Contents - Human Capital

To Bring About The Necessary ChangeContinuous innovation resulting in a constantly evolving

business environment has revolutionized the business, and

the outcome is an ever increasing need for change. Effective

change management is an investment and also a contribution

towards organisational development.

40

An Evaluation Of Strength-Based ChangeAn appreciative mindset is not about being positive, it is the

ability that corresponds to intentional and generative acts.

Applying appreciative inquiry is not about posting a label of

good on something that is not good or about unreasonably

calling a negative situation positive.

43

Staffing For SeasoningA challenge in team and systems learning in regard to

mature workforce is to bring out the different interpretations

of the same expectation, varying events, individual

uniqueness and create an awareness of 'observable facts.

35

COVER STORY

Datafication: A Journey Or A Destination?Datafication defines the "rethinking" of what we do around

data, and not merely the product and the process. Simply

put, datafication of HR is investing in analytics that will

help improve an organisation's policies, practices, and

processes, and in turn, help HR improve the manner in

which it functions.

12

A Curious Case Of Workplace InclusivityWomen employees always find themselves to be left in the

lurch- be it workplace inclusivity, pay parity or leadership

positions, women are always seen eating the humble pie.

Though, initiatives towards gender diversity by organisations

such as Google and Facebook have made the others follow

suit, an Uber like incident tend to reflect the wrong sentiment

about existing corporate practices.

48

CASE STUDY

ContentsFEBRUARY 2018 VOLUME 21 ISSUE 9

Building A Culture Of Talent ManagementAs we meander into the twenty first century, it is becoming

increasingly evident that achieving success is based on the

ability to co-exist with ambiguity and re-inventing oneself

quickly, in short, adapting to unparalleled change.

28

FEATURES

Catching Them YoungDuring the UK Best Places To Work event which was held

in September 2017, to adjudge the most employee friendly

companies in the gaming business, the single question

doing the rounds was the support being manifested to

graduates and undergraduates by these companies. Not

surprisingly, all the winning companies voiced their support

for these students and stated that their interaction with the

students helped them find the right talent in a business that

has for ever demanded raw talent eager to be nurtured into

brighter minds.

22

4 � February 2018 www.humancapitalonline.com ◆

Leaders Picking Their Own Team!Leaders maintaining a dignified distance from those hired

from their previous organisation, while being inclusive and

also talking about the rationale to hire with key organisational

leaders can also mitigate the negative impact of “familiarity

bias”.

32

Heartfulness @ CorporationsCorporations the world over have begun to recognize

Heartfulness Meditation practices function as a vital 'enabling'

tool for holistic development and well-being for working

professionals and leaders. Heartfulness Meditation practices

have touched the 'hearts' of over 30,000 professionals in

1000+ companies across the world.

52

HR PRACTICE

25%45%

64%59%

S E A R C HR C H44%

38%

A Leader, Coach And GuideThere is a lot to learn from the multifaceted leader and

coach, Dr. Renu Khanna, the founder and CEO of Humex.

With a career spanning thirty five long years, Dr. Renu

appears as the very manifestation of the length and breadth

of experience that she brings to the table, and her extensive

exposure to Organization Development, Change

Management, Leadership development, Associate

Engagement, Inclusion and Diversity has made her name

synonymous with growth and learning.

66

PERSONA

This magazine contains 76 pages including cover

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Contents

Guest column by Gayatri Varma

Guest column by Rupa Bang

Women @ work by Neha Fatehchandani

A Point of view by Gautam Brahma

Guest column by Ruben Selvadoary

Work life balance by Urvi Aradhya

Guest column by Amit Narain

Guest column by Moitrayee Das

COLUMNS

31

46

21

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To our readers

MUKESH JAIN

In the February 2018 edition, Human Capital exploresthe buzz around datafication in HR, which today appearsto be redefining the thoughts about what we are supposedto do beyond the product and the process around data.The story also explores how datafication of HR hasenhanced investment in analytics to help improve anorganisation's policies, practices, and processes, and inturn, help HR improve the manner in which it functions.

In the Interview section, Human Capital was inconversation with Milind Apte, Senior Vice President -Human Resource, CEAT Tyres Ltd., who mentioned thechallenges that Artificial Intelligence and innovation inauto technology brought forth and the acute requirementto nurture young talent through CEAT's "Young ExecutiveBoard" initiative.

In the Learning and Development section, Dipankar Daswrites that as we meander into the twenty first century,it is becoming increasingly evident that achieving successis based on the ability to co-exist with ambiguity and re-inventing oneself quickly, or in short, adapting tounparalleled change.

In the Talent Management section, Dr. Ganesh Shermonwrites that staffing for seasoning is a challenge in teamand systems learning in regard to mature workforce is to

bring out the different interpretations of the sameexpectation, varying events, individual uniqueness andcreate an awareness of 'observable facts.

In the HR Practice section, Kamlesh D Patel (Daaji) writesthat Corporations the world over have begun to recognizeHeartfulness Meditation practices function as a vital'enabling' tool for holistic development and well-beingfor working professionals and leaders. HeartfulnessMeditation practices have touched the 'hearts' of over30,000 professionals in 1000+ companies across the world.

The Persona section features Dr. Renu Khanna, the founderand CEO of Humex, who shares the length and breadthof her experiences in a career spanning thirty five longyears, and her extensive exposure to OrganizationDevelopment, Change Management, Leadershipdevelopment, Associate Engagement, Inclusion andDiversity which has made her name synonymous withgrowth and learning.

Happy Reading!

FEBRUARY 2018 ● VOLUME 21 ISSUE 9

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For several years now, campus hiring has served as thebackbone of the hiring activity carried out by companiesacross India every year. From Engineering toManagement graduates, campus recruitment has beenthe single-biggest source of volume hiring across mostsectors. From driving the IT boom to boosting theManufacturing revolution, campuses have been a steadypipeline for fresh talent. However, this trend is seeinga reversal of sorts now. According to a recent survey,from the days of '100% placements', most privateEngineering and Management institutions are nowfinding it tough to get most of their students placed.According to a survey report from Wisdom Jobs, titled"Campus Hiring in India - Evolving Trends'' which hascovered companies from IT, E-Com, Retail, FMCG,Pharma and Automotive sectors and institutions offeringEngineering and Management education. While premierinstitutions like IITs and IIMs are still able to commandhefty pay packages for their students, numerous private

institutions are having to rely on job fairs and othersuch means to connect their students to companies.From companies' demands for multi-skilled or niche-skilled candidates to their focus on automating entry-level roles, and from the inability of institutes toimplement curricula in line with industry needs to lackof qualified and industry-experienced faculty, there areseveral issues contributing to the decline in campushiring by companies.

their business because of talent shortages in the nextthree years. However, in India, there seems to be somebit of positive sentiment, with 54 % members feeling lessstrain of a negative impact due to talent shortage. Quiteclearly, 57 % of Indian C-suite respondents acknowledgedthat majority of business growth currently is being drivenby workforce availability and adaptability followed closelyby digitisation, technology and innovation. This indicatesthat not only technological prowess drives growth, butthe right kind of workforce to enable this growth isequally important. Interestingly in India, the role of HRis immense with more than half of respondents admittingto having engaged their HR team right at the beginningof the business strategy development stage itself. Anadditional 27 percent of respondents engaged with theirHR teams at the operational planning stage. This is agood indicator of the value that HR teams bring onto thetable when it comes to human resource planning right atthe beginning of any business project. The researchrevealed that C-suite leaders recognised HR's potentialto enable business strategy, with more than half ofrespondents perceiving their HR function to be eithercompetent or fully competent at using strategic workforceinsights, talent acquisition and recruitment, talentdevelopment and retention and determiningcompensation and benefits.

According to a research, agility is an organisation's abilityto swiftly scale its workforce in highly uncertaineconomic times and remain resilient despite emergingdisruptions. 61 % C-suite executives from foreigncountries said that they expect a negative impact on

C-Suite Hopeful OfOvercoming TalentShortage

CampusPlacements SeesDownward Trend

RESEARCH


Organisations ToEnhance Salary ByTen PercentAs per a recent survey, organisations are expecting toincrease salaries by 10% across industries and careerlevels in 2018. 55% of these companies are expectingto increase their headcount. The comprehensivesurvey represents 791 organisations across variousindustry sectors. Among different industries surveyed,the projected salary increase ranges from 9% to 10%overall. The Indian industry continues to project lowdouble digit increases, driven by a combination of anoptimistic economic environment and a scarcity ofthe right talent. Though cross industry ranges havenarrowed down to within a 1% point, we arewitnessing more pronounced sub segment differenceswithin industries. The overall actual attritionwitnessed in 2016 was 11.5%, with the highestattrition reported in the Shared Services sector at19.4%, followed closely by the life sciences sector at14.0%. There is a marginal downward trend from lastyear, where the overall attrition has gone down by1.8%, from 13.3% to 11.5%. There is an increase inattrition in the consumer sector, which is facinggreater challenges of retaining talent. From aretention standpoint, R&D and sales professionalsacross levels, continue to challenge organisationswhile from a hiring standpoint organisations find ithard to attract engineering and sales professionals.The research ecosystem in India presents a significantopportunity for multinational corporations andseveral MNCs continue to shift their research anddevelopment (R&D) base to India. Additionally, thingshave been looking positive for the Indianmanufacturing sector as the Government has lookedto make India the next manufacturing destination inthe world.

Cloud ComputingAnd Data AnalyticsSought After SkillsIn 2018The workforce is rapidly changing, and that meansprofessionals need to continue learning new skills to stayahead. A current study has identified top hard and softskills that companies are looking for in 2018. As themodern workplace continues to undergo fundamental

RESEARCH

transformations, there is an emergence of job categoriesand functions that require professionals to stay relevantand come armed with a dynamic and hybrid skill set toadapt to changing business needs. 57% of business leaderssaid that soft skills are more important than hard skillstoday, making these skills extremely important for careersuccess. In Hard Skills, Cloud and Distributed Computingretained the top spot for the second consecutive year,and Cloud and Distributed Computing, Statistical Analysisand Data Mining, and User Interface Design continue tofeature in the Top 5 skills for the second time in the row.Statistical Analysis and Data Mining moved up threenotches from last year's list, taking over as the secondmost in-demand hard skill. 'Web Architecture andDevelopment Framework' and 'User Interface Design'slipped one and three ranks respectively. This year's wewitnessed new skills emerging as popular amongstemployers such as Middleware and Integration Software,Software Revision Control Systems, Data Presentation,SEO/SEM Marketing and Mobile Development. When itcomes to Soft Skills, Leadership, Communication,Collaboration and Time management topped amongothers. Amongst the most in-demand soft skills identified,Communication ranked at second spot in this year's list,managed to move up by two ranks as compared to the2017 list.


Embedding Leadership Excellence

Location: Bangalore

Dates: 12-16 March, 2018

The Administrative Officer (EEP)IIM BangaloreBannerghatta RoadBengaluru - 560 076Karnataka, IndiaTel: +91 - 80 - 2699 3264 / 3475 / 3742Website: www.iimb.ernet.inE-mail: [email protected]

Strategic Management

Creating High Performance

Organisations

Location: Bangalore

Dates: 12-15 March, 2018


Leadership and HR

Contract Management and

Arbitration

Location: Calcutta

Dates: 12-16 February 2018

CMDP OfficeManagement Development Centre (MDC)Indian Institute of Management DiamondHarbour Road, JokaKolkata - 700 104Tel: 033 2467 8300-06 / 2438 0500,Website: https://www.iimcal.ac.in/Email: [email protected]

HR Management

Creativity, Reinvention and Self

Development for Global Managers

Location: Bangalore

Dates: 26 February- 2 March, 2018


General Management

Officer, Executive EducationIndian Institute of ManagementVastrapur, Ahmedabad 380 015, INDIAPh: 91-79-6632 4071-7 / 6544 9057Fax: (Executive Education) 91-79-26300352 / (General) 2630 6896E-mail: [email protected]: www.iima.ac.in/FBOSIS/

HR Auditing-Preparing the Ground for

Strategic HRM

Location: Ahmedabad

Dates: March 12-16, 2018

HR Management

Family Businesses: Organisation,

Strategies, Internationalisation and

Succession

Location: Ahmedabad

Date: February 21-23, 2018

Officer, Executive EducationIndian Institute of ManagementVastrapur, Ahmedabad 380 015, INDIAPh: 91-79-6632 4071-7 / 6544 9057Fax: (Executive Education) 91-79-26300352 / (General) 2630 6896E-mail: [email protected]: www.iima.ac.in/FBOSIS/

General ManagementGLOBAL DIARYMarch-April 2018

Launching New VenturesOrganiser- Harvard Business SchoolWhere- HBS CampusWhen- 11-17 March 2018Fees- $18,000Website: www.exed.hbs.edu

Leading Global BusinessesOrganiser- Harvard Business SchoolWhere- HBS CampusWhen- 14-17 March 2018Fees- $10,500Website: www.exed.hbs.edu

Leading and Transforming FamilyBusinesses-ChinaOrganiser- London Business SchoolWhere- LondonWhen- 16 March-13 July 2018Fees- $47,500Website: www.exed.hbs.edu

Essentials of LeadershipOrganiser- London Business SchoolWhere- LondonWhen- 26 February- 2 March 2018Fees- £8,300Website: www.london.edu

Accelerated DevelopmentProgrammeOrganiser- London Business SchoolWhere- LondonWhen- 11-23 March 2018Fees- £28,500Website: www.london.edu

Strategic Branding: From BehaviouralInsights to Business GrowthOrganiser- London Business SchoolWhere- LondonWhen- 12-16 March 2018Fees- £7,300Website: www.london.edu

The Leadership TransitionOrganiser- InseadWhere- FontainebleauWhen- 26 February-5 March 2018Fees- 11,000Website- www.insead.edu

Advanced Management ProgrammeOrganiser- InseadWhere- SingaporeWhen- 5 -March- 2 April 2018Fees- S$58,500Website- www.insead.edu

ON THE AGENDA


16th Human Resource Management:

An International Perspective

Location: MDI Gurgaon


Management Development InstituteMehrauli RoadSukhrali,Gurgaon - 122 007, INDIATel + 91-124-4560000Fax + 91-124-4560456Email- [email protected] http://www.mdi.ac.in/

Human Resource Management

Effective Communication for

Managers & Leaders




General Management

Environment Management for

Sustainability

Location : IIM Shillong

Dates: 20-22, March 2018

Rajiv Gandhi Indian Institute ofManagement,Mayurbhanj Complex, Nongthymmai,Shillong793014; East Khasi Hills District,Meghalaya, IndiaTel: 0364-2308048; 2308052;Email: [email protected]: www.iimshillong.ac.in

Strategic Management

NEWS ROUNDUP

Women Leadership: Leadership


Dates: 26-28, February 2018


Leadership

PeopleStrong, India's leading HR

Solutions and Technology Company

headquartered in Gurgaon today

announced two mega launches to

start 2018 with a bang. The two

products launched are

PeopleStrong's Matchmaking

product (Alt Recruit) powered by

Machine Learning and 'Alt One',

India's first HR app store. Both the

products aim at revolutionizing the

world of recruitment, employee

experience and productivity by

providing a simple, connected

ecosystem with the super powers

of Artificial Intelligence at work. The

two products will be formally

launched on 19th Jan 2018 at

PeopleStrong's Annual product

launch AltifyHR 2018 in Gurgaon.

Matchmaking gives the power to a

hiring manager and recruiter to get

the best job fit and ready-to-hire

talent with a confidence level of 90%.

This will be defining for source and

supply in the market. Alt One will

give businesses the power and ease

of accessing any work or worklife

related product in a single click,

without having to worry about

technical compatibility; unwrapping

the connected world, where

interoperability and ease of use are

the only rules! PeopleStrong has

currently partnered with 30+

products from across the world and

aims to take this number to 100+

products within this year. Speaking

on the occasion, Pankaj Bansal, Co-

founder & CEO, PeopleStrong

shared, “We are really excited to

launch two exciting products at the

start of the year. The world of work

is constantly changing with AI and

Machine learning becoming a part

of life, and it's about time that the

HR teams adopt this change. The

impact both these products can

create is phenomenal and we are

happy to support in this journey.”

PeopleStrong StartsThe Year With TwoMega Launches

Personal Growth and Team Building

Location: Kolkata


CMDP OfficeManagement Development Centre (MDC)Indian Institute of ManagementDiamond Harbour Road, JokaKolkata - 700 104Tel: 033 2467 8300-06 / 2438 0500,Website: https://www.iimcal.ac.in/Email: [email protected]

General Management

Leadership Excellence

Location: Kolkata


CMDP OfficeManagement Development Centre (MDC)Indian Institute of ManagementDiamond Harbour Road, JokaKolkata - 700 104Tel: 033 2467 8300-06 / 2438 0500,Website: https://www.iimcal.ac.in/Email: [email protected]

Leadership

ON THE AGENDA


45%

98%52%

that are used by the protagonist andhis nemesis. Sophisticated vehicles thatinclude unmanned flying drones,customized wearables such as watches,hats, goggles, Spy cams, smart radars,GPS systems, robot dogs, digitalbriefcases, fingerprint sensors andreaders, and wonders in artificialintelligence which is still being workedupon by IBM Watson towards makingit a reality. We are not too far fromliving in a whole new universe ofoptimized James Bond devicespowered by big-data predictive analytictechnologies that primarily compriseof artificial intelligence, modelling,statistics, and pattern detectionalgorithms to study mounds of data toidentify and predict behaviour patternsand help in planned business decisionmaking.

Datafication, the newest buzzwordin the business and the HR corollary,in simple terms means turning anexisting business into a "data business",and Josh Bersin, Principal, Bersin ByDeloitte has rightly said, "think aboutit this way, Facebook has "datafied"

henever a new futuristicmovie hits the screens wesimply stand mesmerizedby the gadgets and gizmosW

COVER STORY

By Shruti Chadha and S. Ajay Kumar

Datafication defines the "rethinking" of what we do around data, and not

merely the product and the process. Simply put, datafication of HR is

investing in analytics that will help improve an organisation's policies,

practices, and processes, and in turn, help HR improve the manner in

which it functions.

Datafication:A Journey Or ADestination?

“Science is the refinement of everyday thinking.” – Albert Einstein

it was focussed only on business data.However, organisations today are ableto dig deeper into people data. HRneeds to review both the internal andexternal metrics, but often, one of thesegets overlooked. HR is historicallyprone to searching for data from

outside the organisation before itexamines the happenings inside. HR isquick to put man hours in big numbersinto comparing its organisation againstnorms for its industry or itscompetitors. However, a moresignificant question that often gets


25%64%

59%

S E A R C HR C H44%

38%

benefits, administration toperformance reviews, and workforcemanagement can become accessibleorganisation wide.

Opportunity: With better accessand thereby better interpretation ofdata, HR becomes sufficientlycompetent to undertake newer rolesin leadership within the organisation.Datafication of HR will require leaderswho are ready to understand andimplement what they see from thenumbers; it could mean betterexecutive positions for HR leaders whoare not afraid to rely on that data.

What has HR Datafied?Businesses spend 50-60% of their total

COVER STORY

our friend network. Google has"datafied" our search and informationretrieval. LinkedIn has "datafied" ourprofessional connections. Twitter is"datafying" news and real-timeinformation. Ola and Uber is"datafying" our transport, GE is"datafying" all its engines, power plants,and machines, Degreed is "datafying"our learning and development needs,and Netflix is "datafying" ourentertainment choices." Each of thesebusinesses is harnessing what we nowcall Big Data to store, analyze, andmonetize the information around itsbusiness." Datafication defines the"rethinking" of what we do arounddata, and not merely the product andthe process. Simply put, dataficationof HR is investing in analytics that willhelp improve an organisation's policies,practices, and processes, and in turn,help HR improve the manner in whichit functions. It is therefore essential toexplore why HR needs datafication, thedata points that must be under the HRradar, the best way of acquiring them,the possible roadblocks that mightmake the journey a bumpy ride, andfinally, what do we do with that data,is datafication the intended destinationor is the journey bound to continue.

Datafication in HRData-driven decision-making as aconcept is not new. But until recently,

missed out is, does that data reallyapply to your organisation? Here is avery basic example: The standardaverage for the number of HRprofessionals needed in an organisationis one for every 150 employees. Butdoes that take into consideration thevery approach of the organisation asto how HR is organised and how itfunctions. With the ability to link HRdata to organisational data, HR is nowable to not only store information, bututilise it in a pro-active manner toimprove operational management,better align goals, be agile, andmeasure it in real time. Meanwhile, ifHR sees that it is measuring incorrectly,it can detect this in real time and ditchthe measurement tools being used byit and adjust accordingly.

Power of HR Datafication fora quantified organisationDecision Support: In the HR universe,one of the most widely searched termsis ROI (Return on investment). The rightdata can get that decision support -programmes that HR leaders knew intheir gut could work can actually betested. Traditionally squishy areas ofHR leadership that are hard to measuremight actually be proven whenanalysed with data and patterns.

Scrutiny: The downside is that HRleaders will be under increasedpressure and scrutiny about the typesof programmes and practices theyadvocate. Everything from hiring to

What has HR

Datafied?� Data-backed Hiring and

Recruitment

� Data-backed Promotions

� Data-backed Retention

� Data-backed Learning andDevelopment

� Data-backed Compensation andBenefits

� Data-backed EmployeeEngagement

� Data-backed Reward andRecognition

“Datafication is increasing the ability to use talent analytics to understand job

seekers, employees, HR practices and processes. It helps a company recognize

the contributing factors that are impacting their organisation, and gives competitive

advantage. Paperless onboarding could be one of the most crucial steps towards

the digitization of the HR industry. Onboarding is a long affair where the employees

have to fill the same details in 6 -7 different forms. With today's technology, new

hires can complete all the paperwork in 15 mins. Through datafication, companies

can update the database of new/ eligible candidates for recruitment. It becomes

important for organisations to measure how much effort is put in terms of getting

a candidate. In today's globally competitive environment, borders that limited

company innovations and strategies don't apply anymore. To succeed in such a

scenario, companies are creating not just innovative

products, but also distributing them via unconventional

business strategies. There is a need to invest time to explore

new technologies such as AI, Robotics etc., for the hiring

processes that will help build efficiency in delivering a faster

turnaround to hire quality candidates.”

GURUPRASAD SRINIVASAN

President, IKYA Human Capital Solutions


revenues on payroll (higher or lowerat times) and this large expense is rarelywell analysed. Do we have the rightpeople in the right jobs and are wepaying them the right amount ofmoney? Yes, we clearly have budgetsand headcount targets, but do wereally know how to optimize ouremployee spending? These are someof the questions that are sure to crossany HR leaders mind time and again.A study by the Massachusetts Instituteof Technology (MIT) and University ofPennsylvania found that companieswith mature analytics functions ingeneral produce 5-6 percent higherfinancial returns. Ever since theintroduction of big data and analytics,its absorption into different areas ofHR is progressively increasing.

Here are some of the areas we seegrowing with the appropriateimplementation of HR analytics.

Data-backed hiring andrecruitment processes: Rather thanusing job descriptions, HRdepartments are increasingly focusingtheir recruitment activity on staffprofiles. These profiles will be basedon high-performing people presentwithin the organisation such as theirqualifications, the experience theybring, personality traits they possessand more. Different profiles will becreated for different roles and newapplicants matched against them. Withnumerous vendors to provide socialactivity profiles of external candidates,the recruiter now has holisticinformation to make informedchoices. This powered with AI bots,release the bandwidth of therecruitment team from doing regular

Top 10 metricsand how they canbe measured1. Cost per hire: Recruitment costs/

Cost of compensation + Cost ofbenefits

2. Yield ratio: Percentage of applicantsthat make it to the next stage of theapplication process.

3. Benefit cost per employee: Totalcost of employee benefits/Totalnumber of employees

4. Compensation cost per employee:Total cost of compensation for theyear/Average number of employees

5. Training hours: Total training hours/Total number of employees

6. Revenue per employee: Revenue/Total number of employees

7. Rate of performance goals met:Number of performance goals met/Total number of performance goals

8. Tenure: Average number of yearsin service of all employees

9. Absence rate: Number of daysabsent (month)/Average number ofemployees (month) x number ofworkdays.

10. Annual turnover: Number ofemployees leaving during a 12-month period/Average number ofemployees during the same period

“Today most of organisations expect the use of HR data to increment in the coming

years. So, "datafication" of HR is obviously in progress. HR Big Data, People Stats,

HR analytics, talent analytics, strategic workforce analytics, Human Resource

datafication consider the combination of qualitative and quantitative data that

businesses must have in place to make valuable decisions regarding human capital

management, for attaining the competitive edge. If HR professionals truly want to

be part of the business, especially predictive analytics will

open the door to the new business world. Few things which

every HR should focus is on their analytical abilities, distinct

expertise to use analytical tools and from time to time they

should upgrade their knowledge to contribute towards

changing dynamics.”

PRIYANKA ANAND

Vice President and Head

HR Global Operations, Ericsson

calls and telephonic interviews orscreening profiles, because a wellmade algorithm is all you need to getthe top 10 profiles from a pile ofhundreds.

Data-backed promotions: A newdata-driven approach will also be takenfor talent management. Rather thanpromoting people on personalintuition or pressure from managers,decisions will be based on datagathered about their actualperformance. Eg: Who has consistentlymet sales forecasts? Who has suggestedproductivity changes? Whooutperforms the average? Such datawill be constantly gathered and usedto ensure decisions are based on solidevidence rather than intuition orpersonal opinion.

