Talent Development, Engagement and Retention

During this chat, HR Practitioners would be welcome to address any challenges or issues
relating to the entire spectrum of managing high talent resources. That is, talent identification,
attraction, assessment, development, engagement and retention. This chat will be responded
to by a high powered, panel of experts from industry, academia and consulting:

 H R Shashikant, Group Executive President, Aditya Birla Management Corporation Pvt

 Arunav Banerjee, Director Executive Education & HR Leadership Program, SOIL
 Mervyn Raphael, Managing Director, Performance Consulting International (PCI) in India

Mumbai: Is there any research which shows a direct connect between Talent Development,
Engagement & Retention? We want to conduct some Talent Development Programs but due to
unavailability of tools to calculate the ROI, we are not sure on how effective these programs
actually are, Arunav?

SHRM Panel: Talent Development, Engagement & Retention are all different facets of the
same coin. Therefore there is a strong correlation amongst the three. Whilst Engagement
typically gets measured through engagement inventories; no suitable measure for Retention
has been evolved to date. The correlation between talent development and engagement can
be very simply measured by running a survey before and after any talent development
exercise Arunav

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Mumbai: How to attract new talent & retain them for midsize organisation, Arunav?

SHRM Panel: A mid or a small size organisation needs to focus on its brand. Usually the
approach is to create a strong Employee VAlue Proposition or EVP. The EVP gets created
through a mix of organisation climate and organisational systems. Participating in some of the
employer surveys may also help in branding in the initial stages. Once the brand is set,
reputation is built and it then feeds on itself in an endless cycle

Vadodara: The greatest challenge faced today by organisations the world over is
retaining,Shashikant? talented employees in the organisation. My question is whether to retain
them is more important than finding a successor to the vacant position?

SHRM Panel: it actually depends. Are the skill sets of the person so critical that it cannot be
found easily? Is there adequate supply in the market? If the answer to both is no, then we
may have to focus on retention. Sucessors should alsways be foud for critical positions. The
make or buy decisions always depend on the criticallity of that skill set to the business.

Moderator: Our guests are reviewing and writing answers to your questions. There will be
some delays - please stay with us!
India: How does a startup retain talent in a high growth industry where in there may be other
well funded players offering better jobs, Mervyn?

SHRM Panel: In this case, it is important for the company to offer a holistic offering- what i
mean by this the employer promise and experience has to be around a list of attributes-
compensation, the jon itself, the culture , growth and learing a new set up, autnomy etc.
Therefore, while compensation is important for entry, therafter the experience form retention
has to be around all the other factors as a whole.

New Delhi: How do you think will the economic recovery impact annual Increments in the
Manufacturing Sector, for the current year, in India. And should Executives be alowed
payment of Variable Pay , which is part of the committed annual CTC, in excess of one
hundred percent , in general, even if the Company is in the Project Construction phase where
revenue generation has not commenced,Shashi?.

SHRM Panel: The economic recovry is happenning but at different pace for different sectors
even with in manufacturing. However the increases have been in the region of 10% for most
industries. The variable pay would have been set up for a specific achievenment either
collectively or individually. If those conditions are met, the Variable Pay should be done,
irrespective of the fact whether there is reveneue genrartion or not. If the precondition is that
the VP will be given only in the event of revenue generation, then that becomes a pre
condition, where the VP need not be paid.

Pune: When any organizaiton spends its valuable resources on Developing Talent but soon
you realize that many employees leave because of following reasons:a) they realize their
potential, b) their confidence level and competencies increase hence they expect higher jobs
or look for higher jobs, c) they are attracted outside and rewarded better Arunav? . Regards,
Shrikrishna Gandhe 9765559163

SHRM Panel: Let us put it this way. If an organisation does not invest in talent management
the chances of the attrition being higher are much greater. Yes, many organisations are
known to be good training grounds for talent to move on to other jobs. At the same time, the
talent development approach would similarly attract people from other organisations. I guess
overall it is a trade off, with the positive being in able to attract and retain people Arunav

Vadodara: Very often, when an employee resigns, everyone comes into action and tries to
retain the employee and majority of the times he is asked why and what he wants etc and
often gets what he wants - hike, perks etc as decided by mgmt. But rarely would you have
heard of the manager being asked why his / her team member is leaving. If that is done, the
problem can be identified and rectified at an early stage itself to avoid disassociation of
potential Talents. Please correct if my belief is wrong- Shashi?. - Ritesh Chudasama

SHRM Panel: your understanding is correct. A lot of employers give in to the blackmail by the
employees since many managments dont do a good job of having their ear to the ground. I
beleive that a person should be spoken to when he or she shows the signs of discomfort and
not wait till they put in their papers.

