Reading Circle: Managing Uncertainty
One of the core values of Advaiya is having a growth mindset—always be learning, always be improving. And with that sentiment, every Friday, we have knowledge sharing sessions, such as “Building Presence Voicing Thoughts”, project showcase or reading circle session. This week, we had a really interesting and relatable topic in our reading circle on ‘Managing Uncertainty,’ moderated by our practice director Virendra Sharma. referencing the article Strategy under uncertainty by McKinney. The session started with identifying the need to have a strategic direction towards managing uncertainty. Virendra explained how precise prediction is required in the traditional approach to strategy. Neglection of ambiguity can be by assisting with a four-level system. This four-level system consists of a clear enough future, alternative futures, a range of futures and true ambiguity. The four levels brought a lot of real-life incidents, case studies and situations shared by the individuals. The methodology that we outlined in our reading session provides the discipline to think scrupulously and critically about the system’s complexity. This discipline allows organizations to choose which analytical methods can help make decisions at variable degrees of uncertainty. It helps to create an organization adaptable and agile towards upcoming dangers. We also discussed about some practical tactics which would allow us to manage uncertainties in our personal and professional lives, especially in the light of COVID-19 pandemic and the rapidly changing technology tapestry. Some key takeaways were to always be learning, be agile and develop the ability to critically evaluate the situation and deal with it.
Re-thinking employee engagement in COVID times
cccc COVID-19 has accelerated many business transformations. And one of the major functions affected is the human resources (HR) management. From keeping the employees safe to facilitating flexible policies and remote working infrastructure, HR professionals have their hands full. Not to mention keeping the employees engaged, as that has always been the topmost priority for the HR professionals. For example, until recently, the HR professionals banked on employees group events—be it get together, tournaments, birthday celebrations or picnics—to build team bonding and enthuse and engage. With social distancing and remote working here to stay, how can companies achieve these goals? Here I would like to draw attention to the real meaning of the term engagement. “Employee engagement is the extent to which employees feel passionate about their jobs and are committed to the organization.” And for that, it really does not matter how many events are organized or where the person is working from. So, what matters? Here is my take: Communicating vision, values, and goals- often If the team members have a clear idea about the company’s goals and strategies, it is far more likely that they can handle the stresses and make effort to connect and understand. This is where the HR team plays a vital role. Right from hiring through the entire journey, the company’s vision, values, and goals should be communicated as frequently and articulately as possible. Showing the bigger picture I am always reminded of the story of three masons who were building a structure. When a passer-by asked the first mason what he was building, the mason replied, “Oh, I am just carrying the logs back and forth and earning my day’s bread.” The second mason replied, “I am hammering the nails to keep the logs together.” And the third one replied, “You see, we are building a grand church here where people will come and find peace.” Telling stories When people are working remotely, even getting on-boarded remotely, how would they learn about the company, its culture and build a deeper connect? It is through the stories they hear. Talking about the nights spent cracking that complicated code; huddling together for days at end to meet a customers’ deadline; talking about how the team waded through the chaos and delivered a world-class project; the feeling of pride when a client demo’ed the team’s work in front of the key decision-makers. Appreciating Celebrate success. A project closed; a win; a skill gained. Take a moment to make people feel appreciated Being present Being online is not being present. It is vital that the managers, mentors, and HR teams are always available to solve a problem, guide, and help the team members navigate through, not just work, but these extra-ordinary trying times where everyone is learning to cope in the unique situation. With people working from home more, we may not be able to walk down the hall, stop by someone’s desk and ask: “Hey, how’re you doing?” So, it becomes even more critical that we communicate, be present, and show that we care. And that, IMHO would keep the employees engaged. Ruchika Godha Ruchika is Advaiya’s Chief Operating Officer, responsible for managing the company’s business operations, executing business strategy and ensuring operational excellence company-wide. She is also responsible for overall brand development and marketing initiatives. In addition to that, she leads employee effectiveness team at Advaiya working across the company to establish and execute strategy for talent acquisition, performance management and compensation schemes. Earlier in her career, she acquired years of experience working across aviation, textiles, engineering and technology companies. Ruchika attended the International Institute of Professional Studies, where she received her Master’s in Management Science with HRD as the subject of specialization, and received her diploma in HRD from Academy of Human Resource Department.
