Reference check of Employers

These days, we hear & in some cases experience that employers are using internal and external resources to conduct reference check on candidates to verify claims on salary / experience etc as some of them encountered false declarations from candidates.

Who is to be blamed - Obviously candidates. You just cannot lie , be untruthful to organization which will provide you employment and career.

Let us reverse the discussions for a moment.

I am sure most of the new joinees in middle/senior management encounter surprises and shocks after joining a company. While they are communicated great things about the organization and its practices , they do find a yawning gap between promises and delivery.

Is it not fair for candidates to ask for names of ex candidates from these companies to carry out a verification on various things which impact his work and output. Work culture , Execution culture , delegations , independence etc.

Candidates should ask to spend a day in the organization meeting a lot of people asking and seeking out what they deem fit to be checked about the prospective employer.

Is it asking for too much.

I do not think so. I believe in next 3-5 years this will start happening.

In fact people may be reluctant to joing certain organizations and these very companies will offer such an opportunity to market them selves. What a day it will be!!!

Think !!!

Save Tiger Campaign - Whose Responsibility

You login in to any website - you would get a banner reading - 1411 left.

My question is this. Who is responsible to save them ? This answer should come from who is responsible in first place to get their count down from 4000 to 1411 in India in last 100 years.

Normal citizens like me can join campaigns - online, sign a petition to Govt, take out a candle light protest. Will something happen. Concrete actions has to come out from experts who are either not visible or are not heard / given the platform and freedom to so something.

Apathy.

Today Morning I read a news item. Supreme Court Judge has said in a petition filed to " Save Yamuna" that it is a " gandha nallah". -Dirty drain- He is right , when 25 major drains of Delhi city bring muck, filth,pollutants without processing in to the river , stangnant river at that, what would happen.

In last 15 years there were three occassions when Govt of Delhi has given a written undertaking to courts that drain water before being released into Yamuna shall be treated and only then allowed in to river. Has anything happenned - No - not even a single politician , bureaucrat has lost his job.

Apathy.

These areas are just a few which are not owned by any body. No one.Money is still being spent. Tax Payers money. No accountability.

I am reminded of a story- Everybody thought somebody will do it. Somebody thought any body could do it. In the end nobody did it.

3 Idiots - Who has learnt the lessons?

There was a virtual flooding in my Inbox of stories and presentations singing praises and enumerating learnings from the film 3 Idiots. Indeed a nice story telling by master craftsmen raju Hirani.

Trainers in India would flog this film snippets to death. Bore people with the film / scenes to highlight and emphasise learnings to the managers.

These very managers then would go back to their respective organizations after trainings. What would happen when they wish to put their learnings in to execution/application? Any guesses?. We know it and have seen it in the past.

One thing that I believe we all have missed and it does not find a mention in any of the presentations / messages being circulated - is the role of employer / organizations.

Behaviours are changed for good when they are encouraged , an environment is provided for people to flower. Is it just enough that only one stakeholder changes his approach and while all other key stakeholders in the system continue to live in the old world/order?. Here I believe stakeholders being looked at is only colleges institutions, as in the film?. Don't you think institutions success is determined by their ability to attract top corporates for placements and top drawer salary, whihc makes new headlines. Top corporates want to pick the first graders.

Is it a coincidence that in the film this aspect has not been highlighted enough.Perhaps limitation of an entertaining story to be told in 3 hours meant highlighting one aspect of a problem which has multiple tpuchpoints in our lives.

Clearly the company which hired Raju - what were they thinking?. Why did they hire a guy with more or less poor academic records? . Will anyone today hire similarly just on attitude. Major corporates go to Tier 1 institutes and would like to be first / second on campus to pick up best of the talent based on scores/grades. They are only offered brilliant candidates based on exam gardes.

Will the corporates now provide colleges a profile for shortlisting based on behavioral indicators and soft skills and not ask for students with grades above a certain level?

Will the Corporates when they go out looking for youngsters at entry level ( 1 -2 yesr experience) look for attitude and behavioral indicators. If so do they have knowledge / tools to do it?

Let these brilliant organizations lead the way - Infosys / L&T / HDFC / any one plZZZZZ...........

Let us not wait for Raju Hirani to make a sequel highlighting the responsibility of corporates to nurture the natural talent and skills. It will not happen. It is a commercial world and perhaps there is story to tell but not good enough script and moolah for Raju and Vinod Chopra.

So let us wait ..... or somebody write to Kapil Sibal ... he is making couargeous and right moves. We cannot wait. let us not wait.