Wednesday, November 28, 2012

People selection for critical posts


In everyday life we encounter people working in certain noble professions like Nurses, Teachers etc. however it is often felt whether they belong in those professions.

Let us look at a nurse, she is expected to carry out tasks as part of her profession which we people despise to do even for our own kin. Now just imagine if the same person has short temper and starts shouting at the patient or his attendant causing tremendous bad blood, we start cursing the whole community of nurses though it is one person who is at fault.

A teacher is nurse the talent of a child who has been endowed to their custody by the parents. There are indeed many a noble teacher who feels it is a great privilege taking care of hundreds who come to learn from them. But like in any profession there will be certain black sheep who are ill tempered and they will cause disrepute to the entire community of teachers.

We can go on talking about Bus/Cab drivers, who are required to maintain their cool and avoid road rages, counselors who are expected to guide the info seekers, Customer service agents who receive customer complaints /feedback etc to ensure satisfaction.

I had an experience with the Israel security agency, as I was put through a series of questions when I was to visit that country to attend a Agro expo in the year 1996. The amount of patience the interrogator displays in repeating the same/similar set of questions to every traveler to their country. Some questions might sound too stupid and extrinsic for us but probably they have been recruited and trained to perform their duty. My point here is the patience that person shows in the entire process. Key is the process of recruitment, he has to qualify to be patient first only then he will be selected for that position.

Coming to our noble professions we have hoards of people who are vying to get a job, not tested for their patience levels and who will one day or the other burst out, not being able to contain their anger. We do come across news reports of teachers giving lashings, stringent punishments etc, which sometimes leading to the death/impairment of a child. While the news might go out of our mind soon, but the scar that leaves on the child or its family will take ages to get wiped out. Is it not necessary to first screen people on attributes/personality traits, based on the profession they wish to pursue, if they don’t qualify for essential attributes, they should never be allowed to pursue that particular profession.

In a country which claims to have huge unemployment talks with the same breath we do not have ‘Qualified’ people, so where are we going wrong, in making people employable or allowing wrong people to do the job. It is never too late to start a good thing, the HRD ministry can stipulate certain yardsticks/norms in the selection process of individuals for various posts. They should allow private players to come in to set up both training and testing centers. Like we have today various rating norms for businesses, these training and testing centers too should be made to undergo rating and display their ratings in a prominent way. They can always provide subsidized/free training & testing by covering the cost through various schemes they have for the deprived and down trodden. May be Aadhar can play a role here too.

Have the best doing a job which needs the best to deliver.

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