Dotcom Marketing in India

"A ten-minute drive through the city is enough to get feel of the money that is being pumped into the market.Unfortunately in Delhi, billboards have been banned and hence, dotcoms have to satisfy themselves with kiosks."

- Suhel Seth, chief executive officer, Equus Advertising.

"Indians still think that Net is e-mail. Consumers need to know about other applications of the Net."

- Neeraj Roy, CEO, Hungama.com, commenting on his unconventional promotional methods.

Advertising Blitz

In late 1999, Delhi's autorikshaws started sporting dotcom bumper stickers. During the same time, Mumbai's skyline was changing with dotcom hoardings. Full-page ads of the dotcoms could be seen in almost every leading newspaper. From print, to electronic and outdoor media, the dotcom companies flooded the market with high budget ads, contests, and interactive campaigns. During 1999-2000, Indiainfo1 spent Rs 44 million2 every month on advertisements in print and electronic media. Satyam Online3 planned to spend around Rs 200 million by the end of 2000. In early 2000, Indya.com4 released a front-page ad campaign in The Sunday Times of India5, in Delhi. According to market sources, the advertisement cost more than Rs 30 million.

During October 1999-January 2000, about Rs 500 million was spent on advertising by the dotcom companies (Refer Table 1 for

the break-up). Analysts felt that in the next six months, another Rs 500 million would be spent.

While the average retailer spent about 5-8% of its total revenue on advertising and the average manufacturer 15-18%, dotcoms were spending more than 25% of its revenues on promotions. Analysts

felt that the huge amount spent on advertising was to make a mark in the people's minds. Commented Suman Srivastava, Director,

Euro-RSCG, "What most net companies have been doing so far is concentrating on traffic: their advertising has been geared towards

generating trials."

TABLE IAD SPENDS BY DOTCOMS DURING OCT 1999-JAN 2000

Media Amount in Rs. million

Television 100

Print 350

Outdoor 50

Total 500

Source: Businessworld, March 20, 2000.

Evolution of Portals

In the early days of the Net revolution, there was a rush to get online. Most companies established their presence through corporate websites. Companies used the Net as a new low-cost channel, with unlimited reach. Corporate websites used the Net primarily to extend their reach and attract customers to their products. Customers had more information and more choices than ever before. As websites grew in number, it became difficult for customers to search for sites of their choice. Search engines thus emerged and became key players directing millions of surfers to various sites.

Web commuters found a unique value addition as they could go and search for any product or service from any part of the world by just clicking the mouse. The phenomenal growth of search engines

was accompanied by unprecedented choices opening up for the customer. This growth led to the transformation of search

directories into portals.

The competition was redefined. Instead of competing on width offered by horizontal portals, players were forced to compete on

depth.

While reach was taken for granted, the richness of content, the way one presented one's products and provided information and strong community features like chat rooms, discussion groups emails etc.

became the recipe for success.

This led to the emergence of vortals or "vertical" industry portals and "segment" portals. Vertical portals were sites devoted to a single industry or function: for example insurance content sites, personal financial services sites and sites that attracted consumers to buy health or auto insurance. In each case, the revenue model was primarily based on advertising, with some transaction revenue from online sales (Refer Exhibit I for different business models). Segment portals were subsites of the horizontal portals; an example was Yahoo! Finance, a finance site of Yahoo!. Such portals offered focused searching capabilities to Internet users interested only in a single range of products.

The Dotcom Marketing Mania

By the late 1990s, there were hundreds of dotcoms in India each vying for the surfer. There was a difference between the ads of FMCGs and the dotcoms. While FMCGs were branded to ‘Come and check my site out first!' And the branding of dotcoms seemed to be difficult as everyone was trying to do the same. Most of the dotcoms seemed to have the necessary technology and the financial muscle (Refer Table II for ad spends of major dotcoms). What seemed to be needed most was differentiation. To achieve this, the dotcom companies depended heavily on advertisements.

TABLE IIAD SPEND BY PORTALS IN 1999

Portal Ad Spend in Rs millionRediff 130.8Indiatimes 107.1Indiainfoline 48.4Indiamarkets 44.4Indiainfo 42.9

Source: Business Today, June 7, 2000.

The print media seemed to have made the most of the dotcom boom as huge amounts were pumped into advertising. According to a

report, Rs 12 billion was spent on print media advertising during 1998-99. Shunu Sen, Director, ORGMARG, said, "Since the

Internet is still nascent in India and e-commerce through conventional media. Once they get the traffic, they will focus their

advertising budget on the Net itself. But till then it will be boom time of the traditional media." On the other hand, only companies

with good financial stability were using the electronic media for advertising. Besides the cost, it worked only if a certain level of brand awareness already existed. Some dotcoms also opted for

contests and other promotional campaigns. Many analysts wondered if all this frenzy made sense. Some described the dotcom

advertising as 'mediocre'.

Others felt that most of it was "Hello! I am a dotcom" kind of advertising. Some of ad lines were: "Free E-Mail" (Zeenext): "India's most happening chat site" (123 India.com), "Its all about money, honey" (5paisa.com).

The Dotcom Marketing Mania Contd...

Commented David Appasamy, General Manager, Satyam Online, "Some dot.com advertising has been focused and some less so." Some advertisements had a packaged communication

strategy, with a focus on brand differentiation. For instance, a popular South Asian community portal, chaitime.com launched a campaign named "chai peeke bol" (have tea and speak) in May 1999. It was a 6 x 8 feet virtual wall, which allowed students from six cities in India to flash their messages on chaitime.com. There was a grand prize for the college that flashed the maximum number of messages, and customized T-shirts, free head messages, tattoos etc, for all those who registered on the site. Analysts felt that this was an event, which was difficult to manage.

