High time for HR to Think Positive

This was the 4th time in a month that Aaradhya’s son had fallen sick. The rising pollution level and rainy season triggered bronchitis in her son.  Each time it took atleast 3 -4 days for her son to recover and she could not focus on the strategic project which she was working on. As a Manager it was not just her work which was getting impacted but the whole team’s work was suffering. The Business Leader was concerned about the project progress and discussed it with Shakti, the HR Business Partner (HRBP). 

What should Shakti as an HRBP do? Should she wear the hat of an Administrative Expert and check the number of leaves Aaradhya is left with? Should she act as a Change Agent and worry about the example which will be set in the team if they gave too much flexibility to her? Should she think like a Strategic Partner and evaluate the impact on business due to her absence? Or should she become an Employee Champion and consider how best can she keep a HIPO such as Aaradhya engagaed?

The daily dilemmas of HRBPs are not easy. In this age of VUCA, there are no chances that it is going to get any better soon. So how do we ensure that HRBP is equipped to address these dilemmas effectively? 

Meaning of Positive Thinking

Positive thinking is a mental attitude in which one expects good and favorable results. It is a process of creating thoughts that create and transform energy into reality. A positive mind waits for happiness, health and a happy ending in any situation. 1 

Power of Positive Thinking 

Research has revealed that being positive helps in making better decisions even under pressure situations. Not only do positive people maintain a broader perspective and see the big picture but they also cope with stress better. Positive psychology is gaining popularity in the workplace because it is seen as an effective way of cutting stress, boosting morale and improving productivity.  It is high time for HRBPs to think positive and facilitate employees to do the same to create high performing and highly engaged organizations. 

By being positive HRBPs would replace their negative thoughts with positive ones and focus on how a situation can be addressed more effectively. They would focus on possibilities (WHAT CAN BE DONE instead of WHAT CAN’T BE DONE) and encourage business to do the same. They would be committed to live by the values of organization and support business to choose the same path. 

HR’s contribution to the Think Positive mission 

Recognizing Positive Thinking as a value

The impact of positive thinking on organization success and employee wellbeing cannot be underestimated. The success recipe for many and more successful people is their determination to make a lifestyle around positive thinking. It is thus a natural conclusion to make Positive Thinking as an organizational value to emphasize the importance organization intends to give to it. Leaders should practice positive affirmations, managers should use words that evoke strength and employees should be encouraged to use positive words when talking. HRBPs should set guidelines and processes / systems to enable the same. 

Building talent capabilities

Positive thinking is not sustainable if it is not backed by equipping employees with skills that would help them in responding effectively to work situations. HRBPs should partner with business to conduct regular talent reviews, run leadership development, succession planning, HIPO development, employee development programs. They should regularly monitor the success of these programs and proactively indulge in process improvements. 

Honing feedback giving skills of managers

As a wise man has said, “Criticism, like rain, should be gentle enough to nourish a man’s growth without destroying his roots.” With recent changes in performance management system the need for constructive feedback cannot be over emphasized. The feedback needs to be constructive and future oriented else employees will feel burdened with overdose of feedback. HRBPs not only need to provide periodic behavioral training to their managers but also assess them on how they are faring on this skill. HRBPs need to provide individual guidance to managers in case they are struggling to be positive in their approach. Leaders need to take initiative and set right examples for others to follow.

Promoting Work Life Balance

Introducing employment policies that encourage work life balance for employees can bring real benefits to business. It not only leads to employee loyalty, lower absenteeism, less stressed workforce, improved employee health, lower attrition rates but also increases productivity. HRBPs should encourage employees to spend time on meditation, physical exercise, healthy diet, inculcating hobbies, spending quality time with family. Good habits help people to embrace life warmly and remain focused on work. 

Celebrating milestones

As another wise man has said, “The arts, quite simply, nourish the soul. They sustain, comfort, inspire. There is nothing like that exquisite moment when you first discover the beauty of connecting with others in celebration of larger ideals and shared wisdom.” HRBPs should not only enable high performance but also create a culture of celebration of key milestones in the team. Good work should be appreciated and recognized.  Apart from this special occasions in the lives of employees such as birthdays, anniversaries etc. should also be celebrated. This helps in connecting employees and spreading positivity in the organization. 

