Let us speak up

Tue, 27/1/09, Ajit Nair <ajitnair1953@gmail.com> wrote:

Dear folks,

Fundamentalism in any hue will eventually destroy us all. Let us all be warned. A truism – if we do not learn from the lessons of history, we are doomed to repeat them. Some of the more important lessons of History are in succeeding paras.

A man, whose family was German aristocracy prior to World War II, owned a number of large industries and estates. When asked how many German people were true Nazis, the answer he gave can guide our attitude toward fanaticism. 'Very few people were true Nazis,' he said, 'but many enjoyed the return of German pride, and many more were too busy to care. I was one of those who just thought the Nazis were a bunch of fools. So, the majority just sat back and let it all happen. Then, before we knew it, they owned us, and we had lost control, and the end of the world had come. M y family lost everything. I ended up in a concentration camp and the Allies destroyed my factories.'

We are told again and again by 'experts' and 'talking heads' that Islam is the religion of peace, and that the vast majority of Muslims just want to live in peace. Although this unqualified assertion may be true, it is entirely irrelevant. It is meaningless fluff, meant to make us feel better, and meant to somehow diminish the spectra of fanatics rampaging across the globe in the name of Islam.

The fact is that the fanatics rule Islam at this moment in history. It is the fanatics who march. It is the fanatics who wage any one of 50 shooting wars worldwide.

It is the fanatics who systematically slaughter Christian or tribal groups throughout Africa and are gradually taking over the entire continent in an Islamic wave.

It is the fanatics, who bomb, behead, murder, or honor- kill.

It is the fanatics who take over mosque after mosque.

It is the fanatics who zealously spread the stoning and hanging of rape victims and homosexuals. It is the fanatics who teach their young to kill and to become suicide bombers. The hard quantifiable fact is that the peaceful majority, the 'silent majority,' is cowed and extraneous.

Communist Russia was comprised of Russians who just wanted to live in peace, yet the Russian Communists were responsible for the murder of about 20 million people. The peaceful majority were irrelevant.

China's huge population was peaceful as well, but Chinese Communists managed to kill a staggering 70 million people.

The average Japanese individual prior to World War II was not a warmongering sadist. Yet, Japan murdered and slaughtered its way across South East Asia in an orgy of killing that included the systematic murder of 12 million Chinese civilians; most killed by sword, shovel, and bayonet.

And, who can forget Rwanda, which collapsed into butchery. Could it not be said that the majority of Rwandans were 'peace loving'?

History lessons are often incredibly simple and blunt, yet for all our posers of reason we often miss the most basic and uncomplicated of points: Peace-loving Muslims have been made irrelevant by their silence.

Peace-loving Muslims will become our enemy if they don't speak up, because like my friend from Germany, they will awaken one day and find that the fanatics own them, and the end of their world will have begun.

Peace-loving Germans, Japanese, Chinese, Russians, Rwandans, Serbs, Afghans, Iraqis, Palestinians, Somalis, Nigerians, Algerians, and many others have died because the peaceful majority did not speak up until it was too late.

As for us who watch it all unfold, we must pay attention to the only group that counts; the fanatics who threaten our way of life.

Lastly, don't think that this issue is not serious enough to warrant your full attention – it is critical to our future.

And finally, let this not happen to Hinduism. Gujarat, Orissa and Mangalore are the warning signs. Let us speak up. 

Regards Ajit

Conversations with Garry Schyman, the composer of "Praan" - Stream of Life

In continuation of my previous blog on the popular video "Where the hell is Matt" and the background song "Praan" (adapted from the poem "Stream of Life" from Tagore's Gitanjali) used in it, I'd like to share my conversations with the composer of the song Garry Schyman.

Indeed Garry and Matt's effort is highly commendable. In this world of division and intolerance the very essence of capturing (in video and music) the "stream of life" that dances in the universe is of very high relevance. I'm not sure how much critical acclaim the scholars might put to this effort, but from a humanitarian point of view, such an effort is incredible and Garry, the composer of the song, and Matt, the creator of the video with people of 42 countries dancing with the music of "Praan" need all accolades for taking this up.

