HR – Do they walk the talk?

Monday morning. Deepak, the HR Head called in his team for the regular weekly review. They all gathered to discuss the week’s happenings, updates, progress, bottlenecks and plan for the coming week. The running theme in the organisation for the month was PRODUCTIVITY, and HR was busy building activities and mailers around it.

Where it all started…

Team managers across the organisation had shared their woes with HR about dipping outputs in spite of team members clocking in their regular work hours. Where was the effort leakage happening? How could the managers help teams track their progress and output? How could they all collectively work and produce more efficiently? A meeting was called for.

The CEO looks at HR…

The CEO spoke of how project hours, resource availability and costs were pushing project costs higher, thereby making the organisation less competent in a competitive marketplace. Needless to say, employee productivity had become a matter of concern in the organisation. When any issue remotely concerned with people comes up, HR is where all heads turn to.

Did the buck just pass?

The problem had been pushed from Employee to Team manager to CEO to HR.  The room was silent. Everyone waited for an answer. There was a mounting tension as loud as silence. Seconds ticked. Ringing mobiles were silenced. The answer was awaited. As if HR is the ready reckoner of all solutions. And then, slowly the HR Head stood up. Everyone looked towards him for the verdict. He said, “The buck stops here”.

Productivity starts with HR

His team of HR executives sitting on either side of him looked perplexed. Where was this headed? He continued, “If productivity is the issue we are addressing and HR should find answers, we will start with our own department. Rather than preaching to all, we will work on solutions internally and share our learning with the rest of you so that you can replicate it”. He made this grand announcement and walked out of the room, with the puzzled team in tow.

And then began the transformation…

Deepak and his team allowed the initial apprehensions and euphoria to die down and got down to the work on hand. With a single minded focus to prove to the organisation that the HR will WALK the TALK, the programme was conceived – ‘Productivity begins with HR’

HR broke down their functions into smaller sub-functions – Recruitment, Onboarding, Attendance, Payroll, Competency mapping, Communication protocols, Training, Performance management systems, Exit process and so on. Then began the process of allocating roles to each HR team member and working on reducing time consumption of the activities that were routine and pre-determined. The workflows were set, processes templatized and time taken to complete an activity was considerably reduced. Even the time that was spent in preparing MIS reports was reduced due to the newly incorporated automation. Employees could now get their queries resolved online.

During one of the weekly HR team meetings, they realised that the language of team discussion had considerably changed. From talking transactions and tasks, the team members were now ideating and strategizing. They had more time now to come up with innovative ideas to implement. Productivity had gone up. The transformation had begun…

Birth of HRMS for a more productive organisation

Congratulations! Welcome to the new age Human Resource Management.

PeopleWorks, a highly secure Cloud based Talent Management Solution that integrates HR functions with business and talent needs.

Watch the video and see how PeopleWorks can help your organisation improve. Let’s take baby steps to improve organisational productivity.

How can HRMS improve productivity?

• Automate your workflow
• Streamline your process
• Achieve resource optimisation
• Reduce costs
• Improve productivity

Can HR be the beginning of this change?

BUILDING COMPETENCY – Collective Responsibility Of The Employee And The Organization

Competency is a serious business. After all it relates to performance appraisal, incentive and ultimately business goal.

But on a lighter note let’s lead the blog with humour.

HR during increment gave dice to employee and said: “If you get 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. No increment will be given to you.”

So the employee asked: “And if I get 6?”

HR poker facedly replied: “As is in the game of Ludo, you will get another chance to roll the dice.”

It is again that time of the year, when there is a scurry of activities, laced with excitement, trepidation and anticipation in an organization. It is of a year gone by. It is akin to the Judgement Day. It is when water cooler areas are more crowded than usual. Managers, teams and individuals are being assessed for their work. It is Performance Appraisal time!

Only the competent employees will shine and earn the reward they deserve.  The rest will have to answer the most difficult question – Why were they not competent enough? What is it they lacked to justify their role?

Answers could be many –

• Lack of clarity pertaining to role or KRAs
• Using age old techniques of ‘imparting’ training instead of capability building
• Employees have not upgraded their skills. They are unaware of areas they need to improve on, due to weak assessment processes in the organisation
• And often enough, companies fail to communicate to their employees on the ever evolving business requirements, leaving managers in the dark on upgrading team members’ skills.

“To be a manager requires more than a title, a big office and other outward symbols of rank. It requires competence and performance of a high order” – Peter Drucker

Competency is the measurable aspects of good employee performance – Abilities, Skills, Knowledge and Behaviour (ASKB). It is the driver for new gen businesses. Today, HR Managers are developing robust Competency models to strengthen their talent management. Competency models can help organisations align their initiatives to the business strategy. Here is a list of areas where competency models help.

