Background: A blue-chip IT firm with more than 40,000 employees offers IT services. The offshore center in India caters to US clients. It operates under the two-in-a-box method. Here, these IT services are managed by a highly specialized team at the client site, called onsite, whereas the other team, which is comparatively larger, remains anchored in the India Offshore Centre, supporting the onsite team with the services and consultancy they need.
Talent: The talent base primarily consists of engineers and other technical degree holders such as MCA and MS, with a smaller percentage of MBAs in the Business Development team. The India offshore center employs engineering graduates with a minimum of three or more years of experience. The entry-level works on programming and other technical areas such as quality assurance. This level forms the bottom few bands as C1, C2, and C3. The mid-level involves a certain degree of client interaction and manages production at the managerial level. They form the next few bands, B1 and B2. Finally, the executive level includes the organization and business heads, who work solely on business responsibilities. The band for this level is A1 and A2. The total strength of this center is 2,000.
Case Facts: A CISCO project is allocated to this center. This project has a huge valuation and is required to be delivered over three years. The project requires three engineers to work at different levels under a Project Manager.
As the project scales, the work is expected to grow beyond a team size of 5-6 by the end of the year. One of the team members will travel onsite to manage this project for these three years and will be supported by the offshore team. The Delivery Manager responsible for this new project allocates it to one of his Project Managers, who was already handling a few teams.
The Project Manager is asked to set up the work at the earliest and get started. The PM hires one of his old reportees to the new team to begin the transition. This reportee, Mr. A, has been working at the firm for the last two years. He is an engineering graduate with a total of seven years of experience. According to the PM, Mr. A has been the best performer since his joining, dependable, and is being groomed for the next level.
Leadership Development and Talent Management: The HR Head shares the big picture of the talent management plan with the Delivery Manager and the Project Manager.
1. The DM, who was already offered the Profit Sharing Option with a position in the US, plans to move within a year. He is in Band A1. He will not shift through the bands but will have higher compensation offered.
2. Upon his transfer, the PM then becomes the Delivery Manager, as he is already managing a few teams, and the new one comes to his portfolio. The PM is in Band B2. His promotion might take him to A1.
3. Mr. A would remain the Project Lead in the team and manage the new members to scale up. As the team size increases, Mr. A, based on his performance, would be made the PM, thus implementing this entire Leadership Development Plan. He is in C3 and will move into B1 upon his promotion.
New Team Formation: The core team is formed, and hiring for the two new positions begins. The project suddenly grows complex, and the PM realizes they might need to hire an expert. One of the new hires is almost poached from a competitor, where he was managing a similar project. This new hire, Mr. B, has an engineering degree with six years of experience. Since the hiring took time, he was offered a good salary hike and an opportunity to work onsite. He is offered C3, Senior Programmer. The third hire to the team is a relatively less-experienced talent, with four years of work experience, an engineering degree, and certification. He is a topper in his batch, hence very high on learning. This hire, Mr. C, is offered the least salary of the three and given a band less, i.e., C2 - Programmer.
Situation: As the work evolves, the client is not too happy about the delay in rolling out the project. On top of that, the first few escalations were badly managed. Hence, they put a cap on growth during the year and delay it for next year, tentatively. The pressure further builds when the new hires take time to settle. The Knowledge Transfer from Mr. A does not take place properly to Mr. B and Mr. C. As a result, the performance within the team staggers. The DM calls for a skip-level meeting and addresses the PM and HR about the condition. The HR Manager speaks to the team and finds out the gap. He asks the DM to allow the new hires to be trained directly by the client's team.
This brings the new hires to the forefront, and Mr. B starts performing the best among the three. The communication thereafter settles as Mr. B manages the client-end relationship and works with the other two on the project delivery. The setbacks are recovered with extra man-hours spent in the office, where the team members work for up to 17 hours a day.
As time passes, the power play deepens among the team members. Mr. C feels cheated, as he delivers the same work for less money. He even finds out about the bleak opportunity to grow and the fact that only one among them will travel onsite.
Mr. B is the best performer, hence gets all the limelight. He remains the highest-paid and quickly establishes himself with other Team Managers. Mr. A feels threatened. He is the senior-most, yet is paid less. He had been the best performer so far and clearly everyone's choice. Nevertheless, now he often stands in Mr. B's shadow, hence underplays everyone's effort and reports their mistakes badly to the PM. A few errors made by Mr. B and Mr. C are taken on record, and they are asked to watch out for their performance. This is the second time since their hiring that they are given performance feedback. The first time was during the Knowledge Transfer.
