“I want to become a Human Resource professional when I grow up”

I have never come across any school going kid/teenager who has ever said something like the above.

But we do often hear them saying “I want to become a doctor when I grow up”. They are willing to become a doctor and cure the illness of their patients. Now will the same kid not be interested to solve the problems prevailing among the employees in the corporate world.

Maybe ‘yes’ if they are aware of the subject called ‘Human Resource Management’ in school.

We often hear them saying “I want to become an engineer when I grow up”. They are willing to be engineered to raise new technological bar and even cross the bar. Will the same kid not be interested to engineer Human Resource tools which can pioneer better progressive trends?

Maybe ‘yes’ if they are aware of the subject called ‘Human Resource Management’ in school.

We often hear them saying “I want to become an entertainer [actor/singer] when I grow up”. They are willing to entertain people in order to make them smile. Will the same kid not be interested to bring smile on the face of the employees and find ways to de-stress them?

Maybe ‘yes’ if they are aware of the subject called ‘Human Resource Management’ in school.

We often hear them saying “I want to become a lawyer when I grow up”. They are willing to bring justice in the system by understanding the legal complexities. Will the same kid not be interested in balancing the aspiration of the laborer and the company’s priorities?

Maybe ‘yes’ if they are aware of the subject called ‘Human Resource Management’ in school.

We often hear them saying “I want to become a fashion designer/interior designer when I grow up”.They are ready to set the new trends in fashion world. Will the same kid not be interested in setting new trends of power dressing in corporate world and design a better workplace which is more conducive for a nice work environment ?


Maybe ‘yes’ if they are aware of the subject called ‘Human Resource Management’ in school.


We often hear them saying “ I want to become a teacher when I grow up”. They are ready to teach the finest lessons of their subjects to the students. Will the same kid not be interested in training the employees for the purpose of learning and development.

Maybe ‘yes’ if they are aware of the subject called ‘Human Resource Management’ in school.

We often hear them saying “ I want to become a sportsman when I grow up”. They are willing to work in a team as a cohesive unit in order to bring glory to the nation. Will the same kid not be interested to be an active team member of a team which makes it possible for a company to become the best employer?

Maybe ‘yes’ if they are aware of the subject called ‘Human Resource Management’ in school.


We all know that today almost every company is having shortage of Human Resource associates. In such a situation it is necessary that the subjects like Human Resource Management and Organizational Behavior are introduced in class 10th itself so that students are aware of such career options too; which needs the best talents. Incase it is difficult for the students to cope up with such subjects then at least workshops can be conducted by corporate with the purpose of making them aware of the career.

I am afraid that if such steps are not taken then we might loose potential future HR superstars.
-Saikat Saha

Grey V/S black in the corporate...

We are currently witnessing enough of the senior versus junior divide in the Indian cricket team these days through media reports. Same is the ethos spread in various organisations,political parties,associations,families etc too.

The seniors[in terms of age alone!!!] bring along great amount of experience and the juniors [in terms of age alone!!!] bring the fresh new ideas.

A few questions arises in the above mentioned scenerio and I have interviewed myself on it.Read the excerpts of my interview with myself. :-)

Q.Whom should we give preference to?
A. We should have a right mix of both.

Q. What's the right mix?
A. Depends on the industry I believe, If it's the BPO industry or IT industry then preference should be given to the younger generation and if it's the traditional industries then the seniors would be the right choice.

Q.What do you mean by 'traditional industries'?
A.Oh!!! That was a wrong choice of word rather. I mean to say that an industry which has been there in the market for a very long time and has been exposed to much diverse market conditions like the automobile or textile industries.

Q.But don't you think that the BPO and IT industries have also seen a lot of shifts?
A. All the industries have seen so but both the industries have never been through acute depression. It has either been on a boom phase or have witnessed fluctuations in the growth rate which has never been very alarming.

Q.Well!!! Do you mean to say that the contemporary industries are the ones which need greater amount of younger employees?
A. Yes!!! Thats because the employees have created a strong upmarket, spunky culture which is more suited to them.

Q. But, Here the issue is about not making them ultra comfortable with their jobs.The idea is about creating a positive work culture which is result oriented.
A. I believe it's also about 'acceptance'. The younger generation needs to accept the seniors [in terms of age alone!!!] with the right attitude. They need to be keener listeners. They should not hold any prejudice and must not act cynically at any given situation. The most important part is 'respect'. Proper respect must be given as that's the only way to earn it.

Q.What do we expect from the seniors [in terms of age alone!!!] then?
A. 'Listening' is important for them too. They should keenly listen to the proposal and ask the juniors [in terms of age alone!!!] on how they plan to execute it. If it seems to be practical and conjusive then a green signal should be given with adequate support from the senior [in terms of age alone!!!] .

