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Can I pick your brain for a few minutes? (Thanks)

First, a little bit of background.

A small software shop (let us call it ‘The Shop’) that I am helping out as a consultant has a four year old relationship with a strong and stable European client; a relationship that they are working hard to retain. In this economic phase of a high demand for experienced software professionals, The Shop’s relatively unknown name does not attract a lot of resources from the top tier, but it has still managed to create and retain a decent team with them for the last 3 years.

Now, the problem.

The trouble started two months ago, when one of The Shop’s lead developers left for greener pastures (read a larger firm paying a few thousand Rs.). He left on good terms with the shop’s management (and is freelancing for them now), but he also left a big hole in The Shop’s small structure that needed a quick replacement. Meanwhile, their client was requesting a further increase in team size to handle the ever-increasing workload.
This is when a Mr. K, a very experienced programmer and a former employee of The Shop, showed an interest in rejoining, as the pastures that he had left for earlier were drying up (read paycuts). The Shop was quite happy to have Mr. K back as he would have partially patched up the widening hole, and already possessed prior domain knowledge.

The above information is important as it shows that:

• The shop has a cool work environment, a place that people can comfortably come back to.
• The people running the shop are open-minded enough to welcome former employees back into their team instead of holding grudges.
• The grass on the other side usually looks greener than it is.

Anyway, The Shop was happy, the client was happy, and while the shop started scheduling interviews to hire support team members for Mr. K, the client sent one of their project managers from Europe to Pakistan, so that he may train and understand the team for better offshore coordination. The Shop’s CEO also went out of the way to attend Mr. K’s numerous phone calls, and agreed to most of his demands, so eventually, Mr. K signed a contract with the shop last week.

Two days after Mr. K signed the contract, the CEO told me that he had just gotten a one-liner email from Mr. K telling him that he won’t be joining The Shop after all. No apologies, no explanations and no mention of the penalties for such an action that are included as a standard in the contract. The CEO also heard from the grapevine that Mr. K has opted to join another firm.

Despite being an outsider for the most part, I was boggled by Mr. K’s arrogant and unprofessional behavior. Ignoring it this time was not an option as such behavior is not anomalous anymore - I have seen this happen more than once in the last few years. The Shop’s CEO also wants to do something about this incident instead of letting it go, and I personally think he is right because a) Mr. K signed a contract, and is legally obliged to fulfill it, or pay the penalty, and b) This action reflects very badly upon the Pakistani software industry as a whole - the project manager has arrived and is asking ‘Where is the guy that I have to train? The one who is joining from tomorrow.’

So my questions to you are:

1. Has such a thing ever happened to you?
2. If you were the shop’s CEO, what would you have done?

I am hoping that the discussion in the comments will help us in formulating an SOP/checklist that would be helpful to all shops that face a similar situation in the future.

Ahmed Siddiqui writes about some of the trends he’s witnessed in the software industry regarding HR. Here’s what he had to say:

• In most of the organizations the hierarchy is:
  • CTO/Dept. Head >> PM >>TL >> SSE >> SE
• Most of the Resource Managers (Team Leads) are planning to become Project Manager
• Senior technical positions like Architect, are not available for technical people
• Senior Software Developers are planning to become Team Leads to get raise in benefits instead of focusing on scarce senior technical positions
• Most of the resources have working experience of small-size offshore projects, they don’t have the experience and expertise of Enterprise Solutions
• Most of the fresh graduates prefer better salary on career growth & learning
• After initial 2 years, having some quick job-switches, some of them realize that if they could learn, they could earn more. Then they change their mind to prefer learning over adhoc monitory benefits
• It’s becoming general perception among software industry that to become a project manager is the shortest path to get fat salaries
• Computer Science Graduates are preferring to get admission in MBA instead of MS
• In MS(Computer Science), Project Management is becoming a buzzword
• It seems that in few years, we will have greater number of Managers and lesser number of technical resources, at least in software development

Agree or disagree? Let us know!

