Building a Recognition program

Establish the need for change or introducing the new program:
You need to be clear on the end objective before you even start thinking about scoping, budgets, process and making that deadly pitch (which is going to be essential in the end to get it across to people)

Positioning the program:
Are you going to position this as a informal program or is your program looking at bringing in formality around the same, in whichever case you should draw very detailed plans on the roll out and the actual rewards event.

Scoping:
Think about categories, which are the target population, budgets in terms of % coverage (informal awards % coverage is usually quite big, while the formal / management award coverage would have to be around 10% to 12%). You should also think through the budget in terms of money you need and this should include some allocation towards communication and celebration event expenses.

Criteria:
This is the most important bit and you will spend a fair bit drawing detailed criteria. Make sure it has linkages to the contribution areas and competencies you want to reward people at your organization.

One issue you might want to think through is whether you should look at tight linkages as people might say but that’s what our performance management process and compensation philosophy addresses. Don’t fall into this trap, all ongoing reward and recognition programs are part of total rewards (which compensation is part of) and you don’t want to reward anything that is not aligned to organization goals and competencies the organization wants its people to develop and be recognized for. Moreover recognition programs are going to create more traction around behaviors and initiatives that organization is looking to push.

Setting up the process:
This includes the nomination process, approvers / sponsors of the awards and how the whole process will open and close. Think though on a tracking process so that you keep an eye on usage of budgets, coverage in terms of people etc.

Communication:
Very essential if it’s going to be a change over the existing program you had. Usually my experience tells me that this is more difficult then bringing a program for the first time. Spend time to get buy in and on the actual launch, as you don’t want to have any surprises.

Last but not least Recognition programs work best when they are viewed as fair and objective and stand the test of peer understanding as well.

All it takes.........

Most organizations today recognize the value that HR brings to the table and gone are the days when you had to fight to be heard or valued. But what does it take to keep that table.......

HR summer internship season is towards its fag end and most interns would now be going back to their college to finish their course work before they sit for placements and those lucky few who have PPO’s must be eager to get started.

Wait! Have you wondered what you learnt in your internship and what are the skills you need to wade though your first year of real job and what will take you further ahead! Now, I am not an expert but, I probably learnt the hard way and here you go with some thoughts!

Develop your independent perspective on various issues:
This is going to be extremely valuable as the firm hiring you may not be looking at someone who is just text book or class room thought. Independent perspective on issues is going to be sought by your manager and people you are working with and not having one might not earn you respect.

Actively seek cross functional interactions:HR does not operate like an island, what is happening across other functions and with the front line will definitely have a bearing on the HR strategy. A lot of learning of the business comes in from your interactions with other functions and you should seek opportunities to build network out side HR. (Stop having coffee / lunch only with your HR gang now!)

Learn to include peer review:
Your peers are going to be your worst and best competition. You don’t want them to trash your idea or presentation in the formal launch or report out you are doing in front of your manager or your leader. Learn to include them when you are building your recommendations and even when doing your analysis. Its not college buddy, so go ahead and learn to work in a team!

Don’t start finding faults:
The HR processes and polices that you are finding faults are someone else’s work and most times they might be still around and no one likes it when their work gets trashed. It does not make sense to find fault and criticize everything (while it might be true that this co does not have the best of polices and processes) until you build some credibility.

Don’t stop taking to your ex-colleagues:
Today every organization is looking for best practices and continuously looking at what others are doing in the market. Your best source of information is going to be your ex-colleagues and your friends from college. Don’t ditch them keep in touch with them!

Doing the dirty work!:
Well don’t worry as its going to help you be sensitive tomorrow to your team (when you get one eventually) and also it never helps to know how things work at a very operational level. And remember all operational work is not dirty, it teaches you the nuts and bolts of the processes.

Go head have fun! HR is a great place to be in at this point of time and I guess if you love it as much as I do for a long long time!

