V Pradeep Kumar

T

he last two decades

have been very

eventful for a

resurgent and strong

India, playing an

influencing role in

the world economy. The rise of

the IT and services sector have

led to an increase in GDP

growth, per capita income and

standard of living.

However, despite providing

increased remuneration and

benefits, employers continue to

be unhappy with productivity.

Ironically, even economic

development hasn’t led to

happiness in professional and

personal life for employees. On

the contrary, conflicts at work

place and high stress levels have

led to a decline in quality of

living, proving the futility of

materialistic comforts.

Conflicting views:

Employer & Employee

These aspects of Indian society

are intriguing for an observer

and a challenge for all

management thinkers, working

to set things right. The analysis

of feedback from several

managements indicates these

key trends:

Difficulty in getting right

people

Decline in quality of work and

actual work time

Decline in dedication and

commitment

Absenteeism, increased

turnover

Negativity

Significantly, these trends

persist despite an increased

people orientation in work

environment. Interestingly,

employees have a diametrically

opposite views:

All jobs are of high pressure

Conflicts at work

Expectations not met

Variations between job profile

& actual

As against these conflicting

views, the trends in urban

India’s family life are:

Nuclear families, with

working couples

Reduced interaction between

family members

Dependence of children on

maids and drivers

Ego clashes, frequent

conflicts and domestic violence

Increased trend of living in,

extra-marital affairs and

divorces

Further, individuals are in

conflicts with their inner-self.

Employees admit in casual and

formal counselling, that they

have internal conflicts relating

to career, relationships,

children and material comforts.

These disturbing trends

imply that while as a nation we

are progressing, employees in

urban India are living in

continuous conflict with their

employers, family, society and

self. This explains the general

lack of enthusiasm and passion

for work in employees.

Lack of passion causes

inertia and is the main cause of

poor productivity at work. In a

recent lecture at a leading IT

company, I observed that

employees spend just about five

hours a day on actual work.

However, a senior manager

who was present quickly

countered saying it’s not more

than four hours per day. There

could be cases at the other

extreme in companies too.

Notwithstanding this,

employees complain of high

stress levels. To make things

worse, inadequate urban

infrastructure and social issues

have added to the stress levels

bringing it to a breaking point.

Nimhans Study: Disturbing

trends

A study conducted by Nimhans

in 2007 on the mental health of

professionals in IT and ITenabled

sectors confirms these

trends, with these observations:

19 per cent of respondents

felt, they were being edgy and

bad tempered

28 per cent of respondents

Passion at work is path to happiness in life

The only way

Lack of passion and dedication causes inertia, which is the main cause of poor productivity at work, say experts

felt being under constant strain

22 per cent of respondents

felt they were unable to enjoy

their daily activities

36 per cent of respondents

classified by Nimhans, as

probable psychiatric cases

Conflicts at work and home,

have reached alarming

proportions and consequently,

crimes by white collar people

is on the rise. When people find

it difficult to live together and

resort to heinous crimes, senior

officials and counselors

recommend as a last option,

separation of marriages. Our

society is moving towards

westernisation with these

dangerous trends and need

rectification. The benefits of a

flourishing economy should

reach all sectors and an

improvement in the happiness

and well being of employees,

while preserving our social

fabric is a must.

Bring passion at work

The process to bring back

passion at work for sparkle in

personal life is multidimensional

as below:

Life objectives: Just as an

organisation defines its

objectives through a statement

of vision and mission,

employees must define what

they want in life. The ideal way

to define this is through a

personal vision and mission

statement. In simple terms, this

is what you want in life and how

you propose achieving that.

Professional success: In an

increasingly competitive world,

it’s difficult to

compartmentalise professional

and personal life. Material

comforts, children’s education,

family welfare and social status,

all require a strong professional

life. Therefore, a good personal

life hinges on our professional

success. Therefore focus on:

a.