Infact, the power of positive thinking can empower HRBPs to perform their multiple roles in ways unimagined before. It is high time for HRBPs to Think Positive. 

The article was originally published in People Matters .

I also write at People Matters . 

The missing link to Employer Branding

Aaradhya was a Sales manager in a very large manufacturing organization for the past 3 years. She was happy with her job and was not looking out actively for a change till she got an opportunity from one of the ‘Great Places to Work’ organizations in the FMCG industry. She was all excited as the recruitment consultant discussed the opportunity with her and spent the whole weekend preparing for her interview. Finally the day of her first interview arrived. The interview was scheduled for 10AM and she planned to return to work by 2PM. However to her surprise, the process did not begin before 1PM, as the hiring manager was attending an important call. She ignored the delay but was worrying about making it in time to her office. The interview went well and she got through to the next round. 

More than a month passed and she did not hear anything either from the consultant or the internal HR. She contacted the consultant and learnt that he had not heard anything from the HR on the next steps. Naturally, she felt hurt and angry but still hoped for some positive news. She entertained her nervous energy by surfing randomly on the internet about the organization when she landed on a companies’ reviews site which contained a database of employees’/ interviewing candidates’ reviews about their organization. As she moved on to the reviews from the interviewing candidates she was aghast to learn about the experiences of the candidates. Majority of candidates who were not selected reported a very negative experience. There was a case when the candidate was informed about getting selected but later he never heard back again from the organization. As she read more and more she turned increasingly negative towards the organization. 

A lot of organizations fail to realize this missing link to employer branding. How amazing it would be if organizations not only try to impress their employees but also the interviewing candidates with their professional behaviour and sound processes. 

A lot of organizations today have carved out a Strategic HR Advisor role responsible for working on transformation projects, process improvements and change management. Such role holders or any HR Process expert could redesign their selection process to cater to this need. 

Roadmap for creating a good candidate experience 

Assess the Current State: Identify stakeholders for process redesign. This would involve few members from the Talent Acquisition team and few hiring managers / managers responsible for conducting interviews. This could also involve someone from the HRIS team. Define the role of each stakeholder. RACI framework usually helps in this. Clarify the purpose and expectations to all the stakeholders and map the current interviewing process along with the stakeholders. Identify disconnects in the current process and possible reasons behind them which could be leading to a poor candidate experience. This is an important step and could throw light on key issues such as lack of preparation of interviewers before conducting interviews, failure on part of Talent Acquisition team to keep the candidate updated with next steps or to share the bad news, lack of an automated process to keep the candidate informed. Prioritize the key disconnects and identify solution for each. While the key aim is to improve candidate experience, one must identify the extent of redesign required in the selection process, just in case there are some more sub-process improvements which could be looked at simultaneously. 

Benchmark best practices: The Strategic HR Advisor or the Process expert should also benchmark with the market on best practices for creating a good candidate experience. This should be done before conducting the workshop with stakeholders. Taking cue from appreciative inquiry, the Process expert could also discuss further possibilities of improving candidate experience with the stakeholders.

Redesign the process: Based on the impact, available resources and other constraints identify the key changes in the existing process and document the new process. Creating a guideline checklist could also help. Do a quick validation with key stakeholders and communicate the new process to all key stakeholders.

Monitor effectiveness: Feedback from candidates who accept the offer on the interviewing experience, Glassdoor reviews could be used as an indicator to gauge the effectiveness of the process. Take necessary steps based on the feedback received. 

The article was originally published in People Matters .

Future of Performance Management system

Performance Management System has undergone a lot of changes in the recent past to effectively translate effort to performance. The old ways of assessing performance have proven to be costly and ineffective. Bell curve alias relative comparison has been observed to be time consuming and often detrimental to performance. Organizations such as Adobe, Accenture, Microsoft and Delloite have adopted new ways of assessing to enhance individual and organizational performance.

Recent Changes

Key modifications in the performance management system include

-Goal setting no longer being an annual exercise but goals being reviewed quarterly / periodically.

-More frequent meetings between managers and employees for setting expectations clearly, sharing feedback and coaching on developmental goals. At least end of the project or quarterly feedback is recommended though the meetings could be more frequent than this.

