On Work Life Balance

 Just because you work for yourself doesn't mean you don't report to a tough taskmaster. 

Work life balance is a function of who you are, not where you work. 

I have had the fortune of working with many people who maintained a healthy balance long before it became a thing. And here are some things that are common to all of them - 

A. They always prioritised their time. If you needed to meet them, you needed to send them an agenda and enter the room prepared. 

B. They respected other people's time as much. If you were OOO, there would be no calls, no messages, and no emergencies. They would insist on you doing a good handover to a colleague so that you can take your PTO both guilt free and interruption free. 

C. They included the families. They tried to create at least 1-2 events per year where families got to meet each other. 

D. When they were with you, they were ONLY with you. They made you feel like a real human being, not one of the gadgets they interacted with. 

E. This is the best part. It was very rare for them to be behind on their deadlines. They left office, and they left it with work done. 

F. Most of them were empathic leaders. 

The luckiest break in life was having these leaders around one at the very beginning of one's career. So, one got the right role models early on.

#WorkLifeBalance 

How to create a Rewards and Recognition Program in 40 days

 I was a part of an interesting project this year. 

An organisation had been wanting to implement a Rewards and Recognition program for over 2 years. 

We went live in 40 days. 

Here is how we achieved it: 

Prework: Industry Benchmark

As consultants, obviously, we get paid to know the industry benchmarks on Rewards and Recognition. If you are starting out on that journey, suggest you spend some time reading up on what other organisations in the same industry, location, and size are doing. 

Step One: What do you want to reward? 

I always say that 80% of consulting is asking the right questions. 20% is using your experience to create the right solutions based on those questions. 

So, the first question we ask is: What do you want to reward? 

This session was held with the CEO and next level. They all listed what they wanted to reward and how they would unequivocally and transparently identify that. 

The second question, obviously, was not easy to answer for most of them, and that is what helped us eliminate the kind of awards that would lead to heartburn later. 

Once the listing was done, we identified the modal values and selected the top X number. These awards were purely behaviour based. You demonstrated some behaviour, you got nominated. As an advisor, I insisted on 100% transparency and clearly recordable data points. Because each award leads to one winner and 99 losers. So you have to be very clear who you put on that stage and ensure that everyone in the audience is clapping because they understand why that person is on the stage. 

Step Two: Ask the People 

The next step was to ask the employees what they would like to be awarded for. 

We ran an employee contest in which everyone was encouraged to share as many ideas as they would like for awards. 

There were, of course, spot awards and awards for the best ideas submitted. 

We picked some ideas from this list too. 

If you use this route, make sure you close the loop by doing the spot and best idea awards within a week of the contest closing. Otherwise, people will not participate next time. 

Step Three: Bringing in all Together

This is easily the toughest part of the project. 

As the functioning HR leader, I had to collate the three lists and choose what we would start with and what would come later in the year. 

We chose 15 items. This list was then presented to the CEO +1 level, and we were able to prune 5 more entries out. 

With that, we were ready to start with a good 10 awards, 5 more to be added within the year. 

A big risk was that 6 out of these 10 were peer to peer awards. Which means that if people did not like the Awards program, we would bomb. Big time. Also, were our people mature enough to understand and give the right P2P awards? 

I decided that it was time to empower the team, and take that risk. We'll see if any coaching is required. 

Step Four: Communication Plan and Creatives 

Do not underestimate the power of this step. Work on an excellent communication plan that does enough communication and repetition. 

Pay attention to the creatives. All your month-long hard work will go down the drain (no exaggeration) if the creatives do not talk to the audience. Please pay attention to the creatives. 

And pay attention to the right communication plan. Send those teasers, prepare those spot awards, ensure that everyone knows what the P2P awards are for, and how to give them. (Especially if, like me, you are running 6 out of 10 awards as P2P). 

Step Five: Launch! 

Have a launch event! Even if its virtual. For multi-location companies, have a virtual event ONLY so that everyone gets to know about the awards at the same time. 

Step Six: Monitor 

After that, we monitored how people adopted. P2P awards had a spot element too, so people could start using the awards immediately. 

Thankfully, we did well. Very well. 

Step Seven: Keep the Fun Pumping! 

The worst thing that can hit any program is boredom. So, ensure that you have scheduled adequate award functions to keep the RnR program fun and relevant. Both physical and virtual events, and the right mix of communication. Too much, and they switch off, too little, and it becomes irrelevant. 

How to do Portfolio Planning for HR

 In the previous post,  we did 3 important things: 

A. Created a vision for the future. 

B. Created a portfolio of all HR services 

C. Created a linkages map to understand how HR interacts and depends on/supports other functions. 

In this post, we will understand how to take strategic discussions using this tool. 

Step One: Bases for prioritisation 

What matters to your business? 

Here are four different bases that you can use, either one by one, or in combination. 

This discussion is ideally between the CEO and the CHRO. Other stakeholders may be present, but only if necessary. This is a very strategy-led, focused discussion. 

