‘Change is the only constant’ is the oft-used sentence to explain why it is inevitable. Evolution is nothing but gradual and recurring changes leading to growth and development. Disruption is also change, but more like something that interrupts the normal course of an activity or process. But even such interruptions can lead to positive or better outcomes. However, be it change or disruption, even when they lead to upgradation, they are not always welcomed. Change can be unsettling Change unnerves people as it pushes them beyond their comfort zone. Organisational change or disruption sees similar resistance. While it is not…
Author: Moumita Bhattacharjee | HRKatha
The superheroes from our comic books possess supernatural powers to save the world. Then why do we need their combined might as Avengers or Justice League? Obviously because a collaborative effort and fusion of all their capabilities forms a powerful unit that can conquer the world. This holds true for superteams as well. So what is a superteam? It is a group of specialists, who collaborate and work together as a team, with technology not just enabling this collaboration but also becoming an integral part of it. Simply put, a superteam is a combination of super-specialist humans and artificial intelligence…
Radio Mirchi is now just Mirchi. The rebranding has been done in a bid to make the market understand the organisation’s changed business strategy. Now the Company wants to be seen as a solutions provider rather than just an on-air platform. This is not the only reshuffling that happened at the organisation. It also underwent a management restructuring to align with the transformed business needs, which includes consolidation of roles. Earlier, Mirchi had a three-tiered structure with the country divided into three zones. There were three regional heads in each of these zones, with 12 clusters under them and 40…
Picture this: As a hiring manager, you are relieved to have found the best candidate for the job. It took you hours to interview the person and now you are convinced that person will be perfect for the position. You make an offer based on your conversations. But then, the perfect candidate starts stalling or begins to consider the offer of a competitor who is paying more. What should you do? Do you stretch your budget or just begin the whole process again? With the perfect candidate considering a higher-paying alternative, one needs to evaluate certain things. Does hiking the…
Learning never ends and in the human resources industry it only begins after one becomes a manager. A year amidst the pandemic, however, slowed down this process considerably as everything went virtual. Many organisations saw this as an opportunity to train the first-time managers with a global perspective. Yokohama Off- Highway Tyres (YOHT) has introduced a training programme for the early and mid-level managers in tandem with the organisation’s US employees. Called ‘Lead – Leading Teams Effectively’, the objective is to support the development of early to middle managers. The participants are from corporate, sales, appliance functions and also from…
Learning and development (L&D) in an organisation was always important. A year under the spell of the pandemic has, however, accelerated its significance. People who were not equipped to handle the rapid changes that the lockdown brought faced struggle. However, those who foresaw a crisis which could be detrimental for the workforce, upgraded themselves much before the pandemic rendered everything motionless. 3M India is one such organisation that skilfully managed to leverage its many years of developed L&D policies to rise up to the occasion. Jyothi Unikkat, country L&D leader, 3M, reveals how the learning organisation partnered and championed its…
There’s a recurring joke that some companies look for freshers with relevant experience. That’s an irony of course and that’s where the joke ends. Looking beyond the resume can be the key to hiring an employee who has a distinct flair of being adaptive, but whose resume may not scream all the desired skills. Hiring managers are known to toss aside CVs that do not meet certain criteria. However, at times, by doing so, they may actually be depriving themselves of candidates who better fit the position! Raj Raghavan, senior vice president & head of human resources, Indigo Looking beyond…
Often candidates are asked to come up with a crazy, wild, out-of-the box idea for a process to map their level of innovativeness. While it is an effective way to assess the thought process of a candidate, it does not gauge how the person will perform in conventional situations. This is where ‘inside the box’ thinking helps. Many managers and employees are good at thinking within the constraints of a position. Since they are auto-tuned to function under certain limitations, it becomes easier for them to innovate within those limited resources. Such candidates can also work well as they are…
It is always tough to tell a candidate why they have been rejected. It gets tougher to decide what should be the mode of communication. In this digital era, emails have come in handy, which help to close a conversation with a sweeping line like ‘we have decided to explore other applications’ or ‘your skills don’t match our job requirements.’ What’s the best practice? The jury is still undecided on that. One of the basic questions here is, ‘Does an organisation need to inform a candidate that the person is rejected or should the person take a hint owing to…