Q. What if the senior [in terms of age alone!!!] is not confident about the abilities of the junior [in terms of age alone!!!] ?
A. He must lead and make sure that the junior [in terms of age alone!!!] is also given an important role which matches his abilities. The junior [in terms of age alone!!!] must also be given proper credit/debit for the task.The real team dynamics will be tested then. A potent belief must be infused in them that its the team which will be accountable for the credit/debit of the team's performance. The senior/junior [in terms of age alone!!!] divide will not be of any concern to them.It will only concern the critics.

Q. What is the existing trend of the senior and junior workforce in industries these days?
A. The juniors [in terms of age alone!!!] dominate the operational work area and the seniors [in terms of age alone!!!] dominate the decision making and strategy part. It has always been the same.

Q. Anything else you would like to share?
A. Well the seniors [in terms of age alone!!!] and juniors [in terms of age alone!!!] need to spend more time with each other. They need to sensitize with each other's concerns. A senior [in terms of age alone!!!] might have family concerns and greater responsibilities on personal front and a junior [in terms of age alone!!!] might have high aspirations. A senior[in terms of age alone!!!] might be passionate about his filter coffee and the junior [in terms of age alone!!!] might love his cafe coffee day hang out. One might be fond of carnatic music and the other might be fond of rock music. It all boils down to recognizing each other well , respecting each other and working together to create enough synergy which can touch each others lives and provide the desired result in the workplace.

Q. What's your age????
A/Q. 22 years and what about you???

A. I am also 22 years old.

- Saikat Saha

The Change Agent...

I found a recent article written by Abhijit Bhaduri[HR Head,FritoLay,India and Author of National Best Seller , Mediocre But Arrogant] regarding 'Global Manager' very interesting. Please read the article in the following link: http://hrcollective.blogspot.com/search/label/Abhijit%20Bhaduri .

After reading the article I could further understand the growing importance of the new age manager in it's role of a change agent.

I made the following comment on the article after reading it and would love to know your views regarding it:
"This is yet another article which is very thought provoking...the comments have also provided diverse and valued view points...At the risk of sounding repitative,I would like to stress on the fact that the new age global manager needs to be a change agent with great human understanding and clarity of thoughts...Firstly, He must have great human understanding in order to provide a security blanket and infuse a sense of faith to the team so that it can focus on the priorities correctly...But at this stage, he needs to be careful that he does not make this a platform for easy bargain from the team...he must not allow the team to take unnecassary advantages from him...Secondly, clarity of thought is of prime importance,as he must clearly draw the inferences from his extensive research on the culture to which his team needs to be gelled with...He must clearly know the positives and the negatives of the culture...and nullify the effect of the negative attributes and further propel the positives through team involvement,participation of experts from the new culture as well as present culture and his own instincts....Last but not least, he must explore enough avenues to infuse fun which is feasable in the new adopted culture..."

Do read the other articles and the comments as I have found them very interesting.

-Saikat Saha

Marketing is from Mars and HR is from Venus

Few weeks back while I was coming back from a shopping mall in Chennai, I met one of our family friends. After the usual exchange of pleasantries, he asked me what my future plan is. To be more specific he asked me if I want to continue with my work or prepare for any management entrance exam. I told him about my post graduation plans in Human Resource. He said it was a wise decision. However, he was not completely happy with my decision to choose Human Resource as a career option.

His first and foremost reaction was that Human Resource was meant for women. I must admit that I was not completely surprised with his response but it did make my initial doubts a little more concrete. I went back home and tried a few search in google with the combination of the words like human resource & women. The result of the search reaffirmed the fact that women were preferred in Human Resource jobs more than men. I even went to some job websites and saw a lot of jobs which clearly stated the fact that only women need to apply for the jobs. Being a man [or rather a boy as I am 22 years young] and having a passion for Human Resource, reading such stuff did give me its share of insecurities. But then being a committed and aspiring Human Resource superstar, I had two options to choose from:

* Gender change operation- My family would have not approved it nor would I have approved it .Let us not get into deeper probing.
* Finding out some way to convince myself that what I read was completely or to a large extent wrong.

I chose the second option for obvious reason. I asked my cousin sister regarding this issue who is an HR professional [a woman too]. She said that it’s factually true as women in large number get selected for HR jobs. The reason is because women by law of averages have better soft skills. Similarly men by law of averages have better skills in marketing [now I did not mean to challenge any women’s marketing skills at work, Chillax!!!!].

So basically one needs to tone up their specific skills set for the required job. It is just co-incidental that some of these skill sets are traditionally believed to be more gifted to a specific gender but there is full scope for honing these skill set by both the gender.

But still ,men will be from mars and women from venus.
-Saikat Saha