: How do you think will the economic recovery impact annual Increments in the Manufacturing
Sector, for the current year, in India. And should Executives be alowed payment of Variable
Pay , which is part of the committed annual CTC, in excess of one hundred percent , in
general, even if the Company is in the Project Construction phase where revenue generation
has not commenced,Mervyn?.

SHRM Panel: I think mfg sector will en up paying around 8-10% increments this year on an
average.Howver, they will need to follow a differentiation with an 20:80 rule- where the range
can be between say 15% at the higher ened and maybe 5% for the lowest performaers. I am
a strong beliver in paying agressive variable pay, which therefore does not impact fixed
cost.In the project construction phsase, VPP beyind 100% can be considered only if it is linked
to key deliverables like project cost, which can impact the economic viability of the
project.Else on shld stick to the cap.mervyn

India: What are the best practices and methods can be adopted in employee retention other
than giving Monetary benefits to the employees? Arunav?

SHRM Panel: Employee Retention is all about creating the right environment or atmosphere
that will help in adapting the mind set of employees. Monetary benefits are also important, but
most surveys show job satisfaction as ranking pretty high in terms of reasons why people stay
back. The main reason why people leave as per surveys is "the boss factor"; this again has
very little to do with money!

Moderator: Thank you for joining us today for our first online chat. Please be patient as our
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mumbai: what is most common reason for identified talent to leave?Mervyn?

SHRM Panel: depends- people leave either due to push factor from the organization which cld
be due to boss , salary levsl and other trgiggers for disatisfaction/disengagement. If one were
to look at pull factors, then it is either for compensation, higher level job or the overall fit into
the persons career plans. The trick is to get the hiring onto the right target pofile- in which
case they are likely to stay the longest.For eg, in consulting, we hiore people who have a high
need to learn and do diverse kinds of work.mervyn

mumbai: How do we quantify engagement? what are the metrics for the same?Arunav?

SHRM Panel: Employee Engagement can only be quantified as an index i.e. against a scale of
say 10 or 100, where are you in terms of the engagement level. Engagement itself is an
attribute arising from several factors each of which can be subjectively measured through a
well constructed engagement study or survey. A very simple model puts engagement at 4
levels: Satisfaction,Commitment; Pride and Advocacy and these can be quantified and
measured against a defined scale Arunav

: Hi, my question is more related to the HR feternity. Being in HR my experience is that while
taking care of resource the HR organizations forget that the HRs also need the same retention
and motivation factors as business. Are there organizations focussed on HR anymore?
Shashikant?

SHRM Panel: You are right. every one needs motivation whether working for HR or not.
However being the custodians of others' motivation, we need to serve them first. Several
organizations, including mine do take good care of the people who take care of
others......Shahsi

Bangalore: Elaborate on Talent Engagement , Arunav?

SHRM Panel: Talent Engagement is that stage of employee participation where an employee
has gone beyond mere physical presence (attendance) and satisfaction to a state of
"contribution". One of the previous answers in this chat has also elaborated on the metrics;
please refer to that for more details

Mumbai: How do we sensitize our overseas coustomers, when there is a attrition, and
employee loyalty is only 2 years with a company ? Shashikant?

SHRM Panel: What do we hope to achieve by sensitizing them? is it to get more concessions
from them? Once a ob is given, it is expected that it would be carried out irrespective of the
circumstances. Do we as consumers care if let us say, the buisciuit factory had a strike and
hence your preferred brand is not available? We dont. we buy someone elses products. The
same is applicable to all of us. Dont explicate, overcome._shahsikant

Hyderabad: Hi, how do we attract talent with niche skills in IT sector, specifically for a small
and growing organization with 10-30 employees? Please help Mervyn.

SHRM Panel: The proposition for these employees has to be clearly around ;learing and doing
something different that large companies cannot offer- eg: freedom, autonomy, domain ,
culture etc. For companies of this size,the best way to hire is thru advocacy - which is current
employees gettign likeminded friends to join.This is most effective.mervyn

Delhi: Shashi-What career objective one should write in his resume?

