In today's scenario, Organizations’ worldwide are making all attempts to minimize attritions. There are a lot of retention strategies that can be used to curb attrition.
Some of them are listed out here. -
Compensation should be attractive
Fair compensation does to a large extent guarantee employee satisfaction and loyalty.For e.g., a process at FedEx, called the Pay Exception allows managers to recommend and give exceptional pay hikes to the performing employees.
Quality benefits should be provided
Benefits are not a key reason why employees stick with a company, but they do help in uplifting their morale to some extent.
- Performance based quarterly incentives
- Insurance Scheme & Personal Health Care
- Corporate Credit Cards
- Cellular Phone / Laptop & latest technology on-board
- Interest free loans for higher educations
- Flexi-timings / Telecommuting
- Flexible Salary Benefits
- Wedding Day & Birthday Gift
Train the frontline managers
To make sure that the managers aren't driving away the technologists, the organizations should invest in human capital irrespective of ROI.For e.g., In Whirlpool Appliances, there are highly selective leadership development mentor programs.
Detail employees on their roles.
Make sure that the employees know what is expected of them. They should be given enough time to settle down in the system before they start performing.
Opportunities to grow and progress.
A clear professional development plan gives employees the professional boost to go on. The career path of every employee in the organization should be well laid out.
Offering retention bonus
Employee longevity is well rewarded in most of the organizations. They could be offered other seniority-based rewards such as a paid membership in the employee's professional association after one year, a paid membership to a local gymnasium and clubs after two years, and full reimbursement for the cost of the employee's formal dress.
Employee engagement practices.
To check the pulse of your organization, conduct employee satisfaction surveys on a regular basis. Go in for its analysis and implementation.
- Capture Voice of Employees
- Value addition (Attitude, Skills, Knowledge, Practices & Trust)
- Stay Interviews & its implementation
Cross functional teams
It takes efforts to build an effective team, but the result is greater productivity, better use of resources, improved customer service and increased morale.
For e.g., Sapient Corporation has a practice known as “Team Storming”. When a project team or an internal team has worked very hard, teams from across the office get together and storm the team with a 'goodies' basket to recognize the team.
Fun@work initiatives.
Organizations should celebrate successes and recognize their employees when milestones are reached. Buffet lunches, birthday parties, and employee picnics will help remind people why an organization is a great place to work.
Job enrichment.
Identify your employees' talents and then encourage them to stretch their capabilities into new areas. Every employee should have a Mentor assigned.
Transparency.
Management should always keep their employees well informed of every happening.
- Communication creates the right kind of environment
- The employees should know how business is carried out
- They should be aware of all the issues
Encouraging higher learning.
Create opportunities for your key performers and technologists to grow and learn. Encourage every employee to learn at least one new thing every week, and you'll create a Work force that is excited, motivated and committed.
Flexibility.
Employees will be loyal to organizations that make their lives more convenient by offering on-site childcare centers, on-site hair styling and dry cleaning, flexible work hours, part-time positions, job-sharing or involving spouses in CSR activities and promoting ownership culture.
Effective induction program.
Every Organization should have a formal orientation program and include a thorough overview of all the departments.
Value your employees.
Recognize outstanding achievers publicly. Make sure that none of the chances to reward or recognize employees is missed out.
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Friday, August 15, 2008
Training Freshers at Infosys
Infosys - The Organization
In 1981, a small team led by NR Narayana Murthy and his wife, started ‘Data Basics Corp’ a small time on-site software developer company. The company was later renamed as Infosys.
During its initial years, Infosys struggled to get projects due to lack of reputation, inadequate infrastructure, and government regulations. But the determination of the promoters and their full involvement got them their first order which they completed successfully in time.
Exports increased over time and Infosys set up a Software development center in Bangalore, India. In 1987, it established its first international office in California, US. In 1988, Infosys bagged its first major order from the Reebok and in 1989 bagged another major order from Digital Equipments based in the US. The year 1991 was a significant year in the history of Indian business. In the Union Budget that import tariffs were reduced, taxes were rationalized, and exports were encouraged. Other reforms introduced were free-market pricing of Initial Public Offering (IPO) and relaxation in restrictions on foreign exchange, etc.