-Rating team members on managers’ own future actions with respect to the team members is also practiced by few organizations. This solves the problem of idiosyncratic rater affect with managers 

rating employees on their own feelings / intentions rather than rating employees’ skills inconsistently.

-Rating employees on absolute performance rather than using bell curve.

Results so far

Though the results are awaited largely, few organizations have already started reporting the benefits they are experiencing. Adobe has reported a drop in voluntary attrition rate by 30% and an increase in involuntary attrition rate by 50%.¹ In-order to facilitate more frequent feedback and development conversations, Adobe has introduced a system namely “Check-in” as per which managers should have at-least quarterly discussions with their team members. More frequent communication has honed the leadership and communication skills of managers. In-fact, 78% of employees perceived their managers to be open to feedback from them. Adobe has also witnessed promotion of a culture of ownership where employees want to participate in the success story of the organization. 

GE has discovered that the new performance management system has promoted trust between managers and employees – a key characteristic of high performing teams. The new system involves a mobile app called as PD@GE to define near term goals. Summaries of frequent conversations, named “touchpoints” can be captured in the app. GE has also witnessed better results by the use of the new system in the pilot project they have run. 

Encouraged by organizations such as Adobe and GE, Deloitte has also revamped its performance management system to clearly see, recognise and fuel performance. One of the most important actions taken by Deloitte is to request its managers to evaluate their future intentions with team members rather than rating them on their skills. The new feedback structure includes questions such as “Given what I know of this person’s performance, I would always want him or her on my team”. ² This enables managers to take judgement solely on their available knowledge of the team member. While results are still awaited, Deloitte is working towards creating not just a simple but also a rich view of employees’ performance to increase the transparency of the system. 

As per a survey conducted by CEB 43% of organizations are either planning to introduce or open to consideration of new performance management system (n = 296) across the globe while the vast majority of 51% organizations have no plans to do so. Organizations which are planning to introduce are awaiting results from their pilot study while other organizations are awaiting results from organizations which have already implemented the changes.

Way Forward

With greater focus on continuous feedback & development and absolute performance, we are moving towards a more progressive way of assessing performance. In this changing scenario few practices have become more important and need to be relooked / redesigned for successful implementation of the new approach. These include:

Honing feedback giving skills of managers - This has become more important than ever since this is the cornerstone of a culture of continuous feedback.  The feedback needs to be constructive and future oriented else employees will feel burdened with overdose of feedback. Organizations not only need to provide periodic behavioral training to their managers but also assess them on how they are faring on this skill. Organizations need to provide individual guidance to managers in case they are struggling to be positive in their approach. Leaders need to take initiative and set right examples for others to follow.

Facilitating real time feedback – The more data points there are on the performance of employees the lesser the subjectivity in assessing the performance. Organizations should use mobile friendly tools which facilitate providing continuous multi-rater real time feedback to employees. 360 degree feedback helps employees understand how they are perceived in the organization. Organizations should empower employees to initiate feedback. This will build a culture of ownership amongst employees.

The tool should not just provide data but also insights on development areas and track progress on them. Use of Big Data could narrow the gap between an organization’s top and bottom performers by analyzing their daily activities, finding patterns and highlighting the difference in their approach. This will help managers to have more effective development conversation with employees. This will also enable HR to track the quality and frequency of conversations between manager and employees.

Continuous recognition – Continuous feedback also calls for continuous recognition. It has been researched that employees are best motivated when they receive immediate rewards / recognition for their achievements. Coupling continuous feedback with year-end rewards / recognition is not a very effective way of motivating employees. Thus organizations need to redesign their recognition program to support the new performance management system.

This article has also been published in People Matters.

Happiness and Mithya

My Search

 “So I say to you, Ask and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you.”

                                          Jesus Christ

Since quite some time I was wondering how I can be happy in life. So I decided to speak to some of my friends and acquaintances on what happiness meant to them. Let me share with you the different views I heard from people.

