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SBM, NMIMS University

Individual Dynamics and Leadership

Talent Engagement Practices in a Recessionary Period – in


Services Sector (Information Technology)
(August 31, 2009)

Submitted to:-
Prof. Animesh Bahadur

Submitted by:-
Deep Agrawal – 402
Mahak Mehra – 427
Akash Mittal – 431
Nishant Sharda – 443
Anil Shenoy – 445
Rahul Jindal – 450
Rishikesh Jathar – 451
(Group 4, Division E)
Acknowledgements

Working on this project was a valuable learning experience for us. We are indebted to Mr.
Titus Pacheco, Manager, HR, Persistent Systems Ltd. and Mr, Jay Kumar Shah, Consultant,
Infosys Technologies Ltd., for sparing time out of their busy schedules and discussing with us
the HR practices followed by their companies. We would also like to thank Prof. Animesh
Bahadur, Professor in the area of Human Resources, SBM, NMIMS, for his guidance during
the course of formation of the questions. Further, we would also like to acknowledge the
contribution of our peers who helped us gain insights on various points through a detailed
discussion on this project.

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Contents

Introduction ........................................................................................................................................... 4

Review of Literature ............................................................................................................................. 6

Work life balance during a recession – A conspiracy of optimism. ................................................... 6

6 Ways to Instantly Improve the Motivation of Employees in a Recession ....................................... 6

Talent Management in times of Recession ......................................................................................... 6

Training in troubled times – Delivering on what’s to follow with training ........................................ 7

A recession’s role in transforming leadership development. .............................................................. 7

Objective of Study ................................................................................................................................. 8

Method of Study .................................................................................................................................... 9

Analysis and Discussion ...................................................................................................................... 10

Infosys technologies.......................................................................................................................... 11

Persistent Systems Ltd. ..................................................................................................................... 13

Conclusions and Recommendations .................................................................................................. 17

Person - Job fit and Person - Organization fit ................................................................................... 17

Employee Satisfaction ...................................................................................................................... 17

Employee motivation practices ......................................................................................................... 18

Managing individual’s career growth ............................................................................................... 18

Work - life balance............................................................................................................................ 18

Foci/Goals of Performance Management System ............................................................................. 18

References ............................................................................................................................................ 19

Annexure A: Infosys Response .......................................................................................................... 20

Annexure B: Persistent’s Response ................................................................................................... 23

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Introduction

The most popular definition of Talent Management is given as “A conscious, deliberate


approach undertaken to attract, develop and retain people with the aptitude and abilities to
meet current and future organisational needs.”

It is the process of managing the supply and demand of talent to achieve optimal business
performance in alignment with organisational goals. Talent management becomes even more
important at the times of economic slowdown. HR personnel and talent management people
are generally given the task of selectively disengaging people from the organization. The
challenge lies in whom to remove and whom to keep and actually how to retain and hire
people who are actually necessary for the success of the organization.

The talent management approach generally follows a typical guideline. Ensuring that right
people are attracted to the organization, then developing practices so as to reward employees,
identifying and ensuring that training needs of the employees are met, manager development
programmes as well as identifying talents to develop future leaders, starting performance
measurement systems including proper feedback, work force planning and developing o a
positive, progressive and high performance "way of operating".

Talent engagement tends to focus on the following key areas of interaction between an
organisation and its workforce.

• Person-Job Fit(P-J Fit) and Person-Organisation Fit(P-O Fit)


• Motivation and Motivation practices
• Balance between work and life

In the current economic condition, corporations are finding it difficult to hold on to good
people and to keep them focused, motivated and productive amidst business uncertainties.
This has forced the organizations to understand their employees better and link the employee
growth with the organization growth. This report explores the role that talent management
plays in assessing, sustaining and influencing businesses in a downturn.

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The major concepts incorporated in the report are as follows,

• 360-degree performance appraisal and feedback


• Maslow Hierarchy of Needs
• Monetary and Non-Monetary incentives
• Stress management

Source: http://eu.hudson.com/node.asp?kwd=talent-engagement-in-practice

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Review of Literature

Work life balance during a recession – A conspiracy of optimism.

Kenny Moore was a catholic priest for 15 years and then joined the corporate life. In this
paper he mentions that work life balance is not a balance at all but just a matter of choice as
you cannot achieve both and whatever choices are made have to be paid for. The present
economic downturn gives an ample chance to get clear about what we consider important and
make the decisions important. The author also gives advice about how to find a job in this
economic down turn. He also puts a parallel in finding a job and finding a spouse and also
advocates stopping trying to achieve balance and enjoy the chaos.

