One way of pruning corners is to depend less on advertisements and consulting agencies, using instead what I call the direct approach.

This usually involves word of mouth, and includes referrals from existing resources – the logic is that a satisfied employee would always like to bring people to work along with him and take charge of the incoming talent and prospects.

This way he gets a feeling that his contribution to the organisation is being recognised.

Other resources include technical and management institutes. The point is that the energies and fiscal resources thus saved could be used effectively to retain quality manpower over a period of time.

Retention techniques

The first step in retention is to ensure that the fundamental needs of the employee are met. For that to happen, a serious organisation should ensure that its employees never get the feeling that they would have been better off financially in another company.

Decent entry-level packages and constant revisions in the form of performance linked incentives and upgrades, ESOPs, and a spectrum of perquisites are recommended.

However, there is much more to retaining than just doling out handsome packages, and professional organisations are offering a wide range of ‘personal care’ products (if I may call them that), recognition products, and personality enhancers, to inject a sense of belonging into the staff.

Standard ‘personal care’ products include optional religious holidays not included in the general list, provision of meals, education assistance to employees’ children, use of official vehicles, medical and life insurance covers, housing loans, annual paid leave packages, guesthouse facilities and more.

However, a little bit of innovation in this area would go a long way in bonding the person to the company.

At Norfolk Mechanical we regularly organise Monthly Birthdays and anniversary get-togethers, and offer paid holidays for marriage anniversaries.

We have breakfast meetings with Heads of Departments every morning to generate fresh business ideas. These are particularly appreciated by employees who travel long distances and miss out on the first meal of the day at home.

During Ramzan, Iftar parties facilitate bonding between employees, and there are special arrangements for Muslims to offer prayers. This Diwali, we gifted watches with the Company logo on them. In 2005, we are planning to give away high quality lunch boxes.

We also have a scheme under which a technical employee can own a two-wheeler by paying only 50 per cent of the EMI, leaving the balance and the petrol bills (up to a specified limit) to the company.

Recognition products include ‘Employee of the Month’ awards (gift and certificate), mention in the newsletters along with the employees’ photographs, incentives in the form of gifts like consumer durables or paid holiday, special training programmes and more.

Training programmes also add value to the profile of the staff by upgrading strategic and managerial skills, and managing stress.

There are several packages available like public speaking and presentations, yoga, spiritualism, leadership seminars, and outbound programs that could add to the employee’s sense of self worth and bring him closer to the organization. Other Innovations include sports matches, quizzes, and picnics / tours.

At Norfolk Mechanical we recently arranged tickets for the movie Lakshya for all our Mumbai based employees and their families. The underlying reason was to reinforce camaraderie and to inculcate a sense of ‘focus and vision’, which was in fact the theme of the movie.

In any organisation, there is always some mismatch between enterprise and staff objectives, howsoever subtle or gross. The success of an HR strategy is directly proportionate to the extent to which this mismatch is reduced.

Farhan Pettiwala is the founder MD of Norfolk Mechanical Ltd.