Talent related challenges for Small and Medium businesses

Indian small companies often face several talent-related challenges that can hinder their growth and competitiveness. These problems arise from structural issues in the labor market, the business environment, and organizational practices. Here are some of the key talent problems they encounter:

1. Attracting Talent

• Competition with Larger Firms: Larger corporations, multinational companies, and startups with better funding often attract top talent with better compensation, brand recognition, and growth opportunities.
• Location Disadvantages: Many small companies are located in non-metropolitan areas where the talent pool may be smaller, making it harder to find the right candidates.
• Limited Resources: Small companies often don’t have the resources for sophisticated recruitment strategies or the ability to offer competitive salaries and benefits.

2. Skill Gaps

• Mismatch between Education and Industry Needs: Many Indian graduates may not have the necessary skills or practical experience for the job market, particularly in industries like IT, engineering, and manufacturing.
• Emerging Technology Shortage: With rapid technological advancements, smaller companies may find it hard to source professionals with cutting-edge skills (AI, machine learning, blockchain, etc.).

3. High Employee Turnover

• Retention Struggles: Employees, especially young professionals, often see small companies as stepping stones, moving on to larger companies or those with better prospects after gaining some experience.
• Limited Career Growth: Small companies might offer fewer opportunities for career advancement, which makes retaining high-potential employees difficult.

4. Training and Development

• Lack of Training Programs: Many small businesses don't have the infrastructure to develop talent through formal training and upskilling programs, which limits employees' potential for growth within the company.
• Cost of Training: Investing in training and development can be financially burdensome for small companies. When employees leave soon after being trained, it compounds the problem.

5. Employer Branding

• Weak Brand Image: Small companies often struggle with employer branding, making them less appealing to potential candidates who may be unaware of their existence or their unique value propositions.
• Limited Recruitment Networks: They may not have access to the same recruitment platforms, industry networks, or placement cells that larger companies utilize.

6. Cultural Fit and Management Style

• Mismatch of Expectations: Many small businesses have more informal structures and decision-making processes, which may not appeal to all candidates, especially those with experience in larger, more structured organizations.
• Workplace Culture: The smaller workforce and lack of professional HR departments in many small companies can lead to issues with workplace culture, including unclear role definitions, inconsistent performance management, and communication breakdowns.

7. Compliance and HR Expertise

• Limited HR Support: Small companies often lack a dedicated HR team or proper policies in place for performance management, employee engagement, and legal compliance.
• Legal and Regulatory Challenges: Keeping up with labor laws, tax regulations, and employee benefits can be overwhelming for small businesses without the proper HR expertise, leading to potential compliance issues.

8. Limited Access to Specialists

• Challenges in Hiring Specialized Roles: Positions requiring specialized knowledge or high-demand skills (such as marketing strategists, data scientists, or supply chain experts) may be difficult to fill due to the limited budget and lack of visibility.

9. Work-Life Balance and Benefits

• Inadequate Benefits: Small companies might struggle to offer attractive non-salary benefits like flexible working hours, health insurance, or retirement plans, which many talented employees seek.
• High Workload: Employees in small firms often have to juggle multiple roles and responsibilities, leading to burnout or dissatisfaction over time.

Potential Solutions

While the talent problems are significant, there are ways Indian small businesses can overcome them:

1. Leverage Internships and Apprenticeships: Offering internships and apprenticeships can help build a pipeline of talent, while also allowing the company to train potential future employees.
2. Outsource Non-Core Activities: Outsourcing certain roles (HR, accounting, IT services) can allow small businesses to focus on their core operations while accessing expertise without having to hire full-time.
3. Emphasize Culture and Flexibility: Small companies can offer personalized work cultures, greater autonomy, and flexibility, which can be a strong draw for certain candidates.
4. Partner with Educational Institutions: Collaborating with universities, training institutes, or technical schools can create a sustainable talent pipeline.
5. Invest in Employee Development: Even with limited resources, offering mentorship, on-the-job learning, or partnerships with external training providers can improve employee satisfaction and retention.

By addressing these issues creatively, small businesses in India can better compete in the talent marketplace and secure the skilled employees they need to grow.

Motivate Your Employees without Raising their Pay - (Part II)

Motivate Your Employees without Raising their Pay - Part (II)

To read first ten points, please visit Part (I)

11. Executive Recognition. This is the secret weapon. And like any secret weapon, timing is most critical. If this is used too often the value is diminished. And if it is used only for special occasions and rare achievements the value is escalated. We talked earlier about general recognition and the positive impact that has on your people. That will go up a few notches when it comes from an executive. Some of the same vehicles can be used here such as memos and voice mail. To add yet another level of stimulation, have an executive either personally call to congratulate someone (or a group) or even show up in person to shake hands and express his or her appreciation.

