QUOTE OF THE DAY

The difference between a GOOD company and a BAD company is
ITS ABILITY TO RETAIN GOOD EMPLOYEES DURING DIFFICULTIES

Wise Sayings

Just remember 2 things:
1) the person who knows "how" will always have a job, and
2) the person who knows "why" will always be the BOSS !!

the 7 Cs of Success

Success is a journey, not a destination, or so it’s been said. You may take a few detours, hit some roadblocks, and arrive at a different place than you’d planned. I’m still on my journey, and I’m offering you my map for smooth sailing, traveling the Seven Cs of success.
Clarity - 80 percent of success comes from being clear about who you are, what you believe in and what you want. But you must remain committed to what you want and make sure those around you understand what you’re hoping to accomplish.
A young mathematician during wartime was commissioned as captain of a submarine. Eager to impress his crew and to stress how important it was to strictly observe all safety procedures, the young captain called them all together for a meeting. His instructions went like this:
"I have developed a simple method that you would all do well to learn. Every day, count the number of times the submarine has dived since you boarded. Add to this the number of times it has surfaced. If the sum you arrive at is not an even number -- don't open the hatches."
Competence - You can’t climb to the next rung on the ladder until you are excellent at what you do now. Practice makes perfect . . . not true. Perfect practice makes perfect.
Just remember 2 things: 1) the person who knows "how" will always have a job, and 2) the person who knows "why" will always be the boss.
Constraints – 80 percent of all obstacles to success come from within. Find out what is constraining in you or your company and deal with it.
The Gallup Organization conducted a survey on why quality is difficult to achieve. The greatest percentage listed financial constraints. Often our lives and careers are shaped by the kind of surroundings we place ourselves in and the challenges we give ourselves. Consider, for example, the farmer who won a blue ribbon at the county fair. His prize entry? A huge radish the exact shape and size of a quart milk bottle. Asked how he got the radish to look just like a quart milk bottle, the farmer replied: "It was easy, I got the seed growing and then put it into the milk bottle. It had nowhere else to go."
Concentration – The ability to focus on one thing single-mindedly and see it through until it’s done is critical to success. Great athletes are notorious for their concentration and focus. Golf great Ben Hogan stood over a crucial putt . Suddenly a loud train whistle blared in the distance. After he had sunk the putt, someone asked Hogan if the train whistle had bothered him. "What whistle?" Hogan replied. And let’s not forget Yogi Berra, who said, “You can't think and hit the ball at the same time.”
Creativity – Be open to ideas from many sources. Surround yourself with creative people. Creativity needs to be exercised like a muscle: If you don’t use it you’ll lose it. Statistics indicate that between the ages five and 17, there is an extreme drop in the creative level in both male and female students. In fact as you grow older, your creativity level decreases proportionally. The good news here is that this trend is reversible, if you keep challenging yourself. Ask Grandma Moses who didn’t start painting until age 80 and went on to produce more than 1,500 works of art.
Courage – Most in demand and least in supply, courage is the willingness to do the things you know are right. At times we can all be like the lion in “The Wizard of Oz,” running a little low on courage. Courage, contrary to popular belief, is not the absence of fear. Courage is the heart to act in spite of fear. Deep down, the cowardly lion had it. You do too. Don’t be afraid to use it.
Continuous Learning – Set aside some time every day, every week and every month to improve yourself. Read trade publications or books, or listen to audiotapes during your commute to and from work to keep you miles ahead of the competition. Go back to school and take additional classes or join groups or organizations, take lessons . . . whatever it may be, just never stop learning.

taken from - Harvey Mackay

Employee Engagement - Low Attrition , Higher Productivity

During my span of work at my previous organization, I have come across several brilliant associates who excel at their deliverables. They efficiently complete their piece of code but I don't find them thinking "out of the box". They work on their respective modules of an application and are well informed about that particular module. However, when it comes to the complete application/product knowledge, I see the domain awareness missing. This lack of overall awareness about the application/product severely restricts their ability to innovate and come up with newer and more effective solutions that will benefit the product/application.

Another issue is , due to this lack of awareness, associates don't realize the significance/importance of their work. For example, we always encounter cases where associates are not keen on prod-support work. This is because they don't realize the criticality of prod-support to create a reliable, repeatable customer experience. Once, associates recognize the impact their work is creating, they would approach it with more passion & enthusiasm. We often hear about 'Employee Engagement'. It's a concept that is generally viewed as :- managing discretionary effort, that is, when employees have choices, they will act in a way that furthers their organization's interests. An engaged employee is a person who is fully involved in, and enthusiastic about, his or her work.

It has been proved that engaged employees are 62% more productive than disengaged employees. This additional productivity results in higher quality in their deliverables, hence higher costumer satisfaction.

