Workplace Socio- Psychological Dynamics Of People Integration

Welcome to the Vantage HR Influencers Podcast. This podcast is sponsored by Vantage Circle, the simple and AI-powered rewards and recognition platform for employee engagement.

Sanjeevani Saikia: Welcome listeners to another enlightening episode of the Vantage Influencers Podcast. I'm your host, Sanjeevani Saikia. Today, our journey is intriguing, as we spotlight a pivotal, yet often underestimated aspect of professional life, and that is workplace socio-psychological dynamics of people integration.

In the hustle of deadlines, it's easy to overlook how social and psychological factors shape our work environments. However, acknowledging the interconnected nature of human behavior within the professional realm is essential for creating resilient workplaces. Exploring workplace socio-psychological dynamics, we uncover the hidden threads that weave a thriving workplace culture, extending beyond surface level metrics. So join us as we explore the significance of these dynamics with Sanjeeva Maithani, Vice President, Performance and Rewards, HR Technology, HRSS and Global Mobility at Zensar Technologies.

Hi Sanjeeva.

Sanjeeva Maithani: Hello.

Sanjeevani Saikia: First and foremost, I want to express my gratitude for your presence today and for taking the time to be part of this episode. Before we delve into today's topic, socio-psychological dynamics of people integration, could you kindly walk us through your corporate journey so far?

Sanjeeva Maithani: Sure, Sanjeevani. I have around 30 years of corporate experience across various HR areas. I started my career as a total rewards professional and then moved on to managing performance across the globe for a software organization, then moved to the United Kingdom to manage the Europe HR operations, where I managed not just HR but also the overall operations, and then came back to India to manage HR business partner responsibilities for an insurance and shared services business. In 2013, I joined Zensar, where I manage five functions globally: rewards, performance, HR technology, shared services, and global mobility.

Sanjeevani Saikia: Wonderful. Thank you for sharing your journey with us, Sanjeeva. Really appreciate it. With your permission, I'd like to now delve into today's topic.

Sanjeeva Maithani: Sure.

Sanjeevani Saikia: When entering an established team, individuals encounter certain interpersonal challenges that extend beyond the initial goal fitting, and it's pretty obvious that these challenges profoundly influence an employee's integration journey. I believe recognizing and understanding these hurdles lays the groundwork for addressing the complexities of assimilation within established teams. So, according to you, what are some of the biggest interpersonal challenges that employees face when trying to integrate into an established team? What's your take on that?

Sanjeeva Maithani: We have to remember that each team, once established, goes through the usual process of forming and norming. So once a team is established, a new member finds settling in difficult for various reasons. One, he or she has to understand what the team culture is: whether the team is result oriented or process oriented, who has what kind of personality, what the communication style is. Do they look at a new joiner as somebody who is going to come in with new ideas and add to the diverse interactions within the team, or do they look at that person with apprehension, like someone who is going to challenge their ways of working? Are they more focused purely on the work, or are they also focused on building relationships? Do they have an informal environment or a formal one? There are so many things a person has to understand before they can become an important, irreplaceable part of the team. So it's not easy for somebody to just walk in and start contributing from day one.

Sanjeevani Saikia: Interesting. As team integration involves a complex interplay of various factors, from cultural nuances to individual communication styles, it becomes imperative to grasp how these elements intertwine to mold the integration journey for employees. In your experience, how do things like cultural norms, communication styles, and different personalities impact how well employees integrate? And Sanjeeva, perhaps more intriguingly, can these differences ever be leveraged for more cohesion?

Sanjeeva Maithani: It's something I've experienced in all my years working in an IT services environment, where there's a lot of offshore-onshore interaction. In fact, the entire Indian IT services industry is built on the price advantage and the innovation impact that India brings. But what people forget is that India is not one culture. People in the US think the US is one culture, or the UK is one culture, and they expect India to be one culture too. But within India, people have very different cultures depending on the region they come from. For example, I have friends from Nagaland and Mizoram who find it very difficult to speak badly about anybody. If you ask them to discuss how a person isn't performing well, they find it very difficult. They will never openly say what's wrong with someone, because that's part of their culture. It takes a lot of effort for them to actually come out and say this person isn't right for the team, these are the issues. It's the same with south versus north. So the cultural norm of the region a person comes from matters, the culture of the organization matters, and sometimes within the organization, the cultural norm of the team makes a huge difference in how an employee can integrate.

