Salary or Challenge - Which is Better ?

Does earning a higher salary make you happier? It’s an issue that tugs at many of us: the tradeoff between a satisfying job and a satisfying paycheck. Students have to ponder the question when considering a college major or embarking on a career.

Workers are concerned about it when weighing a promotion that would bring longer hours and more stress along with higher pay. In many ways, achieving the right balance depends on one’s values, priorities, family obligations and spending habits. But, according to a recent study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, there is something of a magic number when it comes to income and happiness.

Beyond household income of $75,000 a year, money “does nothing for happiness, enjoyment, sadness or stress,” the study concluded. It’s not so much that money buys you happiness but that lack of money buys you misery, said Daniel Kahneman, a professor emeritus of psychology at Princeton and one of the authors of the study. “The lack of money,” he said, “no longer hurts you after $75,000.”

Where you live and the cost of living there has only a small influence on that number, he added. (That may be a revelation to some Manhattanites.) The study, which analyzed Gallup data of 450,000 randomly selected Americans, did find that one’s “life evaluation”, a self-assessment of one’s life, continued rising well above $75,000. But this is not the same as experiencing day-to-day happiness.

“Many people want to make a lot of money, but the benefits of having a high income are ambiguous,” said Kahneman, who is also a Nobel laureate in economics. When you are wealthy, you are able to buy more pleasures, but a recent study suggests that wealthier people “seem to be less able to savor the small things in life,” he said.

Even so, some people seem almost hardwired to want to make money. A 2007 article in The Journal of Happiness Studies reported that college freshmen who stated that they wanted a high salary by and large achieved that goal 20 years later.

The article said that “individuals with strong financial aspirations are socially inclined, confident, ambitious, politically conservative, traditional, conventional, and relatively less able academically, but not psychologically distressed.”

People who sought high incomes were more likely to major in things like business, engineering and economics, it said, while people for whom high income was not paramount gravitated toward the liberal arts and social sciences. “Wanting money is not a recipe for disaster, but wanting money and not getting it, that’s a good recipe for disaster,” Kahneman said.

People who want to become performing artists are likely to be unhappy, because most will fail, he said. Becoming a wealthy rock star is a common dream when you are young, but when you are in college, you should try to take a longer-term view, he said.

These days, of course, many people are worried about whether they will get a job at all. Understandably, the recession is causing more people to place the financial rewards of a career first, said Nicholas Lore, founder of the Rockport Institute, a career coaching firm, and author of “The Pathfinder.”

This could backfire, though, as people who initially pursue a field because of the salary realize that the work is unsatisfying. Lore has recently coached a lawyer who decided to forgo his high pay in favor of teaching law, an investment banker who decided to switch to a green energy company and a dentist who decided to become a schoolteacher.

It all depends on priorities, Lore said. Some people are willing to make lifestyle changes because the intrinsic rewards of following a passion or making a difference are more important than a high salary in an unenjoyable career, he said.

In the end, people should pursue what they’re interested in, said Daniel H. Pink, author of “Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us.” Looking at lists of careers with the highest salaries tends to be a fool’s game, he said. “It’s very hard to game the system, in the sense that situations and conditions change so quickly that a field that is hot today might be only lukewarm in five or 10 years,” he said. “It might even be nonexistent.”

Let’s say you see that accountants are getting decent salaries directly out of college, he said, but you don’t really like accounting. “Chances are you’re not going to be very good at accounting,” and your salary will reflect that, he said. “Generally, people flourish when they’re doing something they like and what they’re good at.”

For his part, Lore said he was concerned that current economic woes might force people into poor career choices. “I would prefer that the economy was doing better and people were more adventurous because it often has an enormous effect on the quality of their life,” he said. Many people equate success with a high income, but, “How can someone say they’re successful if they’re not happy doing their work? To me, that’s not success.”

Source ET.com

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Worst Words To Say At Work

Linnda Durre, Forbes.com

Let's look at some specific words and phrases that are used by some people to buy time, avoid giving answers and escape commitment. If you use these words and phrases yourself, take a scalpel and cut them out of your thinking, speaking and writing. Words like these only weaken you and make you sound noncommittal, undependable and untrustworthy.

"Try" Try is a weasel word. "Well, I'll try," some people say. It's a cop-out. They're just giving you lip service when they probably have no real intention of doing what you ask. Remember what Yoda says to Luke Skywalker in Star Wars: "Do or do not--there is no try." Take Yoda's advice. Give it your all when you attempt something. And if it doesn't work, start over.Put passion into your work and give it your best effort, so you can know that you did all you could to make it happen. So if the outcome you were expecting didn't come to fruition, it's not because you didn't do everything you could to make it happen. It just wasn't the right time for it or it wasn't meant to be.

"Whatever" This word is a trusted favorite of people who want to dismiss you, diminish what you say or get rid of you quickly. "Whatever," they will say as an all-purpose response to your earnest request. It's an insult and a verbal slap in the face. It's a way to respond to a person without actually responding. When you say whatever after another person has said his or her piece, you have essentially put up a wall between the two of you and halted any progress in communicating. It's a word to avoid.

"Maybe" and "I don't know" People will sometimes avoid making a decision and hide behind words and phrases like "maybe" and "I don't know." There's a difference between legitimately not knowing something and using words like these as excuses. Sometimes during a confrontation people will claim not to know something or offer the noncommittal response "maybe," just to avoid being put on the spot. If that seems to be the case, ask, "When do you think you will know?" or "How can you find out?" Don't let the person off the hook so easily.

"I'll get back to you" When people need to buy time or avoid revealing a project's status, they will say, "I'll get back to you," and they usually never do. If people say they will get back to you, always clarify. Ask them when they will get back to you, and make sure they specify the day and time. If they don't, then pin them down to a day and time and hold them to it. If they won't give you a day or time, tell them you'll call in a day or week and follow up. Make sure you call and get the information you need.

"If" Projects depend on everyone doing his or her part. People who use if are usually playing the blame game and betting against themselves. They like to set conditions, rather than assuming a successful outcome. People who rely on conditional responses are fortifying themselves against potential failure. They will say, "If Bob finishes his part, then I can do my part." They're laying the groundwork for a "no fault" excuse and for not finishing their work.

There are always alternatives, other routes and ways to get the job done. Excuse makers usually have the energy of a slug, the vision of Mr. Magoo and the spine of a jellyfish. You don't want them on your mountain climbing team up K-2 or Mount Everest.

"Yes, but ..." This is another excuse. You might give your team members suggestions or solutions and they come back to you with "Yes, but . . ." as a response. They don't really want answers, help, or solutions. You need to call the "Yes, but . . ." people out on their avoidance tactic by saying something like: "You know, Jackie, every time I offer you a suggestion you say, 'Yes, but . . . ,' which makes me think you don't really want to solve this problem. That's not going to work. If you want to play the victim, go right ahead, but I'm not going to allow you to keep this up and I may have to report you." After a response like that, you can be assured that the next words you hear will not be, "Yes, but . . ."!

"I guess ..." This is usually said in a weak, soft-spoken, shoulder-shrugging manner. It's another attempt to shirk responsibility--a phrase is only muttered when people half agree with you, but want to leave enough leeway to say, "Well, I didn't really know. . . . I was only guessing." If you use this phrase, cut it out of your vocabulary.

