One of the key challenges faced by companies is that of developing a growth strategy that enables them to outperform their market over a minimum of the next 10 years. Sadly, most organizations fail to develop such a strategy and thus end up merely keeping up with or even trailing behind their market. That is why an increasing number of organizations today are seeking the services of strategy consulting firms India. The professional strategy consultants employed by these firms help companies to avoid the below-discussed mistakes that prevent the development of a great strategy.
Preference For Existing Assets Over The Ones That Must Be Owned It is quite common for organizations to hold on to their existing business assets for too long. This makes them ignore the importance of investing in assets that can help them to enhance and transform their profit-making processes. This prevents the organizations from capitalizing on the available growth opportunities and mitigating the threats from new players in the market. Overlooking the Need to Modify Current Management Routines Business leaders tend to become comfortable with the existing reporting structures and routines and thus avoid changing them as per changing market needs. Hiring the services of strategy and leadership consulting firms ensures that business leaders understand the significance of thinking beyond today’s performance. This is essential to help them to recognize the true boundaries and inter dependencies of business units. It also teaches them the significance of avoiding the habit of thinking about the potential of the business according to its current performance. Focusing On Democratic Allocation of Resources Business organizations often feel that allocating resources evenly across the business divisions according to the previous years' performance. However, such a democratic allocation of resources can prevent companies from making most of the investment options and potential returns that might impact business growth. The professional strategy consultants believe that such an approach by organizations makes them focus too much on protection against downside scenarios rather than capturing upside ones. It is also important to set clear priorities and resolve trade-offs across the leadership portfolios to get the best results. Failure to Take Market Uncertainty into Account According to the top HR strategy consultants, one of the biggest mistakes committed by organizations is their failure to consider market uncertainty. This can have deeply damaging consequences especially in the ever-evolving markets of today with the rapid pace of digitization and shifting business boundaries. Companies need to develop no-regret initiatives and well-developed scenarios to make the development of great business strategies relatively easier and hassle-free.
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Cornerstone serves as retained executive search firms in India and to the international area as well. We offer a top quality of services in Executive Search, Board consulting, leadership consulting, executive coaching, talent solutions. At cornerstone we understand the current pattern of business and we evolve with time. Every day the world is changing and the emerging and from many years we have developed ourselves according to it. We not only offer best of services but also give training in becoming a leader in a variety of fields. Top Recruitment Firms in India.
Why Cornerstone?
Our executive search firm network is spread worldwide and we have the network both internationally and of potential start-ups. Our company works on a two-way street with us giving our best of efforts for our clients and keeping an open mind with real-time feedback services for any advices or suggestions. Our candidates are chosen with personal attention and evaluation on expertise. The 25 years of experience has helped us to thrive improvement with every project and our clients are satisfactory and we are recommended again. We have also taken the responsibility of bringing the real talent on top by giving leadership consulting services. To evaluate and asses the real performance of a company’s candidate is very important to understand who should be on the top and who needs improvement. Cornerstone’s goal has always been client satisfaction and to bring ‘best of both worlds’ for them. We believe in not just giving them a good quality of service but also take them with us in the journey and partner with them. We make sure to completely understand our client’s requirements with thorough process and then only start with the project to deliver the best outcome. In India, our team is spread out to the major cities like Mumbai, Bangalore, Pune, and Gurgaon. Our company is also a part of AESC that aims at promoting highest professional standards. We are highly professional with taking care of our candidates and we take pride in working at the Cornerstone. We follow value more than success. One of the biggest concerns of organizations today is about attracting and recruiting top talent capable of enhancing business success. The biggest challenge they face in this context is that of identifying high-performers, who are also highly stable and self-motivated during the interview process. The experts from the top recruitment firms in India suggest the following interview tips that can help organizations to assess prospective candidates on the basis of the aforementioned parameters.