Helping the west to reinvent Tagore is an added impact that they have achieved. For this I and any Bengali who loves Tagore would always thank them.

If ever again in future Garry is interested to set to tune any otherTagore's poem, he may be interested to listen to Tagore's compositions and adapt that in his tunes. In fact each of the poems in Gitanjali is a song set to tune by Tagore himself in traditional, classical, folk Indian and even, in some cases, Western styles.
_____________________________________________________
Garry's mail to me: 30th Jan, 2009
Hello Sudipto,

Thank you for your kind words about my song Praan! Also thank you for all of the fantastic information you sent me about Tagore's work related to the lyrics I used.

I have come to realize that his work is very rich and complex and that the Bengali lyrics we used may not in fact be the precise source of his English poem "Stream of Life" which attracted Matt and I to use that poem. We did in fact rely on Palbasah Saddique and her brother to help us with that and neither claim to be Tagore Scholars. What we did learn is that Tagore freely adapted his poetry for Gitanjali (the English version) and that his English set of poetry of that name is not necessarily directly related to his original Bengali version.

A number of Bengal speakers have since pointed this out to me. That said I believe that many people (particularly in the West) have been reintroduced to Mr. Tagore's brilliant work and life and I am proud that I have, perhaps, played a small part in that. Though, as I have said, this was not my mission.

It is not practical to rerecord the vocal for the song. That would be quite expensive and I don't think many people would be all that interested in it. The lyrics we did use are from Tagore (that much I know) and work and sound marvelously with the music I composed. I have learned to accept serendipity as an important part of my music and trust that I am often led places by chance for some unknowable reason.

As it is, aware of the imperfect scholarship involved in finding the Bengali lyrics, my credit for Tagore reads "Adapted from" so that to be clear that a certain artistic license was used in the lyrics. Perhaps I should have said "inspired by", though that would imply that Tagore was not the actual author of the words.

You might be interested in listening to an interview I did with Minnesota public radio about how all of this came together. It all happened very quickly and almost magically.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfGk6S8-n9E

Very best,
Garry Schyman
__________________________________________________________
My mail to Garry: 29th Jan, 2009
Hi Garry,

First of all congratulations for all the awards for the music of Praan. It's really a fresh piece of music that has enthralled millions of people round the world. You've rightfully proved that music doesn't require any language or genre.

I'd like to make a clarification with regards to the lyrics.

Actually the Bengali lyrics that you've used is not the original song from which the English "Stream of Life" was derived by Rabindranath Tagore. Though both the English "Stream of Life" the Bengali "Praan" have the same essence - that's eternal stream of life, the original Bengali poem for "Stream of Life" is as follows:

E aamaar sharirer shiraay shiraay
Je Praan-tarangamaalaa raatridin dhaay
Sei Praan chhutiyaachhe bishwadigbijaye,
Sei Praan aparoop chhande taale laye
Nachichhe bhubane; sei Praan chupe chupe
Basudhaar mrittikaar prati romkoope
Lokkho lokkho trine trine sanchaare harashe,
Bikaashe pallabe pushpe - barashe barashe
Bishwabyaapi janmamrityusamudradolaay
Dulitechhe antahiin joyaar bhaataay.
Karitechhi anubhab, se ananta Praan
Ange ange aamaare karechhe mahiyaan.
Sei jugjugaanter biraat spandan
Aamaar nariite aaji karichhe nartan.

The lyrics of your "Praan" features in the original Bengali Gitanjali, but not in the English version. Actually the English version is created out of a selection of 103 poems from the Bengali Gitanjali and three other booklets of poems by Tagore.

Seeing the success of your "Praan" why don't you come up with another version of Praan with the original lyrics for "Stream of Life"? Also, would you mind to clarify this piece of information to your listeners? I've seen many comments made by Bengali speaking people about the confusion arising from little dissimilarities between the words of "Stream of Life" and "Praan".

Thanks & Regards,
Sudipto Das

Stream of Life

Music critique Jim Walsh wrote this in June 2008 about a very unusual song in Amazon and youtube

"The video was downloaded to the web on Saturday, June 20, 2008. By Sunday, it had 1 million hits. By Thursday, it was everywhere — embedded on Facebook and MySpace pages and flooding email inboxes and translating into millions of viewers, thousands of comments, and official "gone viral" status."