• “My employees should listen to me and follow me. I am happy when I am in charge.”
• "Happiness is when I am holidaying at a beautiful place."
• "I will be happy when I make it to IIT."
• “I want my children to do well. That is happiness for me.”
• “I have led a fulfilling life and now I want my values to be imbibed by others. That is my source of happiness.”
• “I have been yearning for a baby boy. To give birth to one will be true happiness.”
• “If I am doing something that interests me I am happy.”
• “I will be happy if I find the right job for myself.”
• “I do not know which stream to choose. Not too interested in academics. I will be happy once I am done with my schooling.”
• “I do not know which stream to choose. Not too interested in academics. I will be happy once I am done with my schooling.”
• “I want to make my parents happy. That is how I define happiness.”
•  “I want my husband to accept me. There is no other meaning of happiness for me.”
• “If I get a different boss I will be happy.”
• "I am happy when I watch a good movie."
• "If I can sleep for long I am happy.”

Do you identify yourself with some of these revelations? By the end of my tête-à-têtes I realized that there are so many “wants” we have in our lives and our happiness is dependent on the fulfilment of those wants from situations and people. To look at it differently, for a better future we keep postponing our happiness.

Understanding Happiness

Ironically happiness is all about living in present. As a wise man had said” Be happy for this moment. This moment is your life.” Happiness is about accepting situations and people the way they are. It is a belief that everything is okay or is going to be okay. As rightly put by a wise woman, “I am determined to be cheerful and happy in whatever situation I may find myself. For I have learned that the greater part of our misery or unhappiness is determined not by our circumstance but by our disposition.”

The Ghastly Truth

So unintentionally, we drive away happiness from our lives.  This intrigued me to discover what people do intentionally to be happy in their lives. As expected, the paths chosen were different for different people. Some worked very hard, some prayed, some leveraged their network and authority while some were misled in their approach and used negative methods to seek happiness.

I decided to dig a little deeper and see what they did in their daily routines. There were some interesting commonalities in their behaviour. Being in a mad rush, following daily news / television shows, deliberating on the new developments, gossiping, judging people. I inquired from them on how it felt like while participating in such activities.

People confessed that there is a constant sense of being a part of rat race. There is continuous running. Sometimes it is just out of habit. It is difficult to trust others. Amongst too much competition, so many crimes in the city the only person whom you can trust is you yourself. A lot of people especially those who were either home-makers or stayed in smaller cities revealed a constant fear of being judged by the society. News of too many untoward happenings in the city left them feeling insecure.

I further tried to understand how it felt like to be happy. People shared a feeling of lightness in their body and mind when they were happy. They were taken aback when I asked them on the frequency of feeling this way.

By now I was flabbergasted by the gap of how everyone wanted to feel and how they were feeling each day. I have really began questioning this in my mind. Can we only find happiness on the horizon? Is there something wrong with our lifestyle today? Is happiness a myth? How can we as a society deal with this? 

Ray of hope

To begin with one has to "realise" that life is a journey and not a destination. We should strive to be happy not just on meeting our goals but also while working towards them.

As another wise man had said, "Life is not about looking for meaning but creating something meaningful."

Here are 8 habits which will keep us happy and empower us to spread happiness. 

1) Beginning our day with meditation and positive affirmation

2) Planning the rest of our day

3) Exercising

4) Having small, nutritious and frequent meals

5) Saying no to judging others

6) Giving our best 

7) Responding and not reacting

8) Having a good sleep

Magical game

Snakes & ladder, I Spy, Video games.... Games bring such joy in life. Be it a young child or an old man, we all like to play. It comes so naturally to us and connects us with each other. Even when an infant does not know how to talk, it knows how to play. Leave alone others, even nature loves to play. 

We were fortunate to witness such a splendid game in our visit to Lansdowne. Coming from a metro city, we were a group of friends who were keen to experience this beautiful sight.  

Getting up at 4:30 am was ofcourse a herculean task for late birds like us. But the excitement to watch something so phenomenal did the trick for us. 

We observed in front of our eyes, the rising sun playing elaborately with the mountain peaks. Its boundless rays spread themselves across the sky announcing the arrival of the king As it crowned many peaks with its colour palette, it left us second guessing which peak it has chosen to rise from. We had fixed our eyes on one peak when we noticed another peak also getting illuminated. The playful sun chose a third peak to rise from. As it slowly revealed itself, naughty clouds enveloped it and hid it from our view. Gradually the clouds floated away and we could see the full sun in front of us. It was such a magical experience to see the sun painting the large canvas of sky with shades of yellow and orange. 

It has been imprinted in my memory and would stay there for the rest of my life..

