Predictive Analysis in HR- Future of HRM

I have been to so many seminars and conferences discussing the future of HR. I myself have spoken in this issue a few times as a student participant.

Why don't we discuss the same for other domains like marketing and finance that often?

Is it because we are not happy with the present contribution of HR?

Are we not experiencing our true potential as HR proffesionals?

Or is it because this is the only domain that strives to create greater value for itself?

Being a first year HR student with little corporate experience, I am not the best person to comment on it. But I will leave you with these questions which will produce greater food for thought.

I came across this article in Abhijit Bhaduri's website which deals with 'Predictive Analysis for HR'.

Following are some of my key learnings based on the conversation between Abhijit Bhaduri and Atanu Basu :

• Predictive Analysis takes multiple, pertinent datasets and business rules into account, and then uses mathematical techniques to make contextual and actionable predictions.
• Its different from using conventional metrics because Metrics focus on tracking what was. Analytics can extend this to what will be and what if.
• A process of predictive Root Cause Analysis can then identify, quantify, and rank the primary drivers responsible for attrition among each ‘at risk’ group.
• Predictive Analysis can not do much (if anything at all) for you; it only becomes powerful when you “partner” with it.
• If you are well aware of your business then you are more ready to use Predictive Analysis much more than you think.

Now, This is the future of HR according to me. This needs to be discussed and followed sincerely to champion greater HR causes.

Following is the comment I left in the website:

I feel this encapsulates the future of HR in a much more convincing way than what is discussed in various seminars and conferences…
However, I feel HR itself should get the quantitative tools in place rather than hire a statistics expert.
Truly very informative….
Clearly there is much more between and beyond that 10% attrition rate…

Employee Ecstacy- A mirage

First came 'employee satisfaction'....then came 'employee delight'...and we have been introduced to 'employee ecstacy' recently...

Many might say that 'Employee satisfaction' in itself is a challenging task given the economic turmoil today. The entire romanticisation about concepts like employee delight and employee ecstacy are no more relevant enough. Well!! I personally believe that we HR guys can strive towards 'Employee delight' or 'Employee Ecstacy' so that we have a higher probability of reaching employee satisfaction atleast in these tough times.

Today, during my morning 'Geeta classes', the preacher was telling us that when a person experiences any form of ecstacy then his ego has no place in his heart or mind.This left me with the following thought:

As far as a corporate life is concerned, so much revolves around managing [massaging] egos of others and oneself too. Then where is the scope for experiencing employee ecstacy????

I truly believe that no company can get 'employee ecstacy' perfect.

It's almost like a mirage. But, I would say follow the mirage for the sake of optimism[it helps!!!!] and for getting the 'employee satisfaction' part right.

Life is short...

There are times in life when you relook at your priorities. The sudden death of a friend from MCC made it relevent for me to share a few words which were a part of an E-mail forwarded to me yesterday.

Life is short

Break the rules
forgive quickly

kiss passionately, love truly
laugh constantly

And never stop smiling
no matter how strange life is
Life is not always the party we expected to be
but as long as we are here, we should smile and be
grateful.

Multiple Captains for Kolkata Knightriders-A relook at Fayol's unity of command...

I am a huge fan of Kolkata Knightriders. I remember cheering for them along with my family in the last season. It was dissapointing that they could not even reach the finals of this high profile tournament. But then the win in their last match proved to be a consolation prize for me.

KKR coach John Buchanan today announced that there would be multiple captains for IPL 2. It would be shared between Ganguly, West Indian Chris Gayle , New Zealand's explosive opener Brendon McCullum and Australian Brad Hodge.

Now that goes against the Fayol's principle of unity of command. But here we are considering a cricket team and not a corporate set up. There is a completely different dynamics at play. I wonder if the West Indies team at it's peak or the famed Aussies during their world cup dominance or the current Indian team which continues to bash the New Zealand team has ever followed even one of the Fayol's principles.

The only thing which produced the results for those teams were cohesive team work that produced the desired synergy along with the right talent and the lazor sharp focus to WIN!!!!!!!

I think when any team gets absorbed with these three[team work,lazor sharp focus and right talent], they get too preoccupied to think of any of the principles by any thought leader.

But then unlike sports, in corporate these three do not get right and hence they resort to Principles of managements by thought leaders. It certainly helps too.

I hope that this sort of multiple captaincy practice has been thought out after a good amount of rational discussion by the leadership team[Buchanan,Saurav,Shahrukh etc] and is not an innovative practice for the sake of being innovative in itself.

Since the decision has been already taken, I hope the leaders of KKR take full ownership for the decision and try their level best to win IPL-2.

Only the results of IPL-2 will decide that whether we will give it a serious thought to include Mr Buchanan's principles of management in the B-School syllabus.
-Saikat Saha
[A Kolkata Knight Rider Fan]

P.S- Go for Gold...Be a Kolkata Knight Rider...Korbo Lorbo Jeetbo Re

Use of Video Camera during a grievance redressal session...

Hey readers!!!!!

I was mentioning a few HR practices to the company where I am doing my fieldwork. Most of them were based on high engagement impact and nominal monetary investment.

One of the practice which I recommended to them was 'The Listen Up' sessions. It's inspired from the 'let's talk' session which is implemented in TCS.

The 'listen up' session would deal with a regular forum where a team of associates can meet their tagged HR team and put their proffessional and people related issues in the attention of the HR team.

The HR team after keen listening would suggest the possible solutions or facilitate the process of seeking the solution from the associates.

However, the new addition to this relatively common HR practice is that it will be video taped with a proper camera[should produce quality clarity and sound] and it would be done in everyone's knowledge.

This video tape would be presented to the leadership team.

It will help in the following ways:
1. Would provide the pulse of the 'listen up' session to the leadership team.
2. Will encourage the employees to maintain proper decorum yet be very genuine with problems and their solutions.
3. No fabrication of information in session reports.
4. Will save a lot of time which would have been used for documentation and reporting of the session. Hence, HR will be able to focus on more critical or meaningful issues.
5. Would serve as a greater credidible source of future reference than report documents.
6. Would encourage people to come out with suggestions as it would guarantee immediate credit or debit of the suggestion through the video.
7. Last but not least, it would ensure that technology is leveraged well by the HR team ;-)

A poem & beyond.....

Dark is beautiful-

I made a mark because
I recognised the dark....

The darkness within
that have set the inner colours free.....

Colours that make the grass turn green,
the sky turn blue and
the sun turn yellow.....

But it's the darkness that adds to my inner depth
so that I can appreciate the world in it's
complete length and breadth....

I made a mark because
I appreciated the dark....

When the fervor is mellow,
the darkness says hello....

But the light is suffused in the dark
it's up to you to see the light so that it can make a mark...

Indeed, dark is beautiful
as it's the colour of the soulful.....

So stir the soul
& embrace the dark....

-Saikat Saha