MAJOR HR CHALLENGES IN THE IT INDUSTRY...

We are at the dawn of the next millennium. The challenges that we will face in the next millennium can only be anticipated. But the direction that we will tread is quite clear now.
This century has belonged to the manufacturing sector. Starting from the days of Fords assembly line to the present emphasis on quality systems. The next millennium will belong to the convergence of Information Technology. How organisations are able to leverage IT to get advantage in a highly competitive market will be the key to success.Leading the way would be the organisations who are in the IT industry.These are the ones which have shown that the quickest way to business excellence would be through optimum utilisation of IT.

The IT boom has brought with it, its own set of challenges to organisations. How to put in place systems and process that are in tune with the IT revolution, how to strategise and compete in the IT era? etc.But a major challenge that the IT industry per se has been facing is in the field of Human Resource Management.

The IT industry is a service industry. How well are you able to offer quality service to individuals and organisations will determine the success of your organisation. This leads us to the fact that the creativity,innovativeness,knowledge and skill of your employees are your important assets.How you are able to manage these assets is the challenge that the IT industry is facing. It is not capital or finance or marketing management that gives the competitive edge but rather how well you are able to manage your human resources whose intellectual applications drive your business.

Some of the HR challenges that the IT industry faces are in Recruitment, Performance Management, Training & Development, Compensation Management and HRM as whole.
Recruitment has become an important sub system in HR especially in the IT industry. When your major asset are your Human Resources, it is important that quality people join your organisation. How you are able to fine tune your recruitment process in a manner that you are able to get the best talent available and how well you have been able to put systems in place so that the people that you recruit are a perfect fit for the job and the organisation is one of the major challenges.

The challenge does not stop with recruiting the right person but with how you are going to manage the performance of your employees. The challenge would be to create a performance culture wherein opportunities are provided for enhanced performance and where giving out optimum performance becomes a way of life.

Training & and Development is another area where challenges arise. In the IT industry training takes a new connotion. It will not be just identifying training needs and giving the required training. It is foreseeing and anticipating the requirements and develop suitable training so that the employees are well equipped to handle the challenges forehand.

The IT industry is one of the high paying industries. Since it is also very competitive, vying with each other to attract the best talent, offering the best possible compensation package to their employees is in itself a challenge.

But the real challenge would be how we are able to incorporate all the sub systems in HR and help them in achieving the ultimate goal – exceptional performance. In a high performance driven industry like IT, this becomes all the more important. People have to be groomed to get in tune with the performance culture. Creating an environment that stimulates the creation of knowledge, its sustenance and its decipation throughout the organisation will be the challenge for organisations in the future. How to go about doing this will fall on the HR department. No longer will the HR department carry on with its traditional functions. That will take care by Human Resource Information Systems that will be put in place. The function would be to build and sustain a performance driven culture. The role will shift to that of a facilitator. Facilitate the process of change, for change would be the only thing that will be constant in the future. HR will have to involve the whole organisation in this process and act as a guide, counselor and facilitator.In the future the competitive edge that the organisations will get will only be through their human resouces.How organisations are able to manage them ,will determine whether they will run the race or be left behind.

HOW THESE CHALLENGES HAVE AFFECTED US :

Any organisation in the IT industry will have to face these challenges. But Pentafour is not any organisation. We are leaders in the industry. And the reason we are leaders is of the fact that we have been able to meet these challenges quite effectively.

As far as recruitment is concerned we have been able to address the issue effectively.We have an excellent databank where updation takes place on a daily basis.This serves as the major chunk that addresses our recruitment needs.Further we also use the services of placement agencies.The real catch lies in our selection process.All the probable candidates have to go through a battery of tests that not only test their technical skills but their all round personality to find out if they will fit into the job as well as into our organisations culture.The rigorous selection process ensures that we get people who will fit into a culture that is our own.But this challenge of recruiting the right person is a continuos one and one that needs continuos refinement.

