My Published work in Various MBA Magazines Recognised in Students Work section of Annual XLRI Magazine

My Gift of appreciation to Kimberly Clark (Fortune 500 company) post Summer Internship

UBJ Organised Events

As Software Engineer in Birlasoft  as part of young leaders team . It is always a fulfilling and fascinating experience to organise events.

HR implications of Union Budget 2015

As a governing body, usually from time to time , government of a state uses various instruments to regulate the flow of trade . One such instrument employed by Indian government is "Union Budget". Usually , budget in general means allocation of funds based on pre-decided plan. This plan is usually one which has been charted by the government to bring welfare, prosperity among all segments of society. Union Budget 2015 for financial year 2015 to 2016 has its own set of surprises and like all other years Budgets all business houses were eagerly waiting for the same as any extra subsidy or waiving of tax . Now lets look at the implications for Human Resource Professionals from the various budget proposals and what best to re assign resources to maximize utilization of man power :
Proposal 1: EPF and ESI made optional
The direct implication for this particular proposal will mean that now in hand component of salary can be made more for employees specially in low income segment of workforce.
The indirect implication for Human Resource professionals can be to optimize the recruitment policy and maybe redefine salary structure for the lower earning unskilled/ low skilled population and do recruitment branding accordingly. Also with extra in hand cash now made available by encashment of EPF , it can be a good idea to provide options for extra services over and above the ones underlined under Factory Act ,1948 for an internal consumption of extra cash apart from higher value addition from same cash through internal cash transactions. For example, Say starting a subsidised optional transport services within the factory at a rate of Rs 20 per worker which a worker can avail. Including more options of food items on payment of cash can also be an option.

Proposal 2:Service Tax increased to 14%
The direct implication for Service tax increment means use of consultants will be costlier.
The indirect implication for the same means change in manpower strategy for some organisations which had so far focussed only on transactional activities and not so much on training internal workforce. In these organisations who used to priorly use the funda of comparing cost of training employees and hiring high potential members with getting the job done via consultants and based on cost benefit used to hire consultants more , would now require to rethink the strategy. So after this , training and development becomes a key ingredient of human resource . Organisational development activities to enhance organisations potential becomes important.
Proposal 3: Corporate tax down by 5%
The direct implication for this is increment in Revenue earned by Businesses which means greater percentage of allocation for Personnel Cost which means more scope of new initiatives.
The indirect Implication for the above proposal will have to be read along with proposals 1 and 2 which means most optimised spending would have to be on the field of training and through in house HR initiatives. Which also means recruitment of more qualified HR personnel .
Proposal 4 : Basic Custom Rates on 22 items reduced
The direct implication is lower manufacturing cost in india .
The indirect implication is that HR should look to drive towards in house production through vertical and horizontal acquisitions to gain a competitive edge. So M and A department of HR( present in large organisations) will likely become more active. This would also mean more challenges in handling diverse businesses , more hiring . Hence recruitment team would have its hands full. Man machine mapping for machines can also be an interesting idea which recruitment teams should keep looking into which means deciding which level of individuals who will be working on these new machines and how to train machine workers for new machines etc.
Proposals 5: Custom Duty increased .
Direct implication is that Import of items will now be more costly.
Indirectly for Human resources it will lead to more hiring of innovative individuals who can evolve ways to cut down on imports. THere has to be more hiring of experienced finance professionals who can evolve different ways of tackling finances to minimize impact caused by this change.
Proposal 6: Increasing number of Institutes of Higher education and skill development.
Direct implication is that it would lead to more skilled workforce and bigger pool of employable workforce.
Indirectly for Human Resources the best part is having more options to choose from. The more the number of talent pool the lesser the need for higher packages and higher the possibility of getting to a correct selection. Hence, for example in place of 10 IIM A B C, XL,FMS graduates ready to apply for my job at a package of 17 lakhs per annum , then now i have 800 IIM,graduates applying for that very job at 9-11 lakhs per annum. So i save around 6-8 lakhs per job. Plus i get to choose from a higher pool so probability of getting a decent (if not excellent) candidate will be more even though maybe density of top notch candidates may be less. Besides companies having high attritions usually retaining talent is an issue anyways so this provides a very easy viable option.The other point will also bring down wage rates now because since the ivy league colleges now will know that there are other options available for us so they will also have to reduce their package expectation.

