Monday, December 31, 2018

With new year… start your new life…


It doesn't matter what your intentions are or how high you set your goals; what you'll be remembered for is what you accomplish...  



After few hours, we will be in 2019, in a new year.. and this is my first blog in a new year. however what is the different in new year?… for nature it is same, for universe it is same… universe has completed just one lap…but everything will be same, except your thinking. Mentally we have accepted that with the change of year on the calendar,  something new is ahead…and we should think actually for something new. Celebration of new year is the ritual, but it should not be only the celebration or ritual… it should be the celebration of adopting something new; Changing something and being more matured and stronger. The way forward in  fulfilling your dreams.


Of course this is also the opportunity to change our outdated belief and habits. Do you welcome the change?

I know it is very difficult, but if you have a right attitude and faith on the power…power of this universe which has the ability to convert odd into opportunities…then accepting the change is very easy. For this flexibility is the key.

Another is to maintain a strong belief that no matter what happens, you will get through it. Know, deep in your heart of hearts,  that you are bigger and stronger than any outside force and circumstances.

If you look back and introspect, you will realized that everything what you did or achieved gave you a different experience and you came out from the odd situation. You achieve something because you can do it. You have already proved that you have lot of potential and you are ready to take new challenges in life.

Remember that if life gives you lemons, make lemonade…

Only one think you should do and that is, Promise… Promise to yourself…
Promise yourself, your family and the supreme power which believe that you will peruse the change you wish and the dream you have to the best of your ability.


You deserve to get what you dream and what you think…. But take actions… 

Wish you all a Happy New Year!

Friday, December 14, 2018

Feedback on Password to Enriched Life by one of the reader


Buy Password to Enriched Life

Thank you very much for giving me a book “ Password To Enriched Life” Authored by Vinod Bidwaik and giving me an opportunity to read this “Panchtantra of life skills”

I related this book to PANCHTANTRA because it has real learning like Original Panchatantra. This book also gives important thoughts through small & meaningful stories. I like this book very much. It is useful to even in my day to day work as an Employee as well as Team Leader.

In Preface , book has been dedicated to Elders and Siblings, which is aligned with our country culture and teaching by Elders, we know this since childhood and also told in our Mythology books.

Almost all stories are amazing and push you to think again & again. It prompts you to look ahead for your own future. This books gives you an Enriched experience. Every story teaches you something different. It is like Elders or ‘Guru” giving you the insight about life.  This also gives you the PASSWORD of your happy life. Passwords are very important in our life, Passwords opens next door of opportunity & Treasure. 

This book too gives us new Treasure. It opens door of success. The story "Don’t underrate me Dad"  is a learning for each parent. Similarly “Other side Of Life” makes you realize that, many opportunities an life have been missed by us just because of ignorance or inattentiveness. “Everybody knows Syndrome" is again common thing you experience and you feel that this syndrome is very dangerous one and prone to many accidents like sharp curves on narrow road. “Joy of giving” is another good lesson to each one by each parent, Such lessons by parentage  are very important to each child to convert into responsible and matured citizen of the country. 

“Ramrao and Astrologer, teaches us, how we respond under phobia or fear & how we should respond to critical situations. 

“Salespersons in shopping Mall” teaches us, how should one have the empathy with each person, who are, directly or indirectly related with us. "Perspective” realizes, how we think only from one side and not with another perception, comprehensively. "Resolution of Following Resolution" is an eye opener, because we all are good only for new start and not maintaining the same in future.

In Marathi, It is ARAMBHSHOOR, Good for  everybody &even for start ups. 

"CHALATA HAI” again endorses our another dangerous syndrome, which kept our country DEVELOPING, for many decades. Even after having freedom 70 years, we are still ‘developing’, just due to this syndrome of ‘Chalata Hai’. 

"Self Awareness" stresses on own self power and WILLPOWER, for own development. As said in Bhagvatgita, it is duty of learned people that they must work for the development of the society. Without self development, they can't develop others. 

"Make your own Luck” again is motivating story for everyone.”What is the Source of your energy”  is personally useful for me.

I again thank you for giving me chance of reading this great book and, wish that, if possible I wish to gift this book each of my colleague and each team leader in my organization. I believe that whole organization will get benefited by reading this book.

