PERSONALITY TEST

TIBETAN PERSONALITY

TEST

Take your time with this

test and you will be

amazed.

Just 3 questions

and the answers will

surprise you.

Warning ! !

Be honest and do not cheat by looking up the

answers.

The mind is like a parachute, it works best

when it is opened.

This is fun to do, but you have to follow the

instructions very closely.

Do not cheat.

A warning!

Answer the questions as you go

along.

There are only 3 questions and if

you see them all before finishing,

you will not have honest results.

Go down slowly, and

complete each exercise as

you scroll down.

Don't look ahead.

Get pencil and paper to write our

answers as you go along.

You will need it at the end. This is an

honest questionnaire which will tell

you a lot about your true self.

Give an answer for each item.

The first thing that comes to mind is

usually your best answer.

Remember

no one sees this but you.

(1) Put the following

5 animals in the order

of your preference:

Cow, Tiger, Sheep, Horse, Pig

(2) Write one word that describes each one

of the following:

Dog, Cat, Rat, Coffee, Sea.

(3) Think of someone, who also knows you

and is important to you, which you can

relate them to the following colors.

Do not repeat your answer twice.

Name just one person for each color:

Yellow

, Orange , Red , White , Green.

FINISHED?

Please be sure that your

answers are what you

REALLY WANT

ANSWERS:

(1)

This will define your priorities in your life.

Cow Signifies CAREER

Tiger Signifies PRIDE

Sheep Signifies LOVE

Horse Signifies FAMILY

Pig Signifies MONEY

(2)

Your description of dog implies your own

personality.

Your description of cat implies the

personality of your partner.

Your description of rat implies the

personality of your enemies.

Your description of coffee is how you

interpret sex.

Your description of the sea implies your

own life.

(3)

Yellow: Someone you will never forget

Orange: Someone you consider your true

friend

Red: Someone that you really love

White: Your twin soul

Green: Someone that you will remember

for the rest of your life

Insolvency Professional- Emerging Career Option

After India enacted tougher laws to deal with sticky loans and the central bank stepped in accelerate the pace of recoveries, finance executives have stumbled upon a career growth opportunity based, ironically, on insolvency. Independent insolvency professionals (IPs), are becoming critical for the success of a Rs 8-lakh crore recovery initiative. The Insolvency and Banking Board of India (IBBI), set up last autumn and taked with providing the framework for recovery proceedings, conducts exams that allow chartered accounts, company secretaries, cost accountants, and advocates to qualify as IPs. 

Chartered and cost accountants, company secretaries, and lawyers with a minimum of 10 years of post-qualification experience may be eligible to be appointed as IPs. The IBBI has registered 396 IPs who have cleared their qualifying exams. There are 1,000 unregistered IPs. Former company CEOs, MDs, CGM, are also in the queue to qualify as IPs, which is seen as a crucial link in ensuring that competing claims from stakeholders are settled and funds made available for productive sectors of the economy.

The role of IPs comes with its own set of challenges. "Insolvency is the most promising, but and equally challenging career". In many cases, borrowers do not cooperate while sharing the details, and creditors insist on fast-track processing. The IPs  have to manage everything, using all resources apart from their qualification experience help them to navigate the situation.

The primary objective of an IP is to find a resolution plan. The professionals can act in two ways: Interim Resolution Professional, who are appointed by the borrower for the first 30 days of proceedings at the National Company Law Board; and Resolution Professionals, who are usually appointed by the committee of creditors for the next 150-240 days of the stipulated period. 

Insolvency professionals should first have huge convincing powers to deal with creditors, they need to deal with warring financial creditors and tell them clearly that they are gathering to draw up a resolution plan. An IP should be a mix bag of management, financial and legal skills. The scope for IPs would only increase as more bad loans come up for resolution.

IRPs and RPs (Interim Resolution Professionals and Resolution Professionals), collectively called IPs, can earn Rs 2 to Rs 15 lakh, depending on the size of business and debts of cases, professionals said. For cases between operational creditors and companies, income opportunities are in the range of Rs 50,000 to Rs 1,50,000 a month as the nature of the cases are less complex

Open Office Space- One Team One Space Culture

The work culture in the future will be facing lot of changes in hierarchy, work environment and office layout. Office space and layout are emerging concern for many top most companies recently. Vanishing cabins accompanies by collaborative work spaces to foster a creative, entrepreneurial mindset, promoting a startup culture. companies like Microsoft, Ikea, Coca-Cola, Tesco and Vistara are trying out new techniques to engage their employees in common work spaces in India. while this has been an ongoing trend, more traditional companies are implementing it now.

Common work spaces help foster collaborative and innovative spaces among employees who, according to a study by furniture manufacturer Steelcase, spend nearly 37 per cent of their day at work. at Ikea's offices in Hyderabad and Bengaluru, the focus at the time of designing the offices was on the company's most important asset: employees. Its mantra to keep employees happy is providing them a work environment that nurtures creativity, fun energies, conversations, teamwork, and a place where co-corkers can share knowledge, think and reflect.

"Our workplaces create an environment for dynamic meetings and inspiring workplaces, and all our offices reflect this spirit and energy", said Anna-Carin Mansson, country HR manager for the Swedish brand. At Microsoft, which has redone its Gurgaon and Mumbai offices, commercial marketing director Himani Agrawal says the open office space removes barriers and makes everyone approachable. " I especially love the Mad Hatter's space whenever i need to ideate", she said. Here, the Chairman of the company sits on the same kind of desk as anyone else. You can walk up and talk to the top honchoes. Seats are not fixed - they can be changed regularly. the endeavour is to remove any traces of hierarchy. " This gives employees greater flexibility in picking the space that they want to operate out of, on any particular day", said Ira Gupta, the company's HR director.

At beverage major Coca-Cola's office, there are fewer than a dozen cabins occupying just about 7 percent of the total office space. Most of these cabins have transparent glass doors, indicating that the top management is always accessible to people. like Ikea, here too, work spaces balance both 'alone time' and 'group time'.

The open floor plan and shared work spaces encourage employees to engage in spontaneous conversations leading to extraordinary ideas. "We believe that providing options to choose the space depending on the type of work at hand boosts innovation, creativity and efficiency", said its vice president, HR and Services, Manu N Wadhwa. Vistara's CEO sits along with colleagues on the open plan and open culture office without cubicles and cabins.

 UK retail brand Tesco started refurbishing its office in India in October 2015, aiming to make the space to be more inclusive as well as become more agile. Since the leadership at Tesco in Bengaluru sits alongside their teams, it increases access and transparency within a modern work environment. the current framework enhances the 'one-team' culture and hot-desking provides flexibility to employees to work from any place, enabling them to better engage with each other, said Krity Sharma, head, people.