Performance management is a practice that few organisations follow. We happen to be one of them. We have put in place a system that evaluates the organisation as a whole, the systems and processes that are followed in our organisation and the performers. This is done on a continuos basis and the feedback is passed on to the concerned people to take corrective measures. Thus we have been able to tackle the question of performance in a fairly efficient manner and the quality of our services serve as a testimony for this.

In the software industry where skill reduncy is very fast there is this need for giving technical training to the employees on a continuos basis.We are one of the very few who provide our employees with the opportunity to get trained on various platforms.This apart from keeping our employees highly skilled, also gives them a sense of security.Apart from this, training is also given in personality development,team working related areas etc to enhance the quality of life of our employees.

As discussed earlier the most important of all challenges is in culture building.Now all our efforts are diverted in bringing about a performance driven culture.The very tight schedule ensures that our employees have to perform to the optimum.Apart from this the various systems that we have put in place like the performance management system helps us to work towards achieving a performance driven culture.We are constantly refining our practices in order create an atmosphere where our employees are able to perform to their full potential.

MAJOR ISSUES FACED IN RECRUITMENT,ATTRITION AND RETENTION :
RECRUITMENT :

The major issue would be of getting the right type of person.The issue would be that we first have to find a person with the required skills and experience,and also he must be suitable for our organisation.Finding such a suitable person is the obstacle that we will have to cross over.

ATTRITION AND RETENTION :

Software is one of the industry with the highest attrition rate.The challenge facing software companies is how to keep this as low as possible.Various companies adopt different techniques to retain their employees.Most of them offer exhorbitent pay packets.But in Pentafour the attrition rate is low compared to industry standards.Though our compensation has been on par with what the industry is offering,that’s not the reason why our rate is low.It has to do with the opportunities that are offered to our employees and organisational climate prevailing here.Our employees are given the opportunity to learn and grow in the company itself.They are given a lot of technical training and exposure to various types of project.The challenging work makes it difficult to leave our organisation

- R. Nelson

Team Building and Employee Motivation

Effecetive team buliding & Employee Motivation fit together. Successful organizations are not involved in team building as an end unto itself but because with effective team building employee motivation increases & organizational results are achieved. Effective team building starts with efforts that are aligned with the organizational strategic plan, employee motivation increases when employees are working on the real issues of the organization. Six Sigma plus projects have team buliding components & employee motivation elements aimed at improving well-defined issues.

Enjoyment in work increases team building effectiveness. Team building is a tool for improving employee motivation. All teams fo through very predictable phases. Knowing & understanding these phases gives leadership the confidence to continue in team building even when the employees motivation appears to be on decline. When leaders as well as the employees understand this as a normal phase they possess the confidence to continue the team buliding activities for the world-class performance.

Assessments aimed at undersatnding yourself & others can speed up team buliding process. Undersatnding is the first step in developing employee motivation. The clear understanding of other employees' motivation gives every individual an opportunity to add to the synergy of the team.

Empowerment of employees can go a long way in developing employee motivation. The level of employee empowernment should be to the extent that an organization can afford and cultivate so that the level of employee motivation increases with out leadership making efforts to increase the level of employee empowernment first.

In order to increase employee empwernment an employee motivational program for leadership, executives & supervisory staff is necessary. Only when the leaders, managers & supervisors have a common understanding for employee motovation it is likely that the level of employee motivation increases. Thus empowernment is key to employee motivation which can increses sense of belongingness among the team members to strive for higher productivity.

Clearing Up Common Myths About Employee Motivation

The topic of motivating employees is extremely important to managers and supervisors. Despite the important of the topic, several myths persist -- especially among new managers and supervisors. Before looking at what management can do to support the motivation of employees, it's important first to clear up these common myths.

1. Myth #1 -- "I can motivate people"Not really -- They have to motivate themselves. You can't motivate people anymore than you can empower them. Employees have to motivate and empower themselves. However, you can set up an environment where they best motivate and empower themselves. The key is knowing how to set up the environment for each of your employees.