However, Dr. Jayesh Vaidya, Managing Director, chaitime.com justified it saying, "We do not offer any physical product. This is

the only way users can relate to us in the physical world." In metros like Delhi and Mumbai, outdoor advertising like banners, kiosks

and bill boards were used more widely. In Delhi, since billboards were banned, the money was put on kiosks and bus shelters. In

Mumbai, dotcom companies' hoardings were more than those put up by the brick and mortar companies. For every brick and mortar

hoarding, there were four to five hoardings from dotcom companies. Prior to the mushrooming of dotcoms in India, this

space was used by the FMCG companies. A senior executive at indya.com explained." Outdoor advertising is cheaper than

conventional media and it has good reach because the billboard always screams out."

For effective marketing, dotcoms adopted promotional strategies of brick and mortar companies like conducting meals, etc. Hungama.com an entertainment site established 560 cybercafes to promote traffic to its site. A placement site jobsahead.com held job meals in Bangalore, Mumbai and Delhi where recruiters met potential employees. Baazee.com placed kiosks in high traffic areas to educate markets and consumers. Jaspreet Bindra, chief operating officer, baazee.com said, "Everything can't be done on the Web.

For some things, you need off line capability." Brainvisa.com, involved in career counseling to high school children conducted aptitude tests online for which it charged Rs 500. Additionally, it also conducted these tests in schools across the country. There were also some dotcoms, which ignored traditional advertising and looked at innovative ways of marketing – word of mouth, referrals etc. – to increase traffic.

The Dotcom Marketing Mania Contd...

For instance, hungama.com, completely ignored the expensive print and television media and took up viral marketing. It identified 125 hungama hangouts – pubs, clubs, and cinema halls – where it made its presence felt through promotions, schemes, and onsite advertising. Neeraj Roy, CEO hungama, said, "We wanted to be present at places where youngsters hang out." Similarly, bharatplanet.com, a gifting site, ran a referral program wherein by introducing friends the visitors to this site earned points, which were redeemable as shopping vouchers. Through referrals alone, the site got about 600 new users a week. Word of mouth advertising, which resulted from a loyal customer base over a period of time, was responsible for around 30% of new site traffic.

Hence, dotcoms had many cash and non-cash incentives for their loyal customers. For instance, a consultancy company e-lab, gave

cash incentives to the user for references forwarded to its site, sawaal.com, a search engine, gave free T-shirts to the users who

sent information about the site to 20 e-mail addresses.

The companies also used other established portals for advertising. Such advertising was based on click-through rate; that is the

dotcom had to pay for the traffic that reached it after clicking on the advertisement. This lowered the advertising costs and also ensured

focused traffic. For instance, many new dotcoms offering gift services to the NRIs used the regional language newspaper sites

like andhraprabha.com (Telugu), or dinamani.com (Tamil).

Some dotcoms even reverted back to the barter system for their advertising needs. Shares had become a new currency in the dotcom industry. Many dotcoms signed agreements with popular media players to buy advertising space and time through the issue and allotment of shares. For instance, Business Standard, a financial daily, entered into a share-and-cash agreement with Pugmarks. Under the agreement, Business Standard was to use Pugmarks' services for hosting and maintenance of the site in exchange for providing free advertisement space and cash payments. A contests site, contests2win, also entered into an agreement, to host the URL on the partners hoarding.

Marketing or Publicity?

Many analysts felt that the dotcom marketing methods lacked originality (Refer Exhibit II for ideas for marketing sites). One of the reasons seemed to be that the dotcoms were always in a hurry. The minimum time of more than a month required to create an ad for an FMCG product seemed to be too long in the fast-changing dotcom industry. Ashish Dhawan, Chryslis Capital, a venture capitalist said, "You can't blame them. Most advertising agencies like most lawyers or investment banks are still learning the dotcom business." Also, not many companies had done a pre-launch research and there was no secondary knowledge available. Analysts also felt that most dotcom entrepreneurs were using marketing methods more suited to old economy businesses.

Marketing or Publicity? Contd...

Thus, there was an over-emphasis on publicity rather than marketing. India Today's associate editor Shankar Iyer said, "A kind of PDS approach which assumes that once there is a shopfront, shoppers will come walking in and buy In other words a distributive rather than a marketing approach which again is rather sad. Revenue will not come merely via words on hoardings." Analysts felt that ultimately, a well-designed user-friendly site would attract traffic. Zaveri of Indbazaar.com said, "Of all the mind-grabbers not many are really brands.

Sure, the customer may visit a site once out of curiosity. But will he

want to visit again? That is what really makes a brand." During 2000-01, the global dotcom industry witnessed a slowdown and the dotcom bubble bust. In India, many dotcom companies were either shut down or sold. In the late 1990s, there were about 5000 dotcom companies in India. But only a few (about 25-30) could survive the

bust (Refer Exhibit III for survivors). Lack of proper business models, huge advertising expenses, lack of professional

management etc., were outlined as some of the reasons for the dotcom bust. Analysts remarked that though some companies had invested heavily on advertising, they could not generate revenues.

On the other hand, some of the companies, which survived the dotcom bust, either spent very less or did not spend at all on

advertising (Refer Table III).

