Author: Sugandh Bahl | HRKatha

The COVID-19 pandemic coupled with the lockdown has broken the backs of economies worldwide and crippled even the most stable companies. “At the time of this crisis, our company was doing its bit to sustain the lives and livelihoods of as many people as possible. The effort was directed at retaining our employees, even if it meant taking a hit to our bottom line.” A multinational consumer electronics company of Japanese origin, Panasonic India has been weathering these tough times through a sustained effort, and claims to have managed with zero layoffs and pay cuts. Adarsh Mitra, director and CHRO,…

Ludhiana-based Trident Group, which is into manufacturing home textiles and paper, has decided to reward its blue-collar employees in a unique way. It has launched a programme under which the workers can learn and upskill themselves, and earn incentives after the completion of the programme. The Company’s blue-collar workers are called Karmayogis and they are segregated into two levels – IL1 and IL2. The monthly salary of the first level, IL1, was fixed at Rs 15,000 with an additional variable pay of Rs 3,000. Now the Company has raised the monthly fixed component to Rs 18,000 and at the same…

When completing performance reviews, psychologists and researchers alike agree that managers naturally exhibit bias in the ratings. To be fair and objective, a performance evaluation must be based on the employee’s job-related behaviour, not on the employee’s personal traits, work situation or other factors unrelated to employee performance. Here are a few major biases, commonly experienced by many employees in an organisation. Solar-system bias According to Rishi Tiwari, director-HR, Hilton, “In the COVID-era, the reporting manager operates from a distance, and the team is distributed across various geographies at varied distances both physically as well as face-time. And here, we…

After spending 11 years at the Landmark Group, Venkatramana B will superannuate from his full-time role as group president- HR on  June 30 2020. However, he will be associated with the Group till September 2020 as a consultant and HR Advisor. Meanwhile, Sandeep Batra has superseded Venkatramana as president-group HR.  Batra was earlier executive VP and HR head of enterprise business and technology, at Vodafone Idea. While conversing with HR Katha, Batra said, “My immediate tasks involve mitigating the risks and impact of COVID 19 from a people’s point of view. And talking about long-term perspective, my aim is to…

Social-media trolls against companies, by their own employees, are growing in number these days. Not surprising, since the number of disgruntled employees has also grown as a result of the rampant layoffs. Unhappy employees, both existing and former, often cross the line in a fit of rage or when they are in a revenge mode. They propagate against the organisation on social media maligning its reputation and integrity. Some of these messages on social media can be significantly damaging. So, how should companies react to such comments? Should they fight it out on the social media platform itself, and confront…

‘Yes-Ministers’ are the blue-eyed boys of most bosses. They are loved and even trusted by their managers for their ‘never say no’ attitude. Even during the recruitment process, they are the preferred lot. Insecure managers and leaders tend to hire ‘yes-men’ because they feel safe and comfortable with them. Jagjit Singh, former CHRO, PWC, says, “There is a natural inclination to hire those, whom people do not consider a threat or who would not be challenging their beliefs and thoughts.” “The so-called yes-men have their way because they suck up to their bosses. Speaking from experience, most employees wish to…

It is innovation that is driving businesses today. For many, it is a survival tactic. Organisations seek people who can innovate, are creative, and can think out of the box. Having said that, it is also true that innovation and creativity are free birds. To innovate, one needs to let the imagination fly. Only then does the big idea strike. “You cannot cage your employees and expect them to think out of the box. Employees need space to come up with out-of-the-box solutions.” However, there is another side to the story. While organisations need innovations, they also have their…

Employees, who earlier complained of longer meetings in the conference rooms of offices, now whine about longer zoom calls or conference calls hampering their productivity to the core. Nuances of agility “In the pre-COVID world we have heard from executives that their being part of innumerable meetings leaves them with no productive time. Now when I talk to colleagues across industries, I find that what was earlier a smaller demon has now turned into a giant one,” says Sunil Singh, CHRO, Cadila. ‘Zoom fatigue’ is the new addition to the corporate lexicon in the last three months of lockdown due…

Reskilling can be incredibly lucrative for just about any organisation—but it isn’t as easy as setting up a pipeline and funnelling as many people through as possible. Satyajit Mohanty, CHRO, Crompton Greaves Consumer Electricals, believes “Re-skilling is not only a matter of training employees on specific skills. We often under-estimate the thirst for development and learning many employees have.” At Crompton Greaves, the reskilling drive has been on in full swing. The thought struck during the pandemic, when there was a freeze on hiring and the management decided to carry out their in-house reskilling drive. Mohanty explained that when they…

