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Monday, 9 October 2017

HR learning: 09 Oct, 2017

1.
Belbin Team Roles: what it means to team effectiveness

A powerful explanation of what constitutes an effective team and the various roles that team members may need to take up in various business situations 
Teams are often the key step in linking the talents of individuals to the success of the organisation. Antony Jay put this well in the foreword of Management Teams, Why they Succeed or Fail, by Meredith Belbin, as he said, “It is not the individual but the team that is the instrument of sustained and enduring success.”
Well, that makes it important to first understand what a team is and what really constitutes one. Raymond Meredith Belbin, a British researcher and management theorist, and the man behind the famous team roles, says, “Simply putting together a number of people and expecting them to work as a team is not enough.”
What is a team? There are always plenty of articles, books, papers, and news articles that talk about teams and teamwork. They tend to be very general, and don’t always link up to practical business situations. Perhaps a better question to ask is:
What makes up an effective team? There are many points that can be discussed, but the key aspects are as follows: A team must have a purpose. Its purpose should be clear, well communicated and understood. Members are chosen for what they can contribute “Who is in a team matters less than how the team members interact, structure their work, and view their contributions.”
Google; Dynamic interaction: This only happens when there is a lack of hierarchy and an agreed purpose. Everyone needs to understand when they need to make their contribution. Shared leadership—this should be rotated, depending on where the team stands in relation to the business objective; 
Resource investigators: They are the ones who give the team a rush of enthusiasm at the start of the project and use their inquisitive nature to find ideas to bring back to the team. Such people vigorously pursue contacts and opportunities and have a finger firmly on the pulse of the outside world.
Plants: Creative, unorthodox and generators of ideas, plants are the much sought-after problem solvers. A good plant will be bright and free-thinking. However, they tend to ignore incidentals. The plants may also be seen as the absent-minded professors/inventors, and often have a hard time communicating ideas to others.
 Co-ordinators: They are the ones who are more confident, stable, mature and capable of recognising abilities in others, and hence, good at delegating tasks to the right person for a job. Co-ordinators are likely candidates for the chairperson of a team, since they have a talent for stepping back to see the big picture.
On the other hand, they may be perceived as manipulative and tend to even delegate all of the work, not doing much themselves.
Shapers: They are the navigators, who keep the team on track, providing the necessary drive to ensure that the team keeps moving and does not lose focus or momentum. They have the drive and courage to overcome any obstacles and keep the team motivated. However, in their bid to get things done, they may at times become aggressive.
Monitor evaluators: These people provide a logical eye, making impartial judgements, where required, and are able to weigh the team's options in a dispassionate way. They are strategic and discerning, but at times may get overly critical and could even slow down decision making.
Teamworkers: The co-operative, perceptive and diplomatic people who are good listeners and try all ways to avert friction, are great teamworkers. Although they may not always be in the limelight, they play a crucial role in binding the team together. Such people can also be indecisive in difficult situations and may tend to avoid confrontations.
Implementers: While some people may be great at ideation, there is always a need for people who can enable implementation. Implementers can take suggestions and carry it out efficiently. They are practical, reliable and excellent at turning ideas into actions, getting things done as expected. The only drawback may be that such people may at times be seen as closed-minded and inflexible since they often have difficulty deviating from their own way of working.
Completer finishers: A perfectionist by heart, these people are painstaking, conscientious, anxious and capable of identifying errors. Completer finishers put in all efforts to polish out and perfect the task done. They have a strong inward sense of the need for accuracy, but may frustrate their teammates by worrying excessively about minor details and by refusing to delegate tasks that they do not trust anyone else with performing.
Specialists: They are subject matter experts, who bring an in-depth knowledge of a key area to the team. Seen as specialists, they enjoy imparting knowledge to others as well, but in doing so, however, they may at times overload people with information.

2.
Reskilling for a better tomorrow

With the advent of newer technologies, comes the need for modern professionals to reinvent themselves in order to stay relevant. In this interview with People Matters, Kameshwari Rao shares her insights on how organizations can support their employees in doing that.

