IIM ROHTAK H U M A N E - R CLUB P re s e n ts
H R BULLETIN VOLUME 16
humane.r@iimrohtak.ac.in
HUMANE-R|VOLUME16
HR BULLETIN
60% Canonites claim higher productivity during remote working While 60% of the employees felt they were more productive, the leadership believes that productivity levels have gone up to 85% and more The ongoing pandemic and its repercussions have forced HR leaders to reassess their game plan. Organisations were forced to shift entire workforces to the remote way of functioning, bringing on new challenges. For Canon India, this turned out to be a rewarding move. A survey undertaken by the organisation yielded interesting results. Shikha Rai, vice president, Canon India, reveals, “Sixty per cent people felt they were more productive working from home. The leadership also felt that the productivity levels were at 85% and more.” The results have led Canon India to ask some very important questions pertaining to the future of its workplaces. “We are looking at roles that can be moved to the home. Whether or not we really require office locations is a question that we are looking into. Not only Canon, but most HR people will be thinking about optimising costs, considering the current situation. Whether the focus will be on benefits or manpower optimisation or office locations, will require a complete study.”
2
HUMANE-R|VOLUME16
Canon India has paused hiring as it wishes to assess the market first before inducting new joinees. Rai admits they are maintaining the status quo, and believes it is not the correct time to hire, for an industry like theirs. However, the organisation seems keen on a hybrid workspace, which can become the new normal soon. Even when there are just a limited number of people in the office, certain safety measures have to be in place, especially due to the current scenario. That can have some bearings on the cost as well. Rai informs that they are undertaking a detailed study to factor in all that for a changed setup. “Making changes to the existing workspace will be more difficult and will entail more costs. Shifting to a new location will be a better option than altering the existing offices, which are all leased spaces in our case. On moving to a new space, we can look at the new style of working,” Rai elaborates.
While there is a freeze on hiring at the organisation, the review process of the existing employees has undergone a bit of a makeover. “Sales personnel had queries about how they would show their numbers in their appraisal cycle. We let them know that we are aware that they cannot achieve those numbers or sales. However, we also pushed them towards projects that they wouldn’t or couldn’t otherwise take up in their dayto-day firefighting. Therefore, between the managers and employees, we discussed what we could do differently. Many took up automation projects, or even database-cleaning exercises.” Rai emphasised on the trust-based method adopted to assess performance. Rai believes that learning and development will undergo immense change in the future. “People have now tasted e-learning in a big way. While they were only experimenting with it in the past, now they are embracing it by force. Therefore, from an HR strategy point of view, L&D spends will be more on digital than classrooms. This means, much of the savings on travel and gathering people together, will now be diverted to e-learning and digital methods. I think it will be a big shift.” Canon India had 40 per cent of its staff working from home anyway. When the lockdown began it merely had to accommodate another 20 per cent..
Read more at: https://www.hrkatha.com/business-continuity/60-canonites-claimhigher-productivity-during-remote-working/
3
HUMANE-R|VOLUME1 6
How PNB MetLife’s workforce is coping with the virtual model The Company has opened more than 80% of its branches across the country. Out of the total of 107 branches in the country, PNB MetLife has managed to open close to 89 branches till now. However, not everyone needs to travel to work every day, unless there is a need to deposit a cheque or to meet with a customer. “Only 30 per cent of employees can work out of each branch at a time,” reveals Shishir Agarwal, director-HR, PNB MetLife.
As the branches are open six days a week, the Company has created two-day rosters for all branch staff. Employees are divided into groups, and each group works for two days at a single branch. Out of the 12,000+ strong workforce in the organisation, 90 per cent of the employees work in sales. This includes 3,500 employees who operate out of partner bank branches and around 2,000 employees who work out of PNB’s own branches. The total workforce strength also includes 5,500 part-time employees. The Company recently opened up four branches in Delhi NCR, including one each in Noida and Gurugram. In a conversation with HRKatha, Agarwal shares how in the past few months, there has been an acceleration towards the shift to digital, and most of the business is currently taking place virtually. While the shift towards digital has been increasing, Agarwal adds that a turnaround to going full virtual is not possible for the industry. “While we have been on the journey towards working more digitally, it is not possible to go completely digital, especially in a bank-insurance partnership. Ultimately, both physical and digital, will have to coexist,” opines Agarwal. However, the Company started practising remote working just before the lockdown was announced. “Two weeks before the lockdown, we went into testing our business continuity plans for a possible work-from-home scenar..
