Keeping People First

If you have the right people, happy people, the company will progress. Organisations worldwide are focusing more on people rather than profit. If you focus on people, profit will follow. If you focus on profit, then it is not sure if people will follow. Even though an organisation has advanced technology, everything boils down to the people of the organisation. At a recently conducted session at a Business Convention in Pune, a panel of industry leaders shared their experiences on why it is necessary to keep employees happy, and how keeping employees happy will make the organisation succeed and much more… The panellists of the session were: Rakhi Sinha, Head HR, Neilsoft; Dilep Misra, MD, DriveGrowth Inc (Moderator) and Dr Deepa Desai VP, Global Head - QMS at IQVIA

Dilep Misra : Talking about diversity, the panellist here have so much knowledge and experience to share. Could you (Rakhi) throw some light on the ‘People First Concept’ and tell us about your experience regarding the same.

Rakhi Sinha : When we talk about the culture of people first, providing equal opportunities to all is the first thing that comes to my mind. To talk about the organisation’s value system and its bond with the employees, there always has been a debate in the past… customer first or the people? It’s said that customer is our heart and people are always around. How are you helping or serving your customer that’s how it relates to the work of the people. A decade ago, it was said that people are your team and they are the gateway to the customers. If your people are not happy, you cannot make anyone happy. The company won’t be able to have a profitable business.

I feel it is very important that we take employee and customer experience and design our employee’s agenda in such a way that both customers and employees feel valued at the same time. It’s a win-win situation.

But if you talk about today’s generation, to connect with their employees, the HR will think about coming up with team building activities like, game night, house party or connecting with the employee’s family to strengthen the bond. However, what I feel is the today’s generation is not much affected by it. I’m sure Gen Y (millennials) are not looking for all this. What Gen Y are looking for is very different. The five things that they are looking for are:

Freedom: Freedom to know what they are working on. They don’t want to be trapped under the promotion, corporate ladder. They want a simple and free culture where I know what I want, what I want to do, what my choices are and how much do I want to work. They want freedom in timings and not the regular 9-5 job.

Bigger picture: Everyone wants to know what they are contributing for. If they are a part of something, they need to know where and how it is being developed.

Loyalty: Loyalty is the most used word in this generation. There is nothing called as loyalty now. I personally feel the organisation should use the person’s capabilities and competence to the fullest, get mutual benefits, rather than concentrating on how long the employee will stay with them. It is very difficult to get loyalty these days.

Choice and Cause. Keeping people first is all about accepting the diversified nature of the people. By diversified, I mean, every individual is different. Now the meaning of people first has completely changed. It’s more about happiness that this generation understands which is very different from the definition of happiness which was before.

Dilep: I do agree that no professionals should be loyal to their organisation. Yes, you should be loyal to their profession. Do it to the best. People are like plants in the garden and if the gardener takes care of it, within no time you’ll see the garden is full of flowers. That is called profitability. When it comes to culture, organisations are culture-driven. It depends on the culture and thoughts or expectations you have from your business. And when everything falls in place, the business really grows.

Deepa, share your views about the ‘People First Concept’.

Deepa Desai: In our homoeopathic industry, we look at every individual differently. What I’ve learnt in 20 years of experience is that when you talk about people first or when you talk about the customer first, we should not forget that customers are people too. So, who is your first customer? It’s your employees and a leader should understand this. How do you make your employees happy? Today, the definition of happiness is different and unique for everyone. When you have a great amalgam of people with comdifferent interests, skill sets and work together, I think the harmony is set. The team should be diverse. It is very important to have each one with unique skill sets, as they are the ones who take the organisation to its goals.

A leader should know what their employees want or what they are good at. The moment you let the employees do what lies in their passion, the productivity increases. Success is inevitable. When they get what they want to work on, they will go beyond their job description to achieve it.

On the other hand, there is also transparency. The key here is transparency when we talk about people first. When an organisation goes through a change, which is the testing time. And if you’ve treated your people really well, they will stick by you. Appreciate people who come with different strengths. Don’t try to see people who come with strengthens that you like or someone who is going to agree to do whatever you ask. Get people who are better than you are and then challenge you; make you feel unnerved about your position. And I’m sure they will lead to success. Because you will always try to do better. Give them what makes them happy. Make sure you are transparent with people when things are going well. Be proactive in asking for help. The right time of asking for help is very important.

"I feel it is very important that we take employee and customer experience and design our employee’s agenda in such a way that both customers and employees feel valued at the same time"

- Rakhi Sinha

Dilep: Getting better people, diversity, transparency is essential. They are the most important factors while building an organisation. From here we talk about inviting the right people to your organisation, inspiring them and invest in them. If you do these things, then your organisation will become ‘People First Company’. When you talk about passion, you need to invest in them, when you start involving your people, when you start inspiring people, you should know who the right person is. You need to tap the right person and groom them. The most adorable organisation is Google. If given a chance everyone would want to work there. Netflix is such another organisation. You’ll be astonished to know that Google has increased its investment in their people by 37 per cent this year. Rakhi, tell us something about investing on people.

Rakhi: We had a programme called Techo Managers, wherein the employees who had an experience of 2-4 years, those employees then appeared for a test. Two hundred people participated for the exam, out which 15 people were selected. The whole programme was set in such a way that these 15 people, throughout the two years of the tenure would go through all the projects—working in different departments on a rotation policy. After every three months, they were assessed. The most important point is we got terrific results. The ten people that we selected at the end, had a total of six years of experience and now they are with people whose experience is around 19-20 years on the same designation and role. It was very well accepted in the organisation. It was a culture change.

