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What
gives HR managers sleepless nights? Expected to work as a negotiator,
an implementer of the company’s business objectives, play the
perfect balancing act between the employer and employees, there
are many new challenges facing the HR managers in the IT industry.
It is believed that all these factors lead to hidden yet dominant
fears, which can be traumatic and also affect their performance.
Though
the HR issues have more or less remained the same, the managers
are feeling the impact of challenges brought about by the revamping
phase in the IT industry. While earlier it was a matter of finding
the suitable candidate, now the performance factor has also come
into the picture. “In this scenario when there is a lot of
talk about retrenchment among employees, there is always a question
lurking in my mind as to what would be the best way to extract optimum
performance from them while getting rid of all their insecurities,”
says Dinesh K Joshi, Head-HR, Vedaris.
 Explaining
further, he says that during the boom increments and rewards were
seen as key motivating factors and the employees had enough drive
to put in their best. “But, with the industry going through
its worst phase, a cut in the company’s increment and reward
policy means a significant fall in the motivation levels. This in
turn makes the job of HR managers more difficult, who are forced
to devise new morale-building exercises. We are continuously striving
to formulate new policies to offer a feel-good factor when the future
seems bleak. An added responsibility of maintaining the overall
growth of the organisation driven by pure HR values also lies with
us.”
As
cost cutting is the reason behind most of the decisions taken by
the companies, the HR managers are also increasingly being scrutinised
on the different process related issues, for instance appraisals
and reward programs. According to Anurag Srivastava, director-people
department, of Bangalore-based Talisma, at times managing expectations
and justifying these processes can be a difficult task. The performance
of HR managers is continuously assessed, which was not so earlier.
Besides
this, another constant fear among HR professionals is career development
or career enhancement of employees, which means continuously working
towards creating new job opportunities and helping them grow within
the organisation. While earlier individuals had the option of asking
for increments, promotions or switching jobs for higher salaries
and work profiles, the recent slump has only made things difficult.
Joshi points out that HR managers have to constantly worry about
finding career enhancement areas and techniques to keep up the morale
of employees. “After spending 2-3 years in a company, an individual
feels that he has outgrown the scope of growth in the organisation
and wants more development areas, which in present times is very
difficult,” he says. And this is what raises the issue of motivation,
which according to Malati Hota, general manager-HR of Mumbai-based
Mastek, is a key concern area for their HR department. “Previously
motivation was associated with retention, in today’s times
it is understood in the true sense. The HR manager is under constant
pressure to keep up the spirit of employees and help them work normally
amidst so much uncertainty in the IT industry,” she says.
The
retrenchment dilemma is one issue which HR managers would like to
delete from their memory banks. As an industry expert says, the
act of converting a business objective into a reality has never
been so difficult. “It still gives me jitters when I recall
the tough decisions, which had to be implemented to layoff certain
employees of our company. Apart from morality issues, handling and
dealing with the complexities arising due to the kind of relationship
you share with an employee also gives sleepless nights,” says
Sanjay Agarwala, director of Eastern Software Systems (ESS). Remembering
one of the experiences, Agarwala adds, “Although I knew that
the spouse of an employee had been chucked out of his company just
a week before, the decision had to be taken for the good of the
company. But in all it was a very traumatic situation.”
He
reminds that for many organisations reducing employees was just
a matter of cold statistics, but for the HR managers it was a “life”
to deal with and that too compassionately. “The HR managers
in most cases were just instructed to layoff a particular number
of employees and had to work out the procedure themselves. It obviously
turned out to be quite difficult as there was constant pressure
that the act should be carried out without affecting the morale
of the rest of the employees,” says Bonnie Singh, executive
director-HR, Techspan.
While
HCL Infosystems did not have to go through the retrenchment phase,
there is yet another sensitive challenge, which according to ML
Taneja, VP-HRD, HCL Infosystems, is very difficult to deal with.
“HCL is not the only company facing this dilemma, but many
others conducting campus recruitments. With a freeze on the recruitment
budgets, we are faced with the problem of breaking the news regarding
lack of jobs to those whom we have already promised six months back.
And believe me it is a very difficult process, as the individual
has set his expectations on your company. Not only do we have to
face the music from the students, but the institution too, and this
ultimately results in a guilt trip for the HR managers.”
While
tackling various issues, an HR manager has to match up with the
expectations of all concerned — be it the boss, a subordinate
or even a colleague. Conflicts can arise due to any small factor,
whether it be welfare steps taken for an employee or going ahead
with certain decisions, which may not be appreciated by many. As
Singh of Techspan, says, “Before the slowdown, the expectations
were fulfilled as per the whims and fancies of the employees, due
to high demand of professionals. There were also a lot of complications
arising due to frictions between the HR managers and line managers
on the induction or incremental issues relating to a particular
employee. Designing a compensation package was not easy, but with
the change in the scenario many companies have resorted to cost-cutting
measures (be it in terms of welfare policies, salaries or any other
employee benefit related scheme), which means that the companies
have to take back what they had given.”
Taneja
also feels that reduction in salary packages is creating an altogether
different problem as fresh recruits believe that companies are trying
to take advantage of the present situation and offering them low
salaries. Consequently, besides taking care of the conflicts arising
with the line managers and other employees, the HR managers today
have to do a lot of fire-fighting in keeping the organisation’s
image clean. According to Hota of Mastek, unless and until the expectations
are handled properly by an HR manager, it can create a lot of bad
blood within the organisation.
While
each company has faced these situations from time to time, the HR
managers believe that in all, it results in a better performance
and bringing out the best from the present lot. According to an
industry expert, the IT slowdown has in one way helped the industry,
as it has brought forth a lot many issues which the HR managers
were never aware of and helped them find solutions to deal with
the worst of situations. And with such a spirit intact, most of
the HR managers are busy devising strategies and systems to fight
back their fears and continue with their original goal.
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