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Wooing the worker
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Employee Relationship Management (ERM) has taken on a new meaning with companies going all out to pamper their staff and keep them in good humour. Avoiding the exodus of employees is the final goal and is achieved through the lucrative sops, writes SOUVIK CHOWDHURY.
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FAMILY FUN: Satyam employees and their families enjoy games. — Photo: P. V. Sivakumar
OLD PROVERBS made new. The stone that rolls gathers moss. Moss, in terms of diverse connotations - experience, knowledge, association, and money or maybe a wife, a husband and perhaps more than just these!
Fuelled by the growth in the applications software market and the explosive foray of MNC's and their BPO's to Hyderabad, job-hopping outbeats every other form of hopping and associated exercises.
Reasons, for which employees are leaving one organisation for the other at an alarming regularity, range from discreet to the bizarre. An increase of just more than a couple of grand is enough for most, while the next level of position is inspiring for others. Monotony is also motivating.
"The sooner one leaves an organisation, the better are the chances of becoming a father," kids 26-year old Chakri, an ex-HSBC employee who has recently hopped his way to Infosys, level II, with a hike of more than double the last pay drawn.
The enormity of the situation is fairly abysmal. More than 25 employees have quit HSBC Data Processing in the past six months or so, while the figures for GE Capital and Deloitte Consulting are even more. More than a quarter of the total HSBC Data Processing staff strength in Hyderabad has migrated from GE or another MNC because of the lure of better pay, and more than half now, is ready to join any other equally good company, which will offer even better pay.
A recent survey conducted by Marketquiz, reveals that an organisation loses $150,000 to $250,000 approximately when they lose a mid-level employee. And that's just considering recruitment, hiring and training costs. "If you include the loss in productivity, your costs go through the roof. The bottom line is lost employees equal lost profits," the study points out.
Floored by the issue of employee retention, the HR breed of professionals is frantically endeavouring to woo the worker. As an offshoot of the efforts, has evolved the concept Employee Relationship Management (ERM), - the single largest point of discussion in board agendas of MNC's.
Experts say that ERM is all about effective business communications, which can build employee confidence, trust and loyalty, enabling employers to realise the potential of the skills and knowledge within the organisation.
It is a powerful cutting-edge, critical business tool that enables employees to do their job better. It is a process used to better manage the relationships with and the working practices and effectiveness, of the work force.
"It is a business strategy that can greatly increase employee productivity and commitment while reducing turnover and internal costs. An emerging discipline - ERM, allows organisations to identify, differentiate, interact and personalise with their employees, providing much of the same benefits as a successful customer relationship solution," says US-based ADP Dealer Services Inc., director Ayush Maheshwari. Maheshwari has devised an ERM solution for the Indian employees, called `Maitree Karma Yatra', which is an effort to bridge the existing gap between the management and employees.
BEAR HUG: ERM aims at the overall growth of an employee.
"Maitree Karma Yatra is a process which aims in culminating in the overall growth of an employee, and instilling a sense of fulfilment whether at work or at home or life, in general. A sense of ownership and team spirit should be felt by all," concurs i-Vantage CEO (Indian operations) Rajesh Agarwal.
ERM incentives in the form of lavish weekend parties, free coke and cappuccino vending machines, family entertainment zones that include from golf courses to spas, gyms and swimming pools, foreign visits (either for training or vacation. Of course, company sponsored), fantastic bonuses, extremely high medical and life insurances, share holding options and an almost endless list of other `enjoyables'.
HR professionals have even devised `process-wise' competitions, like bindi competition, jokes or skit competition, smile days, canteen for a day, rose day, best dressed male and female, word building competitions et al.
"We even allow our executives to decorate and personalise their computer or place of sitting so that they feel a sense of ownership and work with more involvement," says an HR executive.
"My company may be having very promising and fashionable philosophies about employer service, integrity and trust. What is their glorious implication in the workplace? Nobody knows," says an MNC executive, on condition of anonymity.
ROCK `N' ROLL: Incentives come in the form of lavish weekend parties.
Many organisations invest a lot of time and resources to develop corporate philosophies, corporate missions, visions and value statements but employees don't buy into them because they just don't fit the actual job.
In fact some employees find these corporate philosophies very loose and irritating. "To work in such a claustrophobic atmosphere, I feel as if I am working in a adult creche," grumbles Process Executive Ravichandra.
"At the end of the day, it is the money that counts. If you find that for doing the same job, a foreigner is paid ten times your salary, demoralisation is invariable. Moreover, there is very less appreciation but a lot of manipulation," says call centre employee Oyundrila.
Seconding her, fellow colleague Anand R. says, "Considering the volume of work we process and the profit we generate for the company, I think we are a exploited lot."
He however adds that appreciation and a `justified' salary (read hike) might perhaps make him hang onto the same company for some more time or maybe the rest of his career.
Money and recognition remains chiefly the motivating factor.
PARTY ON: One of the ways of making the employee feel at home.
Today's in-demand workers have become free agents who invest their time and effort in organisations of their choice. But dissatisfaction is bound to settle once they experience inequality.
"Companies should cease to regard HR functions, such as recruitment, as discrete processes, and instead see them as part of the overall business strategy, designed to maximise the lifetime value of the relationships with their employees," says Manoj Phajwa, of Enterprise Consultancy - a recruitment agency for a top MNC.
150 years ago, Marx pointed out that all capitalists, whether they are good or bad, must extract surplus labour from workers in order to make a profit. All sorts of critics of capitalism have used this theory to prove that workers `exploited'.
When people complain about unfair labour practices at MNC's, they are probably using Marx's theory, whether they know it or not.
But as ERM slowly sets to be the buzzword for most MNC's, the disgruntlements should be soon allayed for a life-time of commitment and satisfaction.
Organisations have already realised that to maximise customer satisfaction and profitability, employee motivation and retention is must. Inefficiencies in the organisation are being slowly eliminated through team building and family involvement exercises.
And sops of course, will be as good as never before for the employee. Marx lives yet again... purpose served, this time. Labour is all set to be God.
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