"We'll see ..."

How many times did we hear our parents say this? We knew they were buying time, avoiding a fight or confrontation or really saying no. It's better to be decisive and honest by saying, "I need more information. Please present your case or send me the data--both pro and con--so I can make an informed decision." That way the interested parties will contribute to an in-depth, well-researched "verdict."

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'Software sector to generate 30 million jobs by 2020' - Som Mittal

The Indian IT industry that had taken a quantum leap, post liberalisation two decades ago, has matured over the years. Besides technology and domain expertise, cost has been a major factor in making India a software services powerhouse. But, for how long would India be able to sustain its competitive advantage when China and other markets are already making large strides to challenge its dominance in the sector? Changing dynamics of the macro-economic environment and the anti-outsourcing wave in the US continue to haunt the Indian IT sector. Nasscom president Som Mittal discusses the issues challenging the industry and lots more in an exclusive interview with FE's Ayushman Baruah. Excerpts:

Given that India faces stiff competition from China and other Asian markets like Philippines and Vietnam, for how long will it have an edge over these? What competitive advantage should India have to sustain its growth?

India has an advantage in terms of maturity, scale, robust process and customer confidence. However, we cannot afford to be complacent. India must focus on offering more value added services, build deep customer relationships and leverage innovation. We have to remain cost competitive as several companies already have outcome-based pricing. In several cases, these new emerging countries also serve as sites for business continuity programme. India needs to keep customers assured that it is a destination worth trusting. When work gets disrupted due to 'bandh' calls etc, it raises concerns.

Is Nasscom seeing any new shoots that keep India ahead? What potential does the domestic market hold?

Of late, our discussions with customers have been beyond outsourcing and offshoring. We have now shifted our focus to transform their business models and get countrywide increased efficiencies. There are new verticals like utilities and healthcare. Markets like West Asia and Latin America are still under penetrated. With regards to the domestic market, there are three broad segments: corporations, individuals/ small businesses and the government. The corporate spending in IT by corporations is increasing as they become more global. The scope to penetrate the other two segments is much higher. We estimate the government spend to be a big driver that is expected to reach $5 billion by 2011.

With changing dynamics in macro economic environment, do you see the number of applications for H-1B visas rising this fiscal?

This is a fairly complex issue. In the US or anywhere, jobs can be classified into two categories: temporary work that includes short-term assignments, and permanent jobs like account managers, system architects, etc. A lot of Indians work in the US on a temporary basis, mainly on application development and testing. Owing to talent availability issues in the US, maximum number of H-1 B visas applied for constituted applicants for temporary jobs. Now, the ability of Indian companies to hire locals is increasing. Hence, the need for H1-B visas may be lower. However, if the US economy turns robust, hiring by companies would go up, thus increasing the demand for visas.

Nasscom visited the US to meet members of the Obama administration in response to the anti-outsourcing wave in the US last year. What was the outcome of those meetings?

Given the sheer size of the market, the US is evidently where our focus lies. However, we continue to visit all markets to share our perspective. We spend a lot of time with law makers, executives, industry leaders and various think tanks in the US to prove how we can add value to them. With regards to the anti-outsourcing wave in the US last year, Nasscom believes that India adds to the competitiveness of the US market. Global sourcing —be it in manufacturing or services—has added to the US ability to grow as an economy. For example, the cost of a Barbie doll today is actually lower than what it was 50 years ago (accounting for inflation). This could not have been possible if talent and material was not procured from the most competitive locations. Many more such examples can be found in global markets.

How do you see the Indian software industry growing in the coming years?

Last year, revenue from exports of software and BPO services has grown 5.5% to $50 billion. Engineering services crossed the $10-billion mark. For FY 2010-11, export revenue is expected to grow 13-15% and the domestic revenue by 17-18%. Total revenue from the sector has the potential to touch $225 billion by 2020 and 50% of the total would come from currently untapped verticals like the public sector, healthcare, media and utilities and places such as the West Asia, China and Japan. This would have the potential to create 30 million jobs of which 10 million would be direct jobs. Nasscom has also projected that by 2020, 50% of the new entrants in workforce would be women.

What percentage of graduating software engineers are actually industry ready? How can this number increase?

Fresh graduates today are bright and trainable. However, in most of the cases they are not industry ready. This pressurises the industry to provide enormous training and re-skilling facilities. As an industry which is people-dependent and global, we need to equip our students with the relevant subject matter expertise and soft skills. Students are expected to have some basic knowledge but in most of the cases this is not happening. In our education system, neither the content nor the delivery is adequate. Education must be made relevant at the outset. The government is trying to make several changes, the impact of which would be felt in some time. Till then, we need the ecosystem of training institutes, schools and additional intervention (besides the in-house training) to keep things rolling.

Ayushman Baruah

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War for talent has begun - are you game ?

Happy times are back for job seekers and recruiters. Hiring activity in the top industrial sectors is forging ahead strongly, said a study by job portal naukri. com. Hiring activity in India grew by four per cent in January this year compared to December, 2009, reflecting a continued momentum in recovery, it said.

"With the beginning of the new year, the employment marketplace seems to be moving in a more positive direction. The hiring momentum is expected to move up in most of the key industry sectors as compared to last year," Sumeet Singh, national head- marketing and communications, Info Edge, said.

Naukri. com said its job index at 743 at the start of 2010 indicates "renewed optimism in the environment". The index has been calculated based on job listings added to the site month on month.

According to the study, recruitment in the information technology (IT) and information technology enabled services (ITeS) sectors grew by 10 per cent and 17 per cent, respectively, in January, 2010 after the dip seen in December, 2009. However, hiring fell by five per cent in the banking sector after three successive months of upward movement.

The hiring activity in the auto and oil & gas sectors has risen by four per cent and three per cent, respectively, in January, 2010 compared to December, 2009.

All the metros saw a surge in hiring in January, 2010 compared to December, 2009. According to a year-on-year comparison of the city index, hiring activity in Delhi and Mumbai picked up even as other cities witnessed a continuous path of recovery. Similarly, year-on-year comparison of the top five industry sectoral indices show that hiring activity has started picking up in the auto and banking sectors while other sectors are also moving towards stability.

Six out of the top seven cities show a positive hiring index in January, 2010 compared to December, 2009. In fact, almost all cities saw an increase in the job index in January except Kolkata which witnessed a dip of 6.5 per cent. Hiring activity in Chennai picked up by nine per cent in January, 2010 compared to December, 2009, after dipping for two months in succession.

Delhi, Bangalore and Hyderabad witnessed growth in hiring activity by four per cent, eight per cent and seven per cent, respectively, in January, 2010.

The company said that overall, the index seems to be moving in a positive direction. A similar sentiment was echoed in its recently released Naukri Hiring Outlook Survey where 72 per cent of recruiters had said that new jobs will be created in 2010.

The positive direction in which India Inc's hiring activity has been progressing was shown in another recent study by international recruitment firm Antal International. According to this study, hiring activity has increased considerably since September last year and the current recruitment level is among of the highest globally.

Source : BT

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How is Salary Calculated ?

