Guest Lecture-3 - Wisdom Learning Series (HR Club Activity)

1.      Ms. Vibha Bhonsle, Assistant Vice-President, Star India Pvt. Ltd., was able to relate well with 30 students of HR Specialisation – (MMS and PGDM, 1^st Year, Batch 2016-18, MMS and PGDM, 2^nd Year, Batch 2015-17).

2.      This was held on Wednesday, 8^th February 2017 in Class Room 304, 3^rd Floor, on the topic, ‘Career development options in HR’.

3.      She shared her 10+ years of experience highlighting the different career paths in HRM in terms of an HR generalist profile or HR specialist profile.

4.      She summed up all the functions of HRM in a nut-shell of three words, “To attract, to retain and to develop”.

5.      She probed into the different reasons why the students choose HR as their specialisation, for instance people-centric and others.

6.      She explained terms in HR with reference to its functions like recruitment and selection, employee retention, learning and development, compensation and benefits, HR analytics, performance management systems, career planning and human resource information systems.

7.      She explained how ‘emotional quotient’ is important in empathizing with employees, how business acumen is a must, how numerical data use is utilized to achieve profit margins, meet sales targets and so on.

On the whole, the session was supportive of HRM practices and there was a good conversation with facts.

IESMCRC HR club - HR matrix student, introducing the Guest, 

Ms. Vibha Bhonsle, AVP, Star India 

Ms. Vibha Bhonsle, AVP, Star India Pvt. Ltd., accepting the memento

Ms. Vibha, AVP, Star India Pvt. Ltd., answering a student's question on HR career planning.

 Students listening with rapt attention to the Guest speaker.

HR learning: 6 Feb, 2017

1.

How L&D can change organisations.

The more organisations focus on the learning and development (L&D) of their employees, the more they stand to benefit in the long run. 

As per the laws of human life, people enter the workforce once they complete their education. As a result, it is only natural for them to think that their education is over but they are mistaken; their real education, in fact, is just starting. Theoretical knowledge just helps to get one started. Real-life ground experience is what true learning is. Organisations, in addition to being productive places of work, are the real-life B-Schools.

The more organisations focus on the learning and development (L&D) of their employees, the more they stand to benefit in the long run. It's an investment that would pay off when the workers know they craft better than anyone and contribute their honed talents to better the bottom lines. Plus, if you're worried about your employee retention, rest assured once you put an effective learning roadmap in place the retention rate is going to improve drastically. Employees know that they add immense value to the output of their organisation; it is only fair that the workplace contributes towards their learning and development.

In light of this, we have seen investment in leadership development, and L&D as a whole has grown over the last two or three years. While this is a good head start, organisations still have a long way to go in terms of L&D. Currently, the major challenge facing L&D service providers comes in the form of business metrics. Organisations need to see return on investments and hence they are constantly asking to show impact of L&D programs and how it changes the business outcomes. The need of the hour is for L&D service providers to step up their game to show the impact their programmes will have on the overall business.  

2.

Kohler India redefines learning through Kohler Radio and Learning Wallet

These new internal initiatives for interaction and effective learning have made news globally.

Technology has disrupted every aspect of modern workplaces and its influence on learning methodologies has been significant. It’s no news that traditional learning is shifting towards anytime, anywhere, any device learning. Taking into account the need for bite-sized content and the increasingly short attention spans, Kohler India came up with the unique concept of Kohler Radio.

Kohler Radio is an IVR-enabled learning platform, wherein audio messages are recorded and relayed in the form of a call to individual mobile phones, which the participants can listen to, take part in, learn and get assessed through a few objective questions asked after each session.

The purpose behind launching Kohler Radio was to make training and engagement content effortless, fun, essentially millennial-ready and to have a new-age platform to deploy content. As Pankaj K Rai, director-HR, India & Sub-Saharan Africa, Kohler K&B says, bite-sized content disseminated in a fun manner is the way to go forward.

