The Power of ‘People’

You may have the best strategy and the best infrastructure in the world but if you do not have the best people to work with, none of this would help. It is true that we bet on ‘People’. Managing them all, the industry has reached a very interesting point today, evolving from ‘Welfare Managers’ to Human Resource Managers’ to one of the key drivers of an organisation, ‘The HR Business Partner’, as we call them today.

Echoing this transition and applauding the HR industry leaders who pull the companies to the levels incomparable, BW Businessworld hosted the most thought-provoking gathering of the Human Resource ecosystem, ‘HR Conclave 2017’ in New Delhi. The summit marked the launch of BW Businessworld community magazine, BW People, focussed on the emerging and ever changing dynamics of the HR industry.

Bringing together the top HR heads, industry leaders, skilling and education industry experts, the summit was honoured by the Union Minister of State for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, Government of India, Rajiv Pratap Rudy.

While the minister stressed on the importance of skilling people and how his ministry is creating processes to ensure the same, he emphasised on changing the perception of job creation in the country.

“Today, 2.3 million skilled workforce comes out of ITIs in India and we don’t really see them as skilled and give them any respect. My ministry will ensure that 10 years from now, students crave and aspire to be a part of ITI’s in India. We are planning to create a National Board for students who pass ITI’s so that they can also give exams at par with students from ICSE and CBSE board,” said the minister.

The one day event saw discussions varying from the evolving role of HR to the creation of employable talent. The tone of the summit was set up by the panel discussion on the ‘Evolving role of HR manager- From a payroll function to people culture officer’.

With the technology seeping in the system, Sandeep Tyagi of Samsung Electronics shared the changing dynamics, “HR people are no more just the managers but leaders who continuously collaborate with other functional roles.” Adding to that, Arijit Sengupta, HR Director, Adidas India said how the physical spaces would be evaporating and the future is virtual. The only way to deal with this change is to be proactive in its acceptance.

As more and more millennials join the workplace, they bring along their own set of challenges. Biplob Banerjee, HR head, Jubliant Foodworks stated how the expectation of this young workforce is different and hence the management needs to be diverse. Similar sentiments were echoed by Sandip Dhir, Chief HRM, Tata Steel.

“We have created an online workplace on Facebook for 16,000 employees where they share information related to work on real time basis. Also more than 500 groups have been created to address the work related issues,” said Rahul Taneja, HR Head of Jet Airways. Amitabh Akhauri, CHRO, Jindal Stainless was also a part of the discussion and laid emphasis on personal growth development of employees.

Talking about the stereotypical branding in the society, Surabhi Mittal, Vice President, HR at Lanxees said that women are so conditioned in their societal roles that the concept of individuality gets disturbed. Hence policies should be determined to instigate change of mindset.

On blurring the lines between men and women professionals, Jyotsana Ghoshal, corporate affairs at Merck Sharp & Dohme said, “It all depends on the ecosystem. It depends on the value that one brings into the system and how policies are generated to strengthen the ecosystem.”

“The challenges faced by women at workplace, vary depending on the stage of their career. Policies on inclusion should not be designed around ‘one shoe fits all,” said Akila Agarwal, corporate lawyer at Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas and an M&A specialist.

According to several surveys, the forecast has in it that humongous job losses will happen due to increasing robotics and automation. What lies ahead and how to prepare ourselves for the rude reality?

Commenting on the same, Ashish Anand, Director & Head of HR at Religare Finvest said, “Robotics and automation are the hot topics in today’s world. We will see new changes in the future. Robots will replace the human being in some work. Then we need to think how we can meet this change by upskilling current assets, human capital and HR resources.”

Gracing the summit, Manish Sisodia, Deputy Chief Minister, New Delhi, talked about the development of the overall skill set of the workforce.

“I completely understand the call of the employers when they say, ‘What we need and not what is being taught’ and we are trying to focus on bridging this disconnectivity on high priority”, said Sisodia. He also mentioned how the stigma related to the certification courses in the country needs to be removed and prepare the future workforce accordingly.

Talking about the skilling factor, the industry leaders conveyed how it’s high time that India Inc. stuck out their necks, instead of complaining and work in collaboration with the government to skill the future workforce.