Why Employment Exchanges Act ,1959 does not lead to much employment ?

Under Article 16 of indian constitution , right to equality has now often been extended to right to equality of opportunity for equal work among all sections of india. In the Randhir singh vs union of india case the same principal got resonated , Equal Remuneration Act 1976 and article 39 d of our constitution too speak the same tongue .
Mostly Employment exchange act was brought about by government of india to bring more transparency in hiring processes of PSU s and bring about a equal opportunity to all .Employment exchanges of today ,usually keep records of qualification of the registered candidates but somehow in between have lost the battle of prominence with websites like freshers world , naukri.com and linked in.If the trend of hiring and a choice is provided to a hr recruiter to hire key personnel for key positions of organisational structure , then he or she usually will more likely contact naukri.com,fresherworld or linked in or maybe it can opt to conduct a all india test after providing advertisements in leading national daily newspapers.Some how in between the ones who lost out were primarily the ones for whom this act was made. The act was made for people who belong to economically weaker sections of the society who cant compete with the more literate and influential sections of society . In current scenerio although many PSUs still follow the guidelines laid down for them under the act but then most PSUs have started to hire from leading college campuses and not reliant on the labour records provided by the Employment exchanges.Employment exchanges are somewhere seen as time consuming (with very high turnaround time ) where as mostly in private sector the total turn around time allotted for filling a vacancy is usually low .Hence to meet the demands comes in freshers world ,naukri.com and so on. Owing to the speed of appropriate candidate search, even third party hiring agencies have become popular of late.
As on date, Most states still maintain employment exchanges from a compliance angle , where various Labour law related information and ammendments are prominently displayed but in effect it some how has lost the edge as it used to have in late 1960s and 1970s where mostly almost anyone unemployed used to go and register in employment exchanges. From a personal experience also i have seen that some of my friends who did their Btech /be from unknown private engineering colleges and did not get job did not still like to get their name enlisted in employment exchanges. They were far more ready to go to Bangalore and contact a third party hiring agency for assistance in job search at hefty cost of 30000 rs and more per candidate than going to the state assisted route of employment owing to the lack of surety of a good job and also very high turn around time in these processes.

Having said that , now lets revisit the main thing that is employment exchange act and scrutinise which are the sections from which the rot might have stemmed.

If one goes through the above table of section wise analysis of the act , the most common opinion that comes through is the lack of intent to forcefully drive the act from the government side which has some how over a period of time led to greater dilution . While acts like Factory Act 1948 , ID Act 1947, TU Act 1926 , Inter State Migration Workers act 1979 are still dominant across the labour landscape of india regulation various labour related issues , some how employment exchanges act has not been able to create the same impact in india of today. However, it must be said , that to leave a few provisions open to modification based on need of executioner , in effect adds to flexibility of implementation , but to leave an act carried out in essence to provide equal employment opportunities to weaker segments in such an open ended manner does not justify the overall creation purpose of the act. As per me , in order for the act to maintain its relevance , it is high time that government of india should amend it along with most other labour laws and associate clearly defined responsibilities to concerned persons rather than keeping it open ended for greater flexibility. Penalties like that of Rs 500 simply in current price system is not justifiable and is not a deterrent either . A minimum cutoff of jobs that needs to be hired from employment exchanges as a percentage of total vacancies should also be put in place so as to encourage more relevance to the employment exchanges and not lead many to invest huge amounts of money in hope of job in private job searchers , many of whom often turn out to be false hope givers and cheaters. So , in view of changed india of today and for a better tomorrow ,this act in particular needs to be looked into and possibly revised.

