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VOLUME 01 | ISSUE 01 | DECEMBER 2019 20

HUMAN RESOURCES

EMPLOYABLE WORKFORCE CREATING CORPORATE READY PROFESSIONALS IN COLLABORATION WITH ACADEMIA

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CONTENTS DECEMBER 2019 | VOLUME 01 | ISSUE 01

COVER STORY

Finding the Right Talent: Collaboration of Corporate with Academia

SPECIAL FEATURE

HR: 5 VOGUES TO LOOK OUT FOR IN 2020

SPECIAL STORY

FUTURE BRINGS AN EMPLOYEE-CENTRIC WORLD

INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE

POOJA DUDANI Head L&D, Cars24

INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE

ALOK NARAIN

Co-Founder & DirectorEmergence Learning Solutions

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Dr Ravi Gupta EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Dr Ravi Gupta Editor Runa Maitra

Senior Assistant Editor: Sudheer Goutham B

EDITORIAL TEAM: DELHI/NCR Senior Assistant Editor: Souvik Goswami Assistant Editors: Vivek Ratnakar, Gopi Krishna Arora Mukul Kumar Mishra, Sreetama Datta Roy Senior Correspondents: Rashi Aditi Ghosh Correspondent: Reetika Bose, Ritika Srivastava

Sales & Marketing : digitalLEARNING National Manager (Education): Kumar Chandan Anand

LUCKNOW BUREAU Senior Assistant Editor: Arpit Gupta MUMBAI BUREAU Associate Editor: Kartik Sharma Senior Correspondent: Harshal Yashwant Desai JAIPUR BUREAU Associate Editor: Kartik Sharma CHANDIGARH BUREAU Assistant Editor: Priya Yadav HYDERABAD BUREAU

AHMEDABAD BUREAU Assistant Editor: Hemangini S Rajput

Subscription & Circulation Team +91-8860635832; subscription@elets.in Design Team Art Director: Om Prakash Thakur Deputy Art Directors: Gopal Thakur, Shyam Kishore, Shaikh Munawar Hasnain Director, Administration Archana Jaiswal ....................................................................................................................... Editorial & Marketing Correspondence digitalLEARNING – Elets Technomedia Pvt Ltd: Stellar IT Park Office No: 7A/7B, 5th Floor, Tower-2, Annexe Building, C-25, Sector-62, Noida, Uttar Pradesh - 201301, Phone: +91-120-4812600, Fax: +91-120-4812660, Email: info@elets.in digitalLEARNING is published by Elets Technomedia Pvt Ltd Owner, Publisher, Printer Dr Ravi Gupta, Printed at Vinayak Print Media, D - 249, Sector-63, Noida 201 307. Uttar

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OUR INITIATIVES

© All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic and mechanical, including photocopy, or any information storage or retrieval system, without publisher’s permission. Send your feedback about our interviews, features, articles, and news. You can either comment on the webpage of the stories, or mail at editorial@elets.in

Letter from Publisher and Editor-in-Chief Elets is here to change the game. Again. Today employment and emplolyability are major burning issues in our country. While lakhs of graduates and post graduates are being produced every year from all across the country, most of them are unemployed or underemployed. Elets Technomedia was founded in the year 2003. The vision was to propagate the idea of innovation for improving the lives of common man through creation of knowledge sharing platforms. We have worked in over 25 key sectors of the economy in last 16 years and collaborated with thousands of industry, academia and government agencies all across the country and abroad. We are seeing the massive gap between the industry and academia thought process in several sectors and we realize that bringing the industry and academia together is one of the key ways to reduce unemployment and increase employability of our students. Keeping this in mind, we at Elets are happy to bring out our 5th magazine title from our organization. This magazine is called “Elets HR”, and the first issue if this magazine is in your hands. Elets already brings out four other magazines named - ‘Digital Learning’, ‘Banking and Finance Post’s, ‘ehealth’, and ‘egov’. We are going to launch a dedicated HR portal too where we will invite key stakeholders to discuss the major issues affecting the HR ecosystem and how we all can address those issues collectively. We are also going to organise a series of conferences across the country where we will invite key HR sector profesionals from India and abroad to discuss the challenges and opportunities of this sector. Looking forward to your support and love for this endeavour of ours.

Dr Ravi Gupta Editor-in-Chief, Elets HR Magazine and Founder Publisher and CEO Elets Technomedia Pvt Ltd

EDITORIAL Technology Changing the Way HR Industry Functions While today, technology has changed our life with every single invention & trends are changing faster than time itself, it is also a reality that the initiatives and plans we make for today, may just become obsolete even before the season changes. In the present digital age, the Information and Communication Technology has revolutionalised very sphere of our life, including the Human Resources (HR) ecosystem. Adopting of these the technological innovations is helping the HR industry to stay relevant in the present times. In line with this, Our cover story – “Finding the Right Talent: Collaboration of Corporate with Academia” highlights my journey of the challenges and the future prospects of the human resource and what goes in finding the real talent in today’s time. One of our special stories – One of our special stories, “HR: 5 Vogues to look out for in 2020,” presents five vogues in the HR industry which are expected to reign in 2020. Another special story, “Future Brings an Employee-Centric World,” delves into the future of employer and employee growth mechanics. The The issue also carries the interview of some of the brightest mind sin the HR industry – Pooja Dudani, Head L&D, Cars24, Alok Narain, Co- Founder, Emergence Learning Solutions, Dr Jignesh Shah, Vice President – HR & Admin, Montecarlo Limited, along with other key experts from the HR industry who have shared useful insights about the HR practices adopted by their organization to scale employability and retain employees. We hope the wide variety of articles, reports and other write-ups in the magazine would help our esteemed readers gain invaluable insights into the HR ecosystem.

Runa Maitra Editor, Elets HR Magazine

COVER STORY

FINDING THE RIGHT TALENT: COLLABORATION OF CORPORATE WITH ACADEMIA In an exclusive conversation with Reetika Bose of Elets News Network (ENN), Runa Maitra, Founder & Director, People Talent International shares her endeavour and compassion that went into finding the desired talent in the corporate world. With things changing and getting obsolete, Runa is striving hard to understand what the youth wants and how motivated can they be to work.

Runa Maitra

Founder & Director People Talent International

hat worked for Runa Maitra was largely the faith of her management that her team would work towards meeting the crucial deadlines, not worrying about the issues. Having spent most of her career in the ‘New Age Industry’, the journey of Runa Maitra, has been full of

DECEMBER 2019

excitement and challenges. “When you take up an assignment where you have no past history or reference to reflect or ability to learn from someone’s experience then it is indeed a different world”, Runa said. When asked about her initial challenges, Runa said that sourcing the right set of people was the key issue being aware they won’t bring the industry knowledge. It was imperative that potential management of the talent pool by understanding if they had the aptitude to learn and deliver to build business was the need of the hour. We could gauge from the talent we on-boarded that they had the right approach to handle their role and hunger for contribution to business growth. About 2 decades ago, Runa joined the NBFC industry which had its mark in 30 different locations and also a small footprint in neighboring country with a tiny team in HR department. Talking about the technological disruptions in the HR space, Runa said,” We saw the transition from DOS to Windows with advent of CCMail implantation to create a seamless communication platform for our employees. We hired largely from premier institutions in India and many talents from Ivy leagues colleges to build an efficient team which created the back-bone to respond to such quick changes in the work environment since during that period pagers and mobile were introduced. In fact, we introduced Smart-card which probably was ahead of time for which we struggled to hire the topmost talented people who could help us to launch such sophisticated products.” The challenge for Runa was not limited till here. The biggest test was not just hiring the right resource but to train them to handle customer post sales. With absolute no clue about the talent pool in the country, Runa took up one assignment in a BPO, which was perhaps one of the best call centre of the globe. With the experimental mind, courage and rigor, she ensured that the quality was not compromised and kept the entire team going. Talking of the advantages, Runa further continued by saying, “Our ability to handle multiple projects at a time without looking at

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COVER STORY

the clock brought the advantage. Most importantly, we kept moving city to city to explore and find the right talent was the driving force.” These wonderful organisations gave Runa the right push to take up an assignment where she could be part of a M&A team to work in their global offices based on-site with people of different countries. Interestingly, the challenges discussed in regards to bringing onboard the employees as right fit were mostly common. Runa believes in the process of weaving a talent

“

The biggest test was not just hiring the right resource but to train them to handle customer post sales.

