ISTD Southern Regional Conference

Dear Readers,

For all those people who could not attend the ISTD Southern Regional Conference held in Chennai on 19-20 Sept. 08; the following summary of the conference written by Mr GD Sharma, Vice President & Head – Human Resources, L&T-ECC Division, Chennai would give a very interesting insight about the entire conference.

The Future of HR – ‘Transformational or Transactional?
(A summary of the ISTD Southern Regional Conference held in Chennai on 19-20 Sept. 08, by G.D. Sharma, Vice President & Head – Human Resources, L&T-ECC Division, Chennai, and Member-Conference Steering Committee, ISTD)
The theme for ISTD’s recently concluded Southern Regional Conference in Chennai was ‘Future of HR – Transactional or Transformational?’ The galaxy of eminent practitioners and academicians who spoke at the conference seemed unanimous in their verdict that for HR to be transformational, it had to get its transactional part right, in the first place.
Transformational Agenda
HR today, more than ever in the past, is everybody’s business. Every Business Manager is an HR Manager. To quote Mr. Vinod Dasari, CEO of Ashok Leyland, “HR is too important to be left to the HR people alone”. HR is an all-pervading function and it is the individual manager whose primary responsibility it is to manage his people resources, blend them into an effective team, manage their performance and address their needs and aspirations, such that together they achieve more. In this process, as an Organisation, there has to be in place a body of collective People practices governed by a particular philosophy; a set of abiding principles of human respect & dignity; and well demonstrated values and ethical norms.
This translates to an agenda which has to be transformational in its outlook, while being grounded on transactional realities. It has been well accepted that while some of the transactional and non-core activities can be outsourced, HR’s main agenda is to focus on the following:
· designing HR systems and practices around warp and weft of the business model of the Organisation,
· helping structure the Organisation in alignment with its strategy;
· building capability and creating a pipeline for talent and leadership
· nurturing a culture -
o that will bring together a set of empowered people desiring to achieve corporate goals
o that is relational and fosters bonding
· enabling a climate of openness, continuous communication and for employees to have a say in all that affects their work and their relationship with then Organisation
· Linking strategy to human performance by setting clear expectations and facilitating performance recognition and reward mechanisms
· Instituting a set of clear ‘measurables’ by which HR can establish credibility by staying close to the expectations from it.
There was also a plea from Mr. P. Rama Babu, ex-Managing Director of EID Parry (India) Ltd. that HR also needs to be ‘aspirational’, in that, it has also to think big and create a visualization of the growth for the Organsiation. This will help us to dream big and generate a force that will inspire the employees to look beyond the ‘here and now’ – a subtle tool for engaging the employee of today.
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Transactional Realities
Mr. Ashok Reddy, CEO – TeamLease emphasized that in today’s business and employment scene, each employee has to work on ‘employability’, what with the ‘taxi cab’ syndrome appearing to be the way of life. Values of loyalty, stability and tenure are all becoming obsolescent, and hence, the extent to which the employee of today is handling a variety of assignments, learning continuously, and playing the team game will largely determine his employability. This aspect was well borne out in an interesting study by Prof. Premarajan of XLRI, where he surveyed about 200 MBA students aspiring to be HR Managers. They were asked to rank their expectations from the job as future HR Managers. In the order of importance, they seem to value –
· Independence
· Variety, challenge and sense of achievement
· Recognition and Advancement
· Money, Status and Prestige
· Ethics & Discipline
From the perspective of Talent Transformation, similar views were expressed by Ms. Monica Doshi of LMI when she stated that the Role, the Person and the Capabilities were to be addressed in order to complete the cycle.
It is also very essential that we employ a set of metrics which will help HR to measure itself, not in isolation, but in a rather integrated manner. The Balanced Score Card (BSC) as applied in the Taj Group of Hotels was elaborated upon as a case-study by Mr. H.N. Shrinivas, Sr. VP-HR to demonstrate that the srategies, measures & deliverables, as well as future direction can all be measured and monitored integrally.
Zero to Hero
In the session titled ‘Zero to Hero’, there were some poignant moments when Mr. Sarath Babu of Food King narrated his life story of sacrifice and dedication by his mother, who made it possible for this boy from the slums to successfully walk through the portals of BITS-Pilani and IIM-Ahmedabad. Sheer determination, grit, focus and a ‘never-say-die’ attitude have been the secrets of success for this young enterpreneur. He believes that by providing employment to as many as he can, he is “helping them pursue their dreams”.
Mr. K. Pandia Rajan of Mafoi described his transformation into an entrepreneur as a “process of discovering oneself”. According to him, one has to see opportunities, and that it all ‘starts with an idea’ - perhaps a pun on the word, since the transition happened to him when he was with the firm IDEA, then an engineering design and services firm in Chennai.
Lessons from T20
T20 has many lessons for Management through the several similarities with the real business world.
