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Current Affairs - Corporate Employment Trends Entrepreneurship Human Resource Industry Evolution Leadership Uncategorized

Democracy – Strength or Weakness??

India is suffering from a disease called ‘Democracy’. 

Everyone can’t be a speaker. Some have to be listeners. Because listeners are the Doers. And doers are the change-makers.

So democracy or dictatorship? 

India has a better chance to grab the business opportunities from other Countries as an alternative to China. Since China has created a paranoia with minimal justification, the forecast is, many countries depending on China for their’ manufacturing support will move to India. The other option the world has is Vietnam, Malaysia and Indonesia.

India might seem a lucrative option compared to any other country to the Investors. We might win the competition over any other country due to the statistics our country shows – 130 cr population, 68 million graduates,  43% of the total population in the age group of 18 to 44 yrs ( the highly productive phase of the age) and nearly 10 % more in the age group of 44 to 54 yrs (still the employable group) keeping the average age of an Indian to 29 years according to 2011 census , (rightly called – Young India) , which has grown proportionately now, 7th largest country in the world, ranking 4th in the world in natural resources. What else?  But, how will we sustain?

How will we accommodate these countries and the business opportunity? How will we prepare to accommodate them?

What is the transformation we need to undergo? 

A country with a mindset of the population – ‘Degree is the criteria for getting a job’. 

Companies are always on the hunt for good resources. Industry is suffering due to unavailability of the right resources. Higher rates of attrition are causing project delays. Here we have headlines stating unemployment as a burning issue. Resource availability, Skill issue or will issue? What is the underlying truth? 

Designations are more attractive than the quest for knowledge and zeal to deliver. 

Resource approach: Everybody wants to be a Manager, dictate terms, enjoy the luxury of the authority and higher pay package, not understanding their contribution to the system from their current role. 

The way we revolt….

We have a voice, so we will voice out everything coming to our mind through revolution, strike or with the support of media. Everyone’s pain needs attention by blowing it out of proportion. Resolution isn’t the only aim. Noise is also the aim. ‘You need to stand for yourself, no matter what’. But the way we do it is so ridiculous. We revolt in a way which yields to our own long term damages. These revolts cause irreversible damages. Any fair chance of recovery takes years and decades. 

No one wants to follow the right leader. Everyone wants to be one. We follow a leader with destructive ideologies rather than constructive ones. There are very few leaders – wise and selfless. Else most of them are keen on making a statement, irrespective of the chaos the statements may create. Leaders need to be orators only or strategic thinkers? 

Most of them think adversely or momentarily than aligning to the benefit of the Country and Community. Too much wisdom about unnecessary and nonproductive things exhausting the bandwidth further delaying the growth of the country. Personal and individual gains are priority as compared to community gains. 

Only one set of people is in alignment with law making and law abiding process. Rest of the majority are only commentators. These people can debate for days and months, to prove the law or the rule as wrong. Such approach lead to delay in Implementations. This delay results into non availability of data to measure the outcome of amendments made. It dilutes the purpose of amendment by the time data is available.

The definition of hard work means number of man-hours, quality and quantity of work. Management of resources is on extreme sides at both ends. Either the management is too ruthless or the workers are too dominating, lazy and take advantage. Laws do not give an upper hand of control to the victim in any case either, in a defined time period. 

Industry suffers from attrition, underperformance, lack of  accountability and  ownership in the deliverables. No yardstick to measure and record workers’ performance or integrity.

No common forum by Govt or a central body to define the benchmark and SOP of any technical, non-technical  activity. 

Industry is slowly reducing the efforts in the development of the employee. Either by means of training or any other investment on employee’s development. The reason is eventually the investment on resources is a loss, when the employee leave without adding value to the organization.

Government’s  changing decisions and processes with every new party who replaces the earlier. Every Govt coming to power within 1,2 3 or 5 yrs at state level have different agendas. These leaders push behind the running projects to the backstage creating fear for the MNC’s by keeping their projects on status quo for longer duration delaying their ROI schedules. Time overrun takes the project cost higher. There is no audit mechanism of projects to secure the investment and complete projects on time irrespective of which Govt is in power. 

