Vikas Gupta, former head-HR and admin with profit centre responsibility, Beaniebugs Retail’s India operation, has now moved to Adda247. Here, he has taken on the role of Chief people officer with effect from 1 April. Gupta will be leading 300 plus employees at Adda247, which is an edutech startup that offers a test-preparation platform for students preparing for exams, such as banking, railways, insurance, defence and more. He will be leading their HR and admin functions. Earlier, Gupta was with Beaniebugs for three years and has also worked in companies, such as Fareportal, Spice Digital, Serco, Reliance Communications, and Wipro…
Author: Puja Bothra | HRKatha
Puja Bothra | HRKatha
She has been a business writer for a decade now. Besides, she also influences people through motivational workshops. Likes to travel long distances with a book in hand and accounts her travels in a blog. She is very passionate about Yoga and calls it her purpose in life.
IR led the way for ER, BP was suffixed to HR and people management has changed and how! In the past, HR was a preferred choice for people who liked to serve people, but intrusion of technology has changed that, at least to some extent! Can the core functions of HR be automated? Can identification and hiring of personnel, their onboarding, L&D, compensation & benefit, engagement, safety, welfare and wellness, and so on be automated? When everything that HR does revolves around people, how can the human element be absent from it? If HR = people, business = people, then…
Driving innovation is imperative to any organisation looking for growth. Recognising this, Future Generali India Life Insurance or FGILI has designed unique programmes to drive its people who form the fulcrum of the Company. In an exclusive conversation with HRKatha, Ruchira Bhardwaja, CHRO, FGILI, talks about spearheading innovative programmes to take the company into the fast lane of phenomenal growth. The rethinking approach In the beginning of 2018, the Company initiated the campaign to transform the workplace through a comprehensive rethinking approach. The strategy was to establish rethinking pervasively in talent, workplace and technology to strengthen and build capacities at…
The workforce is changing rapidly. Baby boomers are retiring, millennials are climbing the corporate ladder and Gen Z is entering the workplace. Organisations are facing disruption not only in technology but also in people management. Today, more than ever, businesses need visionary leaders who remain at the helm, not only to steer them through disruption but turn these disruptions into opportunities. A combination of such transformations has altered the talent acquisition process. Digitisation through AI and predictive analysis simply form one aspect of the transformation. The synergies involved in creating an employer brand to attract the right candidates is the…
Snehal Gawande, who was formerly heading the compensation and benefit function for ABD’s India operations for a little over two years, has joined Tata Realty. This move is an industry jump for her —from FMCG to real estate. Gawande comes with 14 years of experience in the HR space of the FMCG sector. Within HR she has managed multiple portfolios —compensation and benefit, performance management, HR operations, HR shared services and HRBP. She hails from Mumbai, where she completed her graduation in economics and postgraduation in economics and human resources. Before ABD, Gawande was with Diageo for four years. After…
We all know the impact visionary leaders can create on business and people. They have the ability to transform the way a society thinks, behaves and acts. Today, more than ever, there is a strong consciousness in leaders to perfect their roles. Being ‘nearly perfect’ is not an option for many. Sometimes, leaders are unaware of certain aspects of their leadership styles. They have a blind spot for something and fail to understand and see its importance. While all leaders cannot be put in one bracket, there are common traits that most will identify with. The question is, whether the…
From British India to Free India and now Tech India, Raymond has seen it all. Born in 1925 and now just a few years left to complete a century, the Company has transformed from being an Indian textile business to a global conglomerate. In possession of a robust legacy, how do they stay agile in the disruptive era? Aren’t legacy and agility two sides of a coin, or rather, parallel tracks of a railway engine that can never meet? HRKatha spoke to K A Narayan, president – HR at Raymond, who has led the workforce for over a decade. Raymond,…
Disruptive leaders are those who possess uncommon qualities and characteristics that help them become future ready. These leaders drive organisations to adapt, collaborate and excel in disruptive times. Why do we need disruptive leaders? To ensure that organisations succeed in a rapidly-changing business world, a new class of future-ready leaders must take charge. The new high-performing leaders incorporate and build on existing concepts of agile, digital and inclusive leadership to develop a competitive advantage. Five dimensions of high performers that allow them to move quickly, self-disrupt and most importantly, drive organisations, are as follows: Anticipate Leaders who anticipate are not…