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Business, like Cricket, has moved from a 5-day match to a 50-over game and now to a 20-over format - Expectations of efficient execution and ever-improving results from the Company or Business; unlimited excitement and hunger for growth-oriented happenings and developments in the Business from the investing community; and a sense of unabated competition among the corporates, both local & global. Cricket is not very different, and therefore the likeness has generated interest in learning from one another. Popular cricketers, Krishnamachari Srikkant and Vidyut Sivaramakrishnan engaged in a lively conversation to drive home the point that at a personal level, as HR Managers, we have to be extremely confident, carry conviction, and bet on team work for making things happen in Organisations.
Back to Basics
The Managing Editor of India Today, Mr. Raj Chengappa took the audience through a set of personal examples of Industry Leaders and Business Barons whom he had the privilege of speaking to, for compiling a story for India Today Aspire. He demonstrated that without an exception, CEOs and Industry Captains were guided by time-tested and abiding principles for guiding their lives – both on and off-work. Hard Work, Honesty, Integrity, Respect for the Human Being, Fairness, Failures as stepping stones for success, listening to your instinct, being courageous, moderation in everything we do, importance of Time Management, and unlocking the potential of people around us - were all emphasized by these successful role models that make India what it is and will be.
The ABCD of HR
In his Valedictory address, Mr. B. Santhanam, Managing Director, Saint-Gobain Glass India pitched very differently when he said that HR, by being Transactional, is being governed by the Head - logic, aggression, rationality, strategy and delivery. And by being Transformational, HR is governed by the Heart – passion, abiding values, emotional connect, transparency and fairness.
According to him, HR must work from a simple and clutter-free approach. Our HR Models must be based on our understanding that the human being is governed by the following 4 primal needs:
A – Acquisition: We yearn for recognition, status, and position. Work must help us fulfill these higher order needs. We are constantly wanting to acquire these intangibles.
B – Bond: We all need to emotionally connect with one another as well as with the goals of the Organisation of which we are a part. Today the key is to provide this psychological connect.
C – Comprehension: Every employee wants to figure out and understand what the organization is doing, and what part he/she has in it. There is a need for the employees to come together and understand in unison, the values and ethics of the organization, the policies and strategies of the business, as well as what is expected of him/her and how it will be measured and rewarded. There is need for us to constantly communicate and clarify for improved comprehension.
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D – Defend: Every employee seeks fairness and justice, both for himself/herself and for the Organisation. Every employee expects a set of policies, systems, rules and procedures to be put in place and administered well, and in a fair manner.
To meet these expectations, HR must ensure that the following 4’S principles are borne in mind always:
1. Simplicity – keep models and systems simple to understand and also to administer
2. Structuring – HR must constinuously organize and align structure as well as work systems and work-flows in keeping with the changing business requirements.
3. Standardise – Processes must ensure ’get it right the first time’. The luxury of time and cost do not allow procrastination or laxity, and when response-time is a key success factor.
4. Scaling-up – Business is marked by growth metrics and therefore, are we scaling up to meet the requirements and expectations of Business? Scaling-up is possible only if we keep the design and structure simple.
At the end of the day, the Role of HR can be likened to that of a Gardener, where he does the following on a continuous basis –
PICKING – picking the right seeds and the soil mix for ensuring a healthy crop. The HR Manager’s role in picking talent – sensing, judging and gauging the right attributes is a very critical skill.
PRUNING – the Gardener has a certain view of the garden. The design of the work organization, the right combination of Competencies (knowledge, skills and attitudes) for a task or job, values and principles to govern the organization, the sense of balance required in policies and practices – all of these and more will have to be ensured by the HR manager.
PEST CONTROL – The Gardener has a key role in keeping the garden free of unwanted weeds and pests which will damage the health of the plants and therefore life of the garden. Bringing-in the right set of checks and balances, Recruitment policies, norms and principles that will govern talent acquisition, good governance to ensure effective talent management, and introducing the right interventions for nurturing growth and development of talent make up the rest of HR Management.
On the whole, a resounding success for ISTD, Chennai Chapter, with over 750 delegates attending from Corporates representing almost all the sectors, Consulting Organisations, as well as Engineering & Management Schools from near and far. Let us look forward to more such well conceived congregations where a healthy and professional discussion and debate is made possible. For, learning best takes place when we share, exchange and transfer our knowledge, experience, and perspectives in a free and reciprocal basis.
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