• In Job Description
• In Recruitment
• In Performance Management System
• In Training and Development
• In Career and Workforce Planning
• In Compensation

 #4 ways to build a competent organization

An organization is as competent as its employees. Employee data is the new currency with which companies can remain competitive. Competency setting, employee assessments, mapping training needs and evaluating performance is possible only when clear objective data is available to all concerned.

1. Hire the right talent

Nothing sounds more cliched than this truth. Yet, recruitment is still a subjective assessment of a recruiter. What if we could clearly define a set of expectations from the candidate and objectively assess his/her fitment to the role. An automated process would quicken the process and eliminate subjectivity.

2. Clearly define job expectations to new or promoted employees

While this may seem fairly simple, it is surprising to note that even mature organizations fail this task. A well structured on-boarding process and communicating job expectations to the employee, either new or promoted is required. More often than not, employees under perform not because of capability issues, but due to poor communication of what is expected of them.

3. Do not make Employee Assessment an Annual event

How often have we not seen an employee performing to the best of his ability throughout the year, only to be told at the Annual appraisal that he was not up to expectation. A good HR leader will develop and implement a Competency Model that works best for his organization. However, this is easier said than done. This requires regular reviews with the employee and data availability to help HR managers perform employee ASSESSMENT against the COMPETENCIES required. Large organizations face the challenge of gathering this data annually, let only quarterly or monthly that we suggest it be done.

4. Move from Training to Capability building

Every employee in an organization must regularly upgrade his/her competencies to remain competitive. However, organizations must ensure they provide a platform for employees to do so. Gone are the days of classroom training. Today training is individual, interactive and focused to achieve a set objective. An experienced HR manager will understand that the training needs of an organization cannot be standardized for all employees. A training calendar is evolved based on the gap analysis between the required competency and available competency of an employee. If not automated, this is almost an impossible task.

PeopleWorks Talent Management Solution helps you automate processes like Talent acquisition, On-boarding, Competency Mapping, Performance Appraisal, Training and Employee Communication. A cloud based HCM solution, PeopleWorks Talent Management Solution is committed to provide you a solution that keeps your workforce and organization competent in a competitive market.

A thing or two to learn from the Gentleman’s Game

 

 “If hockey is our national sport, then cricket is our national religion”.

The above wise saying is literally true in its essence in India. We live in a country where the busy roads magically turn empty when there is an Indo-Pak match running on television. Employees feign bad health to be at home and watch the World Cup final or the India- Pakistan matches with friends and family. It is hard to ignore the stranglehold of Cricket in India. Begetting excitement, the sensitivities of Cricket run as the lifeblood of our nation. As per reports, an India- Pakistan match is estimated to attract close to one billion viewers per match. Consequently, the game turns as an adhesive, uniting our countries diverse land of dissimilar beliefs, economic disparities and so on. The game of Cricket, amidst its fervor, shares some learning’s that gives us a lot many enthralling insights about steering an organization effectively with some grappling insights about working efficiently. Find below bird’s eye view of the conclusions:

It’s all about Trust & Teamwork

Satya Nadella, right after he was named CEO of Microsoft, said “I think playing cricket taught me more about working with teams and leadership that has stayed with me throughout my career”. He asserts here the importance of teamwork.  Rightly said, teamwork is quiet essential in an organization as it is important in a game of Cricket. The overall success of an organization and in a team sport is dependent on this imperative factor. The combined effort of a team helps in bringing out the very best in all the team mates.

Mutual trust is a vital ingredient in nurturing teamwork amongst employees in an organization. Trust is essentially the foundation of Effective Communication, association as well as motivation in a team.  The survival and success is essentially dependent on trust and teamwork in an organization and in the game of Cricket.

In any organization, putting a simple and efficient talent management solution in place can help employees bridge the work-life gaps. The PeopleWorks talent nurturing solution effectively induces communication and ushers in better-connected workforce, with Broadcast and Connect features. Broadcast and Connect helps to establish a steady momentum of rapport within the organization.

 Taking the Right Call

Like a batsman judging a ball to play a shot, growth of an organization relies heavily on the management’s vision for the organization. With good foresight, management will be able to address the issues that may hamper its growth in the future. Thereby assisting the organization to steer ahead and fuel its growth prospects. Attrition and Retention issues are present in every organization. If an organization pays attention and devices mean to tackle these grave issues, it will pave the way in spurring an organization’s productivity quotient immensely. PeopleWorks Talent Management solution renders 80+ reports at a click of a button. It acts as a ready feeder to help the management take critical business decisions such as attrition management, manpower planning and so on in accordance with the changing business requirements.

