While, women are considered equal to men, in a country like India still the feminine gender has yet to conquer some of the male dominated bastions. However, this is finally going to get changed by the end of this month and it would surely bring in more opportunities for females. Recently, the Border Security Force(BFS)has taken a major decision and initiative to allow its first women battalion to perform the combat duties that includes the guarding the borders between India and Pakistan. About 1000 personnel from the first female battalion of BSF will be inducted for combat duties. It's a great move for women in India as it further diminishes discrimination between the two genders and attempts to show equality in the area of defence which has always been dominated by men. This latest decision will surely have major impact in coming years on lives of young women who dream of serving the country's borders and fight against the enemies of state but were never given such opportunities before or were not even considered eligible. This is an unprecedented move in the history of India and strong message to the male dominated society. On the other side, it opens up a wide window of opportunities in terms of jobs and employment for women in the combat forces. It's a new avenues that surely the women would love to conquer and become pride of India.

 Every new corporate advancement that enters our Indian Inc is perceived to be a contribution of the western world. However we fail to recognize that our own Culture and texts are better potential resources than the current resources available where one would find all sorts of cases that we face in reality and probable solutions to them. For instance one could take up the story of Vibhishana the younger brother of Demon King Ravan. When he tried suggesting a better solution to his sibling he was kicked out in the name of being disloyal. However his attempt to join Ram’s army succeeded. The strategy behind it being  the knowledge base available about Lanka and the army of Ravan(all the defects and positives) in the form of Vibhishan. Most important of all, his wish to become the next king was quickly recognized by Ram’s group. The moral of the story is this, when the top management of an organization  resists listening to Ideas and Suggestions/ does not give the right level of freedom and innovation  to  its employees, no matter how much it pays them, they tend to leave. Such an instance is always dangerous especially when it is the case of Key personals   as the competitors attract them easily by promising them whatever they want in order to get the information about an organizations so as get the details of their previous work place and its strengths. (loyalty is always a variable in corporate scenario and never constant). Thus a deep research and circumstantial interpretation of our treasures would surely pave way for a better management system.

There is recession in every Industry due to Global melt down and Steel Industry is no exception.It is like History repeats itself.The nature of problem varies from time to time whatever may be the name given to the so called downturn in the growth,the net resultant effect will be on the salried employee who ultimately loses his job.I have witnessed a similar situation some 10 years ago and the name given was Disinvestment in Public sector.The employees feared and searched for greener pastures in private sector.Some employess have left their secured jobs and strugged for years to get settled in Life.Now there is recession every where and Employees are shown Pink slips irrespective of the reasons that have lead to this types of decisions.Ultimately,a person with 2 yrs experience and as well as a persong with 20 yrs of experience has to run pillar to post in search of job which may give stability.Employees are always under constant pressure of not having job security rather than the work pressure.There is no exception to the people working in Gulf region had to face the indirect effects of Global meltdown or Financial upturn therby witnessing Pink slips from the employers.Due to this ,it is not only employess who are under constant mental stress but also the family members who are inevitably share the stress every day.There is disturbance in every aspect and insecurity every time.I question myself that when this constant searching and changing of job ends and when can I hava a stable and peaceful life after having 2 dacaded of professional experience.It remains a million dollar question and we should answew ourselves.

Negativity is nothing but one’s disagreeable nature with the facts, “say no first” attitude, and fear of consequences of any new change, action or event.

Every individual might have experienced negativity (Negative Attitude) at some point of time at the workplace, business, and social service organizations or in personal life. Negativity becomes most destructive force, if not taken care in early stage and spreads across quickly to eat away morale, teamwork, Initiative nature and finally output.

Situations, people, past experiences, surroundings and culture in which one is living his life are major causes for initiating negative feelings within a person. When these factors combined with excessive workload, concerns about ability, job insecurity, office politics, favoritism, lack of challenges, routine work, gossip and lack of recognition at the workplace, it will become a full-blown problem. The most serious thing is favoritism, which can screw up all, from an individual to a big organization.

Gossip at tea time: Where one should be very careful to avoid negativity. During this time people get a chance to peep into others lives. Some gossips may seems to be information, humorous or as a de-stressor. But, the negativity slowly steps in to minds and takes the form of dissatisfaction, frustration and conflict. Finally these negative feelings not only hamper one’s productivity, but also curbs professional and personal growth.

