How Can I Innovate HR Practices in a Small IT Firm Without Spending Money?

I am working as an HR executive in an IT firm. I have only 6 months of experience, and I am the first and only HR in this firm. Our firm has only 50 employees. I want to do something very innovative and involving no cost. The people who work here are very conservative, so what I want is some great ideas from you guys. Please help.

I have tried the company's social site, but they said no. I wanted to have software wherein every employee can store all their information and stay always connected with the management, getting real-time information through that. They said no.

What to do... It's confusing (Everything involves money).

Dear Ganesh Kumar S,

I can understand your frustration. To bring about change, one has to invest. However, there is no defining line that divides investment and expenditure. It depends on how one looks at it.

Manpower Attrition Level

What is the manpower attrition level in your company? Try calculating the attrition rate and then propose to management how to reduce the cost of attrition. To lower this cost, some expenditure is essential; however, hopefully, management will agree to this.

Department and Project Overview

How many departments do you have? How many projects are currently ongoing? In my trainings, I conduct simulations on how to generate ideas for cost-cutting. Once again, the training will incur a cost. Therefore, check with management to see if they are willing to invest in generating cost-cutting ideas.

Thanks,
Dinesh Divekar

Ideas for Cost-Effective Employee Engagement Activities

Here are a few games and ideas:

• Dress code on Christmas (preferably Red and White). You can always add a condition to it. People who don't stick to the dress code need to pay a fine of 10 to 50 bucks. We can use the fund collected for any donation to an NGO. It will be real fun.

• Ask staff members to bring all old clothes, stationery, and other items that can be collected and then distributed among the needy.

• Best Workstation Decoration on Christmas is again a really good idea.

• Apart from that, we can also organize Health Check-ups like Diabetes camp, Eye camp, Dental Check-ups, etc. Many organizations sponsor these for free, and there would be absolutely no cost involved.

• We can also have an Appreciation Board where staff members can post appreciation notes about any staff member they would like to appreciate.

Thank you.

Event Ideas for a Small IT Firm

You may anchor a few games like fish in the ponds, dumb charades, or movie name guessing (using chits). With some minor expenses, you could also consider a dartboard, carom board, or chess. You need to be proactive and take the initiative to organize a successful event; then maybe your management will approve some budget for the same. At the initial stage, you need to go with no-cost games only.

You may celebrate birthdays by contributing for cakes/snacks and inviting individuals' school friends or family members so that it would be a great surprise for them.

Hope it will be helpful.

Hi Ganesh,

In addition to the above, you may think of some cultural activities on the occasion of festivals as well as the Foundation Day of your company. No doubt, initially, you will involve a few employees to work as a team, but slowly more creative ideas suiting the work culture can be evolved.

The day will not be far off when a noticeable change will be seen in the employees due to these wonderful activities.

Regards,

Optimus Consultants

0967 2616784