and acquaint our readers briefly with the relevance of law in this field with a special focus on some of the laws being implemented in Indian context. Finally, the article Comp n Ben: The 02 of employees discusses what has always been and will continue to be a very important factor in employmentcompensation and benefits, the changes we have seen in the last few years and how it has evolved to be more attractive for the employees. The next section Conflux is an endeavour to unleash the latest trends in HR and recognise the best practices of various organisations. For this months edition, we interacted with Mr. Ajit Kumar, Director- Human Resources, Philips Healthcare. During the course of this interaction, Mr. Kumar talked about the changing industry attitude over the traditional way of carrying out HR functions and how developing the leadership pipeline is gaining prime importance. Connoisseur Speaks! is a one of a kind section where we attempt to address the day to day queries and concerns commonly being faced at workplaces. Finally, we offer our readers a platform to scratch their brains and come up with novel ideas for the contest of the issue, Contest with the Best! and win exciting prizes for the same. This magazine is an attempt to bring together a group of likeminded professionals and use each others intellect and creativity to enhance the quality of contributions and explore new ideas of making this magazine sharper and reader friendly. Do write in your feedback to us at hrclub.iims@gmail.com. Happy Reading!!

Faculty Advisor:
Prof. Rohit Dwivedi

Team usHR:
Mayur Kumar Lakhmani Neetisha Arya Pooja Batheja Sakshi Prashar

Pooja Batheja

September 2011

Conflux 1
1 Excerpts of Interview with Mr. Ajit Kumar

Contents

Concoction 9
9 Employer Branding Is Indispensable!!! - Jitesh Patel | IIM S 11 Comp N Ben: The O2 of Employees - Mayur Kumar Lakhmani | IIM S 15 E-recruiting Fundae - Sakshi Prashar | IIM S

Cover Story
-

Neetisha Arya | IIM S

17 Facets of Law In Human Resource Management - Sourojit Ghose | IIM S

The war for talent is on. By recognising a person's inherent skills, traits and personality and offering him a matching job, organisations are benefitting from increased productivity and capability. At the same time, employees show higher motivation and commitment, increased knowledge about and contribution to company goals, sustained motivation and job satisfaction.

Connoisseur Speaks! 19 Contest With The Best! 21

21 Crossword

Disclaimer: The views presented are the opinion/work of the individual author and The HR Club of IIM Shillong bears no responsibility whatsoever.

Conflux

TRENDS IN HR PRACTICES: A LOOK AT PHILIPS HEATHCARE

Mr. Ajit Kumar, with over 15 years of HR leadership experience, is responsible for strategic leadership in the Healthcare division of Philips India. He has previously worked with Yes Bank and Fidelity Investments after completing the PGDPM programme from XLRI, Jamshedpur in 1996. Q. How is the academic HR curriculum different from the industrial practices? Application of theory is important. What I studied in XLRI 15 years back has undergone a lot of changes over the period and so is the case with the various academic curriculums. In practice, a manager needs to apply common sense and strategic thinking skills. Such qualities cannot be taught and they develop only with experience. Theory is basically to build upon your strength to face situations but does not prepare you completely. Going by the subjects taught, I have always felt subjects like Organizational Behaviour relevant for the organisations and it does help in practical applications but a course like Industrial Relations has become out dated especially in the services industry and to an extent even in the manufacturing industry. Q. Organizations often stress the importance of human capital for businesses today. Could you
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Mr. Ajit Kumar explains why it is vital to build the leadership pipeline in an organisation. In an interview with Team usHR, he also talks about the areas of focus in HR practices today. distinguish between the terms human capital and human resource, considering there is a very fine line between them? There is not much difference between the two according to me. It is just like calling somebody with two different names. The term Capital is being stressed to lay additional stress on the importance of people in an organisation. This discussion of drawing the distinction between words is limited only to the boundaries of B-schools. How you call something and why becomes irrelevant once you come into the industry. Q. What are the recent trends observed in various leadership and development programs that are being used by different organisations? Can assessment centres be one way of developing leaders in an organisation?
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Presently, organisations are laying a lot of stress on developing and building the leadership in an organisation because this is what actually differentiates an organisation from another. This is the main reason for the success and failure of companies. Keeping this in mind, all companies are working hard in this regard. There are two ways of doing this - the theoretical approach is to put people through frameworks. For instance, we have tie-ups with Bain & company to conduct programmes on leadership for our employees. Recently, we had organised a program in association with ISB Hyderabad for the same. The second approach is practical in nature, and involves strong coaching and mentoring for leaders who have been identified. The idea is to identify leaders and build on their capabilities. Unless people work on their abilities and put it into exercise, they cant really be developed. Organisations are moving away from using assessment centres for this purpose. It should ideally be used for a developmental purpose or for effective recruitment etc. Identification of a leader ideally takes about 2-3 years. There are no short cuts for the process. You need to see how consistently a person performs in demanding and challenging situations. No quick-fix way of doing this can be successful.

