HRDictionary is pleased to announce its first guest post by RChilli , a resume management and automation firm specializing in giving resumes a social touch . Vinay Johar, CEO of Rchilli enjoys talking to people about their Recruitment Software challenges and proposing simpler ways of automating things around. Apart from work, he loves playing with his kids and relish traveling to new places. Click here to check complete company profile. You can also follow RChilli on twitter @RChilli
HR leadership did not begin with David Ulrich’s first book on HR; it began with people management in hunter-gatherer societies. The British Industrial revolution started the shift towards standardization and productivity, paving the way for the modern notion of HR leadership. Employers realized (or labor unions pressured them to realize) that their workforce would be more productive and perform better if employee satisfaction increased.
The British introduced the concept of tea time in the workplace; giving workers a chance to rest and have a tasty drink while increasing overall workplace productivity. The British HR tradition lives on as I sit in my office in India drinking tea be. Of course HR leadership is much more than giving complementary tea to employees. Good communication and listening skills, confidence, positive outlook, honesty, inspirational character, and being able to identify others strengths are just some the qualities that make a good leader according to Forbes. But what sets HR leaders apart from leadership in general? HR has changed even in the last twenty years with globalization and improved technology. HR leaders need to think globally in how they manage their global corporate cultures, such as making policy adjustments based on the culture of a specific office or country. With increased international relocation of employees, HR leaders must speak, act, and carry out goals in a way that is inclusive to workplace diversity. HR leadership should be customized to be responsive towards people at an individual level while taking their culture into consideration too. This means that HR leaders should strive to continuously increase their cultural awareness through education and observation.Technology has changed HR leadership by making it much easier for leaders to be in the know about what is going on across departments, and for HR leaders to share their information. Consumers have become more conscious about ethics in purchasing decisions, which means HR leaders are under more pressure to not only meet but exceed standards.
Simplification is the future of HR leadership because many of the tedious HR processes will be streamlined. It will become easier for HR leaders to find applicants who could someday become HR leaders because resume parsing and other related management services will become increasingly necessary simply because of the globalization of the workforce. Technology has made it easy for applicants to apply from anywhere in the world, and good HR leaders will need to be able to articulate what exactly makes a good leader so that they can find the best talent.
What are your views on the topic HR Leadership? Share with us in the comments …
Hello friends, Welcome to this 3 series short post on networking tips where I will be writing one tips each week. Hope you find it helpful.
Networking sounds exciting, meeting new people, building connections and finding new prospects for your professional development. Extroverts and Introverts at networking has always been a debate but there are some simple hacks of networking that work for both personality types.
Sending follow-up email after a networking event 
You walk out of a networking event with some (hopefully many) business cards, people you know and some you have met for the first time. Now what you do with these contacts makes first networking impact. You can either keep those business cards and use them to contact people when you need a favor or you can use them to make first move to building a meaning network. Do you send emails to people after first meeting with them at a networking event? If yes, great, you are already taking professional networking seriously. For rest of us, who still hesitate to email or call new prospects, I have some tips to share that I am learning on my journey to building professional network.
Why follow-up email is important? because it gives you a fair chance to standout. When we meet so many people at same time, it hard to remember them all but those who meet us again shortly become connections. Follow-up email is that chance to build connection and also its less intimidating than phone call. The process is overwhelming and takes time and effort too. I have learned a few simple steps here can make it easier and doable.
- Create a standard email template that you can use to send to people after a networking events. Some editions (as required) and your email is ready to go.
- What is the best time to send this email is tricky but doing is sooner so that person can recall your meeting easily is advisable. Try to send the email within a week meeting the person.
- Treat this email as a way of keeping in touch with your network, not for seeking any favor, at least not the very first time.
- If possible, you can ask for an opportunity to meet again. Personal networking is more effective.
So how do you follow-up after a networking event? Email, phone or anything that you want to share with us….
Why is Induction & On-boarding an important part of a new employee’s work life?
Because how an employee is made to feel during his initial days with an organization often influences his decision to stay or leave. In a case where employee already has another offer to consider, a positive experience during Induction & On-boarding becomes even more crucial. Who is actually responsible for an effective and engaging On-boarding process? Let’s see…
HR Department – The traditional presentation and video highlight ways of Induction should go now. HR should try more innovative technique to make new employees feel welcomed and learn about their new workplace. Group orientation, interactive games, mentoring, site visit and many more ways are being implemented to make the process more engaging. Complete paper work beforehand online, Set a schedule for new employees first week at work, give them chance to talk about themselves and their skills, share with them stories of career succession at your organization.
Management – Are you willing to spend that little extra to welcome your new hires? A welcome kit, team lunch, tech & soft-skill training(if required), a comfortable work station and updated system are few things that make a new employee feel valued. When you invest in your employees, you are actually investing in your future talent pool.
New employees – Yes, I am serious. How engaging will be an Induction and On-boarding process also depends on how much the new employees are willing to be involved and acknowledge HR/organization’s efforts. It is an opportunity to understand your new workplace, build relationship with new colleagues, learn about the process/policies at new employer. Employees at times, undermine the overall process by not actively participating in it .
