1.
Mirchi
goes digital, upskills creative workforce in 3 steps
Existing talent now have an opportunity to explore new areas and
formats within the ambit of Mirchi’s expansion. Mirchi, India’s
leading radio station, has been one of the top employers in the field of
entertainment in the country. Formerly Radio Mirchi, the Company has now
dropped ‘Radio’ from its name as it now work towards building a significant
presence on other platforms. In addition to the already well-established radio
presence, the Company is moving in the direction of establishing the brand over
digital platforms. While restructuring business, it has been a major challenge
for the Company to retain the existing workforce even while attracting talent
for new businesses, reveals Vivek Kulkarni, senior vice president (HR), Mirchi.
Kulkarni admits that in the restructuring of the organisation, a large portion
of creative and revenue-generation talent was retained from the older business.
However, for digital tech, product and platform, people are being sourced
externally, since the roles simply weren’t as significant in the company prior
to the change in business. One of the key retention strategies employed by the
Company’s HR was to maintain clarity with the existing workforce about the
opportunities that the expansion would generate for them. “We initiated
conversations with our people about our intentions and plans. The dialogue
basically reassured them that they would be able to explore the digital space
here at Mirchi and informed them of the expansion into new lines of
businesses,” Kulkarni shares. The content development team accounts for a
significant percentage of the overall workforce. This segment is the one that
drives revenue for the Company through content generation — radio, original
content, online videos, podcasts and so on. Kulkarni says that giving room to
creative people to explore whatever aspect of the entertainment business they
want to pursue is the key to better retention.
2.
It’s time to talk: How to
prepare for tough conversations
In reality,
however, we prefer not to have these important conversations. We put them off,
and in the process, lose an opportunity to solve the issue, seize an
opportunity, resolve a conflict, or advance an idea. Many of us have tough conversations almost every
single day. They happen at work, at home, with friends and a variety of other
stakeholders. We discuss the next promotion, a raise, conflicts, ideas and
initiatives at work. We have tough conversations with kids, spouses, partners,
siblings and parents. These conversations can push us (and those around us)
forward, can improve performance at work and can strengthen bonds. Even through
the toughest of conversations, we have a chance to improve our relationships
with the people we communicate with. In reality, however, we prefer not to have
these important conversations. We put them off, and in the process, lose an
opportunity to solve the issue, seize an opportunity, resolve a conflict, or
advance an idea. We put our life on pause, lose days, months, sometimes years,
as we tell ourselves, we’ll have that conversation “someday…”. A tool that
exhausts all possible situations and outcomes would be challenging to navigate,
so here, I’d like to offer a universal framework that can be easily tailored
for each unique situation. Preparation: What can be your win strategy? What do
you do before the conversation? Clarify intent: Get clear on your intent and
what you want to accomplish through the conversation. Research your counterpart: What do you know
about this person? Plan: Be aware of your
own emotional triggers, needs and fears. Create a plan for how you are going to
centre yourself if things go out of your control. Draw a list: Make up a
checklist of topics/ideas/aspects you want to discuss. In a hard conversation,
the increased stress may play with your memory. Consider the risks: Consider
the best-case scenario. It will keep you motivated and engaged. Consider the
worst- case scenario. It will help you evaluate risks. Ask yourself whether you
can tolerate a possibility of the worst-case scenario. Rehearse. Practice makes
cannot articulate them. During the conversation: While begin the conversation,
stay positive, keep in mind the desirable outcome, believe in yourself. As
Stephen Covey wrote in his book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, first
seek to understand then to be understood. · Listen carefully as new information
intake may help you adjust your strategy, shift your perception, or change your
perspective. · Do not assume, ask. Assumption is a killer of relationships and
conversations. · Stay curious and open-minded. Don’t seek to be right, seek to
get right. · If you’re stuck, brainstorm. Invite your partner to brainstorm to
find the best win-win solutions. · Breathe. When you breathe deeply, it sends a
message to your brain to calm down and relax. · Smile. People reflect each
other’s emotions. What do you want your partner to reflect? What if something
goes wrong? Even with all the planning in the world, you cannot script out the
conversation’s outcome. Something may not go as planned. • Don’t take a
rejection or a verbal attack personally. • Don’t burn the bridges even if everything is
greased for the skids. Give an opportunity to all other parties to calm down,
think again, and try to find a win-win solution again, next time. The good news
about difficult conversations is that another one will be right around the
corner, offering you an opportunity to continue to hone and develop in this
area. I hope that this step-by-step approach will help you to start an
important conversation that you didn’t previously dare to have.
3.
Reinventing
tomorrow’s workplace
Resilience.
Adaptability. Invention. Prototyping. Iterating. Improving. These life-saving
principles have led workplaces through the pandemic in ways we could not have
imagined. Years
ago, I built a 24-foot-long table in my backyard as a gathering place for
thoughtful dialogue with the eclectic group of friends, acquaintances, and
associates my wife and I have. As our post-Covid hosting has creaked back to
life, one topic continually elbows its way into the conversation: what will
‘office life’ look like now? I do not envy the business and HR teams charged
with answering that question in a way that makes everyone happy. Opinions I
hear first hand, and those I read about, are all over the map, but plotting a
pathway forward may come from one of the most valuable lessons we learned over
the past 15 months. When closures first struck, every business leader jumped
into action. Solutions born from pure survival often iterated into something
surprisingly functional, if not effective. At times, iterations were even more
efficient than the ‘old’ way of working. Those who adapted the fastest and
best, experienced legitimate productivity gains. James Allen, a partner at
international consultancy, Bain & Co, recently shared research conclusions
that suggest ways to maintain an edge in a post-pandemic world. Extensive
conversations with CEOs and other executives revealed two types of success
stories during the pandemic: 1) Getting the hell out of the way so your people
can do their jobs, and 2) Acting like the agile entrepreneurs we are supposed
to be to maintain an edge. Tenable solutions did not usually happen overnight.
Particularly in those early days, a new strategy or plan was created almost
daily. For those who were part of the team designing and implementing those
experiments, it seemed that just when they thought they had something workable
figured out, the rug was pulled from under them. For those at the receiving end
of all those ‘adjustments’, it often felt like whiplash.
