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Career growth, the top priority among junior and middle-level employees.

(This is the last of a four-part series on organisational HR issues. The first of the series appeared on October 15.)

Yeshasvini Ramaswamy

---A week later----

There was a gentle knock on the door. “Come on in, Kumar,” said boss cheerfully.

“Where are the others?”

“Sheetal’s on her way up, Sadiq and Samy should be here in another 5 minutes.”

“Good... good.”

“Are some of the other managers coming?”

“I don’t know,” said Kumar, “Sheetal would certainly know.”

“I can see that you are quite excited.”

“Yes ...”

“Have you been able to get something on salaries.”

“More fundamental than that, boss… actually it has to do with the money supply.”

At that moment the door opened and Sheetal came in, followed by Sadiq, three other line managers, and Samy.

“I think we could use the board meeting table,” said Kumar.

“Good idea, easier that way,” said boss.

As they gathered around the large table, Samy whispered to Sadiq. In the hushed silence of the boss’ room the whisper seemed louder than normal.

Clearing his throat Sadiq replied, “No, I don’t think so...”

Boss noticed, “Why, what is it?” queried boss.

“No nothing… nothing!” replied Sadiq.

Noticing Samy’s somewhat sheepish expression, boss thought it would be better to clear things up in the beginning.

“No… What is it that is troubling Samy?”

Sadiq glanced at Samy smiling. “He wanted to know if there would be butter cookies and coffee.”

“Oh… that... why not, of course...” exclaimed boss.

“Sheetal, just ask Raju to get us some butter cookies, coffee and tea.”

“Sure.”

Sheetal dialled Raju’s extension.

“Yes, coffee, tea and butter cookies,” said Sheetal.

“There are eight of us,” “Oh really! Sandwiches! Yes that’ll be great,” quipped Sheetal.

“So, shall we start,” said boss smiling wryly.

He cleared his throat.

“The reason I called this meeting is because I wanted to assess the reasons why some of our employees are choosing to leave.”

“Last week, I had requested Sheetal to conduct a survey and come up with some of the reasons behind the churn. Hopefully we’ll have some takeaways at the end of this, and…”

Boss turned and looked at Samy, “you will continue to stay with us.”

“On my part, I have come up with a plan of pay and benefits that hopefully will address some of the issues...” “Over to you Sheetal.”

Sheetal adjusted the focus the projector.

“Just draw the blinds Kumar,” “Ah, yes that’s better.”

“This survey has been a real eye-opener for me. I did think that compensation would be the top priority , but that’s not the case.”

“We’ve received over 400 responses.”

“We had a simple question questionnaire and basically tried to rate the top concerns in the minds of employees.”

“The first concern of junior and middle-level employees is fast-track career opportunities, and secondly, management commitment to employee growth.”

“Compensation and benefits, surprisingly come third.”

“How interesting!” exclaimed boss.

“Like I told you,” he said, “it was worthwhile conducting the survey.”

“What does management commitment to employee growth really mean?” queried Sadiq.

“In practice, that would mean giving some kind of reassurance to the employee about growth prospects, and working with them to see how they view themselves,” said Sheetal.

“You see Sadiq, interacting with your team and building up the confidence is really the line manager’s function. It’s not just a HR problem.”

“Managers who are more proactive with their team members, do tend to have lower attrition.”

“That’s just been my experience” said Sheetal.

“I’ll have a separate one-on-one with all of the managers... perhaps that’ll help,” quipped boss.

“Thanks,” said Sheetal.

“At more senior levels, job content becomes a priority, followed by career progression and as before, compensation and benefits at third.”

“That’s because the insecurity is less I suppose,” exclaimed boss.

“What else do we have?”

“The interesting thing is training as an area of concern tends to decrease with seniority.”

“Oh really!” said boss.

“Been there done that syndrome,” said Samy dryly.

“Actually, we do need to tackle that,” said boss.

“The quality of life is next in priority for the junior level.”

“Ah! Here comes Raju with the cookies,” interjected Kumar.

Samy’s face brightened.

As Raju served everybody, boss turned towards Samy.

“Just take a look at this and tell me what you think Samy,” said boss.

As Sheetal munched through the sandwich, she glanced at Samy nervously.

Sadiq looked on apprehensively, while the others looked on expectantly.

Boss had given Samy the reworked salary. It certainly wasn’t anywhere near his expected salary level, but it addressed most of his concerns, thought Sheetal. ‘Insurance that took care of his parents, a child education benefit, and a better rate with his home loan.’ “Hope it works,” muttered Sheetal under her breath.

“Well...” ventured Sheetal.

“This is really... really good,” said Samy biting hungrily into the butter cookie.

“..The cookie..?” queried Sadiq.

“No, the reworked salary with benefits,” exclaimed Samy.

Sheetal heaved a sigh of relief.

“So you will come for the cookies again I’m sure,” said boss.

“Yes boss,” said Samy with satisfaction.

(Concluded)

(The writer is Director, e2e Business Solutions.)

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