Simplicity Personified

Confidence, Elegance,Humbleness and Simplicity....she had them all. Since morning she had been busy welcoming all the guests for her niece's marriage.It was a high profile marriage and one could see a lot of shimmer and glamor around. Yet,she stood out in the crowd. I had been watching this lady since a very long time. At that time i only knew her as the bride's aunt. It was only later i got to hear more about her. Even an introduction like this is too short for the lady i'm referring to...Mrs Rama Bijapurkar. I could not talk to her for a long time but will always cherish the short conversation that i had with her.

  As soon i came home,i goggled her name to know more as all this while i'd heard the guests  praising her a lot.I was pleasantly surprised at what i saw.Mrs Bijapurkar....an IIM -A passout ,member of board for several companies like M&M,Crisil etc; author of 'We are like that only' ; guest speaker at the country's top mgmt schools and an Independent management consultant.(This is the time when you thank google the most..perhaps all of us are indebted to it in a lot of ways and several times):)

 There was something about Mrs Bijapurkar that made me admire her from the very first moment .I guess this was those one of the few times where i had met a lady with so many achievements to her credit and yet so humble in person. Even today the first name that comes to my mind when questioned about my role moder is Mrs Bijapurkar.I love explaining the reason to all around me.

Its been almost 2 years since i met her last. Yet , her magnetic and vibrant personality is etched strongly in my memory. Last week , i was an interview of hers on the TV. Dressed elegantly in a cotton Saree ,she preferred her office as the venue for the interview. I couldn't help but extend my coffee break for not wanting to miss the show.

They say an experience teaches you a lot. I believe that be it be anybody's story,there is something to learn each time. My experience of meeting her has had a positive impact on my life. 

At the top there is place only for few and Mrs Bijapurkar has made that place permanent.To me she is certainly a personality to 'Emulate'.

The Google way again.....

Wow.....Google it made it to the top again.Its amazing to know how it emerges as clear winner each time in the survey conducted by 'Great Places to work' Institute. The others in the list include:

2. Makemytrip
3.Intel
4.Marriott Hotels
5.Netapp India

Surprisingly i am using too much of the 'HR in me' these days .All that interested me in this survey were the unique practices that the HR dept of these companies were following.

To start with,Google practices ' Self Promotion'.Depending on your achievement of targets you can nominate yourself for promotion. Sounds interesting.Wait till you read more.

'Idea Generation' cannot be confined to a particular place and true to this ,Google introduced a unique concept of' 'Learning in the Loo' where there are white boards all across the loo and employees keep scribbling their ideas as and when they get it.( I only hope somebody doesn't roam with a  duster too often....lolz). According to Googlers this is one place where everyone would definitely look at the board.Wow.....thats 'out of the box thinking'.

Another interesting practice is that of 'Peer Bonus' ,where depending on the work an individual does ,his peers give him bonus in the form of vouchers paid by the company.

As a company,Google has revolutionized the world but Gogglers ( as the employees like to call themselves)are always motivated and excited to do something new ( Thanks to the unique HR practices the company has).To put it in better words,Google stands synonymous to the term 'Luxurious workplace'.

So if it was  Google on one hand; the other companies in the list also had something different to offer to their employees.

Marriott Hotels,Mumbai conducts the ' Annual Associate Appreciation week' where associates across all locations share their feelings/appreciation about their peers.The whole idea of this initiative is to make the employees feel good because the company believes that happy employees mean happy customers.

In classic Stripes Ltd, Mumbai, the peers are also made part of the interview process to help choose candidates who would establish a good rapport with them.

Godrej Ltd also has some unique HR practices to keep their employees motivated.'A just like that party' is what everybody looks forwards to and 'Bedhadak Bolo contest' is one event where the employees can voice their opinion/concern about any issue in the company. The management also encourages the employees to give suggestions which are accepted  if found implementable.

'People will forget what you said to them'
'People will forget what you did to them'
But
'People will never forget how you made them feel'.

Well,looking at all these unique practices it certainly makes you say that companies are leaving no stone unturned in treating their employees in the best way.

THE NET-GEN-ERS

Welcome to the Facebook generation.Whether you like it or not; you gotta believe that social networking has redefined communication and brought in a lot of openness amongst many of us.No wonder many organizations are making sincere efforts to encourage this amongst their employees too.

      

White Revolution,Green Revolution....Heard about the 'Twitter Revolution'?? The influence of Twitter came into light during the Tehran Elections & protests and marches were organized using Twitter.People across the globe showed their support by adding a green flag in their display profiles.They were tweeting live updates of the protests much faster than any news channel.