SHRM Panel: You should exactly write the objective you have in mind! your objectives cannot
change with the different organizations you are applying. If you are not sure, you can always
mention it broadly instead of being too specific._shashikant

Delhi: Shashi-Thank you for being here to answer our questions!. Do you think background
checks is a good way of filtering out bad from good employees and thus have a longer
retention period?

SHRM Panel: It is absolutely necessary and it does weed out a lot of rubbish. However,
background checks are expensive and hence you may want use it judiciously so that you are
able to balance cost and also at the same time doing risk management for your organization
which is one of the forgotten responsibilities of HR -Shahsikant

Bangalore : Shashi-talent acquisiton is market driven, is it worth hiring more than we can
manage and compromising on quality during an upswing?
SHRM Panel: I dont beleive quality should be compromised in good time or bad. You deserve
the quality you hire and hence it is prudent not hire recklessly when the line managers
presurrise us to meet the numbers.-shashikant

Mumbai: Shashi-What kind of programs can we initiate to control attrition due to leaving for
higher studies?

SHRM Panel: I dont think you should control the attrition due to higher studies. You should
guide it appropriately. EG you can sponsor the whole or part of the expenses with a rider that
the person should serve your orgnaization for a period of say 2-3 years. This good word will
get in more peope in your organization and you could have taken care of your future
requirements.-shahsikant

Gurgaon: How do you design and roll-out an optimum intervention for Talent Engagement
and Talent Development, Mervyn? Regards Gautam Passi

SHRM Panel: Gautam Perhasp these steps woudl help: 1.What is the business requirement
for talent 2.where is the pain area currently 3.From this will flow the key talent requirements
for development The stages for developemnt would be : 1.Profile - which is through
assessment process like 360 degree,asssesment centers, psychometric tests etc 2.Stage 2
woudl be deisgn of both the individual deve plan and the group LDP for a period of 9-12
months.Group dev plans could include Projects for learing thru experience in addition to
classroom 3.Alongside one needs to look at the application for this development- career
planning, succession plans for key roles, job movements etc. The key to design is linking this
to busines startegy and business requirement for top mgt buy-in. Enagagement has to do
mroe with the individual's supervisor.There are many tools available to evaluate engagement
levels and developin gthis would be through structured dialogue.mervyn

Hyderabad: Arunav-The latest disengagement study by CLC shows that the number of highly
disengaged employees have gown up close to 23 percent of the total workforce. It would so
become that disengaged high potentials would soon find themselves attracted to what the
competition might offer them, and the disengaged low performers will stick on for lack of
opportunities. This creates a high risk for business to have a bunch of low performing
disengaged employees. Given an econimic scenario like today, where companies are sensing
light at the end of the tunnel and opportunities are opening up, how should a company begin
to re-engage and retain their HIPO talent?

SHRM Panel: This issue needs to be looked at from several different angles. Firstly, the
studies on engagemewnt / disengagement need to be validated; otherwise sometimes some
purely local factors would influence the extent of disengagement. Secondly, there has to be a
continuous effort at engagement of the population and not just a focus on the re-engagement;
otherwise whilst you are re-engaging some, others may be getting disengaged and the
problem would not end. Thirdly, let us look at the process of re-engagement. It essentially
traces the cause of the disengagement to fundamentals and then works towards solving those
issues. Therefore there has to be a strong mechanism for analysing disengagement as well as
engagement and then looking at solutions to it Arunav

Mumbai: Shashi-is there a successful "Indian" Talent Management model?

SHRM Panel: I am not the one to beleive that there can be any country specific models in the
first place. There could always be cultural connotations that meed to be tweaked to the
specific circumstances. What we have adopted is the one that is by many other companies but
with our own modifications-shashikant

Mumbai: Arunav-In the current scenario Executives across the organisation look at
organisations as a short window opportunity, and the team also aspires to continously change
their profiles and roles. How does one build capability for a particular role / profile in this
scenario

SHRM Panel: You are so right. The focus of individuals has shifted to the near or medium
term instead of the longer term. In this connection there are both systemic and developmental
solutions. The systemic solution is to focus on tools such as creating career paths rather than
career plans and making sure that the time horizon for key milestones for individual
development is not too large (this includes providing horizontal growth where necessary). At
the individual level, there is a much larger emphasis on executive coaching and mentoring
which could partly help tackle the problem Arunav

Chennai: Hi Shashi, Good Afternoon. Would you think Engagement and Talent Development
are the only other facets influencing retention? If not, what prominence do these factors have
over others to have been chosen?