When I talk about the culture of a team, it's also about formal versus informal, open versus hierarchical, empowering versus controlling. There's a huge difference in how a person coming from an empowering culture would find themselves struggling in a culture that's always controlled from the top. The same goes for communication style. We find it very funny when we hear people from Kerala, Bengal, or Punjab speaking English with a heavy accent. I've worked in a French organization where the people at headquarters were French, and they had no issue speaking heavily accented French English. In England, where I stayed for four and a half years, Scottish and Welsh accents are very difficult to understand, but nobody points it out. People understand that's the person's way of communicating based on where they're from, and they accept it. Indians in general have a tendency toward a slight inferiority complex, so we keep pushing people to improve their accent and make sure they don't sound heavily accented.

Then there's the culture of how people manage work. In a lot of Indian organizations, people expect you to call rather than depend on email, whereas in a multinational, if you send an email, that's as good as speaking directly. It's a huge difference. In a lot of countries, you can't start a conversation with anybody without first talking about the weather, or a game, or the latest movie, and then get to the actual topic. So the style of communication is very different. Germans and the Dutch like to be very direct, while Indians and Japanese think that's very rude. There are so many built-in differences, and the idea of forcing everyone into one style of managing work no longer works in today's world.

You can definitely leverage these differences, because organizations that do have created a huge gap between how they deliver and succeed compared to others. The key thing is you first have to be very inclusive, which means setting a very clear tone about the purpose of the team or organization, and making sure everything aligns to that purpose. That purpose can be achieved in a much richer way if there's diversity, and you have to explain to the team why diversity is important, why people from diverse backgrounds add more value, and how their way of thinking brings in ideas a homogenous environment would never produce. But diversity also brings difficulties, so the team needs to stay open to accepting differences and working through them. Some ways to improve that: be patient, understand that everybody is different because of their background and inclination, and give them a chance to be heard. Be open, receive without judging, ask questions to understand rather than just listening for the sake of it, and ask questions to clarify rather than to prove a point. Try to understand the whole person. What makes them different from you? What makes them tick? Be curious about why their communication style or personality is the way it is, and try to build connections. You'll often find that what you thought was an issue with the other person isn't really an issue, because they may be experiencing the same difficulty with you. Once you understand and work through that, you should also be open to changing your own style, because if you want others to change, it has to start with you. Then you'll realize the reward is many times bigger than what you'd expect from a homogenous team. That's not to say you don't need any homogeneity. You need consistency when it comes to respect for individuals, building on people's inputs, encouraging others to share ideas, and having your team members' backs. That has to stay consistent, you can't be diverse there. But in every other way, diversity is how you become different, better, and grow much faster than anyone else.

Sanjeevani Saikia: True. Sanjeeva, do you think having proper diversity and inclusion initiatives in place is itself enough to address this issue? Because there are certain companies that may not have an established DEI policy at this point in time, but their culture itself makes it either difficult or easier for people to assimilate. What do you have to say about that?

Sanjeeva Maithani: I'm a big fan of culture, which I believe is one of the least understood and least practiced areas of HR, or of the corporate world in general, besides accepting that the only infinite resource you have is people. Giving people and culture the most importance is what everybody should be doing, which unfortunately not many are. If you have a culture built on respect for people, empowerment, risk taking, innovation, freedom with responsibility, and excellence, it will automatically push you toward diversity. If you have an open culture and you want innovation, innovation comes through empowerment, and that only happens if you have many, many ideas. You only get many ideas if you're willing to invest in diversity, and you only get more ideas from diversity if you have respect for people, meaning you pay more attention to ideas than to who brings them.