Sanjeev Sinha, ECONOMICTIMES.COM

Negotiating one’s salary successfully is a tricky thing. Simply because while the job seeker is generally interested in getting more, the job provider is usually keen on paying as less as possible. It is only for some job providers that salary is not an issue so long as the marginal contribution the employee is going to make is higher than the salary he or she takes. But how is one’s salary determined?

“Ordinary companies follow the 3,2,1 principle, which means hire three people, pay them the salary of two persons and get the work of one person. In contrast, extraordinary companies follow the 1,2,3 principle, whereby they employ one person, pay them double the salary and get the output of three persons,” says Dr C S Venkata Ratnam, director of the International Management Institute, Delhi.

According to Dr Ratnam, employees are interested in higher salary and good employers do not mind paying it so long as wage costs are lower through higher productivity or contribution that the person is willing and is able to make.

It is, however, difficult to put a price on one’s head. Similarly, it is equally difficult for one to estimate one’s own worth. A director of an IIT institute once said, “For some what I am paying is more than they deserve, for a few others, no matter how much more I pay, that is still not an adequate consideration because intrinsically they are so good.”

Thus, “while on the issue of salary, three types of equities become important. One is personal equity, i.e., what a person thinks about one’s worth. Here the expectancy theory says that a person can be unhappy not only when one gets less, but also when one gets more. For, the person may feel that if the company is paying him 10 per cent more than what he deserves, what is the guarantee that it is not paying someone 15 per cent more?” informs Dr Ratnam.

Some people also suffer by what is known as theory of relative deprivation. Here one’s happiness or otherwise is dependent on not how much one is getting, but in relation to someone else with whom one is making the comparison. Companies, therefore, try to figure out personal equity based on pay satisfaction surveys.

The second is internal equity which is about the relative worth of different jobs based on considerations of skill, effort, responsibility and working conditions or as the Hay System measures in respect of professionals, know how, responsibility and problem solving skills.

“Job evaluation is the best method to systematically determine the relative worth of jobs. Proper job evaluation will help compare a nurse’s job with that of a police constable. Also, relative worth of different jobs can often be subjective,” says Dr Ratnam.

Thus, whether a gas cutter should get more or a grass cutter depends on the nature of industry and importance of the job. In an engineering assembly industry, welding being a highly rated technical job, gas cutters get more. But in a horticulture department, a welder may get less and a gardener more.

The third is external equity which is assessed through the survey of compensation practices across firms in the same or similar industries and region. Usually the comparison is based on the types of industries where similar skills are sought after.

Determination of pay

Thus, employers use three sets of instruments -- pay satisfaction, job evaluation and compensation surveys -- to provide the basis for equity and fairness in their compensation policies and practices. But ultimately pay is determined by different employers based on their policies (being the best pay master in the industry/region, for instance) and the dynamic equilibrium between demand and supply for the skill sets concerned.

The problem from the individual concerned is that if one gets what one wants, one wonders whether one should have asked more. Therefore, “if one is in the market, one should do some home work on the most recent/current trends in the market as far as compensation is concerned and accordingly pitch for it -- neither too low, nor too high,” suggests Dr Ratnam.

“At times, the candidate is hesitant on talking about the salary expectations. There is nothing wrong in expressing your expectations but of course, it must match the industry trend. 25–30% is the typical salary expectation one has, while contemplating a job change,” says Shrikant Dikhale, VP-HR, Kansai Nerolac Paints Ltd.

However, if you have adequate skill set for a job and are also very confident that very few can match your skills, you can even ask for more.

Source ET

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from Government to Corporate

Indian Institute of Management campus in Lucknow (IIM-L), the 28-year-old is now adjusting himself to terms like “bulge bracket”, “black swan” and “boil the ocean”.

Mr Hussain used to be a scientist, part of India’s grand plans to be self-sufficient in defence technologies. During his four-year stint at the Defence Research & Development Organisation (DRDO), Mr Hussain used to split his time between the air-conditioned lab and the scorching heat of the test fields tucked away in the Thar desert in Rajasthan.

And he is not in Lucknow to build a defence shield for India’s premier B-school. Mr Hussain wants to tip his resume with a management warhead, which could come in handy in future.

“DRDO was sure exciting. But I want to explore the private sector now,” Mr Hussain says, hoping that his two-year post graduate programme in management at IIM-L will help gear up for the challenges posed by his new job. He is set to join Mahindra Satyam as a programme manager for its aerospace and defence vertical, liaisoning with domestic as well as global clients.

Mr Hussain’s is not an isolated case. He is part of an increasing number of ambitious government employees who are enrolling in IIMs as a launchpad for careers in the private sector where they are coveted, thanks to their first-hand insight on how governments work. With experience of up to 17 years, many of them in fact opt for the two-year standard MBA programmes that these institutes offer.

The departments vary, and range from government ministries to the armed forces to state-run firms and government departments, but the goals remain the same.

Their numbers have gone up in the past two years. At IIM-L, for instance, the number of such candidates has gone up to 15 this year from 5 in the previous batch while IIM Calcutta (IIM-C) has seen it increase from 10 in the past year to 14 this year.

At IIM Kozhikode (IIM-K), 21 such students will graduate from the 2010 batch as against 16 in the previous year. And not everyone is getting back to school with intentions of shifting to the private sector. While some want to reskill themselves and start their own ventures, others look for exposure to the private sector so that they can go back to their respective departments and implement those ideas. Then there are those who feel that an IIM tag will help their career regardless of where they work, even with the government.

“There is a lot of scope for defence-related research and development in the private sector and I didn’t want to miss it. An MBA from IIM seemed the best possible way to avail of such opportunities,” says Mr Hussain.

Others like Gali Sreedhar joined IIM-C after he realised the need to enhance his finance and management skills while executing crucial road projects for the ministry of road transport and highways. “The MBA will help me understand how the private sector works. This will help me execute ideas better,” says the executive engineer, who has signed a three-year bond to stick with the government, failing which he has to pay back Rs 8 lakh, equal to his two years’ salary.

Mr Hussain’s colleague at the IIM-L, Sharat Chander, says the opportunity to reskill is one of the unintended perks of being a government employee. “That’s the benefit of working with the government. Private sector employees generally don’t get this freedom. That’s why most of them opt for the year-long executive programmes,” says this former director at the I&B ministry.

Then, there are those like Deepak Arya, who was a deputy manager-electronic warfare at BEL. “I realised that if I start my own venture, an MBA from IIM would give me a broader perspective,” says Arya who is in the class of 2011 at IIM-K. He has already quit his job and plans to start his own business venture upon graduation.

Private sector players, too, appreciate a fresh pool of mid-career talent made up of Hussains and Aryas. The years spent by them understanding the processes of a government ministry and the edge acquired at the IIMs makes these people ideal picks for some firms. “If someone has spent a few years in a government job, he would have a deeper insight and wider perspective of the government’s working, besides knowledge of regulatory affairs.

In case such a person is brought on board, it helps our firm service the clients better,” says Deloitte India chief people officer Dhananjay Bansod.