Ajit Pelapkar

Wednesday, September 26, 2018

Future of Performace Management

My interview published

Future of Performance Management System

What is currently missing in the way overall employee performance is being managed?

Most of the times, the performance management system is just a ritual. This is because the missing part of the system is “purpose”. Manager and Employees have their own perceptions about the performance management system. Their “purpose” is to compensate their employees. Hence higher rating is always perceived for a higher merit increase. It is leader’s job to give the larger purpose to the system..i.e. it is not just for the merit increase but recognizing employee contribution and his development areas to be a better employee in the organization.
On the organizational level, this should be the integrity exercise not just to complete the process and run the yearly exercise.
Second missing point is the “relevance” of such systems to the current business scenario. The PMS system is established and very rarely it is reviewed periodically. Performance is always important, but the actual results are always considered rather than how these results are achieved. I am speaking about behaviors. Do we really consider the right behaviors and values while evaluating employees?
Third missing point is “the way it is conducted and communicated.” Are managers trained properly to give the right feedback? Are they giving the feedback based on the events and circumstances? It should not be an annual ritual. Performance Management System should be one of the milestones in the journey of the employee lifecycle.
Fourth missing point is misinterpreting performance to the potential. The general tendency is to identify the talent based on the performance instead of potential. Hence, I always advise delinking the performance management system. Compensation and identifying the talent based on performance.

Given that a company’s workforce now has a significant proportion of virtual and freelance workers, how should performance management include them?

I will suggest having regular business performance meetings, department performance meetings and then individual feedback sessions for team regularly. Business performance meetings can be monthly and quarterly individual feedback sessions. During such meetings focus should be on actual performance and peer learnings.
During periodical feedback sessions focus can be on “how” part on behaviors and development needs and employee should get the sense that managers are supporting them instead of identifying faults.
Managers need a lot of training on coaching, feedback giving and other aspects of performance management.

What are employees, managers, and decision-makers looking for to make performance management more effective?

I think it is about “expectations management”. Employees and managers including decision makers have their own expectations from each other. If you make these expectations clear, then effectiveness will be there. This can be done with more concrete goals (SMART-objectives), aligning goals to the common purpose of the organization and job purpose; Qualitative feedback about the job; and trying to put the expectations well documented.
Transparency and openness is the key to any effective performance management system.

What are some of the new things being introduced in Performance Management that are working/not working?

It is evolution. There is no rocket science. It should not be the copy paste system. It should be relevant and aligned with your business needs. Some trends are as under:
  • There are companies who are eliminating the bell curve. Still, people are rated but not calibrated in force rating.
  • There are companies who are focusing more on development discussions instead of KRAs and KPIs. KRAs and KPIs are still set up but these are not an integral part of the jobs now.
  • Companies are delinking performance with the potential and running separate talent calibration sessions for identifying the talent, (HiPos, TiPos).
  • Few companies have in fact total stopped the annual appraisals for a merit increase. Compensation is paid based on the matrix which is based on role, comp ratio with a certain percentage of appraisal rating.

If not periodic appraisals, then what & how?

The word” Appraisal” is not relevant today. It is an evaluation of the performance based on “what” (achievement) and “How” (behaviors, values, purpose). With this understanding, it can be any time as an organization deems fit. However, it should be the right time for the feedback.
I always suggest that you can have business performance reviews monthly and half-yearly formal feedback sessions with employees.
Informal feedback sessions and coaching sessions should be regular and this is one of the vital responsibility of people managers.

Related Resources:

Monday, July 09, 2018

HR in New world...from my first job to future via present: Interview taken by Sanjeev Himachali


Image result for The View

(This interview is also available on Interview with Vinod Bidwaik)

"CEOs look at HR as a Change agent, Functional consultant, and a Coach to the Management Team"

