May 14, 2020

Employee Experience Design: Making It Boundaryless

Do the employees trust the intent of the leaders? Without trust, even the best of EX designs will be looked at with suspicion. Is the leader fair? Does the leader have integrity? The biggest element for great EX is to co-create it. The company’s policies reflect the assumptions the employer has about the employees. When Netflix said they offered unlimited vacation, they said the employee could be trusted not to misuse it.

April 3, 2020

Uncertain Times Need Routines

Comfort-food is a stress reliever. We throw caution to the winds and indulge in a routine that brings back memories of happy times and nostalgia. Friends and loved ones renew our faith. For some turning to religion is reassuring. Routines build a sequence that we know and have done before. Routines are necessary for mental health during times of stress and uncertainty. 5 Ideas you can use

March 6, 2020

Why Exceptional Interns Never Eat Alone

Your internship opportunity can give you sharp clues about yourself that are priceless. There are 4 big ideas and a bonus idea. Often you’ll see restaurants […]
February 21, 2020

Freelancers – the hot trend in talent management

Every freelancer has to be their own C-Suite. If they do not understand the complexity of the taxes they have to pay, they can work with an accounting firm or a tax lawyer. In an organization, the Learning and Development team will assess the gaps in soft skills (along with the technical knowledge and domain knowledge) that are there for each employee and create a plan to bridge the gap. That option goes away for freelancers. They can’t assess their own skill gap in this area.

January 28, 2020

What if there were no rewards at work?

In the workplace, there is a special team of people who manage “total rewards” that does everything with the belief that periodic rewards make the employee feel appreciated and a little more engaged. Could it be that our system of rewards is just what is making them disengaged? Could it be that rewarding high performance is precisely what is making people not collaborate with colleagues? Could it be that offering rewards for innovation is stopping the employees from taking on complex problems? What does the science say?

January 22, 2020

New Career Options in 2020

The highest growth will be in jobs that require tech skills and understanding of human emotions. They are called Hybrid Jobs. A Marketing manager with fluency in a database program, or a Data Scientist who knows data visualization or an Engineer who knows Sales qualifies as a Hybrid Job. These jobs will grow at twice the pace of any other job and are less likely to get automated. If you are a Techie, adding social or creative skills can make you a “purple squirrel” – a term recruiters use to describe people with these rare combinations.

December 5, 2019

The Digital Mindset: Aquarium to Ocean

The organization is no longer like an aquarium that has a solid defined boundary wall. The organization is part of an ecosystem. Leading the fish in an aquarium is different from navigating the ocean.  The digital organizations are as different from the legacy organizations as the butterfly is to the caterpillar. Leading these organizations needs not just new set of skills and competencies but also a different mindset. The hyperconnected customer is more aware and makes decisions and choices differently. The power balance has tilted in favor of the employees and consumers. They own the brand. The leaders role is now about helping the organization go from the aquarium to become part of ocean.   

December 4, 2019

Genpact: Reskilling at Scale

Very often organizations launch an initiative with great fanfare. When the dust settles, people move on to their desk and carry on doing their work as usual. Genpact seems to have found a way to sustain this massive exercise. The leadership team has taken it upon themselves to celebrate learning and the people driving the agenda - the employees.The CEO of Genpact recognizes the gurus and experts in every town hall. He celebrates the guru who has done the maximum amount of skill building. The clients are told about this. The CHRO and the Chief Innovation Officer talk about Genome to the clients and the employees at every possible opportunity. The result is that skill building is not a metric tracked by the L&D team, the agenda is part of the business conversation every day.

October 18, 2019

Talent Acquisition in the Gig Economy

Working with open-talent system of gig workers will need specialized talent acquisition teams. New processes in every department from legal contracts to accounts payable will be needed. New technology that makes it possible for the gig worker to give his or her best need to be created. Experts already find that they make more money through gig work while having the flexibility of hours and the freedom to choose the projects they wish to work on.