An employer can consent to an employee’s side hustle

Large employers are typically strong talent magnets and hence, can wield their powers to include clauses in their employment contract that can prevent their employees from taking up another job beyond the remit of the employer. If an employee moonlights, it is unacceptable and is a reason for termination on the ground of violating the employment conditions. The moot question is if an employer is morally right to prevent an employee from moonlighting.

It is a no-brainer that an employee must not be allowed to moonlight if their intellectual property or confidential information is likely to be compromised. There are numerous possibilities where the employer does not have a conflict of interest with the assignments an employee moonlights for. Independent directors on a company’s board work for multiple companies with mutual consent. This is an established practice; the same must be applied to full-time employees.

Do work hours matter?

As employees have been working in a hybrid environment, an organisation can’t keep hawkish control over the employees’ work hours. Performance is increasingly getting measured by the outcomes rather than the number of hours worked. Many employees work beyond the boundaries of work hours mentioned in their appointment letters. Sometimes, they have slack hours during the window of 9 hours of the day, yet they have put in hours of work beyond the stipulated hours mentioned in their employment contracts. Similarly, many a time, employees are required to engage with work on a weekly off, holiday or vacation. So, the definition of work hours is changing altogether.

Accordingly, employers must not drive compliance with a 45-hour week. Rather they should just focus on the outcomes and the compliance with the organisation’s values and work processes. If an employee does not moonlight on assignments that conflict with the business of any of its employers, nobody should worry.

Bring sunshine everywhere!

Employers can bring a moonlighting policy that clarifies the projects or employment that is allowed and what kind of tasks can be taken up based on specific consent from them. This will encourage their employees to talk about their aspirations and accordingly, they can try fulfilling those to the best possible extent. This can help them emerge stronger as an employer brand and hence, attract and retain talent better.

At the same time, employees can legitimately moonlight to take up stimulating and challenging work, upskill themselves and proudly showcase the variety of work they have taken up and delivered. This can help employees express themselves holistically, legitimately earn additional income and at the same time, stay committed to the practice of excellence in whatever work they take up. Sunshine everywhere!

Read also:

• Is Your Culture enabling employees to work from home
• #GetTheBestOutofUs: Gear Up or Give In to Work
• #GetTheBestOutofUs: Finding the Perfect Balance with Diversity Hiring
• #GetTheBestOutofUs: Web3 is Redefining HR
• #GetTheBestOutofUs: Become a Successful Macro-Manager

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Constitution of India as well as ILO (International Labour Organization) are clear about human dignity and fairness in rewarding workers. In spite of all these provisions, various studies have shown that there is a gender pay gap. Women workers tend to earn less than their men counterparts in many industry sectors. The phenomenon is pronounced clearly in industries such as textile, construction, entertainment and agriculture. Women’s day celebration has become a lot more wide-spread, yet the basic principle of fair reward and human dignity continue to be global issues. However, there are various staffing agencies trying to bridge gaps by working closely with the corporates.

Our belief system should change first

It is easy to say that equal pay for men and women is needed. However, it is not possible to apply the principle on the ground because the business owners and senior managers do not believe that women and men can produce equal output. Many a times, they do not have a clear measurement system, rather they go by their mental measures. Further, they believe that a woman is weaker than a man and has many limitations that disables her to produce an output same as a man. These deeply-seated beliefs come on the way of implementation of equal pay for equal work.

If we have to eliminate the gender pay gap, we have to change this belief and make them accept the fact that a woman can produce the same output as a man in the same role.

Demand-Supply issue

Women by their physical being, need breaks from work for maternity and baby-care. Many a times, they share a large share of the responsibilities at home such as elder care, keeping the home tidy, cooking and so on. Thus, they face challenges to balance their time and focus between work and family. Workplaces which can find viable alternatives in staffing themselves will have less demand for employing women. Given the sluggish demand for women workers, it is likely that the principle of equal pay gets compromised. Just economics!