Temperament

To reach the pinnacle of success, it is important that employees, as well as the team members of the Cricket game, have a steady temperament come what may. It is important that the concerns of the employees are heard and an organization maintains an open door policy to raise their respective concerns. The PeopleWorks Query Management feature nurtures a sense of commitment from organizations point of view. Any query raised by an employee can be managed and tracked through this easy to use the module. Supporting the other features of PeopleWorks such as the attendance management, leave management and travel & expense management, the query module eliminates any probable concerns that an employee faces saving the valuable man hours and the sheer disinclination of a particular employee to go to a particular department and raise the concern.

Crossover the mavericks – Simplifying Talent Management

In Cricket, you are out from the match if you do not give a good performance. Like in the game of Cricket, in an organization, if you do not perform well you may be sidelined by a better performer at work. The best team player is handed the torch to lead the team further. Opportunities for growth open their arms only for those who are the best performers. Better performers sow the seeds of growth that will eventually benefit the organization in its endeavors.  The Performance Management and Competency Assessment feature of PeopleWorks make it easy for the employees and the employers alike to identify skill gaps and share optimal feedback to employees, helping them to render better performances. With PeopleWorks, tracking performance gets easy.

Run-out stress and harbinger trust, respect and accountability in your organization with PeopleWorks Talent Management Solution. As an on cloud platform, PeopleWorks is a one-stop solution for all your talent management requirements.

As we too chimed in to pray for Indian Cricket team to make it to finals of ICC Cricket World Cup, the loss to Australia in Semi’s did damper the spirit. Nevertheless we extend our appreciation to the cricket team for their fantabulous performance throughout the cup. Three Cheers to the Indian Cricket Team!

 

Union Budget 2015 – Benefits under Income Tax

The Union Budget 2015 was unveiled on 28th February by the Finance Minister, Mr. Arun Jaitley. Key changes with regard to Income Tax have been proposed that would impact salary for employees. We have analyzed the changes to give you a quick rundown on various IT benefits.

Changes in Income Tax Benefits as per the New Budget

1. Transport allowance [Section 10(14)]

• Exemption on transport allowance has been increased from Rs. 800 per month to Rs. 1,600 per month.

 2. Medical Insurance premium [Section 80D]

• For an Individual [Self], Spouse and dependent children, the maximum deduction under this section has been increased from Rs. 15,000 per year to Rs. 25,000 per year.
• In the case of an Individual [Self], Spouse and dependent children where one or more of them is a Senior Citizen [60 years and above], the maximum deduction under this section has been increased from Rs. 20,000 per year to Rs. 30,000 per year.
• For an Individual who is not covered by Health Insurance and is aged over 80 years, the maximum deduction under this section will be up to Rs. 30,000 per year.

3. Medical treatment of Specified Diseases. [Section 80DDB]

• No changes w.r.t treatment for specified diseases if the dependent is not a Sr. Citizen.
• Deduction w.r.t treatment of dependent Sr. Citizen for specified diseases has been increased from Rs. 60,000 per year to Rs. 80,000 per year.

4. Medical treatment of Handicapped Dependent [Section 80DD]

• Deduction w.r.t treatment of Handicapped dependent has been increased from Rs. 50,000 per year to Rs. 75,000 per year.
• Deduction w.r.t treatment of Handicapped dependent, if the disability is greater than 80% has been increased from Rs. 1,00,000 per year to Rs. 1,25,000 per year.

 5. Medical treatment of Individual [Self] – [Section 80U]

• Deduction w.r.t treatment of Handicapped Individual [self] has been increased from Rs. 50,000 per year to Rs. 75,000 per year.
• Deduction w.r.t treatment of Handicapped individual [self], if the disability is greater than 80% has been increased from Rs. 1,00,000 per year to Rs. 1,25,000 per year.

 6. Investment in Sukanya Samriddhi Scheme [Section 80C]

• Investment in Sukanya Samriddhi Scheme will be eligible for deduction under section 80C. Maximum deduction of all savings under section 80C including Sukanya Samriddhi Scheme will be Rs. 1,50,000 per year.
• All payments to beneficiaries including interest payment on deposit will also be fully exempt.

