Author: Kartikay Kashyap | HRKatha

Now that we are in the year 2021, we are a little more certain and confident that things are changing, and that too, for the better. A year ago, however, the future had seemed quite bleak, when the pandemic was at its peak. All we saw and heard of were lockdowns in every big city of the world. We were confined to our homes, holding on to just a hope that one day things would get better. Almost every industry suffered, mostly the services industry, such as travel and tourism, hospitality and aviation. Nobody could do anything about it. We…

Ask any HR leader, ‘What does the board expect from you?’ and the first thing they will say is, ‘They often ask us to be true business partners.’ In today’s times, CEOs look for HR leaders who, in addition to making sure all administrative tasks — such as leave and attendance management, payroll management or employee verification— are in place, will also understand the business and help the organisation achieve its mission. In one of his books, Dave Ulrich, senior professor, University of Michigan, and co-founder, RBL Group, suggests that HR now a days is not just about HR —…

When new talent is acquired by any organisation, helping the new recruits become familiar with the existing culture, behaviour, environment and operational methodology of the organisation is a vital part of the onboarding process. Traditionally, it is the employees who adapt to the culture and environment of the organisations they join, but what if the company needs to adapt to some of the working styles of the employees? Along with fresh talent comes innovation, which allows organisations to touch upon the areas they have never really ventured into. This, in turn, brings success to the organisations. “A company may hire…

Picture this — Shilpa is promoted twice in a year, with her annual package increasing three fold. Her manager is happy with her, and her subordinates are inspired and motivated seeing her performing well and climbing up the ladder of success in no time. Soon she is flooded with calls from other companies ready to hire her and compensate her even better. These lucrative opportunities no doubt tempt her given that her confidence is at a peak. She decides to join the other firm lured by the prospect to grow even more. However, as a new entrant in the other…

Titan has different sets of employees for different functions and verticals, ranging from the shopfloor to the retail stores. How do you bring in a homogeneity in culture? Is there any way to bind them all together in a ‘monoculture’? Yes, I agree. At Titan Company, we work in different value chains and have different businesses in eye care, watches, jewellery and saris. We also have a vertical in the B2B space. With each one at a different stage of its business lifecycle, we require different kinds of people. They are bound together by common values — ‘Titan Values’, as…

As Shashikanth KS was growing up in Bengaluru, where his father was employed as a scientist with Hindustan Aeronautics, he aspired to become an actor. He was quite an active member of the dramatic society at his school and college. At one point, he also planned to actively pursue a career in sports, as he loved to play cricket and badminton. Destiny, however, had something different in store for Shashikanth. He couldn’t pursue acting as a profession, nor could he become a professional sportsperson. However, he did climb up the ladder fast in the corporate world in a span of…

As a good practice, most organisations conduct exit interviews. This helps them identify the challenges in an organisation because of which employees leave. However, the truth remains that the employee has already left and talent has been lost. To prevent such unforeseen attrition, SRL diagnostics has decided to go ahead with stay interviews in the organisation. Varun Mehta, director-HR, SRL diagnostics, says, “We brought it on as a precautionary measure because diagnostics is a people-driven organisation and employees are critical for us.” A stay interview is a structured conversation between an employee and the manager and it is designed to…

In just a little over 15 years, Arun Mirchandani, head-HR, markets and securities services, APAC (excluding Japan), Citibank, has ensured that his is a name to be reckoned within the HR industry. Having started his career as a recruiter and head hunter with EmmayHR, this commerce graduate has come a long way. It is often believed that HR isn’t the first choice for most professionals. Mirchandani remains an exception though, and perhaps his passion for the discipline is what has scripted his success story. Having looked up to his elder brother since childhood, it is he who advised Mirchandani to…

The ‘Me Too’ movement brought many cases of sexual harassment at workplaces into the limelight. It also made the corporate world more aware of the need to put proper policies in place to protect women employees. With a view to creating a better environment for the women at CredAble, the young Indian fintech company is taking gender sensitisation very seriously. With its small workforce of 70 to 80 employees, the Company is endeavouring to ensure that it builds an environment and culture suitable and most comfortable for the women in its workforce. To achieve this goal, CredAble has made gender…

