I come across this interesting conversation in a message board about employee

motivation and company culture. there was a question raise regarding employee
management in Pakistan. Its a long conversation but an interesting the insight it
offers on IT company owners and managers point of views

Question Asked

Hi,

I pay competitive salary and bonuses to my employees in Pakistan however I have

difficulty motivating employees in Pakistan working on IT projects, I find it hard
to manage and motivate them to work and complete just their duty hours. Apart from
asking for unfair salaries and bonuses they don't do much.
No only they either work using my equipment and hours for external projects also at
the same time keep looking for new positions regularly. After I fire them they come
back asking for job again in a few months.

Please tell me how to handle Pakistani Employees?

One Person point of view:

How do you hire? Do you hire the types that join you for a 5-10K increment (ie very
little)? When performing interviews, ask specifically why they want to leave their
current employer. Anyone who says that they're looking for higher pay alone is a
big red flag; do not hire. Anyone who comes up with a bullshit reason and cannot
satisfy you, Do Not Hire. These people are the least loyal and are job hoppers.
Avoid them like the plague. And always reference check without exception.
Do you believe in what you do? Working the 9-5 shift, salaried and routine is all
fine but if you want high retention; you must strive for a higher goal. Why is it
that you do what you do? Eg, Ericsson does not sell telecom-boxes, they sell better
communications solutions that help people communicate better. Management needs to
believe in this vision and constantly indoctrinate the employees with it. A higher
calling gives more meaning and clarity thus more satisfaction. Look to yourself and
realize why you do what you do.
Do you eliminate the bad? If you get 50 emails 30 of them so-so, 19 of them
speaking good about you and 1 of them bad mouthing you, saying bad stuff about you;
which one do you open first? You open the bad one, despite all the positive stuff.
The bad is always more powerful than the good. You don't think long about something
good you did but if you have a fight, you'll fret over it the next few days. So,
eliminate the bad. This is a very low bar, a great company would work towards
making the work environment great as well but at the minimum you should get rid of
glaring problems.
In addition to above remember that where ever there will be a social system there
will always be politics. This is not a bad thing; your employee #1 will always
wield more influence than #132. What you need to work on is to eliminate bad
politics.
Maintain high trust. Don't say things you don't mean. Don't pass on the blame to
higher management. Don't make promises you can't keep. Even in earnestly, don't say
things which are out of your control esp. comments about the future. This works
both ways.
The above point works both ways; the employees must also work to maintain and
establish trust. Reward those who maintain their word (deadline, deliverable,
commitment etc). For those who don't; work with them to learn why and fix their
issues. If it can't be fixed, fire them. Eg: if a programmer is bad in giving
estimates its usually because he's too new & needs more experience to realize what
is productivity. Another reason is incompetency in the domain of Software
Estimation (you can fix this by having a senior explain to him how to do better
estimates) finally you have generally domain-area incompetency (fire right away
unless you have a lot of money to train your people while they're incompetent) or
lack of motivation (find out why the de-motivation is in place and fix it).
Create a positive company culture. Does your company believe in respect and
equality (this is so basic but then again, this is Pakistan). Are the opinions of
employees important and do they show up in important company decisions? Do you
value and encourage mentorship? How do you deal with failure? Do you have a
"forgive and remember" policy (good)? Or do you punish those who make mistakes
(bad)?
Bond with your employees. Create a bond that is social, based upon good shared-
experiences. Have lunch with them, go on a hike with them. Understand them. When it
comes to rewarding them do so in ways that is valuable to them. One employee might
prefer getting more days off as a reward, another might love music and would love a
signed CD of coke studio another might like a monetary raise, another might like a
tardy benefit (can come late) etc. Same applies for reprimands, some require mild
and some require a stronger reprimand. One-size-does-not-fit-all.
Give ownership. Make employees responsible for key parts of the product or service
and make them accountable. If these products/services are delivered then cheer
these employees. Giving them responsibility makes them think about the
product/service as their own and changes their prospective on 'work'. If it's
theirs, they'll do whatever they can to make it successful rather than clocking in
at 9 and out by 5.
Be a great leader. The most important reason why people stay is because of good
people, great leadership. Make people want to work for you. Inspire people. Be
good. Show everyone just how great a manager/leader can be. Be visionary. Share
your vision. Lead the troops. If you're the commander, your troops must be able to
fall in line behind you and fight any battle with you even a losing one.
The two-way-street: As an employer, you pay your employee market or above market
salary. You will do so even when the employee is going through a tough time. You
will understand that they can't always perform at 110% and life sometimes through
them a curve ball. Be generous and care. In return your employees should understand
that you as a company can have rough patches as well and when these patches do come
in, they should stand by you and fight to see another day. But if a relationship
doesn't help you or the employee then part ways. There's no point in being in a
relationship that doesn't help you.
You're a team, not a family: Families don't fire non-performing members but sports
team do. Sports teams have a goal and families are primarily a support structure.
Act like the best major league team. Hire good people, retain good people, fire
non-performing players. Keep hydrated.
There's a lot more that goes into making a company culture that becomes a great
place to work and you hire great people. People will work for a lot less for these
benefits (in terms of pay). Ask yourself: if we pay the same salaries as another
company, why would a candidate join us not them? Or why will their employee join us
at no additional monetary compensation. Your answer to this question will be key in
determining how you are better.