Data-backed Retention: By way of

COVER STORY

“Datafication in HR is a journey in itself and is having a huge impact on how people

communicate, collaborate and work. Datafication and use of smart technologies

such as big data, machine learning and artificial intelligence have proven to be a

blessing for Organisations. Companies are heavily relying on future ready innovations

to streamline activities from formulating Organisational strategies to hiring trained

workforce. Finding fresh and young talent by using these technologies not only

helps in saving Organisational costs but also ensure efficient recruitment. These

tools are being used as a primary screening method that provides insights on

recruitment & learning and also to get an insight into candidate's personality. In a

way, these tools have led to the emergence of scientific

hiring. The streams of HR that can be made more objective

and quantified with the use of datafication include recruitment

and workforce management, compensations and benefits,

employee engagement, succession planning/talent

management, learning and development, simplification of

work and compliances.”

ASHU MALHOTRA

Head-Human Resources

Cargill in Indian Sub-Continent and Malaysia.


using common metrics such asturnover, resignation, involuntaryturnover, companies have reportedimproved retention outcomes, as wellas a better ability to focus resourcesand programmes where they needthem. However, the differentiator isthe ability to compare trends overtime, across business units or betweenkey groups of employees to the overallorganisational outcomes. It is not thestandalone metrics that brings theinsight, but the ability to quickly buildcomparisons, identify trends, and findoutliers that makes the difference. Thisis what sets apart Datafication fromHR analytics, it implies applying theknowledge of patterns and trends tomake decisions for the future. It is onething to know what has happened inHR - the majority of HR data to datehas focused on the reporting oftransactional outcomes - but anotherthing to know what will happen.Predictive analytics is the real powerthat needs to be unleashed.

Data-backed Learning andDevelopmentCollecting and analysing data onspecific departments within theorganisation now allows the Learningand Development department tobecome a consultant.

While collecting the key metrics thatcapture how learners have changed asa result of a learning intervention,some of the key aspects that need tobe thought through are: -a) Skill attainment: The typical

training evaluation approach that relieson measuring knowledge levels, bothpre-learning and post-learning.b) Skill application: To what extentthe learner is practically applying thenewfound knowledge/skill in his or herrole.c) Behavioural changes: This primarilyapplies to culture and soft skills training.It is important to know how well thelearner has imbued the organisationalvalues or soft skills, which are requiredto succeed at the job.d) Goal attainment: L&D outcomeevaluation must be closely tied to goalattainment i.e. the role-basedperformance goals laid out for thelearner. L&D effectiveness must,

therefore, be intricately tied in withthe performance managementprocess. HR professionals mustevaluate the return on investment ofL&D initiatives in quantitative businessterms. Eg: Sales growth: Training(especially sales-specific training)should result in sales revenue growth,Cost reductions: Training shoulddirectly or indirectly lead to increasein efficiency, thereby enabling costsavings. For example, employees maycome up with cost-reduction projectswhen trained for opportunity seeking.

Data-backed EmployeeEngagementDetermining what inspires employees,what deters them, and what they donot care about allows employers tomotivate their teams to greaterperformance levels. With the hugecache of HR data at their disposal,businesses can go beyond their gutfeelings, and make better decisions fortheir employees. They can gather themost relevant metrics on their workers;to understand, analyse and act. Thisensures that their employee-engagement strategy is effective. Keymetrics that can be collected throughreal time powered tools such as officevibe and happy office are how doemployees see their personal growth,relationship with their managers, theamount and kind of feedback theyget, their relationship with peers,wellness initiatives available for themand much more.

COVER STORY

“HR, as a science and practice, is always evolving. In each transition, we see the

prevailing set of employee behaviour and norms undergoing a definite, and often

sweeping, change in every 15 to 20 years. There was a time when HR was seen

as a welfare function. Its emphasis then segued into Personnel, followed by

Development; and in its present avatar, HR is all about Empowerment. As HR

evolves, so does data. Datafication can therefore never afford to be a destination.

It's a journey that is constantly changing on two accounts: Big Data & Thick Data.

While Big Data relies on facts and figures for its analyses and prediction, Thick Data

bases itself on a rich repertoire of human insights, stories,

and experiences. In the practice of HR, which deals with

complex human emotions and interactions on an everyday

basis, striking the right balance between Big and Thick Data

will be the ultimate test of datafication. It's an interesting and

intriguing journey full of lessons along the way.”

AMITABH AKHAURI

Chief Human Resources Officer

Jindal Stainless Limited

“Datafication in HR is a journey that we are on. Data are building blocks and its

importance is well known and has been established for a long time now. It is

important to have systems and processes in place to ensure that you are collecting,

analysing and gaining insights from the vast wealth of data that HR has always had

access to. The challenge has really been to move away from merely ad hoc

reporting of data basis requests or standard requirements within the organisation

to really mining the data and seeing what it has to tell us. Quite often, data when

properly analysed, can help us question every aspect of an organisation, and see

whether what we are doing is in the right direction or do we need a course

correction. As of now, the destination point for this

datafication journey in HR is still not reached, some are of

course progressing in leaps and bounds, some are just

beginning this journey and others are steadily working on

it. It is however a journey none of us in HR can ignore,

otherwise we will be left far behind.”

ARPITA KUILA

Head - Human Resources

NEC Technologies India Private Limited


Data-backed Compensationand BenefitsPay equity is a top concern across allindustries. Using people analytics toget answers to important questions -what is the variation for pay withindifferent ethnic groups, how dobudgeted salary increases compare formale and female employees, or whatis the variation in pay within salaryband based on age and tenure - canreveal the fairness in the compensationpractices. If HR finds any indication ofdiscrimination, that data can be furtheranalysed to uncover evidence that canbe used in discussions with managersand executives to resolve the issue,before it becomes a cultural concern.Some of the key metrics and patternsthat are related to quantity of work,quality of work and work efficiencythat analysts need to look for beforeappraisal decisions are made are:number of errors, net promoter scoreof the business, 360 degree feedback,forced ranking results of past years,absenteeism rate, overtime peremployee, profit per FTE (Full timeemployment) and more. The how,when, and where of changing pay andbenefits is a strategic decision thatrequires careful consideration of totalrewards strategy and prior analysis toensure any money-invested impacts theorganisation in the intended manner.

Data backed Reward andRecognitionThe costs of health care and otherbenefits are rising faster than ever. At

the same time, there is a fierce battleto recruit and retain the top-performing employees, and theperceived value of a compensation andbenefits package is very significant tomost. Organisations struggle to find away to reconcile these two trends;keeping employees happy, and holdingthe line on cost increases. Over theyears, we have seen an explosion inthe variety of benefits packages thatemployers offer. Features that motivateone set of employees may becompletely irrelevant to a different set.Interests vary by life stage, but also bylocation, job category, and othergroupings that are less obvious.Therefore, the one-size-fits-all plansoffered by many companies arebecoming obsolete. Through analyticaltechniques we can now see exactly

which features offer the optimalcombination of value to employees andcost-savings for employers.Organisations need to identify theunique combination of rewards (healthbenefits, compensation, leave, etc.)that will allow them to engage andretain employees and save costs.

Adaptable smart systems that cananalyse employee's responses withcustomized questions are the key to awin -win solution. Analyst teams needto interpret results, showing the HRmanager how to translate employees'responses into potential savingopportunities and a rewardsprogramme design that provides valueto the organisation and the employee.

Four Value Paths to successfuladoption of HR analyticsAnalytics can be applied using an agileapproach, keeping these four valuepaths in mind.1. Start with the business: Solve aproblem benefitting the whole businessnot limiting to HR. Probably the firstquestion that arises in the minds ofthe analysts and data scientists is- whatis the most important organisationalproblem/opportunity that we arecurrently are capable of attacking?Sometimes, analysts go after issues thatare of interest to them, but later findthat no one else cares. We all havefavourite topics that stimulate usintellectually more than others. But, itis possible that those topics are not asinteresting or as important in the eyesof management, and something else isnagging them. Is the biggest concernof the organisation around costs,

“In this era of perennial technological innovations - adopting & integrating it intrinsically

is not that difficult a task yet, far too many people decisions are still based on "gut

feel." Our State of Talent Acquisition'18 research shows that companies that put a

talent analytics & TnD process in place quadruple their ability and culture of "data-

driven decision-making." But, then again, without 'data-driven people decisions' a

host of organisations are just getting good at the guessing game. Here are some

of the enumerated points where 'datafication' can change the course of your people

decision taking power, blended approach to Learning &

Development. Because, every business challenge is unique,

and different business objectives require different solutions

in the process of learning & development in any organisation,

especially when your workforce consists of different age

groups and organisational levels.”

KETAN KAPOOR

CEO and co-founder, Mettl

“Datafication is how world would be seen in future. Every detail of asset in terms

of Data & Information. We have already seen how it have bought difference through

Social media using information to relevance. HR and Datafication is one combination

that can't be ignored and used as a key to unlock newer horizons. With datafication

of HR processes, it becomes possible to replace personality tests, use social

media data, bookmarks, used apps or data usage to identify potential employees

and their specific characteristics. Datafication enables the picking of the smart

worker over a hard worker, personality over dedication, extrovert over introvert

and most important risk taker over safe choice. It also

enables candidate selection with specific personality traits.

Where Facebook can provide information about personality,

LinkedIn can help with professional insights, Twitter can

share list of common interests. Selection was never this fun

ever and HR never has such highly capable tools in pre-

datafication era.”

AKANKSHA TRIPATHI

HR Head, Xapads Media

COVER STORY


customers, revenue growth, marketshare, process efficiency, or acquiringand retaining certain types of talent?The answer to this thought is the keyto the success of the analytics initiative.Even if the team does not have thepower to solve the problem, it may beable to prove to the management theroot cause of their discomfort throughanalysis. Then, through prescriptiveanalysis, the path to the solution maybe designed.2. Think big - start small: Although itis important to have a roadmap in mindfor the evolution of the HR analyticslandscape; contain the scope of theinitial projects so that issues can beeasily addressed and quick winsachieved to build momentum.3. Start now: It is best not to wait untilall data and systems are perfect, a startis the best way to highlight the criticalissues so that they can be fixed.Besides, all competitors across sectorsare doing it now.4 Grow incrementally with anAnalytics unit: Top management maydecide that the organisation couldbenefit from the intelligence that ananalytics function could generate.

A Success model for TalentAnalyticsTalent analytics research by Bersin ByDeloitte indicated that building talentanalytics capability is an evolutionaryprocess. Organisations typically startout with operational reporting, withanalytics teams responding to requestsfor data and reports from managers,and business leaders wanting to

identify problem areas or understandtrends. As the analytics maturity levelimproves organisations move throughto the next stages - progressing fromoperational reporting right through topredictive analysis.

The talent analytics maturity modeldefined by Deloitte has four clearstages:� Level 1: Operational reportingReactive, operational reporting ofefficiency and compliance measures,focusing on data accuracy, consistency,and timelines.� Level 2: Advanced reportingProactive, operational reporting forbenchmarking and decision-making,multi-dimensional analysis anddashboards.� Level 3: Advanced analytics

Statistical modelling and root-causeanalysis to solve business problems,proactively identifying issues andrecommending actionable solutions� Level 4: Predictive analyticsDevelopment of predictive models,scenario planning, risk analysis andmitigation, integration with strategicplanning.

Talent Analytics TeamsWhile traditional HR generalist rolesare being moved to highly efficient HRoperations centres that are enabled bypowerful mobile HR apps. In this newmodel, HR professionals must bemore business-oriented specialists,possessing critical new skills in thefollowing areas:� Organisational networks:

Analysing, building, and developingnetwork capabilities and expertise

� Team-building and team leaders:Cultivating team leaders who cancoach and develop people, not justgive direction

� Employee engagement and culture:Measuring and improving theworkplace culture, andunderstanding culture models

� Design thinking: Becoming"experience architects."

� Analytics and statistics: Becomingevidence-based leaders whoembrace behavioural economicsand testing

� Digital: Moving beyond mobile andcloud applications by building truedigital HR platforms and apps

� Employment experience andbrand: Crafting and communicating

“The HR departments capture a large amount of employee data and while the

industry is still evolving to use this data better and in a smarter way, datafication

is already playing its part in shaping the hiring process and culture at workplace.

Organisations are moving beyond the traditional HR practices and are now shifting

their focus to adopt innovative HR tools to use available data in the recruitment

process, strategic analysis, talent retention etc. The Industry is now adopting

advanced technologies including machine learning, NLP and APIs to quickly analyse

and use this data to make key hiring decisions and retain talent with exit employee

analytics. The datafication of HR industry will further affect

nearly every function of the organisation and as the process

matures, its use can even be seen in areas like resource

planning and management. HR leaders are now understanding

the scope of analysis and how the effective mapping of this

data can contribute in leading their organisations to a

sustainable competitive edge.”

AJAY TREHAN

Founder and CEO, AuthBridge

COVER STORY

“We are living in an era of disruptive technologies being ruled by the millennials.

The million dollar question that all organisations have is how we can leverage them

to create a growth model that's sustainable. This is where HR and Artificial Intelligence

(AI) can join hands to create unparalleled forces. Datafication of HR is maturing

every year and with the advent of AI, HR teams across organisations are making

it their utmost priority. Recruitment, learning, career progressions, performance

metrics, sentiment analysis, attrition are just a few areas of HR that have been

datafied and mature analytics are emerging, leading to enhanced people decisions.

AI is being used to augment selection decisions, predict

job success, create personalized learning plans and

recommend career paths to employees among many

others. These applications are beyond the automation of

transactional HR or even the HR chatbots that are essential

for progressive organisations and result in higher employee

engagement and retention.”

GURPREET BHATIA

SVP, HR, TalentSprint


the company's value proposition� Making a major shift: As HR makes

this major shift from compliance andservice provider to steward andchampion of the total employeeexperience, some companies arebeginning to think about HR in newways.

Data Science Team StructuresEmbarking on data science andpredictive analytics requires a clearunderstanding of how the initiative isgoing to be introduced, maintained,and further scaled in terms of teamstructure. It is important to considerthree basic team structures that matchdifferent stages of machine learningadoption.IT-centric structure: This leverages newinvestments with existing IT resources,leading to the following advantages:� Computing infrastructure is

provided and maintained by anexternal service.

� In-house specialists can be trainedto further realize predictiveanalytics potential.

� Cross-silo management is reducedas all operations are held within theIT department.

� Less time-to-market for relativelysimple machine learning tasksrequiring one or a few models.

Integrated structure: With theintegrated structure, a data scienceteam focuses on dataset preparationand model training, while IT specialiststake charge of the interfaces andinfrastructure supporting deployedmodels. Combining machine learningexpertise with IT resource is the mostviable option for constant and scalablemachine learning operations. Theadvantages of adopting an integratedapproach are: -

� Leveraging existing IT resources andinvestments.

� Data scientists focus on innovation.� Utilizing full potential of both as-a-

service and custom ML applications.� Start with one or two data scientists,

then train and onboard morehomegrown experts.

� Using custom model combinations(ensemble models) that yield betteror broader predictions.Specialized structure: Aids in

addressing complex data science tasksthat include research, use of multiplemodels to various aspects of decision-making. In the case of largeorganisations, specialized data scienceteams can supplement differentbusiness units and operate within theirspecific fields of analytical interest.Advantages of a specialized datascience department are:� Centralized data science

management and increasedproblem-solving capacities

� Solving complex predictionproblems that require deep researchand that operate automaticallyacross different segments andbusiness units.

� Setting a fully featured data scienceplayground to foster innovationwith greater scalability potential.

Data Science team roles� Chief Analytics Officer/Chief DataOfficer (CAO): CAO is a "businesstranslator," and bridges the gapbetween data science and domainexpertise acting both as a visionary anda technical lead.� Data analyst: This role impliesproper data collection andinterpretation activities. An analystensures that collected data is relevantand exhaustive while also interpretingthe analytics results. Some companies,like IBM or HP, also require dataanalysts to have visualization skills toconvert alienating numbers intotangible insights through graphics.Preferred skills- R, Python, JavaScript,C/C++, SQL.� Business analyst: A businessanalyst realizes a CAO's functions, buton the operational level. This impliesconverting business expectations intodata analysis. If the core data scientistlacks domain expertise, a businessanalyst bridges this gulf. Preferredskills: data visualization, business

“Datafication in HR processes or talent analytics is fast emerging. Talent analytics

helps redefine recruitment models and processes by gaining insights into channels,

talent pools, and profiles, and helps identify the key drivers of employee engagement,

and in sentiment analytics, and in decoding group dynamics and social influencing.

The major advantages of talent analytics are increased business predictability, better

risk assessment, and accurate fraud prevention. HR analytics can never work in silos.

In today's digital age, capturing just employment-related data will not be enough.

Gathering personal, social, and geographical information helps in insightful analytics.

Organisations should also ensure compliance and regulatory practices, and maintain

confidentiality. For a quantitative model to evolve in such a subjective field as HR, data

quality, accuracy and integrity are vital. To succeed,

organisations should think ahead, and build robust and

streamlined data handling processes. Business leaders, HR

teams, and data scientists should collaborate and build talent

analytics frameworks that will help organisations attract, retain

and win over the most important ingredient for success:

talented people.”

DHANABALAN RK

Vice President, HR Maveric Systems.

“Earlier, datafication was limited to processes like recruitment, payroll, etc. that too

at a really basic level. Now, however the companies have started investing in

technology to manage various facets in the employee's tenure such as monitor &

manage performances, understanding the organisation's

turnover numbers, and, manpower planning inclusive of

budgeting. It also makes recruitment processes more efficient

by using various tools like using a cloud-based recruitment

database which helps in maintaining a talent pool, using

various psychometric & evaluation tools that play a huge

part in finding the right fit for the organisation.”

PAYAL SONDHI

Manager - Human Resources, SILA

COVER STORY


intelligence, SQL.� Data architect: This role is criticalfor working with large amounts of data(Big Data). This role is critical towarehouse the data, define databasearchitecture, centralize data, andensure integrity across differentsources. For large distributed systemsand big datasets, the architect is alsoin charge of performance. Preferredskills: SQL, XML, Hive, Pig, Hadoop,Spark.

Datafication challenges for HRThe challenge for HR is more complexthan it appears. First, HR has oftennot built an adequate business case, soit lacks support from IT. Second, thereare few and perhaps no broadlyaccepted standards for HR-relateddata, so information in differentsystems must be rationalized anddefined in a consistent way, which canbe time-intensive and controversial.Third, HR data are often seasonal andregional, so what one business unit calls"turnover" is not the same as another,and the analytics team has tostandardize all these measures. One ofthe critical steps in putting HR on amore analytical path is to bringtogether the disparate data sourcesneeded to build a data dictionary.

Unfortunately, building a clean andintegrated set of HR data is not easy.In a report by Bersin By Deloitte, it

has been estimated that 75 percent ormore of the effort in talent analyticsis invested in reaching levels 1 and 2.This is where companies have to findall their HR data sources, rationalizethe definitions of various dataelements, find ways to clean the data,and aggregate it into some usablesystem. This work takes several yearsof cleanup, a partnership with IT, andthe skills to implement a scalablereporting infrastructure. Usuallycompanies get into a bind herebecause the CHRO has not beenwilling to make the requiredinvestment to build a true analyticsfunction, and thus has not taken thetime to build the business case for anintegrated analytics team.

Key challenges in HR AnalyticsHR analytics is not limited to collectingdata related to employees'performance, but it aims atimplementation of a number of newways to utilize and gather data.However, there are a few challengesthat may prevent them from utilizingthe real power of HR analytics. Whilecapturing data as mentioned above isan issue faced by most organisations,many of them are unclear about whattype of data needs to be captured tomake most accurate decisions. Someof the challenges include:� Data and data variety: Differentservices of HR use different toolssourced from different vendors thatwork in isolation. If analytics need tobe implemented, the major challengeis to pool these silo systems or connectthem to communicate to each other,which is the biggest challenge for eventhe most determined ones.� Training and Mindset: Marketing,Operations, and Data Management aredepartments supported by HR, it is amindset that HR is a supportingdepartment. Owing to such a line ofthinking and lack of analytical trainingopportunities towards analytics,process of HR analytics absorption inorganisations has been delayed.� Biases and fears: The risingexpectations of data drivenapproaches, is leading to a conflictingapproach and fear that data-drivendecisions might reduce the humanessence in problem solving, and mightreduce personal preferences.

Short term bumps towardslong term datafication successThe gap between HR and the rest of

“I see data as the clear mirror of intent versus action, which none can choose to

run from any more. At RPG, we embarked upon HR datafication a few years ago,

a journey that I must say has been thoroughly enjoying. The aim has been fairly

simple; to generate insights that help us enhance employee experience, business

decisions, collaboration, productivity and deployment. While the core HR processes

like Recruitment, Performance Management, Learning and Development, 360-Degree

Feedback and Succession Planning are completely digitized; the intelligence that

we extract from these help us plot career paths and deployment with far more ease

than ever before. We have successfully reduced redeployment time, de-risked

critical positions, enhanced bench strength, developed more relevant people

practices and improved overall operations efficiency. It's no longer difficult for us

to plan careers and execute on them with a fair degree of certainty. Real-time visual

dashboards tell us where we are in the context of our over-

arching business goals like gender diversity, process

compliance, and more. As basic as it may sound, we

happen to be one of those few organisations in India who

chose to digitize our employee files. We are going paperless

by getting joining forms auto-filled and digitally signed

through the employee's Aadhaar based OTP.”

SUPRATIK BHATTACHARYYA

Chief Talent Officer, RPG Enterprises

“Usually Companies spend a major chunk of their revenues on payroll, but they

don't invest enough on analysing data. Most companies are still "reporting" data

and not "analysing" Data. Reporting can only tell us "What happened" but "Why

it happened" and "what can happen " needs to know. There

are various tools to aid but ultimately HR needs to invest

in training their resources to analyse this data. Human

resources capture a huge amount of data - engagement,

compensation, performance ratings, education

qualifications, family status, etc. But mostly, it is lying

stagnant and rarely used for aligning with business goal.”

PARTHA NEOG

Founder & CEO, Vantage Circle

COVER STORY

the business: The first step towardsbuilding analytics into the corporateculture and reducing culturalresistance is to find the stakeholders inHR and the business who really careabout this problem and createcommon objectives and goals. Focusingon well defined, small, and easyanalytics "showcases" the first step tocreate awareness and appetite foranalytics support with senior businessstakeholders. The best teams ensurethey collaborate with stakeholders

The offices of the Human Capital have been receiving

numerous queries related to HR from our valued

customers, subscribers, HR professionals and students.

We have therefore decided to introduce a Q and A

column that will feature queries pertaining to Human

Resources that shall be answered by Industry veterans.

You may share your questions at

[email protected] or [email protected]

so that we can share them with HR veterans from the industry.

We shall ensure to keep your identity anonymous if warranted.

Online

throughout the process of identifyingwhich topics or projects the HRanalytics team will work on, all theway through to interpreting the results.

Embrace storytelling tocommunicate the data: Finance willcome to the board table with hardfacts and costs, which will completelywash away all HR efforts. Sit at thetable and tell a story based on theavailable people analytics.

Develop analytics capability: Thismight be a "business challenger" who

is able to influence and work withstakeholders inside and outside of HR;an HR domain expert with the skills toanalyse HR-related business needs, aprogrammer able to design databasesand integrate different sources, and adata scientist with classic analyticsabilities plus advanced big dataanalytics skills.

Research has shown that buildingstrong analytics capability is a journey.Organisations embarking on thisjourney should recognize that it takesyears to progress from operationalreporting to advanced predictiveanalysis, but the investment is wellworth it. There is a need to pushthrough the initial grunt work and focuson laying the key foundations. Whilstthese initial activities may lack the allureof more advanced, predictive analytics,they are critical in creating a culture ofdata-driven decision-making andtherefore paving the way for analyticsmaturity advancement.

References

https://www.analyticsinhr.comhttps://www.visier.comhttps://www.pwc.comhttps://www.altexsoft.comhttps://www.chisquareacademy.com

“Datafication is not a new buzzword that has hit the business world in the recent

times. It means turning an existing business into a "data business." We have seen

a huge wave of datafication in our own lives through Facebook, Google and

LinkedIn. Organisations too have started using and shifting towards datafication as

a 'tool' in their internal systems. A lot of investment is happening from the Organisations

end in the HR software's systems today so that a judicial use of data can take place

without losing it. Better assessment of solutions, retention & recruitment, learning

& development are some of the key HR areas that are quantified with datafication.

The more datafication grows, the more HR decisions will be

data-driven. With the basic understanding of the importance of

data, it is possible for an Organisation to win more and attract

more success to the business.”

DR. MURALI PADMANABHAN

Senior Vice President and India Head

Talent Management, Virtusa Corp

COVER STORY



BY S. AJAY KUMAR

During the UK Best Places To Work event which was held in September

2017, to adjudge the most employee friendly companies in the gaming

business, the single question doing the rounds was the support being

manifested to graduates and undergraduates by these companies. Not

surprisingly, all the winning companies voiced their support for these

students and stated that their interaction with the students helped them find

the right talent in a business that has for ever demanded raw talent eager

to be nurtured into brighter minds.

who mentioned the challenges thatArtificial Intelligence and innovationin auto technology brought forth andthe acute requirement to nurture youngtalent through CEAT's "Young ExecutiveBoard" initiative.

According to Mercer Talent Trends2017, it is estimated that there shallbe a significant rise in virtual jobs inIndia during the next three years, andtherefore, those in management rolesshall relish greater control. Do youbelieve that this lays the roadmap forgreater days ahead for corporateIndia?There has definitely been a dramaticchange in the landscape. Today,youngsters are open, flexible, willingto take risks, and are on the lookoutfor challenging work. They lookforward to their contribution towardslarger organisational goals andundertaking greater responsibilitiesand opportunities. Youngsters todaydo not want to do mundane 9 to 5jobs and appreciate flexibility in theways of working. They prefer flexibilityin work timings and locations as longas they deliver what is expected fromthem. This functions as a game-changer for HR since it enables us to

Human Capital spoke toMilind Apte, Senior VicePresident - HumanResource, CEAT Tyres Ltd.,

INTERVIEW

CatchingThem Young

re-invent ways to attract and inspirethe best talent in the organisation.

