Panel Discussion-2 - Wisdom Learning Series (HR Club Activity)

1.      Ms. Gunjan Karthik, HR – Business Head, India, Glenmark Pharmaceuticals, Mr. Sanket Salvi, Human Resources Business Partner, Serdia Pharmaceuticals (I) Ltd. And Ms. Shree Agarwal, Human Resources Manager, Reliance Infrastructure Ltd., was able to communicate fine with 103 students of PGDM, 1^st Year, Batch 2016-18, on Saturday, 25^th February 2017 in Seminar hall 601, 6^th Floor.

2.      The topic was, ‘Career Planning: Campus to corporate transitions’.

3.      Mrs. Merlyn Michael D’souza, Faculty-in-charge, HR Club Matrix moderated the discussion with introspective comments at the beginning, in-between and at the end of the session.

4.      Ms. Shree Agarwal initiated the discussion with an ice-breaker of a ‘thumb-exercise’ to demonstrate the significance of change/ transition.

a.       She addressed various transitions students will face in terms of dress code, discipline, competence, six-sigma for the workplace and work-life balance.

b.      She explained the nuances of appraisal systems to the budding learning managers stressing on the importance of being educated over being trained.

c.       In reply to a query from  student, she suggested that IESMCRC’s current six sigma programme should be enriched by adding one team member to play the role of an out-of-the box thinker.

d.      She supplied students with reflective thoughts in the form of handouts and they were to reflect on them each day and generate responses.

5.      Ms. Gunjan walked around the Hall and made the session quite lively by asking questions to the audience on what careers meant to them and why they chose their specialisations.

a.       She advised the students that getting placed is not as important as after getting placed and creating a mindshare in the minds of your employer based on elevated performance or competences.

b.      She related various OD interventions in an audio-visual format as a 3-step procedure of identifying problems, seeing the team contribution to its solution and continuing the ongoing process.

c.       She urged all students to have equal focus on work-life balance.

6.      Mr. Sanket Salvi walked and talked the business language in terms of strategic models relevant to HR, Marketing and Finance.

a.       He said that every manager is an HR manager.

b.      He explained how branding in marketing is applicable to HR when we talk of employer branding.

c.       He guided a student on how HR analytics validated the Finance department measures to approve budgets for talent acquisition and learning & development programmes.

7.      On the whole, the session was enlightening and there was a good tête-à-tête with finer points traded by students and the Guest Speakers.

8.      Visit the links below for this Panel Discusssion and our other HR Club Guest Lectures:

A.     https://iesmcrc-hrclub.blogspot.in/2017/02/panel-discussion-2-wisdom-learning.html

B.      https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/its-wisdom-learning-series-hr-club

      C.   https://twitter.com/hrclub2

 PGDM student introducing the speakers, (L-R) Ms. Gunjan, Ms. Shree, Mr. Sanket

The 3 Panelists present on the dais while being introduced

HR Club Faculty-in-charge, Mrs. Merlyn Michael presenting 

Ms. Gunjan Karthik, HR- India Business Head, Glenmark with a memento

 HR Club Faculty-in-charge, Mrs. Merlyn Michael presenting, 

Ms. Shree Agarwal, HR Manager, Reliance Infrastructure with a memento

HR Club Faculty-in-charge, Mrs. Merlyn Michael presenting 

Mr. Sanket Salvi, HR Business Partner, Serdia Pharma(I)  with a memento

Mrs. Merlyn Michael D'souza., moderating the discussion

Mrs. Shree sharing her views on careers & appraisals in corporate transtions

 Mrs. Gunjan on Organisation Development needs for all specialisations

Mr. Sanket on business models in HR related to Marketing, Finance, IT and Operations.

HR learning: 26 feb, 2017

1.

65% of Indian IT employees are not re-trainable.

Capgemini Indias head cautions against the challenges that the Indian IT sector faces. 

Srinivas Kandula, Capgemini India’s chief executive believes that 60-65% of IT employees are not trainable. At the Nasscom leadership summit in Mumbai, he said that a large number of people employed in the IT cannot be trained according to the shift in nature of work, and India is likely to witness unemployment in the middle and senior level in the future, reports a publication. The Indian division of the French company employs a hundred thousand engineers in the country.

Concerns about the quality of education and training imparted at institutes were also raised, as Srinivas stated that a big chunk of the 3.9 million IT employees come from low-grade engineering colleges, wherein grading patterns for students are inefficient. Noting that the quality of graduates joining the sector is abysmally low, he said that many of them are not able to answer what subjects they were taught in the final semester of their engineering.

He added that since more number of students are hired from lower grade engineering colleges than before, an increase in the wages has been negative by a significant margin. He explained that two decades ago freshers were offered Rs. 2.25 lakh per annum, whereas today they are offered Rs. 3.5 lakh, which effectively means that real wages have decreased significantly, after adjusting for inflation. Furthermore, Kandula also said that the drive to secure returns from their investments has prevented investors from investing in upgrading the skill set of employees according to the changing nature of work in newer, digital technologies.  

