HR learning: 27 June, 2017

1.

Coaching: Discover your AAHA moment!

Do you remember the 'Eureka' story of the great scientist Archimedes? 

About 2200 years ago, Archimedes stepped into his bath and exclaimed “Eureka!” It means “I found it.”

At that moment Archimedes discovered a solution to a problem he had been pondering upon for a long time.

It was a moment of sudden discovery. The Eureka effect, it was a moment of deep insight. It’s an epiphany; the ‘AAHA!’ moment, that is Aim, Audit, Hash out and Act.

Consider Archimedes’ bathtub as your mind; the water as all the thoughts, beliefs, values, fears, emotions and everything else that is filled inside your mind.

A coach helps you take the dip; helps you take a look inside yourself and takes you through the process of self-discovery of all the solutions which we believe is available with us already.

This process of ‘holy-dip’ and the discovering your AAHA! Moments is called ‘Coaching Conversations’

The popular 'GROW' model of coaching is one of the best ways to structure our coaching conversations.

2.

Fixing the training evaluation model

A webinar session on identifying and correcting the common mistakes committed on executing the Kirkpatrick Model for training evaluation.

The People Matters L&D Virtual Conference concluded with a highly informative session by Dr. Jim Kirkpatrick (creator of the New World Kirkpatrick Model) on the pitfalls that organizations should avoid, while executing the Kirkpatrick Model for their training evaluations. The session, titled ‘Fatal Kirkpatrick Model Execution Errors: Practical Tips for Identifying and Correcting Them’, threw up a number of key insights on the most common execution errors, and how to avoid them in the first place.

The Kirkpatrick Model evaluates the training program on four levels: reaction, learning, behavior and results; all applying to the participants of the program. The most common mistake organizations commit, is to evaluate these levels individually, and sequentially. This leads to the wasting of time and money, as most of it is spent on the first two levels itself. Thus, the business value of the program is not accurately reflected.

Another major error is the attempt to isolate the impact of training, thereby isolating yourself from all your partners, and the business itself. Upon committing this error, an individual can risk losing his/her credibility, program budget and career too! 

3.

How can a leader build the right attitude for learning?

Understand your business context, technology trends and inspire employees

 

On the second day, People Matters Virtual Conference on Learning & Development featured a number of interesting sessions, one of which focused on the role of a leader in building the right attitude for learning. This session was led by Vasudevan Narasimha, Executive Director – HR, KEC International (part of the RPG Group). Setting the context for the discussion, Vasudevan focused on the need for a leader to understand the current business context. Since CEOs are focused on the short, medium and long-term impact, learning should be contextualized towards the nature of the business and not be too focused on the kind of technology or the pedagogy involved, while both of them are important.

HR News: 27 June, 2017

1.

Union Health Ministry tightens time adherence rules: Awards punctuality

The ‘employee of the month’ award is conferred upon people who consistently reach office before 9:00 a.m. and leave after 5:30 p.m.

Punctuality is crucial to the success of any endeavour, and the Union Health Ministry appreciates this fact.  In line with the same, it has also started acknowledging and recognising its employees who are punctual. The Ministry has begun awarding employees, who adhere to the office timings, working eight hours a day and completing 40 hours of duty in a five-day week. The ‘employee of the month’ award is conferred upon people who consistently reach office before 9:00 in the morning and leave after 5:30 in the evening.

The ‘employee of the month’ gets a letter of appreciation from the Union health secretary. The acknowledgement drive has worked wonders, as the practice has reportedly resulted in improved punctuality at the workplace with people consistently reaching on time.

2.

New maternity benefits even for those already on leave: Labour Ministry

Enhanced benefits will be applicable to the women who were already on maternity leave when the bill came into effect.

Clearing a lot of the doubts around the new Maternity Benefit (Amendment) Act, 2017 and its implementation, the Ministry of Labour & Employment issued a clarification stating that the enhanced benefits will be applicable to even those women who were already on maternity leave when the bill came into effect.

As per the official statement, “The enhanced maternity benefit, as modified by the Maternity Benefit (Amendment) Bill, 2016 can be extended to women who are already under maternity leave at the time of enforcement of this Amendment Act.” 

3.

Uber & Ola drivers: Employees, contractual or outsourced?

The drivers of these cab aggregators have complained against the arbitrary payment deductions on unsubstantiated grounds. Neither is there any indemnity scheme for the driver, in case of fraud booking, nor is there any freedom to cancel bookings.