Organizations have to figure out how they can create different places or a palette of places where each worker can find privacy, rejuvenate, recharge and connect with colleagues around the world.

"Companies have policies to have freedom and choice in the physical environment where they will find an appropriate place to work", James P Keane, Chief Executive at Steelcase.

Five ways to motivate your laidoff employees

1. Tell  the truth to your staff

 Though reality is often tough to hear, it is better to be honest with your employees during a layoff. “Communicate with employees the rationale for layoffs and the positive outcomes that will come out of such unfortunate events

2. Engage with employees

 Engage with those whose jobs are saved to reinforce the organization's commitment to their growth and development.

3.  Reskill your workforce

Create ecosystem for skill development. " Empower your employees to re-skill themselves in accordance with the latest technologies. Motivate them to undertake courses on big data development, machine learning, front-end development, devops and android development.

4.  Teach them to work with less

Teach employees how to manage with less and navigate such a situation. Remove or postpone work that is low on priority or can be delayed. Sit down with them and see how work can be reallocated and spread more evenly across people. This will help reduce anxiety among employees and balance the workload.

5. Help employees laid off

Be fair with laid-off employees, show compassion and help them in out-placement as well as personal coaching and guidance.

 

Why hiring the right person is the most important challenge before a startup

Software engineer Aatmaprem Aarya was working on a deadline. He was building a website that could fetch information from a database. For an engineer like Aarya with three years of work experience in a large software product company, it was an easy task.

But his future employer, Boomerang Commerce, an ecommerce enabler startup, for which Aarya was interviewing, tweaked the task.

He had to finish the website using a complex programming language on a cloud computing infrastructure, both of which the 27-year-old programmer wasn’t familiar with. And he had only two hours to finish the task.

“When you interview for a developer’s position you brush up your theoretical and applicative aspects. I was thrown an impromptu project that I had to finish in two hours from scratch including installing basic software, finding out what components could be used and finally getting it all done in time,” says Aarya adding that he knew he wasn’t in for an easy ride. 

Nevertheless, he knew that he was being given a taste of what it’d be like working for a startup.

Aarya’s experience is just one example of how startups are relying on real-world practical tests to hire the best talent instead of the more conventional interview format that larger organisations rely on.

With over 22,000 startups coming up in the country in the last ten years, according to startup tracker Tracxn, a lot of millennials are joining these young organisations, and the companies are using unconventional hiring techniques to pick the best, and also the most compatible, talent.

Hackathons, psychometric tests and takehome-problems are all important pieces in the toolkit of the startup hiring manager who has little room for error. Helpshift, a Pune-based startup that provides a mobile customer relationship management tool, gives potential hires a “takehome problem” to evaluate the candidate’s patience, ownership and problem-solving skills.

“A lot of people do well in interviews,” says Baishampayan Ghose, founder and chief technology officer at Helpshift. “But the real challenge is to evaluate if a candidate fits well in the organisation.”

A startup requires its employees to be malleable. So while an engineer with work experience of 20 years in Java language programming might land an enviable offer at a big multinational, a startup wants to know how quickly this engineer can learn other technologies and skills.

An easy way to evaluate aptitude is to ask an engineer to solve a problem in a programming language they aren’t familiar with, says Ghose.

“If you’ve been an oil painter for years, you can make a few good strokes using acrylic paint, too,” he says. Unlike multinational companies, startups operate on limited capital. They also operate in a fiercely competitive space.

So, while an IT giant can recruit 100 recent graduates and train them for three months on a skill, while also having the bandwidth to hold them in a pool until a project requires resources, a startup needs its employees to be functional and contributing from day one.

To make sure the team shares the same passion as the entrepreneur, a culture fit is often assigned a bigger checkbox.

Bengaluru techie Abhishek Goel, 23, remembers discussing his travel escapades at length during his interview for the role of senior software engineer at travel review portal HolidayIQ .

Candidates who want to join the company are asked to share experiences of the places they have visited and write reviews on the portal. They are screened for their enthusiasm for travel and their aptitude to resolve challenges that travelling can often throw up.

“By ensuring that even our software engineers are passionate about travel, we get employees who go beyond just coding and pose questions about what features to add to help travelers. This attitude definitely helps our platform get better,” says Vandana Sharma, chief people officer at the Bengaluru startup.

Most startups germinate with the intent of solving a consumer or industry problem. Startup employees are therefore required to be conscious of their contribution in solving the problem their employer has set their eyes on.

Logistics startup Rivigo, that set out to build a reliable and safer logistics network by organising the freight transport industry, has a team of 1,200 employees chosen with absolute care, says cofounder Gazal Kalra.

Here too, technology solutions are found not by just sitting at a desk but by getting one’s hands dirty in the real world.

“Our tech team travelled with truck drivers and got a first-hand experience of problems like fuel pilferage and driver fatigue. Their experience of the problem at hand resulted in them building the right products,” she says.

The company recently applied for patents in the U.S. for its in-house technology solutions, including, a fuel pilferage detection system and driver-relay mechanism. Hackathons or coding contests have often been door-openers of opportunities for graduates looking for internships in tech giants such as Facebook, Snapchat and Tinder.

Gaining momentum in the country, some Indian startups, like Practo and Inmobi are also looking at Hackathons as a way to find the correct talent. Hackathons, which may not always be held with the sole purpose of hiring talent, “help in evaluating how a candidate works under a deadline, which tells a lot about the person,” says Kevin Freitas, human resources director at mobile advertising startup Inmobi.

A lot hinges on the kind of talent a startup is able to attract. A determinant to check whether a company’s hiring has had a positive impact on their business is to evaluate employee growth: an employee hired a year before should be able to work independently and probably also help mentor a new recruit. “By hiring smart people who can manage themselves, startups can save the overhead of hiring managers,” says Ghose of Helpshift.

In short, what could be deemed a tall order to ask of an employee working for an established company is in some sense a basic requirement expected of a startup employee.

So while Aarya, who since his interview with Boomerang Commerce has joined the startup and worked with them for a year, has got a hang of working in a startup, he says his first experience with the company helped him set correct expectations from his future employer.
“We’re working in a domain where we require engineers who learn quickly, deal with ambiguity, solve challenging problems and ship them under tight deadlines. Our hiring exercise mimics this process,” said Madhusudhan Rao, the head of India operations at Boomerang Commerce. 

