SALARY CUTS and LAY-OFFS-Is there a better solution?

We have seen in the recent past that salary cuts and lay offs have been implemented in the media and entertainment industry.But is there a better solution?While there are no easy answers ,I thought of sharing my thoughts because as a head of a recruitment consultancy,I have the privilege of dealing with a cross section of clients which includes few, where there have been no salary cuts or lay-offs.And it also includes some who have used other measures to cut costs. Let me present my observations which would serve as pointers for organizations to reflect upon.

There are few unique traits of such organizations which did not find the need of resorting to measures like salary cut and lay-offs ? Let us have a look at some of these traits :

A]Work culture:Whether good times or bad ,these organizations have always “put people first”.This culture in the company has evolved over a period of time and provides a major sense of security to it’s employees.

B]Not overambitious- These organizations have not expanded into areas which fundamentally did not match their core business objectives. The growth of such companies has been gradual.

C]Reasonable Salaries:Not paid disproportionately high salaries for CEO’s and other senior management positions. They don’t believe in following the herd mentality.Their scales and grades are benchmarked against industry standards within the respective media vertical.


D]Lean Teams:Also, these organizations have always had a flatter organization structure and work with lean teams.They keep themselves right sized and don’t over hire.

E]Transparent :As a corporate culture,these companies believe in total transparency.Hence their employees have a better sense of belonging.


Best employers are organizations who know that this slowdown is only a correction and it is a reality check that is taking place ,hence they do not exhibit any knee-jerk reactions. Some of our clients have resorted to cost cutting measures other than salary cuts and layoffs .Let us see what they did.

1]Redeployment- The HR department did a mapping of potential openings of all job roles across all departments and work locations in the company. Then moved people from one city to another and offer them roles in a different business units.So people who’s jobs would have been lost were redeployed in similar roles.

2]Give employees targets to reduce cost:Employees will feel that they are a part of the solution finding process.Some innovative ideas can save crores for the companies.


3]Inventory management-Instead of maintaining an inventory for say 8 to 9 months,reduce it to 6 months –bringing down your storage cost,wastage,insurance bills and transportation costs.

4]Forced leaves or unpaid vacation-In some companies,employees have been asked to avail of their leaves so the company does not have to bear the expense of encashment.Since the market is currently not buoyant ,companies can afford to consider this option.

5]Deferring Annual Bonus: To be paid in equal amounts over a period of 2 to 3 years[mostly done for top and senior management levels].

6]Reduced benefits.Cut down on frills like travel by business class or entertainment expenses.

I am sure no organization likes to implement measures like salary cuts and lay offs but in case there is a need to resort to such a measure ,then the best employers use it only as the last option.And because they understand that it is a very sensitive issue and must be handled with kid-gloves, the implementation has to be done in a very methodical manner.
Let me share with you an example of HSBC which has featured as among the top 25 employers in the latest Outlook Business –Hewitt Associates Study.

While there are a whole lot of positive aspects of the bank for it to be featuring as one of the best employers,I am sharing only one part which is in context of our current topic.After successfully implementing all other measures of reducing cost,200 employees out of a total of 6,427, had to be laid off by HSBC. But the process followed by the bank to execute this difficult task was very carefully designed and implemented.The bank offered counselling to those retrenched and their family members, and also put in place a preferential return policy.Under this policy, they were promised priority treatment for any new openings that come up.And the report mentions that about 10 executives have already been reinstated under this scheme. So by systematically handling the situation as a whole, the company did not lose good and skilled talent who will always remain a valuable resource for the organization in the long term. Such organizations with a “people first” ethos develop loyalty amongst the employees, and inspite of some layoffs ,HSBC is rated among the top 25 employers in the best employers study-Outlook Business-Hewitt Associates 2009.

So let me end by quoting from a magazine - “Best employers are like marathon runners who see this crisis as a blip in the long-term success of their organization”.

INTERVIEWING TIPS FOR EMPLOYERS

Everyone believes that he/she is a good interviewer. It's like everyone believes he/she is a good driver. But we all know what the statistics of road accidents prove. Hiring is viewed as being laborious and distracting. But if you do not grow in your hiring skills, you lose because there is always some competitor that is either ahead of you or trying to catch up, and if you don't stay strong in the area of bringing on better talent than your competitor, then you lose. Hiring is an art and cannot be rushed. The rule is that if you select in haste, you will repent at leisure. But the good news is that like any other business skill, hiring can be learnt and mastered. Interviewing is one of the most critical part of the hiring process and managers need to adopt a systematic approach, based on the job description and specification of the sort of person you need to fill the job. You then need to consider the method of interviewing, how to conduct the interview and

how to evaluate the results.