A large part of our population is still below the poverty line in spite of several well-meaning measures taken by the Government. There is a supply of blue collar workers from these families. Sometimes, there are women who are trying hard to get back to work after a hiatus. More often than not, these women are well-qualified and have relevant experience. Still, it is not easy for them to find meaningful work. In all these cases, they are willing to settle for a pay which might be lesser than the fair pay. Again, this is just economics of short-term gains.

Many small enterprises find it expensive in the short term to provide the statutory benefits to women such as paid leaves on maternity. So, they tend to mitigate the risk of such payments by paying lesser to women. Effective social security programmes can take away this responsibility from employers and hence, make it a level playing field for employment for any gender.

Measure Work

Many employers think that women produce lesser than their men counterparts. This is male chauvinistic thinking. There are many cases where women produce higher than men. Industry sectors such as manufacturing, assembly shops, electronic and electrical products, luxury goods, consumer products, education, science which employed only men just a few decades ago have increasing number of women working there. Old norms have to change if we can quantify work and measure them. Employers must find ways of doing this. It might surprise them to find many men working there as less productive than the women. It could be a paradigm shift in their thinking.

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Pay should reflect the work output delivered now and the potential delivery in future. It cannot be a reflection of one’s gender, faith, whims and fancies.

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Technology has been disrupting a number of things in our day to day lives including each day at work. Cloud technologies, mobility, social platforms, big data and artificial intelligence transformed many activities in HR function of an organization, right from the way talent is attracted, and assessed to the way it is developed and retained. Behaviours and habits of employees have changed significantly over time. Hence, employer organizations are evolving their practices to adapt to these developments around us.

Let us focus on one cog in the wheel – interviews. This is one of the most common tools to assess talent while recruiting for a role. Traditionally, organizations held face to face discussion with a potential hire to check if the person has the competency, attitude and interest to do the job, has adequate depth of experience and demonstrates alignment with organizational values. We know, this is a herculean task to assess all of these in an interview. Interviewers should have experience and competence to carry out this assessment. Even if they are, research shows that reliability of interview as a tool of assessment is less than 35%. Yet organizations follow this as the common practice. Needless to say, with the advent of new technologies and changing norms in our society, we should introduce new methods.

Multi-Stage Assessment

Talent is a competitive advantage for any organization. It is extremely critical that an organization must choose the best and not settle for anything which is lesser. We have access assessment tools that can reduce human bias, increase reliability of the findings and are easy to administer. Companies also outsource the HR process to companies that have various specializations.

In our current times, instantaneity is a virtue. Assessment methods which give report immediately after the session are great to attract candidates to take up the challenge. IT industry and some Government programmes have started using hackathons, codefests or similar such sprint-like events which bring out the best in people working in a competitive game-like environment. However, all interviews does not require to be in a sprint-like environment. The strategy is to deploy a multi-stage process, each focusing on evaluation of a few aspects in adequate detail.

Instantaneous results and preferably a detailed feedback of the interview process are attractive to the aspirants. Considering the logistics of travel and busy schedule that each of us endure, we have to find technology to make such a multi-stage process a reality.

Leverage Technology

Video Interviews allow a candidate to take an interview at his or her convenience and Interviewers can evaluate the responses when they are free. There is no need to sync-up the schedule of both for this method of assessment which can be very efficient for screening applicants. This is very useful for recruiting junior level roles in an organization where the number of applicants for a job could be 20x of the number of open roles to fill.

Online mobile-based tests, case studies, hackathons, gamified assessment tests, analysis of simulated cases, virtual reality based interviews are new tools that are making recruitment easy to administer and test multiple parameters at the same time. Traditional methods of interviewing have to be preceded by some of these tech-based interventions. The organization will strengthen its employer brand and pick up candidates who are more likely to be successful.

Build a Roadmap and Execute

It is easy to say that technology tools and multi-stage assessment methods should be deployed. However, it is very hard to put them into practice. Several organizations have not yet brought this onto their anvil, let alone planning and execution. Furthermore, it is a missed opportunity unless we bring this into action. When the leadership team is committed to the cause of boosting employer brand and making the selection process more reliable, planning can be kicked off.

