"SELECTION OF MR. RIGHT"

Heraclatus, the historian has very aptly said that the only permanent thing in life is ‘CHANGE’. There could not have been a better description of the present scenario on the Economic-front. What with the host of liberalizations, pulling down of the barriers such as the various approvals under MRTP, IDRA; FERA-dilution, easier imports, partial convertibility of rupee, etc.
Translated, these moves spell a shift towards globalization. Import of superior technology. Inflow of foreign equity. More competition and more JOBS.

PAUCITY OF RIGHT SKILLS

The paradoxical situation in India is that we have a surfeit of unskilled labor, but, scarcity of skilled talent. This has brought in a change in the recruitment-pattern from the past era. Then, one used to hire hands. Today we are engaging competencies; both technical and managerial. Employment of the right persons is more in focus, since the mistakes by a wrong entrant could have a cascading and more damaging effect in a technologically advanced environment. In most cases a wrong entrant sticks around, making the situation irretrievable; too!
Imagine a perfect plant with a state of the art technology, excellent product, captive market, high-quality inputs, but, producing only 50% of its rated capacity. It is speeding rapidly on its way to a sure sickness. The situation indicates that the other resources of production are not properly mobilized by the team manning the Unit.
The unit can be rejuvenated by a motivated team headed by an inspired leader. The function of Human Resource Management, that is to acquire, train and re-train talent is given its pride of place in today’s organized sector on account of the factors mentioned above.

INTERVIEWING TECHNIQUE

In spite of a few shortcomings, interviewing is the universally accepted mode of selection and recruitment of personnel at all levels. One can either select trained, experienced skilled personnel; or recruit ones, who could be imparted training to assume higher responsibilities.
Selection is a process, involving a lot of hunch and some scientific methodology. A good selection is one, which reduces the hunch portion, to the minimum. Although the final decision of selection is a subjective one, it can be supplemented by a variety of tests, which will help evaluate the worth of a candidate. Selectors have to guard against snap judgments, arrived at perfunctorily on a cursory glance at the inputs.

OBJECTIVITY THROUGH TESTS

There is no limit to knowledge. A plethora of tests are designed, validated and their relevance established in an attempt to assess the quality, span and depth of the candidate’s knowledge.

Tests can be divided into two broad categories. Ones which measure the analytical ability of the intellect and the ones which measure levels of skills attained or the application part of the intellect. One checks the endowments; the other the acquisitions of a candidate.

In addition, there are certain personality traits in an individual which are also adjudged in interviews. There are certain job-specific attributes, presence of which is examined before considering a candidate for the post; e.g. a Maintenance Chief should possess a capacity to work methodically, continuously and coolly under time pressures. A Marketing Executive, should have, communication and inter-personal skills, tact, diplomacy and a lot of patience. These are known as Key Result Areas. KRAs for the short, which differ depending on the job requirements.

Candidate’s behavioral traits should match ones which are demanded of the job. Compatibility is essential. This could be termed as a behavioral SYNCRONICITY.

CHANGE –AGENTS

When we are talking of excellence in Management; unless persons subscribing to a certain value-system are inducted and groomed into the organizational culture, practice and perpetuation of excellence will be only a parrotry. It will be difficult to pursue concepts such as Total Quality Management, Continuous Improvement, Value- packed products, Zero;-defect approach, etc., unless a large number of dedicated employees subscribe to them, whole-heartedly. Such Change-agents have to be hand-picked from the available lot on a scientific basis. Especially, when breakthrough progress is contemplated, one has to be choosier about the personnel selected. If your future is just an extension of the present, then do recruit ones who have one year’s experience fifteen times; and be complacent about it.

One comes across Officers, who would ask the stock question, ‘Is there precedent for this action?’

‘Please check what has been done in the past and we shall chart out our future plan “(as an extension of the same? )”

This is a typical relic of the ‘British Raj’; bureaucracy where every single action had to be tradition-oriented. It may have some merits, but if we are envisioning a quantum-jump then the convention-stepping will have to be replaced.

GROUP BEHAVIOUR

There is an increasing use of psychological tests in the selection process. Group discussions and team activities are employed as tools which bring out the latent traits in individuals. Many traits are not apparent in personal interviews. These surfaces in a group activity and candidates having built-in negativity and a lackluster approach, can be deleted and rejected.
In a way, group assignment is a simulation of the work atmosphere. A personal interview establishes the worth of an individual but his reactions in a group are of greater significance in the organized sector.

STRATEGY CHANGE

In the not so distant past, the most essential, important and valued work qualities were,

Capacity to put in clerical input round the clock.

Tenacity to operate ungrudgingly under difficult conditions; say as in the case of a furnace attendant.

Head down work on a repetitive job e.g. a machinist on a lathe.

In the present context, due to the technologically advanced environment, the above jobs are efficiently carried thus;

A computer terminal does the voluminous job, faster more accurately and hour after hour.

A robot works near the furnace unflinchingly.

A numerically controlled automat pours out precision products untiringly.


Hence, in the changed scenario one looks for innovative individuals who can plan and implement a superior technology to ensure quality outputs.

