Labyrinth of Employee Turnover

The assets of an organization can be categorized as the fixed and the current. Whereas infrastructure and machinery constitute the fixed assets, human resources and material inventories make up the current assets. Whilst most of the organizational assets tend to depreciate with the passage of time, conversely, its human resources tends to appreciate progressively. Thus, it is the manpower component that has a decisive bearing on an organization’s performance, which in turn determines the state of its functioning, so much so that it is not the technological advancement that determines the viability, no to speak of the profitability, of an enterprise as the level of the managerial and operative skills available therein. 

Hence, high employee turnover is disquieting to any business venture in that it tends to drain its organization of its cream, as it is the more talented and enterprising among the employees that generally contemplate change and find new employers. An attempt is made here to examine the factors that unleash an abnormal turnover and to suggest possible measures to help check the same. These factors can be broadly divided into organizational, personal, ethical, and political.

Structural Constraints

The size of an organization has a direct bearing on the extent of employee turnover. Smaller organizations suffer most on account of their inability to keep pace with the employees’ expectations of financial gain and personal growth. In a way, the small and medium ventures become training centers of manpower in that those they train will eventually be pirated by bigger organizations with attractive offers.

The growth rate of an organization also influences its employee turnover for people tend to stick to a growing organization in the hope of personal advancement. Thus, in a stagnant setup, as the expectations of personal growth are dimmed in proportion to the level of its stagnation, there ensues a disproportionate employee turnover.

Also, the location in which an organization is situated plays a vital role not only in attracting talent but also in retaining it. Generally speaking, remote and ill-developed areas do not offer the possibilities for a way of life that the more enterprising employees tend to seek. Since the quality of life on offer in the so-called backward areas is far below the normal social want, employee turnover in the units situated therein is inevitable, notwithstanding their general organizational strengths. Just as an example, the lack of adequate educational facilities in such places makes the employees seek greener pastures for providing better avenues for their progeny.

The associated prestige of an organization, measured on the scale of public recognition, too tends to influence the turnover ratio. Normally, one tends to associate himself with reputed and well known entities as that would lend him tangible social status thereby augmenting his egotistic halo. Likewise, one would be wary to associate oneself with ill-reputed or less known firms, which tends him to lookout for greener organizational pastures.

The style of management functioning is no less a determining factor in employee turnover in that whether it is professional or otherwise has by far the most telling influence on the latter. Since self-actualization is possible only in a professional setup, the climate is conductive for heavy turnover in organizations that run on centralized practices. Add insensitive human behavior and the prevalence of bossism, the result could be an employee turnover akin to an exodus.

Wherever promotional avenues are not uniform across the organizational board, the affected departments will suffer from high employee turnover. Also, faulty personnel planning and unimaginative recruitment policy could lead to an unintended zones of stagnation even in an otherwise growing organization.

The general working standards of an organization’s manpower too influences the employee turnover in that the relatively developed and ingenious among the employees may find the experience of working with less developed or uninitiated colleagues uninspiring.

Besides, the industrial relations in an organization also have a bearing on the employee turnover. If an organization is continuously plagued by industrial unrest the incidence of manpower turnover could be high.

Nevertheless, the size of the pay packet can influence on the employee loyalty for it could push all other organizational defects and personal factors under the carpet of inconveniences. It is thus; even the best in the business can lose on this front with an inadequate compensation.

Moreover, since practical considerations preclude the possibility of a trainee rising to the top position in an organization, it is inevitable that an employee seeks to change organizations for his career growth.

Personal Proclivities

Underemployment is one of the premier contributors for a high employee turnover, which aspect is not generally appreciated though it being an offshoot of unemployment that compels highly qualified people to seek jobs that ill-suit their academic standing and thus are hurtful to their perceived self-worth. Besides, the tendency of the overenthusiastic employers in raising the qualification bar out of sync with the job requirements too contributes to underemployment. What is more, the prolonged stagnation in a given job situation too leads to a lack of job satisfaction or a feeling of dissatisfaction.

Inter-personal equations, exemplified by the lack of individual rapport with colleagues, more so with the immediate superior, also play their part in the employee turnover; it is not uncommon to find talented employees leaving organizations due to the harassment of jealous or mediocre superiors.

Then there is the nativity factor to contend with. Most individuals like to work and live in their native place or ethnic region. Even intraregional displacements occur solely due to the home pull which makes an individual seek work in a place as near to his home town as possible.

State of Affairs

Besides, the ethnic composition of the organization personnel too has much to do with the employee turnover. When a particular ethnic group is dominant, especially in the top echelons of the management, it creates an apprehension among the minority groups that they may not be able to make the grade after all. This prevents them from identifying their long term interests with the organization, which, in turn, tends them to lookout for an opportune moment.

Factors such as the prevailing political system, the type of government in power, prevalence of internal disturbances, presence of external threats, lack of general economic prosperity, an undercurrent of ethnic prejudice etc., contribute to employee turnover, often described as brain drain.

The State policy of reservation for the hitherto oppressed and the suppressed, based on the philosophy of positive discrimination in public employment, essential though viewed from a larger national sociological prism, yet affects the morale of the general public. What is worse, more so in India, the out-of-turn-promotions through the reservation channels besides causing organizational upheavals cause individual heartburns, which contributes to unintended employee turnover.

