Hierarchies: flat gives way to six-pack

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: of their employees. We too did relayering a couple of years ago.”

Some experts believe India has never gone through a delayering process, because of its obsession with job titles. Says Tanmay Kapoor, partner, business advisory services, Ernst & Young, “India has always been a layered market. Delayering as such has not taken place here. As a market, India has always been slightly different with respect to global markets. People here are pretty status-conscious. Indian employees would want both designation and compensation. Our market, in this respect, is similar to the US market, whereas Europe is different, there are more concerned about their role in the organisation and their compensation.”

With globalisation, there is always pressure on organisations to follow flat hierarchies but local conditions demand relayering. Mostly, every organisation decides on its own rather than following the general rule. Arun Jaura, group chief technology officer, Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd, who has experience of both Indian and the US markets, says, “In the Indian industry, the employees are more title- and rank-conscious, more so compared to the US organisations. Generally, the number of layers in a technical growth ladder is fewer and each title or position is earned by virtue of industry recognition, number of patents & publications, and internal mentoring and expertise. In a technical ladder, the depth of domain knowledge, number of R&D and innovation years besides publications override all aspects.”

Jaura adds: “Based on my experience in the US, Canada and India, I have seen the global challenge is rewards & recognition (R&R). Many Indian organisations are still catching up on R&R, as we are exponentially growing and widening our canvass in exports markets.”

In today’s demand-greater-than-supply situation that exists for good quality manpower across all levels, retention (crucial for organisations) becomes even more critical.

Organisations seek different ways to achieve desired minimum levels of retention. Re-layering seems to have become one such way of retaining talent. Says Anand Sudarshan, MD & CEO, Manipal Education, “I believe re-layering will be far down the totem pole of efforts that can be taken to increase retention—providing the employee with a career path s/he can look forward to, a work ambience that promotes merit and de-promotes silos, good & strong leadership at all levels and a high performance culture—these are more critical than just re-layering. Combined, re-layering can be used judiciously, where it’s appropriate.”