All posts by : Story SideUp

There are more Bad Bosses than great.

A Bad Boss in your #workplace not only impacts mental well-being of your employees but also leads to loss of productivity, quality of your products or services, your client satisfaction & ultimately your profits.

Companies fail to hire the right #peoplemanager 82% of the times.

They promote a guy to become a team leader just because this person-

Showed great performance in his individual capacity role.

Has been with the company for a long time.

Is blocking someone else’s promotion.

Whereas, it is important to assess if this person has the capability to:

Put the right people in the right roles.

Create a culture of clear accountability.

Engage employees with a compelling vision.

Motivate every employee individually.

Coach and develop their people by focusing on their strengths.

Make decisions based on productivity, not politics.

Build trust and dialogue with their people about both work and life outside of work.

People leave managers, not companies.

One in two employees have left a job to get away from a manager and improve their overall life at some point in their career.

As an #employer and #hr, you would be doing a huge CSR if you don’t breed #badbosses.

You wouldn’t need to invest in any #mentalwellbeing initiatives by just weeding off your bad people managers.

Help your employees leave their office in a happy, positive state of mind, every single day.

Does your employer have a Long Term View or Short Term?

When you are with organizations that have the Long Term Vision, that want to build products/services for future generations, that is working to create a lifetime of an experience, you would experience:

• People First Culture.
• Focus on Building Relationships, Empathy & Trust.
• Focus on Depth of Problems/solutions & not width of tasks.
• Clarity of Performance Outcomes & Career Paths.
• Focus & Investment on Learning & Development Initiatives.
• Calm & Relaxed Working Environment.
• Nurturing & Coaching of Talent.

When with Short term focussed organizations you experience:

• Task Orientation & Not People.
• Focus on achievement of goals/targets, at any costs.
• Multi-Roles/Multi-Tasks for individuals at any given point of time.
• Crunched Deadlines: Rushed & Fast Paced Working Environment.
• Aggressive, tensed tones.
• People Decisions based on current trending flavour of the eco-system.
• Processes & Policies made on current relevance; here & now basis.
• Robust systems & processes.

Know which kind of working place you naturally thrive in, and decide your #workplace accordingly.

No point cribbing about these when you join an organization which has a Short Term View-

• Lack of Work-Life Balance
• High Stress
• Lack of Empathy & Respect
• Lack of Career & Learning Opportunities

Similarly, you can’t crib about these when you join an organization that has a Long Term View:

• Slow Pace of Decision Making
• High Chain of Command
• Lack of Authority & Empowerment
• High Process Orientation

Choose Wisely.

Its not always the fault of the Manager, Culture, Leadership of an organization. Sometimes, we choose jobs without doing a conscious analysis of what works for us, as an individual.

It can’t be THEIR fault all the time.

Want to land the best paying jobs in HR? Be a Domain Expert.

You will be called a domain expert, if you have:

• Spent a significant time in the same domain (TA/L&D/C&B/Ops).
• Experienced the domain in more than one industry/Organization Type/Geography/Environmental Complexity.
• Provided effective solutions to domain problems.
• Coached, mentored, guided or trained a team in your domain.

There are many benefits of being an Expert:

• You get strategic roles & exciting problems to solve.
• You’re ring-fenced by your employer.
• Your demand in the market is higher.
• You command higher perks & benefits.
• Your ratings & increments are consistently better than the average.

Longevity of employment tenure in that domain is needed, however there are other crucial factors that can make you a domain expert:

1. Know the Science of your domain

What theories, research, & study is proven in this field? What rules are defined by law of the land?

2. Know the Art

What’s the cause & effect of a particular practice? What are the best practices? What is my employee demographics? What do they need?

3. Know your Organizational Needs

What does my Organization need? What problem do I need to solve? What aspects of Science & Art can I implement? What has worked here before? Why did this not work?

4. Get into Depths of Tasks

Why are employees coming to the HR seat to ask for appointment letters? Why is there low response to this job posting? Why is the attrition of that team so high? Keep asking questions, keep peeling off layers to reach to the root of the problems.

5. Provide Options to Stakeholders

Never go with just one solution to the stakeholder. That’s the beauty of being in HR- you always have options to reach the same goal. Provide pros & cons of each approach & collaborate with stakeholders to arrive at the best possible approach.

6. Be on top of your Data

What’s the attrition rate? What is the offer drop out rate? What was the attendance %age of last training? How many appointment letters pending this month? The Dashboard of your area of work should be the first and last thing you see on every work day of yours.

7. Ideate & Learn

Build a network of mentors & colleagues with whom you can discuss thoughts & understand trends. Remain a student, even if you are aiming to be the master.

Strive to stay at the Top of your game!

Employer or Employee- Whose hat do you wear as #HR?

Many years ago I was asked this question in an interview. I replied “I like to wear both hats, depending on the situation.”

The interviewer, an experienced HR leader, wasn’t impressed.

We went on to have a healthy discussion on this. I heard his points and put forth mine with passion & drive.

Now, after having gained experience by working with investors, founders and CEOs, I can say with confidence-

Dear HR, always wear the employer’s hat.

Hire great talent from market basis the skill set needed by your organization to achieve its business plans.

Groom internal folks in order to maximise internal knowledge base, loyalty and commitment.

Train employees so that they continue to remain productive & engaged.

Provide a healthy working environment to employees so that they like working for your organization.

Understand and resolve for employee pain areas in order to build collaborative & trusting teams.

Do everything that you think is needed by an employee so that your employer benefits.

It’s always, always the employer’s hat first.

You should solve people’s problems. Duh! What a stupid thing to say!! Of course I solve people’s problems. That’s my job! I am in #HR.