It is essential to employ persons who have the inter-personal skills, initiative, drive and motivation to be effective team-mates. The creativity and innovativeness of individuals is a pre-requisite to face the challenges they will encounter in the real life situations. Another most important attribute is that of effective communication. To be able to convey one’s thoughts effectively is an art few excel in.

LATERAL VISION

Most people tend to have a tunnel vision i.e. they do not change their decisions In spite of a sea-change in the inputs. I might cite an example here of how monkeys are caught by the tribes in Africa without traps.

They hang a large pumpkin on a tree. The pumpkin is bored with a small hole on one side, which is just enough for a monkey to slide its hand in. From the top of the pumpkin they introduce and tie a raw banana on a string which is visible to the monkey, through the hole.

The monkey looks at the banana, slides its hand in, grabs the banana and tries to take the hand out with the banana. The monkey does not realize that it has to let go of the banana to free itself ,till such time as the tribes-man arrives to capture; it alive.

APING THE PAST

The same story is replicated unwittingly in the corporate world. A loss-making company merrily continues its production in full swing and contributes copiously to the mounting losses. The ancestral traits are difficult to shrug off. The role the monkeys have played in the anecdote is a tunnel vision and what we look for in an intelligent employee is a lateral vision; which enables one to effect quick changes in response to alterations in inputs. One selects individuals whose skills of judgment could be relied on; and which match with the requirements of the modern context.

MAN TO SUPERMAN

The highly developed olfactory sense (smell) in the brain of canines is very powerful compared to those of the human brain. There was a time a few thousand years ago when human brain too possessed a similar powerful sensory capability. It could then; interpret the inputs which are available even today; but perceived a lot more; than what it can; today.

By a process of anatomical regression, we have lost the capacity of the brain to interpret effectively such inputs. It has been lying fallow for some time. On account of redundancy over a period, and a long non-use of the faculty, it has become rudimentary (not available now).

Just as human faculties of smell-sense have gradually become rudimentary due to the above process, there are a few new faculties which are imbibed by the brain e.g. the sweep of perception and the accelerated mode of thinking.

We have to review the time honored job recruitment methods, based on earlier attributes of “your obedient servant” the working hands; and replace them with ones which are more relevant and contemporary. The changed requirement is of independent creative analytical team-mates.

ENGAGING TOP OF THE GROUP

It just appeals to reason that an employer will engage the services of a person who is having a higher amount of grey-cells. The selection process adopted by most in organized sector incorporates measuring of cognitive ability of individuals engaged. This checks various aspects of intellect such as arithmetical ability, mechanical aptitude, the spatial faculty of brain, its retention capacity, imagination, creativity etc.

We have in the organized sector yester generation’s colleagues describing with awe, the wonderful ability of some individuals who could lay a claim to a total recall memory. Legendary stories are circulated and ballads are sung of individuals who could rattle out the part numbers page after page of total part – lists. Individuals who could reproduce from memory the telephone numbers of the entire names of his telephone directory, etc. With the increased automation and the electronic gadgetry, such capacities will be rendered increasingly irrelevant.

Recruiting officer of today selects persons who have a genuine and natural respect for colleagues from various functions such as product design, planning , materials, production, industrial relations, company law, finance, taxation etc. and would be able to co-ordinate the strands from all these functions to weave the available expertise into a total fabric. One now looks for individuals with a capacity to visualize; these creative faculties which are honed to perfection, ones with excellent communication –skills and individuals who are the inspirational team builders.

VANISHING ACT OF IVORY TOWERS

Gone are the days of those eccentric geniuses who could work in isolation and command respect from dwarfs for their intellectual superiority. Their supremacy was then accepted tacitly. While the modern era has a slot for such an eccentric geniuses in the high- profile R&D labs, in majority of the other work areas, what’s needed is brilliant individuals, who can work in a team.

Darwin’s theory of survival of the fittest, propounds that it is the environment which conditions the organisms, and through a process of selection the fittest are brought forth as survivors. Education is preparing individuals for social existence and progress. Naturally, the superior candidates are selected for the higher and complex responsibilities.

SUPER-MINDS

They say “eye does not see what the mind does not know” when the mind is obsessed with creativity, it puts the faculties in an accelerated mode. Such individuals can and will do wonders, on the path of progress.

Which are the inspirational drives, which propel individuals to acquire an excellence? Those who are fired with an ambition to advance to the distant horizons; begin beyond the erstwhile known driving factors, such as craving for recognition, ego-trips and social esteem needs, etc.

They start off with a need to CHANGE i.e. the META needs. The compelling drive to transform oneself, from a caterpillar to a butterfly.

These Mr. Rights are the architects of tomorrow who will build the FUTURE. They have to be visionaries who have an ability to translate the dreams into reality.

Today the in -thing is innovation, improvement. Heraclatus may rewrite his axiom “the only permanent thing in life is innovation”

M. S. RANADE,
mranade@vsnl.com
PUBLISHED IN ECONOMIC TIMES MUMBAI ON THURSDAY, 21ST JANUARY 1993.