Purpose of Interview: The principal purpose of the interview is to provide evidence upon which a prediction can be made of a candidate's suitability for the job. However, it also has two other objectives: to provide the candidate with information about the organization, job responsibility and the role, and to give him/her a favorable impression of the organization.

TIPS Prepare before the interview: Have you ever been just pulled in at the last minute to screen a candidate without having a brief or a detailed understanding of the requirements of the position? You need to prepare yourself with detailed knowledge of the position which is the most basic prerequisite for an effective interview.
1.Only reading the job description is not at all sufficient; talk to the functional people who best understand the position. Focus on the results and outcomes that the position must produce. Results are the only things that count when it comes to business, so you might as well make results the focus of your hiring.
2.Define & list down the areas most important to the position. For e.g. - technical skills, attitude, motivation, initiative, work habits, social skills, analytical ability etc and importantly rank the areas in their order of importance top to bottom. The 80/20 rule would apply here too. Most jobs boil down to about three/four essential duties that account for 80% of the job.
3.Write down interview questions that will require job applicants to tell you how they have addressed your critical areas related to the specific position.
Be consistent: Use the same interview structure & similar questions for every candidate you interview for the same position. Otherwise, it will be difficult to compare candidates objectively.

Ask for stories: Ask candidates to talk about real & specific experiences, not how they would respond in general situations. Probe this area carefully: "what exactly did you do and what results did you get?”For e.g. if you are interviewing a sales person, instead of asking him how has his/her performance been vis-à-vis his/her sales targets, ask the candidate to explain in detail how did he go about achieving his sales target for a particular month/quarter Or, rather than asking how a candidate deals with stress in the workplace, you might say "describe a recent situation when you were under a lot of stress and tell me how you reacted to it ".

Listen Attentively: Learn how to listen to what the person is really telling you. Avoid thinking about subsequent questions while the candidate is answering your last. Allow silences in the conversation. Question for clarification. Ask "how do you mean?" regularly. Take notes on the responses of the candidate during & immediately after the interview. Perhaps one of the simplest way for you to assess intelligence is to listen to the number and type of

Questions that the candidate asks.

Stay connected with other interviewers:
•If, besides yourself, there are other people separately going to be involved in the interview process, co-ordinate with them to confirm that they have the interview on their schedule and to discuss what aspects of the candidate's background each person would be covering. Make sure they have taken the time to prepare for the interview.
•Each person who is going to be involved in the interview process should have a couple of overlap questions pertaining to critical areas of the job which will help provide insight on the candidate's responses. If 3 people are separately interviewing the candidate, then have the third person ask a couple of questions similar to those asked by the first interviewer.
Your company can look very unprofessional if there is no co-ordination on the interview content between the people involved and have everyone ask the candidate the same mundane questions, like reviewing their background three times. Or everyone is covering the same area while missing other critical areas.

Jot down notes: Immediately after the interview set aside 10/15 minutes to jot down notes from the interview, focusing on the most critical questions & the responses. Then rate the candidate on a scale of 1-10.

Do not oversell: If you think you have found the perfect candidate, it is tempting to let the interview switch from a candidate focus to one that of selling the position & the company to the candidate. While it is good to present positive sides of the opportunity and the career prospects, do not give the candidate an impression that you are desperate.

Move quickly to next stage: Commit to yourself and the candidate that you will make a decision, either ways, within 48 hours of the interview to carry it to the next stage. Indecision is enemy number 1 in the hiring process. You owe yourself & the candidate the courtesy of a quick decision.

Whether you, as the prospective employer are interested in the candidate or not, you want the candidate to leave, after the interview, carrying a positive impression about your company. He/she should feel that your organization would be a wonderful place to work. You want every applicant interviewed to become a good-will ambassador for your organization. Interviews should be a part of your public relations campaign. Make the best use of it. !!


Sarabjeet Sachar-Founder and CEO-ASPIRATION
Media n Entertainment Recruitment & Resume Services.

The value of Reference checks for Employers

Many hiring managers do not realize the importance of reference checking but our experience shows that it is a very useful screening tool during the final stage of the hiring process. The most expensive mistakes you will ever make in hiring could be the result of not properly checking & confirming the truth & validity of the hired person's background. Though there are some obvious weaknesses, and though the feedback received from the reference checks has to be viewed subjectively, if done correctly, reference checking can provide enough value.

It is important to review the weaknesses so that we can handle the process of reference checking in a manner that we derive maximum value from the exercise.

Few of the weaknesses in the reference checking process:
1.References who are positive:
The candidate is definitely going to provide references with which he/she is totally comfortable. No one is going to give names to potential employers of people who will speak negative about them. Hence it is important to ask for 4 references (instead of 2 normally provided) so that the applicant can be pushed into providing names with which he/she is at least one degree less happy. At least we know if 4 people are consistent with feedback on the critical areas we are wanting to check, it can be quite reassuring.

