BT dot.com/Virtual ideas

Have a great dot.com idea but unsure of how to convert it into a profitable organisation? All you have to do is log onto Inc.com, a site that tells you how and where you can start and run your own business. The list of topics on which you can find information: strategy, writing a business plan, law and taxation, finding venture capital, personal and professional growth, and leadership. The site is also an ideal destination for companies looking for off-the-shelf solutions for their e-Commerce problems: it lists several 100 e-Commerce tools. For instance, you can increase the functionality of your HR function by setting up a self-help Website, where your employees can find out about all your HR policies. Or, you can find an on-line payroll processing service. Traditional organisations can benefit from this site too. But it is just made-to-order for small Net start-ups. Call it virtual help if you will.

HR Management for e-ntrepreneurs

Managing them would be easy, you thought. After all, people leave the security of traditional jobs and jump onto the e-biz wagon because they want to be there, right? Perhaps. But the very nature of these jobs requires the dot.coms who manage them to possess the very kind of HR-and organisational-support systems that they have dispensed with. The result? Employees who burnout quicker; higher attrition rates; and large-scale chaos.

This pandemonium can be attributed to 3 reasons. One, there is a flip side to the real-time, on-line merits that an e-biz boasts: it requires 24 X 7 organisations. And this, in turn, requires employees to put in longer hours at work. Two, e-businesses do not have sizeable support functions. Thus, employees have to cope with every minor operational and administrative detail themselves. Three, most employees of e-businesses are young and single. With work eating into their social lives, these individuals have little time to meet other people their age, build relationships, and start families. This vacuum in their personal lives impacts their professional lives adversely.

It isn't difficult, though, for organisations to address such issues. An emphasis on individual-, and organisational-development, and standard HR interventions should do. BT presents the e-ntrepreneurs Miranda to HR management. Read them their rights. And act on it.

Vision: Have one. And disseminate it across the organisation. It's important because e-businesses will have many part-timers.

Seven on-line Sins

Over-Engineering: Don't visualise technologies that are too complex to be implemented.
Over-Stretching: Do not try to do everything yourself; choose a good hosting service.
Over-Fitting: Real world merchandise may not do well on-line; evaluate its suitability.
Over Complacent: Do not neglect security issues; hire a specialist to take care of this.
Over-Independence: The idea is yours, but do not try to implement all of it yourself; outsource.
Over-Backended: Never forget that it is the front-end that interacts with customers.
Over-Netted: Many customers order over the telephone. Include a number.

Chore aid: Set up a cell that takes care of typical employee chores, like shopping and paying bills, that can't be done on-line.

Fun: Your HR manager need not be a clown, but your organisation should be a fun place to work. Package tasks as games.

Career aid: You need a career-plan. Others may tell you that knowledge workers aren't really worried about the morrow. They are.

Dating aid: If your employees do not have the time to create a social milieu for themselves, it is up to you to do it for them.

Updates: All knowledge workers are insecure about the future. Keep them posted on the state of the market and the competition.

Sins come in sevens. In a recent article in trade journal e-commerce Times, analyst David Gerstner, listed the 7 typical sins (read: mistakes) committed by on-line merchants. Now you know what not to do. Favourite e-mail service or default homepage.