Q. In the present time, when every company tries to cut down its budget, how feasible is it to invest on Talent management activities? There is no simple answer to this question. The CEO of any organisation facing such a situation needs to arrive at his decision depending on the available resources and the circumstances at hand. Normally, if one is given the task of cutting costs, talent is the first thing to be axed. However, for organisations looking at long term growth, this may not be the right choice. Investing in talent reaps benefits over the long term. Although companies should not cut down their resources if they are looking over the long term, a CEO needs to prioritise on the available resources and decide accordingly. This may turn out to be the right decision in certain situations. Q. Innovation is the key to success. How do you drive your people to continuously strive for innovative solutions which would be beneficial both for Philips and its customers? For any company to succeed, one needs to recreate and reinvent the company and come out with new products for its consumers. Sometimes innovation is a necessity, sometimes it is due to environmental needs and sometimes it may be due to the needs of the consumer. For example, consumer moved from incandescent bulbs to LEDs and may be to solar bulbs in the future. For a company, which is the market leader in this product will have to innovate to adapt to the changes in the needs of the consumers.
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Innovation is the major key; not only in terms of launching new products but can be in various other ways like ways of creating new markets, ways of launching new products in the market and coming up with different ways of marketing. To drive people to incorporate innovation in all offerings at Philips, we offer rewards as a motivation mechanism. Rewards are offered in cash or kind. Spot rewards may also be offered to motivate people. In other situations, public acknowledgement may also help in motivating people Q. What is the relevance of automation in the HR practices of Philips? Is it by any means a threat to the whole concept of Human Resource Management as every aspect in it, right from recruitment to performance management is automated these days? Relevance of automation is very high but HR is not about automation. Automation covers only databases and systems to manage those databases. Automation as such cannot replace HR functions. Human Resources is required by people managers or supervisor and not just people who occupy positions in HR departments of the organisation. We as HR professionals are there to act as facilitators of the process where every manager takes the people aspect into consideration while making decisions. And therein, automation would only help and not replace HR processes. Q. Often there are situations when organizational changes are required on a large scale. How do you manage people resisting such a change, especially

when its known that the success of the project would depend on how well people adapt to it? Implementing changes on a large scale is always a challenge. However, the point to remember is that any change should not be brought about without explaining the need behind it and how it is going to influence the lives of those involved. A strong communication strategy is required to explain the change process and understand its necessity. A forced change cannot be successful. It is a human tendency to resist any change forced upon them. And one has to counter this resistance by proactively considering it and taking measures. Q. Every organization invests a lot in its Training & Development activities. Philips is known to implement its One Philips framework for learning and development. How does this framework integrate various aspects of an employees growth at Philips? The need for innovation always exists. The reason for the need changes with time. One Philips is not just a framework for implementing the T&D initiatives. The main objective of this model is to

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Conflux

provide a common yardstick to measure the performance and growth of the organisation in all the three sectors of operations, namely Lighting, Healthcare and Consumer Electronics. Philips is a strong people process oriented organisation. We invest a lot in engagement, training and developmental activities and One Philips ensures that all the three sectors remain on common ground with regards to such activities. Q. Employee Engagement Surveys are conducted to find out the employee satisfaction levels in a company. However, the process often dies out after the results are obtained. How does Philips ensure that such surveys yield outcomes that would benefit the employees and promote internal branding?

Engagement surveys are like a thermometer, which is used to check how people are doing in an organisation. However, a thermometer is rendered useless until medication is given to a person who is reported to be not doing well. Similarly, these surveys must be followed by relevant actions taken to ensure people satisfaction throughout the organisation. Philips follows strong policies in this regard. To quote a few, if under a manager, similar scores or results are obtained over a period of time, then the manager is changed or if in a country, the engagement services are reported not to be performed properly, then the country leadership is made to undergo a change.