Seek Detailed Information About Past Performances It is quite common for candidates to boast about their achievements and performances in their previous organizations during the interview process. However, rather than taking this information just at face value, the hiring organizations should seek proper details about such achievements. Many times the achievements that the candidates so easily take complete credit for, are made possible by changes in business policies or even the contribution of peers and co-workers. This information proves critical for organizations in assessing the true competence and capabilities of the candidates. Organize A Practical Test To Assess Technical Capabilities Making the candidates take a practical or written test is the best way to test their technical know-how or else they might be interviewed by a senior executive with ample experience in the specific technical field. The retained executive search firms in India consider this to be the best way for hiring organizations to identify the candidates with the right experience, education level, and industry experience required for the specific job position. This strategy also helps in establishing the authenticity of the information provided by the candidates in their CV’s. Establishing The Presence Of Desired Behaviors The behavior and personality traits of candidates play an equally important role in ensuring that they ensure greater business benefits. However, learning about whether or not the candidates possess the desired behaviors and qualities is somewhat tricky as there is no direct tool or strategy to ensure the same. Hence the hiring organizations need to formulate specific interview questions that can help in bringing these behavior and personality traits to fore. Formulating questions based on real-life workplace situations and the manner in which the candidates will be handling them can prove extremely effective in this context. It will provide the hiring organizations with a better insight into the manner in which candidates approach various issues and their attitude towards solving problems. The top leadership consulting firms in India are of the opinion that using the interview tips discussed above help organizations in ensuring that they select the best candidates for taking their business on the path of consistent growth. Tips To Help Organizations Build A Compelling Employer Brand Identity To Attract Top Talent10/12/2019 In an era when the gap between the demand and supply of quality talent is growing at an alarming rate, organizations need to present themselves in the right manner to attract the best candidates. In this context building a compelling employer brand can prove highly beneficial for an organization in terms of finding the most suitable candidates for various job positions. Discussed below are some effective tips from the top recruitment firms in India that can help companies build a strong employer brand identity.
Set The Right Perception The first and the most important step to be taken for building a strong employer brand is to ensure that the organizations are perceived in the right manner by prospective candidates. They should believe the organization to have a fair working policy with enough avenues for professional growth and great company culture. For this, it is important that the organizations need to communicate their values, beliefs, and culture in the right manner, with respect to the various touch points of the employment life cycle. Being Clear About What The Company Stands For The experts from leading retained executive search firms in India are of the opinion that organizations need to present a clear picture of what they stand for to prospective candidates. They should help candidates understand what they would be offering to them as an employer in terms of fair compensation, job satisfaction,growth opportunities, and work environment. Organizations also need to assure the prospective talent about their commitment to respect their professional aspirations and personal space of their employees. This is essential for sending across a positive message and drawing the attention of top professionals. Providing Accurate And Authentic Information Proving accurate and authentic information to the candidates during the talent acquisition process can go a long way in helping organizations to build a strong employer brand identity. The candidates should be made well-aware of the exact job requirements, team details, key skills, employee development programs and the range of benefits and perks provided by the company. Organizations may also provide a brief description of the ways in which they expect a talented candidate to the philosophy, culture, and success of the venture in the long run. Use Existing Employees As Brand Advocates The professionals offering leadership consulting services, often advise their clients about the benefits of using their existing employees as brand advocates. Nothing can convince prospective talent to take up a job option than the views and perceptions of the current members of its workforce. Companies should encourage their employees to discuss their day-to-day work experiences, things that happiness and details of career progression on social media sites. However, organizations need to ensure that they do not force the employees to participate in such promotional activities, especially if they are not genuinely motivated and willing to share their stories. There is no denying the fact that qualified candidates are always short in supply. As per the research done by one of the companies offering leadership consulting services, about 76% of the executive search firms maintain that talent scarcity is what they face and is becoming a serious concern for a country like India where most of the youngsters believe in working on foreign land. This is the reason as much as 73% of the employers are ready to invest in the talent communities.