Steps of Alleviation

It should be appreciated that employee turnover can only be alleviated but can never be fully eliminated. Just the same, the phenomenon of employee turnover is even desirable, to an extent, in that it creates new avenues to inject fresh blood into an organization. However, what should be of concern to the top management is an abnormal turnover that could affect the organizational health, which can be stalled with the adoption of some practical measures.

For one, along with the subsidies and incentives associated with the setting up of industries in notified backward or no-industry areas, due attention must be paid to the local availability or otherwise of skilled manpower and its impact on ensuing scale of employee turnover. This especially is the case with small and medium scale units, which cannot afford to install adequate infrastructure to upgrade the living conditions and introduce welfare measures to facilitate the ease of living of the workforce. So, the remedy lies not in the art of swimming in the troubled waters but in the wisdom of not jumping into them without ascertaining the impediments lying therein.

However, for attracting the adequate talent, and then in retaining it, the compensation package should be not only commensurate with the qualifications and experience required, but should be in consonance with the paying practices of the competitors. And as for the under-employment factor, adequate care should be taken in framing the recruitment policy. The job requirements and constraints are to be carefully evaluated and the qualifications required in the candidates have to be accordingly specified. So, the recruitment policy should be guided by practicality rather than letting fancy govern its head.

Also, to attract the best possible talent, managements tend to project a picture of their organizations which are more in line with the expectations of the prospective employees rather than what they really are. But it is a poor strategy for it leads to an expectation gap in the employees and that results in premature turnover, which hurts all. As the employer tries to evaluate the suitability or otherwise of the prospective candidates for employment, an opportunity should also be given to the prospective candidates to ascertain the organization’s work ethos and such to figure out for themselves whether or not it’s the right place for them. That way the employees’ expectation gap will be fairly reduced as those opting for the jobs would be aware of the organizational constraints that go with those jobs.

Every organization, irrespective of its size and scope, has to budget for publicity with the objective of its image building. In the case of small and medium firms, the publicity can be confined to the local or regional base for this will suffice as their ability to attract talent is also generally limited to it. Besides, the competition, in so far as the employment turnover is concerned, is also usually local at most and intra regional at best. By this way, the organization is ever kept in the local limelight, and thus it need not have to suffer on account of employee turnover associated with unexposed firms. In short, the small players have to acquire a local aura of their own to avoid the pitfalls of their life threatening employee turnover.

An organization has to maintain continuity and keep the advancement channels open to the employees in order to cater to their promotional aspirations. Unimaginative and haphazard recruitment methods that do not take into account the age factor of the employees for various positions in the hierarchy will lead to stagnation and consequent turnover or a sudden vacuum caused by their simultaneous retirement. This can be avoided by phased recruitment of and   proportional promotions to various positions, in tune with the planned growth rate of the organization. In an ideal situation, occasioned by this regimen, the facilitation of the promotion of juniors on the superannuation of their seniors could be achieved.

Job rotation leads to job enrichment besides reducing individual monotony that is inimical to the organizations’ functional health. Managements should develop appropriate systems to ensure job rotation, wherever practicable, so that the employee enthusiasm for work is sustained. Besides, evaluation of the individual aptitudes and capabilities of all the employees in general, and the personnel occupying the key positions in particular, should be undertaken, to enable optimum utilization of the available human resources. This ensures a challenging working environment to the truly gifted employees that enrich the organization.

Bossism, the monster that boosts the ego of a few and hurts the sensitivity of many, which has a bearing on the organizational morale as a whole that is detrimental to its well-being should be banished from the managerial portals. Also, for creating an environment for achieving self-actualization, delegation of power should be made the cornerstone of the management edifice. The absence of bossism and the presence of an egalitarian work culture founded on decentralization form the double non-monetary bonanza for ensuring employee satisfaction and loyalty.

The recruitment policy should be so framed as to desist itself from the influences of casteism, communalism, nepotism, regionalism and such, and whenever unavoidable, an ethnic balance has to be maintained in order to avoid the feeling of domination by a particular group in the rest. In those areas where the non-natives are economically dominant, it would do good to recruit the natives in numbers, not only to gain the patronage and protection of the local population but also, in case of an agitation against the aliens, to guard against possible mass exodus of the latter. Needless to say, the location of the industrial units should be confined to politically stable and socially homogeneous areas so that the adverse effects of political instability and social discord can be avoided.

Whenever out-of-turn promotions are given to any, either on account of proven merit or due to the obligatory reservation system, a necessary evil, care should be taken to keep the official interaction to the minimum between the promoted and the bypassed. Job rotation, creation of additional portfolios and inter-unit transfers are some of ways to achieve this end. This way of removing the red herring from the sight of the affected employees not only would minimize their hurt feelings but also help dissuade them from possible resignations.

Though the causes for the abnormal employee turnover and the measures for minimizing the same discussed here are comprehensive, but by no means could they be considered exhaustive. Each organization may be confronted with unique situations leading to the problem of undesirable turnover ratios. The remedies for high employee turnovers in a given organization lay in taking corrective measures, envisaged with a professional approach and an innovative thinking to analyze its unique causes. Above all the key to the gates of employee turnover lies in human understanding and sympathy.   

Complexities of Materials Management

The value addition that an efficient material management function brings to an organization though well and widely recognized, in principle, seldom in practice, conditions conducive to it are embedded in the body management that is notwithstanding the complexities of the present day business world that necessitate them, for it to serve the organizational interests the way it is capable of and destined to.

