Whose job is it anyway?

The wife of a Kingfisher Airlines (KFA) staff committed suicide citing non-payment of salaries, bringing home to urban India's cloistered living rooms the brutal realities of a life without income usually experienced by residents in drought-stricken Vidarbha or the parched badlands of Kalahandi.

Sushmita Chakraborty, the 45-year-old wife of Manas Chakraborty, died by her own hands on Thursday at her home in Dwarka in Delhi, police said. She left behind a note that spoke of financial distress caused by non-payment of salaries to her husband, a technician in the airline.

A 20-something flight engineer, who earns barely Rs 12,000 a month, has been kicked out of his house thrice in seven months for not paying rent. "I have sent my wife back home to Kolkata since I couldn't manage with no income and ever-growing dues," the engineer said.

Then there is the case of a captain who is struggling to raise EMIs, school fees and other expenses. "I have broken every fixed deposit and emptied all my savings," said the captain. "We don't want March salary we want our dues for the past seven months. While Mallya seems to have time for cricket, racing and even to spend in his yacht, he's yet to pay his condolences for this incident,” he alleges.

I read this in newspapers today. While I was lucky not to experience such apathy by my employers during my tenure, I am clearly observing an increase in the irresponsible behavior on part of employers and owners. Very few companies maintain fiscal discipline. The allocation of funds for disbursal is at random typically tending towards agencies wielding power in the given ecosystem. Bigger vendors, senior management and bigger bankers exercise their clout to have their payments made on priority while the smaller, weaker and junior ones suffer. Like in KFA’s case too, I am sure, many thousand crores would have been paid to bankers and agencies that had the ability to threaten and arm-twist the company. KFA would continue to foot the bill for all expenses incurred by the top management. Not paying on time is not a crime in India. Employees, small vendors and tiny bankers have no means to get their money. They can wait or write it off completely.

There isn’t any mandatory and standard accounting practice that would dictate the priority of payments in a cash crunch situation.  I strongly propose that bodies like ICAI, RBI, ROC, MOF, MOC, SC etc. should intervene at the earliest to bring in such standard. Employers and business owners must be held accountable if they don’t follow the disbursement prioritization norms. For example, in a cash crunch situation, the foremost priority should be employee salaries and payments; next should be the vendors; then the bankers; then the government; shareholders next and finally the investments and cash reserves. While observing these priorities, the First-In-First-Out (FIFO) principle must be adhered to in conjunction with the contractual commitments.

I am not a Labor Laws fanatic but I strongly feel that employees and vendors do need protection on certain account. It is the job of the employer, owner or the chief executive to ensure that the payments are not delayed. Of all the reforms, this one would boost the economy big time.

I request the Supreme Court or any lawyer therein to pick this issue up as a Public Interest Litigation.

Will Mr. Narayanaswamy be around next Republic Day???

Dear All

This takes courage...

First Rank in State in Secondary School Examination
First Rank in University in Plus Two
First Rank in IIT Entrance Examination
First Rank in All India IIT Computer Science
First Rank in IAS Entrance Examination
First Rank in IAS Training Institute

On passing out from IIT Chennai Mr. Narayanaswamy was offered scholarship by the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology , USA .. He who came from a middle class family believed that he had a moral obligation to give something in return for the lakhs of rupees the government spent on him as an IIT student. He had the intelligence and conviction to realize that this money came also from the poorest of the poor - who pay up the excise duty on textiles when they buy cloth, who pay up customs, excise and sales tax on diesel when they travel in a bus, and in numerous other ways indirectly pay the government. So he decided to join IAS hoping he could do something for the people of this country. How many young men have the will power to resist such an offer from USA ? Narayanaswamy did never look at IAS as a black money spinner as his later life bears testimony to this fact.

After a decade of meritorious service in IAS, today, Narayanaswamy is being forced out of the IAS profession. Do you know why?

A real estate agent wanted to fill up a paddy field which is banned under law. An application came up before Narayanaswamy who was sub collector the, for an exemption from this rule for this plot of land. Upon visiting the site he found that the complaint from 60 poor families that they will face water logging due to the waste water from a nearby Government Medical College if this paddy field was filled up was correct. Narayanswamy came under intense political pressure but he did what was right - refused permission for filling up the paddy field. That was his first confrontation with politicians.

Soon after his marriage his father-in-law closed down a public road to build compound wall for his plot of land. People approached Narayanaswamy with complaint.

When talking with his own father-in-law did not help, he removed the obstructing wall with police help. The result, his marriage broke up.

As district Collector he raided the house of a liquor baron who had defaulted Rupees 11 crores payment to government and carried out revenue recovery. A Minister directly telephoned him and ordered to return the forfeited articles to the house of the liquor baron. Narayanswamy politely replied that it is difficult. The minister replied that Narayanaswamy will suffer.

In his district it was a practice to collect crores of rupees for earthen bunds meant for poor farmers, but which were never constructed. A bill for rupees 8 crores came up before Narayanaswamy. He inspected the bund. He found it very weak and said that he will pass the bill after the rainy season to ensure that the bund served the purpose. As expected the earthen bund was too weak to stand the rain and it disappeared in the rain. But he created a lot of enemies for saving 8 crores public money. The net result of all such unholy activities was that he was asked to go on leave by the government. Later such an illustrious officer was posted as "State Co-Ordinator, Quality Improvement Programme for Schools". This is what the politician will do to a honest officer with backbone - post him in the most powerless position to teach him a lesson. Since he found that nothing can be achieved for the people if he continued with the State Service he opted for central service. But that too was denied on some technical ground.

