11/23/2017 Article: New face of HR in PSUs — People Matters

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New face of HR in PSUs

In the VUCA world marked by technological shifts and economic uncertainties, the role of HR is going to be a transformative one.

New face of HR in PSUs

 
Various PSUs are at different steps of the ladder in which
their size, sector, performance and age determine the
type of HR issues that are most pressing to them today
 
PSUs today are going through a soul-searching process
of evaluating their strengths and weaknesses, with an
emphasis of creating parallel initiatives to overcome
traditional bottlenecks
 
Cutting edge technological disruptions and automation are fast transforming the kind of skills that are and will
be in demand. With globalization and economic uctuations constantly changing the way businesses function
and the industry operates, along with the inclusion of a younger workforce, organizations are increasingly
vouching for adopting HR practices that enable them to achieve superior performance through its ‘people’. This
is also validated by the fact that HR’s relevance now depends on its ability to lead organizations from the front
and in keeping up and staying agile in a world that o ers unlimited possibilities. Such is the context that
motivated the convening of the SCOPE HR Summit, aptly titled, “Reinventing HR: Breaking the Mould Globally”,
which brought together HR leaders from the public and private sectors, along with consultants and
academicians to deliberate on how the HR can be a strategic business partner, how it can align its People
Strategy with Business Strategy along with discussing the best talent management practices and solutions to
various challenges that HR faces.

Former GAIL CMD and current DG of SCOPE, Dr. U.D. Choubey recounted at the Summit commencement that this ‘reinventing’ was indeed a constant evolution of HR’s
critical function, from administration in the beginning of the century to a supervisory role in the 1930s, post the depression years and a hiring champion after the
second World War in 1945, when human resource itself had become scarce. Post 1950s, it took the shape that we are most familiar with, with the functions of talent
management and recruitment at its core. A major paradigm shift took place around 2008 when the fast globalizing world was in throes of an economic uncertainty and
a technological shift of a scale and kind that was not known before. Social, Mobile, Analytics, Cloud revolutionized the world of information, insight and possibility. 

Today, we are operating in a VUCA world in which a struggle for talent, attrition rates and workforce retention have become serious issues for organizations in both
private and public sector. There are also additional challenges of managing and encouraging diversity in the workforce – be it in inclusion of more women, integration
of people of di erent age groups with di erent styles of working and learning, or in making workplaces accessible to leverage abilities of di erently-abled persons. The
multipronged challenge ahead for the HR community is to facilitate the creation of an inclusive workplace and leverage this inclusivity to build organizational agility in
times of advancing technology and economic uncertainty.

As opinions and gut feeling are being replaced by big data in decision-making processes, HR needs to incline towards a technology-centric model. During a Summit
Panel Discussion on ‘Reimagining HR: Building Readiness’, Rajeev Bhadauria, Director Group (HR) at Jindal Steel & Power, expressed the need for HR to be agile and
nimble in a world where automation has started to eliminate jobs and which has led to a transformation of job roles, in-demand skills, along with demand and supply
of talent.

PSUs in India have largely been on the right track in leading economic growth as well as in their social function of nation-building. But some of the serious challenges
that have hounded PSUs over the years pertain to heavy losses, oversta ng, poor leadership pipeline, unsatisfactory industrial relations, lack of motivation and
political interference. However, today, PSUs are going through exciting changes in their environment, with a range of new opportunities and challenges as the Indian
economy integrates with the global markets. Today, being pro table is the most important goal and that is only possible through good performance. It is the
organization’s people who drive the performance and they need to be world class, highly skilled and engaged with the organization.

The challenges that confront the HR departments in PSUs are therefore similar to their counterparts in private sectors, although somewhat uniquely placed. There are
however certain common denominators. Capability and skill building, along with access to opportunities and recognition is what the young generation workforce wants
more than anything else. Certainly the salary package and job security aspect still hold importance, but are far from su cient in building loyalty or engagement. The

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11/23/2017 Article: New face of HR in PSUs — People Matters
organization’s commitment to providing exposure, training and developing its employees is indeed the key di erentiator for youngsters. This investment will sharpen
the saw, which will be critical in raising the performance bar for PSEs. 