2.References to be related to applicant's performance:
Many a times references are provided which are not directly related to applicant's performance. The person should be able to give feedback on the basis of the knowledge of what the applicant did in his/her previous job.
Though as mentioned earlier, there is subjectivity involved with the feedback you get from the reference checking process, if done correctly, some value can still be derived:

Some suggestions:
•The first thing which is important is to have the hiring manager checking reference "make the telephone call" himself/herself. Letters or emails should not be used to get feedback because valuable information can be got only by speaking to the person.

•When the hiring manager makes the call, it is important to get connected & pay full attention to the tone of voice, content & pauses of the respondent. Things which are not said can be extremely important about which you, as a hiring manager, have to make an intelligent judgment. There was an instance where on probing we found out that a mid-level manager working for a large firm was extraordinarily good as an individual performer but had problems as a team player. The client on behalf of whom we were doing the reference check was a relatively smaller organization wherein in terms of team size the manager would need to handle a smaller number. Also, since we got this feedback, the hiring manager was informed accordingly and was advised to make the candidate aware about this feedback so that both, the hiring manager as well as the applicant, walked into the relationship with their eyes open. Since the hiring manager had this feedback, he gave him charge of a relative smaller team size and also kept counseling him at various stages. It has now been more than one year that the relationship is working out fruitfully.

•A former employer to whom the applicant was directly reporting is ideal as a reference. A customer (in case of jobs where the applicant has interacted professionally with external people on behalf of his/her organization like in functions of sales, client servicing etc.) is also acceptable as a reference. In any event, whenever possible, the reference should be related to a job that the applicant has done. Ways must be found to handle the stimuli given to allow the reference to indicate negatives without feeling that he or she is hurting the applicant. One of the things could be that you preface your questions with a compliment. For example "I found Ms. ABC to be very presentable & she came across as a committed individual but is she somewhat short tempered?" or "we agree with you on her presentation skills, but this job involves a lot of long working hours every day. How do you feel she will react to that?" For e.g. : There was a female candidate who was very good with her presentation skills & selling ability and the organization she was working had reasonable working hours. While doing a reference check we found out that she had commitments at home & had to leave for home by 6:30 p.m. everyday. As far as her work performance was concerned it was above average. We were about to place her with an organization where erratic working hours was part of the work culture. But because of this feedback, the organization she was placed in was matching her requirement of reasonable working hours.
•A good question is to ask the reference in the end "Would you hire this person back again today if he applied for a job with you?" All this requires is a simple yes or no response. If the answer is yes, it is a good sign, one of the best you could get. If the person says no, this should be a danger signal for you. You must try & find out why he would not re-employ the applicant and that should tell you lot and your decision then will be a well informed decision.
Reference checks, when handled well, can be an extremely useful screening tool. Insist & commit to doing them because hiring in a haste can be a very expensive decision if it turns out to be a wrong hire. As William Shakespeare wrote "Make haste slowly"

Sarabjeet Sachar-Founder and CEO-ASPIRATION -
Media n Entertainment Recruitment & Resume Services.

Retention of Talent

Shakespeare said "when you have hired, trained, developed a team of top people, you must do everything possible to "Bind them to you with hoops of steel"

It is said that people join companies but leave mangers. Managing talent = Retention of talent. Retention of talent is an ongoing & critical part of the manager's job and successful companies and their managers built retention strategies as a part of the system.

There was a study conducted by Gallup research which gave few pointers to companies indicating reasons as to why people stick to organizations:

1.Embrace a talent mindset: - Simply put, a talent mindset is committed to the view that without great talent you won't succeed. This culture comes not from the HRD but from CEO down.

2.Employees are clear of what is expected out of them :- It is said "what gets measured gets done". Are the job roles and responsibilities clearly defined and linked to objectives which need to be achieved? Companies need to ask themselves this question. There are many organisations who follow a periodic & regular (at times half yearly) performance review with clearly spelt out qualitative and quantitative evaluation parameters.

3."I need material, resources & support in the system to deliver successfully" expects the employee: - There is an interesting example I could share which took place in the sales department of one of our clients in the Print media sector. This company had a problem that while it would hire effective frontline sales people, they would be productive for the initial 1/2 years but these productive people would then start leaving while mediocre ones would continue. The situation was that each sales representative was assigned a sales temtory & there was an incentive linked to the sales revenue generated. As the sales revenue in a particular territory would increase, the company would split up the temtory into two, the reasoning being that one person could not service all those additional clients. However, this split in territory meant that people who were highly effective and ambitions sales people felt that their overall potential was not being fully exploited and the earning potential also reduced and hence they would leave. The company realized and corrected this mistake, and instead of splitting the territories, they provided assistants who would help in the ongoing follow up & service of key accounts. Instead of letting the incentive plan become ineffective, the company gave the top sales people the ability to deal competently with their ever-expanding book of business.
Another example is of companies where each manager has to commit himself to 10/12 days of training in a year & also for some days for his team otherwise no performance bonus is given.

