The recent controversy surrounding the rejection of a candidate's job application by a leading Indian export firm on account of his religion just goes on to prove how deep-rooted religious discrimination is in India. Unfortunately, this is one of those rare cases where the apparent bias of the firm has been revealed out in the open. Most organisations maintain a tight lip about their biases which is reflected in their hiring, performance appraisal and promotion practices. Such biases are not only harmful for a company but also for the society at large as it paints a picture that a certain group or community is superior than the rest, which is responsible for inter-community conflicts and violence. There are several things that organisations can do to embrace diversity and a good starting point could be the Cox and Blake Model, which I discussed previously in this blog post. 

Graduated!

Just want to take a moment to express my gratitude for my institute, Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies, Bangalore, for giving me countless opportunities for learning and growth in the last two years. Thank you! 

Live Project with Randstad

I just finished writing my final exams for earning a PGDM-Human Resources degree from NMIMS, Bangalore. And as I reminisce about my experience at NM, what particularly stands out is the amount of real-life corporate exposure I received through live projects with organisations of all shapes and sizes. I was lucky enough to be given an opportunity to work on a project with Randstad India and my experience was featured on the official facebook page of my B-school. Here I am sharing the original image which was posted:

Talent Management Lessons from Schneider Electric

I swear I am blessed because I always meet the most wonderful teachers everywhere. My talent management professor, Bala sir, who also heads human resources function at Coffee Day group connected me and my classmates with senior-level HR professionals of various large organisations to learn about their talent management practices. I am grateful to have had the opportunity to meet the very humble and kind Ramesh Ranjan sir of Schneider Electric, who walked me through the different elements of the company's talent management process, such as EVP, PMS, Retention-Risk assessment, reward and recognition for employees, etc. What I found very interesting was that Schneider Electric has a unique 3*3 model, wherein any employee who has been working for the company for 3 years and above and has been consistently getting a rating of 3 and above across the years becomes eligible for local and global mobility in any of Schneider Electric’s other businesses and sites. If this is not a holistic employment experience then I don't know what is. 

The Pygmalion Effect

When I was young, I was not a very smart kid. I could not concentrate enough to read a lot and my inability to memorize heaps and heaps of notes prevented from scoring well in exams. My scores, my teacher's remarks about me, the way I was perceived in my family only validated that I was an 'average' kid- not very creative, not very intellectual. And then 9th standard happened and my English teacher saw something in me that nobody, including myself, had seen in me. She encouraged me to participate in class discussions, read and write more, be active in extra-curricular activities. And the rest, as they say, was history. It took someone to believe in me, someone who had high expectations of me, to enable me to change the way I looked at myself, my self-concept and self-esteem.

Enter corporate world. Imagine if all managers had such high expectations of their subordinates, wouldn't it be great for the organisation's performance? Won't it impact the motivation of these employees to be more productive and develop themselves further? Well, that's what J. Sterling Livingston recommends in his path-breaking article- Pygmalion in Management. 

New Management Assimiliation

In the last one year, I have heard of, read about and, in some cases, even experienced  hundreds of HR interventions such as employee satisfaction and engagement surveys, EVP discovery, 360 Degree feedback, etc., but never did I come across New Management Assimilation (NMA) until last week when my talent management professor introduced this intervention to my class. It is basically aimed at supporting both a new manager and the rest of his team in developing a positive and open work relationship. The process usually followed is such: after the manager has been with the team for 2-3 months, the team is asked to share qualitative feedback about the new manager. Later, the manager is provided with the feedback to reflect over. Finally, the manager and the team congregate to discuss the key concerns raised.

Have you ever experienced an NMA? Do you have any other valuable points to share regarding this intervention? Please feel free to post in the comments section. 

The Cox and Blake Model of Diversity Management

Doing an MBA is in many ways equivalent to making an unimaginably high number of PowerPoint presentations (PPT). But the process of in-depth primary and secondary research that goes into making a quality PPT is worth the effort. Recently, I and a classmate made a PPT on the Cox and Blake Model of Diversity Management. Truth be told, majority companies still do not consider diversity as a priority and one of the main reasons is that organisations view it as a touchy-feely, good-to-do practice that may or may not derive business results.What I liked about this model is how the authors linked various organisational practices with specific business benefits, in terms of cost, resource acquisition, marketing, problem solving, etc. So if your company is considering investing into diversity management practices, perhaps emulating this model is the right place to start.