Are you ready to take on challenges ?

Corporate Challenges

Corporate executives want their organisations to test their mettle by giving them tough challenges to handle. They also want better opportunities at the workplace, says a Shine.com survey. Nearly 64% of employees surveyed cited this as their primary expectation.

While 21% of employees said that their key expectation from appraisals is a promotion, only 16% said it is money. “Today, organisations across sectors are getting more and more competitive and constantly evolving. In order to be successful in this scenario, employees need to routinely upgrade their skill sets and domain knowledge,” says Akangsha Mehta, a career counsellor based in Gurgaon.

“The average employee is not afraid of challenges and wants to be in a role where he/she can demonstrate ability. Therefore, any roadblocks at work – be it a technology handicap, an uncordial relationship with a colleague or an unclear work mandate – is viewed as a serious issue. Needless to say, these issues are getting pronounced during appraisals,” explains Mehta. Interestingly, a majority of employees surveyed feel that HR managers need to be a part of the employee’s performance review meeting.

Nearly 73% of the surveyed employees feel that this is necessary as only then can HR identify relevant areas for training. Around 60% of respondents also felt that appraisal forms need to incorporate a section whereby one’s colleagues can give feedback and review. “The ability for teamwork is a major imperative to professional success. Also, protocols and hierarchies are fast blurring and becoming a thing of the past. In this context it helps to know what your colleagues think about you both as a team player and a professional,” she explains. However, 40% categorically state that peer review cannot be objective,”says Mehta.

 Around 46% of respondents described the appraisal session with their manager as interactive. Nearly 38% felt that the review session was largely selfled in terms of highlighting challenges, achievements and expectations. Only about 15% felt that the session was dominated by their manager. One-third of the 251 employees surveyed said that goal setting was a major outcome of the session. While nearly 30% respondents said that feedback on past/current performance was the highlight of the session, about 31% said that their review manager gave feedback in terms of their overall professional image.

On the question of relevance, nearly 95% of respondents felt that their appraisal form was structured well. Only about 4% of respondents said that their appraisal form had no relevance to their area of work. So how does the top management across organisations in India Inc view the annual appraisal cycle? The survey revealed that a sizeable majority of people in India Inc believe that the percentage of increment (for individual employees) is predetermined by the top management team on the basis of overall financial health of the organisation and has nothing to do with actual performance.

 While over 40% categorically stated this, 52% of respondents said that only the star performers get their due in terms of increments. “What this means is that the management predetermines a certain percentage of pay-hike for high, average and low performers. The exceptional performers are the only ones who might merit a scale of increment that is unprecedented,” observes Mehta. Ironically, although most of the respondents felt that increments are pre-decided, nearly half of the respondents felt that a good appraisal always translates to a good pay hike.

Shine.Com: Singapore a well-structured workplace for you

Shine.Com: Singapore A well-structured workplace for you

An increasing number of people are making the decision to work and move abroad. For many of these people one of the big bonuses of doing so would be to reap the benefits of overseas tax systems and thus going a long way to preserving their individual wealth. One of Such place is Singapore. Consider working in Singapore as the country offers everything they could ask for – an efficient and a multicultural work environment, an attractive salary and a low tax regime.

For  those working in Singapore, the country offers everything they could ask for – an efficient and a multicultural work environment, an attractive salary and a low tax regime. But it also comes with its share of challenges, the most important being the high cost of living.

Rohit Gandhi, senior vice president for Asia Pacific, India, Middle East and Africa, Tech Mahindra, has been with the company’s office in Singapore for the last nine years. What sets the city apart is its people and the work culture.

 “The people of Singapore are well-structured in whatever they do and follow processes. The structured work environment contrasts with the complexity of India,” he says. Gandhi has been based in Singapore primarily from a logistics point of view.

 “A flight to Australia takes eight hours, China six hours, Dubai eight hours, but India takes only five hours. It, therefore, becomes easier to manage the entire region out of Singapore. Most regional heads of multinationals who are our partners sit out of Singapore and that helps us in cementing our relationships,” he says.

 As a senior executive, Gandhi gets to work in a truly multicultural environment. “We started off as a pure Indian company and over the years have hired local talent. One of our heads in Southeast Asia is from Norway. As global leaders we are managing global teams and it helps. We try and hire local talent and if we are not able to get the skills required by the customers for the project, we are forced to hire from India. We have a staff strength of 500, out of which 50% are Singaporean citizens or permanent residents and the remaining are from different nationalities – Indian, Filipinos and Malaysians,” he says.

 But despite the structured life and high standards of professionalism, the biggest challenge in Singapore is the cost of living. “While most people may find their salaries and the tax structure attractive, the cost of living is very high and has gone up over the years,” he adds.