6 Ways to Instantly Improve the Motivation of Employees in a Recession

In this paper the author tries to list down six ways for managers to motivate their employees
in times of recession.
The author says that managers should focus on the employee desires rather than focusing on
external factors; that bonuses should only be given on the basis of performance and it should
not be made a right of an employee. Workers are inherently competitive and this should be
used to increase the overall efficiency. The managers should lead by example and set goals
realistically so that impossible goals should not de-motivate people.

Talent Management in times of Recession

The paper emphasises on the fact that during the times of recession, talent management
should not take a back seat as it will have a significant impact on the long run. The paper also
discusses six talent management strategies to be followed by managers to use it to achieve
their organizational objectives. The paper also talks about recruitment, development,
retention, reviewing and role of managers.

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Training in troubled times – Delivering on what’s to follow with training

As mentioned in the title the paper talks about training the times of economic slowdown and
its impact on the organization. It also discusses whether training is an expense or a necessary
investment. It talks about how to combine talent management with organizational goals

A recession’s role in transforming leadership development.

This Paper shows that a recession is actually an opportunity for HR and leadership
development to increase its credibility by promoting programs to modify financial behaviours
that directly support the CEO and board’s agenda to cut expenses while increasing margins.
By adopting such approaches, HR can put in place programs and behaviours that not only
rapidly improve short-term financial outcomes, but also put in place a framework for longer-
term increases in profit quality and financial performance.

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Objective of Study

The objective of the report is to explore the role that talent management plays in assessing,
sustaining and influencing businesses in a downturn in service sector (Specifically,
information technology industry). The economy is currently seeing the darkest times and is
impacting the jobs of large number of employees. The unemployment figures are at an all
time high. A profound impact is visible on the services sector too, including the jewel in
India’s growth story - the IT sector. Employees working in the IT sector were typically paid
high salaries with many of them receiving offers regularly for much better jobs. This was the
scenario till about two years back when the economy was booming. However, with the
depression setting in, the IT sector has been losing clients with an alarming rate. As a result,
organizations are being forced to reduce the size of their workforce. This is highly contrasting
from the days when there was a melee for the best talent and the ways to retain employees,
thus limiting attrition. Instead, the concentration today is more on engaging the best available
talent and managing the current employees by keeping them occupied.

Through our discussion with the HR managers of the companies we will endeavour to bring
out the following points:

1. The company practices to ensure person-job fit and person-organization fit.

2. The company practices to improve employee satisfaction

3. Understanding the employee motivation practices adopted by the companies in the IT


sector

4. The company practices to manage individual’s career growth

5. Study the efforts being made by the company to provide a balance between work and
life to the employees

6. Foci/Goals of Performance Management System

Indian IT sector giant Infosys Technologies limited and the mid-sized product development
company Persistent Systems Ltd. were chosen for this particular study.

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Method of Study

The study was initiated with collecting background knowledge about motivation and talent
management with specific instances related to the service (IT) industry. Then a standard
questionnaire of 10 questions (Annexure A and B) was formatted and corporate personnel
with relevant experience of handling people were interviewed. Based on their responses and
theory of motivation analysis is done with regards to IT industry.

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Analysis and Discussion

In these times of turmoil, the most important task for the organization is to motivate the
employees. News of loss of thousands of jobs affects the morale of anybody to a large extent.
The continuous fear that you will also lose your job is what occupies your mind. In this
scenario, there can be two issues:

1. An employee is worried about his own job; he tries really hard to perform at his best.
In the process he may lose focus of what he was supposed to do. His work life balance
takes a hit. This leads to a further drop in morale.

2. An employee is worried. This worry makes him lose all attention towards his job. it
again adversely affect his performance.

In both the above cases, it is detrimental for a company to lose its high performance
employees to the bug of underperformance – the investment made on one employee is
enormous and the costs of recruitment are large.

At the same time, organizations are undergoing losses in terms of revenues. This affects the
confidence of promoters, employees, the stakeholders in general. In order to cope with them,
an organization may require restructuring its business or even laying off some employees.

Through the questionnaire, we tried to find out the various HR policies and Talent
Engagement activities of the company.

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Infosys technologies

“Our Assets walk out of the door each evening, we have to make sure that they come back
next morning.” – Narayana Murty

Source: http://www.ficci.com/media-room/speeches-presentations/2007/feb/air-con/Session6/bikaramjit.pdf

Person - Job fit and Person - Organization fit

What was very apparent during the whole interview was the kind of stress they give on
transparency at all the levels. Right from the Recruitment process to Performance
Management System, they try and keep everything as transparent as possible. The job
openings’ advertisements are very clear with its eligibility criteria and the skill-set required
for the job. Even after a person gets into organization, special care is taken to see if he is
getting the kind of job he likes and if he is happy doing what he has been told to do.