The success of a company depends on how it trains its employees to become leaders and play a critical role in its journey of growth and progress. Bajaj Auto follows this mantra very well, and that is precisely why the Company is globally known for its engineering excellence. The Company has chalked out a plan for the young engineers it hires from the top engineering colleges of the country. “Over the years, Bajaj Auto has inducted the best of talent from institutes of national importance, that is, IITs and NITs, IISc, BITS, NID and COEP, with the senior leadership team…

Datamatics Global Services, a global IT company has appointed Rima Ghose Chowdhury as the EVP & CHRO. In her new role, Chowdhury will be leading the HR operations of the firm, globally. She will be reporting to Rahul Kanodia, vice chairman & CEO, Datamatics. Chowdhury steps into the shoes of Alok Jha, who was earlier leading the global HR function at Datamatics Global Services. Prior to this, Chowdhury was a professor and HOD, human resource management, at NL Dalmia Institute of Management Studies and Research. She always had an interest in research and enjoyed training budding HR professionals for the future.…

Power programmers are an elite group of coders and programmers at Infosys, who are highly skilled in programming. The information technology company has decided to give an 100 per cent increment to  ‘power programmers’, who will now earn double the salary from a regular employee. Infosys hires freshers from the top engineering institutes of the nation, such as the IITs and the NITs. When these freshers are inducted into the company, the organisation filters out some of the best coders and programmers from the lot through a special screening. Candidates possessing extraordinary technical skills are selected to be part of the…

Earlier, Ather Energy, the Indian electric vehicle company, lacked a proper campus hiring strategy. However, it soon realised that the only way it could hope to differentiate itself from other companies and attract quality talent, was through a robust hiring strategy. This led to the birth of the ‘Nothing but crazy’ campaign for campus hiring last year. The success of the first edition has encouraged the Company to continue the same this year as well. Under this campaign, representatives of Ather Energy explain the culture of the Company to the students and tell them what the Company expects from them.…

Learning does not take place only in classrooms. People can learn and get motivated by other people’s experiences as well. White Rivers Media, a young digital marketing agency based out of Mumbai, has introduced a unique informal learning intervention at the workplace, called ‘Snapgyan’. The format of Snapgyan is very simple. Once in a week, an employee can talk about her/his passion in a 15 minute session at the workplace. “Every session ends with some learning and a call for action,” says Shrenik Gandhi, CEO & co-founder, White Rivers Media. Employees can talk about whatever they are passionate about in…

IPM India aims to reach 40 per cent women’s representation at work by 2022. The Company started its D&I journey in 2016 to achieve this target. About four years back, women represented 18 per cent of the workforce at IPM, and now the figure has grown to 33 per cent. IPM, India an FMCG company, has taken some serious steps in terms of sensitising its workforce about the unconscious biases that people hold towards women. To create a real impact, the Company started the sensitisation process from the top, by conducting an unconscious bias survey amongst the top leaders, that…

Last year, Barco stepped into the software as a service (SaaS) business model, where its has introduced a subscription based model for its technology solutions like weConnect and Overture. This transition has forced the company to go for a complete makeover of its culture. The technology company, that specialises in digital projection and imaging, has decided to rejuvenate its culture so as to align it with its new business model. So, it is actually a global cultural rejuvenation that Barco is currently undergoing— a process that began early this year and is still in progress. This shift in the culture…

Deloitte recently concluded its 17th annual Impact Day 2019. This programme gives an opportunity to its employees to volunteer for different projects, which can make an ‘impact’ on the public. Over the past editions, the programme has been focussing on a variety of topics, which can make a difference to the society. However, this year, Deloitte decided to focus particularly on helping people develop job skills, improve educational outcomes, and get access to opportunities to succeed in the world of tomorrow. It was aligned with the ‘World Class’ initiative, which was launched by Punit Renjen, global CEO, Deloitte. The ‘World…

What if a job seeker is offered a stipend of rupees one lakh to just sleep? Hard to believe, isn’t it? Is that even a possibility, one may wonder. Apparently, it is! Wakefit, the company that manufactures sleeping products— mattresses, pillows, bed frames, mattress protectors, comforters, neck pillows and back cushions— has launched a unique sleep internship programme, for which it is looking out for about 15-20 interns. The company is offering people an opportunity to sleep and earn money! The candidates selected for the ‘Wakefit Sleep Internship’ will be required to simply ‘sleep’. And this ‘work’ will also fetch…

