The rise and fall of professionally unreasonable jobs

A job that offers a certain level of stretch and challenge is considered “developmental” in nature. In fact, many leave jobs that have lost their developmental glow.

But what I am concerned about today is the other extreme. Jobs that offer so much challenge that they appear to be “professionally unreasonable”. At one time, “extreme jobs” or “adrenaline pumping” jobs were celebrated because they pushed executives to test their endurance and the limits of human possibilities.

Unfortunately, many who signed up for these jobs did not read the fine print. The unintended consequences and the collateral damage. Mostly their physical and mental health.

So, when would you call a job, “professionally unreasonable”?

Here is my tentative list:

• when the demands placed on the person far outstrip the resources at his or her disposal. This could be people, infrastructure, know-how, support.
• when the growth aspirations committed by stakeholders on a sustained basis are alluring but certainly unreasonable and fatigue causing.
• when you are by design doing the job of two people or handling two or more portfolios – unwittingly taken on as a part of your growth plans
  when there are sustained time pressures where for ever you are running and have lost all sense of boundaries and yet feel unfinished at the end of the day
• all of these have in some ways become a permanent feature of your work life with no end in sight

It is my sense that when the pandemic brought the entire humanity face to face with mortality, one of the things that people started asking themselves was questions of an existential nature. What is
important for me? What price have I been paying? What are the burdens that I can do without?

Dealing with “Professionally unreasonable jobs” is certainly high on the list for many.

Organizations may want to urgently ask themselves if they are promoting a culture where such jobs thrive? If they do, it certainly
shows that the organization does not care, is unempathetic and has a purely commercial relationship with its employees.

In today’s times of “talent uprising” as they are calling it, how many will sign up for such jobs or keep them, I wonder.

Certainly not the younger generation of employees who are confident, bold and multi-faceted.

Of course, employees in such jobs will also need to re-evaluate what they have signed up for in return for their pay and benefits. They will need to ask themselves how they wish to balance success with happiness and well-being.

It is my hope that the post-pandemic days will signal the waning popularity of “professionally unreasonable jobs”.

What do you think?

Whenever you meet employees across levels – CXOs to front-line employees and engage them in conversations about culture and climate, they are likely to bring up several issues which might sound like dissonances – between what they see as reality and what is the intent.

I have found it useful to take an empathetic view to these voices of dissonance rather than see them as cynicism. I see it as the dilemmas that organizational men and women face on a daily basis about what I call “dishonesties of organizational life”.

Yes. On an everyday basis, someone or the other will be inclined to see an organization they are working in as “dishonest”.

So, let me define what I specifically mean by dishonesty in this context. To me dishonesty is the dissonance between what an organization espouses and what it actually does. This could be their values, their published culture, their brand promise, their vision and so on.

Let me give an example or two. An organization might genuinely want to embrace an entrepreneurial spirit. They may be committed to it and constantly talk about it. However, some of their policies may not promote risk taking or some of their leaders may themselves be risk averse. So, in the eyes of many employees, there might be a “dishonesty”.

Similarly, many organizations claim to be “employee first”. They genuine believe in it and do a lot to embrace this. They have several policies and programs to take affirmative action in this area. But the experiences of employees in some parts of the organization may be contrary.

The truth is that even the best of organizations are unlikely to be able to stay 100% true to everything they espouse at all times in all situations and with all people. That is a myth.

However, the ability to accept this reality is a necessary condition for one to remain at peace and stay productive in an organization.

I will now come to the phrase “allowable”. Allowable to me means those inevitable shortcomings despite good intentions which are within acceptable limits causing no moral and ethical harm of a willful nature. Just like human beings, organizations have frailties too.

Many of us are able to live in peace with these allowable dishonesties of organizational life while continuing to do our bit to make things better and reduce the gaps. Others maybe end up feeling miserable, become cynical and even turn activist in their views, expecting a somewhat unreal and idealistic world.