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Cover Story Cover Story

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Cover Story

Talent is in short supply, talent is becoming expensive, talent thinks different from ever before and the relationship between employer and employee is changing faster than the organisations policies, leaving the entire HR system outdated.
(Bill Gates)

greatest return; where leaders can most effectively spend their time developing people; and how to drive greater consistency, integration, and alignment of talent practices with the business strategy. Keeping the changing definition of talent in mind, we look at some of the most relevant industry-wide trends that Senior Managers and HR Heads are paying attention to.

Talent management is easily one of the biggest

challenges facing the CEOs today. They often realise the importance of this phenomenon once a couple of highperforming middle-level managers resign. As companies work towards increasing their market share, competition for hiring the right people has made this routine task much more difficult. Adding to the woes, talent is becoming expensive by the day. The imbalance caused by a demand much greater than the supply has pushed the salary levels to an all-time high. Poaching from both, within and outside the industry, has made talent more mobile than it ever was. Increasing globalisation of organisations has made the hiring of leaders with a global mind-set and ability to adapt, extrapolate and take decisions relevant to each local market mandatory. Today, the challenge is not just whether to invest resources in talent management, but also in where to invest, i.e. how to identify what talent practices provide the
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Talent is no more seen as just a set of paper qualifications and experiences, but as a set of life experiences Dr. S. B. Misra, CEO, Carbon Black Business & Director, Group H.R., Aditya Birla Group **

Predictive Talent Analytics: with a focus on managing core talent As more and more effort is being expended into talent acquisition, organisations are no longer content with the mere idea of return on investment. In fact, many organisations are focussing on predicting the value addition to the firm by potential employees, much before ** (an excerpt from PeopleMatters, February 2011 issue)
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they are actually hired. The shrinking talent pool has made the hiring of exceptional talent a hugely difficult task. To ensure an adequate level of core

Becoming Social with Talent: with a focus on talent engagement As the networking-savvy present generation enters the corporate world of email systems, employees tend to get disengaged with their work and the organisation owing to lack of access to the internet in the work place. Such employees are physically present in their workplace but are psychologically absent. They are unhappy with their work situation and often share this unhappiness with their colleagues, thus creating a ripple effect. To solve this problem, many firms have set up internal social networks to foster communication and collaboration in the work place. ERP vendors such as Oracle and Salesforce and software firms of the likes of IBM and Microsoft are capitalising on this opportunity by building a social

talent, HR is becoming more effective in the recruitment practices. The focus has shifted to recruitment of key people for performing jobs that are core to the business and outsourcing of non-core functions to the extent possible. This ensures that companies have the best talent working for them for all functions, irrespective of the fact whether the person lies on the firms own payroll or not. This efficiency is enhanced by the use of predictive analytics to ensure that the new recruits add value to the firm. Starbucks, Cognizant and Accenture have all utilised predictive analytics in other ways, to measure and improve talent engagement and employee satisfaction. Google analyses employee reviews, promotion and other related data in order to identify employees most likely to quit, thus enabling them to predict and control attrition. Senior Managers and HR Heads at firms, which spend significantly on their employees, increasingly need to improve the effectiveness of their employee engagement and development programs. The use of Predictive Talent Analytics can help achieve this aim.

environment for their products. These firms have realised the fact that there is an urgent need to provide employees with the kind of technological environment they are used to in their personal lives. Boring email systems and restricted access to the internet do nothing to keep the employees involved with their organisation. On the other hand, networking helps employees research quicker, multi-task and manage a diverse work environment. It has also been known to enhance their productivity.
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Cover Story

Finding the right fit: with a focus on competency mapping & acculturation The challenge lies not only in finding the right people for the organisation, but also in assigning them the right job. This naturally requires an indepth understanding of the role itself. Normally, people understand jobs, levels and grades but not the roles. The fitment to a role is based on the expectations one has from a job. As a result, when recruitment for a particular job is done, the recruiters look for similar experiences on the resume, assuming that since the person has done it before, he/ she will be able to do it again. However, this is not always true. Several firms like John Deere have devised specific strategies to achieve the right P-O fit in their organisation. While John Deere has made use of predictive analytics for this purpose, others employ other means such as personal interactions and interviews with potential hires to know them better and assign roles that they would be able to do justice to. In addition to the fit in terms of competencies, the alignment of an individual with the organisations culture is also extremely important. Understanding this, some firms like L&T promote internal hiring before looking for suitable candidates outside the group. Hiring employees from within the L&T group ensures that the employees are well-versed with the ethos and values of the organisation and the acculturation process becomes quite

simple. This idea has implemented by means employee referral schemes internal portal which benefits referring employees and organisation as a

been of specific on the both, the the whole.