The Grants, licenses and documentation are time consuming. Its complicated because of people’s non cooperative approach, is another roadblock. Superficially every process seem like ‘one window support’ as written and published. But ground realities vary drastically. 

There has to be a platform which will give control to the Govt rather than the Employees. The Corporate Governance need better rules. On the other hand develop an attrition control method. Devising compulsory fixed tenure for employees in each organization. Introduce automated evaluation mechanism to measure employee performance giving the Employer better confidence to develop the Resource. Save time and money of the Industry, lost in all this transition of resources leading completion of assignment or projects without hassles. 

Our Country’s financial strength is visible in times of pandemic, recession or any other natural disasters. Our turnaround-time to come back to normalcy will portray  the strength of our Economy. We ought to redefine the meaning of ‘democracy’ in India to reduce the impact of such a scenario benefiting every single person in this country.

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Current Affairs - Corporate Employment Trends Human Resource Industry Evolution

Industry trends during COVID and Post-COVID

According to Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy 27 million youth in the age group of 20-30 years lost their jobs in April 2020 following a nationwide lockdown to prevent the spread of Covid-19.
Further, 33 million men and women in their 30s lost jobs in April, out of which 86% of the job losses were among men, it said.

In addition to the job losses, pay-cuts, and furloughs, the other trends Industries are adapting are:

  • Deferring any incentives, appraisals to employees.
  • Laying off roles where there are repetitive jobs.
  • Performance-based layoffs due to skill or will issues.
  • Layoffs due to the non-adaptability of employees to post- COVID scenario.
  • Layoffs considering resources on the bench even for 15 days as a burden for the organization and shedding overheads.
  • Decrease of numbers in Support functions.
  • Laying Off Senior People in Senior positions in the age group of 50+ yrs addressing cost and as perceived by the Industry – limitation in the utilization of such resources due to mobility, multitasking, adaptability, rigidity, etc.,
  • Promoting Junior resources to Senior roles due to resource availability at a lesser cost, maximum utilization, flexibility, more accommodative, etc..,
  • Hiring resources across geographies due to Work from home model.
  • Doubling the expectations in terms of deliverable’s and accountability.
  • Transferring Permanent resources to contractual employment – this will reduce the overhead cost for the Companies and retrenchment cost based on future Industry uncertainties that can be well accommodated at lesser cost and no brand defamation.
  • Out-placement of retrenched employees.
  • Engaging skilled white – collared resources on assignment/ day/ month basis is the new trend.
  • Hiring experienced resources at the cost of an entry-level resource.
  • Deferring all Campus hiring offers to infinity.
  • Expanding the job description of new and existing employees.
  • Measuring performance only on results delivered and not on the engagement time.
  • Work from home, not limiting working hours to 9, 10, 11, or 12 hours.
  • Major Companies adopting to Work from home trend due to the cost saved on infrastructure.
  • Expecting Industry ready resources minimizing training time and training cost.
  • Human Resource engaging more in virtual employee engagement platforms.
  • Adopting Project-based engagement through contractual hiring.
  • Building effective virtual platforms of communication to make the Work from home model better.
  • Reducing trial time and adaptability time of any new resource joining the organization.
  • Transfer of employees to the most challenging locations or work area.
  • Bidding with extremely Competitive rates to gain business and sustain.
  • Keeping only the primary and lean benefits to the employees active.
  • Emphasizing on survival than growth.

Every aspect of the industry has undergone substantial modifications. Should it be called New -Normal or New World? But change always is initiated, implemented, adapted, and better successful in chaos.

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Employment Trends Entrepreneurship Industry Evolution Sectors

Impact of COVID on Industries and Job Market. Equip yourself to survive, sustain, and progress.

Job Market and Employment trends have undergone multiple transformations with time due to Recession, Globalization, Automation, and Digitalization. Currently, Industry is going through a tough phase due to pandemic, which has appeared nearly after 100 years.
The whole of the Industry is making assumptions and anticipations based on ever data possible. But unfortunately, most of them are not in alignment with the facts to date.

The changing scenario of the COVID census in different states, mortality rate, key people in politics, Govt or Essential services – tested positive, their duration of recovery, disturbance in the functionality of essential services … all have added to more confusion.