48% of Indian employers up against talent shortage

Around 48 per cent employers in India find it tough filling job positions due to lack of available talent, and the toughest are those in accounting, finance and IT, says a survey.

According to ManpowerGroup Annual Talent Shortage Survey, out of more than 42,000 employers surveyed globally, 40 per cent faced such difficulties -- the highest since 2007.

In India, the figure stood at 48 per cent and the major reasons include lack of soft skills as cited by 36 per cent respondents and desire for more pay than on offer (34 per cent).

The job titles in demand in India this year include IT personnel, accounting and finance staff, project and sales managers, customer service representatives and customer support technicians and quality controllers.

"The demand index for IT and accounting professionals has been on a continuous rise. Focus on technology upgradation and better financial access will drive the sectors' growth in coming months," said A G Rao, Group MD of ManpowerGroup India

Rao felt that increased automation will lead to a rise in high-skilled jobs. The areas which will see high demand and lucrative pay packages include big data, analytics, mobility, design, Internet of Things (IoT) and artificial intelligence.

Region-wise, 46 per cent of Asian employers reported hiring difficulties, with Japan (86 per cent), Taiwan (73 per cent) and Hong Kong (69 per cent) reporting most of the challenges while just 10 per cent of Chinese employers faced such an issue, the lowest of all countries surveyed.

As per the report, as skills change rapidly, employers are looking inside for solutions, with 36 per cent of Indian employers choosing to develop and train their own people.

Seven million jobs can disappear by 2050, says a study

As many as 550 jobs have disappeared every day in last four years and if this trend continues, employment would shrink by 7 million by 2050 in the country, a study has claimed.

Farmers, petty retail vendors, contract labourers and construction workers are the most vulnerable sections facing never before livelihood threats in India today, the study by Delhi-based civil society group PRAHAR has said.

As per the data released by Labour Bureau early 2016, India created only 1.35 lakh jobs in 2015 in comparison to 4.19 lakh in 2013 and 9 lakh in 2011, the group said in a

statement.

"A deeper analysis of the data reveals a rather scary picture. Instead of growing, livelihoods are being lost in India on a daily basis. As many as 550 jobs are lost in India every day (in last four year as per Labour Bureau data) which means that by 2050, jobs in India would have got reduced by 7 million," the statement said.

The data clearly points to the fact that job creation in India is successively slowing down, which is very alarming, it pointed out.

"This (rise in unemployment) is because sectors which are the largest contributor of jobs are worst-affected. Agriculture contributes to 50 per cent of employment in India followed by SME sector which employs 40 per cent of the workforce of the country," the statement said.

The organised sector actually only contributes a minuscule less than 1 percentage of employment in India. India has only about 30 million jobs in the organised sector and nearly 440 million in the unorganised sector.

According to the World Bank data, percentage of employment in agriculture out of total employment in India has come down to 50 per cent in 2013 from 60 per cent in 1994.

It said that the labour intensity of small and medium enterprises is four times higher than that of large firms.

It further said that the multinationals are particularly capitalistic a fact vindicated during investment commitments of USD 225 million made for the next five years during the Make in India Week in February 2016.

However, what went unnoticed is that these investments would translate into creation of only 6 million jobs, it said.

"India needs to go back to the basics and protect sectors like farming, unorganised retail, micro and small enterprises which contribute to 99 per cent of current livelihoods in the country. These sectors need support from the Government not regulation. India needs smart villages and not smart cities in the 21st century," it added.

10 tips to win over coworkers who dislike you

Are you having a tough time at work because everyone seems to dislike and shirk you? More importantly, if you don't understand the reason for their behaviour, it's time you sought feedback from your boss or mentor. You also need to introspect to figure out what is wrong. Here's a list of undesirable traits that may be responsible and ways you can get rid of them.

FREE RIDING

The primary reason people dislike their colleagues is poor personal work ethic. Are you a free rider who does not perform up to the team's expectations? If you don't like your job or work profile, seek better opportunities. If you choose to stay, match the contributions by your team and spend any extra time in assisting others.

WHINING

No one likes a whiner. Everyone carries his own share of personal and workplace challenges. Are you an energy source or a drain on your colleagues? Pipe down on your personal troubles and recreate a positive image by helping colleagues, appreciating their contributions and triggering cheerful discussions.

GOSSIPING

The people who gossip more than average are shunned as being untrustworthy and back-stabbers, whereas those who refuse to join informal group discussions are branded as aloof. While a little bit of gossip enhances office bonding, too much of it will leave you friendless and might get you into trouble. So, choose well.

FLATTERY

Teammates don't like it if they find you spending too much time buttering up your senior. Though your boss may fall for flattery, your colleagues will find ways to even the score with you. On the other hand, being overly critical of your boss to earn brownie points from colleagues is also foolhardy and can eventually harm your career.

TALK LESS, TALK MORE?

Do you always have a lot to talk in meetings while others want to get back to work? Or are you someone who avoids speaking up even to share the information they require? Check with your buddies and bring in balance.

  STEALING CREDIT

Professionals are extremely unforgiving if you take credit for their work. The smarter way is to habitually share credit with the team for every success. The boss will invariably figure out the actual contributions.

BEING A POOR LISTENER

Your colleagues are probably fed up of missing deadlines because you did not listen carefully and get it right the first time. Ask friends to rate you on your listening skills.You could also sign up for a communications workshop.

CONTROL FREAK

People won't appreciate your constructive criticism till you are authorised to correct them. Get your nose out of other people's businesses and let them learn on their own if it is not your job to manage them.

OVER-COMPETITIVE

Though being competitive is necessary to move ahead at work, you will be thoroughly disliked if you are condescending or arrogant about your abilities and successes. Instead, take time out to help the less gifted.

SOCIAL INEPTNESS

If you dress poorly, talk about personal stuff at office, fail to follow e-mail etiquette shout at people at the workplace, crack inappropriate jokes, you are socially inept. Change your behaviour or work from home.

5 ways to build rapport as a new employee

As a new employee, you should remember you have been selected via a rigorous recruitment process and the employer believes in your abilities.

It's not necessary to set out to prove yourself on day I, but it is important to get along with your colleagues while following protocol. ET brings you tips from experts on how to make a smooth transition into a new job.

1. Read Up on Your Co, Colleagues

Understand the team and company history. Formulate some ideas that can help the company move forward and help execute them as per the team's goals. "Discuss successes and failures which are key to gaining a colleague's trust.

It will help you enjoy your work and be able to break the ice quicker," said Nihir Parikh, chief business office at e-commerce portal Nykaa.com.