You can either use a simple Red-Yellow-Green format, or you can get more detailed and give weightages to these items. 

The first step, of course, is to take the master portfolio and remove what does not belong or is not relevant to the organisation. This step simplifies the visuals quite a bit and is very helpful. 

For example, your portfolio, after pruning, might look like this: 

Now, of these, we have completely outsourced: 

A. BGV 

B. Payroll 

C. Claims and Benefits

D. Compliance 

So, we remove these 4 also. POSH is on autopilot and does not need day to day attention. We remove that too. 

Our portfolio now looks like this: 

Now, we are dealing with significantly less complexity :) 

Base One: Business Needs 

This is a no brainer. If we are looking to enter a new country, global employee management will need to come first. 

Likewise, anything else that is dictated by business strategy is prioritised. 

Base Two: What People Want

This is a more personal prioritisation. 

We pay attention to three main stakeholders: 

A. What the CEO wants 

B. What the CHRO wants

C. What the employees want (as per the last E Sat) 

One simple way to do this is to choose 3 colour shades - White if no one selects it as important, pale blue when one person chooses it, medium blue when two stakeholders choose it, and dark blue when all 3 choose it. 

Here is an example: 

And now, we can clearly see that Employee Information management, RnR, LTM, and Recruitment are our focus areas for this year. 

The beauty of this tool is that it is simple and visual. 

So as decisions get taken, the tool also looks cleaner. 

Base Three: The Urgency -Importance Grid 

This is a brainstorming and discussion technique. The CHRO and CEO discuss and finalise the items that go into the four grids of urgent and important. 

This base is a little confusing, and we would avoid it for the first time. 

Step Two: Fixing outcomes, timelines, and responsibility 

Let us continue with our example above. 

We want to focus on recruitment, LTM, RnR, and Employee Information this year. 

The next step is to simply write out the business outcome we expect each quarter on each of these items. Who will take ownership of these? 

The outcome is the criteria for success. 

For instance, we take a simple example like Employee Information. 

The Quarter wise targets for these in the next two quarters are: 

Q1: All employee information streamlined at a single source of truth. 

Q2: Zero duplication of information across systems. 

Q3: Information lag (the delay between an event happening and the information entering the system) is 2 days or less. 

In Q4, with this tab reaching stability, we can deprioritise it. 

Step Three: Review and Reprioritise 

The ideal is to meet once a month on the HR strategy, so that we know that actions in HR are following our strategy. 

Once a quarter, we can reprioritise. 

This is a self-sustaining mode of HR operations that keeps HR Ops aligned to strategy. 

5 questions to ask your new team on your first 1:1

When you join as a team leader, or become a team leader for the first time, one of the most important conversations you will have is a one on one with your direct reports. 

How does one go about this? Should one establish authority or empathy? 

Here is a simple, one word answer to all those questions - In the first meeting, LISTEN. Don't talk. 

Your team members have likely read your resume at least twice - once circulated by the corporate communications team, and again, when they checked you out on Linked in. So, don't tell them more about you. Find out about THEM. 

Here is a set of questions that you can pre-circulate to your new team, to have a positive first conversation. I have used either this set or a suitable sub set many times, and it has always been the start of a good, positive, trust based relationship. 

1. What was your greatest achievement and learning last year? 

2. What do you look forward to learning for your professional growth this year? 

3. What are your expectations from me? 

4. What do you bring to the table? 

5. What is your communication style? What works and does not work for you? What is the best way and time to speak with you? (And I will share the same thing) 

Some supplementary questions that you can use as per the situation: 

A. What drives or motivates you? What keeps you coming back to work? 

B. According to you, what are the best and worst traits a manager can have? 

C. What kind of manager would bring out the best in you? What kind of manager would you never work with? 

D. What is the best thing about this organisation? What would you never change and what would you change as soon as you got a chance? 

What are your skills, exactly?

When a woman comes to work after a break, the no. 1 question she is asked is "skills." So here it is, a skill based:

RESUME OF A WOMAN

Profile Brief

A CEO level talent with incredible view of all dimensions of running an enterprise. A dedicated and mature leader who has proven track record in aligning contrasting stakeholders to a common goal.

Finance

End to end budgeting, funds allocation and management of funds, accounting and internal audit for an annual budget of XX LPA. Upto 7-10% YoY increase in the budget every year. Additional responsibility is absorbed with no team augmentation.

Operations

Task Scheduling and Monitoring to ensure end to end efficiency in operations. Track record of less than 2% outage/task slippage over x years.

Operations Planning using CPM to ensure non-stop business continuity with minimal time investment.

Maintenance Scheduling and monitoring for all capital and operational assets including perishables.

Inventory Management

Demand forecasting and Inventory Management for 120+ SKUs, panning across Capex, Opex and perishables, with 0 outages and less than 10% forecasting error.

Human Resources

Recruitment, Talent Engagement, Agile Performance Management system with ongoing 360 degree feedback for a team of 5. Annual Attrition at <20%. Exit management and HR transactions like payroll, benefits, grievance and discipline management. 24*7*365 POSH monitoring and control.