 7. Additional Investment under New Pension Scheme [Section 80CCD]

• Additional Investment in New Pension Scheme has been added under Chapter VI-A. Individuals can now get a benefit of Rs. 50,000 per year under this section, which is over and above 80C Rs. 1,50,000.

8. Increase of Surcharge from 10% to 12%

• Surcharge on Individual’s salary has been increased from 10% to 12%. Surcharge is applicable only if the Individual’s Net Taxable Income exceeds Rs. 1 Crore.

Effective date of Implementation: Changes are effective for the next financial year (April 2015 – March 2016). You are encouraged to modify your income tax declaration in the month of April 2015 to utilize the revised benefits.

Please connect with your Customer Success Manager should you need further clarifications on these changes under Income Tax Benefits. Alternately, you could drop us an email with your query on mysupport@cross-domain.com with subject line IT Benefits – 2015.

 

Triggering Bonhomie & Productivity at Work

To keep the influx of productivity quotient injected in the employees, it is vital that they are constantly motivated at work. Managers across industries will unanimously give their consent on the fact that motivated employees are the most productive and creative in an enterprise. Undoubtedly, they are also the ones who put their best foot forward at work which in turn is in the interest of the organization and the employee’s personal career growth graph.

 On a lighter note, American author, salesman, and motivational speaker Zig Zagler had said about motivation that – “People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing.  That’s why we recommend it daily” asserts the point of having the employees being encouraged at regular intervals.  Coming to work should make each and every employee of your organization feel excited! There are umpteen methods to have a cheerful and content workforce without having to raise their compensation. Following are few hand-picked methods that can help in creating a positive, motivated ambiance in an organization:

Encouraging Employees for their Accomplishments

A petite word of encouragement can go a long way in having a motivated workforce in an organization.  If an employee does a good job and accomplishes the task entrusted to him or her well, it is important that they are appreciated for the same. An email, a simple thank you note or giving them a small gift as the token of appreciation or just a modest lunch will keep them buoyant. These humble efforts will have them work better and deliver such exponential results in the future as well. To have the quotient of encouragement in place PeopleWorks can help an enterprise. PeopleWorks talent management solution is a next generation build up to stitch a superior employee and organization connect. Performance Management module of People Works makes it easy for the management to track performance and inculcate a milieu of constant growth. The monitoring of performance of an employee and assessing shortcomings helps them to perform better. This gives the management and the employee a roadmap to growth. That always helps people move beyond their limitations, which is invaluable to all concerned.

Building a Constructive Environment

The essential tonic of having a productive workforce is by motivating them. No one likes being micro-managed in an official set-up. On the other hand, motivation is the key to have employees reach the success quotient at work. Having your workforce know that they are being cared for is in itself a stimulus for them to give in their best and be more productive at work. PeopleWorks Competency module is one stop solution to encourage knowledge and learning driven setting at work. Complementing the performance management system the competency module of PeopleWorks augments avenues to utilize true potentials of a resource. It also helps remove hurdles blocking the way of overall effectiveness of employees and the organization as a whole.

 Encouraging Skill Enrichments 

Perk up your workforce to take novel initiatives and learn new proficiency to enliven their working style. Get them involved in training sessions and professional certifications that will help open avenues of career progression. Basis the identified skill gaps, the training module of PeopleWorks is a perfect doorway to help employees and management work together in building a comprehensive knowledge based environment in an organization. Training in itself is a motivational quotient for employees to improve their work and perform better.

Ushering Lucid Communication 

Organizational communication plays an important role in molding a positive and transparent outlook in employees. While communicating with them, it is important that the management ushers in appropriate care and shares all requisite information – positive and negative. This makes employees feel involved and builds an environment of mutual trust. It is also important for an organization to take out time in listening to the concerns of employees and resolve them. To chime in clear and transparent communication in an organization, PeopleWorks modules such as – Connect, Broadcast and Query can be the right boost for any motivational needs.  Query module makes it easy to voice concerns and track the TAT for the same. Broadcast and Connect are the other two modules which guarantee a collaborative working model within the organization.

PeopleWorks can help propel your work culture forward with a plethora of industry specific modules ensuring a smother work flow and instilling an environment of optimism and motivation in your enterprise. Steer ahead of the competition by blending cloud driven technology in your working model by having a workforce that is self-driven with PeopleWorks!

 

Ride on your Success quotient with Reports & Data!

According to Jeff Weiner, American businessman and CEO of LinkedIn, “Data really powers everything that we do.” To create value and have a competitive advantage, data aids – in unabridged decision making. The impasse to take quality decisions many a times is attributed to the absence of relevant reports or data. After all, actionable reports help the decision maker to predict trends, strategize for increasing the profit graph of an organization and arrive at accurate assessments.