2. Be Flexible

Make an effort to adapt to every situation and mould accordingly. "To be able to adjust to a new culture, manage a working relationship; being willing to accept all tasks assigned to you can also help build better rapport with others at work," said Ajay Chhangani, chief executive of Rise India, an aggregator in the education sector.

3. Speak up

Some say it is best to be clear from the start about what you want to know. "Do not hesitate to ask questions regarding doubts and clarifications. By doing so, one creates an impression that one is actually interested in learning," said Aniketh Jain, chief executive officer of Solutions Infini, a messaging and cloud telephony services company.

4. Show Camaraderie

Be interested in people around you. "When I say listen to them, I don't mean obey orders. When you are listening to people, you understand their priorities and lives, even if you don't want to participate just yet.

If your teammate or boss hasn't had the time to do so, you can start talking to them about yours without getting too personal," said Jatin Bhandari, CEO at PythaGurus and Interview Ninjas.

5. Take Initiatives

While there's a thin line between intrusion and initiative, it's good to be observant and polite enough to reach out to colleagues; understand motive behind things you found redundant and see if you can eliminate or edit them.

"If you are taking initiatives without building anything of incremental value, your colleagues may not like you," said Bhandari.

 

Ex-employee on why Google is not the best workplace

A former Google executive went public on Tuesday with a lament that the Internet star has become obsessed with advertising and seizing the online social networking crown from Facebook.

James Whittaker left Microsoft in 2009 for a high-level software engineering job at Google only to recently jump back to the California-based firm's rival.

In a personal blog post he explained why he left what is considered one of the world's most desirable workplaces.

"The Google I was passionate about was a technology company that empowered its employees to innovate," Whittaker said.

"The Google I left was an advertising company with a single corporate-mandated focus."

That focus was to conquer the online social networking realm where Facebook rules and Google stumbled with offerings such as Buzz and Wave, according to Whittaker.

"Larry Page himself assumed command to right this wrong," he said, referring to the Google co-founder who took over as chief executive last year.

"Social became state-owned, a corporate mandate called Google+," he continued.

Emphasis was put on synching Google+ social network with the company's popular services such as search and online video venue YouTube.

"Like the proverbial hare confident enough in its lead to risk a brief nap, Google awoke from its social dreaming to find its front runner status in ads threatened," Whittaker said.

Google shut down its Labs initiative to support experimental projects and soured on a policy that lets employees spend 20 per cent of their time on ideas unrelated to their usual jobs, according to the former 'Googler.'

"As the trappings of entrepreneurship were dismantled, derisive talk of the 'old Google' and its feeble attempts at competing with Facebook surfaced to justify a 'new Google' that promised 'more wood behind fewer arrows'."

Whittaker told of working on Google+ but seeing the social network make little headway against Facebook.

"As it turned out, sharing was not broken," he said. "Sharing was working fine and dandy, Google just wasn't a part of it."

"Google was the rich kid who, after having discovered he wasn't invited to the party, built his own party in retaliation," Whittaker continued. "The fact that no one came to Google's party became the elephant in the room."

Google decline to comment for this story.

Tata Group-owned Jaguar Land Rover to add 1,000 jobs at UK plant

Tatas-owned Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) is adding 1,000 jobs at its Halewood manufacturing plant, near Liverpool in the UK.

"The new positions, which will support the on-going significant demand for the Range Rover Evoque and Land Rover Freelander 2, take the workforce at Halewood to almost 4,500 - treble the number employed there just three years ago," the company said in a statement.

JLR HR Director Des Thurlby said: "We are moving Halewood to three shifts and 24-hour operation to meet increased global demand for our products."

The new jobs at Halewood plant will include production operators, supervisors and engineers, the company said.

All new employees joining the production line will receive training towards an Intermediate (Level 2) Apprenticeship, it added.

Thurlby said: "JLR's supply chain is also set to benefit, with thousands more jobs expected to be created."

In the April-January period JLR's global sales were at 2,45,705 units, up 25 per cent from the year-ago period.

Cumulative sales of Land Rover during the period were 2,01,237 units, up 34 per cent from the year-ago period, while that of are 44,468 units, lower by 3 per cent.

In January, the company's overall sales were at 29,293 units, up 44 per cent over January 2011.

Land Rover sales during the month were 24,746 units, up 43 per cent from the same month last year. That of Jaguar were 4,547 units, up 49 per cent from January 2011.

India Inc prefers internal candidates for top posts: Experts

When it comes to succession planning, India Inc seems to prefer internal candidates for passing on the baton for the top position, experts feel.

Choosing an internal candidate for top managerial posts, as seen in the case of Larsen & Toubro today, provides multiple benefits for the corporates, and also sends out the message that hardworking people would be rewarded, they say.

"These days, career progression is taken seriously by employees. Appointing an internal candidate as the successor also sends out a good message that hardworking people would be rewarded by the company," HR consulting firm ManPower Group (India) Managing Director Sanjay Pandit told PTI.

"It is also a good (talent) retention tool," he noted. Corporate giant L&T today appointed K Venkataramanan, associated with the company for over four decades, as its new CEO and Managing Director, while the current chief A M Naik would remain Executive Chairman.

While L&T is the latest major Indian entity to repose faith in an internal candidate for the top position after about one-year-long search process, many others, including salt-to-software conglomerate Tata Group, have taken a similar stand in the past.

As was the case for Tata group, L&T is also believed to have considered various candidates, including some from outside, in their months-long search processes.

Cyrus Mistry, son of construction magnate and the Tata group's single-largest shareholder Pallonji Shapoorji, would take over from Ratan Tata as the group chairman in December.

In January, Godrej Properties also appointed Pirojsha Godrej, son of group chief Adi Godrej, as its new MD and CEO.

"An insider will have a good understanding of the company. He will know the people and culture well," staffing services firm Ma Foi Randstad chief E Balaji said.

According to experts, the practice of choosing an internal candidate as successor at the top is a global trend.

"More and more companies are looking to groom talent internally, especially for top positions. This is happening globally as seen in the cases of General Electric, Apple and HSBC," Balaji said.

Pandit pointed out that having an internal candidate as the successor has "multiple benefits such as a good understanding of the company culture".

"Every organisation has a talent succession plan by default and the plan (usually) pans for about three to four years," he added.

"Going for an outside candidate to succeed (at top positions) also reflects the lack of talent internally. Companies are focusing on developing internal talent and a deep management bench (which is a good sign)," Balaji said.

L&T's current chief A M Naik joined the company in 1965 as a Junior Engineer while his chosen successor 67-year-old K Venkataramanan has been with the group since 1969.