I strongly believe that for any organizational process to be effective, an equal participation from both ends must be encouraged. It takes a lot more to make an Induction & On-boarding process engaging, we are going to discuss these aspects in details at #KeepThemEngaged twitter chat on 26 Jan, 2016 with Dr Deepak Malhotra (founder #KeepThemEngaged) and his team. Click the link here for details.
What are your views and experiences on the topic? Join us on 26 Jan, 2016 on Twitter at 10:00am EST & 8:30 pm IST using hashtag #KeepThemEngaged and tell us ..
Happy Holidays friends !
I am just back from a month’s vacation to India, still trying to beat jet lag and enjoying the festive season all around. its 3:00 am here and I am up , writing this post to share with you all some very recent developments in my personal and professional life. WOW, it feels great to be back to blogging. On personal front, this trip to my home, India, was most enjoyable and significant as it was my dear brother’s marriage. All the preparations and celebrations kept me away from blogging and social media. So in a way, I was on a short social media break. Just while I was browsing my updates from my favorite social pals, I came across this list of 101 inspiring women by Kunjal Kamdar (social media champ, as I call him), featuring me among some inspiring women leaders I am already a fan of. Needless to say, for me, this was a pleasant welcome to the work and social media life. Thanks to Kunjal. You can read the post and follow these amazing women influencers here.
What more? After completing some freelancing assignments successfully, I will soon be launching my new project. Can’t wait to share it with you all so stay tuned for my next post here.
Happy New Year in advance 🙂
“Employee ideas are key to building a culture of high performance.”
This quote by Alan G, Robinson, the well known author and educator of performance improvement ideas, is foundation of a great work culture. Organizations today appreciate involving employees in decision making process but how they do it matters.
As HR, how do you reach out to your employees for ideas or suggestion? Let me guess.. Suggestion box. Right? Yes, that’s how most of us do it. Contacting employees on email (the physical suggestion box had long been gone) asking their opinion and ideas on something. Calling in votes, debating/discussing the best ones and implementing those that get a go-ahead. More or less this is how the common traditional suggestion box process work – choose the best, leave the rest.
If you are an employer or HR, still struggling with this conventional approach, you should definitely experience the modern-day suggestion box like SnapSuggest. Its quick, ongoing and more effective. When I first learned about the app, I was impressed by its ease-to-use. The tool has some amazing features that make it more engaging.
What are some key features?
- It is mobile. Wherever you go, carry your suggestion box on your iphone or android device or operate on web.
- It is quick. You can ask for ideas, post suggestions, make comments in simple clicks. Navigating through the tool is very convenient.
- Familiar with Social apps? Great, SnapSuggest works similar way, so not much training required.You can read all ideas posted by others, reply and participate in conversations and also see which ideas are making headline by gaining more user votes. What more? If you like a suggestion or find some inappropriate, the app also gives a quick option to convey that.
- It is a real-time communication system. With SnapSuggest, there is no waiting to hear back from the users. Feedbacks are instant.
Why to consider SnapSuggest?
If your current suggestion box fail to contribute much to innovation, performance and productivity, probably your employees are not really participating in the process. So it time for you to move to a system that’s quick, engaging and user-friendly like SnapSuggest.
Interested in SnapSuggest?
Click the link and explore more about the app. Also, SnapSuggest is offering 14 day free trail to new users. So forget the wait and grab the opportunity to connect with your employees.
For a decision-making process to be effective, response time and information analysis are two essentials, SnapSuggest excels in both. With this app, you can give your employees a voice and help them to express themselves better.
Engaged employees make a great work culture.
No, I am not going to emphasize the fact(written & re-written widely) about how important feedbacks are, I would rather share a story.
Why you should not hesitate to ask for feedback?
What a feedback (positive obviously) can do for your brand?
Recently, I was looking for a hand crafted, customized gift for a friend’s wedding. I was exploring the online shopping world looking for dealers, leaving my contact information and requirement at many online stores. Most people were either asking for more time or more money and then I received an email from a lady who said she could deliver my requirement. Jhanvi (her name) emailed me some of her product sample and they were reasonably priced. I liked her work and immediately decided to place an order. She said she is transitioning to a personalized website with online shopping facility soon but for now, she was only managing a blog(really basic one) as product catalogue. For order, I had to sent the money to her bank account after which she would dispatch my product. Now this was an enough reason to be doubtful. While I was taking my time to decide and return her email, she sent me another email pointing to her blog’s client feedback page. Reviews were good, praising the quality and packaging of her products. What really impressed me was her efforts in collecting and putting the feedbacks on her blog. The contact information and active social media links of her clients were provided in case someone needs to validate. Probably, this was the only way for her to take orders for a home run, single owner business and she utilized it so well. She made her customers, her brand ambassadors by asking for their feedback and using it for her benefit.
I am still to receive my order and already willing to write an exclusive review for Jhanvi. Will share that part of the story too.