Engagement of the young generation is a challenge for many PSUs, especially when they have to compete with private sector companies, particularly startups, who
o er attractive growth opportunities and compensation to the best of the talent in the market. The younger generation wants their opinion to be taken into account,
which has not been always done in the PSUs with a command and control legacy. They seek to have upwards, downwards and lateral communication channels to be
open for them and fewer hierarchies.

– “A sky blue collar of sorts rather than blue and white collars”, as Saurabh Kumar, Partner, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, puts it. They also want their achievements to be
recognized and duly rewarded with growth. While such a level playing eld cannot be achieved overnight, HR Directors like Deepak Kumar Hota at BEML are trying to
change that by actively involving youngsters in strategic discussions. 

The well-performing PSUs today are able to make huge investments in technology development as well as R&D, which enables them to provide a high quality technical
exposure to their employees. Many PSUs like EIL also have set up annual awards to recognize their young professionals, managers and executives. Important
responsibilities such as leadership of plant commissioning teams are assigned to those who perform really well. “The younger generation is bubbling with so much
energy and knowledge. We need to have meetings with them and constantly give them opportunities. We do paper writing competitions; we let them go to
conferences, learn, present and publish papers – all in addition to their jobs”, shared SCOPE Summit Convener and EIL Director of HR, Veena Swarup. At BPCL too,
youngsters are thoroughly engaged in its IDEAS program that fosters a culture of innovation and creativity.

In the last few years, technology has been ushering in a cultural change towards a clean and transparent working system, by enabling employees to self-service their
paperwork and le for claims without human intervention. This led to the standardization of the rules and policies, which were earlier subject to human interpretation.
Technology platforms, however, are designed with a single rule, which gets  implemented uniformly towards all. This has automatically created a level of transparency
that was not possible in the earlier days when data was not digitized and HR departments used to virtually own and therefore control the employee data. Modern HR
departments with their quali ed professionals are quite di erent in their level of professionalism. The automation of mundane tasks that earlier fell in HR’s domain
has freed up time for direct interaction with employees, nding out about their problems and needs, and bringing in more intervention. HR Directors today realize that
communication is a part and parcel of engagement and retention. “If we communicate to people, and make them understand their stakes, then the commitment
comes.”, shared D.Bandyopadhyay, Director – HR, BHEL.

PSUs today are going through a soulsearching process of evaluating their strengths and weaknesses, with an emphasis on creating parallel initiatives to overcome
traditional bottlenecks. Typically, promotions in PSUs tend to be tenure based and this aspect generally cannot be overridden solely on the basis of performance,
which is where they di er from the private sector. The SCOPE Summit session on Performance Management also saw an enthralling discussion on the subject of Bell
Curve, which is the PMS mandated in the PSUs by the Department of Public Enterprise guidelines. Like Shrikant Gathoo, Director – HR, BPCL puts it, Bell Curve “is like
having just a hammer in your tool-box and no other tools.” While the Bell Curve can be useful, as a standalone tool, it is liable to omissions and biases, which disrupt
the purpose. It is also ine ective while judging team activities such as manufacturing. This is the reason why many private sector companies have done away with it.
Therefore, perhaps an exploration of alternatives in performance management is in order. Similarly, there are other prescribed external guidelines regarding payrolls,
career progression etc. that do not necessarily improve workforce engagement or provide PSUs with a competitive edge. 

Either way, HR has a critical role in in uencing the right polices and the right behaviors. This Special feature presents the views and perspectives of 8 HR leaders from
the SCOPE HR Summit as PSUs brace themselves for greater competitiveness domestically and internationally. 

