How to build Teams

© Dr. Uday B. Gokhale

Hiring, retaining and motivating the talent has been a challenge for most of the companies ( why , even for Non-profit , NGOs ). The primary responsibility for hiring is shared by HRD from front. Apparently none worries about retaining the talent till the resignation letter (normally the rumor) travels to the boss. Motivation again is not taken that seriously since we consider ‘pep-talk’ to be potentially patronizing and hence a politically incorrect activity.

Usually persons are hired out of desperation to ‘man’ the activity and then he/she becomes a mere statistic with salary department.
The timidity of person makes him continue till thy neighbor’s wife becomes irresistible and he quits for ‘personal reasons’.
Fun apart, these issues are getting quite serious these days with the advent of internet and attendant awareness levels of the employees. Democratization has played a big role in sensitizing citizens on their potentials. Comparisons between employers, between bosses, between policies are carried out by employees more intensely since they are more connected these days. Working Spouse also furnishes a distinct leverage point for jumping the job. It will be a matter of debate to assess if these issues are novel or have been there all along.

How to address attrition rate?

Matching salary as per the market value of employee is one way but has no outer limits and hence difficult to adopt as a policy. May be we can decide the outer limits for each position based upon the intrinsic need of the skills. This decision can be made by the most informed person in the organization. Like , if we think that an officer with B.Com. degree and 2 years hands-on-experience is worth 3 lakhs CTC , then we should be able to hand-out same CTC to a person with B.A ( History major ) degree but capable of delivering same output. By this rather bizarre example I am trying to de-link educational degrees from the work content.

If you think this too far out a proposal, you are right. To fight with strange scenario of Johns jumping for a thousand or two bucks a month , you need to create a fleet of substitutes within the organization to take their place. Search around. They are in tons. Ready with the skills but kept out due to no paper qualification.

This is one way to combat the musical chair game. I am aware that this solution is not widely acceptable but then that is the point. Since blind folded HRD folks in other organizations would never take your history major as an accountant, you shall keep him until of course he/she joins a correspondence course to earn the desired degree.

No universal solutions would be available to address specific needs , plus it is the differential hiring and retaining policies which shall give us competitive advantage over others.

De-link paper qualification from the experiential skill-sets. Try the placements using this style and analyze the attrition trends over next two years.

This will work against the challenge of ‘growing economy and more employers to shell out higher salaries’.

I have used this style earlier. Mainly out of desperation to have some team around me against frugal employers. It was a win –win for all !

Now we are at the next challenge of retaining the talent.

I could address this in past when I climbed down my ivory tower. I redefined talent in a practical context and not as in ‘calculating trajectories for launching satellite in the orbit ’. Bingo! Everybody around me had plenty talent waiting to be unearthed. Hence everybody needed to be retained.

In fact once the team members became aware that I had noticed their talent and I was respecting them as an adult individual; they started loving their jobs. A small compliment about their achievements, an occasional cash reward for a tiny brain-wave went a long way.
As an adult individual they were quick to notice the difference between the ways their friends were treated in other companies Vs their own experience. Normally a respectful treatment is worth 1 K per month even for a 50 K CTC person. See, there is the proverbial 20 % rise taken-care-of already.

“Jesus Christ, I never thought it would work” – From the boss helps people realize their importance in the scheme of things. As adults they know that their friends in other companies are surrounded by “ I know it all ” bosses. Have a bare foot approach , and the team will go along.

Another aspect is of providing a strong leadership. No body ever wanted to have limpet as a boss. Once your team knows that you will raise the hell if team’s interests are in trouble they will ensure that output comes in time and potential hurdles are pointed out well in time.

In other words, it is the line management who should be blamed if team is not kept adequately stimulated intellectually & spiritually. More specifically, if persons are leaving just for 20 % rise, HRD is off the hook. If someone is leaving for 40 % +, then HRD could invite a blame .

Now motivation doesn’t need to be addressed separately since you cannot retain the employees unless you keep them motivated.
I have gone out of the way in past in order to help my junior team members enroll for a higher degree. This I had done over and above the clear policy of de-linking increments / promotions from paper qualifications.
Most of the times I have seen that superiors fail in motivating their teams because they themselves are in decision crisis. They have their insecurities.
Hence no matter how much effort we do on salary front, unless senior staff is trained properly in leadership skills , no sustainable equilibrium could be attained. System shall go haywire in spite of having top of the line pay-packages.

It is not only the national standing of the organization which creates image in the minds of prospective employees. Not even sales turnover figures. It is the treasure /sense of achievement one carries home every evening. It is the comments-on-company our departing employees pass on to their friends after 6 beers, which set the tone for next batch of applicants.

In nut shell

1. We may compare and contrast our salary structure Vs that of companies in our league. Then decide to match. ( I wish I didn’t write this because I know it is difficult to practice )

2. List the employees who have adequate skills but no paper qualification. Prioritize their up gradation. This is the buffer pool we have.


3. Ensure that each HOD praises at least one team member weekly once. HOD would appreciate how a particular matter has progressed due to his/her contribution. Praise should be practical with no patronizing overtones. This works like a charm!

4. Study if the departing persons in past have left for about 20 % jumps. If more than 50 % have left for this reason, then surely something is wrong with our salary structure. (“Growing economy can not be blamed”!).

5. Exit interviews should be taken by very senior managers since this is the last impression person carries with him.

6. If disproportionately large departures are observed in any department, act fast and contain the fire by training the head of dept. in leadership qualities.

7. Reward star performers below age 40 by hefty cash awards.

8. Reward star performers above age 40 by hefty cash awards plus a family dinner with HRD head.

9. Reward star performers around age 50 by heftier cash rewards ( Forget the Maslow’s pyramid , these are the folks who have suffered due to ‘slow economy’ of yester years !!)