DELHI HR CONCLAVE

With increase in competition, locally and globally, there is a need for the organizations to become adaptable, resilient, agile, and customer-focused to succeed. And within this change in environment, the HR professional has to evolve to become a strategic partner, an employee sponsor or advocate, and a change mentor within the organization.

Keeping this in mind, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) organized HR Conclave at Indian Habitat Center – New Delhi on December 23rd, 2014. This conclave was attended by the who’s who of the corporate world. Ms. Prachi Agarwal, Training & Placement Officer from Dronacharya Group of Institution, Greater Noida.

The event begins with the welcome note by Mr. Arjun Walia- Chairman- CII Delhi State Council. He started with a note that HR is not transactional, it is a constant journey. The most valued asset of an organization is human capital. Most the big brands today are started with very humble beginning as people should be obsessed with their work. HR can be a game changer in this arena as the HR personnel can change the paradigm very quickly as compared to any other operational department. Closing with these words, he invited with Mr. R S Dabas to the dice.

Mr. Dabas is the Chief People Officer of Caparo India Operations. He started with the note that the competition is increasing very rapidly and the need of the day is that the organizations must value their human capital else they will be extinct. True leadership is about respecting the differences of opining with others. Industry is bleeding, margins are shrinking so the role of HR increases as they need to value the loyal people. ‘What got you here will not take you there’ , he said.

He shared some of the best practices with some of the companies he worked with. He stated that a campaign was initiated at Trident under which the people were made to believe that,’ Being different is normal at Trident’. 20 HODs were invited and were given 20 minutes in which they were supposed to talk positive. They were asked to talk about the best practices they have been following in their department. Within a week, the outlook of these HODs were changed and thus the outlook of the TEAM was changed.

The second initiative was called, ‘Gift of People’. Under this, all level of people starting from line to senior management was left alone for a month. There was no attendance, no leave sanctioning and everyone was the CEO of their own. But they were accountable for their own targets. At the end of the month the productivity increased 100% as everyone was accountable for themselves. They also designed a form in which they were asked to fill up their market value in order to discover the strength in them.

He stated that when he joined Hero Honda, there was a major challenge on him to increase the productivity of the bikes which was stuck at 800 bikes/day. He added that to combat this situation there was an open house done so that the workers and the management can talk. He said that problems faced by the management were told to the workers and management also openly admitted their mistakes. Today’s problems are yesterday’s compromises. To add to this, all the senior managers were taken to an offsite and workers were left alone. Within a week the productivity went to 1100bikes/day.

The next speaker of the day was Ms. Pallavi Kapoor- HR Business Partner- EMC India IT Solutions. She stated that Diversity is visible and invisible. Organizations should foster invisible diversity which is loyalty, dedication and passion. She said that EMC promotes women leadership, Mentoring and talking. These are the basics followed there.

Mr. Nimish Gupta- Global Learning and Development HEAD- Tech Mahindra was next in the line to present his views. He stated that Innovation and Business Intelligence are the call of the day.Things are happening today as they have never happened before.HR has to create a conducive environment for the people to question, make feedback and also talk to the policy maker. Flexible work timings and work from home are the call of the day. The employees are Prosumers today i.e they are producers and consumers. Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCS) are really important. This is all diversity happening at work place.

Unlearning is the biggest thing today. Till the time you can’t unlearn you will not be able to learn new things. Share the challenge with your employees and they will work for you in a better way.

Ms. Leena Sahijwani – Rewards Head- GE India stated that at GE they practice customized rewards and recognition. Options of flexible vacations, insurance policies are there. They have got 2 major HR practices, which are Own my Growth(OMG) and Head Above Clouds. In OMG campaign they were asked to choose any female senior level manager and was given an opportunity to work with her for a week. Also, once in a month, 20 families are called where females have played a major role in shaping the career graph of the family.

Ms. Jyotsana Bhatnagar- Associate Professor- MDI Gurgaon said that Diversity is followed by the 4 Ds which are Dream, Discuss, Discover and Destinty. HR should imbibe a culture of Contagious Joy, Care and compassion. She gave a perfect example of Indian Oil Corporation where people retiring from IOC are called with their spouse to help them in their new phase of life. She stated that good people don’t come very easily and organizations should respect them.

Anil Raina - Head HR - Interocean Shipping Group said that today people want to work in Transparency. Organizations don’t hide anything and even the employees do not like to hide their worries. Gen Y of the young people will not change themselves so Gen X will have to change themselves. Gen Y should be respected for their vibrance and activeness but Gen X should also be respected for their wisdom and respect. Good Employees are always taken for granted and are left out. People feel motivated if they hear a pat on the back from their bosses and they feel further motivated if they hear ‘Thank you’ from their bosses.

All the HR people stressed on the Mission HR 2020 which will make the HR more powerful and functional. The HR needs to come in the main stream and not the side stream.

The event ended with the vote of thanks by Dr. Alka Kaul- Vice Chairperson CII Delhi State Council.