Over the last decade, as a human resources professional in the IT industry I have always wondered as to why this industry is the envy of one and all.
To me, people management is the same in all industries - be it brick and mortar or the so called the sunrise industry. People management skills are the same across all industries. The only perceivable difference is that the IT professionals are adept in creating and mastering sophisticated terms for routine and mundane things whereas their counterparts in other industries continue to use the same old, simple and direct terminologies!
Take for instance, your contact person in an IT company when you attend an interview. He/ She would rather be a HR partner or a Manager - People skills and not just a HR manager or an Employee relations manager. The role of HR Manager in the IT industry is not merely to manage human resources but to nurture talents. HR mangers today are enamoured by this magic word talent and this term is gaining a lot of focus. You have the Talent Seekers (recruiters) who are part of the Talent Acquisition Team and not the traditional recruitment department. The term HRD has lost its fascination and is replaced by the term 'Talent Development'.
Next on line is what you used to have in the name of a bio-data. In the IT industry it is inappropriate for the HR partner to ask for your bio-data. You may be requested perhaps, to share your profile. You will no longer receive a call letter for an interview. Rather, you'd be invited for a personal discussion at mutual convenience. And candidates are never rejected in the IT industry. There can only be a profile mismatch. You can be rest assured that if you apply for a position in the IT industry you will never receive a regret letter. At best, you will be complemented that your profile is very interesting and is maintained in the active data bank for future requirements.
In the traditional industries the recruiters look for skills / knowledge and attitude whereas in the IT industry we pride ourselves in measuring competencies. Competency Mapping i.e., defining and mapping the competencies for each position is the buzzword today.
And if you got an offer today in the IT industry, watch out! You can be never be sure of joining the organization. Before you join, you will be surprised with a letter about shedding the fat in the IT industry. It is called the offer deferment communication. We never withdraw offers in this industry, we only defer them!
But again, if you are fortunate enough to join before receiving the deferment notice, then you are all set for the induction. You will be surprised that in this industry you don't go through a formal induction process. You go through a familiarization/ acclimatization program. If you desire to meet any of your seniors you don't seek a time slot for the meeting. You only request for a one-to-one with your senior.
IT professionals desist being placed on probation and upon being called probationers. He/ she fully realizes that with or without probation he does not have any job security yet he is more comfortable under the illusion of being called a confirmed employee. But the best part is, if you are falling short of expectations you will not be warned, you will only be counseled. In the IT industry there is no concept of first/ second/ final warning letters. We only counsel the problem cases. There is no concept of complaints. You don't complain about people/ issues; you speak-up and escalate issues.
When you have an attitude problem and cannot get along with your team you will not be neglected as a loner. On the contrary the line manager and the HR partner will rightly confer and conclude that you are an individual contributor. You will be reassigned suitably and your new superior will be forewarned to be extra sensitive and handle you carefully.
If you are not a team player and found to be task oriented, frank and forthright in your communication then you will be sent to the specialty clinic (assessment center). After a battery of tests, it will be discovered that you are low in EQ and that you need to undergo some remedial treatment (EQ training program)! There is no concept of double promotions here either. We only place the top performers in the Fast Track. The practice of performance review is fast fading. So instead of getting appraised on your performance, you participate in goal setting/ performance management or performance planning process.
And what happens when you're moved from one function to the other? Other industries may call it as transfer. But here, you are being reassigned and if entails change of base, mind you, you are being relocated! Plus the concept of closed-door meetings is fairly obsolete. If the issue is important enough to merit uninterrupted time then it is customary to call for an off-site. If the workload is high, you may traditionally decide to sub-contract some work whereas in IT, in today's context, you don't sub-contract. You outsource it.
The word retrenchment is forbidden in the IT industry. Here, the HR manager will not retrench excess manpower. He will only outplace them. It is below the dignity of an IT professional to receive retrenchment compensation; he only receives a severance pay and perhaps prides himself in having received six months' severance pay.
And the best part is that you don't have to feel guilty about job-hunting in this industry. You are only exploring the market, to get a feel of your market value. There is no concept of resigning or quitting the job. It is inappropriate for a HR manager to announce or admit a resignation. The announcement would rather read "Mr.….. has chosen to pursue some alternate career options". If you are between jobs (obviously you have been thrown out of your earlier job or the contract has not been renewed) you do have a special terminology for your status. You are not unemployed…..Relax! You are currently on sabbatical!
The software factory in a very broad sense is no different from the production shop floor except you don't have the concept of the blue uniform. While the stores keeper in the production shop floor is responsible for availability of the raw materials, the HR manager in the IT industry is responsible for the smooth supply of the people resource.
Most IT HR mangers are caught up in the frenzied activity of managing the traffic - people in and out of the organization. Thanks to the US slow down most companies are saddled with excess supply and are increasingly finding the so-called talent seekers redundant. In this industry we are so preoccupied in being perceived as different that we eventually forget that there was once an easy way of denoting the same old things!
[The views expressed in this article are that of the author and not that of the organization]