You would have heard this song or listened to the video "Where the hell is Matt" in youtube. Undoubtedly it's a remarkable video about the diversity of the world. It''s already one of the most popular videos in youtube. Matt, the creator of the video has travelled 42 countries and danced with the local people at the most exotic places round the world.

Apart from the unique concept of covering the diversities of the world the other striking thing about the video is the song used in the background. In the first hearing you might miss the lyrics of the song. It's actually in Bengali which goes like this:

Bhulbona ar shahajete,
Shei praane mon uthbe mete
Mrityu maajhe dhaakaa ache
Je antahiin praan |

Bojre tomaar baaje baashi,
She ki sahaj gaan |
Shei shurete jaagbo ami ......

Dao more shei gaan |

She jhor jeno shoi aanande
Chittobinar taare
Shapta sindhu dash diganta
Nachao je jhonkaare!

Bojre tomaar baaje baashi,
She ki sahaj gaan |
Shei shurete jaagbo ami ......

Dao more shei gaan |

The lyrics sounded very familiar to me. Upon searching the web I learnt that this is actually adapted from a Bengali song written by Tagore for the Bengali version of Gitanjali. Looks like Matt was looking for a song for the background that would exactly convey the message of eternal life that he has captured in his video. After lots of search he was finally shown some poems of Tagore and he chose the "Stream of Life" from the English version of Gitanjali. He apporached the composer Garry Schyman to set to music the original Bengali poem. They discovered Palabasha Siddique, a seventeen year Bangladeshi female, and used her voice for the song. The compositon by Garry and the rendition by Palabasha is just awesome. It brings such a freshness in terms of both voice and melody. It's no wonder that this song, named "Praan" meaning life in Bengali, is one of the most listened songs in most of the music portals. Above all the song just gels so well with the essence of the video.

The poem "Stream of Life" goes like this:

The same stream of life that runs through my veins night and day
runs through the world and dances in rhythmic measures.

It is the same life that shoots in joy through the dust of the earth
in numberless blades of grass
and breaks into tumultuous waves of leaves and flowers.

It is the same life that is rocked in the ocean-cradle of birth
and of death, in ebb and in flow.

I feel my limbs are made glorious by the touch of this world of life.
And my pride is from the life-throb of ages dancing in my blood this moment.

Though the essence of both the Bengali and English lyrics is same - the eternal life, but still anyone who has read Tagore well can make out that the Bengali song doesn't exactly match with the English one.

I found out finally that the Bengali lyrics or Praan is indeed not the original song from which the English "Stream of Life" was derived by Rabindranath Tagore. The original Bengali poem for "Stream of Life" is as follows:

E aamaar sharirer shiraay shiraay

Je Praan-tarangamaalaa raatridin dhaay

Sei Praan chhutiyaachhe bishwadigbijaye,

Sei Praan aparoop chhande taale laye

Nachichhe bhubane; sei Praan chupe chupe

Basudhaar mrittikaar prati romkoope

Lokkho lokkho trine trine sanchaare harashe,

Bikaashe pallabe pushpe - barashe barashe

Bishwabyaapi janmamrityusamudradolaay

Dulitechhe antahiin joyaar bhaataay.

Karitechhi anubhab, se ananta Praan

Ange ange aamaare karechhe mahiyaan.

 

Sei jugjugaanter biraat spandan

Aamaar nariite aaji karichhe nartan.

The Bengali lyrics of "Praan" features in the original Bengali Gitanjali, but not in the English version. Actually the English version is created out of a selection of 103 poems from the Bengali Gitanjali and three other booklets of poems by Tagore.

Nevertheless, when the essence is same and the impact is so great it doesn't matter what the original song was.....

A good piece of art always inspires many other people. "Where the hell is Matt" and "Praan" has already inspired the students of IIT KGP to come up with this video about KGP.

Talibanization of India

This is with reference to the recent spate of events where people, even the CM of a state, have started setting standards for Indian Culture. I'm very sure that all these people are just a bunch of illiterate thugs who don't even have the intellect to assess the depth of the Indian Culture.

