by teamrecTalent acquisition and retention is among the biggest challenges faced by a modern business organization. The statement holds true even more, when the company is operating in a competitive, technology driven environment in which human resources are the main ingredient for the business. Today’s young, ambitious professionals look at the value they get and give vis-à-vis their employer. Here’s how Financial Technologies (India) Ltd (Financial Technologies), an innovation oriented exchange creator in several continents with a diversified workforce, is addressing the issue.
Financial Technologies is among the global leaders in developing the most cost-effective technologies for setting up exchange platforms and operating them. Financial Technologies has set up and operates seven exchanges – five in India and one each in Middle East and Mauritius.
As with any company, Financial Technologies has taken many initiatives as a part of its HR policies including training and skill development, in turn creating pride, trust, and camaraderie among employees, building a sense of company ownership in each employee, leadership development, and introducing an employee referral scheme. But the icing on the cake has to come from its unique scheme called ‘DOST’, intended to impart some comfort level for new entrants before they settle down.
D.O.S.T. is an acronym that stands for Dedicated to On-boarding Support and Training. The scheme begins with the entry of a newcomer into a team and facilitates his or her effective and quick integration into the organisation. On entry, he/she is provided with a companion-friend labeled DOST, who will facilitate overcoming teething problems in a smooth and hassle-free manner. From the time they are introduced to each other, they are called DOST and protégé/ward.
“We found that the attrition levels are high within the first few months of an employee joining an organization. On carrying out a further study, we discovered the major reason was due to problems in getting oneself acclimatized with the organization, its systems and culture, the initial discomfort of a new environment. To address this problem, we launched DOST.” says Dr C.M. Dwivedi, Group Head – Human Resources at Financial Technologies.
Hand Holding
Typically, a newcomer feels lost in the new organization as he/she faces difficulties in understanding and fulfilling the formalities of various departments. Besides, understanding the processes and culture independently poses a challenge. Undergoing required training is one thing while understanding duties and responsibilities is another thing. All these problems are addressed by offering a senior person in the same department as a companion to a newcomer through DOST, who could support and be a companion to him/her through the first 90 days.
The DOST is entrusted with the job of imbuing the joinee with the organization’s business, culture, values, policies, and procedures in a systematic manner. DOST is a one-point contact for the newcomer, whether he/she wishes to contact the human resources (HR) or administration (Admin) departments or for knowledge of facilities like food joints or a medical store in the vicinity.
“Usually, joining formalities take half a day. Other first day formalities include induction into HR and administration departments, systems and derivatives induction, besides introduction to the allotted DOST. On the second day, the DOST will initiate the departmental induction process by introducing his ward to the team member and the head,” said Meena Jawahrani, Assistant Vice-President for HR at Financial Technologies and the person in charge of the DOST scheme.
The departmental induction process involves introducing the new entrant to the team members, explaining his/her responsibilities, briefing by the department head and initiating on-job training.
Traits
The DOST is preferably chosen from the same department as the newcomer and is usually a little senior to him/her, as it is essential for the DOST to have a complete understanding of the department so as to guide his/her wards properly. It is the responsibility of the DOST to inform his protégé on the necessary departments and contacts. He must be aware of all the resources, not only within the office but also in the surrounding areas – nearby restaurants, caterers, chemists, in-house department contacts etc.
The scheme was formally introduced in February 2008. “When solicited for nominations for DOST, we have received overwhelming response of 52 entries in just the first one-two days. This was, in fact, more than the number of joinees, 42 over the last few months,” says Ms Jawahrani with pride. And there are a few who have already passed through the scheme, which is process and organization-oriented.
The scheme is applicable to all full-time joinees of Financial Technologies group, right up to the senior management level. The latter are directly supported by the HR Department. Quick integration of joinees into the organization also contributes to growth and productivity.
The HR Department, in association with the respective heads of the departments finalizes nominations for DOST, after ascertaining that the eligible candidate has the following traits:
- Is mature, flexible, and approachable
- Is completely professional and be able to lead by example
- Has good interpersonal and communication skills
- Has the ability to inspire and energize
- Has completed minimum one year with the organization and achieved a grade
- Is well-versed with the organization’s business, culture, values, policies and procedures
- Knows key persons of various units of the organization
- Should be able to balance and service his/her routine day-to-day responsibilities along with his/her DOST responsibilities.
