The missing link in PMS

My thoughts on Education, Industry, Professionals and HR

Recently siliconinida published my thoughts on different aspects of the HR profession. Here is the details script for my blog readers. This interview is also available on http://www.siliconindia.com/profiles/Vinod-Bidwaik-EmM5yIfH.html

 What are your thoughts on education system in India? What measures to be taken into consideration to improve its quality?

Speaking on "HR as a Game Changer" at MIT.

I came from the middle class family. I educated from vernacular medium school till SSC. Teachers, that time, were more committed. I remember when our teachers used to take extra classes without any extra tuition fees. It does not mean that they were earning well, but their commitment to the teaching profession was high. My success still is in the commitment and values taught by my parents and committed teachers. It does not mean that it was best education system, but teachers were going extra mile and students’ success was considered their success.  

Our education system is focus more on instructions.  It is a time to re-look the whole system.  More focus on modeling and experiential sharing should be given. Academics and theory make your foundation sound, but students should be allowed more experiments. To summarize with the education should be more practical, on the shop floor rather than in class rooms, with the use of technologies. We should en courage to do the as much as experimentation and innovations.       

What can professionals do on their own to help India become a developed country?

Winning professionals are successful because, they made experimentation. They learn from mistakes and they excel in their professional world. Most importantly, they succeeded in adverse conditions. There are no ideal conditions. I think their experience can be the motivation to the aspiring professional. These professional can support India by giving their inputs for making policies. They can be mentor and coach to the students and researchers. They can be viewed as role model. Let’s use their expertise. Unfortunately, their expertise is not fully utilized. In business colleges and institutes, these professionals are invited just for the rituals. Is there any motivation to these people to share their wisdom and expertise? There are autonomous industry association bodies, but does government has invited these professional? Very few.

I think their role should be recognized in economy and should be proper system of acknowledgement. Professional are happy to support the nation.            

How do you recruit & retain the diverse and ambitious Generation Y. Are they really ambitious?

There are different perspectives to this. Generation Y from metro cities are different from Generation Y from tier 2, small town or rural areas. In totality they are different from each other. Students from metro cities have more opportunities due to their socio-economical background. When I look back and see myself, I think, I was the thinking the same what so called generation think today! They are ambitious because their social values. The youth from rural area may also be ambitious, but will not change the job so frequently, because his priority may be different.  We recruit all these guys considering all these dimensions.  The correct value proposition as per the generation’s requirement is required. The expectations and ambitions are high because there are lots of opportunities in the market. Their engagement is crucial. We need to understand their motive and drive first. They need Empowerment, Entertainment, Education, Enrichment, Enlightenment and Encouragement.      

What are the biggest pain points for HR?

As said by Jack Welch, business is the game and it is all about winning. The team that wins is the team with the best players.  HR’s job is to field the best players. Biggest pain areas are deploying the right talent. I believe that talent is vital in business growth, but right talent is. The struggle of line managers is to identify the right talent in their team. Another pain point is engagement and retention of the right talent. Now a day, employees have lot of expectations; their target year in any company is, maximum 3 years. Their drive is totally self-centric but still believes on hardworking and performance. The issue is how to match their expectations. 

What kinds of Challenges are there in panning Human Resource Strategies in an ever changing business?

Business situation is dynamic. There are no ideal conditions now. Situation is always turbulent. Yesterday’s strategy will not work today. There is no one solution for all issues. You have to work on tailor made solutions of different talent and again as per the business need. These are main challenges. 

Do you have any advice/suggestions for fellow HR Leaders?

I have seen most of the HR professional don’t update themselves.

My suggestion is “don’t stop learning.” Update your concepts on different HR practices. Benchmark with others and try to implement the best things. Improve on soft skills. HR success is not only for functional expertise, but is on how you play the role of partnering the business. HR needs to be more credible and advise business leaders on their HR issues. Another factor is how you engage your employee with creating your own personal brand. So, network in the organization for selling your HR ideas.      

What are the upcoming trends that you see in HR world today?

Speaking on "Employability" at SCMLD.

