Importance of 7Ps in Employee Life Cycle Management

Making of a better employee…and the organization

Are you fascinated by the idea of joining a company that takes care of your overall personality and growth needs apart from providing you just a job?  A company that not only happens to be a support in your career but also a fuel to make you fly to your desired career and destinations. Then, you have actually spotted the right place because this paper is about developing such a firm. With the help of a model that is not only proposed keeping in mind the nuances of an employee’s life cycle but also his/ her career aspirations. This model is based on the 7Ps- Passion,Perception, Performance, Potential, Personality, Partners and Process. The model builds on the backbone of the HIAR model and is an extension of the model with the most important Ps in an employee’s lifecycle.

      Fig. 7 Ps and their expansions

Fig. The HIAR and 7 Ps amalgamation model

The seven Ps are very relevant to an employee in his lifetime at an organization. But this model stresses on the need of certain specific Ps at various stages of HIAR. The first stage that is the recruitment or the Hiring stage comprises asking suitable interview questions and understanding the prospects’ professional goals and aspirations. The hiring of an individual should be based on his/ her talent as well, because the talent can be recognized and developed into a skill, whereas a skillful person might not have the talent and would not be having so even if tried.  Passion plays an important part of the hiring stage as it determines the true calling of an individual thus ensuring a well connected and interested employee. Similar to this the Potential of a prospective employee is a big factor while deciding his place, because this is what decides his/ her future growth in that role. Personality is another factor that determines an employee’s suitability for a specific profile. Whereas, Performance gives a picture of an individual in terms of how he has been performing in his/ her professional career, which is again an important component in deriving the best for your organization.

Talking about the second stage that is the Inspire stage, a fact that is very true is that motivation and enthusiasm which are a result of inspiration are the components that keep an employee going and also maintain their performance levels. The more you inspire and motivate your employee the more likely is the possibility for him/ her to perform well. So, get ready to be Passionate and make your employee passionate about working with you. The Perception of an employee towards organization and the organization’s perception towards an employee both are important, because that depicts compatibility of an employee with the organization and vice versa.  Making the new joinee understand his position, roles and responsibilities is also very important. Creating a well defined KRA for the employee and providing him/ her clear indication on his job is very crucial for any employer. The Processes in an organization determines the lubrication and the speed of functioning of an organization. So, the point here is to make the processes like Problem Resolution, time compliance, training and development etc. and it has to be developed into fool proof processes. Potential is a crucial P that determines a person’s ability to perform, also to sustain in a profile. The Performance of an employee can be consistently enhanced by giving him/her regular feedback and by developing the sense of ownership in that person.

Now comes the third and a very crucial stage, the Admire stage, a stage that actually ensures that an employee stays engaged and committed towards work. This stage calls for all the 7 Ps and hence becomes a robust platform to see the Passion, Performance and Potential of an employee. When I talk about Partner as one of the crucial Ps then I refer to the internal as well as external partners that are your colleagues as well as your clients. They become important and a source of business in due course of time, and one should never take them for granted, as in this globalised world, there are far much more options than we could possibly think of. So, start admiring your employees & clients well on time. This will ensure a continued and enriched relationship between your organization and them. After all this has the power to positively affect the balance sheet of any organization.

The final stage of the employee lifecycle is the Retire stage…this stage deserves a special place because it’s needed to smoothly complete the full employee life cycle. The relationship of an employee with an organization ripens over time and it requires a respectful treatment in lieu of the commitment that the employee has give to the organization. This stage involves the Process and Perception as the two Ps since the smooth transition of an employee to a retired life is enabled through robust process and policies while on the other hand the prospects of an employee in other role or organization depends big time on the perception of an employee, in the eyes of his colleagues and his own self. Also not to ignore this fact that if an employee leave any organization on good note, he/she will always speak good things about the previous organization among his friends/colleagues in the new organization. While on the other hand if he/she leaves with frustration then it is surely going to affect the credibility of the organization in the outside world. So be cautious about the message that will go from a resigned employee among the masses. Moreover all of us are concerned about the credibility of our organization and want people to admire our company’s brand. This would increases the prospects to attract the best talent and customers.

With this, I am closing this paper of mine and definitely hope that this model stays for a good read and utilization to all my readers.

I wish to present more such insights in my following blogs…signing off for now.

Smiles

Ritu

Deputy Manager (Corp HR)

HCL Technologies