Firstly there's nothing called a Hindu Culture or Hinduism. It's just Indianism - the traditional way of life of the Indians - influenced greatly by the thoughts and traditions of the Aryans and updated and modified number of times through the ages, assimilating the cultures and thoughts of people from round the world. That's what we vaguely refer to as Hindu Culture or Hinduism. Even the term Hindu is not present in the literary works of the Vedic Age. Hinduism and Indianism are just synonymous and that's what make our religion or our way of life perhaps the most flexible and also tolerant in the world. It's no one's business to teach the Indians about the dos and dont's of our culture. 

We're perhaps the only people who worship a God named Indra who is known to be addicted to Soma, a form of intoxicating drink. We've Gods for love, sex,  passion. We've worshiped sex for thousands years. Even the Shiva Linga that we worship is actually Shiva's genital dipped in Parvati's vagina. It fascinates me how without the knowledge of Engineering Drawing, that we read in our first year Engineering, some one could conceive the idea of Shiva Linga as a cross section view, as seen from within Parvati's body, of a moment of intercourse. Kamasutra speaks of fashion among women to expose love-bite marks on their breasts as prestigious signs of their lovemaking. The walls of Konark Sun Temple, Ajanta/Ellora Caves and many other places have extremely artistic pictures of sex and nudity because we never associated any taboo with any of these things ever in our culture. We had our Gods of love and sex long before Valentine's Day came into being and we had the most revealing dresses even before the French Fashion gurus exhibited their traits. India has been advanced in all spheres of art, culture, science and education ever since civilization started in the world. This was possible only because of the all inclusive, free and tolerant atmosphere of India without any policing and restrictions. It's not that everyone had the same ideas or ideologies. There were always contradictions and counter views. But the unique part of Indian Culture has been that it had space for all ideas and contradictions. There was Kamasutra and also there was severe austerity and abstinence. There was atheism and also religiosity. There was Kalidasa and his classical romanticism and and also Meerabai and Surdas with their Bhakti. Indian Culture doesn't belong exclusively to anyone. It's the existence of everything that makes our culture so vibrant. We've been a diverse nation for ages and we've preserved each ethnicity with great care. Unification doesn't mean imposing a common code for all, but to give space to all the diverse elements and allow them to mingle with each other and co-exist together with peace and prosperity.

Personal behavior or choice or things of interest have nothing to do with the culture. Swami Vivekananda himself never gave up drinking and smoking. Does that make him a lesser Indian? Yes, Mahatma Gandhi did lead a different life, full with austerity and renunciations, but then he never disapproved of anything that's different. Even Tagore wrote in favor of and against renunciation at different phases of his life. Our Indian Culture includes all these contradictions and differences. That's what have made us so unique and we should go all ways to ensure that the all inclusiveness is never lost!! 

Anyway who talks about restrictions in Indian Culture actually don't know what the culture is and we should just ignore them.

HumanSigma Management Approach for Employee & Customer Engagement

I’d written sometime back in one of my blogs that I feel HR is perhaps the most ill-educated and ill-trained department in any company. Any other department recruits only people who have the relevant technical background. For example the finance manager should have had courses in economics and/or chartered accountancy. If he/she had done MBA, then it’s very likely that he/she had finance as the specialization. But how many times did you hear that the HR manager of a company has studied psychology? For example the HR in my previous company did bachelors in zoology or something like that. Well, humans are also animals – so zoology might be a relevant subject….!! It’s really weird that one of the most critical and important positions in a company is held by people without any relevant background and knowledge. Even people, who come to HR with MBA background, are the ones whose scores or ranks in MBA are generally not among the highest because the best guys always opt for finance, marketing, business development and other higher-paying jobs. The result is that very few companies can provide the best of the HR services to their employees.