There will be different roles in HR function itself. HR experts, HR services and HR business Partner. As per the drive of HR professionals, they can move in all these functions. Use of technology will be crucial for right HR decisions in Talent Management. HR business partners will be expected to play the role of advisors to business leaders supported by other two functions. They are expected to be change agent drive the HR strategy.     

How do you identify leaders and promote them to the next level?

Talent in the organization is calibrated and identified as per their potential. This is validated by different functional leaders based on their interaction with the person and his performance. The identified potential also goes through the development center.

What are some of the different qualities you look out for while hiring people?

First: Culture fit

Second: Team Fit

Third: Job Fit.

Apart from this their attitude is important. Off course their knowledge and skills are important, but more important are their attitude and soft skills, like team skills, communications skills, his way of interacting etc. However it is purely depend upon his area of work.

What is the relationship between the HR Department and the CEO?

HR is the culture and it is driven by the top management. Hence, HR is always important agenda on the table along with other business issues.

How do you attract good people, retain the better performers and advance the best?

We have the best practices in the company for all functions. The company brand is the solid. We adopt best in the industry.   

What Websites/Books/Magazines Do you Recommend to fellow Professionals in the industry?

Vinotbidwaik.blogspot.com, Silicon India, CiteHR, HRlink.in, Human Capital, APS Labour digest, Harvard business review, Indian Management and book written by Dave Ulrich, TVS Rao etc. I also suggest reading motivational books written by Steven Covey etc.

Books like HR transformation, HR Champion, Mind of Strategist, The Duckling Duck, One Minute Manager are worth readable books. “Daily Drucker” should be on every manager’s table.

Leaders selling insurance policies!

Have you seen factory of making leaders? I have seen the board of one management institute on Mumbai –Pune highway. In Pune, there are lots of so-called management institutes who claim that they make leaders for industries. These institute offers post graduate management courses to students who have lot of money and their fathers don’t know what to do with that money.  Surprisingly, there are few institutes which do not pay the salaries of their employees on time. There are few institutes who are run by the people who don’t know what management means. Still most of these institutes manage their (paid) ranking published by some magazines and economics periodicals. These periodicals carry survey for the ranking. Institutes pay for the advertorials (paid advertisements published in a format of articles) and they get the space in rankings. Top institutes never participate in such surveys because they don’t need such acknowledgement.

And these institutes claim that they make leaders for the industries. In spite of providing such ready-made leaders to the industries, industries do not benefit much from these leaders. These leaders either sell banking products like credit cards or insurance policies or perform the job of clerk in industry. They either change the job or forced to change the job within a year.

During 2007-2009, you must have seen lot of retail and banking companies hiring candidates from these institutes. Normally the hiring was on the payroll of DSAs or contractors of these companies. I was working with Media Company and we used to hire candidates for sales, either selling advertisement (for advertisement department) or products (Circulations or selling of the product). We used to receive the resumes of candidate who were working with banking and insurance sector from all above institutes. They would tell us the reason of high pressure and undignified jobs. How the Leader can sell the insurance policy or sell the banking product to the customer?

During this period I also came to know the bitter truth of such institutes and malpractices in which they involve. Every institute claims 100% placement, but if somebody conducts the survey on “what happens to these students after six months”, I bet you will find surprising results.

This specific business management education system has spoiled the talent market. This also resulted in increased employee turnover because of mismatch of expectations. It is very unlikely that after such education student would get the managerial role. I have seen most of such student doing clerical jobs. For the jobs which can be handled by simple graduate, companies started hiring MBAs (PGs in from above institutes). Students perceive that they would manage people or would be manager within a year. (Fancy titles conditioned their mindJ)

Frankly speaking you need smart employees and not necessary these institutes teach smartness. Second myth is about leadership. If you hired all the leaders (!) to do day to job, failure is likely.

Thank god, most of the organizations are realizing the fact. Almost 35,000 seats in so called business schools are vacant this year and there is less demand for business management courses. This is because; industries corrected their stand on hiring such talents.

Time has come to scrap the existing business management education system and revamp the whole as per the industry expectations.