12. Social Gatherings. Scheduled offsite events enhance bonding which in turn helps team spirit, which ultimately impacts your positive work environment. Halloween costume parties, picnics on July 4th, Memorial Day or Labor Day, and Christmas parties are only some of the ideas that successfully bring people together for an enjoyable time. Some others that I've used with equal success are softball games (against other companies or among employees, depending on staff size), groups going putt-putt golfing or movie madness.

13. Casual Dress Day. This will apply more to the Business-to-Business world based on the difference in normal dress codes from the Business-to-Consumer arena. For those required to "dress business" every day a casual day becomes a popular desire. Use holidays to create theme color casual days such as red and green before Christmas or red, white and blue before July 4th, or black and orange prior to Halloween. This will add to the impact you're trying to have by calling a casual day in the first place. Establish pre-vacation casual days for each individual employee to enjoy on the day before his or her vacation.

Major sports events are a perfect opportunity for casual days to support your local or favorite team with appropriate colors, buttons, and logo wear. Spontaneous casual days produce a lot or stimulation based on the element of surprise. Announce a casual dress day for the following work day "just because." Use individual or team casual dress days as contest prizes or awards for specific accomplishment.

14. Time Off. Implement contests that earn time off. People will compete for 15 minutes or 1/2 hour off just as hard as they will for a cash award. And in many cases, I have had people pick time off over cash when given the choice. Put goals in place (padded of course) and when these goals are reached by individuals, teams or the entire staff, reward them with time off. Allow early dismissals, late arrivals, and extended lunch periods or additional breaks.

15. Outside Seminars. Outside seminars are a stimulating break. Because outside seminars are not always cost efficient for most people, consider on-site seminars or workshops for your staff. Use outside seminars as a contest prize for one or two people. Then set up a structured plan for those seminar attendees to briefly recreate the seminar to the rest of your people when they return. Now everyone gets educated for the price of one.

16. Additional Responsibility. There are definitely employees in your organization who are begging for and can handle additional responsibility. Our job as managers is to identify who they are and if possible match responsibilities to their strengths and desires.

17. Theme Contests. Over the years my contests have produced up to 170% increase in performance. But equally as important, they've helped maintain positive environments that have reduced employee turnover by 400%.

Overall the most successful contests seem to be those affiliated with different themes. Holidays, anniversaries, sports and culture are examples of ideas to base contests on. Sports, without a doubt, provide the largest opportunity for a wide variety of contests. Even Culture can be used to create theme contest. My favorite is using the '50s and '60s as a theme for a contest that I run at least once a year.

18. Stress Management. There are many articles and books available on the subject. Make this reference material available to your people. Make sure they know it is available and encourage them to use it.

If possible, have an in-house seminar on stress management techniques. So that production time is not lost, you might consider having a brown bag luncheon with a guest speaker on this subject. Because stress is an ongoing concern, anytime is a good time for a seminar like this to take place. Be as flexible as you can with breaks during the course of the day.

19. Pizza/Popcorn/Cookie Days. Every now and then pizza, popcorn, or cookie days will help break up that everyday routine and help people stay motivated. Because it is a natural tendency for people to get excited in anticipation of something, structure some of these days in advance. Then buy some pizzas or different cookies or even whip out some different types of popcorn.

20. Gags and Gimmicks. Use different gimmicks as awards to help inspire performance increases from your people. The key to awards is establishing the perception of priceless value that is associated with them. They should be recognized as status symbols in your environment. Here are some of my ideas:

. Plastic/rubber whale for "whale" of a performance.

. Pillsbury dough boy for the person raisin' the most bread.

. Cardboard stars for star-studded performances.

. Plastic phonograph records for setting a new record.

. California raisins for those with the highest percentage of "raisin" their productivity.

. Special parking space for the person who drives the hardest.

. Toy cymbals for those "symbolizing" total effort.

. Special Mountain Dew can for that person who exemplifies the "can do" attitude.

. A figurine of E.T. for out-of-this-world performance.

. The Eveready Bunny for those that keep going, and going, and going.

. Large Tootsie Roll replica for those on a "roll."

. A drum for the person that "drums" up the most business.

Motivate your Employees without Raising their Pay

Motivate your Employees without Raising their Pay

In the false theory, it is a costly mistake to get lost that more money equals happy employees.
Believing this is costing you valuable time, revenue, employees...and even threatening your own job.

Cash will always be a major factor in motivating people and a solid compensation plan is critical to attracting and keeping key personnel.

But the key is that additional cash is not always the only answer and in many cases not even the best answer.

Too many bonus or commission checks get cashed, spent and forgotten just that quickly. Grocery stores and gasoline stations are among the necessary stops thatseem to get in the way of using your extra cash on something special for you.

One alternative to giving commissions or bonus dollars is to give gifts through a catalog point system.