Why Labour Law is heart of Human Resources by Uddalak Banerjee (XLRI HRM 2012-14)

This article is not for faint hearted , but then realities of life and the answers to some very important questions have been attempted to be answered in this particular article. A few days back one of the aspirants asked why does a HR manager can earn 150000 USD and what and how can an HR manager add value to business to merit the pay equivalent to a CMO (Chief Marketing Officer) ?. Both these questions are not limited to one aspirant and i am sure there might be thousands of aspirants across student fraternity of not just India but abroad who might think over such an issue at one point of their life or the other.Since this article might be read in future by many aspirants , to them i would say that this article is not to deter any person from taking up human resources but then to unravel the part of human resources which can be considered its soul.

To understand this article first you need to understand why a labour works for an employer and why an employer needs labour to work beyond the fact that labour needs money to meet basic needs by working for employer and employer needs a man to do his job. To analyse this deeply , you need to understand that a employer needs a worker to undertake all the activities which can expand his business and generate tangible value more than the expenditure he incurs for keeping that person on roll.How this is different from the first line of this paragraph is more evident in another question .. Why should a man manufacture a set of goods worth Rs 1000 through his own day long labour and readily give the same willingly and knowingly at a cost of Rs 100 ??Now tell me the answers of few more questions: What recognition does the worker get for the good he creates? Suppose he creates an excellent good , will he ever get a percent of the profit? Will the user ever know that he made it ? Who will the user associate with the product? It will always be the employer!

Now lets look at why HR as a field emerged:

Event 1:Increasing oppression of labourers in the hands of ever greedy employers.

Event 2: Trade unions being formed and gradual associations of these unions with regional political parties .

Event 3: Political parties for their political mileage started to spread the message of labour violence. This event was further fuelled by gradual spread of education and awareness of rights.

Event 4: The realisation among employers that to enhance productivity there can be multiple factors at work. One of which is labour. The others being capital , machinery etc .

Event 5: Black labour movements , A series of strikes , lockouts and labour reforms and their forceful implementation by government of india owing to pressure from political parties who by now had already grown a strong root in labour classes. CITU , INTUC etc achieved prominence through strikes .

If one looks at the time frame when the labour laws were passed and implemented , a major chunk was passed during 1940 to 1960 period . This may be due to high nationalist fervour during the indian independence phase or may be the political climate and overall optimism towards a brighter future of a dream of equality for all. I say so because in 1921,Buckingham and Carnatic Mills strike happened,in 1926 binny mills strike happened , In 1928 south indian railway strike happened and so on.Sometimes demand for bonus, sometimes purely exploitation , sometimes wage rate , the demands were growing louder and hence understanding of labour problems , compliance of labour laws, enhancing manpower productivity necessitated creation of HR. If you look at acts like ID act 1947 , Factory act 1948 , Minimum Wage Act 1948 , Employers liability Act 1938 , Trade Union Act 1926 and their timelines you would find first came trade union then came how acts on liability of employer followed by rule sto be maintained in factory and during industrial disputes .Each of these Acts falls under the umbrella of Labour Laws . If you had read this far into this article , by now you must have understood that the essence of creation of HR and all the expectations from the field are actually directly regulated and related by Labour laws. Starting from under what conditions a factory should run ( Factory Act 1948) to under what conditions Trade union can be formed ( TU Act 1926) to how regulation of the labour reforms would be done in industries ( ID ACT 1947) to what minimum wages ,gratuity , bonus to provide ( Minimum wages act 1948 , Payment of Gratuity Act , 1972 )etc. From basic salary calculation to number of leaves to benefits to be given to a worker to how to try a worker for an offence and what maximum punishment to give are all to be implemented word by word and letter by letter by Labour Law acts. Even incase of hiring of workers from another state (Inter State Migration Workers Act ) , to classification of industries as under Industries Act each and every activity and its scope is pre decided by these acts. From recruitment to Training and development to consulting to employee engagement each and every activity is regulated by Labour laws. Straight from working hours, breaks , canteen , toilet to conspiracy at work to leaves and retrenchment each and every thing is related to precided norms set by labour laws. Sextual harassment and who all should sit in the hearings , how the cases are to be filed , how workers are to be tried for offences , who to set new rules ,dealing with accidents ,death, retrenchment , PF , Gratuity including exceptions each and every thing has to have compliance to existing labour law reforms. For each and every violation , the penalties run into crores of rupees , cancellation of factory licence ,imprisonment ,lockout and at times intangibly irreparable loss of business through adverse publicity. But then the penalties dont end in monetary losses, the penalty is reflected in death of Awanish ji (HR , Maruti Plant) and countless such HR professionals who had to be sacrificed in the alter of tug and war between management and workers. Management on one end looks at its own productivity ,profitability and incremental benefit . worker on the other hand constantly tries to protect his or her own job security , income and social standing. In between comes HR , who has to at the same time peform all labour law compliances and at the same time has to look after productivity figures and even at times take decisions to suit the business goals more than the workers.

