Mowing the Overgrown Monkey Grass –II ! The Corporate Approach: Such things can’t be even dreamed of, however, in a corporate firm, which stands and thrives because it values individual efficiency and appreciates extra calibre above superficial considerations like skin tint, community or faith or marital status! It’s because of this that GOI invariably gets into every mess that can be imagined but no Tata or Birla or Goenka firm ever does Efficiency, Performance, Productivity-these are the bibles of the corporate realm! A certain amount of corporatization of the government bureaucracy will, for this reason, do only good to the nation as a whole not only in meeting MDGs before their deadline but also in justifying to some extent the huge salaries and perks disbursed to employees. The intensely ROI-conscious Indian public also won’t raise their hackles or knowing brows on hearing of salary rises any longer! No-nonsense rules every thought speech and action there. An employee’s personal faith or ritual can’t guarantee him a day off from work schedule. No superstition is permitted to show up at any time. It is punctual and regular, and often extending into t he wee hours of the night too not 9-5 routine make-believe. No union interference is permitted in regular work scheduling; and no promotion without proven evidence of calibre. No caste reservation in recruitment or advancement either. Only after multiple levels screening of the resume sent by a job aspirant is the person called for an interview. Only those questions immediately relevant to the job are what he is asked. There is an induction period—not comparable to the probation period in government service by any means –during which he is properly trained for a specific entry level position usually against a refundable deposit on successful completion of training. His performance level is carefully6 assessed and then extra skill sets are imparted. There is absolutely no job security in any corporate position (whereas job security is a given in government jobs, which are merely a gentle way to ensure that the incumbent doesn’t starve!).I mention this in particular because it’s this clause that provided the lifelong drive to the employee, especially after a certain age limit after which he may not be able to land another suitable position if he loses the present one! Promotion is NOT time bound but ability based. This means that the harder you work at ,say, becoming an accomplished marketing manager, the higher the performance quotient you have, during a specific duration, say, a year, the quicker shall be the promotion to higher levels too! Management in general–especially the Human Resource Planning in HRM specialty—is positive, on the other hand, in orientation despite having to deal with newer and newer findings from varied corners of the globe. More of a science based on verified facts than a ‘religion’ or creed based on unverifiable and often unsustainable notions, it believes in maximising human potential by whatever time-tested techniques and methods available off the shelf through research findings and from firsthand experience of veteran managers like Jack Welch or Iacocca. It knows through which specific routes inefficiency and personal incompetence can come up and how industries in general fail owing to having nurtured a lackadaisical workforce. So managers in general take off from this entry level of ground realities to tone up the whole system beginning with the employee world. GOI stands to benefit enormously from having some schooling in management practices, and often is found goofing too in dealing with tricky dicey situations. I don’t deny that they may have management graduates in the parliament or ministry but whether they are using their acquired skill sets to tone up the system as a whole is a moot question. Gradual corporatization of all government employees is not only impractical if done on a war footing but also unadvisable since much mindset change is required to bring about national work culture.(India has more than 50 days of leave permissible for employees under various heads but an American or German has but 4! This is the route to developing the country –one’s Fatherland—and not clamouring incessantly for more and more holidays under one pretext or another!) The Pluses of HR Planning and Brainstorming: Let’s view the government as a corporate firm in disguise in that it doesn’t have a specific dress code, or company logo on the dress or a specific medium of communication with the higher authorities. Some key questions that arise here are: a) What is the objective of the entity/department/agency? b) What are the present needs of the department/agency staff-wise to achieve its goals? (c)How can the recruited employees be allocated tasks so that the entity meets its goal head on? (d)How can the workforce be tailored to the mission objective and organizational vision? (e)Which skills are needed for one to do a top notch job in the agency/department? (f)What are the ways and means to reduce time and cost in the course of daily work, if any? (g)What is the ideal workload that can be given to an employee so that he doesn’t end up either a nervous wreck due to overload or a free-rider due to too small a workload? (h)Which means must be adopted to detect official indolence, distraction and lack of motivation to carry his weight of the total workload? (i)What is the market availability for persons with extra skills needed to successfully and satisfactorily complete a specific complex job? j) What must be his/her remuneration in the range of? A Rudimentary Growth Matrix: Corporate firms like Infosys look ahead at the next twenty –thirty years in anticipation and know at this moment where they want to reach. If it’s a Government-run agency or a government department this is not possible in a democracy such as ours because the successive ministries may like to revoke some of the polices launched by its predecessor—for political reasons-- or introduce some new ones of their own in accordance with their party high command suggestions. But at least one year’s growth matrix can be chalked out in advance and recruitment steps initiated for ensuring smooth uninterrupted departmental performance after some retire from the workforce. This aspect is also done by the HR Planning wing. If the HR Plan is intelligently done across party lines the minister must be able to not only know how to meet mission objectives of every department under him at any time but also will see far higher service-mindedness in the workforce, zero malingering, minimal absenteeism and adequate responsiveness within set deadlines to the public queries. The Prerequisite Analysis of the Generation Y: Today’s entry level workforce is composed of the Generation Y persons and as such we need to analyze the entry level stuff carefully –their personality traits, predilections, allergies, motivation parameters, inclinations, migration instinct, retention strategies, weaknesses and strengths.[Retention strategies are needed because there won’t be any more job security which is irreconcilable with high performance. In fact high-efficiency government, which the people of the country would admire, and job security for life with pension after superannuation are mutually exclusive!]. The following must be kept in mind while planning for a highly efficient government set up, in regard to its employees: The key world events trends and experiences that moulded the employee His/her family identity or absence of identity Aspirations if any of being happily wedded and being happy parents Home dependent or home-independent in upbringing His/her esprit de corps and team spirit potential His/her emotional intelligence Mindset for self improvement through in-house programs Relocation mindset for posting/promotion/training His/her major likes and dislikes in food/culture/career options/social commitment The priorities that govern his/her decisions in a given imaginary situation. Consultative attitude with family elders/seniors in office Managing High Flyers: At the moment few aspire for government jobs except the civil services in India. But if the GOI take serious steps to overhaul the bureaucracy of this country—a must for national survival—more brilliant brains can be legitimately expected to come up for job interviews by all departments and agencies. Some of these already recruited employees shall be high flyers by temperament or previous training, and tending to reach supervisory positions of unquestioned power and prestige too. Such high performers must not be shackled to a routine job at all since they can not only motivate the rest of the employees in the department or agency but also help the government machinery pick up the momentum enough to impress the world at large. Techniques are in place to keep such high performers from migrating to positions abroad or better paying positions in private corporate enterprises’ shall take up that theme later on, dear kids! But I shall mention five points that all such high performers must remember at all time in dealing with their less endowed colleagues: Be a guide, not a dictator Motivate others to go beyond their conventional niches Be friendly and share personal experiences Encourage transparency in correspondence Drive others to put in some extra work/hobby every day Restoring the Government Credibility: Government credibility depends on the high performance of all officials in offices and the accountability to the public. Unless the Indian bureaucracy is taking pains enough to think over this matter they will constitute the dangerous cancerous canker that will eat away the government apple forever and the mob will take over the nation. We need to brainstorm further along this line for the betterment of our motherland. Please discuss these points among yourselves and with your colleagues today and then comet tomorrow .We shall take up this same theme tomorrow to find a way out! Jai Hind!
Posted on: Wed, 24 Dec 2014 11:49:56 +0000
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