Sonipat, Haryana, India: The 2nd HR Conclave on “ Managing the Three Es: Expectations, Employees and E-Space” was hosted by the Centre for Leadership & Change, O.P. Jindal Global University in association with Career Development and Placement Division supported by HR Club of Jindal Global Business School.
With increasing integration of the world and fast advancing technology, managing diversity and building capability to deal with disruptive technologies of the future are foremost challenges for the human resource professionals of today, opined HR experts at the conference.
Delivering the inaugural address Prof. C Raj Kumar Founding Vice Chancellor, O. P. Jindal Global University said, “HR departments should guard against the deterioration of the ethical edifice of the organisation. Organisations of the future will be judged by their ethical fabric.” Prof. Kumar emphasized that “HR professionals today and in the future must move away from a focus on money making. This is a people’s era and the focus should be on human resource.”
Balancing the three Es- Expectations, Employees and E-Space in any organisation becomes an imminent imperative. Management of these becomes both an art as much as science , while conventional wisdom may provide a few answers, chances are that un-conventional paradigms will have to be found and exploited. Both the parameters as well as the drivers of success will have to be re-calibrated and re-defined opined most thought leader at the conclave.
Dr. Sanjeev P Sahni, Principal Director, Jindal Institute of Behavioural Sciences (JIBS) laid emphasis on the changing role of HR professionals, “HR is a strategic partner and the face of any organization, it plays a central role in the organisations growth. HR should not be seen as a cost but as an investment and organisations have to be careful not to let the emerging, interactive and innovative technologies diminish the importance of HR.”
Mr. Prakash Pathak, Director Career Development and Placement Division, O. P. Jindal Global University said, “The conclave touched upon many pertinent issues related to the main theme. Organizations being the place where people spend almost half their lives, the employees expect some validation of their education, skills, time and more importantly their value as a person and human being. The organizations, on the other hand, expect the job well done and achievement of targets and goals. The conclave deliberated on this issue with the effect of technology and E space in this fast changing world. The conclave also reflected upon the rising of ‘Specialist’ vis-à-vis a ‘Generalist’, especially in this age of millennials. It was a pleasure listening to the views of various eminent speakers on this topic of relevance.”
The Conclave saw three plenary sessions. The first session was on “Defining the New Age Workforce and the Contours of Changing Technologies.” Followed by a session on the “The impact of the ever expansive E-space on employees and their expectations-how easy or difficult to meet?” while the third revolved around the theme “Expectations from the workforce- an organizational perspective”.
Speaking at the conclave Dayanand Allapur, Vice President and Head of Human Resources, Capagemini Business Services said “Whether we see it as a disruption or opportunity, technology has changed lives forever and HR professionals have to be tuned to adapt to the changing world”
Allapur noted, “Just by looking at how the smartphone and flooding of apps have changed the way people read or buy their clothes, displacing thousands of people from their traditional business set up in the process, can explain how disruptive technology can be. Adapting to new-age technologies such as robotics and artificial intelligence is the need of the hour.”
Disruptive also refers to the paradigm shift that the HR professionals are currently experiencing due to the changing technologies and market needs, Chaitali Mukherjee, managing principal, leadership and talent consulting practice, Korn Ferry India, said at the event.
Similarly, managing diversity in the workforce in terms of gender, age or nationality are some of the other challenges for the HR professionals of today, said Deepak Chawla, head, human resource, Reliance Infrastructure.
Being the custodian of an organisation’s culture, HR professionals today face the huge challenge of offering “customised approach” to fulfill the needs of the employees with different culture and capabilities, suggested Sandeep Chaudhary, practice leader, compensation consulting, Asia Pacific, Aon Hewitt.
Mr. Pankaj Dubey, MD & Country Head – Polaris India Pvt. Ltd, Mr. Prakash Bisht, GM HR, ICICI Bank and Mr. Pranav Jyoti, Partner-HR, Askmebazaar.com among others, also shared their views on emerging challenges for HR on the occasion.