The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : “Motivate employees during recession”

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Thursday, Jul 02, 2009
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

“Motivate employees during recession”

Special Correspondent

— Photo: K.V. Srinivasan

EFFECTIVE USE OF MANPOWER: (From left) B. Ravishankar, head, Organisational Development and Effectiveness, HCL Technologies; C. K. Ranganathan, chairman, CII Tamil Nadu; and Sriram Rajagopal, assistant vice-president, Cognizant, at a meeting in Chennai on Wednesday.

CHENNAI: Top management should motivate employees instead of scaring them about the recession and always lead from the front, said C.K. Ranganathan, Confederation of Indian Industry - Tamil Nadu State Council (CII-TNSC) chairman, on Wednesday.

“When the Union government increased the excise duty by 70 per cent on sachets, most of the SMEs (Small and Medium Enterprises) decided to close down their units on the basis of the viability factor. But we went ahead and decided to take on the multinational firms by appointing professionals, increasing salaries and budgets of research and publicity. Of the 15 shampoo manufacturers, we were the only company to come out of the woods,” he said at the opening session of HR Conclave 2009, speaking on ‘Winning strategies for challenging times.’

Mr. Ranganathan said that during a recession, top management should be honest and transparent with all its dealings visible to stakeholders. It should question every decision and ensure that it had the right strategy and right person at the right place. B. Ravishankar, head – organisational development and effectiveness, HCL Technologies, said its top management believed in interacting with its employees directly to apprise them about the current situation.

Sriram Rajagopal, assistant vice-president, Cognizant, said that because of the recession the priorities of organisations and HR teams had shifted quickly from recruitment, retention and growth to downsizing and cost-cutting.

“If companies want to retain the competitive edge so that they are well-positioned for the eventual economic recovery, they have to continue to be competitive and have a plan to retain valuable employees…Besides, the focus should be on improved productivity, flexibility and raising benchmarks in line with changing industry norms,” he said.

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