case study
0
1 February, 2005, 9 A.M.
As usual, Hari was working hard to pull out
the assignment that was to be submitted that
day. It was a real chilling morning in the early
January of Ahmedabad. The phone rang… it
was Vijay. Vijay has been a great friend for years.
"Hey man! Good news! I've just put in my papers!
This is one of the happiest moments of my life. You should
have seen how surprised that useless project manager
was to hear that I was resigning. He never thought that I
would do it. I'm joining Softlabs on the 14th… just want
to chill out few days at home, yaar."
Hari was not surprised to hear the resignation news.
It was the joy and excitement in Vijay's voice that
surprised him. After all, he was resigning from one of the
leaders in the information technology sector. Hari
pondered over their discussions during the past two and
a half years since Vijay joined Futurz Tech Limited. It had
been a period mixed with happiness and concern for
Vijay. The past four months had been especially eventful,
though.
10 July, 2000. It was one of the most grilling days for
students at a well known engineering college in South
India. Futurz Tech had come to recruit students from
the campus. The company had a good brand name and
was the first company to come to campus. Everybody
was keen to get in. Vijay had a good track record in his
school life and he had done pretty well at the engineering
college, too. He was 21 years old at that time and had
completed his education without any breaks.
Futurz Tech had a two fold selection process - a
unique test focusing on thinking skills and an interview.
Vijay was from the mechanical engineering stream and
had very little idea about what an IT job meant. At that
time, a job mattered a lot, particularly if it was in an
organization like Futurz Tech. Futurz Tech had stated
that they were focusing more on learning and thinking
skills at the selection level. They had an extensive training
program to finetune technical and people management
skills. Candidates from all branches had applied to Futurz
hey!
I put in my
papers!
By Dr Sandeep K. Krishnan
& Prof Manjari Singh
40 AUGUST 2008
Tech and from a group of more than 400 applicants;
Vijay was one of the 70 odd people who were selected.
Getting a job those days was not easy and at that
moment getting one of the first jobs on the campus was
like a dream come true for Vijay. It was not as if he was
hell bent on taking a job in IT. To be frank, Vijay or most
of them who got selected then had no clue about the
jobs they will be doing - except that it would be in 'coding'!
The job also provided an immense sense of security. Even
seniors from the college who had come as part of the
recruitment process seemed quite contented and gave a
feel of being 'real corporate guys'!
The beginning… August 2001. While 2000 was the year
of high growth for the industry, 2001 was a year of
confusion with dotcoms busting, lay offs, and the growth
of the industry seen after Y2K issues was slowing down.
Futurz Tech was one of the few companies who kept
their word to the campus recruits. All those who were
recruited were asked to join for the training. Vijay joined
the Chennai facility of Futurz Tech for training amidst
news of many of his batchmates getting regret letters
from their respective organizations. He felt fortunate to
be part of Futurz Tech.
The training period of two months was hectic. It was
all new to him. He took it as a challenge, passed all papers
and did reasonably well in the final evaluation. Based on
his evaluation and interests, Vijay was allotted to work
on net technologies, something considered 'hot' in the
field at that time. Apart from a few who got mainframe
based technologies most including Vijay, were happy with
their allocation.
October 2001. After the training at Chennai, Vijay
opted to work at the Pune facility. He had never been to
that part of India and wanted to explore new places. Five
of his batchmates had also chosen Pune. They shared an
apartment. It was just like another college hostel. The
work atmosphere was also equally good. The facility was
really swanky.
At Pune also there was a week of training. After
training, Vijay was given an option of either to go for a six
While established
organizations have great
HR systems to work on,
how it is reflected as
employee experience is a
question mark. Is it always
the organization to blame
or the individual?
 CASE

Dr Sandeep K. Krishnan
Senior Consultant, Ernst and Young
Dr. Sandeep K. Krishnan works in the area of human resource consulting. He is a Fellow of
the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad and a mechanical engineer by profession.
He worked with the Group Human Resources of RPG Group prior to joining Ernst and Young.
His doctoral work was on the intention to quit of Indian IT professionals which covered
twelve major IT organizations.