TABLE IIIAD SPEND OF THE SURVIVORS IN 2000

DotcomAd Spend in 2000

Bharatplanet, Indiamart NilAgencyfaqs (advertising and media, ChennaiBazaar (gifting site), Hungama

Less than Rs. 1 million

Others (from the list of Exhibit III)Less than Rs. 5 million

Source: Businessworld, May 14, 2001.

To establish themselves, many portals looked at alternate revenue models. Some turned into IT services companies by selling their expertise. The dotcom industry also witnessed many acquisitions and mergers. Analysts remarked that in the near future, many of the portals might not even be recognized as dotcom companies.

Exhibits

Exhibit I: Business Models of PortalsExhibit II: Ideas for Marketing Different Types of SitesExhibit III: Some of the Survivors of the Dotcom Bust

CASE STUDY OR HRM

Thursday, April 14, 2005: At 4:45 am on an unusually cool summer morning, the members of our team assembled at our pre-decided meeting

point, to set out to shoot the video for our first multimedia case study. There were five of us - two case authors, and three camera men. The case study, on SHARE Microfin Limited (SML) had been under planning for a couple of months already - we had prepared a paper version of the case, and also had several meetings with the top management of the organization, getting to know the company and its activities. It was turning out to be an interesting case for us, with aspects of development economics, social entrepreneurship, and financial intermediation.

SML was a microfinance organization that had begun small, and had grown to become India’s largest microfinance company in just over a decade. Over the years, SML had empowered thousands of poor women in rural India, and improved their lives by providing micro-credit in the form of small uncollateralized loans, which these women used to set up micro-enterprises to become self-sufficient. SML helped the rural women to organize themselves into groups; each SML center usually had eight groups of five members each. While the loans were given to the individual members of the group, all the group (and center) members were collectively responsible for repaying the loan. Peer pressure and operational control ensured an almost 100% repayment record.

We had been preparing for the outdoor shoot for more than two weeks, and tried to ensure that we were well prepared for any problems that could arise during our trip. A lot of things could go wrong with an outdoor shoot, in a remote village. Unpredictable power, improper lighting, rough roads and dusty terrain could derail our well-laid plans. Added to this, the previous week had seen the beginning of a heat wave in the region, with day temperatures regularly crossing 40 degree Celsius. We had armed ourselves with water bottles, caps and sunglasses to beat the heat that promised to scorch us.

After a light breakfast en route, we arrived at the Katriyal village public school where the center meetings were generally organized. We quickly assessed the ground situation, set up our equipment, and prepared to shoot. The local SML representative had already explained the purpose of our visit to the group members in the village. Despite this, initially at least, the women seemed a little uncomfortable with our intrusion into their weekly routine.

This hampered our shoot slightly. For instance, we had to get the women to repeat the pledge (that they start their meetings with)

a couple of times before we could get it right for the camera. However, as things progressed, the women warmed to the idea of being videotaped - and it also became clear that SML's claim of empowering women was no empty boast. It was very clear that the women who had been through several loan cycles (as a person repaid each loan, she would become eligible for increasingly larger loans) were confident and spoke unhesitatingly for the camera.

New members, on the other hand, were more shy and uncomfortable before the camera. After we had covered the village center meeting and interviewed some of the members, we moved on to videotape scenes of some of the women running their own businesses.

On the way, to add some local color to our case study, we also managed to get shots of daily village scenes like a goatherd taking his goats out to graze, farmers going to work their fields, and a tractor-trolley transporting manure that would end up as fertilizer on some farm.

Rangamani, the confident and voluble center leader at Katriyal, had invited us to visit the small tea shop she had set up with her loan from SML. Our presence there seemed to bring in a lot of customers who were willing to buy an extra cup of "chai" (tea) to ensure that they were present when the camera was rolling.

A few enthusiastic ones also offered us tips on what to shoot and which angles to cover. While we drank the cups of hot "chai" specially prepared for us by the enterprising Rangamani, her husband proudly showed us the motorcycle they had purchased with the earnings from their business.

We then moved on to interview a few more people, who were not clients of SML. This proved to be more difficult that we expected - some of the people were too shy to speak in front of the camera. We had to videotape some scenes several times and speak to them as if it was a normal conversation to put them at ease in front of the camera. Obviously, all this took a lot of time. And then there were the children who were our main audience (and at times a nuisance), following us wherever we went.

Many of them posed happily for our cameras. Thanks to the influence of cable television, some of the villagers thought we were a

television crew.

Our coverage of SML's activities and its members seemed to ignite greater interest in the organization among the villagers. The local SML representative had a difficult time answering questions from an increasingly enthusiastic audience.

By this time, it was past noon, and we also realized that we were running behind schedule.

Although we had hoped to complete our shoot by noon and return to Hyderabad by evening, we could see that we were only half-way through the shoot schedule.

A quick lunch at the Katriyal's only eatery (dirt floors, wooden benches, banana leaf plates, and a surprising tasty meal of rice and dal) and we were on our way to our next village. It proved to be a scenic journey, as we passed between sunflower fields with the flowers in full bloom, interspersed with parched farmland awaiting the rains. At our destination, we were to shoot the 'compulsory group training' and the 'group recognition test' - two prerequisites for membership into an SML group - that were scheduled to be held on that day.

Lighting conditions posed a problem here as we had a few indoor shoots. However we managed to complete the taping to our satisfaction. By sunset, we wrapped up our shoot for the day. We had ended up with over 120 minutes of raw video - much higher than our initial plan of 60 minutes of footage. All our reserve tapes were used up and we had just managed to squeeze in our last interview with the SML field executives before the final tape ran out. After goodbyes to the local SML staff, we returned, a tired, dusty, and thirsty - but happy - group, desperately seeking some much needed rest.