In 1993, Infosys successfully completed its IPO. By 1995, Infosys had become the fifth largest software exporter in India. In 1996, it set up its office in UK and then in Canada in 1997.In 1999, Infosys achieved annual revenues of US$100 mn. In the same year it earned the highest level of certification, CMM Level 5, conferred to only a few companies in the world.
It was the first Indian company to be listed on NASDAQ in 1999. In 2001 and 2002 it was rated as the ‘Best Employer in India’ and ‘India’s most respected company’ by leading Indian business magazines. In 2006, Infosys Technologies Limited was one of India’s biggest IT companies and provided IT services, solutions, and consultation globally. By the year 2006 it had over 49,000 employees worldwide.
Entering Infosys
By 2006, there were close to 50,000 Infoscions (employees of Infosys). Getting a job at Infosys was tough as it admitted only 1% of applicants. Out of the total number of applicants, Infosys short-listed only top 20% of students from premier colleges, universities, and institutes.
Infosys in its history had hired many people from different engineering fields who exhibited a high aptitude for ‘learn-ability’ and preferred them over those computer engineers who could not solve problems beyond their technical training.
The short listed candidates underwent a rigorous selection procedure, which involved a series of aptitude tests and interviews. The aptitude tests were significantly tougher and very few candidates cleared them.
The successful candidates were invited for a personal interview. Candidates were judged mainly on their analytical abilities, learn-ability, and communication skills. The selected few candidates were then given job offers.
Need for Training
The dynamic nature of the software and IT industry requires its workforce to upgrade frequently in technology and skills. Companies were focusing on continuous training and development of their employees, which also helped in the reduction of attrition rate.
At Infosys, every new recruit underwent approximately three months of training before they were made billable to clients.
The American Society for Training and Development (ASTD) rated Infosys as the world’s best in employee training and development and conferred ‘Excellence in Practice Award continuously for three consecutive years 2002, 2003 and 2004. The award was conferred for its ‘Global Business Foundation School.’ It was a program for all fresh engineering entrants to Infosys to equip them for the challenging software career ahead of them. The program ran around the year and was implemented over several global centers across the organization.
The Global Business Foundation School comprised of generic conceptual courses, platform specific courses, mini projects for application, and an end term project tailored from real life projects. In addition to technical courses, fresh entrants were also exposed to courses on communication skills, interpersonal skills, customer interaction etiquettes, management development, and quality systems.
In 2005 Infosys established ‘Infosys U’, one of the largest corporate training centers in the world.
Infosys U
The ‘Global Education Center’ was set up in 2005. It was one of the biggest corporate training centers in the world. The Global Education Center would run a 14.5 week residential program, which would impart generic and work specific training in technology areas, along with soft skills and leadership programs to freshers.
The center had 2,350 rooms spread across the campus, 58 training rooms, 183 faculty rooms, state-of-the-art library and a cyber cafe. The center had the capacity to train around 15,000 freshers in one year.
The Training Program
After the new recruits joined Infosys, they were taken to Infosys U for a 14.5 week training program. At Infosys U, the freshers were welcomed in Infosys by NR Narayana Murthy through an audio visual presentation. The initial days of the training program, freshers filled forms and learned the values that drove Infosys. During the entire training program, new recruits were trained to work or program different tech applications.
The library had an online database of Infosys case studies to help the recruits. The trainers generally imparted training in hard skills through lectures on the concepts and theory for a few hours and then allowed the recruits to work independently and build their own applications for the rest of the day.
While the training program focused mainly on technical skills, the freshers were also trained in soft skills. There were separate rooms and faculties for soft skill training. Training was imparted on global etiquette, comportment, importance of body language, public speaking, improving interpersonal communication and team-building. The various methods used included, asking the freshers to perform skits, going through several ‘what-if’ scenarios and to practice smiling in front of the mirror.
The campus provided best of food to at an affordable price. Among other options, the campus had the retail outlet of the pizza chain ‘Domino’s Pizza’ where both Western and Indian varieties of pizzas were available. The pizza could also be ordered while the employee was working, but the Infosys culture discouraged working during lunch. The Infoscions believed in taking break during lunch and socializing.
The center had an ‘Employee Care Center’ to facilitate all round development. The employee care center offered recreational facilities such as a gymnasium, a swimming pool, Jacuzzi, bowling alley and a meditation hall. It also had an international-class cricket ground and a multipurpose ground with a six-lane synthetic track, which housed basketball, volleyball, squash, and tennis courts. The campus also housed an auditorium, which had a seating capacity of 1,300 people and three multiplex theatres with a capacity of 150 seats each. The freshers had to work for eight hours every day and at the end of the training program, the freshers had to pass two comprehensive exams before proceeding further. About 1% to 2% failed in the exams.