Productivity: Productivity is

the reason for your

employment and hence, be

result oriented.

b.

Responsibility: Accept

additional responsibilities,

without insisting on additional

benefits. Understand and apply

the principle, ‘Give more than

you get, as eventually you would

get more than what you give.’

c.

Initiative: When things are

not right, take initiative to set

them right, instead of

complaining.

d.

Self-evaluation: Get

professional, evaluating your

performance frequently. The

frequency depends on your job

profile. For example, for sales

and marketing positions,

evaluate monthly and take

corrective steps.

e.

Valued employee: Similar to

ABC analysis, in organizations

only 20 per cent people are real

performers and hence highly

valued. In general, about 60%

may qualify as average and the

balance 20 per cent people,

might be redundant for

indiscipline, low performance

etc. For career growth, be in

the top 20 per cent and be

valued.

Personal success Personal life

success is vital. In general, the

following key factors are

important.

a. The ‘bigger picture: Make

your dreams together, with

your spouse.

b. Think Win/Win: There’s no

philosophy better than win/win

in inter personal relationships.

c. Share responsibilities:

Sharing jobs/household chores

is in the spirit of being together.

d. Be empathetic: A simple way

to understand others is to be

empathetic.

e. Communicate well:

Inadequate communication

causes misunderstanding

leading to relationship failures.

Avoid frictions, by listening well,

turning arguments into

discussion. Have open mind

and use soft words to convince,

focusing on what is right and

not who is right.

Self development: To remain

competitive in professional life,

all round self development is

critical. All individuals deserve

quality time to themselves.

Utilise this time to:

a. Examine and have an

appropriate value system.

b. Evaluate your achievements

against plans. Keep updating

your plans.

c. Be active, balancing work and

personal life. .

d. Enjoy life without missing the

fun. Develop hobbies like

reading, writing, travel,

photography, music, etc. that’s

interesting for you.

e. Learn to forgive, getting rid of

emotional baggage.

Importantly, learn to live in the

present moment.

As American philosopher

Jim Rohn says: “You cannot

change your destination

overnight; but certainly you can

change your direction.”Choose

a profession you love; and work

with passion- the only way for

sparkle in life.

(The writer is a management

consultant based at Bangalore.

Email: info@promaxintl.com)

Viju Swaminathan

Most organisations have

re-termed their recruitment

process as `talent

acquisition’. Hiring skilled workers

is precisely this acquiring

talent to grow business.

Writing a resume is the first

step towards job hunting.

Knowing that companies look

for relevant skills and competencies,

broadly classified as talent,

the job seeker’s objective

would be to showcase his professional

competencies in his

resume.

Since the primary aim is establishing

credibility to attract

the recruiter’s interest, the resume

should be succint and effective

with apt vocabulary.

The resume should match

the description of the job sought

for. This does not imply that the

document has to be doctored to

cater to the interests of the recruiter.

Presence of the pertinent

skills being genuine, the

way in which it is conveyed in

the resume is critical. Each

page should have not more than

400 words and there should be

white spaces in between points,

paragraphs etc for easy readability.

The human mind trains the

eye to spot critical information

while scanning a document.

Hence choice of vocabulary, the

style of writing, type of font -all

play a significant role in attracting

or putting of the reader of

the resume. The first aspect

that creates interest in the recruiter

is the educational background

and secondly, if there is

work experience, the name of

the previous employers.

The experience listed needs

to be supported with specific

data. For instance, the sentence

‘played a crucial role in getting

the largest contract for the organization’does

not hold water

unless it is supported with information

on role specifics, size of

the contract, name of the client

and most importantly the time

that it took to obtain the contract.

For freshers the same aspect

translates to describing

project experience with the output,

team size and the role

played in particular by the job

seeker.

Recruiting trend is now to

also look for softskills like team

play,communication, interpersonal

skills and so on. These

can be presented through the

work or project experience, because

the interest would be

more if there is a demonstration

of the skills while at work.