What is it like for a woman to work at Advaiya
Gone are the days when the duties of women were confined to home. A 21st-century woman is a homemaker, entrepreneur, politician, manager and everything else you name, and Advaiya believes in building a culture where everyone feels heard and valued. In this month when womanhood is celebrated all over the world, I would like to share my experience working at Advaiya and the reasons why I find this company a great place to work for a woman: Rewarding the most deserving employee Employees entrust their career to a company, and the company must make sure that it does justice to every employee irrespective of gender. Equality is the first step to achieve a healthy working environment. I have found that Advaiya has built a work culture with equal preference to all genders. The most deserving employee is rewarded regardless of their gender, and there are women in executive and managerial positions here. Because of this, there is a culture of competitiveness and transparency. Work Flexibility According to a recent study, 70% of the women who left the workplace said that they would continue to work if there was work flexibility. Flexible work schedules if there is a family emergency or commitments can be beneficial for everyone especially women. I have been able to take care of my home and excel at work because of the flexibility the company has given me in terms of working hours and work from home option. This has helped women out here to strike a good balance between family and work which in turn has helped establish rapport between employees and management. Maternity leave and creche facility Taking a break from career for motherhood should not be the reason for a woman not being able to achieve what she wants in her career. Maternity leave is an unquestionable right for every working woman, and this company’s leave policy has helped me get back to work after pregnancy without any roadblocks to my career growth. The percentage of women working here is 35%, and this high strength reflects the versatile work culture. Also, there is a creche in the company premises where I leave my kid and visit her throughout the day. All these factors of a company encourage an employee to perform well at work. I was able to do justice to my job and family because of the flexible work culture, and I think it’s time for all the organizations to adopt this culture of equality and flexibility.
Advaiya Emphasis on Women’s Career Strategies
#BeBoldForChange was the theme for the 2017 International Women’s Day, celebrated this year on March 8. March is also National Women’s History month. That’s why for March, we are highlighting the journey of some of the many successful women employees from Advaiya to encourage other women further to pursue careers after marriage and kids. Several women, and specifically, working mothers, battle with how to incorporate their personal and professional lives. Women with caretaking obligations frequently disclose that they are searching for direction on the right career strategy i.e. how can they manage work with children around effectively and how can they oversee business and family commitments. While most organizations understand these struggles, not every one of them realizes that they could play a substantial role in the life of female employees to effectively conquer these issues. I was so relieved to realize that women’s career strategy is one of the three employee effectiveness building blocks of what Advaiya believes will help level women and men in the workforce. Career strategy, along with delivering result oriented work and taking full charge of the role one is offered, is what Advaiya believes will help get women to equality when it comes to the gender pay gap. There’s no doubt that being educated in, and savvy about, technology is key to job opportunities and advancing on the pay scale. When it comes to career strategy, things are more mixed. Besides, a well thought out career strategy depends on the choices you make at your workplace. Take the example of working mothers at Advaiya, who not only won promotion after returning to work post having a baby but also are leading teams, taking advantage of a corporate culture that encourages women and returning mothers. Undaunted by having a baby, they are taking full charge of projects within few months. They say Advaiya’s supportive culture and encouraging facilities such as maternity leaves, crèche and daycare center, work from home policy amongst others have mostly helped them to carve their career in an efficient manner and most importantly in a way they wanted. Bringing kids to work was a demonstration of how much work and kids matter to today’s working women and how they can balance both given the right organizational support. We are aware of numerous other women in their shoes who have similar needs yet would have never thought to accomplish something to that effect. Obviously, to a limited extent that might be on account of most organizations presumably don’t have a culture that bolsters that sort of decision. Looking at this logically, two things were similarly imperative in this instance: Advaiya’s strong culture and our women workforce’s career strategy. That is the reason I trust it’s occupant upon businesses who are focused on gender uniformity and equality over the association to (a) acknowledge there are these different sorts of women out there, and (b) make culture, practices, and policies that bolster every one of them. At the end of the day, managers ought to meet women who are “leaning in” to their career aspiring to be leading influential roles by giving them an assortment of various tracks and ways to get into leadership positions.