Gender diversity scores high for firms like Microsoft, Accenture et al

Profitability, growth and shareholder value are no longer the only yardsticks on which CEOs are being assessed. A growing tribe of India Inc leaders and CXOs is now being evaluated and rewarded on how well they attract, nurture and groom women managers into leadership positions.

Microsoft India Chairman Bhaskar Pramanik and his leadership team have diversity on their performance scorecard, so does Accenture India Country Managing Director Avinash Vashistha. P&G India Managing Director Shantanu Khosla along with his leadership team is accountable for career progression of women in his company. At IBM India, Shanker Annaswamy, managing director, has diversity as a key result area (KRA) that cascades down to his leadership team.

Career progression of women is no longer just an HR responsibility. It is now a CEO function. "Companies are putting diversity as a key result area for the CEO and for other business leaders," says Vikram Chhachhi, executive vice-president of DHR International, a Chicago-based search firm.

Adds Roopa Kudva, managing director and CEO of Crisil, "The word diversity was not in the vocabulary of companies when I started out 25 years ago. Today it is on the agenda of management and boards."

The change is being led by a bunch of MNCs that have graduated from looking at gender diversity as a 'good to do' thing to a business imperative and strategy. "At Microsoft offices in many countries, it is proven that when there is more focus on women, there is a positive impact on business. We take diversity very seriously globally," says Joji Gill, senior director-HR, Microsoft.

Accountability at Every Level

At P&G India, there is leadership accountability of diversity at every level, and at every function - even in manufacturing and sales. The entire leadership team has diversity on its scorecard. Says Sonali Roychowdhury, country HR manager, "The company tracks the success of high-potential women. If there is a big skew, the leadership team intervenes."

P&G has 30% women across levels and half of its leadership team is women. At Accenture India, gender diversity is part of the CXO and leader scorecard. "Each of our leaders from top down is measured on gender diversity," says Rekha M Menon, lead for geographic services for India & ASEAN and human capital & diversity for India. "The three large buckets of gender diversity in the company are attracting more women, retaining and engaging these women, and growing the high potentials," she says.

The company has formally linked mid-level women to leaders who are two levels higher. "Each leader has two-three women whose career she/he is actively guiding. It's evangelism from the leadership," Menon says.

These leaders are accountable for not just numbers, but also have to explain attrition of women and there is accountability in succession slates and for more women in leadership roles. "At some organisations, a part of the bonus for senior leaders depends on how many women have been hired or groomed into leadership roles. Have you as a CEO ensured a certain percentage of diversity?" Chhachhi says. At manufacturing group Cummins India, a 'buy-in' into women's careers at the top has resulted in the percentage of women increasing to 24% in 2011 from 4% in 2004. "Diversity is a work-in-progress at Cummins India. It is part of the KRAs for all business leaders to get more women on board," says Nagarajan Balanaga, VP-HR at Cummins India. From no women in the leadership team 18 months ago, the company now has four women in the 20-member leadership team.

"The KRA around diversity works in three ways - hiring, retaining woman talent and providing conducive environment. Before the KRAs came into place, we used to lose more women than men. Now the attrition numbers are the same for both," Balanaga says. When a CEO or CXO drives it, the message is driven home faster and stronger. "This ensures a continuous focus to bring in more women into the workforce. It also has a trickledown effect and sensitises people managers to the importance of diversity in teams," says an IBM spokesperson. 

Cognizant rewards employees with 200% variable payout

CHENNAI: After growing faster than Indian information technology (IT) industry, Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp has now rewarded its employees by giving out as much as 200% of the variable components of their 2011 salaries.

Typically, anywhere from 20 to 30% of an employee salary is labeled as variable pay, linked to a combination of overall company performance and individual performance.

"The company has done the repeat of 2010 in rewarding its top performers. The top performers got around 200% of their target bonus while the average bonus given was 150%. The bonuses were on expected lines as the company has been scoring good quarter on quarter," said a Cognizant employee in Chennai on condition of anonymity.

"Yes, Cognizant has announced performance-linked bonus payout for all its associates, globally," said Shankar Srinivasan, Chief People Officer, Cognizant. "Our industry leading revenue growth in calendar 2011 has enabled us to pay performance bonuses well above target."

Cognizant's bonus comes at a time when industry lobby Nasscom has projected tepid revenue growth for software exporters. Last month, Nasscom forecasted 11-14% growth for India IT-BPO Industry during fiscal 2013, lesser than the 16.7% growth that the sector saw this in the just concluding fiscal.

"Even against the backdrop of a volatile economy, we grew our revenue by 33.3 percent over 2010 and added more than 33,500 professionals to our workforce globally," pointed out Srinivasan who added that Cognizant's employee attrition rate of 10.1% was among the lowest in the industry.

With the bonus pay out, there is increasing expectation of a good pay hike later this year.

"We are now eagerly waiting for the wage hike that would happen in May/June this year," said an employee from the company's Chennai campus. "We are positive that it would be the same like the bonuses. If you recall Cognizant was the only company which has promoted 33% of its workforce during the calendar year 2011."

While in 2010, Cognizant grew its revenues by 40 percent, in 2011, it grew its revenues by 33.3 percent. Both years, Cognizant grew its revenues by 10-15 percent higher than what NASSCOM projected for the industry.

Despite an uncertain economic environment in key global markets, Cognizant has forecasted growth of at least 23 percent this year. Cognizant had guided for 20 % growth at the beginning of 2010 but managed to grow by 40 percent that year. In 2011, it guided for 26 percent revenue growth and posted 33.3 % growth.

Going by Cognizant's guidance only $100 million would separate it from Infosys in terms of revenues. Cognizant's revenue forecast of $1.7 billion is now close to Infosys' March quarter guidance of $1.80-1.81 billion.

