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<keyword id="6462982" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Aon-Hewitt">Aon Hewitt</keyword> today announced its acquisition of CoCubes, a leading hiring assessment company based in India. With this transaction, Aon Hewitt adds two million assessments to its existing global portfolio of 20 million assessments spread across 164 countries. 
 
Aon Hewitt, one of the earliest solution providers in selection and assessment, helps organizations make better hiring decisions and improve performance by predicting the success of their potential and current employees. CoCubes, on the other hand, connects colleges, students, and corporates using assessments; to create a seamless entry-level hiring ecosystem. 
 <keyword id="166440" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Sandeep-Chaudhary">Sandeep Chaudhary</keyword>, CEO, India Consulting, Aon Hewitt, shared, “We were actively looking for an organization that focuses on employability assessments. CoCubes stood out for us as a successful startup with its profitable growth, resilient leadership team, and an innovative technology platform. With its strong client standing and value-aligned leadership, CoCubes is clearly our partner of choice to augment our assessment solutions in India and across other markets in <keyword id="119132" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Asia-Pacific">Asia Pacific</keyword>.” 
 “With the acquisition of CoCubes, we will now be a one-stop-shop for entry-level hiring assessment solutions. CoCubes complements our specialization in behavioral and leadership assessments with technical and vocational assessments, in addition to its innovative proctoring solutions. By solving the employability challenge with educational institutions and sector skill councils, Aon Hewitt is now geared to fulfill the entry level hiring needs for corporate clients.” said <keyword id="211396" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Nitin-Sethi">Nitin Sethi</keyword>, Partner and Chief Commercial Officer, India Consulting, Aon Hewitt. 
 The CoCubes founders, <keyword id="143051" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Harpreet-Singh">Harpreet Singh</keyword> and <keyword id="2188847" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Vibhore-Goyal">Vibhore Goyal</keyword>, will continue to lead the business as a separate practice line and will join Aon Hewitt’s Talent, Rewards and Performance (<keyword id="20751" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="TRP">TRP</keyword>) vertical, reporting to Nitin Sethi.

Aon Hewitt acquires CoCubes, a hiring assessments company

A seemingly healthy, well-performing company can be vulnerable than you might think because of a build-up of corporate cholesterol; natural human dynamics that limit communication, creativity and collaboration. Like how your physician will tell you, rather than waiting for the heart attack to strike, executives should consider changing firms structure, rewards and processes while performance is still good. New business models, machines replacing humans, millennials shaping the new models of engagement, will tell you how urgent is the need for change and what kind of changes to contemplate. Formalization and commodification of work is seen to be increasingly taking place with an open world economy. It is almost like change for the sake of change. It is not restricted to technology as the disruptor alone, but employees and their approach to work. The organization structure needs to emphasize on healthy disrespect for hierarchy and make jobs more dynamic. The essence of the shift is a simple but a big idea: the idea of a "job," with all its protected artifacts like job title, level, and job description, is starting to go away. What is its replacement - people being hired "for a purpose”. You see employees change jobs every two years; they are not looking to increase their pay, they are looking for a stronger connect with the purpose, they are not leaving for better managers that they don’t know as yet, but for the disenchantment with the current one. Cross-selling is a failed concept after repeated effort and incentive programs have rarely got people to collaborate, but in most extraordinary and difficult situations, we have seen unified purpose bring people together; how the bank employees worked unremittingly to fight the unintended consequences of demonetization is a recent example of it. It calls for reinvention for employees and employers. Unlearning agility is the newest competency individuals and businesses are trying to build. Most organizations and their leadership are in a state of conflict. The first stage of approaching the midshift is articulating it and simplifying it for people to appreciate the “why” and “how” of it. Accelerated innovation requires accelerated adoption, and this needs most focus for the more experienced generation, who has the task of leading the way and setting the direction. Today we need idea entrepreneurs, a new type of cultural player and create an environment that encourages their abstract thinking. Organizations need to shift their focus from managing people to managing culture and that needs clarity in direction. Your likelihood of failing will be low if you start by keeping customer in the center of it. The mindset needs to make it simpler, convenient, efficient and differentiated for customers. Organizations need to replicate the same experience for their own employees. It needs to be defined in the context of your business and delivered consistently. We have seen companies fail and lose their relevance, but the same people in those companies have adopted, unlearned and continue to stay the course. Our current performance management does not focus on the unique strengths of people and that is the first place where we miss appreciating diversity and hence have agreed to the fact that only few will succeed. Mindset change is about success for everyone and not for a handful. Some critical re-thinking about the future of work is necessary. Future is anything but in our hands but it is clear that it will not follow a universal linear trajectory and the objective of our Imagineering workshop and this paper is to help stimulate discussion about how to open up the future more for the unknown and unexplored.
	
	
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 (The article is authored by Sandeep Chaudhary, CEO, <keyword id="6462982" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Aon-Hewitt">Aon Hewitt</keyword> India Consulting. This article is part of the six-article series, ‘Aon #ImagineeringTomorrow: A Co-creation Journey’, with <a href="https://www.google.co.in/url?sa=t&amp;rct=j&amp;q=&amp;esrc=s&amp;source=web&amp;cd=4&amp;cad=rja&amp;uact=8&amp;ved=0ahUKEwjy5ePdwdDTAhWKLY8KHYcoDRMQFghWMAM&amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.aon.com%2Findia&amp;usg=AFQjCNHM5veaFldq4b8NerLXds3EAZIESw&amp;sig2=8Ij7hrxcn66nJWoJrP7GNA">Aon Hewitt)
</a>)

ImagineeringTomorrow: Critical re-thinking about the future of work is necessary. Here's why