SHRM Panel: well there are amny reason why people join, why they stay and why they leave.
People join brands, stay because they are engaged, learning and grwoing and leave when they
no longer beleive they can grow or they dont like the boss or the colleagues. Money is
important but only as a hygine factor. If it is not there, it hurts, if much more of it is there, it
doesnt make them stay. There will alweays be a desperate employer who would like to pay
more at any given time-shashaikant

Mumbai: Mervyn-What are the current trends and issues in talent management today?

SHRM Panel: Current Trends: 1. Differentiation of performers and paying them accordingly.
2. Increasing use of additional assessment process in identifying potential in addition to PMS
input. 3. Devlpmt is becoming more prevalent thru experential learning and executive
coaching for high performers. 4. Given the high levels of attrition which is becoming a trend,
the focus is on ensuring growth of talent from within. Issues: 1. Bringing the balance betwn
operational issues and focus on developing talent. 2. Dealing with making talent mgmt an
operational tool linked to biz. 3. Ensuring the TM process is owned by line and only facilitated
by HR. 4. Ability of HR to be more strategic and take a biz partner role in TM.

Bangalore : Arunav-India in current context, is looking up, business has started growing
almost in all the sectors thus, bringing back the issue of retention and talent attraction. Also
knowing the fact that there is always a limit for an Industry to reward, Would you like to throw
some insights on what are the practices which are evolving again to help industries like FMCG
to successfully address such challenges. Another dilemma which an Industry always faces is
not having excellent tools on succession plan management, but the effective means to identify
the HIPos !!Is the aspiration, engagement and ability are the good parameters to use or is
there something beyond these we need to look at. ...sanjay

SHRM Panel: The FMCG industry has traditionally been having specific challenges of its own,
such as higher stress and burout rates etc. Therefore, the reward and retention practices tend
to be more focused in this sector. One approach would be to move from transactional rewards
to transformational rewards i.e. instead of rewarding transactions such as a particular sales
achievement, reward transformation such as loyalty in a customer etc. As far as the second
part is concerned, there is no escape from good talent management practices and as a first
step you should simply focus on getting basic aspects of systems such as succession planning
etc. in place Arunav

Chennai: Shashi,Proper training of employees of HR Staffing firm is the first and most vital
step towards the organizational success as they are the ones who would staff the mid and
senior level management of Mid and large size corporates. How seriously is internal employee
training taken by today�s HR staffing firms? Manmohan SaiCoreS

SHRM Panel: This is a good question. This is not against any staffing firm in perticular, but i
have found that the staffing firms do the least training of their resources either due to lack of
time or focus. this tends to show up very quickly with the customrers and they will start
looking elsewhere to get better trained personnel to service them. you are right. This is
important but more often than not, ignored for making the numbers- Shashikant

Pune: Shashi-How can one implement a Customer driven HR? What are its key benefits,
advantages and disadvantages. What key processes in HR need to focus on?

SHRM Panel: If everything what an organization is doing is for the customer, HR is

supporting, enabling and equipping the line managers to do the best job of it. We need to be
focussed on our internal customers but have a good understanding of what the ultimate
customer wants. as long as HR understands this well and takes care of ensuring that the
processes reconze and build on it, i beleive, that will do- Shashikant

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Bangalore: Shashi-In terms of talent management -How can we re-energize an old economy
manufacturing plant?

SHRM Panel: First of all i dont like the word old economy. I call it real economy. I can cite
several examples where even the so called companies operating in matured markets have re
juvinated themselves. The first thing is to un learn, move away from the past, onboard senior
management and put a robust process in place. then drive it like a zelous missionay. That will
do-shahikant

Pune: Hi Mervyn, we are high end software product development US based MNC. We are
facing attrition issue owing to the opening up job markets and the unique skills our employees
posses. Though our salaries are above market average, employees are looking at greener
pastures outside. This is seriously affecting the product deliverables from India. It is tough to
explain to the HQ that they need to treat India differently than the rest of the world while
looking at salary hikes, RSU grants and bonuses. A 3 to 5 percent hike in US may sound great
but in India people rather not have it! I am faced with this challenge to retain my employees
while ensuring the HQ understands local challenges. Please advice. Thanks. Parag