The first step will be to list down evaluation parameters, agree on a benchmark and translate them into objective measures. Next, design a battery of tests that fit the purpose and add value to the candidate and the employer organization. The choice of tests come next, keeping in mind the ease of administering them and the acceptance of the potential candidate. A lot of work, exciting and value-adding!

Hire temporary staffs for your organization

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Companies are looking for increasing flexibility in their staffing plans as revenue cycles are subject to greater volatility. As a result, the demand for temporary staffing is on the rise. Companies are building flexible plans to acquire talent by employing contract workers, freelancers, contingent workers and so on. Recent studies have shown that 150 million people are freelancing or delivering their individual gigs in North America and Western Europe. That is a substantial number!

What drives this economy?

Many millennials and some experienced professionals are making a conscious choice to walk a new path. They want to be their own boss, get rid of monotony, live on their own terms and follow their passion. These people are legal professionals, coaches, trainers, artistes, teachers, designers, architects, marketers, secretarial and admin assistants and similar such professionals. They are experts in their field of work, want to explore new dimensions of their expertise by doing different assignments.

Sure enough, such gig-work creates uncertainty in their incomes. Sometimes, their work schedules get erratic and they have to put up with those. However, they find the benefits such as independence, liberty and discovering the unexplored are bigger than risk of inconsistent income.

At the same time, as global economy is growing and developing further, we find businesses shifting their workforce blend towards temporary jobs, fixed time work and freelancers. We will surely find increasing number of people willing to be gig workers.

How can an organization use gig workers?

In India, we have just 10% of our labour employed in the formal sector while a significant number is freelancing. There is a huge gig economy here. We find millions of workers in blue collar jobs working on daily wages or freelancers. We also find an increasing number of people in a range of specialised jobs such as teachers, doctors, lawyers, IT consultants and Finance managers working on fixed time basis for companies.

While the trend is there, our organizations are yet to get their workforce strategy right. We need to have clarity on the kind of work that will be carried out by an independent contractor, how such a person will be selected, what kind of remuneration has to be paid, how to protect the company’s proprietary information and so on. Similarly their workforce strategy needs to be clear about the kind of work to outsource, kind of work to be done by outsourced employees, methods of engaging and managing such employees.

Lack of a coherent strategy will result ad-hoc actions which are unlikely to be cost-efficient and delivering adequate value. Moreover, it could potentially compromise the long-term sustainability of the firm. It is critical that the workforce planning is done well, appropriate processes are used and the right partners are leveraged.

How could a professional deal with the realm of gig economy?

Gig workers are valued when they bring the right combination of capability and attitude to the table. While gig-working is interesting, offbeat and fashionable, the charm might die out soon if one is not ready for it. Sometimes, it could be depressing due to the lack of social anchors that a full-timer or contract worker experiences in an organization. Gig workers have to be ready to work independently in an isolated environment.

One needs to be clear about the inner calling and its connection with a larger purpose. This is the most crucial step in taking up gig-working. Else, one should get back to doing full-time work or contractual work in a routine job.

Once the decision is made, one has to build one’s portfolio and network to be a part of the eco-system. Since gig-working is still in its nascent stage, it is important to be active in the ecosystem to succeed.

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Changes in Customer Engagement

Driving Employee Wellness

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Health is wealth, goes the old adage. This is true not only for an individual but also for an organization. When the employees are healthy, they do not need leaves due to sickness, the energy and enthusiasm at workplace stays high, engagement levels go up, employees feel good to come to work, customers love the company’s products and services. Needless to say, it’s a happy story for everyone, an ideal situation. India Inc. is not there yet, but how near are we?

Given the pollution levels and poor infrastructure in our cities, employees are exposed to high levels of physical stress and mental agony. We see increasing number of employees seeking day-off due to health issues such as headache, body pain, back pain, bouts of asthma attacks, migraine, stomach upset and so on. Such illnesses not only create disruption and loss for the employee but also for the business. We have to build a culture of wellness which can prevent some of these illnesses.

As technology has increased connected-ness in our world, instantaneity is running a riot. We want everything to happen quickly. This is sharply visible in a young country like India. In this backdrop, all organizations in India face a tougher challenge than many of their global peers to engage with their employees meaningfully. The subject of wellness could be the answer!