Why to Bank on Reports and Data?

The availability of reports or data helps the decision makers to measure performances, and have a clear understanding of their businesses – which directly translates into improved decision making with the acquired knowledge of the available stats. In the absence of solid and concrete data, resorting to bandying alone can adversely affect the potential of an organization. With relevant data for you to access, it gets easier to find the bottlenecks hindering your climb of the success ladder and thereby take necessary actions.

The affluence of good decisions can be achieved with a data driven approach. For instance, the business revolution of ‘Big Data’, which is not arcane anymore to the business leaders is curtailing deterrents and is ushering measurable increase in businesses.

Don’t believe us? According to, “The Economist Intelligence Unit” that surveyed over 600 business leaders, across the globe and industry sectors about the use of Big Data in their organizations, almost every one confirmed their growing appetite for data and data-driven decisions. As highlighted by most of the leaders, if you harness the data correctly and you can always stay ahead in the game.

In the pursuit of improved performance assessing the shortcomings and tailoring business functions to suit the requirements is fundamental. The guiding principles for it are clarity and simplicity. Strategic data here plays a key role in bringing to the fore accurate decisions by the decision makers. It is instrumental to have actionable statistics at hand for strategizing the business requirements. The data also brings in the much needed transparency into the system, alienating any untoward resistance to any change being introduced into the organisation.

Have you ever thought about the consequences of having trouble to access reports or data of the employees of your organization? Or for instance, about the repercussions of the decisions taken on a report without an effectively sieved data?  Evidently, poor data quality will have its adverse effect on the operational efficiency of an organization. An invalidated data entry calls for wasted time and resource. Data in a corporate space is always on the move and is susceptible to be missed out on inflicting the business insights. If the data is not accurate it will torrent across all the probable arenas and affect effective reports being generated. To avoid the pitfalls of erroneous data, data loss and cost of data recovery introducing an effective data management solution with capability of generating actionable reports will be a blessing. With PeopleWorks, scattered data is not just streamlined but is also fed into various relevant people management reports to be accessed effortlessly by the users.

 With our PeopleWorks talent management solution, data can be keyed in by the employees for certain key fields and thereby assimilated by HR for further verification and necessary edits to ensure data is not just correct but updated. With this decisions can be carefully orchestrated if the data is accurate and validated. Assuring confidentiality, PeopleWorks can vehemently help you to simplify the critical data and bestow your organization with accurate records and reliable reports, which you may count on. Facilitating the optimal strategic planning for your workforce comes easy with PeopleWorks Talent Management Solution!

The Magic wand of PeopleWorks!

Readily available actionable reports can unclog barriers to faster decision making. With 80+ reports to assist decision makers across Management hierarchy, PeopleWorks Talent Management Solution sets up the stage for faster decision making. The on-cloud availability of PeopleWorks entails CxO’s and Managers, anytime and anywhere availability of an array of critical metrics, for instance – attendance, leaves, employee queries, recruitment, training, compensation as well as attrition at one place! Add to these reports, PeopleWorks has mapped a unique CxO Dashboard, that allows CxO’s to generate a workforce report card that contains valuable insight of his entire workforce on his screen for quick review.

In a nutshell, the reports management system of PeopleWorks is built on an integrated analytics approach to help you:

• Have access to Data anytime for faster analysis and clear decision making
• Make necessary adjustment into the organization people management working as per Business Strategy
• Save considerable time and effort with readily available data for analysis
• Efficient employee data management and updation to ensure error free reports.

Do not let vehement oratory blind you in taking critical decisions, be future ready and back business decisions with accurate reports at your fingertips with PeopleWorks – Talent Management Solution!

Your Organization’s growth chart fuels on its Culture!

Organizations aspire to have employees who bring out their best into work every single day. Enthusiastic employees are an organizations invisible ladder to attain competitive advantage in this world of cut throat competition. Turning the table, for an employee, an organization is a platform which gives them wings to realize their humble dreams and ambitions. Each month, some 100 odd hours of a workforce are spent at work. Evidently, the culture of a particular organization is bound to have a serene impact both in their professional effectiveness and personal perspectives of an employee.

For nurturing a healthy culture in an organization it is important for a company to dwell on a transparent and efficient internal communication channel. An enthusiastic environment is conducive of getting contagious in the organization, triggering growth potentialities – of each individual thereby of the organization as a whole!

Why Culture Matters – Just fancy perks are not enough anymore!

