Description
Talent management in recessionary times using cases of JP Morgan and Wipro.
Introduction
Human Resource Management is an increasingly broadening term that refers to managing "human capital," the people of an organization. The field has evolved from a traditionally administrative function to a strategic one that recognizes the link between talented and engaged people and organizational success. Employees are a group of people who work interdependently towards some purpose. Organizational behaviour knowledge is as important as its financial health. Organization Behaviour practices like performance based rewards, employee communication, work life balance, employee engagement, employee motivation, ethical values and employee performance management are very important for organization’s success. In general it was found that firms using these Organization Behaviour practices are much more progressive and healthier than firms not practicing them. In today’s era of globalization, outsourcing, off shoring, multi-sourcing and open sourcing has accelerated changes in the life at workplace for employees. Hence Organizational behaviour is of large importance to firm and its well being. The below quotes would further help us understand the gaining acknowledgement of the inter-link between employee satisfaction and organization’s growth. “The human mind is our fundamental resource.”- John Kennedy “In Japan, employees occasionally work themselves to death. It's called Karoshi. I don't want that to happen to anybody in my department. The trick is to take a break as soon as you see a bright light and hear dead relatives beckon.”- Scott Adams “Take time to appreciate employees and they will reciprocate in a thousand ways.”- Bob Nelson "The vision is really about empowering workers, giving them all the information about what's going on so they can do a lot more than they've done in the past." --Bill Gates “Recently, I was asked if I was going to fire an employee who made a mistake that cost the company $600,000. No, I replied, I just spent $600,000 training him. Why would I want somebody to hire his experience?” - Thomas J Watson “If you can make an employee happy by spending $800 on a comfortable office chair, what's $800?” – James R Uffelman.
Review of Literature
1. “Motivation, Productivity & Change Management” By John D. Benson, MBA This essay gives info regarding various motivation theories applicable in various situational contexts by managers. They have been categorized into three areas viz. Needs-based, process and reinforcement. An extract from the essay is as follows: “Productivity is closely related to motivation. For employees to be effective and efficient in their job tasks, having the technical knowledge and ability is not necessarily enough. The employee also needs the resources required to do the job. They need supportive management and leadership with a vision that is aligned with their own goals and objectives. Most importantly, an employee needs to be driven (or motivated) by some means to achieve high performance.” 2. “A Review of Employee Motivation Theories and their Implications for Employee Retention within Organizations” By Sunil Ramlall, Ph.D., University of St. Thomas, Minneapolis, MN The article provides a synthesis of employee motivation theories and offers an explanation of how employee motivation affects employee retention and other behaviours within organizations. The extract below explains how the employees should be groomed on a regular basis to meet the need of hour in the changing environment: “The concept of human capital and knowledge management is that people possess skills, experience and knowledge, and therefore have economic value to organizations. These skills, knowledge and experience represent capital because they enhance productivity (Snell and Dean, 1992). Human capital theory postulates that some labour is more productive than other labour simply because more resources have been invested into the training of that labour, in the same manner that a machine that has had more resources invested into it is apt to be more productive (Mueller, 1982).” 3. “What Really Motivates People? By Jane Strickler This article gives us the viewpoint of American managers. Managers follow the behaviourist strategy of offering rewards and punishments to motivate workers to behave in a prescribed manner. It has enlisted various factors which answers the practical question as to how to create conditions within the organization to motivate e.g. to become a values-driven organization, create a safe environment, expect people to be both responsible and accountable and encourage everyone to do his/her best.
4. “The Dynamics of Motivation in New Organizational Forms” By MARGIT OSTERLOH, JETTA FROST and BRUNO S. FREY
This paper provided the idea of the impact of the dynamics of motivation on new organizational forms that are suited to forge value-creating knowledge transfers in teams and between organizational units and functions. “Extrinsic motivation occurs when employees are able to satisfy their needs indirectly, most importantly through monetary compensation. Money as such does not provide direct utility but serves to acquire desired goods and services, an assumption which is basic to all economic analysis. Motivation is intrinsic if an activity is undertaken for the immediate satisfaction of one’s needs. Intrinsic motivation `is valued for its own sake and appears to be self sustained”.
5. “Employee Attrition and Retention. How they affect the company?”
Employee Attrition is necessary for new ideas and innovation to flow in as well as overall growth of employees in terms of knowledge sharing, But after a particular level Attrition becomes a bane. The chief cost of attrition is high demand for skilled employee and their supply is less. Attrition impacts businesses in several ways like it affects organisation’s morale, climate and motivation of employees and impact tangible assets like shareholder return and value. Employee Retention is a proactive actions of organisations to keep their employees. Several reasons for attrition are repetitive and monotonous work, long working hours with little personal time, stress and physical strain, lack of professional growth opportunities, lack of conducive environment and inter- personal problems, offer of higher salary, pursuing higher education. To increase retention of employees company chart out well defined chart out plan for career growth, provide empowerment, flexi work time, job enrichment, allowances like housing, car allowance, medical allowance etc. ,monthly awards. Work Environment and work life balance plays an important role in employee retention. The report Gives indication of less Attrition rate among employees and high retention in the study carried out in the organisation. It has increased the motivation and performance of the employees as per the data collected through various policies adopted by organisation to retain employees. The study confirms Employee Retention as an important factor in organisation. Attrition benefits organisations(like BPO’s) on one hand and harms them on the other. 6. “The Relationship Between Employee Fit Perceptions, Job Performance, and Retention: Implications of Perceived Fit.” By Wesley A. Scroggins This Literature is examining a concept. “The Importance of Self Concept- Job Fit Framework”, which can be very much said to be in its infancy. According to the article, Organizations apart from focusing on areas such as “work life balance, salary, motivation and others” should also work on ensuring that the individual (Employee’s) expectations match with the requirements of his work. According to the researcher this would not only lead to enhanced work performance but also lower levels of attrition. The researcher says when the
work of the employee matches with his perception of self the employee tends to take greater pride in his work and experiences greater Self Esteem.
“Meaningful work has become an increasingly important job outcome for individuals in recent years. Studies indicate that many employees lack experienced meaningfulness in their work and that organizations have not done a good job at creating meaningful and emotionally satisfying work experiences for employees. A person–job fit approach to meaningful work and employee retention is described that consists of matching individual self-concept with job tasks and behaviors. It is proposed that this self-concept– job fit will be strongly related to meaningful work. It is also proposed that meaningful work is related to important outcome variables valued by organizations, such as increased worker performance and employee retention”.