Another way to look at it is collaboration. A culture of collaboration can only happen if you understand what leads to collaboration and what kind of collaboration will actually drive your organization forward. If you have a culture that respects people and understands that everybody brings a solution to a problem that impacts their work, this becomes part of their life. It shows up in everything you do, starting with leadership acting as a role model on diversity, because they're living those values in front of the most junior person, who sees everyone living those values everywhere. So for them, it's not something that needs to be part of a goal, it's something they breathe every day, every minute. You don't need it as a separate initiative if your culture is already built on values that celebrate diversity, because that's the only way to get more innovation and better resilience to manage tough conditions. Nothing helps more than that.

Sanjeevani Saikia: Again, I think you'll agree that integration into a team isn't just about joining. It's more about actively contributing and feeling a sense of belonging. So integration plays a critical role in shaping employee satisfaction and engagement within the workplace. It would be great if you could tell us why integration is so important for things like employee satisfaction, engagement, and retention rates. And on the flip side, what ripple effects might emerge within the team or organization if new hires encounter challenges while trying to integrate effectively?

Sanjeeva Maithani: I think if you look at the fundamentals of any relationship, whether between two individuals or within a team, it's built on trust. And trust comes when, one, you deliver what you commit to. Two, you know that somebody has your back. Three, there's an understanding that this person is coming to the office because their purpose in life is, one, career growth within the organization, and two, pursuing other important areas of life, having good work-life balance, and getting support from colleagues. There are so many things that make somebody come to work every day and look forward to how they can make a difference to their own life and the lives of everyone they interact with. It's a myth that the client is the most important element of any organization. It's always the employees. You ensure you provide employees a culture where they can think for themselves, do things on their own, where you tell them what you want and not how you want it done. You empower them, help them learn from each other, and they'll automatically take care of everything else. You won't have to worry about quality, about your company adapting to the latest technology, or about the competition, so long as this happens.

For this to happen, you also have to ensure people understand that anybody joining the organization or team is going to become part of that community, that family, and it becomes everyone's responsibility to make sure the new person is taken care of and that assimilation is as seamless as possible. India has a very famous Sanskrit saying, Atithi Devo Bhava, meaning a guest is like a god. Any new person joining your team or organization is like a guest. For the initial few days or months, until they truly become part of the team, treat the person that way, understand why they've joined and what they haven't experienced till now that you can help them experience, both in their work life and their personal life. Right from before they join, let the person know who their team members are going to be, a little about each of them, their areas of expertise, whether they like to work late nights or early mornings, what kind of hobbies they're into, so that even before joining, the person already has a mental picture of their team members. Once they join and meet these people, they already feel like they know them. Then it's about making sure they understand their role in the team, where they fit into the bigger picture, and why they're doing what they're doing, which is the purpose of coming to the office every day. It's a much bigger responsibility for managers to make sure the person is welcomed, that a one-on-one is done to help them understand the team's working style, what will make them successful, and what things they should be aware of that aren't acceptable as part of the culture or the norm. Similarly, all the team members should be made aware of the new joiner's likes, dislikes, and working style, so everyone is walking a few steps toward each other and meeting halfway. That makes a big difference.

There's a study that shows 50 to 70 percent of newly hired managers and leaders fail at their new jobs and leave within 18 months. Imagine, at that level, the kind of impact that has on the entire team and organization, just because we don't spend the time and energy to help the person feel at home, where they don't fear exposing themselves or being vulnerable, where they know people will support them because it's a new environment for them. Are we providing that support, are we making them feel, to put it in a very human way, cared for, so that they can give that back.

Sanjeevani Saikia: Interesting. Again, you've shared a very interesting viewpoint with Atithi Devo Bhava, considering new joiners as god, literally, until they've become a core part of the team. That again places a sense of responsibility on all team members to make them feel included, don't you think?

Sanjeeva Maithani: Yes, yes, of course. It's always the receiving group that has to ensure that, since they're the majority, the incoming minority doesn't have any apprehension, doesn't have any fears, doesn't have to think twice before opening up and sharing, and is made to feel like an inseparable member of the team.

