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Ravi Pratap Singh

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Ravi Pratap Singh

Co-Founder & Director

C2 Workshop

Ravi Pratap Singh is a member of:

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Insights Of Your Company and Its HR Strategies

C2 Workshop specializes in the design and development of custom elearning solutions. Since its inception in 2003, C2 has successfully delivered and deployed over 3800 hours of elearning content for corporates across South Asia, Asia Pacific, Middle East, Europe and North America.

Our HR strategies are based on the simple principle that “an organisation is as good as its people”. So if we have to be the best service provider in our areas of competence, then only the best people can help us achieve that goal.

Fresh Trends in HR

I am not sure if I have seen any major HR innovations in the recent past. After ESOPs went out of fashion, we saw “flexi timings” and “work from home” models gaining ground in the IT/ITES industries. I believe these trends would continue in the near future.

Relationship between HRs and CEOs

Employees can make or break an organization. Given this context, it is essential that HR and CEOs share a relationship of deep mutual trust. If this is in place, everything else will fall in line.

Biggest Pain Point

We, at C2, believe in the adage that "Attitude Determines Altitude". So finding people with the "right attitude" is our greatest challenge.

Criteria To Hire People

Our mantra for recruitment is "Hire for Attitude, Train for Skill". Therefore, the most critical attribute we are looking for in a candidate is the right attitude. We believe that it is possible to train a skill to an employee who has the right attitude; but it is almost impossible to change the basic attitude of a person.

Leadership Development Programs

As an experiment, we introduced a mentorship program last year for a couple of our mid-level managers. And the results have been nothing short of spectacular. We propose to take this initiative further in the coming months.

Attract good people, retain the better people and advance the best people

Among its employees, C2 promotes an open and friendly culture that encourages enthusiasm and creativity, and fosters learning. In an industry which is highly driven by numbers (number of hours spent on a project, number of bugs found, etc), C2 adopts a slightly different approach - it recognizes and rewards great attitude in its employees.

Added to the above, is our commitment to ensure transparent decision making across all levels and of course, giving our team members the freedom to fail.

This culture has helped us attract good people, retain the better people and advance the best people.

Attrition Management: Retaining vs. fresh hiring

We don't believe in choosing between retraining and fresh hiring. Rather, we try to strike a balance between the two based on the resources and skills concerned.

Motivating Employees with Rewards

We have designed our rewards programs very carefully to ensure that we do not fall into the trap of "Kerr's Folly".

C2 has two awards programs… one is an individual award called the "Redwood Award" and the other is a team award called the "I'mpossible Award".

The "Redwood Award" endorses committed, self-motivated employees who work hard at making a difference - be it by way of meeting unholy deadlines, clocking lengthy hours, or even just by being their usual flexible, conscientious self. It credits both - "how you work" and "how you approach your work" - thus clearly emphasizing that while knowledge, skills and abilities help define a person's work, the right attitude defines the person.

There are some projects which are exacting, to say the least. Be it in terms of timelines, skills, technologies, or resources. During such situations comes a team which not only takes these scorching projects head on, but also turns them into amazing experiences for themselves and for the clients. The "I'mpossible Award" recognizes C2's teams that make the impossible, possible.

Recruiting & retaining the diverse and ambitious Generation Y. Are they really ambitious

At C2 we have to compete against some of the biggest Indian and multi-national companies to hire young talent. On the face of it, we don't stand a chance against these giants. But we regularly attract the best of the Gen Y minds by offering them something that most organisations do not… or maybe, are even scared to offer… the FREEDOM TO FAIL.

C2 has consciously built a culture where team members are encouraged to think, experiment, ideate, and innovate. And risk-taking forms the very essence of these activities. As we all know, fear is one emotion an explorer does not pack in his bags when he starts on his journey to unchartered territory. So how can we ever discover anything new if our minds are hounded by demons of failure?

Going by our track record in recruiting and retaining Gen Y, we are convinced that they too believe in our philosophy... that the FREEDOM TO FAIL is infact, the greatest freedom a creative mind can ask for.

Workplaces are changing. Cultures are evolving. Do you think the average employee today is different from his/her counterpart from a decade ago too? What is lacking and what does he/she need to keep in mind in today’s working scenario?

There is no doubt that employees of Gen Y are different from their counterparts of an earlier generation. They are more technologically savvy, willing to experiment, unafraid to speak their minds and have a sense of irreverence to archaic policies and beliefs. These qualities are invaluable for any organization wanting to think out-of-the-box and innovate.

On the other hand, unlike the earlier generations, the Gen Y employee is looking for instant gratification and doesn't believe in "lifelong loyalty" to the employer. But I wouldn't waste my time trying to CHANGE the Gen Y employee in any way. Instead, I would put the onus on the organization to evolve itself in such a manner that it can get the best out of every generation of employee keeping in mind each one's strengths and weaknesses. And given the fact that India is one of the few countries where we have 4 generations of workforce under the same roof, it is critical for Indian organizations to consider this approach seriously.