Infosys U also served as the opportunity to interact with Infoscions working in countries other than India. In 2006, Infosys U had the capacity to train over 4,000 freshers at a time and had expansion plans of increasing the capacity to 10,000 by 2007.
Conclusion
Infosys is amongst the few companies, which actually practiced what it preached.
In 1981, a small team led by NR Narayana Murthy and his wife, started ‘Data Basics Corp’ a small time on-site software developer company. The company was later renamed as Infosys.
During its initial years, Infosys struggled to get projects due to lack of reputation, inadequate infrastructure, and government regulations. But the determination of the promoters and their full involvement got them their first order which they completed successfully in time.
Exports increased over time and Infosys set up a Software development center in Bangalore, India. In 1987, it established its first international office in California, US. In 1988, Infosys bagged its first major order from the Reebok and in 1989 bagged another major order from Digital Equipments based in the US. The year 1991 was a significant year in the history of Indian business. In the Union Budget that import tariffs were reduced, taxes were rationalized, and exports were encouraged. Other reforms introduced were free-market pricing of Initial Public Offering (IPO) and relaxation in restrictions on foreign exchange, etc.
In 1993, Infosys successfully completed its IPO. By 1995, Infosys had become the fifth largest software exporter in India. In 1996, it set up its office in UK and then in Canada in 1997.In 1999, Infosys achieved annual revenues of US$100 mn. In the same year it earned the highest level of certification, CMM Level 5, conferred to only a few companies in the world.
It was the first Indian company to be listed on NASDAQ in 1999. In 2001 and 2002 it was rated as the ‘Best Employer in India’ and ‘India’s most respected company’ by leading Indian business magazines. In 2006, Infosys Technologies Limited was one of India’s biggest IT companies and provided IT services, solutions, and consultation globally. By the year 2006 it had over 49,000 employees worldwide.
Entering Infosys
By 2006, there were close to 50,000 Infoscions (employees of Infosys). Getting a job at Infosys was tough as it admitted only 1% of applicants. Out of the total number of applicants, Infosys short-listed only top 20% of students from premier colleges, universities, and institutes.
Infosys in its history had hired many people from different engineering fields who exhibited a high aptitude for ‘learn-ability’ and preferred them over those computer engineers who could not solve problems beyond their technical training.
The short listed candidates underwent a rigorous selection procedure, which involved a series of aptitude tests and interviews. The aptitude tests were significantly tougher and very few candidates cleared them.
The successful candidates were invited for a personal interview. Candidates were judged mainly on their analytical abilities, learn-ability, and communication skills. The selected few candidates were then given job offers.
Need for Training
The dynamic nature of the software and IT industry requires its workforce to upgrade frequently in technology and skills. Companies were focusing on continuous training and development of their employees, which also helped in the reduction of attrition rate.
At Infosys, every new recruit underwent approximately three months of training before they were made billable to clients.
The American Society for Training and Development (ASTD) rated Infosys as the world’s best in employee training and development and conferred ‘Excellence in Practice Award continuously for three consecutive years 2002, 2003 and 2004. The award was conferred for its ‘Global Business Foundation School.’ It was a program for all fresh engineering entrants to Infosys to equip them for the challenging software career ahead of them. The program ran around the year and was implemented over several global centers across the organization.
The Global Business Foundation School comprised of generic conceptual courses, platform specific courses, mini projects for application, and an end term project tailored from real life projects. In addition to technical courses, fresh entrants were also exposed to courses on communication skills, interpersonal skills, customer interaction etiquettes, management development, and quality systems.
In 2005 Infosys established ‘Infosys U’, one of the largest corporate training centers in the world.
Infosys U
The ‘Global Education Center’ was set up in 2005. It was one of the biggest corporate training centers in the world. The Global Education Center would run a 14.5 week residential program, which would impart generic and work specific training in technology areas, along with soft skills and leadership programs to freshers.
The center had 2,350 rooms spread across the campus, 58 training rooms, 183 faculty rooms, state-of-the-art library and a cyber cafe. The center had the capacity to train around 15,000 freshers in one year.
