What Are the Outdated Practices of Human Resource Departments in India?

What Are the Outdated Practices of Human Resource Departments in India?

Many Human Resource professionals believe that established Western or Eastern management models would not work in India because of its multicultural, multilingual, and multireligious human capital. Individual employees will become demotivated and dissatisfied with the work environment as a result of cross-cultural indifference. Employees may experience role ambiguity as a result of cross-cultural HR practices. I may not agree with all of the justifications raised by HRs and organizations for maintaining old-school HR practices in India.

Some observations I'd like to make about the Indian recruitment system, Middle Eastern recruitment, and North American recruitment practices.

No-well-defined Roles:

Most of the Indian firms are not organized in its company structure. They expect people to do multiple roles giving a fancy corporate title. For ex. Many employers and human resource professionals do not understand the distinction between marketing and sales. They believe that marketing professionals will do sales and sales professionals will do marketing - Two birds with One Stone. Indeed, many businesses expect Sales professionals to generate leads, manage marketing efforts, and close deals. Indian companies anticipate Rajnikanth, who excels at multitasking, to be paid at the village level.

 

No-well-defined Work Timings:

Because India lacks a well-developed infrastructure of roads, rails, and metros in comparison to its massive population, maintaining punctuality at work is nearly impossible. Forget about punctuality and time management; people are stressed just getting to work every day. Every other day is a traffic nightmare!

Indians are not paid on an hourly basis; instead, they are paid on a monthly basis, which is uncompetitive and limits their earning potential. When people work on hourly wages in the Western world, they think like entrepreneurs, calculating how much they should make, leaving less room for gossiping, office politics, and other nonsense. Employees in India believe that because their monthly wages are fixed, they will not be rewarded or appreciated even if they work hard. As a result, they tend to be lazy throughout the month. I hope you understand the psychology here.

 

Management don’t listen to Qualified HRs:

Because of their shabby business practices, Indian and Pakistani companies have a bad reputation in the Middle East. Policies that only benefit business owners put a lot of pressure on HR professionals to leave their jobs. They do not pay their employees on time, do not have standard sick leave policies, do not have standard weekend offs, do not care about workplace happiness indicators, and so on. They still use the old methods of making employees happy - what I call "Lollipop Tricks" - such as birthday celebrations, team lunch outings, holiday celebrations, and cultural events.

 

Confusing Recruitment Process:

In India, HR professionals will be overly diplomatic with candidates who request feedback. You'll never get a straight 'YES' or 'NO' here because Indian culture forbids it. HR representatives do not respond to follow-up emails, ignore multiple attempts by job seekers, and never provide a reason for rejection. Even if you are chosen for interviews, they require you to go through at least 3-4 rounds of interviews to get to know the people - which I find to be an outdated business practice - and you waste time with those people.

The salary negotiation is the worst part because they tell you all your flaws and use diplomatic language to get you to agree to the lowest possible salary. They will judge you on the basis of your college, school district, university, location, and cultural background. Their ultimate goal is to bargain with you in order to obtain a Highly Skilled worker on a lower pay scale. People in this country value your grades and university degrees over your skills and personality. Outdated thinking!

The recruitment process is fairly straightforward in the MIDDLE EAST. To understand your capability, they will ask you about your skills, competencies, previous roles, and so on. They don't judge you based on your education or grades because your skills and personality are more important here. The Middle East is a far more developed and rapidly developing economic region than Asia-Pacific. If they like you during the interview, it's usually just one round before they decide and say 'Yes' or 'No' via email within a few days. If you are chosen for the position, you must report to the office as soon as possible with the following documents: Email a copy of your visa, passport, GCC license, and experience letters. It is extremely fast.

 

Unhealthy - Documentation Practices:

Before starting a new job, Indian companies ask you for a tonne of paperwork, or "Onboarding Formalities".  You need to submit

  • Passport Size Photos - Min 5-6 copies
  • Stamp Size Photos - Min 2-3 copies
  • Education certifications – Marksheets, Training Certification, Transcript, Course Completion certificates etc.
  • Work Docs – Joining Letter, Relieving Letter, Experience Letters, Salary Slips, Bank Statement etc.
  • Identity Proofs – Voters ID, Aadhar, Passport, PAN, Driving License, Bank Passbook Copy etc.
  • Reference - Previous Employer Reference, University Reference, College Reference etc.
  • Some Additional – Police Clearance Certificate, Recommendation Letters etc.


Make some sense, what kind of illogical HR practice is this?

My Conclusion:

While the Indian government has been boasting about its $3 trillion-dollar economy for many years, they have paid no attention to the country's underbelly problems. The distinction between GDP (Gross Domestic Product) and HDI (Human Development Index) must be understood. Late Millennials and Gen Z are not very workaholics like their elders, so don't expect them to work for you as slaves. They value their work-life balance, their free time for hobbies, and opportunities for further education and growth.

HR departments are out of date because business owners are outdated. They simply want to run the business as it was in the 1980s. I absolutely mean that Lollypop tricks will no longer work with younger generations, including mine. And, of course, we value our personal brand on Instagram and YouTube, more than the brand of the organization for which we work!

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