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Employee satisfaction

Employee satisfaction is of paramount importance. There is a very good practice in place


where the employee gets to know how exactly his career is shaping up in this organization,
what he can expect in the time to come and what are the things that are expected of him.

Employee motivation practices

Infosys is very proud of the work environment and work culture in the organization and
believes that the work culture in itself is self-sufficient to retain an employee for a long
period of time and keep them motivated.

Infosys has various team-building exercises and team activities in place which help break ice
between people of same project group. They like to make all the employees comfortable in
the kind of job they are doing and happy with people around them. They have the state-of-art
Employee Care Centre where employees can relax after working hours.

Managing individual’s career growth

One-to-One bimonthly sessions with the Reporting manager help the employee and employer
in keeping track of Individual career growth. Each individual has clearly defined set of goals
for a period of time and the employer exactly knows what can be expected from him. With
this kind of clarity, it becomes really easy to manage an individual’s career growth plan.

Work - life balance

Infosys is well-aware of the nature of an IT job. They know that IT job can take a toll on
Work-Life balance and are doing everything possible to help employees be happy with the
job they are getting and the time they are spending at office. They are not too worried about
the attrition rate especially in these difficult times. Keeping a check on attrition rate is on the
lower side of their priority list and they feel if they do other things in the best possible way,
the attrition rate will take care of itself.

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Foci/Goals of Performance Management System

They have a very strong and transparent Appraisal System in place where employees are
given an equal opportunity to put across their points before any decision is taken on their
appraisals. Any chances of biasing or injustice are removed by involving the seniors of the
appraisers.

Persistent Systems Ltd.

Person - Job fit and Person - Organization fit

Persistent follows the role based organization approach. Here, all jobs are classified into one
of the 4 categories – testing, development, managerial, others (including HR, administration,
etc.). Separate levels are defined clearly across all the classifications. This helps eliminate
confusion, defining the roles expected to be performed at a certain job level. This helps
employees understand their responsibilities. The role based organization provides for:

1. Right utilization of the available talent

2. Providing alternatives for the career path for every employee

3. Standardizing processes, people related issues and enabling consistent role definitions
across the organization

4. Accountability as a result of clear articulation

Every employee is mapped to a particular job role and level. The process of integrating role
based organization is applicable across the complete experience of the employee with the
organization – right from being interviewed to being appraised.

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Employee satisfaction

A satisfied employee is one who will give his best performance. He considers organization
goals as his own and believes he can contribute towards achieving them. Hence, it is very
important for an organization to realize this and act on it. Through employee empowerment,
open culture, feedback based system, an employee is given the confidence to take his own
decisions and be responsible for them.

Employee motivation practices

Some of the employee motivation practices include:

1. Monthly spot awards to outstanding performers

2. Long Services award – for more than 5 years of service at Persistent

3. Identifying certain outstanding employees as the experts in their field and publicizing
this across the organization – motivates employees to work harder to achieve a level
of expertise.

4. Involving entry level employees too in important project related decisions – taking
their opinion

5. Employee empowerment – by providing the opportunity to an employee to learn by


making mistakes, being responsible for their actions.

Managing individual’s career growth

An individual at Persistent has the opportunity to follow two of the tracks typically –
technical or the managerial. Based on what the individual chooses in consultation with the
company, he is allotted projects and responsibilities. Training and learning continuously are
stressed upon – thus, helping an individual’s growth from a holistic perspective.

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Work - life balance

Persistent encourages the employees not to sit late in office so that the employees can balance
their personal life along with their job related responsibilities. A conducive environment is
created by the following activities:

1. Regular sports tournaments

2. Opportunities to participate in cultural events

3. Regular team outings

4. Organizing trekking activities

There are specific committees looking after each area Persistent Sports Committee for Sports
and Persistent Arts Circle for cultural activities.

Foci/Goals of Performance Management System

The Performance Management System is the one which is monitored very closely by almost
all employees. Hence, it is imperative that the organization designs it and implements it
without any question of prejudice and follows all the systems transparently. It helps build
employee confidence in the organization and its processes.

The performance management system at Persistent includes not only the appraisal system,
but also the performance diary, objectives setting process, Key Result Areas (KRAs) and
trainings. There are three types of appraisal done on a formal level –

1. Yearly appraisal - based on which promotions and salary raises are decided

2. Half Yearly appraisal – done mainly to review your progress against the KRAs set
previously and working to take corrective actions, if any

3. Project Exit appraisal – done by the manager of the previous project so that there is a
consistency of opinion across projects during a particular year.

