Talent Engagement During Recession Project Group4 DivisionE

8/9/2019 Talent Engagement During Recession Project Group4 DivisionE

1/24

SBM, NMIMS University

Individual Dynamics and Leadership

Talent Engagement Practices in aRecessionary Period inServices Sector (Information Technology)

(August 31, 2009)

Submitted to:-

Prof. Animesh Bahadur

Submitted by:-

Deep Agrawal 402

Mahak Mehra 427

Akash Mittal 431Nishant Sharda 443

Anil Shenoy 445

Rahul Jindal 450

Rishikesh Jathar 451

(Group 4, Division E)


2/24

2

Acknowledgements

Working on this project was a valuable learning experience for us. We are indebted to Mr.

Titus Pacheco, Manager, HR, Persistent Systems Ltd. and Mr, Jay Kumar Shah, Consultant,

Infosys Technologies Ltd., for sparing time out of their busy schedules and discussing with us

the HR practices followed by their companies. We would also like to thank Prof. Animesh

Bahadur, Professor in the area of Human Resources, SBM, NMIMS, for his guidance during

the course of formation of the questions. Further, we would also like to acknowledge the

contribution of our peers who helped us gain insights on various points through a detailed

discussion on this project.


3/24

3

Contents

Introduction ............................................. .................................................. ............................................ 4

Review of Literature ....................................... .................................................. .................................... 6

Work life balance during a recession A conspiracy of optimism. ................................................... 6

6 Ways to Instantly Improve the Motivation of Employees in a Recession ....................................... 6

Talent Management in times of Recession ......................................................................................... 6

Training in troubled times Delivering on whats to follow with training ........................................ 7

A recessions role in transforming leadership development. .............................................................. 7

Objective of Study ........................................... .................................................. .................................... 8

Method of Study .............................................. .................................................. .................................... 9

Analysis and Discussion .................................................. .................................................. .................. 10

Infosys technologies.......................................................................................................................... 11

Persistent Systems Ltd. ..................................................................................................................... 13

Conclusions and Recommendations ................................................................................ .................. 17

Person - Job fit and Person - Organization fit ................................................................................... 17

Employee Satisfaction ...................................................................................................................... 17

Employee motivation practices ......................................................................................................... 18

Managing individuals career growth ............................................................................................... 18

Work - life balance............................................................................................................................ 18

Foci/Goals of Performance Management System............................................................................. 18

References ................................................ .................................................. .......................................... 19

Annexure A: Infosys Response ........................................................ .................................................. 20

Annexure B: Persistents Response ....................................... .................................................. .......... 23


4/24

4

Introduction

The most popular definition of Talent Management is given as A conscious, deliberate

approach undertaken to attract, develop and retain people with the aptitude and abilities to

meet current and future organisational needs.

It is the process of managing the supply and demand of talent to achieve optimal business

performance in alignment with organisational goals. Talent management becomes even more

important at the times of economic slowdown. HR personnel and talent management people

are generally given the task of selectively disengaging people from the organization. The

challenge lies in whom to remove and whom to keep and actually how to retain and hire

people who are actually necessary for the success of the organization.

The talent management approach generally follows a typical guideline. Ensuring that right

people are attracted to the organization, then developing practices so as to reward employees,

identifying and ensuring that training needs of the employees are met, manager development

programmes as well as identifying talents to develop future leaders, starting performance

measurement systems including proper feedback, work force planning and developing o a

positive, progressive and high performance "way of operating".

Talent engagement tends to focus on the following key areas of interaction between anorganisation and its workforce.

Person-Job Fit(P-J Fit) and Person-Organisation Fit(P-O Fit) Motivation and Motivation practices Balance between work and life

In the current economic condition, corporations are finding it difficult to hold on to good

people and to keep them focused, motivated and productive amidst business uncertainties.

This has forced the organizations to understand their employees better and link the employee

growth with the organization growth. This report explores the role that talent management

plays in assessing, sustaining and influencing businesses in a downturn.


