Vinodh Chelambathodi, Chief Human Resource Officer at Intellect Design Arena Limited (A Polaris Group Company), is a dynamic Global Human Resource Professional who has had varied and rich experience in leadership roles in large firms with multi-geographic presence. He has played key roles in leading transformation initiatives like Organisation Structural Diagnostics, Mergers & Acquisitions, Demergers, Global Compensation, Global HR Risks and Regulatory Compliances, Performance Development Dialogue, Leadership Hiring with organisations he’s been associated with. Identified as a highly assertive leader, who focuses on results, Vinodh has worn multiple hats within the domain of HR and as business leader. In a candid conversation with Corporate Citizen, Vinodh touches upon various facets of employee engagement, performance management, bell curve, attrition in the IT sector, while also touching upon his personal space.
Human Resource Management in organizations is designed to maximize employee performance vis-a-vis employer’s strategic objectives. HR is primarily concerned with the management of people within organizations, focusing on policies and systems.
I truly believe that learning is the key. It is important to see how much anyone is able to learn from the organisation he or she is associated with, and how much the person is willing to contribute. Unfortunately, the whole industry has gone through a ritualistic process of putting performance at the centre point. Does talent really lead to speedy performance? I have my own contrary view on this subject. To me, human resource management is not about talent development but is about learning and engaging. When I say learning, I am not talking about the typical classroom sessions of training, but learning in-depth about the business and also see how actively the supervisor is engaged with his people, his team and how engaged is the person with his manager. In a way it is true that ‘People leave people and not the organisation’, but more than that statement, it is not only about the boss, it is about the entire ecosystem which you create. One of the ingredients is the boss. You have to continuously develop a complete nonjudgemental environment in an organisation where there is no comparison, no fear. We’ve always looked at performance management and the bell-curve, saying 50 per cent are super performers, 30 per cent are average performers, etc. So there are a lot of comparisons within organisations.
But we have still not evolved in the human resource industry in terms of making learning the critical centre point of focus rather than performance. This is because of our belief system that says performance or talent development leads to superior performance. But I don’t believe that talent management builds a super organisation. You can develop talent but people may leave, or stay and may not be productive for many other reasons. Even if someone is talented, it may not really lead to superior performance, because of his disengagement with the organisation. Hence, it is crucial to have proper engagement. Now, this engagement will only come through constant feedback, coaching and a constant dialogue process. While you can easily do it for 100-200 people, how do you do it for a large set of people like 5,000 or so? Here we will have to create systems and ecosystems to ensure that the whole IT delivery model changes from a typical hierarchal structure to a more collaborative structure where six people work together to solve a complex customer problem. In talent performance, there is always an end state or destination. At the end of the year, when I am being appraised for some goals, that is a destination. When you choose a destination, you are not testing for some unconditional thinking, which might be manifold in your productivity.
It hasn’t been difficult at all. It is all about engaging with the right frame of mind. Youngsters today do have a lot of dreams, a lot of aspirations. The moment you put comparisons, there’s fear. Comparison brings fear. Ambition is fundamentally disruptive, very destructive. You must take the youngsters along with you and ensure there is a lot of chemistry while working, for the larger purpose of the organisation. In a large company with over 5000 people, very few people understand the vision or goals of the company. When there is alignment to the larger purpose of the organisation, there is a very bright chance that you have complete collaboration.
The word “difficult” is very subjective. Something that you look as difficult may not be difficult to someone else. To me, a difficulty is an opportunity. In my career, I have seen employees who have been star performers until a few years ago, but today are pretty average performers. Again, that is putting him in a ‘performance basket’. Fundamentally, every human resource professional should influence the belief system of the employee. If someone who was a star performer in the past, but today is an average performer, it means that the ecosystem has been lost somewhere in the journey. It is important to have continuous dialogue with your employee, understand his belief system and the reason behind the sudden drop in performance. A super-duper performer cannot become a nonperformer all of a sudden. If that is the case, then there may be a problem in the entire ecosystem. He may not believe the process that you follow. That’s where we miss out by not having a continuous dialogue with the people. You must take people along and align them for the larger purpose of the organisation.
When we hire top management professionals, some of the things we look for are the sense of urgency, thoroughness, influencing skills, assertiveness and risk taking abilities.
I have never been a fan of the bell curve. If there is a bell, there’s always ‘noise’. It is not about the bell curve, it is all about how you engage people. Why do you need a bell curve? Why aren’t you putting learning as the focal point rather than performance as the point? When you put performance as the central point, then it becomes a bell curve. When you put learning as the central point, performance becomes a sub product of learning. But then how do you reward people? Well, it’s a different ballgame altogether. So you’ll have to move away from a task based reward system to a team based system. That’s what we are trying to do in terms of aligning our business. If you reward the team by moving away from a task based reward system to a team based system, it helps. When you put an individual task, it always becomes a selfish goal. Then you don’t put the organisation before you. When there is a complex customer problem, and we work as a team and the entire team gets a reward, then we are on the right track.
You can develop talent but people may leave, or stay and may not be productive for many other reasons. Even if someone is talented, it may not really lead to superior performance, because of his disengagement with the organisation
Youngsters today have a lot of aspirations. There is a myth that youngsters don’t understand business, but most of them are brilliant, they have a lot of dreams, a lot of aspirations. We have to encourage them and tap them right from the beginning. Why should a fresher out of college not understand what a business strategy is? Most of the time, it is we who take it for granted that they may not understand business, but by making him understand at least some parts of it, he may contribute more than you expect.
Attrition is a very wrong way of looking, as a measure. One should talk about engaging employees. How many of you have engaged employees? If you are losing some of your engaged employees, there is something wrong with your ecosystem -- then you should address that problem. The root cause of the problem is engagement. So if you address the engagement issue, especially cognitive and intellectual engagement, then it will solve your problem.
Well, it’s not about them, it’s about the ecosystem created. A lot of social media tools and peer pressure influence him to make this decision. We’ve all seen people joining companies and quitting in no time at all. Again, there are employees who joined a company in the 90’s and are still around, and to think of it, they were also youngsters then. So it is all about how you tap the youth and take them along.
I did my Masters Diploma in Business Administration, Management from Madras Christian College back in 1988. Thereafter, I completed my Masters Diploma in Personnel Management, in 1990, from NIPM, Kolkata, specialising in Personnel Management and Industrial Relations. I have been part of the IT industry since 1997. I held senior positions with HCL Technologies and Capgemini in the past. I was also the Director – HR with Flextronics Software Systems P. Ltd. About my family -- my wife is a fashion designer, running a boutique from home in Chennai. My daughter is in the ninth standard. I like to play Carnatic music on the harmonica. I am a lot into fitness, swimming and acting as well.
By Mahalakshmi Hariharan
