Corporate concerns....

Effecting change in every corporate function is a constant endeavor in modern times, managerially speaking.... (I'd like to say that in the manner of Jim Carrey's famous take on 'metaphorically speaking' in the blockbuster movie "The Mask"). After all, change is the only thing that is constant, we are told!

However, it hits you to see some of these true-blue managers becoming smart-alecs that try to stonewall the very change their department seeks to effect. More, perhaps, to keep secure their comfy cushy jobs, which might run a risk of getting redundant once the changes are effectively practised!

Image is something that every corporate entity - big or small - tries to carefully nourish and project as one different from the crowd. In pursuit of this, corporates try out different permutations and combinations of variable changes that appear customer/employee 'friendly'. They even have specialized functional managers/departments to deal with innovative ideas. Therefore, you have an 'employee relations' as distinct from the HR, or a 'customer service' as distinct from sales. As long as these are actually vibrant, they serve their purpose. However, there are times when one feels that one would not miss these departments even if they ceased to exist.

Employee Relations (as a fictional example - could be the story of any corporate) is a great department provided they really live up to their name. There are occasions where this department is a glamorous face to impress new inductees; a great way to create ornamental functionaries of an otherwise dispensable band of employees, but who have the clout (and cheek!) to hang around! So you have an assistant manager, a manager, and an assistant vice-president independently (wo)manning this department. While you do see the lower rung working their skins off to ensure that every employee query or concern that comes their way receives a positive response, it is usually the self-important top notch guys that are actually living off the skim of their subordinates' labor. And these top guys also get to jet around the various facilities to 'drop by' and 'see' if the employees are indeed getting all the requisite response from the ER department. But try putting forward a concern or two to these guys, and they suddenly remember that 'actually your point of contact is Ms.....' and I am so important that I can be contacted only if need be. In other words, I know nothing, and it is actually Ms..... that will go through all the grind and sweat to see that your concern is positively addressed. I am here to well..ahem..'know' if you still had any concerns in spite of Ms....!

We shall look at some more of other such departments in the future....

Cab in, Cab out…

“Saab/Madam, aapka location kahan par hai…. Main Cab driver baat kar rahaa hoon…”

Cabs are an essential part of almost every IT/ITES/BPO employee’s work life. Their reporting time at work is most likely dependant on it! So, I decided to have a look at these vibrant life-lines of the high tech industry.

Cab operators, known as vendors in the industry parlance, run fleets of automobiles – a high population of them is the Tata Indica(b), followed by the Tata Sumo and the Chevrolet Tavera – servicing the logistics of transporting employees in and out of the company they serve. Maintaining the fleet, overseeing operations on a large scale, ensuring rosters are optimal in terms of time and location, tracking movement of vehicles as they pick/drop employees one after the other and so on, is no mundane task. And agreeably, most operators do a wonderful job of it.

Barring a few occasional hiccups, most cab drivers/operators carry the day with élan. Providing employment to well over a hundred thousand, this industry does its work without much ado. While an employee would not hesitate to register a complaint at the slightest inconvenience, rarely would the cab service be complimented ‘on record’ for a job well done! Most of the city streets in India that looked desolate at the stroke of the midnight hour not very long into the past, are now bustling with these cabs, zipping to and fro on their errands!

Employees, on their part, consider cabs a great way to commute. Apart from the obvious savings on travel, they are also saved the hassle of negotiating through traffic gridlocks. Therefore, they arrive fresh as a dewdrop at work, and can also afford to catch up with a wink or two on their way back home, tired from the day’s (night’s) work.

Using the cab service also fosters friendship and bonhomie amongst colleagues – and is in fact, a great way to catch up with ‘offline’ information and gossip. Rotational shifts or route reviews bring new cab-mates from different departments/processes, and over a short period of time, they turn into good friends.

While there will be concerns of rash driving indulged in by some cab drivers, the general opinion is that the cab driver is a friend of the ‘greenback’ industry and will be around for quite some time to come. So, three cheers to the ‘one for the road’!

Missed Call!

"Hi, Amit, this is Rina from Aychaar Solutions...Just wanted to remind you that you have your final round of interview at 3pm this afternoon. You need to be there at the venue by 2.40pm and report to Gaurav of HR. Wish you all the best! I'll give you a reminder call anyways at 2pm. Bye..." (All names changed, to protect the privacy of the intended parties) This at 10.30 a.m.… Come 2 p.m., Rina calls Amit’s mobile and is greeted by the 'either switched off, or out of calling area' message. She then calls his home phone, and the lady at the other end is ‘not exactly’ sure of Amit’s whereabouts. Maybe he is somewhere in India; maybe, he’s taken a flight to Los Angeles…. At 4pm, a tense Rina is alternating between calling Amit’s mobile (with a prayer in her heart), hearing the same message, and receiving Gaurav's frantic and exasperated calls.

Familiar scenario? All too familiar scenario!

What does Rina do? What could Rina do?

