Cheer Leaders! Organisational Behaviour

Ignoring tell-tale signs of employee depression can have adverse consequences on organisational well- being

Key learnings:

• Mental well -being is as important an aspect as the physical health of the employee
• Absenteeism, negative attitudes and unexplained behaviours cost the company in terms of money and healthy work culture

Absenteeism and lowered productivity as a result of physical stress and ill-health are causing a dip in the productivity levels of organsiations. However, depression and state of mental distress cause a lot more than just a drain in productivity levels.

Depressing facts:

Most often, depression is ignored and employees or individuals are told to pull up their socks and get going

• When an employee is depressed it affects his working pattern and thinking
• Depressed employees either think or worry too much or remain indifferent to situations and people around
• Depression costs employers USD 44 billion a year in lost productivity
  

Absenteeism and presenteesim Organisational losses because of absenteeism are always accounted for. But, many a times, presenteesim causes loss in terms of productivity. Presenteesim as a consequence of depression can be defined as "the people with depression showing up for work but not functioning at anywhere near full capacity. Some examples are failing to return phone calls, turning in poor-quality work, missing deadlines altogether, not following up on new business leads, being paralysed with indecision, inability to face work at all, coming in late, leaving early, or not even returning from lunch, difficulty in getting along with coworkers, withdrawing from the social environment at work."

Sadly, many of us brush aside these things hoping that time will help us overcome difficult situations. Doctors however warn that it is very important to identify signs of depression among employees. Some apparent symptoms are:

• Diminishing performance
• Absenteeism
• More mistakes at work
• Complaining of disturbed sleep and falling asleep at work
• Fatigued feeling all the time
• Losing the cheer factor
• Minimised concentration
• Upsetting talk and worrying always
• Displaying emotions at the drop of the hat
• Remaining isolated from co-workers
• Reluctance to join in informal meetings and fun outings
• Irritability and emotional outbursts
  

Sometimes depressed individuals spread gloom and the learning and development of the work place can be affected. Any team member's unhealthy attitude can create tensions and affect performance of the entire team.

Role of the employer

When any employee or co-worker exhibits any of the above mentioned signs, managers should address the issue immediately. Many companies offer Employee Assistance Programmes that include mental health and psychological counseling. Research shows that work place depression can cost the organisation millions and experts suggest that employers must encourage their employees to seek professional and medical help.

Helping workers

Learn more and keep employees' informed about depression and how to handle co-workers exhibiting signs of depression.

Awareness is the key here:

Mocking and ridicule can worsen things. All said and done depression is a disease that is curable.

1. Alert: Depressed people are prone to causing mishaps. An alert work environment can thwart risks. Similarly, suicidal tendencies or tendency to harm own self and others are particularly high. An effective EAP must ensure the best medical aid to such employees.
2. Be non-judgmental: Managers are not medically certified to deal with depression cases. It is in the best interest of all to refer such employees to the medical team or experts.
3. Confidential matters: Matters like treatment for depression needn't be discussed with co-workers.
4. Stay flexible: Help the employee by offering flexi schedules during the time of treatment and allowances so that his absence from work doesn't pinch him financially. By working form home the employee can feel connected without the pressures of office cubicle.

The time to be happy is here Psychologists, say socialisation, being appreciated at work and fulfilled work place often are major happiness factors. These are in all likelihood detriments to depression. Simple stapes like

• Doing a job you love
• Pursuing a hobby that can help you feel better
• Learning new skills
• Taking professional help to improve at work
• Creating a work/life balance

Doctors too urge managers and co-workers to eliminate bias against depressed employees. Many times the employee after the treatment puts in better efforts and drives higher productivity. Good managers believe that comprehending their staff's behaviour is as important as understanding their performance.

Timely interventions, medical help and supportive work environment can help employees cope with exhausting situations better and emerge confident and upbeat once again.

Reference: TheManageMentor.

Moving ahead during tough times

It is a seesaw-like situation for executives in the corporate world as each executive tries to justify his personal and professional goals. Pressure times compel top class executives to reveal their true personality. Their determination and composure in such tiring situations reveal their leadership qualities. However each employee can be a leader in his own stride by inculcating perseverance to survive in today's tough world.

Fear factor

Often pressure builds a sense of urgency and forces an individual to arrive at logical solutions for practical problems. When an employee is apprehensive of the outcome of a business strategy he generally tends to evade it thereby complicating the situation. Evading must be the last thing on an employee's mind if survival is his goal.

Away from...

To mobilise organisations, immediacy must be created. Employees though slip into a fear psychosis when faced with immediacy. Fear moves them into immediate action but not necessarily in the same direction. Therefore, all that fear does is to misalign the efforts of individual leaders to motivate employees towards common goals. Fear only brings to naught leaders' efforts to motivate employees. This is further compounded by the stress it produces.
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Corporate health

Stress is the causative factor for many an ailment in the corporate health, leave alone employee personal health. Stressful employees lack creativity and become inefficient. Their perspectives are narrowed down and their problem-solving abilities slacken and learning ceases. Even employee morale diminishes leading to disengagement. Disengagement cannot contribute to peak performance!