Advaiya Summer Internship Program
A summer internship is a great way to put in practice what is learnt in college and gain real time experience. And that is what Advaiya internship program focuses on. Advaiya has been facilitating students to develop new skills and make the most out of their summer internship experience. Our internship program is designed with the right mix of formal training, mentoring, and on-the-job practice. Day one at Advaiya, for interns, begins with an orientation session including a brief description of the company’s mission and vision, a tour of the office, meeting with managers and mentors, to ensure that everyone starts with defined expectations and role definitions. Then begins the cycle of learning, grooming, meetings, real challenges, falling down, getting up, receiving feedback, and going back for more. Based on the skill areas, a mentor is assigned a group of interns, to help them channel their thinking from the basics of software development lifecycle to specific live projects. No matter with which mentor or manager they work with, all interns are assigned a real, meaningful project. Consistent feedback and professional guidance are a key part of the cohesive internship experience. To ensure they have a time well spent, we have professional and fun events organized throughout the internship period. From Building Presence Voicing Thoughts – a twenty minutes TED-like talk held every Friday, to lunch parties, to have them play their favorite sports, to explore the expansive surroundings, they have plenty of opportunities to socialize with other interns and employees from across the company. At the end of the program, interns have a substantial list of activities and hands-on experience to add to their resume and give them a competitive edge over other candidates in their industry. Our interns find the summer at Advaiya as inspirational, educational, fun, and memorable. Here’s what some of our interns have to say about their experience at Advaiya – “My favorite thing about working here is each one’s inputs and work are valued equally. I, and a fellow intern, Saurabh, are working on significant portions of a real project with our mentor Hemendra, who has provided us a great insight into the software development domain,” said Prakhar Singh Yadav of College of Technology and Engineering, Udaipur. “Yes, right! Our mentor has helped us see more clearly how to best use the things learned in our college,” added Sheetal Jain of Jaipur Engineering College and Research Centre. “A flexible schedule during our internship, made our transition to the workplace smooth and easy.” said Suhani Kavdia of SKIT, Jaipur. “A typical workday is much more than just work. It’s a time where we get to socialize with experienced people, attend meaningful meetings, and collaborate on projects along with our mentors and managers, and form new connections” said Saurabh Rai Rathore of GCET, Bikaner. Enjoy every moment of your work and life by being a part of this happening family. #BeAtAdvaiya
Live. Work. Play – How we strike the balance
Companies come in all kinds – from those who keep a close eye on their employees, banning even the use of cell phones in the premises, to the ones who have blurred the lines between work and play. Ours falls in the latter category, believing in work hard and play harder. The office culture allows our folks to take a break from work and blow off some steam playing the game of table tennis, cricket or volleyball. For those looking for a less peppy break, there are expansive green lawns, to take a walk or jog, as they may prefer. The company encourages employees to actively participate in sports activities in breaks and on the weekends. We consider that a physically active team performs better in the long run, and sports is absolutely the best way to foster employee interaction, and build team-spirit. Apart from the daily enrichment activities, every Saturday cricket matches are organized by the employees, and here’s what they have to say – “It’s a stress buster, and of course a healthy team exercise for all of us,” says the organizer of the weekend sports, Vikas Sharma, who is a Business Solutions Executive at Advaiya. “Sports provides a base to be a self-starter, and inculcates abilities to overcome challenges in job and life alike,” says Kamlesh Dave, Director of Professional Services at Advaiya, and a cricket enthusiast. “And yes, it is a great rejuvenating activity to help prepare better for the coming week.” It’s rightly said that the environment has a huge impact on how you work. The friendly working environment, flexible work hours, work from home facility, and support among team members keep us all highly motivated at Advaiya.
Working mothers at Advaiya – Sonika’s story
Unlike most new mothers, Sonika Jain, did not have to face the moral dilemma of leaving her thriving career to look after her new born. She could continue to work without worrying about her daughter. Sonika has been associated with Advaiya for more than four years in a variety of roles, and is currently working as an EPM Engineer handling multiple projects. And, she is a proud mom of a two year old daughter. “While on my maternity leave, I used to worry about how I will be able to pick up work after a break. Also, I was not sure how I would take care of my baby with a busy job,” Sonika said. “But with a supporting team by my side, I could return to work just two months after Seerat was born.” “With the in-house baby care, I can take out time from my busy schedule and visit my baby multiple times in a day, and sometimes when she needs me I can be right there with her, while completing my work. It feels comforting to know that your baby is growing up in front of you,” added Sonika. It is a tough decision for any woman to continue to work after having a baby – balancing job and motherhood. Advaiya offers a number of flexible work arrangements and a relaxed working environment, which enable employees to give their best and live their best. Facilities like work from home, flexible working hours, baby care, help women to manage big changes coming in their lives, and encourage them to follow their dreams. “I am a working mother and can absolutely relate with the struggles new moms go through when returning to work,” said Ruchika Godha, COO of Advaiya. “Flexible working hours and baby care facility definitely encourage women to put their career on par with their family and keep pace at work.” Advaiya has always aimed to provide facilities that empower all employees to maintain a good work-life balance. We continue to offer such benefits, and are always evaluating potential new offerings.
