Author: Kartikay Kashyap | HRKatha

Last month, Paytm appointed two ex-Googlers to head its Paytm cloud and advertising businesses. Now, the Company has roped in Kinjal Chaudhry, as the SVP-HR and head of operations for the new Paytm services business, which was launched only last month as per our sources. The purpose of this business is to provide manpower services to the internal business of Paytm, such as Paytm Mall, Paytm Payment Bank, and Paytm Money. Rather than sourcing manpower services from external vendors, the Company has established its own internal manpower business. In this role, Chaudhary will be heading the entire operations of the…

When we talk about diversity, the first thing that comes to our mind is gender diversity. But that is not the only type of diversity. There are different facets of diversity in the corporate world. Bringing together different perspectives from different backgrounds and walks of life, no matter who they are and where they come from, is diversity. Realising this, Wells Fargo has taken a few steps to widen the scope of its diversity agenda. The Company has announced the second addition of its Veterans’ Team Member Network (VTMN), where the company is set to give employment opportunities to veterans,…

The automobile industry is going through a major slump. Sales are down, business has dipped and the worst part is that the auto ancillary industry has also started laying off people, with around 10 lakh jobs at stake. Amidst this crisis, MG Motor has come up with its own ways to brush off pressure and focus on building the next generation of employees. The automotive company has introduced a two-way learning internship programme, known as ‘Bridge’, wherein it invites students from overseas to experience the Indian market of MG Motor. The Company will also send some of its Indian employees…

The indoor trampoline park, Bounce India, which serves all age groups, is launching its operations in India, and is hiring people for its Mumbai park, this week. The Company is organising a hiring event called the ‘Casting Call’, where it is looking to hire around 70 people as venue staff and also for team leader roles. So what’s so different about this hiring process? At the onset, the candidates need not carry their CVs, nor are they required to dress in formals! Though, this happens in many other creative jobs. According to the Company’s exceptional philosophy, when it hires teams…

It has been a year since section 377 was scrapped by the Supreme Court of India. But changes had already started at Capgemini a year earlier. This French multinational company has now taken a big step forward to rejuvenate its diversity agenda, specially by focusing on including the Indian LGBTQ community in its workforce. The objective is to give them an equal opportunity to make a start and climb the ladder of success in India Inc. Capgemini understood the importance of giving equal opportunity to this section of the society, which is unfortunately still an untapped talent segment, often overlooked…

Every now and then when you check for your daily dose of news, you will come across people talking about the deteriorating situation in the automobile industry. The sales are at a record low, with companies shutting their factories for at least 15 days in a month. The auto ancillary industry has also witnessed a lot of layoffs in the last two or three months. Naturally, this also affects the morale and psyche of the employees in the automobile industry. When business is low, how can the employees be motivated? What are the problems that the face? When business is…

Looking at the common mindset of people, attrition is a word which has always carried a negative connotation. When you hear about a company having an attrition rate of 30 per cent, it usually makes the work culture of the company questionable. But that is not always true. For instance, let us take the case of the HR personnel in the company. Their performance is measured on the basis of the attrition level. And, if people are leaving the company, that clearly means they were unfit for the company’s culture in the first place. So, does that mean the HR…

The message to HR is very clearly now. The route to better employee engagement and building strong relations with employees goes through their families. To any individual, family matters the most. If anything goes wrong in a person’s family, she/he will leave everything and be there for them. Many of the companies in the manufacturing sector have been putting in extra efforts to engage with the family members of their employees. Not one to be left behind, the Adani Group recently celebrated ‘family day’ at its corporate office, where it invited the family members of all the employees. This annual…

Many traditional organisations continue to use classroom learning as their primary learning and development technique. While there are many benefits of this mode of training, there are also certain gaps or voids which this model cannot fill. These gaps, are industrial interaction and exposure. To fill this gap, Magicbricks started its ‘Lecture Series’. This HR initiative involves top speakers from various fields, such as marketing, sales, and HR, who come and share their experiences with the workforce of Magicbricks. They talk about the challenges they faced and how they were able to overcome them. They also discuss the new and…