Read more at: https://www.hrkatha.com/business-continuity/how-pnbmetlifes-workforce-is-coping-with-the-virtual-model/
4
HUMANE-R|VOLUME1 6
Atul Joshi of Mahindra Finance on new L&D approach Atul Joshi shares that new demands for L&D cropped up, in order to address questions like how to facilitate a program in remote working? How to manage a team while working remotely? Atul Joshi, Vice President – HR & admin at Mahindra Finance is responsible for developing the HR strategy roadmap for the company. The industry veteran has shared his learnings in this time of crisis. In this interaction, he shares how the crisis has changed the entire learning process and how Mahindra Finance is planning to bounce back from a crisis. What are the new workplace learning paradigms that COVID-19 has pushed into the spotlight? Covid-19 suddenly changed the way we work and how we do business. A large section of the workforce started working remotely. The new way of working accelerated Digital adoption. WFH resulted in long hours spent working, thus blurring the boundaries between separate time for learning and working. Learning became integrated with work. Need for safety and Social Distancing guidelines prohibited Instructor-Led Classroom training leading to Video-based learning session. New demands for L&D cropped up, in order to address questions like How to facilitate a program in remote working? How to manage a team while working remotely? How has the pandemic highlighted the need to invest in L&D? The pandemic has significantly impacted the overall budgets of most organizations for the financial year FY20-21 forcing them to judiciously look at investments in L&D. So, in the short term the focus is on prioritizing the L&D investments for better returns i.e. business impact. On the other hand, the pandemic has also encouraged organizations to further accelerate organizational capability building initiatives, in order to be more agile and Future Ready. How will the way we learn and deliver learning..
Read more at: https://www.peoplematters.in/article/trainingdevelopment/atul-joshi-of-mahindra-finance-on-new-ld-approach-27289
5
HUMANE-R|VOLUME1 6
Local startups are estimated to create around 25,000 direct jobs this year In terms of job creation, a total of around 1.6 million direct jobs are being estimated to be created by 2025 by Indian startups — nearly double of current numbers for 2020. Indian startups are estimated to create around 25,000 direct jobs this year to negate the impact of the virus outbreak, which initially cost an equal number of jobs from many startups across sectors. This is aided by several sectors seeing a two to five times growth in revenue or GMV due to pandemic-induced demand. These include online insurance, education and tele-consultation apart from e-payments, grocery and online stock brokerage that have also surpassed pre-COVID sales. According to the report, equity funding in July-September hit nearly $2.79 BN, coming close to the January-March figure of $2.84 billion in funding. This had dropped to $1.3 BN in April-June. While seed and late-stage investments have shown better recovery, early stage deals are still seeing a gradual recovery. Total funding for startups in 2019 was $14.5 BN. In terms of job creation, a total of around 1.6 million direct jobs are being estimated to be created by 2025 by Indian startups — nearly double of current numbers for 2020. “In terms of indirect jobs, they were impacted as many companies had to take dramatic moves in spaces like ridehailing and hospitality. So, indirect jobs will only get to 75-80 percent of pre-COVID levels by the end of 2020, but that again is not bad,” said TiE (Delhi-NCR) president Rajan Anandan. He is also MD at Sequoia Capital India, the country’s biggest venture capital firm in terms of assets under management. While the fund flow is encouraging for startups, the additional job creation will come from the steady rate of startups being formed in India — around 4,000 per year. India currently has 40,000 startups and the count is expected to hit the 60,000 mark by 2025. In terms of startups valued at $1 BN or more, known as unicorns, the report said India is on track to have 100 unicorns by 2025 compared to 33 curr..
Read more at: https://www.peoplematters.in/news/talent-acquisition/local-startups-areestimated-to-create-around-25000-direct-jobs-this-year-27295
6
HUMANE-R|VOLUME1 6
Jan Bergerhoff on making hiring more data-driven Jan Bergerhoff, Managing Director, Candidate Select GmbH in conversation with People Matters discusses rethinking candidate assessment, the shift towards digital platforms for recruitment and the role of tech in making hiring decisions transparent and objective. University placements are a milestone in a student’s life. However every university has different grading standards and cultures, making it highly impractical for a firm’s hiring team to evaluate a student’s academic performance with just the basic information. For such organizations, this presents a challenge when trying to select the right graduates. Given the scale of student migration as young minds look to explore the world of education beyond geographical borders, there are some aspects that increase the chances of their application to be accepted, and similarly some aspects that reduce the chances. Being a bridge between students and organizations, Germany-based startup Candidate Select GmbH (CASE) works towards gathering and standardizing data on grade distributions and the competitiveness of university programmes, revealing the standing of applicants among their subject-specific peers as well as with all graduates nationwide, and thereby helping employers to tactfully recruit graduates basis long-term performance indicators over basic grades and university reputation. In conversation with People Matters, Jan Bergerhoff, Managing Director at CASE, talks about insights from research on the Indian recruitment market, the Big-5 personality model, accelerated digital adoption for hiring graduates, and shares advice for leaders and students as they reset for the new world of work. Here are excerpts of the interview..
Read more at: https://www.peoplematters.in/article/campus-recruitment/jan-bergerhoffon-making-hiring-more-data-driven-26095
7