Traditionally, intelligence quotient (IQ) has always been a sought-after parameter while hiring for the jobs that involve non-repetitive schedules and problem-solving. However, in these times, when the entire function revolves around communication, empathy, understanding and self-awareness, people with high emotional quotient (EQ) are much in demand. Rishi Tiwari, director – HR, Hilton, is of the opinion that EQ and IQ go hand in hand, rather than each existing in isolation, to determine the overall possibility of a candidate to succeed as an employee in a given role. He draws an analogy, saying one can imagine IQ as a great car…

With the uptake of increased digitisation within organisations, there is a shift in skill requirements for the future workforce. Learning and Development (L&D) professionals have realised that in order to enhance the absorption and retention of skills and knowledge to the maximum, they need to help learners or employees experience things first hand. However, this is not possible at all times, and hence, it is essential to create simulated or artificial environments around learners and employees that allow them to learn as if from a real experience. This is where ‘immersive learning’ comes into play. It provides learners with an…

During these times, when companies across the globe are being forced to either lay off their valuable employees or furlough them in order to manage budgets and keep businesses going, Motilal Oswal has announced variable pay and promotions for its staff. This is clearly in line with the organisation’s philosophy of valuing employees at all times. In fact, the announcement is part of the normal and ongoing practice that the organisation follows. During an exclusive talk with HR Katha, Sudhir Dhar, executive director & head – HR, Motilal Oswal Financial Services, explains that variable pay announcements are incentives and bonuses,…

The coronavirus pandemic and the resulting lockdown have been great disruptors. While some disruptions have been really damaging, others have been for the good. Due to the lockdown worldwide, one positive change in people’s professional life has been the growing popularity of telecommuting or work-from-home (WFH). Companies have realised the benefits of WFH and are ready to bring in further alterations to make the practice more prevalent. It is a belief that in the new normal, with more people working from home, managers will lose their relevance. If, by ‘managers’, what people mean is ‘watchdogs’, then they are certainly not…

The frontline employees of any retail company are in direct connect with the customers. This is also why these employees need to be updated on the frequently-changing products and the offerings in real time. Now to keep the frontline staff updated on the latest products and offerings, Tata Croma or Infinity Retail, created an application called Base Station. “The app was developed two years back for employees’ communication, training, certification programmes, and for solving queries as well. It’s the only means of connect between the employees and the Company,” shares Joe Chacko, chief HR and Organisational Learning, Croma. When customers…

DBS Bank, erstwhile Development Bank of Singapore, a full-fledged digital bank, has been using technology extensively to find and hire talent. The Bank is truly and deeply immersed in advancing its digital-transformation agenda. “This ethos reflects in our hiring process, as we seek to create a richer experience for our applicants. To this end, the Jobs Intelligence Maestro (JIM) was developed in Q4 2019, at DBS India, to streamline the end-to-end job application process and enable real-time interaction 24/7,” claims Kishore Poduri, head -HR, DBS Bank India. Development of this chatbot technology had begun in April 2017, by Singapore-based startup,…

Jaswal comes with varied experience in the telecom, BFSI, education, aviation and hospitality sectors. Vinay Jaswal, well-known HR leader with expertise in business building and culture transformation, stepped down from his position as associate VP-HR, airport operations and customer services, Indigo, on May 15, 2020. He has now joined InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG®), as HR head – South West Asia. Having successfully anchored HR initiatives in the areas of business restructuring, talent management, shared services and succession planning in the telecom, BFSI, education, aviation and hospitality sectors, Jaswal is backed by rich experience and varied exposure of twenty five plus years. Jaswal’s association…

In today’s times with Coronavirus, it is imperative for employees to reskill themselves in order to stay relevant and updated in society. Genpact has an initiative called Genome, which combines the contemporary understanding of learning science with new operating models derived from MIT’s Centre for Collective Intelligence. The Company has designed a scalable infrastructure that delivers customised reskilling paths for tens of thousands of employees. Commenting on this project, which piloted in November 2018, Piyush Mehta, CHRO, Genpact, says, “Till date, Genpact has identified 300 granular skills in 60 domains with over 7,500 learning assets and 6,400 hours of learning…