Source ET

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Things to do in 2010

In 2009, your dragon boss breathed down your neck every other day; your clients sent you a dozen mails an hour and your colleagues... well, let's just say if you start talking about them you'll SCREAM. In 2010, nothing's changed! So much for keeping your fingers crossed and hoping for new beginnings, huh? Well, if things haven't changed around you, may be it's time you did. Here are some tips you could use to stay spirited this year. Stick to timings You work till 8 pm every night so you figure you can walk in at 11 am. Not cool. You may be the best at your job but if you can't adhere to office rules, you'll only get on the wrong side of your boss. Also, coming in on time means you'll be able to leave on time. So you'll have more time to spend with family and friends after work. Lighten up Stop being such a grouch at work. We all know you go to office to work and so does everyone else. But that doesn't mean you need to tell people to turn it down when their voices are just above a whisper or start telling on your colleagues when they spend five extra minutes on a phone call. If you are finding it hard to gel with your colleagues, here are a few tips that might help you fit in at work. Stop b**ching Quit gossiping about your boss behind his back. Gossiping only makes you feel worse at the end of the day. So if you can't find something good to say about your boss, don’t say anything at all. Sure he can be a pain but if you could do better, you might have been 'boss' instead! Also, whatever it is that you b**ch, it's going to reach your bosses ears anyway. [There are enough snitches who want to get into your bosses good books!] So, refrain. Clear the clutter Piles of paper, tattered files and general clutter are just not conducive to work. Clear it all out and spruce up your desk a little. Bring in some funky knick-knacks and make your workspace a little colourful. Trust us; you'll feel a lot perkier at work! For more ideas you can check out Our Office Survival Kit for 2010! It's office property, not yours! Your company is doing well and they are paying you peanuts (or so you think). So you can afford to rip them off a little, right? No, you can't! Stop printing unnecessary stuff and taking home stationery for your kids. It's stealing for crying out loud. Don't faff It's okay to surf the Internet, play a game or listen to music once in a while but not at the cost of your work. If you think that's distracting you from putting in your 100 per cent, (hate to sound preachy but) it's time to turn it off! Also, try and keep your personal life out of the office as far as possible, except in case of an emergency, of course. Learn something new If you didn't get a promotion last year, the fact that you don't brown-nose your boss may not be the only reason. Have you taken on new tasks, developed a new skill, contributed to making things easier at work? Well, it's about time you did. Take our word for it - turn over a new leaf this year and you'll definitely start seeing things around you change for the better! Source : ET Bought to you by HRI Foundation 303 Motherland Building 3rd Main 3rd Cross Kamanahalli BANGALORE 560084 www.twitter.com/Raghav_HRGuru

What it takes to be great !

What It Takes to Be Great

Fortune on CNNMoney.com

By Geoffrey Colvin

Research now shows that the lack of natural talent is irrelevant to great success. The secret? Painful and demanding practice and hard work

What makes Tiger Woods great? What made Berkshire Hathaway (Charts) Chairman Warren Buffett the world's premier investor? We think we know: Each was a natural who came into the world with a gift for doing exactly what he ended up doing. As Buffett told Fortune not long ago, he was "wired at birth to allocate capital." It's a one-in-a-million thing. You've got it - or you don't.

Well, folks, it's not so simple. For one thing, you do not possess a natural gift for a certain job, because targeted natural gifts don't exist. (Sorry, Warren.) You are not a born CEO or investor or chess grandmaster. You will achieve greatness only through an enormous amount of hard work over many years. And not just any hard work, but work of a particular type that's demanding and painful.

Buffett, for instance, is famed for his discipline and the hours he spends studying financial statements of potential investment targets. The good news is that your lack of a natural gift is irrelevant - talent has little or nothing to do with greatness. You can make yourself into any number of things, and you can even make yourself great.

Scientific experts are producing remarkably consistent findings across a wide array of fields. Understand that talent doesn't mean intelligence, motivation or personality traits. It's an innate ability to do some specific activity especially well. British-based researchers Michael J. Howe, Jane W. Davidson and John A. Sluboda conclude in an extensive study, "The evidence we have surveyed ... does not support the [notion that] excelling is a consequence of possessing innate gifts."

To see how the researchers could reach such a conclusion, consider the problem they were trying to solve. In virtually every field of endeavor, most people learn quickly at first, then more slowly and then stop developing completely. Yet a few do improve for years and even decades, and go on to greatness.

The irresistible question - the "fundamental challenge" for researchers in this field, says the most prominent of them, professor K. Anders Ericsson of Florida State University - is, Why? How are certain people able to go on improving? The answers begin with consistent observations about great performers in many fields.

Scientists worldwide have conducted scores of studies since the 1993 publication of a landmark paper by Ericsson and two colleagues, many focusing on sports, music and chess, in which performance is relatively easy to measure and plot over time. But plenty of additional studies have also examined other fields, including business.

No substitute for hard work

The first major conclusion is that nobody is great without work. It's nice to believe that if you find the field where you're naturally gifted, you'll be great from day one, but it doesn't happen. There's no evidence of high-level performance without experience or practice.

Reinforcing that no-free-lunch finding is vast evidence that even the most accomplished people need around ten years of hard work before becoming world-class, a pattern so well established researchers call it the ten-year rule.

What about Bobby Fischer, who became a chess grandmaster at 16? Turns out the rule holds: He'd had nine years of intensive study. And as John Horn of the University of Southern California and Hiromi Masunaga of California State University observe, "The ten-year rule represents a very rough estimate, and most researchers regard it as a minimum, not an average." In many fields (music, literature) elite performers need 20 or 30 years' experience before hitting their zenith.

So greatness isn't handed to anyone; it requires a lot of hard work. Yet that isn't enough, since many people work hard for decades without approaching greatness or even getting significantly better. What's missing?

Practice makes perfect

The best people in any field are those who devote the most hours to what the researchers call "deliberate practice." It's activity that's explicitly intended to improve performance, that reaches for objectives just beyond one's level of competence, provides feedback on results and involves high levels of repetition.

For example: Simply hitting a bucket of balls is not deliberate practice, which is why most golfers don't get better. Hitting an eight-iron 300 times with a goal of leaving the ball within 20 feet of the pin 80 percent of the time, continually observing results and making appropriate adjustments, and doing that for hours every day - that's deliberate practice.

Consistency is crucial. As Ericsson notes, "Elite performers in many diverse domains have been found to practice, on the average, roughly the same amount every day, including weekends."

Evidence crosses a remarkable range of fields. In a study of 20-year-old violinists by Ericsson and colleagues, the best group (judged by conservatory teachers) averaged 10,000 hours of deliberate practice over their lives; the next-best averaged 7,500 hours; and the next, 5,000. It's the same story in surgery, insurance sales, and virtually every sport. More deliberate practice equals better performance. Tons of it equals great performance. The skeptics

Not all researchers are totally onboard with the myth-of-talent hypothesis, though their objections go to its edges rather than its center. For one thing, there are the intangibles. Two athletes might work equally hard, but what explains the ability of New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady to perform at a higher level in the last two minutes of a game?

Researchers also note, for example, child prodigies who could speak, read or play music at an unusually early age. But on investigation those cases generally include highly involved parents. And many prodigies do not go on to greatness in their early field, while great performers include many who showed no special early aptitude.

Certainly some important traits are partly inherited, such as physical size and particular measures of intelligence, but those influence what a person doesn't do more than what he does; a five-footer will never be an NFL lineman, and a seven-footer will never be an Olympic gymnast. Even those restrictions are less severe than you'd expect: Ericsson notes, "Some international chess masters have IQs in the 90s." The more research that's done, the more solid the deliberate-practice model becomes.