Objective
To understand the concept of talent engagement by way of industry survey and relate it to the concepts being studied in the course ‘Individual Dynamics and Leadership’. To conduct a research study on the work life balance in organization’s during recession.
Methodology
In order to study the employees’ responses, we had chosen to take two organizations in the service sector which are, JP Morgan Chase & Co. and WIPRO Technologies Ltd. The research for this study was done in the following three phases: Preparation of the questionnaire: The questionnaire was to be designed in such a way that it answers the following queries regarding an employee during the economic recession: 1. The Performance Reward System/policies of the organization concerned 2. Are there opportunities for employees to actively participate and involve in the organization’s core activities? 3. Is the organization person-job fit? 4. Are the employees of the organization able to balance their work and personal lives?? 5. Is there job satisfaction? After taking into consideration all the above issues, a questionnaire was prepared with 52 questions. Conducting the Survey Once the questionnaire was prepared, it was circulated through e-mail to 15 employees and 23 HR managers each of the two companies. This meant that we had a total sample size of 3436 (30 employees and 4-6 HR managers) and all the analysis would be done on the outputs obtained from this sample. The survey also included telephonic conversations with a couple of HR managers (one from each company), in order to capture the exact thought process of an HR manager during a crisis. Data Collection and Analysis Once the data was obtained from the target sample, they were imported into a MS Excel spreadsheet in order to carry out the required analysis on the output obtained. The analysis focused on answering the following questions: 1. How does an employee’s motivation level vary during a critical time such as the recession? 2. How differently does a HR manager think during a crisis as compared to his/her normal thought process? 3. Do the feelings/opinions of the employees and the HR managers match with regard to the Talent Engagement and Development that happens during a crunch situation like the recession?
4. What could be the possible solution(s)/recommendation(s) for the conflicts that come
up from this analysis?
Analysis and Discussion of Findings
Performance & Reward system: Sometimes there is a perceived problem in being fair and balanced while at the same time wanting to differentiate between people on the basis of their performance. Reward systems are the mechanisms that address this problem. However, reward systems are much more than just bonus plans and stock options. While they often include both of these incentives, they can also include awards and other recognition, promotions, reassignment, non-monetary bonuses (e.g., vacations), or even a simple “Thank you”. Participation & Involvement: Employee involvement and participation are important components of the decision making process. To make best decisions we need to involve the people who have the most valuable information and who will increase commitment to implement the decision. Participation and Involvement helps to bring in more ideas, gain employee co-operation, increase motivation and improve the industrial relations. Person-Job Fit: The concept of person – job fit is the traditional foundation for employee selection. The primary concern for employee selection has been concerned with finding applicants who have the skills and abilities to perform the job. Traditionally, P-J fit is assessed by determining the demand of the job through a job analysis, which identifies the tasks that an incumbent performs, and the requisite skills, knowledge, and abilities to perform the job tasks. Work Life balance: Work Life Balance is a means to minimise conflicts between work and non work demands. Work life balance has become one of the most important factor in employment relationship. Due to increased demand of work more and more employees are demanding for more work life balance. Also today both partners in families demand more time for household responsibilities. Employees are recognising the fact of having fun and fulfilment besides work. The work life balance to employees gives ways of aligning the workplace with employee’s expectation and also to increase workforce flexibility.
Satisfaction: Employee satisfaction is a measure of how happy workers are with their job and working environment. Keeping morale high among workers can be of tremendous benefit to any
company, as happy workers will be more likely to produce more, take fewer days off, and stay loyal to the company. There are many factors in improving or maintaining high employee satisfaction, which wise employers would do well to implement.
Company 1: J.P Morgan & Chase Co.
Introduction: JPMorgan Chase & Co. is one of the oldest financial services firms in the world. It has operations in over 60 countries. It is a leader in financial services with assets worth $2 trillion, and the largest in market capitalization and third largest deposit base U.S. banking institution behind Wells Fargo and Bank of America. The hedge fund unit of JPMorgan Chase is the second largest in the United States with $32,893 million in assets as of 2007.It was Formed in 2000 when Chase Manhattan Corporation acquired J.P. Morgan & Co., since when the firm serves millions of consumers in the United States and many of the world's most prominent corporate, institutional and governmental clients. HR values and goals:
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• •
•
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Corporate professionals are viewed as internal consultants and are respected members of business teams. Their role is to add value and enhance the firm's growth potential and revenue-producing abilities. Their cross-platform philosophy means that most of the corporate professionals have the opportunity to work in many business lines and functional areas. The corporate professionals build skill sets transferable across a wide range of business situations, such as product and project management or productivity improvement. Training and career development policies prepare corporate professionals to move into positions of responsibility on an accelerated path. Once placed, they often enjoy greater autonomy and more career options as they move forward. The firm has earned a long-standing reputation for rigour in the management of risk, with recognized industry best practices in many areas.
(Reference: http://careers.jpmorganchase.com/career/lineofbusinesscorporate)
Analysis: The charts below represent the data for the responses received from J.P Morgan Chase Co. Every point on the chart represents the mean value of the employee and HR response for each question. Number of employees: 15 Number of HR personnel: 3 Response “1” indicates Strongly Disagree Response “2” indicates Disagree
Response “3” indicates Undecided Response “4” indicates Agree Response “5” indicates Strongly Agree
I.
Performance and Reward System: (Questions 1 – 14)
1. The Correlation co-efficient for the responses of employees and HR managers was
found to be 0.44. This shows that there is a moderately positive correlation between the employees and the HR managers.
2. This indicates that there is a fair degree of agreement between the employees and the HR managers with regards to the Performance and Reward system of JPMC and Co.
II. Participation and Involvement: (Questions 15 – 20)
1. The correlation co-efficient of the responses of the employees and HR managers is
0.92. This shows that there is a high positive correlation between the thinking of the HR and the employees.
2. Therefore, we can safely conclude that the employees and the HR managers are
almost equally satisfied with the Participation and Involvement.