Further reading:
Peopleware: Productive Projects and Teams (mandatory reading for software/IT
managers)
The No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn't
(by Bob Sutton)
Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose (by Zappos Inc CEO)
The Netflix company culture (presentation on their amazing culture)

Another person reply:

1. How do you hire? Do you hire the types that join you for a 5-10K increment
(ie very little)? When performing interviews, ask specifically why they want tp
leave their current employer. Anyone who says that they're looking for higher pay
alone is a big red flag; do not hire. Anyone who comes up with a bullshit reason
and cannot satisfy you, Do Not Hire. These people are the least loyal and are job
hoppers. Avoid them like the plague. And always reference check without exception.
so if increment is more than 10k then its fine :).

hire people who are hard working, smart and disciplined... and then work hard on
retaining them

there is no point in putting efforts on people who cann't be trusted..

Having said that here is what you can do to take control of a somewhat hopeless
situation:

1) everyone should face windows/walls.. so that everyone can see everyone's desk..
2) have firewall in place and put rules on job sites, university sites, facebook,
youtube etc. you can have off-hour access rules for them.
3) regularly ask them to grade each other.. 360 reviews..
4) never hire back the fired one.

about the so-called contradictions.. trust is not in black and white.

there is a gray.

my experience so far is that most people (in Pakistan at least) fail

to distinguish between use and abuse of services at work e.g. printer,
Internet, timings.. So by enforcing some discipline you are actually
helping them in longer run as they are themselves too naive to
understand that.

also irrespective of how trust-worthy someone is there are a few

things which have no place in workplace.. e.g. facebook.. employers
pay employees to do work or to spend time on things that helps them
perform better. if there is a cricket match going on and its really
important then one should take casual leave stay at home and spare the
employer for that day instead of checking cricinfo every 5 min. that
is what casual leave can be used for i.e. take time off from your work
to do whatever you want.

First person reply

This is an obvious question of company culture and like I've said, one size does
not fit all. The company you want might want to monitor everything people access
over the Internet, put restrictions on them and trust them not make intelligent
decisions and think that they are naive.

The company culture which I propagate is the opposite of it. We're fine with
employees accessing Facebook, Youtube, Orkut or whatever it is they want. If it
helps you relax and unwind, have fun! In return I know you'll get the job done. I
know the milestones we've agreed upon will be met by you. I don't want to
micromanage you if you say you'll complete assignment X and delivered by CoB day
after tomorrow then you can do whatever you like, come in at whatever time you like
so long as you get the job done. But if you don't deliver then I will come down on
you and reevaluate you.

People are not naive at all. They differentiate but choose to ignore it. Whether
this behaviour is encouraged is company culture specific. My senior employees would
never allow newed employees to goof-off in ways that would hurt the team and the
company. In return, I make sure I protect them and listen to them.

second person reply

Although the suggestion I gave was for "a hopeless situation" but i do think such
rules (if thought necessary and inevitable) are better be implemented from day 1 as
changing such rules in later, specially at wrong time, have negative effect. By the
way, in my company firewall is off (it was active some time ago when there was
abuse).

Still, there are many different types of companies.. my perception is that the kind
of company that i own or any other similar company that has around dozen or two
people cannot have the same sort of liberty as, lets say, google has. Most People
join these small companies for at max 2 years.. So one really need to see
financial and technical impact of all decisions for this duration.. in my
situation, where we are doing custom development, i will rather enforce my people
to have school like atmosphere so that when they don't have real task they better
be spending time on upcoming relevant technology - doing assignments, so that they
are ready for next project from word go..

plus i really believe that in Pakistan a large number of developers, if properly

supervised are more productive when compared to being given a free ticket to "be
themselves".

PS: for my company, i like my developers to come on time and go on time.. and
'relax' with their family and have quality (24 - 9) hours off office. as i am into
services so i definitely want my staff to be on time.

1. Peopleware: Productive Projects and Teams (mandatory reading for

software/IT managers)
a very interesting book but there are a few advices in it on which you must think
twice before implementing them as it in Pakistan.