Sanjeevani Saikia: Wonderful. Moving on to the next question, how does a well-integrated and diverse workforce contribute to an organization's adaptability in the face of changing market landscapes? Sanjeeva, it would be great if you could share instances where workplace integration has directly influenced a company's ability to innovate and thrive in dynamic environments.

Sanjeeva Maithani: Sure, let me start by quoting a study on diversity, which defines diversity as inherent, meaning your gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, the things you're born with, and diversity that's acquired, meaning gained through experience. For example, if you've worked in a certain country, you learn that you can't directly approach women to sell certain products, and that's acquired experience. This is called two dimensional diversity. Research on this has shown that companies with two dimensional diversity in at least three areas, across each of these dimensions, are 45 percent more likely to report growth in market share over the previous year, and 70 percent more likely to report that the firm captured a new market. That's the kind of impact a well-integrated and diverse workforce can have on an organization.

Now the big question is how. Innovation is unlocked only when ideas are heard, because ideas are everywhere. India, unfortunately, is a country where the education system kills the curiosity of children, and curiosity is the number one requirement for innovation. In fact, even parents often discourage kids from asking too many questions, but that's the most important element of innovation. Number one is asking questions, which leads to ideas, and number two is that those ideas need to be heard, whether they sound outrageous or come from somebody with no obvious connection to that area. What matters is that you value the difference, differences are meant to be celebrated, and that's something a well-integrated, diverse workforce brings. The reverse is also true. If you're not well integrated, it's proven that there's less chance of an idea being accepted if it comes from a woman, from an LGBTQ+ community member, from a junior employee, or even from a new joiner. It becomes a lazy assumption: you're coming from a different organization, you have no clue, this won't work, without even hearing the idea out or trying to analyze it. So one of the most important things diversity teaches is to be open, to listen, and to try to understand why the person is saying what they're saying, or where they're coming from.

Let me give you an example from Zensar. We acquired two organizations around the time we were moving from being a traditional IT services organization to becoming a leading digital organization. We acquired a US digital marketing agency and a UK digital design company. These companies are typically called studios, and besides being smaller, there's a big difference: they deal with chief marketing officers rather than CIOs or procurement, their projects are smaller in value but in cutting-edge business areas, and their interaction with clients and users is much higher than what a traditional IT services company would have. At the time of acquisition, we realized we needed to help them understand why we had acquired them, and help them accept that this was a partnership that would benefit both sides. They brought in their expertise to add value to the chief marketing officer, to build the brand and create experience. They were struggling with expansion because they didn't have a strong presence in India, so we could help them grow faster and build a larger team there to collaborate with. In turn, they could help us with the downstream work. We could help a client create the user experience, but somebody also had to manage that platform going forward, and that's where we had to understand that we should let them manage things their own way. We didn't touch how they incentivized their people or ran their team meetings, we just made sure they understood how we would add value to them as they added value to us.

What happened was we ended up with joint teams going to clients with joint proposals, talking about how we could extend their reach through digital marketing and how our engineering services could help build the infrastructure to run everything globally. If we had stuck to the mindset of you've been acquired so you follow our ways, or if they had told us to just do what they say without understanding our business, it wouldn't have worked. We had to understand why they worked the way they worked, how they added value to the client, and how we added value to the client. Through that collaboration, we managed to transform client businesses. There was a large payments technology client with around 400 different sites across the globe, all giving a different experience to different people, with no consistency and real inefficiencies. We transformed all 400 sites into one digital experience platform and handled the design and implementation, which resulted in a 25 percent reduction in the drop-off rate in customer engagement, a 30 percent saving in time spent creating new campaigns and microsites, and a 25 percent increase in operational efficiency through self-service on digital channels. Similarly, we helped one of our largest retail clients in the US move from a huge, disparate product portfolio to a cloud-based, mobile-first platform, while cutting their regression test cycle by 90 percent to speed up time to market. All of this happened because of a joint effort, working together and understanding the diverse ways in which people across two organizations and countries approach solutioning and problems, and then coming together to share their viewpoints and arrive at a common solution that's much better than what either side could have come up with alone.