Manjari Singh
Faculty, IIM Ahmedabad
Manjari Singh is an Electrical Engineer from Regional Engineering College, Bhopal, India.
She attained her doctorate (Fellow Programme in Management) in HRM from Indian Institute
of Management Calcutta in 2000. She has been in the Personnel and Industrial Relations
Area at Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad since 2000. Her research interests
include strategic HRM, HR information systems, performance management systems, HRM in
small and medium enterprises, and HRM in schools.

month Japanese language training or to directly get
involved with a project. At that time the inclination to
learn something interesting was more and he opted for
the Japanese language training. There was an expectation
that there would be more Japanese projects coming and
the people who were trained in Japanese language would
be in demand. Vijay had thoroughly enjoyed the six
months of training and it was more of fun. He also
excelled in most of the evaluation tests.
Shortly after the training, Vijay was assigned to a
project. The project was a short term one and was in its
ending phase. His assignment was just for three months.
It took him at least a month to understand what was
going on with the project. He was not given any major
role to play and after the learning phase the project was
almost over. Few of the people who joined with him had
already started going for onsite work. Hari remembered
Vijay speaking about those onsite opportunities that his
friends were getting and his priorities. Vijay always cared
for career advancement. More than an onsite
opportunity, he was looking for a better role or career
opportunity. He mentioned that even to his superiors
during performance feedback sessions. Hari also
remembered Vijay sharing that most of his friends
generally did not know what a professional life was or
were not even bothered about a career. All they wanted
to do was go for an onsite. "It is like this… the one who
cries most gets the onsite" Vijay had commented jokingly.
Just after the three months project stint in Pune, Vijay
was assigned a project in Bangalore for a month. Vijay
thought of that as a great opportunity. Bangalore was
considered to be a really great place to be and Futurz
Tech had a great facility there. He just wanted to see
what that was all about. The project was interesting but it
was just for a month. Vijay returned to Pune after a
month's stint in Bangalore.
August 2002. The next six months, Vijay had to spend
on bench. Though he enjoyed being on bench for around
two to three months, the rest of the period was boring
and at times frustrating. During this period Vijay thought
of preparing for CAT and went to coaching classes.
However, plans for getting admitted to top b-schools
did not materialize during that time.
February 2003. Vijay was assigned to a new project.
The project was really great in terms of the team he was
working with and the technology. He could use some of
the technologies that he had learned during the initial
training. The project manager and leader were friendly
and took a very professional approach. However, in this
team also, people were very keen to go for onsite
opportunities, Vijay had thought that it was time for him
to reflect on how he had progressed professionally. He
shared with Hari that almost 70% of the people from his
college who had joined with him had gone onsite.
Towards the end of the project, Vijay thought it was
time to make a move to Bangalore. Almost all of his
friends had shifted to different locations. They had either
moved to another job or were at onsite locations. Vijay
felt that it was better to make a move to Bangalore as he
felt was is better than Pune on two fronts. His sister who
recently got married was planning to settle in Bangalore.
Secondly, Bangalore was much closer to home and he
could visit his parent more often. Vijay informed his
project manager and project delivery manager his need
for transfer. After a month of transition, Vijay was allowed
to move to Bangalore. The project manager at Pune was
really helpful and even took extra efforts in making the
arrangements.
December 2003. Vijay shifted to Bangalore and
decided to stay in an apartment with his friends who
were batchmates from college. At Bangalore, Vijay was
assigned to short term projects. None of them were really
interesting, nor were his roles challenging. He could not
put to use any of the skills he had acquired over the
period of two years. The period from December 2003 to
August 2004 was one of frustration and Vijay saw no
meaning in the work he was doing. He thought seriously
about giving CAT again and tried to spend extra time
after work hours on preparing for the entrance
examination. Hari also remembered Vijay mentioning