One Size Doesn’t Fit All

In the last couple of decades, increasing number of organizations invested on employee wellness. Most common programs are setting up a fitness center or offering membership to a gym or a health club, holding fitness classes, consultation with dietician, yoga classes. Some organizations encouraged their employees for car-pooling and bike-pooling. Menu of snacks and meals in the cafeteria has been revamped to include less fats. Annual medical check-ups and health camps have been organized in company premises. Anyone can imagine, it is a long list and takes huge amount of efforts and a significant sum of money to implement. These programs have helped companies stand out in a crowd, but the jury is out if employee wellness has improved.

Technology is a big boon

This approach of company-wide program has lost its lustre. We are looking at customizable wellness programmes based on individual’s needs. As technology has been improving, there are scores of Apps which connect to wearables and track the person’s activities. These not only provide the individual a detailed snapshot of his or her health but also recommend possible actions. Such levels of personalization keeps the individual in its focus and hence, less likely to be ignored or taken lightly.

Secondly, some of these apps gamify the process and involve the user in the wellness programmes. Users get to compete as individuals and groups, get rewarded and showcase their achievements and recognition on the social media. This indirectly plays on the psyche of the users to spur into action. We see more people participate in marathons, join games and sports activities, become members of fitness clubs and so on. Gamification of wellness activities is playing a positive role.

Are Apps the Silver Bullet?

Leading a lifestyle that brings calmness and positivity is a personal choice. It takes significant amount of personal character to adopt healthy practices. Employer can create an environment, apps can help, wearables and similar such technology can enable. However, the action of walking, running, staying away from unhealthy food and lifestyle has to be carried out by the individual. This cannot be outsourced to anyone!

Last but not the least, organizations with character and visionary leadership can only build an environment that boosts employee wellness. No amount of apps, fitness clubs and healthy snacks are going to help if the leaders in the organization do not walk the talk. They need to set the tone around wellness. They need to openly talk about it, recognize achievers and appreciate behaviours of managers who run their teams without distress. Fundamentals remain constant!

Great organizations care for employee wellness. They demonstrate their belief through the character of their leaders and leverage all possible avenues to enhance wellness.

You may also like to read: Care about Candidate Experience

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India has witnessed rapid growth in phone connections in the last two decades and emerged as the world’s second largest telecom network. At 423 million internet users, India is the second largest in the world. Urban tele-density is 173% and for the rural India, it is 57% now and increasing. Telecom technology has been continuously evolving; many new applications such as IoT, machine to machine communication are emerging.

One of the recent studies by ASSOCHAM and KPMG showed a bullish outlook in terms of creation of new jobs. And on the other hand, there is consolidation in the industry reducing the number of operators and hence, reduction in the number of jobs. Given this backdrop, what is in store?

This shall pass away:

The immediate issue of job losses and hardships is for real. The individuals and their families have to overcome this hurdle. There are sectors other than telecom; they value work experience of Telecom; for example, skills like sales, marketing, business enabling roles such as IT, HR, finance, general administration, legal are valued in several other sectors. Secondly, there could be a few opportunities in another player within the sector. Last but not the least, this is an opportunity to explore the paths that caught one’s attention but one did not pursue them due to several other reasons. For example, entrepreneurship, further studies, teaching are possibilities.

Over the last few years, competitors have dropped pricing in order to lure customers and been servicing huge debts leading to erosion of margins. The current developments of acquisitions leading to optimization of workforce will do a lot of good to the industry though the customers could eventually see gradual pressure on their wallet. Time will tell if the customer will see a corresponding value in the increased spend.

Stay on the cutting edge:

The sector is so competitive that the market players are busy in activities and they expect the employees to be running on a treadmill all the time. In the process, one keeps the muscles flexible and agile; however, the muscles do not necessarily build their strength and sustainability. One has to go for a different regimen to build strength and live long.

Many of us have the misnomer that the employer company is responsible for development of our skills. But, the reality is that organizations can only facilitate learning but the onus of keeping oneself fit and strong lies on the employee.