And finally, after almost a month of seemingly endless video viewing, editing, subtitling, programming and testing, we had our first multimedia case study - 'SHARE Microfin Limited: India's Largest Microfinance Organization.'

While many aspects of rural India have been reduced to cliches, the hospitality and enterprise of the gutsy women who took charge of their destinies to improve the quality of their lives, their families and their community still remains fresh in our minds.

Here are some of the things we learnt from

our experience:

• Formulate the learning objectives and draft the print version of the case before attempting a multi-media case. This will form the basic structure to identify areas where the learning value can be enhanced through use of multimedia. This also sets a base frame of reference for the company which is the subject of the case study, to understand the objectives and purpose of the case.

• Plan in advance to decide what aspects of the subject can be made into

multimedia. Events/ work activities/ business processes and interviews with key employees/ customers/ dealers/ vendors, etc. can be recorded.

• Communicate an agenda well in advance of the preparatory meeting with the company - with details of clarifications required, expected assistance, and probable timeframes. Send the draft version of the print case study to help the company representatives to prepare for the meeting.

• Give the technical crew a brief of the shoot plan -- a script that includes aspects related to lighting conditions, availability of power and number of recording tapes needed, date and venue of shoot.

• Have a work plan that lists out the events that will be recorded and list of interviews and questions to be asked. Provide the interviewees with the list of questions at least 2 to 3 days in advance of the shoot so that they are prepared.

• Run an alpha and beta check of the final version of the multimedia case study for typos, bugs and broken links.

HR OutsourcingThe Emerging Trends

Article by -  Sanjib Dutta,Senior Faculty Member,

ICMR Case Studies and Management Resources.

Abstract

HR outsourcing market is booming and India is one of the emerging players in this market. The article explains the reasons for the growth in this segment and India's contribution to HR outsourcing.

Major consultancy firms are predicting a big boom for HR outsourcing as a whole. According to Gartner, McKinsey and others the outsourcing market is expected to touch US$ 78 billion by 2004. Gartner predicts that the worldwide HR outsourcing market will grow from $21.7 billion in 2000 to $58.5 billion in 2005.1 HR outsourcing is expected to be the fastest growing segment in the outsourcing market. 80 percent of companies now outsource at least one HR activity, and the number is growing fast.

Though some analysts argue that by outsourcing major HR activities, the number of HR jobs is decreasing, others feel that on the contrary by outsourcing these kinds of repetitive and administrative jobs, higher-level HR professionals get the time they need to tackle strategic workforce challenges.

With the growing market there are a number of vendors available who cater to the diverse needs of various markets and provide HR services, including staffing, payroll, benefits administration, training, employee relations, and compensation. Consequently, what started in the 1980s as a simple payroll outsourcing has exploded into a $32 billion a year business involving all facets of HR. In just four years, one HR services provider--Exult--has grown from a start-up with a handful of people to an established company with 1,500 employees and more than $400 million in annual revenues. Other big players include Accenture HR Services, ADP, Fidelity, Hewitt, and Convergys. 

Service Line in India  Market Potential (in billion)Human Resources  3.5-4.0

Customer Relationship  7Payment services  3.0-3.5

Content Development and others  2.5-3.0Administration  1.5

Health care  1.5-2.0Source: Businessworldindia.com, 4th August 2003

Why the Outsourcing Rush?

What are the reasons for the growth in HR outsourcing? How do companies gain by outsourcing their HR activities? HR outsourcing is considered a viable option, if a company lacks internal expertise and confidentiality and requires unbiased opinion on human resources. Outsourcing is also gaining importance as most companies do not have the time or the expertise to deal with situations. Outsourcing has become popular because companies are finding that external vendors--through technology and economies of scale--can provide more efficient and cost-effective HR services than in-house departments. The best example of a firm that has reaped early benefits from outsourcing is BP. In 1999, it outsourced its activities to Exult in the USA and UK for services like payroll, recruiting, expatriation, records management, vendor management and relocation services for 63, 000 employees.

The only function that remained in-house was BP's learning and development program in the United States. Over the last two years, the company has reaped many benefits from this arrangement. Payroll processing became more timely and accurate. Employees got their benefits questions answered sooner. HR processes have been standardized across the company. And for the first time, BP has measurable data on which HR activities are effective. As a result, its core HR staff has been slashed by 65 percent--from 100 to 35 people. Such success stories have propelled companies like Sony, AT&T and American Express to outsource HR activities. One of the main reasons for HR outsourcing that most companies quote is that such outsourcing helps them to get rid of routine transactional HR work. Some of the companies which have gone ahead with even manpower hiring outsourcing practices are Cisco, GE, Honeywell, Sun, i2.