Real-world examples

All this scholarly research is simply evidence for what great performers have been showing us for years. To take a handful of examples: Winston Churchill, one of the 20th century's greatest orators, practiced his speeches compulsively. Vladimir Horowitz supposedly said, "If I don't practice for a day, I know it. If I don't practice for two days, my wife knows it. If I don't practice for three days, the world knows it." He was certainly a demon practicer, but the same quote has been attributed to world-class musicians like Ignace Paderewski and Luciano Pavarotti.

Many great athletes are legendary for the brutal discipline of their practice routines. In basketball, Michael Jordan practiced intensely beyond the already punishing team practices. (Had Jordan possessed some mammoth natural gift specifically for basketball, it seems unlikely he'd have been cut from his high school team.)

In football, all-time-great receiver Jerry Rice - passed up by 15 teams because they considered him too slow - practiced so hard that other players would get sick trying to keep up.

Tiger Woods is a textbook example of what the research shows. Because his father introduced him to golf at an extremely early age - 18 months - and encouraged him to practice intensively, Woods had racked up at least 15 years of practice by the time he became the youngest-ever winner of the U.S. Amateur Championship, at age 18. Also in line with the findings, he has never stopped trying to improve, devoting many hours a day to conditioning and practice, even remaking his swing twice because that's what it took to get even better.

The business side

The evidence, scientific as well as anecdotal, seems overwhelmingly in favor of deliberate practice as the source of great performance. Just one problem: How do you practice business? Many elements of business, in fact, are directly practicable. Presenting, negotiating, delivering evaluations, deciphering financial statements - you can practice them all.

Still, they aren't the essence of great managerial performance. That requires making judgments and decisions with imperfect information in an uncertain environment, interacting with people, seeking information - can you practice those things too? You can, though not in the way you would practice a Chopin etude.

Instead, it's all about how you do what you're already doing - you create the practice in your work, which requires a few critical changes. The first is going at any task with a new goal: Instead of merely trying to get it done, you aim to get better at it.

Report writing involves finding information, analyzing it and presenting it - each an improvable skill. Chairing a board meeting requires understanding the company's strategy in the deepest way, forming a coherent view of coming market changes and setting a tone for the discussion. Anything that anyone does at work, from the most basic task to the most exalted, is an improvable skill.

Adopting a new mindset

Armed with that mindset, people go at a job in a new way. Research shows they process information more deeply and retain it longer. They want more information on what they're doing and seek other perspectives. They adopt a longer-term point of view. In the activity itself, the mindset persists. You aren't just doing the job, you're explicitly trying to get better at it in the larger sense.

Again, research shows that this difference in mental approach is vital. For example, when amateur singers take a singing lesson, they experience it as fun, a release of tension. But for professional singers, it's the opposite: They increase their concentration and focus on improving their performance during the lesson. Same activity, different mindset.

Feedback is crucial, and getting it should be no problem in business. Yet most people don't seek it; they just wait for it, half hoping it won't come. Without it, as Goldman Sachs leadership-development chief Steve Kerr says, "it's as if you're bowling through a curtain that comes down to knee level. If you don't know how successful you are, two things happen: One, you don't get any better, and two, you stop caring." In some companies, like General Electric, frequent feedback is part of the culture. If you aren't lucky enough to get that, seek it out.

Be the ball

Through the whole process, one of your goals is to build what the researchers call "mental models of your business" - pictures of how the elements fit together and influence one another. The more you work on it, the larger your mental models will become and the better your performance will grow.

Andy Grove could keep a model of a whole world-changing technology industry in his head and adapt Intel (Charts) as needed. Bill Gates, Microsoft's (Charts) founder, had the same knack: He could see at the dawn of the PC that his goal of a computer on every desk was realistic and would create an unimaginably large market. John D. Rockefeller, too, saw ahead when the world-changing new industry was oil. Napoleon was perhaps the greatest ever. He could not only hold all the elements of a vast battle in his mind but, more important, could also respond quickly when they shifted in unexpected ways.

That's a lot to focus on for the benefits of deliberate practice - and worthless without one more requirement: Do it regularly, not sporadically.

Why?

For most people, work is hard enough without pushing even harder. Those extra steps are so difficult and painful they almost never get done. That's the way it must be. If great performance were easy, it wouldn't be rare. Which leads to possibly the deepest question about greatness. While experts understand an enormous amount about the behavior that produces great performance, they understand very little about where that behavior comes from.

The authors of one study conclude, "We still do not know which factors encourage individuals to engage in deliberate practice." Or as University of Michigan business school professor Noel Tichy puts it after 30 years of working with managers, "Some people are much more motivated than others, and that's the existential question I cannot answer - why."

The critical reality is that we are not hostage to some naturally granted level of talent. We can make ourselves what we will. Strangely, that idea is not popular. People hate abandoning the notion that they would coast to fame and riches if they found their talent. But that view is tragically constraining, because when they hit life's inevitable bumps in the road, they conclude that they just aren't gifted and give up.

Maybe we can't expect most people to achieve greatness. It's just too demanding. But the striking, liberating news is that greatness isn't reserved for a preordained few. It is available to you and to everyone.

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Substitute for hardwork

The vice-chairman and gardener of MindTree and author of three business bestsellers, Subroto Bagchi believes that no matter how privileged you are there is no substitute for hard work. Here he shares his story of success.

We were raised in the tribal districts of Orissa where I studied in government schools, until Class 11. But as compared to countless other men and women in this country, I actually feel privileged due to my upbringing.

Most children walked bare feet, some wore rubber slippers, and if anyone ever wore shoes, the other children shunned them as snobs. Only in Class 11, my father could afford to buy me a cycle.

He told me that if I promised to score more than 90 per cent marks in optional mathematics in my final examination, I could have the cycle. The deal was done, I had the bike. It was my life's first forward trade.

But the reason I said I feel a lot more privileged compared to many other similarly situated people is that I had the opportunity to be groomed by parents and elder brothers who created a sense of higher purpose in everything I did. From the time that I was a little boy, I was asked to build very large, sometimes global ambitions. I was constantly told that there is a larger world out there and if I did my English, science and mathematics right, I could have it all.

There was no time for self-pity! But sometimes, we complained. We cited examples of children who went to English medium boarding schools, of children whose parents could afford to buy them cricket bats and children who lived in big cities. My mother, herself a matriculate of the 1930s but who took as much care to hold aloft the value of education as my father, would immediately hold aloft the example of a boy, a few years senior to me, who used to come from ten miles away.

His name was Maguni Barik. He did not have a father. His illiterate, widowed mother literally had no support. Maguni Barik had one pair of school uniform. But despite all that, Maguni Barik made it to the best 10 list among all high school students in the state in his year of graduation. He was not only among the poorest students, his name in Oriya literally means, the one seeking alms!

There was no arguing against that one. We would simply shut up and go back to our books. I wonder where Maguni Barik is today. But I know that the likes of him are all around. All we need to do is look.

From ordinary upbringing, today I have the privilege of co-founding and leading MindTree, which has emerged as one of India's [ Images ] most admired companies. Here, I am not alone. People like me and more importantly, people like Maguni Barik are celebrated.

