<div>In a human capital intensive industry like IT, wrong hiring decisions result in loss of productivity, attrition and associated ripple effects, says <strong>Sakaar Anand, Vice President, HR, CA Technologies, India</strong>. A former IT expert and people manager, Anand brings a top-level view of the functioning of every business within the organisation and the ability to add a business angle to HR. Anand believes a couple of things that the HR fraternity can look to change in the near future are providing pay for performance without a step-up in designation and (hold your breath) unlimited vacation for top-notch employees!<br /><br />In our series on HR practitioners, Anand is the fifth HR head to share with Businessworld.in what makes HR leaders tick. <br /><br /><em>Excerpts from the conversation</em><br /><br /><strong>What made you choose HR as a profession?</strong><br />In my earlier roles, apart from dealing with infotech, I was a people manager and enjoyed a connect with the employees. It was a goldmine of an experience for me in terms of understanding others as well as myself, exercising self-control while listening objectively and guiding as a mentor, and not as a boss to motivate employees to give their best. At one point, the HR function used to report in to me. With these experiences on-hand, when the opportunity presented itself to don the HR hat, I readily accepted it. As HR head, I get a top-level view of the functioning of every business within the organisation and the ability to add the business angle to HR from my past experiences.<br /><br /><strong>What has been the biggest achievement of your career?</strong><br />The biggest achievement has been the ability to create an environment, that has enabled employees to come forward and provide honest feedback to the leadership team from time to time, that reflects the HR team’s credibility as a visible and value-added business partner. This accomplishment is a true reflection of the pride that employees have working for CA Technologies. It goes without saying that this is an ongoing process that will continue to be refined going forward. <br /><br /><strong>What have been the primary traits/qualities that have helped you attain your present position?</strong><br />My business know-how combined with technical expertise, and the ability to combine multiple functions to create a single cohesive team, are the traits that helped me attain my present position. <br /><br /><strong>What are the steps a company should take to develop and motivate future leaders?<br /></strong>HR alone cannot groom leaders for tomorrow, but it has to partner with business to help identify talent and provide enrichment opportunities essential for grooming tomorrow’s leaders. While grooming is the key for future leaders, on-the-job training usually takes place. HR can put in place certain steps that not only help identify and groom but also help to retain future leadership talent.</div><div> </div><div><strong>How do you retain talent in your company?</strong><br />Talent retention at CA Technologies is not just a reactive measure, but a proactive step to keep the current talent happy, in a manner, that employees consciously choose a long term career path with the organization. Right from freshers, to experienced professionals, CA Technologies believes in grooming talent, which automatically helps us retain talent.<br /> <br />CA Technologies, creates forums that lets employees design their career paths within a framework called ECG - Eco system, Competency and Growth<strong><br /></strong></div><ul><li><strong>Fostering an atmosphere of innovation via various programmes</strong> – Discover@Work, TEDx, Coding Superstar, Club Avant Garde etc.</li><li><strong>For employees choosing management stream </strong>– New Manager Assimilation Programme, Management and Leadership Academy, Managerial Grand Prix, Leadership Development Programme<strong><br /></strong></li><li><strong>For employees choosing technical stream</strong> – Individual Contributor Development programme to foster cross product and cross functional collaboration, build expertise, leadership and excellence.</li><li><strong>Work place flexibility and rewards</strong> – CA Technologies offers various avenues in terms of work place flexibility such as internal mobility both at local and global level, higher education and certification reimbursement, alternate work arrangement in terms of work from home option, tele-commuting and shared/remote workspaces established specifically for teleworkers.</li></ul><div>There is patent bonus and awards for employees going the extra mile to find new ways of doing things and going beynd their role as well. There is also a “author programme” that rewards employees after they publish articles, conference papers or books related to company business, outside the scope of their job responsibilities.<br /><br /><strong>What sets your company apart from other companies as far as work culture goes?<br /></strong>As far as work culture is concerned, human is capital for us and not resources. We allow flexibility and also ensure that the candidate is “culturally fit” via brand interviews. We also have boot camps for campus hires with a variety of programmes and workshops to teach them soft skills plus technical sessions, assessments etc.<br /><strong><br />How do you track employees' satisfaction or dissatisfaction in your company?</strong><br />When it comes to tracking dissatisfaction, we have multiple avenues to ensure that a single employee’s dissatisfaction does not create a ripple effect. The channels that are available at CA Technologies for employees to express their point of view are:<br /><strong> <br />Stay and exit interviews:</strong> One-to-one conversations with managers and/or HR Business Partners to understand employee aspirations. Going forward, we sometimes, modify policies of the company if needed. These interviews are called “moments of truth”.<strong><br /><br />Change leadership core values assessment:</strong> A survey that provides employees a chance to provide feedback to the organisation about specific areas such as performance management, customer success etc. as well as rate leaders, in terms of assessing them, on their ability to live and lead by example, and determine whether the leaders serve as role models for employees to emulate.<br /><strong><br />Regular round table discussions, skip-level meetings, town halls and email addresses<br /><br /></strong><strong>Employee champions</strong>: A group of employees act as liaison between, HR and employees to receive feedback about the existing and yet to be implemented policies and make corrections if warranted.<br /><strong><br />WE CAre:</strong> An employee suggestion Chatter group where employees can suggest, ask and provide feedback about any aspect of the organisation. Concerned departments act on the suggestions/feedback to address employee concerns.<br /><strong><br />Employee assistance programme (EAP): </strong>A completely confidential and free employee assistance programme through an external professional agency to employees and their immediate family members offering expert advice <br /><br /><strong>How important is HR to the bottom line of a company?</strong><br />The bottom line of any company is an amalgamation of multiple functions within the organisation, including HR. The duty of HR function is to prepare managers to hire the right talent. Especially, in a human capital intensive industry like IT, wrong hiring decisions invariably result in loss of productivity, attrition and associated ripple effects. The role a manager plays in identifying, recruiting and retaining the right talent significantly contributes to the bottom line.<br /><br /><strong>How should HR be integrated with the core line of business?</strong><br />The relationship between HR and Business functions is bi-directional. The function of HR is to provide intelligence and help create an organisation that can ably execute strategie. It is the duty of business to make HR an integral part of their strategic decision making process.<br /><br /><strong>If you could change three things about HR practices, what would they be?</strong><br />As a professional with 17 years of experience both on the business side and HR, here are a couple of things that the HR fraternity can look to change in the near future at an industry level:</div><ul><li><strong>Compensation ceiling: </strong>Providing pay for performance without a step-up in designation. If an employee enjoys what he/she is doing, organisations should respect it, while ensuring that the employee is financially satisfied with the compensation. Linking compensation with designation demotivates the employee and in the process an organisation loses a subject matter expert.</li><li><strong>Unlimited vacation policy: </strong>As long as an employee delivers with top-notch quality, the employee should be entitled to unlimited vacation.</li></ul><div>(As told to Poonam Kumar)<br /> </div>
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