'Key challenge is staff retention'

Godfrey Phillips India (GPI) is targeting to become the top employer in India by 2013. The company has brought about sweeping changes in HR practices and redefined the way talent is handled. Arun Kumar, executive vice-president, HR, discussed the challenges that the 1,400-employee organisation faced during the transition and issues facing HR today.

What are the challenges being faced by HR fraternity?

The key challenge before HR today is retention and keeping the flock together. While work-life balance is much talked about, I would say it is over-stressed. It is for an individual to decide on the balance between his career growth and his personal life, as the more responsibility the individual takes, the more he/she grows.

With emerging sectors on hiring spree, what is the way forward for the likes of GPI to retain talent?

Financial compensation is now a hygiene factor. Now, what the assignment has to offer is increasingly becoming important. Organisation must ensure that there is complete engagement of employees and they feel involved in decision-making. The more empowered employees are, the more they feel part of the company. Giving stretch assignments, to keep the employees challenged, is another way to retain talent.

We have set what we call BEHAG or Big Hairy Audacious Goals. “Hairy” to make the goals challenging enough to make your hairs stand on their ends. This helps keep the employee engaged in both — body as well as mind.

How has GPI evolved as an employer?

GPI has evolved a lot. When a sector grows less than other sectors, it’s difficult to retain talent. But we have introduced certain models and programmes that have helped us in doing so. The ‘Grow model’, introduced four years back, is one such approach which invites employees to suggest ways to accomplish a task and grow (Goal, Current realities, options and willingness to achieve).

We have put in place a comprehensive employee development programme within the organisation. These include leadership development programme, assessment and development centre. While leadership development programme is aimed at senior positions, assessment and development centre cater to employees at staff-to management levels in enhancing their skills. Our training spends on employees keeps changing with requirement. This year, we plan to spend about Rs 3.5 crore.

How do you ensure culture-fit for a laterally hired candidate?

Before hiring a candidate laterally, we look at the candidate’s trainability, adaptability and value-fit. While competence can be taught, values can’t be taught. And an organisation’s culture is nothing but values in action. For instance, while looking at entrepreneurial skills, we assess situations where the candidate has taken risks and worked independently. For trainability, we see under what situation and how quickly did a candidate learn a new skill.

How much effort has gone into reducing hierarchy and improve communication across levels?

Of late, there have been efforts towards addressing this. This is to ensure smooth communication and better growth. Numerous layers in an organisation create false impressions of growth. People attach egos with designations and, hence, their performance gets impacted.