We are together stepping into a future in which what you know is more important than who you know. More than ever before, the future belongs to us. This would not have happened but for the emphasis on education at an early life and an abiding sense of vision that substituted for everything else.

Source Careers360

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The Seven Habits of Recession-Era Employees

The Fearful, The Delighted and The Apocalyptic, among those identified by new Queen's School of Business research

KINGSTON, ON, Nov. 11 /CNW/ - On-the-job employee behaviours in recessionary times can be grouped into seven categories, each with attendant challenges and distinct management requirements, according to new research from Queen's School of Business.

According to Douglas Reid, Associate Professor of Global Business at Queen's School of Business, employees in recession-era workplaces typically fall into the following behaviour patterns:

- The Terminated: while not physically present in the organization,
their memories linger and affect those that stay.

- The Fearful: these employees believe they will be cut next. They are
ready to search for a new job but cling tenaciously to whatever
certainty their existing situation affords.

- The Indifferent: this group is watching the recession occur and
believe it is going to affect someone else.

- The Delighted: high performers who delight in the improvement in
their situation relative to the average consumer via sales and
discounts in the marketplace.

- The Apocalyptic: a small group that believes that the recession
presents a necessary "reset" for a myriad list of failures in the
existing system of capitalism.

- The Longers: Hoping for a severance package and optimistic they'll
obtain rapid alternative employment.

- The Engaged: The core of a company's renewal efforts. They understand
the consequences of the recession and what needs to be done to help
the business recover.

"Managers encounter a wider range of on-the-job behaviours than simple economic reasoning predicts," says Professor Reid. "Relying on fear as a management tool is as poor a choice during a recession as it is during a boom."

Survey: Queen's Executive MBAs Weigh In

On a related note, a recent survey of over 250 managers enrolled in executive MBA programs at Queen's School of Business reveals that while half of the respondents (48 per cent) feel an increase in employment would be the strongest sign of recovery in their country, only one third (36 per cent) believe that their company will add employees over the next six months.

"Nervous employers want to ensure that the recovery is firmly established before adding to their workforce," says Professor Reid. "But employers also need to recognize that engaged employees will be the core of any organization's renewal efforts."

To read the full article :
http://tinyurl.com/7-employee-habits

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Do you think Role Definition Helps in creating better managers ?

Friends,

You will ind this paradox in the Indian context. It is strange that everyone our here wishes to become a Manager. This is whether or not they have the abilities to 'manage' their teams.

Question :

Does role definition helps in creating better managers ?
Do you think there should be an impartial 'assessment' prior to promoting as Managers ?
Can the company afford to loose good performers when they are told that they are not fit to be 'managers'
Do you think working for 6 years as per below article 'qualifies' to become a Project Manager ?

My personal view on this is - unless an employee has certain abilities he would not succeed as a Manager !

Raghav
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---------

Article :

Infosys Technologies has decided that its staffers must have at least six years of having worked on technology responsibilities before being asked to head a project.

This is the latest move in a process that began 18 months earlier, after clients had complained that its project heads didn't seem to have enough of technological skills. That, in turn, was because of the industry's high growth and also the pace of attrition (employees quitting) in the sector.

So, many employees were being given managerial responsibilities within three to four years of joining. However, from last month, all freshers joining the company will have to compulsorily stay focused on technology for the first six years of their career.

After this, they will have to choose to either grow vertically as a techie or take up managerial responsibilities.

Infosys [ Get Quote ] says this new strategy, termed 'iRace', aims to re-map the technology skills of its software professionals and offer them roles based on their current level of experience and technological know-how.

It appears to have already had some adverse effect, for a section of employees in the junior and middle levels are understood to have resigned.

"Because of the high growth in the industry, people were being given managerial responsibilities within three to four years, making clients return to us and complain about the lack of their technology skills. We have now re-mapped the efficiency of our employees, as a result of which some high performers have been mapped upwards, while others have stayed in their previous positions," says Nandita Gurjar, Group Head for Human Resources.

By doing so, we will be able to meet the clients' requirements in a much better manner, she adds.

To make the task smoother, Infosys has created 25 career streams. An employee who does not wish to take up managerial roles but stay focused on technology has to identify positions like technical architect and technical lead till he goes up the ladder to become the unit technology manager, a position the company has created now. Henceforth, all 13 business units of the company will have UTOs, who will directly report to the chief technology officer of the company.

Infosys started the exercise almost 18 months earlier, following an internal assessment by consulting agency, Mercer. Based on the results, the company decided to implement what Gurjar terms a 'role structuring'.

Industry insiders concur that when the IT sector was booming and demand was high, people with very little experience were being given roles of project managers or technical leads, as it was difficult for the company to get experienced people.

However, with the greater supply of trained resources, especially in the wake of the economic recession, most Indian IT companies are busy redefining the roles.

"We have seen people becoming project managers with less than six years of experience, whereas in most global companies, especially product companies, project manager is a big role. A person who manages projects in those companies should have at least 14-15 years of experience, which helps him handle multiple projects and customers at a time.

Besides, when a person becomes a project manager in six years, this ends his chance to learn on technology platforms," says a person who works as a project manager in an Indian IT services company.

At the end of the second quarter in the present financial year, Infosys' headcount was 105,453, including 97,594 software professionals.

Praveen Bose and Bibhu Ranjan Mishra in Bangalore
Source : Business Standard

Facebook wastes employees time ? Do you agree ??

A new study proves (as if we needed it) that many employees spend a chunk of the work day on Facebook. But does that mean you should do anything about it?

On average, employees spend about 1.5% of their working hours updating, friending, messaging, etc., according to a new survey of office workers by Nucleus Research.

Some of the other findings, which may or may not come as much of a surprise:

* Nearly two-thirds of employed Facebook users go on the site during work
* Of that number, employees spend an average of 15 minutes a day on Facebook, and
* 87% of those who use Facebook at work can’t articulate a clear business reason for doing it.

Does this mean it’s time to cut off access to social networking sites once and for all? The folks at Nucleus recommend companies consider it, suggesting it could result in a 1.5% productivity gain.

Source : hrmorning.com
Author : Sam Narisi
Link : http://tinyurl.com/facebook-time-waste

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Top 100 Dirtiest sites

Internet security company Norton Symantec has come up with a list of Top 100 Dirtiest sites, which could infect your computer with malware.

Malware is a software that can damage or compromise a computer system without the owner's consent.

Natalie Connor, spokeswoman of the anti-virus company, said that even visiting any of the named websites could expose a computer to infection and put the personal information into the hands of unwanted people.

"What people don't realise is when you type in a website, you're bringing down information on a page and with it could be malware," News.com.au quoted her as saying.

The list was compiled with the help of global data collected on Norton Safe Web, a site that analysed websites' security risks.

The infected sites had on average 18,000 threats and 40 per cent of the sites had more than 20,000 threats, while 75 per cent of websites on the list were found to be spreading malware for over six months.

According to Connor, most websites in the list had adult content with unprintable names, suggesting they contained hardcore pornography.

Some others sites include those on ice skating, deer hunting, catering and legal services.