The best way to deal with this is to ask oneself about the dishonesties in our own ways of living which we consider allowable!

Like individuals, organizations could also do with some empathy, forgiveness and mercy. Once we do that, we can ensure organization effectiveness and be at peace and productive.

What do you think?

First to wake up, last to eat and last to set her head down to sleep.

An Indian girl is brought up seeing her mother or the lady of the house as the primary care giver. As she grows older, she is ingrained with values that prioritise taking care of the people around. As she grows even older, not only is this seen as a responsibility but being the primary caregiver melds into one’s sense of identity and self-esteem. We are who we are because we care!

While this situation could be changing today, it is true of many women who are currently at mid-level or senior leaders in their organisations. This conditioning plays out in many ways at the workplace but one of the critical fall outs is this – women rarely prioritise their own needs over that of others.

Meeting expectations at work tends to be all consuming. Keeping customers happy, managing bosses and colleagues and rushing back home to be there for the children and look after the elderly is all in a day’s work.

Taking time out to follow a hobby could feel selfish. One’s own annual health check-up could be the most postponed item on the to-do list.

Training programmes are given a pass. Networking is a no-no.

End result – we have women who are stressed, have perennial health issues and blame work for stress at home and vice versa.

In our research for the women’s leadership programme ‘SheLeads’, many women leaders we spoke to mentioned that they would never have been where they are today if they did not have a robust support system at home. Their identity is not tied to the meals they cook or the academic achievements of their children. Cooking is outsourced, teaching kids is outsourced and time at home is spent in quality fun and bonding.

Our leaders  realized that children need their own space and prefer showing off their boss-moms more than having them hover around all the time.

This support system is something successful women leaders have built even at work.  Many have asked for help and been mentored – not just in skills and knowledge but also those intangible yet critical areas like navigating the political waters of the organisation.

These women leaders have grasped at every opportunity to up their knowledge and skills. They believe their functional expertise is one of the main factors that helps them stand out at the workplace.

Some have been lucky enough to have not just mentors but mentors who are also sponsors – people who ensure their voice is heard in the right places, who speak about them when opportunities arise and generally ensure that they are in the minds of senior stakeholders who the women may not have direct access to.

It is clear that the journey to the top cannot be a lonely one! If you are a man reading this, what more can you do to support the women in your life? To the women:

Who is helping you succeed?

When did you last ask for help?

When did you last put yourself first?

Chances are most of us would say, “of course yes”. I start my work early and end pretty late, be it at the workplace or virtually. Yes, I am hard working. So, therefore are you hard working? Well, I have a provocative question to ask: what is the real difference between spending long hours at work and being hard working? As as coach who works with leaders who wish to realise their potential, I believe that the real difference between spending long hours at work and being hard working is this: Hard to me refers to discipline. Working to me refers to the ability to persevere and not give up and keep trying. Hard working to me is about the discipline of making time and expending energy towards things that really matter to us. For many of us, spending long hours at work may be a necessity – we need it for economic reasons. Many of us may feel almost choice less in the matter. However, our job alone cannot define our character, can it? What about having the discipline of going behind what we always wanted to do? It could be the habit of time for oneself, time for the family, nurturing relationships, pursing a hobby, learning a new skill, improving our health or of course changing some of our behaviours. All of these call for discipline. Peter Drucker said, “Plans are only good intentions unless they immediately degenerate into hard work”. Hard work to me is self directed, intrinsic and elevating and taking us forward in a way that is meaningful. That is the way I would like to see the distinction. What about you?

Sarita glanced at the clock. It showed 6.30 PM. Office hours were 9.00 AM to 6.00 PM. She looked around her. All her male colleagues were either squinting into their screens or having heated conversations on the phone.Not even one looked like they were getting ready to leave. She really did not want to be the odd one out.

But her kids needed to be taken shopping for the school excursion the next day that they were so excited about. Her boss emerged from his cabin, saw her and asked her to come in for a meeting to work on the report due next week.