III. Person Job Fit: (Questions 21 – 28)
1. The correlation co-efficient between the responses of employees and HR managers is
0.27. This indicates a moderate positive correlation between the responses of employees and HR managers. But since the value is closer to zero, it can be said that there is a low degree of sameness with which the employees and HR managers’ views on whether the organisation in Person-job fit.
2. From the above curves, there is a pretty evident disagreement between the employees
and the HR managers for question 22, which is “Employees value the job they are doing.” While the HR managers have “Agreed” to it, the employees seem to have “Disagreed”. This could possibly be due to the low motivational levels of employees during the recession period.
IV. Work Life Balance: (Questions 29 – 46)
1. The correlation co-efficient between the responses of employees and the HR
managers is 0.44. This shows that there is a moderate positive correlation between the two responses. Since the value is slightly higher compared to the previous attribute, we can conclude that there is a greater degree of agreement between employees and HR managers about the work-life balance at JPMC.
2. As we can see in the graph, though the pattern of the two responses are very similar, it
can be seen that responses from the HR managers are closer to “1” than the employees. This indicates that the HR managers’ work-life balance is affected to a considerable extent due to the increased burden on them during the recession time.
V. Satisfaction: (Questions 47 – 52)
1. The correlation co-efficient between the responses of employees and the HR
managers is 0.44. This shows that there is a moderate positive correlation between the two responses. Since the value is slightly higher compared to the previous attribute, we can infer that there is a greater degree of agreement between employees and HR managers about the Job satisfaction at JPMC.
2. On the flip side, though the trends of the two graphs are the same, there are places where the employees have responded “Undecided” as compared to the HR managers as “Agree”. This shows that the employees are a little unsure and are sceptical about giving a honest opinion on their Job Satisfaction. This may be due to the fear of losing their jobs due to the economic slowdown and especially with so many layoffs being announced.
Company 2: Wipro Technologies
Introduction:
Wipro Limited is the first PCMM Level 5 and SEI CMM Level 5 certified global IT Services Company. Wipro is one of the largest product engineering and support service providers worldwide. Wipro provides comprehensive research and development services, IT solutions and services, including systems integration, Information Systems outsourcing, package implementation, software application development and maintenance services to corporations globally. In Germany, Wipro trades under the name of WITfotech Solutions. HR Values and Goals:
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All employee selection procedures will be thorough, conducted against defined criteria and will deal only with the applicant's suitability for the job. Wipro ensures that it values and respects the cultural contribution of all its employees who are hired from over 40 nationalities. It provides opportunities to all employees and interview candidates to voice their concerns regarding accessibility to ensure that there is appropriate infrastructural or process oriented changes made to make it an inclusive environment where employees feel their differences are respected and valued, not just tolerated. Wipro's employees are given opportunities to be trained on appropriate systems, processes and modules regardless of sex, race, marital status, socio-economic background, disability, age, sexual orientation or religion. All employees will be encouraged to discuss their career prospects and training needs with their Manager/Supervisor or the HR Department.
(Reference: http://careers.wipro.com/why_wipro/equal_opportunity.htm)
Analysis: The charts below represent the data for the responses received from Wipro Technologies. Every point on the chart represents the mean value of the employee and HR response for each question. Number of employees: 15 Number of HR personnel: 2 Response “1” indicates Strongly Disagree Response “2” indicates Disagree Response “3” indicates Undecided Response “4” indicates Agree Response “5” indicates Strongly Agree
I.
Performance and Reward System: (Questions 1 – 14)
1. The correlation co-efficient between the responses of the employees and the HR
managers is -0.24. This indicates that there is a moderate negative correlation between the two responses.
2. This shows that there is a moderate degree of disagreement in the way employees and
HR managers feel about the Performance and Reward system of WIPRO Technologies. While the employees are not totally supportive of the Performance and Reward system, most HR managers feel that the reward policies are in place.
II. Participation and Involvement: (Questions 15 – 20)
1. The correlation co-efficient between the responses of the employees and HR
managers is -0.1. This again shows that there is a low negative correlation between the two responses.
2. Therefore, it can be said that there is a slight disagreement between the employees
and HR managers of WIPRO Technologies with regards to Participation and Involvement of employees in the decision-making process.
III. Person Job Fit: (Questions 21 – 28)
1. The co-efficient of correlation between the two responses of the employees and HR managers is 0.26.
2. Since there is a moderate positive correlation between the two responses, we can
deduce the fact that though there are disagreements evident in the previous two attributes, the two parties seems to have a greater degree of sameness in the way they think about the organization as a person-job fit.
3. From the graph, we can notice that the organization is not person-job fit as seen by the employees.
IV. Work Life Balance: (Questions 29 – 46)
1. The co-efficient of correlation between the responses of the employees and HR
managers is -0.64. This is clearly a case of a higher degree of negative correlation.
2. What this implies, is, that there is a greater degree of disagreement between the
employees and the HR managers with regards to the degree of Work-Life balance that is prevalent in WIPRO Technologies.
3. The graph of the HR managers suggests that the HR managers are able to balance their work life better than the employees.
V. Satisfaction: (Questions 47 – 52)
1. The co-efficient of correlation between the two responses of the employees and HR managers is 0.34.
2. Since there is a moderate positive correlation between the two responses, we can
deduce the fact that the two parties seem to have a greater degree of sameness in the way they think about the Job satisfaction experienced in WIPRO Technologies.
3. Despite all the disagreements that had been noticed in the previous attributes, both the employees and HR managers seem to agree to a certain extent that there is some amount of Job satisfaction derived from working at WIPRO Technologies, but at the same time feel that there is scope for improvement.
Conclusion and Recommendations
As we have seen from the analysis of the survey done with the two organizations JPMC & Co and Wipro Technologies, we can definitively say that JPMC and Co seems to have done a better job that the latter in terms of Talent Engagement and Development. The reason for this is that there is a lot of disagreements observed between the employees and the HR managers of Wipro as compared with those of JPMC and Co. As per a deeper survey with the employees of Wipro, the following issues seem to be possible causes for the findings of the survey:
1. The employees are apprised based on Competency exams. Though this idea was
initiated by the management of Wipro, the implementation of the same has been done in a very complicated manner. For instance, a person working in a “Testing and Quality Assurance” team could be expected to clear competency exams of a domain that is totally out of the scope of his current project requirements. And because this is reflected in the appraisal, the employees are under undue pressure to clear exams which they actually do not require at all
2. There are not enough recreation activities organised by Wipro for its employees. Though each project account have their own ways of recreation, there are not many common events that happen for the employees’ stress relief. On the flip side, JPMC and Co have such events at very frequent intervals, as frequent as two days a month, which acts as a “Stress buster” for the employees who have been slogging day in and day out on meeting deadlines.
