(IN) HOUSE CONSTRUCTION
AT A TIME WHEN FIRMS ARE FOCUSING HARD ON EMPLOYEE MOTIVATION AND ENCOURAGING LOYALTY, LATERAL MOVEMENT WITHIN THE ORGANISATION HAS EMERGED AS A POWERFUL RETENTION TOOL, DISCOVERS PRIYA C NAIR
IF best to you get have the talent for your organisation you have to find them differently, evaluate them differently and retain them differently. Great people know they’re great, so to keep them motivated and to ensure that they are constantly challenged in what they do is no easy task.
It is quite natural that at some point or time in one’s career one gets bored, where one goes through a phase of questioning the job and one’s presence in the organisation. Reasons are many, like being bogged down by routine tasks, a need for challenge, sizing up your achievements against others, etc. These are not just questions that bother the employee, as India Inc., too, has realised that an employee can feel redundant at his/her job and the next step that one takes is to quit to find greener pastures. However, to curb attrition organisations have started encouraging lateral moves to give the employees more challenges.
Though the concept is not a new one, experts believe that moving an employee internally is a sure shot way of rewarding top talent. “Internal movements help us in identifying and rewarding top talent by providing opportunities for their growth and development. It maximises their exposure to different domains and other areas of the business. It also keeps them motivated by helping them take up challenging assignments to learn and develop new skills,” says Shantanu Jha, Director – Global Recruitment Operations, IBM.
Adding to it Benny Augustine, Director-HR, Unisys
Global Services India opines, “Employees move from one occupational level to another in their efforts to establish themselves. Also, these movements from level to level imply changes in skill, competency and income. Such periodical movements help the organisation as well as the employee to retrospect and plan accordingly to achieve organisational goals and also to improve on a personal front.”
STRETCHING BOUNDARIES
It is true that today, many organisations encourage such intra-organisational movements. But leaving your comfort zone and taking up a different role is not an easy task. “The first step towards any lateral shift is a change in mindset. You must have the ability to grasp new things, be flexible and must have a can-do attitude. Building networks also helps you quickly ramp up on the assignment. You need to leverage your expertise to add a new dimension, which adds value to the organisation,” suggests Rahul Arya, Marketing Director, Cadence Design Systems.
Rajiv Singh, Vice President – Human Resources, Geometric Limited believes, “While such movements are
not easy, if planned well, they result in improved commitment and business convergence. The process requires knowledge of the function to which the employee is being moved.”
“At Geometric, we see a number of movements between different business units and core IT functions. For example, an employee working on development of our product DFMPro may opt to move to development of 3D Paint Brush project; alternatively they could completely shift focus and move to an industry specific offering like our fashion practice,” adds Singh.
TRANSITION MADE EASY
Usually such movements happen between core business management functions and support functions, so managing such vertical movements are very crucial. Organisations have various tools and procedures in place to make this transition hassle free.
According to Geetu Shukla, Head & Director - Resource Management, Aricent such movements are never easy to enforce across the organisation. “In order to ensure a smooth transition of any individual from one project to another the guidelines for such movements are strictly adhered to and the confidentiality of the candidate is maintained from the current manager till the final selection of the candidate happens. These movements are irrespective of the domain, projects or verticals.”
“Cadence has a well structured career programme which is open to all the employees. This programme helps an employee to evaluate his/her strengths and weaknesses, and provides a platform to draw out his/her own development plans in consultation with his/her manager, thus opening up a wide range of opportunities within the organisation. With flat organisational structures, companies today view lateral moves not only as retention tools but also as a platform to enable career progression and professional development of employees," informs Sunil Pathak, HR Director, Cadence Design Systems.
“Cross brand and cross functional short term assignments are provided to all IBM employees which helps them to get a broad vision of the various aspects of IBM’s business. Also, we follow a competency-based promotions model that also allows job rotation. A competency-based structure ensures that the employee’s aspirations are met,” says Jha.
With such processes in place, employees have more freedom and also have more control over his/her own career. Explaining the benefits of such movements Singh says, “Internal movements serve two purposes. First it unblocks individual growth potential for existing employees, whose growth may be blocked along the traditional career ladders. Secondly, it assures exposure to a variety of functions, thereby, improving their suitability for growth in the organisation and supporting their aspirations while meeting an organisational need.”
Also, “Movement within the organisation could be a great driving force for retention. It offers growth opportunities to the employees and enhanced learning opportunities. It also promotes a sense of involvement and engagement within the organisation leading to improved employee retention,” adds Padmaja Korde, General Manager – HR, Philips Innovation Campus.
Competitive employers today have two choices: import talent, or develop talent on the home turf. The first option is expensive. And the second represents a longterm investment in education, training, and retention. You choose!
CLOSER TO CUSTOMERS
While working with Cadence in the US in the Global Customer Care (GCC) department, my main role was to deal with customers all over the world, by troubleshooting their technical queries. Once I completed my tenure in this division, I moved to the Technical Field Organisation (TFO) as an Application Engineer (AE), where I had to do face-to-face interactions with customers, including customer visits and presentations.
Though both the roles dealt with customer interaction, the skills required for each are different. In my current role, other than understanding the customer application, and having the right technical skills, I also need to use a lot of soft skills, for which I attended several training programmes.
Both the roles have provided me with a deeper understanding of our technologies and have given me exposure on methodologies built around Cadence.
- VISHWAJEET BETAI, Senior Manager, TFO, Cadence Design Systems.
|Source: Times of India – ASCENT|