”

builder’s mindset into the fabric of the business while managing similar challenges we face in our home country.

THE WIN WIN SITUATION The corporate-academia partnership is the uppermost requirement prevalent in the past, present and future and it always helped seamlessly to bridge the gap if they collaborated right. The talent partnership model between them is in fact apparent during placement season. In Runa’s words, this spike is slowly reducing since stakeholders of both segments are recognising the importance of handholding instead of old game of demand-supply. Earlier, the model revolved around academicians collaborating with business through guest-lectures, workshops and conclaves some of which still continues with different flavor. Having said that, she further continued, “The trajectory has now moved more towards learning the business fit by developing the faculty who are now open to understand real business through experience not just depending on reading secondary data for same reason.”

DECEMBER 2019

COVER STORY

It is interesting to see that some institutions may not depute their faculties to catch up with industry knowledge in the offices. However, the interaction between them and industry partners has definitely improved through various innovative processes. The stress of internship besides summer and in some cases winter is stronger with much better quality avoiding printing certification to tick-box as factory. The focus on live project coupled with replacing final semester with industry experience has moved the needle big way.

EMPLOYABILITY – WHEN WILL THE STRUGGLE END? Employability is a challenge and every now and then thousands of graduates being churned out by companies. When we caught up with Runa to understand the dilemma of the industry and the high hopes of making things change, she said, “We always follow law of average, which blocks are ability to observe the changes happen around us. Employability had been challenge in the past and continues due to

DECEMBER 2019

“

The change is inevitable to elevate deploying technology for better connect with the marketplace understand competition being agile.

”

inability to cope with the changes while moving from industry 3.0 to 4.0. The repertoire of action taken by both academy and industry had never been enough – even now.

A CAREFULLY DEVELOPED CURRICULUM - TIME FOR A CHANGE When asked about her thoughts behind enhancing the curriculum, Runa suggested that the design of course-curriculum management needs to undergo rapid change to respond to future need. “In order to meet the industry demand and empower the skills, the students should go through industry specific topics along with techniques and managerial skills”, she further added. When interacting with students during seminars, workshop or mentoring program, the top question in Runa’s mind is whether there will be enough job opportunity for them as ‘Freshers’. For Runa Maitra, this query inadvertently is an outcome of lack of faith in the chain of knowledge creators, knowledge bearers, and knowledge

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facilitators since students have the access to knowledge through Internet, which they constantly compare with their education system.

MAKING THE GRADUATES CORPORATE READY: THE RIGHT WAY AHEAD

THE CORPORATE-ACADEMIA PARTNERSHIP: THE BIGGER PICTURE

“ In order to meet the industry demand and empower the skills, the students should go through industry specific topics along with techniques and managerial skills

Coming to the bigger picture, it is indeed a matter of concern that whether the corporate academia partnership is helpful in matching the capabilities of what the companies are looking for. Runa opines that the corporate-academia partnership, to some extent is of help to match the capability of employees. However the distance

”

HAS THE FUTURE OF HR ARRIVED? The industry is busy responding to the technology advancement, which it was already battling since computerisation. While it moved from analog to digital crossing a long distance diffusing inefficient infrastructures taking the industry through immense transformation. “The change is inevitable to elevate deploying technology for better connect with the marketplace understand competition being agile”, said Runa, when asked about the future of HR is heading towards. The velocity of change happening globally is impacting all sectors both in business and finding the right people to run it. The dearth of talent who are tech-savvy not as coders only, but largely as the users are most important who are the consumers, customers and employees of an organization. The skills required for the business needs to be available at the right time hence embracing reskilling of the existing employees, understanding of new skill to hire and train to sustain in business. The bigger challenge, Runa shares, is the ability to respond to global demand since the challenge of finding the right skilled workforce is not issue of our home country alone. Our employee’s travel across borders to collaborate with their global team to deliver as the nature of jobs is changing. The challenges the industry across the globe are facing shortage of skill and not talent. There are enough people who are ready to join industry however they are either not ready fvor the job or for the aspirational organization which leads to offer dropouts in large quantity. Runa further questions the ability to prepare the future workforce to diffuse the skills gap from the demand and supply perspective. She said,” In order to hone the right talent for right fit both industry and academia need collaborate to do continuous diagnostics, keep identifying the industry-relevant skills by interfacing with the universities by redesigning the curriculum ensuring more job-ready future employees. “ The driving mantra, she concluded by saying that, in the field of Human Resource, that concerns for both industry and academia is to continue to upskill, reskill and adopt new-skill else perish!

DECEMBER 2019

COVER STORY

To build the appropriate trajectory for students, the industry experts need to come forward with conviction protecting their self-interest to engage the adequate talent pool. The professional skill is an outcome of such handholding of talent seekers who apparently are fighting their own battle of managing operation neglecting talent building. Talking of making graduates corporate ready, Runa shared the right way to shape the professional skills. She said, “The ability of managers who are yet to cross the border of internal HR and operations must wake-up to own the resources waiting to be hired by them from campuses. They need to first partner with human resource team to work on the job descriptions to marry the same with the courses designed for students. In today’s world application of knowledge brings improved professional acumen instead of simple academic knowledge. Now, thrust is given to more exposure through practical experience with help of internship, mentor-mentee program, live projects, online courses, virtual learning etc.

covered had been minimal. It is indeed a long journey; the good news is that in most cases, the path had been beaten by some who had recognised the need, yet to be followed by rest who might be waiting to review success stories.

HR: 5 VOGUES TO LOOK OUT FOR IN 2020 SPECIAL FEATURE

In an era of globalisation and digitalisation, employee interests and preferences are evolving quite rapidly and to accommodate these changes, HR needs to keep up with the latest advancements in the market, writes Debajyoti Mohanty of Elets News Network (ENN).

n todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s corporate world, working in a great environment and maintaining positivity in the workplace has become very important. Considering the enormity of the task at hand, trying out the latest vogues in the industry has its merits. Here are five HR vogues that are expected to remain stoic in the year 2020:

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI) IN HR The use of automation and AI in HR can change the way companies hire new employees and manage their daily affairs. AI can play a transformative role in improving an employerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s key areas of concern including recruitment, human capital management (HCM), employee engagement, employee benefits, and learning and development (L&D), among others. Use of AI-based applications in recruitment can make candidate sourcing, screening and matching easier for organizations. Along with improving efficiency, AI is also helping HR professionals overcome human-bias in their decision making.

DECEMBER 2019

AI can make HCM better by helping HR build stronger teams, enhance employee experience, and reduce employee turnover. It can also help HR improve performance management and workforce planning. Automation and AI can also ease the processing and dispensation of employee benefits by personalization, communication and compliance. Furthermore, AI can be a catalyst in transforming the way businesses interact with their employees. This can be achieved by conducting intelligent surveys, introducing real-time feedback platforms, automatically dispensing rewards and recognition, and by personalized messaging and communications. AI is now powering learning platforms that can replicate the qualities of successful content providers like YouTube and Netflix. It may well be used to improve the learning outcomes of employees in training. In the present talent scenario, where skills have a lower shelf life than ever before, AI could turn out to be a game-changer.