The war for talent is on. Trying to fit a square peg in a round hole has consistently proved to be a disastrous option. If people are forced to do work that they dont like or dont want to do, the results will be obvious. Low productivity, dissatisfaction, low morale, absenteeism and other negative behaviour will become typical till the employees are shown the door. To avoid this situation, forward-thinking organizations are using innovative talent-management approaches to gain a competitive advantage, to help them ride out the ups and downs in the economy and create a strong platform for growth and excellence. By recognising a person's inherent skills, traits and personality and offering him a matching job, organisations are benefitting from increased productivity and capability; a better linkage between individuals' efforts and business goals; commitment of valued employees; reduced turnover; increased bench strength and a better fit between people's jobs and skills. At the same time, employees show higher motivation and commitment, increased knowledge about and contribution to company goals, sustained motivation and job satisfaction. Neetisha Arya | IIM S

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Concoction

Employer Branding Is Indispensable!!

Always treat your employees exactly as you want them to treat your best customers
~Stephen R. Covey
The quote from Stephen Covey captures the essence of Employer Branding in a concise manner. In layman parlance Employer Branding can be converted to mean the phrase great place to work. Companies are often focused so much on pleasing the customer that they forget the most important part of their organisation their employees. This ignorance can lead to serious repercussions and ultimately hamper the objective of making the customers happy. This article aims to trace the origins of the concept of Employer Branding, its need, how it is a multi-disciplinary domain and how Employer Branding will play a bigger role in the coming years. The term Employer Branding is a fairly new entrant to the long, almost unending list of management jargon often used by all companies and management graduates. Surprisingly, the term was first used and defined in 1996, in a Brand Management Journal and not in a Human Resources Journal as one would expect. interest in their jobs and if this is repeated, the employer loses credibility which can have a cascading effect on other disciplines within the business entity. Employer branding is a rare with straddles the concept domains of

Human Resources and Marketing. The phrase itself has connotations of branding, and hence implies creation of an image of the company in the minds of its current employees and perhaps also the future ones. The difference being, this branding is not done by the marketing department, but rather by the Human Resources function of the organisation. Employer branding also involves the ideas of positioning, a value proposition and internal marketing. It is akin to a product being sold, just that the product here is the company as a work place. The relevance of Employer Branding is reflected in the fact that in just 15 years, this idea has gained widespread and almost universal recognition by all the major business organisations in the world. All companies know of it, and most of them are working to improve their image as an employer. Drawing on the product analogy again, if the product is branded well it leads to better customer acquisition and retention and if your company is branded as a good employer it means better employees come to work
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Employer

Branding:

the

package

of

functional, economic and psychological

benefits provided by employment, and

identified with the employing company.

The psychological benefits like appreciation and recognition are often neglected and can lead to employees losing
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Concoction

for you and stay with your organisation. It is not uncommon to see business newspapers and magazines listing out the best companies to work for. Employer branding works powerfully to motivate the employees and therefore improve the functionality of all the departments of the organisation. A recent example of employer branding coupled with internal marketing was the RISE campaign by Mahindra Group. The Mahindra group wanted to unify all their group companies under a single brand philosophy RISE pertaining to newer ideas and better lives for the future. They key point is, Mahindra first started the branding campaign for their employees, and only then took it outside the company. 6 months were spent on creating awareness about the campaigns, the changes and new process to their existing employees so that, when the campaign opened up to the external audience, the thoughts and actions of the employees would resonate with the redefined brand philosophy. The campaign clearly emphasises on the fact that theyve changed all their touch points with the customers to drive across the point. Changing touch points translates to changing the perception of the Mahindra employee who will deal with the customer at that particular touch point. Such campaigns are not uncommon; rather they are being carried out throughout the business world. The question remains, how will Employer Branding shape organisations in the coming years? The answer to this lies in what choices the businesses will make. Many employers today have incorporated keeping employees happy as a part of their organisational philosophies. Lot of companies want to be the Number 1 employer of choice in their industry. Talent is a scarce commodity and the right Employer Branding will help companies recruit and retain the best of talent. There are more and more companies vying to

be the best place to work for because that will eventually result in it becoming the best business organisation.