So here’s the lesson. Feedback is not a negative word. No matter if you are a big brand, a start-up or an individual, positive feedback from clients , employer or colleagues speak volume about your work. When used appropriately, feedbacks are priceless.
What do you think?
This is the question of the day
Should you accept to join on a lower salary while making a career transition?
Someone asked me this on Facebook in response to my last post on EOList about career transition. In fact, this is not about just one, but all of us. Many of us hesitate to pursue a field of interest fearing that it would mean compromising on compensation (even if momentarily). So what should one do in such a situation? Make the move or leave it ? Risk the current job to have a career of choice or continue for the sake of money?
To understand what could be the appropriate choice in such a situation, I asked some Industry experts (and my social media friends) to give their views on the topic. I would like to share their opinion and advice with you all to learn from their experience
Dr Deepak Malhotra, HR Leader & Author of Match The Age To Keep Them Engaged
Twitter @HeadHR_Deepak Blog drdeepakmalhotra.in
Depends on situation and family circumstances. Sometimes career is important that money. If you make the right move, you get back in the long run. Even I compromised twice and I am happy with where I am today.
Subir Chatterjee, Compensation & Benefit expert
Twitter @subirsay
If you are entering a new skill set and you can go for salary lower than current but market competitive for the new role. Employer must not take advantage of the situation. Salary must be a point of discussion always.
Shamik Vohra,CEO HR4India & Author
Twitter @shamikv
If short and long-term benefits of the new job outweighs loss in salary, then why not. Go for the new role if you see the benefits.
So are you ready for the big change?
Most of you must know that I am in a transition phase right now. From a functional HR role, I am hoping a switch into technical role. Yes, you are right, it’s not an easy job I understand but there are a few things that help me stay positive during this phase. I have shared these tips on EOlist You can read the post here.
For some, job change is an overwhelming process. Going through resume reviews, job applications, interviews and then anxious wait to hear back. Ask me what makes the process even more exhausting and I would say its career transition – moving from one job type to another.
Click to read more.
If you have more to add to these, share with me 🙂
Call me ignorant if you want but I admit being lazy for not having tried any personal branding apps already. While there’s such a wide range of free tools available and most people are utilizing them for long, it’s still not too late to try and see how it can benefit your online brand.
Kudos if you already have an impressive visual resume out there. For other who ignored the personal branding apps (like me) or who are social media shy or are a new entrepreneurs looking for more clients, here’s why you should try some personal branding tools
- These tools give you an interesting, visual and concise way to present yourself online.
- You can showcase your skills, experience and passion through these social tools.
- People believe on what and who they see and these tools really score in their ease of customization and presentation.
- Most of these can be easily linked to your personal blog, business website or social media profile.
- It’s easy to set and you can link all your social media profiles at one place.
- Some of these tools can pull information form social media profiles and show your updates to those who wish to connect with you.
Why I liked About.me?
While talking about personal branding, I am a LinkedIn fan and the ease of interaction, discussions and connections that it offers isn’t available with elsewhere. But while exploring beyond likedIn and blogging, I came across many impressive about.me profiles among my twitter pals. I was overlooking it for long but then decided to give it a try and guess what, it was way easier and interesting that I thought. Now I have all my social media profiles at one page and connecting with people is so convenient. Another awesome feature with about.me, I can link it to me blog and use it as online business card. . Have a look.
What tool are you using to manage your personal brand on social media? Share with us as I wish to explore more 🙂
Remember S Gupta, the young tech analyst, who allegedly committed suicide early this year and the female constable who consumed poison to end her life? Even if you do not know about these , you must have heard other similar cases where young, dreamer and once enthusiastic minds become so hopeless that they think of nothing more dependable than death.
And yes, you are right. While we are talking about them, let’s not forget that they were the competitive, educated brains that worked hard to have a career and finally ended it all so sudden, so untimely. They had family and friends who cared and yet they felt alone enough to decide to leave them all.. reason? Stress.
Workplace stress scores highest among other reasons that paralyze people today. So who can actually help? We all can..
As an employer, its our responsibility to provide employees with a safe and supportive work environment where they have flexibility to manage work-life balance. Pay fair and treat them with respect.
As HR, its our responsibility to frame policies that treat employees as human with sensitivity and responsibilities outside work. Give them an ear when they come to you with their problems, help them deal with the conflicts within team, coach them to work with the Manager/boss who might make them uneasy at work.
As team, its our responsibility to accommodate someone who is struggling at work, upgrading skills or is dealing with personal issues. Sometimes, its our behaviour that hurt people more than their shortcomings.
As family, its our responsibility to be reasonable with our demand and expectations. When someone is dealing with pressure at work/career, family and friends must function as a support system. Show acceptance, not rejection.
As individuals, its our responsibility to reach out for support whenever we need it. Work, home, relationships – what may be the situation ,there are always ways to approach those who can help. No job is the last, no relationship is the only one, no circumstances are everlasting. There’s always a better tomorrow.
While IASP recognizes 10 Sep, 2015 as World suicide prevention day, how are you planing to contribute to the cause?