In response to a writ petition filed by the Delhi Commercial Driver Union, the Delhi High Court has sought a response from the cab aggregators—Uber and Ola—on whether their drivers would fall under the category of employees or workmen. This will help the court decide on the employee benefits for these drivers. The Court also issued notices to the Centre and the Delhi Government.

The Delhi Commercial Driver Union, which claims to represent over one lakh drivers operating in the National Capital Territory, has sought the court’s direction on the following aspects:

• Constituting a committee to look into the complaints of the drivers regarding work and pay condition.

• Constituting a Committee to monitor and implement various labour laws.

• Ensuring payment of compensation to the drivers, who are victims of road accidents during the course of their employment.

The drivers of these two cab aggregators have grievances that there are arbitrary deductions in payments on vague and unsubstantiated grounds. Besides, there is no indemnity scheme for the driver in case of fraud bookings, nor is there any freedom to cancel bookings. In addition, the aggregators change fares on a daily basis without prior notice. The lack of a grievance redressal mechanism is yet another issue.

HR Movements: 27 June, 2017

1.

Sula Vineyards appoints Nick Pringle as COO

Prior to this, Nick worked at AB InBev for 12 years. He later joined Constellation to assume a variety of roles and eventually joined Accolade Wines to strengthen Hardys globally in 2011. 

Sula Vineyards has appointed Nick Pringle as the company’s Chief Operating Officer (COO), effective immediately. In his capacity as the COO Nick will work closely with Rajeev Samant, Founder and CEO, Sula Vineyards, while overlooking the company’s strategy and operations.

Nick has over 20 years of experience in the wine and spirits industry. He has worked extensively in international markets to create a significant category across emerging markets for wine and spirits consumption and he strongly believes that numerous opportunities lie in the Indian alcoholic & beverage industry. 

2.

Arunabh Kumar quits as TVF CEO after sexual harassment charge

Arunabh Kumar steps down as TVF CEO after sexual harassment claim against him. Dhawal Gusain takes on as the new CEO of the company.

As per media reports, Arunabh Kumar has quit as the CEO of the TVF (The Viral Fever) on account of alleged sexual harassment charges against him. In his Twitter account , he says that the last few months were very challenging for him – that has mentally and emotionally drained him. He talks about his entrepreneurial journey and passion. Also, shares his dream to make an Indian content company match the standard of Disney & HBO.  He also discusses TVF culture. He says the core of TVF is culture rooted in democratic and equal opportunities for everyone irrespective of gender, caste and background. 

3.

Manu Gulati hired by Google as a lead SOC

Manu Gulati, an Indian-origin chip architect is appointed as lead SOC (system on a chip) architect.

Google, an American multinational technology company who is planning to expand its team of chip experts so that it can develop chips for their Pixel phones has hired Ex-Apple micro-architect, Manu Gulati as a lead SOC for its upcoming Pixel phone.

Gulati, an Indian-origin chip architect was working with Apple for almost eight years as a micro-architect and owns 15 Apple patents related to chip design. He was responsible for building custom chips for the iPhone, iPad and Apple TV.

According to a media report, Apple filed a total of 15 chip-related patents that credit Gulati as one of the inventors. Some of these filings describe fundamental chip architecture, while others are more specific to certain applications.For example, one of his patents described hardware-based security for Apple Pay that securely stores a user’s fingerprint on the iPhone.

He carries with him a rich experience of over 27 years in chip development and has worked with companies like Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), Broadcom Corp and Apple. Gulati completed his Electrical Engineering from IIT Delhi and went to pursue his MS from the University of California.

HR learning: 19 June, 2017

1.
The Oberoi Group has product, service and people excellence at core

For an organization that aims at leadership in the hospitality industry. The Oberoi Group depends on three core pillars for brand success - product, service, and people excellence. 

For an organization that aims at leadership in the hospitality industry and at creating a memorable experience for guests, the iconic brand of over 80 years, The Oberoi Group, depends on its three core pillars for brand success — product, service, and people excellence. And encircling these three pillars is the ‘Oberoi Dharma’ — a value system that comprises of conduct of the highest ethical standards, teamwork, care, communication, and putting the guest first, the company second and the self, last. Even when it comes to performance assessment, employees’ adherence to the Dharma forms an integral part of the appraisal process.     Being in the service industry and proud of differentiating itself on “being the best”, The Oberoi Group is obsessed about acquiring, retaining and developing its talent.   The company and its Founder Chairman, Rai Bahadur M.S. Oberoi a true visionary, anticipated the need to focus on people

2.