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SUB-CONTRACTING HR FUNCTIONS

GIG WORKFORCES Relying on short-term contractors involves risk but in the majority of cases, gig workforces offer due advantages to firms that can accommodate a continuous influx and outflux of people. It has now become common in the tech industry for contractors to sign on for a project for a certain amount of time and then leave for the next gig. These contractors move from company to company as their specialised skills are often high in demand. The gig economy needs a much faster recruiting process than what the conventional one is used to. The idea behind gig economy is that people can come and go, so the firms targeting this kind of

“

Having a fixed place and time to work is already considered an idea of the past. The remote working model is a great way to reduce costs, drive employee engagement and remain competitive in the market.

”

recruitment have to move from sourcing to selection to on-boarding in a matter of weeks or even days. Overall, the gig economy has made its grand entrance and is here to stay. And as the famous saying goes, “People dig it if you gig it”.

THE REMOTE WORKING MODEL The remote working model (flexible ways of working) is a concept many HR professionals consider when they are looking for ways to improve employee engagement and productivity. Effective use of the remote working model takes care of employees’ needs by providing them alternate scheduling options without adversely affecting the firm’s ability to meet business needs. Factors to consider when running a policy of ‘flexible working’ include employee accountability, planning and logistics, and performance and technology solutions. In the majority of cases, substitute work schedules have to be monitored diligently by management to ensure continuity of the employer’s relevant policies. Business needs should define how many different flexible working options are provided to employees. Having a fixed place and time to work is already considered an idea of the past. The remote working model is a great way to reduce costs, drive employee engagement and remain competitive in the market.

SPECIAL FEATURE

Entry-level HR jobs are set to disappear as more and more administrative transactional tasks will be outsourced to external HR agencies and shared service providers. According to some studies, sub-contracting some or all non-core activities to specialist service providers has shown to have many benefits. This has led many organisations to pursue outsourcing with vigour. The potential benefits of HR outsourcing include – reduced cost, increased efficiency, increased flexibility and speed of response, access to improved HR IT systems and improved human capital metrics, among others. It also frees HR to operate more strategically. Despite its numerous benefits, outsourcing HR or some of its functioning to an external service provider is a big decision. Because while it can be cost-effective, outsourcing can introduce new elements of risk including – failure to deliver cost benefits, loss of flexibility, loss of control, impact on the employer/employee relationship, and legal or regulatory requirements, among others. In such a scenario, caution is required before proceeding with a deal.

EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT Employee engagement was in-vogue in 2019 and will continue to reign in 2020 as well. Also, it is well known that engaged employees will work harder, make a positive impact on other employees, and will be less eager to leave the organisation. According to the grapevine, key things to keep in mind for a great employee experience are – diversity and inclusion, personal development, health and wellbeing programs, recognition and awards. Employee engagement is important because the Generation Z cohort wants to be fulfilled by making a meaningful impact.

DECEMBER 2019

FUTURE BRINGS AN EMPLOYEE-CENTRIC WORLD

SPECIAL STORY

There is a popular notion that employees need up-skilling because of the coming of disruptive technologies like AI and ML in the market. But in reality, most employers are looking for soft skills as a priority, writes Debajyoti Mohanty of Elets News Network (ENN).

he future of work demands that organizations invest in creating a culture where creativity thrives, collaboration is facilitated, communication is encouraged, and the employee is made to feel content with his work. The current trend requires this cultural shift to be driven top-down with the effective involvement of employees. The HR can perform this role by leveraging its learning and development (L&D) capabilities. L&D is a crucial component of HR, but the dynamic nature of this component makes it prone to redundancy, if not upgraded well. In recent times, employees have emphasised more on L&D than their employers. With this development, it has become imperative to find new ways to fulfil this demand. And by doing so, HR has a good opportunity to

DECEMBER 2019

improve their existing L&D infrastructure. As per a report, 67% of the surveyed employees wanted retraining and 29% wanted up-skilling or re-training only if they were struggling with a skills gap. Though there has been remarkable increase in the demand for skills concerning AI and automation, soft skills still hold a vital position when it comes to requirements. There is a popular notion that employees need up-skilling because of the coming of disruptive technologies like AI and ML in the market. But in reality, most employers are looking for soft skills as a priority. Soft skills like adaptability and the ability to work with teams have become necessary. Coming after soft skills on the chart, digital skills were ranked the second most important. Behavioural and creative skills are becoming important because it

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“

HR leaders are facing a challenge to meet the aspirations of these employees towards providing them with a proper career path and challenging assignments. This gives a bigger challenge to their existing capabilities to meet the challenges thrown to them, successfully.

”

SPECIAL STORY

is impossible to steer through the fast-evolving job market without having critical thinking, a problemsolving attitude, and creativity. Therefore, both soft and digital skills have to be nurtured in order to maintain relevance. According to a survey, 73% employees think that for a smooth job transition, the employer should provide assistance in building skills, and that it was a major factor deciding their stay at the company. From a 2020 employee’s viewpoint, it is problematic to direct all their education and career growth efforts towards only one organisation. Instead they are keener to gain knowledge and expertise that will help them steer across the industry seamlessly. Therefore, the demand for up-skilling and re-training is for both for better functioning in the present organisation and for adding more value to the employee’s resume. Unfortunately, there is not much enthusiasm among employers regarding the employee demands for re-training and up-skilling, and also in identifying the skills gap.

The latest challenge for organisations is to make new strategies for their workforce management. It is not just about re-training; it is also about motivating the talent and formulating new approaches to recruiting. To make these strategic changes, the organisations need to consider re-training as a way to level up their organisation’s expertise, instead of looking at it as a way to fill the skills gap. L&D efforts must be directed towards adding value to the organisation, instead of targeting reduction of employee turnover overheads. A meeting room filled with bored-to-tears employees, is not how re-training works anymore. Many organisations are considering leveraging technology as much as possible for re-training. From the old method of providing self-study modules to connecting with overseas employees for training and exposure, L&D has come a long way forward. It is no longer supposed to be a one-time thing; the frequency has to be matched with the increasing complexity of the organisation and the market. Frequent scheduling of re-training and up-skilling programmes is becoming popular these days. 2020 is expected to be a year for employers to deal with the demands of re-training and up-skilling. The situation also presents an opportunity for the employers to sharpen their competitive advantage. It is hoped that the year will bring on a state of affairs where learning and training will no longer have any time gaps in-between.

DECEMBER 2019

INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE

CREATING A STRONG PERFORMANCE DRIVEN CULTURE BY LEVERAGING TECHNOLOGY IN THE BUSINESS My efforts have resulted in creating a performance driven culture in the organization with automation in HR processes so that will have maximum leverage of technology for better ease of business and achieving greater speed of completing the task, says Dr Jignesh Shah, Vice President - HR & Admin, Montecarlo Limited, in conversation with Elets News Network (ENN). With an experience of almost 3 decades, how has been your journey in the industry so far? It has been a fantastic journey of 3 decades. I joined as a Trainee way back in 1989 and rose to the leadership level in the corporate world. My hands on experience in various industries like engineering, pharmaceuticals, polyester, chemicals, power sector, building materials, FMCG and infrastructure industry has made me cope up successfully with all kind of challenges in the area of human resource.

How much effort is the corporate world making in order to educate people for employability? Significant efforts have been made by the corporate world where students from universities are invited to undergo their internship and get involved in various projects. These opportunities give the students an understanding of the requirements of corporate world and improve their employability. However, a lot is required to improve employability. The participation of corporate should involve significant academic activities like revisiting syllabus, conducting classes, mentoring etc.

Addressing the latest skill gap and preparing employees with the in-demand skills, how are you finding ways to the bridge the much awaited skill gap? Skills taught within the classroom needs to be practiced in real life situation. For example, in medical jobs, students are required to attend OPD and learn how to treat the patients under the guidance and supervision of senior doctors. With such an experience, students get the chance to develop their skills and eventually study based learning will be imparted to them. There is a dire need to change the examination pattern and some weightage needs to be given to practical examination as well. With such an initiative, we will be successful in reducing the skill gap.