Abhinav Chopra, current CHRO and senior executive VP,Viacom Inc., will leave the Indian subcontinent by April to take up a senior management role in HR. In his new position, he will be responsible for the domestic market (country role) and work from the headquarters of the global multi-platform entertainment company, at Times Square. In India, Viacom 18 was founded in November 2007 as a joint venture operation between Viacom Inc. and TV18. Viacom 18 owns and operates various channels of the Viacom Group for the Indian viewers, as well as various consumer products in India. “This is an internal move…
History is being created as information technology continues to transform business functions. The last two years have witnessed an accelerated shift towards digitisation. Not only big companies, but even small ones have contributed towards it. In the Indian context, digitisation of business is happening at par with the West. We are very much collaborating with them in taking this digital revolution forward. While all the functions of a company are seeing disruption, HR is taking the lead. Every aspect of the function is incorporating technology to improve employee experience. Thus, HR can focus more on taking up a strategic role…
The ship is ready to sail but the captain is missing. Such is the fate of hospitals in the healthcare industry. The robust brands in the industry are seen setting new establishments but unable to find CEOs to steer them forward. HRKatha tried to diagnose the problem of missing CEOs in the healthcare industry, by speaking to CHROs of the top hospitals in the industry. Skill imbalance is the crux of the problem, which impacts the top leadership roles, such as CEOs and operation heads. The right talent is hard to come by. People who come with medical expertise do…
Dabur released a video to honour its women employees on the occasion of Women’s Day. In the video, women are seen walking in long confident strides towards equality, going over their regular day’s work with poised dedication and focus. The video aims to free women from the clutches of stereotyping and labelling. They are seen performing a plethora of tasks from technology to research with or without lip gloss! The background track is very catchy and reiterates that women are ready for all jobs and the only option they are open to is ‘winning’. The film, #WomenCan, is an effort…
She understands the imperatives for an organisation from a talent perspective. She possesses the consulting skills required to provide solutions. She is also a specialist in finance and has been a successful HR leader. When not at work, she enjoys celebrating life with her family and friends. In conversation with free-spirited Shalini Pillay, office managing partner, KPMG, Bangalore, who is an eternal learner and draws inspiration from the quote, “A comfort zone is a beautiful place but nothing ever grows there.” After engineering, a stint at being a financial consultant, and then some time in chartered accountancy, followed by people…
Carrie Beckstrom, chief learning officer, Power Speaking Inc. has more than 30 years of experience in the learning and development field. Her mission is to help take the Company, which has positively impacted over 300,000 people over the past 30 years, to new heights in leading-edge communication and executive presentation skills development. Carrie Beckstorm’s exclusive interview with HRKatha, this ‘Women’s Day’ What is Power Speaking Inc.? Can you explain its over-arching goal in brief? At Power Speaking, we are all about transformation—and the journey it takes to make it happen. Our organisation is a global, women-owned business that delivers presentation…
In any company, there is always a bunch of people who go unnoticed— the invisible faces of the organisation. Though they are never in the limelight, they do play a very important role in the wrinkle-free running of the company. These faces belong to the support staff—the men and women responsible for clean floors and furniture, availability of drinking water and the security of the premises. These are just some of the visible manifestations of their work. They actually do a lot more so that you can focus on your job and not worry about the mundane stuff. Let us…
Businesses need ideas to grow. How and from where can these ideas be generated? Employees are a storehouse of ideas, and it is high time companies tapped into this resource to innovate new products, processes and cultures. The versatile talent pool of an organisation can be its greatest source of ideas. By encouraging employees to give ideas, the leaders create think-tanks within the organisation. A company’s workforce is constantly in touch with the customers, first-hand users of company processes and the creators of its culture. Then, who else is in the best position to bounce off ideas that can help…
Upskilling is the process of teaching workers new skills. With every business in the spectrum facing disruption because of automation, upskilling is the only solution to help cope. While all industries are affected by the change, the IT industry takes the responsibility of spearheading the transformations to facilitate change in other industries as well. The automation process across industries has created a new demand for IT products and services. Technology cycles are very short, leading to redundancies in certain processes. Equally fast, newer processes and products are getting invented for which upskilling of the workforce is mandatory. Marketplace shifts and…
