Business- Not As Usual

Business houses have long followed the customer centric approach and flourished.

Though it is a key contributor to success, the human resource factor should not be overlooked. Concentrating on pleasing the customers, companies have somewhere down the line neglected the most important resource, employees. Despite companies adopting various measures to retain employees there is a lot of brain drain. This could be because companies use measures which have proved effective in the past, but times are fast changing. In this space age, employees reach the final need in Maslows Need Hierarchy Theory, the self actualization need, very early in their career. Management should now not just focus on competition and customers but also give employees their due by adopting an employee centric approach; after all they owe their success to them!

A lot has been said and written about the growing stress levels among employees, especially in the IT sector, and its some times fatal consequences, but are enough measures taken to reduce it? In this ruthless world of hire and fire policies, are companies able to look beyond competitors and market share? Do they really care what an employee really wants?

Studies have shown that by doing what a person likes his stress levels can be reduced, that’s the reason people are commonly encouraged to take up some form of art they have interest in, in order to de-stress themselves. Maybe management should not just concentrate on KRA’s( Key Result Areas) and KPI’s( Key Performance Indicators) and give a little attention to KIA’s( Key Interest Areas) also. Companies have come up with various ways to identify employee’s competencies and mapping them for efficient performance but what they fail to understand is having a certain competency does not guarantee an outstanding performance in it if the person has no special interest in.

A very important part of training is learning, which requires active participation from the trainee and no amount of training will improve his competency if he has no interest in working on it as interest has a very profound and direct impact on learning. Employees may have interest in some area which may not be their strongest, but isn’t that what growth is all about, facing new and difficult challenges? With the fancy salaries being paid to employees they soon reach a point where money and perks alone fail to impress them and they want to explore their potential and work on things that interest and challenge them. By helping an employee pursue his interest the company will help him grow. By working on something of his interest an employee is more motivated and less stressed, which in turn helps him perform much better.

Of course, adopting this measure does not mean companies should quit identifying and developing employees’ core competencies and focus only on their area of interest, this should be an additional measure so an employee feels the company cares not only for its growth but also the growth of its employees. Companies also benefit manifold from this. The funds companies would spend on developing employees KIA’s would be significantly lower than the amount they would spend on recruitment due to attrition and providing training for the new recruits. In addition they would have a more versatile, loyal and satisfied workforce.