2. Myth #2 -- "Money is a good motivator" -- Not really. Certain things like money, a nice office and job security can help people from becoming less motivated, but they usually don't help people to become more motivated. A key goal is to understand the motivations of each of your employees.

3. Myth #3 -- "Fear is a damn good motivator" -- Fear is a great motivator for a very short time. That's why a lot of yelling from the boss won't seem to "light a spark under employees" for a very long time.

4. Myth #4 -- "I know what motivates me, so I know what motivates my employees" -- Not really. Different people are motivated by different things. I may be greatly motivated by earning time away from my job to spend more time my family. You might be motivated much more by recognition of a job well done. People are not motivated by the same things. Again, a key goal is to understand what motivates each of your employees.

5. Myth #5 -- "Increased job satisfaction means increased job performance" --Research shows this isn't necessarily true at all. Increased job satisfaction does not necessarily mean increased job performance. If the goals of the organization are not aligned with the goals of employees, then employees aren't effectively working toward the mission of the organization.

6. Myth #6 -- "I can't comprehend employee motivation - it's a science" -- Nah. Not true. There are some very basic steps you can take that will go a long way toward supporting your employees to motivate themselves toward increased performance in their jobs.

Basic Principles to Remember

1. Motivating employees starts with motivating yourselfIt's amazing how, if you hate your job, it seems like everyone else does, too. If you are very stressed out, it seems like everyone else is, too. Enthusiasm is contagious. If you're enthusiastic about your job, it's much easier for others to be, too. Also, if you're doing a good job of taking care of yourself and your own job, you'll have much clearer perspective on how others are doing in theirs.

A great place to start learning about motivation is to start understanding your own motivations. The key to helping to motivate your employees is to understand what motivates them. So what motivates you? Consider, for example, time with family, recognition, a job well done, service, learning, etc. How is your job configured to support your own motivations? What can you do to better motivate yourself?

2. Always work to align goals of the organization with goals of employeesAs mentioned above, employees can be all fired up about their work and be working very hard. However, if the results of their work don't contribute to the goals of the organization, then the organization is not any better off than if the employees were sitting on their hands -- maybe worse off! Therefore, it's critical that managers and supervisors know what they want from their employees. These preferences should be worded in terms of goals for the organization. Identifying the goals for the organization is usually done during strategic planning. Whatever steps you take to support the motivation of your employees (various steps are suggested below), ensure that employees have strong input to identifying their goals and that these goals are aligned with goals of the organization. (Goals should be worded to be "SMARTER".)

3. Key to supporting the motivation of your employees is understanding what motivates each of themEach person is motivated by different things. Whatever steps you take to support the motivation of your employees, they should first include finding out what it is that really motivates each of your employees. You can find this out by asking them, listening to them and observing them.

4. Recognize that supporting employee motivation is a process, not a taskOrganizations change all the time, as do people. Indeed, it is an ongoing process to sustain an environment where each employee can strongly motivate themselves. If you look at sustaining employee motivation as an ongoing process, then you'll be much more fulfilled and motivated yourself.

5. Support employee motivation by using organizational systems (for example, policies and procedures) -- don't just count on good intentionsDon't just count on cultivating strong interpersonal relationships with employees to help motivate them. The nature of these relationships can change greatly, for example, during times of stress. Instead, use reliable and comprehensive systems in the workplace to help motivate employees. For example, establish compensation systems, employee performance systems, organizational policies and procedures, etc., to support employee motivation. Also, establishing various systems and structures helps ensure clear understanding and equitable treatment of employees.

Steps You Can Take

The following specific steps can help you go a long way toward supporting your employees to motivate themselves in your organization.

1. Do more than read this article -- apply what you're reading hereThis maxim is true when reading any management publication.

2. Briefly write down the motivational factors that sustain you and what you can do to sustain themThis little bit of "motivation planning" can give you strong perspective on how to think about supporting the motivations of your employees.

