hi all,
am with this IT co. as HR manager and would agree with Prof Shika's view.
Lot of people in most of the IT co. work at client's site, this brings in new issues in the light..though very simple but difficult to handle.. things like..
not enough space to work, our client provides so and so benefits and previledges why not we..along with communication gaps..feeling of isolation...
We have taken one initiative..at least for the people who are working in Mumbai on project..HR Team goes and meets all of them at their site..interacts with them, understands what they require, what else can be doen to improve quality of life for such lot.. though these are small initiative..it helps in inculcating feeling that organisation cares for them.
regards,
Jitendra Rami
From India, Mumbai
1am with this IT co. as HR manager and would agree with Prof Shika's view.
Lot of people in most of the IT co. work at client's site, this brings in new issues in the light..though very simple but difficult to handle.. things like..
not enough space to work, our client provides so and so benefits and previledges why not we..along with communication gaps..feeling of isolation...
We have taken one initiative..at least for the people who are working in Mumbai on project..HR Team goes and meets all of them at their site..interacts with them, understands what they require, what else can be doen to improve quality of life for such lot.. though these are small initiative..it helps in inculcating feeling that organisation cares for them.
regards,
Jitendra Rami
From India, Mumbai
hello there are some good books on these topics i would suggest to pick up a book on them and read it for better understanding of the subject shikha Sahai
From India, New Delhi
From India, New Delhi
Hello Prof Shikha,
Thanks for giving such insights about HR in IT. I am a final year MBA student.I did my research in HRIS. I still want to something more in HRIS. Can you name some books. Can i contact you in your mail id.
Ajit
From India, Mumbai
Thanks for giving such insights about HR in IT. I am a final year MBA student.I did my research in HRIS. I still want to something more in HRIS. Can you name some books. Can i contact you in your mail id.
Ajit
From India, Mumbai
Dear all,
Would like thank Ms Shika Sahai for sharing her invaluable insights on the HR practices in IT Industry.
Jitendra Rami - rightly pointed that HR has to be responsive and add a personal touch by understanding the employee's issues and resolving them.
Dear Venkat,
The process of TNI remains the same irrespective of the industry, therefore you use the search engine on the top left to ferret the information shared by members.
Hi Sreelatha,
On HR Score card,would recommend to read the book on HR Audit by Dr. T V Rao - which has a chapter on HR Scorecard.
HR Sorecard - is a good tool for understanding the impact of HR on the organizational goals.
Regards,
Rajat
Am sharing the minutes of the meeting held by HR professionals in US sometime back in 2003 on the best practices of HR.
source: IGDA Business Committee igda.org
Best Practices
Mandatory meetings with producers and department managers
Description: Make regularly scheduled, mandatory meeting times with producers and other department managers to discuss individuals and their performance, training needs, succession planning possibilities, etc.
Pros: As the HR person, to avoid surprises, you know what hiring or firing is being considered - this allows you to proactively plan for succession planning, allows HR to coordinate resources, coach managers through HR issues, etc.
Cons: People hate meetings; HR is often thought of as bureaucratic; department managers and producers can become overly reliant on HR; managers dump their problems on HR and expect HR to just clean up their mess versus actively working through the issue to resolution.
Alternatives: Using email and good follow up.
Recruiting – The Process
Description: It is a well known pet peeve of HR managers that hiring managers try to begin the hiring process for a candidate with only a vague idea of what exactly they are looking for. Even when job descriptions are available for them to refer to, they must be reminded to use the job description as a reference tool. Otherwise they are wasting everybody’s time – HR, the candidates’ and their own. Hiring managers must review what it is that they’re looking for. Each year, requirements and criteria change. Post all jobs on company web site so that everyone
knows about it and can apply or refer the vacancy to somebody else who might be qualified.
Once you have a candidate, conduct behavioral and technical tests first, then do a telephone screening, then bring them in for a face-to-face interview.
Pros: The advantage of testing people first is that there are no surprises later around their technical competence. It makes the recruiting process tighter and more quantifiable and having a consistent process makes recruiting consistent across all departments.
Cons: Small studios can’t always do something that extensive and labor intensive, some people get left out of the process, some people who are not technically stellar get eliminated from the recruiting process who might otherwise be great additions from a cultural work ethic perspective.
The team can feel resentful if they are not all involved in the selection of a future team member.
Alternatives: Some sort of hybrid solution between a lengthy, comprehensive process and no process.
