HR students at VJIM, Hyderabad had a riveting exposure to the trends and latest practices off Human Resources on 9th of September, 2017. With business speakers and top-rung professionals coming to grace the Silver Jubilee Year of VJIM, Hyderabad, the Business Conclave edition became all the more interesting.
The topic for the day was “Change in the role of HR: Generalist to Strategic Business Partner” and the speakers engaged the audience with their cognizance and views. ‘Changing role of HR: Generalist to Strategic Business Partner’ the theme itself is an ocean in its own. The major topics of the Conclave were:
Strategic Role of HR
Human Touch in The Era of Change
HR Analytics and Strategic decision of HR
Role of Organizational Culture in the VUCA World
Readiness of Current HR Professional to Become Business Partner
The day started with VJIM, Hyderabad director, Dr. Ch. S. Durga Prasad’s wonderful words which laid foundation of the event. “Motive of conclave series is to impart great learning and to strengthen the bond between the students and the corporate world.
Dr. D. N. Rao, faculty, VJIM, Hyderabad shared an insightful story of his encounter with Natarajan Chandrasekaran, present chairman of Tata Sons, which delivered a message that how important an HR can be for the employees, the organisation and the society.
Topic ‘Strategic Role of HR’ was taken up by Ms. Alaknanda Swaroop, Director-Human Resources, Nektar Therapeutics (India) Pvt Ltd. With over 20 years of experience in the HRM field, she had a lot to share with VJIM students. “HR professionals were so busy being employees’ advocates that they were missing the business aspect of running an organization. BUSINESS DRIVES IT ALL and I learnt it the hard way,” she said. Persistence is the key to understand a business. She also talked about what a Strategic Business partner in Nektar does. From understanding the big picture to hiring the right talent to motivate and accelerate employee were few distinctive points in Ms. Alaknanda’s speech.
Keynote address on the topic ‘HR Analytics and Strategic Decisions of HR’ was delivered by Sr. Director and Head HR at DST Systems, Mr. Deepak Gupta. He is known for being an expert in providing strategic, proactive guidance, advice and expertise in HR/ER risk management and policy development. His oration started with a story timed during World War II. The story depicted the power of data and predictive analysis. He also addressed about how data is used efficiently in different sectors of HR and how the whole industry has realised its power. Later, he cited many examples and theories to back the matter.
After that, the concern ‘Human Touch in an Era of Change’ was brought to the table by Dr. Murali Padmanabhan, Sr. VP. Head Talent Management -India and Global Head Talent Development VirtusaPolaris. He discussed about how Mergers and Acquisitions are difficult to realise using a metaphor, he beautifully explained how the changing trends of industry are reflected in common people’s lives. He also added that how important the “adaptive leadership” is in the times of change.
Sekhar Jegannathan, Sr. General Manager (Organizational Development) Amara Raja Power Systems was welcomed next to share his knowledge on ‘Role of Organizational Culture in the VUCA World’. He began with what is culture, how is culture developed and how the culture is the soul of the organization. He shared Amara Raja Organisation’s way which is an illustrative model that compared the five values that they want to inculcate with the elements of the nature.
Mr. Rajorshi Ganguli, Vice President and Head Commercial HR at Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories Ltd. discoursed about the topic ‘Readiness of Current HR Professionals to become Business Partners’. He shared his experiences and his expressions and instances such as “maali to maalik” and “toilet to talent”- indeed powerful analogies to show the ground reality of being an HR.