ARE YOU A MENTOR
‘Human Resources’- the magic words are murmured by everyone in one context or the other. All businesses around the world are continuously looking for better ways to recruit smart brains. Much has been said and written about the factors behind the HR factors. Many companies are considering some innovative ways to impart skills, train, re-train and motivate employees as they are the key issues. Why then in a country like India, recruitment melas are looked at as prestigious events while turnovers are more for every quarter in companies engaged in IT /ITES, Construction, Engineering, Manufacturing and the like.
‘The right man for the right job’ may be the HR mantra. On the lines of this saying, candidates are interviewed; the good or better among the brain pool is offered the letter. All is good for the first few months and slowly from somewhere a pungent smell of dissatisfaction spreads across the corporate floor. Where do the innings start? The functioning style of management, the way projects are planned, in the impressive art of delegation of work, the manner in which constructive utility of manpower is exercised and the sense of job satisfaction blended with job security are the dependable factors for a lasting cordial relationship with the employer. The distaste initially starts with absenteeism, staying away from work without permission and the final renunciation of the bondage with one’s company result in an unhappy note. The recruitment team that relaxed for a while suddenly gets into feverish action and the team members stop not till the goal is achieved. On an average, an employee with rich experience in India or abroad also shows low enthusiasm and the heat is on the down beat.
As India is emerging successful in the global arena, it has been an improvement on the economical status of an individual – billing wise or growth wise. Many strategies were evolved over a period of 8 – 10 years but it has been not easy to analyze the psychological changes and attitude of an employee on the long run. We could call this run to span a few months as is the trend. A serious look has to be given to leverage the human capital and support them more effectively. Bucket with a hole or filling the overhead tank with taps open is not a healthy trend. This effect will drastically lead to saturation level of enthusiasm in Recruiters as well. How good is our Indian HR system? It is high time that the delivery model needs a revamp.
Ninety percent of the HR activities end up in the routine chores of paper, interviews, reference checks, hiring, payroll and firing letters. As this swallows the maximum time, HR professionals have little or no time to concentrate on other strategies or find time to keep abreast of the latest trends in HR. Hence soon they get stamped as ‘obsolete’. ‘On-line integrated management’ is a better remedy as it involves transparency, cost effective and paperless atmosphere. If this system which is in operation in some corporates is put to use in all the organizations in India, a quicker coordination would be achieved between employees, heads, departments and organizations. Through online integrated management and clear coordination between HR and other divisions much of unsaid troubles could be mitigated. Now our HR professionals can foresee a progressive future in redefining HR intelligence. Here lay the analysis to identify explorable skills in existing employees and to deploy them in the appropriate positions for which they have been hired. This is the prescription for cost cuts, to boost performers, motivate and retain them. Whatever be the advancement, the so called human factors still remain a mystery and cannot be gauged through any profiling tests. The ‘sukshuma’ behind the understanding of the human psychology is still a puzzle. The HR professionals also fall in this category without exemption. They travel miles to set the ball rolling as long as they find it interesting. The mentality of the quitting employees happens to be contagious that they (HR) themselves are caught in the quick sand but appreciably resist from falling sick and emerge like a ‘phoenix’. Recruiters can only supply manpower and the satisfaction that a new employee derives in his work purely rests in the hands of his or her Group mentor. In every company HR builds up a healthy atmosphere but cannot always detect and eradicate the latent politics which are the ubiquitous characteristics of human beings. Are we heading in the right way? Being proactive in salary and compensation alone is not the solution to employee turnover but there is something else beyond. What is there behind the industry trends of boom – bubble –crash – survival –recovery – growth map? Perhaps it is the human satisfaction that matters.