Author: Kartikay Kashyap | HRKatha

Smriti Handa has been appointed as the regional HR director for India and South Asia, Reckitt Benckiser (RB). Prior to this role, she was serving as the head-HR and diversity at Philips Healthcare. Handa has a total experience of 15 years. After completing her PGDM in human resources and marketing, she started her career with Airtel, where she spent 10 years in various HR roles. This graduate from SRCC has replaced Mahima Kakar, who has now moved to a global role in RB. Kakar has relocated to Amsterdam, Netherlands to serve-as the HR director-global functions. Kakar, who has an experience…

Workers at Videocon Industries’ Aurangabad plant are losing their patience. Not surprising, since they have not been paid salaries for the last 10 months. There are around 6,000 workers in that plant. Depending on the order, the Aurangabad plant manages third-party production of refrigerators, washing machines and other electrical appliances for companies, such as LG, Philips and Hyundai. However, the existing workers are not being allowed to work or even enter the plant. Gajanan Bandu Khandare, president, Videocon Group Employees Union, shares with HRKatha, “The management is carrying on production activity with the help of some trainee workers. We have…

Five years ago, the viability of working remotely was the hottest topic of discussion. A lot of questions revolved around whether working from home will affect productivity. But now, when we see a lot of new-age progressive startups bending their policies to make the lives of their employees more flexible, it seems the prejudice around working remotely is on its way to being wiped out, albeit slowly. Learning from the startups, some traditional home-grown companies are also trying to introduce more flexible and progressive policies. This also makes sense because Gen Z will prefer to work for organisations that think…

While travelling for work, a delayed flight had forced me to wait at the airport. Rather than wasting time playing Candy Crush on my smart phone, I thought it better to strike a conversation with someone. I found just the right person — a fine gentleman who also seemed to be traveling for work. Talking to him, I learned that he was the head of a business unit with a very well-known company. I was amazed to learn that he had started off as a sales executive in the same company, and had grown up the ranks — first manager,…

Much has been talked and written about on the effect of AI on employment and jobs. The early soothsayers predicted that AI will take away all jobs almost in the immediate future, but nothing of that sort seems to be on the horizon as of now. No, we aren’t saying that automation and artificial intelligence will have no effect on employment and jobs. Of course there will be change, but it will be more gradual. Besides, it may not affect jobs but skillsets, and the two are different. It implies that people may have to acquire new skillsets to align…

American multinational consumer goods firm, The Procter & Gamble Company, has launched a short film called Out of the Shadows. The 25-minute long film made in partnership with Great Big Story shares with the world the story of how the employees at P&G managed to fight the prejudice, hatred and intolerance that existed against the LGBTQ community. The film highlights the challenges they overcame on the journey to making the LGBTQ community an integral part of their workforce and culture . The objective of the film is to allow others to learn from P&G’s past in order to ensure a…

Flipkart, the Indian e-commerce giant, has introduced an inclusive benefits programme for its employees, called FlexBen 2019. The programme will enhance the existing employee health and well-being policies to address the needs of the ever evolving diverse workforce of Flipkart. The new flexible programme is in response to the findings of an engagement survey that was conducted to understand the preferences of the employees. While 20 per cent of the employees wished for a flexible benefits programme, 10 per cent of the staff members desired wellness centres and gym facilities. Now, the employees will be allowed the freedom to choose…

Good parenting is as important as good teaching to build a nation’s future. The immense talent that we see in the professional world today is also a result of great parenting and that the many sacrifices the previous generation made. In the corporate world, there is hardly any gratification for parenting. Instead, it’s the parent always show gratitude towards the company for providing jobs to their children. A small digital marketing agency has set a norm by reversing this gratification on the occasion of Father’s day. They thanked their employees’ parents and expressed gratitude. Undoubtedly, the employees were thrilled and overwhelmed…

