INTRODUCTION:

On entering the premise coffee brewing sound, made it evident that it is an IT industry which is full of brains that are required to be handled by strong human resource department. Frontline Private Limited deals into ‘Business Intelligence (BI)’ and Data Analytics. Where the company is spreading its arms across the globe so fast that it makes it difficult to look back and pick best practices from the past. To aid with it, the company has engaged the services of one of the leading consultants of the region.

Anxiety, fear, distrust in the air is a clear indication that the employees’ don’t seem to get acquainted with recent development within the company. Expansion across globe made it vital to restructure the complete organizational workforce hierarchy in order to best utilize people with new basket of powers and responsibilities.

On asking about how performance appraisal takes place, “The goal sheet is reviewed every 6 months. In the future, a leading consultant will be implementing 360 degree performance appraisal method “said a senior software developer.

Currently, the appraisals are carried out in the following steps:

· Goal Setting: Goal formation (in collaborative way) by using MBO technique.

· Self-appraisal.

· Evaluation of self-appraisal.

· Moderation by evaluator’s supervisor.

· Rating by the moderator will be final

“We are a little succumbed to the changing scenario at our office, even though the change is a smaller one”; said one of the HR executives taking care of lateral hiring. Organization is now restructuring the complete hierarchy (i). Restructuring will have obvious effects on alteration of span of control as well as change of the reporting managers even at the upper levels of hierarchy. This is not liked by the employees who are associated with organization for more than a decade.

“I may not continue with the organization if after restructuring HR, Learning andDevelopment and Admin will be clubbed,”said the head of LandD of the company.Continuous LandD being backbone of an industry like this, wherein especially this company is known for its rigorous training programs popularized as “BOOT Camps (iv)”.

In an interview with training head, he deliberated on the kinds of training programs usually happen within organization; Boot camps (3 month induction programme). All non-business intelligence candidates selected, have to attend boot camps. In fact “if there is a choice between a non-trained and a boot camper, the project managers will prefer boot campers”, claimed the LandD head.

However provision for continuous training through expert sessions delivered by in-house trainers makes graph of continuous learning move upwards. Frontline has given due share of importance to talent management. Whereproposed career progression graph is observed and training programmes are lined up accordingly.

These programs emphasized on development of:

· Leadership skills

· Soft skills

· Behavioral (time management, goal setting, etc)

· Communication (In-house trainer who is Dale Carnegie certified trainer)

· Technical

· Consulting (for those who interact with clients)

Organization has a scope of recommendation for training where immediate manager or team lead can recommend the subordinate for one of the below mentioned training programs

· Role specific

· Project specific training

· Department specific training

· Level (Position) specific training: Preparatory training and succession training

Recommendations are based on observations, the immediate manager or team lead must have observed the need of training program in that employee. However there are slots deputed to training as it goesthroughout the year specially Boot Camps;

· The strength of boot camps is 30. These camps can run in simultaneous as well.

· Other training programmes are spread throughout the year.

On incidents of new technology or if any employee learns a new skill which will be useful for others, such employee will train the others. Such employee will be called as ‘Delivery Manager’ for the session. This reflects level of importance given to knowledge sharing within company (vi). They have in house people who keep sharing information through blogs, etc. Frontline has a unique structure of knowledge management where there are share points which are placed in FRONTHUB: An internal portal for the employees. Knowledge sharing is done as per end to end model. Each employee is trained in the entire process activity which helps in replacing anyone in the line of activity.

There are knowledge transfer sessions at the project level. These knowledge transfer documents are placed especially for new project members. There is a knowledge repository which helps in collecting and disseminating information to the employees. This is majorly a collection of expert lectures. There is an in-house forum where anyone can post a question or query. It serves as a quick and easy way to find solutions. Also, the company encourages employees to write blogs which can be accessed by all the employees.

The frequency or intervals in which employee attends training is also a matter of concern. The time intervals and periodicity of training keeps knowledge updating at priority. Frontline’s Training department has framed a policy whereemployee has to undergo fifty hours of training which is split into twenty five hours in every six months (v). If an employee is a trainee, he completes one hour of training target. If an employee is a trainer and takes one hour of training, he completes around five hours of his training target. (Around four hours of preparation and one hour for review). The employee gets two ways to attend training which are self-nomination and nomination through skills gap analysis done by Project Leader. In reviews, if the project manager feels that any of his team members require training, he will nominate the name for specific training.

Further, the Land D department will also cross verify theneed of training in voluntary as well as nominated training. The training calendar is uploaded on the portal and employees can apply for voluntary training nominations accordingly (vii). Mostly Software engineers for business intelligence are asked to undergo training frequently as volatility of their profile demands the same.

When asked L and D Head about approach of organization towards training for team leads/managers/ or potential leaders, he sounded assertive and remarked, “Leadership training is provided to two types of employees; for Eligible leaders (Potential ones) and for Promoted leaders (Newly promoted team leads). This creates a balance as well as prepares the structure towards succession.” In an organizational structure of this sort (ix), where the HR department is seen as: Operations and Enabling functions (HR, Finance and admin) and learning and development is seen as a completely different arm one can clearly gauge the level of importance given to learning and development of employees.