Working professionals have different perspectives about assigning a project to a cross-functional team. But what is it that leads to such varying opinions? A study conducted by a professor at Standford University, found that 75 per cent of cross-functional teams are actually dysfunctional. These cross-functional teams did not match at least three of the following five criteria – 1. Meeting a planned budget 2. Staying on schedule 3. Adhering to specifications 4. Meeting customer expectations 5. Maintaining alignment with the company’s corporate goals Cross-functional teams fail to deliver the desired results because of certain reasons, such as lack of systematic…

Pradipta Sahoo has been appointed the chief people officer at Suryoday Small Finance Bank, a financial services bank with branches across 10 states of India. In his new role, Sahoo will be responsible for leading the HR operations at the Bank. Prior to this, Sahoo was the CHRO at Karvy Fintech (now KFin Technologies) which is a Registrar and Transfer Agent (RTA) for mutual funds and a Central Record Keeping Agency (CRA) for the National Pension System (NPS). As an RTA, KFin Technologies provides corporate registry services, back-office operations and data processing services. Sahoo has more than 25 years of…

Veteran hiring is emerging as a major trend in the BFSI sector. Religare Health Insurance has also joined the likes of Wells Fargo, UBS, Goldman Sachs, and most recently, Amazon and Microsoft, to offer employment opportunities to retired officers of the armed forces. Having very recently kickstarted its veteran hiring programme, a pilot project as of now, Religare Health Insurance is hiring 40 to 45 retired defence personnel, to take on various roles within the organisation in its top 10 locations in the country. The idea of hiring people from the armed forces came from a board member in the…

Kickstarting its initiative of hiring 28 differently-abled people (deaf and dumb) in its Hyderabad stores last year, Metro Cash & Carry India has upheld its commitment to making the workplace diverse. Since last year, the Company has been able to provide employment to around 100 differently-abled people with hearing and speech impairment. The B2B wholesale company claims that it has hired 89 in the south and west regions and 21 in the north and east regions. The Company has tied up with local NGOs, such as Talking Hands, Disability Rights Promotion International, Youth4jobs and Enable India, to help them reach…

Sportspersons are used to undergoing a cross-training regime, which helps them avoid injuries, balance the development of muscle groups, and also prevent monotony. Similar is the case with organisations. If the employees are given an opportunity to work in different functions, they end up more balanced, knowledgeable and productive. Also, such cross-functional employees ensure that the organisation is able to survive better and longer. Employees who have worked in different functions prove to be more helpful to the business, as they can apply that diverse experience to a function, and also fill in for others if required. FMCG company, India…

The World Happiness Report by the United Nations always features the Scandinavian countries of Denmark, Norway and Finland as the top rankers every year. Not surprising, because these countries are known for their happy work culture, which is based upon the principles of equality and individuality. Being located far up in the North, these countries have hardly been impacted by the worst historic periods. Denmark and Norway were occupied by the Nazi Germans during the Second World War, but only for a very short period of time. Other than that, the Scandinavian countries have never been occupied by foreign nations.…

Religare Health Insurance has automated its rewards and recognition (R&R) process by introducing the ‘I appreciate you’ programme. It has installed an appreciation-based recognition platform, which employees can use to nominate each other for their good work. The Company has replaced the traditional system of target-based rewards for its sales team, with a new web-based interface. Employees can now nominate other employees on the web-based interface and various other portals. The employee with the highest number of nominations at the end of every quarter, from each department, gets a reward. But there are some rules that have to be followed.…

There are various parameters on which candidates are assessed before employers finally decide to hire them. One such parameter is ‘culture fit’. Yes, while it is important to assess the skills of candidates before offering them the job, it is also equally important to assess their culture fit. Culture-fit hiring in the talent-recruitment process can increase the possibility of longevity and retention of the employees. So what exactly is culture-fit hiring? Simply put, it is the process of matching the values of the company with that of the candidates. The candidates will be considered a good fit for the company…