I strongly feel that , to create Engaged employees, we need to ensure that they need to realize the importance of their work. This will happen only if they have knowledge about the complete product/application (know the complete domain of the product/application ) . To ensure this, we need create an environment in the organization, where domain knowledge sessions are encouraged and supported. I acknowledge that a process is already in place for this. However, I don't see it (to be ) functioning ideally. One way we can increase the inclination of associates to gain knowledge on the domain of their work(learn the domain ) is through creating a system where its made mandatory for all teams to conduct one domain knowldege session every fortnight/month.

To summarize the idea, we need to put stronger focus on learning the domain & functionality of the products/applications associates are working on. This domain knowledge helps to get the overall picture, thus creating an opportunity to innovate and improvise. The domain also ensures higher Employee engagement, resulting in higher productivity and enhanced costumer experience.

Dissatisfied employee in IT company - A cliche

There is this trend I have been noticing in the Indian IT industry . A good percentage of young IT employees are focussing on higher studies. This is not very different from the US or Europe, but the startling difference is that in the Western economies, MBA aspirants are of average age 28 years. In India this figure is 24.
Some facts for you ...
250,000 students appeared for CAT 2007. In 2008, the expected figure is 300,000. Thats a staggering 20 % rise.
Talking about Indians going abroad for MBA or MS, there is steep hike in those figures as well. Last year 16000 Indians took the GMAT, the flagship exam for access to MBA degree abroad. No of GRE ( standardized test for all other PG programs except MBA ) takers summed upto 31000.

These facts and figure and indeed astonishing. More over because many of these students are engaged in high paying jobs at multinational and private companies.

I was an IT guy for first 2 years of my professional life, and my observation was that many of these IT professional voluntarily/involuntarily joined a cult. A cult, whose members want to denounce an IT career. I hate to admit it, but I also belong to this cult. Somehow, I feel that this is very unfair to the IT Industry in India.
On one side, Indian IT inc is facing severe talent crunch with majority of the Indian students passing out being unemployable, while on the other side, the brains of the industry are moving out.
If these professionals are discontent / dissatisfied/ unhappy in their IT professional livee, I would request those professionals to divert their attention to other verticals such as manufacturing or financial services or medical services or entertainment. On a detailed look at these careers, there will definitely be an enlightment for many.
IT industry has regularily been the highest spender on employee perks as compared with other industries. While the concept of HR is kind of abstract in other sectors, in IT and ITes, they are looked upon as vital component of the organisation. Talking about world travel, no sector offers the kind of opportunities which IT does.
and finally, the CTC aspect, IT industry is one of the highest salary payers in India leaving manufacturing, UG level sales, finance way behind.

So all those (not-so-cool) IT guys. You have a choice to make here. Think about it, Isolate the IT-hating cult and start loving what you do.. and trust me , you ll start loving ur work .

Chief Review Officer ( CRO )

I got a review from a good friend who said that my writing style is very non-bloggy.
Its a style which is not followed by general bloggers. Though, he has his heart in the right place but he has one majorly annoying habit. Getting a positive feedback from him would be easier than building Rome. What he unrealizingly ends up doing everytime is giving just one piece of constructive advice, which is " I like it " . As I metioned, if you get one !!! otherwise you will always end up getting a monotonous demoralizing " I dont like it " syllable from him.

I with couple of my frens ( he being one )are working on this new idea these days and there are major debates about each and every of decision we have to make. Some of these debates are about stuff so trivial that I am too embarassed to even mention them. So everytime we need to take a call, our C.R.O gives his expert review which is always " I dont like it ".
I felt like sharing something which is so-called "Bloggy", so this was the entry.
Anyways, since this blog is all about employeement engagement, the blend I have to offer is , if you have a manager/ colleague who has this habit , don't take it anymore, Go ahead and nickname him the CRO of ur office !!!

How engaged our your employees ??

In a highly competitive market for both customers and talented staff,
employee engagement is a way of delivering a competitive advantage.

Many companies realise that maximum productivity doesn't come from
just a "satisfied" or "happy" employee. They know that the most
productive and loyal employee is known as an engaged employee.

A fully engaged employee:

Is intellectually and emotionally bound with your organisation;
Gives 100 percent effort;
Feels passionately about your goals, and;
Is committed to live by your company values.
So what is employee engagement?

Employee engagement is the means or strategy by which:

Your company seeks to build a partnership between your management team and your employees, such that;
Your employees fully understand and are committed to achieving your management team's objectives, and
The management team respects the personal aspirations and ambitions of your employees.
So how can employee engagement help your company?

Employee engagement can have a strong tangible impact on your
company's bottom line. Here's why:

The most valuable element of your company walks out of the door every evening and sometimes they never come back. This is particularly true of service companies;
The quality of output and competitive advantage of your company depends on the quality of your people, their sharing of knowledge and their contacts
It's therefore in your interests to do what you can to prevent good people from leaving, actively motivate them into performing while they are staying and contribute as much as they can into your company's performance.
How engaged are your employees right now?