Let it be stated, at the outset, that I have no pretensions, whatsoever, for being a practicing materials manager, in the stricter sense that is, or much less an expert on the subject, for my experience is limited and my exposure is peripheral, and consequently have no intention of arrogating to myself the air of an author, in this which is essentially a maiden foray to try to conceptualize the fascinating concept of materials management. Lest it should be inferred that the stray thoughts on which this exercise is based, whether worthy of attention, not to speak of one’s contemplation, are common practices, if it were so, discussed at length in published articles or so prevalent as to suffer any new exposition, I may hasten to add, even at the expense of owning up my naivety, that I am no serious reader of, the so-called management journals, the medium of exchanging information and knowledge, as to be aware of the same.

A share in the blame - major one if you please - for this contradiction goes to the materials personnel themselves in that their performance, or lack of it, accentuated as it is by the mounting inventories on the one hand and stock outs on the other, increasing overheads but gaping lead times, is only matched, even explained-by the organizational apprehensions in according the materials management the premier role so essential for its effective functioning. The initiative for breaking this impasse so inimical to the functional vitality of the material management rests with the personnel manning the function and the only means available to them is to improve their performance, made possible by way of systems management, so as to make an impact on the management in their quest for a rightful place at the top.

For the purpose of examining the available opportunities for improving the function, material management can be broadly categorized as that which caters to mass production, that which sustains the made to order and that which serves the mechanized mining, depending on the functional features and constraints of each.

MM in mass production

The main offshoot and indeed the sustenance of the industrial revolution is the mass manufacturing industry, which thereby had the oldest and relatively the more streamlined of the organizational structures in general, not excluding the material management. The output though substantial quantitatively is yet limited in variety, conditioned as such by the considerations of product mix, which keeps the variables within the limits of manageable proportions. The inputs can be standardized and are amenable to advance planning and inventory control, by bringing into play such  tools as, ABC analysis, EOQ concepts, maxima-minima levels, reorder quantity methods, fixed review cycle periods etc., even where raw material availability is scare and erratic. In view of the product specialization, the concept of value analysis can be pursued for the reduction in the input costs thereby increasing the profitability.

However, the lack of a long term taxation policy, substituted by ad hoc measures from time to time, which inevitably affect the market conditions can be take the best planned function by surprise and throw it out o gear. Fortunately for the Indian Industry the current Government seems to be appreciating the issues involved, as evidenced by its various industrial policies, and it is hoped that it will soon address itself to the task of further streamlining the taxation and other policies to enable a steady and regular inflow of essential raw materials for attaining near zero inventory.

Be that as it may, the MM function here has accredited itself reasonably well for without it the phenomenal growth in the mass manufacturing industry, both in the public and private sector in India, could not have been what it is. Though I have no statistics to back up, and indeed it would be worthwhile compiling the same, the general observation reveals that it is these forms of industry that it best run, for a profit that too and handsome one at that. Won’t their stock worth at the bourses prove the point, if proof were ever required?

MM in made-to-order 

By the very nature of its scope of business activity, in the made-to-order category, jobs on turnkey and sub-contracting basis are taken up here, which are only repetitive in exception than by rule. As can be expected, the jobs vary in size, complexity and the time required for execution, and the contract also involves the design and engineering, but within the parameters of customer specifications and requirements, which invariably vary and preclude standardization of even basic raw materials and components. Thus, the benefits of long term planning are not available to the MM department in so far as the procurement aspect is concerned - even ‘C’ class items need to be procured piecemeal. The failure to procure even a single item in time, criticality of it notwithstanding, and even if it were the cheapest one, can block huge investments in work-in-progress which in turn impedes the liquidity so vital to the working capital required for the completion of jobs in the pipeline besides the ones awaiting the start. The improper inflow of materials, coupled with the delayed outflow of finished goods, can strain the financial resources of the concern. Whereas in the types of industries discussed above and that follow below, where the cash flow is steady, guaranteed as such by the regular outflow of finished products or goods as the case may be, the same is not true with the made- to-order establishments, where contracted works often require long time planning and execution; if anything the complexities of the jobs carry with them inherent time and cost overruns. Thus, the challenges facing the MM function here and the opportunities available to it are to be viewed from this background in any attempt to study and analyze the functional aspects involved therein.

The key to the efficiency of these enterprises lies in their ability to plan and regulate the inflow of raw materials so as to blend with the ongoing requirements on the shop floor, a job by no means easy, considering the constraints involved, but just the same should be aimed at and planned for. There is more to it than meets the eye in that the vendors normally form a firm’s credit base, though short term, and herein lies the all important question of timing - the timing of obtaining the credit, of course, in the form of materials when the production cycle is ready for its utilization.

MM in mechanized mining

Owing to the geographical location of mines in remote areas, for removed from market places, often inaccessible to them to start with, the attendant situational handicaps entail a major operational constraint on the MM function - lengthened lead times, communication hiccups and transportation hassles among others.