The motivating duo

The duo that influences the success of businesses is fear and quite surprisingly leadership. Truly, fear scatters the efforts of employees in random directions. Leadership balances the negative effects of fear in employees by aligning their goals in the desired direction.

Sharing is winning

Pre- defined goals help employees visualise the path they would be treading. Sharing the organisation's vision, mission and values is key to its success.

Good, bad and the best

Identification of ultimate goals unlocks creativity, enhances problem-solving skills and helps utilise resources towards a purposeful mental state. Working towards challenging goals, creates eustress, a positive stress syndrome, which channelises energy. However, directionless movement creates bad stress. The balance between the good and bad stress needs to be delicately managed. Coordination is crucial here. Lack of coordination could paralyse an employee's ability to take on challenges. Therefore, good stress and coordination must complement each other.

The pull effect

Pulling the workforce back into powerful, productive mental state requires effective leadership. Leaders must be positive and shun negative attitudes at the workplace to radiate stress effectively. Spreading positive feelings throughout the team creates intrinsic motivation.

Towards leadership

Extraordinary leaders thrive despite the restrictions imposed by tough and challenging times. That every employee is a leader in himself implies that there must be a storehouse of some intangible inherent characteristics.

Bigger is better. The leader must view the problem in its entirety not in parts. Vision differentiates a leader from a follower. It helps him disentangle the nitty-gritties of a problem that prevent him from resolving it.

Fire from within. Unwarranted faultfinding leads to ineffective teamwork. Leaders must act rationally and objectively, without being carried away by internal conflicts.

First and foremost. Sacrifice is an important characteristic of a good leader. A leader who sacrifices first for his team will earn the loyalty of his subordinates and colleagues.

Calm and composed. A relaxed mind enables employees to make better decisions.
Move them forward. Leaders emphasise on being optimistic motivators during rough times, thereby moving the employees forward towards their goals.

Small leads to the big. Goals must be split into smaller achievable targets. Employees must be rewarded when those goals are achieved. A consistent win in small goals keeps the track of success steady for the employees while motivating them.

Have more of humour. A decent sense of humour even during tough times helps maintain the tempo of work/life balance.

Tripod balance

A motivated team relies on the tripod stand fundamental. So building a motivated team during hardships requires the top management to hire, train and communicate constantly.
Hiring the best is essential because, they make the job of motivating easier. A bad hire for the right job is difficult to motivate.

All employees cannot be perfect but are undoubtedly trainable. A right mix of technical skills, people skills and self-management skills is essential for appropriate training. Training must not only be appropriate, but also adequate. Once trained, employees must be encouraged to take a holistic perspective of their company and replenish their capacity for creativity.

Training promotes competence and therefore, confidence, the latter being an internal motivator. Competence also reduces stress and increases productivity besides improving attitude.

If employees' contributions are not acknowledged, they get demotivated and withdraw. Employees work enthusiastically if their ideas are valued. Talking about uncertain situations help defuse anxiety, which may lead to stress. Truth is an antidote for uncertainty. Therefore, constant communication is an imperative.

Reconnecting people

Once stress is reduced, the onus lies on the leaders to provide a direction to the employees and motivate them adequately and appropriately. Over-motivating the employees could have negative impact too, so leaders must be cautious.

Productivity is about moving forward in a uniform direction once it has been determined with the team consensus. Anxiety and fear are imaginary monsters and employees must avoid fighting them to perform well.

Efficiency at the Workplace

When countless office hours are wasted efficiency, productive and profits of a company are affected. To boost efficiency HR managers must take control, spur employees to work faster and smarter for competitive edge.

Often employees waste countless office hours affecting efficiency and productivity and also the profits of the organisation. Onus is on you as HR manager, for enhancing efficiency and productivity of your company, and ensuring the greater profits.

Mr Ramesh Gelli launched the Global Trust Bank during the 1990s envisaging efficiency and service to the customers as a prime differentiator. In a short span of time, GTB has become a success story. Today it is noted for its efficiency, profitability and prompt service.

To achieve efficiency at the workplace, the HR manager must take control of the workflow. For this, proper planning and new technological tools can help the HR manager to streamline his work The technological support will help the boss to enable his subordinates to work smarter and faster. In doing so they both work better as a team. As a result the company gains the competitive edge.

Top class efficiency at the workplace means more quality time and greater profits. To know whether you as the HR manager are efficiently running your company, look into the following three aspects:

• Time and money;
• Taking control of the workflow; and
• Options for the future.
  

