Article: Best People Practices – Part 1: Hiring & Welcoming

Employee Relations

Best People Practices – Part 1: Hiring & Welcoming

People Matters and Great Place To Work® Institute partner again for spreading lessons from the best people management practices at some of the best workplaces in India
Best People Practices – Part 1: Hiring & Welcoming
 

Establishing the right recruitment strategy is essential in order to create a defined customer experience and positive internal culture

 

 

People Matters and Great Place To Work® Institute partner again for spreading lessons from the best people management practices at some of the best workplaces in India. In this story, we take a look at some of the unique best practices across workplaces in India that have kept people at the center.

Globally, organizations are trying various ways and methods to cut costs, improve the attrition rate, reduce wasteful expenditure etc. When organizations make business decisions that don’t follow best practices, then they are shooting themselves in the foot. They can’t just work on a trial and error basis. They will need a set of procedures or a documented path that will ultimately take them to success. And that is where best practices come in.

In May 2015, we had carried Asia’s Best Work-places 2015, where we featured 35 companies and their best practices in partnership with Great Place To Work® Institute, a global management research and consulting firm dedicated towards enabling organizations achieve business objectives by building better workplaces. It works with over 7000 organizations globally every year to help them assess and improve their work cultures. They also identify and recognize great workplaces across the globe through our best workplaces lists.

This time, we cover the best people management practices in some of the special areas again in partnership with the Great Place To Work® Institute. The research on best people practices in specific areas is an initiative to identify and recognize the unique practices across workplaces in India. They are:

• Hiring and Welcoming

• Developing People Managers

• Employee Participation and Involvement

• Employer Branding Initiatives

• Fairness in Performance Management

• Supporting Women to remain at work

• Unique initiatives to create a great workplace

Hiring and Welcoming

Establishing the right recruitment strategy is essential in order to create a defined customer experience and positive internal culture. Today, organizations are more inclined towards attitude than skill sets; while the latter can still be developed later, the former is ingrained in each one of us. In this category, we set to find out what companies are doing to ensure that new people settle well in the company while also looking at the various methods and approaches used by the company for hiring. The featured organizations in this category are: American Express India, Radio City 91.1 FM and Federal Express Corporation.

In the case of these companies, manpower planning is done in advance with the positions being requisitioned first with the approval of senior management. Once approvals are taken, the openings are posted on the job board. Background verification checks are another healthy practice among these companies. These organizations understand that the employee can play an important role in the recruitment process as they have a good understanding of the company, its values, culture and dynamic environment.

In American Express, every employee is aware about the posting and can apply either before or concurrently with external candidates. Direct sourcing and employee referrals contribute 75 per cent of the total hires. One of the initiatives that was launched this year was the use of predictive analytics to identify a ‘Profile For Success’. Through this, they were able to score a candidate’s resume by writing an algorithm. They were able to assess can6didates instantly, without “tests”. Since 40 per cent of the hires were from direct sourcing channels, the company decided to set up a direct sourcing center in Delhi, offering reach and accessibility to potential candidates. They are also the first financial services company to set up a Big Data Labs in Bangalore, where they hire potential candidates through talent mapping the talent pool. They follow a competency-based interviewing technique, where the questions may be drawn from experiences and behaviors. In American Express, the integration of the new hire is spaced over the period of a year with a series of interventions and development initiatives.

They have a variety of online, face-to-face and self-paced orientation and integration experience. From pre-hire orientation where the candidate is made to feel welcome before joining, to all the activities in the first month of their joining, there is a management trainee program called the Genesis where the MTs are inducted into the system and are helped in their transition through the year.

In FedEx too, positions are first posted internally on CareerHub, where employees are given the first opportunity to apply. Then, the hiring manager refers to external candidates. In case candidates are unhappy with the selection process, they can appeal to against the recruitment decision. Apart from referrals, hiring former FedEx staff and relatives of employees is also undertaken. At FedEx, standard and consistent recruitment steps are followed across functions for internal and external hiring. Only if the posting is not fulfilled by the internal applicants, the external hiring process is initiated. Sometimes a consultant is assigned to help with sourcing external candidates.

However, in FedEx, more than 50 per cent of the hiring is through referrals. In its bid to give back to the society, the company has teamed up with several NGOs to provide employment to underprivileged youth. The new hire is made to feel welcome through welcome email, Day 1 Week 1 programs, buddy programs, lunch with team etc.

In Radio City, the shortlisted candidates undergo a psychometric test before they attend the final interview with the CPO and the functional head. The recruiters then assess candidates through a competency-based behavioral event interview on parameters like customer service, achievement orientation, process orientation, planning and organizing, commitment and developing others. As an HR strategy, they work on building the external database for critical set of employees. Every critical employee has a backup of at least two external people matching their skillset and profile. In order to make them feel at home, a one-day induction pro-gram called ‘Tune In’ is organized every month. For MTs, it is a 45-day induction program helps them to transit from campus to corporate.

This is a 7 part series on the best practices. Watch out the space for part by part analyses of the best practices.

 

 

 

 

 

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Topics: Employee Relations, #Corporate, #AsiasBestWorkplaces2015

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