Furthermore, Kohler Radio-Training Podcast System, which recently relayed its first session with the second one lined up for this Friday, was conceptualised to be used as a tool for internal training. This system allows leaders and audiences to listen and interact. The communication machine has features of automated voice calling, texting and inbound call management. The system is also supported with Interactive Voice Response, Outbound Dialer and Mobile SMS facility.

There are three things which get podcasted twice a month:

1. Management Talk:

2.  Product Talk

3. Best Practices

3.
Nine HR technology trends to watch out for in 2017

The marketplace is shifting from tools that automate traditional HR practices to platforms and apps that make life at work better.

The HR technology market is undergoing one of the most disruptive years it has seen this decade. A recent report titled, ‘HR Technology Disruptions for 2017: Nine Trends Reinventing the HR Software Market’, released by Bersin by Deloitte revealed how the rapidly advancing paradigm of HR technology is changing the way organisations work.

Sharing one of the biggest disruptions of the year, Josh Bersin, principal, Bersin by Deloitte, said that the entire marketplace is shifting from tools that automate traditional HR practices to platforms and apps that improve life at work. It is this shift in the approach to HR technology that shapes the major trends for the coming times. Here are the nine trends that organisations, HR professionals and HR technology providers need to watch out for:

1.      The accelerating revolution of performance management

2.      An explosion in real-time engagement evaluation

3.      The explosion of growth in people analytics

4.      The continuing explosion and evolution of the learning market

5.      A new landscape for talent acquisition

6.      Growth in contingent workforce management

7.      The growth of team management tools and their merger with HR tools

8.      The explosion of wellness and fitness apps

Digital HR: Self-service, artificial intelligence, and robotic process automation

HR News: 6 Feb, 2017

1.

3M, Bank of Montreal & Rockwell Automation to receive top honour for gender diversity

The initiatives adopted by these companies have successfully changed minds, altered behaviours and created more opportunities for women.

Three companies from three different sectors have been chosen for the Catalyst Award, 2017 for practising gender diversity. These three companies—3M, Bank of Montreal and Rockwell Automation— will be awarded in a ceremony in New York on 8 March, that is, International Women’s day.
“The initiatives adopted by these three companies have successfully changed minds, altered behaviours and created more opportunities for women,” says Deborah Gillis, CEO, Catalyst.
3M: The Company’s global initiative, ‘I’m in’ was adopted in 70 countries, where 3M operates. In the last five years, since this campaign was launched, 3M has successfully managed to increase women’s representation at the director level from 18.2 per cent to 23 per cent. Women’s representation at the level of vice-president and beyond has also increased from 16.7 per cent to 24.2 per cent. The ‘I’m in’ campaign includes a variety of talent management and leadership development components, such as networking, mentoring, talent development, work-life and workplace flexibility programmes and external community efforts.
Bank of Montreal: The Company not only increased women’s representation in senior leadership, but a robust pipeline of women to advance to senior leadership roles. The bank now has 40 per cent women’s representation in senior roles—a goal accomplished in five years.
Rockwell Automation: This Company has promoted a culture of inclusion across businesses and functions. Between 2008 and 2016, women’s representation in the US has increased from 11.9 per cent to 23.5 per cent among vice presidents, from 14.7 per cent to 23.2 per cent among directors, and from 19.3 per cent to 24.3 per cent at the middle-manager level.

2.

RBS to pay bonus to employees despite losses

The Bank intends to pay about £340m in bonuses to employees in 2017, even as it prepares to announce one of its biggest annual losses in 2016.

The state-backed Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), which has been facing business losses for a few years, is still seemingly trying to keep its employees motivated and engaged, as it seeks approval for the bonuses to be paid for year 2017. The bank is apparently planning to pay about £340m in bonuses to employees, even as it prepares to announce one of its biggest annual losses since 2008.
The bank, of which 72 per cent is owned by the government, has put forth the proposal for the bonus payouts for 2017 to UK Financial Investments (UKFI), which manages the taxpayer's stake in the bank.
Although the amount is yet to be formally approved by ministers, given the go-ahead, this would still be the ninth year in a row that bonuses at the bank have fallen.