42 AUGUST 2008
case study
about some of the project leaders he had during this
period.
"A lot of one's motivation to work in projects depend
on these PLs. But, most of them out here do not really
know how to deal with people. This PL of mine stopped
me when I was about to leave for home at around 7 P.M.
He asked me what the time was and is it the time to
leave! I told him it is 7 and just left. These guys have no
understanding of personal preferences or life after work.
I think I have better things to do in life apart from sitting
in the office from 9 in the morning till 10 in the night. I
think in Pune it was much better." Vijay had remarked
once, in an irritated tone, when Hari asked him how
things were at work.
The CAT examination was scheduled for November
and Vijay thought he should give some extra time for
preparation. He had applied for a month's leave on
medical grounds for the month of October with an
intention to give extra time for preparing for exams and
also for treatment of gastroenteritis that was troubling
him. His parents had also advised to get treatment from
the home town as there would be someone to take care
of him. Vijay had to take the leave one week in advance
of the schedule. The stomach ache was bad and he
thought it would be better to get treatment as soon as
possible. Vijay took the leave without a prior approval
and verbally communicated the same to the Project
Manager after reaching home. The PM was cool about it
44 AUGUST 2008
and wished him to get well soon.
December 2004. The whole scene took a bad turn
when Vijay returned to office after taking treatment and
giving CAT. Futurz Tech had taken a different view of
people taking leave during this period. Projects had
suffered because people had taken long leaves to prepare
for CAT on the pretext of medical treatment. The first
news that Vijay heard on arrival was the dismissal of two
guys who had admitted that they had taken medical leave
for CAT preparation. On the day of his arrival itself the
Project Manager and Delivery Manager asked Vijay to
meet them. The meeting was a very serious one and
Vijay was asked to submit all the medical records
pertaining to his treatment. As he had none with him at
that moment he was asked to bring them within 24 hours.
He could not do that as all the records were at home.
Vijay called up Hari to brief him about the situation.
Vijay: "Hi, man! Things are going tough here."
Hari: "What happened, boss"?
Vijay: "They are damn serious…they've told me to get all
the relevant documents in a day or two."
Hari: "Do you have all of them?"
Vijay: "To tell you the truth, I did not do any specific
surgical treatment for my illness. Just met the doctor
twice and took some medicines. I had earlier told my
Project Manager that I need a surgery for my appendicitis
problem."
Hari: "Did you say that you did not have the surgery?"
Vijay: "No…actually in that tense mood I told them I had
the surgery. It was just to get some
sympathy from them."
Hari: "This might land you in trouble
man!"
Vijay: "Yeah. Now I don't know what
to do. Should I fake some
certificates?"
Hari: "What can I say? This is now a
serious issue. Try to get out of it."
Vijay: "But I really do not understand.
Why are these guys after me?"
Hari could not give any suggestions
at that juncture. He thought that Vijay
might land in trouble now.
After the meeting with his Project
manager and the Delivery Manager,
a meeting with HR was scheduled
next day. Meeting with the HR
personnel was more intimidating and
was full of warnings and the HR
personnel asked him to admit that
he took the leave for preparing for
CAT. He was also accused of
unauthorized absence. Though Vijay
tried to explain the whole event and
mentioned about his verbal
intimation to the Project Manager, the
HR personnel asked him to bring
documentary proofs.
Hari remembered the calls Vijay
made to him that day. "It was one of
the biggest insults for me. I really do
 case study
not trust these guys now. They think that I am a thief or
something. How does it matter to them whether I had
taken leave for preparing for CAT or treatment? I am not
their slave!" Vijay had burst out angrily. He also asked
Hari for suggestions. Hari had advised him to stick to his
stand.
The worry of losing his job, the way in which the
whole situation was handled and the chances of losing
his image in the organization were all hurting Vijay. A day
after the meeting with the HR personnel, he was called
to meet the HR Center Head. The HR personnel, Project
Manager and the Delivery Manager were present along
with the HR head. Vijay was asked to sign a document
admitting that he had taken unauthorized leaves and
apologizing for the same. It was a real shock to him. He
was tried to convince them about his innocence. Under
pressure, he decided to sign the document.
Life was never the same again. The Module Leaders
and Project Leaders were trying to ignore him on major
decisions related to projects. He even had to put up a
small fight with a Module Leader who was just six months
senior to him, as he tried to interfere too much with his
work and dominate him. The Module Leader responded
saying that Vijay's irresponsibility would affect his
performance appraisal rating. Vijay felt that all his
impressions of Futurz Tech as an ideal workplace had
come to an end there. He even regretted the decision to
come to Bangalore. He started applying to other
organizations. He took the advice of his friends who
supported his decision.
The final straw was the performance appraisal
ratings. Vijay has been consistently rated in the top 30
percentile. In the performance appraisal after the
mentioned event, Vijay got good rating on all the
parameters. However, the final ranking put him in the
lowest 20 percentile. In the feedback session he was told
that it was done as a punishment!
"I have no clue about what is happening here. How
can performance appraisal be used as a punishment?"
Vijay blurted out over the phone to Hari.
Those were the hard days for him. Coming to office
every day and facing these superiors were the biggest
torture for him. It was almost 10 days after the
performance feedback that he got an offer from another
major multinational IT firm. This offer also had 60 percent
hike in the salary.
February 2005. He wanted to report everything in his
exit interview and even write a letter to the CEO, but at
the last minute, decided against it. "Why should I waste
my time? I do not care for these people anymore. The
system is not going to improve even if I write a letter or
vent my frustration in an exit interview. I will say good
bye and quit."
Even Hari thought it was good to quit without creating
any more ill feelings. Let everything end here.

This case is driven from the thesis dissertation work of Sandeep Krishnan during
his Fellow Programme at IIM Ahmedabad. Authors would like to acknowledge
Prof. Biju Varkkey and Prof. Rakesh Basant of IIM Ahmedabad for their inputs.