4."I need to do what I do best everyday" is what employees tell their employers :- The job responsibility needs to be redesigned, if needed, to exploit the full potential of the employee's capability, which in turn, gives him/her a lot of job satisfaction. For this managers need to communicate regularly with their team members. It should never be shunted to the HR dept.
There is an example of a person who joined one of our clients which is a large multimedia house. He joined in the Direct Marketing division of the group but over a period of time, the employer realised that the employee, who had a background in Direct marketing, had good skillsets and talent to handle mainline advertising. The employee also showed inclination to move towards the job responsibility of mainline advertising & subsequently the company moved him to the department. It has now been a year, the employee and employers both are happy.

5."I need to know my manager cares" is the expectation of the employee: - Participative management where employees' suggestions, ideas are given due importance, are implemented & duly rewarded is one of the effective styles. There are many companies where the CEO of the company travels with his fieldforce (even in local transport if required) once in a month, to really see & feel for himself what are the challenges faced in the market place.

It is said that "there are never any bad soldiers under a good general"

Make your goal to be an "employer of choice"

Sarabjeet Sachar-Founder and CEO-ASPIRATION
Media n Entertainment Recruitment & Resume Services.

The IMPORTANCE of a WRITTEN job description

"We need a sales manager who should have experience of about 5/7 years in direct sales. The person should possess excellent presentation and communication skills and must be a guy with fire in the belly and proven performance of delivering targets. The candidate must have strong relationships with the prospective and regular customers as the company is into products with a repeat purchase cycle of 3 months". This is example A of a typical brief for the vacancy of a sales position given VERBALLY by many clients to their recruitment consultants. As per brief, the candidates are short-listed by the consultant and interviewed by the client but all of them are rejected. While all of them met the criteria, none of the candidates had been exposed to the "specific market segment" and hence didn't have any established relationships in that specific segment which was a critical requirement of the position. Example B is another brief-"We need a product manager with around 6 years experience in marketing. Responsibility would include handling above the line and below the line activities, market research, pricing and product strategies. Should be an MBA from a premium institute and should possess an analytical bent of mind". The candidates were short-listed and sent by the consultant for interviews with the client. All were rejected. The reasons: Firstly, none of the candidates had the experience and understanding of the distribution pattern of the product categories related to the client's product and it's related buyer behavior. This understanding was key to the role and responsibility of the position. Secondly all the candidates had more experience in handling above-the-line activities while the requirement was that the candidate should be exposed primarily [75%] to the below-the-line activities. Another essential role for the job. What a loss of time for all involved! And the end objective of successfully hiring the right candidate for the position was not met. The hiring process has an important step, which must be done at the beginning stage itself. 'Write' down a clear job-description, the purpose of which is to find the RIGHT-MATCH for the position which remains the most challenging purpose of hiring. Something amazing happens between your head and your hand when you take a pen and put it onto a piece of paper to 'write' the job-description. While the definition of an ideal candidate differs among various businesses and organizations, here are few leads for writing the job-description:
1] Begin with listing down all the qualities that an ideal candidate would have. You will be astonished at the clarity that develops on the page in front of you. You will find yourself remembering so many key skills and details, which had previously not occurred to you. These would be very useful, which you will realize later, in the hiring decision you make.
2] Focus on the results and the outcome that the position must produce which are the deliverables.
3] The candidate must 'FIT' into the company.Attitudinally, whether the candidate would be a team player, open-minded to learn and with appositive attitude and such other traits.
4] Get into the minutest detail of the activity and task required to be fulfilled by the position. Leaving out any one thing could lead to a wrong hiring decision.
5] If it an existing and not a new position, it would be a good idea to use the person, who is leaving the organization, as a bench-mark while writing the job-description. You may consider listing down the experience, background, skill-sets, capability of that person. This could be applicable either ways to use the positive points if he/she was successful in delivering the results or to learn from the negative points which might have hindered their delivery.
6] While you may list down 20 or more personal characteristics, but most jobs boil down to 4-5 essential duties that account for 80% of the job. These are the ones which must be mentioned up-front in the job-description. With this ammunition of a WRITTEN job-description, you as a hiring manager are ready to begin your search for the right person for the job!!

Sarabjeet Sachar-Founder and CEO-ASPIRATION
Media n Entertainment Recruitment & Resume Services.