Jitesh Patel | IIM S

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Concoction

21st century has been characterised by fast changing technology, vast amounts of knowledge piling up every moment and to top it all, increasing levels of competition to capture the change and maximizing benefits out of it. This ever-accelerating trajectory of knowledge and technology has led to the development of new industries, new markets and new competition ultimately causing changes in business strategies and new organizational designs. This has further led to jobs getting invented, reinvented and blended. Organisations face great difficulties in attracting the right talent for these jobs and one of the steps taken to ensure the right set of people is re-crafting the compensation and rewards system to ensure the alignment of the individual goals with those of the company. Compensation practices are prone to change. There can be various factors that can affect them such as labour market shifts, economic swings, changes in technology like the Internet, challenges from competitors, and the evolution of organisational design and culture. It may be the same old product in new packaging or something innovative, but one needs to be aware of all the methods that can be used to provide a
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package that makes the employee feel its worth. This article attempts to discuss some of the concepts being used to make the pay schemes attractive and balanced. Talking about direct financial component of the compensation packages, there have been a few changes in the past. To start with, a major part of the compensation plans tend to make sure that basic pay structures are consistent and fair over all the levels of organisation. Due to high competition within the organisation, employees are concerned towards the basic pay which determines their security and makes them less concerned about the slow rate of increments in pay. Also, the differences in the basic pay at different levels marks an increase in position and responsibility as one moves up the ladder. Things like fixed-time periodic incrementals and lump-sum merit payments are losing out their sheen and there has been growth observed in management incentives and incentive based compensation for the achievement of long term corporate goals. This is due to the emphasis on performance and competition for talent. This is the major
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source of motivation for employees to perform to their best and outdo their colleagues. For industries, where companies need to fight for hiring the best talent, various other methods like hiring bonuses are also used. However, to decide upon these, there needs to be an extensive research on the levels set by the industry and prepare the best offer that the organisation can offer. Skill based pay is another form of compensation schemes. Under this system, an employee gets rewarded in the form of additional pay in exchange for formal certification of the employees mastery of skills, knowledge and/or competencies. This kind of system is based more on a persons characteristics rather than the job. It is one of the most under-researched human resource practices being used today. The problem is that it is not a single system, but a conglomerate of different small practices which are prevalent in various organisations. Because of this, one form of skill based pay may not apply in the same way to any other organisation, hence leading to confusion about

the system. Another developing aspect of employee compensation practices has been the evolution of work/life balance initiatives taken up by some of the companies. Its importance is growing with the increasing demands and responsibilities of an employee on the personal front. Along with other benefits, employees are willing to forgo large pay increases in return of a balanced lifestyle. People prefer flexible timings instead of rigid Monday to Friday eighthour work schedules. Working from home also is becoming increasingly popular to avoid daily commute and to get more time to spend with the family. Companies are using these benefits as an added advantage to the pay packages to attract employees. Living a balanced life has started getting a higher priority than earning big bucks especially with people who have been working for some time. In an effort to reduce the rigidity in the pay structures, companies are moving from traditional methods to broad banded pay structures. Broad banding is the consolidation of traditional pay structures, consisting of many narrow pay ranges into a few wider ranges or bands. Broadband is still considered a novel concept and companies must ensure that it fits into their organisational culture as it has been observed that many early adopters of this new method are now reverting back to the traditional structures. Successful use of broad banding would require all managers to be mature and highly trained in human resource management and compensation. With all the drawbacks and
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speculations surrounding this method, one must keep track of the latest developments happening in this area. The final trend without which discussion about compensations would remain incomplete would be the stock options. This is not something recent which has been introduced in the compensation policies of the organisations. Stock options have been the leading means of compensation for executives and managers since the 1990s. With