‘Work from home’ (WFH) isn’t something new. For years, it has been an optional practice in many organisations, where people had the choice to opt for it whenever they needed to. However, during the lockdown across the world, WFH became an enforced practice born out of sheer compulsion. In the last 50-odd days, many have started believing that ‘work from home’ is the new normal. Some companies have even gone ahead and announced that they will continue with the practice for a longer period of time, given that the model has been quite successful during the lockdown. While we do…

Jumping from one employer to another always requires some legwork and adjustments. But doing so during a pandemic can prove extremely challenging. While some may be already in talks with various other employers in terms of a switch, others may be preparing to begin their search now, considering the present situation. Nishant Madhukar, group head – HR, Ferns and Petals, feels, “One shouldn’t opt for any job change during crisis unless the organisation is dropping hints that one may get laid off in the days to come. A crisis isn’t a great time to switch because the problem is more…

With their farsightedness at the very onset of the COVID-19 crisis, the management at HCL Technologies had begun taking certain precautions as early as January 2020. This has paid them good dividends, and now, they are all set for the new normal. Resumption of operations in the ‘new normal’ “Now that the workforce is coming back to work, all our office spaces have been deeply cleansed. We have mandated a distance of six feet between each employee, to ensure social distancing,” claims Varre Appa Rao, CHRO, HCL Technologies. “We have reduced the number of gates so that we can keep…

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the future, and for a financial technology solutions company, AI capabilities have to be adopted across levels. That is, why Naspers-owned PayU has been providing AI training to all its employees across functions and levels, starting from leadership roles to the entry level. The Company has a formalised AI-learning strategy in place. In fact, this initiative is driven by Naspers itself, by running an internal programme called ‘MyAcademy’, which designs as well as executes the AI-learning strategy. “The initiative began a year back to ensure that AI is easily understood by all, so that it is…

Common wisdom on leadership promotes ‘leading by example’. This may cause leaders to assume that only their actions are watched; that what they say and how their words are interpreted by their teams are of little significance. But the truth is, the words or phrases leaders use can have a substantial impact on their team’s morale and productivity. During meetings, it is easy to read the body language of all the participants, including the speaker. However, with virtual meetings becoming the norm today, it is essential to understand that words leaving an individual’s mouth, especially a leader’s, can be interpreted…

These days, it’s ‘employees first’ for most companies, which is why they are finding newer ways to stay connected with the workforce and keep them engaged. Essar Group has launched ‘Learning TV’ – a platform for all Essarites and their families to engage daily in live online sessions on art, cuisine, mental well-being, fitness and much more. Behavioural sessions, such as ‘Assertive Communication’, and ‘Innovative Operational Execution’ are also part of the offering, to help Essarites upskill professionally. In response to the increasing need to remotely connect with employees in engaging ways, Essar Learning TV is ensuring that ‘Essarites’ not…

A lockdown can get quite monotonous, especially for people who cannot work from home, such as the employees working for the airlines sector. That is why, IndiGo has launched a series of activities — some tailored according to their profile— to keep its workforce engaged. Raj Raghavan, senior VP and head-HR, IndiGo Airlines, shares, “One cannot really engage in any engagement drills, without quite understanding what the employees want. What motivates a pilot isn’t what motivates the Company’s financial analyst.” “At a meta-level, it is very important to primarily measure the employee experience to be able to create employee engagement.…

There is no debating the fact that a diverse workforce yields the best results. Till date, organisations have been working towards achieving diversity in terms of gender, age and race. Now, they are also fighting to achieve neurodiversity. For the uninitiated, neurodiversity is about having people with neurocognitive disabilities, such as dyslexia and autism, as part of the workforce. “Research on neurodiversity has shown that people with such special abilities possess a higher level of talent in certain areas, such as mathematics and research. Their abilities and talents make them different from the rest. Hence, having such unique talent in…

With work-from-home becoming the new normal in the business world, the age-old corporate ‘ladder’ is giving way to the ‘lattice’. In other words, flow of ideas, development and recognition are taking the horizontal path instead of the vertical one. The lattice is proving to be a more collaborative and customised approach to structuring work, building careers and fostering participation. “A career lattice is similar to a jungle gym, where you have the opportunity to do things, not necessarily for the sake of career growth, but to enhance your own learning,” emphasises Raj Raghavan, senior VP and head-HR, Indigo Airlines. Today, you…