 

Perhaps the main task of the HR is to make sure that the employees are satisfied. It’s a common sense that satisfied employees would work more efficiently and thus result in better performance of the company. At the same time satisfied and loyal customers are also equally important for a company because at the end of the day the revenue comes from the customers. Though it sounds very simple but still I never came across any survey or theory that links between employee and customer satisfaction all these days. I’ve been sent to so many trainings on various aspects of management but somehow I was not getting exactly what I was looking for. Also I’ve been really getting frustrated with the way most HRs operate. Customer satisfaction is often taken very seriously in most companies, but employee satisfaction is not always taken seriously, even though you would find so many HR policies claiming to do so. It’s well known to all that an employee always ‘quits’ a manager and his/her team, but very rarely the attrition is linked with the performance of the managers. Very few companies even have the policy of taking three sixty degree feedbacks. In most cases managers play a vicious role in causing too much damage to the efficiency of a company, but seldom is he/she held responsible. Most of the HR surveys are too cumbersome and people always get demoralized to fill up forms with hundreds of questions with five options each and then sections to feed in justifications and comments. Even the performance review forms are never crisp. Being an engineer I always felt that HR needs proper engineering way of approaching things. I understand things only when supported by results and fitted to a graph or curve. I believe human behavior is also best understood through mathematics.

 

Not happy with any of HR practices I’ve seen in any of my previous companies, I wanted to venture into this domain myself. After a few days of studies I could come up with some very simple forms which I feel can be used very effectively in HR. Moreover I came across something that I was looking for all the while – a survey linking employee satisfaction with that of the customers. It’s called HumanSigma, researched by Gallup. The concept is based on Employee-Customer Engagement. It says that companies which have engaged employees and customers at the same time are super performers and do much better financially than companies where either the employees or customers are not engaged.

 

I like the ‘term’ engagement very much. It’s really very thoughtful. When a boy and girl get very close to each other, when they are satisfied with each other’s behavior and attitude and when they become committed to each other we say that they are ‘engaged’ to each other. The same applies to a company also. An employee is engaged to a company when there’s an emotional attachment, which comes from various factors. Considering this human aspect in understanding the relationship between a company and its employees is the basis of HumanSigma. This emotional aspect can be extended to customers also. The Human Sigma management approach takes human nature into account and then uses that knowledge to manage and motivate employees, and accelerate their development, as well as to engage customers’ emotions. The central premise of Human Sigma is that emotionally satisfied customers contribute far more to the bottom line than rationally satisfied customers.

 

Gallup has done an extensive survey on 1,976 business units across 10 companies, which had applied the best practices for employee and customer engagement and found that these 10 companies outperformed their 5 biggest peers by 26% in gross margin and 85% in sales growth. Organizations or business units that engage their employees without engaging their customers suffer from being too inwardly focused and have lost their direction. In contrast, organizations or business units that engage their customers without engaging their employees cannot sustain themselves.

 

Gallup has also developed a very simple mechanism to measure the Employee and Customer Engagement based on the scores of a set of well thought and researched questions to be asked to the employees and customers respectively. The HumanSigma or HS of a company is a function of Employee and Customer Engagement Scores.

 

Following is the result of this survey.

Organizations or business units at HS₁ and HS₂ perform significantly below par on employee or customer engagement metrics, and require significant intervention and improvement. Notice the long tails on these two performance bands. This extreme and unbalanced performance on the two metrics is associated with relatively poor financial performance. These two performance bands account for 37 percent of the companies studied. Organizations or business units at HS₃ account for 29 percent of the companies studied and are also frequently out of balance, ranking high on one vital sign but poor on the other.

Organizations at HS₄ are classified as “emerging optimized” performers. They have established balance in the vital signs of the employee-customer encounter, but there are still substantial gains to be made to strengthen these metrics. Organizations at HS₅ and HS₆ are classified as “super” performers. Overall, organizations in HS₄, HS₅ and HS₆ are 3.4 times more effective financially than HS₁, HS₂ and HS₃.

I found the set of questions, used by Gallup to measure Employee and Customer Engagement, very useful and handy to use, in case the company is in service industry. For the first time I came across a survey with only 10-11 questions which are so easy to answer. Based on these Gallup surveys, with a little modification here and there, I’ve come up with a few simple forms which can be used for the following purposes:

1. To measure Employee Engagement: Gallup Standard Q12® survey
2. To measure Customer Engagement: Standard Q11® survey and its derivative
3. To calculate HumanSigma – which can be used as a measure of the overall health of the company
4. To review employee performance: EPR
5. To review performance of managers: Leadership Index (LI)

Each of these questions are to be answered in points between 1 and 5, with 5 meaning strongly agree or very good and 1 meaning strongly disagree or very bad. Scores between 4.5 and 5 correspond to an ‘Ex’ grade. Scores between 4 & 4.5 correspond to an ‘A’ grade. Scores between 3.5 & 4 correspond to a ‘B’ grade and so on.