Appraisals were around the corner and she was quite familiar with the recency effect. Sarita, the youngest General Manager in the company with 18 years’ experience, leading a team of 20 people across 4 regions, felt tears welling up. Dilemmas are a part of every working woman’s world. Each moment is fraught with choices to be made and the opportunity cost of each decision.

The fact that women are conditioned to be primary caregivers of the family makes such dilemmas feel like value conflicts. It is not that men do not face such dilemmas but essentially for them, they are prioritisation issues – more a managerial skill they have to master! And there is always the lady of the house who ensures things get done, somehow. Dilemmas cannot be seen in isolation.

The elements of a dilemma include a value conflict governed by contextual prejudice and driven by limiting beliefs. In this series, we look at each of the micro dilemmas that women face. These tend to add up till a woman decides she can’t take it anymore. How can women equip themselves to manage these dilemmas and give their best, on their terms.

Dilemma 1:

• Is it okay for me to leave work on time?
• Will I be seen as less committed or dedicated than my colleagues?
• Will this perception that I create, affect my growth in the organisation?

Our research shows that women have had to work much harder than men to be taken seriously at the workplace. One indicator of this is the time they spend at the workplace. With on-site work slowly and steadily picking up pace, the advantage that women had when they worked from home is passe’ and they are back to coming in early, staying late, and participating in calls all around the clock.

One of the participants of our SheLeads programme has an assertive way of dealing with this. She makes it a habit to leave on time. When her male colleagues roll their eyes and talk about how she can leave early because she is a woman, she first reminds them that she is not leaving early.

Then, on the lighter side, she also asks them how long they are planning to stay at work to escape taking on chores at home. She also talks to them about how important it is to have work-life balance.

How have you perceived the women who leave on time in your workplace?

Ladies, what would make you confident enough to leave when you want to?

Note: This research was carried out for SheLeads – a special programme for women leaders, led by women coaches. Click here to know more

How many times has this happen to you?

You are standing in front of the stove to boil a packet of milk. It is one of the easiest things to do. Just light up the stove and wait for it to boil. It is so easy that you believe you can use those few minutes of waiting to do a few other things too. You are tempted to go grab your phone, attend to the door, wash an apple, fill your bowl with some cereals and so on. You are sure that nothing significant will happen by the time you return. But, almost always, at that very moment that you are away, the milk boils over!

I realise this can happen to us when we try to be present and listen. We believe we have done it all the time; it is so simple; we know how it will go and what will be said and so we try to do just one or two other things. And, at that very moment, for the person in your presence, the milk has boiled over – the person has said or felt something significant and you have missed it.

So, if we can be fully present we can achieve the goal of being there when it is boiling and not leave the person and the milk unattended and let the moment boil over.

One of the common behavioural changes that leaders commit to make to their coaches is to listen better.

Sounds like a good intention indeed. The question that coachees and ask is this: How do I know that I am getting better at listening.In general, how do I know I am listening well? Waiting for 360 feedback can take a while. Leaders and Coachees need a simple way to know that on a daily basis they are inching forward – they need a check-list of sorts to self-monitor.So, here is my list of ten visible behavioral indicators that you are listening well. This could be a one-on-one conversation, at home with you children or your spouse, or with a colleague or team member or a team meeting or a review. I hope you find this useful and even build on it. 

1. When you are device free during the conversation
2. When you talk less (say 30% of the time only)
3. When you talk 3rd or 4th – certainly did not go first
4. When you are able to paraphrase the content of what others said
5. When you are able to paraphrase feelings
6. When you are able to summarize the meaning that you have made of what the other persons said or are going through and you do it a few times.
7. When you are able to ask good questions
8. When you are able to pick up the unsaid and unexpressed
9. When the most silent person in the room says something
10. When the people in the room have impacted you emotionally and you feel connected

I have been engaging with client organisations for their coaching needs for well over 15 years and I must say that a lot has changed in the manner in which coaches and coaching services are used and all for the better.

