IT companies and startups bid adieu to drab designations

By Amrita Premrajan, TimesJobs.com

Employees are usually classified into designations such as executives, managers, assistant managers and so on and so forth. Yet somewhere, the unique value an employee brings to the organisation gets lost into these one-size-fits-all designations.

But since the past few years, this is changing, says Sudeep Sen, AVP of recruitment firm TeamLease Services.

"A lot of refining activity has happened on designations - to make them fancier and to cope up with the changes in the market - and some have been earned by performers in the organisation," Sen told TimesJobs.com in an interview.

Of dreamers, visionaries and evangelists

According to Sen, IT companies and startups first started off the evolution of offbeat designations to accommodate richer talent and attract people from larger organisations to join smaller business on challenging roles.

Recalling the time when he exchanged his business card with an executive from a predictive analytics software and services company, it read: CEO & CVO.

When probed about what a CVO meant, he said it was the abbreviation of chief visionary officer, since he is a visionary for the organisation.

"On similar lines, I've come across designations such as chief dreamer, which refers to one who does strategic thinking within the business. And then there are quirky designations such as hunterwala/waliwho research about trends and acceptability of products and work on pull-push methodology," Sen said.

"Some designations are worked out keeping in mind that one has to have fun amidst a business and competitive corporate life, like that of an evangelist. He/she carries the message of the organisation to the masses," he said.

Another interesting designation is chief happiness officer. Sen said this referred to a job role that involved conducting 'lighter moment' monthly programmes for employees. This involves conducting fun games, talent hunt programmes and more activities that cut across domains and divisions.

"The human resource fraternity feels that such interesting and offbeat designations work out well since these make people satisfied, motivated and focused. It is also a great strategy when traditional roles and responsibilities within the business are going through a change," he said.

Offbeat designations don't mean the job is frivolous

Many traditional businesses that follow the conventional designation practices might find such designations intriguing, mistaking the 'fun' element for frivolousness.

"When a business creates an offbeat designation, it is never meant to dilute the seriousness with which the job needs to be executed. It is a serious taskmaster's job title as well as a light-hearted label for the person," Sen said.