It is lack of Opportunities or we have wrong receptive

Today, many people plan their careers using trial and error methods that
lack proper focus and tangible goals. This situation often leads to a loss
in terms of opportunity, that would be vital for ones career.

It is imperative that we need to plan our career more effectively. Most of
the time, career decisions are taken, based on the following parameters:

Financial Reasons:

Choosing a job based upon lucrative monetary benefits. This could be because
of financial situation at home or because of the myth that once you have
money other things can be bought or higher salary is an index for higher
social prestige.

Locational Reasons:

Taking up a job to be at a particular place for emotional reasons, could be
because the person does not want to stay away from his family, friends and
relatives.

Security Reasons:

Taking up a job for security reasons to avoid risks.

Going Abroad:

Certain jobs and courses facilitate easy trips abroad and rake in a lot of
money. This we call it the IT-phenomena

Qualification Trap:

People are also of the belief that the work you do should be based on the
degree you have earned. So, if a person is creative and good in designing
clothes she would still be teaching in a college or school rather than
taking up her hobby as her profession purely because she had earned a degree
in teaching.


For all these and several other ones we find many people pursuing their jobs
with lot of resentment and in consequence would be under a lot of stress.

The famous scientist Thomas Alva Edison who used to work 18 hours a day once
said, "I never worked ..I only played"

The important thing in selecting a job is that you should be able to enjoy
what you are doing. If you are able to achieve this, you would be able to
cherish the amount of time you spend on your job.

Let us go in a systematic manner in making a right career decision.

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Managing Stress

Many times we all are depressed and asked this question to ourself "Why
is God creating so many difficulties for us? How to handle stress?"

This story tells us ......................................

A man goes to a shop, picks up a beautiful cup and says "my god this
cup is so beautiful" and suddenly the cup starts talking to the man.

The cup starts saying "O man, I am beautiful right now, but what was
the state of my being before the pot-maker made me a beautiful pot?

Before I was sheer mud and the pot-maker pulled me out of the mud

from the mother earth and I felt why that pot-maker is so cruel, he
has separated me from mother earth. I felt a tremendous pain. And the
pot-maker said, "Just wait." Then he put me and churned me, when I
was churned I felt so giddy, so painful, so stressful, I asked the
pot-maker "Why are you so cruel?" the pot-maker said, "Just wait."

Then he put me into a oven and heated me up, I felt completely burnt.
There was tremendous pain and I asked the pot-maker "Why are you so
cruel?" and the pot-maker said, "Just wait." Then he poured hot paint
on me and I felt the fume and the pain, I again asked the pot-
maker "Why are you so cruel?" and the pot-maker said, "Just wait."
Then again he put me into an oven and heated it to make me more
strong, I felt life is so painful hence pleaded the pot-maker and the
pot-maker said, "Just wait." And after that the pot-maker took me to
the mirror and said, "Now look at yourself". And surprisingly I found
myself so beautiful.

When god gives us lot of trouble, it appears god is very cruel but we
need patience and we have to wait. When bad things happen to good
people, they become better and not bitter.

So all difficulties are part of a cosmic design to make us really
beautiful. We need patience, we need understanding, we need the
commitment to go through in a very calm and wise way. So all
difficulties are not to tumble us but to humble us.

With this understanding, let us not be against difficulty. Understand
difficulty is a part of a purifying process. A purifying process at
present which we cannot understand and hence we need faith and we
need trust.

Let us understand how to handle stress with this background. You can
be affected by stress from two angles. There is an internal stress
and there is an external stress. Nobody can avoid stress; one has to
only manage stress. Managing stress can be internal and also
external.

The internal stress is; your thoughts can create stress, your values
can create stress, and your beliefs can create stress, meaning
thereby your stress is coming from your mind more from the outer
world. Many people suffer not from heart attack - they suffer from
thought-attack.

For example, when somebody says you are an idiot, we get so hurt, we
get so victimised . My boss has called me an idiot and I am feeling
tremendous pain. Now where does this stress come from? If my boss has
called me an idiot, I have to ask myself "am I an idiot"?

If I am an idiot nothing to be upset about; and if I am not an idiot,
then also nothing to be upset about! It is the perception of the
boss. But why do we suffer from that stress? I suffer not because my
boss has called me an idiot but because of the thought-attack.

I may say the boss has called me an idiot; therefore I am suffering?
It is true that the words are unpleasant. But what hurts is the
interpretation of the unpleasant word. The thought in me interprets.
That is pain and therefore it becomes pain. Much of our stress is our
mind interpreting it as pain. So we suffer from thought-attack more
than heart attack.