Tell us about your exemplary contribution in the field of Human Resource Management. Almost all HR leaders are facing the challenge of attracting the talent, and retaining the best one. In order to address this issue, I had started few initiatives like Stay Interview, ATM- All time Mitra, Coffee with

DECEMBER 2019

Dr Jignesh Shah

Vice President - HR & Admin, Montecarlo Limited

VP-HR, Knowledge CafĂŠ, The Managerial Talent Hunt Competition and Employee Counseling etc. Similarly, my contribution towards improving the reliability, trust and creditability as a HR Leader has been noteworthy. There is complete openness, transparency, commitment, honesty and reliability in all efforts.

You have excelled in establishing innovative HR systems and institutionalising a strong performance driven culture. What is driving this optimism and tell us about the thing that makes you feel that youwill remain ahead of the curve in digital space? HR leaders must understand the challenges and intricacies of business really well. This includes some kind of technical knowledge of business. Once you understand the business and the challenges, you are ready to contribute in the success and your entire mind set will change from merely supporting to contributing to business and feel accountable for the results. Likewise, my efforts have resulted in creating a performance driven culture in the organisation with automation in HR processes which will eventually have maximum leverage of technology for better ease of business and achieving greater speed of completing the task.

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CULTURAL DIVERSITY AMONG THE EMPLOYEES- WHAT SHOULD HR MANAGERS KNOW ABOUT IT

For new age organisations, cultural diversity is something which is inseparable from organisational dynamics. Today’s organisations are a fine example of a melting pot where in every one comes together and takes a new form as well a salad bowl where each one remains together but maintains an individual identity. People are at the heart of every organisation and as they come together to work for common objectives they get assimilated in the multiplicity of organisational objectives and have common values, ethics and they imbibe common behaviors. At the same time the ethnicity, gender, experiences, qualifications, skills, age groups help the much needed diversity to keep the culture live, vibrant and create a social environment for each one to experiment, learn from each other, develop tolerance, respect diverse views and needs etc. Given the above, the need for effective workplace diversity management is crucial and managers carry the responsibility for ensuring that it works for the benefit of organization and people. A diverse work force can contribute to increased staff retention and productivity and helps build a culture of Innovation, fosters creativity and adds to workplace attractiveness. It also helps enhance the organization’s responsiveness to an increasingly diverse world of stakeholders like customers, suppliers and vendors, regulatory bodies etc. Further, organization’s ability to cope up with change and the

INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE

Managers must evolve and learn how to treat everyone equally yet differently if needed due to the different needs of the diverse workforce, writes Sudeep Luthra, Head HR, Orange Business Services, for Elets News Network (ENN)

Sudeep Luthra

Head HR, Orange Business Services

speed of response to change is also strengthened. However for managers, cultural diversity also offers a unique challenge if they are not adept at dealing with the same and do not know how to make it contribute to organization’s success. Organisation leaders have a crucial role to play here as they can be the role models and can create the environment that fosters and nurtures diversity in its all forms, including divergent view points and new ways of thinking. Managers must evolve and learn how to treat everyone equally yet differently if needed due to the different needs of the diverse workforce. It starts with acknowledging the need to have different approaches, flexible mindset, patience, sensitivity and ability to empathize when dealing with teams wherein each one would have a unique need and expectation and cookie cutter approach may do more damage than solve any problems. In the above scenario, the role CEOs, HR Heads and Diversity Officers is very crucial as they need to integrate the diversity agenda within the overall business agenda and play a strategic role in the design of new business models which are built on the strength of diversity.

DECEMBER 2019

INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE

IMPACT OF NEW AGE TECHNOLOGY ON TA - 5 TALENT ACQUISITION: MISTAKES DATA HELPS YOU AVOID

alent acquisition plays a key role in the success of organizations. However, finding and keeping the right people for your business isn’t easy. In fact, 65% of recruiters report that the biggest challenge in hiring is a shortage of talent. Often, this leads recruiters to scramble and make the best hire they can to fill positions in a short period of time. The problem is that when recruiters rush to find talent, bad hires happen and making a poor hiring decision comes at a high price. On average, a bad hire can cost 30% of the individual’s firstyear potential earnings. Now, the question is how does your organization stop this cycle and overcome hiring challenges? Getting more data and perspective from sources beyond your Applicant Tracking System (ATS) is the key. This is what allows you to avoid common pitfalls in the talent acquisition process. Below, you’ll find five talent acquisition strategy mistakes you should avoid..

PRIORITIZING SHORT TERM EFFICIENCIES OVER LONG TERM ANSWERS Recruiters are always focused on filling the position. However, simply pushing more people into a bad process is a mistake. While it’s tempting to just get things done, it is often more effective to take a step back and learn from your processes in order to bring long lasting improvements to your results.

DECEMBER 2019

In the long run, slowing down to analyze hiring and what you can improve will help you make better business decisions. In contrast, if you design the recruiting processes to churn out requisitions and bang out interviews, you won’t develop a good sense of where the business is going. To build a better long term talent acquisition process, think about what you want to accomplish in your organization. For example, let’s say your organization is having issues with applicants dropping out of the interview process. Often, businesses respond to this by recruiting even more applicants and pushing candidates through until they find one that’s the right fit. However, figuring out why applicants drop out can save your business time and money. You have to consider what you need to know more about and what problems you see on a regular basis. Maybe candidates aren’t getting followed up with enough. Maybe you’re seeing a lot of candidates get through part of the recruiting process without the right skill sets for the position. If you can identify these things and adjust your process, your team can make the right hires much faster. When you understand the root of the issues, you can create your process to eliminate those problems in the future.

TREATING DATA AS A BY-PRODUCT OF THE PROCESS

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GUT-BASED POSTING AND HIRING DECISIONS Traditionally, hiring is a subjective process. We all have biases and naturally, we gravitate towards people who are like us. However, recruiting this way can result in low diversity inside your organization. According to Mercer data, current female hiring, promotion, and retention rates are insufficient to create gender equality over the next decade. Gut-based hiring decisions can also lead to more bad hires and productivity can significantly drop as you rush to fill an opening. One survey shows that 37% of organizations experience a decrease in productivity as the result of a bad hire. To solve this problem, organizations need to start looking at data to make hiring decisions based on fact. When we factor in real numbers instead of relying on our gut, we challenge ourselves to push down biases and link diversity efforts to business priorities. It only takes a few months to have enough information to make better hires.

HIRING MANAGERS WHO DON’T KNOW HOW TO HIRE

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To improve the quality of all Higher Education Institutes (HEIs), benchmarking will be done through The National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) and through National Board of Accreditation (NBA).

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Sometimes, the people in-charge of hiring do not know exactly how to make a good hire. Instead, they focus on making a hire fast and crucial parts of the process get lost in the shuffle. This is an issue because it has a negative impact on the candidate experience. In fact, a survey found that 58% of job seekers have a negative impression of a company if they don’t hear back after submitting an application. This is how good candidates fall through the cracks. Most organizations don’t gather enough information about the hiring process and what’s effective. For example, one metric a company may track is who has the longest or shortest hiring cycle. However, these numbers don’t tell the whole story. Is the person with a short hiring cycle bringing in candidates who perform well in the company or are they rushing to fill roles? Are those with a long hiring cycle struggling to assess candidates? You can answer these questions with data by analyzing your candidate journey.

NO LINE OF SIGHT PAST THE HIRE

INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE

When we focus on executing and forget about the data points, we lose opportunities to make organizations better. Remember, everything you do produces a data point you can leverage to create business impact. Once you’ve identified data that you want to capture, you need a system in place to make gathering that data part of day-to-day business operations. Know that there’s a purpose in capturing information that didn’t exist before. Having more data points allows your organization to explore more questions, which will ultimately help recruiters make better decisions. With a people analytics solution, your organization can analyze data and find the answers they need to make quality hires. This completely transforms the talent acquisition process. When your team regularly uses data to support your efforts, they can work together to move the business forward.