3. There are occasions where the employees are made to report to people who do not have any direct connection with the work done by the employee. This makes it highly difficult for the employee to raise any concerns or issues faced while working. Also, the employee’s work is not monitored and there may be a feeling of neglect from the employee’s side.
Based on the above findings, the following recommendations could be made to make Wipro be more effective in Talent Engagement and motivating the employees:
1. The “Competency” based appraisal system must be replaced with a “Performance”
based appraisal system. This will help the employee better in terms of meeting his/her deadlines and will also give a greater sense of job satisfaction as it reflects directly in the appraisal. The problem with a “Competency” based system is that and employee may get caught in between his work and his competency exams and may end up being under-utilised. The Company can incorporate the 360* Performance Appraisal Method followed by J.P Morgan
2. There must be more recreation created for the employees of Wipro. And since, Wipro
is a very large organisation in terms of work force, they must ensure that all the employees get a fair run of such events, as there may be a possibility of one offshore centre getting more of such events than other offshore centres. J.P Morgan can be called the pioneers in this regards, the company ensures that there are at least 2 on the floor events per month(usually Friday’s) to ensure good motivation levels.
3. Both the companies must also take further care in placing its employees in projects
that match both their individual skill set, as well as comply with their ambitions. By doing so, the employee will get a feeling of encouragement from the organization and hence the motivation and commitment levels will be higher than normal. If company cannot really accommodate individual’s ambitions with the job requirements then they could look to allot some corporate projects related to the employee’s ambitions. The company can then select and reward the best project leading to sense of satisfaction and achievement in the Employee.
4. Wipro must also ensure that the employees are mapped to managers in such a way
both the managers and the employees are accessible to each other and it makes the appraisal process much simpler and fair. The company should look to give the employees more decision powers which would lead ownership and attachment towards one’s job.
We conclude by saying that hiring an Employee may be easy but retaining a talented employee is definitely difficult, hence organisations should proactively take measures to deal with employee discontent even if it may require the Manager to go beyond his duties.
ANNEXURE - I Work Life Questionnaire Organizations and their work force have been badly hit due to world wide economic recession. Still many of the organizations have managed to stay afloat. We, students of NMIMS, Mumbai are conducting a research study on work life during recession. We would appreciate your views on the question/statements presented in this questionnaire. Your views will be kept confidential and will be used only for academic purposes. We highly appreciate your contribution to our academic endeavour. Your comments and feedback on this questionnaire are most welcome. If you have any question regarding this study we will be glad to discuss with you. Kindly go through each statement and tick the appropriate answer. Strongly Disagree 1 Disagree Undecided Agree Strongly Agree 2 3 4 5
During these recessionary time; 1. Our organization keeps a track of employee performance in a judicial manner. 2. Our organization provides feedback to its employee on regular interval. 3. The mechanisms of measuring employees’ performance are fair and just. 4. Our organization provide exceptional rewards to high performing employees 5. Our organization take enough care in rewarding mediocre and poor performing employees 6. Employees with poor performance are discouraged in this organization. 7. Our organization considers seniority as the basis of rewarding performance. 8. Employees’ in this organization are rewarded with monetary benefits than nonmonetary benefits. 9. Monetary rewards are affected because of recession. 10. Employees at Middle and senior management levels are badly affected in terms of monetary gains due to recession. 11. Employees at junior level recession. are badly affected in terms of monetary gains due to
12. Employees are encouraged to settle for non monetary rewards rather than monetary ones. 13. Employees find their salary remuneration fair considering what other firms in this area pay. 14. Our organization gives a choice to its employees to select the job profile of their choice. 15. Employees are encouraged to participate in decision making process of their team/department. 16. In our organization superior and subordinate set their performance goals in consultation to each other. 17. Employees are given enough authority to make decisions of their choice. 18. Employees get opportunity to contribute to the organization’s mission. 19. Employees are encouraged to bring in new ideas. 20. Ideas and suggestions given by employees are recognised by management. 21. Job roles of employees are assigned as per their capabilities. 22. Employees value the job they are doing. 23. Organization takes care towards skill development of employees whenever it is needed. 24. Special training is provided to managers/supervisors for managing relationship on the job. 25. Employees are encouraged towards learning new competencies and growth. 26. Career development of employees is taken care in this organization. 27. Talent pool is properly utilized in this organization. 28. Employees feel valued in this organization. 29. Working in this organization is fun. 30. Employees get enough time to pursue their individual goals. 31. Employees can adjust work timing as per their requirement and still complete their targets. 32. Recreational activities are normal part of this organization. 33. Working hours are long and strenuous. 34. Due to recession working life has become chaotic. 35. Employee health is a concern for past one year. 36. Employees find their work load reasonable.
37. Management does everything to ensure the well being of the employees. 38. A large proportion of the job is rush job. 39. Employees are often asked to speed up their job. 40. Employees get time for relaxation during work hours. 41. Employees are able to keep balance between work life and personal life. 42. Management is liberal in providing leaves as per employees’ requirement. 43. Management allow employees to undertake a sabbatical( fixed period of leave up to 2 years to undertake study, maternity leave, travel). 44. Employees allowed to work from home or outside of central workplace. 45. Our organization allows/pay for counselling the services of employees experiencing family/work stress. 46. Our organization takes initiatives such as – Quit Smoking Programmes or Dietary Advice programmes to improve the health of the employees. 47. Employees would prefer to remain in this organization for next 5 years or more. 48. Employees are satisfies with the time given to complete the work. 49. Employees are satisfied with the reward system in the organization. 50. Employees are satisfied with their career growth in this organization. 51. Interpersonal relationships are satisfying in this organization. 52. Overall employees are satisfied with the organization.
Age: …………years Education …………………………………… No. of dependents: ………………………… Marital Status: ……………………………… Total Service Experience: …………………………… Salary: …………………… (Monthly) Name of Organization: ………………………………………… Hierarchical level: ……………………………… Date: …………………………………………… Place: ……………………………………………
doc_650469745.doc
Talent management in recessionary times using cases of JP Morgan and Wipro.