Indians are way behind the <keyword id="6355055" type="COUNTRY" weightage="20" keywordseo="USA">USA</keyword>, when it comes to severance package doled out to the CXOs. Compared to 3-5% Indians getting the severance pay as a safeguard clause in their contracts, it’s almost 60-70% in the USA. The scenario came to light when the exit of <keyword id="6354512" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Infosys">Infosys</keyword> CFO <keyword id="347003" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Rajiv-Bansal">Rajiv Bansal</keyword> happened. It has been reported that the departing Infosys CFO was gifted the “so-called golden parachutes”. 
 "Most executives in India do not have any severance clauses in their contracts,” <keyword id="1966307" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Anandorup-Ghose">Anandorup Ghose</keyword>, partner, talent and rewards, <keyword id="2247343" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Aon-Hewitt-Consulting">Aon Hewitt Consulting</keyword> told The <keyword id="6474066" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="economic-times">Economic Times</keyword>. 
 
Except from the star CEOs, majority of who are in a position to dictate terms, most CXOs don’t have the luxury of getting severance packages, which act as an insurance. These are mostly equivalent to CXO’s fixed salary for anywhere between six months and two years. In some cases, according to The Economic Times, these include vested stock options. The global norm is one to three years of fixed salary and includes safeguards for the organisation. 
 “A mid-sized Indian company recently hired a senior executive at a US multinational as its CEO after agreeing to his demand for a severance package of nearly $1 million,” <keyword id="1052400" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Arun-Das-Mahapatra">Arun Das Mahapatra</keyword>, partner in charge of <keyword id="808338" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Heidrick-Struggles">Heidrick &amp; Struggles</keyword> in India told the ET. 
 In another ongoing mandate for a real estate firm, <keyword id="272875" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Mahapatra">Mahapatra</keyword> told the financial daiy, the candidate is likely to insist on a severance clause because of the risks associated with the job. As perceived risk rise, so does the severance package. Severance for top employees in the technology and ecommerce/startups sectors have started to match global standards, said <keyword id="2091714" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Sanchit-Vir-Gogia">Sanchit Vir Gogia</keyword>, CEO of Greyhound Research. 
 
(Image credit: Linkedin)

Indian CEOs are far behind the
US ones in Severance Pay Packages

Over the past six months, several <keyword id="6362513" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Startups">startups</keyword> have been on laying off spree with a strong push from investors to reduce burn rates and show business results. 
 
There is a clear demand for business models to evolve, to be more profitable, and to adapt to fast changing and ever demanding customer expectations. This, combined with the pace of technological advancements, has made it critical for companies to systematically build their organization’s capability by changing rotting codes, periodic review of market strategies, scaling hiring and ensuring right staffing. 
 
In the eye of the storm 
 
Often, startup founders have stressed upon the need and importance to have the right people. In the midst of fierce war for talent, startups are competing with large technology companies for literally same pool of human capital. While large corporates hire based on meritocracy and qualifications, startups are on a look out for talent, who along with merit possess qualities such as managing ambiguity, agility, spontaneity and innovation. Given the constant tussle between hiring talent that is aligned to organizational culture versus talent that is more meritorious in existing structures, the demand has surely outstripped the supply. 
 
Even the best talent in the existing market might not prove to be the right fit for the startup culture. Therefore, the need to always know how potential employees are likely to respond in ambiguous situations will help startups get better insights on potential talent, especially at senior levels. 
 
The Art of Pausing 
 
To refrain from creating an identity that is synonymous with firing, startups must pause and reflect on developing a recruiting culture that enables them to hire the right talent for the right role. Startups must focus on the opportunities and work experience that it offers to create a strong employer brand. In addition, also state clearly and upfront what it takes to work in a setup. Such an approach would anchor hiring of talent that is best fit for the organization. 
 
Establish a Cadence 
 
The mantra for success lies in developing a cadence, where founders need to put on their thinking hats and craft innovative hiring techniques to anchor the next evolution of HR as a true business partner. A way for startup organizations to build is by providing ample learning opportunities. Founders must put extra emphasis on creating and justifying the employee promise, by not only giving the opportunity to grow vertically, but also laterally across the organization. 
 
At the same time, startups must deploy mechanisms that reward superior contributions and capability suitably. Performance management systems must be developed to answer and equally emphasize on the question of “how” and not only “how much?” 
 
Plan the Exit 
 
Despite all this there will be situations when organizations need to take the tough call of asking someone to leave. There must be a defined exit strategy put into place before it is done. Lest it leads to a situation similar to the one that occurred recently at a startup office, when angry employees resorted to arm-twisting strategies against the founders for not paying their severance packages. Even if the much dreaded route needs to be taken, organizations must be sensitive enough to give a prior notice to its employees and resort to monetary compensations and any other assistance that fits the bill. 
 
The bottom line being –startups must create a diligent recruiting culture and sustain it by innovating on all stages of the employee cycle. 
 
(The article is authored by Nitin Sethi, Partner, Aon Hewitt and Aakriti Ahuja, Associate Consultant, Aon Hewitt) 
 
(Image: Thinkstock)

Important advice for startups: Layoff but don’t put off your talent

In a bid to retain talents employees, <keyword id="6362513" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Startups">startups</keyword> are giving out as much as 150% hike in the salaries in this appraisal season. 
 
Often, startups find it difficult to hire talent and are forced to go to B-schools during recruitment season. 
 
Once hired, they don’t the talented lot to leave the organisation and the startups do anything to retain top performers such as accelerated promotions, sponsored family trips, executive programmes to global B-schools, apart from increments. 
 
As per reports, food tech firm Faasos is planning to give high-potential employees at the junior-mid level 150% increment, compared to 100% last year. 
 