 

Standard Q12® survey for Employee Engagement

This form should be filled by each employee of the company. Scores above 4.5 would mean that the employee is highly engaged and is very likely to perform very well too.

		Score
Q01	I know what is expected of me at work.	4.6	Accountability
Q02	I have the materials and equipment to do my work right.	4.9	Support
Q03	At work, I have the opportunity to do what I do best every day	4.8	Achievement
Q04	In the last quarter, I have received
	recognition or praise for doing good work.	4.4	Performance Reward
Q05	My supervisor, or someone at work, seems
	to care about me as a person.	4.9	Team
Q06	There is someone at work who encourages my development.	4.9	Development
Q07	At work, my opinions seem to count.	4.9	Alignment
Q08	The mission or purpose of my organization
	makes me feel my job is important.	4.8	Alignment
Q09	My associates or fellow employees are
	committed to doing quality work.	4.8	Commitment
Q10	I have a best friend at work.	4.9	Team
Q11	In the last six months, someone at work
	has talked to me about my progress.	4.9	Performance
Q12	This last year, I have had opportunities to learn and grow.	4.3	Development
	Average	4.8

 

 

Standard Q11® survey for Customer Engagement

 

		Score
Q01	Overall, how satisfied are you with our company?	4.5	Overall Satisfaction
Q02	How likely are you to continue to choose our company?	4.6	Continuing Relationship
Q03	How likely are you to recommend our company to a friend/business acquaintance?	4.9	Recommendation
Q04	"Your company is a name I can always trust"	4.3	Trust
Q05	"Your company always delivers on what they promise"	4.8	Quality & Credibility
Q06	"Your company always treats me fairly/ethically"	4.2	Fairness & Ethics
Q07	"If a problem arises, I can always count on
	your company to reach a fair and  satisfactory resolution"	4.4	Troubleshooting & Competence
Q08	"I feel proud to be a your company's client"	4.5	Association
Q09	"Your company always treats me with respect and professionalism"	4.9	Respect & Professionalism
Q10	"Your company is the perfect service partner for company like ours"	4.4	Alignment & Relevance
Q11	"I can't imagine a service partner without your company"	4.5	Branding
	Average	4.5

 

Ideally this should be filled by the customers. But in many cases, especially when the company provides certain services to its customers, the later might not feel comfortable to answer questions like, “How likely are you to continue to choose our company” or “How likely are you to recommend our company to a friend/business acquaintance”. In such cases it might be wise to frame a different set of outcome oriented questions from the answers of which we should be able to derive the answers of the uncomfortable questions. There are several sites which enlist set of parameters which a customer generally looks for in a service provider. Based on these parameters, it was not hard for me to ‘derive’ a set of questions that would lead us to the Standard Q11® survey for Customer Engagement.

 

The following chart shows how the new set of questions is derived.

 

Q01	Overall, how satisfied are you with our company?	Overall Satisfaction
Q02	How likely are you to continue to choose our company?	Continuing Relationship
	Needs minimum directions/tracking for best output	}Derived Questions
	I have confidence in our company's technical capabilities and skills
	Communicates well with team and managers
	Has very good attitude, inter-personal skills and team spirit
Q03	How likely are you to recommend our company to a friend/business acquaintance?	Recommendation
	I have confidence in our company's technical capabilities and skills	}Derived  Questions
	Is matured, professional and abides by business ethics and norms
	Always delivers correctly on time
Q04	"Your company is a name I can always trust"	Trust
Q05	"Your company always delivers on what they promise"	Quality & Credibility
	Always delivers correctly on time	Derived Questions
Q06	"Your company always treats me fairly/ethically"	Fairness & Ethics
	Is matured, professional and abides by business ethics and norms	Derived Questions
Q07	"If a problem arises, I can always count on your company to reach a fair and satisfactory resolution"	Troubleshooting &
		Competence
Q08	"I feel proud to be your company's client" - No direct question	Association
Q09	"Your always treats me with respect and professionalism"	Respect & Professionalism
	Is matured, professional and abides by business ethics and norms	Derived Questions
Q10	"Your company is the perfect service partner for company like ours"	Alignment & Relevance
	Is the perfect match for the roles considered	Derived Questions
Q11	"I can't imagine a service partner without your company" - No direct question	Branding

 

 

So finally this is the modified set of questions for Customer Engagement – to be filled by the customer.