5/24

5

The major concepts incorporated in the report are as follows,

360-degree performance appraisal and feedback Maslow Hierarchy of Needs Monetary and Non-Monetary incentives Stress management

Source: http://eu.hudson.com/node.asp?kwd=talent-engagement-in-practice


6/24

6

Review of Literature

Work life balance during a recession A conspiracy of optimism.

Kenny Moore was a catholic priest for 15 years and then joined the corporate life. In this

paper he mentions that work life balance is not a balance at all but just a matter of choice as

you cannot achieve both and whatever choices are made have to be paid for. The present

economic downturn gives an ample chance to get clear about what we consider important and

make the decisions important. The author also gives advice about how to find a job in this

economic down turn. He also puts a parallel in finding a job and finding a spouse and also

advocates stopping trying to achieve balance and enjoy the chaos.

6 Ways to Instantly Improve the Motivation of Employees in a Recession

In this paper the author tries to list down six ways for managers to motivate their employees

in times of recession.

The author says that managers should focus on the employee desires rather than focusing on

external factors; that bonuses should only be given on the basis of performance and it should

not be made a right of an employee. Workers are inherently competitive and this should be

used to increase the overall efficiency. The managers should lead by example and set goals

realistically so that impossible goals should not de-motivate people.

Talent Management in times of Recession

The paper emphasises on the fact that during the times of recession, talent management

should not take a back seat as it will have a significant impact on the long run. The paper also

discusses six talent management strategies to be followed by managers to use it to achievetheir organizational objectives. The paper also talks about recruitment, development,

retention, reviewing and role of managers.


7/24

7

Training in troubled times Delivering on whats to follow with training

As mentioned in the title the paper talks about training the times of economic slowdown and

its impact on the organization. It also discusses whether training is an expense or a necessary

investment. It talks about how to combine talent management with organizational goals

A recessions role in transforming leadership development.

This Paper shows that a recession is actually an opportunity for HR and leadership

development to increase its credibility by promoting programs to modify financial behaviours

that directly support the CEO and boards agenda to cut expenses while increasing margins.

By adopting such approaches, HR can put in place programs and behaviours that not only

rapidly improve short-term financial outcomes, but also put in place a framework for longer-

term increases in profit quality and financial performance.


8/24

8

Objective of Study

The objective of the report is to explore the role that talent management plays in assessing,

sustaining and influencing businesses in a downturn in service sector (Specifically,

information technology industry). The economy is currently seeing the darkest times and is

impacting the jobs of large number of employees. The unemployment figures are at an all

time high. A profound impact is visible on the services sector too, including the jewel in

Indias growth story - the IT sector. Employees working in the IT sector were typically paid

high salaries with many of them receiving offers regularly for much better jobs. This was the

scenario till about two years back when the economy was booming. However, with the

depression setting in, the IT sector has been losing clients with an alarming rate. As a result,

organizations are being forced to reduce the size of their workforce. This is highly contrasting

from the days when there was a melee for the best talent and the ways to retain employees,

thus limiting attrition. Instead, the concentration today is more on engaging the best available

talent and managing the current employees by keeping them occupied.

Through our discussion with the HR managers of the companies we will endeavour to bring

out the following points:

1. The company practices to ensure person-job fit and person-organization fit.2. The company practices to improve employee satisfaction3. Understanding the employee motivation practices adopted by the companies in the IT

sector

4. The company practices to manage individuals career growth5. Study the efforts being made by the company to provide a balance between work and

life to the employees

6. Foci/Goals of Performance Management SystemIndian IT sector giant Infosys Technologies limited and the mid-sized product development

company Persistent Systems Ltd. were chosen for this particular study.


