Compensation at a start up

In young organization, everyone is in a rush to be differentiated from the crowd. However, we need to be cognizant of the fact that every benefit we plan, shall be perceived in right manner and has got right impact in form of ROI.

Sharing a version of my presentation which I shared with audience at compensation seminar (by World HRD Congress)


Below is the link

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BybbDpLEfHD_MkdjU3pWdkF2Z1U

Career of your choice

Often we get in to the peer pressure and select a career which is not of our choice. Precisely why, a lot of people change their job frequently and face a situation of burn out half way down the line.

Sharing my presentation with help of which I tried to inspire students at NMIMS, MDI, IIFT and some other B schools to select the career as per their strengths and choice.

Below is the link:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BybbDpLEfHD_dnNjTWFtTjA0eEk

Rape of My Motherland

Any crime is pardonable in world

Provided its no sin against a mother

And when it’s the matter of mother of millions

How can I forget how they tortured my motherland?                                   ------1

Many came, invaded time and again,

Had their share in the cruel crime

They had fun, they enjoyed but for me

It was rape of my motherland                                                                  -----2

Some attacked once, some did seventeen times

Looted villages, temples and shrines

Forget humans, even the god was not spared

In barbaric rape of my motherland                                                            ----3

Initially they came as traders,

Gradually built their army

Slowly and shrewdly they entered politics

As it was well planned rape of my motherland                                           -----4

They forced opium into land and fire in stomach

Were inhuman to poor and helpless

They converted fertile land into heaps of sand

As they raped my motherland                                                                   -------5

Generation after generation they ruled

Generation after generation they sucked the blood

Carried away all the jewels and wealth they could

And so was the rape of my motherland                                                      -----6

They divided they ruled

We were the losers and our integrity lost

They tore her in pieces

As they raped my motherland                                                                   -----7

Away went the foreigners and in came her own sons

They sold her cunningly to the neighbors

And what continued there after

Was the pathetic rape of my motherland.                                                   -----8

The agony didn’t end

The terrorists continued their assault

The pain and torture only grew

As they continued rape of my mother land                                                  -----9

Why shall any one bother,

Why anyone shall feel the agony

Why shall anyone understand the pinch and pain

Because it was rape of my motherland                                                       -----10

It hurts me a lot, I feel sorry

I try to protest but in my own meek way

but I watch her sons attaining martyrdom

As they revolted against rape of my motherland                                             ------11

The Power of Destruction

When you strive for reaching thoughts, you may get constructive thoughts, destructive thoughts, random thoughts and absolutely no thoughts.

Constructive thoughts are good to have but more often, they are repackaging of solution or they revolve around an existing problem. Hence, in my view, they lack novelty.

Random thoughts are good to have provided they are not too random. They have the probability to swing to either side with high risk high gain situation. Worst case, the random thought can be astray and be totally off target as objective of thought is nebulous.

People with no thought are often left wondering and they sit in audience clapping and cheering for others or cribbing about other’s success.

For me, my thoughts lie in destructive zone. For me, destructive is not negative but joyous- How can I destruct something? I am not a violence lover. What I mean here is destruction of boredom, mindset, limited thought process, set way of thinking, one’s limitation, pessimism, monotone and many other things which will be good to destruct but we have often embraced most of these in our daily lives- professional as well personal.

One counter argument to my thoughts are why cant we be constructive and create new atmosphere of freedom, open-mindedness, new thoughts etc. Well, no argument there but in my view, you can only construct new things after you destruct your old patterns. To learn something new, first unlearn the past learning. You cannot build a house unless you clear the piece of land. 

Most of the organizations have their success stories based on one disruptive and destructive thoughts. Who would have thought ten years ago that James Bond will ever endorse a Pan Masala or there will be something like e-commerce and there will be fierce competition in the segment? 

We all need to invoke the lord of destruction, Shiva, to destruct our beliefs, then only a new universe will born. 

Fading glamour at campus placements??

Fading glamour at campus placements??

Joining B-schools was one of the top preference for all the talented young graduates in the country. Most of them post their ‘IIT’ preferred an ‘IIM’ tag (they are just representations of premier colleges) to attach with them which made them suitable for most job providers and matrimonial proposals in the country. In last 3-4 years, rise of start-up organizations created new kind of jobs which were much more entrepreneurial in nature compared to structured FMCG or paint companies who dominated the campus placements at management schools during the yesteryears. The young companies not only met the work profile aspirations of new managers but also took great care of them in terms of compensation package with each trying to outnumber the other to get the cream of the talent. However, the math has changed a bit now. The top domestic e-commerce companies are all set to ‘right-size’ their work force after big-bang hiring (often done for PR to show their big plans) and get a better ROI from their human capital and to attain profitability. Some other start up service aggregators also decide to fold their operations in many areas due to their losses and their VCs tightening the noose after the disastrous financial performance. With reduced number offers/ delayed joining and an uncertainty on future of business, the young managers are now a worried and restless lot. In most cases, a huge study loan further compounds their worry.  