What worked in favour of recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) is the quick transition to flexible means of delivering work last year. Obviously, technology played an important role here. The approach of these RPOs, driven by artificial intelligence (AI) and machine-learning (ML) has already made recruitment a smooth process. COVID-19 did lead to contraction in the market, but the sector is expected to bounce back quickly as business has become usual in many countries. As per the Everest Group and Grand View Research, the growth projections are 16 and 18.5 per cent. Despite a host of benefits, there are a few…
Job interviews are always crucial. Even if one acquires monumental experience over the years, how alert, agile and confident candidates appear to be during these sessions goes a long way in ensuring their place in the system. Quite obviously, there are certain dos and don’ts to make sure one does not go horribly wrong there. Many experts believe honesty is the key, but what does one say when one has no idea of something that the interviewer has asked? Should one lie or just go with ‘I don’t know’? Manu Wadhwa, CHRO, Sony Pictures Networks Firstly, it is perfectly fine…
Graduating at the top of the class at management or engineering colleges is a great achievement. It means the person has managed to beat the brightest minds in the sector. Many assume that is also the badge for the topper’s smooth inclusion in the workforce and for an even brighter future in an organisation. That may not be entirely true. The skills that a person learns at premiere professional colleges and what are actually needed to survive in an industry characterised by cutthroat competition, are quite different. A high score may help a graduate land a lucrative job but staying…
With rapid job cuts in the past couple of years, the employment scene in India has been in a soup. The pandemic just worsened the situation as many organisations decided to let go of its employees as business was badly hit. In the midst of all this, what also raised its ugly head is the menace of job scams. SAFERjobs, a charity supported by the UK government, found a 66 per cent rise in fake jobs during the lockdown, which means these scams are becoming rampant. Although there are many signs that could serve as red flags, these job posts…
There is a thin line between selling and overselling during an interview. Truth be told, we have often been tempted to lie about certain things during these chats. The scrupulous lot will refrain from doing so, but some do give in to temptation. A survey conducted by Checkster, a reference checking company, exposed some alarming results. Out of 400 job aspirants and 400 HR managers, 78 per cent did stretch the truth. What’s even more shocking is that the survey reveals 66 per cent managers are ready to overlook these shortcomings. So what are these lies that aspirants often resort…
India is slowly and steadily returning to normalcy after a year of pandemic-riddled existence. Many organisations have already asked their employees to report back to work and have introduced many hybrid models to ensure safety. The Government has issued a host of guidelines to companies that are opening their doors to the new and old employees to revert to the post COVID-19 era. With that in mind, safety concerns may be on the minds of many job aspirants when they decide on an organisation. The last one year has given them enough reasons to look for a company, which takes…
Relocating an employee to another place or office is nothing new. Many organisations rotate their employees across their many locations. It’s a good move for both sides as the organisation manages to use its own resources at another area, while the employee gains exposure to the work environment of different places. Ideally, in such cases, a company sweetens the move by offering attractive options, such as a hike in salary, relocation costs, and so on. The concerned employees are also given at least a month’s heads-up and not less, to make the shift. But what happens when relocation is the…
During the Monsoon session last year, the Government of India passed three labour codes — the Industrial Relations Code, the Code on Social Security, and the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020. The wage code of 2019 has already made a lot of noise in the recent past. Continuing with the same, the GOI has announced recently that it is looking to include an option under the new labour codes wherein organisations can allow their employees to work four days a week. The weekly work hours have been fixed at 48 hours a week as is the standard.…
It is imperative to maintain a diverse workplace today. It brings in different perspectives and makes an organisation highly desirable for job aspirants. Amazon India employs a host of processes to make sure its workforce is all inclusive. Swati Rustagi, director – human resources, Amazon India operations, reveals that the organisation’s commitment to equality stems across all communities of talent, including focused efforts around women, LGBTQ, military veterans and the differently abled, amongst others. “We strongly believe that every individual brings a unique perspective to the workplace and adds immense value to our network. Over the last few years, Amazon…