3.

120 retrenched journalists of ABP and The Telegraph get decent severance package

Journalists who have spent more than two decades have been promised a basic salary till their retirement age.
The sword was dangling for a while, and finally it came down last week. Around 120 journalists, including those part of the wage board, at one of the leading newspaper publishers in the country — The Ananda Bazar Patrika group, which publishes the Bengali daily by the same name and the English daily The Telegraph— were asked to resign.
However, the company has been quite generous with the severance package. It is learnt that employees who had put in several years with the company will receive 75–100 per cent of their yearly CTC as compensation. On the other hand, journalists who have spent more than two decades have been promised a basic salary till their retirement age. The junior staff or the young journalists’ group was also given few months’ basic salary as compensation.

HR Movements: 6 Feb, 2017

1.

DLF’s Surajit Banerjee joins M3M India as president-HR

Banerjee’s professional experience spans across categories starting from FMCG, hospitality, aviation and telecom to real estate. 

Surajit Banerjee, erstwhile senior V-P HR at DLF has moved to another NCR (National Capital Region)-based real estate company M3M India as president HR.
In the past Banerjee has worked with companies such as SpiceJet, Max Healthcare, Hindustan Unilever, Reckitt Benckiser and Airtel.
After passing out from XLRI, Banerjee joined Hindustan Unilever (then Hindustan Lever) in 1990 as factory personnel manager. He spent five years with the company and during this period, he lead the HR function in several operating units, with primary focus on industrial relations, people processes and efficiency.
Between 1995 and 1998, he worked with the Oberoi group as director HR.

2.

Air Vistara's CHRO Varadarajan Srinivasan decides to deboard

An XLRI alumnus, Srinivasan has been an old hand at the Tatas. He plans to take a short break before on-boarding his next flight.

Varadarajan Srinivasan, CHRO & head of corporate affairs, TATA SIA Airlines, which owns Air Vistara, has decided to move on. Srinivasan, who spent close to three years with the company, is currently serving his notice period.
Confirming this development with HRKatha, he says, “I haven’t taken a decision on my next destination. As of now, I will take a short break post which I will take a call.”
“I was the first employee of the company and came in with a clear mandate of setting up the team. Now that everything is in place and an HR team is there to manage the organisation, it’s time for me to move on,” he adds.
An XLRI alumnus, Srinivasan has been an old hand at the Tatas. Prior to this, he was executive president–HR at Tata Tele Services for close to three years. In fact, this was his second stint with the Tata Group as he worked with them for four years between 1996 and 2000.

2.

Cushman & Wakefield gets Deepali Bhardwaj as head HR

In her new role, Bhardwaj will work with the firm’s leadership team in India to support business growth and momentum.

The real-estate firm Cushman & Wakefield has appointed Deepali Bhardwaj as head of human resources for India. In her new role, Bhardwaj will work with the firm’s leadership team in India to support business growth and momentum, as Cushman & Wakefield looks to accelerate its market leadership in commercial real-estate services in the country.

Bhardwaj will be responsible for further developing and solidifying Cushman & Wakefield’s employer proposition and best practices to support the vision of adding 500+ people to the organisation’s India teams in 2017. An experienced HR practitioner and business leader, Bhardwaj’s experience spans over two decades in strategic human resources management, operations and change management across large organisations, start-up ventures and even not-for-profit organisations.

Commenting on the appointment, Anshul Jain, managing director, India, Cushman & Wakefield said, “With a goal to further solidify our base in the market, expanding our talent base becomes key. A world- class HR function will therefore be a strategic enabler to our growth strategy. Deepali and her team will play a pivotal role in effective talent acquisition, retention strategies and in providing growth opportunities for our employees.”