Financial Express New Delhi
Monday, February 11, 2002
As an initiative to accelerate a winning culture
and enforce ‘inspiration drivers’ through creation
of role models, Hughes Software System (HSS) has institutionalised
a practice titled “HSS Popular Awards”.
If a motivating pat or a complimentary handshake arrived
as the methodology to lend the employees the much needed positive
stroke, then the people processes of “appreciation for
change” at Hughes Software System should definitely
be a ready reckoner in redefining the paradigms of praise.
Says Mr Aadesh Goyal, vice-president HR, information technology
and corporate communications) HSS: “In an environment
where everyone was trying to do the best and meet world class
standards, there was a general lack of appreciation for things
that were happening right, and a lot of things were happening
right too. And we believed it was time for strategic intervention
to plug the aspirational gap”.
The company, according to Mr Goyal, then undertook research
and decided to make the problem itself a solution-centric
model to circumvent the defined inward barrier amongst the
employees. “We thus decided that appreciation is a tool
for change. If a system has to work in the company it had
to ’catch fire’”. Thus to tailor the transition,
the company then developed a system that is described as “Praise
the HSS Way”. This led to the recent launch of HSS Popular
Awards as a core people development practice.
Informs Mr Goyal: “The award is a medium for mutual
recognition and augments the traditionally structured dictum
emanating from a pre-existing formal management award system”.
Accordingly, there is voting by all the employees for any
three broadly identified distinctive personality characteristics
and behaviour that the employees may have encountered amongst
other employees from the establishment. “They incorporate
behaviour that could range from a great mentor to great communicator”,
says Mr Goyal.
Adds Mr Goyal: “The employee receiving the chosen award
as a result of the maximum number of votes that he has garnered
from other members of the organisation will instantly receive
a laudatory message in the organisation’s intranet”.
The voting is an elucidation and acknowledgement by colleagues
of one prominent personality attribute that has been proactively
displayed by the employee, the consequence of which has resulted
in the behaviour getting leveraged amongst the entire workforce.
“Motivation also comes from peer appreciation and this
system is an active enabler to ensure the objective”,
reasons Mr Goyal.
As per the practice, the person raking in the maximum number
of votes thereby makes a practical demonstration of one of
the personality dimensions that has been institutionalised
as an innate people asset. He is then made a trainer who has
to impart training for other staffers on the specific domain.
“It is a case of the chosen employee contributing back
to the system that has endowed a substantial measure of acceptance
and acknowledgement”, observes Mr Goyal.
The winner of the ‘Best Leader’ title, for instance,
will conduct a session on leadership in supervisory induction
programme at HSS. The rationale is to create a conducive atmosphere
where the employees are gradually drawn into perceiving the
winners as role models. “A proactive culture can be
perpetrated by projecting those people as role models who
aggressively exhibit a positive behavioral display”.
Explains Mr Goyal: ‘‘Importantly, the role models
also institutionalise a benchmark in progressive culture creation.
Transitions in culture and attitude could be a slow, deliberate
and an evolutionary process in the organisations. However,
such initiatives help to accelerate the process that is conventionally
considered as evolutionary”.
According to Mr Goyal, the present system has been enforced
as a recurring practice to build culture and leadership. “Prominently
these systems are meant to be inspiration drivers by building
role models,” comments Mr Goyal.
The company has also instituted a cross-functional task force
which has promoted the concept and encouraged more and more
people to cast votes. “It is the word-of-mouth publicity
that is helping us initiate a sense of wholesome participation
amongst the workforce. The winners, for sure, arrive as messengers
to credibly leverage the practice and prompt the workforce
towards actively participating in the process,” he adds.
Mr Goyal says that such awards are won by employees across
the functions irrespective of any structural requisitions
in the organisation. It’s about catching people doing
something right and fostering that winning quality as a mainstream
organisational asset, he informs.
“We define our employees’ personality orientation
as highly-aware, ambitious and mobile. The awards, therefore,
are customised to align with these internal dynamics that
have been identified in employees,” explains Mr Goyal.
In political parlance getting votes may be about clambering
onto a certain chair. At HSS, it is all about creating a culture
that can tide the challenge of turbulence, sums up Mr Goyal.
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Last updated : February 2, 2004
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