Barring Bearings, V Belts, Oil seals etc., the ‘C’ class of the inventory that can be decoded from the manufacturer’s part number monopoly to be procured from the competitive market, the equipment manufacturers or their agents continue to be the sole supply source for the bulk of the spares, and herein lies the lead time hurdle for not only the prices are uncompetitive but also the supplies are tagged with long delivery schedules. In such a scenario, the MM options get reduced to that of between the devil and the deep sea that is either to stock in anticipation, which pushes the inventory cost or to get prepared for shocking stock-outs with all its attendant production losses, both of which would hurt the business economics. Though numerous, if not adequate, theories such as service levels, under stocking and overstocking costs have been developed for the economic management of spare parts inventory, their practical application though is limited at present, at any rate, in the Indian context. Notwithstanding in vogue codification of the inventory that identify its common items, which in turn help reduces its carrying cost, still the task of the MM man remains daunting, and he often finds himself controlled by the compulsions than controlling them.

The obsession of the production department to keep the production going, at any rate that is, and even unmindful of the economics involved, which if not abetted, at least condoned by the management due again to various compulsions at play, results in excessively safe levels of inventory of spare parts, and insurance items, ill-defined as they are. In such a situation, the MM man is unable to stem the tide which, anyway, threatens to overtake him, for two very compelling reasons: his own lack of experience and expertise in respect of the equipment for which he is called upon to make provisions and often his relatively junior level in the organizational setup vis-a-vis the heads of production, servicing and finance departments with whom he has to interact for performing his procurement function.

This imbalance, though, can be corrected by suitably raising the position of the MM head in the management ladder while simultaneously placing experienced engineers under him to render advice on the procurement needs pertaining to the machinery and equipment spares and other materials. This obviates the necessity of involving the production and /service personnel in procurement process, thereby making the decision making unbiased and realistic. A look at the Inventory Mountains in the public sector mines shall drive home the point more than any spirited argument can. Once the service levels are fixed by the management, under this dispensation, the MM Department can plan the overall strategy for a purposeful inventory management and optimum inventory holding.

The Electoral Psychology in the Indian Democracy

In 2014, it was on the plank of ‘high hope’ that Narendra Modi, with self-belief, sense of purpose and Herculean effort, had navigated his party to power through the stagnant Indian electoral waters. This extraordinary achievement, so to say, was unbelievable in the Indian electoral context that’s traditionally devoid of any semblance of nationalistic fervor for the callous politicians having nursed the majority community on divisive caste lines and groomed the minorities on unifying religious grounds for narrow electoral gains, any sense of nationalism failed to take roots in India’s pre-partitioned social soil. What’s worse the vote-bank politics of post-independent India fomented an Islamist mind-set amongst the formidable Muslim minority that turned it against Modi’s nationalist party for long. However, with his personal charisma and forceful oratory, he could alter the electoral psychology of the Hindu majority to get on to the Delhi gaddi to usher in systemic changes not only to address India’s social plight but also to uplift the Hindu self-worth, at a low for over thousand years.  

When Modi would seek reelection, circa 2019, what could be the electoral psychology of the Indian democracy then?

No denying, a majority of the Hindus gloat over the fact that, at long last, their ‘ruler’ does not shy away from exhibiting his Hindu religious inclinations in public that is besides wearing his patriotic nationalism on his sleeves. But it’s no guarantor that his re-election plank would sail through the polling booths as the Hindu nationalistic currents, besides being weak, are notoriously transient for they are afflicted by undercurrents of caste affiliations. It takes a while for Modi to forge the disparate castes in a unitary Hindu mould but that’s in the realms of the future, but what about the year after?

Well, he has to contend with the religious apathy of the majority of the Muslim and the Christian voters nurse towards him for the very reason that made him endearing to the majority of the Hindus. That an ‘overtly’ Hindu should lord over the land, lorded by their forefathers, fails to jell with their sense of history, and to avert repetition, they could be queuing up at the polling booths to see Modi’s back. And if you add up the closet Christians too to the overbearing Musalmans, maybe sans some of their womenfolk, thanks to his triple talaq stance, at some quarter of the electorate, they would be in no mean numbers.

Augmenting the minorities’ ant-Modi votes would be the loose, but large, regional forces, the die-hard, though shrunk, Congress loyalists, the ‘secular’ ant-sangh parivar gang and the congenital Modi-maniacs, roughly accounting for another quarter of the electorate. But the saving grace for Modi would be there are too many in the electoral arena to share the spoils of his inimical half of India’s voters that is notwithstanding the tactical voting by the minorities to keep him out.   

However, those taking up cudgels on Modi’s behalf in his electoral battle would include the nation’s teeming youth, enthused like never before by any leader, the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty haters and the rare breed of Hindu nationalists, all in all, adding up to, maybe, half of all Hindu voters. And that’s just one fourth of India’s total voters!    
   

It is thus, the electoral psychology of the other half of the Hindu voters that will decide Modi’s political fate in 2019 and determine India’s future course as a nation state thereafter. No denying, with his empathy for the poor and the foresight to improve their lot, he made friends and influenced people from these hapless folds. Enjoying the ease of living, for the first time that is, courtesy the gas cylinders and other goodies, the grateful lot backed him at the hustings in state after state, but as human gratitude is a fickle phenomenon, come 2019, the good will may as well evaporate. What is worse, having been spoiled by the largesse, they may even feel dissatisfied for what they are deprived off, thereby taking to the inimical though habitual caste routes.

And this is just one of the many psychological potholes that Modi has to contend with in the 2019 electoral path.

