People Matters

The Counsellor: Communication Concerns

Feb 15th 2011

Vivek Paranjpe, Consultant & Strategic HR Advisor to Reliance Industries answers professional and ethical dilemmas faced by our readers at their workplace.Question: Dear Sir, I am a HR Manager of a company which has 200 employees. My CEO does not trust the employees as a result of some past experiences he has had which has deterred his confidence in people. He thinks everyone is out to defraud the company, and this mindset has led us to create many policies which are not entirely appreciat... Read more »

The Counsellor: Selective Hiring

Feb 15th 2011

Vivek Paranjpe, Consultant & Strategic HR Advisor to Reliance Industries answers professional and ethical dilemmas faced by our readers at their workplace.Question: Dear Sir, I am a HR Head of a family-owned company. This company follows a strange practice of selecting those people who belong to the same religious group as the owner, whether or not they are good for the post we are hiring. This has resulted in creating a strange organization where we have a mix of very good professionals a... Read more »

The Counsellor: Colleagues at Loggerheads

Feb 15th 2011

Vivek Paranjpe, Consultant & Strategic HR Advisor to Reliance Industries answers professional and ethical dilemmas faced by our readers at their workplace.Question: Dear Sir, The Head of Accounts Head and the Financial Controller in my company are required to work together, but they cannot stand each other and therefore, they are unable to work together, thereby interrupting the workflow. While the Head of Accounts is an experienced and knowledgeable person, he does not want to commit to a... Read more »

Insight versus Knowledge

By Shantanu Dhar

Oct 1st 2010

Sometimes when our knowledge about a particular subject fails us, it is our insights that help us steer the path.It’s 7:00 AM on a weekday. You are back from your morning walk. There are three urgent mails on that nag called a Blackberry. You have to make that call to the sales guy at Kansas City before he leaves for the day and your daughter needs to be dropped to school.And yes, you have to take shower, get dressed and eat your breakfast. In between all of this, you grab the newspaper ... Read more »

The Intellectual

By Shantanu Dhar

Jul 1st 2010

In fond memory of HCL Technologies Co-founder, Subramanian Raman and his simple, yet effective, management styleOn a recent flight, I discovered that the person next to me was a business head of a midsized manufacturing organization. His eyes also lit up when he discovered that I am an HR professional. The gentleman, a senior profile in his fifties, decided to talk about competency management in an organization.He asked me, `What is a competency ‘?`Identifying those ingrained behaviors t... Read more »

Personal Assessment: ...a Journey, not a Destination

By GURDEEP S. HORA

Mar 2nd 2010

‘Be what you would seem to be’—or if you’d like it put more simply— ‘Never imagine yourself not to be otherwise than what it might appear to others that what you were or might have been was not otherwise than what you had been would have appeared to them to be otherwise.’“The Mock Turtle’s Story” from Alice in WonderlandThere is often a substantial difference between how we view ourselves, our work, our achievements and our shortcomin... Read more »

From passion to compassion

By Anil Sachdev

Sep 2nd 2009

Albert Einstein once said: ‘A human being is a part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feeling as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all... Read more »

Revisiting Performance Assessment

By Aquil Busrai

Jul 1st 2009

Lost opportunities, demotivated workforce, silent surrender to mediocrity – all outcomes of ineffective performance management in an organization. And that too in an annual ritual that has often projected itself to be an ideal way of assessing contribution and in many cases, determine the reward associated with that contribution.The annual performance appraisal has outlived its utility in more ways than one. With many options available to workforce today, many employees adopt a line of l... Read more »

Arrogance: The latest competency

By Shantanu Dhar

Jul 1st 2009

It was around 4 years ago, that this dawned upon me. I was sitting at a lounge of a local 5-star one evening, in between appointments. I got a tap on a shoulder and it was an old friend. He was there for an interview with a HR person from an upcoming telecom company. So we chatted for a while and the HR person arrived. I shifted to the next table. Now, I had about 30 minutes for the next appointment to begin, so, with nothing to do, I couldn’t help but notice the body language at the nex... Read more »

You Have Too Much Time!

By Suman Sethi

Jul 1st 2009

2008-09… just another year? …. not really… actually for many of us our world as we knew it seems to have had a volte-face. Career paths as were charted last year seem to be a faraway reality for most and a mirage for some.The global economic slowdown has impacted all irrespective of the industry and level. It is now imperative that everyone creates and adds value consistently. What was hitherto expected from “star performers” is now the necessity; desirable per... Read more »