So, What Are Talent Communities? As the name suggests, talent communities are nothing but a group of skilled candidates from which engaging and interesting talent can be hired quickly to fill the various job positions. These communities comprise of individuals who are looking for either permanent or temporary work. The Global Executive search firms in India have access to the nurtured and curated talent pool who have expressed their interest to work in different domains. The recruiters check whether a particular candidate has expressed an interest for their client organisation or has previously worked with the client in order to check the compatibility quotient and the possibility of working in future. It's a two-way sword because the recruiters can get the fastest access to the candidates and that too at a lower acquisition cost. How Talent Communities Are Developed? It's not that talent communities are new to the hiring arena; they have existed for years, however, with the increasing talent scarcity faced by the recruiters and employers, they have now gained the importance. The recruiters eye the talent communities to keep the highly skilled candidates who haven't been offered positions for future opportunities. The talent communities also give access to re-deployable talent, retirees and interns. Thus, each and every type of talent is available with the talent pool. The talent pools can be used to source the qualified freelancers. These communities help in reducing the overall talent acquisition costs. Ways Of Developing Successful Talent Communities Indeed, talent communities are effective in achieving a competitive recruiting advantage. Here is how the International Executive search firms in India set the talent communities: Candidate Feedback The executive search firms initiate regular follow-up with the candidates who are not selected for a job position due to any reason. When they ask about their interest as well as work arrangements in other positions, they can consider them for aligning with different opportunities available in future. Attract Talent The communities are segmented based on the work as well as a role type. The strategies are incorporated for attracting both the permanent as well as flexible talent. Keep In Touch With The Candidates The recruiters are in regular and consistent communication with the candidates who can be engaged in the talent communities. In order to nurture talent, the candidates are provided with interesting information about the company. Integrating Compensation Planning With Financial And HR Objectives For Better Employee Retention8/1/2019 For most organizations today, the ability to attract and retain top talent in a highly competitive environment is at the forefront of their business development efforts. Contrary to the popular belief, attracting, motivating and retaining a highly-skilled and diverse workforce in a limited budget is quite possible. For this, companies need to have a more strategic approach to compensation management.
Taking A Closer Look At Compensation Management Compensation management is the process aimed at ensuring that any investment decisions related to paying the employees of an organization are made in an effective manner. In this context, organizations generally seek the help and advice of HR strategy consultants and compensation professionals for developing a well-defined compensation management process. The processes focus on the key objectives of ensuring appropriate compensation to professionals with different skills and experience levels, generating a return on investment and maximize the productivity of employees with the help of rewards and benefits. In addition, the process also uses compensation data to accurately predict the likely contributions of the employees to the organization in the future. This data is provided by managers based on their understanding of individual employees and their complete skill set and capabilities. Developing An Efficient Compensation Management Program An efficient compensation management program aims to enhance employee engagement besides aligning the business objectives of an organization. However, developing such a program is not an easy task as it involves the alignment of compensation plans with the financial and HR objectives. This helps in placing compensation as the key component of the overall talent strategy of an organization and fostering a culture based on performance. According to the experts from strategy execution consulting firms, employees feel valued in an organization that follows trusted performance feedback and promptly delivered reward system. This, in turn, helps in driving performance and ensuring better returns on compensation investments. Promoting Manager- Employee Communication An important aspect of developing an efficient compensation management program is efficient communication between managers and employees. Promoting a transparent dialogue between managers and employees helps the leaders to efficiently communicate the basis of staffing and pay decisions. It also helps them to explain any compensation discrepancies to the employees with the support of reliable and fair data. Professionals offering leadership consulting services also stress on the importance of promoting a coaching dialogue between managers and employees. Such dialogue helps the managers to gain a better understanding of the employee capabilities and their significance towards fulfillment of business objectives. This information can then be used for taking more accurate and effective compensation decisions in the future. Significance Of Rewards And Recognition It has become important for business organizations to ensure that they invest in employees, who contribute more to the organization while staying within their compensation budget. Moreover, frequent and informal rewards and recognition also need to be factored in for efficient compensation planning. A well-planned compensation program aligns award categories with employee behaviors that the organizations need to encourage. For this managers need to gain a clear understanding of both the financial and HR objectives of the company. It helps in incorporating a company culture where rewarded behaviors are supported by organizational values. Each and every business organization faces a number of problems when it comes to running the business or consistent enforcement of certain policies across all the departments. During such scenarios, the organizations feel the need to take help from HR Strategy consultants.