Time and money - Employees waste countless hours in preparing and maintaining files. This old method of office management is highly counterproductive and inefficient. To improve the situation, you can switch over to the technology age and do away with the mountain of files. It not only saves workspace but also lowers the operational costs. However, examine the computer system to see if it is the best industry-specific system available. If the company is having separate computer systems for different tasks it will be losing productivity, which affects the bottom line.

Taking control of the workflow - By being more efficient the HR manager can take control of his workflow. New technology can help him to be more efficient. In turn, this will spur the employees' to work faster and better. Interestingly, a designer computer system that allows multitasking and shared data will inspire the staff to work in cooperation. Double entries can be avoided and thus time and money saved.

Options for the future - When the company cuts costs and increases efficiency, automatically profit margin goes up. However, as a HR practitioner, you should not be satisfied with it. Because a feeling of stagnation will set in. To avoid that condition, look ahead. You may want to extend your resources beyond your office environment involving remote employees. It allows employees to be able to work wherever and whenever they want. In turn this cuts down overheads for the company. When technology saves time and money, and improves efficiency, productivity gets a boost. Automatically, business grows. By being more efficient the HR manager can take control of his workflow. New technology can help him to be more efficient. In turn, this will spur the employees' to work faster and better. Interestingly, a designer computer system that allows multi-tasking and shared data will inspire the staff to work in cooperation. Double entries can be avoided and thus time and money saved.

Performance Appraisal Blues

A performance appraisal can be good or bad, depending on the employee. The appraisal, in theory, is designed to provide an orderly way for an employee’s superior to interact with him, usually on an annual basis, to tell him what the company thinks about his job performance and how to improve it by pointing out key positives and negatives about his on-the-job performance over the past year.

Its primary mission is to give feedback to help employees strengthen their capabilities so that they can be more productive members of the organisation, and in the process receive additional compensation or responsibility.

The review is used to convey both satisfaction with an employee’s job performance (leading, hopefully, to a raise) and dissatisfaction (which could be the precursor to a demotion or even a termination).

To grow with an organisation when an employee has received a less-than-sterling review, he has to learn to separate the "learning" areas from the "hurting" parts of the message (i.e. the personal or work related negatives). For the employee, the bottom line of a performance appraisal is often of a fairly short range.

Most employees come out of an appraisal that is critical of their performance understandably upset or angry. One important thing to remember is that the employee is still at the company (not applying for a job) so there's a lot they can do before resigning themselves to being terminated or being forced to leave.

Five keys to help employees to cope with and overcome a bad appraisal

1. Employees should go in with a list of accomplishments that they have accumulated over the past year. They will be surprised at how much they have accomplished.
2. They should go into the review assuming there will be some negatives, and think of the meeting as a way to learn what specific issues they have to work on to get to that next step. It's the boss' job to let the employees know about areas where they can improve, so the employee should try not to be offended. The employees’ goal is to convince the supervisor, in a positive manner, that they are willing to make that commitment.
3. Before going into a review, employees should separate a page into two columns. The first should be headed "Specific Areas of Strength"; the second, "Specific Areas of Improvement." It's very important that they hear both the good and the bad comments, because they will never improve, to their boss' satisfaction, if they deny, in their anger, that there are any areas needing improvement.
4. Employees should ask for clarification and specific examples if they hear generalisations or don't understand what the problem is. But they should try hard not to be too argumentative.
5. Employees should find out how their boss might solve these issues, and ask for another review in 30 days to address these specific issues, to see if headway is being made.
   

Employees should remember that if they spend their time being hurt by or defensive about what is said, and not learning about what they can do to change their boss' perception, they are doing themselves a disservice.

What they should try to accomplish is to leave the meeting with a good idea of what they can do to improve their boss' perception of them, before the next appraisal. The employees should also create an image of a thoughtful employee who is willing to change and able to modify behaviour.

Good jobs are hard to come by, and if employees like their job, this approach will help to give them a fighting chance to assess and correct areas that their supervisor feels may have been overlooked, without allowing personal feelings to dominate.

Reference: TheManageMentor

Cut Costs Without Cutting Head Count

When money is tight and budgets constrict, many organizations turn to downsizing to cut costs. That's certainly the case currently. U.S. planned layoffs were up a whopping 275 percent in December compared to last year, according to Reuters.

Yet job cuts aren't the only way for companies to reduce spending - and many times they're not the best way, either. According to a 1995 study by William McKinley, Carol Sanchez and Allen Schick in the Academy of Management Journal, "[T]here is considerable evidence that downsizing does not reduce expenses as much as desired, and that sometimes expenses may actually increase."

The authors cited a Wyatt Co. survey that found that fewer than half of respondents who were using restructuring for cost reduction actually met their targets and that only 22 percent of restructuring companies managed to increase productivity to their satisfaction. This likely is still the case today.