Introducing Vinod Bidwaik to the world is like showing light to the sun. Vinod is an accomplished HR Practitioner with over Two-decades of experience across industries. He is an Author of FIVE books (TWO in English language and THREE in Marathi). Career Coach and Mentor to hundreds of young graduates. He is one of the most respected HR Professionals in the fraternity, yet very simple and down to earth. It is a privilege for us to get his interview. Thank you, Vinod, for agreeing to this interview. We value your time. We are looking forward to your candid and honest response as you always are.
We would be pleased to learn about your journey from the beginning. So, please share with us about your first job interview.
My first professional stint embarked at Indian Steel, a heavy engineering Indian company. I was hired through the campus recruitment and hence that was my first job interview. After many rounds of tests, group discussions and rigorous interviews, I was selected.
The experience was overwhelming. Though the entire process was not very complicated, however, the interview was tough. One of the interviewers asked me, “Under which section of Factories Act, the occupier can be punished.”
I was clueless. My hope started fading away but I decided upon giving the honest yet witty answer and so I said, “Sir, frankly speaking, I don’t know the section, but…”
“But what?” the interviewer looked into my eyes.
“But I assure you that, if you give me the opportunity, I will ensure that the occupier will not be penalized.” I just blurted out.
The interview continued and with every follow-up question, my nerves started relaxing. As, during my college days, I was working as a free-lance journalist and a part-time sub-editor for one of the local newspapers, they asked me few questions about that.  
Finally, I got selected. Initially, in my role, I had to support in hiring diploma and GETs & coordinate their training to work on a machine for machining jobs and on the assembly line.  
I was very happy because it was my first job in HR (Personnel).  
Few things I learned; be confident, be honest and be clear what you want from your life.
An interview should not be the question & answer session but, should be a meaningful conversation. Both parties should treat each other with respect.
Which, according to you was the most intriguing interview? Can you share your experience in detail?
I have given a lot of interviews. After working with Mahindra & Mahindra I wanted to work in strategic HR aspects and was exploring the opportunities outside. One day my ex-boss, who had started his own consultancy, called to apprise me that one of the biggest media companies (Sakaal Media Group) was looking for a candidate who would be the deputy to the Chief HR Officer. I decided to give a try. My initial interview was mainly focussed on business plans, establishing professional HR function and company’s mission and vision. The managing director was very vocal about his expectations.  
I liked the company’s approach and my role. The entire hiring process took almost 3 months that included many interactions with the senior leadership team.  
I believe that an interview should not be the question & answer session but, should be a meaningful conversation. Both parties should treat each other with respect.
The first job is a major milestone for many people. Let’s discuss your first year at the job. How was your experience? What were your expectations from your job and your role? Were they all fulfilled? What didn’t coincide with your expectation?
My first job as an HR was hiring & training GETs and diploma holders to work on the shop floor. I assumed this job to be easy; as after all, it was just hiring and training them. However, after joining I realized the true challenges. The first challenge was to attract candidates for a budgeted salary to work on the shop floor. Another challenge was training them. The attrition was high as 50% of candidates used to leave within a quarter of months after joining. The word ‘training’ may sound easy but, it requires resources and subject matter experts to train the candidates. The pressure to deploy people to the shop floor was so much that we could not do justice in training them.
The situation was totally different than what I had expected. After a year, the union started creating issues and one day a gherao was conducted for work managers and personnel manager. The Union went on strike.  It was difficult to run the plant. Finally, the management decided to declare the lockout.  My colleague, who was handling IR issues, left the organization because of pressure. 
My manager then called me and said, “Vinod, now you don’t have any hiring, would you like to assist me in industrial relations”. My first job in IR was to draft and issue the suspension pending inquiry to union office bearers.
I was scared but I took the challenge. After few months, the management resolved the issue but not before I learned about hard & soft dimensions of handling Industrial Relations and got an opportunity to build a relationship with unionized workmen.
Indeed, my first job was challenging and perspective building.
Be open to asking for help from peers and seniors to learn new things.
According to you, do you think workplace mentors and coaches play an important role in settling fresh graduates in their first job? How was your experience?
Mentors and coaches definitely play an important role in the development of employees. However, sometimes we don’t recognize our informal mentor and coaches who may not be directly assigned to train you but nevertheless; you learn a lot from them.
