The future 2025- Well are we sure- By Dr. Siddhartha Pandey

The Future in 2025: Five Forces Shaping Strategy, Organizations, and Work The project leaders set their sights on the year 2025. Collectively, the Future of HR teams developed a description of the likely economic and societal challenges that organizations will face in 2025. Then, they developed their predictions and recommendations about the future of HR in each of the three arenas. We know a single future description is by nature generic and will not describe perfectly the specific challenges facing any particular organization or industry. Thus, the objective was not to define one future for all, but instead to identify the broad trends and demonstrate how those trends translated into insights
about HR’s future charter, constituent expectations, talent pipeline and tools and operating models. The teams recognized that their work would be most useful by designing and demonstrating a framework and processes that HR and other leaders might replicate in their own organization. The investigation revealed five forces defining the future, and the teams traced the effects of each force on organizations and global social and economic systems, and the likely business response to each force.

Four Key Arenas for Professional Evolution

1. Align HR with Value Creation for Organizations that Win. Articulate a new HR charter and contribution model that describes the essential contributions companies will need from our field to successfully compete in the future.

2. Improve the Expectations of HR’s Key Constituents. Define what is needed to move beyond today’s constituent expectations of HR, then improve those expectations with
evidence that this role leads to improved value creation.

3. Rewire the Work and Tools of HR. Define the processes, practices, systems, and operating models that drive HR’s deliverables and outcomes.

4. Ensure the HR Talent Pipeline. Crystalize a new set of professional requirements based on current research that explores the needs and gaps in the HR profession.

The States of Organization and Work

1. Current State. This scenario suggests that the world of work in 2025 will bear a striking resemblance to today. Through a general slow-down in the evolution of technology or management science or a significant setback, the world of work remains similar to today.

2. Today Turbo-Charged. This scenario suggests the continued evolution and empowerment of technology empowering business, but with few advances in the evolution of business or management models. This scenario is characterized by similar employment relationships but in a faster, better, cheaper business paradigm.

3. Work Re-imagined. In this scenario, the future sees an evolution into new business and employment models but without disruptive advances in technology. Current technology enables social networks and web-connected groups and are increasingly focused on organizational impact, values, culture, and work relationships.

4. “Uber” Empowered. This more extreme scenario suggests a virtuous and accelerated cycle of technology and work democratization fueling one another to create the rapid evolution of new business models. These business models will increasingly be characterized by the way they place into balance the needs of the company and the needs of the individual.

By Dr.Siddhartha Pandey....