The bottom line is that while layoffs are sometimes an unpleasant but necessary reality, they don't have to be the only reality. There are ways for companies to cut costs without resorting to cutting head count in hourly workforces, according to John Anderson, director of retail marketing at Kronos, a workforce and employee management software company.

Anderson offered five alternative steps companies can take to control costs:

1. Align labor budgeting process with strategic goals.

Many budgeting processes don't consider the hidden costs associated with managing a workforce. Companies should ensure their labor budgeting is linked with established business objectives and productivity models.

2. Confirm the proper head count mix.

The right ratio of full-time to part-time workers will keep productivity at the maximum and costs at the minimum. Anderson said companies should be open to the idea that they can reduce spending by actually adding head count in the form of part-time labor.

3. Ensure proper labor allocation.

A lack of understanding of employees' day-to-day work can lead companies to improperly allot spending. Thus, talent managers should ensure job descriptions match up with the actual work done and are in alignment with strategic objectives. They also should examine periods of productivity across the organization and spend less labor money on slower times.

4. Remove the waste.

Companies should look closely at their labor-tracking processes and identify areas for savings. For example, employees with benefits might currently be paid for time they're not working or employees may be working during unscheduled times.

5. Maximize efficiencies

According to Anderson, every company has inefficiencies, and the more they're identified and reduced, the more money can be saved. He said companies should consider using technology to maximize efficiency in areas such as employee engagement, leave requests or shift availability preferences.

Ref: Agatha Gilmore

How To Keep A Job In This Economy - Eliminate Bad Habits

Have you been working hard all year only to find yourself passed up for that coveted promotion? Do you feel like your boss doesn’t appreciate your contributions? Are you not getting the recognition at work that you think you deserve? If you are doing any of the following things below, you may be preventing yourself from moving up the corporate ladder.

Taking-Off Early On Fridays

If your Friday afternoon at the office consists of lunch and sending a few emails before you’re out the door, you’re sending the message that work is not a priority. While not I’m not advocating that work be your #1 priority, if you want to achieve your career goals it is important to build up your credibility around the office.

Managers want to promote motivated, happy employees who are willing to go the extra-mile when necessary. Someone who makes a habit of scheduling doctor’s appointments in the middle of the day or taking long personal lunches will never fall into this category. Work does get done on Friday afternoons, and if you’re not there, someone will notice.

Spending More Time At Home Than At The Office

If you think that sending out a few emails and periodically checking your inbox is enough to fool people into thinking you’re really working at home, think again. Everybody knows you’re not, because they do the same thing. It’s hard to focus when there are dishes in the sink and Oprah on TV, so if you are working from home more than once a month, you aren’t being as productive as you can be.

When you do work from home, assign yourself a specific project or goal and communicate this to your boss. This will prove to your boss that you are a responsible and thoughtful employee, and will help keep you accountable for the work you do at home.

Passing On The Company Happy Hour

Attending stuffy cocktail hours where you have to make small talk with people you barely know is not really appealing to anyone. However, skipping out on company-sponsored events means you are missing out on valuable networking time that will help you build up a group of contacts which can aid you at your current position and beyond.

Spending time with your co-workers out of the office allows you to get to know people in a new light and can be surprisingly enjoyable. I make it a point to attend all events my company sponsors. At one lunch I got to talking with a co-worker who ended up giving me his old stereo and speaker set—for free! Another time I ended up seated next to the CFO and found out her daughter and I had the same food allergy. She directed me to a great blog about living gluten-free.

Even if you don’t make tons of new friends and expand your network of business contacts, at the very least you’ll get to enjoy some free food and drink and garner personal favor with the people you work with.

Showing Too Much Initiative

As a young person just starting out, I realize that it’s hard to get people to listen to your great ideas. I have an entire folder full of scribbled-on “napkins” with ideas and diagrams on how to improve the business. It’s great that you’re paying attention and thinking big, however if you’re spending more time brainstorming new projects than working on your assigned ones, then you are doing yourself a disservice.

I spend a lot of my time working with and training new employees. I find that new employees love to share with me their grand ideas on how to revolutionize the way we do things. Believe me, if you thought of it, chances are someone else has too.

If you’re spending most of your time brainstorming, it probably means you’re neglecting your official job duties and that is not the way to win at work.

Dressing Like You Did Five Years Ago

How you are perceived by your boss and your co-workers is a lot more important than how you actually are. This may be unfair, but it’s true nonetheless. This is why it’s important to always put your best face forward in the office.

If you’re still wearing the same sweatshirt and jeans that you did in college, maybe it’s time to consider upgrading your wardrobe. Even if your workplace is laid-back, it’s still essential to project a professional image.

If you’re trying a promotion, you should learn the rules of your office and play by them. Identify one or two successful people in your office who have had a string of promotions and observe how they act in the office. Are they always prepared? Do they always go the extra-mile to please the boss? If so, you should too. Just a few simple things can mean the difference between an entry-level position and a mid-level one.

