The Hindu Business Line : ‘Companies have to demonstrate fairness towards their people’

What motivates people is leadership based on trust, involvement, fair play, recognition and help in achieving aspirations. I think the corporate sector in India needs to look more towards the Indian spiritual heritage to become more sensitive to the well-being of its people.

V.K. Madhav Mohan

Tunia Cherian

While the majority of us may not think twice while using words such as ‘employee’ and ‘welfare’, there are some who would rather not use them at all. “These words have become obsolete in the digital age,” says V.K. Madhav Mohan, a leadership mentor based in Kochi.

For Mohan, who has over 10 years of mentoring experience, ‘team member’ or ‘knowledge worker’ would seem more appropriate. ‘Employee,’ for him, conjures up the image of a person with limited options, forced into a particular line of work, irrespective of his talents. Similarly, ‘welfare’ conveys the image of a state dominated environment approximating to a welfare state that strives to legislate and provide for every facet of a citizen’s life.

He points out that companies have rewritten their people policies to focus on the well-being of their workers. There is a sharper and more well-defined connection between corporate people initiatives and results. He strongly believes that for change to happen, it (change) should be initiated at the top management level. Further, he does not subscribe to set models of mentoring. “Mentoring should not be standardised or multiplied. Neither should it be viewed as a volume business — each person would have to be approached individually,” he says.

Mohan, who has mentored officials from the Mumbai-based United Phosphorous Ltd and the Kochi-based Mathewsons, among others, recently took some queries from the The New Manager. Excerpts from the e-mail interview:

How sensitive are Indian companies to the well-being of their employees?

Companies in India are beginning to realise that people’s feelings, emotions, state of mind and physical health are equally, if not more, important to productivity than skills, intelligence and qualifications. However, they have still not made the connection that leadership is what harnesses all these “internal” endowments and focuses them on results. Spending huge amounts of money and time on five-star facilities for people does not necessarily deliver a loyal and highly motivated team. What motivates people is leadership based on trust, involvement, fair play, recognition and help in achieving aspirations. I think the corporate sector in India needs to look more towards the Indian spiritual heritage to become more sensitive to the well-being of their people.

What are the tangible benefits of such programmes for the employers?

When people empowerment programmes are effective, immediate improvement in results are visible: higher target attainment, improved profitability, better leadership, less attrition, more excitement and enthusiasm in the workplace.

How much are companies investing towards this effort?

Not enough! Traditional HR investments are not adequate. What is needed is a leadership development initiative cascading top-down, all the way into the innards of the organisation. Human resources-capacity building expenditure ought to be shifted from the P&L account and onto the balance sheet. However, that is not feasible currently because the entire people related expenditure is written off as an expense, thereby, rendering the company liable for lower tax. Isn’t it rather contradictory that we always talk about investing in people and then actually treat it (as per accounting and legal standards) as an expense? What are the major concerns of employees today? Any organisation has its share of old-timers and youngsters. How does HR approach these two groups of employees? Do they have a uniform strategy for both groups?

Aspirations of people have changed dramatically in the last five years. Today, younger people are looking for lifestyles other than those their parents enjoyed. For millions of Indians, the dream of owning homes, cars and brands have become much more attainable. Options are available like never before. Therefore, people in companies are more likely to vote with their feet like never before. They are also keen on personal and professional growth: growth in income, savings, responsibility, knowledge, skills and exposure.

Today, seniority is not important. It really doesn’t matter whether a person has worked in the company for 10 years or 10 months. What matters is whether the person can deliver results that are congruent with the company’s targets. Results are the determining factor. This is because companies now operate in a hyper-competitive environment. Technology and globalisation have combined to put continuous downward pressure on prices and continuous upward pressure on costs. Therefore, profits can disappear very quickly, indeed, if productivity is not on the radar all the time. That translates into an unremitting demand for results. Very simply put, those who deliver results consistently will survive; those who deliver results erratically or not at all can simply not be carried by companies.

Therefore, the HR approach should be to identify the skill, attitude, and motivation and aspiration profile of individuals: old timers as well as youngsters. Then, targeted interventions are necessary. The entire intervention has to focus on helping the individual deliver results consistently. The bottom line is that despite all the options and money available, companies have to demonstrate trustworthiness. Transparency, fairness and consistency and understanding towards their people.

What are the important points of comparison between HR exercises undertaken in Indian companies and those abroad?

Broadly speaking, the HR approach of international companies is based on metrics, processes and databases. It is difficult to generalise about Indian companies. There is a group of companies that mirror international practices in the HR area. However, the majority is still flying HR by “the seat of the pants”. There is a great need for Indian companies to focus the Indian spiritual ethos on management of people instead of relying only on international practices. However, there is also a need to work on the basis of real-time data. I am, therefore, a great votary of cost effective IT deployment in HR in India.

How does mentoring differ from HR or are they the same thing?

HR has everything to do with people. My approach to mentoring transcends the functional boundaries. That is because today’s businesses have to overcome what I call the “boundary bias”. Today, everything is related to everything else in real-time. Therefore, there is no scope for departmentalisation or compartmentalisation. You simply cannot work within narrow functional boundaries in the contemporary business world. Entire classes of functional specialists are now being rendered obsolete. So you have to have a better-than-average competence in several areas. My mentoring methodology helps top managers grasp the nuances of this inter-dependency and then hone their leadership ability to deliver consistent results by working closely with the team.

Does the growing importance of HR and mentoring today also point to a growing sense of insecurity among employees? Are employees willing to seek help and open up to strangers?

The constant demand for results has elevated stress to astronomical levels. It is no wonder, therefore, that stress and lifestyle induced cardiovascular disease, hypertension, diabetes and obesity are reaching epidemic proportions in the corporate environment. There is a constant, gnawing fear of losing your job and career even as familial pressures and aspirations are sky high. In such a supercharged environment, people are desperately looking for answers, support, direction, acceptance and guidance. This is what mentoring is really all about: a non-judgmental, encouraging presence to nurture and encourage individuals to find balance and direction while operating at peak performance.

People are completely willing to open up and seek help when they know that the mentor is non-judgmental and without vested interests.

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