Introduction
Human Resource Management is an increasingly broadening term that refers to managing "human capital," the people of an organization. The field has evolved from a traditionally administrative function to a strategic one that recognizes the link between talented and engaged people and organizational success. Employees are a group of people who work interdependently towards some purpose. Organizational behaviour knowledge is as important as its financial health. Organization Behaviour practices like performance based rewards, employee communication, work life balance, employee engagement, employee motivation, ethical values and employee performance management are very important for organization’s success. In general it was found that firms using these Organization Behaviour practices are much more progressive and healthier than firms not practicing them. In today’s era of globalization, outsourcing, off shoring, multi-sourcing and open sourcing has accelerated changes in the life at workplace for employees. Hence Organizational behaviour is of large importance to firm and its well being. The below quotes would further help us understand the gaining acknowledgement of the inter-link between employee satisfaction and organization’s growth. “The human mind is our fundamental resource.”- John Kennedy “In Japan, employees occasionally work themselves to death. It's called Karoshi. I don't want that to happen to anybody in my department. The trick is to take a break as soon as you see a bright light and hear dead relatives beckon.”- Scott Adams “Take time to appreciate employees and they will reciprocate in a thousand ways.”- Bob Nelson "The vision is really about empowering workers, giving them all the information about what's going on so they can do a lot more than they've done in the past." --Bill Gates “Recently, I was asked if I was going to fire an employee who made a mistake that cost the company $600,000. No, I replied, I just spent $600,000 training him. Why would I want somebody to hire his experience?” - Thomas J Watson “If you can make an employee happy by spending $800 on a comfortable office chair, what's $800?” – James R Uffelman.
Review of Literature
1. “Motivation, Productivity & Change Management” By John D. Benson, MBA This essay gives info regarding various motivation theories applicable in various situational contexts by managers. They have been categorized into three areas viz. Needs-based, process and reinforcement. An extract from the essay is as follows: “Productivity is closely related to motivation. For employees to be effective and efficient in their job tasks, having the technical knowledge and ability is not necessarily enough. The employee also needs the resources required to do the job. They need supportive management and leadership with a vision that is aligned with their own goals and objectives. Most importantly, an employee needs to be driven (or motivated) by some means to achieve high performance.” 2. “A Review of Employee Motivation Theories and their Implications for Employee Retention within Organizations” By Sunil Ramlall, Ph.D., University of St. Thomas, Minneapolis, MN The article provides a synthesis of employee motivation theories and offers an explanation of how employee motivation affects employee retention and other behaviours within organizations. The extract below explains how the employees should be groomed on a regular basis to meet the need of hour in the changing environment: “The concept of human capital and knowledge management is that people possess skills, experience and knowledge, and therefore have economic value to organizations. These skills, knowledge and experience represent capital because they enhance productivity (Snell and Dean, 1992). Human capital theory postulates that some labour is more productive than other labour simply because more resources have been invested into the training of that labour, in the same manner that a machine that has had more resources invested into it is apt to be more productive (Mueller, 1982).” 3. “What Really Motivates People? By Jane Strickler This article gives us the viewpoint of American managers. Managers follow the behaviourist strategy of offering rewards and punishments to motivate workers to behave in a prescribed manner. It has enlisted various factors which answers the practical question as to how to create conditions within the organization to motivate e.g. to become a values-driven organization, create a safe environment, expect people to be both responsible and accountable and encourage everyone to do his/her best.
4. “The Dynamics of Motivation in New Organizational Forms” By MARGIT OSTERLOH, JETTA FROST and BRUNO S. FREY
This paper provided the idea of the impact of the dynamics of motivation on new organizational forms that are suited to forge value-creating knowledge transfers in teams and between organizational units and functions. “Extrinsic motivation occurs when employees are able to satisfy their needs indirectly, most importantly through monetary compensation. Money as such does not provide direct utility but serves to acquire desired goods and services, an assumption which is basic to all economic analysis. Motivation is intrinsic if an activity is undertaken for the immediate satisfaction of one’s needs. Intrinsic motivation `is valued for its own sake and appears to be self sustained”.
5. “Employee Attrition and Retention. How they affect the company?”
Employee Attrition is necessary for new ideas and innovation to flow in as well as overall growth of employees in terms of knowledge sharing, But after a particular level Attrition becomes a bane. The chief cost of attrition is high demand for skilled employee and their supply is less. Attrition impacts businesses in several ways like it affects organisation’s morale, climate and motivation of employees and impact tangible assets like shareholder return and value. Employee Retention is a proactive actions of organisations to keep their employees. Several reasons for attrition are repetitive and monotonous work, long working hours with little personal time, stress and physical strain, lack of professional growth opportunities, lack of conducive environment and inter- personal problems, offer of higher salary, pursuing higher education. To increase retention of employees company chart out well defined chart out plan for career growth, provide empowerment, flexi work time, job enrichment, allowances like housing, car allowance, medical allowance etc. ,monthly awards. Work Environment and work life balance plays an important role in employee retention. The report Gives indication of less Attrition rate among employees and high retention in the study carried out in the organisation. It has increased the motivation and performance of the employees as per the data collected through various policies adopted by organisation to retain employees. The study confirms Employee Retention as an important factor in organisation. Attrition benefits organisations(like BPO’s) on one hand and harms them on the other. 6. “The Relationship Between Employee Fit Perceptions, Job Performance, and Retention: Implications of Perceived Fit.” By Wesley A. Scroggins This Literature is examining a concept. “The Importance of Self Concept- Job Fit Framework”, which can be very much said to be in its infancy. According to the article, Organizations apart from focusing on areas such as “work life balance, salary, motivation and others” should also work on ensuring that the individual (Employee’s) expectations match with the requirements of his work. According to the researcher this would not only lead to enhanced work performance but also lower levels of attrition. The researcher says when the
work of the employee matches with his perception of self the employee tends to take greater pride in his work and experiences greater Self Esteem.
“Meaningful work has become an increasingly important job outcome for individuals in recent years. Studies indicate that many employees lack experienced meaningfulness in their work and that organizations have not done a good job at creating meaningful and emotionally satisfying work experiences for employees. A person–job fit approach to meaningful work and employee retention is described that consists of matching individual self-concept with job tasks and behaviors. It is proposed that this self-concept– job fit will be strongly related to meaningful work. It is also proposed that meaningful work is related to important outcome variables valued by organizations, such as increased worker performance and employee retention”.