In 2014, Modi, so to say, had the entire Indian middleclass under his spell for they were enthused by his vows to bring the corrupt to book. Who won’t love to see the high and mighty of the dark alleys languishing in the dark cells? But instead of affording them a vicarious pleasure of seeing their corrupt netas in the country’s jails, Modi has left those suffocating in air of despondency as the dirty mighty are having it easy that too even as the ‘corrupt’ common men and women are made to suffer, first on account of demonetization and then owing to the GST, to their eternal hurt. What a let-down to be handed over the rough end of the anti-corruption stick. It is anybody’s guess that these would love the return of the UPA’s corrupt times for their self aggrandizement. Even some of the ‘clean’ middleclass-wallahs, swallowing media’s Goebbelsian lie on demonetization, have turned into inveterate Modi-critics, and who knows, the media, with concocted popularity ratings,  may be leading Modi on the garden path.

Come 2019, if the much publicized corrupt deeds of Sonia, Rahul, Vadra, Chidambaram et al won’t make it to the court rooms at the least, and instead gather dust in the investigating offices, Modi may as well kiss goodbye to the bulk of the middleclass voters for they are bound to feel cheated by his duplicity in the fight against ‘real’ corruption. After all, five years is a long period to surmount the odds even in our snail paced judicial process that is if Modi were true to his word, so goes the grapevine. Yet, they won’t vote for the corrupt Congress etc., in a volte face, but would surely stay away from the polling booths, leaving Modi to fend for himself. And the shortfall in the vote share, if it won’t cause his ouster, would certainly diminish his prime ministerial stature, setting the opposition in motion.  

But what if, Sonia and her sinister ilk are made to sweat in the court halls or cool their heels in jail cells, won’t that alter the electoral psychology of the country, electrifying the political atmosphere for Modi’s thumping victory in the Indian electoral arena.

Let’s wait and see what’s in store for Modi’s New India.

[This piece was written before Narendra Modi’s triumphant electoral victory in 2019]

          

The Art and Science of Recruitment

Recruitment is a managerial function to enroll manpower to augment, replenish, and reinvigorate an organization’s human resource base. As the entrepreneurial efficiency and the organizational efficacy depend on the human resources, it is imperative that the recruitment be done on scientific lines in a professional mode. Sadly, though for most part, the recruitment models in most Indian organizations, especially those in the public sector, lack the needed understanding and required sensitivity to further the cause.

Barring honourable exceptions, the exercise of recruitment is perceived by those involved in it as an opportunity to further their own careers by heeding to ‘referrals to favour’ of the powers that be. In the absence of trained professionals, well-versed in the art of interviewing and the science of evaluation, the tendency is to induct more and more ‘heads’ into the selection panels. Given that, it is no wonder that such exercises invariably turn out to be more of interrogations rather than interviews.

To start with, in most cases, the scheduled time for the selection process is woefully short for any meaningful appraisal of the number of invitees for an interview. Besides, the exigencies of official work of various members of the committee necessitate the scheduling of interviews for various vacancies in a panoramic setting. Capping it all is the lack of punctuality in commencing the ‘show’ at the appointed hour, which, in turn, results in either rushing through the rigmarole or prolonging it beyond the scheduled hours. Needless to say, all this, put together, stymies the course for the candidates to showcase their case - either they do not get a fair chance equitable assessment or by the time their turn comes,  they become mentally sick to be in the proper frame of mind.

After a seemingly eternal waiting, the candidate receives ‘the call’ and what follows in the haloed chambers is only matched by what had preceded in the waiting hall – a state of anxiety. That’s not all, in an exhibition of the panel’s indifference towards the prospective recruits; its members don’t deem it fit to reveal their identities to the candidates. It is another matter though, on that fateful occasion, it would not have made any difference to the candidate for it is humanly impossible for any to place the positions of so many biggies. Overwhelmed by the imposing setting and overawed by the overbearing attitude of the prospective employers, the candidate can be hardly at ease in their overweening company. Thus, the stage would be set for the grand inquiry for the tone and tenor of the proceedings is more akin to a cross-examination than an interactive exercise.

After the preliminary enquiries regarding the candidate’s family background and academic qualifications, the accent shifts to some questioning on the specifics of the subject of his study and ends up with stray attempts to elicit his awareness of the current events. Whatever, the exercise is nowhere near a plan to ascertain the attributes or a strategy to elicit the aptitudes of the candidate but is merely done on an ad hoc basis, influenced as such by the factors of time, and the initial impression of the August members develop about him. The nature of questioning and the lack of continuity in the interview make even the candidate wonder whether the session did indeed bring his best to the fore; and then it is only left for him to cross his fingers and await the verdict.

Be that as it may, an interview, on the other hand, is defined as the meeting of persons face to face, especially for the purpose of conference, and for that to have any meaningful outcome, it should be dialogue oriented. Whereas the question-answer session can be a pointer to the candidate’s acquaintance with a given subject, only a dialogue could reveal his degree of awareness of it. Considerable skill and tact, however, are required on the part of the interviewers, first to initiate and then to guide the dialogue in such a manner as to fathom the candidate’s personality traits and his perceptive abilities. As such specialist skills are not expected to be mastered by assorted departmental heads that are inducted into the selection panel, the alternative is either to create a specialist group in the organization itself or entrust the job to a professional recruiting agency.

Now to the specifics; recruitment can be broadly divided into the induction of newbies and the enlistment of the already initiated. Though the general principles involved are the same, as can be appreciated, the strategies vary with the category of recruitment.