What works for some organisations, may not work for us. Every organisation has to think in a different away to address its employees. When people buy that idea, they welcome that idea.

“What works for some organisations, may not work for us. Every organisation has to think in a different away to address its employees .When people buy that idea, they welcome that idea”

- Rakhi Sinha

Dilep: I think you’ve rightfully addressed the point of investing on the people. Deepa, your thoughts on this?

Deepa: I would like to share an incident. A few years ago, due to an IBM employee’s error cost the company a lot of money. When someone asked the CEO if you’d fire that employee, he said why should someone else profit from this? The employee surely has learnt a great deal from this mistake. So, I think, it’s the way you look at the situation. And I think what Rakhi mentioned about rotation in the job and identifying the strength is correct. We do similar things in our organisation. But another different thing that we have started is looking at the health of our employees. So, we call it a Wellness Programme. It focuses on physical health, nutrition and the mental health of the employee. We formed a panel where we have connected with the external partner where we are looking after different types of competition. We have an app that talks about the benefits of having good health. What foods you should be eating. And there’s an anonymous helpline where the employees can seek help on various topics. We have yoga and Zumba sessions as well. We have one day every quarter wherein you bring your musical instruments and we have a jamming session. It’s a great retreat.

"Today, the definition of happiness is different and unique. When you have a great amalgam of people with different interests, skill sets working together, I think the harmony is set"

- Deepa Desai

Dilep: The Wellness Programme talks about fit and healthy people and that’s where a lot of organisations are focusing on. Happy employees lead to happy customers. If we reduce the time of people, productivity increases by 40 per cent. In addtion, use AI tools to make people free from day to day time killing jobs. So, there you’ll unlock 40 per cent of productivity. And we should use automation and technology in other areas rather than creating unemployment in the rest of the areas.

When I was working with the JK Group, a 100-year-old organisation, we came up with a coaching programme, in which everyone in the organisation from the top to bottom had to participate. And within a matter of five years, we could see the revenue growth of 105 per cent. Believe me, this is all documented. Ebitda was increased by 57 per cent. Attrition of talent was reduced by two per cent. ESS (Employee Satisfaction Score) increased by 16 per cent. ROI has gone up by three times. This is a true example when you start investing in people. Normally, we think of investing in people when you are doing well. Secondly, all investments should be aligned with the comdifferent pany’s goals.

We talked about transparency. How can transparent should we be? What all can be done? How does it help people? Deepa, would you throw some light on this?

Deepa: What is the meaning of transparency is more important. It does not mean to put forward the decisions taken in the boardroom. I feel, the culture and the environment where employees feel the ownership as much as the CEO or the founder, I guess that is more important. And how did you generate that? The keen people who are working on the project are the ones connecting you with the customers. And I think if they believe that there is a better way of doing things and they are able to come and talk about it then you are able to foster that kind of relationship with them. Transparency means if an employee has a good idea, which could change the way business is done. Also, I feel when someone comes with a good idea that works well for the business, give them the due credit.

Dilep: Once you listen to your people, you’ll get a true judgement of transparency, it’s a powerful tool. Listening to your people will make a great impact on the decision-making process. Rakhi, can you throw some light on listening to your people and empowering them?

Rakhi: Listening to your employees is a very important skill. Rarely anyone has this virtue. It’s called Act of Listening. No doubt, not everyone listens but do they understand the meaning or the feeling behind it? Many organisations do this. They listen to their employees but sometimes when it comes to acting on it, it fizzles out. The important thing is the leaders at a first and second level should be made capable to take certain decisions - same leaders should make their managers take certain calls. Because it’s not possible for an organisation to look at each channel. It is a culture, which you drive it from the top and bring it to the bottom.

“We have changed our policies now. We do not have job descriptions now. What we have are the skills and competencies required to do that task”

- Deepa Desai

Dilep: When it comes to listening to their people, an organisation uses various methods to do so. The channel through which this process happens is very important. The data should not be misunderstood. That makes the decision-making process easy.

When it comes to inspiring, you inspire people when you listen to them and you empower them when you act on their idea. If you implement their idea, people become passionate about their work. You need to invest in such people.

When it comes to developing people, I will tell you what my organisation does. We screened a few mangers from the pipeline and identified their talent. Next, we sent them to B-schools to enhance their knowledge. The seniors had a close eye on their progress. When they came back, they were asked to implement that knowledge on the projects. The best performer got a chance to present it in front of the chairman. This is how we empower them. Those people will take your business forward. Rakhi, could you throw some light on the development of the people?

Rakhi: Knowingly or unknowingly, the organisation categorises their people. When you start to do that, the people who wish to be vocal, suddenly go meek. People will switch off and they will say nothing because they know it will not change anything. At some level, organisations need to come out of this categorisation process. Today, anyone who has the skill set is welcomed. After a few years, it will just be about the skills. Then transparency and acceptability become important.

Deepa: Currently, we are doing it in our organisation. We have inter-job application — IGP. Anyone can apply for it. We have changed our policies now. We do not have job descriptions now. What we have are the skills and competencies required to do that task. When internal people apply for different roles, we take into consideration the skills and not for the role. That has increased by 22 per cent of internal hiring. Work could become monotonous and that is when the employee wants something different. Changing roles can do the trick.

When Dilep was talking about expectations when you send your employee to a B-school to learn further, it might at times put pressure on them. In my earlier job, I went for the same process, my seniors asked me to enjoy the course rather than taking pressure. He told me even if you apply 10 per cent of what you have learnt in our projects, it will be more than enough. When you speak as a leader, you inspire your employees and the manager was inspired.