At Tata there is an interplay of leadership, talent and skills

Tata Communications focuses on capability development, culture and empowerment to help its employees grow.

With $3.2 billion in annual revenue and over 8500 employees globally, a lot of conscious effort, hard-work and experimentation has gone into nurturing Tata Communications as a great place to work. Today, the company focuses on ensuring that skill availability matches up to the rapid transformation in the business, for the present as well as the future.   The ‘Internal Job Program’ portal at Tata Communications ensures better synergy, and alignment of expectations, and also provides a platform for employees to actually work in fields of their interest. Presently, nearly 30 percent of lateral hiring takes place through the portal. Tata’s ‘Project Marketplace’ that lists out specific projects put out by managers for employees who can take up multiple projects, gain public recognition, build capability, develop personal networks and also open themselves to future opportunities in the domain, has been the most promising initiative at the company.

3.
Business lessons children can teach us!

What business lessons can one learn from the pigheaded determination and stubbornness of children?

 

To every parent, their child will forever remain the ‘Apple of their eyes’. Children bring about a sense of completion in their lives. When my daughter was born in 2012, my joy knew no bounds. Like most parents, I also have dreams and ambitions for her and I often imagine myself following on from what my parents had done for me. However, I have been quick to realize that almost none of it works with my daughter. In fact, I've understood, that with the birth of a child it is not time to teach, it is in fact, a time to learn. Over the years, I've observed in her some traits which would make great sense in a professional environment.  Influencing is one such skill which has become a hallmark of today’s children, no matter what their age. I remember growing up as a child, my ability to influence anything or anyone was miniscule. However, even at the tender age of four, my daughter understands how, why and with whom she will manage to easily get her way.

HR News: 19 June, 2017

1.

Essar’s former chief talent officer, Sujaya Banerjee, launches Capstone People Consulting

The change management consultancy will enable clients to drive change through leadership development, talent analytics, women’s leadership and technology adoption.

Essar Group’s former chief talent officer, Dr Sujaya Banerjee, who has over 25 years of experience in leading change through people in organisations, such as British Gas, Godrej and Lowe Lintas and Partners, has announced the launch of her personal venture— Capstone People Consulting.

It is a foremost change management consulting firm that aims to enable clients, across diverse sectors, drive change through leadership development, talent analytics, women leadership and technology adoption to build diverse and inclusive, talent- savvy cultures.

Banerjee, who has been on the boards of AGC Networks and The Mobile Store, says about her venture, “I am delighted to let you know that we have put together a great team and empanelled best in class thought leaders as partners from across the globe, to offer consulting solutions that will enable our vision of becoming the Gold Standard in managing change through people.”

2.

Obituary: Godfather of coaching, Sir John Whitmore is no more

The pioneer of coaching in the workplace and author of Coaching for Performance, was 79.

Sir John Whitmore, the world leader in creating coaching and high-performance cultures and the founder of Performance Consultants International, passed away at the age of 79. 
Whitmore was the pioneer of coaching in the workplace and author of Coaching for Performance, which is considered to be the ‘Bible’ of coaching globally. “We will continue to honour his great legacy. His loss will be felt on a personal level by the millions he touched, and the coaching and leadership industry will be forever grateful for the contribution he has made,” David Brown, CEO, Performance Consultants International, said in an official post.
“Our thoughts and sympathies at this time go out to his family and friends,” he added. 
Whitmore, a veteran advisor to various associations and organisations, was also an established racing car driver in the 1960s. He was best known for winning the 1961 British Saloon Car Championship and the European Touring Car crown four years later.

3.

SBI offers competitive pay to attract professional talent

Applications for the 554 posts of management executives (SME) are open till May18.

 

State Bank of India is looking to hire management executives for 554 positions and has invited applications for the same. The openings for special management executives (SME), banking, are for Indian citizens between the age group of 25 and 40 years, with a minimum qualification of CA/ICWA/ACS/MBA in finance or equivalent postgraduate degree in finance from an institution recognised or approved by the government, government bodies or AICTE.

The bank is offering two kinds of positions – the first is that of special management executive (banking) - MMGS III Grade, under which it seeks 273 candidates with qualification of CA/ICWA/ACS/MBA (finance) or equivalent postgraduate degree in finance with minimum five years of experience as an executive in supervisory/management role in a schedule commercial bank / associate or subsidiary of a schedule commercial bank or public-sector financial institution or listed financial institution.