stocks, employee

an

market pricing techniques. The drawback of this method is that it requires extensive surveys on which the organisation is dependent for compensation related data to fix the salaries based on the industry standards. Other components of the compensation structures might also include components like gain sharing, group incentives, hiring bonus, retention bonus, project completion bonus and many others which are added by HR managers as and when required based on the needs and work of the organisation. All of the above methods and trends discussed are effective individually but may not be valid for each and every organisation. The major challenge lying in front of the HR managers is to identify the best method to align it with the objectives and goals of the organisation. Though a time and resource consuming activity, investment in planning and development would definitely yield long term benefits in the area of employee development and satisfaction. The best way would be to conduct a thorough analysis of the organisation and understand in depth what can be the motivating factors for the employees at all levels of the organisation. The objective of any HR department which deals with compensation must be to keep the employee workforce motivated and engaged and design a system that brings together in alignment the interests of both the organisation as well as the individuals to create real commitment among the staff in working towards strengthening of the organisation. Mayur Kumar Lakhmani | IIM S
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gets to buy stocks of the organisation at a fixed price and exercise at a later date. This is believed to provide motivation to the employees to work harder and add to the value of the organisation to increase personal gains in terms of addition in value of the stock. Although the recent trends show that companies are tending to move away from the stock options slowly as it brings about a great deal of volatility in the variable compensation part but still, for most of the organisations, it remains a component of compensation especially for high-level positions. The major reason for this is to make the employees at high level a partner in the business and ensure their commitment in the long-term goals of the company. Other newer methods being employed market pricing techniques. Herein, organisations in order to reduce upon the bureaucracy of compensation methods and time taken for designing of compensation structures tend to go for
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E-recruiting fundae
Information technology and business are becoming inextricably interwoven. I don't think anybody can talk meaningfully about one without the talking about the other. - Bill Gates

Technology is definitely changing the face of business today. And when HR is on the way to being a strategic business partner in most organizations, every function of HR seems to be using technology in helping it achieve this goal. A major function in every organization is Recruitment one of the most important and traditional areas under Human Resource Management. Technology has penetrated this field immensely. Companies use internet and other web based applications to shortlist, interview and finalise on the new recruits. This process is known as online recruiting or e-recruiting. E-recruiting helps decrease cost of recruitment and improve efficiency of recruitment process by standardising processes of acquiring new talent in the organization. According to NASSCOM, Jobs is among the top reasons why new users will come on to the internet, besides email. Web portals like naukri.com and monster.com have helped online recruiting come off age and become popular among many companies today. Companies can post their requirements on these portals
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and then shortlist from among the list of interested candidates. Assessing the success of this method of recruitment, most ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) solutions today have a module of e-recruiting. Another emerging trend in the area of online recruitment is the use of social networking sites to find more about candidates a company plans to recruit. Sites like LinkedIn (a professional network), Facebook etc. help recruiters extract more information about their potential recruits which otherwise would be very difficult. But, companies have to be really careful while dealing with social media as not all information can be trustworthy. Today when most companies are aiming big on sustainability and green themes, e-recruitment comes handy to them in helping them achieve this. Information flow is well managed and requires less of labour and time in doing work which can be handled easily by an automation system. This can be called virtual outsourcing outsourcing work from man to comp.

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Another significant function which most companies want to implement is Talent Management. And talent management starts from skill mapping. Online recruiting can easily handle skill mapping and skill gap analysis from the point of recruitment itself. Once the competencies are defined as critical, moderate and minor, the firm can devise strategies to overcome these gaps by effective training procedures. SHRM (Society for Human Resource Management) published a survey report, Advances in E-recruiting: Leveraging the .jobs Domain in 2007. According to the report, companies which use e-recruiting showed better efficiency levels in almost all key performance indicators in the area of recruitment like time to fill, cost of fill, quality of fill etc. Definitely this form of recruitment has broken global boundaries. Who knows that in time to come, even face to face interviews will be held on video conferencing which will make the process of recruitment e from tip to toe. But we cannot ignore certain limitations and shortcomings of this method. Few of them being privacy of a candidate and policies of companies, limited processes that can be held online which does not match with the philosophy of elaborate recruitment process of certain big firms of world. Technology does come with its own limitations. But the answers to those problems are hidden somewhere in the equation itself. Definitely e-recruiting has the process of refining itself. Most businesses have realised the importance of integration of its functional areas where HR is emerging to be a significant partner. Time is not far when HR along with technology will create wonders for an organization. After all, you cant run a business in which people processes are not powerful. Can you? Sakshi Prashar | IIM S
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Facets of LAW in Human Resource Management