Where ever you work with someone-- could be a peer or a senior; first thing you need to bear in mind is absolutely zero prejudice about him/her. The best way to avoid any notions settling in one’s mind about somebody is by being neutral during the gossiping. Learn about them from their doings and then behave accordingly.

Boredom at the workplace spreads out negativity which leads to bad relationships, frustration and dip in productivity levels. Boredom arises due to routine job. It depends purely on an individual. Some people like to work on the areas where they are comfortable and don’t want to take challenges. However some people want to work in new areas, new technologies, and always want challenges rather than sticking to old ones. In such cases, the management must try to understand the person’s aspiration and come up with innovative solutions to make one’s work place interesting and to break the boredom. As work is always work and changing ones work is not possible and not correct thing in all cases, management should be able to help the folks to see the work in a new angle and with a different perception. This will really help in rejuvenating one’s mind.

Apart from work, there should be some non-work activities which could motivate and give a breeze of fresh air. It could be team outing, birth day celebration or get together. Normally, many organizations celebrate Birthdays on a common date; some do celebrate individually on the particular date. Again, the celebration should not be in a mechanical way – like bringing cake, calling the team, cutting it and eating followed by some plastic smiles and artificial humor. People will get bored soon and loose interest. Nobody likes this kind of celebration which is nothing but another unavoidable meeting. It is more like punishment than pleasure. People need some personal touch and care. In such cases, management should think to some innovative ideas like – send a greetings mail to the person, send a flower bouquet, greeting card and some goodies to their home. This will make a big difference, not only will the person become happy but also their family will feel proud of the Organization. A small thing can make a big difference. Many organizations conduct team outings and plan many activities to keep the employees mind away from work for a while and keep the team sprit up. It works fine to some extent, but not the way it should have been. While planning for team outing, management should discuss with employees, what they like and their expectations. Based on expectations, activities should be planned by involving the employees. Another thing, we should be careful while planning for activities, there should not be too many activities packed up in a time frame – it will de-motivate and make them frustrated. Mainly people should get enough free time to do things in their own way rather than following enforced rules. Lastly, we should not mix-up team-outings with team building.

One more factor that spreads negativity within an organization is the kind of interaction between “the Boss and Subordinates of the company” and “the HR and the Employees”. Each and every employee needs attention of the Organization and Organization requires everybody’s participation. Management should try to involve each and every one in decision making - based on their roles and responsibilities. Otherwise employees feels that their views has no value and there is no consideration for them, and this slowly leads to hostility and a ‘why should I care?’ attitude–Again Negativity. It is very important to make every employee feel that they are important to the company. This can be achieved only by improving communication with them and being open about most managerial decisions.

Lastly, few more important factors that lead to negativity – Lack of appreciations and recognition. After working hard for days, weeks and months together, employees expect a basic amount of appreciation and recognition for their efforts. When that does not happen, most of them tend to lose the motivation to work as hard as they did earlier. Again, the process of evaluation and comparison for recognition should be transparent; otherwise it will backfire and may raise misunderstandings.

Ultimately, one should have to deal with negativity in work place as well as in personal things for a beautiful life.

 “Transform each hurdle into an opportunity”. “Stop gossiping and idle talk”. “Keep yourself occupied”. “Be transparent and make the process transparent”. “Communicate effectively with peers and seniors”. “Stop favoritism. “Be neutral”. “Be innovative”.

 

Nowadays it has become essential to understand the importance of human power in industries as well as new developing companies.Its quite natural that if there is satisfaction among the employees than obviously the companywill grow and will soon achieve its target. Earlier days it was followed that the exployees were not given importance at the place where they used to work but slowly and gradually they started understanding the importance of human resource in industries.

The new trend which I observed as being a trainee of one of the local public company for my college project , i saw that there is exploitation policy is going on in each and every company.Exploitation on new recruiters by their seniors has become common. Seniors always tend to behave in very rude manner and they never treat their juniors with love and care. This is the very first point where new recruiters feel insecurity about their jobs and their individual growth. so there exploitation tendency on new recruiters is one of the burning issues in the H.R space which need a very immediate action to remove these policy and try to understand the imprtance of the new budding employees which come with lot of positive energy but die as they enter in any public ltd company.

Lay off has also become one of the biggest burning issue in H.R.space. A company instead of giving lay off to its employees should thing of other alternative and when no alternative is found than only should conclude wiht these horrible decision. 

