SISL's UPILI: Streamlining HR processes

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» There is a formal structure you can use to improve the people-related processes in your organisation, and do so continuously. » Lessons from this PCMM® certification case, with pointers to the subsequent improvements in business operations.

"When you have the best in the industry working for you, you have no choice but to deliver the best." This statement, made by K.R. Upili, vice-president, human resources, of software development and systems integration firm Siemens Information Systems Ltd. (SISL), is not meant to be an empty brag. As part of the multinational Siemens Business Services, and with clientele like the Times of India, UTI, ONGC and Jet Airways, anything less than the best would mean a loss of credibility, and business.

And it's not just about having the best people; it's also a question of keeping them there and getting the best out of them. So to ensure that its workforce retained a high level of competence and motivation, SISL went in for and was awarded a PCMM® (People Capability Maturity Model) Level 3 certificate for its software development SBU (strategic business unit) in Bangalore.

ASSESSED BENEFITS

The PCMM® assessment has had a direct fallout on two major counts-greater employee satisfaction and improved profitability of the centre.

For the assessment, SISL introduced a series of innovative HR initiatives that had a clear linkage with business strategy, and as such acceptance was very high with business managers. According to Upili, employee satisfaction has gone up and attrition is at an all-time low. He says, "We are already seeing the results-an improved image leading to better attraction, higher score on employee satisfaction and retention rate (improvement from 87 per cent to 94 per cent)-one of the best in the Indian IT industry."

This initiative has also brought in optimum utilisation of manpower through better skill mapping, leading to improved profitability of the software engineering centre. Sandeep Kohli, chief manager, corporate HR, at SISL says, "With SISL achieving its targets despite downtrend in the industry, business managers have clearly acknowledged the impact of PCMM®-based HR initiatives on their business."

Improved profitability has been driven by the fact that corporate customers know what to expect from a PCMM®-assessed vendor. Upili says, "Software being a totally people/knowledge driven business, customers are keen to see our capabilities in the people area. With an external certification like PCMM®, we are able to satisfy their concerns."

NEED FOR BENCHMARK

Getting there, however, wasn't easy. Two things were critical for SISL's continued business success-software quality and quality of people processes. Having got a CMM® (capability maturity model) Level 5 certification from SEI^SM (Software Engineering Institute), the issue of software quality was addressed. But the more critical point of ensuring quality in people processes remained. As Kohli says, "If customer is God, then our people are no less than CEOs."

And with the Bangalore centre having 300 employees involved in software development and system integration projects for Siemens Germany in the areas of medical, transportation and automobiles, process quality needed to be monitored and standardised. As a first step, SISL introduced several innovative HR strategies with a dual focus on being business-centric as well as people-centric. These included:

• Proactive involvement of HR in business;
• Service level agreements between HR and business managers;
• Manpower planning and utilisation;
• Objective performance management system and tracking across the organisation;
• Compensation/rewards 100 per cent linked to performance;
• Individual development plans for all employees;
• SAP HR implementation;
• Defined communication channels; and,
• Extensive HR intranet for policy and information transparency.

But internal initiatives are not always enough, as there is a possibility of slackening on quality. Besides, it's not likely that corporate customers will be impressed enough by such measures to bring about an improvement in business prospects. For that, what is needed is an international benchmark that sets a certain standard.

Kohli says, "Although our HR initiatives were yielding positive results and adding value, we were still on the lookout for a benchmark for our initiatives to measure our progress. Basically we wanted to make sure that we were not satisfied with incremental improvement and see where we stand vis-ˆ-vis the outside world-quality standards and other organisations."

QAI's CHATRATH: PCMM® is for all

PEOPLE'S MODEL

While struggling with this objective, SISL came across PCMM®-a framework of practices devised by SEI^SM to help organisations in attracting, motivating and retaining employees-which had a lot of synergy with its own strategies and practices.

Upili states the reasons for choosing PCMM®: "Instead of convincing ourselves in HR and others on the direction we had taken, we now had a model that other companies have embarked upon. The reason we decided to go along with PCMM® was the demand it makes on the total organisation (HR and business leaders) to take collective onus of the people responsibility."

Interestingly, the decision of SISL to go in for PCMM® after software CMM® is not unique. As Navyug Mohnot, executive director of QAI (Quality Assurance Institute) India, the firm that carried out SISL's certification, says, "One trend that has emerged through an SEI^SM study is that among organisations that have achieved a high CMM® rating (say 4 or 5), over 40 per cent are adopting the PCMM® model also to sustain a high maturity environment."

However that also does not mean that PCMM® is suitable only for IT firms. Nina Chatrath, vice-president of QAI, says that firms across all industries can adopt the PCMM® model. She says, "Any firm that needs employees to contribute to business objectives can use PCMM® to align its people practices with those objectives."

GETTING THERE

The practices of PCMM® were introduced in SISL in October 2000, with focus on competence management and development. These required them to:

• Identify core competencies required to meet organisation goals in future;
• Identify roles in the organisation and desired competencies for all roles;
• Analyse existing competencies in the company (aggregation of individual competencies);
• Find out gaps at the individual as well as organisation level; and
• Make a development plan at individual and organisation level.

These measures helped them a lot for the assessment and beyond. Kohli says, "We had put in a lot of effort and expected that it would not only enhance the image of HR but also trigger continuous improvement in all areas of HR."

SISL's KOHLI: Benchmark for HR

Auditors from QAI carried out the Level 3 assessment in September 2001. On why they chose QAI to carry out the assessment, Kohli says, "We did not consider any other assessor as QAI were the ones who brought the model to India; also our prior experience in software CMM® proved their credibility." The actual assessment for PCMM® proceeded thus:

After an initial briefing of all employees by the auditors, employee satisfaction questionnaires on all areas of HR were administered to at least 60-70 per cent of employees. Employees and managers at different levels and all process owners were interviewed separately and in groups on all key process areas. Then, all process, administration and measurement documents were examined.

All these findings were brought together to see if the organisation met the desired goals and then the results were declared. The total exercise, carried out over 10 days, cost them approximately Rs 12 lakh on account of audit fee and assessment tools, at the end of which they were awarded the PCMM® Level 3 certificate.

But as Kohli points out: "Getting the certification is not what excBPO us, but having adopted PCMM® to achieve continuous improvement and maturity in our people processes is what we consider our real achievement."

QAI's MOHNOT: Trend towards PCMM®

CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT

Getting a PCMM® certificate must not be taken as the end of the road. In fact it is just the beginning of a company's tryst with continued improvements in quality processes. As Ajay Batra, lead assessor and consulting partner, QAI, says, "Process definition and implementation is a ceaseless activity; as the culture unfolds/ remoulds itself, appropriate processes must be adjusted accordingly."

Keeping that in mind, SISL is not willing to sit on its laurels. Further to the PCMM® Level 3 certification, it has optimised its processes on the basis of employee inputs, experience and regular effectiveness measurement. There is a regular internal audit done on all processes by a team of quality, business and HR employees.

Upili reflects his company's faith in the model when he states, "In the next round we are going for Level 5 for practically the whole organisation with software development, telecom, health care and major projects SBU." That would cover approximately 80 per cent of the entire firm.

At a time when retaining the best talent in a company has become probably as important as any other business objective, PCMM® appears to be a vehicle that companies could do with.

alokesh.bhattacharyya@intoday.com