There was a time well over a decade ago when the coach was a trust worthy friend or professionally known to the CEO or a Board member and was invited by them to coach someone within the Organisation. Coaching at that time was a very discreet thing and even HR did not get included except for operational matters. Coaches were also not really called upon to share much by way of progress or status because they were known and respected. To that extent there was a certain level of opaqueness about what coaches did and how they went about their work. A lot was shrouded under confidentiality.

Much has changed since. Many HR leaders and Talent Heads are coaches themselves and / or are very familiar with how things work. They have also managed to take the burden away from CEOs and boards to find someone to coach.

The body of published literature about the practical aspects of coaching has also increased significantly.

Leadership Coaching is no longer considered a broad-spectrum antibiotic for all ills. It is now seen as an integral part of leader development. The varied contexts in which it is applied and the accompanying nuances are also very well understood by HR and Talent Heads. Most importantly, it is clear that coaching is a leader development intervention and not therapy and to that extent there is need for transparency, accountability and sustainability.

HR and Talent leaders who work in organisations where the centrality of the function is high are deeply involved in the talent management processes. They have a sound understanding of each senior leader and her or his development needs and plans for their career. They are also earning the trust of senior leaders enough to have candid and supportive conversations about their aspirations and development opportunities. To that extent the quality of initial briefing conversations that I have with these HR and Talent leaders are extremely deep, thorough and well thought through.

They also play a very useful role in helping find the right coach and then being available to the sponsors and the coach to ensure that the engagement is well set up and well supported for success. As a coach and coaching services provider, I am convinced that without internal support from HR and Talent leaders, coaching will remain shaky and with their full involvement, coaching can deliver great results.

I can also see that Boards and CEOs are beginning to recognize that the journey of leader development is unique, personal and requires them to be involved and invested, one person at a time and there is no magic wand which when waved will deliver a whole lot of leaders for the future.

Obviously, not all organisations and all functionaries may be there yet but I can see a significant shift and that is extremely exciting. Once we have a critical mass of role models doing the right things, the change will be rapid.

One of the common jokes that employees and line managers make about HR professionals is this: When you ask HR folks a question, they never answer you straight. They always say, “It depends”.

Well, we must say that we agree with that observation but not the allegation!

The work that HR professionals do is almost always contingent upon a whole lot of dynamic contextual factors. So, when the person says it depends, he or she is right.

As the three of us (Harish Devarajan, V J Rao and Ganesh Chella) got together to author the book, HR Here and Now, there was a lot of pressure on us to look at the future rather than the here and now.

We were steadfast in our resolve to stay with the here and now and not do crystal gazing.

That is because HR is in our view is part science and part art. There are some things which easily lend themselves to logic, reason and a scientific rigour. Whereas there are other parts of the function and profession which are open to multiple interpretations and approaches. We were happy to accept with grace and humility that there isn’t just one way of doing HR work and that our way is not always the right way. So, you see, the future of HR depends not on what will happen but on what we will choose to create, in response.

The context of our work in 2020 and beyond

As we look at the larger global context, six trends and possibilities strike us as significant in terms of their impact on HR work.

Artificial intelligence in our lives: The disruptive advances in the field of artificial intelligence that we are witnessing seem to hold more fear than hope for the future. Very few of us know the true implications of robotization and its impact on human lives and the future of work. Similarly, the nature and impact of advanced computing and the all-pervasive intrusion of technology into our lives will impact privacy and behavior in our day to day lives.

The geo-political landscape: After several years of globalisation and living in the belief that the world is flat, we are now beginning to realise that the world is not flat but walled. Growing barriers to trade and commerce seem to be making it hard for anyone and anything built on global aspirations. Can the aspirations of a nation be fulfilled within its borders? Will nations build more walls or is all this a storm in a tea cup and things will get back to where they were some time ago?

