Motivate. Engage. Retain. This seems to be the mantra that every entrepreneur should keep in mind if he wants to keep his best employees in his organisation.
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However, in our interactions with various SME CEOs for our anniversary issue, we found out that it’s not just three elements but a lot more goes into retaining employees.
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| “We neither had a swanky office which would have enabled us to offer them quality work atmosphere nor brand nor colossal packages.” — Vaibhvi Thakkar
CEO, Blend Finance |
An analysis of the likely problems and challenges that one faces with regard to human resources are given below.
Vaibhavi Thakkar from Blend Finance shares her experience saying “The biggest challenge while we started this enterprise was getting appropriate human resource i.e. right people at right time at right place. We neither had a swanky office which would have enabled us to offer them quality work atmosphere nor brand nor colossal packages. We only had 'A Dream'. A dream to become an integrated financial power house offering end-to-end solutions to SMEs & MMEs.” She adds that she was lucky to be able to sell her conviction to people and pursue them to work with her. Today she believes that her company is doing well because the people at Blend Finance maintained a a proper set of fundamental values, ethics and transparency at the core.
For an entrepreneur of a small and medium enterprise, which has been recently set up, it becomes extremely important to recruit people who are motivated and driven by the business idea. This ensures a high sense of professionalism in the work environment because all the employees fine tune their own style of working to achieve greater synergy among each other to convert the ‘dream idea’ into a reality.
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| “The biggest threat to any SME in procuring or retaining its best human resource is that there will always be bigger companies which will offer better pay packages.” — Allwin Agnel
CEO, PaGaLGuY.com |
The biggest threat to any SME in procuring or retaining its best human resource is that there will always be bigger companies which will offer better pay packages. In an effort to escape the competition that MNCs posed, Allwin Agnel of PaGaLGuY.com decided to stop hunting for people at places where the MNCs were regulars and started looking for people who wanted to do something different. “Sure, we have had tough times—but when people are determined to build a world class product/company, most of the limiting factors are automatically taken care of,” says Allwin
The entrepreneur has to keep changing the work trends within the organisation which will make the employees feel that what they are being offered here is way better than what they will receive in a bigger organisation. These can be anything like introducing flexible working hours to a change in delegation of work which puts the employee in a responsible part in the organisation.
“We have created a flexible work model, within which people have the opportunity to realize their potential. We make certain that the supreme thoughts are used, exploited and deciphered into new products, new services and new businesses for utmost gain and return on investment,” says Varun Mirchandani, Director, Onicra, a credit rating agency. The work environment should encourage discussions thus allowing the employee to speak his mind freely. This gives room for a steady exchange of ideas and strategies and makes the employee realize his worth.
| Quick Analysis |
| Challenges that SMEs face when dealing with Human Resources |
| • Lesser packages offered by SMEs • MNCs provide better offers to the employees • Employees not motivated by business idea • No change in work process • Failure to understand the employee’s needs |
The work culture should be such that the employee knows what is expected of him and what are the targets he needs to finish each and every day. This gives him a sense of accomplishment. Work appraisals following the successful completion of these daily targets motivates him further. A proper and constant feedback system is essential as it shows that the CEO keeps himself involved with the employees and has a keen interest in their well being. “There were times when I spent more days and evenings with my teammates than with my family. Moreover we made sure that people who performed and were attitudinally in tune with the company’s culture were offered not only radical growth but were also consistently made aware of the larger goals and ambitions of the company,” says Vineet Bajpai from Magnon Solutions. The entrepreneur himself should make the people working under him think like entrepreneurs and take control of the organisation’s functioning.
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| “An appropriate training program which equips the employee with appropriate knowledge and skills helps in employee retention.” — Shamit Khemka
CEO, Synapse |
Another step towards retaining HR is by process orientation. “When we gained the CMMI certification and went through the learning processes, it helped a lot in educating our staff, allowing them to grow, being more process oriented and experience the environment of a larger company in a smaller company,” says Shamit Khemka, Synapse. An appropriate training program which equips the employee with appropriate knowledge and skills helps in employee retention. This is something that bigger companies can do for their employees in bulk as it becomes expensive for the company. After the CMMI certification program was implemented Khemka says, “Around 2005, our attrition was about 25 per cent, while in last 6 months it has been about 11 per cent.”
Other factors which should be kept in mind when handling employees is making sure that all the employees are treated fairly and that proper opportunities are given to them to grow. After all this, the leader should have complete belief in his team to take the next step forward. “It has not been an easy journey. I have had my share of ups and downs. All I can say is that it has been possible only because of my unflinching devotion to the belief that I carried with me and passed it on to the great team of people around me,” says Faisal Farooqui from Mouthshut.com. It all boils down to the fact that CEOs need to identify what is it that keeps the workers engaged in their work and use that information to their benefit.
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written by Thomas E. Sherburne, March 11, 2011
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