It is often said by eminent jurists that law, as it exists, has no use unless it is used in applying to a situation. Indeed, the various provisions of law would have just been mere written words, having no effect, had such a situation been there. In a business organization, the application and adherence to laws is present in every sphere. However, Human Resource is the area where maximum application and usage of the various legal provisions take place. Since Human Resource deals with managing human beings working in the organization, it has to adhere and respect the laws governing individuals in the regions in which it is working. It is a fairly complex process as different laws exist in different parts of the world and sometimes even in the same country. Thus, HR professionals have to be acquainted with the basic legal provisions relating to employees in the region in which they are working. I would concentrate on the Indian aspect in this article. In India, the Constitution of India serves as the bedrock for all enactments and laws in the country. The framers of the Constitution had the welfare of the general citizens of this country in mind and hence
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formulated the Constitution in accordance with those principles. One of the key fundamental rights enumerated in the Constitution of India is the Right to Equality. The application of this right extends to the workplace in the sense that men and women have to be treated equally and given the same opportunities to develop and become successful professionals. Furthermore, Article 15(3) of the Constitution states that the state can make special provisions for the upliftment and protection of women. We see the application of this in the many laws protecting the rights of the women in the workplace in India, such as The Maternity Benefit Act 1961 and The Equal Remuneration Act 1976. There were also laws protecting the labour workforce and ensuring that they received the minimum wages, healthy working conditions, overtime wages and other aspects of leading a decent life. The strictness of application of these laws varies from industry to industry. Some of the prevalent laws relating to labour force in India are The Payment of Wages Act, 1936, The Payment of Wages (AMENDMENT) Act, 2005, The Minimum Wages Act, 1948, The Payment of Bonus Act, 1965, The Factories Act, 1948, The Dock Workers (Regulation of Employment) Act, 1948, The Plantation Labour Act, 1951, The Mines Act, 1952, The Merchant Shipping Act, 1958, The Beedi & Cigar Workers (Conditions of Employment) Act, 1966, The Contract Labour (Regulation & Abolition) Act, 1970, The Sales Promotion Employees (Conditions of Service) Act, 1976 and The Inter-State Migrant Workmen (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1979. When an employee retires or leaves the organization after a
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certain period of time, he gets a lump sum amount from the employer as a sign of gratitude for the services put in by the employee. There are laws implemented in this regard which provides the exact proportion of payment, minimum period of service which have to be completed to be entitled to the application of this laws and other matters. Such enactments are called social security laws. The various social security laws present in India are The Employees State Insurance Act, 1948, The Employees Provident Fund & Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952, The Employees Provident Fund & Miscellaneous Provisions (Amendment) Act, 1996, The Payment of Gratuity Act, 1972 and The Unorganized Workers' Social Security Act 2008. HR professionals have to be acquainted with these laws in order to make sure there is conformity by the organization to the above mentioned laws. Non-adherence to these laws attracts strict monetary penalty for the organization. There are many companies which do not have a dedicated legal department. As HR managers are involved in the administration of the organization, they have to interact with the lawyers appearing for the organization on various legal issues. Thus, a basic knowledge of the laws and regulations governing the affairs of the organization would be extremely helpful to them in understanding the position that an organization has to take in various matters and while discussing matters with the lawyers. Thus, having knowledge of the laws and regulations will enhance the capabilities of a HR professional and ensure he gives an additional value to the organization in which he/she is working. Sourojit Ghose | IIM S
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Team usHR invite articles from B-Schools all across India. We are looking for original articles related to field of Human Resources. References should be cited wherever necessary. The best article will be featured as the Article of the Month and would be awarded cash prize of Rs.1000/- . Instructions: Kindly email your article with the file name and the subject as <Title of Article> _<Institute Name>_<Authors name/Groups name> by 31st October 2011 Article must be sent in Microsoft Word Document (doc/docx), Font: Times New Roman, Font Size: 12, Line spacing: 1.5 The cover page of the article should only contain the Title of the Article, the Authors Name and the Institutes Name Also certain entries which could not make the cut to the TogetHR will get figured on our blog www.iims-ushr.in

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Connoisseur Speaks!

Connoisseur Speaks!!!
Hi. I am a 27 year old woman working in a financial research company. Since past months, I have been dating a colleague of mine who belongs to a team which sits next to my bay area. Our relationship has recently come to notice of many of the employees here and especially my boss who thinks that my productivity has decreased due to this. I have ensured that I complete all my deliverables on time but in spite of that, my relationship with this person has caused friction between me and my boss. Kindly suggest how do I go about convincing my boss and my team mates that it's my work that should matter and not my personal life.

We totally understand that its your personal life and you wouldnt like to share each and every thing with your team mates or your boss. But you must also understand that romance@workplace is still considered a taboo at Indian workplaces. Now since they have come to know about your relationship, there is no harm in casually confronting the same, say may be by introducing your partner to them and at the same time maintaining its integrity as well. But you would need to ensure that you are able to meet your team and team leads expectations without fail. At any chance given to them, they would not hesitate in putting the blame of your failure on your relationship. Also, in such circumstances, its better to avoid hanging around in the office premises or during office hours as much as possible.

