Browsing: Dialogue

Yuvaraj Srivastava spent more than five years with the Indian army before he moved to the corporate sector. This certainly makes him a differently talented HR professional.

Post his army days, Srivastava dabbled in different sectors starting from an industrial unit (Asian Paints), moving on to hospitality (The Oberoi), then to FMCG (PepsiCo) before joining a new age company (MakeMyTrip). His exposure to HR management in different sectors has contributed to the richness of his experience.

Srivastava, CHRO, MakeMyTrip speaks to HRKatha on how human resources is same yet different in varied sectors. He has coined different terms for each of his experiences. He describes how serving the armed forces has taught him to be a better HR professional. Excerpts!

Richard Lobo is a qualified mechanical engineer who decided to pursue a career in human resources. Post his PGDM in Marketing and Finance, from Xavier Institute of Management, Lobo dabbled in sales and marketing at Godrej & Boyce.

He joined Infosys in 2000 where he was recently appointed as the senior vice-president & head-HR. In his new role, he oversees the functions of business HR, employee relations, geography-HR and HR delivery for Infosys.

In the last one year, the company has introduced several changes in terms of people practices. Lobo chats with HRKatha on the company’s people strategy and his overall view on the changing dynamics of the human resource function.Excerpts!

From a Class-I gazetted officer with the government of India to the CHRO of India’s largest business house, the journey has not been a cakewalk for Prabir Jha, president & group CHRO, Reliance Industries.

Jha started his career as an assistant works manager at the Dehu Road Ordnance Factory, Pune, in 1990. However, after completing nine years in a secured government job, he decided to test new waters. He took two years’ leave to pursue a full-time course in HR from XLRI, Jamshedpur, which marked the beginning of his corporate life. Jha has diverse experience across industries—from engineering and information technology to pharmaceutical and automotive— and now even a business conglomeration. His personal goal is to support people to become better professionals and more importantly, complete individuals.

He speaks to HR Katha on a subject that plagues the HR industry today — the use of data in human resources. Excerpts…

Adil Malia, group president, HR at Essar group, has worked across industries, cultures, regions and functions. From FMCG to hardcore engineering and infrastructure; from a Global MNCs such as GE, Coca-Cola to promoter led companies such as Essar and Godrej; from India to West Asia from employee relations, training, HRM, organisational development to marketing in tactical and strategic roles.

He shares with HR Katha his candid views on the state of human resources function in India.

The country head, human resources, at Lafarge India, has recently launched her first book – ‘Reality Bytes – The Role of HR in Today’s World’. A ready reckoner for HR professionals and aspirants, peers in the industry have termed it as a crisp, practical and contemporary book that helps readers understand the nuances of the complex world of human resources.

Sharma speaks to HR Katha on her experience as a writer and her candid views on the HR function.

Excerpts… 

Seema Nambiar, senior director, people resources, McDonald’s India–West & South, has been associated with the Quick-Service-Restaurant (QSR) sector for some time now, and  been part of the McDonald’s family for more than 15 years. Prior to this, she managed employee training for Domino’s India.

In her current role, she is responsible for ensuring seamless integration of company and people strategies at McDonald’s, West and South divisions. She focusses on enhancing the company’s employer brand image, and works towards creating a heightened Employee Value Proposition. In her previous role at McDonald’s, Nambiar was head – learning, development and strategy planning.

While sharing the employee development programmes at McDonald’s with HR Katha, she talks about how McDonald’s helps its employees build a career and not just pursue a job which is quite unusual in the QSR sector.  Excerpts

In his career spanning over 24 years, Lalit Kar, head HR, Reliance Digital has been involved in three start-ups and one closure. He is experienced in the entire spectrum of HR starting from industrial relations to organisational capability building.

Kar has spent more than decade managing HR in the organised retail sector. He speaks to HR Katha about the reasons for the high attrition rate in this sector and how companies can put an end to this problem…