Personal details no more

claim space in the resume, although

hobbies are looked at

with avid interest. Even here,

generic mention of hobbies

does not warrant attention. It is

more effective to say that the

candidate plays tennis and has

represented the club, State etc

and won prizes rather than just

mentioning that playing tennis

is a regular pastime.

In other words, organizations

look at some proven expertise

even in co-curricular activities.

If the candidate has

made a mark in some area of

competence, he is likely to excel

in other aspects as well. This is

the conviction of recruiters.

That a resume does not fetch

a job is apparent. But it presents

the crux of the candidate’s expertise,

motivation, purpose

and goal.

A resume is in reality the decider

for a job interview. A well

written resume which provokes

interest and hooks the reader

helps gain a foot into the recruiter’s

door, this marks the

progressive path forward in a

professional’s career.

(The writer is Principal

Consultant - Business HR,

Ma Foi Randstad)

How to write a good resume?

Mumbai’s Dabbawala & Six Sigma

Mumbai’s 5000 plus Dabbawalas are world famous for their impeccable service standards. They pick up lunch boxes/ tiffin carriers from over 2,00,000 homes/ apartments, deliver them to some 80,000 destinations and again ensure their safe return to those homes/ apartments – all on the same day with each lap of journey en route accomplished within the specified time limits. The people at work are not from any high academic background; rather many of them are almost illiterate. They face the same crowded pavements, on-road dense vehicular traffic and overloaded suburban trains, which normal office goers often give excuses for their late comings.  

Their way of doing business has, therefore, become a case study destination for every management guru and B-school. CII arranged interface for who’s who of industry and business to share great management lessons from them. A Dabbawala figured among a handful few from India who got invitations to witness the marriage ceremony of Prince Charles. Sometime back, there was also an All-Dabbawala ‘Deal Ya No Deal’ show in Sony Entertainment TV. They steal all attention just because their service is of Six Sigma quality.

Every business concern is made of a number of interrelated processes. When inputs are made to traverse through a process, they result into certain outputs (products & services) serving either internal or external customers. A process is termed as industrial or commercial depending on whether 80% or more of the values derived are from machinery or from human activity, respectively.  

No matter how perfect a process is, no product/ service will come conforming to exact targeted specifications. It would always vary. However, when it varies within certain Lower Specification Limit (LSL) and Upper Specification Limit (USL) as acceptable/ agreed to or specified by the customers, then it is considered to be defect free or quality product/ service.

Further, every opportunity of delivering a product/ service is also wrought with an opportunity for the occurrence of defect. When the Defects Per Million Opportunity (DPMO) doesn’t exceed 3.4, the process is said to have met Six Sigma level. And Mumbai Dabbawalas’ DPMO is less than 3.4 or precisely, it is 2!

‘Sigma (r)’ denotes ‘Standard deviation’ – a statistical measure of dispersion/ variance. It is the positive square root of the arithmetic mean of the squares of deviations of given observations from their arithmetic mean.

Say, it is a midsummer and your organisation wants to hold a three-hour business plan meet of your 100 sales persons. You look for a conference hall with right facilities and ambience, especially the room temperature which should be maintained throughout at 22!1⁰ C. And two hotels in the city also promised the same. When measured at every half an-hour interval in the one where you held your meet, it read as 18, 28, 30, 24, 20 and 18; the arithmetic mean value and ‘r’ being 23 and 4.7, respectively.

Whereas, had you gone to the other hotel, other things remaining same, the observed values of the room temperature would have been say, 23, 22, 24, 22, 23 & 24. Although the mean was the same 23, the ‘r’ being less at 0.8, the service of the second hotel was more qualitative and would have given you more satisfaction. Hence the saying, ‘Company may celebrate mean but customers are bothered by the variance’.