The company you choose will provide you with catalogs, price sheets and point checks at no charge. The structure for your bonus plan can remain the same but instead of awarding cash to your employees you award equivalent points. Those points may then be used to purchase an enormous variety of gifts or travel plans from the catalog.

The stimulation involved is long-lasting. It begins with the employee being able to browse the catalog choosing what they will strive to earn. The catalog acts as a tangible reminder of their goal. The gift itself will last as evidence of their achievements.

Whenever I have implemented this program, the employees are overwhelmingly in favor of the point system as opposed to cash. This type of program is very popular with employees because they purchase things they would never normally have the "money" to afford.

With solid compensation in place, let's look at non-monetary motivation...20 steps to success.

1. Recognition/Attention. When your employees accomplish something they have achieved something. Your recognition is appreciation for that achievement. I believe that most managers don't give enough recognition because they don't get enough. Therefore, it doesn't come natural to do it. If this applies to you, you need to drop this excuse like a bad habit! Become a giver! Look at the price. Recognition is free!

2. Applause. A form of recognition yes, but a very specific form. Physically applaud your people by giving them a round of applause for specific achievements. Where? When? The answer is wherever and whenever. At meetings or company-sponsored social gatherings, a luncheon, or in the office. At the end of a shift, before a shift, and whenever possible in the middle of a shift.

Using plaques or trophies is another effective way of applauding your people. Although "wooden applause" is often successfully used in the form of Employee of the Month plaques, more creative ideas are sorely underutilized. Take the time to be creative, matching special accomplishments with unique awards.

3. One-on-One Coaching. Coaching is employee development. Your only cost is time. Time means you care. And remember your people don't care how much you know... until they know how much you care.

Whenever the emphasis is on positive feedback, I make sure to do this coaching in "public." Whenever you recognize and encourage people in "public," it acts as a natural stimulant for others who are close enough to see or hear what's taking place.

4. Training. Is training ever finished? Can you possibly overtrain? NO and NO. For whatever reasons, too many people feel "My people have already been trained" or "I've got good people...they only need a little training." But training never ends. Schedule "tune- up" training sessions. These should be led by you or by a supervisor with help from specific employees who show a particular strength in the skills taught. I know this takes time, but these types of training sessions will continually enhance the performance of your people and the productivity of your business.

5. Career Path. Your employees need to know what is potentially ahead for them, what opportunities there are for growth. This issue is a sometimes forgotten ingredient as to the importance it plays in the overall motivation of people.

Set career paths within your organization. Do you promote from within? I hope you can answer yes to that. Although specific circumstances require you to look for talent outside your company you should always first consider internal personnel. If you do this you are sending a very positive message to every one that there are indeed further career opportunities within your organization.

6. Job Titles. When you talk about job titles you are tapping the self-esteem of people. How someone feels about the way they are perceived in the workforce is a critical component to overall attitude and morale. Picture a social gathering that includes some of your staff. The subject of work inevitably comes up. Will your people be proud, or embarrassed, to share their title and workplace? The importance of feeling proud of who you are and what you do is monumental.

Be creative as you think of possibilities for titles. Have your staff come up with ideas giving them input into the titles. Bottom line, you are dealing with pride...and pride enhances a positive attitude...and a positive attitude is the foundation for continuing success.

7. Good Work Environment. A recent industry study shows just how inaccurate your results can be. Employers were asked to rank what they thought motivated their peopleand then employees were asked to rank what really did motivate them.

Employers felt "working conditions" was a nine (or next to last) in terms of importance. What did the employees say? Number two! Working conditions are very important to the way employees feel about where they work.

Cosmetically, does your office look nice? Are there pictures on the walls, plants and fresh paint among other features that generally make people feel good about their environment? Does their work space have enough room or are they cramped in a "sardine can?" What about furniture? Is the desk the right size, chair comfortable? Is there file space and do they have the miscellaneous office supplies needed for maximum performance? Is the temperature regulated properly so they don't feel they're in the Amazon jungle one minute and the North Pole the next?

8. On-the-Spot Praise. This too is associated with recognition but the key here is timing. When there is a reason for praising someone don't put it off for any reason! Promptness equals effectiveness. Praise people when the achievement is fresh on everyone's mind.

What is effective is for us to get off our keisters and go out and tell whoever it is what a great presentation it was or applaud them for the sale...praise them promptly for what they accomplished or achieved! Don't allow time to creep in and snatch away any ounce of the positive impact that praise can have when it is delivered promptly.

9. Leadership Roles. Give your people leadership roles to reward their performance and also to help you identify future promotable people. Most people are stimulated by leadership roles even in spot appearances. For example, when visitors come to your workplace use this opportunity to allow an employee to take the role of visitors guide.