Going through my usual read list, two posts (here and here) perked up my interest. As a part of my day job, I get to advise and effect changes in HR systems of a variety of clients in the course of a project. During the last couple of assignments, I’ve been focusing on getting HR to realize the value of a talented employee vs a mediocre employee and then implement policies benefiting each. Obviously, the reasoning here is that an IT organization is only as good as its people and if you want to be the best, you need to keep the best around, and we all know that this doesn’t happen. Talented people jump ship quickly, while the less talented people stay on. How should you be tackling this situation? Read on.

Read the rest …

I last wrote on Brightspyre and its foray into specializing job boards for universities. That was when they signed a single campus. Now I hear they’ve signed on the complete set of campuses of NU-FAST (khi, lhr, isb and pwr). Not a bad start, as they’ve already got over 14 job posted on the site from companies such as Jinn Technologies, Bentley, Tekenable, Digital Prodigy and Orgoo as well as Cogilent Solutions (the owners of Brightspyre).

Since the last post, i was curious as to what were the benefits to be had from having a university specific job board. Usman Bangash (Manager BD - Brightspyre) and Ahmed Jawad (CTO - Cogilent Solutions) were kind enough to answer these questions for me.

Read the rest …

I wonder if anyone noticed on my last post, Why arent you happy at work, and what companies should do to fix it, every point has the word ‘me’ in it. Employees keep saying give me this, give me that, and when they dont get it, they cry foul and label the employer as ‘cheap’ or ‘myopic’ (okay, so no one uses the term myopic in pakistan… but you get the picture right?). Employers, on the other hand, say employees are becoming a pain in the neck rather than an asset and always seem to want more.. never content with what they’re given. Afterall, we give above market salaries or we give xyz benefits or we give an excellent work environment, in short, we give and we give, yet its never enough and the employee still leaves. Varied arguments, yet with a link between them… I’ll present my views on this situation and present a possible solution, both from the perspective of an employer and an employee, go through them and give me yours.

Read the rest …

The topic of HR and related issues is going very hot here, what with Salman Munir and his battery of posts on the subject. (Way to go man! you’re making commenter’s creep out of the woodwork!!)

The discussion on 25k led me to think about one additional point in a employer-employee relationship, and something which i believe is seriously lacking in our hiring processes, called motivation. Yes, M-o-t-i-v-a-t-i-o-n.

I keep hearing people wanting more pay, people switching for greener pastures, people not happy with their jobs, but very rarely have i heard, ‘i wasn’t motivated enough to stay there’ and yet that is one of the major reasons people switch in the first place (according to LifeHack.org). I’ve seen people stay at the same job for years without much financial gain, while others who switched even though they were being paid through the nose, and the only sane reason behind this (IMO) is the motivation one has for doing their job.

Coming to the IT industry in specific, what would motivate developers, testers, technical writers, project managers or even senior managers to stick with one company? I’ll tell you what i think, you tell me what you think.

Read the rest …

One must make a habit to learn from whatever experience can be gained during the course of each day. My new employer requires employees to open accounts at the Faysal Bank (this one is located in Garden Town, Lahore). So I made my way there this morning to face customer service hell.

Here are five online business lessons I learned from my visit:

Their business is a privilege

Banks do not open a new account unless you can prove that you are socially acceptable and thus make available a reference who has an account with the same branch. It is just like getting into a club or emailing friends for invites to a particularly hot startup.

Faysal Bank Limited wanted me to deposit Rs. 5,000 in order to open my account. I had a check with me worth many times more than that, and my employer would be depositing a significant amount every month. But thats just not good enough for Faysal bank.

Do not charge for the privilege of gaining your customer’s/client’s business. I do not even prefer to get any more information than their email (for unique id) and password (for access to your system, only if necessary). Allow them to be comfortable, let them in to see what you have to offer. Offer reminders to add to their profile by showing how it will enhance their experience.

Show them the way

I new there was going to be trouble as soon as I became a ping pong ball between two bank employees who could not decide where I should go to get my account opened. I was new in the environment and it was annoying. All I needed was clear direction. If the bank had any sign pointing me to the right person, I would not have felt like leaving.

First time visitors to your online business feel exactly the same. They come with a mix of expectation and curiosity. If you can not show them how to do what they want to achieve in the first few, precious minutes of acquisition, they are going to walk straight out of there by clicking the back button.