Objective
To understand the concept of talent engagement by way of industry survey and relate it to the concepts being studied in the course ‘Individual Dynamics and Leadership’. To conduct a research study on the work life balance in organization’s during recession.
Methodology
In order to study the employees’ responses, we had chosen to take two organizations in the service sector which are, JP Morgan Chase & Co. and WIPRO Technologies Ltd. The research for this study was done in the following three phases: Preparation of the questionnaire: The questionnaire was to be designed in such a way that it answers the following queries regarding an employee during the economic recession: 1. The Performance Reward System/policies of the organization concerned 2. Are there opportunities for employees to actively participate and involve in the organization’s core activities? 3. Is the organization person-job fit? 4. Are the employees of the organization able to balance their work and personal lives?? 5. Is there job satisfaction? After taking into consideration all the above issues, a questionnaire was prepared with 52 questions. Conducting the Survey Once the questionnaire was prepared, it was circulated through e-mail to 15 employees and 23 HR managers each of the two companies. This meant that we had a total sample size of 3436 (30 employees and 4-6 HR managers) and all the analysis would be done on the outputs obtained from this sample. The survey also included telephonic conversations with a couple of HR managers (one from each company), in order to capture the exact thought process of an HR manager during a crisis. Data Collection and Analysis Once the data was obtained from the target sample, they were imported into a MS Excel spreadsheet in order to carry out the required analysis on the output obtained. The analysis focused on answering the following questions: 1. How does an employee’s motivation level vary during a critical time such as the recession? 2. How differently does a HR manager think during a crisis as compared to his/her normal thought process? 3. Do the feelings/opinions of the employees and the HR managers match with regard to the Talent Engagement and Development that happens during a crunch situation like the recession?
4. What could be the possible solution(s)/recommendation(s) for the conflicts that come
up from this analysis?
Analysis and Discussion of Findings
Performance & Reward system: Sometimes there is a perceived problem in being fair and balanced while at the same time wanting to differentiate between people on the basis of their performance. Reward systems are the mechanisms that address this problem. However, reward systems are much more than just bonus plans and stock options. While they often include both of these incentives, they can also include awards and other recognition, promotions, reassignment, non-monetary bonuses (e.g., vacations), or even a simple “Thank you”. Participation & Involvement: Employee involvement and participation are important components of the decision making process. To make best decisions we need to involve the people who have the most valuable information and who will increase commitment to implement the decision. Participation and Involvement helps to bring in more ideas, gain employee co-operation, increase motivation and improve the industrial relations. Person-Job Fit: The concept of person – job fit is the traditional foundation for employee selection. The primary concern for employee selection has been concerned with finding applicants who have the skills and abilities to perform the job. Traditionally, P-J fit is assessed by determining the demand of the job through a job analysis, which identifies the tasks that an incumbent performs, and the requisite skills, knowledge, and abilities to perform the job tasks. Work Life balance: Work Life Balance is a means to minimise conflicts between work and non work demands. Work life balance has become one of the most important factor in employment relationship. Due to increased demand of work more and more employees are demanding for more work life balance. Also today both partners in families demand more time for household responsibilities. Employees are recognising the fact of having fun and fulfilment besides work. The work life balance to employees gives ways of aligning the workplace with employee’s expectation and also to increase workforce flexibility.
Satisfaction: Employee satisfaction is a measure of how happy workers are with their job and working environment. Keeping morale high among workers can be of tremendous benefit to any
company, as happy workers will be more likely to produce more, take fewer days off, and stay loyal to the company. There are many factors in improving or maintaining high employee satisfaction, which wise employers would do well to implement.
Company 1: J.P Morgan & Chase Co.
Introduction: JPMorgan Chase & Co. is one of the oldest financial services firms in the world. It has operations in over 60 countries. It is a leader in financial services with assets worth $2 trillion, and the largest in market capitalization and third largest deposit base U.S. banking institution behind Wells Fargo and Bank of America. The hedge fund unit of JPMorgan Chase is the second largest in the United States with $32,893 million in assets as of 2007.It was Formed in 2000 when Chase Manhattan Corporation acquired J.P. Morgan & Co., since when the firm serves millions of consumers in the United States and many of the world's most prominent corporate, institutional and governmental clients. HR values and goals:
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Corporate professionals are viewed as internal consultants and are respected members of business teams. Their role is to add value and enhance the firm's growth potential and revenue-producing abilities. Their cross-platform philosophy means that most of the corporate professionals have the opportunity to work in many business lines and functional areas. The corporate professionals build skill sets transferable across a wide range of business situations, such as product and project management or productivity improvement. Training and career development policies prepare corporate professionals to move into positions of responsibility on an accelerated path. Once placed, they often enjoy greater autonomy and more career options as they move forward. The firm has earned a long-standing reputation for rigour in the management of risk, with recognized industry best practices in many areas.
(Reference: http://careers.jpmorganchase.com/career/lineofbusinesscorporate)
Analysis: The charts below represent the data for the responses received from J.P Morgan Chase Co. Every point on the chart represents the mean value of the employee and HR response for each question. Number of employees: 15 Number of HR personnel: 3 Response “1” indicates Strongly Disagree Response “2” indicates Disagree
Response “3” indicates Undecided Response “4” indicates Agree Response “5” indicates Strongly Agree
I.
Performance and Reward System: (Questions 1 – 14)
1. The Correlation co-efficient for the responses of employees and HR managers was
found to be 0.44. This shows that there is a moderately positive correlation between the employees and the HR managers.
2. This indicates that there is a fair degree of agreement between the employees and the HR managers with regards to the Performance and Reward system of JPMC and Co.
II. Participation and Involvement: (Questions 15 – 20)
1. The correlation co-efficient of the responses of the employees and HR managers is
0.92. This shows that there is a high positive correlation between the thinking of the HR and the employees.
2. Therefore, we can safely conclude that the employees and the HR managers are
almost equally satisfied with the Participation and Involvement.