As technology has been changing and new methods of doing one’s job are in vogue, one must keep an eye on these, develop one’s skills on a continuous basis. Sectors like telecom have been seeing major changes in quick succession. It is an opportunity for a practitioner to be on the fast lane and learn from them. It is not only true for the engineering talent but also for all the functions in the sector. While the core of the business keeps evolving, all roles in the business have to be adapting quickly as well. And at the same time, it is a threat for someone who wants stability and resists quick changes. One has to be on the cutting edge all the time!

Ref: https://www.cielhr.com/recruitment-paradigm-in-telecom-sector-in-india/

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Over the last decade, internet has become ubiquitous in recruitment across the globe. Employers and potential employees alike use the internet to meet one another directly or through an agency. In either case, the candidate and the company make a choice based on their individual perception and judgement of how well they fit the requirements of the other. Traditionally employers and candidates meet one another and conclude if there is a fitment. However, in today’s time, candidates rely on information available publicly as well as what they gather through their contacts and the social media. Candidates have access to a lot of information other than what they learn during an interview. How does this impact talent acquisition?

The Moments of Truth in a Recruitment Process

We see experts in Communication and Advertising specialise in the domain of employer branding. They advise companies how to stand out in the crowd of HR Leaders seeking talent and communicate their value proposition to the potential employee.

Crafting a communication is a skill of high order. Done well, this helps a company tremendously in building an image that creates curiosity in the minds of potential candidates. We have seen it at play for several IT and Outsourcing companies in the last couple of decades. However, such communication becomes a hyperbole if the attendant parts in the organization cannot deliver the experience that the candidates expect. This is easier said than done. The moment of truth for a candidate starts right from the time he or she comes across a recruitment advertisement. Then starts several action steps such as applying for a job, receiving feedback, various communication through various stages of the selection process, the visits and contacts during the entire process till the person successfully comes on board.

At each of these stages, different stakeholders interact with the candidate. The moot challenge before the HR leaders is to ensure that all stakeholders in the process are aligned to what is being promised in the value proposition and deliver the experience consistently. It is a massive transformation program for the organization!

The Social Media is on an Overdrive

Ex-employees and current employees of the organization express their views about working in a firm. Candidates who attend interviews with a potential employer talk about their experience. The social media and the search engines have made things easy for broadcasting these moments of truth all over. Companies do invest huge energies to communicate who they are, what kind of talent they are looking for and build an image that describes them as an employer.

One cannot escape from the fact that there are grapevines within an organization, a lone wolf who is an internal adversary, some unintentional cases of negligence that spoil the party and some disgruntled souls who are out there. The team has to be alert and proactive in warding off the evil eye. And at the same time, one needs to be fast enough to attend to the mistakes and failures; recover the lost ground. There should be no let up in one’s efforts to spread the positive news that takes place in different parts of the organization.

Today’s well-informed candidates form their opinions looking at various such intimations, undertones and nuances. So, the employer organization has to be fast enough and hitting the bull’s eye consistently.

Match expectations and stay agile

Life is fast today : decisions are being taken faster than ever before; thinking through is often understood as procrastination and viewed with despise. Organizations have to keep pace with the likes of their target audience. The cycle times are coming down in every aspect of our life. So, it is natural that candidates expect a quick answer, the interviewers need more choice and the jobseekers have access to several opportunities at the same time. This trinity makes the task for the HR folks exciting and challenging.

Leaders have to organize a good set of candidates at one go and make a quick decision. They need to decide when to keep looking for the illusive ideal candidate and when to be happy with the best available candidate. Long cycle times aren’t going down well – organizations have to be agile.

Expectations are mutual and dynamic in a relationship between the employer brand and the talent pool. Hence, it is important that a winning organization keeps a tab on the trends in the talent market and makes adjustments in its actions on a regular basis.

The rise of well-informed candidates has made life simple for the Talent acquisition specialists and HR leaders in many ways. They get an enviable advantage if they tune in to the signals in the market with respect to their employer brand and make course-corrections. This calls for agility and rigorous execution!

