About Speaker 

Willis Langford, Head of HR, Avnet India, – a world leading, multibillion-dollar, electronics technology company, is a result-driven, customer-focused human resource professional with demonstrated success of leading strategic business objectives over two decades across multiple industries of Finance, Construction, Consumer and Electronics (Semiconductors). He is an award winning leader, awarded the Avnet Global HR Excellence Award – 2019. 
Willis has successfully led Avnet India to winning prestigious HR Awards for leading practices in employee engagement and health & well-being in 2019. He is a leadership coach and counsellor with demonstrated strength in Coaching, Talent Engagement, Organization Development, Strategic Planning with high affinity for business numbers. 

A Peek Through the Podcast 

12:50 – 1:01           –    Can u please share about your HR journey and then the challenges you have faced in becoming who you are today? 

4:50 – 5:00              –    What kind of challenges you have faced and then how is life and work now at this     point of time? 

9:20 – 9:50            –     What do you feel in terms of managing the hypo performers? 

13:13 – 13:25       –      How do you find the hypo in the current situation? 

16:50 – 17:10       –      Any parting comments for HR friends in terms of poor or listening on this podcast on what they can do to actually like drive performance and the engagement?  

Click here to listen How to Identify and Manage HiPo Employees?

Transcription 

Shankar, CEO: Good afternoon audience! Welcome to Synergita’s TalentCast. In this TalentCast, we have our eminent speaker Willis Langford, Head of HR for Avnet, joining us. Willis has like more than 20 plus years of experience in HR. So, he joined Avnet in 99 and then grew up from executive, manager, director and now he is the head of HR. He has a plethora of experience and then worked on several employee initiatives, so we look forward to speaking to him in this TalentCast to know more about his journey and then learning from him. Once again thank you very much, Willis. Welcome aboard.   

Willis: Thank you so much, Shankar and I appreciate it, Thank you.  

Shankar: Very good. So, Willis, can u please share about your HR journey and then the challenges you have faced in becoming who you are today?  

Willis: Yeah, it’s definitely an exciting time that I’ve had, Shankar, and I’m more than glad to share with you the journey thus far. It’s been very very interesting for me and you know I’m a firm believer that every experience is worthwhile and often we forget that the worthwhile decisions have come from good experiences and these good experiences are the resultant of learnings from the wrong decisions sometimes that we have made. So yes, I’ve had ups and downs in my career but I like to run a few challenges with you and you know how this journey has been very interesting for me. So, one of them you know, I always would like to say that you know trying to being connected, especially in today’s world despite technological advancements.  I’ll give you a few examples then you know it may run and be a little nostalgic but I just want to give you a few examples, what I say, you know, technological advancements and how we still need to be connected with people. Example, let me say, back in the day you had a leave letter where you had people talking between the manager and the subordinate, and then you had abrasions where there was a one on one conversation between two people, the attendance registers were signed, so there was again a face to see in the morning and smile to happen, this sharing salary payouts were happened in the earlier in the day it was cash and then cheques, so there was someone to look forward and give you your cheque. And then, you know, training facilitation was done again, classroom again, more very interactive face to face and I know you can take it on and it goes on and on, even grievance redressal for example. So, you know the challenges that over the years that somewhere with technology there’ve been challenges of meeting people face to face, getting them to be, you know, interactive with each other. So, what I’ve kind of tried to learn over the years is to adjust, to adapt, and also to adopt to the new trends and needs of employees without losing that human touch. So, that’s something that I really overcome over these years and we can talk about it, you know, as we go along. And the current this challenge, which I would say, is more to do with here so many topics on diversity and inclusion and we can hear it from the most developed nations in different ways to the smaller developing economy. So, you know, embracing diversity of every nature especially with a mixed workforce in terms of demographics, the culture, and so many other aspects of diversity. So, technology can help us but and it can definitely throw up statistics, solutions but without Human, and I repeat, without human intervention all our solutions honestly will be kind of futile. So, the challenge is for all our HR folks out there, how do you really overcome these challenges and to me, I think keeping in touch with your people is all that matters irrespective of what technology or what diversity challenges or the demographics that may pose different generational cohorts that you’re dealing with, but the essence is to have that human touch. So, yeah, it’s been an exciting career for me so far and I’m sure you know, there are many other things awaiting me on the wings, I guess.  

