The Shape of Work

#102: On team-building, recruitment tech, employee time tracking, and overtime compensation, with Ambica Chaturvedi

Springworks Season 1 Episode 102

On this episode of The Shape of Work podcast, our guest is Ambica Chaturvedi, Director of Human Capital & Special Initiatives at Antara Senior Living - Max India Group.

Having been in the HR fraternity for more than 18 years and having worked with giants like Mercer, Essar, Aegis Global, Ambica covers a lot of interesting aspects in this episode. 

We discuss with Ambica:

  • How to lead your team in the right direction
  • Her thoughts on tracking employee work hours
  • The concept of ‘Overtime compensation'
  • Importance of team-building exercises to boost productivity
  • Het thoughts on the future of work: Remote vs hybrid
  • The bright side of leveraging technology for hiring vs drawbacks

How to ensure that you are leading people in the right direction?

“The work of the manager is to manage and the work of the leaders to enable.”

And there’s no greater happiness than to see one’s team grow, take larger responsibility and constantly learn in the process. Most importantly, as a leader, giving challenging assignments to your subordinates is the best possible way to test their potential. It is like throwing the baby a bug. Moreover, Ambica feels that the ‘one size fits all’ approach doesn’t work. There are different ways of managing different team members, and understanding and recognizing that what motivates one may not motivate others is of the essence. The success of the team defines the success of a manager and a leader in the professional world.

Does the approach of measuring the working hours of employees help in monitoring their performance?

Ambica says that the concept of measuring the working hours of employees is never really a helpful approach. Once a task is assigned to an employee, its ownership is automatically transferred to the employee. So, measuring the working hours doesn’t translate. Furthermore, it’s essential to trust the team member to whom the job has been assigned to ensure delivery of the work. 

As good leaders and managers, one should be able to recognize the right approach to managing that specific individual or the right push for the progress of that individual.

Should remuneration be paid for overtime?

Paying extra just because one wants people to work for long hours is more of a regulatory approach. On the contrary, instant rewards and recognition like equity participation, flexible working hours, enabling work culture are far more productive and meaningful than just paying extra for four or five hours. If an employee has equity participation, it means he is a part-owner of the company. What else can be better than that to drive productivity in the organization?

Should work from home be viewed as a non-pecuniary benefit?

Work from home in ways that benefit both the organization as well as the team members. In the pre-pandemic times, too, organizations used remote working as one of the business models. They can draw enough advantages from the work-from-home model like saving admin costs and rent, the ability to attract talent nationally and globally, etc. Indeed, team members also benefit from saving on viewed higher-end places of the business district, etc. So, it wouldn’t be fair to view this as a non-cash benefit for employees. Both the organization and the employee in this context tend to gain out of this remote working.

Follow Ambica on LinkedIn

Produced by: Priya Bhatt
Podcast host: Rohan Mankad

BONUS: Interested to know more about advanced recruitment? Get the answers to all your questions in our recent article: The role of data and tech advancements in