Indian bosses to get more bossy this year: Study

Bosses are getting tougher in India. A survey by Hay Group, a global consultancy, shows CEOs in India are setting more challenging targets to increase workforce productivity than their global peers do.

This year, many business leaders plan to increase productivity and 63 per cent intend to ask more from their workforce. More than half of them plan to push their teams harder.

"CEOs are demanding more from their workforce. And, it needs to be delivered in a more complex, dynamic and competitive environment. Over 76 per cent of business leaders in India feel individual performance management is a key driver to achieving business results," said Mitali Bose, BEO (Building Effective Organisations) practice leader, Hay Group India.

Tougher challenges for employees are an offshoot of ambitious growth expectations from Indian companies. While global firms are targeting five per cent growth for 2011, India ones are targeting double-digit growth. This outstrips the International Monetary Fund's economic growth forecast of 8.2 per cent.

Unfortunately, a lot of Indian companies tend to get their performance management wrong, the study said. Less than a third of Indian companies align their performance management approach to company strategy.

Three in ten business leaders believe the managers in their companies fail to use their performance management process effectively and do not actively support the process. In many accounts, this process is considered a 'tick-box exercise'.

Business leaders are also unable to dedicate adequate time to managing poor performance and quite a few admit they spend less than 10 per of their time doing so.

"Yet, 91 per cent of firms in India are failing to align performance management with their strategy and culture and are, thus, not getting any return from their performance management systems. Without an approach that tailors performance management to their strategy, culture and values, firms will not be in the right shape to deliver the growth expected of them," said Bose.