Organizational Commitment: What do we really think when we hear /read this title? The first reaction we might give is-A HR topic. A new HRjargon. etc etc... Theoretically- It’s performing beyond your jobresponsibilities in the organization.

Practically-Do we check with ourselves about the organizational commitment?So guys when especially in this time, we are talking about the Job loss and salarycut, can we think about organizational commitment as well?

These are the best time for any HR personnel to figure out who isreally committed to the work and the company. Post appraisals people come andask for -"what is in it for me? I did so well. I did late sittings. I did that...Idid this...” does this all sound familiar?

When the top layer in the company is being fair and honest withthe employees below, its employees' duty to trust them and support them in thebad times. Help the organization sail through even in the rough weather. Itstime for employees to get up and stand together for their organization. Isn't it?

For those who did get their bonus pay and are not sacked (sorryfor being harsh) should really thank god and see how they can perform better toenhance the company's productivity. Employees could try any or all of these andmore to fight the current scenario:

Enhance / Upgrade your own skills

Train your team members

Learn new skills in other areas / functions

Design a new business model, applying creativity, to sell youproduct / project 

Help form a Green Team in your organization who would devicemethods to reduce extra expenses in the organizations.

Form a Motivators' Group-To motivate the employees within team aswell beyond.

... And there could be many such. In turn organizations could alsotake few steps to help employees come out of the setback and motivate them tolook forward to better times.

All in all both the shores-employees and Management-need to cometogether to stand strong and fight through with the current times. Remember welearnt long back in school- Together we stand, divided we fall!

HR comes into picture to balance the act at both the ends. Itfunctions as the mid-hanger between Management and Employees. In these times HRplays a very critical role. It has to be alert and Active!

So what are we saying? That HR plays an important role inmotivating employees, increasing their organizational commitment and helpingmanagement take right decisions pertaining to employees.

Employees on the other hand need to be more understandingand careful about their steps. Cautious and open for change.

Managementneeds to Listen and Think. Act cautiously and be open and honest!

What the tough economic climate has taught us is that smaller organisations are more nimble, lean and more likely to communicate with their employees. Just by the virtue of size they're able to quickly realign goals, reassess priorties and therefore respond to the economic climate. Even in good times, it is imperative for them to stay cost competeitive as the 'luxury' of excess affects the bottom line; so they don't need to, in most cases, cut people or costs in tough times. And communication enables them to handle crisis in creative ways.

One company I know of is keeping its best people motivated by having staff work on community projects while the work is quiet. The staff do not necessarily know that the work is voluntary, but they do know that they are making a difference to others. The company says it doesn't want to lose its key staff and is prepared to make the commitment to them. Of course not all organisations have the ability to do this, but this is a small company that is trying to think differently. Do you know of any?

The entire idea of corporate espionage may sound a little far fetched, but it is known to happen. While many across India Inc. may fail to agree to this, it is a known fact that that are moles everywhere. Think about it, how do rumours spread, how does your boss know what you were talking about with a former colleague?

These instances may not prove that corporate espionage happens, but it is prevalent in companies. Random phone calls during the night, classified information leaked out, colleagues evesdropping....

So what do you do to save your self? Well, you can only do so much to protect yourself and the information, after that, its a whole new ball game!

Te truth is out there!

With the upcoming election, many seem to be talking about how the new government will affect India Inc.? Will the new ruling party be able to get us out of the crisis? Will they convince our employers to give our pay hikes and salries back? Will the new govenment be assertive enough to help us land new jobs?

While these thoughts are yet to enter the minds of corporate India and the candidates, what is India Inc. suppose to do? We also vote but teh main question here is will our vote change our lives?

 

These days we get a lot of letters from the readers informing us of the measures their organisations are taking to cut costs. While there are some encouraging stories from organisations that are not only retaining their employees but also rewarding them for the past year's work; there are some employees who report layoffs and paycuts. While paycuts might save large organisations 'some' money, a recent debate that I heard on CNN highlighted the long term implications of paycuts on the economy:

"Smart economists know that this (paycuts) is an unsustainable series of actions for the future health of the economy. Because once you start reducing incomes, you will only make the pressures on pricing of goods more severe and more widespread. You cannot improve an economy by making consumers poorer."

Making consumers 'poorer' creates an imbalance in the supply and demand equation, and the deduction that this can be counterproductive to a developing economy is no rocket science.