How to be 'effective' at work(Getty Images)
Communication is the key to success in any relationship. To communicate effectively, particularly in an organisational setting, it’s vital to develop mechanisms that ensure an easy flow of information, says Sheetal Srivastava
Let us think of a corporate organisation as a human body and the various working professionals as different parts of the body and the top management as the human brain.
The entire human body functions only because there is a constant exchange of signals between the brain and different parts of the body. Therefore, for the successful existence of an organisation, there has to be well-defined channels of communication between the working professionals and top level managers.
“It is not just a matter of creating communication channels but encouraging employees to communicate without fear. We have to remember that an environment where the communication process is not hindered in any way, creates an atmosphere conducive to growth,” says Faisal Farooqui, founder & CEO of Mouthshut.com.
“In a rapidly growing industry like insurance, it is rather inevitable to have live channels of communication; both formal and informal so as to transfer critical messages top-down and bottom-up,” notes Rajendra Ghag, executive VP HR and administration, HDFC Standard Life.
HDFC Standard Life has their annual ‘Sparsh’ meetings where all employees of each of the nine zones are invited for a live half day structured communication inclusive of a question and answer session. A gathering of about 1000-1500 employees are addressed by a member of the top management team as well as zonal business leaders. The CEO town hall meeting, held once a quarter addresses around 400 employees live and connects with more than 5000 employees through video conferencing.
The human resources team at Essar apprehended that there was an organisational need for a dedicated forum to resolve employee queries. In order to realise the above ambition, the HR team at Essar crafted the ‘ASK - HR’ initiative.
“An extended arm of the HR team, ASK - HR is a forum with dedicated personnel to respond to all employee queries. The instrument used for this initiative is a toll-free line, so as to ensure that ASK-HR is easily accessible to all employees, across businesses from any location. “The services of ASK - HR are applicable to all employees and trainees as well as consultants/advisors who have a valid SAP ID,” says Rahul Taneja, senior vice president and head - corporate HR, Essar Group.
“‘Voice of Wipro’ (VOW) survey; ‘Site-o-meter’ survey for site-based employees and ‘Project Pulse’ for practice-based employees of a division are forms of bottom-up communication facilitated periodically to capture employee concerns and issues pertaining to various hygiene and motivation factors. The feedback is captured, results analysed and the action plan is communicated back to the employees,” says Joseph John, VP HR, Wipro Infotech.
With employees being exposed to a glut of information, it becomes necessary for them to be able to validate grapevine, re-validate the news and hear it first from their leaders, rather than rely on speculative news.
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