AUGUST 2008 45
case study
ANALYSIS
Tighten people and productivity processes management
Chandrasekhar Pingali
Executive Vice-President, HR, GSSC & Head-HR, Standard Chartered Group, S East Asia
With over 22 years of professional experience and extensive worldwide exposure, Pingali
Chandrasekhar has developed an enviable record of professional expertise in all aspects of
human resource management. Currently, Pingali Chandrasekhar is the Executive Vice-President,
HR for the Global Shared Service Centres of the Standard Chartered Group located in India,
Malaysia and China as well as the Head of HR for the Bank's businesses in South East Asia.
Prior to taking on responsibilities in Standard Chartered Group in 1990, he added value in
Lupin Polynova Ltd, Ion Exchange (I) Ltd as Senior HR manager starting a HR function in
the former and driving proactive employee relations and HR value adding projects in the
latter. He had a brief stint at J L Morrison Ltd. as production manager. Chandrasekhar
specialized in HR from the prestigious and highly reputed Tata Institute of Social Sciences
(1985) and pursued Masters in Pharmacy as his basic degrees.

I
t's a very interesting case that resonates with the
work culture and values of some of the Generation
Y employees in the contemporary world of not just
IT industry but in other related industries as well. I
would like to analyze the case into two themes. Key
people practices and suggestions on better management
are embedded while covering these two themes
Vijay as a professional and his work ethics
Vijay comes across as an ambitious, bright person with
aspirations to grow. He, like many millions of graduates/
engineers in the country has not been sure about the
career he wanted to pursue and is blissfully unaware of
his strengths to pursue a particular career. His
engineering degree offered him a platform to enter the
IT industry without having a clear understanding of what
it unfolds. His initial two years seems to have been
absorbed more in learning than in contributing with
intermittent exposure to short term projects. His focus
seems to have been what he can get than what he can
give. Recognizing after two years that he is beginning to
lose out in comparison, he wanted to catch up with good
assignments. Surely, his expectations from the company
did not match his own skills and capability. He appeared
to drift and was allowed to do so with little or no guidance
from the company on focusing his energies and skills
towards productive deployment.
As a result, he grew restless and chose to shift his
location for both professional and personal reasons.
Apart from Japanese language or cultural skills, he did
not seem to have a domain expertise for a substantive
role. Coupled with this, his own desire to pursue further
education only reinforced his distraction and lack of
commitment to make things work for him. He was not
sure of what is expected of him at work and neither was
he sure of getting a value adding "onsite" role. With
increasing levels of frustration, he chose to prepare for
an MBA. While his performance appraisal seems to
indicate that he was in the top quartile, nothing indicates
that his contributions substantiate this rating through
his years of service. He did not seem to have invested in
building relationships or skills to enable him get a great
opportunity to succeed. Instead of coming clean and
courageous to confront his situation, he chose to go the
easier route of taking leave for exams through blatant,
untrustworthy stance of false medical grounds. He knew
that he was seeking disproportionate period of medical
leave for his illness. This is where he crossed the
boundaries of his work ethics.
When he was confronted to establish his innocence,
he started blaming the company and its people. Even
once, he did not seem to step back and reflect his wrong
doing or accept the fact that his performance rating is
largely due to his attitude and value systems. When he
got himself another good offer, he continued to hold the
company accountable for his state than internalize his
actions. Unfortunately people like Vijay compel
organizations to instill control standards that waste a lot
of management time and money. For almost five long
years he seems to have been clueless on what he wants
to do in his career within the company and the
organization has contributed in its own way in not
focusing him for mutual benefit. Ideally, he should have
been terminated on his admission of false sickness than
tolerating him, like they did to a couple of others. A
disengaged employee is unproductive but an actively
disengaged employee is counter productive. Vijay turned
out to be the latter after being given a lenient view. There
are thousands of such Vijays who can cause disruptions.
They have to be dealt with firmly and swiftly so that the
loyal productive workforce does not have to face punitive
HR policies because of a few recalcitrant employees who
have poor value systems.
Futurz Tech's approach to people management
and productivity
The organization seems to have a good reputation to
attract and retain good talent. Any company recruiting
raw talent will take risks with inexperience and rely on its
strengths to nurture the youth for mutual benefit. Futurz
has adopted a similar model but seem to have floundered
a bit in tightening the people and productivity process
management. Some areas where the company needs to
look at itself hard are:
l Identifying strengths of its recruits: Its one thing to
mass recruit talent with the usual tools and another thing