SHRM Panel: Parag, this is a typical challenge that a product MNC faces. Best you get a
compensation survey report from a global vendor and also have your US HR folks speak to
comparable companies in India on their experience on why a larger hike in salary is required
in India currently. You also need to build an overall glue for people to stay in the orgn and
project what is distinctive and differentiate abt ur orgn that they will not get elsewhere. I
would focus on building a unique culture which may help in some ways like open ended flexi
working, dress codes, flexible compensation etc. RSU grants and bonuses are a def a gud way
provided your stocks are doing well in the market. Mervyn

Mumbai: Arunav-What is your view on Assessment Centres? Are they reliable for taking
important decisions regarding career of people?

SHRM Panel: Assessment Centres have a very limited purpose or objective. They are
supposed to simulate situations that it would be difficult in real life situations to get data
about. Typically such situations exist when you would like to promote a person and do not
have enough data about the competencies for the next role. In all other cases, assessment
centre data is not a substitute to actual performance data and should be used with caution. To
answer your second question, yes it is reliable when you do not have adequate data on a
person from performance and other factors Arunav

Ahmedabad: Arunav,What are the Retention challenges that you have face? And what have
been some of the most effective Retention Tools in the group,?

SHRM Panel: The biggest retention challenge is related to your best performers who are
leaving due to some internal petty problem, such as not getting the right job or because the
boss does not understand the potential of the employee. The most effective retention tool is to
build an organisation culture that is supportive and learning and where trust and transparency
are the two most important criteria Arunav

Hyderabad: Mervyn-It is highly critical to retain Hi-Pots (Hi Potential performers)for

organization, however, inspite of lot of efforts in developing and engaging Hi-Pots , retention is
not very effective. Is there any frame work or thought process to refine the Hi-Pot
engagement and retention procedure? Srinivasu, DGM -HR

SHRM Panel: Perhaps you need to look at how you are doing this currently.What is the hi-po
getting ? higher pay, faster promtions,more role exposures etc The rentention would hv to
look at "whats in it for me" clearly. Just engagemnt is not enough for these guys- r yr
opportunities in line with what competition is offering. I would take stock and look at feedback
from those who hv left to find out why they did not stay- u might get some real good insight
from them.mervyn

Chennai: Shashi-How would you recommend someone evaluate a former employee for
rehire?

SHRM Panel: We hire former employees and therfore i can say a few things here. We would
have all the performance data of the person and that is the first most important area. if he
was not a good performer, drop the idea. Then look at why did the person leave. Did he
damage the organization in any way? Why does he want to come back? etc Answers to these
questions would give you a good idea to start with. Speak also to his former colleagues,
subordinates and bosses. writing wont help. No body will give you a correct negative feedback
in writing-shashikant
Pune: Arunav-After spending 25 years in industry in senir management positions, i am back
to Academics since last 5 years and my question is how industry can help Academia in talent
identification right at MBA grooming stage Pralay Kumar Ghosh

SHRM Panel: I share some of your characteristics. I have got into academics after a long
stint in consulting and industry! I feel that our MBA and other institutes do not use the right
testing to select candidates. They definitely do not focus on things such as Career Anchors or
on competencies such as Learnability. Once these basics are taken care of, we should be able
to guide students more effectively. Of course we need to build the image of the teaching
community, which is a completely different proposition Arunav

Mumbai: Shashi-What are the various programmes through which we can keep our
employees motivated and what are the various means by which we check employee
motivation levels within the organization?

SHRM Panel: i dont think that programs motivate people. The challenging role that they
have, the clarity of the organization's purpose, his or her own contribution, an engaging and
encouraging organizational climate and a vlaue based decision making process will motivate
any employee. If you add good developmental opportunities to this, you are a winner-
shashikant

London: Arunav-How does India stand on the Global 'war for Talent'?

