Book Review
The GOAL (A Process of Ongoing Improvement)

Is increase in efficiency and cutting costs good? Not always as the book ‘The Goal’ demonstrates while revisiting some basic management fundamentals...


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Basic Managerial Skills
Managing Team Member’s Performance

Managing your team member’s performance is not only about measuring his/her performance during the annual performance appraisal...


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Management Funda
Catalytic Mechanisms

You have set a really difficult goal like become the number one brand in your industry. How are you planning to achieve it? By including it in your vision?...

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You are responsible for your own performance

We are nearing that time of the year when performance appraisals will be conducted in most organizations. Time to evaluate what went well this financial year and time to set new targets for the coming financial year. So, we thought running the theme of Performance Management for the current issue will be useful to our readers.

This issue contains different articles related to Performance Management. There is something for everybody. Managers will find suggestions for managing their subordinate’s performance in the ‘Basic Managerial Skills’ section. If you are looking for tips to conduct effective performance appraisal meetings then check out the ‘Activity Corner’. The feature article dwells on who is a Star performer at work and offers suggestions for becoming a Star performer at work. This is something every individual can read and benefit from. For the people designing and managing the Performance management systems in organizations viz., HR department, top management, there are some interesting insights on this topic given by Sunil Kulkarni, the COO of Akshayini Oorja. He says “We need to adapt Performance Management Systems to the nuances specific to the sectors and industries. For example, the Performance Management System mostly designed for FMCG or Software industries are imposed on the hapless people in the power sector where output is difficult to quantify. Smart people always develop a method to cheat the system and sincere ones can get deterred from taking on challenging goals.”

That makes us wonder who exactly is responsible for a person’s performance. Is it only the individual? What about the manager? Or the organization (systems, peers, culture)? I would say while there are different factors which impact an individual’s performance, it is primarily the individual himself/herself who is responsible. Others can help, support maybe even enhance performance. But regardless of the kind of organization you work for or the kind of manager you have or the kind of job you are doing, it is up to you as an the individual how you decide to contribute to the organization you are in or to the profession you have chosen to build a career in.

Being a Star at the workplace

I think we all want to be stars and enjoy the limelight. One place we can be a star is at our workplace. I watched a movie last week and was in no doubt that what I had witnessed was some exemplary performance by the lead actor. I did not need a film critic or my friends who had also seen the movie to tell me that. That’s how superb acting is - easy to tell. How about superb performance at the workplace? Do we know when we see it? Perhaps, not so easily!

Signs of star performance

Who is a star performer at the workplace? Is it the person who contributes the most in a team or the person team members turn to for help? Let’s look at some tests we can run to find out.

Once I had a consultant, let’s call him Suhas, whose work I was very happy with. When I mentioned this to Suhas’ manager he said it was only expected because Suhas was a high performer. Later when I had some other consultants from the same firm working for us, they mentioned how much they admired Suhas and his work. I did not know it then, but what I had experienced was a star performer in action at the workplace. So, the first test is whether you are considered an excellent performer not only by your manager, but also by your peers and customers. I like to call this the ‘Acceptance by all test’. This test’s beauty is that it rules out those high producers whose tactics are such that while producing they harm the organization/team, thus negating any positive contribution that they make.

The second test is whether the person consistently exceeds expectations ie., not only exceeds expectations in one project or in a quarter but in all projects and in every quarter. This is the ‘Consistency test'. It helps rule out people who hit a century in a match but fail to accumulate a high average of runs. Indications? - Numerous and not one off awards, honors, performance bonuses, patents, publication credits etc.

The final test is the ‘Productivity test’. It is not about whether he/she dreams, talks or plans well but whether he/she actually produces a lot compared to his peers. Is his/her contribution towards the organization and team’s success substantial? Simply put, does he/she make a mark?

I think we can safely say that if a person passes all of the above tests he/she be considered a star. However what makes stars shine brighter than others. Are they smarter? Do they relate to people better? Apparently it’s none of these.

Strategies for consistently delivering a stellar performance

Robert Kelley, a Carnegie Mellon professor has written a book called ‘How to be a Star at Work: Nine Breakthrough Strategies You Need to Succeed’. It is the result of 10 years of scientific investigation at companies like 3M and AT&T. Kelley examined how stars operate, searching for some differentiating factor between the ‘average’ worker and the ‘star’. His surprising conclusion was that there is no difference with regard to cognitive factors (IQ, creativity), personality (self-confidence, ambition) and social factors (interpersonal skills, leadership). Stars are just like you or me, but they use certain work strategies that can be learned.

