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May - 2016 - issue > CXO Insights

Although Disruptive In Ideas; Can Startups Do Away With The Basic HR Policy Framework?

Shikha Gupta, Senior HR Manager, Grabhouse.com
Friday, June 3, 2016
Shikha Gupta, Senior HR Manager, Grabhouse.com
Headquartered in Bengaluru, Grabhouse.com is a zero brokerage home rental platform that enables people to find compatible roommates and rented accommodation. It aims to connect property owners or current tenants to prospective tenants directly, surpassing the hurdles of middlemen.

Time travel to a few years back and one could picture firms as controlled environments that did not focus much on innovation. An employee's thinking was attuned to adhering with the institution rather than bringing about an innovation. Cut to this day and we see a sudden upsurge of startups witnessing initial success, owing to their disruptive idea at a pace like never before. These firms appreciate, value and promote collaboration. Flat organizational culture and open door policy has become a norm. The age difference between the founders and the employees has reduced drastically. Gone are the days when leaders could dictate and employees executed them blindly.

Startups have ushered in the concept of 'independent contributors', who take ownership of their task and break away from the norm of working in silos. This change in ideology has paved way for accelerated team efforts which include the top level management coming down and sitting with their teams to brainstorm, leading to ideation and problem resolution.

Startups, by virtue of their aggressive nature, have changed the dimensions of most management functions. In this scenario, it would be interesting to see how it has molded the dynamics of Human Resources. HR policies form the basis of any organization and the criticality of these policies are mainly dependent on the size of the startup. The list of policies in the HR policies rule book is proportional to the size of a startup. One grows as the other expands; thus paving way for the inevitable change in management policy. The changes made are at a very granular level and are revised from time to time.

One of the major factors which are critical in the growth of any organization is transparency. As a strategic partner, the HR manager must focus on the needs to ensure that both the employees and the employers feel that their work place is quite transparent, be it related to policies or anything that goes on within their office space. A set of well-formulated rules and regulations serve an important role in instilling a sense of freedom and ensures that each and every individual feels that they are being treated equally.


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