SHRM Panel: India obviously has a both a huge need as well as a huge supply for talent. If
your question refers to how are talent acquisition and retention systems in India, we have
some advantages over the rest of the world. Fortunately for us, things such as values etc.
have greater meaning and therefore convert as better tools for attraction and retention
Arunav

Bangalore: Arunav Sir:My problem is regarding two nations: Nation A- Very low attrition, but
severe talent crunch in terms of quality Nation C- Very high attrition, people leaving for
"better" opportunities and hence, severe competition for talent. What is the two pronged
strategy that an organization operating in both countries should adopt?

SHRM Panel: One possible answer is to create a brand of transnational managers i.e. a
workforce that is country independent. This is not easy because you have to deal with issues
such as differential standards of living, job environment etc. But a proper approach towards
creating transnational managers wwould go a long way. The core of this strategy is to have a
band of good local people led by a few but talented outsiders in Country A and possibly a lot of
deputationists in Country C Arunav

Bangalore: mervyn-Specifically with regard to the BPO industry, given that the best talent is
already tapped/employed and demand rises, what are the new and alternate sources of skilled
manpower, organizations can tap into? Also, with the continuing high attrition rates in this
industry, is there anything that the industry as a whole can do to address such common
challenges? eg: no-poach agreements etc?

SHRM Panel: you need to address this at 2 levels - this is a similar pblm for bop, retail and
fast food sectors. at one level, you need to look at the what the orngaization is offering as an
employer and what value does this translate into.This will help you to build the glue for
looking an non-compensation aspects.In addiiton,your compensation needs to be competitve.
In additon, you need to address the issue of mgr.Since most of them have grown too fast, you
need to teach them to engage and dailogue with the reportees. This is an issue that does not
have an easy answer,as employees leave for a few hundred repuees.mervyn

Bangalore: Shashi-How to identify the most passionate people among the freshers just out of
MBAs, etc?

SHRM Panel: This si a difficult question and this is more of an art than science! There are
several indicators though. Has the candidate pursued anything relentlessly against all odds?
Has he stuck his neck out for something that is difficult? Has he or she stood out for their
opinion or view? Have they engaged with any perticular thing over a long period of time? All
this is indicative of passion. Not how enthusiastically a person speaks or the english he uses or
how many time he bangs the table.........Shashikant

Mumbai: Shashi-In every organization there is always a dispute over whether engagement is
a repsonsibility of Line Managers or HR. In my organization HR is merely supposed to design,
measure and report; the actual responsibility lieas with the business. Is that a correct
approach?

SHRM Panel: There is no debate on this question for me. It is the line management
responsiblity. Job of HR is to put up the best frameworks that can work in the organization,
train people to do it well, stand with them and implement. This needs a clear understanding of
human beings, culture, generation to which the employees belong and what are their hot
buttons............Shashikant

Mumbai: Arunav-i am thinking of designing engagement initiatives for international

employees at foreign locations what could be possibly done. These employees come as part of
4 months old acquisitions

SHRM Panel: If I understand what you are trying to state, you have an issue where
employees from "other acquired cultures" need to become engaged. The short answer to this
is that the process of engaging these employees has to start even before the acquisition,
which we do not give enough importance to; since we focus more on financial due diligence.
However, having acquired them, there is a need for a proper assessment as well as a long
term view before any immediate action can be taken (which might otherwise be
counterproductive) And ofcourse communciate, communicate, communicate Arunav

Bangalore: Mervyn-Today, when we look at leadership development programs for senior

leadership- there are many components that go into such a program- classroom training,
online training, coaching, self introspection, community work etc. If we had to design a
program with some must have components, and some add ons/ optional components; from
your perspective- what are those components which you believe are non negotiable and
should be "must haves" which can be complemented by other optionals?

SHRM Panel: Must Haves: - Classroom training (30%) - Business Impact Projects which are
identified and sold internally by the leaders themselves (70%) - Coaching selectively for some
high performers - Reflection - Maintaining a coaching log Optionals: - Part of classroom, for all
participants - Structure should incl electives based on the interest levels of the target groups -
Mervyn
Hyderabad,Husys House: Shashi-What are the CEOs expectations on Talent Development
activities. Naresh Husys

SHRM Panel: The CEO expects a sucessor to each critical role in the orgnaization. he does
not want any work to suffer because of some body quitting and there is no one who can fill the
role asap. He also wnats extra people availabe so that the growth needs are taken care of. he
wants deleivary on the ground not theories and processes that take the energy out of
everyone-shashikant

Pune: Arunav-What are the best practices followed across on employee engagement and
retention? Do you think compensation plays a big role in retaining them and whether its right?