Conclusion

And if you think implementing all the above strategies requires too much effort, then just consider the rewards enjoyed typically by star performers in organizations.

• Others’ admiration: While the pride of doing a job well and better than others is rewarding in itself admiration from others is always welcome. Family is proud of the ‘Well done’ plaque displayed at home. Friends rejoice at your achievements.
• Job security: Research shows that people at the top of any profession will always have a well-paying, secure job.
• Monetary benefits: Stars get rewarded with higher performance bonus, higher salary increments associated with increase in responsibility levels etc.
• Self confidence: Being patted on the back increases one’s confidence in one’s abilities. Ever felt self confident about something and experienced a sense of well being. Imagine feeling that most of the times at the workplace.
• High work engagement: You won’t hear an “I don’t know what I am doing with my life,” complaint from stars. While they may not have a plan for the future, the stars usually feel they are in the right place just now.
• More control: The stars enjoy more discretion in choosing their work. They get to pick the best projects, locations, departments and team members.

Now tell me who doesn’t want to be a star performer at the workplace? There is a star in each one of you. Make it shine!

References

  Kelley , R. E, ‘How to Be a Star at Work: Nine Breakthrough Strategies You Need to Succeed’,Times Books, 1998

  Webber, A, M, ‘Are You a Star at Work?’, Dec 18, 2007

  Raffoni ,M,‘Three Questions Executives Should Ask for the New Year’, January 4, 2010

  Gladwell , M,‘Outliers: The story of success’,2008,Penguin Group

Is increase in efficiency and cutting costs good? Not always as the book ‘The Goal’ demonstrates while revisiting some basic management fundamentals. It reveals how businesses can enhance productivity by applying the Theory of Constraints (TOC). Written in a fast-paced thriller style (I could not put it down), ‘The Goal’ is a gripping novel about Alex Rogo a plant manager who is desperately trying to save his plant and his marriage. A chance meeting with his old professor Jonah helps him turn the plant around by breaking out of conventional thinking like optimising resources or focusing on worker efficiency. The book shows how a system of local optimums is not optimum system at all. And yes his marriage is saved too

Eliyahu Goldratt uses Socratic questions, an inductive reasoning approach to teach TOC. Alex finds the path to plant profitability by responding to questions asked by Jonah. The story’s pace gives the reader time to examine the issues and come up with ideas before sample answers are provided. Jonah helps Alex understand that the goal of a plant is not to increase efficiency, reduce wage etc but to make money by balancing 3 critical areas of a plant’s operations viz., Throughput (the rate at which the system generates money through sales), Inventory (all the money that the system has invested in purchasing things which it intends to sell) and Operational Expense (all the money the system spends in order to turn inventory into throughput).

The book shows that a manager should be able to answer 3 important questions for an ongoing process improvement viz.,1)What to change?, 2)What to change to? and 3)How to cause the change? The economic concepts are easy to understand on account of the way they are presented. For instance manufacturing bottlenecks which determine the rate of production, can be identified by looking for a big stack of products waiting to be processed. This is illustrated through a hiking trip that Alex takes with his son and a game with match sticks and bowls. The slowest boy in the middle of the line of children hiking who is delaying others’ progress is a bottleneck. Alex’s discussions with his team also highlight the short comings of cost-accounting where inventory is viewed as an asset on the balance sheet.

The book shows numerous times how constraints can be dealt with by following 5 steps of 1) Identifying the constraint, 2) Exploiting the constraint (bottleneck), 3) Subordinating everything to the constraint, 4) Elevating ie., increasing the throughput of the constraints no matter the costs since they limit the entire system’s throughput and 5) Repeating the steps with new constraints. Step 2 could be as simple as maximizing a bottleneck machine’s output by not keeping it idle because of staff taking lunch breaks or doing a quality check before products get processed through the bottleneck machine. The book has several management techniques that can be applied to any business. For instance to communicate to everybody in the plant which parts need to be processed on priority the parts are tagged with different colours or clinching a large order customer order by reducing delivery time vis-a-vis competitors and meeting the order by despatching batches.