A great place to hand out leadership roles is to allow your people to lead brief meetings. Utilize your employees' strengths and skills by setting up "tune up" training sessions and let one of your employees lead the training. The best time to do this is when new people start.

Or, assign a meeting leader after someone has attended an outside seminar or workshop. Have them lead a post show, briefing the other employees regarding seminar content and highlights.
Have your employees help you lead a project team to improve internal processes.

10. Team Spirit. Have a picture taken on your entire staff (including you!), have it enlarged and hang it in a visible spot. Most people like to physically see themselves as part of a group or team.

When running contests in your area, try to create contests and affiliated activity that are team driven. People driving to reach goals together definitely enhance team spirit solely because they must lean upon others and be prepared to be leaned on.

One very effective idea for me has been building a collage of creative ideas with the "Team" theme. All employees are responsible for submitting a phrase referring to TEAM on a weekly rotation. Each of these ideas (such as TEAM: Total Enthusiasm of All Members or There is no I in Team) is placed on a wall, creating a collage of Team-oriented phrases. Don't have one person responsible for this...do it as a team.

To read more, Please visit Part (II)

Emerging Trends in Managing Human Resources

If we trace back the history of business environment, in the early years, trading patterns and markets were stable, technology was static, customers were passive, speed in getting to market was secondary, competition was limited to sectors and regions, and hierarchies were generally accepted in all walks of life. No more, since 1960’s, America and much of the rest of the world has been almost continually buffeted by change. Customers demand that businesses do it better, faster, cheaper; employees want to control more than the “Stop” button on the assembly line. The twentieth century saw nations around the world become part of the global village, with trade barriers between them reduced or removed completely. Globalization of trade and economy are taking deep roots in India. The holistic paradigm shift to a single global company has opened up new economic opportunities. Events of the last five years of the previous century have focused our attention on knowledge industries. Quality human resources have therefore become an important base with which to respond to the emerging environment. The knowledge workforce in particular has a vital role to play in the emergence of the digital economy.

A look at the trends in managing people in this dynamic industry reflects that Attracting, Managing, Nurturing talent and Retaining people has emerged to be the single most critical issue in lieu of the enormous opportunities spun off by the market. The new avatar of talent is the knowledge professional who is innovative, business savvy, quick on the uptake, has an instinctive ability to network, and possessing unbridled ambition. They are propelled by an urge to experiment, scan new avenues that can spur their creativity. The knowledge professional will gravitate to an organization that is flexible, has strong values, a robust performance ethic and provides challenging work on latest technology. This has led to companies proactively taking measures on three fronts. First, companies create an organizational ambience where talent can bloom. Second, they put in place systems that help unleash their potential and third, they build a reward and recognition mechanism that provides value for people.

Profound systemic changes have been seen in the way companies are structured. The concepts of leadership and managing people gave undergone a radical rethink. Cubicles, hierarchies and rigid organization structures of the past, have now given way to open work environment, flat structure with informality being a general rule and empowerment of individuals. Today work itself is centered around projects, which have virtual teams working on them. This work structure has led to a culture of flexi time, round the clock accessibility to the workplace. Also catching up fast is the trend of workstations at home, remote access, video-conferencing and reporting by exception. To stay one step ahead of the aspirations of their people, companies are continuously striving to provide an intellectually stimulating environment. Few examples being, in-house libraries, continuous up gradation of knowledge and skills, knowledge sharing, building relationships with academia thus enabling knowledge workers to pursue multiple careers within a single company. Coming times will see sabbaticals forming part of the organization culture, corporate universities dotting the new horizon, competing companies bunching together to setup knowledge networks.

Companies today are constantly striving towards enhancing the quality of work life and also the personal life of its employees and this does not stop with the employee buts gets extended to his / her family as well. In-house health clubs, yoga and meditation centers to relieve stress, sports and cultural activities, employee get-togethers with invitations to come over with families, day care centers and many of the like are being provided by companies.

With the increasing size of the companies, the top down communication model of yesteryears has been replaced by bottom up, cross level communication thereby encouraging people to voice their opinions and feelings. Open house sessions, mentoring, online chats on the intranet have emerged to be the communication enablers.

The new economy has given rise to a culture of working in teams. Today no job in the knowledge industry can be performed in isolation. Since working in teams is not a passing fad, companies are now designing compensation structures, which rewards team performance in addition to individual performance.

To conclude, change is here to stay, and we need to understand that all the practices that are working today may not necessarily work tomorrow. Customers’ expectations, market changes and strategic decisions will derive the tools to managing the human assets.

Effective Leadership to Influence Motivation

A person's motivation is combination of desire and energy directed at achieving a goal. Influencing someone's motivation means getting him or her to want to do what you know must be done.