Medikabazaar, which is an online B2B platform for medical supplies, has appointed Anil Mohanty as the head of HR. In his new role, Mohanty will be spearheading the HR function for the Company. Four-year old Medikabazaar never had an head of HR. Its HR team is pretty young. Mohanty’s first mandate would be to structure, organise and tackle the problem of skill gap. “I have always worked in big establishments, where everything was aligned and organised. We just had to execute everything accordingly. But, with Medikabazaar being a young company, I will get more opportunities to bring innovation and creativity…

Skill gap! This is a well-known problem and a common one that is frequently discussed by HR leaders. Many researches and studies have stated that one of the critical problems that HR is facing today is, finding the right kind of talent. It is difficult to find the right set of skills in an individual, that can make him fit for a job. In fact, another cause for worry is how HR will prepare the current workforce for the skills of the future. As technology is rapidly changing the dynamics of doing business, people need to reskill themselves so that…

Recently Google banned political debates at workplaces to improve their work culture. It said that people should only debate and have conversations around their work. Each person has the right to follow his own ideology – be it political or non-political. The question is whether they can be vocal about it at workplaces. Next should companies have restrictions on political debates by employees within their premises. There are a few companies which discourage employees or use preventive measures to stop any political debates at the workplace – their rationale is why do employees need to debate on political issues when…

The traditional ways of hiring were very different from the tools that we have today. Earlier, the HR depended on their intuitions and sense of judgement while hiring a candidate. But now they have the power of data and analytics based on which they can make their decisions. But still, in this advanced world, it gets very difficult to depend and rely entirely on such tools for hiring. Let us take a look at one such tool, the personality test. What is a personality test? It is a tool using which we can analyse the traits and personality of a…

ATG Tires, an off-highway tire manufacturing company, which was initially a family-owned business seems to be doing all the right things. It came under the Yokohama Group when its promoter sold its stakes in 2016. Since then, changes have started to happen. New and progressive HR reforms were proposed and the organisation started working towards the same. The ‘One ATG’ plan was implemented with the sole aim of bringing all ATG entities under one umbrella. One of the major changes that took place under this plan was in the performance management system, with the introduction of the performance review and…

We have all heard of disgruntled candidates taking to social media and ridiculing a company for not having a great candidate experience. They express their anger by letting people know what happened with them. By doing so, they express their grievances pertaining to the whole HR function in an organisation. But have you ever come across instances of HR managers or hiring managers humiliating candidates in such a way? Though not very common, such cases seem to be cropping up every now and then. Recently, some cases have been reported where the HR has stooped to the level of humiliating…

Madhav Vamsi has joined agri tech firm, Aibono, as the head of people and community. The firm builds technologies that empower farmers by giving them control over external variables, such as weather, water and soil inputs. In his new role, Vamsi will be heading the human capital agenda for the firm. “As head of people and community, my role will be to lead human resources, build human capital and nurture the organisation towards a collective faith; to promote a common purpose and mission — that of developing the next dimension of both creation and consumption of fresh food. Besides, I…

Recently, a lot of marketing surveys and researches have revealed that the human resources (HR) technology and outsourcing services market has grown wider and bigger in India, over the years. There is no dearth of big and small players, who have entered this segment with various HR tech products. All these products are meant to automate the mundane and repetitive tasks, which HR personnel are burdened with. With the constant growth in technology, HR now talks about the power of data, predictive analysis and AI-based hiring. Innumerable HR tech solutions are available in the market to support HR with various…

Competition is getting tougher, irrespective of the industry. There is a wide variety of products and services on offer, each one trying to outdo the other in terms of aspects and features, in line with the market demands. But what really makes the difference? The people. As an organisation, the capabilities and skills of your employees give you an edge over the others. Therefore, training and development of top talent is essential. Organisations know that if taken seriously, this can really prove to be a lethal weapon to destroy their rivals. In the pharma industry, companies are gearing up to…