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Further, the yearly appraisal also consists of the peer appraisals where someone from your
own level is assigned to appraise you.

Also, there are monthly review sessions with your managers and super managers which allow
you to provide your own feedback and receiving inputs from them. Every effort is taken to
make the employee feel important to the progress of the organization. Interest is also taken in
personal issues, if any.

Also, an informal feedback is taken from employees about their managers. It is typically a
small objective questionnaire. Steps are taken to inform the managers about their
shortcomings and to correct them. Such 360 degree feedback mechanism makes the
employees realize the importance an organization attaches to every employees opinion.

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Conclusions and Recommendations

During recession, a person’s need hierarchy undergoes a radical change. Where, during good
times, a person’s need for security is less; however, during bad phases, a person looks for less
of self actualization and is more concerned about the security of his position and job.

After interviewing managers of Infosys Technologies Ltd and Persistent Ltd, we have got a
great insight into how these companies go about making HR policies and implementing them.
The interview helped us understand the various practices that the companies are following to
keep the motivation and satisfaction level of employees high. We also understood how
companies are ensuring that they find the right person for the right job and then, striking a
right balance between the work and non-work (personal) life.

Person - Job fit and Person - Organization fit

It is important for any organization to get the right kind of people working for them and then,
more importantly the same people being happy with what they are doing. It is very important
to attract the talent and retaining it becomes even more important. As Mr. Narayana Murthy
very famously said,” Our assets walk out of the door each evening. We have to make sure
they come back next morning.”

Employee Satisfaction

Employee satisfaction is directly proportional to the employee efficiency and output. If


company’s employees are satisfied then the work environment is healthy resulting in better
utilization of resources and better output. Companies should take special care to keep their
employees satisfied even if that means going out of the way to help them.

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Employee motivation practices

There has to be a motivation to get a job done. Companies should ensure that the employees
are motivated enough to keep the organization’s welfare before their own.

Managing individual’s career growth

If everyone is growing in a company, then company will also grow. The clarity of goals and
the transparency factor plays an important role in this. Companies should ensure that they
have an individual growth plan for their each and every employee. This will also help set
goals for them and help improve the productivity overall.

Work - life balance

IT job can be very tedious at times. It is very important to keep a check on work-life balance
to reduce the stress and frustration level of employees. The company should plan activities
outside workplace like the ones Infosys do to improve the interaction between team and to
reduce the stress levels of every employee.

Foci/Goals of Performance Management System

The important factors here are Transparency and Performance-based Incentives. The
employees on one hand need to know that they are secured, their job is secured but on the
other hand, they should also be aware that the performance is very important. The good
performances need to be rewarded by Monetary and Non-Monetary rewards and the not-so-
good ones need to be re-looked upon. If the practices that are followed for the same are
foolproof, they not only improve the Performance Management System but also help improve
the motivation level of the employees.

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References

1. Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Retrieved from


http://www.businessballs.com/maslow.htm
2. Life at Persistent. Retrieved from
http://www.persistentsys.com/Default.aspx?tabid=214
3. Stiffler Kristina (2009). Training In Troubled Times: Delivering on ‘What’s To
Follow’ With Training. MindLeaders. Retrieved from
http://www.upsidelearning.com/blog/index.php/2009/05/08/new-white-paper-
training-in-troubled-times/
4. Moore Kenny (2009). Work life balance during a recession – A conspiracy of
optimism. The Journal for Quality and Participation. Retrieved from
http://www.allbusiness.com/society-social/work-leisure-lifestyle-work/12623031-
1.html
5. Oates Simon (2009). 6 Ways to Instantly Improve the Motivation of Employees in a
Recession. Isnare. Retrieved from
http://www.isnare.com/?aid=366197&ca=Business+Management
6. Street Matt (2008). Talent Management in a recession. Management Standards.
Retrieved from http://www.management-
standards.org/client_files/Talent%20management%20in%20a%20recession.pdf
7. Perth Leadership Institute (2008) A recession’s role in transforming leadership
development. Perth Leadership. Retrieved from
http://www.perthleadership.org/Documents/WP_Recession.pdf

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Annexure A: Infosys Response

What are the qualities/attributes that your company looks out for at the time of
recruitment in a potential employee?

-Firstly, we see if the guy is actually suitable for the job we are offering i.e. if he/she has the
basic knowledge/skill set for the same. We look at the responsibilities the person has handled
in his/her previous job. We look at his expectations and our expectations and see if they
match.

Are there any practices in place to ensure if the job of an employee matches the skill-set
required for the job?