The emerging social fabric: What more and more researchers are telling us is that what concerns our employees more are the problems of living and not the problems of working. How will some of the challenges fuelled by social-cultural changes like relationships, parenting, personal health, the health of their elders, finances, domestic migration, lack of support for emotional and physical needs, lack of skills to cope with these challenges impact the social fabric and the ability of employees to give their best?

How will social disparities play out in the coming days? Will they get worse? Will social strife flow onto the streets? Is there the possibility of a revolution? Will there be a breakdown of law and order?

There is an ever growing fear that we live in an unsafe world with threats of safety and security from multiple sources We certainly know that not feeling safe does not augur well for a healthy and productive life at work and at home. Will these fears grow or diminish?

Breakthroughs in science and technology: We are seeing significant breakthrough in science and technology that hold the promise of a better life every single day. Be it health or conveniences or energy or communications, there is hope that on the balance, we are seeing progress. What are the new frontiers that science and technology will open up and in what ways will it positively impact our work and our lives remains to be answered.

The dreams and aspirations of future generations: What will the future generations aspire to accomplish? What will be their orientation to life and work? What is the nature of choices they will make in terms of the way they would like to live and work? What will matter to them more and what will not? What will be their motivational hot buttons?

Mother earth: How will we treat mother earth and how will mother earth respond? What will the global environment look and feel like? Will the heightened awareness and some of the breakthrough ideas help heal mother earth or will the ecological disasters that we are witnessing only increase in the days to come?

The HR response

While some of the potential trends we have outlined seem ominous and others at best uncertain, it is our hope that the right people will end up coming together to engage, understand and find solutions with varying levels of effectiveness.

HR has always been a multi-disciplinary field and it will be even more so going forward. More and more solutions will emerge from fields as diverse as AI, Information Technology, ecommerce, Neurosciences, positive psychology and mental health.

If the larger goal of all HR work is to help individuals and implement organization effectiveness, then we do know for sure that such work will get done somewhere in some manner and under some name.

If you were to ask us what titles the future generations of HR professionals will carry or how they will be organised or where they will come from or which part of it will be human driven and which part automated, we can only say that it depends!

I read with great interest the bold experiment launched by Howard Schultz, CEO of Starbucks to encourage his young baristas to trigger conversations on complex issues like race. In this particular campaign the barista was expected to write the words “race together” on customer cups – a trigger to initiate a conversation on the contentious issue. Needless to say the campaign ran into some rough weather.

Reading this triggered an entirely different thought in my mind – a thought around coffee and conversations, not by baristas but HR professionals. Young HR professionals who are responsible for employee engagement and people partnership are often expected to have one-on-ones or coffee conversations with employees. I have often seen that many of these professionals feel quite challenged having these conversations.  They feel challenged for two reasons – they may not know enough about the subject to carry on a great conversation or more importantly they may just lack the conversation skills.

Back to Starbucks, I am wondering whether they had spent time training their baristas on the art of conversation and about the subject of race. I would imagine that it is only the exceptionally gifted ones who can have such conversations without training or preparation.

HR professionals are often required to have conversations around company policies, careers, the performance rating system, bad managerial styles, perceived unfairness, pay increases and such like. To be able to engage in such conversations with empathy and understanding without feeling compelled to offer solutions or defend oneself or convince the other person is indeed a fine art – something that even the most seasoned Coaches sometimes struggle with.

However, the idea to me is extremely exciting. Imagine the difference it can make if hundreds of young HR professionals were able to pull off great conversations with employees on contentious issues for which there are no right answers. Imagine the difference it will make to the employee’s perceptions of reality, if HR professionals could have conversations which lead not just to inquiry but also change.

That would be the day!

The success of HR professionals depends in good measure on the quality of their conversations with a wide range of stakeholders. Given that the heart  and soul of HR work is listening, consultation, advice, expertise sharing, data gathering, collaborating and joint problem solving, and rests on trust, confidentiality and credibility, effective conversations are at the very core of what makes all this effective.

Based on my personal experience, I am able to identify at least seven contexts calling for great conversations from HR professionals.