We have often seen robots assisting humans at work in futuristic movies and animation films. But now these onscreen bots are all set to be part of our reality. Companies are leveraging the power of technology—robots to be more precise— to automate repetitive and mundane tasks. Technology company, ITC Infotech, has partnered with Automation Anywhere, a global robotic process automation (RPA) company, to provide an assisting bot to each of its employees, to help them perform monotonous, repetitive and tiresome tasks. “As a leading technology services company, we are truly embracing automation across our organisation to ‘amplify human potential’. We…

Many organisations today are trying to build future capabilities in their employees, and the public relations (PR) space is no different. Adfactors PR has signed an MoU with Upgrad, an online e-learning platform, to train its 300 client-servicing employees in digital marketing and communication skills. The curriculum for the programme has been designed by experts from MICA, a well-known digital marketing institute and business school in India. The participating employees will receive a post-graduate certificate after the course. The course will have participants from across all levels of client servicing. From account executives to vice presidents, everyone will be taking…

Technological disruptions are posing serious challenges for businesses as well as HR. It is becoming increasingly important to reskill employees to keep pace with the changing times and working styles. No organisation wishes to lag behind competition just because it was unable to adapt to the changing world. Realising how important it is to match the competency of its employees with future challenges, ZEE Entertainment has launched a learning and development (L&D) programme called ‘Embark’, to skill and enhance the capabilities of its front-line managers. The ‘Embark’ programme focusses on building behavioural and functional capabilities. The firm believes that line…

To understand whether guest lectures can be used as an employer branding tool, we have to first understand the main agenda behind these lectures. These are delivered by some of the senior leaders who act as representatives of various organisations to help bridge the gap between theoretical knowledge and practical knowledge. The scenarios of the real industry are far different from classroom training or college life. However, coming back to the same questions, how can guest lectures be used as an employer branding tool? Students of classes 11 and 12 are used to interacting with experts who visit their campuses…

Friendly and jolly Niti Khosla, lead-people analytics and business impact, Novartis International, is a true HR leader with the ability to understand people and the business. For 18 years she has worked in finance and cherishes the cross-functional experience she brings to the HR table. In her interaction with HRKatha, she also describes the working culture of Basel, Switzerland, where she spent a significant amount of her professional life. Most people enter XLRI aiming for a career in HR. Surprisingly, for you, it was banking and finance. And that too for almost 18 out of the 30 years of your…

The increasing number of smartphone users has changed the manner in which organisations choose and implement HR systems. Our country has reached a state where people are using their smartphones day and night, and almost everywhere—in bed, at the dining table, and even inside the toilet. They are obsessed with their smartphones—addicted to them—and cannot seem to survive without them! Statistics show that India currently has more than 400 million smartphone users. Another study has predicted that this number will cross 700 million by 2025. With the price wars in the telecom industry, the cost of data has fallen tremendously,…

The corporate world is changing at an alarming pace, and so are the preferences of employees. The expectations that millennials have are far different from what employees desired two decades back. Their priorities are different. For them, it is not all about the compensation but also about work-life balance. The corporates can brag all they want about how much work-life balance they are providing to their employees or the high level of inclusiveness they are ensuring, but the fact remains that sometimes things never change. And when an employer fails to meet expectations, the employees have no other choice but…

The dynamics of business is changing rapidly, and so is HR. We need leaders with blended capabilities at the top. A look at the industry reveals that all the senior HR positions are occupied by people from a pure HR background and have served in HR throughout their careers. But then, there are also some very successful leaders who have worked in other functional roles before coming into HR. So, who makes for a better CHRO? Someone who has always been in the HR function or someone who has cross-functional experience as well? Does working in different functions really offer…