Not having a plan B at all means sticking to plan A and persevering to make it succeed, because the path is challenging and the tread is slow. At the dawn of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, the business dynamics have changed phenomenally. Disruptions in the business world have forced us to think out of the box. We have started thinking differently by constantly questioning our beliefs. Today, we depend more on research, data and algorithms to guide us. These tools give us power and confidence to stay put on our desired path. Today’s workforce has gone through a transformation process…
Prem Singh joins the J.K Group as the group CHRO. He has relocated to New Delhi for this role. Previously, he was the president and global head HR at Wockhardt and was operating from Mumbai. Friday, 22nd February was his first day at J.K Group and since then he has been very busy attending inductions for a smooth onboarding experience. HRKatha spoke to him briefly this morning, “I am here in Delhi, I am very excited to start this role. It is a bigger company with more opportunities, there are close to thirty thousand employees in the group,” says Singh.…
An overqualified employee is as bright as a button, but is this button hanging loose and ready to fall? Highly educated people possessing a degree in each pocket consent to take up jobs that do not require much in terms of qualification, simply because there is a dearth of job opportunities in the market. HRKatha had reported a few months back that in Uttar Pradesh, a surprising number of PhD holders (3700) had applied for peon vacancies. These posts, for messengers, were advertised by the Uttar Pradesh Police, stating the required qualification as Class V. “Today, even for a constable’s…
The Indian civil aviation industry’s rising costs and losses have been dominating the news for some time now. Some giants in the past have got deeply entanged in this web and even declared bankruptcy. Recently, Jet Airways has been saved from hitting rock bottom having been bailed out by Etihad. For most part of last year, the cost of running an airline went up predominantly because of rising fuel cost and devaluation of the rupee. In the airline industry, most purchases are sourced internationally, thereby resulting in additional foreign exchange spend, which in turn increases the burden on costs and…
Prem Singh, president-global HR, Wockhardt has quit the pharma space to take up a more challenging role in another industry. HRKatha spoke to Prem Singh this morning and wished him luck for his new stint as CHRO in a different industry from tomorrow, 22 February. While Singh has worked in the pharma industry for a decade, in his career spanning 20 years, he has worked in other industries as well. Varun Upadhyaya, who was earlier working as an independent consultant, will now take his place in Wockhardt as VP and head-HR. He comes with the experience of having led pharma…
We are at the crossroads of Industrial Revolution 4.0 or the Fourth Industrial Revolution. The extensive application of information technology to every function and level of the organisation has brought us to the edge of another revolution in the manufacturing process. This digital transformation in the manufacturing process has caused disruptions in the economy. Let’s take a historical approach to decoding the Industrial Revolution (IR) 4.0 by establishing an understanding of the other industrial transformations that have taken place in the past: The First IR harnessed power from coal and steam to replace human and animal power with it. The…
When Indra Nooyi became the CEO of Pepsico in 2006, she met Steve Jobs who advised her that as a CEO she should sometimes raise her voice, change her tone, and show her anger and disapproval. As the head of Pepsico for 12 years, Nooyi used this valuable tool of ‘not always being nice’ to her advantage, and she credits Jobs for having taught her this powerful lesson. She learned to pound tables, raise her voice, and demonstrate anger, and obtained phenomenal results too! Nooyi talks about the ‘Temper Tantrum Tool’ in her interviews and it features in her top…
The personal life of employees is their business, but when this personal life is exposed to the world through social media, it no longer stays personal. Social media is the most common platform, which blurs the line between personal and professional. Some social-media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram are popularly used by individuals as well as companies. When an employee expresses an unreasonable opinion on a sensitive matter, on any one of these platforms, it cannot go unnoticed by the company. Does this impact the person’s employment? Should the company ignore this person or take immediate action?…
Coffee-break conversations can be rather random. Our group went into discussing lifestyle products and brands. One of my colleagues initiated an informal survey of sorts to quantify the group’s brand preference. Titan watches, Titan-Eye glasses, Tanishq bangles, Taneira sarees… wow! Among the five of us, each one possessed at least one product if not more from the Titan brand. We wanted to take a sneak peek into the HR function of this TITANic brand and explore what drives the Company to keep on expanding their products and stay one step ahead in the changing market. By the people, of the…