Do you believe that there is a middlemanagement crisis in the Indiancorporate realm today? Is this theprime reason for companies acrossIndia coming forth with acceleratedprocess towards nurturing youngtalent?Middle management (Managers andSenior Executives) always prove to bea valuable knowledge asset for anyorganisation. They carry a mix ofsubstantial insights about variousmeasures that can help improvebusiness and boost growth within theorganisation. As they are the linkbetween front line employees andsenior management, the role of middlemanagement in an organisation is

extremely crucial. Today, manyorganisations realise where the talentlies, and they emphasise on devisingtraining, re skilling, and developmentprogrammes. This helps middlemanagers to acquire newer skills andscale upwards in the career growthladder. I have been fortunate to haveworked with evolved organisations,where I have seen genuinecommitment to building leadershipacross levels, which has provided themwith accelerated growth paths. What isreally exciting is that our young leadersshoulder greater responsibilities today,than we did in our times, and, we needto guide them in their success path.

What according to you are the HRtrends in India for 2018? And, whichis the biggest challenge confronting


“

Middle management (Managers and SeniorExecutives) always prove to be a valuableknowledge asset for any organisation. They carrya mix of substantial insights about variousmeasures that can help improve business andboost growth within the organisation. As they arethe link between front line employees and seniormanagement, the role of middle management inan organisation is extremely crucial.

”


INTERVIEW



HR in the manufacturing sector?Increased usage of analytics in HR,digitisation of HR processes such asgamification of engagement initiativesand simulation based assessments aresome of the major HR trends expectedin the year 2018. Additionally, the muchtalked about topic - change in thetimeline of performance managementsystem moving away from once a yearto more regular real-time performancefeedback, will also come under thelimelight. Furthermore, Bots will soonbe more prevalent, as well. From anL&OD perspective, there is a paradigmshift in learning methods that is leaningtowards simulated online bytes oflearning, which may be done on the go,as against classroom training. And, thesituation certainly demands employeesto be well-equipped with the requiredskills. Today, the market has becomevery dynamic in nature, and in order tosustain in such a growing and acompetitive environment, enhancingskillset is the key to success. Goingforward, in order to help employeesdevelop newer skillsets given suchbackground, the aspect of coaching willplay a vital role in people development.In the future, holistic caring foremployees will be defined as extendingwellness beyond office. The concept ofvirtual workplace, I believe, will be moreabout the overall employee experience,and this will be along the lines ofcustomer experience. Lastly, investingin making the organisation future readyby increased HR participation inbusiness discussions will also be crucialfor HR to be successful. Besides, thebiggest challenge for HR in themanufacturing sector will be keeping

up with the changing technology.Continuous research andimplementation of new technology isof prime importance, especially in orderto maintain a competitive edge andthrive in the business.

What are the various HR policies thatare being undertaken by CEATLimited to cater to the aspirationsand demand of the young employees?Today, the younger generation is open,flexible, willing to take risks and isseeking challenging work. In line withthe expectations of the presentgeneration, we have rolled out anumber of forward looking policies -right from flexi working hours tomaternity and paternity leaves thatgenuinely bring balance to work and

personal life. Our maternity leaveallows for part time working until thechild is one year old, which is hugelyappreciated within the organisation.

We have had cases of youngsterswho change jobs and later come backto CEAT, and in order to tackle this, wehave created 'Re-hire Policy' thatwelcomes such employees back totheir very roots. All our youngmanagers hired from campuses (both

“

ArtificialIntelligence (AI) seems

to be inevitable, as itwill play a significantrole in the industry.

However, humanintervention can neverbe overlooked. In myview, AI will help intaking care of all the

repetitive andtechnology-heavy jobs.This will be a fantasticopportunity for doinga meaningful job for

the workforce.”

INTERVIEW

VINOD MARAR

General Manager - Supply Chain

“YEB has provided me

cross functional exposure.Interacting with seniorleaders in the organisationduring the project phasewas a unique learningexperience. I feel proud tobe an integral part of CEAT’ssuccess story through theYEB contributions.

”

Young Executive Board team inside the kitchen


engineering and B-schools) are givensenior mentors to strengthen theircapabilities and sharpen skills. It is anopportunity to learn and grow whileworking closely with a mentor whowill guide, support and assist youprofessionally, as well as personally.With support of such guidance, we lookforward to youngsters shoulderingmore responsibility and working withautonomy. This year we have alsointroduced a unique initiative 'CEATVentures,' wherein we invited businessideas from employees. The ideas thatwere found viable have actually beenconverted into real time businessprojects, one of them being a newventure in itself. Employees from withinwere selected to take over this venture.

The very nature with the youngertalent is that they prefer to keeplearning different aspects of work, andstay away from being labelled as'Stereotypes.' In our company, they arefree to apply for open positions withoutseeking approval from anyone. We alsohave associations with Premierinstitutes such as Harvard, ISB etc. Ourtie-up with a reputed University for thegeneral MBA programme is quitepopular with the youngsters whochoose to join us after their graduation.And, in this segment, we provide strongfinancial support to the employees byfunding the entire cost of education.We continuously work towards havingprogressive policies, and a workplacethat is conducive for the youngmanagers.

What is the concept of 'Young

Executive Board' (YEB)? What hasbeen CEAT's Ideology behind this, andhow do you scale its success, and thereception amongst CEAT employees?We have introduced 'Young ExecutiveBoard' (YEB) initiative in CEAT andhave been running it successfully fromlast eight years. CEAT believes increating leaders at all levels and withthe YEB model we shall continue to doso for several years to come. Theprimary objective of YEB is to developyoung talent and offer themdifferentiated developmentopportunities through critical businessprojects. The idea is to get your bestminds to work together on projects ofstrategic importance and makerecommendations that have a directbearing on the company's future. The

projects are directly mentored bymanagement committee members.

Typically, the year consists of threeprojects that each individual works onwith guidance from the concernedbusiness heads and severaldevelopment inputs given to them tohelp build their business acumen andindividual personalities. The YEBmembers have worked on projects thathave led to strategy decisions, changein compensation philosophy,revamping of customer complaintportal, new business ideas, reductionof carbon footprint etc.

In addition to the learning throughthe project based route, we deployseveral other methods to groom ourYEB. Exposure to Critical decisionmaking forums, learning opportunitieswith premium business schools andexperiential learning throughinnovative formats makes the journeyenriching and exciting. As an example,this year the YEB members had aunique experience to participate in"Young Executive Chef" challenge.Experience to work with the team withprecision, speed, quality and anxietyled to an outstanding delivery. YEBoffers holistic learning through multiplemethods, which makes it such animportant intervention.

Can you elaborate over the need forsuch an initiative in the Indiancorporate realm today? Could youexplain the process of employeeeligibility, the selection parametersand the decision makers who areinvolved with YEB?

INTERVIEW

MANSI AGRAWAL

Sr. Manager - Materials

“YEB helped me overcomethe myth of performance

excellence based onfunctional expertise only. I

found that things can belearned and achieved if wework as a strong cohesive

team. Mentoring is the coreof YEB that gave me the

edge to excel.”

Learnings from the masters of the craft and having fun at the same time


The younger talent is always lookingfor meaningful work opportunities andconstant challenges. Also, it is theresponsibility of the organisation toconstantly keep future leaderssufficiently challenged so that they givetheir best at work. We have observedthat interactions with seniormanagement can help them getinspired and motivated, and thatprovides them with a much neededpush towards work. Our selectionprocess for YEB is a mix ofperformance and potential assessment,wherein we nominate our top youngtalent. There is a definite criteria ofage limit for this. After analysing allthe necessary elements, the decision

INTERVIEW

of selecting the potential member ofYEB group is then made by theManagement Committee.

With the kind of success that you havemanaged to gain from YEB, are youplanning to introduce newer talentmanagement initiatives in the nearfuture? Could you share some of thoseconcepts with us?We are pleased to witness such anencouraging response that we havereceived within the organisation withthe 'YEB' concept. YEB has a greaterimpact on the people learning curvewho are associated with theprogramme, wherein the organisationalso gets benefitted. The mentoring

engagement with senior management,cross functional projects and inputstowards additional development helptransform the talent into fierce leaders.As a testimony, many of the pastmembers of YEB now occupy positionssuch as GMs and VPs in theorganisation. 'Coaching' is anotherinitiative started by us last year toenable building the leadership skills ofnot only the coach, but also thecoachee. It is a very critical programmeto develop a culture of coaching withinthe organisation. While introducingnew HR initiatives in the company, thefocus is not on volume, but qualityand the relative impact on employeesand the organisation. At present, YEBwill stand out as an aspirational board,and we have no intention to createanother forum and risk diluting itssignificance. Additionally, it shallremain as our continuous endeavourto improve the format of YEB, andstrengthen its position as a tacticaltalent management tool in thecompany.

In light of your vast experience, whatdifferences have you observed whenit comes to talent management inIndia as compared to the global level?There is not much difference betweenthe talent management practicesfollowed in India vis-a-visinternationally. All organisations that Ihave worked with believe in the actionlearning concept. Huge emphasis isgiven on the job rotations, projectstints, coaching, shadow stints alongwith Long Range Development Plans,exposure in different geographies andmultiple projects. This helps theorganisation to not only develop thetalent, but test and build the leadershipquotient as well. With many leadingorganisations going global and ourcomplete openness to acquiring talentfrom across the globe, it becomes veryimportant to have Talent Managementpractices that carries a global flavour.

With the advent of AI, companies arereplacing humans with bots for suchtasks that are seen as repetitive? Froma talent management perspective, doyou believe that this as a goodinitiative?Artificial Intelligence (AI) seems to beinevitable, as it will play a significantrole in the industry. However, human


INTERVIEW

intervention can never be overlooked.In my view, AI will help in taking careof all the repetitive and technology-heavy jobs. This will be a fantasticopportunity for doing a meaningful jobfor the workforce. Given thetechnology thrust, from the HRperspective, there will be a dire needto ensure retaining empathy in dealingwith humans, as well. There may be aresistance and inertia to the changebut eventually reskilling should bebeneficial to all people.

How will the concept of driverlesscars impact the role of HR in theauto sector in India in the nearfuture?Mobility is undergoing a massivetransformation, from electric vehiclesto shared mobility and from driverlesscars to hyperloop, auto sector will facemassive disruption. Some of them shallsoon be a reality in the near future,while some are still at the conceptualstage. In the wake of such scenario,the auto industry is preparing itself forsuch a disruption. The HumanResource element in the auto industryhas a huge responsibility ofunderstanding the trend, futuristic skillsets, and get into the critical task ofreskilling. What I see is, with thechanging demand, the ability to betechnology savvy will be critical.

Unavailability or limited supply ofemployable talent from varioustechnical institutes is being seen asthe biggest challenge to the Indianeconomy? What are yourrecommendations to bridge such askill divide?Generic technical talent is easilyavailable across the country. Thereare number of good institutes whichsupply good talent. However, there isa definite scarcity in niche areas, suchas digitisation, automation etc. Thereare many areas where we areconfronted with talent scarcity in ourown plants. In my opinion, the bestoption is therefore to collaborate withsome of the premium institutes anddesign a curriculum to develop theseskills.

Differentiated inputs throughindustry visits, interaction withsenior leadership, attending topmanagement meetings, sessions with

SMEs and leaders, and relevanttraining inputs to develop theircompetencies are the methodologiesrecommended to nurture talent. Howhave you seen this bear fruit at CEAT?Well, all the aforementioned elementshelp to mature and broaden theperspective of our talent. It goes along way in building their leadershipcharacter. It offers a holistic view pointof a situation which helps them tounderstand the business inside out. Itinstils huge confidence in youngmanagers, working on projects outsidetheir comfort zone and thus pushthemselves to their very limits. Finally,when they see the result of their hard-work turning into a real businessstrategy, it develops a sense ofaccomplishment within themselves

which further helps in boosting theirconfidence. Confidence is alsosomething that comes from the kindof visibility young managers get in theorganisation after being selected as aYEB member and receiving coachingby the management committeemembers. Young talent largelyappreciates such an exposure as itinspires them to do a better job, andhelps in developing willingness toexplore challenges in all situations. Wealso conduct personality assessmentsand have one-on-one coachingsessions to help young managersunderstand their skills and ways tostrengthen them. It further helps themrealise the areas to avoid which mightprove to be the derailers in their careerpath.

Dishes served by the Young Executive Board


As we meander into the twentyfirst century, it is becomingincreasingly evident thatachieving success is based on

the ability to co-exist with ambiguityand re-inventing oneself quickly, inshort, adapting to unparalleled change.Yet, most of the management andtalent practices are based on anorganisation model that now standsdated and static, resulting inorganisations not being able to stay instep with the people who work inthem. Therefore, companies that makesustained investments in talent are wellpositioned to outdo their competitors.

Today, the norms of valuation havechanged radically as well. For listedcompanies, a key driver is the rise ofthe intangible value of the company.While valuation was previously basedon equipment, facilities, technology,resources, today, most of it is basedon brand, relationships, talent, and theability to innovate and execute quickly.It has, therefore, rightly been observedthat empires of the future, will beempires of the mind. But developinga talent culture is anything but easy.Some of the key questions that needto be asked, or shifts that need to bemade include:

As we meander into the twenty first century, it is becomingincreasingly evident that achieving success is based on the abilityto co-exist with ambiguity and re-inventing oneself quickly, inshort, adapting to unparalleled change.

LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT

Building ACulture Of TalentManagement

by Dipankar Das

“Today's marketplace is incredibly competitive in

every industry around the globe. The difference

between success and failure is talent, period.”– Indra Nooyi


� How do you move from seeingpeople as a cost to seeing peopleas fundamental assets?

� How can you develop a culturethat is challenging and demandingbut respectful as well?

� How can you nurture thecompetitive spirit and then ensurethat your workforce collaborates?

� How can a job be seen as a career?� How can autonomy and mastery

co-exist with process andalignment?

The corner stone of truecompetitivenessThese are a few queries which need tobe addressed through a TalentManagement strategy. So, a holisticTalent Management strategy is thecornerstone of true competitiveness.In order to adopt talent management,it is pertinent that some key steps arein place. As is often the case, it startswith the Leader. For instance, JackWelch regularly took classes at GE'sCrotonville, and indicated his focus onTalent development be known by wayof action. Talent can always be open tothe Buy vs Build debate, but building,

Nurturing the human capitalBut, while the leaders provide themindset and direction, it requiresinfrastructure to push the culture toone that is talent centric. This mindsetneeds to imbue every process fromthe plan to hire, to hiring, to learning,and work in practice; all structured ona competency framework, which itselfis anchored on nurturing the humancapital in the organisation. Theseprocesses are common in mostorganisations, however, they are largelyoperated as tactical processes, and notreally speaking to a larger talent centricvision. However, there is so much thatone needs to prioritize. And, prioritiesstem from where it pinches the mostfor an organisation. So, if you are acontact centre reeling under retentionproblems, then employee engagementwould be key, and retentionprogrammes would be paramount. But

nurturing talent from the groundbelow carries an organic value, whichgood leaders understand intrinsically.Sam Walton too had an employee firstapproach to development. Leaders inseveral organisations, such as P&G,Pepsico, GE are known to focus onclosely reviewing talent progression,and such reviews are as intense asfinancial reviews. Flowing from theLeader's commitment is the HoD orthe Division Head's focus areas. TheHoD always has the option of being anearly adopter. The HoD has theadvantage of a smaller canvas to drawupon. This is more compact and makesthe dissemination a lot easier.


whatever the priority, overallrobustness of processes is required toensure sound results.

The next key step, according toDavid C. Forman, is to ensure buy-infor the talent mindset, a guidingcoalition, so to say. It is important toalign the key stakeholders towards theside of the talent centric view. Thereare numerous ways to get suchcoalitions to support. The StrategicLeadership Team, the PeopleCommittee comprising all those inpeople-related functions, etc. all canplay pivotal roles in ensuring that thereis a strong buy-in for this go forwardvision.

Today, the norms of valuation havechanged radically as well. For listedcompanies, a key driver is the rise of the

intangible value of the company. While valuationwas previously based on equipment, facilities,technology, resources, today most of it is basedon brand, relationships, talent, and the ability toinnovate and execute quickly. It has, therefore,rightly been observed that empires of the future,will be empires of the mind.”

“


While the leaders provide the mindsetand direction, it requires infrastructure topush the culture to one that is talent

centric. This mindset needs to imbue every processfrom the plan to hire, to hiring, to learning, andwork in practice; all structured on a competencyframework, which itself is anchored on nurturingthe human capital in the organisation. Theseprocesses are common in most organisations,however, they are largely operated as tacticalprocesses, and not really speaking to a larger talentcentric vision.”

“

Aligning the pivotal roleNext is to align the most pivotal role inyour direction. The Manager must feelthe value that comes from an enthusedteam; she needs to ensure that hiring,training, learning, retaining anddeveloping top talent is part of her keydeliverables, and not something whichis good to do, but optional. Typically,this is not easy, the Managers are gearedto deal with the day to day, the weekly,and are often stuck in old perceptions.They are not the one to grow, inspire,involve and reward talented employees,so easily. A paradigm shift is easiersaid than done. Often, this takes a longtime to accomplish.

The last and perhaps the mostcritical, and desirable step as well, iswhen the employee takes responsibilityfor her own learning. Today in anecosystem of change, individualsrealize, irrespective of the degrees theyown, unlearning and re-learning is whatwill keep anyone relevant in themarket. Hence, the moment they ownresponsibility, the journey of the talent-centred organisation completes theloop. When people take responsibilityfor their choices, there is animprovement in engagement andincrease in productivity. Of course,only the best of organisationsrecognize, and more importantly,enable this. For example, IBM allowsits employees to keep the skillinventory database updated byregistering any new skills they may have

Dipankar Das is Head, Learning andDevelopment at Tata Projects Ltd (TPL).He specializes in Managerial andLeadership development across a crosssection of Industries, including Telecom,Automobile, F&A, etc. Prior to workingwith TPL, he worked for IBM andGenpact.

A b o u t t h e A u t h o r

acquired. And, this is then activelyaligned to the job opportunities thatopen up time to time within theorganisation. The employee can thenbe informed about the roles that haveopened up for their skillsets. A win-win situation for the employee and askill sensitive organisation scouting forthe right talent.

Companies that have traversed theabove journey are often known asAcademy companies. Familiar namesin the list are GE, Google, IBM, P&G,HP and the list goes on. However,smaller and nimble companies are also

adopting robust talent practices, whichallow them to be geared for change,and operate comfortably in a dynamicmarket. The command and controlcompanies, the stiff neck gruffbureaucratic companies need to moveto this new paradigm or risk closurethrough obsolescence. The hardest stepin this journey is perhaps when theline Manager becomes the TalentLeader. When this change happens, andthe employee too reciprocates bytaking change in his or her stride, thenbarriers of tradition and inertia arebroken, and the transformation to ahigh performing organisation takesplace. The journey to talent centricityis no longer just an alternative, it is thekey mechanism for an organisation tocome into its own and succeed in theface of stiff competition. It is in short,your twenty first century competitivestrategy.



perhaps beginning with the seminalwhitepaper published by KPMG in July2012 predicting "the death ofoutsourcing". Mainstream medialatched onto the disconcertingpredictions and a whole lot of hooplastarted building around the premise,making it hard to distinguish realityfrom make-believe. Thankfully,NASSCOM's official figures haveshown that the consolidated IndianIT-BPM revenue has added over $60billion over the last five years, and,the prediction for revenue growthover the next fiscal year is flat, but ahealthy 7.6%.

Between the two contrastingperspectives, reality lies in thecomposition of revenue growth seenby the Indian IT Industry. Digitalrevenues have grown almost four tofive times over five years since, and ispresently driving 1/3rd of the overallmergers and acquisitions seen in theindustry. Another major contributorto the growth in revenues is the surgein domestic markets, which has seenthe rise of several unicorns and aplethora of startups that service theincreasingly sophisticated demands ofthe global consumer. Establishedstalwarts too are not lagging behind,and are investing heavily inmodernizing and capitalizing on thisshift towards an increasingly digitalworld. This trend cuts across severalrelated industries such as telecom,entertainment, logistics, hospitality,ecommerce, mobile banking,healthcare, and others-which, in turn,is contributing to a healthy growth ofcutting-edge technologies like cloud,mobility, big data, and artificialintelligence.

In such a backdrop, it is important

The sounding of the death knellfor the Indian IT industrystarted several years ago,

When The DeathKnell Sounded!

BY Rupa Bang

to realize that the IT workforce forthe future needs to be built from thismoment onwards to serve this rise,as well as the shift in demand on keyskills and specialities. Specifically,within the IT industry, the future islikely to see a demand for key talentin the areas of:� Cloud computing, Platformengineering, DevOps, Service deliveryoperations, Robotic ProcessAutomation� Mobility, IOT, non-UI interfaces� Big data analytics, Machinelearning, AI, NLP� Graphic design, Usability expertise� Subject matter expertise includingfinance, payments� Ethical hacking and cyber security

Even within the Enterprisesegment, the shift towards adopting adigital-first approach has seen a rushin demand for skills in these areas,with an additional focus on domainexpertise and knowledge specific toeach industry vertical. However, unlikein the past, this emphasis on domainexpertise is more attuned to anattitude of Product Management-owning of the entire concept-to-market approach and the rigour tokeep innovating to stay relevant. Allthese developments are leading to ashift away from the narrow,specifically-skilled engineers (readvanilla skills) to full-stack developerswho can don multiple hats and delivermore value to the organisation, andtherefore, to their customers. This callsfor a shift in mindset of theengineering talent employed in theIndian IT Industry, an aspect thatmost Indian companies are nowfocusing on.

However, this demand for talentis still not met by Engineeringeducation in the country.Unfortunately, the gap continues to

exist, and is perhaps only widening.Therefore, there will be a continueddemand for skilled professionals withrich, real world experience. Recruitingfor talent will continue to be tough,and, as in the other domains, thehiring fraternity has to leverage thebest of digital tools to source forrelevant talent and attract the best.There is a significant opportunity forrecruiters to leverage AI, data mining,and digital platforms to hire thosewho will perhaps go on to build suchtechnologies for their own companies!Another trend that will emerge out ofthis scenario is the increasing adoptionof freelancing. Business owners andrecruiters need to leverage theavailability of the 'deskless workforce'or talent working remotely, and alongwith HR, design workplaces thatenable collaboration and supportdistributed teams. Virtual employeesare going to be a reality soon. Thismeans Indian IT companies need tolearn to embrace a global workforce,much like how we expect thedeveloped economies to embrace usas their service partners. And, as forthe typical middle-level Indian ITmanagers, they need to re-read theKPMG report once again!

Rupa Bang is Director, TalentAcquisition, Pramati Technologies.

GUEST COLUMN

References:

1. KPMG whitepaper: The death of outsourcing(http://www.kpmg-institutes.com/institutes/shared-services-outsourcing-institute/articles/2012/07/death-of-outsourcing.html)

2. NASSCOM report on the IT-BPM Industry inIndia (http://www.nasscom.in/sites/default/files/NASSCOM_Annual_Guidance_Final_22062017.pdf)


When Boards hire and inductnew leaders to headorganisations, the stakehold-

ers are clear about the expectations,and, this is bilateral. Most corporatesspend considerable time while select-ing a leader, and usually, the leadersare given a free hand to do what ittakes to move the organisation to thenext level. While the new leader nowcan go full throttle and do what isneeded, at times they hit a patch ofquicksand, and before they realize,decay sets in and gradually erodes theefforts taken to achieve business re-sults. Obviously, there are merits inleaders going about setting up theirown teams as they take up newer as-

Leaders maintaining a dignified distance from those hired from theirprevious organisation, while being inclusive and also talking about therationale to hire with key organisational leaders can also mitigate thenegative impact of “familiarity bias”.

HR MANAGEMENT

Leaders PickingTheir Own Team!

brand is not so well known, and isseen as a "company not to work for"in its line of business, an outstandingleader from a reputed brand canconsiderably ease the hiring challengesthe company may face otherwise. Suchleaders relish great referral power andinstantly evoke trust in the new hires.The ability of a few start-ups to attracttop order talent from big brands is atestimony to this aspect.

Shorter peaking time: Since the keyhires have already worked with the newleader in the past, the time taken tosync with the overall flow and speedcan be much shorter. And, in an era ofhyper competition, consolidation, andM&A, speed does matter, and the factorof "already worked with the leader"adds greatly to the aspect of speed inthe decision making process of theorganisation. The strong positiveemotional bank account the leaderenjoys with the new arrivals swells thetrust account, and can also be greatvalue to the organisation. It is likelythat the unit may now take some boldand risky calls on all fronts, which itdesisted for long.

Ushers greater accountability:Since the leaders are given totalautonomy to build their teams, itclearly adds greater accountability ontheir shoulders to own up and achievethe set out tasks. In many ways, theleaders are putting themselves to agreat reputational risk if they fail todeliver as a new team. The point hereis also about the moral obligation todeliver as a new team when noquestions were asked during the

signments, especially under trying in-dustry conditions or a troublesomeorganisational context.