People can be motivated by beliefs, values, interests, fear, worthy causes, and other such forces. Some of these forces are internal, such as needs, interests, and beliefs. Others are external, such as danger, the environment, or pressure from a loved one. There is no simple formula for motivation -- you must keep an open viewpoint on human nature. There is a complex array of forces steering the direction of each person and these forces cannot always be seen or studied. Also, if the same forces are steering two different people, each on will act differently. Knowing that different people react to different needs will guide your decisions and actions in certain situations.

As a leader you have the power to influence motivation. The following guidelines form the basic view of motivation. They will guide you in your decision making process towards influencing motivation.

. Allow the needs of your people to coincide with the needs of your organization.

Nearly all people are influenced by the need for job security, promotion, raises, and approval of their peers, and leaders. Internal forces such as value, morals, and ethics also influence them. Likewise, the organization needs good people in a wide variety of jobs. Ensure that your people are trained, encouraged, and provided the opportunity to grow. Ensure that the way you conduct business has the same values, moral, and ethic principles that you seek in your people. If you conduct business in a dishonest manner, your people will be dishonest to you.

. Reward good behavior. Although a certificate, letter, or a thank you may seem small, they can be powerful motivators. The reward should be specific and prompt. Do not say, "for doing a good job." Cite the specific action that made you believed it was a good job. In addition, help your people who are good. We all make mistakes or need help to achieve a particular goal.

. Set the example. You must be the role model by setting examples that you want your people to grow into.

. Develop moral and esprit. Moral is the mental, emotional, and spiritual state of a person. Almost everything you do will have some impact on the moral of your organization.1of 2 You should always be aware how your actions and decisions affect it. Esprit means team spirit - it is defined as the spirit or the soul of the organization. It is the consciousness of the organization that you and your people identify with and feel a part of. Is your workplace a place where people cannot wait to get away from, or is it a place that people enjoy spending a part of their lives?

. Let your people be part of the planning and problem solving process. There are several reasons for this. First, it teaches them and allows you to coach them. Second, it motivates them. People who are part of the decision making process become the owners of it. It gives them a personal interest in seeing the plan succeed. Third, communication is clearer. Everyone has a better understanding of what role they must play as part of the team. Next, it creates an open trusting communication bond. They are no longer just the doers for the organization. Now they are part of it. And finally, it shows that you recognize and appreciate them. Recognition and appreciation from a respected leader are powerful motivators.

. Look out for your people. Although you do not have control over their personal lives, you must show concern for them. Things that seem to no importance to you, might seem extremely critical to them. You must be able to empathize with them. This is from the German word, einfuhling, which means "to feel with." This is the ability to perceive another person's view of the world as though that view were your own. Empathy differs from sympathy in that sympathy connotes spontaneous emotion rather than a conscious, reasoned response. Sympathizing with others may be less useful to another person if we are limited by the strong feelings of the moment.

. Make their jobs challenging, exciting, and meaningful. Make them feel that they are individuals in a great team. People need meaningful work, even if it is tiring and unpleasant; they need to know that it is important and necessary for the survival of the organization.

. Counsel people who behave in a way that are counter to the company's goals. You must let people know when they are not performing to acceptable standards for further improvement. Some time you need to protect your performer. For example, if someone in your department is always late arriving for work and it is causing disruptions, and then you must take action. On the other hand, if you have an extremely good performer and once in a while he is few minutes late, then do the right thing...protect him from the bureaucracy!

The Role of HRM in Knowledge Management

Knowledge management has become a fashionable term in organizations today. We can define knowledge management as the discipline that promotes an integrated approach to identifying, capturing, retrieving, sharing, and evaluating an enterprise’s information assets. These information assets may include databases, documents, policies, and procedures as well as uncaptured, tacit expertise and experience resident in individual workers.

HR and Knowledge Management

There are several roles that can be played by HR in developing knowledge management system.

First, HR should help the organization articulate the purpose of the knowledge management system. Investing in a knowledge management initiative without a clear sense of purpose is like investing in an expensive camera that has far more capabilities than you need to take good pictures of family and friends. Too often, organizations embrace technologies to solve problems before they've even identified the problems they are trying to solve. Then, once they realize the error, they find it difficult to abandon the original solution and difficult to gather the resources needed to invest in a solution to the real problem. Effectively framing the knowledge management issue, before deciding on a course of action, is a crucial prerequisite for success.

Second, as a knowledge facilitator, HRM must ensure alignment among an organization's mission, statement of ethics, and policies: These should all be directed toward creating an environment of sharing and using knowledge with full understanding of the competitive consequences. Furthermore, HRM must nourish a culture that embraces getting the right information to the right people at the right time.

Third, HRM should also create the "ultimate employee experience." That is, by transforming tacit knowledge into explicit knowledge through education, organizations must build employee skills, competencies, and careers, creating "bench strength." This combines the traditional training and development responsibilities of HRM with the new responsibilities of human capital steward: using all of the organization's resources to create strategic capability. Disney's new staff orientation, which emphasizes the firm's mission, values, and history within a context of the "magic kingdom" experience, is an example of this process of making tacit knowledge more visible.

