ATTITUDE- that's what they want

Recently read a news .. about importance of attitude at workplace...thought i should post it here..

At Microsoft’s Global Technical Support Centre (GTSC) in Bangalore, a team of over 1,000 engineers solve problems for the Redmond,Washington-based company’s blue-ribbon corporate customers, including the likesof the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) which runs the US’civilian space programming and GE, the engineering and financial services major.

The problems have become increasingly complex over the years and the averagetime to resolve a complaint is upwards of eight hours.  The engineers work under intense time pressure as the glitches they are solving could result in loss of business for clients.

But at the end of the year, the engineers are not being judged by how fast they solved problems or how high they were rated on customer satisfaction surveys.

Instead, performance rating is linked to much more qualitative parameters such as readiness to ask colleagues for help, the ability and willingness tolearn from the problem they were solving.  The willingness to share knowledge and doggedness and persistence in solvingproblems is also high on the desirability charts at the Bangalore unit ofthe maker of Windows software.

These changes are not unique to Microsoft. Employees are increasingly being judged on the quality of their interaction with colleagues with values such as proclivity towards collaborative behaviour and knowledge-sharing being highlyrated. Risk-taking ability is also valued.

For some companies, behaviour, rather than the ability tomeet targets, is the route to a good increment this appraisal season. And insome places like Microsoft GTSC, it is the only criterion.

“We don’t hold the frontline staff accountable to productivity any longer. Thatis only for most senior managers,” says Binu Philip, Director, Human Resourcesat Microsoft, GTSC. “Hard numbers do not show the whole picture and can bemanipulated as well,” Anandorup Ghosh, practice head for executive compensationand corporate governance at Aon Hewitt.

[Economic Times- 13th Jan 2012]