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Friday 10 March 2023

HR Learning: 10 Mar, 2023

1.

It’s high time companies compose the song of dreams for their employees, suggests Nitin Thakur

 

As employee engagement becomes the need of the hour, Nitin Thakur, L&D Head at Jindal Stainless suggests that organisations need to align their goals with their employees’ personal and professional growth. The pandemic has shown us the worst situations but it has also brought some of the strongest epiphanies for leaders. A question for today's community is, how long can we go without instilling purpose and clarity in employees? Nitin Thakur, proposes, “Dreams are the most powerful energy. If companies can make their employees hungry for their goals while aligning it with that of the business’, it’s going to prosper day in and day out.” viding short-term vocational training courses with 100% placement opportunities”. One of the greatest experiences both for the leaders and the HR was this realisation of the significance of employee well-being. Companies became conscious of the fact that letting people go is not an easy task. One decision impacts numerous lives as families bear the repercussions. As they lose people, loss of brand-name also accompanies. This observation pushed leaders to shoulder a greater responsibility towards a greater ecosystem. With this realisation settled, panic was about this one word - redundancy. The solution was - being future-ready. As we navigate through a world with rising digital dependence and constant change, it was, now, important for leaders to equip their employees with needful future skills. Both employees and employers saw that if they won’t keep up with the pace of time, their jobs will lose their shine and succumb to redundancy. 

2.

Why are companies investing in training freshers?

The objective is to obtain business efficiency through the existing workforce, rather than incurring more costs on hiring more resources. 82 per cent of the learning and development (L&D) budgets by companies is being spent on training freshers, reveals  a recent report by global ed-tech company Great Learning.

Employee training has today evolved to become an essential growth engine that drives businesses forward. Organisations are encouraging employees of all experience levels, from freshers to CXOs, to upskill and reskill, specifically to improve efficiency in business.

The objective is to obtain business efficiency through the existing workforce, rather than incurring more costs on hiring more resources.  

A significant proportion of the investment is directed towards training of fresh graduates to equip them with additional skills not covered by college curricula. Initiatives for mid- and senior-level executives focus on data-driven decision-making and technical training to help them keep pace with market trends. The Indian chapter for the second edition of the ‘Upskilling Trends Report 2023’ helps understand the trends that shaped the professional upskilling landscape in India last year and can guide individuals and enterprises to chalk out the path forward to stay competitive in 2023 and beyond. The success of a skill development programme is no longer measured by only the number of hours the employee spends getting trained. Employers are now more attentive to other factors that contribute to the ROI, and these include:

·       Reduction in time to make freshers billable

·       Increase in skill capability based on certified employees

·       Greater internal mobility and improved retention

·       Decrease in employees’ time spent on the bench.   

3.

Ethics by design: Steps to building an effective ethics programme

Ethics in the hybrid world of work is throwing up new challenges for the world of business. Here’s how to think about bringing about lasting change. In a marketplace where competition is fierce, businesses that prioritise ethics and social responsibility stand out from the crowd, earn customer loyalty, and build long-term success.

Ethically run businesses are sustainable, impactful and transformative. But ethics should not be confused with just legal compliance. For many new companies, start-ups and those on the lower end of the maturity scale, ethics is often conflated with values and vision statements. But companies today need to go beyond that and implement tactical measures that will move the needle beyond good intentions.

To better understand the roadmap that companies need to take, Integrity Matters in partnership with People Matters conducted a webinar on the topic “Ethics by Design: Steps to Building an Effective Ethics Programme,” Speaking about the shifting trends in ethics and business, Yatish Mamniya, Partner, Integrity Matters noted that “the median ethics report volume for 1000 employees was 7 per cent in 2018. During the pandemic in 2020, it went down to 2.3 per cent. And now we’re at 5 per cent.”

The research offers us a glimpse of how the culture of speaking up may have changed over the past few years, as businesses navigate new terrains of the modern workplace.  While businesses have faced similar challenges post-pandemic, there’s increased complexity that the hybrid workplace has brought to the fore.

“The biggest challenge is to do with belongingness,” said Anjali Raghuvanshi, Chief People Officer, Randstad India. “How do you cascade an organisation's values and principles to people when you don't see them every day? Also, in the hybrid workplace, it's the individual or the self that tends to take precedence in ethical matters,” she added.

The rise of social media, and the ever-present cell phone, which could also be used to record anything anytime are changing how industries and customers especially in the services sector are capturing ethical violations. It is also the cause of tremendous stress and concern.

“Data privacy is emerging as a key focus area even as there’s a massive technology and social transition. It’s a continuous concern. As a country that’s traditionally had high power distance, how do you enable reporting of ethics complaints? ” asked Dr Sajiv Madhavan, Business Excellence – Head and Chief Risk & Sustainability Officer, Tata Elxsi

As the modern workforce adapts to changing dynamics such as remote work and societal shifts towards issues like climate change, gender equality, and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), it is crucial for companies to proactively reassess their process and system designs. Failing to do so risks falling behind in a rapidly evolving business landscape. Dr Sajiv shared a multi-dimensional approach to designing an ethics framework. “If we look at it from the perspective of human capital, financial capital, and social capital, it can provide a better understanding of what needs to be done,” he noted.

In terms of human capital, there’s a need to ensure that there are adequate learning and communication methods that reach all levels of the organization, including external parties where necessary. Third-party involvement is crucial in identifying blind spots in the system.

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