Only ‘an employer of choice’ will attract the ‘right’ people

The world of business is becoming increasingly competitive and demands-focused and appropriate strategies and action for organisations to win the competition and reach the top are vital.

Staying at the peak once you reach there is even more challenging. Therefore, business organisations need to develop competitive advantages and distinct competencies to survive and thrive. For this, the people factor is of paramount importance as it it’s the people in an organisation who have to make this happen – they can either make or break an organisation.

There are three kinds of people in the world:

nPeople who make things happen

nPeople who watch things happen and

nPeople who wonder what happened!

In the backdrop of the business climate enumerated above, there is a clamour by organisations to attract, employ and retain the “people who make things happen”. In other words, those who are called “the right people”!

However, not many organisations succeed in employing the right people. They spend huge amounts of funds in various recruitment campaigns, head hunting exercise and selection activity including corporate image boosting promotions but end up not achieving their goals. Then begins the blame game.

The management team starts to blame each other and various external factors for the inability to attract the right talent. More often than not the immature and irrational corporate CEOs and boards place the blame squarely on the HR department ; little realising that the root cause lies elsewhere and is a much more broader issue that has to be tackled objectively.

The hard fact is that for an organisation to attract ‘the right people’ it has to be the ‘right organisation!’ The sad fact is not many of our organisations are in this category – enjoying the status of an ‘employer of choice’.

An ‘employer of choice’ is an organisation which is being pursued and hunted by both the best and the worst of talent in the country for employment and to be part of. Since the subject deals with the ‘right people,’ let us conclude that these are organisations which will attract the best talent in abundance. Therefore one cardinal aspect of the mission of organisations has to be becoming an employer of choice.

It is a misconception that only MNCs and foreign collaborated joint ventures or conglomerates only are, or can be employers of choice. Whilst it is obvious that stability, profitability, growth potential and diversity makes an organisation stand out from the rest, and makes a sensible case for people to aspire to be part of that entity, to become an employer of choice many other attributes have to be satisfied which are discussed below.

Fair-play and equal opportunities

Fairness in all dealings has to be a way of life. This has to start with fair trading practices. Although corporate predators are sometimes viewed with awe, fairness and ethical behaviour in the pursuit of one’s profits and growth has to reign supreme. It is a given that if an organisation is not fair in its dealings in the market place, it will certainly not treat its people fairly.

Moreover, in the treatment of people – be it compensation, career progression, grievance handling or engagement and disengagement – fairness and transparency has to be practiced. A special emphasis is needed on grievance handling, where people have to really be made to feel that their grievances have been heard and dealt with to arrive at win-win situations rather than win-lose.

Many organisations, especially in the manufacturing sector, engage in excessive work hours ‘over time’. Some organisations downright violate all norms of human behaviour by not compensating as per the statutory obligations for over-time work. This is engaging in slavery, which has to be stopped at all costs. There are other organisations which compensate as per or even above the norms and engage in over-time work.

But what has to be remembered is using financial ‘carrots’ in a high inflationary economy to lure people to work overtime is unethical; and also brings in negative output as after the ‘productive threshold’ diminishing returns set in – humans have a limit of endurance.

Equal opportunity is providing people in organisations to enjoy the same rights and opportunities to be employed, to be engaged and be part of, to grow and prosper and take leadership within the organisation irrespective of their nationality, race, caste or creed or school!

Many pay lip service to this and show that they are on the ‘equal opportunity bandwagon’. However, a closer analysis of personnel records and recruitment data will prove otherwise. Gone are the petty days of ‘sons of the soil’ and ‘old school tie’. It has been proven that it is not where one comes from that matters but what one is capable of.

Then the gender bias! The bias is especially towards women by men and not vice versa, especially in the sub continent. But women have proven time and again that femininity and matriarchal attributes are anything but a hindrance to effective and productive output. Some of the best corporate leaders and strong national leaders are and have been women.

Yet, it is sad to see the so called (unseen) ‘glass ceiling’ preventing women from reaching the top even in the West. It will be surprising to many to know that in this country there are some organisations which still prefer not to employ women executives and managers because of the ‘maternity leave issue’; shocking, but true. The practice of equal opportunity transcends all such barriers.

Affording opportunities for the ‘differently-abled’ (the word disable which is antisocial and inhuman is shunned today) to be employed and provide a service through their many abilities is another anchoring point in the quest to be an equal opportunity provider. ‘Enabling the differently-abled’ is the call and need of the hour.

Objective compensation and reward systems

‘If you pay peanuts, you get monkeys!’ So money matters. But money is not the only motivator. Therefore, employers of choice having recognised this truth implement compensation and reward systems which fulfil positively both the purse and the heart!