My story is similar. My each and every boss has been my coach and mentor. By observing them, I learned what to do and what NOT to do. If you have a formal mentor or coach, you are lucky.  But don’t mind if you don’t have. Just be curious and learn from others.
Also, read good books. Books are true friends and mentor and there are lots to learn from books.  
Be open to asking for help from peers and seniors to learn new things.
CEO looks at HR as a Change agent, Functional consultant, Coach to the Management Team.
You are an HR Practitioner for so many years. Could you please tell us why did you choose this profession? If not in HR, what another profession you would have chosen for yourself?
Frankly, I was never inclined towards HR profession while pursuing my education. I initially worked as a journalist and then moved to sales in Media Company. Working there, I realized the need to learn management skills and hence I enrolled for the management degree. In the process, when I started learning HR, it became evident to me that HR aligns with my personality. HR has that potential through which I can impact the society and make a difference which is my ultimate goal.  
If not HR professional, I would have been a professional news anchor and journalist.   
Having worked in a leadership role, what do you think are the expectations of a CEO or the Management Team from its HR Function in general and HR Head in particular?
CEO looks at HR as a Change agent, Functional consultant, Coach to Management team members. Their expectations are clear. They look for what & how HR strategies are aligned with the business strategy.
From an HR leader, a CEO expects to establish coordination between all MT members, and develop & maintain the team dynamics of MT team.    
In the same breath, can you also highlight about expectations of employees from the HR Function of an Organization?
Employees expect better employee experience. They need simplicity and freedom of work. They expect HR to intervene if something goes wrong in the team, function or the organization. They also expect that HR should be fair and reasonable and devise simple policies. Another expectation is of transparency and openness. They expect HR to be a role model.  
According to you, what are the key challenges of being a representative of employees as well as a representative of company management? What kind of conflicts you have faced and how did you manage to overcome them.
A simple example is yearly ACR (annual compensation reviews). Employees always expect a good salary hike irrespective of how company or market is doing. On the other side, a company has its own limitations in terms of budget.
HR role here is to work on a simple job evaluation and compensation philosophy, benchmarked with the market and then explain this in simple language to employees. If it sounds logical, employees are bound to accept the change easily.  
Change management or organizational redesign is another challenge where you have to be logical and balanced. This is needed to be successful in the business. Sometimes, the effect of the redesign is unpleasant. The question is how well you handle it. If you have to let go of a few people, how you intend to manage the situation.
The key is to be open, transparent and logical.
We can’t survive if we continue to work in the same way as we used to work in the past.
HR is at the crossroads, yet again. According to you, what will be the impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI), Robots, etc. on the future of HR Function? Please also highlight how social media has changed the world of HR practitioners?   
Social media has made the life simple of HR professionals but it is tricky; simply because you have a platform for talent sourcing, communication, and employer branding but tricky because your employee may tarnish the image by putting something wrong on the social media. To avoid such circumstances, you should have a well explained social media policy in place.
AI & robots may take away few transactional jobs and may impact the profession but, HR professionals must be creative to safeguard their roles in the future. We can’t survive if we continue to work in the same way as we used to work in the past.
Last question, what is your message for young and aspiring HR practitioners? What kind of growth opportunities should they look forward to? Why should anyone join this profession? And, what are key competencies one must have to be successful in this profession?     
HR professionals make an impact on the business but you have to reinvent yourself. Try to learn what future may look like. Most of the jobs in HR may go redundant like payroll processing, recruiter, training co-ordinator etc.
Few jobs will be transferred to consultants from company payroll. Gig economy is another factor where HR professionals can work with different companies if they have specialized skill sets.
My humble submission is, “don’t join this profession because you think it is the job in an air-conditioned office. Please don’t give the stupid answer that you like dealing with human beings”.
If you are courageous, agile & want to make the impact on the business, then only join this profession.   
To have a great career in HR, you must be prepared and willing to learn and experiment throughout your life. One size doesn’t fit all. The way HR is required to work in an MNC differs from the way it needs to function in a start-up or in a family-run business. HR needs to have this understanding.  
Thank you very much, yet again, for sharing wonderful insight. We appreciate it. 

