Staff training moves indoors as cos cut costs

NEW DELHI: Rafting in Rishikesh rapids is as passe as rock-climbing and rappelling in exotic locales. And this time, trainers and team-builders are all ears. As the slump continues to trump boom time extravagance, employee training gets innovative indoors. While FMCG behemoth HUL and the Gurgaon-based BPO Tecnovate eSolutions prefer to toss chocolates to their employees to take on cut-throat competition during the ongoing recession, trainees at chaebol LG are asked to pierce potatoes with straws or even walk on a bridge of fire!

Not surprisingly, Sanjeev Obhrai, chocolate-maker and promoter of Chocolatier, is grinning from ear to ear. ���HUL recently asked us to make chocolates in the shape of Dettol soaps and wrap them in the Dettol soap cover for the training programme of its marketing executives. The trainees are asked to gobble up the chocolate the same way they would treat competition.��� Tecnovate, too, gives a pack of sugarless, bitter chocolates to its new employees to teach them the bitter truth of life.

As LG India spends close to Rs 15-17 crore a year on HR training, the indoor fetish may translate into lower costs. ���The basic idea behind this is to make them believe that everything is possible. These initiatives have been successful,��� says LG���s HR head YV Verma.

Corporates have to deal with a number of issues on the employee front���the most common among them being cross-team coordination and internal communications, for which they seek help from HR consultancies.

A number of companies are using unique ways to deliver their message to employees. ���Tecnovate eSolutions served custom-made chocolates without sugar to their employees in a training programme. The moral of the story is ���never go by the cover, it could be deceptive���. The company communicated that they do not hire people on the basis of their looks or attractive profile, but on the basis of their intellect and qualifications,��� says Mr Obhrai.

Some HR consultancies conduct psychometric tests of employees to help them narrow down their thoughts about their own strengths. Companies use these to identify areas for improvement in individuals. ���We made the Suzlon top management watch Rang De Basanti to teach them how allocation of roles is important in an organisation, a lesson taught in the first half of the film by the female protagonist,��� says Dhruva Trivedi, director of the Delhi-based HR consultancy Percon, which has clients such as DLF, Coca-Cola, Ashok Leyland, AT&T, Honda and Amway.

Some consultancies also offer performance management programmes, diagnostic studies on team spirit and individual excellence. ���We conduct emotional merger workshops between the dealers and marketing and sales managers of a company to sort out the issues between them,��� says Kokila Parthasarthy, director, Hyderabad-based Forde Consultants, which charges Rs 25,000 per day for training.