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That Candidate who had cleared multiple rounds negotiated hard for offer corrections and accepted to join didn’t turn up on the D-Day, citing a flimsy unfathomable reason- dubbed personal exigency. Congratulations, we have just travelled back in time by 3 Months. Drop-outs post offer acceptance is arguably the most hated Dejavu in Talent Acquisition today.

I guess candidates are accident prone towards date of joining a new firm and so are their relatives. Even in these advanced ages of communication- lo and behold, they suddenly disappear from face of earth and remain inaccessible.  We are not discussing a pattern seen among junior candidates with 0-12 Months work experience. We are also discussing here, Sickness Prone/Accident Prone professionals with 10+ years of rich Industry experience. There is also an interesting class of fickle minded professionals who decide last minute against taking up a new role, as their spouse/parents/kids/relatives or friends advised them not to- isn’t that cute.  These so called Professionals were, are and would continue to remain responsible for losses incurred by multiple organizations, due to time lost in restarting the Talent Acquisition process from scratch and thereby leaving the position vacant for an unplanned/longer duration.  This trend is rampant in the Indian Job Market now and we don’t seem to be rattled about it. Another dimension of tolerance, I guess.

Industry experts opine that the candidate dropout rates amplified before half a decade or so, when people were still looking at economic slowdown with shock and disbelief, much before we became insulated to it. This was driven by the belief/disbelief that firms often choose LIFO approach when they decide to axe manpower and issue pink slips- fondly called the Right Sizing to give a touch of optimism to the not so user friendly word- Downsizing. However today, there exists a major set of Unprofessional Professionals who picks and accepts an offer only with a hope of increasing/correcting the Salary elsewhere. This is a lesser vice compared to that of leaving the prospective employer hanging till planned date of joining and then giving them a tragic story of what conditions led to their inability to join on time.

I have been into Talent Acquisition alone for more than a decade and my ability to arrest Drop outs/ No Shows is the only area, which had not seen any incremental improvement. Organizations follow multiple approaches to ensure that the dropout rates are reduced which helps to an extent

• Common Practices: Playing Softball-  Firms/Consultants follow multiple steps, right from sourcing stage till the date of joining of candidates, to reduce dropouts and also to watch the tell-tale signs closely for dropout potential if any. While scouting for talent, expert consultant’s looks for creating interest and thereby create pull factors in candidates mind other than doing an In-Depth evaluation to understand the real reason behind planned change. For instance if a candidate is considering a new job, for the want of a better salary, its evident that he/she can be easily retained by current firm. Similarly, gauging candidate attitude, interest levels, response pattern/time etc also become critical to decide whether he/she is the one to be processed for the role. When a candidate gets selected/offered, understanding CTC Expectation mismatches if any, getting commitment on Date of Joining the new organization, obtaining a copy of resignation mail acceptance and being in touch through various modes of communication, meeting F2F etc will all help. We have in market candidates serving 30-90 days notice and multiple options come into play during this time period. Current firm may retain them by matching salary/giving promotion or both, other employment opportunities may knock the door or going by today’s trend, the guy next door will set up a startup firm powered by one killer app and funded by VCs- thereby elevating this good neighbor candidate with sparkling eyes to a co-founder, managing something.  While the candidates serve notice, few smart consultants approach them indirectly with other opportunities to gauge response. Its very important that TA Specialists/Consultants win the trust of candidates and ensure that they are empathetic to candidates cause, given the career shift he/she is making. Less than genuine interactions will only be counter-productive and candidates can see through it when some aggressive TA person is being very transactional with them