Many organizations don’t have a way to analyze the success of their hires. The standard measure of success you have for a recruiter is how many hires they’ve brought in and how people on your team feel about those hires. In some cases, this can lead to companies relying on a recruiter who closes candidates fast but doesn’t actually bring in the most quality hires. To improve the talent acquisition process, organisations have to connect candidate IDs and employee records. Then, you’ll know which recruiters are bringing in quality hires. This helps your team avoid hiring employees that aren’t a good fit. It also helps you attract and retain employees that perform well. Using data, you can track the candidates that look great on paper throughout their journey with the company after they’re hired.

BOTTOM LINE: GO BEYOND YOUR ATS AS NEW AGE TECHNOLOGY Using data for tracking candidates and employee success is the key for managing your most important asset—people. To make great workforce decisions, you need to go beyond applicant tracking and analyze the entire employee lifecycle. Pulling your HRIS and ATS systems together will empower your organization to make better hiring decisions in a faster and more accurate way.

DECEMBER 2019

INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE

DEMYSTIFYING ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IN HR Artificial Intelligence will simplify the organisational structure in terms of hierarchy based on knowledge and power, writes Farhat Umar, SVP Group Head HR, Mankind Pharma for Elets News Network (ENN). Artificial Intelligence will be having deep impacts on the human workforce and it will provide a reason that human resources will need to play an important role in how organizations adapt. Are we really prepared for this? “No, we are not, and it is evident that we are still using ancient metrics, if there are any metrics at all,” With the exception of turnover rates, there is not a quantifiable way to determine the ‘people health’ of an organization. Maybe a yearly engagement survey will provide us an idea, but yearly surveys are like throwing without seeing our score. Although there are some “aggressive or progressive” companies getting ahead of the curve, but these are the exceptions rather than the norm. If you zoom out for a bigger picture of HR and AI, it does not get a lot rosier. Before HR can help the rest of the organisation plan and evolve for long-term strategies of AI – HR work itself can be a good starting point for getting started with AI, or at least with greater technology advancement, even if it lacks perceptive capabilities at first. AI can provide some important benefits to the HR team in any organization as follows: • Will improve talent acquisition process • Will do prediction with respect to attritions • Will help the HR team in PMS and Promotions • Will provide more freedom and involvement to the individual contributor in career enhancements • Will enable knowledge workers to make better choices based on better options • It will simplify the organisational structure in terms of hierarchy based on knowledge and power. There are some more benefits can be discussed as follows:

Viewing and updating employee information When we talk about access to HR business transaction data, an employee can access his or her personal information, e.g., address, emergency contacts, organization details, and vacation days available, approval status of vacation requests and authorized HR business data.

Team training •

Managers or HR members can access employee data per

DECEMBER 2019

Farhat Umar

SVP Group Head HR, Mankind Pharma

authorization e.g. an employee’s job history, team information or performance rating. • Conversational AI also can bring analytical and key performance indicator information, e.g. head count top performers and pending transaction requests just by asking chat bots. • Team managers can plan digital training opportunities for their team based on skill gap assessments. • Conversational AI can help employees and managers track their training progress. It is true that Artificial Intelligence will speed up the process and decisions making and these are the major tangible benefits HR will look forward to in the knowledge age. Hence, HR will offer a better equation to manage millennials.

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HOW CULTURE AND COLLABORATION CAN INCREASE EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT? The stronger a company’s culture, the better employees recognize what is expected of them and what they’re working towards, writes Kiran Tandon, Head HR, Loyalty Prime, for Elets News Network (ENN).

ith the dawn of economic globalisation and the information era, the industry is now facing the ever-growing compression from both local and overseas competitors. More and more employers begin to realize that customer loyalty depends on employee loyalty. Being into the industry for more than 16 years, I believe that an engaged employee often turns out to be a loyal employee. Employee engagement is a direct result of a strong company culture. The stronger a company’s culture, the better employees recognise what is expected of them and what they’re working toward. Most significantly, engaged employees are at an advantage, both at work and in their lives, and are very much committed to their company. For instance, an engaged employee is more likely to feel loyalty to the company because they have ‘more skin in the game’, while a loyal employee is more likely to respond by being more engaged on social media by ‘sharing the good news’! Company Culture? The Struggle is Real Only 32% of employees in the United States are engaged, according to a Gallup poll. That means over two-thirds of employees nationwide are disengaged from their work. Picture two employees: One comes into work 10 minutes early each day, is excited to be there, and constantly comes up with and shares ideas for improving operations. The other employee gets to work on time every day, does the bare minimum, and counts the time until they can leave. Which employee is highly engaged? The answer is simple. You want hard-working employees who are actively engaged with the work they do. You can create a culture of organizational engagement by creating a culture you want to work in.

LOYALTY PRIME INDIA One of the best opportunities you have to engage with your employees is when they start their day. Considering the health of the employees in mind we at Loyalty Prime India initiated a new program called ‘Munching at Work’; providing them fresh fruits, salad and snacks all day long to keep them active and energetic all day long.

DECEMBER 2019

Kiran Tandon

Head HR, Loyalty Prime

DECK OF PRIMERS The system is designed to create a caring and supportive environment where all the primers were welcomed and valued and can demonstrate loyalty and allegiance while contributing to the success of their suit. These suits were involved in activities for employee engagement and were led by the employees only. Various competitions & team activities within the suits were conducted from time to time throughout the year to promote a healthy competitive spirit to enhance the interpersonal & leadership skills at all the levels. The sole purpose of this entire program to understand, decode and master their company culture. Practicing new and innovating ideas for employee engagement has really helped us in creating a positive company culture and effective collaboration in the workplace. Employee retention rates suffer when workers feel unsupported and unwelcome by their work environment or their managers. It makes sense — it would be odd for an employee to be long-term investments in a place where they feel uncared for. The return on their investment of time and hard work must be more than just a paycheck.

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PREPARE THE EMPLOYEES FOR IN DEMAND SKILLS: THE DIRE NEED

With an experience of almost a decade, how has been your journey in the HR industry so far? Working in Human Resources is a delight and extremely rewarding in terms of experience. It’s a professionally satisfying journey. I was able to touch lives, reach out to so many people in the society. The journey has been very enriching from being an emotional caregiver, to be an enabler to solve important problems and act as a trusted business advisor.

How much effort is the corporate world making in order to educate people for employability?

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Application of knowledge is the key to success and universities should pay attention to that so that students take interest and become successful in the industry, says Ratnanjali Arora, Manager HR, PwC, in conversation with Elets News Network (ENN).

Employability is about having skills that are relevant to the industry. As you are aware, many of the skills will be irrelevant in the future and new skills will be in demand. Keeping this in mind, we should take a mid-term or long-term view of reskilling/ upskilling people.

The new world of work is all about skills and not degrees. Addressing the latest skill gap and prepare employees with the in-demand skills, how are you finding ways to the bridge the muchawaited skill gap? Degrees provide a solid foundation that can be used to practice skills in a structured manner using findings of empirical research. Only skills or degrees won’t help in the absence of each other. Application of Knowledge is the key to success. Likewise, universities should pay attention so that students take interest and become successful in the industry. As far as addressing skill gaps in organisations is concerned, organisations are carving out role-based programs to upskill/reskill the employees.

You have played an integral role in helping businesses build and deliver, bind, buy and borrow talent to deliver the firm’s growth aspirations and secure the future of the firm. What are your future endeavors in scaling the industry? Being an agile learner is imperative. There are mega trends that have been impacting us globally for example – technology breakthroughs, rapid urbanisation, climate changes, the shift in

Ratnanjali Arora Manager HR, PwC

economic power, demographic shifts, etc. Business is dynamic and wants to meet expectations at B2B (Business to Business) and B2E (Business to Employees). Organisations are moving towards flexible talent programs, contingent workforce models, strategic workforce planning models and agile digital platforms to match the talent and demand.