What will you do when you have a brilliant computer career anywhere in the world you choose with the backing of several advanced technical papers too published in international journals to your credit?

When you are powerless to do anything for the people, why should you waste your life as the Co-Ordinator for a Schools Programme?

Mr. Narayanaswamy is on the verge of leaving IAS to go to Paris to take up a well paid United Nations assignment. The politicians can laugh thinking another obstacle has been removed. But it is the helpless people of this country who will lose - not Narayanaswamy. But you have the power to support capable and honest bureaucra ts like Narayaswamy, G.R.Khairnar and Alphons Kannamthanam who have suffered a lot under self seeking politicians who rule us. You have even the power to replace such politicians with these kind of people dedicated to the country. The question is will you do the little you can do NOW? At least a vote or word in support?

Note: This email was received by me from Dr. Chandrashekhar Hariharan, Chairman - BCIL. The least I could do is to post it here and reach it to you. Hoping that through us it will reach the right eyes/ears.

RIP HR Generalist

RIP HR Generalist

Over the last month I interviewed many candidates for HR Head position for one of the organizations that I am mentoring. Following is how one of the interviews proceeded roughly while all others were very similar to this. I have cut out the ice-breaking part as it is irrelevant for the context.

Me: Your resume looks like a copy paste of the index of an HR Handbook. You seem to be pretty thorough.

Candidate: Yes, I have been working in HR for nearly 20 years now. Having worked with 4 companies during this period, I have contributed on all aspects of HR.

Me: If you don’t mind can I ask you a few technical questions?

Candidate: Sure. Please.

M: What’s Lead – Lag?

C: No idea. I am sorry.

M: What’s a quartile?

C: What? Quartile? I don’t know.

M: What’s Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs?

C: I read it in college long time back. It talked of a pyramid with some levels. I won’t remember now.

M: What’s Lominger’s Nine Box Grid?

C: Never heard of that.

M: Tell me about MBTI?

C: I don’t know.

M: DISC?

C: Does that have to do with HR? I have heard about compact discs and also BluRay discs. They are the latest.

M: Have you heard about FIRO – B?

C: I had taken a test like that in my college. Don’t remember it now. Sorry.

M: Do you know about Kirkpatrick’s model?

C: No, sir.

M: What are 5 levels of PCMM?

C: No idea. Why are you asking these questions? This is theory. I have been a practical guy. Please ask me practical questions.

M: How can there be a practice without theory? Would you ever go to a doctor who doesn’t know the theory, the human anatomy, functioning of organs, about the diseases and there cures? Are there lawyers who don’t know the laws but still practice? Practicing engineers who have forgotten the theory, the formulae, the algorithms? Practicing accountants without the theoretical knowledge? It’s sad and unfortunate that the HR professionals believe that they can practice without the theory. They divorce the books moment they are done with their exams never ever to refer back to them again.

Sitting in a meeting, when a problem is thrown at you by business, you respond based on your “practical experience” and “common sense.” What else can you do? You don’t have any science, any theories to fall back upon. But then, when it comes to “practical experience” and “common sense,” the business guy has more of it as the exposure is far superior. Your response is thus often found inferior to the expectation. Business gives the final word, the directive. You get frustrated, blame the business guy for being pushy, arrogant and anti-HR/anti-People. You feel insecure. Indulge in political maneuvers to safeguard and consolidate your position. Messing up the organizational culture.

Young talent who joins under you is misguided by you each times he comes up with robust “theoretical” solutions. Out of your frustrating experiences, you tell him to forget all the “bookish” knowledge and get to “practical” work. You make him do data entry, pivot tables in Excel, graphs in PowerPoint, organize floor decorations and picnics, respond to employee grievances about pay-slips or hunt for resumes on Monster and Naukri. You make sure that he doesn’t find time or need to go back and stay in touch with his text books. Few years down the line, he is seen telling his juniors to forget all the “bookish” knowledge and get to “practical” work.

In any case, who chooses HR in the first place as the subject for post graduation? Only the people who don’t want to slog it out in the field, prefer the comfort of office, would want to maintain 9 am – 6 pm as working hours, have limited capabilities to deal with numbers, formulae and algorithms. The least you can do is to stay true and passionate towards your profession, the science behind your profession. Find ways of connecting the theory, the science to the business that it is supposed to serve. Get back to the text books, revise and remember the forgotten science. Apply it back to the issues that business brings to you for effective and functional resolution. Rely more on the science and less on the “practical experience” and “common sense.”

There are administrative aspects in the function. The employee data needs to be managed, reports need to be generated, payroll needs to be processed, filing needs to be done, events need to be managed, resumes need to be sourced, so on and so forth. Get some under-graduates to do all these. Create a separate sub-department called “Personnel Administration” staffed with these under-graduate resources. It will help you bring down the cost when compared to staffing this sub-function with HR post graduates. The morale, motivation and growth prospects will not be an issue. You can assist the graduates study further and acquire their post graduation in HR. Then move them into mainstream HR.

I am sad and sorry to state this but I don’t mind if you feel bad. I want you to feel bad. I want you to know that you have already soiled the image of HR enough. You must thank a few HR professionals who are still married to the theory, the science because of whom it’s not all lost. Hope prevails. That HR will not be seen as a resume sourcing, balloon blowing, spin doctoring, random gossiping function. That HR will be the true business ally providing robust “theoretical” and scientific solutions to the Human Capital issues that the business is facing.

Thanks for your time. I have to meet another candidate now. Hopefully, this one would be a HR Professional.