The kind of problems most HR’s solve for people are:

• Providing them a job.
• Introducing them to new team members on the first day of the joining.
• Telling them where the cafeteria is & the fastest places to get food from.
• Helping them understand company policies of leave and POSH.
• Asking them to attend Fun Friday events.
• Taking them out for lunch/coffee breaks.
• Basically, being there always, like whenever the employee calls, they respond.

However, if you wish to be called an expert of #humanresources, then you should do what experts do.

#hrexperts solve people problems that are complex & difficult. They have the knack to do:

• Career Conversations with Average performers.
• Retention Conversations with Top talent.
• Effective people management conversations with bad bosses.
• Tough budget conversations with Hiring Managers.
• Structure Conversations with Clueless Functional Managers.
• Policy conversations with CXOs.

The choice to be called an HR Expert is in your hands. It’s not an easy title to get and certainly comes with it’s fair share of stress, time & energy. But the rewards are immense (as we talked about in the first post of this series).

If you wish to go this route, prepare yourself to have Tough Conversations with all stakeholders. These conversations solve people problems that are much more deep-rooted and ingrained in a person or system.

Want to be called an #hrexpert? Work on your delivery rate.

Delivery Rate means the speed of your tasks & the quality of outputs. If your delivery rate is high, you would be able to meet your commitments and effortlessly build positive lifelong working relationships- 2 key ingredients of being called an expert.

Here are 4 ways to achieve this:

1. Follow the 2-minute productivity rule

If it would take just 2 minutes to do this work, DO IT. The employees waiting anxiously for their appointment letter, the leave policy, the salary slip would look up to you in a completely different light.

2. Solve 3 Stakeholder Problems Every Day

Be the partner your employee wants. Be the partner your Functional Stakeholder wants. Be the partner your HR head wants. Be the partner your CEO wants. Each is a different role. Pick any 3 stakeholders every day & solve their problem. Keep the Balance- Don’t focus on just 1.

3. Raise your Hand, more often than you can

Be the one who is eager to work on a new project, to go on a field visit, to prepare the deck for CXO meet, to create an agenda plan etc. The more hands you raise, the more opportunities to learn & grow you get. The more functional managers come to you as the “Go To” person.

4. Block Time in your Calendar

Solving someone’s problems needs to be on your calendar, if it’s ain’t there, it won’t happen. If you’ve committed you would get back to them in a day, block your calendar right away. If you need to do your market research on prevalent salary grids, block your calendar for research, analysis, presentation & feedback.

Hope you enjoyed the series of posts on how to become an #hrexpert. Do share it with young #hrprofessionals who may need to know this.

Tips & Tricks to enhance your everyday #workplace email writing.

Before sending any work email, be clear of:

Objective of Email:

– What is the need to send this email?

– Whom do you need to send this email?

Understanding the reader’s mind:

– How is your email going to help him? What problem are you solving?

– What do you want the reader to do after reading your email?

– How would the reader give attention to what you have to say from amongst the many other things he has on his plate (or inbox).

Structuring of Email:

– The first para should set the context of the email. (Why are you sending this email).

– If you want the reader to do an action (give approval/provide suggestions etc.), then mention it right away. (What is expected from the reader).

– The second para should have headings/sub-headings/bullet points of your key message. (What is it that you have to say)

– The third para should be the conclusion. This could be next steps/learnings/suggestions. (Next is what?).

Making Emails impactful:

– Come straight to the point. Your first line/para should basically tell the reader what the situation, problem & solution is.

– Use simple, easy to understand language.

– Use attachments for additional data/charts/analysis.

– Use italics to highlight important words. Avoid using Bold, Underline, Highlighters to emphasise on points on words.

– Use HALT principle. Never send an email when you are Hungry (H), Angry (A), Lonely (L) or Tired (T).

The daily number of hours being spent on email writing and reading is insane. As #HR and #peoplemanager, equip your teams to write effective emails.

The one thing that would always make a difference in your career is your #communicationskills.

I see a lot of young #HR professionals not wanting to get into conversations. They accept the status quo & start limiting their contributions to acceptance of just what is being told.

That’s when HR starts losing it’s value.

No matter what domain of HR you belong to, you need to:

– Ask Questions to understand Business/Functional Context.

– Discuss and share your views on the current trends & people issues.

– Have conversations with people to Build Positive Relationships.

– Solve interpersonal conflicts by acting as a #coach or #mediator.

– Sell your team/organization’s story to potential candidates/existing employees.

– Showcase your contributions to the senior stakeholders.

All this requires you to get comfortable with #publicspeaking, #articulating, #communicating and #problemsolving.

Learn Corporate Communication Skills, verbal & written. It is your most powerful astra in corporate world.

By virtue of your jobs in corporate world, you are forever busy.

I understand, respect and value that.

But trust me when I tell you that if you do not take out time to work on your #communicationskills, you will not only remain forever busy but also stressed, irritated & angry.

It is not an option but a necessity to:

– Make your communication specific & to the point.

– Convert the myriad of words in your thoughts to words that should be spoken and written.

– Understand what the other person needs to know.

– Choose the tone, medium, setting and timing of your communication.

Your choice to not do all this would lead you to spending hours of your busy day into:

– Explaining your point of view through long email chains, using highlighters, bold and underline across words & paras and marking CC to all possible stakeholders.

– Spending time in resolving conflicts, ambiguity and relationships.

– Solving the same problems over and over again.

– Blaming others for their lack of understanding, commitment and quality of work.

So, next time you’re tempted to take the easy way out, ask yourself: Do you want to spend time now or later? Choose wisely.