Based on the hike in average salaries offered on campus- thanks to the start-ups, few management schools using the data of last 3-4 years and raised their fees recently. However, the algorithm followed in deriving the new fees structure does not appear to be very true in changed business environment. The rising fees structure at B School and start-up not being glamorous any more, are we going to see a lesser ROI from being an MBA graduate and will that mean lower demand for MBA seats? I don’t know the answer but surely it will not be a kumbh mela of start-ups on Day 0 of the placements and without the attraction of maha kumbh, how many devotees will still go to the meccas of management? Though the place still remains holy and will hold significance for many but surely one major attraction will go off. I would like to clarify that it is not end of e-commerce industry but it is beginning of their consolidation phase. From steel to IT, every industry has gone through consolidation after their rapid growth phase and recently, we saw some acquisitions and consolidation in e-commerce too- with objective of building greater synergies between two competing forces. It might be the end of only their mushrooming phase and now it is time to strengthen their core areas. This will still drive demand for skilled people but not in terms of number as number of competitors might be decreasing.

Another management program which flourished was one year executive program for people with minimum certain number of years of experience under their belt. Lot of people join such program after good 8-10 years of experience and with their last drawn salary bracket around INR 3-4 million. With one group of recruiters who were potentially high pay masters for such experienced talents, out from the auction race (my apologies for using the word-auction but the placement process and auction process are very similar), how willing will be such people to leave a settled job, at a mid-level position, shelling a huge fees from their pocket and joining back almost without a salary hike from their last drawn package? At least to me it doesn’t look like a lucrative deal unless it is partially sponsored with a guaranteed raise in position and financial package and I would like to reiterate the point of consolidation phase and demand for highly skilled professional but may be in lesser number.

In short, high fees structure and with not many glamorous salary providers, is the craze of joining B-school going to come down? Only time will tell. May be a new set of rescuers will come soon providing new dimensions to this demand and supply equation. We have always seen that ending of one era gives way for new era to come in. Campuses have seen dominance of FMCG, IT, Banking, Telecom sector for a brief period and E-commerce as prime recruiters. Who knows, there could be a baby already out in this world who in next couple of years will come up with his huge demand for the talented professionals. The demand will surely create a new imbalance to dictate the flow of raw talent to these polishing stations. Till then, we may have to wait.

References

http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2016-04-09/news/72186338_1_19-lakh-management-development-institute-indian-institute

http://retail.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/e-commerce/e-tailing/snapdeal-to-lay-off-employees-soon-confirms-company-sources/52464356

http://retail.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/e-commerce/e-tailing/iim-a-asks-flipkart-to-guarantee-jobs-of-recruits-says-rs-1-5-lakh-compensation-for-late-joining-unaccepatable/52427475

http://yourstory.com/2016/05/tinyowl-shuts-operations-except-mumbai/

http://www.business-standard.com/article/companies/zomato-loss-runs-to-rs-1-5-lakh-monthly-116052601302_1.html

http://www.bigdecisions.com/article/is-an-overseas-education-worth-the-money?utm_source=taboola&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=category_child&utm_term=ndtv

Hiring for Indian E-commerce : often hit by an iceberg

Hiring and Firing @ Indian E-Commerce

Indian e-commerce has boomed in last three years. The growth story of the e-commerce companies have been largely a fairy tale. However, behind the glamor, lies some horror stories which are often pushed under the carpet. Yet, these stories often find their way out- thanks to active media and social media. And one big story every company try to hide is their lay-offs.

Hiring for young e-commerce company is a task much more than it meets the eye. Often, it is mistaken as a job of quick ramp up of numbers and getting the resource in but it leads to bigger problem later on. We have seen lot of examples in last half a decade where the individual companies, who have hired the cream of the talent from premier schools and otherwise, had to ‘right size’ their organization as per business growth, forecast and cost optimization measures- often given a name of strategic initiative. The reasons for this accelerated hiring and firing can be many. I am just trying to highlight a few as per my understanding

Reason 1: Not knowing what they want

The young start-ups are largely started by young people who have enthusiasm and vision but somewhere lack experience. Hence, sometimes they do not know what kind of person will suit them best. They often land up a specialist as they see the person bringing in a deeper knowledge even at a place where they need a generalist. Hence, either one more position needs to be created or the right person needs to replace the old one.  Lack of quality interviewers also contribute to the problem.

Reason 2: Five blind men and elephant

Some profiles are much talked about in an e-commerce parlance. Online-marketing, visualizer, content writer and product management are just name a few. However, if you ask 3-4 people to define their understanding of product management or online marketing, the answers may be very different. Each company views these profiles from their perspective. A person in online marketing of travel portal has different mindset compared to online marketing person working in a premium jewellery segment.