Ref: Jacqui Tom

Salary vs. Compensation - HR practices

Salary is not the whole, but only a part of the greater compensation package. Here's how managers can tout the compensation package to attract talent...

Key learnings:

• The whole compensation package is a better recruitment tool than the lone salary component
• With tools like "rewards on board", both recruiters and recruits can ascertain the real value of the benefits on offer.

Economy may not be riding the high tide exactly, but it holds promise for recruiters as well as the worker population. While organisations are opting for lay-offs and job cuts, experts and industry observers say the effect will not be lasting. Every job position that has been cut is sure to be filled up at a later stage. This is reason enough to encourage recruiting managers to plan their strategies well. When it is time to recruit again, managers are likely to be surrounded by a talent pool that has never looked as promising ever before. A positive aspect of the lay-offs and job cuts is an assurance of better talent availability in future. While this may sound a little farfetched, recruitment managers must brace up for the occasion nevertheless.

Attracting talent in these economically gloomy times is a tough act for recruitment managers. While the demand for talent is more now, resources have become limited. Therefore, recruitment managers need to plan their strategies to counter the mismatch between demand and means to meet the demand.

Better positioning

Positioning is not a term restricted to marketing. Its relevance in the human resources function, particularly recruiting, cannot be undermined. Thus, the need to position jobs in order to attract the right talent is important to ensure that managers get to choose from the best.

Positioning in the context of recruitment is about the way managers project the employment contract they have chalked out for a given position. Typically, managers have flaunted only the salary component in the name of employment package. However, experts and industry observers feel that it worked well in the heyday when the worker population was placed comfortably and had little to worry about since every job offer looked equally good, if not better. But today, when the sheen has worn off and the scene is not as promising as it was before, recruitment managers have to bolster their salary figures with the complete compensation package. Attracting talent by projecting just the salary seems less effective with employees seeking better overall bargain and salary figures capped owing to strained corporate budgets. In addition, compensation packages seem to be the only differentiating factor between employers as there is no room left either to lower or raise the existing salary levels.

The whole, not part

Recruiters have a major role to play in these tough economic times. The responsibility of convincing the recruit about the value of the benefits that an organisation is offering lies entirely with the recruiter. Incorporating benefits such as health programmes, stock options, and telecommuting and flexi-time choices can help recruiters create a wholesome compensation package that may lead to better talent.

Aon Consulting, a Chicago-based HR and risk management consulting firm, has developed a tool called "rewards on board" that enables both recruiters and potential recruits to calculate the value of the benefits offered. It is a web-based tool which helps ascertain the real worth of benefits. However, the downside is that it fails to account for intangible benefits like flexi-time, strong corporate culture, organisational climate and quality of workplace relationships. The onus of projecting these alongside other traditional benefits lies with recruitment managers. If managers underplay the intangible benefits, they risk depreciating the overall worth of the compensation package. Hence, they need to plan their job positioning strategy skilfully.

With worker profile changing and baby boomer population retiring, the "rewards on board" initiative gains greater relevance. The new generation of employees is more drawn to jobs that offer them enough time to pursue hobbies or be with friends and family. Thus, recruitment managers have to be sensitive to the changing needs of staff and offer them a workplace that can enhance productivity and get the best out of them.

Feeling the pulse of the worker population is critical to ensuring better staff productivity. Organisations have to emphasise the strategic nature of recruitment as a function, and keep their recruiter force active and inspired to use the best tools for attracting and retaining the right talent.

Ref: TheManageMentor.

ROLE OF HUMAN RESOURCES’ (HR) MANAGERS DURING ECONOMIC CRISIS.

Economic meltdown is the contraction of the economy for two consecutive quarters while economic crisis is a state in which an economy witnesses slowdown of economic activities, increased level of unemployment, decreased consumer spending, low level investments, low level of trading activities and the loss of the value of assets by a segment of the financial institutions, which persists over a long period of time.

For the first time in several decades, the tough talking developed nations are at their wits’ end. Their citizens have been grappling with the harsh realities of increasing food and gas prices, increased foreclosures, massive retrenchment and massive job cuts signposting an economic meltdown. For instance, the United States alone witnessed one of her worst months in unemployment related matters as provided by the Bureau of Labour Statistics, US Department of labour in http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm

“In September 2008, the number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more) rose by 167,000 to 2.0 million, an increase of 728,000 over the past 12 months. In the US housing sector alone, the foreclosures in 2007 stood at about 850,000 and by the 3rd quarter of 2008, financial institutions like Lehman Brothers, AIG; WaMU, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan-Chase, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and many others cracked under the meltdown.