Great leaders are themselvesbrands: Great brands attract greattalent, and therefore, it is no wonderthat there are some real rock starswho want to be associated with theleaders for the sheer joy of learningand working with them. For a newleader, it is easy to get the best andtested talent without losing much timein scan and search. If the organisationis clearly on a turnaround strategy,including an overhaul of the culture,this is the best possible approach, andthose feeble murmurs will be mutedsooner than later. At times, when the

by Capt. Raghuram


process of team building.If this tactic seems to favour an

organisation so much, what is thedebate around this practice? While thispractice appears to be "all good" at acursory level, in reality, however, it doeshave its "not so good" aspects. It isnoteworthy that at times, when handledpoorly, it can set off an initial decay inorganisational cohesion and levels oftrust. Some aspects that offer anexplanation to this are mentionedbelow: -

Contextual challenge: The contextfor the entry of the new leader actuallysets the tone for a whole host of viewsand counter views that are generatedwith every action by the leader. Fore.g., if the arrival of the new leader iswell thought-out, socialized and sharedmuch before he took over the mantle,then the chances of mis-reading thenew leader's intention can be low. ForE.g. Nayak's successor at L&T wasannounced almost a year before.Similarly, when the transition occursat a time when the unit has been doingwell financially, and has regularly beenhitting the 'QOQ' numbers, the chances

felt, but seldom discussed openly, asto whether the leader is from withinthe existing system or is an outsider.

Team dynamics: On one level,organisations can also be described as"urbane political entities" with variouswork groups trying to figure out waysto achieve their own agenda, even asthey profess a common façade ofcohesiveness and alignment. Hence,when a new leader takes the call tohire someone to fit into the teams,especially in leadership roles, a senseof heaviness engulfs the psyche of theexisting members. Call it the fear ofthe lesser known (the new leader), orthe fear of the unknown (the newarrivals), it surges the anxiety quotientin most cases.

Where they come from matters? Therecan be hardly any doubt about thenew leaders' capability or intent whenthey decide to bring a few from theirprevious organisation to drive the new

for any such gap analysis can be low.On the other hand, when the transitiontakes place abruptly on the back of aleader's sudden exit, that transpireswhen there is sluggishness in theindustry resulting in muted growth, orwhen the organisation is struggling tobreak into newer frontiers due to theirown weight and size (which was astrength earlier), then the pitch maycarry more demons than what isanticipated during such transitions. Inaddition to such contextual challenges/realities is the pertinent question, often

HR MANAGEMENT

agenda. But, why then is there a cloudof circumspection and tightness in theair around the organisation? This is sobecause the leader's actions seem toconvey a different message! Imagine asituation where a new leader keepshandpicking a select bunch of peoplefrom his or her last assignment. Thesituation may get even worse, whenthere is a general feel to suggest thatsome X or Y employee was tipped todon the role a few months before thenew leader took charge. This is whenthe cancer takes shape. For e.g. Vishal

Great brands attract great talent, andtherefore, it is no wonder that there aresome real rock stars who want to be

associated with the leaders for the sheer joy oflearning and working with them. For a newleader, it is easy to get the best and tested talentwithout losing much time in scan and search. Ifthe organisation is clearly on a turnaroundstrategy, including an overhaul of the culture,this is the best possible approach, and thosefeeble murmurs will be muted sooner thanlater.”

“


Captain Raghuram is a Management/HR consultant based in Chennai. Hecarries an experience of more than threedecades and has held leadership roles insome of the leading corporates. His lastassignment was with Vodafone India Ltdas Associate Vice President HR. Heteaches Organizational Behaviour andChange Management in IIM Trichy.Captain Raghuram has previously servedin the army and is also a CertifiedProfessional Coach (PCC) from ICF, USA.


bothersome will be the leader's way oftreating them in many forums /situations etc. At times, leaders areperceived to "be soft and gentle" withthose they have had earlier association,and more direct and harsh with theold timers. Spending disproportionatetime with "his/her own people" isanother blunder leaders make, and thedamage it can cause can be huge tothe emotional well-being of the unit.When leaders are ignorant or blind tosuch a folly, even a legitimate andprofessional feedback to the old timersruns the risk of being misreadcompletely, thus sapping the moraleand rhythm of the organisation.

Among many practical solutionsthat could be designed to draw thebest of this situation, in my view,listening to the voice of employees atall levels can actually provide answersto this important aspect of buildingthe leadership team from knownsources. When the leaders have gainedcredibility and respect in theorganisation by many of their otherinterventions on the business andpeople side, then their act of hiringManagers from their previousorganisations will be seen as enablingand supportive and less threatening.Leaders maintaining a dignifieddistance from those hired from theirprevious organisation, while beinginclusive and also talking about therationale to hire with key organisationalleaders can also mitigate the negativeimpact of "familiarity bias ". After all,a leader is just not only responsible tothe Board and profits, he or she is alsoanswerable to the inner voice ofconscience that represents fairness andtransparency.

Sikka hired as many as 15 senior leadersfrom SAP in as many months for rolesin Infosys and quite a few left no soonerthan Sikka announced his decision toexit Infosys.

What do such actions / occurrencesconvey to the rest of the organisation?While professionally, a leader can arguehis or her way out defending thedecisions to hire from the previousentity, such decisions do impact flowin the organisation. Grapevine beginsto flow, aided by quiet chats in thelunch room. A game of guess as to"who comes in next?" follows, and forsure, these things dissipateorganisational focus.

Groupthink: "A false sense ofcohesiveness leading to an 'illusion ofinvulnerability' that sets in a Group,thereby killing any possible discussionson alternative and contradictory views.The Group, under the garb of reachingconsensus, settles down for decisionstoo soon and feels proud about it"

In 1972, Irving Janis, afterresearching on decision makingamongst humans coined the idea ofGroupthink, a socio-psychologicalphenomenon, and related it to the Bayof Pigs misadventure by the US Armyin 1961 and the sinking of the USwarships at Pearl Harbour by theJapanese in 1941. On both occasions,the leaders of the US Armed Forceseither over estimated their strength orunder estimated the enemy'scapabilities. Voices of dissent wereshunned and a false sense of unanimitytook over. Similarly, when leaderschoose to surround themselves withpeople with whom they have workedin the past, there is a potential seedingfor the Groupthink syndrome, andmay lead to formation of "in group"and "out group ". The new hires fromthe leader's previous organisation willseldom differ with the views of theleader since such actions will be seenas disloyalty. At times, we have seenleaders addressing a specific set ofmembers in a group, who almostaccept anything said by him readily.While such a practice cannot be termedas blasphemous, leaders should worka way so as to strike a balance anddraw the best out of an intervention.

The need for balanceGiven the obvious merits and demeritsof the above intervention, it is

important for the leader to handle itwith a certain degree of sensitivity andbalance. If the leader decides to dumpthe process as a whole since it is likelyto warrant criticisms, then theorganisation may lose the opportunityto get the best managers on board. Onthe other hand, if the leader takes thisroute to fill almost all positions by "his/her disciples ", then it may lead to afew unintended consequences whichmay push the organisation back tosquare one. A few aspects a leadermay consider while deciding tohandpick the immediate leadershipteam through his/her own sources arelisted below.

A fixed non-hiring period from theprevious company: One leader, whowas always sensitive as to howemployees may perceive his actionstook a position that during the firstyear, he shall not refer any from hisprevious company for roles in the newentity. His open declaration of theintent in important forums in his earlydays, made way for a great amount ofsecurity to the employees. It alsoconveyed that the leader is not comingwith a pre-conceived notion on people,and is open to work with the existingteam. It greatly enhanced the trust inthe leader's action and employeesreally rallied around when confrontedwith a difficult situation. In fact, whenone very good candidate was laterrecruited from the leader's previousorganisation, after the embargo period,there were hardly any commentspassed.

Transparency in interviewprocess: In order to usher in a greaterdegree of transparency, it may be agood idea to form a senior level neutralpanel to meet the candidate from theearlier organisation in the event of his/her clearing the functional levelinterviews. This could help drive morecandour to the process, and sincesenior leaders of the earlier time arealso involved, the decision may be seenas objective and fair.

Leader's role model behaviour:While we look at the root of this issue,we can also figure out that it is not justabout the few candidates the leaderhas chosen to hire from his previousorganisation. The worry is also aboutthe clout these new managers mayexert over the leader given their historyof working together in the past. Equally

HR MANAGEMENT


A dapting competencies to amature workforce is critical.These competencies, meaning,

adaptive behaviours, tend to reflecttheir experience. But obviously, whilean emphasis on performance andturnaround is good, the need toinvestigate additional aspects of howcompetencies in the context of matureand seasoned workforce is beingmonitored, assessed, measured,managed and put into professional useand deployed in business organisationsis even greater. There are severalunanswered questions, for example,what are the methods used to map

A challenge in team and systems learning in regard to matureworkforce is to bring out the different interpretations of thesame expectation, varying events, individual uniqueness andcreate an awareness of 'observable facts.

Staffing ForSeasoning

workforce do we use competencies?What type of organisations and at whatlevels are these assessments done, andto what end use do they deploy suchoutcomes? What HR processes aresupported by competencies? Why?What do HR managers, consultants andexperts think of the evolution of thecompetency movement and itsdevelopment in specific types ofindustries? What differences inpractices exist amongst manufacturing,services and consulting organisationsin the way they differ in competencyand assessment practices? How havethese organisations implementedcompetencies? What outcomes havethey obtained and thereby benefitedby its implementation?

Vocational inventories help careerbuilding and as a good counseling toolor for "breaking the ice/coachingsituations" around vocational interests.Occupations, like people, tend to beoriented toward a primary, secondaryand tertiary occupational type. Expertsbelieve that persons will feel mostcomfortable (most "adjusted") inoccupations that match theirpersonality type, but offer additionalinputs such as, interest does not equalability, aptitude, or temperament,interest inventories are subject to issuesof validity and reliability as any otherpsychometric test, or the fact thatInterest inventories are only one meansof assessing interests-expressed and

competencies for a seasonedworkforce? What application andhistorical reference frameworks arebeing used to deploy competencies?What simulations, techniques, tools,tests are deployed by organisations toperform customized assessments tounderstand specific and clearcontributions to be made by such afocused mature workforce.? What typesof organisations are usingcompetencies? What organisational sizedetermines usage and deployment ofcompetencies, assessment anddevelopment centres? What levels ofmanagement in the context of a mature

by Dr. Ganesh Shermon

T A L E N T M A N A G E M E N T


manifest interests should never bediscounted when choosing vocationalgoals. It is also believed that tested,expressed and manifest interests willtend to be similar among persons whoare vocationally mature and morevocationally adjusted. From acompetency and assessmentperspective, it is essential to haveinterest in making a good careerchoice-persons may not "fit" effectively(be well adjusted) to work they findboring or monotonous.

Alfred Adler speaks of change,"Unfortunate but true is the fact thatorganisations tend to cling to processes,strategic orientations, people issues,technology, systems and practices thatwere successful for them in theirformative years, but are now no longerappropriate, as things change andworkforce profile changes too. Theenvironment that created and nurturedmost of our older organisations wasbreathtakingly simple compared to thatwe now face. They emerged at a timewhen our population was growingrapidly and our economy successfullysupported by primary production.Under these conditions, an affluent andacquiescent public accepted theproducts and services they were given,industry was either highly protectedor tightly regulated and efficiency wassimply not demanded. In larger

of similar behaviours (especially whenthe different corporate culturesbrought very different reactions to thesame set of circumstances), but interms of a broad perception orunderstanding in all the companies thatcertain issues mattered. These issuesneed not be articulated at all times;indeed, it is a measure of their strengthin many cases that they are evidentbut not remarked upon 'That's simplythe way we are' was a frequentcomment from middle and juniormanagement. The perception, thespecial way of looking at things, is somuch a part of the company culturethat it is an automatic director ofeveryday behaviour. Before exploringwhat these common factors are, it is

organisations, tall hierarchicalorganisations developed in whichstrategy was determined at the top anddivided into tasks to be fed down asmanagement directives. In smallerorganisations strategy was either non-existent or resided only in the head ofthe chief executive officer".

Such a simplistic approach is nolonger appropriate because it ignoresthe real purpose of strategydevelopment. That is, to explain howobjectives will be achieved.Nevertheless, its influence remains andhas contributed to a failure to acquirereal skills in strategic management.Learning Culture is a crucial elementin the ability to maintain thesecharacteristics consistently. So muchso, in fact, that it is more comfortableto talk about the commonalitiesbetween the companies, not in terms

interesting to make some briefobservations on the set of companiesas a whole. One unexpectedobservation is that almost all are eitherfamily companies or stronglyinfluenced by a founder. Anotherobservation is the high proportion ofcompanies whose interests areconcentrated in mature industries suchas rubber, shoes, construction, shippingor bricks. In some cases, though theindustry as a whole is in decline, theparticular company stands out againstthe trend.

Organisations rely on therecollections of experienced managers-seasoned participants in the system.The ability to recognize patterns ofperformance, relate observed patternsto current situations, and take decisiveactions, is the larger part of the jobdescription for managers. Their ability

Culture plays a critical role in buildingup mechanisms for global performance.Organisations that have survived for

many years in a single location need considerableamount of unlearning to bring in a perspectivetowards diversity and sensitivity. Working theglobal route necessitates understanding theenvironment, ecology, the laws governing thebusiness, employees and the social milieu that thecompany would operate.

“




to recognize patterns is part of theknowledge base of the organisation.However, that learning capacity relieson a model of the real world in themanager's mind. Further, bottom upoperational planning allows them toreport any unforeseen challenges,negotiate changes in resources oraccountabilities to overcome them andensure that these challenges areconsidered during the next round ofstrategic planning. Similarly, at anindividual level, personal achievementgoals set during appraisal are checkedfor their congruence with strategy, aswell as their ability to serve their directclients. Jean-Louis Barsoux and CyrilBouquet, in their article, "How toOvercome a Power Deficit" in SMR2013, write, "Career counselors oftenadvise people to shore up weaknesses,but the secret to becomingindispensable is consolidatingstrengths. As PepsiCo Inc. CEO IndraNooyi said, "Anybody who wants to bea future leader should have a hippocket skill that everybody looks atand says X is the go-to person for thatskill. Unless you're really known forsomething and not just as a generalist,you don't stand out from the pack."The key question then becomes,"Which competencies will bestdistinguish me from my fellowexecutives?" Looking back on hiscareer, Roche's Hunziker attributed hiseffectiveness as a business partner, andnot just a CFO, to a previous careerchoice: "Relatively early in my careeras a finance manager, I was offered anExecutive Committee position. I turnedit down. I said to them, 'Do me a favorand put me in a sales and marketingposition - where I have to get moneyfrom customers, know products andhow they work.' From then on, I hadthe full acceptance of my colleagues,and when I returned to finance theyknew I respected them and theirpositions. I did not have to pretend."

Take a basic set of values, businessprinciples and systems and tailor themto the area in which it does business toachieve a high degree of culturaldiversity and understanding. Theseorganisations, by virtue of not havingthe steadying anchor of geographicallocation will have to have a deliverysystem that is highly sensitive to localcustomer needs. They must beperceived wherever it does business as

a respected member of the society anddemonstrate long-term commitment tothe welfare of the society. This is indirect contrast to the "use" orexploitation of "foreign" marketsreminiscent of economic colonization.Culture plays a critical role in buildingup mechanisms for global performance.Organisations that have survived formany years in a single location needconsiderable amount of unlearning tobring in a perspective towards diversityand sensitivity. Working the global routenecessitates understanding theenvironment, ecology, the lawsgoverning the business, employees andthe social milieu that the companywould operate. Organisations have tobe perceived to be good citizens of thenew country and should possess thelong-term interest of the environmentit is operating and gaining its benefits.What do we in turn give back should bea basic governing principle.

Individual functionaries will giveway to flexible teams organized aroundspecific jobs, assignments, and projects.These teams will have to be fullyempowered to deliver a cutting edge

to products, individuals and services.The traditional role of "controllers" inthe above hierarchy will have to giveway to "coaches", "facilitators", and the"strategic apex" who will add valuethrough coaching to the operationalcore, helping solve problems andtransferring learning apart fromconnecting the operational areas. Themost significant change needed will bein the direction-giving role to afacilitating role. In "Developing &Managing Organizations -That Learn",Steven Cavaleri and David Fearon state,"The marketplace is a complex networkof relationships and competitive

dynamics. The cause and effect ofactions taken by competitors is centralto the planning process which impactsvarious strategic factors moreimportantly organisation design issuesin relation to people structures. Arethey doing it in response to somethingthat we are doing? As experienceaccumulates, responses becomereliable and, in a sense, predictable foremployees, customers, suppliers, andcompetitors. This feedback idea iscentral to system dynamicsmethodology. But it is unlikely that afirm's competitors will participate informulating a model; so how are theyrepresented? Through observation wemay "reverse engineer" a set oftendencies of another firm and themarket. Simulation modeling allows theorganisation to test its assumptionsabout competitors. The model willsimulate performance that isrecognizable to other systemparticipants, skills, competencies,

capabilities, new work areas,diminishing or disappearing work roles,in this case, the redundancy planningteam. Combined with a searchinginventory of a firm's best skills, amodel helps illuminate where and whyan advantage can be obtained. Byexploring the model, it is possible togain insight into the competitiveconsequences of a strategy."

The new work organisation will alsorequire different skill sets. And,particular amongst these will be groupproblem solving, interpersonal skills,giving and reviewing feedback,communicating expectations, group


Here's how Google does HR. It has a unitcalled the human performance analyticsgroup, which takes data about the

performance of all of its employees and whatinterview questions were they asked, where wastheir office, how was that part of the organisation'sstructure, and so forth. Then it runs data analyticsto figure out what interview methods work bestand what career paths are the most successful.”

“

goal setting and review peerperformance appraisal. Apart fromthis, technical and administrative skillsspecific to the area of operation of theteams, such as dealing with other partsof the organisation, coordination andcommunication will also be important.Significant inputs on the "why" of thejob i.e. the logic and rationale for doinga particular activity and several otherjobs which have been considered amanagerial prerogative such asplanning, budgeting and control,costing, reporting and analysis willcreate employees of the Twenty FirstCentury. This will in effect mean thatthe so called traditional managerialfunctions which were earlierperformed away from the point ofcontact with the customer or theproduct will now be performed at thelevel where the product/services ismanufactured or delivered to thecustomer. At other levels in theorganisation, coaching and counsellingskills, team building, supporting andrewarding skills, facilitation andstrategic management skills willbecome crucial. Informationtechnology will provide the necessaryconnectivity between these teams andindividuals and provide business

critical information at their fingertipsfor rapid response.

Rik Kirkland, Jeremy Howard andAnthony Goldbloom in McKinseyQuarterly speak of implications fortalent and hiring, "It's important tomake sure that the organisation hasthe right skills. "Here's how Googledoes HR. It has a unit called the human

performance analytics group, whichtakes data about the performance ofall of its employees and what interviewquestions were they asked, where wastheir office, how was that part of theorganisation's structure, and so forth.Then it runs data analytics to figureout what interview methods work bestand what career paths are the mostsuccessful. One huge limitation that wesee with traditional Fortune 500companies-and maybe this seems likea facile example, but I think it's moreprofound than it seems at first glance-is that they have very rigid pay scales.And they're competing with Google,

which is willing to pay $5 million ayear to somebody who's really great atbuilding algorithms. The more rigid payscales at traditional companies don'tallow them to do that, and that'sirrational because the return oninvestment on a $5 million, incrediblycapable data scientist is huge. Thetraditional Fortune 500 companies are


Dr. Ganesh Shermon is a ManagingPartner for "RforC Talent ManagementSolutions" (North America) & earlierPartner, Country Head and GlobalSteercom (P & C) - KPMG LLP.


always saying they can't hire anyone.Well, one reason is they're not willingto pay what a great data scientist canbe paid elsewhere. Not that it's justabout money; the best data scientistsare also motivated by interestingproblems and, probably mostimportant, by the idea of working withother brilliant people. Machine learningand computers aren't terribly good atcreative thinking, so the idea that therewards of most jobs and people willbe based on their ability to thinkcreatively is probably right."

A challenge in team and systemslearning in regard to a matureworkforce is to bring out the differentinterpretations of the same expectation,varying events, individual uniqueness,and create an awareness of 'observablefacts. How people interpret a sharedsituation, and what they are attuned to,becomes increasingly problematic inlarge organisations, where sheer size,diversity and complexity make itincreasingly unlikely that people willhave a common experience from whichthey can develop commonunderstandings. What people notice andhow they interpret it relates to theirexpectations, motivations, actions, andfeedback. Developing a commonunderstanding of teams andorganisations of what is important, whatit means, and how different individualsimpact one another is part of theprocess of learning.


not to confront a person when thingsgo wrong, how many of have nottaken a stand, how many of us havebeen in the silence zone just to avoidargument?

Last week, my colleague messagedme at midnight and shared thechallenges faced by her whilemanaging work and personal life.When I spoke to her, I realised thatshe had so much pent up inside her,but had held back her tongue foryears. I recommended to her that shespeak up, be firm, share her concernand solve the problem. And to mysurprise, her answer was, "I don'twant to hurt anyone, I have acceptedmy roller-coaster life and I believe Ishould live this way." This for me wasa soul-crusher. In her book, Nice GirlsDon't Get the Corner Office, LoisP.Frankel writes that one of themistakes that women make at thework place is "holding their tongue."Women will avoid saying things thatshould be said in a legitimate manner.Holding your tongue only serves tomake you feel frustrated and appearless willing than you really are to speakup for what you believe in.

Event + response = OutcomeJack Canfield, in his book, The SuccessPrinciples has stated that it is not justwhat happens to us, its all about whatwe do about what happens to us. ForExample, the situation that was sharedby my colleague.Event: She is unable to manage workand personal life, owing to personal

How many of us have towithhold a different point ofview, how many have chosen

Whose TongueIs It Anyway!

BY Neha Fatehchandani

“"Speak up, because the day you don't speak up for

the things that matter to you will be the day your

freedom truly ends” - Unknown

concerns.Response: She chose to hold hertongue and not do anything about it.Outcome: She is frustrated within andis suffering silently.

Situation 2Event: She is unable to manage workand personal life, cause of personalconcerns.Response: She chose to be firm andspeak at home, set expectations solvesissues.Outcome: She is happy and ismanaging work and personal lifegracefully.

The root causeI have witnessed cases whereinwomen chose to be quiet even whenthey have been subject to harassmentat the workplace. I wonder what couldbe the root cause of this problem.This goes to our childhood, we havebeen born and bought up in anenvironment wherein we are notsupposed to speak and have beentaught to keep our mouth shut, as itis the safest option.Do not hold your tongue speak upfor what you believe in such as:1. When a person plays the blamegame, you may say "let's not get intothe blame game and focus on asolution on how we can fix this issue."2. During meetings: I get your point,however, my view is little differentand that is …3. To confront: It is disheartening tolearn that you spoke about me in sucha manner4. Agree to disagree: Share facts andfigures, tell this is what my research

says5. You may also say and then involvethe others to voice their opinion.6. You might be right at your place,and I am right at my place, let usarrive at an agree-ment that ismutually beneficial.

Passive, assertive or aggressive:Not speaking up is akin to beingpassive in communication. Beingaggressive is when you speak in a rudemanner, and being assertive is speakingfor what you believe in, in an aptway. This does not mean that youmust speak up at all times, neverholding yourself back. There aresituations wherein holding your tongueis the wisest thing you can do, andthere are situations wherein holdingyour tongue becomes the very reasonfor your frustration. Choose wisely,when to speak up and when to holdyour tongue. Not all battles are worthfighting, speak up when you havebeen impacted by a great deal. JohnLewis has rightly said, "You cannot beafraid to speak up and speak out forwhat you believe. You have to havecourage, raw courage."

Neha Fatehchandani is the Founderand Lead Trainer at Snowball. Snowballprovides behavioural training toemployees. Neha has been awarded as"Top 100 training and development leadersin India" by World HRD Congress and canbe reached at [email protected].

WOMEN @ WORK


Change is constant as well asessential for the survival andgrowth of an organisation. Asa discipline, Change

Management has existed for decades;however, as organisations embrace theVUCA world, the significance ofpurposeful and successful ChangeManagement is being felt all the more.Continuous innovation resulting in aconstantly evolving businessenvironment has revolutionized thebusiness, and the outcome is an everincreasing need for change. Effectivechange management is an investmentand also a contribution towardsorganisational development. The needfor organisational change could arisefrom anything - right sizing,development or shift in technology,processes, operations, and majorpartnerships.

An endeavour to bridgethe gapChange Management is an endeavourto bridge the gap between the technicalaspects of a new project alongside thesocial aspect of the business duringthe transitioning of individuals, teams,and organisations to a desired futurestate. When an organisation proposesa major change, it is always bound tobe viewed as exciting to some people,while threatening the others. And, thisis perhaps the biggest challenge tomanaging change. An ideal changemanagement project should beintroduced in a phased mannerensuring that all stakeholdersunderstand how this change will affectthem, have the support to make thischange happen, and possess the tools

Continuous innovation resulting in a constantly evolving business environmenthas revolutionized the business, and the outcome is an ever increasing need forchange. Effective change management is an investment and also a contributiontowards organisational development.

EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT

To Bring AboutThe Necessary Change

network of business partners. Amwayhas developed a global changemanagement model which includesdrawing out stakeholders in the orderof the most critical to least critical tothe change. People associated to theorganisation could include consumers,community, sponsors, partners andemployees. While consumers andsponsors are indirectly affected bychange, the business partners andemployees are directly impacted.

The most critical stakeholders arethe employees, some of whom maybedirectly impacted, and some may notbe. It is critical that they are on boardfor change management. As per theglobal change management model, weclassify the impacted groups of peopleinto four broad categories:a. Advocates: Who have the ability toinfluence others in the organisation

to overcome those challenges that mayarise with little frustration. Cultivatingacceptance and support are essentialcomponents for the successfulmanagement of almost all changesnearly within the business.

