nick18_in
Nikhil Gadodia
Cos taking karma route to retain employees
DIBEYENDU GANGULY
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
[ FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 03, 2006
Ramesh Ramnathan is a corporate nightmare. After a very successful ten year career with Citibank, he was posted in London as its managing director for corporate derivatives when he decided to quit in order to do something more meaningful. The bank did all it could to persuade him to stay, first offering him a full pay sabbatical and then a posting to any place he wanted, including India. But Ramnathan wouldn't change his mind. He came back to his home town of Bangalore and eventually started Janaagraha, an NGO for urban renewal. "Some people manage to pursue alternate interests in their spare time, but I just wanted to plunge into it. There are so many dimensions to each of us and for some, there's a limit to the personal growth that a corporate career can provide," he says.
Now what would happen if every other star executive thought along these lines? Ramnathan is a top level defector, but the corporate sector is under threat at every level. When a fresh MBA graduate refuses an offer from an investment bank to join an NGO, it's cause for national celebration . Traditionally accused of recruiting "the country's best brains to sell shampoo" , the FMCG sector is struggling to hold its position in campus placement rankings. The BPO sector is having a prolonged bad hair day, with best-selling books depicting it as creating a generation of angst-ridden workers.
High salaries and great perks are a given. These days, if talent starved corporates want to retain and motivate their employees , they need to provide them a sense of meaning. But corporates find this is easier said than done since the search for meaning is highly individualistic. "Organisations can give meaning by providing work that challenges and is impactful - no one likes to work on projects no one cares for or give ideas no one listens to," says Santrupt Misra, Director, Aditya Birla Management Corporation.
"At the same time, knowing what meaning you are seeking itself is a challenge. In that sense organisational action to provide meaning becomes like searching for a black cat in a dark room that doesn't exist." At Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), managing director S Ramadorai has a practical solution: if employees show signs of being disenchanted with their jobs, give them the option of moving to a different function. "In the early stages of my career, I decided to move from hardware to software, and then to sales. I wasn't afraid I'd make a fool of myself in a new function and I similarly encourage TCS employees to try different things. If a software programmer feels alienated because of the nature of his job, we give him the option of moving to sales, where he can be closer to the customer . A sense of meaning ultimately comes from recognition and professional development," he says.
Ironically, it's quite often the most successful executives - Ramnathan being a case in point - who question the relevance of what they are doing. Financially secure and having achieved a fair degree of professional recognition, they are the ones who begin to search for personal growth through other avenues. "Young professionals are usually happy with the money and promotions," says Yesho Vardhan Verma , HR director at LG Electronics. "In my experience, it's the 35-plus set that starts looking for more meaning in their lives."
Faced with the choice of loosing a highly valued executive or adjusting to his or her needs, most organisations opt for the later. As a result, more and more successful people are choosing to take time off from the business world to do other things. Investment banking, one of the world's most lucrative professions, presents many cases in point. "Globally, top investment bankers are one of the biggest contributors to charity, both in terms of money and time," says Sanjiv Bhasin, managing director of Rabo India Finance. "I think it's imperative that organisations in every sector take up corporate social responsibility (CSR) projects and give their employees an opportunity to get involved in them."
Indian business houses are known for their CSR activities but in the past, they have been tended to be run separately from the mainstream businesses. Today, many of them are opening CSR up to their salesmen, accountants and factory workers. Last year, Mahindra & Mahindra launched what it calls the Employee Social Options Plan (ESOP), which offers employees a whole menu of CSR projects they can get involved in. So far, around 20% of M&M's employees have taken the company up on its offer. Says Rajeev Dubey, president (HR and corporate services), "In addition to doing their job well, people seek a connection with a larger cause. Through ESOP, we're offering them a structured platform."
DIBEYENDU GANGULY
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
Ramesh Ramnathan is a corporate nightmare. After a very successful ten year career with Citibank, he was posted in London as its managing director for corporate derivatives when he decided to quit in order to do something more meaningful. The bank did all it could to persuade him to stay, first offering him a full pay sabbatical and then a posting to any place he wanted, including India. But Ramnathan wouldn't change his mind. He came back to his home town of Bangalore and eventually started Janaagraha, an NGO for urban renewal. "Some people manage to pursue alternate interests in their spare time, but I just wanted to plunge into it. There are so many dimensions to each of us and for some, there's a limit to the personal growth that a corporate career can provide," he says.
Now what would happen if every other star executive thought along these lines? Ramnathan is a top level defector, but the corporate sector is under threat at every level. When a fresh MBA graduate refuses an offer from an investment bank to join an NGO, it's cause for national celebration . Traditionally accused of recruiting "the country's best brains to sell shampoo" , the FMCG sector is struggling to hold its position in campus placement rankings. The BPO sector is having a prolonged bad hair day, with best-selling books depicting it as creating a generation of angst-ridden workers.
High salaries and great perks are a given. These days, if talent starved corporates want to retain and motivate their employees , they need to provide them a sense of meaning. But corporates find this is easier said than done since the search for meaning is highly individualistic. "Organisations can give meaning by providing work that challenges and is impactful - no one likes to work on projects no one cares for or give ideas no one listens to," says Santrupt Misra, Director, Aditya Birla Management Corporation.
"At the same time, knowing what meaning you are seeking itself is a challenge. In that sense organisational action to provide meaning becomes like searching for a black cat in a dark room that doesn't exist." At Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), managing director S Ramadorai has a practical solution: if employees show signs of being disenchanted with their jobs, give them the option of moving to a different function. "In the early stages of my career, I decided to move from hardware to software, and then to sales. I wasn't afraid I'd make a fool of myself in a new function and I similarly encourage TCS employees to try different things. If a software programmer feels alienated because of the nature of his job, we give him the option of moving to sales, where he can be closer to the customer . A sense of meaning ultimately comes from recognition and professional development," he says.
Ironically, it's quite often the most successful executives - Ramnathan being a case in point - who question the relevance of what they are doing. Financially secure and having achieved a fair degree of professional recognition, they are the ones who begin to search for personal growth through other avenues. "Young professionals are usually happy with the money and promotions," says Yesho Vardhan Verma , HR director at LG Electronics. "In my experience, it's the 35-plus set that starts looking for more meaning in their lives."
Faced with the choice of loosing a highly valued executive or adjusting to his or her needs, most organisations opt for the later. As a result, more and more successful people are choosing to take time off from the business world to do other things. Investment banking, one of the world's most lucrative professions, presents many cases in point. "Globally, top investment bankers are one of the biggest contributors to charity, both in terms of money and time," says Sanjiv Bhasin, managing director of Rabo India Finance. "I think it's imperative that organisations in every sector take up corporate social responsibility (CSR) projects and give their employees an opportunity to get involved in them."
Indian business houses are known for their CSR activities but in the past, they have been tended to be run separately from the mainstream businesses. Today, many of them are opening CSR up to their salesmen, accountants and factory workers. Last year, Mahindra & Mahindra launched what it calls the Employee Social Options Plan (ESOP), which offers employees a whole menu of CSR projects they can get involved in. So far, around 20% of M&M's employees have taken the company up on its offer. Says Rajeev Dubey, president (HR and corporate services), "In addition to doing their job well, people seek a connection with a larger cause. Through ESOP, we're offering them a structured platform."