3. Make of list of three to five things that motivate each of your employeesRead the article . Fill out the list yourself for each of your employees and then have each of your employees fill out the list for themselves. Compare your answers to theirs. Recognize the differences between your impression of what you think is important to them and what they think is important to them. Then meet with each of your employees to discuss what they think are the most important motivational factors to them. Lastly, take some time alone to write down how you will modify your approaches with each employee to ensure their motivational factors are being met. (NOTE: This may seem like a "soft, touchy-feely exercise" to you. If it does, then talk to a peer or your boss about it. Much of what's important in management is based very much on "soft, touchy-feely exercises". Learn to become more comfortable with them. The place to start is to recognize their importance.)

4. Work with each employee to ensure their motivational factors are taken into consideration in your reward systemsFor example, their jobs might be redesigned to be more fulfilling. You might find more means to provide recognition, if that is important to them. You might develop a personnel policy that rewards employees with more family time, etc.

5. Have one-on-one meetings with each employee Employees are motivated more by your care and concern for them than by your attention to them. Get to know your employees, their families, their favorite foods, names of their children, etc. This can sound manipulative -- and it will be if not done sincerely. However, even if you sincerely want to get to know each of your employees, it may not happen unless you intentionally set aside time to be with each of them.

6. Cultivate strong skills in delegationDelegation includes conveying responsibility and authority to your employees so they can carry out certain tasks. However, you leave it up to your employees to decide how they will carry out the tasks. Skills in delegation can free up a great deal of time for managers and supervisors. It also allows employees to take a stronger role in their jobs, which usually means more fulfillment and motivation in their jobs, as well.

7. Reward it when you see itA critical lesson for new managers and supervisors is to learn to focus on employee behaviors, not on employee personalities. Performance in the workplace should be based on behaviors toward goals, not on popularity of employees. You can get in a great deal of trouble (legally, morally and interpersonally) for focusing only on how you feel about your employees rather than on what you're seeing with your eyeballs.

8. Reward it soon after you see itThis helps to reinforce the notion that you highly prefer the behaviors that you're currently seeing from your employees. Often, the shorter the time between an employee's action and your reward for the action, the clearer it is to the employee that you highly prefer that action. 9. Implement at least the basic principles of performance managementGood performance management includes identifying goals, measures to indicate if the goals are being met or not, ongoing attention and feedback about measures toward the goals, and corrective actions to redirect activities back toward achieving the goals when necessary. Performance management can focus on organizations, groups, processes in the organization and employees.

10. Establish goals that are SMARTERSMARTER goals are: specific, measurable, acceptable, realistic, timely, extending of capabilities, and rewarding to those involved.

11. Clearly convey how employee results contribute to organizational resultsEmployees often feel strong fulfillment from realizing that they're actually making a difference. This realization often requires clear communication about organizational goals, employee progress toward those goals and celebration when the goals are met.

12. Celebrate achievementsThis critical step is often forgotten. New managers and supervisors are often focused on a getting "a lot done". This usually means identifying and solving problems. Experienced managers come to understand that acknowledging and celebrating a solution to a problem can be every bit as important as the solution itself. Without ongoing acknowledgement of success, employees become frustrated, skeptical and even cynical about efforts in the organization.

13. Let employees hear from their customers (internal or external)Let employees hear customers proclaim the benefits of the efforts of the employee . For example, if the employee is working to keep internal computer systems running for other employees (internal customers) in the organization, then have other employees express their gratitude to the employee. If an employee is providing a product or service to external customers, then bring in a customer to express their appreciation to the employee.

14. Admit to yourself (and to an appropriate someone else) if you don't like an employee -- Managers and supervisors are people. It's not unusual to just not like someone who works for you. That someone could, for example, look like an uncle you don't like. In this case, admit to yourself that you don't like the employee. Then talk to someone else who is appropriate to hear about your distaste for the employee, for example, a peer, your boss, your spouse, etc. Indicate to the appropriate person that you want to explore what it is that you don't like about the employee and would like to come to a clearer perception of how you can accomplish a positive working relationship with the employee. It often helps a great deal just to talk out loud about how you feel and get someone else's opinion about the situation. As noted above, if you continue to focus on what you see about employee performance, you'll go a long way toward ensuring that your treatment of employees remains fair and equitable.