Fourth, HRM must integrate effective knowledge sharing and usage into daily life. That is, knowledge sharing must be expected, recognized, and rewarded. For many individuals and organizations, this reverses the conventional relationship between knowledge and power. Often, the common pattern was to hoard knowledge because it made the individual more valuable and more difficult to replace. Effective knowledge management requires this trend to be overturned and requires those with information to become teachers and mentors who ensure that others in the firm know what they know. Teaching must become part of everyone's job. Clearly, for such a cultural shift to take place, HRM must overhaul selection, appraisal, and compensation practices. Human resource management has the capabilities for creating, measuring, and reinforcing a knowledge-sharing expectation.

Fifth, HRM must relax controls and allow (even encourage) behaviors that, in the clockwork world of industrial efficiency, never would have been tolerated. For example, conversations at the water cooler were viewed in the past as unproductive uses of employee time—after all, employees were not at their desks completing specified tasks detailed in their job descriptions. In the knowledge economy, conversations inside and outside the company are the chief mechanism for making change and renewal an ongoing part of the company's culture.

As another example, consider individuals in organizations described as "gossips," who would rather talk than work. Frederick Taylor's industrial engineers would have eliminated these gossips from workplaces in the early twentieth century, since they did nothing that was perceptibly valuable. However, in the knowledge economy, if the conversations are relevant to the firm's strategic intent, these same people may be described as "knowledge brokers": those individuals who like to move around the company to hear what is going on, sparking new knowledge creation by carrying ideas between groups of people who do not communicate directly. If the topics serve organizational needs, these individuals play a role similar to bees that cross-pollinate flowers and sustain a larger ecosystem.

Organizations should selectively recognize and reward, rather than universally discourage and punish, these types of behaviors. Clearly, not all conversation is productive and constructive. Human resource management still must play a role in discouraging gossip that undermines, rather than promotes, a learning community. Human resource management will need to adjust both its own perspective (from rule-enforcer) as well as that of managers and others who hold outdated notions of what is "real work."

Sixth, HRM must take a strategic approach to helping firms manage email, instant messenger, internet surfing, and similar uses of technology. Clearly, the Internet has a role in generating and disseminating knowledge, and therefore is an integral part of knowledge management. But what are the unintended effects of monitoring email, tracking employees' web searches, and similar issues related to privacy? Certainly some control is needed, but the larger question for HRM is determining appropriate boundaries. When does control become counterproductive? When does excessive monitoring become an inappropriate invasion of privacy?

A related issue is HRM's role in helping firms manage the distancing consequences of electronic communication. As employees increasingly rely on technology to communicate, they lose opportunities to develop the rich, multifaceted relationships that encourage the communication of tacit knowledge. Human resource management can contribute to developing social capital by sensitizing employees to the negative consequences of excessive reliance on electronic media and by creating opportunities for face-to-face contact.

Seventh, HRM must champion the low-tech solutions to knowledge management. Although it should not ignore the high-tech knowledge management tools, HRM contains the expertise to develop low-tech knowledge management strategies. For example, when the team that developed the Dustbuster vacuum tool was created, they were given a "war room" in which they could spread out their materials and leave sketches, models, notes, and so on plastered on walls and throughout the workspace. These visible outputs of their thinking processes helped create a shared context for their efforts and turned the room into a truly collaborative workspace.

Some Asian firms, such as Dai-Ichi, create special rooms (with green tea and comfortable places to sit), where researchers are expected to spend a half-hour daily, telling whomever they meet about their current work. Neither of the two preceding examples requires large financial investments in technology that will rapidly become obsolete. Yet both examples demonstrate how HRM could help a firm orchestrate and facilitate knowledge sharing.

As can be seen from the previous discussion, the knowledge facilitator role cannot be easily slotted into traditional HRM functions, such as training and development or compensation. The knowledge facilitator role is much more broad and requires creative integration across traditional HRM activities. It entails both rethinking old ways of managing the workplace as well as using innovative approaches outside the box of traditional HRM. Most important, becoming an effective knowledge facilitator requires conceptualizing HRM as a vehicle for creating capabilities and capitalizing on the human factor to create a community of knowledge workers.

HR Policy and Manual

HR policies vary considerably from one organization to another, depending on the age of the organization, its size, the nature of the workforce and the position regarding union recognition, but here are the main policy areas:

Principles:

This is a statement about the general view by the management of employment in the organization. It is likely to carry ringing phrases about teamwork, fairness, innovation and opportunity, but may also include a declaration about the degree and method of employee involvement and the security of employment in different parts of the workforce.