 Shankar: Absolutely, fantastic! Fantastic! I am sure it’s a lot of hard work and commitment, sacrifice, and then again building relationships, right? So, certainly could see those things. Very good.  

 Willis: Thank you!  

 Shankar: So, Willis, now let me quickly talk about a little bit about the Covid situation. We all are living between normal and a new normal. So, I’m sure like just after the lockdown started almost every HR has been extremely busy and I’m sure like you would have also gone through all those challenges and pains. So, if you can just highlight a little bit on what kind of challenges you have faced and then how is life and work now at this point of time? 

Willis: Yeah! It’s a very very important question I must say, Shankar. And I’m definitely more than willing to share what are the challenges that we also faced and how we really are managing during this lockdown. You know, I must confess that even as business professionals would have it that a contingency plan for business is always a must, right? Everyone wants to have a contingency plan. However, I personally feel that no business and I reiterate, no business was 100% prepared for a challenge as big as Covid-19, and hence what differentiated or still what differentiates organizations or businesses is not that of being prepared but how well and how fast we adapt to the situation and we have it under control. So, I would rather say, you know the challenges more than the preparedness, it’s how we’re really handling our current situation. And that’s why I see this is very pertinent that you asked me this question. So, I can share a few things, having said that, I definitely believe that, you know, employee engagement, our productivity, team camaraderie and lastly business numbers, which were seriously challenged also. And all of us know that you know, the previous quarter, the present quarter, and probably the next quarter also looks to be challenging from a business perspective. But having all of this as a backdrop, I must say, that you know there are many businesses that have been fortunate enough to decipher what was within their control and what was outside of their control and hence kind of focused more on what was within their control. And you know, we, for example, also took full advantage of our remote working solutions through having people work from home, having them tend to customer calls as well as internal calls and their meetings and we also have draft. We had set and drafted policies that have rolled out almost instantaneously on how do we really managed to work from home. And to carry out every aspect of trying to make sure that there’s a business continuity plan well in place. But the key I think is also that the employee well-being. Especially today if you have kind of heard in the last four 5 months, the buzzword is the mental well-being of employees, right?   

Shankar: Correct!  

Willis: So, we also tried to ramp up our casual conversations, have little more or for the one on one just casual conversations because this is something that is missing. If you look at it, for example, or in the office, the regular office spheres, you will have a break out area, you have a pantry, and these are the small little things that we don’t probably realize, it has a big impact on the social camaraderie that is within our employees, right? So, I think that is something that we also tried to bring on virtual means and Shankar, I must add here, when I look at you as a leader in your own domain, I must tell you, that you must have realized like many other leaders that empathy is so key currently in the current in the current days. Having empathy at the forefront and literally a prerequisite for all leaders to understand the current situation. Yeah and this empathy will kind of once exhibited and shown and practiced will make the working environment more conduit and then you know, trust me, whatever challenges within your control can be kind of brought some equilibrium but what is beyond and whatever has to happen in the days to come, we only hope for the best, but I think there are some ways we can get all these challenges that we have.  

Shankar: Absolutely absolutely, empathy is extremely important so from both employee perspective as well as from a manager’s perspective, both of them need to see each other’s situation, challenges, and then put the cause in front, which is like how do we go forward in this tough situation because end of the day, both sides need to see each other and then how do we go forward, how do we make the company win, how do we keep the customers happy, so that is extremely important. Very well said,  Willis.   

Willis:  I’m glad it resonates with you, Shankar, thank you.   

Shankar: Absolutely absolutely! So, let me go to the next question, so again like work from home now every company is talking about it, right from Adobe to Zoho, all of us are talking about work from home plus also the situation is we also don’t know when we can return back to office, especially with the employee safety-related concerns so we just need to give some time for that, but in this situation what do you feel in terms of managing the hypo performers?  

