I volunteered my services as a consultant to one of the bigger IT firms in Pune beginning about a week ago. My main objective was to look at and learn how these companies operate on a day to day basis. The last week has been very interesting and taught me more of what I should not do and very little of what I should.
Going through the selection process of the company was a breeze. I spoke to an engineer on the phone and then had a one-on-one with a couple of more engineers and the group head of the team that I was to consult for. Nothing out of the ordinary there and nothing I haven't been doing for recruitment at ECM (that is Embedded Computing Machines, the company I co-founded). Once this was done, I was referred to a group called "Talent acquisition". When I walked through the door and read the name of the group, I was rather amused at the title, probably because I was expecting something more common like "Human Resources". I had a fairly productive talk with one of the members of the group and I was warming up to the idea of working here. But little did I know that things were all set to move south from here on.
I was expecting to hear from the Talent Acquisition group within a couple of days with an offer. The couple of days turned out to be a couple weeks with repeated pestering. In such a competitive market where the demand for engineers far exceeds supply and companies are beating each other silly in hiring people, this delay made very little or actually no sense at all. I am still wondering what made them take so long when you would expect that a company of this size and standing to have preset and tested processes which typically should have extremely small turn around times. Finally it looked like the engineering junta hammered their way through and I was invited to start work without an offer letter.
I drove down to their office at the appointed time and started by announcing my presence there. An hour went by and I was still waiting for someone to guide me through the initial formalities. I was predictably upset at this point. A young lady then came out to meet me and told me that my offer letter was still in pipeline and it would take another hour before she could start with me. What got to me was the tone in her voice and her demeanor, there was not even the slightest hint of regret or apology. On the other hand she gave me an impression of complete and absolute power, that somehow I was a slave to her whims and she owned me and my time.
A while later, a member from the engineering team came by and took me across what I later learnt was the "Deployment HR". The sheer apathy in that room overwhelmed me. I met a few more of the young lady's colleagues. Nobody had a clue to why i was there and what they had to do with me. It looked to me like there was no team, just a bunch of disjoint angry people in a room. Angry at what, I have no clue, their boss or simply the nature of their job. Surprisingly though the men were more courteous than the women. A few agonizingly curt comments later, I left my phone number with one of the men who promised he would find out what is to be done with me while I was introduced to the engineers. I did get a call in a couple of minutes and was told I should meet my "handler" (the same lady who thought she owned me).
On the way down, I stopped by and met my handler. She handed me a form which seemed to need a couple of personal details like my address and date of birth, which I filled up. Then to my utter amazement I was told that I need to get this form ratified by a whole bunch of people who were seated across the height of the building, right from reception to administration to the library. I did not know what to say, I was dumbstruck! It reminded me of the last day in college when I had to go to every department and get a NOC signed so that they could relieve me from college. I could not fathom the need for such a bizarre process, were they trying to prove some kind of point, were they trying to show me how big they were and that I was just a drop in the ocean. Whatever it was, it did not go down well with me, I think that the idea is downright ridiculous!
Fuming but tired, I did not resist, all I could think of was how do I get this over with and get the hell out of here. I took the form and went to the reception and was told that I needed to get other signatures first. Any amount of persuasion would not sway them. So giving up again, I went to the next department, to be told the same thing. Believe it or not every department I went to told me that the people were either busy or out to lunch or just unavailable. Twenty minutes later, I had given up completely. I have seen my share of bureaucracy and red tape over the years. There been times when I have got bills paid out of CDAC, but this one takes the cake. Completely frustrated and just plain angry having gotten into this mess in the first place, I left contemplating whether to return or not after wasting a good two and three quarter hours.
I am still appalled at the attitude with which employees are inducted. The "Deployment HR" as they call it is the first point of contact for a new employee with the company. I don't think it is all that wrong to expect some basic courtesy and understanding from these guys. I would go one step further and say that this junta should be trained to make day one of people joining an organization hassle free and pleasant. At least theoretically it looks a situation where both employee and organization would benefit.
Another important lesson was that, all policy makers should monitor periodically how the policies they make are being implemented on the floor. Couple of years ago there was a series on BBC where CEOs were made to spend a day out on the floor to see the pitfalls of working in their organizations. I remember one episode where Nandan Nilaikani was asked to join Infosys as a new employee. By the end of the program he was as hassled as I was. Most policies, I am sure are made with good intentions but what really matters is the way in which these policies are implemented. Probably the "get the paper signed" policy was brought in to acquaint new employees to the location of the various departments and the people that man it, which would be a good thing for the employee in future interactions. But the way it is implemented has deteriorated to such an extent, that it has now become a chore and any good that the policy was meant to do is completely lost.
I did go back the next day and when I look beyond the initial disappointments and the anger, I see that this experience was actually fruitful. I have learnt valuable lessons which will stay with me for some time to come. Of course this is not the end of the journey. There is much more to see and much more to learn and find myself looking forward to it.