Gender Diversity and Women's Networking Initiatives

Corporate India has latched on to gender diversity and doing more than it has ever to attract and retain women employees. The benefits being rolled out include flexi time, extended maternity benefits, safe work environment, affirmative action and establishing women's networking chapters.

The idea behind the women's networking chapters is to have a platform for women employees to gather, network and also learn from each other. Some organizations like GE, Deloitte and Microsoft have really taken their women’s networking chapters to new levels and leveraged them effectively to manage their diversity and talent management initiatives. Take a good look at the majority of the organization which are trying to do better on this and you will find that what helps is: -

Having a clear focus or vision for the chapter
Top / senior leadership championing the chapter
Making it local and relevant
Leveraging it as a communication and feedback channel

While having hooks in the beginning like networking lunch, fashion shows and rangoli competitions will help drive participation the true value of the women's networking chapter will be felt if it goes beyond these hooks and provides a channel for feedback, development and refinement of talent attraction and retention initiatives.

Contradiction???

Last time when I blogged about how to get though the first few weeks in your new job listening more and talking less, a friend of mine questioned "so how do you make a good introduction without sounding too verbose?". Her view was that while you don’t need to talk a lot and give complete details of what you did in the past, one has to have a introduction akin to a "elevator pitch" that is so popular across the world.

So what is an elevator pitch and how to make it, well I did some goggling and came across this link.

http://www.wikihow.com/Develop-Your-Personal-Elevator-Pitch

Mass Career Customization

The other day I was reading an in-house magazine of Deloitte and came across this article on Mass Career Customization. (quite a mouthful isn’t!)

Here is a quick lowdown on Mass Career Customization:

MCC is a model that has been designed to respond to the new workplace trends which include more women at workplace, gap in demand and supply of knowledge workers, changing expectations of men, evolving expectations of generation X and Y and increasing impact of technology. Developed by Cathy Benko and Anne Weisberg, both principals at Deloitte.

The model is based on the premise that there would be no normal career path (meaning straight climb up the ladder) and careers would be multipath and built around people’s needs over time (like balance of work-life). The authors coin the word “career lattice” to describe how careers would be an undulating journey of climbs and lateral moves. . The model is being tested out in the few organizations namely Deloitte, along with SAS, Ogilvy & Mather, and law firm Arnold & Porter. Read more about this model at www.masscareercustomization.com

While the model itself is exciting and may be really the cutting edge practice in career development and management, it might be a difficult proposition for smaller organizations that do not have the different roles / career options to implement this model. The success of this model will largely depend on long-term commitment of the organization and employee. And since the success of career development and management programs can only seen over time, only long term players will buy the model and its approach.

Don't talk, just listen for the first few days in your new job

Yes, curb the tendency to talk about how great you are and the big shot you were in your previous job. Stick to talking about your previous responsibilities in a brief fashion and you could add the learnings you had.

This will help you in: 1) people will not be prejudiced about your interest in this new job 2) expectations will be moderate and not very high 3) you will not come out looking like someone who brags 4) will help people open up and talk more about themselves as they wont feel any lesser then what you are.

The key is to listen, probe and figure out the dynamics. But this does not mean you clam up, just ensure that you have a brief description ready when people ask you where you are from and what you were handling in your previous job / company. Focus for the first few days / weeks would be to understand people and "how things get done here" and therefore listen more and talk less!

Do we know the real reason behind an employee exit?

Most times we don’t as people never like to tell the truth and especially if it’s going to be a bitter one. Most people I have interviewed during my experience have cited various personal reasons for leaving the organization and when you flip the question and ask why did you look out in the first place or what were your drivers for looking out, I have seen a clearer and more truthful answer emerging.

What someone is leaving now for might be very different from why he / she thought of looking out in the first place. Case in point might be a employee who is unhappy with his team environment and decided to look out and now has a job with a 40% pay increase.

Also sometimes having a third person talk to an employee is more effective, especially if there is fear of retaliation or defensiveness that the employee perceives from the organization.