-- Carter McNamara, MBA, PhD, Authenticity Consulting, LLC.
Adapted from the Field Guide to Leadership and Supervision.

Why HR outsourcing has few takers

A much-debated subject in the last couple of years, HR outsourcing in India has not seen the required momentum and action, vis à vis the global scenario. It is limited to a trickle effect, with companies outsourcing a few selected low-end HR processes. A recent survey conducted by Hewitt Associates on “Outsourcing in the Asia-Pacific” confirms this situation. The survey showed that many companies in the region are either unfamiliar with the processes and procedures of HR outsourcing, or are unaware of the players operating in this area. However, with the economic slump showing signs of improvement, many HR outsourcing vendors are optimistic that things will look up in the next couple of months.

What is HR outsourcing?

Any activity in which a company lacks internal expertise and confidentiality and requires an unbiased opinion on human resources, can be outsourced. An important reason why various businesses turn to outsource HR services is that they do not have the time or expertise to deal with the situation. Deepak Puggal, a consultant with Hewitt Associates, says that HR outsourcing can be segregated into two broad categories: Transaction and administration outsourcing and HR consultancy. Transactional outsourcing is more of day-to-day or month-to-month requirements, and constitutes services like payroll and benefits. This kind of service is more prevalent in the Indian market. In the value chain, it falls at the lower-end compared to HR consultancy, although it happens to be an essential function. It is a fact that companies continue to manage the strategic and policy functions of their HR departments in-house. HR outsourcing can happen in various areas such as payroll, employee benefits administration, fixed assets administration, network management, receivables management, logistics management, hardware maintenance, telemarketing, call centres and database management. In India, the most common processes outsourced are related to training, payroll processing, surveys, benchmark studies, and statutory ompliance. Ajay Oberoi, vice president and head of human resources and administration at Aptech, however feels that there is ample scope available in HR outsourcing, which companies can explore. Agrees Vikram Bhardwaj, a consultant with Stanton Chase: “There are 18 processes in HR that can be outsourced. Worldwide, only Exult has the know-how and ability to outsource more than five processes. I believe that Indian vendors still do not have the background and expertise in outsourcing services in the HR vertical, probably with the exceptions of India Life Hewitt and Crossdomain Solutions.”

Present scenario

The general opinion among Indian companies is that it is economical to manage all their HR processes internally. Consequently, there is not much emphasis on outsourcing. Typically, very small companies (which do not have the competency to staff a full-fledged HR department) and very large companies (who wish to outsource all routine HR processes so that they can concentrate on core issues), are the ones that use HR outsourcing in a significant way. Besides, many multinational companies are fast adopting these practices.

Sateesh R Kurugod, head of marketing and alliances, Crossdomain Solutions says that now CXO’s realise that HR teams typically spends over 80 percent of its time in managing tactical and transaction oriented HR operations. “If these tactical processes are outsourced, the company could re-deploy their trained HR resources to core processes,” he adds. Pramode Sadarjoshi, the director and head of Human Resources of Cognizant Technologies says, “Today, every organisation is aiming at achieving productivity by enhancing return on investments and achieving the economies of scale. In this context, it makes business sense to focus only on the organisation’s core competencies and outsource non-critical business activities. Therefore, routine administrative tasks, although important, can be outsourced to third party vendors.”

Growing importance

Things are however expected to change with many mid-sized companies looking at HR outsourcing. Research proves that the market for HR outsourcing in the APAC region could grow from $1.14 billion in 1999 to $2.56 billion in 2004. Although it is not a very huge growth, it has still shown an upward trend.

