HR Learning: 28 Sep, 2020

1.

Five ways leaders can accelerate innovation in their organisation

The pandemic has forced organisations to press the reset button. However, leaders can act as catalysts in this resetting process in more ways than one. Leaders are at the forefront of this change and tasked with giving direction to their organisations, to successfully emerge from this crisis unscathed. It starts with changing mindsets and building resilience. Organisationally, achieving or improving resilience includes building a more agile operating model; ensuring that the workforce has the right capability set; nurturing organisational relationships; sharing data in real time; displaying and promoting leadership that engenders trust, supports creativity and innovation. Reimagine the new normal, Accelerate digitisation and automation for distributed workforce, Ensure collaboration, flexibility, inclusion and accountability, Build team resilience and adaptability, Encourage agility and innovation, are the five ways to accelerate innovation in an organisation.

2.

Flexi hours, WFH most desired by APAC workers: Study

The report has further shown a greater focus on self-care and well-being among the workers and is one of the top three priorities for them. It seems that as we progress into the future, more people are becoming accustomed to the new way of working and would want to retain some aspects of their current work-life post COVID as well. Almost 90 per cent of the workers in the Asia-Pacific region, including Australia, Malaysia and Singapore, are against returning to the ‘old normal’ way of work. It can be gathered that few aspects of the new normal have been greatly beneficial for employees, Organisations that revise their hiring and policies and concentrate on their future learning and development in these areas will benefit immensely “in terms of available talent, employee engagement and retention,” concludes Cairnes. The study has been conducted by Skillsoft through a survey of more than 2,300 workers and people about to enter the workforce across Australia, Malaysia and Singapore.

 

3.

How to lead an agile team to success in uncertain times.

Given the rapid rate at which things are changing and digitisation is forcing industries to level up leaders need to adopt an agile mindset and ensure that their organisations quickly get into the agile mode or risk falling behind in the race. There is a popular quip doing the rounds on social-media platforms about this whole resetting thing and chances are you may have come across it, too. It asks the reader whether anyone knows how to turn off the year 2020 and turn it on again. It is accompanied by an image of a reset button. In reality, however, many things in life do not have a reset button. Given the rapid rate at which things are changing and digitisation is forcing industries to level up, many shifts have taken place in the past couple of months — from consumers’ buying behaviors to organisations re-engineering their business models. To keep pace, leaders need to adopt an agile mindset and ensure that their organisations quickly get into the agile mode or risk falling behind in the race. Lay the foundation for high-performing teams, Create a growth-oriented environment, Coach your teams to success, Practice transparency in communication, is the way to lead an agile mindset.

HR Movement: 28 Sep, 2020

1.

K Padmakumar, director-HR, BPCL, takes additional charge as CMD

He has taken on this additional responsibility after D Rajkumar, who was the CMD earlier, retired last month. Leaders are at the forefront of this change and tasked with giving direction to their organisations, to successfully emerge from this crisis unscathed. It starts with changing mindsets and building resilience. Organisationally, achieving or improving resilience includes building a more agile operating model; ensuring that the workforce has the right capability set; nurturing organisational relationships; sharing data in real time; displaying and promoting leadership that engenders trust, supports creativity and innovation. Reimagine the new normal, Accelerate digitisation and automation for distributed workforce, Ensure collaboration, flexibility, inclusion and accountability, Build team resilience and adaptability, Encourage agility and innovation, are the five ways to accelerate innovation in an organisation.

2.

Palash Aggrawal appointed group head-HR, LT Foods

Aggrawal, who has moved from Grupo Bimbo (India), where he was head-HR, has three decades of experience in HR leadership. LT Foods has announced the appointment of Palash Aggrawal as group head, HR. Backed by 30 years of diverse experience in HR leadership roles, across industries, Aggrawal was earlier leading HR at Grupo Bimbo (India). In his previous assignment, Aggrawal was responsible for integration of Grupo Bimbo’s culture with the acquired Indian organisation. He implemented global people policies and practices, such as talent management, organisation structure, defining grades and levels, compensation and benefit policies, and so on.

 

3.

Ritesh Agrawal, head-HR, Quess Corp, moves on after two-year stint.

Agrawal, who has two decades of experience in various sectors is yet to decide his next step After a two-year stint as head-HR, Quess Corp, Ritesh Agrawal, has decided to call it quits. Confirming the news to HRKatha, Agrawal says that he plans to take a short break to consider various options before deciding on the next step. An alumnus of XLRI, Jamshedpur, Agrawal has over 20 years of diverse experience across FMCG, BFSI, IT and services sectors. Having begun his career with Essar Steel, as engineer- mechanical maintenance, Agrawal moved on to Arvind as management trainee in 1999. In the over two years that he spent there, he was exposed to HR processes and systems, and went on to become manager- C&B. Agrawal, who is currently serving the notice period at Quess, will be moving out by end of October. He plans to relax for some time and “carefully consider different opportunities and take a call over the next few weeks.” Till then, he wishes to focus on publishing his first fiction (humour), which is titled, Tell me something about yourself.

HR News: 28 Sep, 2020

 1.

Will terminating underperformers safeguard the remote working setup from toxicity?

Performance assessment in a remote working setup can be as challenging as dealing with underperformers say HR experts. The pandemic has led to a majority of the workforce working from home. With remote working come several challenges, most of which revolve around people management. Allowing employees to work from their homes — amidst a host of domestic distractions, and without any supervision at all— makes it difficult to distinguish the productive ones from the slackers. Tackling underperformers has been a challenge for many managers and organisations are finding their own ways to deal with it. All are in favour for having a dialogue with low performers — through mentoring, coaching, digital learning — and figuring out the actual problem. They believe that having a conversation with such employees can help them get back on track. They are not alone here. Many HR managers across the world too believe there is nothing that dialogue cannot fix. In these times, when people are confined to their homes, empathy and compassion have become the cornerstone for assessing employee performance as part of a team. However, if push comes to shove, some decisive action will have to be taken.

 

2.

CMS to hire 1,000, expand team of collection agents

The cash-management services company is expanding its network in rural and semi-urban towns, where maximum population continues to use cash for payments. CMS Info Systems is gearing to expand its workforce by 1,000 over the next two months, and may be even more in the next financial year. Having signed up with many organisations, such as Mahindra Finance, L&T Finance and Hero FinCorp, for cash and cheque collections, CMS has a network of over 115,000 ATMs and retail outlets across almost 94 per cent of districts in the country. With CMS set to expand into cash collections for its partner banks, microfinance companies and non-banking financial firms, the new hires, who will mainly be employed as collection agents, will be offered a minimum salary of Rs 30,000 per month.

 

3.

Indian Railways engages over 12,276 workers in projects across 6 states

Under the Garib Kalyan Rozgar Abhiyan, about Rs 2,190 cr have been released for projects generating a million man-days of work. The 125-day Garib Kalyan Rozgar Abhiyan has given employment to about 12,276 workers and generated about 10,66,246 man-days of work as on September 25, 2020. The scheme has benefitted migrant workers across Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and Rajasthan, who have received employment opportunities in various railway infrastructure projects in these states. The Railway Ministry has revealed that a sum of about Rs 2,190 crores has been released for these projects. A total amount of Rs 50,000 crores has been set aside for this employment generation programme. The initiative will cover construction and maintenance of approach roads for level crossings; development and cleaning of silted waterways, trenches and drains along the tracks; construction and maintenance of approach roads to railway stations; repair and widening of existing railway embankments; planting of trees at the extreme boundary of railway land and protection works of existing embankments, bridges, etc.