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‘Cross industrial expertise’

‘Cross industrial expertise’ is the latest buzzword for several companies as they are choosing candidates coming from diverse industrial backgrounds for the value that they bring.

‘Birds of a feather flock together’, right? In today’s Indian corporate scenario, the above adage might not necessarily ring true. ‘Diversity’ is the latest corporate mantra. And today, if you’re a candidate equipped with cross functional competencies and skeptical us as to which job profile suits you the best, don’t lose heart as India Inc. is hiring people who are willing to experiment by putting their varied range of skills to maximum use.
SWINGING WAYS
While most companies believe in following this trend in the near future, many Indian organizations have already started hiring people with different backgrounds for their top management positions. Industry experts say that many organizations prefer bringing in people with different work experience rather than choosing someone who has been doing the same thing for many years.
    S Nagarajan, Chief People Officer, 24/7 Customer says, “We have within our company few employees recruited at different levels. These employees coming from diverse backgrounds have joined us from varied industries like IT, teaching, hospitality, manufacturing, advertising, automobile, etc. We believe that people coming from different backgrounds equipped with the right set of core competencies can be a right candidate for the required role.” Sudhesh Venketesh, Head-HR, Tesco HSC, believes in the same and adds that in today’s corporate environment, it’s necessary to hire such people for the value that they bring to the organization. He says, “We have employed many people from different backgrounds in some of the top positions in our company like our Property Director was a part of the Buying Segment and our new COO in Malaysia was formerly an operations officer.”
    Shiv Agarwal, CEO, ABC Consultants says that a few years ago, knowledge about a particular sector or industry was considered to be invaluable and could not be done away with under any circumstances. However, with changing times, he explains, a person with a wider range of contacts and knowledge is preferred over an industry expert. “In today’s modern day work sphere, top managers need to be keen multi-taskers. Brand management, media positioning, networking, target achievement, people management etc. are all functions that a top manager would be expected to perform irrespective of the domain that they are in,” he adds.
WORKING WONDERS
Industry experts feel that choosing a head of the department or a sector with a different background usually works in the favor of the organization. Experts feel that bringing in a fresh perspective helps the organisation to get a different outlook, bring in greater creativity, flexibility etc. “A top manager from a different domain would be more receptive towards his/her team. Ideation would flow within the team and the person’s journey up the learning curve would also make the employee feel empowered as he/she would have a say in the decision making process,” explains Agarwal.
    Harish Govind, VP-HR, Blue Star Infotech Ltd, further explains that getting a head from a different background can help smaller departments within the organisation grow and prosper. He explains, “Many large companies which have high sustainability and stomach for experimentation would like to try out a fresh approach in a small unit or division of the conglomerate which it seeks to revive or turn around. The freshness in approach could come from a professional high on management skills rather than industry specific skills.”
    Experts feel that if hiring an individual with a different work background can help in an organisation’s growth, one needs to make this organizational practice a part of their recruitment policy. Also, whether a company decides to hire somebody with a diverse background is entirely an organisation’s decision but industry pundits point out that this organizational move certainly has more pros than cons.
THE BELL CURVE
On the other hand, many feel that this may not work to the company’s advantage at all times as many say it’s not always easy to bring on a fresh candidate with no industry specific skills, especially at senior level positions. Though it is a gamble that many organisation's are willing to make, they believe that this experiment may also backfire. “The degree of uncertainty is high and the system has to be prepared for it as this practice may drain out precious time and energy which could have been deployed elsewhere,” explains Govind. Agarwal says that a new person would be more prone to making mistakes and would run the risk of losing key team members because of his/her ignorance. “Getting a new person from outside often leads to a re-alignment in team dynamics and a churn in team compositions as well. Such a person also needs to be handled patiently since he/she would take some time before settling into the new role.” Experts say that no matter what the pros or the cons of hiring somebody from a different backgrounds are, this decision usually seems to be working towards the company’s advantage. So if you think that your expertise will go waste in some other department, don’t lose hope as many organisation's would rather hire someone who is ready to take risks over someone who’s always willing to play safe.

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Talent Management

Kelley Blue Book plans to keep up the pace in 2008 and has outlined a specific road map for its talent management process to ensure the company stays on track. This includes focusing on core objectives such as:

1. Goals: Managers reviewed 2008 goals with employees at the beginning of the year to establish the benchmarks they will be reviewed against. Throughout the year, managers will communicate with employees to assess and update each goal and milestone.

2. Annual reviews: This includes employee self-reviews and manager reviews and culminates in a joint performance review in which managers conduct face-to-face reviews with each of their direct reports.