Since the book provides a solution for factories struggling with production delays and low revenues is it relevant for service organisations? (Hmm... have been hit by the Socratic bug!) Consider these applications of TOC. A US Bank reduced their loan approval time almost half by focusing on the 3 most important items. A South African hospital decreased patient waiting list from 9 months to below 4months by creating a patient buffer. Though the book was originally published 25 years ago the revised versions contains, in an interview with Eliyahu Goldratt himself, recent examples of organisations that prove the relevance of TOC for today’s context. This is definitely a must read management classic for all managers.

Are you an effective Appraiser?

A Performance Appraisal discussion is not only a tool to measure performance; it can also be a tool to motivate your team member. For this one must conduct the performance appraisal meeting effectively. To know the effectiveness of the appraisal meetings conducted by you as an appraiser respond with a ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ to the following questions.

Name:Sunil Kulkarni, COO

Company: Akshayini Oorja

A brief on Sunil Kulkarni: Sunil Kulkarni has a bachelors’ degree in Mechanical Engineering from IIT Mumbai. He has an extensive ‘Power Sector’ experience that spans a period of about 26 years primarily in the hydro sector. He has spent about 13 years with BHEL, 11 years with Tata Power and 1.5 years with Reliance Power. Apart from the technical expertise in hydro power domain, Sunil has had opportunities to develop keen insights into project management. He is currently looking forward to putting his expertise and insights in to the development of a healthy small hydro sector.

1. Can you explain Akshayini Oorja’s unique business model for the benefit of our readers.

With the increased awareness about environmental issues and growing energy needs of large populace, Renewable Energy Sources are receiving additional attention. Governments are increasingly offering incentives in the form of subsidies and assured purchase at reasonable rates. Carbon credits are also available to many of these projects under emission control regime. This has de-risked the business to a considerable extent and hence has generated a lot of investor interest. In spite of this, you do not see many projects coming up. This is mainly because of the lack of proper technical expertise, project management skills and inadequate financial resources. This opens up a good window of opportunity.

To capitalise on this opportunity, India Value Fund (IVF) has formed the company Akshayini Oorja recently to manage (by providing technical, project management and financial expertise) their investments in renewable energy sector, with primary focus on small hydro power projects. We look forward to building a portfolio of about 300 MW in a period of 3 to 4 years.

2. Akshayini Oorja is about to invest in the first hydro power company. Apart from acquiring hydro power companies what would your focus areas for the coming year be?

Now we are in the start up phase. So our main focus areas apart from the core business activities would be to establish the company in the true sense. So we would invest in building the team, setting up processes, developing the competencies of the team etc.

3. According to you will performance management of the organization be a challenge for your kind of set up? In what way will it be a challenge?

This is a start up with a difference. The team has no entrepreneurial stake in the business. A professional team would be meeting the entrepreneurial ambitions of IVF. Recruiting the right people, getting them to work together and leveraging their expertise and experience to meet the business goals are the challenges in the first year. In the first year building a strong team will be important.

4. How are the performance parameters different in the kind of business model that you have as compared to other types of organisations?

The parameters will be more related to desirable behaviour patterns like team spirit, integrity, holistic thinking, leadership etc. Things like domain specific skill excellence will come later. Encouraging cross functional skills will be an important parameter. Everybody needs to understand what the other person is doing, so that he/she can support and stand in for his/her team members when the need arises. Team performance will matter more than individual excellence.

Performance management has to be informal initially. Later the companies in which we have invested can replicate our model in them. Ultimately their performance will be a critical parameter for assessing our performance.

5. I know it is early days; but what are some of the mechanisms you are planning to put in place to ensure you achieve your organisation vision?

We are defining processes in HR, Finance and Project management with help of experts in these areas. When the full team is on board, all the relevant structure would already be in place. This will help us ramp up quickly.

In the initial days informality would be the key. Maintaining the cordial environment for the team to coalesce as one unit and each member to find his/her slot itself would be good Performance Management. Pre-defined KRAs and evaluations based on them will be counterproductive in the beginning. It may even generate performance anxiety.

6. What according to you are the characteristics of high-performance teams / individuals?

While the usual ‘Never say die’ attitude etc is important, there are a few characteristics of high performing teams that are not talked about. One is diversity in the team, not only in terms of skill sets, but also in terms of temperaments. In a team everybody can’t be a Virendra Sehwag, Rahul Dravids are also required and one person cannot be the match winner always. So while somebody could be of a brooding nature, another could be bubbly. Essentially they should be able to support and complement each other. The second characteristic is the basic cross functional appreciation that team members develop across functions. Sehwag knows what Bhajji does and understands Bhajji’s value for the team.