        According to a survey about 65% of Fortune Global 100 companies have a twitter account and are using it actively.'Employee Engagement' is giving way to the 'Employee Passion Models' . Organizations are encouraging employees to become a part of an internal social network and bring out new ideas and thoughts from the employees.

  Recruitment using the social media is the new buzz these days.So,how does the HR department use these social networks to their advantage? Research says that more than 70% of the organizations are utilizing the  social media for recruitment.Your profile can speak a lot about you. From the status updates to the friends to the groups;its all there ready to be analysed.

  A lot of companies these days are encouraging their employees to blog or tweet."You,as an organization care about what your employees think" and this should be conveyed properly to them.These internal networks help the employees stay connected with each other and forge better & stronger relationships.It also leads to improved communication and acts as a motivation tool.

  One of the best examples of such a network is IBM's beehive.The internal network in the company helps employees connect with people they are currently working with as well as with people they have worked with in the past.For an upcoming conference call,if the users don't know the people on the call,they can go to their Beehive profiles and find out their common interests-work related or recreational.

    Todays employees want more freedom and a platform to express their views and thoughts freely.We talk about change and to me 'Social Media' is the new change to which we should be contributing.

An Evening at the MSAT ZOO

QUOTABLE QUOTES...........

My collection of fav quotations from various sources...Internet,Books,Magazines, word of mouth etc etc. They come in handy a lot of times.


Life is partly what we make it ,and partly what it is made by the friends we choose!!!

Networking is not about how many people you know;its about the number of people you can count on.

Real magic in relationships means an absence of judgement of others.

Better to have 10 people dislike you for the right reason than to have one person like you for the wrong one.Be yourself.

'TIME' is God’s way to keep everything from happening at once.  

Winners don't do different things.They do things differently.

More to be added soon.....................

The Corporate College

Picture this...Friday evening .......Excitement is already in the air( More so like a relief).The girls are making plans for shopping while the guys just wanna catch up on their sleep and maybe a movie too.:) U guessed it right...this is a typical Friday evening scene in most of the offices. Everyone is waiting for the weekend and in this case no body complains. With just 1 month into the corporate life, i realize the importance of a weekend myself.

     I had been sitting the whole day and decided to take a stroll outside.The lush green campus after the rains looks very inviting and i couldn't resist myself .i came out and started walking towards the Zoo.For a moment i felt as i was standing in my engineering college campus. Read more and you'll find out as to what made me say this.

  SCENE 1:

The playground looked full today. If on one hand there was running between the wickets;the other group of boys were ready with a volleyball in their hand.There was hooting,cheering and clapping all around.

SCENE 2 :

I saw a large group of employees laughing and taking pictures. On going closer i realized that a team had decided to conduct its review meeting in the open .The ending was well planned with a small game and a round of snacks and soft drinks.

 SCENE 3:

  The Zoo is located at almost the centre of the campus.No wonder the employees always find it convenient to come out and spend some time with the nature.I saw a group of girls walking around the place and smiling over some incident that had happened in their team this morning.The walk didn't quite serve its purpose coz very soon it turned into a photohoot.:)

SCENE 4:

It was 6.45 P.M ......Time to get into the bus. Due to some reason the number of buses were lesser than the usual and hence every bus was crowded. From throwing a hanky through the window to reserving a seat with the ID card to pushing each other, a lot was happening.

Ok,so you must be wondering why all this?As for me ,i loved being a witness to each of these activities or situations. Is this what we call employee engagement. Maybe yes or maybe no and  was very certain of the fact i had seen atleast a part of the engagement model today and also met  some of the 

 'Engaged Employees'.

Nostalgic Networking

Facebook…Roti…Kapda aur Makaan,that’s the order now a days.  There is a lot of similarity between FB and a Fridge. We keep checking them again and again knowing there wouldn’t be anything new.

Social Networking has indeed changed the way we look at relationships.Not having an account in Orkut was considered out-of-place sometime back. Orkut now seems to have given way to a host of other networking sites like LinkedIn,Twitter,Facebook etc.

I was introduced to this Socially acceptable networking 3 years ago. Like most people ,i also started with Orkut but slowly moved onto or rather got hooked onto Facebook and Twitter.

Why Nostalgic Networking then? Well ,in the last 3 years i ve had instances where i got requests from very old friends of mine.(Langotia Yaar ).Getting connected to them and recollecting the good old times has been the biggest and the best advantage of having an account in these sites. Old times come with memories…some good,some naughty and some unpleasant but everything can make you nostalgic for sometime atleast.

I am a student of HR and love interacting with people. Strong networking skills would always work in your favour is what i ve heard from a lot of people. With the changing face of technology, having a strong virtual presence is equally important for all of us.

Gotta go now…time for some quick status updates