Benefits of Outsourcing

When a number of companies are outsourcing their HR activities, there must be certain benefits associated with it. The major advantage is the cost and the time factor. According to India Life Hewitt, Vice-President, Leo Fernandes, "For large organizations to service their mammoth payroll by themselves is a huge drain on their resources. Outsourcing this one activity alone is huge direct cost saving for large legacy companies which could be in the range of 20 to 40 per cent." 2The major benefits of HR outsourcing are as follows:

Fosters Innovation Increased speed to market Improved quality Focus on core competence Cost reduction Reduced administrative costs Improved customer service Insufficient staff

Conserve Capital

HR outsourcing at Ma Foi Management Consultants

Chennai based Ma Foi is a perfect example of a company that has profited by effectively tapping the HR outsourcing market. The firm which initially began just by providing outsourcing

services in recruitment is moving into other areas like compensation management, psychometric evaluation, training exit interviews, and outsourcing of personnel including sales staff and manual labor. The firm is a public limited company with revenues of $10.2 million for the financial year ending 2003. Such is the potential of the HR outsourcing market that if handled with expertise and integrity can be a highly profitable market. The company has identified that its potential markets range from pharma to FMCG. Its major clients include Coca Cola India, Thomson Electronics, Madura Garments, Alstom group and a major Healthcare recruiter in the UK. The firm recently launched three products, MRMS (Ma Foi Resume Management Systems), HRMS (Ma Foi Human Resource Management Systems, and DAREM (Daily Activity Reporting and Expense Management). According to Rajiv Krishnan, the director and CEO of the Ma Foi, these products will considerably reduce the time that corporates spend on regular transactional work. For example, the MRMS offers tracking, complete word-by-word search facility, automated e-mail notification, user-friendly interface, total security and consolidated reports. A major software company can get one lakh resumes and this can be a useful tool for tracking these resumes.

The second product, HRMS, encompasses a wider spectrum of employee HR needs. It helps capture, track, store, and modify all information concerning an employee in an organization. It has the ease of use for multiple user access and helps in integrating employee information. The third product DRAM helps companies to keep a track of the daily activity reporting.

The Indian Scenario Indian companies are also not lagging behind in outsourcing their HR activities. LG Soft

India has outsourced its PF management, Escosoft has outsourced payroll processing, execution of training programmes and survey conduction. Depending on their need, outsourcing can be transactional or HR Consulting. In India transactional outsourcing is more prevalent.3 In the value chain, it falls at the lower-end compared to HR consultancy, although it happens to be an essential function. According to Harish Chopra, whose firm Harish Chopra & Associates has garnered a large chunk of financial sector HRO over the years: "An investment bank would prefer to recruit investment bankers rather than HR specialists. And given their minimum salaries and establishment costs, HR administration would cost them twice as much ." 4

The HR outsourcing fever has not only spread to large companies but many small and medium sized companies are also welcoming this trend. Salary and Benefits Processing, Benefits Administration, and Compensation Benchmarking & Design are the most frequently outsourced HR activities in India. According to a study conducted by the Institute of Management Accountants (IMA) in mid 1990s, mid-sized companies spent more on the routine transactional work in finance and accounting services than large companies and maintain 79 percent more headcount.5 This kind of cost is felt even more in the routing HR work. According to the survey more that 87 percent of the funds mid-sized companies' budget for finance and HR go towards routine processing transactions, rather than policy making strategies and analysis that could move their business forward. This is clearly counterproductive for organizations set on high productive model.

continued from: The Indian Scenario

The major HR functions companies outsource

BenefitsPayrollRewardsRecruitingLearning / DevelopmentPerformance EffectivenessWorkforce PlanningWorkforce AdministrationWorkforce RelationsSource: Hewitt Associates

India as an HR outsourcing destination India is emerging as a major player in HR outsourcing. Though there are hardly five to

six names in this market, they are trying to make a mark for themselves and tap the potential of providing HR outsourcing services. Companies like India Life Hewitt are expanding their horizons by extending their services to the Asia-Pacific and Middle East region. However, overseas HR servicing companies are beginning to view the Indian market as a viable investment destination, where they can set up their operations and cater to the rest of the international market. The $450-million Exult Inc. started a 70-people outfit in Mumbai.

From the tactical and straightforward handling of payroll and benefits, HR services providers are moving into the strategic world of BPO. HR-enablers are helping HR managers free themselves from the routine jobs and work towards taking employee services to a higher level. India, with its intrinsic advantages such as low cost, ready pool of English speaking manpower and geographic positioning is emerging as a viable destination for HR outsourcing companies to set up their businesses. The HR outsourcing business opportunity is large and India is likely to emerge as a major player in this market. Patni Computer Systems is looking to leverage its work done on 401K pension plans to get into HR. Daksh has started payroll processing. The $5-billion payroll processor, Automatic Data Processing is also planning to start operations in Hyderabad.

The various HR processes that companies are venturing into include data entry, payroll processing, staffing, training, resume management, compensation, employee communications, pension plans, leave administration and HR data analytics. The popular delivery models for HR services outsourcing are self service, call center back up or shared services involving high caliber HR professionals who play a consultative role to line managers. When compared to other regions, India holds an advantage in HR outsourcing because of cost factor and education of the workers.

Is the market still unexploited in India?

Despite all these figures and numbers mentioned above, HR outsourcing is still considered to be unexploited. There are a number of deterrents that are keeping companies from moving to HR outsourcing. The basic reasons hampering the growth of HR outsourcing in India are confidentiality and cost factors. Many companies outsource only a bit of their requirements because of the above two factors. Besides, the fear of losing jobs, losing control over confidential data, ethics and quality of outsourcing vendors, security breaches and overall confidence in the vendor deter many organizations. According to V. Kartikeyan, the director-human resources of Texas Instruments India, "Some companies can also be reluctant because they may not have an adequate grip over the cost-benefit equation of outsourcing. Companies need to be convinced before they can outsource select HR activities." 6

The Human Resources Management (HRM) function includes a variety of activities, and key among them is deciding what staffing needs you have and whether to use independent contractors or hire employees to fill these needs, recruiting and training the best employees, ensuring they are high performers, dealing with performance issues, and ensuring your personnel and management practices conform to various regulations. Activities also include managing your approach to employee benefits and compensation, employee records and personnel policies.