"We are also offering additional incentives in direct proportion to sales (for the sales team) with no upper limit. ESOPs will be offered to top performers," Aditya Adyar, chief people officer at Faasos, told ET. 
 
Likewise, Pronzo also plans to give 100% raise and ESOPs. 
 
Meanwhile, India Inc is expected to give 10.5%-10.6% hike for 2015-16. 
 
"It's still a very competitive scenario when it comes to retaining and attracting key talent and increments are a big talent attractor. Unlike corporates, where there is a much more structured system in place, in startups, you have to pay what top performers demand. It's a business requirement," Anandorup Ghose, rewards consulting practice leader at Aon Hewitt, told ET. 
 
BigBasket will offer underpaid top performers up to 50% increment. 
 
(Image: Thinkstock)

Startups don’t want to part ways with top performers, give out 100% salary hike to retain talent

<ul><li>India’s working professionals can expect an average salary hike of nearly 9.7% in 2019. </li><li>Companies in India are projecting higher salary hikes in sectors including Consumer Internet Companies, Professional Services, Life Sciences, Automotive and Consumer Products sector. </li><li>The voluntary attrition rate has also declined in Indian corporates — from 18.5% in 2013 to 15.8% in 2018.</li></ul>Salary hikes in India may not be as attractive now as before, with fewer sectors giving out double digit hikes. However, there are at least five sectors that still project double digit<a href="https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/jobs/say-goodbye-to-double-digit-hikes-as-salary-budgets-mature/articleshow/68271421.cms"> increments</a> in salaries in 2019, according to the latest survey by Human Resource firm Aon Hewitt. These include consumer Internet companies, professional services, life sciences, automotive and consumer products sector. While the top skills fetching higher salary increment are big data analytics, digital cloud computing, artificial intelligence, cyber security and machine learning. Overall, India’s working professionals can expect an average salary hike of <a href="https://www.business-standard.com/article/companies/india-inc-employees-can-expect-a-salary-hike-of-9-7-this-year-report-119030501017_1.html">nearly 9.7%</a> in 2019, thanks to the narrowing increment budgets. While the top layer is expected to get a maximum increment of 15.6% based on performance and productivity. The report stressed that salary hikes have been descending from high double digits to significantly lower across many sectors and finally dropping down to single digit for most sectors. Owing to high domestic demand and low inflation, the increments projected in 2019 will be stable but still favourable at 9.7%, the report highlighted. Over the years, the voluntary attrition rate has also <a href="https://www.gadgetsnow.com/tech-news/salary-increments-likely-to-be-better-than-last-year-in-most-sectors-survey/articleshow/68280652.cms">declined</a> in Indian corporates — from 18.5% in 2013 to 15.8% in 2018. "The increment projections in other sectors are also a reflection of the expected growth prospects during the year. With government focus on infrastructure investment, sectors such as cement, metal, engineering services saw a revival in demand and an improvement in increment projections for 2019," said Aon. The report surveyed over 1,000 companies across more than 20 industries, has found that the salary increase ticked off double digit growth between 2010-2016, stabilizing at 9.3% in 2017. With the appraisal season around the corner, the companies are likely to announce salary hikes starting April. See also: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/campus-placements-at-iim-mdi-tiss-iift-see-salary-packages-above-2-million/articleshow/67898696.cms">India’s B-schools are seeing higher salary packages for graduates — and it’s not just IIMs</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/accenture-bcg-dominate-campus-placements-at-business-schools-in-india/articleshow/68045145.cms">Consulting firms Accenture, BCG dominate campus placements at India’s B-schools this year</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/a-whopping-40-of-indias-women-engineers-dont-have-jobs-because-of-rampant-sexism-at-workplace/articleshow/67486684.cms">A whopping 40% of India's women engineers don't have jobs because of 'rampant' sexism at workplace</a>

These 5 sectors are the only ones projected to see double digit salary hikes this year

To start with, 
• At $68bn valuation, Uber is more valuable than major car companies GM, Ford, and Honda. (Source: Forbes; Business Insider) 
 
• Amazon at $355.5bn market cap is worth more than Walmart, Target &amp; Costco combined. (Source: Yahoo Finance) 
 
• Netflix's market cap at over $56bn is at par with media giants such asTime Warner-- owner of top premium cable network HBO, other popular cable channels like TBS, TNT, and CNN, and one of the major Hollywood studios (Warner Brothers) (Source: The Motley Fool) 
 
• With $45.6bn market capitalization, Paypal has become the fourth largest payment company after Visa, MasterCard and American Express (Source: DigitalTransactions) 
 
Increasing number of CEOs are facing the heat of business disruption across multiple channels of their value chain. Customer relationships are rapidly evolving on the back of integrating digital and analog worlds. In the context of these changes, CEOs highlight following top 5 talent risks to their business: 
 
1. Rising Salaries 
2. Critical Skills Shortage 
3. Inability to Retain Talent 
4. Inadequate Leadership Pipeline 
5. Low Employee Productivity 
 
Their new competitors from Digital World are worsening the impact of these challenges by having singular focus on talent with digital skills, attracting them with an aggressive rewards philosophy, and creating a culture that thrives on higher productivity expectations (madness at start-ups). 
 
Traditional business’ CEOs have to thus wage a battle both at an external and internal front. 
 
And it has never been fiercer than today! 
 