7. Based on your experience how can organisations and leaders encourage and support high performance among teams and individuals?

Every organisation and leader do encourage and support high performance. Some over do it, some under do it. There are various ways…

• The key is to having at most transparency in the process of measuring the performances.
• Non monetary avenues can work well. It could be a mention in an assembly, nominations for conferences, exhibitions etc.
• Special Reward and Recognitions programs for both individual and team performances were developed by HR in one of my previous organisations. That was received extremely well.
• Delink the process of reward from annual increments, bonus etc. According to me this creates unnecessary division in the team.
• Fast track schemes where talented people get higher responsibilities and rise faster in the organisation, can motivate higher performance in the individual.
• Job rotation also helps in acquiring the cross functional appreciation and acts as a motivator. Cement industry is a good example of this where an engineer works in all important departments in the span of 10-15 years and understands his strengths to choose the right career path at senior levels.
• Performance Management System should not just be a measurement process. One needs to go beyond it and actually focus on managing and improving performance.
• We need to adapt Performance Management Systems to the nuances specific to the sectors and industries. For example, the Performance Management System mostly designed for FMCG or Software industries are imposed on the hapless people in the power sector where output is difficult to quantify. Smart people always develop a method to cheat the system and sincere ones can get deterred from taking on challenging goals.
• Getting the ownership, of the people running the business, for the Performance Management is very important.
• One also needs to nurture diversity in the team.

"My mother drew a distinction between achievement and success. She said that achievement is the knowledge that you have studied and worked hard and done the best that is in you. Success is being praised by others. That is nice but not as important or satisfying. Always aim for achievement and forget about success."
-Helen Hayes

Catalytic Mechanisms

You have set a really difficult goal like become the number one brand in your industry. How are you planning to achieve it? By including it in your vision? By designing a special incentive program for brand managers? Try implementing Catalytic Mechanisms. The term Catalytic Mechanisms appeared first in a now famous article in the Harvard Business Review in 1999 titled ‘Turning Goals into Results: The Power of Catalytic Mechanisms’. The author was Stanford Professor James C. (Jim) Collins, co-author of best-selling books ‘Good to Great’ and ‘Built to Last’. He defined it as the crucial link between goals and performance.

Characteristics of Catalytic Mechanisms

To understand catalytic mechanisms better we need to understand the five characteristics that distinguish catalytic mechanisms from traditional managerial tools. These are:-

• They produce desired results in unpredictable ways: Unlike traditional systems which lead to bureaucracy and mediocrity, catalytic mechanisms let organizations achieve greatness by allowing people to do unexpected things and to show initiative and creativity. Most of us are familiar with a catalytic mechanism in 3M. Yes, the rule of letting their scientists spend 15% of their time experimenting and inventing in an area they chose. Imagine how radical this must have sounded in 1956 - not being told what products to work on, just how much time to work.
• They distribute power for the benefit of the overall system often to the great discomfort of those who traditionally hold power: Catalytic mechanisms accomplish the organization’s goals by distributing power throughout the system and shifting the balance of power from a leader that may inadvertently support a sense of inertia to a system that is ready to implement change. At W.L. Gore & Associates, employees have the authority to fire their bosses - a catalytic mechanism that builds on the idea of non-hierarchical leadership.
• They have teeth: Just drafting vision, mission etc will not yield results. A catalytic mechanism puts a process in place that ensures result. Take Collins’ example of Granite Rock, a family-owned company that sells gravel, concrete and sand. It wanted to provide "total customer satisfaction and achieve a reputation for service that met or exceeded that of Nordstrom, the upscale department store that is world famous for delighting its customers." It’s catalytic mechanism? A radical policy called ‘short pay.’ At the bottom of every Granite Rock invoice was a line saying "If you are not satisfied for any reason, don't pay us for it. Simply scratch out the line item, write a brief note about the problem, and return a copy of this invoice along with your check for the balance." Every time a customer exercised short pay, Granite Rock learnt or invented a way to run its operations more effectively. "Imagine," says Collins, "paying for airline tickets after the flight and having the power to short pay depending on your travel experience, not just in the air, but during ticketing and deplaning as well.” The short-pay policy forces both learning and change. It drives managers, says Collins, "to relentlessly track down the root causes of problems in order to prevent repeated short payments. It signals to employees and customers alike that Granite Rock is dead serious about customer satisfaction that goes far beyond slogans."
• They eject viruses: In contrast to traditional controls that are designed to get employees to act in the right way, catalytic mechanisms help organizations to get the right people in the first place, keep them, and eject those who do not share the company's core values. The Nucor Corporation, a successful U.S. steel company, used catalytic mechanisms to create a high-performance environment where innately hard working people thrive and free riders get ejected. For instance people work in teams of 20 to 40; team productivity rankings are posted daily. Though the base hourly pay is 25% to 33% below industry average, a bonus of 80% to 200% of base pay, based on team productivity, is paid weekly to all teams that meet or exceed productivity goals. The story goes that once team members chased a lazy coworker out of the plant.
• They produce an ongoing effect: Unlike a one off electrifying off-site meeting, an exciting strategic initiative or an impending crisis, a good catalytic mechanism can last for decades. Darwin Smith, Kimberly-Clark CEO, set in 1971 the goal to transform Kimberly-Clark from a mediocre forest-and paper-products company into a world-class consumer goods company. He created one catalytic event ie., selling a big chunk of the company’s traditional paper-production mills. This left no easy escape route from the dream. He also created one important catalytic mechanism ie., committing the company to head-to-head competition with the world’ best consumer-products company viz., Procter & Gamble. Kimberly-Clark would either become excellent at consumer products or get crushed. Unlike just saying “change or die” this catalytic mechanism’s ongoing effect is as powerful today as when it was put in place nearly 30 years ago.