Willis: Excellent question, because you know this is the key, having no business is something but having business, having the right people in place, and they are kind of handicap and they cannot do something about it, that is really key. And I just love to answer this question because when you look at work from home, it is indeed the new norm or I’d rather say returning to work in a tongue in cheek, I’ll probably say returning to work will soon be the new norm. You know where things are going because everyone getting used to working from home and remote working and they’re finding ways and means to navigate like a kind of stream of water trying to find its end results through the given challenges. That’s the wonderful part that has come out maybe out of force but it’s still a worthwhile way looking at. Well, change, personal interaction, and loss of tangible collateral, like I mentioned earlier, you know has had a real big bearing on all our employees across organization you see any employees  you know the first thing that you ask them how you feeling about it. Well, business is fine, we’re working well, but somewhere down the line, we miss that you know that social touchpoints with people, right? So, now this one part of it. Now, if I take it one level higher and look at what is the kind of position of a high potential employee, I think the binges hypos as we call them could be the most vulnerable and the reason why I say this is, because something like a, let me give you a little kind of an example here, mediocre student almost being equated with a ranker due to cancellation of an exam, right? So, you know when I look at some of the experiences of the people when they say they wanna do their 10th grade, which is big thing, and then all of a sudden, the exam gets cancelled, trust me, there are two types of people. On the one hand, you have people who saying like “OK I’m a mediocre guy I love it. Let the exams be postponed. Give me my results on some other basis,” and on the other hand, you have this real top performers looking for that top rank and he feel like, “Wow, I’m missing an opportunity if you’re going to give me a rank of the last results that have been there. So, likewise that I’m going to draw the same kind of similar, the hypo is going to feel like you know he’s deprived of sure shot business, of sure shot growth, of sure shot success that he could have brought in but for the pandemic. So, dealing with the psyche of this hypo that you see in any organization is, if you ask me, of paramount importance because when the businesses are back to normal and these are, these folks are going to be real front runners to make things happen in a big way. So yeah, I think you hit the nail on the head by you know focusing on the hypo because that’s where the future of coming back, return to office, you’re going to look at these people with a micromanaged eyes saying that, okay how can they bring back success to the organization.   

Shankar: Absolutely absolutely! A lot of studies actually say that if you have one hypo within high performing employee within your group, that actually increases the overall performance of the team by 5 to 15 percentage. So, I’m sure like all the leaders would want to see how I can get the hypo within each of their teams. So that’s very important, right? Okay. So, right now, with all this work from home, we also have newer workforce coming to the business because like hiring business has to go on, hiring happens. So how do you find the hypo in the current situation? 

Willis:   Well, to manage the hypos, if you ask me, the biggest challenge is you know how you keep them engaged. I want summarize this one word of saying engage into a couple of points. So, as mentioned, as you rightly said, yes we have a plenty of challenges during this pandemic and when you know and when employee engagement specifically is going to be one of them like I mentioned in my previous question, you run the risk of dealing with hypos being snatched away by competition and sometimes it is like I say in simple words, it’s no use locking the stable door after the horse bolted, right? So, the key is you know if you’re going to really manage these hypos well, you gotta make sure that you look at them as from being consistent performance, number one, and to add to that this is something where I like to look at in-depth. They should have a great attitude, someone willing to go that extra mile without feeling that they are scapegoats. You can really tell the difference between two employees when you take the same work projects or tasks to them and they say like, OK on the one hand, you may have tell you that, okay just because I’m a top performer, are you coming back to me where there are other people in the team? Now, that’s one type of people. And trust me, he’s not the one you’re gonna really bank and put all your money on. And on the other hand, you have someone is looking at it and saying okay wow, you’re giving me an opportunity to get another task on my table and that’s going to develop me further and that’s going to make me more knowledgeable and grow faster. So, ultimately, you want them to lead leaders and not just lead people, right? You just want them to take it to the next level so these hypos if you’re going to really kind of identify them well and hold them on, many of ways people do it they know their organizations have been tasting success, for example, let me see, connecting psychometric assessments, providing deeper understanding of the probable hypo candidates, especially for example, their personalities, their cognitive skills, and so and so forth that’s something that you can do. But lastly in this in today’s world, periodic check-ins is the key to finding these stars and by this you can really keep them engaged. Why I say check-ins because one of these days, where you really had a five page appraisal, you sat once in a year or half yearly and then you did that appraisal but now you’ve got to have these discussions all the time. And with the media being so at tips of your fingers you gotta make it so friendly through your apps, through unwired mediums and keep the conversation going. At the end of the day, conversations keep them going and have them connected and then you can ultimately meet the goal of you know having them engaged. So, if that’s another way you can really target them and then you keep them under your care and you watch them so that they can be ready like I said when the doors open up they’re there to bring all business to you in prosperity. 