Sanjeevani Saikia: Sanjeeva, we're arriving at the end of today's episode, but before we let you go, there's one last thing both our listeners and I would love to know your take on. I hope you'll agree that integration within a team isn't solely confined to work hours or tasks, it extends into the fabric of workplace culture, social interactions, and even physical office spaces. What types of workplace social events, office layouts, and company cultures are most conducive to helping employees from diverse backgrounds integrate, and what strategies or improvements could be implemented within different workplace settings to enhance these integration opportunities?

Sanjeeva Maithani: If you look at building a relationship, that's where social events come in, that's how you get to know a person. Right from informal team meetings to creating hobby communities where people with common interests like photography, movie marathons, cycling, or trekking come together, exchange ideas, and even go to events together. It could be inter-function, inter-project, or inter-account sports events, dance events, I've seen companies run things like a masterchef challenge. Social work is a big item nowadays, especially for Gen Z, who feel they need to play a role in the climate movement or in impacting society. Office parties, people think it's just about free food and drinks, but they're also a place where people connect a lot more deeply than they might anywhere else. Similarly, within the office, do you have space for people to sit and have coffee at leisure while going through magazines and chatting, a library where people can sit around common interests, do you provide games facilities, along with functional communities within the organization, so for an IT company, is there a community for each of the major technology or functional areas, and are there spaces for people from diverse hobbies and interests to come together and ignite their passion. Once a passion in any area is ignited, the person feels more energized and can give more, and if you want diverse people to contribute, you need people willing to take the time and effort to understand each other.

Similarly, open offices are a big thing right now, but do we even have places where people can sit on their own without disturbance. A lot of people prefer to be left alone to work, because that's when they're most productive, with no disturbance, so we should acknowledge and include that too. It's not just about diversity, it's about including everybody's input before you design the workplace, and not putting too much focus on any one type of person. Small things, like having a ramp as well as stairs, doors that can be opened with a closed fist or a push of the leg, handles and levers, giving people the option to stand and work, a space for meditation or worship. These are small things, but together they help people feel accepted whatever their background, and show that diversity is celebrated, not just a slogan on the wall. And of course, as we've already discussed, culture plays the most important role. A culture that promotes innovation, empowerment, respect for the individual, and collaboration will automatically help people find ways to connect, include each other, and work together. You won't need special initiatives, leaders will walk the talk, and the processes and systems will support these areas. It becomes a self-sustaining movement, because the culture itself drives change at every level, so the effort becomes both bottom up and top down, making the organization much richer and more vibrant.

Sanjeevani Saikia: You've answered my question very well, so thank you so much, Sanjeeva. We've reached the end of today's podcast. Do you have any message for our listeners? Our audience might also want to stay in touch with you after this podcast, so it would be great if you could tell them how they can reach out to you.

Sanjeeva Maithani: My message is, always start from the fundamentals, and the fundamental of humanity is that all human beings are equal. If you start from that fundamental and open yourself to all human beings, however they are, wherever they're from, whatever their background, just open yourself, and everything else will follow. It's as simple as that. And if you want to get in touch with me, you can drop me an email, I'll share it with Sanjeevani, and you can also reach out to me on LinkedIn. I'd be very interested to hear your views on this topic, and if there's something you'd like to share with me, I'd be more than happy to hear it.

Sanjeevani Saikia: Wonderful. It's been a pleasure to have you as our guest today. Your insights and expertise have been invaluable, and we're grateful for the time you've taken to share your knowledge with our listeners. Thank you so much.

Sanjeeva Maithani: Thanks a lot. Thank you so much for bringing me onto this podcast. By the way, this is my first, so I'm getting a bit more tech savvy.

Sanjeevani Saikia: Happy to have you, it's great to have you, thank you so much.

Sanjeeva Maithani: Thank you, bye.

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