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Recruiting Newbies

The positional changes in an organizational makeup necessitate periodic induction of newbies as well as the not-so-raw into the functional setup, and the attendant benefits their recruitment brings in its wake are

-  the possibility of casting them into the desired moulds of corporate ethos, and

-  the pruning of administrative overheads through relatively modest payslips.  

On the flip side though, the enterprise has to bear their incubation cost till the recruits are adequately trained to perform their assigned functions effectively, if not with aplomb. However, the long-term benefits this managerial measure brings to the enterprise far outweigh the short-term functional hiccups.

However, ascertaining the applicants’ aptitude for a given job and envisaging their performance potential in the job situation is a difficult exercise that calls for interviewing skills and professional judgment. Moreover, in any interview setting, the newbies’ inexperience and the associated anxiety make them tense and tentative, thereby clouding their true personality from the non-expert view, thereby complicating the issue of evaluation even more.

Basically, the only track record of the newbies available for scrutiny is their marks sheets and for the lack of a better alternative, the interviewers are tempted to see in those the candidate’s innate potential, and, needless to say, this presumption is fraught with fallacies. Also, notwithstanding the introduction of the innovations - psychology and aptitude tests - into the recruitment arena, the prevailing evaluation system, by and large, remains inadequate at the best and imperfect at the worst.

With the right kind of tutoring, as the prevailing methods of examination enable the mediocre to fare as well as the bright, the grades obtained are no reflections of one’s depth of knowledge and grasp of the subject. Besides, in most instances, what is taught in colleges and universities, in a given faculty, is but rudimentary, on which one has to develop as he works his way in the subject arena.  

Besides personal contribution, any organizational setup requires one, not only to function as a team-man within his or her group but also to effectually interact with its other groups, individually as well as collectively. And this entails flexibility in approach, ability to grasp, adaptability to changes, ingenuity to coordinate, willingness to experiment, and capacity to innovate are some of the attributes needed for competency in any work environment. Needless to say, neither is our curriculum designed to inculcate these vital personality traits in one nor is our examination system structured to measure them.

Moreover, intelligence is no longer measured by one’s ability to master one subject or the other, but is considered in terms of one’s capability to organize oneself efficiently and effectively that is within the confines of the resources at his command. Thus, the quest to gauge the candidates’ job ability led to the vaunted IQ tests in the sixties of the last century that fell by the wayside after their proven fallibility but not before they could waylay many a deserving entrant into the fancied corporate houses. It is to be noted that when one is hired by an organization, his total personality and background, including his positives and negatives, come into play.

Viewed in this background, evaluating the relative merits of newbies and ascertaining their suitability for the intended roles in the managerial setup can be a complex task. However, an imaginative interaction, as opposed to the daunting interviewing, could bring to the fore the aspirants’ inherent personality traits for a structured assessment. When it comes to academic excellence, one needs to be mindful of the demands of a given job for most organizational positions require go-getters rather than subject-specialists. Hence, there is a compelling need for imparting professional training to the recruiting personnel so as to make them capable of spotting the required talent with objective means. It’s thus considerable planning and preparation are required to conduct interviews in a concerted manner to choose, as the saying goes, appropriate ‘horses for the races’.

Inducting the Initiated

Whereas faulty recruitment of newbies will have long-term implications, any mismanaged selection of the already initiated, albeit in other outfits, who are inducted into the managerial cadre, will have immediate repercussions. As can be expected, such are inducted into an organization from without to fill in the vacancies caused by the resignations / retirements not to speak of expansions to augment the middle or top managerial order. Given that such an exercise amounts to infusing fresh blood into the organization at vital positions for its reinvigoration, adequate care has to be taken to ensure that bad blood is not let in in the bargain. The catch thus lies in what these newly initiated would bring to the managerial table - fresh ideas or work biases – and that depends upon an individual’s aptitude to work and his attitude towards the workers, which make up his work ethos.

While generic experience can be characterized as the applied knowledge of one’s exposure to and the observation of the socio-economics, domain expertise has to be categorized based on the inferences one draws from involved situations, and in this connection, it may be noted that mere seeing is not observing and plain feeling is not objectivity. Herein lay the difference between pseudo and valid experience in that the former carries vague notions based on personal presumptions whereas the latter comes with valued opinions from examined experiences.

Besides, there is a third dimension to the development process of experience, namely introspection. The general human proclivity is to attribute the personal impediments to the factors without but not to factor in one’s own omissions and commissions. The ability for self-introspection and the willingness for course correction thereby can only enrich one’s experience, and not the mere exposure one might have had - measured in terms of the length of service and the number of associated events. Thus, the famous management adage “one year’s experience repeated over twenty times” sums up this phenomenon of pseudo experience.

Discourse to Recruit  

As the answer-to-the-question method can cut no professional ice, as anyone with a minimum work exposure can be expected to fare reasonably well in such a session, only an imaginative interaction with the candidate can elicit such information about him as would help judge his experience as well as his innate abilities to perform in a given situation. The type of information that would be helpful can be in the form of his perception of the functional requirements, attitude towards work, and philosophy of life, ability to motivate the workforce, general grasp of the systems in vogue, and the ability to pinpoint its lacunae and think about workable remedies. It’s thus, only an imaginative dialogue can help one sift the performers from the pretenders among the candidates.