2.

Training: Secret to business success?

The latest LinkedIn report shows us that, to stay ahead, employers should be asking if they are skilling up employees with the most relevant and consistent training.

Market economics indicates that the thin line between success and failure of a business entire depends on how efficiently, the overheads, especially the largest cost, i.e. manpower is managed. It is therefore no surprise that organizations today expect their employees to be at their productive best and are working with them to instill self-service analyics when it comes to self-service visual discovery.

Consider Star Health and Allied Insurance - a leading player in the Indian private insurance sector which was facing a tough time generating reports around claims and product development. The primary challenge was the dependence on an external vendor which made the analytics and reporting process slower, and costlier. After deliberations with multiple stakeholders, Star Health adopted a new solution personifying self-service analytics, offering the ability to generate reports internally without vendor dependency. Today over 400 employees interact and view the reports generated inhouse leading to reduction in report generation time to one tenth of original and also this has also reduced its expenses considerably.

Employees with adaptable and collaborative working environments tend to be more productive and efficient with their work. The same thought can be applied to internal training through providing cross-department opportunities.  For example, bringing the marketing team alongside the sales team to learn about latest negotiation techniques.  Or sharing new technology tools across departments so that teams understand the ultimate benefits to the business.

This allows employees to improve their proficiency levels within their role and outside of their current responsibilities. Additionally, it can  motivate employees to learn how processes work throughout the business, from start to finish and how they contribute to the final results. 

This may seem obvious but providing training that is relevant to not just the role but to the broader industry landscape is vital for the continuing success of your business. Matching skills and jobs has become a high-priority for many businesses which now recognise that skills are a critical asset for employee motivation and retention. 

What does this mean for employers?  Ensure you are aware of what’s happening in your industry – the latest trends, research and developments – so that you bring bigger picture thinking to the kind of training you offer.  With this perspective, you’ll be well placed to offer the most relevant training to employees.

There will always be new competitors and innovations popping up. The latest LinkedIn report shows us that, to stay ahead, employers should be asking if they are skilling up employees with the most relevant and consistent training. To those that think of training as a ‘nice to have’ incentive, think again. In today’s business environment, ignoring the development of important skills now could mean losing out tomorrow.

3.

Genpact partners with Ivy Knowledge, launches Executive Program

The collaborative arrangement will facilitate the creation of a joint quantitative risk analytics program to develop industry-oriented knowledge and skills in the field of risk analytics with an accent on the banking and financial services sector.

Genpact , a global leader in digitally-powered business process management and services, has partnered with Ivy Knowledge Services for an executive training program for working professionals to build talent in risk analytics.     

The collaborative arrangement will facilitate the creation of a joint quantitative risk analytics program to develop industry-oriented knowledge and skills in the field of risk analytics with an accent on the banking and financial services sector.

The rigorous three-month executive program will train industry professionals to provide real-time intelligent information and insights to customers, regulators, partners, and other groups in an increasingly digitally connected world. Besides improving employability of professionals in the face of changing work requirements, this program will also help generate a steady stream of professionals, including data scientists, in the field of financial risk analytics.

HR News: 26 Feb, 2017

1.

Snapdeal’s internal mail confirms layoffs, salary cuts

In a recent official mail to the entire staff, founders Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal admitted to the need to tighten the belt and in the process, let go of some people.

The suspicions around Snapdeal’s plans to cut down its workforce have turned out to be true, and the situation looks extremely grim. In a recent official mail to the entire staff, founders Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal admitted to having made mistakes in the past, and to correct its course the company will have to tighten its belt and in the process, let go of some people.
The internal official mail that the founders sent to the staff, of which HRKatha has a copy, they said, “As part of our overall path to profitability plan, which is currently in full swing, we will be reorganising the company into a lean, focussed, and entrepreneurial one. We are combining teams, reducing layers, eliminating non-core projects and strengthening the focus on profitable growth. Sadly, we will also be saying really painful goodbyes to some of our colleagues in this process.”
As per the mail, both the founders have also pledged not to take a salary, for an unspecified period, while a few other senior officials may also be voluntarily taking a cut in their salaries. “We believe that every resource of the company should be deployed for driving us towards profitable growth and with this announcement, both Rohit and I are taking a 100 per cent salary cut,” they wrote.

2.

Facebook goes the LinkedIn way: New feature allows jobs posting

Employers will now be able to post job openings on their Facebook page.