Photograph: Courtesy , Umesh Kolhe

Should organizations follow suit and dump bell curve?

Organizations are built to serve a purpose and employees at all levels are entrusted to live that purpose. An effective Performance Management System is a must to translate effort to performance. How performance should be assessed has been an important and sensitive topic ever since organizations came into existence. The recent decision of dumping bell curve by organizations such as Infosys, IBM, TCS, Accenture is another effort to foster performance. While some organizations have gone the new way, many organizations are still contemplating what is right for them.

Whether one should follow the fad really depends on what purpose we expect our performance management system to serve. If promoting competition by comparison is an expectation then bell curve is just the right tool for it. It is an effective tool to look at the misaligned lot annually and bid them goodbye. It also helps in differentiating performance between high and average performers. However this is the tricky part and this is where it creates maximum dissatisfaction amongst employees. In this fast pace world where employees are expected to be involved 24 * 7 in their work, a relative system of performance often demotivates employees who have performed really well on their goals but are penalized for working with people who are considered smarter than them. The problem compounds when employees suspect that performance appraisal is biased. The employees then feel that they are not respected by the organization. This creates disloyal employees and increases the attrition rate of organization. Thus for any organization which uses bell curve it becomes very crucial to considerably reduce the subjectivity that is built around this process. This is certainly easier said than done. Multi-rater feedback system, use of technology can reduce the biases to some extent however they introduce other challenges in the process. It would not be wrong to conclude that a fair appraisal is highly dependent on the fairness of the manager conducting the appraisal. Any influential manager can easily play with tools to suit his ambitions. Bell curve thus becomes very difficult to manage. While we started with the hypothesis that it serves as an effective tool, in depth understanding of the process nullifies our hypothesis. Given the amount of subjectivity managing bell curve introduces and the cost involved if it is not used wisely, it is better to look for an easier system of appraisal.

Mr Jack Welch in defense of the bell curve has said that evaluating people on values of team work will ensure that people cooperate with each other. To begin with, a lot of organizations do not assess employees on values and even when they do, a combination of bell curve and evaluation on team work value at best calls for selective team work. The purpose of performance management system also depends on the culture where it is being used. Indian culture is a relationship oriented culture. A lot of work gets done informally through relationship. Big giants such as Reliance have grown using this as one of their key strengths.

Looking at it from a different perspective, why do we need to wait for an annual process to examine the misaligned lot? Why not set goals clearly with employees and provide continuous formal / informal developmental feedback to them? This of course calls for training managers to give feedback constructively lest this will become another devil ready to stifle effective performance. The process ofcourse should not end at giving feedback rather this should be the first step towards employees’ development. There needs to be a commitment towards development for them to remain aligned to organization goals. Continuous feedback should also entail continuous recognition to keep the employees motivated.

An absolute system of assessing performance is also not free of subjectivity but is an easier system to manage. Accompanied by continuous feedback process, focus on development it will serve as an effective performance management system. Also from a spiritual perspective, it is unfair to compare any too persons as each person has his / her own karmic (actions) account and life story. The best we can do to motivate employees is to respect them for their current “karma” and set them in the right direction.

Enjoying the right way

Speeding cars killing people, policing horse beaten to severe injuries, President rule in Uttrakhand - The newspaper is full of such stories of people misusing their power. Such incidents are not just limited to our country or our society but is a worldwide concern.

The young man driving the premium car is thrilled by speed. The MLA beating the policing horse during a protest by his party is venting his anger on an animal. Centre acting hastily on the slightest opportunity to increase their reign is leveraging the opportunity at hand. But did the young man think that his thrill can bring darkness to lives of bereaved and that he will never be able to make up for it? His conscience will be tainted forever even if he manages to escape punishment. Did the lawmaker not think of his responsibility towards his people while giving in to his frustration? And what about the Centre? With great power comes great responsibility, will the Centre act wisely only when they are pushed against the wall by High Court?

Unfortunately we have lost the inclination to sense other's position today. We are so lost in instant gratification that we jeopardize our own dreams forget about respecting other's point of view. Ironically we lose our inner strength the more we give in to such gratifications. Life can be interesting even when led responsibly but do we have the zeal to discover this for ourselves? Probably when life will push us against the wall.