Employee Relations-Key to Organization Success

My core interest in Human Resource management is Employee relations function.It plays a very major role in any organization.For a healthy and successful organization the relations between the management and employees should be smooth,this can be achieved only through effective employees relations team in the organization.

The main functions in Employees relations are as follows,
1.Enabling smooth transition of new joins into the company by anchoring fresher/later induction and on-boarding programs
2.Creating a healthy and positive work environment necessary to stimulate and engage bright young minds.
3.People compliance by doing Background verification, criminal verification, client requirement verification etc..
4.Handling Employee Communication by holding, Open Houses, Chat Sessions, Skip level meetings.
5.Foster bonding among employees and employee families through RnR ceremonies, cultural and sport events, health and safety events, Petit Day.
6.Promoting a congenial, employee friendly work environment .
7.Lending a helping hand during crises situations and employee emergencies.
8.Encouraging and facilitating resolution of employee complaints and grievances.
9.Ensures organization values are upheld, through value dissemination and timely disciplinary actions.
10.Handling activities related to remuneration and policies for Subsidiaries.
11.At the development centers in various locations, ER team also plays the extended role of other functions of HRD and anchors various HR initiatives for the development center.

Being a part of employees relations team requires lots of patience and innovative thinking skills.In the previous company i worked,the employee relations team was really efficient and bought about many changes in the organization which fostered a positive environment for all employees.Its mantra was "Employee First".The organization hardly believed that the satisfaction of internal customers (Employees) would automatically lead to the satisfaction of external customers.

Even if an employee is paid in lakhs,he would give more productivity and stay with the organization for long time only if he is satisfied with the work environment.This is mainly taken care by the ER team.Thus employees relations team is one of the key to organization success.I aspire to be a part of such team in a Good organization.

Customer Satisfaction

In today's global economy,customers are still the lifeblood of any business.In a competitive marketplace where businesses compete for customers, customer satisfaction is seen as a key differentiator and increasingly has become a key element of business strategy.Without customers to purchase a company products or services,it certainly won't have an income for long time.Even we are customers,we buy products which satisfies our needs and also the one we feel worth for the money we pay for buying that product.Once we are satisfied with a particular product,we become regular uses of it and buy them regularly.

A Company has to provide a product or service that someone needs or wants.It should target the segment that will be more satisfied with the products it produces,rather then targeting a segment which are not that much satisfied with the product.By having a goal of finding good customers, giving them great products and following up with excellent customer service, a company can find that many of them will turn into active feeders for its business.

There is an established principle in the business world called the 80/20 Rule. In the majority of successful companies, 80% of its revenue will be generated from only 20% of its satisfied customers.The simple road map that i feel for journey to success for any company is paved with quality products, personal attention and superior service.

Some of the benefits i predicted from satisfied customers are

1.Satisfied customers tend to continue to buy from the same company.
2.It costs much less to retain existing customers than to acquire new ones.
3.Satisfied customers tell others about their positive experiences, while dissatisfied customers tell even more people about their negative experience.

So Satisfied Customers = Growth of an organization.

Attrition

In the previous years many companies especially ITES companies were facing a serious problem called Attrition.It generally means reduction in the number of employees in the organization due to various reasons.In 2007,Attrition rate was nearly 20 to 40 % in many ITES companies.Even in the company i worked with,Attrition was a major problem.Monthly Attrition percentage varied somewhere between 10 to 20% and the HR people were struggling hard to bring down the attrition rate.

In the company i worked every new joinee as to sign a bond and service agreement for a period of 1 year.The company provided all benefits for the employees like transport allowance,meal allowance,skill allowance,special allowance,Incentives,etc..but still the attrition rate was high and many people were found absconding the company after few months they joined.

When i joined there were 24 people in the batch but after 1 year only 3 people stayed with the organization ,one including me.Many employees left the company for various reasons like Stress from overwork and work life imbalance,No growth opportunities,Lack of appreciation,Job and person mismatch,Job is not what the employee expected to be,New job offer,not happy with the compensation etc..

In the company i worked there were some good programs introduced to make employees stay with the organization.One such program for the employees was the Aspire program.In this program,employees were given training on software courses and after a year they were put into technology side as software engineers.During the training period,certain amount was deducted from the employee salary as part of this program.It was a best program to make employees stay with the company.Other programs that were really good were distance education program,internal job posting and Fast forward program.

Many people view the BPO job as a temporary one,to earn money till they get the job they wanted to.Mostly engineering graduates do so. Some BPOs provide better career development opportunities for its employees through various programs.Graduates can join such BPOs and shape their career by planning and performing well in the organization.Stress is there in almost all jobs,the desire of a person to come up well in life,will decide the future of that person.I have seen many people who have shined well working in a BPO.

ITES companies should implement various such programs to make the employees stay with the organization and make them feel satisfied.A satisfied employee will stay with the organization for a longer period and will show more productivity in his/her work and hence the growth of the organization.

Sales Job

In the present situation ,many companies seemed to recruit more people for sales function.Because in this recession salesman play a major role for promoting the company products and services.Before only graduates were recruited by companies for selling function,but now things have changed ,MBA's are recruited for hardcore sales function.

Yesterday in the morning ,someone rang my home calling bell .when i opened the door a surprise and shock was waiting for me.A guy started saying "I am a MBA graduate and i am here to sell a educational product for kids".I told him we don't have any kids in our home,he can leave and closed the door.I felt bad for that guy because i don't think an MBA degree is needed for such a sales job.

The first thing that people ask in a sales/Marketing interview is "Do you have a bike".For corporate sales MBA's can be used but for consumer sales a graduate is enough.Taking a sales role is not a easy task.People in sales have to travel a lot and face many issues with customers.

A salesman needs good persuasion skills,communication skills,selling skills and people skills.Its very hard to survive in a sales job,it needs more patience and high stress handling within oneself.A friend of mine ,who got placed in a well known FMCG company as Area sales manager ,left his job in 2 months saying ,its not the job for an MBA.The job role was like this,he will be given a area and he as to go get orders from the shops in that area and supply the products to those shops with few people under him.

If a person is able to stay in a sales job for 2 years continuously,he as a very bright future after that.A salesman can earn money more than his salary ,if he shows more productivity than expected.The growth in a sales career is fast and one of the hot jobs were you can earn more in later years.Taking a sales role purely depends on the attitude and will of the person to survive.The more challenging a job is,more money you earn and grow fast.If anyone in interested in traveling and meeting new people,sales job is the right choice.