The Training Program
After the new recruits joined Infosys, they were taken to Infosys U for a 14.5 week training program. At Infosys U, the freshers were welcomed in Infosys by NR Narayana Murthy through an audio visual presentation. The initial days of the training program, freshers filled forms and learned the values that drove Infosys. During the entire training program, new recruits were trained to work or program different tech applications.
The library had an online database of Infosys case studies to help the recruits. The trainers generally imparted training in hard skills through lectures on the concepts and theory for a few hours and then allowed the recruits to work independently and build their own applications for the rest of the day.
While the training program focused mainly on technical skills, the freshers were also trained in soft skills. There were separate rooms and faculties for soft skill training. Training was imparted on global etiquette, comportment, importance of body language, public speaking, improving interpersonal communication and team-building. The various methods used included, asking the freshers to perform skits, going through several ‘what-if’ scenarios and to practice smiling in front of the mirror.
The campus provided best of food to at an affordable price. Among other options, the campus had the retail outlet of the pizza chain ‘Domino’s Pizza’ where both Western and Indian varieties of pizzas were available. The pizza could also be ordered while the employee was working, but the Infosys culture discouraged working during lunch. The Infoscions believed in taking break during lunch and socializing.
The center had an ‘Employee Care Center’ to facilitate all round development. The employee care center offered recreational facilities such as a gymnasium, a swimming pool, Jacuzzi, bowling alley and a meditation hall. It also had an international-class cricket ground and a multipurpose ground with a six-lane synthetic track, which housed basketball, volleyball, squash, and tennis courts. The campus also housed an auditorium, which had a seating capacity of 1,300 people and three multiplex theatres with a capacity of 150 seats each. The freshers had to work for eight hours every day and at the end of the training program, the freshers had to pass two comprehensive exams before proceeding further. About 1% to 2% failed in the exams.
Infosys U also served as the opportunity to interact with Infoscions working in countries other than India. In 2006, Infosys U had the capacity to train over 4,000 freshers at a time and had expansion plans of increasing the capacity to 10,000 by 2007.
Conclusion
Infosys is amongst the few companies, which actually practiced what it preached.
Monday, August 11, 2008
IT Companies – Recruitment methods
Today, the biggest challenge faced by any organization is change. Globalization has made it even more imminent. Organizations are trying their level best to cope with the transition by hiring the right person for the right job. Human Resource teams are working hard to recruit the most talented from the pool available to them. Organizations are developing strategies to recruit, develop and retain their talented employees.
With the advent of the IT, ITES and BPO industries, employment opportunities have widened. So companies are facing challenges in recruiting candidates who are fit for the job as well the organization. Recruitment practices and mechanisms have undergone major changes. Soaring attrition rates have forced the software companies to adopt variety of recruitment practices. To attract the candidates, they have started exploring innovative methods of recruitment. Their ultimate aim is to bring in quality new employees.
Most of the IT companies are on a look-out for Engineering Graduates. Companies visit a lot of Colleges for Campus Hiring’s every year. Companies aim at hiring committed, intelligent and aspiring students full of enthusiasm and zeal to prove their talents.
Earlier Campus recruitment was mostly used as a process only for Management Courses, but over time this trend has changed. Few companies, for e.g., TCS follow a process of accrediting the colleges. They conduct interactive session with the faculties and the students separately to assess their capabilities. Based on these assessments they give accreditation to the colleges - A, B or C grade. Few other companies assess the college by collecting a detailed report. They select only those students, who possess the necessary skill set. As fresher’s, with no prior work experience, they are trained extensively. A full length Induction program grooms them with respect to Organizational fitment.
The recruitment practices of IT companies changes from time to time. The various methodologies used are On Campus, Press Advertisement, Headhunters, Job Fairs, Electronic Recruitment and Recruiting Abroad, Executive search firms and Application tracking software. The latest methodology in the series is organizing job fairs in various IT destinations and online recruitments.
Companies list the job openings on their own websites inviting prospective candidates to apply. In addition to the company’s website, the employers also look for the candidate’s profile posted on various Job portals viz., Naukri, Times jobs, Monster etc.
Hence, change is omnipresent in the IT scenario.
