SHRM South Asia Blog

Ask The Right Questions, To Get The Right Answers

A friend of mine recently went for an interview at a leading MNC. I was sure she would get the job as she has always been a high performer in the past, was exceptionally good during college, is smart and holds a charming personality. But, to my surprise, she did not.

Why?

Because she gave the right answers, but to the wrong questions!

Let's face it, since so many years and for so many years to come, job interviewers have been and are going to be untrained at interviewing. The reality is, in business, employees should be paid for what...

COMMENTS 0

Appreciative Inquiry: Getting It Right

The mid monsoon forum meet in Pune was all about changing 'point of view'. Suman Nair, a seasoned Human Resources facilitator, demonstrated how practicing a simple technique can change focus: from seeking to overcome the weaknesses in an organization, to appreciating and leveraging the core strength of the organization.
Ms. Nair is Managing Director at Atiitya Training and HR Consultants Pvt. Ltd. In the last two decades, she has worked extensively in the Human Resources space in companies like The Ion Exchange, Pantaloons, Tracmail, GE Capital and Mastek.

Defining AI
Speaking on Appreciative Inquiry (AI), Nair talked about operating in...

COMMENTS 0

Any takers for decent work?

I was invited to participate in SAARC Sub-Regional Seminar of UNI Apro. The subject chosen was relevant and important for all who are interested in employee relations. For me personally it was [and it is] important. Let me explain the reason. I retired seven years ago and I have been meeting workers, professionals and managers from various industries. I have met union representatives. I have also been interviewing them to learn their view point and their concerns. The reality of employee relations scenario in India is disturbing. It is against...

COMMENTS 0

Gavin Freeman - Your Coach to Building an Olympian Mindset

Create a plan for yourself and consider how you will evaluate it along the way - don't be scared to film yourself giving that next presentation and then asking a graduate to provide you with some feedback -I dare you.
- Gavin Freeman

Gavin Freeman is a renowned author, keynote presenter, a leadership coach and the Director of the Business Olympian Group, a consulting firm. He works on helping organizations and sports personalities in improving their performance and building teams through executive coaching and a variety of workshops on team building, change leadership,...

COMMENTS 0

Working Towards Including Differently-abled Employees into the Workplace

When we speak about inclusion of all kind of talent into the workforce, there is a big chunk of the pool that we are missing out on – the differently abled individuals. As per statistics, approximately 2.13% of India's population is differently abled in some way. Most of them have been marginalized and kept out of the workforce, hence indicating the perception that they might not perform at par with the others.

Hence, the challenge that HR faces is two-fold. One is to bring about an understanding and awareness within the current employee population pertaining to this segment, and the...

COMMENTS 0

What is wrong with Employee Engagement Surveys?

Employee engagement is not just a buzz-word today. While it’s great that most organizations have come to value the importance of an engaged workforce, the obsession with the annual employee engagement surveys and award lists seems to be a case of misplaced importance. Granted that surveys are a great way to pool in copious amounts of data, that they help in establishing a base-line and the results can be insightful enough to guide you on the path ahead. But a survey is not the answer to everything (and that’s not just because surveys only have questions!). Moreover, most employee engagement...

COMMENTS 0

Why Australia Will Never Beat India in Cricket - Webinar with Gavin Freeman.

Isn't this what we all want for ourselves and for the teams that we lead - To Win, Every Time?

This was precisely what Gavin Freeman, author, executive coach, and the keynote speaker at SHRM India's Annual Conference and Exposition talked about in his webinar held on 14th September, 2016.

Taking cricket, that is a passion in both India and Australia, as the base of the discussion on how to build an unbeatable team, Gavin highlighted some of the key traits that we can imbibe from the world-class cricketers of both the sides to make ourselves ready...

COMMENTS 0

Mindset of a ‘Winning Employee’

In this competitive world, there are high chances of employees and managers moving between different roles. As a result, many of us experience working with various managers exhibiting different leadership styles. While some of us learn to forge relationships with our respective managers through few interactions, many of us take time to build a rapport with the new boss. During this transition phase, most of us find ourselves pondering upon questions like: Has the information about our performance been handed – over smoothly from the previous manager to the new one? How informed is the new manager about our past...

COMMENTS 0

'Unsolicited' feedback - Valuable approach to derive value

While we are quite familiar with the concept of 'feedback' and have faced many while at work, how many of us actually have noticed 'unsolicited’ feedback? This kind of feedback is also an important input when it comes to making behavioural changes. Most of us spend our entire life and career oblivious to these subtle cues or ignore these remarks that we receive. If given a little more thought, these too could make us more effective professionals by imbibing specific behavioural changes.

Most of us associate 'Unsolicited’ feedback with a negative connotation, especially if the feedback is not positive. However,...

COMMENTS 0

How to Perform Consistently Under Pressure - Tweet Chat with Gavin Freeman.

The pressure to perform consistently results into stress.

Talking about stress/pressure at work with the people at work is a topic non grata. Bosses don't want to know. Mostly, because they have no immediate solution at hand. Employees don't want to talk about it fearing they will be considered weak, non promotion material. People suffer and work suffers. A lose-lose situation for everyone.

But we all know it exists. Stress is an integral part of our lives both personal and professional. If not dealt with in a healthy manner and in time, stress can prove to be very costly -...

COMMENTS 0