As they invest in newer Digital capabilities with eyes on the vast future potential, multiple decision points face them, namely: 
 
1. Assimilation of “Digital” leaders into an older environment 
2. Perceptible culture gap between “Optimization” and “Expansive” mindsets 
3. Misaligned organisation structures and decision-channels against the future business strategy 
4. Lack of pay and performance measurement parity between old and new worlds 
5. Fear of driving employees too hard during this period of change 
And time is not on anyone’s side. Bit by bit, all parts of value chain are being opened and reassembled, much like Lego blocks. Block chain is yet another example of a change that will disrupt multiple industries (financial, logistics, supply chain and many more). 
 
So what can CEOs do to be better prepared? 
 During one of my recent meetings with the CEO of a <keyword id="6355118" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="20" keywordseo="technology">Technology</keyword> Services organisation based in US, he commented “we are engineers; we are used to fixing problems. In the past, inordinate focus has been on tangibles with visible outcomes; we haven’t focused on the inspirational”. That to me is the fundamental difference in managing today’s environment. 
 
Leaders need to answer the question - Why? 
 
For years, organisations have defined their purpose through Vision &amp; Mission statements, which were mostly a quick job between CEOs, few senior leaders and the marketing / communication team. New-age leaders aren’t writing fancy lines on company walls – they are living them in their day-to-day behaviors. 
 
Elon Musk articulates his life mission as “making humankind inter-galactic” and he backs it up by investing, failing and re-investing into the same purpose. He attracts talent of the future by inspiring them with a grand vision and showing his personal commitment, drive and passion towards it. 
 
Beyond purpose and passion, leaders need to encourage “Why” across all parts of business. Curiosity, agility and willingness to learn are the most critical skills required to disrupt one’s value chain before competition does (none of these are traditional “left brain” problem solving approaches at work). 
 
And last but not the least…. 
 
Empathy drives business performance. It is fundamental to design-thinking approach for solving customer problems and co-creating solutions. Steve Jobs may not have had high empathy for his employees; however his deep understanding of customers’ unstated “desires” created products that became bedrock of today’s Digital brigade. 
 
Beyond people, an organisation represents itself as culmination of systems, policies and processes. These are equally important to provide employees structure, predictability and a sense of comfort. Understanding this duality of existence and managing the inherent creative tension will be the prime differentiator in evolving the Digital Culture. 
 
 
(The article is authored by Tarandeep Singh, Partner, Talent &amp; Performance Consulting - ‎Aon Hewitt. This article is part of the six-article series, ‘Aon #ImagineeringTomorrow: A Co-creation Journey’, with <a href="http://www.aon.com/human-capital-consulting/default.jsp">Aon Hewitt</a>) 
 
(Image: Thinkstock)

ImagineeringTomorrow: Future of the workplace

“Those who have learned to collaborate and improvise most effectively have prevailed” - Charles Darwin 
 
This quote may have been lost in time and uttered mostly in evolution theory circles, but its relevance in today’s VUCA environment is higher than ever before. 
 
A closed group of distinguished Business and HR Leaders representing <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=technology&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">Technology</a>, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=manufacturing&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">Manufacturing</a>, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=fmcg&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">FMCG</a> and Pharmaceutical sectors came together in Bengaluru to discuss the future of the workplace and took an educated view to not just the workplace but how “work” itself will take shape in the future. The discussions both as a plenary and in small groups pointed towards three conclusive themes… 
 
1. Work of the future will cease to operate like a singular continuity and function more like an aggregation of projects or “gigs” capitalizing on experts across different disciplines to come together and deliver a business result 
2. There needs to be a transformative change in mindset right from how leaders prepare for the business of the future to how employees remain agile around skills to remain relevant in a fast changing yet demanding environment 
3. The first step to realizing these truths would be to accept the fact that generalists would be a thinning herd and specialists/experts and aggregators (human or virtual) would be the future 
…and the glue that would bind these 3 themes together and help crystalize the workplace is Collaboration. During the discussion around collaboration the think tank that brainstormed around it tried answering are some interesting questions - 
 
What is Collaboration of the future? Collaboration in the future workplace would be a kaleidoscope of dimensions involving man and machine that would change the very fabric of modern enterprise. Right from planning an outcome to staffing a project to finally executing and disbanding would require collaboration at the center. Intuitive tech, skilled professionals and access to a gargantuan data universe is the key to a success in such an environment. 
 
How would people collaborate in gig economies? In a gig economy, success and failure would depend solely on how quickly and effectively skills and expertise can be sourced and managed. Revolutionary platforms like Slack would allow virtual workgroups and communities to come together to solve unique problems and create value. Data democracy would therefore be a critical parameter for collaboration breaking down level &amp; grade barriers and Transparency would be the core principle driving key business decisions in the future workplace. 
 
How would structures change to accommodate a collaborative environment? As HR professionals it is important for us to understand how people constructs would change in the future. The concept of collaboration will evolve to the idea of pod-collaboration where geographies and pyramids would become irrelevant but the key to success would be availability of information when needed. Digital and Agile would no longer be special teams but core capabilities across the organization. An inordinate amount of focus however will go towards building communities of practice instead of traditional hierarchies. These communities would be the custodians of skills and capabilities and provide the necessary fuel for collaboration across the future workplace. 
 
 
How will the nature of work change in this collaborative environment? Unlike today’s linear, continuous work environment, work in the future will be fluid with people carrying different levels of expertise coming in at different stages of iterations through an environment of collaboration. This means it will be essential to build a Directories of expertise or communities of practice/interest to staff this kind of work on a real-time basis. The important question would be how we can bring squads together in Tour of Duty style staffing so expert teams can perform an operation and then disband immediately after. 
 
How will knowledge get managed in the future workplace? For the collaboration paradigm to take shape, knowledge has to be collected, curated and stored in a way that is easily accessible to all. Free flow and access to information is the key to the success of project/”gig” style of work. Sentient machine learning databases would replace traditional knowledge management systems to make this a reality. 
 