Some of the key companies which have gone ahead for manpower hiring outsourcing practices are Cisco, GE, Honeywell, Sun, i2, LG Soft India, Escosoft and Legato Systems. While LG Soft India has outsourced its PF management, Escosoft has outsourced payroll processing, execution of training programmes and survey conduction. According to Shubho Kundu-senior general manager HR of LG Soft India, the company has been able to save a lot in terms of reducing paperwork and interaction with government agencies. Besides, there are other companies like Xansa India, which is planning to take a plunge in HR outsourcing business and offer services to its parent organisation. Binnoo Wadhwa, the head of HR for Xansa India, says that the move showcases the robustness of the HR department to handle such critical applications.

There are many others who do not believe that HR outsourcing is necessary. Take the case of Aptech, which has not considered HR outsourcing as the company feels that HRD is strategically linked to its business. “In my view any job or function, which is of strategic importance to the organisation should not be left for outsiders or the so-called outsourcing partners,” he says.

The deterrents

The basic reasons hampering the growth of HR outsourcing in India are confidentiality and cost factors. Many companies outsource only a bit of their requirements because of the above two factors. Besides, the fear of losing jobs, losing control over confidential data, ethics and quality of outsourcing vendors, security breaches and overall confidence in the vendor deters many organisations. Says V. Kartikeyan, the director-human resources of Texas Instruments India, “Some companies can also be reluctant because they may not have an adequate grip over the cost-benefit equation of outsourcing. Companies need to be convinced before they can outsource select HR activities.”

Adding to this are issues like cultural mindset and psychological acceptance. An in-house HR person handles certain situations that an outsourcing agency cannot handle well (things like building employee incentive programmes, taking care of recognition for employees). At times, many employees would want someone in-house to resolve their work-related problems or disputes. All this is only possible if there is an in-house HR team, which interacts with the employees on a daily basis. Vinod Malhotra, head of human resource, Escosoft Technologies, points out that most Indian companies have not psychologically reached the stage of “fully” outsourcing the HR processes. “I think the industry is focused on outsourcing back office processing (BOP) and not business processes (BPO),” he adds.

Quality at times forms another roadblock. According to Sadarjoshi, most companies are not sure about the end result, which they will receive from their vendors. Then there are also issues in terms of pricing of outsourcing HR services. Says PK Gupta, director of strategic development-intercontinental operations, Legato Systems, “There are no standard benchmarks available so pricing varies a lot from vendor to vendor for similar services. Doing reference check helps a lot in this case. What customers feel is that they are not getting value for their money.”

Experts believe that in present times HR outsourcing is undergoing a transition phase. It is moving out from the realm of bigger companies to small and mid-sized organisations. There has also been a transition in its user acceptance, where it is moving from a corporate domain to PSUs and the Government sector. All this reflects on the growth of this sector. However, it would still be some time before we see increased levels of HR activities being outsourced.

Source: www.itpeopleindia.com

Challenges for HR..

CEOs in India report HR challenges that may sound familiar to U.S. HR executives:

1. Creating a high-performance culture.
2. Retaining talent.
3. Recruiting.
4. Moving from patriarchic, hierarchical management to a more team-based, informal organizational culture.
5. Linking training with performance.
6. Compensating knowledge workers.
7. Building interpersonal relationships/managing conflict.
8. Going global.

Source: CEO survey 2006, by Aneeta Madhok, dean, faculty of management studies, and professor, organizational behavior and HR, at the Narsee Monjee Institute of Management and Higher Studies.

Most common theme of HR strategy

Human capital is increasingly being seen as an issue of strategic significance in the industry today. It is this aspect of competition that provides most decisive elements of business advantage for a company by way of market responsiveness, process and technology innovation or enhancing customer experience.
A company can maximize the benefits from its human assets, when it is able to align and achieve congruence between individual and organizational goals. The challenge for HR experts in the organization lies in bringing about high degree of alignment so that the contribution of people in each and every activity along the value chain becomes a key differentiator in the industry.
High levels of performance and competence of people definitely provide a company edge over its competitors, but the second part of challenge for a HR professional lies in making this advantage sustainable over a period of time. This in effect means that people contribute effectively to fulfill the organizational goals – both now and in future.
Putting the two challenges together takes us to the core of most generic HR strategy pursued across the industries. The HR professionals responsible for crafting HR strategy should focus on gaining highest levels of commitment from the people towards organizational goals and at the same time building loyalty among the people for the organization. This then is most common and yet the most challenging theme of HR strategy today.