Hi Rohan, every recruiter goes through this dilemma at some or the other stage in his/ her life. The best way to overcome this is by making both
Hello. I am Rohan and have graduated from a reputed B- school and recently joined a leading manufacturing company as a recruitment Specialist. As a part of my job, I am often assigned the task of interviewing both internal and external candidates who are often much older than me. As a result, I feel a little hesitant while asking a certain set of questions which I would have otherwise asked had the candidates been of the same age. I am not too sure how to overcome this hesitance as I myself realise that it's reflecting on the selection criteria and the choice of candidates. Please help.

yourself and the interviewee comfortable during the interview. However, this comes with experience and since you are quite new to this profession, it might take you some time. Take each interview at a time. You may feel a little hesitant to stress the person if he is relatively much older to you; but you can start by questioning the employee on his past experiences and analysing the relevance of his past work with your organization and the profile being offered here. One thing to be kept in consideration is that you should in no way try to demean the person or make his past records look menial. This would not reflect upon well on both your part and your organizations part. Also, in such cases, keep an objective list of selection criteria or parameters in front of you so that they keep the interview more structured and performance driven rather than based on the level of seniority of the interviewee. This tactic would not only help you while recruiting but also while conducting performance evaluation of internal employees.

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Connoisseur Speaks!

Hi. I have recently joined a new project in the same organization where I have been working since last 1 year. I am a member of this team consisting of 10 people, all of them working from 2 different locations. I have been assigned a mentor who will guide me on all the tasks which I have to perform. However, this mentor of mine has been working in this project since its inception and has quite a good rapport with the Delivery Manager, because of which he either works from home or comes to office as per his own timings. This is affecting my work as I have to stick to the company timings and at the same time I don't get sufficient time to interact with him. I am not too sure about bringing this matter in front of my delivery manager as this might have some repercussions on me. How do I go about this matter?

I appreciate the fact that you want to raise this issue and change the way things are happening at present. To begin with, I believe that you should have an open discussion with your mentor regarding his behaviour and how it appears to be affecting your work. Talk to him and try to make him understand how his guidance and direction is important for you to fulfil your responsibilities efficiently. However, take care that this doesnt sound like a complaint to him. Unless he feels that you appreciate his role in you performing your job successfully, he might not be willing to change his ways. However, if talking to your mentor does not work, you can voice your concerns to the Delivery Manager. Point out the fact that your mentor failed to understand your point of view, as a result of which you were forced to bring it to the attention of senior authority. You are willing to be flexible and adapt to the working pattern of your mentor, however he needs to understand your concerns and adjust his schedule slightly to suit you better. Im sure that there wont be any serious repercussions for you, provided you handle the situation well and express yourself

You can send us your queries at hrclub.iims@gmail.com. The relevant queries shall be answered in the next issue of TogetHR

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Contest

Contest with the Best!!

Crossword
8 1 9 2

3 11

10

12

Last date for sending the answers for Crossword: Oct 31st, 2011

Email ID: hrclub.iims@gmail.com

Subject of the email: TogetHRContest1_CollegeName

Clues given on the next page..

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Contest

Across 1. A plan whereby employees gain stock ownership in the organisation for which they work. 2. Organisationally controlled incentives, such as pay, benefits, incentives, achievements, awards etc. used to reinforce motivation and increase performance 3. A popular strategic management concept developed by Dr. Robert Kaplan and Dr. David Norton. 4. The process, by which an individual determines direction, influences a group and directs the group toward a specific goal or organizational mission. 5. A career development method whereby less experienced employees are matched with more experienced colleagues for guidance either through formal or informal programs. 6. A feeling of uncomfortable tension which comes from holding two conflicting thoughts in the mind at the same time. 7. Non-monetary reinforcing, such as praise, given to an employee in recognition of a job well done or a particular achievement.

Down 8. A collection of instruments and exercises designed to diagnose a persons development needs. 9. A small group of employees (normally six to twelve) invited to actively participate in a structured discussion with a facilitator. 10. The process whereby representatives of management and workers negotiate over wages, hours and other terms & conditions of employment 11. The perceived fairness of the process and procedures used to make decisions about employees 12. Used to define labour that is necessary to support the manufacturing of a product, but is not directly involved with the actual process of manufacturing a product

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Rajiv Gandhi Indian Institute of Management Mayurbhanj Complex, Nongthymmai, Shillong - 793 014 Email Id: hrclub.iims@gmail.com Mobile: +91-9774000740

Team usHR, IIM Shillong