Industrious India

As too many U.S. companies downsize and ask workers to reconcile themselves to salary and hiring freezes for the first half, if not all, of 2009, the Indian workforce looks like a veritable party. It seems like whenever a big round of job cutting has taken place, the answer to the outraged (and often pathetic) chorus of “what happened?” is: “That business function was outsourced to India.” 

At the same time, India appears to be the place to expand to. Comparatively few companies are expanding across the U.S., but India, that’s another story. It must be great to be an “emerging market.”  Could New York, New Jersey, Michigan, or Ohio sign up to become an “emerging market,” too? 

So, life would appear to be good for Indian workers. They don’t make as much as we do in the U.S., but that doesn’t matter, we tell ourselves, because the cost of living there is so much lower than here. I don’t have much, if any, knowledge of the Indian cost-of-living, and day-to-day quality of life, but from where I sit, prospects for Indian workers seem much better than mine own, and those of the employees most of you manage.

It seems like their professional lives over there exist in some faraway Shangri-la American workers are not permitted entry into. But it’s not that simple. As I mention in this week’s Inside Training e-newsletter’s Business Intelligence column, there’s research showing a turnover problem in India. I guess all that opportunity often equals discontent. The research also reveals compensation isn’t as much of a draw as career advancement and satisfaction with managers. I imagine these findings are similar to what could be said of the causes of turnover in the U.S. But I also wonder whether Indian workers are just a little more adaptable and motivated. They’re moving on, in other words, not because they mind doing a lot of difficult work, but because they want to work for more skilled people and have more opportunities for personal growth. Challenging work that pushes them outside their comfort zone doesn’t frighten them.

How about all those Indian IT specialists who become outsource computer hardware and software customer service reps for American technology companies?  They not only had to learn the technology; they also had to learn a new language that’s much different from their own; and then, on top of that, had to learn the language well enough to understand and explain often confusing technological problems to American callers. We’ve all, at one time or another, become frustrated with semantic misunderstandings while on the phone with one of these Indian customer service workers, but you have to give them credit: they’re doing much more than the average U.S. worker would be willing to do for a job. 

With the U.S. economy in a sickening downturn, and most of your companies gagging along with it, workforce managers and trainers should ask themselves how to find and cultivate more motivated employees. Is such a thing possible for a large swath of workers here in the U.S., or are those willing to take jobs that require special amounts of hard work and added effort (like learning technology and then learning to work the technology in another language) unrealistic here in America?  More importantly, if these spectacular workhorses exist in the States, how do your companies’ recruiters find them, and how to you keep them challenged and engaged enough to stay on your payroll long-term?

My suspicion is we truly don’t have as many spectacular workhorses as they do in India because most of those in the American workforce have been fortunate enough to have never experienced the kind of poverty many of those working in outsource jobs in India suffered through. We’re lucky enough not to have escape from wretched poverty as a motivator. That said, your workforces could still be a lot more motivated than they are—even without the escape-from-poverty memories to spur them on.

First, even in pressed times, think about strategizing a five or 10-year-plan for growing the kind of workforce you need—one that works so hard they’re as cost-efficient as those you outsource to. You can’t afford it in ’09 maybe, but how about launching or expanding your tuition assistance program when the economy turns around?  What better way to find and keep motivated people than to offer them opportunities for growth that they couldn’t afford on their own?  To make it a realistic option, give those on tuition assistance added flexibility with their work schedule so they can keep up with their studies, graduate, and progress up to the executive ranks of your company as higher-skilled workers than they currently are.

Second, spiff up your workplace. Companies like Google, and other relatively successful enterprises, offer employees a great place to work.  I’ve been to workplaces where the ladies room reminded me of the facilities at a women’s prison, institution, or old-time orphanage. Are those the kinds of facilities you offer your workers?  How about the computers, printers, faxes, and copier machines they use?  Are they dismally out of date and unreliable?  Or how about this phenomenon of two dozen people all printing to the same printer?  Do you ever let your workers fly business class?  How about first class if they’re on a 12-hour flight to, well, India?  Clearly, we’re all hurting in the wallet these days, but how much discomfort do you think you can shell out without deterring high-performers?