Staffing and development:

Here will be the specific undertakings to employees and the management strategies to be followed in appointing the most appropriate people, providing the opportunities for career growth and ensuring that employees develop their skills and capacities in line with the growth of the business. The main features of this policy area are how vacancies will be determined, where applicants will be sought and how decisions will be made in selection. There will be further sections on how promotions are made, training opportunities and requirements, as well as the use of performance appraisal and assessment centers.

Employee relations:

Policies in the area of employee relations will depend on the union recognition situation, but typical features are arrangements about recognition, bargaining units and union membership agreements, agree¬ments relating to negotiation, consultation, shop steward representation, membership of joint committees, safety matters and points of reference, such as following national engineering agreements on the number of days' annual holiday.

Mutual control:

Several features of policy and related procedure deal with the working relationship between the organization and the employee or employees. These are mainly to deal with the approach to matters of grievance and discipline.

Terms and conditions:

Aspects of terms and conditions policies are approaches to determining differentials in payment, levels of sick pay, pension provision, holidays, study leave and hours of work.

Equality of opportunity:

A different type of HR policy is that relating to equality of opportunity. Theoretically, equalizing opportunity should be subsumed in all the other areas, but legislation and pressure groups have tended to identify this as an area needing separate treatment.

DEVISING POLICIES

HR specialists could use the following procedure to devise policies:

1) Identify the topic: Individual topics on which policy clarification is needed have to be identified and worked on when the time is ripe. In identifying the topic, one has to be sure that it is correctly identified and that a policy statement will be timely.

2) Determine the key features: After the general idea has been accepted and shaped, there will be the key features of the policy to be determined. In the area of trade union recognition, the idea to be sold is whether or not to recognize. If the idea of recognition is accepted, the key features to be determined will be to decide which union to recognize and for what the union will be recognized - individual grievances only, terms and conditions of employment, manning levels or what?

3) Agree the details: The last stage is to agree the precise details of the policy statement, with all the implications for later interpretation and implementation. If the key features have been previously determined, then the detailed considerations can be carried through without the risk of jeopar¬dizing what the policy is intended to achieve, but the importance of the details should not be ignored.

Ref: Derek Torrington and Laura Hall

Keep employees' morale up in difficult times

Motivating employees is always important, but inspiring your team takes on increased significance during challenging economic times. When business results are less than promising, emotions, such as fear and anxiety, can bring employee performance to a standstill.

Here are some suggestions from the Tennessee Society of Certified Public Accountants (TSCPA) to help foster productivity, high morale and loyalty in your work force during the best and worst of times.

Give them vision.

To keep up morale, make sure employees know and understand the organization's mission, vision, values and goals. These concepts represent the organization's reason for being and, as such, help workers focus their efforts in the right direction and see that their contributions matter. Be sure they know who benefits from the work of your organization.

Don't hide the target.

Setting clear expectations is a great way to motivate employees and keep them on track. Clearly establish goals with each employee. Indicate the results you expect and how those results contribute to the overall performance of your business. To confirm their understanding, ask employees if they have any questions or need any resources to complete the tasks you assign. Finally, make sure if the organization's goals change, you let your employees know how these changes impact their roles.

Provide regular feedback.

Conducting an annual employee performance review is important, but it's not enough. Employees need to know, on an ongoing basis, when they have done a job well and when you expect better or different results. Keep in mind that the more immediate the feedback, the more effective it is. Try to catch people in the act of doing what you want and acknowledge their performance immediately.

Make employees part of the solution.

Employees need to be involved. Empowering employees to make decisions about their work and to solve day-to-day problems demonstrates your confidence in them and motivates them to live up to your expectations. Another bonus: When you make employees part of the solution, it is easier to get their buy-in and commitment for the long term.

Focus on people development.

Since most people thrive when skill building and learning are part of their daily experiences, investing in your staff's development should remain a priority. Training, career development and other learning opportunities don't have to cost a lot, particularly when you use internal resources. The best way to ensure the growth of your team is to create an individual development plan for each employee and work with them to carry out the plan.

Communicate, communicate, communicate.

You cannot overcommunicate, particularly in uncertain or difficult times. Sharing information and building your staff's understanding of what's happening in the business and in the industry is key to engaging them and to aligning their efforts and performance with the organization's objectives.

What's more, sharing information with employees sets a good example and encourages them to do the same with one another. Since not everyone processes information the same way, it's helpful to use multiple forms of communication, particularly when the information is critical.

For example, you might follow up an e-mail message with a voice-mail reminder. And don't assume that, just because a communication has gone out, that it has been understood and accepted. Instead, ask questions to confirm comprehension.

1. Don't overlook the power of praise. Recognizing and rewarding workers is one of the best ways to impact morale. Acknowledge good effort, not just results. Keep in mind that different things motivate people, whether it is money, travel, training, promotions or a flexible work schedule. The best way to find out what motivates your staff is to ask them.