In the present candidate driven current employment setting, the focus has now shifted from just compensation; candidates are found to turn down offers on account of thin line of growth potentialities and the working environment. With advancement in technology, candidates can now review what is being said about the organizations online. Helping them build a perception about their prospective employer. It is thus imperative for the companies today to build in a healthy organizational culture that gives out an impression of positivity, humble encouragements and persistent growth.

An organization irrespective of its strength, large or small will encompass in its own realm a distinctive organizational culture. It is easy for a company of handful employees to communicate and share, most importantly talk through the decisions that are being made in the organization. However, when the organization grows and is affluent enough, an employee would not even know the other person who passes by them in the company. Apparently, we cannot expect the leadership squad to be well conversant with each and every employee of the organization. It might thus be difficult and would not always be easy to communicate and dwell on a specific culture in vision of the organization’s objectives.

 Invariably, culture is what keeps an employee moving in an organization. A culture in an organization connotes to the ideologies, beliefs, values and principles that the work force of an organization envisages. An efficient communication system helps a company burgeon heaps and bounds on the culture front. Or else, the employers make it susceptible for the employees to determine what type of communication does its rounds in the company.

To make a decent and favorable working environment it is a requisite to have effective communication in place. Following are the key indicators that stridently reinstate the importance of an effective communication to build in a friendly flourishing culture:

• Stirring Employee Retention – With attrition founding its footing across industries, it is a gargantuan task to retain quality workforce. Attrition affects the business of an organization with its high costs. An organization that renders continuous value to its workforce for its contributions bestows a positive attitude and thereby boosts employee morale. A healthy communicative organizational culture thus established will help retain the valuable workforce and consequently reduce costs of human resource department for hiring & training new recruits.
•  Accelerating Productivity & Quality – With effective communication, managers will be habitual to build on an environment in the company that will churn out positive outlook in the organization. Communication ensures efficiency even at the ground level- avoiding any misinterpretation or confusion. Nurturing communicative culture, the managers may easily motivate the workforce and bring about the changes desired in the organization to scale new heights. With a positive stance stirring up improved productivity and quality gets easy!
•  Building and maintaining Reputation – Who better to talk about an organization than its valuable employees! An employee undoubtedly is the face of an organization for the many people that he/she knows. Each employee is an asset to an organization. Without undermining the work ethics of an organization, a healthy culture that inhabits trust, transparency, teamwork and reliability will have the company build in a good reputation for itself. Thus, strengthening the importance of communication and culture within the workspace amongst employees and the employers.

 

If an organization is looking out for a culture that is proactive and creative, it is necessary that the leaders of the organization communicate the same to the employees and reinforce the idea in their communications.

 Strengthening the Connect through PeopleWorks!

To unlock the potentialities of a work force, it is thus important that an organization bestows them with respect – gives due credit for their accomplishments and that their contributions are valued. With path-breaking technology, PeopleWorks, Talent Nurturing Solution, makes communication simple and easy within the organization. We understand that presenting clear information at the right time is vital for a smoother workflow. So now you no longer need to rely on someone else’s words. Connect up with your organization and be in the midst of all happening events.

 Breaking the barriers of information, PeopleWorks’ innovative suite of connect module provides employee communication tools ensuring a better connect in the organization. The simple and user friendly module gives one the leverage of wishing colleagues on their birthday’s with the Birthday list, helps find contact details of fellow team members through Employee Directory, gives one updates about the recent events with its Message Board and Newsletter section and there’s more connect on offer! All this in one single window!

It is said, information is power, and these modules make it placid for the organization to share the recent developments of an organization with ease. Building on the trust and transparency factor! Celebrate your team’s success, congratulate your team mates, and keep them informed effortlessly!

Serving as a single-point contact, between the organization and its employees, PeopleWorks Connect module serves as a comprehensive communication channel giving one the freedom to access all germane information at one place!

 Experience the delight of connecting better amidst busy schedules with PeopleWorks Connect Module!

Connected Intelligence

Connected Intelligence

Imagine a simple situation. You write to your manager or seek help from someone in another team, via e-mail. You don’t want to disturb them, as they have busy schedules. Your email remains unanswered. No matter how much you might convince yourself, that your email was overlooked, or perhaps they had no time to respond, or they forgot, the fact that someone was unresponsive remains a big hitch in conversation with that person.

Another simple situation would be that you are managing your work and deadlines well. Someone in your team just isn’t. And when push comes to shove, they request you to do “help” in the nth hour. Being a great team player, you may do it once, twice or even thrice. But eventually, it is likely to upset your cart as your schedule only allows for your saved time for growth, and hence the situation eventually becomes disruptive, if the demanding person happens to be in a senior position than you.