46 AUGUST 2008
 case study
to invest time in understanding what areas
drive them within the business verticals. With vastly enhanced employment
Options to learn languages or culture like they
did with Vijay for additional six months is unfair opportunities for this generation
to offer to people who are just finding their
way. Structured induction with a fairly even at a graduate level, unlike ten
standardized model to allocating their first roles
would benefit Futurz in separating men/ years ago, this work force needs to
women from the boys/girls in productivity,
people leadership and budding domain be dealt with a slightly different
experts. Vijay and perhaps others were given a
choice that took the focus away from what he approach. They need to be given
is paid to do for the company. And did not
help him discover his strengths to thrive on. clear priorities. And progress to be
l People management: Rumblings about how
people are treated in Futurz may not be new monitored for quality and speed of
to any organization. The trend in today's
business world, particularly in the sunrise execution.
industries is that "Young managers are
managing younger workforce". Therefore,
managing self and others is a soft skill that many need to Vijay for 60% more pay when he should have not got a
be coached on. As again, Futurz may have made managers job at all for such values. Only when industry has a robust
out of great individual contributors which often damage reference checking process that enables to support each
the fabric of the unit. It will augur well if the company other in screening out such employees that the sunrise
sets up processes that help in identifying people with industry will be able to have reliable workforce. As long
potential to becomes good managers. as poaching takes place and companies like Futurz do
l Performance and productivity: It's not evident how not lead in creating better industry practices, employees
strong the performance management process works in like Vijay will get away by not contributing much in one
the company but the little data shows that there may not company and get rewarded with higher remuneration in
be checks and balances in leveling the performance of another.
individuals. Immediate managers are normally the With vastly enhanced employment opportunities for
decision makers and Futurz is perhaps suffering from this generation even at a graduate level, unlike ten years
the same issue that many companies face i.e Empower ago, this work force needs to be dealt with a slightly
managers and monitor by exception. Inherently, Futurz different approach. They are by and large dependable to
should look at the effectiveness of its processes ( if they deliver their goals but outputs need to be monitored
exist) like feedback loops through employee surveys and through technology solutions than just adding managerial
skip level engagements etc., that enable it measure the layers. They need to be focused, given clear priorities
health of people management practices. Additionally, it and enable them to understand what is expected of them
will be helpful if it tracks productivity and performance and by when. And progress to be monitored for quality
of its new employees up to two years to give it adequate and speed of execution. Too much of multitasking hassles
focus on building a high performance culture. them and they need to have a good work life balance
l Value-based policies and decisions: It looks like there with flexi time. They are bright and therefore they would
are many employees who have been taking medical leave like their opinions to be sought for changes in their work
for a few years during CAT exam period. And the or facilities.
company chose to take action during Vijay's time. If They are a mobile workforce with no loyalty to any
Futurz has a set of core values as a company, such company. They want to get more pay every year just for
behaviours should be dealt with firmly, consistently and staying back to work in the company rather than for
swiftly. Such practices, when looked at with a lenient eye increasing their contributions. They are ambitious and
by managers will lead to favoritism and unethical want to lead an accelerated lifestyle. Their focus is
practices that will spread wildly. And how can Futurz predominantly "what is in it for me" than what they can
differentiate between the gravity of misconduct from give and that applies largely into their personal
one ethical issue to another if the stand is not tough on relationships. Since their opportunities are many more,
all of them? HR managers have a role to play in being the they begin to realize value of a career vs. job in a company
champions of the policies in ensuring they are fair for much later in their lives. Hence dealing with such force
employees and the organization. Many times a 1% of requires policy making and execution machinery that is
employees are miscreants that create hugely nimble to take some tough decisions on ethical issues
administrative and control driven policies that mistrusts and some soft pedaling by offering regular sops than
and pains 99% of the people. Futurz need to relentlessly one time benefits or pay increases. Organizations like
weed out the 1% to build a robust value based company Futurz or individuals like Vijay are pretty common in the
l Industry standards for reference checking and current business world for many to learn lessons from
sourcing: Its appalling to note that an MNC picks up and deal with situations as appropriate.

AUGUST 2008 47
case study
ANALYSIS
Don’t not 'let everything end here'
Prabir Jha
Senior VP & Global Chief -HR & Corporate Communications, Dr. Reddy's Laboratories
Prabir Jha, an alumnus of St. Stephen's College, Delhi and XLRI Jamshedpur and has an
impeccable academic and professional record. After doing his Masters, Prabir was selected
for the prestigious Civil Services and as a bureaucrat handled the entire gamut of HR & IR
issues of the Indian Ordnance Factories. On his switch to the corporate world after almost 10
years in the government, he has worked for organizations like Thermax, Mahindra British
Telecom and now, Dr. Reddy's. He has handled all areas in HR, with special interest in
Change Management, OD interventions, Global HR Strategy, Employer Branding and Leadership
Capability Development. He is on the CII Panel for HR &IR for Andhra Pradesh and has been
a regular contributor of articles in reputed journals, apart from a faculty at prestigious B -
schools and training establishments.