Apart from work experience and job knowledge, there are other equally important individual traits such as the ability to lead and the adaptability to adjust to people around. Whereas well-laid organizational systems can aid task affectivity, only an imaginative people management can help performance efficiency. It is thus, an adequate leader can excel even in an inadequate setup whereas an inadequate leader can bring the best of systems to grief. Equally important is the ability of an individual for amiable interaction with his peers and superiors in the organization, and his acumen in public relations. It is equally necessary to ascertain the individual’s approach to work whether it is requirement directed or jugãd oriented for professionalism is the ability to think rationally and act systematically.  

Psychology of Philosophy

Only a seemingly informal yet systematically probing dialogue with the candidate by a small group of trained ‘recruitment’ professionals either together or, preferably, individually can yield a proper assessment about him. In all such interviews, the candidate should be encouraged to express himself about his work, his ambitions, and his world view with interspersing enquiries from the interlocutors. If this is done by two or three professional recruiters, in a planned manner, preferably through individual interactions, an opportunity can be created to compare notes regarding the candidate’s consistency of thought, clarity of mind, and philosophy of work whereby appropriate inferences can be drawn that are likely to be more reliable pointers towards the candidate’s innate capability to contribute to the organization.

For the senior and vital positions, it would even be desirable to have a meeting with the provisionally selected candidates in their respective workplaces, which can reveal more about the prospects than most forms of away-from-workplace interactions. However, as such a course could be embarrassing for a potential employer; the job can be entrusted to an outside agency that is eminently placed to carry out such missions. Whatever may be the mode of selection, it should be borne in mind that the output of an organization depends on the inputs pressed into it, not excluding human resources.

Bringing Inter-Faith Marriages On An Even Keel

This short story “Love Jihad”, based on Madhuri Banerjee’s prompt[*] for Times of India’s Write India Initiative (2016), is excerpted from the author’s “Stories Varied – A Book of Short Stories”, a free ebook

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Syed and Gayatri didn’t mean to fall in love.  But love happens when you least expect it. It creeps up suddenly. When someone needs attention, care, conversation, laughter and maybe intimacy. Love doesn’t look at logic or at backgrounds and least of all religion.

Gayatri was from a very conservative South Indian family that went to a temple every Saturday. Syed brought goats to his family every Eid. That said it all. Their paths would never have crossed if it hadn’t been for that fateful day. That day when he walked into the coffee shop. Gayatri wondered if destiny chose our loved ones for us. Did we have any role to play at all?

She looked at her watch. Syed was late. They met every Thursday at five pm to catch up. Their conversation lasted for hours. Sometimes in the café, sometimes in his car, sometimes in places that she could never tell her friends about. They would never understand. And yet Syed made her happy.

Suddenly her phone beeped. He had sent a message. “On my way. Have something important to tell you.”

Gayatri stared at it and realized she had knots in her stomach. Thoughts flooded her mind. What did he want to tell her? [*] Will he propose? Or back out? Didn’t he say his people are highly religious? Wouldn’t they’ve put their foot down? She racked her brains at that, and bogged down by anxiety, her mind became numb. She sank into her seat and closed her eyes as though to crystal gaze. Soon, unable to cool her nerves in any which way she came of the café and waited for Syed at the gates. It’s as if she was trying to cut short her anxiety. When she spotted his car, in time, she waved at him furiously, and jumped into it as he opened the door for her.

“Tell me,” she said settling by his side.

“Let’s first get into the café,” he said.

“Tell me here and now,“ she insisted.

“It’s at half-way,” he said tentatively.

“Why talk in circles!” she said exasperated.

“Do you mind being Ayesha to be my bride?” he said hesitantly.

“Why, what’s wrong with Gayatri?” she said tentatively.

“You know how I love your name but,” he began apologetically.

“What ifs and buts of love?” she said cutting him short. 

“Don’t think its love jihad on the sly.” 

“Don’t I know you’re Syed Sikandar Mirza?”

,, 

“I’m for civil marriage but my father insists upon nikah.” 

“What does that mean?”

“You’ve to convert into Islam.” 

“What if I assume that pseudonym for nikah?” she said after reflecting for a while.

“I thought about it myself but they say nikah is for the believing couple,” he said helplessly.

“So, I must become a Muslim to be your wife, right.” 

“That’s what they say.” 

“What do you say?” she said looking into his eyes.

“I’m in a dilemma.”

 “I know about you but I don’t know about Islam.”

“You know I’m not a practicing type.”

“But still, a bits and pieces Muslim, as I’m a bits and pieces Hindu.”

“I can’t’ put it any better and I’m sure we’ll remain that way.”

“So I believed, as Syed and Gayatri but not as Syed and Ayesha.”

“Believe me; it won’t make any difference,” he said taking her hand. 

“Let me think about it,” she said withdrawing her hand.

As she sat beside him with eyes closed, he kept riveted his eyes on her in anxiety.

“Take me to the Higginbothams,” she said at last. “I want to know what Islam is all about.”

“That’s my Gayatri,” he said admiringly.

“Not Ayesha, as yet,” she said smilingly.

When they reached the bookshop, she asked him to guide her but as he expressed his ignorance about things religious, she rummaged through the book shelves and picked up Marmaduke Pickthall’s Holy Koran, Martin Ling’s biography of Muhammad, Roland E Miller’s Muslim Friends – Their faith and feeling, An introduction to Islam and BS Murthy’s Puppets of Faith: Theory of Communal Strife. As though on cue, Syed followed suit and zeroed in on The Upanisads by Valerie J. Roebuck and Bhagvad-Gita: Treatise of Self-help by BS Murthy.