There is a similar pattern here in these two situations. And it isn’t just lack of communication, but non adherence to collaboration.

Organizations across the globe are striving for collaborative culture and environment that extends to customers and vendors as well. What are some of the factors that influence collaboration in an enterprise?

• Seamless communication in a way that all queries are answered and doubts cleared without the burden of cross checking and unanswered query being borne by an individual
• A comfortable working relationship, where co-ordination happens smoothly between teams and within teams and work doesn’t happen in silos
• Employees are respected at all times and appreciated, as well as inspired to feel like competent resources
• Employees assume the responsibility of the organization’s success automatically and are aligned with the larger vision
• The company has an engaged workforce, who share resources as and when required, and are part of knowledge networks that connect intelligence and foster innovation
• Rewards and recognition is not an individual’s choice but based on reviews and assessment which are statistically measured and analyzed, and humanly deduced based upon discussions, not just perceptions
• Perspectives and disagreements are accepted and sorted out, so all ideas remain laid across the table for introspection and dialogue
• Employees feel like a member of a group in a team, and a member of the community within the organization

An organization should follow the core values of conscious honesty, integrity, transparency and mutual benefit, across all levels of the workforce. A successful collaborative workforce means a culture where people feel a sense of belonging and acceptance. They know they have the space to make mistakes and learn. They are also enabled to work in an atmosphere which is unambiguous; hence they have enormous confidence and pride, being part of such an organization. This is critical for saving the business from high attrition rates and keeping the bottom line stable and strong. Connected intelligence is crucial for innovation and new ideas that make businesses trendsetters in their market.

PeopleWorks is an enabler for organizational transformation. Our Human Capital Management solution covers all aspects of effective communication within the workforce, hence establishing collaboration easily within a company. With an interface which is highly user friendly, employees can access their personal data anytime and anywhere. Managers can bring in seamless team planning, and CxOs have readily available data for critical decision making, at their fingertips.

At the very first click, each employee enters My World, an intranet where relevant information, both personal and of the organization, is stacked in neat modules like Broadcast, Calendar and Connect. On a personal level, employees can apply/check leave, upload travel & expense, be updated regularly on policies, announcements, birthdays and newsletters etc. Intra communication is well connected and automated, so teams, reporting officers, and reviewing officers are in the loop wherever data assimilation and approvals are relevant.

Employees have access to messages, queries, reports, career progression details, training, and competency assessment and more all in one portal. Their data is secure, as PeopleWorks is a cloud based application. Employees can self service their information, and time and energy is saved without constant email chains and seeking appointments for clarifications. Everything is possible online and at a single click. PeopleWorks facilitates anytime, anywhere connectivity for their clients with the Mobility app. Workforce on the move and across geographical locations can be connected 24×7. Employees feel appreciated when rewards and recognition is a carefully considered and unbiased decision.

Mobility – PeopleWorks

In the absence of a manual struggle to keep data in order, employee HR activities are streamlined, and the resultant freedom allows new ideas to germinate, broadening the cultural spectrum to innovation. The IdeaWorks solution from PeopleWorks is an engine that stores and studies such ideas and leads them to conception and execution, if beneficial to the organization and business. These ideas are analyzed by business excellence experts, and ensure complete transparency, so the idea holders are suitably recognized.

PeopleWorks connects employee intelligence to empower collaboration on multiple levels. Employees remain engaged, bridged and inspired. For your organization to benefit from this possibility of uninterrupted growth, click here.

“For innovation to flourish, organizations must create an environment that fosters creativity; bringing together multi-talented groups of people who work in close collaboration together — exchanging knowledge, ideas and shaping the direction of the future.” ~ Linda Naiman

Hiring to Fit Like a Glove

Hiring That Fits Like A Glove

This is the most multi-generational workforce in history, with seventy percent of organizations still hiring baby boomers, in addition to Gen X and Y employees. Within the Indian context, the IT enabled services face the highest attrition, followed by Pharmaceutical, Telecom, and Retail etc.  Large organizations are sprucing up their Talent Management Systems, and looking at attrition and the reasons for the same closely.

If you consider the workforce to be the palm of a hand, then Recruiting, Onboarding, Nurturing and Engaging are the four fingers, with Hiring being the thumb. Together, they form the fist of Talent Retention.