You have grown strongly in the digital space and had a confident approach in this space. What is driving this optimism and tell us about the thing that makes you feel that you will remain ahead of the curve in digital space? Technology adoption is not a fashion statement. It is a necessity to adopt newer technology. The world ahead of us will remain unpredictable and this will always have an impact on the future of work. Change management is of utmost importance, planning, deploying right skills on the right client always help the business remain ahead in the curve.

DECEMBER 2019

INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE

HAPPY EMPLOYEES ARE MORE CREATIVE, INNOVATIVE & DEDICATED When one stops thinking about the change and the magnitude but rather starts building and focussing on solving the problems of the workforce, breaking the inhibiting barriers of the new challenges that come with the new operating models is not all that difficult, says Pooja Dudani, Head L&D, Cars24, in conversation with Elets News Network (ENN).

Could you please share the importance that comes with building and driving the culture of conversations, recognition, values, and behaviours? In common parlance culture is often referred to as “the way things are done around here.” But to be useful, one needs to get more specific than that. In my experience and as also recognised by the best of the companies; culture has three core elements to it. You can only get a great culture when all three of these are aligned, and line up with the organisation’s sacrosanct values. Conversations and recognition are the vital and quintessential medium that keeps these elements aligned. If statistics are to be believed, by 2025 75% of the Indian workforce will be made up of millennial who will willingly want to work for companies that share their values. They want to feel like their work has a purpose and makes a difference. This is what essentially makes a good culture fit.

What initiatives will you suggest when it comes to building a happy workplace?

Pooja Dudani

Head L&D, Cars24

DECEMBER 2019

A happy employee is more creative, innovative and dedicated than their unhappy counterparts. And, happy employees are more likely to stick around long-term. Greet your team- Something as simple as a smile and a “Good morning!” A peppy talk, asking how is family, how your weekend was, etc. makes a big difference. Put efforts to have a personal rapport. Reinforce organisation values- Keep on doing it, whenever and wherever you find an opportunity, connect the actions with the values, make it part of your communication be it verbal or be it written. Frequent praise and acknowledgement- By offering consistent praise and recognition, your team will be excited and eager to contribute to company-wide initiatives. The key is to

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What is the success mantra behind building future-ready leaders? We need to understand that there has been a tectonic shift in how businesses were conceived, groomed and scaled. With more and more transformational cycles happening more frequently after the internet consumer needs are now changing at a never before pace, combined with shifting workforce expectations, are altering the competitive landscape and necessitates the transformation of existing company operating models for any and all industries.

In your opinion how is talent and technology transforming the corporate learning and development? As the pace of technological change accelerates and shapes up industry and business, employers are struggling to keep up. Also, we cannot deny that modern mediums of communication and information exchange in our personal lives impact our professional behaviour and expectations. It will be mindful to consider that corporate learning and development is not

immune with the external worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s pace of change. Looking back, 2019 brought a lot of excitement about the future of learning, from using blockchain to verify educational credentials to voicebased interfaces. I can vouch that these technologies can offer corporate learning & development at a faster pace to L&D as business. Timely and effective adoption of this change can offer you a seat at the executive table. And, I am sure if we could survive spreadsheets, we could survive it too.

INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE

be consistent and if a team member deserves to be recognised for outstanding work, tell them right away and make it public. Make the work purposeful- Make sure that they feel their work is important and contributes to a bigger vision of the organisation. Build an environment of conversation where all feel safe and respectful. Remind your team often that they are an integral part of the company. Invest in your teamâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s personal and professional growth- Do not micromanage, however, use constructive feedback as a mini mentoring tool and also do not shy away from asking feedback for yourself.

You have grown strongly in the digital era and had a confident approach in this space. What is driving this optimism and tell us about the thing that makes you feel that you will remain ahead of the curve in digital space? In the age of Alexa and Siri if you want to be ahead of the curve then digitisation is the only key. However, it goes without saying that you have to have an open mind set for terms like augmented reality, Machine learning (Ml), Artificial intelligence (AI), and chat bots etc. An experience which I have first hand is if you think of all of them beyond as mere tools and more like the good people from your team it would be much easier and in effect way more productive and helpful than resisting this change. I strongly trust the breakthrough into this new era for me was rethinking the whole notion of people and skill-building and devising a radical new framework based on the businesses that leverage technology first. If the business is all about the customer experience and success, why shouldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t we focus all our energies and align all the forces for that same single goal rather than fragmenting and diluting what we can measure, improve and achieve?

DECEMBER 2019

INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE

PARAMETERS INFLUENCING THE LOYALTY OF THE EMPLOYEE

Today every team member requires constant dialogue which incorporates their development journey and future roles and this psychologically secures them towards the organisation and the attention it provides into their career growth and journey, writes Vikas Khokha, Human Resources Leader, for Elets News Network (ENN).

s a HR leader, we necessarily need to keep a constant check on the pulse of the employees in order to position our strategies to address this issue. I am listing below some of the common questions which are being asked by the employees in order for them to sustain for long. Having led hybrid mix of teams, I have been able to encapsulate some of the very critical parameters which come closer to helping build loyalty and extract productivity of a higher than average performing resource. Productivity at Work – This is an interesting example which is incidentally been posed by the employee and not the manager. Any above average potential employee needs to perform at workplace and would need the support from immediate manager or management to be able to perform the work effectively. I have observed that a performance challenged employee tends to derail from the trail and get disengaged at the workplace very quickly and needs an extra attention and support to be able to perform their work very effectively. Needless to say, the organisation’s ability to invest in a tool certainly helps in defining equilibrium of the latest trends and facilitate coercion. Flexibility of Benefits & Policies– While designing the employee handbook we need to take an extra caution on how the benefits and policies are designed so that they are flexible to meet the requirements of individual employee needs. I always have observed that the policies have a direct co-relation with employee engagement as they show the mirror of the organisation culture to a large extent. An employee largely views a policy or a benefit more effectively if it’s customised to their taste. The flexibility of benefits would be largely an important parameter to define the way we position the Value Proposition for our workforce. Personal & Career Development – This is one of the critical parameters which would help in getting the employee traction

DECEMBER 2019

Vikas Khokha

Human Resources Leader

in the long run as this is a continuous journey rather than a onetime intervention. Today every team member requires constant dialogue which incorporates their development journey and future roles. These parameters psychologically secure them towards the organization and the attention it provides into their career growth and journey. The dialogue followed by a requisite intervention supported by the organisation works as a long

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INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE

term retention tool. Accountability of work and delegation techniques â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Team members requires their management to grant the required authority and accountability of their results. They do need constant feedback in order to track their performance, however, view a micro-management delegation technique as a deterrent to their decision making and development in the organization. The delegation of the manager works very well in defining the needs of the employees to sustain in the organization where they should feel challenged and accountable for their results. They may need coaching and guidance on a regular basis, however, may look at transactional interference as a parameter which is not in their control. Work life balance â&#x20AC;&#x201C; The highest impact feel good factor is allowed to be work from anywhere and anytime. This delight becomes a critical factor in binding employees at large and talks really positive of organization culture. Of course, within the coordinates of being possible within ones work dynamics the workforce today really wants to give equal attention to their families including their hobbies and holidays. In fact, smart forward looking organisations have created holiday clubs which helps them in creating positive environment which helps in generating higher employee loyalty. Incorporation of Paternity leave by some organisations have helped in generating a positive message. Employee Recognition: Recognition becomes another critical parameter in binding the employees to organization. The meaning of Recognition today is much beyond awards and there

is a critical element in creating a positive feedback culture which helps employees to know what they are doing well and what they could contribute better. The recognition is also through stretched assignments and extended work as a reward to some good job done by people these days. Long Term Benefits: Long-term benefits have traditionally been used as tools which have created employee loyalty. However, the face of long-term benefits has changed from standard ESPOs and retirement benefits to giving employees opportunity to develop their own franchisee and sustain the behavior of generating Entrepreneurs is having successful results. Employee Welfare Plan: One of the major factors which manages bonding the emotional quotient of employees is to provide them and their families health benefits and develop them to be a part of a community where someone cares for them. Such attempts have been observed as having far reaching effects. The associated holiday and lifestyle plans are also helping organisations to develop a positive work culture. The free day care facilities for one year for parents are some more areas where the loyalty gets strong even after the completion of the tenure. I have observed that a consistent effort in aligning some of the above strategic interventions would help in generating long term relationship with team members and would also be able to give a better word of mouth through the ambassadors and prospective talent base. This would certainly help in making organisation future ready as well.