It is appraisal time and HR personnel everywhere are busy assessing employees’ performance levels. Organisations use various fundamental tools to handle their performance management system (PMS). However, there has been a lot of debate over which is the fairest and most objective way of measuring performance. Many organisations are moving away from the traditional PMS to a more feedback-based structure. Several have done away with the rating system. Whether the organisations follow a rating system, a feedback system or a mixture of both, immense responsibility is placed on the shoulders of managers when it comes to evaluating their subordinates objectively…

Diversity is more than just reaching a target or a milestone in the male–female ratio at the workplace. It is more about giving equal opportunities to employees to grow, learn and develop, so that they are able to fulfil their ambitions and dreams. Companies try to bring in various fancy themes and interventions to enhance diversity, but they fail. However, diversity is not that complicated or tough to achieve. It should be there in the DNA of a company’s culture, which is defined by its people. To celebrate diversity in the organisation, the Bosch Group recently observed the Bosch International…

All companies wish to be known for their top notch candidate relationship management (CRM). Building a strong relationship with passive or active candidates and guiding them through the recruitment process is called CRM. Under this, the CRM teams of companies need to be in continuous communication with the candidates who have applied for an opening, give them a feedback and keep track of candidates who have shown some interest in working with them, as they can be their future employees. Nowadays, organisations rarely wait till the time prospective candidates become their employees to establish relations with them. A good CRM…

There has been a little dip in the net employment outlook in India according to a survey. Thirteen per cent of the employers who participated said they expect to hire employees in the third quarter of 2019. Zero per cent believe that there will be a decrease, but 61 per cent believe that there will be no change. Culminating all the responses, India will see a 13 per cent increase in the net employment outlook in the third quarter of 2019. If we compare the net employment outlook with the previous quarter, there is no change, but comparing the data…

Godrej has elevated Ruhie Pande as the chief human resource officer, Godrej Housing Finance. Prior to this, Pande was serving as the CHRO of Godrej Properties, which is the Group’s real- estate business. Pande comes with more than 20 years of total experience having successfully held various roles in HR in many prestigious companies across the FMCG, IT, retail and real- estate sectors. Pande did not begin her career in the HR function. It was in 2000 that she left Mahindra and Mahindra as a client-servicing manager to join ITC as a training manager for its distribution and retail function.…

Everybody knows what HR shared services (HRSS) mean. It is not something, which is very new to the human resource (HR) fraternity. But for some who are still unfamiliar with the concept, HR shared services are those services which are outsourced from an external vendor, for instance, services such as payroll processing or recruitment. While outsourcing HR services or adopting new HR technology, companies tend to forget that nothing is perfect in this world. The same goes with the HRSS as well. It comes with great advantages, but sometimes when the implementation is not right it can pose some serious…

Feedback-based performance management system is not very new to the world. It is a process where the supervisors or the managers evaluate the performance of their subordinates and accordingly provide feedback to the employees— monthly, quarterly or annually. Many companies have now done away with the rating system to measure the productivity of their employees. Trying to keep pace with the changing world, e-Emphasys Technologies, a global IT solutions company, has finally decided to move on and adopt the feedback-based performance management system. As per Abhishek Jha, global human resource director, e-Emphasys Technologies, the Company had a very traditional annual-based…

Future Consumer has appointed Joyeeta Chatterjee as chief people officer. Chatterjee comes with a vast experience of 25 years in the HR function, and has worked across industries ranging from logistics, media, IT, telecom, pharma and construction. This assignment will Chatterjee’s first stint in the food retail sector. Chatterjee has moved in from Punj Lloyd, an engineering procurement and construction company, where she was EVP-HR. Besides managing HR for a workforce of 9500, Chatterjee was also leading the CSR function for the group and played a key role in building an appreciative and a high performing culture. Talking to HRKatha,…

More than 20,000 people landed in the soup, when India’s premium and oldest private airlines Jet Airways got grounded. This includes pilots, cabin crew, aircraft maintenance engineers, and also people working in other functions such as ticketing and sales, logistics, on-ground support and customer service. It was a sudden crash landing for these 20,000 odd people with no destination ahead. The big question was where and how would they get accommodated. It’s not for the first time that a company has shut shop leaving people jobless, but in this case the number itself was huge. Compare it with the telecom…