- Generally, our job requirement clearly mentions what all is required and expected from an
applicant. And also, recruitment team makes sure about the same at the time of the interview.
At the time of project allocation, the Bench Manager has all the details and prior experience
details of employee with him and he accordingly allocates project to every individual.

How important is employee satisfaction to your company and what are you doing to
improve on this?

- Employee satisfaction is of utmost importance to our company. We have a bi-monthly one-


to-one session with each employee. Initially, in the first few meetings, employee and manager
chalk out a plan regarding the career growth of the employee. In all the further meetings, this
plan is updated and we make sure the plan is getting implemented .Employee, thus, also get
to know what we are planning for him and what we expect from him in the next two months.

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In these difficult times, how are you keeping the employees motivated?

- The onsite opportunities and the double digit percent increase in salary are difficult in these
times obviously. We have manager-level and skip-level meetings happening for each
employee where we communicate about the new projects that are coming up and about all the
future prospects. Also, we make sure that every employee gets the kind of work he/she likes
as far as possible. Money is always important but the work is most important. We want them
to be happy with what they are doing and that helps keeping them motivated.

How and what are the incentives that your company is giving to the employees that can
retain them for long term?

-Infosys is powered by intellect and driven by values and one thing that we really value is
transparency. This transparency, the belief in us and the work culture here are enough to keep
an employee interested in our company for a long period of time.

How are you keeping check on the attrition rate of your company?

- At this point of time, we are not too worried about the attrition rate. In fact, attrition rate is
at all time low for obvious reasons. And to be frank, in IT industry, an attrition rate of 8-12%
is very common.

Is your company doing anything for managing every individual’s career growth?

- As I told you earlier, we have one-to-one meetings that take place every two months.
Employees are made aware about what they need to do and they tell us what they want to do,
what they want to achieve. The meeting is informal and we make sure employee is satisfied
with the way his career is shaping up in our organization.

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What all is your company doing to provide a conducive environment to the employees?

- We have Employee Care Centre at our each and every DC where employee can relax, play
sports, hang-out after the working hours. Also, we have quarterly project parties (sponsored
by Infosys), so that the team members get a chance to mix with each other, to help create a
healthy and friendly environment. We also have various team activities taking place
throughout the year.

What is that you are doing to ensure a healthy work-life balance for employees?

- In an IT industry, work-life balance can be a little problematic. We try and make sure that
an employee is not too stressed and overloaded with work. If need be, we add unbilled
buffers into project to reduce the work load and try keeping working hours of an employee to
nine and half hours.

What are the foci/goals of your Performance Management System?

- We have an Appraisal System where every employee needs to make a presentation of the
responsibilities he has handled over a predefined period of time. Manager is suppose to rate
the employee on every task and the reviewer (generally the reporting manager of manager)
sees to it everything is done judiciously done. The appraisal discussion is again one-to-one
with manager. Here, they discuss about the pre-assigned tasks of the employee and how he
has performed in it. Before closing appraisal, employee needs to be satisfied with the whole
process and he needs to ‘sign-off’. The key factor is transparency and we make sure
everything is transparent to everyone.

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Annexure B: Persistent’s Response

What are the qualities/attributes that your company looks out for at the time of
recruitment in a potential employee?

-Subject knowledge, Skill test, and behavioural interview

Are there any practices in place to ensure if the job of an employee matches the skill-set
required for the job?

Every person undergoes a test before selection and based on the test, his skills are matched to
the available jobs and then allocated to the particular job.

How important is employee satisfaction to your company and what are you doing to
improve on this?

Employee satisfaction is important and we conduct regular surveys to identify the areas
which need improvement.

In these difficult times, how are you keeping the employees motivated?

Provide challenges to the employees and give them work which best suits their skills. Also,
conduct various fun events for employees to participate and give them recognition in
whatever task they out - perform.

How and what are the incentives that your company is giving to the employees so that it
can retain them for long term?

We have recognition and award systems in place in the company

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How are you keeping check on the attrition rate of your company?

Attrition rate is continuously monitored for each and every employee leaving the company.

Is your company doing anything for managing every individual’s career growth?

Yes, a clear role map for all employees is in place. Every employee’s path is identified and
made known to the employee.

What all is your company doing to provide a conducive environment to the employees?

Company provides various opportunities to its employees both in work as well as in various
cultural events so that there is a proper work-life balance.

What is that you are doing to ensure a healthy work-life balance for employees?

We encourage employees not to sit late in office so that they are able to spend quality time
with their families.

What steps do you take to keep ‘On-bench’ people motivated?

• Various training modules are available for the “On-bench” people.

• We also check if any additional resources are required for some other projects and the
“On-bench” people are given the option to provide help to these projects.

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