How can we action this change? What will it take? This question sought answers at different levels. 
 
• For an employee this would require roles to be reimagined and rewards to have a stronger alignment to project outcomes. Performance metrics would track project outcomes rather than individual goals and in turn reward collaborative behavior. Project based compensation would essentially replace monthly salaries. 
• Processes need to be reimagined not only to create virtual teams but also to include intuitive tech for real time information sharing and collaboration. 
• Organization Development engines would need to produce communities of practice and expertise so as to constantly fuel the gig economies. 
• Leaders would need to build the tenets of collaboration and front run the culture change in the future workplace. 
The future holds a huge spectrum of opportunities that we possibly can’t fathom in its entirety. Yet it is important to ponder on some of these questions which inexorably point to possibilities which could shock the way work and employment would exist in this world. 
 
Structures, policies, practices and beliefs will be shaken out of their foundation and replaced with new, more nimble constructs which would serve the connected world. Purists will be compelled to rethink the meaning of “jobs”, “work”, “enterprise”, “performance”, “capability”, “resources” and “rewards”. The true essence of business may remain the same but the current shape and form of modern organization will most likely cease to exist. In a world like this we need to adapt rapidly and prepare ourselves by being early adopters of some of the principles that emerged through this initiative. 
 
 
 (The article is authored by Abhishek Sen, Director, Performance, Rewards and Talent, <keyword id="6462982" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Aon-Hewitt">Aon Hewitt</keyword> Consulting. This article is part of the six-article series, ‘Aon #ImagineeringTomorrow: A Co-creation Journey’, with <a href="http://www.aon.com/human-capital-consulting/default.jsp">Aon Hewitt</a>) 
 
(Image: Thinkstock)

ImagineeringTomorrow: The Talent Network

Investopedia defines Shared <keyword id="34412" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="economy">Economy</keyword> as “an economic model in which individuals are able to borrow or rent assets owned by someone else” 
 
 
Renting and borrowing has been prevalent for centuries, however creation of an economic model with technology leverage is a more recent phenomenon. Sites such as Craigslist (founded in 1995) popularized web-based distribution service to friends and community in social and trusting ways. An economic model on it however was built only in 2004, when Craig Newmark started charging $25 to post job openings (albeit the seminal act of e-commerce was in 1971 to arrange the sale of cannabis!). 
 
Technology and social behaviors have moved transactions economy from classifieds and assisted sale of products to borrowing assets owners aren’t frequently using, such as a car, house or even household items. Certain business models have also created services’ platform to offer critical skills and services at flexible rates which have evolved to individuals participating willingly and freely in a contractual model. Such temporary positions for short-term engagements created a trend towards Gig Economy. 
 Different studies have predicted 35%-40% of American workforce befitting the definition of <keyword id="4035072" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Gig-workforce">Gig workforce</keyword>, which is trend fast replicating across geographies and industries given the convergence of Shared and Gig economies. Cases in point are <keyword id="1042120" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Uber">Uber</keyword> and Lyft where majority of drivers (car owners) don’t rely on car-hailing platforms for their primary source of income. 
 
Certain organizations are relying on this convergence to redefine their customer value proposition. As an example, one of the largest tractor manufacturing companies in the world, TAFE, offers its farm equipment on rent, along with an optional driver. Farmers don’t have to make upfront investments and can use the equipment during appropriate seasons without the hassle of maintenance and spare parts. 
 
Software, telecom and product development companies have used the principles of gig economy to create agile work practices. However, managing such workforce and practices within the organization as against engaging with a broader external partner ecosystem raises peculiar challenges. 
 
We asked a group of Imagineers (contributors’ names at the end of the article) to share thoughts on how they would structure and ready an organization to harness the potential of Shared and Gig Economy. Three guiding principles emerged from the discussion: 
 
1) (Re)define Core and Context 
One of the core values of Astra Zeneca, a global pharmaceuticals company, is to “Follow the Science. Put Patients First”. Following its purpose, Astra Zeneca moved away from traditional geography or function-based organization structure to one that is disease and customer-centric. In line with the said purpose, organization had to become borderless, which meant talent should be available beyond internal and external “boundaries”. AZ worked hard to create communities of doctors, scientists and patients, and a platform where ex-employees and freelance scientists could research on newer and market-relevant drugs. They currently work together to meet AZ’s goals. 
Once the core of saving lives was clear, everything else got synced up. That became central design principle for the organization’s structure, and rest was contextual. 
 
2) “One” Partner Network 
In a true Shared and Gig economy, contractors or freelancers may work with multiple companies simultaneously and possibly, on multiple jobs too. It helps to align them to your core value proposition, and create strong processes to ensure service and operational parameters are controlled despite a fluid semi-permeable work structure. 
 
Uber’s mission is to “Make transportation as reliable as running water, everywhere and for everyone”. Drivers are critical to this mission, hence Uber evolved its business model to “create job opportunities and higher income for drivers” (surge pricing is an example) without compromising on building smarter transportation solutions. Through its robust algorithm based app, Uber brings transparency, reliability and efficiency to the cab hailing experience. The front end and the back-end of customer’s experience operate seamlessly. 
 
Influential companies of the future wouldn’t be ones with highest employee base, rather those that adapt best to create and manage a truly integrated “One” partner ecosystem. Traditionally, organizations are structured to create stronger control at the core. As partners become contextually critical, their relationship needs to be built over purpose and strengthened through processes. 
 