As this was happening, the stock market all over the world tumbled under the yoke of the economic downturn to an all time low. By the last week of October 2008, it was a gloomy picture across the globe. Writing for Associated Press on October 24 2008, Kennedy said “the U.S. dollar sank to a 13-year low against the Japanese currency, falling below 95 yen. Japan’s Nikkei 225 stock average slid 9.6 percent to 7,649, its first close below 8,000 since May 2003…… South Korea’s stock market fell sharply for a second day as figures showed the economy there was slowing. The Kospi dropped 10.6 percent to 938.75, falling below the 1,000 mark for the first time in more than three years…”

The above is a frightening data from the world’s strongest economies. To stem the tide of further losses and rescue the collapsing institutions, governments hurriedly put bailout options in place. In the United States, $700 billion was adopted by the legislature, the British Government adopted a £500billion was also adopted. This will enable the government have direct investments in banks, guaranteeing their debts and insuring of all deposits.

In our own environment, we do know that getting data to back up current job losses is a Herculean task. However, it is common knowledge that the manufacturing sector started a gradual move towards a shut down few years ago and the world situation can only but aggravates the situation. The oil and gas sector is in turmoil and releasing workers on daily basis because of the activities of militants, vandalism of petroleum pipelines and reduced production activities. The resonating gloomy economic picture puts a lot of pressures on workers. This leads to apprehension, anxiety and distrust. I am sure that in 2009, the Unions will become more demanding, confrontational and combative.

If the global economic slide continues, the developing economies are likely to suffer the backlash because we are largely a consuming nation. As crude prices dips, the home offices of the multinationals would become stringent with spending and if this continues for too long, foreign aids and recall of capital may occur. Imagine what will happen to our economy if the multinationals decide to pull several billion of dollars from this economy with lower volume sales of oil.

As at today, most of the multinational oil companies have cut their cut production levels because of the Niger Delta crisis. For instance, SPDC that was producing about a million barrels per day about five years ago produces less than three hundred and fifty thousand barrels per day. Chevron intermittently shuts down operations as its facilities because of incessant attacks by militants. If these are aggregated, they will accentuate the economic crisis; then we are heading for real challenges.

During periods of economic crisis, workers put their future security and welfare over above doing their jobs as prescribed by the organization’s procedural handbooks. Therefore, managers of human resources (HR) should have it at the back of their minds that they are dealing with employees that are confronted with high emotions, low morale, curiosity, anxiety, uncertainty, thoughts of negativity, possible loss of life savings, losing their houses, apprehension and near state of hopelessness because of the fear of the unknown over the sustainability of their gratuities and pension. All these lead to increased rumour mongering, accentuated stressed levels, irritability, decreased productivity, disloyalty, cutting of corners and hidden health costs to the organization.

While these occur, it behoves on HR practitioners to start a realignment of thoughts, synergy and step up programmes that will give hope to workers. Only an inward looking HR management, which is strategically positioned, efficient and effective that will successfully swim through this ocean of uncertainties into a period of boom, which usually comes after a period of downturn.

While it is true that our economy is not a credit strewn system there is nothing in the horizon to categorically exclude us from what the end of this economic fatality will be. If the global economic slide continues, the developing economies are likely to suffer the backlash because we are largely a consuming nation. As crude prices dips, the home offices of the multinationals would become stringent with spending and if this continues for too long, reduction of foreign aids and recall of foreign capital may occur. Imagine what will happen to our economy if the multinationals decide to pull several billion of dollars from this economy with lower volume of oil sales. As at today, most of the multinational oil companies have cut their production quota because of the Niger Delta crisis. For instance, SPDC that was producing about a million barrels per day about five years ago produces less than five hundred and fifty thousand barrels per day. Chevron intermittently shuts down operations as its facilities because of incessant attacks by militants. If these are aggregated, they will accentuate the economic crisis; then we will be heading for real challenges.

Reasons for the Economic Meltdown.

• Negative impacts of borderless markets (globalization).
• Criminal borrowing.
• Incompetent practices.
• Weak regulations.
• Lack of transparency.
• Corruption.
• Unrestricted mortgage activities and lending to those with bad credit history.
• Decreased consumer spending as a result of massive job losses.
• Questionable greed.
• Break neck expansion craze.
• Stiff competition by corporate bodies.
• Lack of proactive strategy by the executive, legislature and the financial experts to deal with the symptoms at an earlier stage.
• Absolute freedom of the market economy.

Negative Impact (s).

• Closure of enterprises because of lack of access to borrowing from banks and high interest rates.
• Massive job losses and accentuated unemployment (In the aftermath of the South Asian crises in the 90s, job losses rose from 5,015 in 1996 to 38,217 in 1997).
• Erosion of the middle class.
• Decreased consumer spending.
• Decreased capacity utilization.
• Increased cost of available goods.
• Hyperinflation.
• Bad debts.
• Recession.
• Negative impact on our foreign reserve

It is vivid from the above that there is no hiding place for any of the world economies from the negative impacts of the economic meltdown.

Ref: Louis Brown Ogbeifun

Time Management - An important business tool

Time needs management as we do not seem to have enough time to do everything we want to. It is great to be busy but critical to be productive.