Conversations to build trust

All good relationships are built on trust.  For trust to develop, HR Professionals must move out of their role boundaries and communicate with candour and openness and of course sensitivity. They must learn to connect at a human level with the leader or manager in the business.  Such candor becomes especially important in owning up failures.   

Conversations to demonstrate empathy

Leaders and managers may often express issues, concerns and problems. HR Professionals should resist the temptation and anxiety to offer ready-made solutions and instead tune into their worlds, listen with empathy and respond with understanding. To be seen as someone capable of listening and understanding is by itself a huge virtue.

Conversations to bring new perspectives

HR Professionals often need to share with leaders and manager organizational issues and concerns arising out of their sensing effort. They may also need to present their professional views and opinions when called for. This will call for being precise, firm, respectful, objective and sensitive and of course open to engage in a dialogue. 

Conversations to shape agendas

HR Professionals need to spend a fair amount of time having conversations with managers and leaders to give shape to their HR agendas and plans.  This will require them to ask the right questions and take an outside-in view to the business.  The focus in these conversations is to find out what HR needs to do.

Conversations around the leader’s agenda

Leaders and managers often look to HR as a neutral platform to discuss some of their dilemmas and use them as a thinking partner to make certain critical decisions.  In these conversations the partner must not only be a great listener but also ask good questions and present his or her perspectives in an neutral and unbiased manner to facilitate clarity and decision making.

Conversations to bring a teachable point of view

There are times when leaders and managers look to HR for expert advice or guidance.  These are typically in areas where HR has expertise. In these conversations the partner has to present his or her knowledge and insights with precision and confidence.

Conversations around immediacy

There will always be times when the relationship between the HR professional and the leader or manager is broken because of a conflict, or a particular issue. It is important that he or she has the skill to talk about things that are coming in the way of their relationship with the objective of addressing the issues and restoring the relationship.

When HR professionals learn to have these seven conversations well, their leaders and managers find it a pleasure to work with them, seek them out and will always have time for them.

The CEO has been talking about risks to key talent and the urgent need to do something. The HR head is unable to read the CEO’s concern about “risk to talent” against the context in which the CEO mentions it and responds defensively by talking about the Top Talent Development management program he has launched and how it will solve the problem. The CEO gives up and calls in a consultant, albeit reluctantly.

This HR Manager is facing huge resistance from one particular Line Manager over a new policy change that he has been championing. His discussions are going nowhere.  The HR Manager is unable to influence him by taking for a moment the perspective of the line manager and keeps pushing hard. No marks for guessing that things turn nasty.

In a lot of my work as a coach, consultant and facilitator I encounter very senior and successful HR professionals who often fail to see things from others points of view.  These otherwise competent professionals somehow fail to imagine or envision how things might look from somebody else’s perspective.

So, what do we call this skill or ability? Experts in the field of psychology and human behaviour describe this ability as cognitive empathy.

Cognitive empathy is also called perspective taking and is also seen as related to the theory of mind or the ability to attribute mental states to oneself and others and through that understand others’ perspectives, beliefs, intentions and needs. Cognitive empathy is about cognitively appreciating how others are feeling or how things look from their perspective.

There are at least nine things that HR Professionals with high cognitive empathy are able to do.

1. They are able to understand their line manager better by imagining how things look from their perspective.
2. They strongly believe that there are two sides to every situation and always look at them both.
3. They are able to accurately assess what their stakeholders would say before they take a decision that affects them.
4. They are able to comprehend the real meaning of what their leaders are saying by combining what they said with the context in which it was said.
5. They find it easy to visualize and understand how their line managers are likely to receive what they are about to say.
6. They are able to read between the lines and gather the unstated needs, expectations and messages from business.
7. They are alive to potential disagreements in any situation.
8. They are able to imagine with reasonable accuracy what their internal customers are thinking of them and how they are being assessed.
9. They are able to influence the behaviours of their stakeholders by saying things in a way that appeals to them

So what hinders or helps in developing cognitive empathy?

