New Dimensions Added to HR Continuum This Year

The corporate climate today is a far cry from the business world of the yesteryears. The role of human resources has been evolving for quite some time now, reestablished to support the attainment of the overall strategic business plan and objectives. The HR manager today is expected to parallel the needs of his organization with the dynamic business environment.

This spells out the theme of the recently held HR Continuum 2006, at Shailesh J. Mehta School of Management, IIT Bombay on 9^th April 2006. The one day event was the second in link to the Continuum series, which is the rolling seminar series, a regular event at SJMSOM. This event aims to cover the latest trends in management by inviting eminent speakers from business and academia.

This year, new dimensions were added to the lecture series Continuum, by introducing a Panel Discussion and B-Pratyancha, a Poster competition, as a student activity. The first speaker of the day V S Patwardhan, Head HR, Asian Paints focused on the contribution of HR during the transition period when Asian Paints revamped its organizational structure in terms of business units. The role of HR was recognized as strategic in making the processes seamless.

The event was inaugurated by the Head of Department of SJMSOM, Prof. M. Koregaonkar, who gave a very thought provoking talk on the theme, leaving the crowd with questions, he thought needed an address.

The keynote speaker was Prof. S. Bhargava of SJMSOM, who gave a holistic view on the topic, with the advantage of an academician’s point of view.

Mr. Harshvendra Soin, VP HR, Bharti Televentures summed up the ethos of Bharti as being “All about Human expression ..”

He enumerated 5 facets of aligning people to Business Strategy. He gave the audience a peek into the unique concept of Bharti for “insourcing” when everyone else is on the route of outsourcing.

He summed up his very insightful talk by quoting Mr. Sunil Bharti Mittal as “HR drives business, and not the business driving HR”.

The third speaker Atul Sharma, Head HR, Goldman Sachs, started his talk by very aptly saying “You can ignore the HR professional, but not the HR Proffession”.

He laid emphasis on getting the right people and managed to address the day’s question “How to measure the HR effectiveness”, by giving the Human Capital Index and the Team Effectiveness Index.

The Panel Discussion was a very enthusing exchange between the distinguished panel comprising of Siddharth Kumar, Partner, Gallup India, Ravi Teja, Head ET, Nihilent, Deepinder Lamba, Lead ECD, Accenture, and was moderated by Mr. Arvind Agarwal, VP HR, RPG Enterprises.

Unconventional ideas were put across. Mr. Ravi Teja of Nihilent quoted “Employee retention is not the issue, knowledge retention is the issue. He touched upon an interesting concept of ‘tacit knowledge’ and how we need to build a ‘corporate soul’

The other ideas that came across were “ Instead of focusing on why people are leaving, the valuable assessment would be to find out “what makes the, stay in the company”.

The moderator summed up by suggesting the need to create an emotional economy within the company, which would make the employees want to stick on.

The event gave the stage to the students through the poster competition B-Pratyancha, where students and research scholars presented their posters on relevant HR issues. The event was adjudged by Mr. Arvind Agarwal and Mr. Ravi Teja. The winners took away prizes worth Rs. 8,000.

The title sponsor for the event was Nihilent, the supporting sponsors being DNA(media partner), Pagalguy(knowledge partner) and ARAMAX.