HR is an integral part of our business

Social media has become an integral part of the recruiting process and this trend is likely to grow exponentially in the coming years. To understand more about the HR strategies/programs and the recent trends, Dataquest spoke to Kavita Rao, Director, Human Resource, Unisys Global Services, India, China, and Hungar.

Give us a brief overview of the overall HR performance in your organization regarding appraisal, training, employees' job satisfaction, and company image.

HR has evolved tremendously over the past 20 years right from the manner in which practitioners enter the profession to the roles served by HR to the value it brings to organizations. As a services company, we believe that employees are our greatest asset and as such, HR is an integral part of our business. We're constantly evolving the HR function to align our department with the organization's priorities to achieve better business outcomes.

To this end, Unisys has an end-to-end career development framework, to help our employees plan their career from the time they enter the organization and pursue a structured learning path in order to realize their career aspirations. We strive to help employees feel truly connected to the business by understanding how their role and growth contributes to business performance and success. This is done through regular, timely, accurate, and effective two-way communication across the organization about the purpose, value, and impact of various employee engagement initiatives and how they benefit employees.

Have you implemented any new HR strategies/programs in the current year?

We recently launched a new onboarding initiative called the ‘Red Carpet' to prepare, welcome, and integrate new employees into our company. The online site automates and simplifies multiple processes, enabling new employees to quickly acclimate. It provides one site for all actions for new employee integration, a dedicated support team, less administration for hiring managers, and compliance with legal requirements and internal policies.

We also introduced the Management Development Program (MDP), a multi-year program to help leaders hone the skills required to execute organizational goals, engage and motivate their teams, drive customer satisfaction, and create a culture of excellence. The program assesses, develops, and hones leadership abilities including aspects of delivery, customer, people, and business that will ensure our leaders are well-rounded.

Further, we have refreshed our Hyper Care Program, initially launched in 2011, to ensure a smooth transition for freshers, during their first six months, into the Unisys environment. This program brings together freshers, business units, and senior management to discuss the new employee's role, early challenges, and the path ahead. Employees are encouraged to ask questions and voice their concerns and opinions, as well as provided with a clear understanding of how they contribute to the larger organization. Some of the initiatives include skip level meetings, Dinner with the Boss, Fresher's Day, and Graduation Day.

What are the recent trends in recruitment?

Some of the recent trends in recruitment include:

Social Sourcing: Social media has become an integral part of the recruiting process and this trend is likely to grow exponentially in the coming years. At Unisys India, given that the average age of our employees is about 29 years, social media is an integral part of our recruitment and engagement strategy. From an external perspective, we are actively engaged across key social media channels including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube.

Industry Academia Partnerships: Collaborating with academia not only enables organizations to recruit top talent, but more importantly work with young minds to develop essential 21st century skills and promote innovation. Unisys has a long history of collaboration with the academia in promoting talent and driving innovation. Some of our key initiatives include:

• Cloud 20/20: Launched in 2009, Cloud 20/20 is one of India's biggest online technical project contests, which provides engineering students a platform to showcase their innovative and path-breaking ideas on cloud computing. Unisys also created the Unisys Technology Forum India (UTFI) online library, where students can access technical webinars, whitepapers, and other valuable resources to keep their innovative thinking alive and growing.
• Unisys Innovation Labs: Launched in March 2013, UIL gives students and faculty access to a wide range of resources, including training material, classroom sessions, technical webinars and workshops, and enables them to participate in multiple Unisys certification programs.

Big Data/HR Analytics: According to the Linkedin 2013 Global Recruiting Trends Report, more than 50% of companies surveyed in India use data to make hiring and employer branding choices. At Unisys, we lay great emphasis on gathering, analyzing, and reporting key data in the areas of performance management, recruitment, learning and development, compensation, and succession planning. This provides valuable insights into our employees' skills and capabilities, where gaps exist, and how to build and retain top talent.

 

 

What are the parameters that your appraisal system works on?

Unisys has a robust, digitized performance appraisal system that aims to help employees regularly assess and hone their technical and functional skills, so as to realize their career aspirations. This involves annual goal setting, where employees set goals that aim to enhance their professional and personal development in line with organizational goals.

We encourage our managers to provide employees with regular feedback on both goals as well as desired behaviors. This ensures the holistic development of our employees. We also have a number of initiatives in place to sensitize our managers on the appraisal process. This involves trainings for first time appraisers and refresher trainings for senior appraisers. These trainings focus on goal setting, fair evaluation, linking employee goals to organizational goals, and handling difficult reactions.

Apart from technical skills, some of the core skills and competencies that are carefully tracked and measured include written and verbal communication skills, ability to deliver against tight deadlines, a drive for results, attention to detail, teamwork, and customer focus, among others.

We also have a ‘Competency Assurance' program, which aims to provide employees with a complete overview of their current skills and competencies, identify any gaps, and provide the necessary skills, training, mentoring, and career opportunities to close those gaps, with the support of their managers. The program is designed not only to equip employees with the competencies required to be successful in their current roles, but also future roles.

We have taken every step to ensure that the appraisal process is as fair, open, and transparent as possible including publishing employee vs. manager ratings against goals online, putting in place effective redressal systems, and ensuring regular communication around the importance and value of this process.