Open Book Management Style
Description: Sharing information such as contract and financial information with employees so that they understand the decisions that are made and the ramifications of those decisions.
Through this process, employees also learn about the business, which is more than just the creative endeavor. It involves making strategic decisions to bid or pass on contracts that are aligned with business and strategic business models.
Pros: People understand where the money comes from and goes to; they understand what happens at bonus time and why it does or does not get paid out. People become better informed about the business and feel more inclusive and entrepreneurial about their contribution and
impact. Employees move their focus from just their job to looking at the company as a whole.
Cons: Without constant education employees misunderstand and misinterpret what the numbers mean. For instance, employees may not understand why there may be money in the bank yet the company will not pay out a bonus. The work involved is tremendous and ongoing. Teams become resentful of other teams who are working on more lucrative projects.
Alternatives: Keep the information only for management level employees or others who have P& L responsibilities and let the people responsible for making games, make games.
Bonuses
Description: Paying our bonuses or having any kind of variable compensation plan can be either an incentive or a distraction, depending on how it is administered and communicated. Bonuses must be designed in such a way that people understand that there is no payout unless the
company hits a certain level of profitability. Then, additional criteria can be the team’s success and the individual’s success.
Pros: It is based on performance (versus profit sharing), criteria is consistent for everyone, it anchors employees to the success (or lack of success) of the company, brings the necessity of profit into their reality, makes people more team focused.
Cons: If not communicated well, the success of one team and therefore larger payout, can be perceived as not fair. People can feel that they are not in control of the external factors that may impact the bonus in a given year (e.g. the economy).
Alternatives: Profit sharing, stock options, other non financial-based incentives, a great communication plan for when you do have a bonus plan.
360 Degree Performance Management Feedback System
Description: This system, which solicits feedback from boss, peers and direct reports if there are any, has been increasingly embraced as the best of all available methods for collecting performance feedback. Gone are the days of working hard to impress only one person, now the
opinions of all you touch in the course of your workday matter. The feedback is therefore inclusive and every person on the team is responsible for giving relevant feedback, whether positive or constructive.
Pros: The 360 process allows for multiple points of view to be given on any given individual. It neutralizes what might otherwise be one rater’s bias (either positive or negative) and helps to paint a more comprehensive picture of that individual’s performance. For example, a person may work very hard all year to impress their boss because that boss controls their opportunities for advancement, salary, etc. but meanwhile that person alienates everybody else on the team,
feeling that their perceptions of him are not important because they have no bearing on his career. This is certainly not the case with the 360 degree process. Also, because feedback is collected from multiple sources, the process must be formalized to ask consistent and well
thought out questions. These questions require a great deal of forethought and must be able to capture relevant information or the integrity of the entire process is compromised.
Cons: The process requires a great deal of forethought into the design and method of collecting data, execution, guarantee of anonymity, training people on how to give feedback, etc. Ideally you need a consultant to help you design and customize a product to your company and culture.
If you have the resources internally you could allocate some IT staff to design and support the software, otherwise this can be an added expense on top of the consultant’s fee to design the whole thing for you in the first place. Because our people are generally young, they must be
trained to give feedback that is positive as well as constructive and always relevant. No personal slams, no fear of retribution if their identity is revealed somehow, use examples so the person benefits from the context of the comments, use integrity and maturity in the feedback, appreciate the opportunity to help the person to whom you are giving feedback grown to become a better worker as a result of your input. Even positive feedback is something that some people must be taught to give. The whole issue of anonymity is another hurdle in the learning curve around 360.
I have taught our people that ideally, their comments wouldn’t even need to be anonymous since if you are giving factual data based on actual examples and their observations reflect the person’s performance and not the individual, and if they are making their comments with honesty and
integrity, and in the genuine interest of helping this person to be a better programmer, artist, what ever, then there is no reason to be afraid of saying what there is to be said. Lastly, 360’s take longer since they rely on a number of people to make the time to write and submit the feedback.
Then the feedback needs to be collated.
Alternatives: Traditional one-on-one reviews, or no reviews.
From India, Pune
Would like thank Ms Shika Sahai for sharing her invaluable insights on the HR practices in IT Industry.
Jitendra Rami - rightly pointed that HR has to be responsive and add a personal touch by understanding the employee's issues and resolving them.