Hackers can apparently obtain personal information using keystroke-logging software from both PCs and Mac computers.he reps said that hackers are a force to reckon with as cyber crime is increasing rapidly.

She added: "The last thing we want to do is scare people, we want to educate them so they know how to protect themselves.

"It's not about the fame any more of creating viruses and getting in the media. They're making money."

Norton released a sample of the dirtiest websites:

17ebook.com

aladel.net

bpwhamburgorchardpark.org

clicnews.com

dfwdiesel.net

divineenterprises.net

fantasticfilms.ru

gardensrestaurantandcatering.com

ginedis.com

gncr.org

hdvideoforums.org

hihanin.com

kingfamilyphotoalbum.com

likaraoke.com

mactep.org

magic4you.nu

marbling.pe.kr

nacjalneg.info

pronline.ru

purplehoodie.com

qsng.cn

seksburada.net

sportsmansclub.net

stock888.cn

tathli.com

teamclouds.com

texaswhitetailfever.com

wadefamilytree.org

xnescat.info

yt118.com (ANI)

Cost saing at what Cost ?

More than six months into the slowdown, India Inc has firmly pressed the cost control button, and this applies to everything from business class travel to lavish parties. No industry exemplifies this change more than the once booming IT industry. Talk to any Indian IT company today and the magic word is 'cost saving'.

Tata Consultancy Services, for example, reduced its operating expenses from 16.37% of its revenues last year to 14.58% of its revenues this year, a decrease of 1.79%. TCS made it work with various cost saving measures it undertook last year. Interestingly during the year some IT companies went to the extent of making it an agenda to save one dollar a day. What paid up for TCS was a reduction in discretionary spending. It saw reduction of costs in software, hardware and material procured for rendering systems integration projects by 0.48% and in recruitments and training by 0.33%. However, it saved the most with reduction in cost of software licences procured by 0.62%. Travel and conveyance was another area where it reduced expenses, by 0.34%. TCS saw its reserves and surplus touching Rs 13,248.39 crore this year, an increase of 22.59% over last year's Rs 10,806.95 crore due to accretion of profits.

The other side of the story is that some of these companies never paid any heed towards costs at all during the boom. Many IT companies extended their limits to retain engineers. Some paid variable components every month instead of yearly or quarterly, while others offered incentives in the form of travel and parties. But it began to change when clients started observing and demanding value for every penny they paid. At one end, margins were hurting, and on the other, increasing expenditures were hurting. IT companies did not only have to then curb lavishness but had to make strategic choices in the way they were hiring and utilising their assets. Like TCS which said it will hire 70% freshers going ahead, a strategy it never tried before but that is paying off well for the company.

It seems the global economic slowdown may perversely come as a blessing in disguise for some companies that are finally beginning to view cost savings as a constant endeavour.

Source : indian express.com

Can we create more jobs in India ?

Geneva, May 28 (DPA) Global unemployment levels will be worse than previously predicted, the International Labour Organisation said Thursday, revising upwards its previous numbers.

According to the new data, unemployment could hit global rates between 6.5 percent and 7.4 percent. This would roughly be equal to 210 million and 239 million unemployed worldwide.

The new data showed a projected increase of between 39 and 59 million unemployed, compared to previous estimates released earlier this year which said unemployment would rise by between 24 and 52 million people.

The ILO warned that youth was being hit particularly hard. By 2015 around 300 million new jobs will have to be created just to absorb growth in labour force.

The organization warned of an 'impending labour crisis.'

While there were some predictions for economic recovery in 2010, the ILO said the job market would take longer to recover.

'On average, it can take four to five years after a crisis starts for pre-crisis unemployment levels to be recuperated,' ILO Director General Juan Somavia told reporters in Geneva.

He warned of possible political unrest if unemployment increased and social nets were not there to catch the jobless.

The rise in unemployment was 'unprecedented,' Somavia said, and more workers were at risk of losing their jobs and falling into poverty.

The information was released ahead of next week's International Labour Conference in Geneva. At least ten heads of states were expected to attend, including France's Nicolas Sarkozy and Brazil's Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

Will linking of CEOs compensation to Cos Performance help ?

New Delhi, May 6 (IANS) A majority of Indian firms believe that there is a need to evaluate the performance of the top management and board members and to link the salaries of chief executives to corporate performance, said a report released by auditing major KPMG Wednesday.

The report, 'The State of Corporate Governance in India: 2008', prepared on the basis of a corporate governance poll conducted by KPMG in India, said about 85 percent of the respondents said linking CEO remuneration to company performance would help improve corporate governance.

'CEO performance evaluation process should be introduced when the company is performing well. Evaluation of CEO performance sends a clear message that the CEO is accountable to the board and introduces a healthy balance of power,' the report said.

About 71 percent of executives said India did not have stringent penalty for poor corporate governance comparing to developed countries, the report said.

'There are a few areas where regulation could be strengthened such as limiting the number of directorships, mandating greater role for nomination committees in independent director appointments and instituting swift and stringent punishments,' said Neville Dumasia, executive director and head of governance, risk and compliance services at KPMG.

The poll has also highlighted that there is a need for greater empowerment of independent directors and measures to protect minority shareholder interests.

'So long as we continue to have a process wherein independent director appointments are largely driven by promoters, empowerment of independent directors and protecting minority shareholder interests will continue to be areas of concern,' said Richard Rekhy, chief operating officer and head of advisory services at KPMG India.

Raghav
Founder HRinIndia
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NPS rules by PFRDA

Suresh Parthasarathy
Source : Businessline


Citizens of India will now have an option of securing their post-retirement life with the New Pension Scheme established by the Government under the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA).

The scheme has come in to effect from May 1, 2009. The unique feature of the scheme is the flexibility offered for investors to choose their asset allocation as well as their fund managers.

This scheme has already been made mandatory for Central Government employees from 2004 and is said to have earned a weighted average return of about 14.5 per cent (according to PFRDA) over the last one year.

How it works



Two types of accounts are available under the NPS.

Tier-I account: Individuals can contribute their savings for retirement into this non-withdrawal account.

Tier II account: Under this saving facility, individuals are free to withdraw their savings whenever they require.

Tier I account is available for contribution from May 1, 2009. The commencement of the Tier II account will be notified shortly by PFRDA.

Who can be member?

A citizen of India, whether resident or non resident aged between 18-55 years on the date of submission of the application can open this account.. Investors can open these accounts in 22 entities prescribed by PFRDA. These include LIC, State Bank of India, ICICI Bank and UTI Asset Management.

Who are not eligible?

Individual who are not granted an order of discharge by a court (un-discharged insolvent), individuals of unsound mind and pre-existing account holders under NPS.

Minimum contribution per instalment is Rs 500 and minimum contribution per year is Rs 6000. There should be a minimum of 4 contributions made each year. Over and above the mandated limit of a minimum of four contributions, account holders can decide on the frequency and extent of the contribution across the year as per their convenience.

Withdrawal

On attaining normal retirement age (NRA) of 60 years account holders will be required to compulsorily withdraw at least 40 per cent of their pension wealth and the remaining 60 per cent can be withdrawn as a lump sum or in a phased manner.

A minimum of 10 per cent every year will be allowed under phased withdrawal.

