Team-building activity at PGDM(PHM)-I OB Class of Prof. (Mrs.) Merlyn Michael D'souza

Yes, there are mounds of curricula they must major in a wide breadth of subjects, but education does not begin and end with a textbook or test. 

Other skills must be honed, too, not the least of which is how to get along with their peers and work well with others. This is not something that can be cultivated through rote memorization or with strategically placed pictures.

Students must be engaged and cooperation must be practiced, and often. The following team-building game promotes cooperation and communication, helps establish a positive classroom environment and — most importantly — provides a fun, much-needed reprieve from routine.

This problem solving activity requires that the leader choose a well known picture or cartoon that is full of features. The picture needs to be cut into as many equal squares as there are members in the activity. Each member should be given a piece of the “puzzle” and instructed to make an exact copy of their part of the puzzle five times bigger than its original size. They are posed with the problem of not knowing why or how their own work affects the larger image. The leader can pass out pencils, markers, paper, and rulers in order to make the process simpler and run more easily. When all the participants have completed their expansions, ask them to assemble their pieces into a gigantic copy of the original picture on a table.

Here are some pictures of the results of this collage team activity.

 

 AN ELEPHANT

 A DOG

 A RABBIT

 

A SWAN

 This problem solving activity will teach participants how to work in a team and it proves divisionalized ‘departmental’ working, which is the accepting of the fact that each person working on their own part contributes to an overall group result.

HR learning: 07 Aug, 2017

1.

How to wire a growth mindset in your organization?

Senior HR leaders brainstorm ideas on how to bring about a growth mindset at People Matters' Tech HR 2017. 

What is the first thing that comes to your mind when you think of a growth mindset? Is it the willingness to learn? or the essential behavioral traits? Is it the necessity of coaching or mentoring? Or is it the need for an enabling eco-system? At People Matters Pre-Conference, a team of senior HR professionals led by Ms. Kiran Brar, Philips Lighting brainstormed about what a “growth mindset” means in companies today and the kind of solutions or interventions that are needed.

Fixed vs Growth

While a fixed mindset views talent and capability as being limited, a growth mindset is one that recognizes that everyone is capable and can get better. 

Best practices across employee lifecycle

There are a number of interventions that organizations are turning to. And these solutions are not necessarily the mandate of the learning function alone, as creating a culture of growth mindset impacts different activities throughout the employee life cycle – right from talent acquisition, learning and development, and performance management.

2.

Furthering the development agenda

Can the direct impact of various channels like e-modules, gamified content, simulations, and academic projects on development be measured? Read on to know more.

Recently, I was part of an HR roadshow in my organization which touched close to 700 employees. In that exhibition, I interacted with many employees who spoke of their understanding of the word 'development.' I realized that everyone talked primarily about the same areas – those of increasing skills, capability, movements, promotions, etc. in the context of development. One thing stood out – people spoke of development and training in the same breath.Therefore, in their opinion training equaled development. 

Today, we have moved on to various channels of education and learning – we have e-modules, gamified content, simulations, academic projects and mobile learning, to name a few. The question is: do these unique channels have a direct impact on development and can this be measured? Although we have moved leaps and bounds in technology and the digital age, we still deprioritize development and push it to the back burner. Often, people want specific time set aside for developing oneself. I could think of the following reasons why: 

Our conditioning all through K-12 which 'tells rather than asks,' confirms rather than confronts and is probably one of the reasons why we want to delegate our development to a third party
Our hesitance to saying yes to new experiences which are not yet 'Accepted' by our larger society. For e.g. taking a gap year after college or after a few years of work to explore the world is a great way of developing oneself and gaining perspective. Does corporate India consider it thus or are we looking for valid reasons why the person had a break from employment while hiring or while giving them opportunities?

In my opinion, a person truly develops when they experience things that have a direct impact on their job. Anything else gets classified as input!

Often, in the hope of giving our employees a uniquely engaging experience, the relevance and linkage to immediate work are lost. This is a crucial piece in any development journey. 

3.

Making workforce future ready

Human Resource representatives play a pivotal role in building a workforce which is future ready. To enable this, employees must be multi-skilled, domain and function agnostic.

There is a new world and economic order shaping up and world trade is being transformed. Developing countries are in the process of joining the Western powers as world’s largest economies. The new world and economic order in the VUCA world (VUCA is an acronym used to describe or reflect the volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity of general conditions and situations) dictates the need for permanently osmotic sharing of talent by countries and corporations. Instead, we are seeing that the changing geopolitical scenario is taking the world towards an increasingly protectionist business environment. We need to break out of the shackles of connecting Human Capital to Nationalism and to create an environment which defies this trend. 

As votes are increasingly based on Jobs, our effort must be towards building a visa agnostic work environment. Such an environment is devoid of boundaries as country and nationality. Nobody should be able to contain people

HR News: 07 Aug, 2017

1.