Pretty little! Considering that eight out of ten interview-schedule calls meet with the same fate today…. Recruiters, jobseekers, and the corporate HR staff, go through this much dreaded grind almost every single day. Blame game….anyone? Dicey, ain’t it?

I hope to go forward in this blog looking at all of the central players in this game of the 'missed call'. Amit, the elusive Amit, could well have been at the cinema, watching the latest release that afternoon, to celebrate the honey-dripping offer letter that he had picked up from another employer that morning, soon after Rina's call. To Amit's credit, he is not amongst those 'cats' that walk around with at least half-a-dozen offer letters across their attire, on any given day. He was content with the offer he had picked up, knew the afternoon guy couldn't fare better; so decided to call it off, and enjoy a movie instead!

Rina, in the meantime, has a tough evening ahead trying to explain this 'missed call' to her team leader. Gaurav's scene is no better as he is one guy short, and hopes Rina or her counterparts from the other consultancies make up for it the next day! And there are a couple of other 'gaayabs' too for the other positions that he has to close by the end of the week. So, Gaurav is not really a happy man either.

Rina could be forgiven for feeling let down by Amit. She had guided him most diligently through the company profile intro, the job description, the pay package counseling, the initial telephonic interview, the elimination round….taken pains to update him on all the possible landmines, the benefits, his strengths vis-à-vis his competition, and so on.

However, for Amit, she was but doing her job! He does not realize that his accomplishment is also very much a part of Rina’s job. That his success is her success too! So, he does not think it important to update Rina with his conquest of the morning. Nor does he want to be ‘pestered’ by Rina’s follow-up calls… so stays off the familiar number! And this behavior is surprisingly displayed across functional levels. Only, the ‘missed calls’ are a little stylized at the upper end of the spectrum. ‘Had an important JV contract meeting at the other end of the world, scheduled at short notice….’, ‘had intended to call and let you know, but was just too caught up…’, ‘you mean to say you did not get my SMS?!! That’s strange!’ Yes sirree….strange indeed!

Just as an employer has the right to choose from amongst the best of the turnout at the interviews, and just as the recruitment firm would not pick all and sundry CV’s to proffer to their clients, every jobseeker does have the intrinsic right to choose the best offer. But the point we need to reinforce here is about communication. How and why does the same recruiter suddenly fall out of favor when someone has landed a better offer? Why is it that when one could spend time to explain his/her expectations and aspirations, and the recruiter takes after those discussions, there is a feeling of ‘disconnect’ when the recruiter is needed no more? How different things would be if one were to spend just about five minutes to explain that they have a better offer, and thank the recruiter for all their efforts!

Recruiters - well, some of them think that it is they that the jobseeker and the client owe their very existence to! This creed of recruiters would do all to pick up any CV, sell the jobseeker the job profile that they have an interview deadline for, meet the numbers, and goddamn the jobseeker! Left in a tizzy, the jobseeker walks out of the interview, humiliated by the alien questions not relevant to their realm, wondering what hit them! I once had someone share their experience of a walk-in for a BPO, announced prominently in a huge ad that appeared in the newspapers. The walk-in venue, apparently, was the office of one of their consultant recruiters. And when this person showed up for the walk-in, he was surprised to find a long queue actually circumventing the centre parapet across the whole floor. No seating arrangements, nor any attendant staff to walk around and inform the progress. Just one security guy at the entrance, and everyone had to patiently wait their turn to ‘walk-in’. Maybe an isolated case….maybe not! But downright pathetic! If that is the way jobseekers are treated, how could you expect niceties in return? And then we have the run-in phone calls from telecalling recruiters parroting about a better opportunity and would-you-be-interested stuff; no specifics, no nothing…. I’d be damned if there is no one out there that has not received a call about how lousy their resume looks, and how about them zapping yours! Maybe, giving it a try might elicit a direct call from Bill Gates!

Corporate HR staff - the hallowed torchbearers for the jobseeker and the recruiter alike - how could they be wrong? Ever! Well, some of all the foregoing confusion could be avoided with a little effort from their side as well. For starters, some of them could do with having a definite job description and an absolute clarity on the role when requisitioning the services of a consultant recruiter on a job mandate. Interacting with too many consultants for single digit requirements might actually end up as a case of too many cooks. The idea of generating numbers in terms of CV even to fill just one position is sure to drive the recruiter crazy. When you have a consultant recruiter empanelled, might as well give their intelligence their due! The job of filling up a position that began with a consultant recruiter should end with the consultant recruiter as well. Most of the recruiters feel that they are in the dark especially when there is an offer firmed up with the jobseeker, and they hear it first from the jobseeker rather than their client company’s HR personnel. Apart from the monetary issues that crop up with some clients, another issue that is causing concern to many recruiters is the issue of database ‘hijack’. Stacking up unused resumes forwarded by the recruiter, holding out for a while, and contacting the jobseeker directly is apparently becoming more a rule than an exception.

So, the merry-go-round continues....but let's hope we all see wisdom and let each of us enjoy the ride!

Oops…I see a couple of missed calls on my mobile…..Ciao!