Remember, what Indian outsource workers are paid, and the conditions they work in, would probably be considered nothing too special here in the States, but in India, as I understand it, it’s a good deal for them. Is your company a good deal for highly motivated high-achievers?

As I pointed out, you may have to wait until the current economic crisis passes to spruce things up for your workforce, but in the meantime don’t overlook subtle de-motivators this holiday season. In lieu of a holiday bonus, don’t send out a memo informing your workforce of a company-wide hiring and salary freeze only to barrage them the next day with upper-upper-middle-management and executive-level appointments/promotions that logic dictates came with salary increases.

True, you could give your workers all the tuition assistance and comfortable office space in the world, and they still wouldn’t perform as efficiently as an Indian worker with extreme poverty on her mind to motivate her. But your workforces here in the States don’t have to be quite as de-motivated as you’re trying to make them.

What are you doing to find and cultivate motivated employees who can deliver efficient, cost-effective work output so you don’t have to outsource to India or some other “emerging market?”

 

You Are Now Friends With…Your Co-Workers!

I’ve haven’t participated in a corporate social network, and based on the descriptions of some of them, I’m not sure I want to. One system I heard about enables colleagues to see all the books on your electronic bookshelf. That would be fine, except some people aren’t proud of their electronic library. What if that electronic library consists of a whole collection of books with the word “dummy” in the titles such as “Windows Vista for Dummies,” “Microsoft Office 2007 for Dummies,” etc? As it turns out, I don’t have any electronic library at all—either on my work computer or PC, but if I did, I imagine a lot of titles I wouldn’t be eager to share.

If you’re able to pick and choose what to share, the whole endeavor becomes meaningless. Instead of a true window into what helps your co-workers or managers perform so well, your colleagues (and you, too, maybe) become like the man in the fancy smoking jacket, with an expensive cigar in his mouth, and a whole library in his house of books he feels proud of displaying, though he never intends to read. One of the nice things about social networks like Facebook or MySpace is the sense you’re experiencing a piece of the person whose page you’ve gained access to. You suddenly have a window into their likes and dislikes, and maybe even some injudiciously chosen photos. The goals for a corporate social network are different in that it’s not of imperative importance that you understand your cubicle mate plays the harp and is fixated on saving white tigers. But to be effective, the network has to give you access to the tools they really use (not just those they’d like to brag about) to get their jobs done, and those tools that gave them support in their professional development. What I’m wondering about is how much of these corporate social networking sites are more about posturing than an honest exchange of ideas and feedback?

It’s tempting to jump into the corporate social network trend because you think it shows how hip and Millennial-savvy your company is. But before you do that, take time with your executives to decide what you’d like this “revolutionary” platform to accomplish. Maybe it’s not a good fit for your organization. Is it possible this new forum will be more of a distraction than a help to your workforce?  Maybe you need to put some controls in place, and publish some guidelines about use of the site, so your goals for it are realized. First, how personal do you want employees’ pages to be?  How much do you want these personalized entries to resemble Facebook?  On the one hand, you risk sacrificing professionalism and encouraging on-the-job distraction. On the other hand, maybe your workforce will collaborate better once they feel more comfortable with one another. Comfort is good, but then you have to ask yourself about legal entanglements like sexual harassment. No matter how loose and easy/breezy your social network is, you need to publish some guidelines about appropriate content, and point out that exchanges that wouldn’t be considered appropriate over the cubicle wall also aren’t appropriate on the company social network.

You also need to figure out whether employees pages will be universally accessible to other employees; whether they’ll just be automatically accessible to all those in their work group or business division; or whether you’ll leave decisions about access up to individuals. If you leave the decision, Facebook-style, up to individual workers, some social awkwardness, if not conflict, might arise. “Why wouldn’t you want everyone at your company, or at least in your work group, to see your corporate social network page?” colleagues denied access will wonder.  But if employees’ managers, in addition to their colleagues, can see their collaboration and (inevitably sometimes casual) exchanges with co-workers, won’t they feel too inhibited to take full advantage of the platform?