Redefining HR processes is one of the many measures an organisation takes to better its workplace diversity and culture. Godrej decided to bring all its HR processes under one wing, called the People Experience Centre. It includes Godrej Consumer Products, Godrej Properties, Godrej Agrovet, Godrej Housing Finance and Godrej Investment Advisors. Sumit Mitra, head, group HR and corporate services, Godrej, elaborates on why such a move helps Godrej as an organisation to better help its employees. Godrej’s HR strategy project wanted to understand what the Company wanted in the next three years and how the same could be achieved. Their…
A lot has changed in the last nine months. While remote working has brought in a complete shift in mindset and work culture, diversity and inclusion have become even more important now than ever before. Daimler India Commercial Vehicles (DICV), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Daimler AG has already stepped up to make its shop floor more inclusive for women. Recently, they announced 46 women hires at the Chennai unit. Now they are looking to up the ratio to 20 per cent by 2022. The organisation now has 186 women employees, which is just about 4 to 5 per cent of…
On Feb 1, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced the budget for the year 2021. A lot of emphasis has been put on reviving the economy, which has been badly hit due to the recession induced by the COVID-19 outbreak. The complete capital expenditure for FY2021-22 is Rs 5.54 lakh crore. Health and wellbeing, which emerged as the key sector in the last one year, has been specifically rewarded with benefits under the PM Aatmanirbhar Swasth Bharat Yojana. In case of direct taxes, senior citizens who are 75 years old and above, living on pension and interests, have been exempted…
A young workforce is always welcome at any organisation, because the younger lot brings in a fresh perspective. Despite being one of the most misjudged sections of the workforce for their fickle mindedness and tendency to disengage from jobs quickly, they can be valuable in keeping an organisation up-to-date with the changing times. That is one of the reasons why shadow boards were created to look for more relevance in the present times. GroupM’s initiative, aptly called, Youth Executive Committee (YCO), was constituted to address the same need. Rohit Suri, chief HR & talent officer – South Asia and corporate…
COVID-19 has been fatal, but also highly educational. Since the situation was unprecedented and no one had any experience of dealing with such circumstances, it threw many surprises at both the employees and the employers. Many issues that were till recently dealt swiftly, without too much deliberation, became some of the key drivers in the growth of an organisation. Caregivers’ plight is one such area, which amped up into something highly significant and sensitive in the past couple of months. One of the biggest challenges of the work-from-home model was that it wasn’t just professional life that needed tending to,…
Internal hiring saw a spike in the last one year. Lockdowns ensured that businesses struggled to keep their revenues intact, which led to drastic reduction of external recruitment. However, internal movements continued. In fact, a LinkedIn report claims it has been 20 per cent higher in 2020 as compared to the previous year. Organisations opt for it as they ensure retention apart from getting recruits who are already well-versed with the goings-on of the system. It is also cost-effective as a lot of onboarding exercises can be avoided. In the case of the employees, they just have to get acquainted…
WhatsApp’s controversial privacy policy has put the whole world on red alert. Many have even switched to other chat messengers to avoid their data getting breached. WhatsApp even issued a statement trying to quell rumours by giving front-page print adverts, but that did little to assuage fears. The Indian government recently directed Facebook that owns Whatsapp, to withdraw its new privacy policies. Many organisations have work groups on the social-media platform, which are used for various purposes, from dispensing company information to sharing office stories amongst colleagues instantly. What made many uncomfortable was the fact that the US was exempted…
A new year is here and along with it comes the season of the Budget. Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present the budget on February 2021. Last year was all about experiments and learning. Human resources played a key role in keeping things together when remote working became the way of life — facilitating a quick switch to the new mode of working and then engaging in a host of activities to boost employee morale — amidst challenges imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic. While speaking to HR professionals, it became abundantly clear that reskilling and upskilling are the buzzwords.…