SHRM Panel: A part of this has been answered against an earlier question. To summarise
best practices of engagement and retention are very context specific but built around good
organisation culture building practices. Compensation does play a role upto a point but cannot
substitute for creating a learning environment and trust-worthy culture Arunav

Pune: Hi Mervyn, How often should managers ideally connect with their teams to give them
feedback?

SHRM Panel: feedback can be done in a structured way once a quarter ideally or even every
month. informal feedback needs to be on-going.The hot stove rule-immediate positve or
negative feedback sees the higest impact and change- the timing for negative feedback is very
important , though.mervyn

Kochi, Kerala, India: Mervyn-What are the latest Technology features or Tech Tools /
support available for Talent Management?

SHRM Panel: on-line asssesment, e-learing , videos etc.This is something that I am not that
familiar with.sorry,mervyn

Hyderabad: Shashi-As a HR Business Partner, Can you suggest on building on the Employee
Value Proposition ? As many of the Talent Initiatives taken, have very limited Employee
Participation ? How can we drive or promote this participation ?

SHRM Panel: The EVP should be real and also aspirational. For example, the EVP of the
Aditya Birla Group is " A world of Opportunities" this is made real by having systems and
processes that give every employee whether or not they are a part of Talent pool or not. We
would do a good job if we invlove the line managers to be a part of this exercise from the
beginning. we did this and it gave us great results-shashikant

Mumbai: Arunav-One of the important elements that we find today is employees who are
highly motivated in the first and second year after joining slowly shows reduction in interest.
Majorly it�s for doing same job even though hike in salary annually and designation is
there. How do we address this issue knowing very well that whether the person is Manager or
Senior Manager , the responsibility won�t change substantially because the business
function doesn`t undergo much of change and thus the role of the employee in his function.
Jyotirmoy Banerjee

SHRM Panel: Innovation at work is both the answer and the challenge. How do you create
innovation into simple daily activities? Once you have figured this out, it shoudl address the
basic issue. For example the life of a recruiter could be made more innovative if you simply
added tracking the progress of the persons recruited by him / her to the job Arunav

mumbai..india: Shashi-we always pose questions to organisations on methods of retention,

development and engagement...i feel its time we as organisations ask employees these
questions ..as its equally their resposnsibility to make this happen ..as adults they too have
their thoughts...your view !!!ophealia

SHRM Panel: We should certainly ask them and include their opinions in our schemes.
Normally we only ask the employees who leave as to why they are leaving but we dont ask
the employees who are staying as to why are they staying? This reversal of the question can
give you huge insights-Shashikant

Kolkata: Arunav-In an organization you do have an enormous set of employee data. And I am
referring to data which we have, which are beyond survey results or engagement scores. It is
the set of data which emanates, say for example from an organization's HR Intranet.
Interestingly the data can tell us what kind of activities are happening on the site.Specifically
what are the employees discussing or accessing or viewing. Now with this activity data is it
possible to predict the state of mind of the organization? My question is , is there a predictive
tool which by looking at this activity data (of messages,access,views,mails) predict the
emotional state of the organization?

SHRM Panel: Franky, I am not aware of a standardised tool which serves this purpose. But
the concept that you have suggested is very interesting. Maybe you would like to collaborate
with an institution and work on it as a reasearch paper? Arunav

Chennai: Mervyn-changing face of recruitment structure where in today HR Staffing

(specialist) firms are becoming strategic partners rather than being service providers as they
are taking care of the short term needs of the client- The future prospect of this trend?
Manmohan SaiCoreS

SHRM Panel: The recruiters need to understand the business and therefore clearly the biz
requirements of that company and that sector. This will enable the recruiters to be able to
partner and add value to the company in terms of profile and also the best methods of
attracting talent in addition to staffing or just head hunting using social networking sites is
becoming a big tool for companies to build their brands and also help recruiters source for
their partners. Mervyn

Ahmedabad: Arunav, how do you respond when functional heads expect training
interventions to curb attrition in their teams?