Thoughtful steps leading to allround success is highly essential tochange management viz. satisfiedemployees, happy customers, willingsponsors and investors, and a strong

by Shantanu Das

“The secret to change

is to focus all of your

energy, not on fighting

the old, but on building

the new”– Socrates


and are willing and able to drivepositive change;b. Influencers with concern: Whohave questions or concerns and havethe ability to influence others - up,down or across the organisation;c. People with concern: Who mayhave questions or concerns about thechange, or do not support the change;and,d. Listening Posts: Who are wellconnected and can provide a reviewof the reaction to change

The next most critical stakeholdersare the business partners, includingsupply chain partners, as they help indriving sales and are representativesof the organisation. The consumers ofan organisation are indirectly affected.The results of the revision affectconsumer behaviour towards theorganisation, and hence, profits.Following consumers are sponsors,who hold active interest in the progressof the organisation, and hold the powerof indirectly approving or disapprovinga decision. Once change managementhas been implemented, the concernedemployees go through the ChangeManagement Model including the

do not successfully manage theemotional aspect of change related tomajor projects, then most likely, avariety of complications can ariseincluding lack of acceptance,increased employee resistance, risingfrustration, lack of clear path toachieve and sustain desired goals,reduced productivity during thechange period, delay in achievingbusiness continuity and greaterreliance on the assigned team todeliver the desired benefits rather thanthe employees themselves.

A critical success factorOrganisational Change Management isa critical success factor fororganisations with the followingconditions:� Competing priorities, goals,

objectives and values� When people, process, technology

'change curve' - where thestakeholders adjust to the amendmentsmade in the system and benefitthemselves from the newly formulatedroles and positions.

4 stages of the change curveThe most practical ChangeManagement model reduces the timelost and productivity drop betweenthe four stages of the 'Change Curve'- Denial, Resistance, Exploration &Commitment. Structures, roles, andresponsibilities must be establishedthrough every level of the organisationin order to support change and tokeep the stakeholders engaged. If we

or policy changes are implemented� Transitioning from a region based

organisation to a global integratedorganisation or from a function orregion-based organisation to aprocess-based organisation

� Changing the way people workand how they carry out their job

� When People have difficulty inunderstanding why the change hasbeen introduced

� When impacted stakeholdergroups have little experience of thenew technology or work platform

� When the cost justification andbenefits are not easilycommunicated at all the levels of

EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT

An ideal change management projectshould be introduced in a phasedmanner ensuring that all stakeholders

understand how this change will affect them,have the support to make this change happen,and possess the tools to overcome thosechallenges that may arise with little frustration.Cultivating acceptance and support areessential components for the successfulmanagement of almost all changes within thebusiness.”

“


the organisationThe success of a change managementpractice depends on both delivery andadoption. Change Management is nowan evolved discipline. Whilecommunication and training play a bigrole, Change Management embodiescontinuous engagement, onboarding,acceptance and adoption. Whileprojects may be delivered as requiredbut may fail to deliver the results if thepeople who are to run them have notunderstood, accepted and embracedthe changed work scenarios.

Reducing Adoption RisksHow can we reduce the adoption risksassociated with large scaleTransformation Initiatives and the


emotional side of change?� Engagement and communication

begins at the beginning of theprogramme and continues forseveral months after they have beeninstigated.

� Comprehensive strategy on how toengage and manage changereadiness for all impactedstakeholders - no matter how smallthe impact scope is

� Focus on messages to explain whywe are changing and how thischange impacts users

� Leverage leaders to communicate"What's in it for me?"

� Continuously measure adoption,buy-in, effectiveness throughoutthe duration of the project

Shantanu Das is CHRO, Amway India,carries immense faith in the eternal beliefthat every experience in life; whether goodor bad, is a part of one's learning curveand feels that this has been the primereason for the success that he hasmanaged to achieve thus far in his career.

� Engage employees at all levelwithin the region and providetactical readiness

Like most companies, Amway has alsoembraced Change Management.During its current transition fromOrganisation Restructure to ERPDeployments to various other large andmedium sized projects, Amway hasidentified, trained change consultantsacross functions and geographies toensure that all transformation areasinvolve people engagement andreadiness from the outset. The role ofHR is also defined to effectively andefficiently help employees accept thischange. Amway's change managementframework consists of 4 defined stages- Discover, Plan, Deliver & Sustain/Support.

Successful organisationsunderstand that doing things the sameway will produce the same results andthat sometimes, changing things isneeded to take the organisation to thenext level. Charles Darwin has rightlysaid "It's not the strongest whosurvives, nor the most intelligent, butthe one most responsive to change."At the end of the day, Darwin's theoryholds true not only in the evolutionprocess, but also in the case oforganisations.

EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT


T he world of work as we know itis being radically re-shaped bythe greater forces. New

technologies, increased globalization,and increased employee expectationshave created a pressing need for agilityin a tumultuous business environment,creating a huge pressure on leadersfor performance. In turn, leadersstruggling to deliver results in an everchanging, unpredictable environmentattempt to manage this turbulence anda safe passage for all by pressurizingteams to deliver unrealistic goals in adifficult, ambiguous environment attimes. In a zeal to deliver, it is notuncommon for leaders to overmagnify performance gaps and

An appreciative mindset is not about being positive, it is the ability thatcorresponds to intentional and generative acts. Applying appreciative inquiryis not about posting a label of good on something that is not good or aboutunreasonably calling a negative situation positive.

An Evaluation OfStrength-Based Change

is' and constantly examining what iswrong within the organisation. It isassumed that something is broken,fragmented and needs to be fixed. It iserroneously believed that if theproblems are fixed, the desired futurewill automatically unfold." - DavidCooperrider.

Personal and organisationalchangeAppreciative Inquiry is an approach topersonal and organisational changebased on the work of David Cooperiderand Suresh Srivastav of Case WesternReserve University. The approach ofappreciative inquiry challenges thetraditional problem-solving processwithin organisations that is deficit-based, leading to energy depletionthrough gap analysis and blame games,that at best generate solutions torestore the original performance level.

by Dr. Sujaya Banerjee

“All leadership is

appreciative leadership.

It's the capacity to see

the best in the world

around us, in our

colleagues, and in the

groups we are trying to

lead.”– David Cooperrider

failures, demotivating teams anddepleting energies, setting them off ona downward spiral of despair andhopelessness.

Increasingly, the experience of thepast is no longer useful for predictingsolutions for the future, and optimismand positive energies have become thefirst casualties of this new businessenvironment. Relationships, trust,collaboration, resource sharing, andrecognition all take a back seat as theorganisation struggles to stay afloat,and leaders who are the Fulcrum ofEngagement experience deep fatigueand non-gratification for their efforts.

"The problem-solving approachdirects attention to 'the worst of what

LEADERSHIP


LEADERSHIP

Therefore, what we choose to focuson, grows- what we choose to studycan create our world. As Leaders, dowe choose to focus on results despiteefforts? Do we choose to focus onmistakes? Do we choose to focus onwhat is absent or not there- or do wechoose to focus on strengths,achievements, best practices, and indifficult times, stories of Heroism,Employeeship and Engagement?Whatever we choose to focus on andappreciate, as Leaders will grow withinorganisations.(4) The Anticipatory Principle andLeadership: Human systems move inthe direction of images of the futurewe create. The more positive andhopeful the images of the future are,the more positive the present-dayaction will be. Einstein has stated, "Ifthe mind can see it, the body will obeyit!" This principle is most powerful forLeaders grappling with the complexitiesof an unrelenting business environmentthat demands the onerous task ofdefining the course of action andmotivating teams to work in newdirections. It is, in fact, during times ofambiguity that the Leader's ability tovisualize how a new idea will work orhow opportunities will unfold in thefuture, is put to test. The AnticipatoryPrinciple is in full power even definingthe outcomes of everyday decisionsenabling the Leader to create a climate

(1) The Constructionist Principle andLeadership: This places humancommunication and language at thecentre of human organisations andchange. This principle acknowledgesthe fact that meaning is made inconversation and reality is created incommunication. Leaders play the allimportant role of connecting the dotsand interpreting reality for otherswithin the organisation. Leaders carrythe responsibility of defining the worldfor those around them. Therefore,words, metaphors, and the languageused by the leaders go beyonddescriptions of reality. In fact, they helpcreate the worlds for their teams withtheir words. Therefore, the questionsLeaders must ask themselves are -What are we putting out into the socialdiscourse within organisations? Whenthings go wrong, are we the beaconsof Hopelessness instead of theharbingers of Hope? Especially in timesof adversity challenge, confusions andinsecurity are we able to maintain aclimate for positive action?(2) The Simultaneity Principle andLeadership: That the approach ornature of inquiry is in itself the changeand that inquiry does not precedechange. Therefore, Leaders must becareful of the direction they allow theinquiry to take by being careful aboutthe first questions asked. The diagnosisof the problem by itself sets off the

Appreciative Inquiry is based on theassumption that questions and dialoguesabout strengths, successes, values, hopes

and dreams are transformational. It suggests thatorganisational change is in fact a relationalprocess of inquiry grounded in affirmation andappreciation. The Appreciative Inquiry approachis based on certain principles.”

“

Dr. Sujaya Banerjee is the CEO ofCapstone People Consulting, which offersAdvisory and Capability Building servicesin the areas of Leadership, WomenLeadership, Technology Adoption andLearning. She is the Founder of the L&ODRoundtable and the Women LeadershipForum of Asia. Sujaya can be reached [email protected].

Instead, appreciative inquiry is astrength-based approach to problemsolving that enables the organisationto raise the bar on performance byreleasing positive generative energiesand drawing from the life-giving forcesof organisations i.e. forces that areoperative when the organisation isworking at its best. Appreciative Inquiryis based on the assumption thatquestions and dialogues aboutstrengths, successes, values, hopes anddreams are transformational. Itsuggests that organisational change isin fact a relational process of inquirygrounded in affirmation andappreciation. The Appreciative Inquiryapproach is based on certain principles.The following four are most relevant,particularly in the context of suggestingwhat Leaders could do to manageteams and retaining positive energiesduring difficult times.

direction of thought and action, andtherefore, leaders must conduct theinquiry with due care and responsibilityby understanding the impact ofdefining the problem ahead ofgenerating solutions.(3) The Poetic Principle andLeadership: Organisations are likepoetry- like open books with greatsources of learning and study.

for action by creating positiveimageries of the future.The power of positive psychologyAppreciative Inquiry is rooted in thepower of Positive Psychology. Fromthe Placebo Effect that makes thepower of belief triumph reality to thePygmalion effect that enables peopleto rise to their expectations, bothpositive and negative. Appreciative


LEADERSHIP

Inquiry is a powerful philosophy forLeaders to get people to do best whatthey do best to create performancefrom Self Belief and develop realLeaders who can drive change andsolve problems with joy. AppreciativeInquiry is a powerhouse of a beliefsystem because it celebratesorganisations as interconnectedhuman systems all waiting to becomeexpansive in their strengths andcollective life-giving forces.Appreciative Inquiry is an approachthat can make workplaces inclusivewhere problems are solved andchange is managed with joy, releasinggenerative forces that raise the baron organisational performance.

Leadership that cannot lookbeyond its nose, managing fromquarter to quarter, identifying mistakes,placing blames and penalties with afervour for driving performances mustcease reflecting- Are our actionsconstantly unappreciative of our talent?How do we generally open meetings?By stating disappointments and gaps?How do we react to presentations ofnew ideas? What do we say duringBusiness Review meetings? Is ourfocus deficit-oriented, constantlyfocused on what has not beendelivered? Not happened? Complainsor feedback from customers? Someorganisations have created toxiccultures with Leaders being rewardedfor constantly badgering and beatingup teams for performance. Suchteams only get beaten down eventuallyinto non-performance.

rooted in positive psychology andastutely defined to understand the 'real'levers for driving sustainable change.

Action towards a betterfutureAn Appreciative mindset is not justabout being positive, it is the abilitythat corresponds to intentional andgenerative acts. Applying AppreciativeInquiry is not about posting a label ofgood on something that is not good orabout unreasonably calling a negativesituation positive. The Appreciativeapproach does not mean pretending

Appreciative Inquiry is rooted in thepower of Positive Psychology. From thePlacebo Effect that makes the power of

belief triumph reality to the Pygmalion effect thatenables people to rise to their expectations, bothpositive and negative. Appreciative Inquiry is apowerful philosophy for Leaders to get people todo best what they do best to create performancefrom Self Belief and develop real Leaders who candrive change and solve problems with joy.”

“

References� 'Appreciative Coaching: A Positive

Process for Change' by Orem, Binkertand Clancy

� Appreciative Inquiry - A PositiveRevolution in Change by DavidCooperrider and Diana Whitney

� AI in a nutshell: Innovation PartnersInternational

Appreciative Inquiry may primafacie appear poetic, not left-brainedenough to drive real change or resolvereal and complex organisationalproblems. Practitioners will howevervouch for its wisdom, its deceptivelysimple philosophies that are in fact

people open their minds to seeing newconnections between ideas, people orsituations. The rapid spread of changethat leaders are experiencing today,requires us to continually search fornew and innovative solutions to thecomplex problems we encounter.Experience has shown us that theability to reframe, redefine and shiftmindsets is a valuable skill forManagers, leaders and individualcontributors.

Appreciative Inquiry principlesprovide Leaders a compass to helpachieve new and innovative solutionsthrough people that are sustainable.Leaders who believe in and practiceAppreciative Inquiry principles candrive performance and change throughthe positive power of palpable life-giving forces that constantly helppeople deliver to the business whiledriving positive Change.

that terrible things have not happenedto people. Instead, it allows painfulmemories to be viewed as history- notas the present and allow the Group touse the opportunity to create adifferent action for a better future. Byframing reality in a new positive way,


I

The Rise OfThe Robots

t is hard to get our daily dosage ofnews without seeing robots gettinga mention, who appear to bemaking inroads into every human

GAUTAM BRAHMA

activity. Human resource professionalshave to prepare for this new order onthree counts.� Dealing with the fact that people are

likely to be replaced by robots.� Dealing with issues faced by people

when working alongside robots.� Dealing with the possibility of robots

running HR.A 2014 report from Deloitte, UK,

had predicted that 35% of all jobs inthat country carried a high risk of beingautomated in two decades. This is ascary number. The prescription offeredby the authors for displaced workerswas to train them to do more customer-facing jobs, or use them to generatenewer ideas for business. There are twoobvious challenges for HR here. One,there may not those many new roles ofthe type envisaged, and, two, peoplehired and trained for one set of skillsmay not be amenable to training in analtogether different bundle of skills. Thesecond of these challenges iscompounded by another finding in thesame report that low income jobscomprise a disproportionate share ofthe jobs expected to be lost. Theprospect of training people with low-grade qualifications so that they canoccupy higher-paying skilled jobs thatare safe from automation is indeeddaunting.

A year later, Deloitte followed upwith another report for UK that seemedto strike a positive note. It claimed thatwhile 800,000 jobs had indeed been lost

magazine listed twenty jobs that are atrisk for replacement, and it made forsobering reading. The list includedbricklayers, dairy farmers andmanufacturing workers of all types, butalso included journalists, insuranceunderwriters and financial analysts.How much technology tracking andplanning can an HR manager do whenrobots are readying themselves toperform quintessential human tasks likewriting fiction! 'True Love' by AlexanderProkopovich, is a short story written bya robot. The author's name along thetitle is that of the person who owns themachine. Robots are not expected toreplace all employees in any company,and this means that the remainingworkforce has to learn to work withrobots instead of human peers. This cancause a number of difficult situations inthe workplace ranging from attribution

to automation over fifteen years, threeand a half million jobs with higher skillshad been created over the same period.This looks reassuring until we realise thatthe new jobs are not necessarily createdin those very organisations where jobswere lost. Automation creates jobs forthose who have to build, deploy, andmaintain automation solutions, but thatdoes not help the HR manager, who hasto manage dislocation and discontentin an organisation which may be onlylosing jobs to automation.

One implication of this is that HRmanagers will have to get better attracking development and deploymentof disruptive technology so that they cananticipate and plan for systematicreskilling and staff reduction. This isanother daunting task, as the sweep oftechnology across industries isbreathtaking. Last year, Fast Company

A POINT OF VIEW


of blame ("the machine did it"), anxiety ("I cannot match themachine"), to outright fear ("the machine is going to knock medown").

Robot designers are overcoming some of these issuesthrough intelligent design. Last year, the Economist reportedthe emergence of 'cobots'. These are collaborative robots thatwork alongside factory workers to assist them in their work.Many of them have extensive sensors, to avoid unintendedphysical contact, and are built with softer surfaces, to minimizeimpact if contact does happen. Some, like the ones fromRethink Robotics watch the human colleague for non-verbalcues to anticipate requirements. If the human looks in thedirection of a part that he/she wants, or stretches his/herhand towards an object he/she wants to pick, the cobot willanticipate the request and move to do the needful. Many ofthese cobots also have a screen that displays their 'emotions',using emoji-like expressions. Deploying the right kind of cobotsis not something the HR manager can do on her own, but thisis certainly within her circle of influence.

Any talk of robots actually replacing HR staff createsanxiety, but is difficult to avoid. By now, we have come torealize the power of chatbots (like Siri from Apple) to answercomplex queries. Nobody doubts their ability in replacinghuman assistants who answer employee queries regardingpolicies and service requests among other things. HR is alreadyusing IT applications intensively, and it is easy to see roboticprocess automation (RPA) eliminating the human elementalmost completely from many of them. For instance, in anorganisation using enterprise-wide performance assessmentapplications, bots can train staff, remind them to do their bit(e.g. enter goals, achievements etc), check to see if content hasbeen created, compile status, and generate reports. Bots caneven check the quality of content in the text fields to confirmadequacy. Remember, Gmail carries out certain amount ofcontent analysis to decide whether to screen out spamaltogether or put it in the spam folder. The more one thinksabout it, the more likely it seems that HR is not safe fromrobots!Last year, a survey by CareerBuilder showed that 55% of HRmanagers expect AI to play a significant part in the HR functionin the next five years. 7% expect robots to take over the HRfunction completely. Seven is a small number, but it is definitelybigger than zero. And, remember that the respondents werelooking only five years ahead!

GAUTAM BRAHMA is a management consultant. He can be

reached at [email protected]

References

1. "Bet You Did Not See This Coming"; Michael Grothaus: Fast

Company; Jan 19, 2017

2. "Agiletown: The relentless march of Technology.."; Deloitte;

November 2014

3. "From Brawn to Brains"; Deloitte; November 2015

4. "Rise of the Machines"; Jerry Roper; HR Magazine UK; Jan 20,

2016

5. "For Robots To Work With People, They Must Understand

People"; Economist; August 17, 2017

6. "Can Robots Replace The Human Element of HR?"; HR Editor;

HR Asia; June 1, 2017

A POINT OF VIEW


S

Women employees always find themselves to beleft in the lurch- be it workplace inclusivity, payparity or leadership positions, women are alwaysseen eating the humble pie. Though, initiativestowards gender diversity by organisations such asGoogle and Facebook have made the others followsuit, an Uber like incident tend to reflect the wrongsentiment about existing corporate practices. Whileevery woman employee may not completely rightwhen she claims wrongdoings by her employer, itis completely true that many organisations need toovercome their patriarchal mindset.

BY Dr. Nina Jacob

A Curious Case Of

WorkplaceInclusivity

a driven, competent manager in BajajConfabulation, one of the leadingcompanies in the country. She is a MBAfrom a well-known institute and hasearned the reputation as a person whodelivers results. And yet, she is on thelookout for the ideal work place and hadto quit several jobs since she haddeveloped the feeling that she was at adisadvantage as a woman employee.

She began to recollect her first job asa management trainee with a Tata Groupcompany. She was pleased as a punchwhen she had joined, and had evenworked long hours to earn her spurs.Everything was going about verysmoothly for her until Abhay came onboard. Abhay was older to her, but wasotherwise comparable in terms ofqualifications and experience. Salarieswere deemed as confidential informationin her company. A mere Rs. 20,000/- in2010, Deepika knew that her salary wasnothing to write home about. She lovedher work in spite of Abhay, who alwaysbehaved in a condescending manner withher. He sat at a desk near her and oftenreferred to her as "my secretary," andwould very quickly add, "just joking."

One day, at 6 in the evening, shefound that she was the only one in heroffice seated at the work station. She

CASE STUDY

eated in her office, Deepika was ina state of predicament and wascontemplating if she should leaveher present job. Deepika Kumari is


CASE STUDY

knew that Abhay had left his pay slipinside a book on his desk. Even thoughshe was cognizant of the fact that heract was unethical, she went to Abhay'sdesk and took out his pay slip from thebook. She almost dropped the pay slipin a shock as soon as she saw it. Abhaywas drawing a salary of Rs. 25,000/- permonth! How could that be the casewhen both of them were managementtrainees? The only explanation shecould think of was that she was femaleand therefore, on that account lessvalued by her employer. Deepikastarted getting disenchanted with hercompany pretty rapidly, and after eightmonths since she had joined, she quither job, and began working for BharatSteel, a government organisation as afull-fledged officer on a salary of Rs.25,000/- per month. She felt this wasan upward move, even though herappointment was on an ad hoc basis.She managed to remain with thisorganisation for a year and fivemonths. Even here, she found her workdeeply satisfying and made quite animpact as an earnest, energetic officerwho got things done. However, to herdismay she found that Bharat Steel waslocated in a back of beyond place, in atownship that comprised of only theemployees of Bharat Steel. This was afar cry from Mumbai where she hadlived, while working for the Tatacompany. Being the only female officer,she was something of an oddity. Hercolleagues avoided socializing with herand their wives would constantly makesnide remarks about her single status.She found solace from all her worriesby burying herself in work.

One day, Deepika found that hersalary, which had been increased to Rs.30,000/- after a service period of acertain duration, had suddenly regressedto Rs. 27,500/-. Upon enquiry, she foundthat Bharat Steel had been issued adirective by the HRD Ministry that thead hoc appointments need to beregularized. In the process ofregularizing her appointment, Deepikawas retained as a consultant and wastherefore being paid a consultant'ssalary of Rs. 27,500/- per month.Deepika interpreted this as an indicatorfor her to move on. She quit her jobwith Bharat Steel and joined an up-and-coming private organisation calledBajaj Confabulation. She was only oneof the two female managers in that

organisation. The other femalemanager was married to a seniormanager, who also acted as his wife'smentor.

While at Bharat Steel, Deepika reada story about Sony, which revealed anaccount of the recent programme bythe organisation with the intent ofadvancing and championing femaleemployees. She wished she could workfor Sony. When she had triednetworking with her colleagues, she gotthe sense that her efforts were notviewed favourably. One of hercolleagues even seemed to think thatshe was flirting with him. Deepika wasalso resentful over the fact that her bossnever complimented her at groupmeetings. On the other hand, he wasalways quick to recognize thecontribution of her male counterparts.She guessed that her boss feltuncomfortable appreciating herprofessionally, even in public. He hadhowever, not shied away from tickingher off in front of her colleagues once.

Then there was another irritant inthe person of Jay Harish. Only a clerk,he had rightly perceived that Deepikahad no friends at Bajaj Confabulationto advocate for her. Jay Harishprepared the roster assigning managerswho had to work on Sundays. The worsttime to work on a Sunday was in thelate afternoon. At this time, thecafeteria was closed and there wasabsolutely no other employee in theoffice. The preparation of the rosterwas actually the responsibility of JayHarish's boss, Rajeev Singh, a manager.Rajeev Singh had delegated thisresponsibility to Jay Harish, althoughthis was completely improper. And, JayHarish would always assign the Sundayafternoon slot to Deepika. Deepika feltthat if she complained about this, shewould be seen as a whiner, who couldnot carry her share of the workload.So, she endured the unfair treatment.It was during one such Sundayafternoon, when Deepika wasruminating over her work life, shereceived a phone call from Mohan, hercolleague. "Hi Deepika," he said, "I amhappy to inform you that from the firstof next month, I will be an AssistantVice-President. I will continue toreceive the same salary for some moretime, but I will be known as AssistantVice-President." Deepika congratulatedMohan politely and on the pretext that

she was suffering from a headachedisconnected the call. She was notcompletely lying since she could feelher head beginning to spin. Deepikaand Mohan had been working at thesame level all this time, and he receivedthe same salary as her. He had workedat Bajaj Confabulation for seven years,six years longer than she had. But hehad received his MBA as a student ofa Distance Learning programmeoffered by an obscure institution, whileshe had graduated from a premierinstitute. Tears swelled from her eyessince she was keen to be an AssistantVice-President. Her very identity wasbound to her career, and here she was,getting excluded from the fast trackpathway. After eight months with BajajConfabulation, Deepika was wonderingwhether this was the time for her tomove on. She was thinking that sheshould perhaps be working as amember of the faculty in an MBAinstitute where it was likely for her tofind more female employees.

Dr. Nina Jacob is the Professor forOrganisational Behaviour and HumanResource Management at the Institute ofFinance and International Management.She has about 23 years of post doctoralexperience and has held posts such asDirector at Cardiff Programme, UniversalBusiness School and Co-Chair,International Conference on OrganisationDevelopment, IMT, Ghaziabad. She holdsMaster in Arts (Economics) degree fromBombay University and a Master's degreein Public Management from CarletonUniversity, Ottawa, Canada. She receivedher Doctorate in Philosophy from GujaratUniversity.