With so many more potential complications than the designers of MySpace and Facebook had to consider, don’t try to emulate these leisure-time networks too closely. Be sure to use employees’ personalized pages to push them to achieve for the company. The idea of a “Wall” on each worker’s page is great, but maybe you should particularize the “Wall” so it’s not just a “Wall,” but an “Innovation Wall” in which the primary exchanges are about ideas for new products and other ways to grow the company. After all, you don’t want your employees’ open exchanges on the network to concentrate on a highly intellectual debate about the merits of the chocolate martini versus the appletini.

The photo album portion of the pages also can be narrowed for use that’s mostly related to the company. You can specify that the only photos on these pages should be from company events, outings with workgroups, or, even better, photos that relate to a new idea for product, service, or company strategy. Instead of a profile of favorite “TV shows” and other non-immediately-work-relevant likes and dislikes, have profiles ask questions such as top tips for making it through a rough project; how each employee got his or her professional start; greatest professional accomplishment to date; and ultimate professional goal or dream.

Not entirely professional, but the status update isn’t a bad idea for your corporate social network. Wouldn’t you love to know what all your employees “are doing right now?” 

Have you launched a corporate social network yet?  What are some of your concerns about providing this type of forum to your employees? What are some of the key benefits, and how do you tailor the site so it meets your goals?

 

Does Anything Work Anymore?

With the economy gone to pot (or fully in the pot and cooked by now), why would anything else be expected to work? Trainers have never been that good at measuring the impact of learning programs, or at least it seems that way, so why, when many of your companies stand at the brink of disaster, would you start getting good at it now?

Now’s the time because with budgetary dollars in short supply, you’re going to have to prove the ROI, not just the “learner satisfaction,” of your programs. Why do you measure that anyway?  When I’m a learner, I tend to be most satisfied by the easiest and fastest courses, not the most challenging or useful. If my teacher is a comedian who prefers talking about the humor of her most recent blind dates, so much the better. The last thing I’d want to do, after all, is exert myself. And this is coming from a person who earned a Master’s Degree!  So, if I, as a fairly well-educated person who enjoys reading for fun, feels this way, what hope do your “learner satisfaction” evaluations have?  What are they so satisfied with anyway?  It’s probably with exactly the wrong things.

Once you dispense with learner satisfaction, what’s the next step in determining whether your training program worked?  Is it successful completion of assessments?  That’s good, but who’s to say they needed your expensive course in order to pass the same test?  If I were a cash-strapped executive with my CEO asking me to raise or find millions of dollars in revenue before the end of the fiscal year, I would beg trainers to find much cheaper ways to deliver the same assessment outcomes. I’d point out that in college (at least in the old days of the nineties and earlier), it was enough to give a student a book, ask him or her to absorb the relevant material, discuss in class, and then take a test. So, why can’t we do that now, except just throw in an electronic assessment that automatically grades the tests so no manpower is needed?  It’ll be sink or swim. If you can’t learn that way, or are too lazy, too bad, off you go. We’re looking for people to layoff, so here’s another way of weeding out the proficient from the not-so-proficient. It’s a cutthroat proposition, but I can imagine feeling the need to suggest it if I were a desperate executive looking for ways to save money and highlight those with the most potential.

In this competitive environment, what will your argument be for why your fancy simulation and interactive seminar are needed?  Do workers worth keeping need all that help to learn what you need to teach them?  If you’re proving ROI, how do you define it?  Money saved; improved sales; streamlined, more effective manufacturing process; or some other marker?  The thing about ROI is you can manipulate it to mean so many different things. Does it strictly refer to cost savings or the raising of revenue at your company?  Or can it be twisted to mean something else?

