Creating 'Fun'ominal Results!
“A company that has fun, where employees . . . put cartoons on the wall and celebrate, is spirited, creative, and usually profitable.” — David Baum
Traditional wisdom states the following: “Work is not supposed to be fun. That’s why it’s called work.” A corollary of this principle states that if you see someone having fun at work, that person is slacking off. However, research shows that this dismal view of work is completely wrong.
In “The Levity Effect: Why it Pays to Lighten Up”, bestselling author Adrian Gostick and humorist Scott Christopher use science to reveal the remarkable power of humor and fun in business.
Through interviews, exercises, and case studies, the book reveals how humor in the workplace helps build camaraderie, increases productivity, enhances employee satisfaction and loyalty, and encourages creativity and innovation for a better workplace and bigger profits. Two examples cited in “The Levity Effect” of how some highly successful companies make work fun for their employees are the following:
Power of an Employer Brand – creating a great work experience!
Sudipa Kundu – Buddy People Practice
“Our success is a direct result of knowing how to market a brand and having the right people representing the brand.” - Greg Norman
The brand is basically the identity of the product that has some distinct and innovative features that makes it stand out from the rest. EMPLOYER BRANDING is created out of the pool of talented human resources that the company wishes to hire. If we do the work required to develop an Employer Brand, we will dramatically see an increase the ability of an organization to recruit talented people, both because of the ability to attract them (rather than always having to sell to them), and because we would unleash the recruiting power of your workforce. Developing such a powerful brand requires more than crafting a great image. It requires that one does the hard work it takes to create a great work experience.
Underutilized World Class Low Cost Retail IT Solutions
By Prashant Lohia, Founder, Ginni Systems
First of all we have to understand, what is low cost .I believe there is no such concept as low cost, but what we should term it as affordable cost. Any solution whether it is a low cost or medium cost is not successful unless it is implemented successfully. The
o The current mindset of small retailers is that they are ready to invest in product, but do not understand the important of implementation and services.
o They are reluctant to pay service charges associated with solution. Even if software as a service is available, people are averse to go for any cost which is in perpetuity. Indian retail industry is highly complex and we need people who understand it well and we need solutions that are tailor made for it.
People Retention - an SME challenge
Sudipa Kundu – Buddy People Practice
“Take away my people, but leave my factories, and soon grass will grow on the factory floors. Take away my factories, but leave my people, and soon we will have a new and better factory.” - Andrew Carnegie
HR4SME: Grow Faster, Grow Healthier!
Contributed by Kanchandeep Johal – Lead Buddy, People Practice
HR4SME was developed and designed to cater to the needs of the growing organizations. In a normal scenario where we see the SME sector getting busy in doing fire fighting, neither they get time to look into the problems related to organization building nor access to platforms which can address to such needs. Keeping in mind the requirements from an SME’s perspective the event was designed to address the problems related to Talent Acquisition, Talent Engagement, Performance management and Talent Management.
Fundamentals of Staying Unsatisfied
Mr. Sanjeev Bikhchandani, CEO, Naukri.com speaking at Milagrow World SME Conference 2009
I really don’t know how satisfied or unsatisfied I am now but I feel great when I look back at my life where 20 years ago I left my job and set to become an entrepreneur. There was a lot of times when I failed and lot of time when we achieved success. I became an entrepreneur in 1990 and launched Naukri in 1997, so for 7 years we lagged somewhere, but I was happy. So what worked well for Naurkri you might ask?
Top 10 reasons why New Ventures Fail?
---Contributed by Nishant Pathak
Planning to start a business of your own? Kudos! But before you put your plan into action spare a few moments and go through a compiled list of top 10 reasons why new ventures fail. This will give you unique insight into what usually goes wrong with a start-up and what are the primary reasons behind it.
1. Poor Execution
Basic Concepts of Performance Management and Appraisals
Performance appraisal: Evaluating an employee’s current and / or past performance relative to his or her performance standards.
Virtually all companies have some formal or informal means of appraising their employees’ performance. We may define performance appraisal as any procedure that involves
- Setting work standards,
- Assessing the employee’s actual performance relative to those standards, and
- Providing feedback to the employee with the aim of motivating him or her to eliminate performance deficiencies or to continue to perform above par.
For most people, performance appraisal brings to mind appraisal tools like the teaching appraisal form in Figure below. However, forms are only part of the appraisal process. Performance appraisal also assumes that the employee knew what the performance standards were and received the feedback required to remove any performance deficiencies. The aim should always be to improve the employee’s and there by the company’s performance.
Let’s create a motivated team together!
Contributed by Sudipa Kundu
No matter the size of your company, having a team of motivated, hard-working employees is crucial for any business to succeed. When people lose their motivation their job performance suffers. As a result they become less productive, less creative, less of an asset to the company.
Then how do we light a fire under an employee who has lost his or her motivation, whether a former hard worker whose performance has declined over the years, or a long-term problem employee who has failed to improve?
A Little History…
The Fading Picture of Indian Malls
Contributed by Mr. Amanpreet Banga,Commercial Manager, Ségécé India
With only a dozen of malls surviving out of more than 200, I think the picture of Indian malls is fading gradually. This is the scenario of the Indian Malls at present and I presume it will be enough for the readers to envisage what I am going to mention about in the next few pages. It has been almost one decade of presence of shopping centres in India, as the first center appeared in late 90s - Ansal Plaza, New Delhi and since then the expansion really accelerated in 2002 – 2003. In the year 2008 – the year of economic slowdown, the development was less than expected and it is evident due to the fact that:
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34 centres were opened (whereas 74 were planned for opening at the beginning of 2008)
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8, 50, 000 square meter GLA (whereas 1,800,000 square meter was expected)