A multi-tasking employee is never a diminishing asset to an organisation. And it is time management that churns out this skill in an employee. “Time management makes an employee more productive, helps him/her reach his/her goal at a faster pace, and most importantly, gives a feeling of contentment and joy,” confirms Arun Rao, VP-HR, Applabs.

It also helps employees to maintain a work-life balance which is of paramount importance in today’s stressful environment. Optimum utilisation of available time and reducing procrastination are some of the areas that professionals focus on for maximum results. “We encourage our employees to set realistic goals and prioritise them. It is important that they decipher the relevance of the goal setting, handling interruptions and find the most effective means to complete their work,” says Nishikant Kadam, vice president-HR, CBay Systems.

So do employees feel they are organised enough when it comes to managing time? Professionals understand that it is imperative for them to relax and recoup after a hard day’s work. From multi-tasking to prioritisation, employees are looking to hone these necessary skills and move steadily up the corporate ladder – while maintaining a life beyond work. At CBay Systems, where TAT (Turn around Time) is a critical factor for the delivery of services, employees plan and adhere to pre-decided schedules - ensuring they optimally utilise their time during work. During such times, managers or other senior members in the teams support them by mentoring at regular intervals or through workshops.

Similarly at Pangea3, lawyers and engineers are extremely focused on how much time they spend doing a particular task, thereby, achieving maximum efficiency. They know that efficiency not only results in timely production and delivery of work, but also results in substantial quality improvement. “Our people feel organised and believe that they manage their time well because as an organisation we are laser-focused on efficiency and time management,” avers Sanjay Kamlani, Co-CEO, Pangea3.

While most people use the ubiquitous post-it or paper for a To-Do list, an increasingly growing corporate population deploys effective time management tools such TMIs Time Manager toolkit, or electronic ones like Microsoft Outlook, Lotus Notes, the calendar and To Do features on mobile phones, PDAs, SmartPhones and Blackberry devices.

Says Kamlani, “We teach and apply Six Sigma tools and methodologies to enable our employees to achieve efficiency in everything they do. We also teach project management and groom our professionals in the requisite skills in order to ensure that all activities are performed in time.”
While a lot of people come in with the mindset that their environment does not allow them to manage their time well, a large number of them see a paradigm shift after the training sessions, and realise their own contribution to ineffective time management. In addition to their own attitudes, people express a need for tools/techniques that will help them prioritise and multi-task better. Another often expressed need is the ability to organise themselves, their tasks, and work areas.

According to Subhasish Das Gupta, group VP-HR and administration (Indian Subcontinent), VLCC, “It is a combination of seamless and clear-cut work management, prioritising, aid tools, and then if required workshops and trainings to enhance the skills.”

Keeping this in mind, organisations are taking initiatives to help employees manage their time. Many companies, now waking up to the powers of time management, have become conscious of imparting its benefits to its employees. It starts at the grass root level with proper communication and seamless work allocation. Furthermore, many professionals, management gurus are being roped in to impart training and help employees improve their time skills.

Applabs encourages its employees to practice certain techniques such as 80/20 rule which states that 80 per cent of the reward comes from 20 per cent of the effort. The trick is to identify the 20 per cent that matters. The company also practices the ‘6Ds’ time management model (Don't do it, delay it, deflect it, delegate it, do it imperfectly and do it).

Yes, more and more corporates are realising the essence of time now. With increased competition, accountability and constant timeline pressures, top honchos now feel that it is an integral business tool to drive employees’ performance.

Motivation mantra for tough times

‘When the going gets tough, the tough get going’. This realisation is dawning upon India Inc as many firms go whole hog in boosting the morale of employees during tough times

How much does it take to say a few words of appreciation or simply saying ‘You Care’? Not much, isn’t it? Motivation lessons, personalised letters from the CEO, advisory sessions, learning workshops etc are an entirely new chapter which India Inc is incorporating to boost the morale of employees in the slowdown scenario.
Companies across sectors are leaving no stone unturned in motivating their employees and keeping up productivity levels. In today's context, it is absolutely imperative to create an atmosphere of trust, understanding and cooperation between various groups within an organisation to sufficiently motivate the employees. It is also necessary to provide a platform for them to discuss the impediments, both subjective and objective, to maximise team performance. Such an approach in organisations will help motivate the employees to develop action plans to circumvent the obstacles and focus on business propositions.

“Motivated employees have a very high degree of desire to excel and take great pride in their performance. In short, a group of highly motivated employees make the difference between success and excellence,” notes VT Gopinath, executive vice president, Actis Biologics, a Mumbai-based biotech firm.