3. 90-day review: After completing the first 90 days of employment, employees conduct a self-review. Managers then conduct a face-to-face review to ensure new hires are off to a good start.

4. 360-degree review: Leadership is evaluated by peers, direct reports and management, keeping everyone in the organization, regardless of position, accountable to corporate objectives.

5. Compensation: Managers keep performance data and merit budgets side-by-side. Kelley Blue Book has established salary grades and ranges, and the company refreshes its salary data against the marketplace every 18-24 months to be sure it is competitive.

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What is HR ?..........?...............?

For an Employer, By hook or crook to manage Human Resource with minimum cost.

For an Employee , It is a custody, where employees are bound to follow the instruction, without any objection.

For a management student, it is a subject.

For intelligent people, it is highest ranking of any Organization.

But an HR can give you the proper introduction.

According to my opinion, it is, Highest Ranking of any organization because, it deals with Human Resource, which is a vital part of any Organization.

As per economics, for any industry, 3 M is very important. These are, Man Machine and Money. Among these three, Money and Machine can be handled, but the third one is very complicated. Third one having his own brain, so he can think, feel, wish and which is uncontrollable.

Being an HR, I know how much difficult, it is to manage manpower in an Organization. In my 6 years of experience, I was never satisfied with my job, as I could not justify my job. When I graduated from the business school I had the perception of utopian corporate culture. When I joined my first organization , I thought , I will help the employees, I will think for their welfare and I will give a new turn to HR, but in reality, I couldn’t fulfill my dream. Sometime my conscious was not allowing me to do stuffs which I do not like, but I did it because, I was also an employee. This is the excuse, what we all are giving to ourselves.

At the time of interviews, many of us might have faced all the below mentioned questions,

1. What does HR means?
   
2. How you will retain manpower?
   
3. What are the types of incentives?
   
4. What is welfare and how will you provide it to your workforce?
   

Like many more……………………………

I hope we all were given very satisfactory reply at that time. After joining the organization we got the true answer of all above questions.

I am giving some of examples:

The next day of joining, you will advise to give suggestion, how to downsize your manpower without hampering the production.

We are (HR) always giving assurance to our employee that we are always with you. But the next moment, an employee came with a grievance, how we redress it, OK WE WILL SEE IT.

Once employee came, and told I have some issues regarding my salary, without understanding the gravity of situation, HR replied, I am very busy, please come some other time or come when I will prepare next month salary.

HR department circulated one circular, “We are very glad to say that, management is going to introduce the employee suggestion scheme, and it was advised to all employees, that they should came forward with their suggestions for personal as well as organization development”. Employees became very happy. Many employees came with suggestions, on the hope that they will be rewarded or they will be recognized. However, after 15 day, 3 employees were terminated, because they opposed management.

WHY?

These three unlucky guys had given suggestions for good food, good working atmosphere, and yearly incentive.

HR forgets that what Maslow has described in his law that an employee will be motivated when his primary needs will be satisfied. It is obvious that, their primary need were not fulfilled, so they had given suggestion on that.

At the time of Induction, we are emphatically highlighted that management has a very good promotion policy. Each employee has predefined carrier path, but it is applicable after completion of one year of service. Employees wait for their feedback, but HR department is least bothered about feedback. When employees asked to HR, they simply answer, please ask your manager. When they ask their manager, they answer, HR department will inform you. Lastly employee gets fed up with management. Some of them opt for other company, and some keep silent.

It will very surprising to know that, in many organizations, the employees don’t know about their company leave policy. Every month a part of their salary is deducted on the name of PF and ESI, but they don’t know, how it will helpful for them. Either they don’t have Provident Fund (PF) number, if they have they don’t know, how they get their money back.

Employment state Insurance Scheme, through which employees will get medical benefit. I think it is a big support for any employee. But due to lack of proper co-ordination, employees are deprived of to get the facility.

We are just wasting our 60% time on talking big and irrelevant stuffs, rather than focusing on the basic fact. Always we are save our position on the name of employer or on the name of employee. But we never highlight our mistakes.

In Magazine, in newspaper every day, you will get a, new concept, a new approach on Human resource, but the problem is still persisting, there is no improvement.

I glanced upon an article on why HR is not appointed as the CEO of any organization. Think over it and analyze……..

I can’t disagree that, no one can fulfill all the wishes of employees, but we can fulfill the basic needs. What I have experienced in my six years of tenure is that If we do our basic home work, we can help our employees and organization.

Human Resource means manage human resource. If we add humanitarian approach to above concept, then it will be more meaningful.

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