To throw more light, let’s take a look at certain HR related issues and how the HR strategist can conveniently deal with them: Retention It is a myth that the prime task of the HR consultants in an organization is to source new talent in the company. Instead, the main activity involves retaining the existing talent in the organization. The employees are indeed the lifeblood of any organization who are responsible to make or break the business. This is the reason, it is the utmost responsibility of HR functionaries to protect the valuable asset which comes in the form of employees. As per the companies providing leadership consulting services, the employees are attracted to those companies which offers a fine mix of remuneration and a good company culture. Recruitment In order to cope up with the loss due to natural attrition and to complement the existing team, recruitment of new talent is one of the issues faced by HR consultants. Searching for the staff with the correct blend of skill set, personality and motivation is a cumbersome task. The HR Managers can take the help of strategy execution consulting firms in effectively processing the applications and CVs received for the job posting. Productivity When the productivity is low, the HR is required to know the reasons for low productivity and ensure to eliminate the same, so that the business can operate in an efficient manner. A Time and Motion study is required to be done to understand who works and how an employee works. This will give powerful insights on efficiency gains and will give directions to the improved productivity. Training In order to ensure employee development, training is seen as the best avenue. There are certain roles in an organization which demands specialization and certification, for those roles, HR initiatives should include paying for the fee of exam and keeping a track and ensuring that the employee completes that course. Even during in-house training, to ensure genuine participation by the employees, the HR consultants are required to record the attendance for the course and take an assessment of the skills developed. Discipline When it is about discipline, HR is one department, which can satisfactorily resolve the issues between employer and employees. They are required to keep a well maintained, accurate and updated record of the disciplinary issues, if any. This may include, minutes of meetings, letters exchanged between employer and employee and other follow-up activities. With an integrated HR approach, much of the disciplinary work can be simplified which helps in reduction of legwork at a later stage of time. Payroll Accurate and timely payment of salaries to all the staff members is one of the attributes of an effective and efficient organization. The HR manager is required to maintain the records related to salary, perks, bonuses and other benefits which are payable to an employee, however the payment of salaries is being done through payroll. In order to prevent pay problems, the HR managers should integrate their systems with that of the payroll supervisor. Addressing the talent needs of the organization in a timely manner is essential for any business to gain long term success. For this, the HR executives need to be able to anticipate the skill gaps and nominate candidates for fulfilling critical roles. They also need to pair the training and learning initiatives of the employees with various mentoring and coaching opportunities. However, performing these and various other succession planning management tasks is not that easy. This is because, the type of succession management strategy that proves most beneficial for a business, may differ from one organization to another. That is why it is not uncommon for business organizations to hire professional HR strategy consultants to provide guidance and support to their in-house HR executives.
Two Common Methods Of Succession Management Contrary to popular belief, business organizations do not, generally, have a lot of choices when it comes to choosing the best strategy for succession management. In fact, there are only two common methods that HR professionals can opt from and these are described in brief as follows. Replacement Planning : This method of succession management involves replacing the employees, mostly by their immediate juniors, as and when they choose to leave the organization. In this scenario, the HR professionals simply assume that the people replacing the outgoing employees would be ready, willing and capable of shouldering the enhanced responsibility. However, in most cases, such an assumption proves to be erroneous as even the best professional might need some sort of mentoring and support before they can take on a higher job role. In fact, such a sudden rise might actually reduce the performance efficiency of the employees in question and might even affect the morale of the entire team. Talent Flow : This is an alternative method of succession management and focuses on building talent pools after proper identification of the skills and competencies that might be required by an organization. In this method, the actual task of filling vacancies is performed in real time based on the availability of a vacancy rather than focusing on filling a specific position. According to top strategy execution consulting firms, this method of succession management is slightly more advantageous as it ensures the skills and the attitude of the candidates appropriately matches the needs for the job role. Choosing The Best Option Having gained basic information about both types of succession management strategies, choosing the best one as per their organization needs, becomes easier for the HR professionals. The one important thing that they need to remember before making their choice is that both these methods are not mutually exclusive. This means that HR professionals can implement both these methods if they consider it to be the best way to get desired results. In fact, the professionals providing leadership consulting services advice their clients to have a plan for both of these management strategies. This requires them to believe in the growth potential of their employees and also to invest in development activities to prepare the candidates with the right potential for their next big role. It also requires them to develop strategies focused on promoting positive talent flow within the organization. Over the past several years the focus of the business community is on minimizing the gender equality within organizations. The fact that a handful of Indian women have already made a mark in history by redefining corporate leadership, business landscape, and even the political arena has further fuelled this idea. However, for every successful woman, there are tens and thousands of others, who are not even given the opportunity to showcase their skills as a potential leader. In fact, the organization development consultants in India are of the opinion that the absence of a level playing field for most women in business organizations is a cause of major concern.