III. Person Job Fit: (Questions 21 – 28)
1. The correlation co-efficient between the responses of employees and HR managers is
0.27. This indicates a moderate positive correlation between the responses of employees and HR managers. But since the value is closer to zero, it can be said that there is a low degree of sameness with which the employees and HR managers’ views on whether the organisation in Person-job fit.
2. From the above curves, there is a pretty evident disagreement between the employees
and the HR managers for question 22, which is “Employees value the job they are doing.” While the HR managers have “Agreed” to it, the employees seem to have “Disagreed”. This could possibly be due to the low motivational levels of employees during the recession period.
IV. Work Life Balance: (Questions 29 – 46)
1. The correlation co-efficient between the responses of employees and the HR
managers is 0.44. This shows that there is a moderate positive correlation between the two responses. Since the value is slightly higher compared to the previous attribute, we can conclude that there is a greater degree of agreement between employees and HR managers about the work-life balance at JPMC.
2. As we can see in the graph, though the pattern of the two responses are very similar, it
can be seen that responses from the HR managers are closer to “1” than the employees. This indicates that the HR managers’ work-life balance is affected to a considerable extent due to the increased burden on them during the recession time.
V. Satisfaction: (Questions 47 – 52)
1. The correlation co-efficient between the responses of employees and the HR
managers is 0.44. This shows that there is a moderate positive correlation between the two responses. Since the value is slightly higher compared to the previous attribute, we can infer that there is a greater degree of agreement between employees and HR managers about the Job satisfaction at JPMC.
2. On the flip side, though the trends of the two graphs are the same, there are places where the employees have responded “Undecided” as compared to the HR managers as “Agree”. This shows that the employees are a little unsure and are sceptical about giving a honest opinion on their Job Satisfaction. This may be due to the fear of losing their jobs due to the economic slowdown and especially with so many layoffs being announced.
Company 2: Wipro Technologies
Introduction:
Wipro Limited is the first PCMM Level 5 and SEI CMM Level 5 certified global IT Services Company. Wipro is one of the largest product engineering and support service providers worldwide. Wipro provides comprehensive research and development services, IT solutions and services, including systems integration, Information Systems outsourcing, package implementation, software application development and maintenance services to corporations globally. In Germany, Wipro trades under the name of WITfotech Solutions. HR Values and Goals:
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All employee selection procedures will be thorough, conducted against defined criteria and will deal only with the applicant's suitability for the job. Wipro ensures that it values and respects the cultural contribution of all its employees who are hired from over 40 nationalities. It provides opportunities to all employees and interview candidates to voice their concerns regarding accessibility to ensure that there is appropriate infrastructural or process oriented changes made to make it an inclusive environment where employees feel their differences are respected and valued, not just tolerated. Wipro's employees are given opportunities to be trained on appropriate systems, processes and modules regardless of sex, race, marital status, socio-economic background, disability, age, sexual orientation or religion. All employees will be encouraged to discuss their career prospects and training needs with their Manager/Supervisor or the HR Department.
(Reference: http://careers.wipro.com/why_wipro/equal_opportunity.htm)
Analysis: The charts below represent the data for the responses received from Wipro Technologies. Every point on the chart represents the mean value of the employee and HR response for each question. Number of employees: 15 Number of HR personnel: 2 Response “1” indicates Strongly Disagree Response “2” indicates Disagree Response “3” indicates Undecided Response “4” indicates Agree Response “5” indicates Strongly Agree
I.
Performance and Reward System: (Questions 1 – 14)
1. The correlation co-efficient between the responses of the employees and the HR
managers is -0.24. This indicates that there is a moderate negative correlation between the two responses.
2. This shows that there is a moderate degree of disagreement in the way employees and
HR managers feel about the Performance and Reward system of WIPRO Technologies. While the employees are not totally supportive of the Performance and Reward system, most HR managers feel that the reward policies are in place.
II. Participation and Involvement: (Questions 15 – 20)
1. The correlation co-efficient between the responses of the employees and HR
managers is -0.1. This again shows that there is a low negative correlation between the two responses.
2. Therefore, it can be said that there is a slight disagreement between the employees
and HR managers of WIPRO Technologies with regards to Participation and Involvement of employees in the decision-making process.
III. Person Job Fit: (Questions 21 – 28)
1. The co-efficient of correlation between the two responses of the employees and HR managers is 0.26.
2. Since there is a moderate positive correlation between the two responses, we can
deduce the fact that though there are disagreements evident in the previous two attributes, the two parties seems to have a greater degree of sameness in the way they think about the organization as a person-job fit.
3. From the graph, we can notice that the organization is not person-job fit as seen by the employees.
IV. Work Life Balance: (Questions 29 – 46)
1. The co-efficient of correlation between the responses of the employees and HR
managers is -0.64. This is clearly a case of a higher degree of negative correlation.
2. What this implies, is, that there is a greater degree of disagreement between the
employees and the HR managers with regards to the degree of Work-Life balance that is prevalent in WIPRO Technologies.
3. The graph of the HR managers suggests that the HR managers are able to balance their work life better than the employees.
V. Satisfaction: (Questions 47 – 52)
1. The co-efficient of correlation between the two responses of the employees and HR managers is 0.34.
2. Since there is a moderate positive correlation between the two responses, we can
deduce the fact that the two parties seem to have a greater degree of sameness in the way they think about the Job satisfaction experienced in WIPRO Technologies.
3. Despite all the disagreements that had been noticed in the previous attributes, both the employees and HR managers seem to agree to a certain extent that there is some amount of Job satisfaction derived from working at WIPRO Technologies, but at the same time feel that there is scope for improvement.
Conclusion and Recommendations
As we have seen from the analysis of the survey done with the two organizations JPMC & Co and Wipro Technologies, we can definitively say that JPMC and Co seems to have done a better job that the latter in terms of Talent Engagement and Development. The reason for this is that there is a lot of disagreements observed between the employees and the HR managers of Wipro as compared with those of JPMC and Co. As per a deeper survey with the employees of Wipro, the following issues seem to be possible causes for the findings of the survey:
1. The employees are apprised based on Competency exams. Though this idea was
initiated by the management of Wipro, the implementation of the same has been done in a very complicated manner. For instance, a person working in a “Testing and Quality Assurance” team could be expected to clear competency exams of a domain that is totally out of the scope of his current project requirements. And because this is reflected in the appraisal, the employees are under undue pressure to clear exams which they actually do not require at all
2. There are not enough recreation activities organised by Wipro for its employees. Though each project account have their own ways of recreation, there are not many common events that happen for the employees’ stress relief. On the flip side, JPMC and Co have such events at very frequent intervals, as frequent as two days a month, which acts as a “Stress buster” for the employees who have been slogging day in and day out on meeting deadlines.