Indian Penal Code clearly states Section 499 to 502 for defamation , Section 503 to 510 for criminal intimidation , Section 490 to 492 for breach of contract of service , Section 441 to 462 for criminal trespass , 120A to 120 B for Criminal Conspiracy, 299 to 311 relating to murder. But in spite of these codes HR workers fall pray to politics and victimization which again cant be avoided given that for a worker his employer is HR manager who sets workplace rules of work .To obey rules and at the same time take decisions in cases which are not defined based on Prior Supreme Court Judgements and International Labour law recommendations and treaties signed by the country takes massive amount of reading and constant upgradation of skill sets to keep abreast of industries changing requirements and business rules. For example , contract act gets ammended , then all old existing contracts needs to be changed as per new rules and all parties re convinced to sign the new contract. From wage fixation to firing a worker , understanding implications of Labour laws and using them as a competitive advantage without violating labour standards is a work of art and is extremely hard to do . To know how to go out of a purview of one labour law act by say raising minimum salaries of workers ,imparting supervisory role to workers , regulating vacancies and training individuals in line category under the garb of skill development to get critical tax benefit from government is not something most hr managers can do . IT takes massive intellect and decision making power and self belief to accomplish the above and for hr consulting agencies thorough knowledge of each of these points decides whether it earns 1000 crore from a client (in return of profits generated above 1500 crore) or ends up bankrupt !

From interpretation of human psychology to facing Labour Courts for actions and decisions made with respect to accidents , payouts , percentage loss of earning power , bonus , leaves granted , retrenchment of workers , decisions on sextual harassment , delay in wage payment etc etc each and every decision decides a fate of a hr manager . The penalty for non compliance can be death by workers killing the hr manager within the work premises , outside work premises at some place else . Death can also come in the form of court judgement if found guilty of a command that lead to death of many. Death as a penalty in so many forms is perhaps only there in HR field and never so in other forms where at max a failure or loss in job or monetary loss incurred through lack of proper decision making or negligence. Hence only individuals who have hunger to learn and proactively influence labour markets , business and unions should be part of this fraternity because it is this knowledge that will decide he will live, be imprisoned , put to death or earn enough to lead business as MD or CEO . All the best!

Time Motion Study By Uddalak Banerjee , XLRI , HRM 2012-14

Time and Motion Study is not actually a theoretical concept but is actually one of the most powerful tools for Human Resource Management in organizations which are suffering from over staffing and seek to explore optimal usage of resources and ensure maximum possible utilization .  But in this article i wont focus on the "motion" part but exclusively on Time Study because executing both at the same time is a difficult task.