There were predictions made that, the second quarter of 2020-21 will see a considerable recovery. Whereas the job loss has increased, and pay cuts have prolonged till next quarter. Few of the Companies have announced pay cuts till March 2021. Appraisals, Bonus, and Variable Pay, have deferred until infinity.

Sectors most affected like Hospitality, Airlines, Automotive, Aerospace, Retail are struggling for survival. The Recovery Rate of Industries impacted due to COVID is very slow. The cascading effect is creating an enormous blow to the other Industries in the supply chain. Employees with higher Salaries, Senior people with monitoring roles, Support departments, Jobs that can be replaced by digitalization, Business Development roles are on the Target for retrenchments. Campus recruitments stopped for a year.

The positive side of the situation is, Junior level, capable and efficient people are elevated with higher responsibilities and opportunities to perform and acquire more senior roles once the market stabilizes. Most of the jobs are using virtual platforms to interact, reducing cost and time for both organizations and employees. The Industry will further explore and innovate newer means to perform and sustain.

Work from home will, in the future, give opportunities to more people in 2- tier, 3- tier cities, villages to work for MNC’s from their homes. Geographies won’t limit people to smaller or lesser opportunities. Educated Men and Women in small towns or villages will not have restrictions in career growth or opportunities. Lifestyle and exposure will improve in small cities.

Sectors like Pharma, Retail like Grocers, Vegetable vendors, Automation, Digitalization, few Mfgg units, Telecom, Networking, Computer Hardware, Infrastructure have seen the demand. Today’s job market belongs to only those people who can commit and deliver results in the least turn around time with utmost quality, integrity, and accountability. The changing demands and the situation of the Industry will force Companies to expect more from the employees. And Darwin’s theory of ‘Survival of fittest’ and ‘Natural Selection’ will force employees to thrive on competition. New Normal will come with many demands from the employers, better gauging criteria for performances and deliverables

Change is inevitable. One who adapts sooner will succeed, be it an Organization or an Individual. Equip yourself to survive, sustain, and progress.

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Employment Trends Human Resource Sectors Uncategorized

Evolution in Employment trends.

Evolution in Employment trends.

How to have a productive work from home model yielding to a win-win situation for both employees and employers?

The industry is figuring out every possible way to accommodate this model since we aren’t left with any option.
Employee’s safety, Client Service, Company’s Survival are all equally important.

But, for Work from home model to be successful, employees need to accept that this is going to be a permanent solution for many of their problems of past and present. Personal, professional problems like travel time to the workplace due to traffic, pollution, uncertain food schedule, family time compromise, work-life balance, COVID Infection, social distancing; and Organization’s problems of today which have enormously increased due to COVID – Economic crisis, Opex, Company’s sustenance, Competition, Cashflow, Governance problems, Communication problems, Adherence to Compliance and Rules of Govt.

How should this be structured?

Every employee has to work to overcome the problems of their Company. All these years, risks belonged to the Company alone. The volume of people facing the uncertainty and directly affected by the risks in an Organizations was majorly the Senior fraternity. They had to risk a significant share of their salaries as a performance incentive – a performance incentive based on the Company’s performance and not just individual performance. The performance, which was at risk with every right or wrong decision since the right decisions and erroneous implementations, also impacted the Organization negatively. The remuneration or incentives of these Senior leaders were dependant on the whole crowd of people working in the Organization. Additionally, their credibilities also were at stake.

One of the possible initiatives could be passing nominal risk downwards. The industry has anyways announced a pay cut as a precautionary measure as a preparation for the uncertain scenario Companies might face in the next two years. The revoking of this decision isn’t having a definite timeline either, as on date. Why not convert the same to incentivize the resource against their performance monthly. This eventually would shift some risks of the Organization to the employee and also focus on the theory’ Survival of the fittest.’ There are ‘n’ number of people who have lost jobs due to this pandemic. Why not allow them to be paid proportionately to their performance.
Making an opportunity of every disaster has been a boon to the thought process of humankind. Why not the employees and employers make an opportunity to survive and thrive towards success following this theory?

We have had consulting engagements for specific roles in most of the organizations. How about increasing the ratio of people in these roles, passing down more accountability for most of the functions?