9/24

9

Method of Study

The study was initiated with collecting background knowledge about motivation and talent

management with specific instances related to the service (IT) industry. Then a standard

questionnaire of 10 questions (Annexure A and B) was formatted and corporate personnel

with relevant experience of handling people were interviewed. Based on their responses and

theory of motivation analysis is done with regards to IT industry.


10/24

10

Analysis and Discussion

In these times of turmoil, the most important task for the organization is to motivate the

employees. News of loss of thousands of jobs affects the morale of anybody to a large extent.The continuous fear that you will also lose your job is what occupies your mind. In this

scenario, there can be two issues:

1. An employee is worried about his own job; he tries really hard to perform at his best.In the process he may lose focus of what he was supposed to do. His work life balance

takes a hit. This leads to a further drop in morale.

2. An employee is worried. This worry makes him lose all attention towards his job. itagain adversely affect his performance.

In both the above cases, it is detrimental for a company to lose its high performance

employees to the bug of underperformance the investment made on one employee is

enormous and the costs of recruitment are large.

At the same time, organizations are undergoing losses in terms of revenues. This affects the

confidence of promoters, employees, the stakeholders in general. In order to cope with them,

an organization may require restructuring its business or even laying off some employees.

Through the questionnaire, we tried to find out the various HR policies and Talent

Engagement activities of the company.


11/24

11

Infosys technologies

Our Assets walk out of the door each evening, we have to make sure that they come back

next morning. Narayana Murty

Source: http://www.ficci.com/media-room/speeches-presentations/2007/feb/air-con/Session6/bikaramjit.pdf

Person - Job fit and Person - Organization fit

What was very apparent during the whole interview was the kind of stress they give on

transparency at all the levels. Right from the Recruitment process to Performance

Management System, they try and keep everything as transparent as possible. The job

openings advertisements are very clear with its eligibility criteria and the skill-set required

for the job. Even after a person gets into organization, special care is taken to see if he is

getting the kind of job he likes and if he is happy doing what he has been told to do.


12/24

12

Employee satisfaction

Employee satisfaction is of paramount importance. There is a very good practice in place

where the employee gets to know how exactly his career is shaping up in this organization,

what he can expect in the time to come and what are the things that are expected of him.

Employee motivation practices

Infosys is very proud of the work environment and work culture in the organization and

believes that the work culture in itself is self-sufficient to retain an employee for a long

period of time and keep them motivated.

Infosys has various team-building exercises and team activities in place which help break ice

between people of same project group. They like to make all the employees comfortable in

the kind of job they are doing and happy with people around them. They have the state-of-art

Employee Care Centre where employees can relax after working hours.

Managing individuals career growth

One-to-One bimonthly sessions with the Reporting manager help the employee and employer

in keeping track of Individual career growth. Each individual has clearly defined set of goals

for a period of time and the employer exactly knows what can be expected from him. With

this kind of clarity, it becomes really easy to manage an individuals career growth plan.

Work - life balance

Infosys is well-aware of the nature of an IT job. They know that IT job can take a toll on

Work-Life balance and are doing everything possible to help employees be happy with thejob they are getting and the time they are spending at office. They are not too worried about

the attrition rate especially in these difficult times. Keeping a check on attrition rate is on the

lower side of their priority list and they feel if they do other things in the best possible way,

the attrition rate will take care of itself.


13/24

13

Foci/Goals of Performance Management System

They have a very strong and transparent Appraisal System in place where employees are

given an equal opportunity to put across their points before any decision is taken on their

appraisals. Any chances of biasing or injustice are removed by involving the seniors of the

appraisers.

Persistent Systems Ltd.


Persistent follows the role based organization approach. Here, all jobs are classified into one

of the 4 categories testing, development, managerial, others (including HR, administration,

etc.). Separate levels are defined clearly across all the classifications. This helps eliminate

confusion, defining the roles expected to be performed at a certain job level. This helps

employees understand their responsibilities. The role based organization provides for:

1. Right utilization of the available talent2. Providing alternatives for the career path for every employee3. Standardizing processes, people related issues and enabling consistent role definitions

across the organization

4. Accountability as a result of clear articulationEvery employee is mapped to a particular job role and level. The process of integrating role

based organization is applicable across the complete experience of the employee with the

organization right from being interviewed to being appraised.