With the advent of the IT, ITES and BPO industries, employment opportunities have widened. So companies are facing challenges in recruiting candidates who are fit for the job as well the organization. Recruitment practices and mechanisms have undergone major changes. Soaring attrition rates have forced the software companies to adopt variety of recruitment practices. To attract the candidates, they have started exploring innovative methods of recruitment. Their ultimate aim is to bring in quality new employees.
Most of the IT companies are on a look-out for Engineering Graduates. Companies visit a lot of Colleges for Campus Hiring’s every year. Companies aim at hiring committed, intelligent and aspiring students full of enthusiasm and zeal to prove their talents.
Earlier Campus recruitment was mostly used as a process only for Management Courses, but over time this trend has changed. Few companies, for e.g., TCS follow a process of accrediting the colleges. They conduct interactive session with the faculties and the students separately to assess their capabilities. Based on these assessments they give accreditation to the colleges - A, B or C grade. Few other companies assess the college by collecting a detailed report. They select only those students, who possess the necessary skill set. As fresher’s, with no prior work experience, they are trained extensively. A full length Induction program grooms them with respect to Organizational fitment.
The recruitment practices of IT companies changes from time to time. The various methodologies used are On Campus, Press Advertisement, Headhunters, Job Fairs, Electronic Recruitment and Recruiting Abroad, Executive search firms and Application tracking software. The latest methodology in the series is organizing job fairs in various IT destinations and online recruitments.
Companies list the job openings on their own websites inviting prospective candidates to apply. In addition to the company’s website, the employers also look for the candidate’s profile posted on various Job portals viz., Naukri, Times jobs, Monster etc.
Hence, change is omnipresent in the IT scenario.
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Cisco - Innovative Recruitment methods
In 1995, Cisco, found that despite hiring an average of 1,000 people every three months during the year, the company still had hundreds of openings. The recruitment pressure further increased the following year, when Cisco hired more than 1,000 employees every quarter. When Cisco’s sales soared, the company planned to double its workforce.
The management realized that it had to adopt innovative recruitment practices to bring in the best people. They adopted the first of its kind online recruitment called the ‘Friends program’. Cisco recruiters also began to target passive job seekers. These were the people who were content and successful in their existing jobs.
Background
Cisco was founded in 1984 by a group of computer scientists at Stanford, who designed operating software called IOS (Internet Operating System).
In 1985, the company started a customer support site from where customers could download software. In 1990, Cisco installed a bug report database in its site. The database contained information about potential software problems to help customers and developers.
By 1991, Cisco’s support center was receiving around 3,000 calls a month which increased to 12,000 by 1992. In 1993, Cisco installed an Internet-based system for large multinational corporate customers. In 1994, Cisco launched Cisco Information Online, a public website which offered company and product information. By 1995, it introduced applications for selling products or services on its website. This was done mainly to transfer paper, fax, e-mails and CD-ROM distribution of technical documentations and training materials to the web to save time for employees, customers and trading partners, besides broadening Cisco’s market reach.
In 1996, the company introduced a new Internet initiative, ‘Networked Strategy’ to leverage its enterprise network to foster interactive relationships with prospective customers, partners, suppliers and employees. In early 2000, Cisco introduced the Integrated Commerce Solution (ICS), which provided a dedicated server fully integrated into the customers’ or resellers’ intranet and back-end ERP systems.
In mid-2000, Cisco entered into a distribution agreement with FedEx to manage orders and maintain inventory levels in a cost-effective way. ‘The Cisco City’ in San Jose, emerged as one of the biggest Internet economy industrial parks with around 13,000 employees.
Cisco believed it required the best people in the industry to remain the Leader.
Recruitment
The company followed a policy of hiring ‘top 10-15%’ people in the networking industry. This was a mechanism to remain the industry leader.
Its vision statement was, “Attracting, growing and retaining great talent is critical to sustaining Cisco’s competitive advantage.”
The company began to use newer techniques like the ‘build-the-buzz’ strategy, which was centered on the primary market for its products, i.e., the Internet.
Cisco’s recruiting team identified the candidates whom they felt the company ‘should hire,’ and then figured out the way those potential candidates did their job hunting and designed hiring processes to attract them to the company. The recruiters targeted even passive job seekers–people who were happy and successful in their current jobs.
Cisco changed the way it wanted advertisements in newspapers. It listed specific job openings and featured its Internet address in its ads and invited prospective candidates to apply. This helped in directing all job seekers to its website where it could inexpensively post hundreds of openings and provides information regarding them.
