WORK + FUN AT WORK = ?

       Over the years, having worked for and in different industries and positions, I have had fun working with a perfect balance of hard work.

      All that I understood after years of hard work, learning, fun, and experience; having an improper mix of work and fun at work for a career oriented personnel could probably end in this:

95 % Work      +     05 % Fun =     Steady, strong, and complete growth; resulting in everlasting fun.

75 % Work      +     25 % Fun =     Leading to a slow paced growth and a sure shot route for disappointments.

50 % Work      +     50 % Fun =     Rules out growth at all levels and leads to inevitable stagnancy. Such attitude leads to a frustrated career.

25 % Work      +     75 % Fun =     A road to unsuccessful, failed and a disastrous career.

05 % Work      +     95 % Fun =     A point where work is totally forgotten. A recipe for a total collapse for self and the organization.

     I maybe wrong in my perceptions about working and having fun at work, but until recently I found people taking-up jobs out of their vocation or what they have degrees in or may be they aren’t able to find one suiting their qualification, in this heavily competitive employment market.

      So, probably they take up a job where they find a bit of co-relation with the education they obtained in. Unfortunately, they take-up this job and construe it or treat it as a stop-gap arrangement till the time they find a job in their respective field. Or more badly, they treat it as a small source of income to meet their miscellaneous expenses. It makes me think, how come people easily find others with matching attitudes to convert a work-place into fun-place? I leave it unanswered, because, I couldn’t find a better answer to this for the last seventeen years. I let them bask.

      Also I did observe that people who have taken-up jobs with casual attitudes usually cannot or do not justify the work they do and the pay they receive. I wonder whether they really dedicate themselves to their work, to themselves or at least the organization. They actually maybe doing their best, but their actions always tell something else.

      Coming back to the point of having fun at work; I think having moderate fun at work sure does foster positive atmosphere at work, friendship, removes  monotony, refreshes moods, enhances both; quantity and quality of work, and other factors too. But, at the same time when merriment crosses its limit, the same work-place becomes a playground for games, conspiracy, chit-chatting, politics, and many more causes which influence negativity.

      All these negative elements ultimately affect the overall productivity of a team, a department, or more so the entire organization, which commonly results in demotivated dedicated employees, revenue loss, and losing projects to competitors, and other hidden troubles.

      I opine that, it is the responsibility of a manager to ensure appropriate balance of work and fun at work. The manager is required to remove unnecessary distractions which directly affect smooth flow of work, co-workers, and other departments, revenues, growth, and other factors. Lethargy in controlling this by the manager could probably end in he being removed from the job or he losing smart and dedicated employees for him to work on their behalf.

      When I started my career, it started with 95% fun, but it was gradual learning and realization that temporary fun won’t take me anywhere. I applied and worked on the English proverb; “Work while you work and play while you play” and that has helped me climb to the first slab of 95% work and 5% Fun = Steady, strong, and complete growth; resulting in everlasting fun.

The Pros and Cons of Employee Retention

In today’s highly competitive employment market, employee retention has become an integral part in most of the organizations across all industries. The term “Employee Retention” is not new to today’s fast growing economic world.  It has gained momentum in the last decade. Many organizations today employ various processes and measures to retain employees so as to encourage employees to stay in the organization for a longer period.

There is a possibility that organization’s – small, medium or big; maintain a provisional fund which could be spent on retaining performing employees.  Employee retaining efforts may include benefits such as ESOPS (Employee Stock Options  – issue of shares at less than market rate), yearly bonus, extra pay for additional efforts, paid vacations for the employee and his or her family, awards, rewards, recognition, cultural activities, flexible work hours, work from home facility, perks and host of other benefits.

Companies today are well aware of the fact that there are plenty of opportunities available for the talented people.  Companies are always in search of such people and would ensure to take necessary steps to hire and retain them.

On the other side, talented employees who feel lack of satisfaction level in their current organization may start searching for options. In such cases that company may lose its talent pool to a competitor.

There are a couple of theories on retention and motivation which may be in use or followed at major corporations across the world for e.g. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow%27s_hierarchy_of_needs 

(1) by Abraham Maslow and  

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two-factor_theory 

(2) by Frederick Herzberg.

Now let’s try to understand the other side of retaining employees. Major organizations today, have adopted a strategy of retaining instead of hiring or adding new candidates to their employee strength. They take steps to improve themselves on retaining performing and employees who have been with the company for a longer duration. Organizations off lately have come to realize that the cost involved in pre-screening, interviewing and hiring of candidates was found to be more as compared to amount spent on miscellaneous activities on existing employees.

Moreover, there are other costs involved in hiring a new candidate or candidates which companies have to bear. These expenses may be termed as additional overheads for an organization. These indirect expenses can be classified under - telephone and internet usage, use of electricity, man hours spent by human resources department, admin department, and other related departments. Moreover, there are direct expenses such as advertising and recruiting, orientation and training of the new employee and subsequently decreased productivity till the time the new employee is trained.