Ideally best means of conducting time and motion study is always via recording the whole period of study in a video however , to find that much storage and storing that much data may not be possible specially for ordinary individuals like us who use mobile phones for video recording so keeping that in mind and considering the scale of study and number of individuals to be covered , the most effective form of data keeping has to be via pen and paper and use of stop clocks (easily available in mobile phones).

Recently , I had this unique experience of doing Time and motion Study ,this was initially a experiment to gauge % utilization of members but later what i learnt is something much wider and perhaps a single most effective tool to directly control manpower optimization and maybe directly induce the first most important HR dharma ,"Controlling Manpower productivity ".

At a time when most organisations are moving out of Bell Curve and exploring new ways to measure performance , this new theoretical study somehow brings in a new spell of hope and innovation. I know many in HR would still laugh and say "seriously !!! Time and Motion Study ????"

I thought 10 times before writing this article but as always like previous articles i tried once again to explore yet another weapon of Human Resources. Before going deep into processes and formulas and advantages and disadvantages , to give a more holistic view , i must state that before implementing the study , one must try to know about what the business model is like and then use time and motion study results to get to a deeper understanding of issues .

Lets say , for textile industry the end to end process is like :

 

Now lets discuss the study procedure and a few samples .

** Lets take an example of non manufacturing related and non operator role as for manufacturing roles and operator roles it is easy to do the study and not so easy for service functions .

First comes the recording format:

Once you start filling the recordings the final sheet looks like :

Once the observation sheet above is present for about 5 members  in each unique role ,the following analysis can be done :

Comparison of member data with mean data and how many members are having higher data than mean .

** Now if we do activity wise analysis and classify them on priority of activity to role and based on speed of execution which is nothing but how many people having less than average time .( If more than half members are having less than average times then speed is low , if less than half members are having less than average times then speed is average , in case only one member having less than average time then speed is high)Now from the above analysis we get direct insight on which activity consumes how much time and whether we can improve the same or not .

Now this is not all , the best part of the time motion study can be demonstrated on the basis of business tracking in the following way :

The main points of business efficiency is as follows :

1. How quickly a PR is raised after customer Po

2. How much time manufacturing process takes ( the quicker the better)

3. How quickly dispatch happens

Now how ,time and motion study gives answers to the three is as follows:

a. Through time motion study one gets to know which all activity is important and how better optimisation can be done and which activity can be removed

b. It gives direct utilization figures by using the formula ,utilization= touch time/ total period of observation , this figure can be used for manpower optimization and maintaining perfect balance of manpower in roles ( reducing extra manpower )

c. It gives figures for activities like which activity takes how much time on an average :

Eg from time and motion study of packing operator , one can get direct data on how much time a operator takes to pack 100 boxes of towels . Now if i know that say for  packing 100 boxes a operator needs 30 minutes on an average , total of 7 hours per day should yield on an average 1400 packed boxes which can then be similarly linked to output for performance management system.

d. It strengthens performance management and also can be used for compensation part by linking study results with variable pay parameters. (fixing of thresholds)

 However , like all processes this process too has some complexities and difficulties :

1. sample selection ( it is difficult to select the correct sample incase of roles which have more than 20 members)

a. Strategy setting is needed to eliminate effect of high performers and low performers for choosing correct sample and also at the same time it is important to factor in the factor that people under supervision may act better or worse than regular day to day work.(this factor can be factored in by running the study for greater sample )

2. manpower required to do a mass scale study (an organisation can have more than 500 unique roles specially the larger ones  so doing a study with adequate samples requires great amount of dedicated manpower)

 ROI for the study is also easy to measure :

Total Salary lost due to NVA in one month for the above role is Rs 276080 . Possible suggested improvements can be using vehicles for transport , automation by use of cameras in different sites etc.  If we go ahead to find out the yearly impact for just one role as mentioned above , it will be nearly Rs 276080*12 = Rs 33,12,960!!!

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