Since most people visited Cisco’s website from their jobs, the company could identify their place of work. The company attracted happily employed people through focus groups. These focus groups targeted senior engineers and marketing professionals in other companies and found out how they spent their free time. These insights helped the recruiters.
The website also offered features through which applicants could fill their resumes online or create one with the help of Cisco’s resume builder.
The focus group’s exercise ensured that a candidate would approach the company if he had been informed by a friend about better opportunities at Cisco. This led to the launch of the friends program in April 1996. Cisco also organized art fairs, beer festivals and certain annual events in which people from Silicon Valley participated. These places proved to be very ‘fruitful hunting venues’ as they attracted young achievers from various successful infotech companies. Cisco recruiters mingled with the crowd, collected business cards from prospective candidates and spoke to them informally about their careers.
More than 1,000 Cisco employees volunteered for the Friends program, attracted by the referral fee, which started at $500 and a lottery ticket for a free trip to Hawaii for each prospect they befriended and who was ultimately hired.
In this program, Cisco employees were matched up with people who approached the company as prospects and who shared similar backgrounds and skills. The Cisco employees then called the prospects to inform them in their own words about life at the company.
Cisco also found that applicants and recruiters were not totally comfortable with, the time-consuming recruiting process. To speed up the process, Cisco hired in house headhunters to identify qualified candidates for managers.
It encouraged internal referrals for recruitment through a program called ‘Amazing People.’ This facilitated the employees to refer their friends’ and acquaintances for positions within Cisco. Employees earned a referral bonus if the company hired the person they referred. After streamlining its recruitment policies in 1996, Cisco conducted an Employee survey to find out how the new recruits felt on their first day at work.
This exercise stemmed from the company’s belief that new employees typically treated the first day as ‘the most important eight hours in the world.’ Cisco launched Fast Start, an employee orientation initiative. It installed software, which tracked the hiring process and alerted the team about the new recruit’s arrival. As a result, every new recruit started with a fully functional workspace and a whole day of training in desktop tools.
Fast Start not only eliminated all problems but it also enabled new recruits to know about ‘life inside the company.’ Every new recruit was assigned a ‘buddy’ who clarified all doubts and answered questions about Cisco. New recruits also had a two-day course called the ‘Cisco Business Essentials,’ which covered company’s history and business units. The managers of the new recruits received an automatically generated e-mail two weeks after their new recruit arrival. It reminded them to review their departmental initiatives and personal goals.
Reaping the Benefits
Cisco believed that its new recruitment philosophy should also be made a part of the overall corporate culture. Cisco’s job site was recording around 500,000 hits per month. The company generated a stream of reports about who visited the site. Cisco’s hiring cycle also came down to 45 days. The recruitment costs were also below the industry average. Referral rates at Cisco were twice the industry norm. The retention rate of the Company had also increased.
Analysts claimed that Cisco’s innovative and aggressive recruiting initiatives were to a large extent responsible for the company’s expansion at 40% per year and recruiting 250 employees every week.
Industry observers feel that other players should also modify their recruitment policies to take advantage, like Cisco did.
The management realized that it had to adopt innovative recruitment practices to bring in the best people. They adopted the first of its kind online recruitment called the ‘Friends program’. Cisco recruiters also began to target passive job seekers. These were the people who were content and successful in their existing jobs.
Background
Cisco was founded in 1984 by a group of computer scientists at Stanford, who designed operating software called IOS (Internet Operating System).
In 1985, the company started a customer support site from where customers could download software. In 1990, Cisco installed a bug report database in its site. The database contained information about potential software problems to help customers and developers.
By 1991, Cisco’s support center was receiving around 3,000 calls a month which increased to 12,000 by 1992. In 1993, Cisco installed an Internet-based system for large multinational corporate customers. In 1994, Cisco launched Cisco Information Online, a public website which offered company and product information. By 1995, it introduced applications for selling products or services on its website. This was done mainly to transfer paper, fax, e-mails and CD-ROM distribution of technical documentations and training materials to the web to save time for employees, customers and trading partners, besides broadening Cisco’s market reach.
In 1996, the company introduced a new Internet initiative, ‘Networked Strategy’ to leverage its enterprise network to foster interactive relationships with prospective customers, partners, suppliers and employees. In early 2000, Cisco introduced the Integrated Commerce Solution (ICS), which provided a dedicated server fully integrated into the customers’ or resellers’ intranet and back-end ERP systems.