Getting To Know The Challenge India is currently placed at the 87th position in the Global Gender Gap Index and has only 27% of its female population as a part of its massive workforce, which is one of the lowest in the world. The good thing is that of this 27 %, as much as 11% of women are placed in top management roles within the major private, multinational and even state-owned organizations. Despite this, various researches have proved that the overall participation of women in senior leadership roles within the workforce is quite dismal. The most common factors that have been responsible for this limiting placement of females at the senior position are discussed below. Societal Norms And Traditions : Women in India are expected to give topmost preference to their husband and their kids irrespective of the level of professional success they might have achieved. This often leads them to quit their jobs after marriage or the birth of a child. Hence business organizations generally feel uncertain about employing females in top management positions irrespective of them being more skilled and competent. Bias About Capabilities Of Women Leaders : Companies providing leadership consulting services are of the opinion that most organizations are biased about hiring women for leadership roles. They feel that the top management within such an organization tend to have a more orthodox view about women having the capabilities and the competence to fulfil their responsibilities as a business leader. They doubt the ability of the women to make strong business decisions and take calculated risks to ensure the growth of the organization as a whole. Ego Issues Of Junior Managers And Other Male Employees : Most organizations limit the growth of their female employees to prevent any ego issues in other male members working at similar positions. Moreover, being a male-dominated society, a majority of men in India are still averse to the idea of working under and taking orders from a female. Hence, business organisation take the safe way out by promoting male employees even if they are less competent. Finding The Right Solution The problem of gender disparity is a complex one and finding the right solution is not that easy. It is important to first eliminate the causes of this disparity and includes creating awareness within the society about women being as capable and as competent as their male counterparts. In addition, organizations need to adopt a skill-based growth system making it easier to promote females with the right expertise and skillset. Efficient leaders play an important role in building strong teams and ensuring the consistent growth and success of an organization. However, finding the right executive leaders from external talent pools can often prove to be a time consuming process. This has led the business organizations to look at alternate methods for finding the most efficient candidates through alternate methods. One such method is that of developing leadership talent within the organization itself. In fact, an increasing number of business organizations are becoming aware of the various benefits of using this method. The below discussed five guidelines can help organizations to turn their competent managers in to great efficient leaders.
Clarifying The Difference Between Managing And Leading According to the top professionals offering leadership consulting services, most managers are unaware of the difference between managing teams and leading them. Educating their top performing managers about the difference between the two is the basic requirement for turning them into efficient leaders. The managers need to understand that while management is about deliverables, production schedules and budgets, leadership is more about people and their needs and expectations. Teach The Significance Of Constructive Feedback Constructive feedback is an extremely important tool that can be used by business leaders to motivate their teams and improve their efficiency. In addition, it helps establish a strong relationship based on mutual understanding and trust between the leaders and their followers. Constructive feedback also helps in improving the level of openness between the leaders and the followers. This in turn ensures better sharing of ideas and opinions between the two which is essential for the success of a leader. Provide A Reminder About The Tenets Of Leadership The business organizations should make sure that they remind the top managers about the various tenets of leadership from time to time. They need to make the prospective leadership candidates well aware about aspects such as articulating values, need to establish trust, adapt an inspiring approach ad develop the courage to make tough decisions. While these aspects might not necessarily form a part of the working of managers, they are integral to the successful performance of every efficient leader. The organizations might also choose to invest in training programs designed to teach the managers in these aspects. Make Leadership A Part Of Their Professional Objectives One of the most effective ways to turn good managers into great leaders is by making leadership an integral part of their professional goals. This essentially means that the business organizations should work towards ensuring that that every aspect of the professional growth of the prospective leadership candidates should focus on improving their leadership performance. These aspects might include the professional evaluation, compensation and even the development goals of these candidates. Be Sure To Lead By Example No one can teach the nuances of efficient leadership to competent managers better than great leaders themselves. That is why HR strategy consultants stress on the importance of using the most efficient leaders within an organization to teach prospective candidates by example. It is important for the organizations to understand that the actions of great leaders prove more influential than almost anything they might say or preach. |
AuthorCornerstone India is a leading player in CXO Search, Board Search for Independent Directors and Leadership Advisory services. Archives
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