The constantly changing nature of workforce today is impacting the employment landscape in various ways. There is a need for employees to be open to perform beyond their defined job profiles, and to do that, they must up-skill themselves by improving their problem-solving and multi-tasking abilities. In an exclusive conversation with People Matters, Kameshwari Rao - Vice President, People Strategy at Sapient India discussed how organizations and HR leaders need to drive these upskilling initiatives at their workplaces.  
How can TA leaders assess for skill sets like learnability, dealing with complexity and collaboration at the time of hiring? 
Learnability is a key skill set that TA leaders today look for in the workforce. With technology becoming obsolete at such a rapid pace, people are expected to learn, unlearn and relearn on a constant basis. the list of important skills includes dealing with complexity, collaboration, breaking down silos and co-creation in addition to learning newer technologies on a constant basis.
With the growing millennial workforce, opportunities for remote work, and ability to hire candidates from all over the world, skills assessment can level the playing field for all types of applicants. Skills assessment can make the job of a hiring manager much easier by providing “knock out” questions that instantly disqualify candidates. Additionally, it could showcase the exemplary knowledge of the top candidates. A quantitative pre-hire assessment provides candidates with an opportunity to shine in a way that may not come across in an interview or
How can an organization create 'polyglots' out of its experienced employees?
Businesses struggle to deal with the newly empowered consumer who expects businesses to deliver with agility and speed by being digital at the core. They face a new set of digital first competitors who no longer belong to their own categories. In the wake of such a dynamic environment, organizations are seeking talent that doesn’t subscribe to the old ways of working of traditional IT. Polyglots have an in-depth understanding of the technology ecosystem, which makes them tech agnostic, navigate ambiguous situations and collaborate with multiple teams to achieve a common objective. 
An important part of L&D for organizations is, being able to predict which technology would be relevant in the coming months and years, and which would become obsolete, so that the training modules are designed accordingly. How do the L&D leaders build that muscle?
At Sapient, our focus is on providing upskilling opportunities to employee across three core areas of craft, business, and leadership. These opportunities are presented as a combination of classroom, online and on-the-job training. In addition, there is a tremendous focus on developing the role of a manager as a coach, who can not only coach his/her people directly, but can also guide them to access and learn from the available resources that the organization provides.

Change management is an integral part of any organization's transformative journey to digital. How does the HR team align itself with the business leaders, in achieving that?  
The continued evolution of digital capabilities is pushing businesses to rethink their fundamental views on customers, competitors, products, and partners. Organizations across the globe are now attempting to become digital at their core.

3.

Interview: How DCB Bank's 2 unique Learning programs are successful

For a steadily growing bank like DCB Bank, Hamsaz has built a learning culture in the organization by launching 'Grow with Us' series that aims at specific role-based training and promotions thereby catalyzing the internal talent pool.
A bank which values its customers and employees – that is what DCB Bank’s core vision is. 
People Matters in an interaction with Hamsaz Vasunia – Head HR at DCB Bank, she shares how the bank has designed a program called LEAP aimed at developing the mid-level management. This program has also received a thumbs-up as the Unique initiative from the ‘Great Place to Work Institute’. For a steadily growing bank like DCB Bank Hamsaz has built a learning culture in the organization by launching ‘Grow with Us’ series that aims at specific role based training and promotions thereby catalyzing the internal talent pool. Her latest endeavor is one of the Bank’s key initiatives of creating a customer service culture that demonstrates Empathy, Speed and Quality.

What are the talent challenges HR face while hiring new talent and retaining existing employees? And how do you mitigate such challenges?
Many sectors especially the BFSI sector today faces an acute shortage of skilled resources. Most freshers and B School pass-outs today are not inclined to be in a frontline sales role which is where the bulk of the hiring requirements exists. Apart from this, excessive competition and aspiration amongst the Millennials has resulted in Salary taking precedence over all other factors in considering to join or leave an organization. 

Technology is now the buzzword in all the HR initiatives. In what ways can tech help in employee engagement initiatives?
Currently in DCB Bank, we have built a tool along with the Analytics team that can predict who is going to resign from the organization by using Logistic Regression. The tool gives out a Flight Risk Score which is then used by the HR Relationship Managers to identify interventions with these select employees. This helps us in resolving specific issues before it triggers a resignation. We have seen that the attrition of those employees where the HR had done an intervention is half of the regular attrition percentage. 

Tell us more about the DCB bank’s learning culture initiative that you spearheaded - launching ‘Grow with Us’ series that aims at specific role-based training and promotions thereby catalyzing the internal talent pool?
What we realized a few years back while providing internal job opportunities to employees was that employees were very reluctant to move into different roles or departments for the fear that they may not be able to do well in the new role. Thus we started a new set of learning programs called the ‘Grow with us’ series.

Since you are emphasizing a new customer service culture that is about ‘Empathy, Speed, and Quality’, what according to you are the soft skills required for a successful career in banking in this age of tech?
For a successful career in Banking, one of the most important skills is your Service orientation. At DCB Bank we believe that our service philosophy of ‘Empathy Speed and Quality’ is what differentiates us from our competition. And we do not restrict this to only our external customers. All departments in the Bank have to live this out even for its internal customers and stakeholders. So I believe that the ability to engage with one’s customers, understand his/her needs and meet them is a life-long skill that any Banker should possess.

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