Perform A/B, multivariate testing and engage sample of users in pre-launch surveys to see just how they react when the reach your home page. It is going to save you a lot of bad word of mouth later on. Also, do not over burden them with too much information. Introduce and establish your tips / help methodology early on and provide just enough information for them to be productive. Read the rest …

I’m writing this entry from Fast NU Lahore Job Fair and lets not even go there about the fair, that’s a completely separate entry.

I have interviewed about 30 or so students, all of them soon to be graduated in their respective fields like IT, HR, Marketing, Telecom engineering etc. When you ask them their expectation about salary, the uniform response is:

Question: What are your salary expectations?
Answer: It should be at least 25k +

Question: Why 25k, how you came about this figure?
Answer: Sir, I have spent X amount on my education and now have a BS / MBA degree in so and so field. And I think this starting salary would only compensate for the cost I have spent on my education.

Question: You understand that initially, any company be it my own or my clients, they would need to spend some time on your training to make you productive. Do you think it would be wise for any company to pay Rs. 25k to an employee who is going to perform 3~6 months after this training period?
Answer: Sir, XYZ bank is paying Rs. X to their MTO’s, then why we should not be benefited of the package?

When you start a dialogue with them about their expectations and the current market situation; they do realize the reality but then 25k rules ☺

How this happened? How the students have defined 25K, 30K or 35K as a benchmark for a starting MTO level position? Let’s discuss and is this a right conclusion from the students?

It’s not a typo; here is what I’m writing this entry about –Appraisals. In every industry, annual / bi-annual appraisals are a very important event in the HR calendar. The employees eagerly await fruits of their labor to see how the companies value their efforts, in terms of salary increments and promotions. This year is no different! Many companies have just completed the appraisals and others are aiming at June for their yearly or bi-annual appraisals respectively.  I would like to start a discussion about this very important aspect, which leads to attrition rates / recruitment drives and let everyone share their opinions. The aim is to identify best practices, which have been tested in our industry and have lead to keep a healthy balance.

In my humble opinion the appraisals do play a vital role in shaping the IT industry. End result of appraisals can be one of the following:

1. Employees think the company has not done justice with them on not giving them a respectable raise, therefore they should move
2. Employees are satisfied with the appraisals and feel motivated to work & stay
3. Either satisfied or not, employees use the upcoming appraisal range to jump for a sizeable raise with next prospect employer

I’ve come across some interesting individual comments in my recent interviews with candidates:

• “The appraisal should justify the rate of inflation which we are effected with in our daily lives, experts rate it around 20%”
• “Appraisal is our right, what companies should also start doing is giving bonuses based on revenue from projects which we have successfully completed”
• “I really worked hard to maintain clients and made sure that I give my total dedicated output on the project; and at the end I get just 10% raise – its not fair!”
• “ABC company (top 5 player) is giving X% increments this year to SSE with Y years of experience, my company is only giving 50% of it. That’s why I feel I should move.”

Now from the other side of the fence – the Employer!

• “What should be a decent rate of appraisal, for 25-person team operation – 10%, 15%, —?”“Should we have increment slabs, like for 50K plus 10% etc?
• “Should promotion with its respective package be enough or do we need to give some bonus?”
• “The candidate qualifies promotion but we already have resources on the same level. I think we will let him have the same title but make the salary in range with the others.”
• “Is Bi-annual increment system more applicable for the industry keeping in view the attrition rates?”

I hope this would lead to a healthy discussion. The above comments I have shared are from my own personal experience with both clients and candidates during my recruitment practice at Radical Hire

First it was city specific, then it was company specific, now its university specific. Brightspyre has been constantly expanding and innovating itself as a leading provider to job-search portals in Pakistan, and this recent development had me take my admiration of the team up a notch.

On 15th April, they launched a job board specifically targeting the students of GIKI.

In my opinion, this is a genuine need in the country. With so much time and effort expended by companies in scouting universities for top new employees, having it extend into the online world was the only logical choice. The way it works is simple, and is benefiting to both sides of the equation.

Read the rest …