After eight months, when it is time for one of the three to leave for onsite, preparation begins. The PM sends the travel request documents for all three team members to ensure fair play. The client interviews all of them to decide who would be traveling. Skill and efficiency remain the client's requirements.
It almost remains evident that Mr. B would travel as he was hired for the role and remained the best performer throughout. He even received favorable feedback from the client after the interview. His discussion with the Project Manager remains very positive throughout. As time draws close, the client's call makes it apparent that he would be traveling by December 2012. He relocated to this new city because of this job in the company. So, he wraps up his establishment, sells his bike, and doesn't renew his rent agreement with his landlord.
Problem: In the first week of December, the name of the person traveling to deliver the onsite project is announced, and that is Mr. A. The team morale breaks down. Mr. C puts in his papers and agrees to serve the notice period. Mr. B is demotivated to the extent of resigning from the job. Any further distortion to the environment within the India Centre will affect the client and business.
Plan of Action: The Delivery Manager calls for the HR Manager, Project Manager, and Mr. B to discuss a solution. Mr. B is advised to maintain balanced behavior and continue communicating with the client. He is asked not to discuss anything about why Mr. A is traveling. To make matters worse, he is asked to support Mr. A from India as the offshore team for the next three years. A junior member from another team is internally hired to backfill Mr. C's vacancy. Mr. B is directed to train the new member and make him productive before Mr. C leaves.
Conclusion: This makes it clear that Mr. B doesn't have too many options to grow. He will have added responsibilities. Any further hike or addition to the financial compensation couldn't be promised to him, as it remains sensitive to market movements. Mr. B uses 'Open Door' and calls for a meeting with the HR Head.
Points to Ponder:
1. If you were heading HR in this firm, how would you solve this situation?
2. If you were Mr. B, what would be your plan of action?
From India, Pune
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3Talent: The talent base primarily consists of engineers and other technical degree holders such as MCA and MS, with a smaller percentage of MBAs in the Business Development team. The India offshore center employs engineering graduates with a minimum of three or more years of experience. The entry-level works on programming and other technical areas such as quality assurance. This level forms the bottom few bands as C1, C2, and C3. The mid-level involves a certain degree of client interaction and manages production at the managerial level. They form the next few bands, B1 and B2. Finally, the executive level includes the organization and business heads, who work solely on business responsibilities. The band for this level is A1 and A2. The total strength of this center is 2,000.
Case Facts: A CISCO project is allocated to this center. This project has a huge valuation and is required to be delivered over three years. The project requires three engineers to work at different levels under a Project Manager.
As the project scales, the work is expected to grow beyond a team size of 5-6 by the end of the year. One of the team members will travel onsite to manage this project for these three years and will be supported by the offshore team. The Delivery Manager responsible for this new project allocates it to one of his Project Managers, who was already handling a few teams.
The Project Manager is asked to set up the work at the earliest and get started. The PM hires one of his old reportees to the new team to begin the transition. This reportee, Mr. A, has been working at the firm for the last two years. He is an engineering graduate with a total of seven years of experience. According to the PM, Mr. A has been the best performer since his joining, dependable, and is being groomed for the next level.
Leadership Development and Talent Management: The HR Head shares the big picture of the talent management plan with the Delivery Manager and the Project Manager.
1. The DM, who was already offered the Profit Sharing Option with a position in the US, plans to move within a year. He is in Band A1. He will not shift through the bands but will have higher compensation offered.
2. Upon his transfer, the PM then becomes the Delivery Manager, as he is already managing a few teams, and the new one comes to his portfolio. The PM is in Band B2. His promotion might take him to A1.
3. Mr. A would remain the Project Lead in the team and manage the new members to scale up. As the team size increases, Mr. A, based on his performance, would be made the PM, thus implementing this entire Leadership Development Plan. He is in C3 and will move into B1 upon his promotion.
New Team Formation: The core team is formed, and hiring for the two new positions begins. The project suddenly grows complex, and the PM realizes they might need to hire an expert. One of the new hires is almost poached from a competitor, where he was managing a similar project. This new hire, Mr. B, has an engineering degree with six years of experience. Since the hiring took time, he was offered a good salary hike and an opportunity to work onsite. He is offered C3, Senior Programmer. The third hire to the team is a relatively less-experienced talent, with four years of work experience, an engineering degree, and certification. He is a topper in his batch, hence very high on learning. This hire, Mr. C, is offered the least salary of the three and given a band less, i.e., C2 - Programmer.