Collins’ Guidelines for creating Catalytic Mechanisms

• Don't just add, remove:: Instead of adding new initiatives, new systems, new strategies and new priorities, taking something away can be as catalytic. HP started realizing its BHAG, when it removed its “buy internal” rule ie. HP’s started allowing their divisions to buy their components from outside competitors rather than only from HP’s circuit division. Faced with competition, the circuit division’s performance increase dramatically.


• Create, don't copy: The best catalytic mechanisms for your organization will be the ones that are idiosyncratic adaptations for your organization’s unique situation and not those you copy exactly.


• Make use of money, but not only money: Research shows that only about half of catalytic mechanisms use money. The effectiveness of Nucor’s catalytic mechanisms lies not only in the weekly bonuses earned but also in the peer pressure and the desire to not let teammates down.


• Allow your mechanisms to evolve: New catalytic mechanisms may produce unintended negative consequences which need to be corrected. Over time catalytic mechanisms tend to lose their strength. Reinforce them. In the 1990s, worried that fewer people were using the 15% mechanism than in previous decades, 3M put together a task force to reinvent it, bolstering it with special recognition rewards for those who used their 15% of time to create profitable innovations.


• Build an integrated set of catalytic mechanisms: One catalytic mechanism can do wonders. By that logic if there are several of them wouldn’t they create a greater impact? At Granite Rock apart from ‘short pay’ there are other mechanisms. Compensation ties directly to learning and improvement, not just job performance Only those who do a good job and improve their skills and make a contribution to improving the overall Granite Rock system receive higher than midpoint pay.

Conclusion

Catalytic mechanisms can work beautifully for individuals too. For example a free-lance writer routinely took on more assignments than she needed in order to support her family. Tired of being enlisted as a last-minute babysitter her sister nagged her to do something. So this writer thought of a catalytic mechanism. It was a $200 a day "penalty fee" her sister imposed on her every day she worked on projects in excess of those required to support her family. So folks don’t stop dreaming; there is always some catalytic mechanism to make them a reality. Find it!

References

   CatalyticMechanisms

   Collins, J, ‘Turning Goals Into Results: The Power of Catalytic Mechanisms’,
     caplix.com/pdf/Turning%20Goals%20Into%20Results.pdf

   Gilmore,T, ‘Using Catalytic Mechanisms to Drive and Institutionalize Change’, April 18, 2002

   Millar ,K, ‘Forcing Change - Using the Catalytic Mechanism’

Managing Team Member’s Performance

As a manager you are responsible for managing your team member’s performance towards achieving your organisation goals. You can contribute immensely to your organisation’s success by ensuring your team member’s successful performance. Managing your team member’s performance is not only about measuring his/her performance during the annual performance appraisal. It is also about creating a work environment in which people are enabled to perform to the best of their abilities.

Checklist for managing team member’s performance

Essential Actions

    Get the basics right: One simple reason why people sometimes fail to meet
      your expectations is that they don’t know what they are expected to deliver
      on. Developing a clear Job Description will take care of this. Though more
      often than not we inherit teams, as far as possible select the right person
      for the job, to ensure the person’s success in that job. Provide him/her
      adequate induction and training required to succeed. Even if the person
      is moving to your team from another department, induction to the new job
      and team is important.