In mid-2000, Cisco entered into a distribution agreement with FedEx to manage orders and maintain inventory levels in a cost-effective way. ‘The Cisco City’ in San Jose, emerged as one of the biggest Internet economy industrial parks with around 13,000 employees.
Cisco believed it required the best people in the industry to remain the Leader.
Recruitment
The company followed a policy of hiring ‘top 10-15%’ people in the networking industry. This was a mechanism to remain the industry leader.
Its vision statement was, “Attracting, growing and retaining great talent is critical to sustaining Cisco’s competitive advantage.”
The company began to use newer techniques like the ‘build-the-buzz’ strategy, which was centered on the primary market for its products, i.e., the Internet.
Cisco’s recruiting team identified the candidates whom they felt the company ‘should hire,’ and then figured out the way those potential candidates did their job hunting and designed hiring processes to attract them to the company. The recruiters targeted even passive job seekers–people who were happy and successful in their current jobs.
Cisco changed the way it wanted advertisements in newspapers. It listed specific job openings and featured its Internet address in its ads and invited prospective candidates to apply. This helped in directing all job seekers to its website where it could inexpensively post hundreds of openings and provides information regarding them.
Since most people visited Cisco’s website from their jobs, the company could identify their place of work. The company attracted happily employed people through focus groups. These focus groups targeted senior engineers and marketing professionals in other companies and found out how they spent their free time. These insights helped the recruiters.
The website also offered features through which applicants could fill their resumes online or create one with the help of Cisco’s resume builder.
The focus group’s exercise ensured that a candidate would approach the company if he had been informed by a friend about better opportunities at Cisco. This led to the launch of the friends program in April 1996. Cisco also organized art fairs, beer festivals and certain annual events in which people from Silicon Valley participated. These places proved to be very ‘fruitful hunting venues’ as they attracted young achievers from various successful infotech companies. Cisco recruiters mingled with the crowd, collected business cards from prospective candidates and spoke to them informally about their careers.
More than 1,000 Cisco employees volunteered for the Friends program, attracted by the referral fee, which started at $500 and a lottery ticket for a free trip to Hawaii for each prospect they befriended and who was ultimately hired.
In this program, Cisco employees were matched up with people who approached the company as prospects and who shared similar backgrounds and skills. The Cisco employees then called the prospects to inform them in their own words about life at the company.
Cisco also found that applicants and recruiters were not totally comfortable with, the time-consuming recruiting process. To speed up the process, Cisco hired in house headhunters to identify qualified candidates for managers.
It encouraged internal referrals for recruitment through a program called ‘Amazing People.’ This facilitated the employees to refer their friends’ and acquaintances for positions within Cisco. Employees earned a referral bonus if the company hired the person they referred. After streamlining its recruitment policies in 1996, Cisco conducted an Employee survey to find out how the new recruits felt on their first day at work.
This exercise stemmed from the company’s belief that new employees typically treated the first day as ‘the most important eight hours in the world.’ Cisco launched Fast Start, an employee orientation initiative. It installed software, which tracked the hiring process and alerted the team about the new recruit’s arrival. As a result, every new recruit started with a fully functional workspace and a whole day of training in desktop tools.
Fast Start not only eliminated all problems but it also enabled new recruits to know about ‘life inside the company.’ Every new recruit was assigned a ‘buddy’ who clarified all doubts and answered questions about Cisco. New recruits also had a two-day course called the ‘Cisco Business Essentials,’ which covered company’s history and business units. The managers of the new recruits received an automatically generated e-mail two weeks after their new recruit arrival. It reminded them to review their departmental initiatives and personal goals.
Reaping the Benefits
Cisco believed that its new recruitment philosophy should also be made a part of the overall corporate culture. Cisco’s job site was recording around 500,000 hits per month. The company generated a stream of reports about who visited the site. Cisco’s hiring cycle also came down to 45 days. The recruitment costs were also below the industry average. Referral rates at Cisco were twice the industry norm. The retention rate of the Company had also increased.
Analysts claimed that Cisco’s innovative and aggressive recruiting initiatives were to a large extent responsible for the company’s expansion at 40% per year and recruiting 250 employees every week.
Industry observers feel that other players should also modify their recruitment policies to take advantage, like Cisco did.
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