“Just defining the ideal characteristics for a person to be the DOST may not yield the desired results. So, we have a brief training programme for the nominees under the scheme to enable one to lead by example,” says Ms Jawahrani.
Relationship
The relationship between the DOST and his/her protégé has been defined to avoid unwarranted developments or incidents. For instance, lending and borrowing of money between DOST and ward, amongst other things, is prohibited. The guidelines emphasize that the relationship should be strictly professional – restricted to office premises and working hours. If any casualness is noticed, the relationship may be terminated and the ward could be reassigned to another DOST.
While the entire effort is to make a friendly, open, and welcoming atmosphere for a new joinee, the DOST scheme, as in any similar scheme, does lay down a few “don’ts”. These don’ts are intended to avoid complications in the relationship between DOST and his protégé in their work relationship, and include –
- Getting too personally involved with his/her protégé
- Leave his/her own critical assignments unattended/incomplete in order to help out the protégé
- Perform the new joinee’s work himself
- Expect any monetary benefit for performing his/her DOST role
- Stop being a DOST before the new hire settles down
- Form a personal bias or ignore the needs of the protégé
For evaluating the efficiency of the scheme, DOST has to give regular feedback on his protégé, while the ward has to give his feedback to the HR Department on completion of the tenure of the relationship, so that the performance of the DOST could be improved in future and the scheme could be fine tuned.
Says Prachi Bawari from Group HR and a seasoned DOST “It has been a good experience as a DOST. Apart from the routine work, I was given the opportunity to help and guide a new team member to blend well with the organization culture, systems, and processes. This experience has helped me grow as a person and as a professional. Being a DOST helped me impart my knowledge and experience to a new friend/colleague.”
Akshay Srinivasan, a newly recruited executive with the web development team, adds, “It was a pleasant surprise to realize that this company values its employees and takes such tremendous efforts to establish a good relation with them. My DOST has been my friend, companion, and guide is showing me the correct way around the organization besides introducing me to my team members and ensuring that I face no hurdles while I try to settle in this place”
The HR Zone
The DOST scheme is implemented and managed scrupulously, even though the Financial Technologies Group has an intranet-based Group HR Zone, which is a one-point interface for employees – new and old – to access and avail various HR resources such as HR policies, procedures, forms and formats, knowledge-sharing articles etc. The Zone also provides detailed information about training and development activities, performance management activities, and events. There are several tools that promote employee interaction and participation like knowledge-sharing forums, fun time, contests, new colleague introductions etc.
The HR Department believes that every employee is its customer too. As such, it has defined the key result area for the HR team as a smile on the face of each employee.
Training
Financial Technologies Group has an in-house learning and development initiative viz., AIMS: an acronym for Acquire, Improvise, and Maximize Skills. AIMS intends to make every effort to enrich Financial Technologies Group’s human resource with knowledge and skills.
Soft skill development programmes called ‘Enrichment Programmes’ are targeted at all levels of employees in the organization, besides induction and functional training programmes. Enrichment programmes are a regular feature at Financial Technologies. .
Enrichment programs provide value addition to a person and make him/her more effective. They comprise skills like communication, presentation, leadership, time management, team management etc.
From an office assistant to the executive level, all members are put through a corporate grooming program, wherein they are trained in office etiquette, communication skills, presentation skills, time management, corporate dressing, and stress management.
“A series of team building workshops are run for our middle management. Our leadership grooming and competency development programs are targeted at building and empowering the leaders of tomorrow,” says Dr. Dwivedi.
Having presence in areas such as equities, commodities, bonds, and foreign exchange markets, besides other financial services areas in different continents, Financial Technologies’ employees are expected to gear up for international etiquette and imbibe personality skills.
For more senior executives, the training initiative of the Corporate HR Group comes in the form of a program called LEAD – Leverage, Empower, Align, and Develop. This is a leadership development program aimed at identifying and developing Financial Technologies Group’s leaders of tomorrow.
