Hello All,
I have recently changed my industry and have joined an Architectural design company as Manager (generalist ,Human Resources).Having come from ITES- HR background, I am disappointed to experience slow, sluggish work culture prevalent here. Due to business reasons, we are lean on hiring and owing to the nature of skill employed (architects and interior designers) , we are at daggers about rolling out an appraisal system (the company is very old, very strongly and strategically well placed in the industry and brings with it a strong heritage but has never had a formal appraisal system or Human Resources team in place).
Can anyone from a construction/real estate HR background suggest what sort of employee policies, appraisal system, R&R, employee engagement initiatives I could take to corporatise the culture?
Awaiting some great inputs
Best regards,
Larry

Hi Larry,

You are right. There is a world of difference in cultures in IT/BPO(ITES) and the slow, monolithic brick and mortar sectors. The culture emanates essentially from the entrepreneurial leadership (old, conservative, paternalistic vs the young, dynamic, professional). This impacts all including HR.

HR policies would be essentially the same. The statutory laws may be marginally different given the different industry, that will impact policies to some extent. So keep policies more or less the same as IT/BPO that you may be having, sober it down (i.e. not too much of 'employee welfare' the BPO/IT type : mind you the culture, age, education and type of staff are different) and things will work. Basically, day to day transactional policies must be introduced early so that systems are in place (such as induction, leave, confirmations, appraisals, discipline, et al)

The cultural mileau will be different given the difference in leadership type and type of hires, their age factor and their skills.

I know, it is difficult to adjust initially into this culture since I have been in both the brick-n-mortar Companies and then IT/BPO for long and can visualize the exact situation you are in. The saving grace is that the construction industry is in its 'boom time' and so try and stick on. Multi-sectoral exposure is invaluable.

Delilah