With talent and organisations going social and mobile, it is no wonder that even search, selection and recruitment are happening online. The boundaries between the social and the professional seem to be blurring as people connect both formally and informally over social media. Realising the depth and scope of interactions between job-seekers and businesses, Facebook recently launched a new feature that allows employers to post job openings on their Facebook page.
Although the new feature is presently applicable only to businesses in the US and Canada, it seems the same will gain huge traction all over the globe soon. “We're focussed on building new ways to help make it easier for businesses to interact with the over 1 billion people visiting Pages every month. Businesses and people already use Facebook to fill and find jobs, so we're rolling out new features that allow job posting and application directly on Facebook,” the company mentioned in an official blog.
For the job seekers, the new feature has an ‘Apply Now’ button that opens a form pre-populated with the information they provided when they opened a Facebook account, including name, cell number and e-mail as well as any education and employer information listed in their profile. The form also prompts one to explain in a 1,000 characters, or roughly 250 words, why they feel they’re the best candidate for the position.

3.

Microsoft’s Project Sangam to aid skilling and hiring in India.

The learning platform blends together Microsoft’s cloud technologies and LinkedIn’s job-search capabilities.
Microsoft recently launched Sangam, a skilling-cum-job search/hiring platform, which showcased its cloud and mobile technologies driving digital transformation across large, medium and small enterprises, and across government departments in India.
CEO, Satya Nadella, spoke at the company’s event—Future Decoded—where he also announced a new offering—Skype Lite—for mobile-first and mobile-only markets. Skype Lite allows communication and collaboration over low-bandwidth networks and will bring Aadhaar integration to the app, by June 2017.
Nadella introduced Project Sangam as a blended learning platform that brings together Microsoft’s cloud technologies and LinkedIn’s job-search capabilities. Project Sangam can create a life-long skilling platform for Indian workers. Nadella also mentioned Kaizala, a productivity app that helps organisations connect with mobile-only users to get work done on a simple and secure chat interface.

HR Movements: 26 Feb, 2017

1.

FreeCharge CEO, Govind Rajan resigns

Chief Executive of FreeCharge Govind Rajan resigns from his post and Jason Kothari to take charge of operations. 

Within nine months of his appointment, Govind Rajan CEO of FreeCharge has decided to quit from his position. 
Rajan submitted his resignation on Tuesday and same was accepted by the company. On his departure Rajan said, it was privilege for him to lead FreeCharge operations at times rapid growth and user focused innovation. He wished and hoped that company would achieve greater heights and success.  Also, he looks forward for facilitating smooth transition over next few weeks. 
The reasons for his resignation are still unclear. But as per some media reports, this can be due to failure of payments subsidiary of online marketplace Snapdeal to raise funds 
Ex- Housing.com CEO , Jason Kothari will lead the operations of FreeCharge now. He has joined Snapdeal last month only as chief strategy and Investment officer. The business operations of FreeCharge will fall under his present overall responsibilities.

3.

Gurprriet Siingh joins Korn Ferry Hay Group as Senior Client Partner

Gurprriet was earlier the Director & Country Head at YSC India.

Gurprriet Siingh has joined the Korn Ferry Hay Group as the Senior Client Partner. Prior to this, Gurprriet was working with the leadership consultancy YSC India as the Director & Country Head.
According to his LinkedIn profile, at YSC, Gurprriet’s role was about De-risking and Developing Organizational Leadership: CXO Level Executive Coaching, Executive Profiling and Assessments, Top management offsites and Leadership Team development and Coaching. He was also responsible for High Potential identification and development, leveraging YSC's proprietary model for Potential, Organizational Culture Change, Business Development and Strategic Client Management.
Gurprriet is also the Member Board of Director at School for Social Entrepreneurs India – an NGO, a business mentor to Amplifi SaaS Accelerator, and in the India Advisory Board Member in Newcastle University. 
His varied experiences include starting two business ventures of his own, and also has worked with reputed corporates such as Welspun, RPG Group, Convergys in different capacities.

4.

Softbank's Group COO Jonathan Bullock quits Snapdeal, Ola Boards

David Thevenon likely to take over from Bullock, and join the Ola and Snapdeal Boards.

Jonathan Bullock – Softbank Group COO and MD has resigned from the boards of its two investee companies in India – Snapdeal and Ola. According to sources, David Thevenon, Softbank’s MD is likely to replace Bullock and join Ola and Snapdeal boards. 

Bullock has also resigned from the board of Housing.com.

In one of the regulatory filings issued on Friday, Bullock said he was resigning from the boards of both start-ups due to “personal reasons and other obligations.”

“Please be informed that due to other obligations, I will no longer continue as a director of ANI Technologies Pvt Ltd and wish to be relieved of my duties and responsibilities with effect from January 16, 2017. Accordingly I hereby tender my resignation which may be accepted at the earliest,” Bullock said in one of the filings.

Bullock wrote a similarly worded email to the board of directors at Snapdeal and Housing.com.

Bullock had joined the boards of the three companies after former SoftBank president Nikesh Arora quit those boards in early 2015.