AnalysisBy Rohit Hasteer

T here have been umpteenoccasions wherein we havewitnessed people with higher

EQ becoming consistently successfulthan those with higher IQ. Yet, we seemost of the educational institutionsfocusing on IQ, and, we continue tosee people struggling when the goinggets tough. The melancholic realitythat is prevalent in most organisationsis the lack of effort to offer the rightkind of environment for women toflourish. Issues faced by Deepika, beit typecasting or passing loosecomments, being singled out, orgetting partial treatment are bigchallenges before organisations thatare crying for solutions. We all knowintuitively that Diversity initiatives aremorally right, but realisticallyspeaking, businesses are currentlydoing what is best for the bottom line.We need a collective push towardsrecognizing the need for a healthy mixof men and women. It has beenproven that women are emotionallystronger than men and possess highempathy, giving them an edge overmen for managing teams effectively.Women are also better at multi-taskingwhich makes them a great asset instart-ups or companies requiringagility and the ability to multi-task.Having said so, Deepika seems to bein a victim mode in every organisationwhenever confronted with a challenge.

Instead of internalizing on what shecould do differently, she chose toexternalize every issue on either hercolleagues or on the organisation. Itis important to look at this caseobjectively and from a 360-degreeview.

Her constant comparison withcolleagues and 'my idea of fairness'became the biggest roadblock in hersuccess. It was completely unethicalfor her to look into Abhay's salaryslip, even if it was kept in the open bymistake or otherwise. Compensationis a factor of various components, andDeepika's conclusion that Abhay'scompensation was more than her,because she was a woman is not onlyunfair, but also immature. She couldnot even talk about this to themanagement because she would havehad to explain how she was aware ofAbhay's compensation. Hence, shetook the easy way out by seeking achange. Her dislikes to Abhay'scomments like "secretary" andconstant poking would have been anadded fuel to fire. However, can thisbe a good reason to change the job?Definitely not. She experienced asimilar challenge at Bharat Steel wherethe change in government regulationsreduced her compensation by INR2,500. This was her trigger to look forthe next job, pegs an importantaspect. The moment the going getstough, her first instinct is to look fora job change. And, this is where EQcomes into the picture. There willnever be a perfect job. One has towork towards making one, and thisseems to be missing in Deepika's

approach.Her movement back to the private

sector did not work well either. Shewas constantly subjected to lewdcomments and was treated at work inan unfair manner. What happened atBajaj Confabulation was reallyunfortunate, however, this could havebeen managed by a simple, directconversation with Jay on her shift.Alternatively, she could have involvedher manager in the matter to solvethe issue. Deepika's constant inabilityto talk about her concerns can givean impression that she did not haveany issues with Sunday shifts. A changeof mindset takes time, and is more aprocess of evolution than a strikingevent. Deepika needs to play the roleof a catalyst and be a flag bearer ofthis change. Sony, her dreamorganisation would also have someother challenge and considering herapproach to issues, she would havesought some other organisation!

Rohit Hasteer is the Group CHRO forHousing.com, PropTiger.com andMakaan.com. He has an experience ofmore than 20 years in the domain onCompensation Benefits, TalentAcquisition and Talent Management,Training & Development. He has workedwith companies like CITIBANK,MakeMyTrip, Aviva Life Insurance and UTWorldWide. He takes keen interest inbuilding Organisation culture and PeopleDevelopment. He is an MBA from IMT,Ghaziabad.

CASE STUDY


In the present day businessenvironment, women are evidentlycreating their own path to move

forward, and are also provingthemselves competent to manleadership positions. In the givenscenario, Deepika Kumari confrontstribulations at the work place in somevery renowned organisations. Suchincidents function to create a cloudover the status of women professionalsin the corporate world. Deepika, whoholds a MBA degree from a reputedinstitute had proved her competencyin delivering results as per the alignedobjectives of Bajaj Confabulation. Whileworking as a management trainee inthe Tata Company, everything seemedfine for her until she got hold of hermale colleague's salary slip, and shefelt that the company is paying herless owing to her gender and decidedto move elsewhere. This was becauseshe had developed a strong feeling thatthe management is gender biased whenit comes to remuneration. A healthyatmosphere is the pre-requisite of anorganisation, and no one should beauthorized to discriminate on the basisof gender, caste, colour, and she being

referred to as "my secretary " byAbhay was completely against the veryethos of gender diversity.

Though Deepika was satisfied withher job in Bharat Steel, her malecolleagues were avoiding her because

of her single status, and their wiveshad even resorted to make spitefulremarks. Though she had managed toovercome this situation, theGovernment's decision to regulariseher appointment and thereby reducingher salary made her believe that thiswas a sign for her to move on fromthe job. When Deepika joined BajajConfabulation, there were only twowomen managers viz. herself andanother lady who incidentally was thewife of the senior manager in the samecompany. Deepika observed that herboss was hesitant in appreciating herpublicly even at a professional level. Ittherefore became easy for Jay Harish,the clerk, to assign her Sunday dutiesin the roster, a day when the officecafeteria was closed and almost allemployees enjoyed a weekend, sincehe was confident that no one wouldtake Deepika's side. The presentbusiness scenario demanded a mindsetchange to stem out the gender biassyndrome. Policy procedural practicesand culture should not be favourableto someone on the basis of his/hergender, but must be over capabilitiesand proficiencies. And policies shouldnot be created to discredit femaleemployees.

The collective experience in allthese organisations made her to makeup her mind to join an academic

institution since she would find morewomen colleagues. There are severalareas that are yet to be addressedwhen it comes to female employees,and the onus is on the managementto lay a concrete line for the next

Analysis By P K Tripathi

Pramod Tripathi is the Asstt. GeneralManager-HR, Bajaj Energy Limited andis associated with Bajaj Group since 2011.He carries a diverse experience of morethan 18 yrs.in entities such as Aditya BirlaGroup, Jaypee Group, Visaka GroupSahara India etc. He can be reached [email protected]

streak of women to navigateefficiently. Issues such as paydiscrimination based on gender, aningrained gender bias, ego conflicts,corporal and psychosomaticexploitation, and irregularity in worklife will persist to bother womenprofessionals unless positive andeffectual actions are taken byCompanies. In order to retain femaleemployees, the Management shouldtake the initiative to see that theindispensable requirements for femaleworkforce are fulfilled. The currentbusiness leaders have been unable tofind an adequate support system inthis male dominated world of businessto help women contribute anddemonstrate their talent and abilities.The current talent pool has compelledthe male professional to understandthe workplace veracity, since womenprofessionals are proving their talent,and bringing home results andproductivity. The women professionalsof today decide their own destiny andtheir pace of struggle. The femaleleaders signify variety of role with aunique blend of business skills andthe leaders of the Industry shouldpropagate the achievements ofwomen professionals with a sense ofpride.

CASE STUDY


C

Corporations the world over have begun to recognizeHeartfulness Meditation practices function as a vital 'enabling'tool for holistic development and well-being for workingprofessionals and leaders. Heartfulness Meditation practiceshave touched the 'hearts' of over 30,000 professionals in1000+ companies across the world.

Heartfulness@ Corporations

tool as they navigate through ademanding business environment. Forinstance, global statistics reveal that43% of the corporations in the US are

HR PRACTICE

orporations, leaders andprofessionals across the worldare turning towards meditationas a vital 'self-management'

BY Kamlesh D. Patel

expected to offer meditationprogrammes in some form by the endof 2017 to their employees. CEOs ofcorporations like Monsanto and manyothers have converted some portionsof their offices into meditation rooms.A sustained weekly meditationprogramme in the campuses is

tantamount to produce empathy andcompassion which translate to deeplistening, mutual learning, joyfulcollaboration, unparalleledproductivity, reduction in stress,improvement in retention and overallintegrated employee experience. Thisis beside the benefits it would have on


HR PRACTICE

customer retention and satisfactiondue to improved employee morale andattitude.

Numerous corporations globallyand within India are adopting'Heartfulness' meditation, as a simpleand effective 'heart-centred' practiceof meditation for their leaders andworking professionals. This system ofmeditation is practiced by over amillion practitioners, across 130countries, with the help of 8000 trainersand thousands of volunteers. The dailypractice of Heartfulness Meditation canbe well-integrated with a busyprofessional life and can accumulateinto a colossal advantage for individualpractitioners and organisations.Practicing professionals have perceivedbenefits in terms of enhanced self-awareness, decision making clarity,empathy and inner peace, helping themfeel more poised and strengthened todeal with the challenges of daily life atwork and home. They are able to feelmore balanced and witness the changesin their own lives, making it as real andscientific as any modern scientific field.

Heartfulness Meditation- ToolsHeartfulness Meditation is a simple andeffective meditation practice thatcentres on the 'heart.' It aids workingprofessionals and leaders experiencetheir true inner potential. Through aunique method of yogic transmission,the practice of Heartfulness meditationimparts a sense of balance inindividuals and transforms their stateof being since it regulates the mind, finetunes the intellect, purifies the heart,and thereby, aids evolution of individualconsciousness. Heartfulness practicehas several tools which include simpleHeartfulness relaxation techniques,Heart-Centred Meditation practicewith the aid of yogic transmission, aneffective rejuvenation technique tohelp the aspirant clean or wipe out theheaviness of the impressionsassimilated by him over the day'sactivities, and a very short practice toconnect to one's higher self beforegoing to bed. Over and above this, theaspirant has access to Heartfulnesstrainers in his city for one-to-oneguided meditation sessions and can alsoparticipate in group meditationsessions at any of the HeartfulnessMeditation centres across the globe. Adaily practice session does not take

more than an hour, and therefore,professionals and leaders feel highlyencouraged to integrate this in theirdaily life. Globally, Heartfulnessprogrammes have now beenintroduced in 1000+ corporationstouching the 'hearts' of over 30,000professionals and leaders. Some of theleading companies that have taken thestep forward to introduce on premisesHeartfulness programmes includeNokia, Infosys, HCL Technologies, UCOBank, Arvind Mills, Anthem, VIPIndustries etc.

Heartfulness Meditation-programmes forcorporationsHeartfulness relaxation and meditationprogrammes for corporations areoffered by the Heartfulness Institute(HFI) through simple and experientialon-premises interventions for workingprofessionals and leaders. Suchprogrammes are introduced in flexibleformats with the basic starters' modulebeing a 3-day intervention (one houreach day) for interested employees,followed by deeper practice sessionswhich may range from 6- 12 weeks, and

in certain cases, all the weeks of theyear. All these sessions are supportedby experienced facilitators from HFI.The institute deploys Heartfulnesstrainers/facilitators who are in factworking professionals/leaders in theindustry, but have integratedHeartfulness meditation practices intheir own life. They voluntarily take outtime to render these programmes onbehalf of the institute in differentorganisations which invite HFI to offermeditation practices to theirworkforce.

Heartfulness Meditation practice isopen to all aspirants irrespective of theirnationality, religion, sex etc. and isoffered free of cost. Programmes incorporations by HFI have impactedemployees at all levels- shop floorworkers to junior-middle managementstaff to senior management/leadership/board members. In certainorganisations, Heartfulness has alsobeen integrated as a part of the regulartraining initiatives for newer employees.Some organisations, inspired by thepositive feedback and impact of theseinterventions for employees, haverequested the Heartfulness Institute(HFI) to introduce these interventions

Kamlesh D Patel also referred toas Daaji is the leader of theHeartfulness Movement andPresident of Shri Ram ChandraMission. As a self-professed studentof spirituality, Daaji regularly shareshis findings through public speakingengagements, his website and socialmedia platforms, and in broadcast,print, and digital media.

Research

There are several conclusive studies

done by various research universities

across the globe including the US based

Princeton, Harvard, Berkley and so

forth. The National Institute of Health in

the USA and the Centre for Disease

Control have contributed to these

studies by grants and promoting

awareness. The Heartfulness Research

Department partners with many and has

several studies in the pipeline. The study

conducted at York University Hospital

showed significant improvement in the

telomere length of participants who

meditate with Heartfulness, indicating

reduction in burnout and enhancement

in emotional wellness. Studies

conducted in colleges partnered with

CII-YUVA for collaborative programmes

showed substantial improvement in

positive emotions and significant

reduction in negative emotions.

Ref: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28634520


“Constant practice of Heartfulnessmeditation from the last 15 years hashelped him develop abilities of qualitydecision making through regulationof mind and expansion ofconsciousness, which always hasbeen the hallmark of my work. I owemy career growth to Heartfulnessmeditation practice"

Charan Singh

Executive Director, UCO Bank

“Heartfulness meditation trained meto learn how to be fully present andfocused in the moment. I need tomultitask many things in a day, thiscould get chaotic and overwhelmingif I didn't have my practice"

Vani Kola

Managing Director, Kalaari Capital

"Today's corporate world is wellcharacterised as V.U.C.A - volatile,uncertain, complex, ambiguous.Leaders simultaneously faceimmense opportunities and intensedemands. The practices offered byHeartfulness help individuals acquireand operate from a deep sense ofbalance or centeredness. Thisequanimity moves individuals towardstheir peak performance. Further, itforms the base for lasting personaltransformation and positive impact onpeople, the system around. Byenabling individual transformation,Heartfulness practices, cantransform organisations too!"

Prashanth Vasu

Partner in a leading consultancy firm

as part of their LeadershipDevelopment Programmes, RetreatSessions, and on occasions, alsonominated their staff to HeartfulnessRetreat centres in India, for deeperimmersion programmes for selfrejuvenation and transformation. Afirst of its kind 4-day residential retreat'inner rejuvenation and personalmastery' programme KAUSHALAM X,was recently launched by HFI at theinstitute's Himalayan retreat, primarilytargeted for business leaders/CEOs andentrepreneurs who wish to 'dive deeperwithin' through a break-awayprogramme. Business Leaders, CHROsand HR leaders from across the worldhave started looking at HeartfulnessMeditation as a vital enabler to holisticdevelopment and wellness for theirleaders and professionals, and also asa potent enabler for expandingconsciousness at the workplace.

Benefits At The WorkplaceThe feedback from the professionalcommunity across the world, basistheir experience while attendingHeartfulness Meditation programmeshas been very encouraging andpositive. Professionals who havepracticed Heartfulness have begun toexperience several benefits at theworkplace. Some of the benefits of thecorporate programmes on the basis ofthe received feedback are important tohighlight are: -

Clarity of thought: Clarity of thoughtthat a well-regulated mind enablesaffects productivity and efficiency ofthe individual in a positive manner.Uncluttered by a traffic of thoughts -typically around the prospective resultof the activity engaged in or on otherpending urgent activities - an efficientexecutive is able to avoid what isreferred to as bad multi-tasking, andinstead, focus entirely on one topic orissue at a time, and give it his or hercomplete attention. This capacity is aparticular asset in the modern world

where the number of diverse tasksdemanded of an individual, particularlya senior executive on a daily basis, isquite high.

Intuitive capacity: The secondbenefit is the intuitive capacity that afine-tuned intellect enables, which inturn positively impacts the quality ofdecision-making by an individual.Often, in an organisation, sub-optimaldecisions on important matters (e.g.,staffing key roles, go or no-go decisionson key business choices) are takeninstinctively, more as a reaction toexternal stimulus or on the basis of pastprejudices. Such decisions when taken

HR PRACTICE


"In the hectic pace of everyday life, itis necessary to stop and take a pauseand gather where we are and whatwe want to do. HeartfulnessMeditation has allowed me thisopportunity to reflect on what are thethings that truly matter. Whatattracted me to the practice was itssimplicity - no need for a particularposture, no mantras etc. just a simplefocus on a thought - there is divinelight in my heart. The repeatedpractice, when done over a while,gives several benefits like the clarityof thought, the power of being presentin the moment and a sense of lastinghappiness. The practice of cleaningdone in the evening has helped meget rid of the heaviness of the day'sactivities. The Heartfulnesspreceptors (trainers) are a wonderfulsupport system and have ensuredthat I always have someone who canhelp in the regular sittings"

Charles Carvalho

Senior ManagerVIP Industries Pvt. Ltd.

"Heartfulness Meditation hascertainly had a positive impact on myEmotional Intelligence quotient as aHR leader & practitioner. Practice ofHeartfulness Meditation has helpedme become more self-aware,empathetic & clear-minded as aleader. It has helped me evolve as amuch improved decision maker &also nurtured my capacities tonavigate & lead changes with greaterconfidence & courage, within thevarious organizations I have workedin during my career."

V. Srinivasan

Human Capital Advisor & Former HRDirector- Randstad India & Sri Lanka

"I usually start every day with a healthydose of Heartfulness Meditation. Thishelps me bring to work, a composurethat has helped me over the past 3decades. I remain less busy and moreproductive, gentler and firmer,empathetic and contributing to holisticwellbeing of an organisation."

Victor Kannan

Chief Financial OfficerPrimero Games

by senior executives can have a lastingand an adverse effect on anorganisation. A refined intellect on theother hand shifts the basis of decisionmaking from instinct (reactive) to initialintelligence (logic and data based) andprogressive intuition (perception andwisdom based). Such capacity becomesincreasingly relevant in a VUCA( Vo l a t i l e - Un c e r t a i n - C o m p l e x -Ambiguous) world that demands fasterdecision making with either little orexcessive information.

Collaboration & Co-ordination: Thethird benefit is the capacity to feel, thata purified heart enables, which in turnmakes a dramatic difference tocollaboration and coordination in anorganisation. Most value creatingbusiness processes require multiplefunctions to work on in a coordinatedmanner. However, this is oftencompromised due to the strain in inter-personal relationships betweenindividuals in different functions (e.g.manufacturing and sales, productdevelopment and so on). Individualswith a purified heart can progressively

set aside considerations of strongbiases, personal motives and develop adispassionate perspective on corebusiness issues. They can subsequentlytake a more empathetic stance toresolving issues and work with othersrelying through the magic instrumentof feeling, in addition to rationalthinking. Organisations with a goodproportion of such developedindividuals lose minimum energy ininternal friction and are therefore fullyavailable to serve their clients andstakeholders.

A deeper sense of purpose: Thefourth benefit is the deeper sense ofpurpose that powers individuals with anevolved consciousness. Such individuals

who practice Heartfulness meditationare able to radiate positive energy andcomposure while being involved in theintensity of work. The purpose theyassociate behind what may externallyseem like the routine day-to-day workimparts such energy to them. Theyremain fresh despite several hours ofwork and are equally able to balancetheir professional life with their personallives. An organisation with a healthyproportion of such purposeful andcentred individuals is also able todemonstrate complimentary qualitiessuch as agility with sturdiness, activitywith purpose, and intensity with balance.Most essentially, numerous corporationsthat have introduced HeartfulnessMeditation have begun perceiving thistool as an enabler for leaders andprofessionals to nurture all aspects oftheir Emotional Intelligence (EI) - self-awareness, self-management (self-control, conscientiousness, adaptability,initiative etc.), social awareness

HR PRACTICE


"Heartfulness, offers an easy, non-denominational and experientialapproach to exploring meditation andwellbeing. It is an approach to findingbalance and 'inner-sustainability'. Forme, it has been life-changing"

Punit Lalbhai

Executive DirectorArvind Mills

"Bringing the mind into a state ofawareness, in a way that it is everanchored upon the present is a criticalneed of our time and Heartfulnessmeditation does just that! It providesthe healing power and extraordinarybeauty to the world, torn apart bystrife and discord"

Prof. Ramnath Narayanswamy

IIM Bangalore

(empathy, organizational awarenessetc.) and social skills (influencing,developing others, collaboration etc.).

Heartfulness For Young andAspiring ProfessionalsOn the basis of the global Heartfulnessexperience in corporations, it has beenwitnessed that over 70% of theprofessionals who have come forwardto participate in workplaceHeartfulness meditation programmesare young professionals in the agebracket of 22-30 years. These includetrainees, young career professionals,first time managers and budding fasttrackers in organisations who arebeginning to feel the need for anexperiential 'inner-management' toolto help them to contribute effectivelyin a fast paced and result orientedbusiness environment of which theyare a part. Recognizing this new trendof early and young adopters tomeditation, the Confederation ofIndian Industry (CII) has formallypartnered with Heartfulness Institute(HFI) through an MoU for introducingHeartfulness practices of relaxation

and meditation as an enabler tosupport nurturance of the mental,spiritual and psychological well-beingof young professionals, as part of theirYoung Leadership DevelopmentInitiative- YUVA programme.

As a part of this collaborativeventure, on the occasion of Peace Day,Heartfulness Institute (HFI) conductedHeartfulness Meditation sessions forYoung Indians at universities inBengaluru, Chandigarh, Jaipur,Trivandrum, Chennai, Vizag, Guwahati,Indore, Madurai, Mysore, Pune,Coimbatore and Siliguri coveringalmost 1600 young students. Furtherprogrammes conducted with YUVAhave been designed in a format, whereHeartfulness practices are offeredalong with inspirational life themes foryoungsters to internalize and integratein their own life.

Hearticulture- Evolving a'Heart-Centred' cultureIf we consider an organisation as ahuman being with a collective mind,intellect, identity and consciousnessthat constitute its subtle existence; thesoft asset behind this are its people. Its

heart. When these qualities manifest atthe workplace, individuals andorganizations become moreempathetic and sensitive to theirstakeholders, agile & aware of theirenvironment, respectful of their peopleand customers and above all, true tothemselves- the culmination of thesepositive manifestations through 'heart-connect' offers the foundations forbusinesses to grow in a sustainable,nimble, healthy and respected way.Leaders and professionals arerecognizing the beauty which lieswithin the 'heart' and need forconnecting more intimately with itslimitless wisdom & reflect its essencethrough their attitudes and behavioursat the workplace.

Business leaders practicingHeartfulness- experiencespeakFor many business leaders, Heartfulnesshas offered an experience which apartfrom being transformative, has alsogiven them a tool for holistic personaldevelopment and wellness. It hasequipped them with a vital anchor tohelp navigate their organisationsthrough the dynamic, fast-paced,globalized and competitive businessenvironment they have to work with.UCO bank, one among the leadingnationalised banks in India has been apioneer in implementing HeartfulnessMeditation programmes for itsemployees across the country. Theresults perceived by the participatingemployees through his interventionhave been highly encouraging. CharanSingh, Executive Director, UCO Bankwas one of the key members of thebank's leadership team who spear-headed and championed this drivewithin.

Another noteworthy example isthat of Vani Kola, Managing Director atKalaari Capital based in Bangalore. Herleadership at Kalaari centres aroundcommitment to the development ofentrepreneurs and her conviction thatIndian companies are poised tobecome global players. She brings 22years of Silicon Valley experience as afounder of successful companies to herrole as a mentor and enabler of start-up companies in India and also serveson several company boards and widelyspeaks on entrepreneurship andleadership.

HR PRACTICE

visible existence or the hard assets areits physical infrastructure. And it ishere, that Heartfulness Meditationpractices come as refreshing and potent'inner-enablers' for professionals,leaders and organisations, to evolve aheart-centric approach to work andbusiness. Practice of Heartfulness,across different levels of anorganisation, fosters the evolution of a'heart-centric culture.'

Heartfulness practice helps enliventhe innate generosity, compassion,acceptance and humility, residingwithin each practicing individual's


have either recently updated, or areplanning to upgrade their talentacquisition strategy. ArtificialIntelligence (AI), digital proliferationthrough smart devices, Big Data andrule based data sifting are bolsteringefforts by recruiters by way of makingsense of large amounts of data. Socialmedia usage by recruiters hascatapulted from 5% in 2006 to 70% in2017. The impact of such cutting edgeaspects of "new age" recruiting, evenin industries such as insurance, wouldmake way for a new era of re-imaginedcandidate experience and recruitercapabilities.

The five key dynamics that wouldunfold in 2018 and beyond for theinsurance industry, primarily bytechnology driven developments wouldbe:1. Talent availability: The talentavailable is no longer limited to thetraditional sectors. Be it analytics, sales,human resources, digital marketingetc., no background or experience isout of bounds. Recruiting is becominga digital experience as candidates cometo expect convenience and mobilecontact. Scanning of social networksand databases and cut to positionrequirements has opened completelya new avenue of reaching out topassive job seekers.2. Social and referral-basedconnection: The explosion of mobiledata in India has enabled candidatesto engage over social media, thusbecoming more accessible to recruitersthan ever before. Quite a few insurancecompanies are using social media, andreaching out to potential candidatesby way of employees' referrals. AIbased tools capable of scanning socialnetworks and databases like LinkedIn

Recruitment is witnessing a hugechange. A recent study hasfound that 73% of companies

From NoveltyTo Reality

BY Ruben Selvadoary

to Facebook and Job Sites to matchposition requirements and sendingpersonalized mails taking cues fromrecent social media activities/memberships are eliciting higherresponse rates and enhancingperception and thereby a connectbetween the potential employee andemployer.3. Skills required: Research datacarried out on the future of work havepredicted the shift from hiringgeneralists to hiring specialists withserial mastery in more than onedomain, especially to deal with thedepth and breadth challenges of theVUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complexand Ambiguous) world. ICT(Information, Communication andTechnology) skills would have higherneed/demand in organisations. Giventhis, companies are implementinggamification or simulations (particularlyfor testing proficiency, skills andaptitude/attitude) and using basicanalytics for hiring. Predictive analyticsincluding enhanced forecasting toolsare growing to play an important rolein workforce planning, enabling HR tomap emerging job categories,identifying skills overlaps and gaps, andanticipate changing skills.4. Right fit: To gain attitudinal andbehavioural/leadership competencyinsights about a candidate's facialexpressions, usage of words, voicemodulation and micro gestures aresubject to software analysis to assessthe right fit. Also, organisations basedon identified success traits for specificpositions are utilizing data parsing todraft questions for interviewers.Therefore, the process skills of activelistening, behaviour observation andcritical thinking of recruiters would bethe key differentiator towards qualityin hiring.5. Candidate mind set: Increasing

social media reference based hiring,head hunting basis participation andcontribution to on-line socialcommunities of practice and sourcingthrough online interest/ educationgroups, necessitates that everycandidate positions himself/herself asa Brand and conducts himself/herselfas per their self determined positioning.Screening by recruiters by analysingsocial media posts, background checkbasis on-line records/ type ofinteractions in social media andrecommendations pertaining toexpertise are helping us de-risk thekind of people we hire and hire a brandof individuals who are active andrecognized on social media.