3. There are occasions where the employees are made to report to people who do not have any direct connection with the work done by the employee. This makes it highly difficult for the employee to raise any concerns or issues faced while working. Also, the employee’s work is not monitored and there may be a feeling of neglect from the employee’s side.
Based on the above findings, the following recommendations could be made to make Wipro be more effective in Talent Engagement and motivating the employees:
1. The “Competency” based appraisal system must be replaced with a “Performance”
based appraisal system. This will help the employee better in terms of meeting his/her deadlines and will also give a greater sense of job satisfaction as it reflects directly in the appraisal. The problem with a “Competency” based system is that and employee may get caught in between his work and his competency exams and may end up being under-utilised. The Company can incorporate the 360* Performance Appraisal Method followed by J.P Morgan
2. There must be more recreation created for the employees of Wipro. And since, Wipro
is a very large organisation in terms of work force, they must ensure that all the employees get a fair run of such events, as there may be a possibility of one offshore centre getting more of such events than other offshore centres. J.P Morgan can be called the pioneers in this regards, the company ensures that there are at least 2 on the floor events per month(usually Friday’s) to ensure good motivation levels.
3. Both the companies must also take further care in placing its employees in projects
that match both their individual skill set, as well as comply with their ambitions. By doing so, the employee will get a feeling of encouragement from the organization and hence the motivation and commitment levels will be higher than normal. If company cannot really accommodate individual’s ambitions with the job requirements then they could look to allot some corporate projects related to the employee’s ambitions. The company can then select and reward the best project leading to sense of satisfaction and achievement in the Employee.
4. Wipro must also ensure that the employees are mapped to managers in such a way
both the managers and the employees are accessible to each other and it makes the appraisal process much simpler and fair. The company should look to give the employees more decision powers which would lead ownership and attachment towards one’s job.
We conclude by saying that hiring an Employee may be easy but retaining a talented employee is definitely difficult, hence organisations should proactively take measures to deal with employee discontent even if it may require the Manager to go beyond his duties.
ANNEXURE - I Work Life Questionnaire Organizations and their work force have been badly hit due to world wide economic recession. Still many of the organizations have managed to stay afloat. We, students of NMIMS, Mumbai are conducting a research study on work life during recession. We would appreciate your views on the question/statements presented in this questionnaire. Your views will be kept confidential and will be used only for academic purposes. We highly appreciate your contribution to our academic endeavour. Your comments and feedback on this questionnaire are most welcome. If you have any question regarding this study we will be glad to discuss with you. Kindly go through each statement and tick the appropriate answer. Strongly Disagree 1 Disagree Undecided Agree Strongly Agree 2 3 4 5
During these recessionary time; 1. Our organization keeps a track of employee performance in a judicial manner. 2. Our organization provides feedback to its employee on regular interval. 3. The mechanisms of measuring employees’ performance are fair and just. 4. Our organization provide exceptional rewards to high performing employees 5. Our organization take enough care in rewarding mediocre and poor performing employees 6. Employees with poor performance are discouraged in this organization. 7. Our organization considers seniority as the basis of rewarding performance. 8. Employees’ in this organization are rewarded with monetary benefits than nonmonetary benefits. 9. Monetary rewards are affected because of recession. 10. Employees at Middle and senior management levels are badly affected in terms of monetary gains due to recession. 11. Employees at junior level recession. are badly affected in terms of monetary gains due to
12. Employees are encouraged to settle for non monetary rewards rather than monetary ones. 13. Employees find their salary remuneration fair considering what other firms in this area pay. 14. Our organization gives a choice to its employees to select the job profile of their choice. 15. Employees are encouraged to participate in decision making process of their team/department. 16. In our organization superior and subordinate set their performance goals in consultation to each other. 17. Employees are given enough authority to make decisions of their choice. 18. Employees get opportunity to contribute to the organization’s mission. 19. Employees are encouraged to bring in new ideas. 20. Ideas and suggestions given by employees are recognised by management. 21. Job roles of employees are assigned as per their capabilities. 22. Employees value the job they are doing. 23. Organization takes care towards skill development of employees whenever it is needed. 24. Special training is provided to managers/supervisors for managing relationship on the job. 25. Employees are encouraged towards learning new competencies and growth. 26. Career development of employees is taken care in this organization. 27. Talent pool is properly utilized in this organization. 28. Employees feel valued in this organization. 29. Working in this organization is fun. 30. Employees get enough time to pursue their individual goals. 31. Employees can adjust work timing as per their requirement and still complete their targets. 32. Recreational activities are normal part of this organization. 33. Working hours are long and strenuous. 34. Due to recession working life has become chaotic. 35. Employee health is a concern for past one year. 36. Employees find their work load reasonable.
37. Management does everything to ensure the well being of the employees. 38. A large proportion of the job is rush job. 39. Employees are often asked to speed up their job. 40. Employees get time for relaxation during work hours. 41. Employees are able to keep balance between work life and personal life. 42. Management is liberal in providing leaves as per employees’ requirement. 43. Management allow employees to undertake a sabbatical( fixed period of leave up to 2 years to undertake study, maternity leave, travel). 44. Employees allowed to work from home or outside of central workplace. 45. Our organization allows/pay for counselling the services of employees experiencing family/work stress. 46. Our organization takes initiatives such as – Quit Smoking Programmes or Dietary Advice programmes to improve the health of the employees. 47. Employees would prefer to remain in this organization for next 5 years or more. 48. Employees are satisfies with the time given to complete the work. 49. Employees are satisfied with the reward system in the organization. 50. Employees are satisfied with their career growth in this organization. 51. Interpersonal relationships are satisfying in this organization. 52. Overall employees are satisfied with the organization.
Age: …………years Education …………………………………… No. of dependents: ………………………… Marital Status: ……………………………… Total Service Experience: …………………………… Salary: …………………… (Monthly) Name of Organization: ………………………………………… Hierarchical level: ……………………………… Date: …………………………………………… Place: ……………………………………………
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