Monday, February 22, 2010

Transparency and Compensation

Transparency of something that is important for an individual or an organization’s growth up to a desired level indicates the credibility of the team and openness to consideration and negotiation if any. It is understandable that many organizations may defer to being transparent for all work processes, however there are certain areas one cannot be totally discreet, especially things related to capital and money matters. Yet we may still find some where compensation & benefits always seem to be that part of the asset which cannot bare transparency at any levels. So much so, even when new recruits join for a particular position all they are aware of is the job responsibility, designation and the CTC involved. It may make sense if during process of selection; one may not want to disclose the salary components; however once when somebody is sent an offer letter for acceptance, then the prospective employee has all rights to understand the break up of the salary assigned to him. It cannot be something that can be passed as ambiguity and the employee realises the components only when he receives the first pay slip.

This kind of an issue is dealt by and large by small size and mid size industries, where it is hard to tap upon good resource and retain them for a long time. Chanced upon prospective employee who may prove to be assets need to be pulled in and engaged so that he doesn’t get swayed by competitor industries. It may sound foolish not knowing one’s salary components before joining, yet there are people who do not inquire and yet there are some who wish to gain an understanding however organizations refuse to quote. For fresh graduates it may not be of much concern as then they are just beginning the process of finding a footboard to stand upon, however for somebody making a career change it can prove to be disastrous and could well be a plunge in the career graph if he decides to blindly hop into one. There was this one person I came across sometime back, who had good experience and understanding of the industry he belonged to. Naturally his talent got recognised in the Organization he thought could lift his career. In the interview rounds a CTC was discussed, negotiated and finalised upon. However due to internal constraints the finalised amount was not given and a lesser CTC was zeroed upon. An effective communication could have taken place, yet the prospective employee was kept in the dark. Nor did the employee consider inquiring about the components and discuss on the plans. When he went for accepting the offer and casually got to know of a lowered CTC, he was in a dilemma whether to accept or reject. He did reject, but at a personal loss. Before joining he resigned from his present workplace and that left him unemployed till he would be in a position to convert one. He wouldn’t be in a dearth of one for long for sure, however a mere communication and transparency could have saved a lot many hassles.

Compensation is always a sensitive issue and those who handle it know of its ups and downs. Those who plan to get into an organization too need to understand the importance of asking for one, before making a decision. Yet it still lies as a major responsibility for an organization and non disclosure or reluctance of sharing one shouldn’t deter anybody from asking what he is destined to be paid.

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Referrals - At Whose Costs?

Recruitments round the year always end up being a pain for those that belong to that specialization. Screening and selecting among hordes of unwanted resumes is indeed a tumultuous task. To ease out the process somebody introduced the Referrals policy and it started bringing out good results. Suddenly employees all so satisfied with the Organization started recommending near and dear family and friends. Then there were some Companies who started acknowledging the brilliance at ease and rewarding employees, some didn’t believe in rewarding but found the referral policy the biggest source or databank available, and there were still some who didn’t believe in the policy.

The 2 extreme positions are the best that could be carved out of this policy; however the middle position is the one that creates major issues, especially in Companies that believe in having local candidates on their payrolls. Hardly a speck in the crowd would belong to far flung places settled at workplace location. Here the referral policy is so much into the system that it has actually entangled the recruitment process.

Suddenly everybody is on a referring spree, and if one tries finding out the history behind their acquaintances, one would be surprised to know that among all things the only common factor was a common surname. Thus it made enough ground to approach the right person in the Company and be rest assured that one would certainly be on the rolls within a couple of days. If this kind of a business can sprout annoyance from just a two or three, then to imagining every single referral belonging to the same genre, it can prove to be quite troublesome for the HR as well as the Organization. As merit of an individual cannot be stated by common surnames, or can one perform any psychometric tests to separate out the desired from the undesired. Whether one looks to the left or to the right, numbers keep percolating with individuals of common surnames. What in turn goes waste is the Company’s resources in paying them salaries for the work they do not do (though this isn’t a generalized sweeping statement, nor do all referrals end up being on the same side of the sinking boat). The resources utilized to train them for the job, paying of the salaries, and once when they quit (that too prematurely) no suitable replacement comes around, hence training the new guy all over again. Besides the references being not so credible, yet following suit since the person whose referring is a top shot in the Company. Little realizing that in this great movement of doing something worthwhile and good for their communities, people are actually gathering dust around! The whole game of reserving seats in political stunts across States being so similar to the Corporate story of referrals. Has anybody benefited by these mindless games at the State levels? So be the case at Corporate level. The policy may seem all so rosy from the distance, but is proving to be a brain chewer from close by.

Maybe we need an alteration in the Referral Policy and we need to limit how many people a year can current employees refer (at those companies that have an open agenda throughout the year). Maybe we can even put some constraints upon who can be referred and put more emphasis on the idea that the referrer’s PLI would somehow contain some value of the referrer’s performance. Otherwise were these trends to continue, one fine day we would have the Company plagued by similar community or surnamed people taking over charges