Reason 3: Metamorphosis of environment/organization

Some organizations could not grow as per their anticipation as their funding dried up, their penetration into new market or geography did not yield expected results or some other aggressive player has dented their market share. Some organizations have gone through complete re-vamping of their business model. In such situations, the hiring of past must be undone to cut the flab, excess cost and to get new thought process as per the changed requirements.

Reason 4: Lack of vision

Sometimes hiring is done only to create a big bang on some premier school campuses or to hit the headline- trying to show off their muscles (funding). This kind of hiring often misfire as then the utilization or output is not upto the cost involved which leads to rethinking of decision.

Reason 5: Lack of HR involvement in the beginning.

Sometimes lot of duplicating of profile happens in the organization as different business units hire of similar profiles. In absence of central HR function which talks about internal availability of talent, the duplication of profiles happen. Later, such profiles often form a central team shared across divisions and hence some resources are asked to leave. Training, analytics and marketing are typical examples of such functions.

References

http://profit.ndtv.com/news/careers/article-speed-hiring-catches-fancy-12-minutes-and-hired-or-fired-1207796?pfrom=home-business

http://www.nextbigwhat.com/fabfurnish-layoffs-and-restructuring-297/

http://www.firstpost.com/business/tightening-cash-burn-housing-com-sack-600-staff-just-three-months-2385420.html

http://www.crazyengineers.com/threads/flipkart-layoffs-250-employees-are-out.67984/

Following my HR Dharma

Following my HR Dharma

As HR person, I have always found myself in either of the two most confusing, emotionally taxing and intellectually challenging situations, which has often provoked me to reach out for thoughts and newer solutions but sometimes lot of turmoil. The acceptable unethical and guilt of doing right has always haunted me. I have been hated and not loved by many for doing the right or accepting the wrong- but I have managed to live with it.

One of the situation is accepting the unethical behaviour. In today’s world, where recruitment is competitive, business is aggressive and environment is dynamic, we all get into and accept some unethical practices, sometimes unknowingly but mostly, in our full senses and consciousness. Examples are numerous. Which recruiter has not seen a candidate not turning up on the day of joining or coming back after ten days from receiving the offer, bargaining for a new salary as he/she has a parallel offer now? As HR, we all know that it is unethical. The candidate may bargain again with us or someone else, yet most of the time we budge. Accepting the unwanted. If we do not accept the arm twisting and try to show that we have come out strong and victorious, we are fooling ourselves. Few months down the line if we cross paths with same candidate, we will still try our best to hire him and will not reject him based on his ethics, as demonstrated in the past.

E-commerce is a new world to Indian business environment and almost an alien word to our legal system which refused to go through metamorphosis from acts of 1950s and 60s, thus challenging Mr. Darwin. Hence, every company in this newly evolved space, follow some legal guidelines as per their understanding and often as per their convenience as the lazy legal system fails to combat the exploitation of the system. However, these companies have given new experience to consumers, values to shareholders and fat package to employees, thus increasing the overall social strata. Hence we agree to moulding of legal system as per our need and also include labour inspectors and similar people as our accomplice. And the best is, we have an alibi- “this is what we have understood as per below clause as this is the job we are in to”.

The second extreme is guilt of doing the right. Lot of times we hear, “HR has not given me good hike or promotion”, “HR has been downsizing like crazy”, “HR threw me out one fine day” and many more sweet allegations.

Yes, we do all. But do we do it willingly? Do we enjoy it? I am quite tempted to quote Shylock (Merchant of Venice) here,

“I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes? hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer, as a Christian is? If you prick us, do we not bleed? if you tickle us, do we not laugh? if you poison us, do we not die?”

We also do not like to fire an individual or group. We also understand that they do have financial commitments and responsibilities to carry. However, when weighed against the greater good of the organization- either in terms of saving the expense or by disassociating from an employee who has done unethical acts or can be a potential threat to information and security, we are left with no choice. We manage the cost for overall organization, trying to be as fair as possible, treating everyone with same respect as per their output to the organization, only to hear the unpleasant. We execute the unwanted amputation with a fine precision as a surgeon, disconnecting one major nerve of the organization with minimal possible pain, yet we are HR- Hardly Recognized.

Sometimes, we even know who is right between two disputed parties. But like our judiciary, we also need to keep our friendship, judgement and knowing of truth aside, rely only on proofs and take decision which sometimes is fair and sometimes is anything but fair- and we know that.

HR needs to deal with lot of conflicting emotions in their daily work profile. They need to balance their head, keep it levelled.  The conflicts will always be there, but what makes one successful is one’s ability to detach from all feelings and just act. Something similar to what Arjun did at Mahabharata, pegged down Bhishma in not so ethical way and had to and killed his own family members for greater good of society and dharma.

As HR, let us remember our karma (KRA), work for greater good of society (organization), be emotionless to our family members (colleagues and employees) as they are here to come and go, be a medium for change like Arjun was and just follow our HR dharma.