3) Hawk Eye on Risks 
An organization operating in either Shared or Gig economy should be designed with a pro-active view of reputational, operational, compliance and financial risks. In this context, challenges with a delivery start-up, Foodpanda, have been well documented. Orders were booked for restaurants closed-down, payments were not made to retail chains due to technical issues, and billing frauds were rampant, which lost face for one of the world’s largest online food ordering marketplaces. Such loosely held providers (e.g. restaurants) can deliver significant reputational and financial damage unless operational controls are institutionalized through the customer value chain. 
 
Second, platform providers need to singularly own the customer experience. In a “federal” structure, accountability can be built only basis data and continuous feedback. Uber measures outcome of every trip, solicits “compulsory” feedback and acts on the complaints with alacrity. A truly digital platform builds its organizational processes around customer’s journey, not around functions such as sales, marketing, production or customer service. Customer interacts with an organization’s brand, and can use social media to quickly dissipate painfully-gained competitive advantage. Foodpanda, in contrast, wasn’t keeping track of delivery of its orders. 
 
Third, network-led economy mandates that organizations invest in partners’ capability as they would in own. Traditionally, large automobile OEMs have invested in building suppliers’ capability through imparting knowledge and skills on quality and lean methodologies. In the new era, organizations operating in external network need to assess an individual’s profile, skill level as well as fit into the much-cherished work ethics and culture. 
 
The above 3 principles - Know your Core, Manage the Context and Keep Customer at the Center of digital business transformation are key to an organization’s success. As Charles Dickens once remarked “a small key opens a heavy door”, so would hopefully these open new ones for you! 
 
(The article is authored by Tarandeep Singh, Partner, Talent &amp; Performance Consulting - ‎Aon Hewitt. This article is part of the six-article series, ‘Aon #ImagineeringTomorrow: A Co-creation Journey’, with<a href="http://www.aon.com/human-capital-consulting/default.jsp"> Aon Hewitt</a>) 
 
(Image: Thinkstock)

ImagineeringTomorrow: Creating success with new economy partners

<ul><li>‘Digitally skilled’ employees and those working in areas of data science, artificial intelligence and machine learning, are expected to receive higher increments. </li><li>In an interview with Business Insider, <keyword id="203878" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Ajay-Shah">Ajay Shah</keyword>, VP and head of recruitment at <keyword id="6381892" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="TeamLease-Services">TeamLease Services</keyword> said that the salary hikes can be around 14-18% for digital roles. </li><li> It is safe to say that the top skills fetching higher salary increment would be big data analytics, digital <keyword id="6373689" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Cloud-computing">cloud computing</keyword>, artificial intelligence, cyber security and machine learning.</li></ul>With the appraisal season around the corner in April, employees are waiting with bated breath. However, they may not be as attractive now as before, with few sectors expected to dish out double digit increments. Only ‘digitally skilled’ employees will not have little to worry about, especially working with data science, artificial intelligence and machine learning. “The median salary hike at the organisational level will fluctuate between 8% to 14% this year. However, the salary hikes across the digital areas will vary from 14% to 18%,” said Ajay Shah, VP and head of recruitment at TeamLease Services in an interview with Business Insider. According to Shah, salary hikes in the digital areas will outshine the average hikes across industries. Skills are the most in demand for recruiters are also popular with companies which want to retain them. And, these skills are big data analytics, digital cloud computing, artificial intelligence, cyber security and machine learning. While the IT industry continues to grow, doling out higher pay packets and <keyword id="1458566" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="digital-skills">digital skills</keyword>, the ecommerce and professional services sector are also expected to witness above average increments. Amongst sectors, those will offer little are those in trouble like automobile and telecom companies. Skills versus salaries Apart from slowdown and other financial troubles, companies might also be taking a chunk of funds intended for hikes and divert them to re-skilling. Shah believes that the enterprises in India are now striving to become ‘tech- enabled’ for better productivity. Hence, they are investing in reskilling their employees via learning and development initiatives. This might also impact the salary hikes of the digitally unskilled. “Freshers are going ahead with average starting salaries and the mid-level employees have aspirations. But, there is a skill gap. So, organisations investing in reskilling programmes is also a kind of incentive to the employees,” Shah reiterated. Increments to touch a decade-low A survey by Human Resource firm <keyword id="6462982" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="aon-hewitt">Aon Hewitt</keyword> pegged the average pay hike at 9.1% in 2020. That happens to be the lowest in a decade. It anticipates the increments in the ecommerce and professional services space at 10%. Last year, the average increment stood at 9.3%. <div type="javascript" title="Custom" contenttype="Image"><cdata><![CDATA[
<div class="flourish-embed flourish-chart" data-src="visualisation/1422188"></div>
]]></cdata></div>

 "Despite economic challenges in 2019, organizations in India are taking a positive view. Pay increases in India continue to be the highest in the region. A big reason for India's higher salary increase, as compared to other growing economies, is the high inflation rate and the war for key talent and niche skills," <a href="https://www.livemint.com/news/india/indian-firms-may-offer-9-1-pay-hike-lowest-in-decade-11582022153432.html">said</a> Tzeitel Fernandes, Partner, Rewards Solutions at Aon. The <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/careers/news/the-salary-hikes-in-india-will-be-the-best-in-asia-next-year-but-inflation-will-eat-most-of-it/articleshow/72332600.cms">global salary forecast by Korn Ferry</a>, a management consulting company also projected India’s salary growth at 9.2% — the best in Asia. That is much higher than the average salary increase in the US at 3%. However it needs to be mentioned that inflation in India and developed economies are not comparable. “Compensation programmes need to be regularly reviewed to make sure they align with changing business and market conditions. Companies take a broader perspective by defining and agreeing upon their own measures of cost drivers, business strategy and local trading conditions,” said Benjamin Frost, who is the global general manager of Korn Ferry. See also: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/careers/news/indian-startup-dream11-offers-as-much-as-270-hike-in-salary-for-a-job-well-done/articleshow/73068468.cms">This Indian startup offers as much as 270% hike in salary for a job well done</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/careers/news/these-are-the-starting-salaries-offered-to-b-school-students-in-india/articleshow/74168696.cms">These are the starting salaries offered to B-school students in India</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/news/india-inc-to-offer-double-digit-salary-hike-this-year-timesjobs-survey/articleshow/74210093.cms">India Inc to offer double-digit salary hike this year: TimesJobs survey</a>