However, its process was still not conforming to Six Sigma level. With two observed values out of six not meeting the customer expectations (22!1⁰ C), the DPMO worked out to 333,333.33 (i.e., 2/6 multiplied by 1,000,000), which was hugely far from the required 3.4!

Benefits of higher Sigma level*

Sigma Level	DPMO	Cost of quality
2	308,537	Not applicable
3	66,807	25-40% of sales
4	6,210 (Industry Average)	15-25% of sales
5	233	5-15% of sales
6	3.4 (World class)	< 1% of sales

*Source: ‘SIX SIGMA - The Breakthrough Management Strategy’ by Mikel Harry & R Schroeder.

The figures in third column indicate that if, for example, you purchase a product at Rs.10,000/- from a company operating at 4 Sigma Level, you are being made to pay about Rs.1500-2500/- (i.e., 15-25% of sale price) towards the cost of inefficient processes deployed by the company to manufacture the item. Putting it in other way, the company concerned can reduce the price of the product by Rs.1500-2500/- if it fixes its faulty processes or improves/ recreates the processes. This measure would also help the company to increase its market share tremendously.

Past definition of Quality

·         Conformance to standards irrespective of how they were met. Lot many hidden costs used to get factored into the cost of the product/ service.  

·         High quality could be only at a high cost.

·         Accordingly, it was difficult to gain more market share since price could not be reduced without hitting the bottomline.

Present definition of Quality

Conformance to standards by continuous recreation of internal processes. This eliminates the need to observe after production quality control and cost of rework associated, repair/ replacement of defective parts/ products, after sales warranty service, etc. This ultimately reduces cost. The slogan now is ‘Being better is cheaper’. In other words, a quality product or service need not necessarily be a costly one.

Why China made toffees, instant foods, stationery articles, aesthetic and art/ feng shui objects, electronic toys, gift, decorative, utility items, etc., have flooded the world market? Are we all purchasing them just because they are cheap? Our Diwali has become whose Diwali anyway? When do we wake up to the reality?  

Says W Edwards Deming; “Eighty-five percent of the reasons for failure to meet customer expectations are related to deficiencies in systems and processes ... rather than the employee. The role of management is to change the process rather than badgering individuals to do better.”

I have a Maruti 800 of 1992 make. First time when I had a punctured tyre, I went to a wayside repair shop. A boy fixed it. After a few months, I observed that the tread on the said tyre was getting unevenly worn off. I took the car to a wheel alignment shop. The man on the job reset a nut that was wrongly set with its groove-side out. To put an end to this sort of problem for good, subsequent models came with the flat side of this category of nuts permanently blocked.

So, companies be alert! If you wish to achieve the efficiency of Mumbai’s Dabbawalas, ‘Don’t fix your employees for any deficiency in their performance standards in meeting customer expectations, rather take their help to identify the faults in your systems and procedures and fix them.’ 

1	Outlook Money	Finance	Outlook Publishing
2	Money Today	Finance	India Today Group
3	Dalal Street Invest  ment Journal	Finance	DSIJ Ltd
4	Microfinance Insights	Finance	Microfinance Insights
5	e-Gov	General Management	CSDMS
6	Business World	General Management	ABP Pvt Ltd
7	Fortune	General Management	Time Warner Company
8	Business & Economy	General Management	Planman Media Pvt Ltd
9	Business Week	General Management	McGraw-Hill companies Inc
10	Economic & Political Weekly	General Management	Economic & Political Weekly
11	Business Today	General Management	India Today Group
12	Outlook	General News, Politics, Current Affairs	Outlook Publishing India Pvt Ltd
13	India Today	General News, Politics, Current Affairs	India Today Group
14	Week	General News, Politics, Current Affairs	Malayala Manorama Group
15	Frontline	General News, Politics, Current Affairs	Kasturi & Sons
16	Economist	General News, Politics, Current Affairs	The Economist Newspaper Ltd
17	Newsweek	General News, Politics, Current Affairs	Newsweek Inc