V
ijay's tryst with Futurz Tech is tragically not
an unusual or solitary experience. His
experiences at the company represent a
deeper reality within both contemporary
organizations and the current generation.
The inability of either side to navigate differently is the
issue that we need to deal with. We are living in a world of
choices. Not exercised well, both sides must be willing to
live with the consequences.
The strong employer brand of Futurz Tech obviously
helped it in attracting the best of minds. While it looked
at an assortment of engineering skills, presumably for
their analytical skills, it failed on two fronts. It was unable
to match actual experiences in line with the employer
brand it had hitherto created. It also was skewed in its
otherwise seemingly robust selection process in so far it
was overly biased for 'learning and thinking skills'. The
brand reputation ensured that it attracted the best talent
in its 'early to campus' strategy but it obviously did not
adequately look at other personality dimensions that
would make people successful and build careers with
the organization. It did not reasonably address the herd-
syndrome decision making to sift out serious and better
candidates. Thus, while hard recruitment numbers were
met for the present, it did not look a sound-enough
strategy in the mid term.
While it is easy to blame the organization for the
litany of woes, it would be unreasonable to absolve Vijay
of his share of mistakes. Like many youngsters on
campus, he was very impressionable, making significant
career decisions on the glitz of employer branding. Every
organization is good, possibly great. But is it the right
one for you? The inability to think beyond impressionable
career drives to deeper career anchors is a perfect recipe
for choosing an organization that may not be the perfect
fit with one's personalities, unique capabilities or cultural
preferences. The unwillingness of many a youngster to
think deep enough of what one really seeks to do in life
and what organization would best enable a successful
and satisfying future often precipitates future career
derailments.
Futurz Tech obviously had reasons to enjoy the
reputation it had on campus. Excellent facilities and
comprehensive training surely make a strong case for
senior batches to play back to the impressionable minds.
Vijay was possibly lucky to have been involved on what
he would like to do after his foundation training. It speaks
well of an organization to involve the employee in making
career choices. His initial project experiences were
possibly too short to help be a hook in his organizational
incubation. With hindsight, the organization would have
done well to make every initial assignment become a
hook. Maybe the way a new entrant is received and made
to feel central in a project is a key skill to build in a manager
receiving short term additional talent reinforcements.
More often than not, managers are not sensitive to this
need since it may not be critical to their projects. But for
the organization it could well be the start of
disillusionment.
The issue of 'bench management' is the classical
dilemma with most software firms. Akin to keeping the
troops in peace-time barracks, in anticipation of future
wars, companies need to understand that under-worked
employees have plenty of time to feel 'wasted'. Neither
do they build newer skills nor do they feel part of the
mainstream. With nothing much to channel their initial
enthusiasm, youngsters start getting distracted. The herd
mentality again takes the better of their judgments. They
naturally gravitate towards the beaten path. The time at
hand and the little -to-do gets the sharp minds to draft
to another challenge - the gruelling selection process for
top B-schools. Futurz Tech has clearly been unable to
crack this piece of organizational disharmony.
The crisis of not-so-meaningful engagements
continued with Vijay for far too long. It does indicate
some systemic gaps at Futurz Tech. Short assignments
did not really help in building deep personal relationships.
Neither managers of the respective projects needed that
nor does it appear they cared, the odd experience
notwithstanding. At the same time, the projects were
intellectually not appetizing to a youngster who wanted
to soar. A sense of drift was but natural to happen. In this
entire experience, Vijay's disillusionment with Futurz
Tech could have been arrested if the Project managers
were sensitized to their larger role in the organization.
Typically of many firms, the managers at Futurz Tech
seem to be focused on the here-and-now of delivery
and operations. It is indeed a major tragedy that