The base pay or salary has to be fixed taking into consideration not only the market rate but the output and impact of the person on the bottom-line. Care should be taken to focus on the so-called ‘direct revenue earners’ and pay them handsomely. A broader scrutiny will reveal that business support services are indispensible and they facilitate revenue and profit earning. ‘What is the worth and contribution of this person to the organisation’s bottom-line?’ is a good basis to start packaging the compensation.

In addition to base pay there are several other add-ons which can be introduced. Perks such as conveyance, social networking opportunities, sports and recreation facilities (the scope of entitlement differs with the level of mental and physical output at each strata in the organisational pyramid) apart, there are across the board applicable performance related incentives, commission schemes, overtime payments if applicable, onetime special incentives and bonus/profit sharing that can be introduced to enhance the total earning potential and capacity objectively without the organisation taking a hit.

On the contrary, it will benefit through increased output. ESOPs – or Employee Share Option Schemes – are also very effective. All or a combination of these options can be implemented to make the employee feel that his effort is being recognised.

Even if these ‘packages’ do not match or exceed certain highly inflated unrealistic salary structures in the market, there are no other cost motivators which would tip the scale in your favour. These are pure old-fashioned ‘a pat on the back’ or thank you,’ public praise, a written word of appreciation and other such recognitions, including affording opportunities to participate in the decision-making process.

Strategic Human Resource Development

Strategic Human Resource Development (SHRD) is the development of people to compliment and enable the achievement of corporate strategy. Therefore from the development of the manpower plan to the activity of performance evaluation the initiatives have to be based on the overall business plan. In fact the HR department must play a leading and pivotal facilitating role in the corporate planning process. Then only they would be able to craft suitable people practices and strategies.

Formal recruitment and selection practices have to be established. In recruiting, all relevant and potential talent pools such as professional and tertiary educational institutions, industry bodies and professional associations, even schools must be tapped to ensure that you have steady supply line or link to the kind of people you are looking for.

Therefore, establishing relationships and in certain instances strategic alliances and even investments in talent/knowledge bases pay off handsomely in the long-run. The selection processes have to be technically right and formal. There are many interviewing and selection techniques – which HR specialists would know – aimed at selecting the right person; from IQ to EQ and technical to soft skill based.

Engagement and retention of people is the key. Otherwise the recruitment and selection efforts would be in vain. An engaged employee will stay in the organisation and grow with it. Engagement is not purely motivation. It is the emotional attachment beyond the call of duty towards one’s job. As the techniques of engagement are beyond the scope of this paper, suffice to state that engagement leads to retention and return on investing in people.

Training and development calls for proper need analysis and execution. Rather than fat training budgets, objective need-assessed training and development wins the day. Training activity is generally focused on bettering current ‘on the job performance,’ whilst development-oriented training interventions prepare people for their next/higher assignment(s).

Career progression and succession planning is an essential requirement in best HR practices. Every employee should be shown a path of progression and there must be a succession plan to fill possible vacancy of each job at each level. A sound succession plan will ensure that organisations do not have ‘lags’ and ‘recruitment lead time’ to fill vacancies whilst career paths would give sense of direction and expectation to high performers – another key to retain the right people.

Performance Evaluation and Management is the next factor. PE&M essentially gives both the organisation and its people a clear feed back as to whether expected key result areas have been achieved by people or not. If not, why? In any effective PE&M system – and there are many established formal systems – the fundamental is to establish performance criteria and key performance indicators, agree on same and then measure; propose corrective action if necessary.

Corporate citizenship

Every organisation worth its mettle must be a good corporate citizen. This is simply being in harmony with the internal and external environment that you operate in. The ‘CSR’ and ‘Green’ jargon may be confusing and a project a false sense of the need to engage in high flown social work and engagements.

It’s all about sustainability and sustainable business practices. Just give back to humanity and the environment what you take and consume. It pays. There are many options and methods. Each organisation should choose a ‘way of life’ which suits them.

Open culture and shared dreams and values

The progressive and admired organisation has open channels and free flow of communication to and from all directions. As much as top down communication is expected to be heard and followed, bottom up and lateral communication also is allowed without restriction. Employees have a say and they are heard and respected for what they have to say and given due recognition.

All corporate activity must flow from a share vision and mission to specific action plans both current and for the future. Some CEOs keep the plans – if they have any – to themselves and expect others to mind read. A recipe for certain miscommunication and misunderstanding. Some CEOs depend on their ‘gut feeling’. But if it’s not put into paper and/or shared when the gut rots, the whole organisation collapses without a sense of direction and strategy. ‘If you don’t know where you are going any road will take you there!’

In conclusion, it has to be stated that those corporate leaders who want ‘right people’ to embrace their organisations should descend from ‘armchair critic’ status and become catalysts in making their organisation an ‘employer of choice’. Then the right people would come in hoards. Time tested and proven!

(The writer is a HRD professional and corporate trainer He is an executive committee member of the Association of HR Professionals and The Management Club. He leads ‘The Talent Gallery’ as Programme Director/Key Facilitator. He can be reached at [email protected].)