The fancy word for “people.” The human resources department within an organization, years ago known as the “personnel department,” manages the administrative aspects of the employees. Human Resources are Personnel pool available to an organization. The most important resources in any organization are its human resources. Appropriate human resources assure an organization that the right number and kind of people are available at the right time and place so that organizational needs can be met. This article is an introduction or Human Resource Management.

Human resource management (HRM) is the strategic and coherent approach to the management of an organization’s most valued assets - the people working there who individually and collectively contribute to the achievement of the objectives of the business. The terms “human resource management” and “human resources” (HR) have largely replaced the term “personnel management” as a description of the processes involved in managing people in organizations. Human Resource management is evolving rapidly. Human resource management is both an academic theory and a business practice that addresses the theoretical and practical techniques of managing a workforce. This article is an introduction or Human Resource Management.

Contents1 Features2 Academic theory2.1 Critical Academic Theory3 Business practice4 Careers5 Professional organizations

Objectives are pre-determined goals to which individual or group activity in an organization is directed. Objectives of personnel management are influenced by organizational objectives and individual and social goals. Institutions are instituted to attain certain specific objectives. Institutions are instituted to

attain certain specific objectives. The objectives of the economic institutions are mostly to earn profits, and of the educational institutions are mostly to impart education and / or conduct research so on and so forth.

Organizational Culture- A Culture of CommitmentWhat’s the secret to building a great organization? How do you sustain consistent growth, profits, and service in an industry that can literally change overnight? And how do you build a culture of commitment and performance when the notion of loyalty — on the part of customers, employees, and employers — seems like a quaint anachronism? I can answer basically in two words: be yourself.

That is both a simple and a profoundly difficult goal. It means spending less time benchmarking best practices and more time building an organization in which personality counts as much as quality and reliability. It also means cultivating an ability to embrace paradox.

Changing Organizational CultureCulture change is difficult and time consuming because “culture” is rooted in the collective history of an organization, and because so much of it is below the surface of awareness. In general, the process of culture change must include the following steps:

Uncover core values and beliefs Acknowledge, respect, and discuss differences between core values and beliefs of

different subcultures within the organization. Look for incongruencies between conscious and unconscious beliefs and values and

resolve by choosing those to which the organization wishes to commit. Repeat these steps over a long period of time.

Organizational Culture and TypesCulture is a deep rooted phenomenon in social systems. Culture and social environment distinguish human beings from other species (Skinner 1978)[1]. Culture in anthropology refers to socially trans-mitted patterns for behavior of a particular social group. Goldenough (in Kessing 1981) says that culture has been used to refer to the “regularly recurring pattern of life within a community”[2]. It can be inter-preted in terms of behavioral psychology as a spontaneous generalization. It is said that an underlying difficulty in the study of culture is that we are not in the habit of analyzing cultural patterns; we are seldom even aware of them (Kessing 1981)[3]. It is similar to what Jung said under the concept of the collective unconscious. However, with some mental effort we can begin to become conscious of the codes that normally lie hidden beneath our everyday behavior. Similarly, Schein in relation to

organizations defines culture as “taken-for-granted assumptions”. So culture can be interpreted as internalized pattern of organizational behavior. The older is the organization, the stronger is the culture.

Organizational Culture, History, Theories, Organizational Culture ImportanceThe literature on organizational culture is as relevant to public science management as it is to the management of private sector business organizations. Given a rapidly changing environment and continuing insights into organizational effectiveness, science organizations, as most other organizations, are seriously rethinking what they do and how they can best define and accomplish their goals and objectives. Once goals are defined, it is necessary to address the type of culture that is necessary to advance these goals and objectives and ensure the successful implementation of the necessary changes. In addition, the organizational effectiveness literature has been increasingly emphasizing the importance of culture in motivating and maximizing the value of its intellectual assets, particularly its human capital.

This review of the organizational culture literature makes it clear that (1) culture is essential for both successful organizational change and maximizing the value of human capital (2) culture management should become a critical management competency, and (3) while the right culture may be a necessary condition for organizational success, it is by no means a sufficient condition. An important challenge for managers is to determine what the most effective culture is for their organization and, when necessary, how to change the organizational culture effectively.

This article discusses about organizational culture, its history, levels of organizational culture, theories of organizational culture, increasing Importance of organizational culture, effects of organizational culture, and cultural change.

Organizational Culture Impacts PerformanceThe top management of every company is proactively involved in the process of developing the right organization culture. It is not just the responsibility of the human resource department. And why not, after all the corporate culture has a major impact on employee morale and productivity.

There are however many companies who view their corporate culture only as a recruitment tool and an element in employee motivation and communications. The focus is now shifting and organisations are realising that an effective corporate culture engages employees at a fundamental level, and translates that engagement into high performance. An effective culture also aligns with the business strategy to ensure the organisation meets its long-term goals.

This article discusses about organizational culture, strong corporate cultures and high performance, teamwork and innovation, role of HR, and examples of Microsoft, Patni computers, etc.

Counseling ProcessCounseling is a planned, structured dialogue between a supervisor and employee to improve or correct behaviors and/or performance. Because these are personal interactions, there can be occasions for conflict and pitfalls. Follow the guidelines in this lesson, and you will make your counseling sessions more effective.