DECEMBER 2019

INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE

‘EMPLOYEES NEED OPPORTUNITIES DEMONSTRATING THEIR TRUE POTENTIAL’ For any workplace to become a great place to work, employees have to feel respected and valued and they must feel and believe that their actions and words are valued, says Alok Narain, Co-Founder & Director- Emergence Learning Solutions, in conversation with Elets News Network (ENN). There are certain challenges that employees face and still need to be addressed. In what ways the scenarios can change as the greatest asset a business can boast are its employees?

Alok Narain

Co-Founder & Director- Emergence Learning Solutions

Organisations have the responsibility to create platforms within their internal processes and structures that can enable personal and professional growth and development. It is well understood that the employees in any organisation will come from the length and breadth of our country. We are very diverse, and the employees thus will come from a big variety of economic and social backgrounds. In addition to diversity, the other challenges are work-life balance, opportunities for continuous learning, creating the right environment for the millennial members in the organization and finally managing performance as per the multiple stakeholder expectations. Organisations need to hence consider the fact that the employees need an infrastructure of opportunity where they can demonstrate their true capabilities and their true potential. Almost all employees are always keen to contribute towards the growth of the organization. Providing equal opportunity to the employees for learning and growth thus becomes the most important responsibility for the organizations

With over 25 years of experience in several domains, how has been your journey in the HR industry so far? The journey has been exciting and very fulfilling due to the enriching learning opportunities that came way over the length of my career. I have been fortunate to have had the opportunity to serve as a faculty at the Institute of Hotel Management, Pusa during my initial years. It was followed by my experience in the Learning & Development space and finally came the real calling, the mainstream, ‘Human Resource’. During these years, I was lucky to have worked with some of the industry leaders who have have contributed to my personal and professional growth. In addition, these have helped in forging deep relationships with colleagues from the organisations I have been part of as well as with members of the HR community and the larger community.

DECEMBER 2019

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INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE

There is an increasing need for employees to experience a more transparent and open culture in the workplace. Tell us your opinion about it. An open and transparent culture builds trust and without trust and transparency, organisations just cannot grow and aspire to fulfill their obligations to their key stakeholders. The upward, downward and laterally robust communication, leaders’ willingness to engage with their teams across various levels of hierarchy combined with an unbiased approach promotes open and transparent culture. The processes must have these embedded -right from the selection and recruitment process to off-boarding.

How culture and collaboration can increase employee engagement in today’s time? It is well understood that an organisation’s culture gets built painstakingly and consciously through the actions of the leaders and a response to all that transpires within organisations shape the culture. The environment of today in which businesses operate is more dynamic than ever and thus demand fancy footwork all the time.

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Organisations need to hence consider the fact that the employees need an infrastructure of opportunity where they can demonstrate their true capabilities and their true potential.

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Without active collaboration with all the agencies that contribute to business success, nothing can be ever achieved. Building a culture hence within the organisation that encourages collaborationsuccess will always be elusive. For any workplace to become a great place to work-employees have to feel respected and valued and they must feel and believe that their actions and words are valued. They must feel appreciated and receive feedback. No surprises hence that all engagement and/or satisfaction surveys address these fundamentals.

The leader of today is a lifelong learner. Based on that, what are the skills required for these learners to be the leaders of the future workforce? Learning agility will differentiate the leaders of the future workforce. Constantly learning and challenging status quo-learning themselves and encouraging and driving their teams to learn will be critical. Learning that ‘command and control’ is now completely obsolete, equity and equality are the order of the day will be key to building a culture that is conducive for high levels of engagement. As individuals-it will only be through curiosity that we will be able to survive and THRIVE!

DECEMBER 2019

INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE

CONTEMPORARY HUMAN RESOURCE PRACTICES IN THE INDUSTRY

Depending on the company, a human resource job can encompass everything from recruiting to training to compensation, or it can focus on a single human resources specialty, writes Gaurav Agre, Growth Director, Mee 2 Bee Smart Services Private Limited, for Elets News Network (ENN).

oday’s global workforce is most mobile than ever before. As a result we are witnessing a “war for talent” in the market place, where Human Resource plays the most important asset & it is the source of achieving competitive advantage. HR plays vital role as a strategic business partner, change agent, administrative expert and champion of employees in shaping strategic outcome of organization. Contemporary HR practices have been changed from its traditional perspectives till nowadays. HR can be considered as critical assets if companies do invest in them. Given the unique socio-cultural, political, legal and economic milieu of India, the challenges regarding the efficient management of HR in the Indian context can be both complex and demanding. This is more valid during the present transitional times when traditional ways of managing HR are still prevalent along with a move towards formalization and rationalization of HR systems. With new challenges, Human Resource professionals have a bigger role to play in the organisation, which also opens up an opportunity in this sector in India. Depending on the company, a human resource job can encompass everything from recruiting to training to compensation, or it can focus on a single human resources specialty. A small organization may have just one human resources generalist or human resources manager. In large corporations, human resources management duties are divided among several areas, including employment and placement; compensation and benefits; recruitment; labour relations; and training and development. For the smooth functioning and operations of an organization, it is vital to establish HR department. From salary to employee rules and regulations to the compensations and leaves policy, all the aspects that create an atmosphere of discipline in the organization are taken care of by the HR department. Whether it is small scale industry or a multinational, human resource acts as a backbone to keep the organization upright 24*7. Being a Human Resource personnel calls for sheer responsible and accountability as this department takes care of the valuable

DECEMBER 2019

Gaurav Agre

Growth Director, Mee 2 Bee Smart Services Private Limited

human capital that runs the core of the business. From the day employee is recruited till the time they stay with the organisations, all the requirements of the employee in terms of salary, wellness programs, training, appraisal, promotion, grievances are the responsibility of HR department. The HR manager oversees the day-to-day functions of the organizations and also formulates policy and plans that are focused towards retaining the employees in the long-run. Organizational leaders must identify the Importance of HR Department and the required changes in the HR Practices, and respond quickly to market changes and unexpected challenges, and create an agile culture performers. Over the time, companies of all sizes encounter some form of organizational change. Whether buying a competitor, being acquired, or announcing an employee layoff— effective communication and the fair treatment of employees are often deciding factors in the success or failure of any change initiative. As in life, it is these critical points in a business’s life cycle when the stakes are at their highest and the odds are stacked against you.

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EMERGING HR CHALLENGES IN RETAIL SECTOR

Retail is a dynamic and multifaceted sector and not devoid of HR challenges. Its peculiar characteristics including extended working hours, need to work on weekends and holidays,stressful working conditions, lack of infrastructure at stores for employee activities, peoples’ mind-set towards retail as a career, to name a few, become breeding grounds for emergence of HR Challenges as illustrated below:

Seasonal Manpower Demand In retail stores holidays, festive seasons and weekends witness high footfalls leading to rise in manpower demand. Such demands are often filled through temporary workers. Sourcing them and imparting desired trainingbecome a key challenge for HR. Recruitment and training team face tough time in maintaining a pool of temporary staff and providingthem periodic training to meet customer needs.