Cognizant has over 137,700 employees globally, of which over 1, 00,000 are in India. 
Courtesy: ET 13 Mar, 2012

Twelve Tips for Team Building: How to Build Successful Work Teams

Twelve Cs for Team Building
Executives, managers and organization staff members universally explore ways to improve business results and profitability. Many view team-based, horizontal, organization structures as the best design for involving all employees in creating business success.
No matter what you call your team-based improvement effort: continuous improvement, total quality, lean manufacturing or self-directed work teams, you are striving to improve results for customers. Few organizations, however, are totally pleased with the results their team improvement efforts produce. If your team improvement efforts are not living up to your expectations, this self-diagnosing checklist may tell you why. Successful team building, that creates effective, focused work teams, requires attention to each of the following.
Clear Expectations: Has executive leadership clearly communicated its expectations for the team’s performance and expected outcomes? Do team members understand why the team was created? Is the organization demonstrating constancy of purpose in supporting the team with resources of people, time and money? Does the work of the team receive sufficient emphasis as a priority in terms of the time, discussion, attention and interest directed its way by executive leaders?
Context: Do team members understand why they are participating on the team? Do they understand how the strategy of using teams will help the organization attain its communicated business goals? Can team members define their team’s importance to the accomplishment of corporate goals? Does the team understand where its work fits in the total context of the organization’s goals, principles, vision and values?
Commitment: Do team members want to participate on the team? Do team members feel the team mission is important? Are members committed to accomplishing the team mission and expected outcomes? Do team members perceive their service as valuable to the organization and to their own careers? Do team members anticipate recognition for their contributions? Do team members expect their skills to grow and develop on the team? Are team members excited and challenged by the team opportunity?

tips for effective team building.
Competence: Does the team feel that it has the appropriate people participating? (As an example, in a process improvement, is each step of the process represented on the team?) Does the team feel that its members have the knowledge, skill and capability to address the issues for which the team was formed? If not, does the team have access to the help it needs? Does the team feel it has the resources, strategies and support needed to accomplish its mission?
Charter: Has the team taken its assigned area of responsibility and designed its own mission, vision and strategies to accomplish the mission.

Has the team defined and communicated its goals; its anticipated outcomes and contributions; its timelines; and how it will measure both the outcomes of its work and the process the team followed to accomplish their task? Does the leadership team or other coordinating group support what the team has designed?
Control: Does the team have enough freedom and empowerment to feel the ownership necessary to accomplish its charter? At the same time, do team members clearly understand their boundaries? How far may members go in pursuit of solutions? Are limitations (i.e. monetary and time resources) defined at the beginning of the project before the team experiences barriers and rework?Is the team’s reporting relationship and accountability understood by all members of the organization? Has the organization defined the team’s authority? To make recommendations? To implement its plan? Is there a defined review process so both the team and the organization are consistently aligned in direction and purpose? Do team members hold each other accountable for project timelines, commitments and results? Does the organization have a plan to increase opportunities for self-management among organization members?
Collaboration: Does the team understand team and group process? Do members understand the stages of group development? Are team members working together effectively interpersonally? Do all team members understand the roles and responsibilities of team members? team leaders? team recorders? Can the team approach problem solving, process improvement, goal setting and measurement jointly? Do team members cooperate to accomplish the team charter? Has the team established group norms or rules of conduct in areas such as conflict resolution, consensus decision making and meeting management? Is the team using an appropriate strategy to accomplish its action plan?
Communication: Are team members clear about the priority of their tasks? Is there an established method for the teams to give feedback and receive honest performance feedback? Does the organization provide important business information regularly? Do the teams understand the complete context for their existence? Do team members communicate clearly and honestly with each other? Do team members bring diverse opinions to the table? Are necessary conflicts raised and addressed?
Creative Innovation: Is the organization really interested in change? Does it value creative thinking, unique solutions, and new ideas? Does it reward people who take reasonable risks to make improvements? Or does it reward the people who fit in and maintain the status quo? Does it provide the training, education, access to books and films, and field trips necessary to stimulate new thinking?tips for effective team building.
Consequences: Do team members feel responsible and accountable for team achievements? Are rewards and recognition supplied when teams are successful? Is reasonable risk respected and encouraged in the organization? Do team members fear reprisal? Do team members spend their time finger pointing rather than resolving problems? Is the organization designing reward systems that recognize both team and individual performance? Is the organization planning to share gains and increased profitability with team and individual contributors? Can contributors see their impact on increased organization success?
Coordination: Are teams coordinated by a central leadership team that assists the groups to obtain what they need for success? Have priorities and resource allocation been planned across departments? Do teams understand the concept of the internal customer—the next process, anyone to whom they provide a product or a service? Are cross-functional and multi-department teams common and working together effectively? Is the organization developing a customer-focused process-focused orientation and moving away from traditional departmental thinking?
Cultural Change: Does the organization recognize that the team-based, collaborative, empowering, enabling organizational culture of the future is different than the traditional, hierarchical organization it may currently be? Is the organization planning to or in the process of changing how it rewards, recognizes, appraises, hires, develops, plans with, motivates and manages the people it employs?Does the organization plan to use failures for learning and support reasonable risk? Does the organization recognize that the more it can change its climate to support teams, the more it will receive in pay back from the work of the teams?
Spend time and attention on each of these twelve tips to ensure your work teams contribute most effectively to your business success.

Indian talent in demand; seen as competitive threat

New Delhi, June 24 It seems desi talent is in demand, for 11 of the 26 countries surveyed sourced its foreign talent from India.
India closely follows China among the most popular countries for sourcing foreign talent, according to a Manpower Inc survey titled ‘Borderless Workforce’.
Incidentally, India ranks third in the list of top ten countries believed to be an economic threat to other nations. Of the 26 countries surveyed, all countries with the exception of Costa Rica and Peru believe that India provides competitive threat to their own country’s ability to compete economicallyMigration fears
The survey also highlights that 57 per cent of employers are concerned about the impact on labour market from talent migrating abroad. The findings reveal that only 21 per cent of employers in India think Government and businesses are doing enough to slow the outward migration of talent and attract these people back to India.
The survey gathered responses from 1924 respondents in India and 28,000 globally in 27 individual countries and territories.
Employers in public administration/education, services, finance, insurance and real estate and manufacturing are the most concerned, while employers in wholesale and retail, transport and utilities and mining, oil, gas and construction are least concerned.
The survey also indicated that employers in India consider China, United States and United Kingdom as the biggest threats to their ability to compete economically.
“While it’s true that we need to do more to keep our most talented workers, we must also consider how we can strengthen our collective employer ‘brand’ to attract more talented workers from overseas to fill our current and future talent shortages,” Dr Naresh Malhan, MD, Director Manpower India said.Taiwan most concerned
Within Asia Pacific, Taiwan has maximum percentage of employers (64 per cent) who express concern about talent leaving their country; the least concerned are employers in China (one per cent).
The survey also indicates that India ( $27 billion ) receives the highest remittances from nationals working abroad.