In 2018 and beyond, the waycandidates scout for jobs in theinsurance industry and the manner inwhich insurance companies source,select and engage potential candidateswould significantly change. Therecruiter of the future needs to bedisciplined, systemic, holistic, social,cognitive, process driven, analytical anddecisive.

Ruben Selvadoray is the Chief Hu-man Resources Officer at Bajaj AllianzLife Insurance. He has an experience ofover two decades in Strategic HR andOperational ER and has worked inDeutsche Bank, Bharti Airtel, ICICI Bank,ICI Ltd. etc. Ruben has a Master's Degreein Personnel Management & IndustrialRelations from Loyola College, Chennaiand several professional certifications inthe areas of Hiring, Leadership Develop-ment, Job Evaluation, Psychometricsand Sales Training.

GUEST COLUMN


WORK LIFE BALANCE

Sharing closely-held secretsAt the onset, every person who sits atthe top of the highest rung of the laddermust share closely-held secrets theyresort to, to achieve the perfect balancebetween their professional andpersonal lives. To begin with, when it

comes to work, a boss must setreasonable limits for his employees toaccomplish the tasks on schedule. Donot walk into office during wee hoursin the morning by claiming that youfeel a certain inner peace, need thesilence to execute your daily affairs.Employees take a cue, and even ifunable to make it at the same time,force themselves to match theiremployer's timings. Call it fear if youmay, but they get impacted in thatmanner. While the boss may walk outor drive home for a power nap, theemployees cannot enjoy such a luxury.And, this results in fatigue, reducedproductivity and a cantankerousambience born out of sheer stress.Employers at large, should offer areasonable amount of leeway to theirworkforce to establish time-limitstowards their professionalresponsibilities as well. It is natural forthe work force to rise to the occasionwhen the situation demands, but thatshould not deter one from either his/her personal life or familyresponsibilities. The boss needs to setreasonable hours of work foremployees to pursue their socialinterests and spend enough time tofulfil their family obligationscomfortably. Employers who createpersonal boundaries should inspiretheir workers and instil the sameculture in them. They have to remindthem about a personal world outsideof their work, a world which is asdemanding as their professional one,and at the same time, one whichdemands their undivided attention.

Technological interventionsWork cultures are starkly differentaround the globe, but technologyenables us to emulate the positivecultures which are practised across seas.Weekly interactions with employees andthe exchange of interests, hobbies, helptrigger interest among employees whobox themselves in their work stations.Perhaps, an internal chess tournamenton the last working day of the week cando much to lighten the droopingshoulders of employees. It may alsoinstigate some to indulge in some sportor pursue an outdoor hobby. Ademanding and an imposing boss canonly make their employees work in fear,creating insecurity, leading to a numberof mental and psychological issues

Eby Urvi Aradhya

well. We live in a highly competitiveworld and the challenges we face areinterminable. Such conditions canseverely impact even the mostproductive employees. Every individualwears more than one hat; ahouseholder, a responsible employee,and a friendly soul at social events,which raises the question of beinginspired, or emulating someone whojuggles all through his/her life'sperformances with a smile. Naturally,we could zero in on the man who callsthe shots at work - the BOSS!

It is only the person who leads fromthe front who best understands thesignificance of maintaining the perfectwork-life balance. In fact, they are theones to inspire their workforce - theirkey assets. A happy mind is aproductive mind and adds to the wealthof an organisation. Our lives areinundated with responsibilities just likethe Boss's life, and, if he is able to playall his parts to perfection, he becomesexemplary for the ones who work forhim. Uneasy is the head that wears thecrown, but if the one who is wearingit knows how to move from one frameof life to another with ease andproduce positive results, the otherssimply follow.

The boss has to ensure that frivolousness does notbecome a part of the work force, and a sense ofprofessionalism pervades the entire organisation. Apersonal connect with employees, understandingtheir issues and finding the perfect solutions canproduce unbelievable results for an organisation.

The Zen OfInspiringLeadership!

“It is inevitable that lifewill be not just very

short but very miserablefor those who acquire bygreat toil what they must

keep by greater toil.”- Seneca the Younger, Roman philosopher.

very employee tends to his workwith a confidence anddetermination of doing his job


which ultimately take a toll on theirproductivity and well-being. At thework place, no one can teach you theconcept of an ideal work-life balanceapart from your boss. She /he has toensure that everyone works in totalharmony and amicably towards thehigher goals of the organisation. Thiscan be achieved only if everyone ishappy, healthy and free from allemotional baggage. A strong work ethicis the sure solution to success. The bosshas to ensure that frivolousness doesnot become a part of the work force,and thus a sense of professionalismpervades the entire organisation. Apersonal connect with employees,understanding their issues and findingthe perfect solutions can produceunbelievable results for an organisation.

All round commitmentCommitments to our individual selves,our families, and professional lives are

akin to being married to all threeplaying a different role in eachmarriage. You cannot favour one overthe other because you are the face ofall three. Each is imbued with adifferent cultural change demandingaccountability, and you have to learnhow to adapt to the demands. Youconverse with different expressions ineach of these relationships, and it ishere that the boss has to lead youtowards making each meaningful andworth living for. It is imperative forevery employer to free the minds ofhis work-force from the obnoxious

WORK LIFE BALANCE

Urvi Aradhya is the Chief HumanResources Officer at K Raheja Corp


Our lives are inundated with responsi-bilities just like the Boss's life, and, if heis able to play all his parts to perfection,

he becomes exemplary for the ones who workfor him. Uneasy is the head that wears the crown,but if the one who is wearing it knows how tomove from one frame of life to another with easeand produce positive results, the others simplyfollow.”

“

term of 'work-life' balance. What iswelcome is to make them understandand work towards the type of life theywish to live. Success at work at thecost of an unhappy personal life is notworth the acclaim you win at work.Leaders have to make everyoneunderstand that professional successis not only about monetary gains. It isabout passion, about developingselective ignorance, and being focusedon what is relevant and important. Aclear vision, determination, confidence,and an empathetic persona in anemployer motivates his employees.Authenticity and transparency earn theboss respect from his employees, whowant to emulate his actions and followhis footsteps. Leaders are not bornovernight. People learn to manage thereins of responsibility for the others totread the same path. Leaders teachhow to focus on efficiencies and alerta call for improvements when required,but not at the cost of making otherssubmissive. A person who leads theorganisation leads by example.Accountability, understanding

employee issues patiently, beingpositive about situations, suggesting thebest solutions and communicating withease and comfort can make the mostinhibited worker comfortable andoptimistic. The workforce embodies hisattributes and before you realise theyare leading as balanced a life as theirbosses. Like they say, "it all tricklesfrom the top."

Leading From BehindSummit

Jombay organised the Leading fromBehind summit held at The Lalit inMumbai on January 17th. Leading fromBehind as a leadership philosophybecame popular at the HarvardBusiness School after Nelson Mandela'sautobiography 'Long Walk to Freedom'.Prof. Linda Hill wrote on how leadingfrom behind is quite the antithesis ofour traditional view of leadership.Unlike the image of the General leadinghis troops into battle, one who leadsfrom behind, conjures an image akin toa quarterback leading his football teamto victory. The philosophy is thatLeaders can encourage breakthroughideas not just by cultivating followerswho can execute but buildingcommunities that can innovatetogether. The summit saw an eclectic line of speakersincluding Nikkhil Advani (Film Director), GovindEthiraj (Founder of Ping, Founder Editor-in-chief ofBloomberg TV), Ranveer Brar (Michelin Star Chef),Luke Coutinho (Health Coach, Author - The GreatIndian Diet), Kiran Bir Sethi (TEDx Speaker, Designfor Change), Rajan Mehra ( Venture Investor),Monisha Advani (Film Producer, Entrepreneur),

EVENT

Rouble Nagi (Internationally acclaimed Artist), Capt.Raghu Raman (TEDx Speaker, RIL), Jonathan Bill (CEOCreditmate), Dr. Aniruddha Malpani (IVF specialist,Investor), Parmesh Shahani (Godrej India CultureLab), R. Gopalakrishnan (CEO, The MindWorks),Pratik Agarwal (CEO, Sterlite Power), Parthasarthy VS(Group CFO, M&M), Dr. A. Velumani (Chairman &CEO, Thyrocare) and Hemant Bhargava (MD, LIC

India). The summit saw some stellarconversations on how the conceptof Leading from Behind manifestsitself across industries. The themesincluded Leading the Board,Leading to Entertain and Make anImpact, Leading for Mind, Body andSoul, Leading Change, Leading aMovement, Leading Innovation,Leading with Purpose, Leading forInnovation in HR, Leading the Best.During the conversation, the leadersshared insights from their lifejourneys, personal moments, andprofessional milestones andimportantly from the people thathave led them from behind. Thesummit also saw the unveiling of thePeople Capital Index and awardingof 40 under 40 HRs.

www.humancapitalonline.com ◆60 � February 2018

Roma Balwani (Director, Strategic Resources Group), Mohit Gundecha and Suruchi

Wagh, (Founders of Jombay) and Mansi Mehta, (Chief Business Officer, Jombay).

Capt. Raghu Raman (TEDx Speaker, RIL), Harlina Sodhi, (SVP HR, IDFC Bank)

and Hemant Bhargavas, (MD, LIC India).

EVENT

HR 40Under40As part of the Leading from Behind summit, Jombayawarded Best 40 HR professionals under the age of40 for their exemplary work in leadership andorganizational development. HR 40under40 wasintroduced with a two pronged agenda. First, toprovide a platform that will build an ecosystem ofthinkers, change makers, who will co-createinnovation in the field of human resources, andpeople development. Second, this platform will putresponsibility on the shoulders of these youngleaders to be torchbearers and lead the way for theupcoming talent in the field of Human Resources.These 40 Young Leaders were selected by

scientifically evaluating 650 young leaders via 4rounds of assessments, business simulations,behavioural event questionnaires and evaluations byeminent jury such as Govindraj Ethiraj - FounderChairman of PING Network, Keshav Sanghi - Founderof Ventureworks India, Prabir Jha - President andGlobal Chief People Officer at Cipla, Dr. P.V. Murthy- Sr. VP and Global Head HR at Taj Hotels, RajkamalVempati - Head HR at Axis Bank, Shanta Vallury -Head HR, CSR and Internal Branding at RBL Bank,Yashwant Mahadik - Global HR Professional, RomaBalwani - Director of Strategic Resources Group andDhananjay Singh - Director General at NHRDN.


People Capital IndexThe summit also saw unveiling of People Capital (PCI) Index, which is inspired by the Human Capital Index publishedby the World Economic Forum for different countries. PCI is an indicator (or a measure) of employee perception on howwell the organisation is developing their people capital. The People Capital Index involved running anonymous surveysamong the middle managers and getting feedback from at least 30 managers on the effectiveness of their employer'sdevelopment efforts and alignment of the development efforts to the business strategy. The surveys were run via socialmedia, Naukri.com and internal company referrals. The PCI survey got responses from 180 different organizations, whichhad employee size of at least 800 people. BSI, the world's most experienced Standards Body and founding member ofISO and ISO 9001 were the Standards and Audit Partner in this process.

Abbott

Accenture Solutions Private Limited

Apollo Munich Health Insurance Company Ltd.

Bajaj Finance Limited

Bank of Baroda

Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd.

Bharti Airtel Limited

Canara HSBC Oriental Bank of Commerce LifeInsurance Company Limited.

CEAT Limited

CGI

Coffee Day Enterprises

Dell EMC

Deloitte Touche & Tohmatsu India Pvt. Ltd.

Exide Life Insurance Company Limited

Forbes Marshall

Future Generali India Insurance Company Limited (Life& General Insurance)

Future Retail

GE South Asia

Genpact

GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceutical Ltd.

Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Limited

Godrej Industries Limited & Associated Companies

HCL Technologies Limited

HDFC Standard Life Insurance Company Limited

Hindustan Coca Cola Beverages

Here is a list of Best 50 companies that feature in PeopleCapital Index 2017.

Hindustan Unilever Limited

Infosys Limited

Kohler India

Kotak Mahindra Bank

KPMG Global Services

Landmark Group

Larsen & Toubro Infotech

Lodha Group

Mahindra and Mahindra Limited

Mahindra Holidays and Resorts India Ltd.

Marico Limited

Maruti Suzuki India Limited

Max Life Insurance Co. Ltd

Nuvoco Vistas Corp Ltd ( Formerly Lafarge India Ltd)

Perfetti Van Melle India Pvt. Ltd.

Philips Lighting

Piramal Enterprises Limited

Sanofi India

Sapient

Schneider Electric India

Tata Technologies

The Indian Hotels Company Limited

Titan

Wipro Limited

Zydus Cadila

EVENT



Indian HR Convention2017 And HDM Awards

Indian HR Convention 2017 and HDM (Human Resource, Development and Management) Awards and Recognitions, thestage where HR Heads, HR Consultants, HR experts from the business meet up with a learning and process, concludedon December 15 at The Radisson, Gurugram. The occasion drew industry pioneers, including experts from across India.The Convention was organized by Wafisilpa Entertainments. The agenda of the event focused on "Worldwide Challengesfor HR Professionals" from an Indian point of view. "The current year's Indian HR Convention united Indian pioneersin industry and the scholarly world to help facilitate the HR Development, Advanced Recruitment Planning, HumanResource Management and Innovation in HR Technologies" said Wafisilpa Entertainments Director, Talees Rizvi. "IndianHR Convention marks its conclusion at the ninth year this December. We are celebrating tenth Anniversary next year andare thinking of organizing India's Largest HR Conference and HR Expo under one rooftop with a footfall of around 5000

experts from Industry and consulting organizations." The Convention highlighted Talees Rizvi, Wafisilpa Entertainmentsas the Conference Director with dynamic Keynotes on Challenges for Human Resource Professionals from some reputedspeakers: Abbas Jalis Rizvi, Ericsson (Head Operations Excellence HR Global Operations), Deepak Behl, (The Park HotelsDirector HR), Praveen Menon ( IndiaFirst Life Insurance, Chief People Officer), S. C. Misra (ONGC Tripura PowerCompany Ltd., Addl. General Manager HR & Admin), Monika Marwah (Talent Acquisition Lead, NCR Corporation),Kaushik Chakraborty ( JLL, Director- HR Business Partner Head of L&D and CSR), S. H. Zaidi (Rizvi & Company Partner),Anshumali Saxena ( Interactiveye Founder).

EVENT

Talent Challenges In AutoAnd Auto Ancillary Industries

EVENT


Team Kontempore organised its first ever symposium on 7th Nov 2017 at Taj City Centre, Sector 44, Gurgaon, a one-of-its-kind event in the country. This kick-off event was attended by 90+ business leaders from Auto and Auto Industriesincluding CEOs, Auto Entrepreneurs, CXOs, CHROs and Industry Advisors to discuss and create actionable work revolvingaround Talent challenges for the Automobile and Ancillary Industries. KIIT School of Management, Bhubaneswar(Academic), Think Talent Services (Knowledge) PHD Chamber of Commerce (Industry Engagement) and Human Capital(Talent Community) were the event partners. The event was led by G.P Rao (Event Convenor) and Anil Bajpai (KontemporeAdvisory Team Member).

The presence of industry leaders like SY Siddiqui (Chief Mentor, Maruti), Rajiv Kapoor (CHRO, UNO Minda Group) andPankaj Dubey (CEO & Director, Eicher Polaris) helped the participants to view the challenges from the widest possiblelens and look for potential solutions that are beyond the obvious. Auto Kontempore treaded on territory where mostindustry events hesitate to go. It was a true crowd-sourcing of ideas and was achieved through a Large Scale InteractiveProcess (LSIP) facilitated by Bimal Rath, Founder, Think Talent Services followed by a panel discussion where actionableideas were discussed. Auto industry experts Pankaj Dubey, Pradeep Kapse, Rakesh Kalra, Romesh Kaul, Rakesh Jinsi andR.C Jain were the part of panel. The discussion was moderated by Bimal Rath. The Participants were divided into groups.Each group had a team leader who facilitated a 5-step discussion process by asking provoking questions, encouragingdebate and keeping the discussion on track without influencing the opinion of the group.

This highly participative and iterative process yielded the following output:

AREA

Skill/ Capability Gap

Infrastructure/ Eco-system

Brain-drain to otherindustries

Leadership & WorkCulture

CURRENT CHALLENGES

o Most Fresh graduates are not readilyemployable

o Lack of skilling opportunities for experiencedprofessionals

o Scarcity of deep domain expertise

o Geographical mismatch between Point ofAvailability of Talent vs Where Talent isRequired

o Infrastructure lags behind fast-paced changes

o Lack of world-class training infrastructure

o Reluctance to join manufacturing industry

o Significantly low wages in auto sector

o Lack of structured career trajectories

o Slow and complacent overarching work culture

o Weak Leadership pipeline

o Inability of leaders to deal with performanceissues

IDEAS FOR ACTION

o Career paths for domain experts

o Mentoring for new joinees

o Industry experts to teach students

o Revamp of Technical & Vocational EducationSystems

o Review of current curriculum by an Apexbody with representation fromGovernment, Academia and Industry

o Create industrial clusters that are scatteredand de-centralised

o Convince companies with ace trainingfacilities to allow it to be used by othercompanies

o Creation of Automotive townships

o Talent management, career planningprocess for all levels

o Induct International experts to create deepdomain expertise

o Heavily invest in leadership development

Team Kontempore will regularly organise a series of events to be attended by Industry Leaders from different industrysegments, from time to time. However, it is not just about networking and discussion. The key thing is to have bothmoderated / un-moderated talks focusing on the talent challenges, capture the main points and create documents, blogposts, proposals and memorandum for the larger audience, including academicians, small business and the entirecorporate world in general that is grappling with talent and resource challenges.


before they begin their job search,they seldom look out for the purpose,values, and culture of theorganisation in which they areapplying. For instance, Nestlé Indiais a 105-year old company with theheart of a millennial and rooted inits values, while at the same time,keen in adapting to the changesaround. So, not just today, but yearafter year, the endeavour is to beattractive, motivated, sincere anddriven by talent.

Needs of the FMCG SectorFirst, organisations such as NestleIndia in the FMCG sector are on thelookout for people who areconstantly seek newer challenges. Inorder to achieve that, there areseveral initiatives that are launchedby these companies. For instance,Nestle India launched a culturalintervention, Rise2Gether whichinvolved a company-wide survey tounderstand the existing culture;followed by in depth interviews withthe management committee tounderstand the desired culture. Weidentified 4 work streams that wouldhelp us build a uniform culture.These four work streams are learning,purpose, caring and order. Cross-functional teams are working withmanagement committee sponsors on

W hile aspirants put in a lotof effort and attention inmodifying their resume

Must Haves ForA Fresh Start

BY Amit Narain

each of these areas to chart outaction plans for the future.

Second, in an FMCG companywith operations across the countryand the globe, there is a constantwant for people who are looking fora width of experience. Width ofexperience also entails responsibilitiesand taking strategic decisions earlyon in one's career around brands,sales management and peopledevelopment initiatives. The learningdiversity also comes from the factthat there are diverse verticals andproducts.

That brings me to my third point,the minute something new comesinto the fore, an ambiguity creepsinto the system, and, the sectortherefore welcomes people who arecomfortable working with ambiguity.

Amit Narain Vice President- HumanResources, Nestlé India

GUEST COLUMN

The good thing is that when big establishedcompanies venture into something new, it suddenlyhas an environment that mimics a start-up but allthis on the bedrock of an established and secureenvironment.

The good thing is that when bigestablished companies venture intosomething new, it suddenly has anenvironment that mimics a start-upbut all this on the bedrock of anestablished and secure environmentthat an organisation provides.

Finally, the sector keenly looks tohave people who challenge the statusquo and are not afraid to askquestions. When our consumer baseis largely the millennial population,we definitely need to reflect theirattitude in the company as well. Ifthe millennials are looking topurchase products from companiesthat are more socially responsible orbuy healthier eating and drinkingoptions or pay extra for quality orconvenience or seek variety, we needemployees who see consumer delightat the center of everything and arefocused towards bettering ourofferings and come up withinnovative solutions for it. All of thesethough, are traits that stem frommore basic ones. So, if one ispassionate, sincere and driven byexperiences, then this competitive,chaotic and fantastic FMCG industryis the place to be.

Must Haves for

a Fresh StartBe on the lookout for newer

challenges

Be open for a width of diverse

experiences

Be comfortable in working with

ambiguity

Be creative to challenge the status

quo


There is a lot to learn from the multifaceted leader and coach,

Dr. Renu Khanna, the founder and CEO of Humex. With a career

spanning thirty five long years, Dr. Renu appears as the very

manifestation of the length and breadth of experience that she brings

to the table, and her extensive exposure to Organization Development,

Change Management, Leadership development, Associate

Engagement, Inclusion and Diversity has made her name synonymous

with growth and learning.

By Shruti Chadha and S. Ajay Kumar

A Leader, CoachAnd Guide

How do you look back at yourprofessional journey so far? Pleaseshare some of the highly enrichingexperiences that you came across.I would like to see this journey as anexpedition, aimed at self- discoveryin the jungle of life that begins withhigh energy and enthusiasm withfellow dreamers like myself; a girlfrom Meerut with big dreams in myeyes, and along the way experienceevery emotion as there is toexperience as you go through thisexpedition and the process of selfdiscovery. I kept setting newermilestones for myself, and in case offailure, I always maintained a neverdie attitude. The joy, fun andexcitement was in partnering withfellow dreamers as we went throughthe motion of making everyexperience meaningful. In the process,I dirtied my hands, partneredextensively with other people, watchedand observed how my seniorsparticipated in meetings, hadconversations across, engaged actively,and took up opportunities that camemy way. I was not afraid to disagree

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The woods are lovely, dark and deep,But I have promises to keep,And miles to go before I sleep,And miles to go before I sleep.

- Robert Frost

� Leadership style - Coaching.

� Personality Type (MBTI)- ESTJ

� Current Professional Goal - Tomake my own organisation a BIGname

� Favourite Book Seven habits ofhighly effective people-Stephen Covey…..

� Favourite Movie - Abhimaan

� Favourite Music Artist- A R Rehman.

� Life is - Fun always

� Family - is a blessing

� I strongly believe in - Myself

� The most important thing I doon Sunday - sleep in theafternoon

� I deal with Setbacks By beingresilient

� 3 Things I never leave homewithout - Mobile, Wallet,Spectacles …..

Rapid Fire

in a meeting otherwise predominatedby men. Every skill needed to bepolished, refined, built to suit theterrain that we were cruising throughat that point in time. Leaders tooknotice, acknowledged the ownership,accountability, and the zeal to managethe varying shades of the terrain andoffered higher responsibilities to me.Amidst all this, my one big take awayhas been 'Be Yourself' and you willmake a difference.

What do you make of the challengesencountered by you in your careerthat gave you the most importantlessons of life?Looking back, I see those challengesas 'Mystique' of X-Men, carrying anability to morph itself and creating animpression of super stretch for theperson who faces it. The best way to


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In briefNAME : Dr. Renu Khanna

TITLE : Founder and CEO

ORGANIZATION : HUMEX

EXPERIENCE : 25

YEARS IN HR : 20

EDUCATION : Ph.D. in Organizational

Psychology


deal with it is to first know that thisis yet another morphed situation;learn from observation, do not beafraid to ask if you do notunderstand, seek support wherenecessary, avoid the trap of "I will doit all," Engage, take the credit when itis yours, speak up your mind evenwhen are wrong, do not be afraid tofailure, and the opinions of othersdoes not matter. More importantly,stay focused on the end goal, investin relationships, a channel, to get youfaster to your goals.

How different have the twoexperiences been for you - of settingup a learning and development teamfrom scratch in an organisation tomanaging a well-established full lifecycle leadership centre?I see this as dabbling with the twoends of the spectrum sprinkled withthe host of successes and mystiquemoments. In hindsight, I feel I couldhave done so many things differently,

Up, Close and Personal○

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What inspired you to steer your career

towards HR?

I started my career as a school teacher in

Meerut. The school was run by one of the

corporates. I still remember the day when

one of the leaders from the corporate

spotted me and asked "If I would like to

teach their executives" -I was both nervous

and excited; my first tryst with the corporate

world. When I went to their office I

remember the HR person took me around

and showed me the entire plant and that

was one of my many defining moments.

What caught my attention was the

tremendous respect he enjoyed. The novice

in me found that extremely cool since I

saw it as meet and greet people, speak to

them with courtesy, and they give so much

more in return.

How do you like to spend your free

time?

I like to be with myself when I am free. The

explorer in me wants to read a lot about

mind, body and soul connection. I have

always valued the inside out approach; it is

similar to donning the oxygen mask for

yourself before you try do it for others. This is

what I use in most of my sessions during

coaching too. At times, I multitask- the TV,

music and a book all keep me hooked

together.

Who would you credit in your life as a

great influence in shaping the woman

that you are today?

Being open to people and diversity of thought

has been my greatest source of influence. To

name a few influencers - My father, my first

boss, my daughter, some of my subordinates

and participants and the list goes on and on!

Please share some of your experiences

of travelling across the globe and what

have you gained from these

experiences?