Don’t expect more than 10% salary hike this year unless you are an AI expert

One of the strongest pillars of the <keyword id="6356076" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="indian-economy">Indian economy</keyword> - the Consumer industry - may not have shown exponential growth in the past 3-4 years, but this one has managed to keep itself insulated from the vagaries of the global macro-economic environment unlike few other vulnerable sectors. And guess who is watching this closely? It's the IIM and IIT students who have got their eyes on this sector. 
 Yes, despite the startup era, it's the <keyword id="34523" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="fmcg">FMCG</keyword> companies which are the top choice of these students even today. The Campus placement season has been seeing a promising response from this sector for years now. The sector has been stable, and in terms of salary, it hasn't dissapointed students at all. 
 
"Isn't it better to get a lesser package in a company/sector whicg guarantees job security than a one which gives more, except that it may ditch us even before we are to begin work with them," says an IIM-Calcutta student who recently picked up a 18,ooo lakh offer with a FMCG company of repute. 
 
Many B school students like him therefore have put their faith in the FMCG sector over any other offer that is coming their way. We spoke to two experts to understand this, and here are the reasons that have settled the recruitment game in the facour of the big daddies: 
 
What recent salary projections say 
 
“Even in the future, the sector is likely to be stable in terms of salary projections,” says Gaurav Gupta - Sr. Consultant, Rewards, Aon Hewitt. 
 
"With an uptake in consumer sentiments, we will see double digit growth in FMCG in the next 4-5 years. So, you can say that we are seeing a neutral to positive environment for this sector in the short to medium term. This is largely reflected in terms of the salary increases. FMCG was leading the pack in terms of salary increases unlike the service industries and financial institutions who are suffering as a result of the global economic turmoil," he said. 
 Notably, the <keyword id="1048517" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="consumer-sector">consumer sector</keyword> overall has largely two sections - the foreign MNC firms and the Indian companies. For the foreign MNCs, Gaurav says, India has been a very lucrative destination. 
 
"It has been a investment destination which is seen as an engine for growth in future. Hence, you see them investing a lot in terms of their plants, production activities and hiring top talent from the market. That's why we have seen growth in salary increases by them. On the Indian side, the picture is very different. These companies have seen aggressive growth in their top line and market capitalisation. The talent catchment area has increased as they now have competitors operating even in local markets who are also hiring their employees. From that perspective, the large Indian companies in this sector are competing with these local businesses which may be strong in the area they operate, and therefore have been looking to bridge the gap in pay levels,” he says. 
 
Moreover, there has been critical focus on ring fencing of talent in this sector. This is because talent movement across sectors has been worrisome. A lot of service firms banking, telecom, insurance and e-commerce are hiring these talent. This is why consumer industry is trying to give higher increases and bringing in sincere key talent while also retaining existing ones. 
 
Attrition: 
 
Meanwhile, Gurdit, who is also Sr. Consultant, Rewards at Aon Hewitt, informed that even as the FMCG sector has traditionally seen lower attrition rates than India average (13.5- 14% over the last 5 years consistently against an India average in the 16-18% range, and on 13.7% currently), there has been no clear trend whether it has been increasing or decreasing. 
 
Key talent: 
 
Moreover, the key talent attrition is extremely low in this sector. In the last 4-5 years, it has been below 5% and this is both voluntary as well as involuntary. Notably, the way key talent is defined is it’s a combination of high performance, high potential as well as business critical skills which are difficult to find in the market. Typically organisations earmark about 10-15% of employee base as key talent, however, it varies with different organisations. Also, key talent is differentiated on a set of factors. 
 
Gurdit explains further: “Firstly, from salary increase perspective, what we found is that over the last 3-4 years the differentiation in the salary increases given out to key talent v/s an average performer has been increasing. This is not just in FMCG, but across sectors. However the amount of differentiation in the consumer space is slightly higher. The ratio of salary increases shows that a key talent employee would typically be paid 1.5-1.8 times higher of what an average performer would be paid. Now, if you keep aside the compensation increases, the other ways companies are differentiating key talent is - they take a call to benchmark key talent at a position slightly higher than others. From the perspective of non-monetary rewards, these employees get accelerated growth opportunities, better exposure to leadership, more meaningful roles and rotation of roles in order to develop their skills faster.” 
 
To this, Gaurav adds: “With regard to foreign MNCs, we have seen a lot of global mobility programs as well, especially for key talent.” 
 
Challenges: 
 
Meanwhile, citing a few challenges the sector faces, Gurdit says: “Traditionally FMCG is known to have the best talent in the market. Therefore, war for talent in this sector is pretty high. That's the reason why most FMCG companies will typically have really good policies and from total rewards perspective, they are well placed to retain best talent. However, one of the challenges is the new lot – startups - which is absorbing the best talent and paying high salaries. For this reason, FMCGs have started focusing on how to retain younger talent. Companies are bringing in programs to cater to the Gen Y employees, they are bringing in more flexibility work arrangements to take on this challenge.” 
 
Also, Gaurav points out that the emergence of tier 2-3 FMCG players pose a huge threat to the bigger players. They are locally strong and are pulling talent. FMCG industry may have to look at curbing this in future.