Dear Venkat,
The process of TNI remains the same irrespective of the industry, therefore you use the search engine on the top left to ferret the information shared by members.
Hi Sreelatha,
On HR Score card,would recommend to read the book on HR Audit by Dr. T V Rao - which has a chapter on HR Scorecard.
HR Sorecard - is a good tool for understanding the impact of HR on the organizational goals.
Regards,
Rajat
Am sharing the minutes of the meeting held by HR professionals in US sometime back in 2003 on the best practices of HR.
source: IGDA Business Committee igda.org
Best Practices
Mandatory meetings with producers and department managers
Description: Make regularly scheduled, mandatory meeting times with producers and other department managers to discuss individuals and their performance, training needs, succession planning possibilities, etc.
Pros: As the HR person, to avoid surprises, you know what hiring or firing is being considered - this allows you to proactively plan for succession planning, allows HR to coordinate resources, coach managers through HR issues, etc.
Cons: People hate meetings; HR is often thought of as bureaucratic; department managers and producers can become overly reliant on HR; managers dump their problems on HR and expect HR to just clean up their mess versus actively working through the issue to resolution.
Alternatives: Using email and good follow up.
Recruiting – The Process
Description: It is a well known pet peeve of HR managers that hiring managers try to begin the hiring process for a candidate with only a vague idea of what exactly they are looking for. Even when job descriptions are available for them to refer to, they must be reminded to use the job description as a reference tool. Otherwise they are wasting everybody’s time – HR, the candidates’ and their own. Hiring managers must review what it is that they’re looking for. Each year, requirements and criteria change. Post all jobs on company web site so that everyone
knows about it and can apply or refer the vacancy to somebody else who might be qualified.
Once you have a candidate, conduct behavioral and technical tests first, then do a telephone screening, then bring them in for a face-to-face interview.
Pros: The advantage of testing people first is that there are no surprises later around their technical competence. It makes the recruiting process tighter and more quantifiable and having a consistent process makes recruiting consistent across all departments.
Cons: Small studios can’t always do something that extensive and labor intensive, some people get left out of the process, some people who are not technically stellar get eliminated from the recruiting process who might otherwise be great additions from a cultural work ethic perspective.
The team can feel resentful if they are not all involved in the selection of a future team member.
Alternatives: Some sort of hybrid solution between a lengthy, comprehensive process and no process.
Open Book Management Style
Description: Sharing information such as contract and financial information with employees so that they understand the decisions that are made and the ramifications of those decisions.
Through this process, employees also learn about the business, which is more than just the creative endeavor. It involves making strategic decisions to bid or pass on contracts that are aligned with business and strategic business models.
Pros: People understand where the money comes from and goes to; they understand what happens at bonus time and why it does or does not get paid out. People become better informed about the business and feel more inclusive and entrepreneurial about their contribution and
impact. Employees move their focus from just their job to looking at the company as a whole.
Cons: Without constant education employees misunderstand and misinterpret what the numbers mean. For instance, employees may not understand why there may be money in the bank yet the company will not pay out a bonus. The work involved is tremendous and ongoing. Teams become resentful of other teams who are working on more lucrative projects.
Alternatives: Keep the information only for management level employees or others who have P& L responsibilities and let the people responsible for making games, make games.
Bonuses
Description: Paying our bonuses or having any kind of variable compensation plan can be either an incentive or a distraction, depending on how it is administered and communicated. Bonuses must be designed in such a way that people understand that there is no payout unless the
company hits a certain level of profitability. Then, additional criteria can be the team’s success and the individual’s success.
Pros: It is based on performance (versus profit sharing), criteria is consistent for everyone, it anchors employees to the success (or lack of success) of the company, brings the necessity of profit into their reality, makes people more team focused.
Cons: If not communicated well, the success of one team and therefore larger payout, can be perceived as not fair. People can feel that they are not in control of the external factors that may impact the bonus in a given year (e.g. the economy).
Alternatives: Profit sharing, stock options, other non financial-based incentives, a great communication plan for when you do have a bonus plan.
360 Degree Performance Management Feedback System
Description: This system, which solicits feedback from boss, peers and direct reports if there are any, has been increasingly embraced as the best of all available methods for collecting performance feedback. Gone are the days of working hard to impress only one person, now the
opinions of all you touch in the course of your workday matter. The feedback is therefore inclusive and every person on the team is responsible for giving relevant feedback, whether positive or constructive.
