It’s the People, Stupid!

One of the biggest clichés in the information technology industry is to talk

about knowledge workers as the key asset of the organization. How often do we

hear statements like "all our assets disappear through the campus gates

every evening" and wonder whether the worthy CEOs who make these statements

have heard of knowledge repositories and data mining?

Be that as it may, there is no doubt that many firms–and particularly those

in the software sector–have looked on their people more as a set of

skill-carriers than as real-life flesh and blood bundles. And that all of them

have emotions, aspirations and dreams that have to be managed, channelized into

a common organization vision and, of course, motivated to achieve high levels of

creativity and sustained performance.

One tangential benefit of the slowdown in global economies and the resultant

slackening of demand for software services has been that attrition has been one

less area to worry about, as the prima donnas of 2000 suddenly became the model

employees of 2001. In the last few months, hiring of manpower has been more the

exception than the rule. I was personally quite amused when an IIM, Ahmedabad

grad–class of 1995–wrote in her job e-mail to Zensar, "I am applying

just to check out why you guys had the only recruitment ad in Business

India."

The major benefit, of course, is that this pause in the hiring frenzy has

enabled CEOs and human resource chiefs to focus on existing talent within their

organizations and devise better ways to assess both performance and potential.

This has helped them provide more enabling tools like career planning and

mentoring to create a more friendly and fun environment within the organization.

Breaking down the walls



HR has taken the lead in removing barriers between people and strengthening

employee communication channels. HR executives are encouraged to actively go for

informal interaction by walking around the workplace and developing personal

rapport with employees.

Pizza & Coke Sessions: Informal chats over pizza and coke every Friday

bring senior management and HR representatives together, with employees randomly

selected across the company. It’s a platform for informal one-to-one

clarifications.

HR Open Houses: A monthly meeting of the group to discuss various issues and

concerns of employees, to learn and share one another’s work and to appreciate

and applaud individual achievements.

Everybody Meetings (EBMs): A unique forum where all employees come

face to face with the management and share organizational news, concerns and

future outlook. EBMs are held every two months, with mini-EBMs for divisions and

departments happening regularly.

Employee Assistance Programmes (EAP): These provide employees unbiased

and objective counsel from a professional psychologist, helping them to

understand and cope with their emotions.

Team integration



The company brings its people together and builds cohesive teams through various
planned interventions, such as these listed below.

Outbound team-building exercises: These help people to interact with

and know one another better in informal settings. They combine team-sporting

activities with techniques in creating well- knit work groups.

Campus Events: Music sessions (ranging from ghazal to rock) and sports

tournaments (volleyball, basketball and table tennis) enliven campus life. These

events also present a forum for people to exhibit their talents.

Ventures: This adventure club takes employees on

treks, rappelling, overnight camps, paragliding and other outbound activities.

Leading change



HR has been spearheading the transition to a hi-performance culture through an
action-oriented agenda, using these techniques:

Redefined Performance Management System: PMS aligns

employee excellence to the changing market realities, and it focuses not just on

what is achieved, but also on how it is achieved. The system identifies,

nurtures, rewards and retains superior performers.

360Alt+0186 Feedback Process: By giving managers

critical feedback on their leadership and managerial competencies, the system

helps them take ownership for the development of desired competencies. It also

helps to identify leadership potential.

Training Initiatives: The training plan links the company’s

business objectives to individual development needs reflected from the PMS.

Career Planning & Development: The HR system uses

the inputs from PMS, 360* feedback and the assessment center to develop career

maps for outstanding people.

Re-aligned compensation structure: The company has

moved away from the erstwhile "pay for experience" to a role-based

compensation structure.

Continuing Initiatives



And finally, what are the future directions of the people effort in this

organization? In the words of Joel Barker, "Vision without action is but a

dream, action without vision just passes the time, and vision with action can

change the world!" The three-year vision built and articulated collectively

across the senior levels of the organization is being disseminated in small

group discussions, the identification of career paths for each individual will

be made the basis for career planning and fast track career building and every

individual will be helped to align her individual goals with the collective

vision of the firm.

Towards a glorious future



There is no greater joy in managing organizations than discovering

youngsters who have the ability to carry the torch and do an even better job

than their predecessors, of providing corporate and human resource leadership.

There are legendary cases, like FC Kohli and Narayana NR Murthy (recently), who

have led their organizations with great distinction and passed on the baton when

the whole world asks "Why?" and not wait till it asks "Why

not?".

There are legendary CEOs like Adi Cooper who, after his successes in the Tata

Group, is building a new institution in Stream Tracmail, which will surely be

the leader in the IT-enabled services arena. Talking to Adi recently, I was

surprised to note the care with which he picks people to work for him–a hiring

rate of three out of every hundred applicants, followed by rigorous training

that would teach a few tricks to the call center training capability that the

computer training industry is now trying to morph into. If people like Adi and

other stalwarts like Ashok Soota, Rajendra Pawar and Dataquest’s own Pradeep

Gupta would find ways to pass on their wisdom to the next generation before the

time comes for them to hang up their CEO boots, the Indian information

technology industry will surely be on firm terrain to meet the challenges in the

decades to come!

The author is deputy chairman and managing director of Zensar Technologies

and the global CEO of Zensar.

He can be reached at ganesh@dqindia.com