Changing Jobs- To Be or Not To Be

I came across an interesting article on Job Hopping in The Economic Times. It talks about the pros and cons of changing jobs frequently. 

Sometime back I attended an HR conclave where one of the topics of discussion was job stability. One of the senior HR leaders from service industry said that they now look at minimum stability of one and a half years in one organization, while recruiting a candidate. The threshold used to be around three years only a couple of years back. And he predicted that in another couple of years working with an organization for one year may well become the benchmark for stability. The group was coherent on this and agreed that this was more in case of the Generation Z, which was more eager to learn and grow, and may be more impatient. 

While this may be the sentiment of the new young generation of professionals, but those who are at the decision making positions, still consider even a two year stint as being unstable. 

This can well be termed as the Generation Gap. But, the crux is that anyone will continue or change basis the learning and growth opportunities available. The human mind needs constant fodder. It seeks new challenges. If the present organization can provide the same, it is well and good, else the job hop.

Christmas Special

This Christmas my organization decided to do something different for the employees, to make them feel loved and cared for. We have quite a big Christian community, and quite a lot of them had not gone to their hometown. So we decided to visit them and one of us dressed as Santa Claus. Since I am the HR person there, I took the opportunity to be Santa for them and spread the cheer! The wide smiles and shining eyes were worth the effort. They were so happy that the organization put in an effort to make their festival special for them.

Happy employees are key to any organizations performance. Happy employees are more engaged and productive. This article on Employee Engagement also emphasises on the importance of happy and motivated employees.

Crossing The Street- New Interview Tool

How many times have you wondered about the manner in which you cross the street? After reading this article written by Guy Kawasaki you surely will.

The article mentions that you can select candidates for a job, merely by watching them cross a busy street. There are five categories based on this logic.

As a HR professional, this is quite insightful. Recruiters spend a lot of time and resources to ensure that they get the 'right fit' for the position open. There are psychometric tools that are used, aptitude tests are given, body language is analysed... Any new tool in the market is up for grabs, just to find the right / best candidate. But more often than not, the recruiter has to take the blame for a non-performer when the buck starts getting passed. Wondering how many recruiters will adopt this new method also.

At least I am going to be a Wader now, if not already. You never know who is watching!

Growth From Within

A few days back I was at a friend's place and the discussion moved on to promotions in our respective organizations and the growth opportunities. The organizations prefer to grow people from within the ranks, to fill up the vacant position, to highlight growth avenues, to motivate employees and hence, to retain them. But, for people who are grown from the grass root level, have they been successful?

Agreed that the person who has worked his/her way up the ranks, is thorough with the processed, knows the system, knows the customer. But is s/he equipped with right skills to take up the leadership role, that is being offered. Most of the Government Organizations/ PSUs give promotion on the basis of your tenure in the organization. People keep on moving up the ladder. They handle teams, starting from one or two to tens or twenties. They probably understand the technicalities involved in the day to day work of their subordinates, but then leadership is not just that. Somewhere they are just not ready to manage the dynamics involved in handling people.

This is not the case with only Government organizations or PSUs. Many of the private sector organizations or the MNCs also tend to ignore this. They may keep on blowing the trumpet of growth avenues within the organization, in the name of 'Succession Planning' but what about training and mentoring? Have you prepared the person to handle the new role? Just because customers are happy with an employee does not mean that s/he can lead a team?

I feel rather than just promoting people in the name of growth and motivation, there has to be a proper growth route laid out, that is, succession planning. Organizations, of late, are realizing the importance, but still it has to go a long way. Till the time it gets applied to PSUs and Government set ups, I will not term it as a 'success'.

Office Dressing- The Code

I had mentioned in an earlier post (E-etiquette Wise) about a gentleman whose e-mail had led me to my search. Co-incidentally (or may be something else) the same gentlemen turned in office this Tuesday dressed in a very very weird T-shirt, and here I was getting orders from my manager, and yours truly was searching on 'Dress Code'.

Well, I had done similar research a couple of years back in my previous organization, and was sure that this one too would be a cakewalk. Though I knew that I would have to tweak few things as per my current organization. As I started checking relevance of my material, I was surprised by the results.

A couple of years back, the dress code for corporates was formal dressing for weekdays and smart casuals on Friday or Saturday, depending upon whether you worked five days or six days. The IT companies, though, were rewriting the code, courtesy the trends in the ITES sector. But majorly, the companies stuck to the formal code.

But now, the rules have changed. Most of the companies today follow the simple code of Dress to chill. Women come dressed in kurtas, funky skirts and wrap-arounds. Business suits, sarees and starched cotton salwar-kameez are reserved for power meetings. Gentlemen prefer the good old pair of jeans, khakis and chinos.

With more and more young blood getting pumped into the corporate world, even the very formal business suits are getting designer. Board room dressing has definitely come of age. Hugo Boss, Armani and other top brands are adding extra punch.

But the old school of thought still maintains that what you see is what you get. A formal attire leads you to behave in a very subtle and elegant manner, while the casual look gives an air of informality and "to hell with rules" kind of a feeling.

The debate is still on, and it depends on where you are working and with whom you are working. But there is a class of workers which chooses the workplace based on the attire it permits! An acquaintance had once turned down an offer to work with a top company just because he would raise brows if he ever walked down in shorts!!!!

As far as I can see, casual's the word. But, people, its safe to keep a mix of clothes.

As for me, I am much more dress-wise , but I could definitely do with some wardrobe tips.

E- etiquette wise

Yesterday evening I read an email sent by a very senior manager in the company and looking at the way it was composed and formatted I was shocked. How can people be so ignorant as to use caps and red colour for a very simple sentence?? So, that set me to search material on Email Etiquettes on the www. I did hit upon some very informative pieces.

I must confess here that as a part of my job I send very informal mails to team members using wierd colours/fonts/images, and some of them are toooooo wierd to even think that they can be official! Well, jokes apart, formal mails call for following some basic rules nad norms. And here I was gathering information to educate people in my organization, which believe me is a very tough job. All managers think that they are know-alls! So, the information had to be convincing and yet not rude.

Some of the useful pieces I came across were by The Crabby Lady, at Amit Agarwal's Blog and a presentation by Himanshu posted on CiteHR

I did compile my own list of Do's and Do Not's and circulated the same. But, all that while I was wondering how tiny things overlooked can annoy others. Someone once said to me, "Most literate people are not educated". I could not help but relate the situation with those words. Making old economy or even current tech savvy generations computer literate does not essentially mean that they are now gurus of the e-world.

I have come across old men with laptops who do not even know how to set 'Print Area' in a worksheet! And these are the people who make strategies in the board rooms and play with data!!! I donot mean to be rude here but the computer institutes that have sprung up like mushrooms must also stress on this.

This research on Email Etiquettes has made me look at every email I come across with a raised brow. Well, as for my team members hope they do put the info to some use.