48 AUGUST 2008

organizations have been unable to help coach managers
on the larger leadership agenda as they go through their
career transitions. In an era of free agents, the role of a
manager is the most delicate. While there is no dispute
over the operational deliverables, that is just not enough.
They must evolve into becoming mentors to the juniors.
They must be seen to be trusted and approachable.
Alas, Futurz Tech may not have done a good enough
job of deciding who it trusts to make managers. More
often than not, organizations promote people who had
done well in their previous roles. This may not be the
best decision to make or philosophy to follow. While
continued top-order performance is a strong input to a
promotion, it cannot ignore the demands of the newer
and bigger jobs. This is exacerbated when need for more
managers pushes more inexperienced youngsters up
without due calibration of the changed requirements.
From being responsible for oneself, one needs now to
be responsible for others. And we all know that a good
soldier does not necessarily make a great general. Futurz
Tech must introspect that is it indeed having project
managers with the competencies that it needs in such a
group. Sensitivity, coaching, trust, influence can make
bosses into credible coaches. Command and control will
not work in today's environment.. Vijay represents a new
breed of professionals who need o be handled differently.
Futurz Tech may have made a big mistake of not having
prepared its managers well enough to handle these
newer demands.
Be that as it may, the general lack of discipline that
Vijay's generation displays also cannot be condoned.
Membership of an organization demands a certain
conduct. Possibly the irreverence of the times and
inadequate socialization into organizational norms has
nurtured breaches in organizational discipline. It has been
a well-recognized practice that leave is not a matter of
right. Without prior approval, being away from work is
unauthorized absence and endangers the effectiveness
of an organization. Taking a month off from work should
never have been done by a casual phone call from home.
It was not a sudden emergency and was also handled by
a level of casualness by his manager too.
The inability of managers at Futurz Tech to see the
Futurz Tech has landed itself with
an experience where even the
credibility of its CEO is at stake.
Disillusionment of an individual
never remains with the departing
employee. While good words spread,
bad experiences make excellent
fodder for the grapevine.
case study
gestalt of their actions comes across strongly. While each
manager may have lived with absence of their team
members, collectively it would have impaired
organizational deliverables. What is even more surprising
is that with CAT examinations round the corner, the
organization would have but been better prepared to
handle the slew of 'leave requests'. This organizational
lapse is significant and could have been predicted and
resolved better.
Nonetheless, Vijay is in trouble of his own doing and
deserves little mercy. The organization is rightfully
holding him guilty of misconduct. The fact that his Project
Manager does not own up to the tip-off he had received
from Vijay, nor bothered to check on him during his
entire period of absence also conveys a general sense of
indifference that builds up as organizations grow, succeed
and typically get complacent. The need to brow beat an
employee, howsoever guilty of a lapse, into signing
'confession statements' is surprising. If Futurz Tech
viewed the episode as serious enough of a disciplinary
action, it could well have taken it and done so most
expeditiously. There was indeed no need to get an
employee go through rounds of humiliating inquisition.
This surely will not be a best practice reputation to build
on campuses in the years ahead.
To make matters worse, the relative immaturity of its
'fast tracked' managers has Futurz Tech in a tight spot.
While employees must be held accountable for their
failings, it is always the magnanimity of the organization
to enable a bounce-back. The way some of the managers,
notionally more senior to Vijay, handled him after his
experience and the indifference of the hierarchy to the
situation suggests a big gap in the leadership maturity at
the organization. A bad appraisal rating, in spite of good
scores on various functional parameters, smacks of
double jeopardy, always a bad practice. The fact that it
got sustained through all the various organizational
processes makes one wonder if Futurz Tech indeed had
sound HR fundamentals. One would hope that this was
an aberration, not the norm. However, it cost the
company a Vijay, someone who had joined with stars in
his eyes.
Even more dangerously, Futurz Tech has landed itself
with an experience where even the credibility of its CEO
is at stake. Disillusionment of an individual never
remains with the departing employee. While
good words spread, bad experiences make
excellent fodder for the grapevine. The
company could have salvaged not only Vijay
but its reputation, by a more fair and mature
handling of the employee life cycle. This would
have actually added significantly to its brand
reputation. But it did not lose just a possible
brand ambassador. Futurz Tech has actually
hurt its own future: lousy experiences will
impact its status as an employer of choice. Worse
still, people doubting its credentials will make it
a deaf system. Systems which refuse to listen
finally flounder and decay. Will Futurz Tech still
wake up and not 'let everything end here' as
Vijay would have liked?
AUGUST 2008 49
case study
ANALYSIS
Don't underestimate emotional trauma of employees
Rajagopalan Raghavan
GM-HR, GE John F Welch Technology Centre, Bangalore
Raj Raghavan is the HR Leader for GE John F. Welch Technology Centre (JFWTC), Bangalore.
Prior to this, he was Head of Human Resources for Global Service Centres in India at the
HSBC Group where he was responsible for overall HR Leadership to their captive servicing
centres. Raj is a seasoned HR professional with over 20 years in various aspects of Human
Resource Management. His experience spans a wide range of expertise including Senior HR
leadership for large organizations, Labour Relations, Organization Development and Training,
Client HR for Sales and IT. Raj earned his Bachelors Degree in Economics from the University
of Madras and Masters in Personnel Management & Industrial Relations from the Madras
School of Social Work. He is married to Priya and they have one son Hridhey.

