DARE - Because Entrepreneurs Do

Col. N. Bhatnagar MD, Daksh Global

The concluding day of DARE August Webinar discussed a suggested model to tackle HR problems in SMEs.  Col. N. Bhatnagar, MD, Daksh Global was the session’s speaker. He is the veteran of manpower management who gave his insightful lessons to entrepreneurs finding handling manpower resource an issue.

Bhatnagar said as entrepreneurs we are the leaders, we are accountable for every kind of risks in the organisation. The kind of HR related problems faced by SMEs are common to all organizations. Like how to increase productivity? How to lower the attrition rate? To solve these issues we need to understand that the man behind the machine is important. He suggested entrepreneurs to create a culture of excellence across all departments. He further advised entrepreneurs to help their people to achieve goals.

To create such culture of excellence he said it is important to understand the organisation’s approach to training and development. Bhatnagar said, “Look at the impact of the training and development programs on the company’s overall productivity. Look if the trainers are well versed because it depends on them to increase employee productivity. Find suitable talents and make them a trainer. A trainer is very important; he has to be well trained to deliver proper learning to the employees. Next is the training module. Unless the modules are in place the trainers will be handicapped to deliver good training to the employees.

An entrepreneur needs to identify the key HR practices. The said practices have to be made matching the organisation’s standard. To make a suitable HR practice, Bhatnagar said, “We need to describe how the reward and recognition process are developed. Is it linked to the organisation’s performance management process?”

To tackle the human resource issues, a very useful way is to find out how the people of the organisation feel about the organisation. Find out is there any sense of belongingness present among the employees. This aspect depends on how the organisation handles its employees. It depends on how the employee enhancement program is selected and employed. Further how the organisation is making the environment favorable to develop a sense of belongingness among the employees. Lot of these depends on how we deal with employee grievances, the parameter of employee assessment, attrition, absenteeism etc. If absenteeism is high he suggested to find out the reason. If the organisation’s working hours are too long? Is this affecting it?

Entrepreneurs need to check out the employee remuneration pattern, percentage of attrition in the company. Think why this is happening. He gave an example of a small firm where the attrition rate was high. The owner was finding it hard to solve the issue. However, after several months the company introduced a referral program wherein a referee is announced to be rewarded with the half part of the salary of the new employee. The situation went under control within few months.

Also there has to be system in which the employee will be comfortable to share hi/her grievances. Merely saying my doors are always open may not work.

As per Bhatnagar one very helpful HR strategy is to measure the perception of the employees by conducting surveys. The survey forms can have headlines such as employee productivity, employee satisfaction level etc. It will help to know how satisfied an employee is with the organisation, how engaged he is to the organisation. This will help to know what needs to be done. The organisation should take the results from there and make innovative practices and learning structure for the employee.

The session ended with question answer round. The first question came from a Nagpur based entrepreneur who asked how he should convince people to join his IT based startup. To which Bhatnagar suggested to get people from B grade and C grade colleges and universities because his brand name would not attract the cream-de-la-crèmes. So go for hiring from lower grade institution and give them good training to fit into his company’s requirement.

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