The HR department is not seen as a profit-making department except Land D as they also give training to employees of clients. But this notion is not as same as the idea of restructuring. Majority changes are brought in the redesign of HR department, where L and D will be merged with HR. This will result in change in reporting pattern of L and D head to HR head. This also means L and D head will have to share his powers with the HR head which is raisingdiscontentment in employees of both HR and L and D departments.

The L and D head further added, “Iused to report directly to the CEO. Changes in the organization are to be initiated by external agencies who are experts in the same. We are technical people; initiations from our part will face resistance from employees. As these employees are already working with us and our inputs towards such change will not be recognized by employees’ even higher officials. There has to be a person initiating the same who is an external to the structure as well as expert in the field.”

ROLE OF HR DEPARTMENT:

There are HR heads at two levels. One is Global HR head and the other is India HR head. The global HR head reports to the India HR Head. All the employees in the organization have set goals. One arm of HR takes care of salary and university relations; one officer takes care of college hiring and conducting campus interviews and the operations associate takes care of all the joining formalities of new employees (iii). The talent acquisition team takes care of overall recruitment process. The global associate takes care of the immigration process of employees at Nagpur. There is separate budget. The L and D department presents a budget at the beginning of the year. Also, any deviation from the budget, if seems to be necessary is allowed. Currently, the L and D department is altogether a standalone function.

Primary responsibilities of HR department are as under:

· Recruitment and Selection

· Performance management system done every 6 months and

· Organizational change initiative

· Leave management

· Promotions

There are job rotations as per need of different projects. As they believe in knowledge sharing, jobs are rotated so that each one gets the skill and can work on all sorts of technology (viii). In Boot Camps, mentors are appointed which generally continue with the journey of employee in the company.

· There is a buddy system in which mentors are appointed.

· However, any employee can take guidance from any senior project leader also.

· Coaching is provided round the clock while the work in going on.

Conflict management is done primarily at the project level itself. The project manager will play an important and generally a final role in resolving the conflict. For leadership development, the potential leaders are identified and are also sent for leadership training programmes. The project leader also starts allotting tasks to such potentials to check his capabilities. Such potentials are then nominated by the leader to L and D department.

Organizations where change is initiated similar employee behavior is observed (ix). “We are estimating 20% employees at each level will quit as a result of change initiated within the organization;” said the New Head HR.The change initiation process has begun by the HR department (ii).

Having this view will not work, even though it remains a fact but steps will have to be taken towards initiating change in such a way that employees are able to adapt the same. Perhaps it was observed that there are team building activities conducted in the form of events for the employees by the L and D department. These are generally done while the boot camps are conducted.

RECRUITMENT AT FRONTLINE:

Unique way of recruitment is observed in the organization. Where there are AMG formed for this very purpose; there is one AMG (Associate Management Groups) which are as per projects. They do an analysis of requirement in each project. The project leader will float the requirement. Once the candidate is recruited, AMG will ask for specific domain training. Such information is received through the project leader to the L and D department.

So far as recruitments from internal sources are concerned succession management and talent management are placed at top of the ladder. They do so for all levels right from supervisory to the roles of manager. Training need analysis is conducted on regular basis to identify the gaps in order to check the skillset of existing employees. If need specific training as per the need of client emerges then existing employees are groomed first to cater to the needs of clients. It may happen in some cases that there is an urgent need, only in those cases the internal reference method is used wherein the existing employees are asked to give names of those candidates who can be recruited. Generally, if the internal employee has got the skill set which matches the criteria of 60–70% fit to the requirement, the internal candidate will start working and he would be groomed further as per need.

When there is an urgent requirement of a skilled employee, they will go for immediate hiring. If the requirement is known beforehand internal employee will be groomed before the project starts. There are many activities conducted right from day one of the employee joining the company.

· First, the employees attend boot camps which begin with a 2 day adventure camp. The other activities involve trust building, motivation and confidence development.

· There are many in-house events conducted for team building such as treasure hunt, etc. this helps the talent to develop and to perform better.

· Annual Retreat: The Company goes for an annual retreat to an outside location which is a 3 day event. On day 1, there is an exhibition by the teams of the projects and solutions that have been worked upon. This activity helps all the employees to see new projects or technology that could have been used. On day 2, there is a full day conference where the top management shares their vision and future goals of the company. The third day is kept for outing, picnic and leisure activities which helps the employees to develop bond.

· Frontline Awards Night: This event takes place in any of the offices of the company. This event is for recognizing and rewarding good performance by giving awards such as true partner, inventor, knowledge genie, etc. This helps in retaining the employees.

Though the L and D department is a standalone function and profit making one, the changes suggested by consultant would change its status. There is a lot of unrest in employees of both department with respect to this change. Duties, roles played currently will change within a span of six months. The changes have begun resulting in alteration of positions and powers.

This eventually led to many employees’ separations including one of the key employees; Head L and D.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION:

1 What factors led to organization restructuring at Frontline?

2 What would you recommend to reduce employee separations in the company?

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT:

The authors are grateful to the authorities of Shri Ramdeobaba College of Engineering and Management, Nagpur for constant motivation for doing research.

CONFLICT OF INTEREST:

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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Received on 21.03.2018 Modified on 11.04.2018

Asian Journal of Management. 2018; 9(3):1073-1076.

DOI: 10.5958/2321-5763.2018.00170.1