14/24

14

Employee satisfaction

A satisfied employee is one who will give his best performance. He considers organization

goals as his own and believes he can contribute towards achieving them. Hence, it is very

important for an organization to realize this and act on it. Through employee empowerment,

open culture, feedback based system, an employee is given the confidence to take his own

decisions and be responsible for them.


Some of the employee motivation practices include:

1. Monthly spot awards to outstanding performers2. Long Services award for more than 5 years of service at Persistent3. Identifying certain outstanding employees as the experts in their field and publicizing

this across the organization motivates employees to work harder to achieve a level

of expertise.

4. Involving entry level employees too in important project related decisions takingtheir opinion

5. Employee empowerment by providing the opportunity to an employee to learn bymaking mistakes, being responsible for their actions.


An individual at Persistent has the opportunity to follow two of the tracks typically

technical or the managerial. Based on what the individual chooses in consultation with the

company, he is allotted projects and responsibilities. Training and learning continuously are

stressed upon thus, helping an individuals growth from a holistic perspective.


15/24

15

Work - life balance

Persistent encourages the employees not to sit late in office so that the employees can balance

their personal life along with their job related responsibilities. A conducive environment is

created by the following activities:

1. Regular sports tournaments2. Opportunities to participate in cultural events3. Regular team outings4. Organizing trekking activities

There are specific committees looking after each area Persistent Sports Committee for Sports

and Persistent Arts Circle for cultural activities.


The Performance Management System is the one which is monitored very closely by almost

all employees. Hence, it is imperative that the organization designs it and implements it

without any question of prejudice and follows all the systems transparently. It helps build

employee confidence in the organization and its processes.

The performance management system at Persistent includes not only the appraisal system,

but also the performance diary, objectives setting process, Key Result Areas (KRAs) and

trainings. There are three types of appraisal done on a formal level

1. Yearly appraisal - based on which promotions and salary raises are decided2. Half Yearly appraisal done mainly to review your progress against the KRAs set

previously and working to take corrective actions, if any

3. Project Exit appraisal done by the manager of the previous project so that there is aconsistency of opinion across projects during a particular year.


16/24

16

Further, the yearly appraisal also consists of the peer appraisals where someone from your

own level is assigned to appraise you.

Also, there are monthly review sessions with your managers and super managers which allow

you to provide your own feedback and receiving inputs from them. Every effort is taken to

make the employee feel important to the progress of the organization. Interest is also taken in

personal issues, if any.

Also, an informal feedback is taken from employees about their managers. It is typically a

small objective questionnaire. Steps are taken to inform the managers about their

shortcomings and to correct them. Such 360 degree feedback mechanism makes the

employees realize the importance an organization attaches to every employees opinion.


17/24

17

Conclusions and Recommendations

During recession, a persons need hierarchy undergoes a radical change. Where, during good

times, a persons need for security is less; however, during bad phases, a person looks for less

of self actualization and is more concerned about the security of his position and job.

After interviewing managers of Infosys Technologies Ltd and Persistent Ltd, we have got a

great insight into how these companies go about making HR policies and implementing them.

The interview helped us understand the various practices that the companies are following to

keep the motivation and satisfaction level of employees high. We also understood how

companies are ensuring that they find the right person for the right job and then, striking a

right balance between the work and non-work (personal) life.


It is important for any organization to get the right kind of people working for them and then,

more importantly the same people being happy with what they are doing. It is very important

to attract the talent and retaining it becomes even more important. As Mr. Narayana Murthy

very famously said, Our assets walk out of the door each evening. We have to make surethey come back next morning.