Here's why B-school students ultimately opt for FMCG companies over startups during placement season

What ails the quality of <keyword id="67723" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="HR">HR</keyword> today? Why can’t we find good HR Heads who can understand and align to business? 
 It was a simple, innocuous question asked by a very senior, seasoned banker client one afternoon when we were discussing notes about what was wrong with the (HR) world. It got me thinking and I reflected on what I had seen and analyzed over the many years spent in this industry working with and learning from the best <keyword id="51693" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="HR-professionals">HR professionals</keyword> in the country. 
 
What struck me was the lack of mobility I had seen between business functions and HR, a specialized area that in most cases was as remote from the front line revenue generating functions as an academic degree is from practical work experience. Enough has been said and ranted by voices across the globe about the changing role of HR, how it needs to be more strategic than before and be a business enabler rather than a support function. All fair points but has this been practiced in terms of managing the roles of business and HR in tandem? How many cases do we see where senior business leaders move into HR, or vice versa. If HR needs to better grapple with and align to business, shouldn’t HR have the experience of actually getting their hands dirty in the field? 
 
There are some best in class companies who invest in career tracks for their potential CEOs, who are mandated to manage HR before they hit the top spot. There are others who are so business driven in their DNA, that they struggle to find business aligned HR Heads and move people from within business to manage the human capital aspect. In either case, there are only a few examples of how top performers in business see (or are made to see) a stint or even a career in HR as something to aspire for. It may be argued that many in the business don’t fancy a move to HR either because the propensity to earn (especially on the variable component) diminishes considerably or simply because HR is less about leading a business and more about managing the fuzzy and grey world of human emotions and expectations, which more often than not translates into mundane transactions. 
 
In a country that is hurtling towards economic prosperity on the back of a raging young workforce and which is the envy of most of the world on the basis of its super productive population, it is ironic that managing this workforce while labeled as ‘strategic’, still has little contribution from the business side of organizations. Perhaps it’s time that we stopped blaming HR for not being a business driver and visionary thinker, but start to encourage and push our top performers from business to move into a function that can better manage the most critical asset the company has, by having business experience at the helm. 
 
Long back when I left the world of high profile corporate banking and joined HR consulting, I went through a period of doubt, indecision and ‘post purchase dissonance’ especially when riled by colleagues and friends who saw the move from business to HR as strange, inexplicable and counterproductive. I remember my consulting practice head tell me that end of the day you will manage a business; it just happens to be of HR, so what’s the big deal? If more of us can see the importance of business experience in managing HR, and be able to bring in the ground realities into an area that is often bemoaned of being theoretical and far removed from the war zone, the world will start to become a better place to work in and work for… 
 
About the author: Roopank Chaudhary is an Associate Partner at Aon Hewitt 
 
<a href="http://sdmimd.ac.in/hrcon2015/images/n1.jpg">Image source</a>

The business of HR

What ails the quality of <keyword id="67723" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="HR">HR</keyword> today? Why can’t we find good HR Heads who can understand and align to business? 
 It was a simple, innocuous question asked by a very senior, seasoned banker client one afternoon when we were discussing notes about what was wrong with the (HR) world. It got me thinking and I reflected on what I had seen and analyzed over the many years spent in this industry working with and learning from the best <keyword id="51693" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="HR-professionals">HR professionals</keyword> in the country. 
 
What struck me was the lack of mobility I had seen between business functions and HR, a specialized area that in most cases was as remote from the front line revenue generating functions as an academic degree is from practical work experience. Enough has been said and ranted by voices across the globe about the changing role of HR, how it needs to be more strategic than before and be a business enabler rather than a support function. All fair points but has this been practiced in terms of managing the roles of business and HR in tandem? How many cases do we see where senior business leaders move into HR, or vice versa. If HR needs to better grapple with and align to business, shouldn’t HR have the experience of actually getting their hands dirty in the field? 
 
There are some best in class companies who invest in career tracks for their potential CEOs, who are mandated to manage HR before they hit the top spot. There are others who are so business driven in their DNA, that they struggle to find business aligned HR Heads and move people from within business to manage the human capital aspect. In either case, there are only a few examples of how top performers in business see (or are made to see) a stint or even a career in HR as something to aspire for. It may be argued that many in the business don’t fancy a move to HR either because the propensity to earn (especially on the variable component) diminishes considerably or simply because HR is less about leading a business and more about managing the fuzzy and grey world of human emotions and expectations, which more often than not translates into mundane transactions. 
 
In a country that is hurtling towards economic prosperity on the back of a raging young workforce and which is the envy of most of the world on the basis of its super productive population, it is ironic that managing this workforce while labeled as ‘strategic’, still has little contribution from the business side of organizations. Perhaps it’s time that we stopped blaming HR for not being a business driver and visionary thinker, but start to encourage and push our top performers from business to move into a function that can better manage the most critical asset the company has, by having business experience at the helm. 
 Long back when I left the world of high profile corporate banking and joined <keyword id="203951" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="HR-consulting">HR consulting</keyword>, I went through a period of doubt, indecision and ‘post purchase dissonance’ especially when riled by colleagues and friends who saw the move from business to HR as strange, inexplicable and counterproductive. I remember my consulting practice head tell me that end of the day you will manage a business; it just happens to be of HR, so what’s the big deal? If more of us can see the importance of business experience in managing HR, and be able to bring in the ground realities into an area that is often bemoaned of being theoretical and far removed from the war zone, the world will start to become a better place to work in and work for… 
 
About the author: Roopank Chaudhary is an Associate Partner at Aon Hewitt 
 
<a href="https://www.paychex.com/a/i/articles/hr-help.jpg">Image source</a>

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