• Gamification- Age of Tech- Gamification by definition is the use of game mechanics and game design techniques in non-game contexts. The technique can encourage people to perform boring chores such as completing surveys, shopping, filling out tax forms or reading websites etc. Few organizations successfully blends this with Recruitment and simulate work to see how long the prospective candidates engage in the simulation. This also helps in evaluating outcome of participation to gain insights about candidate skills, abilities, inclination etc. If a candidate does not participate fully in the process, it is considered as a sign that he may drop out. Mid 2015, Uber US released a Mobile Game to recruit drivers simulating ‘a day in the life of Uber Driver’. Developed initially on actual San Francisco map, the game rewarded participants with game money simulating actual earnings for a safe and fast, Point A to Point B passenger transportation. Add to it the impressive banner “like driving? Get paid for it”, attracted loads of users and resulted in Recruitment of many drivers. Back home in India, Prithvi Shergill, CHRO, HCL Technologies was among Leaders who had spoken on effectiveness of Gamification. It is considered as a useful tool to keep candidates engaged in the time between accepting a job offer and joining. Mr. Shergill had mentioned in 2014 that through gamification “If you can work out the characteristics of the people who are most likely to make it to the start date and the reason others drop out, this is where you can make savings.” Feasibility of the approach based on role, numbers to be on-boarded, nature of job etc is a call to be taken by firms. There are however, reasons to believe that Gamification could be the next big thing in our hunt for the best Talent.

• Sue them- Rule of Law- What if every offer letter rolled out has a penalty clause in it? This should kick off in case candidate drops out without notice or by giving minimal notice, post offer acceptance. Does this sound absurd? I have come across a Manufacturing major successfully implementing this practice. There are law breakers in India from all walks of life. This could be anything from jumping signals, over-speeding, drunk & drive to tax evasions, hoarding, software piracy, corruption, thievery etc. If it was not due to the fear factor linked to Legal system and the resultant ridicule, all these vices would have been more rampant and may have become way of life of a group of people including many more from current bunch of rare legit beings. Will the earlier mentioned clause make candidates think twice before accepting offer? I guess yes, as someone genuinely interested in the role would only agree to take this risk. Will this reduce Offer Acceptances- may be, but that should be fine. There have been extensive debates on this topic, with HR practitioners debating possibility and impossibility of Legal actions against candidate in case of dropout post offer acceptance. Going by Legal terms an accepted unequivocal offer binds both parties and any of them can take action if deviations are made. I am not talking here a foolproof method, which will force a candidate to honor the commitment. The intent is to penalize the unprofessional candidates and hold them liable to pay 5-10% of ACTC offered towards damages incurred by firm, in case they make last minute changes. Unsure whether this will create an impact, however it’s definitely worth trying and trying hard. No harm in cracking a whip on few if the impact is positive and results are long term.

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Source : https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/arrest-candidate-dropouts-post-offer-acceptance-ganesh-s-padmanabhan

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We see a rise in entrepreneurship and organizations starting up with new ideas and dreams. They seek to challenge the traditional ways of doing business and establish a new order. We might not know each one of them as much as we know Uber, Ola, Amazon, Linkedin and so on. However, the fact remains that each one of them is ambitious and fighting the Goliaths in a sector of the economy.

While David wants to battle Goliath, he needs an army comprising top talent who are capable of working in an unstructured environment and love charting their own course. In the quest of such top-graders, David inherits people who are ambitious, hungry and driven towards creating a mark for themselves. One can debate if it is a great strategy to have too many of such dreamers and entrepreneurial minds at work. But it is beyond doubt that David has a task at hand to be able to keep its flock together.

One of the most common demands before David is to give handsome raises to his employees. Some of them ask for it too soon! David needs each one of them. He does not want to be seen as someone who couldn’t retain smart people. Neither does he want to be seen as unfair and arbitrary amongst his staff. He wants to maintain equity and fairness of pay and other rewards based on the internal parity and market standards. Thirdly, the young company is typically bootstrapped in many ways and does not have a big bag of money to splurge, though there are a few exceptions who are spoiled brats, thanks to some investors. Last but not the least, Goliath can lure this top-class talent and destabilise David’s plans. What does David do to keep his team members interested, productive and happy?

Let them know the priority and ask of the right thing to meet this priority!