Employee Satisfaction

Employee satisfaction is directly proportional to the employee efficiency and output. If

companys employees are satisfied then the work environment is healthy resulting in better

utilization of resources and better output. Companies should take special care to keep their

employees satisfied even if that means going out of the way to help them.


18/24

18


There has to be a motivation to get a job done. Companies should ensure that the employees

are motivated enough to keep the organizations welfare before their own.


If everyone is growing in a company, then company will also grow. The clarity of goals and

the transparency factor plays an important role in this. Companies should ensure that they

have an individual growth plan for their each and every employee. This will also help set

goals for them and help improve the productivity overall.

Work - life balance

IT job can be very tedious at times. It is very important to keep a check on work-life balance

to reduce the stress and frustration level of employees. The company should plan activities

outside workplace like the ones Infosys do to improve the interaction between team and to

reduce the stress levels of every employee.


The important factors here are Transparency and Performance-based Incentives. The

employees on one hand need to know that they are secured, their job is secured but on the

other hand, they should also be aware that the performance is very important. The good

performances need to be rewarded by Monetary and Non-Monetary rewards and the not-so-

good ones need to be re-looked upon. If the practices that are followed for the same are

foolproof, they not only improve the Performance Management System but also help improve

the motivation level of the employees.


19/24

19

References

1. Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Retrieved fromhttp://www.businessballs.com/maslow.htm

2. Life at Persistent. Retrieved fromhttp://www.persistentsys.com/Default.aspx?tabid=214

3. Stiffler Kristina (2009). Training In Troubled Times: Delivering on Whats ToFollow With Training. MindLeaders. Retrieved from

http://www.upsidelearning.com/blog/index.php/2009/05/08/new-white-paper-

training-in-troubled-times/

4. Moore Kenny (2009). Work life balance during a recession A conspiracy ofoptimism. The Journal for Quality and Participation. Retrieved from

http://www.allbusiness.com/society-social/work-leisure-lifestyle-work/12623031-

1.html

5. Oates Simon (2009). 6 Ways to Instantly Improve the Motivation of Employees in aRecession. Isnare. Retrieved from

http://www.isnare.com/?aid=366197&ca=Business+Management

6. Street Matt (2008). Talent Management in a recession. Management Standards.Retrieved from http://www.management-

standards.org/client_files/Talent%20management%20in%20a%20recession.pdf

7. Perth Leadership Institute (2008) A recessions role in transforming leadershipdevelopment. Perth Leadership. Retrieved from

http://www.perthleadership.org/Documents/WP_Recession.pdf


20/24

20

Annexure A: Infosys Response

What are the qualities/attributes that your company looks out for at the time of

recruitment in a potential employee?

-Firstly, we see if the guy is actually suitable for the job we are offering i.e. if he/she has the

basic knowledge/skill set for the same. We look at the responsibilities the person has handled

in his/her previous job. We look at his expectations and our expectations and see if they

match.

Are there any practices in place to ensure if the job of an employee matches the skill-set

required for the job?

- Generally, our job requirement clearly mentions what all is required and expected from an

applicant. And also, recruitment team makes sure about the same at the time of the interview.

At the time of project allocation, the Bench Manager has all the details and prior experience

details of employee with him and he accordingly allocates project to every individual.

How important is employee satisfaction to your company and what are you doing to

improve on this?

- Employee satisfaction is of utmost importance to our company. We have a bi-monthly one-

to-one session with each employee. Initially, in the first few meetings, employee and manager

chalk out a plan regarding the career growth of the employee. In all the further meetings, this

plan is updated and we make sure the plan is getting implemented .Employee, thus, also get

to know what we are planning for him and what we expect from him in the next two months.


21/24

21

In these difficult times, how are you keeping the employees motivated?

- The onsite opportunities and the double digit percent increase in salary are difficult in these

times obviously. We have manager-level and skip-level meetings happening for each

employee where we communicate about the new projects that are coming up and about all the

future prospects. Also, we make sure that every employee gets the kind of work he/she likes

as far as possible. Money is always important but the work is most important. We want them

to be happy with what they are doing and that helps keeping them motivated.