Egocentricity or pre-occupation with oneself certainly hinders the development of cognitive empathy. HR Professionals who are able to transcend their own needs, anxieties and concerns are able to develop and demonstrate cognitive empathy. Given the socio-cultural shift towards greater individualistic orientation, the development of cognitive empathy will call for conscious and deliberate efforts.

You will agree that what I say here about HR folks is equally applicable to business folks too. But, then this blog is for HR folks!

What are the things that concern our employees today? What seem to be the most common causes for their psychological and emotional disturbances? Many of us who are conditioned to thinking about our employees within organisational boundaries are likely to say that it could be their pay, their most recent performance review, their careers or their managers. Many of us are just not oriented to think of our employees as individuals within a social setting.

In reality, when compared with workplace factors, socio-cultural factors have a far deeper impact on the psychological and emotional state of employees and therefore their behaviours.

History tells us that for most nations, economic progress has always brought with it several irreversible socio-cultural shifts. These socio-cultural shifts when not managed well places a huge psychological and emotional burden on everyone in the society including our employees.  My research about the helping needs of employees also confirms that 80% of the problems that employees face are what we might call personal problems. In the present Indian context, these personal problems are to a large extent triggered by socio-cultural shifts which have their origin in our economic progress.  In my view there are five problems or societal concerns arising out of rapid socio-cultural shifts in the last decade that all of us must be concerned about.

1. Making relationships work

One of the most important sources of stress and transient disturbance among young employees in metropolitan India seems to be around making their relationships work.  High disposable income, freedom and privacy given the need and opportunity to migrate and live and work in a different city and lack of norms to live life given the conflicts between local and global cultural identities, has had a huge impact on how young employees view their relationships. While getting into relationships seems easy, making it work through investment of time and mutual adjustment seems hard in a rapidly emerging individualistic society. As a result, the trauma of getting into relationships, breaking up relationships and reinvesting in them before and after marriage are causing enormous trauma among a reasonable percentage of youth at the workplace. Given the nature of the issue, family support is often not available or of little help. While we may traditionally term this as personal, its impact on employee engagement and productivity is not difficult to image.

2. The guilt of being a young working mother

Even as organisations are hiring women employees in very large numbers and are doing their best to provide flexibility and support systems, it gets very hard when women start a family. The guilt associated with pursuing one’s career and not paying enough attention to the child is carried almost entirely by women and not men and its psychological implications are enormous. While one part of them wants to continue to and progress in their career the other part constantly reminds them about the price they are paying in terms of caring for their child and being there when needed. While some are able to take hard decisions, many attempt to find that elusive “balance” and suffer in the bargain.

 3.  Maintaining health and wellbeing

It is common knowledge that today’s threat to health and wellbeing is not as much from infectious diseases as it is from lifestyle illnesses.  We see increasing incidence of lifestyle diseases like diabetes, heart diseases and cancer among employees in their 30s and 40s in India.  While many employees see opportunities to grow and prosper, their psychological preparedness to cope with what it takes to seize those opportunities seems grossly inadequate as evidenced by the distressing rise of these lifestyle diseases among young Indians. The implications of this are enormous for individuals and their organisations. While progressive organisations have programs in place to promote health and wellbeing and make this an organisational priority, such progressive organisations are few in number.  

4. Parenting amidst affluence

For many generations of Indian kids, the burning desire to do well in life or just survive and build one’s life was enough of a source of motivation to take responsibility and get one’s act together. For many parents of today, their challenge is to bring up kids in an environment of affluence and abundance. Affluence combined with what many call today’s vacillation between over parenting and freedom has ended up making the parent – child relationship quite fragile.  Many parents confess that it is very hard for them to carry on a real conversation with their children beyond five minutes, leave alone develop the ability to establish boundaries, influence them and their decisions. Parents who are unable to develop the skills of parenting in a globally connected environment are struggling and that number is growing by the day.

