The topic for the conclave was ‘Redefining Workplace’, under which two subtopics – Avenue of Engagement and Integrating Diversity at Workplace were discussed
The Indian Institute of Management Amritsar conducted the second edition of its annual HR Conclave, ‘Yukti’ on August 19. The topic for the conclave was ‘Redefining Workplace’, under which two subtopics viz. Avenue of Engagement and Integrating Diversity at Workplace were discussed. The event was marked by the presence of stellar industry stalwarts.
The first panel consisted of Ritu Anand, senior vice president and deputy head – global HR, Tata Consultancy Services; A.K. Munjal, vice president – HR, Maruti Suzuki India Ltd; V.P. Singh, advisor, Organization Development, Patanjali Ayurved Limited; Deepak Bharara, chief human resource officer, Lanco Infratech Ltd; Dnyan Shah, senior VP Business HR Head, Mphasis Ltd; and Vijay Bhaskar, Head- Process Control, LifeSpring Hospitals Private Limited.
The opening address was delivered by respected Professor Geetha M. who welcomed and thanked all the dignitaries of panel one to mark their presence at IIM Amritsar. The topic of discussion for the first panel was “Redefining Workplaces: Avenue of Engagement”.
Following the inaugural address, two of the groups from IIM Amritsar showcased their presentations backed by real time sampling data and various dimensions of workplace viz. well-being, engagement, innovation, diversity, inclusion, flexibility and inspiration.
The first panel was moderated by Singh who raised the questions and invited each dignitary to address the issue. The speakers illuminated the audience about the differences in the meanings of bonds and engagements and put up their perspective.
Each panel described the ways the concept of engagement has evolved, the challenges with the scaling up and down the engagements at different levels in different industries, the success stories of the companies and the ways they embraced engagement, the correlation of engagement with the business outcome, and the role of engagement in 75 year old India, in 2022, where data will be the oil and people will be the engine.
The discussion also touted engagement with responsibility and in turn with pride that an employee takes with his association with a cause or with the organisation as a whole. It also described the employee customer relationship, the role of innovation with engagement.
Phase one ended with a lot of key takeaways like – engagement is following passion with confidence to pursue it, inverting the organisation and letting the front-liners throw challenges to management to solve the complex equation of engagement, emotionally investing in people, learning to be unhappy with the status quo, visualizing within oneself the belief and ultimately connecting with oneself.
The second Panel included Meenalochani Kumar, senior director and global design lead – Leadership and Executive Development at Sutherland Global; Shilpi Saxena, head of HR and L&D, Kurlon Ltd; Prem Singh, president – Global HR, Wockhardt Limited, Vijay Deshpande, vice president and head HR, JK Tyre and Industries Limited; Raja Reddy, head of Marketing, Servier. The topic of discussion for the second panel was “Integrating Diversity at Workplace”.
The panel was moderated by Reddy who discussed the topic one by one and expounded the significance of Diversity in the Workplace, which is a melting pot of different cultures. Also, closely intertwined terms like inclusion, diversity and equality were explained, differentiated and finally put forward as the drivers for the growth of the organisation.
The panel also discussed on enhancing the diversity, at different levels and how it cannot be ignored. Speakers have identified the various problems regarding diversity – the problems the companies face while managing people from diverse cultures.
Significant points regarding the significance of diversity management were raised by the panel during their discussion. Points regarding respecting the differences, promoting homogeneity among individuals, valuing individual perspectives were made.
In their address to the students, the panel also discussed the costs regarding diversity and the overall benefits regarding inclusion of the diversity and equality have been compared. Also, different ways to promote diversity with the help of innovation like aiming at social collaborations, team-based activities and decentralized peer to peer learning etc. have been weighted.
IIM Amritsar earned yet another feather in its cap by the phenomenal conclusion of the second edition of its annual HR Conclave Yukti’17.