Talent Retention

In the case of small businesses, CxOs especially need to practice a culture of impactful hiring. Well thought out hiring and onboarding programs are essential for creating an engaging experience, which in turn resolves large attrition headaches for companies. Hiring the right people and putting them into the right jobs drives performance, engagement and productivity. Pre-hire assessment is a critical part of ensuring the right fit, as SMBs cannot afford frequent vacancies.

According to Gaby Cora, a leadership consultant and author, “There is really nowhere to hide in a small business. It is especially important for small business owners to pay attention to finding the right match for the particular job and the culture of their organization.”

With the rise of start-ups and entrepreneurial ventures, these businesses are fiercely competitive and demand success at all costs. And the greatest cost to a business occurs in the form of attrition. People are emerging as the key differentiators, and talent retention has become paramount for Human Resource objectives. Essentially speaking, a sound human resource management system can really save the day and produce higher ROI on manpower investment.

But is acquiring workforce enough?

What could be some of the challenges faced by SMBs (Small & Medium Businesses) in the hiring landscape that could be crucial or even fatal for companies, considering talent poaching is not uncommon, and Millennials are being charmed by interesting designations and wooed with higher salary packages?  Retention issues can be any of the following:

• Human capital data is not measured and maintained manually
• Goal setting is unscientific and performance areas are unclear
• Efforts put into recruitment fade after the honeymoon period of hiring and onboarding
• Employee morale becomes lowered due to disconnect between company vision and personal goals
• There are not enough processes to integrate pre hiring, hiring, onboarding and engagement for talent retention
• Along with employees leaving, customers are lost too, at times, and hence business suffers

Perhaps, SMBs need to relook at some of their HCM behaviours, if attrition continues to remain high. In order to keep retention rates looking good, the focus has to be around engagement efforts for employees. This is possible only when the HR teams themselves have time to create valuable strategies for understanding and engaging workforce. Getting to know employees and what keeps them balanced and contributory is the real work for HR, which is no longer just administrative in function, but a strong pillar for their company business. Says the former COO of GE, Lawrence Bossidy, “I am convinced that nothing we do is more important than hiring and developing people. At the end of the day you bet on people, not on strategies.”

So what can be done to develop talent once acquired?

• Aligning employee career objectives with company’s goals and keeping employees connected to the brand at all times
• Streamlining manual processes to free up time for more human to human engagement for discussions and collaboration
• Regular competence assessment to identify skill gaps and implement training decisions
• Fair performance evaluations and transparent communication so that employees are at a desirable comfort level within the company
• Allowing employees fair amount of independence in the work environment, so they don’t feel burdened by incessant demands of admin tasks of leave & attendance, travel expense submission, salary clarification etc.
• Incorporating comprehensive processes that give access to human capital data anytime, anywhere, so requisite information is available 24 x 7 for data integration
• Developing high end technological solutions to keep the hire to retire process in tandem with changes, and without slack throughout the employee lifecycle

PeopleWorks has been supporting their clients with their talent management needs and working hand in hand to ensure growth remains uninterrupted for their businesses. PeopleWorks is an integrated Human Capital Management Solution that has been uniquely created for efficient workforce management, for small and medium enterprises. With PeopleWorks, all employee lifecycle management is taken care of within a single click. Employees have independent access to their details, and most mundane tasks like Leave, Attendance, Salary, Travel & Expense details etc. are self serviced on the portal. Employees can login to upload queries, and check the status of their requests at any given time with the Query module. By reducing email chains, and eliminating prolific interaction with HR, employees can focus on productivity, managers on team planning & building and the C Suite on strategic decisions for business targets and growth. A product suite like PeopleWorks encourages innovation, hygienic company culture and better work-life balance.

PeopleWorks has modules like Competence Assessment that use data and analyze training needs and allocate necessary resources. The Performance Management System is designed to give collaborative and fair assessment on growth and gaps, and sometimes can point to a better career option for the employee within the company.

The PeopleWorks solution offers great value to the hiring cycle of Recruitment, Onboarding & Nurturing and Managing hires. An integrated recruitment workspace covers raising offers, tracking requirements, acceptance and document submission by candidates. Relevant reports can be generated to forecast present and future talent needs. New hires are inducted into the organizational framework via My World module and Broadcast module to get introduced and stay in touch with other employees within the application. Greeting on birthdays, and relevant details of others employees are available in Employee Directory. Change in policies are updated and informed via Broadcast. This saves the hassle of bulk emails and paper circulars etc. Hence employees are a part of an end to end work life cycle, which is well taken care of.

PeopleWorks is a highly secure cloud based solution that has enabled organizations to transform to meet market challenges, and further to be trendsetters in innovation. Click here to get started!

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