We talk about cities being the melting pot of

culture. However, I feel it is the mind. Every

exposure added a new flavour, a colour, an

expression to my experience. I still remember

my first international trip to Dubai, I went

from being overwhelmed to being in 'awe' of

the whole experience. Right from the look

and feel of the airport to the technology

deployed, to the life style etc. everything

impressed me. It took a few travels to start

seeing beyond some of these aspects. One

of my key take-away from these experiences

has been the realization that people are

people, no matter which part of the world

they belong to, since the basic emotions

are very similar. Uniqueness of each culture

is the set of values, beliefs, behaviours and

rules that they operate under and once you

start talking to them you see that beneath all

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these layers the human values are very

similar, and only the manifestation may

change from culture to culture. What I have

realized is that:

� One needs to be mindful of different

cultures

� Respect people and you can learn so

much from them

� Travelling makes you independent; you

have to figure out how to survive in a

foreign land.

� In India, one is so pampered by the

family and once you are away from

home you learn to manage things on

your own, take decisions on your own,

survive and learn so much from situations

and people.

Has someone from your family deeply

inspired your values and growth as a

human being?

My father was in the army and was a strict

disciplinarian. He kept reiterating the value

of discipline in every walk of life. He always

said:

What you give you will get….be careful

Words can be a blessing or a bomb…be

careful

There is no shortcut to success

A mysterious benefactor wrote you a

check for Rs. 10,00,000 and said, help

me solve a problem; what would you

say?

I would coach him/her to solve his/her own

problem

What one thing you are deeply proud

of but would never put on your

resume?

Resilience- Ability to get up and start all

over again

What are the top three motivators and

demotivators for you at work?

Motivators- Challenging task,

Empowerment, Result

Demotivators - Routine task, Hierarchy,

Rigid process

Buzzer RoundWhat according to you is the magic

potion to create and manage high

performing teams?

Authenticity and mindfulness

What is the one dream that you have

tucked away, for the moment?

To make Humex an International brand

Is there something that people

consistently ask your advice on?

How to manage relationships in personal and

professional life

When was the last time you astonished

yourself?

Coaching Women for two days without a

break

but, what I managed to do then hasmade me who I am today. If settingup a learning and development teamis like a first date, then running a well

established life cycle leadership centreis like keeping the romance, the joy,the excitement alive in the 500th orthe 1000th date of the same

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HR Perspectivesorganization wide. This is the point where

the largest gaps are created. I feel the top

four reasons for the failure of a well-planned

tech implementation are lack of a clear

understanding on what problem is being

solved, lack of a top down leadership

commitment, insufficient communication

across a timeline and finally lack of user

testing and feedback implementation. HR

needs to be aware and prepared to avoid

these gaps as they take their next steps

towards the tech revolution.

Common errors companies make while

designing engagement practices

In an environment of convergence,

divergence and transformation engagement

practices need to be designed in a holistic

manner such that they are able to change

the retention analytics significantly. Apart

from being ready to tirelessly re-invent itself,

HR needs to plan a transformational change

through engagement practices. One of the

common errors is the heavy reliance on

extrinsic motivators. Motivating adults more

often than not, works intrinsically and so

strategies delivering the gratification of the

following intrinsic motivators would work

best to enhance engagement.

Autonomy: Engagement practices

which give the flexibility and range of

choice within boundaries.

Mastery: Learning opportunities that are

wider than scope of work.

Purpose: Sharing success stories.

Success: Celebration and acknowledge-

ment of midterm goals as well.

Community: Engagement practices that

allow people to socialize and network.

Creating engagement strategies that set

a clear, compelling direction to empower

each employee, engaging them in open

and honest communication, maintaining

a focus on career growth and

development, providing employee

benefits that demonstrate a strong

commitment to employee well-being at

all levels, will be the hallmark of a

successful engagement practice.

must know how to play the gamewhen required.

How do you compare yourentrepreneurial stint after twodecades of corporate leadershipexperience?The first experience was about self-edification and the stakeholders andthe second stint is towards theedification of the community at large.The first was about developing,strengthening, nurturing and creatingvalue for the business and the secondis about giving wings to my childhooddreams of impacting the largerecosystem. HUMEX to me is theexpression of 35 years of my workexperience; the realization of beingmy own boss; the appearance thatwanted the canvas of influence to gobeyond corporate and connect andtouch the lives of Leaders, parents,teenagers, educationists, executives. Inshort, touch people in their multi-faceted roles that they play in life.Women leaders occupy a special placein this canvas because of the potential

relationship! In-built into the "settingup" aspect is the innate feeling ofcreation, of newness, of anticipationwhich all of us enjoy and revel in,and it was no different in my case -right from creating job descriptionsto interviewing, to encouraging theteam to think different, to watch theteam go through norming andstorming phases, to creating learningplans, to setting up processes were initself enriching experiences. I hadhandpicked all the people in my firstteam and it turned out to be mydream team. Managing a leadershipcentre was all about being strategicwhere everything was connected tothe big picture of the organisation.Whist the definition of high in thesetting up phase was 'creation,' hereit was about creating a differentiator,and therefore, continuouslyreinventing yourself. Highs and lowswere a very vital and active part ofthese experiences; moments of greatsatisfaction and sometimes extremedejection. The outer and innerecosystem does have a role to play

when one is in this position. The realtest is how does one influence internaland external stakeholders and makethings happen.

Who have been your figures ofinspiration during this professionaljourney? What are some of the valuesand ideologies with regards to whichyou think, leaders should definitelywalk the talk?This is akin to searching for a drop ofwater absorbed by the sponge.Inspiration is all around us if we allowourselves to be its recipient. My firstboss taught me that buildingrelationships in a corporateenvironment is very important, andeven though processes and proceduresare in place, many things can beaccomplished through relationships.My second boss taught me that beingfaithful in little things is a BIG thingand that Integrity is a hallmark of aleader. My third boss taught me thatit is important to be financially andorganizationally savvy, and thatpolitics is not a dirty word only you

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Gaps that HR organisations need to

bridge

As technology takes centre stage, HR

needs to work towards building of

knowledge, process and development

gaps in order to ensure a smother

transition into the next biggest technology

revolution. In the learning and

development industry, big data and

machine intell igence will lead to

consumerization of learning and to step

up, HR leaders and teams need to

integrate non-linear learning cycles

through tools such as virtual reality

simulators, and Gamified apps, that are

quick to adapt themselves to the

increasingly sophisticated demands of

Gen Z learners.

Having sat through countless hours of

vendor demonstrations read and evaluated

hundreds of pages of vendors RFP

responses and finally zeroed on to the

best technology product the last mile, for

the HR teach team is to successfully

implement the new technology

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that is yet to be unleased and chainsof limiting beliefs yet to be broken.The reward lies in their smile, whenthey have overcome that limitingbelief.

Given your passion for nurturingwomen leaders, what would be youradvice to them?For me a leader is a leader be it aman or a woman. So, the one trapthat women aspiring to move intoleadership positions need to avoid isthe trap of being seen as a 'woman'leader. You are a leader first and thena man or a woman. Leadership bydefinition has no gender, and this isnever to be forgotten. Ask yourselveswhat skills and abilities are appreciatedand valued at those levels, and startfocusing on them early on in yourcareers without losing the naturalstrength you bring to the table.

NURTURING WOMEN LEADERS� Have a blue print� Be yourself... and be prepared to

work 10 times harder� Do not try to be a perfectionist...� Build a support network for

yourself; Seek it actively - don'twait for it to be provided

� Grow holistically ...take care ofyour physical, mental emotionaland social health

� Life is a marathon not a sprint.

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� We keep hearing about mergers and

acquisitions but then no book, no

literature, no MBA can prepare you

for the identity crisis and challenges

that the acquired company goes

through. It is equally challenging and

tough for both the entities as each

grapple with their own priorities, and

there is also the daunting task of two

independent cultures becoming one.

� HR and L & D playing a critical role

though they have the power to either

liberate the emotions of the people and

take this experience to the next level

or get caught in the legalities of

policies; facilitate the creation of 'one

entity' or get caught in the labyrinth of

do's and don'ts.

Learning Points○

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� When the going gets tough, the tough

get going came to life for those going

through this transition. For HR & L & D,

resilience and commitment to make a

difference won the day.

� People are your assets, your resources,

your army that truly influence the P&L

and balance sheet of every business.

Take care not of them but their emotions

and they will move mountains for you

and make the impossible possible

� L & D of an organisation can choose to

be a rickety old staircase or a plain of

fanciful staircase with all the frills and

glitter or an elevator that has the ability

to morph itself into a new entity, nonstop,

at regular intervals, to suit the

sophisticated demands of the business.

So, prepare for a long run… buildthe required stamina

� Be Savvy… in the space ofBusiness, Finance, Politics &Undercurrents

� Learn to handle bullies along theway!

What do you visualise as yourjourney for tomorrow?HUMEX has recently seen the lightof the day, and like any foundermember, I would like to see it carvea niche for itself in the time to come.As each facet of the role that peopleplay tries to get to their destination,I would like them to see, HUMEX, asa 'layover airport' where they renew,refresh, rejuvenate and re-discoverthemselves. It could be teamsexperiencing discord amongstthemselves, executive leaders fightingthe number or identity battles, womenleaders wanting to create a mark forthemselves, grand-parents or parentsstruggling to bring up their teenagechildren, husband or wife trying tomanage their marital discord,educationalists struggling with studentsor individuals, individuals grapplingwith questions around purpose anddirection - either in their personal orprofessional life. True to its name, Iwould like to see HUMEX infuse thejoy of 'Human Excellence' in both thepersonal and professional aspects ofpeople's lives, and have them do the

same for others through leadershipdevelopment, women empowermentand coaching.

"Best HR practices are built on afuturistic vision." What are yourviews on the same and how haveyou practiced this during your stintwith various organisations?For me it is about learning the skill ofalignment. Today, many leaders onlyfocus on internal alignment andlocalize their efforts; whereas growthcomes from both internal - externalalignment and building internal -external synergies. The best and nextpractices come from an outside-inview, also looked upon as seeingthrough the lens of futuristic vision.My mantra all through has been"TLN" - Take Risks, Learn & Network.This simple mantra helped me stayahead of the curve, exposed me tovarying and diverse viewpoints - thefertile ground for best and nextpractices, and most importantly,staying connected to the moving goalpost called the 'futuristic vision.' Eachnew wave brought-in its own changebefore it hit the shore and made wayfor another. Many of today's bestpractices evolved under different,unique and changing businessconditions and with each wave ofchange, as we stay aligned to thelarger macro level vision, certainpractices become obsolete, therebymaking way for a new one to createa ripple. There is much talk around:-� Technology taking (in some cases

WIP) centre stage within HR be itthe role of Big data or Analyticsor Social Media Platforms

� Engagement through Gamification� Managing Remote workforce� The leaner HR� HR the Specialists, the co-pilot in

strategy execution and much more

And this is just the tip of theproverbial iceberg. It is thereforepertinent to understand those facetsthat affect your business operations.Most of all, focus on defining yourselfas a business person and stay alignedto the macro vision and constantlykeep asking yourself "What skill,competency, knowledge do I need tobuild, strengthen, polish, enhance inorder to stay relevant at all times"


indicate that there has been a worldwideincrease in the usage of competencymodels as a base for Human Resourcestrategy in the recent past. Utilizing acompetence approach is now promotedby experts in the field, as it is likely toimprove not just individualperformances, but organisationaleffectiveness as well (Markus et al.,2005). One of the key factors sustainingthe interest in the concept ofcompetencies is the fact that the natureof work is becoming more complex,and skill requirements are definitelyovertaking the traditional distributionof ability in the workforce and creatinga dearth in talent supply. In a surveycanvassing opinions of seniorexecutives, 80% believed that the abilityto attract, select and retain the bestpeople will be the primary driver ofbusiness strategy by the end of thisdecade (Markus et al., 2005).

A convenient frameworkAn integrated concept of social,emotional and cognitive intelligencecompetencies offers more than aconvenient framework for describinghuman traits. It provides theorganisation with a theoretical structureof personality, linking it to a theory ofaction and job performance. Golemandefined emotional competence as the"learned capability based on emotionalintelligence which results in outstandingperformance at work." In other words,if competency is an "underlyingcharacteristic of the person that leadsto or causes effective or superiorperformance" (Boyatzis, 2008), then:� An emotional, intelligence

competency is the ability torecognize, understand, and use

C ompetency models form a vitaltool in human resource systemsand practices. Researched data

DefiningOrganisationalCompetency

BY Moitrayee Das

emotional information about oneselfthat leads to or causes effective orsuperior performance;

� Social intelligence competency is theability to recognize, understand, anduse emotional information aboutothers that leads to or causeseffective or superior performance;and

� A cognitive intelligence competencyis an ability to think or analyseinformation and situations that leadsto or causes effective or superiorperformance (Boyatzis, 1982).Research made available since thelast three decades highlight thatexcellent leaders, managers, andpeople in key jobs require threeclusters of behavioural habits as thethreshold abilities and three clustersof competencies as distinguishingoutstanding performance. Thethreshold clusters of competenciesare:

1) Expertise and experience arethreshold of competency

2) Knowledge (i.e. declarative,procedural, functional and meta-cognitive) is a threshold competency;and

3) Cognitive competencies such asmemory, deductive reasoning are thethreshold competencies

Achieving competitiveadvantageSustainable competitive advantagegenerally does not come from doingthe same things better; in fact, it comesfrom doing the critical things in waysthat are hard to copy. Various corecompetencies can achieve competitiveadvantage in the four types of servicebusinesses, focusing mainly on ServiceQuality attributes of - responsiveness,empathy, assurance and so on. At afirst glance those core competencies

may seem easy to duplicate. But theattributes of service quality are actuallyquite hard to build and copy; they canbe implemented in many different ways.They are as much human resourcesvalues as they are specific performancebehaviours. Employees in excellentservice companies tend to internalizethem and live them out in their dailybehaviour. Among the top five UScompanies with the highest stockmarket returns between 1972 and 1992were three service firms that excelledin customer service- Circuit City, SouthWest Airlines and Walmart. Thesecompanies sustained high levels ofexcellence owing to their outstandinghuman resources practices that includedshared values, selective recruiting andincentive pay, high levels of employeeparticipation and information sharing,and heavy investments in training, andtheir competitors found it very difficultto match their service performance overa sustained period of time.

Moitrayee Das is currently pursuing

her Ph.D in the field of Management and

Labour Studies from Tata Institute of

Social Sciences, Mumbai.

GUEST COLUMN

ReferencesBoyatzis, R.E.(1982). The competent manager: AModel for effective performance, John Wiley AndSons, New York.Boyatzis, R. E. (2008). Competencies in the 21stcentury. Journal of Management Development,27(1), 5-12Markus, L.,Cooper-Thomas, H. & Allpress, K. (2005).Confounded by Competencies? An evaluation ofthe evolution and use of competency models. New

Zealand Journal of Psychology, 34(2), 117-125.


Q & AQ &

A

Anshul is a Partner with the Corporate

practice group, Khaitan and Co. Mumbai.

Anshul specialises in labour and

employment laws and leads the Firm’s

Employment, Labour and Benefits Practice.

Anshul has advised various prominent

domestic and international clients on issues

related to employment in respect of labour

laws compliance, labour audits, transfer

and relocation of employees pursuant to

business transfers and asset sale and

purchase, social security and employee

benefits, drafting of employment contracts

across levels, human resource and

personnel policy, hiring and termination of

senior management, mid level and

subordinate personnel, workers and labour

union issues, domestic enquiries and exit

strategies, industrial safety and health

policies, government inspections and

representations before the authorities.

Night shifts for female employees:Female employees, in anyestablishment, can work during nightshifts i.e. during 9.30 p.m. and 7.00 a.m.,provided the establishment takes theirconsent. Further, the employer isrequired to ensure that adequateprotection of their dignity, honour andsafety, protection from sexualharassment and their transportationfrom the establishment to theirdoorstep are provided by the employeror his authorised representative ormanager or supervisor.

We are a company having 30 (thirty)employees. We are hiring an expatfrom the U.S. who will be working inour company for 1 (one) month only.Will the company and the expat beliable to contribute to the employeeprovident fund scheme in India?Yes, the company and the expat fromthe U.S. will be liable to contribute tothe employees provident fund schemein India regardless of the number ofdays the expat works for in thecompany.

The Employees' Provident Fundsand Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952("EPF Act") applies to establishmentsemploying 20 (twenty) or morepersons, and to such otherestablishments which are notified bythe Central Government. Further, theEPF Act and the Employees ProvidentFund Scheme, 1952 ("Scheme") makespecial provisions in respect ofinternational workers ("IWs"). InOctober 2008, the Ministry of Labourand Employment made it compulsoryfor international workers ("IWs") tocontribute under the Scheme. Thescope of the EPF Act was accordinglyextended to include IWs. IWs include aforeign national working for anestablishment in India to which the EPFAct is applicable. The Scheme provides

for contributions in respect of an IW inaccordance with its provisions, unlesssuch IW is an 'excluded employee'. Asper the provisions, an excludedemployee, means a detached IWcontributing to the social securityprogramme of his home country andcertified as such by a detachmentcertificate for a specified period inaccordance with the provisions of asocial security agreement entered intobetween India and his home country.Since, the EPF Act is applicable to thecompany and the expat is not an'excluded employee' holding adetachment certificate on account ofIndia not having a notified socialsecurity agreement with the U.S.,contributions to the employeeprovident fund scheme are required tobe made by the company and the expat.

If an employee insured under theEmployees State Insurance Act, 1948("ESI Act") has already claimedbenefits under the ESI Act, can hesubsequently claim benefits underEmployees' Compensation Act, 1923("EC Act")?No, an insured employee under the ESIAct cannot claim benefits under the ECAct on account of the injury sufferedby him during the course ofemployment when he has alreadyreceived the benefits under the ESI Act.The EC Act does not apply to thoseworkers who are insured under the ESIAct. Section 53 of the ESI Act puts a baragainst receiving or recovery ofcompensation for damages under anyother law. It states that "an insuredperson or his dependents shall not beentitled to receive or recover, whetherfrom the employer of the insuredperson or from any other person, anycompensation or damages under theEmployees' Compensation Act, 1923 (8of 1923), or any other law for the time

LAW AT WORK

We have recently set up acompany in Mumbai andhave 50 (fifty) female

employees. What can be the workinghours of a female employee as per law?Are they allowed to work during nightshifts?The working hours and night shifts forfemale employees will be governed bythe Maharashtra Shops andEstablishments (Regulation ofEmployment and Conditions of Service)Act, 2017 ("Act") which applies toestablishments employing 10 (ten) ormore employees. Section 13(2) of theAct provides for the following:

Work Hours of female employees:The Act states that no woman workershall be required to work in anyestablishment except between 7 a.m.to 9.30 p.m.

BY Anshul Prakash


being in force or otherwise, in respectof an employment injury sustained bythe insured person as an employeeunder this Act." Further, Section 61 ofthe ESI Act puts a bar of benefits underother enactments. It states that "whena person is entitled to any of thebenefits provided by this Act, he shallnot be entitled to receive any similarbenefit admissible under the provisionsof any other enactment."

The Supreme Court of India inTrehan Vs. Associated ElectricalAgencies and Anr. [(1996) 4 SCC 255]stated that the ESI Act is a subsequentlegislation and has a wider coverage. Itis more comprehensive and providesfor more compensation than what aworkman would get under the EC Act.The benefits which an employee canget under the ESI Act are moresubstantial than the benefits which he

can get under the WC Act. The courtanalysed the provisions of Section 53of the ESI Act and observed thefollowing: "..In this background andcontext, we have to consider the effectof the bar created by Section 53 of theESI Act. Bar is against receiving orrecovering any compensation ordamages under the Workmen'sCompensation Act or any other law forthe time being in force or otherwise inrespect of an employment injury. Thebar is absolute as can be seen from theuse of the words shall not be entitledto receive or recover, "whether fromthe employer of the insured person orfrom other person", "any compensationor damages" and "under theWorkmen's Compensation Act, 1923 (8of 1923) or, any other law for the timebeing in force or otherwise". The words"employed by the legislature" are clear

LAW AT WORK

and unequivocal. When such a bar iscreated in clear and express terms itwould neither be permissible norproper to enter a different intention byreferring to the previous history of thelegislation. That would amount tobypassing the bar and defeating theobject of the provision. In view of theclear language of the section, we findno justification in interpreting orconstructing it as not taking away theright of the workman who is an insuredperson and an employee under the ESIAct to claim compensation under theWorkmen's Compensation Act…"

In view of the aforesaid, it is clearthat an insured employee under the ESIAct cannot claim benefits under the ECAct on account of the injury suffered byhim during the course of employmentwhen he has already received thebenefits under the ESI Act.

The National Commission onLabour (NCL), in 1969,described the unorganized

sector as that segment of theworkforce that had been unable toorganize itself to pursue a commonobjective, owing to factors such as thecasual nature of their employment,ignorance and illiteracy, smaller sizeand scattered nature ofestablishments, lower capitalinvestment, and higher bargainingpower of the employer.1 Using thisstandard, over 90% of India’sworkforce stands employed in the

unorganized sector.2 More recently,in 2008, the National Commission forEnterprises in the Unorganised Sector(NCEUS) defined it as, “Allunincorporated private enterprisesowned by individuals and householdsengaged in the sale and productionof goods and services operated on aproprietary or partnership basis andwith less than ten total workers.”3

However, the diversity andcomplexity of the unorganized sector,coupled with a dearth of informationregarding working conditions of itsmembers has often been cited as a

Unorganised Sector -Challenges, RegulationAnd The Way Forward

BY Anshul Prakash

barrier to a separate, uniformlegislation to regulate the sector.While there is no express exclusionfor the unorganized sector in Indianlabour law legislations, workers fromthis sector often do not qualify forprotection since they do not meetthe criteria of number of workers orlevel of organisation. They aredeprived of employment securityagainst arbitrary dismissal, worksecurity against workplace accidents,as well as social security.

The first and foremost obstacle inthe path of regulation has been the


lack of a single defining criterion toidentify those belonging to theunorganized sector, as reflected in theplethora of definitions that have beenproposed. While it is insufficient tostate that the unorganized sectorconstitutes the residual remainingafter excluding the organized sector,the sector cannot be defined on thebasis of the nature of workundertaken by its members either.Workers in this sector are engaged in

fields ranging from agriculture,handicrafts and textiles to informationtechnology. The number of workersis also an inadequate measure, sincethe person could be self-employed,or working in a smallscale industry.These factors render a classificationbased on level of organisationimpossible as well.4 In this light, whilethe definition proposed by the NCLhas been scrutinised for being toobroad to be adopted for legalregulation, it avoids the pitfalls ofbeing exclusive of several sub-sections of the sector, and is morewidely accepted than that of theNCEUS, which seeks to make anexclusion based on the number ofworkers.

A second factor impeding effectivelegal regulation has been theheightened influence of socialstructures such as caste, religion,gender, class, educational factors etc.,all of which play a key role in howeconomic activity is structured in theunorganized sector. As a result of this,laws and regulations governing

discrimination, child labour, credit,technology, financial access, etc. arelikely to impact this sector differentlyfrom the formal sector.5 It is,therefore, vital to look beyond purelyeconomic factors, at the socialstructures forming the base forproduction, consumption anddistribution in this sector.

Further, the Government generallyleans in favour of formalization ofthe unorganized sector. Instead of

recognizing the sector and itscontribution per se (the unorganizedsector has been estimated tocontribute over 50% to the GDP)6 andregulating it to extend benefits similarto those availed by the organizedsector without altering itscharacteristics, the State has oftenchosen to change its fundamental

nature. It is viewed as an unregulated,‘rogue’ sector working to erode theformal sector, responsible for cash-intensive and even illegal transactions.The Government seeks to propagatethe formal sector as the norm thatall labour must eventually becomepart of.7 This attitude is often citedas the reason underlying theGovernment’s lax attitude inextending the benefits ofemployment, social security and skill-development legislations and schemesto the informal sector, since the focusis often on formalization.

The demonetisation drive, GSTmeasures aiming to create a tax-trail,the Aadhar obsession all seem to begeared towards ostracizing theinformal.8 For instance, one of thestated objectives of demonetizationwas “formalization of the economy”9,which has had the ultimate impact ofan unprecedented drop inemployment throughout the cash-intensive unorganized sector. TheGovernment seems to haveoverlooked the capacity of the formalsector to integrate those who lost theirjobs, leading to widespreadunemployment. In a study, the AllIndia Manufacturers’ Organisationreported that till December 31, 2016,60% job losses were reported with a47% dip in revenue in the sector ofsmall-scale traders, shops and microindustries, as opposed to a 3% joband 7% revenue loss in mediumindustries, and 2% job and 3% revenuedips in large-scale industries.10

To be Continued....

LAW AT WORK

1 Government of India, Report of National Commission on Labour (1969) p. 417.

2 http://indianexpress.com/article/cities/chandigarh/90-indian-workforce-in-unorganised-sector-deprived-of-welfare-schemes-says-justice-t-s-thakur/

3 http://www.forbesindia.com/article/iim-bangalore/indias-informal-sector-the-vilifiedglorified-other-side-of-the-formal/47245/1

4 http://www.prsindia.org/uploads/media/1237548159/NLCII-report.pdf


6 http://nceuis.nic.in/Final_Booklet_Working_Paper_2.pdf. See also https://thewire.in/202256/gst-demonetisation-economic-growth/ for how the output from the organized sector to the GDPis inadequately captured.



9 http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/arun-jaitley-demonetisation-rbi-report/1/1037368.html

10 https://thewire.in/195278/unprecedented-job-losses-wage-decline-unorganised-sector-post-demonetisation/

R.N.I. No. 66615/1997Postal Regn. No. DL-SW-1/4022/2015-16-17Date of printing: 28th January 2018

Date of posting: 29-30 January 2018 atPSO, New Delhi-110001

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