SumTotal Systems, a global provider of talent development solutions recently celebrated its annual event called ‘Synergy ‘08’ which allowed employees to come in direct contact with the CEO. The event saw a gamut of one-on-one discussions taking place between them. “Employee engagement is the core focus at this point. Simply giving employees a feeling that everything is perfect is half the race won,” says Lekha Sishta, VP - HR & talent management, SumTotal Systems – India.

“What added value to the event was that we had one-third of the company involved in it. Such factors not only help in keeping up productivity levels of employees but also keep them engaged,” adds Sishta.

Adding further to this, Shekhar Aggarwal, MD, Surya Food & Agro says, “In the present scenario where companies across sectors are retrenching their employees, we conduct regular motivation workshops for them. These workshops have far reaching ramifications on the employees that further tend to boost their morale and productivity.”

Ambience Group, a Delhi-based realty firm believes in standing by its workforce during tough times. “During this slowdown, the management understands how difficult it is for the marketing people to meet the targets. Keeping this in mind, the company sends out personalised emails from the MD stating the good contribution by the employees,” notes Ramesh Shah, strategic advisor, Ambience Group.

“We also hold motivation workshops as it helps build the spirit of the team,” adds Shah.
In order to build confidence among employees and battle with the economic slowdown, Dr. Verma, director, HR & Management Support, LG believes that the manager should be a rational thinker. “Boom and recession are both the features of an economy and hence follow each other,” adds Dr. Verma.

The company has initiated ‘Ask the MD’ where an employee is free to post a suggestion which is directly addressed by the MD himself. “We conduct standing meeting where the MD addresses the entire staff and asks for suggestions etc.,” adds Dr. Verma.

We cannot deny the fact that an organisation’s greatest asset is its employees. Keeping the workforce intact during tough times is the biggest challenge companies are facing these days. Pats on the back, showing concern, giving personal attention etc are some of the methods that firms are adopting to beat the blues.

Ref: Sheetal Srivastava

What's Worse: Losing a Job... or Keeping

Is it tougher getting laid off or left behind as a survivor when a company starts cutting jobs?

The simple answer is a no-brainer. Losing a job is harsh reality; it can be catastrophic. But there is a problematic shadow that often hangs over survivors of workforce reductions -- on a personal level, as well as on an organizational level. And that's a reality often overlooked.

In "the best" layoff scenarios companies offer employees generous voluntary buyouts, right? Best Buy Co. this month offered packages to almost all 4,000 employees in its corporate offices. The US's largest electronics retailer is hurting and "needs to reduce significant expense" from its payroll. Details of the cuts are unfolding, but soon decisions will be made about who stays and who goes. Desks will be emptied. Payroll will be slashed. Problems solved?

Unh-uh. No way.

Here's what happens when a struggling company offers employees buyouts:

1. Some take the offer. It's often the best performers because they're confident and credentialed to find something else.

2. Some watch others leave and in short order wish they had taken the package themselves.

3. Some fear their jobs will be the next targets for elimination and there won't be any more packages, just pink slips and escorts to the door.

4. Some, often the weakest performers, hunker down hoping no one notices them going back to business as usual.

5.Some get angry.

6. Conversations at the water cooler get darker and longer and productivity suffers.

Reducing costs can be a vital step in saving a company, but it's impossible for a company to cost-cut its way to great success, especially when eliminating people.

Is it tougher getting laid off or left behind as a survivor when a company starts cutting jobs? The not-so-simple answer is it's tough on the victims and those who get to stay. If you're responsible for leading those staying, or if you're responsible only for your own decision to stay, a couple of thoughts for getting through this kind of tough exercise:

1. Acknowledge the pain of the change. Deal with the grief.

2. If you are a leader, get people involved in creating a new reality. Pose the question to your team/yourself: How can we/I make this new reality work? Then act on those ideas.

3. Create/take ownership for the challenge and opportunity to create new success in a tough situation.

Make a Difference.

Employee Motivation

Motivating employees can be one of the biggest challenges as an employer. Constant pressure to increase productivity, profitability and revenue growth can often overshadow the importance of how an unengaged workforce can negatively affect corporate performance.

In today's turbulent, often chaotic, environment, commercial success depends on employees using their full talents. Yet in spite of the myriad of available theories and practices, managers often view motivation as something of a mystery. In part this is because individuals are motivated by different things and in different ways.

Nationwide studies have shown that up to 80% of employees are not engaged by their work.

While some employees produce to their highest capability regardless of the incentive, others need an occasional spark of motivation. When handled effectively, the result can be greater productivity and increased employee morale.

Keeping employees motivated is the key to maintaining a productive, successful business. Managers must find ways to motivate employees and make them want to live up to their full potential. To do this effectively, managers need to understand what motivates employees within the context of their respective roles.

Advantages of Employee Motivation
A positive motivation philosophy and practice should improve productivity, quality, and service. Motivation helps people:
· achieve goals;
· gain a positive perspective;
· create the power to change;
· build self-esteem and capability,
· Manage their own development and help others with theirs.