Blurb:

Various PSUs are at di erent steps of the ladder in which their size, sector, performance and age determine the type of HR issues that are most pressing to them today

PSUs today are going through a soul-searching process of evaluating their strengths and weaknesses, with an emphasis of creating parallel initiatives to overcome
traditional bottlenecks

Topics: Strategic HR (/category/leadership-strategy/strategic-hr?utm_source=post_article&utm_medium=desktop)

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Who is deceiving whom?

The dilemma of integrity testing in workplace assessments

Who is deceiving whom?

"So near is falsehood to truth that a wise man would do well not to trust himself on the narrow edge."

— Cicero

“I want employees with integrity and real values.” This, and similar statements, seem to be a common theme in the hiring and development demands of employers
across the workplace diaspora. It is entirely understandable that companies would want to employ and nurture individuals whom they perceive as honest, trustworthy,
and unlikely to engage in deviant workplace behaviours. But is this enough? And how do we nd out if people really are what they seem?

Defining Integrity

To explore the dilemma around integrity testing, it is essential to understand that de nitions of “integrity”, in themselves, vary across the diverse needs of industries
and regions. In many cases, organizations choose to outline what integrity is not, citing theft, sabotage, workplace violence, disciplinary issues, workplace loa ng,
absenteeism, dishonesty etc. as undesirable in an employment situation. The degree of undesirability of these behaviours varies depending on the company context.
For instance, in a Retail scenario, theft would be a primary concern for employers, whereas in a Manufacturing setup, sabotage, absenteeism and discipline problems
would surface as the most relevant issues that keep managers awake at night. For Services organizations, real-time issues around nancial fraud and identity
misrepresentation have become large-scale nightmares. 

The philosophical construct of integrity centres on the consistency of an individual’s actions and beliefs around a single core set of values. This implies that an
individual should be able to sustain these values in order to maintain a consistent response when his or her values are challenged. However, for an organization, we
must also then take into account what these values are. We need to be aware of an organization’s own cultural mindset when we discuss integrity. For instance, some
companies turn a blind eye to employees pilfering o ce supplies or in ating the need for petty cash, whereas others have a zero-tolerance policy towards any such
behaviour. The company’s leadership also plays a large role in sustaining and propagating an integrity mindset – Satyam Computers may not have faced a scandal had
Ramalinga Raju not succumbed to the temptation to falsify accounts.

A scienti c approach to individual choices therefore brings us to an analysis of personality preferences, and how they can have organizational impact. Personality-
based research has identi ed dimensions around conscientiousness, emotional stability, social conformity etc. as linked to integrity. Conscientiousness seems to be
the most de nitive predictor from the Big Five personality traits that help to predict personality with relation to employment. This point of view seems to guide integrity
measurement towards an additional element of outlining desirable workplace behaviours, rather than simply specifying what organizations do not want. 

Benefits of Measuring Integrity

It is clear that no organization would desire employees who cause direct or indirect loss of pro t, through theft, sabotage, or negligence. Integrity tests make certain
assumptions, speci cally around the fact that persons with “low integrity” are more likely to behave dishonestly, nd more reasons to justify this behaviour, commit
workplace crimes, or be more impulsive at work. 

People and risk are two sides of the same coin, and highly disengaged people can be a risk for the business. There are subtle losses of employee productivity that come
through passive-aggressive behaviour and deleterious in uences on the morale of other employees. Employees displaying such traits may not be dishonest or lacking
in the traditional de nition of integrity, but may, all the same, negatively in uence the workplace environment.

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It seems clear, therefore, that measuring traditional “integrity” needs to go hand-in-hand with assessing “workplace e ectiveness”, in terms of such behaviours as team
orientation, communication, customer centricity, drive, motivation etc. Identifying unsuitable candidates, therefore, can save the employer from problems that might
otherwise arise during their term of employment. 

Measurement Methodology

When a company decides to introduce integrity testing into its pre-employment screening or post-employment assessment methodology, it should be very clear on the
nature of what is being measured as evidence of integrity (or the lack of it), how it is being measured, and how relevantly the accessible assessment data is being used
in the company context.  

