Author: Sanjeev Roy

Enough has been written about the Tata’s exit from Singur and I will not dwell on repeating this well chronicled episode.

I would like to dwell on a completely different aspect of the issue. One that is linked to how the actual stakeholders (land holding farmers) saw in this issue their passport to exit the poverty of generations on one side of the fence and a denial of this passport on the other and on how to avoid a recurrence.

Ownership of land carries with it meaning far deeper than just a physical asset with a certain value. No matter how barren or small this is, it is the farmer’s link to life, his generational legacy and a hope (albeit tenuous in the case of small holdings like in Singur) of a better life someday and some livelihood in perpetuity. It was possible for doubts to be put in people’s mind by the famous lady of Bengal because she used the following tactics very effectively:

– Played on the deep rooted mistrust of the common man of  governments and big business

– Played on the ‘perpetuity’ aspect of the loss

– Raised doubts about whether the exit from poverty would happen in reality

– Played on the deep rooted insecurity of giving up land

So what are the lessons for the future? Assuming that in certain cases industrialisation or the creation of Special Economic Zones does represent a better future for the people who give up their land, how can such issues be avoided in the future?

The HR Manager’s Approach

Create an org structure that is larger than just the organisation. Include the support services, environment required and place their development within the ambit of activity.Everything else will automatically follow from here.

– Communicate, communicate, communicate. Nothing like it to help build trust

– The organisations responsible for the economic activity (private company or government body) should be in the field well before implementation. Make an effort to really know and understand the people, much like an HR Manager in a factory township. The final parties in the deal should be interacting with each other. Critical for fostering trust.

– Look at the price being paid in a Compensation and Benefits fashion with fixed, variable, retention, long term benefits, retiral benefits perspective

– Make the people part of the vision. Let them be stakeholders. Give them the option of actual stake.

– Look at the displaced people as a pool of talent available for the functioning of the factory/economic zone. Here is an observation. The earlier village community was a more or less self sufficient entity with its own compliment of skilled labour and artisans to service the requirement of a particular cluster. So there would be a really good carpenter for every cluster of 3/4 villages, an iron-smith, a painter and so on. This group is in such demand in the big booming urban centres that villages are not left with many options. A Nano plant in Singur would have created a small but prosperous urban centre where such people would have found lucrative employment close to their homes.

Do add on your own thoughts and ideas. Today is the Bloggers Action Day on Poverty and in the context of our country this seems an important issue to discuss.

<a href=”http://blogactionday.org”><img border=”0″ src=”http://blogactionday.org/img/c22828e35bbbbd170004f0b51277ebbec99d976b.jpg” /></a>“>

Here is a typical conversation between recently hired Bright Spark and Boss.

BS, ‘I think I’m stagnating!’

Boss, ‘What? You have been in this assignment for only 3 months!’

BS, ‘Yes, it has already been 3 months and I am not doing anything new.’

So BS is sent to meet HR Head.

HRH, ‘ We have plans for you. Over the next one year we will groom you to take on higher responsibilities. In two years time you should be heading your own business unit’.

BS, ‘ Two years? Jeez! I will be an old man by then!’

So What Has Changed?

1. True, the young have always been impatient, restless and definitely more fickle. This was always tempered by the steel of  the experienced and older majority at workplaces. However, in today’s world, where the demographics are sharply tilted in  favour of youth and workplaces have become increasingly younger, it is but natural that this restlessness and impatience will spill over in the workplace as well. It is not neccessarily a good or bad thing, it is just the way it is.
2. Consider the rapidly changing landscape of products and technologies. Where the radio and TV had 30 years between them, the computer cum tv cum radio cum camera cum mobile phone and the voice only mobile have just five!
3. Consider also, how Google, Wiki, Facebook (between 3 and 7 year old themselves) have changed the way we socialize, communicate and view our horizons. Now consider how Digg It and Twitter may well replace these. You are beginning to get a sense of the speed of the escalator we are on.
4. Mr BS spends easily and has thus rollercoastered into a lifestyle ahead of the curve. He lives on loans and EMIs because he believes tomorrow will be a better  brighter day. So his happiness with a rise in pay is a function of when the new EMIs hit his bank account.
5. Everything is operating at higher RPMs and more KMPHs. Especially in the context of our ‘developing’ country, new ideas, newer opportunities, new ways to spend money are being cranked up in this accelerating machine.
6. The millenial employee is a product of this very machine.
7. The concept of time has undergone a change and maybe the bosses, products of another century, have not noticed.