All those students who aspire to do an MBA from the top B-schools of the country should first understand that there is no magical herb out there that will help them crack the common admission test or CAT. Only hard work, determination and practice will bear fruit. A common myth that prevails is that the CAT exam and the selection procedure that follows in top-ranked IIMs is biased towards engineering students. There is no substantial proof of any such bias so far. Also, if one studies the pattern of the CAT exam, there is no indication of it being friendly…

Diageo, the British multinational beverages company, has announced a new family leave policy, which is applicable to its employees across businesses. In order to make its workplace fully inclusive and diverse the new policy allows women to take a minimum of 26 weeks of paid maternity leave and also offers a minimum standard of four weeks paid paternity leave to the men. The new policy will help employees experience the joy of raising their families while continuing to thrive professionally. It will bring happiness to men and women at work, as they can now spend time with their babies regardless…

Almost every sector in the Indian business scenario, is going through a turmoil. In the last five to six months, we have witnessed several companies laying off thousands of employees at one go, due to multiple reasons. We all know how hard it is for the employees who are asked to leave, with a notice period of a month or three months. Some of them are not even allowed a notice period, but asked to leave with immediate effect. No matter what the reason for the layoffs is, it is ultimately the HR’s responsibility to perform the dirty work of…

The internship season is on and companies are hiring interns in full swing. But, when I think of my personal internship experience, I can hardly recall any great piece of learning that came my way. The truth is that students rarely focus on high-end stipends when they think about internships. Their enthusiasm is more to do with the brand they will be associating with and the learning they will receive as part of the summer internship. But many companies look at interns merely as people who can be made to perform all their cumbersome and time-consuming work. With an aim…

When it comes to learning and development, businesses are increasingly becoming serious nowadays. Not only in the IT sector but in sectors such as manufacturing as well, the need to fill the skill gap, due to the introduction of newer and better technologies, is being felt. With machines and robots threatening to replace humans, people are realising the need to constantly develop their skills. Naturally, the focus has shifted to the development of employees, across sectors. The scenario becomes more challenging for the aviation sector in India, which is grappling with many other issues in addition to skill gap. The…

Parash Kaushik, who was head HR at Aditya Birla lifestyle, retail and fashion, has called it quits after having spent 17 years with the company. He has now joined Samvardhan Motherson Group (SMG) as head HR.  SMG, a 10.5 billion dollars auto ancillary company has been around for the last 45 years. It is a market leader in electrical distribution systems, automotive rearview mirrors, polymer processing, lighting systems, air intake manifolds and HVAC systems. SMG’s principal focus is the automotive industry, globally and in India. The Group has over 270 facilities across 41 countries and employs over 135,000 professionals worldwide. …

Mass weddings are not uncommon in India. This now has spread across the border and reached China. Global e-commerce giant, Alibaba, organises mass wedding at its headquarters in China and this has turned out to be a global event for the employees. Newly-wed couples among Alibaba employees from all across the world, who got married the previous year, are invited to the occasion, and Jack Ma himself presides the mass wedding ceremony offering words of wisdom to the newly wed couples. The group weddings are performed in true Chinese tradition, with couples dressed in the conventional crimson Chinese attire, receiving…

Employees are the biggest asset for a company, and employee relations is growing in importance with the new generation joining the workforce. Many industries are already feeling the disruption of technology and Gen Z. Though a handful of organisations are close to understanding and adapting to all these disruptions, one thing is pretty much clear to everyone — Maintaining employee relations will get more challenging for all companies in the coming years. It will be essential for HR to identify the areas in which it can align the business with employee engagement and other activities in the HR function. Today,…

A break in your career can make a big impact on your CV. Rejoining the workforce after a long time is very difficult for an individual, given the dynamic environment of today’s corporate world, where changes take place every few months. It is far from easy to cope with the new trends of the world and acquire new skills. Generally, it is observed that mostly women are the ones who have to leave their jobs due to family constrains, such as marriage or pregnancy. Even within families and homes, whenever something goes wrong, women are the first ones to leave…