Top HR honchos speak at TISS

PaGaLGuY.com News Service

17 years ago

The power drivers of HR fraternity made their presence felt in a strong way through engaging discussions. The topics were diverse and relevant to the modern HR practices not only in the Indian industry but also in the global scenario. One of the main focuses was on aligning HR practices to the structure of the organizational processes. As Dr. Santrupt Misra, Director-HR, Aditya Birla Management Corporation Ltd framed that for an HR function to succeed, it would be imperative to understand the ongoing line processes and their impact on the personnel functions. He also put emphasis on the role of HR being a strategic partner in the decisions taken by the top management officials.

Another point of discussion was verbalized by Mr. Debashish Roy, VP-HR, Colgate Palmolive India wherein he stressed on values, integrity and accountability of the HR processes followed in his company. The human behaviors have come of an age wherein the interpersonal skills of the HR professionals are being touted as the crux of the success stories in the organization. This was identified by Mr. Adil Malia, President-HR, Essar Group who chalked out certain quotients in HR namely intellectual, emotional, spiritual, etc which can work as a framework to support the workings of HR. Mr. P. Vijayan. VP-HR, Mahindra Gesco went a step ahead and spoke about the right attitude that the personnel officers have to inculcate to understand the significance of people and their issues. This will allow us to understand the business, customers, and other dynamics beyond the obvious frontiers.

The ‘business’ aspect of an HR professional is vital as we leverage not only the internal customers of the organization but also the external customers. He reiterated on ‘changing the lens through which we see the world’ and influence change for the betterment of the organization. Change management and the transitional factors were discussed in detail by Ms Mandip Maitra Director-HR, HDFC Bank who shared her experiences on the changing roles of HR in the banking sector. She enunciated that commitment to continuous improvement, process excellence and operational efficiency are the ingredients of sustainable management.Mr. S K Dutt, VP-HR, Larsen & Toubro Limited spoke about the developing and evolving HR process flows which is caused due to globalization. He mentioned that global managers recognize diversity management as a key role to play into the growing global HR policies.

Other prominent HR honchos strived to point out the changing face of employee relations and industrial relations in the Indian industries. Dr Avinash Deolekar, VP-HR, Pepsico spoke about different dimensions and perspectives of Industrial Relations(IR) which gave us a detailed insight on the various regulatory and legal frameworks in India. Mr. Vivek Patwardhan, VP-HR, Asian Paints threw light on the future of Industrial Relations, vital influence of HRM in the trade unions of India, the emerging relationship between IR and employee relations,etc.

The discussions and deliberations were extremely insightful and helped the budding HR professionals in us to develop a varied insight towards various aspects of Human Resources. The various enriching experiences that were recited were emblazoned in our minds and it enabled us to keep abreast of marketplace and workforce trends. It left us with an unquenchable thirst to be committed to perfection and quality. We have been shown the way by the trend setters who have paved the way to start a fresh journey on people skills. In the end it can be said that “This is not the end. This is not the beginning. This is not the beginning of the end. This is at best the end of the beginning”