What’s in the name? SuccessFactors for HR

By: Gireesh Sharma
Date: June 25th, 2008
Posted in: HR Best Practices | 9 Comments »

I stepped into the corporate office of Book Cafe, one of the largest chains of niche book stores, hoping to meet some white beard editors and publishers.

Against all my odd thoughts, while sitting in the lobby next to a training room, I saw a very smart guy conducting a training session – on sales etiquettes, sales strategies, motivation, and so many other strategic issues related to book business. In the middle of discussion, he would also discuss the personal problems of employees and give suggestions to resolve them at organizational level, giving reference to some third person, who faced a similar problem. It was a mesmerizing training session!

After the training session, the guy relaxed himself on a table that was just below a signboard that said ‘Human Resources Department’. Being an HR analyst, it was my turn to get amazed. Is he really from HR department? I wondered. I could not resist the temptation to meet him.

“Hi!”, I said.

“Hi! Are you waiting for someone”, he said, while heading towards the lobby.

“Yeah! By the way, are you from HR Department?”, I shot a direct question. The answer was affirmative. I quickly introduced myself and my immense interest in HR best practices. “Can we have a quick chat about your HR practices?”, I continued, guessing what his answer could be.

“Sure”, he quickly took a seat besides me.

“In my profession I meet lot of HR professionals. What I saw a few minutes ago was very impressive and rare exercise that an HR guy would do. I wold love to talk to you about how you manage HR at Book Cafe, what are your challenges, blah blah!.” I came directly to the point.

“I believe unless HR go in the midst of hard core realities, understand business challenges and strategies to meet them, it cannot connect to the grass root level workforce. Without knowing the real business objectives and strategies, you merely remain a Personnel Manager, whatever designation you hold.”

“You have around 40-50 stores across the country. How do you connected to your people across so many locations?”

“Technology enables it. I communicate through e-mails, SMS, phone, chat etc. We have a HRIS system too. Continuous communication with employees is the main strength of HR at Book Cafe; communication at all levels – professional and personal . A bond with employees at all level, helps us to touch their lives and motivate them perform.”

“What are your prime task as an HR manager?”

“Apart from usual tasks, HR at Book Cafe handles trainings, employee appraisals and many Etceteras. We have regular training sessions for employees at all levels. Our training is divided into many modules: sales, personal etiquettes, communication skills, systems training (like billing software, accounting etc).”

“How do you manage performance of your people?”, I raised an important question that is relevant to all organizations.

“We have bi-annual appraisals in our organization. We evaluate our people on so many criteria. By merely giving sales figure we do not consider someone a leader. One needs to train and develop other team members, create new business strategies and manage funds in a more appropriate manner. This helps us prepare new leaders who can take Book Cafe’s business farther”

“And a last question, what are your best HR practices? What are your SuccessFactors?”

“We know everybody here by name. We know what their personal problems are. We know the problems at grass root level and how to resolve them. We respect individuals. We follow these book by book.”

“Even the guys at remote locations.”, I inquired.

“Yes! We give a name to every face”, I could see the sense of pride on his face while he continued. “We have a flat organization, no hierarchies, open door policy. Indeed, we are the only organization who can train a raw guy into a professional retailer”.

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The guy I met at Book Cafe and who knows everybody by name, is Sarfaraj Bora, Corporate HR Manager with Book Cafe. And I am Gireesh, HR analyst for EmpXtrack. And I learnt a lesson today – Know everybody by name! It pays!

As he told, Sarfaraj relies on latest HR technology and their HRIS systems for managing people, which is just in line with what many matured organizations do. The growing client list of EmpXtrack, and also of other HR technology solution providers is enough to prove that HR is embracing latest technology to manage talent and performance of their people. To know more, read an article by Major General B K Bhatia: “Interfacing Technology With Strategic HR”.

Do you have the technology that can leverage your HR? Click here to know more.