Program objectives of LEAD are to facilitate the development of leadership attributes such as:It is a powerful experiential learning program and comprises of challenging activities like rafting, rappelling, rock climbing and other outdoor activities with emphasis on interpersonal communication, leadership skills, team-synergy, and strategy planning. It is conducted at senior management levels – from vice-presidents and senior vice-presidents.
- Leading the Way: Creating and articulating a clear compelling vision for the future
- Goal Setting: Setting a well-defined path to attain the vision
- Decision Making: Taking positive action
- Problem Solving: Finding the best option
- Managerial Leadership: Leading through change, leading by example
- Empowering and Delegating: Building trust to obtain results
- Team Motivation: Enabling peak performance
TEAM (Together Everyone Achieves More) workshops are a powerful experiential learning program for team leads in the assistant manager positions to the AVP grade group. Recently, the company successfully concluded a series of team building workshops. The workshops have generated high synergy and team bonding with participants naming their teams as ROADIES, DRISHTI, JEEL, ROCKERS etc.
The workshops have another, deeper purpose too as they are intended to enhance the participants’ engagement with the company by improving sense of ownership and responsibility. Executives are helped to see the larger picture of Financial Technologies’ vision and goals, so that they do not imagine themselves as mere pawns in a large organizational setup. A habit of understanding and appreciating the larger picture is inculcated, so that every executive is able to see their own role with clarity and align themselves with the organizational mission.
“Many barriers have been broken and many closed doors opened during these workshops. The enthusiasm generated is at an all time high and everyday HR receives numerous requests for such programs from HODs,” Dr. Dwivedi explains.
The corporate HR team has also introduced an in-house employee referral scheme called ‘Parichay’, in which existing employees can refer their friends for a career opportunity with the Financial Technologies Group and in turn get remunerated for their efforts and involvement. The referred are thoroughly screened and evaluated and taken on board only if found suitable. The scheme has been highly successful and today, about 25 percent of recruitment takes place through the Parichay scheme.
“Parichay has also generated synergy and good word of mouth for the organization and helped in reducing recruitment cost,” says Dr Dwivedi, explaining the benefits the scheme.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Dr. Chandra Mauli Dwivedi is working as a President & Global Head – Corporate HR, Datamatics Global Services Ltd. He has over 23 years experience in the area of HR Consulting, Training, Teaching and Corporate HR functions.
He holds a Doctorate degree in Industrial Psychology and is a trained Lead Assessor on People Capability Maturity Model (PCMM) by Carnegie Mellon University – USA. In the recent world HRD congress Dr. Dwivedi has been honored as “India’s Greatest HR professionals”.
Dr. Dwivedi has been a President of HR Infotech Association (05 -06) and is Heading FT Group Organization Transformation Council and Affirmative Action Committee.
Dr. Dwivedi is a recipient of the prestigious “Young Scientist Award” from Government of India. He is also recipient of “Outstanding Achievement Award”, “Exemplary Leadership Award”, “Special Team Leadership Award” ,Group Quality Award, Super Achiever’s Award, Global HR Excellence Award and RASBIC Leadership Award, in recognition of the outstanding and very valuable contribution made to the IT Industry and to the business of the company.
Dr. Dwivedi is a Ph.D. guide in Applied Psychology at Mumbai University and has successfully guided 20 students for their Master’s and 5 students for Doctorate degree. He has been nominated as a Member of Board of Studies – University of Mumbai & Pune, and also to the Governing Board / Advisory Council of some of the prestigious Management Institutes.
Dr. Dwivedi is regular key note speaker / Chairperson in many national and international conferences including CII, FICCI, BMA, NIPM, HR Infotech, NHRD, World HRD Congress, Asia Pacific HRM, Congress etc. Dr. Dwivedi is also the President of Rotary Club under Rotary International Dist. 3140 for the year 2008-09.
He has published several research papers and is a frequent contributor to magazines and publications like Economic Times, Business India, IT People, Indian Management, Human Capital, Domain B, Express Computers CNBC, ZEE TV etc.