In this article, you will learn how to:

Prepare for a counseling session. Conduct a counseling session. Avoid pitfalls in conducting a session, and Decide whether or not to write a counseling memo.

Employee Counseling in Organizationn the world of ever increasing complexity and the stress in the lives, especially the workplaces of the employees, employee counseling has emerged as the latest HR tool to attract and retain its best employees and also to increase the quality of the workforce.

Employee counseling can be explained as providing help and support to the employees to face and sail through the difficult times in life. At many points of time in life or career people come across some problems either in their work or personal life when it starts influencing and affecting their performance and, increasing the stress levels of the individual. Counseling is guiding, consoling, advising and sharing and helping to resolve their problems whenever the need arises.

Employee Counseling at WorkplaceThe latest trend catching up in the corporate HR across the world is 'Employee Counselling at Workplace'. In the world of ever increasing complexity and the stress in the lives, especially the workplaces of the employees, employee counselling has emerged as the latest HR tool to attract and retain its best employees and also to increase the quality of the workforce.

In today's fast-paced corporate world, there is virtually no organisation free of stress or stress-free employees. The employees can be stressed, depressed, suffering from too much anxiety arising out of various workplace related issues like managing deadlines, meeting targets, lack of time to fulfill personal and family commitments, or bereaved and disturbed due to some personal problem etc.

Organisations have realized the importance of having a stress-free yet motivated and capable workforce. Therefore, many companies have integrated the counseling services in their organisations and making it a part of their culture. Organisations are offering the service of employee counselling to its employees.

What is Employee Counselling?Employee counselling can be explained as providing help and support to the employees to face and sail through the difficult times in life. At many points of time in life or career people come across some problems either in their work or personal life when it starts influencing and affecting their performance and, increasing the stress levels of the individual. Counselling is guiding, consoling, advising and sharing and helping to resolve their problems whenever the need arises.

Technically, Psychological Counselling, a form of counselling is used by the experts to analyze the work related performance and behaviour of the employees to help them cope with it, resolve the conflicts and tribulations and re-enforce the desired results.

Ingredients of counselling:Counselling of staff is becoming an essential function of the managers. The organisation can either take the help of experienced employees or expert, professional counselor to take up the counselling activities. Increasing complexities in the lives of the employees need to address various aspects like:

Performance counselling: Ideally, the need for employee counselling arises when the employee shows signs of declining performance, being stressed in office-hours, bad decision-making etc. In such situations, counselling is one of the best ways to deal with them. It should cover all the aspects related to the employee performance like the targets, employee's responsibilities, problems faced, employee aspirations, inter-personal relationships at the workplace, et al.

Personal and Family Wellbeing: Families and friends are an important and inseparable part of the employee's life. Many a times, employees carry the baggage of personal problems to their workplaces, which in turn affects their performance adversely. Therefore, the counselor needs to strike a comfort level with the employees and, counselling sessions involving their families can help to resolve their problems and getting them back to work- all fresh and enthusiastic.

Other Problems : Other problems can range from work-life balance to health problems. Counselling helps to identify the problem and help him / her to deal with the situation in a better way.

Need of counselling at workplaceApart from their personal problems, there are various reasons which can create stress for the employees at the workplace like unrealistic targets or work-load, constant pressure to meet the deadlines, career problems, responsibility and accountability, conflicts or bad inter-personal relations with superiors and subordinates, problems in adjusting to the organizational culture. Counselling helps the employee to share and look at his problems from a new perspective, help himself and to face and deal with the problems in a better way. Counselling at workplace is a

way of the organisation to care about its employees.

Hurdles faced for counseling at workplaceThe biggest bottleneck in employee counselling at the workplace is the lack of trust on the employee's part to believe in the organisation or his superior to share and understand his problems. Also, the confidentiality that the counselor won't disclose his personal problems or issues to others in the organisation. Time, effort and resources required on the part of the organisation are a constraint.

Benefits of counselling

Helping the individual to understand and help himself Understand the situations and look at them with a new perspective and positive outlook Helping in better decision making Alternate solutions to problems Coping with the situation and the stress

Basic requisites of employee counselling

Employee Counselling needs to be tackled carefully, both on the part of the organisation and the counselor. The counselling can turn into a sensitive series of events for the employee and the organisation; therefore, the counselor should be either a professional or an experienced, mature employee.

The counselor should be flexible in his approach and a patient listener. He should have the warmth required to win the trust of the employee so that he can share his thoughts and problems with him without any inhibitions.

Active and effective listening is one of the most important aspects of the employee counselling.

Time should not be a constraint in the process. The counselor should be able to identify the problem and offer concrete advice. The counselor should be able to help the employee to boost the morale and spirit of the

employee, create a positive outlook and help him take decisions to deal with the problem.

Conclusion:Counselling can go a long way in helping the employees to have better control over their lives, take their decisions wisely and better charge of their responsibilities, reduce the level of stress and anxiety. Counselling of employees can have desirable consequences for the organisation. It helps the organisation when the employees know that the organization cares for them, and build a sense of commitment with it. It can prove to be of significant help to modify the behaviour of the employees and more so to re-enforce the desired behaviour and improve and increase the employee productivity.

Managing Difficult People at WorkEvery organisation, every workplace has people with diverse backgrounds, religions, educational qualifications, experiences etc. Most importantly, they differ in their personalities and attitudes. Most people are polite, easily accessible and cooperate with others. But every organisation has a few people who are simply difficult to deal with or difficult to manage. "Difficult people" as they are generally referred, exists in every workplace. They can be in the form of a bad boss, a difficult co-worker or a non-corporative vendor or customer.

