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.