New Measure of Time

The traditional measure of time, in relation to employees, has been a year. In most jobs, for a majority of the young BSes, this represents a lot of days to feel you are going nowhere.

If we could break this up into 2 or better still 3 parts then we could introduce a set of milestones that are always round the corner.

• Self -development Milestones
• KRA Milestones
• Compensation Milestones
• Growth Milestones

The organisation would also benefit from having systems that will be more aligned to deliver, greater speeds and also provide more flexibility in business planning.It does not represent any increase in cost but certainly requires a lot more time invested in employee appraisal, feedback, compensation management and so on. This would have the positive effect of creating an environment where the employee sees, within the time frame of his attention span, growth for himself and positive intent from the employer.

Sales people have lived with systems very similar to these for a long time now though it has usually been linked to only one parameter – sales and incentives. It is well documented that companies where incentives are paid out more frequently have found it easier to motivate and retain employees.

Of course many of the basics about human nature have not changed. People will still prefer to work in an environment that is enriching and promises continuous growth. However, the understanding of time frames do require tweaking, to be more alligned to the new generation

No, this not about me.
No, this is not an ‘innovative’ job posting.
No, there are no mistakes and it says exactly what it was meant to.
Married but Available (MBA) is the second book in the series by Abhijit Bhaduri of the life and times of Abbey (http://www.harpercollins.co.in/BookDetail.asp?Book_Code=2108). In the first book titled Mediocre But Arrogant (yes, MBA and yes, it is a great insight), Abbey gets his MBA in HR from an institute in Jamshedpur. And starts his career at the bottom of the HR pile in a manufacturing company.
This second book is about the first ten years of his work life. Outstanding read if you want to pick up some wonderful insights on HR from one of the leading HR thinkers in the country. The story is one that a lot of people will identify with – the insecurities, competitiveness with batch mates, failed/failing marriages, demanding bosses, neglected families etc. It is a story about the ‘corporate types’ from corporate India and wrapped within these threads are the author, Abhijit Bhaduri’s take on HR – the protagonist Abbey is an HR practitioner.  As he works through positions in the factory, to the Chairman’s strategy unit and an M&A, Abhijit touches upon some key HR issues that are worthy of debate.
1.    Learn the ropes from Ground Zero
–    Abbey, the MBA is posted in a small industrial township, learning people management at the shop floor. He resents it, wants to be in the corporate office and get himself a fancy designation. Sounds familiar? The lessons learnt on the shop floor are absolutely invaluable, that too under the guidance of someone with experience but no degree. Underlines the fact that there is no alternative for ‘Being there and doing that’.
So it is absolutely necessary to be in the trenches to be a general or is that just an old fashioned notion in today’s world of email, best practices and technology?
2.    Incentives can be two edged swords
–    Abbey experiments by incentivising one worker for doing a dangerous job. Workers appreciate his gesture but a deluge of others all performing the same dangerous task follows it. This causes its own problem, as Abbey has to progressively reduce the incentive for the job. What started as a positive exercise rapidly degenerates into a dispute.
If an incentive is being ‘misused’ in spirit but not technically what should be done?
3.    Fairness has to be demonstrated even when you retrench someone
–    Abbey is made responsible for a massive downsizing and restructuring exercise. Despite the bitterness, mistrust and unhappiness this move causes in the factory, Abbey never gives up on communicating clearly and consistently and genuinely trying to help the retrenched workers to rehabilitate.
Is the future welfare of retrenched/downsized employees the responsibility of the company, specifically HR?

Lets hear your views.