Indian wage inflation to grow

Indian wage inflation to grow

Indian companies are likely to keep raising salaries by about 15 per cent a year until 2011 as skills shortages overshadow concerns about higher input costs, according to Mercer, the consultancy.
The forecast, part of Mercer's annual Asia-Pacific compensation report, comes as India struggles with higher energy import costs. Economists expect India 's central bank to act soon to tighten monetary policy, such as raising interest rates, after the annual inflation rate breached 8 per cent in May.
India is one of only three countries in the region likely to maintain double-digit salary increases until 2011, according to Mercer, alongside Indonesia and Vietnam. The report covers salaries across all sectors in all categories of employees in 14 countries in the Asia-Pacific region. It is based on responses from about 500 companies, mainly multinational corporations operating in Asia.
Gangapriya Chakraverti, a senior India consultant for Mercer, said the situation was worrying because "the entire exercise of managing (salary) expectations has been missing.
"Given that companies are already struggling with higher input costs," she added, "there is increasing concern that these two-digit increases are definitely not to the benefit of any business. It will have to peter out at some point, and the earlier the better."
The rise in salaries is also more of a concern for India than a country such as China because services play a larger role in its economy, most notably in the outsourcing sector that has spearheaded India 's recent growth. Chinese annual salary increases are likely to remain above 9 per cent until 2011, according to Mercer, peaking next year at 9.7 per cent.
Employee costs typically represent between 6 and 8 per cent of total costs in the manufacturing sector, and up to 60 per cent of costs in the services sector.
The struggle by Indian employers' to keep a lid on salaries also contrasts with some more mature employment markets that are also facing severe labour shortages, including Australia where unemployment is at a three-decade low.
Australian salaries are expected to rise further, but at a stable rate of 4.3 per cent this year going down to 4.1 per cent in 2011, according to Mercer.
In terms of sectors, Mercer said that 2008 would mark "a change in trend direction" for high-tech salaries, with lower increases expected in most Asian countries amid a decline in US demand for consumer electronics.
In a recent report, economists at Lehman Brothers said that one reason to remain optimistic about Asian inflation was that there were "no strong signs yet of surging wages".
However, Lehman warned that low unemployment presented "a rising risk of wage-price spirals that could fan inflation expectations".