Flipkart CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy adds HR to his plate

The entire HR team at the online retailer will now report directly to Krishnamurthy as he takes up key portfolios of HR and finance under his purview.

Flipkart’s CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy, who took over as the CEO in January this year is now set to take charge as the chief people officer until a new one is hired. The entire HR team at the online retailer will now report directly to Krishnamurthy as he takes up key portfolios of HR and finance under his purview. 

Before becoming the CEO, Krishnamurthy was the head - category design management.

Nitin Seth, who was the chief people officer and the chief administrative officer until 2016, was promoted as the chief operating officer at the same time when Krishnamurthy took over as the CEO. Additionally Seth is responsible for heading Ekart, which is the logistics division of the company, customer experience, strategy-to-execution capabilities and corporate functions.

2.

No change in contribution to Provident Fund at 12 percent: EPFO

The Central Board of Trustees (CBT) has turned down the proposal to reduce the mandatory contributions from workers and employers to 10 per cent.

What was being seen as a step towards increasing the take home salary of employees, the Employees Provident Fund Organisation’s proposal to cut companies' or employers' contribution towards retirement corpus of their staff by two percent, has been rejected.

The highest decision making authority of the EPFO, the Central Board of Trustees (CBT) has turned down the proposal to reduce the mandatory contributions from workers and employers to 10 per cent. 

Currently, an employee gives away 12 per cent of his or her basic salary towards their provident fund contributions. The employers also make an equal contribution to the retirement fund. Employees and employers contribute 12 per cent of basic wages each towards Employees Provident Fund Scheme (EPF), Employee Pension Scheme (EPS) and Employee Deposit Linked Insurance Scheme (EDLI).

The proposal to reduce the contributions by employers and employees to 10 per cent of basic wages, including basic pay and dearness allowance, was listed on the agenda for meeting of the Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO), which was held in Pune last Saturday.

3.

Adecco India selects CEO for one month

Mohit Mahajan will spend a month under the mentorship of India country manager & MD Priyanshu Singh and fellow members of the executive team, as CEO for one month

Adecco has selected 48 talented young people from all over the world to take on the role of CEO for one month, for its ‘CEO for One Month’ programme that was launched in February this year. The finalist from India, Mohit Mahajan, will work alongside and under the mentorship of Priyanshu Singh, country manager and MD, Adecco Group India. This year, the initiative received about 1,20,000 applications from across the world.

Mahajan will have the opportunity to learn on the job and gain privileged overview of management in a complex, global organisation. As CEO for one month, he will receive a paid internship which will also help enhance his CV and career prospects.

Mahajan, a student of Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, Delhi and Jaypee University of Information Technology, was one of the 6500+ applicants for the CEO for one month internship in India. The candidates underwent a series of tests and challenges to reach the final round of selection.

HR Movements: 07 Aug, 2017

1.

Vinod Shetty joins Sanofi as director, business HR

Shetty joins from Glenmark Pharmaceuticals, where he was leading the HR and sales training function for India, North Africa and the Middle East. 

In a recent move, Vinod Shetty, who was the vice president, HR and global sales training (India, Middle East & Africa) at Glenmark Pharmaceuticals, has just joined Sanofi as the director-business HR.

In his new role at Sanofi, Shetty will be heading the HR function for the pharma and consumer healthcare business. Shetty tells HRKatha that going ahead, Sanofi has a clear global roadmap focusing on various lines of businesses, under which there has been some restructuring that has happened both in the pharma and consumer healthcare space. 

2.

21st Century Fox appoints new top HR executives

Julie Franke has been promoted to senior vice president of employer brand and strategic talent acquisition and Carsten von der Linden from BCG has joined in as senior vice-president, talent management.

21st Century Fox is increasing the strength of its human resource department. The company has promoted one of its executives, Julie Franke, to senior vice president of employer brand and strategic talent acquisition. Also, it has appointed Carsten von der Linden from the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) as the senior vice president of talent management in the company.

They will work out of the Los Angeles office of 21CF, and report to Thomas Gaissmaier, EVP, and chief human resources officer of the company.  

3.

Geethaa Ghaneckar moves from Raymond to Raheja

Ghaneckar, who was part of the Raymond HR leadership team for over eight years, will now lead the people agenda at the Raheja Universal.

Geethaa Ghaneckar, who has been the director-HR for the Raymond Lifestyle Business for over eight years now, is all set to join Raheja Universal as the CHRO. Ghaneckar will now lead the people agenda at the Raheja Universal, supporting its journey towards growth. She joins at a time when the industry is moving towards greater professionalism and standardisation, experiencing a significant transformation in terms of the work environment.

Ghaneckar confirmed her movement to HRKatha sharing that she would be joining the company on July 25, Tuesday. Talking of her new role, she says, “I am looking forward to leading the people agenda in the firm's journey towards becoming a leading player in Platform Projects.”

Her tasks will include building a professional work environment, creating a transformative performance management process, building a high-quality leadership team across verticals and nurturing a culture that fosters innovation.