It’s funny to consider that you might even need to justify purchasing or updating the analytic and reporting software that enables you to provide learning impact information. In that case, you have to argue that it’s worth having tools to figure out if anything you do actually works. On second thought, do you really want the company to purchase this stuff?  Things may be so bad now that nobody expects anything to work anyway, and so, there’s no way to justify spending money on anything expensive—no matter what the promised results. Is that the attitude at your company?  If it is, what does the diligent trainer who cares about learning impact, and wants to continue discussing investment in her programs, do?

The learner satisfaction sheets may still work, but they need to be tinkered with. You need an option for “It was absolutely miserable, I hated every minute of it, don’t enjoy or look forward to using the skills I learned, but have to admit I can now do my job better.”  Miserable, but efficient and cost-effective, means you’re doing well these days, right?

How do you measure the impact of learning in a recession?  Do you even try, or are resources stretched too tight now to take the time and care to do so?  If you discover your program is working, can the company afford to continue it anyway?

 

The Closer

Now that we’re in an 'official' recession, your sales reps may have reconciled themselves to failure. Many of them figure they’re probably out the door at the end of the year, anyway, so why bother trying?  Some of them may simply be pathetic (that’s always a possibility, though, as trainers and learning professionals, you try to be nice about it and think of euphemisms for that characteristic), but others might be reflecting the attitude of their managers back to them. Or, another way to think of it is they’re living up (or down to) their managers’ expectations.

So if your sales reps are under-performing even by the standards of a recessionary economy, you may have to start with their bosses to unravel the problem. Have their supervisors given up hope of a turnaround or improvement in sales this year?  Granted, it’s unlikely given what economists are saying, but not impossible. If you’re significantly down in sales at this last-few-seconds-before-midnight point in the year, you obviously aren’t going to be able to end the year with a bang. But your reps could rally just enough to pick things up a little so it’s not quite so dismal. Couldn’t they?  If you don’t honestly believe any improvement is possible, and the managers coaching the reps don’t either, that’s when a successful fourth quarter push becomes all but impossible. Why should they try to do something you’ve tacitly told them through your attitude isn’t realistic?

Then, too, maybe many of your sales reps take for granted your company is going to let them go at the end of the year because they didn’t “make their numbers.”  They know, mathematically speaking, they could try as hard as they can, but there’s no way to meet the numerical goals set for them back at the beginning of the year, or at least months ago, before the economy began its bumpy plummet. It might be time to broach the topic with executives and managers of easing or “readjusting” satisfactory sales markers in light of the officially pronounced recession. In addition to enabling you to retain workers who may be suffering from a temporary slump due to extenuating circumstances, telling reps the old markers have been recalculated to take into consideration current financial conditions may spark fresh enthusiasm for selling. “Oh, it’s not a hopeless case after all,” they’ll say to themselves.

Along with changing your own attitude, and that of your managers, about the sales prospects of your reps, emphasize the importance of celebrating small wins. A new account that’s no big deal when the economy is healthy, is major now, so be sure to give the rep who won it proper recognition even if you can’t promise him or her a bonus as a reward. Training sessions that include role-play exercises about selling to prospects in a recession are a good idea. Along with readjusting your sales performance benchmarks, you also need to readjust ongoing sales training to reflect the changed sales environment. A capable trainer, with the help of sales managers, can probably do this him or herself with a little creativity, so don’t worry if you can’t afford an outside sales consultant right now.

What you have at the moment is the depressed person’s version of “resting on laurels.” In high times, a rep coming off a big winning streak is liable to take a break for a few months to admire his or her achievement and bask in the glory of self-greatness. Now, there’s inaction for the opposite reason—they’re resting on the recession. Coming off a big losing streak, they’re content to take the rest of the quarter off to bask in the glow of their self-bleakness. It’s a darkly humorous spectacle (like a comic strip about a consistently down-and-out character), but you should probably be hoping for something more than gallows humor—even if we are in an “official” recession.

What are you doing to buoy the spirits of your sales team?  Do you and your managers share in the sense of hopelessness, or is there a plan in place to cheer up and (successfully) move on?