How and what are the incentives that your company is giving to the employees that can

retain them for long term?

-Infosys is powered by intellect and driven by values and one thing that we really value is

transparency. This transparency, the belief in us and the work culture here are enough to keep

an employee interested in our company for a long period of time.

How are you keeping check on the attrition rate of your company?

- At this point of time, we are not too worried about the attrition rate. In fact, attrition rate is

at all time low for obvious reasons. And to be frank, in IT industry, an attrition rate of 8-12%

is very common.

Is your company doing anything for managing every individuals career growth?

- As I told you earlier, we have one-to-one meetings that take place every two months.

Employees are made aware about what they need to do and they tell us what they want to do,

what they want to achieve. The meeting is informal and we make sure employee is satisfied

with the way his career is shaping up in our organization.


22/24

22

What all is your company doing to provide a conducive environment to the employees?

- We have Employee Care Centre at our each and every DC where employee can relax, play

sports, hang-out after the working hours. Also, we have quarterly project parties (sponsored

by Infosys), so that the team members get a chance to mix with each other, to help create a

healthy and friendly environment. We also have various team activities taking place

throughout the year.

What is that you are doing to ensure a healthy work-life balance for employees?

- In an IT industry, work-life balance can be a little problematic. We try and make sure that

an employee is not too stressed and overloaded with work. If need be, we add unbilled

buffers into project to reduce the work load and try keeping working hours of an employee to

nine and half hours.

What are the foci/goals of your Performance Management System?

- We have an Appraisal System where every employee needs to make a presentation of the

responsibilities he has handled over a predefined period of time. Manager is suppose to rate

the employee on every task and the reviewer (generally the reporting manager of manager)

sees to it everything is done judiciously done. The appraisal discussion is again one-to-one

with manager. Here, they discuss about the pre-assigned tasks of the employee and how he

has performed in it. Before closing appraisal, employee needs to be satisfied with the whole

process and he needs to sign-off. The key factor is transparency and we make sure

everything is transparent to everyone.


23/24

23

Annexure B: Persistents Response

What are the qualities/attributes that your company looks out for at the time of

recruitment in a potential employee?

-Subject knowledge, Skill test, and behavioural interview

Are there any practices in place to ensure if the job of an employee matches the skill-set

required for the job?

Every person undergoes a test before selection and based on the test, his skills are matched to

the available jobs and then allocated to the particular job.

How important is employee satisfaction to your company and what are you doing to

improve on this?

Employee satisfaction is important and we conduct regular surveys to identify the areas

which need improvement.

In these difficult times, how are you keeping the employees motivated?

Provide challenges to the employees and give them work which best suits their skills. Also,

conduct various fun events for employees to participate and give them recognition in

whatever task they out - perform.

How and what are the incentives that your company is giving to the employees so that it

can retain them for long term?

We have recognition and award systems in place in the company


24/24

24

How are you keeping check on the attrition rate of your company?

Attrition rate is continuously monitored for each and every employee leaving the company.

Is your company doing anything for managing every individuals career growth?

Yes, a clear role map for all employees is in place. Every employees path is identified and

made known to the employee.

What all is your company doing to provide a conducive environment to the employees?

Company provides various opportunities to its employees both in work as well as in various

cultural events so that there is a proper work-life balance.

What is that you are doing to ensure a healthy work-life balance for employees?

We encourage employees not to sit late in office so that they are able to spend quality time

with their families.

What steps do you take to keep On-bench people motivated?

Various training modules are available for the On-bench people. We also check if any additional resources are required for some other projects and the

On-bench people are given the option to provide help to these projects.

Talent Engagement During Recession Project Group4 DivisionE

Documents

Transcript of Talent Engagement During Recession Project Group4 DivisionE