Remembering Employees - Small Gestures

A call to one of the employees over joys him beyond the callers’ imagination. The intention was to wish the employee on his birthday, after a new policy got introduced in the Organization which required the HR to make personal calls every morning. At times it would get awkward as the receiver found it hard to believe his Organization wishing him on his day or perhaps was never wished before this day by anybody. This particular receiver perhaps was so happy that as an extension to his happiness he wished the HR back on prosperity in life and growth in career. On another such occasion, the employee felt so thankful to be remembered by the Organization; to express gratitude he got a box of sweets for the HR & Admin Dept.

It is a very normal procedure in IT Companies, wherein somebody from the Admin team sends across birthday/anniversary wishes to the intended employee and the Organization provides some benefit or gift along with wishes. Plus the team/project the employee belongs to organize small parties. However in a manufacturing there are 2 kinds of employees: the workers and the managerial staff. The needs for both the kinds are entirely different. When one of the managers like cited above could get all so over board by a personal call, the worker may expect something more than just a call. An email will make no difference to him either! Budgets can vary among Organizations for extended benefits like gifting a pair of clothes/utensils/tiffin box as well. Monetary benefits is something workers are always looking for, but that isn’t a feasible answer. Also at times the budgets planned for the entire year may fall insufficient or be scrapped off altogether due to newer policies.

So among all this circumstances when newly introduced policies talking about the wellness and benefit of employees bring in lot of hope and enthusiasm one end and receive flak the other, reaching out to an employee is what he primarily appreciates. Of course that doesn’t mean accepting all that they say. However simplest of gestures like personally being wished from the HR team (that is the extended arm of the Management and BOD) feels comforting and reassures employees about being recognized and be noted.

Just Joined! Itchy Hands Looking To Change?

When Mr. X joined the mid size Company, within 2 weeks he felt everything needed a change and makeover. The first thing that required major modification was the Company Policies and immediately he got to work of designing new ones. At the end of 4 weeks from his joining date he had a new set of policies ready and looked forward to furnishing them before the Management, get an approval and be the proud creator of them.

A proud creator yes, but the policies never got approved! Several reasons could be possibly attributed to it like: how could it be that not one policy was perceived as a fit to the Organization Culture; what was the urgent need of modifying them, that too in such a short time of being on board; copied from internet resources. Plus rapport building became a huge task which couldn't be overcome with time!

A conversation with a friend led to the question: How long can an employee recruited for a crucial decision making position take, before he/she can start rolling out the decisions and the Organization would listen to him/her? The friend said ideally not more than 3 weeks and by then he/she should be well acquainted with the operations/systems flow and all that his responsibilities demand. However when it comes to introducing changes the 3 weeks is too short a time. That’s the easiest way that can lead to his being crucified before public eye. Neither would he be able to please the Management nor gain the confidence of his subordinates/colleagues or the employees.

Company policies are something that is based on the common vision and goals of the builders of the Organizations which are duly passed on down the level of hierarchy. Playing with them is a sure shot way of receiving heavy criticism and resistance. But this holds good only for Organizations that fall in the bucket of being Tier-1 and/or Tier-2. There are still quite many of those who form the bulk of mid size Organizations – for some of them their respective policies are nothing but copied material from Internet (CiteHR in fact is an excellent resource for anything that has to deal with HR) and they have always been mavericks in the way they operate and implement activities. Introducing a change out here would mean disturbing the fine balance between Management, employees and the new person hired from a corporate HR background. The others are those who are bound tight by their policies and find changes nothing less than unnecessary fingering just to prove the newly hired individual is a capable addition to the team. Both ways it’s too premature to believe that nothing is going right in the first place. No doubt the new addition may have been hired to well implement the necessary visions of the Management, however for being effective the right time would begin only after months of careful scrutiny of the culture and the way employees respond to it.