Difficult people become the problem employees for an organisation very soon. From the organisation's point of view, difficult people in a workplace is a problem because not only do they themselves perform feebly, but also affect other employee's productivity, and often become a bottleneck for the people around them to perform efficiently on their jobs. A negative person can affect and hinder the organizational processes like change.

Types of difficult people in an organisation:Difficult people in an organisation and be characterized and categorized into the following types or categories:

Uncooperative - These are the people who are concerned only about their needs and work, often creating troubles and conflicts for others. They don't cooperate with others and have the tendency to create tension at workplace.

Power Seekers - There are few people who can be categorized basically as power seekers. They always look for some chance or the other to seek more authority and power over others and show their superiority. To seek the spotlight (attention), or to be in the good books of the boss, they can even become the 'yes man' of their boss and go to the extent demoting or creating problems for others.

Complainer - This category is for the people who keep complaining about the organisation and its systems, their co-workers etc. Although there are complainers who complain against the genuine issues and do good for the organisation. The most dangerous type of complainers is the "malcontent complainer" who offers no valid suggestions but problems, and they drain out the energy from the organisation and have a demotivating impact on others.

Pessimists - Another category of difficult people in the organisation is of pessimists. They are the set of negative people in the organisation who can find fault in almost everything and everybody. With their negative mindsets, they can create negativity in their surroundings.

The aggressive employee - Aggressive employees, especially an aggressive boss, is the most difficult set of people in an organisation to deal with. They are the people who refuse to accept their faults and flaws, and consider themselves to be always right. They are found to be dominating in nature and believe that they "know-it-all". Such people fail to mature and acknowledge other's valuable ideas and suggestions. Such employees are often referred as "The hyena" indicating rude, aggressive, authoritarian and negative people, always blaming others for their failures.

The wild cat -is the category of people who are generally found very irregular at their work. Also, they are known to create and spread rumors in the workplace, always making excuses and blaming others for their inadequate performance. They have the tendency to create stress at their workplace.

MANAGING DIFFICULT PEOPLE AT WORK:Difficult people can be irrational, abusive, creating problems persistently or simply difficult to get along with. Every organisation has to decide whether and how to deal with them without having an adverse effect on the organisation's environment, employee's productivity and their morale. A few ways of dealing with them are:

Talk to them: Be patient and polite, talk to them with a personalized touch explaining them the situation. Don't confront or blame them, and listen to them. Give them a piece of your own mind, understand if there is some problem they are facing. Reinforce the good part of their behaviour.

Don't be a difficult person for them! Don't rush things and explain your point of view with care. Don't point fingers or try to judge them as a person. Be unbiased and systematic I your approach.

Always agree to disagree: Talk to the person with an open mind and positivity. No two individual are alike and there can always be disagreements. Personally disliking towards a co-worker or boss should be dealt with care. Always try to find the positive way out.

And last but not the leastTake concrete action: Once you are completely aware of the problem, through with all the possible solutions and the situation doesn't get any better, don't shy away from taking any concrete action for the good of the organisation and to stop the problem from aggravating, even if it requires to confront the person directly.

Establish parameters and hire "right": One of the most important and effective solution is to frame and practice the recruitment policies and procedures to judge the attitude of the person at the time of the interview and hire only the right people.

CONCLUSION:Dealing with difficult people is a challenge. However firing them or separating them from the organisation should be the last resort, as it is always possible to help them be more productive and effective in doing their job.

The supervisor is usually responsible to ensure that employees follow the organization's policies and procedures, e.g., for sick time, personal leave, overtime, contact with the media or press, confidentiality about organization information, etc. Concurrently, the supervisor must follow policies and procedures

for carrying out supervisory responsibilities, e.g., policies and procedures for hiring, firing, promotions, etc. (See Personnel Policies, Handbooks and Records.)

Employee Training and Development

Supervisors ensure new employees are oriented to the organization, its policies, facilities, etc. They develop training plans with employees to ensure employees have the necessary expertise to carry out their jobs. They provide ongoing guidance to employees, often in the forms of ongoing coaching and counseling. Supervisors often provide career counseling, as well, to help employees develop and advance in their careers. (Note that there's a trend that employees are being help responsible for their own career planning, while supervisors provide career counseling to help the employee in their effort.) (See Training Basics for Supervisors and Learners.)

Employee Performance Management

Supervisors ensure that job descriptions accurately record the primary responsibilities, qualifications and terms for each job role in their group. They set performance standards for tasks, jobs and roles of their employees. They ensure employees have appropriate and realistic job goals. They provide ongoing feedback about the employee's performance. They conduct performance appraisals on a regular basis, including assessing how the employee has performed and what they can do to improve in their jobs. They develop performance improvement plans if an employee's performance is not adequate. In addition, supervisors provide rewards for employee accomplishments. (See Employee Performance Management.)

Return to Basic Overview of Supervision

A coach's primary role is to help athletes realize their potential. In order to reach their potential, athletes must sustain a high level of motivation over many years of practice and competition. However, motivation is very complex, and it has challenged coaches at all levels and in all sports.

Motivation is thought to encompass "personality factors, social variables, and/or cognitions that are assumed to come into play when a person undertakes a task at which he or she is evaluated, enters into competition with others, or attempts to attain some standard of excellence" (Roberts, 1993, p. 406). Furthermore, motivation is often separated into at least three main ...