Pros: The 360 process allows for multiple points of view to be given on any given individual. It neutralizes what might otherwise be one rater’s bias (either positive or negative) and helps to paint a more comprehensive picture of that individual’s performance. For example, a person may work very hard all year to impress their boss because that boss controls their opportunities for advancement, salary, etc. but meanwhile that person alienates everybody else on the team,
feeling that their perceptions of him are not important because they have no bearing on his career. This is certainly not the case with the 360 degree process. Also, because feedback is collected from multiple sources, the process must be formalized to ask consistent and well
thought out questions. These questions require a great deal of forethought and must be able to capture relevant information or the integrity of the entire process is compromised.
Cons: The process requires a great deal of forethought into the design and method of collecting data, execution, guarantee of anonymity, training people on how to give feedback, etc. Ideally you need a consultant to help you design and customize a product to your company and culture.
If you have the resources internally you could allocate some IT staff to design and support the software, otherwise this can be an added expense on top of the consultant’s fee to design the whole thing for you in the first place. Because our people are generally young, they must be
trained to give feedback that is positive as well as constructive and always relevant. No personal slams, no fear of retribution if their identity is revealed somehow, use examples so the person benefits from the context of the comments, use integrity and maturity in the feedback, appreciate the opportunity to help the person to whom you are giving feedback grown to become a better worker as a result of your input. Even positive feedback is something that some people must be taught to give. The whole issue of anonymity is another hurdle in the learning curve around 360.
I have taught our people that ideally, their comments wouldn’t even need to be anonymous since if you are giving factual data based on actual examples and their observations reflect the person’s performance and not the individual, and if they are making their comments with honesty and
integrity, and in the genuine interest of helping this person to be a better programmer, artist, what ever, then there is no reason to be afraid of saying what there is to be said. Lastly, 360’s take longer since they rely on a number of people to make the time to write and submit the feedback.
Then the feedback needs to be collated.
Alternatives: Traditional one-on-one reviews, or no reviews.
From India, Pune
the best practices is really great!!!
As for the TNA benchmarking : identify the frequency of TNA, people involved in TNA, methods used for TNA, how for are actual trainings linked to TNA, satisfaction level of employees with TNA..i hope this will help venkat
shikha sahai
From India, New Delhi
As for the TNA benchmarking : identify the frequency of TNA, people involved in TNA, methods used for TNA, how for are actual trainings linked to TNA, satisfaction level of employees with TNA..i hope this will help venkat
shikha sahai
From India, New Delhi
Hi Shikha mam,
This is Rohit ,I was EX-HR with Infosys BPO Mysore, the points u 've mentioned about Infosys are really true & convincing.Apart from that Infosys also believes in'Employee securities' & takes care of leisure activities for employees as well as preserving their culture.That's something which i wud like add here apart ur point .So if anybody is part of Infy 's HR dept. then really havE to take care of lot many things.I am proud to be an Infoscion :)
From India, Lucknow
This is Rohit ,I was EX-HR with Infosys BPO Mysore, the points u 've mentioned about Infosys are really true & convincing.Apart from that Infosys also believes in'Employee securities' & takes care of leisure activities for employees as well as preserving their culture.That's something which i wud like add here apart ur point .So if anybody is part of Infy 's HR dept. then really havE to take care of lot many things.I am proud to be an Infoscion :)
From India, Lucknow
I'm a MBA student and currently working on a project titled "Benchmarking the practices i IT industries"
I would like to know about various policies such as
1) Performance Appraisal policy
2) Leave policy
3) Policy on certification reimbursement (amount reimbursed)
4) Exit interview policy & form
5) New joining policy (with regards to orientation & Turn around time)
6) On site policy (period, kind of visa, pay policy)
I want this info in regards with service companies such as Infosys, TCS, atyam, Wipro, IBM, Patni, Accenture, Cap Gemini etc.
Please help me out with the project..
From India, Mumbai
I would like to know about various policies such as
1) Performance Appraisal policy
2) Leave policy
3) Policy on certification reimbursement (amount reimbursed)
4) Exit interview policy & form
5) New joining policy (with regards to orientation & Turn around time)
6) On site policy (period, kind of visa, pay policy)
I want this info in regards with service companies such as Infosys, TCS, atyam, Wipro, IBM, Patni, Accenture, Cap Gemini etc.
Please help me out with the project..
From India, Mumbai
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