One night at call centre-by Chetan Bhagat

Here friends......... I am quoting a few lines from the excerpt of Chetan's second book that is yet to come to the market.Though I haven't had the priveledge,yes I now consisder it to be a priveledge... to have read his first book.."five point someone",his writing seemed very captivating to me .

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But this night was different.
Firstly, my compartment was empty. The railways had just started this new summer train and nobody knew about it.
Secondly, I was unable to sleep.I had come to IIT Kanpur for a talk.

Before leaving, I drank four cups of coffee in the canteen chatting with the students. Bad idea, given it was going to be boring to spend eight insomniac hours in an empty compartment. I had no magazines or books to read. I could hardly see anything out of the window in the darkness. I prepared myself for a silent and dull night. Of course, it was anything but that.

She walked in five minutes after the train had left the station.
She opened the curtains of my enclosure and looked puzzled."
Is coach A4, seat 63 here?” she said.
The yellow lightbulb in my compartment had a mood of its own. It flickered as I looked up to see her.
"Huh..,” I said as I saw her face. It was difficult to withdraw from the gaze of her eyes.
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"Hi,” she said and looked at me for a few seconds, "Chetan as in...I don't know, your name sounds familiar.

"Now this was cool. It meant she had heard of my first book. I am recognized rarely. And of course, it had never happened with a girl on a night train.
"You might have heard of my book - Five Point Someone. I am the author,” I said.

"Oh yes,” she said and paused, "Oh yes, of course. I have read your book. The three underperformers and the prof's daughter one, right?” she said.
"Yes,” I said, "So how did you like it?"

"It was all right,” she said.

I was taken aback. Man, I could have done with a little more of a compliment here.
"Just all right?” I said, obviously fishing a bit too hard.
"Well,” she said and paused.
"Well what?” I said after ten seconds.
"Well. Yeah, just all right...ok ok types,” she said.
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"I might have a story idea for you,” she said, almost startling me.
"Huh?” I was wary of what she was going to say. For no matter what her idea was, I had to appear interested. "What is it?"

"It is a story about a call center.”

"Really?” I said," Call centers as in business process outsourcing centers or BPOs?"
"Yes, do you know anything about them?"

I thought about it. I did know about call centers, mostly from my cousins who worked there.
"Yes, I know a little bit,” I said, "Some 300,000 people work in the industry. They help US companies in sales, service and maintenance of their operations. Usually younger people work there in night shifts. Quite interesting, actually.”

"Just interesting? Have you ever thought of what all they have to face?” she said, her voice turning firm again.
"No,” I said.
"Why? They aren't the youth? You don't want to cover them?” she said, almost scolding me.

"Listen, let's not start arguing again..."
"I am not. I told you that I have a call center story for you.

”I looked at my watch. It was 12.30 a.m. A story would not be such a bad idea to kill time, I thought."Let's hear it then,” I said.

"I can tell you. But I have a condition,” she said....................................

A New Role for HR: Support Your Company's Brand

Here is a piece of an article to circumstantiate how the HR becomes a crucial part in building brands.

From Gary Billings, Ph.D.

A New Strategic Role for HR

I once read an article in which Mickey Mantle tells about a recurring dream. He’s racing to get to Yankee Stadium in a panic, because he’s late for the game. To his horror the gates to the field are locked. He finds a hole in the centerfield fence and sticks his head through. As he tries to wiggle through the small hole he wakes up drenched in sweat!

Like Mickey Mantle, one of the biggest challenges for Human Resource executives is breaking through the fence to get in the game. In this case the fence is real. But there is an opening if one knows what game to play.

Here’s How: Get Involved With the BrandExcept in a few instances, most companies offer largely undifferentiated products and services; airlines fly the same planes and serve the same food, financial service businesses offer similar advice and investment options, and retail stores offer the same merchandise. The list goes on.

Because of the undifferentiated nature of their businesses, such firms as, Disney, Fidelity, Southwest Airlines, to name a few, have made branding a core element in their business strategy. In many respects, their brand strategy is their business strategy, and vice versa.

A brand, simply put, is a promise to customers that a specific level of value, quality, and service will be received. Think of a brand as a covenant between a business and its customers. The promise is usually communicated through mass media advertising. Here are some current examples.

FedEx – Don’t worry, there’s FedEx
MasterCard – There are some things money can’t buy
Xerox – Break Out
Bose – Better Sound Through Research
GE – Imagination at Work

When a brand promise is not kept, customers flee and go elsewhere. A classic example is the fate that befell Eastern Airlines when it promised to “Earn its Wings Everyday” through superior customer service while at the same time losing bags, canceling flights and serving lousy food.
As a result, the bonds of trust between customers and the airline were irrevocably broken. The net effect was passengers boycotted Eastern in droves and it eventually went out of business killing the brand for eternity.

What went wrong? Eastern Airlines failed to align the behavior of their employees with the brand promise. They failed to understand that the lines of copy in an ad do not deliver a brand promise, nor by an airplane or piece of machinery - it’s delivered by people.

Herein lies the opportunity for Human Resources to get through the fence and into the game, by helping ensure that all of the large and small actions that people take every day, throughout the organization, fall in line with the brand strategy.

What stuff the VP-HR of Microsoft is built of!

I just happened to browse through this article on net................once started my curiosity raised to such an extent that I had to pen down some words in my blog about it......A sense of purpose endures in VP of human resources

Read here

Timesjobs Innovation........

Have been using timesjobs portal since the time I have started learning the nuisances of my profession.......

Recently enough the best feature among the other innovative measures timesjobs have inserted and restructured in its services......is definitely catching everyone's eye-"HR Dialogue"...

See here

Campus Recruitment Not Such A Hit After All

Was just going through this article ........wondered whether these people know that proper ground work is very essential when one goes for recruitments in campus placements .Recruiting and selecting a fresher is much more a challenge than looking at the experienced talent pool.

It is always difficult to measure someone's potential than one's performance........

Have corporates been able to connect right with campuses? The answer is, No. According to Mr Madan Padaki, Co-founder and Director, MeritTrac Services, a skills assessment firm, it has not been possible. "There has not been any attributable difference in terms of hit ratio in recruitment of engineers." When it comes to hiring fresh engineers, the conversion rate remains at 15-18 pct for services companies and 6-10 pct for product development companies, with some region-wise differences. In his opinion, the benefits of campus relationship programmes would be felt two years from now“, he said. Mr Rishi Das, CEO, Campus Connect, agrees that not much has changed in terms of employability index of engineers. "The good thing is that companies are investing a lot more on training their engineers." Campus Connect is a Bangalore-based consulting group whose programmes attempt to bridge the gap between industry and academia. Like always, companies that are seeing a growth of 60-70 pect on the people side are betting big on campus recruits this year too. MindTree Consulting, which used to pick talent only from Tier I institutes all these years, has now decided to hire top performers from Tier II institutes to supplement the demand, according to Mr Mohan Sitharam, Associate Director, People Function, MindTree Consulting. Mr Srinivas Velidanda, Director, Recruitment, Perot Systems, however, has seen some change in the talent pool this year. Some of the students have come better equipped with soft skills such as communication and management skills. "Though our recruitment criteria has become stringent, our hiring ratio also remains at last year's figure (100:20), which means students are also becoming more employable this year," he points out.

Source: 27 May' 07 The Hindu Business Line New Delhi