Firstly, the leaders in the company have to be consistent in driving a set of behaviours. Everyone must understand what the top priority is and what the person can do towards fulfilling it. For example, everyone in Southwest Airlines understood that their company makes money if their plane was in the sky. And each person knew what he or she could do to ensure that the plane left the ground quickly. They knew what to do when there was a problem and they kept improving their work processes to ensure that the right behaviours could be lived every time. It is important that David’s troops know what the right behaviours are for them so that they win over the Goliath and it is upto David to ensure that the environment is right for his troop to demonstrate the right behaviours. This helps David’s men align their expectations and moderate their demands.

Communicate openly so that everyone knows what is happening!

Many a times, the leaders do not let bad news reach their troops. Some leaders believe that the troops should just stay focused on the big goal and need not get distracted by knowing of small wins here and there. These are extreme behaviours and might not work very well. The men in the trenches need to know that there is bright light at the end of the tunnel and minor skirmishes on the way are fine. It is important that the leader has frequent dialogue one on one as well as a group about the possibilities. It helps to articulate them well and create a visual roadmap of growth and development before them. It is not very easy for each leader to be able to visualise creatively and articulate them meaningfully. However, this helps! Coupled with this envisioning, one should be honest in delivering the bad news as and when they happen and simultaneously lift them up to dream about a bright future.

Set milestones!

This is about the nuts and bolts of execution. Creating the vision and motivating them to keep at the goal is not enough. David has to get into its mechanics and set milestones on the way so that the troops know that they will need to reach specific goals before they ask for a raise or a promotion. Many leaders do not find it easy to define these goals in advance, especially when it is about skills and knowledge. David has to learn these skills and deploy them at work.

David won over Goliath by leveraging on his strengths. In our lives, we play with a team and hence, David has to make sure that his men know the priorities and the desired behaviours. Further, he has to be honest with his troop in outlining the roadmap to success, critically review who lacks where and define the goals to gun for along the way. This sounds simple enough, but calls for practice and determination to topple the giant.

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Any change is challenging and calls for adaptation by all the stakeholders. This becomes grueling when there is a new boss far more frequently than you like. The boss is bestowed with an authority to appraise your performance and hence, the most important stakeholder for you as an individual as far as the rewards and day-to-day work life are concerned. Moreover, the change in boss is often in the context of things which are not very clear to you and hence, what frame of mind and agenda the new boss carries could be quite overbearing on your mind. Interestingly, these are all unknowns! What do you do?

Treat the boss as a new client with its own quirks and unique needs!

We do not choose our bosses like many other things in life. So, one should just do what is in one’s control. You were possibly hired by your old boss, had an excellent rapport with her, enjoyed common areas of interest and had many unwritten practices by which you lived your work life. But the new boss inherits you and has no previous understanding of your abilities. If at all she has any prior information about you, it’s just a bunch of data with some vague visualisation of who you are. It is very similar to starting to work with a new client.

One needs to invest energy to know the new boss, discover her likes and dislikes, unearth her disposition towards you, give her an idea of who you are, what your goals are and how you work. One needs to find out what she wants, how she has been experiencing your performance and any changes that are required along the way. This investment of time and energy is critical to establish a working relationship to begin with. You are lucky if you two hit off well and build a great personal rapport.

The first few months of working together are expected to create a rhythm. If it doesn’t take place, it’s time that one should look at handing over the client relationship to someone else and move on!

Stay balanced and Don’t judge!

Several times, we expect dramatic things to happen with a change. It is important to keep the mind blank and not expect anything in particular from the new boss. Expectations may remain unfulfilled and thus, disappoint you. Hence, it is important to give some time to the new boss to settle down in the role and build a working relationship with you.

We should not make the mistake of comparing the new boss with the old because every person is unique and bring his or her strength along. It is bound to have differences between the styles of two different leaders and the context in which both operate does not remain unchanged. Hence, it is important to keep calm and not judge the person.

Ask if all is well!

We must assume that the new boss is liking certain aspects of your work and disliking some of them. And she might not be seeing certain aspects of your work. So, it’s important that you have a periodic chat with the new boss to discuss these frankly. It is important to go beyond hearing the feedback, learn from her strengths, appreciate her brightness and act on the feedback. Try your best to course-correct and align. Else you must look for alternate paths for your next phase of the journey!

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Change is always around. Prepare well to deal with it!

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