Vandana Chimanpure is currently VP & Head-Talent Development & Management at Loylty Rewardz Mngt. Pvt. Ltd. She was Head-HR at Sequretek and is a seasoned HRBP with successful stints at Wipro & Nelito. She feels empathy and humility are the best virtues one can possess. Her passion is people and her roles give her enough insights into human behaviour. She likes penning down her thoughts on various areas that deal with human heart & mind. Writing a novel is on her bucket list.
When we talk about the employer-employee relationship, and its success or failure, there are several factors that come into consideration. Let’s understand what these factors are, as Vandana Chimanpure talks to us about them in detail, and also shares the interesting commonalities she finds between sales and recruitment.
Employees are the biggest stakeholders for any organisation. When we talk about the success or failure of this relationship based on false representation/promises/communication, there are a few things that we need to consider. Firstly, we need to understand why it happens? Next, check generally which areas fall under this category, and lastly how do we address them?
Let’s start with why it happens? In my opinion, Sales and Recruitment are a lot similar. In Sales, one is selling a company’s product or services and in Recruitment one is selling the company brand. It is attracting probable customers versus attracting probable employees. Both have an impact on the revenue, are critical to the organisation and are number games in a way. By that logic, certain perils of sales hold true in case of recruitment as well such as overcommit-under deliver, product specs not matching the expectations, etc. The only difference between sales and recruitment is that once a contract is signed by a customer he immediately does not start looking for an option or go to another vendor. However, in hiring the candidates are likely to shop with your offer in hand.
While we keep talking about the shooting unemployment rates in the country, more and more people looking for jobs, if you ask any recruiter he/she would say it is a candidates market especially in IT. There is fierce competition for getting good resources on board. This is where the seeds of misconceptions are sown.
The common reasons for discontent due to misleading information fall in one of the below categories:
- Remuneration
- Job Role
- Non-Financial Benefits
- Company Culture / Policies
- Career Progression
- Company’s Financial Position
Since there is a significant time gap between offer roll out and joining, if there is a slight variance in the role due to a change in the business environment or strategic decisions, explain the same to the candidate and set the expectation right.
How Can Organisations Prevent It?
As an employer, you should careful throughout the hiring process and then when on-boarding the employees to prevent any disconnect due to the above reasons. Let’s understand how you can deal with this:
- Remuneration: Every organisation has different CTC structure basis which the cash in hand varies. Understand the structure of a candidate’s current organisation and compare it with your own organisation. Explain the differences if any and suggest the probable deductions. Inform about PF, Gratuity, Medical Insurance, whether they are part of CTC or over and above CTC. Give bifurcation of fixed and variable if there is any variable component.
- Job Role: Spend good time on writing and reviewing the Job Descriptions. Share the JD with the candidates and also ensure that during the interview with the hiring manager the work profile is explained well to them. There should not be a variance between JD and the actual work. Since there is a significant time gap between offer roll out and joining, if there is a slight variance in the role due to change in a business environment or strategic decisions, explain the same to the candidate and set the expectation right. Also, suggest whether this change will be permanent or temporary.
- Non-Financial Benefits: With the growing cost of medical treatments, medical insurance is a critical benefit. Here too different organisations have different policies. In some cases, parents are covered under the policy, in others they are not. Very rarely in-laws are covered which is again need of the hour. Employees sometimes fail to check this in advance. Even if they do and one of the important aspects is missing organisations also try to give an answer that they can look at it at the time of renewal, which not always happens. This leads to a disconnect.
- Company Culture / Policies: It’s a good idea to discuss the company culture with a prospective employee to give them a fair idea of what to expect. Along with this the presence or absence of policies with regards to working hours, week offs, flexible timings, work from home, etc. should be shared. If you probe the candidate about his decision to look for a job change, there are chances you get one of all the areas discussed for discontent as a reason.
It is important to keep in touch with the employees at regular intervals once they are on-boarded to understand how the integration into the system has been. Take feedback from them about all the aspects of an organisation.
- Career Progression: A lot is portrayed in terms of growth opportunities within the organisation. In the absence of proper organisation structure and policies, it is not possible. Along with providing enough opportunities for growth, there have to be fair and transparent processes around it.
- Company’s Financial Position: Basic things like receiving salaries on time depends on the financial position of the organisation, and reflects on the security of employment. We have seen many bigger brands shut shops without notice, which gives a tough time for employees. For small and mid-sized organisations, employees have to rely completely on the information provided to them, as balance sheets of these firms are not available in the public domain.
Besides all this, it is important to keep in touch with the employees at regular intervals once they are on-boarded to understand how the integration into the system has been. Take feedback from them about all the aspects of an organisation. The periodicity can be at the end of one month then at the end of three months from the date of joining. Corrective actions can be taken if issues are highlighted at an early stage.
Fair and care are two sides of a coin. The relationship between employer and employee will flourish when an employee is convinced that the employer is fair in its dealings and cares for the employees. Thus, to ensure that your workforce is engaged, and performs to the best of their ability, it is important to care for them, provide them with a growth path, and be fair in their dealings with them.
As it is said: “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then is not an act, but a habit” – Aristotle