		Score
Q01	Overall, how satisfied are you with our company's performance?	4.9	Overall Satisfaction
Q02	"Your company is a name I can always trust"	4.8	Trust
Q03	Needs minimum directions/tracking for best output	4.8	Management
Q04	"I have confidence in your company's technical capabilities and skills"	4.9	Knowledge & Confidence
Q05	Always delivers correctly on time	4.7	Quality & Credibility
Q06	Has very good attitude, inter-personal skills and team spirit	4.5	Attitude & Team Spirit
Q07	If a problem/conflict arises, I can always	4.6
	count on your company to reach a proper and satisfactory resolution		Troubleshooting & Competence
Q08	Is matured, professional and abides by business ethics and norms	4.8	Professionalism & Ethics
Q09	Communicates well with team and managers	4.9	Communication
Q10	Is the perfect match for the roles considered	4.4	Alignment & Relevance
	Average	4.7

 

Employee Performance Review (EPR)

 

The above chart is points out the traits and parameters that my customer would like to see in us. If that’s the case hen why not derive our employee’s performance review from this? There are multiple sites that point out so many traits to be measured for performance review. After a deeper look I could actually find out that most of these traits can be finally mapped into Customer Engagement. This is logical because finally the Customer Engagement is a function of the performance of our employees.

 

Following is a very simple form for Employee Performance Review (EPR)

		Score
Q01	Overall, how satisfied are you with the individual's performance	4.5	Overall Satisfaction
Q02	Is very proactive and takes good initiative	4.7	Proactiveness & Initiative
Q03	Needs minimum directions/tracking for best output	4.7	Management
Q04	I have confidence in individual's technical capabilities and relevant skills	4.8	Knowledge & Confidence
Q05	Always delivers correctly on time	4.9	Quality & Credibility
Q06	Has very good attitude, inter-personal skills & team spirit	5	Attitude & Team Spirit
Q07	If a problem arises, I can always count on the individual to reach a proper and	4.5	Troubleshooting &
	satisfactory resolution		Competence
Q08	Is matured, professional and abides by business ethics and norms	4.6	Professionalism & Ethics
Q09	Communicates well with team and managers	4.9	Communication
Q10	Is the perfect match for the role considered	4.7	Alignment & Relevance
Q11	Has the desire to improve quality	4.4	Desire to improve
Q12	Is creative and innovative	4.1	Creativity & Innovation
Q13	Seeks feedback and takes feedback positively	4.6	Seeking feedback
Q14	Is highly committed and passionate about work/company	4.7	Passion & Commitment
	Average	4.7

 

 

Leadership Index

Leadership does play a very important role in Employee Engagement. Also providing the effective leadership is one of the most important tasks of a manager. So I feel it’s important to measure the Leadership Index also. Gallup already has a very simple form for this.

 

		Score
Q01	My manager/supervisor demonstrates competence in his or her job.	4.6	Competence
Q02	My manager/supervisor treats everyone fairly (i.e., plays no favourites).	4.8	Fairness
Q03	My manager/supervisor creates a motivating and supportive work climate.	4.9	Energize
Q04	My manager/supervisor represents my needs,	4.6
	ideas and suggestions to his/her manager.		Open
Q05	My manager/supervisor takes an interest in	4.7
	my professional growth and development.		Develop
Q06	My manager/supervisor involves me in decision making, problem solving and planning	4.7
	processes.		Participative
Q07	My manager/supervisor creates a high performance and collaborative work team.	4.7	Performance
Q08	I have the opportunity to interact with	4.5
	Management above my immediate supervisor		Less Hierarchy
	Average	4.7