E-commerce and HR Challenges in Startups
E-commerce with startups is a sunrise sector. India is becoming a hub for doing business through digitization, which has altered the way the world conducts business. Like any other business, e-commerce is also in a transition phase concerning understanding, formulating, and settling down formally with people policies. Since this kind of business is more dependent on knowledge workers, it has its own intricacies that need to be addressed at an entirely different wavelength.
E-commerce has developed so quickly that it has almost given no time to entrepreneurs to think about its HR front. These organizations have also been in the news recently, not for very good reasons, when many firms laid off their employees in thousands in a non-professional way, thus causing concern about job security and raising questions about the way of managing the people function in these firms.
One reason could be that promoters of these firms have either no or little orientation about people problems and their impact on business. They tend to focus more on making a product work or finding customers only. Barring a few established e-commerce firms, the HR function is considered an additional cost and hardly budgeted, resulting in not establishing the formal HR function under a professional CHRO who would formalize the HR policies and practices and take care of employee needs and resolve their issues.
Another reason could be over-hiring, hiring without checks, and without clarity of roles. This happens when you don't have an effective HR policy in place, and consequently, in the spate of urgencies, people are ignored. Since the style of e-commerce business is unconventional, it has brought many unconventional challenges for human resources professionals.
Because of absolute diversity in the organizations, before employing people, the nature and the way of doing business need to be understood correctly. Ready-made people for this sector are not available. Borrowing them from others and making them fit is one task. Revamping, refurbishing, and developing HR processes and policies are another. Doing it at the earliest will be good for the business, and there will be fewer blowups.
The organizations are also flat, so the CEOs can't afford to keep them away from HR issues. They have to look through employees' lens rather than focusing solely on the business or technology. In the fast-paced e-commerce world, HR has to look for those people who can tolerate risk and ambiguity and can be productive in an unpredictable, rapidly changing environment. Though this may be a much sought-after competency of people in this sector, it is difficult to get.
High-level engagement of employees and involvement in business strategies can help them manage uncertainty because, at some point in time, they should know what their role is in achieving the objectives. The cover story of March 2016 is all about the HR issues of this fast-paced sector where things are still in the process of taking shape.
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From India, Delhi
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181E-commerce with startups is a sunrise sector. India is becoming a hub for doing business through digitization, which has altered the way the world conducts business. Like any other business, e-commerce is also in a transition phase concerning understanding, formulating, and settling down formally with people policies. Since this kind of business is more dependent on knowledge workers, it has its own intricacies that need to be addressed at an entirely different wavelength.
E-commerce has developed so quickly that it has almost given no time to entrepreneurs to think about its HR front. These organizations have also been in the news recently, not for very good reasons, when many firms laid off their employees in thousands in a non-professional way, thus causing concern about job security and raising questions about the way of managing the people function in these firms.
One reason could be that promoters of these firms have either no or little orientation about people problems and their impact on business. They tend to focus more on making a product work or finding customers only. Barring a few established e-commerce firms, the HR function is considered an additional cost and hardly budgeted, resulting in not establishing the formal HR function under a professional CHRO who would formalize the HR policies and practices and take care of employee needs and resolve their issues.
Another reason could be over-hiring, hiring without checks, and without clarity of roles. This happens when you don't have an effective HR policy in place, and consequently, in the spate of urgencies, people are ignored. Since the style of e-commerce business is unconventional, it has brought many unconventional challenges for human resources professionals.
Because of absolute diversity in the organizations, before employing people, the nature and the way of doing business need to be understood correctly. Ready-made people for this sector are not available. Borrowing them from others and making them fit is one task. Revamping, refurbishing, and developing HR processes and policies are another. Doing it at the earliest will be good for the business, and there will be fewer blowups.
The organizations are also flat, so the CEOs can't afford to keep them away from HR issues. They have to look through employees' lens rather than focusing solely on the business or technology. In the fast-paced e-commerce world, HR has to look for those people who can tolerate risk and ambiguity and can be productive in an unpredictable, rapidly changing environment. Though this may be a much sought-after competency of people in this sector, it is difficult to get.
High-level engagement of employees and involvement in business strategies can help them manage uncertainty because, at some point in time, they should know what their role is in achieving the objectives. The cover story of March 2016 is all about the HR issues of this fast-paced sector where things are still in the process of taking shape.
Regards
From India, Delhi
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