Indian corporate houses have found a way to engage employees and reduce attrition. The latest employee engagement practice that is catching up is the advisory management council (AMC), where suggestions shared by the employees are put forth to the top management in the quarterly or annual meetings of companies.
The objective is to retain and nurture scarce, critical talent and motivate young talent within the company by giving them an opportunity for self-development in leadership, strategic thinking, management of resources and innovation. There is need also to create a forum whereby an organisation can derive the benefit of synergising the creative talents of high calibre resources in areas of critical importance for its strategic future.
Going forward, the advisory management council would comprise high-fliers, potential future vice-presidents and critical personnel formed as a shadow management committee of the company tasked with ideating over one or more critical strategic issues facing the company?s future growth plans and finding solutions for these.
Says Rahul Ghatak, VP, HR, CEAT Ltd, ?Gone are the days of hierarchial, inaccessible structures. Today?s dynamics require younger employees to play not just operational but strategic roles in an organisation?s development. Organisations need to develop such talent and steps like AMC go a long way in doing that.?
Moreover, as companies believe in creating leaders at all levels within the organisation of which empowerment to middle/junior management is an identified critical success factor. ?The CEAT AMC is a forum for high-flier, fast track, and young managers who together form a shadow management committee aiding the management committee in important issues pertaining to the company,? reveals Ghatak.
According to the players, putting advisory management council in place helps them in retaining talent along with helping them to build managerial bandwidth amongst their young talent thereby setting them up for success for larger and more strategic assignments in the future.
?The recognition that comes with being selected as part of the advisory management council, combined with the value-add the individual gains through working on strategic projects binds him to the company,? said Harsh Bhosale, VP Group HR of RPG Group. According to Bhosale, advisory management council benefits both the employee and the organisation.
For an employee, it is an opportunity to view the organisation from beyond the narrow confines of a functional job, an opportunity to meaningfully and directly contribute to shaping the future of the organisation and above all a unique opportunity for self-development in leadership, strategic thinking, management of resources and innovation.
For a company advisory management council is to create a forum whereby an organisation can derive the benefit of synergising the creative talents of high calibre resources in areas of critical importance to its strategic future, to create a process that unleashes dynamism, innovation, discontinuity and empowerment within the organisation and to create a process that allows the organisation to give equal mind space and focus to important issues that may not receive adequate top management attention due to inadequacy of physical bandwidth.
It is understood that the advisory management council would report directly to the MD and CEO with similar responsibility levels in undertaking the critical tasks assigned to them as that of the management committee. These assignments themselves would entail cross-organisational perspectives and impact.
?The role of this council will be primarily advisory in nature, though they may be tasked with implementation also, if the MD of the company so desires,? say experts.
Talking about some of the critical factors of advisory management council, companies say, the advisory management council derives its legitimacy from the MD. It acts as an advisory body to the MD alone, deriving inputs on its? task from wherever necessary, within or without the company.
In this context, its powers for obtaining information mirror those of the management committee of the company. However, it remains advisory in nature, and hence its recommendations, while being mandatorily tabled before the MD and the MCM are not binding for implementation. Similarly, organisational communication of the advisory management council is critical as appropriate communication needs to cascade within the organisation. An appropriate communication will include introductory communication, which will highlight the role and the concept of advisory management council and the support required from the rest of the organisation.
The periodic summary updates will include progress on a particular task, key findings till date and bottlenecks encountered, if any. The final presentation will involve summarisation of findings and closure of tenure of previous AMC along with aspiring future AMC members. Experts believe, employees at all levels look for intrinsic and extrinsic rewards. Hence this practice would create interest among the young talent with their new responsibility making way to a fast track route to future career growth.
The advisory management council will comprise of not less than five and not more than ten members and each council will remain in tenure for two years. Consequent to the dismantling of an advisory management council, a new council will come into being.
Employees feel positive and look forward to the next day that takes them away from the monotony that often sets into a job.
?In the future, interventions such as these would be the key triggers towards winning the war for talent,? adds Ghatak.