Employee Motivation Retail job requires working on holidays and festivals and extended working hours during peak seasons. Also the given nature of work at stores makes the job tiring and stressful. All these combined put employee work-life balance and motivation at stake. HR strives hard to meet this challenge thru appropriate manpower planning and training and engagement initiatives including family connect and R&R programs.

INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE

In past over a decade, retail industry has evolved well in our country. Things have become more organized and structured where retailers are giving due importance to HR priorities and are investing in meeting challenges faced by them, writes Rajesh Choudhary, General Manager HR, Reliance Retail Limited for Elets News Network [ENN].

Rajesh Choudhary

General Manager HR, Reliance Retail Limited

and ended up being in retail. Such people don’t take retail job as a career. Hence their retention becomes a key challenge for HR. Meeting this issue requires showing them growth path within the system and investing in their career progression plans. If employees feel comfortable and understand that they could grow within the system, their chances of leaving the job would be lower.

Internal Theft Employee Growth Retail store employees at base level are less qualified and lower on competence to move up on hierarchy ladder though they are good for the work they were hired for. Hence despite having career progression plan in place, HR face tough challenge in making them grow within the system. If growth doesn’t happen within desired timeline, they become a liability. Hence recruiting those who are not only ready for current role but also have potential to grow within the system becomes key focus for HR.

High Turnover High employee turnover is universal issue of this sector. Here employees at base level are usually those who didn’t find any job

Internal theft is common phenomenon of retail sector. It’s not easy to get rid of this challenge but few HR measures could decreases its gravity. Making concrete theft policy, generating awareness among employees on consequences of theft, sensitizing employees on maintaining honesty and integrity while at work and setting examples by taking strict disciplinary action against those involved in theft are some of the steps which HR takes to mitigate this risk. In past over a decade, retail industry has evolved well in our country. Things have become more organized and structured. Retailers are giving due importance HR priorities and are investing on meeting challenges faced by them. Measures mentioned above to meet challenges are already in place in some of the professional retail organizations. The need is to get it placed in the rest.

DECEMBER 2019

EXPERT COLUMN

ROLE OF HR IN CHANGING SCENARIO OF EMPLOYMENT, INNOVATION AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP Most of the HR initiatives fail or expected outcome not resulted. The root cause of these failures is because these employee engagement initiatives pushed by HR, however, it has to come from Employee and not from HR, writes Shubhankar Malakar, CHRO – Telecom Network Solution Pvt Ltd.

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DECEMBER 2019

elf-initiative is self-destructive for HR. HR could be dead if there is no self-initiative. The main thrust of the new age HR is aggressive, blend of Gen X, Gen Y, and Gen Z believes in high performance and high fun at the workplace. Therefore who is going to tell management where lying hidden buffer profit is not noticed? Take for example HR proposes that they have experienced manpower in line with the required skill set for a particular project with payout cost less than 30% with a strategy to replace expensive manpower. Similarly, reducing the cost of manpower by headhunting (not sourced through placement agencies), absolute salary negotiation & 0% wrong hiring with the highest level of retainability. HR gradually transformed & shown effectiveness from the last two decades through 7 distinct patterns reflected below.

SUCCESSFUL ENGAGEMENTS WELLBEING

EMPLOYEE EMPLOYEE

Most of the HR initiatives fail or expected outcome not resulted. The root cause of these failures is because these employee engagement initiatives pushed by HR, however, it has to come from Employee and not from HR. That means there should be a survey among employees and understand what aspirations of the employee are and what would engage them practically. There would be a group of employees in their 20s maybe throwing a party would make them happy whereas there would be a group of employees in their 50s who would be happy if HR comes out with a Scholarship Programme for their children’s education. Similarly, there would be a group of people who love to sing and who would

Shubhankar Malakar

CHRO – Telecom Network Solution Pvt Ltd

love to play cricket, so there could be music and cricket competition in respective groups. Therefore, one employee engagement activity can’t engage employee therefore we need to bring on board various Employee Engagement initiatives together same time in the entire population.

ADVISORY TO MANAGEMENT Suggestions and Advisory to management is something not asked from HR. However, this is become very necessary to suggest the management

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on some aspect to make HR relevant for the organization objective. Operations are being taken care of by HODs of each BU. Problems occur when management indulges in micromanagement in the sphere of Operation/administration rather focusing on newer business acquisition for profit or to mitigate loss. However, HR has to be successful in building trust by setting successful example consistent manner and once trust is built leadership can expect acceptance of their suggestions by management.

CULTURE

REWARDS & RECOGNITION R&R fails in 50% organization of India. Why this happens?? In in numerous research, it has been found that it just because of too much data require for R&R. In R&R process is too complex and require too much data for justification and effectiveness for nominations, it would fail. Most Successful consistent R&R policy should be capturing small appreciations like you said some of your teammate ‘thank you’, text massage ‘good job done’ what’s up message like ‘great’, ‘good’ etc. End of the month HR would consolidate all such small achievement &announce R&R for the month.

COST OF COMPLIANCE & RETURNS HR strongly believes Corporate should adhere with 100% Govt Compliances so that Corporate can take all benefit from the Govt. However, each compliance we get security and risk coverage from Government which sometimes missed by Top Management. Being cost of compliance approx.

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HR PROJECTS HR is closely working now with BPEX (Business Process Excellent) team. Tools like 8D Projects and Six Siga give solutions to critical organizational challenges for sustainable development. HR Leadership invests a good amount of time inR&D, learning through mistakes, find out with ‘Why WhyAnalysis’, Root Cause & Preventive Action. HR drives Idea Capturing Mechanism wherein nurtures 7 to 8 Kaizen in a year to an organization considering boosting efficiency & productivity. Every BU is busy in its BU process for internal /external customers. However, HR leaders cannot miss observing all BU Processes holistically for an opportunity to automate and re-engineer with the help of AI. AI Chat Bots actually reduced the manpower cost on Recruitment, Employee Satisfaction Survey, Skip Level Meeting and Induction etc.

EXPERT COLUMN

Culture of all organizations is good, no HR can change the culture of the company. The only point is how to align organizational culture with the vision and objective of the company. Many mergers have failed as a result of cultural issues. However, perhaps not because culture should consume strategy, but rather because of the failure to align culture with strategy. Famous examples include: • AOL and Time Warner Cable, in which the president of Time Warner Cable underestimated how different the two corporate cultures were • HP and Compaq, where one company applied democratic decision making and the other autocratic Does culture eat strategy for breakfast? We think not. Rather, they are both essential ingredients in the recipe for long-term sustainable success.

30% of CTC is natural that Employer would try to enhance temporary profit by avoiding some compliances which need to push for the red flag by HR keeping Compliance all-round benefits and long term repercussion to organization. HR has to be updated and sharpen new laws and rules for saving and reimbursement. Take the case of Apprenticeship wherein we can utilize trainees for different assignments with a refund from Govt part their trainee fee paid. Apprise Accounts Dept that under of Section 80JJAA of we can take benefit of 30% tax exemption on the salaries paid to new employees. Take the case of Mediclaim trend shows last 3-year average claim taken of Rs. 30 lacs only wherein premium average was Rs 1 Cr. In this situation instead of paying premium external General Insurance Company, we can suggest the management to approve HR in-house kitty of say Rs 30 lacs with approving authority of HR Head to sign on mediclaim reimbursement.

HR SALES Days are gone when people used to think HR can’t sell. It’s high time HR comes in sales as well. Suppose your company deals in HR ERP/MS, when CHROs meet with other Company CHRO can definitely talk about their ERP and do the need identification for fixing the meeting with the Sales Manager. At the same time your company deals in Training Organization we can explore pitching our Training Products to other CHROs. So actually HR can take the basket of products and services once goes for CHOR meet/ round table conference etc.

DECEMBER 2019

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