PEOPLE MANAGEMENT, THE MANTRA FOR SUCCESS

Group C1
AABHAA IP ANKIT THAKRAR GAURAV SINGH GURURAJ NAYAK PRASHANTHI PRIYANKA

Problem statement:
How can Singhania and Partners satisfy the needs of the employees and retain them in an environment with increasing attrition and global competition?

PESTCL
Political & Legal:
Liberalized Indian Economy. Despite economic liberalization, various political parties are opposed to open Indian legal service market for foreign player. Under Indian Advocates Act of 1961, foreign law firms are not allowed to open offices in India. International law firms are allowed to function only as liaison office/ foreign legal consultant, Very slow legal system in India. Law firms cannot market their services directly.

Economic:
Exponentially increasing market for legal services. Global spending on legal services is expected to reach US$480 billion by 2010. Increasing FDI in various sectors in India will boost legal expertise requirement in areas such as intellectual property rights, environmental law, foreign direct investment etc. Growth in the IT and infrastructure sector giving a fillip to legal services.

Social:
Companies preference of arbitration over going to court in settling dispute. Continued shortage of good quality lawyers. Lack of educational opportunities for the people to get expertise of legal services industry.

Technological:
Use of modern technology such as internet, mobile etc., increased the effectiveness of people and hence, productivity across all sectors. Integration of technology with systems and processes helped industry to serve client more efficiently.

Cultural:
Did not find any relevant cultural factor affecting the problem in the case.

SWOT Analysis
Strengths:
Accessibility to senior members in the firm A very healthy environment to work in for the employees. Promotes work-life balance at the workplace. Keeping in mind the employees intellectual development while taking up any projects. The firm maintains an open door policy, anybody can walk in to any senior managements cabin for discussions. Career growth is merit based The firm conducts annual firm retreats to satisfy the happiness requirement that the employees expect from a job. The firm paid its employees very well. This is important because the bonuses that a firm issues is a motivating factor for the employees which effects their satisfaction levels.

Weakness:
For increments an annual performance reviews is not used, it is given as and when needed. This could create dissatisfaction among members, for example an employee who

has been putting a lot of effort and does not get a promotion, but a new comer might impress the boss and get promotion in no time. All the decisions for allocation for different projects were taken by Mahotra. This could be a weakness because a mistake made by her could create a lot of problems for the firm.

Opportunities:
Recruitment of skilled employees to take advantage of growth in new sectors in order to have the first movers advantage.

Threats:
With an increase in demand because of the entry of law firms in India, it is possible that the firm loses its competitive advantage as the foreign law firms would have similar or may be a better HR management methods.

List of Factors:
Talent crunch in the industry 3 Rs of effective People management system (PMS) a. Recruitment b. Reward c. Retention Liberalization of Indian Legal Services Encouragement and Motivation Organizational Culture Open door policy Job satisfaction. Teamwork and bonding Performance management Work environment (Work-life balance)

Critical Factors
1. Talent crunch in the industry

Industry is facing an acute shortage of legal professionals. With ample employment opportunities in the industry attrition became a real concern. Effective human resource management became essential for law firms. The ability to hire and retain talent was becoming a source of competitive advantage.
2. 3 Rs of effective PMS People and their knowledge and skills are the core assets to Singhania and Partners. An effective people management system revolves round three Rs of recruitment, reward and retention. Recruit the people who are skilled, hardworking and will be committed to the organization Rewarding people based merit so it helps in employee motivation. Maintain the organizational culture such that they can balance their work and life and manage the HR policies, reward systems such that they satisfy all their needs, and in turn we can retain them.

These 3 Rs should be effectively maintained without bias, otherwise there is a possibility of employee dissatisfaction and he may leave the job.
3. Encouragement and motivation

Asking the employees to present on different topics from different legal areas encourages them and motivates them to study more. It builds their confidence and lead to growth of organization. Also while outsourcing Singhania and Partners main criteria in accepting processes is people because they want assign the process based on their skill so it will stimulate them. This process if not effectively managed and controlled will not support the associates learning and growth opportunities and their needs will not be satisfied.
4. Organizational Culture:

As there is an open door policy at Singhania and Partners, anybody can walk in to any senior managements cabin for discussion. This shows that the top management was easily approachable to the employees. Through bi-weekly open house every employee even the junior most lawyers are encouraged to present on some topics from different legal areas. Individuals who are presenting differ in their values and skills, so the organizational culture should be such that every employee is treated accordingly.

Theoretical framework:
The People Capability Maturity Model is a framework used by organizations to address critical people issues. Based on the best current practices in fields such as human resources, knowledge management, and organizational development, the People CMM guides organizations in improving their processes for managing and developing their workforces. The People CMM helps organizations characterize the maturity of their workforce practices, establish a program of continuous workforce development, set priorities for improvement actions, integrate workforce development with process improvement, and establish a culture of excellence.

Singhania and Partners had put in place a very effective Human Resource system. They had a very good record of managing and retaining talent. However, they were operating in an industry which had a high attrition rate. Also there was a chance of foreign players entering the legal

service industry in India. Their concern was to balance the needs of the workforce and that of the firm. As can be seen from the above diagram, the firm had developed its HR practices to the Defined stage where it could identify primary competencies and align them with the workforce activities. The firm needed to move to the Managed stage which was the next level in HR practices. There is a need to manage the organizational growth in workforce capabilities. From thereon, they need to move on to continuously improving methods for developing personal and organizational competencies. Organization Culture:

The organization culture can be seen as an effective barrier between one organization to another. It conveys a sense of identity to its members and serves as a sense making and control mechanism for fitting employees into an organization. Singhania and company have a very good culture in their firm. This can serve as a competitive advantage in the face of increasing competition from global firms. The legal services industry is plagued with high attrition rates. In such a scenario, the firm stands to gain. The employees are in general happy with the work culture and want to stay in the organization. Moreover, this happiness with the organization culture is reflected in the performance.

Talent Management Systems:

Talent Management is the process of planning, recruiting, developing, managing and compensating employees throughout the organization. Talent Management is in essence, a career management tool for the organization. Singhania and company would have to align their employees skills, performance feedback and development in such a way as to have a succesfull career. This would also help to match the competencies of the firm with the employees.

Workforce Planning

E-Recruiting

Compensation Managemetn

Strategic Goals

Learning Management systems

Performance Management

Recommendations:
There must be a system to keep track of employees who are leaving the organisation. There must be a round of exit interviews and the employees must serve a notice period of a reasonable time. there must be a policy to retain the existing the present employees. Their grievances must be addressed. A feedback system would be helpful in this regard. The feedback system can also serve as a platform to highlight the strengths and weaknesses of each of the employee in the firm.

The firm needs to bring in a system of Talent Management to effectively address the issue of aligning the employee skills and knowledge with the requirement of the organisation.

The work culture at Singhania and Partners is very good. This needs to be maintained and possibly improved continuously. There is a chance of foreign firms entering the Indian legal services industry. The firm this can be the key competitive advantage in face of competition.

Course of Action:
Right now we assume they are in level 3 of People Capability Maturity Model(P-CMM) which is the Defined stage. There has to be a system in place to take the firm from the 3rd stage to 4th stage and from then on move to continuous improvement system as mentioned in the P-CMM model. This would include putting in place a Talent Management system to address the needs of employees further. The firm need to move on to higher levels of the model to ensure it can sustainable competitive advantage. Singhania and Partners is in a very good position to be the leading Legal solutions provider in the industry. With proper HR management systems in place, it can effectively ward off the threat of increased attrition and global competition