SHRM Panel: I would suggest that you do not go by surface analysis but understand the
deeper reason and respond accordingly. So functional training may be a solution (for example
where a survey shows that training is not felt to be adequate to answer technical issues) but
may not be the complete answer Arunav
Delhi: Shashi-We have a couple of employees in our organisation who do not wish to take up
a managerial position though they are eligible for this role. They prefer staying in their field of
technical specialisation for the next 5-10 years. As a HR manager , I am not too sure what
kind of a career growth path can we offer them , especially since most of the senior positions
in our comapny are managerial in nature?What are other organisations doing in this regard?

SHRM Panel: Giving growth opportunities to the employees is the responsibility of the
organization. to use it or not, is that of the employee. development cannot be thrust on any
one. They have to make their mind up. you can counsel them on the result of their refusal,
make them understand how there will not be much growth if they dont take up the
opportunity. Once this is made clear, whay should we insist on developing them?-shashikant

Kolkata: Arunav-When we initiate critical talent identification process it is very important to

guide line managers how to identify critical talents objectively. Otherwise the managers go by
general understanding and may become victim of their own personal bias. Can you please
suggest an appropriate tool which will help the managers to identify the critical talents
objectively.

SHRM Panel: There are several things to be considered for this. For example, you need to
look at multiple intelligences to do some jobs. Also talent has many facets including for
example attitude that needs to be mapped. So more than the instrument, it is the approach
and methodology that is more important and I would suggest concentrating on that in the first
instance Arunav

France: Mervyn-Good afternoon, do you think it would be useful to Indian economy to

welcome French professionals in Indian companies on a large scale ? If there are some yes
point in your points of view, what stakes should be taken into accout to develop a win-win
long-term collaboration ? What constraints and advantages would there be ? Thank you.
Corine Navarro

SHRM Panel: Corine - i depends. Expats like you have to bring a specif value or
differentiation or a gap in skills that exist in the indian market.For eg- pilots from europe are
in gr8 demand.also the bpo sector is always looking for people with french language
competnecy. i wld encouarge you to explore and see what opportunites are available.you will
need to adjust to the culture, food and of course the choas on the roads. win-win would be - u
having unique skills which companies need and you wlaos being open to explore and adjust.
retail/hospitality sector is another oppoertunity area for expats. hope this helps.mervyn

Bhubaneswar: Shashi-Now a days org are spending heavily on training and then after 1 year
or within a year they are leaving the orgn . I bleieve than the HR and line manager should
equally be trained on retening people and also should be empowered to handle retention
effectively . what do you suggest??

SHRM Panel: You are right-shashikant

Mumbai: Shashi-What might a geographically distributed company do by way of talent

engagement where the branches are widely dispersed, technology budgets have shrunk
alongwith bandwidth and each branch has 8-10 people only?
SHRM Panel: There are several ways to engage employees. the old fashioned circulars, video
messages, web castes can be sued to do the same activity, not necessarily as effective, but
something that will keep them connected-shashikant

Bangalore: Shashi-In any Org we have 30 percentage of top performers and the main focus
is on them to make them stars. What is the focus on the rest of the 60 percentage of solid
performers in organisation to make them STAR performers?

SHRM Panel: Every orgnaization requires different type of talent. You need the stars and you
need the solid performers. stars many a times go away over a period of time. Good
performers stay to serve your organization. I suggest that we focus on both beacuse we need
both

Noida: Arunav, how to identify HIPO's at various levels in an organization?

SHRM Panel: Each organisation needs to first define who are its high potential employees.
This depends on the organisational business drivers, organisational contezxt etc. Obviously to
be able to do this the organisational roles need to be defined and the competency mapping
needs to be completed Arunav

Hyderabad: Hi Arunav, Can you please suggest on some tips of Improving Stakeholder
Management as a HR Business Partner,in a scenario, where your business leaders operate
from Global locations, and you dont get an opportunity to discuss in detail (in person) or
elaborate on what strategies can be implemented on the important Talent Perspectives ?
Shrividhya

SHRM Panel: Stakeholder management is all about creating the right relationships. In a
global scenario it means both parties gettig to be comfortable with each other. This will
happen only if trust building exercises are done. Initially meetings are better face to face and
once the trust is established it can be done offline Arunav

Moderator: That concludes today's chat. If you have more questions you would like to ask,
you can write us at [email protected]. We are also interested in hearing your feedback
about today's chat - please write us. The transcript of this chat will be available on the SHRM
India web site, shrmindia.org. And, please check the SHRM India web site (shrmindia.org) for
announcements of other chats. Thank you for joining us today!