Critical HR factors

Identifying critical factors, competencies and issues which are essential for building a culture of high performance and ensuring excellent long term relationships with employees is crucial for articulating and pursuing effective HR strategy.
Some factors such as empowerment, involvement, respect, trust etc. are basic and generally accepted drivers of excellent long term relationship and commitment with people in an organization. Such factors also emerge from the core values of the organization and may also have basis in ethical values. Complying behaviours with respect to these aspects is considered very important by the organization. A point to remember in this context is that extrinsic benefits like perks and salary by themselves are not major determinants of long term relationship with employees but when designed properly may drive the commitment of people to the organizational goals. Other factors which the HR strategy may target are those issues which are industry specific and play a major role in developing a committed work force. A manufacturing company where hazardous chemical or metallurgical processes are involved, may have safety as key HR aspect for employee commitment and loyalty. A company which is considered pioneer in creating new markets and products may have appropriate measures to encourage creativity and innovation as a major HR challenge. HR strategy of a service organization may typically focus on developing customer orientation at every level in the organization to drive the overall strategic goals of the company. Similarly an organization competing in knowledge based industry (software, consulting etc.) having presence globally may emphasize knowledge sharing as an underlying HR issue for achieving the business goals.

Framework for identifying key HR issues

A framework initially developed by Alan W. Speaker helps in identifying those overarching HR issues which drive the generic HR strategy of commitment and loyalty. The 2X2 framework bisects the two aspects of HR strategy (impact on organizational goals and employee relations) on two axes as shown below.

Issues which typically appear in top right quadrant have high impact on both achievement of organizational goals and long term relations with employees. Similarly issues appearing in the top left quadrant have high impact on the organizational goals but do not necessarily drive employee loyalty. Issues appearing in the bottom right quadrant typically contribute to excellent long term relations with people and those appearing in the bottom left quadrant are typically transactional in nature, which are taken as givens in an industry. For example payrolls in any industry is treated as given, higher salaries in IT industry and occupational health care in manufacturing industry are taken for granted. These issues are generally taken care of by administrative policies in the company.

The creativity of HR professional lies in identifying the issues that fall in the top right quadrant for an organization and target them to align individual goals and incentives with organizational goals and on the way build long term relations with the people to such an extent that the differentiation brought about by human capital is transformed into a sustainable competitive advantage.

EMPLOYEE EMPOWERMENT....

An organization is nothing without productive employees. Employee engagement is the most important tool to enhance employee productivity. The primary Role of management in an organization is to motivate their employees, support them and also encourge them. Their role is not only to motivate them but also to attract them, nurture them, maintain them, and also to retain them.

Empowerment is based on the belief that employees have the ability to take greater responsibility than what is traditionally expected of them. As a result it will lead to more productivity and also better quality of work life. Based on culture and work design, empowerment means different things in different organizations. However, empowerment is basically based on the 'JOB ENRICHMENT' & 'JOB ENLARGEMENT'.

'JOB ENRICHMENT' means motivating employees by giving them increased job responsibility and also variety in their jobs. 'JOB ENRICHMENT' finds positive ways to improve employee motivation and thus gives them personal satisfaction.

'JOB ENLARGEMENT' means increasing the scope of a job through extending the range of its duties and responsibilities.

One of the most important concepts in empowerment is to delegate the responsibility to the lowest level of the organizations. Management must value employee suggetions and input and make decisions and then change accordingly.

Thus to conclude this, we want to tell that employees are an important assets in an organization.

They have a sense of responsibility and knowledge that they are very important to the organization as well as being responsible for decisions that affect themselves and other employees. They have a sense of ownership, which is how empowered employees should feel.