Friday, April 27, 2018

Holistic Approach to Employee Engagement :- New Book

I am happy to share that my e-book (distributed worldwide) & Paperback edition (Not available in India) titled, Holistic  Approach to Employee Engagement is available for sale on Amazon.

Please click on below links

For E-book

Holistic Approach to Employee Engagement

For Print (paperback) book

Holistic Approach to Employee Engagement




Monday, April 23, 2018

World Book Day


"Happy International Book Day."


“There is no friend as loyal as a book.” Ernest Hemingway..


“One must always be careful of books, and what is inside them, for words have the power to change us.”


Change your life by reading books

Happy to reveal the cover page of my upcoming book...व्यक्तिमत्व विकासाचा कोलाज,


My other books are available at https://www.flipkart.com/author/vinod-bidwaik







 

Thursday, March 15, 2018

Postings in WhatsApp groups & Social media


As a professional, don't you think that we are sharing to much information but not a relevant knowledge? There is lot of data and information available on internet.

Earlier we used to refer "GK" to General Knowledge, today it is "Google Knowledge"


Everyday, we get lot of articles, news, opinions etc. However question is how to make that information relevant and convert into the knowledge and wisdom. We share everything which comes to us, perhaps without reading and understanding it. Most of the times it is like garbage in garbage out. By doing this we are wasting our and recipient data, time etc.

While sharing the data or information, there should be self imposed discipline.

Please ask yourself following questions before posting it.
  1. Am I sharing the information which is relevant to the group?
  2. Am I just copying this from somewhere and pasting it in the group without reading and understanding what it means to me and others?
  3. Am I acknowledging the original author, writer of the content?
  4. Am I just posting it without adding my comments and summary of the same?
If your answer is 'NO' please don't post it.
Please don't post big articles, instead, write a summary and give the link of the article. This will help readers to decide to read or not. The said link can be saved for future reference also.
By doing this, you are
  1. Reading the article, it means you are understanding this properly.
  2.  Are improving your writing skills and thought process by summarising it.
  3. Are giving due credit to the author of the article, content etc
  4. Are saving the data of yourself and others.
  5. Are helping the author and his website or blog to reach to larger audience.

    Wise person is the person who knows how to use the knowledge; Knowledgeble is who uses the information in a right spirit to convert it into the knowledge; Informer collects the data & put in a structure. The problem is with fool who just copy, paste, post and trsnafer the data without understanding it. @vinodbidwaik

Monday, January 22, 2018

Book Review published in Daily Maharashtra Times.

Book Review published in Daily Maharashtra Times.
स्वयंविकासाची स्वयंप्रेरणा पुस्तकचे दैनिक महाराष्ट्र टाइम्स मध्ये प्रसिद्ध झालेले पुस्तक परीक्षण

 









Monday, January 01, 2018

स्वयंप्रेरणेची गुरुकिल्ली देणारं पुस्तक:- Review of स्वयंविकासाची स्वयंप्रेरणा...वाटचाल संपूर्णत्वाकडे’

प्रसिद्ध ग्रीक तत्त्वज्ञ हेरक्लायटसने म्हटलं होतं, ‘देअर इज नथिंग पर्मनन्ट एक्सेप्ट चेंज.’ बदल हाच काय तो शाश्वत असतो! आपल्याला संपूर्णत्वाकडे, विकासाकडे वाटचाल करायची असेल, तर आपल्या व्यक्तिमत्त्वात बदल घडवायला हवा आणि त्यासाठी लागणाऱ्या स्वयंप्रेरणेची गुरुकिल्ली विनोद बिडवाईक यांनी आपल्या ‘स्वयंविकासाची स्वयंप्रेरणा...वाटचाल संपूर्णत्वाकडे’ या आकर्षक पुस्तकातून आपल्यासमोर ठेवली आहे. तरुणाईला भावेल अशीच भाषा आणि उदाहरणं दिल्यानं पुस्तक सर्वांना आवडेल हे निश्चित!.... .........
नावाजलेल्या आणि बहुराष्ट्रीय कंपन्यांमध्ये मनुष्यबळ क्षेत्रात विविध पदांवर काम केलेल्या विनोद बिडवाईक यांनी ‘स्वयंविकासाची स्वयंप्रेरणा...वाटचाल संपूर्णत्वाकडे’ हे पुस्तक लिहिले आहे. आपल्या अनुभवाचा पूर्ण उपयोग आजच्या तरुणाईला व्हावा या हेतूने अत्यंत समर्पक अशी थोरामोठ्यांची सुभाषितवजा वाक्यं (Quotes) वापरून त्यांनी प्रत्येक प्रकरणाची सुरुवात केली आहे. त्यामुळे प्रत्येक प्रकरण वाचण्याआधी वाचकाची त्या प्रकरणाकडे बघण्याची एक मानसिक बैठक नकळत तयार होत जाते. त्याचबरोबर कुणालाही समजायला सोपी अशी भाषा आणि तरुणाईला भावतील अशी आजच्या काळातली उदाहरणं हे या पुस्तकाचं वैशिष्ट्य म्हणता येईल.