Historically, polygraph tests and other psychophysiological indicators such as pupillary dilation, uctuations in heart-rate or blood pressure, skin temperature,
respiration rate etc. were used to measure “dishonest” behaviour. The basic premise was that the behaviour of lying or evading the truth would cause the individual to
“fear” detection. This “fear” would manifest itself through variations in physiological symptoms, which would then indicate a level of “deceitfulness”.

In the modern context, however, this “fear” may not be a measurable factor at all. The lines seem blurry between what constitutes deviance and what doesn’t. Media-
fueled scandals, such as the Sreesanth match- xing episode, and peoples’ varied reactions to it, make one wonder whether the benchmark for integrity has been
lowered, or whether the de nition of what constitutes deviant behaviour has changed altogether.

There are several measures of integrity available, most of which are self-report checklists (online or paper-pencil formats). These tests try to directly measure a
person’s past behaviour and attitudes towards deviance, by instituting a checklist or rating scale that asks open, undisguised questions. Such tests are typically
inexpensive, available o -the-shelf, and are fairly easy to administer. But do they work?

Faking a checklist-style integrity test is fairly easy. Most candidates would respond in “socially desirable” ways, i.e. not admitting to past deviant behaviour or not
con rming their own personal beliefs around it. These overt integrity tests should therefore be validated before they are used to select people into jobs. Generally, this
is done through criterion-related validity i.e. by showing that scores on the test correlate with employees stealing or engaging in counter-productive behaviour. It
seems clear, though, that simply having a checklist to measure integrity and simultaneous disciplinary action are not the best way forward.

Efficacy of Personality-Based Measures

Personality-based measures that indicate likelihood of productive workplace behaviours tend to be less prone to faking, especially if they are designed to prevent
socially desirable responses. The test items typically assess dependability, social conformity, thrill seeking, conscientiousness, exibility, positive outlook, orderliness,
diligence etc. on a Likert-type rating scale.

To link such personality measures to integrity, consider that a person who is highly exible in his or her approach may attempt to see all sides of an integrity dilemma,
and act accordingly. A person passionate about results may condone the blurring of certain boundaries to reach their goals. While these are mere assumptions, and
may not hold true for many, thinking along these lines may give companies a more holistic idea of integrity in the modern cultural context than relying purely on a
checklist measure.

Risks in Integrity Measurement

Issues around discrimination, adverse impact in screening out a higher proportion of minority group members, and wrongful dismissal are likely to crop up with
indiscriminate checklist-type testing. In general, standalone integrity tests have lower face validity i.e. they may contain items that do not appear to be job-related or
may seem to reveal candidates’ private thoughts. Questions around religious or moral beliefs can be seen as unrelated to employment and may become legally
defensible. Candidates may then react to integrity tests as being unnecessarily invasive, and if there is no protection for the illegal use of the data, they can violate legal
and ethical privacy standards. From these risks, it seems important for companies engaged in integrity testing to nd a middle ground between intrusive testing and
maintenance of employee privacy.

The Way Forward

Checklist-type integrity tests would have a higher return on investment in work settings where counter-productive behaviours such as theft, absenteeism etc. are highly
disruptive to organizational functioning. Personality-based measures are more useful in assessing whether candidates have the potential to be successful in jobs where
performance requires a high level of honesty, dependability and e ectiveness. 

Integrity as a concept has evolved from simple avoidance of ine ective behaviour to an active display of e ective behaviour. Its measurement, therefore, must also
evolve from basic assessment of past or possible deviant behaviour towards likelihood of productive behaviour. Personality preferences provide insights into individual
behaviour choices, and it may therefore be bene cial to use a personality-based measure when other measures such as cognitive tests are also included, in a holistic
selection process that incorporates aptitude, attitude and ability.

Topics: Culture (/category/organizational-culture/culture?utm_source=post_article&utm_medium=desktop), Talent Acquisition (/category/recruitment/talent-acquisition?

utm_source=post_article&utm_medium=desktop)

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