2. Build fun. There are important milestones in the life of every business. Be sure to mark them. Throw a party and celebrate your workers' accomplishments. Don't ever allow yourself to get so caught up in the daily routine that you fail to see the good work being done.

3. Be positive. Every day millions of people arrive at their workplace ready to contribute their best. The attitude of business leaders can greatly impact employees. Be positive and supportive and your employees are more likely to act similarly.

Motivating Employees In The Changing Business Environment

In the past, business and workers had an unspoken, but very real, agreement.

Business said to the worker, “If you will sacrifice your mind, body, and spirit for the good of the corporation—or at least to what your managers say is for the good of the corporation—then we will keep faith in you. We will provide you with a sizable measure of job security and predictability and we will seek to provide you with a steadily improving standard of living.” Motivating employees was relatively straightforward, although seldom easy. It was a matter of a simple exchange, the employee’s loyalty and commitment in return for job security.

In the new economy, the days of lifetime jobs and simple commitments are over. Employers readily announce layoffs. Employees just as readily leave for better offers. In an ironic twist, the new-economy knowledge organization proclaims people to be its most important asset then treats them like they are disposable. Balancing the corporation’s need for flexibility with employee demands for respect and fair treatment is becoming increasingly difficult, and effective management of human resources is critical. How do you motivate your people to higher and higher levels of performance when all of the rules have changed? How do you motivate your employees when the simple exchange of the past isn’t simple any longer?

Last year, a project was designed identifying the best ideas shared by top management thinkers about workplace best practices to deal with a changing environment. And, in the 21st century, continual change will become the norm. Here are four practices most management experts feel are essential for getting the best performance from employees. These practices all focus on motivation.

1: Provide Meaning and Purpose in Work
Employees need to have a reason for their organization’s existence that extends beyond the stock price, next month's sales, and year-end profits. Companies must have a product, a mission, or simply a vision of the industry that employees find exciting and energizing. These employees may not be with you for the long term but, while they are part of your workforce, they want to accomplish something worthwhile.

Merck is a good example of a company that provides such a purpose. This pharmaceutical manufacturer promotes itself as a company that puts people before profits and backs up that commitment with action such as putting a below-market price on its anti-AIDS drug and giving away medicine to developing countries. Maybe that's why in a recent survey, 97 percent of Merck’s employees said they were proud to work for the company and 86 percent said they thought their work had special meaning. Merck demonstrates a higher purpose than profits.

2: Be Work/Life Friendly
Offer your employees a range of benefits such as flextime, compressed workweeks, telecommuting, job sharing, on-site childcare, banking and dry cleaning. More importantly, it means working with employees in a genuine effort to be flexible. The best companies today recognize that employees have lives outside the workplace and that they can no longer neatly separate work and family, career and the rest of life. These companies don't just help employees manage their lives outside of work; they allow employees to bring their life into their work.

3: Share the Rewards
In our knowledge economy, time is becoming increasingly disconnected from value. The number of hours a person works today doesn't count except when these hours add delay or unnecessary expense, and then they count against the company and not for it. Today, value lies in the knowledge and skill which are applied to create, innovate, produce, service, entertain, and excite—not in hours expended. This change in perspective is leading best-practice companies to replace traditional compensation systems that tie base pay to hours, position and job content with compensation systems that tie base pay to skills and/or competencies, and to provide incentives tied to group and/or company performance rather than to individual performance. The latter practice usually consists of some combination of corporate-wide profit sharing and/or stock ownership or options coupled with gain-sharing and/or group incentives in major operating units. Employees today want to share in the financial rewards of what they produce, and they want to be compensated for the value they deliver, not the hours they invest.

4: Open the Books
If you really want to motivate your employees, you have to quit keeping secrets. You have to “open the books.” Two practices that are not typically found in most organizations are critical:
Business and Financial Education. You must make a concerted effort to educate your employees about the business. This usually involves mandatory training for everyone in the company.
Information Sharing. By definition, open-book management means just that—opening the books, sharing information, giving every employee access to the financial and operating data.

Conclusion
In the old workplace, few workers expected meaning and purpose from their work. At most, they hoped for a measure of job security and a slowly rising paycheck. Most workers assumed that they had to adjust their lives to their employer’s demands and could expect little, if any, accommodation in return. Work and one’s personal life were to be kept completely separate. An employee might occasionally get a small bonus, but it normally amounted to very little and was presented more as a gift from his employer than as an earned share. Finally, every company kept secrets. Only those with “a need to know” were allowed to know, and the prevailing wisdom was that most employees needed to know very little. Times really have changed. Employee expectations are certainly much different. You can’t motivate them any longer with the offer of a simple exchange—their commitment and loyalty in return for a job. Maybe that is why these four essentials are so essential.