सगळी मिळून एकूण ३५ प्रकरणं, पण त्यांची नावंसुद्धा इतकी लक्षवेधी आहेत, की हवा तो संदेश तिथूनच मनात घुसावा! उदाहरणार्थ - ‘मनाची तयारी हवी,’ ‘फर्स्ट इम्प्रेशन’, ‘स्वप्न बघा स्वप्न’, ‘लेबल्स फेकून द्या’, ‘रोल मॉडेल’, ‘कॉमन सेन्स’, ‘चॉईसचं स्वातंत्र्य’, ‘झपाटलेपण’, ‘प्रेझेंटेशनचं कौशल्य’... नावापासूनच प्रकरणाबद्दल उत्सुकता निर्माण होते आणि आपण गुंतत जातो त्या विचारांत...!

‘जगात कसे वागावे’ किंवा ‘स्वतःला कसे सुधारावे’ टाइपची जी पुस्तकं असतात, ती बहुधा बोजड असतात आणि त्यात पांडित्यपूर्ण विचारांचा मारा असतो; पण बिडवाईक यांच्या या पुस्तकात मात्र प्रत्येक प्रकरणामध्ये तरुणाईला भावतील अशी आजच्या काळातली उदाहरणं दिल्यामुळे वाचक ‘अरे, हे तर माझ्या मनातलं जणू..’ असे मनोमन उद्गार काढून बिडवाईकांनी मांडलेला विचार आपलासा करून टाकतो हे या पुस्तकाचं आणखी एक वैशिष्ट्य. उदाहरणार्थ - ‘जीवनसागरातील पोहण्याचं शास्त्र’ या प्रकरणातलं पुस्तकी पांडित्य (थिअरी) आणि प्रत्यक्ष ज्ञान (प्रॅक्टिकल) यातल्या फरकाचं उदाहरण असो किंवा ‘इतिहासही शिक्षक’ या प्रकरणातल्या द्रोणाचार्यांवर बाजी उलटवणाऱ्या आधुनिक स्मार्ट आणि चलाख एकलव्याचं उदाहरण! ‘संप्रेरण कौशल्य’ प्रकरणात कम्युनिकेशन स्किल समजावून सांगताना दिलेलं शिंप्याचं उदाहरण असो किंवा मग ‘प्रेझेंटेशनचं कौशल्य’ या प्रकरणात सुंदर तरुणीला बघून तिच्याशी ओळख करून घ्यायला पुढे सरसावलेल्या तरुणाची तिनेच ‘विकेट’ काढल्याचा प्रसंग असो - अशी उदाहरणं देऊन बिडवाईक यांनी वाचकांना आपलंसं करून घेत आपले मुद्दे बरोबर त्यांच्या मनात घुसवले आहेत, हे त्यांच्या लेखनाचं कौशल्य.

आपल्याला व्यक्तिगत आणि व्यावसायिक आयुष्यात यशस्वी होण्यासाठी या पुस्तकात दिलेले मूलमंत्र उपयोगी पडतील यात शंका नाही. अवश्य संग्रही ठेवावं, असं हे पुस्तक आहे!

स्वयंविकासाची स्वयंप्रेरणा...वाटचाल संपूर्णत्वाकडे
लेखक : विनोद बिडवाईक
प्रकाशक : बोहो सोल पब्लिकेशन्स, माणिकमोती कॉम्प्लेक्स, पुणे-सातारा रोड, पुणे-४६
पृष्ठे : १३६
मूल्य : १९० रुपये

(हे पुस्तक ‘बुकगंगा डॉट कॉम’वरून घरपोच मागविण्यासाठी खालील लिंकवर क्लिक करा.)

You may also like these.. please read