Situation: As the work evolves, the client is not too happy about the delay in rolling out the project. On top of that, the first few escalations were badly managed. Hence, they put a cap on growth during the year and delay it for next year, tentatively. The pressure further builds when the new hires take time to settle. The Knowledge Transfer from Mr. A does not take place properly to Mr. B and Mr. C. As a result, the performance within the team staggers. The DM calls for a skip-level meeting and addresses the PM and HR about the condition. The HR Manager speaks to the team and finds out the gap. He asks the DM to allow the new hires to be trained directly by the client's team.
This brings the new hires to the forefront, and Mr. B starts performing the best among the three. The communication thereafter settles as Mr. B manages the client-end relationship and works with the other two on the project delivery. The setbacks are recovered with extra man-hours spent in the office, where the team members work for up to 17 hours a day.
As time passes, the power play deepens among the team members. Mr. C feels cheated, as he delivers the same work for less money. He even finds out about the bleak opportunity to grow and the fact that only one among them will travel onsite.
Mr. B is the best performer, hence gets all the limelight. He remains the highest-paid and quickly establishes himself with other Team Managers. Mr. A feels threatened. He is the senior-most, yet is paid less. He had been the best performer so far and clearly everyone's choice. Nevertheless, now he often stands in Mr. B's shadow, hence underplays everyone's effort and reports their mistakes badly to the PM. A few errors made by Mr. B and Mr. C are taken on record, and they are asked to watch out for their performance. This is the second time since their hiring that they are given performance feedback. The first time was during the Knowledge Transfer.
After eight months, when it is time for one of the three to leave for onsite, preparation begins. The PM sends the travel request documents for all three team members to ensure fair play. The client interviews all of them to decide who would be traveling. Skill and efficiency remain the client's requirements.
It almost remains evident that Mr. B would travel as he was hired for the role and remained the best performer throughout. He even received favorable feedback from the client after the interview. His discussion with the Project Manager remains very positive throughout. As time draws close, the client's call makes it apparent that he would be traveling by December 2012. He relocated to this new city because of this job in the company. So, he wraps up his establishment, sells his bike, and doesn't renew his rent agreement with his landlord.
Problem: In the first week of December, the name of the person traveling to deliver the onsite project is announced, and that is Mr. A. The team morale breaks down. Mr. C puts in his papers and agrees to serve the notice period. Mr. B is demotivated to the extent of resigning from the job. Any further distortion to the environment within the India Centre will affect the client and business.
Plan of Action: The Delivery Manager calls for the HR Manager, Project Manager, and Mr. B to discuss a solution. Mr. B is advised to maintain balanced behavior and continue communicating with the client. He is asked not to discuss anything about why Mr. A is traveling. To make matters worse, he is asked to support Mr. A from India as the offshore team for the next three years. A junior member from another team is internally hired to backfill Mr. C's vacancy. Mr. B is directed to train the new member and make him productive before Mr. C leaves.
Conclusion: This makes it clear that Mr. B doesn't have too many options to grow. He will have added responsibilities. Any further hike or addition to the financial compensation couldn't be promised to him, as it remains sensitive to market movements. Mr. B uses 'Open Door' and calls for a meeting with the HR Head.
Points to Ponder:
1. If you were heading HR in this firm, how would you solve this situation?
2. If you were Mr. B, what would be your plan of action?
From India, Pune
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The Talent Management Matrix: Designation and Grading with Banding and Levels
There are three bands: A, B, and C with levels respectively.
A - Organisation and Business Head
- A2: CXO
- A1: Delivery Manager
B - Managers responsible for delivery and production
- B2: Senior Project Manager
- B1: Project Manager
C - Production and technical development
- C3: Senior Programmer and Project Lead if the team size is more than 3
- C2: Programmer
- C1: Junior Programmer
N.B: The attachment shows the Designations, grading, banding, and level referred to for Talent Management by this firm.
From India, Pune
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There are three bands: A, B, and C with levels respectively.
A - Organisation and Business Head
- A2: CXO
- A1: Delivery Manager
B - Managers responsible for delivery and production
- B2: Senior Project Manager
- B1: Project Manager
C - Production and technical development
- C3: Senior Programmer and Project Lead if the team size is more than 3
- C2: Programmer
- C1: Junior Programmer
N.B: The attachment shows the Designations, grading, banding, and level referred to for Talent Management by this firm.
From India, Pune
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The Development of Management and Leadership.pdf
Performance Development Management.ppt