After a minor scuffle over footing the bill, and having agreed to make presents out of them to each other, they drove back to ‘their’ favourite café. While they sipped their coffee, seeing her leaf through the Quran, he saw the irony of the scripture he himself hadn’t read held the key to his love-life, and that amused him. When the waiter brought the bill, showing an unusual eagerness to move out, she said smilingly that she would allow him to settle it ‘out of turn’. Sensing her intent to pore over the books before all else, Syed said, in half-jest, that he was jealous of her ‘bookish love’.

“Blame faith for poking its nose into love,” she said in repartee.

“Wish we were born into the same faith, whatever it is.”

“Then, instead of my lover’s religious texts, I would be reading his love letters,” she said smilingly.

“You know I’m not much into reading but love seems to have other ideas,” he said picking up his pack of books as the waiter brought the balance amount.

“Don’t they say love is god, let’s see if it’s true,” she said getting up.

Having agreed upon a hiatus till she had a grasp of Islam, he dropped her near her Ladies’ Hostel.

Over the next two months, reading those books she made notes, and having made up her mind in the end, she called up Syed for a meet. When she set out to the coffee shop, even as she was conscious that she may not be as excited at seeing him as before, nevertheless, she was eager to see how he would react upon seeing her. As they met, both found each other in a reflective mood, and as they settled down at a corner table, she thought it fit not to beat around the bush.

“Being a Muslim, you tend to take Islam for granted but it’s natural for me to weigh it on merits,” she said pulling out her notes from her valet. “You may know Hinduism was in existence much before Allah revealed the straight path to Muhammad but nowhere in the Quran is there a reference to Hindus. That is, even as He exhorts Muslims to be wary of the Jews, the Christians (peoples of the Book fallen afoul of Him) and the idolaters; don’t tell me the idolaters Allah meant in the Quran were Hindus for in the context of Muhammad’s life and times, they were Meccans who worshiped idols at Kaba. It’s evident that what Allah had revealed to your prophet was meant for the idolatrous Arabs of that time, more or less on the same lines of the Torah and the Gospel that He earlier gave to the Jews and the Christians. And that too was in the nearby land. If you gaze at Islam through the Hindu prism, it would not seem a universal religion but something like a Shaivism or a Vaishnavism, both cults of Hinduism. Surely, Quran’s sectarianism precludes Islam to be labeled a world religion (she read from her notes)

“O ye who believe! Take not the Jews and Christians for friends. They are friends one to another. He among you who taketh them for friends is (one) of them. Lo! Allah guideth not wrongdoing folk.” 

“They long that ye should disbelieve even as they disbelieve, that ye may be upon a level (with them). So choose not friends from them till they forsake their homes in the way of Allah; if they turn back (to enmity) then take them and kill them wherever ye find them, and choose no friend nor helper from among them.”

“I suppose, there can’t be any intellectual disagreement over it,” he said overwhelmed.

“I’m glad you’ve agreed; had you differed, I couldn’t have faulted,” she said and continued. “You may know that Hindus proclaim Lord Rama as maryada purushottama, an ideal man, and leave it at that but I understand that Muslim men not only consider Muhammad an exemplary man but also strive to emulate him. And from woman’s point of view that bothers me. Rama was not only monogamous but also vouched by the sanctity of marriage but Muhammad, besides being polygamous was not wedded to the idea of marriage. His dalliance with Mariyah in spite of a dozen living wives, including Ayesha the young thing, is illustrative of that.”

“No denying it from a woman’s POV,” he said admiringly.

“That’s not all,” she continued spiritedly, “my dharma and culture, never mind the aberrations, grant women social freedoms that I’ve come to enjoy. What’s more, the Hindu winds of social change are going to pickup by the year. But with burka and all, same is not the case with Islam, and what’s worse, Salafism is at pushing the umma into medieval Islamic times. Who knows, once I convert, if I’m compelled to move in the tent of a burka, where I would go then? Besides, my Muslim daughter would be a poor cousin of her otherwise Hindu sibling. Don’t I owe modernity to my posterity?”

“Of course, we do,” he said. 

“So, you’re agreeing to disagree.”

“No, I’ve disagreed to agree with my religion,” he said smilingly, and continued in a serious tone. “I was struck by what I’ve read in Brihadaaranyaka Upanishad and by hearted some of the same, ‘since man created gods who are better than he: and also because, being mortal, he created immortals, it is his higher creation. Whoever knows this, comes to be in this, his higher creation’. After completing The Upanisads and Bhagvad-Gita, as I began reading the books you were reading, I could see my prophet in a new light and the Koran in its true context. Now I see Islam as an Arabic sectarian cult but not an egalitarian religion of the world, and that made me help my family to shed much of their Muslim overburden.”

“So,” she said.

“Gayatri weds Syed,” he said extending his hand.

“If Islam is another ‘ism’ of Hinduism in our sweet home,” she said holding back her hand.

“Imbibing the ideals of maryada purushottama,” he said taking her hand.

“And that will be our love jihad,” she said pressing his hand.

Links to the free ebook, “Stories Varied -  A Book of Short Stories” 
https://www.wattpad.com/story/174471149-stories-varied-a-book-of-short-stories