    Plan for performance: To manage performance it is important to set
      performance standards by setting SMART (Specific, Measurable,
      Aspirational, Realistic, Time bound) goals. Get their buy-in for the assigned
      Goals instead of just handing out the goals so that you have his/her
      commitment for achieving them. Ensure the goals are aligned with the
      department and organisation goals.

The Performance Coach

   Provide on-going coaching and feedback: This is the most difficult and important component. You need to
      show him/her the ropes of the job, guiding him/her in the right direction. While providing regular and specific
      feedback that addresses both their strengths and weaknesses, focus more on building on the strengths. Instead
      of waiting for a performance appraisal provide feedback immediately after behaviour is observed.

   Help them work through the blocks to output: The blocks could be different for different people at different
     times. It could be related to self, team, customer or organisation. Help your team members recognise them
     and tackle them.

   Give wiggle room: While providing guidance take care that you are not breathing down their neck. Give
     them enough flexibility to exercise their creativity. Encourage new ideas from them. They should feel free to come
     to you and talk about anything that would contribute to their growth/company’s growth. Once ‘what need to be
     achieved’ part has been determined leave it to them to figure out the ‘how to achieve it’ part, in alignment
     with organisation values.

   Recognise a job well done: A pat on the back will spur them on to continue doing well. Any kind of recognition
     be it in private or public can be a big motivator.

    Conduct quarterly performance development discussions: Since frequent performance discussions are not
      threatening, hold monthly performance discussions. Follow a standard format for the meeting so that team
      members know what to expect. Always start with positives and get team members to do most of the talking. Ask
      them to state what they are pleased about since the last meeting and then what they feel they could have done
      better. Then ask what they feel they need to do differently in future. This way they will not get defensive about
      improvement areas. If they do not highlight a specific point bring it into the discussion by asking relevant
      questions. For example ask “How do you feel the negotiation went yesterday? How could you have helped it go
      smoother?” Get an agreement on action points and next set of goals.

The Supportive Manager

   Extend the support necessary to deliver: Make sure all necessary work resources are made available. Step in to
     ensure there is timely support from the other teams. Help them understand who the key people in the organisation
     arewhose support is required for an initiative to succeed etc.

   Help them see the big picture: Communicate with your team member often about the happenings in the industry,
     company etc. Send them regular updates on relevant issues. Help them appreciate the impact on their jobs of
     changes at the organisational level. Help them see how they are contributing to meeting of the organisation goals.
     Feeling that they are part of something bigger than their jobs will drive them to do better.

   Facilitate team member’s career development: Your goal is to achieve the company’ goals through your team.
     However, people don’t perform for meeting the organization’s goals, if their own personal goals are not
     accomplished as well. As a manager you are possibly the best person to help the individual attain his potential
     and meet his career aspirations. Identify his/her talents, encourage development of his/her skills and identify
     career development opportunities like job rotation, special assignments etc towards furthering his/her career within
     the organisation.

   Be a caring boss: Create a relaxed, joyful and fun office environment. Be there for them when things go wrong
     and encourage them to learn from their mistakes. Be flexible. Suppose one of your team members who works
     extremely hard for you wants to come late one day so that he/she can attend his/her daughter's sports day. By all
     means, let him/her do this without having to worry about coming late! Genuinely caring for each of your team
     members will create a bond between you and them, a bond that will increase their commitment to doing a good
     job.

I hope 2010 has started out well for you - there is a lot of economic activity in the environment currently. The good news is that we are seeing a lot of startups reach growth levels and established companies diversifying and entering new markets. And the bad news is that attrition levels will rise - again ! Talent Retention and Development will be key focus areas for HR Leaders this year, is the growing sense.

Among the new areas we have started working in is Hydel Power generation - we are partnering Akshyani Oorja in their start up phase and building their HR infrastructure for them. We have also engaged with UBM, a global business media company, with presence in over 30 countries, to manage their HR function.

Scoring direction to "Are you an effective Appraiser?"

Count the number of questions that you have responded with a ‘Yes’. The higher the number of ‘Yes’s, the more effective you are as an appraiser. Treat the questions as a checklist of “Best practices for Appraisers”. You can go through this checklist every time you conduct an appraisal and over a period of time focus on converting all the ‘No’s to ‘Yes’s.

All the best!