Empowering Employees-the Real Question by Dr. Siddhartha Pandey

As HR manager have you ever identified the reasons of frustration and discontentment among employees even after paying handsome salaries and incentives? 
Recently, I was encountered with similar question by a CEO of a service organization who was concerned about the reasons why employees were not satisfied and motivated to give their best to the organization in spite of matching salaries and incentives. When the issue was probed in depth, low motivation and frustration was found because employees were not empowered enough to discharge their function. There was lack of support, problems with seniors, irrational changes in priorities, infighting and politicking etc. 
The fact remains that real process of human resources development in most of the Indian organizations are not being effectively practiced by HR professionals in empowering the employees to motivate them in right perspective. One of the reason attributed to the failure of empowerment process is due to excessive controls set by managers and top management in the organizations. 
It is the process of empowerment which enables the employees to unleash their potential and responding effectively to the demands of the organization. If we look at the past, it will be easier to find that every human being carries the roots of empowerment. It is only to realize that everyone has infinite energy to be organized in a collective form which helps an individual to actualize the inner potential. It is for the HR professionals to understand each employee on individual’s basis and stimulate their uniqueness which brings empowerment. 
Empowerment is a process in any organization in which managers share their power with subordinates. It is a trust based process of assigning authority to make decisions within one's own area of operations without looking for any approval from his seniors. In this process employees are encouraged to use their initiative in delivering results. In empowerment process it is not the authority which works but also the resources are required to make a person fully empowered. It differs from delegation authority. Delegation involves the distributing the power while participation in employees is only the sharing of power. Job enrichment should be major activity in any empowerment process. Self managed work teams who are empowered allocate activities, schedule work, set production targets, resolve operation problems and ensure that everybody in the team is encouraged. This process creates as supportive culture in which managers have to become facilitators rather than controllers. The basic purpose of empowerment is lost in majority of organization because employees expect it as a delegation process instead of initiating and ongoing process in which an individual enabling himself to take action, control work and take decision in autonomous way. Empowered employees are more innovative, creative and resourceful. They are free from shackles of management, happy and motivated at work ready to deliver their best. 
Empowerment prevents negative attitudes and offers encouragement and support. It enables every employee to influence the organization and take action accordingly. It provides more power to people who at present exercise little control over what they do and possess little power to influence the decisions being taken regarding their work area. 
The objective the empowerment process is to generate positive feelings among employees at personal level and enable them to develop sound relationship with each-other in the organization be it senior or junior based on empathy and trust thus making full contributions in their roles. Effective employee empowerment requires that you must trust your people but track their performance regularly. Empower managers to run the organization but emission the future personality and at last identify managers with motivational intelligence who alone encourage the employees. 
Approach to empowerment can be developed by helping employees achieve job speciality, providing successful roles model, using social reinforcement and persuasion and providing emotional support. Only after using these approaches by managers, employees start feeling that they are relevant, competent and have enough opportunities to use their talent in the interest of the organization. 
No organization can empower their employees. It is the head of an organization who creates a culture which would support an approach where employee relations are healthy, management attention is always available to employees, provide sufficient resources and facilitate the guidance. It is also required that employees should also have the inclination towards accepting the empowerment in right perspective and have full commitment towards organization’s goals. Some times empowerment process gets set back because managers are afraid of getting punished for the mistakes of their juniors. If such culture exist, managers will not delegate the authority to juniors. If empowerment is to work, this fear has to be removed from the managers’ mind. Attitudinal change is also required in this process because barriers have to be removed by making managers and head of the organization change their attitude. 
The empowering leadership facilitate the process by developing organizational structure which necessitate collective involvement in decision making. An empowered leader can cause a basic shift in the nature of control of authority in organization setting. The empowering attitude can be developed by causing a shift in management thinking by expecting the best from people. An attitude has to be developed which stresses the value of trust and positive expectations as the most effective way of motivating people. The empowering attitude implies that there are varied solutions to a problem depending upon the situational factors. At the same time empowerment should be implemented taking into consideration the needs and abilities of each employees in the organizations. It cannot be given by the management to the employees alone. Employees have also to seek and accept it with full responsibility. 
Managers must recognize their responsibility as ambassadors of organizational values and purpose. They provide strong leadership when they are clear about their beliefs and the translation of those beliefs into specific policy and practice. Empowerment invites managers to create meaning and challenges for themselves. Empowerment is one of the most effective ways of enabling employees at all levels in the organizations to use their potential to give their best in the organization they work for. Unless a culture conducive to empowerment is created by the organization head, no empowerment programme can achieve its desired results... I don't know what the generation of one click has to say about it ... but yes ...

Dr. Siddhartha Pandey....

Building The Collaborative Organisation-By Dr. Siddhartha Pandey

Collaboration means working together. Effective collaborative means working together efficiently and effectively. This is not a new requirement for business success, but it has become a critical success factor that applies to all the relationships that create a business, including those with customers, business allies, suppliers, divisions, departments, functions, projects, specialities, vertical levels, and employees. Work is becoming more complex, so individuals and isolated group are not as effective as teams, who have the synergy essential to achieving performance goals. Employee learning and growth, sharing of information, responsibility, partnering, commitment, and so forth are promoted by the collaborative organization environment. Traditional organizations tend to keep decision making, information, rewards, and power at the top. As a result the minds and hearts of the lower level employees are seldom engaged.

The collaborative organization capitalizes on the abilities of the members of the organization more effectively and leverages the synergies that occur in networks of people. Collaborative organizations are characterized by intentional efforts to create structures and culture from us, and practices that reinforce collaboration. Designing the strategies, structures, processes, and culture enables improved flow of information and other resources across boundaries.

Collaboration is mainly a communicative process, one that includes non-verbal, experimental and emotional communication. Collaboration is not something that can be mandated, programmed on formulized according to our demand and need. Effective collaboration depends upon effective communication. Trust is another factor that is also very important for collaboration. In fact collaboration flourishes in a climate of trust. Good communication and trust can be termed as the backbone of effective collaboration. A climate of trust fasters collaboration and team work in the following way:

1) Trust allows team members stay problem focused-The absence of trust diverts the mental concentration and energy of a team away from its performance objective, and onto other issues. The team become politicized. Communication becomes guarded and distorted. On the other hand trust help the members to stay focused on their common problem or goal. 
2) Trust promotes more efficient communication and coordination-Trust not only allows people to stay problem focused. It promotes a more efficient use of time and energy devoted to the problem. Surely team problem solving rides on the unhampered exchange of information and communication that is born of trust. 
3) Trust improves the quality of collaborative outcomes-Trust improves the quality of collaborative efforts, because with it, decisions are more in tune with what is in fact happening. Problems are raised and dealt with instead of hidden until they become disastrous. People are willing to try something and take a risk, because there is a 
chance that it might work rather than remain inactive because of their fear of failure. And if something internal to the team itself is interfering with the teams success, then the problem is more likely to be confronted and resolved. 
4) Trust leads to compensating and compensating builds confidence.When a team is clear about its goal and unified in its effort, and at the same time no one fears being left on one's own without support, then the team is capable of reaching new heights and arriving at the goal as an intact team. In the realm of collaborative efforts, those trumps occur much more frequently when team members are compensating for each other. (Team Work Carl.E Larson) 
In a rapidly changing, fiercely competitive, global business environment, limited use and development of employees results in a "dumbing down" of the organization and competitive advantage is lost. 
The goal of the collaborative organization is to remove inappropriate barriers among these groups and individuals and to create opportunities to work seamlessly. Unfortunately, it seems that barrier building is more common and more natural than productive collaborative exchanges. An assessment of most people and most organizations would provide a low score on collaborative abilities. Creating the knowledge, skills, attitudes, culture, and support systems necessary to create the collaborative organization produces impressive results, including:  The team becomes the more common unit of responsibility;  People collaborate more seamlessly, that is, fewer hiccups occur;  The organization functions as a more intelligent system because information and knowledge are shared more quickly and completely.  Non-productive competition between people and systems drops off and is replaced by a preference for cooperation;  Ideas and information are not dropped into the chasms between silos; and  People adapt more quickly to changes in products and services, changes in customer requirements, changes in work processes, and changes in the competitive environment; 
The Collaborative organization is designed for effective coordination, shared decision-making, and decision implementation. The emphasis in on a collaborative approach, because that provides an opportunity to utilize multiple perspectives and generate synergies and commitment. The collaboration occurs across both vertical and horizontal boundaries, so flow of information, people, coordination, and material escape the constraints of silos. The collaboration rests on a culture of shared responsibility, authority, and accountability for results. 
There can be three levels of collaborative work systems: work teams, team-based organizations, and the collaborative organization. Each level aims at increasing the organization's capacity to serve its customers, employees, and owners with an increase in investment and results moving from left to right. Each design advocates changes intended in order to:

1. Increase both the ability and propensity of members to collaborate within and across levels of the organization. 
2. Increase the organization's capacity to identify and respond to relevant changes in its environment; 
3. Decrease the influence of position power and increase the influence of expertise in decision-making; 
4. Promote learning and the sharing of learning across the organization; and 
5. Make decision-making processes more public and more disciplined; 
6. Increase employee ownership of, and involvement in, the organization and the accomplishment of its goals. 
In fact collaboration helps in building up a relationship of mutuality and recognizing the strength of each other. Supplementing and complementing each other to achieve the pinnacle of success. Collaborative relationship helps the organization and the individuals to develop respect for each other, and accept each other in a working situation. As collaboration is based on mutual understanding, so there is always scope of getting immediate feedback from the collaborating partners which promotes vitality in the activity. 
In a collaborative atmosphere, many people work together as a team, which stimulate members of the group to think differently to think in a more creative way. Collaboration give scope to think about alternative approaches and solutions, from which the best one can be picked. As the collaboration is the multiplication of creative talents. So the solutions and ideas that will come up from them, will surely be better than what will come up from a single creative thinking. 
A collaborative culture includes:

Shared leadership where all members take initiative;

 Commitment to the success of other members, rather than just one's own;

 Valuing of diverse perspectives;

 Trust and respect in everyday interactions;

 Power based on expertise and accountability;

 Valuing of truth and truth telling;

 Positive attitudes among members at all ranks;

 Commitment to continuous improvement of the whole organization. So, it is evident that the greatest advantage of collaboration is that of individuals go beyond their own limitation. Their lack of expertise in some fields does not come in the way of achieving certain task. Different individuals have different strengths and while working together, they pool the various available expertise to build a collaborative organization. 

The question remains are we working towards building a collaborative organization .. or just its another rat race towards the corner office ...does the corner office really mean so much .. at times we need to introspect ... fruit for thought ...

Signing off

Dr. Siddhartha Pandey 

Negotiation Skills In Employee Relation-By Dr Siddhartha Pandey

Negotiation skills to maintain excellent industrial relations or employee relations are very vital for any manager specially HR manager. These skills are not learnt or developed overnight.  Unless the managers have sufficient knowledge of industrial relations issues, union dynamics and the environment under which the organization works, the skills may not draw desired results.HR professionals who hone their negotiating skills are in a tremendous position to influence company morale, improve productivity, boost the bottom line and foster a culture that is harmonious and competitive to both. Being a better negotiator makes you effective at managing your workforce, with all of its complexities. Competent negotiating is essential to HR people.