As Beverly Kaye and Sharon Jordan Evans stated in Training and Development: "Studies have found that the cost of replacing lost talent is 70 to 200 percent of that employee's annual salary. There are advertising and recruiting expenses, orientation and training of the new employee, decreased productivity until the new employee is up to speed, and loss of customers who were loyal to the departing employee. Finding, recruiting, and training the best employees represents a major investment. Once a company has captured talented people, the return on investment requires closing the back door to prevent them from walking out." http://www.answers.com/topic/employee-retention#ixzz1Zrg1uUP (3)

 

Additionally, many organizations are known to hire consultants to provide them candidates for filling in the vacancies they have. Of course, consultants would never offer their services for free. Companies may or may not form a contract with placement consultants to provide a regular flow of candidates. Companies do have to pay consultants a pre-decided amount also known as percentage of the annual package of the hired individual(s). The percentage ratio ranges from 8% to 30% of the annual package.

It is observed across many industries that corporations have initiated measures to encourage older employees to continue with them for a longer duration. While doing this they have also ensured cutting costs and maintaining employee satisfaction.

It is wide known fact that initiation of any measure or process has its advantages and disadvantages, so does employee retention measures have its own share of positives and negatives.

Now let’s take a look at few of the pros and cons of employee retention.

Advantages:

Ø       Avoids and or reduces hiring costs.

Ø       Retaining employees reduces training costs.

Ø       It builds a team of skilled and experienced employees.

Ø       Retaining experienced staff creates a positive impact on customer services.

Ø       Retention activity fosters loyalty towards the organization amongst employees.

Ø       Encourages friendly environment and fosters bonding amongst employees.

Ø       It facilitates smooth workflow of internal processes.

Ø       It increases the quantity of work delivered.

Ø       It enhances the quality of the work produced.

Ø       It increases revenue for the organization.

Disadvantages:

Ø       It promotes groupism amongst old employees which creates an insecure environment for   

     new employees.

Ø       Improper mixing of staff affects productivity and ensures poor quality of work.

Ø       Excessive liberty to staff just to maintain work flow affects quantity and quality both.

Ø       Flexible work timings rarely justify the work delivered.

Ø       Retaining non-delivering staff kills the productivity and creativity of knowledgeable

     employees.

Ø       Retaining spoon-fed and complaining employees add to the cost of the organization.

Ø       Affluent employees who do not require a job, rarely add value to the employee strength.

These are just a few examples of advantages and disadvantages related to employee retention. There is always a chance there can be more relevant examples.   

Corporations today are working toward increasing their profit margins, reduce costs and are employing latest measures to sustain competition and employee retention is one of the most important tools to ensure stability in the market. Directors, Senior Management, and Consultants would advice or suggest various techniques to reach results but, it is the middle management which is solely responsible to achieve desired goals.

Reference:

(1) and (2) Wikipedia, (3) Answers.com

Emerging Technology of Iphone -5.

Our world for the past couple of decades has been inundated with numerous technologies – may it be in the field of commerce, science, manufacturing, education, consumer products and many other industries; however, the technology in the field of communication has developed beyond human imagination.

Considering the fact of incremental development in information and communication; advancement in mobile or cellular technology has grown leaps and bounds. Just a decade ago, especially in India, it was quite amazing to communicate through a cell phone. During the initial years, it took months developing new technologies or software's related to cell-phones. But, in the recent past cell-phone devices and related software's and technology have and are progressing at a high speed.

Let’s consider the case of cellular technology developed by communication device and technology behemoth Apple Inc. Apple Inc. is considered a leader in introducing latest technologies in this category. The company introduced first “iPhone” in 2007. The cell phone operates on Apples mobile operating system. Its range of iPhone products include iPhone, iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4 (released in 2010), iPhone 4S, and the recently launched (September 2012) sixth generation - iPhone 5.

The iPhone 5 is quite advanced compared to other iPhone siblings. The device’s hardware and software carries – Apple’s mobile operation system, a 4 inch diagonal multi-touch screen, 8 mega pixel rear camera and 1.2 mega pixel front camera with HD video option, built-in speakers, free turn-by-turn navigation, A6 processor, slim and light weight. The device is available in GSM and CDMA versions.

Further, iPhone 5 can can play music, movies, television shows, e-books, audiobooks, and pod-casts. Additionally, it can sort media library by songs, artists, albums, videos, playlists, genres, composers, pod-casts, and audiobooks. The phone also has a voice control system know as “Siri”, which allows the user to operate the device by spoken commands. Moreover, Apple’s “built-in maps” available with almost all models and which was derided to give out inaccurate directions has been corrected with “turn-by-turn navigation” which provides 3 dimensional views in some major cities and real-time traffic.

Furthermore, to keep its users at comfort, Apple has incorporated iOS 6 which is able to retrieve documents such as boarding passes, admission tickets, coupons and loyalty cards through its new Passbook app. In addition, iOS 6 includes photos, contacts, calendars, reminders, Bluetooth sharing, Twitter, and Facebook.

All versions of iPhone 5 are comparatively thinner, lighter, and have less volume than iPhone 4S. The company claims it to be the thinnest smartphone in the world and carries the most emerging technology amongst all smartphones.