If an account holder makes a withdrawal any time before 60 years of age he has to compulsorily annuitise 80 per cent of his accumulated pension wealth; such sum should be used to purchase annuity from any Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority regulated life insurance company.

The remaining 20 per cent can be withdrawn as a lump sum.

In the unfortunate event of death of the account holder at any time, the nominee will have an option receive 100 per cent of NPS pension wealth in lump sum.

If the nominee wishes to continue with New Pension System, he or she will have to subscribe to NPS individually.

Investment choice

The NPS offers you two options to invest your money. Active choice: Individual funds (Asset class E, asset class C and asset class G). Auto Choice: Lifecycle fund (see table).

Option one, called active choice, will allow investors to choose the proportion of money going in to equity (E), credit risk bearing income instruments (C) and government security (G).

Investors can also choose their fund managers out of a basket of six fund houses.

However, investment in equity would be restricted to index funds tracking the BSE Sensex and S&P CNX Nifty and subject to a maximum of 50 per cent of investor’s money.

In case the participant is unable to make a choice regarding asset allocation then contributions would be invested in “Auto Choice”. In auto choice the investment would be determined by a predefined portfolio.

For copies of the Offer document and Scheme details look at files section of our HRinIndia Group on Yahoo. All you wanted to know about the New Pension Scheme (NPS) announced by Pension Fund Regulatory authority India is here http://tr.im/kmt7 read the welcome kit which has a wealth of information.

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No.10 Mariott Hotels

MARRIOTT HOTELS INDIA

Industry: Hospitality
Employees: 3,250
Workplace locations: 4
Business units: 5
Unique roles: 27

BUSINESS IS tough, which is even more reason for Marriott to hone its workforce. “Our values get stronger during such times,” says Rajeev Menon, Vice-President for Marriott in India, Malaysia, Maldives and Pakistan. The company’s pyramid organisation structure has associates (its front-end staff ) at the top. They are the company’s biggest asset, says Menon. “So, we have already paid bonuses and the increment has been 8-10%,” he says.

Once a year, associates take an online survey of 42 questions on personal leadership, teamwork, worklife balance, personal growth and rewards. “The survey helps us understand associates and improve their performance,” says Gurmeet Singh, Area Director of HR for India, Maldives and Pakistan.

Marriott runs 14 different training programmes for its employees, and the investment on training is on the no-compromise list. New recruits undergo a week-long training, and follow ups after 60 days and 90 days on the job. There’s an online programme to develop skills of associates and a portal that facilitates their personal development. At the managerial level, Marriott employees are categorised into three bands: red (entry level), blue (department-head level) and purple (divisionalhead level). Across these bands, the company runs a talent development and succession plan. “We have groomed about 80% of our associates to the red band,” says Singh.

With an average increment of 8-10%, Marriott is not a big paymaster, and its 30% attrition rate is a cause for concern. “But we don’t lose employees due to monetary issues. It’s mainly to foreign competition and luxury cruises,” says Nayna Panjanani, Director of HR at JW Marriott (a division of Marriott, in Mumbai). “Many do come back.” Adds Singh: “We focus more on recognition than on rewards.” Every May, Marriott hosts an associate appreciation week, which is a time to thank its associates. “Th e executive committee is on the floor serving them,” says Panjanani.

Source : outlook business

No.9 Domino Pizza

DOMINO’S PIZZA INDIA

Industry: Food services
Employees: 5,620
Workplace locations: 5
Business units: 176
Unique roles: 32

IN MOST organisations, a 106% attrition rate would be alarming. At Domino’s, it’s pizza as usual. That triple-digit rate is at the entry (delivery person) level, populated by 12th pass students who are still finding themselves. At the store manager level, the attrition rate is 21%, much better than the industry average of 40-45%. At the corporate office, it’s almost nil, with several employees having been in the company since it was formed in 1998-99.

The challenge for Domino’s is how to keep its 20-somethings interested, compete as it does with the BPO industry, which offers higher salaries and more perks. Still, people stay. Some even return to a system that empowers them to perform and gives a fair opportunity to the deserving to rise through the ranks. For instance, by clearing four training modules, a delivery boy can become a store manager in five years. Straight out of class 12, Raj Sahi joined as a delivery boy in 1996. Today, the 33-year-old oversees the Western region, and is responsible for a turnover of Rs 100 crore per year. With financial assistance from Domino’s, he also completed his graduation.

Employee education is a stated objective at Domino’s— it spent Rs 45 lakh in 2007-08 on training and will spend Rs 55 lakh this year. The company has tied up with leading institutes for distant education courses (both graduate and post-graduate). It also sends chosen employees for a one-year, residential, customised management course at IMT Ghaziabad. Says Ajay Kaul, Chief Executive Officer, “If they stay with the company for two to three months, they see the benefits flowing.”

Store managers are seen as the CEO of their stores. Says Basab Bordoloi, Vice-President (HR): “They practically run the business, which inculcates an entrepreneurial zeal among them.” Store managers handle their store as a separate business unit. They have the right to question corporate moves that have cost implications on their store. “The sense of responsibility and career growth keeps us motivated,” sums up 25-year-old R Devrajan, who manages six stores in Delhi.

No.8 LG Electronics

LG ELECTRONICS

Industry: Consumer durables
Employees: 3,000
Workplace locations: 41
Business units: 1
Unique roles: 417

THE PREMISE for HR at LG is if the company takes care of its employees, its performance will improve. Yet, just five years ago, LG India was losing 35% of freshers within a year of them joining the company. That number is now down to 5% and not one employee earmarked as core talent or in the successor group has left in the last one year.

Behind this turnaround is a change in the basis of expectations from employees and the way they engage with the company. Activities were introduced and processes were reoriented towards increasing inter- and intra-departmental interaction, promoting fun at work, providing instant recognition and improving work-life balance. LG was considered a tough place to work, especially at the branch level.People were slogging even on Sundays to meet targets. This workaholism ended when the HR imposed a blanket ban on employees working on Sundays. Initially, workers accustomed to chasing targets at the expense of personal lives still flouted the diktat, but HR followed through—they called up employee homes on Sundays and holidays to confirm that employees were not working.

Touches like this make Dr Yasho V Verma, Director (HR and Marketing Sales), LG, say: “On paper, every HR team is strong, it is implementation that matters.” Small things, like the 30-minute freewheeling session with the boss, count. Team leaders managing less than 15 people have to do this once a month; those managing more than 15 people, once in two months. They also have to take their team out every month, at the company’s expense.The bonding and interaction improves trust and team spirit, and creates a better working environment. After these measures were introduced, late sitting in the office reduced by about 80%.

A similar concept exists at the blue-collar worker level too. An HR person takes line guardianship of 30-40 employees, and meets them once a month for at least 15-20 minutes to hear them out and understand their mindset. The onus of resolving employee issues lies with the HR person, and processes in place make them accountable.

For employees, professional growth is important. So, the HR team prepares a five-year plan for employees based on a three-day workshop with them, where behavioural and functional capabilities are assessed. A clear training plan is drawn up on how to achieve the goals. Two months back, this programme covered 1,250 employees. Every month, 40 more employees are added, with the eventual objective of covering all 3,400 employees at LG. Verma sees HR people as “psychologists” who can read employee minds and take quick action. LG’s numbers show they have been doing that.