In collective bargaining the approach is being shifted from adversarial bargaining to more needs or interest focused approach. In present times both unions and employers should understand that as far as possible outcomes of successful negotiations should be mutual gains rather than sub optimal compromise or win- lose outcomes. Negotiation skills in the workplace, as a consequence, have attained a much greater importance.

 The present era in industrial relations is of individual relationship. Organizations are not inclined towards encouraging collective relationship at workplace. But it remains the fact that whenever there has been an industrial relation crisis, the root cause was failure of strengthening individual relationship.  Collective relationship model we did not encourage and individual relationship model did not work. And the result would be a breakdown in harmonious work environment.

 Collective bargaining can be advantageous for both, employer and employees. For employers, collective bargaining helps to stabilize industrial relations by maintaining industrial peace that otherwise may be disrupted by labour discontentment. For employees, collective bargaining, more so than individual employment relations, ensures equal wages and working conditions by providing them a collective voice. It also helps them achieving fair distribution of gains. Through collective relationship, Employers can also address the need of restructuring and modernization.

There are few common areas where you need to use your negotiating skills frequently such as employees’ conflict, salary /wages increase, day to day labour disputes, change initiatives, hiring employees and benefit packages etc.

 This all can be achieved by enhanced negotiation skills. Stages of negotiation can be summed up by dividing into four stages of Preparation (collecting/ setting objectives, establishing priorities, assessing other party and its case /noting details.), discussion, bargaining (Willingness of parties to compromise, focus on problem rather than person) and agreement.

During negotiation you should focus on interest of the negotiation and not to take a hard stand. Sometimes taking a position may push back your objectives thus achieving the net result become difficult .One has to be creative during negotiation. It means to offer alternate options by thinking creatively. Focus on problems and not the person. When we concentrate on a person during negotiation, it may create biases. It may hinder the negotiation process by shifting your target from the problem to person. Sometimes we need to invent multiple solutions for the problem because it is not necessary that whatever solution we offer to the other party (employees), they will accept it.  Next, you should be ready to expand the pie.  In all situations it may not be possible to fix the deal within your pre-decided budget. Give the other party such things which are valued by them and not by you. You should put yourself in their shoes and build understanding. No negotiation can be successful unless you do good research and home work. Half preparation can lead you to a state of confusion where you have no clarity about why to do and why not? Few more tips of good negotiations:

1. Never start with an assumption that whatever you offer will be accepted. You don’t know what is on the other person’s mind. Assumptions and biases have no place in good negotiations. Stay focused on what is being said by both parties.
2. Assess the real needs of the other party. It will help you finding out the breaking point. Have deep understanding of workers interests and current situation. Do their SWOT analysis.
3. Identify your own limitations and define the space in which you can play. Assess the problems of other party too. Bring other party in your area of comfort. If need be, expand your area in the interest of long terms objectives. Sometimes it is wise to lose battle to win the war.
4. Express consent to small non financial /intangible demands initially to create feel good environment. It helps building confidence. Always discuss in package and not on individual demand. This gives you room for flexibility.
5. Create an understanding that whatever management will give in terms of increase in salary and benefits, that extra financial load has to be mitigated by generating additional revenue by other party.

During negotiations, you need to use your listening and reasoning skills very effectively. Speak less; listen more is the mantra of successful negotiating skills. Emotions can overwhelm you in any negotiation. It is considered a foot cutting weakness. But sometimes people play emotional card to break the deadlock. It has to be used very intelligently but not all the times. You need to follow highly structured systemic method based on sound reasoning. It requires discipline and self awareness that brings good results.

At the end of the negotiations the result could be WIN-WIN, WIN –LOSE, LOSE-WIN, LOSE-LOSE. Though many thinkers and practitioners have termed the WIN-WIN formula as only compromise and nothing else which is emotion based and not logic based but I differ. In negotiation it is give and take. Both have to leave something and be flexible in their approach. We have witnessed in the past that whenever the outcome of any negotiation   remain otherwise than WIN-WIN, the problem continued. You can not bring peace and happiness in the minds of workers who are your growth engines unless they feel that they have achieved enough out of negotiations. It is not a question of making everybody happy by striking a deal on the demands of workers but at the end both should emerge as winners on certain points. Overall effect of any successful negotiation should be to enhance mutual trust and confidence between workers and management.....  at the end of the H.R has to play a very important role in building trust and harmony in any organistion... it cant be pro-employer or Pro- employee, it has to maintain and strike a balance ...

Signing off

Dr. Siddhartha Pandey