Good Interview

Bad Interview

High Attrition Rate: A Big Challenge

High Attrition Rate: A Big Challenge
Defining attrition: "A reduction in the number of employees through retirement, resignation or death"Defining Attrition rate: "the rate of shrinkage in size or number"Introduction: In the best of worlds, employees would love their jobs, like their coworkers, work hard for their employers, get paid well for their work, have ample chances for advancement, and flexible schedules so they could attend to personal or family needs when necessary. And never leave. But then there's the real world. And in the real world, employees, do leave, either because they want more money, hate the working conditions, hate their coworkers, want a change, or because their spouse gets a dream job in another state. So, what does all that turnover cost? And what employees are likely to have the highest turnover? Who is likely to stay the longest? Background of article The IT enabled services (BPO) industry is being looked upon as the next big employment generator (Nasscom predicts 1.1 million job requirement by the year 2008). It is however no easy task for an HR manager in this sector to bridge the ever increasing demand and supply gap of professionals. Unlike his software industry counterpart, the BPO HR manager is not only required to fulfill this responsibility, but also find the right kind of people who can keep pace with the unique work patterns in this industry. Adding to this is the issue of maintaining consistency in performance and keeping the motivation levels high, despite the monotonous work. The toughest concern for an HR manager is however the high attrition rate.In India, the average attrition rate in the BPO sector is approximately 30-35 percent. It is true that this is far less than the prevalent attrition rate in the US market (around 70 percent), but the challenge continues to be greater considering the recent growth of the industry in the country. The US BPO sector is estimated to be somewhere around three decades old. Keeping low attrition levels is a major challenge as the demand outstrips the supply of good agents by a big margin. Further, the salary growth plan for each employee is not well defined. All this only encourages poaching by other companies who can offer a higher salary.The much hyped "work for fun" tag normally associated with the industry has in fact backfired, as many individuals (mostly fresh graduates), take it as a pas-time job. Once they join the sector and understand its requirements, they are taken aback by the long working hours and later monotony of the job starts setting in. This is the reason for the high attrition rate as many individuals are not able to take the pressures of work.The toughness of the job and timings is not adequately conveyed. Besides the induction and project training, not much investment has been done to evolve a "continuous training program" for the agents. Motivational training is still to evolve in this industry. But, in all this, it is the HR manager who is expected to straighten things out and help individuals adjust to the real world. I believe that the new entrant needs to be made aware of the realistic situation from day-one itself, with the training session conducted in the nights, so that they get accustomed to things right at the beginning.The high percentage of females in the workforce (constituting 30-35 percent of the total), adds to the high attrition rate. Most women leave their job either after marriage or because of social pressures caused by irregular working hours in the industry. All this translates into huge losses for the company, which invests a lot of money in training them. If a person leaves after the training it costs the company about Rs 60,000. For a 300-seater call centre facing the normal 30 percent attrition, this translates into Rs 60 lakh per annum. Many experts are of believe that all these challenges can turn out to be a real dampener in the growth of this industry. This only raises the responsibility of "finding the right candidate" and building a "conducive work environment", which will be beneficial for the organization. The need is for those individuals who can make a career out of this. All this has induced the companies to take necessary steps, both internally and externally. Internally most HR managers are busy putting in efforts on the development of their employees, building innovative retention and motivational schemes (which was more money oriented so far) and making the environment livelier. Outside, the focus is on creating awareness through seminars and going to campuses for recruitment.Major Worries for the Industry
Reckless Start-ups- a vast majority of the 310 start-ups are headed for a dead-end (according to Nasscom). Their capacity utilization is less than one of the three shifts. Many of these companies that converted their empty basements and warehouses into BPO units or firms with $10 million-20 million VC funds that ran out of cash without creating anything more than white elephants. They have driven down prices to grab business, but have failed to deliver. They were always clueless about people, processes or technologies- the three key elements of the BPO business.
Poor Infrastructure- the industry has more to worry about than just reckless start-ups. Primary among those is infrastructure. While telecom networks are state of the art, getting a connection still takes up to three months. Unreliable power supply is forcing units to create their own back-ups. Roads are bad and airports are in dire need of repairs and upgrades.
High Attrition-another major problem is the high attrition and growth aspirations of the workforce. At least 60,000 of the 171,000 workforce change jobs every year. About 80% of them look for better leaders. Team leaders want to upgrade to supervisors, quality professionals or operations heads. The HR problem threatens to soon become grave. Good agents are becoming hard to find and with tardy infrastructure, big moves to the much talked about smaller towns will take longer. This means costs will rise making it difficult for small VC-funded companies to survive.
Attrition ratesUS 42%Australia 29%Europe 24%India 18%Global Average 24%
* Source-Times News New York
Purpose of Writing this ArticleStaff attrition (or turnover) and absenteeism represent significant costs to most organizations. It is odd, therefore, that many organizations neither measure such costs nor have targets or plans to reduce them. Many organizations appear to accept them as part of the cost of doing business - a sign of increasing job mobility and decreasing staff loyalty perhaps, a matter to be regretted but just 'one of those things.' They add a sum in their budgets for 'temp staff' and 'recruitment' and forget about it.However, it seems to be one of the areas in which HR can make a difference - and one that can be measured in quantifiable, financial terms against targets.An attrition rate in call (or contact) centres has become legendary. Indeed, the attrition rates in some Indian call centers now reach 80%. This is an extreme figure but the average attrition rates in Indian call centers are up around 30-40%.However, it is interesting to note that the attrition rates in India - and the costs associated - are so high that they can override the benefits of lower wage costs. While wages in call centres in Indian are less than one-eighth of those in Northern Europe, it has been reported that Hewlett-Packard have found the cost per 'ticket' (the cost of processing a query) has doubled "due to the inability of the staff to resolve customer queries efficiently because of language barriers and inexperience." It is said that this increased cost has made HP's move from Ireland to India "completely pointless," and that it can never recover the (substantial) costs of the move. It is further reported that GE Capital has moved a call centre back to Australia "after staff attrition rates of 70% wiped away any potential cost savings."The issue is not with the quality or education of the staff - and still less with the investment in technology. It is simply attrition - people do not stay long enough to be taught or to learn the job. The staff may be cheaper but if they cannot do the job, what's the point? Managing attrition is not just a 'nice thing to do' in Indian call centres. It is the route to their survival. Far from accepting attrition rates as part of the cost of doing business, it is surely something that all organizations should address, and equally surely it is an area in which HR can take a lead - measure attrition, seek its causes, set out solutions and target performance.Components to be taken into consideration, while calculating attrition rateI request HR professionals not to drive their own formulas to calculate attrition rate. In terms of numbers, attrition rate means:Total Number of Resigns per month (Whether voluntary or forced) divided by (Total Number of employees at the beginning of the month plus total number of new joinees minus total number of resignations) multiplied by 100. If calculating in monetary terms, it includes the following:Costs Due to a Person Leaving
Calculate the cost of the person(s) who fills in while the position is vacant. Calculate the cost of lost productivity at a minimum of 50% of the person's compensation and benefits cost for each week the position is vacant, even if there are people performing the work. Calculate the lost productivity at 100% if the position is completely vacant for any period of time.
Calculate the cost of conducting an exit interview to include the time of the person conducting the interview, the time of the person leaving, the administrative costs of stopping payroll, benefit deductions, benefit enrollments.
Calculate the cost of the manager who has to understand what work remains, and how to cover that work until a replacement is found.
Calculate the cost of training your company has invested in this employee who is leaving.
Calculate the impact on departmental productivity because the person is leaving. Who will pick up the work, whose work will suffer, what departmental deadlines will not be met or delivered late.
Calculate the cost of lost knowledge, skills and contacts that the person who is leaving is taking with them out of your door. Use a formula of 50% of the person's annual salary for one year of service, increasing each year of service by 10%.
Subtract the cost of the person who is leaving for the amount of time the position is vacant.
Recruitment Costs
The cost of advertisements; agency costs; employee referral costs; internet posting costs.
The cost of the internal recruiter's time to understand the position requirements, develop and implement a sourcing strategy, review candidates backgrounds, prepare for interviews, conduct interviews, prepare candidate assessments, conduct reference checks, make the employment offer and notify unsuccessful candidates. This can range from a minimum of 30 hours to over 100 hours per position.
Calculate the cost of the various candidate pre-employment tests to help assess a candidates' skills, abilities, aptitude, attitude, values and behaviors.
Training Costs
Calculate the cost of orientation in terms of the new person's salary and the cost of the person who conducts the orientation. Also include the cost of orientation materials.
Calculate the cost of departmental training as the actual development and delivery cost plus the cost of the salary of the new employee. Note that the cost will be significantly higher for some positions such as sales representatives and call center agents who require 4 - 6 weeks or more of classroom training.
Calculate the cost of the person(s) who conduct the training.
Calculate the cost of various training materials needed including company or product manuals, computer or other technology equipment used in the delivery of training.
Lost Productivity CostsAs the new employee is learning the new job, the company policies and practices, etc. they are not fully productive. Use the following guidelines to calculate the cost of this lost productivity:
Upon completion of whatever training is provided, the employee is contributing at a 25% productivity level for the first 2 - 4 weeks. The cost therefore is 75% of the new employees full salary during that timeperiod.
During weeks 5 - 12, the employee is contributing at a 50% productivity level. The cost is therefore 50% of full salary during that timeperiod.
During weeks 13 - 20, the employee is contributing at a 75% productivity level. The cost is therefore 25% of full salary during that timeperiod.
Calculate the cost of mistakes the new employee makes during this elongated indoctrination period.
New Hire Costs
Calculate the cost of bring the new person on board including the cost to put the person on the payroll, establish computer and security passwords and identification cards, telephone hookups, cost of establishing email accounts, or leasing other equipment such as cell phones, automobiles.
Calculate the cost of a manager's time spent developing trust and building confidence in the new employee's work.
Lost Sales Costs
Calculate the revenue per employee by dividing total company revenue by the average number of employees in a given year. Whether an employee contributes directly or indirectly to the generation of revenue, their purpose is to provide some defined set of responsibilities that are necessary to the generation of revenue. Calculate the lost revenue by multiplying the number of weeks the position is vacant by the average weekly revenue per employee.
Conclusion: It is clear that there are massive costs associated with attrition or turnover and, while some of these are not visible to the management reporting or budget system, they are none the less real. The 'rule of thumb' appears to be very inaccurate indeed and, while it depends upon the category of staff, it is probably better to estimate around 80% of salary as a truer rule of thumb - and this will be on the conservative side. What does this mean? Well it means that if a company has 100 people doing a certain job paid 25,000 and that turnover or attrition is running at 10%, the cost of attrition is: (Total staff x attrition rate %) x (annual salary x 80%)
100 staff at 10% attrition means 10 people leave and are replaced each year.
A replacement cost of 80% of a salary of 25,000 means the cost of each replacement is 20,000.
The cost of turnover is therefore 10 x 20,000 or 200,000 a year.
The oncost to the overall salary bill is 8%.
(Saving 8% of salary costs would make the average HR manager a hero.)