OKRs for digitizing productivity for the digital workforce
In the times when liquid workforce and virtual teams are becoming prominent organizational aspects, ensuring productivity and performance poses novel challenges. This is accentuated especially as increasingly team members work with fluid job descriptions and multiple roles, within matrix organizations or at teams spread across multiple locations. Organizations are becoming highly conscious of their performance management processes and they realize that they must incorporate feedforward as a central tenet. Today’s gen Z (well, almost as Gen Y is soon catching up with the Facebook generation) are also not motivated to perform by watching their performance on the bell curve. They find such ratings lacking in its potential to guide their growth in line with their ambitions. They are also highly agile, digital and want quick results. So organizations are driven towards building a proactive accomplishment based culture. Instead of reactive measures based on set metrics, fixed attributes and rigid job descriptions, the required shift encompasses individualized goals over multiple time horizons, quicker feedback and embracing ambition. Enter OKRs (Objectives and Key Results), a technique which facilitates setting objectives and tracking progress with a lot more flexibility, proactively. It connects the objectives of the company and the teams to measureable results. OKRs are not meant for management to determine promotions, but for employees to keep an eye on what they want to and what they have accomplished. While distantly related to the painstaking goals setting and assessment traditions, OKRs are much simpler, quicker and more fluid. OKRs fit well with the preferences of today’s workforce who want things here and now, love to share and socialize (read, like) and thrives with transparency. And that is how we, at Advaiya, have also been using OKRs. The purpose of setting OKRs is to set a destination, not an approach. Work out ‘how’ later, focus on ‘what’ and ‘when’ first. OKRs are at the top of one’s work goal hierarchy, and everything else – our projects, teams, biz dev, investments, etc., would aggregate into them. OKRs are not side projects, they cover over 75% of our work. The key results take in operational aspects (measures and goals associated with job areas such as projects, presales, resource management, etc.). As the idea is to get results now and here, we start by setting OKRs of shorter durations. Typical time for completion of an OKR could be a few weeks to a few months. Individuals frame as many OKRs as they want, spanning across goal areas like skill enhancement, quality, and productivity. OKRs focus on measurement, so of course we ensure the key results are quantifiable. OKRs once published, are visible to all (Advaiya has also created an #OKRtool where individuals can publish, like and assess OKRs) People are encouraged to think big! Ambitiousness has to be palpable. And of course, it all revolves around identifying and working towards objective, relevant, and measurable outcomes! In my next blog post, we will talk about identifying impactful OKRs for higher productivity and effectiveness.
Public Speaking Tips for Professionals
I attended a workshop on the art (or as the trainer might want to put it, Science) of public speaking some time back. The trainer talked about lots of techniques- from taking deep breaths to using tongue twisters to improve fluency. Everybody seemed to like the session and looked super impressed. But at the end of the presentation, when the trainer asked who is all set to come on stage and take over, only one hand went up! Yes, it is not easy to speak up in public. Especially when all eyes are on you. And one session is not enough to take that fear away. But the good news is, you are not alone. Statistics say 99% of population is afraid of public speaking! So here are some public speaking tips that I find realistic and do-able: Know your subject: If you are the expert of your topic, it would be easier to talk with conviction. And conviction gives you confidence. Do not try to cover too many things: No audience ever complained about a presentation being too short! And to quote Winston Churchill, “A good speech (presentation) should be like a woman’s skirt; long enough to cover the subject and short enough to create interest.” Put your audience at ease: Start with questions whose answers would be “yeah’s” to give you a boost of confidence. Or start with an activity. As much as it will help your audience to be at ease, it will give you time to get comfortable. And of course, as the age old saying goes, “Practice makes a (wo)man perfect!” And if perfection is not what you are aiming for, then at least rehearse for IMPACT. A well-rehearsed presentation is sure to have a lasting impact. And at the end of it remember, we are all in the same boat. If a colleague mocks at you today, it is going to be his/ her turn soon.