Stakeholder Engagement

Excellent stakeholder management skills with proven ability to align stakeholders with opposing agendas to arrive at a common ground and collaborate. Ability to deal with a variety of stakeholders across levels, domains and organisations.

Negotiation Skills

Ability to negotiate in 1:1 and 1:M situations and arrive at Win-Win outcomes.

Project Management

Ability to plan, execute, monitor, control and close projects of short and long term duration across travel, construction and education industries. Brings valuable client perspective to the table.

Procurement

Ability to source on both “L1” and “L1,V1” basis for industries as varied as FMCG, Stationery, Appliances, Construction, Materials(B2B) etc.

Vendor Management

Contract Management, Performance Monitoring, Review Feedback, Payments processing and ongoing vendor relationship management.

Risk Management

Operational and Behavioral Risk Management in operational capacity. Ability to foresee risk, threat, vulnerability and plan accordingly.

Internal Audit

Ability to deduce information from written and unwritten sources and remain an agile internal watchdog. Also ensures organisational preparedness for external audits.

Communications Management

Ability to customise the message according to the needs of the recipient. Ability to be sensitive and responsive to the communication needs of various stakeholders and ensures adequate contact and communication.

Quality

Ability to apply simple QA and QC procedures to ensure quality. Ability to train team members on the importance of quality.

 

 

 

Using the Talent Pool without having to hire them

 

Suppose there was a way by which you could assess the technical competence of a candidate even without putting them in an interview?

 

Suppose further, that by this method, you could also get the person to contribute to projects in your organisation without getting paid – on their own time?

 

Suppose that this tool also allowed you to actively stay in touch with your alumni, with the possibility of rewarding them for continuing to be associated with your brand?

 

You are most likely to say that is impossible. And for the most part, it is. Which is what makes this tool so awesome.

 

The Magic..

The tool is a discussion board, open to internal and external folks, enrolment purely voluntary, and all participation rewarded with points.

The points can be converted to monetary and non monetary rewards. Monetary rewards are gift cards from selected vendors. Non monetary rewards are invitations to employee only events (for non employees), membership to industry bodies sponsored by the organisation, and so on.  

 

When you face a business or technical challenge, put it up. Let people respond. All participation rewarded, and all productive answers rewarded extra.

 

Let it be everyone’s playground – from the junior to the senior most person, let everyone talk about strategy to maintenance, from diversity to facility management.

 

The Numbers

Crowdsourcing of ideas is not new. But here is what this model has in addition to ideas:

1. Rewarding Engagement – internal and external, in tangible ways.

2. Pre selecting talent on the basis of their actual contribution and not just on the basis of their interview performance.

3. An opportunity to notice skills/ideas of employees that they are not able to demonstrate in course of their normal work.

 

On the cost side of the equation is the cost of building and running such a platform. Or buying one. On the benefit side are intangible benefits that quite simply are not available elsewhere.

 

The maths makes the most sense for a mid – large sized company in niche skill areas like audit, acturial, IT, Energy, Infra, Manufacturing, community building, city planning, e governance.  

 

The maths does not make sense for generic skill organisations or organisations that depend largely on cottage industry inputs for sustenance. It also does not make sense for talent communities with low penetration of computers.

Impact of Leadership on Innovation Culture in an organisation

 

The previous post spoke about the hypothesis that the key thing that makes innovating organisations become what they are , is leadership.

 

While practices and organsiational models et al are positive contributors to the innovation process, if an organisation has to stay innovative – complete with the side effects of that state of mind, the most important factor is that the leadership must continue to believe – generation after generation, in innovation.

 

Here is how this works –

Organisational behavior is shaped, at the primary level, by the rewards system. When a type of behavior is rewarded, we start to value that behavior more, because it leads to a positive outcome. this relationship is a function of the thinking mind – i do this, i am appreciated/ rewarded – the cognitive level.

 

Over a period, the repetition of this reward system leads to us developing a positive attitude towards that behavior. We automatically associate that behavior with positive response. – the conative response.

 

Over time we internalise the positive attitude and start to respond with positive emotions to the behavior itself – at this level, the affective level , the behavior is internalised. Then we become “innovators” simply because of who we have become. Its the same process that works when we enter a university a fresher and exit as an alumnus. Our mental associations change to be congruent with the associations of the university.

 

This is how the innovative culture is built – but by bit – moving from the behavior-reward (cognitive) to conative to affective (internalised and emotional)

 

So, to sum up, the foundation of culture change is in the rewards and punishment factors – the rewards may be tangible and institutionalised, or it may be intangible and simple like positive feedback or even just permission to work on research during office time.

 

And who decides, in the most significant way, what this reward structure in the organisation will be? The leader. Even if the tangible organisational models and employee appreciation criteria are not immediately touched, the intangibles like positive feedback trickle down really fast and without doing anything documented or formal, leaders are able to kill the innovation culture relatively fast.