5. Caring for aging parents with individualistic orientations

With increasing life expectancy, executives across generations have the understandable responsibility of taking care of their parents. However their challenge is complicated by the fact that they are now dealing with parents who are themselves wired differently.  Aged parents of today want their space, time for their leisure activities and the freedom to maintain their daily routines. At the same time, they would like to have access to their children’s care, love and attention, when they need it. This makes the challenge of caring for parents rather complicated for many of today’s employees.

These five societal concerns (and I am sure there are a few more you will be able to spot) have a huge impact on every employee’s emotional and psychological state. Unless employees are able to develop the concept of individual development planning to handle these challenges and also get access to the right sources of help to develop the internal capacity to handle these challenges, they are likely to become far less effective than they potentially can be.

Given this reality, only a helping oriented organisation will be in a position to even empathize with these needs and concerns and explore ways in which it can help its employees help themselves.

Every year, a clutch of consulting firms routinely release their “much awaited” list of best employers or workplaces in India. These lists are based on the firm’s hypothesis or definition of “best employer” and a research methodology they adopt to validate that hypothesis or definition.

As I see these lists I find the usual suspects. Some names on the list surprise me. I also wonder why some are missing. To me these lists raise many questions about employee value propositions, engagement and the larger issue of Branding.

So, here are the questions I ask myself as I see these lists and some tentative and incomplete answers I give myself. 

1. Is there one truth to who the “best” employer is?

Like many things in life, there is more than one truth, each defined from a certain logic bubble. So also is the question of who can be called best employer. Each firm has its own definition and its own methodology. That means the list can be quite diverse. Of course, shorn of all jargon, some common truths emerge.   Employees value money, career opportunities, good hygiene in terms of benefits and facilities, a safe workplace, a friendly atmosphere that promotes affiliation and so on. Long Live Abraham Maslow!

2. If an organisation does not appear on any of the lists, does that mean they are not a good employer?

Not really. It may simply mean that they did not take the trouble to apply. Maybe they were not aware or did not have the time or just did not believe in all this. Maybe they applied but did not make it to the list. There are thousands and thousands of employers who are fair, pay reasonably, provide good work, ensure safe and fair working conditions and help their employees perform and grow but are not on any list. I wonder if it requires a certain extraversion to get onto these lists. 

3. If an organisation is on the list, is it truly among the best employers?

I am now entering muddy waters but I will muddle my way through and answer nevertheless.

There are two possibilities I see here. Most organisations that figure in the list are good employers. They would meet all the criteria that most of us would consider important. Some in fact, do a very good job on many counts. This is one possibility.

There is another possibility. If the consulting firm that is running the survey did not have good participation, they might be forced to create a list from among those who applied.  That is not a good situation but quite a possibility – remember, organisations also suffer from “best employer application fatigue”.

 Also, if you read the CV of some of the HR Heads, one item on their CV that they are proud of is their effort to get their organisation onto a list. Does that mean that with some effort, you can get onto some list?

 4. What is the future of these branding efforts in a world driven by social media

Perhaps a decade ago, when the media controlled information about organisations and employees relied almost entirely on what they read in the media to form impressions about organisations, these lists were very influential.

With all the information available about organisations and its people and its practices on the social media on a real time basis, employees are able to form impressions and make decisions effortlessly. It is my belief that a list published once a year has little value today.

In fact, if these lists need to survive in the next five years, they may need to reinvent themselves and find ways in which they can offer real-time insights into organisations. One never knows. Someone might come up with an app (and some VC might fund it) to offer employees real-time insights into their target organisations using crowd sourcing and through that make these lists almost redundant.

5. Why am I saying all this and being such a spoil sport?

I am saying all this because I find it hard to come to terms with the current approach to employer branding. I belong to a school of thought that if you did all the right things because you believed in it, your brand will be recognised.  It looks contrived that an organisation can work on its employer brand and act like someone that it really is not – that would be phoney.

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