W
hen I finished reading the case, I can rather unfortunately, the order books were filled no
somewhat understand why Vijay was sooner than they were opened. This led to a situation
so happy and excited about leaving when either experienced people were hired from outside
Futurz! Often organizations tend to or fresh engineers from campuses were hired and then
underestimate the emotional trauma trained. While larger companies certainly looked at
that an employee goes through with the various training strategically, smaller ones did not. Even the larger
disciplinary processes that some of its managers tend to ones tended to fail on their delivery as most of these
use rather flippantly. While there is no denying that Vijay were outsourced to much smaller start-up training firms.
could have been more upfront and mature in dealing Imagine how frustrating it can be for a new employee.
with the way he left on leave without proper One, they start a brand new job with glitter in their eyes
authorization, it is also true that as organizations, many having just heard about the company in media, internet,
tend to just do what they think are creating the "right" college campus etc., Second, they all expect to be fully
paper work that can then be used to separate an employee. occupied (even if it is training) immediately upon joining.
As an HR professional, my dilemma is how Futurz With most hiring departments running behind meeting
could avoid similar situations in future. I will come to the recruiting targets and training folks busy with other things,
ethics or lack of it from Vijay's part later but the whole the new employee orientation and on-boarding used to
situation can be summarized as below: be the last thing in the minds of HR honchos. This situation
l Futurz has got itself into a trap! With billing rates not has changed considerably now for the better, I should
steady and experienced hires from outside costing lot admit.
more, the natural tendency to hire bunch of smart In the early 90's for most companies, even the larger
engineers and then train them to work on projects is ones, orientating a new engineer and engaging them
actually a smart hiring strategy. Where the whole thing productively without active work, was a new concept.
boomerangs is when organizations do not think through Most of the early IT professionals came from other
the training and orientation piece well in advance. industries i.e., banking, manufacturing, etc., and they were
It seems to me that Vijay would have attrited much busy from day-1! And the expectation was everyone else
earlier than he actually did. First, even before joining would do the same. It was much later that the industry
Futurz! Imagine that an engineering consulting company realized the need for early engagement etc., By the time
had hired Vijay or a manufacturing company
made him an offer to work on mechanical
engineering related stuff. He would not have Like most large sized organizations,
touched Futurz even to start with. Second,
from the case, it is quite clear the company (in Futurz too), the immediate
did not have any real plan to train Vijay, let
alone deploy him in projects. Most of their manager is the only one who
initial training seemed like an afterthought or
fillers. communicates with the employee.
Let us take a step back and analyze the
situation little more holistically. Much like the Vijay is connected with his manager
BPO industry few years ago, IT industry in
India also started their roots with hiring people as well his outside world, whereas
(even experienced ones) and then training
them for deployment. This served most his manager's only connect in this
companies very well since early 90's.
Fortunately for most of these companies, or triangle is just Vijay.

50 AUGUST 2008
 case study
the promoters or seniors could actually do it themselves;
they became even more busy and outsourced stuff to
start-up training companies who too were learning on
the job! For a while it was mayhem!
Coming back to the case; what went wrong:
l First and foremost, early engagement was missing.
From what I can see Vijay spent close to an year on all
kinds of training
l And then it was bench … by then he already started
thinking of CAT
l When Vijay was relocated to Bangalore, by IT industry
standards, he was already veteran! However, like most
IT professionals, he did not quite understand the need
for approval to go on leave, etc., Whether it was Futurz
not letting employees know or Vijay ignoring company
norms in another issue
l New managers who acquire a team for the first time
need to go through an orientation of sorts. This should
include coaching, giving and taking feedback.
There are many things that augur well for Futurz.
One, they are one of the largest IT organizations in the
country, dream company in college campuses,
Like most large sized organizations, Futurz have got
itself into a situation where the immediate manager is
the only one who communicates with the employee.
Imagine a triangle with Vijay, his manager and other
employees in Futurz as the three corners. Vijay is
connected with his manager as well his outside world,
whereas his manager's only connect in this triangle is
just Vijay.
This is a very challenging situation for the manager
too. One, his context is limited to just the project and
Vijay along with a few co-employees. He is completely
blind to whatever other influences on Vijay are, even
from within the company. That Vijay had to confide in
Hari from the very beginning shows that as a large
company, one does tend to lose the employee connect
quite easily.
In effect, if I were to be the HR leader at Futurz, I will
do the following:
l Communicate, communicate and communicate. Use
all possible modes of communication just to ensure that
young professionals understand organizational codes of
conduct. At GE, for example, it's fairly straightforward
that one does not just take off on a month's leave without
informing sufficiently in advance.
l Coach and train managers - to be telling employees
that punishment can be via performance appraisals is
not just childish but vindictive too.
l Commence a buddy program - where people like
Vijay can freely talk to leaders in the company and discuss
issues in an open and honest way
This said, there are Vijay's and Hari's everywhere ….
It is up to us to find out where they are and handle it
much before it is too late. HC

AUGUST 2008 51