Shankar: Absolutely absolutely. Yeah, that’s extremely important engaging and then nurturing the hypo is extremely important and then managers play a critical role there. So, you talked about check-ins and then keeping them say whether you talk about reskilling or like providing development opportunities those are all very very important. Very well said, Willis. And in terms of any parting comments for HR friends in terms of who are all listening to this podcast on what they can do to actually like drive performance and engagement?  

Willis:   Great, sure. I have quite a few tips that I can share it may be simple tips though, before that I just wanna say that if you want to make people, if you want to make yourself successful, the biggest mantra is to you know make others successful and since we talking about hypos, I just want to share one small tip that I follow and that will probably help a lot of our listeners to probably accelerate their own careers as well. We here because this is one common thing that I want to share with you from my practical experience. We have a lot of people, they come at an interview and I’m sure you would have faced this in your own career as an interviewer so many times, Shankar, that they come in and they say when you ask them, why do you why have you left the previous job and probably sometimes the answer could be actually I was promised this particular role and finally I didn’t get this role, I didn’t get that task, I didn’t get that project. So, it looks like someone has not honored their words, so to say. I would say, spotting these hypos, spotting your potential, kind of keeping them as stars and this is the key that I want to give away to everyone listening that hypos are your stars. And we need to treat them like real stars and what does that star, to just elaborate, this is an acronym that I’ve made up over the years and I practice it. The first one is the S is, to give them stretch goals and projects you know because hypos don’t want to do the regular thing that they’ve been there and done that they want to be someone different. They don’t want to work for money, they want to work for what they have done in untrodden territory. So, give them some stretch goals and targets. The T stands for you know the targeted training and development for them, so that they could really be not the run of the middle of classroom training but something that accelerates their stretch goals and then you come into the action plan which is A and then appreciation and recognition for what they have done. And trust me once you you’ve really got them going with all of this action then the R comes in. What’s the R? It’s really given them a rotation of job for the next role, right? 

Shankar: Yes 

Willis: So, now what we have done in the bargain, Shankar, is that while we have kind of nurtured them what you have done is you have actually nurtured your role as well and they look up to you and say okay, I’m getting valuable advice from this function and there is value at the table. And that’s one of the things that I want to say my parting short to everyone is listening. Human resources, if you want to get a position, a place, a seat at the board room, you need to be more dexterous. Your approach needs to be more dexterous. For example, in challenging times like you know ongoing pandemic neither you nor I can change the situation in our favor, right? But what we can definitely do is change the way we operate in this situation and hence HR should be dexterous enough to partner business closely by adapting to the current situations and conditions. And something that I personally believe and I mean I’m not sure if it will resonate with many people but being a servant leader that is really something that will help people. Why? Because, you as a servant leader, you help in accelerating the success of others and you will be surprised to note that you will in turn get a lot of success as well. So, the big mantras are and as I started this conversation with you, Shankar, and for all the listeners, I must say don’t lose that human touch. It doesn’t matter if technology comes in and goes out, because at the end of the day, we are dealing with the human resources. And when you see human resources, this is the only resource that has feelings, right? So, you got to make sure that human touch is there so I think that’s something that I would love to share with all the listeners today, Shankar. 

Shankar: Absolutely! Thanks a lot, Willis. As you know like if going gets tough, tough gets going, right?  

Willis: Absolutely 

Shankar:  I think it’s time to show our values and then put that extra go that extra mile, come up with some innovation, and then see how we can actually overcome this situation. Certainly, from that perspective, leaders like you from a HR certainly help all the employees to see how they can actually overcome and then get pass this stage.  

Willis: I believe so. I wish whatever examples we can lay out in public domain are something that can be emulated and followed if they see merit in that.  

Shankar: Absolutely, wonderful. Thank you very much, Willis, once again. Thanks for taking time to speak to our viewers and then it’s really nice to hear all your inputs especially STAR is very nice and I think that can be a very good input and then take for all our audience in terms of how they can engage their hypos within their organization.  

Willis: Absolutely. Thank you so much, Shankar, it’s been a pleasure talking to you and I hope and pray that this is going to benefit someone down the line whoever listens to this and I’m sure we can make this world a better place with a lot of lovely people out here to interact and to make this world a  better place. So, thank you and appreciate you having me in the show. Thank you.